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Answers of Spiritual Science to the Great Questions of Existence
GA 60

9 February 1911, Berlin

Translator Unknown

What Has Geology to Say About the Origin of the World?

It could weigh like a nightmare on the world-conception based on spiritual science if in all earnestness and truthfulness it were obliged to come into opposition to the well-founded results of the investigations carried out by natural science—investigations which in the course of the last centuries, and especially during the nineteenth century, have accomplished such great things and brought such blessings on mankind, not only in the field of knowledge but in the whole field of human progress. But it would be particularly depressing if spiritual science were compelled to take a stand in opposition to a branch of natural science which is comparatively one of the youngest, but which by virtue of its nature and its special tasks is able not only to arouse human interest in the deepest sense of the word, but also to open perspectives into the very coming-into-being of our planet, as well as into the origin and evolving forms of the creatures inhabiting it. This young branch of natural science is Geology, the science which, especially since the second third of the nineteenth century—but also already prior to that—has made such tremendous strides and achieved results of real importance, even though the great questions about which we shall have to speak still remain open. Our main purpose today will be to envisage the relationship in which spiritual science must stand to geology—and to answer the question, how much from the point of view of spiritual science—that knowledge which has always formed the base of our considerations here—has geology to say about the question concerning the origin, the gradual emergence and evolution, of the earth and its living organisms?

To answer this question we must first think briefly of the way in which the methods employed in the specific study of geology really work. It is, of course, well known that geology draws the content of its knowledge from the solid ground of our earth itself, and that out of what it finds there—within the earth's strata—it forms its conclusions concerning the way in which our planet may have come into existence and the changes it has undergone in the course of time. We know, if, for instance during railway-construction or work in stone quarries or mining-operations, any breaking-up of the ground gives us the opportunity of studying deeper layers of the earth in regard to their rock formations or other contents, that these layers present a different appearance from that of the ground on which we tread—which is the outermost surface. But within this surface-layer, too, we discover very manifold variations when we investigate the ground as to the nature of its rock-formations and mineral character. And it is perhaps also known that some of the most interesting studies are concerned with layers of the earth's surface whose character is clearly such that we can say: the material which covers the ground must originally have been dissolved in water or have been subject to the force of water in some other way, must once have been washed up as it were by the waters in times long past. We still see today how rivers carry accumulations of shifting rocky material far away and deposit them in other parts. We see the ground covered by such alluvial deposits and we must conceive that in the same way, in far distant times, successive layers of deposits were formed. Over one layer which originated in that way we have to imagine another covering it which, on examination, proves to be different in character from the one below. Thus in its successive layers, the earth shows us how the character of their rock-material differs. It stands to reason that the upper strata must be the latest, superimposed by the most recent occurrences on the earth. As we have occasion to penetrate more and more deeply and to study the lower parts of the earth's crust, we come to strata which are the deposits from earlier and ever earlier times, successively overlaid by the later ones. Likewise it is common knowledge that within these strata of the earth all kinds of forms have been embedded, originating, according to present-day concepts, from organic beings of the animal kingdom, from plants which, carried away by the waters and the alluvial layers, have met with their death, as it were, and by this natural process have become thus entombed, and then, more or less changed or unchanged, are to be found there in the rock-material as the remains of prehistoric organic beings. Nor is it difficult to come to the conclusion that a certain relationship must be presumed between such a layer of rock-material and the fossil remains of animals and plants within it. But we must not imagine that the younger strata have overlaid the older ones so conveniently over the whole face of the earth; on the contrary, there is clear evidence that sometimes older strata—recognisable by their character—extend to the surface, that in the course of the earth's development manifold disturbances have occurred through sets of layers having become intermingled, overlaid, upturned, and so on. So that it is by no means an easy task for the geologist to determine how one layer has been deposited over the subjacent layer. These are matters which can only be mentioned briefly here. In any ease we need not concern ourselves with the irregularities just referred to; we may assume that the geologists have access to the earth's strata with their fossiliferous constituents, and that from this they draw their conclusions as to the appearance of the earth at the time when the present top layer had not yet been deposited or successive lower beds did not yet exist, and that in this way it is possible to form some idea of the appearance which our earth must have presented in times gone by.

Moreover, it is an interesting and generally known fact that the upper layers—and therefore the youngest of our terrestrial material—contain fossils of more highly developed forms of animal- and plant-life, and that in the deeper layers we come to fossil remains of less developed forms of life, which today we are accustomed to count among the lower species and genera of the animal- and plant-kingdoms. We then come, as it were, to the lowest layers of the earth's crust, overlaid again and again by others; we come to the so-called “Cambrian” layer of our earth's development and find there only fossil remains of animals which did not yet possess a spinal column. We find other animals with a spinal column in the upper layers, which geology is therefore justified in regarding as the younger layers in earth-evolution:

Thus geology seems to be fully in conformity with what natural science knows today from other inferences, namely, that in the process of the earth's evolution the living creatures have developed by slow degrees from quite primitive to more perfect forms. When we now examine the Cambrian bed, namely, the lowest layer, and imagine that all the other layers had not yet come into existence, we shall have to assume that in the most ancient times there existed only the lowest animal forms, which as yet had no skeleton and were the first predecessors of the still undeveloped animals which were entombed in the deposits covering the lowest stratum of the rock-material. Then we must imagine that these beings have had descendants, that the latter may have underdone changes under the then prevailing, different conditions. In the next layer, which is again younger, we discover those animals in which there are already some indications of skeleton-like structures. And as we approach the younger layers we see evidence of more highly-developed animal species, until we come to the tertiary layers, where we already find the mammals, and then, in layers still younger than the tertiary layers, man.

As you know, there is a line of thought today which simply assumes that the lower animals of the Cambrian period have had descendants, some of which remained unchanged, while others developed towards vertebrate forms and so on; so that the appearance of more highly developed animals in the later, younger layers has to be explained by the assumption that the most primitive and simple forms of animal- and plant-life gradually evolved to higher forms. That would give a clearly outlined picture of the gradual development of life and also of the other occurrences on our earth—roughly as it might have presented itself to the eye of an observer who could have looked on during the billions and billions of years which geology has calculated for these happenings. Some idea of the methods applied and of the manner in which research is conducted may be gained from the following.—If, for instance, one observes how certain layers are still being formed today as alluvial deposits washed up by river-action or the like in the course of so and so many years, and if by measuring the thickness of such a layer a certain measurement is obtained by which it can be reckoned how many years it has taken for that layer to be deposited – then one can calculate how long the accumulation must have taken of all the layers we have had under review—provided that conditions were the same as they are today. As a result, the most divergent figures are obtained from the calculations made by the geologists. There is no need to enlarge upon contradictions which arise from this; for anyone who understands the contradictions will know that they have no essential significance, although they are really sometimes rather pronounced and amount to many billions of years according to the results obtained by different investigators.

When we contemplate all this we have, after all, only a picture of the course which, according to the ideas of geology (conceived and expressed precisely in the tone applied in the present description), the events in the evolution of our earth have taken during the later billennia. Moreover, geology compels us to presume that all these happenings have been preceded by others. For all these layers which contain remains of animal life rest, as it were, on others, and such others, having pushed through the overlaid layers, then protrude over the surface, form mountains, and thus become visible. The tenets of geology, therefore, lead to the conclusion that all fossil-carrying layers of our earth are resting on some other layer—a conception which takes us back, so to speak, to an age of our earth which preceded all “life.” For the composition of this oldest and lowest stratum of the earth's crust shows us that, when it came into being, there could not—at least according to ideas prevailing at the present time—have been on the earth any “life” as it is today. For geology finds itself compelled to assume that the lowest stratum owes its origin to a fire-process within which any possibility of life is unthinkable. Geology, therefore, would take us back in the process of our earth-evolution to olden times when as it were out of a fire-process the oldest rock-formations and minerals originated, while only later the basic foundation of the lowest layer was overlaid by the younger, fossiliferous layers through other events, events which occurred when, through radiating its warmth into cosmic space, the earth had cooled down sufficiently to make life possible. One has to envisage all this as being accompanied by processes of a physical and chemical nature, which cannot be described in detail.

If in this way we look back into those oldest times of our earth when a certain degree of cooling down had already taken place (for geology conceives the earth before the time of the first rock-formation as still in a state of heat), we find our globe, evolving towards the surface, possessed of a basic layer, and we observe how over this basic layer have spread those layers which with their fossilised remains provide living witnesses of the fact that life has existed on the earth for a very long time. When we consider those oldest layers upon which the life-carrying layers are resting, and study their rock-material which consists mainly of what is called granite,1It must be pointed out that this lecture was given in the year 1911. Granite was formerly classified by geology as belonging to the archetypal rock-formations, as is also indicated in the descriptions given here by Rudolf Steiner. Today, the rocks included in the Archaean System are only old gneiss-formations and other crystalline schist-formations. It is held today that Granite is of eruptive origin and that there are various epochs of granite-formation. [The above statements refer in general to the actual archetypal rock-material, also when granite is spoken of. we envisage our globe in a form which, according to modern geology, still presents itself in a kind of lifeless condition. That is where the upper layers are open, and granite protrudes and forms mountains, so to speak, as a witness of the oldest times of our earth.

When Goethe, who besides being a great poet was also a great student of Nature and of natural philosophy, found this oldest rock-formation of the earth—granite—it was borne in upon him that this granular rock-material is something on which, as on the bone-skeleton of the earth, everything else rests. Intuitively, Goethe experienced this as the echo of a primeval quiescence of our planet—and it was with reverence that he regarded this rock-formation. A man of his calibre was bound to contemplate the occurrences within earth-evolution not merely with his intellect but also with his heart, searching for what these remains can reveal of the earth-being. Profoundly moving and leading more deeply into the secrets than all abstract thinking are the words spoken by Goethe when face to face with this “oldest son of the earth” as he calls the granite:

“... With such sentiments I approach you, you most ancient, most noble monument of the time. Sitting on a high, bare summit with a free view over a wide landscape, I can say to myself: There you are resting directly on ground which reaches down to the very lowest depths of the earth. No newer layer, no accumulations of alluvial deposits have interposed themselves between you and the firm basement of the primeval world; you do not walk, as you do in those fruitful, beautiful valleys, over a perpetual grave; these summits have produced nothing living, have devoured nothing living; they are prior to all life, above all life. – At this moment, as the inner attracting and moving forces of the earth are directly affecting me, as it were, while the influences of the heavens are weaving more closely about me, I become attuned to higher contemplations of nature; and as the human spirit vitalises everything, so too does a secret stir within me, a secret of a sublimity which I cannot resist. Such loveliness, I tell myself as I am looking down from this bare summit and hardly able to see some modestly growing moss far away on the river bank, such loveliness, I say, overcomes the man who wants to open his soul only to the oldest, the first and deepest sense of truth.”

Goethe: Abhandlung über Granit.

That is the mood which came over Goethe when he contemplated this rock-formation, which by its whole nature showed that it could not contain anything living, and consequently could not, like the overlying layers, have engulfed anything living.

Sketchy though it is, what I have been able to illustrate so far shows nevertheless—as if outlined in a rough charcoal drawing—the picture given us by geology today of the course of the evolution of the earth and its living creatures. It was not, however, always so conceived; this way of thinking has developed only very gradually. In the days of Goethe, for instance, when he occupied himself with geology, a certain dispute was raging about the origin of our earth—the dispute between the Plutonists and the Neptunists, as it was called. One of the principal supporters of the latter was the geologist Werner, who was also acquainted with Goethe. He held that, generally speaking, nothing that we are able to observe of the accumulated layers within the earth's crust can be traced back to any kind of action by fire, but that everything we can learn from investigations points to the earth having in effect consolidated out of nothing but a watery element, out of a watery form of the planet, that even the oldest strata are alluvial deposits from water and that, consequently, granite too owes its origin not to the action of seething fire, but to watery deposits—and only in the course of time, through later occurrences, underwent changes which make its watery origin less apparent today. Everything, so to speak, has originated from water—that was the basic conception of the Neptunists and especially of Werner. Contrary to this, the contention of the Plutonists was based on the assumption that the earth, together with the whole planetary system, had emerged out of a gaseous cosmic nebula in a state of high temperature, had detached itself through cooling down, that this process of cooling continued through radiating heat into cosmic apace, and that then the time came when heat-conditions made the formation of granite and perhaps of similar kinds of rock-material possible; but that through the radiation of heat only the surface-crust of the earth was cooled down, while the interior remained in a state of fiery fluid, and that volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are living witnesses that the interior of the earth beneath the crust remains in a fiery-fluid state. The adherents of the Neptunistic school, on the other hand, saw the cause of all volcanic phenomena in processes which, through pressure from within or through chemical conditions in the interior of the. Earth—by no means thought of as fiery—made it possible for mighty catastrophes to take place in the interior and erupt outwards. So that only at this juncture events occur which in their upward trend have the effect of pushing up whole mountain-massifs out of the interior of the earth.—In short, here we see a very interesting dispute being carried on as recently as the first half of the nineteenth century about the conception which, on the one hand, can be briefly put in the words used by Goethe in his “Faust:” “Everything has its origin in water,” as against the other contention that fundamentally all terrestrial formations are the result of fire-processes and that it must be imagined that on the surface of the outer crust—corresponding in its relationship to the interior to that between the egg-shell and the yolk of the egg—events have taken place through which quite a thin layer has remained in a cooled condition, forming, as it were, a covering sheet all round the mighty earth-volcano, which this planet under our feet was conceived to be.

Now we must ask ourselves: What has this external investigation to tell us? And what, with the means elucidated, in the lectures given so far, has spiritual science to reveal about the origin of the earth? (Concerning the present and earlier evolutionary stages of the earth, more detailed information can be found in my book “Occult Science.”) How far, then, does geology lead us? We will now put into plain words what geology can tell us. It is this:—

Look at the layer-formations to be found in the earth's upper crust. The order of their superpositions shows that alluvial deposits have formed—in any case, in most recent times—as a result of which animal beings have been entombed, whose descendants are still on the earth, but also those which have now become extinct and of whose existence as inhabitants of the earth we know only from the excavation of their remains. Then we are led to the lowest layer of the earth's crust; it still belongs to that part which is to the whole planet what the egg-shell is to the yolk of the egg, and shows signs that it might well owe its origin to fire-action. But those with deeper insight—Goethe, for example—are more cautious in their pronouncements—also when they are intent on thinking entirely in terms of geology. And it is interesting to hear what Goethe says about this lower layer:

“... In the innermost bowels of the earth it (this layer) rests, firm and unshaken; its back rises on high, where its summit was never reached by the all-surrounding waters. So much, and so little more, do we know of this rock-material. Composed in a mysterious way of known constituents, it does not entitle us to trace its origin to fire anymore than to water.”

Thus Goethe already points out that in the last resort neither fire-action nor water can be thought responsible for the mysterious formation of this oldest son of our earth—granite. If against the investigations of geology, which anyhow have reached a point from which they cannot lead us any further, we quite simply set down what spiritual science has to say, what clairvoyant investigation has revealed, it presents itself somewhat in the following way.

When with the eyes of Spirit—which can be sharpened by the methods repeatedly indicated in these lectures—we look at the prehistoric times of our planet, we observe what would have presented itself to our physical eyes approximately during the periods covered by geological research. We also see how in this research into the past, geological investigation had to resort to speculative phantasy. And looking backward from those beings which from our human point of view we call perfect today, we come to ever less and less perfect forms of life on the earth with a mixture, at times, of grotesque forms as, for instance, the various Saurian types such as Ichthyosaurus, Plesiosaurus, Dinosaurus, Archaeopteryx. We then find creatures without any vertebrate skeleton, and so, with clairvoyant vision, we do indeed come to a tellurian epoch in which we cannot find such beings as are now living on our earth. We must admit, therefore; that drawing from its own sources, spiritual-scientific research also reveals this gradual advance in degrees of perfection. When we now go back in time and clairvoyant research comes to the period connected by geology with granite, which according to the modern theory coagulated out of the tellurian mass already cooled but still subject to the effects of fire-action, we must ask: What has geology, what has spiritual science, to regard as prerequisites for conditions prevailing in an earlier time?

If in the field of geology we remain on really safe ground (and no student of natural science ought to doubt what I am now saying), geology has only suppositions in regard to what precedes the granite-age; likewise geology can have no more than suppositions about conditions in the interior of the earth. For the bores that have been driven into the earth by drilling-operations reach depths which must be regarded only as tiny pin-pricks. There are suppositions, hypotheses, and nothing else—at best some dim divination about conditions which preceded the weaving and surging processes in granite-formation and so forth.

Now spiritual science—with the specific outlook often characterised here—follows earth-evolution backward into prehistoric times and finds in the domain which eyes can observe ever less and less perfect beings as the forerunners of all forms of life on the earth at the present time. But, tracing evolution backward in this way, spiritual science finds that there is a stupendous difference in the earth's appearance as compared with what it is at present. When we go back to pre-historic times, the earth does not present itself in the very least as we know it today, as the mineral base on which we walk surrounded by air with its fog and cloud-formations and so on. A great number of substances which are now in the interior of the earth were still in the surroundings of the earth in earlier times and settled only by degrees. This must also be admitted by geology. But we find, the further we go back, that our earth appears more and more as an utterly different planetary body, becomes something totally different; as we go further back, what is now the surrounding air does in effect take on the character of a living entity; in the environment of our earth we do not find only such mineralised air and cloud-formations as we have them now, but in the most ancient times we find within all that belongs to our earth something like live members of a great living being. And as we go back in this way we can see ourselves as if we were quite tiny beings today, standing within a human organism: if, standing within it on a firm, bony base, we looked out into outer space, we should there observe the blood-system, the nervous-system and so on, like an outer world. Thus one who stood on the earth in the remote past and looked out into space would not have seen a weaving, mineralised air but intense, pulsating life. And the further we go back the more this would be the case. So that we could go back to the epoch to which we assign granite-formation and reflect: There the earth is essentially a mighty, living body, containing multifarious and varied life within it, not yet inhabited by such living beings as move today on its surface or live in the water, and so on, but having their life within it—like parasites of the entire living earth-organism, swimming as it were in its blood, as today masses of rain float through the air. And then we come to a period of which we must say: It is true that on the earth's surface the heat is so great that life cannot develop; but in the environment life is developing which wants to, but cannot descend. Why is it that it cannot descend? Down in the depths, through the fire-process, under conditions of intense heat—it is there that what the living organism of our earth segregates out of its system as our living organism segregates the hard parts, the bones from the soft parts, is first absorbed. And now we look at the granite-formation and say: Originally the material which the granite contains—quartz, feldspar and mica – is in a state of dissolution within the great living being “Earth.” The 1atter needs for its development the capability to discard these substances: it segregates them and lets them fall to earth. What is below absorbs these segregations, builds up a basic massif, a bone-structure in the living being “Earth.” And when we go still further back we must investigate the causes as to why the whole living earth segregates from its organism the substances which today, as chemical-substances, form our earth and which at the same time are not those which appertain to the animal, plant, or human organism. These chemical substances were at that time segregated in a similar way through the effect of fire or water action, and were then transformed into the bone-structure of the earth.

When we now reflect how it is that there are these substances which were eliminated from the living earth-being and form a solid foundation from which life has departed, and when we search for the causes which could have brought this about—then we come to something which, if spoken of as part of the development of our earth, is still apt to cause wide-spread annoyance today—not indeed among the thinkers in natural science (for they ought to acknowledge it) but especially among those who on the strength of a few preconceived ideas want to build up a world-conception. But a true picture must be given of the facts established by the investigations of spiritual science. They show that these processes—the segregation of the rock-materials—have been preceded, within the living being of the earth, by a process which in terms of anything occurring today can only be described as similar to our own internal-functioning, little known to external science, but already described to some extent in these lectures – as similar to that activity which functions all day in our own body when through work, through mental effort, we exert our muscles or the instrument of our brain—in short, our whole body. What is in operation here is the process we call “fatigue.” It is, in essence, a kind of destructive process of the organism. Therefore we can say: As we live our waking life today from morning till night, through thinking, feeling and willing, processes of destruction are working within us which we then feel us “fatigue.” A world-conception based on natural science would not readily admit that such processes of spirit-and-soul, working into matter as they do, underlie external effects in nature. But they functioned; they were at work in that mighty organism which the earth once was. And when the earth approached the time when granite and similar material segregated, it was laid hold of by all such destructive processes—which were the means whereby forces of spirit-and-soul worked upon matter. Into that organism into which formerly were worked not only the substances appertaining today to the plant, animal and human organisms, but also the substances which today constitute our earth-massif – into this organism flowed the effects of all these destructive processes that were due to the working of forces of spirit-and-soul. These destructive processes were introduced into the life of the great being “Earth” by forces which then brought about the ejection.- through a process of segregation, as it were—of those chemical substances which today are incorporated in the make-up of our earth, and which are not to be found in organic bodies.

Thus spiritual science leads us back to the earth as an organism—not to a primeval state in which the earth was, so to speak, dead matter; on the contrary, the earth was originally a mighty organism. From the point of view of spiritual science one must practically reverse the way of asking a question that is put quite wrongly today. No science which assumes that the earth was once a dead globe in which only chemical and physical processes were active will be able to explain how life could arise out of this dead globe. This is a highly controversial question; but as a rule it is put quite wrongly. For generally people ask: How could “life” have developed out of the lifeless?—But that is not how it is: the living is not preceded by the lifeless, but them reverse is the case; the lifeless is preceded by the living. The lifeless mineral is a product of segregation, as our bones are segregations of our organism. Similarly, all rock-material is a product of segregation in the earth-organism, and processes of spirit-and-soul forces—processes of destruction in the first place—are the means of producing such segregations in the organism of the earth. And were we to go further back we should see how this path would lead us much further still. We are led by what operates in the mineral domain to the earth as an organism, and indeed we already see, as we go still further back, that we are being led not only to an organism, but to a formation of our planet that is permeated with the working of forces of spirit-and-soul. No longer do we trace life back to the lifeless, but we trace the lifeless back to processes of segregation from the living, and we regard the living as a state emanating from the sphere of the spirit and of the soul. And the further we go back, the nearer we come to that sphere in which lies the real origin of the present minerals, the plant-forms and so on: we approach the Spiritual and we let spiritual science tell us that it was not merely out of a lifeless, fiery nebula that there came into existence all that we perceive in the manifold forms of earthly phenomena, but that all this has taken shape out of the Spiritual, that originally our earth was pure Spirit, and that the course of evolution was such that on the one side emerged those forms which tend more towards the mineral element, and that on the other side the possibility arose for certain new forms to develop, capable of responding to spiritual functions of a new order. For if we now proceed in the opposite direction and say: In the old rock-material we have something which segregated out of the original organism of the earth, and if we then go on to our present age, this segregation is going on all the time. Granite is merely the oldest segregation; but the processes which bring about the segregation will be ever less and less living processes; for more and more they will tend to be mere chemical, mere mechanical processes; so that at last, in our time, we still have only those effects due to water-action, which can be observed when, for instance, a river carries rock-material from one place to another. But what we perceive there as the result of mechanical-chemical processes is only the final product; this has turned into the minerals in accordance with the laws of nature; it is a state resulting from what was originally at work in the realm of the life-forces.

And so we see how actually in the course of the development of our earth something takes place in connection with the formation of the ground beneath us, which we find in a similar way in the individual human or animal organism. There we see, how a man lives to a certain age, how he then passes through the gate of death, leaving his body as a corpse, and we see the continuation of those processes which are purely mineral processes; during the body's lifetime, however, these chemical and physical processes were an integral part of those working through the forces of spirit-and-soul. Similarly we come back to a time of earth-existence when the processes which today are of a chemical and mechanical nature were caught up and perpetuated by organic—yes, by spiritual and soul-processes. But what is taking place on the ground formation of our earth is, so to speak, only the one stream, left from earlier—to begin with more living, organic processes—and then spiritual processes. This foundation had to come into existence, had to form itself, so that on its firm ground, life of a different order could function – that life which gradually became our life, in order that as time went on such cerebral instruments could develop in living beings which enabled them to become “inwardly” aware of the spirit, inwardly able to form thoughts and produce feelings which, as it were, repeat the outer processes in reflective and emotional awareness. Therefore the whole mass of our earth's substance had to be “sifted,” the present purely mineral substances had to be discarded—and those retained which today can form the organisms which are permeated by a part only of the substance of the old massif. These are the parts which only now can form themselves, for example, into what man is today. The spirit which lives in the human head, in the human heart, that is to say in a being whose organisation is as it were, more refined than that of the planetary being of the earth as a whole, this spirit could only originate in a being from which were eliminated those substances which today do not belong to organic 1ife. This “sifting” of the whole mass of our earth's substance had taken place, and the one part was given over as a foundation to the purely mineral life in order that on it can develop a new life, which we see entering its lowest form at the moment which in later times geology has marked as that of the emergence of the most primitive beings in Cambrian form.

When, with the outlook of spiritual science, we thus observe life as it is today, we shall have to say: This life was originally in the outer atmosphere encircling the earth; then it descended as it were, but could not set foot on the surface of the earth until after it had sent down in advance all that it needed of mass-substance—as a basis on which to function. The process of decomposition, caused by processes in the domain of the spirit-and-soul forces, introduces two currents which have since been in operation: an ascending current, which unfolded a life of a finer, higher order – this needed only a part of the mass-substances—and another current which continued the process of decomposition and provides a foundation for the finer organisms, which then culminate in the human being. The development of these finer organisms is in the ascendancy. Why? Because (and again this would not be admitted today) through having segregated the coarsest material as in a mighty process of elimination, which then became the surface of the earth, they were in a position to isolate themselves more or less from the earth and its inner processes—and are now open to cosmic influences streaming towards the earth from outside. They are now exposed to the more spiritual effects of the cosmos and it is to this that they owe the ascent from primitive forms of life to that of man.

Looking thus at the development of the earth, we regard the firm ground on which we walk – irrespective of the various processes—in such a way that we say to ourselves: On it we stand; it contains—in the granite and in the superimposed deposits—that which the kingdoms of the living beings could not use except as material ejected to form the ground on which to walk. And what exists as its continuation is a process of destruction and decomposition. That should logically lead to the following reflection – When the modern geologist gives us his explanation of the earth's crust with its valleys and mountains built up in successive layers, this would appear to be something like a decaying corpse, in which an old process of destruction and decomposition continues to work. From the standpoint of spiritual science, we move about on a ground in process of destruction which had to come about in order to give us the firm, solid ground we need when we consider the blossoming forces which point to the future and move in the opposite direction to those we encounter in the body of the earth; for these future-building forces are something which, independent of the solid ground of the earth penetrates into human souls, into human spirits, perhaps also into those beings which are outside the human element, and are only beginning their ascent on the foundation of the solid earth. In the latter itself we should, however, have something in a state of decomposition. From the point of view of spiritual science our earth would appear as a progressively disintegrating dead body, and the geological laws would at the same time be those governing the decomposition of the earth-corpse. And man on earth would be a being who lifts himself out of the dead earth body, just as the human soul, passing through the gate of death, rises from the corpse and abandons it to those forces which bring about its decomposition and destruction.

This may seem to be a gloomy picture. But it can only be so if one despairs of the spirit, regards the spirit as merely bound to matter, and believes that together with man's desertion of the living body of the earth, his end has come. But if we look at things as presented by a sound observation of nature, we shall say: In some way it must obviously come about that not only the individual human being but the whole of humanity gradually throws off the earth-body in order to be able to rise step by step to other realms of development. And so, from the standpoint of spiritual science, the mid-period of earth-evolution had already been passed ever since the time when “the oldest son of the earth” was segregated, and the beings which are beginnings in preparation for the future will unfold further on the foundation thus laid down.

What does modern geology say to this conception of spiritual science?

When dealing with words, theories, hypotheses, world-conceptions so light-heartedly and readily advanced by currents of thought on factional lines and the like, it is easy enough to demonstrate that spiritual science in itself is a contradiction of the way of thinking prevailing in natural science. But if spiritual science, which works as conscientiously and, methodically as any other science, is considered in relation to natural science, it is obviously necessary to pay attention to what natural science really has to say and, particularly in reference to what has been brought forward today, to raise the question: What has geology to say concerning the origin of the earth?—Nowadays, things of a very secondary nature are often presented to the general public in popular scientific publications and in the form of popular views of the world; and then it is said: “Science” has established this end that. If this is compared with what those half-crazy spiritual investigators say, it will strike a good many people as something which cannot be taken at all seriously.—For that is what will be said by many people who perhaps do not know much more about spiritual science than what has come to them indirectly through remote sources. But clearly there is need to turn to what real science and real spiritual science have to say. For spiritual science must not be regarded as being on a par with popular world-conceptions which are only seemingly derived from “science;” spiritua1 science must be examined with the sternness which should be applied to every true science and which its genuine investigators will always demand.

And now we come to somethin6 which I cannot describe to you better than by drawing your attention to a work by one of the most eminent geologists of our time, and which a well-known contemporary geologist has called “the geological epic of the nineteenth century,” namely “The Face of the Earth” by Eduard Suess. It can truly be said that this work, on which Suess has been engaged not merely for years but for decades, gives a comprehensive survey—compiled with the greatest care imaginable—of the investigations which geology, this youngest branch of natural science, has carried out in the course of a few decades. And what does this book show us?

Suess is a man who said: Let us for once set aside all the prejudices of the Neptunists, of the Plutonists, and all the theories amassed by the geologists of the nineteenth century; do not let us speculate, but let us observe the physiognomy, the picture presented by the earth's surface. Starting from a mental attitude based, it is true; on sense-perception but pure and unclouded by any theory or hypotheses. Eduard Suess arrived at results which differed from those that had been current for many decades. He came to the conclusion that the mountains which tower over us as seemingly mighty massifs, can after all only be likened to wrinkles on the peel of an apple, and can be explained in no other way than by assuming that certain forces of a purely physical-chemical nature are at work in the body of the earth-planet, as the result of which the unevenness, the valleys and mountains, the various layers and so on, have been formed; so that generally speaking, the distribution of water and land, the formation of continents and so forth, can be explained as the result of folds being formed, of certain forces piling up earth-massifs and thus forcing some particular masses of rock up into towering mountains. Other forces again have brought about the collapse of what has been piled on high; and in that way oceans are formed. In short, to such collapses, up-pilings, foldings and the like, he ascribes, for instance, the formation of the Alps. In an ingenious way we are thus shown that the face of the earth has emerged as the result of such aggregations, subsidences, foldings and so on. The formation of oceans and continents is explained asbeing brought about through certain subsidences causing the waters to be drained off in one direction, so that what had formerly been covered by sea becomes dry land. We are therefore concerned here with an earth-surface subject to processes due to a shaking up of earth-masses through mechanical forces, and to subsidences. And in trying to obtain a general picture of what is happening on the ground on which we walk, Suess arrives at an odd conclusion: that fundamentally the whole process that is taking place on the earth's surface is one of destruction, and that the ground where today we plough the fields and which yields to us the fruits of the earth, only came into existence through the occurrence elsewhere of foldings, subsidences—in short, through processes of destruction. I need quote only a short passage from this most important work of present-day geology and you wil1 see where Eduard Suess's purely sense-perceptive method of research has led this most conscientious natural scientist:

“... The collapse of the globe is what we are witnessing. True, it had already begun a very long time ago, and so the brevity of the span of human life lets us be of good cheer. Not only are there traces of it in the high mountain ranges. Great blocks of earth have sunk hundreds, yes, in certain cases, many thousands of feet, and not the slightest sign of graded subsidences on the surface, but only the differences in the kinds of rock or deep mining betray the existence of a fracture. Time has levelled everything. In Bohemia, in the Palatinate, in Belgium, in Pennsylvania, in numerous places, the plough draws its furrows above the mightiest fractures.”

(Eduard Suess, Das Antlitz der Erde, Vol. 1, page 778.)

Here we have the results of conscientious scientific research concerning the ground on which we walk. And now think of what spiritual science has to say about the inauguration of this process through a process of destruction proceeding from forces of spirit-and-soul, a process which on the one side has its continuation in the physical-mechanical process of destruction taking place on the earth's surface, and which careful research impels geology to admit. So it is in all fields. When you take the results of real research and go by facts, you will always find: here stands spiritual science with all it has to say out of clairvoyant research, and there, provided only that it is free from monastic, materialistic or other prejudices, natural science stands firmly on the pure and sound basis of facts; and everywhere, as you will see, spiritual science links up with natural science in such a way that the latter on the pure basis of facts provides ample proof of what spiritual science as such has to offer. Never are there any grounds for contradictions between spiritual science and true natural science. Contradictions arise only between a sound spiritual science which deals with realities, and the theories of phantasts and of those who, while they claim to be standing on the firm ground of science, at once lose their foothold when their theories do not concur with what the facts proclaim, and adhere to what they themselves would like to say about the facts. Spiritual science lets the spiritual facts speak for themselves and tell what they have to reveal of the cosmic mysteries; natural science speaks of what it has established by its own methods: the two are in full concord. If you ignore those popular works which declare this or that to be a “scientific fact” and go to the sources, then you will find, especially in the field of geology, that the geologists everywhere get to a certain point—and then put a question-mark. Arriving at those question-marks, one can take them as a starting-point for spiritual research. Then spiritual science tells us: if it is true what clairvoyance reveals, the external factual material must appear in this or that form.—In the case of geology it was this: if what spiritual science has to describe is right, then, with the present process of decomposition continuing, our globe must now be in a state of collapse. Geology, adhering to facts, has shown that according to the laws it is so! The findings of true natural science everywhere are in line with the results of spiritual scientific investigation.

When we consider the whole spirit and meaning of this exposition, we shall in no wise be taken aback by the thought that we are walking on ground which is a dead body in process of disintegration. For we realise that on this ground something has developed which again contains seeds for the future. The lectures to follow will show more and more clearly that just as man looks to his spirit, so the spiritual, which once created for its own purpose the ground on which we set our feet, is advancing towards future epochs when it will be revealed on ever and ever higher planes. And when such a man as the geologist Suess—because in his intercourse with nature he enters into all that is beautifu1, even in the destructive processes—expresses his admiration for the wonders of the Face of the Earth, he clothes it in his monumental work in these memorable words:

“In the face of these open questions we rejoice in the sunshine, in the starry firmament and in all the manifold features on the face of our earth, which has been created by these very processes—recognising at the same time the extent to which life is governed by the character and destiny of the planet.”

If even a geologist, rising above all pessimism, experiences such a moment in his soul, how much more does the spiritual investigator who knows the truth of the words of Goethe: “Nature has invented death in order to have abundant life,” and who also knows through perceptive cognition that it is true to say, “Nature has invented death in order to have ever higher and ever more spiritual life;” how much more must the spiritual investigator, knowing this, say: Although we have to regard that which has produced out of itself a higher life as a corpse in process of destruction, nevertheless in all that moves on this ground we see, lighting up seeds of what can quicken hope and assurance in our hearts and tells us: We walk on the ground which a primeval world has given us, and which, through a process of disintegration, or destruction, has let the ground under our feet become what it is. We walk on this ground, divining – as in the spirit we rise to heavenly heights—that in the course of future development we shall have to leave this ground at the right time, in order that we may be received into the fold of the spiritual world with which, if we have the right understanding, our inmost being feels so firmly united.

Was Hat de Geologie über Weltentstehung zu Sagen?

Es könnte wie ein Alp lasten auf jener Weltanschauung, welche die Geisteswissenschaft zu ihrer Grundlage hat, wenn in Ernst und in Wahrheit diese Weltanschauung in einen Gegensatz kommen müßte zu den berechtigten Ergebnissen naturwissenschaftlicher Forschung — jener Forschung, welche im Laufe der letzten Jahrhunderte und insbesondere im Laufe des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts nicht nur auf dem Gebiete der Erkenntnis, sondern auf dem Gebiete des Gesamtfortschrittes der Menschheit so Großes, so Segenbringendes geleistet hat. Insbesondere aber müßte es bedrückend wirken, wenn diese Geisteswissenschaft sich in Widerspruch setzen müßte mit einem Zweige naturwissenschaftlicher Forschung, der verhältnismäßig zu den jüngsten gehört, der aber durch seine Eigenart, seine besonderen Aufgaben geeignet ist, nicht nur im tiefsten Sinne des Wortes das menschliche Interesse zu erregen, sondern der auch Perspektiven eröffnet in dasjenige, was wir nennen das Werden unseres Planeten sowohl, wie das Werden und die Wandlung jener Geschöpfe, welche diesen Planeten bevölkern. Dieser junge Zweig naturwissenschaftlicher Forschung ist die Geologie, jene Wissenschaft, welche insbesondere seit dem zweiten Drittel des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, aber auch schon vorher, so gewaltigen Aufschwung genommen hat und trotz der großen Fragen, von denen wir zu sprechen haben werden, die stehengeblieben sind und heute noch dastehen, Bedeutsames geleistet hat. Es wird sich heute für uns hauptsächlich darum handeln, uns das Verhältnis vor die Seele zu führen, in welchem die Geisteswissenschaft zur Geologie stehen muß, und die Frage zu beantworten: wieviel hat im Sinne der Geisteswissenschaft — jenes Wissenszweiges, welcher diesen Betrachtungen hier immer zugrunde gelegen hat — die Geologie über die Frage nach der Entstehung, nach dem allmählichen Werden und der Entwickelung der Erde und ihrer Lebewesen zu sagen?

Da müssen wir uns allerdings kurz vor die Seele führen, um was es sich eigentlich bei den Methoden, bei der Eigenart der geologischen Forschung handelt. Es ist ja wohl bekannt, daß die Geologie ihre Erkenntnisse aus unserem Erdboden heraus selber schöpft, und daß sie aus dem, was sie dort findet, ihre Schlüsse zieht in bezug auf die Art und Weise, wie unser Planet im Laufe der Zeit vielleicht entstanden ist, sich umgewandelt hat. Bekannt ist ja: wenn wir durch irgendwelche Aufschlüsse unseres Erdbodens — zum Beispiel beim Eisenbahnbau, bei Steinbrüchen, im Bergbau — Gelegenheit haben, tiefere Schichten unserer Erde in bezug auf ihre Gesteinsinhalte und ihre sonstigen Inhalte zu studieren, daß sich uns diese Schichten von derjenigen verschieden zeigen, über die wir zunächst unsere Schritte lenken, verschieden von der äußersten Oberfläche. Aber auch innerhalb dieser Oberfläche wieder zeigt sich uns der Boden in der mannigfaltigsten Weise verschieden, wenn wir ihn in bezug auf seine Gesteinsarten und seinen mineralischen Charakter untersuchen. Es ist wohl ferner bekannt, daß zu den interessantesten Forschungen diejenigen gehören, welche sich auf solche Schichten unserer Erdoberfläche beziehen, die deutlich einen derartigen Charakter zeigen, daß wir sagen können, das Material, welches da den Boden bedeckt, sei ursprünglich im Wasser aufgelöst gewesen oder sei sonstwie unter der Gewalt des Wassers gewesen, sei sozusagen einmal in verflossenen Zeiten von dem Wasser angeschwemmt worden. Wir sehen ja noch heute, wie Flüsse diejenigen Gesteinsmaterialien, welche sich in ihrem Wassergehalt ansammeln, weit forttragen und dann in anderen Gebieten ablagern. Wir sehen, wie sich durch solche Ablagerungen der Boden bedeckt. In derselben Weise haben wir uns in alten Zeiten Anlagerungen über Anlagerungen entstanden zu denken. Über die eine auf solche Weise entstandene Anlagerung haben wir uns eine andere darübergelagert zu denken, die sich, wenn wir sie untersuchen, so zeigt, daß sie einen von der unteren Schicht verschiedenen Charakter trägt. So zeigt uns unsere Erde schichtenweise ihr Gesteinsmaterial von verschiedenem Charakter. Es ist natürlich unschwer sich zu sagen, daß diejenigen Schichten, welche zuoberst liegen, die jüngsten sein müssen, welche durch die jüngsten Vorgänge unserer Erde aufgelagert worden sind, und daß wir, je tiefer und tiefer wir in das Untere des Erdbodens hineinzuschauen Gelegenheit haben, zu Schichten kommen, die in älteren und immer älteren Zeiten aufgelagert worden sind und eben von den jüngeren Schichten bedeckt worden sind. Ferner ist auch bekannt, daß sich in diesen Schichten unserer Erde allerlei Einschlüsse finden, welche nach den Anschauungen unserer Gegenwart davon herrühren, daß tierische Lebewesen und Pflanzen sozusagen ihren Tod gefunden haben, mit dem Wasser und mit den Schichten fortgeschwemmt, auf natürliche Weise begraben worden sind, und sich dann mehr oder weniger verändert oder unverändert innerhalb des Gesteinsmateriales als die Überreste vorweltlicher Lebewesen finden. Unschwer ist es ferner, sich zu denken, daß wir eine gewisse Beziehung zwischen einer solchen Schicht von Gesteinsmaterial, wie sie da lagert, und den tierischen und pflanzlichen Einschlüssen, die da drinnen sind, annehmen müssen.

Nun darf man sich allerdings nicht vorstellen, daß so bequem über die ganze Erdoberfläche hin jüngere Schichten über die älteren darübergelagert sind, sondern man muß sich klar sein, daß zuweilen bis an die Oberfläche herauf — durch ihren Charakter erkennbar — ältere Schichten lagern, daß im Laufe der Erdentwickelung die mannigfaltigsten Störungen, Durcheinanderlagerungen, Übereinanderlagerungen, Aufstülpungen und so weiter dieser Schichten stattgefunden haben, so daß es der Geologe keineswegs leicht hat, im einzelnen Falle zu sagen, wie die eine Schicht über die andere zu lagern gekommen ist. Das sind Dinge, die hier nur angedeutet werden können. Jedenfalls dürfen wir von den eben genannten Unregelmäßigkeiten absehen und dürfen annehmen, daß den Geologen die Schichten der Erde mit den Einlagerungen durch alle hindurch zur Verfügung stehen, und daß sie daraus ihre Schlüsse ziehen, wie es eigentlich auf der Erde ausgesehen hat, als die oberste Schicht noch nicht abgelagert war, oder weitere unter der oberen Schicht liegende tiefere Schichten noch nicht da waren und so weiter, — daß man sich also von da aus Vorstellungen bilden kann, wie es in vergangenen Zeiten unserer Erde ausgesehen hat.

Nun ist ferner allgemein die interessante Tatsache bekannt, daß die obersten Schichten — also die jüngsten unseres Erdmateriales — Einschlüsse der vollkommeneren tierischen und pflanzlichen Lebewesen zeigen, und daß wir, in je tiefere Schichten wir kommen, zu den Resten unvollkommenerer Lebewesen gelangen, die wir heute bei den niedrigeren Arten und Gattungen des Tier- und Pflanzenreiches aufzuzählen gewohnt sind. Wir kommen dann gewissermaßen zu den untersten Schichten unserer Erdoberfläche, die immer wieder und wieder von anderen Schichten bedeckt worden sind, kommen zu der sogenannten kambrischen Schicht unserer Erdentwickelung und sehen da, wie von unseren tierischen Lebewesen in dieser Schicht nur Einschlüsse derjenigen Tiere sind, die noch kein Wirbelskelett besessen haben. Wir treffen dann andere Tiere mit einem Wirbelskelett in den Schichten, die oben lagern, die also die Geologie berechtigt ist, als jüngere Schichten des Erdenwerdens anzusehen.

So scheint die Geologie eine volle Bestätigung dessen zu liefern, was die Naturwissenschaft heute aus anderen Voraussetzungen her kennt: daß sich im Prozeß unserer Erdentwickelung langsam und allmählich die Lebewesen von unvollkommenen zu vollkommeneren Gebilden entwickelt haben. Wenn wir etwa einen Blick auf die kambrische Schicht werfen, die unterste Ablagerung, und uns denken, alle übrigen Schichten wären noch nicht entstanden, so müßten wir uns denken, daß in den ältesten Zeiten nur die niedersten tierischen Wesenheiten vorhanden waren, die noch kein Skelett besessen haben und die ersten VorJläufer der unvollkommenen Tiere waren, dann ihr Grab gefunden haben und auf die unterste Schicht des Gesteinsmateriales abgelagert worden sind. Wir müssen uns vorstellen, daß diese Wesen Nachkommen gehabt haben, sich vielleicht unter andern Verhältnissen verändert haben, die dann eingetreten sind. Wir sehen bei der nächsten Schicht, die also jünger ist, solche Tiere auftreten, die in gewisser Beziehung skelettartige Bildungen schon in sich haben. Und indem wir uns den jüngeren Schichten nähern, sehen wir immer vollkommenere und vollkommenere Tierarten auftreten, bis wir heraufkommen in die Tertiärschichten, wo wir sehen, daß die Säugetiere bereits da sind, und dann in den Schichten, die noch jünger sind als die Tertiärschichten, den Menschen auftreten sehen.

Sie wissen, daß es heute eine Vorstellungsart gibt, die sich einfach denkt, daß die niederen Tiere, die zur Zeit des Kambriums gelebt haben, Nachkommen gehabt haben, von denen ein Teil stehengeblieben ist, ein anderer Teil sich weiterentwickelt hat und dann zu den skelettartigen Tieren und so weiter geworden ist; so daß wir das Auftreten vollkommenerer Tiere in den späteren, jüngeren Schichten so zu erklären hätten, daß sich die unvollkommensten, einfachsten tierischen und pflanzlichen Lebewesen allmählich vervollkommnet hätten. Das gäbe ein rein anschauliches Bild der allmählichen Entwickelung des Lebens und auch der sonstigen Vorgänge auf unserer Erde — so etwa, wie es sich dem Auge des Beobachters zeigte, der während der Jahrbillionen und Jahrbillionen hätte zuschauen können, welche die Geologie für dieses Geschehen herausgerechnet hat. Damit wir uns auch vor die Seele führen, wie die Methoden und Forschungsarten sind, darf folgendes angedeutet werden. Wenn man zum Beispiel sieht, wie heute noch gewisse Schichten durch Flußanschwemmungen oder dergleichen im Laufe von so und so vielen Jahren abgelagert werden und man die Höhe einer solchen Schicht mißt, so daß sich ein gewisses Maß ergibt und man sagen kann: in soundsovielen Jahren hat sich eine solche Schicht abgelagert, — dann kann man berechnen, wie lange es gedauert hat, bis sich solche Schichten abgelagert hatten, wie wir sie ins Auge faßten, vorausgesetzt, daß die Verhältnisse so waren, wie sie heute sind. Da kommen dann die verschiedensten Zahlen heraus, je nach den verschiedenen Berechnungen, welche die Geologen angestellt haben. Es ist nicht nötig sich darin zu ergehen, daß darüber Widersprüche vorhanden sind, denn wer die Widersprüche kennt, wird wissen, daß sie nichts zu bedeuten haben, wenn sie auch wirklich manchmal recht kraß sind und die Verschiedenheiten sich zwischen vielen Billionen von Jahren belaufen, die von den einzelnen Forschern zu verzeichnen sind.

Wenn wir uns das alles vorführen, haben wir doch nur ein Bild dessen, wie sich nach den Anschauungen der Geologie — genau in dem Ton, in dem das jetzt Gesagte geschildert worden ist — die Vorgänge in unserer Erdentwickelung in den letzten Jahrbillionen abgespielt haben. Die Geologie zwingt uns weiter, allen diesen Vorgängen andere vorauszusetzen. Denn alle diese Schichten, welche Reste tierischer Lebewesen eingeschlossen enthalten, ruhen gewissermaßen auf anderen, die ja dann bis an die Oberfläche herausragen, indem sie die über sie gelagerten Schichten durchbrechen und Gebirge bilden und so sichtbar werden, so daß die Vorstellungen der Geologie dazu führen, daß alle Reste von Lebewesen führenden Schichten unserer Erde auf einer anderen Schicht ruhen, welche uns sozusagen in ein Alter unserer Erde zurückweist, das allem Leben vorangegangen ist. Denn die Zusammensetzung dieser ältesten und untersten Schicht unserer Erdoberfläche zeigt uns, daß, als sie entstanden ist, gewissermaßen — wenigstens nach den Vorstellungen der Gegenwart — Leben, wie es heute ist, nicht auf unserer Erde gewaltet haben kann. Die Geologie sieht sich bemüßigt anzunehmen, daß die unterste Schicht einem Feuerprozeß ihre Entstehung verdankt, innerhalb dessen es unmöglich ist, sich irgendein Leben zu denken, so daß uns die Geologie im Werdegange unserer Erdentwickelung in alte Zeiten zurückführen würde, in denen gewissermaßen aus einem Feuerprozeß heraus älteste Gesteins- und Mineralarten sich gebildet haben. Erst später haben sich auf der Grundlage dieser untersten Schicht die jüngeren, Lebewesenreste führenden Schichten durch solche Vorgänge abgelagert, die sich zugetragen haben, als unsere Erde durch die Ausstrahlung ihrer Wärme in den Weltenraum schon so abgekühlt war, daß Leben möglich wurde. Das alles hat man sich begleitet zu denken von Prozessen physischer, chemischer Art, die nicht im einzelnen geschildert werden können.

Wenn wir so gleichsam in diese ältesten Zeiten unserer Erde zurückschauen, nachdem eine gewisse Abkühlung bereits eingetreten ist — man denkt sich in der Geologie die Erde vor der ersten Gesteinsbildung in einem noch heißen Zustande, so finden wir unseren Erdball — entsprechend der Oberfläche zu — mit einer Grundschicht behaftet und sehen, wie sich über diese Grundschicht jene Schichten ausbreiten, die in ihren Einschlüssen lebendige Zeugen dafür liefern, daß sich Leben auf unserer Erde seit langen Zeiten abgespielt hat. Wenn wir diese ältesten Schichten, auf denen die lebenführenden ruhen, in bezug auf ihr Gesteinsmaterial betrachten, das im wesentlichen das ist, was man als Granit benennt, so schauen wir damit auf eine Gestalt unseres Erdballs, die uns denselben noch als eine Art von leblosem Zustand im Sinne unserer heutigen Geologie zeigt. Das ist dort, wo die oberen Schichten offen sind und der Granit heraustritt und Gebirge bildet: gleichsam als Zeugnis für die ältesten Zeiten unserer Erde.

Goethe, der neben dem, daß er ein großer Dichter war, auch ein großer Naturdenker und Naturforscher war, hat insbesondere tief empfunden, wenn ihm dieses älteste Steinsgebilde unserer Erde, der Granit, entgegengetreten ist, wie dieses körnige Gesteinsmaterial etwas ist, auf dem gleichsam wie auf dem Knochengerüst der Erde das andere alles sich erhebt. Das flößte Goethe etwas ein, was ihm wie der Widerklang einer Ur-Ruhe unseres Planeten war, und mit Ehrfurcht betrachtete er dieses Gestein. Ein solcher Mensch konnte nicht anders, als die Vorgänge innerhalb unserer Erdentwickelung nicht nur mit dem Verstande, sondern auch mit dem Herzen zu betrachten, was uns diese Überreste enthüllen über das Erdenwerden. Tief ergreifend und tiefer noch in die Geheimnisse hineinführend als alles abstrakte Denken sind die Worte, die Goethe angesichts dieses «ältesten Sohnes der Natur», wie er sich ausdrückt, angesichts des Granits sprach:

«. . . Mit diesen Gesinnungen nähere ich mich euch, ihr ältesten würdigsten Denkmäler der Zeit. Auf einem hohen nackten Gipfel sitzend und eine weite Gegend überschauend, kann ich mir sagen: Hier ruhst du unmittelbar auf einem Grunde, der bis zu den tiefsten Orten der Erde hinreicht, keine neuere Schicht, keine aufgehäuft zusammengeschwemmte Trümmer haben sich zwischen dich und den festen Boden der Urwelt gelegt, du gehst nicht wie in jenen fruchtbaren schönen Tälern über ein anhaltendes Grab, diese Gipfel haben nichts Lebendiges erzeugt und nichts Lebendiges verschlungen, sie sind vor allem Leben und über alles Leben. In diesem Augenblicke, da die inneren anziehenden und bewegenden Kräfte der Erde gleichsam unmittelbar auf mich wirken, da die Einflüsse des Himmels mich an her umschweben, werde ich zu höheren Betrachtungen der Natur hinaufgestimmt, und wie der Menschengeist alles belebt, so wird auch ein Gleichnis in mir rege, dessen Erhabenheit ich nicht widerstehen kann. So einsam, sage ich zu mir selber, indem ich diesen ganz nackten Gipfel hinabsehe und kaum in der Ferne am Fuße ein geringwachsendes Moos erblicke, so einsam, sage ich, wird es dem Menschen zu Mute, der nur den ältesten ersten tiefsten Gefühlen der Wahrheit seine Seele eröffnen will.»

Das ist die Stimmung, die Goethe überkam, als er dieses Gestein betrachtete, das durch seine ganze Beschaffenheit zeigt, daß es nichts Lebendiges in sich haben konnte, also auch nichts Lebendiges wie die darüberliegenden Schichten verschlungen haben konnte.

So skizzenhaft das ist, was ich bisher anführen durfte, es zeigt doch — gleichsam in großen Kohlestrichen — das Bild, das man sich heute aus der Geologie heraus über den Gang der Erde und ihre Lebewesen machen kann. Nun aber hat man nicht immer so gedacht, und es hat sich diese Denkweise nur ganz allmählich herausgebildet. Denn zum Beispiel zur Zeit, als sich Goethe mit Geologie beschäftigte, tobte in einer gewissen Weise ein Streit über die Entstehung unserer Erde, den man den Streit der Plutonisten und der Neptunisten nennt. Einer der hauptsächlichsten Vertreter der letzteren war der mit Goethe auch bekannte Geologe Werner. Dieser war der Anschauung, daß sich im wesentlichen alles, was wir an Schichtungen innerhalb unseres Erdbodens zu schauen haben, nicht auf irgendwelche Feuerwirkungen zurückführen läßt, sondern daß alles, was man erforschen kann, darauf hinweist, daß die Erde im Grunde genommen doch nur aus einem wässerigen Elemente, einer wässerigen Gestaltung unseres Planeten sich herausgebildet habe. Daß selbst die ältesten Schichtungen Ablagerungen aus dem Wasser seien, daß also auch der Granit nicht durch das brodelnde Feuer sich herausgebildet habe, sondern ebenfalls aus dem Wasser sich abgelagert habe und nur durch die späteren Vorgänge im Laufe der Zeit sich so umgeändert habe, daß heute sein Wasserursprung nicht mehr so klar erscheint. Alles ist sozusagen aus dem Wasser entstanden — das war eine Grundanschauung der Neptunisten und namentlich Werners. Dagegen stand die Anschauung der Plutonisten, die davon ausging, daß unsere Erde mit unserem ganzen Planetensystem sich aus einem gasförmigen, mit hoher Temperatur behafteten Weltennebel herausgebildet, sich durch Abkühlung herausgesondert und weiter durch Ausstrahlung der Wärme in den Weltenraum abgekühlt habe. Daß dann Verhältnisse eingetreten sind, wo durch die Wärmewirkungen der Granit und vielleicht ähnliche Gesteinsarten haben entstehen können, daß aber durch die Ausstrahlung der Wärme nur die Oberfläche der Erde abgekühlt worden sei, während das Innere noch immer feurig-flüssig wäre, und daß die Vulkanausbrüche und die Erscheinung der Erdbeben lebendige Zeugen dafür seien, daß der Erdboden Reste eines feurigflüssigen Zustandes in seinem Innern berge. Die Anhänger der Neptunistischen Schule sahen dagegen in allen vulkanischen Erscheinungen nur solche Vorgänge zugrunde liegend, welche gewissermaßen durch Druck oder durch chemische Verhältnisse im Innern der Erde, das sie sich durchaus nicht feurig dachten, es möglich machten, daß sich gewaltige innere Katastrophen abspielten, die sich nach außen entladen, so daß wir erst jetzt solche Vorgänge haben, die sich nach oben so ausleben, daß sie ganze Gebirgsmassive aus dem Innern der Erde hervorschieben. Kurz: wir haben es noch in der ersten Hälfte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts mit einem sehr interessanten Streit zwischen derjenigen Anschauung zu tun, die man kurz einmal mit dem Worte bezeichnen kann, das Goethe im «Faust» gebraucht: «Alles ist aus dem Wasser entsprungen», und derjenigen Anschauung, nach welcher im Grunde genommen doch allen Erdbildungen die Vorgänge von Feuerwirkungen zugrunde liegen. Dann muß gedacht werden, daß sich oben an der äußersten Schale, die sich zum Innern wie die Eischale zum Eidotter verhält, etwas abgespielt hat, wodurch eine ganz dünne Schicht als Abkühlungsschicht geblieben ist, die sozusagen die Erde als Bedeckungsschicht des mächtigen Erdvulkanes umgibt, der unser Erdplanet, auf dem wir herumwandeln, wäre.

Nun müssen wir uns die Frage vorlegen: Was hat diese äußere Forschung zu sagen, und was hat die Geisteswissenschaft mit den Mitteln, die in den bisher gehaltenen Vorträgen charakterisiert worden sind, über das Werden der Erde zu verkünden? — Über die Stufen der Erde, die jetzt da sind und die vorangegangen sind, können Sie sich auch noch genauer unterrichten durch meine «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß». — Wie weit bringt uns im Grunde genommen die Geologie? Wir wollen es jetzt mit klaren Worten zusammenfassen.

Die Geologie kann uns sagen: Sieh einmal, was du an Schichtbildungen an der Erdoberfläche findest. So wie diese Schichten gelagert sind, zeigen sie dir, daß Ablagerungen stattgefunden haben, jedenfalls in den jüngsten Zeiten, daß dadurch tierische Wesen ihr Grab gefunden haben, deren Nachkommen jetzt noch auf der Erde sind, aber auch solche, welche ausgestorben sind, und die wir nur dadurch als Bewohner der Erde kennenlernen, daß wir ihre in der Erde befindlichen Reste ausgraben. Da werden wir bis zu einer untersten Schicht der Erdoberfläche geführt, die noch immer zu dem gehört, was sich zum ganzen Planeten so verhält wie die Eischale zum Eidotter, und die uns zeigt, daß sie einer Feuerwirkung wohl ihren Ursprung verdanken könnte. Tiefer Blickende allerdings, wie zum Beispiel Goethe, sprechen sich schon vorsichtiger aus, auch da, wo sie ganz geologisch denken wollen. Und es ist interessant, das Wort Goethes zu vernehmen, das er über diese untere Schicht spricht.

«...In den innersten Eingeweiden der Erde ruht sie — diese Steinart — unerschüttert, ihre hohen Rücken steigen empor, deren Gipfel nie das alles umgebende Wasser erreichte. Soviel wissen wir von diesem Gestein und wenig mehr. Aus bekannten Bestandteilen, auf eine geheimnisreiche Weise zusammengesetzt, erlaubt es aber so wenig seinen Ursprung aus Feuer wie aus Wasser herzuleiten.»

Also Goethe macht schon darauf aufmerksam, daß eventuell sowohl Feuer- wie Wasserwirkungen nicht dasjenige sein könnten, was uns auf die geheimnisvolle Bildung dieses ältesten Sohnes unserer Erde, des Granits, hinweise. Wenn wir einfach neben die geologische Forschung, die uns im Grunde genommen nun nicht weiterführen kann, dasjenige hinstellen, was die Geisteswissenschaft sagt, was aus der hellseherischen Forschung gewonnen ist, so nimmt es sich etwa in folgender Weise aus.

Blicken wir mit dem geistigen Auge, das uns durch die Methoden geschärft werden kann, die im Laufe dieser Vorträge öfter angeführt worden sind, in die Vorzeit unseres Planeten, so erscheint uns in gewisser Beziehung das, was sich dem sinnlichen Auge darbieten dürfte, ungefähr in derjenigen Zeit und Zeitfolge, die uns durch die geologische Forschung dargeboten wird. Wir blicken gewissermaßen da auch zurück, wie die geologische Forschung sich eigentlich in der Phantasie den rückläufigen Blick konstruieren mußte. Wir schauen von jenen Wesen, die wir heute nach unseren menschlichen Begriffen als vollkommen bezeichnen, indem wir nach rückwäts gehen, auf immer unvollkommenere und unvollkommenere Lebewesen auf der Erde, und wir sehen sich darin zuweilen groteske Formen mischen, die zum Beispiel in den verschiedenen Sauriergestalten enthalten sind, im Ichthyosaurus, Plesiosaurus, Dinosaurus, Archaeopteryx. Wir finden dann Wesenheiten, die nichts von einem Wirbelskelett gehabt haben und so weiter und treffen in der Tat durch den hellseherischen Blick auf eine Zeitepoche unserer Erde, in welcher wir nicht solche Wesenheiten schauen können, wie sie jetzt auf unserer Erde leben. Wir müssen also zugeben, daß auch die geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung dieses allmähliche Ansteigen der Vervollkommnungsgrade aus ihren eigenen Quellen heraus schauen kann. Wenn wir nun so zurückgehen und gewissermaßen bei dem Zeitpunkt mit der hellseherischen Forschung ankommen, den die Geologie ‘ mit dem Granit fixiert, der sich im Sinne der heutigen Geologie aus dem schon abgekühlten, aber noch immer in Feuerwirkungen wogenden Erdengebilde herausgeballt hat, so müssen wir fragen: Was hat die Geologie — was hat die Geisteswissenschaft nun als Voraussetzungen einer früheren Zeit anzunehmen?

Wenn wir innerhalb der Geologie auf einem wirklich sicheren Boden bleiben — eigentlich sollte das, was jetzt gesagt wird, kein Naturforscher bezweifeln —, dann hat die Geologie hinter dem, was jenseits des Granits nach der Vorzeit zu liegt, nur Vermutungen. Solche Vermutungen kann sie auch darüber haben, wie es im Innern der Erde ausgeschaut habe, denn die Bohrlöcher, die durch Bohrungen in die Erde hineingearbeitet worden sind, führen nur so weit, daß man sie als winzig kleine Nadelstiche bezeichnen muß. Vermutungen und Hypothesen, weiter nichts, Ahnungen höchstens noch über das, was dem Gewoge und Getriebe der Granitbildung vorangegangen ist!

Die Geisteswissenschaft nun folgt — allerdings mit jenem Blick, dessen Eigentümlichkeiten hier öfter charakterisiert worden sind — dem Erdenwerden, rückwärtslaufend, in die Vorzeit und findet in dem Reiche, das man mit Augen sehen kann, immer unvollkommenere und unvollkommenere Wesen als die Vorläufer unserer gegenwärtigen irdischen Lebewelt. Aber sie findet, daß die Erde, wenn wir sie so rückwärtssehend verfolgen, gewaltig anders sich darstellt, als sie sich in der jetzigen Zeit darstellt. Wie sie sich gegenwärtig als die mineralische Grundlage zeigt, auf der wir wandeln, umgeben von der Luft, wo sich die Nebel, die Wolkenbildungen und so weiter finden, so stellt sie sich, indem wir so in die Vorzeit zurückschreiten, durchaus nicht dar. Eine große Anzahl von Stoffen, die heute in den Tiefen der Erde sind, waren in früheren Zeiten noch in der Umgebung der Erde und schlugen sich erst nach und nach nieder. Das muß auch die Geologie zugeben. Aber je weiter wir zurückgehen, desto mehr finden wir, daß unsere Erde überhaupt als Planet ein ganz anderes Gebilde, etwas ganz anderes wird, daß gewissermaßen das, was jetzt Luftumkreis ist, immer mehr und mehr, indem wir nach rückwärts gehen, uns selber den Charakter eines Lebewesens zeigt. Daß wir im Umkreis unserer Erde nicht nur solche mineralische Luft und solche mineralische Wolkenbildung finden, wie wir sie jetzt haben, sondern daß wir innerhalb dessen, was zu unserer Erde gehört, in den ältesten Zeiten etwas wie lebendige Glieder eines großen lebendigen Wesens finden. Wir kommen uns vor, wenn wir so nach rückwärts schreiten, wie wenn wir heute als ganz winzige Wesen in einem menschlichen Organismus stehen könnten, wenn wir darinnen auf dem festen Boden eines Knochen stünden und hinaussehen könnten und draußen das Blutsystem, das Nervensystem und so weiter wie eine Umwelt sehen würden. So würde jemand in alten Zeiten, der auf der Erde gestanden und hinausgeschaut hätte, nicht mineraJisches Weben und mineralische Luft gesehen haben, sondern lebendiges, pulsierendes Leben. Je weiter wir zurückkommen, desto mehr wäre dies der Fall, so daß wir bis zu der Epoche zurückkommen könnten, die wir als Granitbildung bezeichnen. Und wir könnten uns sagen: Da ist die Erde im Grunde genommen ein mächtiges Lebewesen, hat ein zahlreiches, mannigfaltiges Leben in sich, ist noch nicht von den Lebewesen belebt, die heute auf ihr herumwandeln oder sich im Wasser und so weiter aufhalten, sondern die da drinnen leben — gleichsam wie Parasiten des ganzen lebendigen Erdenorganismus, die in seinem Blute schwimmen, wie heute die Regenmassen in der Luft und dergleichen mehr. Dann kommen wir zu einer Zeit, von der wir sagen müssen: Auf dem Erdboden herrscht allerdings eine so große Temperatur, daß sich Leben nicht entwickeln kann, aber im Umkreise entwickelt sich Leben, Leben, das herunter will, aber nicht herunter kann. Warum kann es nicht herunter? Da unten wird durch den Feuerprozeß, den Prozeß hoher Erwärmung zunächst das aufgenommen, was das Lebendige unserer Erde so aus sich heraus absondert, wie unser lebendiger Organismus die festen Bestandteile, die Knochen, aus den weichen Teilen heraus absondert. Und jetzt blicken wir auf die Granitbildung und sagen: Das Material, welches der Granit enthält — Quarz, Feldspat und Glimmer — ist ursprünglich aufgelöst in dem großen lebendigen Wesen: Erde. Das braucht zur Entwickelung die Tatsache, daß es sich dieser Stoffe entledigen kann, es sondert sie aus, läßt sie zur Erde fallen. Was unten ist, nimmt dies Ausgesonderte auf, bildet ein Grundmassiv, ein Knochengerüst in dem Lebewesen Erde. Und wenn wir noch weiter zurückgehen, müssen wir die Ursachen suchen, warum die ganze lebendige Erde aus sich heraus die Stoffe abgesondert hat, welche als chemische Stoffe heute unsere Erde bilden und nicht zugleich diejenigen sind, die sich im tierischen, pflanzlichen oder menschlichen Organismus befinden. Diese Stoffe wurden damals nach und nach auf ähnliche Weise durch Feuer- oder Wasserwirkung abgesondert und dann umgebildet zum Knochengerüst unserer Erde. Wenn wir nun weiter zurückfragen, wie es kommt, daß die Stoffe nun aus dem Erde-Lebewesen herausgesondert wurden und einen Grundstock bildeten, aus dem das Leben gewichen ist, und nach den Ursachen fragen, durch welche das hat kommen können, so stoßen wir auf etwas, was — spricht man von ihm als von Vorgängen innerhalb unserer Erdentwickelung — heute noch im weitesten Umkreis sehr leicht Ärgernis erregt, und zwar nicht bei naturwissenschaftlichen Denkern — diese sollten es anerkennen —, sondern besonders bei denen, die auf ein paar Vorstellungen hin, die sie gewonnen haben, eine Weltanschauung bauen wollen. Wir müssen aber hinweisen auf das, was die Geisteswissenschaft aus ihren Betrachtungen heraus zeigt, daß eben so die Wahrheit ist. Es zeigt sich nämlich, daß diesen Prozessen — gleichsam des Aussonderns der Gesteinsmaterialien — innerhalb des Erde-Lebewesens vorausgegangen ist ein solcher Prozeß, den wir nun mit einem heutigen Vorgang bezeichnen können, wenn wir auf unseren eigenen Innenvorgang hinweisen, der ja für die äußere Wissenschaft wenig bekannt ist, der aber auch in diesen Vorträgen — ich kann das auch nur andeutungsweise sagen — durch die Geisteswissenschaft bereits ein wenig beschrieben worden ist, — auf jenen Vorgang, der sich den ganzen Tag über in unserem eigenen Leibe abspielt, wenn wir durch Arbeit, durch die Begriffe, die der Geist schafft, unsere Muskeln, die Werkzeuge unseres Gehirns, überhaupt unsern ganzen Leib anstrengen. Da spielt sich der Prozeß ab, den wir als Ermüdung bezeichnen. Das ist im wesentlichen eigentlich eine Art Zerstörungsprozeß des Organismus. Deshalb können wir sagen: Während wir heute vom Morgen bis zum Abend unser waches Tagesleben führen, indem wir denken, fühlen und wollen, spielen sich in uns Zerstörungsprozesse ab, die wir dann als Ermüdung fühlen. Solche Prozesse geistig-seelischer Art, die aber in die Materie hineinwirken, wird als äußere Naturwirkungen eine naturwissenschaftliche Weltanschauung gewiß nicht leicht zugeben wollen. Aber sie waren in jenem großen, gewaltigen Organismus vorhanden, der einst die Erde war. Und als sich die Erde dem Zeitpunkt näherte, wo sich der Granit und ähnliches abgesondert hat, wurde sie von lauter solchen Zerstörungsprozessen ergriffen, die so wirkten, daß ein Geistig-Seelisches an einem Materiellen arbeitete. In jenen Organismus, in den früher hineingearbeitet waren nicht nur die Stoffe, die heute der pflanzliche, tierische und menschliche Organismus hat, sondern auch die Stoffe, welche heute unser Erdmassiv ausmachen, ergoß sich alles, was von solchen durch geistig-seelische Vorgänge bewirkten Zerstörungsprozessen vorhanden war. Diese Zerstörungsprozesse leiteten in dem großen Lebewesen Erde dasjenige ein, was dann herbeiführte, daß dasjenige — gleichsam durch einen Absonderungsprozeß — ausgestoßen wurde, was wir heute an chemischen Stoffen im Aufbau unserer Erde haben, was wir nicht in den organischen Leibern finden.

So werden wir durch die Geisteswissenschaft zu der Erde zurückgeführt als zu einem Organismus — nicht zu einem Urzustand unserer Erde, in welchem sie sozusagen tote Masse war, sondern wo die Erde ursprünglich ein großer Organismus war. Im Sinne der Geisteswissenschaft muß man nämlich eine Frage, die heute ganz falsch gestellt wird, geradezu umdrehen. Keine Wissenschaft wird — wenn sie annimmt, daß unsere Erde einstmals eine tote Kugel war, worin nur chemische und physikalische Prozesse sich abgespielt haben — in der Lage sein, erklären zu können, wie aus dieser toten Kugel heraus das Leben hat entstehen können. Das ist eine große Streitfrage, aber sie wird in der Regel ganz falsch gestellt. Denn man fragt gewöhnlich: Wie hat sich aus dem Leblosen Leben entwickeln können? — Aber so ist es nicht: nicht dem Lebendigen geht das Leblose voran, sondern umgekehrt, dem Leblosen geht das Lebendige voran. Das leblose Mineral ist ein Absonderungsprodukt, wie unsere Knochen eine Absonderung unseres Organismus sind. So ist alles Gestein ein Absonderungsprodukt unseres Erdenorganismus, und geistig-seelische Prozesse sind es — wenn auch zunächst Zerstörungsprozesse —, die bewirkt haben, daß unser Erdenorganismus zu solchen Absonderungen kam. Wenn wir weiter zurückgingen, würden wir sehen, daß dieser Gang uns noch viel weiter führen würde. Wir würden da von dem, was sich in unserem Mineralischen abspielt, zu der Erde als einem Organismus geführt, ja, wir sehen jetzt schon, indem wir noch weiter zurückgehen, kommen wir nicht nur zu einem Organismus, sondern zu einem Gebilde unseres Planeten, das von geistigseelischen Wirkungen durchsetzt ist. Wir leiten nicht nur das Leben nicht auf Lebloses zurück, sondern wir führen das Leblose zurück auf Absonderungsprozesse aus dem Lebendigen, und wir nehmen das Lebendige als Folgezustand des Geistig-Seelischen an. Je weiter wir zurückgehen, desto mehr nähern wir uns dem, woraus wirklich entsprungen ist, was wir heute als Mineralien, Pflanzengebilde und so weiter vor uns haben: Wir nähern uns dem Geistigen und lassen uns von der Geisteswissenschaft sagen, daß nicht nur aus einem leblosen, feurigen Urnebel sich dasjenige gebildet hat, was uns heute in der Mannigfaltigkeit der Erderscheinungen gegenübertritt, sondern daß sich alles aus dem Geistigen herausgebildet hat, daß ursprünglich unsere Erde lauterer Geist war. Der Fortgang war so, daß auf der einen Seite aus dem Geistigen sich die Gebilde absonderten, die mehr nach dem Mineralischen zu liegen, und daß auf der anderen Seite die Möglichkeit dazu kam, daß gewisse neue Gebilde entstanden, die eine neue Form geistiger Wirkungen aufnehmen konnten. Denn wenn wir jetzt den umgekehrten Weg nehmen und sagen: In den alten Gesteinsmaterialien haben wir etwas, was sich aus dem ursprünglichen Erdenorganismus herausgesondert hat, und wir gehen dann weiter bis in unsere Zeit, so geschieht diese Absonderung fortwährend. Der Granit ist nur die älteste Absonderung. Aber die Prozesse, die Absonderungen bilden, werden immer weniger und weniger lebensvolle Prozesse sein, werden immer mehr und mehr bloße chemische, mechanische Prozesse sein, so daß wir zuletzt in unserer Zeit nur noch jene Wasserwirkungen haben, die beobachtet werden können, wenn zum Beispiel ein Fluß das Gesteinsmaterial von einem Orte zum andern trägt. Aber was uns da als mechanisch-chemische Prozesse entgegentreten, das ist nur das letzte Produkt, ist das, was das gesetzmäßige Mineral geworden ist, was als Folgezustand von dem eingetreten ist, was sich ursprünglich als Lebenswirkungen abgespielt hat.

Wir sehen also, wie sich in der Tat im Laufe unserer Erdentwickelung in bezug auf das, was den Grund bildet, auf dem wir herumwandeln, etwas abspielt, was wir in ähnlicher Weise im einzelnen menschlichen oder tierischen Organismus haben. Da sehen wir, wie dieser Mensch bis zu einem gewissen Zeitpunkt lebt, wie er dann durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet, seinen Leib als Leichnam ablegt, und sehen die Prozesse, die bloß mineralische Prozesse sind, sich fortsetzen. Während der Lebenszeit des Leibes aber waren diese chemischen und physikalischen Prozesse in geistig-seelische Vorgänge einbezogen. So kommen wir auch zu einem Zeitpunkt des Erdendaseins zurück, wo die Prozesse, die wir heute als chemische und mechanische sich abspielen sehen, eingefangen und durchsetzt waren von organischen, ja von geistig-seelischen Prozessen. Was sich aber auf dem Boden unserer Erde abspielt, das ist sozusagen nur die eine Strömung, die aus früheren zunächst mehr lebendig organischen und dann geistigen Vorgängen geblieben ist. Dieser Boden mußte entstehen, sich bilden, damit auf seinem Grunde sich nun ein anders geartetes Leben abspielen kann: dasjenige Leben, das allmählich zu unserem Leben wurde, damit sozusagen nach und nach solche Gehirnwerkzeuge bei den Lebewesen sich ausbilden konnten, wodurch diese nun den Geist innerlich sich vergegenwärtigen können, innerlich sich Gedanken und Empfindungen bilden können, die gleichsam die äußeren Vorgänge erkennend und fühlend wiederholen. Daher muß die gesamte Stoffmasse unserer Erde erst «durchgesiebt» werden, die heute bloß mineralischen Stoffe ausgeschieden werden und diejenigen zurückbehalten werden, welche heute die Organismen bilden können, die nur von einem Teile des alten Stoffmassives durchsetzt sind. Das sind die Teile, die sich erst jetzt bilden können — zum Beispiel zu dem, was heute der Mensch ist. Der Geist, der im Menschenkopfe, im Menschenherzen Jebt, der also in einem Wesen lebt, das gewissermaßen feiner organisiert ist als das gesamte Erdplanetenwesen, dieser Geist konnte nur in einem solchen Wesen entstehen, das erst aus sich ausgesondert erhalten hat die andere Stoffmasse, die heute nicht zum organischen Leben gehört. Durchgesiebt worden ist das gesamte Stoffmassiv unserer Erde, und was abgeflossen ist, das wurde zur Grundlage gemacht, die dem rein mineralischen Leben übergeben worden ist, damit sich darauf ein neues Leben entwickeln konnte, das wir nun in dem Augenblick in seine unterste Form eintreten sehen, wo von der nachfolgenden Zeit die einfachsten Wesen in der kambrischen Form von der Geologie uns vorgeführt werden. Wenn wir so im Sinne der Geisteswissenschaft betrachten, was an heutigem Leben vorhanden ist, so werden wir sagen müssen: Dieses Leben war ursprünglich im Umkreise der Erde, ist dann gleichsam aus diesem Umkreise herabgekommen, konnte aber den Boden der Erde nicht früher betreten, bevor es nicht dasjenige vorausgeschickt hatte, was es an Stoffmassen brauchte, um darauf herumzuwandeln. Der Zersetzungsprozeß, der durch geistig-seelische Prozesse hervorgerufen worden ist, ist der Einleitungsvorgang zu zwei Strömungen, die sich seither abspielen: einer aufsteigenden Strömung, die ein feiner, höher geartetes Leben entfaltete — das brauchte nur einen Teil der Stoffmassen — und einer anderen Strömung, welche die Zersetzung fortsetzt und als Grundlage sich bietet für die feineren Organismen, die sich dann bis zum Menschen herauf entwickeln. Diese feineren Organismen sind in einer aufsteigenden Entwickelung. Warum? Weil sie dadurch — was man ja heute auch nicht zugeben wird —, daß sie das gröbste Material wie in einem gewaltigen Ausscheidungsprozeß abgesondert haben, durch den dann die Erdoberfläche wurde, in die Lage gekommen sind, sich von der Erde und ihren Innenwirkungen mehr oder weniger abzuschließen, und nun dem hingegeben sind, was an Weltenwirkungen von außen auf die Erde hereinströmt. Sie sind nun den geistigeren Vorgängen der Weltenwirkungen ausgesetzt und verdanken dem das Aufsteigen von den unvollkommenen Lebewesen bis zum Menschen.

Wenn wir die Erdentwickelung so ansehen, blicken wir auf den Grund und Boden, auf dem wir herumgehen, ohne daß wir die einzelnen Vorgänge in Betracht ziehen, so hin, daß wir uns sagen: Wir stehen auf ihm, er enthält — in dem Granit und in dem, was sich darauf abgesondert hat — dasjenige, was die Reiche der Lebewesen nicht brauchen konnten, die es nur so verwenden konnten, daß sie es als Boden absonderten, um darauf herumzuwandeln. Und was als Fortsetzung davon vorhanden ist, ist ein Zerstörungs- und Auflösungsprozeß. Da müßten wir uns im Grunde genommen mit dem Gedanken bekannt machen: Wenn uns heute der Geologe den Erdboden darlegt, wie er aus Tälern und Gebirgen besteht und sich schichtenweise aufbaut, so müßte das etwas wie ein sich zersetzender Leichnam sein, der einen alten Zerstörungs- und Zersetzungsprozeß fortsetzt. Wir wandelten dann im Sinne der Geisteswissenschaft auf einem solchen Zerstörungsprozeß, damit wir einen Grund und Boden haben, den wir haben mußten, wenn wir die blühenden, die nach der Zukunft weisenden Kräfte ins Auge fassen, die nach der anderen Seite gehen als die, welche uns im Erdboden entgegentreten. Denn diese nach der Zukunft weisenden Kräfte sind etwas, was sozusagen unabhängig vom Erdboden in die menschlichen Seelen, die menschlichen Geister hereindringt, vielleicht auch in jene Wesen, die außerhalb des Menschlichen sind, die sich erst auf Grundlage des Erdbodens erheben. Im Erdboden selbst aber hätten wir etwas Zerfallendes. Geisteswissenschaftlich-geologisch betrachtet würde uns unsere Erde als ein immer mehr und mehr zerfallender Leichnam erscheinen, und die geologischen Gesetze würden zugleich Gesetze des sich auflösenden Erdenleichnams sein. Und der Mensch auf der Erde würde etwas sein, was sich aus dem ErdenJleichnam heraushebt, wie sich die menschliche Seele, wenn sie durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet, vom Leichnam erhebt und diesen jenen Kräften zurückläßt, die ihn zersetzen und zerstören.

Es könnte ein trübes Bild bieten, wenn man dies sagt. Aber es wird nur ein trübes Bild bieten, wenn man sozusagen am Geist verzweifelt und den Geist lediglich an die Materie gebunden hält und glaubt, daß mit dem Abfall des Menschen von der lebendigen Erdengestalt überhaupt das Ende des Menschen gekommen ist. Wenn man die Dinge aber betrachtet, wie es eine gesunde Naturbetrachtung ergibt, so muß man sagen: Es muß sich in gewisser Weise erfüllen, daß nicht nur der einzelne Mensch, sondern die ganze Menschheit den Erdenleib nach und nach abwirft, um in andere Regionen der Entwickelung nach und nach aufsteigen zu können. Wir wären somit — geisteswissenschaftlich-geologisch betrachtet — über die Mitte der Erdentwickelung schon seit jener Zeit hinaus, seitdem der «älteste Sohn der Erde» abgesondert worden ist, und die Wesen, die einen Zukunftsanfang bilden, werden sich auf der damit gebildeten Grundlage weiter entfalten.

Was sagt nun zu einer solchen geisteswissenschaftlich-geologischen Auffassung die moderne Geologie? Wenn Worte, Theorien, Hypothesen, Weltanschauungen in Betracht kommen, die leichthin und flugs von Parteiströmungen und so weiter gebildet sind, dann kann man sehr leicht konstruieren, wie eine solche Geisteswissenschaft mit dem naturwissenschaftlichen Denken in Widerspruch gerät. Aber wenn man diese Geisteswissenschaft, die ebenso streng und methodisch wie irgendeine andere Wissenschaft arbeitet, im Verhältnis zu der Naturwissenschaft betrachtet, so ist es schon nötig, daß man zu dem hinblickt, was die Naturwissenschaft wirklich zu sagen hat, das heißt also in bezug auf das heute Gesagte die Frage aufwirft: Was hat die Geologie in bezug auf das Erdenwerden zu sagen? Heute werden in populär-wissenschaftlichen Schriften und in populären Weltanschauungen oft Dinge in die Menge gebracht, die sehr sekundärer Natur sind, und dann wird gesagt: das habe «die Wissenschaft» festgestellt. Wenn man dies dann mit dem vergleicht, was die «vertrackten, halb wahnsinnigen» Geistesforscher sagen, so wird sich das manchem herausstellen als etwas, worauf man sich «überhaupt nicht einlassen kann». Denn so wird mancher sagen, der von der Geisteswissenschaft vielleicht nicht viel mehr kennt als das, was von allerlei abgelegenen Quellen zu ihm kommt. Aber man muß sich da schon zu dem wenden, was die wirkliche Wissenschaft und die wirkliche Geisteswissenschaft zu sagen hat. Denn nicht wie populäre Weltanschauungen, die aus der Wissenschaft nur scheinbar gewonnen sind, ist die Geisteswissenschaft zu betrachten, sondern mit der Strenge, mit der jede wahre Wissenschaft von den wahren Forschern an den Quellen zu betrachten ist. Da stellt sich denn etwas heraus, was ich Ihnen nicht anders schildern kann, als daß ich Sie auf dasjenige Werk hinweise, das einem der bedeutendsten Geologen unserer Zeit entsprungen ist und das ein sehr bekannter Geologe unserer Zeit die geologische Epopöe des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts genannt hat: das «Antlitz der Erde» von Eduard Sueß. Man darf sagen, daß in diesem Werke, an dem Sueß nicht Jahre, sondern Jahrzehnte — und zwar in der denkbar sorgfältigsten Weise — gearbeitet hat, die geologischen Forschungen, die dieser jüngste Zweig der Naturwissenschaft im Verlauf weniger Jahrzehnte hervorgebracht hat, zusammenfließen. Was zeigt sich da?

Eduard Sueß war einmal der, welcher gesagt hat: Sehen wir einmal ab von allen Vorurteilen der Neptunisten, der Plutonisten und von allem, was sich sonst an Theorien durch die Geologen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts angehäuft hat. Konstruieren wir nicht, sondern sehen wir das an, was sich als die Physiognomie, als das Bild der Erdoberfläche darbietet. — Von der allerdings sinnenfälligen, aber reinen und durch keine Theorie und Hypothese getrübten Anschauung ist Eduard Sueß ausgegangen. Da hat er dann andere Anschauungen gewonnen als die, welche lange Jahrzehnte hindurch gang und gäbe waren. Er ist zu dem Resultat gekommen, daß die Gebirge, die uns als scheinbar mächtige Massive entgegentreten, sich doch nur wie die Runzeln auf der Apfelschale ausnehmen und sich in keiner anderen Weise erklären lassen als dadurch, daß man annimmt, daß gewisse Kraftwirkungen rein physikalisch-chemischer Art im Erdplaneten walten, durch deren Tätigkeit unsere Unebenheiten, unsere Täler und Berge, die verschiedenen Schichten und so weiter zustande kommen; so daß im wesentlichen die Verteilung von Wasser und Land, die Bildung der Kontinente und so weiter dadurch zu erklären ist, daß sich Faltungen bilden, daß gewisse Kräfte die Erdmassive zusammenschieben, wodurch sich gewisse Erdmassen zu Gebirgen auftürmen. Andre Kräfte sind tätig, die bewirken, daß das Aufgetürmte dann zusammenstürzt; dadurch geschieht dann das Bilden der Meere. Also durch Zusammenstürze, durch Überstülpungen und Zusammenfaltungen und so weiter erklärt er zum Beispiel das Gebirgsmassiv der Alpen. In einer geistvollen Weise wird so gezeigt, daß das ganze Antlitz der Erde durch solche Zusammenschiebungen, Einstürze, Faltungen und so weiter zustande gekommen ist. Meeresbildungen und Bildung der Kontinente werden zum Beispiel dadurch erklärt, daß gewisse Einstürze geschehen, daß die Wasser nach der einen Richtung abfließen, und dort, wo Wasser früher war, wird auf diese Weise Land freigelegt und so weiter. Wir haben es also mit einer Erdoberfläche zu tun, wo Prozesse geschehen, die auf einem Durcheinanderrütteln der Erdmassen von mechanischen Kräften und auf Einstürzen beruhen. Und indem sich Sueß ein Gesamtbild zu machen versucht von dem, was auf dem Boden vorgeht, auf dem wir herumwandeln, gelangt er zu einem eigentümlichen Resultat: daß es im Grunde genommen überhaupt ein Prozeß der Zerstörung ist, der sich auf unserer Erdoberfläche abspielt, und daß eigentlich der Boden, wo wir heute den Pflug über den Acker führen, aus dem unsere Früchte kommen, nur dadurch entstanden ist, daß von irgendwo anders her Faltungen, Einstürze — kurz: Zerstörungsprozesse gewirkt haben. Ich brauche nur wenige Worte aus diesem bedeutendsten Werke der gegenwärtigen Geologie zu zitieren, und Sie können daraus entnehmen, wohin den gewissenhaften Naturforscher Eduard Sueß die rein sinnenfällige geologische Betrachtungsweise geführt hat.

«...Der Zusammenbruch des Erdballs ist es, dem wir beiwohnen. Er hat freilich schon vor sehr langer Zeit begonnen, und die Kurzlebigkeit des menschlichen Geschlechtes läßt uns dabei guten Mutes bleiben. Nicht nur im Hochgebirge sind die Spuren vorhanden. Es sind große Schollen hunderte, ja in einzelnen Fällen viele tausende von Fuß tief gesunken, und nicht die geringste Stufe an der Oberfläche, sondern nur die Verschiedenheit der Felsarten oder tiefer Bergbau verraten das Dasein des Bruches. Die Zeit hat alles geebnet. In Böhmen, in der Pfalz, in Belgien, in Pennsylvanien, an zahlreichen Orten zieht der Pflug ruhig seine Furchen über die gewaltigsten Brüche.»

Hier haben Sie das Ergebnis sorgfältiger Wissenschaft über den Boden, auf dem wir herumwandeln. Denken Sie sich jetzt, was die Geisteswissenschaft über die Einleitung dieses Prozesses durch einen geistig-seelischen Zerstörungsprozeß zu sagen hat, dessen Fortsetzung auf der einen Seite bedeutet den physikalisch-mechanischen Zerstörungsprozeß, der auf der Erdoberfläche geschieht und den die Geologie durch sorgfältige Forschung von sich aus zu behaupten genötigt ist. So ist es auf allen Gebieten. Wenn Sie die wirklichen Forschungen, die Tatsachen zu Rate ziehen, werden Sie überall sehen: Hier steht die Geisteswissenschaft mit dem, was sie aus der hellseherischen Forschung heraus zu sagen hat, und dort die Naturwissenschaft, die nur unbeeinflußt von monistischen, materialistischen oder sonstigen Vorurteilen gedacht werden muß, die auf reinem, gesundem Boden der Tatsachen steht. Überall, werden Sie sehen, mündet die Geisteswissenschaft so in die Naturwissenschaft ein, daß die Naturwissenschaft durch das, was sie aus dem reinen Boden der Tatsachen zu liefern hat, einen ausgiebigsten Beweis für das bringt, was die Geisteswissenschaft von sich aus zu sagen hat. Niemals ist ein Widerspruch zwischen Geisteswissenschaft und wahrer Naturwissenschaft vorhanden. Widersprüche bestehen nur zwischen gesunder Geisteswissenschaft, die auf die Realität losgeht, und den Theorien der Phantasten und derjenigen, die da sagen, sie stünden auf dem festen Boden der Wissenschaft, die aber sofort den festen Boden verlieren, wenn sie nicht in das einmünden, was die Tatsachen sagen, sondern in das, was sie selbst über die Tatsachen sagen möchten. Die Geisteswissenschaft läßt sich von den geistigen Tatsachen sagen, was diese von den Weltengeheimnissen zu sagen haben. Naturwissenschaft blickt mit ihren Methoden auf das hin, was sich ihr ergeben hat und was sie zu sagen hat. Beide stehen in vollstem Einklang. Und wenn Sie nicht jene populären Werke nehmen, die sagen: «das und das steht wissenschaftlich fest», sondern wenn Sie zu den Quellen gehen, dann können Sie insbesondere auf dem Gebiete der Geologie finden, wie die Geologen überall bis zu einem gewissen Punkte vordringen und dann Fragezeichen hinsetzen. Wenn man bei diesen Fragezeichen angekommen ist, kann man von ihnen ausgehen, indem man jetzt die geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung betrachtet. Diese sagt uns dann: Wenn es richtig ist, was die Hellsichtigkeit zeigt, so muß sich das äußere Tatsachenmaterial so und so gestalten. In dem geologischen Falle hat sich gezeigt: Wenn es richtig ist, was die Geisteswissenschaft darzustellen hat, dann muß als die Fortsetzung des heutigen Zersetzungsprozesses unser Erdball jetzt im Zusammenbruch sein. Geologie, die auf die Tatsachen geht, zeigt aus den Gesetzen, daß es so ist! Die Ergebnisse der Naturwissenschaft sind überall die Konsequenzen der geisteswissenschaftlichen Forschung. Wenn wir den ganzen Geist und Sinn dieser Auseinandersetzung betrachten, werden wir keineswegs darüber trübsinnig werden, daß wir auf einem Boden gehen, der ein sich zersetzender Leichnam ist. Denn wir sehen ein, daß auf diesem Boden sich das entwickelt hat, was wiederum Zukunftskeime in sich enthält.

Auch die folgenden Vorträge werden uns immer mehr zeigen, daß ebenso, wie der Mensch auf seinen Geist sieht, so das Geistige, das sich einst den Boden unter den Füßen bereitet hat, Zukunftsepochen entgegengeht, die es auf immer höheren und höheren Höhen zeigen werden. Wenn schon der Geologe Sueß — weil er durch den Umgang mit der Natur auf alles Schöne der Natur selbst in den Zerstörungsprozessen eingeht — das Antlitz der Erde zu bewundern versteht, indem er in seinem großen, monumentalen Werke die beherzigenswerten Worte sagt: «Im Angesichte dieser offenen Fragen erfreuen wir uns des Sonnenscheines, des gestirnten Firmamentes und aller Mannigfaltigkeit des Antlitzes unserer Erde, welche durch eben diese Vorgänge erzeugt worden ist, zugleich erkennend, bis zu welchem Grade das Leben von der Eigenart und den Schicksalen des Planeten beherrscht ist», wenn schon der Geologe — sich über allen Pessimismus erhebend — diesen Ausblick in der Seele empfindet, dann sagt erst recht der Geistesforscher, der weiß, daß das Goethesche Wort wahr ist: die Natur hat den Tod erfunden, um viel Leben zu haben —, und der auch weiß, daß es erkenntnismäßig wahr ist zu sagen: die Natur hat den Tod erfunden, um immer höheres und immer geistigeres Leben zu haben — es sagt der Geistesforscher, der dies weiß: Wenn wir auch hinblicken müssen auf das, was ein höheres Leben sich ausgesondert hat, wie auf einen in Zerstörungsprozessen begriffenen Leichnam, so sehen wir doch in allem, was auf diesem Boden wandelt, Keime leuchten dessen, was in unseren Herzen Hoffnung und Sicherheit erregen kann. Das aber sagt uns: Wir wandeln auf dem Boden, den uns die Vorwelt gegeben hat, den sie in seiner Zersetzung, in seiner Zerstörung zu dem Boden unter unseren Füßen hat werden lassen. Wir wandeln auf diesem Boden, ahnend — indem wir uns in unserem Geiste zu Himmelshöhen erheben —, daß wir diesen Boden im Laufe der zukünftigen Entwickelung zur rechten Zeit zu verlassen haben, um in den Schoß der geistigen Welt aufgenommen zu werden, mit der wir uns, wenn wir es recht verstehen, so innig verbunden fühlen.

What does geology have to say about the origin of the world?

It could weigh heavily on the worldview based on spiritual science if, in all seriousness and truth, this worldview were to come into conflict with the justified findings of scientific research — research that over the course of the last few centuries, and especially during the nineteenth century, has achieved so much that is great and beneficial, not only in the field of knowledge but also in the field of the overall progress of humanity. In particular, however, it would be depressing if this spiritual science were to contradict a branch of scientific research that is relatively recent, but which, due to its unique nature and special tasks, is not only capable of arousing human interest in the deepest sense of the word, but also opens up perspectives into what we call the becoming of our planet, the development and transformation of the creatures that populate this planet. This young branch of scientific research is geology, the science that, especially since the second third of the nineteenth century, but also before that, has taken such a tremendous upswing and, despite the big questions we will have to discuss, which have remained unanswered and still remain today, has achieved something significant. Today, we will mainly concern ourselves with bringing to mind the relationship that spiritual science must have to geology, and with answering the question: how much does geology have to say, in the sense of spiritual science—that branch of knowledge which has always been the basis of these considerations—about the question of the origin, the gradual becoming and development of the Earth and its living beings?

Here we must briefly consider what the methods and characteristics of geological research actually involve. It is well known that geology draws its findings from our soil itself and that it draws conclusions from what it finds there about how our planet may have come into being and changed over time. It is well known that when we have the opportunity to study deeper layers of our earth in terms of their rock content and other contents through some kind of exposure of our soil—for example, during railroad construction, in quarries, or in mining—these layers appear to us to be different from those we initially walk on, different from the outermost surface. But even within this surface, the soil appears to us in the most diverse ways when we examine it in terms of its rock types and mineral character. It is also well known that among the most interesting research projects are those that relate to layers of our earth's surface that clearly show such characteristics that we can say that the material covering the ground there was originally dissolved in water or was otherwise under the influence of water, having been washed up by water in times long past, so to speak. Even today, we can see how rivers carry away the rock materials that accumulate in their water content and then deposit them in other areas. We see how the ground is covered by such deposits. In the same way, we have to imagine that in ancient times, deposits were formed on top of other deposits. We have to imagine that another deposit was formed on top of the one that was formed in this way, which, when we examine it, shows that it has a different character from the lower layer. Thus, our earth shows us its rock material of different character in layers. It is, of course, easy to say that the layers at the top must be the youngest, deposited by the most recent processes on our earth, and that the deeper and deeper we look into the lower layers of the earth, the more we come to layers that were deposited in older and older times and have been covered by the younger layers. It is also known that all kinds of inclusions are found in these layers of our earth, which, according to our present understanding, originate from animal and plant life forms that have, so to speak, met their demise, been washed away with the water and the layers, buried in a natural way, and then found more or less changed or unchanged within the rock material as the remains of prehistoric creatures. It is also not difficult to imagine that we must assume a certain relationship between such a layer of rock material as it lies there and the animal and plant inclusions that are inside it.

Now, however, one must not imagine that younger layers are conveniently deposited over older ones across the entire surface of the earth, but one must be aware that older layers sometimes lie close to the surface—recognizable by their character—and that in the course of the earth's development, the most diverse disturbances, disordered deposits, overlappings, upheavals, and so on have taken place in the course of the earth's development, so that it is by no means easy for the geologist to say in each individual case how one layer came to be deposited over another. These are things that can only be hinted at here. In any case, we may disregard the irregularities just mentioned and assume that geologists have access to all the layers of the earth with their inclusions, and that they draw their conclusions from this as to what the earth actually looked like when the uppermost layer had not yet been deposited, or when deeper layers lying beneath the upper layer were not yet there, and so on, — that we can therefore form ideas of what our Earth looked like in past times.

Now, it is also generally known that the uppermost layers — that is, the most recent of our earth's material — show inclusions of more perfect animal and plant life forms, and that the deeper we go into the layers, the more we find the remains of less perfect life forms, which we are accustomed to listing today among the lower species and genera of the animal and plant kingdoms. We then come, as it were, to the lowest layers of our earth's surface, which have been covered again and again by other layers, come to the so-called Cambrian layer of our earth's development, and see there how, of our animal life forms in this layer, there are only inclusions of those animals that did not yet possess a vertebral skeleton. We then encounter other animals with a vertebral skeleton in the layers above, which geology is therefore justified in considering to be younger layers of the Earth's formation.

Geology thus seems to provide full confirmation of what natural science knows today from other premises: that in the process of our Earth's development, living beings have slowly and gradually evolved from imperfect to more perfect forms. If we take a look at the Cambrian layer, the lowest deposit, and imagine that all the other strata had not yet been formed, we would have to assume that in the earliest times only the lowest animal entities existed, which did not yet possess a skeleton and were the first precursors of imperfect animals, then found their grave and were deposited on the lowest layer of rock material. We must imagine that these creatures had offspring, perhaps changed under other conditions that then arose. In the next layer, which is younger, we see animals appearing that already have skeletal formations in a certain sense. And as we approach the younger layers, we see more and more perfect animal species appearing, until we come up to the Tertiary layers, where we see that mammals are already there, and then in the layers that are even younger than the Tertiary layers, we see humans appearing.

You know that today there is a way of thinking that simply imagines that the lower animals that lived at the time of the Cambrian period had descendants, some of which remained unchanged, while others continued to develop and then became skeletal animals and so on; so that we would have to explain the appearance of more perfect animals in the later, younger strata by saying that the most imperfect, simplest animal and plant life forms gradually became more perfect. This would give a purely illustrative picture of the gradual development of life and also of other processes on our earth — as it appeared to the eye of the observer who could have watched during the billions and billions of years that geology has calculated for this event. In order for us to also visualize the methods and types of research, the following may be indicated. For example, if we see how certain layers are still being deposited today by river alluvial deposits or the like over the course of so many years, and if we measure the height of such a layer, so that we obtain a certain measurement and can say: in so many years such a layer has been deposited — then one can calculate how long it took for such layers to be deposited, as we have seen, assuming that conditions were as they are today. This results in a wide variety of figures, depending on the different calculations made by geologists. There is no need to dwell on the fact that there are contradictions, because anyone who is aware of the contradictions will know that they are meaningless, even if they are sometimes quite glaring and the differences amount to many trillions of years, as recorded by individual researchers.

When we consider all this, we only have a picture of how, according to geological views — exactly as described above — the processes in our Earth's development have taken place over the last trillion years. Geology further compels us to assume that all these processes were preceded by others. For all these layers, which contain the remains of animal life, rest, as it were, on others, which then protrude to the surface, breaking through the layers above them and forming mountains, thus becoming visible, so that the ideas of geology lead us to conclude that all the remains of living creatures in the layers of our earth rest on another layer, which takes us back, so to speak, to an age of our earth that preceded all life. For the composition of this oldest and lowest layer of our Earth's surface shows us that when it was formed, at least according to present ideas, life as we know it today could not have existed on our Earth. Geology is compelled to assume that the lowest layer owes its formation to a process of fire, within which it is impossible to imagine any life, so that geology would take us back in the course of our Earth's development to ancient times, when the oldest types of rock and minerals were formed, so to speak, out of a process of fire. Only later, on the basis of this lowest layer, were the younger layers containing the remains of living beings deposited through processes that took place when our Earth had already cooled down so much through the radiation of its heat into space that life became possible. All this must be thought of as accompanied by physical and chemical processes that cannot be described in detail.

When we look back, as it were, to these earliest times of our Earth, after a certain cooling had already taken place — in geology, the Earth is thought to have been in a still hot state before the first rock formation — we find our globe — corresponding to the surface — covered with a base layer and see how those layers spread over this base layer, which in their inclusions provide living evidence that life has existed on our Earth since ancient times. When we look at these oldest layers, on which the life-bearing ones rest, in terms of their rock material, which is essentially what is called granite, we are looking at a form of our globe that still shows us a kind of lifeless state in the sense of our present-day geology. This is where the upper layers are open and the granite emerges and forms mountains: as if bearing witness to the oldest times of our Earth.

Goethe, who, in addition to being a great poet, was also a great natural philosopher and naturalist, felt particularly deeply when he encountered this oldest rock formation on our Earth, granite, how this granular rock material is something on which, as it were, everything else rises, like the skeleton of the Earth. This instilled in Goethe something that was like the echo of a primordial tranquility of our planet, and he regarded this rock with reverence. Such a person could not help but contemplate the processes within our Earth's development not only with the mind, but also with the heart, revealing to us what these remains tell us about the Earth's formation. Deeply moving and leading even deeper into the mysteries than any abstract thinking are the words that Goethe spoke in the presence of this “oldest son of nature,” as he puts it, in the presence of granite:

"... With these sentiments I approach you, you oldest and most dignified monuments of time. Sitting on a high, bare summit and looking out over a wide expanse, I can say to myself: Here you rest directly on a foundation that reaches to the deepest places of the earth; no newer layer, no accumulated debris has come between you and the solid ground of the primeval world; you do not walk over a lasting grave as in those fertile, beautiful valleys; these peaks have produced nothing living and devoured nothing living; they are above all life and above all living things. At this moment, when the inner attractive and moving forces of the earth seem to act directly upon me, when the influences of the heavens hover around me, I am inspired to higher contemplations of nature, and just as the human spirit animates everything, so too does a parable stir within me, whose sublimity I cannot resist. So lonely, I say to myself, as I look down from this completely bare summit and can barely see some low-growing moss in the distance at the foot of the mountain, so lonely, I say, is the mood of the person who wants to open his soul only to the oldest, first, and deepest feelings of truth.

This is the mood that came over Goethe as he contemplated this rock, which, by its very nature, shows that it could contain nothing living, and therefore could not have engulfed anything living like the layers above it.

As sketchy as what I have been able to present so far may be, it nevertheless shows—in broad strokes, as it were—the picture that geology today allows us to form of the course of the Earth and its living beings. However, this has not always been the case, and this way of thinking has only developed very gradually. For example, at the time when Goethe was studying geology, there was a heated debate about the origin of our Earth, known as the Plutonist-Neptunist controversy. One of the main representatives of the latter was the geologist Werner, who was also acquainted with Goethe. He was of the opinion that essentially everything we see in the stratification of our soil cannot be attributed to any effects of fire, but that everything that can be researched indicates that the Earth was basically formed only from a watery element, a watery formation of our planet. Even the oldest layers were deposits from water, meaning that granite had not been formed by bubbling fire, but had also been deposited from water and had only been altered by later processes over time, so that today its water origin is no longer so clear. Everything originated from water, so to speak—that was a fundamental belief of the Neptunists, and Werner in particular. This was opposed by the view of the plutonists, who assumed that our Earth, together with our entire planetary system, had formed from a gaseous, high-temperature nebula, separated through cooling, and cooled further through the radiation of heat into space. They believed that conditions then arose in which the heat effects could have caused granite and perhaps similar types of rock to form, but that only the surface of the Earth had cooled down through the radiation of heat, while the interior was still fiery and liquid, and that volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are living evidence that the earth's interior still contains remnants of a fiery liquid state. The followers of the Neptunist school, on the other hand, saw all volcanic phenomena as being based solely on processes which, through pressure or chemical conditions within the earth, which they did not imagine to be fiery at all, made it possible for violent internal catastrophes to occur, which discharged themselves to the outside, so that we now have such processes that manifest themselves upwards in such a way that they push entire mountain ranges out of the interior of the earth. In short, in the first half of the nineteenth century, we are still dealing with a very interesting dispute between the view that can be briefly described with the words Goethe uses in Faust: “Everything sprang from water,” and the view that, basically, all earth formations are based on the effects of fire. Then we must imagine that something happened at the top of the outermost shell, which relates to the interior like an eggshell to the yolk, whereby a very thin layer remained as a cooling layer, which, so to speak, surrounds the earth as a covering layer of the mighty earth volcano that would be our planet, on which we walk around.

Now we must ask ourselves the question: What does this external research have to say, and what does spiritual science have to say about the becoming of the earth, using the means that have been characterized in the lectures given so far? — You can learn more about the stages of the earth that are now present and those that have preceded them in my “Outline of Esoteric Science.” — How far does geology actually take us? Let us now summarize it in clear terms.

Geology can tell us: Look at the stratification you find on the Earth's surface. The way these layers are arranged shows you that deposits have taken place, at least in recent times, that animal beings have found their grave here, whose descendants are still on Earth today, but also those that have become extinct, and which we only know as inhabitants of the Earth because we excavate their remains from the Earth. We are led to the lowest layer of the earth's surface, which still belongs to what relates to the whole planet as the eggshell relates to the egg yolk, and which shows us that it may well owe its origin to the action of fire. Those who look deeper, however, such as Goethe, are more cautious in their statements, even when they want to think in entirely geological terms. And it is interesting to hear Goethe's words about this lower layer.

"...In the innermost bowels of the earth it rests — this type of rock — unshaken, its high ridges rising up, their peaks never reaching the water that surrounds everything. That is all we know about this rock, and little more. Composed of known elements in a mysterious way, it allows us to deduce its origin from neither fire nor water."

So Goethe already points out that neither fire nor water may be what points us to the mysterious formation of this oldest son of our Earth, granite. If we simply place alongside geological research, which basically cannot take us any further, what spiritual science says, what has been gained from clairvoyant research, it appears in the following way.

If we look with the spiritual eye, which can be sharpened by the methods that have been mentioned frequently in the course of these lectures, into the prehistory of our planet, then in a certain respect what presents itself to the sensory eye appears to us to be approximately in the time and sequence of events presented to us by geological research. In a sense, we are also looking back in the same way that geological research had to construct the backward view in the imagination. We look back from those beings whom we today describe as perfect according to our human concepts, going backwards to increasingly imperfect and imperfect living beings on Earth, and we see grotesque forms mixed in among them, which are contained, for example, in the various dinosaur forms, in the ichthyosaurus, plesiosaurus, dinosaur, and archaeopteryx. We then find beings that had no vertebral skeleton, and so on, and indeed, through clairvoyant vision, we encounter an epoch of our Earth in which we cannot see beings such as those that now live on our Earth. We must therefore admit that spiritual scientific research can also see this gradual increase in degrees of perfection from its own sources. If we now go back and, in a sense, arrive at the point in time with clairvoyant research that geology ‘fixes’ with granite, which, in the sense of today's geology, has emerged from the already cooled but still fiery Earth, we must ask: What does geology — what does spiritual science now have to assume as the prerequisites of an earlier time?

If we remain on truly safe ground within geology — actually, no natural scientist should doubt what is now being said — then geology has only assumptions behind what lies beyond granite in prehistoric times. It can also have such assumptions about what the interior of the earth looked like, because the boreholes that have been drilled into the earth only go so far that they must be described as tiny pinpricks. Conjectures and hypotheses, nothing more, at most hunches about what preceded the turmoil and turmoil of granite formation!

Spiritual science now follows—albeit with that view whose peculiarities have been characterized here on several occasions—the becoming of the earth, running backwards into prehistory, and finds in the realm that can be seen with the eyes increasingly imperfect beings as the precursors of our present earthly world of living beings. But it finds that when we trace the earth backwards in this way, it appears vastly different from how it appears in the present. As it currently appears as the mineral foundation on which we walk, surrounded by the air, where the mists, the cloud formations, and so on are found, it does not appear at all in this way when we step back into prehistory. A large number of substances that are now in the depths of the Earth were in earlier times still in the vicinity of the Earth and only gradually settled down. Geology must also admit this. But the further back we go, the more we find that our Earth as a planet becomes a completely different entity, something completely different, that in a sense, what is now the atmosphere increasingly reveals itself to us as a living being as we go further and further back. That within the sphere of our Earth we find not only such mineral air and such mineral cloud formations as we have now, but that within what belongs to our Earth, in the most ancient times, we find something like the living limbs of a great living being. When we go back in time like this, we feel as if we were standing today as tiny beings in a human organism, standing on the solid ground of a bone and looking out, seeing the blood system, the nervous system, and so on as our environment. Thus, someone in ancient times who stood on the earth and looked out would not have seen mineral weaving and mineral air, but living, pulsating life. The further back we go, the more this would be the case, so that we could go back to the epoch we call granite formation. And we could say to ourselves: Here is the Earth, which is basically a powerful living being, has a manifold life within it, is not yet animated by the living beings that walk on it today or dwell in the water and so on, but which live inside it — like parasites, so to speak. diverse life within it, not yet animated by the living beings that walk on it today or dwell in the water and so on, but living inside it — like parasites of the whole living Earth organism, swimming in its blood, like today's rain masses in the air and the like. Then we come to a time when we must say: The temperature on the earth's surface is indeed so high that life cannot develop, but life is developing in the surrounding area, life that wants to come down but cannot. Why can it not come down? Down there, through the process of fire, the process of high heating, what the living beings of our earth secrete from themselves is first absorbed, just as our living organism secretes the solid components, the bones, from the soft parts. And now we look at the formation of granite and say: the material that granite contains — quartz, feldspar, and mica — was originally dissolved in the great living being: the Earth. In order to develop, it needs to be able to get rid of these substances, so it secretes them and lets them fall to the Earth. What is below takes up these secreted substances, forming a basic mass, a skeleton in the living being that is the Earth. And if we go back even further, we must seek the causes why the whole living Earth secreted from itself the substances which today form our Earth as chemical substances and are not at the same time those found in the animal, plant, or human organism. These substances were gradually separated in a similar way by the action of fire or water and then transformed into the skeleton of our Earth. If we now ask further back how it came about that the substances were separated from the living Earth and formed a foundation from which life has receded, and ask about the causes that could have brought this about, we come across something which — if we speak of it as processes within our Earth's development — still very easily causes offense in the widest circles today, not among scientific thinkers — who should recognize it — but especially among those who want to build a worldview on a few ideas they have gained. However, we must point out what spiritual science shows from its observations, namely that this is the truth. It turns out that these processes — the separation of rock materials, so to speak — within the Earth organism were preceded by a process that we can now describe as a present-day process when we point to our own inner process, which is little known to external science, but which has also been described to some extent in these lectures — I can only hint at this — by spiritual science — the process that takes place in our own bodies throughout the day when we exert our muscles, the tools of our brain, our entire body, through work and through the concepts created by the mind. This is where the process we call fatigue takes place. This is essentially a kind of destructive process of the organism. Therefore, we can say that while we lead our waking daily life from morning to night, thinking, feeling, and willing, destructive processes are taking place within us, which we then feel as fatigue. Such processes of a spiritual and mental nature, which nevertheless have an effect on matter, will certainly not be easily accepted by a scientific worldview as external natural effects. But they were present in that great, mighty organism that was once the earth. And as the earth approached the point where granite and similar materials separated, it was seized by such destructive processes, which worked in such a way that a spiritual-soul force was at work on a material force. Everything that was present from such destructive processes brought about by spiritual-soul processes poured into that organism, into which not only the substances that today make up the plant, animal, and human organism had previously been worked, but also the substances that today make up our Earth's mass. These destructive processes initiated in the great living being that is the Earth what then led to the expulsion — as it were through a process of separation — of what we now have in our Earth's structure in the form of chemical substances, which we do not find in organic bodies.

Thus, spiritual science leads us back to the Earth as an organism — not to a primordial state of our Earth in which it was, so to speak, dead matter, but to a state in which the Earth was originally a great organism. In the sense of spiritual science, a question that is asked quite incorrectly today must be turned around. No science — if it assumes that our Earth was once a dead sphere in which only chemical and physical processes took place — will be able to explain how life could have arisen from this dead sphere. This is a major point of contention, but it is usually posed in a completely wrong way. For people usually ask: How could life have developed from the inanimate? But that is not how it is: the living does not precede the lifeless, but rather the opposite, the lifeless precedes the living. The lifeless mineral is a secretion, just as our bones are a secretion of our organism. Thus, all rock is a secretion of our Earth organism, and it is spiritual-soul processes — albeit initially destructive processes — that have caused our Earth organism to produce such secretions. If we went further back, we would see that this path would lead us much further. We would be led from what is happening in our minerals to the earth as an organism; indeed, we can already see that by going back even further, we arrive not only at an organism, but at a structure of our planet that is permeated by spiritual-soul effects. Not only do we trace life back to the inanimate, but we trace the inanimate back to processes of secretion from the living, and we assume the living to be a consequence of the spiritual-soul. The further back we go, the closer we come to what really gave rise to what we see today as minerals, plant structures, and so on: We approach the spiritual and allow spiritual science to tell us that not only did what we see today in the diversity of earthly phenomena arise from a lifeless, fiery primordial nebula, but that everything developed out of the spiritual, that our Earth was originally pure spirit. The process was such that, on the one hand, structures separated from the spiritual that were more mineral in nature, and on the other hand, the possibility arose for certain new structures to emerge that could take on a new form of spiritual activity. For if we now take the opposite path and say: In the old rock materials we have something that separated from the original Earth organism, and we then continue on to our own time, this separation is happening continuously. Granite is only the oldest secretion. But the processes that form secretions will become less and less life-filled processes, will become more and more mere chemical, mechanical processes, so that in the end, in our time, we will only have those water effects that can be observed when, for example, a river carries rock material from one place to another. But what we encounter there as mechanical-chemical processes is only the final product, is what has become the lawful mineral, which has occurred as a consequence of what originally took place as life effects.

We can see, then, how in the course of our earth's development, something takes place in relation to the ground on which we walk that is similar to what we have in the individual human or animal organism. We see how this human being lives up to a certain point in time, how he then passes through the gate of death, lays down his body as a corpse, and we see the processes that are merely mineral processes continuing. During the lifetime of the body, however, these chemical and physical processes were involved in spiritual-soul processes. Thus we also return to a time in the Earth's existence when the processes that we see today as chemical and mechanical were captured and permeated by organic, even spiritual-soul processes. But what takes place on the soil of our earth is, so to speak, only one current that has remained from earlier processes, which were initially more lively and organic and then spiritual. This soil had to come into being, to form, so that a different kind of life could now take place on its basis: the life that gradually became our life, so that, as it were, brain tools could gradually develop in living beings, enabling them to internalize the spirit, to form thoughts and feelings internally, which, as it were, repeat the external processes in a recognizable and perceptible way. Therefore, the entire mass of matter on our Earth must first be “sifted through,” so that today only mineral substances are separated out and those are retained which can now form organisms that are interspersed with only a part of the old mass of matter. These are the parts that can only now be formed — for example, into what man is today. The spirit that lives in the human head, in the human heart, that is, in a being that is, in a sense, more finely organized than the entire planetary being of the Earth, this spirit could only arise in such a being, which first separated from itself the other mass of matter that today does not belong to organic life. The entire mass of matter on our Earth has been sifted, and what has flowed away has been made the foundation that has been handed over to purely mineral life, so that a new life could develop on it, which we now see entering its lowest form at the moment when the simplest beings in Cambrian form are presented to us by geology from the subsequent period. If we consider what exists in life today in the spirit of spiritual science, we must say: this life was originally in the orbit of the earth, then descended from this orbit, so to speak, but could not set foot on the earth's surface until it had sent ahead what it needed in terms of material masses in order to walk on it. The process of decomposition, which was brought about by spiritual-soul processes, is the introductory process to two currents that have been at work ever since: an ascending current that developed a finer, higher form of life — which required only a part of the material masses — and another current that continues the decomposition and provides the basis for the finer organisms that then develop up to the human being. These finer organisms are in an ascending development. Why? Because by separating the coarsest material, as in a powerful process of elimination, through which the earth's surface was then formed, they have been able to more or less shut themselves off from the earth and its internal influences, and are now devoted to the world forces that flow into the earth from outside. They are now exposed to the more spiritual processes of the world's influences and owe to this the ascent from imperfect living beings to human beings.

When we look at the Earth's development in this way, we look at the ground on which we walk, without considering the individual processes, in such a way that we say to ourselves: We stand on it, it contains — in the granite and in what has separated from it — that which the kingdoms of living beings could not use, which they could only use by separating it as soil to walk on. And what is present as a continuation of this is a process of destruction and dissolution. We would basically have to familiarize ourselves with the idea that when geologists today describe the earth's surface to us, how it consists of valleys and mountains and is built up in layers, it should be something like a decomposing corpse that continues an ancient process of destruction and decomposition. In the spirit of spiritual science, we then walk on such a process of destruction so that we have a foundation and ground that we needed in order to contemplate the blossoming forces that point to the future, which go in the opposite direction to those that confront us in the earth. For these forces pointing toward the future are something that penetrates, so to speak, independently of the earth, into human souls, into human spirits, and perhaps also into those beings that are outside the human realm, that arise only on the basis of the earth. In the earth itself, however, we would have something decaying. From a spiritual-geological point of view, our earth would appear to us as an ever more decaying corpse, and the geological laws would at the same time be laws of the disintegrating earth corpse. And the human being on earth would be something that rises out of the earth's corpse, just as the human soul, when it passes through the gate of death, rises from the corpse and leaves it behind to those forces that decompose and destroy it.

This may seem like a gloomy picture. But it will only be a gloomy picture if one despairs of the spirit, so to speak, and considers the spirit to be bound solely to matter, believing that with the decline of human beings from the living form of the earth, the end of human beings has come. But if we look at things as a healthy observation of nature would suggest, we must say: it must be fulfilled in a certain way that not only the individual human being, but the whole of humanity gradually sheds the earthly body in order to be able to gradually ascend to other regions of development. From a spiritual-scientific geological point of view, we would thus already be past the middle of Earth's development since the time when the “eldest son of the Earth” was separated, and the beings that form a future beginning will continue to develop on the foundation thus formed.

What does modern geology say about such a spiritual-scientific-geological view? When words, theories, hypotheses, and worldviews are considered that are formed lightly and quickly by party currents and so on, it is very easy to construct how such a spiritual science comes into conflict with scientific thinking. But if one considers this spiritual science, which works just as rigorously and methodically as any other science, in relation to natural science, then it is necessary to look at what natural science really has to say, that is, in relation to what has been said today, to ask the question: What does geology have to say about the formation of the earth? Today, popular scientific writings and popular worldviews often present things that are of a very secondary nature, and then it is said that “science” has established this. When one compares this with what the “confused, half-mad” researchers of the humanities say, it will appear to many as something that “cannot be accepted at all.” For that is what many will say who perhaps know little more about spiritual science than what comes to them from all kinds of remote sources. But one must turn to what real science and real spiritual science have to say. For spiritual science is not to be regarded like popular worldviews that are only seemingly derived from science, but with the rigor with which every true science is regarded by true researchers at the sources. This reveals something that I can only describe to you by referring you to the work that originated from one of the most important geologists of our time and which a very well-known geologist of our time has called the geological epic of the nineteenth century: “The Face of the Earth” by Eduard Suess. It can be said that this work, on which Suess worked not for years but for decades—and in the most meticulous manner imaginable—brings together the geological research that this youngest branch of natural science has produced over the course of a few decades. What does it reveal?

Eduard Suess was once the one who said: Let us disregard all the prejudices of the Neptunists, the Plutonists, and all the other theories accumulated by the geologists of the nineteenth century. Let us not construct, but rather look at what presents itself as the physiognomy, as the image of the Earth's surface. — Eduard Suess started from a view that was certainly obvious, but pure and unclouded by any theory or hypothesis. He then arrived at views that differed from those that had been commonplace for many decades. He came to the conclusion that the mountains, which appear to us as mighty massifs, are in fact only like wrinkles on the skin of an apple and can only be explained by assuming that certain purely physical -chemical forces are at work in the Earth, whose activity causes our unevenness, our valleys and mountains, the different layers, and so on; so that essentially the distribution of water and land, the formation of the continents, and so on can be explained by the formation of folds, by certain forces pushing the Earth's masses together, causing certain masses of earth to pile up into mountains. Other forces are at work, causing the towering masses to collapse, which then leads to the formation of the oceans. Thus, through collapses, overthrows, folds, and so on, he explains, for example, the mountain massif of the Alps. In an ingenious way, he shows that the entire face of the earth has come about through such compressions, collapses, folds, and so on. The formation of the oceans and the continents, for example, are explained by the fact that certain collapses occur, that the water flows off in one direction, and that where there used to be water, land is exposed in this way, and so on. We are therefore dealing with an earth's surface where processes take place that are based on the jostling of the earth's masses by mechanical forces and on collapses. And in attempting to form an overall picture of what is happening on the ground on which we walk, Sueß arrives at a peculiar conclusion: that, basically, it is a process of destruction that is taking place on the surface of our earth, and that the soil on which we plow our fields today, from which our fruits come, was only created by folding, collapsing—in short, destructive processes—that took place somewhere else. I need only quote a few words from this most important work of contemporary geology, and you can see where the purely sensory geological approach has led the conscientious natural scientist Eduard Suess.

"...It is the collapse of the globe that we are witnessing. Of course, it began a very long time ago, and the short life span of the human race allows us to remain in good spirits. The traces are not only found in the high mountains. Hundreds, and in some cases many thousands, of large clods have sunk hundreds of feet, and not the slightest step on the surface, but only the diversity of rock types or deep mining reveal the existence of the fracture. Time has leveled everything. In Bohemia, in the Palatinate, in Belgium, in Pennsylvania, in numerous places, the plow calmly draws its furrows across the most enormous fractures.

Here you have the result of careful scientific research on the ground on which we walk. Now consider what spiritual science has to say about the initiation of this process through a spiritual-soul process of destruction, the continuation of which, on the one hand, means the physical-mechanical process of destruction that takes place on the earth's surface and which geology is compelled to assert on its own through careful research. This is the case in all fields. If you consult the actual research, the facts, you will see everywhere: here stands spiritual science with what it has to say from clairvoyant research, and there stands natural science, which must be thought of as uninfluenced by monistic, materialistic, or other prejudices, standing on pure, healthy ground of facts. Everywhere, you will see that spiritual science flows into natural science in such a way that natural science, through what it has to offer from the pure ground of facts, provides the most extensive proof for what spiritual science has to say on its own. There is never a contradiction between spiritual science and true natural science. Contradictions exist only between sound spiritual science, which is based on reality, and the theories of fantasists and those who say they stand on the firm ground of science, but who immediately lose that firm ground when they do not merge with what the facts say, but with what they themselves want to say about the facts. Spiritual science allows spiritual facts to tell it what they have to say about the secrets of the world. Natural science looks with its methods at what has presented itself to it and what it has to say. Both are in complete harmony. And if you don't take those popular works that say, “This and that is scientifically proven,” but instead go to the sources, you will find, especially in the field of geology, that geologists everywhere advance to a certain point and then put a question mark. Once you have reached these question marks, you can start from them by now looking at spiritual scientific research. This then tells us: if what clairvoyance shows is correct, then the external factual material must be shaped in such and such a way. In the geological case, it has been shown that if what spiritual science has to present is correct, then as a continuation of today's process of decomposition, our globe must now be in collapse. Geology, which is based on facts, shows from the laws that this is so! The results of natural science are everywhere the consequences of spiritual scientific research. If we consider the whole spirit and meaning of this discussion, we will by no means become gloomy about the fact that we are walking on ground that is a decomposing corpse. For we realize that what has developed on this ground contains within itself the seeds of the future.

The following lectures will also show us more and more that, just as man looks to his spirit, so the spiritual, which once prepared the ground beneath our feet, is moving toward future epochs that will show it at ever higher and higher heights. If even the geologist Sueß — because he, through his contact with nature, enters into all the beauty of nature itself in the processes of destruction — knows how to admire the face of the earth, saying in his great, monumental work the words that are worth heeding: “In the face of these open questions, we rejoice in the sunshine, the starry firmament, and all the diversity of the face of our Earth, which has been created by these very processes, while at the same time recognizing the degree to which life is dominated by the nature and fate of the planet.” If even the geologist—rising above all pessimism—feels this outlook in his soul, then all the more so does the spiritual researcher, who knows that Goethe's words are true: nature invented death in order to have much life— and who also knows that it is true in terms of knowledge to say: nature invented death in order to have ever higher and ever more spiritual life — the spiritual researcher who knows this says: Even if we must look upon what a higher life has cast aside, as upon a corpse in the process of decay, we still see in everything that walks upon this earth the shining seeds of what can inspire hope and security in our hearts. But this tells us: we walk on the ground that the pre-world has given us, which it has allowed to become the ground beneath our feet in its decomposition, in its destruction. We walk on this ground, sensing — as we rise in our minds to the heights of heaven — that in the course of future development we will have to leave this ground at the right time in order to be received into the bosom of the spiritual world, with which, if we understand it correctly, we feel so intimately connected.