The Rudolf Steiner Archive

1. The Origins of Spiritual Science

[ 1 ] It is evident time and again how difficult it is for our contemporaries to understand theosophical life. Therefore, a few general thoughts on this subject should be expressed. Theosophy is something that everyone who feels drawn to it imagines must satisfy their deepest longing in relation to spiritual life. But if we want to keep the basic idea of theosophy, as it is correct in the present, before our soul, filling our entire consciousness with the thought that the spiritual is something real, then we must finally bring ourselves to recognize the dignity of our neighbor's person. We accept the personal, because as human beings with a sentient soul within our bodies, we would not allow ourselves to deliberately violate the external personality of our fellow human beings; we would not allow ourselves to attack their personal freedom. But we are not yet at that point, not by a long shot, where we extend this tolerance to the innermost being of the human being, because we are still far from knowing — at most theoretically, but not yet practically — that feeling and thought, the spiritual in general, is something real. That is clear to all of you. And it is also clear to everyone today that it is something highly real, highly tangible, when I strike someone with my hand. But people do not find it so easy to believe that it is something real when I send someone a bad thought. We must realize that the bad thought with which I approach my fellow human being, the thought of antipathy, of hatred, is just as much a blow to his soul as a blow to his face. And a harmful feeling, a feeling of hatred and dislike with which I confront my fellow human being, is really like the ordinary external injury that one inflicts on a person. Only when one is aware of this does one become a theosophist.

[ 2 ] If we permeate ourselves completely with this awareness, if we are clear that the spirit within us is a reality, then we have grasped the theosophical idea, and then something follows for us that is the actual consequence, the important consequence of such a spiritual conception. First of all, people in an educated society will not fight each other; they will not inflict external injuries on each other. But I do not need to tell you what thoughts and opinions the people of our educated society sit side by side with. You know that. The Theosophical Society has the task of bringing sympathy and inviolability of the person to consciousness. In our time, when people are primarily concerned with having opinions and views, when seven fellow human beings sit together, they have thirteen opinions, and as a result of these thirteen opinions, they would prefer to split into thirteen parties. This is the consequence of differences of opinion, and in place of these differences of opinion, the Theosophical Movement must establish the idea of brotherhood in the deepest innermost part of the soul. We will only fully understand Theosophy, this idea of brotherhood, when we are able to sit together in brotherhood with the greatest possible diversity of other thoughts. We want not only to respect and value our neighbor as a person and treat them in such a way that we recognize them in their fullest human dignity, but we want to recognize our fellow brother or sister as a soul in the deepest core of our soul. But then we must sit together with them and remain together, even if there is the greatest diversity of opinion. No one should leave the Theosophical Society, the Theosophical Brotherhood, because of differences of opinion. That is precisely the advantage of theosophists, that they remain together in brotherhood, even when they do not agree. Until we come together in brotherhood, we are not in a position to carry out a basic theosophical idea. Only then will we be able to bring forth from our souls the deepest secrets that lie dormant within them, the deepest abilities that lie asleep at the bottom of our souls, when we are clear that we can work together with our fellow human beings, even when we have such fundamentally different opinions.

[ 3 ] It is not without reason, as I have often said, that the Theosophical Society was founded in the last third of the 19th century. The way in which it seeks the spiritual differs significantly from other endeavors that also strive to obtain proof of the immortality of human beings. There is a great difference between the search for the eternal as found in the Theosophical Society and the search for the eternal in other spiritually oriented movements. In truth, the theosophical movement is nothing more than the popular manifestation of the occult brotherhoods that secretly spanned the world in past millennia. I have already mentioned that the most outstanding, the greatest brotherhood in Europe was founded in the 14th century as the Rosicrucian Brotherhood. This Rosicrucian Brotherhood is actually the source, the starting point for all other brotherhoods that European culture has preserved. In these brotherhoods, occult wisdom was cultivated in strict secrecy. If I were to characterize what the people united in these various brotherhoods wanted to achieve, I would have to say: those high and sublime teachings of wisdom and that work of wisdom which were cultivated in these occult brotherhoods, of which the Rosicrucian Brotherhood was the most outstanding. The teachings and work cultivated there led people to become aware of their eternal core being. They led people to find a connection with the higher world, with the worlds above us, and to look to the guidance of our older brothers, to the guidance of those who live among us and who have attained a level that you will all attain at a later time. We call them the older brothers because, ahead of general development, they have attained this high position earlier: the certainty of the eternal core of being, the awakening of it, so that human beings can see the eternal as ordinary human beings see the sensory world. To achieve this, he must emulate the elder brothers who live among us everywhere. These elder brothers or masters, the great leaders of humanity, have always been the supreme leaders and supreme heads of the occult sublime wisdom through which man becomes conscious of his eternal essence. Those who wished to be admitted to such an occult brotherhood were subjected to rigorous tests and trials until the middle of the 19th century. Only those who were clearly recognized as having a character that guaranteed that the high teachings of wisdom would never be misused for base purposes could be admitted to such a brotherhood. Furthermore, they had to demonstrate through their intelligence that they would understand what was given to them in the occult brotherhoods in the right way and in the right sense. Only if someone fulfilled these conditions, if they gave a complete guarantee that they were capable and in the necessary frame of mind to receive the highest teachings of life, could they be accepted into such a brotherhood.

[ 4 ] As little as people want to believe it, everything truly great that happened up to the French Revolution and into the 19th century originated from these occult brotherhoods. People were completely unaware of how they were influenced by the currents emanating from the occult brotherhoods. Shall I describe a scene to you that illustrates how these brotherhoods worked occultly in the world? Let's take the following scene. A highly gifted, important man suddenly receives a visit from a seemingly unknown person. This unknown person manages to strike up a conversation with this important personality, perhaps a statesman. All this happens in the most natural way and quite “by chance,” although “by chance” should be put in quotation marks. The conversation does not contain just any random topics, because in the course of the conversation, things are said that quietly settle into the mind and intellect of the person being visited. Such a conversation, which may last only three hours, then brings about a complete transformation of the person concerned. Thus, believe it or not, many great ideas that have had a significant impact on the world have been implanted in people's minds. Thus, Voltaire's great ideas were inspired without him perhaps having any idea who he was facing, a seemingly insignificant figure who nevertheless had important things to say to him. Thus, Rousseau recorded some of the fundamental ideas he received in this way, as did Lessing.

[ 5 ] This kind of influence, which emanated from occult brotherhoods, gradually faded away during the 19th century. The 19th century was necessarily the century of materialism. The occult brotherhoods had withdrawn. The great masters of wisdom and harmony of feeling withdrew, as one might say in technical terms, to the Orient. They ceased to exert their influence on the West. Now something very important happened in the West. Let us keep this in mind in order to understand the significance of the theosophical world movement.

[ 6 ] It was in 1841 that those who were members of the most secret society realized that something important was about to happen in Europe. In order to stem the tide of materialism, it was necessary to channel a stream of spiritual life into humanity. At that time, a certain disagreement arose among the occultists themselves. Some said: Humanity is not yet ready to receive spiritual facts and experiences; we want to maintain the system of silence. These were the conservative occultists. This system has much to recommend it, for the dissemination of occult truths involves great dangers. Others said: The danger of materialism is too great; something must be done about it — so that at least the most elementary things are communicated to humanity. But in what form? Humanity had completely forgotten how to perceive the spirit in its true form, forgotten how to truly lift itself up to the higher worlds, completely forgotten the concept of it, so that such a world no longer exists for them at all. How can one teach such a humanity, which has only a sense for the material, that there is something spiritual? Why was it so necessary to teach humanity an awareness of the spiritual world?

[ 7 ] Here we touch upon one of the important secrets that lie dormant in our present time. I have already pointed out here and there why there is actually a theosophical movement, why it is necessary. Those who can look into the spiritual world know that everything that exists materially has its spiritual origin, that it comes from the spiritual. There is nothing material that does not come from the spiritual. Thus, what people experience externally as health and illness comes from their attitude, from their thoughts. The saying is absolutely true: What you think today is what you will be tomorrow. — You must be clear that if an age has bad, corrupt thoughts, the next generation and the next age will have to pay for this physically. It is the truth of the saying: The sins of the fathers will be avenged in so many generations. The people of the 19th century did not begin to think so crudely in material terms, to turn their minds away from everything spiritual, without punishment. What people thought at that time will come to pass. And we are not so far from strange diseases and epidemics appearing in our humanity! What we call nervousness will take on serious forms in half a century at the latest. Just as there was once plague and cholera and leprosy in the Middle Ages, there will be epidemics of the soul, diseases of the nervous system in epidemic form. These are the real consequences of the fact that people lack a spiritual core in their lives. Where there is an awareness of this core as the center of life, people become healthy under the influence of a healthy, true, and wise worldview. But materialism denies the soul, denies the spirit, hollows out the human being, and directs them to their periphery, to their surroundings. Health only exists when the deepest core of a person's being is spiritual and true. The real illness that follows the hollowing out of the inner self is the spiritual epidemic we are facing.

[ 8 ] In order to give people an awareness of their spiritual core, we have a Theosophical Society. Its primary purpose is the healing of humanity, not that one person or another should know this or that. Whether you know that reincarnation and karma exist—I mean, whether you merely know this—is not important. What is important is that these ideas become part of the very blood of the soul, the spiritual core of being, for they are healthy. Whether we prove them or not, whether we can establish a science that explains reincarnation and karma in a strictly mathematical way, is not important. There is only one proof for the spiritual scientific teachings, and that is life. The spiritual scientific teachings will prove to be true if a healthy life arises under their influence. This will be the true proof of the theosophical teachings. Anyone who wants proof of theosophy must experience theosophy; then it will prove to be true. Every step and every day must gradually bring us proof of the spiritual scientific teachings.

[ 9 ] For this reason, a Theosophical Society was formed. But how can one teach a materialistic 19th-century humanity that there is a spirit? First, the spiritualist movement arose. It arose precisely because people did not believe that humanity could be taught that there is something spiritual; the spirit had to be shown, seen with the eyes. In Stuttgart, someone asked why Theosophy could not provide Haeckel with tangible proof that spirit exists. You see, spirit must be shown tangibly! This was first attempted through spiritualism. It was attempted for decades, until the 1960s and 1970s. But then a very fatal fact emerged. Let us consider this fact for a moment. You can see from it what the difference is between the theosophical way of rising to the higher worlds and every other way. We are not talking here for a moment about the truth or falsehood of the phenomena of spiritualism. It is clear that there are phenomena that call beings from other worlds into our world, so that even for those who only admit the sensual, actual proof can be created. We are beyond the folly of anyone saying that there is a lot of fraud in spiritualism. There is also counterfeit money, but there is also real money.

[ 10 ] However, we do not want to discuss the question of truth any further. But what did a person who participated in a spiritualist séance experience? We assume – anything else is out of the question – that we are dealing with true revelations. If the apparition of a deceased person was presented to him, he obtained clear proof of the immortality of the human soul. He had material proof; he was able to convince himself that the dead are still there in some world and that they can even be called into our world. But this just shows that knowledge is not important, that knowledge is not the main thing. Let us assume that you were all convinced in this way, that we bring a deceased person into this society through a spiritualist séance. You would then know that the human soul is immortal. But now the question is this: Does such knowledge have any real significance in the higher sense for true higher human life? That is what was believed at first. It was believed that people would be raised to a higher level if they knew that immortality existed. But this is the point where the spiritual scientific view of the world definitely differs from one that only provides clear, visible proof of immortality.

[ 11 ] Here is a kind of comparison: I have often spoken about all kinds of higher worlds, I have described what it looks like in the astral world and in Devachan, and you know that after death, human beings first enter the astral world and then the Devachan world. Now let us assume that there are many here who say: We cannot believe what he is telling us, it is too improbable for us! — Those who do not believe it, who leave and do not come back, would actually have to prove their opinion all by themselves. But those who come back despite not believing it, it does not matter. To those who come back, I would say: Don't believe me at all, you don't need to believe anything, it doesn't matter! You can even think it's a hoax, or believe that I'm telling you something that comes from a realm that is as fantastical as possible — but listen to it and take it in! — That's what matters. Imagine I were to draw you a map of Asia Minor. Someone might come along and say: What he is drawing there in terms of rivers and mountains is nonsense. I would say to him: I don't care if you don't believe me. But take it in, look at it, and keep it in mind. When you then come to Asia Minor, you will find that it is correct, and you will then know your way around. — That is the main thing — also for astronomers — to go into the higher realms with the map in your hand; that is the essential thing that matters. The same is true of knowledge of a higher world: We can only enter this higher world if we take in something of the nature of this higher world within ourselves. When the astral is described here, you must take in something of the nature of that vibrating and moving world of the astral, and when Devachan is mentioned, you must take in something of the nature of this world, which is so opposite to ours. If you simply connect with these thoughts and live your way up into these higher realms, you will get a feeling for the state of consciousness we have when the astral world is around us, for the state of consciousness when the devachanic world is around us. If you relive the states that the seer has when he rises into these worlds, then you have something else than if you have tangible proof that you can experience something. That is the difference between the spiritual scientific method and all other ways of obtaining certainty about the spiritual.

[ 12 ] Through theosophy, we try to lift ourselves up into the higher worlds, to enable ourselves to feel the spiritual directly, so that we can already feel a breath of the higher worlds in the physical world. The spiritualist view I described earlier seeks to bring the spiritual world down into the physical world, to present it to us as if it were material. The theosophist seeks to lift the human world up into the spiritual sphere. The spiritualist says: If the spirits are to be proven to me, they must come down to me. They must, so to speak, tickle me, then they will become perceptible to my sense of touch. The theosophist goes up to them, he seeks to approach them; he seeks to educate himself in his soul so that he can understand the spiritual.

[ 13 ] You can get an idea of this by making a simple comparison. Even with some higher spiritual beings who are incarnated in the flesh, it is difficult to rise up to them under the present circumstances. Put yourself in the position of Christ Jesus appearing in the present day! How many do you think would accept him? I am not saying that some would run to the police if someone appeared with the pretensions that Christ Jesus once had. But it depends on whether people are ready to see what lives beside them.

[ 14 ] Here is another comparison: A singer was invited to dinner, but she arrived a little late. Her chair remained empty between two gentlemen. One was her friend Felix Mendelssohn, the other a gentleman she did not know. She enjoyed talking to Mendelssohn, and the gentleman on her left was very polite to her, showing her all kinds of courtesies, but she found them distasteful. So she asked Mendelssohn, “Who is that stupid fellow sitting next to me?” “That is the famous philosopher Hegel,” replied Mendelssohn. Had she been invited to see Hegel, she would certainly have behaved differently. But since she sat next to him without knowing who he was, she thought he was a stupid fellow.

[ 15 ] Believe me, it is quite possible that a master personality will cross your path and you will consider him a stupid fellow. When these higher individualities are incarnated in the flesh, humans can only recognize them if they have made themselves capable of doing so. If Christ Jesus were to descend to us today and did not appear as people imagine him, they would not recognize him. That is what theosophy wants: it wants to develop and transform humans, to enable them to recognize the higher worlds. And this presents a difficulty for our present cultural consciousness. It is important that what lives in the higher world should not descend to us, but that we should ascend to it. We must enable ourselves to ascend to the higher worlds. This alone gives us the ability, when we depart from here in death, to reach the higher worlds in a dignified manner. Those who have the map, the map that is formed out of life, can truly know their way around Asia Minor. Those who have already become acquainted with the things that await them there enter a familiar world; they know what is there.

[ 16 ] However, the mere knowledge that such a world exists does not matter so much. Here we stand on the edge of a great mystery and another “fact of great importance,” and based on this fact, European and American occultists decided in the 1870s to abandon spiritualist tactics and initiate the theosophical movement. The great occultist conference held in Vienna at that time provided the important impetus for the change in tactics.

[ 17 ] In order to initiate the spiritualist movement, it was necessary to carry out certain procedures. These procedures, which were carried out in educated countries, originated with American occultists or lodges. In these lodges, the spiritualist path was decided upon. It consisted of offering certain circles the opportunity to provide tangible proof of immortality through a kind of galvanization of certain dead people. This meant that the astral corpses of certain ‘dead’ people were first sent into the spiritualist circles, into the physical world, on the astral plane. They were supposed to prove immortality. One may now ask: Is it the task of the occultists of the earth to make the dead appear? Certainly, for those who work occultly, there is no boundary between the dead and the living. They can visit the deceased in the astral world and in Devachan. If they wish, they can also really prove immortality in spiritualist circles, as I have described. Please note and bear in mind this fact. Those who are not well versed in these matters may not find it entirely understandable. For occultists, however, it was different. It became apparent that this way of convincing oneself of immortality was not only worthless, but in a certain respect extremely harmful. This way of obtaining tangible proof of immortality in the sensory world, without the person becoming better, was not only worthless, but even quite harmful, for the following reasons.

[ 18 ] Imagine that the people who obtained proof of immortality in this way strayed from the longing to ascend to the spiritual world; they had become materialists even in relation to the spiritual world. According to their knowledge, they were spiritualists, but according to their habits of thought, they were nothing more than materialists. They believed in a spiritual world, but thought that it should be seen with the senses and not with the spirit. So it turned out that those who came to Kamaloka with such materialistic habits of thought were even more unfamiliar with recognizing things over there than the materialists. Materialists usually believe they are in a dream world; that is what usually happens when one comes over. The materialist believes he is dreaming, and he believes at any moment he will wake up. In Kamaloka, man sees himself: he dreams, he sleeps, he wants to wake up.

[ 19 ] For those who have laboriously acquired a conviction about the spiritual world and now notice that the spiritual world looks quite different, it is not just that they find themselves in a dream world, but the difference between what they believed the spiritual world to be and how it now appears to them weighs on them like a lead weight. Consider that when people come over to Kamaloka, they already have enough to endure, especially if they do not have the satisfaction of their desires, such as gourmets, for whom this satisfaction is only possible if they have their tongue or their senses, and they no longer have them; then it is similar to having a burning thirst, or to being in a boiling oven. It is a slightly different feeling from the feeling of burning thirst, but still similar. When you consider all that a person has to experience over there and what they have to go through, it can be summed up in these words: they must get used to being able to live without a body. — This is difficult for those who are strongly attached to the sensual. For those who have torn themselves away from the sensual, it is not so difficult. Those who have done nothing to elevate their soul, who have done nothing to develop their soul to a higher level, feel this difference between what is spiritual and what is sensual as a difference in weight, like a lead weight hanging on them. It really is like a difference in weight. The spiritual requires a completely different way of perception than the sensual, and now the person concerned expects the spiritual to be material and concrete again; and there in the spiritual world, they find that the astral is completely different. Then the difference seems like a weight that pulls them back into the physical world. And that is the worst thing.

[ 20 ] For these reasons, the Masters of Wisdom have departed from the way in which, in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s, the higher world was to be elevated to certainty. The previous approach was abandoned, and the theosophical path of development was chosen as the gateway to the spiritual world. Essentially, this leads back to two basic facts. One is that it is necessary in the most eminent sense to form a spiritual core [other annotation: spiritual center] in order to protect humanity from the onset of spiritual epidemics. The other is that we must give humanity the opportunity to live its way into a higher world, to develop upwards, and not to try to pull the higher world down to itself. It is not the higher world that should be dragged down to us, but we who should be lifted up into the higher world. Understanding this in the right sense gives us an idea, a feeling for the actual task of the theosophical movement. In this sense, the theosophical movement sets us the task of always developing higher in order to grow into the spiritual world. Then, I believe, the idea of brotherhood in the most eminent sense will flow to us of its own accord. We will then no longer strive to separate ourselves. People only separate themselves as long as they want to be completely alone on this physical plane in a materialistic way. In truth, we are only separated as long as we are on the physical plane. As soon as we live our way up into the higher world, we already notice the spiritual brotherhood; we become aware of spiritual unity.

[ 21 ] I have often tried to present this spiritual brotherhood to you, at least in intellectual ideas. It is so beautifully expressed in the words: That is you. Let us imagine it before our soul. I have said before: if you chop off my hand, it will soon no longer be my hand. It can only be my hand if it is attached to my organism, otherwise it is no longer a hand, it withers away. As a human being, you are also such a hand on the earthly organism. Imagine yourself lifted a few miles above the earth: you cannot live there as a physical human being; you cease to live as a human being. You are merely a limb of our earth, just as my hand is a limb of my body. The illusion that you are independent beings arises only because you walk around on the earth, while the hand is attached to the body. But that does not matter. Goethe meant something very real when he spoke of the Earth Spirit. He meant that the Earth has a soul, of which we are members. He speaks of something real when he lets the Earth Spirit speak:

In the floods of life, in the storm of action
I surge up and down,
Weaving back and forth!
Birth and grave,
An eternal sea,
A changing weave,
A glowing life,
So I create on the whirring loom of time
And weave the living garment of the deity.

[ 22 ] Thus, the physical human being is already a member of the Earth organism and part of a whole. And now consider it spiritually and soulfully: it is exactly the same. How often have I emphasized that humanity could not live if it had not developed further on the basis of the other kingdoms. Likewise, the more highly developed human being cannot exist without the less developed. The spiritual cannot exist without those who have remained behind, just as a human being cannot exist without animals remaining behind, just as an animal cannot exist without plants, and a plant cannot exist without minerals. This is most beautifully expressed in the Gospel of John after the washing of the feet: I could not be without you ... — The disciples are a necessity for Jesus, they are his mother soil. That is a great truth. When you look into a courtroom — a judge sits at the judge's table and feels superior to the defendant. But the judge could also reflect and say to himself that perhaps in a previous life he was with him and failed in his duty towards him, which is why the defendant has become what he is. If his karma were examined, it might turn out that the judge should actually be the one sitting in the dock. The whole of humanity is an organism. If you tear out a single soul, it cannot survive, it withers away. A unified bond surrounds us all. This will become clear to us when we try to live into this higher world, to truly elevate ourselves and experience the spiritual core of our being. When a spiritual core lives within us, it will lead us to brotherhood. It is already there on the higher planes. On earth, there is only a reflection of it; an image of what exists on the higher planes is the brotherhood on our earth. We deny what is already within us when we do not cultivate brotherhood among ourselves on earth.

[ 23 ] This is the deeper meaning of the idea of brotherhood. Therefore, we must try more and more to realize theosophical thoughts in such a way that we understand our fellow human beings in the depths of our souls, that we remain brotherly with one another even when our opinions differ greatly. This is true togetherness, true brotherhood, when we do not demand that others agree with us because they have the same opinion, but when we grant every person the right to have their own opinion. Then, through cooperation, the summit of wisdom will be attained. This is a deeper understanding of our first theosophical principle. Let us understand our idea of brotherhood in such a way that we say to ourselves: We belong together under all circumstances, and even if someone's opinions are very different from ours, differences of opinion can never be a reason to separate us. Only then do we understand each other completely when we accept each other completely. Of course, we are still far from this understanding of theosophical brotherhood, and it cannot take effect until the theosophical idea has taken root in this sense, in this style.