The Rudolf Steiner Archive

20. The Three Aspects of the Personal

[ 1 ] The Munich Congress, which is the fourth—after Amsterdam, London, and Paris—should, in a certain sense, be a milestone in the development of our Theosophical movement. It will establish a kind of connection between the different nations, also with regard to our Theosophical cause within Europe. I do not intend to give an actual report on the congress today, but only a few remarks for those who were unable to attend.

[ 2 ] It should demonstrate something that I have emphasized time and again in relation to our theosophical cause—it should demonstrate that theosophy should not only be a subject of personal contemplation and introspection. Theosophy should intervene in practical life, should be a matter of education, a matter of living into all branches of practical existence. Only those who have a deeper understanding and a deeper concept of the actual impulses of theosophy already know today what possibilities this theosophy will offer in the future. It will be the harmony between what we see [outwardly] and what we feel inwardly. For those who can see more deeply, an important reason for the distraction [of people today] lies in this disharmony between what is and what theosophy wants. Not only theosophists have felt this, but also other significant figures, such as Richard Wagner. ..

[ 3 ] In earlier times, every door lock, every house, every structure was a creation of the soul. Soul substance had flowed into it. In ancient times, works of art were part of human feeling and thinking. In ancient times, the forms of Gothic churches corresponded to the mood of those who made pilgrimages to the churches. They possessed their own soul mood. At that time, pilgrims to the church perceived the forms as a folding of hands, just as the ancient Germanic people [upon entering a grove perceived the movements of the trees as] a folding of hands. Everything was more familiar to people in those days. You can still see this wonderfully expressed in Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. The whole village standing together in the church was nothing less than the expression of its entire spiritual life. All the ether currents gathered at the place where the church stood. The materialistic age has fractured all this. Those who cannot contemplate life do not know this. But the seer knows that today, when you walk through a city, there is almost nothing to see but things that appeal to the stomach or the obsession with cleanliness. Those who know how to follow the secret threads of life also know what materialistic culture has brought about this fragmentation.

[ 4 ] A recovery of the outer world can come about by it becoming an imprint of what our innermost soul moods are. One cannot immediately reach for perfection, but an example of this was given in Munich. The spiritual scientific worldview was expressed in the room. The entire hall was decorated in red. Although there is often a great misconception about the color red, its deeper meaning cannot be overlooked. The development of humanity is an ascent and descent. Look at the original peoples. They have green in nature. And what do they love most? Red! The occultist knows that red has a special effect on the healthy soul. It triggers the active forces in the healthy soul, those forces that spur one to action, those forces that are supposed to move the soul from comfort into the discomfort of doing. A room with a festive atmosphere must be wallpapered in red. Anyone who wallpapers their living room in red shows that they no longer know what a festive atmosphere is and profanes the dead color. Goethe said the most beautiful words there are about such things: "The effect of this color is as unique as its nature. It gives an impression of both seriousness and dignity as well as grace and charm. It achieves the former in its dark, dense state and the latter in its light, diluted state. And so the dignity of age and the amiability of youth can be clothed in one color."

[ 5 ] These are the moods evoked by red, moods that can be proven by occult means. Look at the landscape through a red glass, and you will have the impression: this is what it must look like on Judgment Day. Red makes one happy about what humanity has accomplished in its development. Red is the enemy of retarding moods, of sinful moods.

[ 6 ] Then there were seven column motifs for the time when buildings could also be constructed for theosophy. The motifs of the columns are taken from the teachings of the initiates, from ancient times. Theosophy will have the opportunity to provide truly new column motifs for architecture. The old columns have long since ceased to mean anything to people. The new ones refer to Saturn, the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, and Venus. The laws of nature were expressed in the capitals. Between the columns we had placed the seven apocalyptic seals in Rosicrucian style. The Grail seal appeared in public for the first time.

[ 7 ] Theosophy can also be built: it can be built in architecture, in education, and in social issues. The principle of Rosicrucianism is to introduce the spirit into the world, to do fruitful work for the soul. It will also succeed in elevating art to a mystery art, for which Richard Wagner had such a great longing. An attempt has been made in Edouard Schuré's mystery drama. Here Schuré attempted to rework the mystery plays. The underlying intention was to crystallize theosophy in the structure of the world. The program featured the festive color red and bore a black cross entwined with roses in a blue field. Rosicrucianism carries forward into the future what Christianity has given. The initial letters on the program reflect the basic ideas.

[ 8 ] Today I would like to talk about some questions that could be asked in this context. First of all: What would happen if Theosophy were to merge with the Rosicrucian movement and be lived out in these ideas? — Let us form some ideas about this in relation to Theosophical ethics or moral teaching. Theosophical ethics or moral teaching is not one that says: You should do this or that, or you should not do this or that. — Theosophy has nothing to do with demands and commandments, but with facts and narratives. One need only take an example from the astral world to see that there is no need to preach morality. Besides, this is of no use, because admonitions and commandments do not establish real morality; this is done through the facts of higher life. When you hear from occultists that lying is murder and suicide, this has such an ethical impact that it cannot be compared to the simple admonition: You shall not lie. When you know what lies and what truth are, when you know that everything leaves its mark in the spiritual realm, then things become somewhat different. The narrative that corresponds to the truth forms the life forces for further development. The incorrect assertion strikes at the truth and strikes back at the person themselves. Everything that a person lies about, they themselves will later have to feel. Lies are the greatest obstacles to further development. It is not for nothing that the devil is called the spirit of lies and obstacles. The explosive substance of lies kills objectively and discharges itself upon the one who sends it out.

[ 9 ] We know three concepts of the personal: the personal, the impersonal, and the superpersonal. There was once a human ancestor who was higher than any animal but lower than man. He consisted of a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. Then the ego comes into being, which forms the higher parts out of itself, resulting in the seven-membered human nature.

[ 10 ] The development of the physical body, etheric body, and astral body takes place over long periods of time. They have thus matured to the point of being able to take in the consciousness of the I. Today we are interested in the tendency of the three lower members and the way in which they have developed. Human beings have become increasingly capable of becoming self-conscious beings. This is only possible through the power of egoism, of selfishness. It can be divine or diabolical. These words must be judged not only by feeling, but by their true essence. Independence presupposes that human beings have become egoistic beings.

[ 11 ] The development of egoism is connected with the form of — apparent — loss of consciousness that we know as death in the present human life. Death has developed to the same degree as selfishness. In the early days, humans did not die. They were like a limb that withers and then grows back, much like a fingernail falls off and grows back. Our current dying and being reborn has come about so that we can have our current sense of self-awareness. Egoism and death are two sides of the same coin. The higher aspect of human nature is such that it overcomes egoism, works its way up to the divine, and thus overcomes death. The more a person develops the higher part of themselves, the more they develop the consciousness of their immortality. The moment a person becomes egoistic, they also become a personality. Animals are not personal because they have the ego as a group soul that does not descend from the astral plane. Personality is what allows the three bodies — the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body — to be permeated by the ego. This can also be unclear, shadowy — and if this is the case, the person in question has a weak personality.

[ 12 ] This is clearly recognizable to the clairvoyant. They see the human being surrounded by a colored aura in which their moods, passions, feelings, and sensations are precisely expressed in streams and clouds of color. If we transport ourselves back to the time when the three elements of the human being were first ready to receive the human ego, we would also find an aura around this being, which had not yet fully become human. However, the yellow streams in which the higher nature of the human being is expressed would be missing. Strong personalities have a strongly yellow-radiating aura. Now, one can be a strong personality without being active; one can react strongly inwardly without being a person of action. In that case, the aura will still show a lot of yellow. But if one is a person of action and the personality has an effect on the outside world, the yellow gradually changes to a radiant red. A radiant red aura is that of a person of action; but it must radiate.

[ 13 ] However, there is a pitfall when the personality urges action. That is ambition, vanity. Strong personalities are particularly susceptible to this. The clairvoyant sees this in the aura. Without ambition, the yellow abruptly turns to red. However, if a person is ambitious, they have a lot of orange in their aura. This threshold must be overcome in order to achieve objective action.

[ 14 ] Weak personalities are those who are more focused on receiving than on giving and doing. In these cases, you will mainly see blue colors, and if the people are particularly comfortable, the color indigo. This refers more to inner comfort than to outer comfort.

[ 15 ] You can see how a person's strong or weak personality is reflected in their aura. People should increasingly overcome the personal and let the higher self take effect. That is why you hear so much talk about overcoming personality and egoism. But now we come to the main point. It depends on whether we overcome the personal through the impersonal or through the superpersonal.

[ 16 ] What does it mean to overcome oneself through the impersonal? It means weakening the strong force, wanting to suppress the energy of the personality. That would then be impersonal. Suprapersonal would be exactly the opposite of that in a certain sense. It would be the elevation of the energy of the personality, the emergence of the strong forces of the personality.

[ 17 ] We find the ego in the soul, and in it, first of all, the courageous, but secondly, the desirous and covetous aspects of the soul. Basically, everything in the life of the soul can be traced back to these two things. Things are treated differently there. And this different treatment stems from the following: human beings do not make enough effort to take in the higher. They then develop further, but the lower develops, the courageous and the covetous develop in a crude style. If they simply weakened this, it would be a culture of the impersonal. Human beings would lose their active nature. The active, that which makes a person a person who goes among others and does what he is capable of, always brings such a person into conflict with others in a certain sense. And he must come into conflict if he believes himself to be called to something.

[ 18 ] One can also kill one's desires. But this makes the personality colorless. However, one can also do something else: one can refine them. There is no need to kill them in their strength. One can direct them toward higher objects. Then the personality need not lose any of its strength, and yet it becomes nobler and more divine. One does not need to kill one's desires, but only to transform them into finer and nobler desires, then they can be lived out with the same vehemence. An example: think of a music hall. Those who do not go there do not need to be ascetics. They have only transformed their lower desires into higher ones, so that they would only be bored in the music hall.

[ 19 ] Theosophy has been most misunderstood by theosophists in this regard. It cannot be a matter of killing the personal, but of giving it an upward boost to something higher. To do this, everything that is conveyed to us through theosophy is necessary. The main thing, then, is to awaken higher interests. Such interests already grip human beings. They do not need to dampen their feelings at all, but rather apply them to the higher divine becoming, to the great facts of the world. When we direct our feelings toward this, we lose interest in the brutal side of life, but our feelings are not dulled by this; rather, they become rich, and the whole nature of the human being is ignited by them. If a person has a great fondness for a good roast pork, it is not a matter of killing his feeling for roast pork, but of transforming this feeling. A metamorphosis of feeling must be sought. The same feelings that one person has for the symphony of the meal, another uses for a real symphony. If you preach the overcoming of desire and activity, then you preach the impersonal. But if you show the way that leads to directing desire toward the spiritual, then you are pointing to the superpersonal. And this superpersonal must be the goal of the theosophical movement.

[ 20 ] Spiritual science should not and does not want to educate couch potatoes and eccentrics, but rather it wants to produce people of action, effective people who step out into the world. But how do we arrive at the superpersonal? Not by dwelling on the personal, but by grasping the true, the great, and the comprehensive. That is why it is not unnecessary for theosophy to cultivate an awareness of the great connections of existence. In this way we grow beyond the small and learn to take things not impersonally, but superpersonally.

[ 21 ] In one area, we can recognize the difference between personal, impersonal, and superpersonal through a kind of experimentum crucis. It is easy to believe that what one person feels for another is something impersonal. But that does not necessarily have anything to do with the superpersonal. People fall prey to a strange illusion here: they confuse self-love with love for another. Most people believe they love another because they love themselves in the other. But merging with another is only something that satisfies one's own egoism. The person concerned does not know this, does not need to know it, but it is basically a detour to the satisfaction of egoism.

[ 22 ] Human beings are not individual beings. They are part of a whole. The finger is lovingly connected to the hand and the organism. If it were not, it would die. The finger loves my hand and the organism because it needs them. In the same way, human beings could never exist without other human beings. This causes human beings to love other human beings. — Some love often springs only from spiritual poverty, and spiritual poverty always springs from increased selfishness. And when someone claims that they cannot live without another person, their own personality is impoverished, and they are looking for something to fill them. They conceal the whole thing by saying: I am becoming impersonal, I love the other person.

[ 23 ] The most beautiful, selfless love is expressed in the fact that one does not need the other, that one can do without them. The person then loves not for their own sake, but for the sake of the other. They then lose nothing when they are abandoned by the other. Of course, this requires that one be able to see through the value of a person, and one can only learn this by immersing oneself in the world. The more you become a theosophist, the more you will learn to respond to the inner being of another. And the more capable you will become of perceiving their value and loving them without selfishness. If you go through the world in this way, you will also see that some people have this kind of selfishness, others have that kind, and everyone lives according to the value of their selfishness.

[ 24 ] What is necessary is the higher development of the personality. An impersonal love that springs from weakness will always be associated with suffering. Transpersonal love arises from strength and is based on knowledge of the other. It can become a source of joy and satisfaction. Oscillating between all possible moods of love is always a sign that this love is a masked egoism and stems from an impoverished personality. Thus, love is the best way to clarify the difference between impersonal and superpersonal.

[ 25 ] Those who do not find spiritual science a source of inner satisfaction for the future have not understood it, for it provides a foundation for life. If materialism were to become increasingly prevalent, and with it the egoism that accompanies it, humanity would sink deeper and deeper into pessimism, which is the dross of burnt-out spirits. If humanity embraces spiritual science, it will regain true cheerfulness, which is also the source of health. Disharmony is ultimately an outflow of egoism, and a cheerful, joyful mood flows from the higher human being. The more the higher, the divine takes hold, the more blissful human beings will become. We should think more about how we can help all of humanity than about how spiritual science can help us personally. We come to recognize more and more the source of genuine cheerfulness and joy, of eternal youth, when we familiarize ourselves with the ethics of the superpersonal.

[ 26 ] The goal of theosophy is not negation, but affirmation. The impersonal means negation, the superpersonal means affirmation, even if it should appear only faintly. This is what the task of spiritual science shows us from the nature of humanity. “By their fruits ye shall know them” – by the fact that they make people fit and capable for life, with faces that are the expression of a harmonious soul. The spirit never expresses itself in a gloomy face. Even the pain that human beings must endure is transformed in the face of the thinker and appears ennobled; the expression of pain is purified in the harmonious face of the thinker. The gloomy face is the expression of egoism that has not yet been overcome. Spiritual science guides us to go beyond ourselves, but not to lose ourselves, rather to preserve the outside world. It leads us beyond the personal, not by destroying the personality, but by elevating us to the superpersonal.