The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Twelfth Lecture

[ 1 ] Today we want to discuss something from a deeply occult realm, and our topic for today, strange as it may sound at first, will be “Mephistopheles and the Earthquakes of the Earth.” We will see that we are not merely shining a light into a deeply occult realm with the Mephistopheles problem, but also with the question of earthquakes, when it is discussed from a spiritual point of view. I have already spoken in various places, including here, about the interior of the Earth and thus also touched upon the question of earthquakes. Today we want to look at the matter from a different angle, and a connection will then emerge between what we have to say today, which is to culminate in the lecture, and what has already been said in earlier lectures about the inner earth in relation to these extraordinarily tragic events on the surface of our earth.

[ 2 ] You are all familiar with the figure of Mephistopheles, from whom we wish to start today, from Goethe's Faust. You know that the figure of Mephistopheles is a being. We do not wish to go into today the extent to which the poetic garb corresponds to occult facts. You know that this figure appears in Goethe's Faust as the seducer and tempter of Faust, who in a certain sense can be understood as the archetype of the human being striving for the heights of life. I have also pointed out in lectures on Goethe what spiritual perspective is opened up by the scene of the “walk to the mothers,” , where Mephistopheles holds the key to a realm of dark depths in which the “mothers” sit. Mephistopheles himself cannot enter this realm. He merely points out that it is a realm where below is the same as above: “Sink then! I could also say: ascend!” Both would mean the same thing for this mysterious realm. We also know that Mephistopheles describes this realm as such, using the word “nothing.” In a certain sense, he represents the spirit that sees in nothingness something worthless in this realm. Faust responds to this as the spiritually seeking person might respond to the materialistic thinker today: “In your nothingness, I hope to find the universe!”

[ 3 ] Goethe scholars—yes, there are such people—have made the most diverse efforts to unravel this figure. In other lectures, I have already pointed out that, basically, the meaning of the name “Mephistopheles” is to be found in Hebrew, where mephiz means the hindrance, the corrupter, and tophel means the liar, so that we must understand the name as referring to a being composed of a bringer of corruption, of obstacles for man, and on the other hand of a spirit of untruth, deception, and illusion.

[ 4 ] Anyone who thinks about the introduction to Goethe's Faust, the prologue in heaven, will notice how a word resonates there that has been around for thousands of years, so to speak. Goethe let the words between God and Job from the Book of Job resonate at the beginning of his Faust. You only need to read the Book of Job to see how Job lives as a righteous, good, and pious man, how the sons of the God of light appear before God, and among them a certain enemy of light, and how a conversation ensues between the enemy of light and the supreme God, which goes like this that this enemy of the light says he has wandered through the lands and sought various things, tried various things. Then God asks him, “Do you know my servant Job?” And then the enemy of the light—let us call him that for the time being—says to God that he knows him and that he would be well able to lead him astray from the path of goodness and to destroy him. And you know how this spirit has to try twice to get to Job, how he then gets to him by corrupting his outer physical body. He expressly indicates this by saying to God: He will not fall away if you touch his possessions, but if you touch his flesh and his bones, he will fall away! Who would not want to hear echoes of this in the words of Faust, where God calls out to Mephistopheles in the prologue in heaven: “Do you know Faust? ... My servant!” - And then one hears the spirit's reply, which, according to the Book of Job, confronted God when he said to Mephistopheles that he could ‘gently lead’ Faust, that he could turn him away from the paths that lead into the world, which are called good. So here we hear the sounds of millennia literally striking together in harmony.

[ 5 ] Perhaps you have often asked yourself, when the figure of Mephistopheles has approached you, the question: Who is this Mephistopheles? And here serious mistakes are made, which can only be corrected by a deeper occult insight. The name itself suggests that Mephistopheles can be associated with the devil or with the idea of the devil, for the word “tophel” is the same as “the devil.” But the other question is this, and here we enter a realm of serious errors that are often made in the interpretation of the figure of Mephistopheles: Can Mephistopheles be equated with the spirit we call Lucifer, whom we have often spoken of in the history of human evolution, who approached humanity in the Lemurian era and afterwards with his hosts and in a certain way intervened in human development? In Europe, people are easily inclined to confuse the figure of Mephistopheles as he appears in Goethe's Faust, but also as he has appeared in all the various products of folk literature that preceded Goethe's Faust, in folk plays, puppet shows, and so on, with Lucifer. We encounter the figure of Mephistopheles everywhere, and the question is this: Are the figure and the companions of Mephistopheles the same as the figure and companions we know as Lucifer? In other words, is what approaches human beings through Mephistophelean influence the same as what approached human beings through Luciferian influence? We must ask ourselves this question today.

[ 6 ] We know when Lucifer approached human beings. We have followed the development of human beings on Earth through the period in which the Sun separated itself from the Earth with its beings, and in which the Moon then separated itself from the Earth with those forces that would have made it impossible for human beings to progress. And we have seen that at a time when human beings were not yet ready to allow their astral bodies to become independent, Lucifer approached them with his hosts, and thus a twofold influence came upon them. It was toward the end of the Lemurian epoch that human beings were actually exposed in their astral bodies to the influences coming from Lucifer. If Lucifer had not approached human beings, they would have been spared certain damages, but they would also not have attained what we must count among the highest goods of humanity.

[ 7 ] We can now understand the significance of Lucifer's influence when we ask ourselves what would have happened if there had been no Luciferic influence since the Lemurian epoch, if human beings had developed in such a way that Lucifer and the beings belonging to him had remained distant from them. Then human beings would have developed in such a way that, until the middle of the Atlantean epoch, they would have remained beings who, in all the impulses of the astral body, in all the motives of the astral body, would have followed the influences of certain spiritual beings standing above them, who through their influence would have guided human beings until the middle of the Atlantean epoch. Only much, much later would human beings have directed their powers of perception and cognition toward the sensory world, so that in the Lemurian and early Atlantean periods, no passions or desires would have arisen from sensory perceptions, and human beings would have stood, as it were, innocently before the sensory world and, in everything they did, would have followed the impulses implanted in them by higher spiritual beings. It would not have been an instinct like the instinct of today's higher animals, under which humans would have undertaken everything, but a spiritualized instinct. Every action they would have taken on earth would not have been prompted by mere sensory impulses, but by something spiritually instinctive. But under the influence of Lucifer, man came to say: This gives me pleasure, this attracts me, this repels me! He came to follow his own impulses earlier than usual, to become an independent being, to develop a certain freedom within himself. This led to a certain detachment from the spiritual world for humans. To put it clearly, one could say that without this influence of Lucifer, humans would have remained spiritualized animals, animals that would have gradually developed in form, even in a more noble and beautiful form than humans developed under the influence of Lucifer. Human beings would have remained much more angelic if this influence of Lucifer had not occurred during the Lemurian epoch. But on the other hand, they would have been led by higher beings as if on a leash. In the middle of the Atlantean epoch, something would have come upon man as if with a blow: his eyes would have been fully opened, and he would have seen around him the tapestry of the entire physical-sensory world; but he would have seen it in such a way that behind every physical thing he would have immediately perceived a divine-spiritual element, a world of divine-spiritual foundations. So while man, looking back until then into his dependence on the divine womb from which he had emerged, would have seen the light-deities shining into his soul, guiding and leading him, there would then have come into being for man—and this is not merely a picture, but corresponds in a higher degree to reality—that the full, clearly recognizable sensory world would have been spread out before him. But this sensory world would have appeared as something transparent, behind which the other divine-spiritual beings would have appeared, taking the place of what man had lost behind him. A spiritual world would have closed behind him, and a new spiritual world would have opened up before him. Man would have remained a child in the hands of higher, spiritual-divine beings. Independence would not have sunk into the human soul.

[ 8 ] This is not how it happened, however. Instead, Lucifer first approached man and, so to speak, made part of the spiritual world behind man invisible to him. For when the human being's own passions, instincts, and desires arose in the human astral body, they darkened the spiritual beings standing behind the human being, beings that had otherwise always remained visible, beings from the world from which the human being was born. That is why, in those great oracle sites I spoke of last time, the ancient Atlantean initiates had prepared themselves precisely to see that part of the spiritual world that had been obscured by Lucifer's influence. All the preparations of the guardians and disciples of the ancient oracles of the Atlantean mysteries were aimed at seeing into this light-filled spiritual world, which had been hidden from human beings by Lucifer's influence on the human astral body. And then they appeared, those figures that humans observe in the various states of the soul that run parallel to initiation, which play into our world from a world of light and then clothe themselves in the garments that the astral world can give them. There, in the ancient oracles, the Atlantean initiate saw in spirit those figures who were rightly higher spiritual beings, who had not descended to the physical world and who therefore, when man prematurely entered the physical world, remained invisible to the ordinary eye. But it could not be otherwise than that Lucifer himself, being, so to speak, an opponent of these worlds of light, also became visible to the initiates. The hosts of Lucifer were generally visible to the Atlantean people, who, in their dim clairvoyant consciousness—in states of sleep and in the intermediate states between sleep and waking—were able to live their way into the higher spiritual world. When part of the world of light became accessible to these people, part of the world opposed to the world of light also became visible; not Lucifer himself, but Lucifer's companions became visible. And as enchanting and magnificent as the noble figures of the world of light appeared in their astral colors, so terrible and appalling were the figures belonging to the opposite, seductive world.

[ 9 ] So we can say that within human development there was this influence of Lucifer, to whom man owes the possibility of error and evil, but to whom he also owes his freedom. If this Luciferic influence had not come, what I have just discussed would have occurred in the middle of the Atlantean epoch: The carpet of the sensory world would have spread out before human beings, minerals, the plant world, and the animal world would have become sensually visible; the world of natural phenomena, lightning and thunder, clouds and air, the phenomena of the heavens would have become completely visible to the outer eye. But behind them would have stood unmistakably the divine-spiritual beings who were to penetrate into human beings. Because Lucifer's influence had previously been at work, because human beings had previously absorbed this influence in their astral bodies, they had, from the Lemurian epoch into the Atlantean epoch, prepared their physical bodies, which at that time were still capable of transformation, so that these physical bodies could now become the immediate instrument for the carpet of the sensory-physical world, which should have spread out in such a way that the spiritual world would have become visible behind it. And so human beings could not immediately see the physical-sensory world in the form in which it would have appeared to them at the same time as a spiritual world. Then the world of the three natural kingdoms that stood beneath man came to him. The physical world came to him as something that, like a veil, like a thick blanket, covered the spiritual world under certain circumstances. Thus, man could not see through to the spiritual world; in fact, he still cannot do so today.

[ 10 ] But because man had undergone this development, another influence was able to assert itself in the middle of the Atlantean epoch, an influence from a completely different source. And we must not confuse this influence, which now asserted itself, with the influence of Lucifer and his companions. Even though Lucifer first made human beings capable of succumbing to this other influence, even though Lucifer first caused the physical body to become denser than it would otherwise have been, another influence had to come upon human beings in order to lead them completely into the physical-sensory world, to close off the world of spiritual beings completely from human beings, completely shut it off, so that man was led to the illusion: There is no other world than the world of physical-sensory existence that spreads out before me! Since the middle of the Atlantean epoch, a completely different adversary has approached human beings than Lucifer, the adversary who, so to speak, clouds and obscures human perception and cognition to such an extent that human beings do not make the effort or develop the instincts to penetrate the secrets of the sensory world. If you imagine that under Lucifer's influence the sensory world had become like a veil, so that one would then have had the spiritual world behind it, then through the influence of this second being the physical world has become a thick crust that closes itself off from the spiritual world, so that again only the Atlantean initiates, through their preparations, were able to penetrate this covering of the physical-sensory world.

[ 11 ] The powers that attacked human beings in order to obscure their view of the other side of divine existence first appear to us in the great teachings that the significant leader of the ancient Persian people gave to his followers and professed believers, in Zarathustra. It was Zarathustra who had the mission of giving culture to a people who, unlike the ancient Indian people, did not have a natural longing for the spiritual world. Zarathustra's mission was to give culture to a people whose gaze was directed toward the sensory world, to the conquest of the physical-sensory world with the cultural means that can only be produced through the efforts of the outer, sensory-physical human being. Therefore, within the ancient Persian culture, it was not so much the Luciferic influence that approached human beings as the influence of that figure who, since the middle of the Atlantean epoch, has approached human beings and caused that at that time a large part of the initiated fell into black magic because they were led by the temptations of this tempter to misuse what had become accessible to them from the spiritual world in the service of the physical-sensory world. That powerful influence of black magical forces, which led to the ultimate downfall of Atlantis, has its origin in the temptations of that figure whom Zarathustra had to teach his people as the figure who opposes the bright God of light as Ahriman, Angra Mainyu, in contrast to the God of light whom Zarathustra proclaimed as the Great Aura, as Ahura Mazdao.

[ 12 ] We must distinguish between these two figures, Lucifer and Ahriman. For Lucifer is a being who branched off from the host of spiritual-heavenly beings after the separation of the sun, while Ahriman is a figure who detached himself before the separation of the sun and unites completely different powers within himself. Through Lucifer's influence on human beings during the Lemurian epoch, nothing was corrupted except the influence that human beings still had in the Atlantean epoch, when they were able to influence the forces of air and water. You know from my book “The Akashic Record” that humans in the Atlantean era still had access to the seed forces that are in plant and animal natures and could extract them in the same way that humans today extract the forces from coal that they use as steam power to drive their machines. And I have told you that when these forces are extracted, they stand in a mysterious connection with the forces of nature in wind and weather and so on; and when human beings use them for purposes contrary to the divine intentions, these forces of nature are drawn up against human beings.

[ 13 ] This led to the Atlantean flood and those devastating forces of nature that then caused the downfall of the entire Atlantean continent. But even before that, humans no longer had control over the forces of fire and the connection of these forces with certain secret forces of the earth. Fire and earth, in a certain interaction, had already been taken away from humans earlier. Now, however, through the influence of Ahriman and his companions, humans once again gained power over the forces of fire and earth, but now in a destructive way. And much of what you hear about the use of fire in ancient Persia is connected with what I am now telling you: certain forces that are driven as black magic and are connected with it and lead to human beings seizing control of completely different forces and gaining influence over fire and earth can have powerful, devastating effects. Black magic could have been practiced by the descendants of the Atlanteans themselves in ancient Persia, had it not been for the teachings of Zarathustra, which pointed out how Ahriman, as an enemy power, works on human beings in such a way that he entangles them and darkens their view of what is to emerge as real spiritual power behind the sensory world. Thus we see that a large part of post-Atlantean culture — originating with Zarathustra and his followers — was influenced by the fact that people were made aware of the effect of the noble God of Light, to whom human beings can turn, on the one hand, and the destructive power of Ahriman and his companions on the other.

[ 14 ] This Ahriman influences human beings in the most diverse ways. I have been able to point out to you that it was a great moment in the development of the world when the event of Golgotha took place. Then Christ appeared in the world that human beings enter after death. In this world, the influence of Ahriman was even stronger than it was in the world we see here on earth between birth and death. It was precisely in the world between death and rebirth that the influences of Ahriman worked with terrible force and power upon human beings. And if nothing else had happened, human beings would have gradually been darkened in the shadow realm between death and rebirth, as the ancient Greeks rightly perceived. An infinite loneliness and reduction to human egoism would have occurred in the life between death and new birth. And when reincarnated, human beings would have been born into life in such a way that they would have become blatant, terrible egoists. It is therefore more than just a figure of speech that after the event of Golgotha, at the moment when the blood flowed from the wounds on Golgotha, Christ appeared in the world beyond, in the shadow realm, and bound Ahriman. Even though Ahriman's influence remained, and even though all materialistic thinking can ultimately be traced back to him, even though this influence can only be paralyzed by people taking the event of Golgotha into themselves, this event has nevertheless become the source from which people draw strength to reenter the spiritual-divine world.

[ 15 ] Thus, Ahriman first arose before the eyes of human knowledge. He became something that was sensed, something that was known through the influence of the Zarathustra culture; and from there, knowledge of Ahriman spread to other peoples and their cultural concepts. Ahriman appears with his hosts under the most varied names among the different cultural peoples. And because of the unique circumstances of the souls of the European peoples, who had lagged furthest behind on the journey from West to East, who had remained most untouched by what had happened in ancient India, ancient Persia, Egypt, and even in the Greek-Latin period, among these peoples of Europe, among whom the fifth cultural period was to revive, there were states of soul in which the figure of Ahriman appeared particularly terrifying. And while he took on various names—among the Hebrew people he was called Mephistopheles—in the European world he became the figure of the devil in his various forms.

[ 16 ] Thus we see how we are looking into a deep connection between the spiritual worlds, and sometimes, when someone feels highly exalted above medieval superstition, one will probably also remember the saying of our Faust poet: “The little people never feel the devil, even when he has them by the throat!”

[ 17 ] It is precisely because human beings close their spiritual eyes to this influence that they fall most easily under its sway. Goethe's Mephistopheles is nothing other than the figure of Ahriman, and we must not confuse him with the figure of Lucifer. All those errors that we sometimes encounter in explanations of Goethe's Faust are precisely due to this confusion, although of course Lucifer first made Ahriman's influence possible, and therefore, when we look at Ahriman, we are led back to a primordial influence of Lucifer, which could only come before our soul after we had made long preparations to recognize this more intimate connection.

[ 18 ] This subtle difference must not be overlooked, for it is above all a matter of the fact that Lucifer has basically only brought human beings under the influence of those forces that are connected with the forces of wind and water. In contrast, it was Ahriman-Mephistopheles who brought human beings under forces that are much, much more terrible, and in the next cultures many things will occur that must be brought into connection with the influence of Ahriman. For the occult seeker who does not strive on a firm and secure foundation, the most terrible illusion, the most terrible deception, can very easily arise precisely through the Ahrimanic influence. For Ahriman is indeed a spirit who seeks to deceive about the true nature of the sensory world, namely, to deceive about the fact that it is an expression of the spiritual world. If a person has a predisposition to abnormal states, to somnambulism, or if they have awakened occult powers within themselves through a certain incorrect training, and if they have something within themselves that pushes them toward egoism, then Ahriman or Mephistopheles can easily influence the occult powers, an influence that can easily become powerful. While Lucifer's influence can only go so far as to cause what encounters human beings from the spiritual world — even those who have received incorrect training — to appear as astral forms, as forms that are visible to the astral body, the formations that can be traced back to Ahriman's influence by the fact that the evil influences exerted on the physical body penetrate the etheric body and then become visible as phantoms.

[ 19 ] We are therefore dealing with much, much lower powers in the influence of Ahriman than in the influence of Lucifer. The influences of Lucifer can never become as bad as the influences of Ahriman and those beings connected with the forces of fire. The influence of Ahriman or Mephistopheles can lead a person, in order to gain occult knowledge, to perform certain acts with their physical body. The worst means that can be used to attain occult powers is that which consists in acts and in the misuse of the physical body. In certain schools of black magic, such acts are indeed taught to the fullest extent. It is one of the most terrible temptations of man when the starting point for occult training is taken from the physical powers of the body.

[ 20 ] It is not possible to go into detail here, but only to point out that all machinations that in any way consist of an abuse of the physical body forces originate from influences that come from Ahriman, and because these forces penetrate the human etheric body, they act like a phantom, but like a phantom world that is nothing more than the garment of forces that pull human beings down below the level of humanity. Almost all ancient cultures, the Indian, Persian, Egyptian, and Greek-Latin cultures, went through a period of decadence in which they fell into decay, in which the mysteries also fell into decay, in which the pure traditions of the mysteries were no longer preserved. In those times, many of those who were either disciples of the initiates but could not maintain their level, or those to whom the secrets had been revealed unlawfully, now went astray and followed evil paths. Places of black magic emanated from these influences and have survived to our time.

[ 21 ] Ahriman is a spirit of lies who conjures up illusions for human beings, but who works with his companions in a spiritual world. He is not a mirage, oh no! But what appears before the spiritual eye of human beings under his influence is a mirage. When human desires and passions take a wrong turn and people simultaneously give themselves over to occult forces, the occult forces that emerge from this push their way into the etheric body, and the most destructive and evil powers appear among the illusions, which can sometimes take on very venerable forms. So terrible is the influence of Ahriman on human beings.

[ 22 ] From what has been said, you can see that, so to speak, it was precisely through the appearance of Christ, if we want to use that expression, that Ahriman was put in chains, but only for those who are increasingly trying to penetrate the Christ mystery. And there will be less and less protection in the world against the influence of Ahriman outside the forces that flow from the Christ mystery. In a certain sense, our time is moving toward these influences of Ahriman, and many phenomena indicate this. Certain secret teachings also call the hosts of Ahriman the Asuras. These are, of course, the evil Asuras who fell away at a certain point in the evolutionary path of the Asuras who gave human beings their personalities. It has already been pointed out that these are spiritual beings who separated themselves from the entire development of the earth before the separation of the sun.

[ 23 ] So far, we have only described the terrible influence that Ahriman can have on a certain abnormal development that can take place in occult channels. But in a certain sense, the whole of humanity in the second half of the Atlantean epoch placed itself under the influence of Ahriman. The entire post-Atlantean epoch has, in a certain way, the after-effects of Ahriman's influence within it, more in some areas of the earth than in others. But Ahriman's influence has made itself felt everywhere, and everything that was given to the peoples in the teachings of the ancient initiates by the light spirits who opposed Ahriman was, in essence, given only to gradually withdraw them from Ahriman's influence. This was a preparatory, well-guided, wise education of humanity.

[ 24 ] But let us not forget that, basically, Ahriman's destiny has been intertwined with the destiny of humanity in a certain way since that time, and the most diverse events, of which the uninitiated can know nothing, keep the whole karma of humanity in a continuous connection with the karma of Ahriman. If we want to understand what is now to be said, we must realize that, apart from the karma that each individual has, there is a general karmic law at all stages of existence. All types of beings have their karma; the karma of one being is one way, that of another being is different. But karma passes through all realms of existence, and there are definitely things in human karma, in the karma of a people, a society, or another human group, that we must regard as a collective karma, so that under certain circumstances the individual can be carried away by the overall karma. And for those who cannot see through things, it will not always be easy to understand where the influences of the powers actually lie for the people who have been struck by this fate. It is quite possible that the individual who is part of a whole may be completely innocent by virtue of his individual karma; but because he is part of a collective karma, misfortune may befall him. But if they are completely innocent, this will be compensated for in later incarnations.

[ 25 ] In a broader context, we must not look only at the karma of the past, but we must also think of the karma of the future. We can certainly say that, under certain circumstances, there may be a whole group of people who fall victim to a terrible fate. It is impossible to determine why this particular group of people has fallen victim to this fate. Someone who could examine the karma of each individual might not be able to find anything that could have led to this sad fate, because the connections between karma are very complex. Far, far away, perhaps – but still connected to them – lies that which requires that such karma bring this or that to light. And then it may be that the whole group has been innocently struck by a collective karma, while perhaps those who were initially guilty could not be struck because the opportunity did not exist. Then one can only say this: in the overall karma of the individual human being, everything balances out, even if this or that happens to him innocently; it is written into his karma, and everything balances out completely in the future. So when we look at the law of karma, we must also take into account the karma of the future. But we must not forget that human beings are not isolated individuals; we must bear in mind that each individual has a share in the karma of the whole of humanity. Nor must we forget that human beings, together with humanity, belong to the hierarchies of beings that have not entered the physical world, and that they are also drawn into the karma of these hierarchies. Many things occur in the physical world that are not immediately apparent as being connected with the things that are directly related to them; but the karmic consequences inevitably follow. Since the second half of the Atlantean epoch, Ahriman's karma has been linked to the karma of humanity. Where are Ahriman's deeds, apart from what Ahriman does in human bodies to teach people illusions and phantoms about the sensory world? Where else are they?

[ 26 ] There are, so to speak, two sides to everything in the world: one side that belongs more to human beings as spiritual beings, and the other side that belongs to what has developed around human beings as the natural kingdoms. The stage of human life is the earth. To the spiritual eye, this appears as a connection between different layers. We know that the outermost layer of our earth is called the mineral earth or mineral layer, because it contains only substances such as those we find under our feet. This is the relatively thinnest layer. Then begins the soft earth. This layer has a completely different material structure than the mineral layer above it. This second layer is, so to speak, endowed with an inner life; and it is only because the solid mineral layer is spread over it that the inner forces of this second layer are held together. For the moment it were exposed, it would scatter throughout the whole space of the heavens. It is therefore a layer that is under tremendous pressure. A third layer is the vapor layer. But it is not vapor of a material nature, as we have it on the surface of our Earth, but in this third layer the substance itself is endowed with inner forces that we can only compare with human passions, with the inner drives of human beings. While on Earth only beings that are formed like animals and humans can develop passions, this third layer—just as the substances of the Earth are permeated by magnetic and thermal forces—is materially permeated by forces that are the same as what we know as human and animal instincts and passions. Then we have the fourth layer, the form layer, so called because it contains the material and forces of what we encounter in the mineral part of the earth as formed beings. And the fifth layer, the fruit earth, has the peculiarity that it is itself a material of infinite fertility. If you had a piece of this layer of earth, it would continually sprout new shoots and sprouts from within itself; exuberant fertility is the element of this layer. After that we come to the sixth layer, the fire earth, which contains forces as substances that can become terribly devastating and destructive. It is actually these forces into which the primordial fires have been banished.

[ 27 ] In this layer, the realm of Ahriman is essentially at work, and it is from this layer that it exerts its influence. What appears in the outer phenomena of nature, in air and water, in cloud formations, in lightning and thunder, is, so to speak, a last remnant—but a good remnant—on the surface of the earth of what was already connected with the old Saturn and separated itself from the sun. Of what is active in these forces, the inner fire forces of the earth are placed at the service of Ahriman. There he has the center of his activity. And while his spiritual activities draw toward human souls in the manner described and lead them into error, we see how he has certain points of attack for his activity within the earth, bound in a certain way. If we knew the mysterious connections between what has happened on earth under the influence of Ahriman and what has thereby become Ahriman's own karma, we would recognize in the tremors of the earth the connection between what is happening as natural events in such a terribly sad and tragic way and what is at work on earth. This has remained since ancient times as something that reacts on Earth against the light, the good beings.

[ 28 ] Thus, these or those forces connected with those beings who were cast out of their connection with the Earth at the time when the light, the good beings, led the healing phenomena around the Earth, work upon the Earth, And we can recognize in a certain way the echo of these fiery effects, which were previously withdrawn from human beings, in what fire does in such terrible natural phenomena. We need not tell ourselves that those who are affected by what is brought about by Ahriman's karma — which, however, has been connected with the karma of humanity since the Atlantean epoch — are in any way to blame for this. This is connected with the entire karma of humanity, in which each individual also has a share. And the causes often lie elsewhere, which then come to fruition in certain places as the effects of Ahriman's karma, because these places offer the opportunity for this.

[ 29 ] Here we see a connection that, however, appears to us as a remnant of other ancient human catastrophes. In the Lemurian era, humans were deprived of the power to influence fire. Before that, humans were able to influence fire. That is why ancient Lemuria was destroyed by the fiery passions of humans. The same fire that is now below was above. At that time, fire receded from the surface of the earth; the same fire that emerged as an extract from the primordial fire is the inorganic fire, the mineral fire of today. The same thing happened to the forces that pass through air and water and that brought about the catastrophes of Atlantis through the passions of human beings. It was the collective karma of humanity that caused these Atlantean catastrophes. But a remnant of this karma remains, and this remnant causes the echoes of these catastrophes. Our volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are nothing more than the echoes of these catastrophes. However, we must bear in mind that no one should applaud the idea that those affected by such a catastrophe are in any way to blame, and that therefore we should not feel complete sympathy for those affected. Anthroposophists must realize that the karma of these people has nothing to do with what they are allowed to do, and that they should not help someone because they believe – to put it trivially – that karma dictates that the person brought this fate upon themselves. This is precisely what karma calls us to do: to help people because we can be sure that our help will mean something to them, that it will be inscribed in their karma and thus move their karma in a more favorable direction. Seeing through the world in this way, based on karma, must lead us precisely to compassion. Thus, understanding those who are unhappy and suffering, and those affected by such a catastrophe, will make us all the more compassionate, because it means that it is the karma of humanity as a whole that the individual members of humanity have to suffer, and that just as the whole of humanity brings about such events, so too must the whole of humanity take responsibility for them. that we must regard such a fate as our own, that we do not even help because we do so voluntarily, but because we know that we are part of the karma of humanity, and what has been caused there is also our fault.

[ 30 ] This morning I received a question relating to earthquake disasters. The question is:

[ 31 ] “How can earthquake disasters be explained occultly? Can they be foreseen? If the disasters could be foreseen in detail, why would it not be possible to give a warning in an inconspicuous manner beforehand? Such a warning might not be of any use the first time, but it would certainly be useful later.”

[ 32 ] Our older members will remember what was said at the end of the lecture on “The Interior of the Earth” about the possibility of earthquakes occurring on Earth. But that should not be taken into account now; instead, we will address this question directly. The question basically consists of two parts. The first part is this: Can earthquakes be foreseen in a certain way from the occult connection that can be observed? This question must be answered by saying that the knowledge of such things belongs to the deepest knowledge of occult science. For a single event that has occurred on Earth, which essentially arises from such a profound cause as has been described today, which is connected with causes extending far beyond the Earth, for such an event it is basically quite correct that a time can also be given for such individual events. The occultist would certainly have the possibility of giving such a time indication. But now the other question is this: Can such indications be given, may they be given? To someone who is unfamiliar with occult secrets, it will indeed sound almost self-evident that this question could be answered in the affirmative in a certain sense. And yet, the fact is that, with regard to such events, only two or three predictions can be made from the centers of initiation in each century—at most two or three. For you must remember that these things are connected with the karma of humanity, and that even if they were avoided in detail, they would have to emerge elsewhere in a different form. Predicting them would not change the facts. And consider how terribly the karma of the whole earth would be interfered with if human measures were taken against such events! The reaction would be terrible, so strong that only in rare cases would a deeply initiated person be able to use his knowledge for himself or those closest to him if he foresaw an earthquake disaster. Knowing this, he would have to perish, quite naturally. For these things, which lie in the karma of humanity through thousands and millions of years, cannot be paralyzed by measures taken within a short period of human existence. But there is something else to consider.

[ 33 ] It has been said that this chapter belongs to the most difficult occult investigations. When I gave the lecture on the “inner earth,” I already said that it is extremely difficult to know anything about the earth's interior, that it is much easier to know something about the astral space, about the devachanic space, even about the most distant planets than about the earth's interior. Most of what is heard about the earth's interior is pure humbug, because this is one of the most difficult things in occultism. This area also includes things related to these elemental catastrophes. And above all, you must bear in mind that clairvoyance is not something where someone sits down and enters a special state and can then say what is happening throughout the world, right up to the highest worlds. That is not how things are. Anyone who believes that would be just as clever as someone who said: You have the ability to perceive the physical world, but you didn't notice it, and you didn't see what happened outside on the Spree at twelve o'clock when you were sitting here in this room. There are obstacles to seeing. If the person in question had been out walking at twelve o'clock, he might well have perceived the event in question. It is not the case that simply by deciding to put oneself in the necessary state, all worlds are immediately open. Even then, the person concerned must first go to the things and examine them, and these examinations are among the most difficult things to do because the greatest obstacles stand in the way. And here, perhaps, we can talk about these obstacles.

[ 34 ] You cannot take away the ability of a person who is physically capable of walking on his own two legs simply by cutting off his legs; you can also take it away by locking him up, so that he cannot walk around. Similarly, there are obstacles to occult investigations, and in the field we are discussing, there are indeed enormous obstacles. And I would now like to mention one of the main obstacles to you. I want to lead you to a mysterious connection. The greatest obstacle to occult research in this field is the current way in which materialistic external science is conducted today. All the vast amounts of illusions and errors that have been accumulated in materialistic science today, all the unworthy investigations that are carried out and that not only lead to nothing but actually arise from human vanity, are things that, in their effects in the higher worlds, make investigations into such phenomena in these higher worlds, a free view, virtually impossible or at least very difficult. The free view is clouded precisely by the fact that materialistic research is carried out here on earth. These things cannot even be easily understood. I would like to say: Let the time come when spiritual science will spread more widely and when, through spiritual science and its influence, the materialistic superstition of our world will be swept away! Let all the senseless combining and hypothesizing, in which all kinds of things are imagined to be inside the earth, be swept away, and you will see: once spiritual science has become part of the karma of humanity, once it has found the means and ways to reach the souls and, in this way, to defeat the opposing forces, the materialistic superstition, when what is connected with the worst enemy of humanity, which binds the human gaze to the sensory world, can be further researched, then you will see that it will also be possible to influence the karma of humanity externally by mitigating the terrible nature of such events. Look in the materialistic superstition of people for the reasons why the Initiates must remain silent about those events that are connected with the great karma of humanity. We see a scientific enterprise that is often not dominated by the Faustian striving for truth, but is connected to the greatest extent with vanity and ambition. How much scientific research is brought into the world because individuals are only looking for something for themselves? If you add all this up, you will see how strong the force is that spreads against the view of the world that lies hidden behind the outer sensory phenomena. Once humanity has cleared away this fog, the time will come when, with regard to certain mysterious natural phenomena that originate from the enemies of humanity and deeply affect human life, humanity will be able to help itself to a certain extent. Until then, this possibility does not exist.

[ 35 ] I am well aware that these are directions given to these questions that do not always correspond to the direction of the questioner. But the secret doctrine has the destiny of first having to put the question on the right track in many cases, so that the question can be asked correctly before it can be answered correctly. But do not take this to mean that the mysterious connection between earthly catastrophes and the karma of humanity does not fall within the realm of secrets that can be researched. It does fall within that realm, and it can be researched. But there are reasons why only the most general aspects of these deepest secrets can penetrate the world today. Let spiritual science first bring to humanity the realization that it is possible that their own deeds are connected with natural events, then the time will come when, precisely out of this realization, humanity will develop the understanding that these things can be answered in a way that is demanded. That time will come. For spiritual science can undergo many vicissitudes. It may even be that its influence will be paralyzed, that its influence will remain limited to a very small circle. But it will make its way through humanity, it will become established in the karma of humanity, and then the possibility will also be created for humanity itself to influence the karma of humanity.