History of the Physical Plane and Occult History
GA 107
23 October 1908, Berlin
Translator Unknown
“History” refers to the external physical world: By means of external documents and information we look back into past ages in the history of nations, of humanity. You know that through the recent discovery of many a document we can look back to thousands of years before the birth of Christ. Now from the lectures you have heard in the domain of Spiritual Science you can gather that by means of occult documents we can look back still further into unlimited distances of the past. Thus we know of the outer physical world by means of external history. When we speak regarding the habits of life, the knowledge above all, regarding the experience of the nations which lived in the centuries immediately behind us, when we speak of their discoveries and inventions we know that we must use a different language than we do when we go back one or two thousand years and speak of the habits and customs, the learning and power of discernment of nations which belong to the distant past. The further we go back into ages, the more different does history become. It behooves us perhaps to ask whether the word “history”, historical development, has only a meaning for this external physical world, whether only in the course of time the events, the aspect of events alters; or whether perhaps the word history can also have a significance for the other side of existence, for that side which we describe by means of occult science and which man has to live through in the time between death and a new birth.
At first from a purely external point of view, we must say that from all we know, the life of man in those other worlds, invisible to man today, is a longer life than that in the physical world. Has the word “history” a significance for that world, for that other side of existence? Or are we to fall in with the idea that in the regions in which man lives between death and re-birth, everything remains permanently the same, that it is the same if we go back through the 18th and 17th centuries into the 8th, 7th and 6th centuries after the appearing of Christ Jesus upon the earth and even further into the centuries before Christ? The people who enter earthly existence meet with different conditions upon the earth at each new birth. Let us imagine ourselves within the soul of a man incarnated in ancient Egypt or ancient Persia,—Let us picture vividly the conditions of a man born in ancient Egypt facing the gigantic Pyramids and Obelisks and all the conditions of life which present themselves to us in ancient Egypt. Let us imagine these conditions during the time between birth and death. Now let us suppose that the man dies he goes through the period between death and a new birth and is then reborn in the 7th or 8th century of the post-Christian epoch. Let us compare the ages. In earthly existence how differently is the world presented to the soul in the ages before the external appearance of Christ Jesus on the physical plane! Further let us enquire into the experiences of a soul appearing in the first centuries of post-Christian times and then entering our physical plane at the present time. It now finds modern political arrangements of which at that time there was no question. It experiences that which our modern means of civilisation have brought about, in short, a very different picture is offered to such a soul. If we compare these separate incarnations we become conscious of how they differ from one another. Then is it not justifiable to enquire into the life conditions of a man between death and re-birth-between two incarnations? If a man previously lived in ancient Egypt and after death passed into the spiritual world, there he found definite facts, definite beings; then if he again entered physical existence during the first Christian centuries, and again died and passed into the other world, and so on, are we not justified in asking whether on the other side of existence “history” is not being enacted in all the experiences a man goes through there, does not something take place there as time rolls on? You know that when we describe the life of man between death and re-birth, we give a general picture of what this life is. Starting from the moment of death, we describe how after the man has developed the great memory tableau before his soul, he enters into a period in which the impulses, longings, passions, to be found in the astral body, in short, everything which still connects him with the physical world and is still present within him, how he passes through what is usually called “Kamaloca”, and how after he has stripped off that connection he passes on into Devachan, into a purely spiritual world. We further describe what is developed for the man in this period between death and re-birth, in this purely spiritual existence. You have seen that what we describe is always at first spoken of in connection with the fact that it is always related to the present, to our immediate life, as indeed it is. We must naturally have some starting point for our descriptions. Just as in describing the present we must start from the observations and experiences of the present, so also in descriptions of the spiritual world it is necessary to describe the picture which is offered to clairvoyant vision of the life between death and re-birth approximately as things are enacted in the present.
To comprehensive occult observation it is absolutely proved that for that world also in which man lives between death and rebirth, the word “history” has a real significance. Even there something takes place just as here in the physical world. We relate distinctive events following one another, beginning from the 4th century before Christ and describing the events on into our post-Atlantean epoch. In the same way there is a “history” for the other period of existence, we must be aware that the life between death and a re-birth at the time of the Egyptian, the ancient Persian, the ancient Indian civilisations was not just as it is in our time. If in the first place we form a preliminary conception of our present time of the life in Kamaloca and of that in Devachan, it is well to extend these descriptions and advance to a historical consideration. We will bring forward something regarding the chapter of “occult history” and in order to make these matters clear we will keep to quite definite spiritual facts. In order to be able to understand we must begin far back, right back in the Atlantean period. Today we have progressed so far that when we speak of such an epoch we assume something known to you all.
We ask ourselves how in that age when birth and death could first be spoken of, how the life of man played its part beyond the veil. The difference between that life and this was not the same as today. When the man of Atlantis died, what happened to his soul? It passed over into a condition in which it felt itself absolutely one with a spiritual world, in a world of higher individualities.
We know that even here upon this physical earth the life of the Atlantean was quite different from our present life. The present alternation of waking and sleeping and the unconsciousness of the night, as it has often been described, did not exist in the Atlantean age. When man fell asleep and when the knowledge of physical things around him withdrew from his consciousness, he entered a world of the spirit. There appeared to him the vision of spiritual beings. Just as here by day he is together with plants, animals, and human beings, so over there during the sleep-consciousness there appeared a world of higher and lower spiritual beings according to the depth of his sleep. Man grew accustomed to this world; and when at death the Atlantean passed into the world beyond, this world of spiritual Beings, spiritual events, appeared all the more clearly. The man with his complete consciousness felt himself at home in these higher worlds in these worlds of spiritual events and spiritual Beings. If only we were to go back into the first Atlantean age we should find that people looked upon this physical existence—all your souls did so—as a visit to a world in which one tarries for a while and which is quite different from the real home. In the Atlantean Age there was however one peculiarity of this life between death—a re-birth—of which it is difficult for present day man to gain an idea, because he had so completely lost it. The capacity of saying “I” to oneself, of feeling oneself as a self-conscious being, of feeling oneself as an “Ego” which is the essential thing in present day man, was completely lost to the Atlantean on leaving the physical world. When he passed up into the spiritual world whether in sleep or to a higher degree in the life between death and re-birth, in place of the self-consciousness, instead of the feeling: “I am a self-conscious being, I am in myself,” arose the consciousness: “I am one with higher Beings, I plunge, as it were, into the life of these higher Beings”. The man felt himself one with the higher beings and in this feeling of oneness with them he there experienced an immense bliss. This bliss increased more and more the further he withdrew from consciousness of the physical sense existence. This was a life of bliss the further we go back into the ages. We have often heard wherein the purpose of the evolution of humanity in earthly existence consists. It consists in man becoming more and more enmeshed in the physical existence on our earth. In the Atlantean epoch, during the sleep condition man felt himself completely at home in the spiritual world, he felt that world to be bright, clear, and friendly, so his consciousness on this side was still partially dreamlike. There was as yet no real taking possession of the physical body. On waking he forgot to some extent the Gods and Spirits who were his companions during sleep but he did not enter so completely into physical consciousness as he does today. The objects around him had no clear outlines. To the Atlantean it was just as it is to us on a foggy evening when the street lamps appear surrounded by a halo, an aura of all sorts of colours; all the objects of the physical plane were indefinite. The consciousness of the physical plane was only dawning. The strong consciousness of the “I am” had not yet entered into man. Only towards the end of the Atlantean epoch did the human self-consciousness; the consciousness of the personality developed gradually in proportion as man lost his blissful consciousness during sleep. Man gradually conquered the physical world, as he learnt the use of his physical senses—the objects of the physical world gained firmer and more definite outlines. In proportion as man conquered the physical world, the consciousness in the spiritual world altered.
We have followed the various epochs of the post-Atlantean age. We have looked back into the ancient Indian civilisation. We have seen how man then had so far conquered the external that he perceived it as “Maya”—he longed for the spheres of the ancient spiritual country. We have seen that in the Persian epoch the conquest of the physical plane had advanced so far that man wished to connect himself with the good forces of Ormuzd, in order to develop the forces of the physical world. Further we have seen that in the Egypto-Babylonian-Chaldean-Assyrian epoch in the art of measuring the land, which led to working upon the earth, also in star law, men found the means of advancing in the conquest of the external world. Finally we saw that the Graeco-Latin age went still further, that in Greece that beautiful union took place between man and the physical world, in the formation of Grecian cities and also in Greek Art. We saw too that in the fourth epoch the personal element which then came into existence for the first time, appeared in the ancient Roman laws. Whereas formerly man had felt himself part of a whole, part of a reflection of earlier spiritual Beings, the Roman for the first time felt himself to be a citizen of the earth. The concept “citizen” arose—the physical world was conquered little by little, therefore it had become dear to man. The desires and sympathies of man were connected with the physical world and in proportion as sympathy for the physical world grew, his consciousness was connected with physical things. In the same degree the consciousness of man was darkened on the other side, in the time between death and re-birth. That blissful feeling of being part of the existence of higher spiritual Beings was lost to man on the other side to the same extent as this side became dear to him in the course of the conquest of the physical world. Stage by stage man's conquest of the physical world advanced, he was always discovering new forces of Nature, he was always inventing new instruments. Life between birth and death gained an increasing value, and the old dim clairvoyant consciousness of that other world became obscured. It never completely ceased but darkened. As man was conquering the physical world, the history of the other world shows a decline. This descent is in connection with the ascent of civilisation; we observe man in early primitive stages of civilisation, when he grew his corn between two stones, and then see how he ascended stage by stage, how he made the first discoveries, learnt to make and to use implements, and continued to advance in the course of time. Life on the physical plane became ever richer. Man learnt to construct gigantic buildings. In following history through the Egypto-Babylonian-Chaldean-Assyrian age, through the Graeco-Latin age into our own time, we must realize a parting of the ways, if we wish to describe a progress in historical civilisation. In proportion we have to describe a declining path between the upper Gods and that which man was to render to them, that which he performed according to the spiritual world and in the midst of the spiritual world. We see how in later times man continued to lose his connection with the spiritual world and in the spiritual capacities. We have to describe for the other side a history of decline with regard to man, just as for this side we can describe a history of advance, of progressive conquests of the physical world. So may the physical world and the spiritual world be said to supplement one another, or rather to qualify one another.
There is as you know a connection between the spiritual world and our physical world. We have often spoken of the great intermediaries between them, of the Initiates; those who certainly were incarnated in physical bodies, but whose souls towered up into the spiritual world between birth and death, when as a rule man is completely shut off from it; even in this period they were able to have experiences in the spiritual world, and be at home in it. What sort of men were these greater or lesser messengers of the spiritual world, the ancient holy Rishis of India, Buddha, Hermes, Zarathustra, Moses, or all those who in more ancient times were the great “messengers of the Gods”? When we speak of all these who were messengers of the Gods or spirits to men, what was their relation to the Physical world and the spiritual world?
During their initiation and by means of it they experienced the conditions of the spiritual world. Not only could they see with their physical eyes and perceive with their physical intellect the events of the physical world but through their enhanced powers of perception they could also perceive those of the spiritual world. The Initiate not only lives on the physical plane with mankind but he can also trace what the dead are doing in the period between death and re-birth. To him they are just as familiar forms as are men upon the physical plane. From this you see that everything related as occult history flows from the experience of the initiates—A mometuous turning point for all history including that of our own time appeared upon the earth through the Coming of the Christ. And we gain an idea of the progress of history in the other world if we ask ourselves: What significance has the deed of Christ for the Earth? What significance has the mystery of Golgotha for the history of the other side? In many lectures at many places I have been able to point out the incisive significance of the Event on Golgotha for the evolution of the history of the physical plane. Now let us ask: How does the Event of Golgotha present itself when we observe it from the perspective of the other side?—We gain an answer to this question if we fix our eyes upon the point of time in evolution on the other side when men had reached the utmost height of development on the physical plane, when the consciousness of the personality was most strongly developed; the Graeco-Latin epoch. That was the point of time of the appearing of Christ Jesus upon the earth. On the one hand there was the most intense consciousness of the personality, the most intense joy in the material world, and on the other hand the strongest, the mightiest summons towards the other world in the Event of Golgotha, that great deed which represents the conquest of death by life. These things completely coincide if we fix our attention on the physical world. In the Grecian epoch there was truly great joy in external existence and enhanced sympathy with it. Such people alone were capable of building those wonderful Grecian Temples in which the Gods dwelt. Such a life was needed to produce those works of art and sculpture, showing a wonderful union of spirit with matter. Joy in the physical plane and sympathy with it contributed towards this. This only developed gradually and we plainly trace the advance in history if we compare the arising of the Greek in the physical in with the exalted conception of the world which the people of the first post-Atlantean epoch received from their holy Rishis. They had no interest in the physical world, they felt at home in the spiritual world; enraptured, they looked to the world of spirit to which they endeavoured to attain through the teachings and exercises given them by the holy Rishis. Between this disdain of the pleasures of the senses and the great joy in the sense-world of the Graeco-Latin age—that point of union of spirit and the sense-world, in which both had their rights—between these two points lies a long stretch of human history, yet did such counterpart of this conquest of the physical plane exist within the spiritual world in the Graeco-Latin age? He who is able to look into the spiritual world knows that it is no myth, but is actually founded on truth, related to us by the Greek Poets of the foremost men of their civilisation. How did the latter feel in the spiritual world, they who had been so completely in truth and sympathy with the physical world? It is absolutely in conformity with truth when the sages attributed the words to them: Better be a beggar in the upper world than a king in the realms of shades:! The dimmest weakest conditions of consciousness existed at this period between death and re-birth. With all his sympathies in the physical world man did not understand the existence in the world beyond. He felt as if he had lost everything and the spiritual world appeared valueless to him. In proportion as sympathy for the physical world increased did the Greek heroes feel themselves lost in the spiritual world. An Agamemnon, an Achilles, felt himself to be a depleted being, a Non-being in this world of shades. Of course there were intermediate periods—for the connection with the spiritual is never completely lost,—in which even these people took part with spiritual Beings and spiritual activities, but the condition of consciousness which has just been described certainly existed. Thus we have a history of the world on the other side, a history of descent, just as we have a history of ascent on this side.
Those who were called the messengers of the Gods or spiritual messengers always had the power of going to and fro, from one world to the other. Let us try to picture what the spiritual messengers were upon the physical plane in the pre-Christian ages of humanity. They were those who from their experiences in the spiritual world were able to tell the people of the ancient world what the spiritual really was. Of course there they also experienced the extinguished consciousness of the physical earth man, but as compensation the whole spiritual world in its resplendent abundance was also open to them and they were able to bring to the men on earth the information that there was a spiritual world and what it looked like. They could bear witness of this spiritual world. This was specially important in the ages in which man stood forth more and more on the physical plane with his interests in it. The more man conquered the earth, the more his joy and sympathy were centered in the physical world—the more these messengers of the Gods had to emphasize the fact that the spiritual world existed. They could always speak in this way: You know this and that regarding the Earth, but there is also a spiritual world; of which such can be said—In short the complete picture of the spiritual world was revealed to man by the messengers of the Gods. This was known in the various religions. And always when the messengers of the Gods returned after their initiation or after a visit to the spiritual world, they could bring with them to the physical world, which was becoming more and more beautiful to those living on the physical plane—comfort and exaltation from the spiritual world, something of the treasures of the spiritual world. They brought the fruits of the spiritual life into physical life. And it was always the case that people were led into the spirit by means of that which the messengers of the Gods brought to them. The physical world, the world on this side, profited by the messengers of the Gods and what they brought. But these spiritual messengers could not work fruitfully in like measure for the world beyond. You can picture it in this way. When the initiate, the messenger of the Gods, passed over into the other world the beings there were his companions just as were the beings in the physical world. He could speak to them and give them information as to what was happening in the physical world. But the nearer the Graeco-Latin epoch approached, the less could the initiate, when he passed over from the earth to the other side, offer to the souls there anything of value, for they felt too keenly the loss of that upon which they had depended in the physical world. That which the initiate could impart to them was no longer of any value to them. Thus in pre-Christian times that which the initiates brought over as their messages to men in the physical world was in the highest degree fruitful, but that which they were able to take over from the physical world to the deceased was unfruitful for the spiritual world. Great as was the message which Buddha, Hermes, Zarathustra brought to men of the physical plane, they could accomplish but little on the other side, for they could bring little of what was satisfactory or animating as a message to the other side—Now let us compare that which came about for the other side through the Christ, that which took place in the period of deepest decadence, in the Graeco-Latin period, with that which previously came about by means of the initiates. We know what the Event of Golgotha signifies for the history of the earth. We know that it was the conquest of earthly death by the life of the spirits, the overcoming of all death through the evolution of the earth. Even if today we cannot enter into all that the Mystery of Golgotha signifies, we can summarize it in a few words: it signifies the final and incontestable proof of the fact that life has conquered death. When upon Golgotha life conquered death, spirit laid down the germ of the final conquest of matter! That which is related in the Gospel regarding that visit which Christ made after the Event upon Golgotha to the dead in the underworld is not a legend or a symbol. Occult investigation shows you that it is the truth. Just as truly as Christ wandered among men during the last three years of the life of Jesus, so did he cause the dead to rejoice by visiting them immediately after the Event of Golgotha. He appeared to the dead, to the souls of the deceased. This is an occult truth. He could then tell them that in the physical world spirit had incontestably gained the victory over matter. To the souls of the departed on the other side this was a flame of light which sprang up like spiritual electricity, and the dying consciousness of the Graeco-Latin age in the other world was stimulated, a completely new phase began for man between death and re-birth. And ever since that time clearer and clearer has grown the consciousness of man between death and re-birth.
Thus if we describe history, we can supplement the statements regarding Kamaloca and the life in Devachan, and we must point out that with the appearing of Christ upon the earth a completely new phrase began for the life on the other side. The fruit of that which the Christ accomplished for the evolution of the earth was experienced in a radical change in the life beyond. This visit of Christ to the other side signified a revival of the life there between death and re-birth. since that time the departed who at that important point of the Graeco-Latin age, in spite of all the pleasure they had had in the physical world, had felt themselves mere shadows, so that they preferred to be beggars in the upper world rather than kings in the realm of shades—now began to feel more and more on the other side. Since that time man has grown more into the spiritual world, and a period of ascent, of blossoming, has dawned for the spiritual world. We shall always see what we acquire for the observation of human life upon the earth, if we place before us the true qualities of the spiritual world.
Dritter Vortrag
Wir sprechen in bezug auf die äußere physische Welt von einer «Geschichte». Wir blicken zurück an der Hand äußerer Dokumente und Nachrichten in die verflossenen Zeiten der Geschichte der Völker, der Menschheit. Sie wissen ja, daß man auf diesem Wege durch die Erschließung so mancher neuerer Dokumente bis in frühe Jahrtausende vor Christi Geburt zurückblicken kann. Nun haben Sie aus den Vorträgen, die wir auf dem Felde der Geisteswissenschaft gehört haben, entnehmen können, daß wir an der Hand von okkulten Dokumenten noch viel weiter, in unbegrenzte Weiten der Vergangenheit zurücksehen können. Wir erkennen also eine äußere Geschichte der äußeren physischen Welt an. Wir wissen, wenn wir sprechen über die Lebensgewohnheiten, über die Kenntnisse, überhaupt über die Erlebnisse der Völker, welche lebten in den unmittelbar hinter uns liegenden Jahrhunderten, wenn wir über ihre Entdeckungen und Erfindungen sprechen wollen, daß wir anders sprechen müssen, als wenn wir ein oder zwei Jahrtausende zurückgehen und von den Sitten und Gewohnheiten, von den Kenntnissen und Erkenntnissen weit zurückliegender Völker sprechen. Und immer anders wird die Geschichte, wenn wir weiter zurückgehen in der Zeit. Es ziemt sich vielleicht, einmal zu fragen, ob denn das Wort «Geschichte, «historische Entwicklung» nur eine Bedeutung hat für diese äußere physische Welt, ob nur da im Laufe der Zeiten sich die Ereignisse, die Physiognomie des Geschehens ändern oder ob vielleicht das Wort Geschichte auch eine Bedeutung haben kann für die andere Seite des Daseins, für jene Seite, die wir eben gerade durch die Geisteswissenschaft beschreiben, die der Mensch zu durchleben hat in der Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt.
Zunächst, bloß äußerlich angesehen, müssen wir uns ja sagen, daß nach alle dem, was wir wissen, das Leben des Menschen in diesen anderen, für den heutigen Menschen übersinnlichen Welten sogar ein längeres ist als das in der physischen Welt. Hat das Wort «Ge schichte» auch für diese Welt, für diese andere Seite des Daseins, eine Bedeutung? Oder sollen wir uns der Anschauung hingeben, daß in den Gefilden, die der Mensch durchlebt in der Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, immer alles gleichbleibt, daß es dasselbe ist, wenn wir zum Beispiel zurückgehen durch das 18., 17. Jahrhundert hindurch bis in das 8., 7., 6. Jahrhundert nach dem Erscheinen des Christus Jesus auf der Erde und noch weiter, in die vorchristlichen Jahrhunderte? Die Menschen, die mit der Geburt das irdische Dasein betreten, treffen ja mit jeder neuen Geburt andere Verhältnisse auf der Erde an. Denken wir uns einmal in die Seele eines Menschen hinein - und es sind ja unsere eigenen Seelen, um die es sich handelt -, der erschienen ist in einer Verkörperung im alten Ägypten oder im alten Persien. Stellen wir uns lebhaft vor, in welche Verhältnisse ein Mensch hineingeboren wurde, der im alten Ägypten gegenüberstand den gigantischen Pyramiden und Obelisken und all den Lebensverhältnissen, die uns in dem alten Ägypten gegeben sind. Denken wir uns, was das gerade für das Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod für Lebensverhältnisse sind. Sagen wir nun, dieser Mensch stirbt, er macht eine Zeit durch zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt und wird nunmehr hineingeboren in eine Zeit des 7., 8. Jahrhunderts der nachchristlichen Epoche. Vergleichen wir die Zeiten: Wie anders stellt sich der Seele in dem irdischen Dasein die Welt dar in den Zeiten vor dem Erscheinen des Christus Jesus äußerlich hier auf dem physischen Plan! Und fragen wir weiter: Was erlebt die Seele, die vielleicht in den ersten Jahrhunderten der nachchristlichen Zeit erschienen ist und die jetzt wiederum unseren physischen Plan betritt? - Da findet sie die neueren staatlichen Einrichtungen, von denen dazumal keine Rede war. Sie erlebt das, was unsere modernen Kulturmittel gebracht haben, kurz, ein ganz anderes Bild bietet sich einer solchen Seele dar gegenüber dem, was sich ihr in den vorhergehenden Inkarnationen dargeboten hat. Und wir sind uns bewußt, wenn wir diese einzelnen Inkarnationen vergleichen, wie verschieden sie voneinander sind. Ist es da nicht berechtigt, die Frage aufzuwerfen: Wie ist es denn mit den Lebensverhältnissen eines Menschen zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt, also zwischen zwei Inkarnationen? Wenn ein Mensch früher im alten Ägypten gelebt hat und nach dem Tode in die geistige Welt gegangen ist, dort bestimmte Tatsachen, bestimmte Wesenheiten gefunden hat, wenn er dann wieder ins physische Dasein trat in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten, wieder starb und wieder hinüberging in die andere Welt und so weiter - ist es da nicht berechtigt zu fragen, ob sich auf der anderen Seite des Daseins bei all den Erlebnissen, die der Mensch da durchmacht, nicht auch eine «Geschichte» abspielt, ob nicht auch da im Verlaufe der Zeit sich vieles ändert?
Sie wissen ja, daß, wenn wir das Leben des Menschen zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt schildern, wir ein allgemeines Bild davon geben, wie dieses Leben ist. Wir schildern da, ausgehend von dem Moment des Todes, wie der Mensch, nachdem sich vor seiner Seele jenes große Erinnerungstableau entwickelt hat, eintritt in die Zeit, wo seine im astralischen Leib befindlichen Triebe, Begierden, Leidenschaften, kurz, wo alles, was ihn noch an die physische Welt bindet, noch in ihm ist, wo sich das abspielt, was man gewohnt worden ist Kamaloka zu nennen, und wie der Mensch, nachdem er diese Verbindung abgestreift hat, dann in das Devachan eingeht, in eine rein geistige Welt. Und wir schildern dann weiter, was in dieser Zeit zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt für den Menschen in diesem rein geistigen Dasein sich weiter entwickelt bis zu seinem Wiederkommen in der physischen Welt. Sie haben gesehen, wie das, was wir da schildern, zunächst immer sozusagen mit Rücksicht darauf besprochen wurde, daß es sich auf die Gegenwart, auf unser unmittelbares Leben bezieht. Und so ist es auch. Man muß natürlich von irgend etwas ausgehen, man muß auf irgendeinem Posten stehen, wenn man schildert. Geradeso wie man bei Schilderungen der Gegenwart ausgehen muß von den Beobachtungen und Erfahrungen in der Gegenwart, so ist es auch bei Schilderungen über die geistige Welt notwendig, das Bild, das sich dem hellseherischen Blick darbietet für das Leben zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt, ungefähr so zu schildern, wie es sich in der Gegenwart durchschnittlich abspielt, wenn der Mensch stirbt und durch die geistige Welt einem neuen Dasein entgegenlebt. Aber für eine umfassende okkulte Beobachtung ergibt sich durchaus, daß auch für diese Welt, die der Mensch durchlebt zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt, das Wort «Geschichte» eine gute Bedeutung hat. Auch da geschieht geradeso etwas, wie hier in der physischen Welt. Und ebenso wie wir aufeinanderfolgende sich unterscheidende Ereignisse erzählen, wie wir etwa anfangen bei dem 4. Jahrtausend vor Christus und die Ereignisse schildern bis in unsere nachchristliche Zeit hinein, so müssen wir für die andere Zeit des Daseins ebenso eine «Geschichte» konstatieren, müssen uns auch da bewußt werden, daß das Leben zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt in der Zeit der ägyptischen, der altpersischen oder der uralt indischen Kultur nicht genau so war, wie es zum Beispiel in unserer Zeit ist. Wenn man sich also zunächst eine vorläufige Vorstellung in unserer Gegenwart über das Kamaloka-Leben und über das Devachan-Leben gebildet hat, dann ist es wohl auch an der Zeit, diese Schilderungen auszudehnen und zu einer geschichtlichen Betrachtung dieser Welten vorzurücken. Und wir wollen, um uns über diese Dinge klar zu werden, wenn wir einiges über das Kapitel «okkulte Geschichte» vorführen, uns gleich an ganz bestimmte geistige Tatsachen halten. Wir müssen allerdings, um uns verständigen zu können, weit zurückgreifen, etwa bis in die atlantische Zeit zurück. Wir sind ja heute so weit, daß wir etwas für jeden Bekanntes voraussetzen, wenn wir von solchen Zeiten sprechen.
Wir fragen uns, wie in diesen Zeiten, in denen schon von Geburt und Tod die Rede sein kann, wie da das Leben des Menschen - um einen Ausdruck zu haben - im Jens ch ausnahm. Es unterschied sich das Leben im Jenseits damals von dem Leben im Diesseits ganz anders, als es sich heute unterscheidet. Wenn der Atlantier starb, was geschah da mit seiner Seele? Sie ging über in einen Zustand, wo sie sich im eminentesten Sinne geborgen fühlte in einer geistigen Welt, in einer Welt höherer geistiger Individualitäten. Wir wissen ja, daß auch hier auf dieser physischen Erde das Leben des Atlantiers anders verlief als unser heutiges Leben. Der heutige Wechsel zwischen Wachen und Schlafen und das Unbewußtsein während der Nacht - es ist öfter davon gesprochen worden -, das war in der atlantischen Zeit nicht da. Während der Mensch hinüberschlummerte und während sich zurückzog von seinem Bewußtsein das Wissen der physischen Dinge um ihn herum, ging er ein in eine Welt des Geistigen. Da tauchte auf für ihn der Anblick von geistigen Wesenheiten. So wie er hier mit Pflanzen, Tieren, Menschen und so weiter zusammen ist bei Tag, so tauchte drüben auch während des Schlafbewußtseins auf eine Welt von niederen und höheren geistigen Wesenheiten in demselben Maße, als der Mensch einschlief. Der Mensch lebte sich in diese Welt hinein. Und wenn der Atlantier mit dem Tode hinüberging in eine jenseitige Welt, dann tauchte um so heller diese Welt der geistigen Wesenheiten, der geistigen Geschehnisse auf. Der Mensch fühlte sich in diesen atlantischen Zeiten in seinem ganzen Bewußtsein viel mehr heimisch in diesen höheren Welten, in diesen Welten geistiger Begebenheiten und geistiger Wesenheiten, als in der physischen Welt. Und wir dürfen nur in die ersten atlantischen Zeiten zurückgehen, da finden wir, daß die Menschen dieses physische Dasein so auffaßten - alle Ihre Seelen taten das so — wie einen Besuch in einer Welt, wo man eben eine Zeitlang verweilt, die aber anders ist als die eigentliche Heimat, welche nicht in dieser irdischen Sphäre verfloß.
Eines aber war in den atlantischen Zeiten eine Eigenartigkeit dieses Lebens zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt, wovon sich der heutige Mensch schwer eine Vorstellung machen kann, weil er sie ganz verloren hat. Jene Fähigkeit, «Ich» zu sich zu sagen, sich als ein selbstbewußtes Wesen zu fühlen, sich als ein «Ich» zu empfinden, was das Wesentliche des heutigen Menschen ausmacht, das ging mit dem Verlassen der physischen Welt für den Atlantier ganz verloren. Indem er sich hinaufbewegte in die geistige Welt, sei es im Schlafe oder in höherem Maße während des Lebens zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt, da setzte sich an die Stelle des Ich-Bewußtseins: «Ich bin ein selbstbewußtes Wesen», «ich bin in mir», an diese Stelle setzte sich das Bewußtsein: «Ich bin geborgen in den höheren Wesenheiten», «ich tauche gleichsam hinein in das Leben dieser höheren Wesenheiten selber». Eins fühlte sich der Mensch mit den höheren Wesenheiten, und in dem Sich-eins-Fühlen empfand er eine unendliche Seligkeit in diesem Jenseits. Und so wuchs seine Seligkeit immer mehr und mehr, je weiter er sich von dem Bewußtsein des physisch-sinnlichen Daseins entfernte. Es war ein beseligendes Leben, je weiter wir zurückgehen in der Zeit. Und wir haben es öfter gehört, worin der Sinn der Menschheitsentwicklung in dem irdischen Dasein besteht. Er besteht darin, daß der Mensch immer mehr und mehr verstrickt wird mit dem physischen Dasein auf unserer Erde. Wenn der Mensch der atlantischen Zeit in dem Schlafbewußtsein sich im Jenseits ganz zu Hause fühlte, diese Welt als hell und klar und freundlich empfand, so war dafür auch sein Bewußtsein im Diesseits noch ein halb traumhaftes. Es war noch kein rechtes Besitzergreifen des physischen Leibes vorhanden. Wenn der Mensch aufwachte, vergass er in einer gewissen Beziehung die Götter und Geister, die er im Schlafe erlebt hatte, aber er lebte sich doch nicht so hinein in das physische Bewußtsein wie heute, wenn er des Morgens aufwacht. Die Gegenstände hatten noch keine klaren Umrisse. Es war für den Atlantier immer so, wie wenn Sie an einem Nebelabend hinausgehen und die Straßenlaternen umgeben sehen mit einem Hof, mit einer Aura von allen möglichen Farben. So undeutlich waren alle Gegenstände des physischen Planes. Das Bewußtsein des physischen Planes war erst im Aufdämmern. Es war noch nicht das starke Bewußtsein des «Ich bin» in den Menschen hineingefahren. Erst gegen die letzten atlantischen Zeiten entwickelte sich immer mehr und mehr das menschliche Selbstbewußtsein, das Persönlichkeitsbewußtsein in dem Maße, als der Mensch jenes beseligende Bewußtsein im Schlafe verlor. Der Mensch eroberte sich nach und nach die physische Welt, er lernte immer mehr den Gebrauch seiner Sinne, und damit bekamen auch die Gegenstände der physischen Welt immer festere und bestimmtere Umrisse. In demselben Maße, als der Mensch sich die physische Welt eroberte, änderte sich aber auch das Bewußtsein drüben in der geistigen Welt.
Wir haben die verschiedenen Zeiträume der nachatlantischen Zeit verfolgt. Wir haben zurückgeschaut in die uralt indische Kultur. Wir haben gesehen, wie sich da der Mensch das Äußere so weit erobert hatte, daß er es als Maja empfand, daß er sich zurücksehnte in die Gefilde des alten geistigen Landes. Wir haben gesehen, wie in der persischen Kulturzeit die Eroberung des physischen Planes schon so weit gegangen war, daß der Mensch sich verbinden wollte mit den guten Kräften des Ormuzd, um die Kräfte der physischen Welt umzugestalten. Wir haben ferner gesehen, wie in der ägyptisch-babylonisch-chaldäisch-assyrischen Zeit die Menschen in der Feldmeßkunst, die zur Bearbeitung der Erde führte, oder auch in der Sternenkunde die Mittel fanden, die sie weiterbrachten in der Eroberung der äußeren Welt. Und endlich sahen wir, wie die griechisch-lateinische Zeit noch weiter ging, wie in Griechenland jene schöne Ehe zustande kam zwischen dem Menschen und der physischen Welt, in der griechischen Städtebildung oder auch in der griechischen Kunst. Und wir sahen, wie im vierten Zeitraum das Persönliche, das so zum ersten Male da war, auftauchte im alten römischen Recht. Während sich der Mensch früher in einem Ganzen geborgen fühlte, was noch der Abglanz war früherer geistiger Wesenheiten, fühlte sich der Römer zuerst als der Erdenbürger. Der Begriff des Bürgers kam auf.
Die physische Welt war Stück für Stück erobert. Sie wurde dafür aber auch von dem Menschen lieb gewonnen. Die Neigungen und Sympathien des Menschen verbanden sich mit der physischen Welt, und in dem gleichen Maße, wie die Sympathie für die physische Welt wuchs, verband sich auch das Bewußtsein des Menschen mit den physischen Dingen. Aber in demselben Maße verdunkelte sich auch für den Menschen das Bewußtsein in dem Jenseits, in der Zeit zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt. Jenes beseligende Sichgeborgen-Fühlen in dem Dasein höherer geistiger Wesenheiten, das verlor der Mensch in demselben Maße im Jenseits, als er im Verlaufe der in der Geschichte sich folgenden Eroberungen der physischen Welt das Diesseits lieb gewann. Es wuchs von Stufe zu Stufe die Eroberung der physischen Welt durch den Menschen, immer neue Naturkräfte entdeckte er, immer neue Werkzeuge erfand er. Lieber und immer lieber gewann er dies Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod. Dafür aber verdunkelte sich sein altes dämmerhaftes Hellseherbewußtsein in der jenseitigen Welt. Es hörte niemals vollständig auf, aber es verdunkelte sich. Und während sich der Mensch die physische Welt eroberte, stellt die Geschichte der jenseitigen Welt einen Niedergang dar. Dieser Niedergang steht im Verhältnis zu dem Heraufsteigen der Kultur, das wir schildern, wenn wir die Menschen in den ersten primitiven Kulturanfängen betrachten, wie sie zwischen zwei Reibsteinen sich ihr Getreide zerreiben, und dann sehen, wie sie von Stufe zu Stufe aufsteigen, wie sie die ersten Entdeckungen machen, sich Werkzeuge verschaffen und gebrauchen lernen, und wie das im Laufe der Zeit immer weiter vorwärtsschreitet. Immer reicher wird das Leben auf dem physischen Plan. Der Mensch lernt gigantische Bauten aufführen. Aber indem wir so Geschichte schildern, durch die ägyptisch-babylonisch-chaldäisch-assyrische Zeit, durch die griechisch-römische Zeit hindurch bis in unsere Zeit, müssen wir allerdings einen Einschnitt machen, wenn wir einen kulturgeschichtlichen Fortgang schildern wollen. In demselben Maße müßten wir schildern einen Weg des Niederganges der Verbindung zwischen höheren Göttern und dem, was der Mensch den Göttern leisten durfte, was er tat im Sinne der geistigen Welt und inmitten der geistigen Welt. Und wir sehen, wie in den späteren Zeiten der Mensch immer mehr seine Verbindung mit den geistigen Welten und geistigen Fähigkeiten verliert. Wir müßten für das Jenseits ebenso eine Geschichte des Niederganges schreiben für die Menschen, wie wir für das Diesseits eine Geschichte des Aufschwunges, der fortlaufenden Eroberung der physischen Welt schreiben können. So ergänzen sich sozusagen geistige Welt und physische Welt, oder noch besser gesagt: so bedingen sie sich.
Es gibt - wie Sie ja auch wissen - eine Beziehung zwischen dieser geistigen Welt und unserer physischen Welt. Es ist ja oft gesprochen worden von den großen Vermittlern zwischen der geistigen Welt und der physischen Welt, von den Eingeweihten, von denjenigen, die zwar im physischen Leibe verkörpert sind, aber dennoch mit ihrer Seele hinaufragen in die geistige Welt zwischen Geburt und Tod, wo sonst der Mensch ganz abgeschlossen ist von der geistigen Welt, die auch in dieser Zeit Erfahrungen machen können in der geistigen Welt, sich hineinleben können in die geistige Welt. Was waren sie für den Menschen, diese mehr oder weniger großen oder kleinen Boten der geistigen Welt, wenn wir von den Spitzen derselben reden, meinetwillen von den alten heiligen Rishis der Inder, von dem Buddha, dem Hermes, Zarathustra, Moses oder all denen, die in den älteren Zeiten die großen Gottesboten waren? Wenn wir von all denen sprechen, die so Gottes- oder Geistesboten für die Menschen waren, was waren sie in bezug auf das Verhältnis zwischen der physischen und der geistigen Welt?
Während ihrer Einweihung und durch ihre Einweihung erlebten sie die Verhältnisse der geistigen Welt. Sie konnten nicht nur mit ihren physischen Augen sehen und mit ihrem physischen Verstand wahrnehmen, was in der physischen Welt hier vorging, sondern sie konnten durch ihre gesteigerte Wahrnehmungsfähigkeit auch das wahrnehmen, was in der geistigen Welt vorgeht. Der Eingeweihte lebt nicht nur auf dem physischen Plan mit den Menschen, sondern er kann auch verfolgen, was die Toten tun in der Zeit zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt. Sie sind ihm ebenso vertraute Gestalten wie die Menschen auf dem physischen Plan. Daraus können Sie sehen, daß alles, was so erzählt wird als okkulte Geschichte, eben fließt aus den Erlebnissen der Eingeweihten.
Eine wichtige Wendung, auch für die von uns jetzt berührte Geschichte, tritt auf der Erde ein durch das Erscheinen des Christus. Und wir bekommen ein Bild von dem Fortrücken der Geschichte in der jenseitigen Welt, wenn wir uns fragen: Welche Bedeutung hat die Tat des Christus auf der Erde? Welche Bedeutung hat das Mysterium von Golgatha für die Geschichte im Jenseits?
An verschiedenen Orten konnte ich in manchen Vorträgen hinweisen auf die einschneidende Bedeutung des Ereignisses von Golgatha für die Entwicklung der Geschichte des physischen Planes. Fragen wir jetzt einmal: Wie stellt sich das Ereignis von Golgatha dar, wenn wir es betrachten von der Perspektive des Jenseits aus? Wir kommen zur Beantwortung dieser Frage, wenn wir gerade den Zeitpunkt der Entwicklung im Jenseits ins Auge fassen, wo die Menschen am meisten herausgetreten waren auf den physischen Plan, wo das Persönlichkeitsbewußtsein am stärksten sich entwickelt hatte: den Zeitpunkt der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit. Und das ist auch der Zeitpunkt des Erscheinens des Christus Jesus auf der Erde: auf der einen Seite das intensivste Persönlichkeitsbewußtsein, die intensivste Freude an der sinnlichen Welt, auf der anderen Seite der stärkste, der gewaltigste Ruf nach der jenseitigen Welt in dem Ereignis von Golgatha, und die größte Tat, die der Überwindung des Todes durch das Leben, wie es sich in diesem Ereignis von Golgatha darstellt. Diese zwei Dinge fallen durchaus zusammen, wenn wir die physische Welt ins Auge fassen. Es war wirklich eine große Freude und eine gesteigerte Sympathie am äußeren Dasein in der griechischen Zeit. Nur solche Menschen konnten jene wunderbaren griechischen Tempel schaffen, in welchen, wie Ihnen geschildert worden ist, die Götter selber wohnten. Nur diese Menschen, die so in der physischen Welt standen, konnten jene Kunstwerke der Bildhauerei schaffen, wo eine so wunderbare Vermählung des Geistes mit der Materie zutage tritt. Dazu gehörte Freude und Sympathie für den physischen Plan. Die haben sich allmählich erst entwickelt, und wir spüren geradezu den Fortgang in der Geschichte, wenn wir vergleichen das Aufgehen des Griechen in der physischen Welt mit der erhabenen Weltanschauung, welche die ersten nachatlantischen Kulturmenschen von ihren heiligen Rishis entgegengenommen haben. Kein Interesse hatten diese an der physischen Welt, heimisch fühlten sich diese Menschen in der geistigen Welt, beseligt schauten sie noch hinauf in die Welt des Geistes, die sie zu erreichen suchten an der Hand der Lehren und Übungen, die ihnen die heiligen Rishis gaben. Zwischen diesem Verschmähen der Sinnesfreude bis zu der größten Freude an der Sinneswelt in der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit liegt ein großes Stück menschlicher Geschichte - bis zu dem Punkt, wo jene Ehe zwischen dem Geiste und der Sinneswelt zustande gekommen ist, in der beide zu ihrem Rechte kamen.
Was aber war das Gegenstück zu dieser Eroberung des physischen Planes in der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit in der geistigen Welt? Wer da hineinschauen kann in die geistige Welt, der weiß, daß es nicht eine Sage ist, sondern daß es wirklich auf Wahrheit beruht, was die griechischen Dichter sagen von denen, die die besten Menschen ihrer Kultur waren. Diejenigen, welche sich so ganz mit ihren Sympathien drinnen fühlten in der physischen Welt, wie fühlten sie sich in der geistigen Welt? Es ist durchaus der Wahrheit entsprechend, wenn einem solchen die Worte in den Mund gelegt werden: Lieber ein Bettler sein in der Oberwelt, als ein König im Reiche der Schatten! Der dumpfeste, der am wenigsten intensive Bewußtseinszustand trat ein gerade in dieser Zeit zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt. Bei aller Sympathie für die physische Welt verstand der Mensch nicht das Dasein in der jenseitigen Welt. Es kam ihm vor, als wenn er alles verloren hätte, und die geistige Welt schien ihm wertlos. In demselben Maße als die Sympathie für die physische Welt wuchs, in demselben Maße fühlten sich verloren drüben in der geistigen Welt die griechischen Helden. Und ein Agamemnon, ein Achill fühlten sich drüben wie ausgepreßte Wesen, wie ein Nichts in dieser Welt der Schatten. Allerdings gab es dazwischen Zeiten - denn der Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt ist niemals ganz verlorengegangen -, in denen auch diese Menschen mit den geistigen Wesenheiten und geistigen Tätigkeiten leben konnten. Aber der Bewußtseinszustand, der eben angedeutet worden ist, war durchaus vorhanden. So haben wir eine Geschichte der jenseitigen Welt, eine Geschichte des Niederganges, wie wir eine Geschichte des Aufschwunges haben für die diesseitige Welt.
Diejenigen, welche als Gottes- oder Geistesboten genannt worden sind, haben immer die Möglichkeit gehabt, herüber und hinüber zu gehen, von der einen Welt in die andere. Versuchen wir uns einmal zu vergegenwärtigen, was diese Geistesboten in den vorchristlichen Zeiten den Menschen des physischen Planes waren. Sie waren diejenigen, welche aus ihren Erfahrungen in der geistigen Welt heraus den Menschen der alten Welt sagen konnten, wie es eigentlich in der geistigen Welt ist. Freilich erlebten sie auch da drüben das ausgelöschte Bewußtsein der physischen Erdenmenschen, dafür aber auch die ganze geistige Welt in ihrer glanzvollen Fülle. Und sie konnten den Erdenmenschen Nachricht bringen, daß es eine geistige Welt gibt, und ihnen sagen, wie sie ausschaut. Zeugnis konnten sie ablegen für diese geistige Welt. Das war in diesen Zeiten ganz besonders wichtig, wo die Menschen auf dem physischen Plan immer mehr und mehr herausgingen mit ihren Interessen auf den physischen Plan. Und je mehr die Menschen die Erde eroberten, je mehr Freude und Sympathie sich einlebten in bezug auf die physische Welt, desto mehr auch mußten die Gottesboten immer betonen, daß die geistige Welt da ist. Sie konnten immer so sprechen: Dies und jenes wißt ihr von der Erde. Aber es gibt auch eine geistige Welt. Dies und das muß euch gesagt werden von der geistigen Welt - kurz, das ganze Tableau der geistigen Welt ist durch die Gottesboten den Menschen enthüllt worden. Die Menschen kannten es in den verschiedensten Religio-nen. Aber immer, wenn sozusagen diese Gottesboten herüberkamen nach ihrer Einweihung oder sonst nach einem Besuch in der geistigen Welt, da konnten sie für die physische Welt, die ja immer schöner und schöner für das Leben auf dem physischen Plan wurde, Erfrischungen und Erhebungen aus der geistigen Welt mitbringen, irgend etwas von den Schätzen der geistigen Welt. Da brachten sie die Früchte des geistigen Lebens hinein in das physische Leben. Immer war es so, daß durch das, was ihnen die Gottesboten brachten, die Menschen in den Geist hineingeführt wurden. Gewonnen hat die Welt des Physischen, das Diesseits, durch die Gottesboten und ihre Botschaften.
Nicht in demselben Maße konnten diese Gottesboten fruchtbar wirken für die jenseitige Welt. Sie können es sich durchaus so vorstellen: Wenn der Eingeweihte, der Gottesbote, hinübergeht in die jenseitige Welt, sind ihm die Wesen drüben geradeso Genossen wie die Wesen in der physischen Welt. Er kann zu ihnen sprechen und ihnen Mitteilung machen von dem, was in der physischen Welt vorgeht. Aber je mehr wir uns dem griechisch-lateinischen Zeitraume nähern, desto weniger Wertvolles konnte der Eingeweihte, wenn er von der Erde in das Jenseits hinüberkam, den Seelen im Jenseits bieten. Denn sie fühlten zu sehr den Verlust dessen, woran sie gehangen hatten in der physischen Welt. Nichts mehr war für sie wertvoll von dem, was ihnen der Eingeweihte erzählen konnte. So war in den vorchristlichen Zeiten im höchsten Grade fruchtbar das, was die Eingeweihten als ihre Botschaften den Menschen in der physischen Welt herüberbrachten, und so war für die geistige Welt unfruchtbar, was sie den Abgeschiedenen von der physischen Welt hinüberbringen konnten. Buddha, Hermes, Zarathustra, so große Botschaft sie den Menschen der physischen Welt brachten, so wenig konnten sie drüben erreichen. Denn sie konnten wenig erfreuliche und belebende Botschaften hinübertragen in das Jenseits.
Stellen wir jetzt das, was durch den Christus für das Jenseits geschah, was gerade sozusagen in der Zeit tiefster Dekadenz, wenn wir die okkulte Geschichte schildern, in der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit für das Jenseits der Fall ist, stellen wir das mit dem zusammen, was vorher durch die Eingeweihten geschah. Wir wissen, was das Ereignis von Golgatha für die Erdengeschichte bedeutet. Wir wissen, daß es die Besiegung des irdischen Todes durch das Leben des Geistes ist, die Überwindung allen Todes durch die Erdenevolution. Wenn wir auch heute nicht auf alles eingehen können, was das Mysterium von Golgatha bedeutet, so können wir es doch in ein paar Worten zusammenfassen: Es bedeutet den endgültigen und unumstößlichen Tatsachenbeweis, daß das Leben den Tod besiegt. Und auf Golgatha hat das Leben den Tod besiegt, hat der Geist den Keim zur endgültigen Besiegung der Materie gelegt! Was im Evangelium erzählt wird über jenen Besuch, den der Christus nach dem Ereignis von Golgatha in der Unterwelt bei den Toten getan hat, das ist nicht eine Legende ‚oder ein Symbolum. Die okkulte Forschung zeigt Ihnen, daß es eine Wahrheit ist. Ebenso wahr, wie der Christus unter den Menschen in den drei letzten Jahren des Jesus-Lebens gewandelt hat, ebenso konnten sich die Toten seines Besuches erfreuen. Unmittelbar nach dem Ereignis von Golgatha erschien er den Toten, den abgeschiedenen Seelen. Das ist eine okkulte Wahrheit. Und jetzt konnte er ihnen sagen, daß in der physischen Welt drüben der Geist unumstößlich den Sieg über die Materie davongetragen hat! Das war eine Lichtflamme in der jenseitigen Welt für die abgeschiedenen Seelen, die wie geistig-elektrisch einschlug und das erstorbene Jenseitsbewußtsein der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit anregte, eine ganz neue Phase beginnend für die Menschen zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt. Und immer heller und heller wurde seit jener Zeit das Bewußtsein des Menschen zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt.
So können wir, wenn wir Geschichte schildern, die Angaben über die Gegenwartsverhältnisse durch das ergänzen, was wir über Kamaloka und über das Devachanleben zu sagen haben, und wir müssen darauf hinweisen, daß durch das Erscheinen des Christus auf der Erde eine ganz neue Phase beginnt für das Jenseitsleben, daß die Frucht dessen, was der Christus für die Erdenevolution geleistet hat, sich auslebt in einer radikalen Änderung des Jenseitslebens. Dieser Besuch des Christus im Jenseits bedeutet Ungeheures, eine Auffrischung des Lebens im Jenseits zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt. Seit jener Zeit fühlten sich die Abgeschiedenen, die sich in diesem wichtigen Augenblick der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit, trotz aller ihrer Freude für die physische Welt, wie Schatten empfanden, so daß sie lieber Bettler sein wollten in der Oberwelt, als Könige im Reiche der Schatten, sie fühlten sich jetzt immer mehr und mehr heimisch werdend im Jenseits. Und seither ist das der Fall, daß die Menschen immer mehr und mehr hineinwachsen in die geistige Welt, und eine Periode des Aufstieges, des Aufblühens in der geistigen Welt war damit angebrochen.
So haben wir einmal das Ereignis von Golgatha von dem Gesichtspunkte der anderen Welt aus - wenn auch nur skizzenhaft - berührt und zu gleicher Zeit darauf hingewiesen, daß es eine Geschichte für die geistige Welt geradeso gibt wie eine Geschichte für die physische Welt. Und erst dadurch, daß wir diese wirklichen Beziehungen zwischen der physischen Welt und der geistigen Welt erforschen, wird die eine Welt auch für die andere Welt im Menschenleben fruchtbar. Immer werden wir sehen, was wir gewinnen für die Betrachtung des Menschenlebens auf der Erde, wenn wir die wahren Eigenschaften der geistigen Welt vor uns hinstellen.
Third Lecture
When we speak of the external physical world, we speak of “history.” We look back, with the help of external documents and reports, into the past of the history of peoples and of humanity. You know, of course, that in this way, through the discovery of many new documents, we can look back to the early millennia before the birth of Christ. Now, from the lectures we have heard in the field of spiritual science, you have been able to gather that, with the help of occult documents, we can look back even further, into the boundless expanses of the past. We therefore recognize an external history of the external physical world. We know that when we speak about the habits, the knowledge, and in general the experiences of the peoples who lived in the centuries immediately preceding us, when we want to speak about their discoveries and inventions, we must speak differently than when we go back one or two millennia and speak about the customs and habits, the knowledge and insights of peoples who lived long ago. And history always becomes different the further back we go in time. It is perhaps appropriate to ask whether the words “history” and “historical development” has only one meaning for this external physical world, whether it is only there that events and the physiognomy of happenings change in the course of time, or whether the word history can also have a meaning for the other side of existence, for that side which we describe precisely through spiritual science, which human beings have to live through in the time between death and a new birth.
At first glance, we must say that, according to all we know, human life in these other worlds, which are supersensible to modern humans, is even longer than life in the physical world. Does the word “history” also have a meaning for this world, for this other side of existence? Or should we accept the view that in the realms through which human beings pass in the time between death and a new birth, everything always remains the same, that it is the same when we go back, for example, through the 18th, 17th, and 16th centuries to the 8th, 7th, and 6th centuries after the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth, and even further back to the pre-Christian centuries? People who enter earthly existence at birth encounter different conditions on earth with each new birth. Let us imagine ourselves in the soul of a person—and it is our own souls we are talking about—who appeared in an incarnation in ancient Egypt or ancient Persia. Let us vividly imagine the circumstances into which a human being was born, who in ancient Egypt was confronted with the gigantic pyramids and obelisks and all the living conditions that existed in ancient Egypt. Let us think about what kind of living conditions these were between birth and death. Let us now say that this person dies, goes through a period between death and a new birth, and is now born into the 7th or 8th century of the Christian era. Let us compare the times: how different the world appears to the soul in earthly existence in the times before the appearance of Christ Jesus here on the physical plane! And let us ask further: What does the soul experience that perhaps appeared in the first centuries of the post-Christian era and is now entering our physical plane again? It finds the newer state institutions that did not exist at that time. It experiences what our modern cultural means have brought about. In short, a completely different picture presents itself to such a soul compared to what presented itself to it in its previous incarnations. And when we compare these individual incarnations, we are aware of how different they are from one another. Is it not justified to ask the question: What are the conditions of a human being's life between death and rebirth, that is, between two incarnations? If a person lived in ancient Egypt and entered the spiritual world after death, where he encountered certain facts and certain beings, and then returned to physical existence in the first Christian centuries, died again, and passed over into the other world, and so on—is it not justified to ask whether, on the other side of existence, with all the experiences that human beings go through there, a “history” also takes place, whether many things also change there in the course of time?
You know that when we describe human life between death and rebirth, we give a general picture of what this life is like. Starting from the moment of death, we describe how, after that great tableau of memories has unfolded before the soul, the human being enters the time where his instincts, desires, passions, in short, everything that still binds him to the physical world, are still within him, where what we have become accustomed to calling Kamaloka takes place, and how the human being, after he has cast off this connection, then enters Devachan, a purely spiritual world. And we then go on to describe what happens during this time between death and rebirth for the human being in this purely spiritual existence until his return to the physical world. You have seen how what we are describing has always been discussed, so to speak, with regard to the present, to our immediate life. And that is indeed the case. One must naturally start from something, one must stand at some point when one describes something. Just as one must start from observations and experiences in the present when describing the present, so too is it necessary, when describing the spiritual world, to describe the picture that presents itself to the clairvoyant gaze of life between death and rebirth in approximately the same way as it happens on average in the present when a person dies and lives toward a new existence through the spiritual world. But comprehensive occult observation shows that the word “history” also has a good meaning for this world that human beings pass through between death and rebirth. Something happens there just as it does here in the physical world. And just as we recount successive, distinct events, beginning, for example, in the fourth millennium BC and describing events up to our own time, so must we establish a “history” for the other period of existence. We must also become aware that life between death and rebirth in the time of Egyptian, ancient Persian, or ancient Indian culture was not exactly the same as it is, for example, in our time. So, once we have formed a preliminary idea in our present time about the Kamaloka life and the Devachan life, it is probably time to expand these descriptions and move on to a historical view of these worlds. And in order to gain clarity on these matters, we will stick to very specific spiritual facts when we present some of the material from the chapter on “occult history.” However, in order to understand each other, we must go back a long way, to the Atlantean era. Today, we have reached a point where we assume that everyone is familiar with such times.
We ask ourselves how, in those times when there was already talk of birth and death, human life began in the beyond, to use an expression. Life in the beyond at that time differed from life in this world in a way that is very different from how it differs today. When an Atlantean died, what happened to his soul? It passed into a state where it felt secure in the most eminent sense in a spiritual world, in a world of higher spiritual individualities. We know that even here on this physical earth, the life of the Atlantean was different from our life today. The present-day alternation between waking and sleeping and the unconsciousness during the night—which has been mentioned frequently—did not exist in the Atlantean era. While human beings slumbered and the knowledge of the physical things around them receded from their consciousness, they entered a spiritual world. There, the sight of spiritual beings appeared to them. Just as they are here with plants, animals, humans, and so on during the day, so too did a world of lower and higher spiritual beings appear during their sleep consciousness in the same measure as humans fell asleep. Humans lived their lives in this world. And when the Atlantean passed over into the world beyond at death, this world of spiritual beings and spiritual events appeared all the more brightly. In those Atlantean times, human beings felt much more at home in their entire consciousness in these higher worlds, in these worlds of spiritual events and spiritual beings, than in the physical world. And we need only go back to the earliest Atlantean times to find that human beings understood this physical existence — all their souls did so — as a visit to a world where one stays for a while, but which is different from one's actual home, which did not exist in this earthly sphere.
But there was one peculiarity of this life between death and rebirth in the Atlantean times that is difficult for people today to imagine because they have lost it completely. That ability to say “I” to oneself, to feel oneself as a self-conscious being, to perceive oneself as an “I,” which is the essence of modern man, was completely lost to the Atlanteans when they left the physical world. As they moved up into the spiritual world, whether in sleep or, to a greater extent, during the life between death and rebirth, the consciousness of “I am a self-aware being,” “I am within myself,” was replaced by the consciousness: “I am safe in the higher beings,” ‘I am, as it were, immersed in the life of these higher beings themselves.’ Man felt at one with the higher beings, and in this feeling of oneness he experienced infinite bliss in this afterlife. And so his bliss grew more and more the further he removed himself from the consciousness of physical, sensory existence. The further back we go in time, the more blissful life was. And we have often heard what the meaning of human development in earthly existence consists of. It consists in the fact that human beings become more and more entangled in physical existence on our earth. When human beings of the Atlantean epoch felt completely at home in the afterlife in their sleep consciousness and perceived this world as bright, clear, and friendly, their consciousness in this life was still semi-dreamlike. There was not yet any real possession of the physical body. When human beings awoke, they forgot in a certain sense the gods and spirits they had experienced in their sleep, but they did not live themselves into physical consciousness in the same way as we do today when we wake up in the morning. Objects did not yet have clear outlines. For the Atlantean, it was always as if you went out on a foggy evening and saw the street lamps surrounded by a halo, an aura of all possible colors. That is how indistinct all objects on the physical plane were. The consciousness of the physical plane was only just dawning. The strong consciousness of “I am” had not yet entered into human beings. It was only towards the end of the Atlantean era that human self-awareness, the awareness of personality, developed more and more, to the extent that human beings lost that blissful awareness in sleep. Human beings gradually conquered the physical world, learned more and more how to use their senses, and with that, the objects of the physical world also took on increasingly solid and definite outlines. But to the same extent that man conquered the physical world, consciousness in the spiritual world also changed.
We have traced the various periods of the post-Atlantean era. We have looked back to the ancient Indian culture. We have seen how human beings conquered the external world to such an extent that they perceived it as Maya and longed to return to the realms of the ancient spiritual land. We have seen how, during the Persian cultural epoch, the conquest of the physical plane had already progressed so far that human beings wanted to connect with the good forces of Ormuzd in order to transform the forces of the physical world. We have also seen how, in the Egyptian-Babylonian-Chaldean-Assyrian period, people found the means to advance in their conquest of the outer world in the art of surveying, which led to the cultivation of the earth, and also in astronomy. And finally, we saw how the Greek-Latin period went even further, how in Greece that beautiful marriage between man and the physical world came about in Greek city-building and in Greek art. And we saw how, in the fourth period, the personal, which was there for the first time, emerged in ancient Roman law. Whereas humans had previously felt secure in a whole, which was still the reflection of earlier spiritual beings, the Romans first felt themselves to be citizens of the earth. The concept of the citizen arose.
The physical world was conquered piece by piece. But in return, it also became dear to humans. Human inclinations and sympathies became connected with the physical world, and to the same extent that sympathy for the physical world grew, human consciousness also became connected with physical things. But to the same extent, human consciousness of the beyond, of the time between death and rebirth, became clouded. That blissful feeling of security in the existence of higher spiritual beings was lost to humans in the afterlife to the same extent that they grew to love the here and now in the course of their conquests of the physical world throughout history. The conquest of the physical world by humans grew from stage to stage; they discovered ever new forces of nature and invented ever new tools. They grew to love this life between birth and death more and more. But in return, their old, dim clairvoyant consciousness of the world beyond became clouded. It never ceased completely, but it became clouded. And while humans conquered the physical world, the history of the world beyond represents a decline. This decline is proportional to the rise of culture, which we describe when we look at humans in the earliest primitive stages of culture, grinding their grain between two stones, and then see how they rise from stage to stage, how they make their first discoveries, acquire tools and learn to use them, and how this progresses further and further over time. Life on the physical plane becomes ever richer. Man learns to erect gigantic buildings. But as we describe history in this way, through the Egyptian-Babylonian-Chaldean-Assyrian period, through the Greek-Roman period, up to our own time, we must make a break if we want to describe a cultural-historical progression. To the same extent, we would have to describe a path of decline in the connection between higher gods and what humans were allowed to do for the gods, what they did in the sense of the spiritual world and in the midst of the spiritual world. And we see how, in later times, humans increasingly lost their connection with the spiritual worlds and their spiritual abilities. We would have to write a history of decline for the afterlife for human beings, just as we can write a history of the rise and continuous conquest of the physical world for this life. In this way, the spiritual world and the physical world complement each other, or rather, they are mutually dependent.
As you know, there is a relationship between this spiritual world and our physical world. Much has been said about the great mediators between the spiritual world and the physical world, about the initiates, about those who, although embodied in the physical body, nevertheless rise with their souls into the spiritual world between birth and death, where otherwise human beings are completely cut off from the spiritual world, who can also gain experience in the spiritual world during this time and can live their way into the spiritual world. What were these more or less great or small messengers of the spiritual world for human beings, when we speak of the pinnacles of the spiritual world, for example, the ancient holy Rishis of India, Buddha, Hermes, Zarathustra, Moses, or all those who were the great messengers of God in ancient times? When we speak of all those who were messengers of God or of the spirit world to human beings, what were they in relation to the physical and spiritual worlds?
During their initiation and through their initiation, they experienced the conditions of the spiritual world. They could not only see with their physical eyes and perceive with their physical mind what was happening in the physical world here, but through their heightened powers of perception they could also perceive what was happening in the spiritual world. The initiate does not live only on the physical plane with human beings, but can also follow what the dead do in the time between death and rebirth. They are as familiar to him as the people on the physical plane. From this you can see that everything that is told as occult history flows from the experiences of the initiates.
An important turning point, also for the history we are now touching upon, occurs on earth with the appearance of Christ. And we get a picture of the progress of history in the world beyond when we ask ourselves: What is the significance of Christ's deed on earth? What is the significance of the mystery of Golgotha for history in the beyond?
In various places, I have been able to point out in some lectures the decisive significance of the event of Golgotha for the development of the history of the physical plane. Let us now ask ourselves: How does the event of Golgotha appear when we view it from the perspective of the beyond? We arrive at the answer to this question when we consider the point in time in the beyond when human beings had stepped most fully onto the physical plane, when the consciousness of personality had developed most strongly: the time of the Greco-Latin era. And that is also the time when Christ Jesus appeared on earth: on the one hand, the most intense personality consciousness, the most intense joy in the sensory world; on the other hand, the strongest, most powerful call to the world beyond in the event of Golgotha, and the greatest deed, the overcoming of death through life, as it is represented in this event of Golgotha. These two things coincide perfectly when we consider the physical world. There was truly great joy and heightened sympathy for external existence in Greek times. Only such people could create those wonderful Greek temples in which, as has been described to you, the gods themselves dwelt. Only these people, who stood so firmly in the physical world, could create those works of art in sculpture, where such a wonderful marriage of spirit and matter comes to light. This required joy and sympathy for the physical plane. These developed gradually, and we can actually sense the progression in history when we compare the emergence of the Greeks in the physical world with the sublime worldview that the first post-Atlantean civilized people received from their holy rishis. These people had no interest in the physical world; they felt at home in the spiritual world and looked blissfully up to the world of the spirit, which they sought to reach with the help of the teachings and exercises given to them by the holy rishis. Between this rejection of sensual pleasure and the greatest enjoyment of the sensory world in the Greco-Latin period lies a large part of human history—up to the point where the marriage between the spirit and the sensory world came about, in which both came into their own.
But what was the counterpart to this conquest of the physical plane in the Greco-Latin period in the spiritual world? Anyone who can look into the spiritual world knows that it is not a legend, but that what the Greek poets say about those who were the best people of their culture is really based on truth. Those who felt so completely at home in the physical world with all their sympathies, how did they feel in the spiritual world? It is entirely true when such people are quoted as saying: Better to be a beggar in the upper world than a king in the realm of shadows! The dullest, least intense state of consciousness occurred precisely at this time between death and rebirth. Despite all their sympathy for the physical world, people did not understand existence in the world beyond. It seemed to them as if they had lost everything, and the spiritual world seemed worthless to them. As sympathy for the physical world grew, the Greek heroes felt increasingly lost in the spiritual world. And an Agamemnon, an Achilles, felt like squeezed beings over there, like nothing in this world of shadows. However, there were times in between—for the connection with the spiritual world is never completely lost—when even these people could live with spiritual beings and spiritual activities. But the state of consciousness just mentioned was definitely present. So we have a history of the world beyond, a history of decline, just as we have a history of the rise of the world here.
Those who were called messengers of God or spirits always had the ability to go back and forth, from one world to the other. Let us try to imagine what these spirit messengers were to the people of the physical plane in pre-Christian times. They were those who, from their experiences in the spiritual world, could tell the people of the old world what the spiritual world was really like. Of course, they also experienced the extinguished consciousness of physical human beings on earth, but in return they experienced the entire spiritual world in all its glorious fullness. And they were able to bring news to people on earth that there is a spiritual world and tell them what it looks like. They were able to bear witness to this spiritual world. This was particularly important in those times when people on the physical plane were becoming more and more interested in the physical plane. And the more people conquered the earth, the more joy and sympathy they felt for the physical world, the more the messengers of God had to emphasize that the spiritual world exists. They could always say: You know this and that about the earth. But there is also a spiritual world. This and that must be told to you about the spiritual world—in short, the entire tableau of the spiritual world has been revealed to people through the messengers of God. People knew this in various religions. But whenever these messengers of God came over after their initiation or after a visit to the spiritual world, they were able to bring refreshment and upliftment from the spiritual world to the physical world, which was becoming more and more beautiful for life on the physical plane, something of the treasures of the spiritual world. They brought the fruits of spiritual life into physical life. It was always the case that through what the messengers of God brought them, people were led into the spirit. The physical world, the here and now, gained through the messengers of God and their messages.
These messengers of God could not work fruitfully for the world beyond to the same extent. You can imagine it like this: when the initiate, the messenger of God, passes over into the world beyond, the beings there are just as much his companions as the beings in the physical world. He can speak to them and tell them what is happening in the physical world. But the closer we approach the Greek-Latin period, the less valuable the initiate could offer the souls in the beyond when he passed over from earth to the beyond. For they felt too keenly the loss of what they had been attached to in the physical world. Nothing that the initiates could tell them was of any value to them anymore. Thus, in pre-Christian times, the messages that the initiates brought to people in the physical world were extremely fruitful, and what they could bring to those who had departed from the physical world was fruitless for the spiritual world. Buddha, Hermes, Zarathustra—no matter how great a message they brought to the people of the physical world, they could achieve very little on the other side. For they could convey few joyful and invigorating messages to the beyond.
Let us now compare what happened for the afterlife through Christ, which occurred, so to speak, in the period of deepest decadence, as we describe in occult history, in the Greek-Latin period, with what happened previously through the initiates. We know what the event of Golgotha means for the history of the earth. We know that it is the defeat of earthly death through the life of the spirit, the overcoming of all death through the earth evolution. Even if we cannot go into everything that the mystery of Golgotha means today, we can summarize it in a few words: It means the final and irrefutable proof that life conquers death. And on Golgotha, life defeated death, the spirit laid the seed for the final defeat of matter! What is recounted in the Gospel about Christ's visit to the dead in the underworld after the events at Golgotha is not a legend or a symbol. Occult research shows you that it is the truth. Just as Christ walked among people during the last three years of his life, so too were the dead able to rejoice at his visit. Immediately after the events at Golgotha, he appeared to the dead, to the departed souls. This is an occult truth. And now he could tell them that in the physical world over there, the spirit had irrevocably won the victory over matter! This was a flame of light in the world beyond for the departed souls, striking them like a spiritual electric shock and stimulating the dead consciousness of the Greek-Latin era, beginning a whole new phase for human beings between death and new birth. And since that time, the consciousness of human beings between death and rebirth has become brighter and brighter.
Thus, when we describe history, we can supplement our account of present conditions with what we have to say about Kamaloka and the Devachan life, and we must point out that the appearance of Christ on earth marks the beginning of a completely new phase in the afterlife, that the fruit of what Christ accomplished for the evolution of the earth will be realized in a radical change in the afterlife. This visit of Christ to the afterlife means something tremendous, a renewal of life in the afterlife between death and rebirth. Since that time, the departed souls who, at that important moment in the Greco-Latin era, felt like shadows despite all their joy for the physical world, so that they would rather be beggars in the upper world than kings in the realm of shadows, now felt themselves becoming more and more at home in the afterlife. And since then, it has been the case that human beings have grown more and more into the spiritual world, and a period of ascent and blossoming in the spiritual world has thus begun.
Thus we have touched upon the event of Golgotha from the point of view of the other world, albeit only sketchily, and at the same time pointed out that there is a history for the spiritual world just as there is a history for the physical world. And it is only by exploring these real relationships between the physical world and the spiritual world that one world becomes fruitful for the other in human life. We will always see what we gain for our understanding of human life on earth when we set before us the true characteristics of the spiritual world.