The Rudolf Steiner Archive

21. On the Inauguration of the Breslau Branch

[ 1 ] When speaking at the inauguration of a new branch of work, it is more important to explain the purpose and goal of spiritual scientific work than to reveal significant secrets about higher worlds. If we want to imagine the significance of the spiritual scientific worldview for the human soul, we must turn our gaze to and beyond various fields.

[ 2 ] Imagine a person living in the 13th or 14th century. He lived at a time when the art of printing had not yet been invented, which in more recent times has had such a powerful influence on the human soul. So imagine a person of that time and ask yourself what was going on in his soul when, for example, he looked up at the sky. He, whose views were not yet influenced by accumulated knowledge and material learning, as those of a person living today are, saw the space illuminated by the sun during the day and by the twinkling of the stars at night, and his soul felt the universe filled with spiritual forces and spiritual beings. He felt them. Through the cultural means of that time, ideas of divine-spiritual facts arose in him, and he felt them directly. And so it was when he saw plants sprouting from the earth in spring: his soul felt this nature illuminated and filled with divine-spiritual forces.

[ 3 ] This feeling, this direct perception of spiritual forces, recedes more and more the closer we come to the present time. This is not meant to be a disparaging criticism of the latter, for the receding of this feeling is accompanied by the emergence of another kind of knowledge of nature, a more intellectual, external view of the world, and it is quite right that people have learned to master the forces of nature, to explore the world in miniature with microscopes, and to follow the stars in their course through space with telescopes. It is right that people are proud in a certain sense of being able to increase their mastery of the forces of nature, but we must also realize that this has changed all human impulses.

[ 4 ] When people looked at the stars in the past, they said to themselves: I feel something divine and spiritual in the stars. Today, however, they see only physical bodies, and it is difficult for people today to imagine anything divine and spiritual. Humanity has truly lost its understanding of this divine and spiritual vision. Nevertheless, it is true that even today there are many souls who are wonderfully touched by the recognition of the divine-spiritual. Oh, the soul has a thirst to imagine how space is filled with the divine-spiritual, filled with a spiritual power, and it has a need to recognize this divine.

[ 5 ] Now, the material development described has progressed so far that even the most serious and eager seekers of truth have gradually come to believe that it can only be a childish notion to feel something divine in the world, and that humanity has now entered a more mature age in which outdated viewpoints must be cast aside. Even children in school are exposed to a conflict that has profound consequences for their lives. On the one hand, children are taught natural science in a purely materialistic way, and on the other hand, they are taught religion. There is no bridge between the two, no connecting link. What will become of this in later life? One could say that the whole of humanity is divided into two camps, depending on the consequences that arise from this conflict. On the one hand, there are those who have become indifferent and no longer care about anything, and on the other hand, there are those who take it tragically, brood over it and yet cannot come to terms with it, ultimately despairing of ever solving the riddles of life. Thinking humanity is indeed divided into these two camps. Perhaps in the end it will only be the simpler minds who have retained a certain feeling for the spiritual. Those who do not merely look at things outwardly know that it was precisely in the middle of the 19th century that the danger of humanity sinking completely into materialistic life was greatest. The entire mood and state of mind of human beings became materialistic in their feelings and perceptions. This posed a terrible danger to humanity. Do you know what would have happened if spiritual science had not intervened? The way of thinking would have sunk deeper and deeper into materialism. Thought forms would have become increasingly rigid and ossified, their boundaries would have become ever sharper and more immutable, instead of adapting in a lively flow. No one would have been able to feel for another or with another, and everyone would have felt that they alone were right, despising and hating anyone who thought or felt differently. Thought would have taken on completely rigid forms, devoid of all love, and the spirit would eventually have been pushed so far into the background that any connection would have been made impossible forever, and the path to the spiritual world would have been lost. The earth would have become a moon. For this reason, those who have insight into the higher spiritual worlds have brought spiritual science to humanity. From what sources do these teachings flow that are destined to save humanity from this great danger? On a day when a newly formed working group is being inaugurated, it is appropriate to say something about this. These sources are still hidden from most people, but they will gradually become more and more apparent. But spiritual science was founded from these sources. What does spiritual science say? It says many things that ordinary people cannot perceive with their ordinary senses. For example, it says that human beings do not consist solely of the outwardly visible body, but that they are fourfold; that in addition to the visible body, they also have a life or etheric body that is invisible to ordinary people, a sentient or astral body, and fourthly, the I, which passes from embodiment to embodiment in order to complete a progressive development over a long period of time. Spiritual science tells us even more. It tells us, for example, that the earth itself also undergoes a development from embodiment to embodiment, a development of a cosmic nature. It further shows us that the sun and the planets play the most important roles in this process of development, and that the existence of all these world bodies and their processes is connected with the existence of spiritual beings.

[ 6 ] What is all this? Where are the sources of these truths? They come from the initiated. And who are the initiates? They are those whose spiritual eyes are open and who therefore speak of the spiritual world because they know this spiritual world. They are the seers among the blind. Fichte already alluded to this relationship, and indeed, for the seer, spiritual things are as real as physical things, even more real, because the latter are only the expression of the former. Of course, many people will say that when a seer speaks of the etheric body, the sentient body, and so on, and of other manifestations of a spiritual nature, he is a dreamer and a fantasist who takes theories and hypotheses for reality. The seer understands perfectly well that those who do not see can make such objections. In a society of physically blind people, one can speak as much and as accurately as one likes about colors and light, but for the blind, this remains theory. The physically sighted cannot reveal the actual concept of reality of color and light to the physically blind. To do so, the blind would have to be able to see for themselves, and only after successful surgery can the world of light open up to the blind.

[ 7 ] Let us try to imagine this relationship in another image. Let us imagine that we have a large vessel of water in front of us and assume that there is a person who cannot see, feel, or perceive water with their senses. For this person, the vessel would be empty. Now let us further assume that it could be brought about in some way that cold currents act on the water, causing it to freeze. At first, ice needles would form here and there, which could then clump together to form lumps. But because ice is a solid body, the person who has no sensation of water would be able to perceive the forming pieces of ice. What does he perceive? He perceives that ice is forming. But from what would it arise for him? From nothing. Thus stands the initiate in his relationship to other people. Where they see nothing, he sees. But now people say: How can I believe what I cannot verify? And since I cannot do that, what purpose would it serve to concern oneself with such things at all, to get involved in such things? - To this end, philosophical-monistic dogmatists demand the following: first, that everything they themselves assert be accepted, and second, that no one be allowed to know more than they themselves know. They present themselves as infallible human beings who can determine the limits of knowledge. The true initiate will never deny scientifically researched facts, but will graciously acknowledge the truths and merits of science. However, he must refuse to admit that the scientific dogmatist is capable of determining the limits of knowledge. Scientists are proud of their knowledge, in contrast to faith. But when we speak of faith and non-faith, and scientists believe that their research results are free of faith, they are mistaken. It is simply impossible to research and teach anything without believing. Take cell theory, for example. We have beautiful illustrations in books of cells, cell division, cell life, and so on, clear and distinct, with all the details. But who among us has ever seen this with such clarity? We all believe that it is so. Even the university professors who teach such things have rarely seen it all themselves, and yet they teach it. They have not been able to see it themselves because it is so difficult and rare to observe that only a few individuals succeed in seeing it, and then because in reality it is not as clear and distinct as the illustrations make it appear. Think of embryology. We believe we know exactly what the embryo looks like at every moment of pregnancy. But how extremely rare is it for a researcher to gain insight, for example through a sudden death that occurs at a certain moment during pregnancy? How many of these researchers have never seen what they teach? Until they saw it themselves, they had to believe, and others had to believe with them. And yet they demand that spiritual science should not be believed and that no one should know more than they do. The essence of the initiate is that he can see into the spiritual world. For the initiated, the sources are spiritual scientific knowledge.

[ 8 ] Yes, but what use is this to those who do not possess this knowledge? Let a parable teach us this. Look at this stove! Now imagine someone standing in front of this stove and saying to it: “Stove, you were made to give heat, remember your mission and warm the room!” Will it do so? Will the words be of any use? No, the stove will not move. But don't talk, bring wood and coal and heat it, then it will fulfill its mission.

[ 9 ] So it is with the communication of spiritual truths. They are the fuel for the human soul. For thousands of years, people have been preached morality and told: Be good, love one another! - But do they do it? Doesn't it look pretty bad despite all the Christian teachings? In a city in southern Germany, a pastor once said to me: “I have no objection whatsoever to what you say about the Gospels, but what is the point of forming small spiritual scientific conventicles here and there, when the Church carries out practical education on a large scale?” - Yes, if this pastor were right, then there would be no point. But he is not right, because if the church were fulfilling its task to the full, where would all the evil still come from? Do all people go to church? The church does not preach practical morality, but oven morality. Nowadays, there are not many people who become better simply by being persuaded. And now even the most capable people have turned away from the church. And if this continues, the followers of the church will become fewer and fewer and materialism will spread more and more, until one day there will be little left of the church. That is why spiritual science has come into being; it has become necessary to provide fuel for the fire. It is fuel because the mere communication of facts from the spiritual worlds has an attractive and stimulating effect on the spiritual development of the individual, stimulating not only in relation to morality but also in relation to spiritual vision.

[ 10 ] There are also those among spiritual scientists who believe that one should simply be good and noble and strive for perfection, and then the spiritual eyes will eventually open of their own accord. At the same time, they believe that the communications of higher truths should be regarded as insignificant, and that one should simply wait until one can see for oneself, until the veil is lifted of its own accord. Those who think this way are mistaken. They misunderstand the character of such communications in their effect as fuel. It is important to arouse vibrations in the soul that would not come about in any other way or by themselves.

[ 11 ] But what is it that can and should shine forth in human beings when they understand and promote their proper development, as spiritual science sets itself the task of doing? To answer this, we must go back a long way. We must go back to ancient Indian culture, which we refer to as the time of the seven Rishis. These were the initiates of that time who guided the development of human beings. When they brought knowledge of the highest to human beings from their spiritual vision, they said: High above all being, unknowable, unfathomable, there is a cause, a being that we call Vishva-Karman, but which we can only intuit. It is, as it were, too far away for us to be able to recognize it. However, after us, much later, it will come closer to humanity. Then, in a much later cultural epoch, another initiate spoke about this being. It was Zarathustra, not the historical one, but a predecessor of him. When he spoke to the people in his ancient Persian sacred language, whose glory can hardly be imagined today, he said: I see the highest being in the sun, around the sun. It is in the atmosphere of the sun! - And that is why he called it Ahura Mazdao, the great aura, in contrast to man, who has a small aura. He recognized in the great aura an image or model for the small aura, the human being. Ahura Mazdao is equal to Ormuzd. And he preached that Ahura Mazdao would one day be revealed in man. He foresaw this. But he also saw that there are forces within man that prevent and keep him from the revelation of the highest being within him. He called these forces Ahriman, the evil one.

[ 12 ] Later still, in another cultural epoch, we again have a great initiate. He had come even closer to this knowledge. For the Rishis, the highest being was hidden at an immense distance in space; for Zarathustra, it had advanced to the sun; but for Moses, this knowledge was already within reach. In the burning bush that spoke to Moses, we have the aura as a component of earthly elements. Moses recognized that the highest being was present in the earth. The being had descended for the initiate via the sun to the earth. It now lived in the elements. And when Moses asked the being what he should say to the people, it said to him: “I am the I am, Yahweh.” This explains that the being had come to unfold in the human ego. That was not yet the case at that time. At that time, human beings had not yet developed the consciousness of the highest within themselves. Moses, however, knew that this was to happen.

[ 13 ] And even later, another man came who became clairvoyant: Paul. He knew that this highest being was embodied in Jesus Christ. But he could not believe, could not comprehend, that this being had to die on the cross. Then he was initiated. He owed his initiation to the peculiar circumstance that he was born prematurely. A premature birth, a human being who was not carried to full term for nine months, is one who has not descended so deeply into matter, which is why insight into the spiritual world comes more easily to him. And when Paul became clairvoyant, he recognized that the highest being lived in Christ. Now it had indeed come to life in man. That is why Christ says at the Last Supper: “The bread is my body, the wine is my blood.” Bread: earth; wine, plant sap: spirit.

[ 14 ] This is where I wanted to take you today, to let you feel what it means that such a being approached the earth, descended into the earth. And that happened on Golgotha. Did this being really flow over the earth at Golgotha? To answer this, let us consider and compare the time, say six hundred years before the birth of Christ, with the time six hundred years after the birth of Christ. What happened then, and what is the difference?

[ 15 ] Six hundred years before Christ, Buddha lived. He lived in a royal palace. Then he went out into the country and learned about old age, sickness, poverty, death, and corpses. He saw that the whole of human life is suffering: old age is suffering, sickness is suffering, poverty is suffering, death is suffering, birth is suffering, being separated from those we love is suffering—in short, all existence is suffering. So he said to himself, and so he taught the people: You must unlearn your thirst for existence. Here we have the hopeless renunciation of creation.

[ 16 ] But six hundred years later came Golgotha. There we see as a symbol a cross erected and on the cross a human corpse. And people look up at the corpse and sense that there is a cure for all suffering. That is a difference. People no longer see death as a sign of suffering, but as a sign of the healing of suffering. They can become victorious over what is here in life. And that means that a fruit is taken with them into the other life.

[ 17 ] Does man now understand that birth and life are not suffering, but grant the possibility of coming out of suffering, in that life gives the opportunity to develop the spiritual, which leads beyond all suffering, then old age is no longer suffering, but an approach to the fruit of life; death is no longer suffering, but redemption; separation from those we love is no longer suffering when we have united ourselves with the Christ being of universal love and envelop all beings in all worlds in his love.

[ 18 ] All this was felt six hundred years after Christ, and since then human beings have been able to feel connected to Christ, the Sun Spirit, who is also the spirit of the earth, who, as he permeates the earth, also permeates each one of us, awakening gentleness, warmth, and love in our souls, awakening universal love and transforming the earth.

[ 19 ] And because spiritual science, through the communication of spiritual truths, does not lecture on morality but establishes practical morality, it will build a bridge for modern man that leads into the spiritual world. It may be that those who stand at the forefront of today's culture, the leading figures in industry and scholarship, the trendsetters, may smile at these small spiritual scientific conventions and at what is being investigated there. Let them think what they will! There was once a powerful Roman cultural world, that ancient imperial Rome, which we still admire today in its ruins. The old huge Colosseum was the place where incense was burned to cover the rising stench of flesh from the Christians torn apart by wild animals there. That was ancient Rome, up above in the light of day. And below? Let's descend into the catacombs! There we find the first confessors of Christianity, of the mystery of Golgotha, persecuted and despised. Down there, hidden away, they worship Christ, they perform their symbolic acts, down there the first Christian communities are founded. Although small in number and despised, they did not doubt. Down there is a small group despised and rejected, up there is a large group setting the tone: a few centuries later, ancient Rome is no longer there, but those who were down there, the lower world, have risen. So too will spiritual science rise in a few centuries above industry, scholarship, and today's human relationships. But do not feel this with pride, but with humility, when you compare yourselves in your small circles with those of underground Rome. And when you imagine that today's brilliant science will have melted away before the science of the spirit, imagine it only in humility. If you take this feeling with you from this moment on, so that it always remains alive in you, then you will contribute to the spread of universal love, and then you will immerse yourself in a new culture.

[ 20 ] I call upon all good spiritual forces to watch over this newly founded branch of work and to help you achieve your goal and make your work easier.