The Spiritual Hierarchies
GA 110
Düsseldorf, April 12, 1909, Evening
Lecture II
[ 1 ] The teaching which came from the holy Rishis, during the first post-Atlantean period of civilisation was a knowledge that sprang from purely spiritual sources of existence. What is so important in that teaching and in the investigations of those times is that it entered so deeply into the processes of nature and realised so well the activity of the spirit in those processes. In reality we are always surrounded by spiritual activities and by spiritual entities. When during the time of that ancient holy teaching, mention was made of the phenomena of the world surrounding us, one was always referred to as being the most significant, the most important of all these, this was considered (by that ancient spiritual science) to be the phenomenon of fire. In all explanations of what exists and happens upon the earth, the central point of importance was always given to the spiritual investigation of fire. If we want to understand what we may call the Eastern teaching about fire, which was of such far-reaching importance in those ancient times for the acquisition of the knowledge and understanding of all life, then we must look around us at the other phenomena and occurrences of nature and see how these were considered by that very ancient teaching, which can still be useful nowadays for the purposes of spiritual science. [ 2 ] All that surrounds man in the world was then referred back to the so-called four elements. These four elements are respected no longer by the materialistic science of to-day. You all know that these four elements are called Earth, Water, Air, Fire. But where spiritual science flourished the word ‘earth’ had not the same meaning as it has nowadays. It stood for a certain state in the material realm: the state or condition of solidity. All that is solid was called ‘earthy’ by the spiritual science of those times. So whether we take the solid earth of a field, or a piece of crystal, or lead, or gold, anything that is solid was then called earth. Everything liquid, not only the water of to-day, was characterised as watery, or as water. If for instance you take iron, pass it through heat to the point of melting so that it can flow, then that liquid iron would have been called water by spiritual science. All metals when liquid were described as water. Everything that has the character of air for us to day, no matter whether it was the condition we call gas, or oxygen, or hydrogen, or other gases, was called air. [ 3 ] Fire was considered the fourth element. Those of you who remember elementary physics will know that modern science does not see in fire anything that could be compared with either earth, water or air: the physical science of to day sees in it only a certain condition of movement. Spiritual science sees in warmth or fire something which has in it a still finer substance than air. Just as earth or solidity changes into liquid, So does all air-substance change gradually into the condition of fire — according to spiritual science — and fire is so fine an element that it interpenetrates all other elements. Fire interpenetrates the air and makes it warm, the same with water and earth. The other three elements are, so to speak, separated from each other, but we see the element of fire interpenetrating them all.
[ 4 ] Both ancient and modern spiritual science agree that there is yet another still more remarkable difference between what we call Earth, Water, Air, and what we call Fire or Warmth. How do we come to the cognisance of earth or solidity? Through touching it. We realise the solid through touching it and feeling its resistance. It is the same with watery substance. This gives way, it is not so resistant, still we realize it as something external that offers resistance. And it is the same with the element of air. We recognise it also as something external. With warmth it is different. Here we find something which modern science does not consider important, but which must become important for us if we want to study the real problems of existence.
We can realise warmth without coming in contact with it externally. What is essential is that we can realise warmth by touching a body which has a certain degree of warmth: we can perceive it externally in the same way as we realise the three other elements, but we also feel it in our inward conditions. Therefore ancient science says (and did so already at the time of the old Indians), that earth, water, air, can be realised only in the outer world, but warmth is the first element which can also be felt within oneself. Thus, fire or warmth has, so to speak, two sides to it. An outer, which it shows when we take cognisance of it in the outer world and an inner when we feel that we ourselves are in a certain state of warmth. Man feels his own condition of warmth; he is hot, or he freezes; but consciously he is not much concerned with the gaseous or liquid or solid substances — the air, water, or earth — which are in him. He begins to ‘feel’ himself in the element of warmth. The element of warmth has an inner and an outward side. Therefore both ancient and modern spiritual science agree that warmth or fire is that wherein matter begins to become soul. And so in the true sense of the word — we may speak of an outer fire which we realise in the other elements, and of an inner psychic fire within our soul.
[ 5 ] In this way, spiritual science always considered fire as the link between the outer material world on the one side, and the realm of the soul on the other, which can be known by man within his inner being. Fire or warmth was placed in the centre of all observations of nature, because fire is, so to speak, the portal through which we may pass from the outer into the inner. In all truth, fire is like a door in front of which one stands. One sees it from outside, one opens it and can observe it from within. Such is fire amongst the objects of nature. One touches some object and becomes acquainted with fire, which streams towards us from outside like the three other elements: one realises one's own inner warmth and feels it as something belonging to oneself; one stands inside the portal, one has entered into the realm of the soul. Thus was the science of fire described. In fire was seen the interplay of soul and matter. We have now placed before our souls an elementary lesson of primeval human wisdom.
[ 6 ] The ancient teachers may have spoken thus: ‘Look at that burning object. See how the fire destroys it. Thou seest two things in that burning object.’ In those ancient times one was called smoke, and it may still be so called nowadays, and the other was called light, and the spiritual scientist saw the fire in the middle between light and smoke. The teacher said: ‘Out of the flame are born simultaneously light on the one side, smoke on the other.’ [ 7 ] Now we must for once put very clearly before us a very simple but very far-reaching fact, which has to do with the light, which is born of fire. It is most probable that many people when asked whether they see the light would answer: ‘Yes, of course.’ And yet this answer is as false as possible; for, in truth, no physical eye can see light. Through light one sees objects which are solid, liquid, or gaseous, but the light itself one does not see. Imagine the whole of universal space illuminated by a light the source of which was somewhere behind you, where you could not see it and you were to look into the world spaces illuminated through and through by that light. Would you see the light? You would see absolutely nothing. You would first see something when some object was placed within that illuminated space. One does not see the light, one sees the solid, the watery, the gaseous, by means of the light. One does not see physical light with the physical eye. This is something which comes before the spiritual eye with particular clearness. Spiritual science says therefore: light makes everything visible, but is itself invisible. This sentence is important: light is imperceptible. It cannot be perceived by the outer senses: one call perceive what is solid, liquid, or gaseous, finally one can perceive warmth or fire outwardly. This one can also begin to feel inwardly, but light itself one can no longer perceive outwardly. If you believe that when you see the sun you see light you are mistaken: you see a flaming body, a burning substance out of which the light streams. It could be proved to you that you have there gaseous, liquid, and earthy substances. You do not see light, you see that which is burning. [ 8 ] But spiritual science says we pass in ascending order from earth to water, from air to fire, and then to light, we pass thus from the outwardly recognisable world, from the visible world into the invisible, into the etheric-spiritual world. Fire stands on the border between the outwardly visible, material world, and that which is etheric and spiritual, which is no more outwardly visible or recognisable. What happens to a body that is destroyed through fire? What happens when something burns? When something burns, we see on one side light appear, which is outwardly imperceptible and which is operative in the spiritual world. Something that is not merely outer material gives forth the warmth and when it is strong enough to become a source of light it yields something invisible, something which cannot be recognised any more through the outer senses, but it must pay for this in smoke. From what was formerly translucent and transparent it has to bring forth something not transparent — something of the nature of smoke. Thus you see how warmth or fire becomes differentiated, how it divides. On one side it divides itself into light, with which it opens a way into the super-sensible world, and in payment for that which it sends up as light into the super-sensible world, it must send something down into the material world, into the world of non-transparent, visible things. Nothing one-sided comes forth in the world. Everything that exists has two sides to it. When light is produced through warmth, then turbid, dark matter appears on the other side. That is the teaching of primeval spiritual science.
[ 9 ] But the process we have just described is only the outer side, the physical, material process. At the foundation of this physically material process there lies something essentially different. When you have only warmth in some object which as yet does not shine, then this warmth which you perceive is itself the outer physical part but within it is something spiritual. When this warmth grows so strong that it begins to shine and smoke is formed, then some of the spirit which was in the warmth must go into the smoke. That spiritual part which was in the warmth and has passed into the smoke, which being gaseous and belonging to air is a lower element than warmth, that spiritual part is transmuted, bewitched, as it were, into smoke. Thus with everything which like a turbid extract or a materialisation is deposited by the warmth, there is also associated what might be called the bewitching of some spiritual being. We can explain it still more simply. Let us imagine that we reduce air to a watery condition. Air itself is nothing but solidified warmth, densified warmth in which smoke has been formed. The spiritual part which really wanted to be in the fire has been bewitched into smoke. Spiritual beings, which are also called elementals, are bewitched in all air, and will even be bewitched, banished, so to speak, to a lower existence, when air is changed into water. Hence spiritual science sees in everything that is outwardly perceptible something that has proceeded from an original condition of fire or warmth and which has turned into air, smoke, or gas, when the warmth began to condense into gas, gas into liquid, liquid into solid. ‘Look backwards,’ says the spiritual scientist, look at any solid substance. That solidity was once liquid, it is only in the course of evolution that it has become solid and the liquid was once upon a time gaseous and the gaseous formed itself as smoke, out of the fire. But a transmutation, a bewitching of spiritual being is always connected with these processes of condensation and with the formation of gases and solids.
[ 10 ] Let us now look around at our world: we see solid rocks, flowing streams of water, we see the water changing into rising mist: we see the air, we see all the solid, liquid, gaseous things and we see fire, so that at the foundation of all things we have nothing but fire. All is fire — solidified fire: gold, silver, copper, are solidified fire. All things were once upon a time fire; everything has been born out of fire. But in all that solidified realm, some bewitched spirits are dwelling.
[ 11 ] How are those spiritual, divine beings who surround us able to produce solid matter as it is on our planet — to produce liquids, and air substances? They send down their elemental spirits, those which live in the fire: they imprison them in air, in water and in earth. These are the emissaries, the elemental emissaries of the spiritual, creative, building beings. The elemental spirits first enter into fire. In fire they still feel comfortable — if we care to express it by images — and then they are condemned to a life of bewitchment. We can say looking around us: ‘These beings, whom we have to thank for all the things that surround us, had to come down out of the fire-element; they are bewitched in those things.’
[ 12 ] Can we as men do anything to help those elemental spirits? This is the great question which was put by the Holy Rishis. Can we do anything to release, to redeem, all that is here, bewitched? Yes! We can help them. Because what we men do here in the physical world is nothing else than an outward expression of spiritual processes. All we do is also of importance for the spiritual world. Let us consider the following. A man stands in front of a crystal, or a lump of gold, or anything of that kind. He looks at it. What happens when a man simply gazes, simply stares with his physical eye upon some outer object? A continual interplay occurs between the man and the bewitched elemental spirits. The man and that which is bewitched in the substance have something to do with each other. Let us suppose that the man only stares at the object and takes in only what is impressed on his physical eye. Something is always passing from the elemental being into the man. Something from those bewitched elementals passes continually into the man, from morning till night. While you are thus regarding objects, hosts of these elemental beings, who were and are being continually bewitched through the world-processes of condensation, are continually entering from your surroundings into you. Let us take it that the man staring at the objects has no inclination whatever to think about those objects, no inclination to let the spirit of things live in his soul. He lives comfortably, merely passes through the world, but he does not work on it spiritually, with his ideas or feelings or in any such way. He remains simply a spectator of the material things he meets with in the world. Then these elemental spirits pass into him and remain there, having gained nothing from the world's process, but the fact of having passed from the outer world into man. Let us take another kind of man, one who works spiritually on the impressions he receives from the outer world, who with his understanding and ideas forms conceptions regarding the spiritual foundations of the world, one who does not simply stare at a metal, but ponders over its nature and feels the beauty which inspires and spiritualises his impressions. What does such a man do? Through his own spiritual process, he releases the elemental being which has streamed into him from the outer world; he raises it to what it was before, he frees the elemental from its state of enchantment. Thus, through our own spiritual life, we can, without changing them, either imprison within us those spirits which are bewitched in air, water and earth, or else through our own increasing spirituality, free them and lead them back to their own element. During the whole of his earthly life, man lets those elemental spirits stream into him from the outer world. In the same measure in which he only stares at things, in the same measure in which he simply lets the spirit dwell in him without transforming them, so, in like measure as he tries with his ideas, conceptions and feeling for beauty to work out spiritually what he sees in the outer world, does he release and redeem those spiritual elemental beings.
[ 13 ] Now what happens to those elemental beings which, having come out of things, enter into man? They remain at first within him. Also those which are released at first remain, but they stay only until his death. When the man passes through death a differentiation takes place between those elemental beings which have simply passed into him and which he had not led back to their higher element, and those whom he has through his own spiritualisation led back to their former condition. Those whom the man has not changed have not gained anything from their passage from the outer world into him, but others have gained the possibility of returning to their own original world with the man's death. During his life man is a place of transition for these elemental beings. When he has passed through the spiritual world and returns to earth in his next incarnation, all the elemental beings which he has not released during his former life flock into him again when he passes through the portals of his new birth, they return with him into the physical world; but those he has released he does not bring back with him for they have returned into their original element.
[ 14 ] Thus we see how man has it in his power, by the way he acts and feels towards outer nature, either to release those elemental spirits which have been necessarily bewitched through the coming into existence of our earth, or to bind them to the earth still more strongly than they were before. What does a man do when, in looking at some outer object he releases from it an elemental being by elucidating it? He spiritually does the opposite of what has been done before. Previously, smoke had been brought forth out of fire, but man spiritually forms fire again out of that smoke; only after death does he release this fire. Now think for a moment of the endless depth and spirituality of the ancient ceremonies of sacrifice, as seen in the light of primeval spiritual science! Imagine to yourselves the Priest at the sacrificial altar in those times when religion was built on the real knowledge of spiritual laws; think of the Priest lighting the flame, and the rising of the smoke, and as the smoke rises a real sacrifice is offered, for it is followed upwards by prayers — What happens then? What happens during such a sacrifice? The Priest stands at the altar where the smoke is produced. Where something solid comes out of the warmth, a spirit is being transmuted, bewitched. But because the man follows the whole procedure with prayers, he at the same time receives that spirit into himself in such a way that after death it rises again into the higher world. What did the teacher of ancient wisdom say to those who had to understand this? He said: ‘If thou lookest upon the outer world in such a way that thy spiritual process does not stop at the smoke, but rises to the element of fire, then after thy death thou dost free the spirit which is bewitched in the smoke.’ Yes! The teacher who knew the fate of the spirit, which after being bewitched in the smoke had passed into man, spoke thus: ‘If thou leavest that spirit as it was when it was in the smoke, then it must be reborn with thee and cannot rise into the spiritual world after thy death; but if thou hast released it and restored it to the fire, then after thy death it will rise again into the spiritual worlds and will not need to return to the earth at thy rebirth.’
[ 15 ] Now we have explained one part of that profound sentence from the Bhagavad Gita of which I spoke in my last lecture. It does not speak here at all of the human Ego, it speaks of those nature spirits, of these elemental beings which enter into man from the outer world, and it says there: ‘Behold the fire, behold the smoke, that which man through his spiritual processes turns into fire are spirits which he liberates with his death.’ That which he leaves as it is, in the smoke, must remain united to him at his death and must be reborn with him when he returns to earth. It is the destiny of the elemental spirits that is here described; through the wisdom which man develops, he continually liberates at his death these elemental spirits; through lack of wisdom, through the materialistic attachment to the mere things of the senses, he ties those elemental spirits to himself and forces them to follow him into this world, ever to be born again with him.
[ 16 ] But these elemental beings are not only associated with fire and with what is connected with fire, they are the emissaries of higher spiritual divine beings in all that takes place in the outer sense world. There never could have been that interplay of forces in the world that produce the day and the night, for instance, if numbers of such elemental being had not worked suitably at the rotation of the planet through the universe, so that precisely this interchange of day and night could come about. All that takes place is the result of the activity of hosts of lower and higher spiritual entities belonging to the spiritual hierarchies. We have been speaking of the lowest order, of the messengers. When night becomes day and day night, elemental beings live also in that process, and so it is that man stands in an intimate relationship with the beings of the elemental world which have to take part in working at the day and the night. When man is idle and lets himself go, he affects those elementals who have to do with the day and the night quite differently, than when he has creative force, when he is active, diligent, and productive. When a man is lazy for instance, he unites himself with a certain kind of elemental and he also does so when he is active, but in a particular way. Those elementals of the second class, just named, who are active during the day, are then in their higher element. As fire elementals, those of the first class, are bound in air water and earth, so certain elemental being are also tied to darkness; and day could not turn into night, day could not be divided from night, if these elementals were not so to speak imprisoned in night. That man is able to enjoy daylight, he has to thank divine spiritual beings who have driven forth elemental spirits and have chained them to the night-time. When man is lazy these elementals flow into him continually, but he leaves them as they are, unchanged. Those elemental spirits which at night are chained to darkness, he let through his idleness remain in the same state; those elemental who enter into him when he is active and industrious and filled with working power, he leads back into daylight. Thus he continually releases these elementals of the second class. Throughout the whole of our lifetime we bear within us all those elemental spirits which have entered into us either during our hours of idleness or during those of active work. When we pass through the gates of death those beings whom we have led towards daylight can now return into the spirit world; those we have left chained to the night through our idleness, must return with us in our new incarnation. With this we arrive at the second point in the Bhagavad Gita. Again it is not the human self, but those elemental beings which are indicated with the words: ‘Behold the day and the night. That which thou hast thyself released by turning it from a being of the night into a being of the day through thy diligence; that which comes forth out of the day enters when thou diest, into the higher world; that which thou takest with thee as beings of the night, thou forcest to reincarnate with thee again.’
[ 17 ] And now you will see clearly how the matter proceeds. As it is with the phenomena of which we have just spoken, so it is on a larger scale with our month of 28 days, with the changes of the waxing and waning moon. Whole flocks of elemental beings have to come into activity to direct the motions of the moon so that our lunar periods can come about as they do with all the influences they bring with them upon our visible earth. For this purpose certain of the higher beings had again to be bewitched, doomed, chained. Clairvoyant vision sees how, with the waxing moon, spiritual beings of a lower kingdom ever rise into a higher. But, so that order should exist, other spiritual elemental beings must again be transformed into those of lower realms. There are also those elementals of a third realm who stand in relationship with men. When man is serene and bright, when he is pleased with the world, when he has feelings of gladness towards all things, he continually releases those beings which are chained to the waning moon. These beings enter into him and are continually set free, through his soul's peaceful attitude, through his inner contentment, through his harmonious feelings and ideas towards the whole world. The beings which enter into man when he is sullen, peevish, morose, discontented with anything, when everything depresses him — when he is pessimistic — these spirits remain in the condition of bewitchment they were in at the time of the waning moon. Oh! There are men who through the harmonious condition of their soul, through the bright way they look upon the world, release and set free great numbers of these bewitched elemental beings. The man of harmonious and optimistic feelings and who feels inner satisfaction with the world, is a deliverer of elemental spiritual beings. The pessimist, he who is morose, sullen and discontented, becomes through his depression the gaoler of elemental spirits which could have been released by his cheerfulness. Thus you see that the conditions of mind and soul have not only a personal importance for this man, but also that he works either at the liberation or the imprisonment of spiritual beings; either deliverance or fetters proceed from him. The conditions of soul that a man experiences go out in all directions into the spiritual world. We have here the third point of that important teaching in the Bhagavad Gita: ‘Behold what man does through the feelings and conditions of his soul, how he sets spirits free, as they are set free by the growing moon.’ When the man dies, these released spirits can return to the spiritual world. If through his depression and hypochondriacal moods, he calls to him the elemental spirits which are around him, and then leaves them as they are, as they have to be in order to bring about the orderly courses of the moon, then these spirits remain chained to him and must reincarnate with him into this world.
[ 18 ] And last of all we have a fourth degree of elemental spirits, those who have to work at the annual course of the sun, so that the summer sun may shine upon the earth to awaken and fructify it, so that spring can appear and be succeeded by autumn. In order that this may come to pass certain spirits must be fettered to winter-time, must be bewitched during the time of the winter sun. And man acts upon these spirits in the same way as we have described his acting on the other grades of spirits. Let us take man who at the beginning of winter says to himself: ‘The nights are getting longer, the days shorter, we come to that time of the sun's yearly course when the sun withdraws his fructifying forces from the earth. The outer earth dies, but with this deadening of the earth I feel it my duty to be all the more spiritually awake. I must now take more and more of the spirit within me.’ Let us take a man who acquires a more and more religious mood appropriate to the season as Christmas comes on, who learns to know the significance of Christmas and to know also that when the outer world of the senses is dead the life of the spirit must now grow stronger. This man lives through winter until Easter. He remembers that with the awakening of the outer world is combined the death of the spiritual: he lives through the Easter festival comprehending its meaning. Such a man has not only an outer religion; he has religious understanding of the processes of nature, of the spirit which rules it; and through his piety, his spirituality, he releases numbers of that fourth class of elemental beings which continually stream in and out of him, which are connected with the course of the sun. But the man who is not pious in this sense, who denies or does not understand the spirit and is always muddling through a materialistic chaos, into him these elementals of the fourth class flow, but remain unchanged. At death it happens again: that these elemental spirits of the fourth degree are either set free in their own element, or else are bound to the man and have to return with him at his next incarnation. Thus, the man, who uniting with the winter spirits does not change them into summer spirits, does not redeem them through his spirituality, dooms them to rebirth, whereas they might have been freed and not have had to return with him. [ 19 ] Behold the fire and the smoke! If you so unite with the outer world that the activity of your soul and spirit is like that of fire, from which smoke comes forth, so that you spiritualise things, through knowledge and through right feeling, you help certain spiritual elemental beings to rise; but if you unite with the smoke you condemn them to rebirth. If you associate yourself with the day, you then set free the corresponding spirits of day and so on. Behold the light! Behold the day! Behold the waxing of the moon and the sunny half of the year! If you act so that you lead the elemental spirits back to the light, to the day, to the waxing moon, to the summer-time of the year, you then at your death release these elementary spirits which are so necessary to you. They rise to the spiritual world. If you associate yourself with the smoke, if you only gaze at the solid things of the earth, if through laziness you unite yourself with the night and with the spirits of the waning moon, and if through your depression you unite yourself with those spirits who are chained to the winter sun, then through your lack of spirit, your godlessness, you condemn these elementary beings to be reincarnated with you again!
[ 20 ] Now we know for the first time what this passage in the Bhagavad Gita really means. If anyone thinks that man is here spoken of, he does not understand the Bhagavad Gita; but those who know that all human life is a continual interplay between man and the spirits who live bewitched into our surroundings and who must be released again — those know that these sentences speak of the ascension or of the reincarnation of four groups of elemental beings. The mystery of this lowest kind of hierarchy has been preserved for us in these sentences in the Bhagavad Gita. Yes! When one has to bring forth out of primeval wisdom what is presented to us in the documents of ancient religion, one sees how grand these are and how wrong it is to understand them superficially and not in all their profundity. They are only considered in the right way when one says to oneself: ‘No wisdom is exalted enough to discover the mysteries herein contained.’ Only when these ancient documents are interpenetrated by the magic of real devotional feeling, do they become what in the true sense of the word they must be — self-ennobling and purifying forces for human evolution. They point frequently to fathomless abysses of human wisdom, and only when that which springs from the sources of the occult schools and the mysteries, streams forth from now on to all mankind, only then, will these reflections of the primeval wisdom (for they are but reflections) be seen in all their greatness. [ 21 ] We have had to show, by means of a comparatively difficult example, how in the times of primeval wisdom the co-operation of all those spirits which are everywhere around us was well known, how it was also known that the deeds of men represent an interchanging activity between the spiritual world and the world of man's own inner being. The problem of humanity first becomes important for us, when we know that in all we do, even in our moods, we influence a whole Cosmos, and that this small world of ours is of infinitely far-reaching importance for all that comes to pass in the macrocosm. An increase in our feeling of responsibility is the finest and most important of all the things we gain from spiritual science. It teaches us to grasp the true meaning of life and to realise its importance, so that this life which we cast on the stream of evolution may not enter that stream void of meaning.
Zweiter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Es war eine Erkenntnis, welche durchaus auf die geistigen Quellen des Daseins zurückgeht, die Lehre, die von den heiligen Rishis verkündet worden ist in der ersten Kulturperiode der nachatlantischen Zeit. Und das ist das Bedeutsame gerade an dieser Lehre, an dieser Forschung vom Aufgange unserer nachatlantischen Zeit, daß sie so tief in alle Naturprozesse eindrang, daß sie in diesen Naturprozessen das Geistig-Wirksame erkennen konnte. Im Grunde genommen sind wir immer umgeben von geistigen Geschehnissen und geistigen Wesenheiten. Alles, was materiell geschieht, ist ja nur der Ausdruck von geistigen Tatsachen, und alle Dinge, die uns materiell entgegentreten, sind nur die äußere Hülle von geistigen Wesenheiten. Wenn nun in der genannten uralten heiligen Lehre von den uns umgebenden Erscheinungen gesprochen wurde, die wir wahrnehmen in unserer Umgebung, so wurde da immer auf eine Erscheinung besonders hingewiesen, auf die wichtigste, die bedeutsamste Naturerscheinung, die den Menschen auf der Erde umgibt. Und als diese bedeutsamste Naturerscheinung wurde angesehen von jener Geisteswissenschaft die Tatsache des Feuers. Bei allen Erklärungen dessen, was auf der Erde vorgeht, wurde in den Mittelpunkt gestellt die geistige Forschung über das Feuer. Wollen wir aber verstehen diese, wir können sagen, östliche Lehre vom Feuer, die so weittragend war in alten Zeiten für alle Erkenntnis und auch für alles Leben, wollen wir verstehen diese Lehre vom Feuer, dann müssen wir uns ein wenig umschauen unter den anderen Naturerscheinungen und Naturgegenständen, wie sie angesehen wurden von jener uralten, aber heute noch durchaus für die Geisteswissenschaft gültigen Lehre.
[ 2 ] Da wurde alles, was zunächst in der physischen Welt den Menschen umgibt, zurückgeführt auf die sogenannten vier Elemente. Diese vier Elemente werden heute von unserer modernen materialistischen Wissenschaft allerdings nicht mehr respektiert. Sie wissen ja alle, daß diese vier Elemente heißen: Erde, Wasser, Luft und Feuer. Unter der Erde hat man aber da, wo Geisteswissenschaft blühte, nicht dasjenige verstanden, was heute mit dem Worte Erde bezeichnet wird. Mit Erde wurde ein Zustand des materiellen Daseins bezeichnet, der Zustand des Festen. Alles das, was wir heute fest nennen, das wurde erdig genannt in der Geisteswissenschaft. Also, ob wir feste Ackererde haben oder ob wir ein Stück Bergkristall, ein Stück Blei oder Gold haben, alles was fest ist, wurde als Erde bezeichnet. Alles das, was flüssig ist, nicht nur das heutige Wasser, wurde bezeichnet als wässerig oder als Wasser. Wenn Sie also meinetwillen Eisen haben, und Sie bringen es zum Glühen, so daß es nach und nach durch die Hitze hinschmilzt und hinrinnt, so ist dasjenige, was da als Eisen hinrinnt, für die Geisteswissenschaft Wasser. Alle Metalle, wenn sie flüssig sind, wurden als Wasser bezeichnet. Alles das, was wir heute luftförmig nennen, dieser Zustand, den wir heute auch als gasig bezeichnen, das wurde, gleichgültig welcher Stoff in Betracht kam, ob Sauerstoffgas, Wasserstoffgas oder andere Gase, das wurde alles als Luft bezeichnet.
[ 3 ] Als viertes Element wurde das Feuer angesehen. Die heutige Wissenschaft, das wissen diejenigen, die sich an die physikalischen Grundbegriffe erinnern, sieht im Feuer kein Ding, das man vergleichen kann mit Erde oder Luft oder Wasser, sondern die heutige Physik sieht darinnen nur einen Bewegungszustand. Die Geisteswissenschaft sieht in der Wärme oder in dem Feuer nichts anderes als etwas, was eine noch feinere Substantialität hat als die Luft. Gerade wie Erde oder das Feste sich in das Flüssige verwandelt, so geht das Luftförmige allmählich über für die Geisteswissenschaft in den Feuerzustand, und das Feuer ist ein so feines Element, daß es alle übrigen Elemente durchdringt. Feuer durchdringt die Luft und macht sie warm, ebenso das Wasser, ebenso die Erde. Während also sozusagen die anderen drei Elemente verteilt sind, sehen wir das Element des Feuers alles, alles durchdringen.
[ 4 ] Nun sagte die alte und mit ihr auch die neue Geisteswissenschaft: Es ist noch ein anderer, ein beträchtlicher Unterschied zwischen dem, was wir Erde, Wasser, Luft und dem, was wir Feuer oder Wärme nennen. — Wie kann Erde oder Festes wahrgenommen werden? Nun, sagen wir, indem wir es berühren. Wir nehmen das Feste wahr, indem wir es berühren und es einen Widerstand ausübt. Ebenso ist es noch beim Wässerigen. Dieses gibt zwar leichter nach, der Widerstand ist nicht so groß, aber wir nehmen es doch wahr als etwas uns Äußerliches, als einen Widerstand. Und so ist es auch mit dem Elemente der Luft. Wir nehmen auch sie nur äußerlich wahr. Anders ist es mit der Wärme. Es muß da etwas hervorgehoben werden, was die heutige Weltanschauung nicht als bedeutsam ansieht, was aber als bedeutsam angesehen werden muß, wenn man hineinblicken will in die wirklichen Rätsel des Daseins. Wärme nehmen wir nämlich auch wahr, ohne daß wir sie äußerlich berühren. Das ist das Wesentliche: Wir können Wärme wahrnehmen, indem wir einen Körper, der einen bestimmten Grad von Wärme hat, berühren; wir können Wärme äußerlich wahrnehmen wie die drei anderen Elemente, aber wir fühlen Wärme auch in unseren eigenen inneren Zuständen. Daher hat die alte Wissenschaft, schon bei den Indern, hervorgehoben: Erde, Wasser, Luft nimmst du in der Außenwelt allein wahr, Wärme ist das erste Element, das auch innerlich wahrgenommen werden kann. Wärme oder Feuer hat also sozusagen zwei Seiten: eine Außenseite, die sich uns zeigt, wenn wir sie äußerlich wahrnehmen, eine innerliche Seite, wenn wir uns selbst in einem bestimmten Wärmezustand fühlen. Nicht wahr, der Mensch fühlt seinen inneren Wärmezustand, es ist ihm heiß, es friert ihn; dagegen kümmert er sich bewußt nicht viel um dasjenige, was in ihm luftförmige, wässerige, feste Substanzen sind, was also Luft, Wasser, Erde in ihm ist. Er fängt erst sozusagen an, sich zu fühlen im Elemente der Wärme. Eine innerliche und äußerliche Seite hat das Element der Wärme. Daher sagt die alte Geisteswissenschaft und mit ihr die neue Geisteswissenschaft: Die Wärme oder das Feuer ist dasjenige, wo das Materielle beginnt seelisch zu werden. Wir können daher im wahren Sinne des Wortes sprechen von einem äußeren Feuer, das wir gleich den anderen Elementen wahrnehmen, und einem innerlichen, seelischen Feuer in uns.
[ 5 ] So bildete das Feuer für die Geisteswissenschaft immer die Brücke zwischen dem äußerlich Materiellen und dem Seelischen, das nur innerlich wahrgenommen wird vom Menschen. Man stellte das Feuer oder die Wärme in den Mittelpunkt von aller Naturbetrachtung, weil das Feuer sozusagen das Tor ist, wodurch wir von außen nach innen dringen. Es ist wirklich dieses Feuer wie eine Tür, vor der man stehen kann; man sieht sie von außen an, macht sie auf und kann sie von innen anschauen. So ist das Feuer unter den Naturerscheinungen. Man betastet einen äußeren Gegenstand und lernt kennen das Feuer, das von außen zuströmt wie die anderen drei Elemente; man nimmt die innere Wärme wahr und fühlt sie als etwas, was einem selbst angehört: Man steht innerhalb des Tores, man tritt hinein in das Seelische. So sprach man die Wissenschaft vom Feuer aus. Daher aber auch sah man in dem Feuer etwas, wo zusammenspielt Seelisches und Materielles.
[ 6 ] Es ist wirklich eine Elementarlektion der ersten menschlichen Weisheit, was wir jetzt einmal vor unsere Seele hinstellen wollen. Da haben die Lehrer etwa so gesagt: Sieh dir an einen brennenden Gegenstand, der durch Feuer verzehrt wird! Zweierlei siehst du in diesem brennenden Gegenstand. Das eine nannte man in dieser alten Zeit, und könnte es noch heute so nennen, Rauch, und das andere nannte man Licht. Denn diese beiden Naturerscheinungen treten vor uns auf, wenn ein Gegenstand durch das Feuer verzehrt wird: Licht auf der einen Seite, Rauch auf der anderen. So also sah der Geisteswissenschafter das Feuer mitten drinnen stehen zwischen Licht und Rauch. Der Lehrer sagte: Gleichsam wird geboren aus der Flamme auf der einen Seite das Licht, auf der anderen der Rauch.
[ 7 ] Nun aber müssen wir uns einmal in bezug auf das Licht, das vom Feuer geboren ist, eine höchst einfache, aber weittragende Tatsache klar vor Augen legen. Es ist höchstwahrscheinlich, daß sehr viele Menschen, wenn man sie fragen würde: Siehst du das Licht? antworten würden: Nun gewiß seh ich das Licht! — Aber doch ist diese Antwort so falsch wie irgend möglich, denn in Wahrheit sieht kein physisches Auge das Licht. Es ist absolut unrichtig, wenn man sagt, man sieht das Licht. Man sieht durch das Licht die Gegenstände, welche fest, flüssig, luftförmig sind, aber das Licht selber sieht man nicht. Denken Sie sich einmal den ganzen Weltenraum vom Licht durchleuchtet, und die Quelle des Lichtes wäre irgendwo, wo Sie sie nicht sehen könnten, hinter Ihnen, und Sie schauen nun in den Weltenraum hinein, der durchleuchtet ist vom Lichte - würden Sie das Licht sehen? Sie würden dann überhaupt nichts sehen. Sie würden erst dann etwas sehen, wenn irgendein Gegenstand in den durchleuchteten Raum hineingestellt wird. Man sieht nicht das Licht, sondern nur Festes, Wässeriges, Gasiges durch das Licht. Also in Wahrheit wird das physische Licht überhaupt nicht mit den physischen Augen gesehen. Das ist nun etwas, was sich mit einer besonderen Klarheit vor das geistige Auge stellt. Die Geisteswissenschaft sagt deshalb: Das Licht macht zwar alles sichtbar, aber das Licht selber ist unsichtbar. Und das ist ein wichtiger Satz: Es ist unwahrnehmbar das Licht. Man kann es nicht durch äußere Sinne wahrnehmen. Man kann wahrnehmen Festes, Flüssiges, Gasförmiges, man kann gerade noch als letztes Element die Wärme oder das Feuer äußerlich wahrnehmen; das kann man aber auch schon anfangen innerlich wahrzunehmen. Das Licht selber aber kann man nicht mehr äußerlich wahrnehmen. Wenn Sie etwa glauben, daß, wenn man die Sonne sieht, man Licht sieht, so ist das falsch: Man sieht einen flammenden Körper, eine brennende Substanz, von der das Licht ausströmt. Würden Sie es prüfen, so würden Sie sehen, daß Sie Gasiges, Flüssiges, Erdiges haben. Das Licht sehen Sie nicht, sondern das, was brennt.
[ 8 ] Also wir treten, wenn wir aufsteigen — so sagt die Geisteswissenschaft - von Erde durch Wasser, durch Luft zum Feuer und dann zum Licht, wir treten da von äußerlich Wahrnehmbarem, Sichtbarem ins Unsichtbare hinein, ins Ätherisch-Geistige. Oder, wie man auch sagt: Das Feuer steht an der Grenze zwischen dem äußerlich Wahrnehmbaren, Materiellen und dem, was ätherisch-geistig ist, was nicht mehr äußerlich wahrnehmbar ist. Was tut also ein durch die Flamme, das heißt durch das Feuer aufgezehrter Körper? Was geschieht, wenn etwas brennt? Wenn etwas brennt, so sehen wir auf der einen Seite entstehen das Licht. Das erste äußerlich Unwahrnehmbare, dasjenige, was in die geistige Welt hineinwirkt, was nicht mehr bloß äußerlich materiell ist sozusagen, gibt die Wärme, wenn sie so stark ist, daß sie eine Lichtquelle wird. Sie gibt an das Unsichtbare, an das, was nicht mehr äußerlich wahrgenommen werden kann, etwas ab, aber sie muß das bezahlen durch den Rauch. Sie muß aus dem, was vorher durchsichtig durchleuchtet war, sich herausbilden lassen das Undurchsichtige, das Rauchige. Und so sehen wir, wie in der Tat die Wärme oder das Feuer sich differenziert, sich teilt. Sie teilt sich nach der einen Seite in Licht, und damit eröffnet sie einen Weg in die übersinnliche Welt hinein. Dafür, daß sie etwas hinaufsendet als Licht in die übersinnliche Welt, dafür muß sie etwas hinuntersenden in die materielle Welt, in die Welt des Undurchsichtigen, aber Sichtbaren. Nichts entsteht einseitig in der Welt. Alles, was entsteht, hat zwei Seiten: Wenn durch Wärme Licht entsteht, so entsteht auf der anderen Seite Trübung, finstere Materie. Das ist uralte geisteswissenschaftliche Lehre.
[ 9 ] Nun aber ist der Vorgang, wie wir ihn jetzt beschrieben haben, nur die Außenseite, nur der physisch-materielle Vorgang. Diesem physisch-materiellen Vorgang liegt nun etwas wesentlich anderes noch zugrunde. Wenn Sie bloße Wärme vor sich haben, also etwas, was noch nicht leuchtet, dann ist darinnen in gewisser Beziehung die Wärme selbst, die Sie wahrnehmen, das äußerlich Physische, aber es ist ein Geistiges darinnen. Wenn diese Wärme nun so stark wird, daß Leuchten entsteht und Rauch sich bildet, dann muß etwas von dem Geistigen, das in der Wärme war, in den Rauch hinein. Und dieses Geistige, das in der Wärme war, das in den Rauch, in ein Luftförmiges übergeht, also in etwas, was unter der Wärme steht, das ist jetzt in dem Rauch, in dem, was als Trübung erscheint, verzaubert. Geistige Wesenheiten, die mit der Wärme sind, müssen sich sozusagen herbeilassen, in das Dichtwerdende, in das Rauchigwerdende sich hineinverzaubern zu lassen. Und so ist denn mit allem, was sozusagen wie eine Trübung, wie eine Materialisierung herausfällt aus der Wärme, eine Verzauberung geistiger Wesen verbunden. Wir können das noch krasser hinstellen. Denken wir uns einmal, wir bringen, was ja heute schon möglich ist, die Luft zur Verflüssigung. Die Luft selber ist nichts anderes als verdichtete Wärme, sie ist entstanden aus der Wärme, indem sich Rauch gebildet hat. Das vom Geistigen ist hineingezaubert worden in den Rauch, was eigentlich im Feuer sein möchte. Geistige Wesenheiten, die man nun auch Elementarwesen nennt, sind verzaubert in aller Luft, und sie werden noch weiter verzaubert, sozusagen zu einem noch niedrigeren Dasein verbannt, wenn die Luft in Wasser übergeführt wird. Daher sieht die Geisteswissenschaft überhaupt in dem, was äußerlich wahrnehmbar ist, etwas, was aus einem Urzustande des Feuers oder der Wärme hervorgegangen ist auf die Weise, daß es erst Luft oder Rauch oder Gas wurde, indem die Wärme sich zu Gas verdichtete, das Gas zu Flüssigem, das Flüssige zum Festen. Seht zurück, so sagt der Geheimwissenschafter, seht euch an irgend etwas Festes: Es war einmal flüssig, es ist erst im Verlaufe der Entwickelung zum Festen geworden; und das Flüssige war einmal gasförmig, und das Gasförmige bildete sich als Rauch heraus aus dem Feuer. Aber mit dieser Verdichtung, mit diesem Gasförmig- und Festwerden ist immer eine Verzauberung von geistigen Wesenheiten verbunden.
[ 10 ] Blicken wir also jetzt in unsere Umwelt, sehen wir uns an die festen Steine, die Ströme von Wasser, welche hinrinnen, sehen wir das, was an Wasser verdunstet, als Nebel emporsteigt, sehen wir die Luft, sehen wir alles Feste, Flüssige, Luftförmige und Feuer: so haben wir im Grunde nichts als Feuer. Alles ist Feuer, nur eben verdichtetes Feuer. Gold, Silber, Kupfer ist verdichtetes Feuer. Alles war einstmals Feuer, alles ist aus dem Feuer geboren - aber in all diesem Verdichteten überall ein Geistiges, das darin verzaubert ruht!
[ 11 ] Womit erreichen es also die geistig-göttlichen Wesenheiten, die um uns herum sind, daß, wie es auf unserem Planeten ist, ein Festes entsteht, daß ein Flüssiges, ein Luftförmiges entsteht? Sie schicken ihre Elementargeister, die im Feuer leben, hinunter, sie sperren sie ein in Luft, Wasser und Erde. Das sind die Boten, die Elementarboten der geistigen schöpferischen Bildnerwesen. Erst hat man diese Elementargeister im Feuer. Im Feuer fühlen sie sich, wenn wir bildlich sprechen, noch wohl, und nun werden sie sozusagen verdammt, in Verzauberung zu leben. Und wir blicken um uns herum und sagen uns: Diese Wesenheiten, denen wir alles das verdanken, was um uns herum ist, sie haben aus dem Elemente des Feuers heruntersteigen müssen, sie sind in den Dingen verzaubert.
[ 12 ] Können wir als Menschen für diese Elementargeister etwas tun? Das ist die große Frage, die sich die heiligen Rishis aufwarfen. Können wir etwas tun, um das, was da verzaubert ist, zu erlösen? Ja, wir können etwas tun! Denn das, was wir Menschen tun hier in der physischen Welt, ist auch nichts anderes als der äußere Ausdruck geistiger Prozesse. Alles, was wir tun, hat zu gleicher Zeit seine Bedeutung in der geistigen Welt. Nehmen wir einmal folgendes an: Ein Mensch steht gegenüber irgendeinem, sagen wir, Bergkristall oder einem Stück Gold oder dergleichen. Er schaut das an. Was geschieht, wenn ein Mensch einfach anglotzt, anschaut mit seinem sinnlichen Auge irgendeinen äußeren Gegenstand, was geschieht da? Da ist ein fortwährendes Wechselspiel zwischen dem verzauberten Elementargeist und dem Menschen. Dasjenige, was da in der Materie drinnen verzaubert ist, und der Mensch, sie haben etwas miteinander zu tun. Nehmen wir nun an, der Mensch glotzt nur den Gegenstand an, so daß ihm nur auffällt, was ans Auge herandringt; da geht immer etwas von diesen Elementarwesen in den Menschen herein. Fortwährend geht etwas von den verzauberten Elementarwesen in den Menschen herein, von früh bis abends. Indem Sie wahrnehmen, geht von Ihrer Umgebung fortwährend eine Schar von Elementarwesenheiten, die verzaubert war und die fortwährend verzaubert wird durch die Verdichtungsprozesse der Welt, fortwährend geht eine solche Schar von Wesenheiten in Sie hinein. Nehmen wir nun einmal an, der Mensch, der so die Gegenstände anglotzt, hätte gar nicht die Neigung, nachzudenken über die Gegenstände, in seiner Seele irgend etwas leben zu lassen vom Geist der Dinge. Er macht sich’s bequem, geht nur so durch die Welt, verarbeitet es aber geistignicht, nicht mit Ideen, nicht mit Gefühlen, mit gar nichts, er bleibt sozusagen ein bloßer Anschauer dessen, was ihm materiell in der Welt entgegentritt. Da gehen diese Elementargeister in ihn herein und sitzen nun in ihm, sind in ihm drinnen und haben nichts anderes gewonnen im Weltprozeß, als daß sie hereingestiegen sind aus der Außenwelt in den Menschen. Nehmen wir aber an, der Mensch sei ein solcher, der die Eindrücke der Außenwelt geistig verarbeitet, der mit seinen Ideen, Begriffen sich Vorstellungen macht über die geistigen Grundlagen der Welt, der also ein Stück Metall nicht einfach anglotzt, sondern über das Wesen nachdenkt, die Schönheit der Sache nachfühlt, der seinen Eindruck vergeistigt; was tut der? Der erlöst durch seinen eigenen geistigen Prozeß das Elementarwesen, das überströmt von der Außenwelt zu ihm; der hebt es herauf zu dem, was es war, der befreit das Elementarwesen aus seiner Verzauberung. So können wir durch unsere eigene Vergeistigung diejenigen Wesenheiten, die in Luft, Wasser und Erde verzaubert sind, wir können sie entweder einsperren in unser Inneres, ohne sie zu verändern, oder aber wir können sie dadurch, daß wir uns selber immer mehr und mehr vergeistigen, befreien, erlösen, sie wiederum zu ihrem Elemente zurückführen. Sein ganzes Leben hindurch auf der Erde läßt der Mensch aus der Außenwelt Elementargeister in sich hereinfließen. In demselben Maße, in dem er die Dinge bloß anglotzt, in demselben Maße läßt er diese Geister einfach in sich hineinwandern und verändert sie nicht; in demselben Maße, in dem er die Dinge der Außenwelt in seinem Geist zu verarbeiten sucht durch Ideen, Begriffe, Gefühle der Schönheit und so weiter, in demselben Maße erlöst und befreit er diese geistigen Elementarwesen.
[ 13 ] Und was geschieht also jetzt mit diesen Elementarwesen, die sozusagen von den Dingen aus in den Menschen eingetreten sind, was geschieht mit ihnen? Sie sind zunächst im Menschen. Auch die erlösten müssen zunächst im Menschen bleiben, aber nur bis zum physischen Tod des Menschen. Wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes tritt, dann tritt ein Unterschied ein zwischen denjenigen Elementarwesen, die bloß hereingewandert sind und die der Mensch nicht wiederum hinaufgeführt hat zu einem höheren Elemente, und zwischen jenen, die der Mensch durch seine eigene Vergeistigung zu ihrem früheren Element zurückgebracht hat. Die Elementarwesen, die der Mensch nicht verändert hat, die haben zunächst gar nichts gewonnen dadurch, daß sie herübergewandert sind von den Dingen zum Menschen; die anderen aber, die haben das gewonnen, daß sie mit dem Tode des Menschen wiederum in ihre ursprüngliche Welt zurückkehren können. Der Mensch ist in seinem Leben ein Durchgangspunkt für diese Elementarwesenheiten. Und wenn nun der Mensch durch die geistige Welt durchgegangen ist und in einer nächsten Verkörperung wiedergeboren wird, da kommen bei der Wiederverkörperung des Menschen, indem der Mensch durchgeht durch die Pforte der Geburt, alle die Elementarwesen, die der Mensch vorher nicht befreit hat, wieder zurück in die physische Welt; die aber, die er befreit hat, die bringt er nicht wieder mit, wenn er heruntersteigt, die sind zurückgekehrt zu ihrem ursprünglichen Elemente.
[ 14 ] So sehen wir, wie der Mensch es in der Hand hat, durch seine Entwickelung, durch die Art und Weise, wie er sich zur äußeren Natur verhält, die zur Entstehung unseres Erdendaseins notwendig verzauberten Elementarwesen entweder zu befreien oder aber sie noch mehr an die Erde zu fesseln, als sie es schon vorher waren. Was tut ein Mensch, der also irgendeinen äußeren Gegenstand anschaut und, indem er ihn erläutert, den Elementargeist daraus erlöst? Geistig macht er das Gegenteil von dem, was früher geschehen ist. Während früher sozusagen aus dem Feuer Rauch gebildet worden ist, bildet der Mensch wiederum aus dem Rauch geistig das Feuer; er entläßt nur dieses Feuer erst nach seinem Tode. Nun denken Sie sich einmal, wie unendlich tief und wie unendlich geistvoll alte Opfergebräuche sind, wenn Sie sie im Lichte uralt-heiliger Geisteswissenschaft betrachten: Denken Sie sich einmal den Priester am Opferaltar in denjenigen Zeiten, in denen Religion gebaut war auf wirkliche Erkenntnis der geistigen Gesetze, denken Sie sich, daß der Priester die Flamme entzündet und Rauch aufsteigt und das Aufsteigen des Rauches nun wirklich zum Opfer gemacht wird, das heißt durch Gebete verfolgt wird, was geschieht da? Was geschieht mit solchem Opfer überhaupt? Der Priester steht am Altar, wo Rauch erzeugt wird. Wo das Feste herausgeht aus der Wärme, wird ein Geist verzaubert, gleichzeitig wird aber dadurch, daß der Mensch mit den Gebeten den ganzen Vorgang verfolgt, dieser Geist als ein solcher in die Menschen aufgenommen, daß er nach dem Tode wiederum aufsteigt in die höhere Welt. Was sagte daher der Angehörige der alten Weisheit zu denen, die solches verstehen sollten? Er sagte: Wenn du die Außenwelt so ansiehst, daß dein geistiger Prozeß nicht ein Hängenbleiben am Rauch ist, sondern ein Hinaufheben des Geistigen zum Feuerelement, dann befreist du nach dem Tode den im Rauch verzauberten Geist. — Und nun sprach der Mensch, der das verstand von dem in den Menschen übergegangenen, aus dem Rauch verzauberten Geist: Hast du den Geist so gelassen, wie er im Rauch war, dann muß er mit dir wiedergeboren werden, dann kann er nach deinem Tod nicht zurückgehen in die geistige Welt; hast du ihn aber befreit, hast du ihn zurückgeführt zum Feuer, dann wird er nach deinem Tod in die geistigen Welten hinaufgehen und braucht mit deiner Geburt nicht wieder zurückzukehren auf die Erde.
[ 15 ] Und nun haben Sie einen Teil dieser tiefen Sätze aus der Bhagavad Gita, die im vorigen Vortrag angeführt worden sind. Es ist da gar nicht die Rede vom menschlichen Ich, es ist die Rede von jenen Naturwesenheiten, von jenen Elementarwesen, die aus der Außenwelt in den Menschen hereingehen, und es wird gesagt: Sieh das Feuer, sieh den Rauch! Das, was der Mensch durch seine geistigen Prozesse zum Feuer macht, das sind Geister, die er befreit mit seinem Tod. Was er läßt, wie es im Rauch ist, das muß bei seinem Tod mit ihm vereinigt bleiben und muß wiedergeboren werden, wenn er geboren wird. Das Schicksal der Elementargeister ist uns zunächst damit gekennzeichnet: Durch Weisheit, die der Mensch in sich entwickelt, befreit der Mensch fortwährend bei seinem Tode Elementargeister; durch Unweisheit, durch bloßes materielles Hängenbleiben am Sinnenschein klammert er Elementargeister an sich und zwingt sie, immer wieder mitzugehen in diese Welt, immer wieder mit ihm geboren zu werden.
[ 16 ] Aber nicht nur mit dem Feuer und demjenigen, was mit ihm zusammenhängt, sind solche Elementarwesenheiten verknüpft. Solche Elementarwesenheiten sind die Boten für die höheren göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten bei allem, was äußerlich sinnlich geschieht. Niemals hätte zum Beispiel in der Welt das Zusammenspiel derjenigen Kräfte eintreten können, welche Tag und Nacht bewirkt haben, wenn nicht solche Elementarwesenheiten in großen Scharen arbeiteten, um die Planeten in entsprechender Weise herumzukugeln in der Welt, eben damit dieser Wechsel von Tag und Nacht geschieht. Alles, was geschieht, wird von Scharen von geistigen Unter- und Oberwesenheiten der geistigen Hierarchien bewirkt. Wir sind bei den alleruntergeordnetsten Wesenheiten, bei den Boten. Wenn aus Nacht Tag und aus Tag Nacht entsteht, da leben darinnen nun auch Elementarwesenheiten. Und so ist es, daß der Mensch nun wieder in einer innigen Beziehung steht mit den Wesenheiten der Elementarreiche, die Tag und Nacht mit zu erarbeiten haben. Wenn der Mensch träge, faul ist, wenn er sich gehen läßt, dann wirkt er auf diese Elementarwesenheiten, die es mit Tag und Nacht zu tun haben, anders, als wenn er schaffenskräftig, arbeitsam, fleißig, produktiv ist. Wenn der Mensch nämlich träge ist, so verbindet er sich wiederum mit ganz bestimmten Elementarwesen, ebenso wie wenn er fleißig ist, aber in ganz eigentümlicher Weise. Diejenigen der jetzt genannten zweiten Klasse von Elementarwesen, die ihr Leben entfalten während des Tages, die den Tag sozusagen herumwälzen, sind wiederum in ihrem höheren Elemente. Aber wie die Elementarwesen der ersten Klasse des Feuers gebunden sind in Luft, Wasser und in der Erde, so sind durch die Finsternis gewisse Elementarwesen gebunden, und es könnte nicht der Tag von der Nacht sich scheiden, wenn nicht diese Elementarwesenheiten sozusagen eingekerkert würden in die Nacht. Daß der Mensch den Tag genießen kann, das verdankt er dem Umstande, daß die göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten herausgetrieben haben die Elementarwesen und sie gefesselt haben in der Nachtzeit. Wenn der Mensch nun träge ist, so fließen fortwährend diese Elementarwesenheiten in ihn herein, aber er läßt sie, wie sie sind. Die Elementarwesenheiten, die in der Nacht angekettet sind an die Finsternis, die läßt der Mensch durch seine Faulheit, wie sie sind; die Elementarwesen, die in ihn einziehen, indem er fleißig, arbeitskräftig ist, indem er etwas tut, diese führt er geistig wiederum zurück zum Tag. Er entfesselt also fortwährend diese Elementarwesen der zweiten Klasse. Das ganze Leben hindurch tragen wir in uns alle die Elementarwesen, die eingezogen sind während unseres Trägheitszustandes und die eingezogen sind während unseres Fleißzustandes. Indem wir durch die Pforte des Todes gehen, können wiederum die Wesen, die wir zum Tag zurückgebracht haben, in die geistige Welt gehen; die Wesen, die wir in der Nacht gelassen haben durch unsere Trägheit, bleiben an uns gefesselt, und wir bringen sie zurück bei der neuen Wiederverkörperung. Das, was wir durch den bloßen Sinnentrug an äußeren Elementarwesen einfließen lassen in uns, was wir durch Faulheit und Trägheit von den Nachtwesenheiten in uns einfließen lassen, das wird wiedergeboren mit unserer Wiederverkörperung. Und jetzt haben Sie den zweiten Punkt in der Bhagavad Gita. Wiederum ist es nicht das menschliche Ich, sondern diese Sorte von Elementarwesen, auf die hingewiesen wird mit den Worten: Sieh dir an Tag und Nacht; was du selbst dadurch erlöst, daß du es durch deinen Fleiß aus einem Nachtwesen zum Tagwesen machst: Das, was aus dem Tag herausgeht, wenn du stirbst, das tritt in die höhere Welt ein; was du als Nachtwesen mitnimmst, das verdammst du dazu, mit dir wiedergeboren zu werden.
[ 17 ] Und nun werden Sie wohl ahnen, wie die Sache sich fortsetzt. Wie bei den Erscheinungen, die eben besprochen worden sind, so ist es auch bei umfassenderen Naturerscheinungen, so zum Beispiel bei dem, was unsere 28 Monatstage hervorbringt, dem Wechsel im zunehmenden und abnehmenden Mond. Da mußte eine ganze Schar von Elementarwesen mitwirken, um den Mond so in Bewegung zu bringen, daß diese unsere Mondzeit entstehen konnte, daß alles das, was mit dem Mondwechsel zusammenhängt, sich auf unserer sichtbaren Erde wirklich entfalten konnte. Und dazu mußten wiederum von den höheren Wesenheiten gewisse Wesenheiten verzaubert, verdammt, gefesselt werden. Dem hellseherischen Blick zeigt es sich immer, daß, wenn der Mond zunimmt, immer geistige Wesenheiten aus einem unteren Reich in ein übergeordnetes Reich kommen. Damit aber Ordnung ist, müssen auch andere geistige Elementarwesenheiten in untergeordnetere Reiche hinunter verzaubert werden. Auch diese Elementarwesen eines dritten Reiches stehen in Wechselwirkung mit dem Menschen. Wenn der Mensch heiter ist, wenn er mit der Welt zufrieden ist, wenn er die Welt so versteht, daß er in einem heiteren Gemüte alle Dinge umfaßt, dann befreit er fortwährend die Wesenheiten, die durch den abnehmenden Mond gefesselt werden. Die Wesenheiten kommen in ihn herein und werden durch seine Seelenruhe, durch die innere Zufriedenheit, durch die harmonische Weltempfindung und Weltanschauung fortwährend befreit. Diejenigen Wesenheiten, welche einziehen in den Menschen, wenn er mißmutig ist, wenn er griesgrämig ist, wenn er mit nichts zufrieden ist, wenn er durch alles mögliche verstimmt wird, sie bleiben im Zustande der Verzauberung, in dem sie waren durch den abnehmenden Mond. Oh, es gibt Menschen, die dadurch, daß sie zu einer harmonischen Weltempfindung gekommen sind, heiteren Gemütes sind, unendlich befreiend wirken auf eine ganz große Summe von Elementarwesen, die eben so entstanden sind, wie geschildert worden ist. Der Mensch ist durch eine harmonische Weltempfindung, durch innerliches Befriedigtsein über die Welt, ein Befreier geistiger Elementarwesen. Der Mensch ist durch seine Griesgrämigkeit, Verstimmtheit, durch seinen Mißmut ein Feßler von Elementarwesen, die befreit werden könnten durch seine Heiterkeit. So sehen Sie, wie des Menschen Gemütsstimmung nicht bloß für diesen Menschen selbst eine Bedeutung hat, wie des Menschen Heiterkeit oder Griesgrämigkeit etwas ist, was wie Befreiung oder wie Fesselung ausströmt aus seiner Wesenheit. Es geht nach allen Windrichtungen in das Geistige hinaus, was der Mensch tut durch seine bloßen Gemütsstimmungen. Da haben wir den dritten Punkt jener wichtigen Lehre der Bhagavad Gita: Sieh hin, wenn ein Mensch so wirkt durch seine Gemütsstimmung, daß er Geister befreit, wie bei dem zunehmenden Monde Geister befreit werden, dann können diese befreiten Geister, wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes geht, zurückgehen in die höhere Welt. Wenn der Mensch durch seinen Mißmut, seine Hypochondrie, die Geister, die um ihn herum sind, in sich hereinruft und sie läßt, wie sie sind, wie sie da sein mußten, damit die Ordnung des Mondes herbeigeführt werden kann, dann bleiben diese Geister an ihn gefesselt und müssen wiedergeboren werden, wenn er in ein neues Dasein tritt. So haben wir eine dritte Stufe von Elementargeistern, die entweder mit dem Tod des Menschen befreit werden, zurückgehen in ihr Heimatland oder die wiedergeboren werden müssen in dieser Welt mit dem Menschen.
[ 18 ] Und endlich haben wir eine vierte Art von Elementargeistern. Es sind diejenigen, die den Sonnenlauf des Jahres mitzubewirken haben, damit die Sonne des Sommers weckend und befruchtend auf die Erde herniederscheinen kann, damit das, was vom Frühling bis Herbst gedeiht, eben gedeihen kann. Dazu müssen gewisse Geister im Winter gefesselt sein, müssen verzaubert sein während der Zeit der Wintersonne. Und in derselben Weise wirkt der Mensch, wie es früher geschildert worden ist, für die anderen Stufen der geistigen Wesenheiten des Elementarreiches. Nehmen Sie einen Menschen an, der eintritt in die Winterzeit, der sich sagt: Die Nächte werden länger, die Tage werden kürzer, wir kommen zu dem Teil des Jahressonnenlaufes, wo sozusagen die Sonne ihre befruchtenden Kräfte der Erde entzieht. Die äußere Erde stirbt, aber mit dieser absterbenden Erde fühle ich mich um so mehr verpflichtet, geistig aufzuleben. Ich muß jetzt sozusagen den Geist immer mehr und mehr in mich aufnehmen. - Nehmen wir einen Menschen, der gegen das Weihnachtsfest zu immer frömmere Festesstimmung in sich aufnimmt, der das Weihnachtsfest verstehen lernt in der Bedeutung, daß die äußere sinnliche Welt am meisten abgestorben ist, der Geist dafür am meisten leben muß; nehmen wir an, es durchlebt der Mensch die Winterzeit bis Ostern hin, er erinnert sich, daß mit dem Aufleben des Äußeren verknüpft ist der Tod des Geistigen, er durchlebt das Osterfest mit Verständnis. Solch ein Mensch hat nicht bloß äußerliche Religion, sondern Religionsverständnis für Naturprozesse, für den Geist, der in der Natur waltet, und er befreit durch diese Art seiner Frömmigkeit, seiner Geistigkeit jene vierte Klasse von Elementarwesenheiten, die immer aus- und einströmen in den Menschen, die mit dem Laufe der Sonne zusammenhängen. Und ein Mensch, der unfromm in diesem Sinn ist, der den Geist leugnet oder nicht empfindet, der im materialistischen Chaos dahinsumpft, in den strömen ein die Elementargeister dieser vierten Stufe und bleiben, wie sie sind. Und durch den Tod tritt nun wieder das ein, daß diese Elementargeister der vierten Stufe entweder befreit werden zu ihrem Elemente oder aber an den Menschen gefesselt bleiben und wieder erscheinen müssen, wenn er zu einer neuen Verkörperung schreitet. So wird der Mensch, wenn er sich verbindet mit den Wintergeistern, ohne sie zu Sommergeistern zu machen, ohne sie durch seine Geistigkeit zu erlösen, so wird er diese Geister verurteilen wiedergeboren zu werden, während sie sonst nicht wiedergeboren werden, nicht wiederkehren müssen mit ihm.
[ 19 ] Sieh das Feuer und den Rauch! Verbindest du dich so mit der äußeren Welt, daß dein geistig-seelischer Prozeß etwas ist, wie wenn Feuer und Rauch entstehen, daß du selbst die Dinge vergeistigst in deinem Erkennungs- oder Empfindungsprozeß, dann verhilfst du gewissen geistigen Elementarwesen zum Aufsteigen. Verbindest du dich mit dem Rauch, dann verurteilst du sie zur Wiedergeburt. Verbindest du dich mit dem Tag, dann befreist du wiederum die entsprechenden Geister des Tages. Sieh auf das Licht, sieh auf den Tag, sieh auf den zunehmenden Mond, auf die Sonnenhälfte des Jahres: Wirkst du so, daß du die Elementarwesen zurückführst zum Licht, zum Tag, zum zunehmenden Mond, zur Sommerszeit des Jahres, dann befreist du diese Elementarwesen, die dir so notwendig sind, mit deinem Tode, sie steigen auf in die geistige Welt. Verbindest du dich mit dem Rauch, glotzt du das Feste nur an, verbindest du dich mit der Nacht durch Trägheit, verbindest du dich mit den Geistern des abnehmenden Mondes durch deinen Mißmut, verbindest du dich mit den Geistern, die gefesselt worden sind in der Wintersonnenzeit durch deine Gottlosigkeit oder Geistlosigkeit, dann verurteilst du diese Elementarwesenheiten dazu, daß sie wiedergeboren werden müssen mit dir.
[ 20 ] Jetzt wissen wir erst, von was eigentlich an dieser Stelle der Bhagavad Gita die Rede ist. Derjenige, der glaubt, es wäre die Rede vom Menschen, der versteht die Bhagavad Gita nicht; derjenige aber, der weiß, daß alles menschliche Leben ein fortwährendes Wechselspiel ist zwischen ihm und Geistern, die in unserer Umgebung verzaubert leben und entzaubert werden müssen, der blickt auf ein Aufsteigen oder auf ein Wiederverkörpertwerden von vier Gruppen von Elementarwesen. Das Geheimnis dieser niedersten Art von Hierarchie ist uns in dieser Stelle der Bhagavad Gita erhalten geblieben. Ja, wenn man aus der Urweltweisheit herausholen muß, was uns in den großen Religionsurkunden überliefert ist, da merkt man, was Großes in diesen Religionsurkunden liegt und wie unrecht die haben, die sie oberflächlich verstehen oder sie nicht in ihrer Tiefe verstehen wollen. Man verhält sich erst dann richtig zu ihnen, wenn man sich sagt: Es ist keine Weisheit hoch genug, um das herauszufinden, was in sie hineingeheimnißt ist. Dann erst durchdringen sich diese Urkunden mit dem Zauberhauch echt frommer Gefühle, dann erst werden sie im wahren Sinne des Wortes das, was sie sein sollen: selber veredelnde und läuternde Mittel der menschlichen Entwickelung. Sie weisen uns oftmals noch hin in ungeheure Abgründe menschlicher Weisheit. Und was aus den Quellen der Geheimschulen und der Mysterien von jetzt ab in die allgemeine Menschheit hineinfließen kann, das erst wird diese Abglanze — denn solche sind sie doch nur - der Urweltweisheit in ihrer Größe und in ihrem Lichte erscheinen lassen.
[ 21 ] Wir mußten einmal an einem verhältnismäßig schwierigen Beispiel zeigen, wie man in der Urweltweisheit das Zusammenwirken aller jener Geister gewußt hat, die uns umgeben, die überall da sind, die aus- und einströmen in den Menschen, und wie man auch gewußt hat, daß des Menschen Taten eine Wechselwirkung darstellen zwischen der geistigen Welt und seiner eigenen inneren Welt. Da wird uns das Menschenrätsel erst wichtig, wenn wir gewahr werden, daß wir mit allem, was wir tun, selbst mit dem, wie wir gestimmt sind, auf einen ganzen Kosmos zurückwirken, daß diese unsere kleine Welt von einer unendlich weittragenden Bedeutung für alles Werden im Makrokosmos ist. Gerade die Erhöhung des Verantwortlichkeitsgefühls ist das Schönste und Bedeutsamste, was wir gewinnen können aus der Geisteswissenschaft. Es lehrt uns das Leben im wahren Sinne ergreifen und es so wichtig nehmen, daß dieses Leben, das wir hineinzuwerfen haben in den Entwickelungsstrom des Lebens, als erwas Bedeutungsvolles hineingeworfen wird.
Second Lecture
[ 1 ] It was an insight that goes back to the spiritual sources of existence, the teaching proclaimed by the holy rishis in the first cultural period of the post-Atlantean era. And the significance of this teaching, of this research at the dawn of our post-Atlantic era, is that it penetrated so deeply into all natural processes that it was able to recognize the spiritual effectiveness in these natural processes. Basically, we are always surrounded by spiritual events and spiritual beings. Everything that happens materially is only the expression of spiritual facts, and all things that confront us materially are only the outer shell of spiritual entities. When the aforementioned ancient sacred teaching spoke of the phenomena surrounding us, which we perceive in our environment, it always pointed to one phenomenon in particular, to the most important, the most significant natural phenomenon that surrounds man on earth. And this most significant natural phenomenon was considered by that spiritual science to be the fact of fire. In all explanations of what happens on earth, spiritual research into fire was the main focus. But if we want to understand this, we can say, eastern teaching about fire, which was so far-reaching in ancient times for all knowledge and also for all life, if we want to understand this teaching about fire, then we have to look around a little among the other natural phenomena and natural objects, as they were viewed by that ancient teaching, which is still valid for spiritual science today.
[ 2 ] There everything in the physical world that surrounds man was traced back to the so-called four elements. These four elements are no longer respected by our modern materialistic science. You all know that these four elements are: earth, water, air and fire. But where spiritual science flourished, the term 'earth' was not understood to mean what it means today. Earth was used to describe a state of material existence, the state of solidity. Everything we call solid today was called earth in spiritual science. So, whether we have solid arable soil or a piece of rock crystal, a piece of lead or gold, everything that is solid was called earth. Everything that is liquid, not only today's water, was called watery or water. So if you have iron for my sake, and you bring it to a glowing heat so that it gradually melts and runs out through the heat, that which runs out as iron is water for spiritual science. All metals, when they are liquid, were called water. Everything we call air today, this state, which we also call gaseous today, was called air, regardless of what substance was considered, whether oxygen gas, hydrogen gas or other gases.
[ 3 ] Fire was regarded as the fourth element. Today's science, as those who remember the basic concepts of physics know, does not see fire as a thing that can be compared to earth or air or water, but today's physics sees only a state of motion in it. Spiritual science sees in warmth or fire nothing more than something that has an even finer substantiality than air. Just as earth or the solid transforms into the liquid, so for spiritual science the air-like gradually changes into the fire state, and fire is such a fine element that it permeates all the other elements. Fire permeates the air and warms it, as it does the water, as it does the earth. So while the other three elements are, so to speak, distributed, we see the element of fire permeating everything, everything.
[ 4 ] Now, the old and the new spiritual science said: There is yet another, a considerable difference between what we call earth, water, air and what we call fire or warmth. How can we perceive earth or solidity? Well, we can say, by touching it. We perceive solidity by touching it and it exerts a resistance. It is the same with the watery element. This gives way more easily, the resistance is not so great, but we still perceive it as something external to us, as a resistance. And so it is with the element of air. We also perceive it only externally. It is different with warmth. Something must be emphasized here that today's world view does not consider significant, but which must be considered significant if one wants to look into the real riddles of existence. We also perceive warmth without touching it externally. That is the essential point: we can perceive warmth by touching a body that has a certain degree of warmth; we can perceive warmth externally like the three other elements, but we also feel warmth in our own inner states. Therefore, the ancient science, already with the Indians, emphasized: Earth, water, and air are the only elements you perceive in the outside world, but warmth is the first element that can also be perceived internally. So warmth or fire has two sides, so to speak: an external side that shows itself to us when we perceive it externally, and an internal side when we feel ourselves in a certain state of warmth. A person feels his inner state of warmth, he is hot, he is cold; on the other hand, he is not consciously aware of what is in him in the form of air, water and solid substances, what is in him in the form of air, water and earth. He only begins, so to speak, to feel himself in the element of warmth. The element of warmth has an inner and an outer side. Therefore, the old spiritual science and with it the new spiritual science says: warmth or fire is where the material begins to become soul. We can therefore speak in the true sense of the word of an outer fire, which we perceive like the other elements, and an inner, soul fire in us.
[ 5 ] Thus, for spiritual science, fire always formed the bridge between the external material and the soul, which is only perceived inwardly by man. Fire or warmth was placed at the center of all natural observation because fire is, so to speak, the gateway through which we penetrate from the outside in. This fire is really like a door in front of which one can stand; one looks at it from the outside, opens it and can look at it from the inside. Such is fire among natural phenomena. You touch an external object and get to know fire, which flows in from the outside like the other three elements; you perceive inner warmth and feel it as something that belongs to you: you stand within the gate, you enter into the soul. This is how the science of fire was expressed. But that is also why people saw something in fire where soul and material interact.
[ 6 ] What we now want to place before our soul is truly an elementary lesson of the first human wisdom. The teachers said something like this: Look at a burning object that is consumed by fire! You see two things in this burning object. One of them was called smoke in those ancient times, and could still be called that today, and the other was called light. For these two natural phenomena occur before us when an object is consumed by fire: light on the one hand, smoke on the other. So the student of spiritual science saw fire standing in the midst between light and smoke. The teacher said: Just as light is born out of the flame on the one hand, so smoke is born out of the flame on the other.
[ 7 ] But now we must clearly visualize a very simple but far-reaching fact in relation to the light that is born of fire. It is highly likely that if you were to ask a great many people, “Do you see the light?” they would answer, “Well, of course I see the light!” But this answer is as wrong as possible, because in truth no physical eye sees the light. It is absolutely incorrect to say that you see the light. Through the light you see the objects that are solid, liquid, or gaseous, but you do not see the light itself. Imagine the whole of outer space illuminated by light, and the source of the light is somewhere where you could not see it, behind you, and you are now looking into the illuminated outer space. Would you see the light? You would see nothing at all. You would only see something when some object is placed in the illuminated space. You do not see the light, only solids, liquids and gases through the light. So in truth, physical light is not seen at all with the physical eyes. This is something that presents itself with particular clarity to the mind's eye. That is why spiritual science says: Light makes everything visible, but light itself is invisible. And that is an important sentence: light is imperceptible. It cannot be perceived by the external senses. We can perceive solids, liquids and gases, and just about the last element that can be perceived externally is warmth or fire; but even that can begin to be perceived inwardly. But light itself can no longer be perceived externally. If you believe that when you see the sun you see light, then you are wrong: you see a flaming body, a burning substance, from which the light emanates. If you were to examine it, you would see that you have something gaseous, fluid, and earthy. You do not see the light, but what burns.
[ 8 ] So when we ascend – so says spiritual science – we pass from earth through water, through air to fire and then to light; we pass from the externally perceptible, visible, into the invisible, into the ethereal-spiritual. Or, as it is also said: Fire stands at the boundary between the externally perceptible, material, and that which is ethereal-spiritual, which is no longer externally perceptible. So what does a body that has been consumed by the flame, that is, by the fire, do? What happens when something burns? When something burns, on the one hand we see light being created. The first imperceptible thing on the outside, that which has an effect on the spiritual world, which is no longer merely externally material, so to speak, gives warmth when it is so strong that it becomes a source of light. It gives something to the invisible, to that which can no longer be perceived externally, but it has to pay for it through the smoke. It must allow the previously transparent to become opaque, to develop the smoky. And so we see how heat or fire actually differentiates, divides. It divides into light on the one hand, and thus opens a path into the supersensible world. In order for it to send something up into the supersensible world as light, it must send something down into the material world, into the world of the opaque but visible. Nothing arises in the world one-sidedly. Everything that arises has two sides: when light arises through warmth, on the other side there arises opacity, dark matter. This is an ancient spiritual teaching.
[ 9 ] But the process as we have described it now is only the outside, only the physical-material process. This physical-material process is now based on something essentially different. When you have mere warmth before you, something that does not yet shine, then in a certain respect warmth itself is present, which you perceive, the external physical, but there is also something spiritual in it. When this warmth now becomes so strong that a glow arises and smoke forms, then some of the spiritual that was in the warmth must pass into the smoke. And this spiritual essence, which was in the warmth, passes into the smoke, into something air-like, thus into something that is under the warmth, is now enchanted in the smoke, in what appears as a cloudiness. Spiritual entities that are with the warmth must, so to speak, allow themselves to be enchanted into the smoke, into what becomes dense. And so, everything that precipitates out of warmth as a kind of cloudiness, as a kind of materialization, is associated with an enchantment of spiritual beings. We can put this even more crudely. Let us imagine that we can liquefy air, which is already possible today. Air itself is nothing other than condensed warmth; it arises out of warmth by forming smoke. That which belongs to the spiritual has been magically drawn into the smoke, which actually wants to be in the fire. Spiritual beings, which are now also called elemental beings, are enchanted in all air, and they are banished even further, so to speak, to an even lower existence when the air is converted into water. Therefore, spiritual science sees in everything that is outwardly perceptible something that has emerged from a primal state of fire or warmth in such a way that it first became air or smoke or gas, with warmth condensing into gas, gas into liquid, and liquid into solid. “Look back,” says the scientist; ‘look at anything solid. It was once liquid; it has become solid only in the course of evolution. And the liquid was once gaseous, and the gaseous formed as smoke out of fire.’ But with this condensation, with this becoming gaseous and solid, there is always an enchantment of spiritual entities.
[ 10 ] If we now look at our environment, at the solid stones, the streams of water that run down, we see that which evaporates into water, rises as mist, we see the air, we see everything that is solid, liquid, aerial and fire: basically, we have nothing but fire. Everything is fire, only condensed fire. Gold, silver, copper is condensed fire. Everything was once fire, everything is born out of fire - but in all this condensation, everywhere is a spiritual essence, enchanted and resting within!
[ 11 ] So how do the spiritual-divine beings that are around us manage to create a solid, as it is on our planet, or a liquid, as it is in the air? They send their elemental spirits, which live in fire, down and lock them into air, water and earth. These are the messengers, the elemental messengers of the spiritual, creative, forming beings. First you have these elemental spirits in fire. In fire they feel, if we speak figuratively, still comfortable, and now they are, so to speak, damned to live in enchantment. And we look around us and say to ourselves: These entities, to whom we owe everything that is around us, have had to descend from the element of fire; they are enchanted in things.
[ 12 ] Can we as humans do something for these elemental spirits? This is the big question that the holy Rishis raised. Can we do something to release what is enchanted? Yes, we can do something! Because what we humans do here in the physical world is nothing more than the outward expression of spiritual processes. Everything we do also has its significance in the spiritual realm. Let us assume the following: a person stands in front of a piece of rock crystal, a piece of gold or something similar. He looks at it. What happens when a person simply stares at some external object with his physical eye? There is a continuous interplay between the bewitched elemental spirit and the person. That which is enchanted in matter and man have something to do with each other. Now, let us assume that the person only stares at the object, so that he only notices what comes to his eye; something of these elemental beings always goes into the person. Continuously something of the enchanted elemental beings goes into the person, from morning till night. As you observe, a host of elemental beings, enchanted and continually enchanted by the world's processes of condensation, is constantly leaving your surroundings and entering you. Let us now assume that the person who gazes at the objects in this way would not have the inclination to reflect on the objects, to let something of the spirit of the things live in his soul. He makes himself comfortable, just goes through the world, but does not process it spiritually, not with ideas, not with feelings, with nothing at all. He remains, so to speak, a mere observer of what materially confronts him in the world. Then these elemental spirits enter him and now sit within him, are inside him and have gained nothing in the world process except that they have entered from the outside world into the human being. But let us assume that the human being is one who processes the impressions of the external world spiritually, who uses his ideas and concepts to form images about the spiritual foundations of the world, who does not simply stare at a piece of metal, but reflects on its essence, feels its beauty, spiritualizes his impression; what does he do? He redeems, through his own spiritual process, the elemental essence that overflows from the outer world to him; he elevates it to what it was, he frees the elemental essence from its enchantment. Thus, through our own spiritualization, we can release the elemental beings that are enchanted in air, water and earth. We can either imprison them in our inner being without changing them, or we can free them, redeem them, by spiritualizing ourselves more and more, and thus lead them back to their element. Throughout his life on earth, man allows elemental spirits to flow into him from the outside world. To the same extent that he merely gazes at things, to the same extent he simply lets these spirits enter into him and does not change them; to the same extent that he seeks to process the things of the external world in his mind through ideas, concepts, feelings of beauty and so on, to the same extent he redeems and frees these spiritual elemental beings.
[ 13 ] And so what happens to these elemental beings, which have entered the person from the things, so to speak, what happens to them? They are in the person to begin with. Even the redeemed ones must remain in the person to begin with, but only until the person's physical death. When the person passes through the gate of death, a distinction arises between those elemental beings that merely wandered in and that the person did not lead back up to a higher element, and those that the person, through his own spiritualization, has brought back to their former element. The elemental beings that man has not changed have gained nothing by migrating from the material world to the human being; but the others have gained the ability to return to their original world with the death of the human being. In his life, man is a point of passage for these elemental beings. And when man has passed through the spiritual world and is reborn in a next embodiment, then, when man is re-embodied, as he passes through the portal of birth, all the elemental beings that the man has not freed before, come back into the physical world; but those that he has freed, he does not bring back with him when he descends, they have returned to their original element.
[ 14 ] Thus we see how it is in the hands of man, through his development, through the way he relates to external nature, to either free the elemental beings that are necessary for the creation of our earthly existence or to bind them even more to the earth than they were before. What does a person do when he looks at some external object and, by explaining it, releases the elemental spirit from it? Spiritually, he does the opposite of what happened earlier. While smoke was formed from fire, so to speak, man spiritually forms fire from smoke again; he only releases this fire after his death. Now imagine how infinitely deep and how infinitely spiritual ancient sacrificial customs are when you look at them in the light of ancient-holy spiritual science: Imagine the priest at the altar of sacrifice in those times when religion was based on the actual knowledge of spiritual laws, imagine that the priest ignites the flame and smoke rises, and now the rising of the smoke is made into a sacrifice, that is, accompanied by prayers. What happens then? What happens to such a sacrifice at all? The priest stands at the altar where smoke is produced. Where the solid goes out of the warmth, a spirit is enchanted, but at the same time, because man follows the whole process with prayers, this spirit is received into the human being as such, so that after death it rises again into the higher world. What did the follower of the ancient wisdom say to those who were meant to understand? He said: If you look at the outside world in such a way that your spiritual process is not a clinging to the smoke, but a lifting up of the spiritual to the fire element, then after death you will free the spirit enchanted in the smoke. — And now the man who understood this spoke of the spirit that had passed into man, enchanted by the smoke: If you have left the ghost as it was in the smoke, then it must be reborn with you, and after your death it cannot return to the spiritual world; but if you have liberated it, if you have led it back to the fire, then after your death it will go up into the spiritual world and need not return to earth with your birth.
[ 15 ] And now you have part of these profound sentences from the Bhagavad Gita, which were quoted in the previous lecture. There is no mention of the human ego; it is about those natural entities, those elemental beings that enter man from the outside world, and it is said: See the fire, see the smoke! What man, through his spiritual processes, makes into fire, these are spirits that he releases with his death. What he leaves as it is in the smoke must remain united with him at his death and must be reborn when he is born. The fate of the elemental spirits is thus initially characterized for us: Through wisdom, which man develops within himself, man continually frees elemental spirits at his death; through unwise behavior, through mere material attachment to the sense appearance, he clings to elemental spirits and forces them to go with him into this world again and again, to be born with him again and again.
[ 16 ] But such elemental beings are not only associated with fire and everything related to it. Such elemental beings are the messengers for the higher divine-spiritual beings in everything that happens externally through the senses. For example, the interplay of those forces that have brought about day and night could never have occurred in the world if such elemental beings had not worked in great flocks to roll the planets around in the world in the appropriate way, precisely so that this change of day and night would happen. Everything that happens is brought about by hosts of spiritual beings, both lower and higher, in the spiritual hierarchies. We are dealing here with the most subordinate beings, the messengers. When night turns into day and day turns into night, elemental beings also live in this process. And so it is that man is now once again in an intimate relationship with the beings of the elemental realms, who also have to work with day and night. If a person is lethargic and lazy, if he lets himself go, then he affects these elemental beings, who have to deal with day and night, differently than if he is creative, hardworking, industrious, productive. If a person is lethargic, then he connects with very specific elemental beings, just as he does when he is industrious, but in a very peculiar way. Those of the second class of elemental beings that I am now mentioning, who unfold their life during the day, who, so to speak, roll around during the day, are in turn in their higher element. But just as the elemental beings of the first class of fire are bound in air, water and earth, so certain elemental beings are bound by darkness, and day could not be separated from night if these elemental beings were not, so to speak, imprisoned in the night. That man can enjoy the day, he owes to the fact that the divine-spiritual entities have driven out the elementary beings and have bound them in the night time. When man is now lethargic, then these elementary beings flow continually into him, but he leaves them as they are. The elementary entities that are chained to darkness at night are left as they are by man's laziness; but the elementary entities that move into him when he is industrious and hardworking, when he is doing something, these he leads back spiritually to the day. So he is constantly releasing these second-class elemental beings. Throughout our lives, we carry within us all the elemental beings that have moved in during our state of inertia and that have moved in during our state of diligence. When we pass through the gate of death, the beings that we have brought back during the day can go to the spiritual world again; the beings that we have left during the night due to our laziness remain chained to us, and we bring them back with our new reincarnation. That which we allow to flow into us through mere delusion of the senses in the form of external elemental beings, and that which we allow to flow into us through laziness and indolence from the night beings, that is reborn with our re-embodiment. And now you have the second point in the Bhagavad Gita. Again, it is not the human ego, but this kind of elemental being, which is referred to in the words: Look at day and night; what you yourself redeem by transforming it from a night being to a day being through your diligence : that which emerges from the day when you die enters the higher world; what you take with you as a night being, you condemn to be reborn with you.
[ 17 ] And now you can probably guess how the story continues. As with the phenomena that have just been discussed, it is the same with more comprehensive natural phenomena, for example with what our 28-month days produce, the change in the waxing and waning moon. A whole host of elemental beings had to work together to set the moon in motion in such a way that our lunar time could arise, that everything connected with the change of the moon could really unfold on our visible earth. And for this, certain entities had to be bewitched, damned, bound by the higher beings. It is always apparent to the clairvoyant eye that when the moon waxes, spiritual entities from a lower realm always come into a higher realm. But in order for there to be order, other spiritual elementary entities must also be bewitched down into subordinate realms. These elementary beings of a third kingdom also interact with man. When man is cheerful, when he is content with the world, when he understands the world in such a way that he embraces all things in a cheerful mind, then he continually releases the entities that are bound by the waning moon. The elemental beings enter into him and are continually liberated through his calmness, through his inner contentment, through his harmonious world feeling and world view. Those elemental beings that enter a person when he is discontented, when he is grumpy, when he is not satisfied with anything, when he is upset by everything, remain in the state of enchantment in which they were through the waning moon. Oh, there are people who, because they have come to a harmonious world-feeling, are cheerful in mind, and have an infinitely liberating effect on a very large number of elemental beings, who have come into being just as has been described. Through a harmonious world-feeling, through inner satisfaction with the world, man is a liberator of spiritual elemental beings. Through his grouchiness, his ill humor, his discontent, man fetters elemental beings, which could be freed through his cheerfulness. So you see how a person's emotional state is not only important for that person himself, how a person's cheerfulness or grouchiness is something that radiates from his being as liberation or as fetter. What a person does through his mere moods of mind goes out into the spiritual in all directions. So we have the third point of that important teaching of the Bhagavad Gita: Notice when a person acts in such a way through his mood that he frees spirits, as spirits are freed during the waxing moon. If a person, through his or her moroseness or hypochondria, summons the spirits around him or her and leaves them as they are, as they had to be, so that the order of the moon can be brought about, then these spirits remain bound to him or her and must be reborn when he or she enters a new existence. Thus, we have a third level of elemental spirits that are either released with the death of the person, return to their homeland, or have to be reborn in this world with the person.
[ 18 ] And finally, we have a fourth kind of elemental spirit. These are the ones that have to help bring about the course of the sun throughout the year, so that the sun of summer can shine down on the earth, awakening and fertilizing everything that thrives from spring to fall. To do this, certain spirits must be bound during the winter, must be enchanted during the time of the winter sun. And in the same way, as described earlier, people work for the other levels of spiritual beings in the elemental realm. Imagine a person who enters the winter season, who says to himself: the nights are getting longer, the days are getting shorter, we are coming to the part of the annual course of the sun where, so to speak, the sun draws its fertilizing powers from the earth. The outer earth dies, but with this dying earth I feel all the more obliged to come to spiritual life. I must now, so to speak, absorb the spirit more and more into myself. Let us take a person who, towards Christmas, absorbs an increasingly pious festive mood into himself, who learns to understand Christmas in the sense that the outer sensual world is most dead, and the spirit must live most for it; let us assume that the person lives through the winter time until Easter, he remembers that the revival of the external is connected with the death of the spiritual, he lives through the Easter festival with understanding. Such a person does not merely have an external religion, but an understanding of religion for natural processes, for the spirit that reigns in nature, and through this kind of piety, this spirituality, he frees that fourth class of elemental beings that are always flowing in and out of people and are connected to the course of the sun. And a person who is irreligious in this sense, who denies or does not feel the spirit, who wallows in materialistic chaos, is flooded by the elemental spirits of this fourth level and remains as they are. And through death, it now happens that these elemental spirits of the fourth stage are either released into their element or remain chained to the person and must reappear when he proceeds to a new embodiment. Thus, when man unites with the winter spirits without elevating them to summer spirits, without redeeming them through his spirituality, he will condemn these spirits to be reborn, whereas otherwise they would not be reborn, would not have to return with him.
[ 19 ] Behold the fire and the smoke! If you connect yourself with the outer world in such a way that your spiritual-soul process is something like when fire and smoke arise, that you yourself spiritualize things in your process of recognition or perception, then you help certain spiritual elemental beings to ascend. If you connect with the smoke, you condemn them to rebirth. If you connect with the day, you in turn free the corresponding spirits of the day. Look at the light, look at the day, look at the waxing moon, at the sunny half of the year: If you act in such a way that you lead the elemental beings back to the light, to the day, to the waxing moon, to the summer time of the year, then you free these elemental beings, who are so necessary to you, with your death, they ascend to the spiritual world. If you connect with the smoke, if you just stare at the solid, if you connect with the night through laziness, if you connect with the spirits of the waning moon through your bad temper, if you connect with the spirits that have been bound in the winter solstice through your godlessness or lack of spirit, then you condemn these elemental beings to having to be reborn with you.
[ 20 ] Now we know what this passage of the Bhagavad Gita is actually talking about. He who believes that it is about human beings does not understand the Bhagavad Gita; but he who knows that all human life is a continuous interplay between him and spirits that live enchanted in our environment and must be disenchanted, he sees a rising or re-embodiment of four groups of elemental beings. The secret of this lowest form of hierarchy has been preserved for us in this passage from the Bhagavad Gita. Indeed, when we have to extract from the ancient world wisdom what has been handed down to us in the great religious documents, we realize how great these religious documents are and how wrong those are who understand them superficially or do not want to understand them in their depth. One can only relate to them correctly if one says to oneself: No wisdom is high enough to fathom what is secretly contained in them. Only then do these documents imbue themselves with the magic touch of truly pious feelings, only then do they become, in the true sense of the word, what they are supposed to be: a means of human development that ennobles and purifies itself. They often still point us into tremendous abysses of human wisdom. And only what can flow from the sources of the secret schools and the mysteries into general humanity from now on will make these reflections – for that is what they are, after all – of primeval world wisdom appear in their greatness and in their light.
[ 21 ] We had to show, by means of a relatively difficult example, how in ancient world wisdom the interaction of all those spirits was known that surround us, that are everywhere, that flow out of and into people, and how it was also known that a person's actions represent an interaction between the spiritual world and their own inner world. Only when we become aware that we affect an entire cosmos with everything we do, even with our own inner disposition, only then does the human riddle become important to us, that our small world has an infinitely far-reaching significance for all becoming in the macrocosm. The intensification of our sense of responsibility is the most beautiful and significant thing we can gain from spiritual science. It teaches us to grasp life in its true sense and to take it so seriously that the life we have to throw into the stream of life's development is thrown in as something meaningful.