The East in the Light of the West
GA 113
29 Aug 1909, Munich
7. The Luciferic Influence in History
There are certain facts in the evolution of mankind which are hardly noticed in outer life. As a result there is misunderstanding of much that is being fulfilled in the spiritual depths underlying human evolution. It has been shown that the mystical Christ-experience—such an experience as a man may have when by profound, inner life he permeates his soul experiences with what we have called the Christ substance—was not always possible, but became so in the course of time. The historical descent into incarnation of the Christ was a necessary in preparation for the presence of the mystical Christ in the soul. It is not correct to say that in pre-Christian times the mystical Christ experience had always been possible; individuals such as Meister Eckhart and other similar personalities with their inner mystical experiences are only possible in the Christian epoch; such experiences would not have been possible at an earlier time. Abstract thinking will be fundamentally unable to understand this; only concrete and spiritually realistic thinking dealing with facts would find its way to these things. Again, the description of the Luciferic beings and the Christ can only be comprehensible if we assume that a change took place in the whole human organisation. A change, it is true, not to be realised by the external senses or the outer reason, but none the less a radical change. This was accomplished during the last thousand years before the appearance of Christ and during the centuries following His appearance. Since the Atlantean catastrophe man has essentially changed. And although in the present cycle of humanity the important thing is that man, on incarnation depends for his perception of the world, so far as his outer experiences are concerned, upon the instruments which are at his disposal in the envelopes of the physical, etheric and astral bodies, yet the nature of his perception and realisation through subsequent epochs depends upon the changes which this organisation undergoes. There is no such thing as a conception of the world which holds good for all times. Men's perception of the—world is conditioned by his organisation.
Now let us call up before our minds the most radical change in the nature of man, which has occurred since the Atlantean catastrophe. Before this the different members of our human nature were connected otherwise than they grew to be later on. The etheric body did not co-operate with the physical body during the Atlantean era in the way it has done since. Formerly the etheric body of the head, for instance, extended further above the physical head, and the progress of evolution is expressed by the very fact that the etheric and physical bodies grew more alike and their connection closer and closer. Now it is in the etheric body that all the forces necessary for the organisation of the physical body reside, all those forces which unite the members of the physical body and produce harmony between them. In the humanity of Atlantis the forces of the etheric body and especially of the head worked at the building of the physical body from outside. Later these forces drew within the space filled by the physical body and at the present day they work more in man's inner being, animating and stimulating it. But this was only a matter of development. And if we wish to understand the old Indian culture we must clearly realise that the conditions were quite different from what they became during the Chaldean-Egyptian epoch. But in humanity of the Graeco-Latin epoch, there was such a complete permeation of the physical body by the etheric body, that in no part of the human Organisation would clairvoyant consciousness have perceived the etheric body extending far beyond the physical body. This had not been the case with the old Indians. Their clairvoyant vision perceived the etheric body still extending, especially as regards the head, out beyond the physical body. Hence a native of Old India saw the world quite otherwise than did a native of Old Egypt. A man belonging to the Graeco-Latin people saw the world much as it is to be seen today, i.e. as a sense-tapestry of colours, shades, etc. But the whole of this world which lies spread out before the present day sense-perceptions, was to the Indian spirit of the olden times finely permeated by what we might today call the misty cloud characteristic of etheric nature. It arose from all things, for they all looked as if they were burning, and a fine misty smoke arose out of each form. The manner of perceiving then was what might be called a seeing of the etheric element, which was spread out over everything like dew or hoar frost. That peculiar kind of sight was then natural. At the present day the human soul can only attain to it by means of special exercises given by spiritual science. The object of the progressive evolution of mankind through the different periods of civilisation is to cause the etheric body to descend deeper and deeper into the physical body. Thus the whole manner of human perception alters, for all human perception depends upon the way in which the etheric body is organised. And this in its turn is connected with the fact that the Luciferic beings manifesting within the earth and within the soul have risen to the state of cosmic beings, and that the Christ-Being Who was formerly a cosmic being descended into incarnation in a human body and has now become an inner being.
This permeation of the Apollonian with the Dionysian principle—this transposition, as it were—only became possible because of a corresponding change in the human Organisation. It was a change that not only affected the past, but was also a preparation for the future. We live in a time when the most complete inner permeation of the physical by the etheric body is already a thing of the past; a time when the tendency of evolution is in the opposite direction. We live in an era in which the etheric body is slowly emerging from the physical body. The normal development of humanity will in the future consist in the gradual emergence of the etheric body from the physical body; the time will come when the human Organisation will once again wear the appearance which it wore in grey primeval ages, and we shall again see the etheric body spreading out beyond the human physical body. We are in the middle of this transition, and many of the more subtle diseases characteristic of the present time would be understood if this were known. But all this has a meaning and corresponds with great cosmic laws, for man could not attain the goal of his evolution unless he thus underwent a transposition of the constituent parts of his Organisation. Now everything within us is permeated by our whole surroundings; and by the divine spiritual beings in the spiritual world sending their currents down into us, just as the physical elements of the earth send their currents into our physical organisation. At the time when the etheric body was outside the physical body, currents were perpetually pouring into this etheric body man experienced this consciously as a cosmic revelation, as something revealed to him inwardly. These currents descending into his etheric body from the spiritual world also worked at the perfecting of his physical body.
Now that which descended into the etheric body of man and was experienced as the most inward element of his being, was the influence of the Luciferic world, a great and powerful inheritance brought over from the old ages of the pre-Atlantean evolution. The fact that these Luciferic influences had become so much darkened that man, at the very time when Christ appeared, could perceive nothing of them unless he had reached a high grade of initiation, is explained by the fact that the etheric body drew more and more inside the physical body and became one with it; and man learned to make increasing use of the physical organs as instruments. It was therefore necessary that the divine spiritual being shortly to appear on earth, should be manifest on the physical plane as a figure able to be perceived physically, incarnate like other physical beings upon the earth. Only thus could mankind have at that time understood a God appearing in a body because it had become accustomed to consider true only what could be observed by means of the instrument of the human physical body. This had to come to pass before those who surrounded the Christ could say by way of emphasising an event, ‘We have placed our hands in His wounds, and our fingers in the prints of the nails.’ This certainty yielded by the senses had to live as a feeling in those men, a feeling which gave the stamp of truth to the event. To that sort of testimony a man of the old Indian age would have attached no importance; he would have said: ‘The spiritual perceived by means of the senses means nothing much to me; in order to realise the spiritual there must be ascent to a certain grade of clairvoyant cognition.’ Understanding of Christ therefore had gradually to be developed like everything else in the world.
The Luciferic impulse, however, which man formerly had in his etheric body gradually became exhausted. That which he had brought with him out of primeval ages when his etheric body did not as yet dwell entirely in the physical body, but was still outside and received the Luciferic influence through the portion that still was outside, was gradually used up. In order that the etheric body might slip into the physical body it had to lose the capacity of realising the higher worlds through its etheric organs. Therefore at a certain epoch it is true to say of our human ancestors that they were still able to see into the spiritual worlds, and what they saw is preserved in their literature. There was, as it were, a primeval wisdom. The reason why later this was not more directly attainable was, that as the etheric body was taken up into the physical body, man could only make use of his physical senses and of his physical reason. Clairvoyant power was paralysed. The faculty of seeing into the spiritual world was therefore only possible in the initiates who ascended to the super-sensible worlds by means of systematic training.
The reverse process is now being enacted. Mankind is entering a condition in which the etheric body is to a certain extent drawing itself out of the physical body again; but it must not be thought that it now receives spontaneously everything which in earlier times it possessed as an ancient heritage. If nothing else happened but its withdrawal, the etheric body of man would just leave the physical body and would retain in itself none of the forces which it formerly possessed. In the future it will be born from out of the human physical body. If the human physical body did not add something to it, this etheric body would be empty, barren. The future of human evolution will be that men will, as it were, allow their etheric body to leave their physical bodily nature, and they will eventually have the possibility of being able to send it out empty. What does that mean? The etheric body is the force-bearer, the energiser of all that takes place in the physical body. It must not only provide forces for the physical body when it is entirely concealed within it, but at all times; it must provide forces for the physical body even when it is again partly outside it. If the etheric body is left empty it cannot react upon the physical body, for it would then have no strength with which to react. The etheric body must, after it has passed through the physical body, have obtained its forces from within the physical body. The forces with which the etheric body can react again upon the physical body, must have been drawn from within the latter. The task of present-day humanity is to absorb into itself that which can only be acquired through activity in a physical body. That which is gained within the physical body accompanies evolution, and when man in future incarnations lives in organisms wherein the etheric body is to a certain extent released from the physical body, he will experience in his consciousness a kind of memory through the partially liberated physical body.
Now let us ask ourselves, what enables the physical body to hand something on like an heirloom to the etheric body? What enables a man to send such forces into his etheric body that some day he will be in a position to bear an etheric body itself and able to send back certain forces into the physical body from outside? Suppose man's life, let us say, from 3000 BC to our own era, and on to 3000 AD had been such that nothing more was added to him than what would have been his without the coming of Christ; he would then have experienced in his physical body nothing that might bestow a power on the etheric body when it is released from the physical body. That which a man can hand on is what he can gain within the physical world through the Christ event. All association with the Christ principle and the experiences we may have in connection with the appearance of Christ, sink down into the life of the soul in the physical world and the soul as well as all that is physical are prepared in such a way that there can flow into the etheric body that which it will need in the future. Therefore the Christ event had to take place; to permeate the human soul in order that men should be able to understand their future evolution. That which is in the physical body today sends out forces into the etheric body; and the etheric body, nourished by the physical experiences of the Christ, will take up these forces, in order again to become clairvoyant and possess the life-forces which will sustain the physical body in the future. Hence what man experiences of Christ through the reversal of the principles has its proper bearing upon the future of human evolution.
But this alone would not suffice. By passing through the Christ experience in our own souls, by becoming more and more familiar with the Christ, and by letting Him grow more and more into our soul experiences, we do indeed thus influence the etheric body, and pour streams of force into it. Now if this etheric body withdraws and enters into a wrong element it will undoubtedly have the Christ force, but if it does not meet there the forces which are able to work in a sustaining and enlivening way upon the Christ principle which has entered it, it will find itself in a sphere in which it cannot live. The outer forces would destroy it. It would, being permeated with the Christ, and having entered an unsuitable element, be faced with its own destruction, and would react destructively upon the physical body. Furthermore the etheric body must make itself fit once more to receive the light out of which it originally sprang forth, the light from the realm of Lucifer. Whereas by an inner experience man formerly saw Lucifer appear through the veil of his soul-life, he must now prepare himself to be able to experience Lucifer as a cosmic being in the world around him. From having been a sub-terrestrial god, Lucifer becomes a cosmic god. Man must prepare himself in such a way that his etheric body is provided with such forces as make Lucifer a fructifying and a beneficent element, instead of a destructive one. Man has to pass through the Christ experience, but in such a way that he becomes capable of recognising in this world the spiritual fabric of which the world was created.
Training such as spiritual science offers, is fully empowered to prepare the whole nature of man again to understand the light of Lucifer's realm, because only thus can the human etheric body receive life forces adequate to it. Christ was influencing man even before He appeared upon the earth. As long ago as the age when Zarathustra was pointing up to Ahura Mazdao, the force of Christ was radiating down. And from the other direction there shone the power of Lucifer,
That is reversed as we have seen; in the future the forces of Lucifer will stream in from outside, while the Christ will dwell within. The human Organisation must again be influenced from two sides. The old Indian realised on the one side ‘That thou art,’ and on the other side ‘I am the all’ and knew that the world which he saw outside was the same as that within. In ancient Indian times this was realised as an abstract truth; it will be realised on earth as a concrete experience of the soul when the time is accomplished, when by means of suitable preparation, that which was manifest prophetically, among the ancient Indians, shall come to life again in a new form. Thus does human evolution proceed in the post-Atlantean epoch.
Hence it is clear that the evolution of humanity does not move in a straight line, but runs its course, as does everything in nature. I have given the example of a plant, which grows but cannot develop its fruit unless a new factor comes into its development. Here is a picture which shows that other influences must come in from another side. There is no such thing as an evolution which proceeds along a straight line. The Luciferic and the Christ principles had to overlap one another. Those who seek to find an undeviating evolution can never understand the world evolution; only those who notice the divided streams and how they mutually fructify each other can really understand evolution. During the old Indian civilisation, when man was in a certain sense differently organised, his outlook was different. What man's outlook then was can only be definitely experienced by means of that kind of clairvoyant research which is suitable for the present age. And clairvoyance is a power which today has to be acquired by effort, although it was at one age a natural faculty. It is very difficult indeed, even for those who have a thorough knowledge of spiritual science to understand how much the soul-experiences in the old Indian age different from those of later times, and one can only try to clothe this difference in words which approximate to the real sense.
When man looks out into the world today he perceives it through his various senses. We cannot here go into all that modern science has to say about sense-perception; it will suffice to hold in our mind the usual conception that man perceives the outer world by means of his various senses, and gathers the different impressions together by means of the spiritual faculty that is bound up with the physical brain. Think this over a little, and it will become evident that there is a great difference in the character of the different sense-perceptions; compare, for instance, the sense of hearing with that of sight. It is evident that as regards hearing, if we look in the outer world for the facts corresponding to it, we find matter in movement, air in regular motion. If our instrument of hearing is brought into contact with this air which is in motion we experience what is called hearing. But the inner experience of hearing and the air in motion without, are two very different things. Now sight is not such a simple thing as hearing, though physicists have made it appear to be so. Their postulate, built up by analogy runs somewhat as follows: Let us take, they say, one of the finer substances which moves just as does the air outside. But the realistic thinker sees a great difference, viz. that as regards the ear, one can very easily detect what moves outside. It can easily be proved that something really does move outside—as far as the ear is concerned—by putting little paper riders on a violin string and striking it. But nobody can see for himself the existence of vibrations in the ether. It is a hypothesis; it exists only as a theory of physics and is non-existent for the realistic thinker. Sense perception by means of sight is a very different thing. What is perceived through light is much more objective than what is sense through hearing. We perceive light as colour, we perceive it spread out in space; but we cannot, as in the case of sound, go into the outer world in search of external processes. Such distinctions as these are readily overlooked by man of modern times. The old Indian, possessing a finer consciousness of the whole outer world, could not have overlooked this. He perceived all these delicate external distinctions. I only want to point out that there are characteristic and essential differences between the realms of the various senses. If we consider the German language it may strike us that with the same word we express an inner soul experience and an impression that comes, in a sense, from outside (I admit that this happens in incorrect speaking). That word is the word ‘feeling.’ We speak of the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. When speaking of feeling in a superficial way we mean the sense of touch, but call it feeling and add that which is experienced by this sense to the outer sense experiences. Again, inspired by the genius of speech, we define in a much more spiritual sense than is generally realised, an inner soul experience by the wood ‘feeling.’ Experiences of joy or pain are defined as feelings. This particular feeling of which we are here speaking is an intimate soul experience; the other feelings, produced by the sense of touch, are always caused by some external object. The other feeling may be associated with an external object, but it can be seen that an external object is not the only cause, because the effect upon one person is different from the effect upon another. We have two experiences, one connected with the external sense the other bound to the inner. These two at the present day appear to be widely divided, but this was not always the case. Here we come to another view of what has previously been described in an external sense. We have described how the etheric body slips in and out again. This is connected with the fact that something takes place in the inner being of man. Today these two experiences, the experience of ‘feeling’ within one and the experience caused by personal contact with an external object which we also describe by the word ‘feeling’ are widely divided. The further we go back in the evolution of humanity, that is to say, the further the etheric body is outside the physical body, so much the nearer are these two experiences to one another. They are only widely divided in mankind today. In the Indian epoch this difference did not exist to the same extent. At that time the inner experience of feeling and the outer were more like each other. Why was that?
If you meet a man today who has an evil thought about you (let us say you dislike him and he has the same sort of feeling towards you), you will, as a general rule, if you are only provided with the external senses and the physical brain, not be deeply aware of his feelings, of his sympathies and antipathies. If he should strike you, you would be aware of it, because your sense of feeling would notice it. In the old Indian times there was a different state of things. Man then was so organised, that be was not only aware of that which is felt by the present crude sense of touch, but also of that which today has withdrawn into his inner being; he was still able to sense what someone else felt about him. Through sympathetic comprehension of another individual's feelings he awakened in his soul just such an experience as we have through the sense of touch. He felt the physical-psychical process. On the other hand that which we call our inner feeling was not so far developed in those days; it was still more closely connected with the outer world. Man had his sorrows and joys which in many respects corresponded more to outer happenings; but he could not retire so deeply into his inner being as he can today. At the present time, inner soul experience is to a far greater extent severed from the whole surroundings than formerly was the case. At the present time a man may find himself in a position in which he is surrounded by circumstances which could be better; but because of his inner soul life being severed from his surroundings he may perhaps feel inward pain without any real cause on account of his way of looking at the world.
This would have been impossible at the time of the old Indian epoch of civilisation. At that time the inner impressions were a much truer reflection of what went on in the outer environment, for man's feeling was then to a greater extent bound up with the external world. The reason for this was that in those olden times, for example, man, in his whole make up, stood in a very different relation to light. The light surrounding us has not only its external physical aspect, but, like everything physical, is also permeated by soul and spirit. The course of human evolution was such that the soul and spirit of the outer world withdrew more and more from man and gradually the physical part came to be all that was perceptible. Man came to perceive light as a fluid pouring into his Organisation from all sides, and within this light streaming through him, he felt its soul. Today the soul of the light is stopped by the human skin. The Indian organisation was permeated by what lives as soul within the light, and man realised the soul of the light. That light was the bearer of what could be perceived as sympathy and antipathy in other beings, which has now withdrawn with the soul of the light away from men. This was connected with other experiences. Today when men inhale and exhale they can, at the most, know of the existence of breath through the mechanical working. If it is at all chilled they see it becoming watery. This is a mechanical way of seeing the breath. Improbable as it may appear to the man of today, it is nevertheless true that by means of occult research we can substantiate the fact that most of the old Indians had quite a different conception of what their breath signified. The soul of light had not as yet withdrawn from what went on around men of that time; so that they perceived the air as it was breathed in and breathed out in different light and dark shades of colour. They saw the air pouring in and out again like flames of fire. We may therefore say that even the air itself has become something quite different, by reason of the change that has taken place in man's conceptual life.
Air today is something that is only perceived mechanically by men through the resistance it offers, because they are no longer directly aware of the soul of the light which permeates the air. Man has parted even from this last remnant of instinctive perception. The old Indian would not have called that which is breathed in and out merely ‘air’; he would have called it ‘fire air,’ because he saw it in varying degrees of fiery radiations.
There again we have an example of how even in external experiences the transformation in the constitution of man in the course of evolution is manifest. These are intimate, hidden processes in human evolution, and we can never understand the Vedas, if we do not understand how and in what sense the words are used. If we read the words contained in them without knowing that they described what could then be seen, the words would lose all sense, and our interpretation would be completely wrong. We must always take the realities into consideration when we approach the study of ancient documents. That which lives in the human soul alters in character with the course of time. And now a certain fact will be comprehensible which could not have been so without these statements, statements which are quite independent I of any proofs to be established by physical research. Look into the eastern writings and see how the Elements are there enumerated. They are placed in the following order: earth, water, fire, air, and ether. Only in Greek times do we find a different order which to us today is the obvious one and upon which we base all our understanding, viz. earth, water, air, fire and the other ethers. Why is this so? The old Indian consciousness saw, just as man sees today what is manifested through the solid (that which we call the earth), through the fluidic, or water, to speak in the spiritual sense. But what we today call air, to the old Indians was fire, for they still saw the fire in the air—they described what they saw as fire. We no longer see this fire in the air; we only feel it as heat. Everything has changed since the fourth post Atlantean epoch. So it was that only when they went a little higher in the series of the elements the Indians came to an element in which at that time there appeared to mankind what we today call air—the air to us being penetrated by light, but not revealing the light. In respect to fire and air, man's vision has been entirely reversed. What we have said about Christ and Lucifer crossing each other—that Christ the cosmic being has entered within the human soul, while Lucifer who at first was within man has become a cosmic being—holds good in all departments of life. That which in the first post-Atlantean epoch was what we call fire, is at the present day perceivable as air, and that which we today see as fire, was then seen as air. That which underlies human evolution is expressed not only in great things but also in small ones. These things must not be put down to chance; we can see into the profundities of what happens in the course of the evolution of mankind, if we look at things from the only real point of view—that of spiritual science. The Indian consciousness was one which felt the unity of that which lies deep down in the soul with that which is outside it; hence the Indian lived to a greater degree in his environment. The last echoes of what existed in the ancient Indian as instinctive sight are to be found in the rudimentary ‘clairvoyance’ possessed today by those men who have what we call second sight. Suppose when walking along the street anywhere, there enters the mind the thought of a certain man whom at the moment we cannot physically see, and we meet him a little further on. Why was the thought of him in the consciousness before he was seen? It is because his influence has entered into the sub-consciousness, whence it ascended into the consciousness as a complete thought. Today man possesses in rudimentary form what was once of great significance in his life. In earlier times there existed a much closer connection between inner and outer feeling. These are some more detailed instances of my oft-repeated statements that humanity has evolved out of the old dim clairvoyance into the full consciousness of the senses we now possess, and humanity in the future will once again evolve a fully conscious clairvoyance. This will be attained in such a way that man will consciously experience it; he will know that his etheric body goes forth out of him and that he can use the organs of the etheric body just as he can the physical body.
In earlier, more spiritual ages, when men had more wisdom than has modern abstract materialistic science, they were always conscious that there was an old clairvoyance to the possessors of which the world became transparent. They felt that man had lost this old sight and had entered into his present state. Formerly, men did not express their knowledge in abstract formulae and theories, but in mighty, vivid pictures. The Myths are not ‘thought out’ or invented, but are the expressions of a profound primeval wisdom acquired by spiritual vision. In ancient times there was consciousness of the fact that at a still earlier epoch man had embraced the whole world in his feeling, and this is expressed in the Myths. The ‘clair-sentience’ of the old Indian was the last remnant of an original, dim clairvoyance. This was known; but what was not known, was that this clairvoyance—let us summarise it so—withdraws little by little, giving way to the external life which is confined to the world of the senses. The more important Myths express this very fact. It was known, for instance, that there were mystery places, leading the way to the sub-terrestrial spirits and that there were others leading up to the cosmic spirits. There was a sharp distinction between them. Men who were not initiated knew nothing of this, just as today men who do not seek along the right paths have no idea that there is such a thing as Mystery Wisdom. A certain amount of information filtered out. With regard to the mysteries it is true to say that the further we go back into olden times, the more significant does their age of splendour appear. Even the Greek Mysteries do not belong to the most brilliant period. The mysteries themselves had fallen into decadence.
Nevertheless the people knew that that which came from those places where clairvoyant consciousness was still active was connected with the spiritual substance which streams through the world and animates it; they knew that where clairvoyant consciousness still prevailed, something could be experienced about the world which was possible in no other way.
And even in the period of their decadence clairvoyant consciousness was cultivated in these oracle-places, and from them information was conveyed to mankind such as cannot be experienced by ordinary sense-methods, and intellectual conceptions bound up with them. Yet it was also known that man is developing, that that which could be attained by the old clairvoyance, useful and practicable in ancient days, was no longer adequate for later times. The Greeks had a deep consciousness of the fact that that which came from the oracles certainly aroused curiosity, that men would fain know something about the hidden connections of the world, but that they had departed from the right method of using such clairvoyant information; that man's relation to the world was different from what it had formerly been and that therefore no good could originate from clinging to the results of the old clairvoyance. This is what the Greeks wanted to express and they did so in magnificent pictures. One such picture is the Oedipus legend. Through an oracle (that is to say, from a place in which secret connections, hidden from the human gaze, were clairvoyantly perceived), the father was told that if a son were born to him, disaster would result, that this son would murder his father and marry his mother. This son was born. The father tried to prevent what had been seen clairvoyantly from coming to pass. The son was sent away, and brought up in another place, but he came to know the oracle that is to say, something entered his soul which could only be known by means of clairvoyance. The Greek consciousness would say: Something still continues to enter into man from olden times, but the human organisation has already progressed so far that it is no longer adapted to this sort of clairvoyance, and cannot make use of it. Oedipus listens to the oracle, but acts in such a way that it is all the more certainly fulfilled. Men can no longer handle the results of clairvoyance; the spiritual world has withdrawn and the old clairvoyance is no longer of service to them. But there has always existed a consciousness that things will one day entirely change and that what comes from spiritual worlds will once again mean something to humanity; men have felt that what comes from these spiritual worlds will be covered over by sense life only for a time. Of these facts consciousness has existed; and has been expressed in the Myths by the forces of human evolution which created them. We have seen that the Christ event, when the two forces, the Lucifer principle and the Christ principle, crossed each other, was the decisive one in human evolution. The Christ event was the turning point, when that which comes from out of the Cosmos, from the fountain of the spirit, was to be poured as a ferment into human evolution. It had been lost, but it had to be poured in again as a ferment. That which was harmful to mankind, that which made it into something evil, is poured in as a ferment and transformed into good. The evil has to drop into the fructifying spiritual power inherent in human evolution and work with it for the good. That too has been expressed in the Myths. There is another legend which runs somewhat as follows: A certain man and wife were told by an Oracle that they would have a son, who would bring disaster upon his whole people. This son was to murder his father and marry his mother. This son was born to the mother. On account of the warning, this son was sent away too; he was put upon the island of Kariot and was found by the Queen of that island. And because she and her husband had no son, she adopted him. But later on a son was born to her. Then the foundling thought he was wrongly treated and he killed the real son. He was obliged to flee from the island of Kariot, and he went to the court of Pilate in Palestine, where he obtained employment as overseer of Pilate's household. He quarreled with his neighbour, of whom he knew nothing beyond the fact that he was his neighbour. In the course of this quarrel he killed him and later married the widow. Only then did he learn that it was his real father whom he had killed and that it was therefore his mother whom he had married. The story tells us that he saw his entire existence ruined but did not behave like Oedipus; for he was overcome by remorse and went to the Christ and the Christ received him; this was Judas Iscariot, Judas from Kariot. And the evil which dwelt in Judas became a leaven in the whole of evolution. For the deed of Palestine is connected with the betrayal by Judas; Judas is bound up with the whole event; he belongs to the twelve that are not thinkable without him. Here we see that the sayings of the oracle were indeed fulfilled, and further that they are embodied in universal evolution in the form of evil which is transformed and lives on as good.
The story (which is in reality wiser than external science) indicates in the most significant way that there is such a transformation in human nature in the course of time, and that the same thing has to be regarded differently at different epochs. In speaking of the fulfillment of an oracular saying we must not relate it in the same way when speaking of the time of Oedipus as when speaking of the time of Christ. The same fact is at the one period the story of Oedipus at another, in the time of Christ; it becomes the story of Judas. Only when we know the spiritual facts lying at the foundation of the evolution of the world and of humanity do we understand the results of those spiritual facts which are manifest to external historical conceptions. All phenomena of the sense-world, all external sense impressions or manifestations of the human soul can be comprehended by us when we understand their spiritual basis. That which the investigator of spiritual worlds discovers he gladly hands on as a stimulus to those who are willing to take it from him and who will then examine the external facts which confirm it. If what is discovered in the spiritual world be true, it is confirmed in the physical world. But every true explorer of the spiritual life will say that in communicating his knowledge of the higher world he facilitates and desires the testing of all external facts in the light of his assertions. If what I have said about the re-incarnation of Zarathustra for instance be compared with external history, it will be found that what has been said stands every test, if sufficiently careful search is made in external history. External life becomes comprehensible only when there is knowledge of the inner, the spiritual.
Siebenter Vortrag
Aus dem, was in den beiden letzten Vorträgen hier gesagt worden ist, werden Sie entnehmen, daß es gewisse Tatsachen in der Entwickelung der Menschheit gibt, die im äußeren Leben kaum beachtet werden, durch deren Nichtbeachtung aber vieles mißverstanden wird, was in den geistigen Grundlagen dieser Entwickelung sich vollzieht. Sie können ja aus dem Schlusse des gestrigen Vortrages sehen, daß das, was man das mystische Christus-Erlebnis nennen kann, das Erlebnis, das der Mensch haben kann, wenn er durch Versenkung in sein Inneres seine Seelenerlebnisse durchdringt mit dem, was wir die ChristusSubstanz genannt haben, nicht immer da war, sondern daß es sich entwickelt hat im Laufe der Zeit. Ja, man kann sehen, daß das historische Ereignis des Abstieges des Christus notwendig war als eine Voraussetzung für die Anwesenheit des mystischen Christus in der Seele, so daß man also nicht sagen darf, daß das mystische Christus-Erlebnis auch in der vorchristlichen Zeit für menschliche Seelen immer möglich gewesen wäre; ein Meister Eckart oder ähnliche Persönlichkeiten mit ihren inneren mystischen Erlebnissen sind nur in der christlichen Zeitrechnung möglich, vorher nicht. Ein abstraktes Denken wird von vornherein das gar nicht einsehen, nur ein konkretes, geistig-realistisches Denken, das auf die Tatsachen geht. Auch das, was über die Beziehungen der luziferischen Wesenheiten und der Christus-Wesenheit gesagt worden ist, ist nur verständlich, wenn man voraussetzt, daß eine zwar für die äußeren Sinne und den äußeren Verstand unwahrnehmbare, aber deshalb nicht minder radikale Veränderung der ganzen menschlichen Organisation sich vollzogen hat durch die Jahrtausende vor der Erscheinung des Christus und durch die Jahrhunderte nach dieser. Die Menschen haben sich seit der atlantischen Katastrophe wesentlich gewandelt. Und wenn im gegenwärtigen Menschheitszyklus alles für die äußere Lebenserfahrung darauf ankommt, daß der Mensch, wenn er in seine Inkarnation eintritt, durch die Instrumente, die ihm zur Verfügung stehen in den drei Hüllen, im physischen, ätherischen und astralischen Leib, die Welt wahrnimmt, so hängt es von den Veränderungen ab, welche die Organisation dieser Hüllen durchmacht, wie er die Welt in den aufeinanderfolgenden Zeitepochen wahrnimmt. Eine absolut wahre Anschauung für alle Zeiten gibt es nicht. Die Menschen können die Welt nur anschauen, wie es ihrer Organisation entsprechend ist.
Nun wollen wir uns einmal die radikalste Veränderung in der Menschennatur vor die Seele rücken, die sich zugetragen hat seit der atlantischen Katastrophe, durch die erste große Menschheitskultur in der nachatlantischen Zeit, durch das alte Indertum, und durch das Urpersertum hindurch, durch die chaldäisch-ägyptische, durch die griechisch-lateinische Kulturepoche bis in unsere Zeit herein. Sie wissen, daß vor der atlantischen Katastrophe der ganze Zusammenhang der einzelnen Glieder der Menschennatur ein anderer war als später. Das Zusammenwirken des Ätherleibes und des physischen Leibes war nicht so vor der großen atlantischen Katastrophe wie nachher. Der Atherleib des Kopfes zum Beispiel war gegenüber dem physischen Kopfe mächtiger ausgebildet und loser mit diesem verbunden. Gerade darin drückt sich die Fortentwickelung aus, daß der Zusammenhang zwischen dem ätherischen Leib und dem physischen Leib immer intensiver wird und daß beide einander immer ähnlicher werden. Nun liegen alle Kräfte zur Organisation des physischen Leibes, zur Zusammenfügung und Harmonisierung der Glieder des physischen Leibes im Atherleib. Man kann also sagen: In der atlantischen Menschheit war die Sache so, daß von einem Ätherleib, der ja außerhalb des physischen Leibes namentlich in bezug auf den Kopf gelegen hat, wie von außen hereinwirkten die Kräfte, die den physischen Leib konstruierten. Dann zogen sich diese Kräfte in den Raum des physischen Leibes hinein und wirken heute mehr im Innern belebend und erregend. Das aber hat sich erst herausgebildet. Ein langsames Hineinschlüpfen des Ätherleibes in den physischen Leib hat stattgefunden. - Und will man die alte indische Kultur verstehen, so muß man sich klar darüber sein, daß damals die Sache noch anders lag als während der chaldäisch-ägyptischen Zeit. In den Menschen aber der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit war schon eine vollständige Durchdringung des Ätherleibes und physischen Leibes erreicht, so daß für das schauende Bewußtsein auf keiner Stelle der menschlichen Organisation der Ätherleib weit hinausgereicht hätte über den physischen Leib.
Bei den Indern war das noch nicht der Fall. Da würde sich dem schauenden Blick überall gezeigthaben, wie noch der Ätherleib, namentlich in bezug auf den Kopf, herausragte über den physischen Leib. Daher kam es, daß der Angehörige des alten indischen Volkes die Welt anders sah als der Angehörige des ägyptischen. Der Angehörige des griechisch-lateinischen Volkes hat im wesentlichen schon so gesehen wie wir heute, er sah eben die Welt ausgebreitet als den Sinnenteppich der Farben, Töne, Formen und so weiter. Fein durchsetzt aber war diese ganze Welt, die da ausgebreitet ist in den heutigen sinnlichen Wahrnehmungen, für den indischen Geist der ältesten Zeit noch von dem, was man nennen könnte Nebelwolken ätherischer Natur, die sich aus allen Dingen heraus erheben, wie wenn alle Dinge brennen würden und ein feiner Nebelrauch aus jeder Form hervorströmte. Man schaute ein ätherisches Element, das über alle Dinge gelegt war wie feiner Tau oder Reif. Diese eigentümliche Art des Anschauens war damals die natürliche. Sie kann sich heute die Menschenseele nur erwerben durch geisteswissenschaftliche Übungen. Das ist der Sinn der Fortentwickelung der Menschheit durch die verschiedenen Kulturepochen, daß der ätherische Leib immer tiefer und tiefer hineinsteigt in den physischen Leib. Damit ändert sich das menschliche Anschauen, da dieses abhängt von der Art, wie der Ätherleib organisiert ist. Und dies wieder hängt damit zusammen, daß die luziferischen Wesenheiten von solcher Art, die sich innerirdisch und innerseelisch offenbart, aufsteigen zu kosmischen Daseinsstufen, und daß die Christus-Wesenheit, die vorher eine kosmische ist und heruntersteigt bis zur Inkarnation im Menschenleibe, nun eine solche wird, die sich innerirdisch und innerseelisch offenbart. Diese Durchdringung des apollinischen mit dem dionysischen Prinzipe, dieses gleichsam übereinander Hinwegschreiten der luziferischen und der Christus-Wesenheit war nur möglich geworden dadurch, daß die menschliche Organisation sich in dieser Weise geändert hat. Aber sie hat sich nicht nur geändert für die Beurteilung der Vergangenheit, sondern auch für die Vorbereitung der Zukunft. Wir leben jetzt in der Tat in dem Zeitalter, in dem die innigste Durchdringung zwischen dem Ätherleib und dem physischen Leib schon hinter uns liegt; wir leben jetzt schon wiederum in der umgekehrten Entwickelungsrichtung. Wir leben in einer Zeit, in der der Ätherleib langsam herausrückt aus dem physischen Leib. Das ist normale Menschheitsentwickelung in die Zukunft hinein, daß der Atherleib nach und nach wiederum den physischen Leib verläßt; und Zeiten werden kommen, in denen sich die menschliche Organisation wiederum so anschauen wird, wie sie sich angesehen hat in grauer Vorzeit, sodaß wir wiederum empfinden werden, wie der Atherleib hervorragt über den physischen. Wir sind mitten drinnen in diesem Vorgange, und mancherlei von den feineren Krankheitserscheinungen der Gegenwart würde man verstehen, wenn man das wüßte. Das alles aber entspricht großen kosmischen Gesetzen. Der Mensch könnte nicht sein Entwickelungsziel erreichen, wenn er nicht in dieser Weise gleichsam eine Kreuzung seiner Organisationsglieder durchmachte. Aber alles das, was in uns ist, das ist durchdrungen von unserer ganzen Umgebung; das ist durchdrungen von den göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten, die in der geistigen Welt sind und die ihre Ströme in uns senden, so wie die physischen Elemente der Erde in unseren physischen Organismus ihre Ströme senden. Damals, als der Atherleib außer dem physischen war, da strömten in diesen Ätherleib fortwährend Strömungen hinein, die der Mensch bewußt empfand und die er als kosmische Offenbarungen erlebte. Der Mensch fühlte das wie etwas, was seiner Innerlichkeit sich offenbarte. Was da an Strömungen aus der geistigen Welt sich in seinen Ätherleib hineinsenkte, das war es auch, was an der Ausbildung des physischen Leibes arbeitete.
Wenn man das, was in den letzten Tagen hier gesagt worden ist, jetzt charakterisiert von der äußeren Seite, so kann man sagen: Das, was sich in den Ätherleib des Menschen hineingesenkt hatte und was der Mensch als innerstes Element erlebt hatte, das waren die Einflüsse der luziferischen Welt. Es hatte sich der Mensch seit den alten Zeiten der voratlantischen Entwickelung ein Erbstück mitgebracht: die luziferischen Einflüsse, die in seinen Ätherleib hineinströmten. Daß diese luziferischen Einflüsse sich verdunkelten, daß der Mensch gerade in der Zeit, da Christus erscheint, nichts von ihnen vernimmt, wenn er nicht in hohem Grade eingeweiht ist, das erklärt sich daraus, daß der Atherleib immer mehr und mehr in den physischen Leib hineinrückt, eins mit ihm wird, und er immer mehr und mehr sich bedienen lernt der physischen Organe, Daher war es für ihn notwendig, daß die göttliche Wesenheit, die auf der Erde erscheinen sollte, in einer physisch wahrnehmbaren Gestalt erschien, physisch verkörpert wie andere physische Wesenheiten auf der Erde war. Es konnte die damalige Menschheit nur Verständnis haben für einen im Leibe erscheinenden Gott, weil sie gewohnt worden war, das Wahre dasjenige zu nennen, was man durch die Instrumente des physischen Leibes sieht. Es mußte in der Menschheit dies so sein, damit diejenigen, die um den Christus waren, sprechen konnten zur Bekräfligung dessen, was geschehen war: Wir haben unsere Hände in seine Wunden gelegt und unsere Finger in seine Nägelmale. — Diese sinnliche Gewißheit, die mußte wie ein Gefühl in den Menschen leben, wie ein Gefühl, das, wenn es vorhanden ist, zur Bewahrheitung der Sache beiträgt. Darauf hätte ein Mensch in der alten indischen Zeit nichts gegeben, er hätte gesagt: Das Geistige, sinnlich wahrgenommen, sagt mir nicht viel; wenn du das Geistige wahrnehmen willst, so mußt du zu irgendeinem Grade von schauender Erkenntnis aufsteigen. Das Verständnis also für Christus mußte sich erst entwickeln, wie alles in der Welt.
Das aber, was der Mensch als den luziferischen Einschlag hatte in seinem Ätherleib, was er sich mitbrachte aus uralten Zeiten, wo sein Atherleib noch nicht ganz im physischen Leibe lebte, wo er noch draußen war und mit den äußeren Teilen die Einflüsse Luzifers empfing, das verschwand, das wurde allmählich aufgebraucht. Damit, daß der Atherleib in den physischen Leib hineinschlüpfte, verlor der Mensch die Fähigkeit, mit seinen ätherischen Organen die höheren Welten wahrzunehmen. So kann man von einer gewissen Zeit, in die man zurückblickt, von den menschlichen Vorfahren sagen: Die haben noch in die höheren Welten hineingesehen; was sie gesehen haben, ist in den Schriftwerken aufbewahrt. — Wie auf eine uralte Weisheit kann man hinweisen. Die aber war später nicht mehr unmittelbar ergreifbar, weil in demselben Maße, in dem der Ätherleib in den physischen Leib hineinrückt, der Mensch sich nur seiner physischen Sinne und seines physischen Verstandes bedienen kann, und die schauende Kraft gelähmt wird. Die Möglichkeit des Hineinschauens in die geistige Welt, die ist dann nur möglich beim Eingeweihten, der durch systematische Schulung zu den übersinnlichen Welten hinaufsteigt.
Nun sagte ich Ihnen: Der umgekehrte Prozeß vollzieht sich jetzt. Die Menschheit tritt in ein Stadium ein, wo der Ätherleib in gewisser Weise wiederum sich aus dem physischen herausbildet; aber Sie dürfen nicht glauben, daß er das nun alles von selbst erhält, was er als ein altes Erbstück sich von früher mitgebracht hatte. Der Atherleib des Menschen würde, wenn nichts geschehen würde, als daß er herausrückt aus dem physischen Leibe, eben herausrücken. Er würde nichts von den Kräften in sich enthalten, die er einmal gehabt hat. Er wird ja in Zukunft herausgeboren aus dem menschlichen physischen Leibe. Gibt ihm der menschliche physische Leib nichts mit, dann ist er leer, dann ist er öde. Das wird die Zukunft der Menschheitsentwickelung sein, daß die Menschen sozusagen aus ihrer physischen Leiblichkeit ihren Ätherleib entlassen und ihn eventuell leer hinaussenden können. Was würde das bedeuten? Der Ätherleib ist der Kraftträger, der Erreger alles dessen, was im physischen Leibe vorgeht. Er muß nicht nur dann, wenn er ganz in dem physischen Leibe steckt, den physischen Leib mit Kräften versehen, er muß ihn jederzeit versehen; er wird ihn auch versehen müssen, wenn er wieder einmal teilweise außerhalb des physischen Leibes ist. Lassen Sie ihn leer, den Atherleib, geben Sie ihm nichts mit, dann kann er nicht auf den physischen Leib zurückwirken, denn dann hat er nicht die Kraft, wodurch er zurückwirken kann. Der ÄAtherleib muß, nachdem er durch den physischen Leib durchgegangen ist, innerhalb des physischen Leibes seine Kräfte gewinnen. Von da aus müssen sie ihm mitgegeben werden, damit er, wenn er draußen ist, auf den physischen Leib zurückwirken kann. Es ist die Aufgabe der gegenwärtigen Menschheit, das aufzunehmen in sich, was nur aufgenommen werden kann innerhalb des Wirkens im physischen Leib. Was da erarbeitet wird innerhalb des physischen Leibes, das geht mit der Entwickelung mit, und wenn der Mensch in künftigen Inkarnationen in solchen Organisationen leben wird, wo der Ätherleib entlassen ist bis zu einem gewissen Grad aus dem physischen Leib, dann wird es im Bewußtsein gewissermaßen alsErinnerung durch den teilweise frei gewordenen Ätherleib leben.
Nun kann man fragen: Was ist denn das, was den physischen Leib befähigt, etwas als Erbstück mitzugeben dem Ätherleib? Was befähigt den Menschen, Kräfte hineinzusenden in seinen Ätherleib, so daß er einstmals imstande sein wird, einen solchen Atherleib zu tragen, der nun von außen herein wiederum gewisse Kräfte sendet? Wenn der Mensch nur so gelebt hätte, sagen wir, vom Jahre dreitausend vor Christus bis zu dessen Zeit und wiederum drei Jahrtausende nach Christus, daß nichts eingetreten wäre für ihn, als was ohne das Christus-Ereignis dagewesen ist, dann würde der Mensch im physischen Körper nichts erlebthaben, was mitgehen kann alsKraft für den Ätherleib, wenn dieser sich vom physischen loslöst. Das, was der Mensch mitgeben kann, das ist, was er durch das Christus-Erlebnis innerhalb der physischen Welt gewinnen kann. Aller Zusammenhang mit dem Christus-Prinzip, mit den Erlebnissen, die man haben kann an der Christus-Erscheinung, das senkt sich so in die Erlebnisse der Seele innerhalb der physischen Welt, daß diese Seele und damit auch alles Leibliche so vorbereitet wird, daß es in den Atherleib das hineingießen kann, was dieser in der Zukunft braucht. Somußte das Christus-Erlebnis kommen, so mußte es die Menschenseele durchdringen, damit die Menschen für die Zukunft verstehen können ihre Entwickelung. Was heute im physischen Leibe ist, das sendet die Kräfte hinaus in den Atherleib; und dieser wird, wenn er gleichsam gespeist wird von dem, was der physische Leib an der Erscheinung des Christus erlebt, die Kräfte empfangen, um wiederum hellstrablend zu werden und Lebenskraft zu haben, um den physischen Leib zu erhalten in der Zukunft. Was die Menschen also am Christus erlebten durch jene Umkehrung der Prinzipien, das hat seinen guten Sinn für die Zukunft der Menschheitsentwickelung.
Aber dieses Ereignis würde allein nicht genügen. Denn denken Sie doch daran, daß Sie, dadurch daß Sie das Christus-Erlebnis in der eigenen Seele durchmachen, dadurch daß der Christus Ihnen immer vertrauter wird, immer mehr und mehr zusammenwächst mit den eigenen Erlebnissen der Seele, allerdings den Atherleib beeinflussen, Kraftströmungen in Ihren Ätherleib hineingießen. Wenn dieser Ätherleib nun aber hinausrückt und in ein falsches Element hineinkommt, wenn er draußen nicht die Kräfte trifft, die auch wiederum unterhaltend und belebend wirken können auf das, was als Christus-Prinzip in ihn hineingezogen ist, dann wird der Ätherleib, wenn er teilweise frei wird, zwar die Christus-Kraft haben, aber in ein Element dringen, wo er nicht leben kann. Er würde durch die äußeren Kräfte zerstört werden. Er würde, weil er durchchristet ist, in einem ihm ungeeigneten Elemente seiner Zerstörung entgegengehen und zerstörend zurückwirken auf den physischen Leib. Was ist das Zweite, was notwendig ist? Das ist, daß dieser Atherleib sich geeignet macht, wiederum zu empfangen das Licht aus Luzifers Reich. So muß der Mensch, während er früher den Luzifer als ein inneres Erlebnis auftauchen sah durch den Schleier seines Seelenlebens, sich nun so vorbereiten, daß er den Luzifer als kosmische Wesenheit in seiner Umgebung erleben kann. Von einer unterirdischen Gottheit zu einer kosmischen wird Luzifer; und der Mensch muß sich vorbereiten, um seinen Atherleib mit solchen Kräften auszustatten, daß der Luzifer ein befruchtendes, ein förderndes Element sein kann und kein zerstörendes. Es muß der Mensch durch das Christus-Erlebnis durchgehen, aber so, daß er empfänglich wird, in dieser Welt zu sehen die geistigen Grundlagen, die Grundlagen der geistigen Geschehnisse, aus denen die Welt entsprungen ist. Also der Mensch geht durch das Christus-Erlebnis durch, und es ist berechtigt in der ganzen Natur der Entwickelung, daß die geisteswissenschaftliche Schulung die Menschen vorbereitet, wiederum zu verstehen das Licht aus Luzifers Reich, weil der menschliche Atherleib nur dadurch seine entsprechenden Lebenskräfte erhalten kann. Der Mensch ist auch schon von Christus beeinflußt gewesen, ehe dieser erschienen ist auf der Erde. Schon als Zarathustra hinaufgewiesen hat zu Ahura Mazdao, strahlte die Kraft des Christus herunter. Und von der anderen Seite strahlte ein die Kraft des Luzifer. Das kehrt sich um. In der Zukunft wird von außen einstrahlen die Kraft des Luzifer, im Innern wird der Christus leben. Die menschliche Organisation muß wieder von zwei Seiten beeinflußt werden. Der alte Inder empfand auf der einen Seite: Das bist du - und auf der anderen Seite: Ich bin das All; er empfand, daß das, was er nach außen sah, dieselbe Welt war wie die nach innen. Das empfand man in Altindien als eine abstrakte Wahrheit; das wird man als ein konkretes Erlebnis dann auf der Erde seelisch haben, wenn die Zeiten dazu erfüllt sein werden, wenn in neuer Gestalt durch die entsprechenden Vorbereitungen das wiederum auflebt, was, wie vorher verkündend, sich gezeigt hat in Altindien. So ist der Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung in der nachatlantischen Zeit.
Nunmehr sieht man daraus, daß die Entwickelung der Menschheit keine geradlinige ist, daß sie ähnlich verläuft wie alles in der Natur. Ich habe Ihnen das Beispiel gegeben an der Pflanze, die heranwächst, aber nicht die Frucht entfalten könnte, wenn die Entwickelung nicht einen neuen Einschlag bekäme. Hier haben Sie ein Bild, das Ihnen zeigt, daß andere Einflüsse von der Seite kommen müssen. Eine geradlinige Entwickelung gibt es nicht. So mußten sozusagen übereinandertreten das luziferische und das Christus-Prinzip. Wer nur die Entwickelung in gerader Linie sucht, der kann die wirkliche Weltenentwickelung niemals begreifen; nur wer die getrennten Strömungen erfaßt und dann sieht, wie sich die Ströme gegenseitig befruchten, nur der kann wirklich das sich Entwickelnde verstehen. In der Zeit, in welcher während der altindischen Kultur die Menschen in einer gewissen Weise noch anders organisiert waren als später, war dies menschliche Anschauen anders. Wie dieses menschliche Anschauen damals war, davon kann eine bestimmte Erfahrung nur derjenige heute haben, der sie sich durch die Methoden der geisteswissenschaftlichen Forschung, die den heutigen Zeiten angemessen sind, erwirbt. Man kann dies heute nur künstlich erwerben, einstmals war das eine natürliche Fähigkeit. Sogar für einen gut vorbereiteten Bekenner der Geisteswissenschaft ist es schwer ver ständlich, wie die Seelenerlebnisse anders waren in der altindischen Zeit als später, und man kann nur versuchen in annähernder Weise in Worte zu kleiden, wie sie anders waren.
Wenn heute der Mensch in die Welt hinausschaut, so nimmt er die Welt wahr durch seine verschiedenartigen Sinne. Wir können heute nicht eingehen auf alles, was im Sinne der modernen Wissenschaft über die Sinnesempfindungen zu sagen ist. Das braucht uns auch heute nicht zu interessieren; wir können bei den gewöhnlichen Vorstellungen stehenbleiben, daß der Mensch durch seine verschiedenen Sinne die äußere Welt wahrnimmt und die verschiedenen Eindrücke zusammenfaßt mit dem Geistesvermögen, das an das physische Gehirn gebunden ist. Sie werden, wenn Sie darüber nachdenken, allerdings sich klar darüber sein können, daß innerhalb der Sinnesempfindungen in bezug auf deren ganze Wesenheit doch ein gewaltiger Unterschied ist. Vergleichen Sie zum Beispiel das Gehör, die Empfindung des Gehörs, mit der Sinnesempfindung des Gesichtes. Nicht wahr, für das Gehör ist es ziemlich einleuchtend, daß in der Außenwelt, wenn wir suchen nach den entsprechenden Tatsachen, für das, wie wir hören, eine Bewegungsform der Materie existiert, regelmäßig bewegte Luft. Das finden wir draußen; wenn wir das Instrument unseres Gehörs dieser regelmäßig bewegten Luft entgegenhalten, so haben wir das erlebt, was wir die Gehörsempfindung nennen. Doch sind zwei ganz verschiedene Dinge das innere Gehörerlebnis und das, was man außen als bewegte Luft hat. Wenn Sie den Gesichtssinn nehmen, so werden Sie einsehen können, daß die Sache so einfach nicht liegt wie beim Gehör. Die moderne Physik hat es sich einfach gemacht. Sie hat analog sich gedacht: Nehmen wir einen feineren Stoff an, der sich ebenso bewegt wie die Luft draußen. — Der große Unterschied ist für den realistischen Denker der, daß man sich sehr leicht überzeugen kann von dem, was draußen schwingt, in bezug auf das Ohr. Man kann leicht darauf kommen, daß draußen sich wirklich etwas bewegt - wo es sich um den Gehörvorgang handelt -—, wenn man auf einer Saite Papierreiterchen setzt und die Saite anstreicht. Was aber im Äther schwingt, von dessen Dasein kann sich kein Mensch überzeugen; das ist Hypothese, das ist nur für die physikalische Theorie vorhanden. Für das realistische Denken ist das nicht vorhanden. Die Sinnesempfindung des Gesichtes ist etwas wesentlich anderes als die des Gehörs. Wenn wir sprechen von der Lichtempfindung, so liegt für uns sozusagen das, was wir wahrnehmen, viel objektiver da als das, was wir wahrnehmen durch den Gehörsinn. Wir nehmen das Licht als Farbe wahr, nehmen es ausgebreitet im Raume wahr, aber wir können nicht in derselben Weise in die äußere Welt hinausgehen und objektive Vorgänge suchen, wie beim Schall. Solche Unterschiede sind es, über die der moderne Mensch so leicht hinweggeht. Mit seinem feineren Bewußtsein von der ganzen Außenwelt konnte der alte Inder über so etwas nicht hinwegsehen. Der nahm alle diese feinen äußeren Unterschiede wahr.
Ich wollte nur hinweisen darauf, daß es zwischen den einzelnen Sinnesgebieten ihrer Wesenheit nach charakteristische Unterschiede gibt. Wenn Sie die deutsche Sprache beobachten, so kann Ihnen da auffallen, daß man bezeichnet mit demselben Worte ein inneres Seelenerlebnis und - ich gebe ja zu, es geschieht das bei ungenauem Sprechen auch einen Eindruck, der in einer gewissen Weise von außen kommt. Das ist das Wort Gefühl. Sie wissen, wenn man von den fünf Sinnen spricht, zählt man auf Gesichts-, Gehör-, Geruch-, Geschmacks- und Gefühlssinn; im trivialen Sinne Gefühlssinn; man meint damit den Tastsinn, spricht aber von Gefühl und zählt das, was dieser Sinn erlebt, zu den äußeren Sinneserlebnissen — nennt es Gefühl. Man bezeichnet aber auch, und zwar in einer viel, viel geistvolleren Weise, als man gewöhnlich denkt, aus dem Sprachgenius heraus ein innerliches Seelenerlebnis als Gefühl. Wenn Sie Freude haben, Schmerz empfinden, bezeichnen Sie das als Gefühl. Dieses Gefühl, von dem jetzt die Rede ist, ist ein intimes Seelenerlebnis; bei dem anderen, das durch den Tastsinn vermittelt wird, ist immer ein äußerer Gegenstand vorhanden, der die Veranlassung ist. Das andere Gefühl knüpft sich vielleicht an den äußeren Gegenstand, aber schon daraus können Sie sehen, daß der nicht die einzige Veranlassung ist, weil es bei dem einen Menschen anders auftreten kann als bei dem anderen. Der Sprachgenius, sagte ich, wirkt hier wirklich genial. Wir haben zwei Erlebnisse; eines als etwas, was an den äußeren Sinn gebunden ist, und eines, was an das Innere gebunden ist. Die zwei stehen sich scheinbar recht entfernt für das heutige Erleben. Das war nun nicht immer so. Und hier kommen wir zu einer anderen Ansicht dessen, was wir vorhin von außen charakterisiert haben. Wir haben das Hineinschlüpfen des Atherleibes charakterisiert und das Herausgehen. Das ist verknüpft damit, daß auch im Inneren des Menschen etwas vor sich geht. Heute sind diese beiden Erlebnisse, das Gefühlserlebnis im Innern und das Gefühlserlebnis, das wir eben auch mit dem Worte Gefühl bezeichnen, und das durch den äußeren Gegenstand mit Hilfe des Tastsinnes veranlaßt ist, zwei Dinge, die voneinander abliegen. Je weiter wir in der Entwickelung der Menschheit zurückgehen, das heißt, je weiter der Ätherleib aus dem physischen Leibe draußen ist, desto näher rücken sich diese beiden Erlebnisse. Heute nur sind sie für den Menschen weit auseinander liegend. In der indischen Zeit noch war dieser Unterschied nicht in derselben Weise berechtigt wie heute. Da standen sich das innere Gefühlserlebnis und das äußere noch unendlich viel näher. Ja, wie das?
Wenn Sie heute einem Menschen entgegentreten, und er hegt gegen Sie einen schlimmen Gedanken, sagen wir, Sie seien ihm unsympathisch, und er bringt Ihnen demgemäß seine Empfindungen entgegen, ja, Sie werden, wenn Sie zunächst nur ausgerüstet sind mit äußeren Sinnen und dem physischen Gehirne, in der Regel nicht viel merken von seinen Gefühlen, Sympathien und Antipathien. Wenn er Sie schlägt, dann werden Sie es merken, dann merkt es Ihr Gefühlssinn. Das war eben in der altindischen Zeit noch anders. Da war der Mensch noch so organisiert, daß er nicht nur das, was für den heutigen groben Tastsinn wirkt, empfand, sondern auch das, was heute sich schon in das Innere zurückgezogen hat; daß er das noch empfinden konnte, was ihm ein anderer innerlich entgegenbrachte. In seiner Seele entstand ebenso ein Erlebnis, wie Sie es heute durch den Tastsinn haben, durch das, was an Sympathie im anderen lebte. Er fühlte, was physischseelisch vorging. Dafür war aber auch in jenen Zeiten noch nicht in einer solch inneren Weise ausgebildet, was wir unser inneres Gefühlsleben nennen; das war auch noch mehr mit der Außenwelt verbunden. Noch nicht zog sich der Mensch so in sein Inneres zurück wie heute. Er hatte Schmerzen und Freuden, die in vieler Beziehung mehr den Geschehnissen der Außenwelt entsprachen als unsere heutigen; er konnte sich gar nicht so zurückziehen in sein Inneres wie wir heute. Heute ist das innere Seelenerlebnis viel mehr herausgerissen aus der ganzen Umgebung als ehedem. Heute kann der Mensch sogar dahin kommen, daß er außen umgeben ist von Umständen, die gar nicht besser sein könnten; weil aber sein inneres Seelenleben herausgerissen ist aus der Umgebung, fühlt er vielleicht innerlich Schmerz durch die Art, wie er sich zur Welt stellt, ohne daß er recht Veranlassung dazu hat. Unmöglich wäre das gewesen zur Zeit der altindischen Kulturepoche. Da war das, was im Innern vorging, so, daß es ein viel treueres Spiegelbild dessen war, was sich in der äußeren Umgebung abspielte. Der Mensch lebte viel mehr mit seinem Gefühle in der Umgebung. Wodurch kam das? Dadurch, daß der Mensch in jenen alten Zeiten in einem ganz anderen Verhältnisse zum Beispiel zum Lichte stand durch seine Organisation. Das Licht, das uns umflutet, hat nicht nur seine physische Außenseite, sondern alles, was physisch ist, hat auch Seelisches und Geistiges in sich. Nun ging die menschliche Entwickelung dahin, daß das Seelische und Geistige der Außenwelt sich immer mehr und mehr von dem Menschen in diesen Erlebnissen zurückzog, es wurde immer mehr und mehr nur das Physische wahrnehmbar. Der Mensch nahm nun das Licht wahr in seiner Wirkung auf das Auge. Er nahm es wahr in älteren Zeiten, wie wenn es von allen Seiten in seine Organisation wie ein Fluidum sich einsenkte, und in das ihn durchströmende Licht fühlte er die Seele hinein. Heute macht die Seele des Lichtes Halt vor der menschlichen Haut. Durchflutet von dem, was als Seele im Lichte lebt, war noch die indische Organisation; und der Mensch nahm wahr, was als Lichtseele das Licht durchflutete, Das war der Träger dessen, was man wahrnehmen konnte als Sympathien und Antipathien in anderen Wesen, die sich heute mit der Seele des Lichtes von dem Menschen zurückziehen. Das war mit anderen Erlebnissen verbunden. Heute atmen Sie Ihren Atem aus und ein. Sie lernen Ihren Atem höchstens an seinen mechanischen Wirkungen kennen. Wenn er irgend so wirkt, daß er sich abkühlt, da sehen Sie ihn an dem Wässerigwerden. Das ist eine mechanische Art, den Atem zu sehen. So unwahrscheinlich es für den heutigen Menschen klingt, so ist es doch Wahrheit, daß man zum Beispiel bei den meisten Menschen des alten Indiens durch die geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung heute konstatieren kann, daß sie ihren Atem noch ganz anders wahrgenommen haben. Es hatte sich noch nicht aus dem, was um die damaligen Menschen vorging, die Seele des Lichtes zurückgezogen; so nahmen sie wahr die ein- und ausgeatmete Luft in verschieden hellen und dunkeln Farbennuancen. Sie sahen wie in Feuerstrahlen einströmen die Luft und wiederum hinausgehen. So können Sie also sagen: Im Grunde genommen ist auch die Luft sogar durch das, was sich alles geändert hat für die menschliche Anschauung etwas ganz anderes geworden. — Die Luft ist heute etwas, was der Mensch im Grunde genommen wahrnimmt nur mechanisch durch den Widerstand, den sie ihm bietet, weil er die Seele des Lichtes, die die Luft durchdringt, nicht unmittelbar wahrnimmt. Auch aus diesem letzten Rest des instinktiven Schauens ist der Mensch herausgegangen. Der alte Inder würde daher nicht einfach Luft genannt haben, was aus- und eingeatmet wird, sondern Feuerluft, weil er es in verschiedenen Graden des feurigen Erstrahlens wahrgenommen hat. Damit aber haben Sie zugleich die Möglichkeit gegeben, zu begreifen, daß überhaupt die ganze Umgebung des Luftkreises für den alten Inder etwas anderes war als für den heutigen Menschen. Der heutige Mensch sieht die Luft durchsichtig, sieht nicht die umgebende Inhaltlichkeit der Luft. Wenn ein Luftzug durch den Raum geht, so nimmt er ihn nur wahr am Widerstand, den er ihm bietet. Das altindische Bewußtsein sah feurige Massen durch die Luft dahinziehen.
Da haben Sie wiederum ein Beispiel, wie selbst in den äußeren Erlebnissen sich die Umwandlung der menschlichen Organisation im Entwicklungslaufe zeigt. Das sind die intimen Vorgänge der Menschheitsentwickelung, und wir können niemals das begreifen, was in den Veden steht, wenn wir nicht wissen, wie die Worte gebraucht werden. Wenn wir die Worte da lesen und wissen nicht, daß die Worte das bezeichnet haben, was man damals gesehen hat, so verlieren die Worte allen Sinn, und wir interpretieren ganz falsch. Man muß immer die Realitäten in Betracht ziehen, wenn man an alte Urkunden herangeht.
Es ändert sich eben das, was in der Menschenseele lebt, im Laufe der Zeiten. Und jetzt werden Sie eine Tatsache verstehen, die, wenn man diese Voraussetzungen nicht hat, welche ganz unabhängig sind von den durch die physische Forschung festzustellenden Belegen, Sie auf der bloßen Grundlage dieser Belege nicht verstehen können. Sehen Sie sich um in den morgenländischen Schriften, wie da die Elemente aufgezählt werden. Es wird aufgezählt: Erde, Wasser, Feuer, Luft, Ather. Erst von der griechischen Zeit an finden wir die andere Aufzählung, die uns heute selbstverständlich ist und die wir zugrunde legen müssen allem Begreifen, nämlich: Erde, Wasser, Luft, Feuer und die anderen Ätherarten. Warum ist das so? Das altindische Bewußtsein sah geradeso wie der heutige Mensch draußen die Dinge, die sich manifestieren durch das Feste, was man das Erdige nennt, sah durch das Flüssige, was man geistig gesprochen das Wasser nennt. Was wir aber heute Luft nennen, das war ihm schon Feuer, denn da sah man schon das Feuer in der Luft, und bezeichnete das, was man sah, als Feuer. Wir sehen dies Feuer nicht mehr, wir fühlen es als Wärme. Und erst, wenn sie etwas höher hinaufrückten in der Elementenreihe, rückten die Inder in ein Element ein, wo sich für die Menschheit, weil sich alles gewandelt hat seit dem vierten Zeitraum der nachatlantischen Zeit, das herausstellte, was wir heute die vom Lichte durchdrungene, aber nicht das Licht zeigende Luft nennen. In Feuer und Luft hat sich die ganze Anschauung der Menschen umgedreht. Das, was wir für Christus und Luzifer gesagt haben, daß sie übereinandergeschritten sind, daß Christus von einer kosmischen zu einer innermenschlichen Wesenheit, Luzifer von einer innermenschlichen zu einer kosmischen Wesenheit geworden ist, das hat sich vollzogen für alle Gebiete des Lebens, so daß das, was noch in der ersten nachatlantischen Zeit das war, was wir Feuer nennen, von uns heute als Luft wahrgenommen wird, und daß das, was von uns als Feuer wahrgenommen wird, damals als Luft wahrgenommen wurde. Nicht nur im großen, sondern auch im kleinen drückt sich aus, was der Menschheitsentwickelung zugrunde liegt. Man darf diese Dinge nicht auf Zufälligkeiten zurückführen. Sie sehen, wie tief man hineinschauen kann in das, was geschieht im Laufe der Menschheitsentwickelung, wenn man die Dinge betrachtet vom einzig realen Gesichtspunkte, vom geisteswissenschaftlichen aus. Ein solches Bewußtsein, wie es der alte Inder hatte, das ist also ein Bewußtsein, welches etwas, was im Innern der Seele liegt und was außerhalb der Seele liegt, noch mehr wie eine Einheit empfand; daher lebte der Inder noch mehr in seiner ganzen Umgebung. Letzte Nachklänge davon, von seinem noch vorhanden gewesenen, gewissermaßen instinktiv schauenden Zustande, sind vorhanden im rudimentären heutigen Hellsehen derjenigen Menschen, die das haben, was wir namentlich als zweites Gesicht bezeichnen. Wenn Sie irgendwo auf der Straße gehen, und es taucht Ihnen der Gedanke an einen Menschen auf, den Sie physisch in diesem Augenblick nicht sehen können, und Sie gehen weiter und nach einiger Zeit tritt er Ihnen entgegen; warum haben Sie im Bewußtsein den Gedanken an ihn, bevor Sie ihn gesehen haben? Weil eben die Wirkung von ihm in Ihr Unterbewußtsein eingetreten ist, dann ins Bewußtsein gestiegen als fertiger Gedanke. Heute hat der Mensch nur noch so etwas Rudimentäres von einem früheren Bedeutsameren. Früher war eine intimere Verbindung des inneren und des äußeren Gefühls vorhanden. Das sind nur weitere Ausführungen dessen, was oftmals vor Sie hingestellt worden ist so, daß gesagt werden konnte: Die Menschheit hat sich vom alten, dumpfen Hellsehen zum heutigen Sinnesbewußtsein entwickelt und wird hineinwachsen in einen vollbewußten schauenden Zustand. Dieser wird erreicht werden so, daß der Mensch bewußt ihn erleben wird, so daß er weiß, sein Ätherleib geht heraus, und er kann sich der Organe des Atherleibes so bedienen wie der physischen.
Die Menschen haben aber in den früheren, noch spirituelleren Zeiten, in denen sie weiser waren als die heutige abstrakt materialistische Wissenschaft ist, immer ein Bewußtsein davon gehabt, daß ein altes Schauen, ein Durchschauen der Welt vorhanden war, daß die Menschen herausgetreten sind aus diesem alten Schauen und in die gegenwärtigen Zustände hineingetreten sind. Die Menschen haben früher nicht in abstrakten Formeln und Theorien das ausgedrückt, was sie gewußt haben, sondern durch mächtige farbenreiche Bilder; und die Mythen sind ja nicht ausgedachte Dinge, ausgeklügelte, phantastische Bilder, wie eine phantastische Gelehrsamkeit vom grünen Tisch heute meint, sondern Ausdrücke tiefer, ursprünglicher, durch geistige Anschauung erworbener Weisheit. Es war das Bewußtsein vorhanden in alten Zeiten und hat sich in Mythen zum Ausdruck gebracht, daß die Menschen einstmals die Welt umfänglicher durchfühlt haben. Das Hellfühlen der alten Inder war ein letzter Rest eines ursprünglichen, dämmerhaften Hellsehens. Das hat man ehemals gewußt; man hat aber auch gewußt, daß dieses Hellsehen — nennen wir .es summarisch so — immer mehr und mehr zurückgeht, immer mehr und mehr dem äußeren Leben, das auf die Sinneswelt beschränkt ist, Platz machen muß. Gerade diese Tatsache brachte man in den maßgebenden Mythen zum Ausdruck. Man wußte zum Beispiel folgendes: Es gibt Mysterienstätten — wir haben gestern davon gesprochen -, in denen der Weg zu den unterirdischen Geistern führte, und es gab andere Mysterien, in denen der Weg hinaufführte zu den kosmischen Geistern. Das alles war scharf voneinander unterschieden worden. Davon wußte nichts derjenige, der nicht eingeweiht war, wie heute der nichts ahnt, daß es eine Mysterienweisheit gibt, der nicht die rechten Wege dazu sucht. Aber es war sozusagen mehr oder weniger Kunde davon in die äußere Welt hinausgedrungen. Auch von den Mysterien ist zu sagen, daß ihre Glanzzeit um so bedeutungsvoller uns entgegentritt, je weiter wir in die alte Zeit zurückgehen. Die griechischen Mysterien sind schon nicht mehr die glanzvollsten. Auch das Mysterienwesen war einem Verfall unterworfen. Dennoch aber wußten die Leute, daß das, was von den Orten kommt, wo schauendes Bewußtsein noch wirkt, zusammenhängt mit der geistigen Substanz, die die Welt durchflutet und durchlebt; und sie wußten, daß man da, wo schauendes Bewußtsein waltet, noch etwas erfahren kann über Weltzusammenhänge, von denen man sonst nichts wissen kann. Und wenn auch schon in der Verfallsperiode, so waren doch die Orakelstätten solche Orte, in denen schauendes Bewußtsein gepflegt, und für die Menschen das verkündet wurde, was man durch gewöhnliche Sinnesanschauung und durch die menschliche Anschauung, die an die Sinne gebunden ist, nicht erfahren kann. Aber man wußte da auch, daß der Mensch sich entwickelt, daß das, was man durch das alte Schauen hat erlangen können, nur etwas taugt und anwendbar ist für alte Urzeiten, nicht aber für die neuen Zeiten.
So hat man bei den Griechen ein tiefes Bewußtsein davon, daß das, was von den Orakeln kommt, zwar die Neugierde der Menschen anregt, daß die Menschen gerne etwas wissen möchten über geheimnisvolle Zusammenhänge der Welt, daß man aber auch schon herausgewachsen war aus der richtigen Handhabung solcher hellseherischer Ergebnisse; daß man jetzt in einer anderen Weise darinnensteht in der Welt wie früher und daher nicht das Richtige anfangen kann, wenn man sich an die Ergebnisse des alten Hellsehens hält. Für die alten Menschen hat es gepaßt, für die neueren paßt es nicht mehr. Das wollte man sagen, und man sagte es in grandiosen Bildern. Ein Bild ist zum Beispiel das, welches uns gegeben wird in der Odipus-Sage. Es wird durch ein Orakel, das heißt von einer Stätte her, wo man geheimnisvolle Zusammenhänge hellseherisch erschaut, die sich dem menschlichen Blicke schon entziehen, dem Vater gesagt, daß, wenn er einen Sohn bekommt, dieser Sohn Unheil bringen werde; er werde den Vater morden und die Mutter heiraten. Er bekommt diesen Sohn. Er versucht sogar das zu tun, was dazu führen könnte, daß das, was hellseherisch erschaut ist, sich nicht vollziehen solle. Der Sohn wird ausgesetzt, in eine ganz andere Gegend gebracht. Der Sohn erfährt das Orakel, das heißt, in seine Seele zieht etwas ein, was nur durch hellseherisches Schauen erkundet werden kann. Das griechische Bewußtsein wollte sagen: Zwar ragt so etwas aus alten Zeiten herein, aber die menschliche Organisation ist schon so weit gekommen, daß sie nicht mehr taugt für diese Art des Hellsehens, daß diese ihr nichts mehr nutzt. Odipus legt das Orakel wegen des gewandelten Bewußtseins so aus, daß es sich erst recht erfüllt, das heißt der Mensch kann nicht mehr das, was das hellseherische Bewußtsein ist, in der richtigen Weise handhaben; es hat sich eben die geistige, spirituelle Welt von ihm zurückgezogen; es nutzt ihm das alte Hellsehen nichts mehr. Aber auch davon ist immer ein Bewußtsein vorhanden gewesen, daß diese Dinge sich wieder umkehren werden, daß wieder das, was aus solchen Welten kommt, etwas werden wird für die Menschheit, daß nur für eine Weile sozusagen eine Schicht des Erlebens hinüber sich breiten soll über das, was aus solchen Welten kommt. Auch davon war ein Bewußtsein vorhanden, auch das haben die mythebildenden Kräfte der Menschheitsentwickelung zum Ausdruck gebracht. Die Christus-Tatsache war in der Menschheitsentwickelung das Maßgebende dafür, daß die beiden Kräfte, das Luzifer-Prinzip und das Christus-Prinzip, übereinandergetreten sind. Da war also der entscheidende Wendepunkt, wo von einer anderen Seite, dem Kosmos her, das, was aus den geistigen Quellen kommt, wie ein Ferment sich hineinergießen sollte in die Menschhettsentwickelung. Verlorengegangen war es, aber es soll wiederum wie ein Ferment hineingegossen werden. Was der Menschheit schädlich geworden war, was ihr selbst zu einem Bösen ausgeschlagen hat, soll wie ein Ferment hineingegossen und umgewandelt werden in das Gute. Das Böse soll hineinfallen in die fruchtbringende geistige Kraft der Menschheitsentwickelung und mitwirken am Guten. Auch das ist in der Mythologie zum Ausdruck gekommen.
Es gibt eine andere Sage, die etwa folgendermaßen lautet: Es wurde einem Elternpaar von einem Orakel geweissagt, daß es einen Sohn bekommen werde, daß der Sohn werde Unheil bringen über sein ganzes Volk. Dieser Sohn wird seinen Vater ermorden und seine Mutter heiraten. Die Mutter bekam diesen Sohn. Da dieser Spruch vorlag, setzte man auch diesen Sohn aus, man setzte ihn auf die Insel Kariot, und es fand ihn die Königin der Insel Kariot. Und weil dieses Elternpaar keinen Sohn hatte, nahmen sie ihn auf. Später aber bekamen sie einen Sohn. Da glaubte sich der Findling schlecht behandelt und tötete den wirklichen Sohn. Da mußte er fliehen von der Insel Kariot. Er floh und kam an den Hof des Pilatus in Palästina, wo er ein Amt bekam als Aufseher im Hauswesen des Pilatus. Er bekam Streit mit seinem Nachbar, von dem er nichts weiter wußte, als daß es eben sein Nachbar war. Im Streite erschlug er ihn und heiratete später dessen Gattin. Dann erst erfuhr er, daß das sein wirklicher Vater war, den er erschlagen hatte, und daß er also seine Mutter geheiratet hatte. Die Sage sagt uns, daß es dem, der jetzt alles das hat über sich hereinbrechen sehen, nicht ähnlich erging wie dem Odipus, sondern daß ihn Reue überkam, und daß er hinging zu dem Christus, und der Christus nahm ihn auf; denn das war der Judas aus Kariot. Und das, was hier in dem Judas lebte, dieses Böse, das verleibt sich ein wie ein Ferment der ganzen Menschheitsentwickelung. Denn die Tat von Palästina hat etwas zu tun mit dem Verrate des Judas; er gehört zum Ganzen, er gehört zu den Zwölfen, die sind gar nicht ohne ihn zu denken. Hier zeigte sich, daß der Orakelspruc sich zwar erfüllte, und daß sein Inhalt sich einverleibt der Menschheitsentwickelung wie das Böse, das umgewandelt wird und weiter lebt im guten Sinne. In bedeutungsvoller Weise weist die Sage, die wahrhaftig weiser ist als die äußere Wissenschaft, darauf hin, daß es eine solche Umwandlung in der Menschennatur im Laufe der Zeit gibt, daß man selbst über das gleiche Ding in verschiedenen Zeiten in der verschiedensten Weise denken muß. Wie sich ein Orakelspruch erfüllt, darf man nicht in derselben Weise erzählen, wenn man von der Odipus-Zeit spricht und von der Christus-Zeit. Dieselbe Tatsache wird einmal zur Ödipus-Sage, das andere Mal in der christlichen Zeit zur Judas-Sage. Erst dann, wenn man die geistigen, der Welt- und Menschheitsentwickelung zugrunde liegenden Tatsachen kennt, versteht man das, was sich als eine Folge davon dem äußeren Auge, der äußeren geschichtlichen Anschauung zeigt. Was in der Sinneswelt da ist, äußere Sinneseindrücke oder Hervorbringungen der menschlichen Seele, alles das verstehen wir, wenn wir die geistigen Grundlagen, die darunter liegen, verstehen. Das, was der Erforscher der geistigen Welten findet, das übergibt er gerne als Anregung denen, die es von ihm entgegennehmen, und die untersuchen die äußeren bestätigenden Tatsachen. Ich habe auf diesen Zusammenhang geistiger und materieller Forschung oft hingewiesen. Wenn das, was in der geistigen Welt gefunden wird, wahr ist, dann bestätigt es sich in der physischen Welt. Das aber wird Ihnen jeder wahre Erforscher des Geisteslebens sagen: er gibt hin das, was er weiß aus der höheren Welt, und er fordert dann auf, alle äußeren Tatsachen zu prüfen an der Hand dieser Angaben. Man versuche, was von mir über die Wiederverkörperung des Zarathustra zum Beispiel gesagt worden ist, mit der äußeren Geschichte zu vergleichen. Man wird sehen, daß das über diese Tatsachen Gesagte jede Probe aushält, wenn man nur genau genug nach Vorgängen in der äußeren Geschichte sucht. Das Äußere wird nur verständlich dadurch, daß man das Innere, das Geistige kennt.
Seventh Lecture
From what has been said in the last two lectures here, you will gather that there are certain facts in the development of humanity that are hardly noticed in outer life, but through their neglect much is misunderstood that is taking place in the spiritual foundations of this development. You can see from the conclusion of yesterday's lecture that what can be called the mystical Christ experience, the experience that human beings can have when, through contemplation within themselves, they permeate their soul experiences with what we have called the Christ substance, was not always there, but developed over time. Yes, one can see that the historical event of the descent of Christ was necessary as a prerequisite for the presence of the mystical Christ in the soul, so that one cannot say that the mystical Christ experience would always have been possible for human souls in pre-Christian times; a Meister Eckhart or similar personalities with their inner mystical experiences are only possible in the Christian era, not before. Abstract thinking will not understand this at all from the outset; only concrete, spiritually realistic thinking that goes to the facts will understand it. Even what has been said about the relationships between the Luciferic beings and the Christ Being can only be understood if one assumes that a change in the entire human organization, imperceptible to the outer senses and the outer intellect but no less radical for that, took place during the millennia before the appearance of Christ and during the centuries after it. Human beings have changed significantly since the Atlantean catastrophe. And if, in the present cycle of human evolution, everything in external life experience depends on human beings perceiving the world through the instruments available to them in the three bodies—the physical, etheric, and astral—when they enter into incarnation, then it depends on the changes which changes the organization of these sheaths that determine how they perceive the world in successive epochs. There is no absolutely true view for all times. People can only see the world in accordance with their organization.
Let us now consider the most radical change in human nature that has taken place since the Atlantean catastrophe, through the first great human culture in the post-Atlantean era, through ancient Inderism and Primitive Persia, through the Chaldean-Egyptian and Greek-Latin cultural epochs, right up to our own time. You know that before the Atlantean catastrophe, the entire relationship between the individual members of human nature was different than it was later. The interaction between the etheric body and the physical body was not the same before the great Atlantean catastrophe as it was afterwards. The etheric body of the head, for example, was more powerfully developed than the physical head and more loosely connected to it. This is precisely what the further development expresses, that the connection between the etheric body and the physical body becomes ever more intense and that both become ever more similar to each other. Now, all the forces for the organization of the physical body, for the joining and harmonization of the members of the physical body, lie in the etheric body. One can therefore say that in the Atlantean humanity, the situation was such that the forces that constructed the physical body acted from outside, from an etheric body that was located outside the physical body, particularly in relation to the head. Then these forces drew themselves into the space of the physical body and today they work more internally, animating and stimulating. But this only developed gradually. The etheric body slowly slipped into the physical body. And if we want to understand ancient Indian culture, we must be clear that things were different then than during the Chaldean-Egyptian period. In the people of the Greek-Latin period, however, a complete interpenetration of the etheric body and the physical body had already been achieved, so that for the clairvoyant consciousness, the etheric body did not extend far beyond the physical body at any point in the human organization.
This was not yet the case with the Indians. There, the clairvoyant gaze would have seen everywhere how the etheric body still protruded beyond the physical body, especially in relation to the head. This is why the members of the ancient Indian people saw the world differently from the members of the Egyptian people. The members of the Greek-Latin people essentially saw things as we do today; they saw the world spread out as a tapestry of colors, sounds, forms, and so on. However, this entire world, spread out before us in our present-day sensory perceptions, was finely interwoven, for the Indian mind of the earliest times, with what might be called misty clouds of an etheric nature, rising from all things as if they were burning and a fine misty smoke were streaming out of every form. One saw an ethereal element that was laid over all things like fine dew or frost. This peculiar way of seeing was natural at that time. Today, the human soul can only acquire it through spiritual scientific exercises. This is the meaning of the further development of humanity through the various cultural epochs, that the etheric body descends deeper and deeper into the physical body. This changes human perception, since it depends on the way the etheric body is organized. And this in turn is connected with the fact that the Luciferic beings of the kind that reveal themselves within the earth and within the soul ascend to cosmic levels of existence, and that the Christ being, which is previously cosmic and descends to incarnation in the human body, now becomes one that reveals itself within the earth and within the soul. This interpenetration of the Apollonian and Dionysian principles, this passing over of the Luciferic and Christ beings, as it were, was only made possible by the change in the human organization. But this change was not only necessary for the assessment of the past, but also for the preparation of the future. We are now indeed living in an age in which the most intimate interpenetration between the etheric body and the physical body is already behind us; we are now already living in the opposite direction of development. We are living in a time in which the etheric body is slowly withdrawing from the physical body. It is normal human development into the future that the etheric body gradually leaves the physical body again; and times will come when the human organization will look again as it did in ancient times, so that we will again feel how the etheric body protrudes above the physical. We are in the midst of this process, and many of the more subtle symptoms of disease in the present day would be understandable if we knew this. But all this corresponds to great cosmic laws. Human beings could not reach their goal of development if they did not undergo this kind of cross-fertilization of their organizational members. But everything that is within us is permeated by our entire environment; it is permeated by the divine-spiritual beings that are in the spiritual world and send their streams into us, just as the physical elements of the earth send their streams into our physical organism. At that time, when the etheric body was outside the physical body, currents flowed continuously into this etheric body, which human beings consciously perceived and experienced as cosmic revelations. Human beings felt this as something that revealed itself to their inner being. What sank into the etheric body from the spiritual world in these streams was also what worked on the formation of the physical body.
If we now characterize what has been said here in recent days from the outer point of view, we can say that what had sunk into the etheric body of the human being and what the human being experienced as the innermost element were the influences of the Luciferic world. Since the ancient times of pre-Atlantean development, human beings had brought with them a legacy: the Luciferic influences that flowed into their etheric bodies. The fact that these Luciferic influences became obscured, that human beings, especially at the time of Christ's appearance, are unaware of them unless they are highly initiated, can be explained by the fact that the etheric body moves more and more into the physical body, becomes one with it, and learns more and more to use the physical organs. Therefore, it was necessary for the divine Being who was to appear on earth to appear in a physically perceptible form, physically embodied like other physical beings on earth. The humanity of that time could only understand a God appearing in the body because they had been accustomed to calling true that which could be seen through the instruments of the physical body. This had to be so in humanity so that those who were around Christ could speak in confirmation of what had happened: We have laid our hands on his wounds and our fingers in the marks of the nails. This sensory certainty had to live in people as a feeling, like a feeling that, when present, contributes to the truth of the matter. A person in ancient Indian times would not have given anything for this; he would have said: The spiritual, perceived with the senses, does not mean much to me; if you want to perceive the spiritual, you must ascend to some degree of intuitive knowledge. So the understanding of Christ had to develop first, like everything else in the world.
But what man had as the Luciferic influence in his etheric body, what he brought with him from ancient times, when his etheric body did not yet live entirely in the physical body, when it was still outside and received the influences of Lucifer through the outer parts, that disappeared, that was gradually used up. With the etheric body slipping into the physical body, human beings lost the ability to perceive the higher worlds with their etheric organs. Thus, looking back to a certain time, we can say of our human ancestors: They still looked into the higher worlds; what they saw is preserved in the scriptures. — One can point to an ancient wisdom. But later on, this was no longer directly accessible because, to the same extent that the etheric body moved into the physical body, human beings could only use their physical senses and their physical intellect, and the power of vision was paralyzed. The possibility of looking into the spiritual world is then only possible for the initiated, who ascend to the supersensible worlds through systematic training.
Now I told you that the reverse process is now taking place. Humanity is entering a stage where the etheric body is, in a certain sense, forming itself out of the physical body again; but you must not believe that it now receives everything it brought with it from the past as an old inheritance. If nothing happened, the etheric body of the human being would simply withdraw from the physical body. It would contain none of the forces it once had. In the future, it will be born out of the human physical body. If the human physical body gives it nothing, then it is empty, then it is barren. This will be the future of human evolution, that human beings will, so to speak, release their etheric body from their physical body and eventually be able to send it out empty. What would that mean? The etheric body is the carrier of forces, the initiator of everything that goes on in the physical body. It must not only supply the physical body with forces when it is completely within the physical body, it must supply it at all times; it will also have to supply it when it is once again partially outside the physical body. If you leave the etheric body empty, give it nothing, then it cannot act back on the physical body, for then it has no power with which to act back. After passing through the physical body, the etheric body must gain its forces within the physical body. From there they must be given to it so that when it is outside it can act back upon the physical body. It is the task of the present humanity to take into itself what can only be taken up within the activity of the physical body. What is worked out within the physical body goes along with the development, and when human beings live in future incarnations in such organizations where the etheric body is released to a certain degree from the physical body, then it will live in consciousness as a kind of memory through the partially freed etheric body.
Now one may ask: What is it that enables the physical body to pass something on to the etheric body as an inheritance? What enables human beings to send forces into their etheric body so that they will one day be able to carry such an etheric body, which in turn sends certain forces from outside? If human beings had lived only from, say, 3000 BC until that time, and again for three millennia after Christ, and nothing had happened to them beyond what existed before the Christ event, then human beings would have experienced nothing in their physical bodies that could pass on as a force to the etheric body when it detached itself from the physical body. What human beings can take with them is what they can gain through the Christ experience within the physical world. All connection with the Christ principle, with the experiences that can be had of the Christ appearance, sinks so deeply into the experiences of the soul within the physical world that this soul, and with it everything physical, is prepared in such a way that it can pour into the etheric body what it will need in the future. The Christ experience had to come, it had to permeate the human soul so that human beings could understand their development in the future. What is in the physical body today sends forces out into the etheric body; and when this is nourished, as it were, by what the physical body experiences in the appearance of Christ, it receives the forces to become brightly radiant again and to have the life force to sustain the physical body in the future. What people experienced in Christ through this reversal of principles has a positive meaning for the future of human development.
But this event alone would not suffice. For remember that by going through the Christ experience in your own soul, by becoming ever more familiar with Christ, by growing ever more and more together with your own soul experiences, you do indeed influence the etheric body, pouring streams of energy into your etheric body. But if this etheric body now moves out and enters a wrong element, if it does not encounter forces outside that can in turn sustain and enliven what has been drawn into it as the Christ principle, then the etheric body, when it becomes partially free, will indeed have the Christ force, but it will penetrate into an element where it cannot live. It would be destroyed by the outer forces. Because it is permeated by Christ, it would meet its destruction in an element unsuitable for it and have a destructive effect on the physical body. What is the second thing that is necessary? It is that this etheric body must make itself suitable to receive the light from Lucifer's realm again. Thus, whereas man formerly saw Lucifer emerge as an inner experience through the veil of his soul life, he must now prepare himself so that he can experience Lucifer as a cosmic being in his environment. Lucifer becomes a cosmic deity from an underground deity, and human beings must prepare themselves to equip their etheric bodies with such forces that Lucifer can be a fertilizing, promoting element and not a destructive one. Human beings must go through the Christ experience, but in such a way that they become receptive to seeing in this world the spiritual foundations, the foundations of the spiritual events from which the world has sprung. So man goes through the Christ experience, and it is justified in the whole nature of evolution that spiritual scientific training prepares people to understand once again the light from Lucifer's realm, because only in this way can the human etheric body receive its corresponding life forces. Human beings were already influenced by Christ before he appeared on earth. Even when Zarathustra pointed upward to Ahura Mazdao, the power of Christ was shining down. And from the other side, the power of Lucifer was shining. This will be reversed. In the future, the power of Lucifer will shine in from outside, and Christ will live within. The human organization must once again be influenced from two sides. The ancient Indian felt on the one hand: That is you — and on the other hand: I am the universe; he felt that what he saw outside was the same world as what he saw inside. This was felt in ancient India as an abstract truth; it will then be experienced as a concrete experience on earth when the time is ripe, when, in a new form, through the appropriate preparations, what was previously proclaimed in ancient India will come to life again. Such is the course of human evolution in the post-Atlantean era.
Now we can see from this that the development of humanity is not linear, but proceeds in a similar way to everything else in nature. I gave you the example of the plant that grows but cannot bear fruit unless its development receives a new impulse. Here you have a picture that shows you that other influences must come from the side. There is no straight-line development. The Luciferic and Christ principles had to overlap, so to speak. Those who seek development in a straight line will never be able to understand the real development of the world; only those who grasp the separate currents and then see how they fertilize each other can truly understand what is developing. In the time when, during the ancient Indian culture, people were still organized in a certain way that was different from later times, this human way of seeing was different. Only those who acquire it through the methods of spiritual scientific research appropriate to the present time can have a certain experience of what this human way of seeing was like at that time. Today, this can only be acquired artificially; in the past, it was a natural ability. Even for a well-prepared student of spiritual science, it is difficult to understand how soul experiences were different in ancient Indian times than they were later, and one can only attempt to describe in approximate terms how they were different.
When people today look out into the world, they perceive it through their various senses. We cannot go into everything that modern science has to say about sensory perceptions. That need not interest us today; we can remain with the common idea that human beings perceive the external world through their various senses and synthesize the various impressions with the mental faculty that is connected to the physical brain. If you think about it, you will realize that there is a tremendous difference within the sensory perceptions in terms of their entire nature. Compare, for example, hearing, the sensation of hearing, with the sensory perception of sight. Isn't it quite obvious that, when we look for the corresponding facts in the external world, there is a form of movement of matter, namely regularly moving air, that corresponds to what we hear? We find this outside; when we hold the instrument of our hearing up to this regularly moving air, we experience what we call the sensation of hearing. But the inner experience of hearing and what we perceive outside as moving air are two completely different things. If you take the sense of sight, you will see that the matter is not as simple as it is with hearing. Modern physics has made it easy for itself. It has thought analogously: Let us assume a finer substance that moves in the same way as the air outside. — The big difference for the realistic thinker is that it is very easy to convince oneself of what is vibrating outside in relation to the ear. It is easy to conclude that something is really moving outside—when it comes to the process of hearing—if you place small pieces of paper on a string and pluck the string. But no one can convince themselves of the existence of what vibrates in the ether; that is a hypothesis, it only exists in physical theory. For realistic thinking, it does not exist. The sensory perception of the face is something fundamentally different from that of the ear. When we speak of light perception, what we perceive is, so to speak, much more objective than what we perceive through the sense of hearing. We perceive light as color, we perceive it spread out in space, but we cannot go out into the external world in the same way and look for objective processes as we do with sound. It is differences like these that modern man so easily overlooks. With his more refined awareness of the entire external world, the ancient Indian could not overlook such things. He perceived all these subtle external differences.
I just wanted to point out that there are characteristic differences between the individual sensory areas in terms of their essence. If you observe the German language, you may notice that the same word is used to describe an inner soul experience and—I admit that this also happens in imprecise speech—an impression that in a certain way comes from outside. That is the word feeling. You know that when we speak of the five senses, we count sight, hearing, smell, taste, and feeling; in the trivial sense, feeling means the sense of touch, but we speak of feeling and count what this sense experiences as external sensory experiences — we call it feeling. However, in a much more spiritual way than is usually thought, the genius of language also describes an inner experience of the soul as feeling. When you experience joy or pain, you describe it as a feeling. This feeling we are talking about now is an intimate experience of the soul; in the other case, which is mediated by the sense of touch, there is always an external object that is the cause. The other feeling may be connected to the external object, but you can already see from this that it is not the only cause, because it can occur differently in one person than in another. The genius of language, I said, really works brilliantly here. We have two experiences: one as something connected to the external senses, and one as something connected to the inner self. The two seem quite distant from each other in today's experience. That was not always the case. And here we come to a different view of what we characterized earlier from the outside. We characterized the slipping in of the etheric body and its slipping out. This is connected with the fact that something is also happening inside the human being. Today, these two experiences, the emotional experience within and the emotional experience that we also describe with the word “feeling,” which is caused by the external object with the help of the sense of touch, are two things that are separate from each other. The further back we go in the development of humanity, that is, the further the etheric body is outside the physical body, the closer these two experiences come together. Today they are far apart for human beings. In Indian times, this difference was not justified in the same way as it is today. Then the inner emotional experience and the outer were still infinitely closer together. How so?
If you encounter a person today who harbors negative thoughts toward you, let us say that you are not appealing to them, and they express their feelings accordingly, then, if you are initially equipped only with your external senses and your physical brain, you will generally not notice much of their feelings, sympathies, or antipathies. If they hit you, then you will notice it, your sense of feeling will notice it. In ancient Indian times, this was different. People were still organized in such a way that they not only perceived what affects our crude sense of touch today, but also what has already withdrawn into the inner self; they could still feel what another person was feeling inside. An experience arose in their soul similar to what you have today through your sense of touch, through the sympathy that lived in the other person. They felt what was going on physically and emotionally. However, in those times, what we call our inner emotional life was not yet developed in such an inner way; it was still more connected to the outer world. People did not yet withdraw into their inner selves as they do today. They experienced pain and joy that in many respects corresponded more to the events of the outer world than ours do today; they could not withdraw into their inner selves as we can today. Today, the inner soul experience is much more torn away from the whole environment than it used to be. Today, people can even reach a point where they are surrounded by circumstances that could not be better; but because their inner soul life is torn away from their environment, they may feel inner pain because of the way they relate to the world, without really having any reason to do so. This would have been impossible during the ancient Indian cultural epoch. At that time, what was going on inside was a much more faithful reflection of what was happening in the external environment. People lived much more with their feelings in their environment. How did this come about? It was because in those ancient times, people had a completely different relationship to light, for example, due to their organization. The light that surrounds us does not only have its physical exterior; everything that is physical also has a soul and spirit within it. Now, human development progressed in such a way that the soul and spirit of the outer world withdrew more and more from human beings in these experiences, and only the physical became more and more perceptible. Human beings now perceived light in its effect on the eye. In earlier times, they perceived it as if it were sinking into their organization from all sides like a fluid, and they felt the soul within the light flowing through them. Today, the soul of light stops at the human skin. The Indian organism was still flooded with what lives as soul in light, and human beings perceived what flooded the light as the soul of light. This was the carrier of what could be perceived as sympathies and antipathies in other beings, which today withdraw from human beings with the soul of light. This was connected with other experiences. Today, you breathe in and out. At most, you get to know your breath through its mechanical effects. If it has any effect that causes it to cool down, you see it becoming watery. That is a mechanical way of seeing the breath. As unlikely as it may sound to people today, it is nevertheless true that, for example, spiritual scientific research today has established that most people in ancient India perceived their breath in a completely different way. The soul of light had not yet withdrawn from what was happening around the people of that time, so they perceived the air they breathed in and out in different shades of light and dark colors. They saw the air flowing in and out as if in rays of fire. So you can say that, basically, even the air has become something completely different for human perception because of all the changes that have taken place. Today, air is something that humans basically perceive only mechanically through the resistance it offers them, because they do not perceive directly the soul of light that permeates the air. Man has also emerged from this last remnant of instinctive perception. The ancient Indian would therefore not have simply called what is breathed in and out “air,” but “fire air,” because he perceived it in varying degrees of fiery radiance. This, however, also gives you the opportunity to understand that the entire environment of the air circle was something completely different for the ancient Indian than it is for modern man. Modern humans see the air as transparent; they do not see the surrounding content of the air. When a draft of air passes through a room, they perceive it only through the resistance it offers them. The ancient Indian consciousness saw fiery masses passing through the air.
Here you have another example of how even in external experiences the transformation of the human organization in the course of evolution is revealed. These are the intimate processes of human development, and we can never understand what is written in the Vedas unless we know how the words are used. If we read the words there and do not know that they describe what was seen at that time, the words lose all meaning and we interpret them completely wrongly. One must always take realities into account when approaching ancient documents.
What lives in the human soul changes over time. And now you will understand a fact which, if you do not have these prerequisites, which are completely independent of the evidence established by physical research, you cannot understand on the mere basis of this evidence. Look around you in the Eastern scriptures and see how the elements are listed there. They are listed as earth, water, fire, air, and ether. It is only from Greek times onwards that we find the other list, which we take for granted today and which we must take as the basis for all understanding, namely: earth, water, air, fire, and the other types of ether. Why is this so? The ancient Indian consciousness saw things just as modern man sees them: those things that manifest themselves through the solid, which we call earth, and those things that manifest themselves through the liquid, which we call water in a spiritual sense. But what we today call air was already fire to them, because they already saw the fire in the air and called what they saw fire. We no longer see this fire; we feel it as warmth. And only when they moved a little higher up in the series of elements did the Indians enter an element where, because everything has changed since the fourth period of the post-Atlantean era, what we now call air, which is permeated by light but does not show light, emerged. In fire and air, the whole view of human beings has been turned upside down. What we have said about Christ and Lucifer, that they crossed over from one realm to another, that Christ became a cosmic being and Lucifer an inner human being, has taken place in all areas of life, so that what what was still in the first post-Atlantean epoch what we call fire is perceived by us today as air, and that what we perceive as fire was then perceived as air. What underlies human evolution is expressed not only in the big picture, but also in the small. These things cannot be attributed to chance. You see how deeply one can look into what is happening in the course of human evolution when one views things from the only real point of view, from the spiritual-scientific point of view. Such consciousness, as the ancient Indians had, is therefore a consciousness that perceived something that lies within the soul and something that lies outside the soul even more as a unity; therefore, the Indians lived even more in their entire environment. The last echoes of this, of their still existing, instinctive way of seeing, are present in the rudimentary clairvoyance of those people who have what we call second sight. If you are walking somewhere on the street and the thought of a person whom you cannot physically see at that moment occurs to you, and you continue walking and after a while he comes toward you, why did you have the thought of him in your consciousness before you saw him? Because the effect of him entered your subconscious and then rose into your consciousness as a finished thought. Today, humans have only a rudimentary remnant of what was once more significant. In the past, there was a more intimate connection between inner and outer feelings. These are just further explanations of what has often been presented to you in such a way that it could be said: Humanity has developed from the old, dull clairvoyance to today's sensory consciousness and will grow into a fully conscious, seeing state. This will be achieved in such a way that human beings will consciously experience it, so that they will know that their etheric body is leaving them and that they can use the organs of the etheric body just as they use the physical organs.
However, in earlier, more spiritual times, when people were wiser than today's abstract materialistic science, they were always aware that there was an old way of seeing, a seeing through the world, that people had stepped out of this old way of seeing and entered into the present state of affairs. In earlier times, people did not express what they knew in abstract formulas and theories, but through powerful, colorful images; and myths are not invented things, ingenious, fantastic images, as a fantastic scholarship from the green table believes today, but expressions of a deeper, original wisdom acquired through spiritual perception. The awareness existed in ancient times and was expressed in myths that people once had a more comprehensive understanding of the world. The clairvoyance of the ancient Indians was a last remnant of an original, dim clairvoyance. This was known in former times; but it was also known that this clairvoyance — let us call it that for the sake of brevity — was gradually receding, gradually giving way to the outer life, which is limited to the sensory world. It was precisely this fact that was expressed in the authoritative myths. For example, it was known that there were mystery centers — we spoke about them yesterday — where the path led to the underground spirits, and there were other mysteries where the path led up to the cosmic spirits. All of this was sharply distinguished from one another. Those who were not initiated knew nothing of this, just as today those who do not seek the right paths to it have no inkling that there is a mystery wisdom. But more or less, knowledge of this had penetrated into the outer world. It can also be said of the mysteries that the further back we go in time, the more significant their heyday appears to us. The Greek mysteries are no longer the most glorious. The mystery cults were also subject to decline. Nevertheless, people knew that what comes from places where contemplative consciousness still works is connected with the spiritual substance that permeates and animates the world; and they knew that where contemplative consciousness reigns, one can still learn something about world connections that cannot otherwise be known. And even though they were already in a period of decline, the oracle sites were still places where clairvoyant consciousness was cultivated and where people were told things that could not be experienced through ordinary sensory perception and through human perception, which is bound to the senses. But it was also known that human beings evolve, that what could be attained through ancient contemplation was only useful and applicable in ancient times, but not in modern times.
Thus, the Greeks had a deep awareness that what came from the oracles did indeed stimulate people's curiosity, that people liked to know something about the mysterious connections in the world, but that they had already outgrown the correct handling of such clairvoyant findings; that they now stood in the world in a different way than before and therefore could not do the right thing if they adhere to the results of ancient clairvoyance. It was appropriate for the ancient people, but it is no longer appropriate for the more modern ones. That is what they wanted to say, and they said it in grandiose images. One image, for example, is that given to us in the legend of Oedipus. An oracle, that is, a place where mysterious connections that are hidden from human sight are seen clairvoyantly, tells the father that if he has a son, this son will bring disaster; he will murder his father and marry his mother. He has this son. He even tries to do what might prevent what has been seen clairvoyantly from coming to pass. The son is abandoned and taken to a completely different region. The son learns of the oracle, that is, something enters his soul that can only be explored through clairvoyant vision. The Greek consciousness wanted to say: Although something like this protrudes from ancient times, human organization has already progressed so far that it is no longer suitable for this kind of clairvoyance, that it is no longer of any use to it. Because of this changed consciousness, Oedipus interprets the oracle in such a way that it will certainly come true, that is, human beings can no longer handle clairvoyant consciousness in the right way; the spiritual world has withdrawn from them; the old clairvoyance is of no use to them anymore. But there has always been an awareness that these things will be reversed, that what comes from such worlds will once again become something for humanity, that only for a while, so to speak, a layer of experience will spread over what comes from such worlds. There was also an awareness of this, and the myth-forming forces of human evolution expressed this as well. The Christ event was the decisive factor in human evolution that caused the two forces, the Lucifer principle and the Christ principle, to come into conflict with each other. So there was a decisive turning point when, from another side, from the cosmos, what comes from the spiritual sources was to pour into human evolution like a ferment. It had been lost, but it was to be poured in again like a ferment. What had become harmful to humanity, what had turned it into evil, was to be poured in like a ferment and transformed into good. Evil was to fall into the fruitful spiritual power of human development and contribute to the good. This too found expression in mythology.
There is another legend that goes something like this: An oracle prophesied to a couple that they would have a son who would bring disaster upon his entire people. This son would murder his father and marry his mother. The mother gave birth to this son. Because of this prophecy, the son was abandoned and placed on the island of Kariot, where he was found by the queen of Kariot. And because this couple had no son, they took him in. Later, however, they had a son of their own. The foundling felt mistreated and killed the real son. He was forced to flee the island of Kariot. He fled and came to the court of Pilate in Palestine, where he was given a position as a supervisor in Pilate's household. He got into a quarrel with his neighbor, whom he knew nothing about except that he was his neighbor. In the quarrel, he killed him and later married his wife. Only then did he learn that the man he had killed was his real father and that he had therefore married his mother. The legend tells us that the man who now saw all this coming upon him did not fare like Oedipus, but that he was overcome with remorse and went to Christ, and Christ took him in; for this was Judas of Kariot. And what lived here in Judas, this evil, is incorporated like a ferment into the whole development of humanity. For the deed in Palestine has something to do with Judas' betrayal; he belongs to the whole, he belongs to the Twelve, who cannot be thought of without him. Here it became apparent that the oracle's prophecy was fulfilled and that its content is incorporated into human development like evil, which is transformed and lives on in a good sense. In a meaningful way, the legend, which is truly wiser than external science, points to the fact that there is such a transformation in human nature over time that one must think of the same thing in different ways at different times. How an oracle is fulfilled cannot be told in the same way when speaking of the time of Oedipus and the time of Christ. The same fact becomes the legend of Oedipus in one case and the legend of Judas in the Christian era in the other. Only when one knows the spiritual facts underlying the development of the world and of humanity can one understand what appears as a consequence of this to the outer eye, to the outer historical view. We understand everything that exists in the sensory world, external sensory impressions or manifestations of the human soul, when we understand the spiritual foundations that underlie them. What the researcher of the spiritual worlds finds, he gladly passes on as inspiration to those who receive it from him, and they investigate the external facts that confirm it. I have often pointed out this connection between spiritual and material research. If what is found in the spiritual world is true, then it is confirmed in the physical world. But every true researcher of spiritual life will tell you this: he gives what he knows from the higher world, and then he asks everyone to examine all external facts in the light of this information. Try to compare what I have said about the reincarnation of Zarathustra, for example, with external history. You will see that what has been said about these facts stands up to any test, if you only look closely enough at the events in external history. The external only becomes understandable when you know the inner, the spiritual.