The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Eleventh Lecture

[ 1 ] It was necessary to add an eleventh lecture to the ten scheduled for this evening because there will be one or two additional points to add regarding this or that topic discussed today. You will have sensed that one would have to speak on the issues raised not just for weeks, but for months, even years, every evening, if one were to truly explore them from every angle. However, with regard to theosophical teachings at the present time, the point is not so much that the entire scope of spiritual scientific knowledge be presented here or there all at once—which is, of course, impossible—but rather that inspiration be provided. This does, of course, necessitate that from the very beginning we appeal not only to the intellect, although that must be the primary focus, but that we also appeal to something else. It must be emphasized again and again, because it is part of the lifeblood of spiritual scientific knowledge today, that everything brought down from the higher worlds through spiritual scientific research can be grasped and understood using the ideas and concepts that human beings can acquire today out in the physical world, in life within the physical world. There is nothing in spiritual scientific knowledge that cannot be understood in this way.

[ 2 ] However, when it comes to the major questions that must be addressed in this field, it is often necessary to embark on a long and difficult path in order to arrive at a full understanding. One needs to draw upon virtually the entire range of concepts and ideas currently available if one wishes to penetrate the insights of spiritual science in a rational manner, so that one can say: Perhaps I cannot yet penetrate the supersensible worlds through my own clairvoyant spiritual eye; but I can find everything that is revealed to me from these worlds to be rationally comprehensible. — That would be possible, but cannot be accomplished by everyone at once. Not everyone for whom the spiritual-scientific message is necessary today, out of their longing and their ideals, is also in a position to walk the arduous path of reason that has been indicated here. And therefore, the one who speaks of spiritual scientific insights cannot always assume that all his descriptions are tested against reason so immediately at every moment. Instead, he must make a different assumption, namely, that within every human soul there exist not only those abilities and powers that have been acquired over long, long periods of time and brought to a certain degree of perfection today. Such faculties certainly include what we call human reason, the human intellect. But spiritual science knows that there is no future for this intellect. Other faculties, such as the thinking of the heart, will develop in the human soul as humanity evolves in the future. New abilities, abilities as yet unimagined today, will develop. But what we call the intellect, what we call reason, has reached a certain peak; it will indeed be incorporated into the future of the human soul as a fruit of present-day development, but spiritual science knows that reason is not capable of further development beyond its present stage. — Alongside such capacities of the human soul, which we encounter today in a way that points us to humanity’s past—where they have developed from small, imperfect beginnings to their present height—there are other capacities to which we have been able to point, as it were, prophetically, but which will only reveal themselves in their fullness in the future. But just as what is perfected today manifested itself in imperfect beginnings long, long before our time, so too are the future capacities of the human soul already present today, as it were, in embryonic form. Much of what will shine brightly in the future is already present in the human soul today in embryonic form. And we may say specifically: Even if many people today are not yet able to actively gain insights through the logic of the heart, the first seeds of this future logic of the heart are already present in numerous people today. There is a primal feeling, a natural sense of truth, for what will only be fully understood in the future through the logic of the heart.

[ 3 ] In addition to appealing to reason, the spiritual researcher addresses those powers of perception for the truth that lie dormant in people’s hearts today. He assumes that the human soul is organized not around error and untruth, but around truth, and that it can immediately affirm, through its own perception, the truths brought down from the higher worlds. In other words, the truth about the higher worlds can be felt by many hearts before it is understood. There is, in fact, proof that souls with such a sense of truth exist. The external proof is that a large number of people today feel unsatisfied with what external knowledge can offer them regarding the great questions of existence and, with a longing soul seeking answers to these questions of existence, turn to spiritual science. These are people who do not seek so-called proofs, but whose dormant higher faculties say “yes” to the messages of spiritual science, even if they only feel and sense through their natural sense of truth what they will only come to understand later.

[ 4 ] In essence, the spiritual researcher appeals directly to the human soul to a much greater degree than other contemporary researchers. Other contemporary researchers seek to compel acceptance of their truths by presenting experiments, providing mathematical proofs, and the like, so that their audience has no choice but to acknowledge what they present. The spiritual researcher is in a different position. He must appeal to much more intimate aspects of the human soul. He is not yet in a position today to produce evidence in the same way that other scientists do. But he knows that the same sense of truth that dwells in his heart is present in the hearts of all people, and that these people can agree with him even if they do not yet understand everything he has to share with them. Thus, he appeals to the natural sense of truth in human hearts, and he leaves everything to the free judgment of human souls as to whether they wish to agree with him or not. He does not persuade through what he presents, but rather believes that what lives within him lives in every human soul. He knows that he must provide the inspiration for something that can and should spring forth from every soul on its own. Thus, the spiritual researcher seeks only to articulate the truths that every soul, if only it could allow itself sufficient time, could experience from within itself. But because we humans depend on one another, we should seek together what we can find in the spiritual realm. The spiritual teacher views the dissemination of spiritual science in such a way that a group of seekers is given inspiration, which, with further mutual support, can sooner or later sprout as their own experiences in all striving listeners.

[ 5 ] If we take this into account, only then will we begin to see much of what has been said here in these lectures over the past few days in the proper light. Much of what has been presented here is to be taken as an appeal to every soul to seek within itself whether it might find the possibility—if only it understands itself—to arrive at what has been said here. That is why some things are said in such a way that it is anticipated: understanding cannot be immediate, but only comes when the impulses are sunk into the heart, continue to germinate there, and bear fruit within it. In this sense, a few additions to the previous lectures will be given today.

[ 6 ] Yesterday we had the opportunity to discuss something that presents itself to the clairvoyant eye as an experience: that our present state on Earth is the result of a process of evolution, that our Earth developed from another planetary state, which we call the ancient Moon, and which has nothing to do with our present-day Moon. And then we discussed what the clairvoyant eye sees prophetically: the emergence of a new planet from what is our Earth, after the Earth has passed through a twilight state, a Pralaya, a state of darkening—the transformation of the Earth into the Jupiter state, which in turn has nothing to do with today’s Jupiter, but is a future incarnation of our Earth called Jupiter. That the Earth undergoes successive incarnations, just as one sees with the clairvoyant eye the human being passing from incarnation to incarnation—that is what I have tried to make comprehensible.

[ 7 ] If we now continue along this line of thought, let us again take as our guiding principle that we should express what spiritual research offers us in terms that are comprehensible to ordinary reason. Yesterday we were able to go back to the Earth’s ancient lunar state, in which, as we have seen, everything must have been different. Now the question may arise: Did this other planetary state, this ancient moon, itself emerge from another? Might our Earth not have had other, even earlier incarnations? — From our current point of view, it is quite natural to pose this question. But in order to give ourselves an answer, we will have to go a little further back. We must first recall how the human being alternates in daily life between the waking and sleeping states. This has, in fact, served as a kind of guiding thread leading us through the entire series of lectures, as we have referred to this alternation of the waking and sleeping states. We know that the waking human being possesses the physical, the etheric, and the astral bodies, as well as the ego, and we know that during the state of sleep, the physical body and the etheric or life body remain in bed, while the astral body and the ego go out into a spiritual world, into the macrocosm. Thus, in the state of sleep, the human being is, as it were, split into two entities. The first part is that which remains visibly in the physical world as the physical body, together with that which, though invisible, must nevertheless exist—the etheric or life body; the second is an invisible, a supersensible part of the human being, consisting of the astral body and the I. This latter aspect of the human being cannot, of course, be investigated by external means. It reveals itself only when the clairvoyant consciousness looks upon the sleeping person.

[ 8 ] Now let us ask ourselves: Is there not also something in the outer world that, in a certain sense, proves to be similar to what remains of a human being lying in bed at night—in other words, something that has a physical body and an etheric or life body? — We know that the human physical body immediately follows entirely different laws when it is separated from its etheric body. There it follows purely physical and chemical laws; but there it decays. The faithful warrior from birth to death, who prevents the human physical body from decaying, is the etheric or life body. Now, however, human beings share what we call life not only with animals, but also with the entire plant world. When we cast our gaze out upon our surroundings in the physical world, we notice the plant world all around us. A plant that meets our gaze reveals itself to us as a being that does not merely follow physical and chemical laws; it follows these only at the moment of its death. Only the mineral kingdom follows physical and chemical laws. At first, we attribute only the laws of the mineral kingdom to the physical body. But this physical body is permeated and interwoven with a higher order of laws that is inherent to the etheric or life body and that leaves it only at death; therefore, the physical body then falls subject to the purely physical and chemical laws.

[ 9 ] Thus, we see the human being, in terms of the outer form that remains in the physical world during sleep, as consisting of a physical body and an etheric or life body. The plant world, too, consists of a physical body and an etheric or life body. We therefore find it easy to understand when the spiritual researcher says: Human beings share the physical and etheric bodies with plants. Nevertheless, there is a vast difference between human beings and plants, for in human beings these two bodies are further permeated by the astral body and the ego. The plant contains within itself only the physical and etheric or life body. Human beings must also appear different to us externally than plants do, because in addition to their physical and etheric or life bodies, they possess an astral body and an ego that permeate and shape these bodies. Thus, so to speak, the human being stands in the midst of the beings of the plant world; in terms of the two lower members of his being—the physical and etheric or life bodies—he is similar to plants, but he rises above mere plant nature by having incorporated an astral body and an ego into the plant nature of his being. We are thus related to the plant only insofar as the plant has developed only as far as our two lower members. But within the earthly world, as we are, we find ourselves entirely dependent on the plant world. Human beings are physically entirely dependent on the plant world. As you know, they can, for the sake of their physical existence, completely renounce the animal realm. They do not need to feed on animal matter if they do not wish to, but they do need the plant world so that their physical body can live. They need the plant realm. The physical body of the human being presupposes the physical body of the plant. One cannot exist without the other. The physical human body, as it appears to us today, cannot exist, cannot possibly exist, without having around it a realm of plants that its present planet brings forth.

[ 10 ] If we keep this in mind, our reflections will take us a step further. We can now say: Let us take a look at the person who is falling asleep. A person can do this entirely independently of any external alignment of the sun and the earth. A person can sleep at any hour of the day or even at night without being dependent on the position of the sun. It is precisely when the sun withdraws its rays from the earth that a person sleeps best. Even when the sun is not shining, a person can maintain the connection between their physical body and their etheric body.

[ 11 ] If we look at the corresponding process in the plant world, we see that things are quite different for plants than they are for humans. As we have seen, humans can maintain the cohesion of their physical body and etheric or life body independently of the influence of the sun’s rays, regardless of the sun’s position relative to the Earth. Plants cannot do this. The plant derives its powers directly from the sun and is entirely dependent on it. The plant lives and dies with the annual course of the sun, a fact that is already apparent from superficial observation, for example in herbaceous plants. Yet even in the case of so-called perennial plants, trees, and the like, which overwinter, we know that they maintain this connection with the sun, which constitutes the very essence of the plant kingdom; they lose their leaves in the fall as nature dies back, and only the woody part remains, from which new shoots then sprout in the spring. The plant thus dies off completely or for the most part in the fall; that is, its ethereal body withdraws from the physical body, gathers new strength during the winter, and when the sun regains the power of its warming and radiant rays in the spring, plant life sprouts anew—it awakens, as it were. When the sun loses its warming and luminous power in the fall, the fresh plant life transitions into a sort of dormant state. And even with perennial plants, we see how they approach a state of dying off during the winter. The plant’s actual life dies off in the winter and awakens again in the spring, reaching its fullest development in the summer. This is thus an awakening and dying in the same rhythm as the Earth’s orbit around the sun. Toward autumn, the plant must transition into a state similar to that which a human being alone enters when facing death.

[ 12 ] Thus, the relationship between the physical body and the etheric or life body is different in plants than it is in humans. In this regard, the plant is dependent on the position of the sun relative to the earth; the human being has made himself independent of this; he does not die off every autumn, his etheric body does not withdraw from the physical body during the winter, but remains within it throughout his entire earthly life. Instead, his astral body and his ego go out and back in daily during sleep, thereby renewing the forces of the etheric body. When we look at what lies on the bed of rest in the human being during sleep, we see the part of his being that is structured like the plant. This shows us what we as human beings would be like if we had not managed to incorporate an astral body and an ego into our plant nature. The plant presents us with a part of our own being. But the human being is, after all, essentially different from the plant. Although in sleep, in terms of the visible, he has sunk into the state of a living plant, because he has an astral body and an I working within him, he does not need to undergo the plant’s periodic descent into a sub-plant state. This difference is what makes human life possible in the first place, for because the plant stands on a lower level, the human being can build his body from it. Without the plant, the human being could not live. Therefore, we must understand that there is not only a physical relationship between the human being and the plant world, but also a moral-spiritual one.

[ 13 ] When a person allows themselves to be guided by their natural, healthy instincts, they can very quickly perceive this moral and spiritual connection to the plant world. Not only does a person need plants for food, but they also need the plant world for their inner life. They need the plant world that surrounds them in order to nurture within themselves the feelings and sensations that are essential to their spiritual life. Human beings also need the impressions of the plant world here on the physical plane if they wish to be fresh and healthy in their spiritual life. This is something that cannot be emphasized enough, for it very soon manifests as a deficiency in the human soul when it shuts itself off from the fresh, invigorating impressions of the plant world. The person who, for my sake, is in a certain sense cut off from a direct relationship with the plant world by living in a large city will always reveal a certain deficiency in their soul to the deeper observer, and it is, in fact, quite true that the soul suffers harm when it loses the direct joy, the direct delight, the connection with the plant world, with that which is the vegetative nature out there. Alongside all the downsides of modern culture, which develops primarily in large cities, there is also the fact that our urban life cuts us off from direct communion with the life-giving plant world. We know that there are already people today who grow up in such a way that they can hardly distinguish a grain of oats from a grain of wheat. But it is part of healthy human soul development, strange as it may sound, to be able to distinguish a grain of oats from a grain of wheat. This is speaking symbolically, but there is still something to be said for it. And one must view with regret a future prospect that could completely remove people from the direct experience of the plant world. Human beings need the plant world.

[ 14 ] The following example illustrates just how deeply rooted this connection is: Modern humans could not possibly be people who are always asleep. It is inconceivable today that a human being could sleep continuously; they could not survive as such. Modern humans can only be conceived of in such a way that, when awake, their physical and etheric bodies are filled by the astral body and the ego. These are integral to the whole of human nature. We also know that in order to gain consciousness of the external physical world, a human being must immerse their ego and astral body into the physical and etheric bodies. For in the state of sleep, when the human being is in his spiritual home with his ego and astral body, he has no consciousness of the external world. He only begins to develop consciousness when he immerses himself in the physical and etheric bodies. We must therefore say: On the one hand, human beings, as they stand before us at their present stage of development, are inconceivable in their form if they did not have an astral body and an ego; on the other hand, however, human beings could not develop ego-consciousness or impulses of feeling and will if they did not have the physical and etheric bodies as a foundation. Human beings therefore need the physical and etheric bodies as a foundation for their inner life. It follows from this that these are the prerequisites for the development of the astral body and the ego. The physical and etheric bodies must first be present in the human being; only then can the astral body and the ego take up residence.

[ 15 ] Thus, we are not only taken back to the time when the Earth was in its lunar state, when human beings had a form quite different from today’s, but we are taken back to times when human beings did not yet possess an astral body or an “I” at all, but only a physical body and an etheric or life body. First, the human physical and etheric bodies had to be built up from the macrocosm; only then could they form the prerequisite, the foundation, for the astral body and the I. In a distant past, what happens every morning today had to happen once. Just as every morning the ego and astral body enter the physical body and the etheric or life body from the spiritual world, so once upon a time the ego and astral body had to come first from the spiritual world and find the physical and etheric bodies already there. Before human beings could become what they are today with their higher members, their physical and etheric bodies had to be prepared for them from the whole of the cosmos, without their own intervention, by forces and beings of a higher order than themselves.

[ 16 ] But now let us ask ourselves: If the human being’s physical and etheric bodies were prepared before his astral body and I could even begin to develop in this world, then the human being must first have developed as a kind of plant-like being before receiving his higher nature. The human being must first have existed as a kind of plant-like being; this had to precede his higher nature. We are thus led back to an earlier period of human development, when human beings were formed from the macrocosm as a kind of plant-like being. Today we view the plant world around us with the right perspective only when we say to ourselves: This plant world, which we have around us today, greening, sprouting, and budding, shows us in the present something of the nature we ourselves once had, before we acquired that which enabled us to err, that which led us to evil in the first place. The plant world shows us our own human being in its original purity, as it was in distant primeval times, when it was not yet permeated by drives, desires, and passions.

[ 17 ] But if we consider that our human plant nature, as it is today, is independent of the position of the sun relative to the earth, whereas today’s plants are dependent on the sun, sprouting in the spring and dying in the fall, then we must say: We could never have been such plants. An astral body and an I must have been able to enter into this kind of plant that we once were. No astral body and ego can enter our present-day plants. This is precisely what distinguishes human plant nature from the nature of present-day plants: the human physical and etheric bodies are independent of the position of the sun relative to the earth. The connection between the physical and etheric bodies in humans must have arisen under entirely different planetary conditions than in present-day plants.

[ 18 ] We will be able to understand these other relationships if we consider the following. We know, then, that the connection between the human physical body and the etheric body is independent of the position of the Sun relative to the Earth. But is it also independent of the Sun’s effects in general? It is not, for without the Sun’s effects, the human physical and etheric bodies could not exist.

[ 19 ] If the sun did not always leave its effects on Earth, no human being could develop on Earth. Human beings are, in their very nature, dependent on the sun’s influence, yet they are independent of the sun’s position relative to Earth. After all, the sun always leaves its effects behind. We know that when the sun withdraws its immediate, warming power from the Earth, it does not cease to leave behind this warming power for the blessing and healing of the Earth. If you go out into the countryside, you will find that in the fall deep pits are dug there, into which the potatoes are placed; then they are covered and keep well because the warming power of the sun, which pours over the Earth’s surface in summer, withdraws into the Earth’s interior. This warming power remains present beneath the surface down to a certain depth. The earth preserves the sun’s warming power throughout the winter, even after the sun itself has withdrawn. When you heat your stove with coal, you have taken this coal from the earth’s interior. How did this coal come into being? Through the fact that, in times long past, plants were covered by the earth. These plants arose under the influence of sunlight and solar heat. What sunlight and solar heat have done is preserved in the coal, and through it we extract sunlight and heat from long-past times from the earth once again. Thus, our earth still contains the sun within it even when, due to the sun’s position relative to the earth, its external influence has long since ceased. Our plants today have something in their sprouting and growing life that is brought about directly only by the position of the sun relative to the earth. Everything that lives on earth needs the sun; and the earth preserves what it receives from the sun through the winter season; it is full of the sun’s influence. The sun’s influence, so to speak, always remains within the Earth, and even when the Earth is no longer directly warmed by the sun’s position, the stored solar heat is still there and acts upon the creatures living on Earth. Without this, even the physical and etheric bodies of human beings could not exist. If you were to remove the human being even a little way from the Earth, he would not be able to exist. He needs the whole—the Earth with the sun’s influence contained within it. Under the present conditions of our solar system, our Earth therefore does not directly produce that connection between the physical and etheric bodies that we see in human beings, but only that which we see in plants. The human connection between the physical and etheric bodies must come about indirectly today. But in order for the human being to exist at all, they need the solar influence preserved in the Earth. That is why we will find it understandable that in an earlier planetary existence it must once have been possible for the human physical and etheric bodies to develop, just as plant life develops directly on Earth today. Just as the plant is a child of the Earth today, so must the physical and etheric bodies once have been the children of an earlier planetary state of the Earth. Under present conditions, this could not be the case. Therefore, different conditions must have existed. Spiritual science points us to these other conditions by showing us that the ancient lunar state of the Earth was preceded by yet another planetary state, which we rightly call the ancient solar state of the Earth. The Earth emerged from the ancient lunar state, and this, in turn, from the ancient solar state. But what must this ancient solar state have been like? It could not have been such that the sun shone from the outside; for then human beings could not have developed their physical and etheric bodies, and plants of the kind we have today would have developed. So no solar influence could have come from the outside. But without solar influence, human beings could not have developed the physical and etheric bodies. That which is today partially preserved in the Earth as the sun’s influence had to come entirely from the Earth itself. The Earth had to produce the effects itself that the sun produces today. But that means it had to be the sun itself. So when we look for an earlier state of our planet, we can only find one in which the sun did not shine from outside. The sun’s influences had to come from the Earth itself.

[ 20 ] You will therefore understand that spiritual science refers to the state that preceded the Earth’s ancient lunar phase as its solar phase. The clairvoyant eye reveals to the spiritual researcher that the Earth itself was then a luminous, warming being. At that time, plants as we know them today could not yet form, but the connection between the human physical and etheric bodies was able to develop.

[ 21 ] Now it stands to reason that someone might say: If the Earth was a sun and human beings had only physical and etheric bodies, then they would surely have burned up. — Yes, of course, if the human physical body had been as it is today! But back then, the human physical body was different from what it is today. Of course, the human physical body could not have had the solid components it has today; those could not exist in a solar state. Nor could the human being have had liquid components, for not even our present-day water could exist in such a celestial body. But the gaseous state was already possible, and the state of heat was certainly possible. We are thus led back to an ancient planetary incarnation of our Earth, in which we find the human being already formed in physical and etheric bodies, but under entirely different conditions. At that time, solids and liquids did not yet exist; only the potential for the physical was present in a fluid and fiery state. Human beings only became what they are today after the transformation of the ancient Sun—or rather, the ancient Moon—into the present-day Earth. The human beings of that time were adapted to this planetary predecessor of our present Earth. Now, however, you can imagine that in those days not only the Earth but the entire solar system must have been different from today, for one thing determines the other. What we today call water or the liquid state did not yet exist back then, nor did the solid, earthy state; rather, only heat, fire, and air existed. We thus arrive at a state of our solar system that appears fundamentally different from our present-day solar system and that must also have been governed by laws entirely different from those of our present-day Earth.

[ 22 ] Now I would like to briefly point out that this state, which we have just referred to as the solar state of our Earth, in turn presupposes another, [even earlier] state. In the solar state, we already have a connection between the physical body—which consisted of heat and air—and the etheric body. The physical body cannot exist [at this stage] without its etheric body, but the etheric body, too, must have a physical body as its foundation if it is to endure. Human beings must therefore have already found a physical body on the ancient Sun; that is to say, the physical body must have been formed even earlier, before it could establish this connection with the etheric body. This points us to an even earlier planetary incarnation of our Earth. Just as we have diluted the physical down to the airy, gaseous state during the Earth’s solar phase, so now we come to a further dilution of the physical, to a state consisting entirely of heat. We must regard this heat as the first physical substance, and we must conceive of the entire solar system of that time as having been adapted to this first planetary state, the heat or fire state of our Earth.

[ 23 ] Clairvoyant consciousness now indeed reveals that our evolution traces back to an original system consisting solely of heat. We call this heat system “Old Saturn.” To the clairvoyant observer, this appears as a direct experience, but we have seen that we can also reason our way back to such a state. We have emphasized that as soon as we arrive at a different system, such as a thermal system, we must conceive of everything in a way that is adapted to the different conditions, just as we have already seen when we spoke of the elemental world. We must therefore adopt a different concept of heat. You cannot conceive of our present-day fire without the other three states—the gaseous, the liquid, and the solid—also being present; our present-day fire is simply not possible otherwise. It will therefore seem understandable to us that the fire of ancient Saturn was something essentially different from our present-day fire. Everything changes and transforms with the circumstances. Today’s fire is burning gas or some other burning body. But gas or other bodies did not yet exist on ancient Saturn. There was a freely present warmth; it filled the space. This warmth presents itself to us as something spiritual. What we call warmth today is what we feel, for example, when we hold our finger up to something fiery. But back then, the fiery element was not such that one could hold anything against it; it existed as heat permeating space. We can only form a conception of such heat by moving from the external concept of heat to what we call soul warmth. When a person glows with love, enthusiasm, or the pursuit of a high ideal, they become warm in their soul. This can extend into the physical realm, so that they also become physically warm—that is, the blood warms and circulates differently than before. The keen observer will perceive that what appears to us as soul warmth has a warming effect that extends into our physical being. Such warmth, as it comes to light when the spiritual works within human nature, is the kind of warmth we must seek in the first planetary incarnation of our Earth. It came into being from the macrocosm through the working of the spiritual, just as we can warm ourselves through the spiritual-soul. Thus, the first planetary state of our Earth was a state of warmth, because the spiritual from the macrocosm worked together to create its “warmth.”

[ 24 ] When a phenomenon of warmth occurs in the external world, we ask: How did that happen? — But when a person feels warmth as a result of a spiritual-soul impression, it would be foolish to ask why they have become warm. Only those who can relive the experience can understand how a person can feel warmth through enthusiasm for a lofty ideal; those who cannot do so will not understand it. One must understand such a process inwardly; external explanations alone do not help us understand anything. Look at the world outside; it does not understand that there are people who can be inwardly moved by the ideal of Theosophy. They cannot do this themselves and then say: These Theosophists are complete fools; I am completely indifferent to what they are enthusiastic about! — These people cannot experience the same thing. If they could experience the same thing, they would stop asking.

[ 25 ] So what do we need if we go back to Saturn’s state of warmth? How can we comprehend its warmth? Only by saying: Its warmth arose from the spirit. — When we go back to the Saturn state, all that is material ceases to exist; we then comprehend the direct emergence of the physical from the spiritual. We understand the origin of our becoming Earth when we go back to the Spirit—not to a cosmic nebula—but when we go back to the Spirit and imagine how, through the interaction of spirits, of spiritual beings, the beginning of our Earth’s formation came into being.

[ 26 ] If you consider this, you will understand how the nature of Saturn is explained in my book *The Secret Science in the Umrif®*. It states that certain spirits, known as the spirits of the will, first poured out their own essence, as it were, through a great sacrifice. Working together with them were the spirits of wisdom, the spirits of movement, and other spiritual beings. I have described there how these spirits converge, how their actions manifest in the macrocosm, and how Saturn arises through this convergence of the actions of spiritual beings. There we see how our inquiry leads us to the origin of the physical from the spiritual. And because we are dealing here with the actions of beings from higher worlds, the questioning of causes must cease at this point. When we have arrived at the spiritual, when we behold the spiritual beings who meet us, then we cannot ask “why” in the same way as before. Only an abstract thinker can keep asking “why” indefinitely; for example, when seeing wheel ruts on the road, he might ask: Why are the ruts there? — Because wheels dug them. — Why did wheels dig them? Because a carriage drove there. — Why did the carriage drive there? — Because it had to carry a person. — Who was that person? — So-and-so. — Why was he traveling? — Now we come to that person’s decision, and that is the last thing we can ask about; we cannot go beyond that with the “why” questions. The same applies to the description of the great interconnections of the world; we reach the point where the questioning stops, because we arrive at the essences.

[ 27 ] This example has shown how the facts presented by spiritual science follow one another in a completely logical manner and can be understood rationally. However, this is not the path taken by the spiritual researcher. The spiritual researcher does not construct a system of logical deductions, but rather describes what he actually sees before him. He looks back to the solar and Saturn states; he can describe what the Earth was like in its solar state. But these things must also be presented in a way that is acceptable to the present-day intellect. You have seen that one often has to take a broad view and gather facts from far and wide if one wishes to awaken this understanding. If one takes into account all the facts that can be gathered from around the world, then you would see that what spiritual science asserts can be verified by external facts. One must only be able to gather sufficient facts.

[ 28 ] Thus we have seen how, in the distant past, that which flowed out from the macrocosm was drawn into the microcosm. We have seen how human beings themselves prepared themselves over long, long ages—from Saturn to the Sun and the Moon—for what has found its provisional conclusion in earthly existence. Finally, we shall now point out a few things that pertain to the future. Is there anything in human beings that points toward the future? Do human beings possess something that will be further developed later on? — In yesterday’s lecture, we saw that the heart is an older organ, for it was already present in the lunar stage, albeit in a different form; it was then transformed in the Earth stage into what it is now. If we look at an earlier Lunar human being through clairvoyance, we can perceive that he has something that was the germ of the present-day heart. Just as the plant blossom carries the fruit within its germ, so the Lunar heart carried, as it were, the Earth heart within itself. In the same way, those with the necessary ability can now see in modern humans certain organs that are still imperfectly formed—although they appear perfect to the ordinary person—which are destined to grow toward higher perfection and to play a far more significant role in the future, thereby enabling modern humans to become the future Jupiter-men. Among these organs is the human larynx, which in the present age is no more than a rudimentary organ. From the standpoint of spiritual science, the larynx is further from its perfection than many other organs. When we consider the larynx in relation to the lungs, we can say that it presupposes the lungs in a certain way; it develops in human beings on the basis of the existence of the lungs. But we see at the same time that, in terms of what the human being produces in his larynx, he stands on an imperfect level. What, then, constitutes human perfection? Where does the greatest human perfection lie today, in the present state of human development? It lies in the fact that the human being is able to call himself an “I.” Everything that gives human beings the ability to call themselves an “I” bestows upon them their human dignity and sets them above other beings. Human beings are individual beings, and the individual organs of the human being are all the more perfect the more they accomplish that which remains connected to the “I” that passes from incarnation to incarnation and carries with it the fruits of each individual life. But this is only true to a small extent with regard to the larynx. If you could look back at your past incarnations and find yourself incarnated, for example, during the Greco-Roman era, the Egyptian-Chaldean era, the ancient Persian era, or the ancient Indian era, you would find yourself speaking different languages each time; thus, language, as a product of our larynx, has not yet become individualized. Language is not something that the ego can assimilate in such a way that a person could carry it from one incarnation to the next. If a person has lived among one people in one incarnation and among another people in a subsequent incarnation, they must express themselves in a different linguistic idiom each time. Language is far less intimately connected with the ego than thinking. We share language with other human beings. We are born into a linguistic form at birth. In terms of language, the human being is still entirely group-soul-like. Nevertheless, language is something in which our inner self, in which the spirit, expresses itself. It is the human being’s ability to convey soul feelings and thoughts through the configuration of words into sound and tone. Thus, we are given an organ in our larynx through which we, with our individuality, are integrated into something spirit-created, but not into something we have made ourselves. If language were not spirit-created, the spirit could not express itself through it; if the larynx could not take up the spirit-given tone, the inner life of the human soul could not express itself through singing. The larynx is an organ that expresses spiritual influences, but not individual spiritual influences. To the spiritual researcher, the larynx appears as an organ through which the human being aligns with a group soul—an organ that cannot yet rise to individuality, but which is on the path to taking on the individual effects of the human being. In the future, human beings will transform their larynx in such a way that they can express the wholly individual through the larynx as well. This is, as it were, a prophetic foreshadowing. The larynx is a germinal organ that will be transformed in the future. If we bear this in mind, we will find it understandable that language is, for modern human beings, something granted by grace, over which they have no power, into which they must first grow with their individuality. Just as we stand within ourselves with our sense of self, so do we root ourselves in the macrocosm with our larynx, from which the forces flow to us that make us speaking beings.

[ 29 ] In the heart, human beings have an organ through which they have already become human beings in their own right. Connected to it is a circulatory system within the human body that is self-contained, serving as an expression of the “I.” Through our larynx, the higher beings of the macrocosm make us human. When we grow into the microcosm in a new incarnation, we grow into an organism whose center is the heart; but we do not merely grow into the microcosm—this physicality is continually shaped by the macrocosm. Through our larynx, that which is the highest expression of the spirit flows in from the macrocosm. Thus we are connected to the macrocosm in such a way that we not only receive effects but also give effects back, even though we have no individual power over that into which we are born. We are born into the national spirit; over this we have no individual power. Therefore, it corresponds to a great truth when the Bible states right at the beginning that human beings, upon becoming earthly, had to wait until the moment when the crown of their respiratory organs—the larynx—could be built up by the Divine-Spiritual itself: “And God breathed into the man the breath of life, and so the man became a living being.” — These words point to the moment when the Divine-Spiritual is inhaled from the macrocosm. The human is connected to the heart, the Divine to the larynx.

[ 30 ] Because human beings breathe with their lungs and can transform their breathing processes into the configurations produced by the larynx—speech and song—they are endowed with something capable of the highest development. It is therefore well-founded that what will be the crowning achievement as human beings develop higher and higher is called “Atma” in Eastern theosophy. The word “Atma” shares the same root as “breathing.” Atma, or the spiritual human being, is the highest stage that humanity will one day develop in the future. However, he must himself bring about the development of the Atma or spiritual human being, which today exists only in potential. He must cooperate in what manifests as a modified breathing process in speech and song. This is only in its infancy and will continue to develop further and further, encompassing ever wider spheres.

[ 31 ] When we consider this, we will say: As soon as a person is able to intervene appropriately in their breathing process, this will have a greater effect than any other. But because this involves high spiritual forces for which human beings, in their present state, are not yet ready, it is clear that harm can very easily be caused in the process. So if, among the various exercises a person can perform to perfect themselves, there are also those that regulate the breath, it is important to exercise the utmost care in such exercises, and the teacher must feel the greatest possible responsibility toward the student. For it was the divine-spiritual beings themselves who, out of their wisdom, modified the breathing process to transform human beings from a lower stage into beings capable of speech; and because human beings are not yet ready for this, they could not place speech within the arbitrary will of the individual, but had to place it outside of it. All breathing exercises thus involve an influence on a higher sphere, and we must be clear that this entails the greatest responsibility.

[ 32 ] Unfortunately, thoughtless instructions are often given in this field today, and those who understand these matters look on with horror as countless people engage in breathing exercises without having prepared themselves adequately. To the spiritual researcher, they appear like children playing with fire. No one should believe that external anatomical knowledge and physical considerations qualify one to give instructions on breathing. The true teacher in this field knows: When one consciously intervenes in the breathing process, one appeals to the divine-spiritual aspect of human nature. And because this is the case, the laws governing it can only be derived from the highest spiritual knowledge attainable today. Instructions regarding interventions in the breathing process can therefore only be entrusted to a teacher from whom the utmost care and caution can be expected. In our time, when people are so little aware that everything material is based on the spiritual, they will also readily believe that they can prescribe this or that breathing exercise. But if one knows that everything physical is based on the spiritual, then one will also come to realize that the modification of the human breathing process belongs to the noblest manifestations of the spiritual in the physical, and that intervention in the breathing process can only be connected with a state of mind that is like a prayer. Anyone who wishes to intervene in the breathing process may do so only out of the realization that for the student, knowledge becomes prayer, that he is filled with deep devotion. Otherwise, instructions should not be given at all for these most responsible matters. The one who gains knowledge becomes a devout person, filled with the grace of those beings whom we are indeed approaching, but to whom we must still look up today, because they send down their wisdom from heights of the macrocosm that are higher than we can grasp with our ordinary knowledge. This is what emerges from spiritual science as its ultimate result, that it concludes like a natural prayer:

God’s protective, blessing ray
Fill my growing soul,
So that it may embrace
Strengthening powers everywhere.
It vows to
Awaken the power of love within itself
With all its vitality,
And thus see God’s power
On its life’s path
And work in God’s spirit
With all that it has.

[ 33 ] Spiritual science is meant to lead the whole human being into the higher worlds—not only the thinking human being, but also the feeling and willing human being. We can reflect on the world, but if we merely think, we remain cold and indifferent despite all our knowledge. Rather, the insights of the higher worlds should awaken feelings within us, and the higher a person is able to look up, the more deeply the impulses of feeling, the impulses to act, and the impulses to live out the great ideas that shine down upon us from the spiritual worlds are awakened within them. We become devout, prayerful; feeling becomes devout, will becomes godlike, when we follow spiritual knowledge. For whoever recognizes the truth in such a way that he feels it will not stop there; he will, quite of his own accord, without any compulsion, also will and do what he has recognized as right and true. And that is the touchstone. Whoever stands merely as one who recognizes the spirit, yet remains indifferent in their feeling and willing, upon whom spiritual science has not worked in the right way. Spiritual science has its touchstone in the fact that the insight resonates into a devotional mood and that the human being takes into his will and fulfills through action what he has recognized as right. Where the insights of spiritual science work in this sense, a spiritual sun truly rises within the human being, warming and illuminating him from within.

[ 34 ] But precisely because spiritual insights must be taken to heart, it is only natural that these insights should flow through our culture today, leading to the coming together of people in communities and to the socialization of humanity. If it were a matter of insights alone, a person could just as well be a hermit. But if these insights lead to the heart and feelings having a say, then people also feel drawn to others. Therefore, spiritual insight is something that unites people, and it is only natural and understandable that there is an involuntary urge for people who share the same impulse, the same longing, the same love for spiritual scientific ideas and ideals to come together, to unite in societies whose members, wherever they may be, always carry these high spiritual goals in a warm-hearted spirit. There is something great and far-reaching in this when spiritual science spreads in such a way that it brings people together who, by virtue of the depth of their feeling and will, find themselves naturally attracting kindred spirits. Where in this world of social chaos can we find people with whom we feel a kinship? How fragmented the world is today in terms of human relationships! People sit together in offices or workshops or factories, doing the same work. And yet, how far apart their souls can be! We can sit side by side with another person, and yet life’s circumstances are so complicated that we do not understand one another. But when we come to a place where we know there are people who also revere what we hold most sacred in our souls, then we have the right to assume that they possess within themselves something akin to the deepest core of our own souls. When we unite with such people—who also call that which we call the most sacred the most sacred for themselves, who carry the same light and the same love in their souls as we do—then people whom we otherwise do not know at all can appear to us as the outward bearers of an inner being that we know. Then we know that there can be kindred spirits.

[ 35 ] Wherever we go and the movement spreads among people who carry within themselves the same light and love as we do, kindred spirits who share our ideals will come together with us. This says something tremendous: that the insight we bring down from spiritual heights and allow to flow into souls transforms people, that it makes them different people, that even in those souls that perhaps once lived day after day, year after year, lived on indifferently side by side, the seed of love, compassion, and enthusiasm for ideals will sprout, transforming the formerly cold, sober people into warm-hearted friends of humanity. In spreading this knowledge, we speak not only of what constitutes the wisdom of the higher worlds, but also of the love that works through this knowledge from one human soul to another. This is the true way to practically initiate a brotherhood among humanity. Such a goal can never be achieved through programs or by preaching love, nor through theorizing about brotherhood or by encouraging charity and the like. But where people come together who are kindred in spirit, who are drawn to the same ideals, and who hold sacred what is also our most sacred, there we can establish a human brotherhood.

[ 36 ] Thus, the lecture series that is coming to a close today—and, in essence, every lecture—should not be viewed as something from which human souls merely draw knowledge and enrich their understanding, but rather it should have the effect of quietly stirring up, from these insights, a warm feeling for the high ideals of humanity and for the necessity of uniting people in the spirit of brotherhood. The more we learn in such lectures, the more we should come to love people, to kindle the fire of love, and to help lead people toward the lofty human ideal of brotherhood.

[ 37 ] These lectures should also be presented in this spirit. We have attempted to gather, from fields that are sometimes quite remote, those insights that are meant to give us an understanding of the world and our existence—insights that descend from the spiritual realm. Only by rising to the spiritual realm can one discover the true inner essence of the human being. True love for humanity is rooted in the spiritual realm. Such feelings of love are sure to arise where people ascend to the spiritual through spiritual science, for spiritual science enlivens, warms, and enlightens people. Where it is properly proclaimed and properly received, it will always provide the impulses that prepare the way for a true logic of the heart. The logic of thought is compatible with the strongest egoism. The logic of the heart is capable of gradually overcoming all egoism and making all people participants in a human community. Only when spiritual truths have permeated us with the warmth of life have we truly understood the impulses of spiritual science. Then we will leave such a lecture series not only enriched with knowledge, but it will also increase the warmth of the soul in each individual to such an extent that this warmth of the soul can overflow and influence the whole of life. May some of this ideal have been achieved. In such a series, of course—no matter how long it lasts—only a little can be given, perhaps only a small fire kindled. But it would be nice to assume that the warmth of the soul that has emerged here will not grow cold again, that traces of it—or even a welcome growth—will still be found when we gather here again next time. Until then, I call out to you: Goodbye!