The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Eleventh Lecture

[ 1 ] Much more could be said about the various manifestations of karma. But since today marks the last of our reflections and time has necessarily been limited for such a rich topic, you will understand that some of what needs to be discussed—and perhaps some of the questions weighing on your minds—cannot be fully addressed this time. But our movement will continue, and we will be able to further explore and resolve in another course what must necessarily remain unresolved in this one.

[ 2 ] What will have repeatedly come to mind is that human beings experience the law of karma as something that is, so to speak, absolutely certain in every moment of their lives, so that at every moment of our lives we can look back on what we have gone through, what we have done, thought, and felt in the incarnations that preceded the one in question, in which we are making our observations. And we will always find that our present human inner and outer destiny can be understood by the fact that we have, so to speak, a kind of “life account,” where we write all the intelligent, sensible, and wise experiences on one side, and all the foolish, evil, and ugly things on the other. On one side or the other, there will be a surplus, and in a single moment of life, this surplus also signifies the fate of that moment.

[ 3 ] Now, various questions may arise in this context, and the next one must be: How does what people do in their communal life—what they accomplish as a human community—relate to what we call the individual karma of each person? We have already touched upon these questions from other perspectives. When we look back at any historical event, for example the Persian Wars, you cannot possibly believe that this event—viewed initially from the Greek perspective—represents something that should be written only in the book of destiny of the individual human beings who, on the outer physical plane, are to be regarded as primarily involved in it. Think of all the leaders of the Persian Wars, of all the people who sacrificed themselves at that time; think of everything that was done, from the leaders down to the individual soldiers in the Greek army at that time: If you allow such an event to sink in with even a modicum of reason, will you ever be able to attribute what those individuals did at that time solely to the karmic account of those individual personalities? You will never be able to do that. For you will never be able to imagine that, in events affecting an entire people or a large part of civilized humanity, anything else happens than that every single human individuality is merely living out its karma. And so, in the course of historical development, you must go from event to event again and again, and you will see that meaning and significance are to be found within the development of humanity itself, but that such events cannot be one and the same with the individual karma of a single person.

[ 4 ] We can allow an event such as the Persian Wars to sink into our souls and then ask ourselves: What significance do they hold in the course of human development? A certain culture had developed in the Orient that had great, powerful positive aspects. But just as every light brings its shadows with it, we must also be clear that the entire culture of the Orient was only accessible to humanity because various negative aspects—which should not have been carried forward in human development—had forced their way into that culture. Above all, one such shadow side was that the Orient had the urge to expand ever further through external means of power lying purely on the physical plane. Had this drive for expansion not arisen, the entire Oriental culture would naturally not have come into being. One cannot be conceived without the other. But in order for humanity to continue developing, Greek culture, for example, had to develop from entirely different premises. Greek culture, however, could not have had an immediate beginning; it had to obtain certain prerequisites from elsewhere. And it did, in fact, borrow important prerequisites from Oriental culture. Various legends of heroes who journeyed from Greece to the Orient represent nothing more than the fact that students of certain Greek schools had journeyed to the Orient and brought back to the Greeks those assets that could only be gained within Oriental culture, which could then be further cultivated and transformed through what had developed from the Greek national character and the talents of the Greek people. But to achieve this, the dark side of these imported assets had to be eradicated: the urge to expand westward through purely external means of power, just as they were. Roman civilization, which arose later than Greek civilization, and all the further prerequisites for the further development of European humanity, could not have emerged had the Greeks not created the free ground for the further development of Oriental culture, had they not repelled the Persians and all that went with them. Thus, what had been created in Asia could be filtered out by repelling the Asians.

[ 5 ] Many events in the development of the world must be viewed from this perspective, and one then obtains a peculiar picture. If, in a series of lectures lasting three to four years, we could explore this idea solely in relation to the historical documents of humanity that have been handed down to us, we would arrive at something we could truly call a plan in the development of humanity. We would then survey such a plan and say to ourselves: This had to be achieved; that had these dark sides, which had to be eradicated; the achievement had to be handed over to another and further developed there.

[ 6 ] In this way, we would arrive at a plan for human development, and when discussing this plan, we would not actually be able to ask ourselves: How did it come about that, for example, Xerxes or Miltiades or Leonidas had this or that individual karma? We must regard this individual karma as something that must be determined in and of itself and woven into the plan of human development. There is no other way to understand the matter. And this is also true for the spiritual-scientific perspective. But if that is the case, we must say: In this purposeful progression of human development, we must see something that is internally connected in a similar way to how karmic events are connected in individual human lives. And then we can ask further: What relationship does such a plan in the entire development of humanity have to the individual karma of each human being?

[ 7 ] Let us first consider what might be called the destiny of human development itself. When we look back, we see how culture after culture, and the development of one people after another, rise up. We further see how, people by people, this or that new achievement is made; how something remains as an imperishable legacy from the individual cultures; and how, however, the peoples themselves must virtually die out in order to preserve the cultural heritage—the achievements of the individual peoples—for the subsequent epochs of human development. We must therefore find it understandable what spiritual science has to say, namely that in this ongoing course of human development, precisely two currents must first be distinguished.

[ 8 ] Consider, throughout the entire course of human development, what we might regard as a continuous current within which wave after wave unfolds, yet the achievements of the preceding wave are preserved for the next. We would gain a picture of this if we look at the first culture of the post-Atlantean era, at the magnificent achievements of ancient India. But if we compare this greatness with the faint echo of it contained in the Vedas—which, though still admirable, are nevertheless only a faint reflection of what the Rishis accomplished and of what spiritual science tells us about the great cultural impact of the Indians—then we must say: The original greatness of what this people had to accomplish for humanity was already in decline when they set about preserving this cultural heritage of humanity in those magnificent poetic representations. But what Indian culture had to accomplish initially flowed into the entire course of human development. And only under this condition could that which a young people—not an aged one—needed later on develop. First, the Indians had to be pushed back to the southern peninsula, and then the worldview of Zarathustra developed in Persia. What was so great about this worldview at the time it arose—and how had it fallen into disrepair in a relatively short time among the people who had created it! We then see the same process in Egyptian and Chaldean culture. Then we observe the passage of Oriental wisdom into Greece, and see how the Greeks counteract that which is Oriental on the outer physical plane. We then see how the achievements of the entire Orient are absorbed into the bosom of Hellenism, and how they are interwoven with various elements that had previously been developed in other European regions. From this, a new cultural current is created, which, through many detours, has become capable of absorbing the Christian impulse and transplanting it further westward. And so we would also find, later on, a continuous cultural stream in which we can link one link to the next, and each subsequent link appears to us both as a continuation of the preceding one and always as something new that had to be given to humanity. But from what did that which developed in this way from epoch to epoch have to grow?

[ 9 ] Think of everything that each individual people has experienced within its cultural sphere! Think of everything that must have taken place within every single people as a sum of feelings and sensations among countless people, of desires and enthusiasm for what must appear as the most highly desirable and what is to be given as a cultural influence precisely in this area! Think of how the souls of individual human beings must be fully engaged in the specific cultural influence, with what they desire and strive for! And furthermore, throughout countless centuries of human development, it was necessary that the peoples, as they developed the successive cultural influences, always lived in a kind of illusion—in the illusion that each such people regarded precisely the cultural treasure it had to create itself as something eternal and imperishable, which could never be taken from it. It was only through this—through the fact that this illusion arose again and again—that the devoted work of individual peoples on their culture was possible: the belief that what was created there, along with everything connected to it, would have an eternal existence. This illusion still exists today; and even if one no longer surrenders to it in such a positive way and speaks of the “eternity” of this or that culture, it nevertheless persists in the form that one does not think of the end—neither on a small nor on a large scale—that one, so to speak, pays no attention to it.

[ 10 ] Here you have two things: what folk cultures needed, and what is, in essence, only now beginning to undergo a kind of change. For the first realm of human spiritual life where such illusions will no longer arise at all will be theosophic spiritual life. For it would be a grave misunderstanding if anyone firmly grounded in our spiritual movement were to believe that the forms into which we pour our insights, that the intellectual elaborations we can offer today, that what we can express today through our theosophical thinking, feeling, and willing, would be of eternal duration. It would be very short-sighted to claim that in three millennia there would still be people who would speak of theosophical truths exactly as we do today. We know that our present circumstances compel us to mold some aspect of the ongoing product of evolution into current forms, and that our descendants will express these things in entirely different forms of experience. Why is this so? For a similar reason to why, throughout many centuries and millennia of human development, one folk culture after another had to allow individual people to experience many things so that the contribution could emerge from the entire development of the people. Think of the countless experiences that were lived through in ancient Greece, and think of what emerged from them as an essence for all of later humanity! Then you will say: There is more to it than just the individual currents. Many things happen for the sake of this core current.

[ 11 ] Therefore, we must observe two things: First, something that must come into being and perish so that the second—the smallest part in terms of quantity—can endure as something lasting from this whole. Only when we realize that, ever since individual human karma came into being, two forces have been at work in human evolution—forces we have always found to be active: Lucifer and Ahriman—will we truly understand the course of human evolution. For we must take into account in the plan of human development that ultimately, when the Earth has reached its goal, the results that have thus been gradually incorporated into the entire development of humanity from the individual cultures will be made fruitful for all individual personalities, regardless of the fates they have endured. But we can only look toward this goal by viewing world development in a theosophical sense. For let us not delude ourselves: To conceive of such a goal in the right way—with full preservation of human individuality, without a blurring of individuality into some nebulous pantheistic unity, but rather so that individuality remains fully intact and into it flows back that which humanity has conquered on a grand scale—this goal can be clearly and sharply envisioned only by theosophical spiritual culture.

[ 12 ] So when we look back at earlier cultures, we can say from the outset: Ever since human individualities began to incarnate, Lucifer and Ahriman have been involved in the development of humanity. Lucifer is involved in this in such a way that he always seeks to participate in the ongoing stream of culture by implanting himself in human astral bodies and impregnating them with the Luciferic impulse. This is what Lucifer accomplishes in the course of human development; he works into the human astral bodies. Human beings could never receive what Lucifer gives them merely from those forces that bring about the ongoing cultural stream just described. If you separate this cultural stream from the entire course of human history, you have what the normally progressing spiritual beings of the hierarchies allow to flow down into humanity as ever-new riches. As we look up to the Hierarchies, we must say: Those spiritual beings who are undergoing their normal development have given earthly culture that which is a lasting good for humanity—something that was later transformed, yet has nonetheless become a lasting good for humanity. It is, as it were, like having a tree and the pith within it. Thus we gain a continuously living stream of ongoing culture.

[ 13 ] Through these forces, which undergo their own normal development, it could have happened in this way that human beings would have increasingly filled their “I” with this progressive enrichment of human development. From time to time, that which advances humanity would flow in; humanity would become increasingly filled with the gifts of the spiritual world, and finally, when the Earth reached its goal, it would be natural for humanity to possess within itself everything that had been given from the spiritual worlds. But one thing would not be possible: for humanity to develop its own, sacred zeal, devotion, and passion for what is created from one cultural epoch to the next. From the same source from which every wish and every desire springs, there also springs the desire for the great ideals, there also springs the desire for human happiness, for achievements in the arts throughout the successive human cultural epochs. From the same source from which corrupt, evil-seeking desires arise, there also arise the aspirations toward the highest that can be achieved on earth. And that for which the human soul burns as the highest good would not exist if it were not possible, on the other hand, for the same desire to sink down into vice and evil. That this possibility exists in human development is the work of the Luciferic spirits. Thus, we must not fail to recognize that the Luciferic spirits have brought freedom to humanity along with the possibility of evil—a free receptivity to what would otherwise simply flow into the human soul.

[ 14 ] But we have also seen that everything that challenges Lucifer finds its answer in Ahriman. Thus we see Lucifer, with his entire host, at work in what is to give concrete expression to the impact of Greek culture on the whole of human development: in the Greek heroes, in the Greek heroes and artists. Lucifer penetrates into the astral bodies, setting them ablaze for what they revere as the highest. Thus, that which is to flow into evolution through Greek culture simultaneously becomes the enthusiasm of the national soul. It is precisely there that Lucifer is at work. And because Lucifer owes his power to the development of the Moon, not the Earth, he challenges Ahriman; and as Lucifer develops his activity from epoch to epoch, Ahriman joins in—and gradually corrupts what Lucifer has brought about on Earth. — The development of the human world is a continuous interplay between Ahriman and Lucifer. If Lucifer did not work within humanity, the zeal and fire for the continuous stream of human development would be lacking; if Ahriman were not there to destroy, from people to people, that which comes not from the continuous stream but only from the Luciferic influence, then Lucifer would want to perpetuate the individual cultures forever. Thus you see here Lucifer conjuring up his own karma, which is a necessary consequence of development on the ancient Moon. And the consequence is now that he must constantly keep Ahriman chained to his heels. Ahriman is the karmic fulfillment of Lucifer.

[ 15 ] Here we gain insight into the karma of higher beings through the example of the Ahrimanic and Luciferic beings. Karma exists there as well. Karma is everywhere where “I”s exist. And Lucifer and Ahriman naturally contain “I”s within themselves; therefore, the consequences of their actions can rebound upon them. Many of these mysteries will not be addressed until this summer during the lecture series on the biblical story of creation; I would like to point out just one passage here that will truly show you the infinite depth of every single word in the true occult documents.

[ 16 ] Have you ever wondered why, in the biblical account of creation, the phrase “And the Elohim saw the work, and they saw that it was very good”—that it was “the best”—appears at the end of each day of creation? That is a significant phrase. Why is it there? The phrase itself shows that it is meant as a characteristic of the Elohim, who developed normally on the moon and whose adversary is Lucifer. It is part of the Elohim’s nature that after each day of creation they saw that it was “the best.” This is stated for that reason, because this level was the achievement of the Elohim. On the Moon, they could only perceive the work as long as they were doing it; they could not have a retrospective awareness of it. That they can look back retrospectively in reflective thought upon the work—that is a special stage in the consciousness of the Elohim. This was only possible on Earth; indeed, its inner character is revealed in the fact that the volitional aspect flows so strongly from their being that, when they looked at it, they saw that it was very good. These were the Elohim who had completed their work on the Moon and who, when they looked back at it on Earth, could say: It can remain, it is very good! — But for this to happen, the old lunar evolution had to be completed.

[ 17 ] What, then, of the Luciferic beings—that is, those beings who did not complete their lunar evolution? They, too, will have to look back on their work here on Earth, for example, when they contributed fire and enthusiasm to Greek culture. And they will then see how Ahriman has gradually eroded it! And they will have to admit, because they did not complete it: They saw the work of their hands, and they saw that it was not for the best, that it had to be wiped out!

[ 18 ] This is the great disappointment of the Luciferic spirits: that they keep trying their work anew, always seeking to swing the pendulum to the other side—only to find their work destroyed by Ahriman time and again. They must conceive of a constant ebb and flow within human evolution, a continual stirring up of new forces by beings higher than ourselves, and that these beings experience continual disappointments. This is contained in the experience of the Luciferic spirits in the development of the Earth. And humanity had to take this karma upon itself, because only in this way could human beings attain true freedom. Freedom can only spring forth when human beings bestow upon themselves the highest content of their earthly ego. The ego that human beings would possess if all goals were given to them at the end of Earth’s evolution cannot be free; for it has been predetermined from the outset to allow all the blessings of Earth’s evolution to flow into human beings. Humanity could only become free by creating, alongside this ego, another, fallible ego capable of oscillating again and again between the side of good and the side of evil, and which can strive again and again toward that which is the essence of all earthly development. The lower ego had to be bestowed upon humanity by Lucifer so that humanity’s ascent toward the higher ego could be its very own achievement.

[ 19 ] Only in this way is free will possible for humanity. Free will is something that human beings can gradually attain; for human beings are constituted in such a way that free will stands before them as an ideal in life. Where, then, in an intermediate stage of development, is the human will free? It is never free, because at any moment it can fall prey to the Luciferic and Ahrimanic elements; it is not free because every human being, once they have passed through the gate of death, has a very specific impression during the ascending period of purification—perhaps spanning decades. This is the essence of the Kamaloka life: that we see to what degree we ourselves are imperfect because of what we have done that is imperfect in the world, that we see, bit by bit, in what way we have become imperfect. From this then arises the resolute intention to eradicate everything we have made imperfect. Such is life during the Kamaloka period: intention is added to intention, and the overall resolution is made: You must make amends for everything you have thought and done that has brought you down! — What a person feels there, they imprint upon their future life and enter existence at birth with this intention—and thereby take on their karma. Therefore, we cannot say that we have free will when we have entered existence through birth. We can speak of nothing other than the fact that we approach free will to the extent that we have succeeded in mastering the influences of Lucifer and Ahriman. And we can master the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences through nothing other than knowledge. First, through self-knowledge, by making ourselves increasingly capable—even in the life between birth and death—of recognizing our weaknesses in all three soul faculties: thinking, feeling, and willing. If we strive ever more to refrain from succumbing to illusion, then the power grows within our ego to do without the Luciferic influence, for then we become increasingly capable of deciding what devotion the goods of humanity—which have been gradually conquered—deserve. Then through knowledge of the external world, which must be complemented by self-knowledge; both must work together. We must unite self-knowledge and knowledge of the external world with our being; then we will be able to establish a clear relationship with Lucifer.

[ 20 ] The very peculiarity of what we acquire as theosophical knowledge is that we gain insight into the extent to which inclination and passion—Luzifer and Ahriman—are involved in every human action. What else have we done in this series of lectures but shed light on how Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces influence our lives in the most manifold ways! In the present age, however, enlightenment regarding the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces can begin. And humanity must be enlightened if it truly wishes to contribute to the attainment of the goal of humanity on Earth. — Wherever you look, wherever human feeling and thought are at work, you can see how far people still are from a genuine, true understanding of the influences of Lucifer and Ahriman. There you see that the vast majority of humanity does not want such an understanding at all. There you see a large portion of humanity succumbing to a certain religious egoism: striving above all to attain, with this very soul, that state of well-being which one can only imagine. This is an egoism of which people are not at all aware that the greatest desires can intrude upon it. And nowhere does Lucifer interfere more with our feelings than where people, driven by their passions and desires, strive for the Divine without having the Divine illuminated by the light of knowledge. Do you not believe that Lucifer is at work precisely where people believe they are striving for the Highest? But the forms sought in this way will likewise have to be counted among Lucifer’s disappointments. And those who now believe they can derive this or that form of spiritual culture from wild desires, who preach again and again that this theosophy is so bad because it believes in something new, should consider that it does not depend on human will when Ahriman clings to Lucifer’s heels. And whatever forms have arisen in the course of evolution will, because Ahriman interferes, be brought to ruin again by Lucifer. Only the ongoing stream of human evolution will be saved.

[ 21 ] Thus, we look back on a previous stage of development in which certain beings were left behind as a sacrifice for us. We now know that these beings must work out their karma for our sake, so that we may, in a normal way, experience what these beings can instill in us. Yes, truly, Yahweh originally instilled in man, through the divine breath, the capacity for the “I”; but if only the divine breath had come—which pulsates in human blood—and not also that which can repeatedly stray from what the Yahweh-breath can give, and if neither Luciferic nor Ahrimanic impulses were at work within it, then humanity would indeed be able to attain the “what” of the Yahweh-gift, but not the “how”: that it experiences it with a self-conscious, free “I.” Thus it is indeed in the nature of world development that certain beings remained behind on the old Moon.

[ 22 ] We live today in an age where we can indeed look back on many of Lucifer’s deceptions, but where we can also look forward to a future in which we will come to understand more and more what the ongoing stream of evolution is. And Theosophy will be the instrument for understanding this continuous stream of evolution, so that we may face the influences of Lucifer with ever greater awareness and become increasingly able to recognize Luciferic impulses within ourselves and consciously utilize them in the right way for the benefit of human development, whereas previously they had worked within humanity as a dark impulse of which human beings were unaware. And the same is true of the Ahrimanic influences.

[ 23 ] This is one of the areas where we can draw attention to the fact that, so to speak, humanity is currently undergoing an important epoch of development—namely, the epoch in which, in a certain sense, the soul forces are actually being reversed. For many of you, it has already been pointed out that we are facing an epoch in which certain people—individuals—will develop soul faculties different from those accepted today. What theosophy, for example, is able to say today based on the findings of spiritual research—namely, that the human being has an etheric body in addition to the physical body—is known intuitively today only by those who have undergone systematic training. But even before the middle of the 20th century—as we know from reading the Akashic Records—there will be people who will have a natural development for etheric clairvoyance and who, because humanity has reached this point in time where these things will develop as natural gifts, will perceive the etheric body as it permeates the physical body and extends slightly beyond its edges. Just as humanity has regressed from looking into the spiritual world to today’s merely external physical perception and intellectual understanding of the external world, so it is now gradually beginning to develop new, yet conscious, abilities. These new abilities are added to the old ones, and one particular ability will be the one I can characterize as follows:

[ 24 ] There will be people—initially just a few, for it will not be until the course of the next two or three millennia that this ability develops in a larger number of people, and the first precursors will appear even before the end of the first half of the 20th century—in whom something like the following will occur: People will have experienced some action, and they will be tempted to step back from that action. They will then have an image before them that arises from the action in question. At first they will not recognize it; they will find no connection to what they have done. But then they may already have heard something about spiritual science, and they will learn that this image, which appears to them as a kind of conscious dream image, is the counter-image of their own action—the image of the action that must take place so that what has just been done may find its karmic fulfillment.

[ 25 ] Humanity is indeed on the threshold of an era in which it will begin not only to understand karma according to the teachings and descriptions of spiritual science, but in which it will gradually begin to perceive karma. Whereas until now karma has been a dark impulse, a dark desire for human beings—one that could only be lived out in the next life, and could only be transformed into an intention during the life between death and new birth—human beings are gradually evolving to the point where they will be able to consciously perceive the creations of Lucifer and see what their effects will look like. However, only those people who have strived for knowledge and self-knowledge will be able to make sense of this etheric clairvoyance. More and more, people in their normal state will have before them the karmic images of their actions. This will be something that will continually advance humanity, because through it they will know what they still owe the world, what still stands in their karma as a debt. That is precisely what makes a person unfree: that they do not know what they still owe the world. Thus, when it comes to karma, one cannot speak of free will from the outset. The term “free will” is already misleading; for one must say: A person becomes free only through their ever-increasing knowledge and by rising ever higher and growing ever more deeply into the spiritual world. Through this, they increasingly fill themselves with the content of the spiritual world and become more and more a being who determines their own will. It is not the will that can become free, but the human being as such who can become free by permeating themselves with what they can perceive in the spiritual realm of world existence.

[ 26 ] Thus we look upon Lucifer’s disappointments and his deeds and say: For millennia, the foundation has been laid for where we stand today; for if we did not stand where we stand, we would not be able to develop toward freedom. But now that we can gain insight into Lucifer and Ahriman, we can develop a different relationship to these forces, reap the fruits of what has been done, and, so to speak, relieve Lucifer and Ahriman of their work. However, the deeds of Lucifer—which he has brought about and which have continually led to disappointments—must turn into their opposite when we ourselves commit them. Lucifer’s deeds were meant to arouse desires, to lead people toward what could lead into evil. We have indeed seen what kind of opposing force must counteract Lucifer: If we ourselves are to counteract Lucifer, if we are to take care of his affairs in the future, it can only be love that can take the place of Lucifer’s deeds; but love will be able to do so. And likewise, it will be that which flows to us from the outer world as we increasingly dispel the darkness we weave into the outer material world. If we increasingly dispel this darkness, if it fades away, and we thereby succeed in completely overcoming the Ahrimanic influence in this way, then we will be able to perceive the world as it truly is as the earthly world. Then we will gradually approach a kind of knowledge that today can only be the domain of spiritual science: we will penetrate to what matter truly is, to the nature of light. Even today, science still succumbs to the most manifold illusions regarding the nature of light. Many believe that one sees light with the physical eyes. That is not correct. With the physical eyes one does not see light, but only illuminated bodies; one sees colors on the bodies. One does not see light, but one sees through the light. All such illusions will be dispelled. As a result, the image of the world—which, under the influence of Ahriman, was necessarily interwoven with error—will be transformed, and the content of wisdom will prevail. As human beings advance toward the light, they will themselves develop the soul’s counterpart to light. And the soul’s counterpart to light is wisdom.

[ 27 ] In this way, love and wisdom will enter the human soul. And love and wisdom will be the practical force, the very impulse of life, that is to arise—and will arise—from the theosophical worldview. Wisdom, which is the inner counterpart of light; wisdom, which can unite with love; and love, which is permeated by wisdom—these will find the right path to influence once again that which is immersed in the wisdom of the outer world. If we are to gradually become partakers of the other half of evolution, to overcome Lucifer and Ahriman once more, then we must permeate ourselves with wisdom and love. By developing wisdom and love, we develop those elements that will flow forth again from our own souls as gifts for those who, in the first half of Earth’s development, sacrificed themselves as Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces to give us what we need to attain our freedom. We will have to give to these forces what we develop in wisdom and love. But we must be aware: Because life must exist in the world, we must embrace cultures that serve as means of expression for this life. We wish to devote ourselves willingly and with love to a theosophical culture that will not last forever, but we want to accept it with enthusiasm and create with love what we were once driven to do under the influence of Lucifer. Because we now recognize that we must create out of love what we were once driven to create by the Luciferic influence, through desires and passions, we will now develop all the more abundant love beyond all that. If we were to develop only the necessary love, we would not be able to develop culture upon culture. Theosophy is meant to be something that fulfills every demand of the times with devotion and love, with the same enthusiasm with which people once worked under the influence of Lucifer. We will no longer have the illusion that what we do will last forever. But by creating culture upon culture in ever-increasing love, we thereby create an abundance of love. This benefits Lucifer; through this, his disappointments are also made up for. It is up to us to make up for what Lucifer must suffer in terms of disappointments by returning to the other side what has been done for us.

[ 28 ] This is the other aspect of the karma of the higher beings: that we develop a love which does not remain merely within humanity, but is destined to penetrate the cosmos. We will be able to let this love flow into beings who are higher than ourselves, and these beings will perceive it as a sacrifice. It will be a sacrifice of the soul. The sacrifice of the soul will flow upward to those who once allowed their gifts to flow downward, just as the smoke offerings once rose to the spirits in times when people still possessed spiritual goods. Back then, people could only send symbolic smoke offerings upward to the gods. In the future, people will send streams of love upward to the spirits, and something will flow down again from the sacrifice of love: higher forces will flow toward humanity, which, directed by the spiritual, will intervene in our physical world with ever-greater power. These will then be magical forces in the true sense.

[ 29 ] Thus we see the course of human evolution as the karma of humanity and the karma of higher beings play out. And we now also understand how the plan of evolution relates to individual human karma. Suppose a superhuman individuality had brought about this or that in the year 1910, which was then carried out on the physical plane by a human being; in this way, a connection is established between this superhuman individuality and the human being. The human being is then woven into the karma of the higher beings. This is a completed correspondence. But then a current flows to him from the higher worlds, bringing something into his life; in this he now has a new element added to his karma, which tips the balance one way or the other. Thus human karma is enriched by the general karma that flows through the world.

[ 30 ] Let us consider, for example, Miltiades or any other historical figure: they had their place in the grand scheme of their people’s history; this or that was determined by the karma of higher powers—and thus they were placed in their positions. What was to be bestowed upon all of humanity flowed into their individual karmic account. And as they carried it out, as they linked deeds and achievements to it, it became their individual karma. — Thus we, too, live and weave with our individual karma within the macrocosm as a small world, as a microcosm.

[ 31 ] This brings us to the end of the course, though not to the end of the matter. But there is no other way. If I may just say in two words that I have delivered this series of lectures—precisely on those human questions that can so deeply move the human heart and yet are connected to the greatest destiny of even higher beings—if I say that I have given this course truly from the depths of my soul and am glad that it was possible to speak about these things even once in a Theosophical branch, among Theosophical friends who had come from all directions to devote themselves to the contemplation of these questions, then I also speak these words from the depths of my heart. Those who will have the opportunity to attend further courses will see that much of what is on one’s mind following this cycle will be answered. But even those who cannot attend these summer courses will later have the opportunity to discuss such matters with me. And so I may say once again that I would like the things to be discussed to be received in such a way that they are not merely abstract insights, but ones that permeate our entire thinking, feeling, and willing—our entire life. So that one might see in the Theosophists in the world a parable and an image of what one might call the deepest theosophical truths. Let us try to become such an image and parable ourselves; only then will we have a theosophical spiritual current in the world. Within our close circle, this theosophical spiritual current must first be a contemplation of spiritual knowledge. But then—first within our circle of members—these insights must become attitudes and, as such, face the world. And the world will gradually come to realize that it was not in vain that, at the turn of the 20th century, there were honest and sincere Theosophists, people who sincerely and honestly believed in the power of spiritual forces. And by believing in this, they themselves were imbued with the power to work toward it. Culture will advance faster and faster in our lives if you yourselves transform what you hear into conviction, into action and deed. Not by convincing people! The current culture is ill-suited for that. Truly convinced will always be only those who approach Theosophy out of the deepest urge of the heart; the others will not be convinced. We also have this karma in spiritual circles as something that materialism must have brought about, and we must regard these damages as something against which spiritual science must prove itself to be a spiritual power.

[ 32 ] Thus, we must offer what we can give to the world from the depths of our hearts. Everyone who has transformed Theosophy into the inner life of the soul will be a source of spiritual power. And those who believe in the supersensible may well be convinced that our theosophical insights and attitudes have a spiritual effect—that is, they spread invisibly out into the world—when we truly make ourselves conscious instruments imbued with theosophical life.