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The Mission of Folk-Souls
GA 121

17 June 1910, Christiania

Lecture XI

In beginning this our last lecture I may truly say that there is a great deal more to be discussed, and that on the whole we have only been able in this course of lectures to deal with the very smallest part of what belongs to this rich subject. I may, however, hope that it will not be the last time we shall speak together here on similar matters, and it must suffice as a beginning, if only indications have been given on this theme, the further discussion of which would not be without its difficulties at the present time.

As a golden thread running through the last few lectures, was the idea that something is contained in the Germanic Scandinavian mythology or teaching of the gods, which in an imaginative form is wonderfully connected with everything we can extract in the shape of knowledge from the spiritual research of our own time. Now that is also one of the reasons why we may hope that the Folk-spirit, the Archangel who extends his educative and directing activity over this country, will permeate with the capacities he has developed in the course of centuries, that which may be called modern philosophy, modern spiritual research, and that from then on, this modern spiritual research will be fertilized in a popular sense.

The further we penetrate into the details of the Germanic Scandinavian mythology, the more we shall see how wonderfully the great occult truths are expressed in its pictures such as really is the case in no other mythology. Thus perhaps some of you who have read my Occult Science, or have heard other lectures which I was able to give here, will remember that once upon a time in the evolution of the earth an event occurred which we may describe as the descent of those human souls who, in primeval times, before the old Lemurian epoch, for particular reasons had ascended to the various planets of our system, and who at the end of the Lemurian and during the whole of the Atlantean epochs endeavored to unite themselves with that which the human body had little by little developed and perfected in the way of capacities, and which had been made possible by the separation of the moon from the earth. These Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury souls then descended; as one may still find to-day in the Akashic Records. In the course of the Atlantean epoch the air of Atlantis was permeated with water in the form of clouds; that was the condition when the descent of those souls could be perceived by the old clairvoyance of the Atlantean epoch. Every time new beings were born in the soft, plastic, flexible, pliable bodies of that time, when they descended so to say from spiritual heights, that was considered to be the external expression of souls descending out of the spiritual surroundings, out of the atmosphere, out of planetary life, to unite themselves with the bodies being formed upon earth.

The event of these earth-bodies being fertilized, as it were, by that which poured down from spiritual heights, is preserved in a conception implanted in the Scandinavian Germanic mythology. The consciousness of this was preserved so long that even Tacitus himself still found it among the South Germanic peoples at the time when he made the observations which he described in his Germania. No one who does not know that this event really did occur, will understand what Tacitus relates about the goddess Nerthus. The chariot of the goddess Nerthus was driven over the waters. That later on was preserved as a rite, a ceremony; formerly it was a matter of observation. This goddess represented that which can be presented to the human bodies by the human souls coming down from the planetary spheres.

That is the mysterious occurrence underlying the Nerthus myth and it has been preserved in all that has come down to us in the older Sagas and legends which indicate the development of physical man. Njordr, who is inwardly related to the goddess Nerthus, is her masculine counterpart. He represents to us the primal memory of the descent of the psychic-spiritual human beings, who had once upon a time ascended to planetary heights, and who during the Atlantean epoch, descended again to unite themselves with physical human bodies.

From my pamphlet, Occult Significance of Blood, you will see what a significant rôle the interminglings and relationships of peoples have played at certain periods. Now not only the interminglings and relationships which were expressed in the mixture of blood, but also the psychic and spiritual requirements of the Folk-spirits have played a great rôle. The vision of that descent has been preserved in the greatest purity in the Sagas which in former times developed in these Northern parts. Hence in the Sagas of the Vanen you can still find one of the very oldest recollections of it. Especially here in the North, in the Finnish traditions, was the memory kept alive of this union of the spiritual soul-nature which descended from planetary heights with that which proceeded from the earthly body itself, and which Northern tradition knows as Riesenheim (Home of Giants). That which developed out of the earthly body belonged to Riesenheim.

We understand, therefore, that the Germanic Scandinavian always felt the impulse coming from this side; that he felt within his gradually evolving soul the workings of this old divine vision, which was still ‘at home’ here in those old days when the mists of Atlantis still extended to this neighborhood. The Germanic Scandinavian felt in his soul something of the arrival of a god who was directly descended from those divine spiritual Beings, those Archangels who directed the union of the psychic-spiritual with the earthly-physical. Freyr the god, and Freya his sister, who here in the North were once upon a time specially beloved gods, were thought of and felt as having originally been those angelic Beings who had poured into the human souls all that those souls required to enable them to develop further, upon the physical plane, those old forces which they had received by means of their clairvoyant capacities. In the physical world, that world limited by the outer senses, Freyr was the one who continued all that had been formerly received in clairvoyance. He was the living continuation of the clairvoyantly received forces. He had therefore to unite himself with the physical instruments existing in the human body itself for the use of these soul-forces, which then can carry into the physical plane what had been perceived in primal clairvoyance. That is reflected in the marriage of Freyr with Gerda, the giantess; she is taken from the physical forces of earthly evolution. These pictures represent the descent of the divine-spiritual into the physical.

In this figure of Freyr is expressed in quite a wonderful way, the manner in which Freyr makes use of that which makes it possible for man to manifest on the physical plane that for which he has been educated by his preceding clairvoyant perceptions. Bluthuf (Blood Hoof) is the name of the horse placed at the disposal of Freyr, to indicate that blood is the essential thing in the development of his ‘I’. A remarkable, wonderful ship is also placed at his disposal. It can be expanded into the immeasurable and can be folded together so that it can be contained in the smallest box. Now what is this miraculous ship? If Freyr is the power which carries clairvoyant forces into the spheres which express themselves on the physical plane, then it must be something quite particularly belonging to him; it is the alternation between day-waking and night-sleeping. Just as the human soul during sleep and until the moment of waking is spread out in the macrocosm, so does the miraculous ship expand and is then folded up again into the folds of the brain; so that during the day-time it can be stowed away in the smallest of boxes—the human skull. You will find all this wonderfully expressed in the pictures of this Germanic Scandinavian mythology.

Those of you who will go more deeply into these things, will be gradually convinced that this is no fantasy; but that what has been implanted, inoculated into the thoughts and feelings of this northern people by means of these pictures, really comes from the schools of the Initiates. Thus a very great deal remained in the guiding Archangel or Folk-spirit of the North, of the old education through clairvoyant perception of that which may grow up in a soul which, in its development on the physical plane, connects itself on to a clairvoyant development.

Although outwardly it may seem different at the present day, yet the Archangel of the Germanic North has within him this tendency, and this enables him to understand modern Spiritual Science especially well and to transform it in the manner corresponding to its national character. Hence also you will see why I have said that in the Germanic North the best conditions are to be found for the comprehension of that which I could only indicate briefly in my open lecture on the Second Coming of Christ. Spiritual research at the present time shows us that after Kali Yuga had run its course, which lasted for five thousand years (from about 3100 B.C. to 1899 A.D.), new capacities begin to develop in man. These will at first appear in single individuals, in a few especially gifted ones only. It will come about, for instance, that persons will be able, through the natural evolution of their capacities, to see something of what is announced only by Anthroposophy, by spiritual research.

We are told that in future persons in whom the organs of the etheric body are developed will be found in increasing numbers, and will attain to clairvoyance, which can to-day be acquired only by training. And why will this be so? What will the etheric body possess for the perception of those few? There will be people who will receive impressions of which I should like to describe one to you. A man will do something in the external world and will then feel himself impelled to observe something. A sort of dream-picture will come before his eyes which at first he will not understand. But if he has heard something about Karma, of how everything in the world takes place in accordance with law, he will then learn to understand, little by little, that what he has seen is the karmic counterpart of his actions in the etheric world. Thus gradually the first elements of future capacities are being formed.

Those persons who receive a stimulus from Anthroposophy will, (from the middle of the twentieth century on), gradually experience a renewal of that which St. Paul saw in etheric clairvoyance as a mystery to come, the ‘Mystery of the Living Christ’. There will be a new manifestation of Christ, a manifestation which must come when human capacities so develop in the natural course, that the Christ can be seen in that world in which He always was, and in which since the Mystery of Golgotha He is to be found by Initiates. Humanity is growing into that world in order to be able to perceive from the physical plane that which could formerly only be seen from higher planes in the Mystery Schools.

The Mystery-training will nevertheless not become superfluous. It always presents things in a different way from what they are presented to the untrained soul. But that which is given in the Mystery-training will, by the transformation of the physical human body, show the Mystery of the Living Christ in a new way, as it can be seen perceptively from the physical plane, as it will be seen in the etheric, at first by a few and afterwards by more and more persons, in the course of the next three thousand years. That which St. Paul saw as the living Christ Who is to be found in the etheric world since the event of Golgotha, will be seen by an ever increasing number of people.

The manifestations of Christ will be ever higher and higher. That is the mystery of the evolution of Christ. At the time when the Mystery of Golgotha took place men were to comprehend everything from the physical plane; it was therefore necessary that they should also be able to see Christ on the physical plane, to have news of Him there, and to testify to His power on that plane. But mankind is intended to progress, it is organized for the development of higher powers, and anyone who can believe that the manifestation of Christ will be repeated in the same form which was necessary nineteen hundred years ago, knows nothing of the progress of humanity. It took place on the physical plane because at that time the forces of man were adjusted to the physical plane. But those forces will evolve, and hence, in the course of the next three thousand years, Christ will be able to speak more and more to the more highly developed human forces.

What I have just said is a truth which has for a long time been communicated to a few individuals from within the esoteric schools, a truth which to-day must be found especially in the domain of Anthroposophy, because Anthroposophy is to be the preparatory school for that which is to come. Humanity is now organized for liberty, for the personal recognition of that which is developing within it, and it might occur that those persons who will come forward as the first pioneers of the Christ-vision, will be shouted down as fools, that what they have to offer to mankind will not be listened to, and humanity might sink still further into materialism than it has already done and trample under foot that which could become the most wonderful manifestation for mankind. Everything that may happen in the future is to a certain extent subject to the will of humanity, so that men may also miss what is for their salvation. That is extremely important: Anthroposophy is a preparation for what is to be the new Christ-revelation.

Materialism may make a mistake in two different ways. One—which will probably be made by reason of the Western traditions—consists in considering as mere folly, as wild fantasy, everything that the first pioneers of the new Christ-revelation will announce in the twentieth century as the result of their own vision. Materialism has now invaded all domains. It is not only at home in the West but it has also taken hold of the East; there, however, it assumes another form. It may happen that oriental materialism may cause men to fail to recognize what is higher in a manifestation of Christ at a higher stage, and then will occur that which has so often been spoken of here, and will again and again be repeated, that materialistic thinking will transform the appearance of Christ into a materialistic view.

It might occur at that time, under the influence of scientific spiritual knowledge, that persons may, it is true, speak of Christ manifesting Himself, but will at the same time believe that He will appear in a material body. The result would then be another form of materialism. It would only be a continuation of what has happened for centuries. Certain people have always profited by this false materialism, and indeed, there have always been individuals representing themselves as the re-appeared Christ. The last important case of such an one was in the seventeenth century, when a man called Sabbatai Zevi, of Smyrna, represented himself as the re-appeared Christ. He made a great stir. Pilgrimages were made to him not only by those in his immediate neighborhood, but also by people from Hungary, Poland, Germany, France, Italy, and northern Africa. All these looked upon Sabbatai as the physical incarnation of a Messiah. I should not care to relate the human tragedy connected with the personality of Sabbatai. In the seventeenth century the tragedy was certainly not so great, for man was not then so entirely in possession of his free will, although by means of his perception—which was a spiritual feeling—he could recognize what was the truth; but in the twentieth century it would be a great misfortune if, under the pressure of materialism, the teaching that Christ will manifest Himself were to be taken in a materialistic sense, as though He would return in a physical body. That would only prove that humanity has not acquired any perception or insight as regards the real progress of the human development of higher spiritual forces. False Messiahs will certainly appear, and on account of the materialism of our day they will be believed, just as was Sabbatai in the seventeenth century. It will be a trial, a severe test for those prepared by Anthroposophy to recognize where the truth lies, a test as to whether a spiritual, vital feeling really fills the spiritual theories, or whether they only contain a hidden materialism. It will be a proof as to the further development of Anthroposophy, whether by its means a sufficient number of persons will be developed enough to understand that they have to see the spirit in the spirit, that they have to look up into the etheric world for a new manifestation of Christ; or whether they will remain at a standstill on the physical plane, determined to look for a manifestation of Christ in a physical body. The Anthroposophical Movement will yet have to undergo this test. But this we may say, that nowhere has the ground been better prepared to recognize the truth on this very subject, than here, where the Germanic Scandinavian mythology developed.

In that which has come down to us as the ‘Twilight of the Gods’ there is contained a significant vision of the future, and herewith I come to a chapter the starting-point of which I have already indicated. I have told you that when a community of people have so lately left their clairvoyant past behind them, that then a clairvoyant sense is also developed in their guiding Folk-spirit, by means of which the things we now find clairvoyantly can again be understood. Now if a people experiences the new age with new human capacities, on the very ground on which bloomed the Germanic Scandinavian mythology, it ought then to understand that what was formerly the old clairvoyance must take a different form after man has gone through his development on the physical plane. Here, for a while, that which spoke out of the old clairvoyance remained silent; then the world of Odin and Thor, of Balder and Hoeder, of Freyr and Freya withdrew for a while into the background, away from human vision. But that world will return after a period when other forces have meanwhile been at work upon the human soul.

When this human soul gazes out into the new world, with the new clairvoyance which begins with etheric clairvoyance, it will see that it can no longer retain the old forms of the forces which educated the soul. If it were able to do so, all the opposing forces would come into play against that force which in olden times had to educate the powers of man up to a certain height. Odin and Thor will again be visible to the eyes of man, but that will then be because the human soul will have gone through a new development. All the forces that are opposed to Odin and Thor will appear to the human soul. Everything which has developed in the way of opposing force will be once again visible in a mighty tableau. But the human soul would not progress, it would not be able to defend itself against injurious influences if it were only to be subject to the forces seen by the old clairvoyance. Thor once upon a time gave man his ‘I’; that ‘I’ has been educated on the physical plane, has evolved out of what Loki, the Luciferic power, left behind in the astral body, viz., the Midgard Serpent. That which Thor was once able to give, and which the human soul is growing away from, is in conflict with what proceeds from the Midgard Serpent. In Scandinavian mythology that appears as Thor fighting the Midgard Serpent. They balance each other, that is to say, they slay each other. In the same way Odin wrestles with the Fenris Wolf, whereby they annihilate each other. Freyr, that which for a while developed the human soul-forces, had to be subdued by that which had been given from the earth-forces themselves to the ‘I’, which had in the meanwhile been educated on the physical plane. Freyr was overcome by the flaming sword of Surtur, who sprang from the earth.

All these details which are set forth in the ‘Twilight of the Gods’, correspond with that which is to appear to mankind in a newer etheric vision, which in reality refers to the future. The Fenris Wolf will still remain. Oh, there is a deep, deep truth concealed in this account of the Fenris Wolf remaining behind in conflict with Odin. In the near future of mankind there will be no danger so great as the tendency to remain satisfied with the old clairvoyance,—instead of developing the new by means of new forces—the danger that man might be tempted to remain satisfied with what the old astral clairvoyance of primal ages could give, namely, soul-pictures such as that of the Fenris Wolf. It would also be a severe trial for that which has to grow up in the domain of Anthroposophy, if in that, the tendency towards all sorts of confused, chaotic clairvoyance should arise, and an inclination to value the clairvoyance illuminated by reason and science less highly than the old chaotic one which does not possess this prerogative.

These remains of the old clairvoyance would wreak a fearful vengeance, by confusing the vision of men with all sorts of chaotic pictures. Such clairvoyance cannot be met by that which itself proceeded from old clairvoyant power, but only by that which during the Kali Yuga has been developed as a healthy force into a new clairvoyance. The power given by the old Archangel Odin, the old clairvoyant powers, cannot save man; something very different must come in. And what that is, is, however, known to Germanic Norse mythology,—it is well aware of its existence. It knows, that there exists the etheric form in which will embody that which we shall once again see as the etheric form of Christ. And this alone will succeed in driving out the confused clairvoyant power which would bewilder mankind, if Odin did not overcome the Fenris Wolf, which represents nothing but the backward clairvoyance. Vidar, who has kept silence all the time, will overcome the Fenris Wolf. That also is told us in the ‘Twilight of the Gods’.

Anyone who recognizes the importance of Vidar and feels him in his soul, will find that in the twentieth century the capacity can again be given to man with which to see Christ. Vidar, who belongs to us all in Northern and Central Europe, will again stand before him. He was kept secret in the Mysteries and secret Schools as a god who would receive his mission only in the future. Only indefinite statements are made even regarding his picture. This may be seen from the fact that a picture has been found in the vicinity of Cologne, of which no one knows whom it represents, but which is none other than a likeness of Vidar.

All through the Kali Yuga the powers were acquired which will make the new men capable of seeing the new manifestation of Christ. Those who are destined to point out from the signs of the times that which is to come, know that the new spiritual investigation will re-establish the power of Vidar, who will drive out of the minds of men all the remnants of the old chaotic clairvoyant power which might act in a confusing way, and who will arouse the new gradually evolving clairvoyance in the human breast, in the human soul.

Thus we see, when the wonderful figure of Vidar shines forth to us out of the ‘Twilight of the Gods’, that a hope for the future shines towards us as it were out of the Germanic Norse mythology. When we feel ourselves to be related to this figure of Vidar, of whom we are now trying to understand the deeper side, we hope that that which must be the central nerve and the vital essence of all Anthroposophy, will result from those forces which the Archangel of the Germanic Scandinavian world can contribute to the evolution of modern times. One part only of a greater whole has been accomplished for the fifth post-Atlantean civilization in the way of development of humanity and the spirit; another part has still to be accomplished. Those Northern Germanic peoples will best be able to contribute to this who feel that they have within them fresh elemental nation-forces. But this will to a certain extent be put into the souls of men. They themselves will have to make up their minds to work. One can go astray in the twentieth century because what has to be attained is to a certain extent subject to man's free will and must not be compulsory. It is therefore a question of having a proper understanding of that which is to come.

So you see, that when our Anthroposophy of to-day announces the knowledge of the Christ-Being, and when our hopes for the future are connected with that true knowledge of this Being which we look for in the substance of the European people themselves, that there is then no question of any sort of predilection or temperamental predisposition.

It has sometimes been said that one might call what we may describe as the greatest Being in the evolution of humanity, by any name one likes. (Never will one who recognizes the Christ-Being insist upon retaining the name Christ.) But if we understand the Christ-Impulse in the right way, we shall not say as follows: A Being lives in human evolution, in the humanity of the West and that of the East, and it must be such an one as to correspond to the sympathies of mankind for this or the other truth. That is not ‘occultistic’. What is ‘occultistic’ is, that the moment one recognizes that this Being must be called by the name Buddha, that should unreservedly be done, quite regardless of whether this is sympathetic to one or not; it is not a question of sympathy or antipathy, but of the truth, of the facts.

The moment the facts should teach us otherwise, we should be ready to act differently. The facts and the facts alone must be decisive for us. We shall bring neither Orientalism nor Occidentalism into that which we look upon as the real life-blood of Anthroposophy, and if we are to find in the world of Northern Germanic Archangels that which may yield a fertile seed for true Anthroposophy, that seed would not be given on this ground to one particular people or tribe, but to humanity as a whole. What is given to all mankind, and must be given, can only spring up at a certain place; but it must be given to the whole of humanity. We recognize no difference between the East and the West; we accept with great love that which we recognize as the overwhelming greatness of the primal culture of the Holy Rishis in its true form; we lovingly accept the Persian culture, and that which we know as the Egyptian-Chaldæan and the Græco-Latin cultures, and with just the same objectivity we also accept what has grown up for us from the soil of Europe. The necessity of the facts alone compels us to speak on these matters in the way we have done in these lectures.

If we accept from the whole of mankind all that each religion has contributed towards the civilizing process of mankind, and carry that into what we recognize and know to-day as the common possession of humanity, then, the more we do this, the more are we really active in the sense of the Christ-Principle. As this is capable of development, we must therefore overcome that which it had to go through during its early centuries and millennia, when the Christ-Principle was only understood in its most imperfect beginnings. We do not look into that past, nor are we guided by it. We lay no store by this tradition; the chief thing for us is, that which can be discovered and examined in the spiritual world. Hence the most important thing about the Christ-Principle to us is not what has been—however often tradition may affirm that—but what is yet to come. We do not depend so much upon historical tradition, but we endeavor to know what is to come. That is the essential thing in the Christ-Impulse, which came at the beginning of the Christian era, and we do not attach much importance to the external and historical. After Christianity has passed through its childish ailments, it will develop further. It has also gone out into foreign lands and wished to convert people to that which consisted of the several Christian dogmas of a particular age. But we have before our souls a Christianity of which we know that Christ was active in all the ages, and that we shall find Him in all places, whither-so-ever we go; that the Christ-Principle is the most anthroposophical principle there is. And if Buddhism only counts those persons as Buddhists who swear by Buddha, then Christianity will be that which swears by no prophet, because it is not under the influence of a founder of religion belonging to one particular people, but it recognizes the god of humanity.

He who is acquainted with Christianity knows that it refers to a Mystery, which at Golgotha became manifest on the physical plane. It is the vision of this Mystery which leads us in the direction I have described. We may also know that the spiritual life at that time was such, that this Mystery had then to be experienced in the way it actually was experienced by humanity. We allow no dogmas to be forced upon us, not even those of a Christian past, and if a dogma should be thrust upon us from one quarter or another, we should in accordance with the rightly understood Christ-Principle reject it. However many people may come and force a denominational acknowledgment of the historical Christ upon us, or say that what we see as the future Christ is wrong, we shall not allow ourselves to be led astray by being told that He must be like this or like that, even if it is said by those who ought to understand Who Christ is. In the same way the Christ-Being must not be limited and narrowed by Eastern traditions, nor be colored by the dogmas of Eastern dogmatism. That which is drawn from the sources of occultism will appear before mankind free and independent of every tradition and of all authority, in what it has to say about this evolution of the future.

It is wonderful to me how well people understand each other here. Friends who have journeyed here have said to me again and again in these last few days how free they feel with the people of the Scandinavian North. Many have expressed that feeling. It is a proof that we shall be able, though some may not be conscious of it, to understand each other in the deepest essence of our Anthroposophical knowledge; it is proof of how we shall understand each other, especially in that which I mentioned at the last Theosophical Congress at Budapest, and which I repeated during our own General Meeting in Berlin, when we had the great pleasure of seeing friends also from the North among us. It would be a bad thing for Anthroposophy if one who cannot yet see into the spiritual world were obliged to accept in blind faith what is being said. I beg of you now, as I did in Berlin, to accept nothing I have ever said or ever shall say, on authority or in blind faith. It is possible, even before a man has reached the stage of clairvoyance, to test what is obtained through clairvoyant observation. Whatever I have said about Zarathustra and Jesus of Nazareth, about Hermes and Moses, about Odin and Thor, about Christ Jesus Himself, I beg of you not to believe it or accept my words on authority. I beseech you to dis-accustom yourselves from the principle of authority, for that principle would be an evil one for us.

I know very well, however, that when with an unprejudiced sense for truth you begin to reflect, when you say, ‘We have been told so and so; let us search the records accessible to us, the religious and mythological documents, let us ascertain what natural science can tell us,’ that then you will perceive the correctness of what has been said. Make use of all the means you can bring to your assistance, the more the better. I am not afraid. That which comes from the sources of Rosicrucianism may be tested in every way. Test by the most materialistic criticism of the Gospels what I have said about Christ Jesus, test by means of all the sources at your disposal what I have said about history, test it as minutely as possible by all the means at your disposal on the physical plane; I am convinced that the more minutely you test it, the more you will find, that what has been said out of the sources of the Rosicrucian Mystery will be found to correspond to the truth.

I count upon the communications made from Rosicrucianism not being believed, but proved, not superficially by the superficial methods of present-day science, but ever more and more conscientiously. Take all that the most modern science with the newest methods can offer you, take everything which the historical or religious investigations have yielded; the more you test it, the more you will find confirmation from this source. You must take nothing on authority. The best Anthroposophists are those who take what is said as a stimulus in the first place, and then place it at the service of life, so as to prove it by life itself. For in life also, at every stage of it, you can test that which has been said out of the sources of Rosicrucianism. It is far from the intention underlying these lectures to set up a dogma and say: This or that is so and so, and must be believed. Test it by the healthy and mentally vigorous people whom you know, and you will yourselves find confirmed what has been said as a prophetic indication of the future manifestation of Christ. You need only open your eyes and without prejudice test it; we make no appeal to belief in authority. The test is a sort of basic attitude, which should, like a golden thread, run through the whole.

So now I should like you to lay this to heart: that it is not ‘anthroposophical to accept a statement as dogma because this or that person made it, but it is anthroposophical to let oneself be stimulated by, Spiritual Science, and to test what one receives by life itself. Then what ever might color our anthroposophical view from one quarter or another, will vanish away. Neither Eastern nor Western shades should color our views. One who speaks in the sense of Rosicrucianism knows neither Orientalism nor Occidentalism; both are equally sympathetic to him; he only states the truth according to the inner nature of the facts.

That it is which we must bear in mind, particularly at such an important moment as this, when we have indicated the Folk-spirit who rules over all the Northern lands. In these lands lives the Germanic Scandinavian mythological Spirit; and although at the present day he still lives below the surface, yet he is spread out much more widely in Europe than one might suppose. If a conflict were to arise between the peoples of the North, it could not consist in one people disputing with another about what is to be given, but in each people practicing self-knowledge and inquiring, ‘What is the best that I can give?’ Then to the common altar will flow that which leads to the common progress, to the common welfare of mankind. The sources of what we are able to contribute lie in the individuality. The Germanic Scandinavian Archangel will bring to the collective human culture of the future, just what he is most fitted for according to the capacities he has acquired, as we have sufficiently described. He is, however, specially capable of bringing about that which could not yet be given in the first half of the fifth post-Atlantean age of civilization but which may still play its part in the second, viz., the spiritual element which we pointed out as being prophetically germinal in the Slav philosophy and national sentiment. While this was in a state of preparation the first half of the fifth post-Atlantean age of civilization had to be passed through. All that could be attained then to begin with was a very sublimated spiritual perception in the form of philosophy. This must then be grasped and permeated by the forces of the people, so that it may become the common possession of mankind, and become comprehensible in all parts of our earth-life.

Let us endeavor to understand one another on this subject, and then this otherwise somewhat dangerous theme will not have borne evil fruit, if all who have assembled here from the North, South, East, West and Centre of Europe become aware that it is important for the whole of humanity that we should feel that the great peoples as well as the smaller subdivisions of peoples all have their mission, and have to contribute their part to the whole. Sometimes the smaller peoples that have been separated off, because they were to preserve either the old or the new characteristics of soul, have to contribute something most important. Thus, although we have made this dangerous question the subject of our lectures, nothing else can come of it than the basic sentiment of a community of soul among all those who are united in the sign of anthroposophical thought and feeling and of anthroposophical ideals.

Then, only if we are still guided by our sympathies and antipathies, if we have not clearly grasped the kernel of our anthroposophical world-movement, could misunderstandings arise from what has been said. But if we have grasped the spirit presiding in these lectures, then the things we have heard may also help us to make the firm resolution and hold the high ideal,—each one from his own standpoint and his own ground,—to contribute to the common goal that which lies in our own mission. This we can best do with that which originates in ourselves, with that to which we are predisposed. We can best serve mankind as a whole if we develop that, so as to embody it in the whole of humanity as a sacrifice which we bring to the progressive stream of culture. We must learn to understand this. We must learn to understand that it would be a bad thing if Anthroposophy did not contribute to the evolution of man, Angel and Archangel, but were to contribute to the overcoming of the convictions of one people by those of another. Anthroposophy is not here to assist one form of religion which rules in one part of the earth to prevail over another. If the West were ever to be conquered by the East, or vice versa, that would absolutely not be in accordance with anthroposophical sentiment. That alone is anthroposophical, that we should give of our best, that which is purely human, to the whole of humanity. And if we live entirely within ourselves, not, however, for ourselves but for all men, then that is true anthroposophical tolerance. These words I had to add to our somewhat dangerous subject.

By means of Anthroposophy—as we shall see more and more clearly—all splitting-up will cease. Therefore it is now just the right time to know the Folk-souls, because Anthroposophy is here to teach us not to place them in opposition to one another, but to call upon them to work in harmonious co-operation. The better we understand this, the better Anthroposophists we shall be. This should be the note on which, for the present, these lectures close. For finally the knowledge we gather must really work in our feelings and our thinking, and in our anthroposophical idea. The more we live up to this the better Anthroposophists we are.

I have found that many of those who have accompanied us to the North have received the best possible impression, which was expressed in the words, ‘how much they liked being here in the North.’ And if exalted forces are to be aroused in mankind in the future, if we would speak with the words of Vidar, the silent Asa, whom we shall most certainly see before us, he will then become the active friend of co-operative work, of cooperative industry, for which purpose we have all been assembled here. Let us in this sense part from one another in space, after having been together for a few days, but let us in this sense always be together in spirit. Wherever we Anthroposophists go, whether far or near, may we always find ourselves together in harmony, even when we have to discuss the special nature of the peoples inhabiting the various countries of the earth. We know that they are only individual sacrificial flames which do not separate from one another, but which will unite in the mighty sacrificial fire that must unite for the good of mankind through the anthroposophical view of life which is so dear to our hearts and is so deeply rooted within our souls.

Elfter Vortrag

Bei Beginn dieser unserer letzten Betrachtungen darf ich wahrlich sagen, daß eigentlich noch recht, recht viel zu besprechen wäre, und daß im Grunde genommen das Allerwenigste von dem, was in dieses reiche Thema hereinfallen würde, im Verlaufe dieses Vortragszyklus wirklich hat besprochen werden können. Allein ich darf ja wohl hoffen, daß es nicht zum letzten Male ist, daß wir über ähnliche Themen hier zusammen sprechen, und es muß genügen, wenn gerade über dieses Thema, das in gewisser Beziehung einer weiteren Besprechung in der Gegenwart ohnedies noch einige Schwierigkeiten bietet, nur Andeutungen gegeben worden sind für den Anfang. Dabei ging das wie ein roter Faden durch die letzten Darstellungen hindurch, daß innerhalb der germanisch-nordischen Mythologie oder Götterlehre etwas enthalten ist, was in einer imaginativen Form wunderbar anknüpft an alles, was wir in erkenntnismäßiger Gestalt herausholen können aus der geistigen Forschung unserer Gegenwart. Das ist nun auch einer der Gründe, warum wir hoffen dürfen, daß jener Volksgeist, jener Erzengel, welcher seine erzieherische und führende Tätigkeit über dieses Land hier erstreckt, mit dem, was er als seine Anlagen im Laufe der Jahrhunderte entwickelt hat, durchdringen wird dasjenige, was moderne Philosophie, moderne Geistesforschung genannt werden kann, und daß von da aus diese moderne Geistesforschung eine im volkstümlichen Sinne gehaltene Befruchtung erlangen wird.

Je weiter wir in die Einzelheiten der germanisch-nordischen Mythologie eindringen würden, desto mehr würden wir sehen, daß wunderbar in den Bildern dieser Mythologie die größten okkulten Wahrheiten zum Ausdrucke kommen, wie es wirklich in keiner anderen Mythologie der Fall ist. So erinnern sich vielleicht einige von Ihnen, die meine «Geheimwissenschaft» gelesen oder andere Darstellungen, die ich hier geben durfte, mit angehört haben, daß einmal im Verlaufe der Erdenevolution ein Vorgang stattfand, den wir bezeichnen können als das Herabsteigen jener Seelen der Menschen, die in uralten Zeiten, vor der alten lemurischen Periode, hinaufgestiegen sind zu den einzelnen Planeten unseres Planetensystems, die aus ganz besonderen Gründen hinaufgestiegen sind zu Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Merkur, und daß diese während der letzten lemurischen und der ganzen atlantischen Zeit sich zu vereinigen strebten mit dem, was der Menschenleib nach und nach entwickelt und an Anlagen ausgebildet hatte, die möglich geworden waren durch das Hinausgehen des Mondes aus unserer Erde. Da sind sie heruntergestiegen, diese Saturn-, Jupiter-, Mars-, Venus- und Merkurseelen. Das ist ein Vorgang, den man heute noch finden kann in der Akasha-Chronik. Daß im Laufe der atlantischen Zeit die Wasser nebelförmig die Luft der Atlantis durchdrangen, das war ein Zustand, der damals damit zusammenhing, daß eben diese Seelen herunterstiegen, die man mit dem alten Hellsehen der atlantischen Zeit wahrnahm. Immer wieder, wenn neue Wesen geboren wurden in dem dazumal noch plastisch-weichen, biegsamen, bildsamen Leibe, wenn solche sozusagen aus geistigen Höhen herunterstiegen, so betrachtete man das als den äußeren Ausdruck dafür, daß aus der geistigen Umgebung, aus der Atmosphäre, aus dem planetarischen Dasein, Seelen herunterstiegen, um sich mit den auf der Erde entstehenden Leibern zu vereinigen.

Der Vorgang, wie sich gleichsam die Erdenleiber der Befruchtung dessen erschließen, was aus Himmelshöhen herunterstrahlt, dieser Vorgang hat sich erhalten in der Anschauung, die sich hineinverpflanzt hat in die nordisch-germanische Mythologie. Das Bewußtsein davon hat sich so lange erhalten, daß es selbst Tacitus noch bei den südlicheren Germanen fand in der Zeit, da er die Beobachtungen machte, die er in seiner «Germania» beschrieb. Niemand wird die Erzählung verstehen, die Tacitus von der Göttin Nerthus gibt, der nicht weiß, daß es diesen Vorgang einmal gegeben hat. Der Wagen der Göttin Nerthus wird über die Gewässer gefahren. Später hat sich das als Ritual, als Ritus erhalten. In früherer Zeit war es Beobachtung. Dargeboten hat diese Göttin das, was an Menschenleibern dargeboten werden konnte den aus den planetarischen Sphären herunterdringenden Menschenseelen. Das ist der geheimnisvolle Vorgang, der dem Nerthus-Mythus zugrunde liegt, und der in alledem sich erhalten hat, was in den älteren Sagen und Legenden, bei denen auf das Werden des physischen Menschen hingedeutet wird, uns überliefert ist. Njordr, der innerlich verwandt ist mit der Göttin Nerthus, ist das männliche Gegenbild. Der soll uns darstellen die uralte Erinnerung an das Hinuntersteigen der geistig-seelischen Menschen, die einst hinaufgestiegen waren in planetarische Höhen, und die während der atlantischen Zeit wieder heruntergestiegen sind, um sich mit physischen Menschenleibern wiederum zu vereinigen.

Aus meiner kleinen Schrift «Blut ist ein ganz besonderer Saft» können Sie entnehmen, welche bedeutungsvolle Rolle Völkermischungen und Völkerzusammenhänge in gewissen Zeiten gespielt haben. Nun haben nicht nur Völkermischungen und Völkerzusammenhänge, die ihren Ausdruck in der Blutmischung gefunden haben, sondern auch die geistigen und seelischen Förderungen der Volksgeister eine große Rolle gespielt. Die Anschauung jenes Hinuntersteigens ist am reinsten erhalten auf dem Grunde jener Sagenwelt, welche sich in früherer Zeit in diesen nordischen Gebieten gebildet hat. In den Wanensagen können Sie daher eine älteste Erinnerung an solche Dinge noch finden. Insbesondere war hier im Norden lebendig, in der finnischen Tradition, die Erinnerung an diese Verbindung des Geistig-Seelischen, das aus planetarischen Höhen herunterstieg, mit dem, was aus dem Erdenleib selber hervorgegangen ist und was die nordische Tradition als «Riesenheim» kennt. Was sich aus dem Erdenleib entwickelt hat, das gehört zu Riesenheim. So begreifen wir es, daß der nordisch-germanische Mensch immer den Impuls von dieser Seite her gefühlt hat, daß er fühlte, wie in seiner Seele, die sich nach und nach ausgebildet hat, dieser alte Götterblick arbeitete, der hier noch heimisch war, als die Nebelwasser der Atlantis noch hinüberreichten in diese Gegend in der alten Zeit. Es fühlte der nordisch-germanische Mensch in seiner Seele etwas von der Herkunft eines Gottes, der abstammte direkt von jenen göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten, jenen Erzengelwesenheiten, die das Zusammenfügen des Seelisch-Geistigen mit dem Irdisch-Physischen leiteten. Freyr, der Gott, und Freya, seine Schwester, die ja hier im Norden einstmals ganz besonders beliebte Gottheiten waren, waren in ihrem Ursprung gedacht und empfunden als diejenigen Engelwesen, welche in die menschliche Seele gegossen haben alles dasjenige, was diese menschliche Seele brauchte, um unmittelbar auf dem physischen Plane fortzuentwickeln die alten, durch das hellseherische Vermögen aufgenommenen Kräfte. Freyr war innerhalb der physischsinnlichen Welt, innerhalb der auf die äußeren Sinne beschränkten Welt der Fortsetzer alles dessen, was früher im Hellsehen aufgenommen worden ist. Er war die lebendige Fortsetzung der hellseherisch aufgenommenen Kräfte. Daher mußte er sich verbinden mit dem, was im menschlichen Leibe selber als physisch-leibliche Werkzeuge vorhanden ist für diese Seelenkräfte, die dann in den physischen Plan hineintragen das, was im uralten Hellsehen wahrgenommen wurde. Das spiegelt sich in der Ehe des Freyr mit Gerd, der Riesentochter. Sie ist den physischen Kräften des Erdenwerdens selber entnommen. In diesen Vorstellungen spiegelt sich noch nach das Herabsteigen des Göttlich-Geistigen in das Physische. Ganz wunderbar ist ausgedrückt in dieser Freyrgestalt, wie Freyr sich dessen bedient, was dem Menschen auf dem physischen Plane möglich macht, auszuleben das, wozu er erzogen ist durch seine vorhergehenden hellseherischen Wahrnehmungen. Bluthuf heißt das Pferd, das dem Freyr zur Verfügung steht, um anzudeuten, daß das Blut das Wesentliche ist, um sein Ich zu entwickeln. Ein merkwürdiges, wunderbares Schiff steht auch dem Freyr zur Verfügung. Ausgebreitet kann es werden ins Unermeßliche, und zusammengefaltet kann es werden, so, daß es in den kleinsten Kasten hineingeht. Was ist nun dieses Wunderschiff? Wenn Freyr die Macht ist, die hineinträgt die hellseherischen Kräfte in die Gebiete, die sich auf dem physischen Plane ausleben, dann muß es das sein, was ihm ganz besonders eigen ist: die Abwechslung zwischen Tagwachen und Nachtschlafen. Und wie die Menschenseele sich während des Schlafens bis zum Wiederaufwachen ausbreitet im Makrokosmos, so breitet sich das Wunderschiff aus und wird dann wieder zusammengefaltet in die Gehirnfalten, um dann während der Tageszeit in dem kleinsten Kasten — dem Menschenschädel — untergebracht zu werden. Das alles finden Sie in einer wunderbaren Weise in dieser nordisch-germanischen Mythologie, in diesen Bildercharakteren.

Diejenigen von Ihnen, die näher eingehen werden auf diese Dinge, werden sich nach und nach überzeugen, daß es keine Phantastik ist, sondern daß es wirklich aus den Schulen der Eingeweihten stammt, was mit diesen Bildern hineinverpflanzt, hineingeimpft worden ist in die Volksseele, in das Volksgemüt. So ist ungeheuer viel geblieben in dem leitenden Erzengel, in dem Volksgeist im Norden, von dem, was alte Erziehung war durch hellseherische Wahrnehmung, von dem, was in einer Seele werden kann, die sozusagen in ihrer Entwickelung auf dem physischen Plane sich anschließt an eine hellseherische Entwickelung.

Wenn das Außerliche heute auch anders aussieht, der Erzengel des germanischen Nordens hat in sich diese Anlage, und mit dieser Anlage ist er ganz besonders geeignet, dasjenige zu verstehen, was moderne Geisteswissenschaft ist, und es umzuwandeln in dem Sinne, wie es im Sinne volkstümlicher Kraft umgewandelt werden muß. Daher werden Sie auch verstehen, wenn gesagt wird, daß die besten Bedingungen gegeben sind gerade innerhalb des germanisch-nordischen Wesens, um das zu verstehen, was ich nur andeutend sagen konnte in dem hier gehaltenen öffentlichen Vortrage von der Wiederoffenbarung des Christus. Da zeigt uns die Geistesforschung in unserer jetzigen Zeit, daß nachdem das Kali Yuga abgelaufen ist, das fünftausend Jahre gedauert hat — ungefähr von 3100 v. Chr. bis 1899 —, im Menschen sich neue Fähigkeiten heranentwickeln. Sie werden zunächst bei einzelnen, wenigen zum Vorschein kommen, die für diese Fähigkeiten besonders geeignet sind. Da wird zum Beispiel eintreten, daß Menschen aus der naturgemäßen Evolution ihrer Fähigkeiten heraus von dem etwas sehen werden, was heute nur durch die Geisteswissenschaft, nur von der geistigen Forschung aus verkündet wird. Da wird uns erzählt, daß in Zukunft die Menschen, bei denen die Organe des Ätherleibes entwickelt sind, in immer größerer Zahl auftreten und zum Hellsehen kommen werden, zu dem man heute nur durch Schulung kommen kann. Und warum wird es so sein? Was wird der Atherleib für die Anschauung einiger Menschen haben? Menschen wird es geben, die Eindrücke haben werden, von denen ich einen etwa so schildern möchte. Es wird der Mensch etwas tun in der äußeren Welt, und er wird sich dabei gedrängt fühlen, etwas zu bemerken. Es wird ihm wie eine Art von Traumbild vor die Augen treten, das er zunächst nicht verstehen wird. Hat er aber etwas gehört von Karma, von der Gesetzmäßigkeit im Weltgeschehen, so wird er es nach und nach verstehen lernen, denn es ist das karmische Gegenbild seiner Taten in der Atherwelt, das er gesehen hat. So bilden sich nach und nach die ersten Elemente künftiger Fähigkeiten.

Diejenigen Menschen, die sich durch die Geisteswissenschaft anregen lassen, werden nach und nach erleben können — von der Mitte des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts an — eine Wiedererneuerung desjenigen, was Paulus im ätherischen Hellsehen gesehen hat als ein kommendes Mysterium, als das Mysterium des lebenden Christus. Es wird eine neue Offenbarung des Christus sein, eine Offenbarung wie sie kommen muß, wenn die menschlichen Fähigkeiten in naturgemäßer Weise sich dahin entwickeln, daß der Christus von den Menschen gesehen werden kann in der Welt, in der er seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha immer war und in der er für den Eingeweihten auch zu finden ist. In diese Welt wächst die Menschheit hinein, um vom physischen Plane aus wahrnehmen zu können, was sonst nur in den Mysterienschulen, von höheren Planen aus, gesehen wurde. Trotzdem wird die Mysterienschulung nicht überflüssig. Sie gibt die Dinge noch immer in anderer Art als sie der nichtgeschulten Seele vorliegen. Aber das, was von der Mysterienschulung gegeben wird, wird durch Umwandelung des physischen Menschenleibes das Mysterium des lebenden Christus in einer neuen Weise zeigen, wie es perspektivisch von dem physischen Plan aus gesehen werden kann, wie es im Äther wird gesehen werden können, zuerst von einzelnen Menschen, dann aber von immer mehr und mehr Menschen im Laufe der nächsten dreitausend Jahre. Dasjenige, was Paulus gesehen hat als den lebenden Christus, der in der Ätherwelt zu finden ist seit dem Ereignis von Golgatha, wird von immer mehr Menschen geschaut werden können.

Immer höher werden die Offenbarungen des Christus liegen. Das ist das Mysterium der Entwickelung des Christus. Da die Menschen zur Zeit, als das Mysterium von Golgatha sich vollzog, alles von dem physischen Plane aus auffassen sollten, so war es notwendig, daß sie auch auf dem physischen Plan den Christus sehen konnten, daß sie Nachricht von ihm bekommen und sein Walten auf dem physischen Plan bezeugen konnten. Aber die Menschheit ist auf Fortschritt angelegt, auf die Entwickelung höherer Kräfte, und derjenige müßte nichts wissen von dem Fortschritte der Menschheit, der glauben wollte, daß die Offenbarungen des Christus in derselben Weise, wie sie vor 1900 Jahren nötig war, sich wiederholen wird. Dazumal geschah sie auf dem physischen Plan, weil die Kräfte des Menschen auf den physischen Plan eingestellt waren. Aber die Kräfte des Menschen werden sich entwickeln, und dadurch wird Christus zu den erhöhten menschlichen Kräften im Laufe der nächsten 3000 Jahre immer mehr und mehr sprechen können.

Das, was ich jetzt eben gesagt habe, ist eine Wahrheit, die seit langem einzelnen wenigen Menschen mitgeteilt worden ist aus den esoterischen Schulen heraus, und es ist eine Wahrheit, die insbesondere auf dem Boden der Geisteswissenschaft heute gefunden werden muß aus dem Grunde, weil die Geisteswissenschaft eine Vorschule sein soll für dasjenige, was da kommen wird. Die Menschheit ist jetzt eingestellt auf Freiheit, auf Selbstanerkennung dessen, was sich in ihr bildet, und es könnte geschehen, daß diejenigen Menschen, die als erste Pioniere der Christus-Anschauung sich einstellen werden, als Narren verschrieen werden mit dem, was sie der Menschheit darzubieten haben, und es könnte die Menschheit weiter noch versinken in den Materialismus, als sie dies bis jetzt schon ist, und tottreten das, was eine wunderbarste Offenbarung für die Menschheit werden könnte. Alles, was in Zukunft geschehen kann, ist in gewissem Grade in den Willen der Menschheit gestellt, so daß die Menschen auch verfehlen können, was zu ihrem Heile ist. Das ist außerordentlich wichtig, daß die Geisteswissenschaft eine Vorbereitung ist für dasjenige, was die neue Christus-Offenbarung sein wird.

Der Materialismus kann in zweifacher Weise da einen Fehler machen. Der eine, der wahrscheinlich gemacht werden wird aus den Traditionen des Okzidents heraus, besteht darin, daß es als eine wilde Phantastik, als eine wüste Narretei angesehen werden wird, was die ersten Pioniere der neuen Christus-Offenbarung aus ihrer eigenen Anschauung heraus im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert verkündigen werden. Der Materialismus hat alle Kreise heute ergriffen, Er ist nicht nur im Okzident heimisch, er hat auch den Orient erfaßt; nur in einer anderen Form kommt er da zum Vorschein. Es könnte sein, daß der orientalische Materialismus dahin führen werde, daß die Menschen verkennen das Höhere einer Christus-Offenbarung auf einer höheren Stufe, und daß eintreten wird dasjenige, was hier so oft gesagt wurde und immer wieder gesagt werden wird: daß materialistisches Denken das Erscheinen des Christus in eine materialistische Anschauung umsetzen wird. Es könnte sein, daß man in jener Zeit unter dem Einfluß der geisteswissenschaftlichen Wahrheiten zwar sprechen dürfte davon, daß der Christus sich offenbaren wird, aber gleichzeitig glaubt, daß Christus in einem materiellen Leibe erscheinen wird. Das Ergebnis wäre dann ein anders gefärbter Materialismus. Da würde sich nur fortsetzen, was seit Jahrhunderten gewesen ist.

Diesen falschen Materialismus haben sich immer wieder die Menschen zunutze gemacht, und zwar so, daß sich einzelne Menschen für den wiedererschienenen Christus ausgaben. Der letzte bedeutendere Fall eines derartigen falschen Christus war im siebzehnten Jahrhundert, wo ein Mann namens Sabbatai Zewi aus Smyrna als der wiedererschienene Christus auftrat. Er hat großes Aufsehen gemacht. Zu ihm sind hingepilgert nicht nur die Menschen, die in der unmittelbaren Umgebung waren, sondern Leute aus Ungarn, Polen, Deutschland, Frankreich, Italien und Nordafrika. Überall wurde in Sabbatai Zewi die physische Inkarnation eines Messias gesehen. Ich möchte nicht die Menschheitstragik erzählen, die sich an die Persönlichkeit des Sabbatai Zewi knüpft. Im siebzehnten Jahrhundert war diese Tragik allerdings nicht besonders groß. Der Mensch war damals noch nicht so sehr unter den freien Willen gestellt; aber er konnte durch seine Erkenntnis, die ein spirituelles Empfinden war, erkennen, was die Wahrheit ist. Das Unglück wäre aber groß im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert, wenn unter dem Drucke des Materialismus die Lehre, daß Christus sich offenbaren wird, eine materialistische Ausdeutung erfahren würde in der Weise, als ob Christus im physischen Leibe wiederkommen könnte. Damit würde die Menschheit nur beweisen, daß sie keine Anschauung und keine Einsicht gewonnen hat bezüglich des wirklichen Fortschrittes der menschlichen Entwickelung zu höheren geistigen Kräften. Falsche Messiasse werden ganz gewiß auftreten, und sie werden aus dem Materialismus unserer Zeit ebenso Zuspruch erhalten, wie Sabbatai Zewi im siebzehnten Jahrhundert. Es wird eine Probe, eine harte Prüfung sein für die geistig Vorbereiteten, zu erkennen, wo die Wahrheit liegt, ob sich in die spirituellen Theorien wirklich auch spirituelles lebensvolles Empfinden hineinlebt, oder ob in diesen spirituellen Theorien nur ein versteckter Materialismus lebt. Das wird die Probe sein auf die Fortentwickelung der Geisteswissenschaft, ob Menschen genug durch diese Geisteswissenschaft entwickelt sein werden, welche einsehen können, daß sie den Geist im Geiste zu schauen haben, daß sie hinaufzuschauen haben in die ätherische Welt, hinaufzuschauen auf eine Neuoffenbarung des Christus, oder ob sie auf dem physischen Plane stehen bleiben und eine Offenbarung im physischen Leibe, die sich auf den Christus bezieht, sehen wollen. Diese Prüfung wird unsere Bewegung noch bestehen müssen. Wir können aber sagen, daß nirgends besser der Boden vorbereitet ist, gerade auf diesem Gebiete die Wahrheit zu erkennen, als da, wo die germanisch-nordische Mythologie ersprossen ist.

In dem, was uns als Götterdämmerung überliefert ist, ist eine bedeutsame Zukunftsvision enthalten, und damit komme ich auf ein Kapitel, von dem ich sozusagen schon den Ausgangspunkt angedeutet habe. Ich habe Ihnen gesagt, daß innerhalb einer Volksgemeinschaft, die das, was hellscherische Vergangenheit ist, erst so kurze Zeit hinter sich hat, auch ein hellseherischer Sinn in dem leitenden Volksgeiste entwickelt ist, um das, was uns hellseherisch erblüht, wieder zu verstehen. Wenn nun eine Menschheit gerade auf dem Boden die neue Zeit mit neuen menschlichen Fähigkeiten erlebt, wo die germanisch-nordische Mythologie erblühte, da soll sie verstehen, daß dasjenige, was altes Hellsehen war, eine andere Gestalt erfahren muß, nachdem der Mensch durchgegangen ist durch die Entwickelung des physischen Planes. Da hat eine Weile geschwiegen das, was aus dem alten Hellsehen heraus gesprochen hat; da hat eine Weile hinter dem Menschen gestanden, sich dem menschlichen Blicke entzogen die Welt des Odin und Thor, des Baldur und Hödur, des Freyr und der Freya. Aber hervorkommen wird sie wieder in einer Zeit, wo andere Kräfte mittlerweile an der menschlichen Seele gearbeitet haben. Wenn diese menschliche Seele mit dem neuen Hellsehen, das mit ätherischem Hellsehen beginnt, hineinschauen wird in die neue Welt, dann wird sie sehen, daß sie sich nicht halten kann an die alten Formen der die Seele erziehenden Kräfte. Würde sie sich daran halten können, dann würden auch all die Gegenkräfte hervortreten gegen die Kraft, die in alten Zeiten hat erziehen sollen die menschlichen Kräfte zu einer gewissen Höhe. Odin und Thor werden wieder dastehen vor dem Blicke der Menschheit, jetzt aber so, daß die menschliche Seele eine neue Entwickelung durchgemacht haben wird. Der menschlichen Seele wird alles erscheinen, was die Gegenkräfte des Odin und Thor sind. Alles, was sich als Gegenkraft entwickelt hat, wird in einem gewaltigen Tableau wieder sichtbar werden. Aber nicht vorwärtskommen würde die menschliche Seele, nicht wehren gegen Schädliches würde sie sich können, wenn sie sich nur den Kräften unterwerfen würde, welche im alten Hellsehen gesehen worden sind. Thor hat einst den Menschen das Ich gegeben. Das Ich hat sich erzogen auf dem physischen Plane, hat sich herausentwickelt aus dem, was Loki, die luziferische Gewalt, im Astralleibe zurückgelassen hatte, aus der Midgardschlange. Das, was einst Thor geben konnte, und worüber die menschliche Seele hinauswächst, das steht im Kampfe mit dem, was aus der Midgardschlange kommt. Das tritt uns in der nordischen Mythologie als der mit der Midgardschlange kämpfende Thor entgegen. Gegenseitig halten sie sich das Gleichgewicht, das heißt sie töten einander. Ebenso waltet Odin gegen den Fenriswolf, wobei dieser den Odin vernichtet. Dasjenige, was eine Weile die menschliche Seelenkraft gebildet hat, Freyr, das muß unterliegen demjenigen, was dem auf dem physischen Plan mittlerweile herangezogenen Ich aus den Erdenkräften selber heraus gegeben worden ist. Freyr unterliegt dem Flammenschwert des aus der Erde entsprossenen Surtur.

Alle diese Einzelheiten, die in der Götterdämmerung hingestellt sind, werden dem entsprechen, was in einer neuen, in die Zukunft wirklich hineinweisenden Äthervision vor der Menschheit stehen wird. Zurückbleiben wird der Fenriswolf. Oh, darin, daß dieser Fenriswolf zurückbleibt im Kampfe gegen Odin, verbirgt sich eine tiefe, tiefe Wahrheit. Es wird in der nächsten Zukunft der Menschheit nichts so sehr gefährlich werden, als wenn der Hang, beim alten, nicht durch neue Kräfte entwickelten Hellsehen zu bleiben, die Menschen dazu verführen könnte, stehen zu bleiben bei dem, was das alte, astrale Hellsehen in Urzeiten geben konnte, nämlich solche Seelenbilder wie der Fenriswolf. Es wäre wieder eine harte Prüfung für dasjenige, was auf dem Boden der Geisteswissenschaft erwachsen muß, wenn etwa auch auf diesem Boden der Hang entstehen würde zu allerlei ungeklärtem, chaotischem Hellsehen, die Neigung, nicht das von Vernunft und Wissenschaft durchleuchtete Hellsehen höher zu schätzen, sondern das alte, chaotische, dem dieser Vorzug abgeht.

Mit furchtbarer Gewalt würden sich rächen solche Überbleibsel alten Hellsehens, die mit allerlei chaotischen Bildern die Anschauungen der Menschen verwirren könnten. Einem solchen Hellsehen könnte nicht mit demjenigen begegnet werden, was selber aus alter Hellseherkraft entstand, sondern nur mit dem, was während des Kali Yuga als gesunde Kraft zu einem neuen Hellsehen herangebildet worden ist. Nicht dasjenige, was an Kraft der alte Erzengel Odin gegeben hat, nicht die alten hellseherischen Kräfte können retten; da muß etwas weit anderes kommen. Dieses andere aber kennt die germanischnordische Mythologie. Von dem weiß sie, daß es vorhanden ist. Sie weiß, daß die Athergestalt lebt, in der sich inkarnieren soll dasjenige, was wir wiedersehen sollen als ätherische Christusgestalt. Und dieser erst wird es gelingen, auszutreiben, was an ungeklärter hellseherischer Kraft die Menschheit verwirren wird, wenn Odin nicht vernichtet den Fenriswolf, der nichts anderes repräsentiert als die zurückgebliebene Hellseherkraft. Widar, der sich schweigend verhalten hat während der ganzen Zeit, der wird den Fenriswolf überwinden. Das sagt uns auch die Götterdämmerung.

Wer Widar in seiner Bedeutung erkennt und ihn in seiner Seele fühlt, der wird finden, daß im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert den Menschen wieder die Fähigkeit gegeben werden kann, den Christus zu schauen. Der Widar wird wieder vor ihm stehen, der uns allen gemeinschaftlich ist in Nord- und Mittel-Europa. Er wurde geheim gehalten in den Mysterien und Geheimschulen als ein Gott, der erst in Zukunft seine Mission erhalten wird. Selbst von seinem Bilde wird nur unbestimmt gesprochen. Das mag hervorgehen daraus, daß ein Bild in der Nähe von Köln gefunden worden ist, von dem man nicht weiß, wen es darstellt, das aber nichts anderes bedeutet als ein Bildnis von Widar.

Durch das Kali Yuga hindurch wurden die Kräfte erworben, die die neuen Menschen befähigen sollen, die neue Christus-Offenbarung zu schauen. Diejenigen, welche berufen sind, aus den Zeichen der Zeit heraus zu deuten das, was da kommen muß, wissen, daß die neue Geistesforschung wieder aufrichten wird die Kraft Widars, der alles dasjenige aus den Gemütern der Menschen vertreiben wird, was als Überbleibsel chaotischer alter Hellseherkräfte verwirrend wirken könnte, und der das neu sich heranentwickelnde Hellsehen in der menschlichen Brust, in der menschlichen Seele wachrufen wird.

So sehen wir, indem uns aus der Götterdämmerung herausglänzt die wundersame Gestalt des Widar, daß uns sozusagen eine Hoffnung für die Zukunft aus der germanisch-nordischen Mythologie entgegenleuchtet. Indem wir uns verwandt fühlen gerade mit der Gestalt des Widar, den wir nun in seiner tieferen Wesenheit erfassen wollen, hoffen wir, daß dasjenige, was der Grundnerv und die lebendige Essenz alles geisteswissenschaftlichen Wesens sein muß, sich aus jenen Kräften, welche der Erzengel der germanisch-nordischen Welt zu der modernen Zeitentwickelung hinzubringen kann, wird ergeben können. Ein Teil erst von einem größeren Ganzen ist für den fünften nachatlantischen Kulturzeitraum an Menschheits- und Geistesentwickelung geleistet worden, ein anderer Teil muß noch geleistet werden. Am meisten werden zu dieser Leistung beizutragen haben diejenigen aus der Summe der nordisch-germanischen Völker heraus, die in sich fühlen, daß sie elementare, frische Völkerkraft in sich haben. Aber es wird das gewissermaßen in die Seelen der Menschen gelegt werden. Sie werden sich selbst entschließen müssen, zu arbeiten. Im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert kann man irren, weil es in gewisser Weise in die Freiheit der Menschen gestellt sein muß, was erreicht werden soll, weil es nicht unter Zwang gesetzt sein darf. Daher handelt es sich darum, ein richtiges Verständnis dessen zu haben, was kommen soll. So sehen Sie, daß, wenn aus unserer heutigen Geisteswissenschaft herausspricht die Erkenntnis des Christus-Wesens, und wenn wir anknüpfen an die wahre Erkenntnis dieses Christus-Wesens, das wir aus europäischen Volkssubstanzen selber heraussuchen, wenn wir daran knüpfen unsere Zukunftshoffnungen, so beruht das wirklich nicht auf irgendeiner Vorliebe oder irgendeiner Temperamentsanlage.

Es ist manchmal gesagt worden, daß man nennen könne wie man wolle dasjenige, was man als erstes Wesen in der Menschheitsevolution bezeichnen kann. Niemals wird derjenige, der das ChristusWesen erkennt, sich darauf versteifen, daß der Name des Christus bleibt. Aber, wenn wir den Christus-Impuls im richtigen Sinne verstehen, so werden wir auch nicht so sprechen, daß wir sagen: Ein Wesen lebt in der Menschheitsevolution, in der Menschheit des Westens und Ostens, und das muß so sein, daß es den Sympathien der Menschheit für diese oder jene Wahrheit entspricht. — Das ist nicht okkultistisch. Okkultistisch ist es, daß in dem Augenblicke, wo man erkennen würde, daß dieses Wesen getauft werden müßte auf den Namen des Buddha, dies rückhaltlos getan wird, ganz gleich, ob es einem sympathisch oder antipathisch ist. Nicht auf Sympathie oder Antipathie kommt es also an, sondern auf die Wahrheit der Tatsachen.

In dem Augenblicke, wo uns die Tatsachen anders belehren würden, wären wir bereit, anders zu handeln. Einzig und allein die Tatsachen müssen maßgebend sein. Wir wollen keinen Orientalismus und keinen Okzidentalismus hineintragen in das, was wir als eigentliches Lebensblut unserer Geisteswissenschaft ansehen, und wenn wir herausfinden sollten in der nordisch-germanischen Erzengelwelt dasjenige, was einen befruchtenden Keim abgeben kann für die wahrhafte Geisteswissenschaft, so wird es etwas sein, was nicht gegeben wird auf diesem Boden für ein einzelnes Volk oder einen einzelnen Stamm, sondern was der gesamten Menschheit gegeben wird. Das, was der gesamten Menschheit gegeben wird, gegeben werden muß, kann zwar an diesem oder jenem Orte entspringen, gegeben werden muß es aber der gesamten Menschheit. Wir kennen nicht einen Unterschied zwischen Orient und Okzident; wir nehmen mit inniger Liebe dasjenige auf, was wir als das überwältigend Große der uralten Kultur der heiligen Rishis in ihrer wahren Gestalt kennen; wir nehmen mit Liebe auf die persische Kultur, nehmen mit Liebe auf dasjenige, was wir als ägyptisch-chaldäische und griechisch-lateinische Kulturen kennen; wir nehmen auch mit ebensolcher Objektivität auf, was uns aus dem europäischen Boden erwachsen ist. Nur die Notwendigkeit der Tatsachen zwingt uns, die Angaben so zu machen, wie sie gemacht werden.

Indem wir alles empfangen von der gesamten Menschheit, alles, was jede Religion beizutragen hat zum Kulturprozeß der Menschheit, aufnehmen in das, was wir heute erkennen, was wir heute Gemeingut der Menschheit nennen, indem wir das mehr und mehr tun, sind wir gerade im Sinne des Christus-Prinzips tätig. Da es fortentwickelungsfähig ist, so müssen wir das überwinden, was es in den ersten Jahrhunderten und Jahrtausenden durchmachen mußte, wo das ChristusPrinzip in den unvollkommensten Anfängen begriffen war. Wir sehen nicht in diese Vergangenheit, lassen uns auch nicht von ihr belehren. Uns liegt nichts an dieser Überlieferung, uns liegt in der Hauptsache an dem, was aus der geistigen Welt heraus erforscht werden kann. Deshalb sehen wir das Wichtigste des Christus-Prinzips nicht in dem, was war — und wenn es noch so oft betont wird, aus der Tradition heraus —, sondern in dem, was da kommen wird. Wir berufen uns nicht so sehr auf das, was historisch überliefert wird, sondern suchen zu wissen das, was da kommen wird. Das ist der Schwerpunkt des Christus-Impulses, der in den Anfang.des christlichen Zeitalters fällt, und wir geben nicht viel auf das Außerlich-Historische. Nachdem das Christentum die Kinderkrankheiten durchgemacht hat, wird es sich weiter entwickeln. Es ist auch in fremde Länder gegangen und wollte die Menschen zu dem bekehren, was man in den einzelnen christlichen Dogmen eines Zeitalters gehabt hat. Vor unserer Seele steht aber ein Christentum, von dem wir wissen, daß Christus in allen Zeiten wirksam war, und daß wir Christus finden werden an allen Orten, wohin wir kommen, daß das Christus-Prinzip das allergeistes wissenschaftlichste Prinzip ist. Und wenn der Buddhismus nur als Buddhisten gelten läßt diejenigen, welche auf Buddha schwören, dann wird das Christentum dasjenige sein, das auf keinen Propheten schwört, weil es nicht unter dem Eindruck eines völkischen Religionsstifters steht, sondern den Menschheitsgott anerkennt.

Derjenige, der das Christentum kennt, weiß, daß es sich dabei um ein Mysterium handelt, das auf Golgatha auf dem physischen Plane zur Anschauung gekommen ist. Die Anschauung dieses Mysteriums ist es, die uns in der Richtung führt, die ich geschildert habe. Man kann auch wissen, daß das geistige Leben zur Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha ein solches war, daß dieses Mysterium gerade so in jener Zeit erlebt werden mußte, wie es erlebt worden ist von der Menschheit. Wir lassen uns keine Dogmen aufdrängen, auch nicht die Dogmen der christlichen Vergangenheit, und wenn uns aufgedrängt werden sollte ein Dogma von der einen oder anderen Seite, dann würden wir es im Sinne des wahrhaft verstandenen Christus-Prinzipes zurückweisen. Mögen noch so viele Menschen kommen und den geschichtlichen Christus in ein konfessionelles Bekenntnis zwängen, oder mögen sie falsch nennen das, was wir als Zukunfts-Christus schauen, wir lassen uns nicht beirren dadurch, wenn uns von ihnen gesagt wird: So oder so muß der Christus sein, — auch wenn es von denen gesagt wird, die verstehen sollten, wer der Christus ist. Ebensowenig darf die Christus-Wesenheit gedrückt und beengt werden aus den orientalischen Traditionen heraus, ebensowenig eine Färbung erhalten durch die Dogmen des orientalischen Dogmatismus. Frei und unabhängig von jeder Tradition und jeder Autorität will das vor die Menschheit hintreten, was aus den Quellen des Okkultismus heraus gerade über diese Zukunftsevolution zu sagen ist.

Wunderbar erscheint es mir, wie die Menschen sich auf diesem Boden verstehen können. Immer und immer wieder ist mir in diesen Tagen von den hierher gereisten Nicht-Norden gesagt worden, wie sie sich gegenüber den Persönlichkeiten des skandinavischen Nordens so frei gefühlt haben. Viele haben das ausgesprochen. Ein Beweis dafür, wie wir uns, vielleicht noch für manche unbewußt, in dem tiefsten Wesen der Geistes-Erkenntnis verstehen können, wie wir uns namentlich in dem verstehen werden, was ich schon bei dem letzten «Theosophischen Kongreß» in Budapest hervorhob, und was ich wiederholte während unserer eigenen Generalversammlung in Berlin, wo wir die große Freude hatten, auch Freunde aus dem Norden bei uns zu sehen. Schlecht wäre es für die Geisteswissenschaft, wenn derjenige, der noch nicht in das geistige Gebiet hineinschauen kann, auf blinden Glauben hin annehmen müßte dasjenige, was gesagt wird. Ich bitte Sie und habe Sie gebeten in Berlin, nichts auf Autorität und Glauben hinzunehmen, was ich jemals gesagt habe oder sagen werde. Es gibt, auch bevor der Mensch die hellseherische Stufe erreicht, die Möglichkeit, dasjenige zu prüfen, was aus hellseherischer Beobachtung heraus gewonnen wird. Was ich je gesagt habe über Zarathustra und Jesus von Nazareth, über Hermes und Moses, über Odin und 'Thor, über den Christus Jesus selber, ich bitte Sie nicht, es zu glauben und meine Worte auf Autorität hin anzunehmen. Ich bitte Sie, sich abzugewöhnen das Autoritätsprinzip; denn von Übel würde das Autoritätsprinzip für uns werden.

Ich weiß aber ganz gewiß, wenn Sie anfangen, nachzudenken mit unbefangenem Wahrheitssinn, wenn Sie sagen: Das wird uns gesagt; prüfen wir die uns zugänglichen Urkunden, die Religions- und mythologischen Dokumente, prüfen wir, was uns sagt jegliche Naturwissenschaft, — so werden Sie die Richtigkeit des Gesagten einsehen. Nehmen Sie alles zu Hilfe, und je mehr Sie zu Hilfe nehmen können, desto besser. Ich bin unbesorgt. Was aus den Quellen des Rosenkreuzertums heraus gesagt wird, Sie können es prüfen mit allen Mitteln. Prüfen Sie mit der materialistischen Kritik an den Evangelien, was ich über den Christus Jesus gesagt habe, prüfen Sie, was ich über Geschichte gesagt habe, an allen Quellen, die Ihnen zugänglich sind, prüfen Sie so genau als möglich mit den Mitteln, die Ihnen für den äußerlich-physischen Plan zu Gebote stehen! Ich bin überzeugt, je genauer Sie prüfen, um so mehr werden Sie das, was aus den Quellen des Rosenkreuzermysteriums heraus gesagt wird, der Wahrheit entsprechend finden. Darauf rechne ich, daß die Mitteilungen, welche aus dem Rosenkreuzertum heraus gemacht werden, nicht geglaubt, sondern geprüft werden, nicht oberflächlich, mit den oberflächlichen Methoden der gegenwärtigen Wissenschaft, sondern immer gewissenhafter und gewissenhafter. Nehmen Sie alles, was die neueste Naturwissenschaft mit ihren neuesten Methoden Ihnen bieten kann, nehmen Sie alles, was die historischen oder religiösen Forschungen ergeben haben — ich bin unbesorgt. Je mehr Sie prüfen, desto mehr werden Sie bewahrheitet finden, was aus dieser Quelle heraus gesagt worden ist. Sie sollen nichts auf die Autorität hin annehmen. Das sind die besten Schüler der Geist-Erkenntnis, die das, was gesagt wird, zunächst als Anregung empfangen und es dann in den Dienst des Lebens stellen, um es am Leben zu prüfen. Denn auch im Leben, auf jeder Stufe des Lebens, werden Sie prüfen können das, was aus den Quellen des Rosenkreuzertums heraus gesagt wird. Fern liegt es der Gesinnung, die dieser Darstellung zugrunde liegt, ein Dogma hinzustellen und zu sagen: Dies oder jenes ist so und so und muß geglaubt werden. Prüfen Sie das an dem, was Ihnen jetzt schon an seelisch markigen und gesunden Menschen entgegentreten kann, und Sie werden das selbst bewahrheitet finden, was wie ein prophetischer Hinweis auf die zukünftige Christus-Offenbarung gesagt worden ist. Sie brauchen nur die Augen aufzumachen und unbefangen zu prüfen. Keine Anforderung an den Autoritätsglauben wird gestellt. Das ist eine Art Grundstimmung, die wie ein roter Faden alles geistige Empfangen durchdringen sollte.

Also, ans Herz legen möchte ich Ihnen: Es ist nicht wahrhaft theosophisch, etwas als Dogma anzunehmen, weil es dieser oder jener gesagt hat; wahrhaft theosophisch ist es, sich anregen zu lassen aus der Geisteswissenschaft und das Empfangene im Leben zu prüfen. Da wird hinwegschwinden das, was eine wahrhaft theosophische Anschauung von irgendeiner Seite her färben könnte. Nicht orientalische, nicht okzidentalische Nuancen dürfen unsere Anschauungen färben. Der, welcher im rosenkreuzerischen Sinne spricht, kennt nicht Orientalismus und nicht Okzidentalismus; für ihn sind beide gleich sympathisch. Er stellt allein aus der inneren Natur der Tatsachen die Wahrheit dar. Das ist dasjenige, was wir ins Auge fassen müssen, insbesondere ins Auge fassen müssen in einem so wichtigen Moment, wo wir hingewiesen haben auf den Volksgeist, der waltet in all den nördlichen Gebieten. In ihnen lebt der germanisch-nordisch-mythologische Geist, wenn er auch heute noch unter der Oberfläche lebt, und er lebt viel weiter verbreitet in Europa, als man denkt. Wenn ein nördlicher Völkerstreit entstehen könnte, so könnte er nicht darin bestehen, daß ein Volksteil dem anderen streitig macht dasjenige, was zu geben ist, sondern daß ein jedes Volk Selbsterkenntnis übt und sich frägt: Was ist das Beste, was ich geben kann ? Dann wird schon auf den gemeinsamen Altar fließen das, was zum Gesamtfortschritt, zur Gesamtwohlfahrt der Menschheit führt. Die Quellen dessen, was wir bringen können, liegen im Individuellen. Der germanisch-nordische Erzengel wird der gesamten Menschheitskultur der Zukunft gerade das bringen, wozu er veranlagt ist durch die mitbekommenen Anlagen, welche wir annähernd charakterisiert haben. Er ist aber insbesondere befähigt, zu bewirken, daß das, was in der ersten Hälfte der fünften nachatlantischen Kulturzeit noch nicht gegeben werden konnte, sich in der zweiten Hälfte noch abspielen kann, nämlich das, was als geistiges Element, prophetisch keimhaft, in der slawischen Philosophie und Volksempfindung gezeigt werden konnte. Solange sich das im Vorbereitungsstadium befindet, muß die erste Hälfte der fünften nachatlantischen Kulturperiode zurückgelegt werden. Zunächst konnte da nur erreicht werden eine fein sublimierte geistige Anschauung als Philosophie. Von den Volkskräften muß diese dann erfaßt und durchdrungen werden, damit sie allgemeines Menschheitsgut werden kann, damit sie verständlich werden kann auf den weiten Terrains unseres Erdenlebens. Versuchen Sie es einmal, ob wir uns auf diesem Gebiete verstehen können; dann wird dieses sonst etwas gefährliche Thema doch nicht böse Früchte getragen haben, wenn wir alles, was hier zusammengekommen ist aus Nord-, Süd- und Ost-, West- und Mitteleuropa, so empfinden, daß es wichtig ist innerhalb der gesamten Menschheit; wenn wir fühlen, daß die großen Völker sowohl als die kleinen Volkssplitter ihre Mission haben und beizutragen haben ihren Teil für das Ganze. Zuweilen haben kleine Volkssplitter, weil sie alte oder neue Seelenmotive bewahren sollen, Allerwichtigstes beizutragen. So kann, selbst wenn wir auch diese gefährliche Frage zum Gegenstand der Darstellung machen, nichts anderes dabei herauskommen als die Grundempfindung einer Seelengemeinschaft aller derjenigen, die vereinigt sind im Zeichen geisteswissenschaftlichen Denkens und Fühlens und der geisteswissenschaftlichen Ideale.

Nur dann, wenn wir noch aus unseren Sympathien und Antipathien heraus empfinden würden, wenn wir undeutlich den Kern unserer Weltbewegung erfaßt hätten, könnten Mißverständnisse entstehen aus dem, was gesagt worden ist. Haben wir aber das erfaßt, was als Geist in diesen Vorträgen waltet, dann können auch die Dinge, die uns da entgegengetreten sind, dazu verhelfen, daß wir den festen Entschluß und das hohe Ideal fassen, dasjenige beizutragen zu dem gemeinsamen Ziele — jeder auf seinem Standpunkte und auf seinem Boden —, was in unserer Mission liegt. Wir können das am besten mit dem, was aus unserem Selbst, aus dem entspringt, wozu wir veranlagt sind. Wir dienen der gesamten Menschheit am besten, wenn wir das in uns besonders Veranlagte entwickeln, um es der gesamten Menschheit einzuverleiben als ein Opfer, das wir dem fortschreitenden Kulturstrom bringen. Das müssen wir verstehen lernen. Verstehen müssen wir lernen, daß es schlimm wäre, wenn die Geisteswissenschaft nicht beitragen würde zur Entwickelung von Mensch, Engel und Erzengel, sondern beitragen würde zur Überwindung einer Volksgesinnung durch die andere. Nicht dazu ist die Geisteswissenschaft da, dazu zu verhelfen, daß sich das, was als religiöses Bekenntnis irgendwo auf der Erde herrscht, ein anderes Gebiet erobern kann. Würde jemals der Okzident durch den Orient erobert werden oder umgekehrt, so entspräche das durchaus nicht der geisteswissenschaftlichen Gesinnung. Allein das entspricht ihr, wenn wir unser Bestes, rein Menschliches für die gesamte Menschheit hingeben. Und wenn wir ganz in uns selber leben, aber nicht für uns, sondern für alle Menschen, so ist das wahrhafte geisteswissenschaftliche Toleranz. Das sind Worte, die ich anschließen mußte an unser bedenkliches Thema.

Durch die Geisteswissenschaft — das werden wir immer mehr einsehen — wird alle Menschen-Zersplitterung aufhören. Deshalb ist gerade jetzt die richtige Zeit, die Volksseelen kennen zu lernen, weil die Geisteswissenschaft da ist, die uns dazu bringt, die Volksseelen nicht einander gegenüber zu stellen in Opposition, sondern sie aufzurufen zu harmonischem Zusammenwirken. Je besser wir das verstehen, desto bessere Schüler der Geist-Erkenntnis werden wir sein, Dahin sollen die Darstellungen, die wir gegeben haben, zunächst ausklingen. Ausklingen muß ja doch zuletzt das, was wir an Erkenntnissen sammeln, in unserem Empfinden, Fühlen und Denken und in unserem geisteswissenschaftlichen Ideal. Je mehr wir dieses leben, desto bessere Schüler der Geisterkenntnis sind wir. Ich habe erlebt, daß manche von denen, die mit heraufgezogen sind nach dem Norden, den besten Eindruck erhalten haben, was bei ihnen dadurch zum Ausdruck kam, daß sich ihnen das Wort auf die Lippen drängte: «Wie gern ich hier im Norden bin !»

Und wenn wir mit den Worten des schweigsamen Asen Widar sprechen wollen: Wenn hohe Kräfte in der Menschheit in Zukunft erwacht sein werden, die wir ganz gewiß vor unseren Augen sehen werden, dann wird er der tätige, der aktive Freund des Zusammenarbeitens, des Zusammen-Fleißigseins sein, in dessen Sinne wir alle zusammengewesen sind. Lassen Sie uns in diesem Sinne nach einigen Tagen des Beisammenseins wieder räumlich scheiden, uns aber im Geiste in diesem Sinne immer beisammen sein. Woher wir auch als Schüler der Geist-Erkenntnis kommen, von weit oder nah, mögen wir uns stets in Harmonie zusammenfinden, auch wenn wir uns einmal bei einem Thema fragen, was die Individualitäten dieser oder jener Erdengebiete sind. Wir wissen, daß das nur einzelne Opferflammen sind, die nicht auseinander züngeln, sondern zusammenschlagen werden zu dem gewaltigen Opferfeuer, das zum Wohle der Menschheit zusammenschlagen muß durch die geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung, die uns so sehr am Herzen liegt und tief in unserer Seele wurzelt.

Eleventh Lecture

At the beginning of these, our last reflections, I can truly say that there is still very, very much to discuss, and that, in fact, only the smallest fraction of what could be said on this rich topic has actually been discussed in the course of this lecture series. However, I can hope that this is not the last time we will discuss similar topics here, and it must suffice for now to merely touch upon this topic, which in a certain respect still presents some difficulties for further discussion at the present time. A common thread ran through the last few presentations, namely that Germanic-Nordic mythology or theology contains something that, in an imaginative form, ties in wonderfully with everything we can extract in a cognitive form from the spiritual research of our present day. This is now also one of the reasons why we may hope that the spirit of that people, that archangel, which extends its educational and guiding activity over this country, with what it has developed as its predispositions over the centuries, will permeate what can be called modern philosophy, modern spiritual research, and that from there this modern spiritual research will attain a fertilization in the popular sense.

The further we delve into the details of Germanic-Nordic mythology, the more we see that the greatest occult truths are wonderfully expressed in the images of this mythology, as is truly the case in no other mythology. Some of you who have read my “Secret Science” or listened to other presentations I have been permitted to give here may remember that once, in the course of Earth's evolution, a process took place which we can describe as the descent of those human souls who, in ancient times, before the old Lemurian period, ascended to the individual planets of our planetary system, who, for very special reasons, ascended to Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, and that during the last Lemurian and the entire Atlantean periods, they sought to unite with what the human body had gradually developed and formed in terms of predispositions, which had become possible through the departure of the Moon from our Earth. There they descended, these Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury souls. This is a process that can still be found today in the Akashic Records. During the Atlantean period, water penetrated the air of Atlantis in the form of mist. This was a condition that was connected with the descent of these souls, which could be perceived through the ancient clairvoyance of the Atlantean period. Time and again, when new beings were born into what were then still plastic, soft, flexible, malleable bodies, when they descended, so to speak, from spiritual heights, this was regarded as the outward expression of souls descending from the spiritual environment, from the atmosphere, from planetary existence, in order to unite with the bodies emerging on Earth.

The process by which the earthly bodies, as it were, open themselves to the fertilization of what radiates down from the heights of heaven has been preserved in the view that has become implanted in Norse-Germanic mythology. The awareness of this has been preserved for so long that even Tacitus still found it among the southern Germanic peoples at the time when he made the observations he described in his “Germania.” No one will understand Tacitus' account of the goddess Nerthus who does not know that this process once existed. The chariot of the goddess Nerthus is driven over the waters. Later, this was preserved as a ritual, a rite. In earlier times, it was an observation. This goddess offered what could be offered from human bodies to the human souls descending from the planetary spheres. This is the mysterious process underlying the Nerthus myth, which has been preserved in all that has been handed down to us in the older sagas and legends that point to the becoming of the physical human being. Njordr, who is inwardly related to the goddess Nerthus, is the male counterpart. He is supposed to represent the ancient memory of the descent of the spiritual-soul human beings who had once ascended to planetary heights and who descended again during the Atlantean period in order to reunite with physical human bodies.

From my little book “Blood is a Very Special Juice,” you can learn what a significant role intermingling of peoples and connections between peoples played at certain times. Now, it was not only intermingling of peoples and connections between peoples, which found expression in the mixing of blood, but also the spiritual and soul development of the folk spirits that played a major role. The view of this descent is preserved in its purest form at the bottom of the world of legends that formed in these Nordic regions in earlier times. In the legends of the Vanir, you can therefore still find the oldest memories of such things. Here in the north, in the Finnish tradition, the memory of this connection between the spiritual and soul aspects that descended from planetary heights and what emerged from the earth itself, known in Nordic tradition as the “home of the giants,” was particularly vivid. What developed from the earth belongs to the home of the giants. This is how we understand that the Nordic-Germanic human being always felt the impulse from this side, that he felt how this ancient divine vision, which was still at home here when the misty waters of Atlantis still reached this region in ancient times, was at work in his soul, which had gradually developed. The Nordic-Germanic human being felt in his soul something of the origin of a god who descended directly from those divine-spiritual beings, those archangelic beings who guided the union of the soul-spiritual with the earthly-physical. Freyr, the god, and Freya, his sister, who were once particularly popular deities here in the north, were originally conceived and perceived as angelic beings who poured into the human soul everything that the human soul needed in order to immediately develop on the physical plane the ancient powers that had been received through clairvoyance. Freyr was, within the physical-sensory world, within the world limited to the outer senses, the continuer of everything that had previously been received through clairvoyance. He was the living continuation of the clairvoyantly received forces. Therefore, he had to connect with what is available in the human body itself as physical-bodily tools for these soul forces, which then carry into the physical plane what was perceived in ancient clairvoyance. This is reflected in the marriage of Freyr to Gerd, the giantess. She is taken from the physical forces of earthly becoming itself. These ideas still reflect the descent of the divine-spiritual into the physical. The figure of Freyr wonderfully expresses how Freyr makes use of what is possible for human beings on the physical plane to live out what they have been educated to do through their previous clairvoyant perceptions. Bluthuf is the name of the horse at Freyr's disposal, indicating that blood is essential for developing one's ego. Freyr also has a strange and wonderful ship at his disposal. It can be spread out to an immeasurable size and folded up so that it fits into the smallest box. What, then, is this wonderful ship? If Freyr is the power that carries clairvoyant forces into the realms that manifest themselves on the physical plane, then it must be that which is particularly characteristic of him: the alternation between waking and sleeping. And just as the human soul spreads out in the macrocosm during sleep until it awakens again, so the wonderful ship spreads out and is then folded up again into the folds of the brain, to be housed during the daytime in the smallest box—the human skull. You will find all this in a wonderful way in this Nordic-Germanic mythology, in these pictorial characters.

Those of you who delve deeper into these things will gradually become convinced that this is not fantasy, but that it really comes from the schools of the initiates, which has been implanted, inoculated into the soul of the people, into the national spirit. Thus, an enormous amount has remained in the guiding archangel, in the folk spirit of the North, from what was ancient education through clairvoyant perception, from what can become in a soul that, so to speak, in its development on the physical plane connects with a clairvoyant development.

Even if the outward appearance is different today, the archangel of the Germanic North has this predisposition within himself, and with this predisposition he is particularly suited to understanding what modern spiritual science is and to transforming it in the sense in which it must be transformed in the sense of popular power. You will therefore understand when it is said that the best conditions exist within the Germanic-Nordic nature for understanding what I have only been able to hint at in this public lecture on the reappearance of Christ. Spiritual research in our present time shows us that after the Kali Yuga, which lasted five thousand years — approximately from 3100 BC to 1899 — new abilities are developing in human beings. They will first appear in a few individuals who are particularly suited to these abilities. For example, through the natural evolution of their abilities, people will see something that today can only be proclaimed through spiritual science, through spiritual research. We are told that in the future, people whose etheric body organs are developed will appear in ever greater numbers and will attain clairvoyance, which today can only be attained through training. And why will this be so? What will the etheric body mean for the perception of some people? There will be people who will have impressions of which I would like to describe one. A person will do something in the outer world and feel compelled to notice something. It will appear before his eyes like a kind of dream image, which he will not understand at first. But if they have heard something about karma, about the laws governing world events, they will gradually come to understand it, for what they have seen is the karmic counterpart of their deeds in the etheric world. In this way, the first elements of future abilities gradually form.

Those people who are inspired by spiritual science will gradually experience — from the middle of the twentieth century onwards — a renewal of what Paul saw in etheric clairvoyance as a coming mystery, as the mystery of the living Christ. It will be a new revelation of Christ, a revelation that must come when human abilities develop in a natural way so that Christ can be seen by people in the world where he has always been since the mystery of Golgotha and where he can also be found by the initiated. Humanity is growing into this world in order to be able to perceive from the physical plane what was previously only seen in the mystery schools, from higher planes. Nevertheless, mystery training will not become superfluous. It still presents things in a different way than they appear to the untrained soul. But what is given through mystery training will, through the transformation of the physical human body, reveal the mystery of the living Christ in a new way, as it can be seen in perspective from the physical plane, as it will be seen in the ether, first by individual human beings, but then by more and more people over the course of the next three thousand years. What Paul saw as the living Christ, who has been to be found in the etheric world since the event of Golgotha, will be seen by more and more people.

The revelations of Christ will become ever higher. That is the mystery of Christ's development. Since people at the time when the mystery of Golgotha took place were to understand everything from the physical plane, it was necessary that they could also see Christ on the physical plane, that they could receive news of him and witness his working on the physical plane. But humanity is destined to progress, to develop higher powers, and anyone who wanted to believe that the revelations of Christ would be repeated in the same way as they were necessary 1,900 years ago would have to know nothing about the progress of humanity. At that time, they took place on the physical plane because human powers were attuned to the physical plane. But human powers will develop, and through this Christ will be able to speak more and more to the elevated human powers over the course of the next 3,000 years.

What I have just said is a truth that has long been communicated to a few individuals from esoteric schools, and it is a truth that must be found today, especially on the ground of spiritual science, because spiritual science is intended to be a preparatory school for what is to come. Humanity is now attuned to freedom, to self-recognition of what is forming within it, and it could happen that those people who are the first pioneers of the Christ view will be denounced as fools for what they have to offer humanity, and humanity could sink even further into materialism than it already has, and trample underfoot what could be the most wonderful revelation for humanity. Everything that can happen in the future is, to a certain extent, placed in the will of humanity, so that people can also fail to achieve what is for their own good. It is extremely important that spiritual science is a preparation for what the new Christ revelation will be.

Materialism can make a mistake here in two ways. The first, which is likely to arise from Western traditions, is that the first pioneers of the new Christ revelation will be regarded as wild fantasists and foolish fanatics when they proclaim their views in the twentieth century. Materialism has taken hold of all circles today. It is not only at home in the West, it has also spread to the East, only in a different form. It could be that Eastern materialism will lead people to misunderstand the higher nature of a Christ revelation on a higher level, and that what has been said here so often and will be said again and again will come to pass: that materialistic thinking will translate the appearance of Christ into a materialistic view. It could be that in that time, under the influence of spiritual scientific truths, people will be able to speak of Christ's revelation, but at the same time believe that Christ will appear in a material body. The result would then be a differently colored materialism. It would only be a continuation of what has been going on for centuries.

People have repeatedly taken advantage of this false materialism, to the extent that individuals have claimed to be the reappeared Christ. The last significant case of such a false Christ was in the seventeenth century, when a man named Sabbatai Zevi from Smyrna appeared as the reappeared Christ. He caused a great stir. People flocked to him not only from the immediate vicinity, but also from Hungary, Poland, Germany, France, Italy, and North Africa. Everywhere, Sabbatai Zevi was seen as the physical incarnation of a Messiah. I do not wish to recount the human tragedy associated with the personality of Sabbatai Zevi. In the seventeenth century, however, this tragedy was not particularly great. At that time, human beings were not yet so subject to free will, but through their spiritual perception they were able to recognize what was true. But the misfortune would be great in the twentieth century if, under the pressure of materialism, the teaching that Christ will reveal himself were to undergo a materialistic interpretation in such a way that Christ could return in a physical body. This would only prove that humanity has gained no insight or understanding of the real progress of human development toward higher spiritual powers. False messiahs will certainly appear, and they will receive as much support from the materialism of our time as Sabbatai Zevi did in the seventeenth century. It will be a test, a hard trial for those who are spiritually prepared to recognize where the truth lies, whether spiritual theories are truly imbued with spiritual, life-giving feeling, or whether only a hidden materialism lives in these spiritual theories. This will be the test for the further development of spiritual science, whether people will be sufficiently developed through this spiritual science to see that they have to look at the spirit in the spirit, that they have to look up into the etheric world, to look up to a new revelation of Christ, or whether they will remain on the physical plane and want to see a revelation in the physical body that refers to Christ. Our movement will still have to pass this test. But we can say that nowhere is the ground better prepared for recognizing the truth in this particular area than where Germanic-Nordic mythology originated.

What has been handed down to us as the Twilight of the Gods contains a significant vision of the future, and this brings me to a chapter whose starting point I have already indicated, so to speak. I have told you that within a community that has only recently left behind a clairvoyant past, a clairvoyant sense has developed in the guiding spirit of the people, enabling them to understand once again what is blossoming clairvoyantly before us. Now, when humanity is experiencing the new era with new human abilities on the very ground where Germanic-Nordic mythology flourished, it should understand that what was once clairvoyance must take on a different form after humanity has passed through the development of the physical plane. For a while, what spoke from the old clairvoyance has been silent; for a while, the world of Odin and Thor, Baldur and Hödur, Freyr and Freya has stood behind human beings, hidden from human view. But it will emerge again at a time when other forces have worked on the human soul in the meantime. When the human soul, with its new clairvoyance beginning with etheric clairvoyance, looks into the new world, it will see that it cannot hold on to the old forms of the forces that educate the soul. If it could hold on to them, then all the opposing forces would also emerge against the force that in ancient times was supposed to educate the human forces to a certain level. Odin and Thor will stand before the eyes of humanity again, but now in such a way that the human soul will have undergone a new development. Everything that is the counterforce of Odin and Thor will appear to the human soul. Everything that has developed as a counterforce will become visible again in a mighty tableau. But the human soul would not be able to advance or defend itself against evil if it were to submit only to the forces that were seen in ancient clairvoyance. Thor once gave human beings the I. The ego has educated itself on the physical plane, has developed out of what Loki, the Luciferic force, left behind in the astral body, out of the Midgard serpent. What Thor was once able to give, and what the human soul grows beyond, is in conflict with what comes from the Midgard serpent. This confronts us in Norse mythology as Thor fighting the Midgard serpent. They keep each other in balance, which means they kill each other. Similarly, Odin fights the Fenris wolf, which destroys Odin. That which for a time formed the human soul force, Freyr, must succumb to that which has been given to the ego, now raised up on the physical plane, from the earth forces themselves. Freyr succumbs to the flaming sword of Surtur, who sprang from the earth.

All these details presented in Götterdämmerung will correspond to what will stand before humanity in a new etheric vision that truly points to the future. The Fenris wolf will remain behind. Oh, there is a deep, deep truth hidden in the fact that this Fenris wolf remains behind in the battle against Odin. Nothing will be as dangerous for humanity in the near future as the tendency to remain with the old clairvoyance, which has not been developed by new forces, and which could tempt people to remain with what the old, astral clairvoyance could give in primeval times, namely soul images such as the Fenris wolf. It would be another difficult test for what must grow on the ground of spiritual science if, for example, a tendency were to arise on this ground toward all kinds of unexplained, chaotic clairvoyance, the tendency not to value clairvoyance that has been examined by reason and science, but rather the old, chaotic clairvoyance that lacks this advantage.

Such remnants of old clairvoyance would take revenge with terrible force, confusing people's views with all kinds of chaotic images. Such clairvoyance could not be countered with what arose from ancient clairvoyant powers, but only with what has been developed during the Kali Yuga as a healthy force for a new clairvoyance. Not that which the old archangel Odin gave in power, not the old clairvoyant powers can save; something far different must come. But Germanic-Nordic mythology knows this something else. It knows that it exists. It knows that the etheric form lives in which that which we shall see again as the etheric Christ figure is to incarnate. And only this will succeed in driving out the unexplained clairvoyant power that will confuse humanity if Odin does not destroy the Fenris wolf, which represents nothing other than the residual clairvoyant power. Widar, who has remained silent throughout, will overcome the Fenris wolf. This is also what the Götterdämmerung tells us.

Those who recognize Widar's significance and feel him in their souls will find that in the twentieth century, people will once again be given the ability to see Christ. Widar will stand before us again, who is common to all of us in Northern and Central Europe. He was kept secret in the mysteries and secret schools as a god who will only receive his mission in the future. Even his image is only spoken of vaguely. This may be evident from the fact that an image was found near Cologne, of which no one knows who it represents, but which means nothing other than a portrait of Widar.

Throughout the Kali Yuga, the forces were acquired that are to enable the new human beings to see the new Christ revelation. Those who are called to interpret from the signs of the times what must come know that the new spiritual research will restore the power of Widar, who will drive out of people's minds everything that could have a confusing effect as remnants of chaotic old clairvoyant forces, and who will awaken the newly developing clairvoyance in the human breast, in the human soul.

Thus, as the wondrous figure of Widar shines forth from the twilight of the gods, we see that, so to speak, a hope for the future shines forth from Germanic-Nordic mythology. Feeling a kinship with the figure of Widar, whom we now wish to understand in his deeper essence, we hope that what must be the fundamental nerve and living essence of all spiritual science will emerge from those forces that the archangel of the Germanic-Nordic world can bring to modern development. Only part of a larger whole has been accomplished for the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch of human and spiritual development; another part still remains to be accomplished. Those who will contribute most to this achievement will be those among the Nordic-Germanic peoples who feel within themselves that they possess an elemental, fresh national vitality. But this will, in a sense, be placed in the souls of human beings. They will have to decide for themselves to work. In the twentieth century, it is possible to err, because what is to be achieved must, in a sense, be left to the freedom of human beings, as it cannot be imposed by force. It is therefore important to have a correct understanding of what is to come. So you see that when the knowledge of the Christ being speaks out of our present spiritual science, and when we connect ourselves with the true knowledge of this Christ being, which we ourselves seek out of the European folk substance, when we connect our hopes for the future with this, then this is really not based on any kind of preference or temperamental disposition.

It has sometimes been said that one can call whatever one likes that which can be designated as the first being in human evolution. Those who recognize the Christ being will never insist that the name Christ must remain. But if we understand the Christ impulse in the right sense, we will not say that a being lives in human evolution, in the humanity of the West and the East, and that this must be so in order to correspond to humanity's sympathies for this or that truth. That is not occultism. It is occultistic to say that at the moment when one recognizes that this being must be baptized in the name of Buddha, this must be done without reservation, regardless of whether one finds it appealing or repulsive. It is not a matter of sympathy or antipathy, but of the truth of the facts.

The moment the facts teach us otherwise, we would be prepared to act differently. The facts alone must be decisive. We do not want to introduce Orientalism or Occidentalism into what we regard as the very lifeblood of our spiritual science, and if we should discover in the Nordic-Germanic archangel world that that can provide a fruitful seed for true spiritual science, it will be something that is not given on this soil for a single people or a single tribe, but something that is given to the whole of humanity. What is given to the whole of humanity, what must be given, may indeed spring from this or that place, but it must be given to the whole of humanity. We do not know any difference between Orient and Occident; we accept with deep love what we know as the overwhelming greatness of the ancient culture of the holy Rishis in its true form; we accept with love the Persian culture, we accept with love what we know as the Egyptian-Chaldean and Greek-Latin cultures; we also accept with the same objectivity what has grown out of European soil. Only the necessity of facts compels us to present the information as it is presented.

By receiving everything from the whole of humanity, everything that every religion has to contribute to the cultural process of humanity, by incorporating it into what we recognize today, what we today call the common heritage of humanity, by doing this more and more, we are acting precisely in accordance with the Christ principle. Since it is capable of further development, we must overcome what it had to go through in the first centuries and millennia, when the Christ principle was in its most imperfect beginnings. We do not look to this past, nor do we allow ourselves to be taught by it. We are not interested in this tradition; we are primarily interested in what can be researched from the spiritual world. Therefore, we do not see the most important aspect of the Christ principle in what was — no matter how often it is emphasized out of tradition — but in what is to come. We do not refer so much to what has been handed down historically, but seek to know what is to come. This is the focus of the Christ impulse that falls at the beginning of the Christian era, and we do not attach much importance to the external historical aspects. After Christianity has gone through its childhood illnesses, it will continue to develop. It also went to foreign countries and wanted to convert people to what was held in the individual Christian dogmas of an age. But before our soul stands a Christianity of which we know that Christ was active in all ages, and that we will find Christ in all places where we go, that the Christ principle is the most spiritual scientific principle of all. And if Buddhism only accepts as Buddhists those who swear by Buddha, then Christianity will be the one that swears by no prophet, because it is not under the influence of a national religious founder, but recognizes the God of humanity.

Those who know Christianity know that it is a mystery that became visible on the physical plane at Golgotha. It is the perception of this mystery that leads us in the direction I have described. One can also know that spiritual life at the time of the mystery of Golgotha was such that this mystery had to be experienced at that time in the way it was experienced by humanity. We do not allow dogmas to be imposed on us, not even the dogmas of the Christian past, and if a dogma were to be imposed on us from one side or the other, we would reject it in the spirit of the truly understood Christ principle. No matter how many people may come and force the historical Christ into a confessional creed, or call what we see as the Christ of the future false, we will not be deterred when they say to us: Christ must be this or that — even if it is said by those who should understand who Christ is. Nor should the Christ being be suppressed and restricted by Eastern traditions, nor should it be colored by the dogmas of Eastern dogmatism. Free and independent of any tradition or authority, what needs to be said about this future evolution from the sources of occultism wants to come before humanity.

It seems wonderful to me how people can understand each other on this ground. Again and again during these days, people who have traveled here from non-Northern countries have told me how free they felt in relation to the personalities of the Scandinavian North. Many have expressed this. This is proof of how we can understand each other, perhaps still unconsciously for some, in the deepest essence of spiritual knowledge, how we will understand each other, particularly in what I already emphasized at the last Theosophical Congress in Budapest and repeated during our own General Assembly in Berlin, where we had the great pleasure of seeing friends from the North among us. It would be bad for spiritual science if those who cannot yet see into the spiritual realm had to accept what is said on blind faith. I ask you, and I asked you in Berlin, not to accept anything I have ever said or will say on authority or faith. Even before a person reaches the clairvoyant stage, it is possible to test what is gained from clairvoyant observation. Whatever I have said about Zarathustra and Jesus of Nazareth, about Hermes and Moses, about Odin and Thor, about Christ Jesus himself, I do not ask you to believe and accept my words on authority. I ask you to wean yourselves of the principle of authority, for the principle of authority would be evil for us.

But I know for certain that if you begin to think with an unbiased sense of truth, if you say: This is what we are told; let us examine the documents available to us, the religious and mythological documents, let us examine what all natural science tells us — then you will see the truth of what has been said. Use everything to help you, and the more you can use, the better. I am not worried. You can examine everything that is said in the sources of Rosicrucianism by all means. Examine what I have said about Christ Jesus with materialistic criticism of the Gospels, examine what I have said about history in all the sources available to you, examine as accurately as possible with the means available to you on the outer, physical plane! I am convinced that the more carefully you examine, the more you will find that what is said from the sources of the Rosicrucian mystery is true. I count on the fact that the messages given by the Rosicrucians will not be believed, but examined, not superficially, with the superficial methods of present-day science, but more and more conscientiously. Take everything that the latest natural science with its latest methods can offer you, take everything that historical or religious research has revealed — I am not worried. The more you examine, the more you will find to be true what has been said from this source. You should not accept anything on authority. The best students of spiritual knowledge are those who first receive what is said as inspiration and then put it into practice in their lives in order to test it. For in life, at every stage of life, you will be able to test what is said from the sources of Rosicrucianism. It is far from the intention underlying this presentation to establish a dogma and say: This or that is so and so and must be believed. Test this against what you can already encounter in spiritually robust and healthy human beings, and you will find for yourselves that what has been said as a prophetic hint of the future revelation of Christ is true. You need only open your eyes and examine things impartially. No demand is made for belief in authority. This is a kind of basic attitude that should permeate all spiritual reception like a red thread.

So, I would like to recommend to you: It is not truly theosophical to accept something as dogma because this or that person has said so; it is truly theosophical to be inspired by spiritual science and to test what you have received in your life. Then anything that could color a truly theosophical view from any side will disappear. Neither Eastern nor Western nuances should color our views. Those who speak in the Rosicrucian sense know neither Orientalism nor Occidentalism; for them, both are equally appealing. They represent the truth solely from the inner nature of facts. This is what we must keep in mind, especially at such an important moment when we have pointed to the national spirit that prevails in all the northern regions. The Germanic-Nordic-mythological spirit lives in them, even if it still lives beneath the surface today, and it lives much more widely in Europe than one might think. If a northern conflict between peoples were to arise, it could not consist in one part of the people disputing with the other what is to be given, but in each people practicing self-knowledge and asking itself: What is the best I can give? Then what leads to the overall progress and welfare of humanity will flow onto the common altar. The sources of what we can bring lie in the individual. The Germanic-Nordic archangel will bring to the entire human culture of the future precisely what he is predisposed to do by the innate qualities we have roughly characterized. However, he is particularly capable of bringing about that which could not yet be given in the first half of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, namely that which could be shown as a spiritual element, prophetically germinating, in Slavic philosophy and folk feeling. As long as this is in the preparatory stage, the first half of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch must be completed. Initially, only a finely sublimated spiritual view could be achieved as philosophy. This must then be grasped and permeated by the forces of the people so that it can become the common property of humanity and become understandable in the broad terrain of our earthly life. Try to see to see if we can understand each other in this area; then this otherwise somewhat dangerous topic will not have borne evil fruit if we feel that everything that has come together here from Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, and Central Europe is important for all of humanity; if we feel that both the great nations and the small fragments of peoples have their mission and must contribute their part to the whole. Sometimes small ethnic groups have the most important contribution to make because they have to preserve old or new spiritual motives. So even if we make this dangerous question the subject of our discussion, nothing can come of it other than the basic feeling of a spiritual community of all those who are united under the banner of spiritual scientific thinking and feeling and spiritual scientific ideals.

Only if we were still feeling out of our sympathies and antipathies, if we had only vaguely grasped the core of our world movement, could misunderstandings arise from what has been said. But if we have grasped what it is that reigns as spirit in these lectures, then even the things that have confronted us can help us to form the firm resolution and the high ideal of contributing to the common goal—each from his own standpoint and on his own ground—that lies in our mission. We can do this best with what springs from our own selves, from what we are predisposed to do. We serve the whole of humanity best when we develop what we are particularly predisposed to do, in order to incorporate it into the whole of humanity as a sacrifice that we bring to the advancing stream of culture. We must learn to understand this. We must learn to understand that it would be terrible if spiritual science did not contribute to the development of human beings, angels, and archangels, but instead contributed to the overcoming of one national spirit by another. Spiritual science is not there to help one religious confession prevailing somewhere on earth to conquer another area. If the West were ever to be conquered by the East, or vice versa, this would not correspond at all to the spiritual scientific attitude. The only thing that corresponds to it is when we give our best, our pure humanity, for the whole of humanity. And when we live entirely within ourselves, but not for ourselves, but for all human beings, this is true spiritual scientific tolerance. These are words that I felt compelled to add to our serious topic.

Through spiritual science — we will understand this more and more — all fragmentation of humanity will cease. That is why now is the right time to get to know the souls of the people, because spiritual science is there to help us not to set the souls of the people against each other in opposition, but to call them to harmonious cooperation. The better we understand this, the better students of spiritual knowledge we will be. This is where the presentations we have given should initially come to an end. Ultimately, what we gather in terms of knowledge must come to rest in our feelings, emotions, and thinking, and in our spiritual scientific ideal. The more we live this, the better students of spiritual knowledge we are. I have experienced that some of those who came up with me to the North received the best impression, which was expressed by the words that came to their lips: “How much I like it here in the North!”

And if we want to speak with the words of the silent Asen Widar: When high forces in humanity will have awakened in the future, which we will most certainly see before our eyes, then he will be the active friend of cooperation and diligence, in whose spirit we have all been together. Let us part ways again after a few days of being together, but let us always remain together in spirit. Wherever we come from as students of spiritual knowledge, from far or near, may we always come together in harmony, even if we sometimes ask ourselves what the individualities of this or that region of the earth are. We know that these are only individual sacrificial flames that will not flicker apart, but will merge into the mighty sacrificial fire that must burn for the good of humanity through the spiritual scientific worldview that is so dear to our hearts and deeply rooted in our souls.