The Rudolf Steiner Archive

5. Wisdom, Piety, and Security in Life

[ 1 ] Spiritual science provides security and strength in life when it is properly understood. How can it be integrated into life in a way that is beneficial? Many people believe that, for a truly good human life, learning about this field and gathering spiritual insights is more of a hindrance than a help. Why, after all, do we need so much spiritual science? Why do we need to learn so much about the development of the Earth and an entire planetary system? If one simply tries to seek one’s higher self within and thereby become a good person, one is, in essence, also the best theosophist. — Others, with more theoretically inclined minds, enjoy hearing what human beings are made of, exercising their intellect on how humanity has developed through the various cultural periods, and knowing regular numerical cycles; and they wish to learn such things as soon as possible, preferably to be able to write down the most important teachings quite briefly and disseminate them in a sort of catechism.

[ 2 ] These two views in no way correspond to what spiritual science can be for human beings, nor to what it becomes for those who are able to position themselves correctly in life precisely through spiritual science. To begin with, it is certainly true that we consist of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an I. But if one believes that this is enough, that simply listing these parts is sufficient, one is mistaken. One knows nothing more than a schematic outline. One only truly knows something about the human being when one can apply such knowledge to life. But this is impossible unless one is clear that it is not merely a matter of knowing the names of these four members, but of understanding how these four members are connected within the human being. Whether the etheric body is more or less connected to the physical body in a human being, whether the etheric body and the astral body strive toward one another and seek a close connection, or whether they are more loosely connected—that is what matters. If we focus our attention on this, it becomes clear that in the course of human development on Earth, this relationship between the members changes. It was different in the past and will be different in the future than it is today. When we look at the ancient Egyptians in the very early millennia of Egyptian culture—that is, at ourselves in earlier incarnations—we find in these ancient Egyptians a human being in whom the connection between the physical, etheric, and astral bodies is a looser one. If we look at modern humans, we find a much more intimate, denser connection. And in the future, this connection will become ever denser and denser. It is only through this that the passage through the various cultural periods makes sense to us. When we speak of humans incarnating so many times, one might also ask: Why do they incarnate again? - Indeed, because the relationship between the physical bodies is always changing, we encounter a different kind of outer human being time and again. As Chaldeans, we actually had a completely different physical constitution than we do today, and in the future we will have yet another. Thus we have different experiences because we have different human bodies.

[ 3 ] The point is that we must form a correct understanding of how this inner core of the human being, which passes from one incarnation to the next, actually relates to what we clothe ourselves in: the astral body, the etheric body, and the physical body. External science, in essence, examines only the outer shell. It knows nothing of the deeper laws that govern the process from incarnation to incarnation. But external science also fails to recognize the true, deeper significance of the laws governing the outer shell. We can see this for ourselves when we consider the connections that external science accepts and those it does not. It is quite interesting to note that science long tended to attribute free will to human beings. But I have also already pointed out that modern science often denies this free will. It relies on external research. This tells us: Look at the course of external life. For example, statistics can be used to determine how many suicides occur in a given area. A certain regularity in suicides can be observed. The statistical data show that such events occur with a certain regularity. It is simply the case that a certain number of people are destined to commit suicide. How could one still speak of free will in such a context? - One could go much further and point to the field of insurance mathematics. This aims to calculate and express in formulas how many out of a given number of people will still be alive after thirty years. Thus, it is numerically determined how many people born today will still be alive after thirty years. Death and life are bound by strict external laws of nature.

[ 4 ] Conventional science has acknowledged this. But it will be forced to acknowledge other things as well. Already, facts are coming to light that will compel people to think in terms of spiritual science. Science is generally not inclined to adopt something new very quickly. It follows a peculiar habit in this regard. One hears grand declarations about how, in the “Dark Ages,” there were people who opposed the discoveries of Copernicus. His teachings had to prevail with great difficulty against the obscurantists of that time. And those who speak most about this behave in exactly the same way, not only toward spiritual science but also toward those scientific facts that compel our time to seek spiritual laws. A Berlin physician, for example, observes certain numerical relationships in the course of life. This physician, Wilhelm Fließ, begins to make records of how births and deaths are related in individual families. On a certain day, for example, a female member of a family dies. 1,428 days earlier, this person’s first grandchild was born; 1,428 days after her death, the second grandchild was born, so that here we have the death of the grandmother, and symmetrically, one grandchild is born both before and after. But that is not all. Within a period of 7 times 1,428 days after this person’s death, a great-grandchild is born. So that, if one follows this pattern, one always arrives at very specific numerical ratios; numerical ratios that ultimately establish, in a most wonderful way, the connection between deaths and births. Fließ has discovered this in numerous cases.

[ 5 ] But science today apparently does not yet want to acknowledge this; it still goes too much against its grain. Even improvements in health conditions are subject to numerical ratios. The number of deaths from tuberculosis in a given period, compared to the number of deaths from decades earlier, is governed by specific figures. Doctors say they have reduced the number of cases through hygienic measures. Fließ, however, demonstrated that this can be calculated according to arithmetic ratios. While this is very inconvenient for modern science, it will eventually be forced to acknowledge the rule of objective arithmetic. It will return to Pythagoras’s ancient maxim: Number is something that governs all that weaves and lives. — While we calculate in our souls, the higher spirits have long since calculated to incorporate into the course of life what corresponds to the numbers. The Pythagorean theorem: “God practices mathematics by letting life unfold”—seems to be coming into force again. But on the other hand, this would reinforce that attitude in external science which leaves the inner being of the human being without any share in the destinies of his life. If it is arithmetically determined when we must die, if births and deaths are so connected that they are 7 times 1428 days apart, then our inner being seems to be bound up in external, coercive circumstances.

[ 6 ] It seems we must refrain from speaking of specific laws that govern our inner selves. But we can certainly cite external reasons that show us that the story isn’t quite right after all. Even if it is calculated with the utmost precision that in a given place there are so many suicides or so many thefts, does that prove that a person must commit a theft? Using the formulas of probability, one can calculate the probable lifespan of human beings. But I do not believe that any person would admit that they must absolutely die on the day calculated by arithmetic. For the inner being, nothing at all follows from this regularity of mathematical formulas.

[ 7 ] What, then, are we to make of Fließ’s finding that 1,428 days elapse between a death and two births? Does this prove anything about the inner lawfulness of our selfhood? For it is not immediately clear what the relationship is between this inner core of being and the outer course of life. How does this fit with the idea that we follow our karma, that we must follow our inner selfhood? This is not entirely easy to grasp. An illustration may help make it understandable. It is quite possible that two events, two currents, two facts—which are very much related to one another—proceed independently of one another. Consider this: If you want to travel from here to Zurich, you take the train. But first you check the timetable—which contains a lot of numbers—to see when the train departs. So you are, in a sense, intimately connected to the numbers. You feel dependent, in what you think, strive for, and experience inwardly, on the numbers in the timetable. But doesn’t the fact that you can study the timetable go hand in hand with the other fact—related to the development of your soul—that you want to board the train? By studying the timetable, you will never be able to tell from the numbers whether you are good or evil, wise or foolish. Just as the specific timetable is irrelevant to the inner life of our soul, so too are the numbers resulting from Fließ’s calculations irrelevant to the karma of our lives. We board the stream of life, which is governed by laws that have nothing to do with our inner laws other than what we ourselves bring about. We must decide to board the train. It is equally true that, through the inner laws of karma, we must determine to enter a stream of life that is then governed by the laws of arithmetic. Why are all these things being said? — Because the spiritual seeker should increasingly develop a sense that life is complicated, that life is something one should not believe one can encompass with the most convenient of thoughts. Those are very much mistaken who think that one can easily understand the whole of life if one knows a few sentences from spiritual science. One must have the will to penetrate ever deeper into these connections. One must develop a sense that the principles by which the world is structured also apply to human beings. If there were no connection whatsoever between the external laws and human karma, the whole of life would fall apart.

[ 8 ] This can be demonstrated by two facts. In the humanities, people strive to come up with the best possible analogies. In a certain sense, the numbers on the timetable are connected to practical life. Even if it has nothing to do with the timetable whether we actually travel to Zurich or not, even if we see no connection whatsoever—the timetable is still connected to human circumstances. People have put it together in such a way that it corresponds, not too clumsily, to the conditions of life. So originally, the timetable was nevertheless generally adapted to human living conditions. Something similar is the case for our karma and the flow of our life, which is regulated by it. There, too, the beings of the higher hierarchies have determined the “timetable” according to the numerical ratios that statistics reveal when they present regular numbers, so that these outwardly correspond to general human conditions. One person, upon reincarnation, finds a comfortable course of life, while another finds an uncomfortable one. This law does not hold true in all families in such a way that a grandchild is always born 1,428 days before the grandmother’s death. But if we consider that 1428 is also divisible by 28—it is 51 times 28—we understand the numerical ratio somewhat better. One will not always obtain the number 1428 in these calculations, but as a rule, a multiple of 28 results between the death of a family member and a birth. Whether the multiplier is 13 or 17 or something else, the number 28 is always there; it is systematically arranged. Thus, according to the timetable, we have the option of boarding different trains. And so, according to our karma, we have the option of arranging our lives, comfortably or uncomfortably.

[ 9 ] I am not saying this merely to suggest how complex these external conditions are, but I also wish to point out that we human beings can draw a moral conclusion from all such insights. And that is what spiritual science gives us as something of such infinite importance. We can say: I stand in this world; I find in this world the numerical relationships that show how our external life is governed. It has taken long periods of human cultural development to discover this. But how much do we actually know about this regularity? — And here we must say: We know infinitely little. Slowly and gradually, we have explored some of divine wisdom. But precisely when we take in the most beautiful and important aspects of wisdom, it calls us to humility. It shows how little we can encompass life with the thoughts we possess. This reflection then serves as an incentive to strive further toward the light.

[ 10 ] This moral sense, this reverence for the wisdom of the universe, is what we can acquire, and what makes us better people. And we acquire this sense of reverence for wisdom; it comes over us when we realize that this wisdom was close to us in our intermediate life between death and rebirth. When the need arises for us to descend into a new earthly existence, we choose which train we must board in order to fulfill our karma. Then the decision comes to us, and we decide whether to choose this or that family bond, these or those parents. But we would find no answer if we were asked now which incarnation would be better for us, whether in this or that family. Thus, before our incarnation, we are wiser than in our physical existence, for back then, before our embodiment, we made the right choice. From this feeling that we have not become wiser after incarnation than we were before, no pride can arise in what we have achieved.

[ 11 ] Why, then, are we so much wiser before birth, when we are able to make the right choice? It is not that we are inherently wiser, but rather that in our life between death and rebirth, we are permeated by forces different from those at the moment we enter physical existence. Upon entering physical existence, we are permeated by the substances of the earthly realms that surround us—oxygen, nitrogen, and so on; we take these into ourselves, and they then reside within our physical bodies. When we shed the body, when we pass through the gate of death and live between death and new birth, we are received by the beings of the higher hierarchies. Just as we live here in the various realms, with animals, plants, and minerals, so do we live there with the Archai, with archangels and angels. We are integrated into their beings, just as we are integrated here into the physical substances. Just as these substances here assert their laws—just as iron pulsates in the blood according to its laws—so the beings of the higher hierarchies are active within us between death and new birth, and their wisdom guides us into the right course of existence. The beings of the higher hierarchies possess wisdom within themselves, just as we possess physical matter within us. And it is entirely justified if humility is what comes upon us as a moral consequence; if we truly bring to mind what a small part of the sublime wisdom of these beings we have so far taken into ourselves in physical life. Between death and new birth, we are cradled in the bosom of these beings of the higher hierarchies; we must surrender ourselves to them. To refuse this would be the same as wanting to live without taking in the physical substances hydrogen, oxygen, and so on. It would be absurd to want to live without full surrender to the beings of the higher hierarchies.

[ 12 ] Anyone who considers that the time between death and rebirth must be devoted to the beings of the higher hierarchies will ask themselves: What is the best way to prepare for that time? — And they will answer themselves: The best preparation is to cultivate this feeling of devotion to the divine-spiritual world right now, between birth and death. — Reverence and devotion will be what we receive when we imbue ourselves in the right way with the right feelings. Humility and devotion to the spiritual world will permeate all our feelings.

[ 13 ] When a person begins to think and live in this way, they also find a sense of balance in relation to the world around them. These thoughts also regulate and harmonize their other feelings. Many vices from the outer world are carried into Theosophy. They do not originate from ‘theosophy’ itself, but rather because people bring them in from the outside. Let us imagine a person who was diligent and industrious out in the world, but in such a way that those living around him say: It is ambition that drives him to be so industrious; he overworks himself; he exhausts his strength; he does not realize that this work must have its limits. — Now he approaches Theosophy. There he encounters ideas quite different from those he had before. But he can also carry this general trait he had from the outside world into Theosophy. There he hears, for example, that a certain amount of study is necessary to advance the soul. Well, so he studies, but he studies like a student who wants to outdo his peers. He should learn to exercise moderation in his energies; he should learn to consider how much he can accomplish according to the powers karmically allotted to him; he should not pursue theosophical studies to excess. Thus, he may have heard that it is said to be good for spiritual development not to eat meat, and he does not ask himself: Is it also good for my body? — He abstains from meat to accelerate his development. But through theosophy we are to learn: I must first investigate whether my karma permits me to follow the highest rules right away. — We acquire a calm and humble observation of our own karma, our own abilities, and our own powers when we engage in the right way with what spiritual science can offer us. It is precisely those who are most advanced in the occult who observe the prevailing rule of moderation most closely. Sometimes, however, the opposite happens: When external circumstances resist proper training, one wants to impose discipline on oneself; one pushes toward the set goal; one strains one’s mind to obtain an immediate answer to a question that arises. The advanced practitioner never does this. He first makes it clear to himself: This question is before me. Then he examines himself: Are you capable, at this very moment, of obtaining a full answer to the question? Wait a moment—he tells himself—to see if the beings of the spiritual world will grant you this answer. —If he has to struggle and push, he refrains for the time being. He knows he must wait. He can wait because he is imbued with the eternity of life, and because he knows that karma, which he does not disregard, gives everyone what is meant for them. Then there comes a certain moment when he receives an inner prompting, and the powers of the spiritual world reveal the answer to him. Perhaps this happens after years, perhaps only after several incarnations. This characterizes the right attitude: the ability to wait, patience, developing equanimity, and not rushing anything.

[ 14 ] Anyone who allows the teachings of spiritual science to take effect in the right way will, through these teachings, be able to master their feelings and sensations to such an extent that they can observe a sense of balance and harmony within themselves. With this attitude, we permeate the astral body from the ego in such a way that this astral body absorbs the truths from the spiritual world—if I may use a trivial comparison—just as a sponge absorbs the water into which it is immersed. Spiritual knowledge gradually enters the astral body, and the astral body is permeated by it. We live today in an age where it is necessary—and is becoming increasingly necessary—that we permeate the astral body with spiritual wisdom. Times are changing more and more in such a way that the astral body of the human being who passes through the gate of death and thereafter enters into future incarnations will be plunged into darkness, so that he will no longer find his way in the spiritual world unless he is now permeated by spiritual knowledge. But if it is imbued with the spiritual knowledge we are now absorbing, then it will become a source of light; it will illuminate its surroundings. The wisdom we are absorbing here becomes light in the spiritual world.

[ 15 ] If we now ask ourselves why theosophy has only come about today, why it was not here earlier, we must say: It did not come about because, in the past, there was an ancient wisdom that became ingrained in people without them having to do anything to acquire it. It existed like a kind of genetic heritage that human beings received from the old Moon. With this heritage, they were able to penetrate the spiritual world. It persisted into Christian times. But then human beings could no longer directly absorb what spiritual wisdom is. They must first permeate the soul with spiritual-scientific knowledge, and this will then be the power that enables human beings to enter the spiritual world in the future with the light of their soul. Human conditions simply change from epoch to epoch.

[ 16 ] All occultism knows that there is a wisdom that comes from the ancient Moon and whose remnants continued to exert their influence into the 15th and 16th centuries, so that when people entered the spiritual world, they beheld the light that shone without any effort on their part. Today, however, no matter how much of this ancient wisdom—which was handed down to humanity as an ancient heritage—we may take in with our souls, it no longer shines once people have passed through the gate of death. Only the wisdom that people take in through Christ, by saying: “Not I, but the Christ in me”—only this wisdom will be a shining light for the human being’s future passage through the gate of death. Thus we take in the Christ-imbued spiritual science in order to have a source of light in the astral body when we pass through the gate of death.

[ 17 ] But when we take in this Christ-imbued spiritual knowledge, when we allow it to permeate our astral body, then it is no longer mere wisdom; it permeates our feelings. We learn what took place on ancient Saturn, on the ancient Sun, and on the ancient Moon, and what the Earth’s task is. If you immerse yourself in the descriptions given in my *Outline of Esoteric Science*, you will sense that the description of Saturn has a very different underlying tone than that of the other planetary states. In the description of the Saturn state, you can feel how the conditions are portrayed with a certain austerity. You can feel this in your soul, and that is necessary. You can perceive the solar state as if there were blossoming, sprouting life there. You can perceive the description of the Moon as if a certain melancholic, gloomy trait were running through the multitude of concepts presented there. A sensitive person can perceive this even in the sense of taste, right down to the tongue.

[ 18 ] Fools will say: The descriptions are inconsistent; the style is not consistent. But we must know that this is necessary, and for what reason. We must know why a melody of three specific notes is necessary, each of which must sound from the words, and when we know this, we can also transform it into feelings and send those feelings out into the world. The feelings we thus kindle within ourselves are transformed. That which is taken up as wisdom into the astral body is transformed into a voluntary surrender to worldly conditions, and this then takes hold of our etheric body. If we are wise, we prepare the way. The forces with which we descend into our next incarnations shape and permeate the etheric body. If we have thus permeated the etheric body with genuine, true piety, and it is then dissolved into the general world ether, we have given back to the universe an etheric body that is permeated by piety and benefits the whole world. But if we are irreligious and materialistic, we shed an etheric body that has a shattering, destructive effect when it is to be dissolved into the general world ether. To the extent that we are wise, we serve ourselves directly, but indirectly we also serve the world. To the extent that we are devout, we serve the world directly, for piety is imparted to the whole world. And spiritual science can provide not only wisdom and piety, but also security and a sense of the body’s vital forces. The very conscious connection with the spiritual world imparts such vital forces.

[ 19 ] I have mentioned on several occasions that Fichte, who stood at the threshold of theosophy, was aware of some of these connections. He possessed such a certainty of life that he could say, when speaking of the nature of man: “I boldly lift my head toward the looming mountain range and the raging waterfall and the crashing clouds swimming in a sea of fire, and say: I am eternal and defy your power! Let them all come crashing down upon me, and you, Earth, and you, Heaven, mingle in wild tumult, and all you elements, foam and rage and grind to dust in wild combat the last speck of solar dust of the body I call my own—my will alone, with its firm plan, shall hover boldly and coldly above the ruins of the universe. For I have grasped my destiny, and it is more enduring than you; it is eternal, and I am eternal like it”—a certainty of life springs from the awareness that man walks in the eternity of the spirit. Can a man who is so rooted in the eternity of the spirit grow weak? It is spiritual insight that pours ever more of such power into us.

[ 20 ] What do we gain from this power? Wisdom provides the astral body with the means by which we can increasingly overcome the restraining forces. Piety regulates the forces and the proper structure of the etheric body. But what flows into our body through our awareness of our connection with the Eternal is a sense of security in life, and this permeates even the forces of the physical body. When we possess this, Maya, illusion, and deception recede from us. It is an illusion when someone says: Our physical body decays into dust upon our death. — No. How the physical body was once put together, how the human being shaped it, is not a matter of indifference. When such security in the Eternal permeates this physical body, then we give back to the earth what we have appropriated as security of life. We fortify our Earth with what we have acquired during our lives. We give our security of life to the world through the physical body. In the decaying physical body, what decays is merely Maya. Whoever follows the physical body through death sees that the degree of security of life that a human being has acquired during life flows into our Earth.

[ 21 ] In this way, through wisdom, piety, and a sense of security in life, we anchor within the astral body, the etheric body, and the physical body that which we, as human beings, can achieve as our very best for the entire evolution of our Earth. In this way, we work on our Earth, but we also develop a sense that the human being does not stand alone, in isolation, but that what he or she develops in their soul has value and significance for the whole. And just as there is no speck of stardust that does not carry the laws of the universe within itself, so there is no human being who does not, through what they do and do not do, build up and destroy the universe. We can contribute just as much to the ongoing world process as we take from it, just as we can chip away at it by not caring about the course of events, by not imbuing ourselves with piety, and by not acquiring a sense of security in life. Through these omissions, we contribute just as much to the destruction of the planet as we do to its building through the acquisition of wisdom, piety, and security in life. Thus we gradually sense what spiritual science can become for us emotionally when it takes hold of the whole human being.