The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Sixth Lecture

[ 1 ] From the lectures given so far, you may have come to realize how necessary it is to make one’s mental images flexible and adaptable if one is to grasp a true characterization of the various worlds of which we can speak—of which the sensory realm, our ordinary world of the senses, is but one. From much of what has been said, it may be clear to you that one must speak, so to speak, a different language of human mental images if one wishes to bring about the transition from one world to another. That is one side of the matter. But there is another side to the matter: that all these worlds interact with one another, and that in one world one can always perceive, so to speak, the reflection and the influences of the other worlds. In every world, one is confronted with the phenomena and beings of that world itself, and then again with everything that influences this particular world from the other worlds. All of this must be carefully taken into account if one wishes to understand what the mysteries of initiation are, what the relationships are between the moment and eternity, between the darkness of life and the light of the spirit. There are—as you will find described in “How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?”—certain rules, certain instructions to which the soul can submit in order to effect the ascent into the supersensible worlds. Such rules are, of course, not only useful but indispensable to those who truly wish to take the first or further steps of initiation. But especially in our time, attention must be drawn to one thing.

[ 2 ] Our age has a certain peculiarity that is connected to the very nature of the world cycle in which we live; our age has something didactic about it, something theoretical. And no matter how hard one tries to shake off the tendency to theorize here and there, it is, so to speak, deeply rooted in the soul of the modern person. This means that when it comes to the ascent to the higher worlds, people of the present day first and foremost expect to be told, under all circumstances, exactly how each individual should behave if the soul is to reach the higher worlds. In contrast to the actual experience of the supersensible, however, something arises in all those descriptions that one might, in a certain sense, call problematic—descriptions that, one might say, indicate a normal path, a normal route, for hastening upward into the higher worlds. For life is a complex matter. And every soul, in whatever life situation it finds itself—and one must always start from a specific life situation if one wishes to undertake the ascent into the higher worlds—is situated within a specific karma and has a specific starting point. No soul is in the same situation as another. Therefore, fundamentally, the path upward into the supersensible worlds is also an individual one for each soul, one that is determined according to the soul in question at the starting point. One cannot say, if one wishes to speak in the proper sense: this is how every soul must immediately undergo the ascent into the higher worlds, the initiation, according to a normal principle. Hence the need to provide guidance—not merely in short pamphlets or the like (which would, of course, be easier)—stating: “The soul must do this and that” in order to foster the belief that, by following such rules, one can ascend to the higher worlds under all circumstances in the same manner as every other soul. Hence the difficulty of such things. That is precisely why I have attempted, in the little book A Path to Self-Knowledge for Humanity, to show something that is individual and yet can be useful to every soul. But this also gave rise to the necessity of showing the diversity and variability of the path of initiation. And without wishing to offer any explanations myself about what has been done, I would simply like to point out to you how the necessities give rise to the three figures who, in the three Mystery plays—The Gate of Initiation, The Trial of the Soul, and The Guardian of the Threshold—appear before your soul as Johannes Thomasius, Capesius, and Strader. They show you the path of the first steps toward initiation, as it were, in three different aspects. One cannot say of any of these paths that it is better or worse than the other; rather, one must say of each of these paths that it had to arise according to the karma of the individualities in question. One can only say: a soul that is like Johannes Thomasius, or that is like Capesius, must follow precisely such paths as have been attempted, not in theories, not didactically, but to be shown in figures. Hence the need to present such figures. And it will become ever more necessary to move away from the belief that one can get by with a few rules in these matters; it will become ever more necessary, especially in the spiritual realm, to point from the didactic to the embodied. Because the relationships of the worlds are so manifold, the paths of the individual personalities must likewise be so manifold. But once one comes to seriously consider certain individualities or beings of the higher worlds and to examine their part in the human being, then one must all the more feel the necessity of presenting these figures vividly, of setting them forth in their diversity, rather than merely giving definitions of them.

[ 3 ] In our time, it is particularly important for those who seek spiritual insight to take a close look at figures such as Lucifer and Ahriman—whom one inevitably encounters on the path to initiation—precisely in terms of their diversity and variability. Then it will become clear how remarkable the relationships and interconnections between one world and the other are. Many signs of our time indicate that an understanding of how one world influences the other can gradually be awakened. I would like to begin with something that is obvious, yet is not always perceived as sufficiently obvious. In our time, there is a most vivid need in the widest circles to come to know the order of nature, the laws of nature that work through everything—including all that is essential—that confronts us in our sensory existence. And there is a tendency not to pay attention to everything that might be said from other worlds about human beings and the existence of the world, but rather to construct, so to speak, a complete worldview from within this one world alone. This gives rise to the more or less monistic or so-called materialistic worldviews of the present. One might say that, as it were, as a beneficial counterbalance to this tendency, other tendencies have asserted themselves in our time, which seek out within the world in which we live those phenomena governed by laws other than those of the natural order—those phenomena in their diversity which are perceived by the materialistic mind as contradicting this natural order. One should certainly pay attention to everything that is being done in this field in the spirit of serious scholarship. For in our time, as purely materialistic research—though little heeded—is met by another form of research that seeks connections within our sensory consciousness other than those offered by sensory consciousness itself, nothing less is being done than seeking to bring entirely different worlds with different laws of existence into play within the very research methods of sensory consciousness itself. In this regard, it is highly desirable that theosophists, in particular, should always pay attention to what is being accomplished in this direction—accomplished by extending scientific methods to the interplay of supersensible worlds with our sensory existence. I have already pointed this out to smaller circles; today I wish to do so for this larger circle.

[ 4 ] In his book The Mystery of Man, which I would like to recommend to you most highly, our dear friend Ludwig Deinhard has undertaken the commendable task of presenting, in the first part, a very clear summary and characterization of everything that, in our time, using the scientific methods recognized today —though, as they are currently applied, they are still applied with prejudice—within the realm accessible to everyone, regarding the influence of a supersensible world. To have this clearly laid out before us has been a commendable task, and it is something that everyone should become acquainted with who, from this particular perspective, is interested in how, at every turn—if one takes only the facts—one can find the emergence of the supersensible from the sensory realm. Thus, we have recently seen this book among us as fulfilling an important task, and I may well refer here to this book, The Mystery of Man by Ludwig Deinhard.

[ 5 ] This interplay of other worlds with the sensory world gives rise within the latter to something that is now repeated in all worlds, that occurs in all worlds, but which makes it particularly necessary for us to familiarize ourselves with the need to avoid forming dogmas or judgments in a pedantic, one-sided, or rigidly structured manner, such as: this is so, that is so, Lucifer is so, Ahriman is so, one must flee from Luciferic forces, one must flee from Ahrimanic forces, or the like. Our discussion yesterday has led precisely to such matters.

[ 6 ] Let us suppose that the person who has taken the first steps on the path to initiation encounters—because he has become clairvoyant in his inner life through the opening of the eyes of the soul—that being whom we refer to as Lucifer in the supersensible worlds. How might we have described this figure yesterday? He appears to the soul as that which constantly strives to transform the eternal—which is otherwise in perpetual motion and change—into something permanent, temporal, and momentary, so that it may rejoice and grow great as an individual. And when one, as a soul, encounters Lucifer in the supersensible worlds, he appears there as the great bearer of light who, as it were, leads one—yes, truly leads one—to bring down all the treasures, all the essential being that exists in the spiritual worlds, into the sensory world and to create a reflection and revelation of them in the sensory world. And if one follows Lucifer in the supersensible worlds in this endeavor of his, then one contributes to the fulfillment of the age-old world task, that all the unrevealed may be revealed, that all the eternal may be entrusted to the moment, that all that flows away in the indeterminate eternal may be held fast in the inner greatness of the individual moment.

[ 7 ] Now there is a lingering echo in every human soul from the spiritual world, a sense that this striving to reveal the unrevealed, to capture the eternal in the moment, might actually come to pass. That is why, when a human being enters the supersensible worlds, whether through initiation or through death, Lucifer truly works within them as a bearer of light, and the dangers to which a human being is exposed in the higher worlds in relation to Lucifer are actually present only when the human being carries into the higher worlds, to an excessive degree, that which is meant to define their position within the sensory realm in relation to Lucifer. Lucifer is dangerous in the higher worlds only when one carries the nature and essence of the sensory human being into these higher worlds to too great an extent. But what is the situation with Lucifer within sensory existence itself, since the supersensible worlds always interact with sensory existence? For in the historical course of humanity within the sensory realm and its evolution, we are primarily concerned with the influence of the higher worlds, which impart effective impulses so that one event follows another within the sensory realm, as unfolds throughout human history through earthly existence.

[ 8 ] Yes, this state of mind is influenced by those impulses that we regard as human egoism, as the self-seeking impulses of every soul. We know, of course, that every soul’s development must begin with egoism. That is only natural. But we also know that a process of working out of egoism can take place. Into everything that souls have ever been able to do on Earth out of egoism falls what one might call: the revelation of the Eternal in the moment. Luciferic forces continually play a role in what is fixed in the individual soul. But they also influence something else, namely everything that the individual human being can do for the entire world order, for world existence, precisely because he is and possesses an ego, because he can develop inner greatness within himself that springs forth from his inner being. What, then, is the individual greatness in the single soul other than what is the seed of greatness in the entire world development of humanity? How did Homer, Shakespeare, Dante, and Goethe influence humanity? By the fact that they were egoities, that within them were whole worlds, worlds that emerged solely from their inner being, from their egoity. Through this, however—by the roundabout way through the egoities—the impulses of spiritual life are brought in, which from epoch to epoch convey precisely the greatest, namely the spiritual deeds of humanity. There is Lucifer within this again. There he is, the bearer of light, the impulse and the power of all that is great, which radiates into human evolution from the great, point-like power of eternity bubbling up from the individual human soul.

[ 9 ] The human soul is caught between two poles, which are simply the imprint and reflection of all the worlds in which the human soul truly exists: that it hardens within itself, completely entangles itself in its own egotism, and desires only what serves itself, what satisfies itself; or that the human soul draws from its depths the forces that can radiate into the whole life of humanity? When, then, does this human egotism come to light? — Precisely when one considers how necessary it is that every human being offer to others that which is most individual to them, that which is the deepest possession of their egotism. But in everything that a human being can do for another human being out of his egoity, there lives again Lucifer, the other pole of Lucifer. And in what a human being can thus accomplish for humanity under the influence of the Light-bearer lies a reflection of what Lucifer truly is in the higher worlds, lies a reflection of Lucifer’s creative activity: to make the Unrevealed into the Revealed. Can one therefore say that Lucifer is evil, or can one perhaps say that Lucifer is good? — One can only say: Whoever wishes to claim that Lucifer is evil and must be shunned would also have to say that fire must be shunned, because life must sometimes perish in fire. On the path to initiation, one finds that the terms good and evil are not applicable in this way at all when one seeks to characterize the nature of the supersensible world order. Fire is good when it acts under good circumstances; it is bad when it acts under bad circumstances; in itself it is neither good nor bad. So it is with Lucifer. He exerts a good influence on the human soul when he becomes the inspirer to draw out of the human soul all that which the human being can sacrifice as his or her individual self upon the altar of human evolution. Lucifer becomes an evil being—that is, what he does becomes evil—when he imparts such impulses to the human soul that it seeks only to draw everything into itself for self-gratification. One must observe how the deeds of these beings affect the world once one has been made aware of them. The effects of the supersensible beings can be described as good and evil; the beings themselves never can.

[ 10 ] Just imagine, somewhere—forgive the paradox—I won’t say where it might be, but suppose there were a people on some island who held the view that one must guard against Lucifer under all circumstances, that one must keep him as far away from people as is humanly possible. That would not prove that the people of this island had the best understanding of Lucifer, but it would prove something else, namely that these people, due to their peculiar disposition, would be capable only of turning everything Lucifer could give them into evil. The views one would hold on this island regarding Lucifer would be characteristic only of the people on this island, never of Lucifer himself! I will not say whether this island exists. Seek it out for yourselves in the development of the world.

[ 11 ] We must therefore seek what the Luciferic is in the being who confronts us as Lucifer in the supersensible world. We must look for how Lucifer acts in the way his forces are modified when, for example, they act upon such an island, directing their rays of influence there.

[ 12 ] Ahrimanic—what exactly is that? When we encounter Ahriman in the supersensible world, his nature is different from that of Lucifer. To establish a relationship with Lucifer in the supersensible world, one need only, in essence, have purified and cleansed oneself of all the dross of false egoism, of all forms of selfishness in the life of the senses; then Lucifer will be a very good guide, especially in the supersensible worlds, and one will, so to speak, not easily fall prey to him. With Ahriman, the situation is different. Ahriman has a different task in the evolution of the worlds. While Lucifer makes everything unmanifest become manifest, Ahriman has the task that can be characterized for our sensory world in roughly the following way: wherever our sensory world is, wherever it can become visible, there is also Ahriman. Only he is invisible to the sensory world, permeating it supersensibly. What purpose does Ahriman serve? Within the sensory world, he helps very much; he helps every soul. For he helps every soul to carry as much as possible from the sensory world—what takes place there and can only take place within the sensory world—up into the higher worlds. The sensory world exists as a “yes” to something; it is not merely maya. It exists so that events may unfold within it, so that beings may have experiences. What unfolds, what is experienced, must be carried up into the supersensible world. And the power to carry the valuable elements from the sensory world up into eternity is the power of Ahriman. To restore the moment of eternity—that is the power of Ahriman. Here, however, something quite different asserts itself in relation to Ahriman for the individual human soul. What people initially experience in sensory life is infinitely valuable to them, and I do not believe I will meet with much opposition when I say: the passion, the inclination, that which one experiences in the sensory realm—to preserve it quite well, indeed to save as much of it as possible for eternity—is generally much greater than the other inclination, to carry down as much as possible from the unrevealed worlds, from the spiritual worlds, into the sensory world. Human beings love the sensory realm in a completely natural, understandable way and wish to carry as much of it as possible up into the spiritual world. Certain denominations tell their followers, in order to reassure them as much as possible, that one can take everything that is in the sensory world along nicely into spiritual existence. They say this, no doubt, because they unconsciously know how much human beings love what they have in the sensory realm. And it is precisely this that Ahriman’s power strives for: that everything one possesses there should also ascend with one into the supersensible worlds. This inclination, this impulse to carry the sensory into the supersensible world, is strong, is powerful in the soul. One does not easily rid oneself of it when one ascends from the sensory world into the higher worlds through initiation or through death. Therefore, one carries it within oneself once one has become a being of the higher world. And if one encounters Ahriman there, he is particularly dangerous in the higher worlds because he helps one—which he so gladly does—to carry up into the supersensible world what one has gained and experienced in the sensory realm. There is no dearer companion than Ahriman for those who wish to preserve every moment for eternity. Many people, as soon as they have crossed the threshold into the supersensible world, begin to perceive Ahriman as a very convenient companion, for he is always striving to make what takes place on Earth a part of the higher world and to claim it there for himself and his fellow workers. But that is not the worst of it, for one does not enter the supersensible world unless one has, in a certain sense, shed one’s egoism. If one were to be admitted into the supersensible worlds with the ordinary, normal driving force, one would very soon take hold of Ahriman by the hem of his robe and perceive him as a very convenient companion. But one cannot enter if one is like that. By entering, one already possesses the capacity to recognize him as somewhat divine, in that he—with immense tragedy—permeates earthly evolution precisely through the sensory realm and is always striving to transform the sensory realm so that it may become a spiritual realm. That is the profound tragedy of Ahriman! He would like to immediately transform everything that has ever appeared in the sensory realm into something spiritual, and he fights within the world order for the purification and cleansing, for the passing through fire of all that is sensory. That is good in his sense. But it would be very bad in the sense of the divine-spiritual beings, whose adversary Ahriman is in the world order, if he could carry out all his intentions. Much must be handled differently than he would like.

[ 13 ] I would like to explain this using an analogy. But by applying this analogy to the entire world order, you will be able to sense how Ahriman strives for what he can call good, yet how it is impossible to integrate this good into the world order in its entirety. Take any animal being that, for its progressive development within sensory existence, must shed its skin—that must, from time to time, cast off its skin as a reflection of itself and proceed in a new form of existence. Something must be shed to make way for a new possibility of existence for the being in question. Ahriman would like to save everything; he does not want a snake to shed its skin, but rather to process everything that must be shed in accordance with the world order. But human beings also desire this in their sensory existence; they do not want to let go of many things, but rather take them along, even though they are destined for the temporal, for the moment, in accordance with a higher world order. And if human beings could, they would—because the inclination toward this is so strong within them—in their sensory existence, amidst all the questions they ask about unknown or other paths, inquire most of all: Where can one find Ahriman, where can Ahriman help us again to carry what the moment contains up into eternity? Therein lies the one good thing: that human beings cannot find Ahriman in the sensory world, because he is invisible, supersensory within it. And it is one of the duties of the Keeper of the Threshold to ensure that Ahriman remains as invisible as possible in the sensory world, so that human beings can unfold only what lies within their own powers to preserve the moment in eternity, and cannot unconsciously allow themselves to be helped by Ahriman. Good and evil again play a role as two poles in the human mind. The human being progresses as a soul through human evolution. A task within this evolution that is good, genuine, and true is to carry everything of eternal value out of the sensory world and incorporate it into the realm of eternity. That is precisely what is incumbent upon us: to take the precious treasures of the moments and offer them up at the altar of eternity. If we allow Ahriman to help us with the precious treasures of temporality, that is good. If, at the moment we enter the supersensible world—for we cannot see him beforehand—we come to know Ahriman and show him the inclination that may still remain in us to carry even worthless things from the sensory world up into the supersensible world, then this is indeed something of value to him—but to his opponents it is worthless. There we are good instruments for him to carry over from the sensory world into eternity that which is loved here, and which, because it is loved by us, is thereby also placed into this eternity by him.

[ 14 ] Thus we see once again that what emanates from Ahriman cannot, in and of itself, be called good or evil, but rather becomes good or evil depending on how a person submits to it, depending on how a person relates to it. From this, however, we see just how superficially simplistic descriptions can become when they seek to serve convenient questions: What is Ahriman like? What is Lucifer like? Language—answers to such questions—basically do not exist in those worlds where such beings are to be characterized: in the higher worlds. Thus, the human being is entangled in the labyrinth of life. Both Ahriman and Lucifer work into the labyrinth of life, and human beings must seek the path to face such powers in the right way. This is precisely what enables us to develop, because it compels us to seek relationships with the beings of the supersensible worlds. And relationships with the supersensible world are established less through knowledge sought after the pattern of sensory perception than by establishing relationships with these supersensible beings in the sense of what has been described. That is why human beings must be in the darkness of life, for it is into this darkness that the beings enter, beings who can be both good and evil, and whose effects can be good or evil, depending on how we relate to them. That is what constitutes the darkness of life. It is this that causes the light of life, the light of the spirit, to shine into this darkness of life only by our establishing the right relationships with the individual forces of the supersensible world that play into our physical world, by familiarizing ourselves with the fact that our mental images and concepts must change if we wish to speak of the supersensible worlds. I would like to present another example to illustrate how we must think differently if we wish to correctly understand the relationship between the sensory world and the supersensible.

[ 15 ] We live in a state of consciousness, living in such a way that we feel, as if playing around us and with us, what we call our destiny. There are many things about this destiny that we find appealing, and many that we find repulsive. And anyone who can achieve true self-reflection knows that empathy and compassion, sympathy and antipathy, are among the strongest feelings we can possibly have in relation to the vicissitudes of life—feelings that dig deepest into the soul. But the fact is—and I I need not repeat here, since it has been said so often in the earlier lectures—that we ourselves, in our higher Self—which, in the sense of yesterday’s and the day before yesterday’s lectures, merely remembers the ordinary Self, merely holds it within itself as a memory—are the ones who prepare, for example, even that very fate which may then torment and afflict us throughout an entire lifetime. Are there not people who reject the idea of reincarnation precisely because they have no desire to fashion a new existence for themselves after having lived through this one? Why do such people think this way? Because they are caught up in the belief that things in the worlds where the human being is after death are just the same as in the sensory world. Here, we may like some things and dislike others. But to feel as we do here does not even occur to us when we are in the life between death and new birth. There we feel quite differently, even though we know nothing of it here. When we enter the spiritual world after death, we see, for example: You lived on Earth in a sensory existence; you possessed a certain ability, but this ability manifested in you in a very one-sided way; you may even have misused it. You must now, in a new earthly existence within a different physical form, develop yourself in such a way that this one-sidedness is balanced and that an imperfection becomes more perfect. You must—in other words—take what you possessed in an imperfect form and make it your own in a different imperfection, so that through their mutual interaction the matter may be balanced and harmonized. Then, during the transition between death and new birth, a time begins leading up to the new birth when the human being says to themselves: I want to be born in such a way that in a new life I am completely incapable—for example—of engaging in painting, because I previously engaged in it and had great skill at it. For by being unskilled in painting now, I will be placed in a position where I never allow a judgment to enter my soul as if I were painting myself, but only as it must be when I must face the matter myself. There I will have to acquire other powers, because that can be healing in order to harmonize and balance what I had before. Thus one can look back on a life between birth and death, on something one has happily lived through, yet tell oneself that if one were to arrange one’s entire evolution solely so as to experience life in this way, one would not have savored it fully. What must result from forces that arise precisely in this manner is therefore the desire: what you previously experienced in happiness, you must now experience in suffering. And one now arranges everything so that, out of a longing, one must experience suffering in a particular area, the endurance of which carries one further in existence. Then the fact arises that one has longed for suffering and pain in the supersensible realm and perceives them in the sensory realm as something one would like to do away with. There the difference between life in the sensory realm and life in the supersensible worlds between death and new birth truly becomes practically significant. Entirely different forces are at work in our life between death and new birth than those we then find sympathetic or unsympathetic in the life between birth and death. What, then, does the person do who would judge life in the supersensible worlds, for example, according to his sympathies and antipathies in the sensory realm? They project what they have in the sensory realm into the supersensory world. It is just as if you were to draw or paint, for example, a rose on a glass pane; then you look at the glass pane, you do not see the glass—you look through the glass—but the painting is projected onto a giant wall behind it, and you believe that is real. But it is not real at all; you have merely projected it out there. In this way, when a person wishes to judge the supersensible world according to sympathies and antipathies in sensory perception, they can project something into the supersensible world like a shadow, which can then also have validity in the supersensible. It does have an effect, a validity. If one does not see it, something like a mist is projected onto what stands there inside before the observer.

[ 16 ] This can—again from a different perspective—intuitively point us toward what we might call the darkness of life. Why do we live in the darkness of life between birth and death? Because judgments and evaluations of life that are justified and self-evident for the life between birth and death must be invalid for the existence we ourselves spend between death and a new birth. For our thinking, we need a soul life that has no validity in the supersensible world. We must therefore allow the light of the spirit from the supersensible worlds to shine in through the insights, through that which can be explored in the supersensible worlds, so that we may arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the world. The greatest mistake people can make regarding worldviews is to believe that they can extend the concepts and ideas they have gained in the sensory world to the supersensible world, if they lack the patience and perseverance to allow the descriptions of what shines in as spiritual light from the supersensible worlds into the darkness of sensory existence to emerge from the actual exploration of the supersensible. Here, however, we are faced with the question: Is it then only the person who can see into the supersensible worlds themselves—that is, who has undergone initiation—who is capable of allowing this spiritual light of the supersensible worlds to work upon them? — This belief is widespread in the world. One often hears it said: How can one comprehend anything of the supersensible worlds if one has not undergone initiation oneself? And one then hears it pointed out that the only true path can be the undergoing of the steps toward initiation, the actual ascent into the supersensible world.

[ 17 ] How things stand in this area, how understanding relates to perception in the supersensible worlds, and how much comfort and vitality one can derive from understanding the light of the spirit in the darkness of life—this shall be the starting point for tomorrow’s reflection, which is intended to lead us a few steps further into the issues we wish to explore in this series.