The Rudolf Steiner Archive

First Lecture

[ 1 ] It gives me great satisfaction to be able to speak here again this evening after a relatively long time. Those of you who participated in this year’s Munich event, or who have otherwise gained insight into the content of previous events through my attempt at a mystery play titled “The Guardian of the Threshold,” have seen how the soul must conduct itself if it wishes to gain a true, meaningful mental image of various things, of which much is spoken in Spiritual Science, or let us say in occultism.

[ 2 ] Over the years, we have spoken at length about those entities we refer to as the Luciferic and Ahrimanic entities. The fact that the character of these entities only becomes apparent when we approach them slowly and gradually from a wide variety of angles was precisely what was intended to be shown in *The Guardian of the Threshold*. It was intended to show that it is not enough to form a superficial concept of these entities—such as a concept similar to what people so readily embrace, namely a conventional definition—but rather that one must observe from the most diverse angles how these entities intervene in human life. And from this very attempt, you will be able to gain something of what, over many years, has formed the underlying tone of precisely those lectures I have been permitted to give here—that underlying tone which I have already often described in terms of absolute truthfulness toward the spiritual worlds, or as the tone of profound seriousness toward these spiritual worlds. This needs to be emphasized all the more in our present time, since the seriousness and dignity of what may truly be called the anthroposophical endeavor are still scarcely recognized. And if there is one thing I have sought to let shine through in the various lectures of recent years, it is this: That you should attempt to approach the anthroposophical endeavor solely with this spirit of seriousness and truthfulness, and become aware of what the anthroposophical endeavor signifies within the total context of world existence, within the context of human development, and also within the spiritual context of our time. — It cannot be said often enough: One cannot find one’s way into anthroposophy with a few concepts, not with a theory summarized in short sentences, or even with a program; one can find one’s way into what is truly anthroposophical only with the whole life of one’s soul. But life is becoming, is development. And if, on the other hand, one were to ask: How, then, is the individual to join an anthroposophical movement if the demand for development, for becoming, is made, if it is said one can only enter, slowly and gradually over time, into what is contained in the depths of what is truly called anthroposophy, how then can the individual resolve to enter into that into which he is only to develop himself little by little? — then the answer must be: Before a person can ascend to the highest summit of development, they possess what has led all of humanity to strive for such development in the first place; they possess a sense of truth in their heart, in their soul, and they need only surrender to this sense of truth without prejudice, but with the will to truth, not with the will to the vanity of a theory, not with the will to the arrogance of a program, but with the will to truth that lies deep in the soul, provided it is not misled by all manner of prejudices. — One may say: One senses the truth where it flows sincerely. — Therefore, a sincere critique of the truth is already possible even when one is only at the beginning of attaining it. But this does not preclude seeing the main point precisely in immersing oneself in the entire process of becoming, in the entire development of the anthroposophical endeavor.

[ 3 ] In our time, there is indeed much that misleads people with regard to the natural sense of truth that is otherwise present in their souls, and over the years we have been able to point out such misleading factors on many occasions; I need not do so again today. I have spoken to you of these things because I wish thereby to demonstrate the fact that it is necessary, time and again—even if we have already, in a certain sense, come to know one thing or another from occult science—to approach things from ever new angles and perspectives, to consider them again and again. In a sense, what we encounter in the field of anthroposophy—for example, in relation to the four Gospels—provides us with a point of reference for this. This past fall, I had the opportunity to conclude my reflections on the series of Gospels in Basel with a lecture series on the Gospel of Mark. One might see in the contemplation of the Gospels—of which there are four—a prime example, so to speak, of approaching the great truths of existence from different angles. Each Gospel offers an opportunity to view the Mystery of Golgotha from a different perspective, and we can only gain some understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha when we view it from these four different angles, which emerge for us through the contemplation of the Gospels.

[ 4 ] For example, what has been the general tone of our reflections on this particular point over the past ten to twelve years?

[ 5 ] Those of you who can or wish to see clearly on this point need only pick up my book *Christianity as a Mystical Fact*, the contents of which were presented even before the founding of the “German Section of the Theosophical Society.” Anyone who seriously considers what is stated there will see that, in essence, it already contains in its entirety all the things that were later discussed in reference to the various Gospels, and that the entire Mystery of Golgotha, as it has been expounded over the years, is already contained in this book. But nothing would have been more unjustified than to believe, for example, that now, having read what is written in this book, *Christianity as a Mystical Fact*, one also possesses a sufficient mental image of the Mystery of Golgotha for the present day. The entire subsequent exposition was precisely necessary; it follows the same line of thought, arising quite consistently from the embryo of this spiritual contemplation, which in no way contradicts “Christianity as a Mystical Fact,” but was suited to opening up ever new perspectives on the Mystery of Golgotha and thereby penetrating ever deeper into it. In this way, we sought to replace concepts, theories, and programs with an immediate, living immersion in the spiritual realities. And truly, if one always had a sense of a certain deficiency in all this—namely, that one cannot always provide everything necessary—this deficiency is actually connected to something that cannot be changed on the physical plane: time. It is simply not possible to convey everything that needs to be said within a specific time frame. Therefore, a certain expectation was always placed upon your minds, so to speak: the expectation to be patient and to wait and see how things unfold little by little. This should serve as a guide for how we are also to understand the things I will now be speaking to you about in the coming times.

[ 6 ] Over the years we have spoken at length about life between death and a new birth, and yet the next few lectures here will essentially deal with this subject again—for the reason that, particularly during the summer and fall, the task has come to me of exploring this area anew from a spiritual perspective and also of revealing a point of view that could not be touched upon earlier. Only now can we begin to grasp some of what the profound moral significance of the supersensible truths pertaining to this area reveals to us. Alongside all the other premises that have been only briefly touched upon here, there has, of course, always been another premise within our movement—a premise that, one might say, actually wounds many hearts in our so haughty and vain age. But since we cannot allow such a fact to deter us from the seriousness and truthfulness we owe to our movement, this very prerequisite must be made. This prerequisite consists in, through intimate and serious work, truly learning and engaging with what is brought forth from the spiritual worlds. We may say that for a number of years now, the relationship of people living on the physical plane to the spiritual worlds has changed from what it was, for example, throughout almost the entire 19th century. Until the last third of the 19th century, as I have already pointed out, there was little access to the spiritual worlds; in accordance with the necessities of human development, little content from the spiritual worlds flowed into the human soul. Now, however, we live in an age in which the soul need only be receptive, need only surrender and be prepared, so that revelations from the spiritual worlds may flow into it. And individual souls are becoming ever more and more receptive; for those who are conscious of their task in this age, the inflow of spiritual knowledge is a reality. Therefore, a further requirement for the anthroposophist is not to close oneself off from whatever may flow into the soul from the spiritual worlds in the present. Before I go into what will thus form the main subject of our next reflections, I would like to point out two peculiarities of spiritual life to which we should pay particular attention.

[ 7 ] Even between death and rebirth, human beings experience the realities of the spiritual world in a very specific way. But they also experience them through initiation; they experience them, too, if they have prepared their soul—even during their existence in the physical body—by becoming participants in the spiritual worlds. We have often spoken about these things. Therefore, one can say: What happens between death and the new birth—and what is also a living through of the spiritual world—is to be viewed through initiation.

[ 8 ] In order not only to experience the spiritual worlds, but also to understand them correctly and to properly make sense of the messages from the spiritual world, it is necessary to take into account two things, which essentially stem from various points that have often been discussed here. It has often been emphasized that things look different in the spiritual worlds than they do here in the physical world, and that when the soul enters the spiritual worlds, it enters a sphere where it must become accustomed to many things that are virtually the opposite of those in the physical world. And here one point should be brought to your attention. Here on the physical plane, we humans must be active if something is to happen through us in the physical world; we must move our hands, we must move ourselves, we must, so to speak, carry our physical body from one place to another. Thus, for something to happen through us in the physical world, our activity, our active intervention in things, is necessary. The exact opposite of this is necessary—I am always speaking of the present age—for the spiritual worlds. What is to happen through us in the spiritual worlds must happen precisely through our stillness, through our inner peace. What is bustling activity on the physical plane corresponds in the spiritual world to the ability to wait calmly for events to unfold. The less we move about on the physical plane, the less happens through us; but the more we move about, the more can happen. The calmer we can become in our soul, the more we can renounce all inner activity, the more can happen through us in the spiritual world. For something to happen through us in the spiritual world, it is necessary that we be able to regard these events as something by which we are graced, by which we are blessed in a certain way—something that comes to us because we earn it through our inner peace. Let an example be given.

[ 9 ] I have often pointed out here that the year 1899 was an important year for those with spiritual insight. It marked the end of a five-thousand-year historical period of humanity, the so-called Little Kali Yuga. After this year, human souls were compelled to approach the spiritual in a different way than before this time. To give a concrete example: A certain [Norbert founded an order in the West around the turn of the 12th century. Before the idea of founding the order occurred to him, this Norbert was, one might almost say, a carefree man, a man full of passion and worldly desires. Then one day something very special happened to him. He was struck by lightning. It did not kill him, but transformed his entire being. There are many such examples in human development. His whole being was transformed; the interplay of the four members—physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego—underwent a change through this impact of the force contained in the lightning. Then he founded the order in question. And even if the order, like so many orders, did not uphold what its founder intended, it nevertheless did much good at the time in many respects. It has often happened that what modern people call a coincidence occurred. But it is no coincidence; it is an event brought about by world karma. The person was destined to do something special. Therefore, the conditions had to be established in his physical body so that he could do this. This was necessary as an external event, as a more external influence. — In this regard, the turning point of 1899 was the year after which such influences must increasingly take place purely within the souls, influences that cannot come from the outside to such a significant degree. Not that a sudden transition must occur, but it is nevertheless the case that what will affect human souls from now on will have an ever more inner and inner effect. You recall what I said about how Christian Rosenkreutz was to affect the human soul when he wished to call it, and how this is a more inner calling. Before the year mentioned, these callings had to be brought about more through external events; after this year, they will become ever more and more inner. The interaction of human souls with the higher hierarchies will become ever more inner, and human beings will have to exert themselves more and more to maintain this mutual interaction with the beings of the higher hierarchies precisely through the inner, through the deepest and most intimate forces of their souls.

[ 10 ] What I have just described to you as a turning point in the life of the physical plane corresponds, however, in the spiritual world—visible to those who can gain insight into the spiritual realms—to many events that have taken place among the beings of the higher hierarchies. Events that the beings of the higher worlds must carry out among themselves have occurred particularly at this point in time. But there was a peculiarity to this moment. The beings who, in the spiritual worlds, had to bring about the end of the Kali Yuga needed something from our Earth, something that happened on our Earth. They needed the fact that in individual souls who were ready for it, there was knowledge of these things, or at least that there is now knowledge, that mental images about this upheaval live within the souls. For just as human beings on the physical plane need a brain to develop consciousness, so the beings of the higher hierarchies need human thoughts in which the things the higher hierarchies do are reflected. The human world is also necessary for the spiritual world; it plays a part, it must be there. But cooperation must take place in the right way. And those who were ready back then or are ready today to cooperate in these matters from the human side were not allowed—nor are they allowed—to develop propaganda on the physical plane for what is to happen in the spiritual world, in the way one is accustomed to developing it here. It is not by behaving, so to speak, busily on the physical plane that we help the spirits of the higher hierarchies, but rather by first having an understanding of what is to happen, and then, moreover, being in a state of complete inner peace, in the most absolute concentration of our soul life, so to speak, in a position to devotedly surrender ourselves to such a manifestation of the supersensible world. So the calm we can maintain, the state of mind we can attain in order to await such a thing with grace, to receive it with grace—that is what we can contribute to this.

[ 11 ] Thus, even if the statement sounds paradoxical, we can say: Our actions, our activity in the higher worlds, depend on our inner peace; the more peaceful we can become, the more can be accomplished through us in relation to the realities of the higher worlds. That is why it is also necessary for participation in a spiritual movement to be able to truly develop this mood, this inner peace. And it would be most desirable, especially for the anthroposophical movement, that its participants strive for this inner peace, this gracious attitude, this behavior toward the higher worlds filled with an awareness of grace.

[ 12 ] Among the activities that human beings engage in on the physical plane, we actually find similar things only in the realm of artistic creation, or in the realm of the genuine pursuit of knowledge, or in the promotion of a spiritual movement. Certainly, the artist who is always busy and eager to push things forward will not create the highest work that his talents allow; rather, the artist who is able to wait for moments of inspiration and who can also remain silent when, so to speak, the spirit does not speak to him will create the highest work. And he certainly does not attain higher insights who seeks to cobble together a higher insight from the concepts he already possesses; rather, he attains higher insights who, when a question or a mystery of the world arises, can wait calmly, in full resignation, and say to himself: I must simply wait until the ray of light of the answer comes to me from the spiritual worlds. — And he certainly does not act correctly within a spiritual movement who runs from person to person and seeks to persuade everyone as quickly as possible that this spiritual movement is the only right one; rather, he who can wait until, after the relevant souls have recognized their impulse toward the truths of the spiritual world, these souls approach. This is true with regard to action concerning what shines into our physical world, but especially with regard to everything that human beings themselves can accomplish in the spiritual world. And one might say: Even the most practical matters in this spiritual realm depend just as much on the establishment of a certain state of calm.

[ 13 ] I would just like to draw attention to one more thing. Let’s take the psychospiritual healing method. In spiritual healing, too, the main point is not that one performs this or that movement, or this or that hand gesture. These must be performed, so to speak, merely as a preparation. But ultimately, they all aim to establish peace and balance. What becomes outwardly visible during a spiritual healing is actually only the preparation for what the spiritual healer does. What happens in the end is the main thing. It is like standing in front of a scale. First we must place something on one side that we wish to weigh, then we place a weight on the other side; the balance beam then moves to the right and left. But we can only read the weight once equilibrium has been established. So it is with regard to action in the spiritual worlds.

[ 14 ] The situation is different when it comes to recognition and perception. How does perception occur in everyday life on the physical plane?

[ 15 ] Everyone knows that, with the exception of certain areas of the physical plane, things come to us. From morning to night, in our waking daily life, things come to us; from moment to moment, we receive ever-new impressions. Only in exceptional states do we seek out these impressions, performing on things what things would otherwise perform. But then we are already entering into what is the search for knowledge. It is not so with spiritual knowledge. In this case, we must ourselves place before our soul everything that is to come before it. While all our actions, everything that is to happen through us in the spiritual world, come about by our establishing the most absolute stillness, we must be constantly active if we truly wish to perceive anything in the spiritual world. This is why, for some who would also like to be anthroposophists, what we are doing here out of genuine insight seems too inconvenient. Quite a few say: With you, one has to learn everything first, one has to think about everything first, one has to engage with everything! — But without this, one cannot attain an understanding of the spiritual worlds! One must exert one’s soul, must view things from the most diverse angles. That is what it is all about. Concepts one wishes to acquire regarding the higher worlds must first be painstakingly constructed through slow, quiet work. In the physical world, if we want a table, we must create that table through our active labor. But if we want to “create” something in the spiritual worlds, then we must develop the stillness, the kind of stillness necessary for something to happen; and when something is done, it emerges from the twilight. But if we want to recognize something, then we must first build up the inspirations through our full effort. Recognition requires work, an inwardly active state of mind, a journey from inspiration to inspiration, from imagination to imagination, from intuition to intuition. There we must bring everything together, and nothing approaches us that we do not place before ourselves if we wish to recognize it. Thus, things in the spiritual world are precisely the opposite of everything that is true in the physical world.

[ 16 ] I must preface this so that we may agree from the outset on how such things can first be discovered and secondly understood, as we will need to discuss them further together. In these reflections, I do not wish to focus so much on the immediate life after death, which we have often discussed under the name of the so-called Kamaloka—you are, after all, familiar with its essential aspects—but rather we wish to consider, from some new perspectives, the periods that follow our time in the Kamaloka after we have passed through death.

[ 17 ] Above all, it is necessary that we first point out the peculiarity of how we live there. You know that, as the first stage of higher knowledge, human beings possess what we might call the imaginative life—or, we could also say, life in true, real visions. While in the physical world we are surrounded by colors, sounds, smells, tastes, and the mental images we form through our intellect, in the spiritual world we are initially surrounded by imaginations, which can also be called visions; but we must be clear, when using these terms of imagination and vision, that these, if they are correct in the spiritual sense, do not represent mere dream images, but realities, actualities. Let us take a specific case.

[ 18 ] When a person has passed through the gate of death, they meet those who died before them and who, in a certain sense, were connected to them in life. We truly find ourselves reunited with those who belong to us in the interval between death and rebirth. Just as we now perceive things in the physical world by seeing their colors, hearing their sounds, and so on, so after death we are surrounded—to put it figuratively—by a cloud of visions. Everything around us is vision; we ourselves are vision. Just as we are flesh and blood here, so then we are vision. But this vision is no dream; rather, we know it is reality. If we meet a departed soul with whom we were previously together, that person is also a vision; they are, as it were, enclosed within the visionary cloud. But just as we know on the physical plane that the red color comes from the red rose, so we know on the spiritual plane that the vision comes from the spiritual being who has passed through the gate of death before us. But now a peculiarity arises that we must take into account, and which manifests in everyone who experiences this time after death. Here on the physical plane, for example, this may be the case: we have loved a person whom we ought to have loved—according to the conditions we can perceive, and according to the concepts we only come to understand in retrospect—too little; we have thus withheld love from them. Let us take such an example: we may have withheld love from a person or otherwise caused them harm. Then, unless we have a hardened heart, the feeling, the thought, may arise within us: You must make amends! — And when this feeling arises within us, we are given the opportunity to make amends. We can, so to speak, continue to work on the relationship with the world around us on the physical plane. We cannot do this in the immediate period following the Kamaloka period of which we are now speaking. When we then stand before a person, we may well gain the insight from the way we stand before them: You have done this or that to them, or withheld love that you owed them; we also resolve to make amends, but we cannot. We can only develop the relationship with that person at this time that was already established in the time before death. We can see the rest, but we cannot add anything at first, nor can we make any improvements. That is to say, in this visionary world that envelops us like a cloud, we cannot change anything. We look at it, but we cannot change anything. Just as we stood in relation to a person who died before us, so our relationship to them remains, and we continue to live it out. This is often also what belongs to the more painful experiences of initiation. There one experiences much in one’s relationship to the physical world, and one perceives it truly more deeply than one perceives it with the eyes or with the intellect. One can see through to its foundations, but cannot change it directly. This is what constitutes the pain of spiritual insight, this is what constitutes the martyrdom of spiritual insight, insofar as this insight relates to our own life, insofar as it is self-knowledge. And so it is also after death. After death, people stand in such relationships with those with whom they entered into a relationship in life—relationships that are, in a sense, enduring, that continue uninterrupted as they were.

[ 19 ] When this fact recently came to mind with such overwhelming force, I was able to remind myself of something. I have indeed spent a great deal of time in my life studying Homer and have sought to understand many things in his ancient poems. But on this very occasion, a passage from Homer came to mind: where Homer—whose clairvoyance is, after all, indicated by the Greeks in that they spoke of the “blind” Homer—speaks of the realm that human beings experience after death, he calls it the “realm of shadows, where no change, no transformation is possible.” And then I realized once again how so many things live within the great poems and revelations of humanity, which we can only truly recognize by drawing them out from the depths of spiritual insight. And much of what is to be given to humanity’s knowledge will rest upon the fact that people will see their great ancestors—who were blessed by the spiritual light shining into their souls—only in a new light, indeed, in a light of true understanding. How does it move a soul that is receptive to this when it perceives in such a passage: This ancient seer could only write down this passage because the truth of the spiritual world shone into his soul! — Then true piety begins toward the divine-spiritual forces that flow through the world and especially through the hearts and souls of human beings. Only then do we look upon what happens in the world for the sake of further development and progress with true piety. Much of what those people, who were as gifted as Homer, created is true in the deepest sense. It is true in a spiritual sense. But this truth, which an ancient, twilight-like clairvoyance was once able to perceive directly, has been lost to the present age and must first be regained through the path of spiritual knowledge.

[ 20 ] I would like to take this opportunity to further reinforce this very example—this example of a penetration into what has been given to humanity by creative geniuses—by citing something else: a truth that I even resisted when it pierced my soul, a truth that seemed paradoxical to me, but which I had to acknowledge as truth as it arose immediately with an inner necessity. That is why it is also permissible to speak of what has emerged there.

[ 21 ] The work I had to do in the spiritual worlds was also connected with the contemplation of certain works of art. I had to contemplate these works of art. Among them was also what I had seen and studied earlier, but which only now appeared before my soul in this way. — What I am telling you now is an observation regarding the Medici tombs in Florence. There is that chapel which Michelangelo built and furnished. Two Medici, of whom we shall say no more, were to be immortalized there in statues. Michelangelo, however, added four so-called allegorical figures, which, in accordance with what had arisen at the time and to which Michelangelo himself had given impetus, were named “Morning” and “Evening,” “Day” and “Night.” At the feet of one Medici statue are “Day” and “Night,” at the feet of the other are “Morning” and “Evening.” Now, even if you do not have particularly good illustrations, you can easily confirm what I am about to say regarding these four allegorical figures of the Medici tombs simply by looking at them. Let us begin with the most famous one, “Night.” In the descriptions that travel guides usually copy from, one can read that the peculiar limb positions Michelangelo chose for the reclining figure, “Night,” are unnatural, because a person cannot sleep in such a position, so that this figure is not a particularly good symbolic expression of the night. But I want to say something else. Let us assume we view this allegorical figure of “Night” with an occult eye, and we say to ourselves: When a person sleeps, their ego and astral body are outside the physical body and the etheric body. Then it is conceivable that someone might devise a posture, a specific position of the limbs, which is most appropriate to the position of the etheric body when the astral body and the ego are not within it. When we walk about during the day, we assume this or that posture because the astral body and the ego are within the physical body and the etheric body. But at night the astral body and the I are outside; then the etheric body is alone within the physical body. It develops its activity and mobility; this gives rise to a certain posture. And one might get the impression that there is no gesture more fitting for the free movement of the etheric body than the one Michelangelo depicted in this “Night,” a gesture so precise that one could not express it better or more precisely than through the figure’s posture, which represents the posture of the etheric body. — Now let us turn to the other figure, “Day.” Here one might say the following. Let us suppose we could induce a person to silence, as far as possible, the etheric and astral life within them, so that the ego is primarily active and evokes a gesture, and we were seeking the most appropriate gesture for the ego. Then we could find no better gesture than the one Michelangelo has expressed in “Day”! Here the gestures are no longer allegorical, but immediate, created quite realistically from life. And as it were, for a temporal eternity, they are inscribed into the development of humanity by the artist: This is what the gesture looks like that most expresses the activity of the ego, and this is what the gesture looks like that most expresses the activity of the etheric body! — And now the other figures, beginning with “Twilight.” If we imagine, in a particularly well-developed human being, the withdrawal of the etheric body—that is, the relaxation that occurs in the physical body even when death overtakes us—if we imagine not death itself, but the withdrawal of the three members: the etheric body, astral body, and the I—and look for the gesture that the physical body then makes, we have the gesture of this allegorical “Twilight” figure. And if we wish to express in a gesture the inner liveliness of the astral body amidst the minimal activity of the etheric body and the ego, the most precise one is that which Michelangelo gave to “Dawn.” So that on the one hand we have the expressions for the activity of the etheric body and the ego, and on the other hand for the activity of the physical body and the astral body. — As I said, I was reluctant to do this; but the more closely one examines these things, the more inevitably it follows. And I wish to emphasize nothing else in this matter than to show precisely how the artist creates from the spiritual world. I admit that Michelangelo did this more or less unconsciously; but what does that mean other than a shining in of the spiritual world into the physical world! Occultism will contribute not to the destruction, but to the deepening of works of art. However, the time will also come when some of what is today considered “art” will no longer be regarded as art. This may disappoint some people; but the truth will prevail. — I was quite able to understand the inner reason behind the legend that arose precisely regarding the most fully developed figure: that Michelangelo in Florence, when he was alone with “Night” in the Medici Chapel, was able to make her stand up so that she walked around! I do not wish to dwell on this further, but once one realizes that the activity of the Life-Body is expressed here, the power of the legend is already evident; it is already there.

[ 22 ] This is true of many things, and it is true of Homer as well. Such a word comes flying at us, as Homer says: the spiritual realm, a realm of shadows, in which there is no change, no transformation. But when we consider the conditions in life after the Kamaloka, a new understanding of such works by a divinely gifted person begins to dawn upon us, and much will be enriched by Spiritual Science.

[ 23 ] These are things one can point out, but they are not the most important things in life. The main things in life are the constant interactions that occur between people. When a person faces another in such a way that they sense the spiritual aspect of every human soul, they will relate to that person quite differently than if they believed the other possessed only what a materialistic worldview assumes. The sacred mystery that every human soul must be to us can only be so to our feelings and sensibilities if we have something within our own soul that is capable of casting spiritual light upon the other soul. Through deepening our understanding of the cosmic mysteries with which human mysteries are connected, we come to know human nature, learn to recognize whom we are facing when we face a human being; above all, we learn to silence the prejudices we otherwise hold toward others, and learn to feel and recognize the genuine, true, and right aspects of the human being. The most important light that anthroposophy will provide will be the one that illuminates the human soul. Through this, the right social feelings and the right feelings of love that should prevail among people will also come into the world as a fruit of true spiritual knowledge. What is to come can only be understood as a fruit whose growth and flourishing we can nurture only through spiritual knowledge. When Schopenhauer said, “Preaching morality is easy; establishing morality is difficult,” he spoke from a true insight, for discovering moral principles is indeed not all that difficult, nor is preaching morality. But to touch the human soul where the insights germinate within it—insights that, through themselves, become true morality capable of sustaining human life—that is what is at stake. How each of us relates to spiritual insights will also be able to lay the seeds within us for a genuine human morality of the future. The morality of the future will be built upon spiritual insight; it will either be built upon this—or it will not be possible to establish it at all!

[ 24 ] It is necessary that we acknowledge this to ourselves out of a sincere love for the truth. This requires that we truly immerse ourselves in the living life and fabric of anthroposophy and, above all, take into account what was said earlier today as an introduction: Action in the spiritual world presupposes peace of mind, proving oneself worthy of the gift; knowledge presupposes activity. From this, it will also be clear to you that in the time between death and the new birth, when we face another being, we can recognize through the activity we then unfold whether we have withheld love from them or whether we have done something to them that we should not have done. But the calm necessary to allow correction to take place—that peace of mind of the soul—we cannot yet develop at this point. In the course of the winter lectures, we will also characterize that time between death and the new birth, when, in the natural course of life between death and the new birth, the conditions arise that allow a person to bring about a change in such a matter—that is to say, in other words, to effect a kind of reconstruction of their karma. However, we must calmly distinguish between the moment we have just considered and the subsequent periods, which have different tasks and which we will still consider for the time between death and the new birth.

[ 25 ] It should only be noted that there are certain conditions under which a person may experience life after death in a more favorable or less favorable manner. When comparing two people or different people after death, the way they live in the period immediately following the Kamaloka life depends on the moral character they possessed on Earth. People who demonstrated good moral qualities on Earth have the most favorable conditions in the period following the Kamaloka; people who have shown deficient moral qualities have poor conditions. I would like to express how this manifests in life after death in a formula which, since our words are coined for the physical world and not for the spiritual world, cannot be entirely precise. One can only strive to make it as accurate as possible. But then one can say: Through the moral constitution of our soul, we become, at this specific point in time, sociable spirits who enjoy fellowship with other spirits—that is, with human spirits or with spirits of the higher hierarchies. Through the deficient moral constitution of our soul, we become not sociable but solitary spirits, spirits who find it exceedingly difficult to rise above the mist of their vision. And this is a fundamental cause of suffering after death: feeling oneself to be a lonely spirit, a spiritual hermit; whereas a fundamental characteristic of sociability is finding a connection to what is necessary for one, to what one needs. And it takes a very long time in the afterlife to pass through this sphere, which in occultism is called the Mercury sphere.

[ 26 ] In the next sphere, the moral disposition of the soul naturally remains decisive, but new conditions come into play. In the next sphere, the sphere of Venus, the religious dispositions of the soul are, above all, decisive. People with a religious inner life will become sociable beings during this time, regardless of their religious denomination. In contrast, spirits who lack a religious disposition are condemned by this sphere to a spiritual confinement within themselves, to a necessity of retreating into themselves. I cannot help but say—even if it seems paradoxical—that those who have a predominantly materialistic outlook and are indignant toward religious life must become spiritual hermits; they will each be locked away, as it were, in their own little room. And it is not an ironic parable, but a truth, when I say: All those who today establish a “monistic religion”—that is, the opposite of religion—will all be locked away in a dungeon; they will then be utterly unable to find themselves.

[ 27 ] In this way, corrections are made for the errors and mistakes the soul commits during its earthly life. Errors and mistakes are corrected on the physical plane by themselves; but in the life between death and rebirth, errors and mistakes are facts! What we think here constitutes a fact in the life between death and rebirth. Thought itself is already a fact at the time of initiation. A flawed thought at initiation, if one is truly able to perceive it, stands there not only in all its ugliness, but with all the destructiveness it contains. People would truly soon turn away from many a thought propagated within this or that agitational movement, if only they could get a glimpse of what it means as a fact, as a destructive fact. For this, too, is part of the ordeal of initiation: that thoughts cluster around us and stand there like solidified—I would say, like frozen—masses, which we cannot shake as long as we remain outside the body. If we have conceived a false thought and step out of the body, it is there; then we cannot change it. To do so, we must first return to the body. We are left with the memory, but even the initiate can correct it only within the physical body. But outside, it is like a mountain that is simply there. The full gravity of actual life can only come to light in this way.

[ 28 ] Having said that, it is understandable that returning to the physical body is necessary for certain karmic adjustments. We do indeed encounter our mistakes in the life between death and rebirth; but what was an error there must be corrected in the physical body. Thus, what happened in the previous life is balanced out again in the next. But what must be recognized in all its strength and all its fallibility stands, for the time being, unchangeable, just as things are in the spiritual realm, according to a saying of Homer. The things we recognize there from the spiritual world are then to enter our soul as sensations, as feelings. They will become feelings, and they will then become the reason for viewing life in a new way. A monistic Sunday sermon may point to various moral principles. But this will change people very little—time will tell—because, due to the way in which it is spoken, the concepts are not suited to truly grasp the human soul. This requires the real strength of the concepts. And the concepts gain this real strength when we know: Whatever weighs upon your karma will confront you with complete immediacy for a certain time after death. You see what weighs upon your karma, but it remains as it is. You cannot change it now; you can only immerse yourself in it so that you unite it directly with your nature!

[ 29 ] Such concepts then have such an effect on our minds that we are able to view life in the right way. And then all the things necessary for the advancement of life will come to pass, if humanity is truly to move forward in the sense intended by those who provide spiritual guidance to humanity—the spiritual leaders of humanity—and advance toward the goals set before this humanity.