The Destiny of Individuals and of Nations
GA 157
16 March 1915, Berlin
10. Problems on Spiritual Path—National Characteristics in Europe Moulded by Folk Spirits
Dear friends, once again let us first of all remember those who are out there at the front, in the great arena of present-day events:
Spirits of your souls, guardian guides,
On your wings let there be borne
The prayer of love from our souls
To those whom you guard here on earth.
Thus, united with your might,
A ray of help our prayer shall be
For the souls it seeks out there in love.
And for those who because of those events have already gone through the gate of death:
Spirits of your souls, guardian guides,
On your wings let there be borne
The prayer of love from our souls
To those whom you guard here on earth.
Thus, united with your might,
A ray of help our prayer shall be
For the souls it seeks out there in love.
May the spirit we are seeking as we work towards spiritual knowledge, the spirit who has gone through the Mystery of Golgotha for the good of the earth, for the freedom and progress of man, be with you and the hard duties you have to perform.
Dear friends, the points we shall consider today will once again be aphoristic. They may serve to round off one or another of the things I have spoken of before. The first point I want to refer to is the way we find the facts, the real nature, of the spiritual worlds when we ascend to those spiritual worlds and have taken the first steps Within them. Let me start by considering the problems we meet in our efforts to attain to the spiritual worlds. They are indeed considerable, and although it is certain that the path we take when we meditate, With all the work we do in the inner soul, must lead to the spiritual world—certain as this may be—it is also very easy to fail to recognize the particular kind of soul experience that takes the soul up into the spiritual worlds.
First of all there is the problem that we are in the habit of judging everything our soul comes upon on the basis of experiences we have gained in the world accessible to the outer senses. We could say that we really know nothing but what we have made our own out of the sense-perceptible world. Now we enter the spiritual world and find that everything is entirely different from the sense-perceptible world. Everything being different, the main problem is to extend the range of our attention to the things we are supposed to be seeing. The situation is that the whole of the spiritual world might lie spread out before us but we would see nothing. The reason is that whilst we are awake and in our earth bodies we are not in a position to withdraw our spiritual organs from this earth body, to draw them away from their union with the earth body.
Let me use a comparison I have used on a number of occasions to present an image of the soul element separating from the body. I have often said that it is just as impossible to recognize the immortal part of man from what he is here in ordinary life as it is to recognize the properties of hydrogen and oxygen by looking at water. Hydrogen is present in water, forming a compound with oxygen, the way our immortal part is present in the body. It will reveal nothing of its qualities until it is separated out of the water. It hides all those qualities. In the same way the soul hides its qualities when it is united with the body.
Our ordinary life between birth and death trains us to relate to the sense-perceptible world in such a way that whilst we are awake the organs of the mind and spirit are always tied up with the body in the same way as hydrogen is tied up with oxygen in water. The soul is therefore unable to depart from the body during the time between birth and death, except for the time between going to sleep and waking up again when it is in the spiritual worlds. During the time between going to sleep and waking up the soul really enters the spiritual worlds. It is there in those worlds. It gains new strength for the daily round out of the spiritual worlds. It retains the habit, however, of perceiving lily with the physical organs, and the moment it reaches the point where it has gained the strength that would enable it to achieve perception within the spiritual sphere it wakes up. The soul is joined to the body through the powers within it; because of it ability to feel desire the soul is connected with the body. The moment its powers have been recharged and it is again able to be active it desires to return to the body as long as the body is still capable of life. In the first place it will therefore be necessary for us gradually to get our bearings after death.
In one of my public lectures I referred to the ability to remember as the ultimate soul activity53Berlin, 26 February 1915: ‘Was ist am Menschen sterblicht?’ in Aus schicksahragender Zeit (GA 64). In English. 'Etheric Man within Physical Man' typescript Z185 (tr. not mentioned). Let us compare this with what happens when man learns to look into the spiritual world. It is something which to some extent does make us free of the bodily element. Modern science, as it continues to develop, will actually show that looking back to an earlier experience is a process occurring in mind and spirit. This process is however given enormous assistance, assistance provided by the body.
It happens like this. When our soul dwells in the body, anything we entrust to our power of memory has the nature of an image to begin with; it is very similar to what we call imaginative perception. In ordinary life, however, we proceed to imprint everything that is to be memory into the bodily element. When we have an experience we first of all encounter the experience with our senses; we form an image of it. This image first of all imprints itself in the body; an imprint is left in the body, an imprint we could compare with the imprint left by a seal. It is important to understand that such an imprint is left. Conventional science takes rather a naive view of this. According to some authors, one idea is recorded in one part of the brain, another idea in another, and so on. That is not how it happens. The imprint a memory leaves in our physical body is really very dissimilar to what may later come up as a memory. To the clairvoyant eye it is a kind of image taking the form of the human head and a bit more, continuing on into the rest of the human being. Irrespective of the nature of the experience, the imprint will be of that kind; such an imprint is made into the ether body. If we were able to take this imprint out we would indeed have a thin, shadowy spectre of the head and its continuation. Another memory would also take the form of a shadow image of a head and its continuation. These images are certainly quite different from what we experience as a memory. There is such a shadowy spectre within us for every single memory we have. They all merge into each other, they interpenetrate. What remains would from the outside appear as such a shadow picture and all one could say would be that one of them looks like this, another like that.
If memory is to arise the soul of man must first of all focus on the imprint left in the body and decipher it the way we decipher the peculiar symbols on a page when we are reading—symbols entirely different from what the soul experiences after reading them. The soul has to apply a subconscious reading process in order to convert those imprints into the actual memory we experience. Let us assume you are today recalling an event you experienced in your eighth year. The actual process consists in something making you focus your soul on this little head with its continuation that was imprinted at the time; your soul will now decipher it. As to the experience, as little remains of it in the body as the book you have read retains of what you experienced in the reading. When you read the book again you need to recreate the whole thing in your soul. All this happens without our noticing it. But someone who has not learned to read will be unable to tell from the symbols what they represent. The same applies to the memory process; it is an inner reading process. There is much that goes on below the threshold of consciousness in the human soul and is never considered by man. When we give ourselves up to memory, an infinitely complex process takes place in the human being. All the time, etheric seal imprints rise up from the dim twilight where all else in life is darkness and the inner process man experiences as memory consists in these imprints arising and being deciphered.
I am not telling you something I have thought up but a genuine fact discovered through occult investigation.
When we begin to strengthen the inner powers of the soul through meditation and concentration the process I have already mentioned will come about. The process which develops is not the one we have to call memory. We develop inner powers but an imprint also forms and is left upon the ether that is alive and present everywhere in the world outside us, it is objectively imprinted into the world. As we meditate, as we concentrate, we leave an imprint in the objective cosmic process. Basically the same thing happens when we devote our studies to what spiritual science has to give, for spiritual science has to do with supersensible, nonphysical, things. When we really take hold of the thougts coming to us from spiritual science we are already coming away from ourselves to such an extent that our mental effort has us working with the cosmic ether: when we think ordinary thoughts we merely imprint them within ourselves.
You realize, of course, that it is important for anyone wishing to make progress in soul development to put enormous emphasis on what we must call repetition of the same thought process. If we concentrate just once on some thought or other, it will merely leave a fleeting impression within the world ether. If however we nurture the same thought in our soul day after day, over and over again, the impression will also be made over and over again.
Here we must ask ourselves the following question. If we repeatedly make an impression in the world ether, repeating a meditation over and over again, what actually happens? Where is the impression made?
To answer this question, something else has to be considered first. If someone is genuinely looking for the way to the spiritual world and begins to be clairvoyant, he will find that his clairvoyant experiences take a very strange form. He will be very much aware that what he finds there is something which is experienced but, fundamentally speaking, there is something lacking in those experiences. I am presupposing that the person has reached the point where he has clairvoyant experiences. Afterwards, when we are no longer in those clairvoyant experiences but remember those clairvoyant experiences, we say to ourselves: It may be that I have nothing whatsoever to do with all those things. The impression is that the things experienced in clairvoyance are quite separate from us. Above all, it is impossible to find out how far we ourselves have anything to do with those experiences. That is the important point. Because of this it is easy to consider such experiences mere dreams. We only realize that we have something to do with it when we come to see that our own self has been confronting us there in another form. We come to realize that what we have experienced there is really very similar to our personal experiences and we could not have experienced what we did in clairvoyance if we did not exist.
To make it even clearer let me put it like this. Let us assume you have a dream which brings back something you experienced when very young. When you wake from the dream you only realize that those were dream experiences because among the mass of images you encountered there was also that childhood experience. Then you knew that the dream must have something to do with you. That is how it is with our first clairvoyant experiences. You gradually come to realize that really it is someone else who is dreaming there and yet at the same time it is also you yourself. We come to recognize ourselves within the mass of clairvoyant experiences.
It is indeed an experience of some significance to learn that we have been within a great body of experiences yet it was we ourselves who were within it. One must first of all discover oneself within those clairvoyant experiences. We then come to realize that we are not only inside our bodies but also in the world outside. It is an experience of tremendous significance which shows us that we have something which the spirits of the higher hierarchies hold and support, nurture and cherish. Here I am, we say to ourselves, in my body. I inhabit the enveloping form of the body and I am at the same time also in the spiritual world, held and supported by the spirits of the higher hierarchies. We must not allow ourselves to be distracted by the law which says that a particular entity cannot be in two places at one and the same time, for laws of this kind no longer apply in the spiritual world. I am inside me and at the same time I am also someone Who lets experiences arise within him in the spiritual world. We find ourselves held secure within the higher hierarchies. We know we have this kind of dual nature and we gradually come to realize that what we are in essence in the spirit does not really lie within the sense-perceptible world at all. It lies in the spiritual world and what exists in the sense-perceptible world is a shadow cast from the spiritual world. We slip into a spiritual ‘body’ existence and with this are outside ourselves, looking at ourselves from outside. Anyone not prepared to make himself familiar with such apparent contradictions will never arrive at concepts that can make the spiritual world explicable to him. The important thing is that in as far as we are part of the world of the senses we discover that we are beyond ourselves.
We have now reached the point where we can consider the question as to where our meditations are inscribed. Our ordinary memories are imprinted in ourselves. A seal imprint is always made which represents the upper part of the human being, the head and a few appendages. When we meditate or consider in our mind the ideas presented in spiritual science, we also produce imprints but these go to the other one I have just described, the one who is another self. These ideas go to the other one. We may experience something in Berlin or in Nuremberg; the imprint of this will be made in the same body. Everything we experience in the spirit, however, goes to the one who is another self. Everything is imprinted there. If our attitude is truly in accord with what is thought or felt or experienced in spiritual science, we are working on the supersensible human being whom we also are, just as we work on the physical human being we are when facing everyday experiences.
You will now understand that it needs great inner strength to work on the supersensible human being. It clearly is easier to recall things that had an external effect on us through their colour, sound and so on, because we are in that case supported by the body. When a colour makes an impression on us this triggers a physical process within us. When it is our aim to enter into a purely spiritual idea we have to do without all those physcial props; inner effort has to be made in the soul and the soul must gain greater and greater powers, growing so strong in itself that it really can make an impression on the cosmic ether outside.
If we look for union in this way with the human being we really are, the human being who is always there, we establish a relationship with our individual human identity, with what we really are as human beings. And what we really are as human beings, this lives among the forms of being that are the higher hierarchies the way our body lives among sense-perceptible processes in nature. We are part of earthly existence and in the same way we also partake of existence in the spirit, within all that takes place in the world of the higher hierarchies.
There is something else I want to mention. Being thus related to the spiritual world, we are related to many different spirits in the higher hierarchies. Among them are the spirits we only relate to as human individuals—they are not destined to have any kind of cosmic function. On the other hand we also belong to spirits that do have a cosmic function. We all belong to a folk spirit for instance. In the processes that belong entirely to the world of the senses we are connected with sense-perceptible nature. Reaching upwards we are connected with all those spirits which in a supersensible way reach down into the world of the physical senses. Here, we relate to things outside us and have thoughts and ideas about them. In the same way the different spirits in the higher hierarchies develop thoughts and ideas on the basis of the fact the we are objects to them. We are objects to the spirits in the higher hierarchies, we are the realm they have thoughts about. These thoughts are more will-like by nature.
The spiritual entities are different in kind because of the way the hierarchies relate to us. An important distinction will clearly emerge if we note how the evolution of such spirits in the higher hierarchies progresses, for instance in the case of the folk spirits. We also progress between birth and death here on earth, for our ego grows more and more mature, gaining experiences about the world. A young Person cannot have learned as much as someone who is older. The same applies to the spirits of the higher hierarchies, except that their evolution proceeds somewhat differently from our own.
We are referring to a spirit belonging to the higher hierarchies when we speak of the Italian folk spirit. This Italian folk spirit goes through its evolution and we are actually able to pinpoint a particular time when this folk spirit passed a major stage in evolution. We know the relationship between the Italian folk spirit and individual Italians to be such that the Italian folk spirit acts through the sentient soul of individual Italians. The way this happens is that to begin with the folk spirit is, as it were, only acting on the soul element. It is only later, in the course of its further development, that the folk spirit, using its will, intervenes more and more in the way the soul comes to expres- sion through the element of the physical body. If you consider Italian history you come to a very important year, around 1530. That is the year when the Italian folk spirit grew so powerful that it was then able to begin to work also on the physical body. From that time it started to develop very specific national characteristics. In occult terms this means that the folk spirit developed a much more powerful will; it began to engrave itself also into the physical element, developing national characteristics even at the physical level. Whilst our ego is becoming more and more independent of the body the folk spirit is evolving in the opposite direction. Having influenced the soul element for a time it is now beginning to influence the physical.
We find the same thing happened with the French folk spirit around the year 1600, and about 1650 for the English folk spirit. Before, the folk spirit had more or less only taken hold of the soul element but from then on it also intervened in the physical. Its will grew more powerful and the soul was less able to put up resistance against being given a configuration that had national characteristics. It was therefore at this time that national characteristics began to emerge more clearly. This happened because the folk spirit descended. It is higher up when it acts more on the soul sphere; it descends to act more on the physical aspect. The folk spirit of the Italian peninsula therefore descended around the year 1530. In France this happened at the beginning of the 17th century and in England in the middle of the 17th century. Shakespeare wrote his works before the folk spirit had passed this stage. This is what is so significant. It is the reason for the strange rupture which occurred in the way the English regard Shakespeare, with the result that Shakespeare is actually more appreciated in Germany than in England. We are speaking of the way the folk spirit descends more and more into individual human beings.
If we now come to consider the evolution of the German folk spirit we can see something similar happening during the period between about 1750 and 1850. Yet oddly enough we have to say that in this case the folk spirit descended but then ascended again. This is what is so significant. We are able to observe a process in which the folk spirits of Western European peoples descended and took hold of those peoples. In the case of the German people we can also observe the folk spirit descending around the middle of the 18th century, but we then find it ascending again around the middle of the 19th century. The situation is therefore quite a different one. A beginning was made to develop the German character into an eminently national one, but it was only done for a while. When some of this had been done the folk spirit ascended again, once again to act only on the soul element.
German cultural life had its flowering period at the time when the folk spirit had descended to the lowest level. The folk spirit will of course always remain with these people, but it is now again in spiritual heights. That is the peculiar thing about the German folk spiny It did descend at an earlier time but it then stopped before the people became too strongly national. The Western European peoples have become very much crystallized in their national characteristics, but in the case of the German people this cannot happen because of the peculiar nature of the German folk spirit. The result is that German attitudes will always have to remain more universal than those of other peoples. These things relate to profound realities in the spiritual world. If we had been looking for the German folk spirit in Goethe's time we would have found it at about the same level as the English, French or Italian folk spirit. If we want to look for it today we have to go higher up. There will be times when it descends again and others when it ascends again. It is this to-and-fro movement which is so characteristic of the German folk spirit.
The Russian folk spirit does not descend at all to achieve full crystallization of the people. It always remains something like a cloud hovering above the national character. We shall always have to 10°k for it up above, and the Russian people will only enter into spiritual development when they make the effort to combine the fruits of the work done in the West of Europe with their own essential nature. They must develop their culture in conjunction with the West for they will never develop a culture out of their own resources.
All this has to be understood in this way. The flexibility in German attitudes is due to the fact that the German has not united with his folk spirit the way this has happened in the West of Europe. This is also why it is so tremendously difficult to understand the Germans. They can only be understood if we are able to admit that it is possible to have a people whose folk spirit only comes in sporadically to intervene in their evolution. This is one of the most difficult chapters in historical development and you should not despair if it seems to be full of contradictions. We are, however, living in an age when we must try and really understand the origins of the enmity which shows itself so clearly now during these fateful days within Europe. With anything we experience, if you look more closely you'll always find that there is something coming in which might indeed be called incomprehensible and only becomes clear when we look more closely. Yes, of course, the Germans will be aware that fundamentally there is a tremendous hatred felt towards them. Looking at it more closely we shall find that this hatred is directed towards what in fact are the best qualities of the Germans. No particular hatred is directed towards their less desirable qualities.
Anyone wishing to penetrate these mysteries will have to consider these things more in their context. You might say that it is a case of German chauvinism if someone says such things now in Germany. Why should a German speak with appreciation and in praise of the German character? Yet if that were the case, these lectures would not be given and I would not speak in this way about the German people. It really does not need German chauvinism to characterize the nature of the German people in such a way that it is evident that it differs from the nature of other European peoples, and not to its disadvantage. To demonstrate this let me read to you a characterization of the nature of the German people given in a letter Ernest Renan wrote to David Friedrich Strauss.
It was around 1843. when I was at the St Sulpice Seminary, that I started to learn something about Germany through the works of Goethe and Herder. I felt I was entering a temple, and from that moment onwards everything I had formerly considered magnificent and worthy of the deity appeared merely as tired and faded paper flowers… Germany has the most perfect legal title, because of a historical role of the utmost significance, a soul, I would say, a literature, men of genius, a unique view of things divine and human. Germany produced the most important revolution in recent times, the Reformation; what is more, over the last century one of the most marvellous developments of intellectual and spiritual life known in history has occurred in Germany, a development which—if I dare put it like this—has taken the human mind and spirit one step further in depth and breadth. People who have not been touched by this new development are to those who have gone through it as someone who only knows elementary arithmetic is in relation to someone well versed in differential calculus.54Letter of 13 September 1870 in Strauss D. Gesammelte Schrifien, (Bonn 1876 –78) Vol. I, p.311f.
So that is what Ernest Renan wrote to David Friedrich Strauss in 1870. I am not going to go into the details of their correspondence, but let me just mention that Renan also wrote that there were only two alternatives. The first would be to take away French territory-The outcome would be revenge unto death against all that is German and alliance with all kinds of confederates. The other alternative would be to leave France untouched, and then the Peace Party would gain the upper hand and say: 'We have been extremely foolish, we want to make good where we have gone wrong, and the good of mankind will be preserved.’
I mention this in order to show you that when Renan wrote the letter, part of which I have just read to you, his mood was not exactly a conciliatory one with regard to the German character which had evolved in the course of human evolution. On the other hand he was prepared to represent the qualities mankind had gained through the German character in relation to everything else as being like higher mathematics in comparison to elementary arithmetic. There is no question, then, of being a chauvinist; one merely has to repeat what Renan wrote in 1870.
In thus speaking of man's relationship to the higher worlds we must realize that in concrete terms, in reality, man is able to have these relations because he bears this other one within him, because this other one is alive in him who has the same relationship to the higher world of the spirit as we have to the sense-perceptible world here in our body•;
The supersensible, intangible part of us gives us a certain relationship to all that is supersensible. And it is a truly living development we undergo—nothing theoretical—when our heart and mind enters into the experience I have described as the process of meditation. The soul is really inscribing something into the spiritual worlds. It inscribes it into what fundamentally speaking is we ourselves. If we really think about this, the idea of 'being within the living stream of spiritual science" links up with the idea of ‘human responsibilty’. This idea of 'human responsibility' really must arise in the soul of anyone pursuing spiritual science. We know that mankind is going through things in the course of historical development, that it undergoes change. Clairvoyance has been gradually disappearing and today we know that it will be necessary to regain the connection with the spiritual world that existed in the past. and that spiritual science is the path by which it can be regained. In the past, man's natural relationship to his body was such that part of him was always within the spiritual worlds. Today he is so much more closely bound up with his body that he must see to it that he gains understanding of the spiritual world independent of his body. We may say that man had a hereditary trait that gradually grew weaker and weaker and disappeared altogether in the present age. It is in our time, therefore, that work has to start that will take the soul up into the spiritual world.
Can you envisage the way the German folk spirit is again and again coming down to the German peoples and then going up again into the higher world? Why does it do this with just one particular people? It is because it is intended to evoke in this particular culture the powers that will lead to spiritual science in the truest sense of the word. When the folk spirit descends it firmly establishes the folk characteristics. When it recedes again, leaving the national characteristics in a state of fluidity, the people will have to go through that upsurge and regression of the folk spirit again and again in their own bodies, and they will learn how all 'beingness' is a state of flux between the sense-perceptible and the supersensible world.
You will recall my saying a week ago that the whole history of literature for recent decades will have to be rewritten. This is because certain individuals with spiritual insight have been forgotten, though they are of much greater significance than literary figures known to us today. That relates to the period when the folk spirit was once again ascending. It will now be necessary for us to unite ourselves in the greatest possible degree with spiritual science so that we may find the folk spirit in its ascent. In other words, Germans must come to understand their essential nature not just in the physical world but also in the supersensible world. It is to be found in both these worlds. This is another reason why I have said—even in public lectures—that there is a certain inner relationship between the culture of the German spirit and the striving for spiritual science. Fichte55Fichte, Johann Gottlieb (1762–1814), German idealist philosopher. could only develop his views at a time when the folk spirit had descended. Because of this his philosophy can only be imperfectly understood and must indeed be misunderstood. All that busy activity in concepts and ideas where egoic nature had entered the way it had in Fichte's philosophy was possible only at a time when the folk spirit had descended to a lower level. Today we have to look for it at a higher level and we can only find it with the aid of spiritual science. This is due to the relationship of the folk spirit to the German people. It is entirely part of the nature of German cultural development that there is a profound relationship between German cultural life and the path which leads to spiritual science. It is much to be hoped that these things will gradually come to be understood more and more clearly.
It really has to be said that if you consider the events of the present time, the enormous sacrifices that have to be made, all the difficulties people have to live through because of present events, it should be obvious that what is coming to expression here is something far, far beyond anything we are able to comprehend by taking an external view. And we might paraphrase the words written by St Paul: ‘And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain.’56I Corinthians 15: 14. Paul found affirmation for what he had to give to the world in the reality of the Resurrection. His words have been much misunderstood. With regard to what is happening now, we have to say: ‘These deaths give expression to the belief, to the firm avowal, that man relates to more than merely the things existing in the world accessible to the senses.’ It is not only that religious feeling is growing more profound, but it is possible to see that in these very times we live in souls are forcefully protesting against the whole of materialism, and they do this by the way in which they enter into death. We have to say that whatever else these events represent they also contribute to the overcoming of materialistic ways of thinking and the materialistic way of life which has gradually evolved. Out of a profound awareness of current developments, the human soul has to say to itself: ‘If it were to happen that materialistic attitudes, materialistic ways of thinking were to prevail on earth once the sun of peace is shining again, would we not have to say that all these deaths must have been in vain—unless a spiritual way of thinking develops on the plane that lies open to the gaze of the dead?’ We might therefore paraphrase the words of St Paul as follows: ‘All the infinite suffering would be in vain, and all the many individuals would have gone through death in vain at such a young physical age if a materialistic way of thinking and a materialistic way of life were to spread in the fields of peace.’ These days will have to be like a great warning beacon for those who live through them, a light entering deeply into human hearts and minds and souls, that man shall develop a genuine desire to live in the sphere of the spirit. We cannot concern ourselves deeply enough with the events of our time. And this is also why one hopes that vision will broaden among those who profess themselves anthroposophists to extend beyond the narrow horizon that tends to limit it, towards an ever-expanding horizon. We really must come to understand the way everything happening here on earth is connected with events taking place in the spiritual world. This will give us a feeling for the tasks set for us in the difficult times of the present.
Some people have a facile way of saying that present events need not have anything to do with the spiritual development individual nations are undergoing. To anyone able to see through these things and discern their true course, everything happening in the external world is an expression of something spiritual. Let us hold on to this more and more, let us try more and more to use the very experiences that can come to us through spiritual science to take our self out of those narrower confines and to unite this self, a self freed by spiritual science, with the great events now taking place. Let us forget purely personal concerns and grow together with the profoundly disturbing events mankind as a whole must now experience.
This is the note I wanted to strike in your hearts with the things put forward in these lectures. I very much hope that they will be pondered before we meet again in April. An element put through the test of the great events of our time is now ascending into the spiritual world and bringing an influence to bear from up there. It must be met with the kind of understanding that can be won through spiritual insight, for only then will it be possible to achieve what these events are challenging us to achieve. It is true that:
Out of courage shown in battle,
Out of the blood shed in war,
Out of the grief of those who are left,
Out of the people's deeds of sacrifice
Spirit fruits will come to grow
If souls with knowledge of the spirit
Turn their mind to spirit realms.
Zehnter Vortrag
Wir gedenken wiederum zuerst derjenigen, die draußen auf den großen Feldern der Ereignisse der Gegenwart stehen:
Geister eurer Seelen, wirkende Wächter,
Eure Schwingen mögen bringen
Unserer Seelen bittende Liebe
Eurer Hut vertrauten Erdenmenschen,
Daß, mit eurer Macht geeint,
Unsre Bitte helfend strahle
Den Seelen, die sie liebend sucht.
Und für diejenigen, die infolge dieser Ereignisse schon durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind:
Geister eurer Seelen, wirkende Wächter,
Eure Schwingen mögen bringen
Unserer Seelen bittende Liebe
Eurer Hut vertrauten Sphärenmenschen,
Daß, mit eurer Macht geeint,
Unsre Bitte helfend strahle
Den Seelen, die sie liebend sucht.
Der Geist, den wir durch unsere erstrebte Geist-Erkenntnis suchen, der Geist, der zu der Erde Heil, zu der Menschheit Freiheit und Fortschritt durch das Mysterium von Golgatha gegangen ist, der sei mit euch und euren schweren Pflichten!
Meine lieben Freunde, wir können heute wiederum einige aphoristische Betrachtungen anstellen, die nach der einen oder anderen Seite Ergänzungen sein können zu dem, was in den letzten Zeiten gesprochen worden ist. Das erste, worauf ich aufmerksam machen möchte, ist die Art, wie wir beim Aufstieg in die geistigen Welten, nachdem wir die ersten Schritte in die geistigen Welten hinein getan haben, die Tatsachen, das Wesenhafte dieser geistigen Welten finden. Ausgehen möchte ich davon, worin die Schwierigkeiten liegen, um in die geistigen Welten hinaufzukommen. Diese Schwierigkeiten sind in der Tat beträchtliche, und so sicher es auch ist, daß der Weg, den wir durch unsere Meditation, durch die ganze innere Arbeit unserer Seele einschlagen, in die geistige Welt führen muß, so sicher dies ist, so leicht ist es auch, gewissermaßen zu verkennen, worin die Eigentümlichkeit dieser Seelenerfahrungen liegt, welche die Seele in die geistigen Welten hinaufführt. Es liegt erstens die Schwierigkeit vor, daß wir gewohnt sind, alles, was wir mit der Seele erfahren, nach den Erlebnissen zu beurteilen, die wir uns aus der äußeren Sinneswelt angeeignet haben. Gewissermaßen kennen wir gar nichts anderes als das, was wir uns aus der äußeren Sinneswelt angeeignet haben. Nun kommen wir in die geistige Welt hinein, und da ist wirklich alles anders als in der sinnlichen Welt. Nun, da alles anders ist, so liegt vor allen Dingen die Schwierigkeit vor, das, was wir da sehen sollen, überhaupt in den Bereich unserer Aufmerksamkeit hineinzuziehen. Es ist so, daß sozusagen die ganze geistige Welt vor uns ausgebreitet werden könnte, aber wir würden nichts sehen. Das ist aus dem Grunde der Fall, weil wir, solange wir wachend im Erdenleibe weilen, nicht in der Lage sind, unsere Geistorgane abzuziehen von diesem Erdenleibe, sie herauszuziehen aus ihrer Verbindung mit dem Erdenleibe.
Nehmen wir einen Vergleich, den ich schon öfter gewählt habe, um die Lostrennung des Seelischen vom Leiblichen ins Auge zu fassen. Ich sagte öfter: man kann aus dem, was der Mensch im gewöhnlichen Leben hier ist, sein Unsterbliches ebensowenig erkennen, wie man aus dem Wasser erkennen kann, welche Eigenschaften der Wasserstoff und der Sauerstoff haben. Der Wasserstoff, der im Wasser darinnen ist in Verbindung mit dem Sauerstoff, so wie wirklich unser Unsterbliches im Leiblichen darinnen ist, zeigt uns nichts von seinen Eigenschaften, wenn er nicht abgetrennt ist; er verbirgt alle diese Eigenschaften. So verbirgt die Seele ihre Eigenschaften, indem sie mit dem Leibe vereinigt ist.
Das gewöhnliche Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod erzieht uns so für unser Verhalten zur äußeren Sinneswelt, daß wir immer im wachenden Zustande unsere Geistorgane so gebunden haben an das Leibliche, wie der Wasserstoff an den Sauerstoff gebunden ist im Wasser. Es ist daher unserer Seele während unseres Lebens zwischen Geburt und Tod nicht anders möglich, vom Leibe wegzugehen, als dann, wenn sie herausgeht vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen in die geistigen Welten. In dieser Zeit vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen dringt die Seele wirklich in die geistigen Welten ein, ist darinnen. Da zieht sie sich neue Kräfte zum Tagesverlauf aus den geistigen Welten heraus, aber es bleibt in ihr die Gewohnheit, nur mit den leiblichen Organen wahrzunehmen, und in dem Augenblicke, wo die Seele ihre Kraft so erstarkt haben würde, daß sie im Geistigen darinnen nun wahrnehmen könnte, da wacht sie auf. Denn die Seele hängt durch ihre Kräfte mit dem Leibe zusammen, die Seele hängt durch ihr Begehrungsvermögen mit dem Leibe zusammen. In dem Augenblicke, wo ihr die Kräfte wiederum so erstarkt sind, daß sie nun sich regen kann, begehrt sie zum Leibe zurückzukommen, wenn der Leib noch lebensfähig ist. Daher müssen wir nach dem Tode uns erst nach und nach orientieren lernen.
Vergleichen wir jetzt einmal dasjenige, was als die letzte Seelentängkeit schon in einem öffentlichen Vortrage angedeutet worden ist, das Erinnerungsvermögen, mit dem, was eintritt, wenn der Mensch in die geistige Welt hineinschauen lernt. Es ist etwas, was uns in einem gewissen Sinne frei macht von dem Leiblichen. Das wird gerade die Naturwissenschaft, wenn sie immer weiter entwikkelt wird, zeigen, daß wir im Erinnerungsvorgang einen rein geistigen Vorgang haben, daß in der Tat das Zurückblicken auf ein früheres Erlebnis ein geistiger Vorgang ist. Aber dieser geistige Vorgang hat eine mächtige Hilfe, nämlich die Hilfe unseres Leibes, die Hilfe, die der Leib bringt. Das geschieht so: Wenn wir im Leibe mit der Seele weilen, so ist in der Tat dasjenige, was wir unserem Erinnerungsvermögen anvertrauen, zunächst wirklich bildhaft, es ist etwas, was dem ganz ähnlich ist, was wir eine imaginative Erkenntnis nennen. Aber so, wie wir im gewöhnlichen Leben eben verfahren, so prägen wir das, was wir als Erinnerung behalten sollen, in das Leibliche hinein. Wenn wir irgendein Erlebnis haben, so stehen wir zunächst diesem Erlebnis mit den Sinnen gegenüber, wir haben das Bild, das wir uns gemacht haben. Dieses Bild prägt sich zunächst in unser Leibliches ein; in unserem Leibe entsteht ein Abdruck, und zwar ein Abdruck, den wir vergleichen können mit einem Siegelabdruck. Es ist wichtig, sich klarzumachen, daß ein solcher Abdruck zurückbleibt. Aber kindlich ist die Vorstellung, die sich oft die äußere Naturwissenschaft hiervon macht. Man hat bei manchen lesen können, daß die eine Vorstellung in irgendeiner Partie des Gehirns aufgezeichnet wird, die andere Vorstellung in einer anderen Partie und dergleichen. So geschieht es nicht, sondern so, daß der Abdruck, der in unserem Leiblichen von einer Erinnerung gemacht wird, wirklich recht unähnlich ist dem, was wir etwa später erinnern. Denn hellsichtig angeschaut ist das im Grunde genommen eine Art Abdruck in der Form vom menschlichen Kopf und noch etwas fortgesetzt in den übrigen Menschen hinein. Ganz gleichgültig, was wir erleben, wir machen einen solchen Abdruck in uns; namentlich in den Ätherleib hinein wird der Abdruck gemacht. Wenn wir diesen Abdruck herausnehmen könnten, so würden wir in der Tat ein dünnes, schattenhaftes Gespenst unseres Kopfes und seiner Fortsetzung haben. Und wenn wir eine andere Erinnerung haben, so würden wir wieder ein Schattenbild eines Kopfes mit Fortsetzung sehen. Sie sind aber jedenfalls ganz unähnlich dem, was wir erleben, wenn wir eine Erinnerung erleben. So viel wir Erinnerungen haben, so viel schattenhafte Gespenster stekken in uns darinnen. Die gehen alle ineinander und durchdringen sich. Und das, was bleibt, würde etwa, von außen angesehen, ein solches Schattenbild sein, und man würde nur beschreiben können, das eine sieht so aus, das andere so.
Damit die Erinnerung wirklich zustande kommt, muß des Menschen Seele diesem im Leibe gebliebenen Abdrucke erst entgegentreten und muß ihn so entziffern, wie wir diese eigentümlichen Zeichen entziffern, die auf dem Papiere sind, die ganz unähnlich sind dem, was wir in der Seele nachher erleben, wenn wir etwas lesen. Einen solchen Leseprozeß, einen unterbewußten, muß die Seele ausführen, um diese Siegelabdrücke umzusetzen in das, was wir dann in der wirklichen Erinnerung erleben. Nehmen Sie an, Sie haben im achten Lebensjahre etwas erlebt und erinnern sich heute daran. Der reale Vorgang ist der, daß Sie, durch etwas veranlaßt, hingewiesen werden mit Ihrer Seele auf dieses Köpfchen mit seinen Fortsetzungen, das sich damals abgedruckt hat; das entziffert Ihre Seele heute. Und von dem, was das Erlebnis ist, bleibt so wenig im Leibe als von dem, was Sie erleben, wenn Sie ein Buch gelesen haben, in dem Buche bleibt. Wenn Sie das Buch wieder lesen, dann müssen Sie wiederum seelisch die ganze Sache neu konstruieren. Das geschieht alles, ohne daß man es merkt. Aber derjenige, der nicht lesen gelernt hat, kann das, was diese Schriftzeichen ausdrükken sollen, nicht aus den Zeichen herausfinden. Und so ist es wirklich mit unserem Erinnerungsprozeß; er ist ein innerliches Lesen. Es geschieht vieles in der Menschenseele, was sich unter der Schwelle des Bewußtseins abspielt und was gar nicht von den Menschen beachtet wird. Indem wir uns unserer Erinnerung hingeben, geht ein unendlich komplizierter Prozeß im Menschen vor sich. Da steigen fortwährend aus dem Dämmerdunkel des sonsügen finsteren Lebens die ätherischen Siegelabdrücke auf, und in diesem Aufsteigen und in dem Entziffern liegt das, was der Mensch als seinen inneren Erinnerungsprozeß erlebt.
Was ich Ihnen sage, ist nichts Ausgedachtes, sondern etwas, was die okkulte Beobachtung wirklich ergibt. Wenn wir nun beginnen unsere Seele durch das, was wir genannt haben Meditations- und Konzentrationsprozesse, in ihren inneren Kräften zu verstärken, dann tritt das ein, was ich angedeutet habe, dann bildet sich nicht das, was wir Erinnerung nennen müssen, sondern wir entwickeln innere Kräfte, aber das, was jetzt als Abdruck gebildet wird, wird draußen in dem die Welt durchwebenden Äther abgedrückt, wird objektiv hinein abgedrückt in die Welt. Während wir meditieren, konzentrieren, drücken wir in den objektiven Weltenprozefß3 hinein ab. Ebenso ist es im Grunde genommen, wenn wir nur uns studiengemäfßß hingeben dem, was die Geisteswissenschaft geben kann, denn sie handelt von übersinnlichen Dingen. Wenn wir nun die Gedanken, die die Geisteswissenschaft gibt, wirklich erfassen, so lösen wir uns schon so weit von uns los, daß unsere gedankliche Arbeit ein Mitarbeiten mit dem Weltenäther ist, während, wenn wir die gewöhnlichen Gedanken denken, wir sie nur in uns selber hinein abdrücken.
Nun werden Sie einsehen, wie es darauf ankommt, daß derjenige, der wirklich in seiner Seele vorwärtskommen will, unendlich viel gibt auf das, was man nennen muß die Wiederholung desselben Gedankenprozesses. Wenn wir einmal auf irgendeinen Gedanken uns konzentrieren, so macht das einen flüchtigen Eindruck in den Weltenäther. Wenn wir aber Tag für Tag denselben Gedanken immer wieder und wieder in unserer Seele hegen, dann wird der Eindruck immer und immer wieder gemacht. Und jetzt werden wir uns die Frage vorlegen müssen: Wenn wir immer wieder einen Eindruck machen in den Weltenäther, die Meditation immer wiederholen, was geschieht dann eigentlich, wohin machen wir den Eindruck? — Zur Beantwortung dieser Frage muß ich auf etwas anderes eingehen.
Wenn jemand wirklich den Weg sucht in die geistige Welt hinein, dann ist das so, daß dann, wenn er einmal beginnt, wirklich hellsichtig zu werden, diese hellsichtigen Erlebnisse ganz merkwürdig auftreten, so nämlich, daß man deutlich dabei merkt, ja das, was da ist, ist erlebt, aber im Grunde genommen fehlt diesen Erlebnissen etwas. Ich setze voraus, daß man wirklich hellsichtge Erlebnisse schon hat. Hinterher, wenn man wiederum aus den hellsichtigen Erlebnissen heraus ist und sich an diese hellsichtigen Erlebnisse erinnert, dann sagt man sich: es könnte sein, daß ich mit alledem gar nichts zu tun habe. Es macht den Eindruck, als wenn das, was man da hellsichtig erlebt hat, von uns losgelöste Dinge wären. Und vor allen Dingen, man kann gar nicht herausbekommen, inwiefern man selber etwas mit diesen Erlebnissen zu tun hat. Das ist das Bedeutsame. Daher ist es so leicht, diese Erlebnisse als bloße Träumereien anzusehen. Man merkt erst, daß man etwas damit zu tun hat, wenn man sieht, daß gewissermaßen einem da entgegengetreten ist eine andere Gestalt des eigenen Selbstes, wenn man merkt: ja, was du da erlebt hast, das ist eigentlich ähnlich deinen eigenen Erlebnissen, und was da erlebt worden ist, könnte nicht erlebt werden, wenn du nicht da wärst. Um es noch deutlicher zu machen, will ich mich in der folgenden Weise aussprechen. Nehmen Sie an, Sie haben einen Traum, der ein Erlebnis aus frühester Jugend wiedergibt. Wenn Sie von ihm erwachen, so werden Sie nur daran erkennen, daß das Ihre Traumerlebnisse sind, weil da in der Masse der Bilder das auftritt, was Sie früher erlebt haben; und Sie wissen dann, es muß der Traum mit Ihnen etwas zu tun haben. $o ist es mit den ersten hellseherischen Erlebnissen. Wir kommen nach und nach darauf: eigentlich ist das zugleich ein ganz anderer, der da träumt, und dennoch bist du es selber. Wir lernen uns erkennen in der Masse der hellsichtigen Erlebnisse.
Das ist auch ein gewisses bedeutsames Ereignis, wenn wir die Erfahrung machen: wir waren in einer Summe von Erlebnissen darin, aber wir waren es selber, die darin waren. Man muß sich in den hellsichtigen Erlebnissen erst entdecken. Und dann kommt man darauf: du bist nicht bloß in deinem Leibe, sondern du bist auch draußen in der Welt. Und es ist ein unendlich bedeutsames Erlebnis, das Erlebnis, das uns zeigt: du hast etwas, was die Geister der höheren Hierarchien halten und tragen, was sie hegen und pflegen. Hier bin ich, sagt man sich, in meinem Leibe, ich wohne in meiner Leibeshülle, und ich bin gleichzeitig in der geistigen Welt, gehalten und getragen von den Geistern der höheren Hierarchien. Da dart einem dann das Gesetz, daß ein Wesen nicht an zwei Orten zugleich sein kann, nicht stören, denn diese Gesetze gelten in der geistigen Welt nicht mehr. Ich bin in mir darinnen und bin zugleich derselbe, der in der geistigen Welt die Erlebnisse in sich abspielen läßt. Man entdeckt sich geborgen innerhalb der höheren Hierarchien. Man weiß, man ist ein solches Doppelwesen, und man kommt allmählich darauf, daß dasjenige, was man geistig wesenhaft ist, im Grunde genommen doch gar nicht in der Sinnenwelt ist, sondern in der geistigen Welt, und daß das, was in der Sinnenwelt ist, ein Schatten ist, der hereingeworfen wird aus der geistigen Welt. Man schlüpft in eine geistige Leiblichkeit hinein, dadurch ist man außer sich und schaut sich von außen an. Wer sich nicht vertraut machen will mit solchen scheinbaren Widersprüchen, der kann nicht zu Begriffen kommen, die ihm die geistige Welt erklärlich machen können. Das ist das Wichtige, daß man sich entdeckt außerhalb seiner selbst, insofern man ein sinnliches Wesen ist.
Und nun sind wir soweit, daß wir sagen können, wohin werden unsere Meditationen geschrieben? Unsere gewöhnlichen Erinnerungen werden abgedruckt in uns selber, da entsteht immer ein Siegelabdruck, der mit dem Oberen des Menschen, mit dem Kopf und einigen Anhängseln, gleich ist. Wenn wir meditieren oder uns Vorstellungen der Geisteswissenschaft vor die Seele rufen, dann machen wir auch Abdrücke, aber diese gehen nach dem andern hin, den ich eben beschrieben habe, der wir selber sind. Nach dem andern gehen diese Vorstellungen hin. Ob wir irgend etwas in Berlin oder in Nürnberg erfahren, wie das alles den Abdruck in demselben Leibe verursacht, so geht beim geistig innerlichen Erleben alles hin nach diesem Einen, der wir selber sind. Da wird alles hineingeprägt. So daß wir, insofern wir wirklich im Sinne des geisteswissenschaftlich Gedachten oder Gefühlten oder Erlebten uns verhalten, wir geradeso an unserem übersinnlichen Menschen arbeiten, wie wir arbeiten an unserem physischen Menschen, wenn wir dem gewöhnlichen Erleben gegenüberstehen. Nun werden Sie begreifen, daß starke, innere Kräfte notwendig sind zum Arbeiten am übersinnlichen Menschen. Wenn wir uns erinnern an diejenigen Dinge, die äußerlich durch Farbe, Ton und so weiter auf uns gewirkt haben, dann ist es begreiflicherweise leichter, weil wir vom Leibe unterstützt sind. Dadurch, daß irgendeine Farbe auf uns Eindruck macht, ist ein leiblicher Prozeß in uns ausgelöst. Wenn wir der rein geistigen Vorstellung uns hingeben sollen, dann müssen wir auf alle solche leiblichen Unterstützungen verzichten, wir müssen die Seele innerlich anstrengen, sie muß immer stärkere Kräfte bekommen, daß sie in sich so erstarkt, daß sie wirklich Eindruck machen kann auf den äußeren Weltenäther.
Da kommen wir dann, wenn wir auf diese Art unsere Verbindung suchen mit unserem eigentlichen Menschen, der immer da ist, in eine Beziehung zu unserer menschlichen Individualität, zu dem, was wir wirklich als Menschen sind. Nun, das, was wir da in Wirklichkeit als Menschen sind, das lebt so in den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien darinnen wie unser Leib in den Sinnes-Naturprozessen. So wie wir ein Stück unseres Erdendaseins sind, so sind wir ein Stück auch des Geistesdaseins, in dem, was in den Vorgängen innerhalb der Welt der höheren Hierarchien stattfindet.
Nun möchte ich auf etwas anderes ergänzend hinweisen. Indem wir so mit der geistigen Welt in Beziehung stehen, stehen wir mit den mannigfaltigsten Geistern der höheren Hierarchien in Beziehung. Dazu gehören diejenigen Geister, zu denen wir nur eine Beziehung haben als menschliche Individualität, die nicht für irgendeine Weltfunktion besummte Wesen sind. Aber wir gehören auch zu den Wesenheiten, die irgendeine Weltfunktion haben; es gehört jeder zu einem Volksgeiste zum Beispiel. Wie wir in unserem ganz sinnlichen Prozeß mit der sinnlichen Natur zusammenhängen, so hängen wir nach oben zusammen mit all diesen Geistern, die übersinnlich herunterlangen in die physisch-sinnliche Welt. Und wie wir hier zu den äußeren Dingen stehen und uns Gedanken und Vorstellungen machen, so machen sich die Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien ihre Gedanken und ihre Vorstellungen dadurch, daß wir für sie die Objekte sind. Wir sind die Objekte für die Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien, wir sind ihr Reich, über das sie sich Gedanken machen. Diese Gedanken sind mehr willenshaft.
Durch die Art, wie diese höheren Hierarchien zu uns stehen, unterscheiden sich diese Wesenheiten, und ein wichtiger Unterschied kann uns klar werden, wenn wir beachten, wie die Entwickelung solcher Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien, zum Beispiel der Volksgeister, geschieht. Wir machen hier zwischen Geburt und Tod auch eine Entwickelung durch, indem unser Ich immer reifer und reifer wird, immer mehr von der Welt erfahren hat. Ein Mensch, der noch jung ist, kann nicht soviel erfahren haben wie der, der älter geworden ist. $o ist es auch bei den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien, nur ist der Gang ihrer Entwickelung etwas anders als unser Entwickelungsgang.
Wir können ein Wesen der höheren Hierarchien ansprechen, wenn wir sprechen von dem italienischen Volksgeist. Dieser italienische Volksgeist macht seine Entwickelung durch, und wir können wirklich genau einen Zeitpunkt angeben, in dem dieser Volksgeist eine wichtige Etappe überschritten hat. Wir wissen ja, daß der Zusammenhang zwischen dem italienischen Volksgeist und dem einzelnen Italiener so ist, daß der italienische Volksgeist durch die Empfindungsseele des Italieners wirkt. Nun ist aber dieses Wirken durch die Empfindungsseele zuerst so, daß der Volksgeist gleichsam nur auf das Seelische wirkt, und dann erst später, in seiner weiteren Entwickelung, greift dieser Volksgeist mit seinem Willen immer mehr und mehr ein in das, wie die Seele sich auslebt auch durch das Leiblich-Physische. Wenn Sie die italienische Geschichte verfolgen, so finden Sie ein wichtiges Jahr, etwa 1530. Dieses Jahr ist dasjenige, wo der italienische Volksgeist so mächtig wird, daß er jetzt anfängt, auch auf das Leibliche zu wirken, und von da anfängt, den Nationalcharakter ganz spezifiziert zu entwickeln. Okkult stellt sich das so dar, daß der Volksgeist einen mächtigeren Willen bekommt; er fängt an, seine Eingravierungen auch in das Leibliche zu machen und bis in das Leibliche hinein den Volkscharakter auszubilden. Während unser Ich immer unabhängiger vom Leibe wird, macht der Volksgeist die entgegengesetzte Entwickelung durch. Wenn er auf das Seelische eine Zeitlang gewirkt hat, fängt er an, bis in das Leibliche hinein zu wirken.
Bei dem französischen Volksgeiste finden wir dasselbe, wenn wir etwa in das Jahr 1600 gehen, und beim englischen Volksgeiste ungefähr um das Jahr 1650. Während vorher der Volksgeist mehr nur das Seelische ergriffen hat, greift er von da ab ins Leibliche über. Sein Wille wird mächtiger, und die Seele kann weniger Widerstand leisten einer Konfiguration ins Nationale hinein. Daher beginnt um diese Zeiten der Nationalcharakter sich scharf auszuprägen. Das rührt davon her, weil der Volksgeist heruntersteigt. Er ist höher gelagert, wenn er mehr ins Seelische hineinwirkt; er steigt herunter, wenn er mehr ins Leibliche hineinwirkt. So haben wir ein Senken des Volksgeistes bei der italienischen Halbinsel etwa um das Jahr 1530, in Frankreich im Beginne des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts und in England in der Mitte des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts. Shakespeare hat gewirkt, bevor der Volksgeist diese Etappe durchgemacht hat. Das ist das Bedeutsame. Daher dieser eigentümliche Bruch, der in bezug auf die Auffassung der Engländer gegenüber Shakespeare Platz gegriffen hat und der zur Folge hatte, daß gerade innerhalb Deutschlands Shakespeare mehr gepflegt wird als in England selber. Wir haben es zu tun mit einem immer mehr zu den einzelnen Menschen Heruntersteigen des Volksgeistes.
Wenn wir nun auf die Entwickelung des deutschen Volksgeistes sehen, so nehmen wir etwas Ähnliches wahr in der Zeit ungefähr zwischen den Jahren 1750 bis 1850. Aber wir müssen hier kurioserweise sagen: dieser Volksgeist steigt da herunter, aber er steigt wieder hinauf. Und das ist das Bedeutsame. Einen Prozeß, der sich abgespielt hat bei den westlichen Völkern, können wir nur so verfolgen, daß wir die Volksgeister sich senken und die Völker ergreifen sehen. Beim deutschen Volke sehen wir, wie der Volksgeist sich auch senkt um die Mitte des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts, wie aber dieser Volksgeist in der Mitte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts wieder hinaufsteigt, so daß hier ein ganz anderes Verhältnis da ist. Es wird nur ein Anlauf genommen, den deutschen Charakter zu einem eminenten Volkscharakter auszubilden, aber das wird nur eine Weile gemacht. Nachdem einiges hierin getan ist, steigt der Volksgeist wiederum zurück, hinauf, um wiederum bloß auf das Seelische zu wirken.
Die Blütezeit des deutschen Geisteslebens fällt in die Zeit, wo der Volksgeist am tiefsten heruntergestiegen war. Selbstverständlich bleibt der Volksgeist seinem Volke. Aber er hält sich jetzt wieder in geistigen Höhen auf. Das ist das Eigentümliche des deutschen Volksgeistes. Auch früher ist er schon heruntergestiegen, hat aber dann wieder abgelassen von einem zu starken Nationalisieren. Ein solches Kristallisieren in der Nationalität, wie bei den westlichen Völkern, kann beim deutschen Volke durch die Eigentümlichkeit des deutschen Volksgeistes gar nicht eintreten. Daher muß das deutsche Wesen immer universeller bleiben als andere Volkswesen. Es hängen diese Dinge in der Tat mit tiefen Wahrheiten der geistigen Welten zusammen. Würde man in der Zeit Goethes den deutschen Volksgeist gesucht haben, würde man ihn etwa auf demselben Niveau gefunden haben, wo man den englischen oder französischen oder italienischen Volksgeist gefunden hätte. Sucht man ihn heute, dann muß man höher hinaufsteigen. Es werden wieder Zeiten kommen, wo er heruntersteigt, es werden wieder Zeiten kommen, wo er hinaufsteigt. Das Hin- und Herschwingen ist das Eigentümliche des deutschen Volksgeistes.
Beim russischen Volksgeist ist es so, daß er überhaupt nicht heruntersteigt, um das Volk durchzukristallisieren, sondern immer etwas bleibt wie eine über dem Volkstum schwebende Wolke, so daß man ihn immer wird oben zu suchen haben, und daher kann dieses Volk erst dann eine geistige Entwickelung durchmachen, wenn es sich bequemen wird, das, was erarbeitet wird im Westen, mit seinem eigenen Wesen zu vereinigen, um im Zusammenhange mit dem Westen eine Kultur zu begründen, weil es aus sich selbst niemals eine Kultur entfalten kann.
Alles das muß auf diese Weise verstanden werden. Und die ganze Beweglichkeit des deutschen Wesens rührt davon her, daß der Deutsche mit seinem Volksgeist nicht so zusammengewachsen ist, wie das im Westen von Europa der Fall ist. Daher auch die ungeheure Schwierigkeit, deutsches Wesen wirklich zu verstehen. Man kann es nur dann verstehen, wenn man zuzugeben in der Lage ist, daß es ein Volkswesen geben kann, dessen Volksgeist eigentlich immer nur sporadisch in die Entwickelung des Volkes eingreift. Was ich hiermit ausführe, gehört zu den schwierigsten Kapiteln in bezug auf Verständnis des geschichtlichen Werdens, daher darf man gar nicht trostlos darüber sein, wenn es einem widerspruchsvoll erscheinen wird. Aber wir leben in einem Zeitalter, in dem wir versuchen müssen, wirklich zu verstehen, worauf die Gegnerschaft beruht, welche doch so deutlich gerade in unseren schicksalschweren Tagen in Europa zutage tritt. Denn zu allem, was wir erleben, wenn man genauer zusieht, gesellt sich im Grunde genommen etwas, was man wirklich recht unbegreiflich nennen könnte, was sich erst herausstellt, wenn man genauer zusieht. Gewiß, die Deutschen werden jetzt erst merken, daß sie im Grunde genommen ungeheuer gehaßt werden. Aber man wird, wenn man genauer prüft, bemerken, daß demjenigen, was man am meisten haßt, zugrundeliegt dasjenige, was gerade die besten Eigenschaften des deutschen Wesens sind. Die schlechteren Eigenschaften haßt man gar nicht besonders.
Man muß schon, wenn man in die Geheimnisse hineinblicken will, die Dinge ein wenig im Zusammenhange betrachten. Man könnte sagen: wenn jemand in Deutschland solch eine Sache sagt, dann beweist das auch, daß es einen deutschen Chauvinismus gibt: Warum sollte sonst der Deutsche anerkennend und lobend über deutsches Wesen sprechen?! — Wenn das so läge, dann würden diese Vorträge nicht gehalten werden und ich würde nicht über deutsches Wesen so sprechen. Aber daß nicht gerade deutscher Chauvinismus nötig ist, um dieses deutsche Wesen in einer gewissen Weise so zu charakterisieren, daß man aus der Charakteristik sieht, es unterscheidet sich von dem übrigen europäischen Wesen nicht zu seinem Nachteil, das möge eine Charakteristik veranschaulichen des deutschen Wesens, die ich Ihnen hier mitteilen möchte. Ernest Renan schreibt an David Friedrich Strauß: «Ich war im Seminar zu St-Sulpice, ums Jahr 1843, als ich anfing, Deutschland kennenzulernen durch die Schriften von Goethe und Herder. Ich glaubte in einen Tempel zu treten, und von dem Augenblick an machte mir alles, was ich bis dahin für eine der Gottheit würdige Pracht gehalten hatte, nur noch den Eindruck welker und vergilbter Papierblumen. ... Deutschland hat den besten nationalen Rechtstitel, nämlich eine geschichtliche Rolle von höchster Bedeutung, eine Seele, möchte ich sagen, eine Literatur, Männer von Genie, eine eigentümliche Auffassung göttlicher und menschlicher Dinge. Deutschland hat die bedeutendste Revolution der neueren Zeiten, die Reformation, gemacht; außerdem hat sich in Deutschland seit einem Jahrhundert eine der schönsten geistigen Entwicklungen vollzogen, welche die Geschichte kennt, eine Entwicklung, die, wenn ich den Ausdruck wagen darf, dem menschlichen Geist an Tiefe und Ausdehnung eine Stufe zugesetzt hat, so daß, wer von dieser neuen Entwicklung unberührt geblieben, zu dem, der sie durchgemacht hat, sich verhält wie einer, der nur die Elementarmathematik kennt, zu dem, der im Differentialcalcul bewandert ist.»
So also schreibt Ernest Renan an David Friedrich Strauß im Jahr 1870. Ich will auf diesen Briefwechsel nicht weiter eingehen, der außerordentlich interessant ist. Ich will nur noch erwähnen, daß Renan damals schrieb, daß man nur zwei Möglichkeiten hätte: Erstens, man würde Frankreich Land wegnehmen. Das würde bedeuten: Rache bis auf den Tod allem Germanentum, Verbrüderung mit allen möglichen Bundesgenossen. Die andere Möglichkeit: man läßt Frankreich, wie es ist, dann würde die Friedenspartei die Oberhand bekommen und sagen, wir haben große Torheiten begangen, wir wollen unsere Fehler verbessern, dann wird das Heil der Menschheit gerettet sein. |
Diese Nebenbemerkung habe ich aus dem Grunde gemacht, um Ihnen zu zeigen, daß Renan das, was ich Ihnen eben aus seinem Briefe vorgelesen habe, in einer Stimmung geschrieben hat, in der er nicht besonders geneigt war, allzuviel zuzugeben über das, was im Laufe der Menschheitsentwickelung das deutsche Wesen geworden ist. Aber er war geneigt, dasjenige, was die Menschheit innerhalb des deutschen Wesens erobert hat, zum andern hinzustellen wie die höhere Mathematik zur Elementar-Mathematik. Man braucht nicht Chauvinist zu sein, sondern nur wiederholen das, was von Renan im Jahre 1870 geschrieben worden ist.
Wir müssen wissen, wenn wir also von den Beziehungen des Menschen zu den höheren Welten sprechen, daß im Konkreten, im Wirklichen diese Beziehungen eben so sind, daß der Mensch diese Beziehungen haben kann dadurch, daß er diesen anderen in sich trägt, daß dieser andere lebt, der zur höheren geistigen Welt im selben Verhältnis steht, wie wir zur Sinneswelt stehen im Leiblichen. Wir stehen durch dasjenige, was in uns übersinnlich ist, eben zu allem, was übersinnlich ist, in einem bestimmten Verhältnis. So ist es wirklich und wahrhaftig nicht bloß eine theoretische, sondern eine lebendige Entwickelung, die wir durchmachen, wenn wir das, was als Meditationsprozeß beschrieben worden ist, in der Seele durcherleben. Unsere Seele schreibt dadurch wirklich in die geistigen Welten etwas hinein. Und sie schreibt es hinein in dasjenige, was wir im Grunde genommen selber sind. Wenn man das im richtigen Maße bedenkt, dann verbindet sich der Begriff «Darinnenstehen im lebendigen Strome der Geisteswissenschaft» mit dem Begriffe «menschliche Verantwortlichkeit», mit diesem Begriff «menschliche Verantwortlichkeit», der wirklich sich einstellen muß in der Seele des Geisteswissenschafters. Denn wir wissen, daß die Menschheit in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung eben erwas durchmacht, daß sie sich wandelt. Das alte Hellsehen ist bis in unsere Tage geschwunden, und wir wissen, daß das, was an Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt früher vorhanden war, wieder errungen werden muß und daß Geisteswissenschaft der Weg ist, das wiederzuerringen. In den alten Zeiten, da wurde der Mensch auf rein natürliche Weise so zu seinem Leiblichen gestellt, daß er gleichsam mit einem Teil seines Wesens in den geistigen Welten darinnenstand. Weil er heute viel inniger verbunden ist mit seinem Leibe, muß er eben trachten, abseits von seinem Leibe sich ein Verständnis von der geistigen Welt zu holen. Gewissermaßen hatte der Mensch ein Erbgut in sich, das immer schwächer wurde, bis es in unserer Zeit vollständig abflutete. Deshalb muß in unserer Zeit beginnen die Arbeit, welche die Seele hinaufführt in die geistige Welt.
Und nun denken Sie sich, das Wesen des deutschen Volksgeistes sei so, daß dieser Volksgeist fortwährend den Weg hinunter zum Volk und wieder hinauf in die höhere Welt durchmacht. Warum tut er das gerade bei einem Volkstum? Aus dem Grunde, weil dadurch gerade innerhalb dieser Volkswesenheit die Kräfte hervorgerufen werden sollen, welche in die Geisteswissenschaft im eminentesten Sinne hineinführen. Wenn der Volksgeist hinuntersteigt, dann wird durch den Volksgeist in der physischen Welt ein strammer Volkscharakter bewirkt. Wenn er wieder zurückgeht, der Volksgeist, und den Nationalcharakter fluktuierend läßt, dann wird das Volk immer wieder und wieder jenes Auf- und Abfluten des Volksgeistes in den eigenen Leibern mitmachen müssen, lernt erkennen, daß alles Sein verfließt zwischen sinnlicher und übersinnlicher Welt.
Erinnern Sie sich an das, was ich vor acht Tagen hier gesagt habe, daß die ganze Literaturgeschichte der letzten Jahrzehnte umgeschrieben werden muß, weil gewisse geistige Persönlichkeiten heute vergessen sind, die viel größere Bedeutung besitzen als solche, von denen man etwas weiß. Das ist in der Zeit, in der der Volksgeist wieder hinaufgegangen ist. Nun müssen wir im eminentesten Sinne uns mit der Geisteswissenschaft verbinden, um den Volksgeist da in seinem Wiederhinaufsteigen zu finden, das heißt mit anderen Worten, der Deutsche muß sein Wesen kennenlernen, nicht bloß in der physischen Welt, sondern auch in der übersinnlichen Welt, denn in beiden ist es darinnen. Das ist wieder einer der Gründe für das, was auch in öffentlichen Vorträgen gesagt worden ist, dafß eine gewisse innere Verwandtschaft besteht zwischen deutscher Geisteskultur und dem Streben nach Geisteswissenschaft. Fichte hat sich nur entwickeln können in einer Zeit, in der der Volksgeist heruntergestiegen war. Daher wird Fichte in seiner Philosophie kaum verstanden werden können oder nur falsch. Dieses ganze Leben und Weben in solchen Begriffen und Ideen, daß in diese die Ich-Wesenheit so hereingekommen ist wie in der Fichteschen Philosophie, das war in der Zeit möglich, in der der Volksgeist auf ein tieferes Niveau heruntergekommen war. Nun müssen wir ihn höher suchen und können ihn nur mit der Geisteswissenschaft finden. Das entspricht dem Verhältnis des Volksgeistes zum deutschen Volke. Es ist in der ganzen Natur der deutschen Entwickelung das darinnen, was ich genannt habe ein tiefes verwandtschaftliches Verhältnis zwischen dem deutschen Geistesleben und dem Weg, der in die Geisteswissenschaft hineinführt. Man möchte so sehr wünschen, daß wirklich diese Dinge nach und nach immer mehr und mehr verstanden werden können.
Wahrhaftig, wenn man den Blick so wirft auf das, was in der Gegenwart geschieht, auf die ungeheuren Opfer, die gebracht werden müssen, auf alle die Sorgen, die die Menschen durchleben müssen gegenüber den Ereignissen, dann müßte man daraufkommen, daß sich hierin noch etwas weit, weit anderes auslebt, als was man so mit äußerem Verständnis verstehen kann. Und in einer anderen Form könnte man den Paulinischen Ausspruch zitieren: Wäre der Christus nicht auferstanden, so wäre unsere Lehre tot und tot auch unser Glaube! Für Paulus war es zur Bekräftigung desjenigen, was er der Welt zu bringen hatte, daß er hinschauen konnte auf die wirkliche Auferstehung des Christus. Man hat vielfach dieses Wort mißverstanden. Demgegenüber, was jetzt geschieht, muß man sagen: Wie drückt sich in diesen Toden doch aus der Glaube, das feste Bekenntnis, daß der Mensch mit etwas anderem zusammenhängt als mit dem, was in der Sinnenwelt bloß da ist. Nicht nur eine wirkliche religiöse Vertiefung findet statt, sondern man kann sehen, wie die Seelen, wenn sie auch nicht das volle Bewußtsein davon haben, gerade in unserer Zeit kräftigen Protest einlegen gegen allen Materialismus durch die Art, wie sie in den Tod eingehen. Wir müssen sagen: Neben allem, was die Ereignisse sonst sind, sind sie eine Arbeit in der Überwindung der materialistischen Denkweise und des materialistischen Lebens, wie es sich nach und nach entwickelt hat. Und aus einem tiefen Gefühl der Zeitentwickelung heraus muß sich die Menschenseele sagen: Wenn nun etwa dann, wenn wieder die Sonne des Friedens leuchtet, materialistische Gesinnung, materialistische Denkweise über die Erde hinziehen würde, müßte man dann nicht sagen, diese Tode alle, sie wären wahrhaftig vergebens gewesen, wenn sich nicht auf dem Felde, auf das die Verstorbenen herunterblicken können, spirituelle, geistige Gesinnung entwickeln wird? So könnten wir den Paulinischen Ausspruch umändern, und wir könnten sagen: Vergeblich wäre das Unendliche, was gelitten wird, vergeblich der Durchgang durch den Tod im physisch-jugendlichen Alter für so viele Persönlichkeiten, wenn sich dann auf den Gefilden des Friedens ausbreiten würde eine materialistische Weltanschauung und materialistisches Leben. Und wie eine mahnende Fackel müssen diese Tage auf diejenigen wirken, die in sie hineingestellt sind und tief, tief hineinleuchten in die menschlichen Gemüter und in die menschlichen Seelen, so daf ein wirklicher Wille zum Leben im Geistigen innerhalb der Menschheit entstehen könne. Wir können nicht tief genug dasjenige erleben, was in unseren Tagen geschieht. Und gerade deshalb möchte man, daß im Kreise derjenigen, die sich zur Geisteswissenschaft bekennen, der Blick erweitert werde aus dem engen Horizont, in den er heute so vielfach gebannt ist, auf einen immer weiteren Horizont. Wirklich nur dann, wenn man den ganzen Zusammenhang einsieht desjenigen, was hier auf der physischen Erde geschieht, mit dem, was in der geistigen Welt sich abspielt, kann man ein Gefühl für die Aufgaben bekommen, welche uns durch die gegenwärtige schwere Zeit gestellt werden.
Es gibt Leute, die so leichthin betonen, daß das, was jetzt sich abspielt, nichts zu tun zu haben brauche mit dem, was die einzelnen Völker als ihre geistige Entwickelung durchmachen. Für denjenigen, der die Dinge in ihrem wirklichen Gange zu durchschauen vermag, für den ist alles das, was sich in der äußeren Welt abspielt, ein Ausdruck des Geistigen. Und daran wollen wir immer mehr und mehr festhalten, wollen immer mehr versuchen, gerade durch diejenigen Empfindungen, die uns aus der Geisteswissenschaft kommen können, unser Selbst loszulösen vom engeren Kreise und gerade dieses unser durch die Geisteswissenschaft sich loslösende Selbst vereinigen mit den großen Ereignissen, die geschehen; vergessen das, was uns nur angeht als Persönlichkeiten, und zusammenwachsen mit dem, was die ganze Menschheit heute Erschütterndes erleben muß.
Das ist es, was ich auch durch die verschiedenen Auseinandersetzungen dieser Vorträge hier habe in Ihnen hervorrufen wollen und wovon ich gern möchte, daß es weiter durchgedacht wird, bis wir uns wohl im April hier wiedersehen werden. Denn nur dann, wenn wirklich demjenigen, was jetzt geprüft durch die großen Ereignisse hinaufgeht in die geistige Welt und von dort herunterwirkt, Verständnis begegnet, wie es aus Geist-Erkenntnis gewonnen werden kann, kann das erreicht werden, wozu uns diese Ereignisse auffordern. Wahr ist es:
Aus dem Mut der Kämpfer,
Aus dem Blut der Schlachten,
Aus dem Leid Verlassener,
Aus des Volkes Opfertaten
Wird erwachsen Geistesfrucht —
Lenken Seelen geistbewußt
Ihren Sinn ins Geisterreich.
Tenth Lecture
Once again, we first remember those who stand outside in the great fields of present events:
Spirits of your souls, active guardians,
May your wings bring
The pleading love of our souls
Protect the people of Earth whom you know well,
So that, united with your power,
Our plea may shine helpfully
Upon the souls that seek it lovingly.
And for those who have already passed through the gates of death as a result of these events:
Spirits of your souls, active guardians,
May your wings bring
The pleading love of our souls
Your protection, trusted beings of the spheres,
That, united with your power,
Our plea may shine forth in help
To the souls that seek it lovingly.
The spirit we seek through our striving for spiritual knowledge, the spirit that has gone to the earth to bring salvation, freedom, and progress to humanity through the mystery of Golgotha, may it be with you and your difficult duties!
My dear friends, today we can once again offer some aphoristic reflections that may complement in one way or another what has been said in recent times. The first thing I would like to draw your attention to is the way in which, after taking our first steps into the spiritual worlds, we find the facts, the essence of these spiritual worlds. I would like to start with the difficulties involved in ascending into the spiritual worlds. These difficulties are indeed considerable, and as certain as it is that the path we take through our meditation, through all the inner work of our soul, must lead to the spiritual world, so certain as this is, it is also easy, in a sense, to misunderstand what is peculiar about these soul experiences that lead the soul up into the spiritual worlds. First of all, there is the difficulty that we are accustomed to judging everything we experience with the soul according to the experiences we have acquired from the outer sensory world. In a sense, we know nothing else but what we have acquired from the outer sensory world. Now we enter the spiritual world, and there everything is really different from the sensory world. Now that everything is different, the difficulty arises above all in drawing what we are to see there into the sphere of our attention. It is as if the whole spiritual world could be spread out before us, but we would see nothing. This is because, as long as we are awake in our earthly bodies, we are not able to withdraw our spiritual organs from this earthly body, to pull them out of their connection with the earthly body.
Let us take a comparison that I have often used to illustrate the separation of the soul from the body. I have often said that we cannot recognize the immortal part of a human being in his ordinary life here any more than we can recognize the properties of hydrogen and oxygen in water. The hydrogen in water, which is connected with oxygen, just as our immortal nature is truly connected with the physical body, reveals nothing of its properties to us unless it is separated; it conceals all these properties. In the same way, the soul conceals its properties while it is united with the body.
Ordinary life between birth and death educates us in our behavior toward the external sensory world in such a way that, while awake, we always have our spiritual organs bound to the physical body as hydrogen is bound to oxygen in water. Therefore, during our life between birth and death, it is not possible for our soul to leave the body except when it departs from sleep until it awakens in the spiritual worlds. During this time from falling asleep to awakening, the soul truly enters the spiritual worlds and is within them. There it draws new strength for the day from the spiritual worlds, but the habit of perceiving only with the physical organs remains within it, and at the moment when the soul has strengthened its power to such an extent that it can now perceive in the spiritual, it awakens. For the soul is connected to the body through its powers; the soul is connected to the body through its capacity for desire. At the moment when its powers are once again strong enough for it to move, it desires to return to the body, provided the body is still viable. That is why, after death, we must first learn to orient ourselves gradually.
Let us now compare what has already been hinted at in a public lecture as the last soul activity, the power of memory, with what happens when a person learns to look into the spiritual world. It is something that, in a certain sense, frees us from the physical. Natural science, as it continues to develop, will show that the process of remembering is a purely spiritual process, that looking back on a past experience is in fact a spiritual process. But this spiritual process has a powerful aid, namely the aid of our body, the aid that the body provides. This happens as follows: when we dwell in the body with the soul, what we entrust to our memory is initially truly pictorial; it is something very similar to what we call imaginative knowledge. But in the way we proceed in ordinary life, we imprint what we are to retain as memory into the physical body. When we have an experience, we first encounter this experience with our senses; we have the image we have formed. This image is first imprinted on our body; an impression is made in our body, an impression that we can compare to a seal. It is important to realize that such an impression remains. But the idea that external natural science often has of this is childish. Some people have written that one idea is recorded in one part of the brain, another idea in another part, and so on. This is not how it happens. Rather, the impression made in our physical body by a memory is actually quite dissimilar to what we remember later. For when viewed clairvoyantly, it is basically a kind of impression in the form of the human head and continuing somewhat into the rest of the human being. No matter what we experience, we make such an impression within ourselves; the impression is made into the etheric body in particular. If we could remove this impression, we would indeed have a thin, shadowy ghost of our head and its continuation. And if we had another memory, we would again see a shadow image of a head with a continuation. But in any case, they are completely unlike what we experience when we experience a memory. As many memories as we have, so many shadowy ghosts dwell within us. They all merge and interpenetrate each other. And what remains, viewed from the outside, would be a shadow image, and one could only describe that one looks like this and the other like that.
In order for memory to truly come into being, the human soul must first encounter these impressions that have remained in the body and decipher them in the same way that we decipher these peculiar signs on paper, which are completely unlike what we experience in our soul afterwards when we read something. The soul must carry out such a subconscious reading process in order to transform these imprints into what we then experience in our actual memory. Suppose you experienced something at the age of eight and remember it today. The real process is that, prompted by something, your soul is directed to this little head with its continuations that was imprinted at that time; your soul deciphers this today. And as little remains in the body of what the experience is as remains in the book of what you experience when you have read a book. When you read the book again, you have to reconstruct the whole thing anew in your soul. All this happens without one noticing. But those who have not learned to read cannot discover from the signs what these characters are meant to express. And so it is with our process of memory; it is an inner reading. Much happens in the human soul that takes place below the threshold of consciousness and is not noticed by human beings at all. When we give ourselves over to our memory, an infinitely complicated process takes place within us. The etheric seal impressions rise continuously from the twilight of our otherwise dark life, and in this rising and deciphering lies what we experience as our inner memory process.
What I am telling you is not something I have made up, but something that occult observation really reveals. When we begin to strengthen our soul in its inner powers through what we have called meditation and concentration processes, then what I have indicated occurs: what we must call memory is not formed, but we develop inner powers, and what is now formed as an impression is imprinted outside in the ether that permeates the world, is objectively imprinted into the world. While we meditate and concentrate, we imprint ourselves into the objective world process. The same is true, in essence, when we devote ourselves to studying what spiritual science has to offer, for it deals with supersensible things. When we truly grasp the thoughts that spiritual science gives us, we detach ourselves so far from ourselves that our mental work becomes a collaboration with the world ether, whereas when we think ordinary thoughts, we only imprint them within ourselves.
Now you will see how important it is that those who really want to advance in their souls attach infinite importance to what must be called the repetition of the same thought process. When we concentrate on a thought, it makes a fleeting impression on the world ether. But if we cherish the same thought again and again in our soul day after day, then the impression is made over and over again. And now we must ask ourselves the question: If we make an impression again and again in the world ether, repeating meditation over and over, what actually happens, where do we make the impression? — To answer this question, I must go into something else.
If someone is truly seeking the path into the spiritual world, then once they begin to become truly clairvoyant, these clairvoyant experiences occur in a very strange way, namely in such a way that one clearly notices that what is there is being experienced, but that something is fundamentally missing from these experiences. I assume that one already has genuine clairvoyant experiences. Afterwards, when one is out of the clairvoyant experiences and remembers them, one says to oneself: it could be that I have nothing to do with any of this. It seems as if what one has experienced clairvoyantly are things detached from us. And above all, you cannot figure out to what extent you yourself have anything to do with these experiences. That is the important thing. That is why it is so easy to regard these experiences as mere daydreams. You only realize that you have something to do with them when you see that, in a sense, another form of your own self has appeared before you, when you realize: yes, what you experienced there is actually similar to your own experiences, and what was experienced there could not have been experienced if you had not been there. To make it even clearer, I will express myself in the following way. Suppose you have a dream that reproduces an experience from your earliest youth. When you wake up from it, you will only recognize that these are your dream experiences because what you experienced earlier appears in the mass of images; and you then know that the dream must have something to do with you. It is the same with the first clairvoyant experiences. We gradually come to realize that it is actually someone else who is dreaming, and yet it is you yourself. We learn to recognize ourselves in the mass of clairvoyant experiences.
It is also a significant event when we experience that we were in a sum of experiences, but it was we ourselves who were in them. One must first discover oneself in clairvoyant experiences. And then one realizes: you are not only in your body, but you are also out in the world. And it is an infinitely significant experience, the experience that shows us: you have something that the spirits of the higher hierarchies hold and carry, that they cherish and nurture. Here I am, one says to oneself, in my body, I live in my physical shell, and at the same time I am in the spiritual world, held and carried by the spirits of the higher hierarchies. The law that a being cannot be in two places at once does not bother you, because these laws no longer apply in the spiritual world. I am within myself and at the same time I am the same person who lets experiences unfold within myself in the spiritual world. One discovers oneself secure within the higher hierarchies. One knows that one is such a dual being, and one gradually comes to realize that what one is spiritually, in essence, is not in the sensory world at all, but in the spiritual world, and that what is in the sensory world is a shadow cast from the spiritual world. One slips into a spiritual body, thereby stepping outside oneself and looking at oneself from the outside. Those who do not want to familiarize themselves with such apparent contradictions cannot arrive at concepts that can explain the spiritual world to them. The important thing is that one discovers oneself outside of oneself, insofar as one is a sensory being.
And now we are ready to say where our meditations are written. Our ordinary memories are imprinted within ourselves, always leaving a seal that is identical to the upper part of the human being, the head and some appendages. When we meditate or call up ideas from spiritual science before our soul, we also make impressions, but these go to the other part that I have just described, which is ourselves. These ideas go to the other. Whether we experience something in Berlin or in Nuremberg, just as everything causes an impression in the same body, so in spiritual inner experience everything goes to this One, which is ourselves. Everything is imprinted there. So that, insofar as we behave in accordance with what we have thought, felt, or experienced in the sense of spiritual science, we work on our supersensible human being just as we work on our physical human being when we face ordinary experience. Now you will understand that strong inner forces are necessary for working on the supersensible human being. When we remember those things that have affected us externally through color, sound, and so on, it is understandably easier because we are supported by the body. When a color makes an impression on us, a physical process is triggered within us. If we are to surrender ourselves to purely spiritual ideas, we must renounce all such physical support; we must strain our soul inwardly, it must acquire ever stronger forces so that it becomes so powerful within itself that it can really make an impression on the outer world ether.
When we seek connection in this way with our true human nature, which is always there, we enter into a relationship with our human individuality, with what we really are as human beings. Now, what we really are as human beings lives in the beings of the higher hierarchies just as our body lives in the processes of the sensory nature. Just as we are a part of our earthly existence, we are also a part of spiritual existence, in what takes place in the processes within the world of the higher hierarchies.
Now I would like to add something else. By being connected to the spiritual world in this way, we are connected to the most diverse spirits of the higher hierarchies. These include those spirits with whom we only have a connection as human individuals, who are not beings assigned to any world function. But we also belong to the beings who have some world function; for example, everyone belongs to a folk spirit. Just as we are connected to the sensory nature in our entirely sensory process, so we are connected upward to all these spirits that reach down into the physical-sensory world through the supersensible. And just as we relate to external things here and form thoughts and ideas, so the beings of the higher hierarchies form their thoughts and ideas through the fact that we are objects for them. We are the objects for the beings of the higher hierarchies; we are their realm, about which they think. These thoughts are more volitional.
These beings differ in the way these higher hierarchies relate to us, and an important difference becomes clear to us when we consider how such beings of the higher hierarchies, for example the folk spirits, develop. We also undergo a development between birth and death, in that our ego becomes more and more mature, having learned more and more about the world. A person who is still young cannot have experienced as much as someone who has grown older. The same is true of the beings of the higher hierarchies, only that the course of their development is somewhat different from ours.
We can address a being of the higher hierarchies when we speak of the Italian folk spirit. This Italian folk spirit undergoes its development, and we can actually specify a precise point in time when this folk spirit passed an important stage. We know that the connection between the Italian folk spirit and the individual Italian is such that the Italian folk spirit works through the sentient soul of the Italian. Now, however, this activity through the sentient soul is at first such that the national spirit acts, as it were, only on the soul, and only later, in its further development, does this national spirit intervene more and more with its will in the way the soul lives itself out through the physical body. If you follow Italian history, you will find an important year, around 1530. This is the year when the Italian national spirit became so powerful that it began to influence the physical realm as well, and from then on began to develop the national character in a very specific way. Occultly, this means that the national spirit acquires a more powerful will; it begins to engrave itself into the physical realm and to develop the national character within the physical realm. While our ego becomes increasingly independent of the body, the national spirit undergoes the opposite development. Once it has had an effect on the soul for a while, it begins to have an effect on the physical realm.
We find the same thing in the French national spirit if we go back to around 1600, and in the English national spirit around 1650. Whereas previously the national spirit had mainly affected the soul, from then on it began to affect the physical realm. Its will became more powerful, and the soul was less able to resist being shaped into a national character. That is why the national character begins to take shape sharply around this time. This is because the spirit of the people descends. It is higher when it has more of an effect on the soul; it descends when it has more of an effect on the physical. Thus, we see a decline in the spirit of the people on the Italian peninsula around 1530, in France at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and in England in the middle of the seventeenth century. Shakespeare had an impact before the spirit of the people had gone through this stage. That is what is significant. Hence the peculiar break that took place in the English view of Shakespeare, with the result that Shakespeare is more highly regarded in Germany than in England itself. We are dealing here with a descent of the national spirit ever more toward the individual human being.
If we now look at the development of the German national spirit, we perceive something similar in the period between approximately 1750 and 1850. But here, curiously enough, we must say that this national spirit descends, but then rises again. And that is what is significant. We can only follow a process that took place among the Western peoples by seeing the national spirits descend and take hold of the peoples. Among the German people, we see how the national spirit also descends around the middle of the eighteenth century, but how this national spirit rises again in the middle of the nineteenth century, so that a completely different relationship exists here. An attempt is made to develop the German character into an eminent national character, but this lasts only for a while. After some progress has been made, the national spirit descends again, only to rise once more and work solely on the soul.
The heyday of German intellectual life falls into the period when the national spirit had descended to its lowest point. Of course, the national spirit remains with its people. But it now resides again in spiritual heights. This is the peculiarity of the German national spirit. It has descended before, but then it has always receded from excessive nationalism. Such a crystallization in nationality, as seen in Western peoples, cannot occur among the German people because of the peculiarity of the German national spirit. Therefore, the German character must always remain more universal than other national characters. These things are indeed connected with profound truths of the spiritual worlds. If one had sought the German national spirit in Goethe's time, one would have found it at about the same level as the English, French, or Italian national spirit. If one seeks it today, one must climb higher. There will come times again when it descends, and there will come times again when it ascends. This swinging back and forth is characteristic of the German national spirit.
The Russian national spirit does not descend at all in order to crystallize the people, but always remains something like a cloud hovering above the national character, so that one must always seek it above, and therefore this people can only undergo spiritual development when it is willing to unite what has been achieved in the West with its own nature in order to establish a culture in connection with the West, because it can never develop a culture from itself.
All this must be understood in this way. And the whole flexibility of the German character stems from the fact that the German has not grown together with his national spirit in the same way as is the case in Western Europe. Hence the enormous difficulty of really understanding the German character. It can only be understood if one is able to admit that there can be a national character whose national spirit actually only sporadically intervenes in the development of the people. What I am explaining here is one of the most difficult chapters in the understanding of historical development, so one should not be discouraged if it seems contradictory. But we live in an age in which we must try to truly understand the basis of the antagonism that is so clearly evident in our fateful days in Europe. For everything we experience, when we look more closely, is accompanied by something that could really be called incomprehensible, something that only becomes apparent when we look more closely. Certainly, the Germans are only now realizing that they are, in essence, deeply hated. But if one examines the matter more closely, one will notice that what is most hated is precisely what constitutes the best qualities of the German character. The less desirable qualities are not particularly hated.
If you want to look into the secrets, you have to look at things a little bit in context. You could say that when someone in Germany says something like that, it proves that German chauvinism exists: Why else would Germans speak appreciatively and praisefully about the German character? — If that were the case, then these lectures would not be given and I would not speak about the German character in this way. But the fact that German chauvinism is not necessary to characterize this German character in a certain way, so that one can see from the characteristics that it does not differ from the rest of Europe to its disadvantage, may illustrate a characteristic of the German character that I would like to share with you here. Ernest Renan writes to David Friedrich Strauss: “I was at the seminary in St-Sulpice around 1843 when I began to get to know Germany through the writings of Goethe and Herder. I felt as if I were entering a temple, and from that moment on, everything that I had previously considered to be a splendor worthy of the deity now seemed to me to be nothing more than withered and yellowed paper flowers. ... Germany has the best national title, namely a historical role of the highest importance, a soul, I would say, a literature, men of genius, a peculiar conception of divine and human things. Germany has brought about the most significant revolution of modern times, the Reformation; moreover, one of the most beautiful intellectual developments known to history has taken place in Germany over the last century, a development which, if I may venture to say so, has raised the human spirit to a new level of depth and breadth, so that those who have remained untouched by this new development are to those who have undergone it as those who know only elementary mathematics are to those who are versed in differential calculus.”
So wrote Ernest Renan to David Friedrich Strauss in 1870. I will not go into this correspondence, which is extremely interesting. I will only mention that Renan wrote at the time that there were only two possibilities: First, France would be deprived of territory. That would mean revenge to the death on all Germanic peoples and fraternization with all possible allies. The other possibility was to leave France as it was, in which case the peace party would gain the upper hand and say that we had committed great follies, that we wanted to correct our mistakes, and that the salvation of humanity would then be assured.
I made this aside to show you that Renan wrote what I just read to you from his letter in a mood in which he was not particularly inclined to admit too much about what the German character has become in the course of human development. But he was inclined to place what humanity has conquered within the German nature on the same level as higher mathematics in relation to elementary mathematics. One need not be a chauvinist, but only repeat what Renan wrote in 1870.
When we speak of the relationship between human beings and the higher worlds, we must know that in concrete, real terms, these relationships are such that human beings can have them because they carry this other within themselves, because this other lives in the same relationship to the higher spiritual world as we do to the sensory world in our physical bodies. Through what is supersensible within us, we stand in a certain relationship to everything that is supersensible. Thus, it is truly and really not merely a theoretical but a living development that we undergo when we experience in our soul what has been described as the process of meditation. Our soul thereby truly writes something into the spiritual worlds. And it writes it into that which we are, in essence. When one considers this in the right measure, then the concept of “standing within the living stream of spiritual science” is connected with the concept of “human responsibility,” with this concept of “human responsibility” that must truly take hold in the soul of the spiritual scientist. For we know that humanity is undergoing something in its historical development, that it is changing. The old clairvoyance has disappeared in our time, and we know that what once existed in connection with the spiritual world must be regained, and that spiritual science is the way to regain it. In ancient times, human beings were placed in their physical bodies in such a purely natural way that they stood, as it were, with part of their being in the spiritual worlds. Because they are much more closely connected with their bodies today, they must seek to gain an understanding of the spiritual world outside their bodies. In a sense, human beings had an inheritance within themselves that grew weaker and weaker until it disappeared completely in our time. That is why the work of raising the soul to the spiritual world must begin in our time.
And now consider that the nature of the German national spirit is such that this national spirit continually travels down to the people and back up to the higher world. Why does it do this with a particular people? Because it is precisely within this national character that the forces are to be brought forth which lead to spiritual science in the most eminent sense. When the national spirit descends, it brings about a strong national character in the physical world. When the national spirit recedes again and leaves the national character fluctuating, the people will have to experience again and again the ebb and flow of the national spirit in their own bodies, learning to recognize that all existence flows between the sensory and supersensory worlds.
Remember what I said here eight days ago, that the entire literary history of the last decades must be rewritten because certain spiritual personalities are forgotten today who are of much greater significance than those we know something about. This is at a time when the national spirit has risen again. Now we must connect ourselves in the most eminent sense with spiritual science in order to find the spirit of the people in its ascent, that is, in other words, the German must get to know his nature, not only in the physical world, but also in the supersensible world, for it is contained in both. This is another reason for what has been said in public lectures, namely that there is a certain inner kinship between German intellectual culture and the pursuit of spiritual science. Fichte could only develop at a time when the spirit of the people had declined. Therefore, Fichte can hardly be understood in his philosophy, or only misunderstood. This whole life and weaving in such concepts and ideas, in which the ego-being entered as it did in Fichte's philosophy, was possible at a time when the spirit of the people had descended to a lower level. Now we must seek it higher and can only find it through spiritual science. This corresponds to the relationship of the national spirit to the German people. It is inherent in the whole nature of German development, what I have called a deep kinship between German spiritual life and the path that leads to spiritual science. One would so much like to hope that these things can really be understood more and more, little by little.
Truly, when one looks at what is happening in the present, at the enormous sacrifices that must be made, at all the worries that people must go through in the face of events, one must come to the conclusion that something far, far different is being lived out here than what can be understood with the outer understanding. And in another form, one could quote Paul's statement: If Christ had not risen, our teaching would be dead and our faith would be dead! For Paul, it was the confirmation of what he had to bring to the world that he could look upon the real resurrection of Christ. This statement has often been misunderstood. In contrast to what is happening now, one must say: How this death expresses the faith, the firm conviction that human beings are connected with something other than what is merely present in the sensory world. Not only is a real religious deepening taking place, but we can see how souls, even if they are not fully conscious of it, are protesting strongly against all materialism in our time through the way they enter death. We must say: apart from everything else that these events are, they are a work in overcoming the materialistic way of thinking and the materialistic life that has gradually developed. And out of a deep feeling for the development of time, the human soul must say to itself: If, for example, when the sun of peace shines again, materialistic attitudes and materialistic thinking were to sweep across the earth, would we not have to say that all these deaths would have been truly in vain if spiritual, intellectual attitudes did not develop in the fields where the deceased can look down? We could thus alter Paul's saying and say: The infinite suffering would be in vain, the passage through death in physical youth would be in vain for so many personalities, if a materialistic worldview and materialistic life were to spread across the fields of peace. And these days must act as a warning torch for those who are living through them, shining deeply, deeply into human minds and souls, so that a real will to live in the spiritual realm may arise within humanity. We cannot experience deeply enough what is happening in our days. And that is precisely why we want those who profess spiritual science to broaden their view from the narrow horizon in which it is so often confined today to an ever wider horizon. Only when we understand the whole connection between what is happening here on the physical earth and what is happening in the spiritual world can we gain a sense of the tasks that are set before us in these difficult times.
There are people who casually emphasize that what is happening now has nothing to do with what individual peoples are going through in their spiritual development. For those who are able to see things in their real course, everything that happens in the outer world is an expression of the spiritual. And we want to hold on to this more and more, we want to try more and more, precisely through the feelings that can come to us from spiritual science, to detach ourselves from our narrow circle and unite this self of ours, which is detaching itself through spiritual science, with the great events that are happening; to forget what concerns us only as personalities and grow together with what what the whole of humanity must experience today in such a shocking way.
This is what I have also wanted to bring out in you through the various discussions in these lectures, and I would like you to continue thinking about it until we meet again here in April. For only when what is now being tested by the great events rises up into the spiritual world and works down from there, and is met with understanding as it can be gained from spiritual knowledge, can what these events demand of us be achieved. It is true:
From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of the battles,
From the suffering of the forsaken,
From the sacrifices of the people
The fruits of the spirit will grow —
Souls will consciously guide
Their minds into the spiritual realm.