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The Balance in the World and Man,
Lucifer and Ahriman
GA 158

22 November 1914, Dornach

Translated by Mary Adams

Lecture III

From the previous lecture you will have been able to see that the very form of man's body is a result of the co-operation of Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers.

It is particularly important in the present age for man to recognize this co-operation between Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers; for only by such recognition can he gradually learn to understand the forces that are at work behind the external phantasmagoria of existence. We know very well that we have no occasion either to hate Ahriman or to fear Lucifer, since their powers are inimical only when they are working outside the realm where they belong. We spoke on this subject at some length in Munich last year [ see Secrets of the Threshold, by Rudolf Steiner. ]; and we have also given indications in this direction in lectures here in Dornach.

When we saw last time how the physical spatial body of man owes its form to the interaction of Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers, we were dealing with the most external element of human life in which Lucifer and Ahriman play a part. We come a little nearer to the inner nature of man when we pass from the physical to the etheric body. The etheric body may be regarded as the shaper of the physical body. At the foundation of our physical organism—and embedded at the same time in the whole etheric world—lies this etheric organism, in perpetual inner movement. Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers are active here too, as well as in the physical body. Man as etheric being—and it is important to recognize the fact—is also placed into the counterplay of these forces.

In order to give focus to our study of this question, let us now turn our attention to the three fundamental activities of the human being in so far as he is not physical human being. I refer to the activities of Willing, Feeling and Thinking.

So long as we regard man in respect of his physical body alone, we do not of course see this willing, feeling and thinking. Only in its physiognomy or in the performance of certain gestures or the like, does the physical body give us any indication of what is in man's inner nature. The etheric body, however, which is in perpetual movement, is continually giving expression to man's thinking, feeling and willing.

A purely external science finds itself in difficulties when it comes to consider these activities of the human soul. If you will study the various philosophies you will find that one gives pre-eminence to the will, another to thought; and there are again others which consider feeling as the most important force in man. But as to how thinking, feeling and willing unite in man to form a whole—to that problem none of the philosophies of modern times can offer a solution. This inability to form a correct idea of the relationship between thinking, feeling and willing in the life of the soul is not unlike the difficulty someone might experience who, in order to relate himself rightly to the world around him, set out to form a clear conception of man as he appears in the external world. We do not know—so say the philosophers—whether the human soul in its essential nature has more the character of willing or feeling or thinking. It is exactly as if someone were to say: “I have no idea what a ‘man’ really is. One person brings me a five-year-old child and says: There is a man for you! Then another person comes along and points me out a much taller being, who is what is called ‘middle-aged.’ Finally a third person comes and shows me an entirely different being, with wrinkled countenance and grey hair. And now I am really at a loss to know what the being called ‘man’ is, for I have been shown three totally different beings with this name.” Of course the true answer is that they are all of them “man.” The one is very young, the second somewhat older and the third quite old; they are very different in appearance. But by taking all three ages together we acquire a knowledge of “man.” It is the same with willing, feeling and thinking. The difference there too is one of age. Willing is the same soul-activity as thinking, but willing is still a child. When it grows a little older, it becomes feeling, and when it is quite old it is thinking. The matter is made difficult by the fact that the different ages live together in our soul in these three activities.

We have explained on other occasions (and you may read of it in my book The Threshold of the Spiritual World) that when we leave the physical world we come into a world where the law of change prevails instead of the law of persistence or fixity. There all is in constant change; what is old can suddenly grow young again and vice versa. Hence in that world the three activities can and actually do appear at one and the same time. Willing shows itself contemporaneously as young willing, as older willing (i.e., feeling) and at the same time also as quite old willing (i.e., thinking). The different ages are in that world intermingled, everything is mobile. This is how it is with the etheric body of man.

These changes cannot, however, simply come about of themselves. To begin with, a uniform and single action of the soul does not come to consciousness at all in ordinary life, we are quite incapable of bringing such a thing into consciousness. If we think of the etheric body in the likeness of a flowing stream—for it is in the etheric body that we have to make our observations—then we are obliged to say that this stream of soul-activity does not come to consciousness at all in our life; but into this stream, into this perpetual movement of the etheric body that flows in the current of time, Luciferic—and again Ahrimanic—activity enters. Luciferic activity has the result of making the will young. When the activity of our soul is streamed through by Luciferic activity the result is will. When the Luciferic influence predominates, when Lucifer makes his forces felt in the soul, then will is active in us. Lucifer has a juvenating influence on the whole stream of our soul-activity.

When, on the other hand, Ahriman brings his influence to bear on our soul-activity, he hardens it, it becomes old, and thinking is the result. Thinking, the having and holding of thoughts, is quite impossible in ordinary life unless Ahriman exerts his influence within our etheric body. We cannot get on in our life of soul, in so far as this comes to expression in the etheric body, without Ahriman and Lucifer. If Lucifer were to withdraw entirely from our etheric body, we would have nothing to fire our will. If Ahriman were to withdraw entirely from our etheric body, we would never be able to attain cool thinking. In between stands a region where Lucifer and Ahriman are in conflict. Here they interpenetrate; their activities play into one another. It is the region of feeling. The etheric body has actually this appearance; one can perceive in it Luciferic light and Ahrimanic hardness. If you could look at it, you would not of course see it as we might try to show it in a drawing; you would see it all in movement. But there are places where the etheric body seems to be quite untransparent, as if it had ice tracings in it. Forms and figures show themselves which resemble the patterns made by ice on a window pane. These are hardenings in the etheric body, and they are the result in it of the life of thought. This freezing of the etheric body at certain places is due to Ahriman; his forces have found entry there by means of thought. There are also places which seem to be full of light. Here the etheric body is transparent and gleams and glows with light. It is Lucifer who sends his rays into the etheric body of man and makes there centers of will. Then there are regions in between, where the etheric body is in perpetual movement and activity. Here you see at one moment hardness—and then suddenly the hardness is caught by a ray of light and melts right away. Hardening and dissolving, in perpetual alternation—such is the expression of the activity of feeling in the etheric body.

Not only, therefore, is the form of the physical body of man called into being by the interplay of Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces—now creating a balance, now disturbing it again—but in the whole etheric body too, Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces are continually active. When the Ahrimanic forces gain the upper hand, we have an expression of thinking; when the Luciferic forces are in ascendance, we have an expression of willing; and when they are in mutual conflict one with the other, we have an expression of feeling. Thus do Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces play into one another in the etheric body of man. We human beings are as it were ourselves the resultant of these forces, we are placed into their midst.

Now we must not imagine that we are present in this interplay with our full Ego. Our earthly Ego, the Ego that we have acquired in the course of earth evolution, can only come to its full consciousness in the physical body. Not until the time of Jupiter will the Ego be able to unfold itself completely within the etheric body. In all that takes place within the etheric body the real Ego of the human being has no immediate part. Had the progress of world evolution gone on without the intervention of Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces, then man would have been an altogether different being. He would, for example, have been able to have perceptions in his physical body, but he would not have been able to have thoughts. The capacity to have thoughts he owes to the fact that Ahriman can acquire influence over his etheric body. And he has impulses of will because Luciferic forces can acquire influence over his etheric body. These forces are therefore necessary for man, they must needs be present.

We have said that with our earthly consciousness we cannot descend fully into the etheric body. Only in the physical body can we experience our full Ego-consciousness. With the etheric body we enter a world with which we cannot fully identify ourselves. And it is so, that when Ahriman enters into our etheric body, something more enters in with him besides the thoughts he forms there. Nor is it only impulses of will that enter our etheric body with Lucifer. And the same must be said of the feelings, the realm where the two are in conflict. In so far as Ahriman lives in our etheric body we dive down with our etheric body into the sphere of the elementary Nature spirits—the Earth, Water, Air and Fire spirits. We are not cognizant of the fact because we are not able to descend fully into our etheric body with our Ego. Nevertheless it is always so. Within this etheric body not only does there live the power of the thoughts that we ourselves think, but the influences also of the Nature spirits; these enter in and make themselves felt. When a man has met with these Nature spirits he is able afterwards to tell of some experience he has had which he did not have in his ordinary Ego-consciousness. For it is when he, is in an abnormal condition that man meets the Nature spirits, namely, when the etheric body is to some extent loosened from the physical body.

How can such a thing happen? It can happen in the following way. The etheric body of man is in communion with the whole surrounding etheric world, therefore also with the whole sphere of the Nature spirits. Let us imagine, to take a simple case, that a man is walking along a road. When he is walking along a road in the daytime with his ordinary consciousness, his etheric body is properly in his physical body and he perceives with his Ego-consciousness what one is normally able to perceive with the Ego-consciousness. But now suppose that he is walking along a path by night. When we walk along a path by night, it is generally dark, and this fact will of itself produce in many persons a “creepy” feeling. And just because he gets into this condition, then the peculiar sensations that he experiences enable Lucifer to seize hold of him. His etheric body becomes loosened from the physical body, and then this emancipated etheric body can enter into relation with the surrounding etheric world.

Now let us suppose that the man comes into the vicinity of a churchyard where etheric bodies are still present over the graves of recently deceased persons. In the condition in which he is, with his etheric body loosened, he is perhaps able to perceive something of the thoughts which are still remaining in the etheric bodies of the dead persons. Suppose someone has died only a short time ago leaving debts behind him; he died with the thought that he has incurred debts. Then it can be that this thought is still present in the etheric body of the person after he has died. We do not of course ordinarily perceive the thoughts in the etheric body of a dead human being. But for a man who has come into the condition I have described it might well be possible. He could enter into relation with the etheric body of the other and perceive within it the thought: “I have incurred debts.” And then because this experience strengthens the Luciferic power in him, there arises in him the feeling: “I must pay the debt for him.” He experiences in this way in his etheric body something he would never experience in the physical body in normal life. Such an experience does not happen to us in ordinary human life, and when it comes it makes an extraordinary impression upon our consciousness. For it arouses the knowledge: “I have had a strange and singular experience. I have not had this experience within the body, nor can I ever have it within the body.” We have the feeling quite distinctly that we are somewhere else than in our body, and that is a strange, an unaccustomed feeling. We experience at the same time an overpowering desire to return once more into the body, we long for help to return again into the body.

This feeling of longing to return attracts to us certain elementary Nature spirits for whom this very feeling in us is food and nourishment. They come, because they are attracted by the feeling, “I want to be drawn into my physical body,” and they help us to find the way back to it. If one is asleep in the ordinary way, one finds the way back quite easily. But when one has undergone an experience such as I have described, it is difficult to find the way back. You must not of course imagine that we see the situation as we perceive things in the physical body; no, we see it imaginatively, in pictures. Someone comes to us—it is really a Nature spirit, appearing perhaps in the guise of a shepherd, and gives us the advice: “Go to a certain castle, I will take you there in my wagon,”—or some similar words. The situation may even be still further developed. The body which we have left and outside of which we have had the experience, may assume the appearance of an enchanted castle from which we have to release someone when we return into it. So do we “imaginate” in pictures the longing for the physical body and the help that the Nature spirits bring to us. And then we come back into the physical body—that is to say, we wake up.

People who have had such experiences will tell us that they feel they have in actual reality come into contact in this way with the thoughts of a dead man. They say to themselves: “That feeling I had was not something that was merely in myself, it was no mere dream that I dreamed, it was a feeling that communicated to me something that was taking place in the world outside. It is of course all expressed in pictures, but it does truly correspond to an event.” I will now read to you such a picture, where a man narrates what he has experienced. As you will see, it was an experience somewhat similar to the one of which I have spoken. He describes it as follows. “When I had taken leave of the soldiers I met three men. They wanted to exhume a dead person who owed them three marks. I was filled with compassion and at once absolved the debt, in order that the dead man might rest in peace and not be disturbed in his grave. I walked on a little further. A strange man with pale countenance accosted me, invited me to mount a leaden carriage, and persuaded me to go with him to a castle. In the castle, he said, dwelt a princess, who had declared she would marry only a man who came to her on a carriage of lead. He turned to the driver and said: ‘Drive in the direction of the sunrise.’ Then came a shepherd who said: ‘I am the Count of Ravensburg.’ He ordered the driver to drive faster. We came to a door and we could hear a tumult within. The door was opened. The princess asked the man whence he came and how it had been possible for him to drive in company with that old man—and behold, I saw that he who had led me thither was a spirit. Then I entered in at the door and took possession of the castle.”

That is to say, he came back into his body. There you have the description of just such an experience as I have been speaking of.

And what is such an event, when it happens to someone who then tells others of it? It is a Märchen (a fairy-tale [ see Goethe's Standard of the Soul, by Rudolf Steiner. ]).

You must not imagine that an experience of this nature is the only way in which man comes into relationship with the external etheric world through his etheric body. There is another. And that is, in an activity which is only half conscious, an activity in which the Ego only half participates—namely, the act of Speech. Our speaking is not so conscious as our thinking. It is not the case that speaking is something which belongs to us and which we have in our power. In speech live etheric Powers, and a good part of our speaking is unconscious. The Ego does not reach fully down into speech. When we speak we are in communication through our etheric body with the surrounding etheric world. We learn to think as individuals, but not to speak. We are taught to speak through the fact that our Karma places us into a particular set of circumstances in life. We have already seen how we may come into relation with the Nature spirits in abnormal conditions when the etheric body is loosened, and now we find that inasmuch as we speak and do not merely think silently, we come into relation with the Folk Spirits. The Folk Spirits enter our etheric body and live there—without our being aware of it. This life of the Folk Spirit within the human being really belongs just as little to his fully conscious Ego activity as does the “Märchen” of which I have told you. So much, then, for the activity of Lucifer and Ahriman in man's etheric body.

The Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces enter also into the astral body. When we come to study the astral body of man, we must turn our attention to what is the distinguishing mark of the astral human being as he is on earth—namely, consciousness. In the physical body form and force are the essentials, in the etheric body, movement and life: in the astral body, consciousness. Now in the body of man we have not only one consciousness, but two; the ordinary waking state and the state of sleep. But, strange to say, neither of these two states is entirely natural to us. Natural would be for us an intermediate state between the two, a state which, as a matter of fact, we never really consciously have.

If we were perpetually awake we would scarcely be able to develop in a proper, orderly manner through the various ages of life. Something is always present in us which is less awake than we are in our day-consciousness, and only by virtue of this are we in a position to evolve and develop. Ask yourselves, how much do you expect to be able to evolve through all that you experience and receive in ordinary life? For the most part, we merely satisfy thereby our desire, our curiosity, or our need of sensation. It is not often we act with deliberate intent to place what we experience in waking day life in the service of our development. The truth is, development takes place through the fact that something is continually sleeping in us, even in the daytime. I am not alluding to the habit of dropping off to sleep in the daytime! But when man is wide awake by day, something still remains fast asleep in him, and this it is which brings it about that he does not remain for ever a child, but evolves further.

The ordinary waking state is what comes to consciousness through our astral body. In this ordinary waking state we are, however, too strongly awake, we are too intensely given up to the external world; we are, in fact, quite lost in it. How does this come about?

The reason is that the waking consciousness lives under the influence of Ahriman. Ahriman has great power over our waking consciousness. It is quite different in the case of the sleep consciousness. In sleep consciousness we are too little awake. We are too engrossed in our own evolution; we are so completely and so powerfully within ourselves that all consciousness is obliterated. In sleep consciousness, Lucifer has the upper hand.

This is then how the matter stands with our astral body. When we are awake, Ahriman has the upper hand over Lucifer, and when we are asleep Lucifer has the upper hand over Ahriman. They are in equilibrium only when we dream; there they pull with equal force, they strike a balance between them. The ideas which are called forth by Ahriman in day consciousness and which he causes to harden and crystallize, are dissolved and made to disappear under the influence of Lucifer; everything becomes pictures when Ahriman is no longer busy fixing them in rigid ideas. They melt and become mobile in themselves. A state of equilibrium is induced in a pair of scales by having both scale-pans equally laden; we have, then, not a state of rest but a state of equilibrium. It is the same with the life of man. We have not in man a state of rest, but a state of equilibrium; and the two forces which hold the scales and each of which at certain times brings extra weight to bear, are Lucifer and Ahriman. In waking consciousness Ahriman's side sinks down, in sleep consciousness Lucifer's. Only in the intermediate state, where we dream, are the two scale-pans held in poise, not at rest, but delicately poised in equilibrium.

We can go on to carry our study into still higher regions of human life. Here too we shall find evidence of how Lucifer and Ahriman fill the world with their inter-working. Two ideas play a great part in human life. One is the idea of duty. We might also say, when we consider it from a religious point of view, the idea of commandment or behest. We speak sometimes, do we not, of the “behest of duty.” The other idea, which can be placed over against it, is the idea of right (or rights).

If you will reflect a little on the part played in human life by these two ideas of duty and of right—I mean, the “right” one has to do this or that—you will very soon realize that they are polar opposites, and that men's inclinations are turned now more in the direction of duty, and now again in the direction of right. We live certainly in an age when people are more ready to speak of right than duty. All possible spheres of life claim their rights. We have Workers' Rights, Women's Rights, and so on and so on.

Duty is the opposite idea of right. Our age will be followed by an age when duties will be more regarded than rights, and this will be directly attributable to the influence of the anthroposophical spiritual world-conception. In the future—certainly, in a rather distant future—we shall have movements where less and less emphasis will be laid on the demand for rights and people will inquire more and more as to their duty. The question will rather be: What is our duty as man, as woman, e.g., in this or that situation of life? The present epoch that demands rights will be succeeded by an epoch that asks after duties.

We said that right and duty play into life like two polar opposites. Whenever a man turns his thought and attention to duty, he looks right away from himself. Kant has given great and grand expression to this fact. He pictures duty as a lofty goddess, to whom man looks up: “Duty, thou great and exalted Name, thou has nought to do with fondness nor with favor; all that thou requirest is to submit thyself and serve.” Man beholds duty, so to say, raying down upon him from regions of the spiritual world. In a religious sense, he feels duty as an impulse laid upon him by the Beings of the higher Hierarchies. And when man surrenders himself to duty, he goes right out of himself. It is in this going-out-of-himself in the feeling of duty, that man can begin to learn how to get beyond his ordinary self.

There is, however, a danger to man in all such going-out-of his ordinary self, in all such endeavor after spiritualization. If man were to give himself up entirely to this, he would lose the ground from under his feet, he would lose his feeling of gravity. Therefore he must endeavor, when he surrenders himself to duty, to find within himself at the same time something that shall give him weight, so that he may keep his sense of gravity. Schiller expressed it very beautifully when he said that man has the best relation to duty when he learns to love duty.

This is really saying a great deal. When a man speaks of learning to love duty he no longer merely surrenders himself to duty; he rises out of himself, taking with him the love with which otherwise he loves himself. The love that lives in his body, in his egoism—this love he takes out of himself, and loves with it duty. So long as it is self-love, so long is it a Luciferic force. But when man takes this self-love out of himself and loves duty in the way that otherwise he loves only himself, he releases Lucifer. He takes Lucifer into the realm of duty and gives him, so to say, a justified existence in the impulse and feeling of duty.

If, on the other hand, a man cannot do this, if he cannot draw forth the love out of himself and offer it to duty, then he will continue to love only himself; and since he cannot love duty, he is obliged to subject himself to her, he becomes a slave to duty, he becomes, as we say, a man who “does his duty,”—hard and cold and uninspired. He hardens in an Ahrimanic sense, notwithstanding that he follows duty devotedly.

You see how duty stands, as it were, in a midway position. If we surrender ourselves to her, she annuls our freedom, we become her slaves, because Ahriman draws near on the one hand with his impulses. But if we bring ourselves—if we bring all our power of self-love—as an offering and offer it up to duty, bringing thus to duty the Luciferic warmth of love, then the result is that, through the state of balance induced in this way between Lucifer and Ahriman, we find a right relation to duty.

Thus we are truly, in a certain connection, redeemers of Lucifer. When we begin to be able to love our duty, then the moment has come when we can help towards the redemption and release of the Luciferic powers; we set free the Lucifer forces which are held in us as by a charm, and lead them forth to fight with Ahriman. We release the imprisoned Lucifer (imprisoned in self-love) when we learn to love our duty.

Schiller sets himself this very question in his “Aesthetic Letters”: How is it possible to rise above slavery to duty and attain to love of duty? Of course he does not use the expressions “Lucifer” and “Ahriman,” because he does not see the problem in its cosmic aspect. Nevertheless these wonderful letters of Schiller on the Aesthetic Education of Man are directly translatable into Spiritual Science.

Right, on the other hand, immediately shows that it is united with Lucifer. Man does not need to learn to love his right, he loves it already! It is perfectly natural that he should do so. It is natural for Lucifer to be connected with right in man's feeling—man feels that this or that is his right. Everywhere that right asserts itself, Lucifer is speaking there too. It is very often only too evident how Lucifer makes his voice heard in the demand of some right. Here it is a question of calling in something that can be set over against right. We have to call in Ahriman to create a polarity to Lucifer. And this we can do by cultivating the polar opposite of love.

Love is inner fire, its opposite is calmness—the quiet acceptance of what happens in the world. As soon as we approach our right with this quiet and calm interest we call in Ahriman. It is not easy to recognize him here, for we set him free from his merely external existence, we summon him into ourselves and warm him with the love that is already united with right. Calm and peace of mind have the coldness of Ahriman; in the quiet understanding of what is in the world, we unite our warmth and our understanding love with the coldness that is in the world outside. And then we release Ahriman, when we meet what has come about with understanding, when we do not merely demand our rights out of self-love but understand what has come about in the world. This is the eternal battle that is waged between Lucifer and Ahriman. On the one hand man learns in a conservative way to understand the conditions that are in the world, he learns to understand how they have come about from cosmic, karmic necessity. That is one aspect of the matter. The other aspect is that he feels in his heart the urge to make new conditions possible, continually to let the old give place to the new. This is the revolutionary current in human life. In the revolutionary stream lives Lucifer, in the conservative stream Ahriman, and man in his life of right lives in the midst between these two poles.

Thus we see how right and duty show each of them a state of equilibrium between Lucifer and Ahriman. We only learn to understand how the physical body, the etheric body and the astral body manifest in life, or how duty and right come to expression in the life of duty and the life of right, when we learn to recognize the interplay of great spiritual Powers, above all of those spiritual Powers who bring about the state of equilibrium.

For just as what is in the external world stands under the influence of the spiritual forces that bring about balance, so does our moral life too belong in a world of polar opposites. The whole morale of human conduct, the whole ethical life of man with its poles of right and duty, only become comprehensible when we take into account the instreaming forces of Lucifer and Ahriman. And when we look at the life of man in history, that takes its course in an alternation between, on the one hand, revolutionary and warlike—that is to say, Luciferic—movements, and on the other hand, conservative—that is, Ahrimanic—movements, there too we find a condition of balance between Lucifer and Ahriman. In no other way is the world to be understood than by recognizing in it these opposite forces and influences.

What we behold in the world outside is dualistic, it shows itself to us in opposites. And in this connection Manichaeism, correctly understood, has its complete justification. How Manichaeism is fully justified even within a spiritual monism—of that we shall have more to say in the future. The object I have had in view in these lectures is to show you how the whole world is a result of the working of balance.

Particularly evident is the result of the working of balance in the life of art. With this as our starting-point we will go on in later lectures to consider the arts and their evolution in the world, and the part that has been taken by different spiritual Powers in the evolution of the life of art among mankind.

Sechster Vortrag

Aus den gestrigen Auseinandersetzungen werden Sie haben entnehmen können, daß selbst unsere Leibesform dadurch so ist, wie sie ist, daß sie gleichsam ein Ergebnis des Zusammenwirkens der luziferischen und ahrimanischen Mächte darstellt.

Es ist gerade für unsere Zeit sehr wichtig, dieses Zusammenwirken der luziferischen und ahrimanischen Mächte wirklich zu kennen, denn erst dadurch wird allmählich in die Menschheit ein Verständnis für die Kräfte einziehen können, die hinter der äußeren Phantasmagorie des Daseins wirken. Wir wissen, daß wir weder Ahriman zu hassen noch uns vor Luzifer zu fürchten brauchen, weil diese Mächte nur so lange gewissermaßen feindliche Mächte in der Welt sind, als sie nicht in ihren eigenen Gebieten wirken. Davon ist ja voriges Jahr in München viel gesprochen worden. Darüber sind auch schon hier Andeutungen gemacht worden.

Indem wir nun gestern gesehen haben, wie der physische, räumliche Menschenleib in seiner Form zustande kommt durch das Widerspiel der luziferischen und ahrimanischen Mächte, haben wir auf das ÄAußerlichste im Menschenleben hingewiesen, in dem Luzifer und Ahriman ihre Rolle spielen. Sie wissen, wir kommen etwas mehr in das Innere des Menschenlebens, wenn wir vom physischen Leibe fortschreiten zum ätherischen Leibe. Der Ätherleib ist gewissermaßen der Bildner des physischen Leibes. Er ist eingebettet in die ganze ätherische Welt, er liegt als ein beweglicher, als ein immer in sich beweglicher ätherischer Organismus unserem physischen Organismus zugrunde. Nun ist in bezug auf den ätherischen Leib zu sagen, daß auch in ihm, geradeso wie wir das für den physischen Leib gesehen haben, luziferische und ahrimanische Mächte wirksam sind, daß der Mensch auch als ätherisches Wesen hineingestellt ist - das müssen wir betonen - in das Widerspiel der luziferischen und ahrimanischen Kräfte. |

Um nun auf dasjenige hinzuweisen, auf welches es dabei ankommt, wollen wir einmal einen Blick auf diedrei Grundtätigkeiten des menschlichen Wesens werfen, insofern der Mensch nicht ein physisches Wesen ist, auf das Wollen, Fühlen und Denken. Dieses Wollen, Fühlen und Denken sehen wir natürlich nicht, wenn wir den Menschen in bezug auf seinen physischen Leib ansehen. Nur insofern der physische Leib seinen Ausdruck hat in einer gewissen Physiognomie, in Gesten und dergleichen, können wir durch den physischen Leib hindurch ahnen, was im menschlichen Inneren ist. Der Ätherleib aber ist schon als ein in sich beweglicher Organismus ein immerwährender Ausdruck des Denkens, Fühlens und Wollens des Menschen.

In bezug auf dieses Denken, Fühlen und Wollen hat es wieder die rein äußere Wissenschaft etwas schwierig, und wenn man die philosophischen Weltanschauungen durchgeht, wird man sehen, daß bald der eine Philosoph das Wollen voranstellt und bald ein anderer das Denken. Auch solche gibt es, welche das Fühlen als die hauptsächlichste Kraft betrachten. Aber wie eigentlich dieses Denken, Fühlen und Wollen im Menschen eine Einheit bildet, darüber können sich diese philosophischen Weltanschauungen keinen rechten Begriff bilden. Dieses Sich-keinen-rechten-Begriff-bilden-Können über das Verhältnis von Denken, Fühlen und Wollen in dem menschlichen Seelenleben ist gerade so, als wenn der Mensch Schwierigkeiten empfinden würde, in dem Auseinandersetzen mit dem Begriffe des Menschen überhaupt zurechtzukommen. Ich weiß nicht recht — sagen die Philosophen -, ist die menschliche Seele mehr willensartiger, mehr gefühlsartiger oder _ mehr denkerischer Natur? Ist sie mehr das eine oder das andere? — Das ist gerade so, wie wenn jemand sagen wollte: Nun weiß ich wirklich nicht mehr recht, was ein Mensch ist. Da hat mir eben einer gesagt, er wolle mir einen Menschen bringen, und da bringt er mir ein kleines Wesen, ein fünfjähriges Kind, und sagt: Das ist ein Mensch. — Dann ist ein anderer gekommen und sagte auch, er wolle mir einen Menschen zeigen und da hat er mir ein Wesen gebracht, das viel größer ist als das erste, also ein Wesen in den mittleren Menschenjahren. Ein dritter ist endlich gekommen und hat mir auch gesagt, er wolle mir ein Menschenwesen zeigen. Er zeigte mir ein ganz anderes Wesen, das runzelig im Gesichte war, graue Haare hatte und so weiter. Und jetzt weiß ich wirklich nicht mehr, was ein Mensch ist. Drei verschiedene Wesen hat man mir gezeigt! — Ja, alle drei, nicht wahr, sind Menschen. Nur ist der eine ganz jung, der andere ist etwas älter, und der dritte ist schon ganz alt geworden. Sie sind sehr verschieden in ihrer Erscheinung. Aber sobald man die drei Alter zusammenhält, weiß man, was ein Mensch ist.

So ist es aber auch mit dem Wollen, Fühlen und Denken. Der Unterschied ist nur der, daß das Wollen wohl dieselbe Seelentätigkeit ist wie das Denken, nur ganz jung noch, kindlich. Und wenn das Wollen älter wird, dann wird es Fühlen, und das ganz alte Wollen ist das Denken. Es ist nur ein Unterschied im Alter beim Wollen, Fühlen und Denken, nur daß sie in unserer Seele zusammenleben, die Lebensalter für diese Seelentätigkeiten, das macht die Sache schwierig. Aber wir haben schon auseinandergesetzt — Sie brauchen es nur nachzulesen in meinem Buche «Die Schwelle der geistigen Welt» —, daß, sobald wir aus der physischen Welt hinauskommen, das Gesetz der Verwandlung gilt, nicht das der Starrheit. Da verwandelt sich alles. Das Alte wird plötzlich jung, das Junge wird alt und so weiter. So daß wirklich gleichzeitig in uns auftreten können die drei Seelentätigkeiten: das Wollen, das sich bald als junges Wollen zeigt, bald als älteres Wollen, das heißt als Fühlen, und auch als ältestes Wollen, als ganz altes Wollen, das heißt als Denken. Da gehen die Lebensalter durcheinander, es wird dann alles flüssig. So ist es im Ätherleib des Menschen.

Aber diese Verwandlung kann nicht so ohne weiteres durch sich selbst zustande kommen. Dasjenige, was einheitliche Seelentätigkeit wäre, das kommt uns überhaupt im gewöhnlichen Leben nicht zum Bewußtsein, das können wir gar nicht ins Bewußtsein hereinbringen. Wenn wir — weil ja das Ganze im Ätherleib beobachtet werden muß, und der Ätherleib etwas Bewegliches, Flüssiges ist — den Ätherleib wie einen fortlaufenden Strom symbolisch zeichnen, so kommt uns dieser Strom der Seelentätigkeit im gewöhnlichen Leben überhaupt nicht zum Bewußtsein, sondern in diesen Strom, in dieses fortwährende Bewegen des Ätherleibes, das mit der Zeit fortfließt, gliedert sich hinein einmal luziferische und dann wieder ahrimanische Tätigkeit.

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Die luziferische Tätigkeit macht das Wollen jung. Unsere Seelentätigkeit, durchzogen von Luziferischem, ist Wollen. Wenn das Luziferische in unserer Seelentätigkeit überwiegt, wenn in unserer Seele nur Luzifer seine Kräfte geltend macht, so ist das Wollen. Luzifer wirkt verjüngend auf den Gesamtstrom unserer Seelentätigkeit. Wenn Ahriman dagegen hauptsächlich seine Wirkungen äußert in unserer Seelentätigkeit, dann verhärtet er unsere Seelentätigkeit, sie wird alt, und das ist das Denken. Dieses Denken, dieses Gedankenhaben ist gar nicht möglich im gewöhnlichen Leben, ohne daß in dem ätherischen Leibe Ahriman seine Kräfte entfaltet. Man kann im Seelenleben, insofern es sich im Ätherleibe äußert, nicht ohne Ahriman und Luzifer auskommen. Würde Luzifer sich ganz zurückziehen von unserem ätherischen Leibe, dann würden wir kein luziferisches Feuer haben zum Wollen. Würde Ahriman sich ganz zurückziehen von unserem Seelenleben, dann würden wir niemals die Kühle des Denkens entwickeln können. In der Mitte von beiden ist eine Region, wo sie miteinander kämpfen. Hier durchdringen sie sich, Luzifer und Ahriman, hier spielen ihre Tätigkeiten ineinander. Das ist die Region des Fühlens. In der Tat, so erscheint der menschliche Ätherleib, daß man darinnen wahrnehmen kann das luziferische Licht und die ahrimanische Härte. Wenn man den menschlichen Ätherleib überblickt, so ist das natürlich nicht so angeordnet, wie hier (auf der Zeichnung) symbolisch, sondern da ist ein Durcheinander. Da sind Einschiebsel, in denen der Ätherleib undurchsichtig erscheint, so, wie wenn er, ich möchte sagen, Eiseinschläge hätte. Figuren treten im Ätherleibe auf, die man vergleichen kann mit Eisfiguren, wie sie auf Fensterscheiben erscheinen. Das sind die Verhärtungen in dem Ätherleibe. An solchen Stellen wird er undurchsichtig. Das sind aber die Auslebungen des Gedankenlebens im Ätherleibe. Dieses Gefrieren des Ätherleibes an gewissen Stellen rührt von Ahriman her, der seine Kräfte da hineinschickt durch das Denken.

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An andern Stellen des Ätherleibes ist es so, als wenn er Vakuolen, ganz lichte Stellen in sich hätte, die durchsichtig sind, die glänzend, lichtglitzernd sind. Da sendet Luzifer seine Strahlen, seine Kräfte hinein, das sind die Willenszentren im Ätherleibe. Und in dem, was dazwischen liegt, wo gleichsam fortwährende Tätigkeit ist im Ätherleibe, ist es so, daß man sieht, hier ist eine harte Stelle, aber nun wird sie sogleich von einer solchen Lichtstelle gefaßt und aufgelöst. Ein fortwährendes Festwerden und Wiederauflösen. Das ist der Ausdruck der Gefühlstätigkeit im Ätherleibe.

So können wir sagen: Es ist nicht nur die Form des physischen Leibes hervorgerufen durch das Ineinanderspielen der das Gleichgewicht störenden oder bewirkenden luziferischen und ahrimanischen Kräfte, sondern auch im ganzen Ätherleibe spielen luziferische und ahrimanische Kräfte. Wenn die ahrimanischen Kräfte die Überhand haben, so ist das ein Ausdruck des Denkens, wenn die luziferischen Kräfte die Überhand haben, so ist das ein Ausdruck des Wollens, und wenn sie sich gegenseitig raufen, könnte man sagen, so ist das ein Ausdruck des Fühlens.

Da haben wir die Art, wie im Ätherleibe luziferische und ahrimanische Kräfte ineinanderspielen. Wir sind gewissermaßen ganz das Ergebnis von solchen Kräften, und sind eigentlich in der Zwischenlage zwischen solchen Kräften darinnen.

Nun müssen wir uns darüber klar sein, daß wir in dem, was da spielt, nicht mit unserem vollen Ich immer darinnen sind. Unser Ich, unser irdisches Ich, das wir uns erst im Laufe der Erdenentwickelung erworben haben, kann seine volle Tätigkeit und sein volles Bewußtsein zunächst nur im physischen Leibe entfalten. Im Ätherleibe wird es sich erst während der Jupiterzeit voll entfalten können, so daß in alledem, was im Ätherleibe spielt, das eigentliche Ich des Menschen nicht unmittelbar tätig ist. Würde zu der fortschreitenden Weltevolution nichts hinzugekommen sein von ahrimanischen und luziferischen Kräften, dann würde der Mensch ein ganz anderes Wesen sein, dann würde der Mensch in seinem physischen Leibe Wahrnehmungen haben können, aber er würde nicht eigentlich Gedanken haben können. Gedanken hat er dadurch, daß auf seinen Ätherleib Ahriman Einfluß gewinnen kann. Willensimpulse hat er dadurch, daß auf seinen Ätherleib luziferische Kräfte Einfluß gewinnen können. Diese Kräfte müssen also da sein.

Wir müssen uns also klar darüber sein, daß wir für unser irdisches Bewußtsein nicht voll hinunter können in den Ätherleib. Wir können nur im physischen Leibe unser volles Ich-Bewußtsein ausleben. In den Ätherleib können wir nicht vollständig hinunter. Mit diesem Ätherleib tauchen wir daher unter in eine Welt, worin wir selbst nicht vollständig sind. Und mit Ahriman, der gedankenbildend in unseren Ätherleib eintritt, treten nicht nur unsere Gedanken in unseren Ätherleib ein. Mit Luzifer, der willensbildend in unserem Ätherleib ist, treten nicht nur unsere Willensimpulse in unseren Ätherleib ein. Und so ist es auch mit den Gefühlen, dem Gebiet, wo sich die beiden raufen. Insofern nun Ahriman in unserem Ätherleibe lebt, tauchen wir mit dem Ätherleibe unter in die Sphäre der Naturgeister, der elementarischen Naturgeister, der Erd-, Wasser-, Luft- und Feuergeister. Wir wissen das nur nicht, weil wir mit unserem Ich nicht voll in unseren Ätherleib hinunter können. Aber es ist immer so, daß in diesem Ätherleibe nicht nur dasjenige als Gedankenmacht lebt, was wir selbst denken, sondern da dringen auch die Einflüsse der Naturgeister ein. Insbesondere jedesmal wenn der Mensch diesen Naturgeistern gegenüberrtritt, weiß er zu erzählen davon, daß er etwas erlebt hat, was er im gewöhnlichen Ich-Bewußtsein nicht erlebt hat, und zwar tritt er diesen Naturgeistern dann gegenüber, wenn irgend etwas Abnormes bei ihm eintritt, wenn der Ätherleib gleichsam etwas losgerissen wird aus dem physischen Leibe.

Wodurch kann so etwas geschehen? Sehen Sie, der Ätherleib des Menschen steht in Verbindung mit der ganzen umliegenden ätherischen Welt, also auch mit der ganzen Sphäre der Naturgeister um uns herum. Nehmen wir nun einmal an, um ein Beispiel anzuführen, ein Mensch ginge bei Tage auf der Straße. Wenn er mit seinem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein auf der Straße geht, dann ist sein Ätherleib richtig in seinem physischen Leibe darinnen, und er nimmt mit seinem IchBewußtsein wahr, was man eben mit dem Ich-Bewußtsein wahrnehmen kann.

Nehmen wir aber einmal an, er geht in der Nacht über einen Weg. Wenn man nachts über einen Weg geht, so ist es gewöhnlich finster, was ja bei manchem Menschen schon grauselig-gruselige Zustände bewirkt. Dadurch nun, daß er in einen solchen grauselig-gruseligen Zustand kommt, lockert sich durch diese eigentümlichen Empfindungen, die da kommen, in denen Luzifer ihn besonders ergreift, der ätherische Leib aus dem physischen Leib heraus, und dadurch kann jetzt dieser befreite ätherische Leib, der sich herausgelöst hat aus dem physischen Leib, in Beziehung treten zu der umliegenden ätherischen Welt. Nehmen wir nun an, der Betreffende komme in die Nähe eines Kirchhofes, wo noch Ätherleiber sind auf den Gräbern eben Verstorbener. Da kann er vielleicht in diesem Zustand, wenn sich sein Ätherleib herausgelockert hat, irgend etwas von den Gedanken, die noch in den Ätherleibern der Verstorbenen sitzen, wahrnehmen.

Nehmen wir an, es sei jemand verstorben vor kurzer Zeit, der habe Schulden hinterlassen und ses mit dem Gedanken, Schulden gemacht zu haben, gestorben. Dieser Gedanke nun kann noch darinnensitzen in dem Ätherleibe des Verstorbenen. Man nimmt selbstverständlich diese Gedanken im Ätherleibe des andern nicht wahr, wenn der eigene Ätherleib nicht gelockert ist, aber in dem Zustande, den ich geschildert habe, kann man es wahrnehmen. Man kann mit dem Ätherleibe des andern in Beziehung treten und kann daher diesen Gedanken: Ich habe Schulden gemacht — wahrnehmen. Und jetzt, weil durch dieses die luziferische Macht in ihm verstärkt wird, regt sich in ihm das Gefühl: Ich muß diesem die Schuld bezahlen.

So ein Mensch erlebt also etwas in seinem ätherischen Leibe, was er niemals im physischen Leibe im normalen Leben erleben würde. Man erlebt so etwas nicht alle Tage im gewöhnlichen Menschenleben, daher bringt es auch etwas sehr Bedeutsames im Bewußtsein hervor, wenn man das erlebt. Es bringt das im Bewußtsein hervor, daß man weiß, jetzt hast du etwas erlebt, das hast du nicht in deinem Leibe erlebt, das kannst du in deinem Leibe nicht erleben. Man fühlt, man ist irgendwo anders als in seinem Leibe, und das empfindet man als eine ungewohnte Lage. Man ist woanders als in seinem Leibe, und man fühlt dann den Drang, in seinen Leib wieder zurückzukehren; man sehnt sich nach Hilfe, um in seinen Leib wieder zurückzukehren.

Solch ein Gefühl, das man da hat, das Gefühl der Sehnsucht, in seinen Leib wieder zurückzukehren, ruft irgendwelche Elementargeister, Naturgeister heran, für die das Gefühl des Menschen gleichsam Speise, Nahrung ist. Sie kommen dadurch heran, daß sie gleichsam angezogen werden durch das Gefühl: Ich möchte in meinen physischen Leib herein. — Sie verhelfen einem dazu, den Weg zurückzufinden in den physischen Leib. Wenn man in gewöhnlicher Art schläft, findet man den Weg leicht zurück; wenn man aber so etwas erlebt wie das, was ich geschildert habe, findet man ihn schwer zurück. Aber man nimmt es nicht so wahr, wie man es im physischen Leibe wahrnimmt, sondern man nimmt es imaginativ, in Bildern wahr. Es kommt irgendeiner heran, der eigentlich ein Naturgeist ist, der vielleicht in der Gestalt eines Hirten, in der Gestalt eines Schäfers erscheint und der einem den Rat gibt: Gehe hin zu irgendeinem Schlosse. Ich werde dich dahin bringen auf einem Wagen — und dergleichen mehr.

Mit solchen Vorstellungen kann sich noch etwas anderes verknüpfen. Es kann sich damit verknüpfen, daß einem der Leib, den man verlassen hat, außerhalb dessen man das Erlebnis hatte, wie ein verzaubertes Schloß erscheint, aus dem man jemanden erlösen muß, wenn man hineinkommt. So imaginiert man diese Sehnsucht nach dem physischen Leibe und das Helfen der Naturgeister. Dann kommt man wieder in den physischen Leib zurück, das heißt, man wacht auf.

Solche Erlebnisse erzählen die Menschen dann, die es in der Realität erlebt haben, weil sie das Gefühl haben, auf diese Weise gleichsam mit den Gedanken eines Verstorbenen in Beziehung getreten zu sein. Sie sagen sich: Das war ein Gefühl von etwas, das nicht bloß in mir war, das nicht bloß etwas Geträumtes in mir war; das war ein Gefühl, das mir einen Vorgang draußen in der Welt vermittelt hat. - Das drückt sich natürlich in Bildern aus, aber es entspricht einem Vorgange. Ich will Ihnen ein solches Bild vorlesen, wo einer nacherzählt hat, was er da erlebt hat, und zwar etwas Ähnliches wie das, was ich eben erzählt habe. Das schildert er etwa so: «Als ich von den Soldaten verabschiedet wurde, traf ich auf meinem Wege drei Männer. Die wollten einen Toten ausgraben, weil er ihnen drei Mark schuldig war. Da wurde ich von Mitleid ergriffen und berichtigte die Schuld, damit der Verstorbene Ruhe habe und nicht mehr gestört werde in seinem Grabe. Ich wanderte weiter. Da schloß sich mir ein fremder Mann mit bleichem Gesichte an und lud mich ein, ein bleiernes Fahrzeug zu besteigen, und er überredete mich, zu einem Schloß mit ihm zu fahren. In dem Schloß wohne eine Prinzessin, die erklärt habe, sie wolle nur den Menschen heiraten, der auf einem bleiernen Wagen zu ihr käme. Dann ging er zu dem Kutscher und sagte: «Fahre, was das Zeug hält, nach der Seite, wo der Sonnenaufgang ist.» Da kam ein Schäfer und sagte: «Ich bin der Graf von Ravensburg!» Er befahl dem Kutscher, schneller zu fahren. Wir kamen an ein Tor, und es wurde ein Tumult hörbar. Das Tor wurde aufgeschlossen. Die Prinzessin fragte nun den Mann, woher er sei, wie er mit dem alten Manne hätte fahren können, und ich merkte, daß der, welcher mich dahin geführt hatte, ein Geist sei. Da kam ich dann in das Tor hinein. Ich trat ein und war Besitzer des Schlosses.» Das heißt, er kam zurück in seinen Leib. Da finden Sie ein solches Erlebnis geschildert, wie ich es angeführt habe.

Und was ist denn das, wenn es einem andern passiert, und der erzählt es dann weiter? Das ist ein Märchen.

Auf keine andere Art als auf diese Weise sind die Märchen entstanden. Alles andere, was über die Märchenentstehung gesagt wird, ist nichts weiter als eine wüste Phantasie. Alle wirklichen Märchen sind ein Beweis dafür, daß es Erlebnisse außerhalb des physischen Leibes des Menschen gibt, wenn der Ätherleib in gewisser Weise gelockert wird und der Mensch in Beziehung zur äußeren ätherischen Welt tritt. Das ist die eine Art, wie der Mensch durch seinen Ätherleib mit der äußeren Welt in Beziehung tritt.

Aber er tritt noch auf eine andere Weise mit der äußeren ätherischen Welt in Beziehung. Er tritt mit ihr auch in Beziehung da, wo, man möchte sagen, eine halbbewußste, eine halb vom Ich durchsetzte Tätigkeit vorliegt. Das ist bei der Sprache der Fall. Wir sprechen ja nicht so vollbewußt, wie wir denken. Es ist gar nicht wahr, daß wir das Sprechen als etwas, was uns angehört, in unserer Gewalt haben. In der Sprache leben sich ätherische Gewalten aus, und ein gut Teil Unbewußtheit ist in der Sprache. Das Ich reicht nicht vollständig in die Sprache hinunter. Wir stehen, indem wir sprechen, mit unserem Ätherleibe mit der uns umgebenden ätherischen Welt in Beziehung. Denken lernen wir als Individuum, sprechen aber nicht. Sprechen werden wir gelehrt durch das Karma, das uns hineinstellt in einen gewissen Lebenszusammenhang. Während wir gleichsam in abnormen Zuständen, wenn der Ätherleib gelockert ist, mit den Naturgeistern in Beziehung kommen, kommen wir einfach, indem wir sprechen, indem wir nicht bloß stumm denken, mit den Volksgeistern in Beziehung. Und es leben sich in unsere Ätherleiber — nicht bis zu unserem Bewußtsein heraufreichend — die Volksgeister ein. Was in dieser Weise in dem Menschen lebt, gehört im Grunde genommen ebensowenig zu seiner vollbewußten Ich-Tätigkeit wie das, was der Mensch uns als Märchen hier nacherzählt.

Wir haben damit das Hineinspielen von Luzifer und Ahriman in den Ätherleib des Menschen dargestellt. Aber auch in den astralischen Leib spielen die luziferischen und ahrimanischen Kräfte hinein. Nun, wenn wir den astralischen Menschenleib studieren, müssen wir auf das Hervorragendste hinweisen, was den astralischen Menschen, wie er auf der Erde ist, charakterisiert. Das ist das Bewußtsein. Im physischen Leibe ist die Form und die Kraft das Wesentliche; im Ätherleibe die Bewegung, das Leben; im Astralleibe das Bewußtsein. Wir haben aber nicht bloß einen Bewußtseinszustand im menschlichen Leibe, wir haben zwei Bewußtseinszustände: den gewöhnlichen Wachzustand und den Schlafzustand. Aber nun ist da das Merkwürdige, daß uns beide eigentlich nicht voll natürlich sind. Man könnte sagen, weder der Wachzustand noch der Schlafzustand sind uns voll natürlich. Natürlich wäre uns ein Zwischenzustand zwischen beiden, in dem wir eigentlich niemals wirklich bewußt leben.

Würden wir fortwährend wachen, so würden wir uns kaum als Menschen durch die verschiedenen Lebensalter ordentlich entwickeln können. Nur dadurch, daß gleichsam immer etwas in uns ist, was weniger wach ist, als wir bei Tage wach sind, sind wir imstande, uns zu entwickeln. Fragen Sie sich selber, wieviel Sie daran denken, sich zu entwickeln durch das, was Sie im gewöhnlichen Leben erfahren und aufnehmen? Wir befriedigen dadurch mehr die Neugierde, das Sensationsbedürfnis. Aber wie wenig geht man darauf aus, das, was man im wachen Tagesleben erfährt, in den Dienst der Entwickelung zu stellen. Nur dadurch entwickelt man sich, daß auch immer etwas mitschläft in uns, wenn wir bei Tage wach sind. Ich meine nicht, wenn der Mensch einschläft, sondern auch wenn er bei Tage ganz wach ist, schläft immer noch etwas. Und dieses Mitschlafende bewirkt, daß er nicht immer eigentlich ein Kind bleibt, sondern sich weiterentwickelt.

Das, was uns bewußt ist durch unseren Astralleib, ist der gewöhnliche Wachzustand. Der gewöhnliche Wachzustand aber ist so, daß wir dabei zu stark wach sind. Wir sind zu stark an die äußere Welt hingegeben im gewöhnlichen Wachzustande, gehen ganz auf in der äußeren Welt. Und woher kommt das? Das kommt davon her, weil das Wachbewußtsein unter dem starken Einflusse, unter der Übermacht des Ahriman lebt. Wachbewußtsein = Ahriman.

Anders ist das beim Schlafbewußtsein. Beim Schlafbewußtsein sind wir wieder zu wenig wach. Da tun wir alles zu sehr für unsere Entwickelung, für uns selber. Wir sind da ganz in uns und so stark in uns, daß alles Bewußtsein ausgelöscht wird. Im Schlafbewußtsein hat Luzifer die Oberhand. Schlafbewußtsein = Luzifer.

So sind wir also mit Bezug auf unseren astralischen Leib so, daß, wenn wir wachen, Ahriman die Oberhand über Luzifer hat, und wenn wir schlafen, Luzifer die Oberhand hat über Ahriman. Das Gleichgewicht halten sie sich nur, wenn wir träumen; da raufen sie sich, da halten sie sich das Gleichgewicht. Da werden die Vorstellungen, die von Ahriman hervorgerufen sind im Tagesbewußtsein, die er verhärten, kristallisieren läßt, durch den Einfluß von Luzifer aufgelöst und wieder zum Verschwinden gebracht. Alles wird zu Bildern, indem er sie nicht zu festen Vorstellungen erstarren läßt, sie werden wieder aufgelöst und beweglich in sich. So wie bei einer Waage das Gleichgewicht dadurch zustande kommt in einem Punkte oder in einer Linie, daß die Waage auf beiden Seiten gleichmäßig belastet wird, so daß wir es nicht mehr mit einer Ruhe, sondern mit einem Gleichgewichte zu tun haben, so haben wir es auch im Menschenleben nicht mit einer Ruhe, sondern mit einem Gleichgewichte zu tun. Und die beiden Kräfte, die sich da die Waage halten, von denen die eine oder die andere zeitweise das Übergewicht hat, sind Luzifer und Ahriman. Im Wachbewußtsein sinkt die Waagschale des Ahriman, im Schlafbewußtsein die Waagschale des Luzifer herunter. Nur in dem Zwischenzustande, in dem wir träumen, schaukelt die Waage auf und ab, nicht etwa, als ob sie in Ruhe wäre, sondern sie schaukelt auf und ab.

Aber auch dann, wenn wir noch weiter heraufgehen in das menschliche Leben, zeigt sich uns, daß das Durchwalltsein der Welt von Luzi fer und Ahriman darin wirksam ist. Zwei Begriffe spielen ja für das Leben eine große Rolle. Der eine Begriff ist der Begriff der Pflicht, wir könnten auch sagen, wenn wir die Sache religiös fassen, der Begriff des Gebotes. Wir sagen ja auch Pflichtgebot. Der andere Begriff, den wir dabei ins Auge fassen wollen, ist der Begriff des Rechtes,

Wenn Sie sich überlegen, wie im menschlichen Leben der Begriff der Pflicht und der Begriff des Rechtes eine Rolle spielen — des Rechtes, das der Mensch hat zu dem oder jenem -, so werden Sie bald gewahr werden, daß Pflicht und Recht polarische Begriffe, polarische Gegensätze sind, und daß gewissermaßen auch die Neigungen der Menschen so sind, daß sie bald mehr nach der Pflicht, bald mehr nach dem Rechte gehen. Wir leben allerdings in einer Epoche, wo die Menschen lieber von ihren Rechten sprechen als von ihren Pflichten. Alle möglichen Gebiete machen ihre Rechte geltend. Wir haben daher Arbeiterrecht, Frauenrecht und so weiter.

Pflicht ist der entgegengesetzte Begriff des Rechtes. Unsere Zeit wird abgelöst werden von einer solchen Zeit, in welcher geltend gemacht werden gerade unter dem Einflusse der anthroposophisch spirituellen Weltanschauung die Pflichten. Und erst in der Zukunft, allerdings mehr in einer späteren Zukunft, wird man Bewegungen haben, wo immer weniger betont werden wird die Rechtsforderung, sondern viel mehr die Pflichtforderung. Es wird dann mehr gefragt werden: Was hat man als Frau, als Mann an dieser oder jener Stelle für Pflichten? So wird die Epoche der Pflichtforderung die Epoche der Rechtsforderung ablösen.

Wie polarische Gegensätze, wie Polaritäten spielen in unser Leben hinein Recht und Pflicht. Nun kann man sagen: Wenn der Mensch nach der Pflicht hinblickt mit seiner Seele, so blickt er eigentlich aus sich hinaus. — Kant hat das ja so grandios zum Ausdruck gebracht, indem er die Pflicht hingestellt hat wie eine hehre Göttin, zu der der Mensch aufschaut: «Pflicht! du erhabener großer Name, der du nichts Beliebtes, was Einschmeichelung bei sich führt, in dir fassest, sondern Unterwerfung verlangst...» — Der Mensch sieht die Pflicht gleichsam herabstrahlen aus Regionen der geistigen Welt. Religiös empfindet er die Pflicht als einen von den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien auferlegten Impuls. Und indem der Mensch sich der Pflicht unterwirft, geht er in dem Pflichtgefühl aus sich heraus. Und dieses In-dem-Pflichtgefühl-aus-sich-Herausgehen ist schon etwas, was den Menschen aus seinem gewöhnlichen Selbst herausbringt.

Aber alles derartige Herausgehen aus dem gewöhnlichen Selbst, solches Streben nach Vergeistigung würde den Menschen in eine Lage bringen, in der er gleichsam den Boden unter den Füßen verlöre, wenn er nur dieser einen Tendenz sich hingeben würde, des Strebens aus sich heraus. Der Mensch würde gleichsam die Schwere verlieren, wenn er nur immer aus sich heraus wollte. Daher muß der Mensch, wenn er der Pflicht sich unterwirft, versuchen, in sich selbst eine Hilfe zu finden, die ihm gleichsam Schwere gibt, wenn er sich der Pflicht unterwirft. Schön hat das Schiller ausgedrückt, welcher das Wort gesprochen hat, daß der Mensch das schönste Verhältnis zur Pflicht habe, wenn er die Pflicht zugleich lieben lernt.

Mit diesem Gedanken ist eigentlich viel gesagt. Wenn der Mensch davon spricht, daß er die Pflicht lieben lernt, da unterwirft er sich nicht mehr bloß der Pflicht, da steigt er heraus aus sich und nimmt die Liebe mit, mit der er sonst nur sich selber liebt. Die Liebe, die in seinem Leibe lebt und Egoismus war, nimmt er heraus und liebt die Pflicht. Solange sie Selbstliebe ist, so lange ist sie luziferische Kraft. Wenn der Mensch aber diese Selbstliebe aus sich herausnimmt und die Pflicht liebt, wie er sonst nur sich selbst liebt, so erlöst er Luzifer, nimmt ihn hinaus in das Gebiet der Pflicht und macht sozusagen Luzifer zu einem berechtigten Wesen im Wirken, im Impulsfühlen der Pflicht.

Dagegen, wenn der Mensch das nicht kann, wenn er nicht die Liebe aus sich herausholen und sie der Pflicht darbringen kann, so fährt er fort, nur sich zu lieben. Kann er nicht die Pflicht lieben, dann kann er sich nur der Pflicht unterwerfen, dann wird er der Sklave der Pflicht, dann vertrocknet er, dann verhärtet er als Pflichtenmensch, wird kalt und nüchtern, obwohl er der Pflicht hingegeben ist. Er verhärtet ahrimanisch, trotzdem er der Pflicht folgt.

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Sie sehen, wie die Pflicht gleichsam mitten darinnensteht. Unterwerfen wir uns ihr, so vernichtet sie unsere Freiheit. Wir werden Sklaven der Pflicht, weil Ahriman von der einen Seite sich mit seinen Impulsen der Pflicht nähert, Bringen wir aber uns selbst, bringen wir der Pflicht die Kraft der Selbstliebe als Opfer dar, bringen wir die luziferische Wärme als Liebe der Pflicht entgegen, dann ist die Folge davon, daß wir durch den Gleichgewichtszustand zwischen Luzifer und Ahriman zu der Pflicht ein entsprechendes Verhältnis finden. Im Moralischen bringen wir selber also einen Gleichgewichtszustand hervor zwischen Luzifer und Ahriman. Ahriman ist draußen im Geistigen und vertrocknet uns die Pflicht, der wir uns unterwerfen müssen, so daß sie uns die Freiheit nimmt. Wir aber führen ihm aus unserem eigenen Organismus die Liebe entgegen, bringen ihm uns selbst entgegen. Durch den Kampf zwischen Luzifer und Ahriman bringen wir das rechte Verhältnis hervor zu der Pflicht. So sind wir in gewisser Beziehung auch die Erlöser des Luzifer. Wenn wir anfangen, unsere Pflichten lieben zu können, dann ist der Moment eingetreten, wo wir zur Erlösung der luziferischen Mächte beitragen, wo wir die luziferischen Kräfte, die sonst verzaubert, zur Selbstliebe verzaubert in uns sind, aus uns herausführen zum Kampfe mit Ahriman. Dadurch erlösen wir den in Selbstliebe verzauberten Luzifer; wir befreien ihn, wenn wir unsere Pflicht lieben lernen.

Schiller hat in seinen Briefen «Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen» sich dieselbe Frage gestellt: Wie kommt man über die Versklavung unter die Pflicht hinweg zum Lieben der Pflicht? Nur hat er nicht die Ausdrücke gebraucht: Luzifer und Ahriman, weil er die Sache nicht kosmisch gedacht hat. Aber unmittelbar übersetzbar in die Geisteswissenschaft sind diese wunderbaren Briefe Schillers über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen.

Beim Rechte ist es so, daß das Recht, indem wir es geltend machen, sich sogleich mit Luzifer verbunden zeigt. Sein Recht braucht der Mensch nicht lieben zu lernen, er liebt es, und es ist ganz naturgemäß, daß er sein Recht liebt. Es ist eine natürliche Verbindung zwischen Luzifer und dem Rechte im Fühlen, dem Erfühlen des Rechtes. Und überall da, wo Rechte geltend gemacht werden, spricht Luzifer mit. Manchmal kann man es schon äußerlich recht deutlich sehen, wie in der Propagierung von diesem oder jenem Recht Luzifers Macht stark mitspricht. Hier handelt es sich darum, daß wir gegenüber dem Rechte zu dem Entgegengesetzten kommen, daß wir gleichsam Ahriman herbeirufen, um dem Luzifer, der schon mit dem Rechte verknüpft ist, einen Gegenpol zu bieten. Und das können wir gewissermaßen durch den Gegenpol der Liebe. Die Liebe ist inneres Feuer; ihr Gegenpol ist die Gelassenheit, das Hinnehmen dessen, was einmal im Weltenkarma an uns herantritt; das Verstehen desjenigen, was geschieht in der Welt, die verstehende Gelassenheit. Sobald wir mit der verstehenden Gelassenheit an unsere Rechte herankommen, rufen wir Ahriman von draußen herein. Hier ist er nur schwerer zu erkennen. Wir erlösen ihn von seinem bloß äußeren Sein, rufen ihn in uns herein, wärmen ihn durch die Liebe, die schon mit dem Rechte verknüpft ist. Die Gelassenheit hat die Kälte des Ahriman. In dem Verstehen dessen, was in der Welt ist, verbinden wir unsere verstehende warme Liebe mit dem, was Kälte draußen in der Welt ist. Da erlösen wir Ahriman, wenn wir verstehend dem, was geworden ist, gegenüberstehen, wenn wir nicht nur aus unserer Selbstliebe heraus dem Recht gegenüber fordern, sondern verstehen, was in der Welt geworden ist.

Das ist der ewige Kampf zwischen Luzifer und Ahriman in der Welt. Es ist so, daß der Mensch auf der einen Seite in konservativer Art die Zustände verstehen lernt, daß er die Zustände, wie sie geworden sind aus kosmischer, karmischer Notwendigkeit heraus, verstehen lernt. Das ist die eine Seite. Und die andere Seite ist die, daß man in seiner Brust fühlt den Drang, immer Neues werden zu lassen, die revolutionäre Strömung. In der revolutionären Strömung lebt Luzifer. In der konservativen Strömung lebt Ahriman. Und der Mensch lebt zwischen diesen beiden polarischen Gegensätzen darinnen, indem er in seinem Rechtsleben darinnensteht.

So sehen wir, wie auch Recht und Pflicht die Gleichgewichtslage darstellen zwischen Luzifer und Ahriman. Wie sich solche Dinge, wie der menschliche physische Leib, der ätherische Leib und astralische Leib im Leben, wie sich Pflicht und Recht im Rechts- und Pflichtenleben darstellen, wie diese Dinge überhaupt in der Welt stehen, das lernen wir nur erkennen, wenn wir das Ineinanderspielen der geistigen Mächte kennenlernen, vor allen Dingen auch derjenigen geistigen Mächte, welche die Gleichgewichtslage bewirken.

Genauso wie wir das betrachten können, was schon da ist, unter dem Einflusse der das Gleichgewicht bewirkenden geistigen Kräfte steht, so fügt sich auch hinein in die Welt der polarischen Gegensätze dasjenige, was wir in unserem moralischen Leben darleben. Auch die ganze Moral, die Ethik, das sittliche Leben mit seinen Polen des Pflichtlebens und des Rechtslebens werden erst verständlich, wenn man die Einstrahlungen von Ahriman und Luzifer in Betracht zieht. Ebenso das historische, das geschichtliche Leben der Menschen, welches sich so abspielt, daß revolutionär-kriegerische, das heißt luziferische Bewegungen im Wechsel mit den konservativ-friedlichen, das heißt ahrimanischen Bewegungen auftreten. Es stellt sich uns dar wiederum als ein Gleichgewichtszustand zwischen dem Luziferischen und Ahrimanischen. Anders können wir die Welt nicht verstehen, als wenn wir sie so in Gegensätzen erkennend betrachten. Was uns draußen in der Welt entgegentritt, stellt sich uns in Gegensätzen dar, ist richtig dualistisch. Und in dieser Beziehung ist der Manichäismus, der richtig verstandene Manichäismus, der dualistisch ist, voll begründet. Wie dieser Manichäismus auch innerhalb eines spirituellen Monismus voll begründet ist, davon werden wir in Zukunft noch verschiedentlich reden können.

Was ich beabsichtige in diesen Vorträgen, ist, Ihnen zu zeigen, wie die Welt das Ergebnis von Gleichgewichtswirkungen ist. Und ein solches Ergebnis von Gleichgewichtswirkungen spricht sich insbesondere auch im künstlerischen Leben aus. Von diesem Punkte ausgehend, werden wir später einmal die Künste und ihre Entwickelung in der Welt betrachten und den Anteil, den die verschiedenen geistigen Mächte an der Entwickelung des künstlerischen Lebens in der Menschheit haben.

Sixth Lecture

From yesterday's discussions, you will have gathered that even our physical form is what it is because it is, as it were, the result of the interaction between the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces.

It is particularly important for our time to truly understand this interaction between the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces, for only then will humanity gradually gain an understanding of the forces at work behind the external phantasmagoria of existence. We know that we need neither hate Ahriman nor fear Lucifer, because these forces are only hostile forces in the world as long as they do not work in their own domains. Much was said about this last year in Munich. Hints have already been made here as well.

Having seen yesterday how the physical, spatial human body comes into being through the interaction of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces, we have pointed to the outermost aspect of human life in which Lucifer and Ahriman play their roles. You know that we come a little closer to the inner life of the human being when we move from the physical body to the etheric body. The etheric body is, in a sense, the formative element of the physical body. It is embedded in the entire etheric world and lies at the foundation of our physical organism as a mobile, ever-moving etheric organism. Now, with regard to the etheric body, it must be said that, just as we have seen in the physical body, Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces are also at work in it, and that human beings, as etheric beings, are also placed—we must emphasize this—in the counterplay of Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces.

In order to point out what is important here, let us take a look at the three basic activities of the human being, insofar as the human being is not a physical being, namely, willing, feeling, and thinking. Of course, we do not see this willing, feeling, and thinking when we look at the human being in relation to his physical body. Only insofar as the physical body expresses itself in a certain physiognomy, in gestures and the like, can we sense through the physical body what is inside the human being. The etheric body, however, as an organism moving within itself, is a perpetual expression of the human being's thinking, feeling, and willing.

With regard to this thinking, feeling, and willing, pure external science again has some difficulty, and if one goes through the philosophical worldviews, one will see that one philosopher puts willing first, another thinking. There are also those who regard feeling as the most important force. But these philosophical worldviews cannot form a proper concept of how this thinking, feeling, and willing actually form a unity in human beings. This inability to form a proper concept of the relationship between thinking, feeling, and willing in human soul life is just like when human beings find it difficult to come to terms with the concept of the human being in general. I don't really know, say the philosophers, is the human soul more volitional, more emotional, or more intellectual in nature? Is it more one or the other? This is just as if someone were to say: Now I really don't know anymore what a human being is. Someone just told me he wanted to bring me a human being, and he brought me a small creature, a five-year-old child, and said, 'This is a human being.' Then another came and also said he wanted to show me a human being, and he brought me a creature that was much larger than the first, a creature in middle age. Finally, a third person came and also told me he wanted to show me a human being. He showed me a completely different creature, which had a wrinkled face, gray hair, and so on. And now I really don't know what a human being is anymore. I was shown three different creatures! — Yes, all three are human beings, aren't they? Only one is very young, the other is a little older, and the third has already grown very old. They are very different in appearance. But as soon as you put the three ages together, you know what a human being is.

But it is the same with willing, feeling, and thinking. The difference is only that willing is the same soul activity as thinking, only still very young, childlike. And when willing grows older, it becomes feeling, and very old willing is thinking. There is only a difference in age between willing, feeling, and thinking, only that they live together in our soul, the ages of life for these soul activities, which makes the matter difficult. But we have already discussed—you only need to read it in my book The Threshold of the Spiritual World—that as soon as we leave the physical world, the law of transformation applies, not that of rigidity. Everything is transformed. The old suddenly becomes young, the young becomes old, and so on. So that the three soul activities can really occur simultaneously within us: the will, which soon manifests itself as young will, then as older will, that is, as feeling, and also as the oldest will, as very old will, that is, as thinking. The ages of life become mixed up, and everything becomes fluid. This is how it is in the etheric body of the human being.

But this transformation cannot come about by itself. What would be a unified soul activity does not come to our consciousness at all in ordinary life; we cannot bring it into consciousness at all. If we — because the whole must be observed in the etheric body, and the etheric body is something mobile, liquid — symbolically depict the etheric body as a continuous stream, this stream of soul activity does not come to our consciousness at all in ordinary life, but rather, within this stream, within this continuous movement of the etheric body that flows on with time, first the Luciferic activity and then the Ahrimanic activity are integrated.

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Luciferic activity makes the will young. Our soul activity, permeated by Lucifer, is will. When the Luciferic predominates in our soul activity, when only Lucifer asserts his powers in our soul, this is will. Lucifer has a rejuvenating effect on the entire stream of our soul activity. When Ahriman, on the other hand, expresses his effects mainly in our soul activity, he hardens our soul activity, it grows old, and that is thinking. This thinking, this having thoughts, is not possible at all in ordinary life without Ahriman unfolding his forces in the etheric body. In the soul life, insofar as it expresses itself in the etheric body, one cannot do without Ahriman and Lucifer. If Lucifer were to withdraw completely from our etheric body, we would have no Luciferic fire for willing. If Ahriman were to withdraw completely from our soul life, we would never be able to develop the coolness of thinking. In the middle of the two is a region where they fight each other. Here they interpenetrate, Lucifer and Ahriman, here their activities interact. This is the region of feeling. In fact, the human etheric body appears in such a way that one can perceive within it the Luciferic light and the Ahrimanic hardness. When one surveys the human etheric body, it is of course not arranged as symbolically shown here (in the drawing), but rather in a state of confusion. There are insertions in which the etheric body appears opaque, as if it had, I might say, ice formations. Figures appear in the etheric body that can be compared to ice figures appearing on window panes. These are the hardenings in the etheric body. In such places it becomes opaque. But these are the outworkings of the life of thought in the etheric body. This freezing of the etheric body in certain places comes from Ahriman, who sends his forces there through thinking.

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In other places of the etheric body, it is as if it had vacuoles, completely light places within itself that are transparent, shining, and sparkling with light. There Lucifer sends his rays, his forces, into it; these are the centers of will in the etheric body. And in what lies between, where there is, as it were, continuous activity in the etheric body, it is such that one sees that here is a hard spot, but now it is immediately grasped by such a spot of light and dissolved. A continuous solidification and dissolution. This is the expression of emotional activity in the etheric body.

So we can say: It is not only the form of the physical body that is brought about by the interaction of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces that disturb or bring about equilibrium, but Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces also play in the entire etheric body. When the Ahrimanic forces prevail, this is an expression of thinking; when the Luciferic forces prevail, this is an expression of willing; and when they struggle against each other, one could say that this is an expression of feeling.

This is how Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces interact in the etheric body. We are, in a sense, entirely the result of such forces, and we actually exist in the intermediate position between them.

Now we must be clear that we are not always fully present in what is happening there. Our ego, our earthly ego, which we have only acquired in the course of Earth's evolution, can initially only unfold its full activity and full consciousness in the physical body. It will only be able to unfold fully in the etheric body during the Jupiter epoch, so that in everything that takes place in the etheric body, the actual ego of the human being is not directly active. If nothing had been added to the progressive world evolution by Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces, then human beings would be completely different beings; they would be able to have perceptions in their physical bodies, but they would not actually be able to think. They have thoughts because Ahriman can gain influence over their etheric bodies. They have impulses of will because Luciferic forces can influence their etheric body. These forces must therefore be there.

We must therefore be clear that we cannot descend fully into the etheric body for our earthly consciousness. We can only live out our full ego consciousness in the physical body. We cannot descend completely into the etheric body. With this etheric body, we therefore dive into a world in which we ourselves are not complete. And with Ahriman, who enters our etheric body as thought-forming, it is not only our thoughts that enter our etheric body. With Lucifer, who is will-forming in our etheric body, it is not only our will impulses that enter our etheric body. And so it is with the feelings, the realm where the two struggle. Insofar as Ahriman lives in our etheric body, we descend with our etheric body into the sphere of nature spirits, the elemental nature spirits, the earth, water, air, and fire spirits. We are simply unaware of this because we cannot descend fully into our etheric body with our ego. But it is always the case that not only what we ourselves think lives in this etheric body as thought power, but the influences of the nature spirits also penetrate it. In particular, every time a person encounters these nature spirits, they can tell of having experienced something that they did not experience in their ordinary ego consciousness. They encounter these nature spirits when something abnormal happens to them, when the etheric body is, as it were, torn away from the physical body.

How can something like this happen? You see, the etheric body of the human being is connected with the entire surrounding etheric world, including the entire sphere of nature spirits around us. Let us take an example: a person is walking down the street during the day. When he walks down the street with his ordinary consciousness, his etheric body is properly contained within his physical body, and he perceives with his ego-consciousness what can be perceived with the ego-consciousness.

But let us suppose that he is walking along a path at night. When one walks along a path at night, it is usually dark, which causes some people to feel frightened and creepy. Now, because he enters into such a frightening and eerie state, the peculiar sensations that arise, in which Lucifer particularly seizes him, cause the etheric body to loosen from the physical body, and this liberated etheric body, which has detached itself from the physical body, can now enter into relationship with the surrounding etheric world. Let us now assume that the person in question comes near a cemetery where the etheric bodies of recently deceased people are still present on the graves. In this state, when his etheric body has loosened, he may perhaps perceive something of the thoughts that still reside in the etheric bodies of the deceased.

Let us assume that someone has recently died, leaving behind debts and dying with the thought of having incurred debts. This thought may still be present in the etheric body of the deceased. Of course, one does not perceive these thoughts in the etheric body of another person unless one's own etheric body has loosened, but in the state I have described, one can perceive them. One can enter into contact with the etheric body of another and can therefore perceive this thought: I have incurred debts. And now, because this strengthens the Luciferic power within him, the feeling arises in him: I must pay this debt.

Such a person therefore experiences something in their etheric body that they would never experience in their physical body in normal life. One does not experience something like this every day in ordinary human life, so it brings something very significant into consciousness when one experiences it. It brings into consciousness the knowledge that one has now experienced something that one has not experienced in one's body, that one cannot experience in one's body. You feel that you are somewhere other than in your body, and you perceive this as an unfamiliar situation. You are somewhere other than in your body, and you then feel the urge to return to your body; you long for help to return to your body.

Such a feeling, the feeling of longing to return to one's body, calls forth elemental spirits, nature spirits, for whom the human feeling is, as it were, food. They are attracted by the feeling: I want to enter my physical body. They help you find your way back into your physical body. When you sleep in the usual way, you find your way back easily; but when you experience something like what I have described, you find it difficult to return. However, you do not perceive it as you do in your physical body, but imaginatively, in images. Someone approaches you who is actually a nature spirit, perhaps in the form of a shepherd, and gives you advice: Go to a certain castle. I will take you there in a carriage — and so on.

Something else can be connected with such ideas. It can be linked to the idea that the body one has left behind, outside of which one had the experience, appears like an enchanted castle from which one must rescue someone once one enters. In this way, one imagines this longing for the physical body and the help of nature spirits. Then one returns to the physical body, that is, one wakes up.

People who have experienced this in reality tell of such experiences because they feel that in this way they have entered into a relationship with the thoughts of a deceased person. They say to themselves: That was a feeling of something that was not just inside me, that was not just something I dreamed; it was a feeling that conveyed to me a process outside in the world. This is naturally expressed in images, but it corresponds to a process. I would like to read you an image in which someone recounts what they experienced, something similar to what I have just told you. They describe it something like this: “When I was saying goodbye to the soldiers, I met three men on my way. They wanted to dig up a dead man because he owed them three marks. I was moved by pity and paid the debt so that the deceased could rest in peace and no longer be disturbed in his grave. I continued on my way. Then a stranger with a pale face joined me and invited me to climb into a lead vehicle, and he persuaded me to go with him to a castle. In the castle lived a princess who had declared that she would only marry the man who came to her on a leaden carriage. Then he went to the coachman and said, “Drive as fast as you can toward the sunrise.” Then a shepherd came and said, “I am the Count of Ravensburg!” He ordered the coachman to drive faster. We came to a gate, and there was a commotion. The gate was unlocked. The princess asked the man where he was from and how he had been able to drive with the old man, and I realized that the one who had led me there was a ghost. Then I entered the gate. I stepped inside and was the owner of the castle.” That means he returned to his body. There you have a description of an experience such as I have recounted.

And what is that when it happens to someone else and they tell the story? That is a fairy tale.

Fairy tales came into being in no other way than this. Everything else that is said about the origin of fairy tales is nothing but wild fantasy. All real fairy tales are proof that there are experiences outside the physical body of the human being when the etheric body is loosened in a certain way and the human being enters into relationship with the outer etheric world. This is one way in which human beings enter into relationship with the outer world through their etheric body.

But they enter into relationship with the outer etheric world in another way as well. They also enter into relationship with it where, one might say, there is a semi-conscious activity, an activity half permeated by the ego. This is the case with language. We do not speak as fully consciously as we think. It is not at all true that we have speech as something that belongs to us, that we have control over it. Ethereal forces live out in language, and a good part of unconsciousness is in language. The ego does not reach completely down into language. When we speak, we stand in relationship with the ethereal world surrounding us through our etheric body. We learn to think as individuals, but we do not learn to speak. We are taught to speak through karma, which places us in a certain context of life. While we come into contact with nature spirits in abnormal states, when the etheric body is loosened, we simply come into contact with folk spirits by speaking, by not merely thinking silently. And the folk spirits live in our etheric bodies — not reaching up to our consciousness. What lives in this way in the human being belongs just as little to his fully conscious ego activity as what the human being recounts to us here as fairy tales.

We have thus described the influence of Lucifer and Ahriman on the etheric body of the human being. But the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces also play into the astral body. Now, when we study the astral human body, we must point out the most outstanding feature that characterizes the astral human being as he is on earth. That is consciousness. In the physical body, form and force are essential; in the etheric body, movement and life are essential; in the astral body, consciousness is essential. However, we do not have just one state of consciousness in the human body, we have two states of consciousness: the ordinary waking state and the sleeping state. But now there is something strange, namely that neither of these states is completely natural to us. One could say that neither the waking state nor the sleeping state are completely natural to us. Naturally, we would have an intermediate state between the two, in which we would never really live consciously.

If we were constantly awake, we would hardly be able to develop properly as human beings through the different stages of life. It is only because there is always something within us that is less awake than we are during the day that we are able to develop. Ask yourself how much you think about developing through what you experience and absorb in your everyday life. We satisfy our curiosity and our need for sensation more. But how little effort do we make to put what we experience in our waking life at the service of our development? We only develop because something always sleeps within us when we are awake during the day. I do not mean when a person falls asleep, but even when they are fully awake during the day, something is still asleep. And this dormant part ensures that they do not remain a child, but continue to develop.

What we are aware of through our astral body is the ordinary waking state. But the ordinary waking state is such that we are too strongly awake. We are too strongly devoted to the outer world in the ordinary waking state, we are completely absorbed in the outer world. And where does this come from? It comes from the fact that waking consciousness lives under the strong influence, under the supremacy of Ahriman. Waking consciousness = Ahriman.

It is different with sleeping consciousness. In sleeping consciousness, we are again not awake enough. We do everything too much for our development, for ourselves. We are completely within ourselves and so strongly within ourselves that all consciousness is extinguished. In sleeping consciousness, Lucifer has the upper hand. Sleeping consciousness = Lucifer.

So, in relation to our astral body, when we are awake, Ahriman has the upper hand over Lucifer, and when we sleep, Lucifer has the upper hand over Ahriman. They only maintain their balance when we dream; then they struggle with each other and keep themselves in equilibrium. There, the ideas that are brought forth by Ahriman in our daytime consciousness, which he hardens and crystallizes, are dissolved by the influence of Lucifer and made to disappear again. Everything becomes images, because he does not allow them to solidify into fixed ideas; they are dissolved again and become mobile within themselves. Just as in a balance, equilibrium is achieved at a point or along a line when the balance is evenly loaded on both sides, so that we no longer have to deal with rest but with equilibrium, so too in human life we have to deal not with rest but with equilibrium. And the two forces that keep the scales in balance, one of which temporarily has the upper hand, are Lucifer and Ahriman. In waking consciousness, the scales of Ahriman sink, and in sleeping consciousness, the scales of Lucifer sink. Only in the intermediate state, when we dream, does the scale swing up and down, not as if it were at rest, but swinging up and down.

But even when we go further up into human life, we see that the turmoil of Lucifer and Ahriman is at work there. Two concepts play a major role in life. One concept is that of duty; we could also say, if we take a religious view, the concept of commandment. We also speak of a duty commandment. The other concept we want to consider here is that of right.

If you consider how the concepts of duty and right play a role in human life — the right that a person has to this or that — you will soon realize that duty and right are polar concepts, polar opposites, and that, in a sense, human inclinations are also such that they tend to lean more toward duty at one moment and more toward right at another. We live, however, in an age in which people prefer to speak of their rights rather than their duties. All kinds of groups assert their rights. We therefore have workers' rights, women's rights, and so on.

Duty is the opposite concept of right. Our time will be replaced by a time in which duties will be asserted, precisely under the influence of the anthroposophical spiritual worldview. And only in the future, admittedly in a later future, will there be movements in which less and less emphasis will be placed on the demand for rights and much more on the demand for duty. The question will then be asked more often: What duties do you have as a woman or a man in this or that position? Thus, the era of the demand for rights will be replaced by the era of the demand for duty.

Like polar opposites, like polarities, duty and right play a role in our lives. Now one can say: When a person looks toward duty with his soul, he is actually looking outside himself. Kant expressed this magnificently when he presented duty as a noble goddess to whom man looks up: “Duty! You sublime, great name, which contains nothing pleasant, nothing that flatters, but demands submission...” Man sees duty shining down from the regions of the spiritual world, as it were. Religiously, he feels duty as an impulse imposed by the beings of the higher hierarchies. And by submitting to duty, man goes beyond himself in his sense of duty. And this going beyond oneself in a sense of duty is already something that takes man out of his ordinary self.

But all such stepping out of the ordinary self, such striving for spiritualization, would put man in a position where he would, as it were, lose the ground beneath his feet if he were to give himself over to this one tendency, the striving out of himself. Man would, as it were, lose his gravity if he always wanted to step out of himself. Therefore, when humans submit to duty, they must try to find help within themselves that gives them, as it were, weight when they submit to duty. Schiller expressed this beautifully when he said that humans have the most beautiful relationship to duty when they learn to love duty at the same time.

This thought actually says a great deal. When man speaks of learning to love duty, he no longer submits merely to duty; he rises above himself and takes with him the love with which he otherwise loves only himself. He takes out of himself the love that lives in his body and was egoism, and loves duty. As long as it is self-love, it is a Luciferic force. But when a person takes this self-love out of themselves and loves duty as they would otherwise love only themselves, they redeem Lucifer, take him out into the realm of duty and, so to speak, make Lucifer a legitimate being in action, in the impulse of duty.

On the other hand, if man cannot do this, if he cannot take love out of himself and offer it to duty, he continues to love only himself. If he cannot love duty, then he can only submit to duty, then he becomes a slave to duty, then he withers away, then he hardens as a dutiful person, becomes cold and sober, even though he is devoted to duty. He hardens in an Ahrimanic way, even though he follows duty.

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You see how duty stands, as it were, in the middle. If we submit to it, it destroys our freedom. We become slaves to duty because Ahriman approaches duty with his impulses from one side. But if we bring ourselves, if we offer the power of self-love as a sacrifice to duty, if we meet the Luciferic warmth with love for duty, then the result is that we find a corresponding relationship to duty through the state of equilibrium between Lucifer and Ahriman. In the moral realm, we ourselves bring about a state of equilibrium between Lucifer and Ahriman. Ahriman is outside in the spiritual realm and withers the duty to which we must submit, so that it takes away our freedom. But we counter him with love from our own organism; we offer ourselves to him. Through the struggle between Lucifer and Ahriman, we bring about the right relationship to duty. In a certain sense, we are also the redeemers of Lucifer. When we begin to love our duties, the moment has come when we contribute to the redemption of the Luciferic powers, when we lead the Luciferic forces, which are otherwise enchanted, enchanted into self-love within us, out of ourselves into the struggle with Ahriman. In this way we redeem Lucifer, who is enchanted by self-love; we liberate him when we learn to love our duty.

Schiller asked himself the same question in his letters “On the Aesthetic Education of Man”: How does one overcome enslavement to duty and come to love duty? He did not use the terms Lucifer and Ahriman because he did not think of the matter in cosmic terms. But Schiller's wonderful letters on the aesthetic education of man can be directly translated into spiritual science.

With rights, it is such that when we assert them, they immediately reveal themselves to be connected with Lucifer. Human beings do not need to learn to love their rights; they love them, and it is entirely natural that they do so. There is a natural connection between Lucifer and rights in feeling, in sensing what is right. And wherever rights are asserted, Lucifer has a say. Sometimes you can see it quite clearly from the outside, as in the propagation of this or that right, where Lucifer's power has a strong influence. Here we are dealing with the fact that we come to the opposite of the right, that we call upon Ahriman, as it were, to provide a counterpole to Lucifer, who is already connected with the right. And we can do this, in a sense, through the opposite pole of love. Love is inner fire; its opposite pole is serenity, the acceptance of what comes to us in world karma; the understanding of what is happening in the world, understanding serenity. As soon as we approach our rights with understanding serenity, we call Ahriman in from outside. Here he is more difficult to recognize. We redeem him from his merely external being, call him into ourselves, warm him through love that is already connected with what is right. Serenity has the coldness of Ahriman. In understanding what is in the world, we connect our understanding, warm love with what is cold outside in the world. We redeem Ahriman when we face what has become with understanding, when we do not demand justice out of self-love alone, but understand what has become in the world.

This is the eternal struggle between Lucifer and Ahriman in the world. On the one hand, human beings learn to understand conditions in a conservative way, learning to understand how conditions have come about out of cosmic, karmic necessity. That is one side. And the other side is that we feel in our hearts the urge to always let something new come into being, the revolutionary current. Lucifer lives in the revolutionary current. Ahriman lives in the conservative current. And human beings live between these two polar opposites, standing within them in their legal life.

Thus we see how law and duty also represent the balance between Lucifer and Ahriman. How such things as the human physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body are represented in life, how duty and law are represented in the life of law and duty, how these things exist in the world at all, we can only learn to recognize when we become acquainted with the interplay of spiritual forces, above all those spiritual forces that bring about equilibrium.

Just as we can observe what already exists under the influence of the spiritual forces that bring about equilibrium, so too does what we experience in our moral life fit into the world of polar opposites. The whole of morality, ethics, and moral life with its poles of duty and justice only become understandable when we take into account the influences of Ahriman and Lucifer. The same is true of the historical life of human beings, which unfolds in such a way that revolutionary and warlike, that is, Luciferic movements alternate with conservative and peaceful, that is, Ahrimanic movements. This presents itself to us as a state of equilibrium between the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic. We cannot understand the world unless we view it in terms of opposites. What we encounter in the world outside ourselves presents itself to us in opposites; it is truly dualistic. And in this respect, Manichaeism, correctly understood, which is dualistic, is fully justified. How this Manichaeism is also fully justified within a spiritual monism is something we will be able to discuss in various ways in the future.

What I intend to do in these lectures is to show you how the world is the result of balancing forces. And such a result of balancing forces is particularly evident in artistic life. Starting from this point, we will later consider the arts and their development in the world and the part that the various spiritual forces play in the development of artistic life in humanity.