The Great Virtues
GA 159
31 January 1915, Zurich
Translator Unknown
Here, the four Platonic Virtues (described in The Republic) are developed in the direction of that comprehensive picture of man's threefold being—the head-system, the rhythmic system, and the metabolic and limb system—of which Steiner gave the first full description in 1917, and which is summed up in the Foundation Stone Meditation in 1923.
Our spiritual science has the task of removing for our consciousness, indeed for our whole inner life, the gulf that exists for our external human consciousness between the physical world, in which man spends the time between birth and death, and the spiritual world in which man spends the other part of the totality of his existence, the time between death and a new birth.
For one who lives in spiritual science with every fibre of his soul, such a saying is familiar, and even self-evident. But one may well say that it becomes particularly holy to us at such a moment as this. Through the grave events of war we have lost within quite a short time a number of our dear friends and members, and are soon to accompany friends upon their last paths on earth. Tomorrow morning at eleven we shall have here in Zürich the cremation of a dear member, Frau Dr Colazza, and we have just heard that our dear friend Fritz Mitscher died this afternoon about five near Davos. With these two members, souls dear to us have left the physical plane; but spiritual science has shown us the way to understand in a much higher sense than we would otherwise be able to achieve that we do not lose such souls, but remain united with them.
There are already a considerable number of souls belonging to us, who have gone through the gate of death since our work in this movement began. And from those sources from which knowledge of the spirit comes to us, it can be said that these souls have become faithful fellow-workers with us in the spiritual world, each according to his powers. With the full responsibility, with which something can be said, which should have a firm foundation in spiritual knowledge, I can say: in them we have won pillars supporting our spiritual movement. Many have passed through the gate of death, working within our spiritual movement, and looking down upon that to which their love is directed. In the period between birth and death they have grown attached to the kind of aspiration which is represented in our circle. They have left behind them in our Society something which is itself upon the path between death and a new birth.
Just as nature around us is a world upon which we look back, we can look back upon our physical life from that moment onwards, which can be compared with man's birth. Immediately after death man passes through a condition which can be compared with the embryonic life, with the life within the maternal body, except that this period in the life after death can be counted in days, and is much shorter than the embryonic life in relation to physical life. Then follows what can be compared to the entry into the physical world, with the drawing of the first breath. This can be called the awakening in the spiritual world; it is a perceiving that the will of the soul which has gone through the gate of death is received by the beings of the higher Hierarchies. Just as a human being physically entering the physical world from his mother's body finds himself able to receive the external air, and as his senses gradually awaken—in the same way there comes the moment after death when the soul feels: that power of will, which during physical life was contained within the limits of the physical body, now flows from me out into the universe. And this soul then feels how this will is really received through the activity of the beings of the next higher hierarchy, the hierarchy of the Angels. That is like drawing the first breath in the spiritual world, and the gradual growth into the spiritual environment; spiritual experience shows us this.
I would like to speak of the destiny of those who have gone from us in the course of the years, leaving the physical plane. I would like to look at those who have become attached to our spiritual movement here, and who look down upon it as something of which they know that it informs human souls while still within the physical body about that condition in which they themselves live. To be able to relate oneself in this way in memory of earthly life is something which even here in the physical world belongs already to the spiritual world. For those who have gone through the gate of death this is something infinitely precious and significant. When, like a tributary into a river, they can flow entirely into that stream which flows up to them from the physical world, taking its source from what they have experienced in our movement—the stream in the thoughts of those linked with them in love or by family ties—then the community is a much closer one than it could otherwise be in our materialistic times, because it is based on spiritual relationships.
We may say: with many a one, who has gone early through the gate of death into the spiritual world, it seems as if he had done this from intimate love to our spiritual movement, in order to help with stronger powers from the spiritual world. Among a considerable number of those who have gone from us there lives in their souls the most wonderfully clear feeling about the need for our spiritual movement. For him who can look into the spiritual world all those who have gone through the gate of death, and now gaze down upon the movement with which they were connected, are like spiritual heralds of our movement. They carry their standards before us, and call to us constantly: we were convinced while we were united with you of the necessity of this movement. But now that we have entered the spiritual world we know that we can help and how we must help at a time in which this movement is necessary.
This is something which those who are left behind on the physical plane will feel more and more, when they have lost people dear to them. For them what has been said can be the deepest comfort, for they have here all that can bring about a still deeper connection between souls when we can no longer be connected in the external realm of manifestation, through physical eyes and physical words.
This spiritual movement, of which we are to become part, has to bring a very great deal. Today I would like to choose out one particular chapter. A time like ours, in which external civilisation, in spite of the last echoes of the old religions, builds entirely upon the materialistic consciousness, can only develop the impulses of the moral life in a way that reckons only with life between birth and death. Among the many things which should come about through our spiritual movement will be a fresh development of the whole moral life of humanity. For men will learn to regard the moral life from a point of view which extends beyond birth and death, and which reckons with the fact that the human soul goes through repeated lives on earth, and that this soul, as we bear it within us between birth and death, has passed through many lives, and can hope for other lives in the future. When we have extended our vision from a single life to a series of successive lives, we shall have a more comprehensive understanding for our existence, and a sounder and more comprehensive understanding of what virtue and morality are.
When we speak of human virtues we can distinguish four of these which we can describe in ordinary language. There is one virtue, as we shall indicate later on, which lives in the depths of the human soul, but of which we should speak as little as possible as we shall see, for reasons that are holy. All other virtues which exist in life, and which together make up morality, can be regarded as special examples of the four virtues which we shall consider, four virtues of which antiquity in particular had much to say.
Plato, the great philosopher of ancient Greece, distinguished these four virtues in particular, because he was able to draw his wisdom from the echoes of the ancient Mysteries. Under the influence of the old Mysteries Plato could distinguish the virtues better than later philosophers and much better than our times, in which knowledge of Mystery wisdom has become so remote and so chaotic.
The first virtue which we must consider, if we speak about morality from a comprehensive knowledge of human nature, is the virtue of wisdom. But this wisdom is to be understood in a rather deeper sense, more related to ethics, than is usually done. Wisdom is not something that comes to man of its own accord; still less can it in the ordinary sense be learned. It is not easy to describe what its meaning for us should be. If we pass through life in such a way that events work upon us, and we learn from them how we could have met this or that more adequately, how we could have used our powers more strongly and effectively—if we are attentive towards everything in life, so that when something meets us a second time in a comparable way we can treat it in a way which shows us we have benefited from the first experience—then we grow in wisdom. If we preserve all through life a mood of being able to learn from life, of being able to regard everything brought to us by nature and our experience, in such a way that we learn from it, not simply accumulating knowledge, but growing inwardly better and richer—then we have gathered wisdom, and what we have experienced has not been worthless for the life of our souls.
Life has been worthless for us if we pass through decades and still judge something that we have experienced in just the same way as we thought about it earlier in our lives. If we pass through life in such a way, we are most remote from wisdom. Karma may have brought it about that in youth we grew angry, and condemned this or that human action. If we retain this quality we have made poor use of our lives. We have used them well, supposing we formed harsh judgments in our youth, if at a later stage of life we do not judge harshly, but with understanding and forgiveness; if we make the effort of wishing to understand. If we have the character that from birth some things aroused furious anger in us, and if when we are old we no longer grow angry as in our youth, but our anger has left us and we have grown gentler—then we have used life in accordance with wisdom. If we were materialists in our youth, but then allowed ourselves to experience what our time could bring us as revelations from the spiritual world, then we have used our life in accordance with wisdom. If we close ourselves to the revelations of the spiritual world we have not used our life in accordance with wisdom.
To be enriched in this way, and to achieve a wider horizon, we can call the use of life in accordance with wisdom. What spiritual science seeks to give us is able to help us in opening ourselves towards life, in order to grow wiser. Wisdom is something which strongly opposes human egoism. Wisdom is something which always reckons with the course of universal events. We let ourselves be instructed by the course of universal events because this liberates us from the narrow judgment made by our ego. Fundamentally, a wise man cannot judge egoistically; for if one learns from the world, and grows in understanding for the world, one allows one's judgment to be corrected by the world; thus wisdom detaches us from narrow and limited vision and brings us into harmony with itself. Much else could be described, in order gradually to form a picture of wisdom. We should not attempt a definition of such ideas, but keep our hearts open, in order to grow wiser, even about wisdom.
Here in the physical world everything which man is to experience in waking life has to use the instruments of external physical and ethereal nature. Between birth and death we are only outside our physical and ethereal body with our soul-being, in so far as this is ego and astral body, during our periods of sleep. In our conscious, waking condition we use as instruments our physical and ethereal bodies. When we fill ourselves with wisdom, when we try in action and thought, in feeling and perception to live in accordance with wisdom, we use those organs of our physical and ethereal bodies which are so to speak the most perfect in our earthly life—those organs which have developed over the longest period, which were prepared by Saturn, Sun and Moon and have come into our lives as a heritage, having reached a certain completion.
I would like to give you from another point of view an idea of what can be understood by more or less perfect organs. Take on the one hand our brain. The brain is not the most perfect organ, but we can still call it more perfect than other organs, for it has needed longer for its evolution. We can compare the brain with our torso, upon which we have our hands. When we intend to do something with our hands, we have the thought: I stretch out my hand, I take the vase, I draw back my hand. What have I done ? I have stretched out not only the physical hand, but also the ethereal and the astral hand, and a part of my ego; the physical hand went with them.
If I only think, clairvoyant consciousness can see how something like spiritual arms stretch out from the head, but the physical brain remains within the skull. Just as my ethereal and astral hand belongs to my physical hand, something ethereal and astral belongs to the brain. The brain cannot follow, but the hands can follow. In a later time the hands will one day be fixed, and we shall only be able to move their astral part. Hands are on the way to become what the brain is already. In earlier times, during the old Sun and Moon periods, what today stretches out from the brain as something that is only spiritual was still accompanied by the physical organ. The skull has now covered it, so that the physical brain is held fast within it during the evolution of the Earth. The brain is an organ which has passed through more stages of evolution. The hands are on the way to become similar to the brain, for the whole man is on the way to become a brain. Thus there are organs which are more perfect, and have evolved into something more self-enclosed, and others which are less perfect. The most perfect organs are used for what we achieve in wisdom. Our ordinary brain is really used only as the instrument for the lowest form of wisdom, earthly cleverness. The more we acquire wisdom, the less we depend upon our cerebrum, the more activity is withdrawn (a thing unknown to external anatomy) to our cerebellum, to that smaller brain enclosed within our skull which looks like a tree. When we have become wise, when we have become wisdom, we find ourselves in fact under a ‘tree,’ which is our cerebellum and which then especially begins to unfold its activity.
Section of cerebellum, enlarged, showing tree-like structure
Imagine how a man who has become especially wise stretches out the organs of his wisdom mightily, like the branches of a tree. They originate in the cerebellum which remains within the hard covering of the skull; but the spiritual organs stretch far out, and man is under the tree, the Bodhi tree, in spiritual reality.
And so we see too that what we do in wisdom is the most spiritual thing about us, or at least belongs to the most spiritual, for the organs are already at rest. If we do anything with our hands, we must use part of our strength in the movement of the hand. If we form a wise judgment, or decide something wisely, the organs remain at rest, strength is no longer used upon the physical organ. We are there more spiritual; those organs which we use on the physical plane for the development of wisdom are those on which we need to use the least amount of energy—they are in a sense the most perfect.
Thus wisdom is something in the moral life which allows men to experience themselves in a spiritual way. It is connected with this that what man attains in the way of wisdom enables him to reap the greatest harvest from his earlier incarnations. Because we can live in wisdom within the spirit without any effort by the physical organs, we are most able through the life of wisdom to make fruitful what we have won in earlier incarnations for this life, bringing over this wisdom from earlier incarnations.
We have in German a good expression for a man who refuses to become wise. We call him a Philistine.1The German and the English meanings of the word are rather different. (Tr.) A Philistine is a man who resists the development of wisdom, who wants to remain as he is his whole life through, without altering his opinions. A man who seeks to become wise makes the effort to carry over the work which he has done and stored up in the course of earlier incarnations. The wiser we become, the more we bring over from earlier incarnations into the present, and if we do not wish to become wise, so that we leave barren the wisdom developed in earlier incarnations, there is then one who comes to saw it off: Ahriman.
No-one likes it better than Ahriman that we fail to grow wiser. We have the power to do it. We have gained far, far more in earlier incarnations than we believe; we won far more during the times in which we passed through the old conditions of clairvoyance. Everyone could become much wiser than he does become. No-one has the excuse that he could not bring much over from the past. To become wise means that one develops what has been won in earlier incarnations in such a way that it fills us in this incarnation.
The Buddha as Tree of Wisdom (sandstone relief from Bharhut, India, c. 2nd. Century B.C.) Indian Museum, Calcutta.
Another virtue can be called—though it is difficult to describe it exactly—the virtue of Courage. It contains the mood which does not remain passive towards life, but is ready to use its strength and activity. It can be said that this virtue comes from the heart. Of one who has this virtue in ordinary life it can be said: he has his heart in the right place. This is a good expression for our condition when we do not withdraw in a timid way from things which life asks from us, but when we are prepared to take ourselves in hand and know how to intervene where it is necessary. When we are inclined to get moving, confidently and bravely, we have this virtue. It is connected with a healthy life of feeling, which develops bravery at the right moment, while its absence brings about cowardice. This virtue can naturally be used in the physical course of life only through specific organs. These organs, to which the physical and ethereal hearts belong, are not so perfect as those which serve wisdom. These organs are on the way to alter, and will indeed become different in the future.
There is a great distinction between the brain and the heart in their relation to cosmic evolution. Suppose that a man goes through the gate of death, and passes through life between death and a new birth. His brain is altogether a work of the Gods. The brain is permeated by forces which leave him altogether when he goes through the gate of death, and for his next life the brain is built up entirely anew, not only materially, but also in its inner forces. That is not the case with the heart. With the heart it is so, that not the physical heart itself, but the forces which are active in the physical heart, remain in existence. These forces withdraw into the astral and into the Ego, and continue in existence between death and a new birth. The same forces, which beat within our hearts, beat again next time in our new incarnation. What works in the brain has gone; that does not appear in the next incarnation. But the forces active in the heart reappear in the next incarnation. If we contemplate the interior of the head we can say: invisible forces are working there, which compose the brain. But when a man has gone through the gate of death these forces are given over to the universe. But if we perceive a human heart-beat, we perceive spiritual forces which are not only present in this incarnation, but will live too in the next incarnation, having passed through death and a new birth.
Popular feeling has had a wonderful inkling of such things. It is because of this that it is so much concerned with the feeling of the heart-beat, not because the physical heart-beat in itself is valued so much, as because we are looking at something much more eternal when we consider a human heart-beat. If we have the virtue of courage, of bravery, we can use for it only a part of certain forces. We must use the other part for the organs which are the instrument for this virtue. They are organs for which we have still to use part of the forces concerned. If we are not courageous, if we let ourselves go and withdraw timidly from life, abandoning ourselves to our own weight, then we cannot bring to life those forces which have to accompany the use of the quality of courage in life.
When we stand in life in a cowardly way, the forces which should fire our hearts remain unused. They are then seed for Lucifer. He takes charge of them, and we lack them in the next life. To be cowardly towards life means to abandon a number of forces to Lucifer; and these are missing for us, when we seek to build up our hearts in our next incarnation. For these hearts should be the organs, the instruments of courage. We come into the world with defective, underdeveloped organs.
The third virtue reckons with the least perfect organs, those which will achieve a form in the future, of which they contain at present only the seed. This virtue can be called Temperance.2The German word ‘Besonnenheit’ seems impossible to render adequately in English. ‘Temperance’ is widely used for Plato's word σωϕροσύνη) (Tr.) One shade of it can be called ‘Moderation.’ We have thus three virtues: Wisdom, Courage, and Temperance.
Now it is possible to be intemperate in the most varied ways. One can be intemperate in excessive eating and drinking; this is its lowest form. Here the soul is absorbed into bodily desire, and we live entirely through our body. But if we take our desire in hand, if we command the body, what it may not do, we are then temperate or moderate. Through such moderation we keep in the right order those forces which ought to help us, in order that we do not abandon the organs concerned to Lucifer in the next incarnation. For we abandon to Lucifer those forces which are expended through giving ourselves up to a life of passion. We do this in the worst way when our passions intoxicate us, and we are content to live in a dreaming, drowsy state.
When we lose our clear consciousness through intemperance we are always abandoning powers to Lucifer. He takes up these powers, and thereby deprives us of the forces which we need for the organs of breathing and digestion. We return with bad organs of breathing and digestion, if we do not practise the virtue of moderation. Those who like to be carried away by their desires, who give themselves up to the life of their passions, are candidates for decadent human beings in the future, for those future human beings who will suffer from all kinds of faults in their physical body.
It can be said that this virtue of Temperance depends upon the least perfect human organs, those organs that are at the beginning of their development and have to be fundamentally transformed. When we consider our organs of digestion and all that is connected with them, they are put in motion by the use of Ego, astral body, ethereal body and physical body. It is different with those organs which are the instruments for Courage. Here our Ego remains more or less outside, and we move freely; only what is astral and ethereal in us is absorbed into the physical. If we go further to the virtues embraced by Wisdom, we retain Ego and astral body in free detachment. For as we become wiser, we develop the organisation of the astral body and achieve control over it. That is the essential thing, that through becoming wise we transform the astral into the Spirit-Self, and only the ethereal accompanies the physical. In the brain only the ethereal accompanies the physical. While during waking life in relation to the rest of the body we are closely connected, at least with our astral nature, with the physical organ, we retain for the brain the condition, which we have in sleep, in the highest degree. Thus we require physical sleep particularly for the brain. For when we are awake we are also outside the brain with our Ego and our astral body, and these have to make the greatest efforts within themselves, without being supported by the external organ.
Thus we find a connection between our human being and the virtues. We can call Wisdom a virtue, which belongs to man as a spiritual being, where with his Ego and his astral body he is freely active, using his physical and ethereal organs only as a kind of basis. We can name Courage as the virtue active where man is only free with his Ego, which is supported by his astral, ethereal and physical bodies. Finally we can speak of Temperance, where the seed contained in our Ego is becoming free; where our Ego is still bound to the astral, ethereal and physical bodies, and yet with our Ego we are beginning to work ourselves free from these bonds.
There is then a virtue which is perhaps the most spiritual of all. This is connected with the whole human being. There is an exercise of the human being which we lose early, which we possess only in the first years of childhood. I have often mentioned this. When we enter the physical plane we do not yet have the attitude which belongs to our human dignity: we crawl, on all fours. I have pointed out that we only achieve the right attitude, the upright position, through our own forces. We develop too through the forces which enter into speech. In the first years of our life we develop the forces which in the main guide us into the position which we have in the world as true men. We do not enter the world in such a way that we already have the right direction in the world. We crawl. But we are set in it rightly, when we direct the head outwards towards the stars. This corresponds to inner forces.
In later life we lose these forces. They no longer appear. There is nothing which enters human life again so radically as learning to walk and stand upright. In relation to standing upright we grow more and more weary. If we begin in the early morning to live with our brain, then when the day is ended we grow tired and need sleep. What makes us upright in childhood, when we are tired, remains tired all through life and grows feeble, and anything comparable to achieving uprightness as children is no longer done by us in later life.
And how do we direct ourselves into life when we learn to speak? Forces of direction work as well when we learn to speak. But the forces which we use in early childhood are not really lost for us in later life. They remain for us, but they are connected with a virtue; with the virtue which is related to rightness and the right, the virtue of all-comprehending Justice, the fourth virtue. The same impulse, which we use as a child when we raise ourselves up from crawling, lives in us if we have the virtue of justice, the fourth that Plato mentions.
Whoever really exercises the virtue of justice puts every thing and every being in its right place, and goes out of himself and into the others. That is what all-comprehending Justice means. To live in Wisdom means to derive the best fruits from the forces we have stored up during earlier incarnations. If we have there to point towards what was imparted to us during earlier incarnations, where we were still permeated by divine forces, with Justice we have to point out still more: we are sprung from the whole universe. We exercise justice by developing those forces which relate us spiritually to the entire universe. Justice is the measure of a man's connection with the divine. In practice Injustice is equivalent to the godless; equivalent to the one who has lost his divine origin; we blaspheme against God, the God from whom we spring, if we do any man injustice.
Thus we have two virtues, Justice and Wisdom, which guide us back to what we were in earlier times, in earlier incarnations in the times when we ourselves were still in the womb of the godhead. And we have two other virtues, Courage and Temperance, which guide us towards later incarnations. We provide all the more forces for these, the less we give to Lucifer. We have seen how what is of the nature of courage and of temperance goes into the organs, and how the organs are prepared thereby for the next incarnation. In the same way moral life extends into the future, when we fill ourselves with spirituality. Two virtues shine out over the past incarnation: Wisdom and Justice. Courage and Temperance shine out over the incarnations to come.
The time will come when men will see clearly that they are throwing themselves into the jaws of Ahriman, when they shut themselves off against justice and wisdom. What was theirs in earlier incarnations, what belonged to the divine world, they would cast over to Lucifer through intemperate or cowardly actions. All that can be seized by Lucifer is taken away from the powers available to us for building up our body in the coming life.
We cannot practise wisdom and justice without becoming selfless, as has been indicated. Only a self-seeking man can be unjust. Only a self-seeking man can be willing to remain unwise. Wisdom and justice lead us out beyond our own Self and make of us members of the whole organism of humanity. Courage and temperance make us in a sense members of the whole organism of humanity; only through experiencing courage and temperance and expressing them in our lives, do we provide for ourselves for the future with a stronger organism to take its place within humanity. We do not then lose what we would otherwise throw to Lucifer. Egoism is of itself transformed into selflessness when it is rightly extended over the whole horizon of life, and man finds his place in the light of the fourth virtue. That is what will be brought by spiritual wisdom for the future of man, and will extend over ethics and the moral life. This will pour into educational method as well. Through understanding wisdom and justice in the sense that I have indicated, the desire to learn all through life will arise. It will be seen that one has to begin learning in the right way when one has already youth behind one—while people think now that they do not need to learn anything more once their youth is past. In this way even the greatest and noblest works of art of the greatest poets are lost. We would understand them best if we took them up again in old age. If people read Goethe's Iphigenia or Schiller's Tell, they usually think: we read that at school already. That is not right; one should not forget that these writings have their best effect if they are read in later life, for then they develop justice and wisdom.
And again the education of children will bring special fruit if the virtue of courage and the virtue of temperance are seen in the right light. Where children are to be educated, these virtues must be regarded in an individual way, by showing the children again and again that they are to take hold of life courageously, and not be afraid or withdraw themselves from all sorts of things; and that they grasp life temperately and moderately, in order gradually to free themselves from their passions. An immense amount can be done for the education of children in this way. In the later course of our study of spiritual science these things will have to be developed in greater detail.
So we see that while otherwise the ethical life only provides laws concerned with life between birth and death, on the external physical plane, the considerations of spiritual science extend to an unlimited horizon. It is the same as with other things in spiritual science. Humanity has had to experience in relation to the science of nature the extension of its horizons. Giordano Bruno showed men that there is not only the earth, but many other worlds in cosmic space. Spiritual science shows men that there is not only earthly life, but many earthly lives. Before Giordano Bruno men believed that there was a fixed boundary up in the sky. Giordano Bruno showed that there is no boundary, that the blue of the sky is not a limit. Spiritual science shows that birth and death are not there, but that we introduce them into life through the limitation of our understanding.
Thus the gulf between the physical and the spiritual can be bridged over. Things which rest upon a spiritual-scientific foundation are like this for those seeking to found a genuine, truthful Monism. Those who often call themselves Monists today manage their Monism very simply. They take one part of the world and make of it a unity by throwing away the other half. True Monism comes about through allowing both halves to have their significant influence upon one another. This comes about through spiritual science. This should not only arise in a significant way for our consciousness, but for the whole of our life. We have to come more and more to the real knowledge, looking out into the world: in all that lives and works around us something super-sensible is present, not only in what is seen by our eyes, but also in what can be perceived by the understanding which is bound to the brain. There are everywhere spiritual forces, behind every phenomenon, behind the phenomenon of the rainbow, behind the movement of the hand, and so on.
If you read the lecture cycle which I held in Leipzig at the turn of the year last year, [Christ and the Spiritual World. The search for the Holy Grail (six lectures, Leipzig, 28th December 1913 – 2nd January 1914), published by the Rudolf Steiner Press.] you will find how the Christ Impulse worked through the Mystery of Golgotha, and how Christ lives in the most important affairs of humanity, not only in human conscious knowledge. For instance, there were quarrels about dogmas. But while men were quarrelling, the Christ Impulse lived on and brought about the necessary events.
Take the figure of the Maid of Orléans. In European history the simple shepherd girl appears. She appeared in a remarkable way; there lived in her soul not only those forces, which are otherwise to be found in human beings, but the Christ Impulse works in this personality, enlivening and sustaining her through its mighty influence. She became a kind of representative of the Christ Impulse itself for her time. This she was only able to do, because the Christ Impulse could enter and live within her.
You know that we celebrate the Christmas Festival in the time when the sun has least power, in the deepest darkness of winter, because we can be convinced that at this time the inner light, the spiritual light, has its greatest power.
Old legends tell us that over Christmas, up to 6th January, people have had special experiences, because at this time the life of the earth, and the inner forces of the earth, are most concentrated. Those who have the right disposition for it, experience then in fact the spiritual forces within the earthly forces. Countless legends describe this. The best time for this covers thirteen days before 6th January.
The Maid of Orléans passed through these thirteen days in a particular condition, in a condition in which the life of her feeling was not yet affected by the external world. It is remarkable that the time during which the Maid of Orleans was carried in her mother's body ended during the Christmas time of the year 1411. She was born, having been carried for the last thirteen days in her mother's body, on 6th January. Before she drew the first breath, before she saw the physical life with physical eyes, she experienced what is earthly during these thirteen days in that sleep, through which man passes before he enters the physical world.
Here I am indicating something immensely significant, which shows how the world is guided from the spiritual; how what happens externally in the physical world is given its direction by the spiritual world; how, through the physical, the spiritual world is flowing.
Thus in our time we must work ever more consciously to remove through spiritual science the gulf between the physical and the spiritual. We do this for one field of our lives, when we become conscious that within our movement the powers of those are at work, who united their soul and body during their earthly life with our movement, and have passed through the gate of death. If we look across to the other bank of the stream, where they are active, feeling ourselves united with them, directing our thoughts towards them—we do this in full consciousness, the consciousness won through spiritual science. We know that we are in the most living connection with those who have gone through the gate of death, and we know that they provide the best powers among us. When we do this, or can think it, we regard life like a field that is to be sown. Between what we ourselves plant, we see plants everywhere springing up, which we could not have grown ourselves. Then we can know: these plants have been put in by those to whom it is granted to be in the world of the spirit, those with whom we feel ourselves connected, those with whom we become united.
Human brotherhood with those as well who no longer bear a physical body—that will be the characteristic sign of this movement and of those who feel themselves as members of this movement, and reckon themselves as belonging to it in the future. Other societies, founded only upon earthly things, will be able to remove many barriers between human beings. The barriers between the living and the dead will more and more be taken away by the movement which unites those men who wish to be united in the sign of spiritual science. We will carry all this in our souls, and keep as an abiding sense this characteristic quality, uniting us with this spiritual movement, which has become dear to us.
Die Vier Platonischen Tugenden Und Ihr Zusammenhang Mit Den Menschlichen Wesensgliedern - Das Hereinwirken Geistiger Mächte In Die Physische Welt
Unsere Geisteswissenschaft hat die Aufgabe, hinwegzuräumen für unser Bewußtsein, ja für unser ganzes Seelenleben, jene Kluft, die sich aufrichtet für das äußere menschliche Bewußtsein zwischen der physischen Welt, in welcher der Mensch die Zeit verbringt zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode, und der geistigen Welt, in welcher der Mensch die andere Zeit seines Gesamtlebens verbringt, die Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt.
Solch ein Satz ist ja demjenigen, der in der Geisteswissenschaft mit allen Fasern seiner Seele darinnen lebt, so geläufig, so selbstverständlich. Er wird nur in einem Augenblick, wie es derjenige ist, in dem ich gerade heute zu Ihnen spreche, zu einem, man darf wohl sagen, besonders geheiligten. Haben wir doch vor ganz kurzer Zeit eine Reihe unserer lieben Freunde und Mitglieder durch die schweren Kriegsereignisse vom physischen Plane verloren und sind gewissermaßen im Begriff, zwei Freunde auf dem letzten irdischen Wege zu begleiten. Morgen um elf Uhr werden wir hier in Zürich die Kremation eines lieben Mitgliedes, der Frau Dr. Colazza haben, die in dieser Woche den physischen Plan verlassen hat, und gerade eben haben wir die Nachricht bekommen, daß unser lieber Freund Fritz Mitscher in der Nähe von Davos heute nachmittag um fünf Uhr den physischen Plan verlassen hat. In beiden Mitgliedern gehen uns hier vom physischen Plan liebe Seelen fort. Die Geisteswissenschaft aber weist uns den Weg, zu verstehen, wie wir in einem viel höheren Sinne, als wir das sonst verstehen konnten, solche Seelen nicht verlieren, sondern wie wir mit ihnen verbunden bleiben.
Es ist ja schon eine größere Anzahl von Seelen, die zu uns gehören, seitdem wir in unserer Bewegung arbeiten, durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen. Vor allem darf aus denjenigen Quellen heraus, aus denen uns die geistigen Erkenntnisse überhaupt fließen, gesagt werden, daß sie uns, je nach ihren Kräften, treue Mitarbeiter in der geistigen Welt geworden sind. Und unter voller Verantwortung, unter der man etwas sagt, was auf dem Boden der Geisteswissenschaft fest fundiert sein soll, darf von mir gesagt werden: Wir haben in ihnen Stützen und Säulen für unsere geistige Bewegung gewonnen. Viele sind durchgegangen durch die Pforte des Todes, arbeitend innerhalb unserer geistigen Bewegung, hinunterschauend auf das, dem sie in ihrer Liebe zugetan sind. In der Zeit zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode haben sie die Art des Strebens, das in unserem Kreise vertreten wird, liebgewonnen. Hier in unserer Gesellschaft haben sie selber etwas gelassen, was auf dem Wege zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt ist.
Wie uns die Natur ringsumher eine Welt ist, auf die wir zurückschauen, so können wir zurückschauen auf unser physisches Leben von demjenigen Moment ab, den man vergleichen kann mit der Geburt des Menschen. Unmittelbar nach dem Tode macht der Mensch eine Art von Zustand durch, der sich vergleichen läßt mit dem Embryonalleben, mit dem Leben im Leibe der Mutter, nur daß jenes Leben nach dem Tode nur nach Tagen zählt, also viel kürzer ist als das Embryonalleben im Verhältnis zum physischen Leben. Dann folgt dasjenige, was sich vergleichen läßt mit dem Betreten der physischen Welt, mit dem Tun des ersten Atemzuges, dasjenige, was man das Aufwachen in der geistigen Welt nennen kann, wovon man sagen kann, es ist wie ein Gewahrwerden, daß der Wille der Seele, die durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist, aufgenommen wird von den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien. Geradeso, wie hier der Mensch, wenn er aus dem Leibe der Mutter heraus die physische Welt physisch betritt, sich zuerst geeignet findet, die äußere Luft aufzunehmen, wie dann seine Sinne nach und nach erwachen, so kommt nach dem Tode jener Augenblick, wo die Seele fühlt: Der Wille, der während des physischen Lebens eingespannt war dutch die Grenzen des physischen Leibes, fließt jetzt aus mir in das Universum hinaus. Und es empfindet dann diese Seele, wie dieser Wille wirklich aufgenommen wird durch die Tätigkeit der Wesenheiten der zunächst höheren Hierarchie, der Wesen der Hierarchie der Angeloi. Das ist wie das Holen des ersten Atemzuges in der geistigen Welt und das allmähliche Hineinwachsen in die geistige Umgebung, denn das zeigt uns die geistige Erfahrung.
Ich möchte sprechen über das Schicksal derjenigen, die vom physischen Plane im Laufe der Jahre von uns gegangen sind. Ich möchte den Blick hinlenken auf diejenigen, welche hier unsere geistige Bewegung liebgewonnen haben und auf sie hinunterblicken als auf etwas, wovon sie wissen, daß es dasjenige, in dem sie leben, mitteilt den Menschenseelen auch innerhalb des physischen Leibes. In dieser Weise in der Erinnerung an das irdische Leben anknüpfen können, ist etwas, was hier in der physischen Welt schon zur geistigen Welt gehört. Das bedeutet für die Betreffenden, die durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, ein unendlich Wertvolles, ein unendlich Bedeutungsvolles. Und wenn sie dann in den Strom, der zu ihnen hinaufströmt aus der physischen Welt, der seine Quelle nimmt aus dem, was sie miterlebt haben in unserer Bewegung, ganz einfließen wie ein Nebenfluß in einen Fluß, wenn einströmen die Gedanken derjenigen, die ihnen in Liebe oder aus Naturbanden heraus zugetan waren, dann ist die Gemeinschaft, weil sie auf den geistigen Banden begründet ist, eine viel innigere, als sie in unserer materialistischen Zeit sonst sein könnte.
Und wir dürfen wiederum sagen: Bei manchem, der frühzeitig hingegangen ist durch die Pforte des Todes in die geistige Welt, erscheint es uns, wie wenn er dieses getan hätte aus inniger Liebe zu unserer geistigen Bewegung, um helfen zu können mit stärkeren Kräften von der geistigen Welt herab. Bei einer großen Anzahl von denen, die von uns gegangen sind, leben in ihren Seelen die wunderbar klarsten Empfindungen von der Notwendigkeit unserer geistigen Bewegung. Und für denjenigen, der in die geistige Welt hineinzuschauen vermag, sind alle diejenigen, die durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind und jetzt herunterblicken auf die Bewegung, mit der sie verbunden waren, gleichsam die geistigen Herolde unserer Bewegung, diejenigen, die uns die geistigen Devisen vorantragen, indem sie uns unaufhörlich zurufen: Wir waren überzeugt, während wir mit euch vereinigt waren, von der Notwendigkeit dieser Bewegung. Jetzt aber, wo wir die geistige Welt betreten haben, wissen wir, daß wir helfen können und wie wir helfen müssen in der Zeit, in der diese Bewegung notwendig ist.
Das ist etwas, was immer mehr und mehr diejenigen spüren werden, die hier auf dem physischen Plan zurückbleiben, die teure Angehörige und Freunde auf dem physischen Plan verloren haben und denen gerade das Ausgesprochene der tiefste Trost sein kann, hier alles zu haben, was noch ein tieferes Band zwischen den Seelen knüpft, auch wenn wir nicht mehr in der Lage sind, in der äußeren Offenbarung, durch physische Augen und physische Worte, mit jenen Seelen verbunden zu sein.
Vieles, vieles wird diese spirituelle Bewegung, derer wir teilhaftig werden sollen, bringen müssen. Aus dem mancherlei, das sie uns bringen soll, möchte ich heute ein besonderes Kapitel auswählen. Eine Zeit wie die unsrige, wo die äußere Kultur sich, trotz der letzten Nachklänge der alten Religionen, ganz und gar auf dem materialistischen Bewußtsein aufbaut, eine solche Zeit kann auch die Impulse des sittlichen Lebens im Grunde genommen nur so aufbauen, daß dabei nur das Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod berücksichtigt wird. Unter den mancherlei Dingen, die durch unsere spirituelle Bewegung kommen werden, wird sein ein neuer Aufbau des gesamten sittlichen, des gesamten Tugendlebens der Menschheit. Denn die Menschen werden lernen, das sittliche Leben, das Leben der Tugend aus einem Gesichtskreise zu betrachten, der über Geburt und Tod hinausgeht, der damit rechnet, daß die menschliche Seele durch wiederholte Erdenleben geht, der damit rechnet, daß die menschliche Seele, so wie man sie trägt in dem Leben zwischen physischer Geburt und Tod, durchgegangen ist durch viele Leben und vorwärts zu hoffen hat auf andere Leben, die sie weiterhin zu durchlaufen hat. Wenn wir den Gesichtskreis von einem Leben auf die aufeinanderfolgenden Erdenleben erweitert haben, dann wird eine umfassendere, richtigere Auffassung von dem Leben, auch eine richtigere und umfassendere Auffassung von der Tugend und dem sittlichen Leben folgen.
Wenn wir von den Tugenden des Menschen sprechen, so können wir im wesentlichen zunächst vier solcher Tugenden unterscheiden, von denen man gewissermaßen im gewöhnlichen Sprachstil unter Menschen sprechen kann. Die eine Tugend, wie wir nachher andeuten werden, ist eine solche, welche in den Tiefen der menschlichen Seele lebt, von der man aber, wie wir sehen werden, aus heiligen Gründen so wenig wie möglich zu sprechen hat. Alle andern Tugenden, die im Leben vorhanden sind, die das sittliche Leben ausmachen, können als Spezialfälle der vier Tugenden, die wir betrachten wollen, aufgefaßt werden, jener vier Tugenden, von denen insbesondere das Altertum viel gesprochen hat.
Plato, der große Philosoph des alten Griechenlands, hat diese vier Tugenden deshalb unterschieden, weil er seine Weisheit noch aus den Nachklängen des alten Mysterienwesens hat schöpfen können. Unter den Nachklängen des alten Mysterienwesens hat Plato die Klassifizierung der Tugend besser treffen können als die späteren Philosophen oder gar als die unserer Zeiten, wo das Wissen von der Mysterienweisheit so weit entfernt steht und etwas so chaotisches geworden ist.
Die erste Tugend, derer wir gedenken müssen, wenn wir in dem Sinne, wie er sich aus einer umfassenden Erkenntnis der Menschennatur ergibt, von einem sittlichen Leben sprechen, das ist die Tugend der Weisheit. Aber man muß diese Weisheit in einem etwas tieferen Sinne und sich mehr auf das Ethische, auf die Sittenlehre beziehend auffassen, als man dies gewöhnlich tut. Wir können nicht sagen, daß Weisheit etwas ist, was gewissermaßen den Menschen einfach anfliegen kann. Noch weniger ist Weisheit etwas, was der Mensch im gewöhnlichen Sinne erlernen kann. Es ist sogar nicht einmal leicht, dasjenige, was Weisheit uns bedeuten soll, mit einigen Worten zu charakterisieren. Wenn wir unser Leben so durchleben, daß wir dasjenige, was in diesem Leben an uns herantritt, auf uns wirken lassen, wenn wir, von den verschiedenen Vorgängen des Lebens veranlaßt, von dem einen Vorgange lernen, wie wir dieses oder jenes richtiger hätten anfassen können, wie wir in bezug auf eine oder andere unsere Kräfte geschickter, stärker hätten machen sollen, wenn wir auf alles achten, was uns im Leben begegnet, in dem Sinne achten darauf, daß, wenn uns ein Ähnliches ein zweites Mal begegnet, wir uns das zweite Mal nicht mehr so anfassen lassen, wie das erste Mal, sondern uns belehrt fühlen. Und wenn wir das Leben hindurch die Stimmung bewahren, vom Leben lernen zu können, und alles, was die Natur und das Leben uns entgegenbringt, so zu betrachten, daß wir etwas lernen, aber nicht nur so lernen, daß wir etwas wissen, sondern so, daß wir immer besser, innerlich wertvoller werden, dann nehmen wir an Weisheit zu, dann wird es so mit unserem Seelenleben, daß das, was wir erlebt haben, nicht wertlos an uns vorübergegangen ist.
In Wertlosigkeit geht das Leben an uns vorüber, wenn wir Jahrzehnte verlebt haben und irgend etwas, das wir erlebt haben, in einem späteren Zeitpunkt ebenso beurteilen, wie es von uns in einem früheren Lebensalter beurteilt worden ist. Wenn wir unser Leben so zubringen, dann stehen wir der Weisheit am allerfernsten. Das Karma mag es mit sich gebracht haben, daß wir in der Jugend zornig geworden sind, daß wir dieses oder jenes bei den Menschen schlecht beurteilt haben. Wenn wir das so beibehalten, so haben wir unser Leben schlecht angewendet. Gut haben wir es angewendet, wenn wir, falls wir in der Jugend abfällig geurteilt haben, in einem bestimmten Alter nicht abfällig, sondern verständnisvoll, verzeihend urteilen, wenn wir uns bemühen, begreifen zu wollen. Wenn wir so geboren sind, daß uns gewisse Dinge in Jähzorn gebracht haben und wir im Alter nicht immer noch in Jähzorn kommen wie in der Jugend, wenn uns unser Jähzorn durch das, was uns das Leben gelehrt hat, verlassen hat und wir milder geworden sind, dann haben wir das Leben im Sinne der Weisheit angewendet. Wenn wir in der Jugend Materialisten gewesen sind, dann aber haben einwirken lassen dasjenige, was uns die Zeit an Offenbarungen aus der geistigen Welt hat sagen wollen, dann haben wir unser Leben im Sinne der Weisheit angewendet. Wenn wir uns den Offenbarungen der geistigen Welt verschließen, dann haben wir unser Leben nicht im Sinne der Weisheit angewendet.
In dieser Weise bereichert werden, mehr Horizont gewinnen, das können wir die Anwendung des Lebens im Sinne der Weisheit nennen. Und das, was uns die Geisteswissenschaft geben will, ist geeignet, daß wir uns dem Leben gegenüber aufschließen, daß wir im Leben weiser werden. Weisheit ist etwas, was im eminentesten Sinne dem menschlichen Egoismus entgegentritt. Weisheit ist etwas, was immer rechnet mit dem Gange der Weltereignisse. Wir lassen uns deshalb durch den Gang der Weltereignisse belehren, weil wir dadurch von dem engen Urteil, das unser Ich faßt, abkommen. Ein weiser Mensch kann im Grunde genommen nicht egoistisch urteilen, denn wenn man von der Welt lernt, lernt man die Welt verstehen, lernt man, aus der Welt heraus sich sein Urteil korrigieren zu lassen, so daß uns die Weisheit gleichsam herausreißt aus dem engen, beschränkten Gesichtskreis und mit sich in Einklang bringt. So könnte noch vieles angeführt werden, was uns allmählich eine Beschreibung der Weisheit liefern könnte. Nicht nach einer Definition solcher Begriffe sollen wir trachten, sondern wir sollen uns offen lassen das Gemüt, so daß wir, auch über die Weisheit, immer weiser werden können.
Hier in der physischen Welt muß nun alles, was der Mensch im Wachleben zu durchleben hat, sich der Werkzeuge der äußeren physischen und ätherischen Natur bedienen. Wir sind als Menschen zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode nur, wenn wir schlafen, mit unserem seelischen Wesen, insofern es Ich und astralischer Leib ist, außerhalb unseres physischen und Ätherleibes. Wenn wir im bewußten Wachzustande sind, dann bedienen wir uns der Werkzeuge unseres physischen und unseres Ätherleibes. Insofern wir uns mit Weisheit erfüllen, insofern wir trachten, in unserem Handeln und Denken, unserem Fühlen und Empfinden im Sinne der Weisheit zu leben, bedienen wir uns derjenigen Organe unseres physischen und Ätherleibes, welche gewissermaßen die allervollkommensten innerhalb unseres Erdenlebens sind, derjenigen Organe, die zu ihrem Fertigwerden am längsten gebraucht haben, die von Saturn, Sonne und Mond schon vorbereitet und als Erbschaft herübergekommen sind in unser Leben und einen gewissen Abschluß erfahren haben.
Ich möchte Ihnen von einer andern Seite her noch einen Begriff geben von dem, was man unter mehr oder weniger vollkommenen Organen verstehen kann. Nehmen Sie einmal auf der einen Seite unser Gehirn. Das Gehirn ist noch nicht das vollkommenste Organ, aber wir können es immerhin vollkommener nennen als andere Organe, denn es hat zu seiner Entwickelung länger gebraucht als diese andern Organe. Vergleichen wir das Gehirn mit unserem mittleren Körper, an dem wir die Hände haben. Wenn wir uns vornehmen, mit den Händen etwas zu tun, so haben wir den Gedanken: Ich strecke die Hand aus, ich nehme die Vase, ich ziehe die Hand zurück. Was habe ich da getan? Ich habe nicht nur die physische Hand, sondern auch die äthetische und die astralische Hand und ein Glied meines Ich ausgestreckt, aber die physische Hand ist mitgegangen.
Wenn ich bloß denke, nur Gedanken hege, dann kann das hellsichtige Bewußtsein sehen, wie auch etwas wie geistige Arme sich herausstreckt aus dem Kopfe, aber das physische Gehirn bleibt in der Schale darinnen. Geradeso wie meine ätherische und astralische Hand zu meiner physischen gehört, so gehört auch etwas Ätherisches und Astralisches zu dem Gehirn. Das Gehirn kann nicht folgen, die Hände können aber folgen. In einer späteren Zeit werden die Hände aber auch einmal fest sein, und wir werden später einmal nur deren astralischen Teil bewegen können. Die Hände sind auf dem Wege, das zu werden, was das Gehirn heute schon ist. In früheren Zeiten, während der alten Sonnen- und Mondenzeit, war dasjenige, was sich heute vom Gehirn aus ausstreckt und nur geistig ist, auch noch begleitet von dem physischen Organ. Es hat jetzt sich nur die Schädelhülle darübergespannt, so daß das physische Gehirn darin festgebannt ist während der Erdenentwickelung. Das Gehirn ist ein Organ, das mehr Stadien der Entwickelung durchgemacht hat. Die Hände sind auf dem Wege, ähnlich zu werden wie das Gehirn, denn der ganze Mensch ist auf dem Wege, ein Gehirn zu werden. Es gibt also Organe, die vollkommener sind, die sich mehr von der Entwickelung abgeschlossen haben, und solche, die weniger vollkommen sind. Die vollkommensten Organe werden gebraucht von dem, was wir vollbringen in Weisheit. Unser gewöhnliches Gehirn wird eigentlich nur als Werkzeug für die niederste Form der Weisheit gebraucht, für die irdische Klugheit. Aber je mehr wir Weisheit erwerben, desto weniger sind wir angewiesen auf unser großes Gehirn, desto mehr ziehen sich, was die äußere Anatomie nicht weiß, die Tätigkeiten zurück auf unser kleines Gehirn, auf das, was in unserem Schädel eingeschlossen ist als kleines Gehirn, das wie ein Baum aussieht. Wir Menschen befinden uns dann, wenn wir weise geworden sind, wenn wir Weisheit geworden sind, tatsächlich unter einem «Baume», der unser kleines Gehirn ist und der dann insbesondere anfängt, seine Tätigkeit zu entfalten.
Stellen Sie sich einmal vor, ein besonders weise gewordener Mensch streckt die Organe seiner Weisheit wie die Äste eines Baumes mächtig hinaus. Sie haben ihre Quelle im kleinen Gehirn, das sitzt in der Schädelhülle darin, aber die geistigen Organe erstrecken sich hinaus, und er ist unter dem Baume, dem Buddhibaume, in Realität, in geistiger Realität.
Da sehen wir aber auch, daß dasjenige, was wir in Weisheit tun, das Geistigste an uns ist, oder wenigstens zum Geistigsten gehört, denn die Organe ruhen schon. Wenn wir mit der Hand etwas tun, so müssen wir noch einen Teil der Kräfte auf die Bewegung der Hand verwenden. Wenn wir in Weisheit etwas beurteilen, in Weisheit etwas entscheiden, da bleiben die Organe ruhig, da wird auf das physische Organ keine Kraft mehr verwendet, da sind wir geistiger, und diejenigen Organe, die wir auf dem physischen Plan anwenden, um in Weisheit zu leben, sind diejenigen, auf die wir die wenigste Kraft anzuwenden brauchen, die gewissermaßen schon die vollkommensten sind.
Daher ist die Weisheit etwas im sittlichen Menschenleben, was den Menschen sich erleben läßt auf geistige Art. Damit hängt zusammen, daß das, was der Mensch an Weisheit erwirbt, ihn fähig macht, aus seinen früheren Inkarnationen die möglichst größten Früchte zu ziehen. Weil wir im Geistigen ohne Anstrengung physischer Organe in Weisheit leben, sind wir durch das Weisheitsleben auch am meisten fähig, das, was wir uns in früheren Inkarnationen erworben haben, für dieses Leben fruchtbar zu machen, herüberzubekommen aus früheren Inkarnationen diese Weisheit.
Für einen Menschen, der nicht weise werden will, haben wir im Deutschen einen guten Ausdruck. Wir nennen ihn einen Philister. Ein Philister ist ein solcher Mensch, der sich gegen das Weisewerden sträubt, der sein ganzes Leben lang so bleiben will, wie er ist, der nicht zu einem andern Urteil kommen will. Ein Mensch aber, der weise werden will, bestrebt sich, dasjenige, was er an Arbeit in früheren Inkarnationen geleistet und aufgespeichert hat, aus den früheren Inkarnationen herüberzubringen. Je weiser wir werden, desto mehr bringen wir aus früheren Inkarnationen in die gegenwärtige herüber, und wenn wir nicht weise werden wollen, so daß wir das Weisewerden von früheren Inkarnationen brach liegen lassen, dann kommt einer, der es absägt: Ahriman.
Niemand will es lieber als Ahriman, daß wir nicht weiser werden. Die Kraft haben wir. Wir haben viel, viel mehr in den früheren Inkarnationen erworben, als wir glauben, viel mehr erworben in den Zeiten, in denen wir durch die alten Hellseherzustände durchgegangen sind. Ein jeder könnte viel weiser werden, als er wird. Es darf sich niemand damit ausreden, daß er nicht viel herüberbringen konnte. Weisewerden heißt, das, was man in früheren Inkarnationen erworben hat, herausbringen, so daß es uns erfüllt in dieser Inkarnation.
Eine andere Tugend ist diejenige, welche wir mit einem Worte, das eigentlich schwer zu bilden ist, die mutartige Tugend nennen können. Sie ist von derartiger Gemütsverfassung, daß sie dem Leben gegenüber nicht passiv bleibt, sondern geneigt ist, die Kräfte anzuwenden. Die mutartige Tugend kommt, wie man sagen könnte, aus dem Herzen. Von einem solchen, der diese Tugend im gewöhnlichen Leben hat, kann man sagen: Er hat das Herz auf dem rechten Fleck. - Und das ist auch ein guter Ausdruck dafür, wenn wir imstande sind, nicht feige uns zurückzuziehen von den Dingen, die das Leben von uns verlangt, sondern wenn wir fähig sind, uns in die Hand zu nehmen, einzugreifen verstehen, wo es notwendig ist. Wenn wir in solcher Weise unsere Aktivität in Bewegung zu setzen geneigt sind, kurz, wenn wir wacker sind — der Ausdruck «wacker» ist auch ein guter für diese Tugend -, dann haben wir diese Tugend des wackeren Lebens. Man könnte auch sagen, diese Tugend, die mit einem gesunden Gemütsleben zusammenhängt, das im richtigen Momente die Tapferkeit erzeugt, deren Fehlen die Feigheit im Leben mit sich bringt, diese Tugend kann natürlich im physischen Verlaufe des Lebens nur durch gewisse Organe geübt werden. Diese Organe, zu denen das physische und das Ätherherz gehött, sind solche, welche nicht so vollendet sind wie diejenigen, die der Weisheit dienen. Diese Organe sind noch auf dem Wege, anders zu werden, und werden auch in Zukunft anders werden.
Zwischen dem Gehirn und dem Herzen ist ein großer Unterschied in bezug auf das kosmische Werden. Nehmen Sie einmal an, ein Mensch geht durch die Pforte des Todes, geht durch das Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Sein Gehirn ist überhaupt ein Götterprodukt. Das Gehirn ist von Kräften durchzogen, die, wenn man durch die Pforte des Todes geht, eigentlich ganz fortgehen und beim nächsten Leben wird dann das Gehirn vollständig neu aufgebaut, auch die inneren Kräfte dazu, nicht nur das Materielle. Also auch die Kräfte dazu werden neu aufgebaut. Das ist beim Herzen nicht der Fall. Beim Herzen liegt die Sache so, daß nicht das physische Herz, wohl aber die Kräfte, die im physischen Herzen tätig sind, bestehen bleiben. Diese Kräfte gehen zurück in das Astralische und in das Ich und bleiben auch zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Dieselben Kräfte, die in unserem Herzen darinnen klopfen, klopfen auch das nächste Mal bei unserer neuen Inkarnation. Das, was im Gehirn funktioniert, ist fort, das kommt nicht in einer nächsten Inkarnation heraus. Aber die Kräfte, die das Herz durchzucken, sind auch in der nächsten Inkarnation wieder da. Wenn wir in ein Haupt hineinschauen, können wir sagen: Darin funktionieren unsichtbare Kräfte, die das Gehirn zusammensetzen. Aber wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist, werden diese Kräfte dem Kosmos übergeben. Wenn wir aber den Herzschlag eines Menschen vernehmen, vernehmen wir geistige Kräfte, die nicht nur in dieser Inkarnation vorhanden sind, sondern auch in einer nächsten Inkarnation leben werden, die hindurchgehen durch den Tod und durch die neue Geburt.
Solche Dinge ahnte das Volksgemüt in wunderbarer Weise. Daher legt es so viel Wert auf das Fühlen des Herzschlages, nicht weil man den physischen Herzschlag so sehr wertschätzt, sondern weil wir auf ein viel Ewigeres blicken, wenn wir den Herzschlag eines Menschen in Betracht ziehen. Wenn wir die Tugend des Mutartigen, des Wakkeren haben, so können wir nur einen Teil von gewissen Kräften für dieses Mutartige verwenden. Den andern Teil müssen wir verwenden für die Organe, die als Werkzeug für das Mutartige dienen. Das sind Organe, für die wir immer noch ein Stück der Kräfte verwenden müssen. Sind wir nicht mutartig begabt, entwickeln wir die Tugend der Wackerheit nicht, lassen wir uns gehen, treten wir feige vom Leben zurück, überlassen wir uns der Schwere unseres Wesens, dann können wir nicht diejenigen Kräfte beleben, die mitleben müssen mit der Auslebung der Tugend der Wackerheit, des Mutartigen.
Während wir feige im Leben dastehen, bleiben auch die Kräfte untätig, die unser Herz durchzucken sollen. Sie sind eine Saat für Luzifer. Der bemächtigt sich ihrer, und wir haben sie dann im nächsten Leben nicht. Feige sein dem Leben gegenüber bedeutet, Luzifer eine Anzahl Kräfte auszuliefern, die uns fehlen, wenn wir in unserer nächsten Inkarnation unsere Herzen aufbauen wollen, die eigentlich die Organe, die Werkzeuge des Mutartigen sind. Wir kommen mit defekten, unausgebildeten Organen zur Welt.
Die dritte Tugend, die mit den unvollkommensten Organen rechnet,, denjenigen, die erst in der Zukunft eine Gestalt bekommen werden, zu der sie jetzt nur den Keim enthalten, ist diejenige, die man nennen kann: die Besonnenheit. Man kann sie auch, in einer gewissen Schattierung, das maßvolle Leben nennen. Dann haben wir also drei Tugenden: Weisheit, Tapferkeit oder Wackerheit, Besonnenheit. Auch die Mäßigkeit könnte man Besonnenheit nennen.
Unbesonnen kann man nun in der verschiedensten Weise sein. Unbesonnen kann man dadurch sein, daß man sich überißt und übertrinkt. Das ist die niedrigste Art der Unbesonnenheit. Da geht das Seelische ganz unter in der leiblichen Begierde, und wir leben uns ganz in unserem Leibe aus. Wenn wir aber unsere Begierde in die Hand nehmen, wenn wir geradezu befehlen dem Leibe, was er tun darf und nicht tun darf, dann sind wir besonnen, man kann auch sagen: mäßig. Und dann behalten wir durch solche Mäßigkeit auch diejenigen Kräfte in der richtigen Ordnung, die mitwirken sollen, daß wir in der nächsten Inkarnation die betreffenden Organe nicht dem Luzifer ausliefern. Denn wir liefern die Kräfte dem Luzifer aus, die wir ausgeben durch Hingabe an ein leidenschaftliches Leben. Am schlimmsten dann, wenn uns die Leidenschaften in einen Rauschzustand versetzen, wenn wir uns wohl fühlen bei dem Dahinträumen und dem Dahinduseln.
Da, wo wir unsere Besonnenheit verlieren, geben wir immer Kräfte dem Luzifer hin. Diese Kräfte nimmt er, aber damit nimmt er uns auch die Kräfte, welche wir für die Atmungs- und Verdauungsorgane brauchen, und wir kommen dann mit schlechten Atmungs- und schlechten Verdauungsorganen wieder, wenn wir nicht die Tugend der Mäßigkeit üben. Diejenigen, welche es lieben, sich hinreißen zu lassen von ihrem Begierdeleben, die sich ihrem Leidenschaftsleben hingeben, sind die Kandidaten für die dekadenten Menschen der Zukunft, für diejenigen Menschen der Zukunft, die unter allen möglichen Fehlern ihres physischen Leibes leiden werden.
Man kann sagen, diese Tugend der Besonnenheit ist angewiesen auf die unvollkommensten Organe der Menschen, auf die Organe, die im Anfangsstadium des Werdens sind, die sich noch ganz wesentlich umformen müssen. Wenn wir auf unsere Verdauungsorgane und auf das, was damit zusammenhängt, sehen, müssen wir, um diese in Bewegung zu setzen, das Ich, den astralischen Leib, den Ätherleib und den physischen Leib anwenden. Wenn wir zu den Organen, die die Werkzeuge für das Mutartige sind, übergehen, dann ist die Sache schon anders. Da bleiben wir mit unserem Ich mehr oder weniger draußen, in dem bewegen wir uns frei, und nur unser Astralisches und unser Ätherisches geht in das Physische hinein. Wenn wir gar zu den Tugenden kommen, die die Weisheit umfaßt, da behalten wir das Ich und den astralischen Leib frei draußen. Denn indem wir weiser und weiser werden, organisieren wir den astralischen Leib, bekommen wir den astralischen Leib in die Hand. Das ist das Wesentliche, daß wir beim Weiserwerden das Astralische in das Geistselbst umbilden, und es geht nur das Ätherische mit dem Physischen zusammen. Im Gehirn ist das Ätherische nur mit dem Physischen zusammen. Und während wir beim Wachen in bezug auf den übrigen Leib sehr stark zusammenhängen wenigstens mit dem astralischen, mit dem physischen Organ, behalten wir für das Gehirn den Zustand, in dem wir im Schlafe sind, am meisten bei. Daher brauchen wir für das Gehirn den physischen Schlaf am meisten. Denn wenn wir wach sind, sind wir mit unserem Ich und unserem astralischen Leibe auch außerhalb des Gehirns, und die müssen sich dann am meisten anstrengen in sich selber, ohne daß sie eine Stütze haben an dem äußeren Organ.
So finden wir einen Zusammenhang zwischen unserem menschlichen Wesen und den Tugenden. Wir können die Weisheit eine Tugend nennen, die dem Menschen als geistiges Wesen zukommt, wo er mit seinem Ich und seinem astralischen Leibe frei tätig ist und in dem physischen und ätherischen Organe nur eine Art Rückhalt hat. Wir können das Mutartige als Tugend nennen, da, wo der Mensch nur mit seinem Ich frei ist und in seinem astralischen, seinem ätherischen und seinem physischen Leibe seine Stütze hat. Wir können endlich von der Besonnenheit sprechen, wo wir mit unserem Ich-Keim frei werden, wo wir gebunden sind mit unserem Ich an den astralischen, ätherischen und physischen Leib und uns mit unserem Ich aus dieser Gebundenheit herausarbeiten.
Dann aber gibt es eine Tugend, welche am allergeistigsten ist. Diese geistigste Tugend steht gewissermaßen mit dem Gesamtmenschen in gewisser Beziehung. Es gibt eine Handhabe des menschlichen Wesens, die wir im Grunde frühzeitig verlieren, die wir nur in den ersten Kinderjahren haben. Ich habe das schon öfter erwähnt, was hier vorliegt. Es ist ja so, daß wir, wenn wir den physischen Plan betreten, nicht dieselbe Lage haben, die wir zu unserer Menschenwürde brauchen: Wir kriechen auf allen vieren. Ich habe aufmerksam darauf gemacht, daß wir uns erst durch unsere eigene Kraft in die richtige Lage bringen und aufrichten. Ebenso entwickeln wir uns durch die Kräfte, die in die Sprache hineingehen. Kurz, in den ersten Jahren unseres Lebens entwickeln wir Kräfte, welche uns im wesentlichen — geben Sie acht auf den Ausdruck - hinrichten in die Lage, die wir als wahre Menschen in der Welt haben. Wir kommen nicht so zur Welt, daß wir «richtig» in die Welt hineingerichtet sind. Wir kriechen. Aber wir sind richtig hineingesetzt, wenn wir das Haupt hinausrichten zu den Sternen. Das entspricht inneren Kräften.
Diese Kräfte verlieren wir im späteren Leben. Sie treten nicht mehr auf. Es tritt nichts mehr auf, was in ähnlicher Weise so energisch in das Menschenleben eingreift wie das Gehenlernen und das Aufrechtstehen. Wir ermüden immer mehr und mehr in bezug auf das UnsAufrechterhalten. Wenn wir frühmorgens anfangen, mit unserem Gehirn zu leben, so werden wir, wenn wir den Tag vollbracht haben, müde, wir haben das Bedürfnis des Schlafes. Dasjenige, was uns in der Kindheit aufrichtet, wenn wir müde sind, bleibt das ganze Leben lang ziemlich müde und geht in eine Schlaffheit hinein, und so etwas Ähnliches wie das Aufrichten in der Kindheit wenden wir im späteren Leben nicht mehr an.
Und wie richten wir uns hinein in das Leben, wenn wir die Sprache lernen? Auch wenn wir sprechen lernen, wirken Richtekräfte mit. Dieselben Kräfte, die wir in frühester Kindheit anwenden, gehen uns aber während des späteren Lebens nicht etwa verloren. Sie bleiben uns, nur hängen sie mit einer Tugend zusammen, mit der Tugend, die mit dem Richtigen, dem Rechten zusammenhängt, mit der Tugend der allumfassenden Gerechtigkeit, der vierten Tugend. Dieselbe Kraft, die wir gebrauchen als Kind, wenn wir uns vom kriechenden Wesen aufrichten, lebt in uns, wenn wir die Tugend der Gerechtigkeit, die vierte der von Plato angeführten, haben.
Wer wirklich die Tugend der Gerechtigkeit übt, stellt ein jedes Ding, ein jedes Wesen an den richtigen Platz hin, geht aus sich heraus und in die andern hinein. Das heißt, in der allumfassenden Gerechtigkeit leben. In der Weisheit leben, heißt, die besten Früchte ziehen aus den Kräften, die wir in früheren Inkarnationen aufgespeichert haben. Und wenn wir da schon hinweisen mußten auf dasjenige, was uns in den früheren Inkarnationen zuteil war, wo noch göttliche Kräfte uns durchzogen, müssen wir bei der Gerechtigkeit noch mehr darauf hinweisen: Wir stammen aus dem Kosmos. Gerechtigkeit üben wir, wenn wir die Kräfte entfalten, durch die wir mit dem ganzen Kosmos, aber in geistiger Beziehung, zusammenhängen. Die Gerechtigkeit stellt das Maß dazu dar, wie ein Mensch mit dem Göttlichen zusammenhängt. Die Ungerechtigkeit ist, praktisch, gleich dem Gottlosen, gleich dem, der seinen göttlichen Ursprung verloren hat, und wir lästern Gott, den Gott, von dem wir abstammen, wenn wir irgendeinem Menschen Unrecht tun.
So haben wir zwei Tugenden, die Gerechtigkeit und die Weisheit, die uns zurückweisen auf das, was wir in früheren Zeiten, in andern Inkarnationen waren, in den Zeiten, als wir selbst noch im Götterschoße gewesen sind. Und zwei andere Tugenden haben wir, das mutartige und das besonnene Leben, die uns hinweisen auf spätere Inkarnationen. Diesen führen wir um so mehr Kräfte zu, je weniger wir Luzifer geben. Wir haben gesehen, wie das Mutartige und das Besonnene in die Organe hineingehen und wie dadurch die Organe für die nächste Inkarnation zubereitet werden. Ebenso dehnt sich sittliches Leben über das zukünftige Leben aus, wenn wir uns mit Geistigkeit erfüllen. Zwei Tugenden leuchten hin über die verflossenen Inkarnationen: Weisheit und Gerechtigkeit. Tapferkeit und Besonnenheit aber leuchten hin über die zukünftigen Inkarnationen.
Die Zeit wird kommen, wo der Mensch sich klar sein wird, daß er sich dem Ahriman in den Rachen wirft, wenn er sich gegenüber der Gerechtigkeit und der Weisheit verschließt. Das, was in früheren Inkarnationen sein war, was der göttlichen Welt angehört hat, würde er dem Luzifer hinwerfen durch das, was er in Unbesonnenheit oder Feigheit des Lebens vollbringt. Was Luzifer erhascht, wird uns an Kräften für den Aufbau unseres Leibes im nächsten Leben entzogen.
Weisheit und Gerechtigkeit können wir nicht üben, ohne daß wir, wie schon angedeutet, selbstlos werden. Derjenige kann nur ungerecht sein, der selbstsüchtig ist. Derjenige kann nur unweise bleiben wollen, der selbstsüchtig ist. Weisheit und Gerechtigkeit führen uns über unser Selbst hinaus und machen uns zu Gliedern des gesamten Menschheitsorganismus. Die Tapferkeit oder Wackerheit oder das Mutartige und die Besonnenheit machen uns in gewisser Weise zu Gliedern des gesamten Menschheitsorganismus. Nur dadurch, daß wir Mut und Besonnenheit erleben, daß wir mit ihnen unser Leben verbringen, sorgen wir dafür, daß wir uns in der Zukunft in die Menschheit mit einer stärkeren Organisation hineinstellen. Entzogen wird uns dann nicht dasjenige, was wir sonst dem Luzifer hinwerfen. Der Egoismus verwandelt sich von selber in Selbstlosigkeit, wenn er im richtigen Sinne ausgedehnt wird über den gesamten Horizont des Lebens und der Mensch sich in das Licht der vierten Tugend stellt. Das ist dasjenige, was die spirituelle Weisheit der menschlichen Zukunft bringen wird, was sich ausdehnen wird auf die Ethik und auf das sittliche Leben. Das wird dann auch einfließen in die Pädagogik. Dadurch, daß die Weisheit und die Gerechtigkeit so aufgefaßt werden, wie ich es angedeutet habe, wird man das ganze Leben hindurch lernen wollen. Man wird sehen, daß man erst dann richtig lernen muß, wenn man die Jugend hinter sich hat, während jetzt die Menschen so denken, daß sie, nachdem sie die Jugend hinter sich haben, nichts mehr zu lernen brauchen. Es gehen so selbst die größten und edelsten Früchte der Kunst, der großen Dichter der Menschheit verloren. Sie würden am besten in uns aufgehen, wenn wir als alte Leute wieder deren Werke hernähmen. Wenn die Leute die «Iphigenie» von Goethe oder Schillers «Tell» lesen, so meinen sie gewöhnlich: Das haben wir ja schon in der Schule gelesen. — Das ist aber nicht richtig, denn man darf nicht vergessen, daß diese Werke am besten wirken, wenn man sie im Alter liest, denn dann dienen sie der Gerechtigkeit und der Weisheit.
Und wiederum wird auch die Kindheitspädagogik besondere Früchte tragen, wenn man die Tugend des Mutartigen und die Tugend der Besonnenheit im richtigen Lichte sehen wird. Diese Tugenden müssen da, wo man Kinder zu erziehen hat, individuell berücksichtigt werden, dadurch, daß man die Kinder immer wieder darauf hinweist, daß sie das Leben wacker ergreifen, daß sie nicht vor allem möglichen sich scheuen, allem möglichen gegenüber sich zurückziehen, und daß sie das Leben in Besonnenheit und Mäßigkeit auffassen, damit sie allmählich von ihren Leidenschaften hinwegkommen. Das ist dasjenige, womit man ungeheuer viel für die Kindererziehung tun kann. Diese Dinge werden wir im späteren Verlaufe unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Betrachtungen immer mehr auszuführen haben.
So sehen wir, wie dasjenige, was im sittlichen Leben der Menschheit sonst nur für den äußeren, physischen Plan, für das Leben zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode Gesetze hat, durch die geisteswissenschaftlichen Betrachtungen über einen unendlich weiten Horizont ausgedehnt wird. Es ist auch da so, wie es mit den übrigen Dingen in der Geisteswissenschaft ist. Hat doch auch die Menschheit in bezug auf die Naturwissenschaft es durchmachen müssen, daß ihr Horizont erweitert worden ist. Giordano Bruno weist die Menschen darauf hin, daß nicht nur die Erde da ist, sondern daß noch viele andere Welten draußen im Weltenraume da sind. Die Geisteswissenschaft weist die Menschen darauf hin, daß nicht nur ein Erdenleben da ist, sondern daß viele Erdenleben da sind. Die Menschen vor Giordano Bruno haben geglaubt, daß da oben eine Grenze sei. Giordano Bruno hat darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß da keine Grenze ist, daß das Blaue des Himmels keine Grenze darstellt. Die Geisteswissenschaft zeigt, daß Geburt und Tod gar nicht da sind, sondern daß wir sie hineinsetzen in das Leben durch die Eingeschränktheit unseres Begreifens.
So wird die Kluft zwischen dem Physischen und dem Geistigen überbrückt. Und so sind die Dinge, die auf geisteswissenschaftlichem Boden stehen, für diejenigen, die einen wirklichen, einen wahrhaftigen Monismus begründen. Diejenigen, die sich heute oftmals Monisten nennen, machen es mit ihrem Monismus sehr einfach. Sie nehmen den einen Teil der Welt und machen ihn zu einer Einheit, indem sie die andere Hälfte der Welt wegwerfen. Wahrer Monismus entsteht dadurch, daß man die beiden Hälften sinngemäß ineinanderfließen läßt. Dies geschieht durch die Geisteswissenschaft. Aber nicht nur, daß dies sinngemäß im Bewußtsein entsteht, sondern es muß entstehen für unser ganzes Leben. Immer mehr müssen wir dazukommen, wirklich zu wissen, wenn wir hinausschauen in die Welt: Da ist um uns herum, in alledem, was lebt und wirkt, etwas Übersinnliches, nicht nur in dem, was unser Auge sieht, sondern auch in dem, was der Verstand wahrnehmen kann, der an das Gehirn gebunden ist. Überall sind geistige Kräfte, hinter jeder Erscheinung, hinter der Erscheinung des Regenbogens, hinter der Bewegung der Hand und so weiter.
Wenn Sie nachlesen den Zyklus von Vorträgen, den ich um die Jahreswende vorigen Jahres in Leipzig gehalten habe, werden Sie finden, wie der Christus-Impuls durchgewirkt hat durch das Mysterium von Golgatha, wie der Christus in den wichtigsten Menschheitsangelegenheiten lebt, nicht nur in dem, was die Menschen gewußt haben. Da haben sie sich zum Beispiel über Dogmen gezankt. Während sie sich aber zankten, lebte der Christus-Impuls sich durch und bewirkte das, was geschehen sollte.
Nehmen wir die Gestalt der Jungfrau von Orleans. In der Entwickelung Europas tritt das einfache Hirtenmädchen auf. Merkwürdig tritt sie auf, so daß in ihrer Seele nicht nur diejenigen Kräfte leben, die man sonst eigentlich im Menschen hat, sondern daß in dieser Persönlichkeit der Christus-Impuls wirkt und sie durch seinen mächtigen Impuls belebt und trägt. Sie wurde gleichsam eine Darstellung des Christus-Impulses selber für ihre Zeit. Das konnte sie nur, indem der Christus-Impuls in ihr Platz griff.
Sie wissen, daß wir das Weihnachtsfest feiern in der Zeit, wo die Sonnenkraft am geringsten ist, im tiefsten Dunkel der Winterszeit, weil wir da überzeugt sein können, daß das innere Licht, das geistige Licht die größte Intensität hat.
Alte Sagen erzählen uns, daß über Weihnachten bis zum 6. Januar Leute etwas ganz Besonderes durchgemacht haben, weil da das Erdenleben und die inneren Kräfte der Erde am konzentriertesten sind. Die, welche dazu veranlagt sind, erleben da in der Tat die geistigen Kräfte in den Erdenkräften. Zahllose Sagen bekunden uns das. Die beste Zeit dafür sind die dreizehn Tage vor dem 6. Januar.
Die Jungfrau von Orleans hat in einem besonderen Zustande diese dreizehn Tage verbracht, in einem Zustande, wo ihr Gemüt noch nicht empfänglich war für die äußere Welt. Sonderbarerweise fällt die Zeit, in der die Jungfrau von Orleans im Leibe der Mutter getragen wurde, so, daß sie ablief in der Weihnachtszeit im Jahre 1411. Sie wurde geboren, nachdem sie die letzten dreizehn Tage im Leibe der Mutter zugebracht, am 6. Januar. Bevor sie den ersten Atemzug getan hat, bevor sie mit dem physischen Auge das physische Licht gesehen hat, erlebte sie das Irdische in den dreizehn Tagen in dem Schlafe, den der Mensch durchmacht, bevor er die physische Welt betritt. |
Ich deute hier auf eine ungeheuer bedeutsame Sache hin, die zeigt, wie die Welt von dem Spirituellen aus regiert wird, wie das, was äußerlich in der physischen Welt geschieht, in der Richtkraft der geistigen Welt dirigiert wird, wie unter dem Physischen die geistige Welt fließt.
So müssen wir in der jetzigen Zeit immer bewußter durch die Geisteswissenschaft die Kluft zwischen dem Physischen und dem Geistigen hinwegräumen. Auf einem Gebiete tun wir das für das Leben, wenn wir uns bewußt werden, daß gerade innerhalb unserer Bewegung die Kräfte derjenigen sind, die Seele und Leib während ihres irdischen Lebens vereint haben mit unserer Bewegung und durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind. Wenn wir hinblicken auf das andere Ufer des Stromes, wo sie tätig sind und uns mit ihnen vereint fühlen und unsere Gedanken auf sie richten, dann tun wir das aus vollem Bewußtsein heraus, dem Bewußtsein, das wir uns durch die Geisteswissenschaft aneignen. Wir wissen uns im lebendigsten Zusammenhange mit denjenigen, die dutch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, und wir wissen sie als die besten Kräfte unter uns. Wenn wir dies tun oder denken können, so betrachten wir das Leben als ein Saatfeld. Zwischen dem, was wir selber pflanzen, sehen wir überall darinnen diejenigen Pflanzen, die heraufsprießen, ohne daß wir selber sie aufsprießen lassen konnten. Und dann können wir wissen: Diese Pflanzen setzen diejenigen, welchen es vergönnt ist, in der Welt des Geistes zu sein, diejenigen, mit denen wir uns verbunden fühlen, mit denen wir eins werden.
Eine Menschenbruderschaft auch mit denjenigen, die nicht mehr den physischen Leib tragen, das wird das charakteristische Zeichen dieser Bewegung sein und derjenigen, die sich als Glieder dieser Bewegung fühlen und in Zukunft sich zu ihr rechnen. Andere, nur auf das Irdische gebaute Gesellschaften werden manche Schranke zwischen Mensch und Mensch hinwegräumen. Die Schranken zwischen den Lebenden und den Toten werden immer mehr und mehr durch die Bewegung hinweggeräumt werden, welche die Menschen vereinigen wird, die sich im Zeichen der Geisteswissenschaft vereinigen wollen. Das wollen wir alle in unseren Seelen tragen und als bleibende Empfindung aufnehmen gerade das Charakteristische, das uns verbindet mit dieser uns teuer gewordenen geistigen Bewegung.
Während der Kriegsjahre wurden von Rudolf Steiner vor jedem von ihm innerhalb der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft gehaltenen Vortrag in den vom Kriege betroffenen Ländern die folgenden Gedenkworte gesprochen:
Die ersten Gedanken, die wir jetzt bei unserem Zusammensein in unseren Zweigen hegen, sollen gerichtet sein nach den Geistern, die jene beschützen, welche draußen stehen auf den Feldern, wo sie jetzt den großen Pflichten der Zeit mit Blut und Seele zu dienen haben. Wir wollen unsere Bitten richten an die schützenden Geister dieser Seelen, damit dasjenige, was wir aufbringen an bittender Liebe, hinausstrahlen und sich vereinigen kann mit der Kraft der diese Seelen auf den Feldern der Ereignisse schützenden Geister.
Geister Eurer Seelen, wirkende Wächter,
Eure Schwingen mögen bringen
Unserer Seelen bittende Liebe
Eurer Hut vertrauten Erdenmenschen,
Daß, mit Eurer Macht geeint,
Unsere Bitte helfend strahle
Den Seelen, die sie liebend sucht.
Und für diejenigen, welche schon durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind:
Geister Eurer Seelen, wirkende Wächter,
Eure Schwingen mögen bringen
Unserer Seelen bittende Liebe
Eurer Hut vertrauten Sphärenmenschen,
Daß, mit Eurer Macht geeint,
Unsere Bitte helfend strahle
Den Seelen, die sie liebend sucht.
Und der Geist, den wir durch die Jahre unseres Strebens gesucht haben, er möge die Kraft, die er getragen hat durch das Mysterium von Golgatha, Euch erstrahlen lassen, damit Ihr Stärke habet zum Vollbringen desjenigen, was die großen Pflichten der Menschheit von Euch fordern. Der Geist, der durch das Mysterium von Golgatha gegangen ist, der Geist des Christus sei mit Euch!
The Four Platonic Virtues and Their Connection with the Human Members – The Influence of Spiritual Forces on the Physical World
Our spiritual science has the task of to clear away from our consciousness, indeed from our entire soul life, the gulf that arises for the outer human consciousness between the physical world, in which human beings spend the time between birth and death, and the spiritual world, in which human beings spend the other time of their entire life, the time between death and a new birth.
Such a sentence is so familiar, so self-evident to those who live in spiritual science with every fiber of their soul. It only becomes, in a moment such as this, when I am speaking to you today, something that one might call particularly sacred. Only a short time ago, we lost a number of our dear friends and members to the terrible events of war, and we are now, in a sense, preparing to accompany two friends on their final earthly journey. Tomorrow at eleven o'clock here in Zurich we will have the cremation of a dear member, Dr. Colazza, who left the physical plane this week, and we have just received the news that our dear friend Fritz Mitscher left the physical plane near Davos this afternoon at five o'clock. With both of these members, dear souls are leaving us here on the physical plane. However, spiritual science shows us the way to understand how, in a much higher sense than we could otherwise understand, we do not lose such souls, but remain connected to them.
A large number of souls have already passed through the gates of death since we began our movement. Above all, it can be said from the very sources from which our spiritual knowledge flows that they have become, according to their abilities, faithful co-workers in the spiritual world. And with full responsibility, saying something that must be firmly grounded in spiritual science, I can say that we have gained in them supports and pillars for our spiritual movement. Many have passed through the gate of death, working within our spiritual movement, looking down on what they loved. In the time between birth and death, they came to love the kind of striving that is represented in our circle. Here in our society, they themselves have left something behind that is on the path between death and a new birth.
Just as nature around us is a world we look back on, so we can look back on our physical life from that moment which can be compared to the birth of a human being. Immediately after death, the human being goes through a kind of state that can be compared to embryonic life, to life in the mother's womb, except that this life after death lasts only a few days and is therefore much shorter than embryonic life in relation to physical life. Then follows what can be compared to entering the physical world, to taking the first breath, what can be called awakening in the spiritual world, which can be described as a realization that the will of the soul that has passed through the gate of death is taken up by the beings of the higher hierarchies. Just as here, when a human being physically enters the physical world from the mother's womb, he first finds himself able to take in the outer air, and then his senses gradually awaken, so after death there comes that moment when the soul feels: the will that was bound during physical life by the limits of the physical body now flows out of me into the universe. And then this soul feels how this will is truly taken up by the activity of the beings of the higher hierarchy, the beings of the hierarchy of the Angeloi. This is like taking the first breath in the spiritual world and gradually growing into the spiritual environment, for this is what spiritual experience shows us.
I would like to speak about the fate of those who have departed from the physical plane over the years. I would like to draw attention to those who have come to love our spiritual movement here and look down upon them as something which they know communicates to human souls even within the physical body. Being able to connect in this way with the memory of earthly life is something that already belongs to the spiritual world here in the physical world. For those who have passed through the gate of death, this is infinitely valuable and infinitely meaningful. And when they then flow into the stream that flows up to them from the physical world, which has its source in what what they have experienced in our movement, flowing in like a tributary into a river, when the thoughts of those who were devoted to them out of love or natural ties flow in, then the community, because it is based on spiritual bonds, is much more intimate than it could otherwise be in our materialistic age.
And we may say again: In the case of some who have passed through the gate of death into the spiritual world at an early age, it seems to us as if they had done so out of deep love for our spiritual movement, in order to be able to help with stronger forces from the spiritual world. In the souls of a large number of those who have departed from us, the wonderfully clearest feelings of the necessity of our spiritual movement live on. And for those who are able to look into the spiritual world, all those who have passed through the gate of death and now look down upon the movement with which they were connected are, as it were, the spiritual heralds of our movement, those who carry the spiritual messages forward, calling out to us incessantly: While we were united with you, we were convinced of the necessity of this movement. But now that we have entered the spiritual world, we know that we can help and how we must help in the time when this movement is necessary.
This is something that more and more of those who remain here on the physical plane will feel, those who have lost dear relatives and friends on the physical plane and for whom the words spoken here can be the deepest consolation, knowing that they have everything that creates an even deeper bond between souls, even though we are no longer able to be connected to those souls through physical eyes and physical words. through physical eyes and physical words.
This spiritual movement, in which we are to participate, will have to bring many, many things. From the many things it will bring us, I would like to select a special chapter today. A time like ours, when external culture, despite the last echoes of the old religions, is based entirely on materialistic consciousness, can, in essence, only build up the impulses of moral life in such a way that only the life between birth and death is taken into account. Among the many things that will come through our spiritual movement will be a new structure for the entire moral, the entire virtuous life of humanity. For people will learn to view moral life, the life of virtue, from a perspective that goes beyond birth and death, that reckons with the fact that the human soul goes through repeated earthly lives, that reckons with the fact that the human soul, as it is lived between physical birth and death, has passed through many lives and can hope for other lives that it must continue to live. When we have expanded our perspective from one life to successive earthly lives, a more comprehensive and correct understanding of life will follow, as well as a more correct and comprehensive understanding of virtue and moral life.
When we speak of human virtues, we can essentially distinguish four such virtues, which can be spoken of in ordinary language when referring to human beings. One virtue, as we shall indicate later, is one that lives in the depths of the human soul, but which, as we shall see, should be spoken of as little as possible for sacred reasons. All other virtues that exist in life, that constitute moral life, can be understood as special cases of the four virtues we are considering, those four virtues of which antiquity in particular spoke so much.
Plato, the great philosopher of ancient Greece, distinguished these four virtues because he was still able to draw his wisdom from the echoes of the ancient mystery cults. Under the influence of the ancient mystery cults, Plato was able to classify virtue better than later philosophers or even those of our time, when knowledge of the wisdom of the mysteries is so distant and has become so chaotic.The first virtue we must consider when we speak of a moral life in the sense that arises from a comprehensive understanding of human nature is the virtue of wisdom. But this wisdom must be understood in a somewhat deeper sense and related more to ethics, to moral teaching, than is usually the case. We cannot say that wisdom is something that can simply come to people. Even less is wisdom something that people can learn in the usual sense. It is not even easy to characterize in a few words what wisdom means to us. If we live our lives in such a way that we allow what comes to us in this life to have an effect on us, if we learn from the various events of life how we could have handled this or that more correctly, how we could have made one or the other of our powers more skillful or stronger, if we pay attention to everything that happens to us in life, paying attention in such a way that when something similar happens to us a second time, we do not allow ourselves to be affected in the same way as the first time, but feel that we have learned something. And if we maintain the attitude throughout life of being able to learn from life, and consider everything that nature and life bring us in such a way that we learn something, but not just learn so that we know something, but so that that we become better and better, more valuable inwardly, then we gain wisdom, and then our soul life becomes such that what we have experienced has not passed us by worthlessly.
Life passes us by in worthlessness if we have lived for decades and judge something we have experienced at a later point in time in the same way as we judged it at an earlier age. If we spend our lives in this way, we are furthest from wisdom. Karma may have caused us to become angry in our youth, to judge this or that badly in other people. If we continue in this way, we have used our lives badly. We have used them well if, having judged disparagingly in our youth, we judge not disparagingly but with understanding and forgiveness at a certain age, if we strive to understand. If we were born in such a way that certain things made us quick-tempered, and if in old age we no longer lose our temper as we did in youth, if our quick temper has left us through what life has taught us and we have become milder, then we have used our life in the sense of wisdom. If we were materialistic in our youth, but then allowed ourselves to be influenced by the revelations that time has brought us from the spiritual world, then we have used our lives in the sense of wisdom. If we close ourselves off to the revelations of the spiritual world, then we have not used our lives in the sense of wisdom.
To be enriched in this way, to gain a broader horizon, is what we can call applying life in the sense of wisdom. And what spiritual science wants to give us is suitable for opening ourselves to life, for becoming wiser in life. Wisdom is something that stands in the most eminent sense in opposition to human egoism. Wisdom is something that always takes into account the course of world events. We allow ourselves to be taught by the course of world events because this enables us to depart from the narrow judgment of our ego. A wise person cannot, in essence, judge selfishly, because when one learns from the world, one learns to understand the world, one learns to allow one's judgment to be corrected by the world, so that wisdom, as it were, pulls us out of our narrow, limited field of vision and brings us into harmony with itself. Much more could be said that would gradually provide us with a description of wisdom. We should not seek a definition of such concepts, but rather keep our minds open so that we can become ever wiser, even about wisdom itself.
Here in the physical world, everything that human beings have to experience in their waking lives must make use of the tools of the outer physical and etheric nature. As human beings between birth and death, only when we sleep are we outside our physical and etheric bodies with our soul being, insofar as it is the I and the astral body. When we are in the conscious waking state, we make use of the tools of our physical and etheric bodies. Insofar as we fill ourselves with wisdom, insofar as we strive to live in our actions and thoughts, our feelings and perceptions in accordance with wisdom, we make use of those organs of our physical and etheric bodies which are, so to speak, the most perfect within our earthly life, those organs which have taken the longest to develop, which were prepared by Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon and passed on to us as a legacy in our life and have reached a certain completion.
I would like to give you another idea of what can be understood by more or less perfect organs. Take our brain, for example. The brain is not yet the most perfect organ, but we can still call it more perfect than other organs because it took longer to develop than these other organs. Let us compare the brain with our middle body, on which we have our hands. When we decide to do something with our hands, we have the thought: I extend my hand, I take the vase, I withdraw my hand. What have I done? I have extended not only my physical hand, but also my etheric and astral hands and a limb of my ego, but the physical hand has gone along with it.
When I merely think, when I only entertain thoughts, then clairvoyant consciousness can see something like spiritual arms reaching out from the head, but the physical brain remains inside the skull. Just as my etheric and astral hand belong to my physical hand, so something etheric and astral belongs to the brain. The brain cannot follow, but the hands can. At a later time, however, the hands will also be solid, and we will later be able to move only their astral part. The hands are on their way to becoming what the brain already is today. In earlier times, during the ancient Sun and Moon periods, what today extends from the brain and is only spiritual was also accompanied by the physical organ. Now only the skull has stretched over it, so that the physical brain is bound within it during the Earth's evolution. The brain is an organ that has undergone several stages of development. The hands are on their way to becoming similar to the brain, for the whole human being is on its way to becoming a brain. There are therefore organs that are more perfect, that have completed their development to a greater extent, and others that are less perfect. The most perfect organs are used for what we accomplish in wisdom. Our ordinary brain is actually only used as a tool for the lowest form of wisdom, for earthly intelligence. But the more wisdom we acquire, the less we depend on our large brain, and the more the activities that are unknown to external anatomy retreat to our small brain, to what is enclosed in our skull as a small brain that looks like a tree. When we humans have become wise, when we have become wisdom, we actually find ourselves under a “tree” that is our small brain, which then begins to unfold its activity in a special way.
Imagine a particularly wise person stretching out the organs of their wisdom like the branches of a tree. They have their source in the small brain, which is located in the skull, but the spiritual organs extend outward, and the person is under the tree, the Buddha tree, in reality, in spiritual reality.
But we also see that what we do in wisdom is the most spiritual thing about us, or at least belongs to the most spiritual, because the organs are already at rest. When we do something with our hand, we still have to use part of our energy for the movement of the hand. When we judge something in wisdom, when we decide something in wisdom, the organs remain calm, no more energy is used on the physical organ, we are more spiritual, and those organs that we use on the physical plane to live in wisdom are those on which we need to use the least energy, which are, in a sense, already the most perfect.
Therefore, wisdom is something in moral human life that allows people to experience themselves in a spiritual way. This is connected with the fact that what people acquire in wisdom enables them to reap the greatest possible benefits from their previous incarnations. Because we live in wisdom in the spiritual realm without exerting our physical organs, through a life of wisdom we are also most capable of making fruitful for this life what we have acquired in previous incarnations, of bringing this wisdom over from previous incarnations.
In German, we have a good expression for a person who does not want to become wise. We call him a Philister. A Philister is a person who resists becoming wise, who wants to remain as he is throughout his entire life, who does not want to come to a different judgment. But a person who wants to become wise strives to bring over from previous incarnations what they have accomplished and stored up in their work in previous incarnations. The wiser we become, the more we bring over from previous incarnations into the present one, and if we do not want to become wise, so that we leave the wisdom of previous incarnations lying fallow, then someone comes along who cuts it off: Ahriman.
No one wants us to become wiser more than Ahriman. We have the power. We have acquired much, much more in previous incarnations than we believe, much more in the times when we passed through the old states of clairvoyance. Everyone could become much wiser than they will be. No one should excuse themselves by saying that they could not bring much over. To become wise means to bring forth what one has acquired in previous incarnations so that it fulfills us in this incarnation.
Another virtue is what we can call, in a word that is actually difficult to form, courageous virtue. It is a state of mind that does not remain passive in the face of life, but is inclined to use one's powers. Courageous virtue comes, one might say, from the heart. Of someone who has this virtue in everyday life, one can say: He has his heart in the right place. And that is also a good expression for when we are able not to cowardly retreat from the things that life demands of us, but when we are able to take ourselves in hand and know how to intervene where necessary. If we are inclined to set our activity in motion in this way, in short, if we are brave—the expression “brave” is also a good one for this virtue—then we have this virtue of brave living. One could also say that this virtue, which is connected with a healthy mental life that produces courage at the right moment, the absence of which brings cowardice in life, can of course only be practiced in the physical course of life through certain organs. These organs, which include the physical and etheric heart, are not as perfect as those that serve wisdom. These organs are still in the process of changing and will continue to change in the future.
There is a great difference between the brain and the heart in relation to cosmic becoming. Suppose a person passes through the gate of death, passes through the life between death and a new birth. His brain is entirely a product of the gods. The brain is permeated by forces which, when one passes through the gate of death, actually disappear completely, and in the next life the brain is completely rebuilt, including the inner forces, not just the material. So the forces for this are also rebuilt. This is not the case with the heart. With the heart, it is such that not the physical heart remains, but the forces that are active in the physical heart. These forces return to the astral and to the I and also remain between death and a new birth. The same forces that beat within our hearts will also beat the next time we incarnate. What functions in the brain is gone; it does not emerge in the next incarnation. But the forces that flash through the heart are also there again in the next incarnation. When we look into a head, we can say that invisible forces are at work there, composing the brain. But when a person has passed through the gate of death, these forces are handed over to the cosmos. But when we hear a person's heartbeat, we hear spiritual forces that are not only present in this incarnation, but will also live on in the next incarnation, passing through death and rebirth.
The popular mind sensed such things in a wonderful way. That is why it attaches so much importance to feeling the heartbeat, not because we value the physical heartbeat so much, but because we look at something much more eternal when we consider a person's heartbeat. If we have the virtue of courage, of bravery, we can only use part of certain powers for this courage. We must use the other part for the organs that serve as tools for courage. These are organs for which we still have to use a portion of our powers. If we are not gifted with courage, if we do not develop the virtue of bravery, if we let ourselves go, if we retreat cowardly from life, if we surrender to the heaviness of our nature, then we cannot enliven those powers that must live with the virtue of bravery, of courage.
While we stand cowardly in life, the forces that should flash through our hearts also remain inactive. They are seeds for Lucifer. He seizes them, and then we do not have them in the next life. To be cowardly in life means to surrender to Lucifer a number of forces that we will lack when we want to build up our hearts in our next incarnation, which are actually the organs, the tools of courage. We come into the world with defective, undeveloped organs.
The third virtue, which deals with the most imperfect organs, those that will only take shape in the future and currently contain only the seeds of their future form, is what we might call prudence. In a certain sense, it could also be called a moderate life. So we have three virtues: wisdom, courage, and prudence. Moderation could also be called prudence.
One can be rash in many different ways. One can be rash by overeating and drinking too much. This is the lowest form of rashness. Here, the soul is completely submerged in physical desire, and we live entirely in our bodies. But when we take control of our desires, when we actually command the body what it may and may not do, then we are prudent, or one could also say moderate. And then, through such moderation, we also keep in proper order those forces that are supposed to work to ensure that in the next incarnation we do not surrender the organs in question to Lucifer. For we surrender to Lucifer the forces that we expend through devotion to a passionate life. This is worst when our passions put us into a state of intoxication, when we feel good dreaming and dawdling away.
Wherever we lose our prudence, we always surrender forces to Lucifer. He takes these forces, but in doing so he also takes away the forces we need for our respiratory and digestive organs, and we then return with poor respiratory and digestive organs if we do not practice the virtue of moderation. Those who love to be carried away by their lustful lives, who give themselves over to their passions, are the candidates for the decadent people of the future, for those people of the future who will suffer from all kinds of defects in their physical bodies.
It can be said that this virtue of prudence depends on the most imperfect organs of human beings, on the organs that are in the initial stage of development and still have to undergo significant transformation. When we look at our digestive organs and everything connected with them, we have to use the ego, the astral body, the etheric body, and the physical body in order to set them in motion. When we move on to the organs that are the tools of courage, the situation is different. Here we remain more or less outside with our ego, in which we move freely, and only our astral and etheric bodies enter into the physical. When we come to the virtues that encompass wisdom, we keep the ego and the astral body freely outside. For as we become wiser and wiser, we organize the astral body and gain control over it. The essential thing is that as we become wiser, we transform the astral into the spirit self, and only the etheric merges with the physical. In the brain, the etheric is only connected with the physical. And while we are awake, we are very strongly connected with the rest of the body, at least with the astral and physical organs, but we retain the state in which we are asleep most of all for the brain. That is why we need physical sleep most of all for the brain. For when we are awake, we are also outside the brain with our ego and our astral body, and they must then exert themselves most within themselves, without having any support from the external organ.
Thus we find a connection between our human nature and the virtues. We can call wisdom a virtue that belongs to human beings as spiritual beings, where they are freely active with their ego and their astral body and have only a kind of support in the physical and etheric organs. We can call courage a virtue where human beings are only free with their ego and have their support in their astral, etheric, and physical bodies. Finally, we can speak of prudence where we become free with our ego germ, where we are bound with our ego to the astral, etheric, and physical bodies and work our way out of this bondage with our ego.
But then there is a virtue that is the most spiritual of all. This most spiritual virtue stands, in a sense, in a certain relationship to the whole human being. There is a faculty of the human being that we basically lose at an early age, that we only have in the first years of childhood. I have mentioned this before. When we enter the physical plane, we are not in the same position that we need for our human dignity: we crawl on all fours. I have pointed out that it is only through our own strength that we bring ourselves into the right position and stand upright. In the same way, we develop through the forces that go into language. In short, in the first years of our life we develop forces which essentially — pay attention to the expression — bring us into the position we have as true human beings in the world. We do not come into the world in such a way that we are “correctly” oriented in the world. We crawl. But we are correctly placed when we lift our heads up to the stars. This corresponds to inner forces.
We lose these forces later in life. They no longer appear. Nothing else appears that intervenes so energetically in human life as learning to walk and stand upright. We become increasingly tired in relation to maintaining ourselves. When we start living with our brains early in the morning, we become tired at the end of the day and feel the need to sleep. What lifts us up in childhood when we are tired remains quite tired throughout our lives and turns into lethargy, and we no longer use anything similar to the lifting up of childhood in later life.
And how do we orient ourselves in life when we learn language? Even when we learn to speak, forces of alignment are at work. However, the same forces that we use in early childhood are not lost to us in later life. They remain with us, but they are connected to a virtue, the virtue that is related to what is right and just, the virtue of universal justice, the fourth virtue. The same force that we use as children when we rise from crawling to standing lives in us when we have the virtue of justice, the fourth of those listed by Plato.
Those who truly practice the virtue of justice put everything and everyone in their right place, step outside themselves and enter into others. This means living in universal justice. Living in wisdom means reaping the best fruits from the powers we have stored up in previous incarnations. And if we have already had to point to what was given to us in previous incarnations, when divine forces still flowed through us, we must point to this even more in relation to justice: we originate from the cosmos. We practice justice when we develop the forces through which we are connected to the entire cosmos, but in a spiritual relationship. Justice is the measure of how a person is connected to the divine. Injustice is, in practical terms, the same as godlessness, the same as losing one's divine origin, and we blaspheme God, the God from whom we descend, when we do wrong to any human being.
Thus we have two virtues, justice and wisdom, which refer us back to what we were in earlier times, in other incarnations, in the times when we ourselves were still in the bosom of God. And we have two other virtues, courageous and prudent living, which point us to later incarnations. The less we give to Lucifer, the more power we give to these virtues. We have seen how courage and prudence enter into the organs and how they prepare the organs for the next incarnation. In the same way, moral life extends into the future life when we fill ourselves with spirituality. Two virtues shine forth over past incarnations: wisdom and justice. Courage and prudence, however, shine forth over future incarnations.
The time will come when human beings will realize that they are throwing themselves into the jaws of Ahriman when they close themselves off from justice and wisdom. What was in previous incarnations, what belonged to the divine world, would be thrown to Lucifer through what they accomplish in recklessness or cowardice in life. What Lucifer seizes will be taken away from us as strength for building our bodies in the next life.
We cannot practice wisdom and justice without becoming selfless, as already indicated. Only those who are selfish can be unjust. Only those who are selfish can want to remain unwise. Wisdom and justice lead us beyond ourselves and make us members of the entire human organism. Bravery, courage, and prudence make us, in a certain sense, members of the entire human organism. Only by experiencing courage and prudence, by living our lives with them, can we ensure that we will enter into humanity in the future with a stronger organization. Then we will not be deprived of what we would otherwise throw away to Lucifer. Egoism transforms itself into selflessness when it is extended in the right sense over the entire horizon of life and when human beings place themselves in the light of the fourth virtue. This is what the spiritual wisdom of the human future will bring, what will extend to ethics and moral life. This will then also flow into education. By understanding wisdom and justice in the way I have indicated, people will want to learn throughout their entire lives. They will see that one must only truly learn after one's youth is behind one, whereas now people think that once they have passed their youth, they have nothing more to learn. In this way, even the greatest and noblest fruits of art, the great poets of humanity, are lost. They would be best absorbed by us if we took up their works again as old people. When people read Goethe's “Iphigenia” or Schiller's “Tell,” they usually think: We already read that in school. But that is not right, for we must not forget that these works have their greatest effect when read in old age, for then they serve justice and wisdom.
And again, childhood education will bear special fruit when the virtues of courage and prudence are seen in their proper light. These virtues must be taken into account individually when educating children, by repeatedly pointing out to them that they should take life bravely, that they should not shy away from everything, that they should not withdraw from everything, and that they should approach life with prudence and moderation so that they gradually overcome their passions. This is what can be done to benefit children's education immensely. We will have to elaborate on these things more and more in the course of our spiritual scientific considerations.
Thus we see how that which in the moral life of humanity otherwise has laws only for the outer, physical plane, for life between birth and death, is extended through spiritual scientific considerations to an infinitely broad horizon. It is the same here as with everything else in spiritual science. Humanity has also had to go through a process of broadening its horizons in relation to natural science. Giordano Bruno pointed out to people that the Earth is not the only thing that exists, but that there are many other worlds out there in space. Spiritual science points out to people that there is not just one life on Earth, but that there are many lives on Earth. Before Giordano Bruno, people believed that there was a boundary up above. Giordano Bruno pointed out that there is no boundary, that the blue of the sky does not represent a boundary. Spiritual science shows that birth and death do not exist at all, but that we place them in life through the limitations of our understanding.
This bridges the gap between the physical and the spiritual. And this is how things stand on the ground of spiritual science for those who establish a real, true monism. Those who today often call themselves monists make it very simple with their monism. They take one part of the world and make it into a unity by discarding the other half of the world. True monism arises when the two halves are allowed to flow into each other in a meaningful way. This happens through spiritual science. But not only does this arise in a meaningful way in our consciousness, it must also arise in our entire life. We must increasingly come to truly know that when we look out into the world, there is something supersensible around us, in everything that lives and works, not only in what our eyes see, but also in what the mind can perceive, which is connected to the brain. Spiritual forces are everywhere, behind every phenomenon, behind the appearance of the rainbow, behind the movement of the hand, and so on.
If you read the series of lectures I gave in Leipzig at the turn of last year, you will find how the Christ impulse worked through the Mystery of Golgotha, how Christ lives in the most important affairs of humanity, not only in what people have known. For example, they quarreled about dogmas. But while they were arguing, the Christ impulse lived through and brought about what was to happen.
Let us take the figure of the Virgin of Orleans. In the development of Europe, this simple shepherdess appears. She appears so remarkable that not only do the forces that are normally found in human beings live in her soul, but the Christ impulse is at work in this personality, enlivening and sustaining her through its powerful impulse. She became, as it were, a representation of the Christ impulse itself for her time. She could only do this because the Christ impulse took hold in her.
You know that we celebrate Christmas at the time when the sun's power is at its lowest, in the deepest darkness of winter, because we can be sure that the inner light, the spiritual light, is at its most intense.
Ancient legends tell us that during the Christmas season, until January 6, people experienced something very special because that is when earthly life and the inner forces of the earth are most concentrated. Those who are predisposed to do so actually experience the spiritual forces in the earth's forces. Countless legends tell us this. The best time for this is the thirteen days before January 6.
The Virgin of Orleans spent these thirteen days in a special state, in a state where her mind was not yet receptive to the outside world. Strangely enough, the time when the Maid of Orleans was carried in her mother's womb coincided with the Christmas season of 1411. She was born on January 6, after spending the last thirteen days in her mother's womb. Before she took her first breath, before she saw physical light with her physical eyes, she experienced the earthly world during the thirteen days of sleep that humans go through before entering the physical world.
I am pointing here to something of tremendous significance, which shows how the world is governed from the spiritual realm, how what happens outwardly in the physical world is directed by the guiding power of the spiritual world, how the spiritual world flows beneath the physical.
Thus, in the present time, we must become increasingly conscious of the need to bridge the gap between the physical and the spiritual through spiritual science. In one area, we do this for life when we become aware that it is precisely within our movement that the forces of those who have united soul and body during their earthly life with our movement and passed through the gate of death are at work. When we look across to the other side of the stream, where they are active, and feel united with them and direct our thoughts toward them, we do so out of full consciousness, the consciousness we acquire through spiritual science. We know ourselves to be in the most living connection with those who have passed through the gate of death, and we know them to be the best forces among us. When we can do this or think this, we regard life as a seedbed. Between what we ourselves plant, we see everywhere those plants sprouting up that we ourselves could not have made sprout. And then we can know: these plants are planted by those who are privileged to be in the spiritual world, those with whom we feel connected, with whom we become one.
A brotherhood of humankind, including those who no longer have a physical body, will be the characteristic sign of this movement and of those who feel themselves to be members of this movement and will join it in the future. Other societies built solely on earthly foundations will remove many barriers between human beings. The barriers between the living and the dead will be increasingly removed by the movement that will unite people who want to unite under the banner of spiritual science. Let us all carry this in our souls and accept as a lasting feeling precisely that characteristic that connects us to this spiritual movement that has become dear to us.
During the war years, Rudolf Steiner spoke the following words of remembrance before each lecture he gave within the Anthroposophical Society in countries affected by the war:
The first thoughts we now cherish as we gather in our branches should be directed toward the spirits who protect those who stand outside in the fields, where they now have to serve the great duties of the time with their blood and souls. We want to direct our prayers to the protective spirits of these souls, so that what we bring forth in supplicating love may radiate out and unite with the power of the spirits protecting these souls on the fields of battle.
Spirits of your souls, working guardians,
May your wings bring
The pleading love of our souls
Your protection of the people of Earth whom you trust,
So that, united with your power,
Our plea may shine helpfully
Upon the souls who seek it lovingly.
And for those who have already passed through the gate of death:
Spirits of your souls, guardian angels,
May your wings carry
The pleading love of our souls
To the people of the spheres you protect,
So that, united with your power,
Our plea may shine forth
To the souls who seek it lovingly.
And may the spirit we have sought throughout the years of our striving, may it let the power it has carried through the mystery of Golgotha shine upon you, so that you may have strength to accomplish what the great duties of humanity demand of you. The spirit that has passed through the mystery of Golgotha, the spirit of Christ, be with you!