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The Mystery of Death
GA 159

19 February 1915, Zurich

2. The Path of the Human Being through the Gate of Death - A Transformation of Life

It is a time, in which in quick succession as a result of many deaths the connection of the human being with the spiritual world approaches us. It is the world the human being enters when he goes through the gate of death. Under quite special circumstances these quick successive, almost simultaneous deaths face us. These special circumstances are given because numerous earthly people go through the gate of death that could have lived still for decades on earth under the circumstances that one may assume for earthly people. And whenever the human being goes through the gate of death prematurely as it were, extraordinary conditions come also into being.

We know that the human being going through the gate of death leaves behind, hands over as it were what falls off as his physical body from him to the earth element. We know that then the so-called etheric body is considered as the second that, however, also separates from the individuality. Then the individuality, consisting of astral body and ego, passes the spiritual regions between death and new birth. The etheric body, however, keeps on working, detached from the ego and astral body. This etheric body, which now enters the spiritual world next to us, the etheric world, is different with each human being. You may imagine that an etheric body of somebody who passes the gate of death prematurely looks differently as that of somebody who has lived his life till old age. For the etheric body which has to go with an early deceased human being through the gate of death would have the power to supply the physical body with life under normal conditions still for many years, decades. Now a force does not get lost in the spiritual world just as little as in the physical world. This force which supplies, otherwise, the physical body with life continues to exist. So that we can say: if now thousands go through the gate of death, nevertheless, almost every day, etheric bodies enter into the elemental world which are still capable of surviving, which have other forces in themselves than older etheric bodies have. What happens now with these etheric bodies still capable of surviving?

Yesterday, I spoke of the real folk-soul in the public lecture. This folk-soul is a real being. It needs quite particular forces just in our time. It needs such forces also at other times, of course, but particularly in our time. This folk-soul takes up these etheric bodies still capable of surviving. The human being himself goes other ways with his ego and astral body—those ways which prepare him then for his next life on earth. But these etheric bodies separate from the human individualities, they go over into the being, the substance of the folk-souls. After such a destiny-burdened time as we now experience we go towards a time when the folk-soul contains the etheric bodies in itself—like forces living in it—which have been handed over by those who have gone in the battles through the gate of death. A time comes near when the spiritual scientist can know that that is not lost which was sacrificed on the altar of the big events. A time comes near when effective strength emits from the folk-soul into the individual souls, that simultaneously goes out from that which in the first, second, third decades of youth numerous people have taken up here on earth, which they could still have kept for many decades, which they have handed over, however, to the folk-soul. This is in the forces in future the folk-soul drips into the individual souls; that is not lost.

Let us take that really to heart. Imagine how our consciousness of the connection with the spiritual may be enlivened in our feeling life if we keep in mind that we can speak of the folk-soul in future that the fruits of the sacrificial deaths are in it as effective forces. That is particularly important in the next time. In other times this would be different, for the next time; however, it will be significant because of a quite special reason.

We lived in a bad time of materialism. The souls, who could not approach spiritual science, were immersed in a strong aura of materialism. To fight against this aura is the task of the folk-soul in the next time. Forces will flow towards this folk-soul for the fight of materialism by the fact that the etheric bodies of the early dead linger on in this folk-soul, just linger on as forces. These etheric bodies—sacrificed on the altar of human evolution—will be the strongest fighters against materialism.

So we have to make a distinction between that which moves as a single human being through the regions of the spiritual world and remains united with the human individuality, from that which the etheric body delivers on its detour to the general community; which keeps on working in the spiritual general community in the sense cited here, in the substance of the folk-souls.

That may stamp itself especially deeply in our souls if we put two human types concerning this spiritual difference before our souls: the warrior killed on the battlefield who goes, completely devoted to the task of his people, through the gate of death—who as it were at the moment when he enters the battlefield when he only resolves to enter the battlefield must also resolve to face death. Compare this human type with the ascetic. Just if you consider what the forces of the etheric body signify in human life, you get an idea of the difference of the warrior killed on the battlefield and the ascetic. The ascetic works on himself. He tries to work on himself in such a way that he overcomes the physical in himself completely, that he becomes still free from this physical during his lifetime. Since the ascetic works that way, a significant transformation also takes place in his etheric body. He uses up, so to speak, the forces of this etheric body the strongest to incorporate them in his ego and astral body. What makes the ascetic free from the physical, this is of benefit completely for his individuality, and this serves the transformation of his individuality. So that such a human being who becomes an ascetic can serve humankind only on the detour of that which he makes out of himself. He, however, who frees himself from the physical body in early youth, because he has to surrender to the requests of war, hands over the forces of his etheric body to the general community; he incorporates them to the general work. You have to feel this difference, it is a significant difference. It points us again a little bit to that which prevails as a reality in the human life. It is also significant to look just at the path through the gate of death concerning the etheric body.

At the moment when the human being goes through the gate of death, he is still united with his etheric body. We have often described what happens to this. This connection with the etheric body gives the human being the possibility to live in all ideas that the last life aroused in him to merge completely like in a mighty tableau in everything that the last life has given him. But this is a kind of vision that lasts for a relatively short time; it fades away with the liberation of the etheric body from the ego and astral body. Yes, you can say, it immediately begins to fade away after the moment of death. The impressions become weaker and weaker which are still due to the possession of the etheric body. Then that makes itself felt which is authoritative after the physical death. What is authoritative there is properly imagined only to a lower degree by the people who want to get ideas about the life after death. It is even difficult to coin words for those quite different conditions, compared with the conditions we experience in our physical bodies. One thinks simply that the human being after he has gone through the gate of death has only again to get a consciousness for himself. It is not really that way. The human being experiences no lack of consciousness when he passes the gate of death. On the contrary, his soul experiences a superabundance of consciousness. He lives and weaves completely in consciousness, and as well as the strong sunlight dazes the eyes, he is dazed at first by consciousness, he has too much consciousness. First, this consciousness must be dampened, so that he can orientate himself in the life, into which he has entered after death. This lasts for a longer time; more and more moments happen in which the consciousness makes such an orientation possible. The soul becomes conscious for a more or less short time and then it again enters into a condition similar to sleep as you may call it. Then such moments become gradually longer and longer, the soul comes more and more in such conditions, until it is able to orient itself entirely in the spiritual world.

Also this makes difficulties to get clear ideas of the way how the soul perceives his environment after it went through the gate of death. We buried a dear anthroposophical friend in the last week, and on account of the wish of the dead I had the task to make a funeral celebration for her friends at the place where she died. In the time I spoke and directed my words to the dead person, the dead person was as it were like sleeping. Then the heat had an effect, the flames seized the body, and at this moment a moment of consciousness came over the soul, like a moment of orientation. The dead had the whole image of the funeral celebration and the funeral speech before herself, as somebody has something spatial at the same time before himself. Time becomes there really space. You do not see the past as you see the past running in time during life, but you see the past as something spatial before yourself. So that that which had already run off, which had happened a quarter of an hour before, then stood before the soul of the dead like the first lighting up moment of consciousness. Then a state of daze came again in the flooding light of consciousness to go in this condition towards those other conditions in which the soul gradually learns to orientate itself in the spiritual world.

It is important if we want to really get good ideas about the life after death for ourselves that we understand these quite different conceptions of time, that we see how there time is not something of which one can say, it has passed, and one remembers of the matters that happened in time, but the past stands there. Like the desk stands there and this desk does not go along with me when I go over there and look back at it, in the same way that remains after death which happened, which can be just only reminded, stands there; and the dead looks back at it as one looks back in the body at the spatial objects. This is very important to understand. Furthermore, that is of particular importance to understand that we really remain in connection, that our life on earth remains in connection with that what we experience between death and a new birth; at least it remains in close connection up to the point in time I called midnight hour in my last mystery drama.1The Soul's Awakening in Four Mystery Dramas, volume 14 of Steiner's Collected Works

Nevertheless, I would not like to fail to give our friends ideas of these relations to be difficultly described bit by bit. At that which we as earthly people have experienced between birth and death the soul, which has gone to death, looks back—but not, as if that which one has experienced there only would be there, but some conditions of life of the dead play a part in a peculiar way. The condition of life of the dead is not the same as the condition of life between birth and death of living people. The condition is such a one that the human being feels enclosed by his skin and looks out into the world by means of his senses. As soon as one enters as a dead the spiritual world, he/she has flowed out into the whole spiritual world. The soul feels like fulfilling the whole spiritual world bit by bit. What the human being has experienced during his physical earth existence, he feels like something that remains to him—not as a physical body, of course, but as that which constitutes the form, the forces of the physical body. This remains after death, but the soul has it as somebody has the human eye in the physical body. As you have the eye for seeing, you have then yourself, the life on earth, which you have experienced, as a cosmic sense-organ to perceive the world with it. What our eye is now for our body, this is our life on earth for our spiritual life after death.

Our life on earth is implanted to us as it were as an eye, as a sense-organ. You will understand gradually only after longer meditation what significant, actually, is pronounced that our life on earth becomes a sense-organ for our life between death and a new birth. That resembles to the process when the human being falls asleep and leaves the physical and etheric bodies with his ego and astral body. When initiation comes into being and the human being starts beholding in the spiritual world outside his physical and etheric bodies, then he knows: in the spiritual world you perceive like by means of a sense with the spiritual part of your physical body, and you think in the spiritual world with your etheric body. Your etheric body is real like your brain in the spiritual world and your former physical body is a sense-organ. However, you yourself are poured out with all your vital forces over the spiritual worlds. You have spread, you do not feel crowded together to one place because of your skin, and you feel poured out, extended over the spiritual world.

This is a quite different existence. With it is connected that somebody who himself enters the spiritual world, either by death, or by initiation, lives united with the other beings of the spiritual world, with beings of higher hierarchies or with human souls, which live between death and a new birth. However, he lives united with them in such a way that he does not experience them as you meet earthly men outside where you are separated spatially from them. But he experiences them as being contained in a common spiritual space, penetrating each other. What another soul experiences one does not experience by the fact that it says something, like with earthly people, but that one settles in the other soul and witnesses its thoughts. Hence, it is also that you can only be certain to experience that in yourself really what, for example, a dead experiences if you know: you are as it were in the dead, you do not only report something that you hear after the model of something which you experience on earth, but you hear: the dead himself speaks through your being.

I would also like to explain that to you by an example2Lina Grosheintz-Rohrer.

One of our members has recently died. Still before the cremation I felt the necessity to hear what this personality has to say after her death. For she was still united with her etheric body and could—as it were—express herself by her etheric body in earthly way, however, she subsumed everything that she had intensely witnessed of the anthroposophical world view and had woven into her soul. So we deal with a personality who had advanced in years, who has settled down in the last time of her life really intensely and with all forces of her heart into our spiritual-scientific world view. Then she went through the gate of death. Now she had still her etheric body. It was still before the cremation, and the etheric body was still there as a means to express herself. This gave the possibility to express myself still by earthly words because the etheric body could experience them. And the liberation from the body, from the earth existence, gave the possibility at the same time to subsume the whole being, which had been engraved by the heart in the soul. While it appeared to me how this personality who has gone through the gate of death wanted to pronounce her being—possibly during the second day, after death had entered,—formed the words of which I can inform you, words, which are to be regarded as words the dead had experienced. So that you have to imagine that here, during the second day after death, this being of the soul, which had gone through the gate of death, was fulfilled by the force of these words, expressed itself in the force of these words. And if one transported oneself into this soul, this being of the soul, this being of the dead expressed itself through him in these words. Therefore, I could do nothing better than to turn these words to the dead then just at the funeral, because these were the words which she herself spoke as it were to the friends, who surrounded her earthly rests. I can assure you: I have added nothing to these words, but I have tried to understand them from the being of the dead. Indeed, then later this happens I have called the daze of consciousness what you could call a kind of sleeping state. Now the dead would not have been able to express her being because now she missed the means of the etheric body. She will be able to do it again after some time, but that would be impossible immediately after death. The words read:

Into cosmic distances I will carry
My feeling heart, so that it grows warm
In the fire of the holy forces' working;

Into cosmic thoughts I will weave
My own thinking, so that it grows clear
In the light of the eternal life;

Into depths of soul I will sink
Devoted meditation, so that it grows strong
For the true goals of human activity;

In the peace of God I strive thus
Amidst Life's battles and cares
To prepare myself for the higher Self;

Aspiring for work in joy-filled peace,
Sensing cosmic being in my own being,
to fulfil my human duty;

May I live then in anticipation,
Oriented toward my soul's star
Which gives me my place in spirit realms.

I would like to put this before your souls as a clear example of the mysterious course which the human soul takes just through the point in time which separates the life between birth and death from the life between death and a new birth, where everything that was still external experience to us in the life on earth becomes internal wealth of the soul and lives in us that way. Here one takes on spiritual science still as something external. Immediately after death, however, it appears how it lives in the soul, yes, we say, as well as muscular strength now lives in our physical bodies. You have to feel that once if you want to grasp the internal sense, the internal meaning of that which spiritual science can be for the human soul. Then bit by bit you get a conception—you must have patience—of the quite different relations in the spiritual world. If we form words and concepts of the relations in the sensory world, we can give symbols at most of that what is in the spiritual world. You must work in patience towards concepts and sensations and feelings which express that fairly correctly and truly what the relations of the spiritual world are.

The logic of the life on earth—yes, there is only one logic of the life on earth—is already sometimes rather fragile for the life on earth. I have already stated how one can pass the real facts using the logic of the life on earth. I have often stated the example: assuming a person is walking along a brook. We see him falling into the brook. We rush over and find out that he is already dead. We see a stone where the person has fallen into the brook, and can now form a quite logical, but superficial judgment. We can say: the person has tripped over the stone, has fallen into the brook and drowned. He has died the death of drowning.—But this can be quite wrong. If one examines the matter purely anatomically, it can become apparent that the person had experienced a heart failure; thereby he fell in the water. The heart failure is the cause of his death. With the everyday correct logic we conclude wrongly. Such conclusions—this would be noted, only by the way—are made perpetually in human life and in particular in science. Science is full of such conclusions where cause and effect are mistaken.

But the matter becomes important when questions of human destiny are considered. We have experienced such a stroke of fate in Dornach in autumn, which is instructive in the most important sense. One evening the little, seven-year-old son of our member, Theo Faiss, who was an exceptionally dear, bright child, was reported missing. It was just during an evening lecture. The mother searched for the child, it was not to be found. When the lecture was over, one heard, actually, only that the mother misses her boy, and one could imagine nothing else that the death of the boy were in connection with a removal van, which had toppled over. A member of our society had let send his pieces of furniture in a removal van, and this removal van had toppled over in the evening where the boy stood. It was ten a quarter clock in the evening and we applied everything to lift the carriage. The mobilised military met us to help, to lift this removal van. The removal van was lifted, and one found the boy crushed under the carriage. Now think, in this area a removal van did never go generally before; nor thereafter. The boy was here, one could state this later by all possible things one calls incidents and chances, just in the time—it has concerned only minutes, around a moment—where the removal van toppled over. However, it was strange that first of all those who were here where the carriage had toppled over were only concerned to bring the horses to safety. One had no idea that the removal van had fallen on the little boy.

The child was dead. The materialist view may say: well, the removal van toppled over by chance there at this hour; the child got under it and was crushed. The materialist view will say that, of course. Before the spiritual view this is completely nonsense. For that what is there is the karma of the child, and this karma of the child steered all single circumstances. It has also steered the removal van there just at the hour when the child needed the death because the karma of the child wanted it. The karma of the child had expired. We deal here with the necessity to reverse cause and effect.

By such relations and the view of them one is able to ascend bit by bit to the real view of life which persuades us to reverse that what the external appearance presents to the senses. We must often turn around this. But the matter becomes quite significant when one experiences after that what comes into being by such a fact. The soul of a human being goes through the gate of death. This soul was embodied for seven years in a physical body. Why could the little Theo not have become also seventy, eighty, ninety years, externally considered if the karma had not made it impossible? An etheric body is there which could have supplied life still for decades; an etheric body which was really filled by forces of the eternal, of the good. It was an excellent boy.

You know that then the real individuality, the ego and astral body, go on their way. But the etheric body frees itself, this etheric body, in which all tender, nice forces are woven which have developed in the childhood, in which, however, all forces also live which come from the former incarnations. Now imagine what you have before you facing such an etheric body. The individuality comes from the former incarnations. It embodies itself anew in this incarnation; it implies what comes from previous incarnations. The life of this incarnation is as it were the fruit, realising that what was cause in a life in previous incarnations. Through the whole life these fruits could have enjoyed life to the full. Then everything would have gone into this etheric body what comes from the fruits of the former incarnations. This has not happened. In return everything is in this etheric body what still has causes in the former incarnations. And now the strangest thing is: somebody who tries to explore the aura of our Dornach construction finds this etheric body of the little Theo in the aura of the Dornach construction. There he is, there he hovers over, lives around the Dornach construction. He who has to deal with the Dornach construction or will still deal after that late autumn afternoon in which the little Theo went through the gate of death knows what has been changed in the spiritual aura of the Dornach construction by the fact that that etheric body was incorporated into this aura. This etheric body contains the forces which would else have been used for decades for the supply of a physical human body, and this etheric body is just poured out in this aura of the construction.

So mysterious are the ways that wisdom flooding through the world has to experience with its creatures. There are only correct ideas of the kind how the whole human life runs—to which in the most remarkable sense the life between death and a new birth belongs—if one goes into details of these matters. Because our anthroposophical movement should really be not anything abstract, but something in which we are with our whole being, in which also those are who just belong to us, we are also allowed to speak of such matters. We unite not only like other societies with a certain program, but we want to be with our whole souls in our spiritual-scientific movement. We want to conceive this spiritual-scientific movement as a concrete stream to which everybody belongs who really bears witness to it in a feeling way. We can say: there we speak as somebody just speaks in an enlarged family about the relatives there or there. For that what touches us, so to speak, in an informally familiar way gives us the highest, the most significant, the most important explanations of the spiritual world at the same time.

From such an attitude I would like to mention the death of one of our friends who are just often affected by deaths in the last time. Our infinitely dear friend Fritz Mitscher has recently gone through the gate of death. The necessity arose to me to subsume in words what the own soul felt, while it leant to the soul, which has just gone through the gate of death. Notice the difference between the preceding words which I have read out to you, and the words which I want to read out to you now. The words that I have read out just here are out of the soul of the dead. The words which I will read out to you now are stimulated in my own soul at the sight of the dead Fritz Mitscher, who was still combined with his etheric body. It is the impression which the dead made that is reported now in these words. Perhaps, you know that Fritz Mitscher was already as a young teacher at the most different place, especially in Berlin, active for our Anthroposophical Society. And many of us also know that he was just inclined in such a nice way to combine everything that he could acquire of earthly science and learning with the noblest, nicest anthroposophical consciousness. This also expresses itself after his death when in his whole being was combined what he was, and what shines now again after his death from the soul relieved of the body which still had its etheric body. And it seems to me that this had to be expressed what Fritz Mitscher was after death with the words, which I had to send on to him at the cremation.

A hope, filling us with happiness:
You entered the field
Where, through the power of soul being,
Earth's spirit blossoms
Reveal themselves to investigation.

Your longing was bound from the beginning
To pure truth-loving being;
To create out of spirit-light
Was the earnest life goal
For which you strove without rest.

You nurtured your beautiful gifts
To tread with steady steps
Bright paths of spirit-knowledge
As truth's true servant
Unperturbed by worldly contradiction

You trained your spirit-organs
That, with courage and persistence,
On both sides of the path
Repelled error for you
And made a space for truth for you.

For you, to form your Self
For the revelation of pure light
So the soul's sun-power
Might shine mightily within you
Was your life's concern and joy.

Other cares, other joys
Barely touched your soul,
For knowledge seemed to you to be
The light that gives existence meaning,
Seemed to your life's true value.

A hope, filling us with happiness:
You entered the field
Where, through the power of soul being,
Earth's spirit blossoms
Reveal themselves to investigation.

A loss that pains us deeply,
You disappeared from the field
Where the Spirit's earthly kernels
In the womb of soul being
Ripened your senses for the spheres.

Feel how we lovingly gaze
Into the heights that now
Call you to other works.
Give to the friends left behind
Your power from spirit-realms,

Hear our soul's entreaties
Sent to you in confidence and trust:
For our earthly work here we need
Strong forces from spirit-lands,
For which we thank dead friends.

A hope, filling us with happiness,
A loss that pains us deeply:
Allow us to hope, that you, far-near,
Unlost, light our life
As a soul-star in spirit-realm.

These are the words which were sent to the dead out of the being of the dead. And then some time passed after these words were spoken at the cremation, and out of the being of the dead, not yet out of the well-organised consciousness, but like from the being sounding, there the following words sounded now from the dead in the night after the cremation.

For me, to form my Self
For the revelation of pure light
So the soul's sun-power
Might shine mightily within myself
Was my life's concern and joy.

Other cares, other joys
Barely touched my soul,
For knowledge seemed to me to be
The light that gives existence meaning,
Seemed to my life's true value.

The words sounded back that way. Only after that I myself found out that two stanzas which are in the middle can be converted immediately from “you” to “I” and from “to you” to “to me.” I did not know that before. Since I heard the stanzas as I read them to you first. And now they came back from the being of the dead, spoken by him:

That shows that as well as in the time in which the consciousness does not yet have the shape which the soul has then again after this time through the whole realm between death and new birth, it shows as even in lively transformation, in meaningful transformation the words come from the dead. You have only to feel the spiritual-scientific world view becoming really alive creating the connection between the physical and the spiritual worlds. For it may run like a shiver through our souls when we feel at such an example how the words are called to the dead—and he returns them changed to us. Like we feel on one side that they went to the dead because they resound from him, not only like an echo, but meaningfully changed by him.

These are matters that give us the certainty, the confidence also for our present that the souls living here in earthly bodies are connected with the spiritual powers weaving and prevailing in the world. In this stream of prevailing and weaving spiritual powers the deceased are woven, are in it, because in it they experience their further postmortal destinies.

If we allow the connection of the physical and spiritual worlds to have an effect on our souls, we can contemplate various things. I pointed already once also here to the fact that with this cooperation of the physical and spiritual worlds proceeding in the concrete sense also the impulse of the Mystery of Golgotha comes near to us. We know that now we only start contemplating the sense and meaning of the Mystery of Golgotha and Christ Being by spiritual science completely. Up to now the human beings did that by means of reason. And what did result from this reason? If the effectiveness of Christ had depended in the human earth-life on that what the human beings have understood of it, the effectiveness of the Christ Impulse on earth could had been not very strong. The human beings have understood theological squabbling, all kinds of disputes in their reason, that was they understood of Christianity. But Christ has had an effect out of lively power.

I have probably stated also here the example of the battle which Constantine fought against Maxentius, by which the fate of Europe was decided at that time. Thus Christianity was only accepted, actually, and became then the ruling power in Europe. This battle was not won through the art of strategy nor by the armies of Constantine. Maxentius had to defend Rome. By looking up in the Sibylline Books and by a dream, which he had, it was put in his head that he should lead his army out of Rome. Then he would destroy the enemies of Rome. His army was five times stronger than that of Constantine, who approached Rome. Now he really led his army out of Rome, strategically the most inept what he could do. Since according to strategy everything spoke well of letting his army in Rome and letting the hostile armies approach. However, he led his army out of Rome. Also on the side of Constantine who led his armies against Rome these were not warlike-scientific reasons which gave him the strength, but he also had a dream. The dream said to him: if you allow bearing the monogram of Christ in front of your army, you will defeat Rome.—At that time and still for later the whole map of Europe was transformed through the victory of Constantine with his weaker army. Also the spiritual life of Europe has thereby become different. That what people could understand in those days would not have been sufficient to accomplish these achievements. The Christ Impulse had an effect in the subconsciousness of the human beings, in that what lived in the depths of the souls what people only could dream of, what came up to them at most in dream pictures.

We have a later, quite important example of the effectiveness of the Christ Impulse with the Maid of Orleans.3Maid of Orleans (1412-1431) Who studies history really, not as one often studies history today, but that one tries to recognise the real connections, he can know that again the fate of Europe was absolutely determined for the next centuries through that what the Maid of Orleans did. Neither strategy, nor the wisdom of the politicians, but that what the shepherd girl of Orleans did was vital for the destiny of Europe, especially also for the destiny of France. Now, however, the Christ Impulse worked in the Maid of Orleans, through its Michaelic representative. It worked into the soul of the Maid of Orleans. Her soul was completely infiltrated, inspired by the Christ Impulse. Exactly in the same way as in those days when the battle was decided between Constantine and Maxentius the Christ Impulse worked, without people knowing about it in their upper consciousness. The Christ Impulse also worked there, when the Maid of Orleans sent the French armies against the English armies. The whole continent would have changed, also England if at that time France had not won. Also England would not be that what she has become if she had not been defeated. However, the subconscious forces which came up in dream pictures caused the victory. The abilities of the Maid of Orleans were inspired by them. So that you can say: what the Maid of Orleans did was influenced through a more or less unaware initiation. It is of course an unaware, you may also say, an atavistic initiation. A clean psychic vessel had to be seized just unconsciously, as it was the Maid of Orleans through whom the Christ Impulse could work, by his Michaelic representative—a clean vessel.

Let us look at the matter more exactly. If anybody today goes consciously through an initiation—there are rules for that. The ABC is in my book How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?” There are rules by which one is able to develop gradually. One cannot speak of such a conscious initiation in the case of the Maid of Orleans. But a spirit which is otherwise not united with the human soul had to take its place in this human soul, to permeate this human soul. Especially favourable circumstances had to come into being. A spirit of higher spheres cannot always intervene in the souls who are enabled for it. Especially favourable circumstances must occur, so that a single human being comes in connection with higher worlds without initiation, without conscious work on himself. Especially favourable circumstances exist in the time when as it were the spirit of the earth is particularly awake: in the time from the 25th December to the 6th January. When in summer the sun stands highest, when the physical heat radiates mostly to the earth, then the conditions of initiation are the worst because then the spirit of the earth is sleeping. The spirit of the earth is the most awake in the winter darkness, at the winter solstice.

Hence, it is not only a legend, but corresponds to a truth when it is told in old legends that during the thirteen nights which precede the 6th January certain particularly suitable souls were initiated, so that they could go into the spiritual world, that they could experience there what we call Kamaloka and devachan. We here in Hanover probably remember that the legend of Olaf Åsteson4Cosmic New Year. The Dream Song of Olaf Åsteson. Lecture (Hanover, 1st January 1912) in The Connection Between the Human Being and the Elemental World … volume 158 of Steiner's Collected Works was once reported who—sleeping for these thirteen nights—went through the whole way which can be the way through Kamaloka and devachan. Olaf Åsteson tells then what he experienced during these thirteen days.

If the external physical darkness of the earth is the strongest, the conditions are the most favourable to lead a soul into in the spiritual world. It would have been the most favourable for souls like the Maid of Orleans, who are initiated for the whole humankind for such an action not by directly conscious exercising but by especially favourable circumstances, if she could have slept during the thirteen nights. Thus she could have been brought into connection with the spiritual world; if she could have accomplished that in a sleeping state. The Maid of Orleans went really through such a sleeping state. For the Maid of Orleans spent these thirteen days up to the 6th January in the body of her mother in a condition in which the human being still sleeps. Since the human being only wakes up for the physical life when he is born and does the first gasp. With the Maid of Orleans the last sleeping nights of the embryo fall in the time of the thirteen nights, because she was born on the 6th January. There you have a deeply significant internally historical connection. There you have the basis of the mission of the Maid of Orleans, who was chosen to receive the initiation as this clean soul before her first gasp during the last thirteen nights of the pregnancy of her mother, in this sleeping state, just under the especially favourable circumstances of the earth-life. The calendar shows it simply to you. Open the calendar: on the 6th January you find the birthday of the Maid of Orleans. The calendar shows you how here a deeply intimate connection exists between the physical world and the processes in the spiritual world. Of course, it was necessary that the soul of the Maid of Orleans was prepared by her preceding incarnations. During the thirteen nights this soul and that what could come from this soul made it possible just at this point of the human development that the spiritual world was able to influence the physical world.

The spiritual world with its ingredients is always there. The spiritual world is always among us. The ways of working in the physical world are manifold, which the spiritual world selects. And our consciousness of the connection with the spiritual world becomes stronger and stronger, the more we express the connections between the physical and spiritual worlds especially deeply in such details, while such connections stand vividly in front of our souls.

On the other side, one must say: also that what happens here in the physical world may prepare a kind of connection with the spiritual world and our physical world. And if anybody who has taken up that as intensely as Fritz Mitscher what flows through our spiritual science, and then went across in the spiritual world in the thirtieth year of his life—on the 26th February his thirtieth birthday would be—and has infiltrated his soul with that what can penetrate as a strength into the soul by our spiritual science, then we have a powerful individuality who will further stay together with us in the spiritual world who is an assistant of the most immense kind. And if you imagine how difficult the striving for spiritual science is just in our time, in this time which is, nevertheless, completely impregnated with materialism. Then one may also say that he who is connected with all the fibers of his life with the spiritual world has the biggest hopes for those who can become spiritual assistants who become spiritual assistants after they have laid down their physical bodies. One does not need to say, of course, that the passage through the gate of death is never allowed to be a personal decision, but that it must be caused only by karma. These spiritual assistants are those who give us consolation and hope if we see how difficult it is, just in the present, to provide for our spiritual-scientific movement because of the manifold inhibitions. However, we know how higher spiritual forces have an effect on earth, so that the current of the spiritual worlds flows into the purposes of the physical earth. Thus the unused forces of the human souls come up to the spiritual worlds to work there just with their forces, combined with other forces. Hence, I said the words to our Fritz Mitscher in my obituary really from the bottom of my heart:

Hear our souls' entreaties
Sent to you in confidence and trust:
For our earthly work here we need
Strong forces from spirit-lands,
For which we thank dead friends.

When we try to advance our spiritual movement to its purpose honestly, then we are aware that in the forces which we apply here on earth also those forces are working which our friends already brought through the gate of death into the spiritual world.

We summarise now all that also for the understanding of the general situation of the world. On one side, the human souls who go now due to the destiny-burdened events through the gate of death carry their etheric bodies to the folk-souls. On the other side, they carry everything that they have summoned up in sacrificial devotion, while they have gone just by these events through the gate of death with their individualities. And all that will be poured out as effectiveness into the coming age. It is the matter of the human beings who then experience peace to produce the connection with that what will be there in the spiritual world. Those who today experience as mothers and fathers, as brothers and sisters or other relatives the death on the battlefield of a human being dear to them can take up the fact in their consciousness that with the etheric body something extremely significant passes over into the general effectiveness of the earthly humankind for the future. Not only that they can know that the individualities go invigorated by death to a later stronger life on earth, but they can also know: that what the warrior after death has handed over to the folk-soul weaves and lives really. Fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers have those who have gone young through the gate of death twice, one must say, now in the folk-soul and also as individuality. This idea will only be of great value when it has completely become feeling, so that one does not only speak of immortality, but that one knows in the feeling: the dead are there, are among us. If this bond is such a strong one that also for our feeling death will be, actually, an untruth. Since the dead can appear even more real than often in the physical embodiment if he can take together everything of his being and if he does no longer have his physical body as an obstacle. Immense currents of consolation, currents of internal strength of self-consolation go out from that what spiritual science can give to the souls in lively consciousness and lively sensations. When this is felt that way, then in particular those who bear witness to spiritual science can look full of consolation into the future. They can feel something like twilight in the turn of an era during these present, destiny-burdened events after which a time of sunny peace will also follow. But important will be in the spiritual effectiveness of this time of sunny peace that what is won through the sacrificial deaths of so many people.

That can be made fruitful here on earth particularly creating a bridge, a connection between the living human beings who are incarnated in physical bodies here on earth and the souls who are above and want to radiate down that which they have taken with them. Here it is where the real understanding of spiritual science knocks on our hearts and asks us to do that what we can do from the consciousness we have gained by spiritual science what we can do feeling, so that the great, destiny-exciting, painful events of the present time, as far as we are concerned, contribute to the fertility and welfare of humankind. Those who know something about spiritual science can know feeling and feel knowing by which means the bridge is built up into the spiritual world: because the souls, who remained on earth, send the thoughts and sensations which can be enkindled by spiritual science. The horizon for that will be a horizon of peace. Above, the souls will be who send down spiritual beams of light. Below, human beings must be who have learnt to send such thoughts and feelings out of their souls from below which are stimulated by spiritual science. If there are really souls who turn their senses conscious of spirit to the spirit land, then the bridge will be built, then the time will have come when just through such painful, destiny-burdened events, as they happen in our time, an intimate bond must be woven between the physical and spiritual worlds, for which we strive by our spiritual science.

So we summarise what should be our knowledge and our task and what should arouse confidence in the words:

From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of the battles,
From the grief of the bereaved,
From the nation's sacrifices
Will grow up the fruits of spirit
If souls aware of spirit turn
Their senses to the spirit land.

Der Durchgang Des Menschen Durch Die Todespforte - Eine Lebenswandlung

Es ist eine Zeit, wo in schneller Aufeinanderfolge durch die fast täglichen vielen Tode uns nahetritt des Menschen Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt, mit jener Welt, welche der Mensch betritt, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet. Und unter ganz besonderen Verhältnissen treten uns diese schnell aufeinanderfolgenden, fast gleichzeitigen Tode entgegen. Diese besonderen Verhältnisse sind dadurch gegeben, daß durch die Pforte des Todes zahlreiche Erdenmenschen gehen, welche unter den Verhältnissen, unter denen man im Grunde genommen sonst den Erdenmenschen stehend glaubt, noch jahrzehntelang auf dieser Erde hätten leben können. Und immer, wenn der Mensch gewissermaßen vorzeitig durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet, treten ja auch außerordentliche Verhältnisse ein.

Wir wissen, daß der Mensch, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet, zurückläßt, gleichsam dem Erdenelement übergibt dasjenige, was als sein physischer Leib von ihm abfällt. Wir wissen, daß dann als zweites der sogenannte Ätherleib in Betracht kommt, daß aber auch dieser sich von der in die geistigen Gebiete zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt durchgehenden, aus dem Astralleib und dem Ich sich zusammensetzenden Individualität trennt; daß dieser Ätherleib gleichsam fortwirkt, abgetrennt von Ich und Astralleib. Dieser Ätherleib, der nun in die uns zunächststehende geistige Welt eintritt, die wir oftmals ätherische Welt genannt haben, dieser Ätherleib, von ihm können Sie sich denken, daß er anders aussieht bei einem solchen, der frühzeitig durch die Pforte des Todes geht, und anders bei jemand, der sein Leben bis ins hohe Alter hinein gelebt hat. Denn dieser Ätherleib, der bei einem frühzeitig Verstorbenen durch die Pforte des Todes zu gehen hat, er hätte unter normalen Verhältnissen noch viele Jahre, ja Jahrzehnte die Kraft gehabt, den physischen Leib mit Leben zu versorgen. Nun geht in der geistigen Welt ebensowenig eine Kraft verloren wie in der physischen Welt. Diese Kraft, die sonst den physischen Leib mit Leben versorgt, bleibt bestehen. So daß wir sagen können: Wenn jetzt Tausende doch fast jeden Tag durch die Pforte des Todes gehen, dann treten in die elementarische Welt Ätherleiber ein, die noch lebensfähig sind, die andere Kräfte in sich haben, als älter gewordene Ätherleiber. Was geschieht nun mit diesen noch lebensfähigen Ätherleibern?

Ich habe gestern im öffentlichen Vortrag von der realen Volksseele gesprochen. Diese Volksseele ist eine wirkliche Wesenheit. Sie braucht gerade in unserer Zeit ganz besondere Kräfte. Sie braucht solche Kräfte auch zu andern Zeiten, selbstverständlich, aber ganz besonders in unserer Zeit. Diese Volksseele nimmt diese noch lebensfähigen Ätherleiber auf. Der Mensch selbst mit seinem Ich und Astralleib geht andere Wege - diejenigen Wege, welche ihn dann vorbereiten zu seinem nächsten Erdenleben. Aber diese Ätherleiber trennen sich von den menschlichen Individualitäten, sie gehen in das Wesen, in die Substanz der Volksseelen über. So daß wir nach einer solchen schicksaltragenden Zeit, wie wir sie jetzt durchleben, einer Zeit entgegengehen, wo die Volksseele in sich enthält — wie in ihr befindliche lebendige Kräfte — die Ätherleiber, welche ihr von denjenigen übergeben worden sind, die in den Schlachten durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind. Eine Zeit rückt also heran, wo der Geisteswissenschafter wissen kann, daß unverloren ist dasjenige, was auf dem Altar der großen Zeitereignisse an Ätherleibern hingeopfert worden ist. Eine Zeit rückt heran, wo von der Volksseele eine wirksame Kraft ausstrahlt in die einzelnen Seelen hinein, von denen zugleich ausgeht dasjenige, was in den ersten, zweiten, dritten Jugendjahrzehnten zahlreiche Menschen hier auf der Erde aufgenommen haben, was sie durch viele Jahrzehnte noch hätten behalten können, was sie aber der Volksseele übergeben haben. Das wird in der Zukunft in den Kräften darin sein, welche die Volksseele in die einzelnen Seelen hineinträufelt, das ist unverloren.

Führen wir uns das so recht zu Gemüt. Bedenken wir einmal, wie sich in unserem Gemüt beleben kann unser Bewußtsein von dem Zusammenhange mit der geistigen Welt, wenn wir dieses festhalten, daß man zukünftig wird sprechen können von der Volksseele so, daß in ihr die Früchte der Opfertode als wirksame Kräfte sind. Und ganz besonders wichtig wird das in der nächsten Zeit sein. Zu andern Zeiten wäre dies anders, für die nächste Zeit aber wird es aus einem ganz besonderen Grunde bedeutsam sein.

Wir lebten in einer argen Zeit des Materialismus. Gleichsam waren die Seelen, die nicht an die Geisteswissenschaft herankommen konnten, eingetaucht in eine starke Aura des Materialismus. Diese Aura zu bekämpfen, wird die Aufgabe der Volksseele in der nächsten Zeit sein. Kräfte werden dieser Volksseele zur Bekämpfung des Materialismus dadurch zufließen, daß die Ätherleiber der Frühverstorbenen in dieser Volksseele weiterleben, eben als Kräfte weiterleben. Die stärksten Kämpfer gegen den Materialismus werden diese auf dem ‚Altar der Menschheitsentwickelung hingeopferten Ätherleiber sein.

So müssen wir unterscheiden zwischen dem, was als einzelner Mensch durch die Gefilde der geistigen Welt zieht und mit der menschlichen Individualität vereinigt bleibt, von dem, was auf dem Umweg durch den Ätherleib an die Allgemeinheit abgegeben wird; was in der geistigen Allgemeinheit in dem hier angeführten Sinne in der Substanz der Volksgeister weiterwirkt.

Besonders tief kann sich dies in unser Gemüt einprägen, wenn wir zwei Menschentypen in bezug auf diesen geistigen Unterschied vor unsere Seelen hinstellen: den auf dem Schlachtfeld gefallenen Krieger, der ganz hingegeben der Aufgabe seines Volkes durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet - der gewissermaßen in dem Augenblick, wo er das Schlachtfeld betritt, wo er sich nur entschließt, das Schlachtfeld zu betreten, sich auch entschließen muß, dem Tode ins Auge zu schauen -, und diesen Menschentypus vergleichen mit dem Asketen. Gerade wenn man ins Auge faßt, was im Menschenleben die Kräfte des Ätherleibes bedeuten, bekommt man eine Vorstellung von dem Unterschied des auf dem Schlachtfeld gefallenen Kriegers und des Asketen. Der Asket arbeitet an sich selbst. Er versucht, so an sich selbst zu arbeiten, daß er das Physische an sich völlig überwindet, daß er noch während der Zeit des Lebens von diesem Physischen frei wird. Dadurch, daß der Asket so arbeitet, vollzieht sich auch eine bedeutende Verwandlung an seinem Ätherleib. Er verbraucht sozusagen in der stärksten Weise die Kräfte dieses Ätherleibes, um sie sich einzuverleiben in sein Ich und seinen Astralleib. Was den Asketen frei macht vom Physischen, das kommt ganz der Individualität zugute, das dient der Umwandlung der Individualität. So daß ein solcher Mensch, der Asket wird, der Menschheit nur auf dem Umwege desjenigen dienen kann, was er aus sich macht. Derjenige aber, der sich vom physischen Leibe in früherer Jugendzeit dadurch frei macht, daß er den kriegerischen Forderungen sich zu ergeben hat, übergibt die Kräfte seines Ätherleibes der Allgemeinheit, er verleibt sie dem allgemeinen Wirken ein. Man muß diesen Unterschied fühlen, es ist ein bedeutsamer Unterschied. Er weist uns wiederum ein bißchen auf das hin, was als Realität im Menschenleben waltet. Und bedeutsam ist es auch, gerade hinzuschauen mit Rücksicht auf dasjenige, was der Ätherleib ist, auf das Durchgehen durch die Todespforte.

In dem Augenblick, wo der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes tritt, ist er noch mit seinem Ätherleibe vereint. Was mit diesem geschieht, haben wir öfter geschildert. Diese Vereinigung mit dem Ätherleib gibt dem Menschen die Möglichkeit, so recht in allen Vorstellungen zu leben, welche das letzte Leben in ihm angefacht hat, ganz aufzugehen wie in einem mächtigen Tableau in all demjenigen, was ihm das letzte Leben gegeben hat. Aber es ist dieses ein Anschauen, das verhältnismäßig kurze Zeit dauert, das mit der Loslösung des Ätherleibes von Ich und Astralleib abglimmt. Ja man kann sagen, es beginnt gleich nach dem Moment des Todes ein Abglimmen, ein Immer-Schwächerwerden der Eindrücke, die noch von dem Besitz des Ätherleibes herrühren, und es macht sich dann dasjenige geltend, was nach dem physischen Tode maßgebend ist. Was da maßgebend ist, wird nur in geringerem Maße richtig vorgestellt von den Menschen, die sich Vorstellungen über das Leben nach dem Tode machen wollen. Es ist sogar schwierig, Worte zu prägen für jene ganz andersartigen Verhältnisse, gegenüber den Verhältnissen, die im physischen Leibe durchlebt werden. Man glaubt leicht, daß der Mensch, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist, ein Bewußtsein sich erst wiederum erwerben müsse. So ist es eigentlich nicht. Was der Mensch durchmacht, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes durchgeht, ist nicht ein Mangel an Bewußtsein. Mit dem Tode tritt nicht ein Mangel des Bewußtseins ein, das Gegenteil tritt ein. Ein Zuviel, eine Überfülle des Bewußtseins ist da, wenn der Tod eingetreten ist. Man lebt und webt ganz im Bewußtsein darin, und so wie das starke Sonnenlicht die Augen betäubt, so ist man zunächst vom Bewußtsein betäubt, man hat zuviel Bewußtsein. Es muß dieses Bewußtsein erst herabgedämmert werden, damit man sich orientieren kann in dem Leben, in das man nach dem Tode eingetreten ist. Das dauert längere Zeit, es geschieht nach und nach in der Weise, daß nach dem Tode immer mehr Momente eintreten, in denen das Bewußtsein eine solche Orientierung möglich macht; daß die Seele für eine mehr oder weniger kurze Zeit zu sich kommt und dann wiederum in eine Art schlafähnlichen Zustand eintritt, wie man es bezeichnen könnte. Dann werden nach und nach solche Momente immer länger, die Seele kommt immer mehr in solche Verhältnisse hinein, bis ein vollständiges Orientieren in der geistigen Welt da ist.

Schwierigkeiten macht auch dieses, sich klare, deutliche Vorstellungen zu machen von der Art, wie der durch die Pforte des Todes Gegangene die Umwelt wahrnimmt. Wir haben in den letzten Wochen eine liebe anthroposophische Freundin durch Feuer bestattet, und nach dem Wunsch der Toten war mir die Aufgabe zugefallen, den an dem Orte des eingetretenen Todes sich versammelnden Freunden eine Bestattungsfeier zu machen. In der Zeit, in welcher ich gesprochen habe und meine Worte an die Tote gerichtet hatte, war die Tote gewissermaßen wie schlafend. Dann wirkte die Wärme, es ergriffen gewissermaßen die Flammen den Leib, und in diesem Augenblick kam wie ein Moment des Bewußtseins über die Seele, wie ein Moment der Orientierung, und da hatte die Tote das ganze Bild desjenigen, was die Bestattungsfeier und die Bestattungsrede war, vor sich, wie man etwas Räumliches gleichzeitig vor sich hat. Die Zeit wird da wirklich zum Raum. Man sieht das Vergangene nicht so, wie man im Leben das Vergangene in der Zeit verlaufend sieht, sondern man sieht wie ein Räumliches das, was vergangen ist, vor sich. So daß dasjenige, was schon abgelaufen war, was geschehen war, sagen wir eine Viertelstunde zuvor, dann vor der Seele der Toten stand wie ein erster Aufleuchtemoment des Bewußtseins. Dann kam wiederum ein Zustand des Betäubtseins in dem überflutenden Bewußtseinslicht, um in diesem Zustand entgegenzugehen jenen andern Zuständen, in denen dann die Seele allmählich lernt, sich zu orientieren in der geistigen Welt.

Es ist wichtig, wenn wir uns wirklich gute Vorstellungen über das Leben nach dem Tode machen wollen, daß wir diese ganz andern Zeitbegriffe ins Auge fassen; daß wir einsehen, wie da die Zeit nicht etwas ist, von dem man sagen kann, es ist verflossen, und man erinnert sich an die Dinge, die in der Zeit geschehen sind, sondern das Verflossene steht da. Wie der Tisch dasteht und dieser Tisch nicht mitgeht, wenn ich dorthin gehe, wie ich auf ihn zurückschaue, so bleibt nach dem Tode .dasjenige, was geschehen ist, was eben nur erinnert werden kann, da stehen, und der Tote schaut darauf zurück, wie man im Leibe auf die räumlichen Gegenstände zurückschaut. Das ist sehr wichtig, ins Auge zu fassen. Was weiter von ganz besonderer Wichtigkeit ins Auge zu fassen ist, das ist, daß wir wirklich in Verbindung bleiben, daß unser Erdenleben in Verbindung bleibt mit dem, was wir nachher zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt erleben; wenigstens in enger Verbindung bleibt bis zu dem Zeitpunkt, der im letzten Mysteriendrama als Mitternachtsstunde des geistigen Daseins bezeichnet worden ist.

Ich möchte doch nicht versäumen, von diesen schwierig zu schildernden Verhältnissen nach und nach unseren Freunden Vorstellungen zu geben. Auf das, was wir als Erdenmenschen zwischen Geburt und Tod durchlebt haben, sieht die Seele, die in den Tod gegangen ist, zurück — aber nicht so, als ob das, was man da durchgemacht hat, bloß da wäre, sondern es wirkt mit in einer eigentümlichen Weise mancher Lebenszustand des Toten. Der Lebenszustand des Toten ist ja nicht so wie der Lebenszustand des zwischen Geburt und Tod Lebenden. Der Lebenszustand des zwischen Geburt und Tod Lebenden ist so, daß er sich in seine Haut eingeschlossen fühlt und durch seine Sinne hinausschaut in die Welt. Sobald man als 'Toter eintritt in die geistige Welt, ist man in die ganze geistige Welt ausgeflossen. Man fühlt sich wie die ganze geistige Welt erfüllend nach und nach. Und das, was man durchlebt hat während des physischen Erdendaseins, empfindet man wie etwas, was einem bleibt - nicht als physischer Leib natürlich, sondern als das, was die Form, die Kräfte des physischen Leibes ausmacht. Das bleibt einem wohl nach dem Tode, aber man hat es so, wie man jetzt im physischen Leibe das menschliche Auge hat. Wie man das Auge zum Sehen hat, so hat man dann sich selbst, das Erdenleben, das man durchlebt hat, wie ein kosmisches Sinnesorgan, um die Welt damit wahrzunehmen. Was unser Auge jetzt für unseren Leib ist, das ist unser Erdenleben für unser geistiges Leben nach dem Tode.

Es wird uns unser Erdenleben gleichsam eingesetzt als ein Auge, als ein Sinnesorgan. Sie werden erst nach und nach bei längerem Meditieren darauf kommen, welch Bedeutsames eigentlich damit ausgesprochen ist, daß unser Erdenleben Sinnesorgan wird für unser Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Wenn der Mensch beim Einschlafen mit seinem Ich und Astralleib aus seinem physischen Leibe und Ätherleibe heraustritt, so ist es nämlich auch schon ähnlich. Wenn die Initiation eintritt und der Mensch sehend wird in der geistigen Welt außerhalb seines physischen und ätherischen Leibes, dann weiß er: In der geistigen Welt nimmst du wahr wie durch ein Sinnesorgan mit dem geistigen Teil deines physischen Leibes, und du denkst in der geistigen Welt mit deinem Ätherleib. Dein Ätherleib ist eigentlich wie dein Gehirn in der geistigen Welt und dein früherer physischer Leib ist ein Sinnesorgan. Du selbst aber bist mit all deinen Lebenskräften ausgegossen über die geistigen Weiten. Du hast dich verbreitet, du fühlst dich nicht durch deine Haut zusammengedrängt an einen Ort, du fühlst dich ausgegossen, ausgebreitet über die geistige Welt.

Es ist das ein ganz anderes Dasein. Und damit hängt zusammen, daß derjenige, der selbst in die geistige Welt eintritt, sei es durch den Tod, sei es durch Initiation, mit den andern Wesenheiten der geistigen Welt, mit Wesenheiten höherer Hierarchien oder mit Menschenseelen, die zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt leben, so vereinigt lebt, daß er sie nicht so erlebt, wie man Erdenmenschen außen trifft, wo man räumlich von ihnen getrennt ist. Sondern er erlebt sie als mit ihm befindlich in einem gemeinsamen Geistraum, sich gegenseitig durchdringend. Das, was eine andere Seele erlebt, erfährt man nicht dadurch, daß sie einem etwas sagt, wie bei den Erdenmenschen, sondern so, daß man in die andere Seele sich hineinlebt und in ihrer Wesenheit ihre Gedanken miterlebt. Daher ist es auch, daß man nur dann sicher sein kann, in sich wirklich das zu erleben, was zum Beispiel ein Toter erlebt, wenn man weiß: Man ist gewissermaßen in dem Toten darinnen, man gibt nicht nur etwas wieder, was man nach dem Musterbild von irgend etwas vernimmt, das man auf der Erde erlebt, sondern man vernimmt:.Der Tote selbst spricht durch deine Wesenheit.

Auch das möchte ich Ihnen durch ein Beispiel erläutern. Eines unserer Mitglieder ist vor kurzem gestorben. Noch vor der Feuerbestattung war es, daß gewissermaßen die Notwendigkeit gefühlt wurde, zu vernehmen, was diese Persönlichkeit nach dem Tode zu sagen habe. Zu sagen habe dadurch, daß sie gewissermaßen mit ihrem Ätherleib noch zusammensteckte und sich durch ihren Ätherleib gewissermaßen auf irdische Art ausdrücken konnte, dennoch aber alles zusammenfaßte, was durch ein intensives Miterleben der anthroposophischen Weltanschauung in ihre Seele verwebt worden war. Also wir haben es mit einer Persönlichkeit zu tun, die zu ziemlich hohen Jahren gekommen war, die in der letzten Zeit ihres Lebens wirklich intensiv und mit allen Kräften ihres Herzens sich eingelebt hat in unsere geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung. Dann ging sie durch die Pforte des Todes. Nun hatte sie also noch ihren Ätherleib. Es war noch vor der Feuerbestattung, und der Ätherleib war noch da als ein Mittel, sich auszudrücken. Das gab die Möglichkeit, sich noch durch irdische Worte auszudrücken, weil der Ätherleib diese nacherleben konnte. Und die Befreiung vom Leibe, vom Erdendasein, gab zugleich die Möglichkeit, das ganze Wesen zusammenzufassen, das sich durch das Herz eingegraben hatte in die Seele. Und indem sich mir zeigte, wie diese Persönlichkeit, die also durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist, ihr Wesen aussprechen wollte — etwa am zweiten Tage, nachdem der Tod eingetreten war -, bildeten sich die Worte, die ich Ihnen mitteilen kann, Worte, die also anzusehen sind als Worte, von der Toten erlebt. So daß man sich vorzustellen hat, daß hier, am zweiten Tage nach dem Tode, dieses Wesen der Seele, die durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen war, erfüllt war von der Kraft dieser Worte, sich in der Kraft dieser Worte aussprach. Und wenn man sich in diese Seele versetzte, so sprach durch einen in diesen Worten sich dieses Wesen der Seele, dieses Wesen der Toten aus. Deshalb konnte ich nichts besseres tun, als dann bei der Bestattung gerade diese Worte an die Tote zu richten, denn es waren die Worte, die sie gleichsam selbst zu den Freunden sprach, die um die irdischen Reste umherstanden. Ich kann Ihnen die Versicherung geben: Ich habe nichts, nichts zu diesen Worten hinzugetan, sondern ich habe versucht, sie aufzufassen aus dem Wesen der Toten. Gewiß, später tritt dann das ein, was ich die Betäubung des Bewußtseins genannt habe, was man eine Art Schlafzustand nennen könnte. Nun würde die Tote nicht dieses ihr Wesen ebenso zum Ausdruck haben bringen können, weil ihr jetzt das Mittel des Ätherleibes fehlt. Sie wird es nach einiger Zeit wiederum können, aber unmittelbar nach dem Tode wäre das unmöglich. Die Worte heißen:

In Weltenweiten will ich tragen
Mein fühlend Herz, daß warm es werde
Im Feuer heil’gen Kräftewirkens;

In Weltgedanken will ich weben
Das eigne Denken, daß klar es werde
Im Licht des ew’gen Werde-Lebens;

In Seelengründe will ich tauchen Ergeb’nes
Sinnen, daß stark es werde
Für Menschenwirkens wahre Ziele;

In Gottes Ruhe streb’ ich so
Mit Lebenskämpfen und mit Sorgen,
ein Selbst zum höhern Selbst bereitend;

Nach arbeitfreud’gem Frieden trachtend,
Erahnend Welten-Sein im Eigensein,
Möcht’ ich die Menschenpflicht erfüllen;

Erwartend leben darf ich dann Entgegen
einem Schicksalsterne, Der mir im
Geistgebiet den Ort erteilt.

Das ist gewissermaßen das Lebensergebnis des jahrelangen Aufgehens in der geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung. Dieses jahrelange Aufgehen in der geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung ist zum Wesen der Seele selbst geworden und hat sich so ausgesprochen.

Es ist dieses ein konkretes, ein anschauliches Beispiel, wie die Kräfte der Seele erfaßt werden, wenn man nicht bloß in der Theorie die geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung aufnimmt, sondern wenn man sie zu Lebenskräften in der Seele macht. Da tritt die Empfindung, da treten die Gefühle, die aus der geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung kommen, hinaus über das Theoretische und werden selbst Kräfte in der Seele. Denn ganz gewiß ist es: Niemand, der nicht durch die geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung gegangen ist, würde sein eigenes Wesen nach dem Tode in solche Worte zusammenfassen:

In Weltenweiten will ich tragen
Mein fühlend Herz, daß warm es werde
Im Feuer heil’gen Kräftewirkens;

In Weltgedanken will ich weben
Das eigne Denken, daß klar es werde Im
Licht des ew’gen Werde-Lebens...

Ich möchte dieses als ein anschauliches Beispiel vor Ihre Seele hinstellen für den geheimnisvollen Gang, den die menschliche Seele nimmt gerade durch den Zeitpunkt hindurch, der das Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod trennt von dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, wo gewissermaßen alles das, was uns im Erdenleben noch äußere Erfahrung war, innerer Reichtum der Seele wird und so in uns lebt. Hier nimmt man Geisteswissenschaft noch als etwas Äußeres an. Gleich nach dem Tode aber zeigt es sich, wie sie so in der Seele lebt, ja, sagen wir, so wie Muskelkraft jetzt in unserem physischen Leibe lebt. Das muß man einmal erfühlen, wenn man so richtig den inneren Sinn, die innere Bedeutung dessen erfassen will, was die Geisteswissenschaft der menschlichen Seele sein kann. Man wird dann nach und nach - dazu muß man Geduld haben - sich einen Begriff aneignen von den doch ganz andersartigen Verhältnissen, die in der geistigen Welt bestehen. Wenn wir uns von den Verhältnissen, die in der Sinneswelt sind, Worte und Begriffe prägen, so können wir höchstens Sinnbilder dessen geben, was in der geistigen Welt ist. Man muß sich in Geduld hinarbeiten zu Begriffen und Empfindungen und Gefühlen, die einigermaßen richtig und wahr dasjenige ausdrücken, was die Verhältnisse der geistigen Welt sind. Die Logik des Erdenlebens ja, es ist wirklich nur eine Logik des Erdenlebens -, sie ist für das Erdenleben schon manchmal recht brüchig. Ich habe auch hier schon angeführt, wie man mit der Logik des Erdenlebens an den wirklichen Tatsachen vorbeigehen kann. Ich habe öfter das Beispiel angeführt: Nehmen wir an, ein Mensch geht an einem Bach spazieren. Wir sehen, daß er in den Bach hineinfällt. Wir eilen herbei und entdecken, daß er schon tot ist. Wir sehen einen Stein an der Stelle, wo der Mensch in den Bach gefallen ist, und können uns jetzt ein ganz logisches, aber doch oberflächliches Urteil bilden. Wir können sagen: Der Mensch ist über den Stein gestolpert, in den Bach gefallen und ertrunken. Er ist den Tod des Ertrinkens gestorben. — Aber das kann ganz falsch sein. Wenn man vielleicht rein äußerlich anatomisch die Sache untersucht, so kann es sich herausstellen, daß der Mensch vom Herzschlag getroffen worden ist; dadurch fiel er ins Wasser. Der Herzschlag ist die Ursache seines Todes. Mit der gewöhnlichen richtigen Logik schließen wir das Verkehrte. Solche Schlüsse — das sei nur nebenbei bemerkt — werden im menschlichen Leben und namentlich in der Wissenschaft fortwährend gemacht. Die Wissenschaft ist voll von solchen Schlüssen, wo Ursache und Wirkung verwechselt werden.

Aber wichtig wird die Sache, wenn menschliche Schicksalsfragen in Betracht kommen. Wir haben in Dornach im Herbst einen solchen Schicksalsschlag erlebt, der im bedeutungsvollsten Sinne lehrreich ist. Der kleine, siebenjährige Sohn unseres Mitgliedes, Theo Faiß, der ein außerordentlich liebes, aufgewecktes Kind war, wurde eines Abends vermißt. Es war gerade an einem Vortragsabend. Die Mutter suchte das Kind, es war nicht zu finden. Und als der Vortrag vorbei war, da hörte man eigentlich erst, daß die Mutter den Knaben vermisse, und man konnte sich nichts anderes denken, als daß der Tod des Knaben in Zusammenhang stände mit dem Umfallen eines Möbelwagens. Ein Mitglied unserer Gesellschaft hatte ihre Möbel in einem Möbelwagen schicken lassen, und dieser Möbelwagen war an dem Abend an der Stelle, wo er stand, umgefallen. Es war zehn ein Viertel Uhr des Abends und wir wendeten alles mögliche an, um den Wagen zu heben. Das mobilisierte Militär kam uns entgegen, um uns zu helfen, diesen Möbelwagen aufzuheben. Der Möbelwagen wurde gehoben, und man fand den Knaben erdrückt unter dem Wagen. Nun bedenken Sie, in dieser Gegend ist überhaupt vorher niemals ein Möbelwagen gefahren; nachher auch nicht. Der Knabe ist, man konnte das später konstatieren durch alles Mögliche, was man so Zwischenfälle und Zufälle nennt, gerade in der Zeit — es hat sich ja nur um Minuten, ja um einen Augenblick gehandelt - dort an der Stelle gewesen, wo der Möbelwagen umfiel. Merkwürdig war es allerdings, daß zunächst diejenigen, die an der Stelle waren, wo der Wagen umgefallen ist, nur daran gedacht haben, die Pferde in Sicherheit zu bringen. Man hatte keine Ahnung, daß der Möbelwagen auf den kleinen Knaben gefallen war.

Das Kind war also tot. Die äußere materialistische Anschauung kann sagen: Nun ja, zufällig ist dort zu dieser Stunde der Möbelwagen umgefallen, das Kind kam darunter und wurde zerquetscht. 'So wird natürlich die materialistische Anschauung sagen. Vor der spirituellen Anschauung ist das ein vollständiger Unsinn. Denn das, was da vorliegt, ist das Karma des Kindes, und dieses Karma des Kindes lenkte all die einzelnen Verhältnisse. Es hat auch den Möbelwagen dorthin gelenkt gerade zu der Stunde, wo das Kind den Tod brauchte, weil das Karma des Kindes es so wollte. Das Karma des Kindes war abgelaufen. Wir haben es hier zu tun mit der Notwendigkeit, Ursache und Wirkung wirklich umzukehren.

Durch solche Verhältnisse und ihre Anschauung kann man sich allmählich hinaufranken zu der wirklichen Auffassung des Lebens, die uns dazu bringt, das, was der äußere Sinnenschein darbietet, gerade umzukehren. Wir müssen das vielfach umkehren. Aber so ganz bedeutsam wird die Sache dann, wenn nachher erlebt wird, was aus einer solchen Tatsache wird. Die Seele eines Menschenwesens geht durch die Pforte des Todes. Diese Seele war sieben Jahre in einem physischen Leibe verkörpert. Warum hätte denn der kleine Theo nicht auch siebzig, achtzig, neunzig Jahre werden können, äußerlich angesehen, wenn das Karma es nicht unmöglich gemacht hätte? Ein Ätherleib ist da, der das Leben noch Jahrzehnte hindurch hätte versorgen können; ein Ätherleib, der wirklich angefüllt war von Kräften des Ewigen, Guten. Es war ein ausgezeichneter Knabe. Von der eigentlichen Individualität, dem Ich und Astralleib, wissen Sie ja, daß sie dann ihren Weg weitergehen. Aber der Ätherleib löst sich los, dieser Ätherleib, in den hineinverwoben sind alle die zarten, schönen Kräfte, die sich im Kindheitsalter entwickelt haben, in dem aber auch leben alle die Kräfte, die aus den früheren Inkarnationen kommen. Nun bedenken Sie, was man mit einem solchen Ätherleib vor sich hat. Die Individualität kommt aus den früheren Inkarnationen. Sie verleibt sich neu ein in dieser Inkarnation; sie bringt mit, was aus früheren Inkarnationen kommt. Das Leben in dieser Inkarnation ist gewissermaßen die Frucht, das Ausleben dessen, was Ursache in einem Leben war in früheren Inkarnationen. Durch das ganze Leben hindurch hätten sich diese Früchte ausleben können. Dann wäre in diesen Ätherleib alles dasjenige hineingegangen, was aus den Früchten der früheren Inkarnationen kommt. Das ist nicht geschehen. Dafür steckt in diesem Ätherleib alles das darin, was noch Ursachen in den früheren Inkarnationen hat. Und das Merkwürdigste ist nun: Derjenige, der versucht, die Aura unseres Dornacher Baus zu durchforschen, der findet diesen Ätherleib des kleinen Theo in der Aura des Dornacher Baus. Da ist er, da umschwebt er, umlebt er den Dornacher Bau. Derjenige, der zu tun hat mit dem Dornacher Bau oder noch zu tun haben wird nach jenem Spätherbstnachmittag, an dem der kleine Theo durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist, der weiß, was verändert worden ist an der geistigen Aura des Dornacher Baues dadurch, daß dieser Aura einverleibt worden ist jener Ätherleib, der die Kräfte enthält, die sonst noch jahrzehntelang für die Versorgung eines physischen Menschenleibes verwendet worden wären, und dieser Ätherleib ist eben ausgegossen in diese Aura des Baues.

So geheimnisvoll sind die Wege, welche die durch die Welt flutende Weisheit mit ihren Geschöpfen durchzumachen hat. Es gibt erst richtige Vorstellungen von der Art, wie das gesamte Menschenleben verläuft - zu dem ja im eminentesten Sinne das Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt gehört -, wenn man auf Einzelheiten dieser Dinge eingeht. Und da unsere anthroposophische Bewegung wirklich nicht etwas Abstraktes sein soll, sondern etwas, worin wir sind mit unserem ganzen Wesen, worinnen auch diejenigen sind, die eben zu uns gehören, so darf auch über solche Dinge gesprochen werden. Wir vereinigen uns ja nicht nur wie andere Gesellschaften mit einem bestimmten Programm, sondern wir wollen nit unserer ganzen Seele in unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Bewegung darin sein. Wir wollen diese geisteswissenschaftliche Bewegung als einen konkreten Strom denken, zu dem jeder gehört, der sich wirklich empfindungsgemäß zu ihr bekennt. Und so können wir sagen: Da sprechen wir, wie man eben in einer erweiterten Familie über die Angehörigen da oder dort spricht. Denn dasjenige, was uns sozusagen familiär vertraut berührt, das gibt uns zugleich über die geistige Welt die höchsten, die bedeutsamsten, die für uns wichtigsten Aufschlüsse.

Aus solcher Gesinnung heraus möchte ich noch einen der uns gerade in der letzten Zeit öfter betroffenen Tode unserer Freunde erwähnen. Der uns allen so unendlich liebe Freund Fritz Mitscher ist vor kurzem durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen. Und da war es so, daß sich mir die Notwendigkeit ergab, zusammenzufassen in Worte, was die eigene Seele fühlte, indem sie sich hinneigte zu der Seele, die eben durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen war. Merken Sie den Unterschied zwischen den vorhergehenden Worten, die ich Ihnen vorgelesen habe, und den Worten, die ich jetzt Ihnen vorlesen will. Die soeben hier vorgelesenen Worte sind aus der Seele der Toten heraus. Die Worte, die ich Ihnen jetzt vorlesen werde, sind angeregt in der eigenen Seele beim Anblick des seelisch mit seinem Ätherleib noch vereinten Toten, Fritz Mitscher. Es ist also der Eindruck, den der Tote machte, der jetzt in diesen Worten wiedergegeben ist. Sie wissen vielleicht, Fritz Mitscher war schon als junger Lehrer an den verschiedensten Orten, besonders in Berlin, tätig für unsere Anthroposophische Gesellschaft. Und viele von uns wissen ja auch, wie gerade er gewillt war in so schöner Weise, alles das, was er an Erdenwissenschaft und Erdengelehrsamkeit sich hat aneignen können, zu verbinden mit dem edelsten, schönsten anthroposophischen Bewußtsein. Das drückt sich auch nach dem Tode aus, wo vereinigt war in seinem gesamten Wesen das, was er war, und was jetzt wiederstrahlt nach dem Tode aus der leibbefreiten Seele, die noch ihren Ätherleib hatte. Und es scheint mir, daß das so ausgedrückt werden mußte, was Fritz Mitscher nach dem Tode war, mit den Worten, die ich ihm nachsenden mußte bei der Feuerbestattung.

Eine Hoffnung, uns beglückend:
So betratest Du das Feld,
Wo der Erde Geistesblüten,
Durch die Kraft des Seelenseins,
Sich dem Forschen zeigen möchten.

Lautrer Wahrheitliebe Wesen
War Dein Sehnen urverwandt;
us dem Geisteslicht zu schaffen,
War das ernste Lebensziel,
Dem Du rastlos nachgestrebt.

Deine schönen Gaben pflegtest Du,
Um der Geist-Erkenntnis hellen Weg,
Unbeirrt vom Welten-Widerspruch
Als der Wahrheit treuer Diener
Sichern Schrittes hinzuwandeln.

Deine Geistorgane übtest Du,
Daß sie tapfer und beharrlich
An des Weges beide Ränder
Dir den Irrtum drängten
Und Dir Raum für Wahrheit schufen.

Dir Dein Selbst zur Offenbarung
Reinen Lichtes zu gestalten,
Daß die Seelen-Sonnenkraft
Dir im Innern machtvoll strahle,
War Dir Lebenssorg’ und Freude.

Andre Sorgen, andre Freuden,
Sie berührten Deine Seele kaum,
Weil Erkenntnis Dir als Licht,
Das dem Dasein Sinn verleiht,
Als des Lebens wahrer Wert erschien.

Eine Hoffnung, uns beglückend:
So betratest Du das Feld,
Wo der Erde Geistesblüten
Durch die Kraft des Seelenseins
Sich dem Forschen zeigen möchten.

Ein Verlust, der tief uns schmerzt,
So entschwindest Du dem Feld,
Wo des Geistes Erdenkeime
In dem Schoß des Seelenseins
Deinem Sphärensinne reiften.

Fühle, wie wir liebend blicken
In die Höhen, die Dich jetzt
Hin zu andrem Schaffen rufen.
eiche den verlaß’nen Freunden
Deine Kraft aus Geistgebieten.

Höre unsrer Seelen Bitte,
Im Vertrau’n Dir nachgesandt:
Wir bedürfen hier zum Erdenwerk
Starker Kraft aus Geistes-Landen,
Die wir toten Freunden danken.

Eine Hoffnung, uns beglückend,
in Verlust, der tief uns schmerzt:
Laß uns hoffen, daß Du ferne-nah,
Unverloren unsrem Leben, leuchtest
Als ein Seelenstern im Geistbereich.

Das sind die Worte, die aus der Wesenheit des Toten heraus dem Toten nachgesandt wurden. Und dann verging, nachdem diese Worte bei der Feuerbestattung gesprochen waren, einige Zeit. Und aus der Wesenheit des Toten heraus, noch nicht aus dem wohlgeordneten Bewußtsein, sondern wie aus der Wesenheit heraus ertönend, erklangen die folgenden Worte; Worte, die also jetzt von dem Toten herüberklangen in der auf die Feuerbestattung folgenden Nacht.

Mir mein Selbst zur Offenbarung
Reinen Lichtes zu gestalten,
Daß die Seelen-Sonnenkraft
Mir im Innern machtvoll strahle,
War mir Lebenssorg’ und Freude.

Andre Sorgen, andre Freuden,
Sie berührten meine Seele kaum,
Weil Erkenntnis mir als Licht,
Das dem Dasein Sinn verleiht,
Als des Lebens wahrer Wert erschien.

So klangen die Worte zurück. Ich hatte selbst erst nachher entdeckt, daß die zwei Strophen, die mitten darinnen sind, sich unmittelbar aus dem Du ins Ich und aus dem Dir ins Mir umwandeln lassen. Ich hatte es vorher nicht gewußt. Denn ich hatte die Strophen so vernommen, wie ich sie Ihnen zuerst gelesen habe. Und nun kamen sie zurück aus dem Wesen des Toten, von ihm gesprochen:

Mir mein Selbst zur Offenbarung
Reinen Lichtes zu gestalten,
Daß die Seelen-Sonnenkraft
Mir im Innern machtvoll strahle,
War mir Lebenssorg’ und Freude.

Andre Sorgen, andre Freuden,
Sie berührten meine Seele kaum,
Weil Erkenntnis mir als Licht,
Das dem Dasein Sinn verleiht,
Als des Lebens wahrer Wert erschien.

Das zeigt, wie auch in der Zeit, in der das Bewußtsein noch nicht die Form hat, die es dann nach dieser Zeit wieder aus der Seele heraus hat durch das ganze Gebiet zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, es zeigt, wie sogar in lebendiger Umgestaltung, ja in sinnvoller Umgestaltung die Worte kommen, die heraufgetönt sind zu dem Toten. Man muß nur fühlen, wie die geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung wirklich lebendig wird in dem Zusammenhangschaffen zwischen der physischen und der geistigen Welt. Denn es kann wirklich etwas wie ein Schauer durch unsere Seele gehen, wenn wir gerade an einem solchen Beispiel erfühlen, wie dem Toten die Worte zugerufen werden — und er sie uns verändert wiedergibt. Wie auf der einen Seite wir fühlen, daß sie zu dem Toten hingegangen sind, weil sie von ihm wiederklingen, aber nicht nur wie ein Echo wiederklingen, sondern sinnvoll verändert, für ihn angepaßt.

Das sind Dinge, die uns auch für unsere Gegenwart die Gewißheit, die Zuversicht geben, daß die Seelen, die hier in Erdenleibern leben, in Zusammenhang, in Verbindung stehen mit den durch die Welt waltenden und webenden geistigen Mächten, und daß wiederum in diesem Strom von waltenden und webenden geistigen Mächten die durch den Tod gegangenen Menschenerdenseelen hineinverwoben sind, darin sind, da darin ihre weiteren, ihre Post-mortem-Schicksale erleben.

Wenn wir den Zusammenhang der physischen Welt mit der geistigen Welt so recht auf unser Gemüt wirken lassen, so können wir ja Verschiedenes ins Auge fassen. Ich habe schon einmal auch hier darauf hingewiesen, daß uns bei diesem Zusammenwirken, bei diesem im konkreten Sinne verlaufenden Zusammenwirken von physischer Welt und geistiger Welt auch besonders nahetritt dasjenige, was der Impuls des Mysteriums von Golgatha ist. Wir wissen ja, daß wir eigentlich erst jetzt anfangen, durch Geisteswissenschaft Sinn und Bedeutung des Mysteriums von Golgatha und der Christus-Wesenheit völlig ins Auge zu fassen. Bisher haben die Menschen das mit dem Verstand getan, richtig mit dem Verstand getan. Und was ist herausgekommen mit diesem Verstand? Nun, wenn die Wirksamkeit des Christus im Menschenerdenleben auf das angewiesen gewesen wäre, was die Menschen davon verstanden haben, so hätte die Wirksamkeit des Christus-Impulses auf Erden keine sehr große sein können. Theologisches Gezänk, allerlei Streitigkeiten, das haben die Menschen in ihrem Verstand vom Christentum begriffen. Aber der Christus hat aus lebendiger Kraft gewirkt.

Ich habe wohl auch schon hier das Beispiel von der Schlacht angeführt, die Konstantin gegen Maxentius geführt hat, durch die das Schicksal des damaligen Europa entschieden worden ist. Damit ist das Christentum eigentlich erst anerkannt und dann zur herrschenden Macht in Europa geworden. Diese Schlacht ist nicht gewonnen worden durch Feldherrenkunst noch durch die Heere des Konstantin. Maxentius hatte Rom zu verteidigen. Durch das Nachschlagen der sibyllinischen Bücher und durch einen Traum, den er gehabt hat, wurde ihm eingegeben, daß sein Heer, das fünfmal stärker war als das des Konstantin, der gegen Rom heranmarschierte, von ihm aus Rom heraus geführt werden solle; dann würde er die Feinde Roms vernichten. Nun führte er wirklich sein Heer aus Rom heraus, strategisch das Allerungeschickteste, was er hat machen können, denn nach der Strategie sprach alles dafür, sein Heer in Rom zu lassen und die feindlichen Heere herankommen zu lassen; aber er führte sein Heer aus Rom heraus. Und auch auf der Seite Konstantins, der seine Heere gegen Rom führte, waren es nicht kriegerisch-wissenschaftliche Gründe, die ihm die Kraft gaben, sondern auch er hatte einen Traum. Der Traum sagte ihm: Wenn du das Monogramm Christi deinen Heeren vorantragen lässest, wirst du Rom besiegen. -— Durch den Sieg Konstantins mit seinem schwächeren Heer wurde damals und für später noch die ganze Landkarte Europas verwandelt. Auch das geistige Leben Europas ist dadurch ein anderes geworden. Dasjenige, was die Menschen dazumal haben begreifen können, hätte nicht ausgereicht, um die Leistungen zu vollbringen. Der Christus-Impuls wirkte in das Unterbewußtsein der Menschen herein, in das, was in den Tiefen der Seelen lebte, wovon die Menschen nur haben träumen können, was ihnen höchstens in Traumbildern aufschoß.

Ein späteres, ganz bedeutungsvolles Beispiel für das Hereinwirken des Christus-Impulses haben wir bei der Jungfrau von Orleans. Wer die Geschichte wirklich studiert, also nicht so, wie man heute oftmals Geschichte studiert, sondern so, daß man versucht, die wirklichen Zusammenhänge zu erkennen, der kann wissen, daß durch das, was die Jungfrau von Orleans getan hat, wiederum das Schicksal Europas für die nächsten Jahrhunderte absolut bestimmt wurde. Nicht Feldherrenkunst, nicht die Weisheit der Politiker, sondern das, was das Hirtenmädchen von Orleans getan hat, war entscheidend für das Schicksal Europas, besonders auch für das Schicksal Frankreichs. Nun aber wirkte in der Jungfrau von Orleans, durch seinen michaelischen Vertreter, der Christus-Impuls. Er wirkte in die Seele der Jungfrau von Orleans hinein. Ihre Seele war völlig durchdrungen, durchinspitiert von dem Christus-Impuls. Geradeso wie dazumal, als die Schlacht zwischen Konstantin und Maxentius entschieden worden ist, der Christus-Impuls wirkte, ohne daß die Menschen im Oberbewußtsein etwas davon wußten, so wirkte der Christus-Impuls auch da, als die Jungfrau von Orleans die französischen Heere den englischen Heeren entgegenschickte. Das ganze Festland wäre ja anders geworden, auch England, wenn Frankreich damals nicht gesiegt hätte. Auch England wäre nicht das, was es geworden ist, wenn es nicht besiegt worden wäre. Aber wie gesagt, dasjenige, was den Sieg herbeigeführt hat, es waren die unterbewußten Kräfte, die in Visionen heraufkamen; durch sie wurden die Fähigkeiten der Jungfrau von Orleans inspiriert. So daß man sagen kann: Dasjenige, was die Jungfrau von Orleans getan hat, steht unter dem Einfluß einer mehr oder weniger unbewußten Initiation. Es ist ja natürlich eine unbewußte, man kann auch sagen, eine atavistische Initiation. Es mußte eben unbewußt ergriffen werden ein reines seelisches Gefäß, wie es die Jungfrau von Orleans war, durch das der Christus-Impuls durch seinen michaelischen Vertreter wirken konnte - ein reines Gefäß.

Sehen wir uns nun einmal die Sache genauer an. Wenn jemand heute bewußt eine Initiation durchmacht — nun, dazu gibt es Regeln. Die Anfangsgründe stehen ja in meinem Buche «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?». Es gibt Regeln, durch die man sich allmählich hinaufarbeiten kann. Von solch einer bewußten Initiation konnte natürlich bei der Jungfrau von Orleans nicht die Rede sein. Aber es mußte ein Geist, der sonst nicht mit der menschlichen Seele vereint ist, in dieser menschlichen Seele Platz greifen, diese menschliche Seele durchsetzen. Dazu mußten besonders günstige Umstände eintreten. Es kann ja nicht immer ein Geist höherer Sphären in Seelen eingreifen, die dazu befähigt sind. Es müssen besonders günstige Umstände eintreten, damit eine menschliche Einzelseele ohne Initiation, ohne bewußtes Arbeiten an sich selbst, in Zusammenhang mit höheren Welten kommt. Besonders günstige Umstände liegen vor in der Zeit, wenn gewissermaßen der Erdgeist besonders aufwacht: in der Zeit vom 25. Dezember bis 6. Januar. Wenn im Sommer die Sonne am höchsten steht, wenn die physische Wärme der Erde am meisten zustrahlt, dann sind die Bedingungen für die Initiation am schlechtesten, weil da der Geist der Erde schläft. Der Geist der Erde ist am wachsten in der Winterfinsternis, bei der Wintersonnenwende.

Daher ist es keine bloße Legende, sondern entspricht einer Wahrheit, wenn in alten Legenden erzählt wird, daß in den dreizehn Nächten, die dem 6. Januar vorangehen, gewisse besonders geeignete Seelen initiiert wurden, so daß sie hineingehen konnten in die geistige Welt, daß sie dort erleben konnten dasjenige, was wir Kamaloka und Devachan nennen. Wir erinnern uns wohl, hier in Hannover ist einmal die Legende von Olaf Åsteson vorgetragen worden, der in den dreizehn Nächten schlafend durchgemacht hat den ganzen Weg, der der Weg sein kann durch Kamaloka und Devachan. Olaf Åsteson erzählt dann, was er erlebt hat in diesen dreizehn Tagen.

Wenn also die äußere physische Erdenfinsternis am stärksten ist, sind die Verhältnisse am günstigsten, um eine Seele in die geistige Welt hineinzuführen. Für Seelen, die nicht durch unmittelbar bewußtes Erarbeiten, sondern durch besonders günstige Umstände initiiert werden für die ganze Menschheit zu einer solchen Tat, wie sie die Jungfrau von Orleans vollbracht hat, wäre es also wohl das günstigste gewesen, wenn sie etwa hätte schlafen können in den dreizehn Nächten, und sie hätte schlafend in Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt gebracht werden können; wenn sie das alles also in einer Art von Schlafzustand hätte durchmachen können. Nun, es ist wirklich so, daß die Jungfrau von Orleans einen solchen Schlafzustand durchgemacht hat. Und das ist so gekommen, daß die Jungfrau von Orleans diese dreizehn Tage bis zum 6. Januar hin im Leibe der Mutter zugebracht hat in einem Zustand, wo der Mensch noch schläft. Denn der Mensch wacht ja für das physische Leben erst auf, wenn er geboren ist und den ersten Atemzug tut. Bei der Jungfrau von Orleans fallen die letzten Schlafnächte des Embryonalzustandes in die Zeit der dreizehn Nächte, denn sie wurde geboren am 6. Januar. Da haben Sie einen tief bedeutsamen innerlich historischen Zusammenhang. Da haben Sie die Grundlage der Mission der Jungfrau von Orleans, die dazu ausersehen war, als diese reine Seele vor ihrem ersten Atemzug in den letzten dreizehn Nächten der Schwangerschaft ihrer Mutter, in diesem Schlafzustand die Initiation zu empfangen, eben in den besonders günstigen Umständen des Erdenlebens. Hier zeigt es Ihnen einfach der Kalender. Denn schlagen Sie es im Kalender auf: Am 6. Januar werden Sie den Geburtstag der Jungfrau von Orleans finden. Da zeigt Ihnen der Kalender, wie hier ein tief innerlicher Zusammenhang zwischen der physischen Welt und den Vorgängen in der geistigen Welt besteht. Natürlich war notwendig die durch die vorhergehenden Inkarnationen zubereitete Seele der Jungfrau von Orleans. Aber da zusammentrafen in den dreizehn Nächten diese Seele und das, was durch diese Seele kommen konnte, so geschah dasjenige, was eben geschichtlich erfolgte, um möglich zu machen gerade an dieser Stelle der Menschheitsentwickelung das Hereinwirken der geistigen Welt in die physische Welt.

Die geistige Welt ist also mit ihren Ingredienzien immer da. Die geistige Welt ist immer unter uns. Und vielfach und mannigfaltig sind die Wege, die sich die geistige Welt aussucht, um in der physischen Welt zu wirken. Und unser Bewußtsein des Zusammenhanges mit der geistigen Welt wird immer stärker, je mehr wir in solchen Einzelheiten besonders tief die Zusammenhänge zwischen physischer und geistiger Welt ausdrücken, indem solche Zusammenhänge lebendig in unserer Seele stehen.

Auf der andern Seite muß man sagen: Auch dasjenige, was hier in der physischen Welt geschieht, kann vorbereitend sein für die Art des Zusammenhanges der geistigen Welt und unserer physischen Welt. Und wenn jemand, der so intensiv wie Fritz Mitscher dasjenige aufgenommen hat, was durch unsere Geisteswissenschaft fließt, und im dreißigsten Jahr seines Lebens in die geistige Welt hinübergeht — am 26. Februar würde sein dreißigster Geburtstag sein — und seine Seele imprägniert hat mit dem, was als Kraft in die Seele eindringen kann durch unsere Geisteswissenschaft, dann haben wir eine mächtige Individualität, die weiter mit uns zusammenbleiben wird in der geistigen Welt, die ein Helfer ungeheuerster Art ist. Und wenn man bedenkt, wie schwierig gerade in unserer Zeit, in dieser Zeit, die doch ganz durchprägt ist mit Materialismus, das Streben nach spiritueller Wissenschaft ist, dann darf vielleicht auch gesagt werden, daß der, welcher mit allen Fasern seines Lebens mit der geistigen Welt zusammenhängt, die größten Hoffnungen auf diejenigen setzt, die geistige Helfer werden können, die nach Ablegung ihres physischen Leibes geistige Helfer werden. Es braucht selbstverständlich nicht gesagt zu werden, daß dieses durch die Pforte des Todes Gehen niemals ein persönlicher Entschluß sein darf, sondern daß es nur durch Karma herbeigeführt werden darf. Diese geistigen Helfer, es sind diejenigen, die uns Trost und Hoffnung geben, wenn wir sehen, wie schwierig es wird, gerade in der Gegenwart, unsere geisteswissenschaftliche Bewegung durch die mannigfaltigen Hemmungen hindurchzubringen. Aber wir wissen, wie höhere geistige Kräfte hereinwirken in die Erde, damit der Strom der geistigen Welten in die physischen Erdenziele hineingeht. So kommen die unverbrauchten Kräfte der Menschenseelen hinauf in die geistigen Welten, um da eben zu wirken mit ihren Kräften, vereint mit andern Kräften. Daher war es, daß ich wirklich aus innerstem Herzen heraus die Worte unserem Fritz Mitscher nachrief:

Höre unserer Seelen Bitte,
Im Vertrau’n Dir nachgesandt:
Wir bedürfen hier zum Erdenwerk
Starker Kraft aus Geistes-Landen,
Die wir toten Freunden danken.

Dann, wenn wir in ehrlicher Weise unsere geistige Bewegung fortzubringen versuchen zu ihrem Ziele, dann sind wir uns bewußt, daß hereinwirken in die Kräfte, die wir hier auf der Erde anwenden, auch diejenigen, welche unsere Freunde schon hinaufgetragen haben durch die Pforte des Todes in die geistige Welt hinein.

Das alles können wir nun auch zusammennehmen zum Verständnis der allgemeinen Weltenlage. Die Menschenseelen, die jetzt durch die schicksaltragenden Zeitereignisse durch die Pforte des Todes gehen, sie tragen auf der einen Seite den Volksgeistern zu ihre Ätherleiber. Sie tragen hinein auf der andern Seite alles das, was sie aufgebracht haben an opferwilliger Hingabe, indem sie gerade durch diese Zeitereignisse durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind mit ihrer Individualität. Und das alles wird ausgegossen sein als Wirksamkeit in das kommende Zeitalter. Und an den Menschen, die dann den Frieden durchleben, wird es liegen, von sich aus die Verbindung herzustellen mit dem, was da oben sein wird. Diejenigen, die heute als Mütter und Väter, als Brüder und Schwestern oder sonstige Verwandte den Hingang eines ihnen teuren Menschen auf dem Schlachtfelde erleben, können in ihr Bewußtsein aufnehmen die Tatsache, daß mit dem Ätherleib übergeht in die allgemeine Erdenmenschen-Wirksamkeit etwas für die Zukunft ungemein Bedeutsames. Nicht nur, daß sie wissen können, daß die Individualitäten gestärkt und gekräftigt durch das Todesopfer einern späteren kräftigeren Erdenleben entgegengehen, sondern sie können auch wissen: Dasjenige, was der durch die Pforte des Todes gegangene Krieger der Volksseele übergeben hat, webt und west lebendig. Doppelt, muß man sagen, in der allgemeinen Volksseele darin und als Individualität haben nun Väter und Mütter, Schwestern und Brüder selber diejenigen, die jung dutch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind. Und großen Wert wird diese Idee erst dann haben, wenn sie ganz Gefühl geworden sein wird, so daß man nicht nur reden wird von der Unsterblichkeit, sondern daß man im Gefühl wissen wird: die Toten sind da, sind mitten unter uns —, wenn dieses Band ein so starkes sein wird, daß auch für unser Gefühl der Tod eigentlich eine Unwahrheit sein wird. Denn sogar wahrer als oftmals in der physischen Verkörperung kann sich der Tote zeigen, wenn er alles von seiner Wesenheit zusammennehmen kann und wenn er nicht mehr ein Hindernis an seinem physischen Leibe hat. Ungeheure Ströme von Trost, Ströme von innerer Kraft der Selbsttröstung gehen aus von dem, was in lebendigem Bewußtsein und lebendigen Empfindungen Geisteswissenschaft den Seelen geben kann. Dann, wenn dies so empfunden wird, dann können insbesondere diejenigen, die sich zur Geisteswissenschaft bekennen, trostvoll in die Zukunft schauen. Sie können in diesen gegenwärtigen schicksalschweren, schicksaltragenden Ereignissen etwas empfinden wie eine Dämmerung in der Zeitenwende, auf die ebenso folgen wird eine Friedenssonnenzeit. Aber ein Wichtiges in der geistigen Wirksamkeit dieser Friedenssonnenzeit wird dasjenige sein, was errungen ist durch den Opfertod so vieler.

Fruchtbar gemacht hier auf Erden wird es besonders dadurch werden, daß eine Brücke, eine Verbindung geschaffen wird zwischen den Lebendigen, den im physischen Leibe verkörperten Seelen hier auf der Erde und den Seelen, die oben sind und herunterstrahlen wollen dasjenige, was sie mit hinaufgenommen haben. Und hier ist es, wo so recht das wirkliche Verständnis der Geisteswissenschaft an unser Herz schlägt und uns auffordert, dasjenige zu tun, was wir aus dem Bewußtsein heraus, das wir uns durch Geisteswissenschaft angeeignet haben, tun können, was wir empfindend tun können, damit die großen, schicksalerregenden, schmerzausgießenden Ereignisse der gegenwärtigen Zeit, soweit es an uns liegt, zur Fruchtbarkeit und zum Heile der Menschheit ausschlagen. Diejenigen, die etwas wissen von der Geisteswissenschaft, können fühlend wissen und wissend fühlen, wodurch die Brücke geschaffen wird hinauf in die geistige Welt: dadurch daß von den Seelen, die unten geblieben sind, die Gedanken und die Empfindungen hinaufgeschickt werden, die durch Geisteswissenschaft entzündet werden können. Der Horizont dazu wird sein ein Friedenshorizont. Oben werden die Seelen sein, die geistige Lichtstrahlen werden heruntersenden wollen. Unten müssen Menschen sein, die gelernt haben, aus ihren Seelen solche Gedanken und Empfindungen hinaufzusenden, welche durch Geisteswissenschaft angeregt werden. Dann, wenn es wirklich Seelen geben wird, die geistbewußt den Sinn ins Geisterreich lenken, dann wird die Brücke geschlagen sein, dann wird die Zeit gekommen sein, wo gerade durch solche schmerzausgießenden, schicksaltragenden Ereignisse, wie sie sich in unserer Zeit abspielen, ein inniges Band gewoben werden muß zwischen der physischen Welt und der geistigen Welt, zu der wir hinstreben durch unsere Geisteswissenschaft.

So fassen wir zusammen dasjenige, was unsere Erkenntnis und unsere Aufgabe sein soll und was Zuversicht erwecken soll, in die Worte:

Aus dem Mut der Kämpfer,
Aus dem Blut der Schlachten,
Aus dem Leid Verlassener,
Aus des Volkes Opfertate
Wird erwachsen Geistesfrucht —
Lenken Seelen geistbewußt
Ihren Sinn ins Geisterreich.

Man's Passage Through the Gate of Death - A Change of Life

It is a time when, in rapid succession, through the many deaths that occur almost daily, we are brought closer to man's connection with the spiritual world, with that world which man enters when he passes through the gate of death. And under very special circumstances, these rapidly successive, almost simultaneous deaths confront us. These special circumstances are due to the fact that numerous earthly human beings are passing through the gate of death who, under the conditions in which one would normally expect earthly human beings to live, could have lived on this earth for decades. And whenever a human being passes through the gate of death prematurely, so to speak, extraordinary circumstances arise.

We know that when a person passes through the gate of death, they leave behind, as it were, what falls away from them as their physical body, surrendering it to the earthly element. We know that then, secondly, the so-called etheric body comes into consideration, but that this too separates from the individuality composed of the astral body and the ego, which passes into the spiritual realms between death and a new birth; that this etheric body continues to work, as it were, separated from the ego and the astral body. This etheric body, which now enters the spiritual world closest to us, which we have often called the etheric world, this etheric body, you can imagine that it looks different in someone who passes through the gate of death at an early age and different in someone who has lived to a ripe old age. For this etheric body, which has to pass through the gate of death in the case of someone who dies prematurely, would under normal circumstances still have had the power to supply the physical body with life for many years, even decades. Now, just as little power is lost in the spiritual world as in the physical world. This power, which otherwise supplies the physical body with life, remains intact. So we can say that when thousands pass through the gate of death almost every day, etheric bodies enter the elemental world that are still viable and have different powers than older etheric bodies. What happens to these still viable etheric bodies?

Yesterday, in my public lecture, I spoke about the real soul of the people. This soul of the people is a real entity. It needs very special powers, especially in our time. It needs such powers at other times too, of course, but especially in our time. This folk soul takes up these still viable etheric bodies. The human being himself, with his ego and astral body, goes other ways—those ways that then prepare him for his next earthly life. But these etheric bodies separate from the human individualities; they pass into the being, into the substance of the folk souls. So that after such a fateful time as we are now living through, we are moving toward a time when the soul of the people will contain within itself — as living forces — the etheric bodies that have been handed over to it by those who have passed through the gate of death in battle. A time is therefore approaching when spiritual scientists will be able to know that what has been sacrificed on the altar of great world events in the form of etheric bodies has not been lost. A time is approaching when an effective force will radiate from the soul of the people into the individual souls, from which will simultaneously emanate that which numerous people here on earth absorbed during the first, second, and third decades of their youth, which they could have retained for many decades, but which they handed over to the soul of the people. This will be in the future in the forces which the soul of the people instills into the individual souls; it is not lost.

Let us take this to heart. Let us consider how our awareness of the connection with the spiritual world can be enlivened in our minds if we hold fast to the fact that in the future it will be possible to speak of the soul of the people in such a way that the fruits of sacrificial deaths are effective forces within it. And this will be particularly important in the coming period. At other times this would be different, but in the coming period it will be significant for a very special reason.

We have lived in a terrible time of materialism. The souls that could not reach spiritual science were, as it were, immersed in a strong aura of materialism. Combating this aura will be the task of the soul of the people in the coming period. Forces will flow into this soul of the people to combat materialism through the fact that the etheric bodies of those who died early continue to live in this soul of the people, continuing to live as forces. The strongest fighters against materialism will be these etheric bodies sacrificed on the altar of human evolution.

We must therefore distinguish between what passes through the realms of the spiritual world as an individual human being and remains united with human individuality, and what is passed on to the community via the etheric body; what continues to work in the spiritual community in the sense described here in the substance of the folk spirits.

This can be particularly deeply imprinted on our minds when we place two types of human beings before our souls in relation to this spiritual difference: the warrior who has fallen on the battlefield, who, completely devoted to the task of his people, steps through the gate of death—who, in a sense, at the moment when he enters the battlefield, when he merely decides to enter the battlefield, must also decide to look death in the face—and compare this type of human being with the ascetic. When we consider what the forces of the etheric body mean in human life, we gain an idea of the difference between the warrior who falls on the battlefield and the ascetic. The ascetic works on himself. He tries to work on himself in such a way that he completely overcomes the physical in himself, that he becomes free from the physical during his lifetime. By working in this way, the ascetic also undergoes a significant transformation of his etheric body. He consumes, so to speak, the forces of this etheric body in the strongest possible way in order to incorporate them into his ego and his astral body. What frees the ascetic from the physical benefits the individuality and serves to transform it. Thus, such a person who becomes an ascetic can only serve humanity indirectly through what he makes of himself. But those who free themselves from the physical body in their early youth by surrendering to the demands of war hand over the forces of their etheric body to the community; they incorporate them into the general activity. One must feel this difference; it is a significant difference. It points us back a little to what is real in human life. And it is also important to look closely at what the etheric body is, at passing through the gate of death.

At the moment when a person passes through the gate of death, they are still united with their etheric body. We have often described what happens to this. This union with the etheric body enables the human being to live fully in all the ideas that the last life has kindled in him, to become completely absorbed in all that the last life has given him, as if in a mighty tableau. But this is a viewing that lasts for a relatively short time, fading away with the separation of the etheric body from the ego and the astral body. Yes, one can say that immediately after the moment of death, a fading begins, an ever-weakening of the impressions that still originate from the possession of the etheric body, and then that which is decisive after physical death comes into play. What is decisive there is only to a limited extent correctly imagined by people who want to form ideas about life after death. It is even difficult to find words for those conditions, which are so different from the conditions experienced in the physical body. It is easy to believe that when a person has passed through the gate of death, they must first acquire consciousness again. This is not actually the case. What a person experiences when they pass through the gate of death is not a lack of consciousness. With death, there is no lack of consciousness; the opposite occurs. When death occurs, there is an excess, an abundance of consciousness. One lives and weaves entirely in consciousness, and just as strong sunlight stuns the eyes, one is initially stunned by consciousness; one has too much consciousness. This consciousness must first be dimmed so that one can orient oneself in the life one has entered after death. This takes a long time, happening gradually in such a way that after death there are more and more moments in which consciousness makes such orientation possible; the soul comes to itself for a more or less short time and then enters again into a kind of sleep-like state, as one might call it. Then, gradually, these moments become longer and longer, and the soul enters more and more into such conditions until it is completely oriented in the spiritual world.

It is also difficult to form clear, distinct ideas about the way in which those who have passed through the gate of death perceive their environment. In recent weeks, we buried a dear anthroposophical friend in a cremation, and according to the wishes of the deceased, I was given the task of holding a funeral service for the friends who had gathered at the place of death. During the time when I spoke and addressed my words to the deceased, she was, in a sense, asleep. Then the warmth took effect, the flames seemed to take hold of the body, and at that moment a moment of consciousness came over the soul, like a moment of orientation, and the deceased had the whole picture of what the funeral service and the funeral speech were in front of her, as one has something spatial in front of one at the same time. Time really becomes space there. One does not see the past as one sees it in life, passing through time, but one sees what has passed as something spatial before one's eyes. So that what had already happened, what had taken place, say a quarter of an hour earlier, then stood before the soul of the dead person like a first moment of consciousness. Then there was again a state of numbness in the flooding light of consciousness, in order to move from this state towards those other states in which the soul gradually learns to orient itself in the spiritual world.

If we really want to form a good idea of life after death, it is important that we consider these completely different concepts of time; that we understand how time is not something that can be said to have passed, and that we remember the things that happened in time, but rather that what has passed remains there. Just as the table stands there and does not go with me when I walk away, just as I look back at it, so after death what has happened, what can only be remembered, remains there, and the dead person looks back at it, just as one looks back at spatial objects when one is in the body. It is very important to understand this. What is further of particular importance to bear in mind is that we really do remain connected, that our earthly life remains connected with what we experience afterwards between death and a new birth; at least it remains closely connected until the moment that has been described in the last Mystery Drama as the midnight hour of spiritual existence.

I would not want to miss the opportunity to gradually give our friends some ideas about these difficult-to-describe circumstances. The soul that has passed into death looks back on what we have experienced as earthly human beings between birth and death — but not as if what we went through were merely there, but rather in such a way that certain states of the dead person's life have a peculiar effect. The state of life of the dead is not the same as the state of life of those living between birth and death. The state of life of those living between birth and death is such that they feel enclosed in their skin and look out into the world through their senses. As soon as one enters the spiritual world as a dead person, one flows out into the entire spiritual world. One feels as if one is gradually filling the entire spiritual world. And what one has experienced during one's physical existence on earth is felt as something that remains—not as a physical body, of course, but as that which constitutes the form and forces of the physical body. This remains after death, but one has it in the same way as one now has the human eye in the physical body. Just as you have your eyes to see, you then have yourself, the earthly life you have lived through, as a cosmic sense organ with which to perceive the world. What our eyes are now for our physical body, our earthly life is for our spiritual life after death.

Our earthly life is, as it were, given to us as an eye, as a sense organ. Only after prolonged meditation will you gradually realize how significant it is that our earthly life becomes a sense organ for our life between death and a new birth. When a person falls asleep and their ego and astral body leave their physical body and etheric body, it is similar. When initiation occurs and the human being becomes able to see in the spiritual world outside his physical and etheric bodies, he knows that in the spiritual world he perceives through a sense organ with the spiritual part of his physical body, and that he thinks in the spiritual world with his etheric body. Your etheric body is actually like your brain in the spiritual world, and your former physical body is a sense organ. But you yourself are poured out with all your life forces into the spiritual expanse. You have spread out; you do not feel compressed in one place by your skin; you feel poured out, spread out over the spiritual world.

It is a completely different existence. And connected with this is the fact that those who enter the spiritual world, whether through death or through initiation, live in such union with the other beings of the spiritual world, with beings of higher hierarchies or with human souls living between death and a new birth, that they do not experience them as one encounters earthly human beings externally, where one is spatially separated from them. Instead, they experience them as being with them in a common spiritual space, interpenetrating one another. What another soul experiences is not learned by it telling you something, as with earthly human beings, but by living into the other soul and experiencing its thoughts in its essence. That is why one can only be sure that one is really experiencing what, for example, a dead person is experiencing if one knows that one is, in a sense, inside the dead person, that one is not merely repeating something that one perceives according to the pattern of something one has experienced on earth, but that one perceives: “The dead person himself is speaking through your being.”

I would like to explain this to you with an example. One of our members died recently. Even before the cremation, there was a feeling that it was necessary to hear what this person had to say after death. This was because they were still connected to their etheric body and could express themselves in an earthly way through their etheric body, but at the same time they were able to summarize everything that had been woven into their soul through their intense experience of the anthroposophical worldview. So we are dealing with a personality who had reached a fairly advanced age and who, in the last period of her life, had really settled into our spiritual scientific worldview with all the strength of her heart. Then she passed through the gate of death. Now she still had her etheric body. It was before the cremation, and the etheric body was still there as a means of expression. This made it possible to express oneself through earthly words, because the etheric body could relive them. And the liberation from the body, from earthly existence, also made it possible to summarize the whole being that had dug itself into the soul through the heart. And as it became clear to me how this personality, which had thus passed through the gate of death, wanted to express its being — on the second day after death, for example — the words that I can share with you formed, words that can therefore be regarded as words experienced by the dead. So one must imagine that here, on the second day after death, this soul being that had passed through the gate of death was filled with the power of these words and expressed itself in the power of these words. And when one put oneself in this soul, this soul being, this being of the dead, spoke through one in these words. Therefore, I could do nothing better than to address these very words to the dead woman at the funeral, for they were the words she herself spoke, as it were, to the friends who stood around her earthly remains. I can assure you: I added nothing, nothing to these words, but tried to understand them from the essence of the dead woman. Certainly, later on, what I have called the numbing of consciousness occurs, which could be called a kind of sleep state. Now the deceased would not have been able to express her essence in this way, because she now lacks the means of the etheric body. She will be able to do so again after some time, but immediately after death this would be impossible. The words are:

I will carry my feeling heart into worlds without end,
That it may become warm
In the fire of holy forces;

I will weave my own thoughts into world thoughts,
That they may become clear
In the light of eternal becoming and life;

In the depths of my soul I will immerse my mature thoughts,
That they may become strong
For the true goals of human activity;

In God's peace I strive thus,
With life's struggles and cares,
Preparing a self for a higher self;

Striving for peace and the joy of work,
Anticipating the existence of worlds in my own being,
I want to fulfill my duty as a human being;

I may then live in expectation
of a destiny that grants me a place in the spiritual realm.

This is, in a sense, the result of years of immersion in the spiritual scientific worldview. This immersion in the spiritual scientific worldview has become the essence of the soul itself and has thus found expression.

This is a concrete, vivid example of how the forces of the soul are grasped when one does not merely accept the spiritual scientific worldview in theory, but makes it a living force in the soul. The feelings and emotions that arise from the spiritual scientific worldview go beyond the theoretical and become forces in the soul. For it is quite certain that no one who has not gone through the spiritual scientific worldview would summarize their own being after death in such words:

I want to carry my feeling heart into worlds beyond,
That it may become warm
In the fire of holy forces at work;

I want to weave my own thinking into world thoughts,
That it may become clear In the light of eternal becoming and life...

I would like to present this as a vivid example to your soul of the mysterious path that the human soul takes precisely through the moment that separates life between birth and death from life between death and a new birth, where, in a sense, everything that was still external experience for us in earthly life becomes inner richness of the soul and thus lives on in us. Here, spiritual science is still accepted as something external. Immediately after death, however, it becomes apparent how it lives in the soul, just as, let us say, muscular power now lives in our physical body. One must feel this if one really wants to grasp the inner meaning, the inner significance of what spiritual science can be for the human soul. Then, little by little — and this requires patience — one will acquire a concept of the completely different conditions that exist in the spiritual world. When we form words and concepts from the conditions that exist in the sensory world, we can at best provide symbols of what is in the spiritual world. We must patiently work our way toward concepts, perceptions, and feelings that express in a reasonably accurate and true way what the conditions of the spiritual world are. The logic of earthly life—yes, it is really only a logic of earthly life—is sometimes quite fragile for earthly life. I have already mentioned here how the logic of earthly life can lead us past the real facts. I have often given the example: Let us suppose that a person is walking along a stream. We see that he falls into the stream. We rush over and discover that he is already dead. We see a stone at the place where the person fell into the stream, and we can now form a completely logical, but nevertheless superficial, judgment. We can say: The person stumbled over the stone, fell into the stream, and drowned. He died of drowning. — But that may be completely wrong. If we examine the matter purely from an external anatomical point of view, it may turn out that the person suffered a heart attack, which caused him to fall into the water. The heart attack is the cause of his death. With ordinary correct logic, we conclude the wrong thing. Such conclusions — let me just mention in passing — are constantly made in human life and especially in science. Science is full of such conclusions where cause and effect are confused.

But the matter becomes important when questions of human destiny come into play. In Dornach, we experienced such a stroke of fate in the fall that is instructive in the most meaningful sense. The little seven-year-old son of our member, Theo Faiß, who was an exceptionally sweet and bright child, went missing one evening. It was on a lecture evening. His mother searched for him, but he was nowhere to be found. When the lecture was over, we heard that the mother was missing her son, and we could only assume that his death was connected to the overturning of a furniture truck. A member of our society had had her furniture delivered by a furniture truck, and that truck had overturned that evening at the spot where it was parked. It was a quarter past ten in the evening, and we tried everything we could to lift the truck. The military was mobilized to help us lift the furniture truck. The truck was lifted, and the boy was found crushed under it. Now consider that no furniture truck had ever driven in that area before, nor did any afterwards. The boy was, as it was later established through all kinds of incidents and coincidences, at that very moment—it was only a matter of minutes, even a moment—at the spot where the moving van fell over. It was strange, however, that those who were at the scene when the van fell over only thought of getting the horses to safety. They had no idea that the furniture truck had fallen on the little boy.

So the child was dead. The external materialistic view might say: Well, by chance the furniture truck fell over at that hour, the child was underneath it and was crushed. That is, of course, what the materialistic view would say. From a spiritual point of view, this is complete nonsense. For what is at work here is the karma of the child, and this karma of the child directed all the individual circumstances. It also directed the furniture van there at the very moment when the child needed to die, because the karma of the child wanted it so. The karma of the child had run its course. We are dealing here with the necessity of really reversing cause and effect.

Through such circumstances and their perception, we can gradually climb up to the real view of life, which leads us to reverse what the outer senses present to us. We have to reverse this many times. But the matter becomes really significant when we later experience what becomes of such a fact. The soul of a human being passes through the gate of death. This soul was embodied in a physical body for seven years. Why couldn't little Theo have lived to be seventy, eighty, ninety years old, outwardly speaking, if karma had not made it impossible? There is an etheric body that could have sustained life for decades; an etheric body that was truly filled with the forces of the eternal and good. He was an excellent boy. You know that the actual individuality, the I and the astral body, continue on their path. But the etheric body dissolves, this etheric body in which are woven all the delicate, beautiful forces that developed in childhood, but in which also live all the forces that come from earlier incarnations. Now consider what we are dealing with in such an etheric body. Individuality comes from previous incarnations. It reincorporates itself in this incarnation; it brings with it what comes from previous incarnations. Life in this incarnation is, in a sense, the fruit, the living out of what was the cause in a life in previous incarnations. Throughout the whole life, these fruits could have been lived out. Then everything that comes from the fruits of previous incarnations would have gone into this etheric body. That did not happen. Instead, this etheric body contains everything that still has causes in previous incarnations. And the strangest thing is that anyone who tries to investigate the aura of our building in Dornach will find the etheric body of little Theo in the aura of the Dornach building. There it is, floating around, living around the Dornach building. Anyone who has anything to do with the Dornach building, or who will have anything to do with it after that late autumn afternoon when little Theo passed through the gates of death, knows what has been changed in the spiritual aura of the Dornach building by the incorporation of this etheric body, which contains the forces that would otherwise have been used for decades to sustain a physical human body, and this etheric body has been poured into the aura of the building.

So mysterious are the paths that wisdom, flooding through the world, has to take with its creatures. Only when one goes into the details of these things can one form a correct idea of the nature of the whole of human life, which in the most eminent sense includes the life between death and a new birth. And since our anthroposophical movement is really not meant to be something abstract, but something in which we are with our whole being, in which those who belong to us are also present, it is permissible to speak about such things. We do not unite like other societies with a specific program, but we want to be in our spiritual scientific movement with our whole soul. We want to think of this spiritual scientific movement as a concrete stream to which everyone who truly feels connected to it belongs. And so we can say: We speak as one speaks in an extended family about relatives here or there. For what touches us in a familiar way, so to speak, also gives us the highest, most meaningful, and most important insights into the spiritual world.

From this perspective, I would like to mention one of the deaths of our friends that has affected us particularly in recent times. Our dear friend Fritz Mitscher, who was so dear to us all, recently passed through the gates of death. And so it was that I felt the need to put into words what my own soul felt as it bowed down to the soul that had just passed through the gates of death. Notice the difference between the words I have just read to you and the words I am about to read to you now. The words just read aloud come from the soul of the deceased. The words I am about to read to you are inspired by my own soul as I look upon the deceased, Fritz Mitscher, whose soul is still united with his etheric body. These words therefore reflect the impression made by the deceased. As you may know, Fritz Mitscher was active in our Anthroposophical Society as a young teacher in various places, especially in Berlin. And many of us also know how he was determined to combine all the knowledge he had acquired in the sciences and the study of the earth with the noblest and most beautiful anthroposophical consciousness. This is also expressed after his death, where everything that he was was united in his entire being and now shines forth again after death from his soul, which is free from the body but still has its etheric body. And it seems to me that what Fritz Mitscher was after death had to be expressed with the words I had to send with him to his cremation.

A hope that made us happy:
Thus you entered the field,
Where the spiritual blossoms of the earth,
Through the power of the soul,
Wish to reveal themselves to research.

A pure love of truth
Was your original longing;
To create from the light of the spirit,
Was the serious goal of your life,
Which you pursued tirelessly.

You cultivated your beautiful gifts,
To illuminate the path of spiritual knowledge,
Unperturbed by the contradictions of the world,
As a faithful servant of truth,
With sure steps.

You exercised your spiritual organs,
That they might bravely and persistently
On both sides of the path
Drive error away from you
And create space for truth.

To reveal your self
of pure light,
so that the power of the soul's sun
might shine mightily within you,
was your life's concern and joy.

Other cares, other joys,
barely touched your soul,
because knowledge was your light,
That gives meaning to existence,
Appeared to you as the true value of life.

A hope that made us happy:
Thus you entered the field,
Where the spiritual blossoms of the earth
Through the power of the soul
Wish to reveal themselves to the seeker.

A loss that pains us deeply,
Thus you disappear from the field,
Where the seeds of the spirit
In the womb of the soul
Matured to your sense of the spheres.

Feel how we look lovingly
To the heights that now call you
Call you to other creations.

Send your strength from the realms of the spirit To your departed friends.

Hear the plea of our souls, Sent to you in trust: We need here on earth Strong power from the realms of the spirit, Which we thank our dead friends for.

A hope that gladdens us,
In loss that pains us deeply:
Let us hope that you, far away yet near,
Unlost to our lives, shine
As a star of the soul in the realm of the spirit.

These are the words that were sent to the deceased from the essence of the deceased. And then, after these words had been spoken at the cremation, some time passed. And from the essence of the deceased, not yet from the well-ordered consciousness, but as if sounding from the essence itself, the following words rang out; words that now echoed from the deceased in the night following the cremation.

To reveal my self
In pure light,
That the soul's solar power
Might shine powerfully within me,
Was my life's concern and joy.

Other cares, other joys,
Barely touched my soul,
Because knowledge appeared to me as light,
Which gives meaning to existence,
As the true value of life.

So the words echoed back. It was only afterwards that I discovered that the two verses in the middle can be transformed directly from “you” to “I” and from “you” to “me.” I had not known this before. For I had heard the verses as I had first read them to you. And now they came back from the essence of the dead man, spoken by him:

To shape my self into a revelation
Of pure light,
That the soul's solar power
Shine powerfully within me,
Was my life's concern and joy.

Other cares, other joys,
Barely touched my soul,
Because knowledge appeared to me as light,
Which gives meaning to existence,
As the true value of life.

This shows how, even in the time when consciousness does not yet have the form that it will take again after this time, through the whole realm between death and new birth, it shows how even in living transformation, indeed in meaningful transformation, the words come that have risen up to the dead. One only has to feel how the spiritual scientific worldview really comes alive in the connection between the physical and spiritual worlds. For something like a shiver can really pass through our soul when we feel, in such an example, how words are called out to the dead—and he repeats them to us in a changed form. On the one hand, we feel that they have gone to the dead person because they echo from him, but they do not just echo like an echo; they are meaningfully changed, adapted to him.

These are things that give us certainty and confidence for our present life that the souls living here in earthly bodies are connected and in contact with the spiritual powers that rule and weave through the world, and that, in turn, the human souls that have passed through death are woven into this stream of ruling and weaving spiritual powers, are there, because there they experience their further, post-mortem destinies.

If we allow the connection between the physical world and the spiritual world to truly sink into our minds, we can see various things. I have already pointed out here that in this interaction, in this concrete interaction between the physical world and the spiritual world, we also come particularly close to what is the impulse of the mystery of Golgotha. We know that it is only now that we are beginning to fully grasp the meaning and significance of the mystery of Golgotha and the Christ being through spiritual science. Until now, people have done this with their intellect, correctly with their intellect. And what has come of this intellect? Well, if the effectiveness of Christ in human life on earth had depended on what people understood of it, the effectiveness of the Christ impulse on earth could not have been very great. Theological squabbling, all kinds of disputes—that is what people understood of Christianity with their intellect. But Christ worked out of living power.

I have probably already mentioned here the example of the battle that Constantine fought against Maxentius, which decided the fate of Europe at that time. With that, Christianity was first recognized and then became the ruling power in Europe. This battle was not won by military skill or by Constantine's armies. Maxentius had to defend Rome. By consulting the Sibylline books and through a dream he had, he was told that his army, which was five times stronger than that of Constantine marching against Rome, should be led out of Rome by him; then he would destroy the enemies of Rome. Now he really led his army out of Rome, strategically the most inept thing he could have done, because according to strategy, everything spoke in favor of leaving his army in Rome and letting the enemy armies approach; but he led his army out of Rome. And on the side of Constantine, who led his armies against Rome, it was not military-scientific reasons that gave him the strength, but he too had a dream. The dream told him: If you let the monogram of Christ be carried before your armies, you will defeat Rome. Through Constantine's victory with his weaker army, the entire map of Europe was transformed at that time and for the future. The spiritual life of Europe also changed as a result. What people were able to comprehend at that time would not have been enough to accomplish these feats. The Christ impulse worked into the subconscious of people, into what lived in the depths of their souls, what people could only dream of, what at most appeared to them in dream images.

A later, very significant example of the influence of the Christ impulse can be found in the Virgin of Orleans. Anyone who really studies history, not in the way history is often studied today, but in such a way as to try to recognize the real connections, can know that what the Virgin of Orleans did absolutely determined the fate of Europe for the next centuries. It was not military skill or the wisdom of politicians, but what the shepherdess of Orleans did that was decisive for the fate of Europe, especially for the fate of France. Now, however, the Christ impulse was at work in the Virgin of Orleans through its Michaelic representative. It worked into the soul of the Virgin of Orleans. Her soul was completely permeated, imbued with the Christ impulse. Just as in the past, when the battle between Constantine and Maxentius was decided, the Christ impulse worked without the people in their superconsciousness knowing anything about it, so the Christ impulse also worked when the Maid of Orleans sent the French armies against the English armies. The whole continent would have been different, including England, if France had not been victorious at that time. England would not have become what it is today if it had not been defeated. But as I said, what brought about the victory were the subconscious forces that arose in visions; through them, the abilities of the Virgin of Orleans were inspired. So one can say that what the Virgin of Orleans did was under the influence of a more or less unconscious initiation. It is, of course, an unconscious initiation; one might even call it an atavistic initiation. A pure spiritual vessel, such as the Maid of Orleans, had to be unconsciously seized upon so that the Christ impulse could work through her Michaelic representative — a pure vessel.

Let us now take a closer look at the matter. If someone today consciously undergoes an initiation — well, there are rules for that. The basic principles are set out in my book How to Know Higher Worlds. There are rules by which one can gradually work one's way up. Of course, there could be no question of such a conscious initiation in the case of the Maid of Orleans. But a spirit that is not otherwise united with the human soul had to take hold in this human soul and prevail over it. For this to happen, particularly favorable circumstances had to arise. A spirit from higher spheres cannot always intervene in souls that are capable of receiving it. Particularly favorable circumstances must arise for an individual human soul to come into contact with higher worlds without initiation, without conscious work on itself. Particularly favorable circumstances exist at the time when, so to speak, the earth spirit awakens: from December 25 to January 6. When the sun is at its highest in summer, when the physical warmth of the earth radiates most, the conditions for initiation are at their worst because the spirit of the earth is asleep. The spirit of the earth is most awake in the darkness of winter, at the winter solstice.

Therefore, it is not mere legend but corresponds to truth when ancient legends tell that during the thirteen nights preceding January 6, certain particularly suitable souls were initiated so that they could enter the spiritual world and experience there what we call Kamaloka and Devachan. We remember well that here in Hanover the legend of Olaf Åsteson was once recounted, who spent the thirteen nights asleep, traveling the entire path that can be traveled through Kamaloka and Devachan. Olaf Åsteson then recounts what he experienced during those thirteen days.

So when the outer physical eclipse of the earth is at its strongest, the conditions are most favorable for leading a soul into the spiritual world. For souls who are not initiated by direct conscious effort, but by particularly favorable circumstances for the whole of humanity to perform such an act as that accomplished by the Virgin of Orleans, it would have been most favorable if she had been able to sleep during those thirteen nights and had been brought into contact with the spiritual world while asleep; if she had been able to go through all this in a kind of sleep state. Now, it is really the case that the Virgin of Orleans went through such a state of sleep. And this came about because the Virgin of Orleans spent these thirteen days until January 6 in her mother's womb in a state where human beings still sleep. For human beings only awaken to physical life when they are born and take their first breath. In the case of the Virgin of Orleans, the last nights of sleep in the embryonic state fall within the period of the thirteen nights, for she was born on January 6. Here you have a deeply significant inner historical connection. This is the basis of the mission of the Virgin of Orleans, who was chosen to receive initiation as a pure soul before her first breath during the last thirteen nights of her mother's pregnancy, in this state of sleep, in the particularly favorable circumstances of earthly life. The calendar simply shows you this. Look it up in the calendar: on January 6, you will find the birthday of the Virgin of Orleans. The calendar shows you how there is a deep inner connection between the physical world and the events in the spiritual world. Of course, the soul of the Virgin of Orleans, prepared through previous incarnations, was necessary. But when this soul and what could come through this soul came together during those thirteen nights, what happened historically took place in order to make it possible for the spiritual world to influence the physical world at precisely this point in human development.

The spiritual world is therefore always present with its ingredients. The spiritual world is always among us. And the ways that the spiritual world chooses to work in the physical world are many and varied. And our awareness of our connection with the spiritual world becomes stronger the more we express the connections between the physical and spiritual worlds in such detail, by keeping these connections alive in our souls.

On the other hand, it must be said that what happens here in the physical world can also be preparatory for the nature of the connection between the spiritual world and our physical world. And when someone who has absorbed as intensively as Fritz Mitscher what flows through our spiritual science and passes over into the spiritual world in the thirtieth year of his life — February 26 would have been his thirtieth birthday — and has impregnated his soul with what can penetrate the soul as a force through our spiritual science, then we have a powerful individuality that will remain with us in the spiritual world, which is a helper of the most tremendous kind. And when one considers how difficult it is, especially in our time, which is so thoroughly permeated by materialism, to strive for spiritual science, then perhaps it may also be said that those who are connected with the spiritual world with every fiber of their being place their greatest hopes in those who can become spiritual helpers, who become spiritual helpers after laying down their physical bodies. It goes without saying that passing through the gate of death must never be a personal decision, but can only be brought about through karma. These spiritual helpers are those who give us comfort and hope when we see how difficult it is, especially in the present, to carry our spiritual scientific movement forward through the manifold obstacles. But we know how higher spiritual forces are working in the earth so that the stream of the spiritual worlds may flow into the physical goals of the earth. In this way, the unspent forces of human souls rise up into the spiritual worlds in order to work there with their forces, united with other forces. That is why I truly repeated the words to our Fritz Mitscher from the bottom of my heart:

Hear the plea of our souls,
Sent to you in trust:
We need here for our earthly work
Strong power from spiritual realms,
For which we thank our dead friends.

Then, when we honestly try to carry our spiritual movement forward to its goal, we are aware that the forces we use here on earth are also influenced by those whom our friends have already carried through the gate of death into the spiritual world.

We can now bring all this together to understand the general state of the world. The human souls that are now passing through the gate of death due to the fateful events of the times carry the spirit of the people to their etheric bodies on the one hand. On the other side, they carry everything they have brought forth in sacrificial devotion by passing through the gate of death with their individuality during these very events. And all of this will be poured out as effectiveness into the coming age. And it will be up to the people who then live through peace to establish the connection with what will be above. Those who today, as mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, or other relatives, experience the passing of someone dear to them on the battlefield, can take into their consciousness the fact that something immensely significant for the future passes into the general human activity on earth with the etheric body. Not only can they know that the individualities, strengthened and fortified by the sacrifice of death, are heading toward a later, more powerful earthly life, but they can also know that what the warrior who has passed through the gate of death has handed over to the soul of the people is alive and active. This is doubly true, one must say, in the general soul of the people and as individuals, for fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers themselves have those who have passed through the gate of death at a young age. And this idea will only have great value when it has become completely emotional, so that one will not only talk about immortality, but will know in one's feelings that the dead are here, are among us — when this bond is so strong that even for our feelings, death will actually be a falsehood. For the dead can reveal themselves even more truly than they often do in their physical embodiment when they can gather all their essence together and no longer have any obstacles in their physical bodies. Enormous streams of comfort, streams of inner strength and self-consolation flow from what spiritual science can give souls in living consciousness and living feelings. Then, when this is felt, those who profess spiritual science in particular can look to the future with comfort. In these present fateful events, they can sense something like a twilight at the turn of the age, which will be followed by a time of peace and sunshine. But an important aspect of the spiritual effectiveness of this era of peace will be what has been achieved through the sacrificial death of so many.

It will be made fruitful here on earth especially by the creation of a bridge, a connection between the living, the souls embodied in physical bodies here on earth, and the souls above who want to radiate down what they have taken up with them. And this is where the real understanding of spiritual science strikes our hearts and calls us to do what we can do out of the consciousness we have acquired through spiritual science, what we can do with feeling, so that the great, fateful, pain-filled events of the present time, as far as it depends on us, turn to the fruitfulness and salvation of humanity. Those who know something about spiritual science can know with feeling and feel with knowledge how the bridge to the spiritual world is created: through the thoughts and feelings sent up by the souls who have remained below, which can be kindled by spiritual science. The horizon for this will be a horizon of peace. Above will be the souls who want to send down rays of spiritual light. Below must be people who have learned to send up from their souls such thoughts and feelings that are inspired by spiritual science. Then, when there really are souls who consciously direct their minds toward the spiritual realm, then the bridge will be built, then the time will have come when, precisely through such painful, fateful events as are taking place in our time, an intimate bond must be woven between the physical world and the spiritual world toward which we strive through our spiritual science.

We summarize what our knowledge and our task should be, and what should inspire confidence, in the following words:

From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of battles,
From the suffering of the forsaken,
From the sacrifices of the people
The fruits of the spirit will grow —
Souls will consciously guide
Their minds into the realm of spirits.