The Mystery of Death
GA 159
13 May 1915, Prague
9. The Relationship of the Human Being to the Realms of Nature and the Hierarchies—Spirits of the Ages and Folk-Souls—The Admonishing Voices of the Dead
It is a grievous time in which we live, a time more of effective actions full of courage and sacrifices, on one side, a time of severe ordeals for the human souls, on the other side. To stimulate some sensations just in view of our destiny-burdened time may be my task at the end of these considerations. Since we are allowed to be together in such a time, we want to let culminate our sensations at the end of our considerations according to this time. I may start from something that can spread light just about various matters which speak significantly to our souls in this time.
Since we started considering the world spiritual-scientifically, we call the four members of our human nature: physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego. We know that the ego or rather that in the human being which we name ego by which we express the ego which is the youngest, but is also for us the most significant member of the human being. If the human being only consisted of physical body, etheric body and astral body as the result of the Saturn, Sun and Moon evolutions, he would not be a human being. The human being is a human being because he received his ego from the spirits of the higher hierarchies during the earth evolution. He develops this ego in the course of his successive incarnations in different human communities, through peoples and periods, until the earth arrives at the goal of its development and the human being also arrives at his goal developing his ego. However, we also know that there are higher spiritual beings—we use for them the word “higher,”—who belong to the higher hierarchies which stand as it were above the human being. We speak of the hierarchy of the angels or angeloi, of the hierarchy of the archangels or archangeloi, the archai or spirits of the age and so on, upward rising. We call them with these names, we could use other names just as well, but the names are introduced in the West.
How have we to imagine, actually, these spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies in relation to the human being here on earth? We go out from the surroundings of the human being. We know, it is the mineral realm, the plant realm, the animal realm, and the human being has to consider the human realm as the highest after all he can observe. So that we can say: if we take the visible realms on earth, we have the realms of the minerals, the plants, the animals and that of the human beings. Above these realms, as it were, as a continuation upwards, the realms of the angeloi, the archangeloi, the archai et cetera appear. We can simply imagine that the realms are not closed with the human realm, but also extend farther upwards, only that the higher realms cannot be seen with the outer senses.
It could seem remarkable if we go upwards from the realms of nature to the realm of human beings that above the human realm invisibility begins at once. However, this will be remarkable only as long as one does not think that the animals do not see the human being in such a way as a human being sees the other. That is completely clear to somebody who is able to transport himself into the animal view. If the animals could speak, they would only speak of visible realms, of the mineral realm, the plant realm, and the animal realm. They would consider themselves as the highest visible realm. The fact that the animals see the human being like a human being sees the other is only a prejudice.
We are human beings of a supersensible, ghostly existence to the animals; and if the animals had only such a perception as we have it, they would not see the human beings, but they would be as invisible for them as the realm of angels for the human beings. Only because they have a certain kind of dreamy clairvoyance, the animals see the human being as a ghost, as a supersensible being. The human being can have no idea directly of the image which an animal has of him. In return, the animals see something also downwards, or properly speaking, perceive something downwards that the human being does not perceive any more. Since the animals perceive not only like the human being perceives the mineral world, but still perceive—the lower animals most intensely—something else. If an animal, for instance, a snail creeps on the ground, and then it perceives the whole peculiarity of the ground. This would disturb the human being perpetually if he, while he goes on the surface of the earth, perceived this in the same way as a snail or a tortoise. With the higher animals which have warm blood it is somewhat different, but just the lower animals really perceive the whole peculiarity of the ground on which they creep. They perceive the whole peculiarity of the air; they perceive everything that is round them in another way as the human being. The animal knows whether it is on a soil which is marshy, or whether it moves on a sandy soil, because it perceives the whole peculiarity of the soil. Namely this is as similar as we hear the things in our surroundings. The whole mineral world is infiltrated with forces which make it shake and which the human being does not perceive. The animal perceives this fine shaking, these forces in such a way that it feels something as sympathetic, something not. If the animal turns back, for example, from one soil type to the other, it is not so that the animal sees it like the human being, but because something is a little bit painful to it, because the fine movements go on reverberating in it, because it feels as if it belongs to it. This is a kind of instinctive hearing like a hearing of that which takes action in the ground or this is like smelling. So that we can say: the animal perceives an elemental realm, and the higher hierarchies begin already with the human being for it.—We are put in the middle in the world which we know as the external sensory world, the external realms of the sensory world, and the world of the higher hierarchies. We call the lower visible hierarchies the realms of nature; we call the invisible ones the higher hierarchies.
We also know that such a being of the higher hierarchies, for example, an angel, once also experienced the level of humanity. This took place, while the earth went through the old Moon evolution. There the human being was not yet a human being; for he had no ego; he was on the preparatory level of humanity only and had the astral body as his highest member. The beings who belong to the hierarchy of the angeloi went through their human level during the old Moon evolution. The spirits to whom we turn as the guarding spirits of the individual human being are these beings of the hierarchy of the angeloi. To each of them, as it were, a human being is assigned. “Spirits of your souls” are those who stand immediately in the hierarchy above the human being who really spread out their protecting wings, symbolically spoken, over the human beings namely over the individual human being.
We come then to the hierarchy of the archangeloi. They also were human beings once. During the old Sun evolution the beings we call archangeloi today were on the human level. They were not so formed as the human beings today, of course not, they were formed quite differently, but they were on their human level in that time. We are not allowed to imagine that during the old Sun evolution the archangeloi looked as the human beings today, but concerning their development they were on their human level. The spirits of personality or spirits of the ages were on their human level during the old Saturn evolution.
Now, we pick out the spirits we call archangeloi. There we have such spirits as archangeloi who went through the human level during the old Sun evolution, ascended to the level of the angels during the Moon evolution, and today they have ascended to the level of the archangeloi. We leave these spiritual beings put before our souls at first, as it were, standing two levels above us; later we will come back to them. Then we have the spiritual beings who were human beings during the old Saturn evolution, today they are spirits of the ages, they are three levels above us. We let them put again. Now we want to look at our relation to these both types of spiritual beings.
When the human being goes through an incarnation, then stand above us the spirits we count to the hierarchy of the angels, then the spirits we count to the hierarchy of the archangeloi, and those we count to the hierarchy of the archai, spirits of the ages or spirits of personality. However, they also develop. Let us pick out the archai, the spirits of personality or spirits of the ages. We go through our incarnation, and then we go through the gate of death, come into a spiritual world after death, go through a certain purely spiritual development between death and a new birth and come to an earth existence by a new birth again. Now we can ask: what does this depend on that we move down to the earth again after a certain number of years? In public talks this question is often put. Then one can already give an answer from certain points of view, but intimately speaking in our branches we can give a more objective answer pointing to reality.
While we live here in the physical body, the spirit of the ages has a certain level of development. He does something that is connected with the development of the human beings on earth, and he experiences a development on his part. If this spirit of the ages has come in the course of a development so far that we all let flow into ourselves that which he has worked through on his part, then we are ripe, as it were, to come down to an earth incarnation. If he has advanced to a certain level and we have developed by the spiritual worlds up to a certain level, we can enter an earth development again. Let us understand well in this regard and refrain from our own development first of all. Let us look at the spirit of the ages developing in a very long period.
I may say the following. If we consider the development of the earthly humankind in such a way that we go back to the foundation of the ancient Rome, about eight hundred years before the Mystery of Golgotha, we find that there a certain spirit of the ages started his development. Another spirit of the ages was leading and steering the destiny of the earth before. This spirit of the ages who took over the leadership of the spiritual earthly development in those days was leading up to the 16th century. A spirit of the ages leads the destiny of the earth for such a period. Since the 16th century, another spirit of the ages is there. We deal with two spirits of the ages. The human being who was, for example, in the third century before the Mystery of Golgotha in any incarnation on the earth experienced that which this spirit of the ages caused for the earth. For the time after his death if this human being has died in the third century or also in the second century, the spirit of the ages can give him nothing at first. He gave him what he could give him. Now the spirit of the ages must go through a number of years again, until he is able to give something new to the human being. This human being comes again down to the earth who was between death and birth in a spiritual world, when the spirit can give him something new.
Now, however, it is arranged that way that the human being comes down several times on average, because the spirit of the ages is not able to give the human being everything that he could give him because of the imperfection of the human beings. That is why the human being comes down repeatedly in the time in which a spirit of the ages develops. But basically it depends on the fact that the spirits of the ages regulate the successive incarnations of the human beings. Now, however, the spirits of the ages regulate this whole course of the human destiny, as it were, by their subordinates. These are the archangels. Such archangels govern in subordinated positions for a much shorter time than the spirits of the ages.
While the spirits of the ages rule as long as I have stated just now, we can assume a spirit of the ages from the foundation of Rome up to the 16th century, the spirits we count to the hierarchy of the archangels rule only for three to four centuries. They alternate in such a way that about six or seven come one after the other, while a spirit of the ages is ruling. So that we have that archangel we call Oriphiel in the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. Then Anael, Zachariel, Raphael, Samael, Gabriel rule successively; and now since 1879 we have the government of that archangel we call Michael. So we have, if we look at the spiritual worlds, the higher government of the spirits of the ages and subordinate to them, the successive governments of archangels. Because the human being cannot take up everything that the spirit of the ages would give him, he does not take it directly from the hands of the spirit of the ages, but from the hands of the less powerful archangel. Keep in mind: our personal guardians belong to the hierarchy of the angeloi. Above them there are the spirits who regulate the interrelations of the human beings. Above them there are the archai or spirits of personality or spirits of the ages.
If I talk in such a way, it always concerns those beings who went through their development properly. But not all the spirits develop regularly. There are spiritual beings who were archai already during the Saturn evolution who lagged behind, however, on the level of the archai at that time, the level of humankind. They have not gone beyond their Saturn level during the earth development. They did not ascend to the level of the regular development. They maintained their human character, are supersensible Saturn beings on one side, however, are on the level of humankind. There are also beings of the hierarchy of the archai who stopped on the human level during the Sun evolution and stand there now in the supersensible world still as human beings. We term these beings that lagged behind the luciferic beings or ahrimanic beings with collective names. We cannot get involved in the difference between luciferic and ahrimanic beings today. These are spirits who lagged behind.
We have now to answer the question: how does the human being conceive, here in his earthly incarnation, the influence of the spirits who have properly progressed, the spirits of the ages, the archai, and the archangeloi who are their servants? These beings are supersensible; the human being cannot get a relationship to them like to the sensory world. Hence, the human being does not know as a rule if he only relies on the sensory world that he has been put in a development which is directed by the archai and archangeloi above him. He does not know it; but these supersensible beings intervene in his whole nature. Also those spiritual beings we call folk-spirits who lead whole peoples are among the archangeloi, the archangels. And in so far as we have the people to which we belong to thank for that which we are, we have to look at that what the nation's being gives us as a gift of the corresponding being of the hierarchy of the archangeloi. It is the inspiration of the archangeloi which comes to us because we are put into a people. Now we only need to think what it means for the human being to be put into a people. In the people's being there flow mental qualities, but also customs; a certain configuration of the being flows into the human being. One cannot imagine at all that somebody would have become that who somebody is in an incarnation because of the gift of the folk-spirit, in reality of the gift of an archangel.
Except that we stand within a people and receive, inspired by an archangel, certain configurations of our whole being, we stand in the development of the whole humankind. There we are exposed to the intuitions into which the spirit of the ages of the hierarchy of the archai leads us. Imagine that we receive something today in our present spiritual culture that goes beyond any national differentiation; what we have because we live from the 19th to the 20th centuries what we would not have had if we had lived during the Roman or Greek times. We have the spirit of the ages to thank for this. You can strictly make a distinction between the gift of the spirit of the ages and the gift of the folk-spirit. If only this were there which is a regular development of the human being, of the angel, of the archangel or that of the spirit of the ages then we would receive, every individual human being, the gift always from our spirit of the ages and from our corresponding folk-spirit and would develop by means of this gift. The human beings on earth would develop side by side. All members of the different peoples would receive the gift of their folk-spirits in such a way, as if five pictures would hang completely differently from each other in a gallery which would show miscellaneous things, but which would not disturb each other in the slightest.
Thus individual human beings would receive the gift of their folk-spirits on earth side by side. They would not disturb each other if their development had proceeded regularly. But there are beings who lagged behind. Among the guiding archangeloi are those who began their development properly on the Sun and have become right archangeloi up to the earth evolution, but also those who stopped on the Sun level who are basically only on the level of human beings. These beings are on the same level as the folk-spirits, and, nevertheless, they lagged behind them, have the qualities of invisible supersensible human beings, not those of archangels. They make the same claims to the world like the archangeloi in a certain way, but they have not reached the level of the archangeloi on earth. Hence, they must work with the same forces as on the Sun. The result is that they do not seize the human beings as the archangels do directing them from above, but penetrate them as invisible human beings. They do not lead the human being from above, but go into the human nature. These spirits, who compete with the really leading folk-spirits, cause that the nations feud with each other, do not live in peace with each other.
The human being would not be tempted at all to identify his personality, his humanness with his nation, but he would look at the person as something that feeds him spiritually. However, he would not stand up as a fighter for his nation, not identify his person with it. The human being would not say, I am of this or that nationality, but: nationality is there, and I have to get my spiritual food indirectly via this nationality into which I have been born. But while the archangel stimulates him to think that way, the other comes who is on the level of humankind, actually, and is basically a luciferic spirit, and leads him into his nationality.
The result is that the archangel-like does not come down as a gift to the human being, but that the human being identifies himself with the nation like with a completely personal affair, and thereby this quarrel of the nationalities comes into being on the earth. That must absolutely be clear to us: because we were not only exposed to the influence of the leading archangel, but also to the influence of the retarded archangel, we identify ourselves with the nationality as we do on earth. That is just the spiritual-scientific feeling that we as human beings are able to rise above the only national to find access to the general humanness. Then we can be national in the most remarkable sense. As well as the one human being may do that or the other may do something different as art, and the former doing his art does not need to be the adversary of the other, one did not need to be the adversary of the other concerning nationality if there were no retarded archangels who cause the identification. One has to presuppose that if one generally speaks about the basis of the human development with reference to the national or other differentiations.
Concerning the spirit of the ages you will still see further details, in which way the luciferic element works into the regular element if we consider the following. A spirit of the ages works for a certain time. Since the 16th century a new spirit of the ages is there. This spirit of the ages has a particular task. He has the task to add the whole materialistic skill and understanding of the world to the former impulses of development. Hence, materialism made so big progress since the 16th century in the world. Therefore, we do not need to look at the materialistic understanding as something more inferior to the former kind of understanding if we identify ourselves not only unilaterally with it. What will somebody who looks at the matters that way say about the government of the different spirits of the ages? He says: we are now controlled by the particular spirit of the ages; before we were controlled by another spirit of the ages. The human beings had other ideas, other impulses then. If the human being now were able to be influenced by the properly developing spirits of the ages, he would say: we must now adapt ourselves to this spirit of the ages, while we penetrate more the laws of the evolution of the world, of the materialistic thinking. Then another spirit of the ages comes after a time; he causes another attitude of mind in the human thinking.
I emphasised it often that we as supporters of spiritual science must say: today we announce spiritual science using particular words, ideas and concepts, but it is not correct that we believe, that what we say today holds good for the whole earth future, but it changes. When two thousand years are over, our knowledge of spiritual science today is announced with other words, just as we talk differently than in the Greek epoch; nothing remains of the kind of our words. We do not rely on anything that externally remains but we know that one spirit of the ages replaces the other and that they all stand equally side by side.
Somebody who is influenced by the retarded spirits of the ages of the Saturn and identifies himself with their influence says: at that time all the other human beings were silly; this was the nursery of humankind. We have advanced so far today; we have found completely valid truth for all future.—One becomes humbler, more modest in the field of spiritual science. Somebody who identifies himself with the spirit of the ages says: Copernicus found the right thing finally; something different was once believed. Now the human beings will say forever: the earth and the planets move in ellipses around the sun. The sun is in its centre.—Spiritual science already knows today that this is a one-sided teaching. It is very good for our materialistic time to imagine the world, but it is wrong. It is not true at all that the sun is in one focus of the ellipse and the earth moves around. It is, actually, a materialistically calculated apparent movement. In truth it is in such a way that the sun moves and the earth and the other planets run after it in a helical movement. Because certain positions originate in this helical movement, the earth stands once here, another time there. That appears as an ellipse. In truth it is another line. The time will come when the external science knows this, too.
One becomes more modest if one knows that truth is announced in a certain way for certain times. We never state as correct supporters of spiritual science: from now on into all future all human beings say, the human being consists of physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego. But the future speaks quite differently, because everything is developing. The ideas of yesterday are as justified as the ideas of today. We can be controlled not only by a spirit of the ages who leads us to believe that all previous knowledge was a pack of lies and we have advanced so wonderfully far. With reference to the spirit of the ages you see people possessed by the luciferic spirit saying: how wonderfully far we have advanced. How imperfect everything was what one thought and said about the world once. What we have found since the 16-century remains as eternal truth.
The folk-spirit is basically a complicated being on the whole. He is the regular folk-spirit who floats above us and if we only followed him we would follow in such a way that we take up his gifts because we are in his sphere. But he is impaired perpetually in his effectiveness by his luciferic companion who obsesses us and induces us to identify ourselves as individual human beings with the whole nationality. However, the individual human being does this differently. It is very important that one really sees that in the middle of Europe a people has to develop that has another relationship to its folk-spirit as the peoples have in the periphery of Europe. We have to learn this insight. What takes place under the surface of the human consciousness and what depends really on the spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies is extremely important.
The materialistically thinking human being regards it still an insanity if one says that such impulses go out from the spiritual beings like this is one in Central Europe who stimulates the unaware people to such a feeling towards the divine or—because in Central Europe Christ is working—to the Christ Impulse. So that the Central European human being learns to feel Christ in such a way as He speaks to the core of the soul. This came nowhere else into being as in Central Europe. Still during the Roman time of the Christian development one understood, for example, Christ as a being who came to earth and worked for the human beings. Indeed, the advanced human beings and partly those who thought already in such a way, as we think today who we are in the possession of spiritual science felt as Paul thought: “not I, but Christ in me.” However, it is a difference compared with a feeling as we find it with Master Eckhart, with Tauler, with Angelus Silesius and similar minds. How these spirits took up the Mystery of Golgotha. We only need to ask Angelus Silesius; and he answers us with the nice saying:
Were Christ born a thousand times in Bethlehem
And not in you, you would be lost forever.
It depends on the commiseration of the Mystery of Golgotha in the own soul. These Central European human beings tried to internally experience something that is an internal picture, an internal expression of the Mystery of Golgotha. And how wonderful is it when Angelus Silesius says once about death: everything that happens in me happens in the end because God is in me and carries out the matters in me. And if I die, I do not die, but, actually, God dies in me.—Imagine what a wonderfully intimate idea of immortality already is given when one says: God dies in me.—Since God is immortal, of course. If God dies in me, death is only apparent; then one feels like Angelus Silesius felt: God dies only apparently in me, because God cannot die. So is death not that it seems externally, it is only a fact of life. Because God cannot die—but dies in anyone,—one already feels immortality with it.
This most intimate being together with God whether one feels it as something divine or as something Christian was prepared for long times in the course of the Central European development. There the Central European folk-spirits worked, so that it found an external symbolic expression, a real symbolic expression. Except in Central Europe nowhere anybody says “ich,” if he means his own self, his own being. The whole development was led by the folk-spirit who manifests himself as a spirit of language in such a way that the own being was expressed with the word ICH. But ICH, “I-Ch,” is Jesus Christ. It lies in Jesus Christ. Because in “ICH” Christ Jesus is expressed in His initial letters, it is expressed allegorically what in the Central European spiritual being is as it is connected with the most intimate experience. Whenever somebody pronounces “Ich,” he pronounces the initial letters of “Jesus Christ.” If one turned the spiritual eyes only once to such matters which are really considered even today as fantastic, somebody would already think that the spirits of the higher hierarchies work unconsciously in the human development, and would then find something significant in the matters which one takes for granted today.
I want only to mention a really significant fact. One calls a certain group of European human beings Germanic people or Teutons. And while one speaks in Central Europe of Germanic people (“Germanen”), one includes England, Holland, Norway, Sweden and still others. One expands the concept of the Germanic people. I do not talk out of agitation, but out of that which is given in the language. The English do not speak of themselves as Germanic people, because they call only the Germans Germanic people. The German calls himself “deutsch,” and if he speaks of Germanic people, he encloses a bigger group of human beings. The English apply the term Germans only to the Germans, to those who are not like “him.” This is a tremendously significant fact. It is something that is in the deepest sense typical for the kind in which way on the one side and on the other the folk-spirit works; he works in Central Europe to embrace a bigger entity and the folk-spirit of the English people takes care to put away that and only to apply it to the other.
That will be obvious to the human beings gradually in a wonderful way which the language teaches as the outflow of the effective folk spirituality. Now one is little understood if one speaks about the different European peoples as I tried it some years before this war—not caused at all by the war—in the cycle The Mission of the Individual Folk-Souls in Connection with the Germanic-Nordic Mythology. This is understood in such a way, as if I wanted to express any value judgments. But I do not want to express value judgments, but only a characteristic. We can now characterise the West-European peoples expressing exactly what I expressed in this lecture cycle.
We know that the soul of the human being consists of the sentient soul, the intellectual soul or mind-soul and the consciousness-soul, and the ego which works in these three soul nuances. If we look at the Italian nation with its folk-spirit, we find the peculiarity that there the folk-spirit inspires the sentient soul. This is the typical of the Italian people, that the folk-spirit inspires the sentient soul. If now something is possessed by the luciferic folk-spirit, it is also the folk-spirit. Imagine that on one side the brilliant aspect of the Italian people is based on the fact that the sentient soul is inspired. Think of Dante, of all the great Italian artists. But this people also identify themselves, on the other hand, with something superhuman that lagged behind luciferically in all the passionate impulses of development which appear within the Italian people. I do not pronounce any value judgment, but I characterise it only.
We can see everywhere with the French people the folk-spirit inspiring the intellectual soul or mind-soul.
With the British people it is the consciousness-soul. The consciousness-soul is for the present human cycle that which connects the human being mostly with the external physical world. Hence, this nation which is inspired in the consciousness-soul is entrusted above all with the task of furthering the materialistic civilisation. No value judgment is expressed again, but it is characterised only that just the British nation has a vocation to get the consciousness-soul inspired. In so far as the individual human being belongs to his nation, in so far as he is inspired by the luciferic folk-spirit, he identifies himself with the purely materialistic civilisation of the present. We find this really in the British culture. Like the individual human being positions himself in the British nation, this comes out what is just the materialistic spirit of the British nation, this peculiar spirit who waged thirty-four wars of conquest from 1856 up to 1900 and made fifty-seven million people new British subjects, and who pretends to stand up for the liberty of single human groups in our time.
If we consider such a time like ours, we must absolutely be clear to us that just this time teaches people very much to feel like an admonition what one puts up now as the contrast of the single national groups of Europe or of a big part of the earth. The members of thirty-four nationalities—apart from minor tribal differences—are in war with each other. One should regard this as an admonition to refrain really from that which one has called history up to now. But this approach is used just for the time being still up to nonsense. We find it really driven up to nonsense what the individual nations of Europe reproach each other for everything. One weighs up the single external facts to discover the causes of this dreadful war. But just this war will teach people that one finds nothing in its external causes, but at most external symptoms of that which exists deeply hidden in the human groups by the guidance of advanced and retarded spiritual beings. The ordeals of this time force us to appeal to the spiritual subsoil in which the causes of the external events in the world can be found today.
From the most different sides one can show how in the subsoil of the consciousness that works which appears externally. I want to point, although most of the friends already know this example, once again to the fact that the whole map of Europe was determined towards the end of the Middle Ages by the Maid of Orleans who intervened in the war between England and France. Everybody who looks understanding at our external history has to recognise that the map of Europe would have turned out quite differently if at that time England had not been defeated by France because the Maid of Orleans intervened in the fight. But the Maid of Orleans was not a qualified strategist; she was no one who stood at the summit of education. She was a simple human child—a farmer girl. But the spirits of the higher hierarchies worked through her in the way as they had to work in this time. It has been absolutely necessary up to our time that these spirits worked in the subconscious because the human beings could not yet understand what must now be understood spiritual-scientifically.
The intervention of spiritual beings in the subconsciousness is often nicely expressed in legends. And rightly, not because of superstition, but because it really corresponds to facts, one set particular store by the time when the external world has withdrawn mostly from the year, the time from Christmas up to the sixth January. If one does not want to attain spiritual knowledge in the way, as we do today using the instructions given in How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?, but in a more elementary way, one could be inspired in these thirteen nights. This is expressed, for example, very nicely in the Norwegian legend of Olaf Åsteson. This legend relates that Olaf Åsteson goes to the church before Christmas; that he falls asleep before the church and sleeps during thirteen nights. He wakes up at the Epiphany day and is really able to tell his experience. What he tells there figuratively in a clear, but primitive way corresponds to that we call the passage through the soul-world and the passage through the spirit-land. Olaf Åsteson experienced that in the time in which Christmas was rightly put. This makes it clear to us that the clairvoyance of a nature child could be developed best of all during these thirteen nights from Christmas till Epiphany.
Because the Maid of Orleans was such a nature child, one could assume that she would have experienced the world in these thirteen nights in a sort of dreamy state of which she spoke when she led the French army against the English that she would have been inspired in these thirteen nights. This happened in a peculiar way. Every human being experiences a sleeping state, a state when the senses do not yet speak, namely in the body of the mother, before he sees the physical earth light. This is still a kind of sleeping state, and the ripest state is that during the last thirteen days before birth. This is the great thing and fills our souls with such amazement: the Maid of Orleans is born on the sixth January. She went through the inspiration actually in the thirteen nights, but before she opened her eyes to the earth light. That is why the sixth January is noted as the birthday of the Maid of Orleans intentionally in our calendar. We have to understand that in its big world-historical connection; since it can say to us how mysterious the connections are in the world and how mysterious forces work in the world. Mysterious powers worked in those days on the sixth January, because people gathered in the little village where the Maid of Orleans was born in the morning; where the animals themselves behaved so wonderfully. On this sixth January, an inspiration could be finished. In thirteen nights a being could be inspired which was disposed by its own karma. Of course, not everybody who is born on the sixth January is disposed, but karma has to coincide with the other conditions.
I wanted to give this example of the Maid of Orleans which shows us so surely how subterranean powers intervene in the historical development. Indeed, the materialistic development of the following centuries came then. It is completely comprehensible that this had to consider such tips to historical backgrounds as insanity. This does not harm; even it does not harm at all if today people still look at this spiritual science like insanity. This spiritual science will be accepted finally.
But such significant events, within which the human beings of the present time live and in which they themselves incarnated to take part in them in one or another way, do not always mean the same in the historical development. Today these destiny-burdened events mean an admonition to the human beings. Such a flood of literature has been written about this war, but in everything that appeared in books, pamphlets and so on we do not yet find this from which one has to assume, actually, that it is found and that it must be found bit by bit. One often hears: one can talk about the causes not really, maybe after the war, maybe people find the true causes of this war from documents only after decades and know who was to blame for it.—You can read this in every third newspaper. But that does not concern, it concerns that which one finds—and just as a result of this time—that the real causes are not to be seen in these external occasions, but that one has to look for the causes in the spiritual world. One will find that this war was the significant karma of materialism which must be experienced, so that the human beings take up a sum of convictions in them leading from materialism to spiritualism. Humankind must experience this ordeal.
What does happen basically today in such a distressing way round us?—We know, when the human being goes through the gate of death, he leaves his physical body behind in the physical world. He enters in the spiritual world with his etheric body, astral body and ego. He soon takes off the etheric body which is given to the remaining world. Then he goes with astral body and ego through the soul-land, through the spirit-land. But imagine now that today a big number of human beings goes through the gate of death in relatively short time and with a particular consciousness; that they take off etheric bodies which could have supplied, so to speak, their lives normally still for decades. If a human being dies between the twentieth and thirtieth years, he takes off an etheric body which could have supplied his physical body for sixty to seventy years. The forces are in the etheric body, because nothing gets lost also in the spiritual world. All human beings, who go today in the prime of life through the gate of death, hand over to the world etheric bodies which could still have maintained their lives for a long time. These forces are there in the spiritual world. How are they there, these forces?—I may give you an illustrative example of the significance of such a phenomenon which is taken from our circle itself.
Last autumn, a family belonging to our anthroposophical circle lost a little son, a dear boy of seven years. The external circumstances were exceptionally tragic ones. The father had been called up to the army as a German citizen; he just fell ill and was in the military hospital. One evening, even as a lecture took place in Dornach where our construction is built, somebody informed us that the little seven-year-old boy was missing. He had not come home since the evening. I have to mention that the family has settled down in Dornach as a gardener family. I had come from Germany to Switzerland shortly before. The boy had already met me before the construction and shaken my hand; it was a sunny very dear child. In that evening, we were informed that the boy was missing. Now one could imagine nothing else, as that a removal van, which had brought pieces of furniture for our members, had toppled over and fallen on the boy near the construction. You must also take into consideration that since countless years no removal van went at that place or since that time. You must think further: the boy lived with his mother who manages the garden. He was such a dear boy that he said to his mother when the father had to go; now he would muck in, because the father is not there any more.
That evening, he had been sent to the so-called canteen to get something for his mother. It was not far at all; it is only a short way between the canteen and the flat of the mother. On this short way is a crossroad, so that the removal van had to do a bend. Now the boy intended to leave, actually, ten minutes sooner, was detained by somebody who wanted to go with him. If he had left sooner and through the door through which he was used to leave, he would have passed the carriage sooner and on its left side, while he went now on the right. Because he left later, through another door and on the right side of the removal van, the carriage when it tipped over fell just on the boy. People had looked at this, also those who were busy with the horses. Nobody anticipated that the boy had got under the carriage. Then one said: The carriage is too heavy to lift it still this evening, tomorrow we do this.—Between five and six o'clock p. m. this had happened. We had definitely to lift the carriage a quarter past ten o'clock. At twelve o'clock it was lifted; and we recovered the dead child.
The first thing I would like to mention is that just such an example is suited to show how wrongly people think concerning life. I would like to give an often used comparison for this wrong thinking. Assuming, you see a person in some distance who goes along a riverside. Suddenly you see the person falling into the river. You run to that place and you find a stone at the same place. Of course, you say, the person tripped over the stone, fell into the water, and found his death that way. However, the matter can be completely different; it could be the other way round. The man could have experienced a heart failure. He fell into the water, because he was dead before; and he did not find his death, because he fell into the water. This mistake is done any minute, in the natural sciences in particular. One does not notice it, of course, if it is well hidden.
That was also the case concerning this child. The karma of this child had run off. The removal van went there because of the child. The spiritual beings who exist behind the secret arranged the matter in such a way that the child could find its death. The boy was seven years old. The rather youthful etheric body would have supplied life for many decades, its forces were there. Now, I will always confess what it means that since some time our Dornach construction is embedded in the enlarged etheric body of the little boy Theodor Faiss. The etheric body is increased—it grows after death,—and the etheric body of this little seven-year-old Theo forms something like an aura of the construction since that time. If one deals with the construction, if one needs to find ideas for the construction which put himself rightly in the spiritual world, since the death of this boy he knows that he is co-inspired by the etheric body which is involved in the aura of the construction, the etheric body of the little Theo Faiss.
Of course, no longing to appear original could inveigle me into denying that a lot is co-inspired by that which contributed to the construction since that time, because the aura of this etheric body is round the construction, and one has, as it were, this help that this unused etheric strength works in favour of the construction. Imagine which important internal facts are behind the external facts: a family moves their residence near to the construction. There is a boy, especially gifted by his soul-being; he sacrifices his etheric body, so that the construction is wrapped up in the strength of this etheric body. There we have such an example at which we see that unused sacrificed etheric bodies have their task in the world.
There only that begins basically which should flow as the sentient content from our spiritual science. That one knows, the human being consists of physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego, that one goes through different lives on earth—one knows that in theory, it does not matter really. But it matters that which is inserted in our real experience by these views. One tries to bring life also into our movement and to overcome the difference between the living and the dead not only theoretically by teaching, but by life. When recently a very dear assistant, Fritz Mitscher, was snatched away from us just in his thirtieth year, and I had to hold the address at the cremation in Basel, an important word consisted in the fact that I turned to this soul, I would like to say, begged him to continue working among us after death. For we do not only need the so-called living, but we need the cooperation of those who have gone through the gate of death. They will co-operate in a double way. On one side, a big number of etheric bodies co-operate in the next time which the human beings have taken off going through the gate of death in the destiny-burdened events.
Youthful unused etheric bodies form a big aura in which we live. On the other side are the individualities themselves who work on from their etheric bodies. We can look at the unused etheric body at the example of the little Theo Faiss where the etheric body becomes the inspirator for something that was achieved in the construction. I would look at the individuality of Fritz Mitscher in my address. It is the task of our spiritual science to feel how the abyss between life and death is filled. It must become conscious content of our earth times not only to know in theory, but to penetrate vividly that which the dead are to us like the living that the dead give something like the youthful, unused etheric bodies. In these etheric bodies, which belonged to the human beings who have now found their death as a result of the big destiny-burdened events, the echoes live of everything that is felt if one considers death as a sacrifice for the events demanded by this time—more or less consciously. This goes into these etheric bodies.
Looking for death, or properly speaking, foreseeing death and nevertheless knowing that this death has a meaning, this will be the case with the numerous human beings going through the gate of death in the present. One can be a materialist; if one exists in such a way, one may say: folk-souls, folk-spirits are only names for something that in the abstract holds together a group of human beings of the same language and the same characteristics. Speaking of folk-spirits as of real beings is a weirdie.—Some people going now through the gate of death may speak that way according to the words; because they go through death they agree unconsciously to that which spiritual science has to say that a folk-soul, a folk-spirit is a real being. For what would it mean if folk-spirits, folk-souls were not real beings and the human beings stand on all sides in this bloody war?
Provided a materialistic world creation it would be impossible to imagine that. If the individual human being sacrifices himself for the folk-spirit, if the folk-spirit is a real being to him, it has the deepest sense that such events have befallen the human beings. Thus we will feel the next time in which many unspent etheric bodies float in the spiritual atmosphere admonishing everybody that there is something spiritual. These etheric bodies are good assistants in future to deepen the human world view spiritually. The human beings have only to feel the dead calling in their souls. When again peace holds sway over the fields on which now the dreadful events take place, the human beings who live then will work much better if they hear the voices of the dead. But this is meant not only symbolically. The unspent etheric bodies are calling. The world cannot exist in future without the human beings feeling their connection with the spiritual world. Humankind of the future would turn out lifeless if it were not able to hear the admonitions of the dead.
In physics, everybody admits that energy does not get lost; one speaks of the transformation of energy. That also applies to the spiritual realm. The forces the unused etheric body carries through the gate of death do not disappear; they will be there. They can be taken up in the souls of the future, and these souls can receive strength and confidence for their spiritual work from the connection with the soul leftovers which remained from unused etheric bodies.
Beside many things this war can say to us, it is for us as supporters of spiritual science above all that we already look up in spirit at the atmosphere of the unused etheric bodies. However, here below souls have to be who have a feeling for the admonitions of the dead. It belongs to our task as supporters of spiritual science to bring about that. We must already find a spiritual point of view also towards such events, not the point of view of an abstract thinking. But we must really imagine the future population of the earth in such a way that below souls exist who are in the physical bodies, and from above forces of unused etheric bodies work; and that these souls below can say: we have no doubts that better times come for the spiritual cognition, because the unused etheric bodies help us with their forces.—If we take this specifically, not in the abstract, we have understood something of the admonitions which this destiny-burdened time can give us in particular as supporters of spiritual science. It must take place that way, because real effects in the human development are necessary. We would have to work on for long times if we had to intellectually convince people of that which the spiritual-scientific world view wants to give. With the Maid of Orleans a subconscious initiation took place. In the future, spirituality works in another way in the human development. The unused etheric bodies support us and also those who as individualities want to work on the physical plane.
It is sometimes strange what people can understand also today. On account of the given example you will admit that at the time of the Maid of Orleans the strategists, the generals did not bring about that which was brought about. I have sometimes given another example: when at a determining hour the army of Constantine marched against Rome, these were not also the generals who brought about the victory and defeated the five times stronger army of Maxentius who led his armies before the gates of Rome against Constantine. Constantine followed not his generals, but a dream that said to him, he should make his armies carry the monogram of Christ. Dreams and Sibylline oracles brought the armies together at a particular place and decided everything in those days. However, because Constantine was victorious, the map of Europe got its corresponding appearance. Who steered the events in those days taking place under the threshold of consciousness? It was the Christ Impulse, but the Christ Impulse, as it was real, not as human beings understood it.
We do not get to know the Christ Impulse listening to the squabbling of the theologians. The Christ Impulse did not work in that which the human beings accomplished consciously which the human beings understood; but it worked in joining together the events with Constantine and Maxentius, and later again with the Maid of Orleans. Also in this time one experiences something, even in little facts. You can compare the little thing with the big one sometimes.
An excellent philosopher wrote a longer article about the spiritual-scientific world view represented by me some years ago in a South German monthly magazine. This article had a big effect; it was written in an opposing way, infiltrated with many a benevolent judgment about theosophy on the whole, even some acknowledging notes. For example, I got the advice instead of using my talents for such matters to find out finally whether Mickiewicz1Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855), Polish poet, stood up for the liberation of the Polish people from the Russian rule. is really the reincarnation of the Maid of Orleans and so on. Nevertheless, on the whole, the article was very suitable to show how our spiritual-scientific world view has to be regarded so that an inadequate impression was aroused.
The philosopher who had written the article was regarded as a great Platonist, as a great logician. He himself said that he devoted himself to no other task than to announce the truth, and, therefore, he would be able to know the truth. The editor of the magazine seemed to be very satisfied to publish such authoritative an article about this spiritual science. This was already some years ago. Then the war came. The person concerned does not belong to those who sympathise with Central Europe, but he sympathises in determined way with England and France and even with those who also fight on the side of England and France. Now what happens? He writes a number of letters to the same man, the editor of the magazine. This editor of the mentioned magazine also publishes these letters because they are too typical, in another magazine, the South German Monthly Magazine. He even reminds of the fact that he is the same man—it is Karl Muth—who publishes the magazine Hochland and printed the article about the “Steinerean theosophy,” as he says. In these letters, a West-European minded person rants at the Central European population as much as he can do. Among other things, this man explains: black people are free aristocrats compared to people who do not know anything they are fighting for. One had to compare the British Empire with Central Europe, the former were established like the Catholic Church by God and would never have done anything but what is according to the divine world order.
Printing this letter is a matter of course. The mentioned editor adds to this: in whole Central Europe nobody could be found except in madhouses who could support such a view.—Now the dear Mr. Muth admits that the man whom he had chosen to let him loose on our spiritual-scientific world view is ready, actually, for the lunatic asylum. Of such a quality are the objections generally which are raised against our spiritual-scientific world view. Only Mr. Muth would already have had to know in those days that the man is ready for the lunatic asylum. But he needed the admonition of the war. His view had to be challenged only by that which he could easily see now. Some people who are ready for the lunatic asylum walk around and criticise our world view, only it does not come to the fore so absurdly.
I said that this example shows that the reason which people have today would limp for a long time if it concerns the spiritual-scientific world view and that one must say: not only the living but also the dead are necessary that a certain quantity of spirituality comes into the world. Those belong to the best helpers who had to stand up with their souls and lives for the course of our present destiny-burdened events. That is why we would want that such considerations remain not only something theoretical in the souls, but become a deeply honest feeling, the feeling that we may bear witness of spiritual science in such a way that we know attentively that there are admonishing voices in the spiritual world saying to us: let us dead be a landmark of the spiritual deepening which must come to the human beings, because we have gone through this death with consciousness—not for our matter, but for that which is independent from us, so that we have thereby confirmed the confession of something that goes beyond the individual material human life.
If among the supporters of spiritual science those are who anticipate, feel or know the serious murmur of the dead, then something real is achieved that has to be achieved by spiritual science in the feelings of the human souls; in other words, if souls are inspired by spiritual science who know to turn their senses to the realm of spirits, because a lot is said to the human beings from the realm of spirits in the times to come.
It is this that I wanted to suggest to you for your feelings, because the circumstances were such that we can be together just in this time also in a branch meeting. One would want that at such meetings not only a knowledge as a germ is given, but that that which is spoken in such meetings would work like a living germ which is planted in the ground of the feeling soul. What you carry on from such a consideration, this is the central issue.
That is why we want to close these considerations, while we think of that which might be assigned to us from the destiny-burdened events of this time:
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.
Die Beziehung Des Menschen Zu Den Naturreichen Und Den Hierarchien - Zeitgeister Und Volksgeister - Die Mahnenden Stimmen Der Toten
Es ist eine schwere Zeit, in welcher wir leben, eine Zeit wirksamer mutvoller Taten und hoher Opfer auf der einen Seite, eine Zeit schwerer harter Prüfungen für die Menschenseelen auf der andern Seite. Einiges von Empfindungen anzuregen gerade mit Rücksicht auf unsere schicksaltragende Zeit, möge zum Schlusse dieser Betrachtungen dann meine Aufgabe sein. Da wir zusammensein dürfen in einer solchen Zeit, wollen wir am Schlusse unserer Betrachtungen auch gemäß dieser Zeit unsere Empfindungen gipfeln lassen. Ausgehen aber wollen wir von etwas, das uns gerade über mancherlei, das bedeutungsvoll zu unseren Seelen sprechen muß in unserer Zeit, Licht verbreiten kann.
Wir nennen, seitdem wir beginnen, geisteswissenschaftlich die Welt zu betrachten, die vier Glieder unserer Menschennatur: physischen Leib, Ätherleib, Astralleib und Ich. Und wir wissen, daß das Ich oder vielmehr dasjenige in der menschlichen Wesenheit, das wir Ich benennen, durch das wir das Ich ausdrücken, das jüngste, aber auch für uns bedeutsamste Glied der menschlichen Wesenheit ist. Denn wäre der Mensch durch die Folge von Saturn-, Sonnen- und Mondenzeit nur bestehend aus physischem Leib, Ätherleib und Astralleib, so wäre er eben nicht Mensch. Der Mensch ist Mensch dadurch, daß er während der Erdenzeit durch die Geister der höheren Hierarchien sein Ich erhalten hat und daß er nun während der Erdenzeit dieses Ich sich im Laufe der aufeinanderfolgenden Inkarnationen weiter entwickelt durch verschiedene Menschengemeinschaften, durch Völker und Zeiträume hindurch, bis die Erde am Ziel ihrer Entwickelung angelangt sein wird und bis der Mensch dadurch, daß er sein Ich vollständig entwickelt haben wird, sein Erdenziel auch erreicht haben wird. Nun wissen wir aber auch, daß es höhere geistige Wesenheiten gibt — wir gebrauchen dafür das Wort «höhere» -, die höheren Hierarchien angehören, die gewissermaßen über dem Menschen stehen. Wir sprechen von der Hierarchie der Engel, Angeloi, von der Hierarchie der Erzengel, Archangeloi, der Archai oder Zeitgeister und so weiter nach aufwärts steigend. Wir bezeichnen sie durch diese Namen, wir könnten ebensogut andere Namen gebrauchen, aber die Namen sind einmal im Abendlande eingeführt.
Wir wollen uns nun einmal vor die Seele führen, wie wir uns denn eigentlich diese geistigen Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien im Verhältnis zu dem, was der Mensch hier auf der Erde ist, vorstellen können. Wir gehen davon aus, was der Mensch hier auf der Erde in seinem Umkreis hat. Wir wissen, es ist das Mineralreich, das Pflanzenreich und das Tierreich, und der Mensch muß sich selber nach alledem, was er beobachten kann, wie er sich findet, das Menschenteich selbst als das höchste Reich betrachten. So daß wir sagen können: Wenn wir die sichtbaren Reiche auf der Erde hier nehmen, so haben wir als solche das Mineralreich, das Pflanzenreich, das Tierreich und das Menschenteich. Über diesen Reichen, gewissermaßen wie eine Fortsetzung nach oben, erscheint das Reich der Angeloi, der Archangeloi, der Archai und so weiter. Wir können uns einfach vorstellen, daß die Reiche mit dem Menschenreich nicht abgeschlossen sind, sondern sich auch nach oben weiter erstrecken, nur daß die höheren Reiche nicht gesehen werden können mit den Sinnen, welche die äußeren Sinne sind.
Allein es könnte auffällig erscheinen, daß, wenn wir hinaufgehen vom Mineral-, Pflanzen- und Tierreich zum Menschenteich, dann auf einmal über dem Menschenreich die Unsichtbarkeit beginnt. Es wird das aber nur so lange auffällig sein, als man nicht bedenkt, daß die Tiere — für den ist das ganz klar, der sich ganz in das tierische Anschauungsvermögen versetzen kann — den Menschen nicht so sehen, wie der eine Mensch den andern sieht. Wenn die Tiere reden könnten, würden sie von sichtbaren Reichen nur sprechen als von Mineral-, Pflanzen- und Tierreich; sie würden sich selber als das höchste sichtbare Reich betrachten. Daß die Tiere den Menschen so sehen, wie ein Mensch den andern, ist nur ein Vorurteil. Für die Tiere sind wir Menschen wirklich von einem übersinnlichen, gespensterhaften Dasein; und wenn die Tiere nur solche Wahrnehmungen hätten, wie wir sie haben, so würden sie die Menschen nicht sehen, sondern sie wären für sie so unsichtbar wie für die Menschen das Reich der Engel. Nur weil sie eine gewisse Art von traumhaftem Hellsehen haben, so sehen die Tiere den Menschen als Gespenst, als ein übersinnliches Wesen. Von dem Bild, das ein Tier vom Menschen hat, kann sich der Mensch als solcher unmittelbar keine Vorstellung machen. Dafür allerdings sehen die Tiere auch nach unten etwas, oder besser gesagt, nehmen nach unten etwas wahr, was der Mensch nach unten nicht mehr wahrnimmt. Nämlich die Tiere nehmen nicht nur so wahr, wie der Mensch die mineralische Welt wahrnimmt, sondern sie nehmen noch - besonders stark die niederen Tiere — etwas ganz anderes wahr. Wenn ein Tier, ich will sagen, eine Schnecke über den Boden kriecht, dann nimmt sie die ganze Eigentümlichkeit des Bodens wahr. Das würde den Menschen fortwährend stören, wenn er, indem er über den Erdboden geht, diesen so wahrnehmen würde wie eine Schnecke oder selbst eine Schildkröte. Mit den höheren Tieren, die warmes Blut haben, ist es etwas anderes, aber gerade die niederen Tiere nehmen wirklich die ganze Eigentümlichkeit des Bodens wahr, auf dem sie kriechen. Sie nehmen die ganze Eigentümlichkeit der Luft wahr, sie nehmen alles, was um sie herum ist, in einer ganz andern Weise wahr als der Mensch. Das Tier weiß, ob es sich über einen Boden, der Moorboden ist, oder ob es sich über einen Sandboden hinbewegt, denn es nimmt die ganze Eigentümlichkeit des Bodens in sich wahr. Und zwar ist das so ähnlich, wie wir die Dinge in unserer Umgebung hören. Alle mineralische Welt ist in einem feinen Erzittern von Kräften durchsetzt, die der Mensch nicht wahrnimmt. Dieses feine Erzittern, diese Kräfte nimmt das Tier so wahr, daß es das eine als sympathisch empfindet, das andere nicht. Wenn das Tier zum Beispiel von einer Bodenart zur andern umkehrt, so ist es nicht so, daß das Tier es sieht wie der Mensch, sondern weil ihm etwas schmerzlich ist, weil die feinen Bewegungen in ihm nachklingen, weil es sich wie dazugehörig fühlt. Das ist eine Art von instinktivem Hören, wie ein Mithören dessen, was in dem Boden vorgeht, oder das ist wie ein Riechen. So daß wir sagen können: Das Tier nimmt ein Elementarreich wahr und läßt vom Menschen an schon eine höhere Hierarchie gelten. - Wir sind also mitten hineingestellt in die Welt, die wir als die äußere Sinnenwelt, die äußeren Reiche der Sinnenwelt kennen, und die Welt der höheren Hierarchien. Die niederen sichtbaren Hierarchien nennen wir die Naturreiche, die unsichtbaren nennen wir die höheren Hierarchien.
Nun wissen wir aber auch, daß ein solches Wesen der höheren Hierarchien, zum Beispiel ein Angelos, auch einmal die Stufe der Menschheit durchgemacht hat. Das war, während die Erde die alte Mondenzeit durchmachte. Da war der Mensch noch nicht Mensch; denn er hatte kein Ich; er war erst auf der Vorbereitungsstufe der Menschheit und hatte als höchstes Glied seiner Wesenheit den Astralleib. Die Wesenheiten, die zur Hierarchie der Angeloi gehören, hatten während der.alten Mondenzeit ihre menschliche Stufe durchgemacht. Und die Geister, zu denen wir uns wenden als den schützenden Geistern des einzelnen Menschen, das sind diese Wesen aus der Hierarchie der Angeloi, von denen jedem gleichsam ein Mensch zugeteilt ist. «Geister Eurer Seelen» sind diejenigen, die unmittelbar in der Hierarchie über dem Menschen stehen, die wirklich ihre schützenden Schwingen, symbolisch gesprochen, über die Menschen hin wirken lassen, und zwar über das einzelne menschliche Individuum wirken lassen.
Dann kommen wir zu der Hierarchie der Archangeloi. Die waren auch einmal Menschen. Während der alten Sonnenzeit waren die Wesenheiten, die wir heute Archangeloi nennen, auf der Menschenstufe. Sie waren nicht so gestaltet wie heute die Menschen, selbstverständlich nicht, ganz anders waren sie gestaltet, aber sie waren dazumal auf ihrer Menschenstufe. Wir dürfen uns nicht vorstellen, daß während der alten Sonnenzeit die Archangeloi so ausgesehen haben wie heute die Menschen, aber in bezug auf ihre Entwickelung waren sie dazumal auf ihrer Menschheitsstufe. Und ebenso waren die Geister der Persönlichkeit oder Zeitgeister während der alten Saturnzeit auf ihrer Menschenstufe.
Nun, nehmen wir herausgreifend einmal diese Geister, die wir bezeichnen als Archangeloi. Da haben wir solche Geister als Archangeloi, welche während der alten Sonnenzeit durchgemacht haben ihre Menschheitsstufe, die aufgestiegen sind zu der Stufe der Engel während der Mondenzeit, und die heute zur Stufe der Archangeloi aufgestiegen sind. Diese geistigen Wesenheiten wollen wir zunächst einmal, als zwei Stufen über uns stehend, gleichsam hingestellt sein lassen vor unsere Seelen; später werden wir darauf zurückkommen. Dann haben wir die geistigen Wesenheiten, welche während der alten Saturnzeit Menschen waren, sie sind heute Geister der Zeit, sie stehen drei Stufen über uns. Wir wollen sie wiederum hingestellt sein lassen. Und jetzt wollen wir unser Verhältnis gerade zu diesen beiden Arten von geistigen Wesenheiten betrachten.
Wenn der Mensch eine Inkarnation durchmacht — also nehmen wir an, heute in unseren Erdenleibern leben wir in einer Inkarnation -, dann stehen über uns Geister, die wir zu der Hierarchie der Engel, dann Geister, die wir zu der Hierarchie der Archangeloi, und solche, die wir zu der Hierarchie der Archai, Zeitgeister oder Geister der Persönlichkeit rechnen. Die machen aber auch ihrerseits eine EntwickeJung durch. Greifen wir einmal heraus die Archai, die Geister der Persönlichkeit oder Geister der Zeit. Wir machen also unsere Inkarnation durch, gehen dann durch die Pforte des Todes, gehen nach dem Tode in eine geistige Welt ein, machen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt eine gewisse rein geistige Entwickelung durch und kommen dann durch eine neue Geburt wiederum in ein Erdendasein. Nun können wir fragen: Wovon hängt das ab, ob wir uns nach einer gewissen Anzahl von Jahren wiederum auf die Erde herunterbewegen? In öffentlichen Vorträgen wird diese Frage öfter aufgeworfen. Man kann dann von gewissen Gesichtspunkten aus schon eine Antwort geben, aber intim in unseren Zweigen sprechend können wir eine sachlichere, mehr auf das Reale hindeutende Antwort geben.
Während wir hier im physischen Leibe leben, hat der Zeitgeist eine ganz bestimmte Entwickelungsstufe. Er tut irgend etwas, was mit der Entwickelung der Menschen auf Erden zusammenhängt, und er macht seinerseits eine Entwickelung durch. Wenn dieser Zeitgeist im Laufe einer Entwickelung soweit gekommen ist, daß wir alle von ihm haben in uns einfließen lassen, was er seinerseits da oben durchmacht, durchgemacht hat, dann sind wir gewissermaßen reif, zu einer Erdeninkarnation hinunterzukommen. Und wenn er seinerseits wiederum eine Stufe weitergekommen ist und wir uns durch die geistigen Welten entwickelt haben bis zu einer gewissen Stufe, können wir wiederum in eine Erdenentwickelung eintreten. Verstehen wir uns in dieser Beziehung gut. Sehen wir zunächst einmal von unserer eigenen Entwickelung ab. Sehen wir, wie da in einer sehr langen Zeitperiode der Geist der Zeit seine Entwickelung durchmacht.
Ich will das Folgende sagen: Wenn wir die Entwickelung der Erdenmenschheit so betrachten, daß wir zurückgehen bis zu der Begründung des alten Rom, etwa achthundert Jahre vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha — wenn wir also bis zur Begründung von Rom zurückgehen -, dann finden wir, daß da ein bestimmter Zeitgeist mit seiner Entwickelung einsetzte. Vorher war ein anderer Zeitgeist leitend und lenkend die Geschicke der Erde. Und dieser Zeitgeist, der dazumal gewissermaßen als Zeitgeist die Führung der Erde übernommen hatte in ihrer geistigen Entwickelung, war bis ins 16. Jahrhundert hinein führend. So lange führt ein Zeitgeist die Geschicke der Erde, Seit jener Zeit, also seit dem 16. Jahrhundert, ist ein anderer Zeitgeist da. Wir haben es also da mit zwei Zeitgeistern zu tun. Der Mensch, der zum Beispiel im 3. Jahrhundert vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha in irgendeiner Inkarnation auf der Erde war, machte dasjenige durch, was dieser Zeitgeist für die Erde bewirkte. Für die Zeit nach seinem Tode, wenn dieser Mensch im 3. Jahrhundert gestorben ist, oder auch im 2. Jahrhundert, kann ihm der Zeitgeist zunächst nichts geben. Was er ihm hat geben können, das hat er ihm gegeben. Jetzt muß der Zeitgeist erst wiederum seinerseits eine Reihe von Jahren durchmachen, bis er dem Menschen etwas Neues geben kann. Dann kommt dieser Mensch, der zwischen Tod und Geburt in einer geistigen Welt gewesen ist, wiederum auf die Erde herunter, wenn der Geist ihm etwas Neues geben kann. Nun ist es allerdings so eingerichtet, daß der Mensch im Durchschnitt eigentlich mehrmals kommt, denn der Zeitgeist ist nicht in der Lage, dem Menschen immer alles zu geben, was er ihm geben könnte, wegen der Unvollkommenheit der Menschen. Dadurch kommt der Mensch mehrmals in der Zeit, in der ein Zeitgeist sich entwickelt. Aber im wesentlichen hängt es doch davon ab, daß die Zeitgeister die aufeinanderfolgenden Inkarnationen der Menschen regeln. Nun regeln aber die Zeitgeister ihrerseits diesen ganzen Lauf der menschlichen Geschicke dadurch, daß sie gleichsam Untergebene haben. Und das sind die Erzengel. Solche Erzengel regieren gewissermaßen in untergeordneten Stellungen viel kürzere Zeit als die Zeitgeister. Während die Zeitgeister so lange regieren, wie ich es vorhin angeführt habe, wir also einen Zeitgeist von der Gründung Roms bis ins 16. Jahrhundert annehmen können, regieren die Geister, die wir zur Hierarchie der Erzengel rechnen, nur etwa zwischen drei und vier Jahrhunderten. Sie wechseln so ab, daß etwa sechs oder sieben hintereinander kommen, während ein Zeitgeist regiert. So daß wir um die Zeit, in der das Mysterium von Golgatha stattfindet, zuerst die Regierung in der geistigen Entwickelung desjenigen Erzengels haben, den wir bezeichnen mit dem Namen Oriphiel. Dann kommt die Regierung des Anael, dann die Regierung des Zachariel, des Raphael, des Samael, des Gabriel; und jetzt seit dem Jahre 1879 haben wir die Regierung desjenigen Erzengels, den wir als Michael bezeichnen. Also wir haben, wenn wir die geistigen Welten anschauen, gleichsam die höhere Regierung der Zeitgeister und darunterstehend, aufeinanderfolgend in der Zeitenfolge, die Regierungen von Erzengeln. Weil der Mensch nicht alles aufnehmen kann, was ihm der Zeitgeist geben würde, so nimmt er es nicht direkt aus der Hand des Zeitgeistes, sondern aus der Hand des Erzengels, der weniger höheren Macht. Halten wir also fest: Unmittelbar unsere persönlichen Schützer gehören in die Hierarchie der Angeloi. Darüber stehen diejenigen, die mehr die Menschen im Zusammenhang der Menschen regeln. Und über ihnen stehen die Archai oder Geister der Persönlichkeit oder Zeitgeister.
Wenn ich so rede, handelt es sich immer um diejenigen Wesenheiten, welche wirklich regelrecht ihre Entwickelung durchgemacht haben. Aber nicht alle Geister machen regelmäßig ihre Entwickelung durch. Es gibt wirklich geistige Wesenheiten, die während der Saturnzeit schon Archai gewesen sind, die aber auf der Stufe der Archai, also auf der damaligen Stufe zurückgeblieben sind. Sie sind also jetzt während der Erdenentwickelung über ihre Saturnstufe nicht hinausgekommen. Sie sind in Wirklichkeit nicht aufgestiegen zur Stufe der regelmäßigen Entwickelung. Sie haben ihren Menschencharakter beibehalten, sind auf der einen Seite übersinnliche Saturnwesen, stehen aber auf der Stufe der Menschheit. Ebenso gibt es Wesen aus der Hierarchie der Archai, die auf der Sonne auf der Menschenstufe stehen blieben und jetzt in der übersinnlichen Welt noch als Menschen dastehen. Diese Wesenheiten bezeichnen wir ja mit einem Sammelnamen als luziferische Wesenheiten, die also zurückgeblieben sind, oder aber als ahrimanische Wesenheiten. Auf den Unterschied zwischen luziferischen und ahrimanischen Wesenheiten können wir uns heute nicht einlassen. Es sind zurückgebliebene Geister.
Nun müssen wir uns die Frage beantworten: Wie empfängt der Mensch, hier in seiner Erdeninkarnation stehend, den Einfluß der Geister, die regelrecht fortgeschritten sind, der Zeitgeister, Archai, und der Archangeloi, die ihre Diener sind? Übersinnlich sind diese Wesenheiten — der Mensch kann zu ihnen nicht in eine solche Beziehung treten wie zur sinnlichen Welt. Daher weiß der Mensch in der Regel nicht, wenn er sich bloß auf die Sinneswelt verläßt, daß er hineingestellt ist in eine Entwickelung, die über ihm lenken die Archai und Archangeloi. Er weiß es nicht; aber in all das, was sein Wesen ist, greifen diese übersinnlichen Wesenheiten ein. Nun gehören auch diejenigen geistigen Wesenheiten, die wir Volksgeister nennen, die also die ganzen Völker lenken, in die Reihe der Archangeloi, der Erzengel. Und insofern wir dasjenige, was wir sind, dem Volke verdanken, dem wir angehören, müssen wir das, was uns das Volkswesen gibt, als eine Gabe des entsprechenden Wesens aus der Hierarchie der Archangeloi ansehen. Es ist die Inspiration der Archangeloi, welche uns zukommt dadurch, daß wir in ein Volk hineingestellt sind. Nun brauchen wir “nur zu bedenken, was es für den Menschen bedeutet, daß er in ein Volk hineingestellt ist. Mit dem Volkstum fließen ja geistige Eigenschaften, aber auch Gewohnheiten; es fließt eine ganz bestimmte Konfiguration des Wesens in den Menschen hinein. Man kann sich gar nicht vorstellen, daß man das, was man in einer Inkarnation ist, anders geworden wäre als dadurch, daß man es geworden ist durch die Gabe des Volksgeistes — also in Wirklichkeit durch die Gabe einer Erzengelwesenheit.
Außer dem, daß wir innerhalb eines Volkstums stehen und also, von einem Erzengelwesen inspiriert, gewisse Konfigurationen unseres ganzen Seins empfangen, stehen wir in der Entwickelung der Gesamtmenschheit. Und da unterstehen wir den Intuitionen, in die uns hineinleitet der Zeitgeist aus der Hierarchie der Archai. Sie müssen dabei bedenken, daß wir heute in unserer jetzigen Geisteskultur etwas empfangen, was wiederum über alle Volksdifferenzierung hinausgeht; was wir dadurch haben, daß wir vom 19. ins 20. Jahrhundert hineinleben, was wir nicht gehabt hätten, wenn wir während der römischen oder griechischen Zeit gelebt hätten. Das verdanken wir dem Zeitgeist. Und man kann streng unterscheiden: Zeitgeistgabe und Volksgeistgabe. Wenn nun aber nur das wäre, was regelmäßige Entwickelung des Menschen ist, was regelmäßige Entwickelung des Angelos, des Archangelos, was regelmäßige Entwickelung des Zeitgeistes ist, dann würden wir, jeder einzelne, die Gabe stets von unserem Zeitgeist und von unserem entsprechenden Volksgeist empfangen und würden uns durch den Empfang dieser Gabe entwickeln. Die Menschen auf der Erde würden sich nebeneinander entwickeln. Alle Angehörigen verschiedener Völker über die Erde hin würden die Gabe der Volksgeister auf der Erde empfangen so, wie wenn in einem Saal fünf Bilder ganz verschieden voneinander hängen würden, die Verschiedenes darstellen, aber das eine Bild nicht im geringsten das andere stören würde. So würden einzelne Menschen nebeneinander auf der Erde die Gabe ihrer Volksgeister empfangen. Sie würden sich nicht stören, wenn alle Entwickelung regelmäßig vor sich gegangen wäre. Aber da sind zurückgebliebene Wesenheiten. Unter den lenkenden Archangeloiwesen sind solche, die ihre Entwickelung richtig auf der Sonne begonnen haben und bis zur Erdenzeit richtige Archangeloi geworden sind, aber auch solche, die auf der Sonnenstufe stehengeblieben sind, die im Grunde erst auf der Stufe von Menschen sind. Diese Wesenheiten also stehen auf derselben Stufe wie die Volksgeister, und doch wiederum sind sie hinter ihnen zurückgeblieben, haben erst die Eigenschaften von unsichtbaren übersinnlichen Menschen, nicht von Archangeloi. Sie sind zurückgeblieben, diese Wesenheiten. Sie machen in einer gewissen Weise dieselben Ansprüche an die Welt wie die Archangeloi, aber sie haben ja die Stufe der Archangeloi auf der Erde nicht erreicht. Daher müssen sie in gewisser Weise mit denselben Kräften wirken wie auf der Sonne. Die Folge davon ist, daß sie den Menschen anstatt wie Archangeloi, wie Menschen ergreifen, wie unsichtbare Menschen, die hineinfahren in die Menschennatur, die den Menschen nicht von oben lenken, sondern hineinfahren in die Menschennatur. Und von diesen Geistern, die also in gewisser Weise in Konkurrenz treten mit den wirklich führenden Volksgeistern, kommt es, daß die Völker einander befehden, nicht miteinander auf der Erde in Frieden leben. Der Mensch würde gar nicht versucht sein, seine Persönlichkeit, sein Menschentum mit seinem Volkstum zu identifizieren, sondern er würde das Volkstum wie etwas betrachten, was ihn geistig nährt. Er würde aber nicht streitmäßig für sein Volkstum eintreten, nicht seine Persönlichkeit damit identifizieren. Der Mensch würde nicht sagen, ich bin der oder der Nationalität, sondern: Die Nationalität ist da, und ich muß, weil ich nun eben in sie hineingeboren bin, auf dem Umweg durch diese Nationalität meine geistige Nahrung ziehen. — Aber indem der Erzengel ihn dazu aneifert, so zu denken, kommt der andere, der eigentlich auf der Stufe der Menschheit steht und im Grunde ein luziferischer Geist ist, und führt ihn in die Nationalität hinein. Und die Folge davon ist, daß nicht dasjenige, was erzengelhaft ist, als Gabe auf den Menschen herabkommt, sondern daß der Mensch sich mit dem Volkstum identifiziert wie mit einer ganz persönlichen Angelegenheit, und dadurch kommt dieser Streit der Nationalitäten auf der Erde. Darüber müssen wir uns durchaus klar sein: Weil wir nicht nur sozusagen uns in den Einfluß des führenden Erzengels setzten, sondern auch in die Beeinflussung des stehengebliebenen, des zurückgebliebenen Erzengels, identifizieren wir uns in der Art mit der Nationalität, wie wir das auf der Erde tun. Darin besteht gerade das Geisteswissenschaftliche im Empfinden, daß wir uns als Menschen hinauszuheben verstehen über das bloß Nationale, um zum allgemeinen Menschentum den Zugang zu finden. Dann können wir im eminentesten Sinne national sein. So wie der einzelne Mensch das eine und der andere etwas anderes als Kunst betreiben kann, und der eine, indem er die seine Kunst betreibt, nicht der Gegner des andern zu sein braucht, so brauchte nicht der eine national der Gegner des andern zu sein, wenn es keine in der Entwickelung zurückgebliebene Erzengelwesen gäbe, die die Identifizierung bewirken. Das muß man durchaus voraussetzen, wenn man überhaupt von dem sprechen will, was der Menschenentwickelung mit Bezug auf das Nationale oder sonstige Differenzierungen zugrunde liegt.
In bezug auf den Zeitgeist werden Sie Genaueres noch einsehen, wie da das luziferische Element in das regelrechte Element hineinwirkt, wenn wir das Folgende betrachten. Ein Zeitgeist wirkt ja eine bestimmte Zeit hindurch. Seit dem 16. Jahrhundert ist ein neuer Zeitgeist da. Dieser Zeitgeist hat seine ganz bestimmte Aufgabe. Er hat die Aufgabe, zu den früheren Entwickelungsimpulsen das ganze materialistische Können und Verstehen der Welt hinzuzufügen. Daher hat das Materialistische in der Welt so große Fortschritte gemacht seit dem 16. Jahrhundert. Wir brauchen deshalb nicht das materialistische Verstehen als etwas Minderwertigeres anzusehen als die frühere Art des Verständnisses, wenn wir uns nur nicht einseitig mit ihm identifizieren. Was wird der sagen, welcher die Sache auf diese Weise anschaut, über die Regierung der verschiedenen Zeitgeister? Er wird sagen: Jetzt sind wir von dem bestimmten Zeitgeist beherrscht; vorher waren wir von einem andern Zeitgeist beherrscht, da haben die Menschen andere Vorstellungen, andere Impulse gehabt. Und wenn der Mensch nun sich nur beeinflussen lassen würde von den regelrecht sich fortentwickelnden Zeitgeistern, so würde er sagen: Wir müssen uns jetzt eben diesem Zeitgeist anpassen, indem wir mehr eindringen in die Gesetze des Werdens der Welt, des materialistischen Denkens. Dann wird wiederum nach einer Zeit ein anderer Zeitgeist kommen; der wird einen andern Geist in das menschliche Denken hereinbringen.
Ich habe es schon öfter betont, daß wir gerade als Bekenner der Geisteswissenschaft sagen müssen: Heute verkünden wir Geisteswissenschaft mit ganz bestimmten Worten und Vorstellungen und Begriffen, aber es ist nicht so, daß wir glauben, dasjenige, was wir heute sagen, gelte für alle Erdenzukunft, sondern es wird sich wandeln. Wenn zweitausend Jahre mehr vorüber sein werden, wird auch dasjenige, was wir heute Erkenntnis der Geisteswissenschaft nennen, mit andern Worten verkündigt werden, ebenso wie wir heute anders reden als in der Griechenzeit; nichts wird bleiben von der Art unserer Worte. Wir bauen nicht auf irgend etwas äußerlich Bleibendes, sondern wir wissen, daß ein Zeitgeist den andern ablöst und daß alle gleichberechtigt nebeneinander stehen.
Wer aber dadurch beeinflußt ist, daß zurückgebliebene Zeitgeister vom Saturn in ihm wirken und sich dadurch mit deren Einfluß identifiziert, der sagt: Die andern Menschen waren damals alle dumm, das war die Kinderstube der Menschheit. Wir haben es heute herrlich weit gebracht; wir haben heute restlos gültige Wahrheiten für alle Zukunft gefunden! — Demütiger, bescheidener wird man auf dem Gebiet der Geisteswissenschaft. Wer sich mit dem Zeitgeist identifiziert, sagt: Kopernikus hat nun endlich das Richtige gefunden; früher wurde etwas anderes geglaubt. Nun werden die Menschen für immer sagen: Die Erde und die Planeten bewegen sich in einer Ellipse um die Sonne. Die Sonne steht in der Mitte! -— Heute schon weiß Geisteswissenschaft, daß das eine einseitige Lehre ist. Sie ist sehr gut für unsere materialistische Zeit, um die Welt vorzustellen, aber absolut ist sie falsch. Es ist gar nicht wahr, daß die Sonne in einem Brennpunkt der Ellipse steht und die Erde sich darum bewegt. In Wahrheit ist das alles eine materialistisch ausgerechnete Scheinbewegung. In Wahrheit ist es so, daß die Sonne sich selbst bewegt und die Erde und die andern Planeten ihr in einer schraubenförmigen Bewegung nachlaufen. Und dadurch, daß gewisse Stellungen, wenn es so schraubenförmig herumgeht, entstehen, steht die Erde einmal so, ein andermal so. Dadurch kommt der Schein einer Ellipse heraus. In Wahrheit ist es eine andere Linie. Kommen wird die Zeit, da auch die äußere Wissenschaft das wissen wird.
Man wird bescheidener, wenn man weiß, daß die Wahrheiten in einer bestimmten Form ausgesprochen nur für gewisse Zeiten gelten. Und wir werden niemals als richtige Bekenner der Geisteswissenschaft behaupten: Von jetzt an in alle Zukunft hinein werden alle Menschen sagen, der Mensch besteht aus physischem Leib, Ätherleib, Astralleib und Ich, sondern die Zukunft wird wieder ganz anders sprechen. Darauf kommt es an, daß alles in Entwickelung sei; daß die Ideen von gestern so berechtigt sind wie die Ideen von heute; daß wir uns nicht nur beherrschen lassen von einem Zeitgeist, der uns vorgaukelt, daß alles Frühere eitel Trug und Täuschung war und wir es so herrlich weit gebracht haben. Mit Bezug auf den Zeitgeist sehen Sie an den Menschen die Besessenheit von dem luziferischen Geist, die da sagen: Wie herrlich weit haben wir es doch gebracht! Wie unvollkommen war doch alles, was man früher über die Welt gedacht und gesagt hat! Das aber, was wir nun gefunden haben, das wird bleiben. Als ewige Wahrheiten wird bestehen bleiben das, was man seit dem 16. Jahrhundert gefunden hat.
Dasjenige also, was man im allgemeinen Volksgeist nennt, ist im Grunde also schon eine komplizierte Wesenheit. Es ist der regelrechte Volksgeist, der gewissermaßen über uns schwebt und dem wir, wenn wir ihm allein folgten, so folgen würden, daß wir seine Gaben hinnehmen, weil wir in seine Sphäre hineingestellt sind. Aber er wird fortwährend beeinträchtigt in seiner Wirksamkeit durch seinen luziferischen Beigesellen, der in uns hineinfährt, der uns veranlaßt, uns als einzelner Mensch mit dem ganzen Volkstum zu identifizieren. Das aber tut der einzelne Mensch doch in verschiedener Weise; und da ist es von ganz ungeheurer Wichtigkeit, daß wirklich eingesehen werde, daß in der Mitte von Europa ein Volkstum sich entwickeln muß, welches in anderer Weise zu seiner ganzen Volksgeistwesenheit steht als dasjenige, was an der Peripherie von Europa ist. Und diese Einsicht müssen wir uns schon einmal aneignen. Es ist im höchsten Maße bedeutungsvoll, was sich unter der Oberfläche des menschlichen Bewußtseins vollzieht, und was wirklich schon einmal von den geistigen Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien abhängt. Heute wird es der materialistisch denkende Mensch noch als einen Wahnsinn erklären, wenn man sagt, daß von den geistigen Wesenheiten solche Impulse ausgehen, die ich eben genannt habe, wie dieser einer ist, daß in Mitteleuropa, ohne daß die Menschen es wußten, die Volkheit gedrängt worden ist zu einer solchen Empfindungsweise gegenüber dem Göttlichen oder — weil in Mitteleuropa der Christus wirkt — zu dem Christlichen; daß der mitteleuropäische Mensch lernt, den Christus so zu empfinden, wie er zu dem Innersten der Seele spricht. Das ist nicht auf irgendeinem andern Grund und Boden so gewesen wie in Mitteleuropa. Man verstand zum Beispiel noch während der römischen Zeit der christlichen Entwickelung den Christus gewiß als eine Wesenheit, die auf die Erde gekommen ist, die für die Menschen gewirkt hat. Gewiß, die Fortgeschritteneren und zum Teil die, welche überhaupt schon so gedacht haben, wie wir heute denken, die wir im Besitz der Geisteswissenschaft sind, empfanden, wie Paulus gedacht hat: «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir!» Aber, es ist noch ein Unterschied gegenüber einem Empfinden, wie wir es finden bei Meister Eckart, bei Tauler, bei Angelus Silesius und ähnlichen Geistern. Wie haben diese Geister das Mysterium von Golgatha aufgenommen! Wir brauchen nur Angelus Silesius zu fragen; und er wird uns antworten mit dem schönen Spruch:
Wird Christus tausendmal zu Bethlehem geboren
Und nicht in dir, du wärst noch ewiglich verloren!
Das Miterleben des Mysteriums von Golgatha in der eigenen Seele — darauf kommt es an. Diese mitteleuropäischen Menschen suchten innerlich etwas zu erleben, was ein innerliches Bild, ein innerlicher Ausdruck des Mysteriums von Golgatha ist. Und so wunderschön es ist, wenn sich Angelus Silesius einmal über den Tod ausspricht und sagt: Alles im Grunde, was in mir geschieht, geschieht letzten Endes dadurch, daß Gott in mir ist und die Dinge in mir vollzieht. Und wenn ich sterbe, so sterbe nicht ich, sondern eigentlich stirbt Gott in mir! — Denken Sie, welch wunderbar intime Unsterblichkeitsidee schon damit gegeben ist, daß man sagt: Gott stirbt in mir! — Denn Gott ist natürlich unsterblich. Wenn Gott in mir stirbt, dann ist der Tod nur scheinbar; dann empfindet man, wie Angelus Silesius empfindet: daß der Gott nur in einem scheinbar stirbt, denn Gott kann nicht sterben. Also ist das Sterben nicht, was es äußerlich erscheint, es ist nur eine Tatsache des Lebendigen. Und weil Gott nicht sterben kann — aber doch in einem stirbt -, ist damit schon die Unsterblichkeit empfunden.
Dieses innerliche intimste Zusammensein mit dem Gott, ob man es als Göttliches oder als Christliches empfindet, das ist dasjenige, was sich lange vorbereitet hat im Laufe der mitteleuropäischen Entwickelung. Und da haben nun die mitteleuropäischen Volksgeister so gewirkt, daß das einen äußerlichen sinnbildlichen Ausdruck, einen realen sinnbildlichen Ausdruck gefunden hat. Nirgends außer in Mitteleuropa wird «Ich» gesagt, wenn man sein eigenes Ich meint, seine eigene Wesenheit. Es ist durch den Volksgeist, der sich als Sprachgeist manifestiert, die ganze Evolution so gelenkt worden, daß es allmählich dazugekommen ist, die eigene Wesenheit auszudrücken mit dem Wort Ich. Aber Ich, «I-Ch», ist Jesus Christus! Es liegt in Jesus Christus darin. Dadurch, daß in dem «Ich» Jesus Christus in seinen Anfangsbuchstaben ausgesprochen wird, ist das sinnbildlich ausgedrückt, was im mitteleuropäischen Geisteswesen liegt, wie es intim verbunden ist mit dem innerlichsten Erleben. Jedesmal, wenn man «Ich» ausspricht, spricht man die Anfangsbuchstaben « Jesus Christus» aus. Wenn man nur einmal auf solche Dinge, die wirklich heute noch als phantastisch angesehen werden, die geistigen Augen lenken würde, würde man schon finden, wie unbewußt die Geister der höheren Hierarchien in die menschliche Entwickelung immer hineinwirken, und dann Bedeutsames finden in den Dingen, die man heute nur so hinnimmt.
Ich will nur eine wirklich bedeutsame Tatsache erwähnen. Man bezeichnet eine gewisse Gruppe europäischer Menschen als Germanen. Und indem man in Mitteleuropa von Germanen spricht, meint man England, Holland, Norwegen, Schweden und auch noch andere. Man dehnt den Begriff der Germanen weit aus. Ich rede nicht von Agitation, sondern von dem, was in der Sprache gegeben ist. Wenn die Engländer sprechen, bezeichnen sie sich selbst nicht als Germanen, denn sie nennen nur die Deutschen Germans. Der Deutsche nennt sich «Deutscher», und wenn er von Germanen spricht, umfaßt er eine größere Gruppe von Menschen. Der Engländer wendet den Namen Germanen, Germans, bloß auf die Deutschen an, auf die, die nicht «er» sind. Das ist eine ungeheuer bedeutsame Tatsache. Es ist etwas, was im tiefsten Sinne bezeichnend ist für die Art, wie auf der einen Seite und auf der andern der Volksgeist wirkt; wie er in Mitteleuropa dahin wirkt, das Große zu umschließen, und der Volksgeist des englischen Volkes bemüht ist, das, was Weiteres umschließt, von sich wegzutun und auf den andern nur anzuwenden.
Überhaupt wird das, was die Sprache lehrt als den Ausfluß der wirksamen Volksgeistigkeit, nach und nach in einer wunderbaren Weise für die Menschen wirklich herauskommen. Jetzt wird man noch wenig verstanden, wenn man so über die verschiedenen europäischen Völker spricht, wie ich es jahrelang vor diesem Kriege — gar nicht von diesem Kriege hervorgerufen — versucht habe in dem Zyklus «Die Mission einzelner Volksseelen im Zusammenhange mit der germanisch-nordischen Mythologie». Es wird das so aufgefaßt, als wenn man irgendwelche Werturteile aussprechen wollte. Aber man will keine Werturteile aussprechen, sondern bloß eine Charakteristik. Und nun können wir ja gerade die westeuropäischen Völker dadurch charakterisieren, daß man das zum Ausdruck bringt, genau und präzise, was ich in diesem Vortragszyklus zum Ausdruck gebracht habe.
Wir wissen, daß des Menschen Seele aus Empfindungsseele, Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele und Bewußtseinsseele besteht, und daß in diesen drei Seelennuancen das Ich darinnen wirkt. Wenn wir nun das italienische Volk mit seiner Volksseele betrachten, so finden wir das Eigentümliche, daß da die Volksseele hinein inspiriert in die Empfindungsseele. Und das ist das Charakteristische des italienischen Volkstums, daß die Volksseele hineinwirkt inspirierend in die Empfindungsseele. Wenn nun etwas besessen ist von dem luziferischen Volksgeist, ist es auch die Volksseele. Und nun bedenken Sie, daß auf der einen Seite das Großartige des italienischen Volkes darin besteht, daß die Empfindungsseele inspiriert wird. Denken Sie an Dante, an alle die großen italienischen Künstler! Aber auch wiederum das Identifizieren — gleichsam das Übermenschliche, das luziferisch zurückgeblieben ist in all den leidenschaftlichen Entwickelungsimpulsen, die innerhalb des italienischen Volkes auftreten! Damit wird kein Werturteil ausgesprochen, sondern bloß charakterisiert.
Bei dem französischen Volke können wir überall sehen, wie die Verstandesseele oder Gemütsseele inspiriert wird von der Volksseele, richtig die Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele.
Beim britischen Volke ist es die Bewußtseinsseele. Nun ist für den gegenwärtigen Menschheitszyklus die Bewußtseinsseele dasjenige, was den Menschen am meisten mit der äußeren physischen Welt in Zusammenhang bringt. Daher ist diejenige Volkheit, die von der Bewußtseinsseele inspiriert wird, vor allem betraut mit der Mission, die materialistische Kultur zu befördern und zu pflegen. Damit wird wiederum kein Werturteil ausgesprochen, sondern nur charakterisiert, daß eben die britische Nation dazu berufen ist, die Bewußtseinsseele inspirieren zu lassen. Insofern der einzelne seinem Volk angehört, also insofern er von dem luziferischen Volksgeist inspiriert wird, identifiziert er sich mit der rein materialistischen Kultur der Gegenwart. Das finden wir wirklich in der britischen Kultur. So wie der einzelne in die britische Nation sich stellt, kommt das heraus, was eben der materialistische Geist der britischen Nation ist, dieser eigentümliche Geist, der vom Jahre 1856 bis zum Jahre 1900 vierunddreißig Eroberungskriege geführt hat und siebenundfünfzig Millionen Erdenmenschen zu neuen britischen Untertanen gemacht hat, und der dann in unserer Zeit für die Freiheit einzelner Menschengruppen einzutreten vorgibt.
Wenn wir eine solche Zeit wie die unsrige betrachten, müssen wir uns durchaus klar sein, daß gerade diese unsere Zeit die Menschen gar sehr lehren wird, wie eine Mahnung zu empfinden, was man jetzt als den Gegensatz der einzelnen Völkergruppen Europas oder überhaupt eines großen Teiles der Erde hinstellt. Die Angehörigen von vierunddreißig Nationalitäten stehen miteinander im Kriege, von kleinen Stammesunterschieden ganz abgesehen. Das sollte man als eine Mahnung ansehen, wirklich einmal abzusehen von dem, was man bisher Geschichte genannt hat. Aber diese Betrachtungsweise wird gerade in unserer Zeit vorläufig noch bis zum Unfug geführt. Wie finden wir es wirklich bis zum Unfug getrieben, was die einzelnen Nationen Europas sich heute alles vorwerfen, wie man abwiegt die einzelnen äußeren Tatsachen, um die Ursachen des furchtbaren Krieges der Gegenwart aufzufinden. Aber gerade dieser Krieg wird die Menschen lehren, daß man in seinen äußeren Ursachen nichts findet, sondern höchstens äußere Symptome für das, was tief innerlich verborgen in den Menschengruppen durch die Führung fortgeschrittener und zurückgebliebener geistiger Wesenheiten besteht. Und zwingen wird in einer gewissen Weise gerade dasjenige, was die heutige Zeit als Prüfungen zeigt, zu appellieren an die spirituellen Untergründe, bei denen die Ursachen liegen für das, was heute äußerlich in der Welt vorgeht.
Von den verschiedensten Seiten her kann man zeigen, wie in den Untergründen des Bewußtseins dasjenige wirkt, was sich äußerlich zeigt. Ich will, obwohl die meisten der Freunde dieses Beispiel schon kennen, noch einmal darauf hinweisen, wie die ganze Landkarte Europas im ausgehenden Mittelalter dadurch bestimmt worden ist, daß die Jungfrau von Orleans in den Krieg zwischen England und Frankreich eingegriffen hat. Jeder, der unsere äußere Geschichte verständnisvoll ansieht, muß anerkennen, daß die Landkarte von Europa sich ganz anders gestaltet hätte, wenn nicht damals England von Frankreich besiegt worden wäre dadurch, daß die Jungfrau von Orleans eingriff in den Kampf. Aber die Jungfrau von Orleans war kein gelernter Stratege, kein Mensch, der auf dem Gipfel der Zeitbildung gestanden hätte. Sie war ein einfaches Menschenkind - ein Landmädchen. Aber durch sie haben Geister der höheren Hierarchien gewirkt in der Art, wie sie in dieser Zeit wirken mußten. Nun ist es ja bis in unsere Zeit durchaus notwendig gewesen, daß diese Geister im Unterbewußten wirkten, weil die Menschen noch nicht verstehen konnten, was nun geisteswissenschaftlich verstanden werden muß. Wir haben es in Legenden oftmals schön ausgedrückt, wie höhere geistige Wesenheiten im Unterbewußten eingreifen. Und mit Recht, nicht aus Aberglauben, sondern weil es wirklich den Tatsachen entspricht, wird der Zeit, wo die äußere Welt für das Jahr am meisten zurückgegangen ist, der Zeit von Weihnachten bis zum 6. Januar, besondere Bedeutung beigemessen. Wenn man geistige Erkenntnisse nicht in der Weise, wie wir es heute auf dem Wege suchen, der in «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» angegeben ist, sondern auf mehr elementare Art erreichen will, so konnte man in diesen dreizehn Nächten inspiriert werden. Das ist zum Beispiel sehr schön ausgedrückt in der norwegischen Legende von Olaf Åsteson. In dieser Legende wird uns angedeutet, wie Olaf Åsteson vor dem Anbruch des Weihnachtsfestes zur Kirche geht; wie er vor der Kirche in einen Schlafzustand kommt und während der dreizehn Nächte schläft; wie er dann aufwacht am Dreikönigstag und wirklich dasjenige zu erzählen vermag, was er durchlebt hat. Und was er da bildlich in anschaulicher, aber primitiver Art erzählt, das entspricht demjenigen, was wir den Durchgang durch die Seelenwelt und den Durchgang durch das Geisterland nennen. Das alles hat Olaf Åsteson erfahren in der Zeit, in die mit Recht das Weihnachtsfest gelegt worden ist. Das soll uns andeuten, daß das naturkindmäßige Hellsehen am besten in diesen dreizehn Nächten von Weihnachten bis zu dem Fest der Drei Könige entwickelt werden konnte.
Da nun die Jungfrau von Orleans solch ein Naturkind war, könnte man voraussetzen, daß sie in diesen dreizehn Nächten durch eine Art Traumzustand die Welt erlebt hätte, von der sie sprach, als sie das französische Heer gegen die Engländer führte, daß sie in diesen dreizehn Nächten inspiriert worden wäre. Nun, das ist in einer eigentümlichen Weise geschehen. Jeder Mensch macht einen Schlafzustand durch, einen Zustand, wo die Sinne noch nicht sprechen, und zwar im Leibe der Mutter, bevor er das physische Erdenlicht erschaut. Das ist wirklich noch eine Art von Schlafzustand, und der reifste Zustand ist natürlich in den letzten dreizehn Tagen vor der Geburt. Das ist das Große, Gewaltige, das unsere Seele mit solchem Staunen erfüllt: Die Jungfrau von Orleans ist am 6. Januar geboren. Sie hat die Inspiration also wirklich in den dreizehn Nächten durchgemacht, aber bevor sie dem Erdenlicht ihr Auge geöffnet hatte. Daß der 6. Januar der Geburtstag der Jungfrau von Orleans ist, es ist deshalb auch absichtlich in unserem Kalender bezeichnet worden. Das ist etwas, was wir in seinem großen weltgeschichtlichen Zusammenhang erfassen müssen; denn es kann uns sagen, wie geheimnisvoll die Zusammenhänge in der Welt sind und wie geheimnisvolle Mächte in der Welt wirken. So wirkten geheimnisvolle Mächte dazumal am 6. Januar, da die Leute in dem kleinen Dörfchen, wo die Jungfrau von Orleans geboren wurde, des Morgens zusammenliefen; wo die Tiere selbst sich so wunderbar benahmen. An diesem 6. Januar konnte eine Inspiration abgeschlossen werden. In den dreizehn Nächten konnte ein Wesen inspiriert werden, das durch sein eigenes Karma dazu veranlagt war. Selbstverständlich — _ nicht jeder, der am 6. Januar geboren wird, ist dazu veranlagt, sondern das Karma muß zusammenfallen mit den andern Bedingungen.
Ich wollte dieses Beispiel der Jungfrau von Orleans anführen als ein solches, das uns so recht zeigt, wie unterirdische Mächte in das geschichtliche Werden und Entwickeln hineinspielen. Gewiß, dann kam die materialistische Entwickelung der folgenden Jahrhunderte. Diese mußte ganz begreiflicherweise solch ein Hinweisen auf Geschichtsuntergründe wie einen Wahnsinn ansehen. Das schadet nichts; wie es auch gar nichts schadet, wenn heute die Menschen draußen noch diese Geisteswissenschaft wie einen Wahnsinn ansehen. Durchringen wird sich diese Geisteswissenschaft schon.
Aber solche bedeutsamen Ereignisse, wie die sind, innerhalb der die Menschen der gegenwärtigen Zeit leben und in die sie sich ja durchaus hineininkarniert haben, um an ihnen in der einen oder andern Form teilzunehmen, sie bedeuten nicht immer das gleiche in der historischen Entwickelung. Heute bedeuten diese schicksaltragenden Ereignisse eine Mahnung an die Menschen. Es ist ja wirklich schon eine solche Flut von Literatur über diesen Krieg geschrieben worden, aber in alledem, was erschienen ist an Büchern, Broschüren und so weiter, finden wir noch nicht das, von dem man eigentlich voraussetzen muß, daß es gefunden werde, und das auch nach und nach gefunden werden muß. Man hört oftmals: Über die Ursachen kann man eigentlich nicht reden, vielleicht nach dem Krieg, vielleicht erst nach Jahrzehnten werden die Menschen aus Dokumenten die wahren Ursachen dieses Krieges finden und wissen, wer eigentlich daran schuld war. — In jedem dritten Zeitungsblatt können Sie das lesen. Nun, darum handelt es sich nicht, sondern es handelt sich darum, daß man darauf kommen wird — und gerade durch diese heutige Zeit -, daß in diesen äußeren Veranlassungen eben nicht die wirklichen Ursachen zu sehen sind, sondern daß man die Ursache in der geistigen Welt zu suchen hat. Man wird finden, daß dieser Krieg wirklich hineingestellt worden ist wie das bedeutsame Karma des Materialismus, das durchgemacht werden muß, damit die Menschen eine Summe von Überzeugungen in sich aufnehmen, die aus dem Materialismus wiederum in den Spiritualismus hinüberführen. Diese Prüfung muß die Menschheit schon durchmachen.
Was geschieht denn im Grunde heute in so erschütternder Weise um uns herum? — Nun, wir wissen es ja, wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes geht, so läßt er zunächst in der physischen Welt seinen physischen Leib zurück. Er tritt zunächst in die geistige Welt ein mit seinem Ätherleib, Astralleib und Ich. Den Ätherleib wirft er bald ab; er wird der übrigen Welt mitgeteilt. Mit Astralleib und Ich geht er dann weiter durch das Seelenland, durch das Geisterland durch. Aber nun bedenken wir, daß heute eine große Anzahl von Menschen in verhältnismäßig kurzer Zeit und mit einem bestimmten Bewußtsein durch die Pforte des Todes geht; daß sie einen Ätherleib abwerfen, der sozusagen noch jahrzehntelang ein Menschenleben normal hätte versorgen können. Wenn ein Mensch zwischen dem zwanzigsten und dreißigsten Lebensjahr stirbt, so wirft er einen Ätherleib ab, der seinen physischen Leib noch sechzig bis siebzig Jahre hätte versorgen können. Die Kräfte sind ja im Ätherleib darin, denn es geht auch im Geistigen nichts verloren. Alle die Menschen, die heute in der Blüte ihrer Jahre durch die Pforte des Todes gehen, übergeben der Welt einen Ätherleib, der noch ein langes Leben hindurch dieses Leben hätte unterhalten können. Diese Kräfte sind nun alle da in der geistigen Welt. Wie sind sie da, diese Kräfte? — Ich möchte Ihnen an einem anschaulichen Beispiel, das aus unserem Kreise selbst entnommen ist, zeigen, was eine solche Erscheinung für eine Bedeutung hat.
Es war im verflossenen Herbst, da verlor eine zu unserem anthroposophischen Kreise gehörige Familie ein Söhnchen, das sieben Jahre alt war, einen lieben Knaben. Es waren wirklich die äußeren Umstände außerordentlich tragische. Der Vater war fortgezogen in den Krieg als deutscher Staatsbürger; er war eben krank geworden und im Lazarett. Eines Abends, gerade als Vortrag war in Dornach, wo unser Bau aufgeführt wird, zeigte man uns an, daß der kleine siebenjährige Knabe fehle. Er war seit dem Abend nicht nach Hause gekommen. Nicht vergessen darf ich zu erwähnen, daß die Familie sich in Dornach als Gärtnersfamilie niedergelassen hat. Ich war selbst kurz vorher, aus Deutschland kommend, in die Schweiz gereist. Der Knabe war mir schon vor dem Bau entgegengekommen und reichte mir die Hand; ein sonniges, ein sehr liebes Kind war es. An jenem Abend wurden wir also benachrichtigt, daß der Knabe weg sei. Nun konnte man sich nichts anderes denken, als daß ein Möbelwagen, der Möbel für Mitglieder herbeigebracht hatte und in der Nähe des Baues umgefallen war, auf das Kind gefallen ist. Nun müssen Sie zu alledem voraussetzen, daß ungezählte Jahre vorher kein Möbelwagen an jener Stelle gefahren ist und seit jener Zeit auch nicht. Sie müssen ferner bedenken: Der Knabe wohnte bei seiner Mutter, die die Gärtnerei besorgt. Er war ein so lieber Knabe, daß er, als der Vater fort mußte, zut Mutter sagte, er würde ihr jetzt recht tüchtig helfen, weil der Vater nicht mehr da sei. Er war an jenem Abend in die sogenannte Kantine geschickt worden, um etwas für seine Mutter zu holen. Es war gar nicht weit, nur ein kurzer Weg liegt zwischen der Kantine und der Wohnung der Mutter. Auf diesem kurzen Weg ist eine Wegkreuzung, so daß der Möbelwagen eine Biegung machen mußte. Nun wollte der Knabe eigentlich zehn Minuten früher weggehen, wurde aufgehalten von jemand, der mit ihm gehen wollte. Wäre er früher weggegangen und durch eine andere Türe, durch die er sonst wegging, so wäre er früher an dem Wagen vorbeigegangen und auf der linken Seite des Wagens, während er nun rechts ging. Dadurch, daß er später wegging, zu einer andern Türe hinaus und rechts von dem Möbelwagen, ist der Wagen, als er umkippte, gerade auf den Knaben gefallen. Die Leute hatten sich das angeschaut, auch die, die bei den Pferden waren. Niemand ahnte etwas davon, daß der Knabe unter den Wagen gekommen war. Man sagte dann: Der Wagen ist zu schwer, als daß wir ihn noch den Abend heben, morgen wollen wir das tun. — Zwischen fünf und sechs Uhr war das geschehen. Und nun waren wir etwa um viertel elf Uhr in der Lage, den Wagen unbedingt heben zu müssen. Bis zwölf Uhr war er gehoben; und wir haben das tote Kind hervorgehoben.
Nun, das erste, was ich erwähnen möchte, ist dieses, daß gerade solch ein Beispiel so recht geeignet ist, zu zeigen, wie die Menschen in bezug auch auf das Leben verkehrt denken. Und ich möchte nochmals einen, zwar schon oft gebrauchten Vergleich für dieses verkehrte Denken anführen. Nehmen Sie an, Sie sehen in einiger Entfernung einen Menschen, der am Rande eines Flusses geht. Plötzlich sehen Sie, daß der Mensch in den Fluß fällt. Sie laufen hin, da finden Sie an derselben Stelle einen Stein. Natürlich sagen Sie, der Mensch ist über den Stein gestolpert, in das Wasser gefallen, dadurch fand er seinen Tod. Die Sache kann aber ganz anders sein, sie kann gerade umgekehrt sein. Es kann den Menschen der Herzschlag getroffen haben. Er ist in das Wasser gefallen, weil er vorher tot war; und er hat nicht den Tod gefunden, weil er in das Wasser gefallen ist. Dieser Fehler wird jeden Augenblick gemacht, besonders in der Naturwissenschaft. Man merkt es natürlich nicht, wenn er sich fein verbirgt.
So war es auch in bezug auf dieses Kind. Das Karma dieses Kindes war abgelaufen. Der Möbelwagen ist wegen des Kindes dort gefahren. Die geistigen Wesenheiten, die hinter dem Geheimnis walten, arrangierten die Sache so, daß das Kind seinen Tod finden konnte. Sieben Jahre war der Knabe alt. Ein recht jugendlicher Ätherleib, der hätte noch können viele Jahrzehnte das Leben versorgen, die Kräfte waren da. Nun, ich werde stets bekennen, was es heißt, daß seit einiger Zeit unser Dornacher Bau eingebettet ist in den vergrößerten Ätherleib des kleinen Knaben Theodor Faiß. Wirklich ist der Ätherleib vergrößert - er vergrößert sich nach dem Tode -, und der Ätherleib dieses kleinen siebenjährigen Theo bildet wie eine Art Aura des Baues seither. Und wenn man mit dem Bau zu tun hat, wenn man die Notwendigkeit hat, die Ideen für den Bau zu finden, die ihn in der rechten Weise in die geistige Welt hineinversetzen, seit dem Tode dieses Knaben weiß man, daß man mitinspiriert wird durch den Ätherleib, der mit die Aura des Baues bildet, den Ätherleib vom kleinen Theo Faiß. Es könnte selbstverständlich keine Sehnsucht, originell zu erscheinen, mich verleiten, abzuleugnen, daß vieles von dem, was seither an Beiträgen für den Bau entstanden ist, mitinspiriert ist durch den Umstand, daß die Aura dieses Ätherleibes um den Bau herum ist und man im Bau gewissermaßen diese Hilfe hat, daß diese unverbrauchte Ätherkraft zugunsten des Baues wirkt. Denken Sie sich, was da hinter den äußeren Tatsachen für bedeutungsvolle innere Tatsachen stehen: Eine Familie verlegt ihren Wohnsitz in die Nähe des Baues. Da ist ein Knabe, durch sein Seelenwesen besonders veranlagt; er opfert seinen Ätherleib hin, damit der Bau eingehüllt ist in die Kraft dieses Ätherleibes. Da haben wir ein solches Beispiel, an dem wir ersehen, wie unverbrauchte Ätherleiber, die hingeopfert werden, ihre Aufgabe in der Welt haben.
Da erst beginnt im Grunde dasjenige, was an Empfindungsgehalt aus unserer Geisteswissenschaft fließen soll. Daß man weiß, der Mensch besteht aus physischem Leib, Ätherleib, Astralleib und Ich, man macht verschiedene Erdenleben durch -, daß man das theoretisch weiß, darauf kommt es wahrhaftig nicht an. Sondern darauf kommt es an, was in unser wirkliches Erleben eingefügt wird durch diese Anschauungen. Leben versucht man auch dadurch hineinzubringen in unsere Bewegung, daß man nicht nur theoretisch durch die Lehre, sondern durch das Leben selbst zu überwinden versucht den Unterschied zwischen Lebenden und Toten. Als uns jüngst ein sehr lieber Mithelfer, Fritz Mitscher, gerade in seinem dreißigsten Jahre entrissen wurde und ich die Rede bei der Einäscherung in Basel zu halten hatte, bestand ein wichtiges Wort darin, daß ich mich zu dieser Seele wandte, um ihr, ich möchte sagen, bittend den Auftrag zu geben, auch nach dem Tode weiter unter uns zu arbeiten. Denn wir brauchen nicht bloß die sogenannten Lebendigen, sondern wir brauchen die Mitarbeit derer, die durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind. Und in zweifacher Weise werden sie mitarbeiten. Auf der einen Seite werden in der nächsten Zeit mitarbeiten eine große Anzahl von Ätherleibern, welche die Menschen abgelegt haben, die durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind in den schicksalschweren Erlebnissen. Jugendliche, unverbrauchte Ätherleiber sind jetzt wie eine große gewaltige Aura, in der wir leben. Und dann sind es auf der andern Seite die Individualitäten selbst, die aus ihren Ätherleibern heraus weiter wirken. Hinblicken auf den unverbrauchten Ätherleib können wir in dem Beispiel des kleinen Theo Faiß, wo der Ätherleib zum Inspirator wird für manches, was am Bau geleistet worden ist. Hinblicken auf die Individualität wollte ich in meiner Ansprache an Fritz Mitscher. So ganz und gar zu fühlen und zu empfinden, wie die Kluft ausgefüllt wird zwischen Leben und Tod, ist es, was zu unserer Geisteswissenschaft gehört. Denn nicht nur theoretisch wissen, sondern es ganz lebendig durchdringen, daß uns die Toten wie Lebende sind, daß die Toten etwas geben wie die jugendlichen, unverbrauchten Ätherleiber, muß uns bewußter Inhalt der Erdenzeiten werden. Und in diesen Ätherleibern, die Menschen angehört haben, die jetzt durch die großen schicksaltragenden Ereignisse den Tod gefunden haben, leben ja die Nachklänge von alledem, was empfunden wird, wenn man den Tod als ein Opfer für die von der Zeit geforderten Ereignisse - mehr oder weniger bewußt - vor sich sieht. Das fährt hinein in diese Ätherleiber. Den Tod suchen, oder besser gesagt, den Tod voraussehen und dennoch wissen, daß dieser Tod eine Bedeutung hat, das wird bei zahlreichen Menschen, die in der Gegenwart durch die Pforte des Todes gehen, der Fall sein. Man kann Materialist sein; wenn man so dahinlebt, kann man ja sagen: Volksseelen, Volksgeister sind ja nur Namen für etwas, was abstrakt zusammenhält eine Gruppe von Menschen mit gleicher Sprache und gleichen Eigentümlichkeiten. Von Volksgeistern als von wirklichen Wesenheiten zu sprechen, ist eine Verdrehtheit. - Mögen selbst manche, die jetzt durch die Pforte des Todes gehen, den Worten nach so sprechen; dadurch, daß sie so durch den Tod gehen, geben sie unbewußt ihre Zustimmung zu dem, was Geisteswissenschaft sagen muß, daß Volksgeist, Volksseele eine reale Wesenheit ist. Denn was würde es heißen, wenn Volksgeister, Volksseelen nicht reale Wesenheiten wären und von allen Seiten die Menschen im blutigen Kriege stehen? Unter Voraussetzung einer materialistischen Weltgestaltung wäre das unmöglich zu denken. Wenn sich der einzelne aber für den Volksgeist opfert, wenn der Volksgeist eine reale Wesenheit ihm ist, dann hat es den tiefsten Sinn, daß solche Ereignisse über die Menschen gekommen sind. So werden wir eine kommende Zeit fühlen, in welcher viele, viele unverbrauchte Ätherleiber in der geistigen Atmosphäre schweben, alle mahnend, daß es Geistiges gibt. Diese Ätherleiber werden in Zukunft gute Helfer sein, um die menschliche Weltauffassung spirituell zu vertiefen. Die Menschen werden bloß in ihren Seelen empfinden müssen, wie die Toten rufen. Wenn wiederum über den Gefilden, über denen sich jetzt die furchtbaren Ereignisse entwickeln, wieder Friede herrschen wird, werden die Menschen, die dann leben werden, um so besser wirken, wenn sie die Stimme der Toten hören. Aber das ist nicht nur symbolisch gemeint. Die unverbrauchten Ätherleiber werden da sein und den Ruf ertönen lassen. Die Welt kann fürder nicht bestehen, ohne daß die Menschen ihren Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt erfühlen und empfinden. Und stumpf würde sich die Menschheit der Zukunft erweisen, wenn sie also die Mahnung der Toten nicht würde hören können. — In der Physik gibt jeder zu, daß keine Kraft verlorengeht; man spricht von der Umwandlung der Kraft. Auf dem geistigen Boden ist es ebenso. Die Kräfte, die der unverbrauchte Ätherleib durch die Pforte des Todes trägt, verschwinden nicht; sie werden da sein. Und in die Seelen der Zukunft hinein können sie aufgenommen werden, und diese Seelen können durch diesen Zusammenhang mit den Seelenresten, die aus unverbrauchten Ätherleibern zurückgeblieben sind, Kraft und Zuversicht für ihr spirituelles Wirken empfangen.
Neben vielem, was uns dieser Krieg sagen kann, ist es für uns als Bekenner der Geisteswissenschaft vor allen Dingen dies, daß wir gleichsam im Geiste schon hinaufschauen in die Atmosphäre, die da sein wird die Atmosphäre der unverbrauchten Ätherleiber; daß aber hier unten Seelen werden sein müssen, die eine Empfindung dafür haben, daß das die Mahnungen der Toten sind. Dies herbeizuführen, gehört aber zu unserer Aufgabe als rechtmäßige Bekenner der Geisteswissenschaft. Wir müssen schon einen geistgemäßen Gesichtspunkt auch gegenüber solchen Zeitereignissen finden können, nicht den Gesichtspunkt, der abstraktes Denken ist. Sondern wir müssen uns wirklich die Zukunftsbevölkerung der Erde so vorstellen, daß unten Seelen sind, die im physischen Leibe sind, und von oben unverbrauchte Ätherleiberkräfte herunterwirken; und daß diese Seelen unten sagen können: Wir verzweifeln nicht daran, daß bessere Zeiten für das spirituelle Erkennen kommen werden, denn die unverbrauchten Ätherleiber helfen uns mit ihren Kräften. - Wenn wir das konkret, nicht abstrakt nehmen, dann haben wir etwas von den Mahnungen, die diese schicksalschwere Zeit uns insbesondere als Bekennern der Geisteswissenschaft geben kann, verstanden. So muß es kommen, denn es bedarf schon realer Einwirkungen in die menschliche Entwickelung hinein. Wir hätten lange fortwirken müssen, wenn wir wiederum durch Verstandesüberzeugungen das hätten hervorzurufen gehabt, was die spirituelle Weltanschauung geben will. Bei der Jungfrau von Orleans fand eine unterbewußte Initiation statt. In der Zukunft wird in anderer Weise das Spirituelle hineinwirken in die Menschheitsentwickelung. Die unverbrauchten Ätherleiber werden es sein, die helfend uns zur Seite stehen werden, uns und auch denen, die als Individualitäten wiederum hineinwirken wollen auf den physischen Plan.
Mit Bezug auf dasjenige, was die Menschen verstehen können, geht es auch heute manchmal noch ganz sonderbar zu. Aus dem angeführten Beispiel werden Sie schon zugeben, daß zur Zeit der Jungfrau von Orleans die Strategen, die Feldherren nicht dasjenige herbeigeführt haben, was herbeigeführt worden ist. Ein anderes Beispiel habe ich auch schon öfter angeführt: Als in entscheidender Stunde das Heer des Konstantin gegen Rom marschierte, da waren es auch nicht die Feldherren, die den Sieg herbeiführten und das fünfmal stärkere Heer des Maxentius, der seine Heere vor die Tore Roms führte, dem Konstantin entgegen, schlugen. Konstantin folgte nicht seinen Feldherren, sondern einem Traume, der ihm sagte, er solle das Monogramm Christi seinen Heeren vorantragen lassen. Träume und sibyllinische Orakel haben dazumal die Heere an einem bestimmten Orte zusammengeführt und alles entschieden. Dadurch aber, daß Konstantin siegte, hat die Landkarte Europas wiederum ihr entsprechendes Aussehen bekommen. Wer war es denn, der dazumal unter der Schwelle des Bewußtseins die Ereignisse lenkte? Der Christus-Impuls war es, aber der Christus-Impuls, so wie er real war, nicht wie ihn die Menschen verstanden haben. Wir lernen den Christus-Impuls nicht kennen, wenn wir hinhören auf das Gezänk der Theologen. Nicht in dem, was die Menschen bewußt vollbrachten, was die Menschen verstanden haben, wirkte der Christus-Impuls; sondern er wirkte in der Zusammenfügung der Ereignisse bei Konstantin und Maxentius, und später wieder bei der Jungfrau von Orleans. Auch in unserer heutigen Zeit erlebt man gar manches, sei es auch manchmal an kleinen Tatsachen. Es kann manchmal Kleines mit Großem verglichen werden. Da schrieb ein hervorragender Philosoph vor einigen Jahren in einer süddeutschen Monatsschrift einen längeren Artikel über die geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung, die ich zu vertreten habe. Dieser Artikel hat sehr viel gewirkt; er war ganz gegnerisch geschrieben, allerdings durchsetzt mit manchem wohlwollenden Urteil über die Theosophie im allgemeinen, manchem Anerkennenden auch. Mir wurde zum Beispiel der Rat gegeben, statt auf solche Dinge meine Gaben lieber verwenden zu wollen, um endlich herauszubringen, ob wirklich MicKiewicz die Wiederverkörperung der Jungfrau von Orleans sei und so weiter. Aber im ganzen war der Artikel doch sehr geeignet, das, was gerade als unsere geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung zu gelten hat, so darzustellen, daß ein unebener Eindruck hervorgerufen wurde. Der Philosoph, der den Artikel geschrieben hatte, galt als großer Platoniker, als großer Logiker. Er sagte selbst, er widme sich keiner andern Aufgabe als der Verkündigung der Wahrheit, und deshalb könne er die Wahrheit wissen. Der Herausgeber der Zeitschrift schien sehr befriedigt zu sein, einen so langen autoritativen Artikel über diese Geisteswissenschaft bringen zu können. Das war schon vor einigen Jahren. Dann kam der Krieg. Der Betreffende gehört nicht einer Anschauung an, die mit Mitteleuropa sympathisiert, sondern er sympathisiert in entschiedener Weise mit England und Frankreich und sogar mit denen, die im Gefolge von England und Frankreich kämpfen. Nun, was geschieht? Er schreibt eine Anzahl von Briefen an denselben Mann, der Herausgeber der Zeitschrift ist. Dieser Herausgeber der erwähnten Zeitschrift veröffentlicht diese Briefe auch, weil sie zu charakteristisch sind, in einer andern Zeitschrift, den «Süddeutschen Monatsheften». Er erinnert sogar daran, daß er derselbe Mann ist — Karl Muth ist es -, der die Zeitschrift «Hochland» herausgibt und der den Artikel über die «Steinersche Theosophie», wie er sagt, abgedruckt hat. Diese Briefe sind nun so, daß man sagen kann, alles was an Geifer über die mitteleuropäische Bevölkerung von seiten eines westeuropäisch gesinnten Menschen gesagt werden kann, wird darin gesagt. Unter anderem erklärt der Mann: Gegen die Menschen, die alle nicht wissen können, wofür sie kämpfen, sind die schwarzen Menschen freie Adelsmenschen. Gegen Mitteleuropa müsse man nur das englische Weltreich halten, das sei wie die Katholische Kirche eingesetzt von Gott und hätte niemals etwas anderes getan, als was in der göttlichen Weltordnung liegt.
Diesen Brief abzudrucken ist ganz selbstverständlich! Der genannte Herausgeber schreibt dazu: In ganz Mitteleuropa wird sich außer in Irrenhäusern kein Mensch finden lassen, der so etwas vertreten könnte! - Also jetzt gibt der gute Herr Muth zu, daß der Mann, den er ausersehen hat, um ihn auf unsere geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung loszulassen, eigentlich für das Irrenhaus reif ist. Ja, so steht es überhaupt mit dem, was gegenüber unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung vorgebracht wird. Nur hätte Herr Muth dazumal schon wissen müssen, daß der Mann reif sei für das Irrenhaus. Aber er brauchte erst die Mahnung des Krieges. Seine Einsicht mußte erst herausgefordert werden durch dasjenige, was er nun leicht einsehen konnte. Gar mancher für das Irrenhaus Reife wandert herum und kritisiert die Weltanschauung, die wir vertreten, nur kommt es nicht auf eine so groteske Weise heraus.
Ich sagte, an diesem Beispiel zeigt sich, daß der Verstand, den die Menschen heute haben, noch lange hintennachhinken würde, wenn es sich um geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung handelt und daß schon gesagt werden muß: Nicht nur die Lebendigen sind dazu notwendig, daß das Quantum Spiritualität, das in die Welt kommen muß, hereinkomme, sondern auch die Toten! Und zu den besten Helfern werden diejenigen gehören, die mit Seele und Leben einzutreten hatten für den Gang unserer schicksalschweren und schicksaltragenden Ereignisse der Gegenwart. Und so möchte man denn heute, daß solche Betrachtungen nicht nur etwas Theoretisches in den Seelen bleiben, sondern eine tief ehrliche Empfindung werden, die Empfindung, daß wir das Bekenntnis zur Geisteswissenschaft so nehmen mögen, daß unsere Seelen aufmerksame Wisser desjenigen werden, daß da in der geistigen Welt mahnende Stimmen da sein werden, die uns sagen: Lasset euch uns Tote ein Wahrzeichen sein dafür, daß spirituelle Vertiefung in die Menschen kommen muß, denn wir haben diesen Tod mit Bewußtsein durchgemacht — nicht für unsere Sache, sondern für das, was unabhängig ist von uns, so daß wir besiegelt haben dadurch das Bekenntnis zu etwas, was über das einzelne materielle Menschenleben hinausgeht!
Wenn unter den Bekennern der Geisteswissenschaft solche sein werden, die das ernste Raunen derjenigen, die also durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, ahnen, empfinden, wissen werden, dann wird im Realen etwas von dem erreicht werden, was durch Geisteswissenschaft in den Empfindungen der Menschenseelen erreicht werden soll; mit andern Worten, wenn durch die Geisteswissenschaft Seelen da sein werden, die ihren Sinn ins Geisterreich zu lenken verstehen, denn aus dem Geisterreich wird vieles in den kommenden Zeiten den Menschen gesagt werden können.
Das ist es, was ich Ihnen für Ihre Empfindungen andeuten wollte, da es die Verhältnisse so gegeben haben, daß wir gerade in dieser Zeit auch in einer Zweigversammlung hier zusammensein können. Das möchte man ja, daß bei solchen Versammlungen nicht bloß ein Wissen im Keime verschafft wird, sondern daß das, was in solchen Versammlungen gesprochen wird, wirke wie ein lebendiger Keim, der in den Boden der empfindenden Seele eingesenkt wird. Was Sie empfindungsgemäß weitertragen werden durch eine solche Betrachtung, das wird die Hauptsache sein.
Deshalb wollen wir diese Betrachtungen abschließen, indem wir dessen gedenken, was werden soll für uns aus den schicksaltragenden Ereignissen der Zeit:
Aus dem Mut der Kämpfer,
Aus dem Blut der Schlachten,
Aus dem Leid Verlassener,
Aus des Volkes Opfertaten
Wird erwachsen Geistesfrucht
Denken Seelen geistbewußt
Ihren Sinn ins Geisterreich.
The Relationship Between Humans and the Natural World and Hierarchies – Zeitgeists and Folk Spirits – The Warning Voices of the Dead
We live in difficult times, times of effective, courageous deeds and great sacrifices on the one hand, and times of severe trials for the human soul on the other. It is my task at the end of these reflections to stimulate some feelings, particularly in view of our fateful times. Since we are able to be together at such a time, let us also allow our feelings to culminate at the end of our reflections in a manner appropriate to the times. But let us start from something that can shed light on many things that must speak meaningfully to our souls in our time.
Since we began to view the world from a spiritual scientific perspective, we have referred to the four members of our human nature as the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I. And we know that the I, or rather that part of the human being that we call the I, through which we express the I, is the youngest but also the most significant member of the human being. For if human beings consisted only of a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body as a result of the Saturn, Sun, and Moon periods, they would not be human beings. Human beings are human beings because they have received their I during their time on Earth through the spirits of the higher hierarchies and because they are now developing this I during their time on Earth through successive incarnations in various human communities, through peoples and periods of time until the earth reaches the goal of its development and until human beings, having developed their I completely, have also reached their earthly goal. Now we also know that there are higher spiritual beings — we use the word “higher” for them — who belong to the higher hierarchies and who, in a sense, stand above human beings. We speak of the hierarchy of angels, angeloi, of the hierarchy of archangels, archangeloi, of the archai or spirits of the age, and so on upwards. We designate them by these names; we could just as well use other names, but these names have been introduced in the West.
Let us now try to imagine how we can actually picture these spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies in relation to what human beings are here on earth. We start from what human beings have around them here on earth. We know that there is the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the animal kingdom, and human beings must consider themselves, based on everything they can observe and find in themselves, to be the highest kingdom. So we can say that if we take the visible kingdoms here on Earth, we have the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, and the human kingdom. Above these kingdoms, as it were, continuing upward, appears the kingdom of the angeloi, the archangeloi, the archai, and so on. We can simply imagine that the kingdoms do not end with the human kingdom, but extend upward, only that the higher kingdoms cannot be seen with the senses, which are the outer senses.
However, it may seem striking that when we ascend from the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms to the human kingdom, invisibility suddenly begins above the human kingdom. But this will only be striking as long as one does not consider that animals — this is quite clear to anyone who can put themselves completely in the position of an animal — do not see humans as one human being sees another. If animals could speak, they would speak of visible realms only as the mineral, plant, and animal realms; they would consider themselves to be the highest visible realm. That animals see humans as one human sees another is merely a prejudice. For animals, we humans really have a supernatural, ghostly existence; and if animals had only the same perceptions as we do, they would not see humans, but would be as invisible to them as the realm of angels is to humans. It is only because they have a certain kind of dreamlike clairvoyance that animals see humans as ghosts, as supernatural beings. Humans as such cannot immediately form any idea of the image that animals have of them. On the other hand, animals also see something below them, or rather, they perceive something below them that humans no longer perceive. Animals not only perceive the mineral world as humans do, but they also perceive something completely different, especially lower animals. When an animal, say a snail, crawls across the ground, it perceives all the peculiarities of the ground. This would constantly disturb humans if, when walking across the ground, they perceived it in the same way as a snail or even a turtle. It is different with higher animals, which have warm blood, but it is precisely the lower animals that really perceive all the peculiarities of the ground on which they crawl. They perceive all the peculiarities of the air; they perceive everything around them in a completely different way than humans do. Animals know whether they are moving over marshy ground or sandy ground, because they perceive all the peculiarities of the ground within themselves. This is similar to the way we hear things in our environment. The entire mineral world is permeated by a subtle vibration of forces that humans do not perceive. Animals perceive this subtle vibration, these forces, in such a way that they find some of them pleasant and others unpleasant. When an animal moves from one type of soil to another, for example, it is not because it sees it as humans do, but because something is painful to it, because the subtle movements resonate within it, because it feels that it belongs there. This is a kind of instinctive hearing, like listening to what is going on in the ground, or it is like smelling. So we can say that animals perceive an elemental realm and, starting with humans, recognize a higher hierarchy. We are thus placed in the middle of the world we know as the outer sensory world, the outer realms of the sensory world, and the world of higher hierarchies. We call the lower visible hierarchies the natural kingdoms, and the invisible ones the higher hierarchies.
But we also know that such a being of the higher hierarchies, for example an angel, once passed through the stage of humanity. That was during the ancient lunar period. At that time, human beings were not yet human, for they had no ego; they were only at the preparatory stage of humanity and had the astral body as the highest member of their being. The beings belonging to the hierarchy of the Angeloi had passed through their human stage during the old lunar period. And the spirits to whom we turn as the protective spirits of the individual human being are these beings from the hierarchy of the Angeloi, each of whom is assigned, as it were, to a human being. “Spirits of your souls” are those who stand directly above human beings in the hierarchy, who really let their protective wings, symbolically speaking, work over human beings, and indeed over the individual human being.
Then we come to the hierarchy of the Archangeloi. They were also once human beings. During the ancient Sun era, the beings we now call Archangeloi were on the human level. They were not shaped as humans are today, of course not, they were shaped quite differently, but they were on their human level at that time. We must not imagine that during the ancient solar era the Archangeloi looked like human beings today, but in terms of their development they were then at the human stage. And likewise, the spirits of personality or time spirits were at the human stage during the ancient Saturn era.
Now let us single out these spirits whom we call archangels. There we have spirits such as the archangels, who passed through their human stage during the ancient Sun period, ascended to the stage of angels during the Moon period, and have now ascended to the stage of archangels. Let us first place these spiritual beings two stages above us, as it were, before our souls; we will return to this later. Then we have the spiritual beings who were human beings during the ancient Saturn period; today they are spirits of time, standing three stages above us. Let us again leave them there. And now let us consider our relationship to these two types of spiritual beings.
When a human being undergoes incarnation — let us assume that we are living today in our earthly bodies in an incarnation — then above us stand spirits whom we count to the hierarchy of angels, then spirits whom we count to the hierarchy of archangels, and those whom we count to the hierarchy of archai, spirits of the times or spirits of personality. But they also undergo their own development. Let us take the Archai, the spirits of personality or spirits of time, as an example. So we go through our incarnation, then pass through the gate of death, enter a spiritual world after death, undergo a certain purely spiritual development between death and a new birth, and then return to earthly existence through a new birth. Now we can ask: What determines whether we descend to earth again after a certain number of years? This question is often raised in public lectures. From certain points of view, it is possible to give an answer, but speaking intimately in our branches, we can give a more objective answer that points more to reality.
While we live here in our physical bodies, the spirit of the times has a very specific stage of development. It does something that is connected with the development of human beings on earth, and it undergoes a development of its own. When this spirit of the times has progressed to the point in its development that we have all allowed it to flow into us, what it is going through up there, what it has gone through, then we are, in a sense, ready to come down to an earthly incarnation. And when it has advanced one stage further and we have developed through the spiritual worlds to a certain stage, we can again enter into an earthly development. Let us understand each other well in this regard. Let us first of all disregard our own development. Let us see how, over a very long period of time, the spirit of the age undergoes its development.
I want to say the following: If we look at the development of humanity on Earth in such a way that we go back to the founding of ancient Rome, about eight hundred years before the Mystery of Golgotha — if we go back to the founding of Rome — then we find that a certain spirit of the times began its development there. Before that, a different spirit of the times guided and directed the destiny of the earth. And this spirit of the times, which at that time had, so to speak, taken over the leadership of the earth in its spiritual development, continued to do so until the 16th century. A spirit of the times guides the destiny of the earth for that long. Since that time, that is, since the 16th century, a different spirit of the times has been present. So we are dealing here with two Zeitgeists. The human being who, for example, was on Earth in some incarnation in the 3rd century before the Mystery of Golgotha, went through what this Zeitgeist brought about for the Earth. For the time after his death, if this human being died in the 3rd century, or even in the 2nd century, the Zeitgeist cannot give him anything at first. What it could give him, it gave him. Now the spirit of the age must first go through a series of years until it can give the person something new. Then this person, who has been in a spiritual world between death and birth, comes back down to Earth when the spirit can give him something new. Now, however, it is arranged that human beings actually come several times on average, because the spirit of the age is not able to give human beings everything it could give them, due to their imperfection. As a result, human beings come several times during the period in which a spirit of the age develops. But essentially it depends on the spirits of the age regulating the successive incarnations of human beings. Now, however, the spirits of the age regulate this entire course of human destiny by having subordinates, as it were. And these are the archangels. Such archangels rule in subordinate positions for a much shorter time than the spirits of the age. While the spirits of the times rule for as long as I mentioned earlier, so that we can assume one spirit of the times from the founding of Rome to the 16th century, the spirits that we count among the hierarchy of archangels rule only for about three to four centuries. They alternate in such a way that about six or seven come one after the other while one Zeitgeist rules. So that at the time when the Mystery of Golgotha takes place, we first have the rule in the spiritual development of the archangel whom we call Oriphiel. Then comes the rule of Anael, then the rule of Zachariel, Raphael, Samael, Gabriel; and now, since 1879, we have the rule of the archangel we call Michael. So when we look at the spiritual worlds, we see, as it were, the higher rule of the spirits of the times and, below them, in succession in the sequence of time, the rules of the archangels. Because human beings cannot take in everything that the spirit of the age would give them, they do not take it directly from the hand of the spirit of the age, but from the hand of the archangel, the lesser higher power. Let us therefore remember: our immediate personal protectors belong to the hierarchy of the Angeloi. Above them are those who regulate human beings more in relation to other human beings. And above them are the Archai or spirits of personality or spirits of the age.
When I speak in this way, I am always referring to those beings who have truly undergone their development in the proper manner. But not all spirits undergo their development regularly. There are truly spiritual beings who were already Archai during the Saturn period, but who remained at the Archai level, that is, at the level they were at then. They have therefore not progressed beyond their Saturn level during the Earth's development. In reality, they have not ascended to the level of regular development. They have retained their human character; on the one hand, they are supersensible Saturn beings, but on the other hand, they stand at the stage of humanity. Similarly, there are beings from the hierarchy of the archai who remained at the human stage on the Sun and now still exist as human beings in the supersensible world. We refer to these beings collectively as Luciferic beings, who have thus remained behind, or as Ahrimanic beings. We cannot go into the difference between Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings today. They are spirits who have remained behind.
Now we must answer the question: How does the human being, standing here in his earthly incarnation, receive the influence of spirits who have progressed properly, the spirits of the times, the archai, and the archangeloi who are their servants? These beings are supersensible — human beings cannot enter into a relationship with them in the same way as with the sensory world. Therefore, when relying solely on the sensory world, human beings do not generally know that they are part of a development guided by the archai and archangeloi. They do not know this, but these supersensible beings intervene in everything that constitutes their being. Now, those spiritual beings whom we call folk spirits, who guide entire peoples, also belong to the order of the archangels. And insofar as we owe what we are to the people to whom we belong, we must regard what the folk spirit gives us as a gift from the corresponding being in the hierarchy of the archangels. It is the inspiration of the archangels that comes to us through our being placed in a people. Now we need only consider what it means for a human being to be placed in a people. With the national character flow spiritual qualities, but also habits; a very specific configuration of the being flows into the human being. It is impossible to imagine that what one is in an incarnation could have become anything other than what it has become through the gift of the national spirit — that is, in reality, through the gift of an archangelic being.
Apart from the fact that we stand within a national culture and thus, inspired by an archangelic being, receive certain configurations of our entire being, we are also part of the development of humanity as a whole. And there we are subject to the intuitions into which the spirit of the age leads us from the hierarchy of the archai. You must bear in mind that in our present spiritual culture we receive something that transcends all ethnic differentiation; something that we have because we are living in the 20th century, something we would not have had if we had lived in Roman or Greek times. We owe this to the spirit of the age. And a strict distinction can be made between the gift of the spirit of the age and the gift of the national spirit. But if that were all there were, the regular development of the human being, the regular development of the angel, the archangel, the regular development of the spirit of the times, then each and every one of us would always receive the gift from our spirit of the times and from our corresponding national spirit, and we would develop through the reception of this gift. The people on earth would develop side by side. All members of different peoples across the earth would receive the gift of the folk spirits on earth, just as if five pictures were hanging in a hall, each completely different from the other, depicting different things, but one picture would not disturb the other in the slightest. In this way, individual human beings would receive the gift of their folk spirits side by side on earth. They would not disturb each other if all development had proceeded regularly. But there are beings who have remained behind. Among the guiding archangelic beings there are those who began their development correctly on the sun and became true archangels by the time they reached the earth, but there are also those who remained at the sun stage, who are basically only at the stage of human beings. These beings are therefore on the same level as the folk spirits, and yet they have fallen behind them, possessing only the characteristics of invisible, supersensible human beings, not of archangels. These beings are backward. In a certain sense, they make the same demands on the world as the archangels, but they have not reached the level of the archangels on Earth. Therefore, they must work in a certain way with the same forces as on the sun. The result is that instead of affecting humans like archangels, they affect them like humans, like invisible humans who enter into human nature, who do not guide humans from above, but enter into human nature. And it is from these spirits, which in a certain sense compete with the truly leading folk spirits, that the peoples come to feud with one another and not live together in peace on earth. Man would not be tempted to identify his personality, his humanity, with his nationality, but would regard nationality as something that nourishes him spiritually. But he would not fight for his ethnicity, nor would he identify his personality with it. Man would not say, I am of this or that nationality, but rather: Nationality exists, and because I was born into it, I must draw my spiritual nourishment from it. But because the archangel urges him to think this way, the other one, who is actually on the level of humanity and is basically a Luciferic spirit, comes along and leads him into nationalism. And the result is that what is archangelic does not descend upon man as a gift, but that man identifies with his ethnicity as if it were a completely personal matter, and this is how the conflict of nationalities arises on earth. We must be absolutely clear about this: because we have not only placed ourselves under the influence of the leading archangel, so to speak, but also under the influence of the stagnant, backward archangel, we identify ourselves with nationality in the way we do on earth. This is precisely what spiritual science means when it says that we as human beings are capable of rising above the merely national in order to gain access to universal humanity. Then we can be national in the most eminent sense. Just as individual human beings can pursue one art or another, and one person, in pursuing his art, need not be the enemy of another, so one nationality need not be the enemy of another if there were no archangel beings lagging behind in their development who bring about identification. This must be assumed if we want to speak at all about what underlies human development with regard to national or other differentiations.
With regard to the spirit of the times, you will see more clearly how the Luciferic element works into the right element when we consider the following. A spirit of the times works for a certain period of time. Since the 16th century, a new spirit of the times has been present. This spirit of the times has its own specific task. Its task is to add all the materialistic knowledge and understanding of the world to the earlier impulses of development. That is why materialism has made such great progress in the world since the 16th century. We therefore do not need to regard materialistic understanding as inferior to the earlier way of understanding, as long as we do not identify ourselves one-sidedly with it. What will someone who views things in this way say about the government of the various Zeitgeists? He will say: Now we are dominated by a certain Zeitgeist; before, we were dominated by a different Zeitgeist, and people had different ideas and different impulses. And if people were to allow themselves to be influenced only by the regularly evolving spirits of the age, they would say: We must now adapt to this spirit of the age by penetrating more deeply into the laws of the world's becoming, into materialistic thinking. Then, after a time, another spirit of the age will come; it will bring a different spirit into human thinking.
I have often emphasized that, as adherents of spiritual science, we must say: Today we proclaim spiritual science with very specific words, ideas, and concepts, but we do not believe that what we say today will be valid for the entire future of the earth; rather, it will change. When two thousand years have passed, what we today call spiritual science will be proclaimed in different words, just as we speak differently today than in Greek times; nothing will remain of the way we use words today. We do not build on anything external that remains, but we know that one spirit of the times replaces another and that all stand side by side on an equal footing.
But those who are influenced by the backward spirits of Saturn working within them and identify with their influence say: Other people were all stupid back then; that was the childhood of humanity. We have come a long way today; we have found truths that are completely valid for all future generations! — One becomes more humble and modest in the field of spiritual science. Those who identify with the spirit of the times say: Copernicus has finally found the truth; people used to believe something else. Now people will say forever: The Earth and the planets move in an ellipse around the Sun. The Sun is in the center! — Today, spiritual science already knows that this is a one-sided teaching. It is very good for our materialistic age to present the world in this way, but it is absolutely wrong. It is not true at all that the sun stands at one focal point of the ellipse and the earth moves around it. In reality, this is all a materialistically calculated apparent movement. In reality, it is the sun that moves itself, and the earth and the other planets follow it in a spiral movement. And because certain positions arise when it moves in this spiral fashion, the Earth is sometimes in one position and sometimes in another. This gives the appearance of an ellipse. In reality, it is a different line. The time will come when even external science will know this.
One becomes more modest when one knows that truths expressed in a certain form are only valid for certain times. And we will never claim, as true followers of spiritual science, that from now on and into all future times, all people will say that the human being consists of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an I. Rather, the future will speak quite differently. What matters is that everything is in development; that yesterday's ideas are as valid as today's; that we do not allow ourselves to be dominated by a spirit of the times that deludes us into thinking that everything that came before was mere illusion and deception and that we have come so wonderfully far. With regard to the spirit of the times, you see in people the obsession with the Luciferic spirit, who say: How wonderfully far we have come! How imperfect everything that was thought and said about the world in the past was! But what we have now found will remain. What has been found since the 16th century will remain as eternal truths.
So what is generally called the popular spirit is basically already a complicated entity. It is the actual popular spirit that hovers above us, so to speak, and which, if we followed it alone, we would follow in such a way that we would accept its gifts because we are placed in its sphere. But its effectiveness is constantly impaired by its Luciferic companion, who enters into us and causes us to identify ourselves as individuals with the entire people. But the individual human being does this in various ways, and it is therefore of immense importance to realize that a national character must develop in the center of Europe that relates to its entire national spirit in a different way than that which exists on the periphery of Europe. And we must first acquire this insight. What takes place beneath the surface of human consciousness is extremely significant, and what really depends on the spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies. Today, materialistic thinkers will still declare it madness to say that spiritual beings give rise to impulses such as the one I have just mentioned, namely that in Central Europe, without people knowing it, the population has been urged toward such a way of feeling toward the divine or—because Christ is working in Central Europe—toward Christianity; that the Central European human being learns to feel Christ as he speaks to the innermost soul. This has not been the case in any other place or time as it has been in Central Europe. During the Roman period of Christian development, for example, Christ was certainly understood as a being who came to earth and worked for humanity. Certainly, the more advanced and, in part, those who already thought as we do today, who are in possession of spiritual science, felt as Paul thought: “Not I, but Christ in me!” But there is still a difference between this and the feeling we find in Meister Eckhart, Tauler, Angelus Silesius, and similar spirits. How did these spirits take in the mystery of Golgotha? We need only ask Angelus Silesius, and he will answer us with the beautiful saying:
If Christ were born a thousand times in Bethlehem
And not in you, you would be lost forever!
Experiencing the mystery of Golgotha in one's own soul — that is what matters. These Central European people sought to experience something within themselves that was an inner image, an inner expression of the mystery of Golgotha. And how beautiful it is when Angelus Silesius speaks about death and says: Everything that happens in me ultimately happens because God is in me and accomplishes things in me. And when I die, it is not I who die, but God who dies in me! — Think what a wonderfully intimate idea of immortality is already contained in the statement: God dies in me! — For God is, of course, immortal. If God dies in me, then death is only apparent; then one feels, as Angelus Silesius feels: that God only apparently dies in one, for God cannot die. So dying is not what it appears to be outwardly; it is only a fact of life. And because God cannot die—but dies in us—immortality is already felt.
This innermost intimacy with God, whether one perceives it as divine or Christian, is what has been long in preparation in the course of Central European development. And here the Central European folk spirits have worked in such a way that it has found an external symbolic expression, a real symbolic expression. Nowhere except in Central Europe is “I” said when one means one's own self, one's own being. It is through the folk spirit, which manifests itself as the spirit of language, that the whole evolution has been guided in such a way that it has gradually come about that one expresses one's own being with the word “I.” But I, “I-Ch,” is Jesus Christ! It lies in Jesus Christ. By pronouncing Jesus Christ in the first letters of “I,” what lies in the Central European spirit, how it is intimately connected with the innermost experience, is symbolically expressed. Every time one pronounces “I,” one pronounces the first letters “Jesus Christ.” If one would only once direct one's spiritual eyes to such things, which are still considered fantastic today, one would already find how unconsciously the spirits of the higher hierarchies always work into human development, and then find meaning in things that are simply accepted today.
I would like to mention just one truly significant fact. A certain group of European people are referred to as Germanic. And when one speaks of Germanic people in Central Europe, one means England, Holland, Norway, Sweden, and others. The term Germanic is used very broadly. I am not talking about agitation, but about what is given in the language. When the English speak, they do not refer to themselves as Germanic, because they only call the Germans Germans. The German calls himself “Deutscher,” and when he speaks of Germanic people, he includes a larger group of people. The English apply the name Germanic, Germans, only to the Germans, to those who are not “them.” That is an enormously significant fact. It is something that is deeply significant for the way in which the national spirit works on the one hand and on the other; how it works in Central Europe to encompass the great, and how the national spirit of the English people strives to reject what encompasses more and to apply it only to others. |
In general, what language teaches as the expression of the effective spirit of a people will gradually emerge in a wonderful way for human beings. Nowadays, people still find it difficult to understand when one speaks about the different European peoples in the way I tried to do for many years before the war—not because of the war—in the cycle “The Mission of Individual Folk Souls in Connection with Germanic-Nordic Mythology.” It is taken as if one wanted to express some kind of value judgment. But we do not want to express value judgments, only characteristics. And now we can characterize the Western European peoples precisely by expressing exactly what I have expressed in this lecture cycle.
We know that the human soul consists of the soul of feeling, the soul of understanding or intellect, and the soul of consciousness, and that the I works within these three nuances of the soul. When we now consider the Italian people with their national soul, we find the peculiarity that the national soul inspires the soul of feeling. And this is the characteristic feature of Italian national character, that the national soul works inspiringly into the sentient soul. Now, if something is possessed by the Luciferic national spirit, it is also the national soul. And now consider that, on the one hand, the greatness of the Italian people consists in the fact that the sentient soul is inspired. Think of Dante, of all the great Italian artists! But then again, think of identification — the superhuman, so to speak, that has remained Luciferic in all the passionate impulses of development that arise within the Italian people! This is not a value judgment, but merely a characterization.
In the French people, we can see everywhere how the intellectual soul or the emotional soul is inspired by the soul of the people, precisely the intellectual or emotional soul.
In the British people, it is the consciousness soul. Now, for the present cycle of humanity, the consciousness soul is that which connects human beings most closely with the external physical world. Therefore, the people who are inspired by the consciousness soul are entrusted above all with the mission of promoting and cultivating materialistic culture. This is not a value judgment, but merely a characterization that the British nation is called upon to let itself be inspired by the consciousness soul. Insofar as the individual belongs to his people, that is, insofar as he is inspired by the Luciferic national spirit, he identifies with the purely materialistic culture of the present. We find this to be true of British culture. The way the individual places himself in the British nation the result is precisely what is the materialistic spirit of the British nation, this peculiar spirit that waged thirty-four wars of conquest from 1856 to 1900 and made fifty-seven million people on earth new British subjects, and which in our time pretends to stand up for the freedom of individual groups of people.
When we consider a time such as ours, we must be quite clear that it is precisely our time that will teach people very much how to regard as a warning what is now presented as the opposition between the individual peoples of Europe or even of a large part of the world. The members of thirty-four nationalities are at war with each other, quite apart from minor tribal differences. This should be seen as a warning to truly abandon what has been called history up to now. But this way of looking at things is still being taken to absurd extremes, especially in our time. How absurd do we really find the accusations that the individual nations of Europe are hurling at each other today, the way they weigh up the individual external facts in order to find the causes of the terrible war of the present? But it is precisely this war that will teach people that its external causes are not to be found, but at most external symptoms of what lies deeply hidden within groups of human beings through the leadership of advanced and backward spiritual beings. And in a certain way, it is precisely what the present time shows as trials that will compel us to appeal to the spiritual foundations where the causes lie for what is happening outwardly in the world today.
From various angles, it can be shown how what appears externally has an effect in the depths of consciousness. Although most of my friends are already familiar with this example, I would like to point out once again how the entire map of Europe at the end of the Middle Ages was determined by the intervention of the Virgin of Orleans in the war between England and France. Anyone who looks at our external history with understanding must acknowledge that the map of Europe would have been completely different if England had not been defeated by France at that time through the intervention of the Virgin of Orleans in the battle. But the Virgin of Orleans was not a trained strategist, not a person who stood at the pinnacle of the development of the times. She was a simple human child — a country girl. But through her, spirits from the higher hierarchies worked in the way they had to work at that time. Now, it has been absolutely necessary up to our time for these spirits to work in the subconscious, because people were not yet able to understand what must now be understood through spiritual science. We have often expressed beautifully in legends how higher spiritual beings intervene in the subconscious. And rightly so, not out of superstition, but because it really corresponds to the facts, special significance is attached to the time when the outer world recedes most for the year, the time from Christmas to January 6. If one wants to attain spiritual knowledge not in the way we seek it today, as described in “How to Know Higher Worlds,” but in a more elementary way, one could be inspired during these thirteen nights. This is expressed very beautifully, for example, in the Norwegian legend of Olaf Åsteson. This legend tells us how Olaf Åsteson went to church before Christmas; how he fell asleep in front of the church and slept for thirteen nights; how he woke up on Epiphany and was able to recount what he had experienced. And what he recounts in a vivid but primitive way corresponds to what we call the passage through the soul world and the passage through the spirit realm. Olaf Åsteson experienced all this during the time that has rightly been designated as Christmas. This is meant to indicate to us that natural clairvoyance could best be developed during these thirteen nights from Christmas to the Feast of the Three Kings.
Since the Maid of Orleans was such a child of nature, one might assume that during these thirteen nights she experienced the world she spoke of when she led the French army against the English through a kind of dream state, that she was inspired during these thirteen nights. Well, this happened in a peculiar way. Every human being goes through a state of sleep, a state in which the senses do not yet speak, namely in the womb of the mother before seeing the physical light of the earth. This is really still a kind of sleep state, and the most mature state is, of course, in the last thirteen days before birth. This is the great and powerful thing that fills our soul with such wonder: the Virgin of Orleans was born on January 6. She therefore truly underwent her inspiration during the thirteen nights, but before she opened her eyes to the light of the world. The fact that January 6 is the birthday of the Virgin of Orleans has therefore been deliberately marked in our calendar. This is something we must understand in its great world-historical context, for it can tell us how mysterious the connections in the world are and how mysterious powers are at work in the world. Mysterious forces were at work on January 6 in those days, when the people gathered in the morning in the little village where the Virgin of Orleans was born, and when even the animals behaved so strangely. On that January 6, an inspiration was completed. During the thirteen nights, a being who was predisposed by his own karma was inspired. Of course, not everyone born on January 6 is predisposed to this; the karma must coincide with other conditions.
I wanted to cite this example of the Virgin of Orleans as one that shows us so clearly how subterranean forces play into historical becoming and development. Certainly, then came the materialistic development of the following centuries. Understandably, this had to regard such references to historical background as madness. That does no harm; just as it does no harm if people today still regard this spiritual science as madness. This spiritual science will prevail.
But such significant events as those in which the people of the present time live and into which they have incarnated in order to participate in them in one form or another do not always mean the same thing in historical development. Today, these fateful events are a warning to people. A veritable flood of literature has already been written about this war, but in all the books, brochures, and so on that have appeared, we have not yet found what we must assume will be found, and what must gradually be found. One often hears it said: “One cannot really talk about the causes; perhaps after the war, perhaps only after decades will people find the true causes of this war in documents and know who was actually to blame.” You can read this in every third newspaper. Well, that is not the point. The point is that people will come to realize — precisely because of the times we live in — that the real causes are not to be found in these external events, but that the cause must be sought in the spiritual world. People will find that this war has really been brought about as the significant karma of materialism, which must be gone through so that people can absorb a sum of convictions that will lead them from materialism back to spiritualism. Humanity must go through this trial.
What is really happening around us today in such a shocking way? — Well, we know that when a person passes through the gate of death, they first leave their physical body behind in the physical world. They first enter the spiritual world with their etheric body, astral body, and ego. They soon shed the etheric body; it is communicated to the rest of the world. With their astral body and ego, they then continue through the soul realm and the spirit realm. But now let us consider that today a large number of people pass through the gate of death in a relatively short time and with a certain consciousness; that they cast off an etheric body that could have sustained a human life normally for decades, so to speak. When a person dies between the ages of twenty and thirty, they shed an etheric body that could have sustained their physical body for another sixty to seventy years. The forces are still in the etheric body, for nothing is lost in the spiritual world. All people who pass through the gate of death today in the prime of life leave behind an etheric body that could have sustained this life for a long time to come. These forces are now all present in the spiritual world. How are these forces present? I would like to show you the significance of such a phenomenon using a vivid example taken from our own circle.
Last fall, a family belonging to our anthroposophical circle lost a little boy, a dear seven-year-old boy. The external circumstances were truly tragic. The father had gone away to war as a German citizen; he had fallen ill and was in a military hospital. One evening, just as a lecture was being given in Dornach, where our building is being constructed, we were informed that the little seven-year-old boy was missing. He had not come home since the evening before. I must not forget to mention that the family had settled in Dornach as gardeners. I myself had traveled to Switzerland from Germany shortly before. The boy had already come up to me before the building work began and offered me his hand; he was a sunny, very sweet child. So, on that evening, we were informed that the boy was missing. The only thing we could think of was that a furniture van, which had brought furniture for members and overturned near the building site, had fallen on the child. Now you must assume that no furniture van had driven past that spot for countless years before, nor has one done so since. You must also bear in mind that the boy lived with his mother, who ran the garden center. He was such a dear boy that when his father had to leave, he told his mother that he would help her very much now because his father was no longer there. That evening, he had been sent to the so-called canteen to fetch something for his mother. It was not far, only a short distance between the canteen and his mother's apartment. On this short route, there is a crossroads, so the moving van had to make a turn. The boy had actually wanted to leave ten minutes earlier, but was delayed by someone who wanted to go with him. If he had left earlier and through a different door than he usually did, he would have passed the truck earlier and been on the left side of the truck, whereas now he was on the right. Because he left later, through a different door and to the right of the moving truck, the truck fell right on top of the boy when it tipped over. People had been watching, including those who were with the horses. No one suspected that the boy had fallen under the truck. They said, “The truck is too heavy for us to lift it this evening; we'll do it tomorrow.” This happened between five and six o'clock. And now, at about a quarter past eleven, we were in a position where we absolutely had to lift the truck. By twelve o'clock it was lifted, and we pulled the dead child out.
Now, the first thing I would like to mention is that this example is particularly apt to show how people think wrongly about life. And I would like to give another comparison, one that has often been used, for this wrong way of thinking. Suppose you see a person walking along the bank of a river in the distance. Suddenly you see the person fall into the river. You run over and find a stone in the same spot. Naturally, you say that the person stumbled over the stone, fell into the water, and thus met his death. But the matter may be quite different; it may be just the opposite. The person may have had a heart attack. He fell into the water because he was already dead, and he did not die because he fell into the water. This mistake is made all the time, especially in natural science. Of course, you don't notice it when it is cleverly concealed.
This was also the case with this child. The karma of this child had run its course. The furniture van drove there because of the child. The spiritual beings who rule behind the mystery arranged things so that the child could meet his death. The boy was seven years old. He had a very youthful etheric body, which could have sustained life for many decades; the forces were there. Well, I will always acknowledge what it means that for some time now our building in Dornach has been embedded in the enlarged etheric body of little Theodor Faiß. The etheric body really is enlarged—it enlarges after death—and the etheric body of this little seven-year-old Theo has formed a kind of aura around the building ever since. And when one is involved in the building, when one has the need to find the ideas for the building that will place it in the right way in the spiritual world, since the death of this boy one knows that one is inspired by the etheric body that forms the aura of the building, the etheric body of little Theo Faiß. Of course, no desire to appear original would lead me to deny that much of what has been contributed to the building since then has been inspired by the fact that the aura of this etheric body surrounds the building and that, in a sense, one has this help in the building, that this unspent etheric power is working in favor of the building. Think of the meaningful inner facts that lie behind the outer facts: a family moves its residence close to the building. There is a boy who is particularly predisposed by his soul nature; he sacrifices his etheric body so that the building may be enveloped in the power of this etheric body. Here we have an example that shows us how unspent etheric bodies that are sacrificed have their task in the world.
This is where what is to flow from our spiritual science in terms of feeling content really begins. It is not really important to know that human beings consist of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an ego, and that we go through various earthly lives. What is important is what these insights bring into our actual experience. We also try to bring life into our movement by attempting to overcome the difference between the living and the dead not only theoretically through teaching, but through life itself. When a very dear colleague, Fritz Mitscher, was recently taken from us at the age of thirty, and I had to give the eulogy at his cremation in Basel, an important part of my speech was that I turned to his soul, as it were, to ask it to continue working among us after death. For we do not need only the so-called living, but we need the cooperation of those who have passed through the gate of death. And they will cooperate in two ways. On the one hand, in the near future, a large number of etheric bodies will cooperate, which have been shed by people who have passed through the gate of death in fateful experiences. Young, unspent etheric bodies are now like a great, powerful aura in which we live. And then, on the other hand, there are the individualities themselves, which continue to work from their etheric bodies. We can look at the unspent etheric body in the example of little Theo Faiß, where the etheric body becomes the inspiration for much of what has been achieved in the building. I wanted to look at individuality in my speech to Fritz Mitscher. To feel and sense completely how the gap between life and death is filled is what belongs to our spiritual science. For it must become conscious content of our earthly existence not only to know theoretically, but to penetrate with living awareness that the dead are like the living, that the dead give something like the youthful, unspent etheric bodies. And in these etheric bodies, which belonged to people who have now found death through the great events of fate, there live the echoes of all that is felt when one sees death as a sacrifice for the events demanded by time—more or less consciously. This enters into these etheric bodies. Seeking death, or rather, foreseeing death and yet knowing that this death has meaning, will be the case for many people who are passing through the gate of death at present. One can be a materialist; if one lives in this way, one can say: folk souls, folk spirits are only names for something abstract that holds together a group of people with the same language and the same characteristics. To speak of folk spirits as real beings is a distortion. Even some who are now passing through the gate of death may speak in this way; but by passing through death in this way, they unconsciously agree with what spiritual science must say, that the folk spirit, the folk soul, is a real being. For what would it mean if folk spirits and folk souls were not real entities and people were standing on all sides in bloody wars? Assuming a materialistic world order, this would be impossible to imagine. But if the individual sacrifices himself for the folk spirit, if the folk spirit is a real entity for him, then it makes the deepest sense that such events have come upon human beings. Thus we will feel a coming time in which many, many unspent etheric bodies will float in the spiritual atmosphere, all reminding us that there is something spiritual. These etheric bodies will be good helpers in the future in deepening the spiritual understanding of the human world. People will have to feel in their souls how the dead are calling. When peace reigns again over the fields where terrible events are now unfolding, the people who will then be living will work all the better if they hear the voice of the dead. But this is not meant only symbolically. The unspent etheric bodies will be there and will make their call heard. The world cannot continue to exist without people feeling and sensing their connection with the spiritual world. And the humanity of the future would prove dull if it were unable to hear the warning of the dead. In physics, everyone admits that no force is lost; one speaks of the transformation of force. It is the same on the spiritual plane. The forces that the unspent etheric body carries through the gate of death do not disappear; they will be there. And they can be taken up into the souls of the future, and these souls can receive strength and confidence for their spiritual work through this connection with the soul remnants that have remained from unspent etheric bodies.
Among the many things this war can tell us, the most important thing for us as followers of spiritual science is that we are already looking up in spirit, as it were, into the atmosphere that will be there—the atmosphere of the unspent etheric bodies—but that there must be souls here below who have a sense that these are the warnings of the dead. It is our task as true followers of spiritual science to bring this about. We must be able to find a spiritual point of view even in relation to such events, not a point of view that is abstract thinking. Instead, we must truly imagine the future population of the earth as souls below in physical bodies, with unspent etheric body forces working down from above; and that these souls below can say: We do not despair that better times for spiritual knowledge will come, for the unspent etheric bodies help us with their forces. If we take this concretely, not abstractly, then we have understood something of the warnings that this fateful time can give us, especially as confessors of spiritual science. It must come to this, for real influences are needed in human development. We would have had to work for a long time if we had had to bring about what the spiritual worldview wants to give us through intellectual convictions. In the case of the Maid of Orleans, a subconscious initiation took place. In the future, the spiritual will influence human development in a different way. It will be the unspent etheric bodies that will stand by us and help us, as well as those who, as individuals, want to influence the physical plane again.
With regard to what people can understand, things are still quite strange today. From the example given, you will admit that at the time of the Virgin of Orleans, the strategists and generals did not bring about what was brought about. I have often cited another example: when Constantine's army marched against Rome at the decisive hour, it was not the generals who brought about the victory and defeated the army of Maxentius, which was five times stronger and led by Maxentius himself, who had brought his armies to the gates of Rome to meet Constantine. Constantine did not follow his generals, but a dream that told him to have the monogram of Christ carried before his armies. Dreams and sibylline oracles brought the armies together at a certain place and decided everything. But because Constantine was victorious, the map of Europe once again took on its corresponding appearance. Who was it who guided events at that time from beneath the threshold of consciousness? It was the Christ impulse, but the Christ impulse as it really was, not as people understood it. We do not get to know the Christ impulse by listening to the squabbling of theologians. The Christ impulse did not work in what people consciously accomplished, in what people understood; it worked in the coming together of events in the lives of Constantine and Maxentius, and later again in the Virgin of Orleans. Even in our own time, we experience many things, even if they are sometimes small events. Sometimes small things can be compared with great things. A few years ago, an outstanding philosopher wrote a lengthy article in a South German monthly magazine about the spiritual scientific worldview that I represent. This article had a great impact; it was written in a very hostile tone, but interspersed with some benevolent judgments about theosophy in general, and some acknowledgments as well. For example, I was advised to use my gifts instead of such things to finally prove whether Mickiewicz was really the reincarnation of the Virgin of Orleans, and so on. But on the whole, the article was very well suited to presenting what is currently considered our spiritual worldview in such a way that it left a negative impression. The philosopher who wrote the article was considered a great Platonist, a great logician. He said himself that he devoted himself to no other task than proclaiming the truth, and that he therefore knew the truth. The editor of the magazine seemed very pleased to be able to publish such a long, authoritative article on this spiritual science. That was several years ago. Then the war came. The person in question does not hold views sympathetic to Central Europe, but rather sympathizes strongly with England and France and even with those who fight in the wake of England and France. Now what happens? He writes a number of letters to the same man who is the editor of the magazine. The editor of the magazine in question also publishes these letters, because they are too characteristic, in another magazine, the Süddeutsche Monatshefte. He even reminds readers that he is the same man—Karl Muth—who publishes the magazine Hochland and who printed the article on “Stein's theosophy,” as he calls it. These letters are such that one can say that everything that can be said about the Central European population by a Western European-minded person is said in them. Among other things, the man explains: Compared to people who cannot know what they are fighting for, black people are free aristocrats. The only thing that can be held up against Central Europe is the English Empire, which was established by God like the Catholic Church and has never done anything other than what is in the divine world order.
It goes without saying that this letter should be printed! The editor writes: “In the whole of Central Europe, there is no one except in madhouses who could represent such a view!” So now the good Mr. Muth admits that the man he chose to unleash on our spiritual-scientific worldview is actually ready for the madhouse. Yes, that is the case with everything that is put forward against our spiritual-scientific worldview. Only Mr. Muth should have known at the time that the man was ready for the madhouse. But he first needed the warning of war. His insight had to be challenged by what he could now easily see. Many a person who is ripe for the madhouse wanders around criticizing the worldview we represent, only it does not come out in such a grotesque way.
I said that this example shows that the understanding that people have today would still lag far behind when it comes to a spiritual worldview, and that it must be said: Not only the living are necessary for the quantum of spirituality that must come into the world to enter, but also the dead! And among the best helpers will be those who had to stand up with their souls and lives for the course of our fateful and destiny-laden events of the present. And so today we want such considerations not to remain merely theoretical in our souls, but to become a deeply honest feeling, the feeling that we may take our commitment to spiritual science in such a way that our souls become attentive knowers of the fact that there will be warning voices in the spiritual world telling us: Let us, the dead, be a sign to you that spiritual deepening must come into human beings, for we have gone through this death with consciousness — not for our own cause, but for that which is independent of us, so that we have thereby sealed our commitment to something that goes beyond the individual material human life!
If there are those among the followers of spiritual science who sense, feel, and know the serious murmuring of those who have thus passed through the gate of death, then something of what spiritual science aims to achieve in the feelings of human souls will be achieved in reality; in other words, if, through spiritual science, there will be souls who know how to direct their senses toward the spiritual realm, for much will be able to be said to human beings in the coming times from the spiritual realm.
That is what I wanted to suggest to you in response to your feelings, since circumstances have been such that we are able to be together here at this time in a branch meeting. One would hope that such meetings would not merely provide a seed of knowledge, but that what is said at such meetings would have the effect of a living seed planted in the soil of the sensitive soul. What you will carry forward through such contemplation will be the main thing.
Let us therefore conclude these reflections by remembering what should become for us out of the fateful events of the time:
From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of the battles,
From the suffering of the forsaken,
From the sacrifices of the people
The fruits of the spirit will mature
Souls will think with spiritual awareness
And find their meaning in the realm of the spirit.