The Mystery of Death
GA 159
15 May 1915, Prague
10. The Significance of Central Europe's Position Between East and West—Ahrimanic Inspiration and Spiritual Impulses
When we gather at such an occasion at which an own room is dedicated to our efforts which we can give a spiritual character commensurate with our spiritual-scientific feeling, it is good to think of the big viewpoint which we want to get as supporters of spiritual science towards the world and its phenomena, its tasks, its big riddles. How should our time, our distressing time full of ordeals not urge our souls to get a more far-reaching viewpoint? In particular in our time, one has to long for a viewpoint that reaches farther than the external life and external human efforts.
Out of the tasks and the efforts of our spiritual-scientific world view we put up a sculptural group at an important place in our new Dornach construction. This sculptural group should explain that which our souls should feel in the most intimate and also in the deepest sense. This group contains a central figure. One may call this central figure Christ; one may also call it the divine in the human being which tries to position itself in the right way in the world. One may call this middle figure the “human being,” the cosmic human being, expressed in an earthly personality as Christ was expressed in the earthly personality in a temporal-historical life by Jesus of Nazareth.
But two other figures will be on the sides of this middle figure, the one on top like on a rock, winged, but falling off from the rock. Because of the peculiar posture of the hand of the middle figure, expressing neither hatred nor power, but inner firmness a strength is achieved by which the figure on the rock on top, the winged figure, breaks the wings and falls down into the depth. This breaking of the wings—this must be well expressed in this sculpture—is not achieved because the human being, who stands in the middle, the Christ-human being, breaks the wings, but because he stretches out his hand in his spirituality, the other, the winged being, does not endure that, and because he finds that unbearable for his being which lives below, he himself breaks his wings by internal strength and falls off. You have to record the fact that this being throws down himself that he is not thrown down by any adversary.
Below inside the rock we see another figure tied up in chains. This is eager to turn up the earth from below. But he does not cope in his striving with that which flows out from the downwards directed hand of the middle figure. He writhes because he is thrown back by his own nature and by the strength of the middle figure.
You anticipate that in this group is expressed what we call the Christ-principle of our universe in the middle figure, the luciferic principle in the angel falling off from the rock, and the ahrimanic principle in the figure in the cave which strives from below upwards. I endeavoured to design the three figures as very similar portraits—we may express such a matter in this intimate circle,—so that one really gets an impression of the form which Ahriman takes on appearing to the human being in such a connection, and also of the physiognomy of Lucifer which he takes on appearing to the human being. Until our days, the western religious world view lacks the knowledge that Ahriman and Lucifer work in the whole world interrelation.
Publicly one can only indicate the matters because today people still recoil from precisely expressing these matters. However, we remember that even in the yesterday's public lecture I said that the human being is led by meditation, on one side, to a region where he feels lonesome in his innermost nature and helpless, on the other side, to a region where he feels being penetrated in his nature with fear and powerlessness. What threatens us if we strive unilaterally only for freeing ourselves from the material, what threatens us if we strive for the spiritual in the abstract this is that we are seized by the luciferic principle. What threatens us if we only strive down for the material if we live longing for the material where we appear as fossilized—as I have explained it in the public lecture yesterday—this is the ahrimanic principle. And the human being stands between the luciferic and ahrimanic principles.
This must be recognised. But we have also to recognise correctly that it is not sufficient for us to say: we have to remove anything luciferic and ahrimanic from ourselves.—All the emotions of hatred and fear which we summon up against the luciferic and the ahrimanic elements are not good, actually, for our human nature. We have to realise that Ahriman and Lucifer have their justification in the whole universe. That is why it is indicated in the sculptural figure that Christ does not want to overcome Lucifer and Ahriman because He hates them or wants to harass them, but that Lucifer and Ahriman overcome themselves. It is wrong to develop feelings in us, as if we had to reject Ahriman and Lucifer, as if we had to fight against them directly. Even the normal divinity permeating the world did not order in its wise guidance of the universe that Ahriman and Lucifer are not allowed to exist in the guidance of the universe. They are there.
If we ask ourselves where the luciferic principle does exist in the human development even today, then we have to look at the East. In the East, in Asia and in the European Russia, Lucifer prevails in the culture. Although the Russian element has a vocation to develop the spirit-self in future, as I explained in the series of talks on the mission of the folk-souls, the threat exists that the Russian culture is entangled by Lucifer. It is on the way to experiencing that. The luciferic principle consists of the fact that good spirits lag behind. In the Greek-Orthodox Church was a good spirit until the sixth, seventh centuries. But a spirit that is good at a certain time changes into a luciferic spirit if it is detained beyond this time. Adhering to the orthodox religion means “to be in Lucifer's claws.” And that is much more the case with the spiritual forms that develop in the East that were justified in ancient times. Because they preserve themselves, they run into in the luciferic element. Everywhere in the East, we find many people who have to go through something in the luciferic element. Everywhere in the West, we find the souls imbued with the ahrimanic element, in America above all. In America the trend exists to develop a civilisation which is imbued completely with the materialistic ahrimanic element which is infiltrated with purely material views, even where one strives for spiritualism. Even where one strives for spirituality, one wants to seize the spirits, as it were, with the hands like the spiritualists. This tendency becomes stronger and stronger, and the longing for the material becomes bigger and bigger. It will also seize the west of Europe gradually. There the mission is fulfilled to introduce the ahrimanic element into civilisation.
These are the big points of view I had in my eye: that we see how we are roped in between the luciferic principle of the East and the ahrimanic principle of the West in Central Europe, but that we have a vocation to rise toward the forces that are shown by the Christ-principle. This principle makes Lucifer break his wings by overcoming the feeling of powerlessness, and, on the other side, emits forces against Ahriman which push back any fear of knowledge of the spiritual world. Because you cannot hold up the ahrimanic element pulsating through the world, it is there. Also Central Europe is seized by this ahrimanic element. People must only know how they have to position themselves to it, because the course of the ahrimanic element is the course through materialism. This course through materialism must be, and it has a deep wisdom-filled reason why this course through materialism must be.
Imagine that there is a one-sided religious movement—I expressly say “one-sided” religious movement, also in Christianity, and manifests itself in the element of Jesuitism the strongest. Think that it always turns against the real scientific progress. Nevertheless, the Catholic Church did only acknowledge the Copernican world view in the 19th century. The one-sided religion combats the external science, of course, this cannot be different. Two impulses are in this fighting against the external science. One impulse is that the one-sided religion may feel: in science which is done only in view of the external world Ahriman shows himself. This aspect of the quarrel is justified. Ahriman cannot be kept away from the external science if it does not look up to the spiritual world view; this is justified. However, the impulse of the one-sided religion against science is not justified.
This one-sided religious world view itself is inspired, is ensouled, so to speak, by the luciferic element in particular. Since striving for religious deepening and hating the scientific investigation of spiritual worlds is that Lucifer wants from the human beings. Lucifer could not arrive better at his goal, if all human beings were only religious. This religious attitude has a tremendously strong selfish impact. Imagine only how the human beings who do not strive for spiritual knowledge understand their religion. They want egotistically to become blest, live egotistically after death, as they imagine it. They want egotistically to be embodied only once in the world. In the one-sided religion, egoism has reached its peak, egoism of the soul, not only of the body. The best religious aspirations which surround us are in this egoism. The most pious people who touch us by their devoutness—Lucifer is he who controls their religious feelings. Lucifer prefers to get a lot of devout souls who have a sense for the spiritual, for the good they aim at egotistically. Because he does not want criminal souls, he wants to lead just the devout souls into his realm.
So we have, on the one side, the justified scientific element, which stands just at the threshold to the ahrimanic if it does not look up to the spiritual world, on the other side, the luciferic element which would be enslaved by selfish religiousness also in Central Europe unless the spiritual world view brought in a spiritual knowledge. This will be the progress of Christianity. It is exceptionally valuable to our souls if we penetrate ourselves with the knowledge that we stand between that what must be there, to the luciferic and ahrimanic elements from which we cannot escape which lose, however, their power if we recognise them. This is the characteristic of the spiritual world: if we recognise it, it loses the power through which it makes the human beings obsessed. Lucifer and Ahriman are invisible. If we get an idea of them in space and time, they lose their power over us.
You must not believe that if a person has a premonition of a bad spirit because of his clairvoyant capacity but does not behold it, the person does something worse when he represents the bad spirit pictorially or plastically. On the contrary, the following is correct: the spirit loses its power as a result of the sensory view. People will no longer become nervous by spiritually putting a figure, but the spirit as an invisible power loses its significance as an invisible force, and we consciously position ourselves in it. As God Himself uses Lucifer and Ahriman to put the world from East and to West back to the right track, so that the world does not experience an irregular development, but advances like by a pendulum movement, in the same way the world government lets the luciferic of the East, the ahrimanic of the West be effective.
However, it also poses the difficult and big task for us in Central Europe to look at this pendulum movement correctly. This pendulum is, actually, a small boat, as if a small boat were appended to a pendulum clock. In this small boat the souls of Central Europe are sitting who strive rightly for spirituality. These souls really have to dive in it and know that they have to grasp the right balance point. They have to recognise what is behind the threshold of the everyday consciousness; they have to take up it in their consciousness. Our present grievous days are admonitions above all to those who already anticipate a little bit of that which approaches the world in future.
It does not concern that within the war an external victory is won by the one or the other side, but it concerns how people live after this victory. Imagine that the Central European nations were victorious, however, on the field of this victory the purely materialist-ahrimanic world view would spread out and this would be detained by the luciferic element. If the East, on one side, and the West, on the other side, penetrated the Central European spirituality, an external victory would also not be salutary for this Central Europe. Since centuries, the human beings are penetrated rather strongly by the ahrimanic-luciferic element without noticing it. Imagine only that it was necessary to reject the oriental-luciferic element in our Central European theosophical movement. For that which we got as theosophy from the East was infiltrated by Lucifer and led also in its extreme to the recognition of an external human idol, a physically reincarnated Christ. This was the quarrel we had to have about the unjustified interpretation of the theosophical world view.
But we must be clear to us that we have to recognise correctly in Central Europe how we have to imagine what approaches humankind in future. We learn to see just by that which spiritual science can be to us that materialism, the materialistic world view is not allowed to extend about the area prepared for Central Europe. Those have to strive to prevent it who anticipate a little bit of the fact that a spiritual world view really spreads out, floating over Central Europe and radiating from there to the whole earth. It would be imaginable, externally imaginable as a hypothesis that this Central Europe would serve a materialistic civilisation after a victory. Then Ahriman would reap the fruits of this victory. This must be prevented.
Think only of such a tragic figure like Ernst Haeckel. Goethe wrote a theory of evolution. Since 1884, I attempt to make it clear to the people that it is a theory of evolution which is spiritual in the highest sense. But people cannot understand it in the deep way in which it is given there. When Darwin put it up trivially, people understood the teachings which could flow into their hearts and souls. The teachings had got a materialistic colouring. Take such a tragic figure like Ernst Haeckel. He got any thought, any fiber of his scientific life from England. Huxley, Locke, Darwin were his masters. Today Ernst Haeckel is somebody who turns mostly against England, he is one of the most furious fighters—as far as he can be it as an old man. He stood at the head of those who sent back their medals, certificates and honourings to England. However, it does not matter to send back medals and honourings unless the English coloured Darwinism is sent back.
And still some other things are there. The souls are prepared for materialism best of all if they are in a half-sleeping state for the external life, so to speak, if they are still childish souls. One does not notice that one can bring into the souls ideas which prepare them best of all to accept the materialistic view as a matter of course. Ahriman accomplished this, while he let a very effective spirit come into being who planted the tendency of materialism in the childish souls, unnoticed by the British people, without the human beings being aware of it. This is the exceptionally ingenious author of Robinson Crusoe. If anybody plants the ideas of Robinson in the childish souls, they get the propensity for materialism. In the book even religion comes into being of its own accord, as well as cabbages grow up. Nowhere is reflected on anything that should flow in from the spiritual world. See only Robinson moving through the world. There was a time of the literary development in Central Europe when imitations of Robinson existed in many languages. So many translations of Robinson are there. One cannot count them at all. So deep is this there inside. But the Central European culture has to show the way to spirituality again. And really a higher guidance inspired the brothers Grimm to collect fairy tales. If we give these fairy tales to our children instead of the ahrimanic Robinson, we bring them the propensity for spiritualism.
One is painfully affected if one—all that is symptomatic—experiences the following: a very significant philosopher of Austria, Ernst Mach, wrote a book, Analysis of Sensations, which was of great importance for many who want to think philosophically today. On the third page, he speaks of self-knowledge. We know that self-knowledge is exceptionally important, as I have often explained. Ernst Mach gives a proof of the fact that self-knowledge is rather difficult even for the external world. He tells: I passed a shop window where I saw my own picture, my own figure meeting myself. I thought: what an unpleasant, disgusting person meets me there. I myself was it.—Thus he said. He himself was it who has known himself so little that he said to his mirror image: what an unpleasant, disgusting person. And to make that clear completely, he adds: when he was already a professor, he had once returned from a trip at night and had got in a bus. When he got in, he saw in the mirror a man getting in and said to himself again: what a down-and-out schoolmaster is getting in there? So he adds: I knew the appearance of my type better than my individual appearance.
If it is already so difficult for a person who does not often see himself in a mirror—this speaks for Ernst Mach that this has taken place—to recognise the external figure, then one will get an inkling how difficult it is to get self-knowledge in the soul. It is just this, however, what is necessary: attaining self-knowledge in the soul. I would like to say, it affects somebody almost tragically if one reads up in the same book even farther, and Ernst Mach speaks of the education of his son and says from really serious soul: thanks to God—no, he does not say that, but something that is commensurate with it—never did my children read any fairy tales. So they were not introduced in a spiritual world by fantastic ideas resulting from reading fairy tales.—There we see that nesting in the souls of the present which wants to lead the Central European culture to Ahriman. One has to say: that does not concern to be victorious, but that the right attitude of mind is victorious on the basis of the victory.
We are also heavily burdened in Central Europe, even in the case of a victory. Because we are connected with something that is infiltrated very luciferically. It was once a benefit for Europe that from South Europe the Arabian, Moorish culture spread out. For the past, it was justified, but today it has become ahrimanic. We are heavily burdened with the alliance with the Ottoman Empire.1the Ottoman Empire entered the First World War on the side of the Central European powers in 1914. We have to find the correct standpoint and not believe that we can arrange our sensations according to external political viewpoints.
The life of the external world is not suited to prevent Ahriman. The external banal literature leads directly to the ahrimanic principle and pours scorn on the attempts to clearly see the powers working into our world. That is why that must appear as a big warning, which appears to us under the sign of blood and grief; to make the present souls inclined to get the gifts of the spiritual life. Our souls have to tend to that which was prepared in the Central European culture especially expressing that we are put pendulum-like between two powers permeating the world and that we must find the balance. We have to realise that, on the one side, the world strives for ahrimanic hardening, strives to get solidified in the fire of the purely material; that it strives, on the other side, to ascend egotistically to an abstract spirituality.
Following the one or other side would ruin the Central European human being. Following only the science engaged in the external senses would persuade us to tear the roses from the cross and only to look at that which solidifies. We would gain a world view gradually which would completely deflect the human being from looking at the spiritual. It would allow to only looking at that which has solidified ahrimanically. Try to imagine the ideals of the ahrimanic science: it is a world of whirling atoms, a purely material world creation. One wishes to throw everything spiritual out of this world-picture. One wants to imagine, and one teaches it already the children at school, that once whirling gaseous masses were in the universe from which the sun formed which then again pushed off the planets. One makes it clear to the children at school, while one does an oil drop in water, pushes a small round paper sheet at its equator through it, pierces it with a pin in the middle and turns the pin then. Small drops are split off that way; a small planetary system comes into being. Of course, it is proved what one shows in such a way, but one forgets the most important fact that the teacher must turn the pin. In truth, however, you have to conceive a big Mr. Teacher turning the whole matter in space, if you want to imagine it honestly. But the thoughts, the sensations and feelings, which tend to Ahriman, are those which imagine the creation of the sun and the planets in the just described way. That also influenced the historical view. Herman Grimm2Herman Grimm (1828–1901), in his Lectures on Goethe says once: a bone of carrion around which a hungry dog is circling is a more appetising sight than this world view which is based only on this Copernican world view.
This is a threat to tear the roses from the cross and to have only the black, charred cross. The other threat is to tear the cross from the roses and want to strive only for the spirit, despise what the divinity has put in the world development, not to want to dive affectionately into the thought that the phenomena of the sensory world express the godhead. This is the unilaterally religious world view which despises the science which only wants the roses and which tends unconsciously to the luciferic element of the East. In the same way, science, which wants to tear the roses from the cross and to keep only the charred cross, tends to the West. We, however, in Central Europe, we have a vocation to have the roses on the cross to have this what is expressed only by the connection of the roses with the cross, the roses on the cross. Looking at the stiff cross we feel that that which has come as a stiff material to the world entered the world from the godhead. It is, as if spirituality created a circle in the material for itself: ex deo nascimur.
We also feel that if we understand it correctly we may enter the spiritual world not only with Lucifer, but that we die, while we are united with that which descended from the divine higher Self to the world: in Christo morimur.
And uniting the cross with the roses, the material world view with the spiritual world view, we feel that the human soul can awake in spirit: per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.
Therefore, the cross wound around by roses was the symbol of Goethe who positioned himself in the spirituality of the Central European culture. It must be our symbol. That is why we will remind—as far as we can be present in future, gathering in this room—of that which must be our ideal out of the big tasks of the earth development: winding roses around the cross, neither tearing the roses from the cross and holding only the cross in our hands, nor only estimating the roses and ascending by means of the roses to the spiritually blossoming, sprouting life in the abstract. It is expressed to us in our symbol, in the rose cross, what we want to take up more and more in our souls, in our feelings when we come together in a room dedicated to our attempts. Then we can be sure that the spirits who lead the earth development in good sense exist invisible among us; that our words, that all our thoughts and feelings, while we dedicate ourselves to the spiritual-scientific attempts that all this is really supported in such a room by the spiritual powers guiding our attempts. We can feel, cultivating our spiritual-scientific views, as if we are constantly inspired by the spirits who exist invisible in such a room. I would like to call on these spiritual powers that they are always present with the souls if they strive in serious truth, honestly and affectionately in this room. If that comes true, we can be sure that this spiritual-scientific world view finds the way to the gods as it was always found.
Today we come together in such rooms. They are separated from the efforts of the external world. The external world considers the events in our rooms as something sectarian, something superstitious. And thus we are gathered as it were underground compared with the intellectual culture of the present. This intellectual culture, which is deeply infiltrated by Lucifer in the East, by Ahriman in the West, is above ground. There we remember repeatedly in order to strengthen our hearts, to invigorate our souls that in another epoch the western world view ascended from underground to the surface. There was the world view of the Roman Empire, the world view which had taken up the distinguished philosophy and the artistic world view of the Greeks. There were basically brilliant minds among those who lived within this ancient Rome and its surroundings with this old world view. They were deeply despised who cultivated a quite new teaching underground in the catacombs. However, those who cultivated the new teaching, separated from the world view above ground justified at that time, knew that they had only to hold on the contents of their striving and to retain what had entered in the world as a result of the Christ Impulse.
They strove in the catacombs and knew: those lived above ground who were out to kill them who pursued them who did not understand them.—After we have got these conditions of the ancient Roman Empire clear in our mind, we look at the human development a few centuries later. What was above has disappeared. What lived underground in the catacombs has ascended; it passes triumphantly through the West. It already lived in the souls of those who were striving for that which should then conquer the world although they were repelled, despised and mocked living underground in the catacombs. We must feel that way, my dear friends, as if we were still spiritually outcast and mocked and pursued by those who cultivate the so-called justified world view today. But in such a way as it happened in the first epoch of the western Christian development, it will go on. What one would best destroy—not like once, while one covered human beings with pitch and burnt them, but while one mocks them—it will gain acceptance. What jeers and mocks there, what wants to conquer the earth only with an ahrimanic and luciferic world view this will have disappeared, like the ancient Roman culture, the ancient world view disappeared in a certain way. However, what is cultivated in our catacombs—they are spiritual catacombs, the world has progressed, nevertheless—what is felt in these catacombs, what is imagined, what is reflected, what penetrates our souls: it will ascend and arrive triumphally at the culture of the next epoch. We may keep in mind that at every moment when we pass the gate to such a room. And staying in it, we keep in mind that we are still like in a submarine which will take the direction upwards—and absolutely will take it if we become engrossed strongly in this with which we have learnt to connect our souls. With this vow that we want to penetrate ourselves strongly with the spiritual Christ Impulse which is developing a further level, with this attitude, with this vow we really will enter this room. We enter in the sense of these feelings that everything is dedicated to the spiritual powers, to the spiritual individualities who permeate our movement, as we can know, who spread out their blessing and protecting hands about us. We want to keep in mind that when we come together here in future.
Die Bedeutung Des Hineingestelltseins Mitteleuropas Zwischen Ost Und West Ahrimanische Inspiration Und Spirituelle Impulse Das Symbol Des Rosenkreuzes
Wenn wir uns versammeln bei einer solchen Gelegenheit, durch die unseren Bestrebungen ein eigener Raum gewidmet ist, dem wir ein geistiges Gepräge geben können, das unserem geisteswissenschaftlichen Empfinden und Fühlen entspricht, dann ist es gut, wenn wir des großen Gesichtspunktes gedenken, den wir als Bekenner der Geisteswissenschaft gegenüber der Welt und ihren Erscheinungen, ihren Aufgaben, ihren großen Rätseln einzunehmen gedenken. Und wie sollte nicht auch sonst unsere Zeit, unsere so prüfungsreiche, so schmerzdurchwühlte Zeit, unsere Seelen dazu drängen, einen Gesichtspunkt zu gewinnen, der weiter geht! Insbesondere in unserer Zeit muß die Sehnsucht vorhanden sein nach einem Gesichtspunkt, der weiter geht als das, was durch das äußere Leben und äußeres Menschenstreben angesehen werden kann.
So recht aus den Aufgaben und aus den Bestrebungen unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung werden wir an wichtigem Orte in unserem neuen Dornacher Bau eine plastische Gruppe aufstellen. Diese plastische Gruppe soll darstellen dasjenige, was im intimsten und auch im tiefsten Sinne aus unserer Bewegung heraus unsere Seelen fühlen sollen. Diese Gruppe wird eine Mittelfigur enthalten. Man kann diese Mittelfigur bezeichnen als den Christus, man kann sie auch bezeichnen als das, was im Menschen als das Göttliche, das im Menschen lebende Göttliche, in der rechten Weise sich in die Welt hineinzustellen versucht. Man kann diese Mittelfigur bezeichnen als «den Menschen», den kosmischen Menschen, ausgedrückt in einer irdischen Persönlichkeit, wie ja der Christus in der irdischen Persönlichkeit ausgedrückt war im zeitlich-geschichtlichen Leben durch den Jesus von Nazareth.
Aber es werden zwei andere Figuren zu seiten dieser Mittelfigur sein, die eine wie oben auf einem Felsen, geflügelt, aber herabstürzend vom Felsen. Und durch die eigentümliche, nicht von Haß oder von Kraft durchsetzte, sondern von innerer Festigkeit durchdrungene Handhaltung der Mittelfigur wird eine Kraft bewirkt, durch welche die Figur am Felsen oben, die geflügelte Figur, sich die Flügel bricht und dadurch in die Tiefe hinunterstürzt. Dieses Brechen der Flügel das muß eben in dieser plastischen Gestaltung gut ausgedrückt werden - wird nicht dadurch bewirkt, daß der Mensch, der in der Mitte steht, der Christus-Mensch, etwa die Flügel bricht, sondern dadurch, daß er in seiner Spiritualität die Hand ausstreckt, erträgt der andere, das geflügelte Wesen, dies nicht, und durch das, was in ihm vorgeht, weil er unerträglich für seine Wesenheit dasjenige findet, was unten lebt, bricht er selbst durch innere Kraft sich die Flügel und stürzt herab. Es ist also festzuhalten, daß sich dieses Wesen selbst herunterstürzt, daß es nicht etwa heruntergestürzt wird durch irgendeine Gegnerschaft.
Und unten im Felsen drinnen sehen wir eine andere Gestalt gefesselt liegen, in Ketten liegen. Diese bestrebt sich, von unten herauf das Erdreich aufzuwühlen. Aber sie kommt nicht auf in diesem Bestreben gegen das, was ausströmt von der nach unten gerichteten Hand der Mittelfigur. Sie windet sich und krümmt sich durch das, wiederum in ihrer eigenen Wesenheit gelegene Zurückgeworfen- und Zurückgestoßenwerden durch die Kraft der Mittelfigur.
Sie ahnen, daß in dieser Gruppe ausgedrückt ist dasjenige, was wir nennen das Christus-Prinzip unseres Kosmos, in der Mittelfigur, das luziferische Prinzip in dem vom Felsen herabstürzenden Engel, und das ahrimanische Prinzip in der Gestalt, die unten in der Höhle von unten nach oben strebt. Es ist von mir versucht worden, diese drei Gestalten — wir dürfen ja in so intimem Kreise so etwas aussprechen — möglichst porträtähnlich zu gestalten, so daß man wirklich einen Eindruck bekommen wird von der Form, die Ahriman annimmt, wenn er in einem solchen Zusammenhang dem Menschen erscheint, und auch von der Physiognomie des Luzifer, die er annimmt, wenn er dem Menschen erscheint. Was der abendländischen, religiösen Weltanschauung fehlt bis in unsere Tage hinein, was in sie erst durch unsere geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung hineingebracht werden kann, das ist die Erkenntnis, daß in dem ganzen Weltenzusammenhang Ahriman und Luzifer drinnen walten. Öffentlich kann man die Dinge ja nur andeuten, weil heute die Menschen noch zurückschrecken vor einem genauen Aussprechen dieser Dinge. Aber erinnern wir uns, daß selbst im gestrigen öffentlichen Vortrag gesagt worden ist, daß der Mensch durch Meditation auf der einen Seite hinaufgeführt wird in eine Region, wo er sich im innersten Wesen einsam und ohnmächtig fühlt, auf der andern Seite in ein Gebiet, wo er sich in seinem Wesen durchsetzt fühlt von Furcht und Ohnmacht. Dasjenige, was uns droht, wenn wir einseitig nur nach dem Freiwerden von dem Materiellen streben, was uns droht, wenn wir abstrakt nach dem Geistigen streben, das ist das Ergriffenwerden vom luziferischen Prinzip. Was uns droht, wenn wir nur hinunterstreben nach dem Materiellen, wenn wir leben in dem Verlangen nach dem Materiellen, wo wir wie versteinert erscheinen — wie ich es gestern im öffentlichen Vortrag ausgeführt habe -, das ist das ahrimanische Prinzip. Und der Mensch steht darinnen zwischen luziferischem und ahrimanischem Prinzip. Das muß erkannt werden. Aber in der richtigen Weise muß auch erkannt werden, daß wir nicht etwa damit auskommen, daß wir nur sagen: Wir müssen Luziferisches und Ahrimanisches von uns abstreifen. — Alle Gefühle, die wir gegen das Luziferische und das Ahrimanische an Haß oder an Furcht aufbringen, sind eigentlich unserer menschlichen Natur nicht zuträglich. Wir müssen erkennen, daß Ahriman und Luzifer ihre Berechtigung haben im ganzen Kosmos. Deshalb ist in der plastischen Figur angedeutet, daß nicht der Christus durch inneren Haß oder von sich ausgehendem Drang den Luzifer und Ahriman überwinden will, sondern daß Luzifer selbst, daß Ahriman selbst sich überwinden. Es ist ganz falsch, wenn wir Gefühle in uns entwickeln, als ob Ahriman und Luzifer von uns abgestoßen werden müßten, als ob wir sie direkt bekämpfen müßten. Das hat selbst die durch die Welt ziehende normale Gottheit nicht angeordnet in ihrer weisen Weltenlenkung, daß Ahrimanisches und Luziferisches nicht da sei in der Weltenlenkung. Es ist da.
Wenn wir uns fragen, wo ist im Werden der Menschen heute noch das luziferische Prinzip da, dann müssen wir hinübersehen nach dem Osten. Im Osten, in Asien und im europäischen Rußland, waltet Luzifer durch die Kultur hindurch. Und obwohl, wie ich in dem Zyklus über die Mission der Volksseelen ausgeführt habe, das russische Element dazu berufen ist, in der weiteren Entwickelung das Geistselbst herauszubilden, so ist doch bei der russischen Kultur die Gefahr vorhanden, von Luzifer umstrickt zu werden. Sie ist auf dem Wege dazu. Das luziferische Prinzip besteht darinnen, daß gute Geister zurückbleiben. In der griechisch-orthodoxen Kirche war bis in das 6., 7. Jahrhundert ein guter Geist, aber das, was zu einer Zeit ein guter Geist ist, verwandelt sich in einen luziferischen Geist, wenn es über diese Zeit fortbehalten wird. Das Festhalten an der orthodoxen Religion ist ein «in den Klauen des Luzifer sein». Und viel intensiver noch ist das der Fall bei den geistigen Formen, welche sich im Orient entwickeln, die für Urzeiten ihre Berechtigung hatten. Dadurch, daß sie sich konservieren, laufen sie ein in das luziferische Element. Überall drüben im Osten finden wir bei sehr vielen Menschen, welche dort inkarniert sind, daß sie etwas durchzumachen haben in der Welt des Luziferischen. Und im Westen finden wir nach der weisen Weltenlenkung überall die Seelen eingetaucht in das ahrimanische Element. Am stärksten finden wir das in Amerika. In Amerika besteht die Tendenz, eine Kultur zu entwickeln, die ganz untertaucht in das materialistische, das ahrimanische Element, die ganz durchsetzt wird - selbst da, wo nach Spiritualismus gestrebt wird — von rein materiellen Anschauungen. Selbst da, wo man nach Geistigem strebt, will man dort die Geister handgreiflich nach spiritistischer Art vor sich haben. Das wird immer stärker werden, und die Sehnsucht nach dem Handgreiflichen wird immer größer werden. Sie wird auch den Westen Europas nach und nach ergreifen. Da wird die Mission erfüllt werden, das ahrimanische Element einzuführen in die Kultur.
Das meine ich mit den großen Gesichtspunkten: daß wir einsehen, wie wir in Mitteleuropa eingespannt sind zwischen dem luziferischen Prinzip des Ostens und dem ahrimanischen Prinzip des Westens, wie wir aber dazu berufen sind, uns aufzuschwingen zu den Kräften, welche dargestellt werden durch dasChristus-Prinzip, das auf der einen Seite den Luzifer zum Brechen der Flügel bringt, durch die Überwindung des Ohnmachtsgefühls, und nach der andern Seite gegen Ahriman zu die ausstrahlenden Kräfte entwickelt, die zurückdrängen alle Furcht, die besteht vor dem Wissen von der geistigen Welt. Denn in Wahrheit ist das ahrimanische Element, welches durch die Welt pulsiert, nicht zurückzuhalten, es ist da. Auch das Mitteleuropäische wird von diesem ahrimanischen Element ergriffen. Nur muß man wissen, wie man sich zu ihm zu stellen hat, denn der Gang des ahrimanischen Elementes ist der Gang durch den Materialismus. Und dieser Gang durch den Materialismus muß sein, und es hat einen tiefen, einen weisheitsvollen Zusammenhang, warum dieser Gang durch den Materialismus sein muß.
Denken Sie sich, daß doch dasjenige, was einseitige religiöse Bewegung ist - ich sage ausdrücklich «einseitige» religiöse Bewegung -, auch im Christentum da ist, und am stärksten ausgeprägt ist im Element des Jesuitismus. Bedenken Sie, daß das sich immer wendet gegen den wirklichen wissenschaftlichen Fortschritt. Die katholische Kirche hat doch erst im 19. Jahrhundert die Kopernikanische Weltanschauung offiziell anerkannt. Was äußere Wissenschaft ist, wird von der einseitigen Religion selbstverständlich bekämpft, das kann nicht anders sein. In diesem Bekämpfen von seiten der Religion gegenüber der äußeren Wissenschaft liegen zwei Impulse. Der eine Impuls ist der, daß die einseitige Religion wohl fühlt: In der Wissenschaft, die bloß mit Rücksicht auf die äußere Welt getrieben wird, bekundet sich Ahriman. Das ist das Berechtigte im Kampfe der Kirche, Nicht hinwegzuhalten ist Ahriman von der äußeren Wissenschaft, wenn sie nicht aufblickt zur spirituellen Weltanschauung; das ist das Berechtigte. Auf der andern Seite aber steht ein unberechtigter Impuls in dem Wenden der einseitigen Religion gegen die Wissenschaft. Diese einseitige religiöse Weltanschauung ist nämlich selbst beseelt, durchseelt möchte man sagen, besonders vom luziferischen Element. Denn nach religiöser Vertiefung streben und das wissenschaftliche Eindringen in geistige Welten hassen, das ist dasjenige, was Luzifer von dem Menschen will. Luzifer könnte nicht besser sein Ziel etreichen, als wenn alle Menschen bloß religiös wären. Dieses Religiöse hat einen ungeheuer starken egoistischen Einschlag. Denken Sie nur, wie die Menschen, die nicht nach dem geistigen Wissen streben, ihre Religion auffassen. Aus Egoismus heraus wollen sie selig werden, aus Egoismus ein Leben, wie sie es sich ausmalen, nach dem Tode führen! Aus Egoismus wollen sie nur einmal verkörpert sein in der Welt! In der einseitigen Religion ist der Egoismus auf die höchste Spitze getrieben: ein Egoismus der Seele, nicht bloß des Leibes. Die besten religiösen Aspirationen, die uns umgeben, stecken im Egoismus. Und wirklich, die frömmsten Leute, die uns durch ihre Frömmigkeit rühren — Luzifer ist es, der ihre religiösen Gefühle beherrscht. Luzifer ist es viel lieber, wenn er fromme Seelen bekommt, die einen Sinn haben für das Geistige, das Gute, das sie aus Egoismus anstreben. Denn er will nicht lauter Verbrecherseelen, er will gerade die frommen Seelen einführen in sein Element.
So steht also auf der einen Seite das berechtigte, wissenschaftliche Element, welches sich eben auf der Schwelle nach dem Ahrimanischen hin bewegen würde, wenn es nicht zur geistigen Welt aufblickt, auf der andern Seite das luziferische Element, welches in egoistische Religiosität verfallen würde auch in Mitteleuropa, wenn nicht die spirituelle Weltanschauung ein geistiges Wissen hineinbringen würde. Das wird der Fortschritt im Christentum sein. So wird es uns gerade zum unendlich bedeutungsvollen Schatz unseres Gemütes, wenn wir uns mit der Erkenntnis durchdringen, daß wir wissend stehen zwischen dem, was da sein muß, dem Luziferischen und Ahrimanischen, dem man nicht entfliehen kann, das aber seine Macht verliert, wenn man es erkennt. Das ist die Eigentümlichkeit der geistigen Welt: Wenn man es erkennt, verliert es die Macht, durch die es die Menschen besessen macht. Luzifer und Ahriman sind unsichtbar. Bekommen wir eine Vorstellung von ihnen in Raum und Zeit, so verlieren sie ihre Macht über uns.
Sie dürfen nicht glauben, daß dann, wenn ein böser Geist von einem Menschen geahnt wird durch hellsichtige Kraft, aber nicht geschaut wird, der Mensch etwas Schlimmes macht, wenn dieser Geist abgebildet oder plastisch dargestellt wird. Das ist richtig: Durch.die sinnliche Anschauung verliert der Geist seine Macht. Die Menschen werden nicht mehr nervös werden durch das geistige Hinstellen einer Figur, sondern es verliert dadurch der Geist als unsichtbare Macht seine Bedeutung, und wir stellen uns bewußt in sie hinein. Wie die Gottheit selbst Luzifer und Ahriman gebraucht, um von Ost und West die Welt in das richtige Geleise zu bringen, damit die Welt nicht eine unregelmäßige Entwickelung durchmacht, sondern wie durch Pendelbewegung fortschreitet, so läßt die Weltregierung das Luziferische vom Osten, das Ahrimanische vom Westen wirken. Sie setzt aber auch uns in Mitteleuropa die schwere, große Aufgabe, diese Pendelbewegung in der richtigen Weise zu betrachten. Dieses Pendel ist eigentlich ein Kahn, wie wenn an eine Pendeluhr ein Kahn angehängt wäre. Und in diesem Kahn sitzen die in Mitteleuropa in richtiger Weise hinstrebenden Seelen. Sie müssen wirklich hineintauchen und müssen wissen, diese Seelen, daß sie den richtigen Gleichgewichtspunkt erfassen müssen. Sie müssen das, was hinter der Schwelle des gewöhnlichen Bewußtseins liegt, erkennen, müssen es in ihr Bewußtsein aufnehmen. Und diese unsere jetzigen schweren Tage sind eine Mahnung vor allen Dingen an diejenigen, die schon etwas ahnen von dem, was der Welt in Zukunft bevorsteht. Nicht daß innerhalb des Krieges auf der einen oder andern Seite ein äußerer Sieg erfochten wird, nicht darauf allein kommt es an, sondern darauf kommt es an, wie gelebt werden wird nach diesem Siege. Denken Sie, wenn es dahin kommen würde, daß die mitteleuropäischen Völker siegen, daß aber auf dem Felde dieses Sieges die rein materialistisch-ahrimanische Weltanschauung sich ausbreiten würde und diese festgehalten würde durch das luziferische Element — dann, wenn der Osten auf der einen Seite und der Westen auf der andern Seite in die mitteleuropäische Geistigkeit einbrechen würde, dann wäre auch ein äußerer Sieg nicht von Heil für dieses Mitteleuropa. Und es bricht seit Jahrhunderten, ohne daß die Menschen es merken, das ahrimanisch-luziferische Element ganz stark herein. Denken Sie nur einmal, wie es notwendig war, das orientalisch-luziferische Element abzulehnen in unserer mitteleuropäischen theosophischen Bewegung. Denn dasjenige, was wir von Osten bekamen als Theosophie, es war von Luzifer durchsetzt und führte ja auch in seinem Extrem zur Anerkennung eines äußeren Menschengötzen, eines physisch wiederverkörperten Christus. Das war der Kampf, den wir führen mußten gegen die unberechtigte Auslegung der theosophischen Weltauffassung.
Aber auch darüber müssen wir uns klar sein, daß wir in Mitteleuropa in der richtigen Weise erkennen müssen, wie wir uns hineinzuversetzen haben in das, was der Menschheit in der Zukunft bevorsteht. Wir werden gerade durch das, was uns die Geisteswissenschaft sein kann, gerade durch das einsehen lernen, daß der Materialismus, die materialistische Weltanschauung sich nicht ausdehnen darf über das Gebiet, das für Mitteleuropa vorbereitet wird. Diejenigen werden streben müssen, dies zu verhindern, die etwas davon ahnen, daß eine geistige Weltanschauung, über Mitteleuropa hinströmend und von da aus ausstrahlend über die ganze Erde, sich wirklich verbreitet. Und denkbar wäre es ja, äußerlich denkbar als Hypothese, daß dieses Mitteleuropa nach einem Siege einer materialistischen Kultur dienen würde. Dann würde die Früchte dieses Sieges Ahriman einheimsen. Und dies muß verhindert werden.
Denken Sie nur an eine solch tragische Figur wie Ernst Haeckel! Goethe hat eine Entwicklungslehre geschrieben. Seit 1884 bemühe ich mich, den Menschen verständlich zu machen, daß es eine Entwicklungslehre ist, die im höchsten Sinne geistgemäß ist. Aber die Menschen können sie bei Goethe nicht in der tiefen Weise verstehen, in der sie dort gegeben ist. Als sie dann in trivialer Weise durch Darwin gebracht wurde, da verstanden sie die Menschen, da konnten die Lehren einfließen in die Herzen und Seelen der Menschen: da hatte die Lehre eine materialistische Färbung bekommen! Und nehmen Sie eine solch tragische Figur wie Ernst Haeckel: jeden Gedanken, jede Faser seines wissenschaftlichen Lebens hat er von England herüberbezogen. Huxley, Locke, Darwin waren seine Lehrmeister. Und heute ist Ernst Haeckel einer derjenigen, die sich am meisten gegen England wenden, er ist einer der wütigsten Kämpfer — soweit er es als alter Mann sein kann; er stand an der Spitze derjenigen, die nach England alle Orden und Diplome und Auszeichnungen zurückschickten. Das hat aber keinen Belang, Orden und Auszeichnungen zurückzuschicken, wenn nicht der englisch gefärbte Darwinismus zurückgeschickt wird. Und noch manches andere ist da. Am besten werden die Seelen vorbereitet für den Materialismus, wenn sie noch für das äußere Leben, ich möchte sagen, halb schlafen, wenn es noch kindliche Seelen sind. Man merkt es nicht, daß man da am besten in die Seelen hineinsenken kann Vorstellungen, die sie später geistig präparieren, das Materialistische als selbstverständlich anzunehmen. Das hat Ahriman vollzogen, indem er dem britischen Volke einen sehr wirksamen Geist hat erstehen lassen, durch den unvermerkt, ohne daß die Menschen es irgendwie ahnen, in die kindlichen Seelen hineinverpflanzt wird der Drang zum Materialismus. Das ist der außerordentlich geniale Verfasser des «Robinson Crusoe». Wenn man die Vorstellungen, von denen der Robinson durchdrungen ist, in die kindlichen Seelen hineinsenkt, dann bekommen sie die Neigung zum Materialismus. In dem Buche entsteht selbst die Religion von selber, so wie Kohlköpfe wachsen. Nichts ist da, was reflektiert auf etwas, das von der spirituellen Welt einfließen soll. Und sehen Sie nur, wie der Robinson durch die Welt zieht! Es gab eine Zeit der literarischen Entwickelung in Mitteleuropa, wo es in allen Sprachen Nachahmungen des Robinson gab. Und die vielen Übersetzungen des Robinson! Man kann sie gar nicht zählen, die in allen Nationen hereingebrachten Robinsons! So tief liegt das drinnen. Aber es muß durch das wirklich nach dem Spirituellen gerichtete Große, Bedeutsame der mitteleuropäischen Kultur der geistige Weg wiederum gewiesen werden. Und wirklich durch höhere Führung waren die Gebrüder Griz da und haben die deutschen Märchen wiederum gesammelt. Und wenn wir unserer Jugend statt des ahrimanischen Robinson die deutschen Märchen bringen, dann bringen wir ihnen die Neigung zum Spiritualismus.
Es erscheint einem tief wehmütig, wenn man - das alles ist symptomatisch — folgendes erlebt: Ein sehr bedeutender Philosoph Österreichs, Professor Dr. Ernst Mach, hat ein Buch geschrieben, das tief einschneidend war für viele, die heute philosophisch denken wollen, «Analyse der Empfindungen». Auf der dritten Seite finden Sie folgendes. Von der Selbsterkenntnis spricht er. Wir wissen, daß die Selbsterkenntnis so außerordentlich wichtig ist, ich habe es des öfteren auseinandergesetzt. Ernst Mach gibt nun einen Beweis dafür, daß die Selbsterkenntnis selbst für die äußere Welt recht schwierig ist. Er erzählt: Ich kam an einer Spiegelauslage vorbei, wo ich mein eigenes Bild, meine eigene Gestalt mir entgegenkommen sah. Ich dachte: welch ein unsympathischer, widerwärtiger Mensch kommt mir da entgegen! Ich war es selbst. - So sagte er. Er war es also selbst, der sich so wenig gekannt hat, daß er zu seinem Spiegelbild sagte: was für ein unsympathischer, widerwärtiger Mensch! Und um das vollends noch recht klarzumachen, fügt er hinzu: Als er schon Professor war, war er einmal in der Nacht von einer Reise gekommen und in einen Omnibus gestiegen. Als er hineinstieg, sah er im Spiegel einen Mann einsteigen, und er sagte sich wiederum: was für ein herabgekommener Schulmeister steigt denn da ein? Und er fügt hinzu: So habe ich also meinen Gattungshabitus besser gekannt als meinen Spezialhabitus. Nun, wenn es schon so schwierig ist für einen Menschen, der sich nicht oft im Spiegel schaut — das spricht für Ernst Mach, daß das stattgefunden hat -, die äußere Gestalt zu erkennen, dann wird man eine Ahnung bekommen, wie schwierig es ist, Selbsterkenntnis in der Seele zu erwerben. Das ist es aber gerade, was notwendig ist: Selbsterkenntnis in der Seele zu erwerben. Und nun möchte ich sagen, es berührt fast tragisch, wenn man in demselben Buche noch weiter nachliest und Ernst Mach von der Erziehung seines Sohnes spricht und aus wirklich ernster Seele heraus sagt: Gott sei Dank — nein, das sagt er nicht, aber etwas, was dem entspricht -, niemals haben meine Kinder irgendwelche Märchen gelesen. — Sie sind also nicht infolge des Märchenlesens irgendwie durch phantastische Vorstellungen in eine geistige Welt hineingeführt worden. -— Da sehen wir, wie sich hineinnistet in die Seelen der Gegenwart dasjenige, was die mitteleuropäische Kultur dem Ahriman zuführen will. Und so muß man sagen: nicht daß gesiegt wird, sondern daß auf Grundlage des Sieges das Rechte siege, das ist es, worauf es ankommt.
Wir haben auch in Mitteleuropa ein Schwergewicht hängen, selbst an einem Siege. Denn wir sind auch mit etwas, was stark luziferisch durchsetzt ist, sogar verbunden. Es war einmal der Segen Europas, daß über Südeuropa herüber die arabische, maurische Kultur sich ausbreitete. Für die damalige Zeit war vollberechtigt dasjenige, was aber heute ahrimanisch geworden ist. Wir sind mit dem Schwergewicht des Bündnisses mit den Osmanen belastet. Wir müssen da den richtigen Standpunkt finden und nicht etwa glauben, daß wir nach äußeren politischen Gesichtspunkten unsere Empfindungen einrichten können. Dasjenige, was in der äußeren Welt lebt, ist wahrhaftig nicht geeignet, das Ahrimanische abzuhalten. Die äußere Journalliteratur steuert direkt nach dem ahrimanischen Prinzip hin und übergießt mit Spott und Hohn dasjenige, was klar sehen will über die Mächte, die in unsere Welt hineinspielen. Und deshalb muß das, was uns in unserer Zeit erscheint unter dem Zeichen von Blut und Leid, uns als die große Mahnung erscheinen, die Seelen auf den Empfang desjenigen zu stimmen, was der Gegenwart aus dem geistigen Leben zufließen will. Und hinneigen müssen sich unsere Seelen zu demjenigen, was vorbereitet worden ist in der mitteleuropäischen Kultur besonders in der Art, daß es wirklich zum Ausdruck bringt, wie wir hineingestellt sind zwischen zwei pendelartig die Welt durchziehende Kraftelemente, wie wir aber das Gleichgewicht finden müssen. Klar muß uns sein, daß auf der einen Seite die Welt strebt nach ahrimanischer Verhärtung, danach strebt, im Feuer des rein Materiellen zu erstarren; daß sie nach der andern Seite strebt, in egoistischer Weise zu einem abstrakt Geistigen aufzusteigen. Nach der einen oder andern Seite hin zu folgen, würde dem mitteleuropäischen Menschen von Verderben sein. Bloß der an die äußeren Sinne gebundenen Wissenschaft folgen, würde uns dazu bringen, daß wir die Rosen vom Kreuze reißen und bloß hinschauen nach dem, was erstarrt. Wir würden allmählich eine Weltanschauung gewinnen, die den Menschen ganz abbringen würde von allem Hinblicken nach dem Geistigen; die ihn nur hinschauen lassen würde nach dem, was ahrimanisch erstarrt ist. Versuchen Sie, sich die Ideale der ahrimanischen Wissenschaft vorzustellen: Es ist eine Welt durcheinanderwirbelnder Atome, ein rein materielles Weltengebilde. Herauswerfen aus diesem Weltbild möchte man alles, was geistig ist. Vorstellen möchte man sich, und man lehrt es schon die Kinder in der Schule, daß einmal ein Umeinanderwirbeln der gasförmigen Weltenmassen da war, daß sich daraus die Sonne gebildet hat, die dann wiederum die Planeten abgestoßen hat. Man macht es den Kindern in der Schule klar, indem man einen Öltropfen in Wasser tut, hindurchschiebt an der Stelle des Äquators ein kleines rundes Papierblatt, es mit einer Stecknadel in der Mitte durchsticht und nun an der Nadel dreht. Dadurch spalten sich kleine Tropfen ab, ein kleines Planetensystem entsteht. Selbstverständlich ist es bewiesen, was man so zeigt, aber man vergißt das Wichtigste: daß der Lehrer drehen muß. So hat man sich, wenn man sich ehrlich in das hineinversetzen will, in Wahrheit einen großen Herrn Lehrer vorzustellen, der im Weltenraum die ganze Sache dreht. Aber die Gedanken, die Empfindungen und Gefühle, welche nach Ahriman hinstreben, sind solche, die sich das Entstehen der Sonne und der Planeten auf die eben beschriebene Weise vorstellen. Und in dem lag wieder das, was zur Geschichtsauffassung geführt hat. Herman Grimm sagt einmal: Ein Stück Aasknochen, um das ein hungriger Hund seine Kreise zieht, ist ein appetitlicherer Anblick als diese Weltanschauung, die bloß einzig auf dieser Kopernikanischen Weltanschauung fußt.
Das ist eine Gefahr, die Rosen vom Kreuze zu reißen und bloß das schwarze, verkohlte Kreuz zu haben. Die andere Gefahr ist die, das Kreuz von den Rosen zu reißen und bloß nach dem Geiste streben wollen, verachten das, was die Gottheit selbst in die Weltenentwickelung hineingestellt hat, nicht liebevoll untertauchen wollen in den Gedanken, daß das, was hier in der Sinnenwelt ist, ein Ausdruck des Göttlichen ist. Das ist die einseitig religiöse Weltanschauung, welche die Wissenschaft verachtet, die bloß die Rosen will und die unbewußt nach dem luziferischen Element des Ostens hinstrebt — wie die Wissenschaft, die die Rosen vom Kreuze reißen will und bloß das verkohlte Kreuz behalten will, nach dem Westen hinstrebt. Wir aber in Mitteleuropa, wir sind dazu berufen, die Rosen am Kreuze zu haben, das zu haben, was nur durch den Zusammenhang der Rosen mit dem Kreuze ausgedrückt wird, der Rosen am Kreuze. Und wir empfinden, indem wir zum starren Kreuze hinschauen, daß dasjenige, was als starres Materielles in die Welt gekommen ist, aus dem Göttlichen in die Welt getreten ist. Es ist, wie wenn die Geistigkeit selbst sich einen Kreis geschaffen hat im Materiellen: Ex deo nascimur.
Wir fühlen auch, daß, wenn wir es richtig verstehen, wir nicht nur mit Luzifer in die geistige Welt hineingehen dürfen, sondern daß wir sterben, indem wir uns verbinden mit dem, was vom göttlichen höheren Selbst in die Welt hinuntergestiegen ist: In Christo morimur.
Und in der Zusammenfassung des Kreuzes mit den Rosen, der materiellen Weltanschauung mit der spirituellen Weltanschauung, fühlen wir, wie die Menschenseele im Geiste erwachen kann: Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.
Deshalb ist das Kreuz von Rosen umwunden das Symbolum gewesen desjenigen, der sich in tiefer Weise hineingestellt hat in der mitteleuropäischen Kultur in die Spiritualität hinein: Goethe. Deshalb muß es unser Symbolum sein. Und deshalb wollen wir, uns in diesem Raume versammelnd, soweit wir anwesend sein können in der Zukunft, eingedenk sein dessen, was aus den großen Aufgaben der Erdenentwickelung heraus unser Ideal sein muß: das Kreuz mit Rosen zu umwinden, weder die Rosen vom Kreuze zu reißen und nur das Kreuz in der Hand zu halten, noch auch die Rosen allein zu schätzen und durch die Rosen allein in das geistige blühende, sprossende Leben in der Abstraktion hinaufzueilen. Das ist es, was uns in unserem Symbolum, im Rosenkreuz, ausgedrückt ist, was wir immer mehr und mehr in unser Gemüt, in unsere Empfindungen aufnehmen wollen, wenn wir uns in einem unseren Bestrebungen also geweihten Raume versammeln. Dann können wir sicher sein, daß die Geister, welche in gutem Sinne die Erdenentwickelung leiten, unsichtbar unter uns walten werden; daß unsere Worte, daß all das, was wir denken und empfinden, indem wir uns den geisteswissenschaftlichen Bestrebungen hingeben, daß all das wirklich in einem solchen Raume die Unterstützung der unsere Bestrebung führenden geistigen Gewalten und Mächte findet. Und wir können uns fühlen, wie wenn wir beim Betriebe unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Anschauungen immerfort inspiriert werden von den unsichtbar in einem solchen Raume waltenden Geistern. Diese aber, diese geistigen Mächte möchte ich anrufen, daß sie immer, wenn in ernster Wahrheit, in ehrlicher, liebevoller Weise in diesem Raume gestrebt wird, bei den strebenden Seelen seien! Dann, wenn das sich erfüllen kann, dann dürfen wir sicher sein, daß diese geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung das sein wird, was den Weg der Götter finden wird, wie er immer gefunden worden ist.
Wir versammeln uns heute in solchen Räumen. Sie sind abgesondert von dem, was draußen in der Welt strebt. Das, was draußen in der Welt strebt, sieht etwas Sektiererisches, etwas Abergläubisches in unseren Räumen. Und so sind wir gleichsam unterirdisch gegenüber der geistigen Kultur der Gegenwart versammelt. Oberirdisch ist diese heutige Geisteskultur, die im Osten durch Luzifer, im Westen durch Ahriman tief durchsetzt ist. Da gedenken wir immer wiederum, um unsere Herzen zu stärken, unsere Seelen zu beleben, wie in einer andern Etappe die abendländische Weltanschauung vom Unterirdischen zum Oberirdischen aufgestiegen ist. Da war die Weltanschauung des Römerreiches, die Weltanschauung, welche die vornehme Philosophie und die künstlerische Weltanschauung der Griechen aufgenommen hatte. Es waren im Grunde glänzende Geister unter denen, die innerhalb dieses alten Rom und seiner Umgebung lebten mit dieser alten Weltanschauung. Und tief verachtet waren sie, die unterirdisch in den Katakomben eine ganz neue Lehre pflegten. Diejenigen aber, die in den Katakomben, abgeschlossen von dem, was damals als berechtigte Weltanschauung oberirdisch galt, die neue Lehre pflegten, sie wußten, daß sie sich zu halten hatten allein an dem Inhalt dieses ihres Strebens, daß sie festzuhalten hatten an dem, was durch den Christus-Impuls in der Welt eingezogen ist. Sie strebten in den Katakomben und wußten: da oben lebten diejenigen, die ihnen nach dem Leben trachteten, die sie verfolgten, die sie nicht verstanden. — Betrachten wir dann, nachdem wir diese Zustände des alten Römischen Reiches uns vor Augen geführt haben, die Menschenentwickelung ein paar Jahrhunderte später. Das, was oben war, es ist verschwunden. Das, was unten in den Katakomben gelebt hat, ist heraufgezogen, es zieht siegreich durch das Abendland hindurch. Es lebte schon in den Seelen derer, die da unten verstoßen, verachtet und verhöhnt in den Katakomben dasjenige erstrebten, was dann die Welt erobern sollte. So müssen wir uns fühlen, meine lieben Freunde, gleichsam noch geistig ausgestoßen und verhöhnt und verfolgt von denen, die heute die sogenannte berechtigte Weltanschauung pflegen. Aber so, wie es gegangen ist in der ersten Etappe der abendländischen christlichen Entwickelung, so wird es weiter gehen. Dasjenige, was man am liebsten vernichten würde — nicht wie einstmals, indem man die Menschen in Pech einnäht und verbrennt, sondern indem man sie verhöhnt und verspottet -, es wird sich durchsetzen. Dasjenige, was da höhnt und spottet, was den Boden der Erde allein mit einer ahrimanischen und luziferischen Weltanschauung erobern will, das wird verschwunden sein, wie die alte römische Kultur, die alte Weltanschauung in einem gewissen Sinne verschwunden ist in der Art, wie sie war. Das aber, was in unseren Katakomben gepflegt wird - es sind geistige Katakomben, die Welt ist ja doch fortgeschritten -, was in diesen unseren Katakomben gedacht, gesonnen, gefühlt wird, das, wovon das Gemüt sich durchdringt: es wird heraufsteigen und seinen Siegeszug antreten in der neueren Kultur. Dessen seien wir eingedenk in jedem Momente, wo wir überschreiten die Pforte zu einem solchen Raum. Und dadrinnen weilend, seien wir eingedenk, daß wir noch sind wie in einem Boot unter dem Meere, das aber im Grunde die Richtung nach oben nehmen wird — und sicherlich nehmen wird, wenn wir in starker, kräftiger Weise uns in das vertiefen, womit wir gelernt haben, unsere Seelen zu verbinden. Mit diesem Gelöbnis, daß wir also stark uns von dem geistigen Christus-Impuls durchdringen wollen, der einen Schritt weiter sich entwickeln will, mit dieser Gesinnung, mit diesem Gelöbnis wollen wir wirklich in diesen Raum hineingehen; im Sinne dieser Empfindungen hineingehen, daß alles geweiht als den geistigen Mächten zu gelten hat, den spirituellen Individualitäten, die, wie wir wissen können, durch unsere Bewegung waltend weben, die ihre segnenden Hände schützend über uns ausbreiten. Dessen wollen wir eingedenk sein, wenn wir uns in Zukunft hier versammeln.
The Significance of Central Europe's Position Between East and West Ahrimanic Inspiration and Spiritual Impulses The Symbol of the Rosicrucians
When we gather on such an occasion, when our endeavors are given a space of their own, which we can imbue with a spiritual character that corresponds to our spiritual-scientific sensibility and feeling, then it is good to remember the great perspective that we, as adherents of spiritual science, intend to take toward the world and its phenomena, its tasks, and its great mysteries. And how could our time, our time so full of trials and tribulations, not urge our souls to gain a perspective that goes further! Especially in our time, there must be a longing for a perspective that goes beyond what can be seen in external life and external human striving.
In keeping with the tasks and aspirations of our spiritual worldview, we will erect a sculptural group in an important place in our new building in Dornach. This sculptural group is intended to represent what our souls should feel in the most intimate and deepest sense of our movement. This group will contain a central figure. This central figure can be described as Christ, or as that which is divine in human beings, the divine that lives in human beings and seeks to enter the world in the right way. This central figure can be described as “the human being,” the cosmic human being, expressed in an earthly personality, just as Christ was expressed in an earthly personality in the temporal, historical life through Jesus of Nazareth.
But there will be two other figures on either side of this central figure, one like the one above on a rock, winged but falling from the rock. And through the peculiar hand gesture of the central figure, which is not imbued with hatred or force but with inner strength, a power is brought about whereby the figure on the rock above, the winged figure, breaks its wings and thus falls down into the depths. This breaking of the wings must be well expressed in this plastic form — it is not brought about by the man standing in the middle, the Christ-man, breaking the wings, but by the fact that he, in his spirituality, stretches out his hand, and the other, the winged being, cannot bear this, and through what is going on within him, because he finds what lives below unbearable for his being, he breaks his own wings through inner strength and falls down. It must therefore be noted that this being throws himself down, that he is not thrown down by any adversary.
And down inside the rock we see another figure lying bound, lying in chains. This figure strives to stir up the earth from below. But it cannot succeed in this endeavor against what emanates from the downward-pointing hand of the central figure. It writhes and twists because of the force of the central figure, which is again located in its own being, throwing it back and pushing it away.
You sense that this group expresses what we call the Christ principle of our cosmos in the central figure, the Luciferic principle in the angel falling from the rock, and the Ahrimanic principle in the figure below in the cave, striving upward from below. I have attempted to portray these three figures — we may say such things in such an intimate circle — as closely as possible to life, so that one really gets an impression of the form that Ahriman takes when he appears to human beings in such a context, and also of the physiognomy that Lucifer takes when he appears to human beings. What is lacking in the Western religious worldview to this day, what can only be brought into it through our spiritual scientific worldview, is the recognition that Ahriman and Lucifer are at work in the entire world context. One can only hint at these things publicly, because people today still shy away from speaking about them in detail. But let us remember that even in yesterday's public lecture it was said that through meditation, on the one hand, human beings are led up into a region where they feel lonely and powerless in their innermost being, and on the other hand, into a region where they feel their being is dominated by fear and powerlessness. What threatens us when we strive one-sidedly only for liberation from the material, what threatens us when we strive abstractly for the spiritual, is that we become seized by the Luciferic principle. What threatens us when we strive only downward toward the material, when we live in the desire for the material, where we appear as if petrified — as I explained yesterday in the public lecture — is the Ahrimanic principle. And human beings stand there between the Luciferic and Ahrimanic principles. This must be recognized. But we must also recognize in the right way that we cannot get by simply saying: We must cast off the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic. All feelings of hatred or fear that we have toward the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic are actually not beneficial to our human nature. We must recognize that Ahriman and Lucifer have their place in the entire cosmos. That is why the plastic figure indicates that it is not Christ who wants to overcome Lucifer and Ahriman through inner hatred or an impulse emanating from himself, but that Lucifer himself, that Ahriman himself, overcome themselves. It is completely wrong to develop feelings within ourselves as if Ahriman and Lucifer must be repelled, as if we must fight them directly. Even the normal deity who moves through the world did not decree in its wise world guidance that the Ahrimanic and Luciferic should not be present in world guidance. They are there.
When we ask ourselves where the Luciferic principle is still present in the development of human beings today, we must look to the East. In the East, in Asia and in European Russia, Lucifer reigns through culture. And although, as I explained in the cycle on the mission of the folk souls, the Russian element is called upon to develop the spirit self in the further course of evolution, there is nevertheless a danger in Russian culture of being entangled by Lucifer. It is on the way to this. The Luciferic principle consists in the fact that good spirits remain behind. In the Greek Orthodox Church, there was a good spirit until the 6th or 7th century, but what is a good spirit at one time is transformed into a Luciferic spirit if it is retained beyond that time. Clinging to the Orthodox religion is “being in the clutches of Lucifer.” And this is even more intense in the spiritual forms that developed in the East, which had their justification in primeval times. By preserving themselves, they run into the Luciferic element. Everywhere in the East, we find that many people who are incarnated there have something to go through in the world of Lucifer. And in the West, according to the wise guidance of the world, we find souls everywhere immersed in the Ahrimanic element. We find this most strongly in America. In America there is a tendency to develop a culture that is completely submerged in the materialistic, Ahrimanic element, which is completely permeated — even where spiritualism is sought — by purely materialistic views. Even where people strive for the spiritual, they want to have spirits tangibly before them in a spiritualistic way. This will become stronger and stronger, and the longing for the tangible will become ever greater. It will also gradually take hold in Western Europe. There the mission of introducing the Ahrimanic element into culture will be fulfilled.
This is what I mean by the great perspectives: that we realize how we in Central Europe are caught between the Luciferic principle of the East and the Ahrimanic principle of the West, but that we are called upon to rise up to the forces represented by the Christ principle, which on the one hand breaks Lucifer's wings by overcoming the feeling of powerlessness, and on the other hand against Ahriman, which develop the radiating forces that push back all fear that exists before the knowledge of the spiritual world. For in truth, the Ahrimanic element that pulsates through the world cannot be held back; it is there. Central Europe is also gripped by this Ahrimanic element. But one must know how to relate to it, for the path of the Ahrimanic element is the path through materialism. And this path through materialism must be, and there is a deep, wise connection as to why this path through materialism must be.
Consider that what is a one-sided religious movement — I say expressly “one-sided” religious movement — also exists in Christianity, and is most pronounced in the element of Jesuitism. Consider that this always turns against real scientific progress. The Catholic Church did not officially recognize the Copernican worldview until the 19th century. What is external science is naturally opposed by one-sided religion; it cannot be otherwise. There are two impulses in this opposition of religion to external science. One impulse is that one-sided religion feels comfortable with Ahriman manifests himself in science, which is driven solely by consideration for the external world. This is what justifies the Church's struggle. Ahriman cannot be kept away from external science if it does not look up to the spiritual worldview; that is what justifies it. On the other hand, however, there is an unjustified impulse in the turning of one-sided religion against science. This one-sided religious worldview is itself animated, one might say imbued, especially by the Luciferic element. For striving for religious deepening and hating scientific penetration into spiritual worlds is what Lucifer wants from human beings. Lucifer could not achieve his goal better than if all human beings were merely religious. This religiousness has an enormously strong egoistic impact. Just think how people who do not strive for spiritual knowledge understand their religion. Out of egoism they want to be saved, out of egoism they want to lead the life they imagine for themselves after death! Out of egoism they want to be embodied in the world only once! In one-sided religion, egoism is driven to the highest extreme: an egoism of the soul, not merely of the body. The best religious aspirations that surround us are rooted in egoism. And indeed, it is Lucifer who controls the religious feelings of the most pious people who move us with their piety. Lucifer much prefers to get pious souls who have a sense of the spiritual, of the good, which they strive for out of egoism. For he does not want only criminal souls; he wants to introduce precisely the pious souls into his element.
So, on the one hand, there is the justified, scientific element, which would move toward the Ahrimanic if it did not look up to the spiritual world; on the other hand, there is the Luciferic element, which would fall into selfish religiosity even in Central Europe if the spiritual worldview did not bring spiritual knowledge into it. This will be the progress of Christianity. Thus, it becomes an infinitely meaningful treasure of our mind when we are imbued with the knowledge that we stand knowingly between what must be there, the Luciferic and Ahrimanic, which cannot be escaped but loses its power when it is recognized. That is the peculiarity of the spiritual world: when we recognize it, it loses the power through which it possesses human beings. Lucifer and Ahriman are invisible. If we gain an idea of them in space and time, they lose their power over us.
You must not believe that when an evil spirit is sensed by a person through clairvoyant powers but is not seen, that person will do something bad if this spirit is depicted or represented in a plastic form. That is correct: through sensory perception, the spirit loses its power. People will no longer become nervous through the mental representation of a figure, but rather the spirit as an invisible power loses its significance, and we consciously place ourselves within it. Just as the deity itself uses Lucifer and Ahriman to bring the world from East and West onto the right track, so that the world does not undergo an irregular development but progresses as if by a pendulum movement, so the world government allows the Luciferic to work from the East and the Ahrimanic from the West. But it also gives us in Central Europe the difficult and great task of viewing this pendulum movement in the right way. This pendulum is actually a boat, as if a boat were attached to a pendulum clock. And in this boat sit the souls who are striving in the right way in Central Europe. They must really dive in and know that they must find the right point of balance. They must recognize what lies beyond the threshold of ordinary consciousness and take it into their consciousness. And these difficult days we are currently experiencing are a warning above all to those who already have some inkling of what the future holds for the world. It is not that an external victory will be won on one side or the other in the war; that is not what matters. What matters is how people will live after this victory. Consider, if it should come to pass that the peoples of Central Europe were to be victorious, but that on the field of this victory the purely materialistic, Ahrimanic worldview were to spread and be held in place by the Luciferic element — then, if the East on one side and the West on the other were to break into the Central European spirituality, then even an outward victory would not bring salvation for Central Europe. And for centuries, without people noticing, the Ahrimanic-Luciferic element has been breaking in very strongly. Just think how necessary it was to reject the Oriental-Luciferic element in our Central European theosophical movement. For what we received from the East as theosophy was permeated by Lucifer and, in its extreme form, led to the recognition of an external human idol, a physically reincarnated Christ. That was the battle we had to fight against the unjustified interpretation of the theosophical world view.
But we must also be clear that in Central Europe we must recognize in the right way how we are to relate to what lies ahead for humanity in the future. It is precisely through what spiritual science can be for us, precisely through this, that we will learn to understand that materialism, the materialistic worldview, must not be allowed to spread beyond the area that is being prepared for Central Europe. Those who sense that a spiritual worldview is spreading across Central Europe and from there to the whole world will have to strive to prevent this. And it would be conceivable, outwardly conceivable as a hypothesis, that this Central Europe would serve a materialistic culture after its victory. Then Ahriman would reap the fruits of this victory. And this must be prevented.
Just think of such a tragic figure as Ernst Haeckel! Goethe wrote a theory of evolution. Since 1884, I have been trying to make people understand that it is a theory of evolution that is spiritual in the highest sense. But people cannot understand it in Goethe in the profound way in which it is presented there. When it was then presented in a trivial way by Darwin, people understood it, and the teachings could flow into the hearts and souls of people: the teaching had taken on a materialistic coloring! And take such a tragic figure as Ernst Haeckel: every thought, every fiber of his scientific life he drew from England. Huxley, Locke, Darwin were his teachers. And today Ernst Haeckel is one of those who are most opposed to England; he is one of the most furious fighters — as far as he can be as an old man; he was at the forefront of those who sent back all their orders, diplomas, and awards to England. But it is of no consequence to send back orders and awards if Darwinism, with its English coloring, is not sent back. And there is much more. Souls are best prepared for materialism when they are still, I would say, half asleep to external life, when they are still childlike souls. One does not notice that this is the best time to instill ideas into souls that will later prepare them spiritually to accept materialism as self-evident. Ahriman accomplished this by creating a very effective spirit for the British people, through which the urge toward materialism is implanted in children's souls without their noticing it or having any inkling of it. This is the extraordinarily ingenious author of Robinson Crusoe. When the ideas that permeate Robinson are instilled in the souls of children, they develop a tendency toward materialism. In the book, religion arises of its own accord, just as cabbages grow. There is nothing there that reflects on anything that is supposed to flow in from the spiritual world. And just look at how Robinson travels through the world! There was a time of literary development in Central Europe when there were imitations of Robinson in every language. And the many translations of Robinson! One cannot even count the Robinsons that were introduced into every nation! That is how deeply it lies within us. But the spiritual path must be shown again through the truly great and significant aspects of Central European culture that are oriented toward the spiritual. And it was truly through higher guidance that the Griz brothers were there and collected the German fairy tales again. And if we give our youth the German fairy tales instead of the Ahrimanic Robinson, then we give them a tendency toward spiritualism.
It seems deeply saddening when one experiences the following — and this is symptomatic: A very important Austrian philosopher, Professor Dr. Ernst Mach, wrote a book that had a profound impact on many who want to think philosophically today, “Analysis of Sensations.” On the third page, you will find the following. He speaks of self-knowledge. We know that self-knowledge is extremely important; I have discussed this many times. Ernst Mach now provides proof that self-knowledge is quite difficult, even for the external world. He recounts: “I passed a mirror display where I saw my own image, my own figure, coming toward me. I thought: what an unpleasant, repulsive person is coming toward me! It was myself.” So he said. It was he himself who knew himself so little that he said to his reflection: what an unpleasant, repulsive person! And to make this perfectly clear, he adds: When he was already a professor, he once came home late at night from a trip and got on a bus. As he got on, he saw a man getting on in the mirror, and he said to himself again: What a down-and-out schoolmaster is getting on there? And he adds: “So I knew my generic habitus better than my special habitus.” Now, if it is so difficult for a person who does not often look in the mirror — which speaks in Ernst Mach's favor that this happened — to recognize his outer appearance, then one can get an idea of how difficult it is to acquire self-knowledge in the soul. But that is precisely what is necessary: to gain self-knowledge in the soul. And now I would like to say that it is almost tragic when one reads further in the same book and Ernst Mach talks about his son's education and says from a truly serious soul: Thank God — no, he doesn't say that, but something to that effect — my children have never read any fairy tales. — So they were not led into a spiritual world by fantastic ideas as a result of reading fairy tales. — Here we see how what the Central European culture wants to bring to Ahriman is nestling in the souls of the present. And so we must say: it is not that victory will be achieved, but that on the basis of victory, what is right will prevail; that is what matters.
We also have a heavy burden in Central Europe, even in the face of victory. For we are also connected with something that is strongly influenced by Lucifer. Once upon a time, it was a blessing for Europe that the Arab-Moorish culture spread across southern Europe. At that time, what has now become Ahrimanic was entirely justified. We are burdened by the heavy weight of our alliance with the Ottomans. We must find the right standpoint here and not believe that we can base our feelings on external political considerations. What lives in the outer world is truly not suited to hold back the Ahrimanic. The outer journalistic literature steers directly toward the Ahrimanic principle and pours scorn and derision on those who want to see clearly the powers that are at work in our world. And that is why what appears to us in our time under the sign of blood and suffering must appear to us as a great warning to prepare our souls to receive what wants to flow into the present from spiritual life. And our souls must incline toward what has been prepared in Central European culture, especially in the way that it truly expresses how we are placed between two forces that swing back and forth through the world, and how we must find balance. It must be clear to us that, on the one hand, the world strives toward Ahrimanic hardening, toward solidifying in the fire of pure matter; and that, on the other hand, it strives to rise in an egoistic manner to an abstract spiritual realm. To follow one or the other path would be ruinous for the Central European human being. Simply following science bound to the outer senses would lead us to tear the roses from the cross and look only at what is frozen. We would gradually gain a worldview that would completely dissuade people from looking toward the spiritual; that would allow them to look only at what is frozen in Ahriman. Try to imagine the ideals of Ahrimanic science: it is a world of atoms whirling about, a purely material world structure. One wants to throw out of this world picture everything that is spiritual. One would like to imagine, and this is already taught to children in school, that there was once a swirling of gaseous world masses, out of which the sun was formed, which in turn repelled the planets. This is explained to children in school by putting a drop of oil in water, pushing a small round piece of paper through it at the equator, piercing it in the middle with a pin, and then turning the pin. This causes small drops to split off, creating a small planetary system. Of course, what is shown is proven, but the most important thing is forgotten: that the teacher has to turn it. So, if you want to imagine it honestly, you have to picture a big Mr. Teacher spinning the whole thing in outer space. But the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that strive toward Ahriman are those that imagine the sun and planets coming into being in the way just described. And that, again, is what led to the view of history. Herman Grimm once said: A piece of a dog's bone around which a hungry dog circles is a more appetizing sight than this worldview, which is based solely on the Copernican worldview.
That is a danger of tearing the roses from the cross and being left with only the black, charred cross. The other danger is to tear the cross from the roses and strive only for the spirit, despising what the deity itself has placed in the development of the world, not wanting to lovingly immerse oneself in the thought that what is here in the sensory world is an expression of the divine. This is the one-sided religious worldview that despises science, that wants only the roses and unconsciously strives for the Luciferic element of the East — just as science, which wants to tear the roses from the cross and keep only the charred cross, strives for the West. But we in Central Europe are called upon to have the roses on the cross, to have that which is expressed only through the connection of the roses with the cross, the roses on the cross. And when we look at the rigid cross, we feel that that which has come into the world as rigid matter has come into the world from the divine. It is as if spirituality itself has created a circle in the material world: Ex deo nascimur.
We also feel that, if we understand it correctly, we are not only allowed to enter the spiritual world with Lucifer, but that we die by connecting ourselves with what has descended into the world from the divine higher self: In Christo morimur.
And in the combination of the cross with the roses, the material worldview with the spiritual worldview, we feel how the human soul can awaken in the spirit: Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.
That is why the cross entwined with roses has been the symbol of the one who placed himself deeply in the spirituality of Central European culture: Goethe. That is why it must be our symbol. And that is why we want to gather in this room, as far as we can be present in the future, and remember what must be our ideal, based on the great tasks of Earth's development: to entwine the cross with roses, neither to tear the roses from the cross and hold only the cross in our hands, nor to value the roses alone and rush through the roses alone into the spiritual, blossoming, sprouting life in abstraction. This is what is expressed in our symbol, the Rosicrucians, what we want to take more and more into our minds and feelings when we gather in a room dedicated to our endeavors. Then we can be sure that the spirits who guide the development of the earth in a good sense will invisibly reign among us; that our words, that everything we think and feel as we devote ourselves to spiritual scientific endeavors, that all of this really finds support in such a room from the spiritual forces and powers that guide our endeavors. And we can feel as if we are constantly inspired by the spirits invisibly working in such a room as we pursue our spiritual scientific views. But I would like to call upon these spiritual powers to be with the striving souls whenever they strive in this room in serious truth, in an honest and loving way! Then, if this can be fulfilled, we can be sure that this spiritual scientific worldview will be what finds the way of the gods, as it has always been found.
We are gathered today in rooms such as these. They are separated from what is striving outside in the world. What is striving outside in the world sees something sectarian, something superstitious in our rooms. And so we are gathered here, as it were, underground in relation to the spiritual culture of the present. Above ground is today's spiritual culture, which is deeply permeated by Lucifer in the East and Ahriman in the West. Here we always remember, in order to strengthen our hearts and enliven our souls, how in another stage the Western worldview rose from the underground to the above-ground. There was the worldview of the Roman Empire, the worldview that had absorbed the noble philosophy and artistic worldview of the Greeks. There were basically brilliant minds among those who lived within this ancient Rome and its surroundings with this ancient worldview. And deeply despised were those who cultivated a completely new teaching underground in the catacombs. But those who cultivated the new teaching in the catacombs, cut off from what was then considered the legitimate worldview above ground, knew that they had to hold fast to the content of their striving alone, that they had to hold fast to what had entered the world through the Christ impulse. They strove in the catacombs and knew that above them lived those who sought their lives, who persecuted them, who did not understand them. Let us now consider, after having brought these conditions of the old Roman Empire before our eyes, the development of humanity a few centuries later. What was above has disappeared. What lived down below in the catacombs has risen up and is sweeping victoriously through the Western world. It already lived in the souls of those who, rejected, despised, and mocked in the catacombs, strove for what was then to conquer the world. This is how we must feel, my dear friends, as if we were still spiritually rejected, mocked, and persecuted by those who today cultivate the so-called justified worldview. But just as it happened in the first stage of Western Christian development, so it will continue. That which people would most like to destroy—not as in former times, by sewing people into pitch and burning them, but by mocking and ridiculing them—will prevail. That which mocks and ridicules, which wants to conquer the earth with an Ahrimanic and Luciferic worldview alone, will disappear, just as the ancient Roman culture, the ancient worldview, has disappeared in a certain sense, in the way that it was. But what is cultivated in our catacombs—they are spiritual catacombs, for the world has progressed—what is thought, felt, and sensed in these catacombs of ours, what permeates the mind, will rise up and begin its triumphal march in the new culture. Let us remember this at every moment when we pass through the door into such a room. And while we are there, let us remember that we are still like a boat under the sea, but that it will eventually take the upward direction — and it will certainly do so if we immerse ourselves strongly and vigorously in what we have learned to connect our souls with. With this vow that we want to allow ourselves to be strongly permeated by the spiritual Christ impulse, which wants to develop one step further, with this attitude, with this vow, let us truly enter this room; let us enter with the feeling that everything is sacred and belongs to the spiritual powers, to the spiritual individualities which, as we know, weave their blessing hands protectively over us. Let us remember this when we gather here in the future.