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The Mystery of Death
GA 159

18 May 1915, Linz

11. Christ's Relation to Lucifer and Ahriman—The Threefold Being

When once our construction, dedicated to spiritual science, is finished in Dornach, it contains a sculptural group at an important place. This group primarily presents three figures. In the middle of this group a figure stands as, I would like to say, the representative of the highest human which could develop on earth. Hence, one can also feel this figure of the highest human in the earth development as Christ, Who lived in the body of Jesus of Nazareth for three years within the earth development. It is the particular task to form this Christ figure in such a way that one can see, on one side, the concerning being living in a human earthly body, however, this earthly body being spiritualised in every look, in everything that is in it by Christ Who entered from cosmic, from spiritual heights in the thirtieth year of his life in this earthly body.

Then two other figures are to be found, one on the left side, the other on the right side of the Christ figure, if I am allowed to call this figure the Christ figure. This Christ figure stands there like before a rock which towers up in particular on the left side of Christ, so that its peak is above the head of the Christ figure. On top of the rock is another figure, a winged figure; but the wings are broken, and this figure falls, because it has broken wings, into the chasm. What has to be worked out artistically in particular is the way how this Christ figure raises the left arm. Because the Christ figure raises his left arm, it happens that this falling being breaks the wings. But this must not look in such a way, as if possibly Christ broke the wings of this being, but the whole must be artistically arranged so that, while Christ raises the arm, already lies in the whole movement of the hand that he has an infinite compassion, actually, also with this being. However, this being does not endure what flows up through the arm and hand and what is still visible because the fingers of the stretched hand hollowed the rock, as it were. What this being feels in itself, because it comes near to the Christ being, I would like to dress in the words: I cannot bear anything pure like that shining on me.

It is that which lives in this being and lives so substantially in this being that its wings are broken and it falls consequently into the chasm. This is one especially significant artistic task. You notice what could be missed if Christ stood there plastically and such a force were simply emitted by raising the hand, so that He breaks the wings of this being so that it falls into the chasm. Then it would be Christ who would shine on this being like with hatred and make it fall. However, this must not be shown that way, but the being should make itself fall. Since this being who is shown falling down with broken wings is Lucifer.

On the other side, toward the right side of the Christ figure where the rock has a projection the rock will be hollowed out there. In this hollow is also a winged figure. This figure turns to the rock cavity on top with his arm-like organs. You have to imagine: on the right the rock cavity and in this cavity the winged figure which has, however, quite differently formed wings than the figure on top of the rock. This figure has more aquiline wings, the figure in the cave bat-like wings. The latter figure locks itself up in the cave, you see it in chains, and you see it working there on the ground hollowing out the earth.

The Christ figure in the middle turns his right hand downwards. Whereas it turns its left hand upwards, it turns the right hand downwards. It will be a significant artistic task again not to show this in such a way, as if Christ wanted to put this figure which is Ahriman in chains, but that Christ Himself has an infinite compassion for Ahriman. However, Ahriman cannot endure this; he writhes in pains by that which the hand of Christ emits. This causes that the veins of gold, which are at the bottom in the cave, wind like strings around Ahriman's body and tie it up. Just as that which happens with Lucifer happens by himself, it also happens with Ahriman. Then we will attempt to paint the same motive above the sculptural group, but the view of the painting must be completely different from that of the sculpture. So that we have this group of three figures: Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman as a sculpture group at the bottom and above them the same motive painted.

We put this relationship of Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman in our Dornach building because spiritual science shows us in a certain way really that concerning the understanding of the Christ Impulse the next task is that, finally, the human being learns to know which relationship exists in the world between these three powers Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman. Since, indeed, up to now one often talks about Christianity and the Christ Impulse, but that which has entered the world by the Christ Impulse, actually, as a result of Christ's Death and Resurrection, this has not yet become completely clear to the human beings. One speaks probably of the fact that there is Lucifer that there is Ahriman, but while one speaks of Lucifer and Ahriman, one speaks very often in such a way, as if one had to flee them, as if one had to say almost always: I want to know nothing, nothing at all about Lucifer and Ahriman.

If the divine-spiritual powers, which are found in the way, as I have described it in the public lecture yesterday, also wanted to know nothing about Lucifer and Ahriman, the world would just not be able to exist. You do not position yourselves in the correct relationship saying: Lucifer, I avoid him! Ahriman, I avoid him! You rather have to look at that which the human being has to strive for as a result of the Christ Impulse like the equilibrium position of a pendulum. The pendulum is in the middle in balance; however, it must swing to and fro. That is similar also in the earth development of the human being. The human being must tend on one side to the luciferic principle, on the other side to the ahrimanic principle, but he must learn and stand firmly on that which Paul said: “not I, but Christ in me.”

We have to understand Christ in his effectiveness absolutely as a reality. That is we must be clear to us that this really happened which flowed by Christ's Death and Resurrection in our earth development. How well or how badly people understood this up to now, it does not depend on it, but on the fact that it was there that it has worked in the human earth development. One could say a lot that people have not yet understood of the Christ Impulse. And spiritual science will contribute a little piece to the understanding of that what flowed in from spiritual heights by the Mystery of Golgotha as the Christ Impulse onto the earth development. To realise Christ's working, we want to make clear to us, as this has also happened at other places, two moments of the earth development of humankind, two moments which became important in the whole western development.

You know from history, what an important moment it was, when Constantine, the son of Constantius Chlorus, defeated Maxentius, and Christianity was introduced by Constantine externally in the western development. Constantine had to go into that important battle against Maxentius through which Constantine then made Christianity the state religion in his western empire. The whole map of Europe would have become different if in those days this battle had not taken place against Maxentius. But strategic art, that of what people were capable with their intellects in those days, did not decide this battle really, but something else.

Maxentius made read up in the so-called Sibylline Books, the prophetic books of Rome, and got the advice to lead his army out of the walls of Rome, whereas they would have been saved well within the walls. So he positioned his troops in the free field against the army of Constantine. However, Constantine had a dream before the battle which indicated to him: if you go in the sign of the Mystery of Golgotha against Maxentius, you arrive at a big goal.—And carrying the sign of the Mystery of Golgotha, the cross, Constantine went to the battle with an army about three quarters smaller than that of Maxentius. Filled with enthusiasm by the power which came from the Mystery of Golgotha, Constantine won that important battle through which Christianity was introduced externally in Europe. If we remember what people understood of the Christ Impulse with their intellects in those days, we find an endless theological quarrelling.

People quarrelled whether Christ is identical from eternity with the Father and the like more. One must say: it does not depend on that which people knew about the Christ Impulse in those days, but on the fact that it was there, the Christ Impulse, that it induced the necessary events by Constantine, by a dream of Constantine. It depends on the reality of Christ, on the real power of Christ. In our spiritual science, we only begin understanding the Christ Impulse.

Another moment was that when in the fight between France and England Europe was formed in such a way that one can say: if France had not been victorious against England in those days, all the circumstances would have become different. But how had this happened?—The Christ Impulse has just worked in the subconscious of the soul up to now, when it has to become more aware. We see then in the western spiritual development the Christ Impulse seeking for those conditions in the human souls through which it can be effective with individual human beings. Legends have preserved the way how the Christ Impulse in the western spiritual development can make itself noticeable. These legends point partly back to old pagan times, when everywhere understanding of Christianity was prepared just in paganism.

If the soul does not strive for initiation consciously in the way I have described in How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?, but gets it as it were in natural way, as it was filled with the Christ Impulse by a natural initiation. The most convenient time in which this Christ Impulse is able to inspire the soul is the time of the Christmas Eve up to the Epiphany day, the time from the 25th December to the 6th January. We can understand that if we get the following clear in our mind: for the esoteric knowledge it is unambiguously evident that our earth is not only that of which the geologists talk. That is only like the skeleton of the human being. But our earth also has its own spirituality. And Christ has just entered the earth aura. This earth sleeps and wakes as we sleep and are awake in twenty-four hours. We have to realise the fact that the earth sleeps during the summertime and is awake in the wintertime. The spirit of the earth is the most awake in these twelve or thirteen nights from Christmas to Epiphany. In olden times, in which—as you know from the various representations in my lectures—the human beings had a dreamlike clairvoyance and experienced the spiritual principle of the world that way. The most convenient time was the summertime. It is quite natural that somebody who wants to rise in a more dreamlike clairvoyance to the spiritual has it easier during the sleeping time of the earth, in the summertime. Hence, it was the St. John's-tide which was the most convenient in olden times to raise the strength of the soul to the spiritual. The new, more conscious way has replaced the old way in which the spiritual was working into the earth; now it is the best time when the earth is awake.

Hence, the legends tell us that especially gifted human beings, human beings who are particularly suitable because of their karma, get a special condition of consciousness at the Yuletide which is only externally similar to sleep but inspires it internally, so that the human being was raised to the world we call the spirit-land. There is a very nice legend, the Norwegian legend of Olaf Åsteson about whom is told to us that he goes to the church at the Christmas Eve, falls into a sleep-like state and wakes up at the sixth January and can tell what he experienced in this state similar to sleep. This Norwegian legend actually explains to us that Olaf Åsteson experienced something that one feels at first like the soul-world, then something that one feels like the spirit-land, only just everything in pictures, in Imaginations.

This time was the most convenient in those epochs in which the human beings were not yet so advanced as in our time. Today, the times are over in which the Christ Impulse can flow into the souls like by a natural initiation. Today, the human beings have to ascend to initiation as consciously as it is described in How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds? We live in a time in which natural initiations become rarer and rarer and completely disappear, finally, so that we do not have to count any more on them. But, basically, one can call a physical initiation that through which the Christ Impulse worked on the soul of the simple farmer girl, the Maid of Orleans, who brought about the victory of the French over the English. This victory reshaped the European map wondrously. The human reason could not perform that, but that which guided the Maid of Orleans in those days and outstripped all the skill of the military leaders, by which Europe got a new figure. It was the Christ Impulse, which worked on the unconscious of a single personality, but worked so that then from this personality spread out what was efficient in history.

We would have to notice if anything similar could have taken place as a natural initiation with the Maid of Orleans if the soul of the Maid of Orleans had been inspired in the nights from the 25th December to the 6th January. In the course of life it seems that such a matter cannot be verified that the Maid of Orleans also was once during twelve or thirteen days from the 25th December to the 6th January in a sleep-like state in which the Christ Impulse would have worked on her, so that she would be able to work as a human being only like the cover of the Christ Impulse on the battlefields of France. Nevertheless, it was that way. For there is a time which—if the karma of the concerning individuality makes it possible—can be filled with such a sleep-like state. This is the time of the last days in which the human being still lives in the body of the mother, before he sees the physical earth light. The human being lives there in a dreamlike state similar to sleep. He has not yet seen anything by the senses that takes place externally in the world. If a human being were particularly suitable by his karma to take up the Christ Impulse during these last days in which he lives in the body of the mother, these days would also be days of the natural initiation. Then such a human being would open his eyes for the first time already strengthened by the Christ Impulse lying in him after the initiation, that means in this case, after his birth. And such a human being would have to be born on the 6th January. The Maid of Orleans was born on the 6th January. This is the secret of the Maid of Orleans that she was born on the 6th January that she spent the time from Christmas up to the Epiphany day in that peculiar state similar to sleep in the body of the mother and got a natural initiation. Consider the deep connections which are behind the external development which one normally calls history. What is shown externally in history with the help of documents is as a rule even the most insignificant. The simple date which is registered in our calendar that the Maid of Orleans was sent into the world on the 6th January is of authoritative historical significance. The forces work from the supersensible realm on the sensory realm that way. We have to read this occult writing which shows us the forces working from the supersensible realm on the sensory realm. So the Christ Impulse flowed into the Maid of Orleans like by a natural initiation, already before her physical birth.

I want to explain these matters to arouse a feeling in you that forces and connections unknown to the external view are effective behind that what one normally calls history. However, the Christ Impulse guides history, of the European humankind in particular, since the Mystery of Golgotha. In the East, in Asia a world view remained of which one can say: it has not yet approached the Christ Impulse in its feelings. Indeed, the European was enticed to call the Indian views particularly deep. But this is the typical of Hinduism—generally of the whole Asian religious feeling—that it stands with all its feelings before the Christ Impulse, but has preserved the state which was there in the religious feeling of the earthly humankind before the Christ Impulse. Lagging behind in the development always means taking up something luciferic. Hence, the Asian religious development carries a luciferic element in itself. If we look over at the Asian religious development, we must notice: indeed, we can see a lot in it that humankind had already once that it had to leave, however. But we have partly to purify that all in the western culture from the luciferic element, to raise it partly in such a way that the Christ-principle can flow into it.

If we go from Asia to Europe, we find in the east of Europe, in the Russian culture, the orthodox Christianity spread out which has stopped on a former level of the Christian development which did not want to go along which wanted to keep something luciferic. Briefly, we look at the East, we have what, I would like to say, the wise guidance of the world left behind in the whole development of humankind as the luciferic element.

Let us look at the West, particularly at the American civilisation, and then we have another characteristic. The typical of this American civilisation is that everything is searched for in the external. A lot of significant things are thereby produced indeed; but everything is searched for in the outside. Take an example. If we see in Europe, in particular in Central Europe, that a human being who did not have any opportunity in his life at first to turn his soul to Christ and the powers of the spiritual world and suddenly changes his life because of something, then interests us what has taken place in his soul. It does not interest us that he experienced a jump in his development, we find this everywhere.

Since most inaccurate is the saying which the external science has stamped: nature does not make jumps.1Carl Linné in his Philosophia Botanica, Stockholm 1751—From the green plant leaf to the red petal is a big jump; from the petal to the chalices is again a big jump. It is an absolutely wrong saying, and the truth of the development is based just on the fact that everywhere jumps are made. The fact that a human being if he has lived for a while so externally is able to tend suddenly to spirituality induced by anything, in that we are not interested in particular. But the internal power which achieves such a conversion to spirituality interests us. We want to look into the soul of such a human being; we want to know what brought him to such a conversion. We are interested in the soul.

How does the American make it?—He makes something very peculiar. In America, one could often observe such conversions. Now, the American lets such people write letters who experienced a conversion. Then he puts all these letters together on a small heap and says: I received letters from two hundred people, more or less. Fourteen percent of those who experienced such a conversion wrote that they were suddenly attacked by fear of death or hell; five percent because of altruistic motives; seventeen percent because of striving for moral ideals; fifteen percent experienced pangs of conscience; ten percent because they observed teachings given to them; thirteen percent because they have seen that others were converted—by imitation; nineteen percent because they were forced, while they were thrashed at the suitable age, and so on. One selects the most extreme souls, sorts them and receives a result which is based on “sure data.” That is registered then in the books which one spreads as “psychology” among people. All the other documents are uncertain to these people, are only based on subjectivity, they say. There you have an example that something innermost is made superficial. That holds true in many respects in America. In the time which demands a particular spiritual deepening the most superficial spiritualism is rampant in America. One wants to have everything as something sensory.

Spiritual life is grasped materialistically that way. We could still give many such examples which would show you that the civilisation of the West is seized by Ahriman. This is the other deflection of the pendulum. If we look at the East, we have the luciferic element, if we look at the West, we have the ahrimanic element. The infinitely important task we have in Central Europe between West and East is to find the balance. Hence, we would like to put the biggest of the spiritual demands of our time in our Dornach building as a sculptural group: to find the balance between the relation to Lucifer and the relation to Ahriman. Then one will only recognise what the Christ Impulse wanted from the earth development if one puts outside Christ not so simply, but if one knows correctly that Christ is that power which shows us the relation to Lucifer and Ahriman exemplarily.

That the relation of the human being and Christ to Lucifer and Ahriman is not yet recognised clearly, this may become illustrative to you by the following. Also the greatest, which contains the greatest in one respect, is not always free of that which must still be there as an one-sidedness in time. Indeed, one cannot appreciate that picture enough which Michelangelo painted in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, The Last Judgement, this miraculous picture. Christ triumphing, directing the good human beings to one side, the bad human beings to the other. Let us look at this Christ. He does not have the features which we would like to give the Christ figure that should stand in our Dornach construction. It must become evident that Christ raises the hand in compassion, even though Lucifer is there above. Lucifer should not be brought down by the power of Christ, but he falls down because he cannot endure what shines from Christ in his nearness. Christ raises his eye and folds the forehead while raising the folded forehead to Lucifer.

Ahriman is overcome not by the hatred of Christ, but he feels that he cannot endure what flows out from Christ. However, Christ stands in the midst as somebody who introduces the Parzival element in the modern age. He has to get the others to overcome themselves not by His power, but by His existence, so that they overcome themselves and not he overcomes them. With Michelangelo, we still see Christ sending the good human beings to heaven and the bad ones to hell by His power. This is not the right Christ in future, but this is a Christ who is still very luciferic. That does not reduce our esteem of that picture. The whole significance of this picture is recognised, but one has to admit that Michelangelo could not yet paint Christ because the world development was not yet so far. It must clearly be seen that one has not only to turn the sense to Christ, but that one has to turn the sense to the threefold being: Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman. I can only indicate that. Only in future, spiritual science finds out everything that lies in this secret: Christ in relation to Lucifer and Ahriman.

But now consider the following: if we look at the East, we look at luciferic powers even in the near East. In the West, we look at ahrimanic powers. In spiritual science, we have to get into the habit of considering the matters not with sympathy and antipathy and also the peoples and folk-souls not with sympathy and antipathy, but in such a way as they are in their characteristics. What one calls the national characteristic of a human being who stands in his people, depends—above all—on that which is effective in the physical and etheric bodies. When we live from falling asleep to waking up with our soul and mind as an astral body and ego, we live beyond the normal national element. We live only from waking up to falling asleep in our nationality when we are in our physical body. That is why the nationality is also something the human being overcomes gradually during his stay in kamaloka. The human being there strives for the generally human, while he overcomes the nationality in kamaloka to live then in the generally human for the longest time between death and new birth. It belongs to the qualities which are taken off in kamaloka, also that which makes us a national human being.

The single nationalities are very different from each other in this regard. Compare a French human being and a Russian human being. The French human being has the characteristic that he seizes that particularly which the folk-soul brings in his physical and etheric bodies during his life between birth and death that he lives particularly in it. This expresses itself in the fact that the Frenchman—not as an individual human being but as a Frenchman—has an idea of that which is a Frenchman; the fact that he puts ahead that above all which is, actually, a Frenchman. But these ideas which the French, also all the other neo-Latin peoples, have of their nationality cause that the ideas of their nationality are deeply stamped into their etheric bodies. When the Frenchman goes through the gate of death, he already detaches the etheric body after some days; then this etheric body is a clearly defined figure which exists in the etheric world for a long time. The etheric body cannot dissolve because the ideas of his nationality are deeply stamped on it; these ideas hold together the etheric body. That is why we see the field of death filled with clearly defined etheric bodies if we look westwards.

Look at the East now, at the Russian human being. It is the peculiarity of this Russian human being that he has such an etheric body in himself that it dissolves relatively quickly when the soul goes through the gate of death. This is the difference between the West and the East. The etheric bodies, which the West-European human beings take off after death, have the peculiarity that they want to be clearly defined. What the French calls “gloire” stamps itself to his etheric body firmly as national gloire, so that he is condemned to turn his spiritual view to this etheric body, to himself for long, long times after death. The Russian human being, however, looks at himself only a little after death. That is why the West-European human being is exposed to the ahrimanic influence; the materialisation of the etheric body is again exposed to the ahrimanic principle. The dissolution of the etheric body, the quick merging of the etheric body is accompanied by a feeling of lust, and this is just the peculiar, an instinctive feeling of lust in the national. How is this expressed in the East?

Central Europe does not understand that, as it also does not feel in that. If one pursues Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy or others who were setting the tone who talk always about the “Russian human being,” this is a feeling of lust in the national which cannot define itself. Even with Solovyov, we find that something sultry is living in his philosophy that is not compatible with the clearness and cleanness the Central European human being searches for. What is effective in Europe as a spiritual power is connected with all that. In Central Europe another, a middle state exists, namely something that one could explain even further than it was possible in the public lecture yesterday. I said: something exists in Central Europe that is an inner striving nature. Goethe would have written his Faust in exactly the same way in the forties of the last century: strive again and again.—But this striving is innermost nature. In Central Europe, the mystics appeared who did not only want to recognise the divine-spiritual, but wanted to experience it with their own souls. The mystics wanted to internally experience the Christ event. If one takes Solovyov, one thinks that he goes out above all from that: Christ died once historically for humankind. This is quite right, but Solovyov sees the spiritual life like a cloud outside himself, who sees that as it were everything already has happened, while the Central European human being demands that everybody experiences Christ in himself time and again. Master Eckhart would have possibly replied the following even to somebody like Solovyov. If Solovyov emphasised repeatedly that Christ must go through death, so that the human being can be a human being, Master Eckhart would say: you look at Christ as one looks at something external. It does not matter that we always look at the historical events only, but we ourselves have to experience Christ inside, we have to discover something inside that goes through such states like Christ, at least spiritually, so that Christ is experienced spiritually.

It seems tricky and fantastic indeed if anybody says to the modern humankind: the whole development, even the folk-soul worked in Central Europe, so that this connection of the ego with the Christ principle is expressed in the language: I-CH (= I) = Jesus Christ. I-CH which is composed in such a way that it means “I.” While one pronounces I (ich) in Central Europe, one pronounces the name of Christ. So near one wants to feel the ego with Christ, so intimately connected with it. One knows this intimate living together with the spiritual world, as it must be striven for in Central Europe in any spiritual field, neither in the West nor in the East. Hence, something must happen in the twentieth century, so that the Christ-principle can spread out gradually over the whole European continent in suitable way. I emphasised it often in various lecture cycles that in November 1879 that spiritual being whom we call the archangel Michael ascended to a special level of development. Michael became, so to speak, the leading spirit. Now this leading spirit prepares the event which I indicated in the first of my mystery dramas as the appearance of the etheric Christ over the earth, the event which must take place in the twentieth century. Then it will happen that single souls at first, then more and more souls know: Christ is there in reality, Christ walks again on earth, but in an etheric figure, not in a physical figure.

This must be prepared. If in the course of this twentieth century the spiritual eyes of certain souls were opened clairvoyantly—and this will happen—for the life of the etheric world, they would be disturbed by those etheric bodies which spread out from Western Europe. They would behold them first, and one would see the figure of Christ wrongly. Hence, Michael must fight a battle in Europe. He has to contribute something that these West-European clearly defined etheric bodies are dissolved in the etheric world. For that he has to take those etheric bodies which enjoy dissolving, the etheric bodies in the East, and must fight with them against the West. This causes that since 1879 a violent struggle prepares itself in the astral world between the Russian and the West-European etheric bodies, and this struggle is raging in the whole astral world. It is actually a violent struggle in the astral world, led by Michael, between Russia and France. This forms the basis of the battle in the astral world, raging in Europe.

As we are often stupefied by the fact that something that takes place here in the physical world is the opposite of that in the spiritual,2agreement by the French president Faure and Czar Nicholas II in 1897 managed by Ahriman's seduction, which is based mainly on the ahrimanic element, namely on twenty billions which France gave Russia, is the physical expression of a battle that is raging between French and Russian souls, of a battle in which Central Europe is put with its striving for meeting the Christ in its innermost soul element. And Europe is enslaved by karma that one has to experience just in Central Europe tragically what the East with the West and the West with the East has to fight out. The matters which externally the German element has to fight out with the French element are to be understood only in such a way that the German is just in the middle between the East and the West and serves as an anvil for both sides. Since that which is pushed together by both sides in Germany is negotiated by these both sides in truth. This is the spiritual truth which is completely different from the external events in the physical world. Imagine how different the spiritual truth is from the external events in the physical world. Indeed, everything like that sounds absurd to the modern human beings, but it is the truth. This truth must stupefy us.

But another matter is also exceptionally significant. Indeed, it counters everything that history can show us that England, after it was always an ally of Turkey against Russia, must fight now suddenly with Russia against Turkey. One can understand this gainsay if one does the following occult observation. While here below on the physical plane England is an ally of Russia and fights against the Turkish element, the following presents to the occult observation. If one observes this struggle clairvoyantly and looks as it were from below up at the physical plane and then at the astral plane, it becomes apparent: in the North, Russia seems to be allied with England, and in the South-East Turkey seems to be allied with England. This is due to the fact that the alliance between England and Russia has significance only on the physical plane, but there is no reflection in the spiritual world, because it is completely based on material interests. From below one sees England and Russia united only on the physical plane in the North. In the South-East, one sees through the physical plane to the astral plane where the English are allies of the Turks and are fighting against Russia. On one side, England fights together with Russia on the physical plane, and on the other side Russia is combated by England. We have to look at the external events this way, in so far as they manifest themselves as external history. Since that which lies behind is something completely different.

A time will come in which the human beings talk about the present events quite differently than it happens now. One must say that the whole war literature has something rather unpleasant. Something pleasant is also said, but also a lot of unpleasant things. Above all one matter is unpleasant. It is always said: today one cannot yet speak about the question: who is responsible for the war? Et cetera.—People console themselves passing over the matters. They say: in future one finds out of the documents in the archives, who was responsible for the war.—Concerning the external events the matter, however, is not hard to be found at all if one judges without passion. Chamberlain3Houston Stewart Chamberlain: New War Essays, Munich, 1915 is right in his “war articles” even if he is mistaken in the details, when he says that one can know the most certain just about this war. This is right that no doubt exists about that, only one has to put the right question. A question can only be answered unambiguously, for example, if it is put correctly. It is the question: who could have prevented this war?

The always returning question: who is responsible for this war? And still many other questions, are not just right. Who could have prevented the war?—No other answer can be given than: the Russian government could have prevented the war.—One will only be able to find the right definition of the impulses which work in detail. Of course, the war, intended by the East since decades, could not have come unless a certain relation had existed between England, Russia, and France, so that one can ascribe the bigger guilt also—if one wants—to England. But all these matters do not take into consideration which causes are behind that showing the whole world war as a necessity. It is naive to think that the war could have failed to come. Now the people talk, as if this war did not need to come. It is the result of the European karma.

I wanted to indicate something by the spiritual contrasts between the East and the West. It does not depend on the fact that we ask, so to speak, for the outer causes in particular, because they are not important. We must only know that this war is a historical necessity. The single causes are not important there.

But all the heterogeneous effects to which we will have to position ourselves correctly are important. One effect can appear to us as particularly important. It is a great, typical phenomenon that such a war produces many unused etheric bodies. Because this is the biggest war which humankind has waged in its conscious historical development, this characteristic also exists to a very high degree. Unused etheric bodies are produced. The etheric body can supply the human being for long, until the human being is seventy, eighty, or ninety years old. However, during the war human beings are sacrificed in the prime of life. When the human being goes through the gate of death, he takes off the etheric body, as you know, after a short time; but the etheric body of somebody who was killed in action is taken off in such a way that it could still have supplied this human life in a physical body for long, for decades.

In physics one accepts that energy does not get lost. However, that also applies to spirituality. The forces of these etheric bodies, which early go to the etheric world, remain available. Think now that countless unused etheric bodies of those are there who go as young human beings through the gate of death. Nevertheless, it is something particular with these etheric bodies. I would like to explain this at an example which is obvious to our movement and to lead then to the etheric bodies of the warriors gone through death which are contained in the etheric world in the next future.

In this autumn, we experienced the death of the little son of an anthroposophical family which is employed in the area of our Dornach construction. This boy, Theodor Faiss, was seven years old. His father once lived in Stuttgart, and then he came as a gardener to Dornach in the area of the construction and lived there with his family. He himself was soon called up to the army after outbreak of the war and was in a military hospital at the time of the accident. The little, seven-year-old Theodor was a real sunny child, a wonderful, dear boy. Now one day the following happened. We had just a lecture as I give them in Dornach after the construction work. After the lecture somebody came and reported that the little Theodor Faiss has not come back to his mother since the late afternoon. It was ten o'clock in the evening, and one could imagine nothing but that a big tragedy has happened. A removal van had arrived in this afternoon and had gone a way near the so-called canteen where it had to turn round. This carriage had reached a place in those days, in which, one is allowed to state this, no such a big carriage has gone for many decades before, generally maybe no removal van has ever gone and just as little after. Now the little Theodor, before this van had turned round, had been in the canteen. He had been detained there a little bit, otherwise he would have gone sooner with the provisions he had got in the canteen for the dinner. Then he went the way home—it is only a short distance—so that he was just at that place where the van toppled over and fell on him, the little Theodor. Nobody had noticed it, even the coachman did not. He had only got his horses to safety when the carriage toppled over, and did not know that the child was under it. When the absence of the child was reported to us, we had to try to lift the carriage. The friends got tools, and the mobilised Swiss soldiers helped us. Of course, the child was already dead since possibly a half past five o'clock in the afternoon. The removal van had crushed it straight away, it died of suffocation.

There we have such a case to which one can apply what I often tried to make clear using a comparison that one confuses cause and effect. Imagine that we see a person going along a riverbank. The person falls into the river. One runs to him and finds a stone where the person fell into the river and thinks that the person tripped, then fell in the river and died this way. One says that the person has died because he fell into the river. But if one dissects him, one maybe finds that he experienced a heart attack and fell consequently dead into the water. He did not die because he fell into the water, but he fell into the water because he died. You find such mistakes of cause and effect in the judgement of life very frequently and in the usual science even more.

The karma of the little Theodor had run off in a certain way, so that one can really say: he ordered the carriage to that place. I mention this case which is externally exceptionally tragic, because we deal with the etheric body of a child which could have supplied through the life of this child still for decades. This etheric body is passed over with its unused forces to the spiritual world, the etheric world. Where is he? What does he do?—Somebody who is obliged to work on the Dornach construction since that time with artistic intentions, generally to have thoughts in the area of the construction knows if he beholds clairvoyantly at the same time: this whole etheric body and its forces is increased in the aura of the Dornach construction. We have to distinguish: the individuality is somewhere else, it goes its own way, but the etheric body is expelled after some days and exists now in the construction. Never will I hesitate before saying that among the forces which one needs to Intuition the forces of this etheric body are, sacrificed to the construction. Behind life the connections are often completely different than anybody only suspects it. This etheric body has become protecting powers of the construction. Something great is in such a connection.

Consider now, what a big sum of strength goes up to the spiritual world in the unused etheric bodies of those who go now through the gate of death as a result of the military events.

The matters are connected differently than the human beings can imagine. The world karma takes place differently. Spiritual science must be there just to replace fantastic ideas with spiritually true ideas. We can imagine hardly—to mention only one example—something more fantastic or untrue from the spiritual point of view than something that took place in the last decades. A special “peace society”4peace conferences in the Hague from 1899 to 1907, convened on the initiative of Czar Nicholas II was founded to put the law at the place of the war, as one said, “the International Law.”—In no time of humankind such dreadful wars were waged as since the “peace society” exists. In the last decades, this peace movement had a monarch among its particular protectors who waged the bloodiest and cruelest wars which ever were waged in world history. So that the installation of the peace movement from the part of the czar must really appear as the biggest comedy which was played in world history, the biggest comedy and at the same time the most hideous comedy. One has to call that luciferic seduction. This can well be investigated in details. One can say, it stupefies the soul if one sees—one may look at the matters as one wants—in the beginning when these war impulses entered Europe, Central Europe, where one assembled like in the Berlin Reichstag, people talking almost about nothing. One has only spoken a little, but the matters have spoken. A lot has been spoken in the West like in the East. But one has the most stupefying impression in a certain way of that what has been spoken in the St. Petersburg Duma by the different parties. In the various way the representatives of the Duma have really brought forward nothing else than the empty phrases with the biggest fire of enthusiasm. It was stupefying. This is a luciferic seduction. However, everything shows us that the fire, which burns during this war, is a warning fire, and that the human beings have to pay attention.

Everything that happens now points to the fact that at least some souls must say to themselves: it cannot go on that way as it has gone in the world, spirituality must flow into the human development. Materialism has found its karma in this most dreadful war of all the wars. In certain respect this war is the karma of materialism. The more the human souls see this, the more they will get beyond arguing, whether this one or that one is responsible for the war, and say to themselves: this war was sent to us in world history that it is an admonisher that we should turn to a spiritual understanding of the whole human life.

Materialism makes not only the souls of the human beings materialistically minded; it also corrupts the logic and makes the feeling dull. Within Central Europe, one still has to see something that is connected with that which I have said: that one has to deal most intimately with the further development of the Christ Impulse just in Central Europe. But that belongs to it that one has to start understanding the spirits who have already laid the germs. Only one example: Goethe wrote a theory of colours. The physicists look at it as something, about which they say compassionately smiling: what has the poet understood of the colours? He was just a dilettante.—Since the eighties of the nineteenth century I try to help the Goethean theory of colours on the road to success against modern physics. This cannot be understood. Why can it not be understood? Because the materialistic principle, which came from the British folk-soul, penetrated Central Europe. Newton whom Goethe had to combat won the victory over that which issued from Goethe's spirit. Goethe also founded a theory of evolution in which is shown by grasping spiritual laws how the beings advance from the most imperfect condition to the most perfect. This was too hard to understand. When Darwin brought his theory of evolution, the people accepted it, because they could understand it easier. Darwin was victorious over Goethe. The materialistic thinker who was inspired by the British folk-soul was victorious over Goethe who got everything from the most intimate dialog with the German folk-soul.

Ernst Haeckel has experienced something tragic. He lived mentally through his whole life on that which Huxley and Darwin have given to him. The materialism of Ernst Haeckel is basically a very English product. When the war broke out, Haeckel was outraged about what happened from the British islands. He was one of the first to send back the English medals, certificates and honourings. What must be sent back, however, are not the certificates, medals and honourings, but the English coloured Darwinism and the English coloured physics. One has to call that in mind, so that one sees what can be striven for in the Central European area as an intimate being together with the laws of the world.

One can corrupt the childish soul mostly if one already pours out in it that which develops then in only materialistic colouring. The centuries have worked towards it. Among the Britons over there, Ahriman inspired a great author, so that this author wrote a work which was completely intended to influence the soul materialistically from the childish age on in such a way that one does not notice it, because one does not consider it preparing materialism. This is Robinson Crusoe. The whole way, as Robinson is described, is so clever that these ideas of Robinson Crusoe if they are taken up prepare the mind in such a way that it can later think only materialistically. Humankind is not yet cured of inventors of such Robinsons; they always existed and exist even today. I could give many examples.

I talk about these matters not to say anything against the peoples of the West who have to be as they are, but to show how in Central Europe the human beings have to find the connection with the big, only germ-like values of the future development. The role of Austria is also significant in particular. In the last decades, one could see some spirits striving for high ideals like Hamerling5Robert Hamerling (1830–1889), cf. The Riddle of the Human Being and Autobiography, Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works volumes 20 and 28 in poetry, like Carneri6Bartholomäus von Carneri (1821–1909), cf. Methodical Foundations of Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works volume 30.2.29 who wanted to deepen Darwinism concerning moral, and like Bruckner7Anton Bruckner (1824–1896), Austrian composer and other artists in all kinds of fields. It matters such a self-reflection of the people

Now we look at the unused etheric bodies which exist there. These etheric bodies were taken off by human beings who learnt during a big event to sacrifice themselves for something that there is no longer for them, not as anything sensory at least: for the people. If somebody talks today as a spiritual scientist about the fact that there a folk-soul is as an archangel et cetera, then they laugh at him. What one calls folk-soul in materialism is only the summary of the qualities which the human beings of a people have. What the materialist calls people is only the sum of the human beings who live together and look similar in an area. We speak about a people in such a way that we know: the folk-soul exists as a real being of the archangel's rank. Even if anybody who sacrifices himself who goes through death for his people has no clear idea of a real folk-soul on the field of the events, nevertheless, he confirms by the way he goes through death that he believes in a further effectiveness after this death that he believes that there is more than that which the eyes see in the people: its connection and its keeping together with the supersensible realm.

Everybody who goes through death, whether he knows it more or less, goes through this death, confirming that there is a supersensible world; this is stamped to his etheric body. So that in future except those who will live on the physical earth when peace has taken place again, the unused etheric bodies will live for ever sending these tones to the music of the spheres: there is more in the world than that which can be seen only with physical eyes. Spiritual truth sounds into the music of the spheres by that which the dead leave behind in their etheric bodies, apart from that which they take with their individualities which they carry through the life between death and new birth.

However, one has to listen to that which will live and sound from these etheric bodies. For these etheric bodies were taken off by human beings who, confirming the truth of the spiritual world, went through death. The biggest sin of humankind will be if it does not listen to that which the dead call to it by their warning etheric bodies. How much is the view to the spiritual world enlivened if one has to imagine that the fathers and mothers, the sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, who lose dear relatives and friends, must say to themselves: what was there sacrificed, lives for the whole humankind, admonishing that which has to come.

If one relied on the events of the physical world, one could not have a lot of hope for the prosperous progress of the spiritual movement which should be cultivated in our spiritual-scientific world view. When recently a good, loyal co-worker died, in the thirtieth year of his life, there was in my words, which I directed to this soul after he has gone through the gate of death, the entreaty that he would like to co-operate as faithfully and courageously on our spiritual-scientific field as he co-operated here faithfully and devotedly, using everything that he knew. He co-operated diligently here on the physical plane, this co-worker. I gave him this as a message for his life between death and new birth that he may co-operate after death as he done it before death, because we count on these dead, the so-called dead, as on the living.

Our spiritual-scientific world view must be vivid, so that the abyss is overcome between the so-called dead and the living that we feel the dead among us like living human beings. We want not only theory, but life. That is why we also point to the fact that a living bond exists between those who live on earth when peace is again, and those who went through the gate of death. The human beings will be able to learn from the dead, will have to learn how these dead help in the big spiritual progress which must seize the earth.

Sometimes one recognises in life that the human logic does not suffice. I would like to give you an example, not for personal reasons, but to characterise the way people position themselves to our movement. Some years ago, one could read an article about our spiritual science in a South German very serious magazine written by a famous philosopher of the present. Spiritual science was treated there in such a way that it could make a certain impression on the people because the article was written by a great philosopher. The editor of the magazine prided himself in particular that he could publish an article on spiritual science by such a famous man. Of course, everything was shown badly and erroneously; a totally askew picture of spiritual science was given. What did the editor need, however, to see what a judgment about our movement he had delivered, actually, in his monthly magazine?

Then the war came. That man who had written the article wrote some letters to the editor. These letters contain the most repellent things one can generally say about the Central European culture. He ranted and sneered terribly about this Central European culture. The editor printed these letters as an example of how brainlessly one can think about this culture. Now he says: this person writes, nevertheless, as only a person can write who should be in the lunatic asylum.—The fact is that such a thing was necessary for a good editor to see that the man should be in the lunatic asylum who wrote this article about spiritual science some years ago and wreaked much havoc outwardly. If the man had to be in the lunatic asylum, he should already be there at that time. But at that time he wrote an article about spiritual science.

Such matters happen in the world. Quite different supports have to come to get a judgment than those the human being has today. However, the spiritual scientist stands firmly on the ground that shows clearly that truth finds its way. But spiritual science must have an effect on the development of humankind, so that the necessary matters take place. Like in that time, when the emperor Constantine had to complete his task, the Christ Impulse had to work from the spiritual world on the subconscious, like with the Maid of Orleans the Christ Impulse had to work, so that happened what had to happen, the Christ Impulse has to go on working, only now more in the consciousness. There must be souls in future who know: up there in the spiritual world are those who sacrificed themselves with their individualities and request us to follow them and believe in the effectiveness of spirituality they got through death. But also the forces of the unused etheric bodies call into the future what one only needs to understand to take up it in our own souls. On earth, however, must be the souls who hear this. Souls must be there who prepare themselves by the right and living understanding of our spiritual science. Our spiritual science has to create souls here on earth that are able to have premonitions of what the etheric bodies of the dead up there speak in future. The souls who know: there up are the forces which can admonish the human beings who had to be left to their own resources on earth. If here below souls aware of spirit direct their senses to the hidden tones of the spiritual world, the right fruits will originate from all the blood that flowed, from all the sacrifices that were accomplished, from all the grief that had to be endured and must still be endured. Looking at the hope which may be expressed that a lot of souls may be found by spiritual science who can hear these voices which sound from the spiritual world in particular as a result of this war, I would like to speak, to sum up, the last words of this consideration, words which should express only as a feeling what I would like to stimulate in your souls:

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.

With such emotions in the heart we always want to penetrate ourselves with the sense of the rose cross, so that this rose cross is considered rightly by us as the slogan of our working and weaving and feeling. Not the black cross only. Somebody who tears the roses from the black cross would only have the black cross, would be enslaved by Ahriman. The black cross is the life striving for the bare matter. And anybody who tears the cross from the roses and prefers only to have the roses does not find the right. Since the roses, separated from the cross, would raise us to life, but this life would strive egoistically for spirituality and not reveal something spiritual in the material. Not only the cross, not only the roses, but the roses on the cross, the cross bearing the roses, both in harmonious interaction: this is our right symbol.

Christus Im Verhältnis Zu Luzifer Und Ahriman Die Dreifache Wesensgestaltung

Wenn einmal unser der Geisteswissenschaft gewidmeter Bau in Dornach fertiggestellt sein wird, so wird er an bedeutungsvoller Stelle eine plastische Gruppe enthalten, die drei Figuren hauptsächlich darbieten wird. In der Mitte dieser Gruppe wird eine Gestalt stehen, wie, ich möchte sagen, der Repräsentant des höchsten Menschlichen, das auf der Erde sich entfalten konnte. Daher wird man auch diese Gestalt des höchsten Menschlichen in der Erdenentwickelung empfinden können als den Christus, der in dem Leibe des Jesus von Nazareth drei Jahre innerhalb der Erdenentwickelung gelebt hat. Es wird die besondere Aufgabe sein, diese Christus-Gestalt so auszugestalten, daß man auf der einen Seite wird sehen können, wie das Wesen, um das es sich handelt, in einem menschlichen Erdenleibe wohnt, wie aber doch dieser Erdenleib in jeder Miene, in allem, was an ihm ist, durchgeistigt ist von dem, was aus kosmischen, aus geistigen Höhen im dreißigsten Jahre des Lebens in diesen Erdenleib als der Christus eingezogen ist. Dann finden sich da zwei andere Figuren, die eine zur linken, die andere zur rechten Seite der Christus-Gestalt, wenn ich diese Gestalt, die ich eben mit ein paar Worten angedeutet habe, die Christus-Gestalt nennen kann. Diese Christus-Gestalt steht wie vor einem Felsen, der insbesondere da, wo die linke Seite des Christus ist, sich auftürmt, so daß sein Gipfel über dem Haupt der ChristusGestalt liegt. Da oben auf dem Felsen ist eine andere Gestalt, eine geflügelte Gestalt; aber die Flügel sind zerbrochen, und diese Gestalt fällt, weil sie die Flügel zerbrochen hat, in den Abgrund. Was künstlerisch besonders scharf wird herausgearbeitet werden müssen, das wird die Art sein, wie diese Christus-Gestalt den linken Arm erhebt. Denn durch diese Erhebung des linken Armes der Christus-Gestalt geschieht es, daß diese herabstürzende Wesenheit die Flügel zerbricht. Aber es darf das nicht so aussehen, als wenn etwa der Christus dieser Wesenheit die Flügel zerbräche, sondern das Ganze muß künstlerisch so gestaltet sein, daß, indem der Christus den Arm hinaufhebt, schon in der ganzen Handbewegung liegt, daß er eigentlich auch mit dieser Wesenheit nur unendliches Mitleid hat. Diese Wesenheit erträgt aber nicht das, was durch den Arm und die Hand hinaufströmt und was noch sichtbar sein wird, indem selbst im Felsen wie Einhöhlungen von den Fingern der hinaufgestreckten Hand sein werden. Was diese Wesenheit in sich selbst empfindet, da sie in die Nähe der Wesenheit kommt, die als die Christus-Wesenheit dasteht, das ist so, daß man es in die Worte kleiden möchte: Ich kann nicht ertragen, daß so Reines auf mich heraufstrahlt.

Das ist es, was in dieser Wesenheit lebt und was so wesentlich in dieser Wesenheit lebt, daß ihre Flügel zerbrochen werden und sie infolgedessen in den Abgrund stürzt. Es wird dieses eine besonders bedeutsame künstlerische Aufgabe sein. Und Sie merken, was da verfehlt werden könnte, wenn der Christus plastisch so dastehen würde und einfach durch Erheben der Hand eine solche Kraft ausgestrahlt würde, daß er dieser Wesenheit die Flügel zerbricht, wodurch sie in den Abgrund stürzt. Dann würde es der Christus sein, der wie mit Haß diese Wesenheit bestrahlen und sie zum Stürzen bringen würde. So darf das aber nicht dargestellt werden, sondern die Wesenheit selbst soll sich zum Stürzen bringen. Denn diese Wesenheit, die herabstürzend mit zerbrochenen Flügeln dargestellt wird, das ist Luzifer.

Und auf der andern Seite, gegen rechts von der Christus-Gestalt aus gelegen, wo der Felsen einen Vorsprung haben wird, da wird der Felsen ausgehöhlt sein. In dieser Aushöhlung ist auch eine Gestalt, die Flügel hat. Und diese Gestalt, die da Flügel hat, wendet sich mit den armähnlichen Organen nach der Felsenhöhlung oben. Sie müssen sich also vorstellen: rechts die Felsenhöhlung und in der Höhlung diese geflügelte Gestalt, die aber ganz anders geartete Flügel hat als die Gestalt oben am Felsen. Die Gestalt oben am Felsen hat mehr adlerartige Flügel, die Gestalt in der Felsenhöhlung aber fledermausartige Flügel. Die Gestalt in der Höhle klammert sich förmlich ein in die Höhle, man sieht sie in Fesseln, man sieht sie da unten arbeiten, das Erdreich auszuhöhlen.

Die Gestalt, die in der Mitte steht, die Christus-Gestalt, hat die rechte Hand heruntergerichtet. Während sie also die linke Hand nach oben richtet, ist die rechte Hand nach unten gerichtet. Wiederum wird es eine bedeutsame künstlerische Aufgabe sein, dies nicht so darzustellen, wie wenn der Christus diese Gestalt, die Ahriman ist, in Fesseln schlagen wollte, sondern der Christus hat selbst unendliches Mitleid für Ahriman. Ahriman aber kann das nicht ertragen, er windet sich in Schmerzen durch das, was durch die Hand des Christus ausstrahlt. Und was da ausstrahlt, das bewirkt, daß die Goldadern, die unten in der Felsenhöhlung sind, sich wie Schnüre um den Ahrimanleib winden und ihn fesseln. Ebenso wie das, was bei Luzifer geschieht, durch ihn selbst geschieht, so auch bei Ahriman. Wir werden dann versuchen, daß diese Auffassung, die durch ein bildhauerisches Kunstwerk an einer bedeutungsvollen Stelle im Bau stehen wird, darüber dasselbe Motiv in malerischer Auffassung haben wird, was dann ganz anders sein muß. So daß also unten diese Gruppe von drei Gestalten: Christus, Luzifer, Ahriman als plastische Gruppe dastehen wird und darüber dasselbe Motiv gemalt.

Wir stellen in unseren Dornacher Bau dieses Verhältnis zwischen Christus, Luzifer und Ahriman hinein, weil uns die Geisteswissenschaft in einer gewissen Weise wirklich zeigt, daß die nächste Aufgabe in bezug auf das Verständnis des Christus-Impulses darin besteht, daß der Mensch endlich wissen lernt, welches Verhältnis in der Welt zwischen diesen drei Mächten Christus, Luzifer und Ahriman besteht. Denn bis jetzt redet man zwar vielfach von Christentum und dem Christus-Impuls, aber was durch den Christus-Impuls eigentlich infolge des Mysteriums von Golgatha in die Welt gekommen ist, das ist den Menschen noch nicht zur völligen Klarheit gekommen. Man spricht ja wohl davon, daß es Luzifer gibt, daß es Ahriman gibt, aber indem man von Luzifer und Ahriman spricht, spricht man sehr häufig so, als wenn man sie fliehen müßte, als wenn man geradezu immer sagen müßte: Ich will nichts, gar nichts wissen von Luzifer und Ahriman!- Wenn die göttlich-geistigen Mächte, die auf die Weise, wie ich es gestern im öffentlichen Vortrag beschrieben habe, gefunden werden, auch nichts wissen wollten von Luzifer und Ahriman, so würde eben die Welt nicht bestehen können. Nicht dadurch, daß man sagt: Luzifer! ich fliehe ihn, Ahriman! ich fliehe ihn -, stellt man sich zu ihnen in das richtige Verhältnis, sondern dadurch, daß man das, was der Mensch infolge des Christus-Impulses anzustreben hat, betrachtet wie die Gleichgewichtslage eines Pendels. Der Pendel ist in der Mitte im Gleichgewicht, er muß aber nach der einen und der andern Seite ausschlagen. So ist es auch in der Erdenentwickelung des Menschen. Der Mensch muß auf der einen Seite ausschlagen nach dem luziferischen Prinzip, auf der andern Seite nach dem ahrimanischen Prinzip, aber er muß feststehen durch die Ausbildung desjenigen, was Paulus genannt hat: «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir».

Den Christus in seiner Wirksamkeit müssen wir nämlich durchaus als eine Realität auffassen, als eine Wirklichkeit. Das heißt, wir müssen uns klar sein, daß das wirklich da war, was durch das Mysterium von Golgatha in unsere Erdenentwickelung hineingeflossen ist. Wie gut oder wie schlecht die Menschen das bis jetzt verstanden haben, darauf kommt es nicht an, sondern darauf, daß es da war, daß es gewirkt hat in der menschlichen Erdenentwickelung. Gar vieles könnte man sagen, was die Menschen bisher von dem Christus-Impuls nicht verstanden haben. Und ein Stückchen wird die Geisteswissenschaft hinzuzutragen haben zu der Erfassung desjenigen, was aus geistigen Höhen durch das Mysterium von Golgatha als der Christus-Impuls eingeflossen ist in die Erdenentwickelung. Um uns das zu vergegenwärtigen, wie der Christus gewirkt hat, wollen wir, wie das auch schon an andern Orten geschehen ist, zwei Momente der Erdenentwickelung der Menschheit uns einmal vor Augen führen, zwei Momente, die wichtig geworden sind in der ganzen abendländischen Entwickelung.

Sie werden aus der Geschichte wissen, welch wichtiger Moment es war, als Konstantin, der Sohn des Constantius Chlorus, den Maxentius besiegt hat und durch Konstantin äußerlich das Christentum in die abendländische Weiterentwickelung eingeführt worden ist. Daß das geschehen konnte, dazu mußte Konstantin jene wichtige Schlacht schlagen gegen Maxentius, durch welche Konstantin dann das Christentum in seinem abendländischen Reiche zur Staatsreligion gemacht hat. Die ganze Landkarte Europas wäre eine andere geworden, wenn dazumal diese Schlacht des Konstantin gegen Maxentius nicht stattgefunden hätte. Aber Feldherrenkunst, dasjenige, was die Menschen dazumal mit dem Verstand vermocht haben, das hat diese Schlacht wirklich nicht zur Entscheidung gebracht, sondern etwas ganz anderes. Maxentius hat nachschlagen lassen in den sogenannten Sibyllinischen Büchern, den prophetischen Büchern Roms, und da wurde er so geführt, daß er sein Heer, das gut bewahrt gewesen wäre in den Mauern Roms, hinausführte aus den Mauern Roms und es im freien Feld gestellt hat dem Heere des Konstantin. Konstantin aber hatte vor der Schlacht einen Traum, in dem ihm bedeutet wurde: Wenn du im Zeichen des Mysteriums von Golgatha dem Maxentius entgegenziehst, so wirst du ein großes Ziel erreichen. — Und vorantragend das Zeichen des Mysteriums von Golgatha, das Kreuz, ging Konstantin in die Schlacht mit einem um drei Viertel kleineren Heere, als es Maxentius hatte. Und begeistert von der Gewalt, die aus dem Mysterium von Golgatha kam, gewann Konstantin jene bedeutungsvolle Schlacht, durch die das Christentum äußerlich eingeführt worden ist in Europa. Wenn wir uns erinnern, was dazumal die Menschen mit dem Verstande von dem Christus-Impuls begriffen haben, finden wir ein endloses theologisches Gezänke. Die Menschen haben gestritten darüber, ob der Christus gleich ist von Ewigkeit her mit dem Vater und dergleichen mehr. Man muß sagen: Nicht darauf kommt es an, was die Menschen gewußt haben dazumal von dem Christus-Impuls, sondern darauf, daß er da war, der Christus-Impuls, daß er da war, daß er geleitet hat durch den Konstantin, durch einen Traum des Konstantin das, was geschehen sollte. Auf die Wirklichkeit des Christus, auf die reale, die wirkliche Gewalt des Christus kommt es an. Verstehen, was der Christus-Impuls ist, damit fangen wir erst in der Geisteswissenschaft an.

Ein anderer Moment war derjenige, als in dem Kampfe zwischen Frankreich und England Europa wiederum eine Gestaltung bekommen hat, vor der man sagen kann: Wäre dazumal Frankreich nicht sieghaft gewesen gegen England, so würden alle Verhältnisse anders geworden sein. Aber wie war das geschehen? - Der Christus-Impuls hat bis in unsere Zeit, wo er immer bewußter und bewußter werden muß, eben in das Unterbewußte der Seele hineingewirkt. Und da sehen wir denn in der abendländischen Geistesentwickelung, wie sich der Christus-Impuls in den Seelen der Menschen diejenigen Zustände aufsucht, durch die er bei einzelnen Menschen wirksam werden kann. Legenden haben uns aufbewahrt die Art, wie der Christus-Impuls in der abendländischen Geistesentwickelung sich geltend machen kann. Diese Legenden weisen zurück zum Teil in alte heidnische Zeiten, überall aber in solche Zeiten, in denen sich gerade im Heidentum Verständnis für das Christentum vorbereitete.

Wenn die Seele nicht in bewußter Art die Initiation anstrebt auf dem Wege, der vorgezeichnet ist in «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?», sondern gleichsam auf natürliche Weise, wie durch eine Naturinitiation vom Christus-Impuls durchdrungen wurde, so ist die günstigste Zeit, in welcher dieser Christus-Impuls in die Seele hineininspirieren kann, die Zeit vom Weihnachtsabend bis zum Dreikönigstag, die Zeit vom 25. Dezember bis zum 6. Januar. Verstehen können wir das dadurch, daß wir uns klarmachen: für die okkultistische Erkenntnis wird es ganz eindeutig ersichtlich, daß unsere Erde nicht das allein ist, wovon die Geologen sprechen. Das, wovon die Geologen sprechen, das ist von der Erde soviel wie das Knochengerüst vom Menschen. Aber unsere Erde hat auch das Geistige, das dazugehört. Und eben in die Erdenaura ist der Christus hineingezogen. Und diese Erde schläft und wacht, wie wir in vierundzwanzig Stunden schlafen und wachen. Wir müssen uns damit bekanntmachen, daß der Schlafzustand der Erde während der Sommerzeit, der Wachzustand während der Winterzeit eintritt. Und am wachsten ist der Geist der Erde in diesen zwölf oder dreizehn Nächten von Weihnachten bis Dreikönigstag. In den alten Zeiten, in denen, wie Sie ja aus den mannigfaltigen Darstellungen in meinen Vortragszyklen wissen, die Menschen mehr in einer Art traumhaften Hellsehens sich zum geistigen Prinzip der Welt erhoben haben, war die günstigste Zeit die Sommerzeit. Ganz naturgemäß ist es, daß, wer in einem mehr traumhaften Hellsehen zum Geistigen sich erheben will, es leichter hat während der schlafenden Erdenzeit, zur Sommerzeit. Daher war es das Johannifest, das in den alten Zeiten am günstigsten war, um die Kraft der Seele hinaufzuheben zum Geistigen. An die Stelle der alten Art, wie das Geistige in die Erde hineinwirkt, ist die neue, mehr bewußte Art getreten; da ist nun die beste Zeit die Zeit, wenn die Erde wacht.

Daher sagen uns die Legenden, daß besonders begnadete Menschen, Menschen die durch ihr Karma besonders geeignet sind, um die Weihnachtszeit in einen besonderen Bewußtseinszustand kommen, der nur äußerlich ähnlich ist dem Schlaf, der aber innerlich so ist, daß inspirierend in ihn das hineinwirken kann, wodurch die Menschen erhoben wurden zu der Welt, die wir bezeichnen als das Geisterland. Da gibt es eine sehr schöne Legende, eine norwegische Legende von Olaf Åsteson, von dem uns erzählt wird, wie er am Weihnachtsabend zur Kirche geht, in schlafähnlichen Zustand fällt und wie er dann aufwacht am 6. Januar und erzählen kann, was er erlebt hat in diesem schlafähnlichen Zustand. Und wirklich erzählt uns diese norwegische Legende, wie Olaf Åsteson etwas durchlebt hat, was man zunächst wie die Seelenwelt empfindet, dann etwas, was man wie das Geisterland empfindet, nur eben alles in Bildern, in Imaginationen.

Diese Zeit ist die günstigste gewesen in denjenigen Epochen, in denen die Menschen noch nicht so vorgeschritten waren wie in unserer Zeit. Heute sind die Zeiten vorbei, in denen in dieser Weise wie durch eine Naturinitiation der Christus-Impuls in die Seelen hineinströmen kann. Heute müssen die Menschen ebenso bewußt, wie es vorgeschrieben ist in «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten ?», sich hinaufranken zur Initiation. Wir leben in einer Zeit, in der Naturinitiationen immer seltener werden und endlich ganz verschwinden werden, so daß wir nicht mehr darauf zu rechnen haben. Aber eine — im wesentlichen — Naturinitiation zu nennende Initiation war noch die, durch welche der Christus-Impuls hineinwirkte in das Gemüt des einfachen Landmädchens, in die Jungfrau von Orleans durch die verursacht worden ist der Sieg der Franzosen über die Engländer, der die europäische Landkarte in so großartiger Weise umgestaltet hat. Wiederum nicht dasjenige, was der menschliche Verstand leisten konnte, war es, sondern das, was dazumal über alle Kunst der Heerführer hinausgehend die Jungfrau von Orleans leitete, und wodurch Europa eine neue Gestalt bekam - der Christus-Impuls, der in das Unbewußte einer einzelnen Persönlichkeit hineinarbeitete, aber so hineinarbeitete, daß dann von dieser Persönlichkeit ausstrahlte, was wirksam ist in der ganzen Geschichte.

Nun müßten wir daraufachten, ob etwas Ähnliches vorgegangen sein könnte als Naturinitiation bei der Jungfrau von Orleans, ob die Seele der Jungfrau von Orleans in den Nächten vom 25. Dezember bis zum 6. Januar inspiriert worden wäre. Im Lebensgange scheint so etwas nicht nachzuweisen zu sein, daß die Jungfrau von Orleans auch einmal in den zwölf oder dreizehn Tagen vom 25. Dezember bis 6. Januar in einem schlafähnlichen Zustande war, in welchem besonders der Christus-Impuls hätte in sie hineinwirken können, so daß sie dann als Mensch wie die Hülle nur des Christus-Impulses gewirkt hätte auf Frankreichs Schlachtfeldern. Und doch war es so. Es gibt nämlich eine Zeit, die, wenn das Karma der betreffenden Individualität das besonders möglich macht beim Menschen, wirklich von einem solchen schlafähnlichen Zustand ausgefüllt werden kann. Das ist die Zeit der letzten Tage, in denen der Mensch noch, bevor er das physische Erdenlicht schaut, im Leib der Mutter lebt. Da lebt der Mensch in einem traumhaften, schlafähnlichen Zustand. Er hat ja noch nicht durch die Sinne etwas gesehen, was äußerlich in der Welt sich zuträgt. Wäre ein Mensch durch sein Karma besonders geeignet, in diesen letzten Tagen, in welchen er im Leib der Mutter wohnt, aufzunehmen den ChristusImpuls, so würden diese Tage auch Tage der Naturinitiation sein. Dann würde ein solcher Mensch schon gekräftigt und gestärkt mit dem in ihm liegenden Christus-Impuls zum erstenmal das Auge aufschlagen nach der Initiation, das heißt in diesem Falle, nach der Geburt. Und ein solcher Mensch müßte am 6. Januar geboren sein. Die Jungfrau von Orleans ist am 6. Januar geboren. Das ist das Geheimnis der Jungfrau von Orleans, daß sie am 6. Januar geboren ist, daß sie die Zeit von Weihnachten bis zum Dreikönigstag in jenem eigentümlichen, schlafähnlichen Zustand im Leib der Mutter zugebracht und da ihre Naturinitiation aufgenommen hat. Nun bedenken Sie die tiefen Zusammenhänge, die hinter der äußeren Entwickelung stehen, die man gewöhnlich die Geschichte nennt. Was äußerlich in der Geschichte aus Dokumenten dargestellt wird, das ist in der Regel sogar das Unwichtigste. Das einfache Datum, das in unserem Kalender verzeichnet ist, daß die Jungfrau von Orleans am 6. Januar in die Welt hineingeschickt worden ist, das ist von maßgebender historischer Bedeutung. So wirken die Kräfte aus dem Übersinnlichen in das Sinnliche herein. Und wir müssen diese okkulte Schrift lesen, durch die sich für uns die Hineinwirkung des Übersinnlichen in das Sinnliche darstellt. Also das Hineinströmen des Christus-Impulses wie durch eine Naturinitiation, schon vor der physischen Geburt, war bei der Jungfrau von Orleans vorhanden.

Ich will diese Dinge auseinandersetzen, um in Ihren Seelen ein Gefühl davon hervorzurufen, wie hinter dem, was man gewöhnlich Geschichte nennt, für das äußere Anschauen unbekannte Mächte und Zusammenhänge wirksam sind. So leitet aber seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha der Christus-Impuls die Geschichte namentlich der europäischen Menschheit. Und im Orient, in Asien ist eine Weltauffassung zurückgeblieben, von der man sagen kann: Sie ist in ihren Empfindungen noch nicht bis zu dem Christus-Impuls herangekommen. Gewiß, der Europäer hat sich verführen lassen, das, was man als Indertum empfindet, ganz besonders tief zu nennen. Aber das ist das Charakteristische dieses Indertums — überhaupt der ganzen asiatischen Religionsempfindung -, daß es mit all seinem Fühlen vor dem Christus-Impuls steht, aber den Zustand bewahrt hat, der im religösen Empfinden der Erdenmenschheit da war vor dem Christus-Impuls. Zurückbleiben in der Entwickelung bedeutet immer, etwas Luziferisches in sich aufnehmen. Daher trägt die asiatische Religionsentwickelung in sich ein luziferisches Element. Und blicken wir hinüber zur asiatischen Religionsentwickelung, so müssen wir gewahr werden: Gewiß, wir können in ihr vieles sehen, was die Menschheit einmal schon hatte, wovon sie aber abkommen mußte. Aber das alles müssen wir in der abendländischen Kultur zum Teil reinigen von dem luziferischen Element, zum Teil hinaufheben so, daß das ChristusPrinzip einfließen kann.

Wenn wir von Asien nach Europa hinübergehen, so finden wir im Osten von Europa, in der russischen Kultur, ausgebreitet das orthodoxe Christentum, das stehengeblieben ist auf einer früheren Stufe der christlichen Entwickelung, das nicht mitgehen wollte, das noch etwas Luziferisches behalten wollte. Kurz, blicken wir nach Osten hinüber, so haben wir das, was, ich möchte sagen, die weise Weltenlenkung in der ganzen Entwickelung der Menschheit als das luziferische Element zurückließ.

Blicken wir nach Westen hinüber, besonders nach der amerikanischen Kultur, dann haben wir eine andere Eigentümlichkeit. Das Charakteristische dieser amerikanischen Kultur ist, daß alles im Äußerlichen gesucht wird. Dadurch wird gewiß Großes, Bedeutsames hervorgebracht; aber alles wird im Äußeren gesucht. Nehmen Sie ein Beispiel. Wenn wir in Europa, namentlich in Mitteleuropa, sehen, daß ein Mensch, der in seinem Leben zunächst nicht Gelegenheit hatte, auf den Christus und die geistigen Weltenmächte sein Gemüt hinzurichten, durch irgend etwas plötzlich gleichsam Umkehr gehalten hat in seinem Leben, dann interessiert uns, was in dieser Seele vorgegangen ist. Nicht daß er einen Sprung erlebte in seiner Entwickelung, ist es, was uns interessiert, das finden wir ja überall. Denn am unrichtigsten ist der Ausspruch, den die äußere Wissenschaft geprägt hat: Natur macht keine Sprünge. - Vom grünen Pflanzenblatt zum roten Blumenblatt ist ein mächtiger Sprung, vom Blumenblatt zum Kelche ist wiederum ein mächtiger Sprung. Es ist ein durchaus unrichtiger Ausspruch, und die Wahrheit der Entwickelung beruht gerade darauf, daß überall Sprünge gemacht werden. Daß also auch ein Mensch, wenn er eine Zeitlang so äußerlich hingelebt hat, durch irgend etwas wie plötzlich zum Geistigen sich hinneigen kann, das ist nicht das Besondere, was uns interessiert. Aber die innere Macht und Gewalt, die so etwas bewirkt, was man eine Bekehrung zum Geistigen nennen könnte, das wird uns interessieren. Wir werden in das Gemüt eines solchen Menschen hineinschauen wollen, wir werden wissen wollen, was ihn zu einer solchen Umkehr gebracht hat. Es wird uns das innere Seelische interessieren. Wie macht es nun der Amerikaner? — Er macht etwas sehr Eigentümliches. In Amerika konnte man ja vielfach beobachten, daß solche Bekehrungen stattgefunden haben. Nun, der Amerikaner läßt Briefe schreiben von solchen, die eine Bekehrung durchgemacht haben. Dann legt er alle diese Briefe zusammen auf ein Häufchen und sagt: Ich habe die Briefe nun erhalten von einer Anzahl Menschen; es waren etwa gegen zweihundert, die Briefe geschrieben haben, Vierzehn Prozent von all diesen Seelen, die eine solche Bekehrung erlebten, haben sie aus Furcht geschrieben, die plötzlich über sie kam vor dem Tode oder der Hölle; aus altruistischen Motiven fünf Prozent; aus Streben nach sittlichen Idealen siebzehn Prozent; aus Gewissensbissen fünfzehn Prozent; aus Befolgung von Lehren, die ihnen gegeben worden sind, zehn Prozent; dadurch, daß sie gesehen haben, daß andere bekehrt wurden - also aus Nachahmung -, dreizehn Prozent; dadurch, daß man sie genötigt hat, indem man sie im entsprechenden Alter durchprügelte, neunzehn Prozent und so weiter. So nimmt man die extremsten Seelen heraus, sortiert sie und erhält ein Resultat, das auf «sichere Daten» aufgebaut ist. Das wird dann verzeichnet in den Büchern, die man als « Seelenkunde» unter die Leute schickt. Alle andern Unterlagen sind diesen Leuten unsicher, seien nur auf Subjektivem aufgebaut, so sagen sie. Da haben Sie ein Beispiel von Veräußerlichung des Allerinnerlichsten selbst. So ist es in vieler, vieler Beziehung in Amerika. In der Zeit, die eine besondere spirituelle Vertiefung fordert, grassiert der äußerlichste Spiritismus in Amerika! Man will dort alles handgreiflich haben.

Das ist eine materialistische Erfassung des geistigen Lebens. Wir könnten noch viele solche Dinge anführen, an denen Sie sehen würden, daß die Kultur im Westen gepackt wird von dem Ahrimanischen. Das ist das andere Ausschlagen des Pendels. Blicken wir nach Osten, so haben wir das luziferische Element, blicken wir nach Westen, so haben wir das ahrimanische Element. Und die so unendlich bedeutungsvolle Aufgabe, die wir zwischen West und Ost in Mitteleuropa haben, das ist die, das Gleichgewicht zu finden. Daher möchten wir in unserem Dornacher Bau hinstellen als plastische Gruppe das Größte der spirituellen Anforderungen unserer Zeit: das Gleichgewicht zu finden zwischen dem Verhältnis zu Luzifer und dem Verhältnis zu Ahriman. Dann wird man erst erkennen, was der Christus-Impuls von der Erdenentwickelung wollte, wenn man den Christus nicht so einfach herausstellen wird, sondern wenn man in der richtigen Weise wissen wird, wie der Christus diejenige Macht ist, die für uns vorbildlich im Verhältnis zu Luzifer und Ahriman dasteht.

Daß in bezug auf das Verhältnis des Menschen und des Christus zu Luzifer und Ahriman noch keine Klarheit herrscht, das mag Ihnen durch folgendes anschaulich werden. Auch das Größte, das, was nach der einen Richtung das Größte enthält, ist nicht immer frei von dem, was noch als Einseitigkeit in der Zeit herrschen muß. Man kann gewiß nicht hoch genug stellen jenes Bild, das Michelangelo in der Sixtinischen Kapelle in Rom hingestellt hat, «Das jüngste Gericht», dieses wunderbare Bild. Der Christus triumphierend, die Guten nach der einen Seite lenkend, die Bösen nach der andern. Schauen wir uns diesen Christus an. Die Züge hat er nicht, die wir gerne erreichen möchten bei dem Christus, der in unserem Dornacher Bau stehen soll. Das muß ersichtlich werden, daß der Christus die Hand erhebt in Mitleid, trotzdem da oben Luzifer ist. Luzifer soll nicht gestürzt werden durch die Macht des Christus, sondern er stürzt sich selbst herab, weil er nicht ertragen kann, was von dem Christus ausstrahlt in seiner Nähe. Und der Christus erhebt sein Auge und faltet die Stirn, indem er die gefaltete Stirn zu Luzifer erhebt. Und Ahriman wird nicht durch den Haß des Christus überwunden, sondern er fühlt, daß er nicht ertragen kann, was von dem Christus ausströmt. Der Christus aber steht inmitten als derjenige, der das Parzival-Element in die neuere Zeit heraufbringt, der nicht durch seine Kraft, sondern durch sein Dasein zur Sich-Überwindung die andern bringen muß, so daß die andern sich selbst überwinden und nicht er sie überwindet. Bei Michelangelo sehen wir noch, wie der Christus durch seine Gewalt die einen zum Himmel, die andern zur Hölle schickt. Das wird in der Zukunft nicht der richtige Christus sein, sondern das wird ein Christus sein, der noch sehr luziferisch ist. Damit ist natürlich dieses Bild nicht verkleinert. Die ganze Größe dieses Bildes wird anerkannt, aber man muß gestehen, daß Michelangelo noch nicht den Christus malen konnte, weil die Weltentwickelung noch nicht so weit war. Es muß durchauseingesehen werden, daß man nicht nur den Sinn zu dem Christus hinlenken soll, sondern daß man den Sinn hinlenken soll zu der dreifachen Wesensgestaltung: Christus, Luzifer, Ahriman. Ich kann das nur andeuten. Geisteswissenschaft wird das alles erst herausbringen, was in diesem Geheimnis liegt: Christus im Verhältnis zu Luzifer und Ahriman.

Aber nun bedenken Sie das Folgende: Wenn wir nach Osten sehen, so sehen wir selbst im nächsten Osten luziferische Mächte. Und im Westen sehen wir ahrimanische Mächte. Wirklich, es muß schon einmal unsere Art sein, in der geisteswissenschaftlichen Betrachtung die Dinge nicht mit Sympathie und Antipathie und auch die Völker und Volksseelen nicht mit Sympathie und Antipathie zu betrachten, sondern so, wie sie in ihrer Eigenart sind. Was man die nationale Eigentümlichkeit eines Menschen nennt, der in seinem Volkstum darinsteht, das hängt vor allen Dingen von dem ab, was im physischen und im ätherischen Leib wirksam ist. Wenn wir vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen mit unserem Seelisch-Geistigen als astralischer Leib und Ich leben, dann leben wir außerhalb des gewöhnlichen Nationalen. Nur vom Aufwachen bis zum Einschlafen, wenn wir in den Leib untertauchen, leben wir im Nationalen. Daher ist das Nationale auch etwas, was der Mensch während seines Aufenthaltes im Kamaloka nach und nach überwindet. Zum allgemein Menschlichen strebt der Mensch hin, indem er im Kamaloka das Nationale überwindet, um dann die größte Zeit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt im allgemein Menschlichen zu leben. Es gehört zu den Eigenschaften, die im Kamaloka abgelegt werden, auch dasjenige, was uns spezialisiert zum nationalen Menschen.

In dieser Beziehung sind nun die einzelnen Nationalitäten sehr voneinander verschieden. Vergleichen wir einmal einen französischen Menschen und einen russischen Menschen. Der französische Mensch hat die Eigentümlichkeit, daß er das, was die Volksseele hineinträgt in seinen physischen Leib und Ätherleib während seines Lebens zwischen Geburt und Tod, ganz besonders festhält, daß er ganz besonders darin lebt. Das drückt sich darin aus, daß der Franzose - nicht als einzelner Mensch, sondern als Franzose — eine Vorstellung hat von dem, was ein Franzose ist; daß er vor allen Dingen das voranstellt, was denn eigentlich ein Franzose ist. Aber diese Gedanken, die sich der Franzose von seiner Nationalität macht, die sich überhaupt der Romane von seiner Nationalität macht, bewirken, daß im Ätherleib scharf eingedrückt ist die Vorstellung, die der Franzose von Nationalität hat. Geht er durch die Pforte des Todes, dann trennt er schon nach Tagen den Ätherleib ab; dieser Ätherleib ist dann eine festgeschlossene Gestalt, die lange in der ätherischen Welt vorhanden bleibt. Der Ätherleib kann sich lange nicht auflösen, weil ihm fest eingeprägt sind die Vorstellungen seiner Nationalität; diese Vorstellungen halten den Ätherleib zusammen. Wenn wir nach Westen hinübersehen, so sehen wir daher das Feld des Todes. angefüllt mit festgeprägten Ätherleibern.

Schauen wir nun näher nach dem Osten, nach dem russischen Menschen, dann ist das Eigentümliche dieser russischen Menschen, daß sie, wenn die Seelen durch die Pforte des Todes gehen, einen solchen Ätherleib in sich tragen, daß er sich verhältnismäßig sehr rasch auflöst. Das ist der Unterschied zwischen dem Westen und dem Osten. Die Ätherleiber, die ausgeschieden werden nach dem Tode beim westeuropäischen Menschen, die haben die Eigentümlichkeit, daß sie sich starr halten wollen. Das, was der Franzose «Gloire» nennt, das prägt sich seinem Ätherleib fest ein als nationale Gloire, so daß er verurteilt ist, lange, lange nach seinem Tode den geistigen Blick hinzulenken nach diesem Ätherleib, sich selbst anzuschauen nach dem Tode. Der russische Mensch dagegen schaut sich wenig an nach dem Tode. Durch das alles ist der westeuropäische Mensch dem ahrimanischen Einfluß ausgesetzt; dieses Vermaterialisieren des Ätherleibes ist wiederum ausgesetzt dem ahrimanischen Prinzip. Das Zerfließen des Ätherleibes, das baldige Aufgehen des Ätherleibes ist begleitet von einem Wollustgefühl, und das ist gerade das Eigentümliche, ein instinktives Wollustgefühl im Nationalen. Wie ist dieses ausgedrückt im Osten? — Mitteleuropa versteht das nicht, wie es sich auch da nicht hineinfühlt. Wenn man Dostojewskij und selbst Tolstoi verfolgt oder andere, die tonangebend waren, die immer reden vom «russischen Menschen», so ist dies ein Wollustgefühl im Nationalen, das sich selbst nicht definieren kann. Selbst bei Solowjow finden wir noch, wie in seiner Philosophie etwas Schwüles lebt, das der mitteleuropäische Mensch mit der Klarheit und Reinheit, die er sucht, nicht vereinigen kann. Was in Europa als geistige Macht wirksam ist, das hängt mit alledem zusammen. In Mitteleuropa ist ein anderer, ein Mittelzustand vorhanden, nämlich etwas, was man noch weiter ausführen könnte, als es im gestrigen öffentlichen Vortrag möglich war. Ich sagte: Etwas ist vorhanden in Mitteleuropa, was innerliche Strebensnatur ist. Goethe würde in den vierziger Jahren genau ebenso seinen «Faust» geschrieben haben: Immer streben, immer streben! — Aber dieses Streben ist innerlichste Natur. In Mitteleuropa war es, wo die Mystiker aufgetreten sind, die das Göttlich-Geistige nicht bloß erkennen wollten, sondern es mit der eigenen Seele durchleben wollten. Innerlich erleben wollten die Mystiker das Christus-Ereignis. Nimmt man nun Solowjow, so findet man, daß er vor allen Dingen davon ausgeht: Der Christus ist einmal historisch für die Menschheit gestorben. Das ist ganz richtig, aber es handelt sich bei Solowjow um eine Seele, die wie eine Wolke das geistige Leben außer sich sieht, eine Seele, die sieht, daß gleichsam schon alles geschehen ist, während der mitteleuropäische Mensch fordert, daß jeder wieder aufs neue das Christus-Erlebnis in sich erlebe. Selbst einem Solowjow würde Meister Eckart etwa folgendes erwidert haben. Wenn Solowjow immer wieder betont, der Christus müsse durch den Tod gehen, damit der Mensch Mensch sein kann, so würde Meister Eckart sagen: Ihr schaut den Christus an, wie man irgend etwas Äußerliches anschaut. Darauf kommt es nicht an, daß wir immer hinblicken nur auf die historischen Ereignisse, sondern wir müssen im Inneren den Christus selbst erleben, wir müssen etwas entdecken im Inneren, was solche Zustände durchmacht wie der Christus, wenigstens geistig, so daß geistig spirituell das Christus-Erlebnis wieder durchlebt wird.

Nun erscheint es gewiß vertrackt und phantastisch, wenn der heutigen Menschheit gesagt wird: Die ganze Entwickelung, selbst der sprachliche Volksgeist hat in Mitteleuropa so gewirkt, daß hereingeprägt wurde in seine Sprache dieser Zusammenhang des Ich mit dem Christus-Prinzip: I-CH = Jesus Christus. I-CH, das sich zusammenfügt so, daß es «Ich» wurde. Und indem man in Mitteleuropa Ich ausspricht, spricht man den Namen des Christus aus. So nahe will man das Ich mit dem Christus fühlen, so innig damit verbunden sein. Dieses intime Zusammenleben mit der geistigen Welt, wie es in Mitteleuropa auf allen geistigen Gebieten angestrebt werden muß, kennt man weder im Westen noch im Osten. Daher muß im 20. Jahrhundert etwas geschehen, damit sich allmählich über den ganzen europäischen Kontinent in entsprechender Weise ausbreiten kann das Christus-Prinzip. Ich habe es öfter in verschiedenen Vortragszyklen betont, daß im November 1879 diejenige geistige Wesenheit, die wir als den Erzengel Michael bezeichnen, eine besondere Entwickelungsstufe erreicht hat. Michael wurde sozusagen der führende Geist. Dieser führende Geist bereitet nun das Ereignis vor, das im ersten meiner Mysteriendramen als Erscheinung des ätherischen Christus über die Erde hin angedeutet ist, das Ereignis, welches im 20. Jahrhundert eintreten muß. Dann wird eintreten, daß erst einzelne Seelen, dann mehr und immer mehr Seelen wissen werden: Der Christus ist wirklich da, der Christus wandelt wiederum auf der Erde, aber in ätherischer Gestalt, nicht in physischer Gestalt. -— Das muß vorbereitet werden. Wenn im Laufe dieses 20. Jahrhunderts gewissen Seelen die geistigen Augen hellsichtig geöffnet würden — und das wird geschehen - für das, was in der ätherischen Welt lebt, würden sie gestört werden durch jene Ätherleiber, die von Westeuropa her sich ausbreiten. Auf die würde der geistige Blick zuerst fallen, und man würde in unrichtiger Weise die Gestalt des Christus sehen. Daher muß Michael einen Kampf kämpfen in Europa. Er muß etwas beitragen, daß diese westeuropäischen starren Ätherleiber aufgelöst werden in der ätherischen Welt. Dazu muß er diejenigen Ätherleiber nehmen, die sich gerne auflösen, die Ätherleiber im Osten, und muß mit ihnen kämpfen gegen Westen. Das bewirkt, daß sich seit 1879 ein mächtiger Kampf in der astralen Welt vorbereitet hat zwischen russischen und westeuropäischen Ätherleibern, und dieser Kampf durchtobt die ganze astralische Welt. Es ist wirklich ein heftiger Kampf vorhanden in der Astralwelt, geführt von Michael, zwischen Rußland und Frankreich. Das ist das, was in der Astralwelt zugrunde liegt dem Kampfe, der da tobt in Europa. Und wie wir oftmals so erschütternd davon ergriffen werden, daß etwas, was hier in der physischen Welt sich vollzieht, in der geistigen Welt entgegengesetzt ist, so ist es auch hier der Fall. Jenes durch Verführung von Ahriman zusammengekommene französisch-russische Bündnis, das vorzugsweise auf dem ahrimanischen Element, nämlich auf zwanzig Milliarden beruht, die von Frankreich an Rußland gegeben worden sind, ist der physische Ausdruck für einen Kampf, der tobt zwischen französischen und russischen Seelen, für einen Kampf, in den Mitteleuropa mit seinem Streben im innersten Seelenelement nach dem Begegnen mit dem Christus hineingestellt ist. Und Europa ist dem Karma verfallen, daß gerade in Mitteleuropa in tragischer Weise erlebt werden muß, was der Osten mit dem Westen und der Westen mit dem Osten auszumachen hat. Die Dinge, die äußerlich das deutsche Element mit dem französischen Element auszumachen hat, sind nur so aufzufassen, daß das Deutsche eben mitten zwischen dem Osten und dem Westen ist und nach beiden Seiten als Amboß wirkt. Denn das, was von beiden Seiten in Deutschland zusammengestoßen wird, das wird in Wahrheit von diesen beiden Seiten verhandelt. Das ist die geistige Wahrheit, die ganz anders ist als das, was sich äußerlich in der physischen Welt abspielt. Denken Sie, wie verschieden die geistige Wahrheit von dem ist, was sich äußerlich in der physischen Welt abspielt! Alles das klingt gewiß den heutigen Menschen grotesk, aber die Wahrheit ist es. Erschütternd muß diese Wahrheit auf uns wirken.

Aber noch eine andere Sache ist außerordentlich bedeutsam. Es widerspricht gewiß alledem, was uns die Geschichte zeigen kann, daß England, nachdem es immer mit der Türkei gegen Rußland vereint war, nun plötzlich mit Rußland gegen die Türkei kämpfen muß. Verstehen kann man diesen Widerspruch erst, wenn man folgende okkulte Beobachtung macht. Während hier unten auf dem physischen Plan England mit Rußland vereint das türkische Element bekämpft, stellt sich folgendes für die okkulte Beobachtung dar. Wenn man in bezug auf diesen Kampf okkult beobachtet und gleichsam von unten herauf auf den physischen Plan schaut und dann auf den Astralplan, so stellt sich heraus: Für den Norden erscheint einem Rußland mit England verbündet, und für den Südosten erscheint einem die Türkei mit England verbündet. Das rührt davon her, daß das Bündnis zwischen England und Rußland nur eine Bedeutung hat auf dem physischen Plan, aber keine Abspiegelung hat in der geistigen Welt, da es ganz auf materiellen Interessen beruht. Von unten sieht man nur auf dem physischen Plan England und Rußland verbunden im Norden. Im Südosten sieht man durch den physischen Plan hindurch auf dem Astralplan die Engländer mit den Türken seelenhaft vereint gegen Rußland kämpfend. So kämpft England auf dem physischen Plan auf der einen Seite zusammen mit Rußland, und auf der andern Seite wird Rußland von England bekämpft. So müssen wir die Dinge betrachten, die sich äußerlich wirklich abspielen, insofern sie sich als äußere Geschichte offenbaren. Denn das, was dahintersteckt, ist eben etwas ganz anderes.

Es wird eine Zeit kommen, in der die Menschen über die jetzigen Ereignisse ganz anders reden werden, als es gegenwärtig geschieht. Man muß sagen, die ganze Kriegsliteratur hat etwas recht Unerfreuliches. Manches Schöne wird ja auch gesagt, aber doch auch sehr viel Unerfreuliches. Und vor allen Dingen unerfreulich ist eines. Es wird immer gesagt: Heute kann man noch nicht darüber sprechen, wer den Krieg verschuldet hat und so weiter. — Man tröstet sich hinweg über die Dinge. Man sagt: In Zukunft wird man aus den Dokumenten der Archive schon herausbringen, wer den Krieg verschuldet hat! - In bezug auf die äußeren Ereignisse ist die Sache aber gar nicht so schwer zu finden, wenn man ohne Leidenschaft urteilt. Und Chamzberlain hat in seinen «Kriegsaufsätzen», wenn er auch in den Einzelheiten irrt, schon recht, wenn er sagt, daß man gerade über diesen Krieg das Allergewisseste wissen kann. Das ist richtig, daß darüber kein Zweifel ist, nur muß man die richtige Frage stellen. Es wird zum Beispiel erne Frage, wenn sie richtig gestellt ist, nur eindeutig beantwortet werden können. Es ist die Frage: Wer hätte diesen Krieg verhindern können? — Die immer wiederkehrende Frage: Wer hat die Schuld an diesem Kriege? und noch viele andere Fragen, sind eben nicht richtig. Wer hätte den Krieg verhindern können? — Darauf wird die Antwort keine andere sein können als die: Die russische Regierung hätte den Krieg verhindern können! — Und nur so wird man die richtige Definition finden können für die Antriebe, die im einzelnen wirken. Selbstverständlich hätte wiederum der seit Jahrzehnten von dem Osten gewollte Krieg heute nicht kommen können, wenn nicht ein gewisses Verhältnis zwischen England, Rußland und Frankreich bestanden hätte, so daß man auch, wenn man will, England die größere Schuld zuschreiben kann. Aber alle diese Dinge berücksichtigen nicht das, was hinter alledem doch an Ursachen steht, die den ganzen Weltkrieg als Notwendigkeit darstellen. Es ist naiv zu glauben, daß der Krieg hätte ausbleiben können. Die Menschen reden jetzt, als ob dieser Krieg nicht hätte zu kommen brauchen. Er liegt natürlich im europäischen Karma.

Etwas wollte ich andeuten durch die geistigen Gegensätze zwischen Osten und Westen. Es kommt nicht darauf an, daß wir sozusagen in besonderer Weise nach den äußeren Ursachen fragen, denn diese sind ja nicht wichtig. Wir müssen nur wissen, daß dieser Krieg eine historische Notwendigkeit ist. Da sind die einzelnen Ursachen nicht wichtig.

Aber wichtig sind schon alle die verschiedenartigen Wirkungen, zu denen wir uns in der richtigen Weise werden stellen müssen. Und da kann uns eine Wirkung als ganz besonders bedeutungsvoll vor die Seele treten. Es ist eine großartige, charakteristische Erscheinung, daß durch einen solchen Krieg viele unverbrauchte Ätherleiber erzeugt werden. Und da dies der größte Krieg ist, den die Menschheit geführt hat seit der bewußten Geschichtsentwickelung, so ist auch diese Eigentümlichkeit in einem höchsten Maße vorhanden. Unverbrauchte Ätherleiber werden erzeugt. Und sehen Sie, der Ätherleib, den der Mensch in sich trägt, kann ihn lange versorgen, bis der Mensch siebzig, achtzig, neunzig Jahre alt ist. Im Kriege aber werden Menschen in der Blüte ihrer Jahre hingeopfert. Wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes geht, so wird der Ätherleib, wie Sie wissen, nach kurzer Zeit ausgestoßen; aber bei den im Kriege Gefallenen wird der Ätherleib so ausgestoßen, daß er noch lange, jahrzehntelang hindurch im physischen Leibe diese Menschenleben hätte versorgen können. In der Physik erkennt man an, daß keine Kraft verlorengeht. Im Geistigen ist es aber ebenso. Diese Ätherleiber, die frühzeitig in die äthetische Welt hineingehen, bleiben mit ihren Kräften vorhanden. Bedenken Sie nun, wie unzählige unverbrauchte Ätherleiber von denen da sind, die als junge Menschen durch die Pforte des "Todes gehen. Mit diesen Ätherleibern ist es doch etwas Besonderes. Das möchte ich an einem Beispiel, das unserer Bewegung naheliegt, erläutern, um dann überzugehen auf die Ätherleiber, die von den durch den Tod gegangenen Kriegern in der ätherischen Welt in der nächsten Zukunft enthalten sein werden.

Wir haben in diesem Herbst in Dornach den Tod des kleinen Sohnes einer dort jetzt in der Umgebung des Baues beschäftigten Familie aus der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft erlebt, den Tod des kleinen, siebenjährigen Theodor Faiß. Der Vater hat früher in Stuttgart gelebt, dann kam er als Gärtner nach Dornach in die Umgebung des Baues und lebte dort mit seiner Familie. Er selbst war bald nach Kriegsausbruch eingezogen worden und war zu der Zeit des Ereignisses, das ich anführen will, im Lazarett. Der kleine, siebenjährige Theodor war ein wirkliches Sonnenkind, ein wunderbarer, lieber Knabe. Nun geschah eines Tages das Folgende. Wir hatten gerade einen Vortrag, wie ich sie in Dornach halte im Anschluß an das, was im Bau geschieht. Nach dem Vortrag kam eine Persönlichkeit und sagte, daß der kleine Theodor Faiß seit dem Spätnachmittag nicht zu seiner Mutter zurückgekommen sei. Es war zehn Uhr abends, und man konnte nichts anderes denken, als daß ein großes Unglück geschehen sei. Es war nämlich an diesem Nachmittag ein Möbelwagen angekommen und war in der Nähe der sogenannten Kantine einen Weg gefahren, auf dem er hatte umbiegen müssen. An eine Stelle war dazumal dieser Wagen gelangt, an der, man kann wirklich ruhig sagen, viele Jahrzehnte vorher kein so großer Wagen, überhaupt vielleicht noch kein Möbelwagen gefahren ist und ebensowenig nachher. Nun war der kleine Theodor, bevor dieser Wagen umgebogen hatte, in der Kantine gewesen. Er war dort etwas aufgehalten worden, sonst wäre er früher mit dem, was er an Eßwaren in der Kantine für das Abendessen geholt hatte, nach Hause gegangen. Er ist nun den Weg nach Hause - es ist nur eine ganz kurze Strecke — gerade so zurückgegangen, daß er sich gerade an jener Stelle befand, wo der Wagen umfiel und auf ihn, den kleinen Theodor, fiel. Niemand hatte es bemerkt, selbst der Kutscher nicht. Der hatte nur seine Pferde in Sicherheit gebracht, als der Wagen umfiel, und wußte nicht, daß das Kind darunter war. Als uns das Fehlen des Kindes gemeldet wurde, mußten wir den Wagen zu heben versuchen. Die Freunde holten Werkzeuge, und die mobilisierten schweizerischen Soldaten halfen uns dabei. Natürlich war das Kind seit etwa einhalb sechs Uhr nachmittags schon tot. Der Möbelwagen hatte es sogleich erdrückt, es war am Erstikkungstod gestorben.

Da haben wir solch einen Fall, auf den anzuwenden ist, was ich schon oftmals durch einen Vergleich klarzumachen versuchte, daß man verwechselt Ursache und Wirkung. Ich habe schon oft den folgenden Vergleich gebraucht: Nehmen wir an, wir sehen am Rande eines Flusses einen Menschen gehen. Der Mensch fällt in den Fluß hinein. Man läuft hin und findet an der Stelle, wo der Mensch in den Fluß gefallen ist, einen Stein und denkt nun, der Mensch sei gestolpert, dann in den Fluß gefallen und dadurch gestorben. Man sagt also, der Mensch ist gestorben, weil er in den Fluß fiel. Aber wenn man ihn nun seziert, so findet man vielleicht, daß er vom Herzschlag getroffen wurde und infolgedessen tot in das Wasser gefallen ist. Er ist also nicht gestorben, weil er ins Wasser gefallen ist, sondern ins Wasser gefallen, weil er gestorben ist. Solche Verwechslungen von Ursache und Wirkung finden Sie in der Beurteilung des Lebens ganz häufig und in der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft noch mehr.

Bei dem kleinen Theodor war es so, daß das Karina abgelaufen war, so daß man wirklich sagen kann: Er hat den Wagen selbst hinbestellt. Ich erwähne den ganzen Fall, der äußerlich außerordentlich tragisch ist, aus dem Grunde, weil wir es da zu tun haben mit dem Ätherleib eines Kindes, der noch Jahrzehnte hindurch das Leben dieses Kindes hätte versorgen können. Dieser Ätherleib ist mit all den unverbrauchten Kräften in die geistige Welt, die ätherische Welt übergegangen. Wo ist er? Was macht er? — Derjenige, der genötigt ist, am Dornacher Bau seither mit künstlerischen Intentionen zu arbeiten, überhaupt Gedanken zu hegen in der Umfriedung des Baues, der weiß, wenn er zu gleicher Zeit okkulte Anschauung hat: Dieser ganze Ätherleib ist mit seinen Kräften vergrößert in der Aura des Dornacher Baues. Wir müssen unterscheiden: die Individualität ist woanders, die geht ihren eigenen Weg, aber der Ätherleib ist ja nach einigen Tagen ausgestoßen, der ist nun im Bau vorhanden. Und niemals werde ich anstehen zu sagen, daß unter den Kräften, die man zur Intuition braucht, die Kräfte dieses Ätherleibes sind, der hingeopfert ist für den Bau. Hinter dem Leben sind die Zusammenhänge oftmals noch ganz anders, als man nur ahnt. Zu schützenden Mächten des Baues ist dieser Ätherleib geworden. Etwas großartig Gewaltiges liegt in einem solchen Zusammenhang.

Und nun bedenken wir, welch große Summe von Kraft in den unverbrauchten Ätherleibern derjenigen in die geistige Welt hinaufgeht, die jetzt durch die Pforte des Todes infolge der kriegerischen Ereignisse gehen.

Die Dinge hängen eben doch anders zusammen, als die Menschen es sich vorstellen können; das Karma in der Welt vollzieht sich anders. Und Geisteswissenschaft muß gerade dazu da sein, an die Stelle phantastischer Vorstellungen geistig wahre Vorstellungen zu setzen. Wir können uns ja kaum — um nur ein Beispiel zu nennen — etwas vom spirituellen Standpunkt aus Phantastischeres und Unwahreres denken, als etwas, was sich vollzogen hat in den letzten Dezennien. Was hat sich denn vollzogen dadurch, daß man eine besondere «Friedensgesellschaft» gegründet hat, um an Stelle des Krieges das Recht zu setzen, wie man sagte, «das internationale Recht»! — In keiner Zeit der Menschheit sind so furchtbare Kriege geführt worden als seit der Zeit, da die «Friedensgesellschaft» besteht. Und in den letzten Jahrzehnten hat ja diese Friedensbewegung unter ihren besonderen Beschützern den Monarchen gehabt, der die blutigsten und grausamsten Kriege geführt hat, die jemals in der Weltgeschichte geführt worden sind. So daß die Einleitung der Friedensbewegung von seiten des Zaren wirklich als die größte Komödie erscheinen muß, die in der Weltgeschichte jemals gespielt worden ist, die allergrößte Komödie und zu gleicher Zeit die allerabscheulichste Komödie! Das ist dasjenige, was da drüben die luziferische Verführung genannt werden muß. Das kann in Einzelheiten gut verfolgt werden. Man kann sagen, es übt auf die Seele einen erschütternden Eindruck aus, wenn man sieht — mag man sonst die Dinge ansehen wie man will, - wie im Beginne, als diese Kriegsimpulse in Europa eingezogen sind, in Mitteleuropa, selbst da, wo man sich versammelt hatte wie im Berliner deutschen Reichstag, die Leute alle fast nichts gesprochen haben. Wenig ist gesprochen worden, aber die Dinge haben gesprochen. Unendlich viel ist im Westen wie im Osten gesprochen worden. Aber den erschütterndsten Eindruck in einer gewissen Weise hat man von dem, was in der Petersburger Duma von den verschiedenen Parteien gesprochen worden ist. Auf die verschiedenste Weise haben die Vertreter der Duma wirklich nichts anderes als die strohetnsten Phrasen mit dem größten Feuer der Begeisterung vorgebracht. Es war erschütternd. Das ist luziferische Verführung. Das alles aber weist uns darauf hin, daß das Feuer, das in diesem Kriege brennt, ein Warnungs- und Mahnfeuer ist, und daß die Menschen wohl aufpassen müssen.

Alles, was jetzt überhaupt geschieht, weist darauf hin, daß wenigstens einige Seelen sich sagen müssen: Es kann so nicht fortgehen, wie es in der Welt gegangen ist, es muß Spirituelles in die Menschenentwickelung einfließen! Der Materialismus hat sein Karma in diesem furchtbarsten der Kriege gefunden. In gewisser Beziehung ist dieser Krieg das Karma des Materialismus. Je mehr die Menschenseelen dieses einsehen werden, desto mehr werden sie über das Diskutieren hinauskommen, ob dieser, ob jener den Krieg verschuldet hat, und werden sich sagen: Dieser Krieg ist uns in die Weltgeschichte hineingeschickt worden, daß er ein Mahner sei, daß wir uns zuwenden sollen einem spirituellen Auffassen des ganzen Menschenlebens.

Der Materialismus macht ja nicht nur die Seelen der Menschen materialistisch gesinnt, er verdirbt auch die Logik und macht das Empfinden stumpf. Innerhalb Mitteleuropas wird man noch manches einsehen müssen, was zusammenhängt mit dem, was ich gesagt habe: daß man sich gerade in Mitteleuropa am intimsten befassen muß mit der Fortentwickelung des Christus-Impulses. Aber dazu wird gehören, daß man wird anfangen müssen, die Geister, welche schon die Keime dazu gelegt haben, zu verstehen. Nur ein Beispiel: Goethe hat eine Farbenlehre geschrieben. Die Physiker sehen sie an als etwas, nun, über das sie mitleidig lächelnd sagen: Was hat der Dichter von den Farben verstanden? Er war eben ein Dilettant! - Seit den achtziger Jahren bemühe ich mich, die Goethesche Farbenlehre gegen die moderne Physik zum Durchbruch zu bringen. Das kann nicht verstanden werden. Warum kann es nicht verstanden werden? Weil das materialistische Prinzip, welches von der britischen Volksseele ausgeht, in Mitteleuropa seinen Einzug gefunden hat. Newton, den Goethe bekämpfen mußte, hat den Sieg davongetragen über das, was bei Goethe aus dem Geist entsprungen ist. Goethe hat auch eine Entwicklungslehre begründet, in welcher gezeigt wird, wie durch das Erfassen von geistigen Gesetzen die Wesen von dem Unvollkommensten zum Vollkommensten fortschreiten. Das ist den Menschen zu schwer gewesen, zu verstehen. Als Darwin auf leichtere Weise seine Entwicklungslehre brachte, haben die Menschen diese angenommen. Darwin hat gesiegt über Goethe. Der materialistische Denker, der durch die britische Volksseele inspiriert ist, hat gesiegt über Goethe, der alles aus dem intimsten Zwiegespräch mit der deutschen Volksseele gezogen hat.

Ernst Haeckel hat Tragisches erlebt. Sein ganzes Leben hindurch hat er sich geistig genährt mit dem, was Huxley und Darwin ihm gegeben haben. Der Materialismus Ernst Haeckels ist im Grunde genommen rein englisches Produkt. Nun, als der Krieg ausbrach, war Haeckel entrüstet über das, was von den britischen Inseln aus geschah. Er war einer der ersten, welcher die englischen Orden, Diplome und Auszeichnungen zurückschickte. Was zurückgeschickt werden muß, sind aber nicht die Diplome, Orden und Auszeichnungen, sondern das sind der englisch gefärbte Darwinismus und die englisch gefärbte Physik. Zu dieser Besinnung muß man kommen, damit eingesehen wird, was in dem mitteleuropäischen Gebiet als intimes Zusammensein mit den Gesetzen der Welt erstrebt werden kann.

Am meisten kann man verderben, wenn man schon in das kindliche Gemüt das ergießt, was sich dann in nur materialistischer Färbung weiter entwickelt. Darauf haben die Jahrhunderte hingearbeitet. Ahriman hat bei den Briten drüben einen sogar ganz großen Schriftsteller so inspiriert, daß dieser Schriftsteller ein Werk geschrieben hat, das ganz darauf berechnet war, die Seele von dem kindlichen Alter an materialistisch so zu beeinflussen, daß man es nicht merkt, weil man das alles nicht als materialistisch präparierend ansieht. Das ist der «Robinson Crusoe.» Die ganze Art, wie der Robinson beschrieben ist, ist so raffiniert, daß diese Vorstellungen der Robinsonade, wenn sie aufgenommen werden, den Geist so präparieren, daß er später nur materialistisch denken kann. Die Menschheit ist von den Robinsonadenerfindern noch nicht geheilt, es hat solche immer gegeben und gibt sie heute noch. Und so könnte vieles angeführt werden. Nicht um etwas Ablehnendes gegenüber den Völkern des Westens zu sagen, die so sein müssen, wie sie sind, sondern um darauf hinzuweisen, wie in Mitteleuropa die Menschen den Zusammenhang finden müssen mit den großen, nur erst keimhaften Werten für die Entwikkelung gegen die Zukunft hin, werden diese Dinge ausgesprochen. Wie bedeutsam steht da im Grunde genommen ganz besonders auch Österreich da. In den letzten Jahrzehnten konnte man sehen, wie ein Höchstes erstrebt worden ist durch Geister wie Hamerling auf dichterischem Gebiet, wie Carneri, der den Darwinismus vertiefen wollte nach der moralischen Seite hin, und von Künstlern wie Bruckner und andern auf allen möglichen Gebieten. Selbstbesinnung der Volkheit auf diese Dinge, das ist es, worauf es ankommen wird.

Und nun bedenken wir die unverbrauchten Ätherleiber, die da vorhanden sind. Diese Ätherleiber wurden von Menschen abgelegt, die in einem großen Ereignis lernten, sich für etwas zu opfern, was es für sie, jedenfalls sinnenfällig, nicht mehr gibt: für die Volkheit. Wenn man heute als Geisteswissenschafter davon spricht, daß es eine Volksseele gibt als Erzengel und so weiter, dann wird man ausgelacht. Was man im Materialismus Volksseele nennt, ist nur der abstrakte Zusammenhang der Eigenschaften, die die Menschen eines Volkes haben. Was der Materialist Volk nennt, ist bloß die Summe von Menschen, die einander gleichsehend auf einem Raume zusammenleben. Wir sprechen von Volkheit so, daß wir wissen: Der Volksgeist ist als eine reale Wesenheit im Erzengelrang wirklich vorhanden. Wenn auch derjenige, der sich opfert, der durch den Tod geht für sein Volk, kein vollständiges Bewußtsein hat auf dem Feld der Ereignisse von einem realen Volksgeist, so bekräftigt er doch durch die Art, wie er durch den 'Tod geht, daß er an eine Fortwirksamkeit nach diesem Tode glaubt, daß er glaubt, daß es mehr gibt als das, was die Augen sehen in der Volkheit: ihren Zusammenhang und ihr Zusammenstehen mit dem Übersinnlichen. Alle diejenigen, die also durch den Tod gehen, ob sie es nun mehr oder weniger wissen, gehen durch diesen Tod, bekräftigend, daß es eine übersinnliche Welt gibt; das wird ihren Ätherleibern eingeprägt. So daß in der Zukunft außer denjenigen, die im physischen Erdenrund leben werden, wenn wieder Frieden eingetreten sein wird, die unverbrauchten Ätherleiber leben werden, immerdar in die Sphärenmusik die Töne hineinsendend: Es gibt mehr in der Welt als das, was bloß mit physischen Augen gesehen werden kann! Spirituelle Wahrheit wird hineintönen in die Sphärenmusik durch das, was die Toten zurücklassen in ihrem Ätherleib, ganz abgesehen von dem, was sie mitnehmen mit ihrer Individualität, die sie durch das Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt tragen. Aber gehört werden wird müssen dasjenige, was leben wird, was herabtönen wird aus diesen Ätherleibern, weil diese Ätherleiber abgelegt worden sind von Menschen, die, besiegelnd die Wahrheit der spirituellen Welt, durch den Tod gegangen sind. Die größte Sünde der Menschheit wird sein, wenn sie nicht hinhören wird darauf, was die gestorbenen Menschen ihr durch ihre mahnenden Ätherleiber zurufen werden. Und wie unendlich wird belebt dasjenige, was man so im Hinblick auf die geistige Welt schauen will, wenn man sich zu denken hat, daß die Väter und Mütter, die Schwestern und Brüder, Söhne und Töchter, die teure Tote verlieren, sich sagen müssen: Was da hingeopfert worden ist, lebt für die ganze Menschheit, mahnend an das, was da kommen muß!

Wenn man bloß auf das bauen wollte, was hier in der physischen Welt sich abspielt, könnte man nicht viel Hoffnung haben für den gedeihlichen Fortgang der spirituellen Bewegung, die in unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung gepflegt werden soll. Als uns neulich ein guter, treuer Mitarbeiter starb, ungefähr im dreißigsten Jahr seines Lebens, da war in meinen Worten, die ich richtete an diese durch die Pforte des Todes gegangene Seele, die Bitte, daß sie ebenso treu und tapfer mitarbeiten möchte auf unserem geisteswissenschaftlichen Felde, wie sie hier treu und hingebungsvoll mitgearbeitet hat, verwertend alles, was sie wußte. Fleißig hat er mitgearbeitet hier auf dem physischen Plan, dieser Mitarbeiter. Das gab ich ihm mit als eine Botschaft in sein Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, daß er mitarbeiten möge nach dem Tode, wie er es getan hat vor dem Tode, denn wir rechnen auf diese Toten, die sogenannten Toten, wie auf die Lebendigen. So lebendig muß uns die geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung sein, daß die Kluft überwunden wird zwischen den sogenannten Toten und den Lebenden, daß wir die Toten unter uns fühlen wie Lebende. Nicht bloß Theorie, Leben wollen wir. So wollen wir auch darauf hinweisen, daß ein lebendiges Band besteht zwischen denen, die leben auf der Erde, wenn wieder Friede sein wird, und denen, die durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind. Die Menschen werden von den Toten lernen können, werden lernen müssen, wie diese Toten in der angegebenen Weise mitwirken an dem großen spirituellen Fortschritt, der die Erde ergreifen muß.

Es geht im Leben manchmal so, daß man sieht, wie die menschliche Logik nicht ausreicht. Ein Beispiel möchte ich Ihnen anführen, nicht aus persönlichen Gründen, sondern um zu charakterisieren die Art und Weise, wie sich die Menschen zu unserer Bewegung stellen. Vor einigen Jahren konnte man in einer süddeutschen sehr ernsten Zeitschrift einen Aufsatz lesen, den ein berühmter Philosoph der Gegenwart geschrieben hat über unsere Geisteswissenschaft. Die Geisteswissenschaft wurde da so behandelt, daß es einen gewissen Eindruck machen konnte auf die Leute, weil der Aufsatz von einem großen Philosophen geschrieben war. Der Herausgeber der Zeitschrift tat sich etwas Besonderes darauf zugute, daß er einen Artikel über die Geisteswissenschaft von einem so berühmten Manne bringen konnte. Natürlich war alles schlecht und schief dargestellt; ein ganz schiefes Bild wurde von der Geisteswissenschaft gegeben. Was brauchte aber der Herausgeber, um einzusehen, was er eigentlich da als Urteil hatte abgeben lassen in seiner Monatsschrift über unsere Bewegung? — Es kam der Krieg. Jener Mann, der den Artikel geschrieben hatte, schrieb an den Herausgeber einige Briefe. Diese Briefe enthalten ziemlich das Abstoßendste, was man überhaupt über die mitteleuropäische Kultur sagen kann. Schrecklich geschimpft und gehöhnt wurde da über diese mitteleuropäische Kultur. Der Herausgeber hat diese Briefe jetzt abgedruckt als ein Beispiel dafür, wie töricht man denken kann über diese Kultur. Und er sagt jetzt: So, wie dieser Mensch schreibt, kann doch nur ein Mensch schreiben, der ins Irrenhaus gehört. — Es liegt also das Faktum vor, daß für einen guten Herausgeber so etwas notwendig war, um einzusehen, daß der Mann, der vor einigen Jahren über die Geisteswissenschaft diesen Artikel, der nach außen auch viel Schaden angerichtet hat, schrieb, ins Irrenhaus gehört. Wenn der Mann aber jetzt ins Irrenhaus gehört, so gehörte er damals doch auch schon hinein. Aber damals schrieb er einen Artikel über Geisteswissenschaft!

So geht es in der Welt zu! Es müssen schon andere Hilfen kommen als die, die der Mensch heute hat, um ein Urteil zu bekommen. Der Geisteswissenschafter steht allerdings fest auf dem Boden, der da klar zeigt, daß die Wahrheit ihren Weg findet. Aber die Geisteswissenschaft muß wirken in der Entwickelung der Menschheit, damit das Notwendige geschieht. Und so, wie in jener Zeit, da der Kaiser Konstantin seine Aufgabe zu vollenden hatte, der Christus-Impuls aus der geistigen Welt in das Unterbewußte hineinwirken mußte, so, wie bei der Jungfrau von Orleans der Christus-Impuls wirken mußte, damit das geschah, was geschehen mußte, so muß der Christus-Impuls weiterwirken, nur jetzt mehr in Bewußtheit. Es muß Seelen geben in der Zukunft, die wissen werden: Da oben in der geistigen Welt rufen diejenigen, die mit ihrer Individualität sich opferten, uns auf, ihnen nachzufolgen in dem von ihnen im Tode erlangten Glauben an die Wirksamkeit des Geistigen. Aber auch die Kräfte aus den unverbrauchten Ätherleibern rufen in die Zukunft hinein, was man nur zu verstehen braucht, um es in die eigene Seele aufzunehmen. Unten aber müssen Seelen sein, die das vernehmen. Seelen müssen da sein, die sich dazu vorbereiten durch das richtige, durch das ‚lebendige Verständnis unserer Geisteswissenschaft. Unsere Geisteswissenschaft muß hier unten Seelen schaffen, die zu ahnen vermögen, was da oben die Ätherleiber der Toten in der Zukunft sprechen werden. Seelen, die wissen: Dort oben sind die Kräfte, die den Menschen, der auf Erden sich selbst überlassen sein mußte, ermahnen können. Und wenn hier unten geistbewußte Seelen nach den verborgenen Tönen der geistigen Welt ihren Sinn richten werden, dann werden aus alledem, was an Blut geflossen ist, was an Opfern geleistet wurde, was an Leid ertragen werden mußte und noch ertragen werden muß, die rechten Früchte entstehen. Hinblickend auf die Hoffnung, die ausgesprochen werden darf, daß sich recht, recht viele Seelen finden mögen durch die Geisteswissenschaft, welche hören können diese Stimmen, die insbesondere durch diesen Krieg aus der geistigen Welt ertönen werden, möchte ich, zusammenfassend die Schlußworte der heutigen Betrachtung, Worte sprechen, die nur empfindungsgemäß das ausdrücken sollen, was ich in ihren Seelen anregen möchte:

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.

Mit solchen Gefühlen im Herzen wollen wir immerdar uns durchdringen mit dem Sinn des Rosenkreuzes, damit dieses Rosenkreuz in der rechten Weise von uns als die Devise angesehen wird unseres Wirkens und Webens und Empfindens. Nicht das schwarze Kreuz allein. Wer die Rosen vom schwarzen Kreuz reißen würde, wer nur das schwarze Kreuz hätte, würde dem Ahriman verfallen. Das schwarze Kreuz ist das nach der bloßen Materie hinstrebende Lebendige. Auch nicht, wer das Kreuz von den Rosen reißt und die Rosen allein halten möchte, wird das Richtige finden. Denn die Rosen, vom Kreuze getrennt, wollen uns zwar erheben zum Leben, aber dieses Leben würde egoistisch bloß nach dem Geistigen hinaufstreben wollen und nicht den Geist offenbaren in dem Materiellen. Nicht das Kreuz allein, nicht die Rosen allein, sondern die Rosen am Kreuz, das Kreuz tragend die Rosen, beides in harmonischer Wechselwirkung: das ist das, was unser richtiges Symbolum ist.

Christ in relation to Lucifer and Ahriman: the threefold constitution of the human being

Once our building dedicated to spiritual science in Dornach is finished, it will have a sculpture in a meaningful spot that will mainly show three figures. In the middle of this group will stand a figure who, I would say, represents the highest humanity that has been able to unfold on earth. Therefore, this figure of the highest humanity in the earth's evolution can also be perceived as Christ, who lived in the body of Jesus of Nazareth for three years during the earth's evolution. It will be a special task to shape this Christ figure in such a way that, on the one hand, one will be able to see how the being in question dwells in a human earthly body, but how this earthly body is nevertheless spiritualized in every feature, in everything that is in it, by what entered into this earthly body as the Christ in the thirtieth year of life from cosmic, spiritual heights. Then there are two other figures, one on the left and one on the right of the Christ figure, if I may call this figure, which I have just described in a few words, the Christ figure. This Christ figure stands as if before a rock, which rises up especially on the left side of Christ, so that its summit is above the head of the Christ figure. Up there on the rock is another figure, a winged figure; but the wings are broken, and this figure falls into the abyss because its wings are broken. What will have to be worked out artistically with particular precision is the way in which this Christ figure raises his left arm. For it is through this raising of the left arm of the Christ figure that this falling being breaks its wings. But it must not look as if Christ is breaking the wings of this being; rather, the whole scene must be artistically designed in such a way that, as Christ raises his arm, the entire movement of his hand shows that he actually has only infinite compassion for this being. However, this being cannot bear what flows up through the arm and hand and what will still be visible in the rock itself, like hollows made by the fingers of the outstretched hand. What this being feels within itself as it comes close to the being that stands there as the Christ being is such that one would like to put it into words: I cannot bear that something so pure should shine upon me.

This is what lives in this entity and what lives so essentially in this entity that its wings are broken and it consequently plunges into the abyss. This will be a particularly significant artistic task. And you can see what could be missed if Christ were to stand there in the flesh and simply raise his hand to radiate such power that he breaks the wings of this being, causing it to fall into the abyss. Then it would be Christ who, as if with hatred, would radiate this being and cause it to fall. But this must not be depicted in this way; rather, the being itself must bring about its own fall. For this being, depicted falling with broken wings, is Lucifer.

And on the other side, to the right of the figure of Christ, where the rock has a projection, the rock will be hollowed out. In this hollow there is also a figure with wings. And this figure with wings turns with its arm-like organs toward the hollow in the rock above. So you must imagine: on the right, the hollow in the rock, and in the hollow, this winged figure, which, however, has wings of a completely different nature than the figure above on the rock. The figure at the top of the rock has more eagle-like wings, while the figure in the hollow has bat-like wings. The figure in the hollow is literally clinging to the hollow; you can see it in chains, you can see it working down there, hollowing out the earth.

The figure standing in the middle, the Christ figure, has his right hand pointing downwards. So while his left hand is pointing upwards, his right hand is pointing downwards. Again, it will be a significant artistic task not to depict this as if Christ wanted to shackle this figure, who is Ahriman, but rather that Christ himself has infinite compassion for Ahriman. Ahriman, however, cannot bear this; he writhes in pain from what radiates from the hand of Christ. And what radiates from there causes the veins of gold at the bottom of the rock cavity to wind around Ahriman's body like cords and bind him. Just as what happens to Lucifer happens through himself, so it is with Ahriman. We will then try to ensure that this interpretation, which will be represented by a sculptural work of art at a significant point in the building, will have the same motif in a painterly interpretation, which must then be completely different. So that below, this group of three figures: Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman will stand as a sculptural group, and above it the same motif will be painted.

We are incorporating this relationship between Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman into our building in Dornach because spiritual science shows us in a certain way that the next task in understanding the Christ impulse is for human beings to finally learn what relationship exists in the world between these three powers, Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman. For up to now, people have talked a great deal about Christianity and the Christ impulse, but what actually came into the world through the Christ impulse as a result of the mystery of Golgotha has not yet become completely clear to human beings. People do indeed speak of Lucifer and Ahriman, but when they speak of Lucifer and Ahriman, they very often speak as if they had to flee from them, as if they had to say: I want to know nothing, absolutely nothing, about Lucifer and Ahriman! If the divine spiritual powers, which can be found in the way I described yesterday in the public lecture, also wanted to know nothing about Lucifer and Ahriman, then the world could not exist. It is not by saying, “Lucifer, I flee from you! Ahriman, I flee from you!” that one places oneself in the right relationship to them, but by considering what human beings must strive for as a result of the Christ impulse as the equilibrium of a pendulum. The pendulum is in equilibrium in the middle, but it must swing to one side or the other. So it is in the earthly evolution of man. Man must swing to one side toward the Luciferic principle and to the other toward the Ahrimanic principle, but he must remain firm through the development of what Paul called, “Not I, but Christ in me.”

We must indeed understand Christ in His activity as a reality, as a fact. This means that we must be clear that what flowed into our earthly evolution through the Mystery of Golgotha really was there. How well or how poorly people have understood this up to now is not important; what is important is that it was there, that it worked in human earthly evolution. Much could be said about what people have not understood about the Christ impulse up to now. And spiritual science will have to contribute a little to the understanding of what has flowed into earthly evolution from spiritual heights through the Mystery of Golgotha as the Christ impulse. In order to visualize how Christ worked, let us, as we have done elsewhere, consider two moments in the earthly evolution of humanity, two moments that became important in the entire Western evolution.

You will know from history what an important moment it was when Constantine, the son of Constantius Chlorus, defeated Maxentius and Christianity was introduced into Western development through Constantine. For this to happen, Constantine had to fight that important battle against Maxentius, through which Constantine then made Christianity the state religion in his Western empire. The entire map of Europe would have been different if Constantine's battle against Maxentius had not taken place at that time. But military skill, that which people at that time were capable of with their intellect, did not really decide this battle; something else entirely did. Maxentius consulted the so-called Sibylline Books, the prophetic books of Rome, and there he was led to lead his army, which would have been well protected within the walls of Rome, out of the walls of Rome and into the open field to face Constantine's army. But before the battle, Constantine had a dream in which he was told: If you march against Maxentius under the sign of the mystery of Golgotha, you will achieve a great goal. And carrying the sign of the mystery of Golgotha, the cross, Constantine went into battle with an army three-quarters smaller than that of Maxentius. And inspired by the power that came from the mystery of Golgotha, Constantine won that significant battle, through which Christianity was outwardly introduced into Europe. If we remember what people understood at that time with the mind of the Christ impulse, we find endless theological quarrels. People argued about whether Christ was equal to the Father from eternity and other such things. It must be said: what matters is not what people knew at that time about the Christ impulse, but that it was there, the Christ impulse, that it was there, that it guided Constantine, through a dream of Constantine, to do what had to be done. What matters is the reality of Christ, the real, actual power of Christ. Understanding what the Christ impulse is, that is where we begin in spiritual science.

Another moment was when, in the struggle between France and England, Europe once again took on a form about which one can say: if France had not been victorious over England at that time, all conditions would have been different. But how did this happen? The Christ impulse has worked into the subconscious of the soul right up to our time, when it must become more and more conscious. And there we see in the spiritual development of the West how the Christ impulse seeks out those conditions in the souls of human beings through which it can become effective in individual human beings. Legends have preserved for us the way in which the Christ impulse can assert itself in Western spiritual evolution. These legends refer in part to ancient pagan times, but everywhere to times when paganism was preparing the way for an understanding of Christianity.

If the soul does not consciously strive for initiation in the way is described in “How to Know Higher Things,” but is instead permeated by the Christ impulse in a natural way, as if through a natural initiation, then the most favorable time for this Christ impulse to inspire the soul is the period from Christmas Eve to Epiphany, from December 25 to January 6. We can understand this by realizing that occult knowledge makes it quite clear that our earth is not only what geologists speak of. What geologists speak of is to the earth what the skeleton is to the human being. But our earth also has the spiritual element that belongs to it. And it is precisely into the Earth's aura that Christ has entered. And this Earth sleeps and wakes, just as we sleep and wake in twenty-four hours. We must familiarize ourselves with the fact that the Earth's state of sleep occurs during the summertime, and its state of wakefulness during the wintertime. And the spirit of the Earth is most awake during these twelve or thirteen nights from Christmas to Epiphany. In ancient times, when, as you know from the many descriptions in my lecture cycles, people rose to the spiritual principle of the world more in a kind of dreamlike clairvoyance, the most favorable time was the summertime. It is quite natural that those who want to rise to the spiritual in a more dreamlike clairvoyance find it easier during the sleeping time of the earth, during the summertime. Therefore, in ancient times, it was the feast of St. John that was most favorable for raising the power of the soul to the spiritual. The old way in which the spiritual works into the earth has been replaced by the new, more conscious way; now the best time is when the earth is awake.

That is why legends tell us that particularly gifted people, people who are especially suited by their karma to enter a special state of consciousness during the Christmas season, which is only outwardly similar to sleep, but inwardly is such that it can be inspired by that which raised human beings to the world we call the spirit realm. There is a very beautiful legend, a Norwegian legend about Olaf Åsteson, who is told how he goes to church on Christmas Eve, falls into a sleep-like state, and then wakes up on January 6 and can recount what he experienced in this sleep-like state. And this Norwegian legend really tells us how Olaf Åsteson experienced something that at first feels like the soul world, then something that feels like the spirit world, only everything in images, in imaginations.

This was the most favorable time in those epochs when people were not as advanced as they are today. Today, the times are past when the Christ impulse could flow into souls in this way, as through a natural initiation. Today, people must consciously work their way up to initiation, as prescribed in How to Know Higher Worlds. We live in a time when initiations through nature are becoming increasingly rare and will eventually disappear altogether, so that we can no longer count on them. But one initiation that can essentially be called a nature initiation was that through which the Christ impulse worked into the mind of the simple country girl, the Virgin of Orleans, causing the victory of the French over the English, which so magnificently reshaped the map of Europe. Again, it was not something that human intellect could achieve, but something that went beyond all the art of military leaders at that time and guided the Maid of Orleans, giving Europe a new shape — the Christ impulse, which worked into the unconscious of a single personality, but worked in such a way that what is effective throughout history radiated out from this personality.

Now we must consider whether something similar could have happened as a natural initiation in the case of the Maid of Orleans, whether the soul of the Maid of Orleans might have been inspired during the nights from December 25 to January 6. In the course of her life, there seems to be no evidence that the Maid of Orleans was ever in a sleep-like state during the twelve or thirteen days from December 25 to January 6, in which the Christ impulse could have worked into her in a special way, so that she would then have acted as a human being who was only the shell of the Christ impulse on the battlefields of France. And yet it was so. For there is a time when, if the karma of the individual concerned makes it particularly possible in human beings, such a sleep-like state can actually be filled. This is the time of the last days, when the human being still lives in the mother's womb before seeing the physical light of the earth. During this time, the human being lives in a dreamlike, sleep-like state. They have not yet seen anything through their senses that is happening externally in the world. If a human being were particularly suited by their karma to receive the Christ impulse during these last days in their mother's womb, then these days would also be days of natural initiation. Then, strengthened and fortified by the Christ impulse within them, such a person would open their eyes for the first time after initiation, which in this case means after birth. And such a person would have to be born on January 6. The Virgin of Orleans was born on January 6. That is the secret of the Virgin of Orleans, that she was born on January 6, that she spent the time from Christmas to Epiphany in that peculiar, sleep-like state in her mother's womb and received her nature initiation there. Now consider the profound connections behind the external development that we usually call history. What is presented externally in history through documents is, as a rule, the least important thing. The simple date recorded in our calendar, that the Virgin of Orleans was sent into the world on January 6, is of decisive historical significance. This is how forces from the supersensible sphere influence the sensible sphere. And we must read this occult writing, through which the influence of the supersensible on the sensible is revealed to us. Thus, the inflow of the Christ impulse, as through a natural initiation, was already present in the Virgin of Orleans before her physical birth.

I want to explain these things in order to awaken in your souls a feeling of how, behind what we usually call history, there are forces and connections at work that are unknown to the outer eye. Since the Mystery of Golgotha, however, the Christ impulse has been guiding the history of European humanity in particular. And in the East, in Asia, a worldview has remained behind which one can say: in its feelings, it has not yet reached the Christ impulse. Certainly, Europeans have allowed themselves to be seduced into calling what is perceived as inner life something particularly profound. But it is characteristic of this inner life — of the entire Asian religious feeling — that, with all its feeling, it stands before the Christ impulse, but has preserved the state that existed in the religious feeling of the human race on earth before the Christ impulse. To lag behind in development always means to take something Luciferic into oneself. Therefore, the development of religion in Asia carries within itself a Luciferic element. And when we look at the development of religion in Asia, we must realize that, certainly, we can see in it much that humanity once had but had to abandon. But in Western culture, we must purify all of this, partly by removing the Luciferic element and partly by raising it up so that the Christ principle can flow in.

When we move from Asia to Europe, we find in the east of Europe, in Russian culture, the spread of Orthodox Christianity, which has remained at an earlier stage of Christian development, which did not want to move forward, which wanted to retain something of the Luciferic element. In short, when we look to the east, we see what I would call the wise guidance of the world throughout the entire development of humanity leaving behind the Luciferic element.

If we look to the West, especially to American culture, we see another peculiarity. The characteristic feature of this American culture is that everything is sought in the external. This certainly produces great and significant things, but everything is sought in the external. Take an example. When we see in Europe, especially in Central Europe, that a person who initially had no opportunity in his life to turn his mind to Christ and the spiritual world powers has suddenly, as it were, made a U-turn in his life, we are interested in what has gone on in this soul. It is not that he experienced a leap in his development that interests us; we find that everywhere. For the statement coined by external science is most incorrect: Nature does not make leaps. From the green leaf of a plant to the red petal of a flower is a mighty leap, and from the petal to the calyx is another mighty leap. This is a completely incorrect statement, and the truth of development lies precisely in the fact that leaps are made everywhere. So the fact that a person, after living for a time in this external way, can suddenly be drawn to the spiritual by something is not what interests us. But the inner power and force that brings about something that could be called a conversion to the spiritual is what interests us. We want to look into the mind of such a person; we want to know what brought about such a change. We are interested in the inner soul. How does the American do it? He does something very peculiar. In America, one could observe such conversions taking place on many occasions. Well, the American has letters written by those who have undergone a conversion. Then he puts all these letters together in a pile and says: I have now received letters from a number of people; there were about two hundred who wrote letters. Fourteen percent of all these souls who experienced such a conversion wrote out of fear that suddenly came over them before death or hell; five percent out of altruistic motives; seventeen percent out of a desire for moral ideals; fifteen percent out of remorse; ten percent out of obedience to teachings they had been given; thirteen percent because they saw others being converted—that is, out of imitation; nineteen percent because they were coerced by being beaten at the appropriate age, and so on. In this way, the most extreme souls are singled out, sorted, and a result based on “reliable data” is obtained. This is then recorded in books that are distributed to the public as “psychology.” All other documents are unreliable to these people, they say, because they are based only on subjective factors. Here you have an example of the externalization of the most innermost itself. This is the case in many, many respects in America. At a time that calls for a special spiritual deepening, the most external spiritism is rampant in America! People there want everything to be tangible.

This is a materialistic understanding of spiritual life. We could cite many more examples that would show you that Western culture is gripped by the Ahrimanic. This is the other swing of the pendulum. If we look to the East, we see the Luciferic element; if we look to the West, we see the Ahrimanic element. And the infinitely significant task that we have in Central Europe, between West and East, is to find the balance. That is why we want to represent in our building in Dornach, as a sculptural group, the greatest spiritual requirement of our time: to find the balance between the relationship to Lucifer and the relationship to Ahriman. Only then will we recognize what the Christ impulse wanted from the evolution of the earth, when we do not simply highlight Christ, but when we know in the right way how Christ is the power that stands before us as an example in relation to Lucifer and Ahriman.

The fact that there is still no clarity regarding the relationship of human beings and Christ to Lucifer and Ahriman may become clear to you through the following example. Even the greatest thing, that which contains the greatest in one direction, is not always free from what must still prevail as one-sidedness in time. One cannot overestimate the value of Michelangelo's painting in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, “The Last Judgment,” that wonderful picture. Christ triumphant, directing the good to one side and the evil to the other. Let us look at this Christ. He does not have the features we would like to see in the Christ who is to stand in our building in Dornach. It must be evident that Christ raises his hand in compassion, even though Lucifer is up there. Lucifer is not to be overthrown by the power of Christ, but he throws himself down because he cannot bear what radiates from Christ in his vicinity. And Christ raises his eyes and furrows his brow, raising his furrowed brow toward Lucifer. And Ahriman is not overcome by the hatred of Christ, but he feels that he cannot bear what emanates from Christ. Christ, however, stands in the middle as the one who brings the Parzival element into the new era, who must bring others to overcome themselves not through his power but through his existence, so that the others overcome themselves and he does not overcome them. In Michelangelo, we still see how Christ, through his power, sends some to heaven and others to hell. In the future, this will not be the true Christ, but a Christ who is still very Luciferic. This does not, of course, diminish the picture. The whole greatness of this picture is recognized, but one must admit that Michelangelo was not yet able to paint Christ because the world's development had not yet reached that point. It must be clearly understood that one should not only direct one's attention to Christ, but that one should direct one's attention to the threefold nature of being: Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman. I can only hint at this. Spiritual science will reveal everything that lies hidden in this mystery: Christ in relation to Lucifer and Ahriman.

But now consider the following: when we look to the East, we see Luciferic forces even in the nearest East. And in the West we see Ahrimanic forces. Indeed, it must be our way in spiritual scientific observation not to view things with sympathy or antipathy, nor to view peoples and national souls with sympathy or antipathy, but rather as they are in their own nature. What we call the national character of a person who is rooted in their ethnicity depends above all on what is active in their physical and etheric bodies. When we live from falling asleep to waking up with our soul and spirit as an astral body and ego, we live outside the ordinary national sphere. Only from the moment of waking up to the moment of falling asleep, when we submerge ourselves in the body, do we live in the national sphere. Therefore, the national sphere is also something that human beings gradually overcome during their stay in Kamaloka. Human beings strive toward the universal human sphere by overcoming the national sphere in Kamaloka, in order to then live the greatest part of the time between death and rebirth in the universal human sphere. One of the characteristics that are discarded in Kamaloka is that which makes us specifically national beings.

In this respect, the individual nationalities are very different from one another. Let us compare a French person and a Russian person. The French person has the peculiarity of holding on very tightly to what the national soul carries into his physical body and etheric body during his life between birth and death, of living very much in it. This is expressed in the fact that the Frenchman — not as an individual human being, but as a Frenchman — has an idea of what a Frenchman is; that he puts above all else what it actually means to be a Frenchman. But these ideas that the French have about their nationality, that the novels have about their nationality, cause the idea that the French have of nationality to be sharply imprinted in the etheric body. When he passes through the gate of death, he separates his etheric body after only a few days; this etheric body is then a firmly closed form that remains in the etheric world for a long time. The etheric body cannot dissolve for a long time because the ideas of his nationality are firmly imprinted on it; these ideas hold the etheric body together. When we look to the west, we therefore see the field of death filled with firmly imprinted etheric bodies.

If we now look more closely to the east, to the Russian people, we see that the peculiarity of these Russian people is that when their souls pass through the gate of death, they carry within themselves an etheric body that dissolves relatively quickly. This is the difference between the West and the East. The etheric bodies that are excreted after death in Western Europeans have the peculiarity of wanting to remain rigid. What the French call “gloire” becomes firmly imprinted on their etheric body as national glory, so that they are condemned to turn their spiritual gaze toward this etheric body long, long after their death, to look at themselves after death. The Russian person, on the other hand, looks little at themselves after death. Through all this, Western Europeans are exposed to the Ahrimanic influence; this materialization of the etheric body is in turn exposed to the Ahrimanic principle. The dissolution of the etheric body, the rapid disintegration of the etheric body, is accompanied by a feeling of sensual pleasure, and this is precisely what is peculiar to the national character: an instinctive feeling of sensual pleasure. How is this expressed in the East? — Central Europe does not understand this, nor can it empathize with it. If one follows Dostoyevsky and even Tolstoy, or others who were influential and who always speak of the “Russian people,” this is a feeling of sensual pleasure in the national character that cannot be defined. Even in Solovyov, we still find something sultry in his philosophy that the Central European cannot reconcile with the clarity and purity he seeks. What is effective in Europe as spiritual power is connected with all this. In Central Europe, there is a different, intermediate state, something that could be elaborated further than was possible in yesterday's public lecture. I said: there is something in Central Europe that is an inner striving nature. Goethe would have written his Faust in exactly the same way in the 1840s: always striving, always striving! — But this striving is an innermost nature. It was in Central Europe that the mystics appeared who did not merely want to recognize the divine-spiritual, but wanted to experience it with their own souls. The mystics wanted to experience the Christ event inwardly. If we now take Soloviev, we find that he proceeds above all from the assumption that Christ died once historically for humanity. This is entirely correct, but Soloviev is a soul who sees spiritual life outside himself like a cloud, a soul who sees that everything has already happened, as it were, while the Central European human being demands that everyone experience the Christ event anew within themselves. Even to Soloviev, Meister Eckhart would have replied something like the following. When Soloviev repeatedly emphasizes that Christ must die so that man can be man, Meister Eckhart would say: You look at Christ as one looks at something external. It is not important that we always look only at historical events, but we must experience Christ himself within ourselves; we must discover something within ourselves that goes through the same states as Christ, at least spiritually, so that the Christ experience is relived spiritually.

Now, it certainly seems complicated and fantastical when we tell people today that the entire development, even the linguistic spirit of the people, has had such an effect in Central Europe that this connection between the I and the Christ principle has been imprinted in its language: I-CH = Jesus Christ. I-CH, which comes together in such a way that it becomes “I.” And when one pronounces “I” in Central Europe, one pronounces the name of Christ. That is how close people want to feel to Christ, how intimately connected with him. This intimate coexistence with the spiritual world, which must be strived for in all spiritual realms in Central Europe, is unknown in both the West and the East. Therefore, something must happen in the 20th century so that the Christ principle can gradually spread across the entire European continent in an appropriate manner. I have often emphasized in various lecture cycles that in November 1879, the spiritual being we call the Archangel Michael reached a special stage of development. Michael became, so to speak, the leading spirit. This leading spirit is now preparing the event that is hinted at in the first of my Mystery Dramas as the appearance of the etheric Christ over the earth, the event that must take place in the 20th century. Then it will happen that first individual souls, then more and more souls will know: Christ is truly here, Christ is walking again on Earth, but in etheric form, not in physical form. This must be prepared. If, in the course of this 20th century, certain souls were to have their spiritual eyes opened to clairvoyance — and this will happen — they would be disturbed by those etheric bodies spreading out from Western Europe when they looked at what lives in the etheric world. The spiritual gaze would fall on them first, and one would see the form of Christ in an incorrect way. Therefore, Michael must fight a battle in Europe. He must contribute something so that these rigid etheric bodies of Western Europe are dissolved in the etheric world. To do this, he must take those etheric bodies that are willing to dissolve, the etheric bodies in the East, and fight with them against the West. This has caused a powerful battle to be prepared in the astral world since 1879 between Russian and Western European etheric bodies, and this battle is raging throughout the entire astral world. There is truly a fierce battle going on in the astral world, led by Michael, between Russia and France. This is what lies at the root of the battle raging in Europe in the astral world. And just as we are often so shaken by the fact that something happening here in the physical world has its opposite in the spiritual world, so it is here. The French-Russian alliance, brought about by the seduction of Ahriman, which is based primarily on the Ahrimanic element, namely on the twenty billion given by France to Russia, is the physical expression of a struggle raging between French and Russian souls, of a struggle in which Central Europe, with its striving in its innermost soul element for an encounter with Christ, is caught up. And Europe has fallen prey to karma, so that it is precisely in Central Europe that what the East has to settle with the West and the West with the East must be experienced in a tragic way. The things that the German element has to settle with the French element can only be understood in the sense that the German element is situated right in the middle between the East and the West and acts as an anvil for both sides. For what collides in Germany from both sides is in truth being negotiated by these two sides. This is the spiritual truth, which is quite different from what is happening outwardly in the physical world. Think how different spiritual truth is from what is happening outwardly in the physical world! All this certainly sounds grotesque to people today, but it is the truth. This truth must have a shocking effect on us.

But there is another thing that is extremely significant. It certainly contradicts everything that history can show us, that England, after always having been united with Turkey against Russia, now suddenly has to fight with Russia against Turkey. This contradiction can only be understood if one makes the following occult observation. While here below on the physical plane England is united with Russia in fighting the Turkish element, the following presents itself to occult observation. If one observes this struggle occultly and looks up from below onto the physical plane and then onto the astral plane, the following becomes apparent: to the north, Russia appears to be allied with England, and to the southeast, Turkey appears to be allied with England. This stems from the fact that the alliance between England and Russia has only one meaning on the physical plane, but has no reflection in the spiritual world, since it is based entirely on material interests. From below, one sees only England and Russia united in the north on the physical plane. In the southeast, through the physical plane, one sees on the astral plane the English and Turks united in spirit, fighting against Russia. Thus, on the physical plane, England fights on one side together with Russia, and on the other side Russia is fought by England. This is how we must view the things that are actually happening outwardly, insofar as they reveal themselves as external history. For what lies behind them is something quite different.

A time will come when people will talk about the present events in a completely different way than they do now. It must be said that all the literature on the war has something quite unpleasant about it. Some beautiful things are said, but there is also a great deal that is unpleasant. And one thing above all is unpleasant. It is always said: Today we cannot yet talk about who was to blame for the war and so on. — People console themselves about these things. They say: In the future, the documents in the archives will reveal who was to blame for the war! But with regard to external events, the matter is not so difficult to determine if one judges without passion. And Chamberlain, in his “War Essays,” even if he is mistaken in the details, is right when he says that it is precisely about this war that we can know with the greatest certainty. That is correct, there is no doubt about it, but one must ask the right question. For example, if the question is asked correctly, it can only be answered unequivocally. The question is: Who could have prevented this war? The recurring question: Who is to blame for this war? and many other questions are simply not correct. Who could have prevented the war? The answer can only be: The Russian government could have prevented the war! — And only in this way will it be possible to find the correct definition for the individual forces at work. Of course, the war that had been desired by the East for decades could not have come about today if there had not been a certain relationship between England, Russia, and France, so that one can also, if one wishes, attribute greater blame to England. But all these things do not take into account the underlying causes that make the whole world war a necessity. It is naive to believe that the war could have been avoided. People now talk as if this war did not have to happen. It is, of course, part of Europe's karma.

I wanted to hint at something through the spiritual contrasts between East and West. It is not important that we ask, so to speak, in a special way about the external causes, for these are not important. We only need to know that this war is a historical necessity. The individual causes are not important.

But what is important are all the different effects that we will have to face in the right way. And here one effect may strike us as particularly significant. It is a magnificent, characteristic phenomenon that such a war produces many unspent etheric bodies. And since this is the greatest war that humanity has waged since the conscious development of history, this peculiarity is also present to the highest degree. Unspent etheric bodies are created. And you see, the etheric body that man carries within himself can sustain him for a long time, until he is seventy, eighty, ninety years old. But in war, people are sacrificed in the prime of their lives. When a person passes through the gate of death, the etheric body, as you know, is expelled after a short time; but in the case of those who have fallen in war, the etheric body is expelled in such a way that it could have sustained these human lives in the physical body for a long time, for decades. In physics, we recognize that no force is lost. But it is the same in the spiritual realm. These etheric bodies, which enter the etheric world prematurely, remain present with their forces. Consider now how countless unused etheric bodies there are of those who pass through the gate of death as young people. There is something special about these etheric bodies. I would like to explain this with an example that is close to our movement, and then move on to the etheric bodies that will be contained in the etheric world in the near future by the warriors who have passed through death.

This fall in Dornach, we experienced the death of the little son of a family from the Anthroposophical Society who is now employed in the vicinity of the building, the death of little seven-year-old Theodor Faiß. His father had previously lived in Stuttgart, then came to Dornach as a gardener in the vicinity of the building and lived there with his family. He himself had been drafted shortly after the outbreak of the war and was in a military hospital at the time of the event I am about to describe. Little seven-year-old Theodor was a real child of the sun, a wonderful, dear boy. Then one day the following happened. We were just having a lecture, as I usually do in Dornach, following on from what is happening in the building. After the lecture, a prominent figure came up and said that little Theodor Faiß had not returned to his mother since late afternoon. It was ten o'clock in the evening, and one could only think that a great misfortune had happened. That afternoon, a furniture van had arrived and driven near the so-called canteen, where it had to make a turn. The truck had reached a spot where, one can safely say, no vehicle that large had driven for many decades, perhaps not even a furniture truck, and none had driven there since. Little Theodor had been in the canteen before the truck turned. He had been delayed there, otherwise he would have gone home earlier with the food he had bought in the canteen for his evening meal. He was now walking home—it is only a very short distance—and had just reached the spot where the truck overturned and fell on him, little Theodor. No one had noticed, not even the driver. He had only brought his horses to safety when the wagon overturned and did not know that the child was underneath. When we were told that the child was missing, we had to try to lift the wagon. His friends fetched tools, and the Swiss soldiers who had been mobilized helped us. Of course, the child had already been dead since about half past five in the afternoon. The furniture van had crushed him immediately, and he had died of suffocation.

Here we have a case to which I have often tried to apply a comparison to clarify that cause and effect are being confused. I have often used the following comparison: Let us suppose we see a person walking along the bank of a river. The person falls into the river. You run over and find a stone at the spot where the person fell into the river, and you think that the person stumbled, fell into the river, and died as a result. So you say that the person died because he fell into the river. But if you dissect him, you may find that he had a heart attack and fell into the water as a result. So he did not die because he fell into the water, but fell into the water because he died. Such confusion between cause and effect is very common in the assessment of life, and even more so in ordinary science.

In the case of little Theodor, Karina's time had come, so that one can truly say that he called the car himself. I mention this whole case, which is extraordinarily tragic from an external point of view, because we are dealing here with the etheric body of a child, which could have sustained the life of this child for decades to come. This etheric body has passed into the spiritual world, the etheric world, with all its unspent powers. Where is it? What is it doing? — Anyone who is compelled to work on the Dornach building with artistic intentions, or even to entertain thoughts within the enclosure of the building, knows, if they also have occult insight, that This entire etheric body has been enlarged with its powers in the aura of the Dornach building. We must distinguish between the individuality, which is elsewhere and follows its own path, and the etheric body, which was expelled after a few days and is now present in the building. And I will never hesitate to say that among the forces needed for intuition are the forces of this etheric body, which has been sacrificed for the building. Behind life, the connections are often quite different from what one suspects. This etheric body has become a protective power of the building. Something magnificent and powerful lies in such a connection.

And now let us consider what a great sum of power goes up into the spiritual world in the unspent etheric bodies of those who are now passing through the gate of death as a result of the war.

Things are connected in a way that is different from what people can imagine; karma in the world works differently. And spiritual science must be there precisely to replace fantastical ideas with spiritually true ideas. To give just one example, we can hardly imagine anything more fantastical and untrue from a spiritual point of view than what has happened in the last few decades. What has been achieved by founding a special “peace society” in order to replace war with what was called “international law”? Never in the history of humanity have such terrible wars been waged as since the time when the “peace society” has existed. And in recent decades, this peace movement has had among its special protectors the monarch who has waged the bloodiest and most cruel wars ever waged in world history. So that the initiation of the peace movement on the part of the Tsar must really appear as the greatest comedy ever played in world history, the greatest comedy and at the same time the most abominable comedy! That is what must be called the Luciferic seduction over there. This can be easily traced in detail. One can say that it makes a shocking impression on the soul when one sees—no matter how one looks at things—how, in the beginning, when these war impulses entered Europe, in Central Europe, even where people had gathered, as in the German Reichstag in Berlin, almost no one said anything. Little was said, but things spoke. An infinite amount has been said in the West as in the East. But in a certain way, the most shocking impression was made by what was said in the Petersburg Duma by the various parties. In the most diverse ways, the representatives of the Duma really said nothing but the most straw-like phrases with the greatest fire of enthusiasm. It was shocking. This is Luciferic seduction. But all this points to us that the fire burning in this war is a warning and admonishing fire, and that people must be very careful.

Everything that is happening now indicates that at least some souls must say to themselves: Things cannot go on as they have been going in the world; something spiritual must flow into human development! Materialism has found its karma in this most terrible of wars. In a certain sense, this war is the karma of materialism. The more human souls realize this, the more they will move beyond discussing whether this or that person is to blame for the war, and will say to themselves: This war has been sent into world history to warn us that we must turn to a spiritual understanding of the whole of human life.

Materialism not only makes people's souls materialistic, it also corrupts logic and dulls the senses. Within Central Europe, we will have to understand many things that are connected with what I have said: that it is precisely in Central Europe that we must concern ourselves most intimately with the further development of the Christ impulse. But this will require that we begin to understand the spirits that have already laid the seeds for this. Just one example: Goethe wrote a theory of colors. Physicists look at it as something about which they smile pityingly and say: What did the poet understand about colors? He was just a dilettante! Since the 1980s, I have been trying to bring Goethe's theory of colors to prominence against modern physics. This cannot be understood. Why can it not be understood? Because the materialistic principle, which originates from the British national character, has found its way into Central Europe. Newton, whom Goethe had to fight against, triumphed over what sprang from Goethe's spirit. Goethe also established a theory of development which shows how, through the understanding of spiritual laws, beings progress from the most imperfect to the most perfect. This was too difficult for people to understand. When Darwin presented his theory of evolution in a simpler way, people accepted it. Darwin triumphed over Goethe. The materialistic thinker, inspired by the British national soul, triumphed over Goethe, who drew everything from his intimate dialogue with the German national soul.

Ernst Haeckel experienced tragedy. Throughout his entire life, he nourished himself spiritually with what Huxley and Darwin had given him. Ernst Haeckel's materialism is, in essence, a purely English product. Now, when the war broke out, Haeckel was outraged by what was happening from the British Isles. He was one of the first to return his English orders, diplomas, and awards. But what must be returned are not the diplomas, orders, and awards, but the English-influenced Darwinism and English-influenced physics. We must come to this realization so that we can understand what can be achieved in Central Europe as an intimate coexistence with the laws of the world.

The greatest damage can be done by pouring into the child's mind what will then develop in a purely materialistic direction. Centuries have worked toward this. Ahriman has inspired even a very great writer in Britain to such an extent that this writer has written a work which is entirely calculated to influence the soul from childhood in such a materialistic way that one does not notice it, because one does not regard it as materialistic conditioning. This is Robinson Crusoe. The whole way Robinson is described is so clever that when these ideas of Robinson's adventures are taken in, they condition the mind so that later it can only think materialistically. Humanity has not yet been healed by the inventors of Robinson's adventures; there have always been such people, and there still are today. And many other examples could be given. These things are said not to express rejection of the peoples of the West, who must be as they are, but to point out how people in Central Europe must find the connection with the great, as yet only embryonic values for development toward the future. How significant Austria is in this regard is particularly striking. In recent decades, we have seen how the highest ideals have been pursued by minds such as Hamerling in the field of poetry, Carneri, who sought to deepen Darwinism from a moral perspective, and artists such as Bruckner and others in all kinds of fields. What will matter in the end is the people's self-awareness of these things.

And now let us consider the unused etheric bodies that are available. These etheric bodies were laid down by people who, in a great event, learned to sacrifice themselves for something that no longer exists for them, at least in a tangible sense: for the people. If you talk about this today as a spiritual scientist, saying that there is a national soul as an archangel and so on, you will be laughed at. What materialism calls the national soul is only the abstract connection between the characteristics that the people of a nation have. What the materialist calls a people is merely the sum of people who live together in one place and see each other as equals. We speak of a people in such a way that we know: the spirit of the people really exists as a real entity in the rank of an archangel. Even if the one who sacrifices himself, who goes through death for his people, does not have complete consciousness in the field of events of a real national spirit, he nevertheless affirms by the way he goes through death that he believes in a continuing effect after this death, that he believes that there is more than what the eyes see in the nationality: their connection and their standing together with the supersensible. All those who thus pass through death, whether they know it more or less, pass through this death affirming that there is a supersensible world; this is imprinted on their etheric bodies. So that in the future, apart from those who will live in the physical sphere of the earth when peace has returned, the unspent etheric bodies will live on, forever sending tones into the music of the spheres: There is more in the world than what can be seen with the physical eyes! Spiritual truth will resound in the music of the spheres through what the dead leave behind in their etheric bodies, quite apart from what they take with them in their individuality, which they carry through life between death and new birth. But what will have to be heard is that which will live on, that which will sound down from these etheric bodies, because these etheric bodies have been laid aside by people who, sealing the truth of the spiritual world, have passed through death. The greatest sin of humanity will be if it does not listen to what the dead will call out to it through their admonishing etheric bodies. And how infinitely enlivened will be that which one wishes to see in relation to the spiritual world, when one has to think that the fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters who have lost their dear dead must say to themselves: What has been sacrificed there lives on for the whole of humanity, admonishing us of what must come!

If one wanted to build solely on what is happening here in the physical world, one could not have much hope for the prosperous continuation of the spiritual movement that is to be cultivated in our spiritual scientific worldview. When a good, faithful co-worker recently died, at about the age of thirty, I addressed these words to the soul passing through the gate of death, asking it to continue working just as faithfully and courageously in our spiritual scientific field as it had worked here faithfully and devotedly, making use of everything it knew. This colleague worked diligently here on the physical plane. I gave him this as a message for his life between death and rebirth, that he should work after death as he had done before death, for we count on these dead, the so-called dead, as we count on the living. The spiritual scientific worldview must be so alive to us that the gap between the so-called dead and the living is overcome, that we feel the dead among us as living beings. We want not just theory, we want life. We also want to point out that there is a living bond between those who live on earth, when peace returns, and those who have passed through the gate of death. People will be able to learn from the dead, will have to learn how these dead are working in the manner indicated toward the great spiritual progress that must take hold on earth.

In life, it sometimes happens that one sees how human logic is insufficient. I would like to give you an example, not for personal reasons, but to characterize the way people relate to our movement. A few years ago, a very serious magazine in southern Germany published an essay written by a famous contemporary philosopher about our spiritual science. Spiritual science was treated in such a way that it could make a certain impression on people, because the article was written by a great philosopher. The editor of the magazine took particular pride in being able to publish an article on spiritual science by such a famous man. Of course, everything was presented in a bad and distorted light; a completely distorted picture of spiritual science was given. But what did the editor need to realize what he had actually allowed to be published in his monthly magazine about our movement? War broke out. The man who had written the article wrote several letters to the editor. These letters contain some of the most repulsive things that can be said about Central European culture. This Central European culture was terribly reviled and mocked. The editor has now printed these letters as an example of how foolishly one can think about this culture. And he now says: Only a person who belongs in a madhouse could write the way this person writes. — So we have the fact that a good editor needed something like this to realize that the man who wrote this article about spiritual science a few years ago, which also caused a lot of damage to the outside world, belongs in a madhouse. But if this man belongs in a madhouse now, then he already belonged there back then. But back then he wrote an article about spiritual science!

That is how things are in the world! Other means of help must come than those available to man today in order to arrive at a judgment. The spiritual scientist, however, stands firmly on the ground that clearly shows that truth finds its way. But spiritual science must work in the development of humanity so that what is necessary may happen. And just as in those days when Emperor Constantine had to complete his task, when the Christ impulse had to work from the spiritual world into the subconscious, just as the Christ impulse had to work in the Virgin of Orleans so that what had to happen could happen, so the Christ impulse must continue to work, only now more consciously. There must be souls in the future who will know: up there in the spiritual world, those who sacrificed themselves with their individuality are calling us to follow them in the faith they attained in death in the effectiveness of the spiritual. But the forces from the unspent etheric bodies also call into the future, and one only needs to understand this in order to take it into one's own soul. But there must be souls below who hear this. There must be souls who prepare themselves for this through the right, through the 'living understanding' of our spiritual science. Our spiritual science must create souls here below who are able to sense what the etheric bodies of the dead will say up there in the future. Souls who know: Up there are the forces that can admonish human beings who have been left to their own devices on earth. And when spiritually conscious souls down here direct their minds toward the hidden sounds of the spiritual world, then the right fruits will arise from all the blood that has been shed, all the sacrifices that have been made, all the suffering that has had to be endured and still has to be endured. Looking to the hope that may be expressed that many, many souls may find their way through spiritual science, that they may hear these voices that will sound from the spiritual world, especially through this war, I would like to summarize the concluding words of today's reflection with words that are meant only to express what I would like to inspire in your souls:

From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of the battles,
From the suffering of the forsaken,
From the sacrifices of the people
Spiritual fruit will grow
Souls will think spiritually
Their meaning into the spiritual realm.

With such feelings in our hearts, let us always imbue ourselves with the meaning of the Rosicrucians, so that this Rosicrucianism may be regarded by us in the right way as the motto of our actions, our work, and our feelings. Not the black cross alone. Anyone who would tear the roses from the black cross, anyone who would have only the black cross, would fall prey to Ahriman. The black cross is the living being that strives toward mere matter. Nor will those who tear the roses from the cross and want to keep the roses alone find what is right. For the roses, separated from the cross, want to lift us up to life, but this life would strive upward toward the spiritual in a selfish way and not reveal the spirit in the material. Not the cross alone, not the roses alone, but the roses on the cross, the cross bearing the roses, both in harmonious interaction: that is what our true symbol is.