The Mystery of Death
GA 159
13 June 1915, Elberfeld
12. Spiritual Science as an Attitude—The Etheric Body as a Reflection of the Universe
We are presently within an era of events which call for all the sensations of the human soul in the deepest, in the most important sense. We stand in the midst of events which cause that which is always posed as a riddle for our spiritual science—death—very often in relatively short time on earth. We are in a time which spreads out grief and pains about countless souls, and in a time of which we hope that it bears important forces in their laps for the future development of humankind. If so many things are to be born from pain and grief, and if just spiritual science teaches us that many things are to be born from pain and grief, just spiritual-scientific considerations can also stimulate some strength of confidence, some strength of hope in us in this destiny-burdened time. Let me today develop some considerations before you which are not connected directly, but indirectly with the sensations and emotions which can be aroused in this stormy and painful time.
What we see occurring so variously in our present is that human beings leave the physical plane at an early age of their physical existence. Just this is the peculiarity of such events like the present ones that they recall youthful lives from the physical plane. We know that the human being when he goes through the gate of death has to hand over his physical body to the elements of the earth that he is still united with his etheric and astral bodies and his ego at first, while he goes through the gate of death. We know that after a relatively short interval this etheric body is separated from the human being, and that then the human being continues his journey, which he has to do between death and a new birth, with his ego and astral body, united with those members of his spiritual nature that he can get only in the spiritual world.
The etheric body, however, separates from the human individuality and goes through its own way. Now it must strike us that the etheric body of an early deceased human being is in another condition than that of a dead one who attained a normal age. We know that the external natural sciences speak about the fact that forces can change that, however, they cannot get lost. For the external world of the physical existence the natural sciences recognise this truth absolutely that forces never get lost, only change. Spiritual science has to teach to acknowledge this also for the spiritual world. If an etheric body frees itself from a human being who went through the gate of death as young man, then his etheric body could still have supplied the life of this human being on the physical plane for many decades.
An etheric body must be arranged in such a way that it can give all that vitality which the human being has to take up until the highest age. If the human being goes through the gate of death, we say, in his twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, thirtieth year, his etheric body goes away from him, but this etheric body still has forces through which he could have preserved his physical life up to the sixtieth, seventieth, eightieth year. These forces are in the etheric body, these forces do not get lost. We are to be preoccupied with the question—just in such a time like the present one when so many of such etheric bodies are entrusted to the spiritual worlds: what happens with the etheric bodies of those human beings who went through the gate of death in early youth?—It will be good if we familiarise ourselves—to answer such a question rather thoroughly—with the way the etheric body of a human being goes through, while the human being goes through the life between birth and death.
The external physical body of the human being gets older and older. That it gets older and older does not apply to the etheric body even if that is hard to understand. But the etheric body gets younger and younger to the same degree as the physical body gets older and older. The etheric body arrives at a certain, one could say, childish level of etheric existence in the time when the human being goes through the gate of death in a normal age. So that we must say to ourselves: when we start our physical earth existence with birth, then that is old which has been united as an etheric body with our physical body—we can say comparatively—and gets younger and younger during life and arrives at its childish level when we go through the gate of death. We could also say: if a human being dies in his youth, his etheric body does not get young enough, but it keeps a certain level of its age.—What does that mean really? An example can teach us what that means. Some of you already know this example which I have again to mention here, a concrete example of the last time which could be experienced by a number of our friends.
This concrete example concerns, actually, to a very young child, the little son of a member of ours. It was just at an evening lecture in Dornach when we got to know after the lecture that a boy of seven years, the son of our friend Faiss, was missing. It was soon clear to us that a big misfortune must have happened. A van had come in the late afternoon nearby the Dornach construction, strangely in an area, in which long before no van has probably gone, and will also not after. This van had toppled over at a particular place. This had happened towards evening, nothing else had been noticed; however, the boy was missing. When our friends, together with others, endeavoured to lift the van between ten and twelve o'clock in the evening which had not been lifted by the people to whom it belonged—they had saved themselves it for the next day because the carriage had fallen very unfavourably and was very heavy. When the helpers had succeeded in lifting it, it became apparent that, indeed, the child, the little Theodor Faiss, had passed just at the moment when the van toppled over, and that the carriage had fallen on the child. This child was only seven years old—an exceptionally dear child, a child who had exceptionally nice qualities.
I would like to remind you of a logical consideration which I have often done in our circle to show such a fact in the light of our spiritual science. I have often said that one can mistake cause and effect using external thinking, untrained thinking, and that such mistakes of cause and effect appear exceptionally often. As an example I tried to illustrate this, an example which should be only a metaphor. Imagine that one sees a person in the distance going along a riverbank. One sees him falling into the river, one tries to approach him, and one sees a stone lying just where the person had fallen into the water. One tries to pull out the person from the river: he is dead. What is more obvious than to say: the person tripped over the stone, fell into the river and drowned? This does not need to occur at all in such a way, but here the simple physical investigation may teach us that at the moment when the person entered this place he got a cardiac arrest, without his destiny having to do anything with the stone or anything else. That is why he fell into the water, so that the cardiac arrest was the cause of the fall into the water, while one would say if one makes no effort to come to the cause that the fall into the water is the cause of his death. One would assume the opposite of the right thing.
Cause and effect are distinguished more difficultly if one deals with matters related to the spiritual world. That is why one has to say: in such a case like in the case of this child who really finds his death under such extraordinary circumstances—which were still extraordinary in some other respect—one does not have to remember from a higher point of view that now this has happened: that the removal van came and toppled over and the child got under the carriage by chance; that the carriage is the cause of the child's death. On the contrary, one thinks in such a case correctly spiritual-scientifically that the child's karma had run off, and that basically the carriage went to that place because the boy should find his death; that the carriage brought only about the external conditions to give the boy his death, which was predestined in his karma. One could say trivially: the higher ego of the child wanted to go through the gate of death and ordered the whole situation, all the events that way. Indeed, it would be something totally crazy for the human being, who thinks according to our time, to hear of such an idea. Spiritual science has to show us that something that the materialistically minded human beings of today consider as something crazy corresponds to the truth.
However, it is important that just in this case the etheric body of a seven-year-old child was separated from the individuality of the child, from that which goes then in connection with the ego and the astral body through the spiritual worlds. Now it should not be my object to speak about the further life of this individuality of the little Theodor Faiss, but my task is rather to draw your attention to the fact that the etheric body supplied the physical life with vitality only for seven years; but it had forces in itself to supply a long life with vitality between birth and death. These forces remain in the etheric body. The important matter is that somebody who dealt with our Dornach construction in any spiritual relation since the death of the little Theodor Faiss can now know what came into being from the etheric body of the little Theodor Faiss. Various things of the construction are to be accomplished. We still talk immediately about the Inspirations we have to get down from the spiritual world. One need supporting forces if everything comes down that should really come down from the spiritual world. There it becomes obvious that our Dornach construction is wrapped up by the enlarged etheric body of this child like by an aura since his death—up to a far-reaching circumference. It is possible to really determine the extension of this covering.
When you see the Dornach construction—those who have already seen it, know it, it is a double rotunda [see drawing next page]. Here we have built a heating house in a particular way according to the principles of spiritual science, and then here we have built another house where the glass panes are cut and engraved for the construction. Only by the way, I want to mention that there is the so-called “House Hansi”—this is the house in which we live. Now it is strange that towards the wood, then just along the heating house, dividing this construction in the middle where the glass panes are cut, and here along this house, House Hansi, not enclosing it, this aura of the little Theodor Faiss wraps up the whole construction. So that one enters this etheric aura if one enters the building.
(Bau = construction, Heizhaus = house of the heating system, Haus für Glasfenster = glazier's workshop, Umgrenzung der Aura = boundary of Theodor's aura, Villa Hansi = House Hansi, Wald = wood)
I have often pointed out to you that the etheric body extends if it becomes free of the physical body. Hence, it does not surprise us that this etheric body appears enlarged to us. In this etheric body are the mediating forces through which one finds certain impressions of the spiritual world one needs for the forms and artistic decoration of the construction. Somebody who has to work for the construction knows what he owes to this etheric aura. Never will I hesitate to admit that since the death of this little Theodor Faiss the work is thereby made possible for me that mediating forces are given for the Inspirations in this etheric body of the boy spread out over the construction. It would be much easier not to mention such a matter. One could boast about the fact that one does not have need of such mediating forces. But it does not concern such matters but that one recognises the truth.
If we imagine these just described facts, we get an impression of how it is with an etheric body which must separate from a human life if this life is finished by death in youth. Now it is important to take into consideration that as to us the etheric body of a human being does not remain only like a nebulous formation in which the physical body is embedded. We do also not recognise a physical human body by the fact that we describe it only like a mass of muscles and bones et cetera, but by the fact that we look at it as something like a temple of the godhead, as a microcosm. We only recognise the physical body correctly if we realise that its forms which are stamped on it are really taken out of the whole cosmos that the physical body of the human being is a miracle. Somebody, who can feel the emotions which are expressed in the first conversation of the second mystery drama The Probation of the Soul, can get an idea in which way an individual human being is put into his physical existence concerning his physical body by all kinds of hierarchies; that a whole world of gods aims at it as their goal to put this human being into the physical existence. We get to know so surely which significance this physical body has if we consider the clairvoyant knowledge a little.
The clairvoyant cognition is the cognition which comes about by the fact that the human being pulls out his psycho-spiritual entity from his physical body and that he can then be conscious and perceive outside his body in the psycho-spiritual realm. One cannot recognise any difference between the human being who perceives clairvoyantly and the sleeping human being who has also pulled out his psycho-spiritual of his physical body. However, because the clairvoyant consciousness can perceive outside the physical body, it can gain an idea what happens with the human being during sleep. This schematic drawing may make it easier. We assume that this is the physical body and this is the psycho-spiritual entity of the sleeping human being. Of course, the psycho-spiritual entity is in the physical body when he is awake. We imagine the human being in his sleeping state. The physical body and the etheric body lie there in the bed; they do not contain the astral body and the ego as they contain them when they are awake.
But one would like to say that what the astral body and the ego accomplish in the physical body during the waking state is not stopped completely in sleep. For all that which the human being can perceive at first the human being lying in the bed is lying there as lifeless. For the clairvoyant consciousness this physical human being and this etheric body which lie in the bed are not as lying there lifelessly. The clairvoyant must say something completely different of this sleeping physical and etheric human being. He has to say: during the whole day the area of the earth on which now the human beings are sleeping was shone on by the sun. Now it is night. I talk about the normal circumstances if one sleeps at night and is awake during the day, not about the modern urban or big-city circumstances. Darkness spreads out over the area on which the sun has shone during the day. It is strange, but one notices there that the earth as a being starts to think and the organs with which the earth thinks are these sleeping human bodies.
As well as the human beings think with their brains, the earth thinks with these sleeping human bodies. It perceives continually during the day—and the percipience consists in the fact that it is shone by the sun from the universe, this is the perception of the earth—and at night it processes thinking what it has perceived. The earth thinks, the clairvoyant says, and it thinks using the sleeping human beings. Every sleeping human being becomes as it were a brain molecule of the earth. Our physical body is established so that the earth can think with it if we ourselves do not use it.
But as well as the earth thinks with the human physical body, it imagines—you know what an Imaginative knowledge is,—it imagines everything that is not earthly on earth that belongs to the earth from the whole universe. It imagines that in the etheric body. In the sleeping physical body of the human being one recognises brain parts of the earth, and in the etheric body of the sleeping human being one sees that cosmos imagining which belongs to the earth at first. One can behold this interplay of forces in the etheric body as miraculous pictures which must flow from the etheric world of the earth, so that the events of this earth can take place. As true as the physical human being belongs to the earth, he belongs as an etheric human being to the heavens. Only so we can use our physical body for ourselves as a mental organ because it is created for thinking because, so to speak, the earth gives him off during the waking state. That is why we can only use our etheric body in such a way that it gives us the vital forces because the heavens give it off during the waking state, and because the forces of Imagination of the heavens are transformed to vitality in us during the waking state. So that we will talk not only about our etheric body like about a nebulous thing, but about a microcosmic thing reflecting the heavens in it.
Our etheric body is handed over to us as a particularly perfect creation at our birth. At our birth our etheric body glitters internally and gleams from nothing but Imaginations which come from the big cosmos to it. It is a marvellous reflection of the cosmos. What the human being can get as education, as knowledge, as forces of will and soul during his life, while he grows old between birth and death, this is got out of this etheric body. The cosmic heavenly forces hand over to us what they have to hand over to us during the life between birth and death. Therefore, we are again young as etheric human beings when we have run through a normal life between birth and death, because we have then sucked out everything from this etheric body. If such an etheric body goes through the gate of death which belongs to a youthful body, then there is still a lot of unused heavenly light in it. Hence, it becomes a mediator of such forces as I have told. Completely apart from the fact what the individuality of such a human soul becomes, like that of which I talked before, the etheric body becomes something like a gift of the heavens, a gift of the spiritual worlds. That is why this etheric body can work inspiring in the described sense.
It would go too far to talk about the peculiar karma which has such a human soul who is able to make such a sacrifice. For this cannot be brought about artificially, but it must be connected with the whole karma of such a person. He has to do something that has to play a role in the spiritual world process of humankind as we intend it for this Dornach construction which should surround our spiritual-scientific efforts.
Now, however, consider that we go towards a time, in which many such etheric bodies, even if they are not so youthful concerning their age but their life, are in the spiritual atmosphere. Those who have gone on the bloody battlefields through the gate of death go in another way through the gate of death than somebody who goes in his bed or because of an everyday accident through the gate of death. They go in a certain way through the gate of death so that they reckon with their death, even if more or less in the subconscious—the astral body reckons with the death in a certain way. One can say that this death is always a sacrifice. All the etheric bodies which go up in this way from youthful human beings to the spiritual world have unused forces. A period of human development lies ahead to us in which human souls can consciously look up to the spiritual world and can say to themselves: a time has passed which has sent many unused etheric bodies to the spiritual world. In these unused etheric bodies forces are included, forces of which we can say spiritual-scientifically already today which significance they have for the development of humankind.
If one discusses such a matter, one must expressly point to the fact that that does not apply to every war which took place in the development of the human beings on earth. What happens spiritually and should be considered by spiritual science is not so simple as natural sciences make it easy to themselves. Other wars of former times required that one has to talk about them differently. What I have to say applies to the present destiny-burdened times. Think once the following: at different occasions I had to emphasise that it does not arise from arbitrariness if we cultivate spiritual science today, but that it really lies in the developmental process of humankind that the human beings get to know spiritual science gradually. We know that every epoch of the earth development of humankind has a particular task. We can gather this from different cycles of talks. We can recognise that the welfare of the future development of humankind can only blossom if really the revelations of spiritual science become mental property of more and more souls.
I assume that most of you are warmly enthusiastic for spiritual science, but take into account which difficulties are there with reference to the propagation of the spiritual-scientific truth in the present. Take into account that the human beings outside in the world oppose against this spiritual-scientific truth. Take into account that this truth is defamed, that the human beings consider it as mad, as distorted, as crazy, as a raving. Really impressive examples could be given, but, nevertheless, all the examples would be only a small part of that which basically everybody can feel if he is enthusiastic for spiritual science and faces the world from which he would like that it would take up spiritual science—and does so little today. Now the spiritual scientist may say to himself the following: what has to be accomplished with the bare earth forces of humankind seems to be rather weak compared to the task of spiritual science. But in the immediate future there are the unused etheric bodies which had to carry soul and life through the gate of death on the fields of the events in our time. The etheric bodies with their unused forces become inspiring forces, supporting forces in the immediate future. We only need to get the attitude—now not intellectually, not theoretically, but out of heart and soul—to look up to the heavenly etheric bodies of those who have gone in early youth through the gate of death in our destiny-burdened time.
We need to turn our souls as it were only in praying mood to these etheric bodies, and those who are enthusiastic for spiritual science only need to turn their souls to these forces—and they will have help from these etheric bodies. So that if ardent spiritual living together with these etheric bodies is possible because one is penetrated with a real spiritual-scientific attitude, one also finds those among the various fruits which are in the lap of our destiny-burdened time. For into the souls of the spiritual-scientific enthusiastic human beings of the future that will stream which lies in the forces of the sacrificed etheric bodies of our destiny-burdened time. Through the souls of those who live in the physical body in the next future the forces of the sacrificed etheric bodies can flow if these souls are penetrated with the real attitude. These are heavenly forces, forces of the spiritual world. Then quite different forces are able to prevail in the world to bring spiritual-scientific attitude into the world. We have only to find the possibility to bear witness of that which happens now in the sense of the just given explanation, then these destiny-burdened days are also deeply significant for somebody who stands in spiritual science.
Marvellous, we have said, are the Imaginative formations of the human etheric body. Nevertheless, they are different than they would be unless they had gone through an etheric body of a human being. But also on this field the sentence holds true: nothing comes into being from nothing.—This is not an absolute sentence, but it applies to this field. What a human soul adds as an etheric body, when it enters in the physical existence, gathers forces of the spiritual world which are used up during the physical life. These forces are not from nothing, they are there in the spiritual world. Indeed, one can find them also in the spiritual world, but if anybody wants to find them directly in the spiritual world, it is difficult. One must use much bigger instruments of power. If they have gone, however, once through a physical human being who has died early and show themselves as it were with that which they have in themselves because of the passage through the human being, it is easier to use their help.
All the forces which are in this young etheric body of the little Theodor Faiss, indeed, would also be in the spiritual world, but it would be a spiritual Herculean task to pull them, otherwise. Because they have come along on the detour through the boy, it was substantially easier to be inspired by them. Imagine then what a tremendously great significance for the whole further development of humankind it has that such a big amount of etheric bodies with still unused forces are given to humankind in the next future. But because these, I would like to say that repeatedly, heavenly forces have gone through human beings, they freed themselves as it were from the laws to which they are subjected in the universe outside. It is impossible that in the universe these forces, which are got directly from the universe, are used in a bad sense. Assuming that all the human beings who go now because of the military events or other circumstances through the gate of death, they would not deliver such a sum of etheric bodies if the war had not come. All these forces would also be in the universe, of course; then, however, they could not be used by the human beings, because it would be too difficult to use them. That is why they could not be used, because they would be used up in the lives by the human beings who reached their normal age. This is quite important that these heavenly forces have gone through human bodies. They thereby escape as it were from the usual progress of development. However, this freedom makes that these forces can be also used in another way than to the welfare of humankind.
They can also be used in another way. The human life must develop in the light of freedom. Assuming that Ahriman would really succeed in darkening the thoughts and reason of the human beings, so that they all would reject spiritual science. Then, nevertheless, these etheric bodies would be there, but there would be no spiritual-scientific enthusiastic souls who take these forces into the service of the earth progress. Then Lucifer or Ahriman would be able to intervene and would use these forces either in the world of Lucifer or in the world of Ahriman. Consider that I express something tremendously important with it. I express that it is put as it were into the hands of the human beings in which way the forces are incorporated in the earth process which were given to the world by sacrificial deaths. The fact that these forces can be used to the progress of earth development inspiring that which was aroused by spiritual science.
Otherwise, it could be—if materialism seized all minds or if nationalism spread out in a purely passionate way—that Lucifer or Ahriman would take these forces into their service. Then the earth progress could not have anything of these forces. The deep significance of spiritual science for the human earth development becomes apparent to somebody who considers these connections. He learns to say to himself: how necessary is it that sacrificial forces are used in the right sense in the development, how necessary is it that individual human beings can be touched by the spiritual-scientific attitude.—This spiritual science becomes something holy if one considers it in the connection with the spiritual development, as it expresses itself during our destiny-burdened days. The attitude which can originate from spiritual science becomes something like a prayer which can be summarised in the words: spirit of the world, let us rightly be penetrated with this spiritual-scientific attitude, so that we do not fail to wring that which can be used to the welfare and progress of the earth out of Lucifer and Ahriman.
Our construction should serve like a landmark what spiritual science should become to humankind as an attitude. Hence, it is arranged in such a way that its forms express artistically what spiritual science can give from itself. I would have to speak a lot if I wanted to explain to you what is put into every detail of this construction. You experience all that, if you visit the construction in the course of the years, and join in the matters which should take place there. Today I will only talk about one matter in connection with that which I have just explained.
At an important place of the construction, where it turns eastwards, a sculptural group will be. In this sculptural group should be expressed in particular that which has to penetrate the consciousness of our time to the right degree. This group consists of three figures basically, apart from that which will be added. Three beings find expression in this group. Something like a rock will be there. This rock has a projection forwards, and in this projection is a cave. The central figure stands on the rock projection. You may call it as you want, but you have to see the representative of the earthly human being in it in the truest sense of the word. If you want to see the ideal of the earthly human being in that human being who carried the Christ being for three years of his life on earth, you may also see Christ in this central figure. But this must not happen in such a way that you stand before this group with the consciousness that this should be Christ, but everything must be felt artistically. That is, it must not be interpreted externally as a symbol, but everything must result from the forms themselves.
Here on top is the second being. This being has a humanlike head. The head is really formed in such a way that one can say, a human head reminds of this head. Since this head is so formed that the skull is extremely developed, in particular the forehead. While these parts are relatively immobile with the human being, everything is mobile with this being. Everything is an expression of soul. As well as the human being can move his hands with the fingers, but not this part here, this being can move everything. One notices in the sculptural work that everything is movable. The lower part of the face recedes very much with this being. One may say that the mighty skull arches over the receding face.
I can only discuss some parts, because every single line of this figure is very significant. Then, however, it is the peculiar that a connection exists between that which has atrophied to the larynx with the human being and the ear of this figure. That which is as a little larynx in it bends up and constitutes the lower part of the ears. The upper part is formed by the forehead. On the other side, two formations, reminding of bird wings, adjoin between which a body is spread out resembling a reshaped human face on the whole. Wings and larynx and ear are formed as a unity, so that one recognises: with the wings the being lives in the music of the spheres inside, moves through the space, through the waves of the music of the spheres, and this is located in the ear. With the human being all that has atrophied. Because the human representative lifts the left hand to the figure on the rock, its wings are broken, and it falls off the rock.—You anticipate: this figure is Lucifer who falls off the rock with broken wings.
Here at the bottom, in the cave, is another figure. It does not have bird-like wings, but bat-like wings, a kind of worm-like or dragon-like body and a head again reminding of the human head. But what is a mighty forehead with Lucifer recedes in this lower figure completely, has atrophied. The lower parts toward the mouth are extremely developed with this figure. This figure is wrapped with the gold of the earth. The gold of the earth turns into chains, which tie up this figure therein. This figure writhes because of the effect which goes out from the downward showing hand of the human representative, Christ. This figure at the bottom is Ahriman, who is tied up with the gold of the earth.
What I have just said is, as it were, the idea of the whole. But with this idea I have only pointed to that which it concerns. Never will we adopt the bad habit of the old theosophists who have always worked with symbols, but everything that moves from spiritual science to the human feeling has really to be raised to the artistic realm. Hence, one must not say: these figures express this and that,—but they have to show the relation of the human being, or of Christ, to Lucifer and Ahriman artistically. That is why this cannot be expressed using the old artistic means. Each movement of the fingers, the way as the hands are formed, is important, because something important has to express itself in it. One could have the idea at first that Christ lifts the left hand up and would allow to emit forces which break the wings of Lucifer, so that he falls off. The forces by which Ahriman is tied up would be emitted by the right downward showing hand again. One would have imagined something completely wrong if one had imagined this.
To explain the especially important aspect of that, I may remind you of something that really belongs to the greatest pieces of art up to now: The Last Judgement by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. There one sees Christ pointing the good to the heaven, the bad to the hell. One sees in Christ that he sends the ones to the good world, the others to the bad world. This Christ, as he is shown there, is not from now on the Christ whose true being we should only understand by spiritual science. The Christ who is the true Christ does not condemn, does not praise, using rage or usual love, but has an effect by his own nature. Lucifer's wings are not broken, but he breaks them because of his attitude while approaching Christ. Ahriman ties up himself because of the soul events while approaching Christ. Hence, the downward and upward lifted hands must not have anything that is not pure sympathy with the world. On top, Lucifer cannot endure on his part that the hand of Christ approaches him. The experience of this in himself breaks his wings, Christ does not break them.
That also holds good for Ahriman. Michelangelo did not yet know how to form Christ as He is in reality. The Christ Being is so significant, the understanding of the Christ Being is so difficult that this can only be reached in the course of time. The Christ Who persuades the beings by His nature, so that they condemn or release themselves, is understood in future. Christ in the picture of Michelangelo has something luciferic-ahrimanic because He leads the bad human beings to hell in His rage, the good to the heaven: He is engaged with His passions. In our sculptural group, Christ stands as somebody impersonal, and the beings condemn themselves who approach Him.
You see that the position of the human being in the world is expressed, in which luciferic and ahrimanic forces are included, at an important place of our construction. Beings must find expression that can be found only in the spiritual world. Any naturalism of art, any tendencies of art just in the last times when people were seized by materialism must be overcome by the art we cultivate here. Something novel, also in the field of art, has to enter the world by spiritual science, so that the greatest achievement of art is also overcome which was possible up to now: the Christ figure of Michelangelo in his Last Judgement.
One is allowed to express such things, if one emphasises, on the other side, what must not be forgotten: the fact that of course this construction can only be a primitive start. Everything is imperfect, everything is elementary, everything is only a start, but the start should already be something novel. The fact that everything is imperfect, this can be known of course, but one has to point to something that should come as an impulse in the whole human life.
Take into consideration that it suggests itself to pass a gift of the cosmic existence indifferently, which consists of the unused forces of human etheric bodies. Take into consideration that these forces could become a prey of Lucifer and Ahriman if the human being did not find the possibility to serve the welfare of the earthly development. There we have touched a tremendous secret of our earthly development: the secret of the relation of the Christ Impulse to the impulses of Lucifer and Ahriman. This relation of the Christ Impulse to the impulses of Lucifer and Ahriman can be understood by humankind more and more in the next future. Lucifer's and Ahriman's forces prevail in the world, and the human being must become with the help of his Christ consciousness like a being who sits in a boat which is always exposed to the storms Lucifer and Ahriman excite. The boat has to roll from side to side, however, it finds its way through the sea whose living substance consists of Lucifer and Ahriman, through which, however, the human being steers his Christ boat.
We do not come together in our branches to learn this or that theoretically what spiritual science can reveal to us, but we come together that everything that lives in our souls is filled with an attitude which can flow from this spiritual science. It does not depend on that which we think of spiritual science, but how we think, feel and will. Whether the smallest or the biggest what we can observe in the earth development of humankind stands before our soul eyes, everywhere can come before our eyes that it is necessary for the human being of the future to familiarise himself just with the significance of the triad of Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman. Michelangelo could not correctly see, the past times could not correctly see this triad existing there in the world. But one will only recognise Christ properly by His being when one sees Him in His relation to that which works in the world like the North Pole and the South Pole: Lucifer and Ahriman.
Some of these matters are to be discussed for those who can be present still during the next days. Today I wanted to put on your souls that which allows spiritual-scientific attitude to appear to us as something very important also for important matters which can appear in the spiritual world in the next future to somebody who is able to understand also spiritually what happens physically.
One may beg the good gods and spirits guarding the earth and humankind that they give the human beings strength, so that that can happen which must happen for the welfare of humankind.
Above there the unused etheric forces of the human beings are who went through death in their youth. But human hearts and human souls have to be here on earth which look up to these forces, so that these forces can be brought in the correct direction of development by them. It depends not only on it that there above the forces are which could also become a prey of Lucifer and Ahriman, but it concerns that here below human souls are in physical bodies that send their pious mood to these sacrificial etheric bodies. It will depend on that in which sense the forces flow in the human development which are created on the fields on which the blood runs on which sacrifices are offered on which pains are suffered.
This shows the contribution of spiritual science to the course of the human development if that which can be recognised only by spiritual science is really seized by a number of human beings.
What can come into being from the present destiny-burdened days, I would like to express it in the end in some pragmatic words before your souls once again:
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.
Geisteswissenschaft Als Gesinnung Der Ätherleib Als Abspiegelung Des Weltenalls
Wir stehen in der Gegenwart innerhalb einer Ära von Ereignissen, welche alle Empfindungen der Menschenseele in tiefstem, in bedeutungsvollstem Sinne aufrufen müssen. Wir stehen inmitten von Ereignissen, welche dasjenige, was unserer Geisteswissenschaft immer als ein Rätsel aufgegeben ist - den Tod - viele, viele Male in verhältnismäßig kurzer Zeit über die Erde hinziehen lassen. Wir stehen in einer Zeit, welche Leid und Schmerzen verbreitet über unzählige Seelen, und in einer Zeit, von der wir hoffen wollen, daß sie in ihrem Schoße bedeutungsvolle Kräfte für die Entfaltung der zukünftigen Entwickelung der Menschheit trägt. Wenn so vieles aus Schmerz und Leid geboren werden muß, und wenn uns gerade Geisteswissenschaft lehrt, daß vieles aus Schmerz und Leid geboren werden muß, so werden gerade geisteswissenschaftliche Betrachtungen auch in dieser schicksaltragenden Zeit geeignet sein können, manche Kraft der Zuversicht, manche Kraft der Hoffnung in uns anzuregen. Und so seien denn heute einige Betrachtungen vor Ihren Seelen entwickelt, die zwar nicht direkt, aber doch indirekt mit dem zusammenhängen, was an Empfindungen und Gefühlen in unserer schmerz- und sturmbewegten Zeit in uns hervorgerufen werden kann.
Was wir so vielfältig in unserer Gegenwart sich ereignen sehen und fühlen, es ist, daß Menschen den physischen Plan verlassen in verhältnismäßig frühem Alter ihres physischen Daseins. Gerade das ist ja das Eigentümliche solcher Ereignisse, wie die jetzigen es sind, daß sie jugendliche Leben vom physischen Plan abberufen. Wir wissen, daß der Mensch, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes geht, seinen physischen Leib den Elementen der Erde zu übergeben hat, daß er, indem er durch die Pforte des Todes tritt, zuerst noch vereint ist mit seinem Ätherleib, seinem Astralleib und seinem Ich. Wir wissen, daß nach verhältnismäßig kurzer Zeit dieser Ätherleib von dem Menschen getrennt wird, und daß dann der Mensch seine weitere Wanderung, die er durchzumachen hat zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, in dem Ich und dem Astralleib durchmacht, vereint mit denjenigen Gliedern seiner geistigen Natur, die er sich erst in der geistigen Welt aneignen kann; daß aber dann für seine weitere Wanderung in der Zeit zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt der Ätherleib sich von der menschlichen Individualität trennt und seinen eigenen Weg durchmacht. Nun muß es uns auffallen, daß bei einem jugendlichen Sterben dieser Ätherleib in einer ganz andern Verfassung sein muß als beim Sterben eines Menschen, der eine normale Altersstufe erlangt hat. Wir wissen, wie die äußere Naturwissenschaft davon spricht, daß Kräfte sich zwar verwandeln können, daß sie aber nicht verlorengehen können. Für die äußere Welt des physischen Daseins erkennt die Naturwissenschaft diese Wahrheit durchaus an, daß Kräfte niemals verlorengehen, sich nur verwandeln. Für die geistige Welt muß Geisteswissenschaft lehren, dieses auch anzuerkennen. Wenn ein Ätherleib sich loslöst von einem Menschen, der im jugendlichen Alter durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist, so ist das ein solcher Ätherleib, der noch durch viele Jahrzehnte das Leben dieses Menschen auf dem physischen Plan hätte versorgen können. Ein Ätherleib muß ja so eingerichtet sein, daß er alle diejenigen Lebenskräfte hergeben kann, die der Mensch bis ins höchste Alter in Anspruch nehmen muß. Wenn der Mensch, sagen wir, im fünfundzwanzigsten, sechsundzwanzigsten, dreißigsten Lebensjahr durch die Pforte des Todes geht, geht sein Ätherleib weg von ihm, aber dieser Ätherleib hat noch Kräfte, durch die er vielleicht bis ins sechzigste, siebzigste, achtzigste Jahr hinein das physische Leben des Menschen hätte erhalten können. Diese Kräfte sind im Ätherleib, diese Kräfte gehen nicht verloren. Und es muß uns — gerade in einer solchen Zeit wie die jetzige, wo so viele solcher Ätherleiber den geistigen Welten gewissermaßen anvertraut werden - die Frage beschäftigen: Was geschieht mit den Ätherleibern derjenigen Menschen, die in frühem Jugendalter durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind? - Es wird gut sein, wenn wir, um uns recht gründlich eine solche Frage zu beantworten, uns damit bekanntmachen, welchen Weg eigentlich der Ätherleib eines Menschen durchmacht, während der Mensch das Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod durchläuft.
Der äußere physische Leib des Menschen wird immer älter. Beim Ätherleib ist dies nicht der Fall. So schwierig zu begreifen es scheinen mag, beim Ätherleib ist das ganz und gar nicht der Fall, daß er immer älter wird, sondern der Ätherleib wird in demselben Maße, wie der physische Leib älter wird, immer jünger und jünger, und er erreicht eine gewisse, man könnte sagen, kindliche Stufe des ätherischen Daseins in der Zeit, in welcher der Mensch im normalen Lebensalter durch die Pforte des Todes geht. So daß wir uns sagen müssen: Wenn wir durch die Geburt unser physisches Erdendasein antreten, dann ist dasjenige, was sich als Ätherleib mit unserem physischen Leib vereinigt hat - wir können vergleichsweise sagen - eigentlich alt und wird während des Lebens immer jünger und erreicht seine kindliche Stufe dann, wenn wir durch die Pforte des Todes gehen. Wir könnten also auch sagen: Wenn nun ein Mensch im jugendlichen Alter stirbt, wird sein Ätherleib nicht jung genug, sondern er behält eine gewisse Stufe des Alters. - Was heißt das aber in Wahrheit? Was das heißt, darüber kann uns ein Beispiel belehren, das eine Anzahl von Ihnen schon kennen, das ich aber doch wiederum hier erwähnen muß, ein konkretes Beispiel aus der letzten Zeit, das von einer Anzahl von Freunden erlebt werden konnte.
Dieses konkrete Beispiel bezieht sich eigentlich auf ein ganz junges Kind, das kleine Söhnlein eines Mitgliedes von uns. Es war gerade an einem Vortragsabend in Dornach, als wir nach dem Vortrag erfahren mußten, daß ein Knabe von sieben Jahren, der Sohn unseres Freundes Faiß, abgängig sei. Und es war bald klar, daß ein großes Unglück geschehen sein müsse. Es war nämlich am Spätnachmittag in die Nähe des Dornacher Baues ein Möbelwagen gekommen, kurioserweise in eine Gegend, in welche vielleicht recht lange vorher, wenn überhaupt je, kein Möbelwagen gefahren ist, und nachher wohl auch nicht. Dieser Möbelwagen war an einer bestimmten Stelle umgefallen. Gegen Abend war das geschehen, weiter war nichts bemerkt worden; der Knabe war aber abgängig. Und als dann, mit andern vereint, unsere Freunde zwischen zehn und zwölf Uhr abends alle Anstrengung machten, um den Möbelwagen zu heben, der von den Leuten, denen er gehörte, nicht mehr aufgehoben worden war - sie hatten es sich für den nächsten Tag erspart, weil der Wagen sehr ungünstig gefallen und sehr schwer war -, als es gelungen war, ihn zu heben, da stellte sich heraus, daß in der Tat das Kind, der kleine Theodor Faifß, gerade in dem Augenblick vorbeigegangen war, als der Möbelwagen umfiel, und daß der Wagen auf das Kind gefallen war. Nun war dieses Kind es war nur sieben Jahre alt geworden - ein außerordentlich liebes Kind, ein Kind, das außerordentlich schöne Eigenschaften hatte.
Ich möchte, um eine solche Tatsache in das Licht unserer Geisteswissenschaft zu rücken, an eine logische Erwägung erinnern, die ich öfters in unserem Kreise angestellt habe. Ich habe öfters gesagt, wie man Ursache und Wirkung durch äußerliches Denken, durch ungeschultes Denken verwechseln kann, und daß solche Verwechslungen von Ursache und Wirkung wirklich außerordentlich häufig vorkommen. Durch ein Beispiel versuchte ich das zu veranschaulichen, ein Beispiel, das nur ein Vergleich sein soll. Man nehme an, man sehe in der Ferne einen Menschen am Rande eines Baches gehen. Man sieht, wie er hineinfällt in den Bach, man bemüht sich, in die Nähe zu kommen, und man sieht, wie gerade an der Stelle, wo der Mensch ins Wasser fiel, ein Stein liegt. Man versucht, den Menschen herauszuziehen aus dem Bach: er ist tot. Was liegt näher, als zu sagen: Der Mensch ist über den Stein gestolpert und in den Bach gefallen und ist dann ertrunken. Das braucht aber gar nicht so zu sein, sondern hier wird vielleicht die einfache physische Untersuchung uns lehren können, daß in dem Augenblick, wo der Mensch gerade diese Stelle betrat, ohne daß sein Schicksal irgend etwas mit dem Stein oder sonst etwas zu tun hatte, der Herzschlag ihn getroffen hat, und daß er infolgedessen in das Wasser gefallen ist - so daß der Herzschlag die Ursache des Hereinfallens in das Wasser war —, während man, wenn man sich keine Mühe gibt, auf die Sache zu kommen, sagen würde, das Hereinfallen ins Wasser sei die Ursache des Todes. Man würde also gerade das Umgekehrte von dem annehmen, was das Richtige ist.
Schwieriger schon ist eine solche Sache mit Bezug auf das Verhältnis von Ursache und Wirkung einzusehen, wenn man es mit Dingen zu tun hat, die mit der geistigen Welt zusammenhängen. So muß man sagen: In einem solchen Falle wie in dem Falle dieses Kindes, das wirklich durch so außerordentliche Umstände — die noch durch manches andere außerordentlich waren - seinen Tod findet, hat man von einem höheren Gesichtspunkte aus nicht daran zu denken, daß nun dieses geschehen sei: daß der Möbelwagen gekommen und umgefallen und das Kind zufällig unter den Wagen geraten ist; daß also der Wagen die Ursache für den Tod des Kindes sei. Vielmehr wird man in einem solchen Falle geisteswissenschaftlich in einer richtigen Weise denken, daß des Kindes Karma abgelaufen war, und daß im Grunde der Wagen an jene Stelle hingefahren ist, weil das Kind seinen Tod finden sollte; daß also der Wagen nur die äußeren Bedingungen herbeigeführt hat, um den Tod, der im Karma vorgezeichnet war, dem Kinde zu geben. Trivial könnte man sagen: Dasjenige, was des Kindes höheres Selbst ist, das durch die Pforte des Todes gehen wollte, habe sich die ganze Situation, die ganzen Geschehnisse, so bestellt. Gewiß wird es für den Menschen, der im Sinne unserer Zeit denkt, etwas ganz Wahnwitziges haben, von einer solchen Idee zu hören. Geisteswissenschaft muß uns eben zeigen, wie manches, was die materialistisch gesinnten Menschen der Gegenwart als wahnwitzig ansehen, gerade der Wahrheit entspricht.
Was bedeutungsvoll ist, ist aber, daß nunmehr gerade in diesem Falle der Ätherleib eines siebenjährigen Kindes sich losgetrennt hat von der Individualität des Kindes, von dem, was dann in Verbindung mit Ich und Astralleib weiter durch die geistigen Welten geht. Es soll jetzt nicht meine Aufgabe sein, davon zu sprechen, welches der weitere Lebensfortgang dieser Individualität des kleinen Theodor Faiß ist, sondern meine Aufgabe ist es vielmehr, aufmerksam zu machen darauf, daß der Ätherleib ja in diesem Falle ein solcher war, der nur sieben Jahre das physische Leben mit Lebenskräften versorgt hat; aber Kräfte hat er in sich gehabt, um ein ganzes langes Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod mit Lebenskräften zu versorgen. Diese Kräfte, die bleiben im Ätherleib. Und das Bedeutungsvolle ist, daß derjenige, der seit jenem Tode des kleinen Theodor Faiß in irgendeiner geistigen Beziehung mit dem Bau zu tun hatte, den wir in Dornach der Geisteswissenschaft errichten sollen, nunmehr wissen kann, was aus dem Ätherleib des kleinen Theodor Faiß geworden ist. Bei diesem Bau ist ja so mancherlei zu leisten. Wir werden gleich noch einiges von dem sprechen, was heute in bezug auf Inspirationen aus der geistigen Welt herunterzuholen ist. Man braucht helfende Kräfte, wenn all dasjenige, was daaus der geistigen Welt geholt werden soll, wirklich herunterkommen soll. Und da zeigt sich, daß in der Tat seit dem Tode des kleinen Theodor Faiß von dem vergrößerten Ätherleib dieses Kindes-bis in weitem Umkreis — unser Dornacher Bau wie von einer Aura eingehüllt ist. Es ist möglich, wirklich zu bestimmen, wie weit diese Einhüllung geht
Wenn Sie den Dornacher Bau sehen werden — diejenigen, die ihn schon gesehen haben, wissen es -, es ist ein Doppelrundbau (siehe Zeichnung). Hier haben wir ein Heizhaus, in einer besonderen Art nach Grundsätzen der Geisteswissenschaft angelegt, und hier haben wir dann ein anderes Haus angelegt, wo die Glasfenster für den Bau geschliffen werden. Nur nebenbei will ich erwähnen, daß etwa hier das sogenannte «Haus Hansi» ist — das ist das Haus, in dem wir wohnen. Nun ist es merkwürdig, daß bis hier, gegen den Wald hinauf, dann gerade an dem Heizhaus vorbei, mitten durchschneidend diesen Bau, wo die Fenster geschliffen werden, und hier an diesem Haus vorbei, Haus Hansi, dieses nicht einschließend, diese Aura des kleinen Theodor Faiß einhüllt den ganzen Bau. So daß man in der Tat, wenn man den Bau betritt, diese Ätheraura betritt.
Worauf ich öfter aufmerksam machte, das ist, daß sich ja der Ätherleib vergrößert, wenn er vom physischen Leibe frei wird. Daher braucht es uns nicht zu erstaunen, daß uns dieser Ätherleib in einer solchen Vergrößerung erscheint. Und in diesem Ätherleib sind die Vermittlerkräfte, durch die man gewisse Eindrücke aus der geistigen Welt findet, die man braucht, um sie in den Formen und der künstlerischen Ausgestaltung des Baues zu verwenden. Und derjenige, der für den Bau zu arbeiten hat, weiß, was er dieser Ätheraura verdankt. Niemals werde ich anstehen zu bekennen, daß die Arbeit seit dem Tode dieses kleinen Theodor Faiß mir dadurch möglich gemacht ist, daß Vermittlerkräfte für die Inspirationen in diesem über dem Bau ausgebreiteten Ätherleibe des Knaben gegeben sind. Es wäre viel leichter, eine solche Sache gar nicht zu erwähnen. Man könnte ja prunken damit, daß man solche Vermittlerkräfte nicht brauche. Aber es handelt sich nicht um solche Dinge, sondern darum, die Wahrheit zu erkennen.
Wenn wir diese eben geschilderten Tatsachen uns vor die Augen führen, dann bekommen wir einen Eindruck davon, wie es mit einem Ätherleib ist, der sich von einem Menschenleben trennen muß, wenn dieses Leben in jugendlichem Alter mit dem Tode abgeschlossen wird. Nun ist es wichtig, zu berücksichtigen, daß uns eines Menschen Ätherleib nicht bloß etwa wie ein nebelartiges Gebilde bleibt, in das der physische Leib eingebettet ist. Erkennen wir ja auch einen physischen Menschenleib nicht dadurch, daß wir ihn bloß wie eine Masse von Muskeln und Knochen und so weiter beschreiben, sondern dadurch, daß wir ihn erkennen, wie er gewissermaßen wie eine Art Tempel der Gottheit, wie ein Mikrokosmos dasteht. Was am physischen Leibe ist, erkennen wir nur dann im rechten Sinne, wenn wir uns bewußt werden, daß die Formen, in die er geprägt ist, wirklich aus dem ganzen Weltenall herausgenommen sind, daß der Mensch ein Wundergebilde ist mit Bezug auf seinen physischen Leib. Wer die Gefühle empfinden kann, welche ausgesprochen sind in dem ersten Gespräch des zweiten Mysteriendramas «Prüfung der Seele», wird sich eine Vorstellung machen können davon, wie ein einzelner Mensch in bezug auf seinen physischen Leib durch alle möglichen Hierarchien in dieses sein physisches Dasein gestellt ist; wie eine ganze Götterwelt es als ihr Ziel ansieht, diesen Menschen in das physische Dasein hineinzustellen. Nun lernen wir so recht kennen, welche Bedeutung dieser physische Leib hat, wenn wir die Beobachtung der hellsichtigen Erkenntnis ein wenig ins Auge fassen.
Das hellsichtige Erkennen ist ja das Erkennen, das dadurch zustande kommt, daß der Mensch sein Geistig-Seelisches aus seinem Physisch-Leiblichen herauszieht und daß er dann bewußt und wahrnehmend werden kann außerhalb seines Leibes im Geistig-Seelischen. Und es ist im Grunde in bezug auf alles Äußere kein Unterschied zwischen dem Menschen, der hellsichtig wahrnehmend ist, und dem schlafenden Menschen, der auch sein Geistig-Seelisches aus dem Physisch-Leiblichen herausgezogen hat. Dadurch, daß das hellsichtige Bewußtsein außerhalb des physischen Leibes wahrnehmen kann, kann es sich aber eine Vorstellung davon machen, was mit dem Menschen geschieht, wenn er im schlafenden Zustand ist. Zur Erleichterung nur sei diese schematische Zeichnung gemacht. Nehmen wir an, dieses sei das Physisch-Leibliche und dieses das Geistig-Seelische beim schlafenden Menschen. Beim wachenden Menschen ist natürlich das GeistigSeelische im Physisch-Leiblichen darinnen; wir stellen uns also einmal den Menschen in seinem schlafenden Zustand vor. Da liegt der physische Leib und der Ätherleib im Bette, sie enthalten nicht den Astralleib und das Ich, wie sie diese im Wachen enthalten. Aber man möchte sagen, dasjenige, was der Astralleib und das Ich im physischen Leibe während des Wachens vollbringen, wird nicht ganz eingestellt im Schlafe. Für all dasjenige, was der Mensch zunächst wahrnehmen kann, ist ja der im Bette liegende Mensch wie entseelt daliegend. Für das hellsichtige Bewußtsein ist dieser physische Mensch und dieser Ätherleib, der im Bette liegt, aber nicht wie entseelt daliegend. Der Hellseher muß etwas ganz anderes sagen von diesem schlafenden physischen und Äthermenschen. Er muß sagen: Während des ganzen Tages ist die Gegend der Erde, auf welcher jetzt die Menschen schlafen, von der Sonne beschienen worden. Jetzt ist Nacht. Ich rede von den normalen Verhältnissen, wenn man in der Nacht schläft und bei Tage wacht, nicht von den heutigen großstädtischen oder größtstädtischen Verhältnissen. Finsternis breitet sich über die Gegend aus, über welche bei Tag die Sonne geschienen hat. Merkwürdig, da merkt man: die Erde als Wesen beginnt zu denken und die Organe, durch welche die Erde denkt, das sind diese schlafenden Menschenleiber.
Wie die Menschen selbst durch ihr Gehirn denken, so denkt die Erde durch diese schlafenden Menschenleiber. Immer nimmt sie bei Tage wahr - und das Wahrnehmen besteht in dem Von-der-Sonne-Beschienenwerden aus dem Weltenraum heraus, das ist Wahrnehmung der Erde - und in der Nacht verarbeitet sie in Gedanken das, was sie wahrgenommen hat. Die Erde denkt, sagt der Hellseher, und sie denkt dadurch, daß sie sich der schlafenden Menschen bedient. Jeder schlafende Mensch wird gewissermaßen ein Gehirnmolekül der Erde. Es ist unser physischer Leib so eingerichtet, daß er, wenn wir ihn selbst nicht gebrauchen, dazu dienen kann, daß die Erde durch ihn zu denken vermag.
Aber so wie die Erde durch den physischen Leib denkt, so imaginiert sie — Sie wissen ja, was imaginative Erkenntnis ist —, so imaginiert sie alles dasjenige, was auf der Erde selbst nicht irdisch ist, was zu der Erde gehört aus dem ganzen Kosmos. Das imaginiert sie im Ätherleib. Im schlafenden physischen Leib des Menschen erkennt man Gehirnteile der Erde, und im Ätherleib des Menschen, wenn er schläft, erkennt man ein Imaginieren desjenigen Weltenalls, das zunächst zur Erde gehört. Da spielt in wunderbaren Bildern in den Ätherleib all das herein, was aus der Ätherwelt der Erde als Kräfte zufließen muß, damit die Geschehnisse dieser Erde sich abspielen können. So wahr der Mensch als physischer Mensch zur Erde gehört, so wahr gehört er als Äthermensch den Himmeln an. Und nur deshalb können wir unseren physischen Leib für uns selbst als Denkorgan gebrauchen, weil er zum Denken geschaffen ist, weil ihn sozusagen die Erde während des Wachens abgibt. Auch nur deshalb können wir unseren Ätherleib so gebrauchen, daß er uns die Lebenskräfte gibt, weil uns ihn die Himmel abgeben während des Wachens, und weil die Kräfte der Imagination der Himmel während des Wachens in uns in Lebenskräfte verwandelt werden. So daß wir von unserem Ätherleib nicht bloß wie von einem Nebelgebilde sprechen wollen, sondern davon, daß er in sich ein die Himmel spiegelndes, mikrokosmisches Gebilde ist.
Als besonders vollkommenes Gebilde wird uns unser Ätherleib bei unserer Geburt übergeben. Bei unserer Geburt ist unser Ätherleib so, daß er innerlich erglitzert und erglänzt von lauter Imaginationen, die aus dem großen Weltenall zu ihm kommen. Er ist eine herrliche Abspiegelung des Weltenalls. Und dasjenige, was sich der Mensch erwerben kann während seines Lebens an Erziehung, an Wissen, an Willens- und Gemütskräften, indem er alt wird zwischen Geburt und Tod, das wird aus diesem Ätherleib herausgeholt. Die kosmischen Himmelskräfte übergeben uns das, was sie uns zu übergeben haben, während des Lebens zwischen Geburt und Tod. Deshalb sind wir als Äthermenschen wiederum jung, wenn wir ein ganz normales Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod durchlaufen haben, weil wir dann alles aus diesem Ätherleib herausgesogen haben. Geht aber ein solcher Ätherleib durch die Pforte des Todes, der einem jugendlichen Leibe angehört, dann ist noch viel, viel unverbrauchtes Himmelslicht in ihm. Daher wird er zu einem Vermittler solcher Kräfte, wie ich erzählt habe. Ganz abgesehen davon, was aus der Individualität einer solchen Menschenseele wird, wie die, von der vorher die Rede war, wird aus dem Ätherleib etwas wie eine Gabe der Himmel, eine Gabe der geistigen Welten. Daher kann dieser Ätherleib in dem geschilderten Sinne inspirierend wirken.
Es würde viel zu weit führen, von dem eigentümlichen Karma zu sprechen, das eine solche Menschenseele hat, die in der Lage ist, eben ein solches Opfer zu bringen. Denn das kann nicht künstlich herbeigeführt werden, sondern es muß mit dem ganzen Karma eines solchen Menschen zusammenhängen, der ein Opfer zu bringen hat, der irgend etwas zu tun hat, das im geistigen Weltenprozeß der Menschheit eine Rolle zu spielen berufen ist, wie es ja gewollt wird für diesen unseren Dornacher Bau, der unsere geisteswissenschaftlichen Bestrebungen umschließen soll.
Nun aber bedenken Sie, daß wir einer Zeit entgegengehen, in welcher viele, viele solche Ätherleiber, wenn auch nicht aus solch jugendlichem Menschenalter heraus, aber doch aus jugendlichem Menschenleben heraus, in der geistigen Atmosphäre sein werden. Diejenigen, die auf den blutigen Schlachtfeldern durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, sie gehen ja alle in einer andern Weise durch die Pforte des Todes als derjenige, der in seinem Bette oder durch einen gewöhnlichen Unglücksfall durch die Pforte des Todes geht. Sie gehen in einer gewissen Weise so durch die Pforte des Todes, daß sie mit ihrem Tode rechnen, wenn auch mehr oder weniger im Unterbewußten — der Astralleib rechnet in einer gewissen Weise mit dem Tode. Und von einem Opfer bei diesem Tode kann man ja immer sprechen. Alle die Ätherleiber, die auf diese Weise von jugendlichen Menschen in die geistige Welt hinaufgehen, werden unverbrauchte Kräfte haben. Und eine Periode der Menschheitsentwickelung steht vor uns, in welcher Menschenseelen bewußt hinaufschauen können in die geistige Welt und sich sagen können: Eine Zeit ist vergangen, die viele, viele unverbrauchte Ätherleiber in die geistige Welt hinaufgeschickt hat. Und in diesen unverbrauchten Ätherleibern sind Kräfte enthalten, Kräfte, von denen wit geisteswissenschaftlich schon heute sagen können, welche Bedeutung sie für die Entwickelung der Menschheit haben werden.
Wenn man so etwas erörtert, muß man ausdrücklich daraufaufmerksam machen, daß das, was zu sagen ist über diese Sache, nicht etwa von jedem Kriege, der in der Entwickelung der Menschen auf Erden stattgefunden hat, gilt. Was geistig geschieht und durch die Geisteswissenschaft betrachtet werden soll, liegt nicht so einfach, wie es sich die Naturwissenschaft macht. Andere Kriege der früheren Zeiten erforderten, daß eben anders über sie gesprochen werde. Dasjenige, was ich zu sagen habe, gilt von den gegenwärtigen schicksaltragenden Zeiten. Denken Sie einmal das Folgende: Bei verschiedenen Anlässen, bei verschiedenen Gelegenheiten hat betont werden müssen, daß es nicht einer Willkür entspringt, wenn wir heute Geisteswissenschaft treiben, sondern daß es wirklich im Entwickelungsprozeß der Menschheit liegt, daß die Menschen allmählich bekanntwerden mit der Geisteswissenschaft. Wir wissen ja, wie eine jede Epoche der Erdenentwickelung der Menschheit eine bestimmte Aufgabe hat. Aus verschiedenen Zyklen können wir das entnehmen. Und erkennen können wir, daß das Heil der künftigen, der nächstkünftigen Entwickelung der Menschheit nur erblühen kann, wenn wirklich das, was durch die Geisteswissenschaft geoffenbart werden kann, geistiges Eigentum einer größeren und immer größeren Anzahl von Seelen werde.
Aber nun bedenken Sie einmal, die Sie ja zum größten Teil wohl alle von einem herzlichen Enthusiasmus für die Geisteswissenschaft getragen sein werden, bedenken Sie, welche Schwierigkeiten obwalten mit Bezug auf die Ausbreitung der geisteswissenschaftlichen Wahrheiten in der Gegenwart. Bedenken Sie, wie die Menschen draußen in der Welt diesen geisteswissenschaftlichen Wahrheiten widerstreben. Bedenken Sie, wie diese Wahrheiten verlästert werden, wie die Menschen sie als wahnsinnig, als verdreht, als verrückt, als Phantasterei ansehen. Es könnten ja wirklich eindringliche Beispiele gesagt werden, aber alle Beispiele würden doch nur ein kleiner Teil dessen sein, was im Grunde jeder empfinden kann, wenn er für Geisteswissenschaft begeistert ist und sich der Welt gegenüber sieht, von der er so gerne hätte, daß sie die Geisteswissenschaft aufnehmen würde — und die sie heute so wenig aufnimmt. Der Geisteswissenschafter selbst darf sich nun das Folgende sagen: Dasjenige, was mit den bloßen Erdenkräften der Menschheit erreicht werden soll, erscheint mit Bezug auf das, was Geisteswissenschaft für eine Aufgabe hat, schwach, recht schwach zu sein. Aber da werden in einer nächstkünftigen Epoche die unverbrauchten Ätherleiber derjenigen sein, die Seele und Leben durch die Pforte des Todes auf den Feldern der Ereignisse in unserer Zeit haben tragen müssen, und die ätherischen Leiber mit ihren unverbrauchten Kräften, sie werden inspirierende Kräfte, helfende Kräfte in der nächstkünftigen Zeit sein können. Und wir brauchen uns nur - jetzt nicht verstandesgemäß theoretisch, aber herzlich gemütvoll — die Gesinnung anzueignen, hinaufzusehen zu den himmlischen Ätherleibern derer, die in frühem Jugendleben durch die Pforte des Todes in unserer schicksaltragenden Zeit gegangen sind, und brauchen gewissermaßen nur in betender Stimmung unsere Seelen hinaufzuwenden zu diesen Ätherleibern, und diejenigen, welche von Geisteswissenschaft begeistert sind, brauchen nur ihre Seelen hinaufzuwenden zu diesen Kräften - und sie werden Hilfe haben von diesen Ätherleibern. So daß, wenn inbrünstiges geistiges Zusammenleben mit diesen Ätherleibern durch echtes Durchdrungensein mit geisteswissenschaftlicher Gesinnung möglich sein wird, unter den mancherlei Früchten, die im Schoße unserer schicksalschweren Zeit sind, auch diese zu finden sein werden, daß in die Seelen der geisteswissenschaftlich begeisterten Menschen der Zukunft dasjenige einströmen wird, was in den Kräften der jugendlich hingeopferten Ätherleiber unserer schicksalbewegten Zeit liegt. Durch die Seelen derer, die im physischen Leibe in der nächsten Zukunft leben, werden strömen können, wenn diese Seelen von der echten Gesinnung durchzogen sind, die Kräfte der also hingeopferten Ätherleiber. Und himmlische Kräfte, das heißt, Kräfte der geistigen Welt werden das sein! Und ganz andere Kräfte werden dann walten können in der Welt, um dasjenige, was in diese Welt kommen muß - geisteswissenschaftliche Gesinnung -, dieser Welt bringen zu können. Und wir müssen nur die Möglichkeit finden, uns zu dem, was jetzt geschieht, im Sinne der eben gegebenen Auseinandersetzung zu bekennen, dann werden diese schicksaltragenden Tage auch für denjenigen, der in der Geisteswissenschaft drinnensteht, eine tiefe, tiefe Bedeutung haben.
Herrlich, haben wir gesagt, sind die imaginativen Gebilde, die im Ätherleibe des Menschen sind. Und doch sind sie anders, als sie wären, wenn sie nicht durch einen Ätherleib des Menschen gegangen wären. Aber auch auf diesem Felde gilt der Satz: Aus nichts wird nichts! — Das ist nicht ein absoluter Satz, aber auf diesem Felde gilt er. Dasjenige was durch eine Menschenseele, wenn sie durch die Geburt in das physische Dasein tritt, als Ätherleib hinzukommt, das versammelt also Kräfte der geistigen Welt, die während des physischen Lebens verbraucht werden. Diese Kräfte sind nicht aus dem Nichts, sie sind da in der geistigen Welt. Gewiß, man kann sie auch in der geistigen Welt finden, aber wenn man sie unmittelbar aus der geistigen Welt finden will, so ist es schwierig. Man muß viel größere Machtmittel aufwenden. Wenn sie aber einmal dutch einen physischen Menschen gegangen sind, der dann früh gestorben ist, und sich einem darstellen gleichsam mit dem, was sie in dem Durchgang durch den Menschen in sich haben, so ist es leichter, ihre Hilfe zu gebrauchen. Alle die Kräfte, die in diesem jungen Ätherleibe des kleinen Theodor Faiß sind, gewiß, sie wären auch sonst in der geistigen Welt, aber es wäre eine geistige Herkulesaufgabe, sie sonst herbeizuziehen. Dadurch, daß sie auf dem Umweg durch den Knaben herbeigekommen sind, ist das Sich-inspirieren-Lassen durch sie wesentlich erleichtert, ist anders geworden. Denken Sie dann, welch ungeheuer große Bedeutung für die ganze Fortentwickelung der Menschheit es hat, daß dieser Menschheit in der nächstkünftigen Zeit eine so große Menge von Ätherleibern mit noch unverbrauchten Kräften gegeben sein wird! Aber durch den Umstand, durch die Tatsache, daß diese, ich möchte immer wieder sagen, himmlischen Kräfte durch Menschen gegangen sind, befreiten sich diese Kräfte gewissermaßen aus den Gesetzen, innerhalb derer sie im Kosmos draußen stehen. Es ist unmöglich, daß im Kosmos diese Kräfte in einem üblen Sinne verwendet werden, die eben unmittelbar aus dem Kosmos geholt werden. Nehmen wir einmal an, alle die Menschen, die jetzt durch die kriegerischen Ereignisse oder durch andere Verhältnisse durch die Pforte des Todes gehen, sie würden, wenn der Krieg nicht gekommen wäre, nicht eine solche Summe von Ätherleibern liefern. Es würden natürlich alle diese Kräfte auch im Kosmos sein; dann würden sie aber von den Menschen nicht verwendet werden können, weil es zu schwierig wäre, sie zu verwenden. Auch deshalb würden sie nicht verwendet werden können, weil sie aufgebraucht würden in den Leben von den Menschen, die ihr normales Alter erreichten. Das ist ganz bedeutungsvoll, daß diese himmlischen Kräfte durch Menschenleiber durchgegangen sind. Dadurch werden sie gewissermaßen frei von dem gewöhnlichen Fortgang der Entwickelung. Und diese Freiheit macht, daß diese Kräfte allerdings auch verwendet werden können in anderer Weise als zum Heile der Menschheit.
Sie können auch in anderer Weise verwendet werden. Das Menschenleben muß sich im Lichte der Freiheit entwickeln. Nehmen wir einmal an, es würde Ahriman wirklich gelingen, den Gedanken der Menschen und die Vernunft der Menschen soweit zu verdunkeln, daß sie alle Geisteswissenschaft ablehnen würden. Dann würden diese Ätherleiber doch da sein, aber es wären keine geisteswissenschaftlich begeisterten Seelen da, die diese Kräfte in den Dienst des Erdenfortschrittes stellen. Da würden dann Luzifer oder Ahriman eingreifen können und würden entweder in die Welt hinein, die sich Luzifer, oder in die Welt hinein, die sich Ahriman aufbaut, diese Kräfte verwenden können. Bedenken Sie, daß etwas ungeheuer Bedeutungsvolles damit ausgesprochen ist! Ausgesprochen ist damit, daß es gewissermaßen in die Hand der Menschen gelegt ist, in welcher Weise die Kräfte, die durch Opfertode der Welt verliehen worden sind, dem Erdenprozeß einverleibt werden. Daß sie die Möglichkeit haben, das durch die Geisteswissenschaft Angefachte zu inspirieren, das wird diese Kräfte dem Fortschritt der Erdenentwickelung dienstbar machen. Sonst aber könnte es sein — wenn der Materialismus alle Geister ergreifen würde, oder wenn Nationalismus sich in einer rein leidenschaftlichen Weise ausbreiten würde -, daß Luzifer oder Ahriman diese Kräfte in ihren Dienst stellen würden; dann würde der Erdenfortschritt von diesen Kräften nichts haben können. Da geht einem, wenn man diese Zusammenhänge bedenkt, die ganze tiefe Bedeutung der Geisteswissenschaft für die menschliche Erdenentwickelung erst auf. Da lernt man erst sich sagen: Wie notwendig ist es, damit Opferkräfte im rechten Sinne in der Entwickelung verwertet werden, wie notwendig ist es, daß einzelne Menschen, die dazu imstande sind, ergriffen werden von dem, was als Gesinnung aus der Geisteswissenschaft hervorgehen kann! — Und zu etwas ungeheuer Heiligem wird diese Geisteswissenschaft, wenn man sie im Zusammenhange betrachtet mit dem geistigen Werdegang, wie er sich ausdrückt auch in unseren schicksaltragenden Tagen. Die Gesinnung, die uns aus der Geisteswissenschaft werden kann, wird dadurch zu etwas Gebetartigem, das sich zusammenfassen läßt in die Worte: Laß uns nur recht, o Weltengeist, durchdrungen sein von dieser geisteswissenschaftlichen Gesinnung, damit wir nicht verfehlen, das, was sein kann zu der Erde Heil und der Erde Fortschritt, Luzifer und Ahriman im rechten Sinne abzutrotzen!
Unser Bau, er soll wie ein Wahrzeichen für dasjenige dienen, was Geisteswissenschaft der Menschheit als Gesinnung werden soll. Daher ist er so eingerichtet, daß in seinen Formen künstlerisch zum Ausdruck kommt, was Geisteswissenschaft aus sich heraus geben kann. Ich müßte vieles sprechen, wenn ich Ihnen dasjenige, was in jede Einzelheit dieses Baues hineingelegt ist, auseinandersetzen wollte. Das alles werden Sie erfahren, wenn Sie im Laufe der Jahre den Bau besuchen werden, und die Dinge, die sich darin abspielen sollen, mitmachen werden. Nur von einem will ich heute sprechen im Zusammenhang mit dem, was ich eben auseinandergesetzt habe.
An einer bedeutungsvollen Stelle des Baues, da wo er gegen Osten hin sich wendet, wird sich eine bildhauerische Gruppe befinden. In dieser bildhauerischen Gruppe soll insbesondere zum Ausdruck gebracht werden dasjenige, wovon das Bewußtsein unserer Zeit sich im rechten Maße durchdringen muß. Diese Gruppe wird, ganz abgesehen von dem, was dazukommen wird, im wesentlichen aus drei Figuren bestehen. Drei Wesenheiten werden in dieser Gruppe zum Ausdruck kommen. Es wird eine Art Felsen da sein. Dieser Felsen hat einen Vorsprung nach vorne, und in diesem Vorsprung ist eine Höhle. Auf dem Felsenvorsprung steht die Hauptfigur. Diese Hauptfigur, man wird sie nennen können, wie man will, aber man wird in ihr zu sehen haben den Repräsentanten des Erdenmenschen im höchsten Sinne des Wortes. Und will man in demjenigen Menschen, der drei Jahre seines Erdenlebens in sich die Christus-Wesenheit getragen hat, das Ideal des Erdenmenschen sehen, so wird man in dieser Hauptfigur auch den Christus sehen können. Aber das darf nicht so geschehen, daß man etwa vor diese Gruppe tritt mit dem Bewußtsein, das soll der Christus sein, sondern alles muß künstlerisch gefühlt werden. Das heißt, es darf nicht äußerlich symbolisch gedeutet werden, sondern alles muß aus den Formen selbst folgen.
Hier oben ist eine zweite Wesenheit. Diese Wesenheit hat hier ein menschenähnliches, ich kann nur sagen menschenähnliches Haupt. Das Haupt ist wirklich so, daß man sagen kann, ein menschliches Haupt erinnert an dieses Haupt. Denn dieser Kopf ist so gebildet, daß "mächtig ausgebildet ist die Schädelpartie, namentlich die Stirnpartie. Während beim Menschen diese Teile da oben verhältnismäßig unbeweglich sind, ist bei diesem Wesen alles beweglich. Alles ist seelischer Ausdruck. So wie der Mensch seine Hände bewegen kann mit den Fingern, aber nicht diese Partie hier, so kann diese Wesenheit hier oben alles bewegen. Und man sieht es der bildhauerischen Arbeit an, daß da oben alles beweglich ist. Sehr zurücktretend ist bei dieser Wesenheit die untere Partie des Gesichtes. Man möchte sagen, es wölbt sich die mächtige Schädelbildung über das zurücktretende Gesicht. Ich kann nur einzelne Teile besprechen, denn es ist jeder einzelne Strich an dieser Figur von einer großen Bedeutung. Dann ist aber das Eigentümliche, daß eine Verbindung zwischen dem, was beim Menschen zum Kehlkopf verkümmert ist, und dem Ohr bei dieser Gestalt besteht. Das, was als Kehlkopfläppchen darin ist, wölbt sich herauf und bildet den unteren Teil der Ohren. Der obere Teil wird durch die Stirnpartie gebildet. Auf der andern Seite schließen sich zwei an Vogelflügel erinnernde Gebilde an, zwischen denen dann ein Leib ausgebreitet ist, der so ist, wie wenn es ein umgestaltetes menschliches Antlitz im ganzen wäre. Flügel und Kehlkopf und Ohr sind in einem gebildet, so daß man erkennen wird: mit den Flügeln lebt das Wesen in der Sphärenharmonie drinnen, schwingt sich durch den Raum, durch die Wellen der Sphärenharmonie, und das lokalisiert sich im Ohr. Bei dem Menschen ist das alles verkümmert. Dadurch nun, daß der Menschheitsrepräsentant die linke Hand hier hinaufhebt, werden dieser Gestalt auf dem Felsen die Flügel gebrochen, und dadurch stürzt sie vom Felsen herunter. — Sie ahnen: mit dieser Gestalt, die da vom Felsen herunterstürzt, mit ihren gebrochenen Flügeln, ist Luzifer gemeint.
Hier unten, in der Höhle darin, befindet sich eine andere Gestalt. Sie hat nicht vogelähnliche Flügel, sondern sie hat fledermausähnliche Flügel, eine Art von drachen- oder wurmähnlichem Körper und ein Haupt, an das wiederum das menschliche Haupt erinnert. Aber alles das, was an Luzifer mächtige Stirnbildung ist, tritt an dieser unteren Gestalt ganz zurück, ist verkümmert. Die unteren Partien gegen den Mund zu, die sind mächtig ausgebildet bei dieser Gestalt. Und diese Gestalt ist umwickelt von dem, was in der Erde an Gold ist. Das Gold der Erde wird zu Fesseln, welche diese Gestalt dadrinnen anfesseln. Diese Gestalt krümmt sich unter der Wirkung, die von der heruntergehenden Hand des Menschheitsrepräsentanten, des Christus, ausgeht. Diese Gestalt da unten ist Ahriman, ist der durch das Gold der Erde gefesselte Ahriman.
Mit dem, was ich jetzt eben gesagt habe, ist gewissermaßen die Idee des Ganzen gegeben. Aber mit dieser Idee hat man nur hingedeutet auf dasjenige, worum es sich handelt. Niemals wird es sich bei uns darum handeln, die Unart der alten Theosophen, die immer mit Symbolen gearbeitet haben, auch hier zu treiben, sondern es wird sich darum handeln, daß alles wirklich ins Künstlerische umgewandelt wird, was von der Geisteswissenschaft aus zu dem menschlichen Gefühl hintreibt. Daher darf man nicht sagen: diese Gestalten drücken das oder jenes aus -, sondern sie müssen durch dasjenige, was sie künstlerisch sind, durch das, was man in ihnen sieht, das sein, was das Verhältnis des Menschen, oder auch des Christus, zu Luzifer und Ahriman darstellt. Daher kann dies auch nicht mit den alten künstlerischen Mitteln zum Ausdruck kommen. Jede Fingerbewegung an den Händen, die Art und Weise wie die Hände gebildet werden, wird bedeutungsvoll sein, denn darin wird sich etwas Bedeutungsvolles ausdrücken müssen. Man könnte zunächst die Idee haben, daß der Christus die linke Hand hinaufhebt und durch das, was er will, ließe er Kräfte ausströmen, welche dem Luzifer die Flügel brechen, so daß dieser herunterfällt. Und durch die rechte heruntergesenkte Hand würden wieder Kräfte ausgeströmt, durch welche Ahriman gefesselt wird. Man hätte etwas ganz Falsches vorgestellt, wenn man sich dieses vorgestellt hätte.
Um das ganz Bedeutungsvolle, was in diesem liegt, auszuführen, möchte ich an etwas erinnern, was wirklich zu dem Größten gehört, was die Kunst bisher hervorgebracht hat: «Das jüngste Gericht» von Michelangelo in der Sixtinischen Kapelle in Rom. Da sieht man den Christus, wie er die Guten nach dem Himmel, die Bösen nach der Hölle fördert. Man sieht es dem Christus an, wie er die einen nach der guten Welt, die andern nach der schlimmen Welt fördert. Dieser Christus, wie er da dargestellt ist, ist fortan nicht der Christus, den wir erst in seiner wahren Wesenheit durch die Geisteswissenschaft begreifen sollen. Der Christus, der der wahre Christus ist, verdammt nicht, lobt nicht, indem er Zorn, oder indem er gewöhnliche Liebe anwendet, sondern durch das, was er ist, wirkt er. Luzifer werden nicht die Flügel gebrochen, sondern er bricht sie sich durch seine Seelenverfassung, indem er in die Nähe des Christus kommt. Und Ahriman, er fesselt sich selbst durch das, was in seiner Seele geschieht, indem er in die Nähe des Christus kommt. Daher muß die hinaufgehaltene und die hinuntergehaltene Hand alles, was nicht rein seiendes Mitgefühl mit der Welt ist, nicht haben. Der Luzifer dort oben, der kann nicht ertragen, seinerseits nicht ertragen, daß die Hand des Christus in seine Nähe kommt. Und durch das, was er dadurch in sich erlebt, bricht er sich die Flügel, nicht bricht der Christus sie ihm, er bricht sie sich selbst. Und ebenso ist es bei Ahriman. Michelangelo hat noch nicht verstanden, einen Christus zu bilden, wie er wirklich ist. Die Christus-Wesenheit ist so bedeutsam, das Verständnis derChristusWesenheit ist so schwierig, daß dies nur im Laufe der Zeit erreicht werden kann. Der Christus, der durch das, was er ist, die Wesen dazu bringt, daß sie sich selbst verdammen oder erlösen, der wird erst verstanden werden. Der Christus auf dem Bilde des Michelangelo hat noch etwas Luziferisch-Ahrimanisches, weil er durch seinen Zorn die Bösen in die Hölle, die Guten in den Himmel führt: da ist er engagiert mit seinen Leidenschaften. Der Christus hier steht unpersönlich da, und die Wesen verurteilen sich selbst, die in seine Nähe kommen.
Sie sehen daraus, daß die Stellung des Menschen in der Welt, in der luziferische und ahrimanische Kräfte enthalten sind, an einer bedeutungsvollen Stelle unseres Baues zum Ausdruck kommen muß; daß Wesen ausgedrückt werden müssen, die nur in der geistigen Welt gefunden werden können. Aller Naturalismus der Kunst, alles das, wozu die Kunst gestrebt hat gerade in den letzten Zeiten, in denen die Menschen vom Materialismus ergriffen wurden, all das muß gerade überwunden werden durch diese Kunst, die hier gepflegt ist. Und etwas so völlig Neues muß, auch künstlerisch, durch Geisteswissenschaft in die Welt eintreten, daß überwunden wird auch ein Größtes, das bisher möglich war: die Christus-Gestalt des Michelangelo, in dem « Jüngsten Gericht».
Man darf solche Sachen aussprechen, wenn man auf der andern Seite wiederum all das betont, was nicht vergessen werden darf: daß selbstverständlich für all das unser Bau nur ein primitiver Anfang sein kann. Alles ist unvollkommen, alles ist elementar, alles ist nur ein Anfang, aber es soll der Anfang schon etwas völlig Neues sein. Daß alles unvollkommen ist, das kann selbstverständlich gewußt werden, aber hingewiesen werden muß auf etwas, was als Impuls in das ganze Menschenleben hineinkommen soll.
Bedenken Sie nun, wie nahe es liegt, gleichgültig vorüberzugehen an einer Gabe des kosmischen Daseins, die da besteht in den unverbrauchten Menschen-Ätherleiberkräften. Bedenken Sie, wie diese Ätherleiberkräfte eine Beute Luzifers und Ahrimans werden könnten, wenn der Mensch nicht die Möglichkeit fände, sie in das Heil der Erdenentwickelung hineinzustellen. Da haben wir ein ungeheures Geheimnis unserer Erdenmenschheitsentwickelung berührt: das Geheimnis von der Beziehung des Christus-Impulses zu dem LuziferImpuls, zu dem Ahriman-Impuls. Und diese Beziehung des ChristusImpulses zu dem Luzifer-Impuls und dem Ahriman-Impuls wird immer mehr und mehr in der nächsten Zukunft durch die Menschheit verstanden werden können. Luzifer-Kräfte und Ahriman-Kräfte durchwalten die Welt, und der Mensch muß durch sein ChristusBewußtsein werden wie ein Wesen, das wie in einem Boote sitzt, das zwar immer in den Stürmen, die Luzifer und Ahriman erregen, schaukeln muß, das aber seinen Weg findet durch dasMeer, dessen lebendige Substanz aus Luzifer und Ahriman besteht, durch das aber der Mensch sein Christus-Boot dennoch hindurchtreibt.
Nicht darum kommen wir in unseren Zweigen zusammen, daß wir dieses oder jenes theoretisch lernen, was uns Geisteswissenschaft enthüllen kann, sondern darum kommen wir zusammen, daß alles, was in unseren Seelen lebt, erfüllt wird von einer Gesinnung, die aus dieser Geisteswissenschaft erfließen kann. Nicht was wir denken aus der Geisteswissenschaft, sondern wie wir es denken, empfinden, fühlen und wollen, darauf kommt es an. Und ob das Kleinste oder das Größte, was wir in der Erdenentwickelung der Menschheit beobachten können, vor unser Seelenauge tritt, überall kann uns vor Augen treten, wie es für den Menschen der Zukunft notwendig ist, sich gerade mit dem bekanntzumachen, was die Dreiheit Christus, Luzifer, Ahriman bedeutet. Nicht hat sehen können Michelangelo, nicht haben sehen können die Zeiten, die bisher vergangen sind, in der richtigen Weise, wie diese Dreiheit in der Welt dasteht. Aber man wird auch den Christus in seiner Wesenheit erst richtig erkennen, wenn man ihn sieht in seinem Verhältnis zu dem, was in der Welt wirkt wie der Nord- und Südpol: Luzifer und Ahriman.
Mancherlei über diese Dinge wird für diejenigen, die dann dabei sein können, noch in den nächsten Tagen von uns zu besprechen sein. Heute hatte ich auf Ihre Seelen dasjenige legen wollen, was uns die geisteswissenschaftliche Gesinnung so wichtig auch für bedeutungsvolle Dinge erscheinen läßt, die sich in der geistigen Welt in der nächsten Zukunft dem zeigen können, der das, was physisch geschieht, auch geistig zu durchschauen vermag.
O man möchte zu den die Erde und die Menschheit schützenden guten Göttern und Geistern flehen, daß sie Kraft den Menschen geben, damit eintreten kann dasjenige, was geschehen muß zum Heile der Menschheit!
Da oben werden sie sein, die unverbrauchten Ätherkräfte der jugendlich durch den Tod gegangenen Menschen. Aber Menschenherzen und Menschenseelen werden hier auf Erden sein müssen, die so hinaufschauen zu diesen Kräften, daß diese Kräfte durch sie in die richtige Entwickelungsrichtung hineingebracht werden können. Nicht nur darauf kommt es an, daß da oben die Kräfte sind, die auch eine Beute Luzifers und Ahrimans werden könnten, sondern darauf kommt es an, daß unten in physischen Leibern Menschenseelen sind, die ihre andächtige Stimmung zu diesen Opfer-Ätherleibern hinaufsenden. Davon wird es abhängen, in welchem Sinne in die Menschheitsentwickelung die Kräfte einfließen, die geschaffen werden auf den Feldern, auf denen das Blut rinnt, auf denen Opfer gebracht werden, auf denen Schmerzen gelitten werden.
Das ungefähr zeichnet den Anteil, der an dem künftigen Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung aus Geisteswissenschaft werden kann, wenn das, was nur von Geisteswissenschaft erkannt werden kann, wirklich von einer Anzahl von Menschen ergriffen wird.
Was aus den gegenwärtigen schicksaltragenden Tagen werden kann, ich möchte es zum Schluß noch einmal in einigen pragmatischen Worten vor Ihren Seelen aussprechen:
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.
Spiritual Science as a State of Mind The Etheric Body as a Reflection of the Universe
We are currently living in an era of events that must stir the deepest and most meaningful feelings of the human soul. We are in the midst of events that are bringing to bear upon the earth, many, many times over in a relatively short period of time, that which has always been a mystery to our spiritual science: death. We are living in a time that spreads suffering and pain among countless souls, and in a time that we hope will carry within it meaningful forces for the unfolding of humanity's future development. If so much must be born out of pain and suffering, and if spiritual science teaches us that much must be born out of pain and suffering, then spiritual scientific considerations will also be able to stimulate in us some power of confidence, some power of hope, even in this fateful time. And so let us today develop before your souls some considerations which, though not directly, are nevertheless indirectly connected with what can be aroused in us in our painful and stormy times in the way of feelings and emotions.
What we see and feel happening in so many ways in our present time is that people are leaving the physical plane at a relatively early age of their physical existence. It is precisely this that is so peculiar about events such as those we are currently experiencing, that they are calling young lives away from the physical plane. We know that when a person passes through the gate of death, they must surrender their physical body to the elements of the earth, and that when they pass through the gate of death, they are still united with their etheric body, their astral body, and their ego. We know that after a relatively short time this etheric body is separated from the human being, and that the human being then continues its journey between death and a new birth in the ego and the astral body, united with those members of its spiritual nature that it can only acquire in the spiritual world; but that for its further journey in the time between death and a new birth, the etheric body separates from the human individuality and goes its own way. Now we must notice that in the case of a youthful death, this etheric body must be in a completely different condition than in the case of the death of a person who has reached a normal age. We know how external natural science speaks of forces being able to transform themselves, but not to be lost. For the external world of physical existence, natural science fully recognizes the truth that forces are never lost, but only transformed. For the spiritual world, spiritual science must teach us to recognize this as well. When an etheric body detaches itself from a human being who has passed through the gate of death in youth, it is an etheric body that could have sustained that person's life on the physical plane for many decades. An etheric body must be constituted in such a way that it can provide all the life forces that a human being needs until the highest age. When a person passes through the gate of death at, say, the age of twenty-five, twenty-six, or thirty, their etheric body leaves them, but this etheric body still has forces through which it could perhaps have sustained the person's physical life until the age of sixty, seventy, or eighty. These forces are in the etheric body; these forces are not lost. And we must ask ourselves — especially at a time like the present, when so many such etheric bodies are, as it were, entrusted to the spiritual worlds — what happens to the etheric bodies of those human beings who have passed through the gate of death in early youth? - In order to answer this question thoroughly, it would be good to familiarize ourselves with the path that the etheric body of a human being actually takes during the course of life between birth and death.
The outer physical body of the human being grows older and older. This is not the case with the etheric body. As difficult as it may seem to understand, the etheric body does not grow older at all, but rather, as the physical body ages, the etheric body becomes younger and younger, reaching a certain, one might say childlike, stage of etheric existence at the time in which the human being passes through the gate of death at the normal age. So we must say to ourselves: When we begin our physical earthly existence through birth, then that which has united itself with our physical body as the etheric body is, comparatively speaking, actually old and becomes younger and younger during life, reaching its childlike stage when we pass through the gate of death. We could also say that when a person dies in their youth, their etheric body does not become young enough, but retains a certain stage of age. But what does that really mean? An example that some of you already know, but which I must mention again here, can teach us what this means. It is a concrete example from recent times that was experienced by a number of friends.
This concrete example actually refers to a very young child, the little son of one of our members. It was during a lecture evening in Dornach when we learned after the lecture that a seven-year-old boy, the son of our friend Faiß, was missing. It soon became clear that a great misfortune must have happened. In the late afternoon, a furniture van had arrived near the Dornach building, curiously in an area where perhaps no furniture van had driven for a long time, if ever, and probably not since. This furniture van had overturned at a certain point. This happened towards evening, and nothing else was noticed; but the boy was missing. And then, between ten and twelve o'clock in the evening, our friends joined forces with others and made every effort to lift the furniture van, which had not been picked up by its owners—they had decided to leave it until the next day because it was in a very awkward position and very heavy— when they finally managed to lift it, it turned out that the child, little Theodor Faifß, had indeed been passing by at the very moment when the furniture van fell over, and that the van had fallen on top of the child. Now this child was only seven years old—an exceptionally sweet child, a child who had exceptionally beautiful qualities.
In order to shed light on such a fact from the perspective of our spiritual science, I would like to recall a logical consideration that I have often made in our circle. I have often said how cause and effect can be confused by external thinking, by untrained thinking, and that such confusion of cause and effect really occurs extremely frequently. I tried to illustrate this with an example, an example that is only meant to be a comparison. Suppose you see a person walking in the distance at the edge of a stream. You see him fall into the stream, you try to get closer, and you see that there is a stone lying at the very spot where the man fell into the water. You try to pull the man out of the stream: he is dead. What is more obvious than to say: The man stumbled over the stone and fell into the stream and then drowned. But that doesn't have to be the case. Simple physical investigation may teach us that at the moment the man stepped onto that spot, without his fate having anything to do with the stone or anything else, his heart stopped beating, and as a result he fell into the water—so that the heart attack was the cause of his falling into the water—whereas if one did not take the trouble to get to the bottom of the matter, one would say that falling into the water was the cause of death. One would therefore assume exactly the opposite of what is correct.
Such a thing is more difficult to understand in relation to cause and effect when dealing with things connected with the spiritual world. In a case such as that of this child, who really died as a result of such extraordinary circumstances — which were made even more extraordinary by many other factors — one must not think, from a higher point of view, that this is what happened: that the furniture van came and overturned and the child happened to fall under the van; that the van was therefore the cause of the child's death. Rather, in such a case, one would think in a spiritually scientific way that the child's karma had run its course and that, basically, the truck drove to that spot because the child was supposed to die there; that the truck merely brought about the external conditions for the death that was predestined in the child's karma. Trivially, one could say that the child's higher self, which wanted to pass through the gate of death, arranged the entire situation and all the events. Certainly, for people who think in the spirit of our time, it will seem completely absurd to hear such an idea. Spiritual science must show us how many things that materialistic people of the present day consider insane are in fact the truth.
What is significant, however, is that in this particular case, the etheric body of a seven-year-old child separated from the child's individuality, from that which then continues through the spiritual worlds in connection with the ego and the astral body. It is not my task here to discuss the further course of the life of this individuality of little Theodor Faiß, but rather to draw attention to the fact that in this case the etheric body was one that had supplied the physical life with life forces for only seven years; but it had within itself the power to supply a whole long life between birth and death with life forces. These forces remain in the etheric body. And what is significant is that anyone who, since the death of little Theodor Faiß, has had any spiritual connection with the building we are to erect in Dornach for spiritual science, can now know what has become of the etheric body of little Theodor Faiß. There is much to be done in this building. We will talk a little more about what needs to be brought down from the spiritual world in terms of inspiration. Helping forces are needed if all that is to be brought down from the spiritual world is to actually come down. And it is evident that since the death of little Theodor Faiß, the enlarged etheric body of this child has enveloped our building in Dornach in a wide circle, as if in an aura. It is possible to determine exactly how far this envelope extends.
When you see the Dornach building — those who have already seen it know — it is a double circular building (see drawing). Here we have a boiler house, designed in a special way according to the principles of spiritual science, and here we have another building where the glass windows for the building are cut. I would just like to mention in passing that the so-called “Hansi House” is located here — that is the house where we live. Now it is remarkable that up to this point, towards the forest, then right past the boiler house, cutting right through this building where the windows are being cut, and here past this house, Hansi's house, without enclosing it, the aura of little Theodor Faiß envelops the entire building. So that when you enter the building, you actually enter this etheric aura.
What I have often pointed out is that the etheric body enlarges when it is freed from the physical body. Therefore, we should not be surprised that this etheric body appears to us in such an enlarged form. And in this etheric body are the mediating forces through which one finds certain impressions from the spiritual world that one needs to use in the forms and artistic design of the building. And those who have to work on the building know what they owe to this etheric aura. I will never hesitate to admit that since the death of little Theodor Faiß, my work has been made possible by the mediating forces for inspiration in the etheric body of the boy spread out over the building. It would be much easier not to mention such a thing at all. One could boast that one does not need such mediating forces. But it is not a question of such things, but of recognizing the truth.
When we consider the facts just described, we get an impression of what happens to an etheric body that must separate from a human life when that life ends in death at a young age. Now it is important to bear in mind that a human being's etheric body does not simply remain as a mist-like formation in which the physical body is embedded. We do not recognize a physical human body by describing it as a mass of muscles and bones and so on, but by recognizing it as a kind of temple of the deity, as a microcosm. We can only truly recognize what is in the physical body when we become aware that the forms in which it is molded are really taken from the entire universe, that the human being is a miraculous structure in relation to his physical body. Those who can feel the emotions expressed in the first conversation of the second Mystery Drama, “The Trial of the Soul,” will be able to form an idea of how an individual human being is placed in his physical existence through all possible hierarchies in relation to his physical body; how a whole world of gods sees it as its goal to place this human being into physical existence. Now we can really get to know the significance of this physical body when we consider the observations of clairvoyant knowledge a little.
Clairvoyant knowledge is knowledge that comes about when a person withdraws their spiritual-soul life from their physical body and can then become conscious and perceptive outside their body in the spiritual-soul realm. And basically, in relation to everything external, there is no difference between a person who is clairvoyant and a sleeping person who has also withdrawn their spiritual-soul life from their physical-bodily life. However, because clairvoyant consciousness can perceive outside the physical body, it can form an idea of what happens to a person when they are asleep. To make this easier to understand, let us make a schematic drawing. Let us assume that this is the physical body and this is the spiritual-soul life of a sleeping human being. In a waking human being, the spiritual-soul life is naturally contained within the physical body; so let us imagine the human being in his sleeping state. The physical body and the etheric body lie in bed; they do not contain the astral body and the I, as they do when we are awake. But one might say that what the astral body and the I accomplish in the physical body during waking life is not completely suspended during sleep. For everything that the human being can initially perceive, the human being lying in bed is like a lifeless body. But for clairvoyant consciousness, this physical human being and this etheric body lying in bed are not like a lifeless body. The clairvoyant must say something completely different about this sleeping physical and etheric human being. He must say: Throughout the day, the area of the earth on which people are now sleeping has been illuminated by the sun. Now it is night. I am speaking of normal conditions, when one sleeps at night and is awake during the day, not of today's conditions in large cities or metropolises. Darkness spreads over the area that was illuminated by the sun during the day. It is remarkable to notice that the earth as a being begins to think, and the organs through which the earth thinks are these sleeping human bodies.
Just as human beings think through their brains, so the earth thinks through these sleeping human bodies. During the day, it always perceives—and perception consists in being illuminated by the sun from outer space, which is the perception of the earth—and at night it processes what it has perceived in thoughts. The earth thinks, says the clairvoyant, and it thinks by making use of sleeping human beings. Every sleeping human being becomes, in a sense, a brain molecule of the earth. Our physical body is so constituted that when we are not using it ourselves, it can serve as a means for the earth to think through it.
But just as the earth thinks through the physical body, so it imagines — you know what imaginative knowledge is — it imagines everything that is not earthly on the earth itself, everything that belongs to the earth from the whole cosmos. It imagines this in the etheric body. In the sleeping physical body of the human being, one recognizes parts of the brain of the earth, and in the etheric body of the human being when he is asleep, one recognizes an imagining of that universe which initially belongs to the earth. There, in wonderful images, everything that must flow in from the etheric world of the earth as forces so that the events of this earth can take place plays into the etheric body. As truly as the human being belongs to the earth as a physical human being, so truly does he belong to the heavens as an etheric human being. And it is only because our physical body is created for thinking, because the earth, so to speak, gives it up to us while we are awake, that we can use it for ourselves as an organ of thought. It is also only because the heavens give it up to us while we are awake, and because the forces of imagination from the heavens are transformed into life forces within us while we are awake, that we can use our etheric body in such a way that it gives us the forces of life. So we do not want to speak of our etheric body merely as a misty formation, but rather as a microcosmic formation that reflects the heavens.
Our etheric body is handed over to us at birth as a particularly perfect formation. At birth, our etheric body is such that it glitters and shines inwardly with pure imaginations that come to it from the great universe. It is a magnificent reflection of the universe. And what human beings can acquire during their lives in terms of education, knowledge, willpower, and emotional strength as they grow old between birth and death is extracted from this etheric body. The cosmic forces of the heavens give us what they have to give us during our lives between birth and death. That is why we are young again as etheric beings when we have lived a normal life between birth and death, because we have then drawn everything out of this etheric body. But when such an etheric body passes through the gate of death, belonging to a youthful body, there is still much, much unspent heavenly light in it. That is why it becomes a mediator of such forces, as I have described. Quite apart from what becomes of the individuality of such a human soul, as mentioned earlier, the etheric body becomes something like a gift from heaven, a gift from the spiritual worlds. That is why this etheric body can have an inspiring effect in the sense described above.
It would go too far to speak of the peculiar karma of such a human soul that is capable of making such a sacrifice. For this cannot be brought about artificially, but must be connected with the entire karma of such a person who has a sacrifice to make, who has something to do that is destined to play a role in the spiritual world process of humanity, as is indeed intended for our building in Dornach, which is to encompass our spiritual scientific endeavors.
But now consider that we are approaching a time when many, many such etheric bodies, even if not from such a youthful age, but nevertheless from youthful human lives, will be in the spiritual atmosphere. Those who have passed through the gate of death on the bloody battlefields pass through the gate of death in a different way than those who pass through it in their beds or through an ordinary accident. They pass through the gate of death in such a way that they expect death, even if only more or less in their subconscious—the astral body expects death in a certain way. And one can always speak of a sacrifice in this death. All the etheric bodies that ascend in this way from young people into the spiritual world will have unused powers. And a period of human evolution lies ahead of us in which human souls will be able to look consciously up into the spiritual world and say to themselves: A time has passed that has sent many, many unused etheric bodies up into the spiritual world. And these unspent etheric bodies contain forces, forces whose significance for the development of humanity we can already say today from a spiritual scientific point of view.
When discussing something like this, it must be made clear that what is to be said about this matter does not apply to every war that has taken place in the development of humanity on Earth. What happens spiritually and should be viewed through spiritual science is not as simple as natural science makes it out to be. Other wars in earlier times required that they be spoken of differently. What I have to say applies to the present fateful times. Consider the following: on various occasions, it has had to be emphasized that it is not arbitrary that we are engaged in spiritual science today, but that it is truly part of the evolutionary process of humanity that people are gradually becoming acquainted with spiritual science. We know, of all things, that every epoch of the earth's development has a specific task for humanity. We can see this from various cycles. And we can recognize that the salvation of humanity's future, immediate future development can only flourish if what can be revealed through spiritual science truly becomes the spiritual property of a larger and ever larger number of souls.
But now consider, all of you who are probably carried by a heartfelt enthusiasm for spiritual science, consider what difficulties prevail with regard to the spread of spiritual scientific truths in the present. Consider how people out in the world resist these spiritual scientific truths. Consider how these truths are slandered, how people regard them as insane, twisted, crazy, and fantastical. One could cite many striking examples, but all examples would be only a small part of what everyone who is enthusiastic about spiritual science feels when they look at the world, which they would so much like to see accept spiritual science — and which today accepts so little of it. The spiritual scientist himself can now say the following: What is to be achieved with the mere earthly powers of humanity seems weak, very weak, in relation to what spiritual science has as its task. But in the next epoch, the unspent etheric bodies of those who have had to carry their souls and lives through the gate of death in the fields of events in our time will be there, and the etheric bodies with their unspent forces will be able to become inspiring forces, helping forces in the next epoch. And we need only—not intellectually theoretically, but warmly and comfortably—to adopt the attitude of looking up to the heavenly etheric bodies of those who have passed through the gate of death in our fateful time in their early youth, and we need only, as it were, turn our souls upward in a prayerful mood toward these etheric bodies, and those who are enthusiastic about spiritual science need only turn their souls toward these forces—and they will receive help from these etheric bodies. So that when fervent spiritual coexistence with these etheric bodies becomes possible through genuine permeation with a spiritual scientific attitude, among the many fruits that lie in the womb of our fateful times will be found that what lies in the forces of the youthfully sacrificed etheric bodies of our fateful times will flow into the souls of the spiritually enthusiastic people of the future. Through the souls of those who will live in physical bodies in the near future, the forces of these sacrificed etheric bodies will be able to flow, if these souls are imbued with the right attitude. And these will be heavenly forces, that is, forces of the spiritual world! And then completely different forces will be able to work in the world to bring into this world what must come into it—a spiritual scientific attitude. And we only need to find the possibility of committing ourselves to what is now happening in the sense of the discussion just given, then these fateful days will also have a deep, deep meaning for those who are involved in spiritual science.
We have said that the imaginative forms in the etheric body of the human being are wonderful. And yet they are different from what they would be if they had not passed through the etheric body of the human being. But the statement “nothing comes from nothing” also applies in this field. This is not an absolute statement, but it does apply in this field. That which is added as an etheric body when a human soul enters physical existence through birth thus gathers forces from the spiritual world, which are used up during physical life. These forces do not come from nothing; they are there in the spiritual world. Certainly, they can also be found in the spiritual world, but it is difficult to find them directly there. Much greater means of power must be employed. However, once they have passed through a physical human being who died early, and present themselves to us with what they have acquired during their passage through the human being, it is easier to make use of their help. All the powers that are in the young etheric body of little Theodor Faiß would certainly also be in the spiritual world, but it would be a Herculean task to draw them there. The fact that they have come about indirectly through the boy makes it much easier to be inspired by them; it has become something different. Think then of the enormous significance for the entire further development of humanity that in the near future this humanity will be given such a large number of etheric bodies with powers that are still unspent! But through the circumstance, through the fact that these, I would like to say again and again, heavenly forces have passed through human beings, these forces have, in a sense, freed themselves from the laws within which they exist in the cosmos outside. It is impossible that these forces, which are taken directly from the cosmos, can be used in a bad sense in the cosmos. Let us assume that all the people who are now passing through the gate of death as a result of the war or other circumstances would not have provided such a sum of etheric bodies if the war had not come. All these forces would of course also be in the cosmos, but they could not be used by human beings because it would be too difficult to use them. They could not be used because they would be used up in the lives of people who reached their normal age. It is very significant that these heavenly forces have passed through human bodies. This makes them, in a sense, free from the ordinary course of development. And this freedom means that these forces can indeed be used in ways other than for the good of humanity.
They can also be used in other ways. Human life must develop in the light of freedom. Let us assume that Ahriman really succeeded in darkening people's thoughts and reason to such an extent that they would reject all spiritual science. Then these etheric bodies would still be there, but there would be no souls enthusiastic about spiritual science who could put these forces at the service of earthly progress. Lucifer or Ahriman would then be able to intervene and use these forces either in the world that Lucifer is building up or in the world that Ahriman is building up. Consider that something tremendously significant is being said here! What is being said is that it is, in a sense, in the hands of human beings to decide how the forces that have been bestowed upon the world through sacrificial deaths will be incorporated into the earthly process. The fact that they have the possibility of inspiring what has been kindled through spiritual science will make these forces serve the progress of earthly evolution. Otherwise, if materialism were to take hold of all minds, or if nationalism were to spread in a purely passionate way, Lucifer or Ahriman might put these forces at their service; then the progress of the earth would have nothing to gain from these forces. When one considers these connections, the whole profound significance of spiritual science for human evolution on earth becomes apparent. Only then can one say: How necessary it is that sacrificial forces be used in the right sense in evolution, how necessary it is that individual human beings who are capable of this be seized by what can emerge as a disposition from spiritual science! And this spiritual science becomes something immensely sacred when viewed in connection with the spiritual development that is also expressed in our fateful days. The attitude that can come to us from spiritual science thus becomes something prayer-like, which can be summed up in the words: Let us, O World Spirit, be thoroughly imbued with this spiritual scientific attitude, so that we may not fail to wrest from Lucifer and Ahriman, in the right sense, what can be the salvation and progress of the earth!
Our building is intended to serve as a symbol of what spiritual science should become for humanity as a mindset. It is therefore designed in such a way that its forms artistically express what spiritual science can give of itself. I would have much to say if I wanted to explain to you everything that has been put into every detail of this building. You will learn all this when you visit the building over the years and participate in the things that are to take place there. Today I want to speak only of one thing in connection with what I have just explained.
At a significant point in the building, where it turns toward the east, there will be a sculptural group. This sculptural group is intended to express in particular that which must permeate the consciousness of our time in the right measure. This group will essentially consist of three figures, quite apart from what will be added. Three beings will be expressed in this group. There will be a kind of rock. This rock has a projection at the front, and in this projection there is a cave. The main figure stands on the rock projection. This main figure can be called whatever one wishes, but one must see in him the representative of the earthly human being in the highest sense of the word. And if one wants to see in this human being, who carried the Christ being within himself for three years of his earthly life, the ideal of the earthly human being, then one will also be able to see Christ in this main figure. But this must not be done by standing before this group with the consciousness that this is supposed to be Christ; rather, everything must be felt artistically. That is, it must not be interpreted symbolically from the outside, but everything must follow from the forms themselves.
Up here is a second being. This being has a human-like head, I can only say human-like. The head is really such that one can say that a human head is reminiscent of this head. For this head is formed in such a way that “the skull, especially the forehead, is powerfully developed. Whereas in humans these parts at the top are relatively immobile, in this being everything is mobile. Everything is a spiritual expression. Just as a human being can move their hands with their fingers, but not this part here, so this being can move everything up here. And you can see from the sculptural work that everything up there is movable. The lower part of the face is very receding in this being. One might say that the powerful skull formation arches over the receding face. I can only discuss individual parts, because every single line on this figure is of great significance. But then there is the peculiarity that there is a connection between what has atrophied into the larynx in humans and the ear in this figure. What is inside as the larynx protrudes upward and forms the lower part of the ears. The upper part is formed by the forehead. On the other side, two structures resembling bird wings are connected, between which a body is spread out that looks as if it were a transformed human face in its entirety. The wings, larynx, and ear are formed in one piece, so that one can recognize that with its wings, the being lives in the harmony of the spheres, vibrates through space, through the waves of the harmony of the spheres, and this is localized in the ear. In humans, all of this is atrophied. Now, because the representative of humanity raises his left hand here, the wings of this figure on the rock are broken, and it falls down from the rock. You can guess that this figure falling down from the rock with its broken wings represents Lucifer.
Down here, in the cave, there is another figure. It does not have bird-like wings, but bat-like wings, a kind of dragon- or worm-like body, and a head that is reminiscent of a human head. But everything that is powerful in Lucifer's forehead recedes completely in this lower figure, is atrophied. The lower parts towards the mouth are powerfully developed in this figure. And this figure is wrapped in what is gold in the earth. The gold of the earth becomes chains that bind this figure inside. This figure writhes under the influence emanating from the descending hand of the representative of humanity, Christ. This figure down there is Ahriman, the Ahriman bound by the gold of the earth.
What I have just said gives, in a sense, the idea of the whole. But this idea only points to what it is all about. We will never engage in the bad habit of the old theosophists, who always worked with symbols, but rather we will strive to transform into art everything that spiritual science impels toward human feeling. Therefore, one cannot say that these figures express this or that — rather, through their artistic nature, through what one sees in them, they must be what represents the relationship of the human being, or even of Christ, to Lucifer and Ahriman. Therefore, this cannot be expressed with the old artistic means. Every movement of the fingers, the way the hands are formed, will be meaningful, because something meaningful will have to be expressed in them. One might initially have the idea that Christ raises his left hand and, through his will, allows forces to flow out that break Lucifer's wings, causing him to fall. And through his right hand, which is lowered, forces would flow out again, binding Ahriman. One would have imagined something completely wrong if one had imagined this.
In order to explain the profound meaning of this, I would like to recall something that truly belongs to the greatest works of art ever created: Michelangelo's “The Last Judgment” in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. There we see Christ promoting the good to heaven and the evil to hell. You can see how Christ sends some to the good world and others to the bad world. This Christ, as he is depicted here, is not the Christ whom we are to understand in his true essence through spiritual science. The Christ who is the true Christ does not condemn or praise by using anger or ordinary love, but acts through what he is. Lucifer's wings are not broken, but he breaks them himself through his state of mind when he comes near Christ. And Ahriman binds himself through what happens in his soul when he comes near Christ. Therefore, the hand held up and the hand held down must not have anything that is not pure compassion for the world. Lucifer up there cannot bear, cannot bear for his part, that the hand of Christ comes near him. And through what he experiences within himself as a result, he breaks his own wings; Christ does not break them, he breaks them himself. And it is the same with Ahriman. Michelangelo did not yet understand how to form a Christ as he really is. The Christ being is so significant, the understanding of the Christ being is so difficult, that this can only be achieved in the course of time. Christ, who through what he is causes beings to condemn or redeem themselves, will only be understood then. The Christ in Michelangelo's painting still has something Luciferic-Ahrimanic about him, because through his anger he leads the wicked to hell and the good to heaven: there he is engaged with his passions. The Christ here stands impersonally, and the beings who come near him condemn themselves.
You can see from this that the position of the human being in the world, which contains Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces, must be expressed in a meaningful place in our structure; that beings must be expressed which can only be found in the spiritual world. All naturalism in art, everything that art has strived for, especially in recent times when people have been gripped by materialism, must be overcome by the art that is cultivated here. And something so completely new must enter the world through spiritual science, even artistically, that even the greatest thing that was previously possible will be overcome: Michelangelo's Christ figure in the Last Judgment.
One can say such things if, on the other hand, one emphasizes everything that must not be forgotten: that, of course, our building can only be a primitive beginning for all this. Everything is imperfect, everything is elementary, everything is only a beginning, but the beginning should already be something completely new. That everything is imperfect can of course be known, but attention must be drawn to something that should come into human life as an impulse.
Consider now how easy it is to pass indifferently by a gift of cosmic existence that consists in the unspent etheric forces of the human body. Consider how these etheric forces could become the prey of Lucifer and Ahriman if human beings did not find a way to use them for the good of earthly evolution. Here we touch upon an immense mystery of the evolution of humanity on Earth: the mystery of the relationship between the Christ impulse and the Lucifer impulse, the Ahriman impulse. And this relationship between the Christ impulse and the Lucifer impulse and the Ahriman impulse will become increasingly understandable to humanity in the near future. Lucifer forces and Ahriman forces pervade the world, and through his Christ consciousness, man must become like a being sitting in a boat that is constantly rocked by the storms stirred up by Lucifer and Ahriman, but which finds its way through the sea whose living substance consists of Lucifer and Ahriman, but through which the human being nevertheless steers his Christ boat.
We do not come together in our branches to learn this or that theoretically, which spiritual science can reveal to us, but we come together so that everything that lives in our souls may be filled with a disposition that can flow from this spiritual science. It is not what we think from spiritual science that matters, but how we think, feel, and will. And whether the smallest or the greatest thing we can observe in the earthly evolution of humanity appears before our soul's eye, everywhere we can see how necessary it is for the human beings of the future to become acquainted with what the trinity of Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman means. Michelangelo could not see, nor could the ages that have passed until now, the true nature of this trinity in the world. But one will only truly recognize Christ in his essence when one sees him in his relationship to what works in the world like the North and South Poles: Lucifer and Ahriman.
We will discuss many things about this in the coming days with those who will be able to be present. Today I wanted to place upon your souls that which makes the spiritual scientific attitude appear so important to us, even for meaningful things that may reveal themselves in the spiritual world in the near future to those who are able to see through what is happening physically with their spiritual eyes.
Oh, how one would like to implore the good gods and spirits who protect the earth and humanity to give people the strength to bring about what must happen for the good of humanity!
Up there they will be, the unspent etheric forces of human beings who have passed through death in their youth. But human hearts and human souls will have to be here on earth, looking up to these forces so that they can be brought into the right direction of development through them. It is not only important that the forces are up there, which could also become the prey of Lucifer and Ahriman, but it is important that there are human souls down here in physical bodies who send their devotional mood up to these sacrificial etheric bodies. This will determine in what sense the forces created in the fields where blood flows, where sacrifices are made, where pain is suffered, will flow into human evolution.
This roughly outlines the contribution that spiritual science can make to the future course of human development if what can only be recognized by spiritual science is truly grasped by a number of people.
What can come of these present fateful days, I would like to express once more in a few pragmatic words before 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
The fruits of the spirit will grow
Souls will think spiritually
And find their meaning in the spiritual realm.