The Mystery of Death
GA 159
17 June 1915, Düsseldorf
14. Post-mortal Experiences of the Human Being
In connection with some spiritual-scientific considerations, I have often said that it concerns within our spiritual-scientific movement and its efforts of taking up those concepts and ideas not only in theory which one can learn by spiritual science, but that the spiritual-scientific results have to penetrate the innermost movements, the innermost impulses of our soul life. Indeed, we have to start from the results of the spiritual-scientific knowledge, and we can gain such knowledge if we just study it if we occupy ourselves with it. But spiritual science is not to be taken up like another science, so that one knows only afterwards that one has heard this or that, that this or that is true concerning one or another matter in the world. Spiritual science has to work on our souls so that the souls become different in this or that field of feeling that they become different taking up what can flow out of spiritual science. The concepts, ideas and mental pictures which we take up by means of spiritual science have to rouse our souls in the core, have to unite with our feelings, so that we learn through spiritual science to look at the world not only differently, but also to feel differently than without it. The spiritual scientist, actually, has to familiarise himself with certain circumstances quite differently than this is possible without spiritual science. If he is able to do this, he has basically only arrived at what has to flow to us from spiritual science.
We live in a grievous time today, in which to us one of the most important questions of spiritual science, the question of death, appears in so countless cases before our eyes, before our souls, before our hearts, closer to one, closest to the other. The spiritual scientist has also to be able to prove spiritual science in his feelings in this grievous time. He should be able to have a different attitude to the events of time than the others, even if these events touch him so near. Indeed, the one needs consolation, the other needs encouragement; but both should find this also in spiritual science. If this can be the case, we have only correctly understood the intentions of spiritual science.
We have thereby to experience a certain shock in our souls through the ideas of spiritual science already that we learn to feel quite differently about some matters than we can feel without spiritual science about anything in the world. If you summarise all that which has already been said about the mystery of death within our spiritual science, you can understand what I would also like to explain today not only repeating, but something adding to former considerations. We must learn to think about death not only differently, but we must learn to feel about death differently. Since, indeed, the mystery of death is connected with the deepest world mysteries. We should be quite clear to ourselves that we take off all that through which we get perception and knowledge in the physical world, through which we experience something of the external world when we go through the gate of death. We get impressions about the world in the physical world by means of our senses. We take off these senses when we enter the spiritual world. Then we do not have the senses any more. This must already be a proof to us that we must try if we think about the supersensible world to think differently than we have learnt to think by means of our senses.
Indeed, we have a clue of sorts, while also in the everyday life, which we spend between birth and death, something analogous, something similar of the experiences in the spiritual world projects. These are the dream experiences projecting into the everyday life. The dream experience does not come into being to us through our senses; our senses have really nothing to do with the dream experience. Nevertheless, it is in the pictures that sometimes remind of the sensory life. We have in these dream pictures, even if a weak reflection, just a reflection of that type, as the spiritual existence faces us as an Imaginative world between death and a new birth. We have Imaginative perception, however, after death; the experience appears in pictures. Only if you see, for example, a red colour in the sensory world and must have the thought: what is behind this red colour?—Then you will say to yourselves: there is something that fulfils the space, something material is behind it.—The red colour also appears to you in the spiritual world, but there is nothing material behind it, nothing that would exercise a material impression in the usual sense. Behind the red is a psycho-spiritual being; behind the red is the same which you feel as your world in your soul. One would like to say: from the sense-impression of the colour we descend externally in the physical down to the material world, from the Imaginations we ascend to spiritual regions of the spiritual world.
Now we must be aware—this has been emphasised strongly in the new edition of my Theosophy—that also these Imaginations do not appear to us like the sensory impressions of the physical world. They are there indeed, these Imaginations, but they appear as experiences: the red, the blue colours are there experiences. One can rightly call these Imaginations red or blue, but they are something different than the sensory impressions of the physical world. They are more intimate; we unite more intimately with them. Without the red colour of the rose you are yourself; within the red colour of the spiritual world you feel to be therein, you are united with the red colour. While you perceive a red colour in the spiritual world, a will, a very effective will of a spiritual being develops. This will shines, and that which it shines is red. But you feel to be in the will, and you call this experience red, of course. I would like to say that a physical colour is like the frozen spiritual experience. Thus we must get the possibility in many fields to think something different, to give our ideas other values and meanings if we really want to rise to an understanding of the spiritual world.
Then we have to realise that above in the spiritual world the Imaginations do not have the same relationship to the spiritual beings—whose expression, for example, the colours are—as a colour has to a sensory being. The rose is red; this is a quality of the rose. But if a spirit comes to the nearness and we must have the consciousness according to that which I have now said: the spirit shines red, and then the red does not mean a quality of the spirit like the red of the rose is a quality. This red colour is more something like a revelation of the inside of the spiritual being; it is more a character which the spiritual being puts in the spiritual world. You have only to behold through the Imaginations. The activity which you develop there is to be compared in the physical world only with its ahrimanic image, namely with reading. We look at the red colour of the rose and know: it is a quality of the rose. We do not only look at the red colour in the spiritual world, but we interpret it, but not fantasising—I must warn about it always again. However, our soul itself already finds that something is given like a sound, a letter, like something that should be deciphered, should be read, so that it recognises the meaning.
The spiritual being means something if he manifests himself as a C sharp or G sharp or as red or blue or green colours. The spiritual being means something with it; one starts speaking with him, one starts reading his writing. The external culture is based on it that such matters which have their deep wisdom in the spiritual world are transplanted then also to the external world. We speak rightly of an occult reading, because somebody who attains the clairvoyant consciousness, who enters the spiritual world, who is able to see out over the Imaginations and reads in them, looks through them at the bottom of the souls living in the spiritual world, not only through colours, but also through other impressions, such impressions which remind of sensory impressions, and those which are added in the spiritual worlds.
This activity which is a purely psycho-spiritual activity is subordinate, as it were, to the government of the really progressive spiritual beings. Here in the physical world, Ahriman creates a reflection just of that which I have characterised now. The external reading of characters in the physical world is an ahrimanic reflection of this occult reading. Since reading in the physical world by signs which were developed artificially is an ahrimanic activity. Not without good reason, the invention of the art of printing was felt as an ahrimanic art, as a “black art,” as one called it. You are just not allowed to believe that you could escape the claws of Lucifer and Ahriman using any performances. Lucifer and Ahriman must be in the external culture. It is only that you find the balance, the way if life turns perpetually to the luciferic or the ahrimanic side. If anybody did not want to be touched at all by Ahriman, never would he have to learn reading. But this is why it concerns not that we flee Ahriman and Lucifer, but that we get the right relationship to them, that we position ourselves correctly to them, although they are as forces round us. If we know that we follow what we have described so often as the Christ Impulse which lives in us, and if we get the spiritual sensations which impose the intention to follow Christ to us at every moment of our life, then we are also able to read. Then we can get to know—and we already shall do it if it is right according to our karma—that Ahriman also established reading, and we see this ahrimanic art in the right light. If we do not experience this, we declaim something about the ahrimanic culture, about the progress and the splendour of the ahrimanic culture, for example, about reading.
But all these matters also impose duties, and this is why it concerns that such duties are also kept. Just in our present time, a lot can be stated to defend or accuse this or that. Really, we have what we can call a flood of war literature. Every day produces not only brochures, but also books et cetera. There you can often read: this country has so and so many illiterates, in this country so and so many people can read and write, and the like. Adopting this easily would not be according to what somebody who is well-versed in spiritual science has to say out of his responsibility. If I wanted to indicate, for example, that which I have to state with regard to our time, all the especially bad of a nation and say that in this nation are so and so many people who cannot read and write, I would not correctly speak spiritual-scientifically. There only matters must be stated for which one can take responsibility to the occult duties.
You see—I wanted to give only an example—that spiritual science must go over into life and imposes duties in this deeper sense. If the spiritual scientist says such things which the others also say, you are always able to notice that they are said in a different context, and it depends on this. Hence, something appears rather strange to somebody who does not know spiritual science, if it is said in spiritual science, because he is accustomed to have other ideas and must say to himself sometimes: this spiritual science calls the black white, and the white black.—This is necessary sometimes, because if one ascends to the spiritual world with the usual ideas and concepts which one learns in the physical world, some ideas and concepts must be changed thoroughly.
From this point of view let us take one of the most important, most enigmatic concepts which we have to acquire out of the impressions of the physical world, the concept of death. In the physical world, the human being sees death always only from one side, from the side that he sees developing the human life up to the point where the human being dies. That is where the physical body is separated at first from the higher members of the human nature and is dissolved then within the physical world. One can really say what the human being sees as death within the physical world: looking at death from one side. However, looking at death from the other side means to look at it in an opposite light, to see it as something totally different.
When we enter the physical life by birth, we experience something at first in such a way that the peak of our physical consciousness is not yet reached. You know that we do not remember the first years of our experience with the usual physical consciousness. Nobody can remember his birth with the usual physical consciousness. At least no one will appear in the world who states that he can remember with his usual consciousness how he was born. We can say: this is a characteristic of the physical consciousness that the birth of the human being must be forgotten. It is forgotten; also the first years are forgotten. If we look back at our life between birth and death, we remember up to a certain point. Then memory ends. The point where it stops is not our physical birth, but an experience precedes. Nobody can know from experience that he is born. He can only conclude it. We conclude that we are born—and only from that—that after us human beings are born whose birth we perceive. If the naturalist states that he only admits what can be seen, nobody could claim his birth after this principle if he wants to be logical, because it is impossible to perceive his own birth without being clairvoyant; one can only conclude it.
Now exactly the opposite takes place with regard to death. The whole life through between death and new birth the moment of death which he experienced stands before the soul eye of the dead as the liveliest, as the brightest impression. However, do not believe that you are allowed to possibly conclude from it that this would be a painful impression. Then you would believe that the dead looks back at what you see in the physical world of death, of decay, of decline. He sees death, however, from the other side; he sees something in death what one must call the most beautiful also in the spiritual world. Since the human being can experience nothing more beautiful than the sight of death in the spiritual world first of all. Seeing this victory of the spirit over the material, this lighting up of the spiritual light of the soul from the deep darkness of the material is the greatest, the most significant that can be beheld on the other side of life which the human being goes through between death and a new birth.
If the human being takes off the etheric body between death and new birth and has fully developed his consciousness what happens not very long time after death, then he has not the same relationship to himself as here in the physical world. If the human being sleeps here in the physical world, he is unaware, and if he is awake, he realises that he knows now: I have a self, an ego in myself. After death in the spiritual world, this is something different—there is his self-consciousness on a higher level,—then it is not just the same. I will immediately speak about that. But there is also something like a self-contemplation. Exactly the same way as one must call to mind the self in the morning while waking up it is in the spiritual world. But this self-contemplation is a looking back at the moment of death. Always it is in such a way, as if we say to ourselves to perceive our ego between death and a new birth: you have really died, so you are a self, you are an ego.
This is the most important thing: one looks back at the victory of the spirit over the body, one looks back at the moment of death which is the most beautiful of the spiritual world that can be experienced. In this looking back one notices his self in the spiritual world. This is always, one cannot say like waking up—one would stamp the concepts one-sidedly,—it is the self-contemplation to look back at his death. That is why it is so important that the human being has the possibility to look really back at the moment of death with full postmortal consciousness—with a consciousness which enters after death. So he dreams not only in any way what he beholds there but can completely understand what he beholds; this is extremely important. We can already prepare ourselves during life while we try to practice self-knowledge. In particular, this is necessary for humankind from now on to practice self-knowledge. Basically all spiritual science is there to give that self-knowledge to the human being which is necessary to him. For spiritual science is an introduction to the enlarged self of the human being, that self by which one belongs to the whole world. I said that the consciousness after death is something different than here in the physical world. If I might to plot the consciousness after death diagrammatically to you, I could do it in the following way.

(sehendes Auge = seeing eye, sinnlicher Körper = material object, geistige Wesenheit = spiritual being)
Imagine we would have an eye here, and here we would have an object. How do we attain the consciousness that there is an object outside us? Because the object makes an impression on our eye. The object makes an impression on our eye, and we learn to know something about the object. The object is outside in the world, it makes an impression on our senses, and we take up the mental picture, which we can form of the object, in ourselves, in our souls. The object is outside us. Then it has delivered the mental picture which we form then. It is different now in the spiritual world. Because I cannot draw it graphically differently, I would want what I always call soul eye to draw as a soul eye, although it is wrong strictly considered. Now this soul eye which the human being has after death has the disposition that after death the human being sees, for example, an angel or another human soul who is also in the spiritual world not as he sees a flower in the physical world, but this soul eye has the disposition—we disregard a human soul at first, we look only at a being of the higher hierarchy—that it does not have as an eye the consciousness if here an angel, an archangel is: I see this angelic being outside myself,—but: I am seen by the angelic being, he sees me.—It is just the opposite of the physical world. We familiarise in the spiritual world so that we get the consciousness of the beings of the higher hierarchies that we are known by them that they think us. We feel embedded in them, we feel that we are conceived by the angels, archangels, spirits of personality like the realms of minerals, plants, and animals feel to be conceived by us.
Only concerning human souls we have the feeling that they see us as we also have the feeling that our view goes into them. We see them and the human souls see us. As to all the other beings of the higher hierarchies, we have the feeling that we are perceived by them, are thought, imagined by them; and while we are perceived by them, are thought, are imagined by them, we are in the spiritual world. Now imagine that we walk around as souls in the spiritual world, like we walk around in the physical world. We then have the feeling everywhere to get a relationship to the beings of the higher hierarchies, like we have the feeling here in the physical world to get a relationship to the mineral, plant, and animal realms. Only we need the meditation repeatedly that we have a self. Then we look at our death and say to us: this is you.—This is a continual consciousness, continual contents of our conscioussnes.
What I have said today is to be added to the various ideas which you can take up from talks and books. It is spoken more emotionally than that which is spoken, for example, in the book Theosophy more from an external point of view. But only while you look at such a matter emotionally, you can feel as if you are in the sensations which one must have towards these matters and generally towards the spiritual world.
Hence, self-knowledge is that which supports us which makes us strong for the life between death and a new birth. That could face me recently again with particular liveliness when I had the task to speak several times at the cremation, after some of our friends had deceased. There it was necessary to speak about something that is connected intimately with the character, with the self of that who had gone through the gate of death. Why did this Inspirative or Intuitive come into being to speak something to the dead that is connected with their beings? This appears in the life of the persons concerned after death. It comes to their assistance what invigorates the forces of their self-knowledge. While speaking about these qualities, which they feel in themselves, immediately after death when their consciousness had not yet awoken, one let flow, as it were, something of the strength towards them that they need to gradually develop the ability to look at the moment of death. Their whole being seems to be concentrated there, as it has developed between birth and death. One helps the dead if one lets flow something towards them just after death that reminds them of their qualities, of their experiences et cetera. One thereby fosters the strength of self-knowledge. If anybody has the possibility as clairvoyant to familiarise himself with the soul of such a dead person, then he feels the desire in his soul to hear something just in this time about the kind, as he was, about this and that which he has gone through or which his main qualities are. You can understand that here on earth the life of a human being does not resemble the life of the other, but that all human beings have lives which are different from each other. It is the same with those who have gone through the gate of death. Not one soul-life resembles the other between death and new birth. I would like to say: every soul-life which one can observe there is a new revelation, and one can always emphasise individual particular qualities only. I would like to speak about such matters today and then also in Cologne the day after tomorrow. I would like to speak of a concrete case as an example.
In Dornach before some time, we saw a member leaving the physical plane who was rather old-aged (Lina Grosheintz-Rohrer). A member who had spent her life, in any case, in industrious work, caring work, but during the last years, since longer time already, she was connected in the deepest soul with our spiritual-scientific world view and had completely developed it in her heart, in her soul. So that one may say: this personality had come so far that in the last times of her physical existence she was completely one in her feeling with our world view. Now you know that the human being if he/she goes through the gate of death takes off his physical body first, carries the etheric body in himself still for a while and then takes off the etheric body, too. There comes a time when the human being must only gain the consciousness gradually which he has to possess between death and a new birth. Immediately after death, the human being is in his etheric body. There he experiences, we know this, a complete review of his life as a big life tableau. In this time, particularly the powerful impulses also appear in his soul, I would like to say, all at once, so that something that is important just in this regard can appear after death that is completely different than during life.
During life the human being is often tied up by the restrictions which his physical body places on him. Immediately after death, the human being has overcome what burdens, presses, solidifies him, and also the physical that weakens the clearness of some soul impulses. One has not yet lost the etheric body and, hence, the memory of life. It is an Imaginative world which contains the pictures of the past life, and also contains the especially strong impulses. If now a soul has taken up the impulses of spiritual science during life so intensely, if this soul has brought these impulses up to the innermost feeling in herself, she can develop these impressions after death also in another way, because she has the elastic, malleable etheric body at her disposal, then she is no longer tied up to that which the physical body allows.
One could see this with that personality in particular about which I have just spoken who shortly after death let flow out of her soul what had lived from the spiritual-scientific impulses in her, after I had just succeeded in transporting myself completely into this soul. Of course, it would not have stamped this in such words during her physical life. Because the etheric body was still there, she could dress it in physical words. It was not yet out of her elastic etheric body, when she developed what she had taken up from spiritual science, so that it became the expression of her soul. Then I had the necessity at the cremation of the concerning personality a few days later that I had to speak these words, which sounded from her being, which belonged to her, not to me:
Into cosmic distances I will carry
My feeling heart, so that it grows warm
In the fire of the holy forces' working;
Into cosmic thoughts I will weave
My own thinking, so that it grows clear
In the light of eternal life-becoming;
Into depths of soul I will sink
Devoted contemplation, so that it grows strong
For the true goals of human activity;
In the peace of God I strive thus
Amidst life's battles and cares
To prepare myself for the higher Self;
Aspiring to work in joy-filled peace,
Sensing cosmic being in my own being,
I seek to fulfill my human duty;
May I live in anticipation,
Oriented toward my soul's star
Which gives me my place in spirit realms.
I would like to say that these are the words expressing the sensation after death what the soul has become through spiritual science. Then came the time which everybody has to go through after death more or less which one improperly calls the time of sleeping. Because if you have taken off the etheric body, you are actually in the spiritual world, only the fullness of the spiritual world is dazzling you. You cannot have an overview of everything, you have only to adapt your strength which you have brought into the spiritual world; you have to belittle yourself. You see too much after death; the consciousness is there, you have to reduce it to the level of the forces which you have acquired. Then you can orientate yourself and live really in the spiritual world. It is spoken not quite properly if anybody says that one becomes conscious after some time, but one has to say that somebody has too much consciousness and has to reduce it to the levels which he can endure. This means waking up. That is why the soul of which I have just spoken to you reached this condition—when the etheric body is taken off—that she was unable to endure the spirit light. But she had a lot of strength in herself. You notice that in the words which I have read, and that this strength had been completely filled bit by bit with that which spiritual science can make of the human feeling and willing. That is why this being, this soul got a consciousness which was tolerable to her some time after death. Of course, one would have to describe a lot of the time which begins then for a soul when one wanted to describe everything that such a soul experiences there. One only describes parts always; and while we are within our movement, it belongs, of course, to the most significant matters you can observe in the souls what connects these souls with our movement. You can learn what generally human souls connects with the whole world after death; but you can observe best of all in such souls what is the life of the soul after death, particularly when it has approached you like this soul of whom I speak now. Therefore I could observe just with this soul how she got the orientating consciousness while taking part in our meetings, really taking part in our meetings. And she completely took part in a Dornach Easter festival of this year, in that Easter festival when I tried to explain the particular depth of the Easter thought to our dear friends there in Dornach. This soul was present there. She took part as she had taken part once with intimate warmth; she took part now as a soul. She wanted to express herself like somebody has the need in the physical body to express himself afterwards about that which he has taken up. She wanted to express herself, and the peculiar is that she stamped such words, because thereby the possibility exists to communicate, that she formed such words describing her present life and its experience of this Easter lecture. The soul added something like a supplement of that which had come from her at that time after death. This supplement which came out of the consciousness is the following:
I will steer in human souls
Spirit feeling, so that willingly
It wakes in hearts the word of sacrifice;
I will think with human spirits
Soul warmth, so that powerfully
It can feel the Risen One;
I had taken care just in those Easter talks and in some other talks, which I held at that time, to draw attention—as I did it repeatedly—to the significance of spiritual science not only here for the life on earth, but for the whole world. Somebody who goes through the gate of death can also experience and get to know what is done here in spiritual science. That is why I advise so many people if they have dear dead to read out to them or to tell about the spiritual-scientific teachings, because what is stamped in spiritual-scientific words has not only significance for the souls living in physical bodies, but it has full significance also for the souls who are disembodied. It is to them like spiritual air of life, like spiritual water of life, or one could also say, they perceive light by us here below. This light is for us symbolic at first, one would like to say, because we hear words and take up them as thoughts in our souls; the dead see it, however, really as a spiritual light.
Now it is very significant that just this soul who has often heard this wanted to say really: I have understood this, and it is real that way.—Since her words in this regard are:
The earthly flame of spiritual knowledge
Brightly illuminates death's appearance;
This is the fact for the soul. She wants to say: what you speak there below shines like a flame.—She expressed this, while she said “earthly flame:” it “brightly illuminates death's appearance ...” Why does she say “death's appearance?” If you meditate, you find out it. She said it, because she had always heard that we call the world maya: on earth she is in the appearance of the senses; now she is also in an appearance by which she only has to behold the being:
The earthly flame of spiritual knowledge
Brightly illuminates death's appearance;—
And something that she also confirms now:
The Self becomes cosmic eye and ear.
She means cosmic ear. She means that now the whole self becomes a powerful sense-organ, becomes the perception organ for the whole universe. It is a nice way by which the dead shows how she becomes conscious that that becomes true which spiritual science says. For this soul it is typical that she wants to express herself straight away after death and wants to say: yes, now I am so far that that which I have learnt on earth appears to me as the right thing.
These words were to me of a certain importance, because they came after some time, maybe a few weeks later, from the spiritual world from that soul of which I have spoken, after shortly before, a few weeks before, another event satisfying me took place.
Friends of our movement lost a rather young son in the current war who had volunteered for the army. The young man fell. He had half approached spiritual science; one would like to say, in his last earth time which he went through. He was only seventeen, eighteen years old. Now he had gone, he had fallen. After some time I could behold the soul of this young man really approaching his parents. With many souls who have now gone through the gate of death during the war this is the case that they become conscious rather rapidly. It was thus—I could really hear it,—as if he said to them: now I would like to make it comprehensible to you that that which I have often heard of spiritual science, of spiritual light and spiritual beings in your home can become clear to me that it is true that it helps me what I heard there.
I do not mention this, because it is something special, but because it just shows how the relationship is between the earthly life and the spiritual life. Nevertheless, I want to mention something strange besides. At that time after a lecture which I held in one of our branches—I had written down the words which had come through to me, I went to the parents of the young man and told this to them and also gave the night in which the young man approached his parents and spoke as it were to their souls. There said the father: this is quite strange, I dream very seldom. However, I dreamt this night, this same night of my son that he appeared to me and that he wanted to say something to me; however, I have not understood it.
It touches those people strangely even today who are outside our spiritual movement if these matters are explained to them. Hence, we keep them among us. But it must be important to us to deal specifically also with these matters, because our knowledge is composed of these single stones of the experiences of the spiritual world. We only get a concrete picture if we do not want to limit ourselves only to hear nice theories of the spiritual world but if we can enliven spiritual science in our souls, so that we endure that which one speaks of the spiritual world really, like reasonable human beings just speak of that which they experience in the sensory world. Spiritual science thereby becomes life in the right sense in us, and it should become life in us, that we gain a life by it—not only a teaching, a knowledge. It should bridge the abyss which results from materialism which extends outside spiritual science and must become bigger and bigger. It bridges this abyss between the physical-sensory realm, which we go through between birth and death, and the spiritual realm in which we live between death and a new birth, so that we gradually learn to become citizens also of the spiritual world. What matters is that we learn to feel: somebody who has gone through the gate of death has only taken on another condition of life and has an attitude towards our feeling after death like somebody who just had to move because of the events of life to a distant country in which we can follow him only later. So we have to endure nothing but a time of separation. But this must be felt vividly by means of spiritual science. If you risk forming an idea about single concrete facts, you will already see that these facts also correspond to it and support each other for somebody who does not look into the spiritual world. That is why the confidence, which one has, before one beholds in the spiritual world, is actually no blind confidence, no trust in authority, but a confidence which is supported by the feeling which is deeper than critical knowledge, by the original feeling of truth indigenous to the human soul.
We live in a time in which the external destiny-burdened events make it clear that the human life has to be deepened. It would be much better if the human beings looked at these military events as a warning to deepen the souls more than the predominating majority of the human beings do. They discuss instead who has the war guilt, who does this or that. I said, while I discussed the most important matters before you: concerning some matters we must learn by spiritual science to change our ideas, our concepts. We can count the concept of war to these concepts—today this may be still added to our consideration about such a significant object like death.
One will be right, also from the spiritual-scientific point of view, to consider the war as an illness of development. Indeed, it is an illness, but you remember only once that you also do not do justice to an illness if you condemn it. What matters in illness is often that which has preceded the illness in the human body: the disorder, the disharmony has preceded. Then the illness comes into being which often is there to work just against the disorder in the body. Even if the human being goes through an illness before death, it is this way. He carries disharmonies in himself which make it impossible for him to enter the spiritual world. Perhaps, the spiritual world would be obscured to him too long, or other obstacles would be there, because disharmonies are in him which cannot just be brought into the spiritual world. This is why an illness infects him before death. It frees his soul from disharmony so far that he can enter the spiritual world.
If it is an illness which leads to recovery, then this illness is there to compensate that which has preceded the illness which was caused by the karma of previous lives, maybe of thousands of years. One would not do well to say at all: the child has the measles; had it not got these measles.—One cannot know what would have come about the child if it had not got the measles. Because that came out which sat deeply always in the child and looked for its compensation.
It is also good to consider the war, and to see the evil not so much in that which must be experienced now in blood and iron but also to look at that which happened since long, long times in the cultural currents. The human beings must learn to look deeper at the connections. After this war, a time will come when the human beings start thinking about this war. There they will get on how many hollow words were talked if one said: this one has the guilt, that one has the guilt.—Something will just happen, even if it takes place only long after the war. Then the people will say something different than today. There will be people who say: if one studies history the way as one studied it up to now, indeed, one finds in these acts of the diplomats this, in those acts of diplomats that; here and there or this and that was written.
But if one proceeds that way as history treated all that up to now, and wants “to objectively judge” everything, as one says, then one never finds out why this war came into being. Then one will discover that it is necessary to look at the deeper reasons beyond the external causes which then spiritual science has to explain. Unfortunately, I can make only remarks about these matters. One will find that at various places just at the outbreak of this war this or that happened where not the consciousness played the most significant role, but something unconscious, something under the threshold of the external events was a contributory factor; so that those matters are not exhausted at all which the historian is accustomed to consider as something decisive for the causality. Just with this example one learns: history, as we are accustomed to it up to now, explains nothing at all to us. It is an admonition to go into deeper reasons.
As I had to admonish our souls at the end of almost each talk which I held in the last time, I would like to do it also again today.
A certain responsibility arises for you simply from the fact that you have approached the spiritual-scientific world view. You must become able to have the thoughts by the spiritual-scientific world view at least that those superficial judgments which are delivered everywhere today, because materialism controls the world, should also not become judgments of ours who we are supporters of spiritual science. What plays a role in the world today is a superficial hatred from nation to nation. I have often spoken about that in our branch talks. It must not penetrate us to the same degree, but we also must not become unfair. For we can learn from the old Theosophical Society to become rather unfair. They have impressed on their supporters with regard to the religions: all religions are equal.
This is approximately the same, as if one liked to impress on the human beings: on the table are pepper, salt, sugar, paprika; now, they all can be used as spices, one should not prefer anything. So, here I have a cup of coffee, I put some pepper into it, because everything is the same. The identical logic is in it if one speaks of the fact that the same core of truth forms the basis of all religions. This logic saves one from studying the great miraculous world development in its details, because one gets by with the sentence: a core of truth forms the basis of everything. But we have freed ourselves from the most superficial judgments since long. Thus that cannot prevent us from recognising rightly to go into any national characteristic with affectionate understanding, where we have to stand with our hearts out of knowledge. It is not possible that all friends agree in this regard. That does not matter, but that our souls try to get over the point of view of the external world and to deal with the characteristics of the different folk-souls.—Then we will already see that the belief in our spiritual-scientific world view imposes a certain responsibility to us in many respects, the responsibility to deal with the matters as thoroughly as possible and to pay more attention on them on the basis of spiritual science.
One experiences painful things sometimes. Not any human being does remember the big admonition of our destiny-burdened events, so that he feels obliged to turn his heart really deeper, more thoroughly to the events instead of judging superficially in the way of the external materialism we just want to overcome. In this regard, one would like to wish and long for that the human beings who are within our movement form a host, as it were, which deals thoroughly with the deeply moving questions of today. Thoroughness is necessary concerning a lot of matters. You do not imagine at all what is possible in our time.
Oh, I could tell a lot about that which can make the heart bloody to somebody who pursues the time really with the goodness of his heart. Today a lot of views and thoughts are spread, sometimes with the best intention, from an unhealthy, ahrimanic world view. But looking at the flood of war literature we have just to deeper meditate about the tasks of the cultural development. I attempt this now in my talks showing the real position of the single human beings. Because it is often a matter of defending thoroughness against superficiality. You could experience something very strange, for example, during the last weeks. Because of comprehensible reasons I would not like to mention the title of a book which has appeared abroad, even in German, and some people state that a German would have written it. Expressly I would like to stress that you can bring yourselves to understand any point of view. Perhaps, you can understand the most anti-German standpoint if the one or the other shows it. You may try to understand it, you need not share it, but perhaps you are able to understand it.
But the concerning book has characteristics to which it does not depend on the fact that it takes a thoroughly anti-German standpoint, that it reviles Germanness and the German nature on every line. One may understand that it is written viciously. But nobody is allowed to come and say: if a German speaks about the book that way, we can understand this, because he talks disparagingly about Germanness.—However, it depends on something different. The book is written, so that somebody who has a little feeling for internal professionalism and internal thoroughness, who is educated a little, must find: it is the most terrible simulation of the cheapest literature.—Completely apart from its standpoint, its literary level is so low that somebody who finds something in the book shows that he accepts the most trivial literature as something that one can take seriously, a book cobbled together with ignorance, I would like to say, with the most obvious ignorance.
So the standpoint does not matter; but you see from the way, as it is written like anybody who learnt thinking would not write, that one deals with a quite inferior sort of book. Nevertheless, I also had to hear judgments that this book whose title I do not mention because of particular reasons is taken seriously. If such matters appear, it is just to us not to shrink from forming a judgment on the basis of certain versatility. If anybody agrees to certain sentences which are expressed in that book as regards content, he does not need to take such a book seriously, already because the book is a terrible concoction, and because one does not take a terrible concoction seriously, because one cannot wish that even the truth is expressed terribly in the worst affect and in an uneducated way. I wanted to characterise such an example, because I would like to draw your attention to the fact that it depends on various things if the spiritual scientist tries to form a judgment about the world.
If it were possible to take a book for good, even if it is stylistically a horror book, then somebody would admit that he has not enough enlivened the spiritual-scientific feeling in his heart, in his soul. Not to express anything differently but to draw attention to the fact that spiritual science has to penetrate our feeling and thinking vividly in the most profound sense, concrete examples are also given in this field. It is very necessary that such concrete impulses are searched for in our souls. I have to admit what satisfied me particularly up to now, travelling through Germany, that I could not notice terrifying cheering after great victories. One noticed that pain about the enormous losses was in every soul at the same time. I believe that it is that way. Futile joy of victory must not be there. Since these destiny-burdened days demand not only enormous sacrifices, but they open up enormous wounds, also spiritual wounds if one considers the behaviour of many human beings. That is why it is very necessary that we remember now and again, just if we look at important matters in the field of spiritual science which responsibility is imposed on our souls and that we must long for times in which the effects of the young, unused etheric bodies and the souls can really meet who still are below in the bodies of the human beings and can send their sensations and abilities up to them.
A time will come after this war when the unused etheric bodies of those work who went through the gate of death and developed forces out of the sacrifices they made and which they could send down now for the spiritualisation of humankind. But below there must be souls who are able to receive this, who look up in lively confidence at that which went up in the spiritual world from the early deceased to shine down the forces of the spiritualisation of humankind.
There I would want that it appears to our eyes in the sense of the words which I would like to speak at the end of this consideration 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.
Notes
The earthly flame of spiritual knowledge
Brightly illuminates death's appearance;
The Self becomes cosmic eye and ear.
The translation of these verses in Our Dead contains some mistakes; perhaps, they occurred because Steiner used a script consisting of normal Latin but also of old German letters (Sütterlin script):

Es leuchtet hell dem Todesscheine
Des Geisteswissens (not: Geisteswillens) Erdenflamme;
Das Selbst wird Welten (not: Wellen)-Aug und Ohr.
a book which has appeared abroad: Richard Grelling J'accuse. By a German. Third edition, Lausanne, 1915
Erfahrungen Des Menschen Nach Dem Durchgang Durch Die Todespforte
Es ist öfter gesagt worden im Zusammenhang mit mancher geisteswissenschaftlichen Betrachtung, daß es sich innerhalb unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Bewegung und ihrer Bestrebungen vor allen Dingen nicht nur darum handelt, theoretisch aufzunehmen diejenigen Begriffe und Ideen, die man sich durch Geisteswissenschaft aneignen kann, sondern daß die geisteswissenschaftlichen Ergebnisse eingehen sollten in die innersten Bewegungen, die innersten Impulse unseres seelischen Lebens. Gewiß, wir müssen ausgehen von den Ergebnissen der geisteswissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse, und solche Erkenntnisse kann man sich nur aneignen, wenn man sie eben studiert, wenn man sich mit ihnen beschäftigt. Aber Geisteswissenschaft soll nicht so aufgenommen werden wie eine andere Wissenschaft, so daß man bloß hinterher weiß, man habe dieses oder jenes gehört, dieses oder jenes sei wahr in bezug auf das eine oder andre in der Welt, sondern Geisteswissenschaft soll so auf unsere Seele wirken, daß diese Seele anders werde in diesem oder jenem Empfindungsgebiet, daß sie anders werde durch die Aufnahme desjenigen, was aus der Geisteswissenschaft herausfließen kann. Die Begriffe, Ideen und Vorstellungen, die wir durch Geisteswissenschaft aufnehmen, sollen unsere Seele im Innersten aufrütteln, sollen sich vereinigen mit unserem Empfinden, so daß wir durch Geisteswissenschaft lernen, die Welt nicht nur anders anzuschauen, sondern auch anders zu empfinden als ohne sie. In gewisse Lebenslagen sich ganz anders hineinzufinden, als dies ohne Geisteswissenschaft möglich ist, das sollte eigentlich der Geisteswissenschafter. Und wenn er das kann, dann hat er im Grunde genommen erst das erreicht, was aus der Geisteswissenschaft uns erfließen soll.
Wir leben heute in einer schweren Zeit, in welcher uns ja etwas von der wichtigsten Frage der Geisteswissenschaft, der Frage des Todes in so unzähligen Fällen vor Augen, vor die Seelen, vor die Herzen tritt, dem einen näher, dem andern ganz nahe. Der Geisteswissenschafter sollte auch in dieser schweren Zeit Geisteswissenschaft gefühlsmäßig bewähren können. Er sollte anders zu den Ereignissen der Zeit stehen können, auch dann, wenn sie ihn noch so nahe berühren, als der andere. Trost wird gewiß der eine, Aufmunterung wird der andere brauchen; aber das sollen beide auch in der Geisteswissenschaft finden. Dann erst, wenn dies der Fall sein kann, haben wir Geisteswissenschaft in dem, was sie sein will, im richtigen Sinne verstanden.
Wir müssen durch die Vorstellungen der Geisteswissenschaft schon dadurch eine gewisse Erschütterung in unserer Seele erfahren, daß wir über manche Dinge ganz anders fühlen lernen, als wir ohne Geisteswissenschaft über irgend etwas in der Welt fühlen können. Nehmen Sie vieles von dem zusammen, was über das Rätsel des Todes innerhalb unserer Geisteswissenschaft schon gesagt worden ist, so werden Sie verstehen können, was ich auch heute nicht nur wiederholend, sondern manches anfügend an manche frühere Betrachtung, ausführen möchte. Wir müssen über den Tod nicht nur anders denken lernen, sondern wir müssen über den Tod anders fühlen lernen. Denn das Rätsel des Todes hängt in der Tat mit den tiefsten Welträtseln zusammen. Seien wir uns nur ganz klar darüber, daß wir all dasjenige, wodurch wir uns in der physischen Welt Wahrnehmungen und Kenntnisse verschaffen, wodurch wir von der äußeren Welt etwas erfahren, ablegen, wenn wir durch die Pforte des Todes treten. Wir verschaffen uns in der physischen Welt durch unsere Sinne Eindrücke über die Welt. Diese Sinne legen wir ab, wenn wir in die geistige Welt eintreten. Wir haben dann die Sinne nicht mehr. Das schon muß uns ein Beweis dafür sein, daß wir uns, wenn wir über die übersinnliche Welt denken, bemühen müssen, anders zu denken, als wir zu denken gelernt haben durch unsere Sinne.
Gewiß, wir haben eine Art von Anhaltspunkt, indem auch in das gewöhnliche Leben, das wir zwischen Geburt und Tod verbringen, etwas Analoges, etwas Ähnliches von den Erlebnissen in der geistigen Welt hineinragt. Das sind die in das gewöhnliche Leben hereinragenden Traumerlebnisse. Die Traumerlebnisse werden uns nicht durch unsere Sinne; mit den Traumerlebnissen haben unsere Sinne wirklich nichts zu tun. Dennoch sind sie in Bildern bestehend, die manchmal an das Leben durch die Sinne erinnern. Wir haben in diesen Traumbildern, wenn auch einen schwachen Abglanz, so doch eben einen Abglanz von der Art, wie uns das geistige Dasein als imaginative Welt zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt entgegentritt. Imaginative Wahrnehmungen haben wir allerdings nach dem Tode; in Bildern taucht das Erleben auf. Nur wenn Sie in der sinnlichen Welt zum Beispiel eine rote Farbe sehen und den Gedanken hegen müssen: Was ist hinter dieser roten Farbe? - dann werden Sie sich sagen: Da ist etwas, was den Raum erfüllt, etwas Materielles ist dahinter. — Die rote Farbe erscheint Ihnen auch in der geistigen Welt, aber dahinter ist nicht ein Materielles, nicht etwas, was im gewöhnlichen Sinne einen materiellen Eindruck ausüben würde. Hinter dem Roten ist ein geistig-seelisches Wesen; hinter dem Roten ist dasselbe, was Sie als Ihre Welt fühlen in Ihrem Seelischen. Man möchte sagen: Von dem Sinneseindruck der Farbe steigen wir äußerlich im Physischen hinunter zu der materiellen Welt, von den Imaginationen steigen wir hinauf immer mehr und mehr in geistige Regionen in der geistigen Welt. Und dessen müssen wir uns nun klar sein - es ist das besonders stark erwähnt worden in der neuen Auflage der «Theosophie» -, daß auch diese Imaginationen uns nicht so entgegentreten wie die Sinneseindrücke der physischen Welt. Sie sind dort gewiß da, diese Imaginationen, aber sie treten als Erlebnisse auf: Das Rot, das Blau sind dort Erlebnisse. Man kann diese Imaginationen mit Recht rot oder blau nennen, aber sie sind doch eben etwas anderes als die Sinneseindrücke der physischen Welt. Sie sind viel innerlicher, wir sind viel innerlicher mit ihnen verbunden. Außerhalb der roten Farbe der Rose sind Sie selbst; in der roten Farbe der geistigen Welt fühlen Sie sich darinnnen, Sie sind mit der roten Farbe verbunden. Indem Sie in der geistigen Welt ein Rotes wahrnehmen, entwickelt sich ein Wille, ein stark wirksamer Wille eines geistigen Wesens. Und dieser Wille strahlt, und das, was’er strahlt, ist rot. Aber Sie fühlen sich in dem Willen darin, und dieses Darinsein, dieses Darinfühlen, dieses Erlebnis bezeichnen Sie dann selbstverständlich als rot. Ich möchte sagen, die physische Farbe ist wie das gefrorene geistige Erlebnis, wie das erstarrte geistige Erlebnis. Und so müssen wir uns auf vielen Gebieten die Möglichkeit aneignen, etwas anderes zu denken, unseren Vorstellungen andere Werte und Bedeutungen zu geben, wenn wir uns wirklich erheben wollen zu einem Begreifen der geistigen Welt.
Dann müssen wir uns klar sein, daß oben in der geistigen Welt dasjenige, was wir Imaginationen nennen, im Verhältnis zu den geistigen Wesen, deren Ausdruck zum Beispiel die Farben sind, auch nicht so ist wie das Verhältnis einer Farbe zu einem sinnlichen Wesen. Die Rose ist rot, das ist eine Eigenschaft der Rose. Aber wenn ein Geist in die Nähe kommt und wir nach dem, was jetzt gesagt worden ist, das Bewußtsein haben müssen: Der Geist strahlt rot -, so bedeutet das Rot nicht in ähnlicher Weise eine Eigenschaft des Geistes, wie das Rot der Rose eine Eigenschaft bedeutet; sondern dieses Rot ist mehr eine Art Offenbarung des Inneren des Geistes, es ist mehr ein Schriftzeichen, das der Geist hinsetzt in die geistige Welt. Und man muß erst durchschauen durch die Imaginationen. Die Tätigkeit, die man da entwickelt, ist in der physischen Welt nur mit ihrem ahrimanischen Abbild zu vergleichen, nämlich mit dem Lesen. Die rote Farbe an der Rose schauen wir an und wissen: Rot ist eine Eigenschaft der Rose. Das Rot in der geistigen Welt schauen wir nicht bloß an, sondern wir deuten es, aber nicht spintisierend — davor muß ich immer wiederum warnen -, sondern unsere Seele findet schon von selbst, daß damit etwas gegeben ist wie ein Laut, ein Buchstabe, wie etwas, was entziffert, gelesen werden soll, wodurch man erst erkennt, was gemeint ist. Der Geist meint etwas, wenn er sich als rot oder blau oder grün, oder wenn er sich als Cis oder Gis offenbart. Der Geist meint etwas damit; man fängt an, mit dem Geist zu sprechen, man fängt an, seine Schrift zu lesen. Darauf beruht die äußere Kultur, daß solche Dinge, die in der geistigen Welt ihre tiefe Weisheit haben, dann auch in die äußere Welt herausverpflanzt werden. Wir sprechen mit Recht von einem okkulten Lesen, denn derjenige, der sich das hellsichtige Bewußtsein aneignet, der in die geistige Welt eintritt, der die Imaginationen überschaut und in ihnen liest, schaut durch sie auf den Grund der Seelen, die da leben in der geistigen Welt, nicht bloß durch Farben, sondern auch durch andere Eindrücke, solche Eindrücke, die an Sinneseindrücke erinnern, und solche, die neu hinzukommen in der Geistigkeit.
Diese Tätigkeit, die eine rein seelisch-geistige Tätigkeit ist, untersteht gewissermaßen der Regierung der richtig fortschreitenden geistigen Wesenheiten. Hier in der physischen Welt schafft Ahriman ein Abbild gerade von dem, was ich jetzt charakterisiert habe. Von diesem okkulten Lesen ist das äußere Lesen von Schriftzeichen in der physischen Welt ein ahrimanisches Abbild. Denn alles Lesen in der physischen Welt durch Zeichen, die künstlich ausgebildet worden sind, ist eine ahrimanische "Tätigkeit. Gar nicht mit Unrecht ist die Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst als eine ahrimanische Kunst empfunden worden, als eine «schwarze Kunst», wie man sie genannt hat. Man darf eben nicht glauben, daß man durch irgendwelche Verrichtungen aus den Klauen von Luzifer und Ahriman kommen könne. Luzifer und Ahriman müssen in der äußeren Kultur darinnen sein. Es handelt sich nur darum, daß man den Gleichgewichtspunkt findet, den Weg findet, wenn das Leben nach der luziferischen und ahrimanischen Seite fortwährend ausschlägt. Wollte jemand gar nicht von Ahriman berührt werden, so müßte er niemals lesen lernen. Aber darum handelt es sich nicht, daß wir Ahriman und Luzifer fliehen, sondern darum handelt es sich, daß wir in das richtige Verhältnis zu ihnen kommen; daß wir, trotzdem sie als Kräfte um uns herum da sind, uns in der richtigen Weise zu ihnen stellen können. Wenn wir wissen, wir folgen dem, was wir so oft als den Christus-Impuls, der in uns lebt, geschildert haben, und wenn wir uns die geistigen Empfindungen aneignen, die uns in jedem Augenblicke unseres Lebens den Willen auferlegen, dem Christus zu folgen, dann können wir auch lesen. Dann können wir erfahren - und wir werden es schon, wenn es nach unserem Karma für uns recht ist —, daß Ahriman auch das Lesen eingerichtet hat, und wir werden diese ahrimanische Kunst im rechten Lichte sehen. Wenn wir das nicht erfahren, dann deklamieren wir in Worten von der ahrimanischen Kultur, von dem Fortschritt, von der Glorie der ahrimanischen Kultur, zum Beispiel des Lesens.
Aber alle diese Dinge legen auch Pflichten auf, und darum handelt es sich, daß solche Pflichten auch eingehalten werden. Gerade in unserer jetzigen Zeit kann vieles angeführt werden, um dieses oder jenes zu verteidigen oder anzuklagen. Wahrhaftig, wir haben das, was wir eine flutende Kriegsliteratur nennen können. Jeder Tag bringt nicht nur Broschüren, sondern auch Bücher und so weiter. Da können Sie oft auch lesen: Dieses Land hat so und so viele Analphabeten, in diesem Land können so und so viele lesen und schreiben, und dergleichen. Sich dies ohne weiteres zu eigen zu machen, würde nicht dem gemäß sein, was der in der Geisteswissenschaft Bewanderte aus seiner Verantwortlichkeit heraus zu sagen hat. Würde ich zum Beispiel unter demjenigen, was ich mit Bezug auf unsere Zeit anzuführen habe, alles besonders Schlimme bei einem Volke andeuten wollen, und um das anzudeuten, sagen, bei dem Volke sind so und so viele, die nicht lesen und so und so viele, die nicht schreiben können, so würde ich nicht in der richtigen Weise geisteswissenschaftlich sprechen. Da müssen immer nur Dinge angeführt werden, die man verantworten kann gegenüber den okkulten Pflichten. Daraus sehen Sie ich wollte das nur als Beispiel anführen -, daß Geisteswissenschaft in diesem tieferen Sinne auch wirklich in das Leben übergehen muß und Pflichten auferlegt. Und wenn der Geistesforscher solche Dinge sagt, die die andern auch sagen, werden Sie immer verfolgen können, daß sie in ganz anderem Zusammenhang gesagt werden, und das ist es, worauf es ankommt. Daher wird selbstverständlich manches demjenigen, der nicht mit Geisteswissenschaft bekannt ist, dann, wenn es in der Geisteswissenschaft gesagt ist, oft ganz sonderbar vorkommen, weil er gewöhnt ist, andere Vorstellungen zu haben, und manchmal sich sagen müssen: Diese Geisteswissenschaft nennt ja das Schwarze weiß, und das Weiße schwarz! - Und das ist ja wirklich manchmal notwendig, denn wenn man mit den gewöhnlichen Vorstellungen und Begriffen, die man sich in der physischen Welt aneignet, in die geistige Welt aufsteigt, so ist es wirklich so, daß manche Begriffe gründlich geändert werden müssen.
Nehmen wir von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus einen der wichtigsten, rätselhaftesten Begriffe, die wir uns aneignen müssen aus den Eindrücken der physischen Welt heraus, den Begriff des Todes. In der physischen Welt sieht der Mensch den Tod ja immer nur von der einen Seite, von der Seite, daß er das menschliche Leben sich entwickeln sieht bis zu dem Punkte hin, wo der Mensch stirbt, das heißt, wo der physische Leib zunächst von den höheren Gliedern der Menschennatur wegfällt und dann innerhalb der physischen Welt seine Auflösung findet. Man kann wirklich sagen, das, was da der Mensch über den Tod sieht innerhalb der physischen Welt, heißt: den Tod von der einen Seite anschauen. Von der andern Seite aber den Tod anschauen heißt, ihn wirklich in einem entgegengesetzten Lichte sehen, heißt, ihn gründlich anders sehen.
Wenn wir durch die Geburt in das physische Leben eintreten, machen wir zunächst etwas durch, was wir so erleben, daß der Höhepunkt des physischen Bewußtseins bei uns noch nicht völlig erreicht ist. Sie wissen ja, an die ersten Jahre unseres Erlebens erinnern wir uns mit dem gewöhnlichen physischen Bewußtsein nicht zurück. Niemand kann sich mit dem gewöhnlichen physischen Bewußtsein an seine Geburt erinnern. Wenigstens wird kein Mensch in der Welt auftreten, der behaupten wird, er könne sich nach seinem physischen Bewußtsein erinnern, wie er geboren worden ist. Wir können sagen: Das ist eine Einrichtung des physischen Bewußtseins, daß vergessen werden muß die Geburt des Menschen. Sie wird vergessen, auch noch die ersten Lebensjahre werden vergessen. Wenn wir im physischen Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod auf unser Leben zurückblicken, erinnern wir uns bis zu einem gewissen Punkte. Dann bricht das Erinnern ab. Der Punkt, wo es abbricht, ist nicht unsere physische Geburt, sondern es geht ein Erleben voraus. Kein Mensch kann aus Erfahrung wissen, daß er geboten ist. Er kann es nur schließen. Daraus schließen wir es, daß wir geboren sind — und nur daraus -, daß nach uns Menschen geboren werden, deren Geburt wir wahrnehmen. Wenn der Naturforscher behauptet, er wolle nur zugeben, was gesehen werden kann, so könnte nach diesem Grundsatz, wenn er logisch sein will, niemand seine Geburt behaupten, denn unmöglich ist es, anders als hellsichtig seine eigene Geburt wahrzunehmen; man kann nur auf sie schließen.
Genau das Entgegengesetzte findet nun statt mit Bezug auf den Tod. Das ganze Leben hindurch zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt steht dem Menschen als der lebendigste, als der hellste Eindruck der Moment des Todes, den er vorher durchgemacht hat, vor dem Seelenauge. Aber glauben Sie nicht, daß Sie daraus etwa schließen dürfen, es wäre dies ein schmerzlicher Eindruck. Da würden Sie glauben, daß der Tote auf das zurückschaut, was Sie in der physischen Welt vom Tode sehen, den Zerfall, den Untergang. Er sieht den Tod aber von der andern Seite; er sieht in dem Tod etwas, was man als das Allerschönste auch in der geistigen Welt bezeichnen muß. Denn es gibt in dem, was der Mensch zunächst normalerweise in der geistigen Welt erleben kann, nichts Schöneres als den Anblick des Todes. Diesen Sieg des Geistes über das Materielle, dieses Aufleuchten des geistigen Lichtes der Seele aus der dunklen Finsternis des Materiellen zu schauen, das ist das Größte, das Bedeutsamste, das geschaut werden kann auf der andern Seite des Lebens, die der Mensch zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt durchmacht.
Wenn der Mensch den Ätherleib zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt ablegt und allmählich sein Bewußtsein voll gebildet hat, was ja nicht sehr lange Zeit nach dem Tode geschieht, dann ist es so, daß er nicht so zu sich steht, wie er hier in der physischen Welt zu sich steht. Wenn der Mensch hier in der physischen Welt schläft, ist er seiner unbewußt, und wenn er aufwacht, so wird er sich dessen bewußt, daß er jetzt weiß: Ich habe ein Selbst, ein Ich in mir. Nach dem Tode in der geistigen Welt ist das etwas anderes — da ist sein Selbstbewußtsein auf einer höheren Stufe -, es ist dann nicht genau so. Ich werde gleich davon sprechen, wie es ist. Aber es gibt dort auch etwas wie ein SichBesinnen auf das Ich, das Selbst. Geradeso wie man sich des Morgens beim Aufwachen auf das Selbst besinnen muß, so ist es in der geistigen Welt auch. Aber dieses Sich-Besinnen ist ein Zurückblicken zu dem Moment des Todes. Immer ist es so, als wenn wir, um unser Ich wahrzunehmen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, uns sagten: Du bist wirklich gestorben, also bist du Ich, bist du ein Ich!
Das ist das Bedeutungsvollste: Man blickt zurück auf den Sieg des Geistes über den Leib, man blickt zurück auf den Moment des Todes, der das Schönste der geistigen Welt ist, das erlebt werden kann. Und in diesem Zurückblicken wird man seines Selbstes in der geistigen Welt gewahr. Das ist immer, man kann nicht sagen, wie ein Aufwachen — da würde man auch die Begriffe einseitig prägen -, es ist die Besinnung auf sich, zu seinem Tode zurückzublicken. Daher ist es so wichtig, daß der Mensch die Möglichkeit hat, mit vollem nachtodlichem Bewußtsein — einem Bewußtsein, das nach dem T’ode eintritt - wirklich zurückzublicken auf den Moment des Todes, damit er nicht in irgendeiner Weise bloß träumt, was er da schaut, sondern voll verstehen kann, was er schaut; das ist ungeheuer wichtig. Und dazu können wir uns allerdings schon während des Lebens dadurch vorbereiten, daß wir versuchen, Selbsterkenntnis zu üben. Namentlich ist das von unserer Zeit ab der Menschheit notwendig, Selbsterkenntnis zu üben. Im Grunde ist alle Geisteswissenschaft dazu da, um dem Menschen diejenige Selbsterkenntnis zu geben, die ihm notwendig ist. Denn Geisteswissenschaft ist eigentlich eine Einführung in des Menschen erweitertes Selbst, jenes Selbst, durch das man im Grunde der ganzen Welt angehört. Ich sagte, das Bewußtsein ist nach dem Tode etwas anderes als hier in der physischen Welt. Wenn ich Ihnen das ganz graphisch darstellen möchte, wie das Bewußtsein nach dem Tode ist, so könnte ich das in folgender Weise tun.
Nehmen Sie an, hier hätten wir ein Auge, und hier hätten wir einen Gegenstand. Wodurch erlangen wir das Bewußtsein, daß da ein Gegenstand außer uns ist? Nun, dadurch, daß der Gegenstand einen Eindruck auf unser Auge macht. Der Gegenstand macht einen Eindruck auf unser Auge, und wir lernen etwas von dem Gegenstand wissen. Der Gegenstand ist draußen in der Welt, er macht einen Eindruck auf unsere Sinne, und wir nehmen die Vorstellung, die wir uns von dem Gegenstand bilden können, in uns herein, in unsere Seele herein. Der Gegenstand ist außer uns. Die Vorstellung, die wir uns dann bilden, hat er uns dann überliefert. Anders ist es nun in der geistigen Welt. Und weil ich es graphisch nicht anders darstellen kann, möchte ich das, was ich immer Seelenauge nenne, Ihnen auch, trotzdem es strenggenommen unrichtig ist, als Seelenauge zeichnen. Dieses Seelenauge, das der Mensch nach dem Tode hat, ist nun so veranlagt, daß der Mensch nach dem Tode zum Beispiel einen Engel oder eine andere Menschenseele, die auch in der geistigen Welt ist, nicht so sieht, wie er eine Blume in der physischen Welt sieht, sondern dieses Seelenauge ist so veranlagt - lassen wir zunächst eine Menschenseele außer Betracht, sehen wir nur auf eine Wesenheit der höheren Hierarchie -, daß es, wenn hier eine Engelwesenheit ist, eine Erzengelwesenheit, als Auge nun nicht das Bewußtsein hat: Ich sehe da außer mir dieses Engelwesen -, sondern: Ich werde von dem Engelwesen gesehen, das sieht mich. — Es ist gerade das Umgekehrte der physischen Welt. So leben wir uns in die geistige Welt hinein, daß wir das Bewußtsein bekommen gegenüber den Wesen der höheren Hierarchien, daß wir von ihnen gewußt werden, daß sie uns denken. Wir fühlen uns in ihnen darin eingebettet, wir fühlen uns erkenntnisgemäß ergriffen von den Engeln, Erzengeln, Geistern der Persönlichkeit, wie Mineralreich, Pflanzenreich, Tierreich sich von uns ergriffen fühlen.

Nur in bezug auf Menschenseelen ist es so, daß wir sowohl von ihnen gesehen werden können, so daß wir das Gefühl haben, sie sehen uns, wie wir auch das Gefühl haben, das, was unser Schauen ist, geht in sie hinüber. Es ist ein Sehen bei uns und bei den Menschenseelen. Allen andern Wesen der höheren Hierarchien gegenüber haben wir das Gefühl, wir werden von ihnen wahrgenommen, gedacht, vorgestellt; und indem wir von ihnen wahrgenommen, gedacht, vorgestellt werden, sind wir in der geistigen Welt darin. Und das ist dann so: Nehmen wir an, wir wandeln als Seele in der geistigen Welt umher, wie wir in der physischen Welt herumwandeln. Dann ist es so, daß wir überall das Gefühl haben, in Beziehung zu treten zu den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien, wie wir hier in der physischen Welt das Gefühl haben, in Beziehung zu treten zum Mineralreich, Pflanzenreich, Tierreich. Nur brauchen wir immer wieder die Besinnung, daß wir ein Selbst haben. Dann blicken wir auf unseren Tod hin und sagen uns: Das bist du! — Das ist ein fortdauerndes Bewußtsein, ein fortdauernder Inhalt des Bewußtseins.
Das heute Gesagte kommt zu den verschiedenen Vorstellungen dazu, die Sie aus Zyklen und Büchern aufnehmen können. Es ist mehr seelisch gesprochen als dasjenige, was zum Beispiel in dem Buche «Theosophie» mehr der äußeren Anschauung nach gesprochen ist. Aber erst dadurch, daß man so etwas seelisch anschaut, kommt man so recht hinein in die Empfindungen, die man diesen Dingen gegenüber und überhaupt der geistigen Welt gegenüber haben muß.
Selbsterkenntnis ist daher dasjenige, was uns fördert, was uns stark macht für das Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Es konnte mir dieses neuerdings wiederum mit besonderer Lebhaftigkeit gegenübertreten, als ich die Aufgabe hatte, nach dem Hingang von Freunden unserer Sache einige Male bei der Einäscherung zu sprechen. Da stellte sich immer die Notwendigkeit heraus, irgend etwas zu sprechen, das innig zusammenhängt mit dem Charakter, mit dem Selbst dessen, der durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist. Warum kam dieses Inspirative oder Intuitive, den Toten etwas nachzurufen, was mit ihrem Wesen zusammenhängt? Das zeigt sich durch das Leben der Betreffenden nach dem Tode. Es kommt ihnen zu Hilfe, was die Kräfte ihrer Selbsterkenntnis stärkt. Indem man von diesen Eigenschaften, die sie in sich selbst fühlen, unmittelbar nach dem Tode, wo ihr Bewußtsein noch nicht erwacht war, sprach, konnte man ihnen gleichsam zufließen lassen etwas von der Kraft, die sie brauchen, um allmählich die Möglichkeit auszubilden, hinzuschauen auf den Moment des Todes, wo ihre ganze Wesenheit konzentriert erscheint, wie sie sich entwickelt hat zwischen Geburt und Tod. Man kommt also den Toten zu Hilfe, wenn man ihnen gerade nach dem Tode etwas zufließen läßt, was sie an Eigenschaften, an Erlebnisse und so weiter erinnert, welche die ihrigen waren. Man befördert dadurch die Kraft der Selbsterkenntnis. Und wenn man hellsichtig die Möglichkeit hat, sich hineinzuversetzen in die Seele eines solchen Toten, dann verspürt man in seiner Seele den Drang, gerade in dieser Zeit etwas zu hören über die Art, wie er war, über das oder jenes, was er durchgemacht hat, oder was seine Haupteigenschaften sind. Sie können begreifen: Wie hier auf Erden das Leben des einen Menschen nicht dem Leben des andern gleicht, sondern wie alle Menschen Leben haben, die voneinander verschieden sind, so ist es auch bei denen, die durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind. Nicht ein Seelenleben gleicht dem andern zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt. Ich möchte sagen: Jedes Seelenleben, das man da beobachten kann, ist wiederum eine neue Offenbarung, und immer kann man nur einzelne besondere Eigenschaften herausheben. Ich möchte heute und dann auch übermorgen in Köln über solche Dinge sprechen. Ich möchte von einem konkreten Fall als Beispiel sprechen.
Wir haben in Dornach vor einiger Zeit ein Mitglied den physischen Plan verlassen sehen, das zu ziemlich hohen Jahren gekommen war. Ein Mitglied, das sein Leben jedenfalls in emsiger Arbeit, fürsorglicher Arbeit verbracht hat, aber in den letzten Jahren, seit längerer Zeit schon mit tiefster Seele mit unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung verbunden war und sie ganz ausprägte im eigenen Herzen, in der eigenen Seele. So daß man sagen kann: diese Persönlichkeit war so weit gekommen, daß sie in den letzten Zeiten ihres physischen Daseins ganz eins war mit unserer Weltanschauung, dem Empfinden, dem Fühlen nach ganz eins war. Nun wissen Sie, daß der Mensch, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes tritt, zuerst seinen physischen Leib ablegt, dann noch eine Weile den Ätherleib an sich trägt und dann auch den Ätherleib ablegt. Und dann kommt eine Zeit, wo der Mensch erst nach und nach das Bewußtsein erringen muß, welches ihm dann zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt eigen sein muß. Unmittelbar nach dem Tode ist der Mensch in seinem Ätherleibe. Da erlebt er, wir wissen das, einen vollen Rückblick auf sein Leben als ein großes Lebenstableau. In dieser Zeit treten auch in seiner Seele, ich möchte sagen, wie mit einem Schlage, ganz besonders die kraftvollen Impulse auf, so daß manches, was gerade in dieser Beziehung bedeutungsvoll ist, nach dem Tode noch ganz anders auftreten kann als während des Lebens. Während des Lebens ist der Mensch ja vielfach gefesselt durch die Grenzen, die ihm sein physischer Leib setzt. Unmittelbar nach dem Tode hat man die Schwere, das Drückende, Feste, das die Deutlichkeit mancher Seelenimpulse Abschwächende des Physischen überwunden. Man hat noch den Ätherleib an sich und daher die Erinnerung an das Leben nicht verloren. Es ist eine ganz imaginative Welt, die erstens die Bilder des vergangenen Lebens enthält, dann aber die besonders starken Impulse enthält. Wenn nun eine Seele während des Lebens so ganz mächtig die Impulse der Geisteswissenschaft aufgenommen hat, wenn diese Seele diese Impulse bis zum innersten Fühlen und Empfinden hereingebracht hat in sich, dann kann sie diese Eindrücke nach dem Tode auch in einer ganz andern Weise entfalten, da sie den elastischen, fügsamen Ätherleib zur Verfügung hat, der dann nicht mehr gefesselt ist an dasjenige, was der physische Leib zuläßt. Das konnte man besonders bei jener Persönlichkeit sehen, von der ich jetzt eben gesprochen habe, die ganz kurz nach dem Tode, nachdem es eben gelungen war, sich ganz in ihre Seele zu versetzen, aus dieser Seele herausfließen ließ dasjenige, was aus den geisteswissenschaftlichen Impulsen in ihr gelebt hat. Sie hätte das während des physischen Lebens selbstverständlich nicht in solche Worte geprägt. Weil aber der ätherische Leib noch da war, konnte sie es in physische Worte kleiden. Sie war noch nicht heraus aus dem elastischen Ätherleib, da prägte sich dasjenige, was sie durch Geisteswissenschaft aufgenommen hatte, so aus, daß es zum Ausdruck ihrer Seele wurde. Und ich hatte dann die Notwendigkeit, daß ich ein paar Tage darauf bei der Einäscherung der betreffenden Persönlichkeit gerade diese Worte zu sprechen hatte, die aus ihrem Wesen herausklangen, die also ihr gehörten, nicht mir:
In Weltenweiten will ich tragen
Mein fühlend Herz, daß warm es werde
Im Feuer heil’gen Kräftewirkens;In Weltgedanken will ich weben
Das eigne Denken, daß klar es werde
Im Licht des ew’gen Werde-Lebens;In Seelengründe will ich tauchen
Ergeb’nes Sinnen, daß stark es werde
Für Menschenwirkens wahre Ziele;In Gottes Ruhe streb’ ich so
Mit Lebenskämpfen und mit Sorgen,
Mein Selbst zum höhern Selbst bereitend;Nach arbeitfreud’gem Frieden trachtend,
Erahnend Welten-Sein im Eigensein,
Möcht ich die Menschenpflicht erfüllen;Erwartend leben darf ich dann
Entgegen meinem Schicksalssterne,
Der mir im Geistgebiet den Ort erteilt.
Man kann sagen, da ist in Worte, die die Empfindung nach dem Tode ausdrücken, gelegt dasjenige, was die Seele durch Geisteswissenschaft geworden ist. Dann kam die Zeit, die ja jeder nach dem Tode mehr oder weniger durchzumachen hat, die man nur uneigentlich eine Schlafenszeit nennt, denn wenn man den Ätherleib abgelegt hat, so ist man eigentlich gleich ganz darinnen in der geistigen Welt, nur ist man geblendet von der Fülle der geistigen Welt. Man kann das nicht alles überschauen, man muß erst seine Kraft, die man mitgebracht hat, anpassen der geistigen Welt; man muß sich herabstimmen. Man sieht zuviel nach dem Tode; das Bewußtsein ist da, man muß es erst herabstimmen bis zu den Kräften, die man erworben hat. Dann fängt man an, sich orientieren zu können und wirklich zu leben in der geistigen Welt. Es ist eigentlich nicht ganz richtig gesprochen, wenn man sagt, man wache nach einiger Zeit zum Bewußtsein auf, sondern man muß sagen, man habe zuviel Bewußtsein und müsse es herabstimmen bis zu dem Grade, den man ertragen kann. Das ist dann das Aufwachen. Die Seele, von der ich Ihnen eben gesprochen habe, kam daher in dieses - wenn der Ätherleib abgelegt ist -— Nichtertragen-Können des Geisteslichtes. Aber sie hatte viel Kraft in sich; Sie schen es den Worten an, die ich gelesen habe, und daß diese Kraft allmählich ganz durchdrungen worden war von dem, was aus dem menschlichen Fühlen und Wollen Geisteswissenschaft machen kann. Daher kam es, daß diese Wesenheit, diese Seele einige Zeit nach dem Tode zu einem Bewußtsein kam, das ihr erträglich war. Natürlich wäre viel zu schildern über die Zeit, die dann beginnt für eine Seele, wenn man alles schildern wollte, was da eine solche Seele erlebt. Man schildert ja immer nur Teile; und es gehört selbstverständlich, indem wir innerhalb unserer Bewegung stehen, gerade zu dem Bedeutsamsten, das an den Seelen zu beobachten, was diese Seelen mit unserer Bewegung verbindet. Man kann an dem lernen, was überhaupt Menschenseelen nach dem Tode mit der ganzen Welt verbindet; aber man kann am besten an solchen Seelen das beobachten, was das Leben der Seele nach dem Tode ist, besonders dann, wenn sie einem so nahegetreten ist wie diese Seele, von der ich jetzt hier spreche, Und so kam es denn, daß zuerst beobachtet werden konnte gerade bei dieser Seele, wie sie zum sich orientierenden Bewußtsein kam, an der Teilnahme an unseren Versammlungen, wirklich an der Teilnahme an unseren Versammlungen. Und voll ausgeprägt war diese Teilnahme bei einem Dornacher Osterfest dieses Jahres, an jenem Osterfest, wo versucht worden ist, besonders die Tiefe des Gedankens des Osterfestes unseren lieben Freunden dort in Dornach auseinanderzusetzen. Da war diese Seele anwesend. Sie nahm teil; wie sie früher mit inniger Wärme teilgenommen hatte, so nahm sie jetzt als Seele teil. Und sie wollte sich aussprechen, wie mancher ja auch im physischen Leibe das Bedürfnis hat, sich nachher über dasjenige auszusptechen, was er aufgenommen hat. Sie wollte sich aussprechen, und es ist das Eigentümliche, daß sie wiederum in solche Worte prägte, weil dadurch die Möglichkeit ist, sich zu verständigen, daß sie wiederum in solche Worte prägte, wie sie nun lebt und lebt gerade in bezug auf das, was sie miterlebt hatte bei diesem unserem Ostervortrag. Und da kam denn etwas wie eine Ergänzung des damals nach dem Tode Durchgekommenen. Diese Ergänzung, die jetzt aus dem Bewußtsein herauskam, ist folgende:
In Menschenseelen will ich lenken
Das Geistgefühl, daß willig es
Das Österwort in Herzen wecke;Mit Menschengeistern will ich denken
Die Seelenwärme, daß kräftig sie
Den Auferstandnen fühlen können;
Man sieht, sie will mit denjenigen, mit denen sie verbunden war in unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Bewegung, weiter arbeiten. Sie will sich ihnen widmen, daß sie das Osterwort im Herzen erweckt bekommen, wie es ja durch den Ostervortrag versucht wurde, daß dasjenige, was wir in der Geisteswissenschaft den Auferstandenen nennen, in der richtigen Weise erfühlt werden könne. Aber ganz besonders bedeutsam war etwas, was herauskam in den folgenden drei Zeilen. Das ist ganz besonders schön, und tief ergreifend.
Ich hatte gerade in jenen Ostervorträgen und in manchen andern Vorträgen, die damals gehalten worden sind, mich bemüht, wieder und wiederum, was ich schon öfters getan habe, darauf aufmerksam zu machen, was die Geisteswissenschaft für eine Bedeutung hat nicht nur hier für das Erdenleben, sondern für die ganze Welt. Derjenige, der durch die Pforte des Todes tritt, kann von alledem auch das als Miterlebnis haben und erfahren, was hier in der Geisteswissenschaft getrieben wird. Deshalb rate ich so vielen, wenn sie liebe Tote, durch die Pforte des Todes Gegangene haben, ihnen vorzulesen oder zu erzählen von den geisteswissenschaftlichen Lehren, denn was in geisteswissenschaftliche Worte geprägt ist, hat nicht nur Bedeutung für die im physischen Leibe lebenden Seelen, sondern es hat volle Bedeutung auch für die Seelen, die entkörpert sind. Es kommt ihnen zu wie geistige Lebensluft, wie geistiges Lebenswasser, oder man könnte auch sagen, sie vernehmen Licht durch uns hier unten. Dieses Licht ist für uns ja zunächst, man möchte sagen, symbolisch, denn wir hören Worte und nehmen sie als Gedanken in unsere Seele auf; die Toten sehen es aber wirklich als Geisteslicht.
Nun ist es sehr bedeutsam, daß gerade diese Seele, die das oft gehört hat, förmlich sagen wollte: Ich habe das verstanden, und es ist wirklich so! - Denn ihre Worte in dieser Beziehung sind:
Es leuchtet hell dem Todesscheine
Des Geisteswissens Erdenflamme...
Es ist Tatbestand für die Seele. Sie will sagen: Das, was ihr sprecht unten, es ist heraufleuchtend wie eine Flamme. — Und sie drückte das aus, indem sie sagte «Erdenflamme»: «Es leuchtet hell dem Todesscheine...» Warum sagt sie «Todesscheine»? Wenn Sie nachdenken, werden Sie es herausfinden. Sie sagte, weil sie immer gehört hat, daß wir die Welt Maja nennen: Auf der Erde ist sie im Schein der Sinne; jetzt ist sie auch in einem Scheine, durch den sie das Wesen erst zu schauen hat:
Es leuchtet hell dem Todesscheine
Des Geisteswissens Erdenflamme; —
und etwas, was sie nun auch bekräftigt:
Das Selbst wird Welten-Aug’ und Ohr.
Weltenohr meint sie. Sie meint, das ganze Selbst wird jetzt wie ein mächtiges Sinnesorgan, wird zum Wahrnehmungsorgan für die ganze Welt. Es ist eine schöne Art und Weise, durch welche der Tote zeigt, wie er bewußt wird, daß wahr wird dasjenige, was Geisteswissenschaft sagt. Für diese Seele ist es charakteristisch, daß sie sich sogleich nach dem Tode aussprechen will und sagen will: Ja, jetzt bin ich so weit, daß dasjenige, was ich auf Erden gelernt habe, sich mir als das Richtige darstellt.
Mir selbst waren diese Worte von einer gewissen Wichtigkeit, weil sie nach einiger Zeit, vielleicht ein paar Wochen später, aus der geistigen Welt heraus gekommen sind von jener Seele, von der ich gesprochen habe, nachdem kurz vorher, ein paar Wochen vorher, ein anderes mich befriedigendes Ereignis auftrat.
Freunde von unserer Bewegung verloren im jetzigen Kriege einen noch ziemlich jungen Sohn, der freiwillig in den Krieg eingetreten war. Der junge Mann fiel. Er war, man möchte sagen, halb nahegetreten der Geisteswissenschaft in der letzten Erdenzeit, die er durchgemacht hat. Er war erst siebzehn, achtzehn Jahre alt. Nun war er hingegangen, war gefallen. Nach einiger Zeit konnte geschaut werden, wie die Seele dieses jungen Mannes — und bei vielen Seelen, die jetzt im Kriege durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, ist das der Fall, daß sie verhältnismäßig rasch zum Bewußtsein kommen -, es konnte also bei dieser Scele gesehen werden, wie er sich seinen Eltern näherte, wie er wirklich herankam an seine Eltern. Und es war so - es konnte richtig gehört werden -, wie wenn er ihnen sagte: Nun möchte ich es euch auch wirklich begreiflich machen, daß dasjenige, was ich in eurem Hause oftmals gehört habe von Geisteswissenschaft, von Geisteslicht und geistigen Wesen, mir klarwerden kann, daß es wahr ist, daß es mir hilft, was ich da gehört habe.
Ich erwähne das nicht deshalb, weil es etwas Besonderes sein soll, sondern weil es gerade zeigt, wie der Zusammenhang ist zwischen dem irdischen Leben und dem geistigen Leben. Eine Merkwürdigkeit will ich dabei doch erwähnen. Nach einem Vortrag, den ich dann in einem unserer Zweige hielt - ich hatte damals die Worte aufgeschrieben, die durchgekommen waren -, ging ich zu den betreffenden Eltern des jungen Mannes und erzählte ihnen dieses und bezeichnete ihnen auch die Nacht, in welcher sich das zugetragen hat, daß der junge Mann sich seinen Eltern genähert und dieses gleichsam zu den Seelen der Eltern gesprochen hat. Und da sagte der Vater: Das ist ganz merkwürdig, ich habe sehr selten Träume. Diese Nacht, diese selbe Nacht aber habe ich von meinem Jungen geträumt, daß er mir erschienen ist und daß er mir etwas sagen wollte; ich habe es aber nicht verstanden.
Es wird heute noch außerhalb unserer geistigen Bewegung Stehende sonderbar berühren, wenn ihnen diese Dinge erzählt werden; wir behalten sie daher möglichst unter uns. Aber uns selbst muß es ja wichtig sein, auch auf diese Dinge konkret einzugehen, denn aus diesen einzelnen Bausteinen der Erfahrungen aus der geistigen Welt setzt sich doch unser Wissen zusammen. Und erst dann bekommen wir ein konkretes Bild, wenn wir uns nicht so sehr bloß darauf beschränken wollen, schöne Theorien über die geistige Welt zu vernehmen, sondern wenn wir es wiederum bis zu solcher Lebendigkeit der Geisteswissenschaft in unseren Seelen bringen können, daß wir es ertragen, daß von der geistigen Welt wirklich so gesprochen wird, wie vernünftige Menschen eben von dem sprechen, was sie in der sinnlichen Welt erleben. Nur dadurch wird im richtigen Sinne Geisteswissenschaft ganz lebendig in uns, und das soll sie werden, ganz lebendig soll sie in uns werden, daß wir ein Leben — nicht nur eine Lehre, eine Erkenntnis —, daß wir ein Leben durch sie gewinnen; daß sie uns überbrückt die Kluft, die sonst durch den Materialismus, der sich außerhalb der Geisteswissenschaft allein ausbreiten kann und immer größer und größer werden muß, daß sie uns überbrücke diese Kluft zwischen dem Physisch-Sinnlichen, das wir durchmachen zwischen Geburt und Tod, und dem Geistigen, in dem wir leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, auf daß wir lernen, wirklich nach und nach Bürger auch der geistigen Welt zu werden. Das ist das, worauf es ankommt, daß wir lernen zu empfinden: Derjenige, der durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist, hat nur eine andere Lebensform angenommen und steht unserem Fühlen nach dem Tode so gegenüber, wie jemand, der eben durch die Ereignisse des Lebens in ein fernes Land hat ziehen müssen, in das wir ihm erst später nachfolgen können; so daß wir nichts zu ertragen haben als eine Zeit der Trennung. Aber dieses muß lebendig empfunden werden und lebendig gefühlt werden durch die Geisteswissenschaft. Und lassen Sie es nur darauf ankommen, aus einzelnen konkreten Tatsachen ein Bild zu machen, Sie werden schon sehen, daß diese Tatsachen auch für denjenigen, der nicht hineinschaut in die geistige Welt, so zusammenstimmen, sich so tragen, daß der Glaube, den man hat, bevor man hineinschaut in die geistige Welt, wirklich kein blinder Glaube, kein Autoritätsglaube ist, sondern ein Glaube, der getragen ist von dem Gefühl, das tiefer ist als kritisches Wissen, von dem der Menschenseele eingeborenen ursprünglichen Wahrheitsgefühl.
Wir leben einmal in einer Zeit, in der uns die äußeren schicksaltragenden Ereignisse andeuten, wie das Menschenleben vertieft werden sollte. Viel besser wäre es, wenn die Menschen, statt zu diskutieren darüber, wer Schuld an diesem Kriege hat, wer dieses oder jenes tut, wenn sie diese kriegerischen Ereignisse betrachten würden als eine Mahnung, die Seelen mehr zu vertiefen, als es bis nun von der weitaus überwiegenden Mehrzahl der Menschen geschehen ist. Ich sagte, indem ich wichtigste Dinge vor Ihren Herzen besprach: In bezug auf manches müssen wir durch die Geisteswissenschaft lernen, die Vorstellungen, die Begriffe, die wir haben, umzuformen, umzuändern. Zu diesen Begriffen können wir nun — das sei heute unserer Betrachtung noch angefügt, die wir über einen freilich so bedeutsamen Gegenstand wie über den Tod gepflogen haben -, zu diesen Vorstellungen können wir auch die Vorstellung des Krieges rechnen. Man wird recht haben, auch vom geisteswissenschaftlichen Sinne aus, den Krieg wie eine Krankheit der Entwickelung zu betrachten. Gewiß ist er eine Krankheit, aber denken Sie nur einmal daran, daß Sie einer Krankheit auch nicht Recht tun, wenn Sie sie, so wie sie ist, aburteilen. Das, worauf es bei einer Krankheit ankommt, ist auch vielfach dasjenige, was im Menschenleibe der Krankheit vorangegangen ist: Die Unordentlichkeit, die Disharmonie sind vorangegangen. Dann kommt die Krankheit, die oftmals dazu da ist, um gerade dem entgegenzuarbeiten, was unordentlich war im Leibe. Sogar wenn der Mensch vor dem Tode eine Krankheit durchmacht, ist es so. Er trägt in sich Disharmonien, die es ihm unmöglich machen, unmittelbar in die geistige Welt einzutreten. Vielleicht würde ihm die geistige Welt zu lange im Nebel sein, oder andere Hemmnisse würden da sein, weil in ihm Disharmonien sind, die eben so nicht in die geistige Welt hineingetragen werden können. Darum befällt ihn eine Krankheit vor dem Tode. Die macht erst seine Seele so weit von der Disharmonie frei, daß er in die geistige Welt eintreten kann.
Und ist es eine Krankheit, die zur Genesung führt, dann ist diese Krankheit dazu da, um dasjenige, was der Krankheit vorangegangen ist, was durch das Karma früherer Leben, vielleicht von Jahrtausenden und Jahrtausenden bedingt wurde, auszugleichen. Man wird zum Beispiel gar nicht gut tun, wenn man sagt: Das Kind hat die Masern; hätte es doch diese Masern nicht bekommen! — Man kann nicht wissen, was alles über das Kind gekommen wäre, wenn es die Masern nicht gekriegt hätte. Denn darin kam das heraus, was immer tief in dem Kinde saß und seinen Ausgleich suchte.
So ist es auch gut, den Krieg zu betrachten, und das Übel nicht so sehr in dem zu sehen, was jetzt in Blut und Eisen durchgemacht werden muß, sondern auch das zu schauen, was sich seit langen, langen Zeiten abgespielt hat in den Kulturströmungen. Tiefer hineinzuschauen in die Zusammenhänge, das müssen die Menschen lernen! Nach diesem Kriege wird eine Zeit kommen, wo die Menschen anfangen werden, gerade über diesen Krieg nachzudenken. Da werden sie darauf kommen, wie viele hohle Worte geredet worden sind, wenn man gesagt hat: Dieser hat die Schuld, jener hat die Schuld. — Und etwas wird gerade, wenn auch vielleicht erst ziemlich lange nach dem Kriege, kommen. Da werden die Leute etwas ganz anderes sagen als heute. Da wird es Menschen ‚geben, die werden sagen: Ach, wenn man wirklich so Geschichte studiert, wie man sie bisher studiert hat, findet man zwar in diesen Diplomatenakten dieses, in jenen Diplomatenakten jenes; da und dort ist das oder jenes aufgezeichnet worden. Aber wenn man so verfährt, wie die Geschichte das alles bisher behandelte, und alles, wie man so sagt, «objektiv beurteilen» will, dann bekommt man es nie heraus, warum dieser Krieg entstanden ist. Dann wird man gewahr werden, daß es nötig ist, über die äußeren Ursachen hinweg auf die tieferen Gründe, die dann Geisteswissenschaft zu erklären haben wird, zu schauen. Es können ja heute leider über diese Dinge nur Andeutungen gegeben werden. Man wird finden, daß an mancherlei Stellen gerade bei diesem Kriegsausbruch dieses oder jenes geschehen ist, wo die bedeutsamste Rolle nicht das Bewußtsein gespielt hat, sondern irgend etwas Unbewußtes, unter der Schwelle der äußeren Ereignisse Liegendes heraufgespielt hat; so daß gar nicht erschöpft werden diejenigen Dinge, die der Historiker gewöhnt ist anzuschauen als dasjenige, was maßgebend ist für die Ursächlichkeit, die vorliegt. Gerade bei diesem Beispiel wird man lernen: Geschichte, wie wir sie bisher gewöhnt sind, erklärt uns gar nichts. Es wird eine Mahnung sein, auf tiefere Gründe einzugehen.
Und wie ich fast bei jedem der Vorträge, die ich in der letzten Zeit gehalten habe, am Schlusse eine Art Mahnung an unsere Seelen richten mußte, so möchte ich es auch heute wieder tun.
Es geht eine gewisse Verantwortlichkeit für die Seelen einfach aus der Tatsache hervor, daß man der geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltauffassung nahegetreten ist. Man muß fähig werden, durch die geisteswissenschaftliche Weltauffassung wenigstens die Gedanken zu haben, daß jene oberflächlichen Urteile, die heute gerade deswegen, weil der Materialismus alle Welt beherrscht, eigentlich überall gefällt werden, nicht auch unsere Urteile werden sollen als Bekenner der Geisteswissenschaft. Das, was heute in der Welt spielt, ist ja wirklich ein oberflächlicher Haß von Nation zu Nation. Ich habe vielfach darüber in unseren Zweigvorträgen gesprochen. Uns braucht er nicht in derselben Weise zu erfüllen, aber wir brauchen deshalb auch nicht ungerecht zu werden. Denn von der alten Theosophischen Gesellschaft können wir lernen, recht ungerecht zu werden! Die haben ihren Leuten mit Bezug auf die Religionen eingeprägt: Alle Religionen sind gleich. - Das ist ungefähr so, wie wenn man den Menschen einprägen möchte: Auf dem Tische stehen Speisezusätze: Pfeffer, Salz, Zucker, Paprika; nun, alles ist Speisezusatz, man soll dem einen nicht vor dem andern den Vorzug geben. Also, habe ich hier Kaffee, nun, so tue ich etwas Pfeffer hinein, das ist ja alles ganz gleich! Dieselbe Logik liegt darin, wenn man davon spricht, daß derselbe Wahrheitskern allen Religionen zugrunde liegt. Es erspart einem allerdings diese Logik, die große wunderbare Weltenentwickelung in ihren Einzelheiten zu studieren, denn man kommt ja aus mit dem Satz: Ein Wahrheitskern liegt allem zugrunde. Aber in bezug darauf haben wir uns längst von den oberflächlichsten Urteilen frei gemacht. So kann uns dasjenige, was wir mit Recht anerkennen, mit liebevollem Verständnis einzugehen auf jede nationale Eigentümlichkeit, nicht verhindern zu sehen, wo wir mit unserem Herzen zu stehen haben aus der Erkenntnis heraus. Es wird nicht möglich sein, daß in dieser Beziehung alle Freunde übereinstimmen. Aber darauf kommt es nicht an, sondern darauf, daß unsere Seelen sich bemühen, über den Standpunkt der äußeren Welt hinwegzukommen und einzugehen auf die Eigentümlichkeiten der verschiedenen Volksseelen. - Dann werden wir schon sehen, daß uns die Bekennerschaft zu unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung in mancher Beziehung eine gewisse Verantwortlichkeit auferlegt, die Verantwortlichkeit zu einer aus der Geisteswissenschaft möglichen Gründlichkeit und einem tieferen Eingehen auf die Dinge.
Da erfährt man dann manchmal schmerzliche Dinge. Man erfährt, daß die große Mahnung, die gerade jetzt dasteht durch unsere schicksalschweren Ereignisse, nicht vor allen Seelen so dasteht, daß sie sich verpflichtet fühlen, ihre Herzen wirklich tiefer, gründlicher hinzutragen in dasjenige, was geschieht, als die oberflächlichen Urteile dessen, was wir ja gerade überwinden wollen, des äußeren Materialismus. In dieser Beziehung möchte man wünschen und ersehnen, daß die Seelen, die innerhalb unserer Bewegung sind, gewissermaßen eine Schar bilden, die auch den heute uns tief bewegenden Fragen gegenüber eine gewisse Gründlichkeit einnehmen. Und es ist in bezug auf vieles Gründlichkeit notwendig. Man glaubt gar nicht, was alles in unserer Zeit möglich ist.
Oh, ich könnte vieles, vieles erzählen von dem, was jenem, der heute wirklich mit Menschenliebe die Zeit verfolgt, das Herz blutig machen kann. Es wird heute ja vieles, manchmal mit dem besten Willen, aus einer ungesunden, von Ahriman befangenen Weltanschauung heraus, an Ansichten und Gedanken verbreitet. Aber gerade der überflutenden Kriegsliteratur gegenüber müssen wir uns vielfach in tiefere Gedanken über die Aufgaben der Kulturentwickelung versenken. Solches wird ja gerade in unseren Vorträgen jetzt versucht dadurch, daß auf die wirkliche Stellung der einzelnen Völker hingedeutet wird. Denn es handelt sich wirklich vielfach um eine Verteidigung der Gründlichkeit gegen die Oberflächlichkeit. Man konnte zum Beispiel gerade in den letzten Wochen etwas sehr Merkwürdiges erfahren. Aus begreiflichen Gründen möchte ich hier nicht den Titel eines Buches nennen, das im Auslande erschienen ist, sogar in deutscher Sprache, und von dem behauptet wird, daß es von einem Deutschen geschrieben worden sein soll. Ausdrücklich möchte ich betonen, daß man sich dazu aufschwingen kann, jeden beliebigen Standpunkt zu verstehen. Man kann vielleicht den allerdeutschfeindlichsten Standpunkt verstehen, wenn ihn dieser oder jener vertritt. Man wird ihn zu verstehen suchen, man braucht ihn ja nicht zu teilen, aber man kann ihn vielleicht verstehen. Aber dieses Buch, das ich meine, hat Merkmale, denen gegenüber es nicht darauf ankommt, daß es einen gründlich deutschfeindlichen Standpunkt einnimmt, der auf jeder Zeile Geifer ist gegenüber dem Deutschtum und dem deutschen Wesen. Daß es giftig geschrieben ist, selbst das könnte man verstehen. Aber dennoch wird niemand kommen dürfen und sagen: Wenn ein Deutscher über das Buch so spricht, das können wir begreifen, denn er redet abfällig vom Deutschtum. — Es kommt aber auf etwas anderes an. Das Buch ist so geschrieben, daß jemand, der ein wenig Gefühl hat für innere Sachlichkeit und innere Gründlichkeit, der ein wenig Bildung hat, finden muß: Es ist die schauerlichste Nachbildung der schlimmsten Hintertreppenliteratur. - Ganz abgesehen von dem Standpunkt, steht es literarisch so tief, daß derjenige, der in dem Buch etwas findet, zeigt, daß er literarisch ein Hintertreppenwerk, ein zusammengeschustertes, mit Unkenntnis, ich möchte sagen, zur offenbarsten Schau getragenen Unkenntnis hingeschriebenes Werk als etwas hinnimmt, das man ernst nehmen kann. Also nicht auf den Standpunkt kommt es an; sondern aus der Art, wie es geschrieben ist, so wie kein Mensch, der denken gelernt hat — auch formal schon -, schreiben würde, sieht man, daß man es mit einer ganz minderwertigen Buchmacherei zu tun hat. Dennoch habe ich auch schon Urteile hören müssen, daß dieses Buch, dessen Titel ich aus besonderen Gründen hier nicht nenne, ernst genommen wird. Wenn solche Dinge vorkommen, dann ist es eben gerade an uns, wirklich nicht zurückzuscheuen, sich ein Urteil zu bilden auf Grund einer gewissen Allseitigkeit. Wenn jemand vielleicht auch mit gewissen Sätzen, die in jenem Buche ausgesprochen sind, inhaltlich einverstanden sein möchte, so braucht er doch nicht ein solches Buch ernst zu nehmen, schon aus dem Grunde nicht, weil das Buch ein schauerliches Machwerk ist, und weil man doch nicht ein schauerliches Machwerk ernst nimmt, weil man nicht wünschen kann, daß selbst das Wahre in schauerlicher Weise im schlimmsten Affekte und in ungebildeter Art ausgesprochen werde. Ich wollte solch ein Beispiel nur charakterisieren aus dem Grunde, weil ich darauf aufmerksam machen möchte, daß es auf vielerlei ankommt, wenn der Geisteswissenschafter versucht, sich ein Urteil über die Welt zu bilden.
Wenn es wirklich möglich wäre, ein Buch für gut zu halten, auch wenn es stilistisch ein Schauerbuch ist, dann bezeugt man dadurch, daß man zu wenig lebendig gemacht hat das geisteswissenschaftliche Fühlen in seinem Herzen, in seiner Seele. Gewiß nicht, um irgendwie etwas anderes auszudrücken, als aufmerksam zu machen auf die Art und Weise, wie Geisteswissenschaft wirklich in einschneidendstem Sinne unser Fühlen und Denken lebendig durchdringen muß, werden auch auf diesem Gebiet konkrete Beispiele angeführt. Und es ist schon notwendig, daß solche konkrete Impulse in unseren Seelen gesucht werden. Ich muß gestehen, was einen bisher ganz besonders befriedigen durfte, wenn man durch Deutschland reiste, das war, daß selbst nach großen Siegen furchtbarer Jubel nicht zu bemerken war. Man merkte etwas davon, daß in jeder Seele zugleich der Schmerz über die ungeheuren Verluste war. Ich glaube, es ist so. Nicht bloß eitler Siegesjubel darf ertönen. Denn diese unsere schicksalschweren, schicksaltragenden Tage, sie fordern nicht nur ungeheure Opfer, sondern sie reißen ungeheuer viele Wunden, auch geistige Wunden, wenn man das Verhalten vieler Menschen ins Auge faßt. Und deshalb ist es schon notwendig, daß wir uns zuweilen erinnern, gerade wenn wir Wichtiges aus dem Gebiete der Geisteswissenschaft betrachten, welche Verantwortung unseren Seelen auferlegt wird und wie wir herbeisehnen müssen Zeiten, in denen sich wirklich begegnen können die Wirkungen der jungen, unverbrauchten Ätherleiber und der Seelen, die noch unten in den Leibern der Menschen sind und hinaufsenden können die Empfindungen und Fähigkeiten der Seele,
Es wird eine Zeit kommen, nach diesem Kriege, wo die unverbrauchten Ätherleiber derer wirken werden, die durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind und die Kräfte entwickelt haben aus den Opfern, die sie gebracht haben und die sie nun hinuntersenden könnten zur Spiritualisierung der Menschheit. Aber unten werden Seelen sein müssen, die das empfangen können, die in lebendigem Glauben aufschauen werden zu demjenigen, was von den frühzeitig durch den Tod Gegangenen hinaufgegangen ist in die geistige Welt, um herunterzustrahlen die Kräfte zur Spiritualisierung der Menschheit.
Da möchte ich, daß es uns vor die Augen trete im Sinne der Worte, die ich am Schlusse dieser Betrachtung auch wieder sprechen möchte:
Aus dem Mut der Kämpfer,
Aus dem Blut der Schlachten,
Aus dem Leid Verlassener,
Aus des Volkes Opfertaten
Wird erwachsen Geistesfrucht
Denken Seelen geistbewußt
Ihren Sinn ins Geisterreich.
Experiences of People After Passing Through the Gate of Death
It has often been said in connection with certain spiritual scientific considerations that within our spiritual scientific movement and its endeavors, it is not primarily a matter of theoretically absorbing those concepts and ideas that can be acquired through spiritual science, but rather that the results of spiritual science should enter into the innermost movements, the innermost impulses of our soul life. Certainly, we must start from the results of spiritual scientific knowledge, and such knowledge can only be acquired by studying it, by engaging with it. But spiritual science should not be taken up like any other science, so that one merely knows afterwards that one has heard this or that, that this or that is true in relation to one thing or another in the world. Rather, spiritual science should have such an effect on our soul that this soul becomes different in this or that area of feeling, that it becomes different through the absorption of what can flow out of spiritual science. The concepts, ideas, and images that we take in through spiritual science should shake our soul to its core, should unite with our feelings, so that through spiritual science we learn not only to see the world differently, but also to feel differently than we would without it. To find oneself in certain situations in life in a completely different way than would be possible without spiritual science—that is what the spiritual scientist should actually be able to do. And if they can do that, then they have basically achieved what spiritual science is meant to give us.
We are living in difficult times, in which one of the most important questions of spiritual science, the question of death, is brought before our eyes, before our souls, before our hearts in countless cases, closer to some than to others. Even in these difficult times, scholars of the humanities should be able to prove themselves emotionally. They should be able to take a different stance on current events, even if they affect them as much as they affect others. Some will certainly need comfort, others encouragement, but both should find this in the humanities. Only when this is the case will we have understood spiritual science in the true sense of what it aims to be.
Through the ideas of spiritual science, we must experience a certain shock in our souls, simply because we learn to feel about some things in a completely different way than we would without spiritual science. If you take together much of what has already been said about the mystery of death within our spiritual science, you will be able to understand what I would like to explain today, not merely by repeating what has already been said, but by adding some things to earlier considerations. We must not only learn to think differently about death, but we must also learn to feel differently about death. For the mystery of death is indeed connected with the deepest mysteries of the world. Let us be quite clear that when we pass through the gate of death, we lay aside everything through which we gain perceptions and knowledge in the physical world, everything through which we experience something of the outer world. In the physical world, we gain impressions of the world through our senses. We lay these senses aside when we enter the spiritual world. We then no longer have the senses. This alone must be proof to us that when we think about the supersensible world, we must strive to think differently than we have learned to think through our senses.
Certainly, we have a kind of clue in that something analogous, something similar to the experiences in the spiritual world, also protrudes into the ordinary life we spend between birth and death. These are the dream experiences that protrude into ordinary life. Dream experiences are not conveyed to us through our senses; our senses really have nothing to do with dream experiences. Nevertheless, they exist in images that sometimes remind us of life through the senses. In these dream images, we have, albeit a faint reflection, a reflection of the kind in which spiritual existence appears to us as an imaginative world between death and a new birth. We do, however, have imaginative perceptions after death; the experience appears in images. Only when you see a red color in the sensory world, for example, and have to think: What is behind this red color? — then you will say to yourself: There is something that fills the space, something material is behind it. — The red color also appears to you in the spiritual world, but behind it is not something material, not something that would make a material impression in the ordinary sense. Behind the red is a spiritual-soul being; behind the red is the same thing that you feel as your world in your soul. One might say: from the sensory impression of color, we descend outwardly into the physical world, and from the imaginations we ascend more and more into spiritual regions in the spiritual world. And we must now be clear about this—it has been emphasized particularly strongly in the new edition of Theosophy—that even these imaginations do not confront us in the same way as the sensory impressions of the physical world. These imaginations are certainly there, but they appear as experiences: red and blue are experiences there. One can rightly call these imaginations red or blue, but they are nevertheless something different from the sensory impressions of the physical world. They are much more internal, we are much more internally connected with them. Outside the red color of the rose, you are yourself; in the red color of the spiritual world, you feel yourself within it, you are connected with the red color. When you perceive red in the spiritual world, a will develops, a powerful will of a spiritual being. And this will radiates, and what it radiates is red. But you feel yourself in that will, and this feeling of being there, this experience, you then naturally describe as red. I would say that physical color is like a frozen spiritual experience, like a solidified spiritual experience. And so, in many areas, we must acquire the ability to think differently, to give our ideas different values and meanings, if we really want to rise to an understanding of the spiritual world.
Then we must be clear that up in the spiritual world, what we call imaginations are not related to spiritual beings, whose expression is, for example, colors, in the same way that a color is related to a sensory being. The rose is red; that is a property of the rose. But when a spirit comes near and we must be conscious, according to what has now been said, that the spirit radiates red, then red does not mean a property of the spirit in the same way that the red of the rose is a property; rather, this red is more a kind of revelation of the spirit's inner being, it is more a sign that the spirit places in the spiritual world. And one must first see through the imaginations. The activity that one develops there can only be compared in the physical world with its Ahrimanic image, namely with reading. We look at the red color of the rose and know that red is a property of the rose. We do not merely look at the red in the spiritual world, but we interpret it, not in a speculative way — I must always warn against that — but our soul finds of itself that something is given there like a sound, a letter, something that is to be deciphered, read, through which one first recognizes what is meant. The spirit means something when it reveals itself as red or blue or green, or when it reveals itself as C sharp or G sharp. The spirit means something by this; one begins to speak with the spirit, one begins to read its writing. The outer culture is based on the fact that such things, which have their deep wisdom in the spiritual world, are then also transplanted into the outer world. We speak rightly of occult reading, for those who acquire clairvoyant consciousness, who enter the spiritual world, who survey the imaginations and read in them, look through them to the depths of the souls that live in the spiritual world, not only through colors, but also through other impressions, impressions that resemble sensory impressions, and impressions that are new to the spiritual realm.
This activity, which is a purely soul-spiritual activity, is subject, in a sense, to the rule of correctly progressing spiritual beings. Here in the physical world, Ahriman creates an image of precisely what I have just described. The external reading of written characters in the physical world is an Ahrimanic image of this occult reading. For all reading in the physical world through signs that have been artificially created is an Ahrimanic “activity.” It is not at all wrong to regard the invention of printing as an Ahrimanic art, as a “black art,” as it has been called. One must not believe that one can escape from the clutches of Lucifer and Ahriman by any means. Lucifer and Ahriman must be present in the outer culture. It is only a matter of finding the point of balance, the path, when life continually swings toward the Luciferic and Ahrimanic sides. If someone did not want to be touched by Ahriman at all, they would never have to learn to read. But it is not a question of fleeing from Ahriman and Lucifer, but of coming into the right relationship with them; of being able to relate to them in the right way, even though they are present as forces around us. If we know that we are following what we have so often described as the Christ impulse living within us, and if we acquire the spiritual feelings that impose on us at every moment of our lives the will to follow Christ, then we can also read. Then we can experience—and we will, when it is right for us according to our karma—that Ahriman also established reading, and we will see this Ahrimanic art in its true light. If we do not experience this, then we merely recite words about Ahrimanic culture, about progress, about the glory of Ahrimanic culture, for example, of reading.
But all these things also impose duties, and it is important that such duties are fulfilled. Especially in our present time, much can be cited to defend or condemn this or that. Truly, we have what we might call a flood of war literature. Every day brings not only pamphlets, but also books and so on. There you can often read: this country has so many illiterate people, in this country so many can read and write, and so on. To accept this at face value would not be in keeping with what someone versed in spiritual science has a responsibility to say. If, for example, I wanted to point out everything particularly bad about a people in relation to our times, and to indicate this by saying that so many of them cannot read and so many cannot write, I would not be speaking correctly from a spiritual scientific point of view. One must always cite only things that one can justify in relation to occult duties. From this you can see – and I only wanted to give this as an example – that spiritual science in this deeper sense must really be integrated into life and impose duties. And when spiritual researchers say things that others also say, you will always be able to trace that they are said in a completely different context, and that is what matters. Therefore, it is natural that some things will often seem very strange to those who are not familiar with spiritual science when they are said in spiritual science, because they are used to having different ideas and sometimes have to say to themselves: This spiritual science calls black white and white black! And that is really necessary sometimes, because when you ascend into the spiritual world with the ordinary ideas and concepts you have acquired in the physical world, it is really the case that some concepts have to be thoroughly changed.
From this point of view, let us take one of the most important and most mysterious concepts that we must acquire from our impressions of the physical world: the concept of death. In the physical world, human beings always see death from one side only, from the side where they see human life developing to the point where the human being dies, that is, where the physical body first falls away from the higher members of human nature and then finds its dissolution within the physical world. One can truly say that what humans see about death within the physical world is to view death from one side. To view death from the other side, however, is to see it in a completely different light, to see it in a fundamentally different way.
When we enter physical life through birth, we first go through something that we experience in such a way that the peak of physical consciousness has not yet been fully reached. You know that we do not remember the first years of our experience with ordinary physical consciousness. No one can remember their birth with ordinary physical consciousness. At least, no one in the world will claim that they can remember how they were born according to their physical consciousness. We can say that it is a feature of physical consciousness that the birth of a human being must be forgotten. It is forgotten, and even the first years of life are forgotten. When we look back on our lives in physical existence between birth and death, we remember up to a certain point. Then our memory breaks off. The point where it breaks off is not our physical birth, but is preceded by an experience. No human being can know from experience that he has been commanded. He can only conclude it. From this we conclude that we were born—and only from this—because people are born after us whose birth we perceive. If the natural scientist claims that he will only admit what can be seen, then according to this principle, if he wants to be logical, no one can claim his own birth, because it is impossible to perceive one's own birth except through clairvoyance; one can only infer it.
Exactly the opposite happens with regard to death. Throughout life, between death and new birth, the moment of death that one has previously experienced stands before the mind's eye as the most vivid, the brightest impression. But do not think that you can conclude from this that it is a painful impression. You would then believe that the dead person looks back on what you see in the physical world as death, decay, and destruction. But he sees death from the other side; he sees in death something that must be described as the most beautiful thing in the spiritual world. For there is nothing more beautiful in what man can normally experience in the spiritual world than the sight of death. To see this victory of the spirit over the material, this shining forth of the spiritual light of the soul from the dark gloom of the material, is the greatest, the most significant thing that can be seen on the other side of life, which man experiences between death and a new birth.
When a person sheds their etheric body between death and rebirth and gradually develops their consciousness, which does not take very long after death, they do not relate to themselves in the same way as they do here in the physical world. When a person sleeps here in the physical world, they are unconscious of it, and when they wake up, they become conscious of it, knowing that they have a self, an I within them. After death, in the spiritual world, it is something else—their self-consciousness is on a higher level—it is not exactly the same. I will talk about how it is in a moment. But there is also something like a reflection on the I, the self. Just as one must reflect on the self in the morning when one wakes up, so it is in the spiritual world. But this reflection is a looking back to the moment of death. It is always as if, in order to perceive our I between death and a new birth, we say to ourselves: You have really died, therefore you are I, you are an I!
That is the most significant thing: one looks back on the victory of the spirit over the body, one looks back on the moment of death, which is the most beautiful thing in the spiritual world that can be experienced. And in this looking back, one becomes aware of one's self in the spiritual world. This is always, one cannot say, like waking up — that would be a one-sided way of putting it — it is the reflection on oneself, looking back on one's death. That is why it is so important that human beings have the opportunity, with full post-mortem consciousness — a consciousness that arises after death — to truly look back on the moment of death, so that they do not merely dream what they see, but can fully understand what they see; this is immensely important. And we can prepare ourselves for this during our lives by trying to practice self-knowledge. It is particularly necessary for us in our time to practice self-knowledge. Basically, all spiritual science is there to give people the self-knowledge they need. For spiritual science is actually an introduction to the expanded self of the human being, that self through which we fundamentally belong to the whole world. I said that consciousness after death is something different from what it is here in the physical world. If I wanted to illustrate to you in a very graphic way what consciousness is like after death, I could do so in the following way.
Suppose we have an eye here and an object here. How do we become aware that there is an object outside of us? Well, because the object makes an impression on our eye. The object makes an impression on our eye, and we learn something about the object. The object is out there in the world, it makes an impression on our senses, and we take the idea we can form of the object into ourselves, into our soul. The object is outside of us. The idea we then form has been conveyed to us by the object. It is different in the spiritual world. And because I cannot represent it graphically in any other way, I would like to draw what I always call the soul's eye, even though it is strictly speaking incorrect. This soul eye, which human beings have after death, is now so constituted that after death, for example, a human being does not see an angel or another human soul that is also in the spiritual world in the same way as he sees a flower in the physical world. Rather, this soul eye is so constituted—let us leave the human soul aside for the moment—that let us look only at a being of the higher hierarchy—that when there is an angelic being here, an archangelic being, the eye does not have the consciousness: I see this angelic being outside of myself—but rather: I am seen by the angelic being, who sees me. It is exactly the opposite of the physical world. Thus we live ourselves into the spiritual world in such a way that we become conscious of the beings of the higher hierarchies, that we are known by them, that they think of us. We feel embedded in them, we feel cognitively grasped by the angels, archangels, spirits of personality, just as the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the animal kingdom feel grasped by us.

Only in relation to human souls is it the case that we can be seen by them, so that we have the feeling that they see us, just as we have the feeling that what we see passes into them. It is a seeing on our part and on the part of human souls. In relation to all other beings of the higher hierarchies, we have the feeling that we are perceived, thought, and imagined by them; and in being perceived, thought, and imagined by them, we are in the spiritual world. And this is how it is: Let us suppose that we wander about as souls in the spiritual world, just as we wander about in the physical world. Then we have the feeling everywhere that we are entering into relationship with the beings of the higher hierarchies, just as here in the physical world we have the feeling that we are entering into relationship with the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the animal kingdom. Only we need to remember again and again that we have a self. Then we look at our death and say to ourselves: That is you! — That is a continuing consciousness, a continuing content of consciousness.
What has been said today adds to the various ideas you can gather from cycles and books. It is more soul-based than what is said, for example, in the book Theosophy, which is more based on external observation. But it is only by looking at something like this soul-based that one can really get into the feelings one must have toward these things and toward the spiritual world in general.
Self-knowledge is therefore what promotes us, what makes us strong for life between death and a new birth. This became particularly vivid to me recently when I had the task of speaking several times at the cremation of friends who had passed away. There was always a need to say something that was closely connected with the character, with the self of the person who had passed through the gate of death. Why did this inspiration or intuition arise to say something to the dead that was connected with their nature? This is revealed by the life of the person concerned after death. What comes to their aid is what strengthens the powers of their self-knowledge. By speaking of these qualities that they felt within themselves immediately after death, when their consciousness had not yet awakened, it was possible to let something of the strength they needed flow to them, so that they could gradually develop the ability to look back on the moment of death, when their entire being appeared concentrated, as it had developed between birth and death. So, you help the dead by letting them have something right after death that reminds them of their qualities, experiences, and so on. This helps them get to know themselves better. And if one has the clairvoyant ability to enter into the soul of such a deceased person, then one feels in one's own soul the urge to hear something at this very moment about the way he was, about this or that which he went through, or what his main characteristics are. You can understand: just as here on earth the life of one person is not like the life of another, but all people have lives that are different from one another, so it is with those who have passed through the gate of death. No two soul lives are alike between death and rebirth. I would like to say that every soul life that can be observed is a new revelation, and one can always only highlight individual characteristics. I would like to talk about such things today and then again the day after tomorrow in Cologne. I would like to speak about a specific case as an example.
Some time ago in Dornach, we saw a member leave the physical plane who had reached a fairly advanced age. A member who had spent his life in diligent, caring work, but who in recent years, for a long time already, had been deeply connected with our spiritual scientific worldview and had fully developed it in his own heart and soul. So that one can say: this personality had come so far that in the last days of its physical existence it was completely one with our worldview, completely one with its feelings and perceptions. Now you know that when a person passes through the gate of death, they first lay down their physical body, then carry their etheric body with them for a while, and then lay down the etheric body as well. And then there comes a time when the human being must gradually attain the consciousness that must then be his own between death and a new birth. Immediately after death, the human being is in his etheric body. There, as we know, he experiences a complete review of his life as a great tableau of life. During this time, powerful impulses arise in the soul, I would say as if with a blow, so that many things that are significant in this connection can appear quite differently after death than during life. During life, the human being is bound in many ways by the limitations imposed by the physical body. Immediately after death, one has overcome the heaviness, the oppressiveness, the solidity of the physical, which weakens the clarity of many soul impulses. One still has the etheric body and therefore has not lost the memory of life. It is a completely imaginative world, which first contains the images of the past life, but then also contains the particularly strong impulses. If a soul has absorbed the impulses of spiritual science so powerfully during life, if this soul has brought these impulses into its innermost feelings and sensations, then after death it can unfold these impressions in a completely different way, since it has at its disposal the elastic, pliable etheric body, which is then no longer bound to what what the physical body allows. This could be seen particularly in the personality I have just spoken about, who, shortly after death, after it had been possible to place her completely in her soul, allowed that which had lived in her from the spiritual scientific impulses to flow out of her soul. She would not, of course, have expressed this in such words during her physical life. But because the etheric body was still there, she was able to clothe it in physical words. She had not yet left the elastic etheric body when what she had absorbed through spiritual science was expressed in such a way that it became an expression of her soul. And then, a few days later, at the cremation of the person in question, I felt compelled to speak precisely these words, which rang out from her very being and therefore belonged to her, not to me:
I will carry into the worlds
My feeling heart, that it may become warm
In the fire of holy forces at work;In world thoughts I will weave
My own thoughts, that they may become clear
In the light of eternal becoming and life;In the depths of the soul I will dive
With devoted thoughts, that they may become strong
For the true goals of human activity;In God's peace I strive thus
With life's struggles and cares,
Preparing my self for a higher self;Seeking peace through joyful work,
Anticipating the existence of worlds in my own being,
I wish to fulfill my duty as a human being;I may then live in expectation
Towards my destiny,
Which grants me a place in the realm of the spirit.
One could say that words expressing feelings about death contain what the soul has become through spiritual science. Then came the time that everyone has to go through to a greater or lesser extent after death, which is only improperly called a time of sleep, for when one has laid down the etheric body, one is actually immediately completely within the spiritual world, only one is blinded by the fullness of the spiritual world. One cannot see everything at once; one must first adapt the strength one has brought with oneself to the spiritual world; one must attune oneself. One sees too much after death; consciousness is there, but one must first attune it to the powers one has acquired. Then you begin to be able to orient yourself and really live in the spiritual world. It is not entirely correct to say that you wake up to consciousness after a while; rather, you have too much consciousness and must lower it to the level you can bear. That is what awakening is. The soul I just told you about came into this state of being unable to bear the spiritual light once the etheric body had been shed. But it had a lot of strength within it; you can see that from the words I read, and that this strength had gradually been completely permeated by what human feeling and will can make of spiritual science. That is why this being, this soul, came to a consciousness that was bearable for it some time after death. Of course, there would be much to describe about the time that then begins for a soul, if one wanted to describe everything that such a soul experiences. One always describes only parts; and it is natural, since we stand within our movement, to observe among souls precisely that which connects these souls with our movement. One can learn from this what connects human souls to the whole world after death; but one can best observe what the life of the soul is after death in such souls, especially when they have come so close to us as this soul of which I am now speaking. And so it came about that it was possible to observe, first of all in this soul, how it came to an orienting consciousness through participation in our gatherings, through actual participation in our gatherings. And this participation was fully developed at an Easter celebration in Dornach this year, at that Easter celebration where an attempt was made to explain the depth of the meaning of Easter to our dear friends there in Dornach. This soul was present. She participated; just as she had participated earlier with heartfelt warmth, she now participated as a soul. And she wanted to express herself, just as many people in the physical body feel the need to talk about what they have taken in. She wanted to express herself, and it is peculiar that she again used such words, because this makes it possible to communicate, that she again used such words as she now lives and lives precisely in relation to what she had experienced during our Easter lecture. And then something came as a supplement to what had come through after death at that time. This addition, which now came out of consciousness, is as follows:
In human souls I want to guide
The spiritual feeling that willingly
The Easter word awakens in hearts;With human spirits I want to think
The warmth of the soul that powerfully
feel the Risen One;
One sees that she wants to continue working with those with whom she was connected in our spiritual scientific movement. She wants to devote herself to them so that they may awaken the Easter word in their hearts, as was attempted in the Easter lecture, so that what we call the risen ones in spiritual science may be felt in the right way. But something that came out in the following three lines was particularly significant. It is especially beautiful and deeply moving.
In those Easter lectures and in many other lectures given at that time, I had tried again and again, as I had often done before, to draw attention to the significance of spiritual science, not only for life on earth, but for the whole world. Those who pass through the gate of death can also experience and learn from what is being done here in spiritual science. That is why I advise so many people who have lost loved ones who have passed through the gate of death to read to them or tell them about the spiritual scientific teachings, for what is expressed in spiritual scientific words is not only meaningful for souls living in the physical body, but also has full meaning for souls who have left the body. It comes to them like spiritual air, like spiritual water, or one could also say that they perceive light through us here below. This light is, at first, symbolic for us, because we hear words and take them into our souls as thoughts; but the dead really see it as spiritual light.
Now it is very significant that this soul, who had heard this often, wanted to say formally: I have understood this, and it is really so! For her words in this connection are:
It shines brightly in the light of death
The earthly flame of spiritual knowledge...
It is a fact for the soul. She wants to say: What you speak of down there shines up like a flame. — And she expressed this by saying “earthly flame”: “It shines brightly in the light of death...” Why does she say “light of death”? If you think about it, you will find out. She said this because she had always heard that we call the world Maya: on earth it is in the light of the senses; now it is also in a light through which she must first see the essence:
It shines brightly in the light of death
The earth flame of spiritual knowledge; —
and something that now also confirms it:
The self becomes the eye and ear of the world.
She means the ear of the world. She means that the whole self now becomes like a powerful sense organ, a perceptive organ for the whole world. It is a beautiful way in which the dead person shows how he becomes aware that what spiritual science says is true. It is characteristic of this soul that it wants to speak out immediately after death and say: Yes, now I am ready to accept that what I learned on earth is right.
These words were of a certain importance to me because, after some time, perhaps a few weeks later, they came from the spiritual world from the soul I had spoken of, shortly after another satisfying event had occurred a few weeks earlier.
Friends of our movement lost a still quite young son in the present war, who had voluntarily entered the war. The young man fell. He was, one might say, half close to spiritual science in the last earthly period he went through. He was only seventeen, eighteen years old. Now he was gone, he had fallen. After some time, it was possible to see how the soul of this young man—and this is the case with many souls who have now passed through the gate of death in the war, that they come to consciousness relatively quickly—it was possible to see how he approached his parents, how he really came close to his parents. And it was as if he said to them, and it could be heard clearly: “Now I would like to make it really clear to you that what I have often heard in your home about spiritual science, about spiritual light and spiritual beings, can become clear to me, that it is true, that what I have heard helps me.”
I mention this not because it is something special, but because it shows precisely how the connection between earthly life and spiritual life works. I would like to mention one peculiarity, however. After a lecture I gave in one of our branches—I had written down the words that had come through—I went to the parents of the young man and told them this, and also told them the night when it happened, that the young man had approached his parents and spoken, as it were, to their souls. And then the father said: That is very strange, I very rarely have dreams. But that night, that very night, I dreamed about my boy, that he appeared to me and wanted to tell me something; but I did not understand it.
Even today, people outside our spiritual movement will find it strange when they hear these things; we therefore keep them among ourselves as much as possible. But it must be important for us to deal with these things in concrete terms, because our knowledge is made up of these individual building blocks of experiences from the spiritual world. And only then will we gain a concrete picture, if we do not limit ourselves to merely hearing beautiful theories about the spiritual world, but if we can bring spiritual science to such a level of vitality in our souls that we can bear to hear the spiritual world spoken of in the same way that reasonable people speak of what they experience in the sensory world. Only in this way does spiritual science become truly alive in us, and that is what it should become, it should become truly alive in us, so that we gain a life—not just a doctrine, a piece of knowledge—so that we gain a life through it; so that it bridges the gap that otherwise exists through materialism, which can spread only outside spiritual science and must become ever greater and greater, so that it bridges this gap between the physical-sensory world we go through between birth and death and the spiritual world in which we live between death and a new birth, so that we learn to gradually become citizens of the spiritual world as well. This is what is important for us to learn to feel: those who have passed through the gate of death have only taken on a different form of life and, according to our feelings, are after death like someone who has had to move to a distant country through the events of life, where we can only follow them later; so that we have nothing to endure but a time of separation. But this must be felt vividly and sensed vividly through spiritual science. And if you just try to form a picture from individual concrete facts, you will see that these facts also agree and fit together for those who do not look into the spiritual world, so that the belief one has before looking into the spiritual world is not really blind faith, not faith in authority, but a faith that is supported by a feeling that is deeper than critical knowledge, by the innate sense of truth that is inherent in the human soul.
We live in a time when external events that are fateful for our destiny indicate how human life should be deepened. It would be much better if, instead of discussing who is to blame for this war, who is doing this or that, people would regard these warlike events as a warning to deepen their souls more than the vast majority of people have done so far. I said, discussing the most important things before your hearts: In relation to many things, we must learn through spiritual science to transform and change the ideas and concepts we have. To these concepts we can now add — let us add this today to our consideration, which has been devoted to such a significant subject as death — we can also add the concept of war. It is right, also from a spiritual scientific point of view, to regard war as a disease of evolution. Certainly it is a disease, but just think for a moment that you are not doing justice to a disease if you condemn it as it is. What is important in a disease is often what preceded the disease in the human body: disorder and disharmony preceded it. Then comes the disease, which is often there to counteract what was disorderly in the body. This is even the case when a person goes through an illness before death. They carry within themselves disharmonies that make it impossible for them to enter the spiritual world immediately. Perhaps the spiritual world would be too foggy for them, or other obstacles would be there because there are disharmonies within them that cannot be carried into the spiritual world. That is why they are afflicted by an illness before death. This illness first frees his soul from disharmony to such an extent that he can enter the spiritual world.
And if it is an illness that leads to recovery, then this illness is there to compensate for what preceded the illness, what was caused by the karma of previous lives, perhaps thousands and thousands of years ago. For example, it is not helpful to say, “The child has measles; if only he had not caught measles!” We cannot know what would have happened to the child if he had not caught measles. For what came out was what had always been deep within the child and was seeking balance.
It is also good to look at war in this way, and not to see evil so much in what must now be endured in blood and iron, but also to see what has been going on for long, long times in the cultural currents. People must learn to look deeper into the connections! After this war, a time will come when people will begin to reflect on this very war. They will realize how many empty words have been spoken when it was said, “This one is to blame, that one is to blame.” And something will come, even if it may be quite a long time after the war. People will say something completely different than they do today. There will be people who will say, 'Oh, if you really study history as it has been studied up to now, you will find this in these diplomatic files and that in those diplomatic files; here and there this or that has been recorded. But if you proceed as history has dealt with all this so far, and want to 'judge everything objectively', as they say, then you will never find out why this war came about. Then you will realize that it is necessary to look beyond the external causes to the deeper reasons, which the humanities will then have to explain. Unfortunately, only hints can be given about these things today. One will find that in many places, especially at the outbreak of this war, this or that happened where consciousness did not play the most significant role, but rather something unconscious, lying beneath the threshold of external events, came to the fore; so that those things which the historian is accustomed to regard as decisive for the causality that exists cannot be exhausted. Precisely in this example, we will learn that history, as we have been accustomed to it, explains nothing to us. It will be a warning to look for deeper reasons.
And just as I have had to address a kind of warning to our souls at the end of almost every lecture I have given recently, I would like to do so again today.
A certain responsibility for the souls of others arises simply from the fact that one has come close to the spiritual scientific view of the world. One must become capable, through the spiritual scientific world view, of at least thinking that those superficial judgments which are made everywhere today, precisely because materialism dominates the world, should not also become our judgments as confessors of spiritual science. What is happening in the world today is really a superficial hatred between nations. I have spoken about this many times in our branch lectures. It does not need to fill us in the same way, but that does not mean we should become unjust. For we can learn from the old Theosophical Society how to become quite unjust! They impressed upon their people, with reference to religions: All religions are the same. That is roughly the same as if one wanted to impress upon people: There are condiments on the table: pepper, salt, sugar, paprika; well, they are all condiments, one should not prefer one over the other. So, if I have coffee here, I add a little pepper, because it's all the same! The same logic applies when one says that the same core of truth underlies all religions. This logic does spare one the trouble of studying the great and wonderful development of the world in detail, because one can get by with the statement: “A core of truth underlies everything.” But in this regard, we have long since freed ourselves from the most superficial judgments. Thus, what we rightly recognize as loving understanding of every national peculiarity does not prevent us from seeing where our hearts stand based on our knowledge. It will not be possible for all friends to agree in this regard. But that is not what matters. What matters is that our souls strive to rise above the standpoint of the outer world and to enter into the peculiarities of the various national souls. Then we will see that our commitment to our spiritual scientific worldview imposes on us in many respects a certain responsibility, the responsibility for a thoroughness that is possible through spiritual science and for a deeper understanding of things.
Then one sometimes experiences painful things. One learns that the great warning that is now before us through our fateful events does not stand before all souls in such a way that they feel compelled to carry their hearts truly deeper and more thoroughly into what is happening than the superficial judgments of what we are trying to overcome, namely, external materialism. In this regard, one would wish and long for the souls within our movement to form a kind of group that takes a certain thoroughness toward the questions that deeply move us today. And thoroughness is necessary in many respects. One cannot believe all that is possible in our time.
Oh, I could tell you so much about what can break the heart of someone who truly follows the times with love for humanity. Today, many things are spread, sometimes with the best of intentions, but out of an unhealthy worldview influenced by Ahriman. But it is precisely in the face of the flood of war literature that we must immerse ourselves in deeper thoughts about the tasks of cultural development. This is precisely what we are trying to do in our lectures by pointing to the real position of the individual peoples. For in many cases it is really a matter of defending thoroughness against superficiality. For example, something very strange has come to light in recent weeks. For understandable reasons, I do not wish to mention here the title of a book that has been published abroad, even in German, and which is claimed to have been written by a German. I would like to emphasize that it is possible to understand any point of view. One can perhaps understand the most anti-German point of view if it is held by this or that person. One will try to understand it; one does not have to agree with it, but one can perhaps understand it. But this book I am referring to has characteristics that make it irrelevant that it takes a thoroughly anti-German position, that every line is dripping with venom toward Germanness and the German character. That it is written in a poisonous manner is something one could even understand. But nevertheless, no one should be allowed to say: If a German speaks about the book in this way, we can understand that, because he is speaking disparagingly about Germanness. — But something else is important here. The book is written in such a way that anyone who has a little feeling for inner objectivity and thoroughness, anyone who has a little education, must find that it is the most gruesome imitation of the worst kind of back-alley literature. Quite apart from the point of view, it is so low in literary terms that anyone who finds something in the book shows that they accept a back-alley work, a cobbled-together work written with ignorance, I would say with ignorance carried to the most obvious display, as something that can be taken seriously. So it is not a question of point of view; rather, from the way it is written, in a manner that no one who has learned to think—even formally—would write, one sees that one is dealing with a completely inferior piece of bookkeeping. Nevertheless, I have also heard opinions that this book, whose title I will not mention here for special reasons, is taken seriously. When such things happen, it is precisely up to us not to shy away from forming an opinion based on a certain universality. Even if someone might agree with certain statements made in that book, they do not need to take such a book seriously, if only because the book is a gruesome piece of work and because one cannot take a gruesome piece of writing seriously, because one cannot wish that even the truth be expressed in a gruesome manner, in the worst possible way and in an uneducated manner. I only wanted to characterize such an example because I would like to point out that many things are important when scholars of the humanities try to form an opinion about the world.
If it were really possible to consider a book good, even if it is stylistically a horror book, then one would thereby testify that one has not made the spiritual-scientific feeling in one's heart and soul sufficiently alive. Concrete examples are certainly not given in this field in order to express anything other than to draw attention to the way in which spiritual science must truly permeate our feeling and thinking in the most profound sense. And it is indeed necessary to seek such concrete impulses in our souls. I must confess that what has been particularly satisfying when traveling through Germany so far is that even after great victories, there has been no terrible jubilation. One could sense that in every soul there was also pain over the enormous losses. I believe this is so. It is not merely vain jubilation that should be heard. For these fateful days of ours, which are so full of destiny, not only demand enormous sacrifices, but also inflict enormous wounds, including spiritual wounds, when one considers the behavior of many people. And that is why it is necessary that we sometimes remember, especially when we consider important matters in the field of spiritual science, what responsibility is placed upon our souls and how we must long for times when the effects of the young, unspent etheric bodies and the souls that are still down in the bodies of human beings can truly meet and send up the feelings and abilities of the soul,
There will come a time after this war when the unspent etheric bodies of those who have passed through the gate of death and developed their powers from the sacrifices they have made will be able to send them down for the spiritualization of humanity. But there will have to be souls below who can receive this, who will look up with living faith to what has ascended into the spiritual world from those who have passed away prematurely, in order to radiate down the forces for the spiritualization of humanity.
I would like us to keep this in mind in the spirit of the words I would like to repeat at the end of this reflection:
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 fruit of the spirit will mature
Souls will think with spiritual awareness
And find their meaning in the realm of the spirit.