The Problem of Death
GA 161
6 February 1915, Dornach
Lecture II
Yesterday I told you the story of Manon de Gaussin because it gives an actual description of the working of the etheric organisation, the etheric body, after death. One cannot, of course, quote every novelistic description in such a connection because, naturally, a writer might evolve the most unreal ideas and one would then be quoting something that is incorrect. But I chose an example where, in a way that accurately corresponds with the facts of such a case, the working of an etheric body is described.
The first truth encountered by spiritual-scientific knowledge is that when the human being passes through the gate of death, etheric body, astral body and Ego are loosened from the physical body; a kind of intermediate condition then sets in, a condition in which, on the one side, the physical body is still there and, on the other side, with a connection between them; etheric body, astral body and Ego.
We know that then, after a comparatively short time, the etheric body frees itself, and the Ego, together with the astral body of the human individuality, has to enter upon the further journey through the cosmos in the period between death and a new birth.
We must realise that the etheric organisation, the etheric body, is destined to maintain the earthly body of the human being through the whole maximum age of life. A human being who has reached advanced age, has of course, the same etheric body as when he was a child. When a human being has to leave the physical plane prematurely in some incarnation and the etheric body has then separated from the astral body and the Ego, then this etheric body is in a different condition from the etheric body of a human being who has reached a certain maximum age and who has therefore been able to use the forces of this etheric body through many decades of his earthly life. when a human being dies prematurely, the forces that are still present in the etheric body would, if his karma had allowed him to remain on the earth, have been used during the further course of his life. The using of these forces denotes a continual wearing out of the etheric body. Therefore an etheric body which separates from one who has died early, contains many unused forces; these forces are preserved in the etheric body. They are forces which have gone over into the spiritual world but which would have been able, for a long time yet, to maintain a physical life.
Naturally, these forces are not destroyed when a human being has passed through the gate of Death. For nothing—and still less in the spiritual world than in the physical world—is destroyed. All the forces in existence change into other forms. The law of the conservation of force has assumed great significance in physical science since the year l842 when it was discovered by Julius Robert Mayer. A force is applied in the simplest action, for example, when the hand is rubbed over some surface. This force is not lost; the surface gets warm; the force of the pressure and of the rubbing is changed into warmth. No force is lost; forces change their character. Similarly, no force is lost in the spiritual world. So that we may say: forces of the etheric bodies of those who have died prematurely pass over into the spiritual world and, as they have not been used for the earthly life, are used for the purpose of the human individuality who is living on as Ego and astral body.
These forces which would otherwise have been used for the individuality in his life on the Earth, are used in the spiritual world and remain in the elementary world. (The etheric body itself is dissolved within the elementary world.) In the elementary world they form a real source and reservoir of force. This is very significant, for it sheds light, in a most concrete way, upon the connection between the physical world and the spiritual world.
For real knowledge it is not enough to picture merely in the abstract that the physical world is connected with the spiritual world, and that the spiritual world is behind the physical world. There is variety and differentiation in the spiritual world which lies behind the physical world. Art that is born of clairvoyance and has an important part to play in human evolution on the earth owes a great deal to these unused etheric bodies. Significant stimuli for clairvoyant knowledge and for the knowledge that is inspired by Spiritual Science are provided by these etheric bodies in the elementary world.
Please realise this thoroughly.—In a certain sense we have to thank those who have died prematurely for the fact that their etheric bodies have been given over to the elementary world and that many spiritual influences can therefore proceed from these etheric bodies. I think I need hardly say that such influences can proceed only from souls whose end has come in the course of natural karma and never from a soul who has in any way willed his own death, through suicide. In such a case things are entirely different; fruitful forces of the etheric body are destroyed by decisions emanating from that maya of consciousness of which I spoke yesterday—and all decisions taken during earthly life in regard to death emanate from this Maya. I say this only in parenthesis.
In a very special way the etheric bodies of which I have spoken are at the basis of the spiritual stimuli which may come to us. The spiritual movement we serve will owe, as we may well realise, a very very great deal to what it is able to receive from this side. Perhaps it is not necessary for me to indicate how significantly our knowledge can be enriched in the direction of the love and the reverence we bring to our Dead by the realization of such facts and by our learning to understand how we have to thank those who have died in early youth, and how we have to thank those who have died in mature age, who have taken up into their individuality those forces which, in other circumstances, are unused forces of the etheric body.
When somebody dies in advanced age—and we have also had to experience such a case recently—he has taken up into his astral body forces which would otherwise still be in the etheric body. He has, as it were, made human what, under other circumstances is cosmic. And because this is so, there goes out from him, from his individuality, the stimulus of which I have spoken; he can be particularly influential because these stimuli can then be received by specific human hearts, also by the hearts of those who do not proceed from Spiritual Science or from clairvoyance but abandon themselves to the ordinary impulses of life. into the souls of such men too there can be received—I say ‘there can be received’—those forces—now less cosmic but just because of that, more human—which flow into the spiritual world in which the soul is always imbedded.
We have now mentioned one detail that is connected with the “Death Spectrum” as I will call it—this etheric organisation which remains when Ego and astral body are released. I will call it the “Death Spectrum” ... it contains the forces I have described, but much else as well. In order to study what else is contained in this death spectrum we must resort to such matters as I tried to bring before you yesterday, derived from Grimm's tale.
It will have been clear to you from what I said, and also from the whole treatment of the subject in that case, that between Manon de Gaussin and the man who shot himself, there existed a karmic tie which was, of course, the outcome of previous earthly lives spent together. Karmic connections of this kind are indicated in nearly all imaginative writings. Such writings—above all, the most impressive of them—take their start from the fact that these karmic connections arising from previous earthly lives have not been wholly lived out. Manon de Gaussin meets the man who loves her. She does not understand his love and out of the maya of her consciousness she resists the full and complete living-out of karma. Hence there arises that conflict which is very adaptable to artistic treatment; out of the maya of consciousness human beings rebel against what is karmically predestined.
They cannot, of course, do away with it. I am not saying that karma can be got rid of, for it must certainly be lived out in a subsequent incarnation. The human being certainly cannot escape from karma, or at least only in the very rarest cases, and in such cases the karma has to be transformed. But in one incarnation the soul may resist the full living-out of karma. Consequences then arise such as those which are dealt with in this tale. The one human being leaves the physical plane, and karma has not taken the shape it should have taken. But this “should” of karma is inscribed in the nature of the man. Karma should have been fulfilled in a certain way. We may resist karma in one incarnation because we do not recognise it, and then we postpone it until a later incarnation. Nevertheless it was there within us ... it was actually within us. We wipe karma away, as it were, from the one life, wipe it away from the happenings of the life between birth and death.
And so what Manon de Gaussin and the man who loved her would have experienced if they had fully lived out their karma, is wiped away from their lives. It is wiped away from the physical events of life. But from the death spectrum it cannot be wiped away or effaced. It remains in the death spectrum as will, and then it happens that after the death of the human being concerned this death spectrum follows the will of the karma that has not been lived out. So that when Manon de Gaussin seeks and finds rest at the proper moment, this death spectrum comes to her because there is living in it the will which should have brought about the union of the two. The death spectrum—so far as this is possible—fulfils what ought to have been but has not been fulfilled.
The connection described in the tale has, in this respect, been truly portrayed. This death spectrum, therefore, also contains the karma that has not been lived out, and after the death of the human being something takes shape in the elementary world that is like a picture of this karma. We have to do with two aspects—please realise this—When a human being dies with karma that has not been lived out, he will have to live out this karma in a subsequent incarnation ... this will happen at some time in the future. But in the death spectrum there arises something that is like a prophetic picture of what will have to come about at some time, what ought to have come about but has not. Clairvoyant vision of the death spectrum therefore brings an experience of destiny, of karma that has not been lived out.
It may be said that in the etheric spectrum of the human being after death something happens that could have happened in life, but has not. A picture of happenings which could have been happenings of life may be experienced in this death spectrum. This is a very significant esoteric connection. The human individuality (Ego and astral body) passes over almost immediately after death to a kind of cosmic existence and for some days is still connected with the death spectrum (the etheric body), so that the karma-will of the individuality is playing from the cosmos into the death spectrum. Then, after a few days, what belongs to the cosmic spheres is loosened from what has received its specific, unique character from the connection with the physical human being and has only assumed the form of the physical human being because it has been enclosed within the human physical body. The Ego and the astral body have not this physical form of the human being; but the death spectrum, the etheric body has, in a certain respect, also the physical form of the human being. The death spectrum loses this human form only in the course of days. When the soul has been freed from the physical body it loses this human form. The physical body, through its forces, has preserved this death spectrum in its form; but now that the spectrum is outside the physical body, it takes on other forms, determined by the external forces of the cosmos.
It is therefore understandable that a true description of the emergence of the human individuality together with the etheric body from the physical body must indicate the death spectrum rising up, as it were, in the form which has been that of the physical body. if, therefore, somebody wants to describe the moment of death truly, he will describe how the etheric body rises up like a kind of cloud, still manifesting the form of the physical body with its arms and other limbs, and how this gradually dissolves into the more spiritual forces working in from the cosmos. This is a transformation, a metamorphosis, a transition.
The picture revealed by clairvoyance is difficult for us, because in physical life the human being is bound to time and space, and indeed to those forms of time and space which are at our disposal precisely when we are in the physical body, namely, ordinary three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time, with its past, present and future. And so, many people are inclined to connect with purely spiritual perceptions, three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time with its past, present and future. We can speak of time and space in connection with the spiritual world too; but there they are altogether different. The difficulty is that words coined for the physical world are inadequate and imperfect when used for portrayal of the spiritual world.
In conceptions of time in the physical world, the past is ... well, the past. The past lies behind us and we can only preserve it in memory. It is only the present that can be there before us in immediate perception. In the spiritual world it is not like this, nor even in the elementary world; there the past can be before us just as the present is before us in the physical world.
In the spiritual world, therefore, we can look at what is past, what has happened, what can only be preserved by the physical individuality in memory. When we have passed through the Gate of Death we can look from a later point of time at an earlier point of time. It is just as if, from a later period, we were looking at what is physically past as something that is immediately present, just as from this point where I am standing I can look, physically, into the corner. The past is actually there, living before us, surrounding us.
This conception is made particularly vivid by events like one that happened among us recently, when we attended the cremation of a dear friend, and when her consciousness first came to itself at the moment when the fire seized the physical body. At this moment the consciousness began to be active. But before the physical body was given over to cremation the burial service was held, and it could be seen that this burial service was vividly present to the Dead, as vividly as when something is before us in space. [‘Rudolf Steiner and our Dead.’ Phil. Anthr. verlag (not yet in translation)]
Such things belong, of course, to the very deepest esotericism among us. But in the course of many years we have been striving to make it possible to speak among ourselves of things that are veiled in mysteries just as one speaks of ordinary everyday occurrences. What may be said now is this: that when these difficult days of the war are over, our esoteric life at all events will have to assume a much stronger and more intimate character then, things called forth by the suffering through which humanity has passed—I do not mean the individual suffering which springs from egotism but the general suffering undergone by mankind as a whole. Because of this general suffering it will be possible for much to be deepened in other directions, in directions upon which silence has perforce now to be maintained because human beings are living in a time of general transition.
Let us think more intimately still of the emergence of the human individuality—of the Ego and the astral body with the etheric body—let us think of the emergence of the threefold man from the physical body. This is a process which lasts for days, beginning when the human being passes through the gate of Death. This process shows very vividly indeed how cosmic forces may exist in the human etheric body, but it also reveals, as we have seen, the karma that has not been lived out. This is a process that is individually different in different human beings; it is not the same in two human beings. That is why it is so difficult to describe these things. They are not the same in two cases; they are everywhere different.
It is of course the case that other elements, as well as this process, are contained in the death spectrum, but I cannot describe everything at once. If we know of two characteristic phenomena contained in this death spectrum we already have a more intimate picture than when we are only able to associate the term ‘etheric body’ with this death spectrum. Karma that has not been lived out is contained within this death spectrum—and this makes it possible to deal with conflicts in written works of art, to connect this karma that has not been lived out with processes that take place after death. All that a purely exoteric writer can do is to portray the conflict that has taken place in life, and then let his characters die. But when—as for example in Shakespeare's works—account is taken of esoteric connections in life (as I have said on different occasions in indicating what was behind Shakespeare), when a writer shows how things are connected with deeper laws of life and his descriptions take account of what lies behind the external happenings, then a work like Hamlet can come into being. in what comes from the spirit of Hamlet's father we see a great deal of karma that has not been lived out, that is being transformed. The dramatic conflict for the main character of the play, for Hamlet, begins through the intervention of the father's karma which has not been lived out. So an artist who is convinced of the connection of the physical with the spiritual world will often feel compelled not to let his human characters simply fade out at death—as monistic and materialistic thinkers picture to themselves—but to indicate that this passing through death is a beginning of new events and happenings that are still more concrete than the concrete happenings of life between birth and death.
In order to show how art can seek enrichment by using earthly life as the starting-point for the continuation which then proceeds in the spiritual life, I have spoken about the tale from which I also read an extract yesterday. It is interesting to find how the experience of karma that has not been lived out can come to a man, how he can describe it. And he may feel compelled to say at the end of his work: ‘Here I feel the karma that has not been lived out.’ Then he may feel the urge to portray, in an elementary, real Imagination, how this karma lives itself out. This can be done if life is taken in its totality and not merely in its physical aspect.
In this connection I want to speak of yet another writing although I can indicate its content only very briefly, still more briefly than yesterday, because it is a novel of two volumes (“Invincible Powers”, by Herman Grimm). You will see that what is said here also portrays an element of karma that has not been lived out. I will indicate as briefly as possible how the story gives expression to this.
A mother comes with her daughter from America to Europe. The father died some time ago in America. on their journey in Europe they meet a man who is a descendant of an old noble family, a family firmly rooted in the traditions of aristocracy. Many things happen from which it at once becomes evident to those who observe the spiritual connections of things that between the man "“Arthur” and the two women whom he happens to see in the street while they are going to a theatre, there are karmic links. Anyone who watches the events from the point of view of Spiritual Science observes this immediately. These karmic ties lead to very intricate situations. They take their course in such a way that the whole present age, European culture that has grown old and the still young American culture, are described in a great tableau. The whole present picture of Europe and America is described with poignant concreteness and self-surrendering love. The representatives of these two kinds of culture are Arthur and the two other personalities who have been mentioned. The whole of the present time is described in these souls and many things happen which, to those who bear the spiritual connections in mind, immediately appear as consequences of the karma playing between them. The external milieu, pictured in the interplay between the American outlook upon life and the atavistic European outlook, is connected on the one side with the new, fresh, untouched culture of America, and, on the other, with the atavistic European culture that is simply subsisting on tradition. In this whole milieu there is something that is reflected in the souls of the characters and causes conflict after conflict. Arthur's father who has died, owned an estate; his whole outlook had been imbued with old traditions of the aristocracy; with his money, or rather, with the disappearance of his money, he was a product of the old traditions of aristocracy, he had been obliged to sell the estate—as happens so frequently in Europe today. The estate has been sold, so that Arthur does not inherit it. In the noblest way—which is not always the case in such affairs—an improvement is brought about in the situation as a result of the attitude taken by the Americans to European conditions. Naturally, Emmy has money and she is able to retrieve the estate for Arthur. This happens, at all events is about to happen. But an upstart of uncertain origin has remained on the scene; he is not quite sure of his parentage but he goes about on the estate like a tramp. The estate does not, of course, belong to him, but he has a delusion that he is the master of it—and now the idea comes into his head that the estate must become his property. His point of view is that as the estate has been re-acquired, his rights have been violated. But his ‘rights’ are only a decadent delusion—he regards himself as the master of the estate which has long been mortgaged to the Bank. He goes about as mentally deranged people are allowed to go about when they are not dangerous. A conflict begins, in that this man is furious about the acquisition of the property and actually shoots Arthur on the estate when opportunity offers. Now Emmy has already had terrible experiences; this other experience is added to them and as a consequence of it an illness already present in germ, develops. She is in her twenties. Her mother brings her to Montreux and in her illness she is cared for there by an American who is extraordinarily well portrayed, a Mr. Wilson and some others who are in Montreux. The description of this Mr. Wilson is a wonderful piece of writing; the whole of North America seems to be personified in him ... it is all made wonderfully alive. But in spite of the care she receives—from the doctor too, who comes into her life and is a kind of rival to Arthur, an old friend of his—she cannot be cured. She dies ... and her death is described. In the light of Spiritual Science, therefore, let us observe that here we have, in the sense, a case of karma which in many respects has not been lived out; we have to do with conflicts arising, in the main, between America and Europe; it is a case of karma that simply has been brought to an end by a shot from a gun. Anyone who realises this will naturally ask, if he is not materialistically minded:—“Where is the reality, what happens to this unlived-out karma immediately after death, where will it continue?”—This further continuance of karma that has not been lived out will be felt by a man who is not a materialist. If he is an artist he will feel compelled to give some indication about it, and we actually find such an indication at the end of the writing. I need only read a few lines.—Arthur is dead, he has been shot. Mother and daughter go to Montreux. Emmy is ill for some time and in her last dream Arthur appears to her. It is evident at once that this is no ordinary dream-picture but an actual intervention of the real Arthur in the physical world. The moment of death is described as follows:—
“Between midnight and dawn she thought she had wakened.
Her first glance at the window through which the faint light was streaming into the room, was free and clear, and she knew where she was. Her mother who was sleeping near her, heard her breathing. The next minute, however, with a weight she had never before experienced, overwhelming fear came over her. It was no longer the thoughts that had been troubling her the last days, but it was as if a gigantic hand were holding all the mountains of the earth over her on a thin thread. And at any moment the hand might open and hurl down the great masses which would lie upon her for all eternity. She tried to look within herself and outside herself, seeking for a glimmer of light; but none came. The light from the window had vanished, her mother's breathing was no longer to be heard, and a suffocating loneliness surrounded her. It was as if she would never reach life again. She wanted to call out but could not; she wanted to move but no limb obeyed her. Everything was still and dark and no thought would come in this terrible monotonous state of fear in which even remembrance had departed ... and then, finally, one thought returns: Arthur!
Wonderful to tell, it was as though this single thought had changed into a point of light, visible to the eye. And as the thought grew to infinite longing, so did this light grow and expand, and suddenly seemed to divide, unfold and take on a form ... Arthur was there before her she saw, and finally recognised him. It was certainly he himself. He smiled and was close beside her. She did not notice whether he was naked or clothed, but it was he; she knew him too well; it was he himself, no phantom who had assumed his shape. He stretched his hand towards her and said: ‘Come:’
Never had his voice seemed so sweet and attractive as now.
With all the power of which she was capable, she tried to raise her arms towards him; but she could not.
He came still nearer and stretched his hand closer to her: ‘Come!’ he said once again.
To Emmy it was as though the power with which she tried to bring one word through her lips would have been able to move mountains, but she could not utter even this one word. Arthur looked at her and she at him. One movement of a finger now and she would have touched him. And now the most terrible thing of all: he seemed to be going away again: ‘Come!’ he said for the third time. With the feeling that he had spoken for the last time, that the dreadful darkness would again hide the heavenly vision of him, she was filled now with a fear that split her as the frost splits trees and made the final effort to raise her arms to him; but the weight and coldness which held her captive were not to be overcome. And then, as a bud breaks and a flower grows before our eyes, shining arms came forth from her own arms, shining shoulders from her shoulders; these arms stretched towards Arthur's arms and he, grasping her hands with his hands and slowly hovering backwards, drew her with him, together with the whole shining form that has arisen from the body of Emmy.”
This moment of death, this emergence of the etheric body, the passing over of the death spectrum into the cosmic realms, is wonderfully described. In this death spectrum, spiritually and concretely described as it emerges from the body, there is contained the will that is taking shape; this death spectrum contains the karma that was not lived out between Arthur and Emmy. I quote this second example because you saw from the tale yesterday how the death spectrum comes to the still living personality. But here we have to do with two purely spiritual entities, with the etheric body of Arthur which has already undergone many transformations in the spiritual world and with Emmy's emerging death spectrum. It is therefore an old relationship, karma that has not been lived out, that is playing between Arthur's etheric body and Emmy's death spectrum which is just passing into the spiritual world. Something that has not been played out in life, something that is unlived-out karma, is proceeding here in the spiritual world.
We must really try to grasp in its reality what is present as the first moment after the human individuality has passed through the gate of Death. The unlived-out karma is freed from the individuality—the individuality can only live out his karma in a subsequent incarnation—it is freed, and becomes cosmic: cosmic happenings are the result of it. And in much that happens in the clouds, on the mountains, in the springs, but also in much that happens in the subconscious processes of the soul-life of human beings living on the earth, unlived-out karma is being expressed, karma that has taken over into the spiritual world and is like a wellspring in this death spectrum. For these cosmic happenings play continually into human life; we are permeated by them, interwoven in them.—Thus we must distinguish between what becomes cosmic when the human being passes through the gate of Death, and what remains individual. What remains of the physical body becomes preeminently cosmic, this passes over—slowly in earth burial more quickly in cremation—into the elementary, the more physical-elementary world of earth; and it is a gross, materialistic idea to believe that this then simply disappears or functions like the chemical elements. This is nonsense, and we shall see tomorrow how it goes on living in the planet, how significant it is for the planet.
It lives on in the planetary life. The chemists' knowledge of what becomes of the physical body amounts to nothing at all; for the earth has its essential subsistence from the fact that human beings have died upon it—its more important forces are derived from this source. The earth has its subsistence from the physical nature of human beings who have died. here, therefore, something becomes cosmic from the physical body; the other becomes cosmic from the etheric body. And I have tried today to indicate what becomes cosmic from the ether-aura; what remains, and has become cosmic lives on as individuality in the higher spiritual world. You will find it mentioned in more detail in the books “Theosophy” or “An outline of Occult Science.” This lives on as individuality and I will speak about it tomorrow. But we must realise that what lives on individually begins to live in new conditions which differ essentially from the ordinary conditions of earthly existence.
Careful study of the Vienna lecture-course on the life between death and a new birth will give you a conception of what happens during this period. We cannot really understand the nature of the conditions which prevail between death and a new birth if we have not made these conceptions alive within us. The Time that is presented to our physical outlook as past, present and future, continuing onwards in a straight line, is really a physical Maya. At death we enter into a different world, where the past exists not only in memory, but is actually present; it is all around the human being who is living in conditions where his inner being is revealed as his outer being; his inner being of soul is there in direct manifestation—the being who has shaped the body as well as the physical incarnation between birth and death.
The way in which we must approach one who has passed through the Gate of Death is not an act of external perception but an inner sharing of his experiences. The individuality is fully present when the Gate of Death has been passed, although, as I have said, the human being has to find his bearings and direction within his superabundant consciousness. But what he is in himself, the essential core of his being, is there as a real presence, although it may not as yet be connected with his consciousness. It is there. What a man is in his essential being can be seen, and the experiences shared.
When I have spoken during the sad occasions caused by the recent loss of dear friends, I have always tried to speak out of their being. I will give one or two indications—as far as this is permissible here—concerning the last three friends who have died. I have tried simply to speak out of these souls themselves, as it were to let them speak with me. And when I look back I realise that there were very good reasons for speaking quite differently in each of the three individual cases—for human beings are individually different. I admit quite frankly that this was not in my consciousness when the words were coined. It came entirely out of the situation itself. Moreover words which have to be coined for Spiritual Science and also for the life into which Spiritual science leads us, are coined and unfold in the best and truest way when they are absolutely uncolored by any wish emanating from life. if we are to sneak truly and accurately in the domain of Spiritual Science we must keep entirely aloof from any wish to coin this or that in a particular way. We must hold at a distance every wish that things might be this or that.
When it is a question of speaking at the cremation of a dear friend there is naturally no wish to speak the words that were actually uttered. In such circumstances the words will certainly not be spoken out of any wish, but only out of the necessity. For naturally, the only wish that could be present in such a case is that such words should not have to be spoken. This attitude helps the coining of the words. To me it was very significant—and I say this without any pretensions whatever that in the case of dear Frau Grossheintz I had to speak simply as the organ of expression for this soul.
A soul who had passed through a long earthly life, who in her last years, with so much determination and energy, had united all her forces with the impulses of Spiritual Science ... united them in a way that perhaps only a few among us have done ... who had made Spiritual Science one with her own initiatives in life—such a soul then passes through the Gate of Death into a life that arises not as a theoretical life but as a life of real and vital impulses, born of Spiritual Science. This life is actually there, even if the soul has not yet wakened sufficiently to be aware of it. It is the characteristic element in the being who is becoming free. And so you will admit that the words I had to speak (at the cremation) actually contain what I will call: transformed Spiritual Science, Spiritual Science that has become will, that has become feeling. This soul had had a long earthly life and passed through the gate of Death with mature etheric forces. One was compelled in this case, to speak entirely out of the soul itself. The main words necessarily took a form as if the soul itself were speaking:
In Weltenweiten will ich tragen
fuhlend Herz, dass warm es werde
Im Feuer heil 'gen Kraftewirkens;
In Weltgedanken will ich weben
Das eigne Denken, dass klar es werde
Im Licht des ew'gen Werde-Lebens;
In Seelengrunde will ich tauchen
Ergeb'nes Sinnen, dass stark es werde
Fur Menschenwirkens wahre Ziele;
In gottes Ruhe streb'ich so
Mit Lebenskampfen und mit Sorgen,
Mein Selbst zum hohern Selbst bereitend;
Nach arbeitfreud'gem Frieden trachtend,
Erahnend Welten-Seins im Eigensein,
Mocht' ich die Menschenpflicht erfullen;
Erwartend leben darf ich dann
Entgegen meinem Seelensterne,
Der mir im Geistgebiet den Ort erteilt ...
The inner mobility and life of this soul is revealed in that the first time (at the beginning of the service) the words had to be: “Entgegen meinem Seelensterne,” and at the end of the service: “Entgegen meinem Schicksaltsterne.”
It is the nearness one must have to the soul who has passed through the Gate of Death which calls forth such words—words which are characteristic of the being of the individuality after death.
What I have to say concerning the other two cases will be said tomorrow.
Sechster Vortrag
Ich habe gestern die Erzählung von der Manon de Gaussin angeführt aus dem Grunde, weil in ihr wirklich enthalten ist eine sachgemäße Schilderung des Nachwirkens der Ätherorganisation, des Ätherleibes nach dem Tode. Selbstverständlich kann man nicht jede novellistisch-künstlerische Darstellung in einem solchen Zusammenhange anführen, weil natürlich der Darsteller sich die unsachlichsten Vorstellungen machen könnte, und man dann Unrichtiges anführen würde. Aber ich habe eben ein Beispiel gewählt, wo in einer wirklich sachgemäßen, also in einer dem objektiven Tatbestande entsprechenden Weise das Nachwirken eines solchen Ätherleibes geschildert wird.
Das ist auch gewissermaßen das erste, was der geisteswissenschaftlichen Erkenntnis entgegentritt, daß, wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet, der Zusammenhang von Ätherleib, Astralleib und Ich sich herauslöst aus dem physischen Leibe, und daß dann gewissermaßen ein Zwischenzustand eintritt, in dem auf der einen Seite der physische Leib da ist, und auf der anderen Seite noch zusammenhängend da sind: der Ätherleib, der Astralleib und das Ich.
Wir wissen ja, daß dann nach verhältnismäßig ganz kurzer Zeit der Ätherleib sich loslöst und das Ich mit dem Astralleibe die weitere Weltenwanderung in der Zeit zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, als zusammenhängend mit der menschlichen Individualität, durchzumachen hat.
Nun müssen wir uns klar sein darüber — ich habe das auch in der letzten Zeit öfter betont -, daß die Ätherorganisation, der Ätherleib etwas ist, was vorbestimmt ist, gewissermaßen das ganze maximale Lebensalter hindurch das menschliche Erdenleben zu versorgen. Ein Mensch, der ein hohes Alter erreicht, hat selbstverständlich noch ganz denselben Ätherleib, den er als Kind gehabt hat. Wenn nun der Mensch in einer Inkarnation frühzeitig den physischen Plan zu verlassen hat, so wie als Beispiel - das muß uns ja naheliegen — unser lieber Theo Faiss, und sich dann der Ätherleib abgetrennt hat von dem Astralleib und dem Ich, dann ist dieser Ätherleib in einem anderen Falle als bei einem Menschen, der ein gewisses Maximalalter erreicht hat, der die Kräfte dieses Ätherleibes durch Jahrzehnte seines irdischen Lebens hat verwenden können. Die Kräfte, die im Ätherleibe noch sind, wenn der Mensch frühzeitig stirbt, würden, wenn nach seinem Karma der Mensch auf der Erde hätte bleiben können, ihre Verwendung gefunden haben im weiteren Leben. Diese Verwendung besteht ja in einem fortwährenden Verbrauch des Ätherleibes. Der Ätherleib, der sich also bei einem in frühem Alter Gestorbenen abtrennt, hat viel unverbrauchte Kräfte; die sind enthalten im Ätherleib. Es sind dies gewissermaßen Kräfte, die übergegangen sind in die geistige Welt, die aber noch lange hätten versorgen können ein physisches Leben.
Diese Kräfte sind selbstverständlich nicht vernichtet, wenn ein Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist. Denn nichts - und viel weniger etwas in der geistigen Welt als in der physischen Welt - wird vernichtet. Alles, was an Kräften entsteht, verwandelt sich in andere Formen. Wir wissen ja, daß dieses Gesetz von der Erhaltung der Kraft in der physischen Wissenschaft seit dem Jahre 1842, wo es von Julius Robert Mayer zuerst aufgestellt worden ist, eine große Rolle spielt. Es ist überall wirksam, auch bei der einfachsten Erscheinung. Wenn man zum Beispiel mit der Hand über eine Fläche streicht, wendet man eine Kraft an. Diese Kraft geht nicht verloren; die Stelle wird warm. Es verwandelt sich die Kraft des Druckes, des Drückens und Streichens in Wärme, Keine Kraft geht verloren, die Kräfte verwandeln sich.
Ebensowenig geht eine Kraft in der geistigen Welt verloren. So daß wir sagen können: In die geistige Welt gehen über solche Kräfte des Ätherleibes, die von Frühverstorbenen herrühren und die nun gewissermaßen, da sie nicht weiter verwendet werden zu einem irdischen Leben, verwendet werden zu alle dem, was in Betracht kommt für die menschliche Individualität, die ja mit dem Ich und dem Astralleibe weiterlebt. Diese Kräfte, die sonst verbraucht werden würden für die irdische Individualität, finden ihre Verwendung im Geistigen, und zwar verbleiben sie in der elementaren Welt, wie ja der Ätherleib überhaupt sich auflöst in der sogenannten Elementarwelt. Sie bilden in der elementaren Welt ein wirkliches Kraftreservoir, eine wirkliche Kraftquelle. Das ist schon eine sehr bedeutsame Erscheinung, denn sie beleuchtet uns den Zusammenhang zwischen der physischen Welt und der geistigen in einer konkreten Weise.
Es genügt nicht für eine wirkliche Erkenntnis, nur im Abstrakten sich vorzustellen, daß die physische Welt mit der geistigen zusammenhängt, und daß die geistige Welt hinter der physischen Welt ist. Das Geistige, das hinter der physischen Welt ist, ist gewissermaßen verschiedener Provenienz. Da ist verschiedenes in unserer geistigen Welt, die uns unmittelbar umgibt, was von solchen unverbrauchten Ätherleibern herrührt. Solchen unverbrauchten Ätherleibern dankt insbesondere die für die physische menschliche Erdenentwickelung bedeutsame hellseherische Kunst sehr vieles. Dasjenige, was solche Ätherleiber darstellen in der elementaren Welt, die unmittelbar hinter unserer physischen Welt liegt, das sind insbesondere für die hellseherischen und für die von der Geisteswissenschaft inspirierten Erkenntnisse bedeutsame Anregungen.
Fassen Sie das wohl auf. Gewissermaßen haben wir solchen Frühverstorbenen, wie unser Theo Faiss es ist, das zu danken, daß sie ihre Ätherleiber unserer elementarischen Welt gegeben haben und daß viele, viele spirituelle Einflüsse gerade von solchen Ätherleibern ausgehen können.
Ich glaube, ich brauche kaum zu bemerken, daß solche Einflüsse nur ausgehen können von solchen Seelen, die im Verlaufe eines wirklich naturgemäßen Karmas ihr Ende gefunden haben, niemals von irgend jemandem, der aus menschlichem Willen heraus, etwa durch Selbstmord, zu seinem Tode etwas beigetragen hat. Da verhält sich die Sache ganz anders, denn man vernichtet fruchtbare Kräfte des Ätherleibes durch die Entschlüsse, die aus jener Bewußtseinsmaja heraus, von der ich gestern gesprochen habe, kommen; und aus dieser kommen alle Entschlüsse heraus, welche in bezug auf den Tod noch im Erdenleben gefaßt werden können. Das ist, wie gesagt, nur eine Zwischenbemerkung.
Es ist zu sagen, daß solche Ätherleiber, wie sie eben jetzt gemeint worden sind, ganz besonders mit zugrunde liegen den spirituellen Anregungen, die wir haben können. So wird die spirituelle Bewegung, der wir dienen - wie wir das erkennen können -, in einer ganz hervorragenden Weise zu danken haben für das, was ihr also gegeben werden kann von dieser Seite her. Ich brauche vielleicht auch darauf nicht hinzudeuten, wie bedeutsam unsere Erkenntnis bereichert werden kann in bezug auf die Liebe und Verehrung, die wir unseren Toten entgegenbringen, dadurch daß wir solches wissen, daß wir unterscheiden lernen, wie wir jugendlichen Personen zu danken haben, und wie wir im reifen Alter Hingestorbenen zu danken haben, die aufgenommen haben in ihre Individualität dasjenige, was sonst unverbrauchte Kräfte des Ätherleibes sind.
Wenn jemand in einem höheren Alter stirbt - wir haben auch diesen Fall in den letzten Wochen durchmachen müssen -, so hat er in seinen Astralleib hineingenommen dasjenige, was sonst noch im Ätherleibe ist. Er hat gewissermaßen menschlich gemacht, was sonst kosmisch ist. Dadurch geht dann von ihm selbst, von seiner Individualität, die bedeutsame Anregung aus, von der ich gesprochen habe. Und er ist dadurch in der Weise ganz besonders wirksam, daß diese Anregung dann in die speziellen Menschenherzen auch derer aufgenommen wird, die dazu nicht von der Geisteswissenschaft oder vom Hellsehertum ausgehen, sondern die sich in ihrem Leben den gewöhnlichen Impulsen überlassen, daß auch diese Menschen in ihre Seelen aufgenommen erhalten dasjenige, was so - weniger kosmisch und dafür mehr menschlich - hereinfließt in die spirituelle Welt, in die wir mit unserer Seele immer eingebettet sind.
Damit haben wir aber schon eines bezeichnet, was wir zu suchen haben in dem, was ich nennen möchte das Todesspektrum, diese ätherische Organisation, welche zurückbleibt dann, wenn das Ich und der Astralleib sich lösen. Ich möchte sie das Todesspektrum nennen. In dem sind also solche Kräfte enthalten, wie ich sie eben charakterisiert habe, aber es ist in ihm auch noch manches andere enthalten. Um gewissermaßen zu studieren, was darinnen noch enthalten ist, müssen wir an solches anknüpfen, wie ich es gestern vor Ihre Seelen hinzustellen versuchte mit der Novelle. |
Bedenken Sie, daß - wie ich Ihnen erzählt habe, und was nach dem ganzen Verlaufe der Handlung in der Novelle Ihnen ja ersichtlich sein wird — zwischen Manon de Gaussin und dem Manne, der sich dann erschossen hat, ein karmischer Zusammenhang besteht, der selbstverständlich das Ergebnis von früher miteinander verbrachten Erdenleben ist. Solch ein karmischer Zusammenhang besteht in allen dichterischen Kunstwerken. Sie beruhen eben darauf - und gerade die wirksamsten beruhen darauf -, daß solche karmischen Zusammenhänge, die sich aus früheren Erdenleben ergeben, nicht ganz ausgelebt werden. Die Manon de Gaussin steht gegenüber dem Manne, der sie liebt. Sie versteht seine Liebe nicht, sie sträubt sich aus ihrer Bewußtseinsmaja heraus gegen das volle Ausleben des Karma. Daraus entstehen jene Konflikte, die ganz besonders gut künstlerisch zu verwerten sind, weil sich aus der Bewußtseinsmaja heraus die Menschen auflehnen gegen das, was karmisch vorherbestimmt ist.
Selbstverständlich können sie es ja nicht wegschaffen! Ich will nicht damit sagen, daß man das Karma wegschaffen könne: es muß ja in einer nächsten Inkarnation ausgelebt werden. Dem Karma kann der Mensch selbstverständlich nicht entweichen, wenigstens in den allerseltensten Fällen, und in diesen muß das Karma transformiert werden. Aber es kann in einer Inkarnation sich die Seele gegen das volle Ausleben des Karma sträuben. Dann entstehen solche Dinge wie die, welche die Handlung dieser Novelle bilden. Dann geht der eine Mensch von dem physischen Plane weg, und das Karma hat sich nicht so gestaltet, wie es sich hätte gestalten sollen. Aber dieses «sollen» des Karma ist eingeschrieben in die Menschennatur. Es hätte sich eben sollen das Karma in einer gewissen Weise vollziehen. Wir können gewissermaßen dadurch, daß wir unser Karma in einer bestimmten Inkarnation nicht erkennen, dadurch, daß wir uns dagegen sträuben, dieses Karma verschieben auf eine spätere Inkarnation. Aber in uns war es doch, es war darinnen in uns. Aus dem einen Leben wischen wir dann gleichsam das Karma weg, weg aus den Geschehnissen des Lebens, die sich zwischen Geburt und Tod abspielen.
Und so ist aus dem Leben der Manon de Gaussin und desjenigen, der sie geliebt hat, dasjenige hinweggewischt, was sie erlebt hätten, wenn sie ihr Karma voll ausgelebt hätten. Das ist weggewischt aus den physischen Ereignissen des Lebens. Aber woraus es nicht weggewischt werden kann, woraus es nicht getilgt werden kann, das ist das Todesspektrum. Da bleibt es darinnen als Wille, als Wollung, möchte ich sagen, und dann kommt das zustande, daß nach dem Tode eines solchen Menschen dieses Todesspektrum dem Willen des unausgelebten Karma folgt. Wenn also die Manon de Gaussin Ruhe sucht und dies im entsprechenden Augenblicke ist, dann kommt zu ihr das Todesspektrum, aus dem Grunde, weil in diesem Todesspektrum noch der Wille lebt, der die Verbindung der beiden hätte hervorrufen sollen. Das was hätte geschehen sollen, aber nicht ausgeführt worden ist, das führt - so weit das ein solches Spektrum ausführen kann — das Todesspektrum aus.
Es ist also auch in dieser Beziehung der in dieser Novelle geschilderte Zusammenhang sachgemäß geschildert. So daß wir sagen können: außer dem, was wir schon angeführt haben, ist in diesem Todesspektrum noch enthalten das unausgelebte Karma; und es geschieht nach dem Tode von Menschen in der elementarischen Welt etwas, was wie ein bildlicher Ablauf des unausgelebten Karma ist. Dadurch haben wir es - fassen Sie das wohl — mit zweierlei zu tun. Wenn ein Mensch mit unausgelebtem Karma stirbt, so bleibt selbstverständlich für ihn die Notwendigkeit, in einer folgenden Inkarnation dieses unausgelebte Karma auszuleben. Das geschieht einmal in der Zukunft. Aber mit dem Todesspektrum geschieht etwas, was wie ein prophetisches Bild ist dessen, was sich einmal abspielen muß, was sich hätte abspielen sollen, aber sich noch nicht abgespielt hat. Man erlebt also unausgelebtes Schicksal, Karma, wenn man hellsehend das Todesspektrum betrachtet.
Man kann sagen, daß mit dem Ätherspektrum des Menschen nach dem Tode etwas vorgeht, was im Leben hätte vorgehen können, aber nicht vorgegangen ist. Also ein Bild von Vorgängen, die hätten Lebensvorgänge werden können, kann in diesem Todesspektrum erlebt werden. Das ist ein sehr bedeutsamer esoterischer Zusammenhang. Dasjenige, was menschliche Individualität ist, geht ja fast unmittelbar nach dem Tode zu einer Art von kosmischem Dasein über, das Ich und der Astralleib, und hängt zusammen, eben noch durch Tage hindurch, mit dem Todesspektrum, dem Ätherleibe, so daß der unausgelebte Karmawille der menschlichen Individualität tätig ist aus dem Kosmos herein in das Todesspektrum. Dann löst sich nach Tagen dasjenige, was den Sphären des Kosmos angehört, von dem, was seine eigentümliche, eigenartige Wesenheit durch den Zusammenhang mit dem physischen Menschen gehabt hat und was nur dadurch die Gestalt des physischen Menschen angenommen hat, daß es eben im physischen Menschenleibe eingeschlossen war. Das Ich und der Astralleib haben nicht diese physische Menschengestalt; aber das Todesspektrum, der Ätherleib hat in gewisser Weise auch des Menschen physische Gestalt. Und es verliert dieses Todesspektrum erst im Verlaufe von Tagen diese menschliche Gestalt, denn wenn die Seele sich losgelöst hat von dem physischen Leibe, verliert 'sie diese menschliche Gestalt. Der physische Leib hat dieses Todesspektrum durch seine Kraft in seiner Gestalt erhalten; da es nun aber außerhalb desselben ist, nimmt es andere Gestalten an, die durch die äußeren Kräfte des Kosmos bedingt werden.
Es ist also gewissermaßen dadurch begreiflich, daß eine sachgemäße Schilderung das Herausgehen der menschlichen Individualität aus dem physischen Leibe, das mit dem Ätherleibe zusammen erfolgt, so darstellen muß, als ob das Todesspektrum sich heraushebe.gewissermaßen in der Form, die der physische Leib gehabt hat. Wenn also jemand den Moment des Sterbens sachgemäß schildern will, so wird er schildern, wie sich dieser Ätherleib heraushebt, gleichsam wolkenhaft heraushebt und im Herausheben noch die Gestalt des physischen Leibes zeigt mit seinen Armen und den anderen Gliedern, und wie dieses sich allmählich auflöst in die aus dem Kosmos hereinwirkenden, mehr spirituellen Kräfte. Das ist eine Transformation, eine Metamorphose, ein Übergang.
Die hellseherische Vorstellung wird uns aus dem Grunde schwierig, weil im physischen Leben der Mensch gebunden ist an Zeit und Raum, und zwar an diejenigen Formen von Zeit und Raum, die wir gerade im physischen Leibe zur Verfügung haben, nämlich den gewöhnlichen dreidimensionalen Raum und die eigentlich eindimensionale Zeit mit ihrer Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft. Und so haben viele die Neigung, auch für die rein spirituellen Wahrnehmungen beizubehalten, was der dreidimensionale Raum und was die eindimensionale Zeit mit ihrer Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft ist. Wir können schon von Zeit und Raum auch in bezug auf die spirituelle Welt sprechen, aber sie sind da wirklich anders. Das ist ja das Schwierige, daß man die Worte, die für die physische Welt gemacht sind, wirklich nur mangelhaft verwenden kann für die Darstellung der spirituellen Welt.
Wenn man von Zeitvorstellungen spricht in der physischen Welt, so ist das Vergangene eben vergangen. Das Vergangene liegt hinter uns, und wir können es nur in der Erinnerung festhalten; in der unmittelbaren Anschauung können wir nur das Gegenwärtige vor uns haben. So ist es in der spirituellen Welt nicht, Schon in der elementaren Welt ist es nicht so, sondern das Vergangene kann da auch so vor uns stehen, wie in der physischen Welt ein Gegenwärtiges vor uns steht.
Also auf das, was vergangen ist, was sich zugetragen hat, was für den Verstand, für die physische Intellektualität nur in der Erinnerung festgehalten werden kann, worauf man nicht mehr hinschauen kann im äußeren Leben, auf das kann man hinschauen; wenn man die Pforte des Todes überschritten hat, kann man hinschauen von einem späteren Zeitpunkte auf einen früheren Zeitpunkt. Es ist dann gerade so, als ob man von einem späteren Zeitraume auf das, was physisch vergangen ist, wie auf ein Gegenwärtiges hinschaute, so wie man von diesem Punkt, wo ich stehe, physisch in die Ecke dort hinschauen kann. Das Vergangene ist wirklich da, steht tatsächlich lebendig vor uns, es umgibt uns.
Solch eine Anschauung wird insbesondere lebendig, wenn dasjenige geschieht, was vor ganz kurzer Zeit uns geschehen ist, wo wir eine liebe Freundin zur Bestattung zu geleiten hatten, und wo ihr erstes Ordnen der Bewußtseinsverhältnisse geschah unmittelbar in dem Momente, wo den physischen Leib die Verbrennung ergriff. In diesem Momente fing das Bewußtsein an, tätig zu sein. Wir hatten aber vorher, bevor der physische Leib der Verbrennung übergeben worden ist, die Totenfeier, und nun konnte beobachtet werden, wie die Tote lebendig vor sich hatte, so wie man im Raume etwas lebendig vor sich hat, diese Totenfeier.
Solche Dinge gehören allerdings zu demjenigen, was wir das Esoterischste unserer Esoterik nennen können. Aber wir haben ja im Laufe vieler Jahre gestrebt danach, gewissermaßen die Möglichkeit uns zu erringen, so wie man von den gewöhnlichen Ereignissen des Tages spricht, unter uns auch sprechen zu können über solche geheimnisvollen Vorgänge. Und was wir sagen können, ist dieses: Es wird jedenfalls, wenn die jetzigen schweren Kriegszeiten vorüber sein werden, unser esoterisches Leben einen viel, viel energischeren und intimeren Charakter anzunehmen haben, als es jemals vorher gehabt hat. Es wird dann manches möglich sein, geradezu herausgefordert sein durch das Leid, durch das die Menschheit durchgegangen ist - ich meine nicht das einzelne Leid, das immer dem Egoismus entspringt, sondern das allgemeine Leid, durch das die Allgemeinheit durchgegangen ist -, durch dieses allgemeine Leid wird es möglich sein, vieles auch nach anderen Richtungen hin zu vertiefen, nach Richtungen hin, über die jetzt gerade geschwiegen werden muß, weil wir in einer allgemeinen Übergangszeit der Menschheit leben.
Fassen wir noch einmal gewissermaßen intimer ins Auge dieses Heraustreten der menschlichen Individualität, also des Ich und des astralischen Leibes mit dem ätherischen Leibe, als ein Hervorgehen des dreigliedrigen Menschen aus dem physischen Leibe. Das ist ja ein Vorgang, der tagelang andauert, der seinen Anfang aber nimmt, wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes geht. Dieser Vorgang zeigt also ganz besonders lebendig, wie in dem ätherischen Leibe des Menschen kosmische Kräfte sein können, zeigt aber auch, wie wir jetzt gesehen haben, gewissermaßen das unausgelebte Karma. Das ist ein Vorgang, der wirklich individuell verschieden ist für die verschiedenen Menschen, ein Vorgang, der nicht bei zwei Menschen der gleiche ist. Daher ist es auch so schwierig, diese Dinge zu schildern, weil sie wirklich nicht in zwei Fällen gleich sind, sondern überall verschieden sind.
Wenn wir diesen Vorgang ins Auge fassen, so ist es selbstverständlich, daß noch Verschiedenes andere - ich kann aber nicht alles auf einmal schildern - in diesem Todesspektrum enthalten ist. Aber wenn wir einmal zwei Eigenschaften haben, die in diesem Todesspektrum enthalten sind, so haben wir schon eine intimere Vorstellung, als wenn wir nur ein Wort, das Wort «Ätherleib», mit diesem Todesspektrum verbinden können. Unausgelebtes Karma ist in diesem Todesspektrum darinnen, und dadurch entsteht die Möglichkeit, gerade künstlerische Konflikte daraus zu gewinnen, dieses unausgelebte Karma in Zusammenhang zu bringen mit solchen Vorgängen nach dem Tode.
Ein rein exoterischer Künstler wird sich begnügen müssen, den Lebenskonflikt einfach hinzustellen und dann seine Menschen sterben zu lassen. Aber wenn, wie zum Beispiel bei Shakespeareschen Dichtungen, mit esoterischen Lebenszusammenhängen gerechnet wird - wie ich bei verschiedenen Gelegenheiten gesagt habe, indem ich auf dasjenige hingewiesen habe, was hinter Shakespeare stand -, wenn gezeigt wird, wie die Dinge Zusammenhang haben mit tieferen Lebensgesetzen, wenn geschildert wird mit Berücksichtigung dessen, was hinter dem äußeren Vorgange steht, dann kommt das zustande, was wir zum Beispiel in dem Hamlet haben. Wir haben wahrhaftig recht viel unausgelebtes, sich verwandelndes Karma sich abspielen sehen in dem, was ausgeht von dem Geiste von Hamlets Vater. Da beginnt gewissermaßen schon der dramatische Konflikt auch für die Hauptperson des Dramas, für Hamlet, durch das Eingreifen des unausgelebten Karma des Vaters.
Ein Künstler also, der den Zusammenhang der physischen Welt mit der geistigen Welt festzuhalten in der Lage ist, wird sich oftmals gedrängt fühlen, die Menschen nicht einfach so — wie der Monist es sich vorstellt und der Materialist - mit dem Tode hinfallen zu lassen, sondern anzudeuten, daß dieses Durchgehen durch den Tod ein Anfang zu neuen Ereignissen ist, zu Vorgängen, die noch konkreter sind als die konkreten Lebensvorgänge, die sich zwischen Geburt und Tod abspielen.
Um zu zeigen, wie die Kunst darnach streben kann, bereichert zu werden dadurch, daß sie das irdische Leben zum Ausgangspunkt verwendet für die Fortsetzung, die sich dann im geistigen Leben daran anschließt, habe ich zu Ihnen gesprochen von der Novelle, von der ich gestern auch ein Stück vorgelesen habe. Aber es ist überhaupt interessant zu beobachten, wie der Mensch darauf kommen kann, unausgelebtes Karma zu empfinden, wie der Mensch etwas schildern kann, was im eminentesten Sinne sich erfühlen läßt wie unausgelebtes Karma. Und hat er dann unausgelebtes Karma geschildert, da kann er sich natürlich gedrängt fühlen, am Ende seiner künstlerischen Schilderung bewußt darauf hinzuweisen, daß das unausgelebtes Karma ist. Und dann kann er sich gedrängt fühlen, gerade das darzustellen, wodurch dieses unausgelebte Karma gleichsam elementarisch, in einer elementarisch realen Imagination sich auslebt, wenn wir das Leben in seiner Ganzheit und nicht bloß in seinem physischen Aspekte nehmen.
In dieser Beziehung möchte ich noch von einem anderen Kunstwerke sprechen, dessen Inhalt ich nur ganz kurz andeuten kann, noch viel kürzer, als das gestern der Fall war, weil es sich hier um einen zweibändigen Roman handelt. Sie werden sehen, daß auch in diesen Schilderungen etwas von unausgelebtem Karma vorkommt. Ich werde so schnell wie möglich andeuten, inwiefern in diesem Kunstwerke unausgelebtes Karma zum Ausdrucke kommt.
Eine Mutter kommt mit ihrer Tochter aus Amerika nach Europa. Der Vater ist in Amerika vor längerer Zeit gestorben. Auf der Reise in Europa treffen sie einen Nachkömmling eines alten, in den formellen Traditionen festgewurzelten Adelsgeschlechtes. Die mannigfaltigsten Vorgänge spielen sich nun ab, wobei für den, der die Dinge in ihrem geistigen Zusammenhange beobachtet, sogleich klar wird, daß zwischen dem Manne, der in dem Kunstwerke Arthur genannt wird, und den beiden Damen, die der Mann einfach sieht auf der Straße, während sie ins Theater fahren, karmische Zusammenhänge walten. Diese karmischen Zusammenhänge führen dann auch zu den komplizierten Lebensverhältnissen, die sich da abspielen. Sie spielen sich so ab, daß wirklich in einem großen Kulturtableau der ganze Gegensatz der altgewordenen europäischen Kultur und der noch jungen amerikanischen Kultur geschildert wird. Mit einer eindringlichen Anschaulichkeit und hingebenden Liebe wird der ganze Gegensatz der beiden Kulturen geschildert; deren Repräsentanten sind Emmy - so heißt die Tochter - und Arthur, der ihr entgegenläuft und sie furchtbar zu lieben anfängt. Es wird also der ganze Gegensatz in diesen beiden Seelen gespiegelt, und vieles spielt sich ab, was dem, der die geisteswissenschaftlichen Zusammenhänge im Auge hat, sogleich erscheint als Folge des Karma, das zwischen den beiden spielt.
Gewissermaßen ist das äußere Milieu, mit dem man es in dem Zusammenwirken amerikanischer und europäischer Lebensauffassung zu tun hat, etwas, was zusammenhängt mit der frischen, von historischen Traditionen unberührten Kultur Amerikas, und auf der anderen Seite mit der eingesulzten, ganz. von Traditionen lebenden europäischen Kultur. In diesem ganzen Milieu lebt etwas, was sich spiegelt in den Seelen, und was Lebenskonflikte über Lebenskonflikte herbeiführt. Das führt dann auch zu dem letzten großen Lebenskonflikt, der darin besteht, daß Arthurs Vater, der gestorben ist, dem ein Gut gehörte, und der mit seinen ganzen Anschauungen in den alten Adelstraditionen noch darinnen stand, nun gewissermaßen mit seinem Gelde, oder vielmehr mit dem Schwinden seines Geldes herausgewachsen ist aus den alten Adelstraditionen — wie das heute in Europa so vielfach geschieht - und das Gut hat fallen lassen. Das Gut ist also verkauft worden, so daß Arthur um die Erbschaft dieses Gutes gekommen ist.
Nun spielt da in der edelsten Weise hinein, was nicht immer in dieser Weise der Fall ist, daß durch die Art, wie sich die amerikanischen Verhältnisse zu den europäischen stellen, eine kleine Aufbesserung geschieht. Mit ihrem Geld kann Emmy aushelfen, das heißt die Mutter, kann für Arthur das Gut zurückkaufen. Das geschieht auch, soll wenigstens geschehen. Da ist aber noch so ein unklarer Sprößling, welcher dort geblieben ist; er weiß nicht recht, woher er gekommen ist, aber er treibt sich wie ein Vagabund so auf dem Gute herum. Es gehört ihm selbstverständlich nicht, aber in seinen, man möchte sagen, Wahnsinnsvorstellungen hat er den Gedanken, daß er da der Herr sei, und nun steigt ihm in den Kopf die Idee, daß das Gut ihm gehören sollte. Er findet von seinem Standpunkte aus, daß, indem dieses Gut wieder angekauft worden ist, ein Eingriff in seine Rechte geschehen sei; seine Rechte bestehen aber nur in einer Art dekadenten Wahnsinnsidee: er betrachtet sich als Herrn des längst einem reichen Bankier verpfändet gewesenen Gutes. Er treibt sich herum, wie man so geistig gestörte Menschen sich herumtreiben läßt, die nicht gerade gefährlich sind. Es spielt sich nun da ein Konflikt ab, der sich dadurch äußert, daß dieser Mensch wütend wird über den Ankauf des Gutes und daß er, da sich ihm die Gelegenheit dazu bietet, den Arthur wirklich auf dem Gute erschießt.
Nun hat schon früher Emmy furchtbare Erlebnisse durchgemacht; sie muß auch noch das durchmachen, und infolgedessen entwickelt sich eine in ihrer Anlage vorhandene Krankheit - sie geht erst in die Zwanzigerjahre - weiter. Sie wird krank nach Montreux gebracht von ihrer Mutter und wird da, in Montreux, von einem außerordentlich sympathisch geschilderten Amerikaner gepflegt, einem Mr. Wilson und einigen anderen, die noch da sind. Es ist das gerade ein wunderbares Moment, ein ganz hervorragender Zug dieses Kunstwerkes, wie dieser Mr. Wilson geschildert wird. — Es lebt gleichsam ganz Nordamerika in ihm. Es ist dies in ganz wunderbarer Weise lebendig gemacht. Aber Emmy kann, trotzdem sie so gepflegt wird, auch von dem Arzte, der ihr noch in den Lebensweg tritt, der so gewissermaßen ein Nebenbuhler des Arthur ist, aber ein alter Freund von ihm, nicht geheilt werden. Sie stirbt in Montreux, und nun wird ihr Tod geschildert.
Beachten wir also aus dem geisteswissenschaftlichen Zusammenhange heraus, daß wir es hier im eigensten Sinne mit unausgelebtem Karma zu tun haben, mit einem überall in seinen Fäden abgerissenen Karma, das überall in Konflikte gekommen ist, in Konflikte, die hauptsächlich spielen zwischen Amerika und Europa, einem Karma, das dann einfach durch einen Flintenschuß zum Abschluß gekommen ist. Derjenige, der das empfindet, muß das Bedürfnis haben, wenn er nicht ein materialistisch gesinnter Mensch ist, sich zu fragen: Wo ist die Realität, wo kommt nun unmittelbar nach dem Tode dieses unausgelebte Karma hin, wo wird das weiterleben? Ich möchte sagen, von dieser Art und Weise des Weiterlebens von unausgelebtem Karma hat ein Mensch, der nicht Materialist ist, eine Empfindung: er muß also, wenn er Künstler ist, das Bedürfnis fühlen, eine Hindeutung darauf zu geben, und eine solche Hindeutung finden wir wirklich am Schlusse des Werkes.
Nur ein paar Zeilen brauche ich vorzulesen. Arthur ist also tot, erschossen. Mutter und Tochter reisen nach Montreux; Emmy ist längere Zeit krank, und in ihrem letzten Traum erscheint ihr Arthur. Aber sogleich wird einem klar, daß es sich hier nicht um ein bloßes Traumbild handelt, um einen Reminiszenztraum, sondern um ein wirkliches Hereingreifen des realen Arthur in die physische Welt. Und nun wird der Moment des Todes so geschildert:
«Zwischen Mitternacht und Morgen glaubte sie zu erwachen.
Ihr erster Blick auf das Fenster, durch das matte Helligkeit ein- strömte, war frei und klar, und sie wußte, wo sie war. Auch ihre Mutter, die neben ihr schlief, hörte sie atmen. Noch einen Moment weiter aber, und mit einem Druck, den sie nie zuvor empfunden, befiel sie überwältigende Angst. Es waren nicht mehr jene einzelnen Gedanken, die sie in den letzten Tagen quälten, sondern als hielte eine Riesenhand alle Gebirge der Erde an einem dünnen Faden über ihr und jeden Moment könnten sich die Finger öffnen, die ihn hielten und die Masse herabstürzen, um ewige Zeiten auf ihr liegen zu bleiben. Sie irrte mit den Blicken umher in sich und außer sich, nach einem Schimmer von Licht suchend, nichts aber bot sich dar, der Schein des Fensters erloschen, der Atem ihrer Mutter nicht mehr hörbar, und erstickende Einsamkeit sie umgebend, als würde sie niemals wieder Lebendiges erreichen. Sie wollte rufen, aber sie konnte nicht, sie wollte sich rühren, aber kein Glied mehr gehorchte ihr. Ganz still war es, ganz finster, keine Gedanken selbst mehr möglich zu fassen in dieser furchtbar eintönigen Angst: die Erinnerung sogar ihr fortgenommen — da ein Gedanke endlich zurückkehrend: Arthur!
Und wunderbar jetzt: es war, als hätte sich dieser eine Gedanke in einen Lichtpunkt verwandelt, der den Augen sichtbar wurde. Und in dem Maße, wie der Gedanke anwuchs zu grenzenloser Sehnsucht, wuchs dieses Licht, kam und dehnte sich aus, und plötzlich als spränge es auseinander und entfaltete sich und nähme Gestalt an Arthur stand vor ihr! Sie sah ihn, sie erkannte ihn endlich. Er war es sicherlich selbst. Er lächelte und war dicht neben ihr. Sie sah nicht, ob er nackt sei, nicht ob er bekleidet sei: er aber war es, sie kannte ihn zu wohl, er selbst, kein Phantom nur, das seine Gestalt angenommen.
Er streckte ihr die Hand entgegen und sagte: «(Komm .»
Niemals hatte seine Sprache so süß und lockend geklungen wie heute.
Mit aller Kraft, deren sie fähig war, suchte sie ihre Arme zu erheben ihm entgegen; aber sie vermochte es nicht.
Er kam noch näher und streckte die Hand näher auf sie zu: «Komm» sagte er noch einmal.
Emmy war, als müsse die Gewalt, mit der sie ein Wort wenigstens über die Lippen zu bringen versuchte, Berge zu verrücken imstande sein, nicht aber dies eine Wort zu sagen vermochte sie.
Arthur sah sie an und sie ihn. Nur die Möglichkeit jetzt, einen Finger zu bewegen, und sie hätte ihn berührt. Und nun das Furchtbarste: er schien zurückzuweichen wieder! «Komm» sagte er zum dritten Male. Und sie im Gefühle, daß er zum letzten Male gesprochen, daß die furchtbare Finsternis wieder hereinbrechen werde auf seinen himmlischen Anblick, von einer Angst jetzt erfüllt, die sie zerriß, wie der Frost Bäume spaltet, machte den letzten Versuch, die Arme zu ihm zu erheben. Unmöglich aber die Schwere und Kälte zu überwinden, die sie gefesselt hielten - da aber, wie eine Knospe platzt, aus der eine Blüte wächst vor unseren Augen, herauswachsend aus ihren Armen leuchtend andere Arme, glänzende andere Schultern aus ihren Schultern, und diese Arme sich hebend Arthurs Armen entgegen, und er mit seinen Händen ihre Hände fassend, und langsam zurückschwebend sie nach sich ziehend, und die ganze herrliche Gestalt mit ihnen, die sich erhob aus der Emmys.»
In wunderbarer Weise ist da geschildert der Moment des Sterbens, dieses Hervorgehen des Ätherleibes, der Übergang des Todesspektrums in das Kosmische. In diesem Todesspektrum, das geistig anschaulich geschildert ist in dem Herausgehen aus dem Leibe, ist wirklich enthalten der sich formende Lebenswille; im Ausdruck dieses Todesspektrums ist das unausgelebte Karma, das zwischen Arthur und Emmy unausgelebt blieb, enthalten.
Ich führe dieses Beispiel noch an, weil Sie bei der Novelle, die ich gestern erwähnte, haben sehen können, wie einseitig an die andere noch lebende Person das Todesspektrum heran kommt und Beziehungen entwickelt zu der noch lebenden Persönlichkeit. Hier haben wir es aber mit zwei rein spirituellen Entitäten zu tun, mit dem Ätherleib, der vorhanden ist von Arthur, der schon mannigfaltige Verwandlungen in der geistigen Welt durchgemacht hat, und dem sich heraushebenden Todesspektrum der Emmy. Also eine alte unausgelebte Beziehung, unausgelebtes Karma, zwischen dem Ätherleib des Arthur und dem Todesspektrum der Emmy, die eben erst in die geistige Welt übergeht, spielt sich da ab. Da spielt sich also in der geistigen Welt etwas ab, was sich im Leben nicht hat abspielen können, was unausgelebtes Karma ist.
Wir müssen gleichsam zu fassen versuchen, richtig zu fassen versuchen dasjenige, was als die ersten Momente da ist, nachdem die menschliche Individualität durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist. Denn gewissermaßen löst sich ja das, was da auch als unausgelebtes Karma vorhanden ist, von der Individualität los. Die Individualität kann dieses unausgelebte Karma erst in späteren Inkarnationen ausleben. Das löst sich also los und wird auch kosmisch draußen; daraus werden kosmische Ereignisse. Und in manchem, was in den Wolken, auf den Bergen, mit den Quellen vor sich geht, was aber namentlich vor sich geht in unterbewußten seelischen Vorgängen der Menschen, die hier leben, da lebt sich dasjenige aus, was an unausgelebtem Karma herübergenommen ist in die geistige Welt, was wie ein Grundquell in diesem Todesspektrum ist. Denn diese kosmischen Ereignisse spielen in das Menschenleben fortwährend herein, wir sind ganz von ihnen durchdrungen und durchwoben.
So müssen wir unterscheiden zwischen dem, was gewissermaßen, wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet, kosmisch wird, und dem, was individuell bleibt. Im eminentesten Sinne kosmisch wird das, was vom physischen Leibe zurückbleibt. Das geht entweder langsam, bei der Erdenbestattung, oder schneller, bei der Feuerbestattung, über in die elementarische, mehr physisch-elementarische Erdenwelt; und es ist eine grobe materialistische Vorstellung, wenn man glaubt, daß das einfach darin verschwindet oder die Rolle spielt, wie sie die chemischen Elemente spielen. Das ist Unsinn, und wir werden morgen sehen, wie das in dem Planeten weiterlebt, wie das für den Planeten seine große Bedeutung hat. Das lebt im planetarischen Leben weiter.
Was der Chemiker weiß von dem, was aus dem physischen Leibe wird, das ist eben gar nichts. Denn die Erde hat ihren wichtigsten Bestand dadurch, daß Menschen auf ihr gelebt haben und gestorben sind, und das sind die wichtigsten Kräfte, die bleiben. Die Erde besteht auch von dem Physischen der verstorbenen Menschen. Da wird also etwas Kosmisches aus dem physischen Leibe heraus. Das andere wird kosmisch aus dem Ätherleibe heraus. Und ich versuchte heute anzudeuten, was aus der Ätheraura kosmisch wird. Das andere, was da bleibt von dem Ätherleib, das lebt als Individualität in der höheren spirituellen Welt weiter. Sie finden das in meiner «Theosophie» oder auch in der «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß» näher ausgeführt. Das lebt nun als Individualität weiter, und darüber werde ich morgen noch etwas zu sagen haben. Klar müssen wir aber sein, daß das, was individuell weiterlebt, in neuen Verhältnissen zu leben beginnt, die sich wesentlich unterscheiden von den gewöhnlichen irdischen Verhältnissen.
Wenn Sie den Wiener Zyklus von dem Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt durchstudieren, werden Sie wenigstens einiges - man kann immer nur einiges schildern - davon verstehen können. Vor allen Dingen kann man diese Verhältnisse zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt nicht gut beurteilen, wenn man sich nicht daran gewöhnt hat, die Vorstellung in sich zu beleben, daß die Zeit, so wie sie für unsere physische Anschauung als Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft vorhanden ist, daß diese geradlinig fortlaufende Zeit wirklich eine physische Maja ist, daß wir tatsächlich eindringen mit dem Tode in eine andere Welt, wo das Vergangene nicht bloß für die Erinnerung vorhanden ist, sondern ein wirklich Gegenwärtiges ist, in der Umgebung da ist, wo der Mensch lebt unter Verhältnissen, die gewissermaßen sein Inneres nun als sein Äußeres zeigen, wo der Mensch so lebt, daß er in der Offenbarung, in der Anschauung sich unmittelbar darbietet mit seiner inneren, seelischen Wesenheit, mit jener Wesenheit, die sich gewissermaßen den Leib sowohl wie das physische Dasein hier in der physischen Inkarnation gestaltet hat zwischen Geburt und Tod.
Die Art, wie man sich erkennend zu verhalten hat zu dem, der durch die Pforte des Todes geschritten ist, ist nicht ein äußeres Anschauen, sondern ein inneres Miterleben seiner Erlebnisse. Diese Individualität ist auch schon voll da, wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes geschritten ist, obwohl der Mensch erst — wie ich es schon angedeutet habe und wie ich morgen weiter ausführen werde - gewissermaßen sich in der Überfülle seines Bewußtseins orientieren muß. Aber das, was er ist, das, was sein Wesentliches ist, das ist da, wenn es auch noch nicht immer schon mit seinem Bewußtsein verknüpft ist. Es ist da, und so kann es angeschaut werden. Es kann gewissermaßen miterlebt werden, was der Mensch seiner Wesenheit nach ist.
Sehen Sie, ich habe mich bemüht, bei den irdisch traurigen Gelegenheiten, die wir in der letzten Zeit durchzumachen hatten durch den Verlust lieber Freunde, ich habe mich bemüht, da wo ich zu sprechen hatte, aus den Seelen heraus zu sprechen, aus der Wesenheit der Betreffenden. Ich will zunächst - morgen will ich über etwas anderes noch sprechen - von den drei zuletzt verstorbenen Freunden ein paar Andeutungen machen, soweit ich sie hier machen darf. Ich habe mich einzig und allein darum bemüht, aus diesen Seelen heraus zu sprechen, gewissermaßen mit diesen Seelen zu sprechen. Und wenn ich jetzt darauf wiederum zurückblicke, so muß ich finden, daß gute Gründe vorhanden waren, ganz besonders gute Gründe, in den drei Fällen ganz individuell verschieden zu sprechen - weil eben die Menschen individuell verschieden sind -, und zwar in einer ganz eminenten Weise verschieden zu sprechen. Dies war, das gestehe ich ganz offen, nicht da in meinem Bewußtsein, als die Worte geprägt wurden. Es hat sich ganz aus der entsprechenden Situation heraus entwickelt, und am wahrsten entwikkeln sich ja die Worte, die für die Geisteswissenschaft geprägt werden sollen und auch für das, in dem wir darinnenstehen im Leben durch die Geisteswissenschaft, am besten und wahrsten entwickeln und prägen sich diese Worte, wenn sie, auch nicht im entferntesten, von irgendeinem Lebenswunsche mitgeprägt werden. Man muß sich ja, damit man überhaupt richtig und wahr schildern kann auf dem Gebiete der Geisteswissenschaft, von jedem Wunsche, dies oder jenes so oder so zu prägen, ganz fernhalten. Man muß jeden Wunsch, daß dies oder jenes so oder so sein möchte, ganz fernhalten.
Wenn man in die Notwendigkeit versetzt ist, bei der Bestattung eines lieben Freundes zu sprechen, dann ist ja — wie es begreiflich erscheinen wird - ganz gewiß kein Lebenswunsch vorhanden, diese Worte zu sagen, die da gesagt werden. Sie werden ganz gewiß nicht aus irgendeinem Wunsche heraus gesagt, sondern aus der Notwendigkeit heraus. Denn es ist begreiflich, daß man einzig und allein wünschen möchte in jedem einzelnen Falle, daß man in der betreffenden Zeit diese Worte nicht zu sprechen hätte. Das ist etwas, was, ich möchte sagen, die Prägung der Worte noch ganz besonders fördert. Daher war es mir wirklich bedeutsam — ich möchte das ganz anspruchslos sagen -, daß in dem ersten Falle, bei unserer lieben Frau Grosheintz, ich zu sprechen hatte eigentlich nur wie das Ausdrucksorgan für diese Seele selber.
Eine Seele, die durch ein langes Erdenleben gegangen war, die in den letzten Jahren ihres Erdenlebens in so energischer, so bedeutungsvoll energischer Weise alle Kräfte der Seele vereinigt hatte mit dem, was die Impulse der Geisteswissenschaft sind, sie vielleicht so vereinigt hatte, wie nur wenige unter uns in selbstloser Weise die Geisteswissenschaft vereinigen mit den eigenen Lebensimpulsen, eine solche Seele geht durch die Todespforte so hindurch, daß das, was sich ihr nicht als theoretische, sondern als unmittelbar praktische, in der Seele lebende Impulse durch die Geisteswissenschaft ergibt, da ist. Sie lebt das unmittelbar dar. Es ist da, selbst wenn die Seele noch nicht bis zu dem Grade erwacht ist, daß sie es schon wahrnimmt. Es ist da, es ist das Charakteristische in dem, was sich da loslöst. Und so werden Sie zugeben, daß in den Worten, die ich da zu sprechen hatte, wirklich das liegt, was ich nennen konnte: verwandelte Geisteswissenschaft, zum Willen, zum Gefühl gewordene Geisteswissenschaft, die so herauskommen mußte, weil eine solche Seele durch ein langes Erdenleben gegangen ist, und mit reifen Ätherkräften durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist. Es ist so, daß man gezwungen war, ganz aus dieser Seele heraus zu sprechen. Daher konnte nicht anders gesprochen werden in den Hauptworten, denn als ob die Seele selbst spräche, und so ist das geworden:
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 Schicksalsterne,
Der mir im Geistgebiet den Ort erteilt.
Das innerlich Bewegliche, Lebendige der Seele zeigt sich dadurch, daß das erste Mal, am Anfang der Feier, gesagt werden mußte: «Entgegen meinem Seelensterne», und am Schlusse der Feier: «Entgegen meinem Schicksalsterne.»
Es ist die Nähe, in der man sein muß demjenigen, der also durch die Todespforte gegangen ist, welche bewirkt, daß in dieser Art, charakteristisch für die besondere Weise des Seins der betreffenden Individualität nach dem Tode, solche Worte herauskommen müssen.
Ich möchte dasjenige, was ich über die beiden anderen Fälle noch zu sagen habe, im Zusammenhange mit dem, was ich sonst noch mitzuteilen habe, morgen sagen.
Sixth Lecture
Yesterday I quoted the story of Manon de Gaussin because it really does contain an accurate description of the after-effects of the etheric organization, of the etheric body after death. Of course, one cannot cite every artistic representation in a novel in such a context, because the author could naturally have the most subjective ideas, and one would then be citing something incorrect. But I have chosen an example where the after-effects of such an etheric body are described in a truly accurate manner, that is, in a way that corresponds to the objective facts.
This is also, in a sense, the first thing that confronts spiritual scientific knowledge, namely that when a person passes through the gate of death, the connection between the etheric body, the astral body, and the I-consciousness is severed from the physical body, and that then a kind of intermediate state occurs in which, on the one hand, the physical body is there, and on the other hand, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I-consciousness are still connected.
We know that after a relatively short time, the etheric body detaches itself and the ego, together with the astral body, has to undergo the further world journey in the time between death and a new birth, as connected with the human individuality.
Now we must be clear about this — I have emphasized this often recently — that the etheric organization, the etheric body, is something that is predetermined to sustain human life on earth throughout its entire maximum lifespan. A person who reaches a ripe old age naturally still has the same etheric body that they had as a child. If a person has to leave the physical plane early in an incarnation, as in the case of our dear Theo Faiss, for example, and the etheric body then separates from the astral body and the ego, then this etheric body is in a different situation than that of a person who has reached a certain maximum age. who has been able to use the forces of this etheric body through decades of earthly life. The forces that are still in the etheric body when a person dies prematurely would have found their use in further life if, according to their karma, the person could have remained on earth. This use consists in the continuous consumption of the etheric body. The etheric body that separates from a person who dies at an early age therefore has a great deal of unused power; this is contained in the etheric body. These are, in a sense, powers that have passed over into the spiritual world, but which could have sustained a physical life for a long time to come.
These powers are, of course, not destroyed when a person passes through the gate of death. For nothing—and much less anything in the spiritual world than in the physical world—is destroyed. Everything that arises in the form of forces is transformed into other forms. We know that this law of the conservation of energy has played a major role in physical science since 1842, when it was first formulated by Julius Robert Mayer. It is effective everywhere, even in the simplest phenomena. For example, when you stroke a surface with your hand, you apply a force. This force is not lost; the spot becomes warm. The force of pressure, of pushing and stroking, is transformed into heat. No force is lost; forces are transformed.
Nor is any force lost in the spiritual world. So we can say that those forces of the etheric body that originate from those who died early and which, since they are no longer used for earthly life, are now used for everything that is relevant to the human individuality, which lives on with the ego and the astral body. These forces, which would otherwise be used up for earthly individuality, find their use in the spiritual world, remaining in the elemental world, just as the etheric body dissolves into the so-called elemental world. They form a real reservoir of energy, a real source of power in the elemental world. This is a very significant phenomenon, because it illuminates the connection between the physical world and the spiritual world in a concrete way.
It is not enough for real knowledge to imagine in the abstract that the physical world is connected with the spiritual world and that the spiritual world is behind the physical world. The spiritual world behind the physical world is, in a sense, of different origin. There are various things in our spiritual world that surround us directly, which originate from such unspent etheric bodies. The clairvoyant art, which is so important for the physical development of humanity on earth, owes a great deal to these unspent etheric bodies. What these etheric bodies represent in the elemental world immediately behind our physical world are, in particular, important stimuli for clairvoyant knowledge and for knowledge inspired by spiritual science.
Consider this carefully. In a sense, we have to thank those who died early, such as our Theo Faiss, for giving their etheric bodies to our elemental world and for the fact that many, many spiritual influences can emanate from such etheric bodies.
I hardly need to point out that such influences can only emanate from souls that have come to the end of a truly natural karma, never from anyone who has contributed to their own death through human will, for example through suicide. The situation is quite different in that case, because one destroys the fruitful forces of the etheric body through decisions that come from the consciousness-maya I spoke of yesterday; and from this come all the decisions that can be made in relation to death while still in earthly life. As I said, this is only an aside.
It must be said that such etheric bodies, as they have just been described, are particularly fundamental to the spiritual impulses we can have. Thus, the spiritual movement we serve—as we can recognize—will have much to thank for what can be given to it from this side. Perhaps I need not point out how significantly our knowledge can be enriched in relation to the love and reverence we feel for our dead, through knowing that we learn to distinguish how we should thank young people and how we should thank those who have died in old age, who have taken into their individuality what are otherwise unused forces of the etheric body.
When someone dies at an advanced age—we have also had to go through this in recent weeks—they have taken into their astral body what is otherwise still in the etheric body. They have, in a sense, humanized what is otherwise cosmic. This then emanates from them, from their individuality, the significant stimulus I have spoken of. And they are particularly effective in that this stimulus is then taken up in the hearts of specific human beings, even those who do not start from spiritual science or clairvoyance, but who in their lives surrender to the ordinary impulses, so that these people also receive into their souls what flows in this way—less cosmically and more humanly—into the spiritual world, in which we are always embedded with our souls.
With this, however, we have already identified something that we must seek in what I would like to call the death spectrum, this etheric organization that remains when the ego and the astral body detach themselves. I would like to call it the death spectrum. It contains forces such as those I have just described, but it also contains many other things. In order to study what else it contains, we must take up what I tried to present to you yesterday with the novella.
Consider that, as I have told you, and as will be evident to you after the whole course of the action in the novella, there is a karmic connection between Manon de Gaussin and the man who then shot himself, which is of course the result of previous lives spent together on earth. Such a karmic connection exists in all works of poetic art. They are based on the fact—and the most effective ones are based on this fact—that such karmic connections, which arise from previous earthly lives, are not completely lived out. Manon de Gaussin stands opposite the man who loves her. She does not understand his love; she resists the full expression of karma from her conscious mind. This gives rise to conflicts that are particularly well suited to artistic exploitation, because it is from the conscious mind that people rebel against what is karmically predetermined.
Of course they cannot get rid of it! I do not mean to say that karma can be eliminated: it must be lived out in a subsequent incarnation. Human beings cannot escape karma, at least in the rarest of cases, and in these cases karma must be transformed. But in one incarnation, the soul can resist living out karma to the full. Then things like those that form the plot of this novella arise. Then one person leaves the physical plane, and karma has not taken the form it should have taken. But this “should” of karma is inscribed in human nature. Karma should have been fulfilled in a certain way. In a sense, by not recognizing our karma in a particular incarnation, by resisting it, we can postpone this karma to a later incarnation. But it was still within us, it was there inside us. We then wipe away the karma from one life, so to speak, away from the events of life that take place between birth and death.
And so, from the life of Manon de Gaussin and the one who loved her, that which they would have experienced if they had lived out their karma completely has been wiped away. This is wiped away from the physical events of life. But what cannot be wiped away, what cannot be erased, is the spectrum of death. It remains there as will, as desire, I would say, and then it comes about that after the death of such a person, this spectrum of death follows the will of the unlived karma. So when Manon de Gaussin seeks peace and this is the right moment, the death spectrum comes to her because the will that should have brought about the connection between the two still lives in this death spectrum. What should have happened but was not carried out is carried out — as far as such a spectrum can carry it out — by the death spectrum.
So in this respect, too, the connection described in this novella is accurately portrayed. We can therefore say that, in addition to what we have already mentioned, this death spectrum also contains unlived karma; and after the death of human beings, something happens in the elemental world that is like a pictorial unfolding of unlived karma. This means that we are dealing with two things. When a person dies with unlived karma, it is of course necessary for them to live out this unlived karma in a subsequent incarnation. This will happen sometime in the future. But something happens with the death spectrum that is like a prophetic image of what must happen, what should have happened but has not yet happened. So when one looks at the death spectrum with clairvoyance, one experiences unlived destiny, karma.
One can say that something happens to the etheric spectrum of the human being after death that could have happened in life but did not. Thus, an image of processes that could have become life processes can be experienced in this death spectrum. This is a very significant esoteric connection. That which constitutes human individuality passes almost immediately after death into a kind of cosmic existence, the I and the astral body, and remains connected, even for days, with the death spectrum, the etheric body, so that the unlived karma of the human individuality is active from the cosmos into the death spectrum. Then, after a few days, that which belongs to the spheres of the cosmos separates from that which had its peculiar, unique essence through its connection with the physical human being and which only took on the form of the physical human being because it was enclosed in the physical human body. The ego and the astral body do not have this physical human form; but the death spectrum, the etheric body, also has, in a certain sense, the physical form of the human being. And it is only in the course of days that this death spectrum loses its human form, for when the soul has detached itself from the physical body, it loses this human form. The physical body has received this death spectrum through its power in its form; but now that it is outside of it, it takes on other forms that are conditioned by the external forces of the cosmos.
It is therefore understandable that a proper description of the departure of the human individuality from the physical body, which occurs together with the etheric body, must depict it as if the death spectrum were lifting itself up, in the form that the physical body had. If someone wants to describe the moment of death properly, they will describe how this etheric body lifts itself up, as if in a cloud, and while lifting up still shows the shape of the physical body with its arms and other limbs, and how this gradually dissolves into the more spiritual forces coming in from the cosmos. This is a transformation, a metamorphosis, a transition.
The clairvoyant perception is difficult for us because in physical life, human beings are bound to time and space, namely to those forms of time and space that are available to us in the physical body, namely ordinary three-dimensional space and what is actually one-dimensional time with its past, present, and future. And so many people tend to apply the same concepts of three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time with its past, present, and future to purely spiritual perceptions. We can certainly speak of time and space in relation to the spiritual world, but they are really different there. That is the difficult thing: words that were created for the physical world are really only inadequate for describing the spiritual world.
When we speak of concepts of time in the physical world, the past is simply past. The past lies behind us, and we can only hold on to it in our memories; in our immediate perception, we can only see the present before us. This is not the case in the spiritual world. Even in the elementary world, it is not so, but the past can also stand before us there, just as the present stands before us in the physical world.
So, what has passed, what has happened, what can only be retained in memory by the mind, by physical intellectuality, what can no longer be seen in outer life, can be seen; once one has passed through the gate of death, one can look back from a later point in time to an earlier point in time. It is then just as if one were looking from a later period at what has physically passed, as if it were the present, just as one can physically look from the point where I am standing to the corner over there. The past is really there, it actually stands alive before us, it surrounds us.
Such a view becomes particularly vivid when something happens that happened to us very recently, when we had to accompany a dear friend to her funeral, and when her first ordering of her consciousness took place immediately at the moment when the physical body was consumed by the fire. At that moment, consciousness began to be active. However, before the physical body was handed over to the flames, we had held the funeral service, and now we could observe how the deceased was alive before us, just as one has something alive before one in a room, this funeral service.
Such things, of course, belong to what we might call the most esoteric part of our esotericism. But over many years we have strived to gain the ability to speak among ourselves about such mysterious processes in the same way that we speak about the ordinary events of the day. And what we can say is this: in any case, when the present difficult times of war are over, our esoteric life will have to take on a much, much more energetic and intimate character than it has ever had before. Many things will then be possible, indeed will be challenged by the suffering that humanity has gone through — I do not mean the individual suffering that always springs from egoism, but the general suffering that the community has gone through—through this general suffering, it will be possible to deepen many things in other directions, in directions that must be kept silent about at present because we are living in a general transition period for humanity.
Let us once again take a closer look at this emergence of human individuality, that is, of the I and the astral body with the etheric body, as an emergence of the threefold human being from the physical body. This is a process that lasts for days, but which begins when the human being passes through the gate of death. This process shows very vividly how cosmic forces can be present in the etheric body of the human being, but it also shows, as we have now seen, the unlived karma, so to speak. This is a process that is truly different for each individual, a process that is not the same for two people. This is why it is so difficult to describe these things, because they are never the same in two cases, but are different everywhere.
When we consider this process, it is obvious that various other things are also contained in this spectrum of death, but I cannot describe everything at once. However, once we have two characteristics that are contained in this spectrum of death, we already have a more intimate understanding than if we could only associate one word, the word “etheric body,” with this spectrum of death. Unlived karma is contained in this spectrum of death, and this creates the possibility of gaining artistic conflicts from it, of connecting this unlived karma with such processes after death.
A purely exoteric artist will have to content himself with simply presenting the conflict of life and then letting his characters die. But when, as in Shakespeare's plays, for example, esoteric connections in life are taken into account — as I have said on various occasions, pointing to what lay behind Shakespeare — when it is shown how things are connected with deeper laws of life, when they are described with consideration for what lies behind the outer events, then we arrive at what we have, for example, in Hamlet. We see a great deal of unlived, transforming karma playing out in what emanates from the spirit of Hamlet's father. In a sense, the dramatic conflict begins for the main character of the drama, Hamlet, through the intervention of his father's unlived karma.
An artist who is able to capture the connection between the physical world and the spiritual world will often feel compelled not to simply let people fall down with death, as the monist and the materialist imagine, but to suggest that this passage through death is a beginning of new events, of processes that are even more concrete than the concrete processes of life that take place between birth and death.
To show how art can strive to be enriched by using earthly life as a starting point for the continuation that then follows in spiritual life, I spoke to you about the novella from which I read an excerpt yesterday. But it is interesting to observe how human beings can come to feel unlived karma, how they can describe something that can be felt in the most eminent sense as unlived karma. And once they have described unlived karma, they may naturally feel compelled to consciously point out at the end of their artistic description that this is unlived karma. And then he may feel compelled to depict precisely that through which this unlived karma is lived out, as it were, elementarily, in an elementarily real imagination, if we take life in its entirety and not merely in its physical aspects.
In this connection, I would like to mention another work of art, the content of which I can only touch on very briefly, even more briefly than yesterday, because it is a two-volume novel. You will see that something of unlived karma also appears in these descriptions. I will indicate as quickly as possible how unlived karma finds expression in this work of art.
A mother comes to Europe from America with her daughter. The father died in America some time ago. On their journey through Europe, they meet a descendant of an old aristocratic family deeply rooted in formal traditions. A wide variety of events now unfold, and it immediately becomes clear to anyone observing things in their spiritual context that there are karmic connections between the man called Arthur in the artwork and the two women whom the man simply sees on the street as they are driving to the theater. These karmic connections then lead to the complicated circumstances that unfold. They unfold in such a way that the entire contrast between the aging European culture and the still young American culture is depicted in a grand cultural tableau. The entire contrast between the two cultures is depicted with vivid clarity and devoted love; their representatives are Emmy—that is the name of the daughter—and Arthur, who runs towards her and begins to love her terribly. The whole contrast is thus reflected in these two souls, and much happens that immediately appears to those who are aware of the spiritual connections as a consequence of the karma that plays between the two.
In a sense, the external milieu with which one is dealing in the interaction between American and European attitudes to life is something that is connected, on the one hand, with the fresh American culture, untouched by historical traditions, and, on the other hand, with the ossified European culture, which lives entirely from traditions. Something lives in this whole environment that is reflected in people's souls and causes life conflicts upon life conflicts. This then leads to the final great conflict in life, which consists in the fact that Arthur's father, who has died, owned an estate and, with all his views, still stood within the old aristocratic traditions, but has now, in a sense, outgrown these traditions with his money, or rather with the loss of his money — as is so often the case in Europe today — and has let the estate fall into disrepair. The estate has therefore been sold, so that Arthur has lost his inheritance.
Now, in the noblest way, something comes into play that is not always the case, namely that the difference between American and European circumstances brings about a small improvement. With her money, Emmy, that is, the mother, can help out and buy back the estate for Arthur. This happens, or at least it is supposed to happen. But there is still an obscure offspring who has remained there; he does not really know where he came from, but he wanders around the estate like a vagabond. Of course, it does not belong to him, but in his, one might say, delusions, he has the idea that he is the master there, and now the idea takes hold in his mind that the estate should belong to him. From his point of view, he believes that the repurchase of the estate is an infringement of his rights; but his rights consist only of a kind of decadent delusion: he considers himself the master of an estate that has long been pledged to a wealthy banker. He wanders around as mentally disturbed people who are not particularly dangerous are allowed to wander around. A conflict now arises, which manifests itself in this man becoming enraged over the purchase of the property and, when the opportunity arises, actually shooting Arthur on the property.
Emmy has already been through terrible experiences; she has to go through this too, and as a result, an illness that was already present in her disposition—she is only in her twenties—develops further. She is taken to Montreux by her mother because she is ill and is cared for there by an extremely likeable American, Mr. Wilson, and a few others who are still there. The way Mr. Wilson is portrayed is a wonderful moment and an outstanding feature of this work of art. It is as if the whole of North America lives in him. This is brought to life in a wonderful way. But despite being cared for, even by the doctor who enters her life and is, in a sense, Arthur's rival but an old friend of his, Emmy cannot be cured. She dies in Montreux, and now her death is described.
Let us note, then, from the spiritual-scientific context, that we are dealing here in the truest sense with unlived karma, with karma that has been torn apart in all its threads, that has come into conflict everywhere, conflicts that mainly play out between America and Europe, karma that has then simply come to an end with a shot from a rifle. Anyone who senses this, unless they are a materialistic person, must feel the need to ask themselves: Where is reality, where does this unlived karma go immediately after death, where will it continue to live? I would like to say that a person who is not materialistic has a feeling about this kind of continuation of unlived karma: if they are an artist, they must feel the need to give an indication of this, and we really find such an indication at the end of the work.
I only need to read a few lines. Arthur is dead, shot. Mother and daughter travel to Montreux; Emmy has been ill for a long time, and Arthur appears to her in her last dream. But it immediately becomes clear that this is not merely a dream image, a reminiscence, but a real intervention of the real Arthur in the physical world. And now the moment of death is described as follows:
"Between midnight and morning, she thought she was waking up.
Her first glance at the window, through which a dull light was streaming in, was clear and unobstructed, and she knew where she was. She could also hear her mother breathing beside her. But a moment later, with a pressure she had never felt before, she was overcome by overwhelming fear. It was no longer the individual thoughts that had tormented her in the last few days, but as if a giant hand were holding all the mountains of the earth on a thin thread above her, and at any moment the fingers holding it could open and the mass could fall down to lie on her for eternity. She looked around, confused, searching for a glimmer of light, but there was nothing to be seen. The light from the window had gone out, her mother's breathing was no longer audible, and suffocating loneliness surrounded her, as if she would never again encounter anything living. She wanted to cry out, but she could not; she wanted to move, but no limb obeyed her. All was quiet, all was dark, no thoughts could be formed in this terrible, monotonous fear: even her memory was taken from her—then a thought finally returned: Arthur!
And now, wonderfully, it was as if this one thought had turned into a point of light that became visible to her eyes. And as the thought grew into boundless longing, this light grew, came and expanded, and suddenly, as if it were bursting apart, it unfolded and took shape. Arthur stood before her! She saw him, she finally recognized him. It was certainly him. He smiled and stood close beside her. She did not see whether he was naked or clothed, but it was him, she knew him too well, it was him, not just a phantom that had taken his form.
He stretched out his hand to her and said, “Come.”Never had his voice sounded so sweet and enticing as it did today.
With all the strength she could muster, she tried to raise her arms toward him, but she couldn't.
He came even closer and stretched his hand out toward her: “Come,” he said again.
Emmy felt as if the effort she was making to utter a single word was capable of moving mountains, but she could not say a word.
Arthur looked at her, and she looked at him. If she could have moved a finger, she would have touched him. And now the most terrible thing: he seemed to be retreating again! “Come,” he said for the third time. And she, feeling that he had spoken for the last time, that the terrible darkness would fall again over his heavenly appearance, now filled with a fear that tore her apart like frost splits trees, made one last attempt to raise her arms toward him. But it was impossible to overcome the heaviness and cold that held her captive—but then, like a bud bursting open to reveal a flower growing before our eyes, other arms grew out of her arms, shining, other shoulders out of her shoulders, and these arms rose toward Arthur's arms, and he, taking her hands in his, slowly floated back, drawing her after him, and the whole glorious figure rose up from Emmys.
The moment of death is described in a wonderful way, this emergence of the etheric body, the transition from the spectrum of death into the cosmic. This death spectrum, which is vividly described in the leaving of the body, truly contains the forming will to live; the expression of this death spectrum contains the unlived karma that remained unlived between Arthur and Emmy.
I give this example because in the novella I mentioned yesterday, you could see how one-sidedly the death spectrum approaches the other person who is still alive and develops relationships with the still-living personality. Here, however, we are dealing with two purely spiritual entities, with the etheric body that is present in Arthur, who has already undergone manifold transformations in the spiritual world, and the death spectrum of Emmy that is emerging. So an old unlived relationship, unlived karma, between Arthur's etheric body and Emmy's death spectrum, which is just passing into the spiritual world, is playing out here. Something is happening in the spiritual world that could not happen in life, which is unlived karma.
We must try to grasp, as it were, to grasp correctly what is there in the first moments after the human individuality has passed through the gate of death. For in a sense, what is present there as unlived karma detaches itself from the individuality. The individuality can only live out this unlived karma in later incarnations. So it detaches itself and also becomes cosmic outside; it becomes cosmic events. And in some of what happens in the clouds, on the mountains, with the springs, but especially in the subconscious soul processes of the people who live here, what is carried over into the spiritual world as unlived karma is lived out, which is like a source in this spectrum of death. For these cosmic events continually play into human life; we are completely permeated and interwoven by them.
Thus we must distinguish between what, in a sense, becomes cosmic when the human being passes through the gate of death, and what remains individual. In the most eminent sense, what remains of the physical body becomes cosmic. This either passes slowly, in the case of burial, or more quickly, in the case of cremation, into the elemental, more physical-elemental earth world; and it is a crude materialistic idea to believe that it simply disappears into it or plays the same role as the chemical elements. That is nonsense, and tomorrow we will see how it lives on in the planet, how it has great significance for the planet. It lives on in planetary life.
What chemists know about what becomes of the physical body is nothing at all. For the earth derives its most important substance from the fact that human beings have lived and died on it, and these are the most important forces that remain. The earth also consists of the physical substance of deceased human beings. So something cosmic emerges from the physical body. The other part becomes cosmic from the etheric body. And today I tried to indicate what becomes cosmic from the etheric aura. The other part of the etheric body that remains lives on as individuality in the higher spiritual world. You will find this explained in more detail in my book Theosophy or in The Secret Science in Outline. This now lives on as individuality, and I will have more to say about this tomorrow. But we must be clear that what lives on individually begins to live in new circumstances that differ essentially from the ordinary earthly circumstances.
If you study the Vienna cycle of life between death and a new birth, you will be able to understand at least some of it — one can only ever describe some of it. Above all, it is difficult to judge these conditions between death and new birth if one is not accustomed to bringing to life the idea that time, as it exists for our physical perception as past, present, and future, that this linear, continuous time is really a physical Maya, that with death we actually enter another world where the past is not merely present in memory, but is truly present, in the environment where human beings live under conditions that, in a sense, reveal their inner being as their outer being, where human beings live in such a way that they present themselves directly in revelation, in perception, with their inner, soul being, with that being which has, so to speak, shaped both the body and the physical existence here in the physical incarnation between birth and death.
The way in which one must behave cognitively toward those who have passed through the gate of death is not an external observation, but an inner sharing of their experiences. This individuality is already fully present when a person has passed through the gate of death, although the person first has to orient themselves, as I have already indicated and will explain further tomorrow, in the superabundance of their consciousness. But what he is, what is essential to him, is there, even if it is not always yet connected with his consciousness. It is there, and so it can be seen. In a sense, what a person is in his essence can be experienced.
You see, I have tried, during the earthly sad occasions we have had to go through recently with the loss of dear friends, I have tried, wherever I had to speak, to speak from the soul, from the essence of those concerned. I would first like to say a few words about the three friends who have recently passed away, as far as I am permitted to do so here. I have endeavored solely to speak from these souls, to speak with these souls, so to speak. And when I look back on it now, I have to conclude that there were good reasons, very good reasons, to speak differently in each of the three cases—because people are different—and to speak in a very different way. I admit quite openly that this was not in my consciousness when the words were written. It developed entirely out of the situation, and words that are to be coined for spiritual science, and also for what we are in life through spiritual science, develop and take shape most truly and best when they are not influenced in the slightest by any desire for life. In order to be able to describe anything correctly and truthfully in the field of spiritual science, one must completely refrain from any desire to coin this or that in this or that way. One must completely refrain from any desire that this or that should be this way or that way.
If one is compelled to speak at the funeral of a dear friend, then it is quite understandable that there is certainly no desire in life to say the words that are spoken. They are certainly not spoken out of any desire, but out of necessity. For it is understandable that in every single case one would wish only that one did not have to say these words at that particular moment. This is something which, I would say, particularly emphasizes the impact of the words. Therefore, it was really important to me — I say this without any pretension — that in the first case, with our dear Mrs. Grosheintz, I had to speak only as the mouthpiece for this soul itself.
A soul that had gone through a long earthly life, that in the last years of its earthly life had united all the forces of the soul in such an energetic, such a meaningfully energetic way with what are the impulses of spiritual science, had perhaps united them in such a way as only a few among us unite spiritual science with our own life impulses in a selfless way, such a soul passes through the gates of death in such a way that what emerges through spiritual science is not theoretical, but immediately practical impulses living in the soul. It lives this out directly. It is there, even if the soul has not yet awakened to the degree that it can perceive it. It is there, it is the characteristic feature of what is being released. And so you will admit that in the words I had to speak there really lies what I could call transformed spiritual science, spiritual science that has become will and feeling, that had to come out in this way because such a soul has gone through a long earthly life and has passed through the gate of death with mature etheric forces. It is so that one was compelled to speak entirely out of this soul. Therefore, it was impossible to speak in the main words in any other way than as if the soul itself were speaking, and so it has become:
In worlds wide I will carry
My feeling heart, that it may become warm
In the fire of holy forces at work;In world thoughts I will weave
My own thinking, that it 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 would like 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.
The inner movement and vitality of the soul is revealed by the fact that at the beginning of the ceremony, it was necessary to say, “Contrary to my soul's destiny,” and at the end of the ceremony, “Contrary to my fate.”
It is the closeness one must be to someone who has thus passed through the gate of death that causes such words to come out in this way, characteristic of the special mode of being of the individuality in question after death.
I would like to say what I still have to say about the other two cases tomorrow, in connection with what else I have to report.