The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
GA 162
8 August 1915, Dornach
6. Tree of Knowledge II
My dear friends,
Let us remember that the human being was built up in a long, complicated evolution through the Saturn, Sun, Moon stages and the Earth as far as its development has progressed. We have stressed that the first rudiments of the sense-organs were present in the time of ancient Saturn, and that of course they were not then adapted for making perceptions as the human being makes perceptions today. During the Saturn condition they were still lifeless germinal organisms, which then underwent changes and only through the various processes which have acted on man from the cosmos have become capable of perceptions.1This important lecture was unfortunately only available in a much abbreviated transcript.
The first thing, however, which is revealed with particular clearness, when we regard the whole course of human evolution, is that these sense-organs as such have to do with what we can call physical operations. On Old Saturn the first germ of the sense-organs arose as a purely physical rudiment, for the development of the human sense-organs advances by the incorporation of the physical into whatever else is forming in man, so that the sense-organs are today essentially physical organs. You will easily be able to recognize the eyes, the ears, etc., as physical organs. To be sure, the lower sense are more of a chemical nature, but nevertheless that all has to do with the physical-chemical.
We must grasp the matter thus—the human being thrusts forward into the world as the most external of evolved members; what we can call his physical quality (Physikalisches). This physical nature of the sense-organs can be seen in the fact that during sleep the ears are naturally influenced just as they are during waking life; only the ego and astral body are not concerned with them. If we had our eyes open during sleep, it is obvious that just the same would happen as during waking. We can summarise it by saying: man thrusts out into the world his external faculties of perception.
The diagram I have sketched here is to be understood as the incorporation of the entire sense apparatus in our organism. And if I now include the etheric body, it naturally interpenetrates to some extent the sense apparatuses, else they would not be life apparatuses; but outside the sphere of the etheric something remains which is entirely physical. So the relationship must be drawn in this way, with something left outside the ether-body.
In a similar way I must then draw the relation of the astral body in its activity to the other organs. I must draw it so.
And if I further wished to insert the ego I must do it schematically in the following way. This ego would open itself naturally to the spaces of the whole cosmos.
Naturally, this is drawn schematically and we must be clear that if we did not sketch it as a diagram, but really made a drawing of the human being, it would look far more complicated.
Now you can conclude from this that the sense is, as it were, a thin zone, a thin outer zone of the physical, of what in fact works as the external world. You can indeed follow this with physical cognition: the eye can be looked on as a camera obscura, where the objects from outside create their images as in a photographic apparatus, and what is created within is then seized upon by the etheric body, astral body and ego. Thus we have a physical reciprocal action with the outer world which takes place in our periphery. And it is on this reciprocal action with the outer world that we first build up our soul process, insofar as the process is perception of the outer world and working-over of the perception in the soul.
What I have now depicted is how things would have stood with man if he had developed purely in the way the divine-spiritual beings had planned. But we know that Luciferic-Ahrimanic beings have asserted themselves. And here we can clearly and plainly on one spot seize the Ahrimanic and Luciferic spirits—regularly lay hold of them, one might say.
I might only draw the etheric body as far as here (see sketch).

This is the etheric body as it has developed from the time of the Sun-existence and through the Moon and Earth-existence. Thus, there remains, as it were, outside this etheric body which has progressed in the normal regular manner, the physical sense-zone. But if this were really to be the case in man (as in the drawing), if he had really only developed in this way, then the human being would always have had to wait for the physical processes to arise in his eye, his ear, etc.; and he would grasp these physical processes with his astral body and ego. He would always have a pictured image: in my eye is a colour, in my ear is a tone; he would not have his sense opened outwards, he would only have perceived what was within him, he would have the feeling: in me is a zone which is entirely interpenetrated with activities of the macrocosm, and I perceive them.
It is interesting that in the first years of childhood the child really has this consciousness, even if it is feeble and dreamlike. It pays no attention to the outer world, but observes the perceptions it has in its own inner being. This gradually comes to an end. Children are primarily interested in their own bodies, do not notice the outer world, but have a dreamy consciousness that they are enclosed as if in a sphere which really brings in the activities of the outer world like pictures. The child really feels its skin as a kind of enclosing sheath and pays attention to what takes place in it as paintings and tones.
We could now ask: why does that not remain so the whole life long? Because the Luciferic influence has entered and because it actually fills out that which has been formed as the normal progress in the etheric body from the time of ancient Sun. This means that Luciferic spirits thrust their influence from outside into the interior (see drawing).

Whereas man's etheric body works so from the inner periphery outwards, Lucifer works so inwards. And it is even true that something like etheric tentacles from Lucifer project into the physical apparatus of the eyes and the same in the case of the ears, etc. Everywhere Lucifer presses his arms into the senses, thrusting them in from outside. And in our senses there is the meeting between our own etheric activity, life activity, and that of Lucifer who thrusts his tentacles into them. So that we can say: the child's innocence only ceases because Lucifer gradually struggles through, he takes possession of the physical part of our senses, opens the eyes, opens the ears, so that we no longer perceive pictures as the effect of what the Gods give us, but our senses are opened outwards and we see the world itself.
It is extraordinarily important to grasp this. For only when science will one day be real spiritual science and what is now being said is understood, only then will the time have come when it will also be realised that Lucifer was somewhat audacious, when, in addition, he projected his activities behind the senses. There where the nerves terminate in the brain the Luciferic activity meets with the divine-spiritual activity which also moves along the nerve strands. If one wishes to draw the course of a nerve from outside one must so draw it that Lucifer thrusts forward and meets with and interlaces himself with the normal divine-spiritual activities. Thus the direction of the Luciferic working radiates from without inwards.
You see from this that it lay in the original divine-spiritual intention to give man up to himself, and inasmuch as he saw himself through himself, he would have worked upon the world inwardly. Lucifer has caused man in this respect to be torn away from himself and to behold the world round about him and be aware of it. This means: Lucifer has given man to the world, he has established him in earthly existence, he has led him out of himself. Deeply, deep significant are the words in the Bible: ‘Ye shall be as gods, your sense shall be opened ...’ for it was not intended to open them, but so to leave them that man in his thinking would look back to the old Moon-existence, and in this thinking would apprehend what the macrocosm brings about at his periphery, what had been given to it by the Gods.
Now the human being is, however, also set into the world as an ethical-moral being; for there is much we could not experience as human beings if we had not this projection into us of Lucifer's activity. We should never be angry, for instance, or frightened, we should never hate, never believe ourselves persecuted, develop no antipathy against anyone—none of this should we be able to do. If Lucifer had not previously worked upon him, man would never have arrived at incorporation in the language any abusive word or a word injuring another. Only through the working of Lucifer is it possible for us to be angry, anxious, develop hatred or injurious feeling toward another, or for us to insult him, etc., etc.
And one must not give oneself up to the slightest illusion in this respect. He who believes when he hates someone, that it is justified—may say so, it may be justified, but all the same Lucifer stands at the side. There is no other cause of anger, hatred or antipathy, than the Luciferic influence.
And now, through this having been possible, something else has become possible. It is only because Lucifer thus projects his tentacles in from outside, for instance, that it has become possible for the normally progressive gods to admit Ahriman from the other side, so that he takes hold from the other side. He penetrates not only speech but thinking, and out of this intermingling arises what has become hypocrisy, intentional or unintentional untruthfulness. We must never flatter ourselves that when we are hypocritical towards someone it is to be traced to anything but the alliance of Lucifer and Ahriman.
People are inclined, however, to skim over such things very lightly. For how often a man says: ‘I do this or that not for my own sake, but in the service of the world.’ I have often related the anecdote of the ‘Society for Selflessness.’ There was an esoteric section in which everyone was to think quite objectively, never in a relation to himself. The consequence was that once a member ...2The rest was not incorporated in the notes. The contents are briefly given. came to another member and said: ‘I dare not, as you know, speak of myself, for that would be personal and against the rules of our Society. But I may speak about others; for I am quite selfless when I tell you what the others are like and all the bad things they are doing!’ ... and then he let himself go about the others. It is not a question as to whether a matter is personal or impersonal if someone believes he is selfless and then only unburdens his subjective opinions onto other people. Since the members of this Society might not speak of themselves, they always spoke about others, and what the others did to them. They did not become more selfless through this.
I desire by this example to say that it is not the point what one believes. A man can believe that he is employing every means in order to escape Lucifer and Ahriman: he is then only in the position of being somewhat more untruthful through this endeavour than he was before. At least, he did not say before that he wished to do the best, etc.; afterwards he expresses it all the same, inasmuch as he deceives himself as to the true situation in which he is.
We shall be clear about all these things, my dear friends, if we regard the true facts of the case, if we are clear that Lucifer and Ahriman are necessary in our earth-existence. One cannot escape them but can only come to the point of controlling them, of having them in full control.
One must be clear that with regard to the cooperation of Lucifer and Ahriman, precisely when one advances in spiritual science, the most varied complications are possible. A case which frequently occurs is the following. Someone has an antipathy to another person. It can be that the anger against this man, which is in the subconscious, presses up into the upper consciousness, presses outwards, and the consequence of this is that, whereas one has a subconscious ground for the antipathy, the anger alone becomes conscious. The hatred or antipathy presses outwards, presses into the sphere of Lucifer, and there, in Lucifer's sphere, arise the most vivid visions and imaginations of every possible thing this man is doing to one. And now in the subconscious the anger can press out and there then arise all sorts of imagined things that could proceed from the hated person. And the true causes of the antipathy are hidden behind what the man alleges he has undergone.
It is obvious that in face of such facts of the spiritual world, it can be asked: how does one protect oneself from such things? The answer could only be given by referring the questioner to a gradual working himself out of the illusions of life in which he is only too deeply held. The grounds of self-deception are above all present when a man thinks he does not in the least deceive himself but only looks at facts. Only the good will, therefore, to undertake one's self-development from this standpoint, only this helps one to escape from these things. One thing above all, my dear friends, is necessary: to understand how the impulses of spiritual science work when we strive for self-perfecting, but how much we are inclined to attribute far more selflessness to ourselves than we are really entitled to do. By saying this I wish to give you a golden rule.
Above all things we must be quite clear that as we advance in the spiritual scientific self-training, we must in the first place thoroughly work ourselves out of our dependence on the outer world. Lucifer has placed us in the outer world. We do not make progress if we let Ahriman transform for us something that we are really desiring, inasmuch as we say, ‘We will now carry out missions,’ and so on. The next step that we must take is a diverting of the world from us. We thereby confront the danger of being really more egotistic than we were before and this danger is not a slight one. One is, of course, not to let oneself be held back through this from making the way into the spiritual world, but the temptation to egotism is there. And as regards those people who, one must say, unhappily cannot yet see that the spiritual scientific world conception is necessary for our time and who, standing outside, say: these spiritual scientists certainly do not appear very agreeable (liebevoll). ... as regards these people we should not at once be arrogant and pooh-pooh this reproach, but should see its justification, its relative justification.
I do not know, my dear friends, if the man was right who lately asserted that, through his enhancement of egotism in a spiritual scientific movement, it was to be proved as a fact that there are people in spiritual scientific movements who after they have been there a short time quarrel far more than they did before. It may be softly whispered that discrepancies in such societies will most certainly not cease without further ado! But how much it would bring us forward if the following picture could be shown—that outside the contesting that surrounds this circle, Lucifer and his hosts were assuredly lurking—but could not get right in!
When, therefore, a man is in his ordinary waking state, there meet together in the periphery of his sense, the etheric of his own being and the etheric of the Lucifer-being. This is what underlies the words ‘Your eyes shall be opened’ ... Very special reference has always been made by all occult schools to this fundamental truth.
Cognition is, to be sure, on the one hand something that is to bring quite accurately to our consciousness what lies before us,—on the other hand, however, it is to guide us to accept things as they are. As long as we cannot take these things into our thoughts they remain in the sphere of sympathy and antipathy, and there they burrow. They are not somehow not there, if we know nothing of them: they are always there. And in this particular age mankind has reached the point of its evolution where such things must be known.
So we have furnished ourselves with a few items of more exact knowledge regarding our sense-periphery. Yesterday we spoke of how desire enters into sense-perception; now we have the actual reason for it. For Lucifer draws near and does not allow sense impressions to approach us as neutral objective happenings, but mixes his nature into them.
And if we pass inwards from the sense-periphery, my dear friends, we come to thinking, to the conceptual life. (Vorstellungsleben) We know that this conceptual life through Lucifer's influence seems to belong to us, whereas in reality we must perceive what we think in the sphere of the Old Moon which still endures. This gives us the whole meaning of the separation of the Old Moon from the Sun-Earth existence. For the fact that man today can at any time bring thoughts into his soul, is connected with the separation of the Old Moon from the Sun. The thought nature, as we men can grasp it, comes from the fact that something separated itself, as Old Moon, from the progressive Saturn-Sun-Moon existence. But how is it with what happened there, with what separated itself?
We men as physically incarnated beings can only understand this through spiritual science. The question is how these thoughts work upon that which separated, upon what lies outside thought. Our thought is stimulated by our astral body, but it works down into the etheric body. Now, one can observe: if this is a part of our etheric body to which one directs the trained eye of the spirit, one finds that when thoughts are stimulated in the astral body they then stream down as it were into the etheric body. (See diagram—MISSING). You must not imagine this spatially, but as forces: then one sees that these thoughts call forth movements, activities in the etheric body. The thoughts dissolve, as it were, and movement appears in the etheric body. It is as if the thought flows into the etheric substance out of the astral body and produces movement. Let us suppose that someone says, ‘I will now go away’ ... then the clairvoyant would perceive how the thought stream into the etheric body and calls forth movements, inner movements there, at first only such as these (see lower diagram). Thereby the etheric body can work in its turn on the physical body. And this working upon the physical body is now so that ... now just imagine for a moment: here this movement gets more and more active, and hence the etheric substance to some extent withdraws from the surroundings, it draws itself together ... there that will be very active, that is taken out of the surrounding ether.
Thus the thought streams in, calls up movement in the ether-substance, and the etheric substance calls forth hollowness here in its surroundings. For what the etheric substance requires it takes from its surroundings, and hollow spaces ensue. And these hollow spaces ensue when man thinks, or when the higher beings, Angels, Archangels, let their thoughts flow into him ... which indeed occurs continuously.
This means, we stand there, we see the etheric agitated through the thought activity, and in between are hollow spaces: and these hollow spaces are actually, fundamentally, the physical body. It is truly the case that the Real exists everywhere that the physical is not, and the physical, that is really nothing, it is a hollowness in the world.
What the ordinary materialistic physiologist studies by way of our head, my dear friends, is naturally not the thought in the astral body, nor the thought motion in the etheric body, but it is in reality the hollow head. And the reason why one cannot penetrate into this hollow space is because one can only advance as far as the real extends and there one comes up against the hollow space. So one cannot enter the hollow spaces. It is exactly as if you picture a column of Seltzer-water and there are bubbles of air in it: the thinner elements appear to the being who lives in the denser element as frightfully hard. So too we cannot penetrate into the actual hollow spaces, but only because there is nothing there, because it is a hollow. Thus if one would draw the human head occultly, one must not draw it so, but in the negative, and what remains inside as empty, that would be the human being (see diagram p.l2a). This means that where the painter generally lays on the colours and thinks he is painting man, he ought really to leave it empty: then one would be painting spiritually-realistically, for otherwise one paints where there is nothing and leaves free the part where there is something.

But this one already does in quite ordinary human sense perception, for human sense perception follows no other course than this. You see how we must take in hand an alteration in our ideas, if we wish to press forward to realities.
Dreizehnter Vortrag
Bedenken wir, daß der Mensch in langer, komplizierter Entwickelung aufgebaut ist durch die Saturn-, Sonnen- und Mondenzustände und die bis jetzt abgewickelten Erdenzustände. Wir haben betont, daß die erste Anlage zu Sinnesorganen des Menschen schon in der alten Saturnzeit gewesen ist, daß diese Sinnesorgane selbstverständlich in jener alten Zeit nicht dazu geeignet waren, Wahrnehmungen nach Art der heutigen menschlichen Wahrnehmungen zu machen, sondern daß sie eben als während der Saturnzeit noch unlebendige Organanlagen vorhanden waren, sich dann verwandelt haben und eigentlich erst durch die verschiedenen Vorgänge, die vom Kosmos aus auf den Menschen gewirkt haben, wahrnehmungsfähig geworden sind.
Das erste aber, was sich uns mit besonderer Deutlichkeit ergibt, wenn wir den ganzen Hergang der Menschenentwickelung beachten, das ist, daß diese Sinnesorgane als solche zu tun haben mit dem, was wir nennen können, physikalische Wirkungen. Auf dem alten Saturn ist Ja schon die erste Anlage der Sinnesorgane als eine bloß physikalische Anlage entstanden, und immer wieder und wieder schreitet die Entwickelung der Sinnesorgane des Menschen dadurch fort, daß physikalisches Geschehen sich eingliedert in dasjenige, was sich sonst beim Menschen ausbildet; so daß also im wesentlichen die Sinnesorgane, wie sie heute sind, physikalische Organe sind. Es wird Ihnen ja unschwer auffallen können, daß die Augen physikalische Organe sind, daß die Ohren physikalische Organe sind und so weiter. Gewiß, die niederen Sinne sind wie chemische Organe, aber trotzdem hat das alles mit dem Physikalisch-Chemischen zu tun.
So müssen wir die Sache auffassen, daß gewissermaßen als das äußerste seiner Entwickelungsglieder der Mensch in die Welt hinein dasjenige vorstreckt, was man nennen kann sein Physikalisches. Dieses Physikalischsein der Sinnesorgane geht auch schon daraus hervor, daß während des Schlafens die Ohren selbstverständlich genau so beeinflußt werden wie während des Wachens, nur daß sich das Ich und der astralische Leib nicht damit befassen. Würden wir die Augen während des Schlafens offen haben, so würde selbstverständlich ganz genau dasselbe geschehen in unserem Auge, wie während des Wachens.
Wir können uns jetzt zusammenfassend so ausdrücken: Der Mensch streckt sein äußeres Wahrnehmungsvermögen der Welt vor.

Was ich also hier schematisch zeichnete, das ist aufzufassen als die Eingliederung der sämtlichen Sinnesapparate in unseren Organismus. Und es ist tatsächlich so, daß, wenn ich jetzt den Ätherleib einfüge, er selbstverständlich gewissermaßen die Sinnesapparate durchdringt, sonst wären sie nicht Lebensapparate; aber es bleibt einiges außerhalb des ätherischen Bereichs als etwas, was ganz physisch ist. So daß das Verhältnis so gezeichnet werden muß, daß etwas außerhalb des Ätherleibes bleibt.

In einer ähnlichen Weise müßte ich dann zeichnen das Verhältnis des Astralleibes in seiner Wirksamkeit zu den anderen Organen. Ich müßte das so zeichnen:

Und wollte ich das Ich noch einfügen, so müßte ich das schematisch in der folgenden Weise tun. Dieses Ich würde sich da nach den Weiten des ganzen Makrokosmos öffnen.

Natürlich ist das schematisch gezeichnet, und wir müssen uns klar darüber sein, daß, wenn wir nicht ein Schema zeichnen, sondern wirklich ein Bild des Menschen entwerfen würden, sich das dann viel komplizierter ausnehmen würde.
Nun können Sie aber daraus entnehmen, daß gewissermaßen eine dünne Zone, eine dünne Außenzone aus dem Physikalischen heraus der Sinn ist; aus dem, was eben als die Außenwelt wirkt. Sie können das ja mit einem physikalischen Geschehen vergleichen: das Auge kann wie eine Dunkelkammer betrachtet werden, wo die Gegenstände von außen herein ihre Abbilder erzeugen wie in einem photographischen Apparat; und das, was da drinnen erzeugt wird, das wird erst aufgefangen von dem Ätherleib, Astralleib und dem Ich. Wir haben also mit der Außenwelt eine physikalische Wechselwirkung, die in unserer Peripherie stattfindet. Und auf diese Wechselwirkung mit der Außenwelt bauen wir erst unseren Seelenprozeß auf, insofern dieser Prozeß Wahrnehmung der Außenwelt ist und Verarbeitung der Wahrnehmung in der Seele.
So wie ich das jetzt dargestellt habe, müßte die Sache beim Menschen sein, wenn er sich rein fortentwickelt hätte, so wie ihn die göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten veranlagt haben. Aber wir wissen, daß sich luziferisch-ahrimanische Wesenheiten geltend gemacht haben. Und wir können hier an einer Stelle klar und deutlich die ahrimanischen und luziferischen Geister abfangen, richtig abfangen, möchte ich sagen.
Den Ätherleib durfte ich nur bis hierher (Zeichnung unten $. 265) zeichnen. Das ist der Ätherleib, wie er sich gebildet hat vom Sonnendasein angefangen, durch das Monden- und Erdendasein hindurch. Da bleibt also außerhalb dieses Ätherleibes, der sich regelrecht fortgebildet hat durch Sonnen-, Mond- und Erdendasein hindurch, die physikalische Sinneszone gleichsam außen. Würde aber das wirklich so sein beim Menschen (wie auf der Zeichnung), würde er sich wirklich nur so entwickelt haben, dann würde ja der Mensch gewissermaßen immer abwarten müssen, wie die physischen Prozesse in seinem Auge, in seinem Ohr entstehen, und er würde diese physischen Prozesse mit seinem Astralleib und seinem Ich erfassen. Er würde immer ein Vorstellungsbild haben: in meinem Auge ist eine Farbe, in meinem Ohr ist ein Ton und so weiter; er würde nicht nach außen seine Sinne geöffnet haben, er würde nur das, was in seinem Inneren ist, wahrgenommen haben, er würde die Empfindung haben: in mir ist eine Zone, die ist ganz durchsetzt von Wirkungen des Makrokosmos, und die nehme ich wahr.
Es ist interessant, daß in den ersten Kinderjahren das Kind, wenn auch schwach und traumhaft, wirklich dieses Bewußtsein hat. Es achtet nicht auf die Außenwelt, sondern merkt auf dasjenige, was es als Wahrnehmungen in seinem eigenen Inneren hat. Das hört später immer mehr und mehr auf. Die Kinder sind vorzüglich an dem eigenen Leibe interessiert, achten nicht der Außenwelt, sondern haben eben ein traumhaftes Bewußtsein, so daß sie da eingeschlossen sind wie in einer Sphäre, die wirklich die Wirkungen der Außenwelt wie Bilder da hereinbringt. Das Kind fühlt wirklich die Haut als eine Art Umhüllung und achtet auf dasjenige, was als Gemälde und Töne dadrinnen stattfindet.
Wir könnten nun fragen: Warum bleibt das nicht so das ganze Leben lang? - Weil der luziferische Einfluß stattgefunden hat und weil er eben dasjenige, was sich als rechtmäßiger Fortgang im Ätherleib von der alten Sonne an gebildet hat, ausfüllt. Das heißt, die luziferischen Geister strecken ihren Einfluß von außen nach innen her. (Zeichnung $. 268.) Während der Ätherleib so vom Menschen nach der Innenperipherie heraus wirkt, wirkt Luzifer so herein. Und es ist auch wahr: in den physikalischen Apparat der Augen streckt sich etwas wie Äther-Fühlarme von Luzifer herein, ebenso in den Apparat der Ohren und so weiter. Überall stopft Luzifer in die Sinne seine Arme hinein, die er von außen herein erstreckt. Und in unseren Sinnen ist die Begegnung zwischen unserer eigenen Äthertätigkeit, das heißt Lebenstätigkeit, und derjenigen Luzifers, der seine Arme da hineinerstreckt. So daß wir sagen können: Des Kindes Unschuld hört schon allein dadurch auf, daß Luzifer allmählich die Sinne durchdringt: er nimmt Besitz von dem Physischen unserer Sinne, schließt die Augen auf, schließt die Ohren auf, so daß wir nicht mehr Bilder als die Wirkung des von den Göttern uns Gegebenen wahrnehmen, sondern unsere Sinne nach außen aufgeschlossen sind, und wir die Welt selber sehen.
Es ist außerordentlich wichtig, dieses ins Auge zu fassen. Denn erst, wenn die Wissenschaft einmal wirkliche Geisteswissenschaft sein wird und das, was jetzt gesagt worden ist, verstanden sein wird, erst dann wird die Zeit gekommen sein, wo man auch einsehen wird, daß Luzifer ziemlich frech war, als er auch hinter die Sinne seine Wirkungen vorstreckte. Da wo die Nerven einmünden ins Gehirn, da begegnet sich die luziferische Wirkung mit der auch den Nervensträngen entlang gehenden göttlich-geistigen Wirkung. Man muß geradezu, wenn man von außen nach innen gehend zeichnen will den Verlauf eines Nerves, so zeichnen, daß Luzifer sich vorstreckt und sich begegnet und verschlingt mit den normalen göttlichgeistigen Wirkungen. So strahlt von außen nach innen die luziferische Wirkungsrichtung hinein.

Sie sehen daran, daß es in der ursprünglichen göttlich-geistigen Absicht lag, den Menschen sich selbst so zu geben, daß - indem er sich selbst durchschaute - er die Welt innerlich verarbeitet hätte. Luzifer hat gemacht, daß der Mensch in dieser Beziehung sich selbst entrissen wurde, und nun die Welt rings herum anschaut und wahrnimmt. Das heißt, Luzifer hat den Menschen der Welt gegeben, er hat ihn hineingestellt in das Erdendasein, er hat ihn aus sich herausgeführt. Tief, tief bedeutsam ist das biblische Wort: Ihr werdet den Göttern gleich sein, Eure Sinne werden aufgeschlossen werden -, denn es war nicht beabsichtigt, sie aufzuschließen, sondern sie so zu lassen, daß der Mensch in seinem Denken zurückschaut zum alten Mondendasein und in diesem Denken dasjenige einfängt, was an seiner Peripherie der Makrokosmos bewirkt, das was da herein von den Göttern gegeben war.
Nun ist aber auch der Mensch als ein ethisch-moralisches Wesen dadurch in die Welt hereingestellt; denn wir könnten so manches nicht erleben als Menschen, wenn wir nicht dieses Hervorstrecken der Wirksamkeit Luzifers in uns hätten. Wir wären zum Beispiel niemals zornig oder ängstlich, wir würden nicht hassen, uns nicht verfolgt glauben, keine Antipathie gegen einen Menschen entwikkeln: das alles würden wir nicht können. Es würde dem Menschen niemals gelungen sein, wenn Luzifer ihm nicht vorgearbeitet hätte, irgendein Schimpfwort oder ein dem anderen Menschen abträgliches Wort der Sprache einzuverleiben. Nur durch die Wirkungen Luzifers ist es möglich, daß wir zornig oder ängstlich sind, daß wir Haß oder abträgliche Gesinnung gegen den anderen Menschen entwickeln, oder daß wir ihn beschimpfen und so weiter.
Und man muß sich durchaus mit Bezug darauf nicht der geringsten Illusion hingeben. Derjenige, der glaubt, wenn er den anderen haßt, das sei gerecht, der mag das sagen, es mag gerecht sein, aber Luzifer steht doch daneben. Es gibt keine andere Ursache für Zorn und Haß und Antipathie als den luziferischen Einfluß.

Und dadurch, daß dieses möglich geworden ist, ist wiederum ein anderes möglich geworden. So zum Beispiel ist es nur dadurch, daß Luzifer so seine Fangarme von außen hereinstreckt, möglich geworden, daß die normal fortschreitenden Götter den Ahriman von der anderen Seite zugelassen haben, so daß er von der anderen Seite eingreift. Nicht nur die Sprache, sondern auch das Denken durchsetzt er, und aus dieser Mischung heraus entsteht dasjenige, was Heuchelei, gewollte oder nicht gewollte Lügenhaftigkeit geworden ist. Wir dürfen uns niemals schmeicheln, daß, wenn wir irgend jemandem gegenüber heucheln, es von irgendwo anders herkommt als von dem Bündnis des Luzifer mit Ahriman.
Man ist allerdings geneigt, über solche Dinge leicht hinwegzugehen. Denn wie oft sagt der Mensch: Ich tue dieses oder jenes nicht um meinetwillen, sondern im Dienste der Welt. Ich habe oftmals die Anekdote erzählt von der «Gesellschaft für Selbstlosigkeit». Darinnen war eine esoterische Sektion, und in dieser Sektion sollten alle nur ganz objektiv, niemals in bezug auf sich selber denken. Die Folge war, daß einmal ein Mitglied zu einem anderen Mitglied kam und sagte: Ich darf ja nicht von mir sprechen, denn das wäre persönlich und gegen die Regeln unserer Gesellschaft. Aber von den anderen darf ich sprechen; da bin ich ja ganz selbstlos, wenn ich dir erzähle, wie die anderen sind, und was sie alles Böses tun! - Und nun zog er über die andern her. Weil die Mitglieder dieser Gesellschaft nicht von sich sprechen durften, sprachen sie immer von den anderen, und was die anderen ihnen antaten. Sie wurden dadurch nicht selbstloser.
Ich will damit sagen, daß es nicht darauf ankommt, was man glaubt. Man kann glauben, alle Mittel anzuwenden, um Luzifer und Ahriman zu entrinnen; man ist dann nur in der Lage, etwas unwahrhaftiger zu sein durch dieses Bestreben, als man vor diesem Bestreben war. Man sprach es wenigstens vorher nicht aus, daß man das Beste will und so weiter. Nachher spricht man es auch noch aus, indem man sich aber täuscht über die wahre Lage, in der man ist.
Über alle diese Dinge wird man sich klar, wenn man den wirklichen Sachverhalt ins Auge faßt, wenn man sich ganz klar ist, daß in unserem Erdendasein Luzifer und Ahriman nötig sind, und man ihnen nicht entrinnen kann, sondern nur dazu kommen kann, sie richtig zu beherrschen, wirklich richtig zu beherrschen.
Klar muß man sich darüber sein, daß mit Bezug auf das Zusammenwirken von Luzifer und Ahriman, gerade wenn man geisteswissenschaftlich vorschreitet, die mannigfaltigsten Komplikationen möglich sind. Ein sehr häufig vorkommender Fall ist der folgende. Irgend jemand hat eine Antipathie gegen einen anderen Menschen. Es kann sein, daß der Zorn auf diesen Menschen, der im Unbewußten sitzt, ins Oberbewußstsein heraufdrängt, nach außen drängt; und die Folge davon ist, daß während man einen nicht zum Bewußtsein gekommenen Grund für seine Antipathie hat, und zum Bewußtsein nur der Zorn kommt, der Haß oder die Antipathie nach außen drängt, in die Sphäre des Luzifer herauf drängt; und da, in der Sphäre des Luzifer, entstehen die einleuchtendsten Visionen und Imaginationen von allem Möglichen, was einem der betreffende Mensch antut. Und nun kann im Unterbewußten, im Unterbewußtsein, der Zorn herausdrängen und es entstehen dann alle möglichen erphantasierten Dinge, die von der gehaßten Persönlichkeit ausgehen könnten. Und man verbirgt die wahren Gründe für die Antipathie hinter dem, was man also vorgibt, erfahren zu haben.
Es ist selbstverständlich, daß gegenüber solchen Tatsachen der geistigen Welt gefragt werden kann: Wie hütet man sich vor solchen Dingen? - Die Antwort wäre nur dadurch gegeben, daß die betreffende Persönlichkeit verwiesen würde auf ein allmähliches Hinausarbeiten aus den Illusionen des Lebens, in denen sie nur allzu tief darinnen steckt. Man kann alle die Gründe des Sich-selbst-etwasVormachens am allermeisten in sich haben, wenn man glaubt, sich gar nichts vorzumachen, sondern nur auf die Tatsachen zu achten. Also, dieser gute Wille, wirklich an seine Selbstvervollkommnung von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus zu denken, nur der hilft über diese Dinge hinweg. Eines ist vor allen Dingen notwendig, meine lieben Freunde: zu verstehen, wie die Impulse der Geisteswissenschaft wirken, wenn wir nach einer Selbstvervollkommnung streben, wie sehr wir aber geneigt sind, uns viel mehr zuzuschreiben an Selbstlosigkeit, als wozu wir schon befugt sind. Dabei will ich eine goldene Regel angeben.
Vor allem sollen wir uns ganz klar darüber sein, daß indem wir vorschreiten in der geisteswissenschaftlichen Selbsterziehung, wir durchaus uns zunächst herausarbeiten müssen aus unserem Zusammenhang mit der Außenwelt. Luzifer hat uns in die Außenwelt hineingestellt. Dadurch kommen wir nicht weiter, daß wir das, was wir sonst wollen, uns verwandeln lassen von Ahriman, indem wir sagen: Wir wollen jetzt Missionen ausführen und so weiter. Der nächste Schritt, den wir machen müssen, das ist ein Ablenken der Welt von uns, so daß wir dadurch vor der Gefahr stehen, wirklich egoistischer zu werden, als wir vorher waren. Diese Gefahr ist nicht gering. Selbstverständlich soll man sich dadurch nicht abhalten lassen, den Weg in die geistige Welt hinein zu betreten, aber die Versuchung zum Egoismus ist da. Und wir sollen nicht so ohne weiteres hochmütig sein gegenüber denjenigen, die - man muß sagen, leider noch nicht einsehen können, daß die geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung für unsere Zeit notwendig ist und die draußen stehend, sagen: Liebevoll nehmen sich diese Geisteswissenschafter wahrhaftig nicht aus -; und wir sollten wirklich nicht über diesen Einwand immer hinweggehen, sondern seine Berechtigung, seine relative Berechtigung schon einsehen.
Ich weiß nicht, meine lieben Freunde, ob der Recht hatte, der vor kurzem einmal behauptet hat: es komme sogar vor, daß - durch diese Steigerung des Egoismus in einer geisteswissenschaftlichen Strömung - als Tatsache festzustellen wäre, daß sich in geisteswissenschaftlichen Gesellschaften Menschen finden, die, nachdem sie einige Zeit darinnen sind, noch viel mehr streiten, als sie vorher gestritten haben. Manches spricht doch schon leise dafür, daß die Diskrepanzen in solchen Gesellschaften durchaus nicht so ohne weiteres aufhören wollen! Wenn es wirklich so wäre, daß jeder über den anderen nur Gutes sagen würde, dann würde sich das Bild darbieten, daß... außerhalb des Ringes, der diesen Kreis umgibt, Luzifer mit seiner Schar wohl lauerte, aber nicht so recht hinein könnte!
Wenn also der Mensch in seinem gewöhnlichen wachen Verhalten ist, so treffen sich in seiner Sinnesperipherie das Ätherische seiner eigenen Wesenheit und das Ätherische der Luzifer-Wesenheit. Das ist dasjenige, was den Worten zugrundeliegt: Eure Augen werden aufgetan werden. - Von allen okkulten Schulen wird von jeher ganz besonders auf diesen Grundsatz verwiesen.
Erkenntnis ist schon dasjenige, was uns auf der einen Seite ganz genau zum Bewußtsein bringen soll, das, was da vorliegt, auf der anderen Seite aber uns dazu anleiten soll, die Dinge hinzunehmen, so wie sie sind. Solange wir nicht in unsere Gedanken diese Dinge aufnehmen können, solange bleiben sie in dem Gebiete der Sympathie und Antipathie, da wühlen sie. Sie sind nicht etwa nicht da, wenn wir von ihnen nicht wissen: sie sind immer da. Und besonders zu dieser Zeit ist die Menschheit an dem Punkte ihrer Entwickelung angekommen, wo solche Dinge bewußt werden müssen.
So haben wir uns einiges Genauere verschafft an Erkenntnis über unsere Sinnesperipherie. Gestern haben wir von dieser Sinnesperipherie so gesprochen, wie sich in die Sinnesanschauung das Begehren mischt. Jetzt haben Sie den realen Grund dafür. Denn Luzifer kommt heran und läßt die Sinnesempfindungen nicht wie neutrale objektive Geschehnisse an uns herankommen, sondern mischt sein Wesen herein.
Und schreiten wir von der Sinnesperipherie nach innen, so kom_ men wir da auf das Denken, das Vorstellungsleben. Wir wissen, daß dieses Vorstellungsleben uns wiederum durch Luzifers Einfluß als uns gehörend erscheint, während wir in Wirklichkeit dasjenige, was wir denken, in der Sphäre des alten Mondes, der dauernd ist, erblicken müssen. Damit haben wir den ganzen Sinn erfaßt von dem Abtrennen des alten Mondes von dem Sonnen-Erdendasein. Denn daß der Mensch heute überhaupt jemals Gedankliches in die Seele hat hineinbringen können, das hängt zusammen mit der Abtrennung des alten Mondes von der Sonne. So daß wir sagen können: Gedankliches, so wie wir Menschen es erfassen können, kommt daher, daß sich etwas abgetrennt hat als alter Mond von dem fortlaufenden Saturn-, Sonnen-, Mondendasein. Aber wie ist es mit dem, was da geschehen ist, mit dem, was sich da abgetrennt hat?

Das können wir Menschen als sinnlich inkarnierte Wesen nur erfassen durch Geisteswissenschaft. Es handelt sich darum, wie diese Gedanken auf das, was sich da abgetrennt hat, auf das Außergedankliche, wirken. Unser Gedankliches wird angeregt von unserem Astralleibe, aber es wirkt hinunter in den Ätherleib. Nun kann man folgendes beobachten: Wenn das ein Stück unseres Ätherleibes ist, auf den man das geschulte geistige Auge richtet, so findet man, wenn man nun im Astralleib Gedanken anregt, daß diese Gedanken dann im Ätherleib gleichsam hinunterströmen, so einströmen in den Ätherleib. - Sie müssen sich das nicht räumlich, sondern als Kräfte vorstellen; dann sieht man, daß diese Gedanken im Ätherleib Bewegungen, Tätigkeit hervorrufen. Die Gedanken lösen sich gleichsam auf, und im Ätherleib entsteht Bewegung. Es rinnt gleichsam der Gedanke aus dem Astralleib in die Äthersubstanz hinein und ruft im Ätherleib Bewegungen hervor.

Nehmen wir an, jemand sagt: Ich will jetzt weggehen, - da würde der Hellseher den Gedanken zunächst sehen: «Ich will jetzt weggehen!» Aber er würde wahrnehmen, wie der Gedanke in den Ätherleib strömt und in dem Ätherleib Bewegungen, innere Bewegungen hervorruft, nur solche Bewegungen zunächst - (Zeichnung unten S. 274). Dadurch kann der Ätherleib wiederum auf den physischen Leib wirken. Und diese Wirkung auf den physischen Leib ist jetzt so, daß (Lücke im Stenogramm). Nun, denken Sie sich einmal, hier diese Bewegung wird immer reger und reger, und dadurch geht gewissermaßen die Äthersubstanz weg aus der Umgebung, sie zieht sich zusammen; da wird sich das stark bewegen, das ist von dem umgebenden Äther herausgenommen.

Der Gedanke strömt also ein, ruft in der Äthersubstanz Bewegung hervor, und die Äthersubstanz ruft in ihrer Umgebung hier Hohlheit hervor. Denn das, was die Äthersubstanz da braucht, das nimmt sie von ihrer Umgebung, und es entstehen Hohlräume. Und diese Hohlräume entstehen, wenn der Mensch denkt, oder wenn die höheren Wesenheiten, Angeloi, Archangeloi, ihre Gedanken in ihn hereinlassen, was ja fortwährend geschieht.

Das heißt, wir stehen da, wir sehen sich bewegen den Äther durch die Gedankenwirkung, und dazwischen sind Hohlräume. Und diese Hohlräume sind eigentlich im Grunde der physische Leib. Es ist schon wirklich so, daß das Reale überall dort ist, wo das Physische nicht ist, und das Physische, das ist überhaupt nichts, das ist eine Hohlheit in der Welt.
Dasjenige, was der gewöhnliche materialistische Physiologe an unserem Kopf studiert, das ist natürlich nicht das Gedankenmäßige im Astralleib, nicht die Gedankenbewegung im Ätherleib, sondern das ist in Wahrheit der Hohlkopf. Und nur deshalb kann man nicht in diese Hohlräume hinein, weil man nur so weit vordringen kann, als das Reale geht, und man hier an den Hohlraum stößt. So kann man da nicht hinein in die Hohlräume. Es ist gerade so, wie wenn Sie sich eine Säule Selterswasser vorstellen und darin die leeren Luftperlen sind. Das Dünnere erscheint dem Wesen, das in dem dichteren Elemente lebt, furchtbar hart. So können wir auch in die eigentlichen Hohlräume nicht hinein, aber nur deshalb, weil da nichts ist, weil es hohl ist. So daß eigentlich, wenn man okkultistisch den Menschenkopf zeichnen wollte, man ihn nicht so zeichnen müßte (Zeichnung I), sondern im Negativ, und das, was da drinnen hohl bleibt, das wäre der Mensch (Zeichnung II). Das heißt, wo der Maler gewöhnlich die Farben anlegt, und meint, er malt den Menschen, da müßte er eigentlich aussparen: dann würde man spirituell-realistisch malen, denn sonst malt man, wo nichts ist, und läßt frei, wo etwas ist.

Das tut man aber schon im ganz gewöhnlichen menschlichen Sinnesanschauen, denn nicht anders verläuft das menschliche Sinnesanschauen.
Sie sehen, wie wir eine Änderung unserer Begriffe vornehmen müssen, wenn wir zu den Realitäten vordringen wollen.

Nun zum Schluß noch eines. Ich habe gestern darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß sich die heutigen menschlichen Anschauungen charakterisieren lassen als «Wurm-Philosophie», die nur Ursachen und Wirkungen miteinander verknüpft. So machen es die menschlichen «Würmer». Sie können zum Beispiel eine reiche Literatur finden über den Wechsel von Wachen und Schlafen, wo die Ursache für dasjenige, was im Schlafen geschieht, gesucht wird in dem physischen Leib: Ermüdungsstoffe und dergleichen. Man beachtet nicht, daß da oben etwas Geistiges ist, was heraus will und beim Aufwachen wieder hinein will, was lebt in einem regelmäßigen Zyklus, so wie die Sonne abwechselnd Tag und Nacht verursacht. Man lese, was darüber Fritz Mauthner in seinem Wörterbuch geschrieben hat. Darin ist nichts über das Schlafen, das Träumen oder das Ich zu finden, nichts von all diesen Dingen, die Menschen kennen müssen, um überhaupt über den Menschen etwas zu wissen.
Thirteenth Lecture
Let us consider that human beings have been built up in a long and complicated process of development through the Saturn, Sun, and Moon stages and the Earth stages that have unfolded up to now. We have emphasized that the first predisposition toward human sense organs already existed in the ancient Saturn era, that these sense organs were of course not suited in that ancient time to make perceptions of the kind we have today, but that they existed as organ predispositions that were still lifeless during the Saturn era, then transformed, and actually only became perceptible through the various processes which acted upon human beings from the cosmos, that they became capable of perception.
But the first thing that becomes particularly clear to us when we consider the entire course of human development is that these sense organs as such have to do with what we can call physical effects. On ancient Saturn, the first rudiments of the sense organs arose as purely physical rudiments, and the development of the human sense organs continues again and again through the incorporation of physical processes into what else develops in the human being, so that the sense organs as they are today are essentially physical organs. You will easily notice that the eyes are physical organs, that the ears are physical organs, and so on. Certainly, the lower senses are like chemical organs, but nevertheless, all of this has to do with the physical-chemical.
We must understand that, as the outermost part of his development, the human being extends into the world what can be called his physical nature. This physical nature of the sense organs is already evident from the fact that during sleep the ears are of course influenced in exactly the same way as during waking, except that the ego and the astral body are not concerned with them. If we had our eyes open during sleep, the same thing would naturally happen in our eyes as during waking.
We can now summarize as follows: Man extends his external powers of perception into the world.

What I have drawn here schematically is to be understood as the integration of all the sense organs into our organism. And it is indeed the case that when I now insert the etheric body, it naturally penetrates the sense organs, otherwise they would not be life organs; but something remains outside the etheric realm as something that is entirely physical. So the relationship must be drawn in such a way that something remains outside the etheric body.

In a similar way, I would then have to draw the relationship of the astral body in its activity to the other organs. I would have to draw it like this:

And if I wanted to insert the I, I would have to do so schematically in the following way. This I would open up there to the vastness of the entire macrocosm.

Of course, this is drawn schematically, and we must be clear that if we were not drawing a diagram but actually designing a picture of the human being, it would look much more complicated.
Now you can see from this that, in a sense, a thin zone, a thin outer zone, is the meaning of the physical world; that which appears as the external world. You can compare this to a physical event: the eye can be viewed as a darkroom where objects from outside produce their images as in a camera; and what is produced there is first captured by the etheric body, the astral body, and the I. So we have a physical interaction with the external world that takes place in our periphery. And it is on this interaction with the external world that we build our soul process, insofar as this process is the perception of the external world and the processing of perception in the soul.
As I have now described, this is how things would be with human beings if they had developed purely, as the divine-spiritual beings had intended. But we know that Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings have asserted themselves. And here we can clearly and distinctly intercept the Ahrimanic and Luciferic spirits, correctly intercept them, I would say.
I was only allowed to draw the etheric body up to this point (drawing below, $. 265). This is the etheric body as it has formed from the beginning of the Sun's existence, through the Moon and Earth existences. So outside this etheric body, which has developed regularly through the Sun, Moon, and Earth existences, the physical sense zone remains, as it were, outside. But if this were really the case with human beings (as in the drawing), if they had really developed in this way, then human beings would always have to wait, as it were, for the physical processes to arise in their eyes and ears, and they would perceive these physical processes with their astral body and their ego. They would always have a mental image: there is a color in my eye, there is a sound in my ear, and so on; they would not have their senses open to the outside world, they would only perceive what is inside them, they would have the sensation: there is a zone within me that is completely permeated by the effects of the macrocosm, and I perceive it.
It is interesting that in the first years of childhood, children really have this consciousness, albeit weakly and dreamlike. They do not pay attention to the outside world, but notice what they perceive within themselves. This ceases more and more as they grow older. Children are primarily interested in their own bodies, they do not pay attention to the outside world, but have a dreamlike consciousness, so that they are enclosed as if in a sphere that actually brings in the effects of the outside world as images. The child really feels the skin as a kind of envelope and pays attention to what is happening inside it as pictures and sounds.
We might now ask: Why does this not remain so throughout life? Because the Luciferic influence has taken place and because it fills precisely that which has formed as the lawful continuation in the etheric body from the old Sun. This means that the Luciferic spirits extend their influence from the outside to the inside. (Drawing $. 268.) While the etheric body works outwards from the human being towards the inner periphery, Lucifer works inwards. And it is also true that something like etheric feeling arms of Lucifer extend into the physical apparatus of the eyes, as well as into the apparatus of the ears, and so on. Lucifer sticks his arms, which he extends from outside, into the senses everywhere. And in our senses, there is an encounter between our own etheric activity, that is, our life activity, and that of Lucifer, who extends his arms into it. So we can say that a child's innocence ceases simply because Lucifer gradually penetrates the senses: he takes possession of the physical aspect of our senses, opens our eyes and ears, so that we no longer perceive images as the effect of what has been given to us by the gods, but our senses are opened to the outside world and we see the world itself.
It is extremely important to keep this in mind. For only when science becomes true spiritual science and what has now been said is understood will the time come when people will also realize that Lucifer was quite impudent in extending his influence beyond the senses. Where the nerves enter the brain, the Luciferic influence encounters the divine-spiritual influence that also runs along the nerve strands. If one wants to draw the course of a nerve from the outside in, one must draw it in such a way that Lucifer extends himself and encounters and engulfs the normal divine-spiritual influences. Thus the Luciferic direction of activity radiates from the outside in.

You can see from this that it was the original divine-spiritual intention to give human beings to themselves in such a way that, by seeing through themselves, they would have processed the world inwardly. Lucifer has caused human beings to be torn away from themselves in this respect, so that they now look at and perceive the world around them. This means that Lucifer has given human beings to the world, he has placed them in earthly existence, he has led them out of themselves. The biblical words are deeply, deeply significant: You will be like gods, your senses will be opened—for it was not intended to open them, but to leave them so that man in his thinking looks back to the old moon existence and in this thinking captures what the macrocosm causes at its periphery, what was given there by the gods.
But now man is also placed in the world as an ethical and moral being; for we could not experience many things as human beings if we did not have this outstretching of Lucifer's activity within us. For example, we would never be angry or fearful, we would not hate, we would not feel persecuted, we would not develop antipathy toward another human being: we would not be capable of any of this. Human beings would never have succeeded in incorporating into their language any swear words or words that are harmful to other people if Lucifer had not prepared the way for them. It is only through the effects of Lucifer that it is possible for us to be angry or fearful, to develop hatred or harmful feelings toward other people, or to insult them and so on.
And one must not give in to the slightest illusion in this regard. Those who believe that it is just to hate others may say so, and it may be just, but Lucifer is still standing beside them. There is no other cause for anger, hatred, and antipathy than the influence of Lucifer.

And because this has become possible, something else has become possible. For example, it is only because Lucifer stretches his tentacles in from outside that the normally progressing gods have allowed Ahriman to intervene from the other side. He permeates not only language but also thinking, and out of this mixture arises what has become hypocrisy, deliberate or unintentional deceitfulness. We must never flatter ourselves that when we are hypocritical toward anyone, it comes from anywhere other than the alliance of Lucifer with Ahriman.
However, one is inclined to gloss over such things easily. For how often does a person say: I am not doing this or that for my own sake, but in the service of the world. I have often told the anecdote about the “Society for Selflessness.” There was an esoteric section in this society, and in this section everyone was supposed to think only objectively, never in relation to themselves. The result was that one member came to another and said: “I am not allowed to speak about myself, because that would be personal and against the rules of our society. But I am allowed to speak about the others; I am completely selfless when I tell you what the others are like and all the bad things they do!” And then he began to badmouth the others. Because the members of this society were not allowed to speak about themselves, they always spoke about the others and what the others did to them. This did not make them more selfless.
What I mean to say is that it does not matter what one believes. One may believe that one is using all means to escape Lucifer and Ahriman; one is then only capable of being more untruthful through this endeavor than one was before it. At least one did not say before that one wanted the best and so on. Afterwards, one says it, but one deceives oneself about the true situation in which one is.
All these things become clear when one looks at the real facts, when one is quite clear that Lucifer and Ahriman are necessary in our earthly existence and that one cannot escape them, but can only come to master them properly, truly master them.
It must be clear that, with regard to the interaction of Lucifer and Ahriman, the most manifold complications are possible, especially when one advances spiritually. A very common case is the following. Someone has an antipathy toward another person. It may be that the anger toward this person, which lies in the unconscious, pushes up into the conscious mind, pushes outward; and the result is that while one has no conscious reason for one's antipathy, and only the anger, hatred, or antipathy comes to consciousness, the hatred or antipathy pushes outward, into the sphere of Lucifer; and there, in the sphere of Lucifer, the most plausible visions and imaginings arise of all kinds of things that the person in question might do to you. And now, in the subconscious, the anger can push its way out, and all kinds of fantasized things arise that could come from the hated personality. And one hides the true reasons for the antipathy behind what one pretends to have experienced.
It goes without saying that, faced with such facts, one may ask the spiritual world: How can one guard against such things? The answer would only be that the personality in question should be advised to gradually work its way out of the illusions of life in which it is so deeply entrenched. One can have all the reasons for deceiving oneself most of all within oneself if one believes that one is not deceiving oneself at all, but only paying attention to the facts. So, this good will to really think about one's self-perfection from this point of view is the only thing that helps to overcome these things. One thing is necessary above all, my dear friends: to understand how the impulses of spiritual science work when we strive for self-perfection, but also how much we are inclined to attribute much more selflessness to ourselves than we are actually capable of. I would like to give a golden rule here.
Above all, we must be very clear that as we progress in spiritual self-education, we must first of all work ourselves out of our connection with the outer world. Lucifer has placed us in the outer world. We cannot progress by allowing ourselves to be transformed by Ahriman, saying: We now want to carry out missions and so on. The next step we must take is to distract the world from ourselves, so that we thereby face the danger of becoming even more selfish than we were before. This danger is not insignificant. Of course, one should not allow oneself to be deterred from entering the spiritual world, but the temptation to selfishness is there. And we should not be arrogant toward those who—unfortunately, it must be said—are not yet able to see that the spiritual scientific worldview is necessary for our time and who, standing outside, say: “These spiritual scientists certainly do not come across as very loving.” We should not simply ignore this objection, but rather recognize its justification, its relative justification.
I do not know, my dear friends, whether he was right who recently claimed that it even happens that, as a result of this increase in egoism in a spiritual-scientific movement, it can be observed that in spiritual-scientific societies there are people who, after they have been there for some time, argue even more than they did before. There are already some quiet indications that the discrepancies in such societies are by no means likely to disappear just like that! If it were really the case that everyone said only good things about each other, then the picture would arise that... outside the ring surrounding this circle, Lucifer and his band were lurking, but could not really get in!
So when human beings are in their normal waking state, the etheric part of their own being and the etheric part of the Luciferic being meet at the periphery of their senses. This is what lies behind the words: Your eyes will be opened. All occult schools have always placed particular emphasis on this principle.
Knowledge is that which, on the one hand, should make us fully aware of what is present, but on the other hand should lead us to accept things as they are. As long as we cannot take these things into our thoughts, they remain in the realm of sympathy and antipathy, where they stir. They are not absent when we do not know about them: they are always there. And especially at this time, humanity has reached the point in its development where such things must become conscious.
We have thus gained a more precise understanding of our sensory periphery. Yesterday we spoke of this sensory periphery in terms of how desire mixes with sensory perception. Now you have the real reason for this. For Lucifer comes and does not allow sensory impressions to reach us as neutral, objective events, but mixes his own nature into them.
And when we proceed inward from the sensory periphery, we come to thinking, to the life of ideas. We know that this life of ideas again appears to us as belonging to us through Lucifer's influence, whereas in reality we must see what we think in the sphere of the old moon, which is permanent. With this we have grasped the whole meaning of the separation of the old moon from the sun-earth existence. For the fact that human beings today have ever been able to bring thoughts into their souls is connected with the separation of the old moon from the sun. So we can say that thoughts, as we humans can grasp them, come from something that separated as the old moon from the ongoing Saturn, Sun, and moon existence. But what about what happened there, what separated there?
As beings incarnated in the senses, we humans can only grasp this through spiritual science. It is a question of how these thoughts affect what has separated, what is beyond thought. Our thoughts are stimulated by our astral body, but they work down into the etheric body. Now we can observe the following: if we direct our trained spiritual eye to a part of our etheric body, we find that when we stimulate thoughts in the astral body, these thoughts flow down into the etheric body, as it were, they flow into the etheric body. You must not imagine this spatially, but as forces; then you will see that these thoughts cause movements and activity in the etheric body. The thoughts dissolve, as it were, and movement arises in the etheric body. The thought flows, as it were, from the astral body into the etheric substance and causes movements in the etheric body.

Let us suppose someone says: I want to go away now. The clairvoyant would first see the thought: “I want to go away now!” But he would perceive how the thought flows into the etheric body and causes movements, inner movements, in the etheric body, only such movements at first (drawing below, p. 274). This allows the etheric body to act on the physical body. And this effect on the physical body is now such that (gap in the shorthand). Now, imagine that this movement becomes more and more active, and as a result, the etheric substance, so to speak, leaves the environment and contracts; there will be a strong movement, which is taken out of the surrounding ether.

So the thought flows in, causes movement in the etheric substance, and the etheric substance causes emptiness in its surroundings. For what the etheric substance needs, it takes from its surroundings, and cavities arise. And these cavities arise when the human being thinks, or when the higher beings, angeloi, archangeloi, allow their thoughts to enter into him, which happens continuously.

That means we stand there, we see the ether moving through the effect of thoughts, and in between there are hollow spaces. And these hollow spaces are actually the physical body. It is really true that the real is everywhere where the physical is not, and the physical is nothing at all, it is a hollowness in the world.
What the ordinary materialistic physiologist studies in our head is, of course, not the thought activity in the astral body, not the movement of thoughts in the etheric body, but in truth it is the empty head. And the only reason we cannot enter these hollow spaces is because we can only go as far as the real goes, and here we come up against the hollow space. So you cannot enter the hollow spaces. It is just as if you imagine a column of seltzer water with empty air bubbles inside it. The thinner substance appears terribly hard to the being living in the denser element. In the same way, we cannot enter the actual hollow spaces, but only because there is nothing there, because they are hollow. So that actually, if one wanted to draw the human head occultistically, one would not have to draw it like this (drawing I), but in negative, and what remains hollow inside would be the human being (drawing II). That is, where the painter usually applies the colors and thinks he is painting the human being, he should actually leave it blank: then one would be painting spiritually realistically, for otherwise one paints where there is nothing and leaves blank where there is something.

But this is already done in ordinary human perception, for human perception does not proceed in any other way.
You see how we must change our concepts if we want to penetrate to realities.

Now one last thing. Yesterday I pointed out that today's human views can be characterized as “worm philosophy,” which only links causes and effects. This is what human “worms” do. For example, you can find a wealth of literature on the transition from waking to sleeping, where the cause of what happens during sleep is sought in the physical body: fatigue substances and the like. No attention is paid to the fact that there is something spiritual up there that wants to come out and wants to go back in when we wake up, something that lives in a regular cycle, just as the sun alternately causes day and night. Read what Fritz Mauthner wrote about this in his dictionary. There is nothing in it about sleeping, dreaming, or the ego, nothing about any of these things that people need to know in order to know anything at all about human beings.