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The Ego-consciousness of the So-called Dead
GA 168

22 February 1916, Lepzig

Translator Unknown

The time in which we live, reminds us daily and hourly of death, this significant event in human life, it reminds us of man's passage through the portal of death. For only in the light of spiritual science, death becomes a real event, in the true meaning of the word, because spiritual science shows us the eternal forces that are active within us, that pass through births and deaths and take on a special form of existence between birth and death, in order to assume another form of existence after their passage through the portal of death. In the light of spiritual science, death becomes an event, instead of being merely the abstract end of life (only a materialistic world-conception can look upon death as the end of life), it becomes a deep and serious event within the whole compass of human life. Even from our own ranks, dear friends of ours have left us in order to pass through the portal of death, chiefly as a result of the present historical events, but also for other reasons, and so it may perhaps be particularly appropriate just now to say a few things on death, on this great event, and on the facts of human life that are connected with it.

Explanations have often been given in our spiritual-scientific lectures on the life between death and a new birth, so that we were able to gain many essential facts, particularly in regard to this subject. The course which spiritual science has followed up to now, will have shown you that in every single case it can only speak of things from one definite standpoint, so that a more accurate knowledge can gradually be acquired by speaking of things repeatedly and throwing light upon them from many points of view. To-day I shall therefore add to the facts that you already know in connection with this subject, a few things that may be useful to our comprehension of the world as a whole.

Through spiritual science, we consider, to begin with (and that is a good thing) the human being such as he stands before us, here, in the physical world as an expression of his whole being. We must depart first of all from the manner in which the human being presents himself to us in the physical world, and for this reason, I have frequently pointed out that we obtain, as it were, a general view of man's whole being if we contemplate him so that we first take, as a foundation, his physical body, which we learn to know externally in the physical world through our senses and the scientific-dissection of what we perceive through the senses. We then proceed, by studying that form of organisation which we designate as our etheric body: this already possesses a super-sensible character and cannot, therefore, be contemplated with the aid of the ordinary intellect, which is bound to the brain, and is consequently also inaccessible to our ordinary science. The etheric body is an organism having super-sensible character, concerning which we may say that it was already known to men such as Immanuel Hermann Fichte, son of the great thinker Johann Gottlieb Fichte, to Troxler and others. Indeed, man's etheric body can only be grasped through imaginative knowledge owing to its super-sensible character, but as far as imaginative knowledge is concerned, it can be contemplated externally, just as the physical-sensory body can be contemplated externally through our ordinary sensory knowledge.

We then ascend in our contemplation to the astral body. The astral body in man cannot be contemplated in an external-sensory manner, in the same way in which we contemplate the physical body through our external senses, or in the same way in which we contemplate our etheric body through our inner sense; the astral body is something that can only be experienced inwardly. We must experience it inwardly and in order to experience it, we must be within it. The same thing applies to the fourth member which must be grasped in the physical world, to the Ego. With these four members of human nature, we build up our whole being.

Past lectures showed us that what we designate as man's physical body is a very complicated structure, formed during long periods of development that passed through the stages of Saturn, the Sun and the Moon1See Rudolf Steiner's An Outline of Occult Science also the evolution of the earth contributed to this development of the physical body, from the very beginning of earthly existence up to our time. A complicated process of development therefore built up our physical body.

That form of contemplation which is, to begin with, accessible to us in the physical world, merely sees the external aspect of everything that lives within the physical body. Even ordinary science merely sees this external aspect. We might say: Our ordinary physical contemplation and ordinary science, in the form in which it now lives in the world, merely know of the physical body as much as we would know of a house, if we would only go round it outside, without ever going inside, so that we would never learn to know what it is like inside, nor what people live in it.

Of course, those who stand upon the foundation of ordinary science, in the usual materialistic meaning, will argue: “We are thoroughly acquainted with the interior of the physical body! We know what it is like, because we have frequently studied the brain inside the skull, when dissecting corpses; we have frequently studied the stomach and the heart.” This interior, however, that can thus be studied from outside, this spatial interior is not what I mean when I speak of man's inner being. Even this spatial interior is nothing but an external thing. Indeed, in the case of the physical body, this spatial interior is far more external than the real spatial exterior.

This must sound strange. But our sense-organs—you know this from other descriptions contained in our spiritual science—were formed already during the Saturn period and we carry them on the surface of our body. Spatially speaking, they are outside. Nevertheless, they were built by forces that are far more spiritual than those that formed our stomach, or everything that exists, spatially speaking, inside our body. What is inside our body, is built up by the least spiritual of forces. Strange though it may sound, I must nevertheless point out that we really speak of ourselves in an entirely mistaken manner—upside down, we might say. Since we live on the physical plane, it is natural to speak in that way; nevertheless the way in which we speak of ourselves is quite wrong. We should really designate the skin of our face as our interior, and the stomach as our exterior. This would lead us far closer to the truth! It would lead us closer to the real truth if we were to say: We eat in such a way that we send the food out of us; when we send food into our stomach, we really send it out, we do not send it into our body, as we generally say at the present time. The more our organs lie on the surface, the more spiritual are the forces from which they come; and the more they lie inside our body, the less spiritual are the forces that gave rise to them,

The descriptions that were given so far in our spiritual science enable you to grasp this with a certain ease. If you carefully remember the descriptions of spiritual science, you will no doubt remember what it says in regard to the Moon stage of development, namely, that something split off during the Moon stage of development, and that something also split off during the Earth-development; it went out into the world's spaces from the Saturn, Sun and Moon stages of development. A very strange thing is connected with this splitting-off process: namely, we were turned inside out! Our inside became our outside, and our outside became our inside. During the Saturn and Sun periods, our human countenance, that is now turned towards the outer world, was really turned towards our inner being. Of course, this was only the case during the early stages of development; but even during a part of the Moon period, during the Moon existence, the foundation of the inner organs which we now possess was still formed from outside. Since that time, we have really been turned inside out, like an overcoat that can be turned. We should bear in mind that many super-sensible facts are connected with our physical body; its whole structure is super-sensible; the super-sensible world has formed it, and when we look upon the physical body as a whole, it merely shows us its external aspect,

If we now come to the etheric body, we shall find that it is neither visible nor accessible to the physical-sensory contemplation. But when the human being passes through the portal of death, it becomes all the more important. The time through which the human being now passes, the first days after his death, are particularly important as far as the etheric body is concerned. But we must learn to think differently, even in regard to the physical body, if we wish to grasp in the right way all that we encounter after our passage through the portal of death.

You already know (for you can observe this even in the physical world) that when we pass through the portal of death, we lay aside our physical body, as we generally say. We lay aside our physical body. Through decomposition or cremation (the only difference between these two processes lies in the length of time that they take up) the physical body is handed over to the elements of the earth. Now we might think that the physical body simply ceases to exist for those who have passed through the portal of death. But this is not the case, in this meaning. For we can hand over to the earth only those parts of our physical body that come from the earth itself. We cannot, however, hand over to the earth that part of our physical body that comes from the ancient Moon existence, nor that part which comes from the ancient Sun existence, or from the ancient Saturn existence. For those parts that come from the ancient Saturn existence, from the Sun existence, from the Moon existence, and even from a great portion of the Earth existence, are super-sensible forces. These super-sensible forces contained in our physical body, of which only the external part is accessible to our sensory contemplation, as explained just now,—where do these super-sensible forces go to, after we have passed through the portal of death? As stated, we hand over to the earth, we return to the earth, only that part of our physical body, of that most wonderful structure which exists in the world, to begin with, as a form,—we return to the earth only what the earth itself has given to the physical body. And where is the other part, when we have passed through the portal of death? The other part withdraws from the one that sinks down into the earth, as it were, through the process of decomposition or cremation; the other part is taken up by the whole universe.

If you now think of everything you can at all imagine in the environment of the earth, including the planets and the fixed stars, if you imagine this in the most spiritual form, this spiritually conceived idea would give you the place where the spiritual part of our physical body abides after death. Only a portion of this spiritual part, a portion contained in the element of heat, separates and remains with the earth. But every other spiritual part of our physical body is borne out into the spaces of the universe, into the whole cosmos.

Where do we go to, when we abandon our physical body? Where do we dive down? Through our death, we dive down with lightning speed into that which forms our physical body, from out [of] all the super-sensible forces. Imagine that all the constructive forces that have worked upon your physical body, ever since the time of Saturn, were to stretch themselves into infinity, in order to prepare the place in which you live between death and a new birth. Between birth and death, all this is drawn together, I might say, within the space enclosed by your skin; it is merely drawn together.

When we are outside our physical body, we experience something that is of utmost importance for the whole subsequent life between death and a new birth. I have often mentioned this. This experience is of opposite character to the corresponding experience during our life here, upon the physical plane. During our life upon the physical plane, we cannot look back as far as the hour of our birth; we cannot look back upon it with the aid of our ordinary cognitive power. There is not one person who can remember his own birth, nor look back upon it. The only thing we know, is that we were born; in the first place, because we have been told so by others, and in the second place, because all the other human beings that came to the earth after us, were also born, so that we infer from this that we too, were born. But we cannot pass through the real experience of our own birth.

Exactly the opposite is the case with the corresponding experience after death. Whereas, during our physical life, the immediate contemplation of our birth can never rise up before our soul, the moment of death stands before our soul throughout our life between death and a new birth, if we only look upon it spiritually. We must realise that we then look upon the moment of death from the other side. Here, on earth, death has a terrifying aspect only because we look upon it as a kind of dissolution, as an end. But when we look back upon the moment of death from the other side, from the spiritual side, then death continually appears to us as a victory of the spirit, as the spirit that is extricating itself from the physical. It then appears as the greatest, most beautiful and significant event. Moreover, this experience kindles that which constitutes our Ego-consciousness after death. Throughout the time between death and a new birth, we have an Ego-consciousness that not only resembles but far exceeds that which we have here, during our physical life. We would not have this Ego-consciousness, if we could not look back incessantly, if we would not always see—but from the other side, from the spiritual side—that moment in which our spiritual part extricated itself from the physical. We know that we are an Ego only because we know that we have died, that our spiritual has freed itself from our physical part. When we cannot contemplate the moment of death, beyond the portal of death, then our Ego-consciousness after death is in the same case as our physical Ego-consciousness here upon the earth, when we are asleep. Just as we know nothing of our physical Ego-consciousness when we are asleep, so we know nothing concerning ourselves after death, if we do not constantly have before us the moment of death. It stands before us as one of the most beautiful and loftiest moments.

You see, even in this case we must set about thinking in an entirely different way of the spiritual world, than of the sensory-physical world. If we indolently remain by the thoughts which we have in connection with the physical-sensory world, it will be impossible for us to grasp the spiritual in any way more precisely. For the most important thing after death is that the moment of death is viewed from the other side. This kindles our Ego-consciousness on the other side. Here, in the physical world, we have, as it were, one side of Ego-consciousness; after death, we have the other side of Ego-consciousness. I explained just now where we should look for the super-sensible part of our physical body after death. We should seek this physical body in the shape of a relation of forces, of an organism of forces, as a cosmos of forces, within the whole world. This physical essence prepares the place through which we must pass between death and a new birth.

Within our physical body, which is so small in comparison to the whole world, our skin really encloses a microcosm, something that is, in reality, a whole world. Trivially speaking, I might say that this world is merely rolled together and that afterwards it unrolls again and fills out the universe, with the exception of one tiny space, that always remains empty.

Between death and a new birth, we really exist everywhere in the world; we live in it with that part which, here on earth, lies at the foundation of our physical body in the form of super-sensible forces. We are everywhere, except in that one place. This remains empty. It is the space enclosed by our skin, the space which we take up in the physical world. This remains empty.

Yet we constantly look upon this empty space. That is to say, we look upon our own self, from outside; we look into a concavity. This remains empty. It remains empty to such an extent that a fundamental feeling rises up in connection with it. Namely, we do not contemplate things in an abstract manner, we do not simply stare at them, but our contemplation is connected with a powerful inner life-experience, with a mighty experience. It is connected with the fact that when we contemplate this emptiness, a feeling rises up in us, a feeling that accompanies us throughout our life between death and a new birth and constitutes a great deal of what we generally designate as our life beyond. It is the feeling, that there is something in the world which must again and again be filled out by us. And then we acquire the feeling: “I exist in the world for a definite purpose, which I, alone, can fulfil.” Thus we learn to know our place within the world. We feel that we are building stones, without which the world could not exist. This is what arises through the contemplation of that empty space. When we gaze at it, we are overcome by a feeling telling us that we stand within the world as something that forms part of it.

All this is connected with the further development of our physical body. The more elementary forms of description only enable us to explain schematically as it were, a reality of the spiritual world that really requires to be explained in the form of images. In order to rise gradually to those concepts which penetrate more deeply into the reality of the spiritual world, we must first have those images.

We know that our next experience is a kind of retrospective memory, that lasts for days. But this retrospective memory is inappropriately designated (but nevertheless with a certain right) as a retrospective memory, for we have before us now, for a few days, something that resembles a tableau, or a panorama, woven out of all we have experienced during our past life. It does not, however, rise up in the same way in which an ordinary memory rises up in our physical body. You see, the memories that live in our physical body are of such a kind that we draw them out of our memory. Memory is a force that is connected with our physical body. Our recollections rise up in the form of thoughts; through the power of memory, we draw them out successively, within the stream of time. But the retrospective memory after death is of such a kind that everything that occurred during our earthly life, now surrounds us simultaneously, as if it were a panorama. Our life-experiences now rise up in the form of imaginations. We can only say that we now live, for whole days, within our experiences. What we experienced just before death, and what we experienced during our childhood, stands before us simultaneously, in powerful pictures. A panorama of our life, a life-picture stands before us and it reveals, simultaneously, in a woof woven out of the ether, what normally occurs successively, within the stream of time. Everything that we now see before us, lives in the ether.

We feel, above all, that we are now surrounded by something that is alive. Everything within it lives and weaves. And then we experience that it resounds spiritually, that it shines forth spiritually and gives warmth spiritually.

We know that this life-tableau disappears after a few days. What makes it cease and what is the essence of this life-tableau?

If we study the true essence of this life-tableau, we must really say: Everything that we have experienced during our life, is woven into it. How did we experience these things?—In the form of thoughts, connected with our experiences. Everything that we experienced in the form of thoughts and concepts is contained in this picture of our life.

In order to grasp this concretely, let us now say: During our earthly life, we lived together with another human being, we spoke with him and in speaking with him, his thoughts communicated with our thoughts. We received love from him, we allowed his soul to influence us and experienced all this inwardly. In this manner, we shared the experiences of the person we lived with. He lived and we lived, and through him we experienced something. What we experienced through him, now appears to us woven into this etheric life-tableau. It is the same thing that constitutes our memories. Think, for instance, of the moment, ten or twenty years ago, when you first met him and experienced something through him. Imagine that this memory now rises up before you, but that you do not remember it in the same way in which you would remember things during your ordinary life. The ordinary memories are grey and faded, but now you remember things in such a way that they rise up within you as LIVING memories; you see your friend standing before you in exactly the same way in which he stood before you during the real experience.

Here, on earth, we are often very dreamy and what we experience upon the physical plane in a living and hearty manner, becomes dulled and loses its vitality. But when we pass through the portal of death, when our experiences rise up before us in the life-tableau, they are no longer dull and lifeless, but exist there, in the original freshness and vitality which they possessed when we passed through them, during our earthly life. In this form they become inwoven with our life-tableau; in this form we experience them after death, for whole days.

In regard to the physical world, we have the impression that our physical body falls away from us when we die; in a similar way we now have the impression that also our etheric body falls away from us after a certain number of days, but it does not fall away from us in the same way in which our physical body falls away, for it becomes inwoven with the whole universe, with the whole world. It lives in the world and stamps its impressions upon the whole world, while we are experiencing our life-tableau. What we thus have before us in the form of a life-tableau, has now been handed over to the external world: it lives in our surroundings and has been taken over by the world.

During those days, we have an important and impressive experience in this connection. For, after death, our experiences do not merely resemble the memories which we have during our earthly life, but they are in every way substance for new experiences. Even the manner in which we grasp our Ego, through the fact that we constantly look back upon our death, is a new experience, for our earthly senses do not enable us to experience anything similar. This can only be grasped through the knowledge of initiation. But even what we experience during the days in which we are surrounded by this life-tableau, by this etheric life that frees itself from us and becomes inwoven with the universe, even what we experience in this manner, is impressive and lofty, it is an overwhelming and powerful experience for the human soul.

You see, during our physical life on earth, we face the world: we face the mineral, vegetable, animal and human kingdom. It enables us to experience what our senses are able to experience, what our intellect, that is bound to the brain, obtains through the sense-experiences, what are our feelings, that are connected with our vascular system, experience: we experience all these things, here on earth.

But in reality, and from a loftier standpoint, we human beings are extremely great dunces (excuse this expression!), gigantic dunces between birth and death. In regard to the wisdom of the great world, we are fearfully stupid if we believe that here on earth, when we experience something in the manner described and bear it along in the form of memories, everything is finished; we are fearfully stupid if we think that our experiences are finished, when we take them up in this manner, as human beings. For while we experience things, while we form concepts and feelings rise up in our experiences, the whole world of the Hierarchies is active within this process through which we acquire our experiences; the Hierarchies live and weave in it.

When we face a human being and, look into his eyes, then the Spirits of the Hierarchies, the Hierarchies themselves, the work of the Hierarchies, live in our gaze and in what is sent towards us through the gaze of the other human being. Our experience merely shows us the external aspect of things, for, in reality, the Gods work within our experiences. We think, that we only live for our own sake; yet the Gods work out something through our experiences; they obtain from them something that they can weave into the world. We form ideas, we have feeling experiences; the Gods take them up and communicate them to their world. And when we die, we know that the purpose of our life is to give the Gods the opportunity to spin out of our life this woof coming from our etheric body and to hand it over to the whole universe. The Gods gave us the chance to live, in order that they might spin out something for themselves, thus enriching the world.

This is an overwhelming thought. Every one of our strides is the external expression of an event connected with the Gods; it forms part of that woof which the Gods use for their plan of the world and which they leave to us only until we pass through the portal of death. After our death, they take it away from us and incorporate with the universe these, our human destinies. Our human destinies are, at the same time, the deeds of Gods, and the form in which they appear to us human beings is merely their outward aspect. This is the significant, important and essential fact which we should bear in mind.

What we acquire inwardly, during our earthly life, through the fact that we can think and have feelings, whom does this belong to, after our death? Whom does it now belong to? After our death, it belongs to the universe. We look back upon our death, and in the same way we now look back with that part which remains to us, namely, with our astral body and our Ego, upon that which has become inwoven with the universe, with the world. During our earthly life, we bear within us what thus becomes inwoven with the universe after our death; we bear it within us, as our etheric body. But now it is spun up and becomes inwoven with the world. And we now look upon it, we contemplate it. After our death, we look upon it in the same way in which we experienced it inwardly, here on earth. It now lives in the world outside. Just as here on earth we see stars, mountains, rivers, so after our death, we see, in addition to what our physical body has become with lightning speed, also that part of our own experiences which has become inwoven with the universe. That part of our own experiences which now incorporates with the whole world-structure, is reflected in those members which we still possess, in our astral body and in our Ego; it is reflected in the same way in which the external world is reflected, here on earth, in our physical organs and through our physical being.

While this is reflected in us, we acquire something that we cannot acquire during our earthly life, something that we shall only acquire later on, during the Jupiter period, in the form of a more external, physical impression. Now we acquire it spiritually, through the fact that our etheric being, outside makes an impression upon us. The impression which is thus made upon us, is, to begin with, a spiritual one; it is made in the form of images; in its image-character it is, however, the prototype of what we shall one day possess upon Jupiter: namely, the Spirit-Self.

A Spirit-Self is therefore born to us, through the fact that our etheric part becomes inwoven with the universe; this Spirit-Self comes to birth spiritually, not in the form in which we shall have it later on, upon Jupiter.

The etheric body has now detached itself, so that we now have the astral body, the Ego and the Spirit-Self.

The astral body and the Ego therefore remain to us from our earthly life.

You already know that our astral body, in the earthly form in which it was subjected to us, remains with as for a long time after death. The astral body remains with us, because it is permeated with all those things that only pertain to the earthly-human life, and because it cannot immediately expel this. We now pass through a time during which we can only cast off little by little what has become of our astral body as a result of our earthly life.

You see, here on earth, we can only experience, in regard to the astral body, one half at the most of everything through which we pass. We really experience only half of what takes place in every one of our experiences. Let us take an example: Imagine—this applies, both to good and to evil thoughts and actions—but let us take as an example an evil action: Imagine that you say something bad to another person and that your words hurt him. When we say something unkind, we only experience that part which concerns us personally; we only experience the feelings that prompted us to say those evil words: This is the soul-impression which we gather when we say bad and unkind things. But the other person to whom we addressed our unkind words, has an entirely different impression; he has, as it were, the other half of the impression and feels hurt. The second half of the impression lives in him. What we ourselves experience during our physical life on earth is one thing, and what the other person experiences is another thing.

Now imagine the following: After our death, when we pass retrogradely through our life, we must once more live through everything that other people, outside, have experienced through us. As we go backwards through our life, we experience the effects of our thoughts and actions. Between death and a new birth, we therefore pass through our life by going through it retrogradely. And when we have gone back as far as our birth, we are ripe for the moment when also that part of our astral body may be cast off, which is permeated with earthly things. It abandons us, and a new state of-existence begins for us when we have cast off our astral body.

The astral body always kept us connected, I might say, with the earth; it maintained this connection in all our experiences. When we pass through our astral body—not in a dreamy condition, but by living through our earthly experiences backwards—we are still connected with our earthly life; we still stand within our earthly existence. Now that we have cast off—but this is not the right expression; it is, however, impossible to use another one—now that we have cast off our astral body, we are quite free of all that pertains to the earth, and we live in the real spiritual world.

A new experience now sets in. This casting-off of the astral body is, again, merely one aspect of the whole experience; the other aspect is an entirely different one. When we have passed through our earthly experiences and no longer have our astral body, we feel, as it were, inwardly filled and permeated with—we cannot say with material—but with Spirit; then we really feel that we are in the spiritual world and the spiritual world rises up within us. In former times, it rose up before us in the outer world when we contemplated the universe and saw our own etheric body inwoven with the universe. But now it rises up within us; we now experience it inwardly. And our Ego rises up within us, as a prototype of what we shall possess physically only upon Venus; our Ego rises up as a prototype of the Life-Spirit.

We now consist of Spirit-Self, Life-Spirit and Ego.

Just as here on earth, we live in a rather dreamy state from our birth until that moment of our childhood in which we acquire self-consciousness, which is the earliest moment of life that we can recall, so we now lead a form of life that is fully conscious, indeed more conscious and higher than our earthly life. However, we experience a purely spiritual life, only when we have detached ourselves from our astral body, from our astral life, retaining only that part of our astral which permeates us inwardly. Consequently, we are, from that time onwards, Spirits among Spirits.

Now another important and essential experience rises up. During our life in the physical world, we carry on our work, do this or that thing and [have] experiences in connection with all these things. (We just spoke of this). Our experiences are, however, not limited to the physical world; simultaneously and in connection with them, we also experience something else. Although the expression which I shall now use for these simultaneous experiences is just an ordinary, more general expression, let me nevertheless use this word: while we experience these things, we grow tired, we get used up. This is constantly the case: we grow tired. Although our weariness is eliminated for our next state of consciousness through the fact that we sleep, or rather, through the fact that we rest during our sleep, this elimination, or adjustment, is nevertheless only a partial one, for we know, of course, that during our life we gradually become used up, we grow older, and our strength gradually dwindles. Consequently, we also grow tired in a wider sense. When we grow older, we know that we cannot adjust everything by sleeping. Thus we wear out our strength, we grow tired, during our life on earth.

Indeed, we are now able to view this problem from another aspect. After our preceding explanation, we can now advance this problem in a different way; we can ask: Why do the Gods allow us to grow weary? The fact that here on earth we get tired and wear out our strength, gives us something that is really most significant for our whole life. Let us, however, grasp the idea that we get tired, in a wider sense than the usual one. Let us place it clearly before our soul.

You will grasp it best of all if you imagine it in the following way: Ask any one of those present: Do you know anything concerning the interior of your head?—Probably only a person who is suffering from headache would answer that at the present moment he does know something concerning the interior of his head. He alone would feel what the inside of his head is like; all the others would not feel it.

We can feel our organs only when they are not quite in order; we are then to some extent aware of their existence through our feelings. As a rule, we only have a more general feeling of our physical body, and this feeling increases when anything is out of order. But when we only have this general feeling, we know very little concerning the interior of our body. Those who suffer from bad headaches know a little more concerning the inside of their head than an anatomist, who is merely acquainted with the head's vessels. I explained this just now. In growing more and more tired, during the course of our life, we acquire an ever stronger feeling in regard to the body's interior, its spatial interior.

Consider the fact that the more weary we grow, the more the infirmities of life arise, for instance the infirmities of old age. Our life consists therein that we gradually begin to feel and to sense our physical body. We learn to sense this physical part of our being, because it becomes hardened within us and because it pushes itself, as it were, into our being. Just because it develops so slowly, we regard it, I might say, as an insignificant feeling. Its real significance could be gauged, if we could feel (excuse this trivial expression, but it conveys what I wish to say) in the pink of health, like an exuberantly healthy child, and immediately afterwards, for the sake of comparison, like an old man of 80 or 85, whose limbs have grown fragile. This would enable us to experience that feeling more strongly; simply because it develops so slowly and little by little, we do not notice the fact that we gradually spin ourselves into the feeling experience of our physical part, while we grow weary; we do not notice this feeling simply because it develops so slowly. Yet growing weary is a real process. At first, it does not exist at all, for a child is full of exuberant vitality. But later on, fatigue gradually begins to drown the vital forces, and then the process of getting tired breaks through. We have the possibility of growing weary, and during this process (even though it only gives us, let us say, a dim feeling of our body's inner structure), during this process, something takes place within us, something really takes place within us.

Our life in the physical world only shows us the outer aspect of deep, significant and lofty mysteries. The fact that this dim, insignificant feeling of growing weary accompanies us throughout our life, so that we are able to feel the inner structure of our body, is merely the outer aspect of something that becomes inwoven with us; it is wonderfully woven out of pure wisdom, a complete woof of pure wisdom.

While we thus grow weary during our life and begin to experience ourselves inwardly, a delicate knowledge becomes inwoven with us, a knowledge of the wonderful constitution of our organs, of our inner organs. Our heart grows tired, yet this weariness means that a knowledge of the heart's structure becomes inwoven with us, a knowledge of how the heart is built from out the universe. Our stomach gets tired—most of all, when we spoil it by eating too much—yet during this process that tires the stomach, an image of wisdom from out the cosmos is woven into us, and this image shows us how the stomach is built up.

The lofty, wonderful structure of our organism, of this great work of art, arises within us in the form of an image. But this image only comes to life when we cast off that part of our astral body which is bound to the earth. What now lives within us, what now fills us as LIFE-SPIRIT, is the wisdom connected with our own being, it is the wisdom connected with the wonderful structure of our inner being and this wisdom now lives in us.

Now begins a time in which we compare, as it were, what fills us in the form of Life-Spirit from out the wisdom of our inner being, with the etheric woof that has already been woven into the universe. Our task is now to compare how one thing fits in with the other, and we then build up, in the form of an image, our inner being; we give it the shape which it should have during our next incarnation.

This is how we begin, but little by little our life approaches the World-Midnight, which you will find described in one of the Mystery Plays, in “The Souls' Awakening”. Particularly after the World-Midnight, we are engaged in a work that consists therein that we now participate in the world's creative work; we call into life what we afterwards enjoy here, DURING OUR LIFE BETWEEN DEATH AND A NEW BIRTH, WE SHARE IN THE WORK, WE PARTICIPATE IN THE WEAVING OF THE GODS' IMAGES. We have the privilege of sharing in a divine task, in what the Gods aimed at, when they placed man into the world. We are allowed to prepare our next incarnation.

Of course, this is not only connected with processes that exclusively and egoistically concern our own being, for all manner of other processes take place as well. This may be evident particularly from the following:

If we gradually succeed in experiencing, in spiritual contemplation, this wonderful process—which is, above all, far higher than the one which takes place on earth, when summer and winter alternate, or when the sun rises and sets—and when all that takes place which occurs in the form of earthly work, then something occurs in the spiritual world finally leading to our earthly incarnation, to human existence. This is a lofty, heavenly process, which has not only an external significance, but a deep significance for the whole world.

We also encounter something else, when we contemplate this process. It may sound strange to say this, but you see, the higher mysteries at first necessarily appear strange in the light of a physical-Sensory contemplation. What rises up before our soul in connection with these mysteries must move us. The more it moves us, the better it is, for these things, the very nature of these things, should not approach our soul so that we remain dry and indifferent. They should not be taken up in such a way that we remain indifferent, dry and cool; but they should, instead, give us a soul-impression of the loftiness and greatness of the divine spiritual world.

We can say: If anybody would undertake to present spiritual science in such a dry way that it does not take hold of our WHOLE being, and so that we do not gain an impression of the loftiness and greatness of the divine-spiritual that pulses and weaves through the world—if, after all these descriptions, we would live on indifferently and dryly, then we would be born without heads, in accordance with the present conditions of the world and in spite of everything we know! We would be born without heads! The structure of our head is something that we are unable to build. In its whole structure, the human head is such a lofty image of the universe, that the human being would be unable to form it, even with the aid of that life-wisdom which is woven into him; he would be unable to prepare it for the next incarnation. All the divine Hierarchies must cooperate in this work. Your head, this slightly irregular and somewhat transformed sphere, is a real microcosm, a true image of the great world-sphere. Within it lives, within it is collected everything that exists outside, in the universe. All the forces that are active in the different Hierarchies cooperate in order to produce the head. And when we begin to shape our next incarnation, from out [of] the wisdom, which we collected during the process of growing weary, all the Hierarchies cooperate and influence this activity, in order to embody in us, as an image of the whole wisdom of the Gods, what afterwards becomes our head!

While all this occurs, our physical, hereditary stream is being prepared generations ahead, here upon the earth. Just as after our death we can only hand over to the earth what comes from the earth, so our parents and grand-parents only give us that part of our being which pertains to the earth. Our earthly part is merely our exterior, it is merely the external expression within this earthly part. Woven into it, is, in the first place, everything that we ourselves are able to weave in the manner described, and what all the Hierarchies of the Gods weave, before we gain a connection (through conception) with that which enwraps us and clothes us about, when we enter the physical plane.

I explained to you, that the more of this lofty knowledge we take up in our feelings, the better it will be for us. Just consider the fact: We use our head. In so far as we live in materialism, we generally have not the slightest idea that whole Hierarchies of Gods are at work in order to produce our head, in order to mould that which lies, spiritually, at the foundation of our head, so that we are able to live. If we grasp this, in the meaning of a spiritual-scientific knowledge, it will spontaneously be filled with feelings of gratitude and thankfulness towards the whole universe.

Consequently, what we acquire through spiritual science, should incessantly continue to increase and raise our feelings. In the sphere of spiritual science, our sentient life should more and more hold pace with our cognitive work. It is not good to remain behind with our feelings. Whenever we learn to know a new and higher portion of spiritual science, we should be able to unfold, I might say, more and more reverent feelings towards the world's mysteries, which finally lead to the mysteries of man. A true progress in spiritual science really lies in this purifying, spiritual, warmth of our feelings.

Let me mention one more thing because it completes all that we have contemplated in this lecture. Here, in the physical world, we gradually grow accustomed to life by having, to begin with, the dull consciousness of childhood. At first, we only recognise our mother and little by little we learn to know other people. As we grow accustomed to life in the physical world, we believe that we are constantly coming across new people. As far as our physical consciousness is concerned, this is, in fact, true. But when we pass through the portal of death, we have a real, true connection with all the souls that we encountered during our earthly life. They rise up again before our spiritual eye. The souls with whom we were connected during our earthly life and that crossed the portal of death before us, we find these souls, as it were. The word “to find” really applies to physical conditions, but we may use it here, to define that living way in which souls approach other souls. This “finding” of the souls that crossed the portal of death before us, should, however, be imagined in such a way that we approach them, as it were, in an opposite manner from the one in which we approach human beings, here on the physical plane.

On the physical plane we encounter human beings so that we first approach them physically, and then we gradually become acquainted with their inner being. Their inner being unfolds only when we penetrate into their inner life. Hence, what we experience inwardly in connection with a human being, is the result of that which develops from out [of] our own inner life. When we ourselves have crossed the portal of death and encounter the souls that have passed through the portal of death before us, we know to begin with: There is that particular soul. We can feel it, we know that it is there. Now we must, however, surrender our whole inner being to the first impression that arises, to the first most abstract impression. Here on earth we should allow other human beings to exercise their influence upon us; but in the spiritual world we must SURRENDER OUR INNER BEING and we must now build up the image, the imagination, ourselves. The imaginative element, what we can look upon, this we must gradually build up. You may have an idea of the soul's experiences after death if you imagine that you do not see it, but that you TAKE HOLD of it ... and as you gradually ENCOMPASS IT WITH YOUR GRASP, you, form an image: you build up an image for yourself. You must therefore build up in inner activity the image of the soul whom you encounter. You realise, as it were: “I am now facing a soul ... What soul is it? It is the soul ...”, and this knowledge rises out of your own soul ... “towards whom I had the feelings of a son towards his mother.” And you begin to feel: “I experience myself together with this soul”. Now you begin to build its spiritual form. You must be active within it, and then it develops into an image. Through the fact that you build this image together with the other soul, you are united with that dead person, even before you begin, to form its spiritual shape. In this manner you are united with everything with which you were united during your earthly life; that is to say, you now experience these things in their own world. You must discover them, by awakening within you the power of vision, so that you may look upon yourself, but this requires activity on your part.

It is not the same with souls that still dwell in their physical body, with souls that are still alive when we die. Even here on earth, we encounter them in the form of images. Thus we look down upon the earth, and do not need to build up their image, for they already face us as images. Of course, we may weave into these images something that can become spiritual warmth and nourishment for the dead, namely the image which we are able to form through our thoughts for the dead, through our lasting love and memory, or—we know this, as spiritual scientists—by reading something to them.

You see, all this extends the human gaze, so that it penetrates, really penetrates into the real world. If this rises up before our soul, we begin to realise how little we know of the spiritual world. This was not always the case. Only the completely materialistic people of modern times boast of the great extent of their knowledge. But we know that in the past the human beings were clairvoyant and that this ancient, atavistic clairvoyance was lost only because certain qualities had to be acquired, which disappeared in the midst of an existence connected with a materialistic world. If a real materialist, a thoroughly materialistic thinker, approaches us, he will, of course, say: “It is nonsense to speak of an ancient clairvoyance, or that people had a special knowledge in the past”. But if we would only open our physical eyes a little as we pass through the world, we would very soon discover the confutation of such an argument! It is not even so long ago, that people used to know more than they do at the present time.

You know, for we have often considered this matter—but let me mention it again at the conclusion of this lecture—that Lucifer and Ahriman have a share in our spiritual existence. We also know that in the Bible Lucifer is symbolized as a Serpent, as the Serpent on the Tree. The physical serpent, such as we see it to-day, and as modern painters always paint it when they depict the Paradise Scene, is not a real Lucifer; it is only his outer image, his physical image. The real Lucifer is a Being that remained behind during the Moon-stage of evolution. He cannot be seen upon the earth, among physical objects. If a painter wishes to paint Lucifer's real aspect he would have to paint him so that he can be grasped as an etheric form, through a kind of inner clairvoyant form of contemplation. He would then appear in the shape in which he works upon us; he would show that he is not connected with our head or with our organism in so far as these are exclusively formed by the earth, but that he is connected with the continuation of our head, with the spinal cord. A painter who knows something through spiritual science, would therefore paint Adam and Eve, the Tree, and on the Tree the Serpent, but this serpent would only be a symbol and it would have a human head. If we would come across such a painting to-day, we would assume that the painter has, of course, been able to paint this picture through spiritual science,

Probably such a painting may even be found here in Leipzig; but people do not go about with open eyes, they go through the world with bandaged eyes. In the Art Gallery of Hamburg there is a painting of the Middle Ages by, Master Bertram, setting forth the Paradise Scene. In that painting, the Serpent on the Tree is painted correctly, as described just now. That picture can be seen there. But other painters have also painted the Paradise Scene in that way. What may we gather from this? That in the Middle Ages, people still knew this, they knew it to the extent of being able to paint it. In other words: It is not so long ago, that human beings were pushed completely on to the physical plane.

The course of man's spiritual history, as related by materialistic thinkers, is, after all, nothing but an outer deception, because they think that man always had the aspect which he assumed in the course of the past few centuries, whereas it is not so long ago that he used to look into the spiritual world with the aid of his ancient clairvoyance. He had to abandon the spiritual world, because he was not free, and in order to acquire full freedom and his Ego-consciousness, it was necessary that he should leave the spiritual world. Now he must once more find his way into the spiritual world.

Spiritual science therefore prepares something very important and essential: namely, that we may once more penetrate livingly into the spiritual world. Again and again let us conjure up in our soul the necessity of feeling that this small number of men that is now living in the very midst of a materialistic world and is led through its Karma to the possibility of grasping mankind's most important task for the future, that this small number of men is called upon to fulfil important, most important tasks, through its soul-life. We should realise without any pride, we should realise modestly and humbly the great difference between a soul that is gradually finding its way into the spiritual world, and all the people outside, who have not the slightest idea of this, who are, above all, NOT WILLING to have any idea of it. This fact should not merely arouse in us discouraging and painful feelings, but produce feelings that incite us to continue our work with increasing energy and to work faithfully within the stream of spiritual science, to which we were led through our Karma.

When we were together last, I also mentioned that when a human being passes through the portal of death before having lived through the whole of his life, then that part which is given to him in the form of an etheric body has not been used up completely. When a human being passes through the portal of death in his youth, then his etheric body might still have worked for years upon his physical body. But these forces do not go lost; they are still there. I also mentioned that in the present time, through the fact that every day and every hour death so numerously approaches mankind, many, many etheric bodies that might still have worked for a long time upon their physical body, here on the physical plane, are handed over to the spiritual-etheric world and hover in it. The forces that might, for decades, have provided for the physical body, become spiritual forces, that cooperate in the spiritual development of humanity. Thus a time will come, when these forces that constitute these etheric bodies, can be used for the spiritual progress of humanity; but this time will only come, if here on earth there will be human souls who are able to understand this.

When the terrible events of the present shall have passed over the earth and there will be peace once more, then the souls of those who are still living on the earth in human bodies, will have the possibility of grasping something of the fact that all those who have gone into the spiritual world before their time have their etheric bodies in that world and that they can ray their forces into the earth. It will be necessary that this fact be grasped by these souls. These souls can then cooperate in that spiritual progress which is rendered possible particularly through the many deaths of self-sacrifice.

Imagine what it would mean if spiritual science were to disappear, and if no one were to have any comprehension for all that is being prepared in the spiritual world through these deaths of self-sacrifice! Imagine what this would mean! In that case, all those forces would become the property of Beings who would use them for other purposes than those for which they should be used, in accordance with the plan and resolution of the Gods who follow the right course of development.

This is an admonishment that also comes from the events of our time, an admonishment to the effect that we should stand fully within all that which constitutes the spiritual world. For even these events of our time have their spiritual aspect. What they reveal outwardly, in the form of blood, death and sacrifices, is the external expression of an inner spiritual course of events, which should, however, be grasped in the right spirit.

Of this I wish to remind you again and again, with the words that conclude our present considerations:

Aus dem Mut der Kämpfer,
Aus dem Blut der Schlachten,
Aus dem Leid Verlassener,
Aus des Volkes Opfertaten,
Wird erwachsen Geistesfrucht,
Lenken Seelen Geist-bewusst,
Ihren Sinn ins Geisterreich.

(TRANSLATION)

From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of the battles,
From the sufferings of the abandoned,
From the nation's deeds of sacrifice,
Shall grow out a spiritual fruit,
If souls lead, in Spirit-consciousness,
Their heart and mind into the Spirit-realm.

Über Das Ereignis Des Todes Und Tatsachen Der Nachtodlichen Zeit

Wir leben in einer Zeit, in welcher wir an den Tod, das Hindurchgehen der Menschen durch die Todespforte, an dieses bedeutsame Lebensereignis des Menschen, täglich oder stündlich gemahnt werden. Denn ein Lebensereignis wird der Tod für den Menschen im wahren Sinne des Wortes nur durch die Geisteswissenschaft, die dem Menschen zeigt, wie in seinem Inneren jene ewigen Kräfte wirken, die durch Geburten und Tode hindurchgehen und die sich für die Zeit zwischen Geburt und Tod die eine Art des Daseins, eine besondere Form des Daseins schaffen, um nach dem Durchgehen durch die Todespforte eine andere Daseinsform anzunehmen. So wird der Tod gewissermaßen aus dem abstrakten Lebensende, das er allein sein kann für die materialistische Weltanschauung, durch die Geisteswissenschaft ein Ereignis, wenn auch ein tief schwerwiegendes, im umfassenden Leben des Menschen. Und auch innerhalb unserer Reihen selber, in erster Linie durch die gegenwärtigen geschichtlichen Ereignisse, dann aber auch durch Gründe außerhalb derselben, sind liebe Freunde durch die Todespforte gegangen, so daß es vielleicht gerade in der Gegenwart besonders angemessen erscheint, über das Ereignis des Todes und diejenigen Tatsachen des menschlichen Lebens, die sich an den Tod anreihen, in unserer heutigen Betrachtung einiges zu geben.

Allerdings, immer wieder und wiederum sind in unseren geisteswissenschaftlichen Betrachtungen Auseinandersetzungen aufgetaucht über das Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, und wir haben gerade über diesen Gegenstand schon viele Anhaltspunkte gewonnen. Allein, Sie wissen ja wohl aus dem bisherigen Verlauf der Geisteswissenschaft, daß immer alles nur gegeben werden kann von einem gewissen Gesichtspunkt aus, und daß wir im Grunde die Dinge nur immer genauer und genauer dadurch kennenlernen können, daß sie uns von verschiedenen Gesichtspunkten aus beleuchtet sind. So werde ich denn zu demjenigen, was wir schon wissen, heute über das angeregte Thema einiges hinzufügen, das uns für unsere Gesamtweltauffassung nützlich sein kann.

Wir betrachten - und das ist zunächst gut - den Menschen geisteswissenschaftlich so, wie er als Ausdruck seiner Gesamtwesenheit hier in der physischen Welt vor uns steht. Wir müssen zunächst von dem ausgehen, was uns der Mensch in der physischen Welt darbietet, und daher habe ich auch immer wieder und wiederum darauf aufmerksam gemacht, wie wir gewissermaßen etwas wie eine leitende Übersicht bekommen über den Gesamtmenschen, wenn wir ihn so betrachten, daß wir zugrunde legen zunächst den physischen Leib, den wir von außen durch Sinnesbetrachtung, durch die wissenschaftliche Zergliederung des sinnlich Betrachteten hier in der physischen Welt kennenlernen. Wir legen dann denjenigen Leib oder diejenige Organisationsform zugrunde, welche wir als den ätherischen Leib bezeichnen, der ja schon einen übersinnlichen Charakter hat, der also mit den gewöhnlichen Sinnesorganen nicht betrachtet werden kann - auch mit dem Verstand nicht, der an das Gehirn gebunden ist - und der daher der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft bereits unzugänglich ist. Dieser ätherische Leib ist aber immerhin ein Gebilde, von dem man sagen kann, daß auch Geister wie Immanuel Hermann Fichte, der Sohn des großen Johann Gottlieb Fichte, dann Troxler und andere davon gewußt haben. Dieser ätherische Leib ist etwas im Menschen, welches zwar nur in imaginativer Erkenntnis aufgefaßt werden kann, weil es übersinnlich ist, was aber doch für die übersinnliche Erkenntnis eben äußerlich angeschaut werden kann, so wie für die sinnliche Erkenntnis der sinnliche physische Leib äußerlich angeschaut werden kann.

Wir steigen dann in der Betrachtung auf zu dem astralischen Leib. Der astralische Leib ist nun nicht etwas, was so äußerlich sinnlich angeschaut werden kann wie der physische Leib durch die äußeren Sinne, wie der ätherische Leib durch den inneren Sinn, sondern der astralische Leib ist so etwas, was nur innerlich erlebt werden kann, worinnen man selber sein muß, um es zu erleben, und ebenso das vierte Glied, das wir zunächst hier in der physischen Welt zu erfassen haben, das Ich. Aus diesen vier Gliedern der menschlichen Natur bauen wir uns den Gesamtmenschen auf. Wir wissen aber auch aus den bisherigen Betrachtungen, daß dasjenige, was wir eigentlich den physischen Leib des Menschen nennen, etwas sehr Kompliziertes ist, daß sich dieser physische Leib des Menschen aufbaut in einem langen Werdegang durch Saturn-, Sonnen-, Mondenzeit hindurch, daß auch schon mitgewirkt hat das Erdenwerden von dem Urbeginne des Erdendaseins bis in unsere Zeit. Ein komplizierter Entwickelungsgang hat unseren physischen Leib aufgebaut. Von dem, was da eigentlich in dem physischen Leibe lebt, bietet sich der Betrachtung, die dem Menschen in der physischen Welt zunächst zugänglich ist, auch für die gewöhnliche Wissenschaft eigentlich nur die Außenseite dar. Man könnte sagen, das gewöhnliche physische Anschauen und die physische Wissenschaft, wie sie hier in der Welt leben, die kennen von dem physischen Leibe nur so viel, als ein Mensch von einem Hause kennt, der außen um das Haus herumgeht und niemals in das Innere gekommen ist, niemals kennengelernt hat, was im Inneren des Hauses ist und welche Menschen im Hause leben. Nur wird selbstverständlich derjenige, der im materialistischen Sinne auf dem Boden der äußeren Wissenschaft steht, sagen: Oh, wir kennen sehr gut dieses Innere des physischen Leibes! Wir kennen, weil wir oftmals das Gehirn geschaut haben innerhalb der Gehirnwände, weil wir den Magen, das Herz geschaut haben bei der Leichensezierung, wir kennen ja dieses Innere!

Aber dieses Innere, das so von außen gesehen werden kann, das Räumlich-Innere, das ist nicht dasjenige, was hier gemeint ist, wenn von dem Inneren gesprochen wird. Dieses Räumlich-Innere ist auch nur ein Äußeres; dieses Räumlich-Innere ist sogar beim physischen Menschenleib viel äußerlicher als das wirkliche Räumlich-Äußerliche. Das ist allerdings sonderbar, wenn ich das sage. Aber Sie wissen ja aus den bisherigen Beschreibungen unserer Geisteswissenschaft, daß unsere Sinnesorgane schon während der Saturnzeit aufgebaut worden sind, und die tragen wir an der Außenseite unseres Leibes, an der räumlichen Außenseite. Die sind aus viel geistigeren Kräften aufgebaut als zum Beispiel unser Magen oder dasjenige, was innerlich im räumlichen Sinne ist. Dasjenige, was innerlich ist, ist aus den ungeistigsten Kräften aufgebaut. Und so sonderbar es klingt, so muß doch einmal darauf aufmerksam gemacht werden, daß der Mensch sich eigentlich verkehrt ausspricht über sich. Es ist das ja natürlich, weil wir hier auf dem physischen Plan leben — aber verkehrt spricht er sich aus. Er müßte eigentlich dasjenige, was die Haut im Gesichte ist, das Innere nennen und seinen Magen das Äußere. Da würde man der Wirklichkeit viel näherkommen! Man würde der Wirklichkeit näherkommen, wenn man sagen würde, wir essen von innen nach außen, wir schicken die Speisen von innen nach außen, indem wir sie in den Magen schikken, als jetzt, wo wir sagen: von außen nach innen; denn je weiter unsere Organe an der Oberfläche liegen, von desto geistigeren Kräften rühren sie her, und von um so ungeistigeren Kräften rühren sie her, je mehr sie in unserem räumlichen Inneren liegen.

Sie können das sogar aus den bisherigen Schilderungen der Geisteswissenschaft leicht einsehen. Wenn Sie sich genau erinnern an dasjenige, was in der bisherigen Schilderung der Geisteswissenschaft vorgebracht worden ist, so werden Sie wissen, daß während der Mondenentwickelung sich etwas abspaltet und bei der Erdenentwickelung wieder abspaltet und hinausgeht aus der Saturn-, Sonnen- und Mondenentwickelung in den Weltenraum. Bei dieser Abspaltung ist nämlich etwas Merkwürdiges geschehen: Wir sind gewendet worden, richtig so gewendet worden, wie ein Handschuh umgedreht, umgewendet wird, das Innere nach außen und das Äußere nach innen. Dasjenige, was sich heute als Gesicht nach außen wendet, war wirklich während der Saturn- und Sonnenzeit - in der ersten Anlage natürlich — nach innen gewendet, und auch noch während eines Teiles der Mondenzeit; und die Anlagen zu unseren heutigen inneren Organen wurden während des Mondendaseins noch so gebildet, daß sie von außen gebildet wurden. Wir sind seit jener Zeit wirklich umgewendet wie ein Rock. Heute tut man das nicht mehr so viel, Röcke wenden, aber man hat es in früheren Zeiten getan, als man die Röcke noch länger tragen konnte. Heute ist das ja nicht mehr üblich.

Wenn wir von unserem physischen Leib sprechen, müssen wir uns also bewußt werden, daß an ihm vieles Übersinnliche ist, daß seine ganze Bauart übersinnlich ist, daß er aus dem Übersinnlichen heraus gebaut ist und uns nur seine Außenseite zuwendet, wenn wir das betrachten als Ganzes. Wenn wir nun an den Ätherleib kommen, so ist dieser überhaupt nicht mehr für die physisch-sinnliche Betrachtung sichtbar; aber um so wichtiger wird dieser Ätherleib dann, wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist. Da ist zunächst in der Zeit, in die wir eintreten in den ersten Tagen, dieser Ätherleib von einer ganz besonderen Wichtigkeit. Aber auch in bezug auf den physischen Leib müssen wir noch lernen umzudenken, richtig lernen umzudenken, wenn wir in dem rechten Maße das ins Auge fassen wollen, was uns nach dem Durchgang durch die Todespforte erwartet. Sie wissen ja, denn das kann noch von der physischen Welt aus beobachtet werden, beim Durchgang durch die Todespforte legt der Mensch seinen physischen Leib, wie man sagt, ab. Er wird übergeben durch Verwesung oder Verbrennung — die beiden Prozesse unterscheiden sich nur durch Zeitlänge - dem Element der Erde. Nun könnte es scheinen, als ob für den, der nun durch die Todespforte gegangen ist, dieser physische Leib als solcher einfach abgetan wäre. Das ist aber nicht der Fall. Der Erde können wir von unserem physischen Leib nämlich nur dasjenige übergeben, was von der Erde selber stammt. Nicht können wir der Erde übergeben von unserem physischen Leib dasjenige, was von dem alten Mondendasein herrührt, was von dem alten Sonnendasein herrührt, von dem alten Saturndasein herrührt. Dasjenige, was von dem alten Saturndasein herrührt, von dem Sonnendasein und vom Mondendasein, ja sogar von einem großen Teil des Erdendaseins noch, das sind übersinnliche Kräfte. Und diese übersinnlichen Kräfte, die in unserem physischen Leib drinnenstecken, von denen sich uns eben nur in der sinnlichen Anschauung, wie ich eben auseinandergesetzt habe, die Außenseite zeigt, diese übersinnlichen Kräfte, wohin kommen denn die, wenn wir durch die Todespforte hindurchgegangen sind? Von unserem physischen Leib, von diesem wunderbarsten Gebilde, das überhaupt in der Welt vorhanden ist zunächst als Gebilde, von unserem physischen Leib wird, wie gesagt, nur dasjenige, was ihm die Erde gegeben hat, der Erde zurückgegeben. Das andere, wo ist es denn, wenn wir durch die Todespforte geschritten sind? — Das andere zieht sich zurück von dem, was in die Erde gleichsam hineinsinkt durch Verwesung oder Verbrennung; das andere wird aufgenommen in das ganze Universum. Und wenn Sie alles, alles, was Sie ahnen können im Umkreis der Erde, mit sämtlichen Planeten und Fixsternen denken, und wenn Sie das möglichst geistig denken, so werden Sie in diesem also geistig Gedachten den Ort haben, wo das Geistige von uns ist. Denn nur ein Stück dieses Geistigen wird abgetrennt, das in Wärme lebt, und das bei der Erde verbleibt. Wärme, unsere innere Wärme, unsere Eigenwärme wird abgetrennt, bleibt bei der Erde. Aber alles dasjenige, was sonst geistig ist am physischen Leib, das wird hinausgetragen in den ganzen Weltenraum, in den ganzen Kosmos.

Wenn wir nun als Mensch unseren physischen Leib verlassen, wohinein gehen wir denn, in was tauchen wir denn eigentlich unter? Wir tauchen wie in Blitzesschnelligkeit mit unserem Tode in das unter, was aus all den übersinnlichen Kräften unseren physischen Leib bildet. Sie können sich ganz ruhig vorstellen, daß alle die Baukräfte, die seit der Saturnzeit an Ihrem physischen Leib gewirkt haben, sich ins Unendliche ausdehnen und Ihnen den Ort bereiten, in dem Sie leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Alles das ist, möchte ich sagen, nur zusammengezogen in dem Raum, der von unserer Haut eingeschlossen ist zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode.

Wenn wir nun außerhalb des physischen Leibes sind, dann machen wir vor allen Dingen eine Erfahrung, die für das ganze nachfolgende Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt wichtig ist. Ich habe sie schon öfters angedeutet. Diese Erfahrung ist von entgegengesetzter Natur wie die entsprechende Erfahrung hier im Leben des physischen Planes. Hier im Leben des physischen Planes, da können wir mit dem gewöhnlichen sinnlichen Erkennen, das wir haben, nicht zurückblikken bis zu der Stunde unserer Geburt. Kein Mensch kann seine eigene Geburt erinnern, kann zurückschauen. Er weiß nur, daß er geboren ist, erstens deshalb, weil man es ihm vielleicht gesagt hat, und zweitens, weil er es daraus schließt, daß alle Menschen, die noch später die Erde betreten haben als er, auch geboren sind; aber eine wirkliche Erfahrung von seiner eigenen Geburt kann der Mensch nicht haben.

Gerade umgekehrt ist es mit der entsprechenden Erfahrung nach dem Tode. Während niemals die unmittelbare Anschauung unserer Geburt vor unserer Seele stehen kann in dem physischen Leben, steht im ganzen Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt der Moment des Todes, wenn der Mensch nur hinschaut auf ihn geistig, vor der Seele. Nur müssen wir uns allerdings klar sein, daß dieser Moment des Todes dann von der anderen Seite gesehen wird. Wenn der Tod etwas Schreckhaftes haben kann, so ist es nur deshalb, weil er hier gesehen wird als eine Auflösung gewissermaßen, als ein Ende. Von der anderen Seite, von der geistigen Seite her, wenn zurückgeschaut wird zum Moment des Todes, erscheint der Tod immerfort als der Sieg des Geistes, als das Heraus-sich-Winden des Geistes aus dem Physischen. Da erscheint er als das größte, herrlichste, als das bedeutsamste Ereignis. Und außerdem entzündet sich an diesem Ereignisse dasjenige, was unser Ich-Bewußtsein nach dem Tode ist. Wir haben in der ganzen Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt nicht nur in ähnlichem, sondern sogar in einem viel höheren Sinne ein Ich-Bewußtsein als hier im physischen Leben. Aber dieses Ich-Bewußtsein würden wir nicht haben, wenn wir nicht immerfort zurückblicken könnten, sehen würden, aber von der anderen Seite, von der geistigen Seite, diesen Moment, in dem wir uns herausgerungen haben mit unserem Geistigen aus dem Physischen. Daß wir ein Ich sind, wissen wir nur dadurch, daß wir wissen: Wir sind gestorben, wir haben unser Geistiges aus unserem Physischen herausgelöst. In dem Augenblicke, wo wir jenseits der Pforte des Todes nicht hinschauen auf den Moment des Todes, da ist es für dieses Ich-Bewußtsein nach dem Tode so, wie es für das physische Ich-Bewußtsein hier im Schlafe ist. Wie man im Schlafe nichts weiß von dem physischen Ich-Bewußtsein, so weiß man nach dem Tode nichts von sich, wenn man nicht vor Augen hat diesen Moment des Sterbens. Man hat ihn als einen der herrlichsten, als einen der erhabensten Augenblicke vor sich.

Sie sehen, schon in diesem Falle müssen wir uns damit bekanntmachen, eine eigentlich geistige Welt ganz anders zu denken als hier die sinnlich-physische Welt. Wenn man in bequemer Weise nur bei den Begriffen bleiben will, die man hier für die physisch-sinnliche Welt hat, so kann man gar nicht das Geistige irgendwie genauer erfassen. Denn das Wichtigste nach dem Tode ist, daß der Moment des Sterbens von der anderen Seite angesehen wird. Dadurch eben entzündet sich unser Ich-Bewußtsein auf der anderen Seite. Wir haben gewissermaßen hier in der physischen Welt die eine Seite des Ich-Bewußtseins; nach dem Tode haben wir die andere Seite des Ich-Bewußtseins. Ich habe vorhin auseinandergesetzt, wo eigentlich das Übersinnliche unseres physischen Leibes ist nach dem Tode, wo wir es zu suchen haben. In der ganzen Welt, so weit wir sie nur ahnen können, haben wir dieses Physische als Kräfteverhältnis, als Kräfteorganismus, als Kräftekosmos zu suchen. Dieses Physische bereitet uns den Ort, durch den wir durchzugehen haben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt.

Es ist also dasjenige, was wir hier in unserem physischen Körper, in diesem verhältnismäßig zur Gesamtwelt kleinen Körper eingeschlossen haben in unserer Haut, wirklich ein Mikrokosmos, wirklich eine ganze Welt. Sie ist wirklich nur zusammengerollt —- möchte ich sagen, wenn ich trivial sprechen darf -, sie rollt sich dann auf und erfüllt die Welt mit Ausnahme eines kleinen Raumes, der immer leer bleibt. Wenn wir zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt leben, sind wir eigentlich mit dem, was hier unserem physischen Leib als übersinnliche Kräfte zugrunde liegt, überall in der Welt, nur an einem einzigen Ort nicht, der bleibt leer. Das ist der Raum, den wir hier in der physischen Welt einnehmen innerhalb unserer Haut. Und immer blicken wir auf diese Leere. Wir schauen uns dann von außen an und schauen in eine Hohlheit hinein. Das, in was wir hineinschauen, bleibt leer, aber es bleibt so leer, daß wir davon eine Grundempfindung haben. Dieses Hinschauen ist nicht ein abstraktes Hinschauen, wie man hier auf dem physischen Plan hinstiert auf irgendwelche Dinge, sondern dieses Hinschauen ist verbunden mit einer mächtigen inneren Lebenserfahrung, mit einem mächtigen Erlebnis. Es ist verbunden damit, daß in uns durch die Anschauung dieser Leere aufsteigt eine Empfindung, die uns nun begleitet durch unser ganzes Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, die viel von dem ausmacht, was wir überhaupt dieses jenseitige Leben nennen. Es ist die Empfindung: Da ist etwas in der Welt, das muß immer wieder und wiederum von dir ausgefüllt werden. — Und man erlangt dann die Empfindung: Man ist in der Welt zu etwas da, wozu man nur selber da sein kann. Man empfindet seinen Platz in der Welt. Man empfindet, daß man ein Baustein ist in der Welt, ohne den die Welt nicht sein könnte. Das ist die Anschauung dieser Leere. Das Darinnenstehen als etwas, was zu der Welt gehört, das überkommt einen dadurch, daß man auf eine Leere hinschaut.

Das alles hängt nun zusammen mit dem, was aus unserem physischen Leib dann wird. Nun werden wir aus den elementareren Darstellungen gewissermaßen nur immer schematisch darlegen können dasjenige, was wirklich in der geistigen Welt die Bilder braucht für das Wirkliche. Aber wir müssen diese Bilder erst haben, um nach und nach uns zu Vorstellungen aufzuschwingen, die mehr in das Wirkliche der geistigen Welt eindringen.

Wir wissen, daß wir dann durch Tage eine Art Rückerinnerung haben. Aber diese Rückerinnerung wird doch nur im uneigentlichen Sinne - obwohl mit Recht, aber im uneigentlichen Sinne - Rückerinnerung genannt, denn durch einige Tage haben wir etwas wie ein Tableau, wie ein Panorama, das gewoben ist aus alldem, was wir im eben verflossenen Leben erlebt haben. Aber wir haben es nicht so wie eine gewöhnliche Erinnerung innerhalb des physischen Leibes. Eine Erinnerung des physischen Leibes ist so, daß wir sie zeitlich heraufholen aus dem Gedächtnisse. Ein solches Gedächtnis ist eine Kraft, die an den physischen Leib gebunden ist, ein Gedachtes, wo man so zeitlich heraufholt die Erinnerungen. Diese Rückerinnerung nach dem Tode, die ist so, daß, wie in einem Panorama, gleichzeitig alles, was sich im Leben abgespielt hat, in Imaginationen um uns herum ist. Wir leben durch Tage innerhalb unseres, man kann nur sagen: Erlebens. In mächtigen Bildern ist gleichzeitig das Ereignis da, welches wir eben noch erlebt haben in den letzten Zeiten vor unserem Tode, und gleichzeitig ist dasjenige da, was wir erlebt haben in der Kindheit. Ein Lebenspanorama, ein Lebensbild, welches dasjenige, was sonst in der Zeit nacheinander gefolgt ist, in einem Gewebe uns darstellt, das aus Äther geflochten ist. Das alles, was wir da sehen, lebt im Äther.

Vor allen Dingen empfinden wir dasjenige, was daum uns herum ist, als lebendig. Es lebt und webt alles darinnen. Dann empfinden wir es als geistig tönend, als geistig leuchtend und auch als geistig wärmend. Dieses Lebenstableau schwindet, wie wir wissen, schon nach Tagen. Aber wodurch endet es denn eigentlich, und was ist dieses Lebenstableau?

Ja, wenn man dieses Lebenstableau untersucht auf das hin, was es eigentlich ist, so muß man sagen: Es ist hineinverwoben alles das, was wir im Leben erlebt haben. Aber wie erlebt? - Indem wir dabei gedacht haben! Also alles das, was wir denkend, vorstellend erlebten, das steckt dadrinnen. Sagen wir, um auf etwas Konkretes einzugehen, wir haben im Leben mit einem anderen Menschen zusammengelebt, wir haben mit dem anderen Menschen gesprochen. Indem wir mit ihm gesprochen haben, haben sich seine Gedanken unseren Gedanken mitgeteilt. Wir haben Liebe von ihm empfangen, wir haben seine ganze Seele auf uns wirken lassen, all das innerlich durchlebt. Wir leben ja mit, wenn wir mit einem anderen Menschen leben. Er lebt und wir leben, und wir erleben etwas an ihm. Das, was wir an ihm erleben, das erscheint uns jetzt in dieses ätherische Lebenstableau hineinverwoben. Es ist dasselbe, an das wir uns erinnern. Denken Sie sich einmal den Moment, wo Sie vor zehn, zwanzig Jahren mit irgend jemand anderem etwas erlebt haben. Denken Sie sich, Sie erinnern sich daran, und Sie erinnern sich nicht so, wie man sich gewöhnlich im Leben erinnert, daß alles grau in grau verschwimmt, sondern Sie erinnerten sich so daran, daß die Erinnerung in Ihnen so lebendig wäre, wie das Erlebnis selber war, daß der Freund so vor Ihnen steht, wie er damals gestanden hat während des Erlebnisses. Im Leben hier sind wir oftmals recht traumhaft. Dasjenige, was wir herzhaft erleben auf dem physischen Plan, stumpft sich ab, das lähmt sich herab. Wenn wir durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind und es im Lebenstableau haben, da ist es nicht so herabgelähmt, da ist es mit all der Frische und Herzhaftigkeit vorhanden, in denen es vorhanden war während des Lebens. So webt es sich hinein in dieses Lebenstableau, so erleben wir es selber dann durch Tage.

Wie wir den Eindruck haben in bezug auf die physische Welt, daß unser physischer Leib von uns abfällt, so haben wir dann nach Tagen den Eindruck, daß zwar von uns auch abgefallen ist unser ätherischer Leib, aber dieser unser ätherischer Leib ist eigentlich nicht so abgefallen wie unser physischer Leib, sondern er ist einverwoben dem ganzen Universum, der ganzen Welt. Er ist dadrinnen, er hat dadrinnen seine Eindrücke gemacht während der Tage, während wir das Lebenstableau erleben. Und dasjenige, was wir so als Lebenstableau haben, das ist übergegangen in die äußere Welt, das lebt um uns herum, ist von der Welt aufgenommen.

Wir machen dabei während dieser Tage wiederum eine wichtige, eine eindringliche Erfahrung. Denn dasjenige, was wir nach dem Tode erleben, sind nicht nur Erlebnisse, die so wie Erinnerungen an das Erdenleben sind, sondern es sind durchaus Stücke für neue Erlebnisse. Das ist ja selbst ein neues Erlebnis, wie wir zu unserem Ich kommen, indem wir zurückschauen zu dem Tode, denn so etwas können wir mit den Erdensinnen hier nicht erleben. Das erschließt sich nur dem initiierten Erkennen. Aber auch, was wir während der Tage erleben, indem wir dieses Lebenstableau, dieses von uns sich ablösende und dem Universum sich einwebende Ätherweben um uns herum haben, auch das, was wir da erleben, ist etwas erschütternd Erhabenes, etwas ganz Gewaltiges für die Menschenseele.

Hier im physischen Leben, ja, da stehen wir der Welt gegenüber, diesem mineralischen, diesem pflanzlichen, diesem tierischen, diesem menschlichen Reich. Wir erleben an diesen das, was unsere Sinne erleben können, was unser an das Gehirn gebundener Verstand an den Sinneserlebnissen haben kann, was unser an unser Gefäßsystem gebundenes Gemüt erleben kann, das alles erleben wir hier. Und wir Menschen sind eigentlich hier zwischen Geburt und Tod, von einem höheren Gesichtspunkt aufgefaßt, außerordentlich große — verzeihen Sie den Ausdruck -, außerordentlich große «Tröpfe», Riesentröpfe. Fürchterlich dumm sind wir vor der Weisheit der großen Welt, wenn wir glauben, damit sei es abgetan, daß wir hier etwas erleben in der beschriebenen Weise und dann dieses, was wir hier erleben, in unseren Erinnerungen tragen und als Mensch es uns angeeignet haben. Das glauben wir so. Aber während wir erleben, während wir uns unsere Vorstellungen, unsere Gemütsempfindungen bilden in dem Erleben, arbeitet in diesem unserem Erlebeprozeß, in diesem Vorgang die ganze Welt der Hierarchien. Die lebt und webt darinnen. Wenn Sie einem Menschen gegenübertreten und ihm in die Augen schauen, in Ihrem Blick und in dem, was sein Blick Ihnen entgegensendet, leben die Geister der Hierarchien darinnen, leben die Hierarchien, lebt die Arbeit der Hierarchien. Auch das, was wir erleben, bietet uns nur die Außenseite, denn in diesem Erleben arbeiten die Götter darinnen. Und während wir glauben, wir leben nur für uns, arbeiten sich die Götter durch unser Erleben etwas aus, wodurch sie etwas haben, was sie jetzt der Welt einweben können. Wir haben Gedanken gefaßt, wir haben Gemütserlebnisse gehabt - die Götter nehmen sie und teilen sie ihrer Welt mit. Und nachdem wir gestorben sind, wissen wir, daß wir gelebt haben deshalb, damit die Götter dieses Gewebe spinnen können, das jetzt in unserem Ätherleib von uns kommt und dem ganzen Universum mitgeteilt wird. Die Götter haben uns leben lassen, damit sie für sich etwas spinnen können, wodurch sie ihre Welt um ein Stück bereichern können. Es ist ein erschütternder Gedanke! Wenn wir nur einen Schritt durch die Welt machen, so ist dieser Schritt der äußere Ausdruck für ein Göttergeschehen und ein Stück von dem Gewebe, das die Götter in ihrem Weltenplan verwenden, das sie uns nur lassen, bis wir durch die Pforte des Todes gehen, um es dann von uns wegzuziehen und dem Universum einzuverleiben. Diese unsere Menschengeschicke sind zugleich Götterhandlungen, und was sie für uns Menschen sind, ist nur eine Außenseite. Das ist das Bedeutsame, das Wichtige, das Wesentliche.

Wem gehört eigentlich jetzt, nachdem wir gestorben sind, dasjenige an, was wir im Leben innerlich dadurch gewonnen haben, daß wir denken können, daß wir Gemütsempfindungen haben, wem gehört es an? — Nach unserem Tode gehört es der Welt an! So aber, wie wir auf unseren Tod zurückblicken, so blicken wir mit dem, was uns bleibt, mit unserem astralischen Leib und mit unserem Ich, zurück auf dasjenige, was sich da einverwoben hat dem Universum, der Welt. Während unseres Lebens tragen wir das, was sich da dem Universum eingewoben hat, als Ätherleib in uns. Jetzt ist es aufgesponnen und einverwoben der Welt. Wir blicken darauf hin, schauen es an. Wie wir es hier innerlich erleben, so schauen wir es nach dem Tode an, so ist es in der Welt draußen. Wie wir hier Sterne anschauen und Berge und Flüsse, so schauen wir nach dem Tode auch neben dem, was geworden ist mit Blitzesschnelle, sagte ich, aus unserem physischen Leib, das an, was sich der Welt einverwoben hat aus unseren eigenen Erlebnissen. Und dasjenige, was sich da aus unseren eigenen Erlebnissen dem ganzen Weltenbau einverleibt, das spiegelt sich jetzt in dem, was wir noch haben, im astralischen Leib und Ich, geradeso wie sich spiegelt die äußere Welt in unseren physischen Organen durch unseren physischen Menschen hier. Und indem sich das spiegelt in uns, bekommen wir etwas, was wir hier während dieser Erdenzeit nicht haben können, was wir in einem äußeren, mehr physischen Abdruck später während der Jupiterzeit haben werden, was wir aber in einer geistigen Art dadurch bekommen, daß jetzt unser ätherisches Sein außerhalb ist und auf uns einen Eindruck macht. Statt daß es vorher von uns erlebt wurde als unser Inneres, macht es jetzt auf uns einen Eindruck. Der Eindruck, der auf uns gemacht wird, ist allerdings zunächst ein Geistiges, er ist bildhaft, aber er ist als Bildhaftes schon ein Vorbild für das, was wir erst auf dem Jupiter haben werden: das Geistselbst. Dadurch also, daß sich einwebt unser Ätherisches dem Universum, wird für uns geboren - aber geistig, nicht so, wie wir es später auf dem Jupiter haben werden - ein Geistselbst, so daß wir jetzt haben, nachdem wir unseren ätherischen Leib abgelegt haben: astralischen Leib, Ich, Geistselbst. Dasjenige, was uns von unserem Erdendasein bleibt, das ist also unser Astralleib und unser Ich.

Unser astralischer Leib, der bleibt uns auch so, wie er zunächst uns als irdischer astralischer Leib unterworfen ist, wie Sie wissen, noch lange Zeit hindurch nach dem Tode. Er bleibt uns deshalb, weil dieser Astralleib durchzogen wird von alledem, was nur irdisch-menschlich ist und was er nicht gleich aus sich herausbringen kann. Wir machen da eine Zeit durch, in der wir nach und nach erst ablegen können dasjenige, was das Erdenleben aus unserem Astralleib gemacht hat. Wir erleben von unseren Erlebnissen eigentlich im Grunde hier auf der Erde, auch insofern sie unseren astralischen Leib berühren, immer nur höchstens die Hälfte. Von dem, was irgendwie durch uns geschieht, erleben wir eigentlich wirklich nur die Hälfte. Nehmen wir ein Beispiel: Denken Sie einmal, Sie sagen jemandem - es ist bei guten Gedanken und guten Handlungen ebenso wie bei bösen Handlungen und bösen Gedanken, aber nehmen wir dieses Beispiel einer bösen Handlung -, Sie sagen jemandem ein böses Wort, durch das er sich gekränkt fühlt. Wir haben von dem bösen Wort nur dasjenige, was uns betrifft, wir haben in uns das Gefühl, warum wir dieses böse Wort gebraucht haben; das ist der Eindruck auf unsere Seele, wenn wir das böse Wort gebrauchen. Aber der andere, dem wir das böse Wort zufügen, der hat einen ganz anderen Eindruck, der hat gleichsam die andere Hälfte des Eindrucks, der hat das Gefühl des Gekränktseins. In ihm lebt wirklich diese andere Hälfte des Eindrucks. Das, was wir für uns durchlebt haben hier während des physischen Lebens, das ist das eine; das, was der andere durchlebt hat, das ist das andere. Nun denken Sie sich, alles dasjenige, was erlebt worden ist durch uns, aber außer uns, das müssen wir nach dem Tode, indem wir unser Leben nun rückwärts durchlaufen, wieder durchleben. Die Wirkungen unserer Gedanken, unserer Taten durchleben wir im Rücklauf. Also, wir durchleben unser Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt rückwärtslaufend. Im Ablegen des Ätherleibes ist ein Lebenstableau, bei dem wir das ganze Leben gleichzeitig haben. Das Zurückleben, das ist ein wirkliches Durchleben desjenigen, was wir angerichtet haben, im Rückwärtsgehen. Und wenn wir also rückwärtsgegangen sind bis zu unserer Geburt, dann sind wir reif geworden, auch von unserem astralischen Leib dasjenige abzulegen, was von ihm vom Irdischen durchtränkt ist. Dann geht das von uns weg, und mit diesem Ablegen des astralischen Leibes tritt für uns ein neuer Zustand ein. Der Astralleib hielt uns immer, möchte ich sagen, in unseren Erlebnissen mit der Erde zusammen. Dadurch, daß wir so durch unseren astralischen Leib durchgehen müssen, nicht träumend, aber indem wir irdische Erlebnisse zurückerleben, sind wir im Erdenleben noch drinnen; wir stehen noch drinnen. Jetzt erst, wenn wir den Astralleib - uneigentlich, aber man kann nicht anders sagen, da die Sprache kein Wort dafür hat - abgelegt haben, sind wir von dem Irdischen ganz frei geworden, jetzt leben wir drinnen in der eigentlich geistigen Welt.

Und dann tritt ein neues Erlebnis ein. Dieses Ablegen des astralischen Leibes, das ist eigentlich nur die eine Seite des Erlebens wiederum; die andere Seite ist etwas ganz anderes. Wenn wir diesen Astralleib nach diesem Durchgehen durch die Erdenerlebnisse abgelegt haben, dann fühlen wir uns wie mit, jetzt kann man nicht sagen: Stoff, sondern wie mit Geist innerlich durchtränkt, durchschossen, dann fühlt man sich erst so recht in der geistigen Welt darinnen, dann geht einem innerlich die geistige Welt auf. Vorher ging sie einem äußerlich auf, indem man sah das Universum und den eigenen Ätherleib in das Universum einverwoben. Jetzt geht sie einem innerlich auf, jetzt erlebt man sie innerlich. Und als ein Vor-Bild für das, was der Mensch in einem physischen Ausdruck erst auf der Venus haben wird, in einem Vor-Bild des Lebensgeistes geht uns innerlich unser Ich auf, so daß wir jetzt bestehen aus Geistselbst, Lebensgeist und Ich. Ebenso wie wir uns hier etwa traumhaft fühlen von der Geburt bis zu dem Moment, wo wir als Kind so recht zum Bewußtsein kommen, bis zu dem wir uns später zurückerinnern, so leben wir ein Dasein, das zwar vollständig selbstbewußt ist, aber bewußter und höher als das Erdenleben. Aber ein rein geistiges Leben erleben wir erst, nachdem wir uns von unserem Astralischen getrennt haben und von dem Astralischen nur das behalten haben, was uns innerlich erfüllt, so daß wir dann von dieser Zeit an Geist unter Geistern sind.

Aber noch eine andere, eine wichtige, eine wesentliche Erfahrung tritt jetzt auf. Wenn wir hier in der physischen Welt leben, arbeiten wir, verrichten dies oder jenes, haben dabei Erlebnisse - davon haben wir Ja eben gesprochen. Aber wir haben nicht bloß in der physischen Welt Erlebnisse, sondern an den Erlebnissen, gleichzeitig mit den Erlebnissen, haben wir noch etwas anderes. Und ich will, wenn natürlich auch damit nur ein allgemeines Wort für diese gleichzeitigen Erlebnisse gebraucht ist, dieses Wort doch gebrauchen: Wir werden, kann man sagen, während wir erleben, ermüdet, abgenützt. Das ist ja immer so der Fall, wir werden ermüdet. Und wenn sich auch durch den Schlaf für das nächste Bewußtsein die Ermüdung wieder ausgleicht - vielmehr weniger durch den Schlaf als durch die Ruhe während des Schlafes, ganz richtig gesprochen -, so ist das doch nur eben ein geteilter Ausgleich; denn wir wissen natürlich, daß wir uns im Leben abnützen, daß wir älter werden, daß unsere Kräfte nach und nach schwinden. Wir werden auch in einem umfassenden Sinne müde. Und wenn man einmal älter geworden ist, weiß man das, daß man nicht alles ausgleichen kann durch den Schlaf. Wir werden also abgenützt hier, müde. Ja, wir können die Frage jetzt schon anders stellen. Nachdem wir das ausgesprochen haben, was wir gesagt haben, können wir jetzt die Frage aufwerfen: Warum lassen uns denn die Götter müde werden, warum werden wir denn müde? - Daß wir hier müde werden, daß wir abgenützt werden, gibt uns eben etwas, bedeutet für unser Gesamtleben eigentlich viel, recht, recht viel. Nur müssen wir den Begriff des Müdewerdens im umfassenderen Sinne, als man eben gewöhnlich glaubt, fassen. Wir müssen ihn recht sehr vor unsere Seele stellen, diesen Begriff des Müdewerdens.

Sie werden am besten einen Begriff bekommen von diesem Müdewerden, wenn Sie sich die Sache so vorstellen. Wenn ich jetzt einen von Ihnen fragen würde: Weißt du etwas von dem Inneren deines Kopfes? - so wird mir wahrscheinlich nur derjenige antworten, der von Kopfschmerz geplagt ist, daß er jetzt in diesem Augenblicke etwas weiß von dem Inneren seines Kopfes. Nur der fühlt das Innere seines Kopfes; der andere lebt, ohne daß er es fühlt. Wir fühlen unsere Organe nur dann, wenn sie nicht ganz in Ordnung sind; dann wissen wir im Fühlen etwas von unseren Organen. Wir sind im Leben so eingerichtet, daß wir von unserem physischen Leib eigentlich nur insofern wissen, als er nicht ganz in Ordnung ist. Wir haben eigentlich nur ein allgemeines Gefühl unseres physischen Leibes. Das wird stärker, wenn etwas nicht in Ordnung ist. Aber wir wissen doch recht wenig innerlich, wenn wir ein bloßes Gefühl haben. Wer im Leben jemals starke Kopfschmerzen gehabt hat, der weiß von dem Inneren seines Kopfes - innerlich; nicht so wie der Anatom, der nur die Gefäße kennt. Aber während wir im Leben immer müder und müder werden, tritt immer mehr und mehr doch dieses Gefühl unseres Inneren, Räumlich-Inneren, im Leibe auf.

Bedenken Sie nur: Je mehr wir uns im Leben ermüden, desto mehr treten für uns auf die Gebresten des Lebens, Gebresten des Alters zum Beispiel. Unser Leben besteht darin, daß wir allmählich dieses unser Physisches erspüren, empfinden lernen. Indem es uns, ich möchte sagen verhärtet, sich in uns so hineinschiebt, lernen wir es spüren. Für uns ist das, ich möchte sagen ein - weil es so allmählich kommt - geringes Empfinden. Der Mensch würde ja erst sehen können, wie stark das ist, wenn er — verzeihen Sie den trivialen Ausdruck, aber er wird Ihnen das geben, was ich meine -, wenn er zum Beispiel sich in einem Moment fühlen könnte pumperlgesund, wie ein strotzend gesundes Kind, und dann gleich danach, damit er vergleichen kann, so, wie man sich fühlt, wenn die Glieder brüchig geworden sind, mit achtzig, fünfundachtzig Jahren. Dann würde er es schon mehr fühlen. Nur weil es so langsam kommt, merkt man nicht, wie man sich da fühlend hineinspinnt in das Erleben des Physischen, in das Müdewerden. Dieses Müdewerden ist ein wirklicher Vorgang, der zuerst zwar gar nicht da ist, denn das Kind strotzt von Leben, dann aber wird die Lebenskraft immerzu übertönt vom Müdewerden, dann ringt sich dieses Müdewerden heraus. Wir können müde werden; während wir so müde werden — wenn das auch, sagen wir hier nur ein leises Gefühl ist von unserem Inneren -, entsteht wirklich etwas innerlich in uns. Unser Leben hier in der physischen Welt bietet uns ja nur die Außenseite von tiefen, von bedeutsamen, von erhabenen Geheimnissen. Daß wir so leise im Leben uns begleitet fühlen vom Müdewerden und damit das Innere unseres Leibes erspüren, das ist die Außenseite von etwas, was gewoben wird in uns, wunderbar gewoben wird aus reiner Weisheit, ein ganzes Gewebe von reiner Weisheit. Indem wir so müde werden im dahingehenden Leben, uns erspüren lernen innerlich, wird uns einverwoben ein feines Wissen von dem Wunderbau unserer Organe, unserer inneren Organe. Am Herzen lernen wir müde werden; aber dieses Müdewerden bedeutet, daß uns einverwoben wird ein Wissen, wie ein Herz aufgebaut wird aus dem Weltenall heraus. An dem Magen werden wir müde, den ermüden wir meistens dadurch, daß wir ihn verderben mit Essen; aber trotzdem wird uns einverwoben während der Ermüdung des Magens alle Weisheit, ein Weisheitsbild aus dem Kosmos heraus, wie der Magen aufgebaut wird. Wie unser innerer Organismus erhaben, wundersam aufgebaut ist, dieses gewaltige Kunstwerk, das entsteht im Bilde. Und das wird erst jetzt lebendig, wenn wir das Äußere, an die Erde Gebundene des astralischen Leibes abgelegt haben. Und das ist es, was uns als Lebensgeist erfüllt, was jetzt in uns lebt. Die Weisheit von uns selbst, von unserem Wunderbau des Inneren lebt jetzt in uns.

Und jetzt beginnt die Zeit, wo wir gewissermaßen vergleichen dasjenige, was da aus Weisheit in unserem Inneren uns jetzt als Lebensgeist anfüllt, mit dem, was sich als Äthergespinst vorher einverwoben hat in das Universum. Jetzt arbeiten wir an diesem Vergleich, wie das eine zum anderen passen kann, und bauen uns im Bilde unseren Menschen auf, so wie er in der nächsten Inkarnation werden soll. So beginnen wir, indem wir allmählich entgegenleben der Weltenmitternacht, wie Sie es in dem einen der Mysterien, in «Der Seelen Erwachen», angedeutet finden. So vollziehen wir namentlich nach der Weltenmitternacht eine Arbeit, die da verläuft, indem wir an dem Schaffen der Welt teilnehmen, an dem Hereinbringen desjenigen, was wir hier genießen. Während des Lebens zwischen dem Tode und der Geburt, da arbeiten wir, da weben wir mit, weben wir an den Götterbildern. Wir dürfen mittätig sein an dem, was Götterziel ist, indem die Götter den Menschen hereinstellen in die Welt. Vorbereiten dürfen wir uns eine nächste Inkarnation. Dabei spielen sich natürlich ab nicht nur Vorgänge, die egoistisch auf uns einen Bezug haben, sondern alle möglichen Vorgänge sonst. Und das kann uns namentlich aus dem Folgenden hervorgehen.

Dieser wunderbare Prozeß ist ein viel höherer als das, was sich hier auf der Erde abspielt, wenn Winter und Sommer wechseln, die Sonne aufgeht, die Sonne untergeht, alles das sich vollzieht, was sich als Erdenarbeit vollzieht: Dort vollzieht sich dasjenige, was allerdings zuletzt zu unserer irdischen Inkarnation führt, was zum Menschendasein führt; aber es ist eine gewaltige himmlische Arbeit, die nicht nur eine äußerliche Bedeutung hat, sondern eine Bedeutung für die ganze Welt. Wenn es einem allmählich gelingt, im geistigen Anschauen diesen wunderbaren Prozeß zu erleben, dann tritt einem doch eines entgegen. Es wird Ihnen allerdings sonderbar erscheinen, wenn ich dieses sage, aber die höheren Geheimnisse müssen für das physisch-sinnliche Anschauen des Menschen zunächst immer sonderbar erscheinen, und dasjenige, was uns da vor die Seele tritt, muß uns erschüttern, je mehr, desto besser. Denn diese Dinge, so wie sie sind, sollen gar nicht so an unsere Seele kommen, daß wir sie nüchtern, trocken erkenntnismäßig aufnehmen und dabei gleichgültig bleiben. Wir sollen gerade durch diese Dinge einen Gemütseindruck bekommen von der Erhabenheit und Größe der göttlich-geistigen Welt. Man könnte sagen: Wenn jemand nur darauf sich einläßt, Geisteswissenschaft so trocken vorzubringen, daß sie nicht zugleich den ganzen Menschen ergreift, und er mit dem Eindruck davon nicht zugleich einen Eindruck hat von der Größe und Erhabenheit desjenigen, was als Göttlich-Geistiges die Welt durchpulst und durchwest, dann würden wir nämlich alle, nach dem, was ich eben beschrieben habe, trotz allem, was wir können, nach den jetzigen Verhältnissen der Welt kopflos geboren werden. Denn den Bau des Kopfes, den könnten wir nicht bewirken. Das menschliche Haupt ist in seinem Bau ein so erhabenes Abbild des Universums, daß der Mensch selbst mit dem, was ihm einverwoben wird als Weisheit eines Lebens, es nicht bauen könnte, daß er es nicht vorbereiten könnte für die nächste Inkarnation; da müssen eben mitwirken alle Götterhierarchien. Das, was in Ihrem Haupte, in dieser nur von dem Hinterhaupt lose durchbrochenen Kugel, etwas umgeformten Kugel, vorhanden ist, das ist für sich noch ein wirklicher Mikrokosmos, ein wirklicher Abdruck der großen Weltenkugel. Darinnen lebt alles, was draußen im Universum lebt, zusammen, da wirkt alles zusammen, was in den verschiedenen Hierarchien tätig sein kann. Indem wir anfangen zu bauen aus unserer in der Ermüdung angesammelten Weisheit an unserer nächsten Inkarnation, greifen in diese Tätigkeit ein alle Hierarchien, um dasjenige, was dann unser Haupt wird, als Abdruck aller Götterweisheiten uns einzuverleiben.

Während das alles geschieht, bereitet sich auf der Erde durch Generationen hindurch dasjenige vor, was unsere physische Vererbungslinie ist. Geradeso wie wir nur dasjenige, was von der Erde kommt, der Erde übergeben nach unserem Tode, so bekommen wir von Eltern, Voreltern nur dasjenige, was irdisch ist an uns. Und dasjenige, was irdisch ist an uns, das ist eben nur das Äußere, ist eben nur der äußere Ausdruck in diesem Irdischen. Da ist alles dasjenige einverwoben, was wir erstens selber auf die geschilderte Weise weben können, und dasjenige, was ganze Götterhierarchien weben, bevor wir durch die Empfängnis eine Beziehung bekommen zu dem, in das wir uns einhüllen, einkleiden, wenn wir den physischen Plan betreten.

Ich sagte, je mehr wir in unser Gefühl aufnehmen können von diesen erhabenen Erkenntnissen, desto besser für uns. Denn bedenken Sie doch nur einmal: Wir benützen unseren Kopf, wir haben aber keine Spur von Wissen in der Regel, insofern wir im Materiellen lebende Menschen sind, daß ganze Götterhierarchien ihre Arbeit darauf verwenden, unseren Kopf zu formen, das zu formen, was geistig unserem Kopfe zugrunde liegt, damit wir überhaupt sein können. Wenn wir das im Sinne der geisteswissenschaftlichen Erkenntnis fassen, so durchdringt es uns von selber mit Dankesempfindungen und Dankesgefühlen gegenüber dem ganzen Universum.

Daher soll ja auch dasjenige, was wir uns durch die Geisteswissenschaft aneignen, ein immer sich steigerndes Erhöhen unseres Gefühlslebens bewirken. Immer mehr sollen wir mit unserem Fühlen nachkommen unserem Erkennen auf dem Gebiete der Geisteswissenschaft. Und es ist nicht gut, wenn wir mit unserem Fühlen zurückbleiben. Indem wir immer wieder und wiederum ein neues, höheres Stück der Geisteswissenschaft kennenlernen, sollen wir, ich möchte sagen andächtigere Gefühle entwickeln können für die Geheimnisse der Welt, die zu den Geheimnissen des Menschen zuletzt immer wieder und wiederum führen. In dieser läuternden geistigen Wärme unserer Empfindungen und unseres Gefühles legt eigentlich das rechte Fortschreiten in der Geisteswissenschaft.

Eines muß ich noch erwähnen, weil es sich ausnimmt wie eine Ergänzung der ganzen Betrachtung, die wir angestellt haben. Hier in die physische Welt leben wir uns herein, indem wir zuerst ein dumpfes Bewußtsein als Kind noch haben, nur die Mutter erkennen und erst nach und nach die Menschen kennenlernen. Wir glauben, indem wir uns in die physische Welt hereinleben, daß wir immer wieder neue und neue Menschen kennenlernen. So ist es auch für unser physisches Bewußtsein. Wenn wir durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, so haben wir eine wirkliche, eine reale Beziehung zu allen denjenigen Seelen, denen wir im Leben nahegetreten sind. Die treten wiederum auf vor unserem geistigen Blicke. Diejenigen Seelen, die uns nahegetreten sind im Leben und die vor uns durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, wir können sagen, die «finden» wir. Das Wort ist für physische Verhältnisse geprägt, aber jenes erlebende Nahetreten von Seelen zu Seelen kann man bezeichnen mit einem Finden. Nur muß man sich dieses Finden der Seelen, die vor uns durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, so vorstellen, daß man gewissermaßen in umgekehrter Weise an die Seelen herankommt, wie man hier an Menschen herankommt auf dem physischen Plan. Hier kommt man an Menschen heran, indem man ihnen zunächst äußerlich-physisch entgegentritt. Dann lernt man allmählich ihr Inneres kennen, ihr Inneres entwickelt sich ja erst aus unserem Einleben mit ihnen. Also das, was man innerlich an einem Menschen erlebt, entwickelt sich erst aus unserem eigenen Inneren heraus. Nachdem man selbst durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist und den Seelen, die vor uns durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, entgegentritt, weiß man zunächst als erstes: Da ist die betreffende Scele. Man erfühlt sie, man weiß, sie ist da. - Aber man muß jetzt sein ganzes Inneres hingeben an das, was als erster Eindruck, als abstraktester Eindruck da ist. Hier muß man den Menschen auf sich wirken lassen; dort muß man sein Inneres hingeben, und man muß sich nun das Bild selber aufbauen, die Imagination. Das Imaginative, dasjenige, was man schauen kann, das muß man sich nach und nach aufbauen. Sie bekommen etwa eine Vorstellung von dem, wie die Erfahrung der Seele nach dem Tode ist, wenn Sie sich denken: Sie sehen das nicht, sondern Sie greifen es nur, und Sie bilden sich, indem Sie es nach und nach greifend umfassen, ein Bild. Sie bauen sich das Bild auf. So müssen Sie tätig, innerlich tätig sich das Bild der Seele, der Sie begegnen, aufbauen. Gewissermaßen wissen Sie: Jetzt begegne ich einer Seele. - Da hat sie noch nicht Geistgestalt! Welche Seele ist das? Das ist die Seele, zu der ich - das taucht jetzt auf in Ihrer eigenen Seele - die Empfindung des Sohnes zur Mutter gehabt habe. Jetzt fangen Sie an zu fühlen: Mit dieser Seele kann ich mich erleben. - Jetzt bauen Sie sich die Geistgestalt auf. Da müssen Sie tätig sein darinnen, und dann wird das zum Bilde. Und dadurch, daß Sie so die Geistgestalt zusammen aufbauen müssen, sind Sie mit dem Toten schon, bevor Sie die Geistgestalt aufgebaut haben, zusammen. So sind Sie zusammen mit allen, mit denen Sie im Leben zusammen waren, das heißt, Sie erleben sie in einer Welt, in der Sie sie finden müssen, indem Sie sich zum Schauen erwecken, so daß Sie sie anschauen. Da muß man tätig sein.

Die Seelen, die hier noch im physischen Leibe sind, die also leben bleiben, wenn wir sterben, die traten uns schon als Bild hier auf der Erde entgegen. Auf die schauen wir hinunter und brauchen uns das Bild nicht erst aufzubauen, sie schauen uns als Bild entgegen. In dieses Bild können diese Seelen allerdings dasjenige hineinverweben, was dann wie wärmende Geistesnahrung ist für den Toten, durch ihre Gedanken an ihn, durch ihre fortdauernde Liebe für ihn, die Erinnerung an ihn oder — wie wir jetzt als Geisteswissenschafter wissen durch Vorlesen.

Das alles erweitert uns den Blick des Menschen erst in die wirkliche Welt hinein, richtig in die wirkliche Welt hinein. Wenn man sich das so vor die Seele treten läßt, dann bekommt man eine Vorstellung davon, wie wenig der Mensch eigentlich von der geistigen Welt weiß. Es war wirklich nicht immer so. Nur die ganz materialistischen Menschen der Gegenwart reden davon, wie man es heute «so herrlich weit gebracht» hat. Wir wissen ja, daß die Menschen früher ein Hellsehen gehabt haben und daß sie nur um der Erringung gewisser Eigenschaften willen, die verbunden sind mit dem ganzen Drinnenleben in der materiellen Welt, dieses ursprüngliche atavistische Hellsehen verloren haben. Wenn ein so richtig materialistischer Mensch, ein ganz materialistischer Gelehrter an uns herankommt, wird der selbstverständlich sagen: Das ist eine Träumerei, zu reden von einem ursprünglichen Hellsehen, davon, daß die Menschen früher irgend etwas Besonderes gewußt haben. - Wenn die Menschen nur ein wenig mit physisch sehenden Augen ordentlich durch die Welt gehen würden, so würden sie das schon widerlegt finden. Daß die Menschen mehr gewußt haben als in der Gegenwart, das ist gar nicht einmal so lange her.

Sie wissen, wir haben öfters davon gesprochen - ich möchte das zum Schlusse auch noch hier erwähnen -, daß an diesem geistigen Dasein, in dem wir leben, Anteil nehmen Luzifer und Ahriman. Wir wissen auch, daß in der Bibel symbolisiert wird Luzifer als die Schlange, die Schlange auf dem Baume. Die physische Schlange, so wie man das heute erlebt und wie sie auch ein heutiger Maler, wenn er das Paradies malt, immer malen wird, die physische Schlange ist aber nicht ein wirklicher Luzifer, sondern das äußere Abbild, das physische Abbild. Der wirkliche Luzifer ist ein Wesen, das auf der Mondenentwickelung zurückgeblieben ist. Er kann nicht auf der Erde geschaut werden unter den physischen Dingen. Würde der Maler also Luzifer malen wollen, wie Luzifer ist, so müßte er ihn so malen, daß er eigentlich durch eine Art hellsichtig-inneren Anschauens erfaßt werden kann als ätherisches Gebilde. Und da würde er dann erscheinen, wie er an uns selber arbeitet, wie er an unserem Kopf, wie er an unserem Organismus, insofern er rein aus der Erde heraus ist, keinen Anteil hat, aber an der Fortsetzung des Kopfes durch das Rückenmark hinunter. So daß Luzifer gemalt werden müßte, wenn man ihn seiner ätherischen Gestalt nach malt, mit einem Menschenkopf und mit einer schlangenartigen Fortsetzung, die hier bei uns Menschen durch das Rückenmark physisch sich auslebt. Also müßte ein Maler, der etwas weiß aus der Geisteswissenschaft, Adam und Eva malen, den Baum, und auf dem Baum oben die Schlange, also nur als Ausdruck für uns als Schlange, und oben einen Menschenkopf. Wenn ein Maler so etwas malen würde, so würde man heute annehmen müssen, daß er das aus der Geisteswissenschaft heraus malen kann, selbstverständlich.

Nun wird es vielleicht auch in Leipzig so etwas geben, aber die Leute gehen ja nicht mit offenen Augen im Kopfe herum, sondern mit verbundenen Augen durch die Welt. Aber in Hamburg in der Gemäldegalerie findet sich wirklich ein Gemälde, von dem Meister Bertram, aus der Mitte des Mittelalters, die Paradiesesszene darstellend. Da ist die Schlange auf dem Baum, so wie ich sie jetzt schilderte, richtig gemalt. Man kann das Bild dort sehen. Es ist von anderen Malern auch so gemalt worden. Was folgt daraus? - Daß die Leute selbst in der Mitte des Mittelalters dies noch gewußt haben, bis zu dem Grade gewußt haben, daß sie es gemalt haben. Das heißt, es ist gar nicht so lange her, daß die Menschen erst ganz auf den physischen Plan gedrängt worden sind. Und das, was uns heute erzählt wird als der Verlauf der Geistesgeschichte der Menschheit von der materialistischen Welt, das ist im Grunde genommen weiter nichts als ein äußerer Schwindel, weil man sich vorstellt, daß der Mensch immer so gewesen ist, wie er in den allerletzten Jahrhunderten erst geworden ist, während es gar nicht so lange her ist, daß er mit seinem alten Hellsehen in die geistige Welt hineingeschaut hat. Er mußte nur heraus, weil er unfrei war, und um die volle Freiheit und das Ich-Bewußtsein zu erhalten, mußte er heraus, und er muß wiederum hinein sich finden in die geistige Welt. Daher bereitet diese Geisteswissenschaft etwas Wichtiges, etwas Wesentliches vor: dieses Wieder-sich-Hineinleben in die geistige Welt. Und immer wieder und wiederum können wir uns vor die Seele führen, wie notwendig es ist, zu empfinden, zu fühlen, daß das Häuflein von Menschen, das heute mitten in der materialistischen Welt lebt und das durch sein Karma geführt wird zur Erfassung der wichtigsten Menschheitsaufgabe für die Zukunft, daß dieses Häuflein von Menschen durch sein Seelenleben Wichtiges, Wichtigstes zu vollführen hat. Ohne hochmütig zu sein, muß man sich eben vorführen, in aller Demut und Bescheidenheit, wie groß der Unterschied zwischen einer Seele ist, die in die geistige Welt sich allmählich hineinfindet, und all den äußerlichen Menschen, die heute keine Ahnung haben, aber namentlich keine Ahnung haben wollen von dem Geistigen. Es darf nicht bloß für uns werden zu einer jammervoll schmerzlichen Empfindung, sondern es muß für uns werden eine Empfindung, die uns anregt, immer weiter und weiter zu arbeiten, und treu zu arbeiten in der Strömung der Geisteswissenschaft, zu der wir durch unser Karma, unser Schicksal geführt worden sind.

Bei unserem letzten Zusammensein hier habe ich auch noch erwähnt, daß, wenn der Mensch, bevor er sein Leben vollständig ausgelebt hat, durch die Pforte des Todes geht, dasjenige, was als Ätherleibskraft ihm gegeben ist, noch nicht vollständig verbraucht ist. Wenn der Mensch in jugendlichem Alter durch die Pforte des Todes geht, hätte sein Ätherleib noch jahrzehntelang am physischen Leib arbeiten können. Diese Kraft ist nicht verloren, sondern sie ist da. Ich habe auch schon erwähnt, wie in der Gegenwart dadurch, daß der Tod täglich und stündlich in so großer Zahl an die Menschheit herantritt, viele, viele Ätherleiber, die noch lange auf dem physischen Plan hätten am physischen Leibe arbeiten können, der geistig-ätherischen Welt übergeben werden und schwebend bleiben. Und die Kräfte, die in ihnen noch jahrzehntelang den physischen Leib hätten versorgen können, werden zu geistigen Kräften, die mitarbeiten an der geistigen Entwikkelung der Menschheit. Daher wird eine Zeit kommen, in der die Kräfte, die in diesen Ätherleibern sind, benützt werden können zum geistigen Fortschritt der Menschheit, aber nur dann, wenn hier auf der Erde, nachdem die heutigen furchtbaren Ereignisse hinweggegangen sein werden über diese Erde und wiederum Friede eingetreten sein wird, von Seelen, die dann in Menschenleibern über diese Erde hier noch gehen werden, etwas wird verstanden werden können davon, daß alle diejenigen, die früher hineingegangen sind in die geistige Welt, ihre Ätherleiber da oben haben, ihre Kräfte einstrahlen können. Von diesen Seelen [hier auf der Erde] wird das begriffen werden müssen. Und diese Seelen werden mitarbeiten können an diesem geistigen Fortschritt, der gerade durch so viele Opfertode für die Zukunft möglich ist.

Denken Sie, was es bedeuten würde, wenn Geisteswissenschaft jetzt verschwinden würde und niemand Verständnis hätte für alles dasjenige, was durch ihre Opfertode in der geistigen Welt vorbereitet wird! Diese ganze Summe von Kräften würde an geistige Wesen verfallen, die sie zu etwas anderem verwenden, als wozu sie nach dem Ratschluß der rechtmäßig sich fortentwickelnden Götter verwendet werden sollen.

Das aber ermahnt uns, auch aus den Ereignissen der Zeit heraus mit unserem Bewußtsein voll drinnenzustehen in alldem, was die geistige Welt ist. Denn auch diese Zeitereignisse, sie haben eine geistige Seite. Dasjenige, was sie äußerlich in Blut und Tod und in Opfern darbieten, das ist der äußere Ausdruck für ein inneres geistiges Geschehen, das aber im richtigen Sinne verstanden werden muß.

Das ist das, an das ich immer wieder und wiederum mahnen möchte in dem Schlußwort unserer gegenwärtigen Betrachtung:

Aus dem Mut der Kämpfer,
Aus dem Blut der Schlachten,
Aus dem Leid Verlassener,
Aus des Volkes Opfertaten
Wird erwachsen Geistesfrucht
Lenken Seelen geistbewußt
Ihren Sinn ins Geisterreich.

About the Event of Death and Facts of the Post-Death Period

We live in a time in which we are reminded daily or hourly of death, of people passing through the gates of death, of this significant event in human life. For death only becomes a life event for human beings in the true sense of the word through spiritual science, which shows us how those eternal forces work within us that pass through birth and death and create a kind of existence, a special form of existence, for the time between birth and death, in order to take on another form of existence after passing through the gates of death. Thus, through spiritual science, death is transformed from the abstract end of life, which it can only be for the materialistic worldview, into an event, albeit a deeply serious one, in the comprehensive life of human beings. And even within our own ranks, primarily as a result of current historical events, but also for reasons outside of them, dear friends have passed through the gates of death, so that it seems particularly appropriate at the present time to say a few words in our present reflection on the event of death and those facts of human life that are connected with death.

However, time and again, disputes have arisen in our spiritual scientific reflections about life between death and a new birth, and we have already gained many insights into this subject. However, you know from the course of spiritual science thus far that everything can only be given from a certain point of view, and that we can only get to know things more and more precisely by examining them from different points of view. So today I will add to what we already know about the topic we have been discussing, adding some points that may be useful for our overall view of the world.

We consider—and this is good to start with—the human being from a spiritual scientific point of view as he stands before us here in the physical world as an expression of his entire being. We must begin with what what human beings present to us in the physical world, and that is why I have repeatedly pointed out how we can, in a sense, obtain a kind of guiding overview of the whole human being when we consider them in such a way that we first take as our basis the physical body, which we know from the outside through sensory observation and through the scientific analysis of what we perceive with our senses here in the physical world. We then take as our basis the body or form of organization that we call the etheric body, which already has a supersensible character and therefore cannot be perceived with the ordinary sense organs—not even with the intellect, which is bound to the brain—and is therefore already inaccessible to ordinary science. However, this etheric body is nevertheless a structure of which it can be said that spirits such as Immanuel Hermann Fichte, the son of the great Johann Gottlieb Fichte, then Troxler and others knew about it. This etheric body is something in human beings that can only be perceived through imaginative cognition because it is supersensible, but which can nevertheless be viewed externally by supersensible cognition, just as the physical body can be viewed externally by sensory cognition.

We then ascend in our contemplation to the astral body. The astral body is not something that can be perceived externally with the senses, like the physical body through the outer senses or the etheric body through the inner senses. Rather, the astral body is something that can only be experienced internally, something you have to be inside of in order to experience it, and likewise the fourth member that we first have to grasp here in the physical world, the I. From these four members of human nature we construct the whole human being. But we also know from previous considerations that what we actually call the physical body of the human being is something very complicated, that this physical body of the human being is built up in a long process through Saturn, Sun, and Moon times, and that the becoming of the Earth from the beginning of Earth's existence to our time has also played a part in this. A complicated process of development has built up our physical body. Of what actually lives in the physical body, only the outer aspect is accessible to the human being in the physical world and to ordinary science. One could say that ordinary physical observation and physical science, as they exist here in the world, know as much about the physical body as a person knows about a house who walks around the outside of the house and has never entered it, has never learned what is inside the house and what people live in it. Of course, those who stand on the ground of external science in the materialistic sense will say: Oh, we know the inside of the physical body very well! We know because we have often looked at the brain inside the skull, because we have looked at the stomach and the heart during autopsies, we know this inside!

But this interior, which can be seen from the outside, the spatial interior, is not what is meant here when we speak of the interior. This spatial interior is also only an exterior; even in the physical human body, this spatial interior is much more external than the real spatial exterior. This is strange, I know, when I say it. But you know from previous descriptions of our spiritual science that our sense organs were already formed during the Saturn period, and we carry them on the outside of our body, on the spatial outside. They are made up of much more spiritual forces than, for example, our stomach or what is inside in the spatial sense. That which is internal is built up from the most non-spiritual forces. And as strange as it may sound, it must be pointed out that human beings actually express themselves incorrectly about themselves. This is natural, of course, because we live here on the physical plane — but they express themselves incorrectly. He should actually call what is the skin on the face the inner part and his stomach the outer part. That would be much closer to reality! We would be closer to reality if we said that we eat from the inside out, that we send food from the inside out by sending it to the stomach, rather than saying, as we do now, that we eat from the outside in. from the outside to the inside; for the closer our organs are to the surface, the more they originate from spiritual forces, and the closer they are to our spatial interior, the more they originate from non-spiritual forces.

You can easily see this from the descriptions of spiritual science given so far. If you remember exactly what has been said in the previous description of spiritual science, you will know that during the lunar evolution something splits off and during the Earth evolution splits off again and goes out of the Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions into the world space. During this separation, something remarkable happened: we were turned around, just as a glove is turned inside out, with the inside becoming the outside and the outside becoming the inside. What today turns outward as the face was actually turned inward during the Saturn and Sun periods—in the first stage, of course—and also during part of the Moon period; and the rudiments of our present inner organs were formed during the Moon period in such a way that they were formed from the outside. Since that time, we have truly been turned inside out like a skirt. Today, people don't do that so much anymore, turning skirts inside out, but they did in earlier times when skirts were longer. Today, that is no longer customary.

When we speak of our physical body, we must therefore be aware that there is much that is supersensible about it, that its entire structure is supersensible, that it is built out of the supersensible and only shows us its outer side when we consider it as a whole. When we come to the etheric body, it is no longer visible to physical, sensory observation; but this etheric body becomes all the more important when the human being has passed through the gate of death. In the first days after death, this etheric body is of particular importance. But we must also learn to think differently about the physical body, to learn to think correctly, if we want to grasp to the right degree what awaits us after passing through the gate of death. You know, because it can still be observed from the physical world, that when passing through the gate of death, the human being, as it were, lays down his physical body. It is handed over to the element of earth through decay or cremation—the two processes differ only in the length of time. Now it might seem as if, for those who have passed through the gate of death, this physical body as such is simply discarded. But that is not the case. For we can only hand over to the earth from our physical body that which comes from the earth itself. We cannot give back to the earth from our physical body that which originates from the old moon existence, that which originates from the old sun existence, that which originates from the old Saturn existence. That which originates from the old Saturn existence, from the sun existence and from the moon existence, indeed even from a large part of the earth existence, are supersensible forces. And these supersensible forces, which are contained within our physical body, of which only the outer side is visible to us in sensory perception, as I have just explained, these supersensible forces, where do they go when we pass through the gate of death? From our physical body, from this most wonderful structure that exists in the world, at least as a structure, only that which the earth has given to it is returned to the earth, as I have said. Where is the rest when we have passed through the gate of death? The rest withdraws from what sinks into the earth, as it were, through decay or combustion; the rest is absorbed into the whole universe. And if you think of everything, everything you can imagine in the vicinity of the earth, with all the planets and fixed stars, and if you think of this as spiritually as possible, then in this spiritual thought you will have the place where the spiritual part of us is. For only a part of this spiritual essence is separated, which lives in warmth and remains with the earth. Warmth, our inner warmth, our own warmth, is separated and remains with the earth. But everything else that is spiritual in the physical body is carried out into the whole of space, into the whole cosmos.

When we as human beings leave our physical body, where do we go, what do we actually dive into? With our death, we dive at lightning speed into that which forms our physical body from all the supersensible forces. You can easily imagine that all the building forces that have been working on your physical body since the Saturn era expand into infinity and prepare the place where you live between death and a new birth. All of this, I would say, is only contracted in the space enclosed by our skin between birth and death.

When we are outside the physical body, we have an experience that is important for the whole of our subsequent life between death and a new birth. I have already hinted at this several times. This experience is of a nature opposite to the corresponding experience here in the life of the physical plane. Here in the life of the physical plane, we cannot look back to the hour of our birth with the ordinary sensory perception we have. No human being can remember their own birth, can look back. They only know that they were born, firstly because they may have been told so, and secondly because they conclude this from the fact that all people who came to earth after them were also born; but human beings cannot have any real experience of their own birth.

It is exactly the opposite with the corresponding experience after death. While the immediate perception of our birth can never stand before our soul in physical life, the moment of death stands before the soul throughout the whole life between death and a new birth, if man only looks at it spiritually. However, we must be clear that this moment of death is then seen from the other side. If death can have something frightening about it, it is only because it is seen here as a kind of dissolution, as an end. From the other side, from the spiritual side, when we look back to the moment of death, death always appears as the victory of the spirit, as the spirit writhing itself out of the physical. There it appears as the greatest, most glorious, most significant event. And what is more, this event ignites what our ego-consciousness is after death. During the entire time between death and a new birth, we have a sense of self not only in a similar sense, but in a much higher sense than here in physical life. But we would not have this sense of self if we could not constantly look back and see, from the other side, from the spiritual side, the moment when we wrested ourselves out of the physical with our spirit. We know that we are an I only because we know that we have died, that we have detached our spiritual from our physical. At the moment when we do not look back at the moment of death beyond the gate of death, this self-consciousness after death is like the physical self-consciousness here in sleep. Just as we know nothing of our physical self-consciousness when we are asleep, so we know nothing of ourselves after death if we do not have this moment of dying before our eyes. We have it before us as one of the most glorious, one of the most sublime moments.

You see, even in this case we must familiarize ourselves with thinking of a spiritual world in a completely different way than we think of the sensory-physical world here. If we want to remain comfortably within the concepts we have here for the physical-sensory world, we cannot grasp the spiritual in any way more precisely. For the most important thing after death is that the moment of dying is viewed from the other side. It is precisely this that ignites our ego-consciousness on the other side. Here in the physical world, we have, so to speak, one side of ego-consciousness; after death, we have the other side of ego-consciousness. I explained earlier where the supersensible aspect of our physical body actually is after death, where we must look for it. Throughout the whole world, as far as we can imagine it, we must look for this physical aspect as a balance of forces, as an organism of forces, as a cosmos of forces. This physical aspect prepares the place through which we must pass between death and a new birth.

So what we have enclosed here in our physical body, in this body that is small in relation to the whole world, enclosed in our skin, is truly a microcosm, truly a whole world. It is really only rolled up — I would like to say, if I may speak trivially — it then rolls up and fills the world with the exception of a small space that always remains empty. When we live between death and a new birth, we are actually everywhere in the world with what underlies our physical body as supersensible forces, except in one place, which remains empty. That is the space we occupy here in the physical world within our skin. And we always look at this emptiness. We then look at ourselves from the outside and look into a hollow space. What we look into remains empty, but it remains so empty that we have a basic sense of it. This looking is not an abstract looking, as one looks at things here on the physical plane, but this looking is connected with a powerful inner life experience, with a powerful experience. It is connected with the fact that, through the contemplation of this emptiness, a feeling rises within us that now accompanies us throughout our entire life between death and a new birth, which constitutes much of what we call this life beyond. It is the feeling: there is something in the world that must be filled again and again by you. — And then one gains the feeling: One is in the world for something that only one can be there for. One feels one's place in the world. One feels that one is a building block in the world, without which the world could not be. That is the perception of this emptiness. Standing within it as something that belongs to the world overwhelms one by looking at an emptiness.

All of this is connected with what then becomes of our physical body. Now, from the more elementary representations, we will only be able to explain schematically what the spiritual world really needs in terms of images for the real. But we must first have these images in order to gradually rise to ideas that penetrate more deeply into the reality of the spiritual world.

We know that after a few days we have a kind of recollection. But this recollection is only called recollection in an improper sense—although rightly so, but in an improper sense—because after a few days we have something like a tableau, like a panorama, woven from everything we have experienced in the life that has just passed. But we do not have it as an ordinary memory within the physical body. A memory of the physical body is such that we bring it up from memory in time. Such a memory is a force bound to the physical body, a thought from which one brings up memories in time. This recollection after death is such that, as in a panorama, everything that has happened in life is simultaneously present around us in imaginations. We live through days within our, one can only say, experience. In powerful images, the events we have just experienced in the last moments before our death are present at the same time as what we experienced in childhood. A panorama of life, a picture of life, which presents to us in a fabric woven from ether what otherwise followed one after the other in time. Everything we see there lives in the ether.

Above all, we perceive what is around us as alive. Everything lives and weaves within it. Then we perceive it as spiritually sounding, spiritually shining, and also spiritually warming. This tableau of life disappears, as we know, after only a few days. But what actually causes it to end, and what is this tableau of life?

Yes, if we examine this tableau of life to see what it actually is, we must say: everything we have experienced in life is woven into it. But how did we experience it? By thinking about it! So everything we experienced through thinking and imagining is contained within it. To give a concrete example, let us say that we lived together with another person during our life, and we spoke with that other person. By speaking with them, their thoughts were communicated to our thoughts. We received love from them, we allowed their whole soul to have an effect on us, and we experienced all of this inwardly. We live with someone when we live with another person. They live and we live, and we experience something about them. What we experience about them now appears to us woven into this ethereal tableau of life. It is the same thing that we remember. Think of a moment ten or twenty years ago when you experienced something with someone else. Imagine you remember it, and you don't remember it as you usually do in life, with everything blurring into gray, but you remember it so vividly that the memory is as alive in you as the experience itself was, that your friend is standing in front of you just as he stood during the experience. In life here, we are often quite dreamlike. What we experience heartily on the physical plane becomes dull and paralyzed. When we have passed through the gate of death and have it in the tableau of life, it is not so paralyzed, it is present with all the freshness and heartiness in which it existed during life. Thus it weaves itself into this tableau of life, and we then experience it ourselves through the days.

Just as we have the impression in relation to the physical world that our physical body falls away from us, so after a few days we have the impression that our etheric body has also fallen away from us, but that this etheric body has not actually fallen away like our physical body, but is woven into the whole universe, the whole world. It is inside, it has made its impressions there during the days while we experience the life tableau. And what we have as the life tableau has passed over into the outer world, lives around us, is taken up by the world.

During these days we again have an important, a profound experience. For what we experience after death are not only experiences that are like memories of earthly life, but they are definitely pieces for new experiences. It is itself a new experience how we come to our I by looking back at death, for we cannot experience such a thing here with our earthly senses. This is only accessible to initiated knowledge. But also what we experience during the days, through this tableau of life, this etheric web around us that is detaching itself from us and weaving itself into the universe, also what we experience there is something shockingly sublime, something truly powerful for the human soul.

Here in physical life, yes, we stand facing the world, this mineral, this plant, this animal, this human realm. We experience in them what our senses can experience, what our mind, bound to the brain, can have from the sensory experiences, what our mind, bound to our vascular system, can experience—we experience all of that here. And we humans are actually here between birth and death, viewed from a higher perspective, extraordinarily large — forgive the expression — extraordinarily large “drops,” giant drops. We are terribly stupid in the face of the wisdom of the great world if we believe that it is enough that we experience something here in the manner described and then carry what we experience here in our memories and have appropriated it as human beings. That is what we believe. But while we experience, while we form our ideas and our feelings in the experience, the whole world of hierarchies is at work in this process of our experience. It lives and weaves within it. When you face a person and look into their eyes, in your gaze and in what their gaze sends back to you, the spirits of the hierarchies live there, the hierarchies live there, the work of the hierarchies lives there. Even what we experience offers us only the outer side, for in this experience the gods are working there. And while we believe that we live only for ourselves, the gods work through our experiences to create something that they can now weave into the world. We have formed thoughts, we have had emotional experiences—the gods take them and share them with their world. And after we have died, we know that we lived so that the gods could spin this fabric, which now comes from us in our etheric body and is communicated to the entire universe. The gods let us live so that they could spin something for themselves, thereby enriching their world a little. It is a shocking thought! When we take a single step through the world, that step is the outward expression of a divine event and a piece of the fabric that the gods use in their plan for the world, which they allow us to use only until we pass through the gates of death, when they pull it away from us and incorporate it into the universe. Our human destinies are at the same time acts of the gods, and what they are for us humans is only an outer aspect. That is what is significant, important, and essential.

Now that we have died, to whom does that which we have gained inwardly in life through our ability to think and feel belong? To whom does it belong? — After our death, it belongs to the world! But when we look back on our death, we look back with what remains of us, with our astral body and our ego, on what has become interwoven with the universe, with the world. During our life, we carry within us as an etheric body what has become interwoven with the universe. Now it is spun out and woven into the world. We look at it, we observe it. How we experience it here inwardly is how we see it after death, that is how it is in the world outside. Just as we look at stars, mountains, and rivers here, after death we also look at what has become, with lightning speed, I said, out of our physical body, at what has become interwoven with the world out of our own experiences. And that which is incorporated into the entire structure of the world from our own experiences is now reflected in what we still have, in the astral body and the I, just as the outer world is reflected in our physical organs through our physical human being here. And as this is reflected in us, we receive something that we cannot have here during our time on earth, something that we will have later during the Jupiter period in an external, more physical form, but which we receive in a spiritual way through the fact that our etheric being is now outside us and makes an impression on us. Instead of being experienced by us as our inner being, it now makes an impression on us. The impression made on us is, however, initially a spiritual one; it is pictorial, but as a pictorial image it is already a model for what we will first have on Jupiter: the spiritual self. Thus, through the interweaving of our etheric being with the universe, a spiritual self is born for us—but spiritually, not as we will have it later on Jupiter—so that now, after we have laid down our etheric body, we have: the astral body, the I, and the spiritual self. What remains of our earthly existence is therefore our astral body and our I.

Our astral body remains with us, as you know, for a long time after death, just as it was initially subject to us as an earthly astral body. It remains with us because this astral body is permeated by everything that is purely earthly and human and cannot be brought out of itself immediately. We go through a period in which we can gradually shed what earthly life has made of our astral body. In fact, we only ever experience half of our experiences here on earth, even insofar as they touch our astral body. Of everything that happens to us in some way, we actually only experience half. Let's take an example: Imagine you say something to someone – this applies to good thoughts and good deeds as well as to evil deeds and evil thoughts, but let's take this example of an evil deed – you say something hurtful to someone, which makes them feel offended. We only have what concerns us about the evil word; we have the feeling within us of why we used this evil word; that is the impression on our soul when we use the evil word. But the other person, to whom we have inflicted the evil word, has a completely different impression; they have, as it were, the other half of the impression, they have the feeling of being hurt. This other half of the impression really lives in him. What we have experienced for ourselves here during our physical life is one thing; what the other person has experienced is another. Now think about all that has been experienced by us, but outside of us. After death, we must experience all of this again as we go backwards through our life. We experience the effects of our thoughts and deeds in reverse. So we live our lives backwards between death and a new birth. When we shed the etheric body, there is a tableau of life in which we have our entire life at once. Reliving is a real experience of what we have done, in reverse. And when we have gone backwards to our birth, we have become ready to shed from our astral body that which has been saturated by the earthly. Then it leaves us, and with this shedding of the astral body, a new state begins for us. The astral body always held us together, I would say, in our experiences with the earth. Because we have to pass through our astral body in this way, not dreaming, but reliving earthly experiences, we are still inside earthly life; we are still standing inside it. Only now, when we have shed the astral body—improperly speaking, but there is no other way to say it, since language has no word for it—have we become completely free from the earthly, and now we live within the actual spiritual world.

And then a new experience occurs. This shedding of the astral body is actually only one side of the experience; the other side is something completely different. When we have shed this astral body after passing through earthly experiences, we feel as if we are not made of matter, but rather as if we are imbued with spirit, permeated by it. Only then do we truly feel that we are in the spiritual world, and the spiritual world opens up to us inwardly. Before, it opened up to us externally, in that we saw the universe and our own etheric body woven into the universe. Now it opens up inwardly, now we experience it inwardly. And as a prototype of what human beings will only have in physical expression on Venus, in a prototype of the life spirit, our I opens up inwardly, so that we now consist of spirit self, life spirit, and I. Just as we feel dreamlike here from birth until the moment when we become fully conscious as children, until we later remember it, so we live an existence that is completely self-conscious, but more conscious and higher than earthly life. But we only experience a purely spiritual life after we have separated ourselves from our astral body and retained only that part of the astral body which fills us inwardly, so that from that time on we are spirits among spirits.

But now another important, essential experience arises. When we live here in the physical world, we work, do this or that, and have experiences—we have just spoken about that. But we do not merely have experiences in the physical world; we also have something else in our experiences, simultaneously with our experiences. And I want to use this word, even though it is only a general term for these simultaneous experiences: we become, one might say, tired and worn out while we are experiencing. That is always the case, we become tired. And even if sleep compensates for this fatigue for the next state of consciousness—or rather, less through sleep than through the rest during sleep, strictly speaking—this is only a partial compensation; for we know, of course, that we wear ourselves out in life, that we grow older, that our powers gradually diminish. We also become tired in a comprehensive sense. And once we have grown older, we know that we cannot compensate for everything through sleep. So we become worn out here, tired. Yes, we can already ask the question differently. Having said what we have said, we can now raise the question: Why do the gods let us become tired, why do we become tired? The fact that we become tired here, that we become worn out, gives us something, actually means a great deal, a great deal indeed, for our entire life. We just have to understand the concept of becoming tired in a broader sense than is usually believed. We have to place this concept of becoming tired very much before our soul.

You will best understand this concept of becoming tired if you imagine it like this. If I were to ask one of you now: Do you know anything about the inside of your head? - Only those who are suffering from a headache would probably answer that they know something about the inside of their head at this moment. Only they feel the inside of their head; the others live without feeling it. We only feel our organs when they are not quite right; then we know something about our organs through feeling. We are so constituted in life that we actually only know our physical body insofar as it is not quite right. We actually only have a general feeling of our physical body. This becomes stronger when something is not right. But we know very little internally when we have a mere feeling. Anyone who has ever had a severe headache knows about the inside of their head—internally, not like an anatomist who only knows the vessels. But as we become more and more tired in life, this feeling of our inner, spatial interior in the body becomes more and more apparent.

Just consider: the more we tire in life, the more the infirmities of life appear to us, the infirmities of old age, for example. Our life consists in gradually learning to feel, to sense, this physical aspect of ourselves. As it, I would say, hardens and pushes its way into us, we learn to feel it. For us, I would say that this is a slight sensation because it comes so gradually. People would only be able to see how strong it is if they could—forgive the trivial expression, but it will give you an idea of what I mean—if they could, for example, feel perfectly healthy one moment, like a child bursting with health, and then immediately afterwards, so that they could compare the two, how one feels when one's limbs have become frail, at the age of eighty or eighty-five. Then one would feel it more. It is only because it comes so slowly that one does not notice how one spins oneself into the experience of the physical, into becoming tired. This tiredness is a real process that isn't there at first, because the child is bursting with life, but then the vitality is gradually drowned out by tiredness, and then this tiredness struggles to the surface. We can become tired; while we are becoming tired—even if it is only a faint feeling inside us—something is really happening inside us. Our life here in the physical world offers us only the outer side of deep, meaningful, sublime mysteries. The fact that we feel so quietly accompanied in life by tiredness and thus sense the inner life of our body is the outer side of something that is being woven within us, wonderfully woven from pure wisdom, a whole fabric of pure wisdom. As we grow tired in our passing lives and learn to feel ourselves inwardly, a subtle knowledge of the miraculous structure of our organs, our inner organs, becomes woven into us. We learn to grow tired at the heart; but this growing tired means that a knowledge of how a heart is built out of the universe becomes woven into us. We become tired in the stomach, which we usually tire by spoiling it with food; but nevertheless, during the fatigue of the stomach, all wisdom is woven into us, a picture of wisdom from the cosmos of how the stomach is constructed. How sublime and wonderfully constructed our inner organism is, this mighty work of art, emerges in the image. And this only comes to life when we have cast off the outer, earth-bound part of the astral body. And this is what fills us as the life spirit, what now lives within us. The wisdom of ourselves, of our miraculous inner structure, now lives within us.

And now begins the time when we compare, as it were, what fills us now as the life spirit from the wisdom within us with what was previously woven into the universe as an etheric web. Now we work on this comparison, how one can fit to the other, and build up our human being in the image, as he is to become in the next incarnation. We begin by gradually living toward the world midnight, as you find indicated in one of the mysteries, in “The Awakening of the Souls.” Thus, after the world midnight, we carry out a work that proceeds by participating in the creation of the world, in bringing in what we enjoy here. During the life between death and birth, we work, we weave along, we weave the images of the gods. We are allowed to participate in what is the goal of the gods, in that the gods place human beings into the world. We are allowed to prepare ourselves for a next incarnation. In the process, of course, not only processes that are selfishly related to us take place, but all kinds of other processes as well. And this can be seen in particular from the following.

This wonderful process is much higher than what takes place here on earth when winter and summer change, the sun rises, the sun sets, and everything that takes place as earthly work takes place: There, what ultimately leads to our earthly incarnation, what leads to human existence, takes place; but it is a tremendous heavenly work that has not only an external meaning, but a meaning for the whole world. When one gradually succeeds in experiencing this wonderful process in spiritual contemplation, one encounters something. It will seem strange to you when I say this, but the higher mysteries must always seem strange at first to the physical, sensory perception of human beings, and what appears before our soul must shake us, the more the better. For these things, as they are, should not come to our soul in such a way that we take them in soberly, dryly, cognitively, and remain indifferent. It is precisely through these things that we should gain a spiritual impression of the sublimity and greatness of the divine-spiritual world. One could say: If someone only allows themselves to be involved in to present spiritual science in such a dry way that it does not at the same time grasp the whole human being, and that the impression it makes does not at the same time give an impression of the greatness and sublimity of that which, as the divine-spiritual, pulsates and permeates the world, then we would all, according to what I have just described, despite everything we can do, be born headless under the present conditions of the world. For we could not bring about the construction of the head. The human head is in its construction such a sublime image of the universe that man himself, with what is woven into him as the wisdom of a lifetime, could not build it, could not prepare it for the next incarnation; all the hierarchies of gods must be involved in this. What exists in your head, in this sphere loosely pierced only by the back of the head, a somewhat transformed sphere, is in itself a real microcosm, a real imprint of the great world sphere. Everything that lives outside in the universe lives together within it, and everything that can be active in the various hierarchies works together there. When we begin to build on the wisdom accumulated in our fatigue during our next incarnation, all the hierarchies intervene in this activity in order to incorporate into us, as an imprint of all divine wisdom, that which will then become our head.

While all this is happening, what is our physical hereditary line is being prepared on earth through generations. Just as we give back to the earth only what comes from the earth after our death, so we receive from our parents and ancestors only what is earthly in us. And what is earthly in us is only the outer, only the outer expression in this earthly life. Everything is woven into this that we ourselves can first weave in the manner described, and that which entire hierarchies of gods weave before we, through conception, enter into a relationship with that in which we envelop ourselves, clothe ourselves, when we enter the physical plane.

I said that the more we can take in these sublime insights with our feelings, the better for us. Just think about it: we use our heads, but as human beings living in the material world, we generally have no trace of knowledge that entire hierarchies of gods are working to shape our heads, to shape what lies at the spiritual foundation of our heads, so that we can exist at all. When we grasp this in the sense of spiritual scientific knowledge, it automatically fills us with feelings of gratitude and thankfulness toward the entire universe.

Therefore, what we acquire through spiritual science should also bring about an ever-increasing elevation of our emotional life. We should increasingly bring our feelings into line with our knowledge in the field of spiritual science. And it is not good if our feelings lag behind. By repeatedly learning new and higher aspects of spiritual science, we should, I would say, be able to develop more reverent feelings for the mysteries of the world, which ultimately always lead back to the mysteries of the human being. It is in this purifying spiritual warmth of our perceptions and feelings that true progress in spiritual science actually lies.

I must mention one more thing, because it seems like a supplement to the whole consideration we have made. Here in the physical world, we live ourselves into it by first having a dull consciousness as children, recognizing only our mother and only gradually getting to know other people. As we live our way into the physical world, we believe that we are constantly getting to know new people. This is also true of our physical consciousness. When we have passed through the gate of death, we have a real, genuine relationship with all the souls we have come close to in life. They appear again before our spiritual gaze. We can say that we “find” those souls who came close to us in life and who passed through the gate of death before us. The word is coined for physical circumstances, but this experiential coming close of souls to souls can be described as finding. Only, one must imagine this finding of souls who have passed through the gate of death before us in such a way that one approaches the souls in a manner that is, in a sense, the reverse of how one approaches people here on the physical plane. Here, one approaches people by first encountering them externally, physically. Then we gradually get to know their inner being, which develops only as we live with them. So what we experience inwardly in a human being develops only out of our own inner being. After we ourselves have passed through the gate of death and encounter the souls who have passed through the gate of death before us, the first thing we know is: there is the soul in question. You sense it, you know it is there. But now you have to give your whole inner being to what is there as a first impression, as the most abstract impression. Here you have to let the person work on you; there you have to give your inner being, and you now have to build up the image yourself, the imagination. The imaginative, that which you can see, you have to build up little by little. You can get an idea of what the experience of the soul is like after death if you imagine that you do not see it, but only grasp it, and that you form a picture by gradually grasping it. You build up the picture. In the same way, you must actively, inwardly actively build up the picture of the soul you encounter. In a sense, you know: now I am encountering a soul. It does not yet have a spiritual form! Which soul is it? It is the soul to which I—this now emerges in your own soul—had the feeling of a son toward his mother. Now you begin to feel: I can experience myself with this soul. Now you construct the spiritual form. You must be active within it, and then it becomes an image. And because you have to build up the spiritual form in this way, you are already together with the dead before you have built up the spiritual form. In this way, you are together with all those with whom you were together in life, that is, you experience them in a world in which you must find them by awakening yourself to see them, so that you look at them. You have to be active.

The souls that are still here in the physical body, that remain alive when we die, already appeared to us as images here on earth. We look down on them and do not need to construct the image first; they look back at us as images. However, these souls can weave into this image what is then like warming spiritual nourishment for the dead, through their thoughts of him, through their continuing love for him, their memories of him or — as we now know as spiritual scientists — through reading aloud.

All this broadens our view of the human being into the real world, right into the real world. If you let this sink into your soul, you get an idea of how little human beings actually know about the spiritual world. It really wasn't always like this. Only the completely materialistic people of the present day talk about how “wonderfully far we have come.” We know that people used to have clairvoyance and that they lost this original atavistic clairvoyance solely for the sake of acquiring certain qualities that are connected with the whole inner life in the material world. When a truly materialistic person, a completely materialistic scholar, approaches us, he will naturally say: It is a dream to talk about original clairvoyance, about the fact that people used to know something special. If people would only walk through the world with their physical eyes open, they would find this refuted. It is not so long ago that people knew more than they do now.

You know, we have often spoken of this — I would like to mention it again here at the end — that Lucifer and Ahriman have a part in this spiritual existence in which we live. We also know that in the Bible, Lucifer is symbolized as the serpent, the serpent on the tree. The physical serpent, as we experience it today and as a modern painter will always paint it when he paints paradise, is not the real Lucifer, but the outer image, the physical image. The real Lucifer is a being that has remained behind in the development of the moon. He cannot be seen on earth among physical things. So if a painter wanted to paint Lucifer as he is, he would have to paint him in such a way that he could actually be perceived through a kind of clairvoyant inner vision as an etheric form. And then he would appear as he works on us, as he works on our head, as he works on our organism, inasmuch as he has no part in it purely from the earth, but in the continuation of the head down through the spinal cord. So if you want to paint Lucifer according to his etheric form, you'd have to paint him with a human head and a snake-like continuation, which in us humans physically lives out through the spinal cord. So a painter who knows something about spiritual science would have to paint Adam and Eve, the tree, and at the top of the tree the serpent, only as an expression for us as a serpent, and at the top a human head. If a painter were to paint something like this, one would have to assume today that he is able to paint it from spiritual science, of course.

Now, there may well be something like this in Leipzig, but people don't go around with their eyes open, they go through the world with their eyes blindfolded. But in Hamburg, in the picture gallery, there really is a painting by Master Bertram, from the middle of the Middle Ages, depicting the scene of paradise. There is the snake on the tree, just as I have described it, painted correctly. You can see the picture there. It has also been painted by other painters. What follows from this? That even in the middle of the Middle Ages, people still knew this, knew it to such an extent that they painted it. This means that it is not so long ago that people were forced entirely onto the physical plane. And what we are told today as the course of the spiritual history of humanity from the materialistic world is, in essence, nothing more than an external deception, because one imagines that human beings have always been as they have become in the last few centuries, whereas it is not so long ago that they looked into the spiritual world with their old clairvoyance. He had to come out because he was not free, and in order to attain full freedom and self-awareness, he had to come out, and he must find his way back into the spiritual world. Therefore, this spiritual science is preparing something important, something essential: this re-entering into the spiritual world. And again and again we can show ourselves how necessary it is to feel, to sense, that the small group of people who live today in the midst of the materialistic world and who are guided by their karma to grasp the most important task of humanity for the future, that this small group of people has important, most important things to accomplish through their soul life. Without being arrogant, we must show ourselves, in all humility and modesty, how great is the difference between a soul that is gradually finding its way into the spiritual world and all the outward people who today have no idea, but especially do not want to have any idea, of the spiritual. This must not become merely a pitifully painful feeling for us, but must become a feeling that inspires us to work ever on and on, and to work faithfully in the stream of spiritual science to which we have been led by our karma, our destiny.

At our last gathering here, I also mentioned that when a person passes through the gate of death before they have lived their life to the full, the etheric body force given to them is not yet completely exhausted. If a person passes through the gate of death at a young age, their etheric body could have continued to work on the physical body for decades. This power is not lost, but is still there. I have also already mentioned how, in the present, because death approaches humanity in such large numbers every day and every hour, many, many etheric bodies that could have continued to work on the physical body for a long time are handed over to the spiritual-etheric world and remain suspended there. And the forces that could have sustained the physical body for decades become spiritual forces that contribute to the spiritual development of humanity. Therefore, a time will come when the forces in these etheric bodies can be used for the spiritual progress of humanity, but only when, here on Earth, after the terrible events of today have passed over this earth and peace has returned, something will be understood by souls who will then still be walking on this earth in human bodies, namely that all those who have previously entered the spiritual world have their etheric bodies up there and can radiate their forces. This will have to be understood by these souls [here on Earth]. And these souls will be able to cooperate in this spiritual progress, which is made possible for the future precisely through so many sacrificial deaths.

Think what it would mean if spiritual science were to disappear now and no one had any understanding of all that is being prepared in the spiritual world through their sacrificial deaths! This entire sum of forces would fall into the hands of spiritual beings who would use it for something other than what it is intended for according to the decree of the gods who are developing in a lawful manner.

But this exhorts us to remain fully conscious of all that the spiritual world is, even in the events of the present time. For these events of the times also have a spiritual side. What they present outwardly in blood and death and sacrifice is the outward expression of an inner spiritual event, which must be understood in the right sense.

This is what I would like to remind you of again and again in the concluding words of our present consideration:

From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of the battles,
From the suffering of the forsaken,
From the sacrifices of the people
The fruits of the spirit will grow
And souls, conscious of the spirit,
Will direct their minds to the realm of the spirits.