Memory and Habit
GA 170
26 August 1916, Dornach
Lecture I
When we study the human soul in its development within the physical body between birth and death, we are struck by the fact that in order to have a full and complete earthly existence, the soul must make two attributes or faculties its own.
On the one hand: memory. Just imagine what it would be like if memory were not one of our faculties in earthly existence! And think how different our life of soul would be if we could neither look back over the course of the past day nor recall from unfathomed depths what we have experienced since a certain moment of time after our birth. The cohesion of experience is necessary if there is to be true Ego-consciousness. I have called attention to this fact on many occasions. You all know that memory begins to function at a certain point of time during our earthly life and that experiences occurring before this point of time are sunk in oblivion. We can therefore say that from a certain point of time in our physical earthly life, our life of soul enters into relationship with our bodily life and this enables us, in the present, to remember the experiences through which we have passed.
One of the tasks of earthly life is to unfold the faculty of memory. During our long evolution as beings of the Old Moon incarnation of the Earth, we did not possess memory in the form in which we know it to-day. Memory has only been able to develop since the Earth-organism with its mineral forces has been incorporated in our being. Memory is essentially an outcome of the interaction between the human soul and the physical body. In the spiritual world, memory, as developed in the physical life, has only been needed since the beginning of the Earth-period. Until the time of the Earth-period it was not needed, for the reason that in the power of the dreamy clairvoyance possessed by man during the Old Moon period, he possessed a different faculty—a faculty which was able to take the place of our memory to-day. Suppose that every time you experienced something, the experience was inscribed somewhere in a place remaining accessible to you, and that it was so with every subsequent experience. Under such conditions you would merely have to look at the spot where the experience was inscribed. You would be able to look outwards, because the experiences would be preserved in the outer world. So indeed it was in the time of the Old Moon. All that was experienced in that old dreamlike, clairvoyant consciousness, was engraved, as it were, in a certain delicate ether-substance. All that the Moon-humanity experienced through this dreamy, clairvoyant consciousness was written into the cosmic substance; and the activity of the human soul which might be compared with memory to-day was that the dreamy clairvoyant gaze was directed to the ‘engraving’ in the delicate ether-substance. The Moon-man saw his own experiences in the traces left by them, just as we now see the objects of the outer world. He only needed to look round upon what he had experienced in his dreamlike imaginative life and he found it inscribed in the cosmic substance. This was quite a different mode of ‘living-together’ with the world from that of to-day. Suppose everything that now becomes a thought in your minds were to flash after you like a comet's tail so that you could re-think it. If this were so, you would have transferred into your present life of thought conditions that actually obtained during the period of the old dreamlike consciousness. This condition had necessarily to come to an end because man was to become individual, an individuality. But this is only possible when the experiences through which his soul passes remain his own inner possession, are not immediately inscribed into the cosmic substance but only into his own, delicate ether-substantiality. So long as man lives on the Earth, his etheric body lives and moves within him in his hours of waking consciousness. To this movement, the form of the physical body sets the boundary. It cannot pass beyond the boundary set by the skin. And so through the whole of the life between birth and death, the fine ether-substantiality—within which thoughts, ideas, experiences of feeling and of will circulate—remains rolled up as it were within the confines of the physical body. When the physical body is laid aside at death, the scroll unrolls and is now given over to the cosmic substance. So that after death we begin to look back upon what was engraved in our individual ether-substance which now, after death, is given over to the cosmic ether.
As with memory, which evolves because a force of resistance is offered by the physical body, so too is it with regard to something else of importance for our earthly existence.
Habits are something else which we have to acquire during earthly existence. Neither memory in its present form, nor the capacity to acquire habits were ours during the Old Moon period of existence.1See An Outline Of Occult Science. Rudolf Steiner. If we observe the development of the human being from childhood onwards, we can see how habits are acquired by the constant repetition of actions. Through instructions given during our upbringing, actions steadily repeated become habitual. We are first led to do something which by constant repetition becomes a habit and the habit, once formed, becomes more and more an automatic action of the soul.
The development of habits in the right way during earthly existence is necessary to the unfolding of Ego-consciousness. For what had we in the place of habits during the Old Moon period of evolution? At that time, whenever anything had to be carried out by us or through us, we came under the direct influence of the higher Beings of the spiritual world. We were impelled to action by impulses sent into us from the Beings of the spiritual world. We needed no ‘habits,’ for what we had to do, the Beings of the higher world did, in a certain sense, through us. We were more intimately part of the whole ‘organism’ of the Hierarchies than is the case now, in the Earth period.
But it would never have been possible for us to develop the force of freedom had we remained in this condition where our every action involved an impulse from higher spiritual Beings. The foundations of freedom (free spiritual activity) could only be laid within us by our having been emancipated from the sphere of the Beings of the spiritual worlds and thus—having arrived at the stage of being able to form a habit by the steady repetition of some act—it finally comes from our own being. It is so indeed: the attainment of the possibility of freedom for man is intimately connected with the acquisition of habits.
When we enter physical existence through birth, we come from a world in which, during the Earth period itself, we are living in conditions somewhat similar to those obtaining during the Old Moon period. In the spiritual world, before entering through birth into earthly existence, we live under the strong influence of higher spiritual impulses. In that world there are exalted spiritual Beings who guide us to what we have to do in order so to prepare our earthly existence that it may take its course in accordance with karma. With the entrance into the physical body we are reft away from that world in which there are no habits but only the continuous and unceasing impulses of lofty spiritual Beings. Having entered physical existence, an echo still remains within us of this life in the spiritual world. This echo is expressed in the fact that as children, up to the time of our seventh year, we are governed less by habit than by the power of imitation. We imitate what is done, what goes on around us. This is an echo of our life in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world we had to receive the impulse for every single activity. Therefore it is that as children we react to our immediate impulses, and imitate. Independent activity of the life of soul begins only in the course of time, just as we gradually unfold the capacity to live according to habit. Memory and habit are important constituents of our life of soul, being metamorphoses, transformations of forces of quite a different nature in the spiritual world. Memory is a metamorphosis of the enduring traces of imaginative, dreamlike experiences. Habits arise because we are torn away from the impulses of the higher spiritual Beings.
When we study these things and meditate upon them, we arrive at a concept that is necessary for understanding the very different nature of the world lying beyond the Threshold. Again and again it must be emphasised that the world beyond the Threshold is altogether different from the world this side of the Threshold. Even when we employ words used in connection with the physical world to characterise the spiritual world from any particular point of view, we must constantly remind ourselves that true and adequate ideas of the spiritual world can only be acquired by gradually accustoming ourselves to shaping these ideas of the spiritual world quite differently from those which apply to the physical world. At the same time, however, the study of such things as memory and habit, will help us to unfold insight into the nature of our physical existence.
It is sheer folly to imagine that physical existence is something to be despised. I have pointed out this mistake from many different points of view. Physical existence has its task in human evolution as a whole, just as all other phases of evolution have theirs. It is to our eternal gain that in the course of the evolution of the soul we have a physical body and by means of this physical body pass through certain earthly experiences under the influence of memory and habit. Gradually, by means of repeated earth-lives, we become firmly possessed of these earthly acquisitions. Between death and re-birth, however, we must continually return to the conditions of the Old Moon period of existence. We must surrender as it were the power of memory, as indeed we do directly after death, and give over to the cosmic substance that which we have engraved within our being during earthly existence. And again we must surrender ourselves to the impulses of the higher spiritual Beings in order that by following their impulses we may transform them, in the physical body, into habits.
Here, however, we have reached a point where I will again draw attention to something which on account of its importance can never be over-emphasised.
Memory and habit are acquired during earthly life. Let us first consider memory. Memory may appear to be an acquisition of earthly existence. You know, moreover, that however weak a man's memory may be, it is always possible to develop it. Suppose for a moment that nothing else were to be done in the way of developing the memory than what is absolutely natural, under the influence of the earthly, physical organism which is permeated with mineral substance. If this were the case, memory would unfold in quite a different way. As it is, we do more—as you know, we do much more. It would perhaps be more correct to say that much more is done with us in this matter of training the memory. For one thing we are made to learn by heart, to memorise. At a certain age in our upbringing we are told to learn by heart. There is a difference between acquiring the natural faculty of memory and being set down to do something, else in addition. If we read a poem many times, or if it is often repeated aloud to us, at last we remember it, we know it by heart. Modern methods of education, however, are not content with this. Children are set to work to memorise a poem and are sometimes punished for failing to have committed it to memory when bidden to do so. This is very characteristic of the present phase of evolution.
I must beg you not to misunderstand me. It must not be said that I am denouncing memorising or have demanded its abolition. I am demanding no such thing. Our times are such that certain things must necessarily be memorised, precisely because this present phase of evolution corresponds to a definite phase in the development of the faculty of memory.
But what is it that really happens in the soul when memorising is called to the assistance of the naturally unfolding faculty of memory? It is a case of summoning Lucifer to our aid! It is indeed a Luciferic force which is thus summoned to the aid of memory.
Once more I must beg you not to exclaim: ‘Lucifer! But we must guard against him. From now on our children shall never be allowed to learn by heart!’ Some people have the mistaken idea that they must persistently guard themselves against Lucifer and Ahriman and do everything possible to hold them at a safe distance. But as a matter of fact it is precisely when they are thus on guard that they make it easy for them to approach them!
The Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces have to be reckoned with in cosmic evolution. They must necessarily be part and parcel of world-evolution. The only question is that they shall be kept in their proper place. Consider the special case already mentioned: Why is it that the Luciferic power must be summoned to the aid of memory? In very ancient times of evolution, memory was powerful to an extent undreamed of by men to-day. We, in our day, need a considerable length of time in which to learn a long poem by heart. The ancient Greeks did not need nearly such a long time. Numbers of them knew the poems of Homer from beginning to end. But these ancient Greeks did not memorise in the way we do to-day when we learn something by heart. In those times the power of memory was quite differently constituted.
Now what was really happening in that fourth Post-Atlantean epoch of civilisation? The Græco-Latin age was to a certain extent a recapitulation of the Atlantean epoch itself which has been described in my writings dealing with Atlantis. What had come over from the Old Moon period of evolution as a force enabling man to draw his dreamlike, imaginative experiences after him like the tail of a comet—this force, instead of working outside as a channel of communication with an outer universe, passed into the inner being of man. As a result of this transference from the outer to the inner life, memory in the Atlanteans was like a flashing-up of something which the world at that time gave of itself. In the days of Atlantis there was no need for man to make any great efforts to develop his memory, for it was like an influx into the inner being of a force operating in communication with the outer world. In the fourth Post-Atlantean epoch of civilisation there was a recapitulation of this state of things. In the inner being there was a recapitulation of the operation of a force which in earlier times had worked in constant interplay with the world, without any activity on the part of man himself. Inasmuch as man has passed now into the fifth Post-Atlantean epoch, he must make greater and greater efforts to come into real possession of the power of memory. Because memory has to contribute to man's progress towards individuality and freedom, the power which came spontaneously in the Atlantean age and in its recapitulation, the fourth Post-Atlantean era, has now to be acquired. When something corresponding to an earlier power has to be acquired in a later age, when, for example, memory is helped by means of a force which was formerly there by nature, we always have to do with a Luciferic activity. You see, the memory we now cultivate artificially but which in Greek times was a natural endowment, now becomes Luciferic. This conception of the Luciferic activity helps us to realise the part played by Lucifer in the evolution of mankind. To some extent limits were still set to his working in Greek and Latin times, for he was then still in his right place. Nowadays this is no longer the case. If memory is to be developed in our age, man has to enter into a pact with Lucifer. By dint of his own self-activity man must now do for his memory what was done without any participation on his part during the Græco-Latin era. But for this reason, what happened then without man's participation becomes a Luciferic deed in our age.
The moment, however, a Luciferic activity sets in, the other side of the balance begins to operate: the Ahrimanic impulse. While on the one side we memorise, calling Lucifer to our aid in this respect, on the other side we make more and more use of the Ahrimanic support to memory, namely, we write things down. I have often said that it was a true conception in the Middle Ages which made men speak of printing as one of the ‘black arts.’
This external method of assisting memory is wholly of an Ahrimanic nature. Again, I do not say that it is right to flee from everything that is Ahrimanic, although in this respect it may perhaps be said that precisely among us too much is done in the direction of summoning Ahriman. There is a tendency to have an exaggerated affection for him!
Influences of Lucifer and Ahriman
Man's task is, however, to cultivate the position of balance and not to believe that he can simply escape from the clutches of Lucifer and Ahriman. Calmly and courageously he must admit to himself that both Beings are necessary for world-evolution, that in his own development he needs both Lucifer and Ahriman in his active life, but that the balance must be maintained in every sphere of life.
Our activities, therefore, must be such that the balance is maintained between Lucifer and Ahriman. It was for this reason too that Lucifer and Ahriman had necessarily to play a part in earthly evolution. At the beginning of the Old Testament there is a significant picture of the influx of the Luciferic forces into world-evolution. Luciferic forces enter earthly evolution by way of the woman, and man is beguiled by way of the woman. This biblical picture symbolises the influx of the Luciferic element which occurred in the age of old Lemuria.
Then, during the subsequent Atlantean age, there came the entrance of the Ahrimanic element into earthly evolution. Just as during the fourth Post-Atlantean period human knowledge had to come to an understanding of the Luciferic symbol, so now, during our fifth Post-Atlantean epoch, as I have said before, it was necessary to place before the soul in an adequate but yet sufficiently indicative form—the opposite symbol. The figure of Faust has Ahriman at his side, as Eve has Lucifer. Lucifer approaches the woman, Eve; Ahriman approaches the man, Faust. And just as the man, Adam, was indirectly beguiled through Eve, so here, the woman, Gretchen, is deceived through the man, Faust. The seduction of Gretchen is the result of deception, because Ahriman is at work. Ahriman is the ‘Lying Spirit’ in contrast to Lucifer who is the ‘Tempter.’ This, then, is how they may be described: Lucifer, the Tempter; Ahriman, the Lying Spirit.
Much exists in the world for the express purpose of guarding mankind from temptation by Lucifer: rules of conduct, maxims, moral precepts, instituted customs and so forth. But there is less to help man to protect himself in the right way from falling prey to the Ahrimanic impulse—namely, untruthfulness.
All that is Luciferic in man has to do with the emotions, the passions. On the other hand, the Ahrimanic influence which asserts itself in human evolution has to do with lying, with untruthfulness. And in our age man must be armed not only against the attacks of Lucifer. It is high time for him to forge his armour against the attacks of Ahriman.
One of the motifs in Faust is that man is overcome by Ahriman, to the point of misunderstanding the word. Goethe shows us in this poem how Faust goes through different Ahrimanic dangers. True, the figure of Mephistopheles is a mixture and often a confusion of both Lucifer and Ahriman. But on the whole, as I have just now shown, Goethe is right to have chosen the figure of Ahriman and not that of Lucifer for his drama. Much of Ahriman is to be found in both the first and the second parts of Faust, up to the point where he plays in the misinterpretation of words. At the end of the second part Faust confuses ‘Ditch’ and ‘Grave.’ The Ahrimanic impulse plays even into the misinterpretation of words. Goethe indicates this with extraordinary subtlety, interweaving it most effectively into the play, instinctively rather than consciously realising the nature of the Ahrimanic impulse in what is untrue and distorted. This is a point of great significance.
Now just as memory and habit are metamorphoses of different kinds of activity in the spiritual world, so too, other spiritual faculties we may gain are in their turn metamorphoses of something acquired in physical existence. Let us consider something which first appears in physical existence. Memory and habit have been described as transformations, metamorphoses of the spiritual experiences of earlier times. But what emerges for the first time in the physical world is the relation of our ideas with the facts in the external world. The facts and objects are around us and we make images of them in our conceptions and ideas. The agreement of the images in our thought with the facts or objects or events, we then call physical truth.
When we speak of physical truth, this implies that our conceptions fit the facts of the physical plane. In order that this truth-relationship may arise, it is absolutely necessary to live in a physical body and perceive things in the outer world through the physical body. It would be nonsense to imagine that such a relationship to truth could have existed during the epoch of the Old Moon evolution. It is an acquisition of earthly life. It is only because we live in a physical body that this agreement between ideas and external facts can arise at all. But here Ahriman's field of action is opened up for him. In what sense is it thus opened up before him?
From what has been said we can perceive the interplay between the spiritual and the physical world. Ahriman has his own good task in the spiritual world and must, furthermore, send forces from there into the physical world. But he must not enter the physical world! The fact that this realm is denied him makes it possible for ideas we acquire in the physical body to fit the facts in the outer world. If Ahriman introduces into earthly life activities in which he was engaged during the Old Moon period of evolution, he upsets the agreement of our ideas with the outside facts. He should, if I may be allowed to use the expression, ‘keep his fingers off’ the realm in which man makes his ideas harmonise with the outside facts. But this is precisely what Ahriman does not do. If he did, there would be no lying in the world!
I do not know whether it is necessary to prove that lying undoubtedly does go on in the world! But whenever there is lying, it is a proof that Ahriman is at work in the physical world in an unjustified way. This particular activity of Ahriman in the world is something which man has to overcome. It is, of course, easy to say: Although there is much beauty in the world, there is also much that is the reverse of beautiful. A perfect God would have succeeded in so creating human beings that they would never have taken to lying. A perfect God would have said to Ahriman: In the physical world it is not for you to interfere.—God, however, has not succeeded in warding off Ahriman from the world; therefore He is not so perfect after all.—So it might be said. And, as a matter of fact, there is not only Ahriman to reckon with—Ahriman, who feels a certain satisfaction on account of the evil that is in the world. There are also philosophers whose pessimism is derived from observation of the bad characteristics of humanity. There were pessimists among philosophers in the nineteenth century but there were also those who voiced not merely pessimism but out-and-out woe! That too is a view of the world which actually exists and of which Julius Banzen is a typical representative.
Why, then, has Ahriman been allowed access to the physical world! On previous occasions I have shown how deeply he has entered, taking as an example an occurrence where a pre-arranged programme, strictly adhered to, was witnessed, not by a lay audience, but by thirty Law students and young barristers, men, that is to say, who were being trained to be judges of the actions of human beings. Everything happened according to the scheduled programme. But when, after the event, these thirty young lawyers were asked what had actually happened, twenty-six of them gave an absolutely incorrect account and the remaining four only a very approximately correct one. You can see from this example what kind of relationship actually exists between the ideas in people's mind and the outer physical facts. Thirty people can be present when a certain procedure has been carried through according to a pre-arranged programme and twenty-six of them afterwards give a false account of it. In such a case we see Ahriman at work literally before our eyes. But now, suppose Ahriman were not there at all! If he were not there we should be like innocent lambs, for the impulse would continually be never to form concepts which did not tally with the facts. We should only express what we actually observed as fact—but we should do this of necessity. It would be impossible for us to do anything else and there would be no question of free spiritual activity. In order to be able to speak the truth as free beings, the possibility to he must also be in us. In other words, we must acquire the power to conquer Ahriman within us at every moment.
Ahriman must be there ‘enticing, working, creating, as the devil.’ Ahriman must be there, but the trouble is that men follow him so closely and do not recognise him as the devil who entices, works and creates, and who must be overcome.
To pull long faces and say: ‘That is certainly Ahrimanic. I cannot allow myself to have any, dealings with it,’ means nothing more or less in many cases than a comfortable surrender to Lucifer without freedom. The whole point is that we shall learn to recognise the impulses which must be overcome, wherever they exist. We need Ahriman on the one side and Lucifer on the other in order to set up the balance between them.
Elfter Vortrag
Ich werde heute, morgen und übermorgen drei zusammenhängende Vorträge halten — heute einiges bemerken, das zur Grundlage dienen kann von gewissen Ausblicken in das Verhältnis des Menschen zum ganzen Universum, zum Leben überhaupt.
Wenn wir die menschliche Seele so betrachten, wie sie sich uns in ihrer Entwickelung zeigt hier in ihrem Leben innerhalb des physischen Leibes zwischen Geburt und Tod, so kann uns unter anderem auch auffallen, daß, um dieses Erdenleben zwischen Geburt und Tod zu vollenden, die Seele sich zwei Eigenschaften, man könnte sagen zwei Kräftekomplexe aneignen muß. Auf solche Dinge haben wir ja schon öfter aufmerksam gemacht.
Was auf der einen Seite angeeignet werden muß, ist das Gedächtnis. Denken Sie einmal, es würde das Gedächtnis nicht zu unseren Erdeneigenschaften gehören! Sie brauchen sich nur einmal zu überlegen, wie es anders wäre mit unserem Seelenleben, wenn wir nicht zurückschauen könnten in unsere verflossenen Tage und heraufholen könnten aus gewissermaßen unbestimmten Tiefen dasjenige, was wir seit einem gewissen Zeitmomente nach unserer Geburt erlebt haben. Der Zusammenhang der Erlebnisse ist sogar notwendig dafür, daß wir unser IchBewußtsein in der entsprechenden Weise haben können. Öfter habe ich darauf aufmerksam gemacht. Nun wissen Sie aber alle, daß dieses Gedächtnis erst eintritt in einem gewissen Zeitpunkte unseres Erdenlebens und daß es vorher nicht vorhanden ist, so daß unsere Erlebnisse, bevor der Zeitpunkt eintritt, bis zu dem wir uns zurückerinnern, der Vergessenheit anheimfallen. Wir können also sagen: Von einem bestimmten Zeitpunkte unseres physischen Erdenlebens an wird unser Seelenleben im Verhältnisse zum Körperleben so, daß wir gedächtnismäßig, erinnerungsmäßig unsere Erlebnisse immer in uns gegenwärtig haben können, im weiteren oder im engeren Umfange.
Dieses Gedächtnis kann sich nur ausbilden unter dem Einflusse unseres Erdenlebens und es gehört zu den Aufgaben unseres Erdenlebens, daß wir das Gedächtnis ausbilden. Während der langen Zeitenentwikkelung, da wir Mondenwesen waren, haben wir es in einer solchen Weise nicht gehabt. Erst dadurch, daß unserem Wesen eingegliedert worden ist der Erdenorganismus mit seinen Kräften aus dem mineralischen Reiche, kann sich das Gedächtnis entwickeln. Es ist in seiner Entwickelung wesentlich ein Ergebnis der Wechselwirkung des menschlichen Seelenwesens mit dem physischen Erdenleib. In der geistigen Welt braucht man das Gedächtnis so, wie wir es im physischen Erdenleibe jetzt entwickeln, eben erst von der Erdenzeit an. Man hat es bis zur Erdenzeit aus dem Grunde nicht gebraucht, weil man zum Beispiel in der Kraft jenes traumhaften Hellsehens, welche dem Menschen eigen war in der alten Mondenzeit, etwas anderes hatte, was gewissermaßen die Stelle des heutigen Gedächtnisses vertreten konnte. Denken Sie sich einmal: Wenn jedesmal, da Sie etwas erleben, das Erlebnis aufgeschrieben würde irgendwo an einem Orte, der Ihnen zugänglich bleibt, das nächste Erlebnis wieder und so fort, so könnten Sie ja einfach immer den Blick werfen auf den Ort,wo das Erlebnis aufgeschrieben ist. Sie würden nach außen schauen können, weil das Erlebnis in der Außenwelt aufgeschrieben wäre. Und so ist es in der Tat für die Art des Erlebens, die der Mensch durchgemacht hat noch während der alten Mondenzeit. In einem gewissen fein-ätherischen Substantiellen wurde gewissermaßen eingraviert das, was durch das Traumbewußtsein, jenes alte traumhafte Hellseherbewußtsein erlebt wurde. Alles, was der Mensch noch erlebte so, daß er es aufnahm in sein traumhaftes Hellseherbewußtsein, wurde eingeschrieben in die Weltensubstanz. Und diejenige Betätigung der menschlichen Seele, die man vergleichen könnte mit dem heutigen Gedächtnis, ist so, daß man immer den hellseherisch-traumhaften Blick hinwendete gewissermaßen zu der Eingravierung in die fein-ätherische Weltensubstanz. Wie man heute Gegenstände der Außenwelt erblickt, so sah man als Mondenmensch die eigenen Erlebnisse, die ihreSpuren zurückgelassen hatten. Man brauchte sich gleichsam nur umzusehen nach dem, wie man sich durchgelebt hatte durch die Weltensubstanz, und man fand eingeschrieben in die Weltensubstanz dasjenige, was Gegenstand jenes alten traumhaftimaginativen Bewußtseins war.
Es war dies also ein ganz anderes Zusammenleben mit der Welt als das jetzige. Sie brauchen sich nur vorzustellen, daß alles, was jemals jetzt bei Ihnen Gedanke wird, hinter Ihnen wie ein Kometenschweif nachzöge, so daß es wiederum von Ihnen gedacht werden könnte, dann hätten Sie ins gegenwärtige Gedankenleben herein übertragen das, was während des alten traumhaften Bewußtseins wirklich da war. Dieser Zustand mußte aufhören aus dem Grunde, weil der Mensch individuell werden, eine Individualität darstellen sollte. Das kann er aber nur, wenn das, was er in seiner Seele durchlebt, sein seelisches Eigentum bleibt, wenn es sich nicht unmittelbar eingraviert in die Weltensubstanz, sondern nur in seine eigene feine Ätherindividualität, in seine Äthersubstantialität. Solange der Mensch nun auf der Erde lebt, gerät sein Ätherleib immer, wenn er sein Bewußtsein im Wachzustande entwickelt, in Mitbewegung. Und diese Mitbewegung findet ihre Grenzen an der Form des physischen Leibes. Sie kann gewissermaßen nicht hinaus über die Hautgrenze. Und so bleibt während des ganzen Lebens zwischen Geburt und Tod die feine Äthersubstantialität, in der sich mitbewegen die Gedanken, die Vorstellungen, die Gefühls- und Willenserlebnisse, gewissermaßen zusammengerollt innerhalb des physischen Leibes. Und wenn der physische Leib im Tode abgelegt wird, dann rollt sich das Ganze, wie wir es öfter beschrieben haben, auf und wird jetzt der Weltensubstantialität mitgeteilt, so daß wir jetzt, nach dem Tode, beginnen zurückzuschauen auf das, was eingraviert worden ist in unsere Ätherindividualität, die jetzt, nach dem Tode, aufgeht in die Weltenäthersubstantialität.
Ähnlich wie es sich in der angedeuteten Weise in bezug auf das Gedächtnis verhält, das also durch die Widerstandskraft des physischen Leibes entwickelt wird, verhält es sich auch mit dem, was nun wiederum wichtig ist für unser Erdenleben, damit wir uns das Rechte innerhalb desselben aneignen.
Was wir uns außer dem Gedächtnisse aneignen müssen während unseres Erdenlebens, sind: Gewohnheiten. Auch Gewohnheiten, wie wir sie haben während des Erdenlebens, hatten wir in derselben Art während unseres Mondenlebens noch nicht. Weder Gedächtnis in der heutigen Erdenform, noch die Fähigkeit, Gewohnheiten uns anzueignen, hatten wir während des Mondenlebens. Sie werden ja finden, wenn Sie die Entwickelung des Menschen von Kindheit auf betrachten, wie man das Gewohnheitsmäßige sich erst nach und nach aneignet dadurch, daß gewisse Handlungen wiederholt werden und immer wiederum wiederholt werden. Dadurch, daß wir während der Erziehung Anleitung dazu bekommen, werden die Handlungen gewohnheitsmäßige. Und wir vollführen sie, während wir sie uns zuerst aneignen mußten, dann, wenn sie uns Gewohnheiten geworden sind, mehr seelisch-mechanisch.
In der rechten Weise während der Erdenzeit Gewohnheiten zu entwickeln, ist gerade für die Ich-Entfaltung notwendig. Was hatten wir denn an Stelle der Gewohnheiten, während wir Wesen der alten Mondenzeit waren? Da hatten wir jedesmal, wenn wir irgend etwas verrichten sollten, wenn irgend etwas durch uns geschehen sollte, den unmittelbaren Einfluß irgendeiner Wesenheit aus der höheren geistigen Welt. Da waren wir immer verhalten zu dem, was wir taten, durch Impulse, die in uns hineinschickten die Wesen der höheren Welt. Da brauchten wir keine Gewohnheiten, denn was wir tun sollten, taten gewissermaßen durch uns die Wesen der höheren Welt. Wir waren viel mehr ein Glied im ganzen Organismus der Hierarchien, als das jetzt während der Erdenzeit der Fall ist.
Wir würden niemals die Kraft der Freiheit haben entwickeln können, wenn wir in dieser Lage geblieben wären, daß für alle Einzelheiten unseres Handelns Impulse höherer geistiger Wesenheiten hätten in Kraft treten müssen. Nur dadurch, daß wir gewissermaßen entlassen werden aus der Sphäre der Wesen der geistigen Welten und in die Lage kommen, wenn wir wiederholt etwas getan haben, es zur Gewohnheit zu machen, so daß es dann von uns selbst kommt, nur dadurch wird die Anlage zur Freiheit in uns gelegt. Wirklich, auch mit der Aneignung des Gewohnheitsmäßigen ist innig verknüpft das Erreichen einer Freiheitsmöglichkeit für den Menschen.
Wenn wir durch die Geburt hereintreten in das physische Dasein, so kommen wir aus einer Welt, in der wir uns auch noch während der Erdenzeit gewissermaßen in einer ähnlichen Lage befinden wie während der Mondenzeit, als wir unter dem starken Einflusse der höheren geistigen Impulse waren da oben in der geistigen Welt, die wir durchzumachen hatten, bevor wir durch die Geburt ins Erdendasein herunterstiegen. Da sind es immer höhere geistige Wesenheiten, die uns zu dem anleiten, was wir zu verrichten haben, um unser Erdendasein aus der geistigen Welt heraus vorzubereiten, so daß es karmagemäß ablaufen kann. Und mit dem Eingehen in den physischen Leib werden wir entrissen dieser Welt, in der es keine Gewohnheiten gibt, sondern nur fortwährende Impulse der höheren geistigen Wesenheiten. Wir haben gewissermaßen, wenn wir ins physische Dasein hereintreten, noch einen Nachklang dieser Lage, in der wir waren in der geistigen Welt. Und dieser Nachklang drückt sich dadurch aus, daß wir als Kinder so ziemlich bis zu unserem siebenten Jahre uns weniger nach Gewohnheiten richten, sondern mehr unter dem Einflusse der Nachahmung stehen. Wir machen das nach, was uns vorgemacht wird, und wir machen anfangs eigentlich unter dem unmittelbaren Einflusse des Vormachens die Dinge nach. Das ist ein Nachklang der Art, wie es notwendig war für uns in der geistigen Welt. In der geistigen Welt war es für uns notwendig, zu jeder einzelnen Betätigung den Impuls zu erhalten. Daher überliefern wir uns als Kinder zunächst den unmittelbaren Impulsen, ahmen nach. Und erst im Laufe der Zeit tritt, ebenso wie die Fähigkeit, Gewohnheitsmäßiges auszuleben, die Selbständigkeit, die selbständige Betätigung innerhalb unseres Seelenlebens auf.
Gedächtnis und Gewohnheitsmäßiges sind wichtige Ingredienzien unseres Seelenlebens, sind bedeutsam und sind gewissermaßen Metamorphosen, Umgestaltungen von ganz andersartigen Tatsachen in der geistigen Welt. Gedächtnis ist eine Umgestaltung der Entstehung von bleibenden Spuren der imaginativen Traumerlebnisse; Gewohnheit entsteht durch ein Sich-Entreißen gegenüber den Impulsen höherer geistiger Wesenheiten.
Wenn man so etwas betrachtet, wie wir das eben jetzt getan haben, dann bekommt man durch Überlegen solcher Dinge einen gewissen Begriff, den man braucht, von der ganz andersartigen Beschaffenheit der Welt, die jenseits der Schwelle liegt, gegenüber der Welt, die diesseits der Schwelle liegt. Denn das muß immer wieder und wiederum betont werden: Jenseits der Schwelle ist doch alles anders. Wenn wir uns auch bemühen, durch eine gewisse Anwendung der Worte, die im Gebrauche sind für die physische Welt, die geistige Welt zu charakterisieren, so müssen wir uns doch immer wieder und wiederum klarmachen, daß wir adäquate, richtige Vorstellungen von der geistigen Welt doch nur dadurch erhalten, daß wir uns schon bequemen, nach und nach diese Vorstellungen über die geistige Welt möglichst anders zu gestalten, als es die Vorstellungen über die physische Welt sind.
Zu gleicher Zeit aber bekommen wir durch eine solche Betrachtung, wie die eben angestellte, einen Einblick in die Wichtigkeit und in das Wesentliche unseres physischen Erdendaseins. Es ist ein völliger Unsinn, wenn geglaubt wird, das physische Erdendasein sei etwas, das der Mensch gering schätzen darf. Ich habe von verschiedenen Gesichtspunkten her schon auf diesen Irrtum aufmerksam gemacht. Das physische Erdendasein hat ebenso seine Aufgabe in der Gesamtentwickelung der Menschheit wie alle anderen Phasen der menschlichen Entwickelung. Daß wir mit unserer seelischen Entwickelung einen physischen Leib haben und durch diesen physischen Leib gewisse Erdenerlebnisse unter dem Einflusse des Gedächtnisses und des Gewohnheitsmäßigen durchmachen, das gibt uns bleibende, ewige Errungenschaften. Nach und nach, durch die wiederholten Erdenleben, eignen wir uns diese Errungenschaften an. Daher müssen wir auch immer wieder und wiederum, wenn wir die Zeit durchleben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, gewissermaßen zurückkehren zu dem vom Monde her Gewohnten, müssen gewissermaßen die Kraft des Gedächtnisses abgeben — was wir ja gleich nach dem Tode tun — und der Weltensubstantialität dasjenige übergeben, was wir während des Erdenlebens nur in uns selbst eingraviert haben. Und wir müssen uns wiederum übergeben den Impulsen der höheren geistigen Wesenheiten, damit wir dann im irdischen Leibe diese Fähigkeiten, Impulsen höherer geistiger Wesenheiten zu folgen, umwandeln in Gewohnheitsmäßiges.
Hier ist aber auch eine Stelle, wo ich aufmerksam machen darf wiederum auf etwas, was ich schon öfter gesagt habe, was man aber im Grunde genommen nicht genug betonen kann, weil es sehr, sehr wichtig ist. Gedächtnis und Gewohnheitsmäßiges eignen wir uns an während des Erdenlebens. Betrachten wir zunächst einmal das Gedächtnis. Dieses wird uns, wenn wir es so betrachten, wie wir es eben getan haben, wie eine naturgemäße Errungenschaft des Erdendaseins erscheinen. Sie wissen ja auch, der Mensch mag noch so schwach sein in bezug auf sein Gedächtnis, er wird immer die Kraft, die Fähigkeit des Gedächtnisses entwickeln. Denken wir uns einmal, es würde nichts anderes geschehen zur Entwickelung unseres Gedächtnisses als das, was völlig natürlich ist, was gerade ganz recht ist, um es so zu entwickeln, so wie es sich entwickeln soll durch den Einfluß des vom Mineralischen durchsetzten physischen Erdenorganismus, dann würden wir dieses Gedächtnis anders entwickeln, als wir es eigentlich gewöhnlich entwickeln. Wir tun sonst noch viel mehr, und Sie wissen alle, daß wir viel mehr tun. Man könnte vielleicht besser sagen, daß viel mehr mit uns zur Entwickelung dieses Gedächtnisses getan wird. Wir lernen auswendig. Wir werden von einem gewissen Zeitpunkte unserer Kindheitsentwickelung an gehalten, auswendig zu lernen, zu memorieren. Da ist ein Unterschied, ob wir uns unser Gedächtnis nur so aneignen, wie es gewissermaßen von selber kommt, oder ob wir gehalten werden, mehr zu tun, als von selber kommt. Wenn wir ein Gedicht recht oft lesen, wenn es uns recht oft vorgesagt wird, behalten wir es zuletzt. Aber damit begnügt sich ja unsere Erziehung heute nicht, sondern wir werden angehalten, das Gedicht zu memorieren. Wir werden sogar bestraft, wenn wir es nicht memoriert haben, wenn uns dies geboten war. So ist es insbesondere in dem heutigen Entwickelungszyklus der Menschheit.
Ich bitte, mich jetzt wirklich nicht mißzuverstehen! Es sollte niemand sein, der etwa sagt, ich hätte heute gegen das Memorieren gedonnert und gesagt, es müsse abgeschafft werden. Das sage ich nicht! Unsere Zeit ist schon so, daß gewisse Dinge memoriert werden müssen, weil unser Entwickelungszyklus eben eine ganz bestimmte Art der Ausbildung unseres Gedächtnisses darstellt.
Aber was geschieht denn mit unserer Seele, wenn also durch Memorieren der naturgemäßen Aneignung von Gedächtnisstoff zu Hilfe gekommen wird? In diesem Falle wird Luzifer angerufen. Und es ist richtig die luziferische Kraft, die angerufen wird, um also dem Gedächtnisse zu Hilfe zu kommen. Noch einmal betone ich: Sagen Sie jetzt nicht: Oh, Luzifer, vor dem muß man sich hüten! Also schaffen wir von jetzt ab alles Auswendiglernen für unsere Kinder ab! — Das eben ist die schlechte Eigenart, die sich manche aneignen, daß sie immer wieder und wiederum glauben, vor Luzifer und Ahriman müsse man sich hüten, müsse alles tun, damit ja nicht Luzifer und Ahriman an uns herankommen. — Dann kommen sie erst recht heran, wenn man sich hütet! Mit luziferischen und ahrimanischen Kräften muß gerechnet werden in der Weltenentwickelung. Sie müssen der Weltenentwickelung einverleibt werden, und es handelt sich nur darum, daß dies in der rechten Weise geschieht.
Betrachten wir den speziellen Fall: Warum muß denn eine luziferische Kraft in dieser Art beim Gedächtnisse angerufen werden? In einer der heutigen Menschheit gar nicht mehr bewußten Art hatte das Gedächtnis in alten, aber gar nicht weit zurückliegenden Zeiten der Menschheitsentwickelung eine ganz andere Stärke als heute. Wir brauchen verhältnismäßig lange, um uns eine längere Dichtung anzueignen. So lange brauchten die alten Griechen nicht, Eine große Zahl der alten Griechen kannte von Anfang bis zum Ende die homerischen Gesänge. Aber sie memorierten nicht in der Weise, wie wir heute auswendig lernen. Es war eben die gedächtnismäßige Kraft dieser Zeit anders ausgebildet. Was geschah denn eigentlich dazumal in diesem vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraum? Es geschah gewissermaßen eine Wiederholung desjenigen, was in noch stärkerem Maße im atlantischen Zeitraum selbst geschehen ist, und was ich schon dargestellt habe in den Aufsätzen, die über die atlantische Entwickelung handeln. Das, was vom Mond noch herübergekommen war wie eine Kraft, die fähig macht, wie einen Kometenschweif die traumhaften imaginativen Erlebnisse nachzuziehen, diese Kraft ging gewissermaßen von einer solchen äußeren, im Wechselverkehre mit der Welt sich abspielenden Kraft in das Innere über. Durch dieses Übergehen in das Innere entwickelte sich beim atlantischen Menschen das Gedächtnis wie ein erstes Aufleuchten an etwas, was ihm die Welt dazumal wie von selber gab. Und während der atlantischen Zeit brauchte sich wahrhaftig der Mensch nicht sehr anzustrengen, um das Gedächtnis zu entwickeln, denn es war wie ein Hereinfließen desjenigen, was eine Kraft im äußeren Verkehr mit der Welt war, in das Innere des Menschen. Und dieses wiederholte sich für den vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraum. Im Innern war gewissermaßen eine Wiederholung da desjenigen, was früher, ohne daß der Mensch etwas dazu tat, sich im Wechselverkehre mit der Welt abspielte.
Indem der Mensch nun eingetreten ist in den fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraum, muß er immer mehr und mehr Anstrengung verwenden, um die Gedächtniskraft zu seiner eigenen zu machen. Damit sie beizutragen hat zu seiner Individualisierung und zu seiner Freiheit, dazu muß dasjenige, was wie von selbst kam während der atlantischen Zeit und in der Wiederholung im vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraum, angeeignet werden. Immer, wenn später etwas angeeignet wird, was eigentlich einer früheren Kraft entspricht, wenn also dem Gedächtnis zu Hilfe gekommen wird mit Kräften, die früher naturgemäß waren, so haben wir es mit einer luziferischen Wirkung zu tun. Indem wir künstlich dasjenige hereintragen in unsere Zeit, was naturgemäß war in der Griechenzeit, das selbstverständliche Sich-Aneignen des Gedächtnisses, wird es zum Luziferischen. Dadurch aber, daß Sie dieses Luziferische so vor Ihre Seele treten lassen, verspüren Sie die Rolle, die Luzifer in der Menschheitsentwickelung hat. Sie müssen sie verspüren, wenn die Dinge so geschildert werden. Ihm waren gewissermaßen noch Grenzen gesetzt in der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit. Er war noch an seinem Platze. Jetzt ist er nicht mehr in derselben Weise an seinem Platze. Jetzt muß der Mensch, um das Gedächtnis weiter auszubilden, ein Bündnis mit ihm eingehen. Der Mensch muß aus einer Selbsttätigkeit heraus für sein Gedächtnis das tun, was ohne sein Zutun mit ihm geschah noch während der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit. Aber dadurch wird das, was während der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit mit ihm geschah, heute zu einer luziferischen Tat.
In dem Augenblicke aber, in dem also eine luziferische Tätigkeit auftritt, kommt gewissermaßen auch die andere Seite der Waage in Tätigkeit: das Ahrimanische. Und während wir auf der einen Seite memorieren, also Luzifer zu Hilfe rufen für das Gedächtnismäßige, hat die Menschheit immer mehr und mehr die andere, die ahrimanische Unterstützung des Gedächtnisses entwickelt, das Aufschreiben. Denn ich habe öfter schon angedeutet: Dies ist eine richtige Empfindung der Menschen des Mittelalters noch gewesen, daß sie insbesondere die Druckkunst als eine «schwarze Kunst» empfunden haben.
Aber dieses ganze Zu-Hilfe-Kommen dem Gedächtnisse von außen ist etwas Ahrimanisches. Ich sage wieder nicht, daß es richtig ist, alles Ahrimanische zu fliehen, obwohl gerade auf diesem Gebiete vielleicht innerhalb unseres Kreises zu viel getan wird in der Anrufung von Ahriman. Man liebt ihn gerade allzusehr!
Aber das ist ja eben die Aufgabe des Menschen, daß er Gleichgewichtslage entwickelt, daß er nicht glaubt, er könne so ohne weiteres Luzifer und Ahriman entgehen! Sondern seine Aufgabe ist, kühn und mutig und kraftvoll sich zu gestehen, daß beide Wesensarten zur Weltenentwickelung nötig sind, und daß er in seiner Entwickelung die Kräfte, die von ahrimanischer und luziferischer Seite kommen, für seine eigene Betätigung zu gebrauchen hat, daß er aber das Gleichgewicht zwischen Ahriman und Luzifer herzustellen hat auf den verschiedensten Gebieten. Die Waage müssen sie sich halten, Ahriman und Luzifer, und so müssen wir unsere Betätigung anlegen, daß sie sich die Waage halten können. Aus diesem Grunde mußten auch während der Erdenentwickelung das luziferische und das ahrimanische Element eingreifen. Und aus den letzten Betrachtungen wissen wir ja, daß als das bedeutsame Symbolum für das Eingreifen des luziferischen Elementes dasjenige anzusehen ist, das da steht im Beginne des Alten Testamentes, wo hereingreifen luziferische Kräfte in die Erdenentwickelung auf dem Umwege durch das Weib, und wo auf dem Umwege durch das Weib der Mann verführt wird. In diesem Symbolum wird uns das Hereingreifen des luziferischen Elementes, das wir versetzen in die lemurische Zeit, in der Bibel symbolisiert.
Dann folgte daraufhin während der atlantischen Zeit das Eingreifen des ahrimanischen Elementes in die Erdenentwickelung. Und so wie es brauchte der menschlichen Erkenntnisse während des vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraumes, um bis zum Bibelverständnis des luziferischen Symbolums zu kommen, so brauchte es des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraumes, um gewissermaßen das Gegensymbolum — ich habe dies schon früher erwähnt - in einer heute noch zwar unzureichenden, aber schon hinlänglich angedeuteten Art vor die Menschenseele zu führen. Die Faustgestalt hat Ahriman an ihrer Seite, wie Eva Luzifer; wie Luzifer unmittelbar an das Weib herantritt, so Ahriman an den Mann, Faust. Und so, wie der Mann, Adam, auf dem Umweg durch Eva verführt wird, so wird das Weib, Gretchen, auf dem Umwege durch den Mann, Faust, belogen. Denn der Verführung Gretchens liegt das Belogenwerden zugrunde, weil Ahriman im Spiele ist, den wir gegenüber dem Verführergeiste Luzifer als den Lügengeist bezeichnen können. Das ist eine von den Bezeichnungen, die wir anwenden können: Luzifer der Verführer, Ahriman der Lügner.
Es gibt vieles in der Welt, welches rein zu dem Zwecke da ist, um den Menschen zu bewahren vor der luziferischen Verführung. Regeln, Anleitungen, moralische Impulse, die beschrieben werden, gibt es, um den Menschen zu behüten vor der luziferischen Verführung, Einrichtungen innerhalb der Menschheitsentwickelung und so weiter. Weniger ausgebildet, kann man sagen, ist heute noch dasjenige, wodurch sich der Mensch in der richtigen Art hüten kann vor dem ahrimanischen Fall, vor dem Fall in die Unwahrhaftigkeit.
Alles, was Luziferisches im Menschen ist, hat mit Leidenschaftlichem, Emotionellem zu tun. Dagegen alles, was als Ahrimanisches sich geltend macht innerhalb der menschlichen Entwickelung, hat mit Unwahrem, mit Lügenhaftem zu tun. Und in unserer heutigen Zeit ist es notwendig, daß der Mensch nicht nur gewappnet ist gegen luziferische Anfechtungen, sondern auch, daß er beginnt, gegen die ahrimanischen Anfechtungen sich zu wappnen.
Dieses ist gewissermaßen an Impulsen in der Faustdichtung doch enthalten, wie der Mensch bis in das Mißverständnis der Worte hinein dem Ahriman verfallen kann. Wie Faust durch verschiedene ahrimanische Gefahren durchgegangen ist, das stellt uns Goethe in der Faustdichtung schön dar. Es sind zwar bunt durcheinander gemischt Luzifer und Ahriman, aber aus den heute und schon früher angedeuteten Gründen hat Goethe für seine Faust-Dichtung mit Recht den Ahriman gewählt und nicht den Luzifer. In dem, was Sie im ersten und im zweiten Teil erfahren, ist schon viel Ahrimanisches, bis zu jenem Punkte, wo es in das Mißverstehen der Worte hineinspielt. Von einem Graben, meint Faust am Schlusse des zweiten Teils, werde geredet; von einem Grab ist die Rede! Graben — und Grab! Bis in das Mißverstehen der Worte tönt der Impuls des Ahriman hinein. Das hat Goethe in außerordentlich feinsinniger Weise gemacht, daß er überall da, wo er in mehr instinktiver als bewußter Weise, richtige ahrimanische Impulse hat, das Unwahre, das im Leben Schiefstehende klar und scharf in die FaustDichtung hineinverweben kann. Das einzusehen ist außerordentlich wichtig.
Wie nun gewissermaßen Gedächtnis und Gewohnheitsmäßiges Metamorphosen, Umwandlungen von Betätigungsweisen in der geistigen Welt sind, so ist auch das, was wir uns im weiteren für die geistige Welt angeeignet haben, wiederum Umwandlung von dem, was wir uns hier in der physischen Welt aneignen, was wir hier ausprägen. Betrachten wir etwas, was gewissermaßen zuerst in der physischen Welt auftritt. Gedächtnis und Gewohnheitsmäßiges haben wir ja charakterisiert als Umwandlungsprodukte, als Metamorphosen von GeistErlebnissen der früheren Zeit. Was aber zuerst in der physischen Welt auftritt, das ist zum Beispiel das Verhältnis unseres Vorstellens zu den äußeren Gegenständen. Die Gegenstände sind um uns herum. Wir machen uns in unseren Vorstellungen Abbilder. Und das Zusammenstimmen der Abbilder, die wir uns in unseren Vorstellungen machen, mit den Gegenständen, nennen wir die physische Wahrheit, die Wahrheit des physischen Plans. Etwas ist nicht wahr auf dem physischen Plan, was wir als Vorstellung so ausdrücken, daß es nicht sein richtiges Vorbild auf dem physischen Plan hat. Wenn wir von physischer Wahrheit reden, so besteht diese durchaus darinnen, daß das, was wir uns vorstellen, mit der Tatsache des physischen Planes übereinstimmt. Daß ein solches Wahrheitsverhalten eintreten kann, dazu ist überhaupt notwendig, daß wir in einem physischen Leibe leben und durch ihn äußere Dinge ansehen. Es wäre ein völliger Unsinn zu glauben, daß ein solches Wahrheitsverhalten auf dem alten Monde schon hätte stattfinden können. Das ist eine Errungenschaft während des Erdenlebens. Und dadurch, daß wir den physischen Erdenleib uns aneignen, tritt überhaupt zuerst diese Übereinstimmung der Vorstellungen mit den äußeren Gegenständen ein. Damit ist aber Ahriman sein Wirkungsfeld angewiesen. Wie ist es ihm angewiesen?
Gerade an so etwas, wie es jetzt gesagt wird, verspüren Sie, wie die Wechselverhältnisse zwischen der geistigen und der physischen Welt sind. Ahriman hat seine gute Aufgabe in der geistigen Welt und soll auch gewisse Wirkungen in die physische Welt hereinsenden. Aber er darf nicht hereinkommen in die physische Welt! Denn das Gebiet muß ihm entzogen sein, das bewirkt, daß unsere Vorstellungen, die wir uns im physischen Leib aneignen, mit äußeren Gegenständen übereinstimmen. Wenn er Tätigkeiten, die er noch für die Mondenzeit hatte, herein in das Erdenleben bringt, so stört er das Übereinstimmen unserer Vorstellungen mit den äußeren Gegenständen. Da muß er sozusagen wenn ich mich symbolisch ausdrücken darf — die Finger weglassen davon, wie der Mensch seine Vorstellungen übereinstimmend macht mit dem, was als äußere Gegenstände oder als äußere Tatsachen vorhanden ist. Aber er tut es nicht, Ahriman, er tut es wahrhaftig nicht! Denn täte er es, ließe er die Finger weg, dann würde in der Welt nicht gelogen!
Nun weiß ich nicht, ob man zu beweisen braucht, daß in der Welt doch gelogen wird. Wenn aber in der Welt gelogen wird, so ist das ein Beweis dafür, daß Ahriman sich in einer ihm nicht gebührenden Weise betätigt in der physischen Welt. Diese Betätigung Ahrimans in der physischen Welt gehört nun zu demjenigen, was der Mensch überwinden muß. Sie könnten allerdings leicht sagen: Es ist vieles Schöne in der Welt, aber manches ist doch auch stümperhaft; ein ganz vollkommener Herrgott hätte vermocht, die Menschen so zu schaffen, daß sie gar nicht verfallen würden darauf, zu lügen. Dieser Herrgott hätte dem Ahriman gesagt: In der physischen Welt hast du nichts zu suchen! - Nun hat aber dieser Herrgott nicht vermocht, diesen Ahriman von der physischen Welt abzuhalten, also ist der Herrgott doch nicht so vollkommen! So könnte man sagen. — Und es gibt ja nicht nur Ahriman, der sogar ein gewisses Wohlgefühl darinnen hat, das Schlechte auf der Erde anzuerkennen in dem Sinne, wie wir es heute wieder von ihm gehört haben, sondern auch Philosophen, die aus den schlechten Eigenschaften der Menschen einen Pessimismus herleiten. Es hat pessimistische Philosophen im neunzehnten Jahrhundert gegeben, ja es gibt sogar solche, welche nicht nur einen Pessimismus, sondern einen «Miserabilismus» vertreten. Das ist durchaus auch eine Weltanschauung, die es gibt! Julius Bahnsen vertritt nicht nur einen Pessimismus, sondern einen «Miserabilismus».
Warum ist denn Ahriman eigentlich zugelassen worden für die physische Welt? Ich habe Ihnen an einem Beispiel in einer der letzten Betrachtungen gezeigt: er ist stark zugelassen worden. Nicht wahr, es wurde ein Vorgang verabredet, der sich genau so abspielte, wie ich es Ihnen geschildert habe: nicht etwa gewöhnliche Beobachter, sondern dreißig juristische Studenten und junge Juristen — also Menschen, die sich dazu vorbereiten sollen, später menschliche Handlungen zu beurteilen — waren Zuschauer bei diesem Vorgang, der also fest vorgeschrieben war, wo man alles einzelne, das geschieht, wußte. Wenn nun nach einem solchen Vorgang diese dreißig Leute gefragt werden und sechsundzwanzig ihn falsch schildern und nur vier richtig, und zwar auch die vier nicht ganz, sondern nur annähernd, dann sehen Sie daraus, was es für eine Bewandtnis hat mit dem Herstellen der richtigen Beziehung zwischen der menschlichen Vorstellung und der äußeren physischen Tatsache. Dreißig Menschen können vor einem Vorgang sitzen, der programmäßig sich abspielt, wie man ihn vorher stipuliert hat, und sechsundzwanzig davon schildern ihn ganz falsch! Da sehen Sie Ahriman in seiner Wirksamkeit! Da sehen Sie, wie er da ist! Aber wenn er nicht da wäre? Wir wären ja gewiß Lämmer in einer gewissen Beziehung, denn der Impuls, nie etwas anderes als Vorstellung zu bilden als dasjenige, was wir als Tatsache vor uns haben, würde in uns sein, und wir würden stets durch unsere Sprache nur dasjenige durchgehen lassen, was wir als Tatsache beobachtet haben. Aber wir würden es müssen! Von Freiheit wäre nicht die Rede! Wir würden es müssen, es könnte niemals anders sein, und wir könnten niemals freie Wesen werden. Um als freie Wesen die Wahrheit zu sagen, müssen wir die Fähigkeit haben zu lügen, müssen uns aneignen die Kraft, gewissermaßen jedesmal den Ahriman in uns zu besiegen. Er muß da sein, daß er «reizt und wirkt» und «als Teufelschafft». Da verspüren Sie,wie er da sein muß, der Ahriman, und wie das Fehlerhafte nur darinnen besteht, daß man ihm so unmittelbar folgt und nicht ihn betrachtet als denjenigen, der reizt und wirkt und als Teufel schafft, und der überwunden wird. Das Fliehen, von dem manche sprechen, das Mit-langemGesichte-Sagen: Ist das aber nicht vielleicht etwas Ahrimanisches? Darauf darf ich mich nicht einlassen! - so wie es in vielen Fällen gemeint ist, bedeutet nichts anderes als ein bequemes Hinwenden zu Luzifer in Unfreiheit.
Kennenlernen, wo überall die Impulse sind, die überwunden werden müssen, darauf kommt es an. Wir brauchen gewissermaßen Ahriman auf der einen Seite, Luzifer auf der anderen Seite, um das Gleichgewicht zwischen ihnen zu bewirken.
Ich wollte dieses heute als vorläufige Betrachtung vorausschicken, weil es zugrunde gelegt werden muß gewissen Ausblicken, die sich uns für ein geisteswissenschaftliches Welt- und Lebensanschauen morgen und übermorgen eröffnen sollen.
Eleventh Lecture
Today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, I will give three related lectures — today I will make some remarks that can serve as a basis for certain insights into the relationship of the human being to the entire universe, to life in general.
When we consider the human soul as it reveals itself to us in its development here in its life within the physical body between birth and death, we may notice, among other things, that in order to complete this earthly life between birth and death, the soul must acquire two qualities, one might say two complexes of forces. We have already drawn attention to such things on several occasions.
What must be acquired on the one hand is memory. Just think what it would be like if memory were not one of our earthly qualities! You need only consider how different our soul life would be if we could not look back on our past days and bring up from a kind of indefinite depth what we have experienced since a certain moment after our birth. The connection between experiences is even necessary for us to have our sense of self in the appropriate way. I have pointed this out many times. But now you all know that this memory only comes into being at a certain point in our earthly life and that it does not exist before that point, so that our experiences before the point in time to which we can remember fall into oblivion. We can therefore say that from a certain point in our physical earthly life, our soul life becomes so related to our physical life that we can always have our experiences present in our memory, to a greater or lesser extent.
This memory can only develop under the influence of our earthly life, and it is one of the tasks of our earthly life to develop this memory. During the long period of development when we were lunar beings, we did not have it in this way. It is only through the incorporation into our being of the earthly organism with its forces from the mineral kingdom that memory can develop. In its development, it is essentially a result of the interaction of the human soul with the physical earthly body. In the spiritual world, memory is needed in the way we are now developing it in the physical earthly body, only from the time we entered the earth. Until then, it was not needed because, for example, in the power of dreamlike clairvoyance that was inherent in human beings in the ancient lunar period, they had something else that could, in a sense, take the place of today's memory. Just imagine: if every time you experienced something, the experience were written down somewhere accessible to you, and then the next experience, and so on, you could simply look at the place where the experience is written down. You would be able to look outward because the experience would be written down in the outer world. And this is indeed the case for the kind of experience that human beings went through during the ancient lunar period. What was experienced through dream consciousness, that ancient dreamlike clairvoyant consciousness, was engraved, so to speak, in a certain fine-etheric substance. Everything that human beings experienced in such a way that they took it into their dreamlike clairvoyant consciousness was inscribed into the substance of the world. And the activity of the human soul, which could be compared to today's memory, is such that one always turned one's clairvoyant-dreamlike gaze, as it were, to the engraving in the fine-etheric substance of the world. Just as we see objects in the outer world today, so did the lunar human beings see their own experiences, which had left their traces behind. One only had to look around, as it were, to see how one had lived through the world substance, and one found inscribed in the world substance that which was the object of that old dreamlike-imaginative consciousness.
This was therefore a completely different way of living together with the world than the present one. Just imagine that everything that ever becomes a thought in your mind now trails behind you like a comet's tail, so that it could be thought again by you. Then you would have transferred into your present thought life what was really there during the old dreamlike consciousness. This state had to come to an end because human beings were to become individuals, to represent an individuality. But he can only do this if what he experiences in his soul remains his soul's property, if it is not immediately engraved in the substance of the world, but only in his own fine etheric individuality, in his etheric substantiality. As long as man lives on earth, his etheric body always enters into a state of co-movement whenever he develops his consciousness in the waking state. And this movement finds its limits in the form of the physical body. It cannot, so to speak, go beyond the skin. And so, during the whole of life between birth and death, the fine etheric substance in which thoughts, ideas, feelings, and experiences of will move, remains, as it were, rolled up within the physical body. And when the physical body is laid down in death, the whole thing unrolls, as we have often described, and is now communicated to the world substance, so that now, after death, we begin to look back on what has been engraved in our etheric individuality, which now, after death, merges into the world ether substance.
Similar to what happens in relation to memory, which is developed through the resistance of the physical body, the same is true of what is important for our earthly life, so that we can acquire what is right within it.
What we must acquire during our earthly life, apart from memory, are habits. Even the habits we have during our earthly life were not of the same kind as those we had during our lunar life. During our lunar life, we had neither memory in its present earthly form nor the ability to acquire habits. If you consider the development of human beings from childhood, you will find that habitual behavior is acquired gradually through the repetition of certain actions over and over again. Through instruction during our upbringing, these actions become habitual. And we perform them, while we first had to acquire them, then, when they have become habits, more soul-mechanically.
Developing habits in the right way during the Earth period is precisely what is necessary for the development of the I. What did we have instead of habits when we were beings of the old Moon period? Whenever we had to do something, whenever something had to happen through us, we were under the direct influence of some being from the higher spiritual world. We were always guided in what we did by impulses sent to us by beings from the higher world. We did not need habits, because what we had to do was, in a sense, done through us by beings from the higher world. We were much more a link in the whole organism of the hierarchies than is now the case during our time on earth.
We would never have been able to develop the power of freedom if we had remained in this situation, where impulses from higher spiritual beings had to come into effect for every detail of our actions. Only by being released, as it were, from the sphere of the beings of the spiritual worlds and coming into a position where, after we have done something repeatedly, we make it a habit so that it then comes from ourselves, only then is the capacity for freedom laid within us. Indeed, the attainment of a possibility of freedom for human beings is intimately connected with the acquisition of habitual behavior.
When we enter physical existence through birth, we come from a world in which, even during our time on earth, we are still in a situation similar to that during the lunar period, when we were under the strong influence of the higher spiritual impulses up there in the spiritual world, which we had to go through before descending into earthly existence through birth. There are always higher spiritual beings who guide us to what we have to do in order to prepare our earthly existence from the spiritual world so that it can proceed in accordance with karma. And when we enter the physical body, we are torn away from this world, where there are no habits, but only continuous impulses from higher spiritual beings. When we enter physical existence, we still have, so to speak, an echo of the state we were in in the spiritual world. And this echo is expressed in the fact that as children, up to about the age of seven, we are less guided by habits and more under the influence of imitation. We imitate what is shown to us, and at first we actually do things under the direct influence of imitation. This is an echo of what was necessary for us in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, it was necessary for us to receive the impulse for every single activity. Therefore, as children, we initially surrender ourselves to direct impulses and imitate. And only in the course of time does independence, independent activity within our soul life, emerge, along with the ability to live out habitual patterns.
Memory and habitual patterns are important ingredients of our soul life; they are significant and are, in a sense, metamorphoses, transformations of completely different facts in the spiritual world. Memory is a transformation of the formation of lasting traces of imaginative dream experiences; habit arises from breaking away from the impulses of higher spiritual beings.
When you consider something like this, as we have just done, then by thinking about such things you gain a certain understanding of the completely different nature of the world that lies beyond the threshold, as opposed to the world that lies on this side of the threshold. For this must be emphasized again and again: beyond the threshold, everything is different. Even if we try characterize the spiritual world by applying certain words that are used for the physical world, we must nevertheless repeatedly remind ourselves that we can only obtain adequate, correct ideas of the spiritual world by gradually forming these ideas about the spiritual world in a way that is as different as possible from the ideas we have about the physical world.
At the same time, however, such a consideration as the one just made gives us an insight into the importance and essence of our physical existence on earth. It is complete nonsense to believe that physical existence on earth is something that human beings can afford to despise. I have already pointed out this error from various points of view. Physical existence on earth has just as much a role to play in the overall development of humanity as all other phases of human development. The fact that we have a physical body with our soul development and that we go through certain earthly experiences through this physical body under the influence of memory and habit gives us lasting, eternal achievements. Little by little, through repeated earthly lives, we acquire these achievements. Therefore, when we live through the time between death and a new birth, we must always return, as it were, to what we are accustomed to from the moon, we must, as it were, surrender the power of memory — which we do immediately after death — and hand over to the world substance what we have only engraved in ourselves during our earthly life. And we must surrender ourselves once again to the impulses of higher spiritual beings, so that we may then, in our earthly bodies, transform these abilities to follow the impulses of higher spiritual beings into habitual ways of acting.
But here is also a point where I would like to draw your attention once again to something I have said many times before, but which cannot be emphasized enough because it is very, very important. We acquire memory and habitual patterns during our earthly life. Let us first consider memory. When we look at it in this way, it appears to us as a natural achievement of earthly existence. You know, no matter how weak a person may be in terms of memory, they will always develop the power and capacity of memory. Let us imagine that nothing else happened to develop our memory other than what is completely natural, what is just right for developing it as it should develop through the influence of the physical earthly organism permeated by the mineral element. Then we would develop this memory differently than we actually usually do. We do much more than that, and you all know that we do much more. It might be better to say that much more is done with us to develop this memory. We learn by heart. From a certain point in our childhood development, we are required to learn by heart, to memorize. There is a difference between acquiring memory in the way it comes naturally, as it were, and being required to do more than comes naturally. If we read a poem often enough, if it is recited to us often enough, we will eventually remember it. But our education today is not satisfied with that; we are required to memorize the poem. We are even punished if we have not memorized it when we were told to do so. This is particularly true in the current cycle of human development.
Please do not misunderstand me! No one should say that I have railed against memorization today and said that it must be abolished. I am not saying that! Our times are such that certain things must be memorized because our cycle of development represents a very specific type of training for our memory.
But what happens to our soul when memorization is used to aid the natural acquisition of memory material? In this case, Lucifer is invoked. And it is indeed the Luciferic power that is invoked to aid the memory. Once again, I emphasize: Do not say, “Oh, Lucifer, we must beware of him!” So let us abolish all rote learning for our children from now on! — That is precisely the bad habit that some people acquire, believing again and again that we must beware of Lucifer and Ahriman, that we must do everything to prevent Lucifer and Ahriman from coming near us. — But they come near us all the more when we are wary of them! Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces must be reckoned with in world evolution. They must be incorporated into world evolution, and it is only a question of doing this in the right way.
Let us consider the specific case: Why must a Luciferic force be invoked in this way in memory? In a way that is no longer conscious to humanity today, memory had a completely different strength in ancient times, which are not so far removed from the present, than it does today. We need a relatively long time to learn a longer piece of poetry. The ancient Greeks did not need so long. A large number of ancient Greeks knew the Homeric songs from beginning to end. But they did not memorize in the way we learn by heart today. The power of memory was simply developed differently in those days. What actually happened back then in this fourth post-Atlantean period? In a sense, there was a repetition of what had happened to an even greater extent in the Atlantean period itself, and which I have already described in the essays on Atlantean development. That which had come over from the Moon like a force capable of trailing dreamlike imaginative experiences like a comet's tail, this force passed, so to speak, from such an external force, interacting with the world, into the inner world. Through this transition into the inner realm, memory developed in the Atlantean human being as a first glimmer of something that the world at that time gave him as if by itself. And during the Atlantean period, human beings did not really need to make much effort to develop their memory, for it was like a flow into the inner being of what was a force in external interaction with the world. And this was repeated in the fourth, post-Atlantean period. Inwardly, there was, as it were, a repetition of what had previously taken place in interaction with the world without the human being doing anything.
Now that human beings have entered the fifth post-Atlantean period, they must make more and more effort to make the power of memory their own. In order for it to contribute to his individualization and freedom, what came naturally during the Atlantean period and in its repetition in the fourth post-Atlantean period must be acquired. Whenever something is acquired later that actually corresponds to an earlier power, when memory is aided by forces that were once natural, we are dealing with a Luciferic influence. By artificially bringing into our time what was natural in Greek times, the self-evident appropriation of memory, it becomes Luciferic. But by allowing this Luciferic element to come before your soul in this way, you feel the role that Lucifer has in human evolution. You must feel it when things are described in this way. In the Greek-Latin era, he was still bound by certain limits, so to speak. He was still in his place. Now he is no longer in his place in the same way. Now, in order to further develop memory, human beings must enter into an alliance with him. Human beings must do for their memory, out of their own activity, what happened to them without their intervention during the Greco-Latin period. But in doing so, what happened to them during the Greco-Latin period becomes a Luciferic act today.
But at the moment when a Luciferic activity arises, the other side of the scale also comes into action, so to speak: the Ahrimanic. And while we memorize on the one hand, thus calling upon Lucifer for help with memory, humanity has developed more and more the other, Ahrimanic support for memory, namely writing things down. For I have often indicated that this was still a correct perception of the people of the Middle Ages, who regarded the art of printing in particular as a “black art.”
But all this helping of memory from outside is something Ahrimanic. I am not saying that it is right to flee from everything Ahrimanic, although perhaps too much is being done in this area within our circle in invoking Ahriman. We love him too much!
But it is precisely the task of human beings to develop a state of equilibrium, not to believe that they can simply escape Lucifer and Ahriman! Rather, his task is to boldly, courageously, and powerfully admit that both types of beings are necessary for world evolution, and that in his own development he must use the forces coming from the Ahrimanic and Luciferic sides for his own activity, but that he must establish a balance between Ahriman and Lucifer in the most diverse areas. Ahriman and Lucifer must keep themselves in balance, and we must organize our activity in such a way that they can keep themselves in balance. For this reason, the Luciferic and Ahrimanic elements had to intervene during the development of the earth. And from our last reflections we know that the significant symbol for the intervention of the Luciferic element is to be found at the beginning of the Old Testament, where Luciferic forces intervene in the development of the earth through the detour via the woman, and where, through the detour via the woman, the man is seduced. In this symbol, the intervention of the Luciferic element, which we place in the Lemurian epoch, is symbolized in the Bible.Then, during the Atlantean epoch, the intervention of the Ahrimanic element in the development of the earth followed. And just as it took human knowledge during the fourth post-Atlantean period to arrive at an understanding of the Bible's Luciferic symbol, so it took the fifth post-Atlantean period to bring the counter-symbol — as I mentioned earlier — before the human soul in a way that is still inadequate today, but already sufficiently hinted at. Ahriman has the figure of Faust at his side, just as Eve had Lucifer; just as Lucifer approaches the woman directly, so Ahriman approaches the man, Faust. And just as the man, Adam, is seduced by way of Eve, so the woman, Gretchen, is lied to by way of the man, Faust. For Gretchen's seduction is based on being lied to, because Ahriman is at work, whom we can describe as the spirit of lies in contrast to the seductive spirit Lucifer. This is one of the designations we can use: Lucifer the seducer, Ahriman the liar.
There is much in the world that exists purely for the purpose of protecting human beings from Luciferic seduction. Rules, instructions, moral impulses that are described exist to protect human beings from Luciferic seduction, institutions within human evolution, and so on. Less developed, one might say, is what enables human beings to protect themselves in the right way from the Ahrimanic fall, from falling into untruthfulness.
Everything Luciferic in human beings has to do with passion and emotion. On the other hand, everything that asserts itself as Ahrimanic within human development has to do with untruthfulness and deceitfulness. And in our present time, it is necessary that human beings not only be armed against Luciferic temptations, but also that they begin to arm themselves against Ahrimanic temptations.
This is, in a sense, contained in the impulses of the Faust poem, which shows how human beings can fall prey to Ahriman, even to the point of misunderstanding words. Goethe beautifully depicts in Faust how Faust went through various Ahrimanic dangers. Lucifer and Ahriman are indeed mixed together in a colorful jumble, but for reasons already indicated today and in the past, Goethe rightly chose Ahriman for his Faust poem and not Lucifer. In what you learn in the first and second parts, there is already much that is Ahrimanic, up to the point where it plays into the misunderstanding of words. At the end of the second part, Faust says that there is talk of a trench; there is talk of a grave! Trench—and grave! The impulse of Ahriman resounds even in the misunderstanding of words. Goethe did this in an extraordinarily subtle way, so that wherever he had correct Ahrimanic impulses, more instinctively than consciously, he was able to weave the untrue, the crooked in life, clearly and sharply into the Faust poem. It is extremely important to understand this.
Just as memory and habitual behavior are, in a sense, metamorphoses, transformations of modes of activity in the spiritual world, so too is what we have acquired for the spiritual world a transformation of what we acquire here in the physical world, of what we express here. Let us consider something that first appears, so to speak, in the physical world. We have characterized memory and habitual behavior as products of transformation, as metamorphoses of spiritual experiences from earlier times. But what first appears in the physical world is, for example, the relationship of our imagination to external objects. Objects are around us. We form images of them in our imagination. And we call the correspondence between the images we form in our imagination and the objects themselves physical truth, the truth of the physical plane. Something is not true on the physical plane if we express it as an idea that does not have its correct model on the physical plane. When we speak of physical truth, it consists entirely in the fact that what we imagine corresponds to the reality of the physical plane. For such a relationship of truth to be possible, it is absolutely necessary that we live in a physical body and see external things through it. It would be complete nonsense to believe that such a relationship of truth could have already existed on the old moon. This is an achievement during earthly life. And through our appropriation of the physical earthly body, this correspondence between ideas and external objects first comes into being. But this also defines Ahriman's field of activity. How is it defined?
It is precisely in something like what has just been said that you can sense the interrelationship between the spiritual and physical worlds. Ahriman has his good task in the spiritual world and is also supposed to send certain effects into the physical world. But he must not enter the physical world! For the realm that causes our ideas, which we acquire in the physical body, to correspond to external objects must be taken away from him. If he brings activities that he still had during the lunar period into earthly life, he disturbs the correspondence between our ideas and external objects. He must, so to speak, if I may express myself symbolically, keep his hands off the way human beings make their ideas correspond to what exists as external objects or external facts. But he does not do this, Ahriman, he truly does not! For if he did, if he kept his hands off, there would be no lying in the world!
Now I do not know whether it needs to be proven that there is lying in the world. But if there is lying in the world, then that is proof that Ahriman is active in the physical world in a way that does not belong to him. This activity of Ahriman in the physical world is now part of what human beings must overcome. You could easily say, however, that there is much that is beautiful in the world, but some things are also clumsy; a completely perfect God would have been able to create human beings in such a way that they would never have fallen into lying. This God would have said to Ahriman: You have no place in the physical world! But this God was not able to keep Ahriman out of the physical world, so God is not so perfect after all! One could say that. And there is not only Ahriman, who even feels a certain satisfaction in acknowledging the evil on earth in the sense we have heard from him again today, but also philosophers who derive pessimism from the bad qualities of human beings. There were pessimistic philosophers in the nineteenth century, and there are even some who advocate not only pessimism but “miserabilism.” That is definitely a worldview that exists! Julius Bahnsen advocates not only pessimism but “miserabilism.”
Why was Ahriman actually allowed into the physical world? I showed you an example in one of the last reflections: he was allowed in to a great extent. Isn't that right? A process was agreed upon that unfolded exactly as I described to you: not ordinary observers, but thirty law students and young lawyers — people who are preparing to judge human actions later in life — were spectators at this process, which was strictly prescribed, where everything that happened was known in advance. Now, if after such a procedure these thirty people are asked and twenty-six describe it incorrectly and only four correctly, and even those four not entirely, but only approximately, then you can see what is involved in establishing the correct relationship between human imagination and external physical facts. Thirty people can sit in front of a process that takes place according to a program that has been stipulated in advance, and twenty-six of them describe it completely wrong! There you see Ahriman at work! There you see how he is! But if he were not there? We would certainly be lambs in a certain sense, for the impulse to form nothing but ideas of what we have before us as facts would be within us, and we would always allow only what we have observed as facts to pass through our language. But we would have to! There would be no question of freedom! We would have to do it, it could never be otherwise, and we could never become free beings. In order to speak the truth as free beings, we must have the ability to lie, we must acquire the power to defeat Ahriman within us, so to speak, every time. He must be there to “provoke and work” and “act as the devil.” You can sense how he must be there, Ahriman, and how the mistake lies solely in following him so directly and not seeing him as the one who provokes and works and acts as the devil, and who is overcome. The fleeing that some speak of, the saying with a long face: But isn't that perhaps something Ahrimanic? I cannot go into that! — as it is meant in many cases, it means nothing other than a convenient turning toward Lucifer in bondage.
It is important to recognize where the impulses that must be overcome are everywhere. In a sense, we need Ahriman on the one hand and Lucifer on the other in order to bring about a balance between them.
I wanted to preface this today as a preliminary observation because it must be taken as the basis for certain perspectives that are to open up for us tomorrow and the day after tomorrow for a spiritual scientific view of the world and of life.