Donate books to help fund our work. Learn more→

The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

The Templars
GA 171

2 October 1916, Dornach

Translator Unknown

In the lectures given here for some time it has been my task to draw attention to certain impulses, certain forces which work in the souls of men and thence into all that these souls bring to expression in earthly life. I have pointed out how these impulses and forces developed at the dawn of modern spiritual life. Today, because I want to call your attention to a particular kind of modern spiritual striving, we will consider, once again, an important starting point for modern spiritual life, which we have already considered but which is one of the most, important and essential of all. When we inquire into the forces that are at work in modern souls, we are compelled to recognize the importance and significance of this event in history. I refer to the whole destiny and development of the Order of the Knights Templar.

I should like, then, to put before you once more, the picture of the Order of the Knights Templar in order to show how what proceeded from this Order worked on in broad streams which flow even into the feelings and perceptions of men of our own times.

We know that the Order of the Templars was founded in connection with the Crusades. It was, so to speak, an important accompanying phenomenon to that great event in history whereby the peoples of Europe sought in their own way to come nearer to the Mystery of Golgotha than they had previously been able to do. The Order of the Templars was founded almost at the very beginning of the Crusades. Leaving on one side all that is known externally about the founding of the Order and the further course of its activity—you can easily read it in history books—we find that this Order of the Knights Templar, inwardly considered, expresses a specially deep approach to the Mystery of Golgotha on the part of modern humanity. First of all, a small number of souls who were faithful and devoted followers of Christianity gathered together at a place that lay near to the ancient Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem and established there a kind of spiritual order. As we have already said, we will not consider now the more external side of the event, but will look at it from a spiritual point of view and turn our attention to what gradually began to live in the souls of the Templars.

In their blood, as the representative of that which distinguishes earthly Man, in their I, but also in all their feeling and thinking, in their very being and existence, these souls were, in a sense, to forget their connection with sensible physical existence; they were to live solely in what streams from the Mystery of Golgotha, and fight for the continuance of the strongest impulses that are connected with the Mystery of Golgotha.

The blood of the Templars belonged to Christ Jesus—each one of them knew this—their blood belonged to nothing else on earth than to Christ Jesus. Every moment of their life was to be filled with the perpetual consciousness of how in their own soul there dwelt, in the words of Paul, “Not I, but Christ in me!” And in bloody and severe combats, in devoted work such as the Crusades demanded, the Templars lived out in practice what they had spiritually resolved. Words are impotent to describe what lived in the souls of these men, who might never waver in their duty, who, even if a three times stronger power confronted them on the physical plane, might never flee, but must calmly await death, the death that they were ready to endure in order to establish more firmly in earth existence the impulse which went forth from the Mystery of Golgotha. It was an intense life of the whole human being in union with the Mystery of Golgotha.

And now, when such an intense life is lived in the right rhythms, so that it can take its place in the whole stream of cosmic and earthly forces, then something of real significance develops out of such a life. I say advisedly of real significance. For when such a consciousness as this is placed inwardly, mystically, and with a certain rhythm into all that goes on in the outside world, then Man can experience again and again how his own inner being is brought into connection with the divine and spiritual. But something else, something that has still greater effect is developed when this inner experience is brought together with the course of external history and placed into the service of the course of events. And it was intended that what lived consciously in the souls of the Knights Templar should be in harmony with what had to be done in the attempt to regain power over the sacred grave. A deeply mystical life developed in this way among those who belonged to this so-called Spiritual Order, an Order which on this very account could accomplish more for the world than other Spiritual Orders. For when in this way a life that is lived mystically is also in connection with the life going on in the surrounding world, then what is experienced mystically streams into the invisible and super-sensible forces of the surrounding world of that human being. It becomes objective—it is not merely within his own soul, but works on further in the course of history. Through a mysticism of this kind, it comes about that an experience of the soul is not simply there for the single human being, but turns into objective forces which were formerly not there in the spiritual stream that carried and upholds humanity. These forces come to birth and are there. When a person performs his daily task with his hands or with implements, he places some external material thing into the world. With a mysticism such as was unfolded by the Knights Templar, something spiritual is added to the spiritual “effects” of the world. And inasmuch as this took place, humanity was actually brought a stage further in its evolution. Through this experience of the Templars, the Mystery of Golgotha was understood, and also experienced, at a higher stage than before. Something was now present in the world, in regard to this Mystery of Golgotha, which was formerly not there.

The souls of the Templars had however at the same time achieved something else. Through this intense inward penetration into the Mystery of Golgotha, they had gained the power actually to attain Christian initiation by means of the historical event. Christian initiation may be attained in the manner described in our books, but in this case it was attained in the following way. Their external deeds and the enthusiasm that lived in these deeds drew forth the souls of the Templars, so that these souls, apart from the body, outside the body, lived with the spiritual progress of humanity and penetrated in soul and spirit the secrets of the Mystery of Golgotha. Many and deep experiences were then undergone, and not for the individual soul alone but for all humanity.

Then, as we know, the Order of the Knights Templar increased and spread, and in addition to the immensely powerful influence that it possessed spiritually—more in a super-sensible manner than through external channels—it acquired great wealth. And I have already described how the time came for these external treasuries, which the Knights Templar amassed to greater and greater extent, to be converted into temporal power. I have told you how, through a kind of initiation with the evil principle of gold, Philippe le Bel was chosen to be the instrument who should oppose the Templars. That is to say, he wanted in the first place to possess their treasures. But Philippe le Bel knew more than most men in the world. Through what he had experienced he knew many of the secrets of the human soul. And so it came about that Philippe le Bel could be a fitting instrument in the service of Mephistophelian-Ahrimanic powers whose aim and object it was to render ineffective the Templar Movement in the form it had first of all taken.

Philippe le Bel was, as we have said, the instrument of other, spiritual, Mephistophelian-Ahrimanic powers. Under the inspiration of these powers Philippe le Bel knew what it would have meant if, into the spiritual streams which flow through the world just as truly as do the outwardly visible events, if into these streams had been allowed to flow what the Templars had gained as knowledge of the Mystery of Golgotha and as feelings and impulses of will connected with that Mystery. What had thus developed must therefore be torn away from the normally progressive divine-spiritual powers; it must be turned into other paths. To this end it had also to be brought about that something which could only live in the souls of the Templars should be torn out of the individuality of the Templars themselves. Just as that which the Templars had experienced in connection with the Mystery of Golgotha did not remain with them as individuals, but was placed out into the general evolution of humanity, so now something else was also to be removed, as it were, from the individuality and embodied in the objective spiritual stream. And this could only be accomplished by means of a particularly cruel deed, by means of a terrible act of cruelty.

The Templars were committed for trial. Not only were they accused of external crimes, of which they were most certainly innocent—as can be proved on historical grounds, if one is but ready to see the truth—but they were accused above all of blaspheming Christianity, of blaspheming the Mystery of Golgotha itself, of worshiping idols, of introducing paganism into the Mystery of Golgotha, of not using the right formula in the act of consecration at the Transubstantiation, nay, even of desecrating the Cross. Of all sorts of other crimes also, even unnatural crimes, were the Templars accused. And hundreds and hundreds of them were subject to the cruel torture of the rack.

Those who committed them for trial knew what this torture on the rack meant. The ordinary day consciousness of those who underwent this torture was suppressed, so that during the torture they forgot, in their surface consciousness, their connection with the Mystery of Golgotha. But they had become acquainted—and this is the case with everyone who truly sees into the spiritual world—they had become acquainted with all the trials and temptations which beset a person when he really approaches the good divine-spiritual powers. With all the enemies who work out of the lower spiritual kingdoms and want to bring Man down and lead him into evil, who are able to work in the impulses and desires and passions, and especially in hatred and mocking and irony against the Good, with all these the Templars had become familiar. In many an hour that was for them a sacred hour of their life, they had gained those inner victories that Man can gain when with open eyes he passes through the worlds that lie beyond the threshold of the world of the senses; for these worlds must first be overcome before Man can enter with strengthened powers into the spiritual worlds where he rightly belongs.

During their torture, the vision of the Templars that could look out over these spiritual worlds to which they belonged, became clouded and dim; their surface consciousness was dulled, and their inner gaze was directed entirely and only to what they had experienced as something to be overcome, was directed to the temptations over which they had gained victory after victory. And thus it came about that, during the moments while they were actually being tortured on the rack, they forgot their connection with the Mystery of Golgotha, forgot how with their soul they were living in the spiritual and eternal worlds. And the trials and temptations which they had resisted and overcome stood before them, like a vision, whilst they lay stretched on the rack, and they acknowledged the very thing that each one for himself had overcome; they confessed it to be a custom within the Order. They confessed themselves to be guilty of just that over which they had again and again won the victory. Every one of these Templars was obliged to seem to be the man in him over which he had inwardly gained the victory, over which he had to gain the victory before, with higher forces, he could attain to the highest and holiest of all. (I speak of all true Templars—abuses can of course be found everywhere).

All this the opponents knew. They knew that, just as on the one hand the Mystery of Golgotha had been placed out into the evolution of humanity as an influence for good, so now, in the same way, because the ordinary consciousness had been dulled, therefore what lived in this evil consciousness was by this means placed outside, objectified, and embodied in the evolution of humanity. It had become a factor in history.

Two streams were thus allowed to flow on into modern history: what the Templars experienced in their holiest moments, what they had worked out and developed within the progressing spiritual stream of humanity, but also what had been wrested from them by Ahriman-Mephistopheles, fetched up out of their consciousness in order to make it objective, in order to form it objectively and make it effective in the further progress of the centuries.

At this point a simple-minded person might easily put the question: Why do the divine-spiritual powers of providence allow such a thing to happen? Why do they not guide humanity through the course of history without Man's having to undergo such painful trials? Such a thought is “human, all-too-human.” It arises in the mind of one who can believe that the world would be better if it had been made, not by Gods, but by men. Many people may think this; they may think that, with their intellect, they can criticize the wisdom that works and weaves in the world. But such a way of thinking leads also to the very extreme of intellectual pride.

We human beings are called upon to penetrate into the secrets of existence, not to criticize the wisdom-filled guidance of the world. We must therefore also gain insight into the place and significance of the evil currents which are permitted by the wise guidance of the world. For if only the good were allowed, if good impulses alone worked in history, human beings would never be so guided in their historical evolution that they could develop freedom. Only through the fact that evil holds sway in the spiritual course of human history can humanity develop to freedom. And if the Gods were to turn away Man's gaze from evil, he would have to remain forever an automaton—he would never become free. Things are indeed so ordered in the progress of humanity that even that which causes the deepest sorrow is led at last to good. Pain is only a temporary thing—not that it is on that account any less great and deep. We must not deceive ourselves as to pain and fall a prey to some cheap mysticism that will not see the pain; we must be ready to partake in it, ready to sink ourselves in it, ready to pour it out over our own soul. But, at the same time, without criticizing the spiritual purpose and will of existence, we must also learn to understand how the most varied impulses of a positive and negative nature are introduced into the evolution of humanity in order that human beings may become not only good, but also free and possessors of their own impulses.

And so in the evolution and destiny of the Templars we see an impulse that is important for all the succeeding centuries of modern times. If it had been possible for the purpose of the Order to continue to be lived out with the intensity and strength with which it was at first lived out by the great Templars, succeeding humanity would not have been able to bear it. The speed of evolution had, as it were, to be checked; the stream had to be held back. But in this way it was made more inward. And so we see how, in the two streams we have indicated in modern history, deep inwardness of life developed alongside external materialism. For the Mephistophelian impulse, which Mephistopheles-Ahriman, through his instrument Philippe le Bel, dragged out by force, lived on. It lived on, together with many other things, in the materialistic thoughts and feelings of men and in all the materialistic impulses which appeared among mankind from the 15th to the 19th century. Hence it has come about that what we know as materialism has spread itself so widely over the soul and spirit of Man and over all his social life and has prepared the ground for the karma of our own time.

Had things not gone in this way, had the stream of materialism not been allowed to spread so far and wide, neither could, on the other hand, our connection with the spiritual world have become so deep and intimate. For indeed, what the Templars had accomplished by entering in a living spiritual sense into the Mystery of Golgotha was not lost. It lived on. And the souls of the Templars—after their terrible experiences on the rack, fifty-four of them were put to death—the souls of the Templars who had, under these circumstances, passed through the portal of death, were now able to send down from the spiritual world streams of spiritual life for those who lived in the succeeding centuries.

Fifty-four Templars were burned at the stake in 1314. Fifty-four souls went up into the spiritual worlds. And from that time on, supersensibly and invisibly, without its being outwardly perceptible to the facts of history, there began in European humanity a spiritual development that owed its origin to the fact that individual souls were continually being inspired from the spiritual world with what these fifty-four souls carried through the gate of death into the spiritual world.

Let me give you an example of this. It is one I have mentioned before, but I will now deal with it in more detail from another point of view.

Before the tragedy broke out in the Order of the Templars—a whole century before the year 1312—Wolfram von Eschenbach composed his poem Parzifal. Working alone, or in a very small circle, Wolfram von Eschenbach produced this song about a soul who strives by means of inward purification to attain the life which the Knights Templar also held before them continually as their ultimate goal. In a wealth of picture and in wonderful imaginations, Wolfram von Eschenbach unrolls before our view the inner life of Parzifal, who was for him the representative of the Templar ideal. Now let us inquire: Do we see any important external result of Parzifal—who was for him the representative of the Templar ideal—in the historical development of succeeding times? We do not. In the further history of European humanity it was, as we know, Richard Wagner who first presented Parzifal again, and then in quite another way. But the spiritual power, the spiritual impulse that was able to flow into the soul of Wolfram von Eschenbach—at that time still from the earth—became in succeeding centuries for many others an inspiration from the spiritual world. And one who is able to perceive the mysterious connections between the life on earth and the spiritual life, knows that the impulses which were carried into the spiritual world through the destiny of the Templars flowed also into the soul of Goethe. It was not to no purpose that Goethe began in the eighties a poem which he never finished. It is significant that he began it, and equally significant that even he was not strong enough to bring to actual expression the mighty thought of this poem. I refer to the poem The Mysteries, where the Brother Mark goes to the lonely castle of the Rosicrucians and enters the circle of the Twelve. Goethe grasped—in his own way, of course, the fundamental thought which is also contained in Parzifal, but he was not able to complete it; and we may see in that very fact an indication of how all of us are standing within the same spiritual development which Goethe experienced in its beginnings, and at which we must work and work and work that we may be able to give form to these beginnings and make further and further progress in the penetration of the spiritual world. Goethe devoted to the first beginnings of this spiritual development the best powers of his existence; he let them flow into his Faust where he set out to portray Man's connection with the forces of the spirit, which include for him the Ahrimanic-Mephistophelian forces.

One who observes history concretely in its spiritual development can see quite clearly that into the soul of Goethe on earth there followed from the spiritual world what the Templars—whose manner of death had been so cruel and so significant—had carried up into the spiritual worlds; and, just because they had gone through the gate of death in this way, could pour down as inspiration into the souls of men. It flowed down, and if with more significance into Goethe's soul, it was not into his soul alone but into many others; and it continues to live, although but little noticed by human beings. The spiritual element in Faust itself still almost escapes notice in the outside world! It lives on however, and is moving towards an ever richer life, and will have to become more and more fruitful if humanity is not to drift into decadence instead of evolving in an upward direction. But this lies in our own choice. In our age of time it is given into Man's own hands. The choice is set before him—and will be so more and more definitely—as to whether he will fall into decadence and continue to hold to materialism, or strive upwards into the spiritual worlds.

For we human beings, as we live on earth, it is only in our physical body that we live a life connected with the earth. The body that is woven of light and sound and life and is within this physical body—the so-called ether body—partakes not only in the life of earth, but in the life of the cosmos. And when a human soul descends from the spiritual worlds to enter existence through birth, then, already before the event, forces are directed in the cosmos in a right way for the building up of the ether organism of the human being, even as the physical body of Man is built up from the physical forces and physical substances of earth.

In the very simplest of Man's ideas lives pride and arrogance and this is especially true in our materialistic age. In this materialistic age, parents actually believe that they place their children into existence all by themselves. And as materialism spreads, it will be more and more believed that it is the parents alone who bring the children to existence. Seen spiritually, it is different. Human beings here on earth only provide the opportunity for something spiritual to come down to them. What a human being can do as a part consists solely in this, he can make ready the place by means of which an ether body that is being prepared from out of the far spaces of the cosmos may be able to sink down to earth. This ether organism of the human being is just as much an organized entity as is the physical organism. The physical organism—we see how it has head, arms, hands, trunk and all the parts that the anatomist and physiologist discover—for spiritual vision, this physical organism is shone through and glowed by the ether organism. The physical organism breathes in air, and breathes out air. The ether organism breathes out light, and this light it gives to us. And when it breathes out light and confers the light upon us, we live by means of its light. And it also breathes in light. As we breathe in and out air, so does our ether body breathe in and out. And when it breathes in light, it uses up the light, just as we use up air physically. (You may read of this in a passage in my Mystery Dramas where this secret of the ether world is unfolded dramatically.) The ether body breathes in light, uses up the light and changes it into darkness, and can then receive into this darkness the sound of the worlds that lives in the Harmony of the Spheres, can receive into it the impulses of life. As we receive physical nourishment so does the ether being that lives in us breathe light in and out. As we use up in us the oxygen of the air and make carbonic acid gas, so does the ether body use up the light, shooting it through with darkness, so that it appears in colors, so that the ether body shows itself to clairvoyant vision in waves of color. And while the ether body prepares the light for the darkness and thereby carries on an inner work of breathing, it lives, in that it receives this sound of the worlds and changes the sound of the worlds into the life of the worlds.

But now what we receive in this way as our ether body, comes down to us from the wide spaces of the cosmos, and it comes at certain times, from the far spaces of the cosmos. It is today not yet possible to show in all detail how the human ether body draws downwards on the paths of light when these paths are guided in a particular manner through the constellation of the stars at the time. For that to be possible, human beings will have to lift themselves to a higher stage of morality. For today, this mystery of the in-drawing of the human ether bodies on the paths of the light and on the paths of the sound of the Harmony of the Spheres, would be misused by human beings in the most terrible way. For what is contained in this mystery would, if people of lower impulses wanted to acquire it, give parents unlimited power over the whole of their descendants. You will accordingly understand that this mystery of how the ether bodies come to the human beings who are incarnating—of how they come on the paths of light and on the paths of sound from out of the Harmony of the Spheres—will have to remain a mystery for a long time to come. Only under certain quite definite conditions can one learn anything of this mystery. For the failure to comply with the conditions would mean, as I have said, that parents could acquire a hitherto unheard-of power over their offspring, who might be completely deprived of all independence, of all personality and of all individuality and have the will of their parents thrust upon them. Wisely is this mystery hidden away for mankind in the unconscious and takes its course there in a good and healthy way, working through the will of the wise world-guidance.

Our ether body travels quite a different path from our physical body. After we have passed through the gate of death, we still carry, as you know, our ether body for a few days; then we have to give it back to the cosmos. In the spiritual, in the cosmos, our ether body remains only as a picture for our own further life between death and new birth. It is incorporated into the cosmos in the most varied manner—in one way in the case of people who die early through some accident or otherwise, and in a different way in the case of those who attain maturity. But when one looks across into the world that lies beyond the threshold, one knows that both—the early death as well as the later death—have great significance in the whole cosmic connections. For our ether body that we give up continues to work on spiritually.

Fundamentally speaking, seen from a deeper aspect, we all grow old. Physically, one dies earlier and another later; seen from a spiritual aspect, we all become old alike. If we die early, our physical body comes to an end early; but our ether body continues to live on for the cosmos, and just because we have died early, our ether body has other functions in the cosmos than if we had died only later. When we count up the years that we live in physical and in ether body as human beings—we have the deeds on earth that we accomplish in the physical body, and we have what we accomplish in the ether body also after death, and the life that we live there not for ourselves but for others, for the world—when we add up all this in its years, then we find that everyone lives to about the same age.

But now, when an event takes place such as happened with the Templars, something different again comes about from when it is only a case of the individual lives. The life that we lead as an individual remains within our own person; but there is also the life that can be objectively separated from us—as in the case of the Templars. On the one hand, what they were able to do for the continuance and spread of the Mystery of Golgotha and, on the other hand, what happened through the working of Mephistophelian-Ahrimanic forces for the impulse of modern materialism, all this also continues to live on as fragments of the ether body. But it is incorporated into the whole process of history. So that some of the life Man lives in his ether body lives on further with the human individuality, while some of it is incorporated into the course of history—when it has been torn away from the human being in the manner described. And the ether body is the means or medium whereby what a person lives in his soul so objectively that it can go out of his soul—whereby this may have, as it were, something to hold on to for its further life—it is the ether body that provides for this.

What flowed into the etheric world from the spiritual impulses of the Templars lived on etherically, and through this continued etheric life many souls were prepared to receive the inspirations that I have described as coming out of the spiritual world from the souls of the Templars themselves. That is what has actually been taking place in modern times.

Into what flowed from the souls of the Templars, however, there began to enter more and more that which flows from the Mephistophelian-Ahrimanic impulses and is steeped in the Mephistophelian element, and which was inaugurated on the racks where the Templars were tortured, inasmuch as they were forced under torture to speak untruths about themselves. This fact—not alone, but as one of the spiritual grounds of modern materialism—has to be understood if one would acquire an inner understanding of modern materialistic evolution.

And so it came about that in modern times, while certain individuals were inspired with high spiritual truths, the general culture became more and more materialistic in character; and the eye of the soul grew dim for what now surrounds us spiritually and also for that whither we go when we pass through the gate of death and whence we come when we pass through the gate of birth. More and more was the gaze of Man turned away from beholding the spiritual, and this was true in all the different spheres of life—the spiritual sphere, the sphere of religion, the sphere of social life. More and more was the gaze directed to the material world as it showed itself to his senses. And the result has been that, since the rise of modern times, mankind has fallen into a great many errors.

Again let me say, I am not criticizing the fact, I am not passing judgment on it. Through the fact that errors found their way into human evolution, human beings have to experience these errors, and they will gradually come to see them; and, in overcoming them, get stronger forces than they could have had if the path to their goal had been implanted in them automatically. And now the time has come when this insight must be developed and human beings must see how, in all that is material, live impulses to error. Today Man is called upon again and again to make up his mind to see through the errors and overcome them.

It is not our intention to lay blame on anything that has happened in history, what we want to do is to look at history objectively. The events of modern times have brought it about that Man's thoughts and feelings run their course only in accordance with external physical reality, only in accordance with what Man experiences between birth and death. Even the religious life has gradually assumed a personal character, inasmuch as it aims merely at putting into Man's hand a means whereby he may find blessing in his own soul. The religious life of more modern times, that turns Man's gaze more and more away from the concrete spiritual world, is really permeated with the materialistic outlook. As has been said, we have no intention of casting aspersion on any event in history; the events of history, must however be described in such a way that they may be rightly understood—that is, if the coming generation is not to fail into decadence but to take a turn, and move upwards.

We see the stream of materialism flow on and, side by side with it, the parallel hidden stream; and then at the end of the 18th century we come to a tremendous event, an event the influence of which was felt throughout the whole of the 19th century and right on into the present time. At the end of the 18th century, we see the French Revolution spreading its currents far and wide over European civilization. Many things took their course in the French Revolution as the historians have described them. But in addition to the understanding one has already of the French Revolution, in addition to the impulse one has recognized as proceeding from it and working on in European history, we must also understand the spiritual effects of materialistic Mephistophelian-Ahrimanic impulses. The French Revolution strove for a very high ideal. (As I said before, we are not concerned with finding fault but with understanding the events of history.) The French Revolution strove for a very high ideal; and it strove for it in a time upon which still felt the shadow of the event I have described today, the event which left Mephistopheles-Ahriman mighty to send forth into European life the impulse of materialism. And we may say of the best of those who were responsible for the French Revolution that they believed in the physical plane alone. It may be that in their consciousness they thought they believed in something else. What people profess with words is however of little account; the important thing is to have a live consciousness in one's soul of what is really working in the world; and those who were responsible for the French Revolution were conscious only of the physical plane.

They strove, it is true, for a high ideal, but they knew nothing of the trinity in Man, the body that works by means of the etheric principle in the human being, the soul that works through the astral principle, and the spirit that works in Man to begin with through the I. At the end of the 18th century, Man was already regarded in the way that he is regarded—to his lasting harm and loss—by modern materialistic physiology and biology. That is to say, even if in a religious way men had some notion of a spiritual life and perhaps also talked about it, their gaze was really only actually directed upon what is lived out here in the physical world between birth and death—what is lived out here, that one can understand. (Even that of course is not yet entirely understood; nevertheless one can understand it when one directs one's attention solely to the external physical body.) What lives in the entire human being, that can only be understood when it is known that with the external physical body are united an etheric principle, an astral principle and an I-principle. For even while we stand here in the physical world, there is living in us something that is of soul and spirit and that belongs to the spiritual world. Body, soul and spirit are we here. And when we have gone through the gates of death, we shall again be threefold beings, only with another spiritual body. So that anyone who observes and studies Man living out his life as physical Man between birth and death, is not studying the whole human being, and is bound to fall into error in regard to the whole human being.

The events that happen in the world must not be looked upon as erroneous in themselves. What makes itself manifest in the world is indeed truth; but the way in which Man regards it and turns it into deed and action often causes confusion. And confusion arose in the minds of men at the end of the 18th century, because everything was applied to the body, and ideals which only have meaning when Man is seen as a trinity were aspired to as the ideals for a purely physical “monon.” And so it came about that lofty and beautiful ideals were on everyone's lips in a time when men were not capable of understanding them, but only confused and falsified them, because they tried to comprehend them all together, believing as they did in the physical body alone. As a matter of fact, of the threefold ideal, Brotherhood, Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood is the only one that holds good for the physical body of Man. Freedom only has meaning when it is referred to the human soul, and Equality when it is referred to the spirit as it lives in Man, in the I. Only when it is known that Man consists of body, soul and spirit, and when the three ideals of the end of the 18th century are referred Brotherhood, to the body; Freedom, to the soul; and Equality, to the I, only then is one speaking in a sense and meaning that is in accord with the inner meaning of the spiritual world.

Brotherhood we can develop, inasmuch as we are physical human beings bearing physical bodies of the earth; and when we accept Brotherhood into our social order, then for the social order on the physical plane, Brotherhood is a right and true thing. Freedom Man can acquire only in his soul, inasmuch as it is with the soul that he incarnates on earth. And Freedom only prevails on earth, is only possible on earth, when it has reference to the souls of men who live on the earth in their social orderings, to the end that they acquire the faculty of holding the balance between the lower and the higher forces. When we are able, as human beings, to hold the balance between the lower and the higher forces in the human soul, then we develop the forces that can live here between birth and death, and the forces too that we shall need when we pass through the gate of death. So that alongside of the social order, a soul order is necessary on earth, wherein the souls of men may take their places individually and be able to develop the forces of freedom, which they can carry with them through the gates of death, but which they will only carry with them if, already here in this life, they prepare themselves for the life after death. That a true intercourse between souls shall be established on earth, that souls shall be able to develop the forces of freedom, that all human events, great and small, and all attempts to give form to human activity and creation shall have as their aim, Man holding the balance in his soul in regard to what lives and works spiritually—this must come to be an ideal. Man becomes free when he is in a position to acquire these forces of the soul in the external physical world, as he can acquire them, for example, when he is able to follow the beautiful forms that live in an art that really has its sources and beginning in the spirit. Man becomes free, when there is an intercourse and communion between soul and soul of such a nature that the one soul is able to follow the other with an ever-growing understanding and with an ever-growing love. If it is a question of the bodies of men with which we are concerned, then Brotherhood comes into consideration; if it is a question of the soul, then we must look to forging those delicate and subtle links that arise between soul and soul, and that must find their way right into the structure of our life on earth and must always work in the direction of engendering interest—deep interest in one soul for the other. For in this way alone can souls become free, and it is only souls that can become free.

Equality applied to the external physical world is nonsense; for equality would be uniformity. Everything in the world is undergoing change; everything in the world is compelled to be in number; everything in the world is obliged to come to expression in multiplicity and variety. To this very end is the physical world there, that the spiritual may go through a multitude of forms. But in all the multiple and manifold life of Man, one thing remains alike, because it is still in its beginning. The rest of our human nature we have carried in us since the Saturn time, the Sun time and the Moon time; the I we have for the first time in this life of earth. The I is only in its beginning. During the whole of our life between birth and death we come no further in the spiritual than to say to ourselves “I,” and to take cognizance of this I. We can only behold the I, either when through initiation we are outside the body here between birth and death, or when we have passed through the gate of death and it is given us to look back in memory on our earth body and behold the I spiritually. But through this I all possible variety comes to expression here on earth. And our life on earth must be so constructed as to give possibility for all the variety that can enter earth life in human individuality to come to expression. One human being manifests one individuality, a second another, and a third a different one again. All these individualities in their several workings are focused in a point, the point of the I. There we are alike, and through this focus-point where we are alike can pass all that we communicate to one another as spirits. The fact that we all have this I-point where we are alike gives the possibility for the development of mankind of a community life. That which is different in all of us passes through what is alike. Consequently, it is not the establishment of what is contributed by the single human individual to the whole stream of cosmic spiritual evolution that is achieved in spiritual equality; rather it is so, that because what has placed us each into a different kind of life passes through our I, through the spiritual in us, it becomes something that can be shared by all, it flows on as a common good in the stream of cosmic evolution. Equality belongs properly to the spirit.

No human generation will understand how the three ideals of Brotherhood, Freedom and Equality can come to realization in the life of mankind, unless they understand that Man carries in him this threefoldness of body, soul and spirit. That people were unable in the 18th century and have continued to be unable throughout the 19th century to understand this, was a result of the strength of the Ahrimanic-Mephistophelian stream which entered modern evolution in the way I have described. The 18th century mixed up Equality, Freedom and Brotherhood, and applied all three to external physical life. In the way it has been understood in the 19th century, it can only mean social chaos. And mankind will have to drift further and further into this chaos, if they do not receive spiritual science and spiritual life, which will lead to an understanding of Man as a trinity and to a reconstruction of earth life for threefold Man.

Man had to go through materialism. His forces would have been too weak for the times to follow, if he had not gone through materialism. For strange and amazing is the evolution of mankind. Let us look back for a moment to an event of the Lemurian epoch. We find there a certain moment in evolution—it lies thousands and thousands of years back—when the mankind of the earth was quite different from what it is now. You will know from the descriptions I have given in Occult Science of human evolution on the earth that the various impulses entered into Man only gradually. There was a moment in evolution when what we today call magnetic and electric forces established themselves within Man. For magnetic and electric forces live in us in a mysterious manner. Before this time, Man lived on earth without the magnetic and electric forces that have developed ever since, spiritually, between the workings of the nerves and the blood. They were incorporated into Man at that time. The forces of magnetism we will leave out of consideration, and a portion of the forces of electricity. But the forces which I will distinguish as the electrical forces in galvanism, voltaism, etc.—forces that have taken deep hold in the culture and civilization of our time—these forces found entry in that far-off time into the human organism and united themselves with human life; and this very fact made it possible for them to remain for a long time unknown to human consciousness.

Man carried them within him, and for that very reason they remained unknown to him externally. The forces of magnetism and the other electrical forces we learned to know earlier. Galvanism, the electricity of contact, which has a much deeper determining influence on the karma of our age than is generally realized, was, as you know, only discovered at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, by Galvani and Volta. People give far too little thought to such facts as these. Just consider for a moment! This Galvani was dealing with the leg of a frog. “By chance,” as we say, he fastened it to the window, and it came in contact with iron, and twitched. That was the beginning of all the discoveries that rule the earth today by means of the electric current. And it happened such a little while ago! People do not generally stop to think how it is that mankind did not come to this knowledge earlier. Suddenly this thought emerges in a human being, in a perfectly miraculous way; he stumbles on it—as it were, perforce. In this materialistic age of ours, we naturally never stop to think about such a thing. And this is the reason why we can understand absolutely nothing at all of the real becoming of the earth. The truth of the matter is as follows:

After mankind had passed the moment in the Lemurian time when it implanted into it, or received implanted into it, the forces that go through the wire today in electricity and work in an invisible manner in Man himself, after this time had passed, electricity lived inside the human being. Now evolution does not proceed in the simple, straightforward way in which people are inclined to picture it. They imagine that time goes ever forward on and on into the infinite. That is an altogether abstract conception. The truth is that time moves and turns in such a way that evolution is constantly reversed and runs back. It is not only in space that we find movements in curves as in a lemniscate, but also in time.

During the Lemurian epoch, Man was at the crossing point of the lemniscate movement, and that was the time when he implanted into himself the principle of electrical force. He traversed the returning path in the Atlantean time and, in respect of certain forces, in the Post-Atlantean time, and arrived about the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century exactly at the point in the evolution of the worlds at which he was in the old Lemurian time when he implanted into himself from the cosmos the principle of electricity. There you have the explanation of how it came about that Galvani discovered electricity at that particular time. Man always goes back again in later times to what he experienced earlier. Life takes its course in cycles, in rhythms. At the middle of the materialistic age which had been developing ever since the 14th–15th century, mankind was standing at that point in the world. All through which he had passed long ago in the Lemurian epoch. And mankind as a whole in that moment remembered the entry of electricity into the human being, and thereupon as a result of this memory impregnated his whole civilization with electricity. The soul and spirit in Man found again what it had once experienced long ago.

Truths like this must be clearly envisaged again, for it is only with truths like this that we shall escape decadence in the future.

Under the influence of the inspirations of which I have been speaking to you today, certain minds came upon such truths. For the fact that people went on such paths was the result of the fact that many and different currents work in human evolution. If, for example, what the Templars wanted to attain had been the sole influence working in history, quite a different evolution would have resulted for Man. Through the fact that the other stream too—the Mephistophelian—has been intermixed with it (the Mephistophelian stream was of course also there from the beginning, but it was given new life by the destiny of the Templars), Man has been brought, in our time, into materialism just in the way that it has actually happened. These Mephistophelian-Ahrimanic forces are needed in the evolution of mankind. And, as I have said, certain great minds were led by the inspiration that comes from the Rosicrucian Temples and has its source in the spiritual world to recognize this principle of which I am here speaking.

Do not imagine that a great poet, a really great poet who creates out of the spiritual world, puts together his words in the superficial way that people often imagine they are at liberty to take them! No, a poet like Goethe, for instance, knows what is contained and implied in the Word; he knows that in the Word we have something that lets spirit resound through the person speaking. “Person,” did I say? Here we must remind ourselves that “persona” is a word that comes from the Latin for the mask that the actor carries and through which his voice sounds. “Personare” means to sound through. All this is closely connected with the evolution of the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Divine was the Word.” The Word was not in Man; nevertheless human personality is closely connected with it.

The whole evolution, as we have said, is carried forward inasmuch as not merely good forces are working, but others also. And a man like Goethe uttered in his Faust—even though in part unconsciously, nevertheless under inspiration—notable and great truths. When the Lord is conversing with Mephistopheles in the Prologue in Heaven, he says at last to Mephistopheles that He has no objection to his work and influence. He recognizes him and allows him his place in the evolution of the worlds. It is owing to him that there are such things as enticements and influences that must needs create what is evil. But then the Lord turns and directs his word to the true and genuine Sons of the Gods who bring forward normal evolution, and with whose working the working of the other stream is united. And what does He say to these true Sons of the Gods?

But ye, the genuine Sons of Heaven, rejoice!
In the full living beauty still rejoice!
May that which works and lives, the ever-growing,
In bonds of love enfold you, mercy-fraught,
And seeming's changeful forms, around you flowing,
Do ye arrest, in ever-during thought!

The Lord gives to His Sons the direct command to set in the world's places enduring thoughts! Such an enduring thought was placed into the world when the principle of electricity was implanted into Man, and Man was led back again to the enduring thought when he discovered the principle of electricity implanted it into his materialistic civilization. Of immeasurable depth is the thought expressed in these lines:

May that which works and lives, the ever-growing,
In bonds of love enfold you, mercy-fraught,
And seeming's changeful forms, around you flowing,
Do ye arrest, in ever-during thought!

And it means a deep experience for the soul, to feel that mystery of the “enduring thoughts.” For then we feel how in the world here and there the Eternal stands at rest in the form of an enduring thought, and we who belong to the world of movement are passing through what is being placed into seeming's changeful forms as enduring thoughts, as the beauty that weaves and works everlastingly, reveals itself in order that we may comprehend it when the right moment comes.

And may a right moment also come for mankind in the near future, even as it is predestined to come if mankind is not to fall into decadence. May Man understand that he has to pass through the next point, which reverses materialism into its opposite, the point where the great thought of the spiritual world can ray into mankind. Preparation is now being made for this in those whose karma has allowed them to come to Spiritual Science. And it will be the continually recurring task of Spiritual Science to turn its work in this direction. For to the materialistic age that has found the enduring thought which in its newest form Ahriman-Mephistopheles has placed into modern evolution, to this materialistic age must be added what can be experienced in passing through a spiritual enduring thought. Spiritual Science must see to it that mankind does not omit to grasp this spiritual thought. Therefore also must we not grow weary in warning Man again and again, lest the moment of time for the comprehension of Spiritual Science slip by and be lost.

Neunter Vortrag

Es war mir in unseren Betrachtungen schon seit einer längeren Zeit her die Aufgabe gestellt, hinzuweisen auf gewisse Impulse, auf gewisse Kräfte, welche in den Menschenseelen wirken und sich in allem äußern, was aus diesem Wirken der Menschenseelen in unser Dasein fließt, hinzudeuten darauf, wie sich im Aufgange des neueren Geisteslebens diese Impulse, diese Kräfte entwickelt haben. Und weil ich Ihren Blick lenken möchte auf eine ganz bestimmte Art neueren geistigen Strebens, so möchte ich noch einmal heute vor Ihre Seelen hinstellen einen wichtigen Ausgangspunkt für dieses neuere Geistesleben, den wir ja schon betrachtet haben, der aber zu dem Wichtigsten, zu dem Wesentlichsten gehört. Wenn wir nach den Kräften suchen, welche in den neueren Seelen wirken, müssen wir ihn als ein Wichtigstes, als ein Bedeutendstes betrachten. Ich meine das ganze Schicksal und die Entwickelung des Templertums. Also noch einmal möchte ich vor Ihre Seele hinstellen das Bild des Tempelrittertums, um dann zu zeigen, wie das, was ausgeflossen ist von dem Templertum, in weiten Strömungen heraufwirkt bis in die Gefühle und Empfindungen unserer Tage.

Wir wissen, der Templerorden ist begründet worden als eine bedeutsame Begleiterscheinung der Kreuzzüge, jenes historischen Ereignisses, durch welches in ihrer Art die europäische Menschheit dem Mysterium von Golgatha näherkommen wollte, als sie das vorher gekonnt hat. Und fast gleich im Beginne der Kreuzzüge ist dieser Templerorden begründet worden. Wenn man absieht von all dem, was äußerlich über die Begründung des Templerordens und über den Verlauf seines Wirkens bekannt ist, was ja in jedem Geschichtsbuch nachgelesen werden kann, so erscheint, innerlich betrachtet, dieser Templerorden als eine besonders vertiefte Näherung der neueren Menschheit an das Mysterium von Golgatha. Zunächst eine kleine Anzahl dem Christentum treu ergebener Seelen findet sich zusammen, gründet an der Stätte, die neben der Tempelstätte des alten Salomonischen Tempels in Jerusalem lag, eine Art geistlichen Orden. Wie gesagt, vom Äußeren wollen wir absehen. Aber hinlenken wollen wir den Blick darauf, was nach und nach, geistig betrachtet, in den Seelen der Templer lebt: Sie sollten nach dem Willen, der in der Ordensgründung wirkte, ihren Sinn ablenken von der äußeren sinnlichen Wirklichkeit, sie sollten innerhalb der Menschheit sich als solche Seelen ausleben, welche schon innerhalb des Erdendaseins in innerster Lebendigkeit darinnenzustehen wußten in dem Leben, in dem seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha die innersten, die bedeutsamsten Menschenkräfte durch die Verbindung des Christus mit dem Erdendasein leben. Darinnenstehen in diesem Erdenleben in dem, was das Erdenleben durch das Mysterium von Golgatha geworden ist, ganz darinnenstehen sollten die Seelen, die sich zum Templertum zusammengetan hatten. Das Blut als Repräsentant desjenigen, was den Erdenmenschen auszeichnet, das Ich, aber auch alles Fühlen und Denken, alles Sein und Dasein dieser Seelen sollte gewissermaßen vergessen den Zusammenhang mit dem sinnlich-physischen Dasein und nur leben in dem, was aus dem Mysterium von Golgatha ausströmt, und nur kämpfen für das Weiterleben der stärksten Impulse, die mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha zusammenhängen. Das Blut der Templer gehörte dem Christus Jesus, das wußte jeder. Nichts anderem auf der Erde gehörte dieses Blut als dem Christus Jesus. Und jeder Augenblick im Leben dieser Templerseelen sollte dadurch ausgefüllt sein, daß sie ein immerwährendes Bewußtsein entwickelten, wie in der eigenen Seele im Paulinischen Sinne der Christus und nicht das eigene Ich wohnt. Und in blutigen und schweren Kämpfen, in hingebender Arbeit, wie es die Kreuzzüge forderten, haben die Templer ausgelebt das, was sie sich also geistig vorgesetzt haben.

Worte sind ohnmächtig, das zu beschreiben, was in den Seelen solcher Menschen lebte, in jenen Seelen, die pflichtgemäß niemals wanken durften, und auch, wenn eine dreifach stärkere Macht äußerlich auf dem physischen Plane ihnen entgegenstand, nicht flüchten durften, sondern ruhig den Tod erwarten mußten, den Tod, den sie ertragen wollten, um zu befestigen im Erdendasein den Impuls, der von dem Mysterium von Golgatha ausgegangen ist. Das war intensives Leben des ganzen Menschen mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Und wenn sich solch intensives Leben in entsprechenden Rhythmen in den Menschenseelen so ereignet, daß es sich hineinstellt in das ganze kosmisch-irdische Strömen der Kräfte, dann entwickelt sich aus solchem Leben Bedeutendes, wohlgemerkt: Bedeutendes. Ich sage, wenn sich solches Bewußtsein hineinstellt mit einem gewissen Rhythmus innerlichmystisch in das, was äußerlich geschieht, dann kann man gewiß vieles erleben, das die eigene Seele mit dem Göttlich-Geistigen in Zusammenhang stellt. Aber noch anderes, Wirksameres wird dann entwickelt, wenn solches inneres Erleben, zusammengefaßt mit dem äußeren geschichtlichen Werdegang, nun in den Dienst dieses äußeren geschichtlichen Werdegangs gestellt ist. Was im Dienste der Wiedererringung der Macht über das Heilige Grab damals getan werden sollte, mit dem sollte in Übereinstimmung stehen das, was im Bewußtsein der Tempelritterseelen lebte. Dadurch entwickelte sich ein besonderes mystisches Leben, durch das diejenigen, die diesem sogenannten geistlichen Orden . angehörten, immer mehr für die Welt wirken konnten als andere geistliche Orden. Denn wenn in solcher Weise eben im Zusammenhange mit dem Leben der Umwelt mystisch gelebt wird, dann strömt das, was mystisch erlebt wird, in die unsichtbaren, in die übersinnlichen Kräfte der Umwelt des Menschen hinein, wird objektiv, ist dann nicht bloß innerlich in der Seele des Menschen, sondern wirkt im geschichtlichen, im historischen Werden weiter. Durch solche Mystik wird nicht nur seelisch etwas erlebt für das einzelne menschliche Individuum, sondern es wird Seelisches; objektiv gestaltete Mächte, die vorher nicht da waren in der spirituellen Strömung, welche die Menschheit trägt und hält, die werden geboren, die sind dann da. Wenn der Mensch sein Tagewerk vollbringt mit seiner Hände oder mit seiner sonstigen Werkzeuge Arbeit, so stellt er ecwas Äußerliches, Materielles in die Welt hinein. Mit solcher Mystik, wie die Tempelritter sie entfaltet haben, wird Geistiges in das Geisttum der Erde hineingestellt. Dadurch aber, daß dieses geschah, wurde die Menschheit wirklich eine Etappe weitergebracht in ihrer Entwickelung. Das Mysterium von Golgatha wurde durch dieses Erleben der Templer auf einer höheren Stufe als vorher verstanden und auch erlebt. Es war jetzt etwas da über dieses Mysterium von Golgatha, was vorher nicht dagewesen war. Die Seelen der Templer hatten aber dadurch noch etwas Besonderes erreicht.

Durch dieses intensive Sich-Hineinleben in das Mysterium von Golgatha hatten diese Seelen die Macht erlangt, die christliche Einweihung durch dieses historische Ereignis wirklich zu erreichen. Diese christlicheEinweihung, man kann sie so erreichen, wie es in unseren Schriften geschildert ist; aber hier durch die Templer wurde diese christliche Einweihung so erreicht, daß die äußeren Taten und der Enthusiasmus, der in den äußeren Taten lebte, die Seelen der Templer heraustrug, so daß diese Seelen, abgesehen vom Leibe, außer dem Leibe, in dem geistigen Werdegang der Menschheit mitlebten, durchdrangen, seelisch-geistig durchdrangen die Geheimnisse von Golgatha. Da wurde vieles nicht nur für die einzelnen Seelen, sondern für die Menschheit erlebt. Das ist das Wichtige, das ist das Bedeutsame.

Dann, wissen wir, breitete sich der Templerorden aus, und er erlangte zu dem ungeheuer starken Einflusse, den er geistig hatte - mehr auf übersinnliche Art, als durch äußere Einflüsse —, hinzu bedeutende äußere Schätze. Und ich habe nun schon beschrieben, wie damit der Zeitpunkt gekommen war, diese äußeren Schätze, die der Templerorden in immer größerem und größerem Umfang erreicht hatte, übergehen zu lassen in die weltliche Macht, und ich habe beschrieben, wie durch eine Art Initiation, wirklich durch eine Art Initiation mit dem bösen Prinzip des Goldes Philipp der Schöne zum Werkzeuge ausersehen war, dem 'Templertum entgegenzutreten. Das heißt, er wollte zunächst die äußeren Schätze des Templertums sich aneignen. Aber Philipp der Schöne wußte mehr als andere Menschen in der Welt. Philipp der Schöne wußte durch das, was er durchgemacht hatte, vieles von den Geheimnissen des seelisch-menschlichen Daseins. Und so kam es denn, daß Philipp der Schöne ein Werkzeug sein konnte gerade im Dienste der mephistophelisch-ahrimanischen Gewalten, welche darauf ausgingen, das Templertum in der Gestalt, wie es zunächst sich ausgelebt hatte, unwirksam zu machen. Philipp der Schöne war, wie gesagt, das Werkzeug anderer geistiger, mephistophelisch-ahrimanischer Mächte. Philipp der Schöne wußte unter der Inspiration seiner Mächte, was das bedeutet haben würde, wenn in jene spirituellen Strömungen, welche ebenso wie das Sichtbare durch die Welt gehen, sich hineinergossen hätte das, was die Templer geistig sich erobert hatten an Wissen vom Mysterium von Golgatha und an Empfindungen und Gefühlen und Willensimpulsen, die sich anschlossen an das Mysterium von Golgatha. Es sollte das, was sich so entwickelt hatte, entrissen werden gewissermaßen den göttlich-geistigen, normal fortschreitenden Mächten; es sollte in andere Bahnen gelenkt werden.

Dazu mußte man erreichen, daß nun wiederum etwas, was nur in den Seelen der Templer leben konnte, herausgerissen wurde aus der Individualität der Templer selber. Geradeso wie das, was die Templer erlebt hatten über das Mysterium von Golgatha, nicht bei ihnen als Individuen blieb, sondern herausgesetzt wurde in die allgemeine Entwickelung der Menschheit, so sollte auch etwas anderes herausgesetzt werden aus den Individuen, sollte einverleibt werden dem objektiven historischen Strom. Und das konnte nur durch einen besonderen Akt der Grausamkeit vollzogen werden, durch einen furchtbaren Akt der ‚Grausamkeit vollzogen werden. Den Templern wurde der Prozeß gemacht. Sie wurden angeklagt nicht nur äußerer Verbrechen, an denen sie ganz gewiß unschuldig waren - was sich auch äußerlich historisch nachweisen läßt, wenn man nur die Wahrheit sehen will, auch in der äußeren Geschichte -, die Templer wurden vor allen Dingen beschuldigt, daß’sie verlästert hätten das Christentum, daß sie verlästert hätten das Mysterium von Golgatha selber, daß sie Götzendienst getrieben hätten, Heidentum hereingebracht hätten in den Dienst des Mysteriums von Golgatha, daß sie die richtigen Formeln bei der Konsekration, bei der Transsubstantiation nicht angewendet hätten, daß sie sogar das Kreuz entheiligt hätten. Und allerlei anderer, sogar widernatürlicher Verbrechen wurden die Templer angeklagt. Hunderte und aber Hunderte wurden grausamster Folterung unterworfen. Und man wußte auf der Seite, die den Prozeß machte, was solche Folterung bedeutet: Das gewöhnliche Tagesbewußtsein wurde den Gefolterten unterdrückt; dadurch vergaßen sie während der Folterung in ihrem Oberbewußtsein ihren Zusammenhang mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Aber sie hatten, weil das bei jedem so ist, der in die geistige Welt hineinschaut, sie hatten alle die Anfechtungen, alle die Versuchungen in der Tat kennengelernt, die da aufsteigen aus des Menschen Innerem, wenn sich der Mensch den guten göttlich-geistigen Kräften nähert. All die Feinde, die da wirken aus dem untergeordneten geistigen Reiche heraus und die den Menschen abbringen wollen vom Guten, die den Menschen verleiten wollen zum Bösen, die in den Trieben, in den Begierden, in den Leidenschaften, in den Affekten wirken können, die aber namentlich auch wirken können in Spott und Haß und Verachtung und Ironisierung des Guten, all die Mächte, die da aufgerufen werden konnten, die Templer hatten sie kennengelernt. Und sie hatten in vielen, vielen ihnen heiligen Stunden jene inneren Siege errungen, die der Mensch erringen kann, wenn er sehend hindurchgeht durch die Welten, die jenseits der Schwelle der sinnlichen Welt liegen und die überwunden werden müssen, damit der Mensch nach der Überwindung mit gestärkten Kräften in die ihm angemessenen geistigen Welten einziehen kann.

Den Ausblick über diese den Menschen angemessenen geistigen Welten hatten die Templer herabgedrückt bekommen während der Folterung; das Oberbewußtsein war ihnen abgelähmt, und ihr innerer Seelenblick wurde während der Folterung nur auf das gerichtet, was sie erlebt hatten als ein zu Überwindendes, was als Anfechtung in ihnen war, worüber sie Sieg über Sieg in ihrer Seele erreicht hatten. Das wurde ihnen heraufgedrängt in das Bewußisein, in das abgelähmte, getrübte Bewußtsein während der Folterung. Und so kam es, daß diese gefolterten Tempelritter in den Augenblicken, in denen sie der Folterung unterzogen wurden, vergaßen ihren Zusammenhang mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha, vergaßen, wie sie wohnten mit ihrer Seele in den geistig ewigen Welten, und das, was sie überwunden hatten, das, was als Anfechtung in ihnen lebte, das stand vor ihnen als Vision, wenn sie auf der Folter lagen, und sie gestanden als einen Gebrauch innerhalb des Ordens, was sie — jeder einzelne für sich — überwunden hatten. Sie gestanden das als ihre Fehler, was sie gerade erlebt hatten so, daß sie Sieg über Sieg darüber errungen hatten. Als der Mensch mußte jeder dieser Templer erscheinen, der von jedem dieser Templer, dieser wahren Templer — selbstverständlich, Auswüchse gibt es überall — innerlichst überwunden war, der überwunden werden mußte, um gerade mit höheren Kräften das Allerbeste, Höchste, Heiligste zu erreichen. Das wußte man auf seiten der Gegner. Man wußte: weil ja das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein abgelähmt war, so war, ebenso wie auf der anderen Seite im Guten das Mysterium von Golgatha herausgestellt war, damit jetzt herausgestellt, verobjektiviert und der Menschheitsentwickelung einverleibt das, was in diesem bösen Bewußtsein lebte. Das war ein historischer Faktor geworden.

So waren zwei Strömungen in die neuere Geschichte eingeführt: Das, was die Templer erlebt hatten in ihren heiligsten Stunden, was sie erarbeitet hatten innerhalb der spirituellen fortschreitenden Strömung der Menschheit, aber auch das, was ihnen durch Ahriman-Mephistopheles abgezogen war, herausgeholt war aus ihrem Bewußtsein, um es objektiv zu machen, und so objektiv im weiteren Fortschritte der Jahrhunderte wirksam zu gestalten.

Man kann gewiß solchen Erscheinungen gegenüber die einfache, bequeme Menschheitsfrage aufwerfen: Warum lassen die göttlich-geistigen Vorsehermächte solches geschehen? Warum führen sie die Menschheit nicht, ohne daß sie durch solche schmerzlichen Prüfungen gehen muß, durch den Werdegang der Geschichte? — Solcher Gedanke ist eben menschlich, allzumenschlich; er kann der Gesinnung entspringen, die derjenige fassen kann, der glauben kann, die Welt wäre besser geworden, wenn sie nicht von Göttern, sondern von Menschen gemacht wäre. Das kann mancher Mensch glauben, daß er mit seinem Verstande eine Kritik üben kann an dem, was als Weisheit durch die Welt wallt und webt. Aber solches Denken verführt auch zum äußersten Erkenntnishochmut und zum äußersten Erkenntnisübermut. Wir Menschen sind dazu berufen, einzudringen in die Geheimnisse des Daseins, aber nicht, die weisheitsvolle Weltenlenkung zu kritisieren. Daher müssen wir auch Einsichten gewinnen in die Stellung und in die Bedeutung, die als Böses, als böse Strömung zugelassen wird von der weisheitsvollen Weltenlenkung. Denn würde nur das Gute zugelassen, würden nur gute Impulse walten im geschichtlichen Werden, so würde die Menschheit niemals so hingelenkt werden auf dieses geschichtliche Werden, daß sie zur Freiheit sich entwickeln könnte. Nur dadurch, daß das Böse selber waltet im geistigen Werdegang der menschlichen Geschichte, kann die Menschheit sich zur Freiheit entwickeln. Und würden die Götter ablenken den menschlichen Seelenblick von dem Bösen, so würden die Menschen ewig Automaten bleiben müssen, niemals frei werden. Es ist schon so eingerichtet im menschlichen Werdegang, daß auch das, was tiefstes Leiden, intensivsten Schmerz verursacht, zuletzt ins Gute geleitet wird. Der Schmerz ist ja nur ein zeitlicher, deshalb natürlich nicht ein minder großer und tiefer; man darf sich nicht über den Schmerz hinwegtäuschen, man darf nicht einer billigen verschwommenen Mystik sich hingeben wollen, die den Schmerz nicht sehen will. Man muß den Schmerz mitmachen wollen, muß in den Schmerz sich einsenken wollen, muß ihn abladen können auf die eigene Seele; aber man muß auch ohne Kritik des geistigen Daseinswillens verstehen lernen, wie die verschiedensten Impulse positiver und negativer Art in den Werdegang der Menschheit hineinversetzt werden, damit der Mensch nicht nur gut, sondern auch frei mit eigenen Impulsen werde.

So sehen wir in der Entwickelung, in dem Schicksal des Templertums einen wichtigen Impuls für alle folgenden Jahrhunderte der neueren Zeit. Hätte das Templertum sich ausleben können mit der Intensität, mit der Stärke, die intendiert war von den großen Templern, dann hätte die folgende Menschheit das nicht ertragen können. Gewissermaßen mußte die Schnelligkeit der Entwickelung abgedämpft werden; zurückgehalten mußte der Strom werden. Damit wurde er aber auch verinnerlicht. Und so sehen wir, wie sich denn unter den beiden Strömungen, die wir angedeutet haben, im neueren geschichtlichen Werdegang innerlichstes Leben entwickelt neben dem äußeren Materialismus. Denn das, was Mephistopheles-Ahriman durch sein Werkzeug, Philipp den Schönen, herausgedrängt hat als mephistophelischen Impuls für den nächsten Werdegang der Menschheit, das lebte fort, und das lebte mit vielem anderen zusammen in der materialistischen Gesinnung und lebte in allen materialistischen Impulsen sich aus, die jetzt im 14., 15., 16., 17., 18., 19. Jahrhundert über die Menschheit heraufzogen. Und das bewirkte, daß in der Breite des Lebens sich geistig-seelisch, sozial das auslebte, was wir als den Materialismus kennen, sich das auslebte, was das Karma auch unserer Tage hervorbrachte. Wäre das nicht so gegangen, wäre nicht in dieBreite des Lebens der materialistische Strom durch den mephistophelischen Impuls geflossen, so hätte auf der anderen Seite der Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt nicht so verinnerlicht werden können. Oh, was die Templer nach der anderen Seite durch ihr spirituelles Einleben in das Mysterium von Golgatha bewirkt hatten, das lebte fort! Und diejenigen Templerseelen, die, nachdem sie die schweren Erfahrungen auf der Folterbank durchgemacht hatten vierundfünfzig Templer waren hingerichtet worden nachher -, diese Templerseelen, die so durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, sie konnten nun aus den geistigen Welten Ströme geistigen Lebens heruntersenken für die Menschen, die in den folgenden Jahrhunderten lebten. 1312 hatte die Hinrichtung der vierundfünfzig Templer stattgefunden; vierundfünfzig Seelen sind hinaufgestiegen in die geistigen Welten. Und jetzt geschieht innerhalb der europäischen Menschheit seit jener Zeit übersinnlich, unsichtbar, ohne daß es sich für den äußeren Anblick in den geschichtlichen Tatsachen auslebt, eine geistige Entwickelung, die darinnen besteht, daß immer einzelne der Nachkommenden inspiriert werden aus der geistigen Welt heraus mit dem, was diese vierundfünfzig Seelen durch die Pforte des Todes hineingetragen hatten in die geistige Welt.

Nur ein Beispiel will ich dafür erwähnen, das ich früher schon, in dem vorhergehenden Vortrage, angedeutet habe, das ich jetzt von einem anderen Gesichtspunkte etwas ausführlicher erwähnen will. Bevor die tragische Entwickelung sich über den Templerherrenorden ergossen hat, lange vor dem Jahre 1312, ein Jahrhundert vorher, hatte in Einsamkeit, könnte man sagen, oder wenigstens nur im kleinen Kreise wirksam, Wolfram von Eschenbach seinen «Parzival» gedichtet, das Lied von jener Seele, die durch innere Läuterung strebt zu jenem Leben, das auch als Endziel dem Templertum vorschwebte. In reichen Bildern, in wunderbaren Imaginationen entrollt Wolfram von Eschenbach das innere Leben des Parzival, für ihn als Repräsentanten des Tempelrittertums. Sehen wir eine bedeutsame äußere Wirkung des «Parzival» im geschichtlichen Werden der folgenden Zeit? Nein. Ins geschichtliche Werden der europäischen Menschheit hat ja erst wiederum Richard Wagner in anderer Art den Parzival hineingestellt. Aber das, was als spirituelle Macht, als geistiger Impuls dazumal noch von der Erde aus sich in die Seele des Wolfram von Eschenbach ergießen konnte, das wurde in den folgenden Jahrhunderten zur Inspiration von der geistigen Welt aus für manchen anderen. Und wer die Dinge innerlich schaut, wer die Zusammenhänge, die geheimnisvollen Zusammenhänge zwischen dem sinnlichen Erdenleben und dem geistigen Leben schaut, der weiß, wie in Goethes Seele hereingeflossen sind die Impulse, die durch das Schicksal der Templer in die geistige Welt hinausgetragen worden sind. Nicht umsonst hat Goethe bereits in den achtziger Jahren ein Gedicht angefangen, das er dann nicht fertiggebracht hat. Es ist bedeutsam, daß er es begonnen hat; ebenso bedeutsam ist der Umstand, daß Goethe, selbst Goethe nicht stark genug war, den gewaltigen Gedanken dieses Gedichtes in Wirklichkeit umzusetzen. Ich meine «Die Geheimnisse», wo der Bruder Markus zu einem einsamen Schlosse der Rosenkreuzer geht und in den Kreis der zwölf Rosenkreuzer tritt. Goethe hat den Grundgedanken, der auch im «Parzival» liegt, ja in seiner Art aufgefaßt, aber er hat ihn nicht vollenden können, durch das Nichtvollenden anzeigend, daß wir alle eigentlich drinnenstehen in dieser geistigen Entwickelung, die Goethe auch nur in ihren Anfängen erlebt hat, und an der wir arbeiten und arbeiten und arbeiten müssen, damit wir immer weiter und weiter schreiten in der Durchdringung der geistigen Welt und diese Anfänge immer weiter und immer weiter gestalten. Dem hat Goethe die besten Kräfte seines Daseins gewidmet, dieses hat er auch in seinen «Faust» einfließen lassen, als er den Zusammenhang des Menschen mit den geistigen Kräften schildern wollte, die für ihn auch die ahrimanisch-mephistophelischen sind.

Für den, der die Geschichte konkret betrachtet in ihrem geistigen Werden, für den ist es eine Anschauung, daß aus der geistigen Welt in die Seele Goethes auf Erden hineinfloß das, was die Templer, die durch des Todes Pforte auf so bedeutungsvolle, grausame Art gegangen waren, hinaufgetragen hatten in die geistigen Welten, und eben deshalb, weil sie so durch die Todespforte gegangen waren, herabfließen lassen konnten als Inspirationen in Menschenseelen. Und nicht nur in diese eine Goethesche Seele, wenn auch vielleicht in diese gerade bedeutsam, in viele andere Menschenseelen ist das eingeflossen und lebt, wenn auch von der äußeren Welt heute noch wenig beachtet. Denn wie sehr ist das Geistige in «Faust» selbst noch unbeachtet geblieben von der äußeren Welt! Es lebt aber doch, und lebt einem immer reicheren Leben entgegen und wird immer fruchtbarer und fruchtbarer werden müssen, wenn die Menschheit sich nicht in die Dekadenz statt in die Aufwärtsentwickelung begeben will. Allerdings ist gerade für unser Zeitalter das, was in der Menschheit wirken soll in der Zukunft, in die eigene freie Hand der Menschen gegeben, und vor die Wahl ist die Menschheit gestellt und wird es immer mehr und mehr werden, ob sie eintreten will in die Dekadenz und es mit dem Materialismus weiter halten will, oder ob sie hinaufstreben will in die geistigen Welten.

Wir Menschen leben nämlich, so wie wir auf der Erde leben, nur mit unserem physischen Leib ein Leben, das mit der Erde zusammenhängt. Schon derjenige Leib, der aus Licht und Ton und Leben gewoben ist, und der in diesem physischen Leib drinnensteckt, schon dieser sogenannte ätherische Leib lebt nicht nur ein Erdenleben, sondern lebt das kosmische Leben mit. Und wenn eine Menschenseele aus den getstigen Welten durch die Geburt ins Dasein heruntersteigt, so richten sich schon vorher im außerirdischen Kosmos Kräfte zurecht, welche den Ätherorganismus des Menschen zusammensetzen, so wie aus den physischen Erdenkräften und physischen Erdenstoffen der physische Leib des Menschen zusammengesetzt ist.

In den einfachsten Begriffen der Menschheit lebt eigentlich Hochmut und Übermut, insbesondere in unserer maternalistischen Zeit. In unserer materialistischen Zeit glauben ja die Vorfahren auch, daß sie die Nachkommen ganz allein ins Dasein stellen. Und indem der Materialismus sich ausbreitet, wird man immer mehr und mehr glauben, daß die Vorfahren allein es sind, die die Nachkommen ins Dasein stellen. Anders ist es geistig gesehen. Die Menschen hier auf der Erde geben nur die Veranlassung, daß das Geistige zu ihnen herunterkommen kann. Das, was der Mensch als Vorfahre tun kann, das besteht einzig und allein darinnen, daß er den Ort zubereitet, durch den sich ein Ätherleib, der aus den Weiten des Kosmos in Kräften sich zubereitet, daß ein solcher Ätherorganismus sich auf die Erde herabsenken kann. Dieser Ätherorganismus ist ein ebenso organisiertes Wesen, wie es der physische Organismus des Menschen ist. Den physischen Organismus des Menschen, wir sehen ihn mit dem Haupte, mit den Armen, mit den Händen, mit dem Rumpfe, mit alle dem, was er dem Anatomen, dem Physiologen darbietet. Für die Geistesschau ist durchglüht, durchleuchtet, wie wir wissen, dieser physische Organismus von dem Ätherorganismus. Der physische Organismus atmet die Luft ein, atmet die Luft aus. Der Ätherorganismus atmet Licht aus, und dieses Licht gibt er uns. Und indem er Licht ausatmet und uns das Licht zuteilt, leben wir durch sein Licht. Und er atmet Licht ein. Wie wir Luft ein- und ausatmen, so atmet unser Ätherleib Licht aus und ein. Und indem er Licht einatmet, verarbeitet er das Licht in sich, wie wir die Luft in uns physisch verarbeiten. Lesen Sie das nach in meinen Mysteriendramen, wo an einer bestimmten Stelle gerade dieses Geheimnis der ätherischen Welt dramatisch entwickelt ist. Der Ätherleib atmet Licht ein, verarbeiter das Licht in sich zur Dunkelheit, und in diese Dunkelheit kann er als seine Nahrung den Weltenton aufnehmen, der in der Sphärenharmonie lebt, und kann aufnehmen die Lebensimpulse. Wie wir die physische Nahrung aufnehmen, so atmet ein und aus das ätherischeWesen, das in uns lebt, Licht. Wie wir die Luft in uns als Sauerstoff verarbeiten und zu Kohlensäure machen, so verarbeitet der Ätherleib das Licht und durchzieht es mit Dunkelheit, wodurch es in Farben erscheint und der Ätherleib uns, für den hellsichtigen Blick, in wogenden Farben erscheint. Aber während der Ätherleib das Licht für die Dunkelheit zubereitet und dadurch innere Atmungsarbeit für sich verrichtet, lebt er, indem er den Weltenton aufnimmt, den Weltenton in das Weltenleben verarbeitet. Das aber, was wir so als unseren Ätherleib aufnehmen, das kommt zu uns herunter zu gewissen Zeiten aus den Weiten des Kosmos.

Es ist heute noch nicht möglich, hinzuweisen auf die Umstände, wie der menschliche Ätherleib auf den Bahnen des Lichtes herunterzieht, wenn diese Bahnen des Lichtes durch die Sternkonstellation in einer gewissen Weise gelenkt werden. Damit das einmal gesagt werden könne, müssen die Menschen sich noch auf eine höhere Stufe der Moral erheben. Denn heute noch würde gerade dieses Mysterium von dem Hereinziehen der menschlichen Ätherleiber auf Lichtes- und Sphärenharmonie-Tonbahnen von den Menschen, wenn sie es kennten, in der furchtbarsten Weise mißbraucht werden. Denn in diesem Mysterium steckt alles, was, wenn die Menschen mit niederen Trieben es sich aneignen wollten, den Vorfahren unumschränkte Macht über die ganze Nachkommenschaft geben würde. Sie werden es daher glauben, daß dieses Mysterium, wie auf Lichtesbahnen und auf den Bahnen der Töne aus der Sphärenharmonie die Ätherleiber zu den Menschen, die sich verkörpern, kommen, daß dieses Mysterium noch längere Zeit eben ein Mysterium wird bleiben müssen. Nur unter ganz bestimmten Bedingungen kann man gerade von diesem Mysterium etwas wissen; denn bei Nichterfüllung dieser Bedingungen würden die Menschen sich, wie gesagt, als Vorfahren eine Macht über die Nachkommenschaft aneignen, die unerhört wäre, wodurch die Nachkommenschaft gänzlich ihrer freien Selbständigkeit, Persönlichkeit und Individualität beraubt werden könnte, und der Wille der Vorfahren dieser Nachkommenschaft aufgedrängt werden könnte. Weisheitsvoll ist dies für die Menschheit in die Unbewußtheit gehüllt, und gedeiht durch den Willen der weisheitsvollen Weltenlenkung in der Unbewußtheit ganz gut.

Aber andere Wege als der physische Leib macht unser Ätherleib. Wir tragen ja, nachdem wir durch die Pforte des Todes geschritten sind, diesen Ätherleib nur noch wenige Tage; dann müssen wir ihn wieder zurückgeben an den Kosmos. Nur wie ein Bild im Kosmos, im Geistigen, bleibt der Ätherleib für unser ferneres Leben, das wir durchmachen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Aber dem Kosmos wird unser Ätherleib einverleibt, einverleibt in der verschiedensten Weise: in anderer Weise bei denjenigen Menschen, die durch ein Unglück früh sterben oder die sonst früh sterben, in einer anderen Weise bei denjenigen Menschen, die ein hohes Alter erreichen. Aber gerade wenn man hinübersieht in diejenige Welt, die jenseits der Schwelle liegt, so weiß man, daß sowohl das eine wie das andere, der frühere Tod und der spätere Tod, im ganzen kosmischen Zusammenhang eine große Bedeutung hat. Denn das, was wir als unseren Ätherleib abgeben, das wirkt weiter fort, wirkt nun geistig fort.

Ja, im Grunde genommen, tiefer betrachtet, werden wir, alle Menschen, gleich alt. Physisch stirbt einer früher, der andere später. Geistig betrachtet werden wir im Grunde genommen alle gleich alt. Sterben wir früh, so geht unser physischer Leib früh zugrunde; aber der Ätherleib lebt weiter für den Kosmos, und gerade dadurch, daß wir früh gestorben sind, hat dieser Ätherleib andere Funktionen für den Kosmos, als wenn wir spät sterben. Wenn wir zusammenzählen die Jahre, die wir durchleben im physischen Leib und im Ätherleib als Menschen, und das, was wir im physischen Leib verrichten, als Erdentaten ansehen, das, was wir im Ätherleib verrichten, auch nach dem Tode, und was wir nicht für uns, sondern für den Kosmos leben, für dieWelt, als Himmelstaten, wenn wir das zusammenzählen nach den Jahren: bei allen Menschen finden wir ein gleiches Alter ungefähr.

Aber dadurch nun, daß so etwas gemacht wird, wie es durch die Templer geschehen ist, dadurch wird noch etwas anderes bewirkt, als wenn wir Menschen nur ein individuelles Leben führen. Was wir als individuelles Leben führen, bleibt innerhalb unserer Person; was wir als solches Leben führen, das objektiv abgesondert werden kann, wie auf der einen Seite von der Seele der Templer dasjenige, was sie für die Fortpflanzung des Mysteriums von Golgatha tun konnten, und auf der anderen Seite das, was geschehen ist durch mephistophelisch-ahrimanische Mächte für die Impulse des neueren Materialismus, das lebt auch gewissermaßen als Stücke des Ätherleibes fort. Aber es wird dem geschichtlichen Werdegang einverleibt; so daß einiges von dem, was der Mensch in seinem Ätherleib lebt, mit der menschlichen Individualität weiterlebt, einiges davon dem geschichtlichen Werdegang einverleibt wird, wenn die Dinge in der geschilderten Weise losgerissen werden von dem Menschen. Aber der Ätherleib ist das Mittel, das Medium, wodurch dasjenige, was der Mensch in seiner Seele so objektiv lebt, daß es heraustreten kann aus seiner Seele, wodurch das, was sich so objektiviert hat, Anhaltspunkte hat, um weiterzuleben. Das ist der Ätherleib.

Was in die ätherische Welt einfloß von den geistigen Impulsen der Templer, das lebte ätherisch weiter; und durch dieses Weiterleben im Ätherischen wurde manche Seele dazu bereitet, aufzunehmen die Inspirationen, die ich beschrieben habe, die aus den geistigen Welten von den Templerseelen selber kommen. Das ist der konkrete Vorgang, der sich abgespielt hat in der neueren Zeit.

In dasjenige, was aus den Templerseelen floß, ist aber immer mehr und mehr, und zwar gerade in der Breite des Lebens, eingeströmt dasjenige, was aus mephistophelisch-ahrimanischen Impulsen fließt, was durchtränkt ist von dem mephistophelisch-ahrimanischen Elemente, was inauguriert wurde auf den Folterbänken der Templer dadurch, daß sie unter der Folter Unwahres über sich selber aussagen mußten. Dies nicht allein, aber dies mit als einer der Gründe, der geistigen Gründe zum modernen Materialismus, dies gehört zu dem, was man verstehen muß, wenn man innerlich den Sinn der modernen materialistischen Entwickelung verstehen will.

So kam es, daß allerdings in der neueren Zeit einige inspiriert wurden mit hohen geistigen Wahrheiten, daß aber die allgemeine Kultur einen immer materialistischeren und materialistischeren Charakter annahm, daß immer mehr und mehr gewissermaßen sich der Blick der Seele trübte für dasjenige, was geistig uns umgibt, und in das wir eintreten durch die Pforte des Todes, aus dem wir herausgetreten sind durch die Pforte der Geburt. Abgelenkt immer mehr und mehr von diesem auf den verschiedensten Gebieten des Lebens, auf dem geistigen Gebiete, auf dem religiösen Gebiete, auf dem sozialen Gebiete wurde die Menschheit, abgelenkt von dem Hineinschauen in das Geistige. Der Blick wurde immer mehr und mehr nur auf das gerichtet, was als materielle, stoffliche Welt sich den Sinnen darbietet. So kam es, daß die neuere Menschheit seit dem Heraufkommen der neueren Zeit durch viele, viele Irrtümer gegangen ist. Aber urteilen wir wiederum nicht kritisch darüber, daß die Menschheit durch Irrtümer gegangen ist. Gerade indem Irrtümer sich hineinlebten in die menschliche Entwickelung, mußten die Menschen diese Irrtümer erleben, und sie werden sie nach und nach sehen, und in dem Überwinden dieser Irrtümer stärkere Kräfte gewinnen, als wenn ihnen automatisch nur der Weg nach dem, was sie sollen, eingeimpft worden wäre. Aber heute ist die Zeit gekommen, wo eingesehen werden muß, wie in dem Spirituellen die Impulse zu Irrtümern leben, und die Menschheit ist angewiesen darauf heute, immer mehr und mehr freie Entschlüsse zu fassen, die Irrtümer zu durchschauen und zu überwinden.

Nicht angeklagt soll irgendein historisches Ereignis werden, sondern nur ganz objektiv betrachtet. Die historischen Ereignisse der neueren Zeit, sie entwickelten sich ja so, daß in den Menschen die Gedanken und Empfindungen lebten nur nach der äußeren physischen Wirklichkeit, nur nach dem hin, was der Mensch durchlebt zwischen Geburt und Tod. Selbst das religiöse Leben nahm allmählich einen persönlichen Charakter an, indem es sich darauf richtete, dem Menschen lediglich die Mittel an die Hand zu geben, mit seiner eigenen Seele selig zu werden. Das neuere religiöse Leben, das den Blick der Menschen von der konkreten geistigen Welt immer mehr und mehr ablenkt, es ist vielfach durchzogen von materialistischer Gesinnung, materialistischer Empfindung. Wie gesagt, nicht angeklagt soll irgendeine historische Erscheinung werden, aber dargestellt soll sie werden so, wie sie verstanden werden muß, wenn die kommende Menschheit nicht in Dekadenz verfallen, sondern eine Aufwärtsbewegung durchmachen soll.

Wir sehen den Strom des Materialismus neben dem, ich möchte sagen, verborgenen Parallelstrom heraufziehen und sehen ein gewaltiges Ereignis eintreten am Ende des 18, Jahrhunderts, ein Ereignis, unter dessen Eindruck das ganze 19. Jahrhundert bis in die heutige Zeit herein steht: Wir sehen am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts die Französische Revolution über die europäische Kultur hinfließen. Vieles lebte sich so aus, wie die Historiker beschrieben haben, daß es in der Französischen Revolution lebt. Aber man wird zu dem, was man bisher versteht von dieser Französischen Revolution und was fortwirkte an Impulsen, ausgehend von der Französischen Revolution, das noch hinzuverstehen müssen, was spirituell aus den materialistischen Impulsen, aus ahrimanisch-mephistophelischen Impulsen wird. Die Französische Revolution strebte — wie gesagt, nicht angeklagt soll ein historisches Ereignis werden, sondern verstanden - nach einem Höchsten; aber sie strebte nach einem Höchsten in einer Zeit, auf welche noch schwer die Schatten jenes Ereignisses fielen, das ich heute charakterisiert habe, jenes Ereignisses, durch das Mephistopheles-Ahriman mächtig geworden war, in das europäische Leben hereinzusenden den materialistischen Impuls. Und so hatten denn die Besten, welche die Französische Revolution inaugurierten, wenn sie auch in ihrem Bewußtsein etwas anderes zu glauben vermeinten — darauf kommt es nicht an, daß man sich mit Worten zu diesem oder jenem bekennt, sondern darauf kommt es an, daß man ein lebendiges, seelisch-lebendiges Bewußtsein hat von dem, was wirkt in der Welt -, die Besten, welche die Französische Revolution inaugurierten, hatten nur ein Bewußtsein von dem physischen Plane. Sie strebten gewiß nach einem Höchsten, aber sie wußten nichts von der Trinität im Menschen: von dem Leib, der da wirkt durch das ätherische Prinzip im Menschen, von der Seele, die da wirkt durch das astralische Prinzip, von dem Geist, der zunächst im Menschen wirkt durch das Ich.

Man sah ja auch schon am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts den Menschen so an, wie ihn zum Unheil der Menschheit die heutige materialistische Wissenschaft ansieht, die Physiologie, die Biologie. Man sah den Menschen so an, daß man, auch wenn man religiös ahnte etwas von einem geistigen Leben, doch nur den Blick richtete - von dem anderen redete man vielleicht —, aber den konkreten Blick richtete man auf das, was in der physischen Welt hier zwischen Geburt und Tod sich auslebt. Das kann man verstehen, was sich hier auslebt, wenn man es auch heute noch nicht ganz versteht, wenn man nur den Blick auf den äußeren physischen Leib richtet. Was aber im ganzen Menschen lebt, das kann man nur verstehen, wenn man weiß, wie mit dem äußeren physischen Leib das ätherische Prinzip, das astralische und das Ich-Prinzip verknüpft sind. Denn schon indem wir hier in der physischen Welt zwischen Geburt und Tod stehen, lebt in uns das Geistig-Seelische, das den geistigen Welten angehört. Leib, Seele und Geist sind wir hier, und wenn wir durch die Pforte des Todes geschritten sind, werden wir, nur mit einem anderen geistigen Leibe, wiederum eine Dreiheit sein als Menschen. Wer also den Erdenmenschen nur betrachtet so, wie er als physischer Mensch sich auslebt zwischen Geburt und Tod, der betrachtet nicht den ganzen Menschen, der gibt sich über den ganzen Menschen einem Irrtum hin. Und wenn er dann ein menschliches Ideal aufstellt für den physischen Menschen allein, dann paßt dieses Ideal nicht für den ganzen Menschen. Die Ereignisse, die in der Welt geschehen, dürfen wir nicht so ansehen, daß sie an sich irrtümlich sind. Das, was erscheint, ist schon die Wahrheit; aber die Art, wie der Mensch es ansieht und in seinen eigenen Taten verwertet, das macht oftmals Konfusionen. Und so entstand in den Seelen der Menschen am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts dadurch eine Konfusion, daß alles in den Leib hinein gewissermaßen projiziert wurde, und Ideale, die nur einen Sinn haben, wenn man den Menschen als eine Trinität ansieht, wurden angestrebt für ein menschliches bloß leibliches Monon.

Und so kam es denn, daß schöne Ideale am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts durch die Menschen schwirrten: Brüderlichkeit, Freiheit, Gleichheit! Schöne Ideale schwirrten durch die Menschheit, aber sie schwirrten durch die Menschheit in einer Zeit, in der sie nicht verstanden werden konnten, in der konfundiert wurde Leibliches, Seelisches und Geistiges, weil sie alle miteinander so aufgefaßt wurden, wie sie aufgefaßt werden von Menschen, die in Wahrheit nur an den physischen Menschenleib glauben. Denn für den physischen Menschenleib gilt als Ideal berechtigterweise nur die Brüderlichkeit, und die Freiheit hat nur Sinn, wenn man sie bezieht auf die menschliche Seele, und die Gleichheit hat nur Sinn, wenn man sie bezieht auf den Geist, so, wie sich der Geist auslebt in der Menschheit als das Ich. Nur wenn man weiß, daß der Mensch aus Leib, Seele und Geist besteht, und daß von den drei Idealen vom Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts sich die Brüderlichkeit auf den Leib, die Freiheit auf die Seele, die Gleichheit auf das Ich bezieht, dann redet man in einem Sinn, der mit dem inneren Sinn der spirituellen Welt übereinstimmt. Brüderlichkeit können wir entwickeln, insofern wir als physische Menschen physische Erdenleiber tragen, und wenn wir in die sozialen Ordnungen die Brüderlichkeit aufnehmen, dann ist dieBrüderlichkeit für die sozialeOrdnung auf dem physischen Plan ein Rechtes. Freiheit kann sich der Mensch nur erwerben in der Seele, insofern er mit der Seele sich auf der Erde verkörpert. Freiheit herrscht auf der Erde nur und ist auf der Erde nur möglich - das wollte auch Goethe in dem schönen Märchen von der grünen Schlange und der schönen Lilie ausdrücken -, wenn sie bezogen werden wird auf die Menschenseelen, die in solchen Ordnungen auf der Erde leben, daß sie sich die Fähigkeit erwerben, das Gleichgewicht zu halten zwischen den niederen und den höheren Kräften. Wenn man die Waage zu halten vermag als Mensch zwischen den niederen und den höheren Kräften der Menschenseele, dann entwickelt man diejenigen Kräfte, die leben können hier zwischen Geburt und Tod; man entwickelt auch diejenigen Kräfte, die man braucht, wenn man durch die Pforte des Todes geht. Und so ist neben der sozialen Ordnung eine seelische Ordnung auf der Erde nötig, in welche die Seelen sich so einbetten können, daß sie die Kräfte der Freiheit entwickeln, die wir durchtragen können durch die Pforte des Todes, die wir nur dann durchtragen werden durch die Pforte des Todes, wenn wir uns vorbereiten für das Leben nach dem Tod in diesem Leben hier. Daß ein solcher seelischer Verkehr gestiftet werde von Seele zu Seele auf der Erde, daß die Seelen sich solche Kräfte entwickeln können, daß alle Ereignisse des Menschenlebens von klein auf, daß alle Gestaltung der Wissenschaften, alle Gestaltung der Künste, alle Gestaltung des menschlichen Schaffens dem Ideale zustreben, daß der Mensch als Seele die Waage zu halten vermag zwischen dem, was geistig wirkt und lebt und dem, was hier physisch wirkt und lebt, das muß ein Ideal werden. Frei wird der Mensch, wenn er sich solche Seelenkräfte zu erwerben vermag in der äußeren physischen Welt, wie er sie zum Beispiel erwerben kann, wenn er die schönen Formen zu verfolgen vermag, die in einer wirklich aus dem Geistigen heraus kommenden Kunst leben. Frei wird der Mensch, wenn der Verkehr zwischen Seele und Seele so ist, daß die eine Seele die andere mit immer größerem und größerem Verständnisse und mit immer größerer und größerer Liebe zu verfolgen vermag. Wenn es sich um die Leiber handelt, kommt die Brüderlichkeit in Betracht. Wenn es sich um die Seelen handelt, kommt in Betracht die Herausgestaltung jener zarten Bande, die sich entwickeln von Seele zu Seele, die sich auch hineinleben müssen in die Struktur des Erdenlebens, die aber darauf gehen müssen, Interesse, tiefes, tiefes Interesse zu begründen in der einen Seele für die andere Seele. Denn nur dadurch können die Seelen frei werden, und nur die Seelen können frei werden.

Gleichheit für die äußere physische Welt gedacht, ist ein Unsinn, denn Gleichheit wäre Einförmigkeit. Alles in der Welt ist in Verwandlung, alles ist in die Zahlen gebannt, alles in der Welt muß sich in der Vielheit und der Vielgestaltigkeit ausleben. Dazu ist die physische Welt da, daß das Geistige durch die Vielheit der Formen gehe. Aber eines bleibt in unserem vielfachen und mannigfaltigen Menschenleben gleich, weil es zunächst ein Anfang ist. Unsere übrige Menschheit tragen wir schon seit der Saturn-, Sonnen- und Mondenzeit in uns, das Ich erst während der Erdenzeit. Das Ich ist im Anfange! Unser ganzes Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod kommen wir nicht weiter im Geistigen, als daß wir zu uns«Ich» sagen, und daß wir dieses Ich empfinden. Schauen kann es der Mensch entweder nur außer dem Leibe schon hier zwischen Geburt und Tod durch Initiation, oder wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet, wo er dann in der Erinnerung zurück an seinen Erdenleib das Ich geistig zu schauen bekommt. Aber durch dieses Ich lebt sich hier auf der Erde alle Mannigfaltigkeit aus. Und die Struktur des Erdenlebens muß so gestaltet werden, daß die Möglichkeit vorhanden ist, daß durch die gleichen Iche all die Mannigfaltigkeiten sich ausleben, die durch die menschlichen Individualitäten in die Erde hereinkommen können. Der eine Mensch lebt diese, der andere jene, ein dritter eine weitere Individualität dar. Alle diese Individualitäten versammeln sich in ihren Wirkungsstrahlen in dem Fokus, in dem Brennpunkt des Ich, gleich; aber dieses, daß wir gleich sind, das macht die Möglichkeit, daß durch dieses Ich dasjenige geht, was wir uns mitteilen als Geister, daß wir ein Gemeinsamkeitsleben der Menschheit entwickeln. Durch das Gleiche geht das Verschiedene. So begründet sich in geistiger Gleichheit dasjenige, was nicht von einem einzelnen Menschen in den ganzen Strom des kosmisch-spirituellen Werdens hineingeht, sondern indem durch unser Ich, durch unser Geistiges schreitet dasjenige, was uns im mannigfaltigen Leben gesetzt ist, wird es ein Gemeinsames, geht als gemeinsamer Strom im kosmischen Werden weiter.

Dem Geiste geziemt die Gleichheit. Und ein Geschlecht wird erst verstehen, wie die drei Ideale von Brüderlichkeit, Freiheit und Gleichheit sich in die Menschheit einleben können, welches verstehen wird, daß der Mensch diese Dreigliedrigkeit von Leib, Seele und Geist in sich trägt. Daß das im 18. Jahrhundert und durch das ganze 19. Jahrhundert nicht verstanden werden konnte, das war noch eine Folge der Stärke des ahrimanisch-mephistophelischen Stromes, der auf die Ihnen geschilderte Art in die neuere Menschheitsentwickelung hineingekommen ist. Konfundiert hat das 18. Jahrhundert Gleichheit, Freiheit und Brüderlichkeit, indem es die drei angewendet hat allein auf das äußere physische Leben. Wie es das 19. Jahrhundert verstanden hat, kann es nur Chaos, soziales Chaos sein. Und in dieses soziale Chaos würde die Menschheit hineinschreiten müssen, wenn sie nicht aufnähme geistige Wissenschaft, spirituelles Leben, welche zum Verständnis führen werden, daß der Mensch eine Dreiheit ist, welche begründen werden eine Struktur des Erdenlebens für den dreigliedrigen Menschen.

Der Mensch beziehungsweise die Menschheit mußte durch den Materialismus durchgehen; ihre Kräfte wären zu schwach gewesen für die Folgezeit, wenn diese Menschheit nicht durch den Materialismus durchgegangen wäre. Denn merkwürdig ist ja die Entwickelung der Menschheit. Gestern habe ich Ihnen einen Fall aus der Astronomie angeführt. Heute zum Schluß lassen Sie mich einen Fall anführen, aus dem Sie sehen werden, wie kompliziert der Gang der Menschheit durch das Erdenwerden ist, ich meine durch das Erdenleben im ganzen, wenn wir die Sache geistig anschauen. Sie wissen, wir leben jetzt in der fünften Periode des Zeitalters, das ich durch diesen Strich bezeichnen will (es wird gezeichnet), das wir das fünfte Zeitalter der Erde nennen, das nachatlantische. Unserer Periode ging die griechisch-römische voran. Der nachatlantischen Zeit ging voran das Zeitalter, das in der griechisch-römischen Zeit sich wiederholte, das aber abgetrennt ist von dem nachatlantischen Zeitalter durch die große atlantische Flut, welche die Geologie die Eiszeit nennt. Das nennen wir das atlantische Zeitalter; das griechisch-römische ist nur eine Wiederholung davon, eine vergeistigte Wiederholung. Diesem atlantischen Zeitalter ging aber voran das lemurische Zeitalter, das wiederum durch eine Katastrophe getrennt ist von dem atlantischen. Und dann kommen wir zu früheren Zeitaltern, die wir nicht weiter in Erwägung ziehen wollen.

Werfen wir jetzt ganz kurz einen Blick auf ein Ereignis des lemurischen Zeitalters. Da gab es einen bestimmten Punkt in der Entwickelung, der jetzt Tausende und Tausende Jahre zurückliegt, wo die Menschheit der Erde noch ganz anders war als heute. Sie wissen aus der Art, wie ich in der «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß» diese Entwickelung der Menschheit auf der Erde beschrieben habe, wie nach und nach die Impulse in die Menschheit hineinkommen. Es gab einen Punkt in der Entwickelung, wo sich festsetzte im Innern des Menschen aus dem Kosmos heraus das, was wir heute kennen als magnetische und namentlich als elektrische Kräfte. Denn in uns leben auf geheimnisvolle Art auch die magnetischen und elektrischen Kräfte. Vor diesem Zeitalter, in der lemurischen Zeit, lebte der Mensch auf der Erde noch ohne die magnetischen und elektrischen Kräfte, die sich in seinem Nervensystem, zwischen den Nervenwirkungen und den Blutwirkungen geistig entwickeln. Da wurden ihm diese Kräfte einverleibt. Von den magnetischen Kräften wollen wir absehen, auch von einem gewissen Teile der elektrischen Kräfte wollen wir absehen. Dadurch nun, daß sich diese Kräfte, die ich als elektrische Kräfte im Galvanismus, im Voltaismus und so weiter bezeichnen will, also jene Kräfte, die heute in die Kultur so tief eingreifen, in der Urzeit in den menschlichen Organismus hineingelebt haben, mit dem menschlichen Leben verbanden, dadurch konnten diese Kräfte eine Zeitlang für das menschliche Bewußtsein unbekannt bleiben. Der Mensch trug sie im Innern, aber äußerlich blieben sie ihm unbekannt. Nun, die magnetischen, die anderen elektrischen Kräfte außer dem Galvanismus und Voltaismus lernten wir schon früher kennen. Denn Galvanismus, die Berührungselektrizität, die mehr, als man heute sich überlegt, unserem Zeitalter sein Karma aufdrückt von außen, sie wurde, wie Sie wissen, erst um die Wende des 18. zum 19. Jahrhundert durch Galvani und Volta gefunden. Über solche Dinge denkt man gewöhnlich viel zu wenig nach. Denken Sie einmal, dieser Galvani, einen Froschschenkel präpariert er. Dadurch, daß er ihn, wie man sagt, zufällig am Fenster befestigt und der Froschschenkel mit Eisen in Berührung kommt, zuckt er. Das ist der Anfang all der Entdeckungen, all der Erfindungen, die heute durch den elektrischen Strom unsere Erde beherrschen! Seit so kurzer Zeit ist das erst. Man denkt gewöhnlich nicht nach: Wie kommt es denn, daß die Menschheit so etwas früher nicht gewußt hat? Plötzlich taucht auf eine ganz wunderbare Art in einem Menschen dieser Gedanke auf; er wird darauf gestoßen, dieser Mensch, auf diesen Gedanken. Unser materialistisches Zeitalter denkt natürlich über solche Dinge nicht nach. Aber deshalb versteht unser materialistisches Zeitalter rein gar nichts wissenschaftlich von dem wirklichen Werdegang der Welt. Die Wahrheit ist diese:

Nachdem die Menschheit den Zeitpunkt in der lemurischen Zeit durchgemacht hatte, wo sie sich selbst jene Kräfte in ihr Inneres eingepflanzt hat, oder wo sie eingepflanzt erhalten hat die Kräfte, die heute in der Elektrizität durch den Draht gehen, und die auf unsichtbare Weise im Menschen wirken, nachdem dieses Zeitalter vorübergegangen war, lebte gewissermaßen die Elektrizität im Innern des Menschen. Nun geht die Entwickelung nicht so vorwärts, wie man es leichthin zeichnet, so mit einem einfachen Strich. Man glaubt nur, die Zeit geht so vorwärts, daß sie ins Unendliche verfließt. Das ist aber eine ganz abstrakte Vorstellung. In Wahrheit geht die Zeit so, daß sie sich weiterbewegt, daß die Entwickelung wieder umgekehrt wird und zurückläuft. Nicht nur im Raume gehen diese Bewegungen in der Lemniskate vor sich, sondern auch in der Zeit.

AltName

Da war die Menschheit während der lemurischen Zeit (Kreuzungspunkt der Lemniskatenbewegung, siehe Zeichnung), als sie sich eingepflanzt hat in sich selber das elektrische Kraftprinzip. Diesen Weg (blau) ist sie gegangen in der atlantischen Zeit, und kam mit Bezug auf gewisse Kräfte in der nachatlantischen Zeit an um die Wende des 18. zum 19. Jahrhundert an den Punkt, genau an den Punkt in der Weltentwickelung, wo sie war in der alten lemurischen Zeit, als sie sich selber vom Kosmos herein das Elektrizitätsprinzip eingepflanzt hatte. Und das ist der Grund, daß Galvani dazumal die Elektrizität fand! In späteren Zeiten gehen die Menschen immer wiederum zurück nach dem, was sie schon früher durchlebt haben; zyklisch, rhythmisch vollzieht sich alles Leben. Wir standen als Menschheit gewissermaßen wirklich um die Mitte des materialistischen Zeitraums, der sich seit dem 14., 15. Jahrhunderte entwickelt hat, an dem Punkt im Weltenall, den wir einmal durchlaufen hatten während der lemurischen Zeit. Und die ganze Menschheit erinnerte sich dazumal des Hereinbrechens der Elektrizität in den Menschen, und daher imprägnierte durch diese Erinnerung die Menschheit die Kultur mit dem elektrischen Prinzip. Das, was als Seele und Geist im Menschen lebt, das fand das wiederum, was einmal durchlebt war. Solche Wahrheiten werden der Menschheit wiederum klar werden müssen, denn mit diesen Wahrheiten allein wird man die Dekadenz der Zukunft vermeiden.

AltName

Unter dem Einflusse jener Inspirationen, von denen ich heute gesprochen habe, kamen gewisse Geister auf solche Wahrheiten. Denn daß die Menschen solche Wege machen, das wird eben bewirkt dadurch, daß verschiedene Strömungen herrschen. Würde zum Beispiel nur das geherrscht haben, was von der Art war, wie es die Templer wollten, so würde eine andere Entwickelung durchgemacht worden sein. Dadurch, daß aber der andere Strom, der mephistophelische beigemischt worden ist — er war von Anfang an auch da, aber er wurde erneuert durch das Templerschicksal —, dadurch ist die Menschheit gerade in dieser Zeit in den Materialismus hereingebracht worden, wie sie eben hereingebracht worden ist. Man braucht in der Menschheitsentwickelung diese mephistophelisch-ahrimanischen Kräfte. Und ich sagte: Gewisse Geister werden durch die Inspiration, die von dem rosenkreuzerischen Templerprinzip herkommt, die aus der geistigen Welt kommt, dahin geführt, dieses Prinzip, das ich hier meine, zu erkennen.

Und denken Sie nur nicht, daß ein großer Dichter, ein wirklich großer Dichter, der aus der geistigen Welt heraus schafft, seine Worte so hinsetzt, wie die Leute heute manchmal glauben, diese Worte oberflächlich nehmen zu dürfen! Nein, ein Dichter wie Goethe zum Beispiel weiß, was in dem Worte liegt, weiß, daß mit dem Worte etwas gegeben ist, was den Menschen trägt und mit dem Menschen den Geist trägt, durch die menschliche Person den Geist tönen läßt. Person? - Da erinnert man sich: persona! Persona ist das Wort, das entstanden ist aus dem griechischen Wort für die Maske, die der Schauspieler trug und durch die seine Stimme tönte: personare heißt durchtönen. Das alles hängt innig zusammen mit der Fortentwickelung desWortes: «Im Urbeginne war das Wort, und das Wort war bei Gott und ein Göttliches war das Wort.» - DasWort war nicht im Menschen; doch die menschliche Persönlichkeit hängt damit zusammen.

Aber die ganze Entwickelung wird fortgetrieben dadurch, daß nicht nur die guten Kräfte wirken, sondern auch die anderen. Und solch ein Mensch wie Goethe sagte, wenn auch zum Teil unbewußt, aber unter Inspiration, gerade in einer solchen Dichtung wie in der Faust-Dichtung die tiefsten, bedeutsamsten großen Wahrheiten. Da, wo der Herr mit Mephistopheles im «Prolog im Himmel» im Gespräche ist, da sagt der Herr zuletzt zu dem Mephistopheles, daß er gegen sein Wirken nichts hat. Er läßt diesen Mephistopheles-Ahriman gelten, weil er drinnen sein soll in derWeltenentwickelung. Durch ihn soll das drinnen sein, was «reizt und wirkt und muß als Teufel schaffen». Dann aber wendet der Herr seine Stimme von ihm ab und richtet das Wort zu den «echten Göttersöhnen», welche die normale Entwickelung vorwärtsbringen, und mit denen die andere Entwickelungsströmung zusammenwirkt. Und was sagt denn der Herr zu diesen echten Göttersöhnen?

Doch ihr, die echten Göttersöhne,
Erfreut euch der lebendig reichen Schöne!
Das Werdende, das ewig wirkt und lebt,
Umfaß’ euch mit der Liebe holden Schranken,
Und was in schwankender Erscheinung schwebt,
Befestiget mit dauernden Gedanken!

Der Herr gibt direkt den Befehl seinen Söhnen, daß sie hinsetzen sollen an die Weltenorte dauernde Gedanken! Solch ein dauernder Gedanke wurde hingesetzt in die Welt, als das elektrische Prinzip den Menschen eingepflanzt wurde, und zurückgeführt wurde die Menschheit wiederum zu dem dauernden Gedanken, als die Menschheit das elektrische Prinzip entdeckte und es der materialistischen Kultur einpflanzte. Ein Gedanke von ungeheurer Tiefe, dieses:

Das Werdende, das ewig wirkt und lebt,
Umfaß’ euch mit der Liebe holden Schranken,
Und was in schwankender Erscheinung schwebt,
Befestiget mit dauernden Gedanken!

Und eine tiefe Empfindung erfaßt unsere Seele, wenn das Mysterium auf uns wirkt von den dauernden Gedanken; denn dann fühlen wir, wie in der Welt das Ewige da und dort als dauernde Gedanken sitzt, wie wir angehören der Welt der Bewegung und wie wir durchgehen durch das, was in die «schwankende Erscheinung» hineinversetzt wird als dauernde Gedanken, als das ewig wirkende und webende Schöne, das sich offenbart, damit wir es erfassen in dem rechten Augenblicke.

Und so möge denn auch ein rechter Augenblick für die Menschheit kommen in einer nächsten Zukunft, wie er ihr vorbestimmt ist, wenn sie nicht in die Dekadenz kommen will. Möge sie es verstehen, daß sie durchzugehen hat durch den nächsten Punkt, der den Materialismus wiederum in sein Gegenteil aufhebt, durchzugehen hat durch den Punkt, wo die großen Gedanken der spirituellen Welt hereinstrahlen können in die Menschheit, zu welchen diese Menschheit sich vorbereiten will in denjenigen ihrer Persönlichkeiten, welche heute schon durch ihr Karma zur Geisteswissenschaft kommen durften. Hinzulenken darauf, daß auch dem materialistischen Zeitalter, das gefunden hat den dauernden Gedanken, den in der letzten Art Ahriman-Mephistopheles in die neuzeitliche Entwickelung hineingesetzt hat, dasjenige hinzugefügt werden muß, was erfahren werden kann bei dem Durchgang durch einen spirituellen dauernden Gedanken, darauf hinzuweisen, und daß die Menschheit nicht versäume, diesen spirituellen Gedanken zu erfassen, wird die immer wiederkehrende Aufgabe des geisteswissenschaftlichen Wirkens und Strebens sein. Daher darf man auch nicht müde werden, immer wieder und wiederum zu gemahnen daran, daß der Zeitpunkt zur Erfassung der Geisteswissenschaft von der Menschheit nicht versäumt werden möge.

Ninth Lecture

For some time now, it has been my task in our reflections to point out certain impulses, certain forces that are at work in human souls and express themselves in everything that flows into our existence from this activity of human souls, and to indicate how these impulses, these forces, have developed in the dawn of the newer spiritual life. And because I would like to direct your attention to a very specific type of recent spiritual striving, I would like to once again present to your souls an important starting point for this new spiritual life, which we have already considered, but which belongs to the most important, to the most essential. When we search for the forces that are at work in the newer souls, we must regard it as one of the most important, as one of the most significant. I mean the entire destiny and development of the Templars. So once again I would like to place before your souls the image of the Knights Templar, in order to show how that which flowed out of the Templars continues to work in broad currents up to the feelings and sensibilities of our day.

We know that the Order of the Templars was founded as a significant accompaniment to the Crusades, that historical event through which European humanity sought to come closer to the mystery of Golgotha than it had been able to before. And almost at the very beginning of the Crusades, this Order of the Templars was founded. If we disregard everything that is known about the founding of the Knights Templar and the course of their activities, which can be read in any history book, then, when viewed from an inner perspective, this order appears as a particularly profound approach of modern humanity to the mystery of Golgotha. First, a small number of souls devoted to Christianity came together and founded a kind of spiritual order at the site next to the ancient Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. As I said, let us disregard the external aspects. But let us turn our attention to what gradually came to live in the souls of the Templars from a spiritual point of view: according to the will of the one who of the one who worked in the founding of the order, they should turn their attention away from external, sensory reality; they should live out their lives within humanity as souls who, even during their earthly existence, knew how to stand in the innermost vitality of the life in which, since the Mystery of Golgotha, the innermost and most significant human forces live through the connection of Christ with earthly existence. The souls who had joined together in the Templar order were to stand completely within this earthly life, within what the earthly life had become through the Mystery of Golgotha. Blood, as the representative of what distinguishes earthly human beings, the I, but also all feeling and thinking, all the being and existence of these souls should, in a sense, forget their connection with the sensory-physical existence and live only in what flows out of the Mystery of Golgotha, and fight only for the continued existence of the strongest impulses connected with the Mystery of Golgotha. The blood of the Templars belonged to Christ Jesus; everyone knew that. This blood belonged to no one else on earth but Christ Jesus. And every moment in the life of these Templar souls should be filled with the development of an everlasting awareness that Christ, and not their own ego, dwells in their souls in the Pauline sense. And in bloody and difficult battles, in self-sacrificing work, as demanded by the Crusades, the Templars lived out what they had set themselves as their spiritual goal.

Words are powerless to describe what lived in the souls of such people, in those souls who, out of a sense of duty, were never allowed to waver, and also when a power three times stronger confronted them on the physical plane, they could not flee, but had to calmly await death, the death they were willing to endure in order to strengthen in earthly existence the impulse that emanated from the Mystery of Golgotha. That was the intense life of the whole human being with the mystery of Golgotha. And when such an intense life occurs in human souls in corresponding rhythms, so that it fits into the whole cosmic-earthly flow of forces, then something significant develops from such a life, mind you: something significant. I say that when such consciousness fits into what is happening externally with a certain inner mystical rhythm, then one can certainly experience many things that connect one's own soul with the divine-spiritual. But something else, something more effective, is developed when such inner experience, combined with the external historical development, is now placed at the service of this external historical development. What was to be done at that time in the service of regaining power over the Holy Sepulchre had to be in harmony with what lived in the consciousness of the souls of the Knights Templar. This gave rise to a special mystical life through which those who belonged to this so-called spiritual order were able to work for the world more and more than other spiritual orders. For when one lives mystically in this way, in connection with the life of the environment, then what is experienced mystically flows into the invisible, supersensible forces of the human environment, becomes objective, and is then no longer merely internal in the human soul, but continues to work in historical development. Through such mysticism, something is not only experienced spiritually by the individual human being, but it becomes spiritual; objectively formed powers that were not previously present in the spiritual stream that carries and sustains humanity are born and then exist. When a person accomplishes their daily work with their hands or other tools, they place something external and material into the world. With the kind of mysticism developed by the Knights Templar, something spiritual is placed into the spirituality of the earth. But because this happened, humanity was truly advanced one step further in its development. Through this experience of the Templars, the mystery of Golgotha was understood and experienced on a higher level than before. There was now something about the mystery of Golgotha that had not been there before. But the souls of the Templars had also achieved something special through this.

Through this intense immersion in the mystery of Golgotha, these souls had gained the power to truly attain Christian initiation through this historical event. This Christian initiation can be attained as described in our writings; but here, through the Templars, this Christian initiation was attained in such a way that the outer deeds and the enthusiasm that lived in the outer deeds carried the souls of the Templars out, so that these souls, apart from the body, outside the body, lived in the spiritual development of humanity, penetrated, soul-spiritually penetrated the mysteries of Golgotha. Much was experienced not only for individual souls, but for humanity as a whole. That is what is important, that is what is significant.

Then, as we know, the Templar Order spread and, in addition to the tremendous spiritual influence it wielded—more in a supersensible way than through external influences—it acquired significant external treasures. And I have already described how the time came for these external treasures, which the Order of the Templars had acquired in ever greater and greater quantities, to be transferred to worldly power, and I have described how, through a kind of initiation, truly through a kind of initiation with the evil principle of gold, Philip the Fair was chosen as the instrument to oppose the Templars. That is to say, he first wanted to appropriate the external treasures of the Templars. But Philip the Fair knew more than other people in the world. Through what he had gone through, Philip the Fair knew much about the secrets of the soul-human existence. And so it came about that Philip the Fair was able to be a tool in the service of the Mephistophelean-Ahrimanic forces, which sought to render the Templar Order ineffective in the form in which it had initially developed. Philip the Fair was, as I said, the tool of other spiritual, Mephistophelean-Ahrimanic forces. Under the inspiration of his powers, Philip the Fair knew what it would have meant if what the Templars had spiritually gained in knowledge of the mystery of Golgotha and in feelings and impulses of will connected with the mystery of Golgotha had poured into those spiritual currents that flow through the world just as the visible flows through it. What had developed in this way was to be snatched away, as it were, from the divine-spiritual forces that were progressing normally; it was to be diverted into other channels.

To this end, it was necessary to ensure that something that could only live in the souls of the Templars was torn out of the individuality of the Templars themselves. Just as what the Templars had experienced through the Mystery of Golgotha did not remain with them as individuals, but was brought out into the general development of humanity, so something else had to be brought out of the individuals and incorporated into the objective historical stream. And this could only be accomplished through a special act of cruelty, through a terrible act of cruelty. The Templars were put on trial. They were accused not only of external crimes of which they were quite certainly innocent — which can also be proven externally in history, if one is willing to see the truth, even in external history — the Templars were accused above all of having slandered Christianity, that they had blasphemed the mystery of Golgotha itself, that they had practiced idolatry, that they had introduced paganism into the service of the mystery of Golgotha, that they had not used the correct formulas during consecration, during transubstantiation, that they had even desecrated the cross. And the Templars were accused of all kinds of other, even unnatural crimes. Hundreds upon hundreds were subjected to the most cruel torture. And those who carried out the trial knew what such torture meant: the ordinary daytime consciousness of the tortured was suppressed, so that during the torture they forgot in their higher consciousness their connection with the mystery of Golgotha. But because this is the case with everyone who looks into the spiritual world, they had all experienced the temptations that arise from within the human being when he approaches the good, divine spiritual forces. All the enemies that work from the lower spiritual realm and want to lead people away from the good, that want to tempt people to evil, that can work in the instincts, in the desires, in the passions, in the emotions, but that can also work in mockery and hatred and contempt and irony toward the good—all the powers that could be called upon, the Templars had come to know them. And in many, many hours that were sacred to them, they had won those inner victories that human beings can win when they pass with clear vision through the worlds that lie beyond the threshold of the sensory world and which must be overcome so that, after overcoming them, human beings can enter with strengthened powers into the spiritual worlds that are appropriate to them.

The Templars had been deprived of their view of these spiritual worlds appropriate to human beings during their torture; their higher consciousness had been paralyzed, and during the torture their inner soul vision was directed only toward what they had experienced as something to be overcome, what was in them as a challenge, over which they had achieved victory after victory in their souls. This was forced upon their consciousness, their numb, clouded consciousness during the torture. And so it came about that these tortured Knights Templar, in the moments when they were being tortured, forgot their connection with the Mystery of Golgotha, forgot how they lived with their souls in the spiritually eternal worlds, and what they had overcome, what lived in them as a temptation, stood before them as a vision when they lay on the rack, and they confessed as a duty within the Order what they — each one individually — had overcome. They confessed as their faults what they had just experienced in such a way that they had won victory after victory over it. Each of these Templars had to appear as a human being who had been overcome in the innermost depths by each of these Templars, these true Templars — of course, there are excesses everywhere — who had to be overcome in order to attain the very best, the highest, the most sacred with higher forces. The opponents knew this. They knew that because the ordinary consciousness had been weakened, just as the mystery of Golgotha had been brought to light on the other side in the good, so now what lived in this evil consciousness was brought to light, objectified, and incorporated into human evolution. This had become a historical factor.

Thus, two currents were introduced into recent history: That which the Templars had experienced in their most sacred hours, that which they had worked out within the spiritual progressive current of humanity, but also that which had been taken from them by Ahriman-Mephistopheles, had been extracted from their consciousness in order to make it objective and thus objectively effective in the further progress of the centuries.

One can certainly raise the simple, convenient human question in response to such phenomena: Why do the divine-spiritual powers of foresight allow such things to happen? Why do they not guide humanity through the course of history without subjecting it to such painful trials? Such a thought is human, all too human; it can spring from the attitude of those who believe that the world would have been better if it had been made by humans rather than by gods. Many people believe that they can use their intellect to criticize what flows and weaves through the world as wisdom. But such thinking also leads to extreme intellectual arrogance and hubris. We humans are called upon to penetrate the mysteries of existence, but not to criticize the wise guidance of the world. Therefore, we must also gain insight into the position and significance of what is allowed as evil, as an evil current, by the wise guidance of the world. For if only good were allowed, if only good impulses were at work in historical development, humanity would never be guided toward this historical development in such a way that it could develop toward freedom. Only through the presence of evil itself in the spiritual development of human history can humanity develop toward freedom. And if the gods were to distract the human soul from evil, human beings would have to remain eternal automatons, never becoming free. It is already established in human development that even that which causes the deepest suffering and the most intense pain is ultimately led to good. Pain is only temporary, and therefore naturally no less great or deep; one must not delude oneself about pain, one must not want to indulge in a cheap, vague mysticism that does not want to see pain. One must want to experience pain, one must want to sink into pain, one must be able to unload it onto one's own soul; but one must also learn to understand, without criticizing the spiritual will to exist, how the most diverse impulses of a positive and negative nature are incorporated into the development of humanity, so that human beings become not only good, but also free with their own impulses.

Thus we see in the development, in the fate of the Templars, an important impulse for all the following centuries of modern times. If the Templars had been able to live out their lives with the intensity and strength that was intended by the great Templars, then the following humanity would not have been able to bear it. In a sense, the speed of development had to be slowed down; the stream had to be held back. But in doing so, it was also internalized. And so we see how, under the two currents we have indicated, innermost life develops alongside outer materialism in the course of modern history. For what Mephistopheles-Ahriman pushed forth through his instrument, Philip the Fair, as a Mephistophelean impulse for the next stage of human development, lived on, and lived together with much else in the materialistic attitude, and lived itself out in all the materialistic impulses that now swept over humanity in the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. And this caused what we know as materialism to live out spiritually, soulfully, and socially in the breadth of life; it caused what the karma of our days also brought forth to live out. If this had not happened, if the materialistic current had not flowed through the broad strata of life through the Mephistophelean impulse, then the connection with the spiritual world could not have been internalized to such an extent. Oh, what the Templars had achieved on the other side through their spiritual immersion in the Mystery of Golgotha lived on! And those Templar souls who, after undergoing the severe experiences on the rack—fifty-four Templars had been executed afterwards—those Templar souls who had thus passed through the gate of death, were now able to send streams of spiritual life down from the spiritual worlds to the people who lived in the following centuries. In 1312, the execution of the fifty-four Templars took place; fifty-four souls ascended into the spiritual worlds. And now, since that time, a spiritual development has been taking place within European humanity, super-sensibly, invisibly, without manifesting itself in historical facts visible to the outer eye. This development consists in the fact that individual members of the later generations are inspired from the spiritual world with what these fifty-four souls carried into the spiritual world through the gate of death.

I will mention just one example of this, which I already hinted at in the previous lecture, and which I would now like to discuss in more detail from a different perspective. Before the tragic events befell the Knights Templar, long before the year 1312, a century earlier, Wolfram von Eschenbach had written his “Parzival” in solitude, one might say, or at least only within a small circle. It is the song of that soul who, through inner purification, strives for the life that was also the ultimate goal of the Templars. In rich images and wonderful imaginings, Wolfram von Eschenbach unfolds the inner life of Parzival, whom he sees as representative of the Knights Templar. Do we see a significant external effect of “Parzival” in the historical development of the following period? No. It was Richard Wagner who, in a different way, placed Parzival into the historical development of European humanity. But what was then able to pour forth from the earth into the soul of Wolfram von Eschenbach as spiritual power, as a spiritual impulse, became an inspiration from the spiritual world for many others in the centuries that followed. And anyone who sees things inwardly, who sees the connections, the mysterious connections between sensual earthly life and spiritual life, knows how the impulses carried out into the spiritual world through the fate of the Templars flowed into Goethe's soul. It was not for nothing that Goethe began a poem in the 1880s that he never finished. It is significant that he began it; equally significant is the fact that Goethe, even Goethe, was not strong enough to translate the powerful ideas of this poem into reality. I am referring to “The Secrets,” where Brother Markus goes to a lonely castle of the Rosicrucians and enters the circle of the twelve Rosicrucians. Goethe had the basic idea, which is also found in “Parzival,” , but he was unable to complete it, indicating by his failure that we are all actually involved in this spiritual development, which Goethe only experienced in its infancy, and on which we must work and work and work so that we may continue to advance further and further in our penetration of the spiritual world and shape these beginnings further and further. Goethe devoted the best energies of his existence to this, and he also let this flow into his Faust when he wanted to describe the connection between human beings and the spiritual forces, which for him were also the Ahrimanic-Mephistophelean forces.

For those who look at history concretely in its spiritual development, it is clear that what flowed from the spiritual world into Goethe's soul on earth was what the Templars, who had passed through the gates of death in such a meaningful and cruel way, had carried up into the spiritual worlds, and precisely because because they had passed through the gates of death in this way, they were able to let it flow down as inspiration into human souls. And not only into this one soul of Goethe, although perhaps in this one in a particularly significant way, but into many other human souls, where it lives on, even if it is still little noticed by the outer world today. For how much of the spiritual in “Faust” itself has remained unnoticed by the outer world! But it lives, and lives toward an ever richer life, and will have to become ever more fruitful if humanity does not want to descend into decadence instead of upward development. However, especially in our age, what is to work in humanity in the future is given into the free hands of human beings, and humanity is faced with the choice, and will be faced with it more and more, whether it wants to enter into decadence and continue with materialism, or whether it wants to strive upward into the spiritual worlds.

For as we live on earth, we humans live only with our physical body, a life that is connected with the earth. Even the body that is woven from light and sound and life, and which is contained within this physical body, even this so-called etheric body does not live only an earthly life, but also lives the cosmic life. And when a human soul descends from the spiritual worlds into existence through birth, forces are already being arranged in the extraterrestrial cosmos which compose the etheric organism of the human being, just as the physical body of the human being is composed of the physical forces and physical substances of the earth.

In the simplest terms of humanity, pride and arrogance actually live, especially in our maternalistic age. In our materialistic age, ancestors also believe that they alone bring their descendants into existence. And as materialism spreads, people will believe more and more that it is the ancestors alone who bring their descendants into existence. Spiritually speaking, it is different. Human beings here on earth merely provide the opportunity for the spiritual to descend to them. What human beings can do as ancestors consists solely in preparing the place through which an etheric body, which is preparing itself in forces from the vastness of the cosmos, can descend to earth. This etheric organism is just as organized a being as the physical organism of the human being. We see the physical organism of the human being with our head, with our arms, with our hands, with our torso, with everything that it presents to the anatomist and the physiologist. As we know, this physical organism is permeated and illuminated by the etheric organism. The physical organism breathes in air and breathes out air. The etheric organism breathes out light, and this light it gives to us. And by breathing out light and distributing it to us, we live through its light. And it breathes in light. Just as we breathe air in and out, so our etheric body breathes light in and out. And by breathing in light, it processes the light within itself, just as we physically process the air within us. You can read about this in my Mystery Dramas, where this secret of the etheric world is dramatically developed at a certain point. The etheric body breathes in light, processes the light within itself into darkness, and in this darkness it can take in the world tone that lives in the harmony of the spheres as its nourishment, and can take in the life impulses. Just as we take in physical food, so the etheric being that lives within us breathes in and out light. Just as we process the air within us as oxygen and turn it into carbon dioxide, so the etheric body processes light and permeates it with darkness, causing it to appear in colors, and the etheric body appears to us, with clairvoyant vision, in undulating colors. But while the etheric body prepares the light for darkness and thereby performs inner breathing work for itself, it lives by absorbing the world tone and processing the world tone into world life. But what we thus take in as our etheric body comes down to us at certain times from the vastness of the cosmos.

It is not yet possible today to point out the circumstances under which the human etheric body descends on the paths of light when these paths of light are guided in a certain way by the constellations of the stars. In order for this to be said, human beings must first rise to a higher level of morality. For today, if people knew about this mystery of the human etheric bodies being drawn in by the harmony of light and sound in the spheres, they would misuse it in the most terrible way. For this mystery contains everything that, if people with base instincts wanted to appropriate it, would give their ancestors unlimited power over all their descendants. You will therefore believe that this mystery, how the etheric bodies come to the people who incarnate themselves on light paths and on the paths of the tones from the harmony of the spheres, that this mystery must remain a mystery for a long time to come. Only under very specific conditions can anything be known about this mystery; for if these conditions were not fulfilled, human beings would, as already said, acquire power over their descendants that would be unheard of, whereby the descendants could be completely deprived of their free independence, personality, and individuality, and the will of their ancestors could be imposed on them. This is wisely veiled in unconsciousness for humanity and thrives quite well in unconsciousness through the will of the wise world guidance.

But our etheric body takes other paths than the physical body. After we have passed through the gate of death, we carry this etheric body for only a few days; then we must return it to the cosmos. Only as an image in the cosmos, in the spiritual realm, does the etheric body remain for our further life, which we go through between death and a new birth. But our etheric body is incorporated into the cosmos in various ways: in one way in those people who die early through misfortune or who otherwise die early, and in another way in those people who reach a ripe old age. But when we look over into the world that lies beyond the threshold, we know that both the earlier death and the later death have great significance in the whole cosmic context. For what we give up as our etheric body continues to work, now working spiritually.

Yes, basically, when you look at it more deeply, we all become the same age. Physically, one dies earlier, the other later. Spiritually speaking, we all become the same age. If we die early, our physical body perishes early; but the etheric body lives on for the cosmos, and precisely because we died early, this etheric body has different functions for the cosmos than if we had died late. If we add up the years we live in the physical body and in the etheric body as human beings, and consider what we do in the physical body as earthly deeds, what we do in the etheric body, even after death, and what we do not for ourselves but for the cosmos, for the world, as heavenly deeds, if we add all this up according to the years: we find that all people are approximately the same age.

But by doing something like this, as the Templars did, something else is achieved than if we humans only lead individual lives. What we live as individual lives remains within our person; what we live as such lives, which can be objectively separated, as on the one hand from the soul of the Templars, what they were able to do for the propagation of the mystery of Golgotha, and on the other hand, what has happened through Mephistophelean-Ahrimanic forces for the impulses of the newer materialism, also lives on, in a sense, as pieces of the etheric body. But it is incorporated into the historical process, so that some of what the human being lives in his etheric body lives on with human individuality, and some of it is incorporated into the historical process when things are torn away from the human being in the manner described. But the etheric body is the means, the medium through which that which the human being lives so objectively in his soul can step out of his soul, through which that which has become so objectified has points of reference for continuing to live. That is the etheric body.

What flowed into the etheric world from the spiritual impulses of the Templars continued to live on in the ether; and through this continued life in the ether, many souls were prepared to receive the inspirations I have described, which come from the spiritual worlds of the Templar souls themselves. This is the concrete process that has taken place in recent times.

However, what flowed from the souls of the Templars was increasingly permeated, especially in the breadth of life, by what flows from Mephistophelean-Ahrimanic impulses, which is saturated with the Mephistophelean-Ahrimanic element, which was inaugurated on the torture benches of the Templars by their being forced to make false statements about themselves under torture. This is not the only reason, but it is one of the spiritual reasons for modern materialism. This is something that must be understood if one wants to understand the inner meaning of modern materialistic development.

Thus it came about that in recent times some were inspired with high spiritual truths, but that the general culture took on an increasingly materialistic character, so that more and more the soul's view of what surrounds us spiritually became clouded, and into which we enter through the gate of death, from which we emerged through the gate of birth. Distracted more and more from this in the most diverse areas of life, in the spiritual realm, in the religious realm, in the social realm, humanity became distracted from looking into the spiritual. Its gaze became more and more directed only toward what presents itself to the senses as the material, physical world. Thus it came about that since the dawn of modern times, humanity has gone through many, many errors. But let us not judge critically the fact that humanity has gone through errors. Precisely because errors became ingrained in human development, human beings had to experience these errors, and they will gradually see them and, in overcoming these errors, gain stronger forces than if they had simply been automatically instilled with the path they should follow. But today the time has come when we must recognize how the impulses to error live in the spiritual realm, and humanity today is dependent on making more and more free decisions to see through and overcome these errors.

No historical event is to be condemned, but only viewed objectively. The historical events of recent times developed in such a way that people's thoughts and feelings lived only according to external physical reality, only according to what human beings experience between birth and death. Even religious life gradually took on a personal character, focusing on providing people with the means to attain salvation through their own souls. The newer religious life, which increasingly distracts people's attention from the concrete spiritual world, is permeated in many ways by materialistic attitudes and materialistic feelings. As I said, no historical phenomenon is to be condemned, but it must be presented as it must be understood if the coming humanity is not to fall into decadence but to undergo an upward movement.

We see the tide of materialism rising alongside what I would call a hidden parallel tide, and we see a momentous event occurring at the end of the 18th century, an event that has shaped the entire 19th century and continues to do so today: at the end of the 18th century, we see the French Revolution sweeping across European culture. Much of what happened was as historians have described, that it lives on in the French Revolution. But in order to understand what we know so far about this French Revolution and what impulses it set in motion, we must also understand what becomes spiritually of the materialistic impulses, of the Ahrimanic-Mephistophelean impulses. The French Revolution strove — as I said, a historical event should not be condemned, but understood — for a highest good; but it strove for a highest good at a time when the shadows of the event I have characterized today still fell heavily upon it, the event through which Mephistopheles-Ahriman had become powerful, sending the materialistic impulse into European life. And so the best people who inaugurated the French Revolution, even if they thought they believed something else in their consciousness — it does not matter whether one professes this or that with words, but what matters is that one has a living, soul-living consciousness of what is at work in the world — the best people who inaugurated the French Revolution had only an awareness of the physical plane. They certainly strove for the highest, but they knew nothing of the Trinity in man: of the body, which works through the etheric principle in man; of the soul, which works through the astral principle; of the spirit, which works in man primarily through the I.

At the end of the 18th century, people already viewed human beings in the same way as today's materialistic science, physiology, and biology view them, to the detriment of humanity. Human beings were viewed in such a way that, even if one had a religious inkling of a spiritual life, one's gaze was directed only toward what was visible — one might have spoken about the other, but one's concrete gaze was directed toward what was lived out in the physical world between birth and death. One can understand what is lived out here, even if one does not yet fully understand it today, if one focuses only on the outer physical body. But what lives in the whole human being can only be understood if one knows how the etheric principle, the astral principle, and the I-principle are connected with the outer physical body. For even as we stand here in the physical world between birth and death, the spiritual-soul life that belongs to the spiritual worlds lives within us. We are body, soul, and spirit here, and when we have passed through the gate of death, we will again be a trinity as human beings, only with a different spiritual body. So, anyone who only looks at earthly humans as physical beings living out their lives between birth and death is not looking at the whole human being and is making a mistake about the whole human being. And if they then set up a human ideal for physical humans alone, this ideal will not fit the whole human being. We must not look at the events that happen in the world as being wrong in themselves. What appears is already the truth; but the way in which human beings view it and use it in their own actions often causes confusion. And so, at the end of the 18th century, confusion arose in people's souls because everything was projected into the body, so to speak, and ideals that only make sense if one regards human beings as a trinity were sought for a human being who is merely a physical monon.

And so it came to pass that beautiful ideals swirled around people at the end of the 18th century: brotherhood, freedom, equality! Beautiful ideals buzzed through humanity, but they buzzed through humanity at a time when they could not be understood, when the physical, the soul, and the spiritual were confused because they were all understood as they are understood by people who in truth believe only in the physical human body. For the physical human body, only brotherhood is rightly considered an ideal, and freedom only makes sense when it is related to the human soul, and equality only makes sense when it is related to the spirit, as the spirit lives out in humanity as the I. Only when we know that human beings consist of body, soul, and spirit, and that of the three ideals of the late 18th century, brotherhood refers to the body, freedom to the soul, and equality to the I, can we speak in a sense that corresponds to the inner meaning of the spiritual world. We can develop brotherhood insofar as we, as physical human beings, have physical earthly bodies, and when we incorporate brotherhood into social orders, then brotherhood is a right for the social order on the physical plane. Human beings can only acquire freedom in the soul insofar as they incarnate themselves on earth with the soul. Freedom reigns on earth and is only possible on earth—as Goethe also wanted to express in his beautiful fairy tale of the green snake and the beautiful lily—when it is related to human souls who live in such orders on earth that they acquire the ability to maintain the balance between the lower and higher forces. If, as a human being, one is able to maintain a balance between the lower and higher forces of the human soul, then one develops those forces that can live here between birth and death; one also develops those forces that are needed when passing through the gate of death. And so, in addition to the social order, a spiritual order is necessary on earth in which souls can embed themselves so that they develop the forces of freedom that we can carry through the gate of death, which we will only be able to carry through the gate of death if we prepare ourselves for life after death in this life here. That such spiritual communication be established from soul to soul on earth, that souls may develop such powers that all events in human life from early childhood, that all forms of science, all forms of art, all forms of human creativity strive toward the ideal, that the human being as a soul be able to maintain a balance between what is spiritually active and alive and what what is physically active and alive here, must become an ideal. Man becomes free when he is able to acquire such soul forces in the outer physical world as he can acquire, for example, when he is able to pursue the beautiful forms that live in art that truly comes from the spiritual. Human beings become free when the relationship between souls is such that one soul is able to follow another with ever greater understanding and ever greater love. When it comes to bodies, brotherhood comes into consideration. When it comes to souls, consideration must be given to the development of those delicate bonds that develop from soul to soul, which must also live their way into the structure of earthly life, but which must lead to the establishment of interest, deep, deep interest in one soul for another soul. For only in this way can souls become free, and only souls can become free.

Equality conceived for the external physical world is nonsense, for equality would be uniformity. Everything in the world is in transformation, everything is bound in numbers, everything in the world must live out its life in multiplicity and diversity. The physical world exists so that the spiritual can pass through the multiplicity of forms. But one thing remains the same in our manifold and diverse human life, because it is first of all a beginning. We have carried the rest of our humanity within us since the Saturn, Sun, and Moon ages, but the I only since the Earth age. The I is in the beginning! During our entire life between birth and death, we do not advance in the spiritual realm beyond saying “I” to ourselves and feeling this “I.” Human beings can only see this either outside the body, here between birth and death, through initiation, or when they pass through the gate of death, where they then see the “I” spiritually in their memory of their earthly body. But through this I, all diversity lives out its life here on earth. And the structure of earthly life must be designed in such a way that it is possible for all the diversities that can enter the earth through human individualities to live out their lives through the same I's. One person lives this, another that, and a third represents yet another individuality. All these individualities gather in their rays of activity in the focus, in the focal point of the I, equally; but this fact that we are equal makes it possible that through this I passes what we communicate to each other as spirits, that we develop a common life of humanity. Through what is the same, what is different passes. Thus, spiritual equality is the foundation of that which does not enter the whole stream of cosmic-spiritual becoming through an individual human being, but rather, through our ego, through our spirit, that which is set in our manifold life passes through us, becomes something common, and continues as a common stream in cosmic becoming.

Equality befits the spirit. And a generation will only understand how the three ideals of brotherhood, freedom, and equality can take root in humanity when it understands that human beings carry this threefold nature of body, soul, and spirit within themselves. That this could not be understood in the 18th century and throughout the 19th century was still a consequence of the strength of the Ahrimanic-Mephistophelean stream, which entered into the newer human evolution in the way I have described to you. The 18th century confused equality, freedom, and brotherhood by applying them solely to external physical life. As the 19th century understood it, this can only result in chaos, social chaos. And humanity would have to step into this social chaos if it did not take up spiritual science, spiritual life, which will lead to the understanding that the human being is a threefold being, which will establish a structure of earthly life for the threefold human being.

Human beings, or humanity, had to go through materialism; their forces would have been too weak for the period that followed if humanity had not gone through materialism. For the development of humanity is indeed remarkable. Yesterday I gave you an example from astronomy. Today, in conclusion, let me give you an example from which you will see how complicated humanity's passage through becoming earthly is, I mean through earthly life as a whole, when we look at the matter spiritually. You know that we are now living in the fifth period of the age, which I will designate with this line (it is drawn), which we call the fifth age of the earth, the post-Atlantean age. Our period was preceded by the Greek-Roman period. The post-Atlantean period was preceded by the age that was repeated in the Greek-Roman period, but which is separated from the post-Atlantean age by the great Atlantean flood, which geology calls the Ice Age. We call this the Atlantean age; the Greek-Roman age is only a repetition of it, a spiritualized repetition. This Atlantic age was preceded by the Lemurian age, which in turn is separated from the Atlantic age by a catastrophe. And then we come to earlier ages, which we do not wish to consider further.

Let us now take a brief look at an event of the Lemurian age. There was a certain point in evolution, thousands and thousands of years ago, when humanity on Earth was very different from what it is today. From the way I have described the evolution of humanity on Earth in “An Outline of Esoteric Science,” you know how impulses gradually enter into humanity. There was a point in evolution when what we now know as magnetic and, in particular, electrical forces became established within human beings from the cosmos. For magnetic and electrical forces also live within us in a mysterious way. Before this age, in the Lemurian epoch, human beings lived on Earth without the magnetic and electrical forces that develop spiritually in their nervous system, between the effects of the nerves and the effects of the blood. These forces were incorporated into them. We will disregard the magnetic forces, and we will also disregard a certain part of the electrical forces. Now, because these forces, which I will refer to as electrical forces in galvanism, voltaism, and so on, that is, those forces that today have such a profound impact on culture, were embedded in the human organism in primeval times and were connected with human life, these forces were able to remain unknown to human consciousness for a time. Human beings carried them within themselves, but they remained unknown to them externally. Now, we already learned about the magnetic forces and other electrical forces besides galvanism and voltaism earlier. For galvanism, contact electricity, which more than we realize today imposes its karma on our age from outside, was, as you know, only discovered at the turn of the 18th to the 19th century by Galvani and Volta. People usually think far too little about such things. Just think, this Galvani prepared a frog's leg. By accidentally attaching it to the window, as they say, and allowing the frog's leg to come into contact with iron, it twitched. That was the beginning of all the discoveries, all the inventions that today dominate our earth through electric current! It has only been such a short time. One does not usually think about it: How is it that humanity did not know such a thing before? Suddenly, in a quite wonderful way, this thought arises in a human being; this person is struck by this thought. Our materialistic age does not think about such things, of course. But that is why our materialistic age understands nothing scientifically about the real development of the world. The truth is this:

After humanity had passed through the Lemurian epoch, when it implanted within itself those forces, or received the forces that today pass through the wires in the form of electricity and work invisibly within human beings, after this epoch had passed, electricity lived, so to speak, within human beings. Now, development does not proceed as one might easily imagine, with a simple line. One only believes that time moves forward, flowing into infinity. But that is a completely abstract idea. In reality, time moves forward in such a way that it continues to move, that development is reversed and runs backward. These movements take place not only in space in the lemniscate, but also in time.

AltName

During the Lemurian epoch (the intersection of the lemniscate movement, see drawing), humanity implanted the principle of electrical power within itself. It followed this path (blue) during the Atlantean epoch and, in relation to certain forces, arrived at the turning point of the 18th and 19th centuries at the exact point in world evolution where it had been in the ancient Lemurian epoch when it implanted the principle of electricity into itself from the cosmos. And that is why Galvani discovered electricity at that time! In later times, people always return to what they have already experienced; all life proceeds cyclically, rhythmically. As humanity, we stood, in a sense, at the center of the materialistic period that had developed since the 14th and 15th centuries, at the point in the universe that we had once passed through during the Lemurian epoch. And the whole of humanity remembered the advent of electricity in humans, and so this memory imbued human culture with the electrical principle. That which lives as soul and spirit in humans found again what it had once experienced. Such truths will have to become clear to humanity once again, for only with these truths will it be possible to avoid the decadence of the future.

AltName

Under the influence of the inspirations I have spoken of today, certain spirits arrived at such truths. For it is precisely the existence of different currents that causes human beings to follow such paths. If, for example, only the kind of current desired by the Templars had prevailed, a different development would have taken place. But because the other current, the Mephistophelean one, was added—it was there from the beginning, but it was renewed by the fate of the Templars—humanity was led into materialism at precisely this time, just as it was led into it. These Mephistophelean-Ahrimanic forces are necessary in human evolution. And I said: Certain spirits are led by the inspiration that comes from the Rosicrucian Templar principle, which comes from the spiritual world, to recognize this principle that I mean here.

And don't think that a great poet, a truly great poet who creates out of the spiritual world, puts his words down in such a way that people today sometimes believe they can take these words superficially! No, a poet like Goethe, for example, knows what lies in words, knows that words convey something that carries people and, with people, carries the spirit, allowing the spirit to sound through the human person. Person? — That reminds us of persona! Persona is the word that originated from the Greek word for the mask worn by actors, through which their voices sounded: personare means to sound through. All this is closely connected with the further development of the word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word was not in man; but the human personality is connected with it.

But the whole development is driven forward by the fact that not only the good forces are at work, but also the other forces. And a man like Goethe, even if partly unconsciously but under inspiration, expressed the deepest, most significant great truths precisely in a work of poetry such as Faust. When the Lord is talking with Mephistopheles in the “Prologue in Heaven,” the Lord finally says to Mephistopheles that he has nothing against his work. He allows this Mephistopheles-Ahriman to exist because he must be part of the development of the world. Through him, that which “provokes and works and must create as the devil” must be present. But then the Lord turns his voice away from him and addresses the “true sons of God,” who advance normal development and with whom the other stream of development cooperates. And what does the Lord say to these true sons of God?

But you, the true sons of God,
Rejoice in the living, rich beauty!
The becoming, which eternally works and lives,
Encircle yourselves with the lovely barriers of love,
And what floats in fluctuating appearance,
Fortify with lasting thoughts!

The Lord gives his sons the direct command to establish lasting thoughts in the places of the world! Such a lasting thought was established in the world when the electrical principle was implanted in man, and humanity was led back to the lasting thought when it discovered the electrical principle and implanted it in materialistic culture. This is a thought of tremendous depth:

That which is becoming, which eternally works and lives,
Encompass yourselves with the lovely barriers of love,
And that which floats in fluctuating appearance,
Secure with lasting thoughts!

And a deep feeling seizes our soul when the mystery of lasting thoughts works upon us; for then we feel how the eternal is present here and there in the world as lasting thoughts, how we belong to the world of movement, and how we pass through what is “transformed into fluctuating appearances” as enduring thoughts, as the eternally active and weaving beauty that reveals itself so that we may grasp it at the right moment.

And so may the right moment come for humanity in the near future, as it is predestined, if it does not want to fall into decadence. May it understand that it must pass through the next point, which will again reverse materialism into its opposite, pass through the point where the great thoughts of the spiritual world can shine into humanity, for which this humanity wants to prepare itself in those of its personalities who, through their karma, have already been allowed to come to spiritual science today. To draw attention to the fact that even the materialistic age, which has found the enduring thought that Ahriman-Mephistopheles placed in modern development in its final form, must be supplemented by what can be experienced in passing through a spiritual, enduring thought, and to point out that humanity must not fail to grasp this spiritual thought, will be the ever-recurring task of spiritual scientific work and striving. Therefore, we must not tire of reminding people again and again that the time for humanity to grasp spiritual science must not be missed.