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The Karma of Vocation
GA 172

6 November 1916, Dornach

Lecture III

Now, I wish to approach the problem we are dealing with in these reflections from another point of departure. In spiritual science we must proceed so that we encircle the problem, in a sense, and approach it from various points and directions. When we observe a life such as Goethe's, one thing must strike us that may become a profound riddle in the evolution of humanity. This is so even when we take into consideration repeated lives on earth and include them in our deliberation of the molding of a human life. The problem is this: What is the reason that individuals such as Goethe are capable of creating something so significant out of their inner nature, as he did especially through his Faust, and through this exert so important an influence on the rest of humanity? How does it happen that certain individuals are separated from the rest of humanity and are summoned by cosmic destiny to do something of such significance? We compare such an important life and work with that of each individual and ask ourselves: What conclusion can be drawn from the difference between these individual lives and the lives of these preeminent persons?

This question can be answered only when we observe life somewhat more thoroughly with the tools provided by spiritual science. To begin with, all that a person can know, especially in our time, is intended to conceal and disguise certain things and to keep unprejudiced reflections out of touch with them. This often makes it necessary in the sphere of spiritual science to adapt what we say to what can be understood by others.

Now, the description we generally give in spiritual science is that man consists of physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego. In explaining the alternation between waking and sleeping, we say that in the waking state the ego and astral body are within the physical and etheric bodies but, during sleep, the ego and astral body are outside. This is adequate for a primary understanding, and it corresponds exactly with the spiritual scientific facts. But the truth is that we give only a part of the full reality in this description. We can never encompass the full reality in just one description, and thus we exhaust only part of anything we describe. We always need to seek light from other sources in order to properly illumine the part of reality already described. Here it must be stated that, speaking generally, sleeping and waking are really a sort of cyclic movement. Strictly speaking, the ego and astral body are outside the physical and etheric bodies in sleep only in being outside the head. Because the ego and astral body in sleep are outside the physical and etheric head, they bring about a more vivid activity in the rest of the human organization. It is, indeed, during sleep, when the ego and astral body are working from without upon the human being, that everything in him that does not belong to the head but to other parts of his organization is subjected to a far stronger influence of the ego and astral body than when he is awake. It may even be said that the action that the ego and astral body bring to bear upon the head in the waking state is exerted upon the rest of the organism during sleep. We can, therefore, rightly compare the ego with the sun, which illumines our environment during the day but during the night, it not only is outside of us but lights the other side of the earth. So, likewise, is it day in the rest of our organism when it is night for our sensory perception, which is primarily connected with the head; reciprocally, it is night for the rest of our organism when it is day for our head; that is, the rest of our organism is more or less withdrawn from the ego and astral body when we are awake. If we wish to understand the entire human being, this is something that must also be added to illumine the full reality.

Now, it is important to grasp correctly the connection of the psychic with the physical in man if we wish to understand properly what I have just told you. I have often stressed the fact that the nervous system of the physical organism is a unified organization, and it is really sheer nonsense, impossible to prove anatomically, to classify the nerves as sensory and motor. They are organized as a unity and all have one function. The so-called motor nerves are distinguished from the so-called sensory only to the extent that the sensory nerves are arranged to serve our perception of the outer world whereas the motor nerves serve for the perception of our organism. It is not the function of a motor nerve to cause my hand to move, for example; this is sheer nonsense. It exists for the purpose of perceiving my hand's movement from within. The sensory nerves, however, serve in the perception of the outer world. This is their sole distinction. As you know, our nervous system is divided into three branches: those nerves whose main center is the brain, centered in the head, the nerves that are centered in the spinal cord, and the nerves that belong to the ganglionic system [autonomic nervous system]. These are, in essence, the three kinds of nerves, and the important point is to know how they are related to the spiritual members of our organism.

Which is the finest and most advanced member of the nervous system and which the least? Quite obviously, those who adhere to the ordinary scientific world conception will answer that the nervous system of the brain is naturally the noblest because it distinguishes man from the animal. But such is not the case. This nervous system of the brain is really connected with the entire organization of the etheric body. Obviously, additional relationships exist everywhere so that our brain system is naturally related to the astral body or the ego. But these are secondary relationships. Those between our nervous system of the brain and our etheric body are the primary, original ones. This has nothing to do with the view I once presented in which I explained that the entire nervous system has been brought into existence with the help of the astral body. This is something quite different and must be kept quite distinct. In its original potentiality, the nervous system was brought into existence during the Moon period. It has evolved further, however, and other relationships have been introduced since its first formation, so that our brain system really has its most intimate and important relationship with our etheric body. The spinal cord system has its most intimate and primary relationships with our present astral body, and the ganglionic system is related with the actual ego. These are the primary relationships as they now exist.

Considering all this, we shall readily see that an especially active relationship exists during the state of sleep between our ego and ganglionic system, which extends throughout the trunk of the body, ensheathing the spinal cord, etc. But these relationships are lessened during the waking life of day. They are more intimate during sleep, as are the relationships between the astral body and spinal cord nerves. We may say, then, that during sleep especially intimate relationships obtain between our astral body and the nerves of the spinal cord, and between our ego and ganglionic system. To a greater or lesser degree, we live during sleep, as regards our ego, in a strong connection with our ganglionic system. Someday, through a thorough study of the puzzling world of dreams, people will come to know what I am here pointing out on the basis of spiritual scientific investigation.

Taking this into consideration, you will arrive at a transition to another essential, important thought. Something significant for our life must be due to the rhythmical alternation that occurs in the living union between the ego and the ganglionic system, and between the astral body and the spinal cord system. This rhythmical alternation is identical with the alternation of sleeping and waking. Thus, you will not be surprised when the statement is made that, just because the ego is really so truly in the ganglionic system and the astral body is so truly in the spinal cord system, man wakes in relation to the ganglionic and spinal cord systems during sleep, and sleeps in this relationship while awake. Here we can only ask how it comes about that so little is known of that vivid state of waking that must really be developed during sleep. Well, when you consider how man has come to be, that his ego has taken its place in him only during earthly existence and is, therefore, really the baby among his human members, it will not then seem amazing that this ego life cannot yet bring to consciousness what it experiences in the ganglionic system during sleep, whereas it can bring into full consciousness what it experiences when it is in the head, which is primarily the result of all those impulses that were at work during the Moon, Sun, etc., periods.

What the ego can bring to consciousness depends on the instrument it can use. That used during the night is still comparatively delicate. As I have pointed out in previous lectures, the rest of the organism really developed later than the head, has only been added later, and is an appendage of the fully developed head organism. When we say that relative to his physical body, man has passed through longer or shorter stages beginning with Saturn, we are referring only to his head. What is attached to his head is in many ways a later formation of the Moon period, and even of the earth. It is for this reason that the vivid life that is developed during sleep, and that has its organic seat to a large extent in the spinal cord and ganglionic systems, enters consciousness at first only in a small degree. But it is not because of this a less significantly vivid life. One can say with equal justification that during sleep the possibility is offered to man to descend into his ganglionic system and that in the waking state the possibility is given to ascend to his senses and brain system. You will surely say, “How this complicates and confuses everything that we have acquired!” Man, however, is a complicated being and we do not learn to understand him when we fail to permit these complex complications to work upon us.

Now just suppose that what I have described regarding Goethe actually happens to someone and his etheric body is loosened. Then an entirely different relationship comes about during the waking life between his soul-spiritual and his organic-physical nature. As I expressed it yesterday, he is put on a sort of isolated pedestal. But such an effect can never come about without being followed by another. It is important to bear in mind that such a relationship does not occur one-sidedly, but brings about another. If one expresses what I characterized yesterday somewhat more crudely, we may even say that the loosening of the etheric body influences the entire waking life in a certain way, but this cannot happen without also influencing the sleeping life. The result is simply that the person comes into looser relationships with his brain impressions. Because of this, he enters into more intimate relationships during the waking state with his spinal cord nerves and ganglionic system. At the time that Goethe fell ill, he developed, as it were, a looser relationship with his brain but at the same time he experienced a more intimate relationship with his ganglionic and spinal cord systems.

What is actually happening as a result of this experience? What does it mean to say that a more intimate relationship comes about with the ganglionic and spinal cord systems? It means that the individual enters into an entirely different relationship with the external world. We are, of course, always in the most intimate relationship with the outer world, but we merely fail to observe how intimate the relationship is. But I have often called your attention to the fact that the air that you hold within you at one moment is, in the next, outside, and then different air is taken in. Thus, what is outside takes on the form of the body and unites with it when you inhale. It is only seemingly true that the organism is distinct from the external world. It is a member of it and belongs to it. If, therefore, such a modification in an individual's relationship to the external world occurs as has been described, it makes itself felt strongly in his life. Indeed, it may be said that in such a personality as Goethe's, the lower nature, which we generally connect with the spinal cord and ganglionic systems, must come to the fore all the more strongly through this process. As the forces draw back from the head, the ganglionic and spinal cord systems take possession of them in larger measure.

An understanding for what really happens here is acquired only when we permeate ourselves with the knowledge that what we call the intellect and reason is not really so closely bound up with our individuality as is ordinarily assumed. It is clear that contemporary basic conceptions of these things are completely wrong; in part, it is in these matters that contemporary views are least frequently right. This has been especially evident in the muddle-headed behavior by some people in our age, including members of the most learned circles, when they tried to interpret their experiences with so-called dogs, apes, horses, etc. As you know, reports came out of the blue and were circulated about educated horses that can speak and do all sorts of things, about a highly educated dog that made a great stir in Mannheim, and an educated monkey in the Frankfurt zoo that had been taught to do arithmetic, as well as other things that one cannot mention in polite society. The Frankfurt chimpanzee, in other words, has been trained in certain natural necessities to behave like humans rather than monkeys. I will not pursue this further, but all this caused the greatest astonishment, not only among laymen, but also among professionals. They were actually enraptured, especially when the Mannheim dog, after one of its beloved offspring died, wrote a letter telling how this dear puppy would be together with the archetypal soul, what it would be like and so on. That dog wrote a most intelligent letter.

Well, we need not elaborate on these specially complicated expressions of intelligence, but what stands out is that all these various animals performed feats of arithmetic. A great deal of attention was then given to the investigation of what such animals can achieve. Something quite unusual came to light in the case of the Frankfurt ape. It was possible to witness that when he was given a problem in addition to which he had to find a definite answer he pointed to the correct number in a series placed side by side. It was then discovered that this educated ape had simply formed the habit of being guided by the direction of the glance of his trainer. Then some of those who had previously been astonished said, “He has no trace of a mind; his training is everything!” In other words, the animal was taking his direction from his trainer and followed nothing more than a somewhat complicated training procedure. Just as a dog fetches a stone when it is thrown, so did the ape produce from the series of numbers the one indicated by the glance of his trainer.

Upon more thorough investigation, similar findings will undoubtedly be obtained in experiments with the other animals. Whatever, we cannot suppress our astonishment that people are so amazed when animals perform something that is seemingly human. How much more objective understanding, how much intellect, is actually associated with the so-called instinctual behavior in animals. As a matter of fact, the enormously important achievements and profoundly significant connections in the animal realm cause us to admire the wisdom underlying all happenings. We do not have wisdom merely in our heads; wisdom surrounds us everywhere like light, working everywhere, even through the animal kingdom. In the presence of such unusual phenomena as we have mentioned, only those people are astonished who have not seriously dealt with scientific developments. To all those who today are writing such learned tracts on the Mannheim dog and other dogs, on horses and the Frankfurt ape, along with much else because these are not unique—to all these I should like to read a passage from Comparative Psychology by Carus59 The philosopher and physician Gustav Carus (1789–1869) wrote the book Vergleichende Psychologie oder Geischichte der Seele in der Reihenfolge der Tierwelt [Comparative Psychology or History of the Soul in the Order of the Animal World] (Vienna, 1866). that was published as early as 1866. Since they are not here, I will read the passage to you. Carus writes:

... When, therefore, the dog, for example, has long been treated with kindness and affection by his master, the human traits imprint themselves upon the animal quite objectively, even though it has no conception of goodness as such; they blend with the sensory image of this person that the dog has often seen and cause the animal to recognize him, even apart from the sense of sight, merely through scent or hearing, as the one from whom something good once came to him. If, therefore, some suffering befalls this man, if he is even deprived, perhaps, of the possibility of continuing his kindness to the dog, the animal feels this as something evil inflicted upon him and is moved thereby to rage and revenge; all this occurs without any abstract thinking whatever, but only through the succession of one sensory image after another.

It is certainly true that for the dog sensory image follows sensory image; however, intelligence and wisdom are at the bottom of the phenomenon per se. Carus continues as follows:

Yet is it strange how closely actual thinking is approached and may be resembled in its results by such a peculiar weaving together, separating and again joining together of the images of the inner sense. Thus, I once saw a well-trained white poodle (this was not the Mannheim dog because this book was written in 1866) that correctly picked out and placed together letters for words spoken to him. He also seemed to solve simple problems in arithmetic by bringing together figures written, as were the letters, on separate sheets of paper, seemed to be able to count how many ladies were present in the company, and did other similar things. Of course, if all this had depended upon a real understanding of number as a mathematical concept, it would not have been possible without actual reflection. It turned out, however, that the dog had simply been trained to pick up, on a slight gesture or sound from his master, the paper bearing the required letter or number from the series of sheets laid before him. Upon another indication through an equally slight sound, like the clicking of the thumbnail against the nail of another finger, he would lay the sheet down in another row, thus performing what seemed to be a miracle.60 Cams concludes the passage with a note: “Horses have been observed to accomplish similar feats; in fact, I have seen canaries do the same thing, although not quite as completely.“

You see, not only the phenomenon, but also its explanation has long been known. Only now has this explanation been furnished again by the scientists because people pay no attention to what has been accomplished in the past. It is only for this reason that such things occur, and they bear testimony, not to our advanced science, but to our advanced ignorance!

On the other hand, certain objections have rightly been raised. If we had only these explanations (as we have heard them today) they might be considered equally naive, because Hermann Bahr61 Herman Bahr (1863–1934) was a Viennese writer. has quite correctly reminded us of the following. Herr Pfungst62 Oskar Pfungst, Das Pferd des Herrn von Osten [Mr. von Osten's Horse] (Leipzig, 1907). demonstrated that the horses reacted to extremely slight cues made unconsciously and unperceived by their trainers. But Herr Pfungst was able to perceive these exceedingly slight gestures only after he had worked for a long time in his physiological laboratory constructing an apparatus to detect them. Bahr justifiably raises the objection that it was certainly most peculiar that only the horse should be clever enough to observe the gestures, whereas a university instructor had to work for years constructing an apparatus to do so—I believe it took him ten or more years. In all such things there is obviously a bit of truth, but we must simply view them in the right way.

With the proper perception, one can obviously explain such phenomena only when one thinks of objective wisdom and understanding as qualities that, along with instinctive behavior, have been instilled in things, and when one thinks of an animal as part of a complete system of interrelated objective wisdom permeating the world. In other words, they can be explained only when we are no longer limited to the idea that wisdom has come into the world through man alone, but recognize that wisdom is to be found throughout the universe. Man, by reason of his special organization, is able to perceive more of this wisdom than other beings, and is thus distinguished from them. Because of his organization, he can perceive more than they, but through the wisdom implanted in them, they can perform wisdom-filled tasks as he can. It is, however, a different kind of wisdom. The phenomena of these unusual expressions of wisdoms are really far less important to serious observers of the world than the phenomena that are always spread out before their eyes. These are far more important and, if you take this into consideration, you will no longer find incomprehensible what I am about to say.

An animal, far more intensely than man, fits into the universal wisdom and is quite intimately united with it. Its orders, so to speak, are far more compulsory than those of man. Human beings are much freer, and so it is possible for them to reserve forces for the cognition of interrelationships. The essential point is that the physical body of an animal—especially the higher ones—is fitted into the same universal interrelationships as man's etheric body. Thus, man knows more of the cosmic relationships, but animals are far more intimately united with them; they are far closer to, and more interwoven with, them. Therefore, if you take this objectively dominant reason into consideration tell yourself this: “We are surrounded not only by air and light but also by governing reason; we do not move merely through illumined space but also through the space of wisdom and governing reason.” You will then fully understand what it means for a person to be fitted into the world in regard to the finer relationships of his or her organs, and not just in an ordinary way. In normal life, a man, for example, is joined to spiritual cosmic relationship in such a fashion that the connection between his ego and ganglionic system, and between his astral body and spinal cord system, are greatly impaired during the waking life of day. But because these connections are subdued, he is not too attentive in ordinary, normal life to what is going on around him. It would be possible for him to observe this only if he really should see with his ganglionic system as he otherwise perceives with his head.

If, however, as in the special case of Goethe, the astral body is brought into a more vivid relationship with the spinal cord system and the ego with the ganglionic, because the ether body has withdrawn from the head, then far more vivid intercourse occurs with what is going on in our surroundings. But it is concealed from us in normal life because it is only while we are asleep at night that we enter into relationship with our spiritual environment. Here you arrive at an understanding of how the things Goethe has written were for him genuine perceptions, and although these could naturally not have been so clear as our sensory perceptions of the external world, yet they are clearer than the perceptions that an ordinary man has of his spiritual environment. Now, what did Goethe perceive in this way with special vividness? Let us grasp this point clearly through a special instance.

Through the complications of his particular karma, Goethe was destined to enter a life of scholarship and knowledge differently from an ordinary scholar. What did he experience through this? You see, for many centuries it has been so that a man who grows into intimate union with a life of learning has experienced a significant discord. To be sure, today it is more concealed than in Goethe's time, but it nevertheless is experienced because there is an enormous field in science that has been preserved from the fourth post-Atlantean epoch in the terminologies and systems of words that we are compelled to acquire. We trade more than we realize in words. All this has been obscured somewhat through the experimentation that has gradually been introduced since the nineteenth century, and a person now grows into his knowledge so that he sees more than he did earlier. Such sciences as jurisprudence, for instance, have descended somewhat from the specially lofty positions they previously occupied. But when jurisprudence and theology still occupied their specially lofty stations, the areas of learning man was trying to penetrate were really comprehensive systems of words, and the same is true of other things that had to be taken in as an inheritance from the fourth post-Atlantean period.

Along with this, what arises from the needs of the fifth post-Atlantean period made itself felt in an ever increasing way; that is, the life that arises from the great achievements of the new period. This is not realized by anyone who is simply driven from one lecture to another, but Goethe experienced it most intensely. I say that a person who is simply driven from one lecture to another does not sense it, but he passes through it nonetheless. He really passes through it. Here we touch the edge of a certain mystery of modern life. We can judge students who are enrolled in courses according to what they experience and what they are conscious of. But what they experience is not the whole story. Their inner nature is something quite different. If these individuals who are experiencing these overlapping layers of the fourth and fifth post-Atlantean epochs really knew what a certain part of their being is going through unconsciously, they would then have an entirely different understanding of what Goethe, even in youth, concealed mysteriously in his Faust. Countless persons who are finding their way into contemporary education are unconsciously sharing in this experience.

We must, therefore, remind ourselves that, by reason of all that Goethe had acquired because of his special karma, those with whom he came into close relationship during his youth were quite different to him than they would have been if he had not had this special karma. He sensed and felt how the people with whom he became intimately associated had to stupefy the Faustian life within them so that they no longer possessed it. He was able to sense this because what lived mysteriously in his fellow men made an impression on him such as is made by one person on another only when an especially intimate relationship, indeed when love, develops between them. In such a case of ordinary life, the connection of the ego with the ganglionic system, and of the astral body with the spinal cord system is highly active, although this is not consciously perceived as such. Something very special is activated. But what is otherwise active only in a love relationship came about in Goethe vis à vis a far larger number of people, so that he experienced a tremendous, more or less subconscious, compassion for the poor fellows—excuse the expression—who did not know what their inner natures were going through as they were driven from class to class and from examination to examination. This was felt by him and it gave him a rich experience.

Experiences become conceptions. Ordinary experiences become the conceptions of everyday life, but these particular experiences become the conceptions, the mental images, that Goethe poured tumultously into Faust. They were nothing but actual experiences that he gained from the most extensive environment because his ganglionic and spinal cord life was stimulated to more than normal wakefulness. This was the opposite from the subdued head life, but it was a potentiality in him even in his boyhood. We can see this from his description of what became active in him: not only what ordinarily engages people, say in piano lessons,63 Poetry and Truth, IV, 107. became active in him but also the entire being. Goethe partook much more in the happenings of real life as a whole person than others, and we must say, therefore, that he was more wide-awake during the day than they. During the time in his youth when he was working on Faust, he was more awake during the day, and because of this he also needed what I described yesterday as the time of sleep—the ten years in Weimar. This dampening was necessary.

This, however, is just what happens to a greater or lesser degree in every human being during the course of life, only in Goethe it took place more intensely. He was simply drawn somewhat more consciously than other men into the surrounding wisdom-filled and purely spiritual influences. He became aware of what lives and weaves mysteriously within men. What, then, is this really? When we are put into the world in our ordinary and brutal waking life together with our ego, we are bound up with the world through our senses and our ordinary perceptions. But you will agree that we are now much more closely bound with this world. Our ego is, indeed, in an especially intimate relation with our ganglionic system, and the astral body with the spinal cord system. Through this relationship, we have really a far more comprehensive connection with our environing world than through the sensory system of our head.

Now you must bear in mind that man needs the rhythmic alternation of his ego and astral body in his head during the waking life of day, and outside his head during sleep; because they are outside his head during sleep, they develop an inner active life in connection with the other systems, as I have indicated. The ego and the astral body need this alternation of sinking downward into the head and rising out of it. When man's ego and astral body are outside his head, he not only develops that intimate relationship with the rest of his organism through the ganglionic and spinal cord systems, but he also develops spiritual relationships with the spiritual world. Thus, we may say that an especially active, vivid connection with the spinal cord and ganglionic systems corresponds to an active psychic-spiritual life with the spiritual world. Since we are obliged to assume that the soul-spiritual is outside the head at night, and since this causes the development of an especially active life in the rest of the organism, we must then say that during the life of day, when the ego and the astral body are more within the head, we are in turn experiencing a spiritual symbiosis with the surrounding spiritual world. In a certain sense, we submerge ourselves in an inner spiritual world in sleep, but in a surrounding spiritual world when we awake.

This state of being one with the surrounding spiritual world is more pronounced in Goethe. He is, as it were, dreaming during a state of wakefulness—just as the ordinary person does not always fall into a deep, dreamless sleep. It is seldom that anyone dreams consciously in this way during the life of the day, but people like Goethe pass into a state of dreaming even during the waking life. The forces that remain unconscious in other people become, in a certain sense, dream-forms of life for people like Goethe.

We now have an even more exact description which might tempt you to entertain the arrogant notion that all of you could easily write a Faust poem since you are experiencing the Faust dilemma by ranging out into and by living in union with the surrounding world during your daytime life. The latter is indeed true. We do experience Faust, but only as the opposite pole is experienced in the night through the ego and astral body when we do not dream. But since Goethe not only experienced this unconsciously, but also dreamed it, he could express it in Faust. He dreamed this experience and in people such as Goethe the following takes place: what they create stands in the same relationship to what the rest of us experience unconsciously as does the dream to deep sleep on the other side of our lives. This is an actual reality; the creation of the great spirits are related to the unconscious creations of other men as dream to dreamless sleep.

Even so, much remains obscure. But bear in mind that you are thereby gaining a glimpse into something that is intimately connected with human life; it may be described somewhat as follows. We could really say quite a bit about the connection between our being and the surrounding world if we could awake just to the stage of dreaming. If we were able to awaken only to the stage of dreaming, we would experience tremendous things and would also be able to describe them. But this would have a grave consequence. Just think, if all men, to express it trivially, were so conscious that they could describe everything in their environment, if they would really describe experiences, for example, like those of Goethe's as set forth in his Faust, what would we come to? What would the world then come to? Strange as it may seem but so it is, the world would come to a stop and would make no further progress! The moment everyone were to dream the way Goethe dreamt Faust, which is an utterly different kind of dreaming—the moment everyone were to dream his connection with the external world, then such people would devote all the forces developed in their inner being to such an activity. They would pour them into such things and human existence would, in some sense, consume itself. You can form a faint idea of what would happen if you just look at the many ruinous effects that are taking place because many people, although not really dreaming, imagine that they are and babble or scribble reminiscences they have picked up elsewhere. This is associated with the fact that there are entirely too many poets. Where is there anyone today who does not believe he is a poet or painter or something! The world could not continue if this were so because all good things have also their dark side, truly their dark side.

Schiller was also an important poet who dreamed much in the way I have described. Just imagine, however, that all those who in their youth were trained like Schiller to become doctors had given up the practice of medicine as he did and later, thanks to an extensive patronage, had been appointed “professor of history” without any real preparation or serious study of history! As a matter of fact, Schiller did deliver interesting lectures at the University of Jena, but his students did not get from them what they needed to learn. He also gradually stopped giving these university lectures and was happy when he did not have to give them anymore. Imagine that things would be the same with every professor of history or every young physician! Obviously, everything that is good also has its dark side. The world must be protected, so to speak, from standing still. It seems trivial to say this, but it is nevertheless a profound mystery-truth: not all people can dream in this way. The forces with which they dream must first be applied in the external world to something different so that through it a foundation may be created for a further evolution of the earth. It would come to a standstill were all men to dream as I have indicated.

Now we have reached a point where an especially paradoxical fact comes to light. To what in the world are the aforementioned forces really applied? If we observe their application in a spiritual way, they are ultimately applied to deep sleep even though you may like them to be applied to dreams. More concretely, they are applied to all that is spread out over human evolution in the most varied kinds of vocational work.

Vocational work is related to the work that was done in creating Faust, or in Schiller's Wallenstein, as deep sleep is related to dreaming. But to say that we sleep during our vocational work will seem extraordinary to you, and you will say that here, in this, you are wide awake. The truth is that there is a grand illusion in this idea that one is awake during this kind of work because what really comes into being through vocational work is not something we do in full waking consciousness. Of course, some of the effects a person's profession has upon his or her soul do enter one's consciousness, but such a person really knows nothing whatever of all that is actually present in the web of vocational labor that men are continually spinning around the world.

It is, indeed, surprising how these things are connected. Hans Sachs64 Hans Sachs (1494–1576) was a shoemaker who became known as the foremost “Meistersinger“ in Nürnberg. was a shoemaker and also a poet. Jakob Boehme65 Jakob Böhme (1575–1624), a shoemaker in Görlitz, Silesia, is regarded to have been one of the most profound mystics in Germany. was a shoemaker and a mystical philosopher. There you have sleeping and waking alternating through a special constellation that we may also discuss. It is possible to pass from one state into another.

What, then, is the significance of this interplay and alternation of life between vocational labor for such a man as Jakob Boehme—he really did make shoes for the good people of Görlitz—and his mystical-philosophical compositions? Many people have strange opinions of these things. Allow me to review the experience we once had when we were in Görlitz.

One evening before a lecture I was to give on Boehme,66 Steiner lectured in Görlitz on December 3, 1908. I got into a conversation with a high school teacher, in which we spoke about Boehme's statue that we had just seen in the park. The people of Görlitz, as we were often told, called his monument, the “park cobbler.” We remarked that it was most beautiful, but the school teacher said he did not think so. He thought it really looked like Shakespeare and one would not know from it that Boehme had been a shoemaker. He said that to represent Boehme it would have to show that he was a shoemaker. Well, one can disregard such an attitude. As Jakob Boehme was writing his great mystical-philosophical views, he was working from the results that could have come about only through the human being having evolved through the Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth times; that is, through the fact that a broad stream flows through these ages and finally comes to expression in these effects. This stream manifests itself in such a personality only in a way that is the result of special karmic relationships. But just as all that has traversed the Sun and Moon periods is necessary to every individual on earth, so it is also necessary, but in a special way, in order to bring out what was in Boehme.

But then, Jakob Boehme also made shoes for the worthy Görlitzers. How does all this hang together? To be sure, the fact that a man has been able to develop the skill of a shoemaker is also connected with this stream. But when the shoes are finished, they are separated from him and their function has then nothing more to do with skill but with protecting and warming feet. They go their own way in performing their functions and are separated completely from the one who makes them; what they bring about has its effects only later. In other words, this is only a beginning.

If the initial influence leading to the mystical-philosophical activity of Jakob Boehme were represented graphically, I should have to indicate the first potential toward shoemaking here at this point. This then flows on further and in the future Vulcan evolution will have developed a degree of perfection that has been reached already by what had flowed into his mystical-philosophical activity from the Saturn evolution. This is, in a sense, an end; his shoemaking is a beginning. We say, of course, that the earth is earth at present, but if we could trace things from Saturn still further back, we might then say that, relative to certain things, the earth is already Vulcan. We should then assume Saturn at this point.

We can thus take everything in a relative way. We may say that the earth is Saturn, and that Vulcan is, in a sense, earth. What happens on the earth in the vocational labor of a man like Jakob Boehme—not in his free creative work, but what he does as vocational labor—is the beginning of something that will be as far advanced on Vulcan as the happenings on Saturn are already advanced on the earth. For Boehme to write his mystical-philosophical books on earth, it was necessary for something to have happened on Saturn that was similar to what he has done on earth in making shoes. Likewise, Boehme's shoemaking here on earth has the effect that something may be done on Vulcan that will be similar to his writing mystical philosophy here on earth.

There is something extraordinary in all this. Here is an indication of how what is often given little value on earth is so little esteemed because it is the beginning of something that will be prized in the future. In their being, human beings are, of course, much more intimately bound up with the past since they must first familiarize themselves with what is a beginning. Therefore, they often care much less for something that is a beginning than for something that has come over to them from the past. From the scope of what we are yet to be involved in during the earth period, and so that something special may then come about when the earth shall have developed further through Jupiter and Venus to Vulcan—from all this a full consciousness will develop such as the one that exists for the philosophy of Jakob Boehme on the earth. It is for this reason that the real meaning of human external labor is enveloped now in unconsciousness, just as man was shrouded in unconsciousness on Saturn; sleep consciousness was developed on the Sun, dream consciousness on the Moon, and the present condition of waking consciousness on the earth.

The human being is thus really living in a profound sleep consciousness in his involvement with everything of his vocation. Through his vocation he is really creating, not through what gives him pleasure in it, but through what is developing without his being able to enter into it; thus does he really create future values. When a person makes a nail over and over again, it certainly does not give him or her any special pleasure. But the nail becomes detached from its producer; it has quite definite tasks. As to what then happens by means of this nail is not of further concern to the worker; he does not follow up every nail he has made. But what is enveloped there in his unconscious, profoundest sleep is destined to come to life again in the future.

We have thus been able to juxtapose what the ordinary person accomplishes: first the most insignificant work in a profession and then that which appears as the highest achievement. Superior achievements are an end; the most insignificant work is always a beginning.

I wanted to place these two concepts side by side because we cannot reflect upon how the human being is bound through his karma with his vocation until we first know how his labor, which is often connected quite externally with him, is related to the entire evolution of which he is a part. We will soon develop the real question of karma as it relates to vocation. But I had first to introduce these matters so we might attain a universal concept of what flows from a human being into his or her vocation.

These things are also exceedingly useful in forming our moral sentiments in the right way. Our judgments are incorrect because we do not focus our attention on things in the right way. A seed often appears quite insignificant beside the beautiful flower of the future. Using human work as a case in point, I wanted to show you today how seed and flower are bound up in the evolution of mankind.

Dritter Vortrag

Ich möchte jetzt von einem anderen Ausgangspunkt noch die Annäherung vollziehen an das Problem, an dem wir in diesen Betrachtungen arbeiten. Denn in der Geisteswissenschaft muß es so sein, daß man gewissermaßen das Problem von verschiedenen Punkten her einschließt und ihm sich von verschiedenen Punkten her auch nähert. Wenn wir einen solchen Lebenslauf betrachten wie denjenigen Goethes, so muß uns ja, ich möchte sagen, im groben eines auffallen, das einem überhaupt zum großen Rätsel in der Menschheitsentwickelung werden kann, auch dann noch, wenn man die wiederholten Erdenleben zunächst betrachtet und bei der Gestaltung des Lebens eines Menschen zu Rate zieht. Ich meine das Problem: Worin liegt es eigentlich, daß einzelne Menschen wie zum Beispiel Goethe in der Lage sind, aus ihrem Inneren heraus solch Bedeutsames zu schaffen, wie eben Goethe geschaffen hat, insbesondere durch seinen «Faust», durch solch Geschaffenes einen so bedeutenden Einfluß auf die übrige Menschheit zu haben? Wie kommt es, daß gewissermaßen einzelne Menschen herausgelöst werden aus der übrigen Menschheit und zu so Bedeutendem gewissermaßen von dem Weltengeschick berufen werden? - Wir vergleichen dann mit so bedeutendem Schaffen und Leben dasjenige jedes einzelnen Menschen und fragen uns: Was ergibt sich uns an dem Unterschiede jedes einzelnen Menschenlebens und dieser sogenannten hervorragenden Menschenleben?

Diese Frage kann man sich nur beantworten, wenn man sich das Leben mit den Mitteln, die uns die Geisteswissenschaft an die Hand gibt, etwas genauer betrachtet. Zunächst ist nämlich all das, was der Mensch erkennen kann, namentlich für unsere Zeit, dazu angelegt, gewisse Dinge zu kaschieren, zu maskieren und die unbefangene menschliche Betrachtung davon fernzuhalten. Das macht auch nötig, daß man vielfach zunächst sich anpassend an das, was zuerst verstanden werden kann, in der Geisteswissenschaft sprechen muß. Nun schildern wir ja in der Geisteswissenschaft gewöhnlich so, daß wir sagen: Der Mensch besteht, so wie er sich uns darstellt im Leben, aus seinem physischen Leibe, dem ätherischen Leibe, dem astralischen Leibe und dem Ich. - Und wir schildern dann, indem wir charakterisieren die Wechselzustände zwischen Wachen und Schlafen so, daß wir sagen: Während des Wachens sind Ich und astralischer Leib im physischen Leibe und im Ätherleib drinnen; während des Schlafens sind Ich und astralischer Leib draußen. — Das ist für ein Verständnis der Sache zunächst vollständig ausreichend und entspricht durchaus den geisteswissenschaftlichen Tatsachen. Aber es handelt sich darum, daß man dadurch, daß man so schildert, nur einen Teil der vollen Wirklichkeit gibt. Wir können niemals in einer Schilderung die volle Wirklichkeit umfassen; einen Teil der vollen Wirklichkeit geben wir eigentlich immer, wenn wir irgend etwas schildern, und wir müssen immer erst von einigen anderen Seiten wiederum Licht suchen, um die geschilderte Teilwirklichkeit in der richtigen Weise zu beleuchten. Und da muß gesagt werden: Es ist im allgemeinen so, daß Schlafen und Wachen wirklich eine Art zyklischer Bewegung für den Menschen darstellen. Strenge genommen sind nämlich Ich und astralischer Leib außer dem physischen und ätherischen Menschenleib im Schlafzustande nur außerhalb des Hauptes, während gerade dadurch, daß im Schlafe das Ich und der astralische Leib außerhalb des physischen und ätherischen Hauptes des Menschen sind, sie eine um so regere Tätigkeit und Wirksamkeit ausüben auf die andere menschliche Organisation. Alles das, was im Menschen nicht Haupt ist, sondern andere menschliche Organisation, steht gerade während des Schlafzustandes, in dem gewissermaßen Ich und astralischer Leib von außen auf den Menschen wirken, unter einem viel stärkeren Einflusse dieses Ich und dieses astralischen Leibes als während des wachen Zustandes. Und man kann schon sagen: Während des Schlafzustandes wird die Wirkung, die das Ich und der astralische Leib des Menschen im Wachzustande auf das Haupt ausüben, auf den übrigen Organismus ausgeübt. — Wir können daher mit Recht in einem gewissen Sinne vergleichen namentlich das Ich des Menschen mit der Sonne, die, wenn es bei uns Tag ist, unsere Gegend überleuchtet; wenn es bei uns Nacht ist, ist diese Sonne nicht bloß draußen, sondern sie beleuchtet auf der anderen Seite die Erde und macht dort Tag. So ist es in einem gewissen Sinne Tag in unserem übrigen Organismus, wenn es für unsere Sinneswahrnehmung, die ja vorzugsweise an das Haupt gebunden ist, Nacht ist, und Nacht ist es dafür auch für unseren übrigen Organismus, wenn es für unser Haupt Tag ist, das „heißt, unser übriger Organismus ist dem Ich mehr oder weniger ent5 zogen und auch dem astralischen Leib, wenn wir wachen. Das ist noch etwas, was zu der Beleuchtung der vollen Wirklichkeit dazukommen muß, wenn man den ganzen Menschen verstehen will.

Nun handelt es sich darum, daß man auch in diesem Sinne den Zusammenhang des Seelischen mit dem Physischen des Menschen richtig erfaßt, wenn man das, was ich eben angeführt habe, ordentlich verstehen will. Ich habe öfter betont, das Nervensystem des physischen Organismus ist eine einheitliche Organisation, und eigentlich ist es nichts weiter als ein bloßer Unsinn, der nicht einmal durch eine Anatomie gerechtfertigt wird, die Nerven zu teilen in sensitive und motorische Nerven. Die Nerven sind alle einheitlich organisiert, und sie haben alle eine Funktion. Die sogenannten motorischen Nerven unterscheiden sich nur dadurch von den sogenannten sensitiven Nerven, daß die sensitiven darauf eingerichtet sind, der Wahrnehmung der Außenwelt zu dienen, während die sogenannten motorischen Nerven der Wahrnehmung des eigenen Organismus dienen. Ein motorischer Nerv ist nicht dazu bestimmt, meine Hand zu bewegen - das ist ein bloßer Unsinn -, sondern der motorische Nerv, der sogenannte motorische Nerv, ist dazu bestimmt, die Bewegung der Hand wahrzunehmen, also innerlich wahrzunehmen, während der sensitive Nerv dazu bestimmt ist, bei der Wahrnehmung der Außenwelt zu dienen. Das ist der ganze Unterschied. Nun teilt sich unser Nervensystem, wie Sie ja wissen, in drei Glieder: in diejenigen Nerven, deren Hauptzentrum das Gehirn ist, also die im Haupte zentriert sind, dann in diejenigen Nerven, die im Rückenmark zentriert sind, und diejenigen Nerven, die wir zum sogenannten Gangliensystem rechnen. Das sind im wesentlichen die drei Arten von Nerven, die der Mensch hat. Nun handelt es sich darum, zu erkennen: Welche Beziehungen herrschen zwischen diesen drei Arten von Nervensystemen und den geistigen Gliedern unseres Organismus? Welches ist gewissermaßen das vorgerückteste, feinste Glied des Nervensystems und welches ist das am wenigsten vorgerückte Glied des Nervensystems?

Es ist ganz selbstverständlich, daß auf diese Frage diejenigen, die heute von der gewöhnlichen naturwissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung herkommen, antworten werden: Nun ja, das Nervensystem des Gehirnes ist natürlich das edelste, denn das ist dasjenige, das den Menschen von den Tieren unterscheidet. — Aber es ist nicht so. Dieses Nervensystem des Gehirnes hängt im wesentlichen zusammen mit der ganzen Organisation unseres Ätherleibes. Selbstverständlich sind überall weitere Beziehungen vorhanden, so daß natürlich unser ganzes Gehirnsystem auch Beziehungen zum astralischen Leib oder zum Ich hat, aber dies sind sekundäre Beziehungen. Die primären, die ursprünglichen Beziehungen sind zwischen unserem Gehirnnervensystem und zwischen unserem Ätherleib. Das hat nichts zu tun mit der Anschauungsweise, die ich einmal auseinandergesetzt habe, daß das ganze Nervensystem mit Hilfe des astralischen Leibes zustande gebracht worden ist; das ist etwas ganz anderes, das muß man durchaus unterscheiden. Das ist zustande gebracht worden in seiner ursprünglichen Veranlagung während der Mondenzeit, aber das hat sich weiterentwickelt und andere Beziehungen sind eingeleitet worden seit der ersten Bildung, so daß in der Tat unser Gehirnnervensystem innigste und bedeutsamste Beziehungen hat zu unserem Ätherleib. Das Rückenmarkssystem hat die innigsten und primärsten Beziehungen zu unserem Astralleib, so wie wir ihn jetzt als Menschen an uns tragen, und das Gangliensystem zu dem Ich, zu dem eigentlichen Ich. Das sind die primären Beziehungen, wie wir sie jetzt haben.

Wenn wir dies in Erwägung ziehen, so werden wir uns leicht vorstellen können, daß eine besonders rege Beziehung herrscht während unseres Schlafzustandes zwischen unserem Ich und unserem Gangliensystem, das vorzugsweise ausgebreitet ist in dem Rumpforganismus, das in Strängen das Rückenmark außen umkleidet und so weiter. Aber diese Beziehungen sind gelockert während des Tagwachens; sie sind vorhanden, aber sie sind gelockert während des Tagwachens. Sie sind inniger während des Schlafens. Und inniger als während des Tagwachens sind die Beziehungen zwischen dem astralischen Leib und den Rückenmarksnerven im Schlafzustande. So daß wir also sagen können: Während desSchlafzustandes treten ganz besonders innige Beziehungen auf zwischen unserem Astralleib und unseren Rückenmarksnerven und zwischen unserem Ich und unserem Gangliensystem. Wir leben mehr oder weniger während des Schlafes in unserem Ich stark zusammen mit unserem Gangliensystem. Wird man einmal die rätselvolle Traumwelt genauer studieren, so wird man dies schon erkennen, was ich so aus der geisteswissenschaftlichen Untersuchung heraus erwähne.

Dann aber, wenn Sie dies in Erwägung ziehen, werden Sie auch eine Brücke finden zu dem anderen wesentlichen, bedeutungsvollen Gedanken: daß für das Leben etwas sehr Wichtiges dadurch gegeben sein muß, daß ein rhythmischer Wechsel eintritt im Zusammenleben des Ichs zum Beispiel mit dem Gangliensystem und des astralischen Leibes mit dem Rückenmarkssystem, ein rhythmischer Wechsel, der identisch ist mit dem Wechsel des Schlafens und Wachens. Denn es wird Ihnen nicht allzu verwunderlich erscheinen, wenn man sagt: Dadurch, daß das Ich eigentlich so recht im Gangliensystem und der astralische Leib so recht im Rückenmarkssystem ist im Schlafe, dadurch wacht der Mensch mit Bezug auf Gangliensysteem und Rückenmarkssystem während des Schlafens und schläft er während des Wachens. - Man kann da nur die Frage aufwerfen: Wie kommt es denn, daß man von dem so regen Wachen, das ja eigentlich entwickelt werden muß während des Schlafens, so wenig weiß? Nun, wenn Sie in Erwägung ziehen, wie der Mensch geworden ist, daß ja das Ich des Menschen erst während des Erdendaseins in ihm Platz genommen hat, also eigentlich das Baby ist unter unseren menschheitlichen Gliedern, so wird es Ihnen nicht staunenswert sein, daß dieses Ich eben sich noch nicht zum Bewußtsein bringen kann dasjenige, was es erlebt im Gangliensystem während des Schlafens, während es sich wohl zum Bewußtsein bringen kann das, was es erlebt, wenn es in dem voll ausgebildeten Haupte ist, das ja hauptsächlich das Ergebnis ist aller derjenigen Impulse, die durch Mond, Sonne und so weiter gewirkt haben. Was das Ich sich zum Bewußtsein bringen kann, hängt von dem Instrument ab, dessen es sich bedienen kann. Das Instrument, dessen es sich in der Nacht bedient, ist verhältnismäßig noch zart. Denn ich habe Ihnen in früheren Vorträgen ausgeführt, daß der übrige Organismus eigentlich erst später entwickelt worden ist, daß der erst hinzugekommen ist zu dem mehr vollendeten Kopforganismus des Menschen, daß der ein Anhängsel ist des Kopforganismus. Wenn wir davon sprechen, daß der Mensch seinem physischen Leib nach mehr oder weniger lange Stadien vom Saturn aus durchgemacht hat, so können wir das nur mit Bezug auf das Haupt, auf den Kopf aussprechen. Dasjenige, was sich an den Kopf anhängt, ist vielfach spätere Bildung, Mondenbildung und sogar erst Erdenbildung. Daher kommt das rege Leben, das entwickelt wird während des Schlafens und das vielfach seinen organischen Sitz hat im Rückenmark und im Gangliensystem, zunächst wenig zum Bewußtsein, aber es ist deshalb ein nicht minder reges, bedeutsam reges Leben. Und man kann ebensogut sagen, im Schlafe soll dem Menschen die Möglichkeit geboten werden, hinunterzusteigen in sein Gangliensystem, wie ihm im Wachen die Möglichkeit gegeben ist, hinaufzusteigen zu seinen Sinnen und zu seinem Gehirnsystem. Gewiß, Sie werden sagen: Wie kompliziert sich — und vielleicht sogar: Wie verwirrt sich dadurch alles das, was wir uns angeeignet haben! - Aber der Mensch ist ein kompliziertes Wesen und man lernt ihn nicht verstehen, wenn man nicht diese Komplikation, diese Kompliziertheit wirklich einmal auf sich wirken läßt.

Nun denken Sie sich einmal, daß bei einem Menschen das eintritt, was ich Ihnen mit Bezug auf Goethe beschrieben habe: daß der ätherische Leib gelockert wird. Dann, wenn der ätherische Leib gelockert wird, dann tritt eine ganz andere Beziehung ein im Wachen zwischen dem Seelisch-Geistigen und dem Organischen, dem Physischen des Menschen. Der Mensch wird, so wie ich es gestern beschrieben habe, auf eine Art Isolierschemel gestellt. Aber es kann niemals eine solche Wirkung eintreten, ohne eine andere nach sich zu ziehen. Das ist sehr wichtig ins Auge zu fassen. Eine solche Beziehung tritt nicht einseitig ein, sondern sie zieht eine andere nach sich. Wenn man diese Beziehung, die ich gestern charakterisiert habe, etwas gröber ausspricht, so könnten wir auch sagen: Dadurch, daß der ätherische Leib gelockert ist, wird das ganze Wachleben des Menschen in einer gewissen Weise beeinträchtigt, beeinflußt. Aber das kann nicht sein, ohne daß zu gleicher Zeit das Schlafleben des Menschen beeinflußt wird. Die Folge davon ist einfach, daß der Mensch in losere Beziehungen tritt zu seinen Gehirneindrücken, wenn so etwas bei ihm auftritt wie bei Goethe. Dadurch tritt er auch in intimere, in stärkere Beziehungen während des Wachens zu seinen Rückenmarksnerven und zu dem Gangliensystem. Das ist damals, als Goethe krank wurde, zu gleicher Zeit eingetreten, daß er gewissermaßen eine losere Beziehung zu seinem Gehirn entwickelt hat, aber zugleich eine intimere Beziehung zu seinem Gangliensystem und zu seinem Rückenmarkssystem.

Was tritt denn dadurch aber überhaupt auf? Was soll das heißen, eine intimere Beziehung tritt zum Gangliensystem, zum Rückenmarkssystem ein? Dadurch tritt der Mensch nämlich in eine ganz andere Beziehung zur Außenwelt. Wir sind ja immer in inniger Beziehung zur ganzen Außenwelt; wir achten nur nicht darauf, in welch inniger Beziehung wir eigentlich zur Außenwelt stehen. Aber ich habe Sie öfter aufmerksam darauf gemacht: Die Luft, die Sie in einem Augenblick in Ihrem Innern tragen, ist im nächsten Augenblicke draußen und eine andere Luft ist drinnen; dasjenige, was jetzt draußen ist, hat im nächsten Augenblicke die Form des Leibes und vereinigt sich mit Ihrem Leib. Es ist ja nur scheinbar der Menschenorganismus geschieden von der Außenwelt; er ist ein Glied dieser Außenwelt, er gehört zu dieser ganzen Außenwelt dazu. Wenn also eine solche Änderung in der Beziehung zur Außenwelt eintritt wie die charakterisierte, so macht sich das schon mit Bezug auf das Leben des Menschen stark geltend. Nun kann man ja sagen: Dadurch müßte eigentlich die niedere Natur des Menschen bei einer solchen Persönlichkeit wie Goethe - denn man bezeichnet gewöhnlich dasjenige, was an Rückenmark und Gangliensystem gebunden ist, als die niedere Natur — nun besonders stark hervortreten. Vom Haupte ziehen sich die Kräfte zurück; das Gangliensystem und das Rückenmarkssystem nehmen sie mehr in Anspruch.

Verständnis für das, was da eigentlich geschieht, gewinnt man erst, wenn man sich durchdringt mit der Erkenntnis, daß, was wir Verstand, Vernunft nennen, nicht eigentlich so eng gebunden ist an unsere Individualität, wie man das gewöhnlich annimmt. Gerade über diese Dinge hat unsere Gegenwart nach allen ihren Grundvorstellungen selbstverständlich, könnte man sagen, die allerverkehrtesten Begriffe. Über diese Dinge kommt unsere Gegenwart am allerwenigsten zurecht. Das hat sich insbesondere gezeigt an der, man möchte sagen, «dalketen» Art - ich weiß nicht, ob der Ausdruck allgemein verstanden wird, er bezeichnet eine gewisse Art, sich zu den Dingen zu stellen, die Stumpfsinnigkeit mit Blödigkeit verbindet -, wie sich unsere Zeit bis in die gelehrtesten Kreise hinein verhalten hat zu dem, was da zum Vorscheir kommen sollte durch gewisse Erfahrungen, die man machte mit «gelehrten Tieren»: Hunden, Affen, Pferden und so weiter, Sie wissen ja, daß plötzlich durch die Welt gegangen ist die Kunde von den gelehrten Pferden, die rechnen können, die alle möglichen anderen Dinge noch können, von einem sehr gelehrten Hunde, der Aufsehen gemacht hat in Mannheim, von einem gelehrten Affen in einem Frankfurter Tiergarten, dem man das Rechnen neben anderen Dingen beigebracht hat, die man in Einzelheiten nicht gern in guter Gesellschaft schildert, die man nur andeuten kann. Der Frankfurter Schimpanse nämlich hat, im Gegensatz zu den anderen Mitgliedern des Affengeschlechts, sich mit Bezug auf gewisse Bedürfnisse dazu abrichten lassen, sich in der Weise zu benehmen, wie sich sonst nicht Affen, sondern wie sich Menschen benehmen; weiter will ich dieses Thema nicht ausführen. Aber das alles hat nicht nur Laienkreise, sondern auch Gelehrtenkreise in großes Erstaunen versetzt. Nicht nur Laien, sondern auch Gelehrte fielen in eine Art von Verzückung, als insbesondere der Mannheimer Hund einen Brief schrieb, nachdem ihm ein teurer Angehöriger gestorben war: wie dieser teure Angehörige, der Sprößling des Hundes, nun bei der Urseele sein werde, wie er es dort haben werde und so weiter. Es war ein sehr intelligenter Brief, den jener Hund schrieb. Nun, nicht wahr, auf die besonders komplizierten Intelligenzäußerungen braucht man dabei nicht einzugehen, aber immerhin: Rechnungsleistungen haben alle diese verschiedenen Tiere zustande gebracht. Man hat sich dann viel abgegeben mit der Untersuchung desjenigen, was solche Tiere leisten können. Beim Frankfurter Affen ist etwas ganz Besonderes herausgekommen. Man hat sich nämlich überzeugen können, daß er, wenn man ihm eine Rechnung vorlegte, die er zu einer bestimmten Zahl als Resultat führen sollte, diese Zahl in einer Reihe von Zahlen nebeneinander zeigte; auf die richtige Zahl zeigte er hin, und die Summe ergab sich zum Beispiel aus einzelnen Additionen. Da kam man darauf, daß dieser gelehrte Affe sich einfach angewöhnt hatte, genau sich zu richten nach der Blickrichtung seines Dresseurs. Einige, die früher erstaunt waren, sagten schon: Keine Spur von einem Geist, alles ist Dressur. — Es ist eigentlich nichts anderes als ein etwas kompliziertes Verfahren, wie wenn der Hund apportiert, wenn man ihm einen Stein hinwirft und er holt ihn; so holte der Affe aus einer Reihe von Zahlen diejenige heraus, auf die jetzt nicht die Wurfrichtung fiel, sondern einfach der Blick seines Erziehers.

Es werden gewiß bei genauerer Untersuchung ähnliche Resultate auch bei den übrigen Tieren erzielt werden. Erstaunt muß man eigentlich nur immer über das eine sein: daß die Menschen gar so frappiert sind, wenn solche Tiere einmal etwas scheinbar Menschenähnliches leisten. Denn wie viel mehr Geist, wie viel mehr Verstand - wenn man den Verstand objektiv nimmt — gehört selbstverständlich zu all dem dazu, was einem gut bekannt ist in dem Tierreiche, was aus dem sogenannten Instinkte heraus geleistet wird! Denn da wird in der Tat ungeheuer Bedeutungsvolles geleistet, und da liegen tief bedeutsame Zusammenhänge darinnen, die einen bewundern lassen die Weisheit, die da waltet überall, wo Erscheinungen zutage treten. Wir haben Weisheit nicht nur in unserem Kopf; Weisheit ist es, die uns wie das Licht überall umgibt, die überall wirkt und die auch durch die Tiere hindurch wirkt. Über solche extraordinäre Erscheinungen sind diejenigen bloß erstaunt, die überhaupt sich nicht ernsthaft mit wissenschaftlichen Entwickelungen befaßt haben. Ich möchte all denen, die heute so gelehrte Abhandlungen schreiben über den Mannheimer Hund und ähnliche Hunde, über die Pferde, über den Frankfurter Affen und so weiter, ich möchte denen — neben anderem kann man das, das ist nicht vereinzelt - nur eine Stelle aus dem schon 1866 erschienenen Buche «Vergleichende Psychologie» von Carus vorlesen; da die anderen mir nicht zuhören, so werde ich diese Stelle zunächst Ihnen vorlesen. Da heißt es bei Carus Seite 231: «Wenn also zum Beispiel der Hund lange von seinem Herrn mit Schonung und Neigung behandelt wird, so prägen sich die menschlichen Züge dem Tiere, obwohl es keinen Sinn hat für den Begriff der Güte an sich, doch gegenständlich ein, amalgamieren sich mit dem Sinnenbilde dieses Menschen, den der Hund oft erblickt, und lassen ihn diese Persönlichkeit, sogar ohne den Sinn des Gesichts, zum Beispiel bloß durch den Geruch oder durch das Gehör, als der kennen, von dem ihm Gutes einst zukam. Wird daher jetzt etwa diesem Menschen ein Leid zugefügt, ja ihm dadurch vielleicht sogar die Möglichkeit genommen, fernere Wohltaten den Hunde zuzuteilen, so empfindet das Tier dies wie ein ihm selbst zugefügtes Übel, und wird dadurch zu Zorn und Rache bewegt; alles dies somit ohne irgend ein abstraktes Denken, sondern immer nur, indem Sinnenbild an Sinnenbild sich anreiht.»

Das ist gewiß wahr, daß Sinnenbild an Sinnenbild sich beim Hunde anreiht; aber in der ganzen Begebenheit waltet Verstand und Weisheit.

«Merkwürdig bleibt es indes, wie sehr ein solches eigentümliches Verweben, Trennen und Wiederverbinden von Vorstellungen des innern Sinnes, doch dem wirklichen Denken nahe kommen und ihm in seinen Folgen gleichen kann! — So sah ich einst einen wohlabgerichteten weißen Pudel» — das war nicht der Mannheimer Hund, denn das ist 1866 geschrieben — «welcher zum Beispiel die Buchstaben ihm vorgesagter Worte richtig auswählte und zusammenlegte, welcher einfache Rechenexempel durch Zusammentragen einzelner, gleich den Buchstaben, auf besondre Blätter geschriebenen Zahlen zu lösen schien, welcher auszuzählen schien, wie viel Damen sich unter der anwesenden Gesellschaft befanden, und dergleichen mehr. — Natürlich wäre alles dies, sobald es sich um ein wirkliches Verstehen der Zahl — als mathematischen Begriff - gehandelt hätte, ohne ein eigentliches Nachdenken nicht möglich gewesen; es fand sich aber endlich, daß der Hund nur abgerichtet war, auf ein sehr leises Zeichen seines Herrn, das Blatt mit dem bestimmten Buchstaben, oder mit der passenden Zahl, aus der aufgelegten Reihe, an welcher er auf- und niederging, aufzunehmen, und auf den Wink eines andern eben so leisen Tons (etwa ein Knipsen mit dem Daumennagel und dem Nagel des vierten Fingers) das Blatt in einer andern Reihe wieder niederzulegen und dadurch solch scheinbares Wunder zu vollbringen.»

Sie sehen, nicht bloß die Erscheinung ist längst bekannt, sondern auch die Lösung, die heute erst wiederum mit vieler Mühe die Gelehrten feststellen, weil die Leute sich nicht kümmern um dasjenige, was geleistet worden ist in der wissenschaftlichen Entwickelung. Nur deshalb kommen solche Dinge zustande, die nicht von unserer vorgerückten Wissenschaft, sondern von unserer vorgerückten Ignoranz zeugen! Aber auf der anderen Seite hat man mit Recht etwas eingewendet. Wenn es sich nun wiederum bloß um solche Erklärungen handeln würde, wie sie heute vorgebracht werden, so kann man nicht minder solche Erklärungen naiv finden; denn Hermann Bahr hat mit Recht gesagt: Nun, da ist also der Herr Pfungst gekommen und hat gezeigt, wie die Pferde auf ganz leise Deutungen reagieren, die die Menschen, die da dressieren, nicht wahrnehmen, sondern unbewußt machen, die er selber erst wahrzunehmen in der Lage war, nachdem er sich lange in seinem physiologischen Laboratorium Apparate konstruiert hat, um diese winzigen Mienen wahrzunehmen. — Hermann Bahr hat mit Recht eingewendet, daß es doch eine eigentümliche Auslegung ist, daß nun die Pferde so gescheit sein sollen, solche Mienen zu beobachten, während ein Privatdozent erst lange Jahre — ich glaube, zehn oder noch mehr Jahre hat er dazu gebraucht - sich Apparate konstruieren muß, um sie wahrzunehmen! Es ist in allen solchen Dingen selbstverständlich ein Stückchen Richtigkeit; aber man muß die Dinge nur recht anschauen. Und recht angeschaut zeigt sich eben, daß die Dinge nur erklärlich sind, wenn man geradeso wie zu den Instinkthandlungen objektive Weisheit, objektive Vernunft in die Dinge hinein versetzt sich denkt, wenn man das Tier eingeschaltet denkt in ein ganzes System durch die Welt gehender objektiver Weisheitszusammenhänge; wenn man sich mit anderen Worten nicht darauf beschränkt, zu denken, daß Weisheit durch den Menschen bloß in die Welt gekommen ist, sondern erkennt, daß Weisheit durch die ganze Welt waltet und der Mensch nur dazu berufen ist, durch seine besondere Organisation mehr als die anderen Wesen von dieser Weisheit wahrzunehmen. Dadurch unterscheidet sich der Mensch von den übrigen Wesen, daß er durch seine Organisation mehr von der Weisheit wahrnehmen kann als die anderen Wesen. Verrichten aber können die anderen Wesen durch die ihnen eingepflanzte Weisheit ebenso Weisheitsvolles wie der Mensch, nur von anderer Art Weisheitsvolles. Und die außerordentlichen Erscheinungen des Weisheitswirkens sind eigentlich für denjenigen, der Ernst macht mit der Weltbetrachtung, die viel weniger wichtigen als diejenigen, die immer vor unseren Augen ausgebreitet sind. Die sind die viel wichtigeren. Wenn Sie dies in Erwägung ziehen, so werden Sie das Folgende nicht mehr unverständlich finden.

Das Tier ist so in die Weltenweisheit eingespannt, daß es recht innig mit dieser Weltenweisheit verknüpft ist, viel stärker als der Mensch. Es ist dem Tier gewissermaßen eine viel gebundenere Marschroute mitgegeben als dem Menschen. Der Mensch ist viel freier gelassen als das Tier; dadurch ist es ihm auch möglich, Kräfte zu ersparen für das Erkennen der Zusammenhänge. Die Hauptsache ist diese, daß beim Tiere, namentlich also bei den höheren Tieren, der physische Leib in dieselben Weltenzusammenhänge eingespannt ist, in die beim Menschen erst der ätherische Leib eingespannt ist. Daher weiß der Mensch mehr von den Weltenzusammenhängen, aber das Tier steckt viel inniger, viel näher darinnen, ist viel mehr eingeschaltet in diese Weltenzusammenhänge. Wenn Sie also objektiv waltende Vernunft in Erwägung ziehen und sich sagen: Um uns herum ist nicht nur Luft und Licht, um uns herum ist auch waltende Vernunft überall; wenn wir gehen, gehen wir nicht nur durch den Lichtraum, sondern auch durch den Weisheitsraum, durch den waltenden Vernunftraum, — dann werden Sie ermessen, was es bedeutet, wenn der Mensch in bezug auf die feineren Verhältnisse seiner Organe in die Welt in anderer Weise eingespannt wird, als er gewöhnlich eingespannt ist. Nun ist der Mensch im normalen Leben in einer Weise in die geistigen Weltenverhältnisse eingespannt, daß stark beeinträchtigt ist der Zusammenhang zwischen dem Ich und dem Gangliensystem und dem astralischen Leib und dem Rückenmarkssystem für das tagwache Leben; dadurch, daß das stark beeinträchtigt ist, herabgedämpft ist, dadurch ist der Mensch im gewöhnlichen, normalen Leben wenig aufmerksam auf das, was sich um ihn herum abspielt und was er nur wahrnehmen könnte, wenn er wirklich mit seinem Gangliensystem ebenso wahrnehmen würde, wie er sonst durch seinen Kopf wahrnimmt.

Wenn aber nun in einem solch ausgezeichneten Falle, wie das bei Goethe der Fall ist, der astralische Leib, weil der Ätherleib aus dem Kopf herausgezogen ist, in ein regeres Verhältnis gebracht worden ist zum Rückenmarkssystem und das Ich zum Gangliensystem, so tritt auch ein viel regerer Verkehr ein mit dem, was uns immer umgibt und umspielt und was uns allein dadurch verhüllt ist, daß wir nur zu nachtschlafender Zeit im normalen Menschenleben mit unserer geistigen Umwelt in Beziehung treten. Dadurch aber kommen Sie darauf, zu verstehen, wie so etwas, wie Goethe es beschrieben hat, für ihn einfach wahrzunehmen war, wirkliche Wahrnehmung war, eine Wahrnehmung, die natürlich nicht so brutal hell sein konnte, wie die Wahrnehmungen sind, die wir durch unsere Sinne von der Außenwelt beziehen, aber die doch heller war als die Wahrnehmungen, die sonst ein Mensch von seiner Umgebung hat, insofern diese Umgebung geistig ist.

Nun, was nahm denn Goethe auf diese Art besonders rege wahr? Machen wir uns einmal klar, was Goethe besonders rege wahrnahm, an einem besonderen Falle. Goethe war durch sein besonderes Karma dazu verurteilt, ins Gelehrtenleben, ins Erkenntnisleben hineinzuwachsen — durch Komplikationen des Karmas, wie ich Ihnen angedeutet habe — wiederum nicht so wie ein Dutzendgelehrter. Was erlebt er auf diese Weise? Nun, sehen Sie, seit langen Jahrhunderten erlebt ein Mensch, der ins Gelehrtenleben hineinwächst, einen bedeutsamen Zwiespalt. Dieser Zwiespalt ist heute sogar mehr verborgen als zu Goethes Zeiten. Aber es erlebt jeder einen gewissen Zwiespalt dadurch, daß man in dem, was niedergelegte Wissenschaft ist, ein ungeheuer breites Feld hat, in dem das zu finden ist, was mehr oder weniger vom vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraum aufbewahrt worden ist. Es wird aufbewahrt in den Terminologien, in den Wortsystemen, die man genötigt ist aufzunehmen. Man kramt viel mehr, als man meint, in Worten. Gemildert wurde es dadurch, daß im 19. Jahrhundert allmählich viel experimentiert worden ist und daß man dadurch so hineinwächst in das Wissen, daß man mehr gesehen hat, als früher gesehen worden ist, und daß wenigstens schon bis zu einem gewissen Grade solche Wissenschaften, wie die Jurisprudenz, von ihrem ganz besonders hohen Sitz heruntergesunken sind, auf dem sie vorher saßen. Aber als noch Jurisprudenz und Theologie die ganz besonders hohen Sitze einnahmen, da war wirklich ein umspannendes Wortsystem dasjenige, in das man sich zunächst einlebte, und so war vieles von dem, was man aufnehmen mußte als eine Erbschaft des vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraums. Daneben machte sich geltend immer mehr und mehr, was aus den Bedürfnissen des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraums herkommt, das unmittelbare Leben, das aus den großen Errungenschaften der neueren Zeit stammt.

Das empfindet derjenige nicht, der so einfach geschoben wird von Klasse zu Klasse, aber ein Mensch wie Goethe, der empfand das im allerhöchsten Maße. Ich sage: Es empfindet der Mensch es nicht, der so geschoben wird von Klasse zu Klasse, aber er macht es nicht minder durch. Er macht es wirklich durch. Und da streifen wir schon ein gewisses Geheimnis des modernen Lebens. Studenten, die durch das Studium gehen, wir können sie überblicken nach dem, was sie durchmachen und was sie selbst davon wissen; aber was sie so durchmachen, ist nicht alles. Ihr Inneres ist etwas ganz anderes. Und würden diese Menschen, die diese ineinandergewobenen Schichten — vierter und fünfter nachatlantischer Zeitraum — durchmachen, wissen, was ein gewisses Glied ihres Wesens, ohne daß sie es wissen, mit ihnen durchmacht, dann würden sie noch ein ganz anderes Verständnis für dasjenige haben, was Goethe jugendlich schon in seinen «Faust» hineingeheimnißt hat, denn unbewußt machen das Unzählige mit, die sich hineinleben in den heutigen Bildungsweg. So daß man sagen muß: Durch alles das, was Goethe sich heranerzogen hat vermöge seines besonderen Karmas, waren ihm die Menschen, denen er nahetrat während seines noch jugendlichen Lebens, etwas ganz anderes, als sie ihm geworden wären, wenn er nicht dieses besondere Karma gehabt hätte. Denn er fühlte und empfand, wie eigentlich die Menschen, mit denen zusammen er da aufwuchs, betäubt werden mußten, um das Faustische Leben in sich eben betäubt zu haben, nicht in Wirklichkeit zu haben. Das konnte er dadurch empfinden, weil dasjenige, was auf geheimnisvolle Weise in seinen Mitmenschen lebte, auf ihn einen solchen Eindruck machte, wie sonst nur der Eindruck gemacht wird von einem Menschen auf den anderen Menschen, wenn besonders intime Verhältnisse auftreten, ich will sagen, wenn sich Liebe entwickelt zwischen dem einen und dem anderen Menschen. Wenn sich Liebe entwickelt zwischen dem einen und dem anderen Menschen, ist ja im gewöhnlichen Leben tätig im hohen Grade unbewußt auch der Zusammenhang des Ich mit dem Gangliensystem und des Astralleibs mit dem Rückenmarkssystem. Da kommt etwas ganz Besonderes in Wirksamkeit. Aber dasjenige, was sonst nur in diesem Liebeverhältnis tätig ist, das trat für Goethe auf in einem weiteren Kreise, indem er das ungeheure, mehr oder weniger unterbewußte Mitgefühl hatte mit den armen Kerlen - verzeihen Sie den Ausdruck -, die nicht wußten, was ihr Inneres durchmacht, während sie äußerlich gedrängt wurden von Klasse zu Klasse, von Prüfung zu Prüfung. Das fühlte er, das gab ihm eine reiche Erfahrung,

Erfahrungen, sie werden zu Vorstellungen. Gewöhnliche Erfahrungen werden zu den Vorstellungen des alltäglichen Lebens; diese Erfahrungen wurden zu den Vorstellungen, die Goethe in seinem «Faust» herausbrauste. Es sind nichts anderes als Erfahrungen, Erfahrungen, die er im weitesten Umkreise machte dadurch, daß gewissermaßen sein Ganglien- und Rückenmarksleben aufgerufen wurde zu einer größeren Wachheit als sonst. Und das war der andere Pol zu dem Herabgedämmertwerden des Kopflebens. Das war aber bei ihm schon veranlagt von der Knabenzeit an. Man kann es sehen aus der Beschreibung, die er gibt da, wo er schildert, wie nicht nur, was sonst die Menschen in Anspruch nimmt, in Tätigkeit kam - sagen wir beim Klavierunterricht -, sondern der ganze Mensch. Goethe schaltete sich eben viel mehr als ganzer Mensch in das Treiben der Wirklichkeit ein als ein anderer. So daß man sagen muß: Goethe wachte mehr am Tage als andere Menschen. Er wachte mehr am Tage in der Zeit, in der er jugendlich am «Faust» arbeitete. Daher brauchte er auch das, was ich Ihnen gestern als die Schlafenszeit der zehn Jahre Weimar charakterisiert habe. Das war notwendig: wiederum ein Abdämpfen.

Nun ist das ja nur in einer etwas regeren Art dasselbe, möchte ich sagen, was aber bei allen Menschen mehr oder weniger, in höherem oder niedererem Grade während des Lebens vorkommt. Goethe wurde einfach in einer etwas bewußteren Art als andere Menschen hineingezogen in das umliegende weisheitsvolle Wirken, in das rein geistige Wirken. Er nahm wahr, was da geheimnisvoll in den Menschen lebte und webte. Aber man steht immer drinnen in dem, was da lebt und webt. Was ist denn das aber eigentlich? Wenn wir im gewöhnlichen brutalen Wachleben in die Welt versetzt sind, dann sind wir mit unserem Ich in diese Welt versetzt, hängen mit ihr durch die Sinne und durch unsere gewöhnlichen Vorstellungen zusammen. Aber wir hängen ja, wie Sie sehen, jetzt viel mehr mit dieser Welt zusammen. Unser Ich ist Ja in einer besonders intimen Beziehung zu unserem Gangliensystem, der Astralleib zum Rückenmarkssystem. Durch diese Beziehung haben wir wirklich ein viel umfassenderes Verhältnis zu unserer Umwelt als durch unser Sinnensystem, als durch unseren Kopf. Nun bedenken Sie, daß der Mensch den rhythmischen Wechsel braucht, der darinnen besteht, daß sein Ich und sein astralischer Leib im Haupte sind während des Tagwachens, außer dem Haupte sind während des Schlafens, und daß sie dadurch, daß sie außer dem Haupte sind während des Schlafens, gerade ein inneres reges Leben mit dem anderen System zusammen entwickeln, wie ich es Ihnen angedeutet habe. Ich und Astralleib brauchen also diese Abwechselung, unterzutauchen in das Haupt, herauszugehen aus dem Haupt. Wenn der Mensch mit seinem Ich und seinem Astralleib außerhalb des Hauptes ist, entwickelt er nicht nur die innigen Beziehungen zu dem übrigen Organismus durch das Gangliensystem und durch das Rückenmarkssystem, sondern er entwickelt auch nach der anderen Seite geistige Beziehungen zu der geistigen Welt. Die entwickelt er auch. So daß wir sagen können: Es entspricht dem besonders regen Zusammenleben mit Rückenmarkssystem und Gangliensystem zugleich ein reges seelisch-geistiges Zusammenleben mit der geistigen Welt. - Wenn wir also für die Nacht annehmen müssen, daß das Seelisch-Geistige außerhalb des Kopfes ist und sich dadurch besonders dieses rege Leben entwickelt für den übrigen Organismus, dann muß ich sagen: Für das Tagleben, wo also Ich und Astralleib mehr im Haupte sind, haben wir dafür wiederum ein geistiges Zusammenleben mit unserer geistigen Umwelt. Wir versenken uns gewissermaßen in eine geistige Innenwelt im Schlafe, aber in eine geistige Umwelt mit dem Aufwachen.

Dieses Zusammensein mit der geistigen Umwelt ist nur bei einem solchen Menschen wie Goethe. reger; er träumt gleichsam, wie der Mensch ja auch im Schlafe träumt und nicht nur immer dumpf schläft. So träumt der Mensch sehr selten während des Wachlebens bewußt; aber solche Leute wie Goethe kommen während des Wachlebens ins Träumen hinein. Dadurch wird bei ihnen gewissermaßen Lebenstraumgebilde, was bei den übrigen Menschen nur unbewußt bleibt.

Jetzt haben Sie noch eine genauere Darstellung. Sie können sich freilich nach dieser Darstellung eine sehr hochmütige Vorstellung bilden, Sie können sich sagen: Also könnten wir eigentlich alle einen «Faust» schreiben, denn wir erleben den «Faust», indem wir während des Taglebens in die Umwelt hineinragen, mit der geistigen Umwelt zusammenleben. Das ist auch wahr. Wir erleben den «Faust»; nur erleben wir ihn so, wie man sonst eben den entgegengesetzten Pol in der Nacht erlebt mit dem Ich und mit dem Astralleib, wenn man nicht träumt. Und Goethe erlebte also nicht nur unbewußt, sondern er träumte dieses Erlebnis, und dadurch konnte er es ausdrücken im «Faust». Er träumte dieses Erlebnis. Bei solchen Menschen wie Goethe verhält sich das, was sie schaffen, zu dem, was die übrigen Menschen unbewußt erleben, wirklich nur so wie Traum und tiefer Schlaf auf der anderen Seite des Lebens. Das ist eine volle Realität: Wie Traum und tiefer Schlaf, so verhalten sich die Schöpfungen der großen Geister zu den unbewußten Erlebnissen der anderen Menschen.

Ja, dabei bleibt noch immer manches rätselhaft. Aber bedenken Sie, daß Sie dadurch Einblick gewinnen in etwas, was mit dem Menschenleben innig zusammenhängt. Bedenken Sie, daß Sie dadurch Einblick gewinnen in einen Tatbestand, der sich etwa in der folgenden Weise charakterisieren läßt. Wir könnten eigentlich immer vieles, vieles erzählen von dem Zusammenhange unseres Wesens mit der Umgebung, wenn wir bis zum Träumen aufwachen könnten in diesem Zusammenhange mit unserer Umgebung. Man brauchte bloß bis zum Träumen aufzuwachen und man würde Ungeheures erleben und auch schildern können. Aber eine bedeutsame Folge hätte dieses, eine ganz bedeutsame Folge. Denken Sie einmal, wenn alle Menschen, trivial ausgedrückt, so bewußt wären, daß sie alles schildern könnten, was in ihrer Umgebung ist, wenn zum Beispiel alle Menschen wirklich Erlebnisse schildern könnten, die sich so ausdrücken lassen wie die Goetheschen Erlebnisse, die im «Faust» ausgedrückt sind — wohin käme man dann? Wohin käme die Welt? Die Welt bliebe - sonderbarerweise, aber es ist so -, die Welt bliebe stillestehen, die Welt könnte nicht weitergehen. In dem Augenblicke, wo die Menschen alle in der Weise träumen würden was eine ganz und gar andere Art des Träumens ist —, wie solch ein Dichter wie Goethe den «Faust» träumt, wenn jeder seinen Zusammenhang mit der Außenwelt träumen würde, in dem Momente würden die Menschen die Kräfte, die sie aus ihrem Innern entwickeln, auf solches verwenden, in solches hineingießen, und das Menschendasein würde sich in einer gewissen Weise verzehren. Sie können sich eine schwache Vorstellung machen von dem, was eintreten würde, wenn Sie hinsehen auf die vielen verheerenden Wirkungen, die schon heute dadurch eintreten, daß viele zwar nicht in Wirklichkeit träumen, aber sich einbilden zu träumen, indem sie Reminiszenzen nachplappern oder nachschreiben, die sie von anderswoher aufgenommen haben. Das hängt zusammen mit der Tatsache, daß es viel zu viel Dichter gibt; denn wer glaubt heute nicht alles, daß er ein Dichter oder ein Maler oder sonst dergleichen ist! Die Welt könnte nicht bestehen, wenn das so wäre, denn alle guten Dinge haben auch ihre Schattenseiten, richtige Schattenseiten,

Schiller war auch ein bedeutender Dichter, der manches in der Weise träumte, wie ich es jetzt beschrieben habe, Aber denken Sie, wenn alle diejenigen, welche in ihren Jugendzeiten gleich Schiller vorbereitet werden, Mediziner zu werden, Ärzte zu werden, nun die Medizin so an den Nagel hängten wie Schiller, und wenn sie dann, weil sie das brauchen, später durch allerlei Protektionen ernannt würden, ohne eigentlich vorbereitet zu sein, ohne Geschichte studiert zu haben, zum «Professor der Geschichte»! Schiller hielt zwar sehr anregende Vorlesungen, aber schließlich, gelernt haben die Studenten dasjenige, was sie gebraucht haben, bei Schillers Universitätsvorlesungen in Jena nicht. Und Schiller hat auch allmählich diese Universitätsvorlesungen wieder versiegen lassen und war froh, als er sie nicht mehr zu halten brauchte. Denken Sie, wenn es bei jedem solchen Geschichtsprofessor oder bei jedem angehenden Arzte so ginge! Also, alle Gutheiten haben selbstverständlich auch wieder ihre Schattenseiten. Die Welt muß gewissermaßen bewahrt bleiben davor, daß sie stillestehen bleibt. Daher können nicht alle Menschen - es sieht jetzt trivial aus, wenn man das sagt, aber es ist eine tiefe, geradezu eine Mysterienwahrheit —, deswegen können nicht alle Menschen so träumen. Denn die Kräfte, mit denen diese Menschen träumen, die müssen zunächst noch in der Außenwelt wirklich verwendet werden zu etwas anderem, damit in diesem anderen die Grundlagen geschaffen werden für weitere Erdenentwickelung, die stillestehen würde, wenn alle Menschen in der angedeuteten Art träumen würden.

Und jetzt sind wir an einem Punkt, wo eine besonders paradoxe Sache herauskommt. Wozu werden denn die angedeuteten Kräfte von den Menschen in der Welt eigentlich verwendet? Wenn man geisteswissenschaftlich nachschaut, wozu diese Kräfte verwendet werden, von denen Sie vielleicht sagen: Wenn sie doch bei allen Menschen zum Träumen verwendet würden! — sie werden aber nicht zum Träumen, sondern zum tiefen Schlafen verwendet -, wozu werden sie denn verwendet? Sie werden verwendet zu alle dem, was ausgegossen ist über die Menschenentwickelung in der mannigfaltigsten Berufsarbeit. Das alles fließt in die mannigfaltigste Berufsarbeit hinein. Und Berufsarbeit verhält sich zu solcher Arbeit, wie sie am «Faust», wie sie an Schillers «Wallenstein» geleistet worden ist, wie tiefer Schlaf zum "Träumen. Aber wir schlafen in unserer Berufsarbeit! Es ist Ihnen sonderbar, Sie werden sagen, in der Berufsarbeit wachen Sie ja. Mit diesem Wachen ist es nämlich eine große Täuschung, denn das, was durch die Berufsarbeit wirklich zustande kommt, ist nichts, bei dem der Mensch mit vollem Wachbewußtsein tätig ist. Einiges von den Wirkungen des Berufes auf seine Seele wird ihm allerdings wach bewußt, aber was in dem ganzen Gewebe von Berufsarbeit, das die Menschen immerdar um die Erde herum spinnen, was da eigentlich vorhanden ist, davon wissen die Menschen nichts. Es ist sogar frappierend, zu wissen, wie diese Dinge zusammenhängen. Hans Sachs war ein «Schuhmacher und Poet dazu», Jakob Böhme war ein Schuhmacher und ein mystischer Philosoph dazu. Da haben wir durch eine besondere Konstellation, über die man auch noch reden kann, ich möchte sagen, Schlafen und Träumen abwechselnd. Man kann von einem ins andere hineingehen.

Aber was bedeutet bei einem solchen Menschen wie Jakob Böhme dieses Zusammenspielen, dieses abwechselnde Leben in der Berufsarbeit - denn er hat ja wirklich Schuhe gemacht dazumal für die braven Görlitzer -, und seinen Niederschreibungen mystisch-philosophischer Art? Manche Leute haben über diese Dinge sonderbare Ansichten. Ich habe Ihnen schon erzählt, was wir erfahren haben, als wir einmal in .Görlitz waren und dort abends vor einem Vortrage ins Gespräch kamen mit einem Manne. Ich sollte gerade über Jakob Böhme in Görlitz vortragen. Da kam ich mit einem Gymnasiallehrer in ein Gespräch über das Jakob-Böhme-Denkmal, das wir gerade dort im Park gesehen hatten. Die Görlitzer — es wurde uns öfters mitgeteilt — nennen dieses Denkmal den «Parkschuster». Wir sprachen davon, daß dieses Denkmal sehr schön sei, und dieser Gymnasiallehrer sagte, er finde das nicht, denn der schaue aus wie Shakespeare, — aber er war doch ein Schuster, und man sehe es ihm ja nicht an, daß er ein Schuster wäre. Wenn man schon Jakob Böhme darstelle, so müsse man ihm schon ansehen, daß er ein Schuster wäre. — Nun, mit solch einer Gesinnung braucht man ja nichts zu tun zu haben. Indem solch ein Mensch wie Jakob Böhme seine großen mystisch-philosophischen Anschauungen niederschrieb, wirkte er heraus aus dem Ergebnis, das nur hat zustande kommen können, indem sich der Mensch aufgebaut hat durch die Saturnzeit heran, durch die Sonnenzeit, durch die Mondenzeit bis zur Erdenzeit, indem da, man möchte sagen, ein breiter Strom geht, der endlich in diesen Wirkungen zum Ausdruck gekommen ist. Nur in einer durch besondere karmische Verhältnisse herbeigeführten Weise kommt dieser Strom in einer solchen Persönlichkeit zum Ausdruck. Aber wie zu einem Menschen auf Erden überhaupt notwendig ist alles das, was durch die Sonnen- und Mondenzeit hindurch vorangegangen ist, so ist das natürlich, nur in einer besonderen Weise, notwendig gewesen, um das zu schaffen, was in Jakob Böhme war.

Aber dann hat sich Jakob Böhme wiederum hingesetzt und hat Schuhe gemacht für die biederen Görlitzer. Wie hängt denn das zusammen? Gewiß, daß ein Mensch die Geschicklichkeit sich erwerben konnte, Schuhe zu machen, das hängt auch mit dieser Strömung zusammen. Aber die Schuhe sind dann fertig und dienen anderen Menschen, gehen hinaus in die Welt, sondern sich ab von dem Menschen, haben dann in dem, was sie da wirken, nichts mehr zu tun mit der Geschicklichkeit und so weiter, sondern sie haben etwas zu tun mit dem Umhüllen und Wärmen der Füße und so weiter. Sie nehmen ihren Weg für sich; da üben sie auch gewisse Funktionen aus. Sie lösen sich los von dem Menschen, und was sie da draußen bewirken, das hat seine Wirkungen erst später, das ist nur ein Anfang. Und das ist nun so: Wenn ich die Ausgangswirkung zu der eben geschilderten mystisch-philosophischen Tätigkeit des Jakob Böhme so zeichnen würde, daß ich da die erste Anlage hinzeichnen würde (siehe Zeichnung, Kreuz unter dem ersten Kreis, Saturnzustand), so müßte ich die erste Anlage von seiner Schusterei hierher zeichnen (Kreuz im vierten Kreis, Erdenzustand), und das strömt weiter und wird in der künftigen Vulkanentwickelung zu einer solchen Vollkommenheit gediehen sein wie das, was von der Saturnentwickelung geschehen und eingeflossen ist in die mystisch-philosophische Tätigkeit des Jakob Böhme. Dies (kleiner Kreis unter dem vierten Kreis) ist gewissermaßen ein Ende; sein Schuhflicken ist ein Anfang (kleiner Kreis mit Pluszeichen im vierten Kreis). Wir sagen, die Erde ist heute Erde. Sie ist es natürlich auch. Wenn wir sie zurückverfolgen könnten vom Saturn, noch weiter zurück, würden wir sagen können: Die Erde ist in bezug auf gewisse Dinge Vulkan; da (links außen) würden wir den Saturn dann annehmen. So aber können wir alles relativ nehmen. Wir können sagen: Die Erde ist Saturn, und der Vulkan ist gewissermaßen Erde. Dasjenige, was auf der Erde in einer solchen Berufsarbeit geschieht wie bei Jakob Böhme - nicht in der freien Produktion, die er über seine Berufsarbeit hinaus macht, sondern was er als Berufsarbeit macht -, das ist der Ausgangspunkt zu etwas, was so weit sein wird auf dem Vulkan, wie dasjenige, was auf dem Saturn geschehen ist, jetzt für die Erde ist. Und auf dem Saturn mußte etwas Ähnliches geschehen, damit auf der Erde der Jakob Böhme seine mystische Philosophie hat schreiben können, wie er selber getan hat mit seinem Schuhflicken, damit etwas Ähnliches auf dem Vulkan getan werden kann, wie sein Schreiben der mystischen Philosophie auf der Erde ist.

AltName

Darinnen liegt etwas gar Merkwürdiges. Denn darinnen liegt angedeutet, wie dasjenige, was man auf der Erde oftmals so wenig schätzt, nur deshalb so wenig geschätzt wird, weil es der Ausgangspunkt ist zu etwas, was man erst schätzen wird in der Zukunft. Die Menschen sind selbstverständlich ihrem inneren Wesen nach viel mehr mit der Vergangenheit zusammengewachsen; denn mit dem, was ein Anfang ist, müssen sie erst zusammenwachsen. Daher haben sie oftmals das, was ein Anfang ist, viel weniger lieb, als was ihnen aus der Vergangenheit herüberkommt. Es wird aus dem ganzen Umfange desjenigen, in das wir noch hineingestellt sein müssen während der Erdenzeit, damit auf dem Vulkan etwas Besonderes werden kann, wenn die Erde weiter sich entwickelt hat durch Jupiter-, Venuszeit bis zur Vulkanzeit, es wird aus dem dann erst solches volles Bewußtsein wie für so etwas wie die Philosophie Jakob Böhmes auf der Erde. Daher ist das eigentlich Bedeutsame in der menschlichen Außenarbeit heute in solche Unbewußtheit eingehüllt, wie auf dem Saturn der Mensch in Unbewußtheit gehüllt war, denn erst auf der Sonne entwickelte er das Schlafbewußtsein, auf dem Monde das Traumbewußtsein und auf der Erde das Wachbewußtsein mit Bezug auf seine jetzigen Verhältnisse.

Und so lebt der Mensch wirklich in tiefem Schlafbewußtsein mit Bezug auf all dasjenige, in das er sich hineinstellt, wenn er sich in irgendeinen Beruf hineinstellt, denn durch diesen Beruf schafft er gerade — nicht durch das, was ihn freut am Berufe, sondern .durch das, was sich entwickelt, ohne daß er darauf eingehen kann - die Zukunftswerte. Wenn einer einen Nagel fabriziert und immer wieder einen Nagel fabriziert, ja, das macht einem heute natürlich keine besondere Freude. Aber der Nagel, der sondert sich ab, hat bestimmte Aufgaben. Was da geschieht durch den Nagel, darum kümmert man sich weiter nicht. Man geht nicht jedem Nagel nach, den man fabriziert. Aber was da alles ins Unbewußte, in den tiefen Schlaf eingehüllt ist, das ist bestimmt, in der Zukunft wieder aufzuleben.

So haben wir zunächst nebeneinanderstellen können das, was der gewöhnlichste Mensch macht, die unbedeutendste Arbeit zunächst im Beruf, und das, was als höchste Leistung erscheint. Höchste Leistungen sind ein Ende, die unbedeutendste Arbeit ist immer ein Anfang.

Ich wollte zunächst diese beiden Begriffe nebeneinanderstellen, denn wir können nicht die Art und Weise, wie der Mensch nun durch sein Karma verbunden wird im Beruf, in Betracht ziehen, wenn wir nicht überhaupt erst wissen, wie sich die oft mit dem Menschen ganz äußerlich verbundene Berufsarbeit zu der ganzen Entwickelung, in die der Mensch hineingestellt ist, verhält. Und so werden wir denn weiterschreiten demnächst, um nun die eigentliche Karmafrage des Berufes auszuarbeiten. Aber ich mußte diese Dinge vorangehen lassen, damit wir wenigstens einmal einen universellen Begriff bekommen von dem, was aus dem Menschen in den Beruf hineinfließt. Diese Dinge sind aber auch alle sehr dazu angetan, unsere moralischen Empfindungen in der rechten Weise zu gestalten. Denn unsere Schätzungen sind oftmals nicht die richtigen, weil wir die Dinge nicht in der richtigen Weise ins Auge fassen. Das Samenkorn erscheint manchmal recht unscheinbar, wenn es daliegt neben der schön entwickelten Blume. Dennoch, in diesem Samenkorn steckt die schön entwickelte Blume einer Zukunftsentwikkelung. Wie in der Menschheitsentwickelung Samenkorn und Blume zusammenhängen, das wollte ich Ihnen heute an dem menschlichen Schaffen auseinandersetzen.

Third Lecture

I would now like to approach the problem we are working on in these reflections from a different starting point. For in spiritual science, it must be the case that one approaches the problem from different angles and also approaches it from different points. When we look at a life such as Goethe's, I would say that we are struck by something that can become a great mystery in the development of humanity, even when we consider the repeated earthly lives and consult them in shaping a human life. I mean the problem: What is it that enables individual human beings, such as Goethe, to create something so significant from within themselves, as Goethe did, especially through his Faust, and to have such a significant influence on the rest of humanity through such creations? How is it that certain individuals are, as it were, detached from the rest of humanity and called upon by the destiny of the world to achieve such great things? We then compare the lives and works of each individual with these significant creations and ask ourselves: What do we learn from the differences between each individual human life and these so-called outstanding human lives?

This question can only be answered if we examine life more closely using the tools provided by spiritual science. For starters, everything that humans can perceive, especially in our time, is designed to conceal and mask certain things and keep them away from unbiased human observation. This also makes it necessary to speak in spiritual science in a way that is initially adapted to what can be understood at first. In spiritual science, we usually describe things by saying that human beings, as they appear to us in life, consist of their physical body, their etheric body, their astral body, and their I. And then we describe the changing states between waking and sleeping by saying that during waking, the ego and the astral body are inside the physical body and the etheric body, while during sleeping, the ego and the astral body are outside. This is completely sufficient for an initial understanding of the matter and corresponds entirely to the facts of spiritual science. But the point is that by describing it in this way, we are only giving part of the full reality. We can never encompass the full reality in a description; we always give only part of the full reality when we describe anything, and we must always first seek light from other sides in order to illuminate the partial reality we have described in the right way. And here it must be said: it is generally the case that sleeping and waking really represent a kind of cyclical movement for human beings. Strictly speaking, in the state of sleep, the ego and the astral body are only outside the physical and etheric human body, while precisely because the ego and the astral body are outside the physical and etheric head during sleep, they exert all the more active influence on the other human organization. Everything in the human being that is not the head, but other human organizations, is subject to a much stronger influence from the ego and the astral body during sleep, when the ego and the astral body are, as it were, acting on the human being from outside, than during the waking state. And one can already say: during the state of sleep, the effect that the ego and the astral body of the human being exert on the head during the waking state is exerted on the rest of the organism. We can therefore rightly compare, in a certain sense, the human ego with the sun, which illuminates our region when it is day for us; when it is night for us, the sun is not merely outside, but illuminates the earth on the other side and makes it day there. Thus, in a certain sense, it is day in the rest of our organism when it is night for our sense perception, which is primarily connected to the head, and it is night for the rest of our organism when it is day for our head, that is, the rest of our organism is more or less withdrawn from the ego and also from the astral body when we are awake. This is something else that must be added to the illumination of the full reality if one wants to understand the whole human being.

Now it is important to understand correctly the connection between the soul and the physical in the human being in this sense, if one wants to understand properly what I have just said. I have often emphasized that the nervous system of the physical organism is a unified organization, and that it is actually nothing more than mere nonsense, not even justified by anatomy, to divide the nerves into sensory and motor nerves. The nerves are all organized uniformly, and they all have a function. The so-called motor nerves differ from the so-called sensory nerves only in that the sensory nerves are designed to serve the perception of the external world, while the so-called motor nerves serve the perception of one's own organism. A motor nerve is not designed to move my hand—that is mere nonsense—but the motor nerve, the so-called motor nerve, is designed to perceive the movement of the hand, that is, to perceive it internally, while the sensory nerve is designed to serve the perception of the external world. That is the whole difference. Now, as you know, our nervous system is divided into three parts: those nerves whose main center is the brain, i.e., those centered in the head; those nerves centered in the spinal cord; and those nerves that we classify as the so-called ganglion system. These are essentially the three types of nerves that humans have. Now it is a matter of recognizing: What relationships exist between these three types of nervous systems and the mental members of our organism? Which is, so to speak, the most advanced, most refined member of the nervous system, and which is the least advanced member of the nervous system?

It is quite natural that those who come from the ordinary scientific worldview today will answer this question as follows: Well, the nervous system of the brain is of course the most noble, because it is what distinguishes humans from animals. — But this is not the case. This nervous system of the brain is essentially connected with the entire organization of our etheric body. Of course, there are further relationships everywhere, so that our entire brain system naturally also has relationships with the astral body or with the I, but these are secondary relationships. The primary, original connections are between our brain nervous system and our etheric body. This has nothing to do with the view I once explained, that the entire nervous system was brought into being with the help of the astral body; that is something completely different, which must be distinguished. It came into being in its original form during the lunar period, but it has developed further and other relationships have been established since its initial formation, so that our brain nervous system actually has the most intimate and significant relationships with our etheric body. The spinal cord system has the most intimate and primary relationships with our astral body, as we now carry it within us as human beings, and the ganglion system with the I, with the actual I. These are the primary relationships as we now have them.

If we consider this, we can easily imagine that a particularly active relationship exists during our state of sleep between our ego and our ganglia system, which is mainly spread out in the trunk organism, which surrounds the spinal cord in strands, and so on. But these relationships are loosened during waking hours; they are present, but they are loosened during waking hours. They are more intimate during sleep. And more intimate than during waking hours are the relationships between the astral body and the spinal nerves in the sleeping state. So we can say: During the state of sleep, particularly intimate relationships arise between our astral body and our spinal nerves and between our ego and our ganglion system. During sleep, we live more or less strongly together with our ganglion system in our ego. Once we study the mysterious world of dreams more closely, we will recognize what I am mentioning here from spiritual scientific research.

But then, when you consider this, you will also find a bridge to the other essential, meaningful thought: that something very important for life must be provided by the fact that a rhythmic change occurs in the coexistence of the ego, for example, with the ganglion system, and of the astral body with the spinal cord system, a rhythmic change that is identical to the change between sleeping and waking. For it will not seem too surprising to you when someone says: Because the ego is actually located in the ganglion system and the astral body in the spinal cord system during sleep, the human being is awake in relation to the ganglion system and the spinal cord system during sleep and sleeps during waking. One can only ask the question: How is it that we know so little about this active waking state, which must actually be developed during sleep? Well, if you consider how human beings came into being, that the human ego only took up residence in them during their earthly existence, that it is actually the baby among our human limbs, then it will not surprise you that this ego cannot yet bring to consciousness what it experiences in the ganglion system during sleep, while it can bring to consciousness what it experiences when it is in the fully developed head, which is mainly the result of all the impulses that have been working through the moon, sun, and so on. What the ego can bring to consciousness depends on the instrument it can use. The instrument it uses at night is still relatively delicate. For I have explained to you in earlier lectures that the rest of the organism was actually developed later, that it was added to the more complete head organism of the human being, that it is an appendage of the head organism. When we say that the human being has passed through more or less long stages from Saturn onwards in terms of its physical body, we can only say this with reference to the head. That which is attached to the head is in many cases a later formation, a lunar formation, and even an earthly formation. This is why the active life that develops during sleep, and which often has its organic seat in the spinal cord and the ganglion system, is initially little apparent to consciousness, but is nonetheless a no less active, significantly active life. And one might just as well say that during sleep, human beings should be given the opportunity to descend into their ganglia system, just as they are given the opportunity to ascend to their senses and their brain system when they are awake. Certainly, you will say: How complicated — and perhaps even: How confused — this makes everything we have learned! But human beings are complicated beings, and you cannot learn to understand them unless you really allow this complication, this complexity, to sink in.

Now imagine that what I have described to you in relation to Goethe happens to a human being: that the etheric body is loosened. Then, when the etheric body is loosened, a completely different relationship arises in the waking state between the soul-spiritual and the organic, the physical, in the human being. The human being is placed, as I described yesterday, on a kind of insulating stool. But such an effect can never occur without bringing about another. It is very important to bear this in mind. Such a relationship does not occur unilaterally, but brings another in its wake. If we express this relationship, which I characterized yesterday, in somewhat cruder terms, we could also say: through the loosening of the etheric body, the entire waking life of the human being is impaired, influenced in a certain way. But this cannot happen without the human being's sleep life being influenced at the same time. The consequence of this is simply that the human being enters into looser relationships with his brain impressions when something like this occurs in him, as it did in Goethe. As a result, he also enters into more intimate, stronger relationships with his spinal nerves and the ganglion system during waking life. This happened at the same time that Goethe fell ill, when he developed a looser relationship with his brain, but at the same time a more intimate relationship with his ganglia system and his spinal cord system.

But what does this actually mean? What does it mean to have a more intimate relationship with the ganglia system, with the spinal cord system? This means that the person enters into a completely different relationship with the outside world. We are always in close relationship with the entire external world; we just do not pay attention to how close our relationship with the external world actually is. But I have often drawn your attention to this: the air that you carry inside you at one moment is outside the next moment, and different air is inside; what is now outside takes the form of the body in the next moment and unites with your body. It is only apparent that the human organism is separated from the outside world; it is a member of this outside world, it belongs to this whole outside world. So when a change such as the one described occurs in the relationship to the outside world, this has a strong effect on human life. Now one might say: this should actually cause the lower nature of human beings to emerge particularly strongly in a personality such as Goethe's — for we usually refer to that which is connected to the spinal cord and the ganglion system as the lower nature. The forces withdraw from the head; the ganglion system and the spinal cord system make greater demands on them.

We can only gain an understanding of what is actually happening when we are thoroughly imbued with the realization that what we call intellect and reason are not actually as closely bound to our individuality as is commonly assumed. It is precisely about these things that our present age, according to all its fundamental ideas, has, one might say, the most completely wrong ideas. These are the things our present age has the least ability to cope with. This has been particularly evident in the, one might say, “dalketen” manner—I don't know if the expression is generally understood, it describes a certain way of approaching things that combines dullness with stupidity—in which our age, even in the most learned circles, has behaved toward what was supposed to come to light through certain experiences with “learned animals”: dogs, monkeys, horses, and so on. You know that news suddenly spread throughout the world about learned horses that can calculate and do all sorts of other things, about a very learned dog that caused a sensation in Mannheim, about a learned monkey in a Frankfurt zoo that was taught to calculate, among other things, which one does not like to describe in detail in polite company, which one can only hint at. The Frankfurt chimpanzee, unlike other members of the ape family, has been trained to behave in a manner that is not typical of apes, but rather of humans, in order to meet certain needs; I will not elaborate further on this topic. But all this has astonished not only laymen, but also scholars. Not only laymen, but also scholars fell into a kind of ecstasy when, in particular, the Mannheim dog wrote a letter after the death of a dear relative: how this dear relative, the offspring of the dog, would now be with the primordial soul, how he would fare there, and so on. It was a very intelligent letter that the dog wrote. Well, you don't need to go into the particularly complicated expressions of intelligence, but still: all these different animals were able to perform calculations. A lot of attention was then paid to investigating what such animals are capable of. Something very special emerged with the Frankfurt monkey. It was possible to convince oneself that when presented with a calculation that was supposed to result in a certain number, he would show this number in a series of numbers next to each other; he would point to the correct number, and the sum was obtained, for example, from individual additions. It was then concluded that this learned monkey had simply gotten into the habit of following the direction of his trainer's gaze. Some who had previously been amazed said: “There is no trace of intelligence, it is all training.” — It is actually nothing more than a somewhat complicated procedure, like when a dog fetches a stone when you throw it and he brings it back; in the same way, the monkey picked out the number from a row of numbers that was not the direction in which it was thrown, but simply the direction in which his trainer was looking.

Upon closer examination, similar results will certainly be achieved with other animals. The only thing that should really surprise us is that people are so amazed when animals do something that appears to be human-like. For how much more spirit, how much more intelligence—if one takes intelligence objectively—is obviously involved in everything that is well known in the animal kingdom, in everything that is achieved out of so-called instinct! For there, indeed, something tremendously significant is accomplished, and there are profoundly meaningful connections that make one admire the wisdom that prevails wherever phenomena come to light. We do not have wisdom only in our heads; wisdom is what surrounds us like light, what works everywhere and also works through animals. Only those who have not seriously studied scientific developments are amazed by such extraordinary phenomena. I would like to read to all those who today write such learned treatises about the Mannheim dog and similar dogs, about horses, about the Frankfurt monkey, and so on, I would like to read to them — among other things, one can do that, and this is not an isolated case — just one passage from Carus' book “Comparative Psychology,” published in 1866; since the others are not listening to me, I will first read this passage to you. On page 231, Carus writes: “If, for example, a dog is treated with kindness and affection by its master for a long time, the human traits become imprinted on the animal, even though it has no sense of the concept of kindness itself, but rather objectively, amalgamating with the mental image of this human being whom the dog often sees, and allowing it to recognize this personality, even without the sense of sight, for example, merely through smell or hearing, as the one from whom it once received kindness. If this person is now harmed in any way, perhaps even deprived of the opportunity to bestow further kindness on the dog, the animal feels this as an evil done to itself and is moved to anger and revenge; all this without any abstract thinking, but always only by the association of sensory images.

It is certainly true that sensory images follow one another in dogs; but in the whole incident, reason and wisdom prevail.

"It remains strange, however, how such a peculiar interweaving, separation, and reconnection of ideas of the inner sense can come so close to real thinking and resemble it in its consequences! “I once saw a well-trained white poodle” — this was not the Mannheim dog, for this was written in 1866 — ”which, for example, correctly selected and put together the letters of words spoken to it, which seemed to solve simple arithmetic problems by collecting individual numbers written on special sheets of paper, similar to letters, which seemed to count how many ladies were present in the company, and so on. — Of course, all this would have been impossible without actual thinking, if it had been a matter of real understanding of numbers as mathematical concepts; but it was finally discovered that the dog had only been trained to pick up the sheet with the specified letter or the corresponding number from the row on which it was placed, and at the signal of another equally quiet sound (such as a click with the thumbnail and the nail of the fourth finger), to put the sheet back in another row, thereby performing such an apparent miracle.”

You see, not only has the phenomenon been known for a long time, but also the solution, which scholars are only now discovering again with great effort because people do not care about what has been achieved in scientific development. That is the only reason why such things come about, which testify not to our advanced science, but to our advanced ignorance! But on the other hand, some objections have been raised, and rightly so. If these were merely explanations such as those put forward today, one could not help finding them naive; for Hermann Bahr rightly said: So, Mr. Pfungst came along and showed how horses react to very subtle signals that the people who train them do not perceive, but rather make unconscious, and which he himself was only able to perceive after spending a long time in his physiological laboratory constructing apparatus to detect these tiny expressions. Hermann Bahr rightly objected that it is a peculiar interpretation that horses are supposed to be so clever as to observe such expressions, while a private lecturer first has to spend many years—I believe ten or even more—constructing apparatus to perceive them! There is, of course, a grain of truth in all such things, but one must look at things properly. And when one looks at them properly, it becomes clear that things can only be explained if one imagines objective wisdom, objective reason, being placed in things, just as in instinctive actions, if one imagines the animal to be part of a whole system of objective wisdom connections that pervade the world; in other words, if one does not limit oneself to thinking that wisdom has merely come into the world through human beings, but recognizes that wisdom reigns throughout the whole world and that human beings are only called upon to perceive more of this wisdom than other beings because of their special organization. This is what distinguishes human beings from other beings: through their organization, they can perceive more of wisdom than other beings. However, through the wisdom implanted in them, other beings can accomplish things that are just as wise as those accomplished by humans, only of a different kind. And the extraordinary manifestations of the workings of wisdom are actually much less important to those who take a serious view of the world than those that are always spread out before our eyes. These are much more important. If you consider this, you will no longer find the following incomprehensible.

Animals are so bound up in the wisdom of the world that they are intimately connected with it, much more so than humans. In a sense, animals are given a much more fixed course to follow than humans. Humans are much freer than animals; this also enables them to save energy for recognizing connections. The main point is that in animals, especially in higher animals, the physical body is bound into the same world connections in which the etheric body is bound in humans. Therefore, humans know more about the world connections, but animals are much more deeply immersed in them, much more closely involved in these world connections. So when you consider objectively governing reason and say to yourself: Around us there is not only air and light, around us there is also ruling reason everywhere; when we walk, we walk not only through the space of light, but also through the space of wisdom, through the space of ruling reason — then you will appreciate what it means when human beings, in relation to the finer conditions of their organs, are connected to the world in a different way than they are usually connected. Now, in normal life, human beings are bound into the spiritual world conditions in such a way that the connection between the ego and the ganglion system and the astral body and the spinal cord system is greatly impaired for waking life; because this connection is greatly impaired, dampened, human beings in their ordinary, normal life is not very attentive to what is happening around him and what he could only perceive if he really perceived with his ganglion system in the same way as he otherwise perceives through his head.

But if, in such an exceptional case as that of Goethe, the astral body, because the etheric body has been drawn out of the head, has been brought into a more active relationship with the spinal cord system and the ego with the ganglion system, there is also a much more active communication with what always surrounds and influences us and what is veiled from us simply because we only come into contact with our spiritual environment during the night in normal human life. This, however, leads you to understand how something like this, as Goethe described it, was simply perceptible to him, was real perception, a perception that could not, of course, be as brutally clear as the perceptions we obtain from the external world through our senses, but which was nevertheless clearer than the perceptions that a person otherwise has of their surroundings, insofar as these surroundings are spiritual.

Now, what did Goethe perceive particularly vividly in this way? Let us clarify what Goethe perceived particularly vividly in a specific case. Goethe was condemned by his special karma to grow into a life of scholarship, a life of knowledge—through complications of karma, as I have indicated to you—but not like a dozen other scholars. What does he experience in this way? Well, you see, for many centuries, a person who grows into the life of a scholar experiences a significant conflict. This conflict is even more hidden today than it was in Goethe's time. But everyone experiences a certain conflict in that, in what is established science, there is an enormously broad field in which to find what has been preserved more or less from the fourth post-Atlantean period. It is preserved in the terminology, in the word systems that one is compelled to learn. One rummages much more than one thinks in words. This was mitigated by the fact that in the 19th century, a great deal of experimentation gradually took place, and as a result, one grew into the knowledge, having seen more than had been seen before, and that at least to a certain extent, sciences such as jurisprudence had come down from their particularly high pedestal on which they had previously sat. But when jurisprudence and theology still occupied their particularly high seats, there really was a comprehensive system of words into which one first had to fit oneself, and so much of what one had to take in was a legacy of the fourth post-Atlantean period. Alongside this, what arose from the needs of the fifth post-Atlantean period became increasingly prevalent: immediate life, which stems from the great achievements of modern times.

Those who are simply pushed from class to class do not feel this, but a person like Goethe felt it to the highest degree. I say: People who are pushed from class to class do not feel it, but they do not go through it any less. They really do go through it. And here we touch upon a certain secret of modern life. We can look at students going through their studies and see what they are going through and what they themselves know about it; but what they are going through is not everything. Their inner life is something quite different. And if these people who are going through these interwoven layers — the fourth and fifth post-Atlantean epochs — knew what a certain part of their being is going through with them without their knowing it, then they would have a completely different understanding of what Goethe, already in his youth, hinted at in his Faust , for countless people who immerse themselves in today's educational system do this unconsciously. So that one must say: through everything that Goethe brought to himself by virtue of his special karma, the people he came into contact with during his youthful life were something completely different to him than they would have been if he had not had this special karma. For he felt and sensed how the people with whom he grew up had to be numbed in order to have the Faustian life numbed within themselves, not to have it in reality. He could sense this because what lived mysteriously in his fellow human beings made such an impression on him as is otherwise only made by one human being on another when particularly intimate relationships arise, that is, when love develops between one person and another. When love develops between one person and another, the connection between the ego and the ganglion system and between the astral body and the spinal cord system is also active to a high degree in ordinary life, albeit largely unconsciously. Something very special comes into effect here. But what is otherwise only active in this love relationship appeared to Goethe in a wider circle, in that he had an immense, more or less subconscious sympathy for the poor fellows — forgive the expression — who did not know what they were going through inwardly while they were being pushed outwardly from class to class, from exam to exam. He felt this, and it gave him a wealth of experience.

Experiences become ideas. Ordinary experiences become the ideas of everyday life; these experiences became the ideas that Goethe expressed in his “Faust.” They are nothing more than experiences, experiences that he had in the widest circles, in that his ganglia and spinal cord were, so to speak, called upon to a greater alertness than usual. And that was the other pole to the dimming of his intellectual life. But this was already inherent in him from his boyhood. One can see this from the description he gives where he describes how not only what otherwise occupies people came into activity—let us say, in piano lessons—but the whole person. Goethe involved himself much more as a whole person in the hustle and bustle of reality than others did. So that one must say: Goethe was more awake during the day than other people. He was more awake during the day in the period when he was working on Faust as a young man. That is why he also needed what I characterized yesterday as the ten years of sleep in Weimar. That was necessary: another period of calming down.

Now, I would say that this is only the same in a somewhat more active form, but it occurs in all people to a greater or lesser extent during their lives. Goethe was simply drawn into the surrounding wise activity, into the purely spiritual activity, in a somewhat more conscious way than other people. He perceived what was mysteriously living and weaving within people. But one always stands within what is living and weaving. What is that, actually? When we are placed in the world in our ordinary brutal waking life, we are placed in this world with our ego, connected to it through our senses and our ordinary ideas. But, as you can see, we are now much more connected to this world. Our ego is in a particularly intimate relationship with our ganglion system, the astral body with the spinal cord system. Through this relationship, we really have a much more comprehensive relationship with our environment than through our sensory system, than through our head. Now consider that human beings need the rhythmic change that consists in their ego and astral body being in the head during waking hours and outside the head during sleep, and that by being outside the head during sleep, they develop an inner, active life together with the other system, as I have indicated to you. The ego and the astral body therefore need this alternation, to submerge into the head and to emerge from the head. When the human being is outside the head with his ego and his astral body, he not only develops intimate relationships with the rest of the organism through the ganglion system and the spinal cord system, but he also develops spiritual relationships with the spiritual world on the other side. He develops these too. So we can say that the particularly active coexistence with the spinal cord system and the ganglion system corresponds to an active soul-spiritual coexistence with the spiritual world. So if we have to assume that during the night the soul-spiritual is outside the head and that this is what causes this particularly active life to develop for the rest of the organism, then I must say: during the day, when the ego and the astral body are more in the head, we have a spiritual coexistence with our spiritual environment. We immerse ourselves, as it were, in a spiritual inner world during sleep, but in a spiritual environment when we wake up.

This coexistence with the spiritual environment is only more active in a person like Goethe. He dreams, as it were, just as people dream when they sleep and do not just sleep in a dull state. Thus, people very rarely dream consciously during their waking life; but people like Goethe enter into dreams during their waking life. As a result, what remains unconscious in other people becomes, in a sense, a dream structure of life for them.

Now you have a more precise description. Of course, after this description you may form a very arrogant idea, you may say to yourself: So we could all write a “Faust,” because we experience “Faust” by reaching out into the environment during our waking life, by living together with the spiritual environment. That is also true. We experience Faust; only we experience it in the same way as we experience the opposite pole at night with the ego and the astral body when we are not dreaming. And Goethe not only experienced this unconsciously, he dreamed this experience, and through this he was able to express it in Faust. He dreamed this experience. For people like Goethe, what they create is really only like dreams and deep sleep on the other side of life in relation to what other people experience unconsciously. This is a complete reality: like dreams and deep sleep, the creations of great minds are to the unconscious experiences of other people.

Yes, much remains mysterious. But consider that this gives you insight into something that is intimately connected with human life. Consider that this gives you insight into a fact that can be characterized in the following way. We could actually tell you a great deal about the connection between our being and our environment if we could wake up to our dreams in this connection with our environment. One would only need to wake up to one's dreams and one would experience and be able to describe tremendous things. But this would have a significant consequence, a very significant consequence. Just think, if all people were so conscious that they could describe everything in their environment, if, for example, all people could really describe experiences that could be expressed as Goethe's experiences in Faust — where would that lead us? Where would the world end up? The world would remain — strangely enough, but it is so — the world would come to a standstill, the world could not go on. At the moment when all people would dream in this way, which is a completely different kind of dreaming — as a poet like Goethe dreams in Faust dreams, if everyone would dream their connection to the outside world, in that moment people would use the forces they develop from within themselves for such things, pour them into such things, and human existence would consume itself in a certain way. You can get a faint idea of what would happen if you look at the many devastating effects that are already occurring today because many people do not dream in reality, but imagine that they are dreaming by parroting or copying reminiscences that they have picked up elsewhere. This is connected with the fact that there are far too many poets; for who does not believe today that he is a poet or a painter or something of the kind! The world could not exist if this were the case, for all good things have their dark sides, real dark sides.

Schiller was also an important poet who dreamed many things in the way I have just described. But just imagine if all those who, like Schiller, were prepared in their youth to become doctors, then gave up medicine like Schiller did, and if they were then, because they needed to, appointed through all kinds of patronage, without actually being prepared, without having studied history, as “professors of history”! Schiller gave very stimulating lectures, but in the end, the students did not learn what they needed to learn from Schiller's university lectures in Jena. And Schiller also gradually let these university lectures dry up and was glad when he no longer had to give them. Imagine if it were like that with every history professor or every aspiring doctor! So, all good things naturally have their downsides. The world must, in a sense, be protected from coming to a standstill. That is why not all people can dream in this way—it sounds trivial when you say it, but it is a profound, almost mysterious truth. For the forces with which these people dream must first be used in the outer world for something else, so that in this other thing the foundations may be laid for further earthly development, which would come to a standstill if all people dreamed in the manner indicated.

And now we come to a particularly paradoxical point. What are the powers I have mentioned actually used for by people in the world? If we look at it from a spiritual scientific point of view, what are these powers used for, powers which you might say: If only they were used by all people for dreaming! — but they are not used for dreaming, they are used for deep sleep — what are they used for? They are used for everything that is poured out over human development in the most varied professional work. All of this flows into the most diverse professional work. And professional work is to such work as was accomplished in “Faust” or in Schiller's “Wallenstein” as deep sleep is to dreaming. But we sleep in our professional work! You will say that it is strange, because you are awake in your professional work. But this waking is a great deception, for what really comes about through professional work is not something in which man is active with full waking consciousness. Some of the effects of his profession on his soul do become consciously apparent to him, but what actually exists in the whole fabric of professional work that men are constantly spinning around the earth, of that men know nothing. It is even striking to know how these things are connected. Hans Sachs was a “shoemaker and poet,” Jakob Böhme was a shoemaker and a mystical philosopher. Here we have a special constellation, which we could discuss further, I would say, alternating between sleeping and dreaming. One can move from one into the other.

But what does this interplay mean for someone like Jakob Böhme, this alternating life between his professional work – because he really did make shoes for the good people of Görlitz back then – and his mystical-philosophical writings? Some people have strange views about these things. I have already told you what we experienced when we were in Görlitz once and got into conversation with a man there in the evening before a lecture. I was supposed to give a lecture on Jakob Böhme in Görlitz. I got into a conversation with a high school teacher about the Jakob Böhme monument we had just seen in the park. The people of Görlitz—we were told repeatedly—call this monument the “park cobbler.” We talked about how beautiful this monument was, and the high school teacher said he didn't think so, because it looked like Shakespeare — but he was a cobbler, and you couldn't tell that he was a cobbler. If you were going to depict Jakob Böhme, you had to make him look like a cobbler. Well, you don't need to have anything to do with people who think like that. By writing down his great mystical-philosophical views, a person like Jakob Böhme worked out of the result that could only have come about through the development of the human being through the Saturn period, through the Sun period, through the Moon period, up to the Earth period, in which, one might say, a broad stream flows that has finally found expression in these effects. Only in a manner brought about by special karmic circumstances does this stream find expression in such a personality. But just as everything that has gone before through the Sun and Moon ages is necessary for a human being on Earth, so it was necessary, only in a special way, to create what was in Jakob Böhme.

But then Jakob Böhme sat down again and made shoes for the honest people of Görlitz. How does that fit together? Certainly, the fact that a person could acquire the skill to make shoes is also connected with this current. But the shoes are then finished and serve other people, go out into the world, separate themselves from the person, and then have nothing more to do with skill and so on in what they do, but they have something to do with covering and warming the feet and so on. They go their own way; there they also perform certain functions. They detach themselves from the person, and what they do out there only has its effects later; that is only the beginning. And this is how it is: if I were to draw the initial effect of the mystical-philosophical activity of Jakob Böhme just described in such a way that I would sketch the first seed (see drawing, cross under the first circle, Saturn state), I would have to draw the first seed from his shoemaking here (cross in the fourth circle, Earth state), and this flows on and will have developed in the future volcanic evolution to such perfection as that which has happened in the Saturn evolution and flowed into the mystical-philosophical activity of Jakob Böhme. This (small circle under the fourth circle) is, in a sense, an end; his shoe repair is a beginning (small circle with plus sign in the fourth circle). We say that the Earth is Earth today. Of course it is. If we could trace it back from Saturn, even further back, we could say: In relation to certain things, the Earth is a volcano; there (on the far left) we would then assume Saturn to be. But as it is, we can take everything relatively. We can say: The Earth is Saturn, and the volcano is, in a sense, Earth. What happens on Earth in a profession such as that of Jakob Böhme—not in the free production he does beyond his professional work, but what he does as his professional work—is the starting point for something that will be as far advanced on the volcano as what happened on Saturn is now for Earth. And something similar had to happen on Saturn so that Jakob Böhme could write his mystical philosophy on Earth, as he himself did with his shoe repair, so that something similar could be done on the volcano as his writing of mystical philosophy on Earth.

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There is something very strange in this. For it suggests that what is often so little valued on Earth is valued so little only because it is the starting point for something that will only be valued in the future. Human beings are, of course, much more closely connected to the past by their inner nature; for they must first grow together with that which is a beginning. Therefore, they often love that which is a beginning much less than that which comes to them from the past. It is from the whole scope of that in which we still have to be placed during our time on Earth, so that something special can become possible on the volcano when the Earth has developed further through the Jupiter and Venus periods to the volcano period, that such full consciousness as for something like the philosophy of Jakob Böhme on Earth will then become possible. Therefore, what is actually significant in human external work today is shrouded in such unconsciousness as man was shrouded in unconsciousness on Saturn, for it was only on the Sun that he developed sleep consciousness, on the Moon dream consciousness, and on Earth waking consciousness in relation to his present circumstances.

And so human beings really live in deep sleep consciousness in relation to everything they engage in when they take up a profession, because through this profession they create—not through what pleases them about the profession, but through what develops without them being able to influence it—the values of the future. If someone manufactures a nail and keeps manufacturing nails, yes, that does not give them any particular pleasure today. But the nail that is separated has certain tasks. No one cares about what happens to the nail. You don't follow every nail you make. But everything that is shrouded in the unconscious, in deep sleep, is destined to come to life again in the future.

So we have been able to juxtapose what the most ordinary person does, the most insignificant work in their profession, and what appears to be the highest achievement. The highest achievements are an end, the most insignificant work is always a beginning.

I wanted to juxtapose these two concepts first, because we cannot consider the way in which human beings are connected through their karma in their profession unless we first know how the professional work, which is often connected with human beings in a completely external way, relates to the whole development in which human beings are placed. And so we will continue shortly to work out the actual question of karma in relation to the profession. But I had to let these things come first so that we might at least gain a universal concept of what flows from the human being into the profession. All these things are also very useful for shaping our moral feelings in the right way. For our assessments are often incorrect because we do not see things in the right way. The seed sometimes seems quite insignificant when it lies next to the beautifully developed flower. Nevertheless, this seed contains the beautifully developed flower of a future development. Today, I wanted to use human creativity to explore how seeds and flowers are connected in the development of humanity.