Donate books to help fund our work. Learn more→

The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

The Karma of Vocation
GA 172

19 November 1916, Dornach

Lecture VII

It is now my task to explain, episodically in a sense, something that is related directly to the practical and general outward life of humanity, in order to cast light on the direct relation to life that is essential to spiritual science in our time. I hope we shall still come to the parts of our lectures that have more to do with the inner life. As a whole, the central concern of our present considerations is to attain a spiritual scientific understanding of the position of the individual human being in practical, even vocational, life. On The Karma of Vocation is the title I should like to give these lectures I have been giving for some time. Thus, it is necessary to gain a broader basis, and so I must explain in a more comprehensive sense much that is related to the questions we are discussing.

We have made it clear that what the human being achieves for the world in any vocation is by no means something to be set aside as being prosaic, but that, as we have seen, it is most intimately related with his remote cosmic future. Each person integrates himself in a way into the social order of life. Because of his karma he or she is impelled to a certain vocation, none of which is to be considered more prosaic or poetic than the other, and we know that what a person accomplished within the social order is the first germ of something destined not only to have significance for our earth, but to evolve as the earth passes through the states of Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. What may be called an understanding of vocation, a knowledge of the significance of the immediate life, may truly dawn upon us through such reflections. It is precisely the mission of our spiritual scientific endeavors not merely to communicate pleasant sounding theories. Rather, we must let our souls be touched by what is suitable to place us correctly in life so that each person is in his or her own place in accordance with the spirit of our age, with the arché80 The archai are the spirits of the time. “Arché“ is the singular of “archai.“ of our time. Thus, our truths bear a character that is always strong enough to constitute the basis for a real judgment of life. We will not revel in comforting conceptions, but will take in those that will carry us through life.

When we recall something I have frequently emphasized, we shall see that even our scientific endeavors have the tendency to touch our souls with what is really meaningful for life. I have often called your attention to a significant fact that may, in a relatively short time, perhaps play a most important scientific role if only those whose mission is to cultivate learning are not too obtuse. A great deal of emphasis is placed today on the role heredity plays in human life, and teachers who talk about the vocations a person is destined to have also mention inherited characteristics when they wish to pass judgment on those things related to the future vocation of a person just entering life. Of course, they are just parroting what constitutes the current scientific view of the world. But those discussing the problem of heredity today mean that children inherit certain characteristics from their parents and ancestry strictly in a physical sense. External science cannot yet open its mind to a recognition of repeated earth lives and the carrying over of human characteristics from previous incarnations. People talk about heredity, but a correct opinion of it will be attained only when we introduce something that can be understood when we grasp the content of my little book, The Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy.81 Printed in: Luzifer-Gnosis 1903–1908, Bibl.-No. 34, CE (1960) and as a separate edition. There we see that human life first passes through a period of seven years, approximately to the change of teeth; a second period to the fourteenth year; a third to the twenty-first, and so on all the way to the twenty-eighth year. Something more thorough on this subject may be found also in a small brochure that contains the substance of my lecture delivered a short time ago in Liestal,82 The lecture was given on October 16, 1916, and was entitled “Das menschliche Leben vom Gesichtspunkte der Geisteswissenschaft (Anthroposophie)“ [Human Life from the Point of View of Spiritual Science (Anthroposophy)]. It is printed in: Philosophie und Anthroposophie. Gesammelte Aufsätze 1904–1918 [Philosophy and Anthroposophy. Collected Essays 1904–1918], Bibl.-No. 35, CE (Dornach, 1965). in which I wished to call attention again, from another point of view, to these truths of the division of human development between birth and death into seven-year periods. We know that, in essence, the physical body develops inwardly between birth and the change of teeth, that the etheric body develops up to puberty, and that the astral body then passes through its development.

Let us direct our attention today to the time between the fourteenth and sixteenth years, accepting that it differs according to climate, nationality, etc. At that time, humans become mature, as we know, and are able to beget children. Now, it will be recognized that the consideration of this particular time is of the greatest importance to the scientific theory of heredity because the human being must by this time have developed all those characteristics that enable him to impart traits to his descendants. He cannot develop these capacities later, so this makes this an important period of life. To be sure, traits of secondary importance that are developed later may be passed over to descendants, but human beings are so constructed from the scientific point of view that they become fully mature between the fourteenth and sixteenth years with respect to transmitting traits to their descendants. It cannot be said, therefore, that what is essential in human development after this point has significance for the question of heredity. Science must find the reasons why humans cease at this point to develop the bases for the transmission of hereditary characteristics. It is entirely different in animals because they make no essential further progress in life beyond this time. It is this that we must carefully consider.

Now, without discussing many related things here, I wish to point out from the spiritual scientific view what really lies at the bottom of the matter. When we fix our attention back beyond the time of birth, a longer period of time stretches out before us that the human being lives through in the spiritual world between the last death and this birth. Within this stretch of time lie those processes I have often described in mere outline. All that takes place then between death and a new birth naturally has an influence on a human being and includes especially many things that are related to what he works out in his physical life between birth and the fourteenth or sixteenth years. The very thing a person is elaborating here mainly in the unconscious, he or she elaborates between death and the new birth from a higher consciousness. Let us be clear about this matter. Here upon the earth the human being perceives through his eyes and other senses the mineral, vegetable, animal world, etc. But while he is in the spiritual world together with Angels, Archangels, Archai, Exusiai, and also with those humans who have passed through the portal of death and are able to be in some close relationship with him, his attention is then directed, when he looks below, primarily upon what is connected with life in this period of time. It is from there, as I have explained even in exoteric lectures, that everything underlying heredity is determined. From a reflection I have already set before you,83 Cf. Lecture V of November 13, 1916. we know that, as a residue of the processes between death and a new birth, all that results from a previous vocational life manifests itself in the physiognomy, gestures, and in the entire hereditary tendency. Thus, it is really possible to see in the human being during this period of time, in the way he walks, in the movements of his hands, in his general bearing, the result of his vocational life during his previous incarnation.

But then the period from the fourteenth until the twenty-first year begins, which stands in opposition, in a sense, to the preceding period. As you have heard, the hereditary impulses cannot continue to work in the same fashion during this time; the time is past during which these hereditary impulses develop. Science as yet pays no attention whatever to such matters, but, if it is not to be completely divorced from all reality, it will be compelled to do so. This is the period, however, in which the human being is guided toward his new vocation through the vague and unconscious working of certain impulses into which the processes that occur between death and a new birth play in lesser degree. During this period the impulses of the preceding incarnation are effective in far greater measure. While circumstances are thus developing, he believes along with others that he would be impelled to enter this or that vocation even if only these external circumstances were effective. But they are really unconsciously connected with something living within his soul that comes directly from the preceding incarnation. Note the difference. During the preceding period from the seventh to the fourteenth year, the previous incarnation, fructified by what has happened between death and a new birth, passes into our bodily organization, thereby making us a copy of our preceding vocation. In the following period, however, the impulses no longer work into us, no longer impress gestures on us, but guide us on the way to a new vocation.

You will see what infinitely fruitful thought for future education will result from these reflections if only external world culture can decide to reckon with repeated earthly lives, rather than taking fantastic ideas as truths—fantastic because they only consider a fragment of reality, one that encompasses only the present life between birth and death. Here we must gain a perspective of the immeasurable importance of the entrance of spiritual science into those circles connected with the education and development of the human being, and also with the influence on human life of the external social order. Naturally, we are here looking out over wide perspectives, but they are connected through and through with reality; what governs the evolution of the world is not chaos but order—or even disorder, but nevertheless something that is to be explained only on the basis of spiritual life. So a person who knows the laws that are connected with repeated earthly lives can face the world in counsel and deed in an entirely different manner; he can utter things, or even set things in motion, that have to do with the course of human life.

Bear in mind that, after all, everything in the world runs in cycles in a sense. We know, of course, the vast cycles of the post-Atlantean age: the Indian, ancient Persian, Chaldaic-Egyptian, Greco-Latin, our own and what will follow. Human souls are born many times in all these cycles—some of them only once. But it is not only here that we can see how life on earth runs in cycles: it takes its cyclic course in such a way that certain conditions can be determined when one knows how to properly judge previous conditions. If, for instance, we are able to judge in the right way what was spiritually at work in the first centuries of the Christian development—let us say from the third to the seventh centuries—so that we know the spiritual impulses of that time, we can judge, in turn, what social needs may be effective today.

Cyclic evolutions do take place. We bring unhappiness to a person who is destined to be placed in a certain fashion in the cyclic evolution when we advise him or her to assume a different relationship to life. Since, however, human beings must become increasingly conscious in life during our fifth post-Atlantean epoch, a knowledge of the corresponding laws must gradually come to light. It must become possible for a person to consider himself or herself in a connection with what is taking place and playing its role in their environment. This does not consist merely in learning how to direct children to the right vocation, but also in developing the right thoughts—for we know that thoughts are realities—about the relationship one has to the world. No matter what our station in life is, what we may think of all that is occurring in the world due to the development of the spirit of the time will become increasingly important, and the human soul will have to become increasingly more conscious of this.

Now you will recall how I have undertaken to characterize the currents that have arisen with the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. I have shown you84 The reference is to lectures on October 7 and October 14, 1916, published in Innere Entwicklungsimpulse der Menschheit [Inner Developmental Impulses of Mankind], Bibl.-No. 171, CE (Dornach, 1964). how a current has arisen over the western regions that tends especially to make people bourgeois—a comprehensive, approximate expression, but nevertheless the bourgeoisie has arisen in Western Europe and America. We have contrasted this ideal with the pilgrim, the Eastern goal, which is still only a goal since it has come less clearly to expression than that of the comparatively more advanced Western culture. These two ideals, the bourgeois and the pilgrim, face each other and, unless we realize the significance of this for life, we cannot possibly develop the understanding that is growing within us. In earlier ages men could face life without understanding since they were guided by divine spiritual powers; today, however, as we develop toward the future, we must have understanding.

You see, such things as I have explained to you in the form of the two currents, one having its source in heredity and the other in redemption, must be fully considered if we wish to judge life today because they force themselves upon us more and more. That these things press upon us is not a mere assertion of mine but something that may be said from present reality—something felt and to a certain extent known for a long time past by people who were not dull and indolent, but who confronted life with full participation. Indeed, I have already called your attention to the peculiarity of our times. Many people today have a thorough feeling for the things that are coming to pass in life, but they do not possess the ability—remember what I told you about Jaurés85 Lecture of October 29, 1916, “Innere Entwicklungsimpulse der Menschheit“ [Inner Developmental Impulses of Mankind], Bibl.- No. 171, CE (Dornach, 1964). —to ascend to an understanding of repeated earthly lives and karma, either of the individual or of the world; they cannot, therefore, comprehend the very thing they perceive. But at numerous points within modern evolution we find those whose eyes are open to what is happening, in spite of the fact that they never developed the ability to explain matters from the standpoint of repeated earthly lives. Because of their failure to accept repeated earthly lives, they contributed much toward bringing about the very conditions they severely criticized. This is exactly the peculiarity of people today, even those of clearest vision; they criticize what exists and yet labor toward bringing about the very things they criticize while judging them correctly. That is how unconscious impulses play into human life.

Let us take, for example, a man who really saw a good deal in an extraordinarily clear manner, especially in the life of his environment. Such was John Stuart Mill,86 John Stuart Mill (1806–73), British philosopher and economist, espoused a modified humanitarian utilitarianism but is also regarded by some as one of the founders of positivism. who was born in 1806 and died in 1873, a famous English philosopher, looked upon by many as actually the one who renewed logic and developed it further. He also developed social insights in the most comprehensive way, directing his attention especially to the social evolution of the world as he knew and encountered it in his environment. He wanted to answer the question that assumed for him a tragic character: In what direction does the present age advance? Where does what has forced itself as a social character upon the life of the nineteenth century lead? He said that the bourgeois was the human type that had developed in the nineteenth century and asked how the bourgeois differs from earlier human types. He answered by saying that in earlier times the individual was more significant; that more individuality spoke through the earlier human being. I will couch this more in our concepts, but Mill expressed fundamentally the same thing in his. According to him, the soul had in a certain way elevated itself up above the immediate external physical reality. On the other hand, the bourgeois type works toward levelling and rendering all men equal in the social order. But what, asked Mill, is the result of this process of becoming equal? Not the result of becoming equal in the greatness of the human soul, but of becoming equal in its nothingness. He thus indicates a future for humanity during this fifth post-Atlantean epoch in which men in their social life would become ever more the “pressed caviar” of bourgeois nothingness, and he felt this to be a tragic knowledge.

People sense such things in different ways, however, depending on whether they are born in the Western or Eastern culture. The Russian thinker, Herzen,87 Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (1812–70) was a Russian writer and revolutionary. Steiner refers to Herzen's work Last Things and First Things (1864) and quotes from Dimitri S. Merezhkovsky's book Der Anmarsch des Pöbels [The Advance of the Mob] (Munich, 1907). acquainted himself thoroughly with these assertions, with these items of knowledge presented by Mill. In his soul, however, all this worked differently. The Western thinker describes this perspective of bourgeois life with a certain nonchalance, one might say, but the Eastern thinker suffers terribly under the thought then maintained by Mill and Herzen that Europe was on the way toward taking on the nature of China. As you can deduce from the writing of Herzen of 1864, both Mill and Herzen—the one with an Eastern and the other with a Western coloring—consider what has come about earlier in China as the goal toward which Europe is aiming as a later stage; that is, toward a new Chinese entity in which men will become the “pressed caviar” of bourgeois nullities. A constriction of the intellect will come, says Mill, a constriction of the intellect and of the energies of life, a polishing away of the personality, everything that leads to a levelling down. Constant flattening out of life, as he expresses it, constant exclusion of general human interests from life—so does Mill express the matter, and Herzen confirms it, but from a mood of tragic sensitivity; it is a reduction to the interests of mercantile offices and bourgeois prosperity. So did Mill and Herzen express themselves even in the sixties of the last century! Mill, who speaks first of his own country, said that England was on the way toward becoming a modern China, and Herzen said that not only England but all of Europe was on the way to becoming a modern China. It may be deduced from Herzen's book of 1864 that he and Mill more or less agreed that unless an unexpected upswing should take place in Europe, which might lead to a rebirth of human personality giving it the force needed to overcome the bourgeois, Europe, in spite of its noble forefathers and its Christianity, would become another China. These words were spoken in 1864!

Herzen, however, had no opportunity to take karma and repeated earthly lives into account. He could admit such knowledge as we have mentioned with only the deepest feeling of tragedy, which he expressed by saying that we are not the physicians, but rather the sufferings, of our time because what now approached—perhaps the thought can be better expressed with the English term used by Herzen and Mill than with the German—is “conglomerated mediocrity.” Herzen expressed this from a feeling of tragedy, saying that a time will come in Europe when the realism of the modern scientific view will have been carried so far that no one will any longer believe in anything belonging to another, a super-sensible, world. It will be said that outward physical realities are the only goal to be striven for, and human beings will be sacrificed for the sake of physical realities without any one realizing that they are something more than simply the connecting link for those who are to follow. The individual will be sacrificed to the future common colony. Such were the words uttered by Herzen who thought the one barrier to preventing Europe from rapidly becoming another China was Christianity, which is not so easily overcome. Yet, he saw no way of escape. He felt that Christianity had also become shallow, flattened out by revolution, which, as he said, was also growing shallow and had deteriorated to the bourgeois liberalism of the nineteenth century, to a conglomerated mediocrity. Referring to what Mill had stated and having in mind the downfall of ancient Rome, Herzen said, “I see the inevitable collapse of old Europe; at the portal of the old world (he meant Europe), there stands no Catiline, but death.”

With a certain justification and as one who sees much that is around him in the contemporary world yet is utterly unable to admit the sustaining concepts and ideas of spiritual science, the contemporary Russian writer, Merezhkovsky,88 Dimitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky (1865–1941) was a renowned Russian critic and novelist who spent nearly half of his life in exile in Paris. who has learned a good deal from these two thinkers, Mill and Herzen, remarks that today the yardstick has taken the place of the scepter of earlier times, the account book has usurped the place of the Bible and the sales counter replaces the altar. His mistake lies in not going beyond the mere criticism of these things. The yardstick, the account book, and the counter do have a place in our fifth post-Atlantean epoch. We know that it must be so and that it is in accord with irrevocable world karma. What is needed is not merely to condemn these things, but to pour into this world of the yardstick, the account book, and the counter the spirit that alone is the equal of them; this is the attitude of spiritual science.

These are serious matters, and I wish to make it clear, as I always endeavor to do on such occasions, that I am not merely setting forth what I myself believe, but that what I have expressed is in agreement with those who have viewed life with open and wakeful eyes. Many people may hold views and opinions, but the important question is how these views are related to their time, whether they have roots in the soil of the time and whether these people can prove the things they assert. It is a significant fact that the age is taking on a certain character which can be seen by people who are willing to do so. It is not a question of attributing a certain character to the age in whatever way we please, but that we must really see how the spiritual evolution of humanity advances from cycle to cycle.

I have called your attention to the fact that there are occult brotherhoods that possess a knowledge of these things based on traditions handed down from ancient times and derived from atavistic occult teaching. As you know from previous discussions, these brotherhoods—especially in the West but men of the East have also become their adherents—have taken on a dubious character. This does not prevent them from preserving certain secrets of existence even though they do so in a way unsuitable for the present. The person who listens to the spiritual message for our time and communicates that portion of spiritual science that can be given publicly according to the intention of the spirit of the time, frequently meets with marked opposition that comes from dark sources. But this opposition is directed and guided everywhere by spiritual powers, which must always be taken into consideration. It will readily be understood, therefore, that today opposition is easily raised against the spiritual science that is to live within our movement, by the constantly repeated suggestion that such a spiritual science should not be created for large groups of people. All sorts of accepted powers are summoned in order to render this spiritual science innocuous. University professors travel from one country to another to declare that they are forced to oppose especially my spiritual science because people today, as they say, must look at reality—the kind of reality that they alone see—and not at such things that draw men away from it. Often there is method in such attacks because anyone who is not blind sees how these people seek out the places that are politically right for them to work most effectively through the respect felt for them as university professors, for example; these are the places where they believe they can most effectually discredit an opponent. They believe they can accomplish most when they choose the right places and use the right words; that is, words that speak to current passions.

All these things are contained within a larger relationship, however, and what causes the greatest fear of all, we might even say what horrifies these people, is the thought that a number of individuals might come to understand a little of the characteristic life of our day. The utmost desire is felt, especially by those who belong to the occult brotherhoods I have described, to prevent human beings from attaining clarity in everything connected with the real laws of life, since it is among the uninformed that the interested individual can best work. He can no longer exert an influence when people begin to know how they really stand in the contemporary world. This is dangerous for those who want to fish in troubled waters, who desire to keep their esoteric knowledge to themselves, applying it so as to shape human social relationships as they wish them to be. There are members of occult brotherhoods who, within their own ranks, are fully convinced that spiritual powers are at work everywhere in our environment and that there is a bond between the living and the dead. In fact, within their occult brotherhoods they do not talk about anything except the laws of the spiritual world. Our spiritual science, too, possesses a certain part of this knowledge, but it is soon to be made public. They talk about this truth that they have taken over from ancient atavistic tradition and then publish articles in the newspapers in which they oppose the very same things, branding them as medieval superstitions. These are often the very same persons who, in their secret association, nurture spiritual science as a traditional teaching and then come out in opposition to it in the public press, designating it as a medieval superstition, a traditional mysticism, and so forth. They consider it to be entirely proper that they should not know by what principles they are being guided. Of course, there are also all kinds of strange members of occult brotherhoods who know only as much about the world as they can touch with their noses. They too talk about the present impossibility of imparting publicly the content of mystery teachings to human beings.

Now, there are various ways of keeping human beings in a fog of ignorance as I have indicated in my Liestal lecture89 See footnote 82. and in other public lectures. Just as true spiritual science will impart to us certain ideas and concepts that are like a key giving us access to the spiritual world, so also can certain concepts be found through which it is possible to delude that part of the population that has not arrived at the flattening out of the understanding through a scientific view of the world of which Mill and Herzen speak. Indeed, it is possible to form concepts in more than one way. If it were known how concepts are really formed publicly today in order to manipulate the souls of men in the “right” way, many a person would gradually sense an impulse to come to true spiritual science, which speaks of these things in an honest, upright way. I shall not deal today with all the lofty concepts communicated to persons as ideals, which are not intended, however, to produce what lies within these ideals but rather have an entirely different purpose, but I wish to make clear to you by means of a simple example how those who are craving satisfaction of certain mystical longings are easily deluded.

I will give a most stupid example. It might be said, for instance, that even the ancient Pythagoreans looked upon numbers as containing the laws governing the world. Much is concealed within numerical relationships. Let us take, for example, two numerical relationships:

Nicholas II of Russia:
Born in the year ........................... 1868
Ascended the throne in ................ 1894
Reigned for ................................. 22 years
His age was ................................. 48 years
Total ..... 3832

Dividing this total by 2, we get 1916, the most important year of the war. This is stated on the basis of a “most secret” numerical relationship. Let us take:

George V of England:

Born in the year .......................... 1865
Has reigned since ........................ 1910
Has reigned ................................. 6 years
His age is ..................................... 52 years
Total...... 3832

Half of this is 1916.

The destinies of these two individuals are intimately connected. Here you see how the Pythagorean laws of number play a role in the world! But, to provide a surfeit, let us take also:

Poincaré:
Born in the year .......................... 1860
Has ruled since ............................ 1913
That amounts to .......................... 3 years
His age is ......................................56 years
Total ...... 3832

Half of this is 1916.

You see how the numbers agree among these three Allies!

It is, of course, one of the dumbest examples imaginable. If I now went down into the audience and asked one of the ladies—as I shall naturally not do—when she was born, how long she has been a member of the Anthroposophical Society, how old she is—which, as I have said, I shall not ask—when she became a member of the Society, and then added these numbers and took half of the total, I would arrive at precisely the same figure. It is an ideal example and so that it may include present reality, let us select, then, any lady or gentlemen; it may just as well be a gentlemen:

XY was born in the year .......................... 1870
He entered the Anthroposophical Society.... 1912
So he was in the Society .......................... 4 years
And he is .................................................. 46 years old
Total ................... 3832

Half of this is 1916.

It is a really absurd example. I can assure you, however, that all sorts of things that have to do with searching out the secrets of numbers rest on nothing more; the problems are simply a little more concealed than those I have given. Moreover, concepts taken from other fields can just as well be shaped in the right manner and used for throwing dust into the eyes of people; by using proper methods people are hindered from seeing what is concealed behind these things and many have been taken in even by the example I have given. It is profoundly significant that destiny chooses 1916. Had we calculated for 1914, it would have been connected with the beginning of the war! Just as these numbers have been put together for these three Allies, any kind of numbers can, after all, be put together. Many things have been similarly fabricated from different concepts but they are not at all more significant or intelligent. They are less easily observed when somewhat more concealed. Then, when all sorts of numerical relationships are produced along with such expressions as “unfathomable,” and “deep as the world,” anyone can find innumerable adherents and also give the impression that he is speaking from profound depths of human knowledge. But there is really something to the methods used by certain individuals who wish to throw dust in the eyes of the people. In one place or another this or that concept is made public and other things are added, and those pronouncements go back to some occult connection which calls for the attainment of certain purposes. Then one must only become acquainted with the course these people will adopt.

If such things are to become impossible in the future, it is necessary that a number of people shall not have that constricted understanding and energy of life to which Mill refers; rather, they must have the sustaining understanding and supporting life energy that come from spiritual science. These are to work in a fructifying way upon the intellect and life energy of men so that their approach to life shall be such that no one can delude them. These things are connected with the feeling of fear and even horror which the strange news—travelling from eastern Europe to the West—aroused that an individual such as Mme. Blavatsky90 Helena Petrowna Blavatsky (1831–91). Together with Colonel Henry Steel Olcott she founded the Theosophical Society in the year 1875 in New York. had made her appearance as if coming from nowhere. I have often pointed out91 Steiner did this in detail in the lectures he gave in the fall of 1915. Cf. “Die okkulte Bewegung im 19. Jahrhundert und ihre Beziehung zur Weltkultur,“ Bibl.-No. 257, CE (Dornach, 1969). The Occult Movement in the Nineteenth Century, (London, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1973). that this was decidedly significant for the course of the nineteenth century. She appeared at the very time when the struggle was most bitter between the so-called esotericists and the so-called progressive occultists. That is, the reactionaries called themselves the esotericists. They used the word thus because they wished to keep the occult secrets to themselves. The life of Blavatsky fell into this period. There was the danger, through the special construction of this life in which truly far-reaching forces were at work from the subconscious, that spiritual secrets might be revealed through her and people might learn something in the right way. This danger really existed and people were living under it from the 1840's on—in a sense, ever since her birth or childhood. From then on, there was a constant endeavor so to arrange things that Blavatsky might be brought into the service of the Western occult brotherhoods. She would then have been able to bring to light only what they considered suitable for their own ends.

The whole affair took a strange turn, however. I have told you how the effort was made at first by the “Grand Orient” to lure Blavatsky, and how this failed because she set conditions that could not be fulfilled. She then caused mischief in an American brotherhood because her temperament always rebelled against what others wanted to do with her. I have told you how she was then expelled, and how there was no way left to deal with her other than by imposing upon her a kind of occult imprisonment, and by bringing her into the Indian occult brotherhood, whose practice of occultism was considered harmless to the so-called Western brotherhoods because it resembled that of Blavatsky. They thought, “Oh well, even if all sorts of things come to light from Indian sources, they are by no means able to disturb our circles much.” Most of the occultists who were working with serious occultism said, “Now, how can anything much result since we have surrounded Blavatsky with all those pictures that shut her out from a real knowledge of the spiritual world. She will take in only such things as the old ladies, male and female, discuss among themselves at afternoon teas (I am quoting here!) and this will not seriously disturb our circles.”

The affair became uncomfortable only after our movement appeared, which took things in a serious way and opened an access to the fountainhead of a real spiritual world. But you also see that the bases of the conflicts that then resulted lie most deep. The truth is that something of the impulses that had to come from the Eastern world actually was in Blavatsky, and there was really a certain necessity for a synthesis to take place with the Western World. But the important fact was that it had gradually come about that certain purposes and goals were striven for which, as I have already indicated, do not have truth as their objective but are really seeking quite different goals. Think about it, when it is known how human cycles take their course and what the character of the present world must be in relation to its Archai after this or that has happened in earlier evolution, it is then possible to be active in accordance with this truth. If a person possesses, on the one hand, traditional occult knowledge and, on the other, comes out in the press and public life against this occult knowledge as a medieval superstition, he can work in the dark and achieve the important things he is actually striving for. Things are interrelated in the world, but it is not always necessary that people should understand what the interrelationships are, because for many these connections can play their role in the subconscious. As I have indicated yesterday, what is important is that one knows how to direct one's perception to the right places. There something often appears to be quite insignificant, but when seen in the right connection, it explains much more than is explained by what one considers to be significant. Here the same thing may be said regarding many other things in the world, as Hamlet asserted concerning good and evil: Nothing is good or evil in itself, but man makes it so in his thoughts. So it is also with many other matters. The significance of one thing or another is not to be found in what it represents for outer maya, for the great illusion, but the significance of things must be recognized by associating the right concepts with them. I will mention an example taken from the most recent times in Europe, without thereby intending to enter any sort of partisan or political current.

There may be men here in Europe who, since they all like to think short-sightedly nowadays, look upon the outbreak of the present war as being connected with the murder of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand,92 Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Este (1863–1914) was assassinated in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. Heir Apparent to the Throne. I do not say that this is untrue or that there is no truth in it, but on the basis of this event they can explain certain occurrences that they trace back to this murder of July 1914. But there may also be other persons who stress that, in a Western newspaper of January 1913, the statement appeared that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was to be murdered in the near future for the well-being of European humanity. What I mean to say is that we may go back as far as the actual murder, but we may also go back to the notice of it that appeared in a Western newspaper in January 1913.93 The newspaper referred to was Paris-Midi. Cf. the speeches by Jean Jaures published by Victor Schiff (Berlin, 1919). It is also possible to go back to the murder of Jaures on the last evening before the war began—probably never entirely explained, as I recently suggested. But it is equally possible to go back to the same newspaper to which I just referred, which carried the statement in 1913 saying that if conditions in Europe should lead to war, Jaures would be the first to meet his death—You may consult a certain occult almanac94 Almanach de Mme de Thèbes [pseudonym of an alleged Mme Anne Victoire de Savigny, died in 1917), “Conseils pour etre heureux“ (Paris, 103 ff.). that was sold for forty francs and find in the issue for 1913, which was printed, of course, in 1912, the statement that he who was expected to be the ruler in Austria would not be the ruler, but rather a younger man, whom people wouldn't even now consider as the successor to the old Emperor Franz Josef.95 Cf. “L'assassin,“ in Almanach de Mme de Thebes 1913 (Paris, 1912): “The one who is supposed to rule Austria (Franz Ferdinand) is not going to rule but rather a young man who at this time is not intended to be the ruler (Karl I).“ That was printed in a so-called occult almanac for 1913; printed, therefore, in the autumn of 1912. Moreover, in the same almanac for 1914, printed in 1913, the same remark was repeated96 See “Més predications de l'an passé,“ Almanach de Mme de Thebes 1914 (Paris, 1913): “The tragic event that I predicted for the Austrian imperial family has not yet occurred, but it will definitely take place before the first half of the year has elapsed.“ because obviously the attempt on Emperor Franz Josef's life had miscarried in 1913. When these things are seen more clearly, the connection will someday be discovered that exists between what actually happens externally and what is cooked up by hidden, dark sources. Many will recognize the threads that lead from public life into this or that brotherhood, and how stupid it is for other brotherhoods continually to declare that silence should be maintained regarding certain mystery truths. Such people may be as innocent as children, in spite of the fact that they may be old members of this or that brotherhood of Freemasons which lay claim to secret sources. Nevertheless, they further intensify the obscurity and darkness that is already present among human beings.

I recently gave an example in St. Gallen and Zurich of an especially enlightened pastor and professor,97 The reference is to Dr. Friedrich Mahling, Hamburg. In his lecture on October 26, 1916, in St. Gallen, Rudolf Steiner quotes from Mahling's booklet Die Gedankenwelt der Gebildeten [The World of Thought of the Educated]. Cf. Die Verbindung zwischen den Lebenden und den Toten [The Connection between the Living and the Dead], Bibl.-No. 168, CE (Dornach, 1976). who belongs to an occult brotherhood, and pointed out the discontinuity in his thinking. He is one of those people who make their presence felt through their own denseness which they acquire in their occult brotherhoods. It is the mission of many leaders in those brotherhoods to keep members like this professor in the dark, and by this a rather unfavorable influence is exerted. People must open their eyes, but these eyes must first learn how to see. The direction of one's perception is determined by the enlightenment one has received regarding the spiritual world. Judgments are continually made that seldom take human relationships into account. Thus, as I have once indicated, I, too, was at one time to be made tractable through being “appointed” to some post in the Theosophical Society at the time Alcyone (Krishnamurti)98 Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) was proclaimed by the Theosophical Society in 1909 as an incarnation of Maitreya, the messianic Buddha. After a two-year tour of America and England with Annie Besant, Krishnamurti renounced these claims in 1929. was “appointed.” Everything that pulses through our movement might have been neatly swept away if I had fallen in with what was suggested to me; that is, to become the “reincarnated John!” Certain sources would then have announced that Alcyone is one thing and he is the reincarnated John. Then the entire movement need not have experienced what later occurred.

Vanity also belongs among the various things that stupefy people. Much can be achieved by getting hold of it in the right way, especially if the methods are known by which certain concepts are to be formed. I have already pointed out that the Theosophical Society simply worked too amateurishly. The others do these things more cleverly and practically, but it is naturally not possible to do much that is clever when it is necessary to reckon with a personality under whom those near her have groaned a good deal; when it is necessary, for example, to reckon with such a personality as Annie Besant,99 Annie Besant (1847–1933) was elected President of the Theosophical Society in May, 1907. who is full of violent emotion. Those in her company have sighed for years because of the state into which they declared she would bring them because she also, of course, had come within the aura of a particular Indian occultism. Moreover, she also possessed curious characteristics that came from strange depths and were rather inappropriate for a number of people even in the Theosophical Society. A number of individuals, mostly men—excuse me, but no allusion is intended—groaned because they were forever trying to get Annie Besant a little more on the track so things might proceed. But there were women also who sighed, and they always gave in to her again since they always tried, above all, to practice theosophy—to be sure, in the sense in which it was there practiced, but in such a way that it should become something like a theosophical sort of conglomerated mediocrity. There was a desire to introduce into the practice of spiritual science what John Stuart Mill called conglomerated mediocrity.

I myself observed how a representative of the Theosophical Society worked in a city belonging to the section of which I was at that time the general secretary.100 Rudolf Steiner had been secretary of the German branch of the Theosophical Society since its founding on October 20, 1902. I went to this city to deliver some lectures, having been called there by a lady representative. But she said to me, “We shall gradually give up the lectures because they do not have the right objective. We must arrange afternoon teas and invite people to become mutually acquainted.” Her idea was that this is done best along with sandwiches. “But the lectures (and she said this with a certain disparaging expression) will have a less and less important role.” It may be said that this personality was also enveloped in the right sheaths from a particular direction. There are, indeed, many individuals working as representatives who do not know at times where the wires that pull them originate. Wires are frequently not needed. Small twine will work, even packaging cord. Indeed, it is lamentable to see how humanity behaves at times even when the holiest and most serious things of mankind are at stake.

In particular, the greatest fear was that Blavatsky, provided she continued to be healthy and brought up to the surface what was in the subconscious parts of her nature, would be politically dangerous simply because of her special gifts and exceptional connection with her own Russian people. Many special efforts were made to prevent this from happening. Indeed, beginning in the sixties and seventies, if what then lived in Blavatsky could have become effective, many things of which such individuals as Mill and Herzen had a perfectly clear view would then have taken an entirely different course. But certain ahrimanic powers succeeded in eliminating a great deal. Well, we will see how things will go with our spiritual science under the present distressing conditions. Right thinking about it will be possible only for those who are capable of perceiving its significance in reference to the mission of our fifth post-Atlantean epoch. You have already been able to discover to what extent our spiritual science really takes into account only what is purely human, and I think it is also possible to perceive a distinction between these things. We have often discussed Goethe's Faust and even produced it on the stage. It does not require a national background to present Faust in all its occult depths. But I leave it up to you to decide whether it is necessary to harbor nationalistic feelings or perhaps even a peculiar nationalistic fervor, in order to call Goethe, Schiller, and Lessing spirits of mediocre rank, as Maeterlinck101 Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) was a Belgian writer. has most recently done, and to write long articles about the mediocrity of Goethe, Schiller, and Lessing that the important newspapers of the world are persuaded to publish. You may decide there are even deeper reasons behind this.

Just put two things together. In the course of these reflections I have pointed out to you that Ku Hung Ming,102 Ku Hung-Ming, Der Geist des chinesischen Volkes und der Ausweg aus dem Krieg [The Spirit of the Chinese People and the Way out of the War] (1916). the Chinese, has written a truly ingenious book claiming that the only salvation for the Europeans is to apply themselves to what is the essence of China. Thus, they would be enabled, so Ku103 pp. 168–169 in Ku Hung-Ming's book (cf. footnote 102): “Therefore, the first task must be to find some way to give the generals and politicians power, the power to make peace. The nations now waging war in Europe can achieve this only by tearing up their present Magna Cartas of Freedom and by replacing them with a new Magna Carta of Loyalty, such as we Chinese have it in our religion of the good citizen.“ with a Magna Carta of loyalty, which can come only from what is essentially Chinese. Ku Hung Ming is a discerning spirit who, from a profound knowledge of the Chinese nature, confirms what Mill and Herzen already had sensed. He is a spirit, moreover, who is not a philologist or schoolmaster, but one who came from a practical profession like Max Eyth, whom I have already mentioned; that is, he is neither a theologian, schoolmaster nor philologist, but one who originally was a merchant, has had many occupations and knows life. Ku Hung Ming represents the Chinese nature, the life of China. From Ku Hung Ming's remarkably vivid descriptions, it is possible today to gain a conception that gives us the impression that Mill and Herzen—read Herzen's book of 1864—were entirely right when they called the teaching of Confucius and Laotze104 Confucius, Chinese Kung Fu-tse (551–579? B.C.), a Chinese philosopher. Lao-tze (born approximately 604 B.C.) was also a Chinese philosopher and the co-founder of Taoism. He was called “the old master.“ the final consequence that must follow if Europe should be seized by the so-called positivistic realism, supported by conglomerated mediocrity, by bourgeois nothingness. The Chinese way of thinking is the final consequence of what is promulgated in the universities today and is spreading to the masses as the contemporary world view. It came from an earlier culture six hundred years before our era. Ku Hung Ming describes it clearly. Mill and Herzen described the way that will be taken by a European culture based solely upon external positivistic realism. From one side Europe will take hold of the Chinese entity; from the other, the only salvation for Europe lies in the Chinese way of thinking.

Perhaps there may be a third side and I hope you will permit me to raise this very question at the conclusion of today's considerations. How would it be if there were also a side to which it would be entirely agreeable if a Chinese should advise the Europeans to choose their only existing salvation? How would it be if it were not mere chance that this teaching of Ku Hung Ming is being introduced into Europe today? It is brilliant from the standpoint of the Chinese nature, but is it not also capable of confusing those people who do not receive it with a clear mind, with senses awakened by spiritual science and possibly designed to maneuver the people to a point where they embrace the ways of China? This is precisely what is intended, just as Mill and Herzen have already correctly seen that certain occult brotherhoods have set their sails in the direction of acquiring the essence of China, since in a Chinafied Europe it would be easiest to include what they want. Why, then, should it not be in keeping with the will of a brotherhood that a Chinese should advise the Europeans to pay heed to the beauties that might come from this Chinese way of thinking? Why may we not expect that the so-called most enlightened should be captivated by the advice of a Chinese since Europeans no longer know what to do?

Since I have said how significant that Chinese book is, I also feel obligated from the representative standpoint of spiritual science to call attention to the following: Such phenomena as the book of Ku Hung Ming—or really, the books, since two have appeared—should certainly be examined but we also must know that, under certain circumstances, far-reaching objectives are concealed behind them. It is entirely wrong not to become acquainted with them, but it is also wrong to be taken in by them. It is also most important to examine carefully everything that appears today, often from the most dubious sources, in the form of mysticism or occultism. Those of you who take into account what I have so frequently presented will endeavor also to see these things correctly. The modern world stands in the midst of all sorts of other currents, raising the question as to whether or not individuals possess the will power to see clearly and distinctly. We must, for example, be able to estimate thoroughly the difference between this current and one that still possesses more power today than is ordinarily opposed, and that proceeds from certain Roman Catholic sources. Initiation principles frequently stand behind them, though naturally those who bring them into the world are blind to what guides them. Let us now contrast certain things with others. On the one side, there is the Roman Church and, on the other, those occult brotherhoods. The Roman Church, which works in the way well-known to you, and those brotherhoods that, of course, wage a deadly war with the Church but also certainly possess and use occult knowledge; yet, before the public, they brand this as medieval superstition so that they may keep people in the right current and use them for their own purposes. Contrast this with the Roman Church. Just take the encyclical of December 8, 1864, Freedom of Conscience and of Worship,105 This encyclical has become known as the so-called “Syllabus Pius' IX.“ that was proclaimed ex cathedra. Those principles in which men believe are mentioned there and they are then condemned: “It is stated by some people that freedom of conscience and or worship is the right of every human being. This is madness. This is an absurdity.” In the view of the Roman See, it is an absurdity, a madness, for the orthodox Catholic to lay claim to freedom of conscience and worship. This is one of the currents; the other finds that it is better not to say such things but rather to do things whereby the freedom of conscience, the freedom of one's own conviction, most of all, and the introduction of one's own conviction in human life, shall be abolished. Here you have two contrasting movements that are most significant for today; much depends on this.

The reason for my concluding today's lecture with these reflections was to admonish those who stand within our spiritual scientific movement to grasp the inner impulse of the soul and not belong among the somnolent, but among those who determine to strive for a vision of life as it is. To receive items of spiritual scientific knowledge and to believe them does not make one a spiritual scientist. Only that person is a spiritual scientist in the true sense whom the spiritual scientific truths have made into a clear-sighted human being, but also into one who possesses the will really to look in the right way at what is in his other environment, and at the right points, so as to be able to judge the situation in which one is placed in the world. If we wish to speak in a fruitful way about the karma of vocation, then this also belongs to the discussion.

We shall soon continue these reflections. The necessary light will then be cast upon what belongs more in the immediate, everyday life, the immediate karma of vocation.

Siebenter Vortrag

Es ist ja jetzt meine Aufgabe, in dieser Zeit gewissermaßen episodisch einiges auseinanderzusetzen, was sich unmittelbar auf das praktische Leben und auf das äußere menschliche Dasein im allgemeinen bezicht, um gerade dasjenige, was Geisteswissenschaft in unserer Zeit haben muß, die unmittelbare Beziehung zum Leben, ein wenig ins Licht zu setzen. Zu Partien, die mehr das innere menschliche Leben behandeln, werden wir ja hoffentlich auch noch kommen. Im Ganzen steht ja in dem Mittelpunkt unserer gegenwärtigen Betrachtungen das Ziel, eine Auffassung zu gewinnen aus den geisteswissenschaftlichen Grundlagen heraus über die Stellung des Menschen, jedes einzelnen Menschen im praktischen Leben, das heißt sogar im praktischen Berufsleben darinnen. Über das Karma des Berufes möchte ich alle diese Vorträge, die ich jetzt seit einiger Zeit gehalten habe, nennen. Dazu ist aber notwendig, eine breitere Basis zu gewinnen, und ich muß manches, was mit unseren Fragen in breiterem Sinne zusammenhängt, auseinandersetzen.

Wir haben es uns klargemacht, daß das, was der Mensch für die Welt in irgendeinem Berufe erarbeitet, keineswegs etwas ist, das wie etwas Prosaisches nur abgetan werden dürfte, sondern etwas, was sogar mit des Menschen weitester kosmischer Zukunft, wie wir gesehen haben, in innigstem Zusammenhang steht. Der Mensch gliedert sich ein in gewisser Weise in die soziale Ordnung des Lebens. Er wird aus seinem Karma heraus zu irgendeinem Beruf getrieben — keiner soll dabei als prosaischer oder poetischer gelten, wenn wir über diese Frage sprechen -, und wir wissen: Was er da vollbringt innerhalb der sozialen Ordnung, das ist der erste Keim zu etwas, was nicht nur für unsere Erde Bedeutung hat, sondern sich weiter entwickeln wird, wenn die Erde durch den Jupiter-, durch den Venus-, durch den Vulkanzustand hindurchgeht. Dasjenige, was man nennen kann: Auffassung des Berufes, Erkennen der Bedeutung des unmittelbaren menschlichen Lebens, das kann uns durch solche Betrachtungen recht sehr aufgehen. Und es ist ja gerade die Aufgabe unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Bestrebungen, nicht bloß wohltuend klingende Theorien zu vermitteln, sondern dasjenige an unsere Seelen herantreten zu lassen, was geeignet ist, uns richtig, aber auch richtig im Sinne des Geistes unserer Zeit, des Arche unserer Zeit, in das Leben hineinzustellen, jeden an dem Platze, auf den er gestellt ist. Daher tragen unsere Wahrheiten auch einen Charakter, der immer stark genug sein wird, damit durch unsere Wahrheiten das Leben, dasjenige, was uns entgegentritt im Leben, wirklich beurteilt werden könne. Wir wollen nicht schwärmen in allerlei uns wohltuenden Vorstellungen, sondern wir wollen Vorstellungen aufnehmen, die uns durch das Leben tragen.

Wenn wir uns erinnern an etwas, was ich öfter schon betont habe, so werden wir sehen, wie auch unsere wissenschaftlichen Bestrebungen dahin gehen, wirklich Lebensbedeutsames unseren Seelen nahezubringen. Ich habe öfter auf eine sehr bedeutsame Lebenstatsache hingewiesen, eine Tatsache, die vielleicht, wenn diejenigen Menschen, die die Aufgabe haben, Gelehrsamkeit zu treiben, nicht allzu stumpf sich verhalten werden, in verhältnismäßig kürzester Zeit eine größere, bedeutsame wissenschaftliche Rolle spielen könnte. Nicht wahr, man betont heute vielfach dasjenige, was im Menschenleben zusammenhängt mit der Vererbung, und die Pädagogen, die heute von Berufsbestimmung sprechen, sie reden, weil sie natürlich zumeist papageienhaft nachschwätzen, was die naturwissenschaftliche Weltanschauung bildet, auch von den vererbten Eigenschaften, auf die der Pädagoge Rücksicht nehmen müsse, wenn er ein Urteil abgeben wolle über das oder jenes, was zu beantworten ist mit Bezug auf den künftigen Beruf eines in das Leben hereintretenden Menschen. Nun aber behandelt man diese Vererbung heute nur in der Art, daß man sagt: Kinder erben gewisse Eigenschaften von ihren Eltern, auch von weiteren Vorfahren - und man denkt heute dabei mehr oder weniger an die physische Vererbung, an die Vererbung, die ganz und gar in der physischen Linie aufgeht. Zur Anerkennung der wiederholten Erdenleben, zur Anerkennung des Herübertragens von menschlichen Eigenschaften aus früheren Inkarnationen können sich ja die Menschen der heutigen äußeren Wissenschaft noch nicht entschließen. Man redet von Vererbung. Man wird aber über diese Vererbungsfrage nur dann eine richtige Meinung gewinnen können, wenn man mit ihr im Zusammenhange das betrachtet, was wir schon wissen können, wenn wir auch nur verstehen den Inhalt des kleinen Büchleins: «Die Erziehung des Kindes vom Gesichtspunkt der Geisteswissenschaft». Da wissen wir, daß das menschliche Leben so verläuft, daß es seinen ersten Abschnitt hat bis ungefähr zum siebten Jahre, bis zum Zahnwechsel, einen zweiten Abschnitt hat bis zum vierzehnten Jahre, einen dritten Abschnitt bis zum einundzwanzigsten Jahre und so weiter fort, sagen wir noch bis zum achtundzwanzigsten Jahre und so weiter. Einiges Genauere wiederum wird man finden in einer kleinen Broschüre, die wiedergibt den Inhalt meines vor kurzer Zeit in Liestal gehaltenen Vortrages, wo ich wiederum von einem anderen Gesichtspunkte auf diese Wahrheiten der nach siebenjährigen Perioden geteilten menschlichen Entwickelung zwischen Geburt und Tod hinweisen wollte. Wir wissen, daß im wesentlichen zwischen der Geburt und dem Zahnwechsel der physische Leib in einer gewissen Weise sich innerlich ausbildet, daß sich der ätherische Leib bis zu der Reifezeit ausbildet und daß dann der astralische Leib seine Ausbildung erfährt.

Lenken wir heute einmal unseren Blick auf diesen Zeitpunkt, der vom vierzehnten bis sechzehnten Jahre an läuft; er ist ja für Klima, für Nationalität und so weiter verschieden. In diesem Zeitpunkte wird der Mensch reif, wie wir wissen, Nachkommen das Leben zu geben. Man wird nun erkennen, daß gerade für eine naturwissenschaftliche Vererbungslehre die Betrachtung dieses Zeitpunktes von einer ungeheuren Wichtigkeit ist, denn bis zu diesem Zeitpunkte muß ja der Mensch alle diejenigen Eigenschaften entwickelt haben, welche ihn befähigen, von sich aus Eigenschaften auf seine Nachkommen zu übertragen; er kann nicht nachher erst diese Fähigkeiten entwickeln. Es ist also ein wichtiger Abschnitt im Leben gegeben, der Abschnitt, in dem im Menschen die Fähigkeit aufhört, Eigenschaften auf seine Nachkommen zu übertragen. Gewiß, in untergeordnetem Sinne können auch Eigenschaften, die später erworben werden, auf die Nachkommen übertragen werden, aber naturwissenschaftlich betrachtet ist doch der Mensch so eingerichtet, daß er mit dem vierzehnten bis sechzehnten Jahre vollständig reif ist, zu vererben. Man kann also nicht sagen, daß das Wesentliche, das in die Menschenentwickelung nach diesem Zeitpunkte hereintritt, Bedeutung habe gerade für die Vererbungsfrage. Es wird also die Naturwissenschaft sich bekanntmachen müssen mit den Gründen, warum von diesem Zeitpunkte an der Mensch aufhört, Vererbungsunterlagen in sich zu entwickeln. Für das Tier liegt die Sache ganz anders. Für das Tier liegt die Sache durchaus so, daß es durch sein ganzesLeben hindurch im wesentlichen nicht eigentlich weiterkommt als bis zu diesem Zeitpunkt. Das ist es, was ins Auge gefaßt werden muß.

Nun will ich heute, ohne auf vieles, was in dieser Angelegenheit besprochen werden müßte, einzugehen, sogleich darauf hindeuten, was eigentlich geisteswissenschaftlich der Sache zugrunde liegt. Wir haben ja, wenn wir den Zeitpunkt der Geburt ins Auge fassen, vorausliegend den längeren Zeitraum, den der Mensch zubringt zwischen dem letzten Tode und dieser Geburt in der geistigen Welt. Dadrinnen finden diejenigen Vorgänge statt, die ich öfter in einer gewissen Weise skizzenhaft beschrieben habe. Alles, was da stattfindet in dem Zeitraum zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, wirkt natürlich auf den Menschen. Nun ist in dem, was da vorgeht zwischen dem Tod und der Geburt, vor allen Dingen viel darinnen mit Bezug auf alles das, was der Mensch ausarbeitet im Verhältnis zu seiner Leiblichkeit zwischen der Geburt und dem vierzehnten, sechzehnten Jahre. Gerade dasjenige, was der Mensch hier stark in der Unbewußtheit arbeitet, das arbeitet er zwischen dem Tod und der neuen Geburt von dem Gesichtspunkte einer höheren Bewußstheit aus. Also seien wir uns klar darüber: hier auf dieser Erde schaut der Mensch durch seine Augen, durch seine übrigen Sinne auf die mineralische, pflanzliche, tierische Welt und so weiter. Sein Augenmerk ist, wenn er zusammen ist in der geistigen Welt mit Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, Exusiai und mit denjenigen Menschen, die durch die Pforte.des Todes gegangen sind und die ihm in irgendeiner Weise nahestehen können, sein Augenmerk ist, wenn er herunterschaut, hauptsächlich gerichtet auf dasjenige, was mit dem Menschenleben zusammenhängt in diesem Zeitraum, Von da aus wird, was ich auch schon in exoterischen Vorträgen auseinandersetzte, auch alles das bestimmt, was der Vererbung zugrunde liegt. Wir wissen aus einer Betrachtung, die ich vorige Woche angestellt habe, daß als ein Rest der Vorgänge zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt gewissermaßen physiognomisch und in den Gesten, in der ganzen Vererbungsanlage auch auftritt dasjenige, was Ergebnis ist früheren Berufslebens, so daß man wirklich dem Menschen ansehen kann während dieser Zeit in der Art sogar, wie er geht, wie er die Hände bewegt, wie er sich sonst verhält, was das Ergebnis seines Berufslebens von der vorhergehenden Inkarnation ist.

Aber dann beginnt die Zeit vom vierzehnten bis zum einundzwanzigsten Jahre, die in einer gewissen Weise in Opposition steht zu der vorhergehenden Zeit. In dieser Zeit können, wie Sie gehört haben, nicht in derselben Weise die Vererbungsimpulse nachwirken, denn das ist vorbei; der Zeitpunkt ist vorbei, wenn der Mensch die Vererbungsimpulse ausgebildet hat. Auf solche Fragen nimmt die äußere Naturwissenschaft noch keine Rücksicht. Aber sie wird, wenn sie nicht ganz von aller Realität verlassen sein will, darauf Rücksicht nehmen müssen. Dies ist aber auch der Zeitpunkt, in welchem der Mensch durch unbestimmt wirkende, unbewußt wirkende Impulse zu seinem neuen Berufe hingeführt wird, und in die weniger hereinwirken die Vorgänge, die zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt liegen, als vielmehr hereinwirken diejenigen Impulse, die aus der vorhergehenden Inkarnation wirken. Ganz besonders wirksam sind die Impulse der vorhergehenden Inkarnation in diesem Zeitraume. Der Mensch glaubt, und die anderen glauben auch, indem sich die Verhältnisse so entwickeln, daß der Mensch in diesen oder jenen Beruf hineingetrieben werde, es wirkten nur diese äußeren Verhältnisse. Aber diese äußeren Verhältnisse sind in Wirklichkeit in einem unterbewußten Zusammenhange mit dem, was in unserer Menschenseele lebt, und zwar jetzt gerade unmittelbar aus dem Verhältnisse der vorhergehenden Inkarnation. Merken Sie den Unterschied: In der vorhergehenden Periode vom siebten bis zum vierzehnten Jahre geht die frühere Inkarnation, indem sie befruchtet wird von dem, was zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt vorgeht, in unsere Leibesorganisation hinein und macht uns zum Abbild des vorigen Berufes; in dem folgenden Zeitraum wirken die Impulse nicht mehr in uns hinein, drängen uns nicht mehr Gesten auf, sondern führen uns die Wege zu dem neuen Berufe hin.

Sie sehen daraus, welch unendlich fruchtbarer Gedanke sich für die Pädagogik, für das ganze Erziehungswesen der Zukunft aus diesen Betrachtungen ergeben muß, wenn sich die äußere Weltkultur einmal dazu wird entschließen können, mit den wiederholten Erdenleben zu rechnen und nicht mehr in phantastischer Weise Theorien aufzustellen, die eben phantastisch sein müssen aus dem Grunde, weil sie nicht mit der Wirklichkeit rechnen, sondern nur mit dem rechnen, was nicht Wirklichkeit ist, nur ein Teilstück der Wirklichkeit, nämlich mit dem unmittelbaren jetzigen Leben zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode. Hier haben wir wiederum zugleich einen Ausblick zu gewinnen, von welch unermeßlicher Wichtigkeit es sein wird, daß gerade in diejenigen Kreise Geisteswissenschaft hineinkomme, die es zu tun haben mit der Heranbildung, mit der Entwickelung des Menschen, die es aber auch zu tun haben damit, das Leben in der äußeren sozialen Ordnung zu beeinflussen. Natürlich schauen wir da auf weite Perspektiven hin, aber auf Perspektiven, die durchaus mit der Realität zusammenhängen, denn in der Weltenentwickelung herrscht nicht Chaos, sondern herrscht wirklich Ordnung, oder auch Unordnung, aber es herrscht eben dasjenige, was nur aus dem geistigen Leben heraus zu erklären ist. Und so kann derjenige, der da weiß, welches die Gesetze sind, die mit den wiederholten Erdenleben zusammenhängen, in ganz anderer Weise ratend und tatend, wie man sagt, sich dem Leben gegenüberstellen, Dinge aussprechen oder auch Dinge in Szene setzen, welche mit dem Verlauf des Lebens zusammenhängen müssen.

Denken Sie nun, daß doch in einer gewissen Weise alles in der Welt zyklisch abläuft. Wir kennen ja die großen Zyklen der nachatlantischen Zeit: den urindischen, den urpersischen, chaldäisch-ägyptischen, griechisch-lateinischen, unseren Zyklus, den, der darauf folgen wird. Die Menschenseelen werden in all diesen Zyklen wiedergeboren, mehrmals, oder auch manche einmal wiedergeboren. Aber nicht nur in diesem großen überschaulichen Sinne verläuft das Leben auf unserer Erde zyklisch, sondern es verläuft zyklisch so, daß sich gewisse Verhältnisse bestimmen lassen, wenn man frühere Verhältnisse in der richtigen Weise zu beurteilen vermag. Kann zum Beispiel jemand in einer richtigen Weise beurteilen, was geistig wirksam war in den ersten Jahrhunderten der christlichen Entwickelung, sagen wir, vom 3. Jahrhunderte bis ins 7. Jahrhundert hinein, so daß er die geistigen Impulse kennt, so kann er wiederum beurteilen, welche sozialen Bedürfnisse in unserer Zeit wirksam sein können. Zyklische Entwickelungen finden statt.Und es handelt sich darum, daß man einen Menschen unglücklich macht, der vielleicht gerade dazu bestimmt ist, in einer gewissen Weise in die zyklische Entwickelung sich hineinzustellen und dem man den Rat gibt, er solle sich in einer anderen Weise verhalten im Leben. Da aber gerade in unserem fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraum die Menschen sich immer bewußter und bewußter ins Leben hineinstellen müssen, so muß auch immer mehr und mehr ein Wissen von den entsprechenden Gesetzen auftreten. Es muß möglich sein, daß der Mensch sich im Zusammenhang betrachten lernt mit dem, was in seiner Umgebung spielt und tätig ist. Das kommt ja nicht etwa bloß darauf hinaus, daß man lernt, die Kinder zu dem richtigen Beruf zu bestimmen, sondern auch, daß man selber — wir wissen ja, daß Gedanken Wirklichkeiten sind — die richtigen Gedanken entwickeln kann über sein eigenes Verhältnis zur Welt, gleichgültig, an welchen Platz im Leben man gestellt ist. Es wird in der Zukunft immer weniger gleichgültig werden, was der Mensch denkt über seinen Zusammenhang mit dem, was in der Welt um ihn herum nach der Entwickelung des Zeitgeistes, des Arche, vorgeht. Darüber wird die menschliche Seele immer mehr und mehr Bewußtheit ergreifen müssen.

Nun erinnern Sie sich, wie ich versucht habe zu charakterisieren, welche Strömungen heraufgezogen sind mit dem fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraum. Ich habe Ihnen gezeigt, wie über die westlichen Gegenden mehr die Strömung heraufgezogen ist, die den Menschen — wir haben es mit einem zusammenfassenden, ich möchte sagen, approximativen Ausdruck bezeichnet — zum Bourgeois macht, wie das Bourgeoistum im westlichen Europa und auch in Amerika zum Ausdruck gekommen ist. Wir haben kontrastiert mit diesem Ideal des Bourgeoistums das östliche Ziel, das vorläufig noch ein Ziel ist, weil es sich weniger deutlich zum Ausdruck bringt — die westliche Kultur ist verhältnismäßig weiter fortgeschritten, die östliche mehr zurück -, das Ideal des Pilgers. Diese beiden Ideale, der Bourgeois und der Pilger, sie stehen einander gegenüber, und ohne daß man versteht, was das für eine Bedeutung hat für das Leben, kann man unmöglich sich hineinfinden in ein Verständnis des Lebens, das uns immer mehr aufglimmt. Unverständig dem Leben gegenüberstehen konnten die Menschen der früheren Jahrhunderte und Jahrtausende, weil sie geleitet wurden von den göttlich-geistigen Mächten. Verständig müssen sie ihm gegenüberstehen, je mehr wir uns der jetzt beginnenden Zukunft entgegen entwickeln.

Sehen Sie, solche Dinge, wie ich sie Ihnen da auseinandergesetzt habe als die zwei Strömungen, wovon die eine auf der Vererbung, die andere auf der Erlösung fußt, solche Verhältnisse muß man gründlich betrachten, wenn man überhaupt ein Urteil haben will über das Leben der Gegenwart, denn sie drängen sich auf. Das ist nicht bloß meine Behauptung, daß sich diese Dinge aufdrängen, sondern das ist etwas, was aus der Realität der Gegenwart heraus gesagt werden darf und was Menschen, welche nicht stumpf und schläfrig, sondern mit vollem Anteil dem Leben gegenüberstehen, auch wirklich schon seit langer Zeit fühlen und bis zu einem gewissen Grade auch wissen. Ich habe Sie ja schon darauf hingewiesen, worinnen das Eigentümliche unserer Zeit besteht. Es gibt viele Menschen in unserer Zeit, die haben durchaus ein Empfinden für die Dinge, die heraufziehen im Leben, aber sie haben nicht die Möglichkeit - erinnern Sie sich, was ich ausgeführt habe in bezug auf Jaures -, sich aufzuschwingen bis zu einem Verständnis der wiederholten Erdenleben und des Karmas, weder des einzelnen individuellen Karmas noch des Weltenkarmas, und können daher nicht das durchschauen, was sie wohl wahrnehmen. Aber an zahlreichen Stellen der neueren Entwickelung finden wir Menschen, die ein offenes Auge hatten für die Dinge, die da geschehen, trotzdem sie sich dann niemals dazu entwickeln konnten, die Sache vom Standpunkt der wiederholten Erdenleben zu erklären, trotzdem sie selber sogar, weil sie das nicht taten, die wiederholten Erdenleben anzunehmen, viel dazu beitrugen, die Dinge herbeizuführen, die sie scharf kritisierten. Das ist gerade das Eigentümliche der heutigen Menschen, und sogar der Klarsehendsten; sie kritisieren das, was heute da ist, aber sie arbeiten selbst an dem Zustandekommen dessen, was sie dann abkritisieren, was sie in der richtigen Weise beurteilen. So spielen unbewußte Impulse in das menschliche Leben herein.

Nehmen wir zum Beispiel einen Menschen, der wirklich vieles außerordentlich klar gesehen hat, sich das Leben ringsherum, seine Umgebung namentlich, klar ansah. Ein solcher Mensch war John Stuart Mill, der 1806 geboren ist, 1873 gestorben ist, der ein berühmter englischer Philosoph ist, der von vielen Menschen der neueren Zeit geradezu angesehen wird als der Erneuerer der Logik, als der Fortentwickeler der Logik, der aber auch soziale Einsichten in weitestem Umfange entwickelte. Er richtete den Blick auf die soziale Entwickelung namentlich derjenigen Welt, die er kannte, die in seiner Umgebung war. Und er wollte sich die Frage beantworten, die für ihn einen tragischen Charakter annahm: Wohin steuert diese Gegenwart, wohin steuert das, was sich als ein sozialer Charakter dem Leben des 19. Jahrhunderts zunächst aufgedrängt hat? —- Und er sagte: Dasjenige, was sich ausgebildet hat als Menschentypus im 19. Jahrhundert, das ist der Bourgeois. Worinnen unterscheidet sich, meint John Stuart Mill, der Bourgeois von früheren Sorten von Menschentypen, die sich herausgebildet haben im Lauf der Zeit? — Er frägt sich dieses, und er antwortet darauf: Dadurch unterscheidet sich der Bourgeois, daß in früheren Zeiten der individuelle Mensch mehr Geltung hatte. Durch den früheren Menschen sprach ich will es jetzt mehr in unsere Vorstellungen kleiden, aber John Stuart Mill sprach im Grunde in seinen Vorstellungen dasselbe aus -, durch den früheren Menschen sprach mehr Individualität, mehr ein gewisses Sich-Hinaufarbeiten der Seele über die unmittelbare äußere physische Wirklichkeit. Der Bourgeois-Typus arbeitet auf das Nivellement, auf das Gleichwerden aller Menschen in der sozialen Ordnung. Was aber, frägt John Stuart Mill, kommt heraus bei dem Gleichwerden? Nicht das Gleichwerden in der Größe der Menschenseele, sondern das Gleichwerden, meint John Stuart Mill, in den Nichtigkeiten der Menschenseele. - Und so zeichnet John Stuart Mill eine Menschenzukunft für diesen fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraum, von der er sagt: Die Menschen in ihrem Zusammenleben werden immer mehr und mehr werden - so etwa drückt er sich aus — der Preßkaviar bürgerlicher Nichtigkeiten. —- Das empfand er wie eine tragische Erkenntnis.

Aber je nachdem die Menschen aus der westlichen oder aus der östlichen Kultur herausgeboren sind, empfinden sie solche Dinge in verschiedener Weise. Genau bekannt machte sich mit diesen Aufstellungen, mit diesen Erkenntnissen John Stuart Mills der russische Denker Herzen. In seiner Seele wirkte das ganz anders noch. Der westliche Denker beschreibt mehr, man möchte sagen, mit einer Art Nonchalance diese Perspektive des Bourgeois-Seins; der östliche Denker, Herzen, leidet furchtbar daran, daß Europa den Weg macht, wie dazumal diese zwei Leute, John Stuart Mill und Herzen behaupteten, ins Chinesentum hinein. Denn Mill und Herzen — Sie können das entnehmen aus der 1864 erschienenen Schrift von Herzen -, der eine mit östlicher, der andere mit westlicher Färbung, sie betrachten das, was im Chinesentum bis jetzt entstanden ist, als für eine gewisse Altersstufe schon Erreichtes gegenüber den, worauf Europa hinsteuert: zu einem neuen Chinesentum, Chinesentum einer späten Stufe, in der die Menschen der Preßkaviar bürgerlicher Nichtigkeiten werden. Einengung des Verstandes werde kommen, sagt John Stuart Mill, Einengung des Verstandes und der Lebensenergie. Abgeschliffenheit der Persönlichkeit, alles dasjenige, was zum Nivellement führen muß. Beständige, wie er sich ausdrückt, Verflachung des Lebens, beständiges Ausschließen allgemeiner menschlicher Interessen aus dem Leben, so sagt John Stuart Mill, und so bestätigt es, nur aus einem tragisch empfindenden Gemüte heraus, Herzen: Reduzieren auf die Interessen des kaufmännischen Kontors und des bürgerlichen Wohlstandes. — So in den sechziger Jahren schon John Stuart Mill und Herzen! Und John Stuart Mill, der zunächst über sein Land spricht, sagte: England ist auf dem Wege, ein modernes China zu werden. — Und Herzen sagte: Nicht nur England, sondern ganz Europa ist auf dem Wege, ein modernes China zu werden. -— Aus dem Buche von 1864 von Herzen kann man entnehmen, daß Herzen und Mill dazumal so ziemlich übereinstimmten in dem, was Herzen ausspricht: Wenn in Europa nicht ein unerwarteter Aufschwung eintritt, der zur Wiedergeburt der menschlichen Persönlichkeit führt und ihr Kraft gibt, die Bourgeoisie zu überwinden, so wird, trotz seiner edlen Vorfahren und seines Christentums, Europa zu China werden. Diese Worte sind 1864 gesprochen!

Aber Herzen hatte keine Möglichkeit, mit dem Karma und den wiederholten Erdenleben zu rechnen. Und so konnte er eine solche Erkenntnis nur in tiefster Lebenstragik aufnehmen. Und er sprach es aus: Wir sind nicht die Ärzte unserer Zeit, wir sind die Schmerzen unserer Zeit, denn heran naht - vielleicht läßt es sich mit dem englischen Terminus, den dazumal Herzen und Mill gebrauchten, noch besser bezeichnen als mit einem deutschen -, herauf kommt «conglomerated mediocrity». Und Herzen spricht es aus, aus einem tragischen Gefühl heraus: es werde eine Zeit kommen in Europa, wo es der Realismus der modernen naturwissenschaftlichen Anschauung soweit gebracht haben wird, daß man an nichts mehr eigentlich im Ernste glauben wird, was einer anderen Welt, einer übersinnlichen Welt angehört, wo man davon sprechen wird, daß das Ziel, das man zu verfolgen hat, die äußeren physischen Realitäten nur sind, und wo man Menschen hinopfern wird um der physischen Realitäten willen, ohne daß man die Perspektive eröffnet, daß die hingeopferten Menschen etwas anderes bedeuteten als die Brücke für diejenigen, die nachfolgen. Der einzelne wird geopfert dem künftigen allgemeinen Polypenstock. — Das sind die Worte, die dazumal fielen. Europa, meint Herzen, hat nur eine Schwierigkeit, recht schnell zu China zu werden; das ist: Das Christentum läßt sich nicht so ganz ohne weiteres überwinden. — Aber er sieht doch keine Aussicht, denn er findet auch das Christentum verflacht, verflacht zur Revolution, und die Revolution, wie er sagt, verflacht zum bürgerlichen Liberalismus des 19. Jahrhunderts, zur «conglomerated mediocrity». Und im Hinblicke auf dasjenige, was John Stuart Mill ausgesprochen hat, sagt Herzen, indem er gedenkt des Unterganges des alten Roms: Ich sehe den unvermeidlichen Zusammenbruch des alten Europa; an der Pforte der alten Welt -— Europas meint er - steht kein Catilina, steht der Tod.

Nicht ohne eine gewisse Berechtigung, aber auch als einer, der zwar manches sieht, was in der Gegenwart um ihn herum ist, jedoch sich durchaus nicht entschließen kann, die tragenden Vorstellungen und Ideen der Geisteswissenschaft aufzunehmen, mit einer gewissen Berechtigung, sagte ich, bemerkt der gegenwärtige russische Schriftsteller Mereschkowskij, der gerade viel gelernt hat von Mill und Herzen, für unsere Zeit sei an die Stelle des Zepters der früheren Zeiten die Elle getreten, an Stelle der Bibel das Kontobuch, an Stelle des Altars der Ladentisch. — Der Fehler ist gerade der, daß man diese Dinge bloß kritisiert; denn daß Elle, Kontobuch und Ladentisch in unserem fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraum die Rolle spielen, die sie eben spielen: wir wissen es, daß es so sein muß, daß es einem unbedingten Weltenkarma entspricht. Und nicht darum handelt es sich, diese Dinge abzuurteilen, sondern darum, in diese Welt der Elle, des Kontobuches, des Ladentisches hineinzugießen denjenigen Geist, der allein diesen Dingen gewachsen ist, und das ist der Geist der Geisteswissenschaft.

Die Dinge sind ernst, und ich wollte Sie darauf aufmerksam machen, wie ich es ja immer versuche bei solchen Gelegenheiten, daß ich nicht schildere das, was ich gerade zu sagen habe, sondern daß, was ich ausspreche, im Einklange ausgesprochen ist mit denjenigen Menschen, die offen und unschläfrig das Leben angeschaut haben. Ansichten, Meinungen können viele Leute haben, aber es handelt sich darum, wie man mit diesen Meinungen in seiner Zeit drinnensteht, ob sie Wurzeln haben in dem Boden der Zeit, und ob man die Dinge wirklich belegen kann. Es ist die Tatsache wichtig, daß die Zeit einen gewissen Charakter annimmt, den die Menschen sehen, die sehen wollen, und daß es sich nicht darum handelt, daß man in beliebiger Weise der Zeit einen Charakter geben kann, sondern daß man zu sehen hat, wie die geistige Entwickelung der Menschheit fortschreitet von Zyklus zu Zyklus.

Ich habe darauf aufmerksam gemacht, wie es okkulte Gesellschaften gibt, die nach althergebrachten Traditionen aus der alten atavistischen Geheimlehre her von diesen Dingen Kenntnis haben. Nun haben, wie Sie ja aus früheren Betrachtungen wissen, diese Gesellschaften namentlich im Westen — aber östliche Menschen sind deren Anhänger geworden - einen trüben Charakter angenommen. Das hindert aber nicht, daß sie gewisse Geheimnisse des Daseins bewahren. Aber sie bewahren sie so, wie sie heute nicht bewahrt werden dürfen. Gerade derjenige, der hinhorcht auf die geistige Verkündigung unserer Zeit und dasjenige Stück Geisteswissenschaft mitteilt, das nach dem Sinne unseres Zeitgeistes der Offentlichkeit, der breiten Öffentlichkeit heute mitgeteilt werden kann, der stößt ganz besonders auf Widerstand, der ja manchmal aus trüben Quellen heraus kommt. Allein dieser Widerstand wird ja überall geleitet und gelenkt von geistigen Mächten. Das muß man dennoch auch durchaus in Erwägung ziehen. Und so ist es denn durchaus begreiflich, daß gerade gegen diejenige Geisteswissenschaft, die innerhalb unserer Bewegung leben soll, jetzt, wo solche Dinge leicht zu handhaben sind, sich die Widerstände dadurch erheben, daß man immer mehr darauf hinweist, wie in unserer Zeit es nicht sein dürfe, daß solch eine Wissenschaft für weitere Kreise geschaffen werde, und man ruft allerlei Mächte auf, welche heute Beifall haben, um diese Geisteswissenschaft unwirksam zu machen. Universitätsprofessoren ziehen von einem Lande ins andere, um zu erklären, daß sie insbesondere gegen meine Geisteswissenschaft auftreten müssen aus dem Grunde, weil die heutige Zeit, wie sie sagen, auf die Wirklichkeit - und sie meinen diejenige Wirklichkeit, die sie allein sehen — schauen müsse und nicht auf solche Dinge, die die Menschen von der Wirklichkeit abbringen. Und es ist manchmal viel Methode in solchen Angriffen. Denn derjenige, der nicht blind ist, sieht, wie sich nach politischen Konstellationen die Leute gerade die rechten Orte aussuchen, wo sie glauben, in der besten Weise wirken zu können mit ihrem Ansehen — als Universitätsprofessoren zum Beispiel -, wo sie glauben, einen am besten aus dem Sattel heben zu können. Wenn sie die richtigen Orte wählen und die richtigen Worte gebrauchen - nicht, die richtig an sich sind, sondern die den heutigen Leidenschaften entsprechen -, dann glauben sie am weitesten zu kommen.

Diese Dinge stehen heute aber alle in einem größeren Zusammenhange. Und dasjenige, was von einer gewissen Seite am meisten, man könnte sagen, gefürchtet, man könnte aber ebensogut sagen perhorresziert wird, das ist, daß eine Anzahl von Leuten in der Gegenwart etwas über die Charakteristik des Lebens in der Gegenwart erfahren sollen. Denn man hat, und gerade von den Seiten her, bei denen jene charakterisierten okkulten Verbrüderungen sind, das tiefste Interesse daran, die Menschen im unklaren zu erhalten über dasjenige, was mit den wirklichen Gesetzen des Lebens zusammenhängt, denn unter solchen Menschen kann man selbst am besten wirken. Man kann nicht mehr wirken, wenn die Menschen anfangen zu wissen, wie sie eigentlich in der Gegenwart drinnenstehen. Das ist gefährlich für diejenigen, die im Trüben fischen wollen, die ihre Esoterik für sich behalten wollen, aber sie anwenden wollen, um die Menschen so zu gestalten in ihren sozialen Zusammenhängen, wie sie sie haben wollen. Und es gibt heute Mitglieder von okkulten Brüderschaften, die innerhalb ihrer okkulten Brüderschaften voll überzeugt sind davon, daß überall in unserer Umgebung geistige Mächte walten, daß ein Band besteht zwischen Lebendigen und Toten. Die reden innerhalb ihrer okkulten Brüderschaften nichts anderes als das, was Gesetze der geistigen Welt sind, von denen wir einen Teil, der jetzt veröffentlicht werden soll, in unserer Geisteswissenschaft haben; sie reden davon, indem sie ihn übernommen haben von der alten atavistischen Tradition her. Dann schreiben sie in Zeitungen, und da treten sie gegen dieselbe Sache auf und brandmarken sie als mittelalterlichen Aberglauben. Es sind oftmals durchaus dieselben Menschen, die in ihren Geheimbünden Geisteswissenschaft als übernommene Lehre pflegen und die in den öffentlichen Journalen dagegen auftreten, sie als einen mittelalterlichen Aberglauben, eine überkommene Mystik und dergleichen bezeichnen. Denn sie sehen es als das Richtige an, wenn sie das Wissen für sich behalten, und wenn die anderen dumm bleiben und nicht wissen, nach welchen Grundsätzen sie gelenkt werden. Natürlich gibt es auch allerlei merkwürdige Mitglieder okkulter Verbrüderungen, die genau so viel sehen mit Bezug auf die Welt, als vorhanden ist bis zu der Grenze ihrer Nase, und die dann auch reden von der Unmöglichkeit, den Mysteriengehalt den Menschen heute in der Öffentlichkeit mitzuteilen.

Nun gibt es ganz verschiedene Mittel, die Menschen gewissermaßen im Nebel zu erhalten; denn geradeso - ich habe das im Liestaler Vortrag und auch sonst in öffentlichen Vorträgen angedeutet — wie wahre Geisteswissenschaft uns gewisse Ideen und Begriffe überliefern wird, durch welche wir wie durch einen Schlüssel den Eingang in die geistige Welt finden, geradeso kann man gewisse Begriffe finden, durch die man den Teil der Bevölkerung, der nun nicht zu jener Verflachung des Verstandes durch naturwissenschaftliche Weltanschauung kommen kann, von welchem Mill und Herzen sprechen, einzuseifen vermag. Man kann ja die Begriffe in einer ganz bestimmten Weise formen. Und würde mancher wissen, wie heute öffentlich Begriffe geformt werden, um die Menschenseelen in der richtigen Weise zuzubereiten, so würde er schon allmählich auch den Drang verspüren, zu wahrer Geisteswissenschaft heranzukommen, die von diesen Dingen in ehrlicher und redlicher Weise spricht. Ich will heute nicht zu allerlei hohen Begriffen kommen, die als Ideale den Menschen verkündet werden, und die nicht den Zweck haben, das in den Menschen zu erreichen, was in diesen Idealen steckt, sondern einen ganz anderen Zweck haben, sondern ich will an einem einfachen Beispiel klarmachen, wie man, ich möchte sagen, nun Menschen, die das Bedürfnis haben, gewisse mystische Sehnsuchten zu befriedigen, leicht einseifen kann.

Ich will ein allerdümmistes Beispiel wählen. Sehen Sie, es könnte zum Beispiel jemand sagen: Die Zahlen haben schon die alten Pythagoräer als dasjenige angesehen, worin die Gesetzmäßigkeit der Welt enthalten ist. In den Zahlenverhältnissen steckt sehr viel. Nehmen wir zum Beispiel zwei Zahlenverhältnisse. Nehmen wir NikolausII. von Rußland.

Er ist geboren im Jahre 1868
er hat die Regierung angetreten 1894
seine Regierungszeit ist 22 Jahre
sein Alter 48 Jahre
Addieren wir diese Zahlen: 3832
Nehmen wir die Hälfte, so haben wir 1916

1916, das bedeutsamste Kriegsjahr. Aber das wird durch einen recht geheimen, zahlenmäßigen Zusammenhang konstatiert. Denn nehmen wir Georg V. von England.

Er ist geboren im Jahre 1865
er regiert seit 1910
er regiert 6 Jahre
sein Alter ist 51 Jahre 3832
Die Hälfte: 1916

Das Schicksal der beiden Leute fällt innig zusammen. Sie sehen hier, wie die pythagoräischen Zahlengesetze in der Welt eine Rolle spielen! Aber wir wollen zum Überflusse noch Poincare nehmen.

Er ist geboren 1860
er regiert seit 1913
das sind 3 Jahre
er ist 56 Jahre alt 3832
Die Hälfte: 1916

Sie sehen, wie innerhalb der drei Verbündeten die Zahlen übereinstimmen!

Es ist eines der dümmsten Beispiele selbstverständlich, denn wenn ich jetzt heruntergehen würde und eine der Damen - ich tue es nicht fragen würde, wann sie geboren ist, seit wann sie Mitglied der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft ist, wie alt sie ist — wie gesagt, ich werde es nicht tun -, wieviel Jahre sie in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft ist, und ich würde dieseZahlen addieren und würde die Hälfte nehmen, so würde ich nämlich dieselbe Zahl bekommen, genau dieselbe Zahl. Ein ideales Beispiel! Damit es ein Wirklichkeitsbeispiel ist, nehmen wir also an einmal, irgendeine Dame oder ein Herr - es kann auch ein Herr sein:

X.Y. sei geboren 1870
sei eingetreten in die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft 1912
dann wäre er also darinnen 4 Jahre
und 46 Jahre alt 3832
die Hälfte davon ist 1916

Es ist ein sehr dummes Beispiel, aber ich kann Ihnen die Versicherung geben, zahlreiche Dinge, die sich beschäftigen damit, allerlei Zahlengeheimnisse aufzusuchen, beruhen auf nichts anderem; nur sind sie etwas verstecktere Aufgaben als diese Dinge. Und ebensogut kann man aus anderen Gebieten hergenommene Begriffe zusammenfassen in der richtigen Weise und den Menschen das in die Augen streuen, indem man nur eben die richtigen Wege wählt und die Leute nicht aufmerksam werden läßt auf dasjenige, was dahintersteht; denn auch auf das angeführte Beispiel sind viele Menschen hereingefallen. Es ist tief bedeursam, daß also das Schicksal 1916 wählt; hätten wir es für 1914 gerechnet, so wäre es auch so gewesen, dann wäre es mit dem Kriegsausbruch zusammengefallen für diese drei Verbündeten! Wie man diese Zahlen für diese drei Verbündeten zusammenstellt, so kann man schließlich jede Zahl zusammenstellen. Manche Dinge, die gezimmert werden nur aus anderen Begriffsunterlagen heraus, sind durchaus nicht bedeutsamer und gescheiter; nur merkt man es dann, wenn die Sache etwas verborgener ist, weniger, und man kann, wenn man dazu noch den Ausdruck «welttief», «abgrundartig tief» und namentlich allerlei Zahlenzusammenhänge produziert, furchtbar viel Anhänger gewinnen und kann zugleich den Anschein erwecken, als ob man aus ganz besonderen Tiefen der menschlichen Erkenntnis heraus sprechen würde. Aber es ist etwas, und noch manches andere dazu, in den Methoden darinnen, welche gewisse Leute wählen, um den Menschen Sand in die Augen zu streuen. Da oder dort werden diese oder jene Begriffe verkündet, indem dies oder jenes dazu gesagt wird. Der Ursprung liegt in irgendeinem okkulten Zusammenhange, der etwas erreichen will, der dies oder jenes will. Man muß dann nur die Wege kennen, die eingeschlagen werden. Daß in der Zukunft solches unmöglich werde, dazu muß eine Anzahl von Leuten wirklich nicht den eingeengten Verstand und die eingeengte Lebensenergie haben, auf die Mill hinweist, sondern den tragenden Verstand und die tragende Lebensenergie, welche von Geisteswissenschaft kommt und die befruchtend wirken soll auf den menschlichen Verstand, auf die menschliche Lebensenergie, so daß man dem Leben so gegenübertritt, daß es einen nicht einseifen kann.

Mit diesen Dingen hängt es nun auch zusammen, daß eine gewisse Furcht vorhanden war, aber auch ein Perhorreszieren, als herüberJeuchtete — es hat lange herübergeleuchtet, bevor es zum Austrage gekommen ist — aus dem europäischen Osten nach dem Westen die merkwürdige Tatsache, daß eine solche Individualität wie Blavatsky, man möchte sagen, wie aus heiterem Himmel auftrat. Ich habe schon öfter hingewiesen darauf, daß ja das immerhin etwas Bedeutsames war für den Verlauf des 19. Jahrhunderts. Und gerade damals ist sie aufgetreten, wo der Streit am ärgsten gewütet hat zwischen den sogenannten Esoterikern und den sogenannten fortschrittlichen Okkultisten. Esoteriker nannten sich nämlich die Reaktionäre in diesem Zusammenhange. Diejenigen nannten sich Esoteriker — für das haben sie das Wort gebraucht -, die nun alles vorenthalten wollten, für sich behalten wollten von den okkulten Geheimnissen. Da hinein fiel sozusagen dieses Leben der Blavatsky. Und die Gefahr war vorhanden durch die besondere Konstruktion dieses Lebens, daß durch sie, in der ja umfassende Kräfte aus dem Unterbewußten heraus arbeiteten, geistige Geheimnisse aufgedeckt werden könnten, daß die Leute in einer richtigen Weise etwas erfahren könnten. Die Gefahr war vorhanden. Unter dieser Gefahr lebten die Leute von den vierziger Jahren ab, gewissermaßen seit Blavatsky geboren war, ein Kind war. Seit jener Zeit war auch immer das Bestreben, die Sache so zu arrangieren, daß Blavatsky in den Dienst der westlichen okkulten Verbrüderungen gestellt worden wäre, so daß durch sie nur dasjenige hätte zum Vorschein kommen können, was die westlichen okkulten Verbrüderungen für das ihnen Angemessene hielten.

Aber es hat ja die ganze Sache eine merkwürdige Wendung genommen. Ich habe Ihnen erzählt, wie zunächst versucht worden ist, Blavatsky zu kapern von dem «Grand Orient» und wie sie dann, weil sie Bedingungen gestellt hat, die nicht erfüllt werden konnten, die Sache also mißglückt war, wiederum in einer amerikanischen westlichen Brüderschaft Unheil stiftete, weil bei ihr immer das Temperament durchging gegenüber dem, was die anderen mit ihr wollten; wie sie dann ausgestoßen worden ist und man nicht mehr anders sich helfen konnte als dadurch, daß man eine Art okkulter Gefangenschaft über sie verhängt und sie dann in die indische okkulte Verbrüderung hineingebracht hat, deren Pflege des Okkultismus man für die sogenannten westlichen Brüderschaften für unschädlich, weil in ihrer Linie laufend, hielt. Man dachte: Nun ja, wenn da aus indischen Quellen heraus allerlei an den Tag kommt, so ist das keineswegs geeignet, unsere Kreise besonders zu stören. — Die meisten der Okkultisten, welche mit ernsthaftem Okkultismus arbeiteten, die sagten dort: Nun, was wird denn viel herauskommen, nachdem wir die Blavatsky mit all den Bildern umgeben haben, die sie abschließen von einer wirklichen Erkenntnis der geistigen Welt! Da wird sie ja doch nur Dinge aufnehmen, welche allerlei beim Tee versammelte männliche oder weibliche Tanten vereinigt — ich zitiere! -, und das wird unsere Kreise nicht besonders stören.

Unbehaglich wurde die Sache eben erst, als unsere Strömung auftrat, welche die Dinge ernst nahm und welche den Zugang eröffnete zu den Quellen einer wirklichen geistigen Welt. Aber Sie sehen auch, daß die Grundlagen der Konflikte, die sich da ergaben, recht tief lagen. Denn in der Tat, es war etwas von den Impulsen, die gerade von der östlichen Welt kommen müssen, in der Blavatsky, und es war auch eine gewisse Notwendigkeit vorhanden, daß eine Art Synthese mit der westlichen Welt eintrat. Aber es handelte sich ja darum, daß man in der neueren Zeit immer mehr dahin gekommen war, gewisse Zwecke und Ziele anzustreben, die, wie ich schon einmal andeutete, nicht die Ziele der Wahrheit allein sind, sondern auf dem Wege, wie ich es Ihnen heute wiederum charakterisiert habe, wahrhaftig zuweilen ganz andere Ziele anstrebte. Und denken Sie, wenn man nun weiß, wie die Menschenzyklen verlaufen, was für einen Charakter die Welt jetzt ihrem Arche entsprechend haben muß, nachdem in früheren Zeiten an der richtigen Stelle der Entwickelung dies oder jenes da war, so kann man ja schon in einer gewissen Weise entsprechend wirken. Wenn man auf der einen Seite traditionelle okkulte Wissenschaft hat und auf der anderen Seite in den öffentlichen Blättern und in dem öffentlichen Leben entgegentritt dieser okkulten Wissenschaft als einem mittelalterlichen Aberglauben, kann man schon im Trüben wirken und wichtige Dinge erreichen, die man gerade anstrebt zu erreichen, denn die Dinge in der Welt stehen im Zusammenhange. Nur müssen nicht die Menschen immer wissen, welches der Zusammenhang ist, sondern es kann sich für viele Menschen der Zusammenhang im Unterbewußten abspielen. Aber darauf kommt viel an, daß man in der Art, wie ich es gestern angedeutet habe, den Blick gewissermaßen hinzurichten versteht auf die richtigen Stellen. Da erscheint manchmal recht Unbedeutendes, aber dieses Unbedeutende im richtigen Zusammenhange gesehen, das erklärt manchmal viel mehr, als dasjenige erklärt, was man für das Bedeutende hält. Denn es ist wirklich so auch in vielen anderen Dingen in der Welt, wie Hamlet vom Guten und Bösen sagt: Nichts ist an sich gut und böse, sondern der Mensch macht es in seinen Gedanken dazu. — Es ist so auch mit vielem anderen. Bedeutend ist das eine oder andere nicht durch das, als was es unmittelbar für die äußere Maja, für die große Täuschung erscheint, sondern in ihrer Bedeutung müssen die Dinge erkannt werden dadurch, daß der Mensch die richtigen Begriffe mit den Dingen verbindet. Ich will Ihnen ein Beispiel aus der allerjüngsten Zeit sagen in diesem Europa, ohne damit irgendwie in eine parteimäßige oder in irgendeine politische Strömung eingreifen zu wollen.

Es kann Menschen geben in diesem Europa, die, da sie ja heute alle kurz denken wollen, den Ausbruch des gegenwärtigen Krieges zusammenhängend denken - ich sage nicht, daß das falsch ist, ich sage nicht, daß darinnen nicht Richtigkeit ist -— mit derErmordung desErzherzogThronfolgers, des Franz Ferdinand; sie können daraus gewisse Ereignisse erklären, die sie zurückführen bis zu jener im Juni 1914 erfolgten Ermordung. Aber es kann auch Menschen geben, welche betonen, daß in einer westlichen Zeitung vom Januar 1913 gestanden hat, daß in der nächsten Zeit zum Heile der europäischen Menschheit der Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand ermordet werden solle. Ich meine, man kann zurückgehen bis zu der wirklichen Ermordung; man kann aber auch zurückgehen bis zu dem, was in einer westlichen Zeitung im Januar 1913 bereits stand: daß er ermordet werden wird. Man kann auch zurücksehen bis zu der, wie ich neulich andeutete, wahrscheinlich niemals vollständig enthüllten Ermordung von Jaures am Abend des letzten Tages der Friedenszeit. Man kann aber auch so weit zurückgehen, daß man hinweist auf dieselbe Zeitung, die ich jetzt gemeint habe, die fast eben so weit zurückliegend, also schon im Jahre 1913, den Satz enthielt: Wenn die Verhältnisse in Europa zu einem Krieg führen sollten, so wird Jaur£s der erste sein, der seinen Tod findet. - Man kann einen gewissen, sozusagen okkultistischen Almanach aufschlagen, der für vierzig Franken verkauft wurde, und man kann in dem Almanach, der auf das Jahr 1913 bestimmt war, der also schon 1912 gedruckt worden ist, die Sätze lesen: In Österreich werde nicht der regieren, von dem man glaubt, daß er regieren werde, sondern ein junger Mann, von dem man jetzt noch nicht glaubt, daß er nach dem alten Kaiser regieren werde. — Das wurde in einem sogenannten okkultistischen Almanach gedruckt für 1913, also schon im Herbst 1912 gedruckt. Und wiederum, aus demselben Almanach für 1914, also schon gedruckt 1913, wurde dieselbe Bemerkung wiederholt, weil offenbar für 1913 das Attentat mißglückt war. Für alle solche Dinge wird einmal, wenn man die Dinge heller ansehen . wird, der Zusammenhang aufgedeckt werden, der da besteht zwischen dem, was in der äußeren Wirklichkeit geschieht und zwischen demjenigen, was in verborgenen, trüben Quellen ausgekocht wird. Es wird mancher erkennen, welche Fäden aus dem öffentlichen Leben hineinlaufen in diese oder jene Verbrüderung, und es wird auch mancher erkennen, wie töricht es ist von anderen Verbrüderungen, wenn die heute noch immer davon deklamieren, daß man über gewisse Mysterienwahrheiten durchaus schweigen müsse. Solche Leute können recht unschuldig sein, weil sie Kinder sind, trotzdem sie vielleicht alte Mitglieder sind von diesem oder jenem Freimaurerbund zum Beispiel, der auch okkulte Quellen haben will; dennoch fördern sie die Dunkelheit und Finsternis, die unter den Menschen herrscht.

Ich habe in den letzten Zeiten ein Beispiel gewählt - ich habe es in St.Gallen und in Zürich behandelt - von einem besonders erleuchteten Pastor und Professor, bei dem ich aufmerksam gemacht habe auf die Diskontinuität des Denkens, die bei ihm herrscht. Der gehört allerdings auch einer okkulten Verbrüderung an. Aber er gehört zu denen, die nicht durch etwas anderes wirken als durch die eigene Beschränktheit, die sie sich aneignen in ihrer okkulten Verbrüderung, in der sie beschränkt erhalten werden, denn auch das machen sich manche Oberen in der okkulten Verbrüderung zur Aufgabe; und dadurch wird vielfach ungünstig gewirkt. Dasjenige, was notwendig ist, das ist, daß die Menschen wirklich die Augen aufmachen. Aber die Augen müssen erst sehen lernen, und sehen lernen kann man nur, wenn man gewissermaßen die Augenrichtung sich bestimmen läßt durch dasjenige, was man zuerst an Aufklärung über die geistige Welt erhalten hat. Gerechnet wird ja immer mit Eigenschaften, denen gegenüber man sich selten verrechnet im menschlichen Zusammenhang. So - ich habe es ja schon einmal angedeutet - sollte ich selbst ja auch einmal kirre gemacht werden. Ich hätte erlangen können in der Zeit, als in der Theosophical Society Alcyone zu etwas ernannt worden ist, gleichzeitig auch zu etwas ernannt zu werden. Es hätte alles dasjenige, was durch unsere Bewegung pulsiert, dadurch hübsch aus der Welt geschafft werden können, wenn ich dazumal eingegangen wäre auf dasjenige, was mir ja nahe genug gelegt worden ist: der wiederverkörperte Johannes zu werden! Es würde dann von einer gewissen Seite her die Aufgabe übernommen worden sein, zu verkündigen: Alcyone ist das, und der ist der wiederverkörperte Johannes - und es hätte die ganze Bewegung dasjenige nicht zu erfahren gebraucht, was ja später geschehen ist.

Unter die mancherlei Dinge, die den Menschen dumm machen, gehört natürlich auch die Eitelkeit, und trifft man in der richtigen Weise auf die Eitelkeiten, dann kann man viel erreichen, insbesondere, wenn man auch die Methoden noch kennt, gewisse Begriffe zu formen. Ich habe schon gestern erwähnt, daß die Theosophische Gesellschaft es nur zu dilettantisch gemacht hat; die andern machen es gescheiter und sachgemäßer. Aber man kann natürlich nicht viel Gescheites machen, wenn man zu rechnen hat mit einer Persönlichkeit, unter der ja die ihr Nahestehenden so viel geseufzt haben, wenn man zu rechnen hat zum Beispiel mit einer Persönlichkeit wie Annie Besant, die selber voll von Leidenschaften ist. Man braucht nur zu wissen, wie diejenigen, die in der Umgebung Annie Besants waren, durch Jahre darüber geseufzt haben, in welche Lage sie sie noch alle bringen werde dadurch, daß sie ja nun auch in die Aura eines gewissen indischen Okkultismus verfallen sei. Sie hatte dabei wiederum merkwürdige, aus sonderbaren Untergründen heraus kommende Eigenschaften mitgebracht, die einer Anzahl von Menschen gerade in der Theosophical Society recht unpaß gekommen sind. Eine Anzahl von Leuten, zumeist Männer — verzeihen Sie, aber das soll keine Anspielung sein —, seufzten, weil sie sich immer bemühten, Annie Besant ein wenig in Bahnen zu bringen, daß es ginge. Aber Frauen waren auch da, die seufzten auch, doch sie unterwarfen sich immer wieder; denn die hatten vor allen Dingen das Bestreben, zwar Theosophie zu treiben in dem Sinne, wie man es dort trieb, aber diese Theosophie so zu treiben, daß sie auch so etwas werde — nur etwas theosophisch — wie «conglomerated mediocrity». Hineintragen wollte man dasjenige, was John Stuart Mill die «conglomerated mediocrity» nennt, in den Betrieb der Geisteswissenschaft.

Ich habe es selbst noch erfahren, wie eine Sendbotin der Theosophical Society in einer Stadt gewirkt hat, die zu der damaligen Sektion gehörte, deren Generalsekretär ich war. Ich ging in diese Stadt, Vorträge zu halten, sogar gerufen von der betreffenden Sendbotin. Aber die betreffende Sendbotin sagte mir: Von den Vorträgen werden wir allmählich absehen, denn die haben doch nicht einen rechten Zweck. Man muß Tee-Abende arrangieren und die Leute dazu einladen, daß sie sich kennenlernen beim Tee - und sie meinte: Bei den Brötchen, da macht sich das am allerbesten! Aber die Vorträge — und sie sagte das mit einer gewissen wegwerfenden Miene -, die werden allmählich eine immer geringere Bedeutung haben. — Man kann sagen, eingewickelt in die richtige Hülle von einer gewissen Seite her war auch diese Persönlichkeit, und es sind eben viele, viele, gerade solche, die als Sendboten wirken, die zuweilen gar nicht wissen, wie die Drähte gehen, an denen sie gezogen werden. Manchmal braucht man gar nicht Drähte, es können dünne Schnüre sein, Bindfaden meinetwillen. Es ist schon ein Jammer, wie gerade über die heiligsten und ernstesten Dinge der Menschheit zuweilen innerhalb dieser Menschheit verhandelt wird.

Namentlich fürchtete man ungeheuer, wenn die Blavatsky richtig gesund bliebe und doch dasjenige an die Oberfläche brächte, was in ihren Untergründen war, dann könnte es gerade durch ihre besondere Anlage und durch den besonderen Zusammenhang mit ihrem russischen Volkstum auch in politischer Beziehung gefährlich werden. Und das, um was es sich da handelte, auszuschalten, das war auch ein ganz besonderes Bestreben. Und hätte gar dasjenige zur Geltung kommen können schon dazumal, von den sechziger, siebziger Jahren an, was in der Blavatsky gelebt hat, dann wären doch manche Dinge anders verlaufen, Dinge, denen gegenüber solche Leute wie Mill und Herzen ganz gut gesehen haben. Aber es ist eben dazumal einzelnen ahrimanischen Mächten gelungen, mancherlei auszuschalten. Nun, wir werden ja sehen, wie es unter den gegenwärtigen traurigen Verhältnissen unserer Geisteswissenschaft ergehen kann. Recht denken werden über sie diejenigen, welche die Möglichkeit haben, ihre Bedeutung einzusehen gerade gegenüber den großen Aufgaben unseres fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraums. Inwiefern ja unsere Geisteswissenschaft wirklich nur mit dem rein Wienschlichen rechnet, das könnten Sie ja jetzt schon wissen. Und erkennen, meine ich, könnte man auch schon, daß doch da Unterschiede sind. Wir haben zum Beispiel vielfach besprochen und auch aufgeführt Goethes «Faust». Denn man braucht nicht nationale Hintergründe zu haben, wenn man Goethes «Faust» in seinen okkulten Tiefen der Menschheit vorführt. Ob man aber nationale Hintergründehaben muß, vielleicht sogar sehr sonderbare nationale Hintergründe, wenn man, wie jetzt Maeterlinck wiederum neuestens, Goethe und Schiller und Lessing mittelmäßige Geister nennt und große Aufsätze über die Mittelmäßigkeit Goethes, Schillers und Lessings schreibt, wofür man große Zeitungen der Welt gewinnt, in denen das heute stehen kann — ob dahinter nicht nationale Gründe stecken, das überlasse ich Ihnen zu entscheiden! Vielleicht noch viel tiefere als bloß nationale!

Aber stellen Sie sich jetzt zwei Dinge zusammen. Ich habe Ihnen im Verlauf dieser Betrachtungen den Hinweis darauf gegeben, daß ein geniales Buch in einer gewissen Beziehung Ku Hung-Ming, der Chinese, geschrieben hat, und daß es darstellt, wie die einzige Rettung der Europäer die sei, daß sie sich dem Chinesentum zuwenden, denn dadurch würden die Europäer in die Lage kommen, ihre wertlosen Magna Chartas der Freiheit -— meint Ku Hung-Ming - zu ersetzen durch die Magna Charta der Treue, die nur aus dem Chinesentum kommen könne. Und Ku Hung-Ming ist ein scharfsinniger Geist, der es bewahrheitet, was John Stuart Mill und Herzen bereits geahnt haben, der es bewahrheitet aus einer tiefen Kenntnis des Chinesentums selbst heraus; auch ein Geist, der nicht als Philologe, nicht als Schulmeister, sondern ein Geist, der aus einem praktischen Berufe, wie der Ihnen früher angeführte Max Eyth, gekommen ist; weder ein Theologe noch ein Schulmeister, noch ein Philologe, sondern einer, der ursprünglich Kaufmann war, durch allerlei Berufe noch durchgegangen ist und das Leben kennt. Ku HungMing stellt das Chinesentum, das chinesische Leben dar. Man kann heute eine Vorstellung gewinnen aus den ungeheuer anschaulichen Darstellungen, die Ku Hung-Ming gegeben hat, und man bekommt den Eindruck: Wie recht hatten John Stuart Mill und Herzen — man lese nur das Buch von Herzen von 1864 -, als sie die Lehre des Konfuzius und des Laotse die letzte Konsequenz nannten, die herauskommen müsse, wenn der sogenannte positivistische Realismus, wie sie das nannten, getragen von der «conglomerated mediority», von der «bürgerlichen Nichtigkeit», Europa ergreift! Denn die letzte Konsequenz desjenigen, was heute an den Universitäten getrieben wird und in das Volk übergeht als heutige Weltanschauung, ist das Chinesentum, das nur sechshundert Jahre vor unserer Zeitrechnung schon zu dieser Konsequenz von einer früheren Kulturschichte aus sich bereitgefunden hat. Ku Hung-Ming zeichnet klar, was das Chinesentum ist; Mill und Herzen zeichneten den Weg, den diejenige europäische Kultur geht, welche nur auf dem äußeren positivistischen Realismus fußen will: Von beiden Seiten her, von der einen Seite, daß Europa das Chinesentum ergreifen wird, von der anderen Seite, daß die einzige Rettung Europas das Chinesentum ist.

Vielleicht gibt es noch eine dritte Seite, und ich darf diese Frage gerade heute am Schlusse aufwerfen: Wie wäre es denn nun, wenn es auch eine Seite gäbe, der es sehr gelegen käme, wenn gerade ein Chinese heute den Europäern den Rat gäbe, die einzige Rettung zu wählen, die besteht? Wie wäre es, wenn nicht ein Zufall es wäre, daß just die Lehre des Ku Hung-Ming nach Europa hereingeworfen wird, die genial vom Standpunkte des Chinesentums, die aber geeignet genug ist, die Menschen, die sie nicht mit hellen Sinnen, mit den durch die Geisteswissenschaft geweckten Sinnen aufnehmen, zu verwirren und vielleicht gerade dorthin zu führen, wohin man sie haben will: richtig zum Chinesentum? Wie denn schon John Stuart Mill und Herzen richtig erkannt haben, daß die Segel, die ausgeschickt werden von gewissen okkulten Brüderschaften, dahin auslaufen und ein Chinesentum haben wollen; denn in das Chinesentum Europas kann man am besten dasjenige einschalten, was gewisse Brüderschaften wollen! Warum sollte es nicht auch dem Willen einer Brüderschaft entsprechen, daß nun just ein Chinese den Europäern den Rat gibt, hinzuhorchen auf all die Schönheiten, die gerade aus dem Chinesentum kommen könnten? Warum soll man nicht erwarten können, daß gerade die sogenannten Erleuchtetsten hingerissen werden von dem, was ein Chinese zu raten versteht, nachdem man sich in Europa selber keinen Rat mehr weiß?

Nachdem ich Ihnen zunächst gesagt habe, wie bedeutend das chinesische Buch ist, fühle ich mich durchaus auch verpflichtet, gerade von dem Gesichtspunkte aus, der hier immer mit Geisteswissenschaft gepflegt werden soll, darauf aufmerksam zu machen, daß man solche Erscheinungen wie das Buch oder eigentlich die Bücher von Ku HungMing — zwei sind schon erschienen — wohl verfolgen soll, aber unter Umständen wissen muß, daß hinter ihnen Absichten stecken, weitgehende Absichten. Unrecht tut man, wenn man sich nicht mit ihnen bekannt macht, aber unrecht geschieht auch, wenn man auf sie hereinfällt. Von ganz besonderer Wichtigkeit ist es aber, auf alles dasjenige sorgfältig hinzuschauen, was sich heute als Mystik oder Okkultismus aus manchmal recht trüben Quellen auftut. Und diejenigen, die in Erwägung ziehen werden, was ich vielfach ausgeführt habe, die werden auch versuchen, in diesen Dingen richtig zu sehen. Denn die moderne Welt steht in mancherlei anderen Strömungen noch drinnen, und es frägt sich, ob einzelne Leute den Willen haben, klar und deutlich zu sehen. Man muß zum Beispiel durchaus abwägen können, welch ein Unterschied besteht zwischer dieser und einer gewissen Strömung, die heute noch mehr Macht hat, als man glaubt und denkt, die von gewissen katholischen Quellen ausgeht, hinter denen auch vielfach Einweihungsprinzipien schon stehen, wenn auch natürlich diejenigen, die sie in die Welt hinausbringen, an dem Bindfaden geführt werden. Aber kontrastieren wir jetzt das, was auch kontrastiert werden kann: auf der einen Seite die römische Kirche und auf der anderen Seite jene okkulten Brüderschaften. Die römische Kirche, welche in der Ihnen ja bekannten Weise wirkt; jene Brüderschaften, die bis aufs Messer die römische Kirche selbstverständlich bekämpfen, aber andererseits eben bis zu diesen Dingen gehen, daß sie sehr wohl die okkulten Kenntnisse haben und auch benützen, aber in der Öffentlichkeit sie als mittelalterlichen Aberglauben nun brandmarken, um die Menschen in der richtigen Strömung zu erhalten, so daß sie sie benützen können. Kontrastieren Sie dieses mit der römischen Kirche. Nehmen Sie nur eine solche Tatsache wie die Enzyklika vom 8. Dezember 1864, wo von der römischen Kirche ex cathedra verkündigt ist [die Verdammung von] Freiheit des Gewissens und der Kulte. Sie führt die Sätze an, die von manchen geglaubt werden, und verdammt sie dann: Es wird gesagt von einigen Menschen, Freiheit des Gewissens und der Kulte sei jedes Menschen eigenes Recht; dies ist ein Delirium - das heißt ein Wahnsinn. Also ein Wahnsinn ist es, ein Delirium für den rechtgläubigen Katholiken im Sinne des römischen Stuhles, die Freiheit des Gewissens und der Kulte zu beanspruchen! Das ist die eine Strömung. Die andere Strömung, die findet, daß es besser ist, solche Sachen nicht zu sagen, sondern lieber Dinge zu tun, wodurch die Freiheit des Gewissens, die Freiheit vor allen Dingen der eigenen Überzeugung und die Hineinstellung der eigenen Überzeugung in das menschliche Leben aufgehoben wird. Da haben Sie auch zwei kontrastierende Bewegungen, die sehr bedeutsam sind in der Gegenwart und von denen vieles abhängt.

Solche Betrachtungen, in die heute ausgemündet ist das, was ich zu sagen habe, werden aus dem Grunde hier angestellt, damit diejenigen, die innerhalb unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Bewegung stehen, den inneren Seelenimpuls fassen, nicht zu den Schläfrigen zu gehören, sondern zu denen, die versuchen wollen, das Leben anzusehen, wie es ist. Dadurch ist man noch nicht Geisteswissenschafter, daß man die geisteswissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse aufnimmt und an sie glaubt. Dann ist man erst im richtigen Sinne Geisteswissenschafter, wenn einen die geisteswissenschaftlichen Wahrheiten zu einem klarer schauenden Menschen machen, aber auch zu einem solchen Menschen, der den Willen hat, wirklich das, was in seiner Umgebung ist, in der richtigen Weise, an den richtigen Punkten anzuschauen, um ein Urteil zu bekommen über die Lage, in der er selbst in die Welt hineingestellt ist. Das gehört schon dazu, wenn man in einer fruchtbaren Weise über das Karma des Berufes sprechen will.

Solche Betrachtungen werden wir demnächst fortsetzen. Dann wird schon das nötige Licht fallen auf das, was mehr in das Alltagsleben hineingehört, auf das unmittelbare menschliche Leben, das unmittelbare Karma des Berufes.

Seventh Lecture

It is now my task, in this time, to examine in a somewhat episodic manner a number of issues that directly affect practical life and human existence in general, in order to shed some light on precisely what spiritual science must have in our time, namely, a direct relationship to life. We will hopefully also come to deal with aspects that deal more with inner human life. Overall, the focus of our current reflections is on gaining an understanding, based on the foundations of spiritual science, of the position of human beings, of each individual human being, in practical life, that is, even in practical professional life. I would like to refer to all the lectures I have given over the past few months on the karma of the profession. However, it is necessary to gain a broader basis for this, and I must discuss some things that are related to our questions in a broader sense.

We have made it clear to ourselves that what a person accomplishes for the world in any profession is by no means something that can be dismissed as prosaic, but rather something that, as we have seen, is intimately connected with the furthest cosmic future of the human being. In a certain sense, the human being is integrated into the social order of life. They are driven by their karma to a particular profession — none of which should be considered prosaic or poetic when we discuss this question — and we know that what they accomplish within the social order is the first seed of something that is not only significant for our Earth, but will continue to develop as the Earth passes through the Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan stages. What we might call the perception of one's profession, the recognition of the significance of immediate human life, can become very clear to us through such considerations. And it is precisely the task of our spiritual scientific endeavors not merely to convey theories that sound pleasant, but to allow that which is suitable for placing us correctly in life, correctly in the sense of the spirit of our time, the archai of our time, to approach our souls, each in the place where he or she is meant to be. That is why our truths also have a character that will always be strong enough to enable us to truly judge life, that is, what we encounter in life, through our truths. We do not want to rave about all kinds of ideas that are pleasant to us, but we want to take in ideas that carry us through life.

If we remember something I have often emphasized, we will see how our scientific endeavors also aim to bring what is truly meaningful in life closer to our souls. I have often pointed to a very significant fact of life, a fact which, if those whose task it is to pursue scholarship do not behave too dull-wittedly, could play a greater and significant scientific role in a relatively short time. Isn't it true that today much emphasis is placed on what in human life is connected with heredity, and that educators who speak of vocational determination today, because they naturally parrot what constitutes the scientific worldview, also speak of the inherited characteristics that educators must take into account when they want to pass judgment on this or that Now, however, this heredity is treated today only in such a way that one says: Children inherit certain characteristics from their parents, also from further ancestors — and today one thinks more or less of physical heredity, of heredity that is entirely absorbed into the physical line. People in today's external science cannot yet bring themselves to acknowledge repeated lives on earth or the transfer of human characteristics from previous incarnations. People talk about heredity. But we can only gain a correct opinion on this question of heredity if we consider it in connection with what we already know, even if we only understand the contents of the little book: “The Education of the Child from the Perspective of Spiritual Science.” There we learn that human life proceeds in such a way that its first stage lasts until about the age of seven, until the change of teeth, its second stage lasts until the age of fourteen, its third stage until the age of twenty-one, and so on, let us say until the age of twenty-eight, and so on. More details can be found in a small brochure that reproduces the content of a lecture I gave recently in Liestal, where I wanted to point out, from a different perspective, these truths about human development between birth and death, divided into seven-year periods. We know that, essentially, between birth and the change of teeth, the physical body develops internally in a certain way, that the etheric body develops until maturity, and that the astral body then undergoes its development.

Let us now turn our attention to this period, which runs from the fourteenth to the sixteenth year; it varies, of course, according to climate, nationality, and so on. At this point, as we know, human beings become mature enough to give life to offspring. We will now recognize that the consideration of this point in time is of tremendous importance for a scientific theory of heredity, because by this point human beings must have developed all the qualities that enable them to pass on characteristics to their offspring; they cannot develop these abilities later on. There is therefore an important stage in life, the stage at which the ability to pass on characteristics to one's offspring ceases. Certainly, in a subordinate sense, characteristics acquired later can also be passed on to offspring, but from a scientific point of view, human beings are designed in such a way that they are fully mature for inheritance between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. It cannot therefore be said that the essential factors that come into play in human development after this point in time are of particular significance for the question of heredity. Natural science will therefore have to investigate the reasons why, from this point on, humans cease to develop hereditary material within themselves. The situation is quite different for animals. For animals, the situation is such that throughout their entire lives they do not actually progress beyond this point. This is what must be taken into consideration.

Now, without going into many of the details that would need to be discussed in this matter, I would like to point out what actually lies at the basis of this issue from a spiritual scientific point of view. When we consider the moment of birth, we have before us the longer period of time that human beings spend between their last death and this birth in the spiritual world. Within this period, the processes take place that I have often described in a somewhat sketchy manner. Everything that happens in the period between death and new birth naturally has an effect on human beings. Now, what happens between death and birth has a lot to do with everything that people work out in relation to their physicality between birth and the age of fourteen or sixteen. It is precisely what people work on intensively in their unconsciousness that they work on between death and rebirth from the perspective of a higher consciousness. So let us be clear about this: here on earth, human beings look through their eyes and their other senses at the mineral, plant, and animal worlds, and so on. When they are together in the spiritual world with the angeloi, archangeloi, archai, exusiai, and with those human beings who have passed through the gate of death and who are in some way close to them, their attention is mainly directed, when they look down, toward what is connected with human life during this period. and who are in some way close to him, his attention is mainly directed, when he looks down, to that which is connected with human life during this period. From there, as I have already explained in exoteric lectures, everything that forms the basis of heredity is also determined. We know from a consideration I made last week that, as a remnant of the processes between death and a new birth, what appears in the physiognomy and gestures, in the entire hereditary makeup, is the result of their previous professional life, so that during this period one can actually see in the way a person walks, moves their hands, and behaves in other ways, what the result of their professional life in their previous incarnation was.

But then begins the period from the fourteenth to the twenty-first year, which in a certain sense is in opposition to the preceding period. During this period, as you have heard, the hereditary impulses cannot continue to have the same effect, for that time is past; the time when the human being has developed the hereditary impulses is over. External natural science does not yet take such questions into account. But if it does not want to be completely divorced from reality, it will have to take them into account. This is also the time when the human being is led to his new profession by impulses that are indeterminate and unconscious, and the processes that lie between death and a new birth have less influence than the impulses that come from the previous incarnation. The impulses from the previous incarnation are particularly effective during this period. People believe, and others believe too, that since circumstances develop in such a way that a person is driven into this or that profession, it is only these external circumstances that are at work. But these external circumstances are in reality in a subconscious connection with what lives in our human soul, and now directly from the circumstances of the previous incarnation. Note the difference: In the preceding period, from the seventh to the fourteenth year, the previous incarnation, fertilized by what happens between death and rebirth, enters our physical organization and makes us the image of our previous profession; in the following period, the impulses no longer work within us, no longer impose gestures on us, but lead us to our new profession.

You can see from this what an infinitely fruitful idea must arise from these considerations for pedagogy, for the entire educational system of the future, once the external world culture is able to decide to reckon with repeated earthly lives and no longer to construct theories in a fantastical manner, which must be fantastical for the very reason that they do not reckon with reality, but only with what is not reality, only a part of reality, namely with the immediate present life between birth and death. Here we again gain insight into how immensely important it will be for spiritual science to enter precisely those circles that are concerned with the formation and development of the human being, but which are also concerned with influencing life in the outer social order. Of course, we are looking at broad perspectives here, but they are perspectives that are entirely connected with reality, for in the development of the world there is no chaos, but rather a real order, or even disorder, but what prevails is something that can only be explained from spiritual life. And so those who know what laws are connected with repeated earthly lives can approach life in a completely different way, advising and acting, as they say, saying things or even setting things in motion that must be connected with the course of life.

Now think that, in a certain sense, everything in the world proceeds cyclically. We are familiar with the great cycles of the post-Atlantean era: the Indian, the Persian, the Chaldean-Egyptian, the Greek-Latin, our cycle, and the one that will follow. Human souls are reborn in all these cycles, several times, or some only once. But it is not only in this broad sense that life on earth is cyclical; it is cyclical in such a way that certain conditions can be determined if one is able to judge previous conditions correctly. If, for example, someone can correctly assess what was spiritually effective in the first centuries of Christian development, say from the 3rd to the 7th century, so that they know the spiritual impulses, then they can in turn assess which social needs may be effective in our time. Cyclical developments take place. And the point is that one makes unhappy a person who is perhaps destined to fit into the cyclical development in a certain way and who is advised to behave differently in life. But since, especially in our fifth post-Atlantean period, human beings must become more and more conscious of their place in life, knowledge of the corresponding laws must also become more and more prevalent. It must be possible for human beings to learn to see themselves in connection with what is happening and active in their environment. This does not merely mean learning to guide children toward the right profession, but also that one can develop the right thoughts about one's own relationship to the world, regardless of one's place in life, for we know that thoughts are realities. In the future, it will become less and less irrelevant what people think about their connection with what is happening in the world around them according to the development of the spirit of the times, the arche. The human soul will have to become more and more conscious of this.

Now remember how I tried to characterize the currents that arose with the fifth post-Atlantean period. I have shown you how the current that makes people bourgeois — we have used a summary, I would say approximate, expression — has risen more in the Western regions, as bourgeoisie has manifested itself in Western Europe and also in America. We contrasted this ideal of bourgeoisie with the Eastern goal, which is still only a goal for the time being because it is less clearly expressed — Western culture is relatively more advanced, Eastern culture more backward — the ideal of the pilgrim. These two ideals, the bourgeois and the pilgrim, stand opposite each other, and without understanding what this means for life, it is impossible to find one's way into an understanding of life that is becoming ever clearer to us. The people of earlier centuries and millennia were able to face life without understanding it because they were guided by divine-spiritual powers. The more we develop toward the future that is now beginning, the more we must face it with understanding.

You see, things such as those I have explained to you as the two currents, one based on heredity and the other on redemption, must be thoroughly considered if one wants to have any judgment at all about the life of the present, for they impose themselves upon us. It is not merely my assertion that these things impose themselves, but it is something that can be said from the reality of the present and that people who are not dull and sleepy, but who face life with full participation, have actually felt for a long time and to a certain extent also know. I have already pointed out to you what is peculiar about our time. There are many people in our time who have a keen sense of the things that are coming up in life, but they do not have the opportunity—remember what I said about Jaures—to rise to an understanding of repeated earthly lives and karma, neither the karma of the individual nor the karma of the world, and therefore cannot see through what they perceive. But in numerous places in recent development we find people who had an open eye for the things that were happening, even though they were never able to develop to the point of explaining things from the standpoint of repeated earthly lives, even though they themselves, precisely because they did not do so, contributed greatly to bringing about the things they sharply criticized. This is precisely what is peculiar to people today, even the most clear-sighted; they criticize what is there today, but they themselves work toward the realization of what they then criticize, what they judge correctly. Thus unconscious impulses play into human life.

Take, for example, a person who saw many things with extraordinary clarity, who looked clearly at life around him, especially his environment. Such a person was John Stuart Mill, who was born in 1806 and died in 1873, a famous English philosopher who is regarded by many people of modern times as the innovator of logic, as the developer of logic, but who also developed social insights to the widest extent. He focused his attention on social development, particularly in the world he knew, in his immediate surroundings. And he wanted to answer the question that took on a tragic character for him: Where is the present heading, where is that heading which initially imposed itself as a social character on life in the 19th century? —- And he said: What has developed as the human type in the 19th century is the bourgeois. How, according to John Stuart Mill, does the bourgeois differ from earlier types of human beings that have developed over time? — He asks himself this question and answers it as follows: The bourgeois differs in that in earlier times the individual human being had more value. By earlier human beings, I now want to express this more in terms of our ideas, but John Stuart Mill basically expressed the same thing in his ideas—earlier human beings expressed more individuality, more of a certain striving of the soul above the immediate external physical reality. The bourgeois type works toward leveling, toward the equalization of all people in the social order. But what, asks John Stuart Mill, is the result of this equalization? Not the equalization of the greatness of the human soul, but the equalization, says John Stuart Mill, of the insignificance of the human soul. And so John Stuart Mill paints a picture of the future of humanity in this fifth post-Atlantic period, saying that people in their coexistence will increasingly become—as he puts it—the press caviar of bourgeois trivialities. He saw this as a tragic realization.

But depending on whether people are born out of Western or Eastern culture, they perceive such things in different ways. The Russian thinker Herzen made himself known precisely with these statements, with these insights of John Stuart Mill. In his soul, it had a completely different effect. The Western thinker describes this perspective of bourgeois existence with a kind of nonchalance; the Eastern thinker, Herzen, suffers terribly from the fact that Europe is following the path that these two people, John Stuart Mill and Herzen, claimed would lead to Chinese communism. For Mill and Herzen—you can see this in Herzen's 1864 work—one with an Eastern, the other with a Western coloring, they regard what has emerged in Chinese culture up to now as something that has already been achieved for a certain age group, as opposed to what Europe is heading toward: towards a new Chinese way of life, a Chinese way of life at a late stage, in which people become the press caviar of bourgeois trivialities. Restriction of the mind will come, says John Stuart Mill, restriction of the mind and of the energy of life. A blunting of the personality, everything that must lead to levelling. A constant, as he puts it, flattening of life, a constant exclusion of general human interests from life, says John Stuart Mill, and Herzen confirms this, only from a tragically sensitive mind: reduction to the interests of the commercial office and bourgeois prosperity. — So said John Stuart Mill and Herzen back in the 1860s! And John Stuart Mill, speaking first about his own country, said: England is on the way to becoming a modern China. — And Herzen said: Not only England, but all of Europe is on the way to becoming a modern China. — From Herzen's book of 1864, we can see that Herzen and Mill were pretty much in agreement at that time in what Herzen expresses: Unless Europe experiences an unexpected upswing that leads to the rebirth of the human personality and gives it the strength to overcome the bourgeoisie, Europe will become China, despite its noble ancestors and its Christianity. These words were spoken in 1864!

But Herzen had no way of reckoning with karma and repeated earthly lives. And so he could only come to such a realization in the deepest tragedy of life. And he said it: We are not the doctors of our time, we are the pains of our time, for approaching—perhaps the English term used by Herzen and Mill at the time describes it better than the German one—is “conglomerated mediocrity.” And Herzen expresses it out of a tragic feeling: there will come a time in Europe when the realism of the modern scientific view will have gone so far that no one will seriously believe in anything that belongs to another world, a supernatural world, where people will say that the goal to be pursued is merely external physical realities, and where people will be sacrificed for the sake of physical realities, without opening up the prospect that the people sacrificed meant anything other than a bridge for those who follow. The individual will be sacrificed to the future general polyp stock. — Those are the words that were spoken at the time. Europe, Herzen believes, has only one difficulty in becoming China very quickly, and that is that Christianity cannot be overcome so easily. But he sees no prospect of this, for he also finds Christianity debased, debased to revolution, and revolution, as he says, debased to the bourgeois liberalism of the 19th century, to “conglomerated mediocrity.” And with regard to what John Stuart Mill said, Herzen says, thinking of the downfall of ancient Rome: I see the inevitable collapse of old Europe; at the gates of the old world—he means Europe—there is no Catiline, there is death.

Not without a certain justification, but also as someone who sees many things around him in the present but cannot bring himself to accept the fundamental concepts and ideas of the humanities, with a certain justification, said the contemporary Russian writer Mereschkovsky, who has just learned a great deal from Mill and Herzen, with a certain justification, the scepter of earlier times has been replaced by the yardstick, the Bible by the account book, and the altar by the shop counter. The mistake is precisely that one merely criticizes these things; for we know that in our fifth post-Atlantic period, the yardstick, the account book, and the shop counter play the role they play: we know that it must be so, that it corresponds to an unconditional world karma. And it is not a matter of judging these things, but of pouring into this world of the yardstick, the account book, and the shop counter the spirit that alone is equal to these things, and that is the spirit of spiritual science.

Things are serious, and I wanted to draw your attention to the fact, as I always try to do on such occasions, that I am not describing what I have to say, but that what I say is in harmony with those people who have looked at life openly and sleeplessly. Many people can have views and opinions, but what matters is how one stands with these opinions in one's own time, whether they have roots in the soil of the times, and whether one can really substantiate things. It is important to note that time takes on a certain character that people who want to see it can perceive, and that it is not a matter of arbitrarily assigning a character to time, but rather of observing how the spiritual development of humanity progresses from cycle to cycle.

I have pointed out that there are occult societies which, according to ancient traditions derived from the old atavistic secret teachings, have knowledge of these things. Now, as you know from earlier considerations, these societies, especially in the West—but people in the East have become their followers—have taken on a gloomy character. However, this does not prevent them from preserving certain secrets of existence. But they preserve them in a way that cannot be preserved today. It is precisely those who listen to the spiritual proclamation of our time and communicate that part of spiritual science which, in accordance with the spirit of our age, can be communicated to the public, to the broad public today, who encounter particular resistance, which sometimes comes from dark sources. But this resistance is directed and guided everywhere by spiritual powers. This must nevertheless be taken into consideration. And so it is quite understandable that, now that such things are easy to manipulate, resistance is rising against the very spiritual science that is supposed to live within our movement, by pointing out more and more that in our time it should not be possible for such a science to be created for wider circles, and by calling upon all kinds of powers which are popular today, to render this spiritual science ineffective. University professors move from one country to another to declare that they must oppose my spiritual science in particular because, as they say, the present age must look at reality—and they mean the reality that they alone see—and not at things that distract people from reality. And there is sometimes a great deal of method in such attacks. For anyone who is not blind can see how, according to political constellations, people choose precisely those places where they believe they can have the greatest effect with their prestige—as university professors, for example—where they believe they can best unseat someone. If they choose the right places and use the right words—not those that are right in themselves, but those that correspond to today's passions—then they believe they will get the furthest.

But today, all these things are part of a larger context. And what is most feared, one might say, or one might just as well say abhorred, by a certain side, is that a number of people in the present should learn something about the characteristics of life in the present. For it is precisely those circles in which these occult fraternities exist who have the deepest interest in keeping people in the dark about what is connected with the real laws of life, because it is among such people that they themselves can work most effectively. One can no longer work when people begin to know how they actually stand in the present. This is dangerous for those who want to fish in troubled waters, who want to keep their esotericism to themselves, but want to use it to shape people in their social contexts as they want them to be. And today there are members of occult brotherhoods who are fully convinced within their occult brotherhoods that spiritual powers are at work everywhere around us, that there is a bond between the living and the dead. Within their occult brotherhoods, they talk about nothing other than the laws of the spiritual world, part of which is now to be published in our spiritual science; they talk about it, having adopted it from the old atavistic tradition. Then they write in newspapers, where they oppose the same thing and brand it as medieval superstition. It is often the very same people who, in their secret societies, cultivate spiritual science as a doctrine they have adopted, and who appear in public journals to denounce it as medieval superstition, outdated mysticism, and the like. For they consider it right to keep the knowledge to themselves and to keep others ignorant of the principles by which they are guided. Of course, there are also all kinds of strange members of occult fraternities who see as much of the world as there is to see up to the tip of their noses, and who then also talk about the impossibility of communicating the mysteries to people today in public.

Now there are very different means of keeping people in the dark, so to speak; for just as true spiritual science will give us certain ideas and concepts through which we can find the entrance to the spiritual world, as if by means of a key, so too can certain concepts be found through which one can lull that part of the population which cannot be led to that flattening of the intellect through a scientific worldview, of which Mill and Herzen speak. One can indeed form concepts in a very specific way. And if many people knew how concepts are formed publicly today in order to prepare people's souls in the right way, they would gradually feel the urge to approach true spiritual science, which speaks about these things in an honest and sincere manner. I do not want to come up with all kinds of lofty concepts today that are proclaimed to people as ideals and that do not serve the purpose of achieving in people what is contained in these ideals, but have a completely different purpose. Instead, I want to use a simple example to illustrate how, I would say, people who have a need to satisfy certain mystical longings can easily be deceived.

I will choose a very simple example. You see, someone might say, for example: The ancient Pythagoreans already regarded numbers as containing the laws of the world. There is a great deal in numerical ratios. Let us take two numerical ratios, for example. Let us take Nicholas II of Russia.

He was born in 1868
he came to power in 1894
his reign lasted 22 years
his age was 48
Let's add these numbers: 3832
If we take half, we get 1916

1916, the most significant year of the war. But this is confirmed by a rather secret numerical connection. Let's take George V of England, for example.

He was born in 1865
he has reigned since 1910
he has reigned for 6 years
his age is 51 years 3832
Half: 1916

The fates of these two people coincide closely. Here you can see how Pythagorean number laws play a role in the world! But let's take Poincaré as well, for good measure.

He was born in 1860
he has been ruling since 1913
that is 3 years
he is 56 years old 3832
Half: 1916

You can see how the numbers correspond within the three allies!

It's one of the silliest examples, of course, because if I were to go down there and ask one of the ladies—I won't do it—when she was born, how long she has been a member of the Anthroposophical Society, how old she is—as I said, I won't do it—how many years she has been in the Anthroposophical Society, and I were to add up these numbers and take half, I would get the same number, exactly the same number. An ideal example! To make it a real-life example, let's assume that a lady or a gentleman — it could also be a gentleman:

X.Y. was born in 1870
joined the Anthroposophical Society in 1912
so they would have been a member for 4 years
and 46 years old 3832
half of that is 1916

It is a very silly example, but I can assure you that numerous things that deal with finding all kinds of numerical secrets are based on nothing else; they are just somewhat more hidden tasks than these things. And one can just as easily take concepts from other areas, combine them in the right way, and sprinkle them in people's eyes, simply by choosing the right methods and not letting people become aware of what lies behind them; for many people have fallen for the example given. It is deeply significant that fate chose 1916; if we had expected it for 1914, it would have been so, and it would have coincided with the outbreak of war for these three allies! Just as one can compile these figures for these three allies, one can ultimately compile any figures. Some things that are constructed solely from other conceptual documents are by no means more significant or clever; it is only when the matter is somewhat more obscure that one notices this less, and if one then adds expressions such as “world-deep,” “abysmally deep,” and especially all kinds of numerical connections, you can gain a lot of followers and at the same time give the impression that you are speaking from the very depths of human knowledge. But there is something else, and much more, in the methods that certain people choose to pull the wool over people's eyes. Here and there, this or that concept is proclaimed, accompanied by this or that comment. The origin lies in some occult connection that wants to achieve something, that wants this or that. One only needs to know the paths that are taken. In order for this to become impossible in the future, it is not necessary for a number of people to have a narrow mind and limited life energy point to the mill, but rather the sustaining mind and the sustaining life energy that comes from spiritual science and is intended to have a fertilizing effect on the human mind, on human life energy, so that one faces life in such a way that it cannot deceive one.

These things are also connected with the fact that there was a certain fear, but also a horror, when something shone over — it shone over for a long time before it came to a head — from the European East to the West, the strange fact that such an individuality as Blavatsky appeared, one might say, out of the blue. I have often pointed out that this was indeed something significant for the course of the 19th century. And she appeared precisely at a time when the dispute between the so-called esotericists and the so-called progressive occultists was raging most fiercely. The reactionaries in this context called themselves esotericists. Those who wanted to withhold everything, who wanted to keep the occult secrets for themselves, called themselves esotericists — that is the word they used. This was the context into which Blavatsky's life fell, so to speak. And the danger existed, due to the special construction of this life, that through her, in whom comprehensive forces were working out of the subconscious, spiritual secrets could be revealed, that people could learn something in a proper way. The danger was real. People lived with this danger from the 1840s onwards, in a sense from the time Blavatsky was born, when she was a child. Since that time, there had always been an effort to arrange things so that Blavatsky would be placed in the service of Western occult fraternities, so that only what the Western occult fraternities considered appropriate would come to light through her.

But the whole thing took a strange turn. I have told you how the Grand Orient first tried to capture Blavatsky and how, because she set conditions that could not be met, the matter failed and she again caused trouble in an American Western brotherhood, because her temperament always got the better of her when it came to what what the others wanted from her; how she was then expelled and there was no other recourse than to impose a kind of occult imprisonment on her and then bring her into the Indian occult brotherhood, whose cultivation of occultism was considered harmless to the so-called Western brotherhoods because it was in line with their own beliefs. They thought: Well, if all sorts of things come to light from Indian sources, that is by no means likely to disturb our circles particularly. Most of the occultists who worked seriously with occultism said there: Well, what will come of it after we have surrounded Blavatsky with all the images that shut her off from real knowledge of the spiritual world! She will only pick up things that all sorts of male and female aunts gather together over tea — I quote! — and that will not particularly disturb our circles.

The matter only became uncomfortable when our movement appeared, which took things seriously and opened up access to the sources of a real spiritual world. But you can also see that the foundations of the conflicts that arose were quite deep. For in fact, there was something of the impulses that must come from the Eastern world in Blavatsky, and there was also a certain necessity for a kind of synthesis with the Western world to take place. But the point was that in recent times people had increasingly come to strive for certain aims and goals which, as I have already indicated, are not the goals of truth alone, but, as I have characterized it again today, are sometimes truly quite different goals. And think, if you now know how the human cycles proceed, what character the world must have now according to its arche, after this or that was present at the right place in the development in earlier times, then you can already work in a certain way accordingly. If, on the one hand, you have traditional occult science and, on the other hand, this occult science is opposed in the public press and in public life as medieval superstition, you can already work in the shadows and achieve important things that you are striving to achieve, because things in the world are interconnected. It is not necessary for people to always know what the connection is; for many people, the connection can take place in the subconscious. But it is very important, as I indicated yesterday, to know how to direct one's gaze to the right places. Sometimes something quite insignificant appears, but when seen in the right context, this insignificant thing sometimes explains much more than what one considers to be significant. For it is really so in many other things in the world, as Hamlet says of good and evil: Nothing is good or evil in itself, but it is man who makes it so in his mind. — It is the same with many other things. One thing or another is not significant because of what it appears to be to the outer Maya, to the great deception, but things must be recognized in their significance by the fact that man connects the right concepts with things. I will give you an example from the very recent past in Europe, without wanting to interfere in any way with party politics or any political movement.

There may be people in Europe who, because they all want to think in short circuits today, think that the outbreak of the present war is connected—I am not saying that this is wrong, I am not saying that there is no truth in it—with the assassination of the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. they can explain certain events that they trace back to that assassination in June 1914. But there may also be people who emphasize that a Western newspaper stated in January 1913 that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was to be assassinated in the near future for the good of the European people. I believe that one can go back to the actual assassination; but one can also go back to what was already written in a Western newspaper in January 1913: that he would be assassinated. One can also look back to the assassination of Jaurès on the evening of the last day of peacetime, which, as I recently indicated, will probably never be fully revealed. But one can also go back so far as to point to the same newspaper I just mentioned, which, almost as far back as 1913, contained the sentence: “If the situation in Europe leads to war, Jaurès will be the first to meet his death.” One can open a certain, so to speak, occult almanac, which was sold for forty francs, and one can read in the almanac, which was intended for the year 1913 and was therefore already printed in 1912, the following sentences: In Austria, it will not be the one who is believed to rule who will rule, but a young man who is not yet believed to rule after the old emperor. — This was printed in a so-called occult almanac for 1913, i.e. already printed in the fall of 1912. And again, from the same almanac for 1914, already printed in 1913, the same remark was repeated, because the assassination attempt had obviously failed in 1913. For all such things, once one looks at things more clearly, the connection will be revealed that exists between what happens in external reality and what is concocted in hidden, murky sources. Many will recognize the threads that run from public life into this or that fraternization, and many will also recognize how foolish it is of other fraternizations to still declare today that certain mysterious truths must be kept secret. Such people may be quite innocent because they are children, even though they may be long-standing members of this or that Masonic lodge, for example, which also claims to have occult sources; nevertheless, they promote the darkness and gloom that reigns among people.

I have recently chosen an example—which I have discussed in St. Gallen and Zurich—of a particularly enlightened pastor and professor, in whom I have pointed out the discontinuity of thought that prevails in him. He also belongs to an occult fraternity. But he is one of those who work through nothing other than their own limitations, which they acquire in their occult brotherhood, in which they are kept limited, for this too is the task of some of the higher-ups in the occult brotherhood; and this has many unfavorable effects. What is necessary is that people really open their eyes. But the eyes must first learn to see, and one can only learn to see if one allows the direction of one's gaze to be determined, as it were, by what one has first received in the way of enlightenment about the spiritual world. People always reckon with qualities that they rarely miscalculate in human relationships. So — as I have already hinted — I myself was supposed to be thrown off balance at one time. At the time when Alcyone was appointed to something in the Theosophical Society, I could have been appointed to something at the same time. Everything that pulsates through our movement could have been nicely eliminated from the world if I had agreed at that time to what had been suggested to me: to become the reincarnated John! Then, from a certain point of view, the task would have been taken up to proclaim: Alcyone is this, and he is the reincarnated John—and the whole movement would not have had to experience what happened later.

Among the many things that make people stupid is, of course, vanity, and if you encounter vanities in the right way, you can achieve a great deal, especially if you also know the methods for forming certain concepts. I already mentioned yesterday that the Theosophical Society has done it all too amateurishly; others do it more intelligently and appropriately. But of course one cannot do much that is intelligent when one has to reckon with a personality who has caused so much sighing among those close to her, when one has to reckon, for example, with a personality like Annie Besant, who is herself full of passions. One need only know how those around Annie Besant sighed for years about the situation she would bring them all into by now having fallen into the aura of a certain Indian occultism. She had brought with her strange characteristics that came from peculiar backgrounds, which were quite unsuitable for a number of people, especially in the Theosophical Society. A number of people, mostly men—forgive me, but this is not meant to be an allusion—sighed because they always tried to keep Annie Besant on track so that things would work out. But there were also women who sighed, too, yet they always submitted themselves again and again; for they had above all the desire to practice Theosophy in the sense in which it was practiced there, but to practice this Theosophy in such a way that it would also become something—only something theosophical—like “conglomerated mediocrity.” They wanted to introduce what John Stuart Mill calls “conglomerated mediocrity” into the practice of spiritual science.

I experienced for myself how a messenger of the Theosophical Society worked in a city that belonged to the section of which I was then secretary general. I went to this city to give lectures, having been invited by the messenger in question. But she told me: “We are gradually going to stop giving lectures, because they don't really serve any purpose. We need to arrange tea parties and invite people to get to know each other over tea — and she added: ”This works best with bread rolls!” But the lectures—and she said this with a certain dismissive expression—will gradually become less and less important. One could say that, from a certain point of view, this personality was also wrapped up in the right packaging, and there are many, many people like this who act as emissaries, who sometimes do not even know how the strings are being pulled. Sometimes you don't even need wires, it can be thin strings, twine for all I care. It's a shame how the most sacred and serious things of humanity are sometimes dealt with within humanity itself.

In particular, there was a tremendous fear that if Blavatsky remained in good health and brought to the surface what was hidden beneath the surface, it could become dangerous in political terms, precisely because of her special disposition and her special connection with her Russian heritage. And there was a very special effort to eliminate what was at stake here. And if what lived in Blavatsky had been able to come to fruition back then, in the 1860s and 1870s, many things would have turned out differently, things that people like Mill and Herzen saw quite clearly. But at that time, certain Ahrimanic forces succeeded in eliminating many things. Well, we will see how things will fare under the present sad circumstances of our spiritual science. Those who have the opportunity to recognize its significance, especially in relation to the great tasks of our fifth post-Atlantean epoch, will think rightly about it. You already know to what extent our spiritual science really only reckons with the purely scientific. And I think one can already recognize that there are differences. For example, we have discussed and also performed Goethe's Faust many times. For one does not need to have a national background in order to present Goethe's Faust in its occult depths to humanity. But does one need to have a national background, perhaps even a very peculiar national background, if, like Maeterlinck has recently done, call Goethe, Schiller, and Lessing mediocre minds and write great essays on the mediocrity of Goethe, Schiller, and Lessing, for which you win the favor of the world's major newspapers, in which such things can be printed today—whether there are national reasons behind this, I leave you to decide! Perhaps even deeper than merely national ones!

But now put two things together. In the course of these reflections, I have pointed out to you that a brilliant book has been written in a certain respect by Ku Hung-Ming, the Chinese, and that it shows that the only salvation for Europeans is to turn to Chinese culture, because this would enable Europeans to replace replace their worthless Magna Charters of freedom—according to Ku Hung-Ming—with the Magna Carta of loyalty, which can only come from Chinese culture. And Ku Hung-Ming is an astute mind who confirms what John Stuart Mill and Herzen had already suspected, confirming it from a deep knowledge of Chinese culture itself; he is also a mind that is not that of a philologist or a schoolmaster, but a mind that has come from a practical profession, like Max Eyth, whom I mentioned earlier; neither a theologian nor a schoolmaster, nor a philologist, but one who was originally a merchant, has gone through all kinds of professions, and knows life. Ku Hung-Ming represents Chinese culture, Chinese life. Today, one can gain an impression from the tremendously vivid descriptions given by Ku Hung-Ming, and one gets the impression: How right John Stuart Mill and Herzen were—just read Herzen's book from 1864—when they called the teachings of Confucius and Laozi the ultimate consequence that would inevitably arise if so-called positivist realism, as they called it, supported by “conglomerated mediocrity” and “bourgeois insignificance,” took hold in Europe! For the ultimate consequence of what is being promoted in universities today and is spreading among the people as the current worldview is Chinese culture, which only six hundred years before our era had already arrived at this conclusion from an earlier cultural history. Ku Hung-Ming clearly describes what Chinese culture is; Mill and Herzen outlined the path taken by European culture, which wants to be based solely on external positivist realism: From both sides, on the one hand, that Europe will embrace Chinese culture, and on the other, that the only salvation for Europe is Chinese culture.

Perhaps there is a third side, and I would like to raise this question today, at the end: What if there were a side that would find it very convenient if a Chinese person were to advise Europeans today to choose the only salvation that exists? What if it were no coincidence that the teachings of Ku Hung-Ming were brought to Europe, teachings that are brilliant from the point of view of Chinese culture, but which are also capable of confusing people who do not perceive them with clear minds, with minds awakened by spiritual science, and perhaps leading them precisely where they want them to go: right to Chinese culture? As John Stuart Mill and Herzen correctly recognized, the sails set by certain occult brotherhoods are heading in that direction and want to establish Chinese culture, because European Chinese culture is the best way to incorporate what certain brotherhoods want! Why should it not also be the will of a brotherhood that a Chinese person should now advise Europeans to listen to all the beauties that could come from Chinese culture? Why should one not expect that the so-called most enlightened will be enthralled by what a Chinese person knows how to advise, now that Europe itself no longer knows what to advise?

Having first told you how important the Chinese book is, I feel obliged, precisely from the point of view that should always be cultivated here in the humanities, to point out that phenomena such as the book, or rather the books, by Ku HungMing — two have already been published — should certainly be followed, but that one must be aware that that there are intentions behind them, far-reaching intentions. It is wrong not to familiarize oneself with them, but it is also wrong to fall for them. However, it is particularly important to look carefully at everything that presents itself today as mysticism or occultism from sometimes rather murky sources. And those who consider what I have said many times will also try to see these things correctly. For the modern world is still caught up in many other currents, and it is questionable whether individuals have the will to see clearly. For example, one must be able to weigh up the difference between this and a certain current that today has more power than one might think or believe, which originates from certain Catholic sources, behind which there are often principles of initiation, even if those who bring them into the world are, of course, led by a string. But let us now contrast what can be contrasted: on the one hand, the Roman Church, and on the other, those occult brotherhoods. The Roman Church, which works in the way you know; those brotherhoods, which of course fight the Roman Church tooth and nail, but on the other hand go so far as to possess occult knowledge and also use it, but in public they brand it as medieval superstition in order to keep people in the right current so that they can use them. Contrast this with the Roman Church. Take just one fact, such as the encyclical of December 8, 1864, in which the Roman Church ex cathedra proclaims [the condemnation of] freedom of conscience and of cults. It quotes the sentences believed by some and then condemns them: Some people say that freedom of conscience and worship is the right of every human being; this is delirium—that is, madness. So it is madness for orthodox Catholics in the sense of the Roman See to claim freedom of conscience and worship! That is one current of thought. The other current finds that it is better not to say such things, but rather to do things that abolish freedom of conscience, freedom above all of one's own convictions, and the incorporation of one's own convictions into human life. Here you have two contrasting movements that are very significant in the present and on which much depends.

Such considerations, which have led me to what I have to say today, are made here so that those who are part of our spiritual scientific movement may grasp the inner impulse of the soul not to be among the sleepy ones, but among those who want to try to see life as it is. One does not become a spiritual scientist simply by accepting and believing in spiritual scientific insights. One is only a spiritual scientist in the true sense when the truths of spiritual science make one a clearer-seeing human being, but also a human being who has the will to really look at what is in one's environment in the right way, at the right points, in order to form a judgment about the situation in which one is placed in the world. This is essential if one wants to speak fruitfully about the karma of one's profession.

We will continue these reflections shortly. Then the necessary light will fall on what belongs more to everyday life, to immediate human life, to the immediate karma of the profession.