The Karma of Vocation
GA 172
26 November 1916, Dornach
Lecture IX
One of the criticisms that is made against our spiritual science by many theologians and others who believe they stand on a Christian foundation, but without understanding it correctly, is that spiritual science affirms truths regarding a large number of hierarchies that embrace beings standing above man in the spiritual world. We speak, as you know, of spiritual hierarchies embracing the angels, archangels, archai, exusiai, and so forth; we speak of these kingdoms of the higher super-sensible worlds just as we speak of the animal, plant, mineral, and elemental kingdoms within the earthly world. It is quite clear to us, moreover, that human life falls into two sections. One of them takes its course between birth and death. During this life, or by reason of this life, man descends from the super-sensible world to the kingdoms of the human being, and to those of the animal, plant, and mineral in his physical environment. When an individual passes through the portal of death, the other section of his life begins; he or she ascends to the higher kingdoms that tower upward from below just as the other kingdoms descend from above downward. The individual ascends into the kingdoms of the angels, archangels, archai, and so on. The person of the present day who believes, but without understanding, that his own foundation is that of Christianity is especially antagonistic to this view of the beings who have their place between man and the real Godhead, which is far above humanity and those beings who have their place in this super-sensible space, i.e., the angels, archangels and so forth. Especially the people who believe themselves to be unusually advanced in their Christian conception will declare that this knowledge of the spiritual hierarchies and their beings represents a relapse into an ancient polytheism or, as it is said, into a kind of paganism. In their opinion it is precisely the mission of contemporary man to place nothing whatever between himself and the Godhead, but to live in the world directing his view to what is offered to the senses, and then to find his way directly to the Godhead without the mediation of angels, archangels, and so forth. Many people consider it especially sublime to stand thus, without mediation, face to face with their god.
You may hear this objection raised against spiritual science from many directions. It indicates that in those very circles there is absolutely no understanding of what the spiritual needs of our time really are, since it is not important if a man imagines he can find the way to his god, but rather whether he actually can. What is really important is not at all the question of whether the human being imagines he has a conception of his god, but whether he really does have such a conception. From our point of view, we must ask what the conception is that those individuals really hold when they say, “We do not wish any mediation by other spirits but will ascend directly from our souls to our god.” What is the concept held by such men? Do they really have a conception of God when they speak of Him? When a man speaks of his god in a justifiable manner, does he conceive of what must be meant by the term God?
This is not the conception they hold, but rather something quite different. When we review all the concepts such individuals form of their god, what is really represented in such concepts? Nothing other than the being of an angel, and all those who say that they look up directly from their own souls to God are really looking only to an angel. If you examine all the descriptions given by such people, no matter how lofty they may seem, you will find that they describe nothing but an angel, and what they are saying is nothing more than to demand that one should conceive nothing higher under the term God than an angel. For example, what is called God in modern Protestantism, the God about whom there is so much talk among the protestants, is nothing other than one of the angels—nothing else whatever. The important fact is not whether a person imagines that he or she is finding the way to the highest God, but to what such a person really does find the way. Thus, in this manner, individuals find the way only to their own angel—I say to their own angel because that is important.
If we fix our attention first on the beings of the lowest hierarchies—archai (spirits of personality, as we have also named them), archangels and angels—then comes man, the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom and the mineral kingdom.

When we direct our attention to these beings who are relatively the lowest, we need only bear in mind what has already been explained in order to know that the archai, the spirits of personality, are also time spirits.They are the controlling forces for the entire temporal epoch; they are what lives as spirit in a temporal epoch. We live today in a different spiritual relationship from that of the ancient Greeks or Romans because we are controlled by a different time spirit, who is, of course, a most sublime being. Then we have, in turn, those beings whom we call archangels whose mission is to establish harmony among men on earth; thus they are also, in a certain sense, the leaders and guides of peoples. The angels, standing just above man, guide and lead him through the portals of death so that he has his angel by his side from death to a new birth and is lead by him again into a new life. The mission of the angels is to guide individual humans through repeated earthly lives.
Now we have come all the way down to man. In his earthly existence today, man remembers only his life in the physical body. The memory of angels extends much further, and it is only through the far greater extension of their memory that they can guide and direct man's repeated earthly lives. But the modern theologian does not even conceive the angel correctly because he has eliminated the angels' characteristic of guiding the individual through repeated earthly lives. Let us grasp the fact that it is only the archangels who are beings who control human relationships over long stretches of time. Then, if we also conceive of angels as beings who really control the life of the individual, we shall readily acknowledge that it is a concealed egoism that makes people wish to ascend directly to their god. Although they do not admit it, the truth is that what they wish to do is to ascend only to their own god, to their own angel.
This has immense practical significance and is most important because it bears within it a certain germ in that men speak of one god, but he is nothing but a phantasm. The truth is that, in surrendering to this phantasm, each speaks of his own god; that is, of his angel. As a result, in the course of time each human being comes to worship his own god, that is to say, his own angel. We already see how strong is the impulse of humans each to worship his own god. During modern times, the union of human beings with those gods who are common to all has become quite restricted. The emphasis that each places upon his own god has become most conspicuous. Humanity has been fragmented into bits and pieces. All that survives is merely the word god, which has a common sound for the peoples using the same language, but each individual conceives something different in connection with this one word; that is, his own angel. He does not even ascend to the archangel who guides society.
At the bottom of this lies a certain concealed egoism but people will not admit it. When we consider this, however, we see it is an important statement because a man really lives in an untruth when he denies that he looks up to his angel while declaring that he looks up to the one and only god. He lives in a nebulous conception; that is, an inner illusion, an inner maya, and this has important consequences. When we surrender ourselves to this inner illusion and to fantastic conceptions, we do not all change the spiritual realities that come about by virtue of our correct or incorrect conception. As a human being really looks up to his angel but does not admit this, believing on the contrary that he is looking up to God, while really not looking up even to an archangel, he deadens his soul by means of this untruthful conception. This stupefaction of the soul is everywhere present nowadays but, when the soul is stupefied, the consequences for human evolution are disastrous. This is so because the deadening of the soul brings about a suppression of the ego, a beclouding of the ego, and then other forces that ought not to work in the soul do actually slip in. That is to say, in place of the angel, whom the person at first wanted to revere but whom he wrongly names “God,” the luciferic angel slips in and it gradually comes about that the individual reveres not the angel, but the luciferic angel. Then, however, the steep incline is near that leads man downward because he is close to the utter denial of God; that is, the denial of his own angel, which is always connected with the denial of the true ego. I have shown you an example of this in the book by Leblais, Materialism and Spiritualism, where it is asserted that the cat has an ego just as a human being does, and where the author speaks of the “high priest of the dogs!”
Thus, we must understand that, from many points of view, the answer to the question: Who is to blame for the materialism of our time? must be: The religions are to blame, the religious sects. They darken the consciousness of man and put in the place of God an angel who is then replaced by a corresponding luciferic angel. The latter will soon lead the human being into materialism. This is the mysterious connection among proud egoistic religious sects who are unwilling to listen to anything that stands above the angelic level, but assert with boundless pride that they are speaking of God, whereas they are speaking only of an angel, and incompletely at that. In the final analysis, this incredible arrogance, which is often called humility, was bound to bring on materialism. When we bear this in mind, we see a highly significant connection; that is, through the false interpretation of one's angel as God, the inclination to materialism arises in the human soul. There is an unconscious egoism lying at the bottom of this that is expressed through the fact that the human being disdains to ascend to a knowledge of the spiritual world and hopes to find a direct connection with his god only out of himself. When you pay close attention to what I have here suggested, you will gain an insight into much that plays a part in the present. There is only one single way of avoiding misinterpretation of God and that is to acknowledge the spiritual hierarchies. We then know that the present religious denominations do not rise any higher than to the hierarchy of the angels.
As we consider this, we are standing more or less within the realm of what a person develops in conscious life, but much that lives in the human being is also unconscious, or not clearly conscious. Now we might say that the connection between an individual and his or her angel is a real one, but then so is one's connection with the hierarchy of the archangels and that of the archai. The misinterpretation of the angel, which is performed more or less consciously, leads also more or less consciously to a materialistic conception of the world, not in the case of the individual human being but gradually over a period of time. When we are talking about an individual's relation to his angel, we are still dealing in some way with conscious processes of the human soul. But in the relationship of the human being to the hierarchy of the archangels, we already stand in the midst of something of which man knows little; something of which he speaks a great deal at times but regarding which he knows almost nothing. Nowadays, to be sure, we have confessions directed not to the hierarchy of the archangels but frequently to one archangel—not a clearly expressed confession but the inclination of the feeling nature to one or another of the archangels. At least in one field this bore obvious fruit during the nineteenth century: in the rise of the idea of nationality. This idea is grounded in an unconscious desire to overlook the cooperation among the archangels and instead, be inclined to always embrace a single archangel. Something egoistic lies at the basis of this as is the case with man's inclination to a single angel, but here the egoism is of a social nature.
Now, we might well desire to describe what arises in connection with this social-egoistic inclination to an archangel, just as materialism arises consciously in connection with the misinterpretation of the angel. But here we walk on slippery ice and it is not possible to speak of it in our day.
Still more obscure are the relationships of the human being to the archai, the time spirits. These relationships are subliminal in nature. Human beings do stand at least in a sort of relationship to angels. Even though they do not admit it, yet, when they say, “I believe in God,” they admit this in the false way I have indicated. But if they at least desire to establish a relationship to the angels, their attempted relationship to the archangels in their feelings and emotions is not in tune with the spirit of our times. When they claim they have a certain connection by reason of their blood or something of the kind, this connection at the present time is false. This leads to false paths that I will not, cannot, describe today, but they are similar to the ones they encounter when they deal with the spirits of a time. People will embrace them in the forms in which the spirit of their own time presents itself to them. Just bear in mind how we endeavor by means of spiritual science to oppose this egoistic representation when we describe the consecutive periods of time with their special characteristics, letting them work upon us. By this, our hearts and souls may be broadened to extend over the entire evolution of the earth, indeed, over the entire cosmic evolution, attaining thereby, at least in our thoughts, a relation to the various time spirits. But people today will not have this. Much that has only been suggested would have to be described if we should wish to picture those false ways upon which men enter because of this egoism in reference to the spirit of the time. I have been able to give you from a work of fiction113 Albert Steffen, Der rechte Liebhaber des Schicksals [The True Lover of Destiny]. a dark picture, described in a remarkable fashion, of our immediate present. Such false paths as are there described are connected with this false relationship to the spirit of the time. But as we encounter these false paths in relation to the time spirit, we enter into a most important realm. When a human being who substitutes his angel for God passes from his angel to a luciferic angel, it is a confusion in belief, in acknowledgment of a world conception, which is, in a sense, individual. Next there may be a confusion of entire peoples; nevertheless, it remains an aberration among human beings in a certain way, and the consequences can always be blamed on human aberrations. But when we advance to the spirit of the time and fall into error in relation to it, we then collide with the cosmos in our errors. There is a mysterious relationship between errors related to the time spirit and the beginnings of what man brings down upon himself cosmically. A person disinclined to look up to anything above the angel sees nothing of this connection. What I am now saying let each of you receive as best you can. It is asserted from spiritual science and profound investigations, but I would have to speak for months if I wanted to place these investigations before you in detail.
The errors the human being perpetrates in relation to the spirit of the time clash with cosmic events and these cosmic events strike back. The result of their being brought into human life—at first, their beginnings—is decadence that extends even to the physical body, bringing diseases and mortality and all that is connected with them. Perhaps in a not too distant future humanity will be convinced that much that man performs on the physical plane, when it is of such a nature as to transgress even all the way to the time spirit, evokes destructive forces in earthly evolution whose influences extend even to illness and death. If you ask yourselves on the basis of insights you have acquired, whether much of what has been happening recently may not constitute a violation of the time spirit, you will be able to answer that these profound connections extending to illness and death introduce a compensation for all sorts of sins perpetrated against the time spirit.
We know perfectly well that the clever men of the present will, of course, only laugh when such things are asserted. They know, on the basis of their scientific view of the world, that it is mere nonsense, as they say, to suppose that what a human being does, what men do in their relationships, could cause events to occur in the elemental sphere. But the time is not far distant when men will believe this simply because they will be able to see it.
What is lacking in our age for a real view of the world, capable of supporting human life, is seriousness. It is for this reason that one of the first demands made upon those who enter spiritual science is to develop this seriousness in their view of the world and really to penetrate the course of human evolution a little. We have frequently emphasized the fact that the evolution of the world really acquires meaning only through the Mystery of Golgotha, and we have already introduced many considerations that revealed the Mystery of Golgotha in its deeply significant light. But our characterization must become ever more thorough if we wish to comprehend the complete significance of this event. The question may be asked how the human soul then really reaches Christ. It may be said that, since Christ is, of course, a Being higher than all the archai, the way to Christ must be found. The paths that are used today by the ordinary religious confessions do not lead to the Christ but at most to an angel, as we have seen. People may conduct themselves as they do today in the names of various angels or even archangels, if the luciferic beings have taken the place of the progressive beings. But one cannot so conduct oneself in the name of the Christ since it is an absolute impossibility for two human beings who are hostile to one another to confess the Christ. I think this is not difficult to see because it is self-evident. This is possible when a person utters the name, Christ, Christ, or Lord, Lord—as Christ indicated—and means only his or her own angel, but it is impossible when a person is really speaking of Christ. So the question may arise as to how, indeed, the soul comes to a path leading to the Christ. We may approach the solution to this problem in various ways and shall here enter upon a road we have come to in a natural way from many considerations.
People today know extremely little of the past. Least of all do they know why certain things have been handed down. At best, they know they have been handed down but they scarcely know why. Tradition reports, for example—this may be read in all sorts of esoteric books even including those on Freemasonry—that there were mysteries in ancient times. They were a secret institution in which the mysteries, as even the name suggests, contained secrets that were really so also in the external sense. That is, one who had found access to the mysteries was informed about certain things that he was obligated not to communicate except to those who, in turn, were associated with him in these mysteries; it was a stringent rule that these mystery communications should not be betrayed. It was one of the most punishable misdeeds should one utter a mystery secret within hearing distance of the uninitiated, but it was just as punishable an offense were one to listen who was not qualified to hear it. As long as the mysteries existed in the ancient sense, this rule was observed in the strictest way. Why was this? Why did it happen in this way?
You see, there is a good deal of talk today about the mysteries, especially on the part of people who utter all sorts of pretty words and who wish to whine a little through what they say. Especially where there is much talk about these things without the necessary will to understand much, as is frequently the case among the Masons, a great deal of nonsense is practiced; people talk superficially about these things without knowing too much. They do not notice whether these things are discussed on the basis of facts or whether the talk is nothing but words. We may have the most astonishing experiences in connection with these things, which I do not wish in the least to criticize or rebuke, but the matter is too serious to be left without some mention of it. For instance, the following may occur. Someone or other is a member of one of the societies that are called by all kinds of fraternal names and claim to be protectors of the mysteries. Such a person—and I am telling you facts—comes to you and asks for information about something seemingly of interest to him—at least, in words—but which he can little understand. Later, it is reported that he has been making speeches here and there about these things and that what he has said has been more or less worthless. To these very miseducated persons who have been spoiled by certain occult brotherhoods, it is most futile of all to speak because they do not enter into what is really important. Only in this way could it recently happen, for example, that a book was published by a well-known lecturer and writer, a free thinker regarding the secrets of Freemasonry, that naturally contains nothing whatever but the shallowest stuff. This nonsense is taken seriously even by those who belong to so-called occult brotherhoods.
Now we will bring to mind a real characteristic in connection with the practices of the mysteries that has grown from the evolution of humanity. I have frequently stressed the fact that humanity has changed in the course of earthly evolution and that an important incision occurred in this evolution at the time when Christ passed through the Mystery of Golgotha. If we wish to consider a vitally important characteristic of this evolution along with others we have already mentioned, we must say that, when we go back beyond the Greco-Latin period and especially if we should pass beyond the fourth century before Christ all the way into the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries—we might even remain within the Greco-Latin but we should find more if we entered into the Egypto-Chaldean or even passed all the way to the Persian—we find everywhere that what was uttered by men had an entirely different significance for the rest of mankind from what it possessed, for example, even in the seventh and eighth centuries after the Mystery of Golgotha. The words that one person spoke to another had an entirely different meaning during the time when the ancient atavistic characteristics of the soul, leading all the way even to atavistic clairvoyance, were still present from what it had later, even today. At that time the word possessed, by reason of its inner power, a sort of suggestive quality; there dwelt in it much inherited divine-spiritual power. When the human being spoke, his angel also spoke in a certain way from the higher hierarchies.
From this fact you can imagine that oral communications in those ancient times were something wholly unlike those of our day. Even if we knew all these mysteries, it would be impossible for us to express ourselves now in words as it was possible in ancient times because in speaking with words we must speak with what they have become through language. Indeed, in words we have conventional signs. We can no longer go to the human being and, with the same power with which one could still speak of Christ in the third, fourth, or fifth centuries, cause a gentle tremor that was a healing force to pass through his soul by means of the words, “Thine angel holds thee dear.” That can no longer be done today; words have lost their ancient suggestive quality, their power. When human beings spoke to one another in ancient times, the power of human fellowship streamed from soul to soul. Just as we breathe the same air when we sit together in a hall, so did a spiritual power of what they were in common live in what human beings said to one another. As evolution has advanced, this has been lost. The word has been rendered ever less divine.
If you let your spiritual eye dwell upon this truth, you will be able to say that there might have been certain combinations of words, certain word formulas, that had a greater effect than others that were in general oral use. Such word formulas, possessing a power far surpassing that of other words, were communicated in the mysteries. Because these formulas gave the person who knew them a lofty power over other humans, you can now understand that they could not be disclosed or misused. It is an absolute fact that when an ancient Hebrew temple priest uttered in the right way what was ordinarily called the Word, but which was a certain combination of sounds, it then came about that, since in ancient times the force lay in this combination of sounds, a different world surrounded the human beings to whom he spoke; that is, in a spiritual sense, but this spirituality was real.
You can understand, therefore, that it was not only a criminal act to speak the mystery formulas to one to whom they should not be spoken since a certain domination was thus exercised over him that was unjustifiable, but it was also frowned upon to listen because a person thus exposed himself to the danger of being given over completely into the power of the other person. These things are not so abstract as certain persons wish to represent them; they are concrete and real. It is the times that have changed and it is necessary to pay attention to this. Since the Mystery of Golgotha, words no longer possess this significance; otherwise, as you can easily see, real freedom could not have arisen among human beings; in a way, their souls would have remained nothing but the product of speech. Words had to lose this inner force. But another power then entered into earthly evolution that could gradually return to men what originally came from words if only they should find the right relationship to it. The people of ancient times learned to think from their words, and there were no other thoughts in ancient times than those that came from words. But the power of thoughts could come from words only if they were of the character I have described. In later times this power was no longer present. But then He came, that Being who could again restore this force to thoughts if they were filled with Him, that Being who could say, “I am the Word.” This is the Christ. But men must first find the way to make Christ live in their souls. The Christ is there. We know that since the time of the Mystery of Golgotha He is a real power. Now, while we are speaking about karma, we also want to show how He has a relationship to it. An angel enters into relationship with the single man alone, but the Christ can have a far higher significance than even an archangel since He not only united men here on earth in accordance with the time spirit but also unites the living with the dead; in other words, He unites those souls who are here organized in their bodies and also those who have already passed through the portal of death. We must learn, however, to understand a little better how the Christ can be found in the spirit of our times; that is, how a way to Him can be found, since we began with the question, “How can the human being find a way to the Christ today?”
Above all other things, it is necessary that man should once more rise above the egoistic habit of living only in his own soul. A word of truth in the Gospels—and how many words that we read in the Gospels are not taken according to their true meaning because they do not please us—a word of truth in the Gospels is, “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”114 Matthew 18:20. The spirit of vain mysticism that says, “The Christ shall be born in my soul,” is not the spirit of Christianity; that spirit declares, “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” However, in order to explain the entire spirit of this saying in connection with repeated earthly lives, as we wish to do in these reflections, and also in connection with the vocational life of a human being today, I must discuss something especially characteristic of our age. We must learn to rise above the egoistic limitation within our human nature. In a sense applicable to our time, we must rise above this by learning once again to know and think of the cosmos with which the human being is related and from which he is born by learning to think of it in relation to man.
Do you believe that today's science is capable of thinking of the cosmos in relation to man? Recall the assertion of Hermann Grimm that I have quoted even in public lectures, “Natural scientists conceive of a sort of mechanism in which the human being cannot possibly exist.”115 Grimm made this statement in the 23rd “Goethe“ lecture with reference to the Laplace-Kant fantasy of the origin and past destruction of the earth. It is entirely impossible today for the scientific view of the world for one to think of man in relation to the cosmos. This cannot be done unless we first learn to view things concretely. Someone constructs a machine today and believes that nothing further has really happened than the actual construction or what will be brought about by means of it. But to give oneself up to such a belief means to establish what may be called negative superstition, and it is most widespread. Superstition is the belief in spirits when none exist, but a person may also express a disbelief in spirits when they are present, and this is negative superstition. Humanity abandons itself completely to this negative superstition without really knowing it because it is not yet accustomed to think of the things that enter human evolution as being cosmically interrelated and under a moral point of view. They are considered only as a mechanism.
Let us select a single example but one that is characteristic of our age and similar to much else that dominates our external life; that is, the steam engine. What a role is played today by the steam engine! Just think for a moment of how many things would not exist if there were no steam engine. I will not say that everything men have must be produced by it, but much is brought about by this machine that is in accord with the true spirit of the age.
The steam engine was really not produced until the eighteenth century. What existed before that time constituted nothing more than impractical experiments. In other words, we may say that the enormously significant steam engine that is used universally today was first made applicable in 1719 by Newcomen116 In 1711, the English inventor Thomas Newcomen (1663–1729), together with this associate Cowley, succeeded in constructing an atmospheric steam engine that could be used for practical purposes in 1712. and then later, in 1762, by Watt.117 The Scottish inventor James Watt (1736–1819) was at first unable to utilize for his steam engine the already well known mechanism of the crankshaft and connecting rod because it had already been patented by someone else. However, he circumvented the problem by utilizing the so-called solar and planetary rotary motion. We can speak of these two as the originators of it, at least in the sense in which today we speak of it and everything connected with it.
Now, what makes it possible for us to have steam engines, which are by no means old? What is the basis of this possibility? You see, the year 1769—I shall now make an assertion that will seem extremely curious to everyone who thinks scientifically—when Watt first made the steam engine useful, was a year by no means far removed from Goethe's conception of the Faust. Although they lie far apart, perhaps we might discover in our reflections curious interrelationships between this steam engine and the conception of Goethe's Faust. But we must first survey in thought much that is connected with the introduction of the steam engine into human evolution. On what principle does the steam engine actually rest? It really rests on the possibility of creating space void of air, or occupied by little of it. The entire possibility of making steam engines rests on the creation and use of a vacuum. In ancient times men spoke of the horror vacui, the horror of a vacuum. Something objective was indicated thereby. It meant that space wants always to be filled with something; that something empty could really not be produced; that nature had a certain horror of a vacuum. First, the belief in the horror of a vacuum had to disappear. Secondly, the possibility had to be established that space containing little air or being almost void of air, could be created. Only then was it possible to consider the use of steam engines. The air had to be eliminated from certain spaces. It is not possible through a mechanical consideration to attain to a new cosmic, moral conception in contrast with the ancient cosmic and moral conception of the horror vacui. But what really happens when we create a space containing little or no air with the purpose of placing what is thus brought about in the service of human evolution?
The ancient Biblical narrative declares that Jahve breathed the living breath, the air, into man, and he became thereby a living soul. Air had to be introduced into man in order for him to become what he ought as an earthly human being. For many hundreds and even thousands of years, man made use of only that rarefaction and condensation of air that occurred automatically in a cosmic connection. Then came the modern age when man undertook to rarefy the air, to put away what Jahve had put in, to work in opposition to the manner in which Jahve can work in placing humans on the earth. What really happens when man makes use of space containing little air, that is, drives air out of space? Here opposition occurs against Jahve. You may now easily think that, whereas Jahve streams into man through air, man drives Jahve out when he creates a space containing rarefied air. When the steam engine is created in this way, Ahriman gains the possibility of establishing himself as a demon even in the very physical entity. In constructing steam engines, the condition is created for the incarnation of demons. If anyone is unwilling to believe in them, he need not do so; that is negative superstition. Positive superstition consists in seeing spirits where there are none; negative superstition consists in denying spirits where they are. In steam engines ahrimanic demons are actually brought even into a physical object. That is, while the cosmos has descended with its spiritual element through what has been poured into human evolution, the spirit of the cosmos is driven out through what is created in the form of demons. That is to say, this new, important and wonderful advance has brought about not only a demonology, but also a demon magic that frequently imbues modern technology.
Many things, and here again I make a somewhat paradoxical statement, become manifest when we learn rightly to read what is often considered least significant. After all, this (here the letter i was first written on the blackboard without a dot, and later a dot was placed over it) is the principal part even of the material substance of this letter, but only the dot makes it the letter i. Consider how much less this dot contains than the other part even though it is the dot that makes the letter. The person who clings only to the material element in the evolution of humanity will also frequently see even in the material only what contains a hundred times as much as the dot and will fail entirely to see the dot. But one who observes more closely, who does not merely stare at the phenomena but reads them, will often learn to read things in the right way when a delicate suggestion is made. It is astonishing that in a biography of James Watt you will find mention of the following fact; I shall refer to it in a way that will seem utterly insane to every modern and intelligent person. But of course, you yourselves must first understand the interpretation of this fact. Watt could not at first accomplish what he intended through his invention, his steam engine. You see, its development stretched from 1712 to 1769. When once a man has invented something, others, of course, imitate it again and again. Thus much was constructed between these two dates. When Watt had finally made his machine really workable by means of other improvements, he had used a contrivance in it for which someone else held a patent; because of this, he could not proceed until he had thought out something different to replace it. He then discovered what he needed in a strange way. He was living, of course, in an age in which the Copernican view of the world had long been held, which I have characterized as something suitable for the spirit of our age alone. It actually occurred to him to construct his mobile apparatus in such a way that he could call it the “movement of the sun and the planets.” He spoke of it thus because he was really guided by what is conceived in the Copernican system as the revolution of the planets around the sun. He had actually brought down and concealed within the steam engine what had been learned in the modern age as the movement of the heavenly bodies.
Now, bear in mind what I recently explained as something that will happen but which is at present only in its beginnings; that is, that delicate vibrations will accumulate and tremendous effects will thus be produced. Thank God, it has not yet been achieved! But the beginning lies in the fact that the movement of the sun and the planets is copied. Since the movements of the sun and the planets possess a profound significance for our earth when they radiate inward, do you believe that they possess no significance when we copy them here in miniature and cause them to radiate outward again into cosmic space? What then happens has profound significance for the cosmos. Here you see directly how even those vibrations I spoke of are now added to the demon through which he can unfold his activity outward into cosmic space.
Of course, no one should suppose that what I have just said indicates that steam engines should be done away with. In that case one would have also to do away with a good deal more because they are by no means the most demoniacal. Whenever electricity is used—and much else besides—there is far more of demon magic because this operates with entirely different forces having an entirely different significance for the cosmos. Obviously, anyone who understands spiritual science will realize quite clearly that these things should not be done away with, that we cannot be reactionary or conservative in the sense that we must be opposed to progress. Indeed, the demon magic signifies progress, and the earth will continue to make more and more progress. Developments in the world soon will make it possible to produce immense effects ranging outward into the universe. Doing away with these things or condemning them is not what we are after because they are obviously justified. But what must be borne in mind is that since they must appear on the one side in the course of human progress, counter forces must be created on the other to reestablish a balance. Counter forces must be created. They must bring about a balance that can be created only if humanity again comes to understand the Christ principle, if humanity finds the way to Christ. For a time humanity has been led away from the Christ. Even those who call themselves the official representatives of the Christ seek an angel instead of Him. But the way the soul must take to the Christ must be found. Just as we work all the way to the physical stars and into the cosmos by means of the demons of the machines, so must we find the way spiritually into the worlds in which human beings live between death and a new birth where the beings of the higher hierarchies are to be found. What I am now alluding to is connected with what I have already explained. Human beings enter more and more into a vocational karma on the one side, as I have explained, and from the other this vocational karma must be counteracted by an understanding of the spiritual world, which in turn can prepare them to find a way to Christ.
We will speak further of these things tomorrow.
Neunter Vortrag
Einer der Vorwürfe, welcher unserer Geisteswissenschaft von seiten mancher Theologen und solcher gemacht wird, welche glauben, auf dem Boden des Christentums zu stehen, aber es nicht richtig verstehen, ist, daß durch diese unsere Geisteswissenschaft Wahrheiten über eine größere Anzahl von Hierarchien geltend gemacht werden, von Hierarchien, welche Wesenheiten umfassen, die über dem Menschen stehen und die in der geistigen Welt vorhanden sind. Wir sprechen ja, wie Sie wissen, von geistigen Hierarchien, welche umfassen die Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, Exusiai und so weiter; geradeso sprechen wir von diesen Reichen der höheren, übersinnlichen Welten, wie wir von dem Tierreich, dem Pflanzenreich, dem mineralischen Reich, dem Elementarreich und so weiter, innerhalb der irdischen Welt sprechen. Wir sind uns auch klar darüber, daß des Menschen Leben in zwei Abschnitte zerfällt. Der eine verfließt zwischen der Geburt und dem Tod. Während dieses Lebens oder durch dieses Leben steigt der Mensch aus der übersinnlichen Welt herunter zu den Reichen, die dann in seiner physischen Umgebung sind: Menschenreich, Tierreich, Pflanzenreich, Mineralreich und so weiter. Wenn der Mensch durch die Todespforte geht, so beginnt nun der andere Abschnitt seines Lebens. Er steigt hinauf zu den höheren Reichen, zu den Reichen, die ebenso von unten nach oben getürmt sind, wie die anderen Reiche von oben nach unten, er steigt hinauf in die Reiche der Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai und so weiter. Derjenige, der heute glaubt, aber eben nicht versteht, auf dem Boden des Christentums zu stehen, der ficht ganz besonders diese Anschauung von den Wesenheiten an, welche hineingestellt sind zwischen den Menschen und der eigentlichen, weit, weit über den Menschen, auch weit über den Engeln, Erzengeln und so weiter liegenden Gottheit, welche hineingestellt werden in diesen übersinnlichen Raum. Insbesondere wird derjenige, der da glaubt, besonders fortgeschritten zu sein in seiner christlichen Anschauung, leicht davon sprechen, daß diese Erkenntnis von den geistigen Hierarchien und ihren Wesenheiten ein Rückfall sei in einen alten Polytheismus, oder, wie man sagt, in eine Art Heidentum. Denn, so sagt man, es sei gerade das die Aufgabe des heutigen Menschen, zwischen sich und die Gottheit nichts zu setzen, sondern in der Welt zu leben, die Augen zu richten auf dasjenige, was sich sinnlich darbietet, und dann den Weg unmittelbar zu der Gottheit zu finden, ohne eine Vermittelung durch Engel, Erzengel und so weiter. Und das glaubt mancher als das besonders Erhabene, so ohne Vermittelung, wie er sagt, seinem eigenen Gotte gegenüberzustehen.
Man kann diesen Einwand heute von vielen Seiten gegen die Geisteswissenschaft gerichtet hören. Dieser Einwand bezeugt, wie gerade in solchen Kreisen, wo er gemacht wird, ganz und gar keine Erkenntnis davon vorhanden ist, welches die geistigen Bedürfnisse unserer Zeit gerade sind. Denn es hängt wahrhaftig nicht davon ab, ob der Mensch sich einbildet, er könne den Weg finden von sich zu seinem Gotte, sondern ob er das wirklich kann. Es kommt wirklich nicht darauf an, ob der Mensch sich einbildet, er stelle sich seinen Gott vor, sondern es kommt darauf an, ob er ihn wirklich vorstellt. Und von unserem Gesichtspunkte müssen wir fragen: Was stellen sich denn eigentlich diejenigen vor, welche sich ihren Gott vorstellen, indem sie sagen: Wir wollen keine Vermittelung durch andere Geister haben, sondern unmittelbar von unserer Seele zu unserem Gotte aufsteigen, — was stellen sich solche Menschen vor? Stellen sie sich wirklich, wenn sie von Gott denken oder sprechen, Gott vor? Stellen sie dasjenige vor, was unter dem Gott gemeint sein muß, wenn der Mensch berechtigterweise von seinem Gotte spricht?
Das stellen sie nicht vor, sondern sie stellen etwas ganz anderes vor. Wenn man für die Vorstellung all die Begriffe durchgeht, welche sich solche Menschen von ihrem Gotte machen — was ist denn in solchen Begriffen ausgeführt? Nichts anderes als das Wesen eines Engels, eines Angelos, und all diejenigen Menschen, welche davon sprechen, daß sie unmittelbar von ihrer Seele zu Gott aufschauen, schauen nur zu einem Engel auf. Und suchen Sie sich alle Beschreibungen — wenn sie noch so erhaben klingen - solcher Menschen auf, so werden Sie finden: sie beschreiben nichts anderes als einen Engel, und dasjenige, was diese Menschen sagen, ist nichts anderes als die Forderung, man solle sich unter Gott nichts Höheres vorstellen als einen Engel. Das zum Beispiel, was man heute den modernen protestantischen Gott nennt und über den gerade von protestantischer Seite so viel geredet wird, ist ein Angelos, ist nichts anderes. Denn nicht darauf kommt es an, ob man sich einbildet, man finde den Weg zu dem höchsten Gotte, sondern darauf kommt es an, wozu man wirklich den Weg findet. Und man findet auf diese Weise nur den Weg zu seinem Angelos. Ich sage: zu seinem Angelos, denn das ist wichtig. Wenn wir nämlich nur zunächst ins Auge fassen die Wesenheiten der niedrigsten Hierarchien: Archai — Geister der Persönlichkeit, wie wir sie auch genannt haben -, Archangeloi, Erzengel, Angeloi, Engel, so kommt dann der Mensch, dann kommt das Tierreich, dann das Pflanzenreich, dann das Mineralreich.
Archai = Geister der Persönlichkeit
Archangeloi = Erzengel
Angeloi = Engel
Mensch
Tier
Pflanze
Mineral
Wenn wir diese relativ niedersten Wesen ins Auge fassen, so brauchen wir uns ja nur an manches zu erinnern, das wir schon früher auseinandergesetzt haben, um zu wissen, daß die Archai, die Geister der Persönlichkeit, auch Zeitgeister sind. Sie sind die regierenden Mächte für die ganze Zeitperiode, dasjenige, was als Geist in der ganzen Zeitperiode lebt. Wir leben heute in einem anderen geistigen Zusammenhange als die alten Griechen oder die alten Römer, weil wir von einem anderen Zeitgeiste regiert werden. Ein solcher Zeitgeist ist schon eine sehr erhabene Wesenheit. Dann wiederum haben wir diejenigen Wesen, die wir Archangeloi nennen. Sie sind dazu berufen, die Harmonie herzustellen unter den Menschen auf Erden. Daher sind sie auch die Lenker und Leiter der Volksstämme in gewisser Beziehung. Die Angeloi, die unmittelbar über dem Menschen stehenden Wesenheiten, sie führen den Menschen durch die Pforte des Todes hindurch, so daß er gewissermaßen seinen Angelos an seiner Seite hat, vom Tod zu neuer Geburt, und sie führen ihn wiederum ins neue Leben ein. Die Angeloi sind dazu berufen, die einzelne menschliche Individualität hindurchzuführen durch die wiederholten Erdenleben.
Dann kommen wir herunter bis zum Menschen selber. Der Mensch, so wie er heute auf der Erde ist, erinnert sich nur an sein Erdenleben hier im physischen Leib. Das Gedächtnis der Engel geht viel weiter, denn nur dadurch, daß es viel weiter geht, können sie die wiederholten Erdenleben der Menschen lenken und leiten. Nicht einmal richtig aber stellt sich der moderne Theologe den Engel vor, weil der moderne Theologe schon diese Eigenschaft wegläßt von dem Engel, daß er die menschliche Individualität durch die wiederholten Erdenleben durchleitet. Wenn wir ins Auge fassen, daß wir, indem wir den Erzengeln gegenüberstehen, es erst bei den Erzengeln zu tun haben mit Wesenheiten, die menschliche Zusammenhänge regieren, und bei den Zeitgeistern mit Wesenheiten, die menschliche Zusammenhänge über lange Zeiträume hindurch regieren, daß wir es bei den Engeln zu tun haben mit Wesenheiten, die wesentlich das Leben des einzelnen Menschen regieren, dann werden wir nicht verkennen, wenn wir das im Auge behalten, daß es ein verborgener Egoismus ist von den Menschen, unmittelbar zu dem Gotte sich erheben zu wollen, denn sie wollen sich in Wahrheit - obwohl sie das nicht zugeben - nur zu ihrem Gotte, zu ihrem eigenen Engel erheben.
Das hat eine große praktische Bedeutung, das ist von einer großen Wichtigkeit, denn es trägt einen gewissen Keim in sich. Es trägt den Keim in sich, daß die Menschen von dem einen Gotte sprechen, aber daß es nur eine Phantasterei ist, daß sie von dem einen Gotte sprechen. Denn in Wahrheit, indem die Menschen sich dieser Phantasterei hingeben, spricht jeder von seinem eigenen Gotte, nämlich von seinem Engel. Und die Folge davon muß sein, daß im Laufe der Zeit jeder Mensch seinen eigenen Gott, nämlich seinen eigenen Engel verehrt. Und wir sehen schon, wie stark der Drang der Menschen ist, daß jeder seinen eigenen Gott verehrt. Das Zusammenfinden der Menschen in denjenigen Göttern, die allen gemeinsam sind, ist ein sehr geringes geworden in der neueren Zeit. Das Pochen eines jeden auf seinen eigenen Gott hat sich als etwas ganz besonders Hervorstechendes herausgestellt. Das Menschengeschlecht wird atomisiert. Es bleibt gewissermaßen nur das Wort «Gott» noch übrig, das für die Menschen einer Sprache gemeinsam lautet, aber unter diesem einen Worte stellt sich jeder etwas anderes vor, nämlich seinen eigenen Engel. Und er kommt nicht einmal hinauf bis zu dem Erzengel, welcher menschliche Gemeinschaften leitet.
Dem liegt ein gewisser verborgener Egoismus zugrunde, den die Menschen nicht zugeben wollen. Aber es ist etwas Gewichtiges gesagt, wenn wir uns dies vor Augen halten, denn der Mensch lebt eigentlich in einer Unwahrheit, wenn er sich nicht gesteht: ich blicke auf zu meinem Engel — sondern wenn er sich sagt: ich blicke auf zu dem alleinheitlichen Gotte. - Er lebt in einer nebulosen Vorstellung, das heißt, in einer innerlichen Täuschung, in einer innerlichen Maja. Und dies hat wichtige Folgen, denn indem sich der Mensch also dieser innerlichen Täuschung hingibt, tritt etwas ganz Bestimmtes ein. Denn dadurch, daß wir uns phantastischen Vorstellungen hingeben, ändern wir nicht die geistigen Wirklichkeiten, die infolge desjenigen, was wir richtig oder unrichtig vorstellen, wirklich auch eintreffen. Indem der Mensch eigentlich nur zu seinem Engel aufblickt, das sich aber nicht gesteht, sondern glaubt, er blicke zu dem Gotte auf — während er nicht einmal zu einem Erzengel aufblickt -, betäubt er durch diese unwahre Vorstellung in einem gewissen Sinne seine Seele. Und diese Betäubung der Seele ist ja heute allgemein vorhanden. Aber wenn man die Seele betäubt, dann ist das für unsere heutige Menschheitsentwickelung außerordentlich verhängnisvoll. Denn durch die Betäubung der Seele wird das Ich heruntergedrückt, heruntergetrübt, und dann schleichen sich die anderen Mächte, die nicht in der Seele wirken sollen, in diese Seele ein. Das heißt, es schleicht sich an die Stelle des Engels, den man zunächst verehren wollte, den man aber umtauft zu «Gott», der luziferische Angelos ein, und man kommt allmählich dazu, nicht den Engel zu verehren, sondern den luziferischen Angelos. Dann aber ist die schiefe Ebene, die den Menschen hinunterführt, sehr nahe; dann ist es sehr nahe, daß er den Gott überhaupt verleugnet, das heißt, seinen Engel verleugnet — was immer zusammenhängt mit der Verleugnung des wahren menschlichen Ich, wie ich Ihnen gezeigt habe an dem Buche «Matérialisme et Spiritualisme» von Leblais, wo behauptet wird, daß die Katze ebenso ein Ich hat wie ein Mensch, und wo von dem «grand-prêtre du chien» gesprochen wird.
So müssen wir durchaus einsehen, daß in vieler Beziehung die Antwort[, die] gegeben werden muß auf die Frage «Wer hat Schuld an dem Materialismus unserer Zeit?» — [lautet:] Die Religionen haben Schuld, die religiösen Bekenntnisse, indem sie das Bewußtsein der Menschen trüben und an die Stelle Gottes einen Engel setzen, für den sich dann substituiert der luziferische Engel, der ihm entspricht. Und dieser luziferische Engel wird den Menschen alsbald in den Materialismus hineinführen. Das ist der geheimnisvolle Zusammenhang zwischen den hochmütigen, egoistischen Religionsbekenntnissen, welche nichts hören wollen von dem, was über einem Engel steht, sondern in maßlosem Hochmut sagen, daß sie von «Gott» sprechen, während sie nur von einem Engel sprechen, und von dem noch nicht einmal vollständig. Dieser maßlose Hochmut, der noch oftmals als Demut angesprochen wird, er ist es, welcher letzten Endes den Materialismus hat hervorbringen müssen. Wenn wir dies bedenken, dann sehen wir einen bedeutungsvollen Zusammenhang: Durch die fälschliche Umdeutung eines Engels zu Gott entsteht in der Menschenseele der Hang zum Materialismus. Und es liegt ein unbewußter Egoismus zugrunde, der sich darinnen äußert, daß der Mensch es verschmäht, aufzusteigen zu der Erkenntnis der geistigen Welt, der sich auch darinnen äußert, daß der Mensch sozusagen nur aus sich heraus den Zusammenhang mit seinem Gotte unmittelbar zu finden meint. Sie sehen in vieles hinein, was in der Gegenwart spielt, wenn Sie dies ins Auge fassen, was ich Ihnen hiermit angedeutet habe. Es gibt nur ein einziges Mittel gegen dieMißdeutung Gottes, und das ist die Anerkenntnis der geistigen Hierarchien. Denn dann weiß man auch, daß die gegenwärtigen Religionsbekenntnisse nicht höher hinaufsteigen als bis zu der Hierarchie der Angeloi.
Wenn wir dieses betrachten, dann stehen wir mehr oder weniger in dem, was der Mensch entwickelt als sein Bewußtseinsleben; aber vieles lebt im Menschen auch unbewußt, oder unklar bewußt. Und wir könnten uns jetzt sagen: Der Zusammenhang des Menschen mit seinem Engel ist ja ein realer, aber auch der Zusammenhang eines Menschen mit der Erzengel-Hierarchie, mit der Archai-Hierarchie ist ein realer. — Die Mißdeutung des Engels, die mehr oder weniger bewußt vollzogen wird, führt auch mehr oder weniger bewußt zur Weltanschauung des Materialismus; nicht bei dem einzelnen Menschen, aber sie führt so im Zeitalter allmählich dahin. Da stehen wir eben durchaus noch sozusagen in dem, was sich bewußt in der Seele abspielt. Aber in dem Verhältnis des Menschen zu der Erzengel-Hierarchie, da stehen wir schon gar nicht mehr da, wovon der Mensch viel weiß; wovon er zwar zuweilen jetzt viel spricht, aber wovon er wenig weiß. Wir haben ja heute allerdings die Bekenntnisse, nicht zu der Hierarchie der Erzengel, aber sehr häufig zu einem Erzengel, nicht die deutlich ausgesprochenen Bekenntnisse, aber das Hinneigen, das gefühlsmäßige Hinneigen zu dem einen oder zu dem andern Erzengel. Im 19. Jahrhundert hat das ganz besonders stark Früchte getragen auf einem Gebiete wenigstens: in dem Heraufkommen der Nationalitätsideen, denen unbewußt zugrunde liegt das Übersehen des Zusammenwirkens der Erzengel und das Hinneigen nur immer zu einem Erzengel. Dem liegt etwas ähnlich Egoistisches, nur etwas Sozial-Egoistisches zugrunde, wie das Hinneigen zu dem einen Engel.
Nun könnte man ja auch schildern wollen, was sich hinzugesellt zu diesem Hinneigen, zu diesem sozial-egoistischen Hinneigen zum Erzengel in ähnlicher Weise, wie sich der Materialismus bewußt hinzugesellt zum Mißdeuten des Engels. Aber damit betritt man heute schon Glatteis, und das ist nicht gerade etwas, was in unserer Zeit möglich ist zu besprechen.
Noch dunkler sind die Beziehungen des Menschen zu den Archai, zu den Zeitgeistern. Die liegen gewissermaßen schon sehr, sehr in den Untergründen. Zu den Engeln stehen die Menschen wenigstens, wenn sie es auch nicht zugeben, in einem gewissen Zusammenhange, denn indem sie sagen: Ich glaube an Gott, — geben sie es in der angedeuteten Weise fälschlich zu. Zu den Engeln wollen sich die Menschen wenigstens in ein Verhältnis setzen. Zu den Erzengeln stehen sie mit ihrem Fühlen und Empfinden, indem sie sich diesem oder jenem Zusammenhange durch ihr Blut oder dergleichen bekennen, in einem heute fälschlichen Zusammenhange. Das führt auf Abwege, die ich, wie gesagt, heute nicht schildern will, nicht schildern kann. Zu ähnlichen Abwegen kommt es mit Bezug auf die Zeitgeister. Aber auch da hängen die Menschen dem einen Zeitgeiste in der Regel an, der sich ihnen gerade als der Geist ihres Zeitalters repräsentiert. Bedenken Sie nur, wie wir versuchen durch die Geisteswissenschaft, diesen egoistischen, diesen zeitegoistischen Darstellungen entgegenzuwirken, indem wir die aufeinanderfolgenden Zeitperioden mit ihren Eigentümlichkeiten schildern und auf uns wirken lassen, um gewissermaßen unser Herz und unsere Seele auszudehnen über die ganze Erdenentwickelung, ja über die ganze kosmische Entwickelung, um dadurch wenigstens zunächst in den Gedanken eine Beziehung zu bekommen zu den verschiedenen Zeitgeistern. Aber das wollen die Menschen ja heute nicht. Und man müßte vieles schildern von demjenigen, was gestern angedeutet worden ist, wenn man die Abwege schildern würde, auf welche die Menschen durch diesen Egoismus zum Zeitgeiste kommen. Aus einem Dichterwerke habe ich Ihnen ein trübes Bild der unmittelbaren Gegenwart vorführen können, das ganz vortrefflich geschildert ist. Solche Abwege, wie sie da geschildert werden, hängen mit diesem fälschlichen Verhältnis zum Zeitgeiste zusammen. Aber da kommen wir schon, indem wir zu den Abwegen gegenüber dem Zeitgeistekommen, in sehr bedeutsame Gebiete hinein. Wenn der Mensch von seinem Engel, indem er ihn zu «Gott» umtauft, zu dem luziferischen Engel kommt, so ist das eine Verirrung des Glaubens, des Bekenntnisses, der Weltanschauung, eine Verirrung, die gewissermaßen individuell ist. Das Nächste kann eine Verirrung ganzer Völker sein; aber es bleibt immer eine Verirrung gewissermaßen unter den Menschen, und die Folgen, die auftreten, sind eben die Folgen der Verirrungen unter den Menschen. Aber wenn wir zum Zeitgeiste vordringen und dem gegenüber uns verirren, da stoßen wir schon mit unseren Verirrungen an den Kosmos. Und es gibt einen geheimnisvollen Zusammenhang zwischen den Verirrungen gegenüber dem Zeitgeiste und den Anfängen von dem, was der Mensch kosmisch gewissermaßen auf sich lädt. Diesen Zusammenhang sieht man nicht, wenn man überhaupt jeden Aufblick über den Angelos hinauf ablehnt. Dasjenige, was ich jetzt sage, möge jeder so nehmen, wie er es eben nehmen kann. Es wird aus der Geisteswissenschaft heraus gesagt aus tiefgehenden Untersuchungen, aber ich müßte monatelang reden, wenn ich diese Untersuchungen alle in ihren Einzelheiten anführen wollte.
Die Verirrungen, die der Mensch dem Zeitgeiste gegenüber begeht, stoßen an die kosmischen Ereignisse, und die kosmischen Ereignisse stoßen zurück. Und die Folge davon, daß ins Menschenleben nun kosmische Ereignisse hereingetragen werden, die Anfänge zunächst von kosmischen Ereignissen, ist Dekadenz, die bis zur Dekadenz des physischen Leibes greift, mit anderen Worten: Krankheiten und Sterblichkeit und alles, was damit zusammenhängt. Und es wird sich vielleicht einmal die Menschheit in gar nicht ferner Zeit überzeugen, daß sie allerdings durch manches, was sie auf dem physischen Plane verrichtet, wenn dieses geeignet ist bis zum Zeitgeist hinauf vorzustoßen, hereinbeschwört in die Erdenentwickelung zerstörende Kräfte, die in ihren Wirkungen bis zu Krankheit und Tod gehen. Wenn Sie sich dann fragen, ob nach den Einsichten, die Sie gewonnen haben, vielleicht manches, was gerade in der neuesten Zeit geschieht, eine Verirrung gegenüber dem Zeitgeiste sein kann, so werden Sie sich selbst die Antwort geben können über tiefgehende Zusammenhänge, die bis in Krankheit und Tod hineingehen, durch die dann ein Ausgleich herbeigeführt werden wird gegenüber mancherlei, was der Mensch an Sünden begeht gegenüber dem Zeitgeiste.
Man kann sehr gut wissen, daß die sehr gescheiten Menschen von heute selbstverständlich nur lachen, wenn man so etwas sagt, wie ich es eben vorgebracht habe. Denn sie wissen aus ihrer naturwissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung heraus, daß es doch, wie sie sagen, ein Unsinn ist zu glauben, das, was ein Mensch tut, was Menschen in ihren Zusammenhängen tun, könnte elementare Ereignisse herbeiführen. Aber die Zeit ist nicht fern, wo die Menschen dies glauben werden, aus dem einfachen Grunde, weil sie es dann sehen werden.
Es fehlt unserer Gegenwart zu einer wirklichen Weltanschauung, welche geeignet ist, das Menschenleben zu tragen, der Ernst. Daher ist es eine der ersten Anforderungen an denjenigen, der sich in die Geisteswissenschaft hereinfindet, diesen Ernst der Weltanschauung zu entwickeln und sich wirklich ein wenig zu vertiefen in den Gang der menschlichen Entwickelung. Wir haben es oftmals betont, daß die Erdenentwickelung eigentlich erst Sinn hat durch das Mysterium von Golgatha, und wir haben bis jetzt auch schon mancherlei angeführt, was das Mysterium von Golgatha in einem bedeutungsvollen Lichte zeigt. Aber man muß immer genauer und genauer charakterisieren, wenn man die ganze Bedeutung dieses Mysteriums von Golgatha einsehen will. Es kann heute ein Mensch fragen: Ja, wie kommt denn eigentlich die Menschenseele zu dem Christus? — Und man kann sagen, da Christus selbstverständlich ein höheres Wesen ist als alle Archai, daß der Weg zu Christus gefunden werden muß. Denn auf demjenigen Wege, den die gewöhnlichen Religionsbekenntnisse heute gehen, wird nicht der Christus gefunden, sondern höchstens ein Angelos, wie wir gesehen haben. Im Namen der verschiedenen Angeloi, auch sogar noch mancher Archangeloi, wenn sich statt der fortschreitenden die luziferischen an ihre Stelle gesetzt haben, kann man sich so verhalten, wie sich die Menschen heute verhalten, aber im Namen des Christus kann man das nicht. Denn es ist eine absolute Unmöglichkeit, eine tatsächliche Unmöglichkeit, daß zwei Menschen, die sich feindlich gegenüberstehen, jeder sich zu dem Christus bekenne. Ich meine: Dies einzusehen, ist keine Schwierigkeit, denn es ist sozusagen eine Selbstverständlichkeit. Man kann es unter der Voraussetzung, daß man den Namen spricht: «Christus, Christus» oder «Herr, Herr» — was ja der Christus selbst schon angedeutet hat —, daß man aber nur seinen eigenen Engel meint; aber man kann es nicht, wenn man wirklich von dem Christus spricht. Es kann also die Frage entstehen: Ja, wie kommt denn die Seele überhaupt zu einem Wege zu Christus? — Um über diese Frage sich zu unterrichten, kann man verschiedene Wege einschlagen. Wir wollen heute einen Weg einschlagen, der sich uns auf naturgemäße Weise aus mancherlei Betrachtungen ergibt.
Die Menschen wissen heute ja recht wenig von der Vergangenheit. Vor allen Dingen wissen die Menschen nicht, warum gewisse Dinge überliefert sind. Sie wissen allenfalls noch, daß sie überliefert sind, aber warum sie überliefert sind, das wissen die Menschen heute kaum. Überliefert zum Beispiel - und das kann man ja heute in allen möglichen exoterischen Büchern, namentlich auch in freimaurerischen Büchern lesen —, überliefert ist, daß es Mysterien gegeben hat in alten Zeiten, daß die Mysterien sozusagen eine geheime Einrichtung waren, und daß es in den Mysterien, es hängt das schon mit dem Worte zusammen, Geheimnisse gegeben hat, die wirklich auch im äußeren Sinne Geheimnisse waren. Das heißt: Demjenigen, der den Zugang gefunden hatte zu den Mysterien, dem wurden gewisse Dinge überliefert, welche er verpflichtet war, nur denjenigen Menschen mitzuteilen, welche wiederum mit ihm gemeinschaftlich in diesen Mysterien waren, und es war in diesen alten Zeiten eine strenge Regel, diese Mysterienmitteilungen nicht zu verraten. Diese Regel ist so ausgesprochen, daß es zum Sträflichsten gehört, sagte man, wenn jemand ein Mysteriengeheimnis ausspricht vor einem uneingeweihten Ohr; aber ebenso gehört es zum Sträflichsten, wenn ein Unberufener sich ein Mysteriengeheimnis anhört. Und diese Anschauung, die man gepflogen hatte in den Mysterien, wurde, als die Mysterien im alten Sinne da waren, in strengstem Sinne gehandhabt. Warum war denn das? Warum geschah dieses so?
Sehen Sie, heute wird viel über die Mysterien gesprochen, insbesondere bei denjenigen Leuten, die ein klein wenig glitzern wollen mit dem, was sie über die Mysterien sagen, die allerlei schöne Worte machen wollen. Insbesondere da, wo man, wie es bei der heutigen Freimaurerei vielfach der Fall ist, von diesen Dingen redet mit Worten, ohne auch nur den Willen zu haben, viel zu verstehen, wird recht viel Unfug getrieben, indem man in äußerlicher Weise über diese Dinge, ohne viel zu wissen, herumredet. Man merkt gar nicht, ob über diese Dinge richtig aus der Sache heraus gesprochen wird, oder ob nur mit Worten gesprochen wird. Bei diesen Dingen kann man ja die merkwürdigsten Erfahrungen machen, die ich gar nicht kritisieren, gar nicht abkanzeln will; aber die Sache ist doch zu ernst, als daß sie nicht wenigstens angedeutet werden sollte. Sehen Sie, man kann heute zum Beispiel dieses erfahren: Irgendein Mensch ist Mitglied einer Gemeinschaft, die sich heute mit allerlei Namen «Brüderschaften» nennen, Mysterienbewahrer nennen; ein solcher Mensch - ich erzähle Tatsachen - kommt zu einem, erkundigt.sich gerade über dasjenige, was ihn scheinbar interessiert, das heißt, den Worten nach interessiert; aber er kann nicht viel verstehen davon. Nach einiger Zeit hört man dann, daß er da und dort über die Dinge geredet hat und daß er ziemlich wertloses Zeug geredet hat. Gerade zu ‚denen, die heute verzogen werden, verdorben werden durch gewisse okkulte Brüderschaften, ist es in gewisser Weise fast am allervergeblichsten zu reden; denn auf dasjenige, um was es sich wirklich handelt, gehen sie doch nicht ein. So nur konnte es kommen, daß in der letzten Zeit zum Beispiel ein Buch erschienen ist von einem vielgenannten freigeistigen Redner und Schriftsteller über die Geheimnisse der Freimaurerei, ein Buch, das selbstverständlich nichts anderes enthält als flaches Zeug, und daß dieses flache Zeug von den Leuten, die sogar in okkulten Brüderschaften stehen, ernst genommen wird.
Nun wollen wir uns heute eine wirkliche Eigenschaft, die aus der Evolution der Menschheit sich ergab für die Mysteriengepflogenheiten, einmal vor die Seele führen. Ich habe es Ihnen ja öfter betont: Die Menschheit hat sich geändert im Laufe der Erdenentwickelung, und ein wichtiger Einschnitt war in der Entwickelung zur Zeit, da der Christus durch das Mysterium von Golgatha gegangen ist. Will man ein wesentlichstes Merkmal dieser Evolution neben anderen, die wir schon angeführt haben, anführen, so muß man sagen: Wenn wir zurückgehen würden über die griechisch-lateinische Zeit, namentlich wenn wir über das 4. Jahrhundert vor Christus hinauskommen zum 5., 6., 7. Jahrhundert — wir können also sogar schon bleiben in der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit, aber wir würden noch mehr finden, wenn wir in die ägyptisch-chaldäische hinübergingen oder gar in die persische -, so finden wir überall, daß dasjenige, was vom Menschen gesprochen wurde, für die übrigen Menschen eine ganz andere Bedeutung hatte als nachher, zum Beispiel schon im 7.,8. Jahrhundert nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Das Wort, das einer zum andern sprach, hatte eine ganz andere Bedeutung in der Zeit, in der noch die alten atavistischen Eigenschaften der Seele vorhanden waren, die sogar zum atavistischen Hellsehen noch führten, als später, als heute. Da hatte das Wort, wenn ich so sagen darf, durch seine eigene innere Kraft eine Art suggestiven Wert, denn es lag in dem Worte viel von ererbter göttlich-geistiger Kraft. Wenn der Mensch sprach, sprach gewissermaßen in seinem Wort immer der Engel mit aus den höheren Hierarchien heraus.
Sie können sich daraus vorstellen, daß die Mitteilungen in jenen alten Zeiten, die durch Worte erfolgten, etwas ganz anderes waren als heute. Wir haben ja keine Möglichkeit, mit Worten so zu sprechen, auch wenn wir alle diese Geheimnisse kennen, wie in den alten Zeiten gesprochen worden ist, weil wir mit den Worten sprechen müssen durch dasjenige, was durch die Sprache aus den Worten geworden ist. Wir haben ja in den Worten konventionelle Zeichen. Wir können heute nicht mehr zu einem Menschen gehen und mit derselben Kraft, mit der man noch im 3., 4., 5. Jahrhundert vor Christus sprechen konnte, mit den Worten «Dein Engel hat dich lieb», einen leisen Schauer durch die Seele leiten, der Heilkraft war. Man kann das heute nicht mehr, den Worten ist ihr alter suggestiver Wert, ihre Kraft genommen. Es floß menschliche Gemeinsamkeitskraft von Seele zu Seele in alten Zeiten, indem die Menschen miteinander sprachen. So wie wir, wenn wir in einem Saale beisammen sind, die gemeinsame Luft einatmen, so lebte in dem, was die Menschen miteinander sprachen, eine geistige, eine spirituelle Kraft des Gemeinsamen in alten Zeiten. In der fortschreitenden Evolution der Menschheit ist das verlorengegangen. Das Wort ist immer entgöttlichter geworden.
Wenn Sie sich das vor Augen, vor das geistige Auge führen, dann werden Sie sich auch sagen können, daß es ja nun ganz bestimmte Worte und Wortzusammensetzungen, Wortformeln geben konnte, die eine größere Wirkung hatten als andere Worte, die im allgemeinen gesprochen werden. Und solche Wortformeln, die eine über das Gewöhnliche weit hinausgehende Wirkung hatten, wurden in den Mysterien überliefert. Jetzt können Sie begreifen, daß sie nicht verraten werden durften, weil dadurch, daß der Mensch diese Formeln kannte, ihm eine hohe Macht gegeben war über die anderen Menschen, die nicht mißbraucht werden durfte. Es ist eine absolut reale Wahrheit, daß, wenn der alte hebräische Tempelpriester dasjenige ausgesprochen hat, was man im gewöhnlichen Leben nur «das Wort» nannte, was aber eben eine gewisse Lautzusammensetzung hatte, dann, wenn er es aussprach in der richtigen Weise — weil es in jenen alten Zeiten so war, daß in jener Lautzusammensetzung die Kraft lag -, bei den Menschen, zu denen er sprach, tatsächlich das eintrat, daß um sie eine andere Welt war, geistig, aber diese Geistigkeit war wirklich.
Und so können Sie es verstehen, daß es nicht nur verbrecherisch war, zu demjenigen, zu dem es nicht sein durfte, die Mysterienformeln zu sprechen, da man dadurch eine Gewalt auf ihn ausübte, die unberechtigt war, sondern daß es auch verpönt war, hinzuhorchen, denn man setzte sich ja der Gefahr aus, sich ganz in die Gewalt des andern zu begeben. Die Dinge sind nicht so abstrakt, wie es heute gewisse Menschen darstellen wollen, sondern die Dinge sind konkret und real, und die Zeiten haben sich geändert, und auf diese Änderung der Zeiten muß man hinhorchen. Seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha haben die Worte diese Bedeutung nicht mehr, denn Sie sehen ja ein: wirkliche Freiheit hätte unter den Menschen nicht entstehen können, wenn die Worte diese Bedeutung beibehalten hätten; denn die Menschen wären immer nur das Ergebnis gewissermaßen der Sprache gewesen in seelischer Beziehung. Die Worte mußten diese innere Kraft verlieren. Aber eine andere Kraft kam herein in die Erdenentwickelung, welche, wenn sie ein richtiges Verhältnis zur Menschheit fand, den Menschen nach und nach wiederum ersetzen konnte das, was früher aus den Worten kam. Die alten Menschen lernten aus ihren Worten denken, und es gab in alten Zeiten keine anderen Gedanken als die, die aus den Worten kamen. Aber nur dann konnte aus den Worten die Kraft der Gedanken kommen, wenn die Worte so waren, wie ich sie geschildert habe. Diese Kraft war in der Folgezeit nicht mehr vorhanden. Aber da kam dasjenige Wesen, welches den Gedanken, wenn sich diese Gedanken erfüllen mit ihm, wiederum diese Kraft geben konnte, dasjenige Wesen, welches sagen konnte: «Ich bin das Wort», — und das ist der Christus. Nur müssen die Menschen erst den Weg finden, den Christus in ihrer Seele lebendig zu machen. Der Christus ist da. Wir wissen, daß er seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha eine reale Kraft ist. Und jetzt, wo wir über das Karma sprechen, wollen wir auch zeigen, wie er sein Verhältnis zum Karma hat, wie der Angelos nur zu dem einen Menschen in Beziehung kommt, der Christus aber eine viel höhere Bedeutung haben kann als die Erzengel, weil er nicht nur die Menschen hier auf der Erde verbindet dem Zeitgeiste nach, sondern weil er verbindet die Lebenden und die Toten, diejenigen Seelen, die hier im Leibe organisiert sind, und die, welche durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind. Aber dazu müssen wir noch ein wenig besser verstehen lernen, wie aus dem Geiste unserer Zeit heraus der Christus gefunden werden kann, beziehungsweise wie ein Weg zu dem Christus gefunden werden kann. Denn von dieser Frage sind wir ja gerade ausgegangen: Wie kann der heutige Mensch einen Weg zu dem Christus finden?
Vor allen Dingen ist notwendig, daß der Mensch wiederum hinauskommt über das egoistische Nur-in-seiner-Seele-Leben. Denn ein wahres Wort - oh, es werden so viele Worte, die in den Evangelien stehen, nicht ihrer Wahrheit nach genommen, weil sie den Menschen nicht passen! -, ein wahres Wort der Evangelien ist: «Wo zwei in meinem Namen vereinigt sind, da bin ich mitten unter ihnen.» — Der Geist der eitlen Mystik, der da sagt: Ich werde in meiner Seele den Christus gebären, — der ist nicht der Geist des Christentums, sondern der Geist, der da spricht: «Wo zwei in meinem Namen vereinigt sind, da bin ich mitten unter ihnen.» — Aber um den ganzen Geist dieses Spruches Ihnen auch im Zusammenhange mit den wiederholten Erdenleben, wie wir das bei den jetzigen Betrachtungen wollen, auseinanderzusetzen und für unsere Zeit ihn zu charakterisieren im Zusammenhange mit dem ganzen Leben, in das der Mensch heute durch seinen Beruf hineingestellt ist, dazu muß ich auf einiges Charakteristische gerade in unserer Zeit eingehen; denn es ist notwendig, daß man kennen lerne das Hinauskommen über das egoistische Beschränktsein im Menschen. Hinauskommen muß man im Sinne unserer Zeit schon durchaus dadurch, daß man auch wiederum den Kosmos kennenlernt, mit dem der Mensch ja in Beziehung steht und aus dem der Mensch geboren ist, daß man lernt, den Kosmos im Verhältnis zum Menschen denken zu können.
Glauben Sie denn, daß die Naturwissenschaft heute den Kosmos im Verhältnis zum Menschen denken kann? Erinnern Sie sich an den Ausspruch, den ich auch in öffentlichen Vorträgen zitiert habe, von Herman Grimm: Die Naturwissenschaft denkt eine Art Mechanismus, in dem der Mensch gar nicht drinnen sein kann. — Den Menschen im Verhältnis zum Kosmos kann heute die naturwissenschaftliche Weltanschauung nicht denken, denn um das zu können, muß man die Dinge erst konkret anschauen. Heute konstruiert einer eine Maschine; das tut er eben und glaubt, indem er diese Maschine konstruiert, da geschieht in der Tat nichts, als daß er diese Maschine konstruiert, beziehungsweise noch das, was durch diese Maschine geschieht. Aber einem solchen Glauben sich hinzugeben, hieße begründen das, was heute so allgemein verbreitet ist, was man nennen kann: negativen Aberglauben. Aberglaube ist der Glaube an Geister, wo keine sind; aber man kann auch nicht an Geister glauben, wo welche sind: das ist der negative Aberglaube. Diesem negativen Aberglauben, dem gibt sich heute die Menschheit in Hülle und Fülle hin, ohne daß sie es zunächst noch weiß, weil man sich noch nicht gewöhnt hat, die Dinge, welche in der Menschheitsentwickelung auftreten und die man heute nur unter dem Gesichtspunkte des Mechanismus denkt, diese Dinge auch im ganzen Weltenzusammenhange drinnen unter einem moralischen Gesichtswinkel zu denken.
Greifen wir eines heraus, aber eines, das zunächst charakteristisch ist für unsere Zeit, ähnlich ist vielem anderen, das heute in vieler Beziehung unser äußeres Leben beherrscht: die Dampfmaschine. Was spielt heute die Dampfmaschine für eine Rolle! Was ist alles in unserem Leben von der Dampfmaschine beherrscht! Denken Sie nur einmal nach, was alles nicht da wäre, wenn die Dampfmaschine nicht da wäre. Ich will nicht sagen, daß alles das, was der Mensch heute hat, durch die Dampfmaschine hervorgebracht sein müsse, aber es wird eben heute im Sinne des richtigen Zeitgeistes viel von der Dampfmaschine hervorgebracht.
So richtig ist die Dampfmaschine doch eigentlich erst im 18. Jahrhundert erfunden worden, denn was vorher vorhanden war, waren im Grunde genommen nur noch nicht verwertbare Versuche. Dasjenige also, was heute ganz allgemein ist, was heute eine ungeheure Bedeutung hat, das ist die Dampfmaschine, die, man kann sagen, zuerst brauchbar geworden ist — die früheren Versuche sind erst brauchbar gemacht worden - 1719 von Newcomen, und dann später, 1762, von Watt. Eigentlich kann man erst von den beiden sprechen als von Urhebern der Dampfmaschine, wenigstens in dem Umfange, in dem man heute von Dampfmaschinen spricht und allem, was damit zusammenhängt.
Nun, worauf beruht denn überhaupt diese Möglichkeit, Dampfmaschinen zu haben, die gar noch nicht so sehr alt ist? Worauf beruht denn diese eigentlich? Sehen Sie, 1769 - ich werde jetzt für jeden naturwissenschaftlich Denkenden etwas furchtbar Kurioses sagen -, da Watt die Dampfmaschine sozusagen erst auf die richtige Höhe gebracht hat, das ist das Jahr, das gar nicht fern liegt der Konzeption von Goethes «Faust». Vielleicht können sich für unsere Betrachtungen noch sonderbare Zusammenhänge ergeben zwischen dieser Dampfmaschine und der Konzeption von Goethes «Faust», obwohl diese Dinge sehr weit auseinanderliegen. Dazu müssen wir aber erst einmal uns mancherlei, was mit dem Eintreten der Dampfmaschine in die menschliche Evolution zusammenhängt, vor die Seele führen. Worauf beruht denn die Dampfmaschine eigentlich? Die Dampfmaschine beruht eigentlich darauf, daß man luftleeren oder luftverdünnten Raum herstellen kann. Alle Möglichkeit, Dampfmaschinen zu machen, beruht darin, luftleeren Raum herzustellen und nutzbringend zu verwenden. In alten Zeiten, die jetzt schon sehr lang vergangen sind, sprach man vom Horror vacui, von der Furcht vor dem Leeren. Man meinte damit etwas Objektives. Man meinte damit, daß der Raum immer mit etwas erfüllt sein will, daß etwas Leeres eigentlich nicht hergestellt werden könne, daß die Natur eine Art Horror habe vor dem Leeren. Es mußte in der Menschheit erst der Glaube an den Horror vacui verschwinden, und es mußte erst die Möglichkeit hergestellt werden, luftverdünnten, annähernd luftleeren Raum zu erzeugen, bevor man an Dampfmaschinen ging. Die Luft mußte fortgeschafft werden aus gewissen Räumen. Durch mechanische Betrachtung wird man nicht dazu kommen, gewissermaßen eine neue kosmische, moralische Vorstellung zu gewinnen gegenüber der alten kosmischen, moralischen Vorstellung von dem Horror vacui. Aber was geschieht denn da eigentlich, wenn wir einen luftleeren oder luftverdünnten Raum herstellen mit der Absicht, dasjenige, was dadurch geschieht, in den Dienst der menschlichen Erdenentwickelung zu stellen?
Die biblische Urkunde sagt, daß Jahve dem Menschen den lebendigen Odem eingeblasen hat, die Luft, und dadurch wurde er eine lebendige Seele. Die Luft mußte in den Menschen hereingeschaffen werden, damit der Mensch dasjenige werden konnte, was er als Erdenmensch werden soll. Durch viele Jahrhunderte, ja durch Jahrtausende hat der Mensch nur dasjenige an Luftverdünnung und -verdichtung benützt, was sich von selber ergab im kosmischen Zusammenhange. Dann kam die neuere Zeit. Da ging der Mensch daran, die Luft selber zu verdünnen, wegzuschaffen das, was Jahve hereingeschaffen hat, im Gegensinn zu dem zu wirken, wie Jahve wirken kann, indem er den Menschen in die Erde hereingestellt hat. Was geschieht denn also eigentlich, indem der Mensch den luftverdünnten Raum benützt, das heißt, die Luft fortjagt von dem Raume? Es geschieht Opposition gegen Jahve. Sie können sich jetzt leicht denken: Während Jahve in den Menschen hereinströmt durch die Luft, verjagt der Mensch den Jahve, wenn er den luftverdünnten Raum herstellt! Ahriman gewinnt die Möglichkeit, bis in die Physis herein sich als Dämon festzusetzen, indem auf diese Weise die Dampfmaschine konstruiert wird. Wenn man die Dampfmaschine konstruiert, gibt man Gelegenheit zur Verkörperung der Dämonen, Man braucht ja nicht an sie zu glauben, wenn man nicht will: das ist negativer Aberglaube, Positiver Aberglaube ist, Geister zu sehen dort, wo keine sind; negativer Aberglaube aber ist, Geister zu leugnen da, wo sie sind. In den Dampfmaschinen aber sind ahrimanische Dämonen wirklich sogar bis zum physischen Körper gebracht. Das heißt: Während der Kosmos mit seinem Geistigen heruntergestiegen ist durch das, was der menschlichen Evolution eingegossen worden ist, wird verjagt der Geist des Kosmos mit demjenigen, was da an Dämonen geschaffen wird. Das heißt: Der neuere große, bewundernswerte Fortschritt hat nicht nur eine Dämonologie gebracht, sondern eine Dämonomagie, und die moderne Technik ist vielfach Dämonomagie.
Manche Dinge - ich sage jetzt wieder etwas Paradoxes — zeigen sich an, wenn man das, was die Menschen zumeist für etwas höchst Unbedeutendes halten, richtig lesen kann. Schließlich, sehen Sie (es wird ein i an die Tafel gezeichnet), ist das (i ohne Punkt) ja auch der Materie nach die Hauptsache, aber das Pünktchen macht es doch erst zum i. Und vergleichen Sie, wie viel weniger das - man nennt es ein Tüpfelchen - enthält als der übrige Teil, und doch erst macht es jenes Pünktchen zum i. Derjenige, der in der Menschheitsevolution nur an dem Materiellen hängt, wird auch im Materiellen manchmal nur dasjenige, was natürlich hundertmal mehr enthält als das Tüpfelchen, sehen und das Tüpfelchen gar nicht. Aber ein intimer Beobachter, der nicht nur die Erscheinungen anglotzt, sondern sie lesen kann, der wird manches, wo sich zuweilen etwas intim andeutet, eben in der richtigen Weise zu deuten lernen. Eine merkwürdige Tatsache: Lesen Sie einmal eine Biographie von James Watt nach, so werden Sie diese Tatsache, auf die ich jetzt in einer. für jeden modernen, gescheiten Menschen geradezu verrückten Weise hindeuten werde, angedeutet finden, aber die Deutung müssen Sie selbstverständlich erst selber verstehen. Watt konnte nicht gleich ausführen, was er beabsichtigte mit seiner Erfindung, mit seiner Dampfmaschine. Sie sehen ja: die Sache spielt von 1712 bis 1769. Wenn einer einmal eine Erfindung macht, so machen sie ihm viele nach, immer wieder und wiederum, nicht wahr. Da ist vieles konstruiert worden zwischen diesen Jahren. Und als Watt durch andere Eigenschaften seine Maschine brauchbar konstruiert hatte, da hatte er eine Einrichtung darauf, für die schon ein anderer ein Patent hatte, und da konnte er sie nicht ausführen, weil ein anderer schon ein Patent hatte, und er mußte auf etwas anderes sinnen. Und da fand er denn auf eine merkwürdige Weise das, auf was er nun zu sinnen hatte. Er lebte ja in dem Zeitalter, in dem man schon längst die Kopernikanische Weltanschauung hatte, die ich Ihnen charakterisiert habe als etwas, was ja auch nur unserem Zeitgeiste entspricht; er lebte in der Zeit, in der man die Kopernikanische Weltanschauung schon lange hatte. Und wirklich, er kam darauf, sich seinen ganzen Zusammenhang, den Bewegungsapparat so zu konstruieren, daß er diesen Zusammenhang nennen konnte: Sonnen- und Planetenbewegung. Sonnen- und Planetenbewegung nannte er es deshalb, weil er wirklich dadurch geführt wurde, wie man sich vorstellt im Kopernikanischen System die Planetenumschwünge um die Sonne. Er hat wirklich heruntergeholt und in die Dampfmaschine hineingeheimnißt das, was man erkannt hatte in neuerer Zeit als Himmelsbewegung!
Nun denken Sie an dasjenige, was ich Ihnen neulich ausgeführt habe, das geschehen wird, aber erst im Anfange ist: daß feine Vibrationen, sich summieren und große Wirkungen erzielen werden. Auf der Erde ist es noch nicht erreicht, Gott sei Dank! Aber ein Anfang liegt da drinnen: die Sonnen- und Planetenbewegung ist nachgeahmt. Glauben Sie, daß nun, nachdem die Sonnen- und Planetenbewegung die große Bedeutung für unsere Erde hat, wenn sie hereinstrahlt, es keine Bedeutung hat, wenn wir sie hier im Kleinen nachmachen und wiederum hinausstrahlen lassen in den Weltenraum? Dasjenige, was da geschieht, hat eine große Bedeutung für den Kosmos. Da sehen Sie direkt, wie dem Dämon auch noch die Schwingungen hinzugefügt werden, durch die er seine Tätigkeit in den kosmischen Raum hinaus entfalten kann. Natürlich darf nun niemand glauben, daß so etwas, wie ich es jetzt gesagt habe, bedeuten solle, man solle die Dampfmaschine abschaffen. Man müßte vieles abschaffen, denn die Dampfmaschinen sind nicht einmal das Dämonischste. Überall da, wo Elektrizität angewendet wird und manches andere noch, da ist viel mehr Dämonomagie, weil es noch mit ganz anderen Kräften wirtschaftet, die eine noch andere Bedeutung haben für den Kosmos. Selbstverständlich wird derjenige, der Geisteswissenschaft versteht, sich klar sein darüber, daß diese Dinge nicht abgeschafft werden sollen, daß wir nicht reaktionär oder konservativ sein können in dem Sinne, daß wir uns auflehnen gegen den Fortschritt. Oh, die Dämonomagie bedeutet den Fortschritt, und die Erde wird immer mehr und mehr solche Fortschritte machen! Man wird es noch dazu bringen, daß man große, große Wirkungen hinaus in das Weltenall entwickeln wird. Nicht ums Abschaffen handelt es sich, auch nicht ums Abkritisieren, denn selbstverständlich sind die Dinge berechtigt. Aber darum handelt es sich, daß, nachdem auf der einen Seite diese Dinge auftreten müssen im Menschheitsfortschritt, auf der anderen Seite Gegenkräfte geschaffen werden müssen, die den Ausgleich wiederum herbeiführen. Gegenkräfte müssen geschaffen werden. Diese Gegenkräfte, die den Ausgleich herbeiführen, können nur geschaffen werden, wenn die Menschheit wiederum das Christus-Prinzip verstehen wird, wenn die Menschheit den Weg finden wird zu dem Christus. Eine Weile ist die Menschheit abgeführt worden von dem Christus. Selbst diejenigen, die sich offiziell Vertreter des Christus nennen, suchen nur statt des Christus einen Angelos. Aber es wird der Weg gefunden werden müssen, den die Seele machen muß zu Christus. Denn geradeso, wie wir durch die Dämonen der Maschinen zu den physischen Sternen wirken in den Kosmos hinaus, so müssen wir den Weg finden geistig in die Welten hinein, in denen der Mensch ist zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, in denen die Wesen der höheren Hierarchien sind. Und das, was ich jetzt andeute, das hängt zusammen mit dem, was ich schon ausgeführt habe: wie die Menschen hineinkommen immer mehr und mehr in ein Berufskarma auf der einen Seite, so wie ich es geschildert habe, und wie auf der anderen Seite diesem Berufskarma entgegenwirken muß das Verständnis für die geistige Welt, welches auch wiederum anbahnen kann das Finden eines Weges zu dem Christus.
Über diese Dinge wollen wir dann morgen weiter sprechen.
Ninth Lecture
One of the accusations made against our spiritual science by some theologians and others who believe they stand on the ground of Christianity but do not understand it correctly is that our spiritual science asserts truths about a large number of hierarchies, hierarchies that comprise beings who stand above human beings and exist in the spiritual world. As you know, we speak of spiritual hierarchies, which include the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, Exusiai, and so on; just as we speak of these realms of the higher, supersensible worlds, as we speak of the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom, the mineral kingdom, the elemental kingdom, and so on, within the earthly world. We are also clear that human life is divided into two stages. One flows between birth and death. During this life, or through this life, human beings descend from the supersensible world to the realms that are then in their physical environment: the human realm, the animal realm, the plant realm, the mineral realm, and so on. When a person passes through the gate of death, the other phase of their life begins. They ascend to the higher realms, which are also stacked from bottom to top, just as the other realms are stacked from top to bottom. They ascend to the realms of the angeloi, archangeloi, archai, and so on. Those who believe today but do not understand that they stand on the ground of Christianity particularly contest this view of the beings that are placed between human beings and the actual deity, which lies far, far above human beings, even far above the angels, archangels, and so on, and which are placed in this supersensible space. In particular, those who believe themselves to be particularly advanced in their Christian view will readily claim that this knowledge of spiritual hierarchies and their beings is a relapse into an old polytheism or, as they say, into a kind of paganism. For, it is said, it is precisely the task of modern man to place nothing between himself and the deity, but to live in the world, to fix his eyes on what presents itself to the senses, and then to find the way directly to the deity, without mediation by angels, archangels, and so on. And some believe that it is particularly sublime to stand before their own god without any mediation, as they say.
Today, this objection can be heard from many quarters against spiritual science. This objection testifies to the fact that, precisely in those circles where it is raised, there is a complete lack of understanding of what the spiritual needs of our time actually are. For it truly does not depend on whether people imagine they can find the way from themselves to their God, but whether they really can. It really does not matter whether people imagine they are picturing their God, but whether they really are picturing him. And from our point of view, we must ask: What do those who imagine their God actually imagine when they say: We do not want mediation through other spirits, but want to ascend directly from our soul to our God — what do such people imagine? When they think or speak of God, do they really imagine God? Do they imagine that which must be meant by God when a person rightly speaks of his God?
They do not imagine that, but something quite different. If one goes through all the concepts that such people have of their God, what is expressed in such concepts? Nothing other than the essence of an angel, an angelos, and all those people who speak of looking up directly from their soul to God are only looking up to an angel. And if you look up all the descriptions of such people, no matter how exalted they may sound, you will find that they describe nothing other than an angel, and what these people say is nothing other than the demand that one should not imagine anything higher than an angel under God. For example, what is called the modern Protestant God today, and about whom so much is spoken, especially by Protestants, is an Angelos, nothing else. For it does not matter whether one imagines that one finds the way to the highest God, but what really matters is what one actually finds. And in this way one finds only the way to one's Angelos. I say: to one's Angelos, because that is important. For if we first consider only the beings of the lowest hierarchies: Archai — spirits of personality, as we have also called them — Archangeloi, Archangels, Angeloi, Angels, then comes the human being, then the animal kingdom, then the plant kingdom, then the mineral kingdom.
Archai = Spirits of personality
Archangeloi = Archangels
Angeloi = Angels
Human beings
Animals
Plants
Minerals
When we consider these relatively lowest beings, we need only remember some of what we have already discussed in order to know that the Archai, the spirits of personality, are also spirits of the times. They are the ruling powers for the entire period of time, that which lives as spirit throughout the entire period. We live today in a different spiritual context than the ancient Greeks or Romans because we are governed by a different spirit of the times. Such a spirit of the times is already a very exalted being. Then again, we have those beings whom we call Archangeloi. They are called upon to establish harmony among human beings on earth. Therefore, they are also the guides and leaders of the tribes in a certain sense. The Angeloi, the beings standing directly above human beings, guide them through the gate of death so that they have their Angelos at their side, as it were, from death to new birth, and they in turn lead them into the new life. The Angeloi are called upon to guide the individual human personality through repeated earthly lives.
Then we come down to human beings themselves. Human beings, as they are today on earth, remember only their earthly life here in the physical body. The memory of the angels goes much further, for only by going much further can they guide and direct the repeated earthly lives of human beings. Modern theologians do not even imagine angels correctly, because they omit from the angel's nature the ability to guide human individuality through repeated earthly lives. If we consider that when we stand before the archangels, we are dealing with beings who govern human relationships, and when we stand before the spirits of the age, we are dealing with beings who govern human relationships over long periods of time, and that when we deal with angels, we are dealing with beings who essentially govern the life of the individual human being, then we will not fail to recognize, if we keep this in mind, that it is a hidden egoism on the part of human beings to want to rise directly to God, for in truth—although they do not admit it—they only want to rise to their God, to their own angel.
This has great practical significance; it is of great importance, for it carries within it a certain seed. It carries within it the seed that people speak of the one God, but that it is only a fantasy that they speak of the one God. For in truth, by indulging in this fantasy, everyone speaks of their own God, namely their own angel. And the consequence of this must be that, in the course of time, every person worships their own God, namely their own angel. And we can already see how strong the urge is in people for each to worship their own god. The coming together of people in those gods that are common to all has become very rare in recent times. The insistence of each person on their own god has become something very striking. The human race is becoming atomized. In a sense, only the word “God” remains, which is common to all people of the same language, but under this one word, everyone imagines something different, namely their own angel. And he does not even rise up to the archangel who guides human communities.
This is based on a certain hidden egoism that people do not want to admit. But it is something important that is said when we keep this in mind, for human beings actually live in a falsehood when they do not admit to themselves: I look up to my angel — but when they say to themselves: I look up to the one God. They live in a nebulous idea, that is, in an inner deception, in an inner Maya. And this has important consequences, because when human beings give themselves over to this inner deception, something very specific happens. For by giving ourselves over to fantastical ideas, we do not change the spiritual realities that actually occur as a result of what we imagine to be right or wrong. By looking up only to his angel, but not admitting this to himself, believing instead that he is looking up to God — when he is not even looking up to an archangel — man, in a certain sense, numbs his soul through this false idea. And this numbing of the soul is widespread today. But numbing the soul is extremely disastrous for the present stage of human evolution. For through the numbing of the soul, the I is depressed, clouded, and then other powers that should not be active in the soul creep into it. That is to say, the Luciferic Angelos creeps into the place of the angel whom one initially wanted to worship, but whom one renames “God,” and one gradually comes to worship not the angel but the Luciferic Angelos. But then the slippery slope that leads man downhill is very close; then it is very close to his denying God altogether, that is, to deny his angel — which is always connected with the denial of the true human I, as I have shown you in the book “Matérialisme et Spiritualisme” by Leblais, where it is claimed that the cat has an I just like a human being, and where there is talk of the “grand-prêtre du chien.”
So we must certainly recognize that in many respects the answer that must be given to the question “Who is to blame for the materialism of our time?” is: Religions are to blame, religious creeds, in that they cloud people's consciousness and put an angel in the place of God, who is then replaced by the Luciferic angel corresponding to him. And this Luciferic angel will soon lead people into materialism. This is the mysterious connection between the arrogant, selfish religious creeds, which do not want to hear anything about what stands above an angel, but in boundless arrogance say that they speak of “God,” when they speak only of an angel, and not even of him completely. This boundless arrogance, which is often referred to as humility, is what ultimately had to bring about materialism. When we consider this, we see a meaningful connection: through the false reinterpretation of an angel as God, a tendency toward materialism arises in the human soul. And underlying this is an unconscious egoism, which expresses itself in the fact that human beings spurn the ascent to knowledge of the spiritual world, and also in the fact that they believe they can find a direct connection with their God solely out of themselves, as it were. You will see much of what is happening in the present if you consider what I have indicated here. There is only one remedy for the misinterpretation of God, and that is the recognition of spiritual hierarchies. For then one also knows that the present religious creeds do not rise higher than the hierarchy of the angeloi.
When we consider this, we find ourselves more or less in what human beings develop as their conscious life; but much also lives in human beings unconsciously or in a state of unclear consciousness. And we could now say to ourselves: The connection between human beings and their angels is indeed real, but the connection between human beings and the archangel hierarchy, with the archai hierarchy, is also real. The misinterpretation of angels, which is carried out more or less consciously, also leads more or less consciously to the worldview of materialism; not in the individual human being, but it gradually leads to this in the age. Here we are still, so to speak, in what is consciously happening in the soul. But in the relationship between human beings and the archangel hierarchy, we are no longer where human beings know much; they talk a lot about it now, but they know little. Today, we do indeed profess our belief, not in the hierarchy of archangels, but very often in one archangel; not clearly expressed professions of faith, but a leaning, an emotional leaning toward one archangel or another. In the 19th century, this bore particularly strong fruit in at least one area: in the emergence of nationalist ideas, which are unconsciously based on overlooking the interaction of the archangels and bowing down only to one archangel. This is based on something similar to egoism, only something socially egoistic, like bowing down to one angel.
Now one might also want to describe what accompanies this inclination, this socially egoistic inclination toward the archangel, in a similar way to how materialism consciously accompanies the misinterpretation of the angel. But that would be venturing onto thin ice, and that is not something that can be discussed in our time.
Even darker are the relationships between humans and the archai, the spirits of the times. These lie, so to speak, very, very deep underground. At least humans stand in a certain relationship to the angels, even if they do not admit it, for by saying, “I believe in God,” they falsely admit it in the manner indicated. People want to at least establish a relationship with angels. They stand in a relationship with the archangels through their feelings and perceptions, by professing this or that connection through their blood or the like, in a relationship that is false today. This leads to aberrations that I do not want to describe today, nor can I describe them. Similar misguided paths arise in relation to the spirits of the times. But here too, people generally cling to the spirit of the times that presents itself to them as the spirit of their age. Just consider how we try, through spiritual science, to counteract these egoistic, zeitgeist-driven representations by describing successive periods of time with their peculiarities and allowing them to work on us, so as to expand our hearts and souls, as it were, over the entire development of the earth, indeed over the entire cosmic development, in order thereby to establish, at least initially in our thoughts, a relationship to the various Zeitgeists. But people today do not want that. And one would have to describe much of what was hinted at yesterday if one were to describe the wrong turns that people take through this egoism to arrive at the spirit of the age. From a work of poetry, I was able to present you with a gloomy picture of the immediate present, which is described very well. Such wrong turns, as they are described there, are connected with this false relationship to the spirit of the times. But here we are already entering very significant territory by discussing the wrong turns taken in relation to the spirit of the times. When human beings rename their angel “God” and thus come to the Luciferic angel, this is a deviation of faith, of confession, of worldview, a deviation that is, in a sense, individual. The next step can be a deviation of entire peoples; but it always remains a deviation among human beings, so to speak, and the consequences that arise are precisely the consequences of deviations among human beings. But when we advance to the spirit of the age and deviate from it, we already come into conflict with the cosmos through our deviations. And there is a mysterious connection between aberrations from the spirit of the age and the beginnings of what human beings take upon themselves, in a sense, cosmically. This connection cannot be seen if one refuses to look up at the Angelos at all. Let everyone take what I am saying now as they can. It is said from spiritual science, based on profound investigations, but I would have to speak for months if I wanted to go into all the details of these investigations.
The aberrations that human beings commit against the spirit of the times collide with cosmic events, and the cosmic events collide back. And the consequence of cosmic events being brought into human life, the beginnings of cosmic events, is decadence, which extends to the decadence of the physical body, in other words: disease and mortality and everything associated with them. And perhaps in the not too distant future, humanity will become convinced that through many of the things it does on the physical plane, when these are capable of reaching up to the spirit of the times, it conjures destructive forces into the evolution of the earth, the effects of which extend to illness and death. If you then ask yourself whether, according to the insights you have gained, perhaps some of the things what is happening in the present time may be an aberration from the spirit of the age, you will be able to answer this question for yourselves through profound connections that extend into illness and death, through which a balance will then be brought about in relation to many of the sins that human beings commit against the spirit of the age.
It is well known that today's highly intelligent people naturally laugh when someone says something like what I have just said. For they know from their scientific worldview that it is nonsense, as they say, to believe that what a person does, what people do in their contexts, could bring about elementary events. But the time is not far off when people will believe this, for the simple reason that they will then see it.
What is lacking in our present worldview, which is capable of sustaining human life, is seriousness. Therefore, one of the first requirements for those who find their way into spiritual science is to develop this seriousness of worldview and to really delve a little deeper into the course of human development. We have often emphasized that the evolution of the earth only really makes sense through the mystery of Golgotha, and we have already mentioned many things that show the mystery of Golgotha in a meaningful light. But one must characterize it more and more precisely if one wants to understand the whole meaning of this mystery of Golgotha. Today, a person may ask: How does the human soul actually come to Christ? And one can say that since Christ is obviously a higher being than all the archai, the way to Christ must be found. For on the path taken by ordinary religious creeds today, Christ is not found, but at most an angel, as we have seen. In the name of the various angeloi, and even of some archangeloi, if the Luciferic ones have taken the place of the progressive ones, one can behave as people behave today, but one cannot do so in the name of Christ. For it is an absolute impossibility, a real impossibility, that two people who are enemies should each profess themselves to be followers of Christ. I mean, it's not hard to see this, because it's kind of obvious. You can do it if you say the name “Christ, Christ” or “Lord, Lord” — which Christ himself hinted at — but only mean your own angel; but you can't do it if you're really talking about Christ. So the question may arise: How does the soul find its way to Christ? There are various ways to answer this question. Today we will take a path that arises naturally from various considerations.
People today know very little about the past. Above all, they do not know why certain things have been handed down. At best, they know that they have been handed down, but why they have been handed down is something people today hardly know. For example, it has been handed down — and this can be read today in all kinds of exoteric books, especially in Masonic books — that there were mysteries in ancient times, that the mysteries were, so to speak, a secret institution, and that in the mysteries, as the word itself suggests, there were secrets that were truly secrets in the outer sense. This means that those who had gained access to the mysteries were told certain things which they were obliged to reveal only to those who were also members of the mystery society, and in those ancient times it was a strict rule not to betray these mysteries. This rule was so strict that it was considered a most serious offense if someone revealed a mystery secret to an uninitiated ear; but it was equally serious if an uninitiated person listened to a mystery secret. And this view, which had been practiced in the mysteries, was strictly enforced when the mysteries existed in the old sense. Why was that? Why did this happen?
You see, today there is much talk about the mysteries, especially among those people who want to glitter a little with what they say about the mysteries, who want to use all kinds of beautiful words. Especially where, as is often the case with modern Freemasonry, people talk about these things with words without even wanting to understand much, a great deal of nonsense is spread by talking about these things in an outward manner without knowing much about them. One does not even notice whether these things are being spoken about correctly from the point of view of the matter itself, or whether they are just being spoken about with words. One can have the strangest experiences with these things, which I do not want to criticize or condemn; but the matter is too serious not to at least be mentioned. You see, today, for example, you can experience this: Someone is a member of a community that calls itself all sorts of names, such as “brotherhoods” or “keepers of mysteries”; such a person—I am telling you facts—comes to you and inquires about precisely what seems to interest him, that is, what he says he is interested in; but he cannot understand much of it. After some time, one hears that he has talked about these things here and there and that he has said quite worthless things. It is almost futile to speak to those who are being spoiled and corrupted by certain occult brotherhoods, because they do not go into what is really important. This is the only way it could have come about that, for example, a book has recently been published by a much-named free-thinking speaker and writer about the secrets of Freemasonry, a book that naturally contains nothing but shallow stuff, and that this shallow stuff is taken seriously by people who even belong to occult brotherhoods.
Now let us consider a real characteristic that has arisen from the evolution of humanity for the mystery customs. I have emphasized this to you often: Humanity has changed in the course of the Earth's evolution, and an important turning point in this evolution was when Christ passed through the mystery of Golgotha. If we want to name one of the most essential characteristics of this evolution, among others we have already mentioned, we must say: If we go back beyond the Greek-Latin period, especially if we go beyond the 4th century BC to the 5th, 6th, and 7th centuries—we can even remain in the Greek-Latin period— but we would find even more if we went over to the Egyptian-Chaldean or even the Persian period — we find everywhere that what was said about human beings had a completely different meaning for other people than it did later, for example, already in the 7th and 8th centuries after the mystery of Golgotha. The word that one person spoke to another had a completely different meaning in the time when the old atavistic qualities of the soul were still present, which even led to atavistic clairvoyance, than later, than today. Then the word, if I may say so, had a kind of suggestive value through its own inner power, for there was much of inherited divine-spiritual power in the word. When a person spoke, the angel from the higher hierarchies always spoke through their words, so to speak.
You can imagine that the messages conveyed in those ancient times through words were quite different from those of today. We have no way of speaking with words in this way, even if we know all the secrets of how people spoke in ancient times, because we have to speak with words through what has become of them through language. We have conventional signs in words. Today, we can no longer go to a person and, with the same power that people had in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries BC, send a gentle shiver through their soul with the words “Your angel loves you,” which had healing power. This is no longer possible today; words have lost their old suggestive value, their power. In ancient times, human unity flowed from soul to soul when people spoke to one another. Just as we breathe the same air when we are together in a room, so in ancient times a spiritual power of unity lived in what people said to one another. This has been lost in the course of human evolution. Words have become increasingly devoid of divine power.
If you visualize this in your mind's eye, you will also be able to say that there could have been certain words and word combinations, word formulas, that had a greater effect than other words that are generally spoken. And such word formulas, which had an effect far beyond the ordinary, were handed down in the mysteries. Now you can understand that they could not be revealed, because if people knew these formulas, they would have been given a high power over other people, which could not be abused. It is an absolutely real truth that when the ancient Hebrew temple priest uttered what in ordinary life was simply called “the word,” but which had a certain sound composition, then, when he pronounced it in the right way—because in those ancient times it was so that the power lay in that sound composition—what actually happened to the people to whom he spoke was that they were surrounded by another world, a spiritual world, but this spirituality was real.
And so you can understand that it was not only criminal to speak the mystery formulas to someone to whom they were not meant, because this exerted an unjustified power over them, but that it was also frowned upon to listen in, because one exposed oneself to the danger of placing oneself completely in the power of the other. Things are not as abstract as certain people today would like to portray them, but they are concrete and real, and times have changed, and we must listen to this change in times. Since the Mystery of Golgotha, words no longer have this meaning, for you see, real freedom could not have arisen among human beings if words had retained this meaning; for human beings would always have been, in a sense, the result of language in a spiritual sense. Words had to lose this inner power. But another power came into the earth's development which, when it found the right relationship to humanity, was able to gradually replace in human beings what had previously come from words. The ancient people learned to think from their words, and in ancient times there were no other thoughts than those that came from words. But the power of thought could only come from words when the words were as I have described them. This power was no longer present in the following period. But then came the being who, when these thoughts were fulfilled in him, could give this power back to the thoughts, the being who could say, “I am the Word” — and that is Christ. But people must first find the way to make Christ alive in their souls. Christ is there. We know that since the Mystery of Golgotha he is a real power. And now, as we speak of karma, let us also show how he relates to karma, how the Angelos comes into relation only with one human being, but how Christ can have a much higher significance than the archangels, because he connects not only human beings here on earth according to the spirit of the age, but because he connects the living and the dead, those souls that are organized here in the body, and those who have passed through the gate of death. But to do this, we need to understand a little better how Christ can be found from the spirit of our time, or rather, how a path to Christ can be found. For this is the question we started with: How can people today find a path to Christ?
Above all, it is necessary for people to come out of their selfish, soul-centered lives. For a true word—oh, so many words in the Gospels are not taken at their true meaning because they do not suit people!—a true word of the Gospels is: “Where two are united in my name, there am I in their midst.” — The spirit of vain mysticism that says, “I will give birth to Christ in my soul,” is not the spirit of Christianity, but the spirit that says, “Where two are united in my name, there am I in their midst.” — But in order to explain to you the whole spirit of this saying in connection with repeated earthly lives, as we want to do in the present considerations, and characterize it for our time in connection with the whole life into which man is placed today through his profession, I must go into some characteristics of our time in particular; for it is necessary to learn how to overcome the egoistic limitations in man. In the spirit of our time, we must overcome this by getting to know the cosmos with which human beings are connected and from which they are born, by learning to think of the cosmos in relation to human beings.
Do you believe that natural science today can think of the cosmos in relation to human beings? Remember the statement I quoted in public lectures by Herman Grimm: Natural science thinks in terms of a kind of mechanism in which human beings cannot possibly exist. The scientific worldview today cannot conceive of man in relation to the cosmos, because in order to do so, one must first look at things concretely. Today, someone constructs a machine; he does so and believes that by constructing this machine, nothing happens except that he constructs this machine, or rather, what happens through this machine. But to give oneself over to such a belief would be to justify what is so widespread today, what can be called negative superstition. Superstition is the belief in spirits where there are none; but one cannot believe in spirits where there are some either: that is negative superstition. Humanity today indulges in this negative superstition in abundance, without even realizing it at first, because it has not yet become accustomed to thinking about the things that occur in human development, and which today are considered only from the point of view of mechanism, in their entire world context from a moral point of view.
Let us take one example, but one that is characteristic of our time and similar to many other things that dominate our external life in many respects today: the steam engine. What a role the steam engine plays today! How much of our life is dominated by the steam engine! Just think about all the things that would not exist if the steam engine did not exist. I don't want to say that everything that humans have today must have been brought about by the steam engine, but much of what we have today has been brought about by the steam engine in the spirit of the times.
The steam engine was not really invented until the 18th century, because what existed before that were basically just unusable experiments. So what is commonplace today, what has tremendous significance today, is the steam engine, which, one could say, first became usable—the earlier attempts were only made usable—in 1719 by Newcomen, and then later, in 1762, by Watt. Actually, it is only possible to speak of these two as the inventors of the steam engine, at least to the extent that we speak of steam engines today and everything associated with them.
Now, what is the basis for this possibility of having steam engines, which are not even that old? What is the basis for this? You see, in 1769 – and I am about to say something that will sound terribly strange to anyone with a scientific mind – Watt brought the steam engine up to the right level, so to speak. This was not long before Goethe conceived his “Faust.” Perhaps our considerations will reveal some strange connections between this steam engine and the conception of Goethe's “Faust,” even though these things are very far apart. But first we must consider a number of things related to the advent of the steam engine in human evolution. What is the steam engine actually based on? The steam engine is actually based on the ability to create a space that is empty of air or has very little air. All possibilities for making steam engines are based on creating a space that is empty of air and using it in a useful way. In ancient times, which are now long past, people spoke of horror vacui, the fear of emptiness. This was meant to be something objective. It meant that space always wants to be filled with something, that something empty cannot actually be created, that nature has a kind of horror of emptiness. The belief in horror vacui had to disappear from humanity, and the possibility of creating air-thinned, nearly airless space had to be established before steam engines could be developed. The air had to be removed from certain spaces. Mechanical observation will not lead us to a new cosmic, moral conception that replaces the old cosmic, moral conception of horror vacui. But what actually happens when we create an airless or air-thinned space with the intention of using what happens there to serve the development of humanity on Earth?
The biblical record says that Yahweh breathed the breath of life into man, the air, and thereby he became a living soul. The air had to be brought into man so that man could become what he was meant to be as an earthly human being. For many centuries, indeed for millennia, man used only that part of the air which was naturally available in the cosmic context for the purpose of rarefying and compressing it. Then came the modern era. Man began to thin the air himself, to remove what Yahweh had created, to work in opposition to the way Yahweh can work by placing man on earth. What actually happens when man uses air-thinned space, that is, when he drives the air out of space? Opposition to Yahweh occurs. You can now easily imagine: while Yahweh flows into man through the air, man drives Yahweh away when he creates air-thinned space! Ahriman gains the opportunity to establish himself as a demon in the physical realm by constructing the steam engine in this way. When you construct the steam engine, you give demons the opportunity to incarnate. You don't have to believe in them if you don't want to: that is negative superstition. Positive superstition is to see spirits where there are none; negative superstition is to deny spirits where they are. In steam engines, however, Ahrimanic demons are actually brought down to the physical body. This means that while the cosmos has descended with its spiritual essence through what has been poured into human evolution, the spirit of the cosmos is being driven out by the demons that are being created there. This means that the recent great and admirable progress has not only brought demonology, but also demon magic, and modern technology is in many ways demon magic.
Some things — and here I am saying something paradoxical again — become apparent when one can correctly interpret what people generally consider to be of little significance. After all, you see (an i is drawn on the board), that (i without a dot) is also the main thing in terms of matter, but it is the little dot that makes it an i. And compare how much less that — it is called a dot — contains than the rest, and yet it is that little dot that makes it an i. Those who, in the evolution of humanity, cling only to the material will sometimes see in the material only that which naturally contains a hundred times more than the speck, and will not see the speck at all. But an intimate observer who does not just stare at appearances but can read them will learn to interpret in the right way many things where something intimate is sometimes hinted at. A curious fact: if you read a biography of James Watt, you will find this fact, which I am now going to point out in a way that will seem downright crazy to any modern, intelligent person, but of course you will have to understand the interpretation for yourself. Watt was not able to immediately implement what he intended with his invention, his steam engine. As you can see, this took place between 1712 and 1769. When someone makes an invention, many others copy it, over and over again, don't they? A lot was designed between those years. And when Watt had designed his machine to be usable thanks to other features, he had a device for it that someone else already had a patent for, and so he couldn't implement it because someone else already had a patent, and he had to think of something else. And then, in a remarkable way, he found what he had been thinking about. He lived in an age when the Copernican worldview had long been established, which I have characterized as something that corresponds to the spirit of our time; he lived in a time when the Copernican worldview had long been established. And indeed, he came up with the idea of constructing his entire context, the apparatus of motion, in such a way that he could call this context: the movement of the sun and planets. He called it the movement of the sun and planets because he was truly guided by how one imagines the planetary revolutions around the sun in the Copernican system. He really brought down and incorporated into the steam engine what had been recognized in more recent times as the movement of the heavens!
Now think of what I explained to you recently, which will happen, but is only in its infancy: that fine vibrations will add up and achieve great effects. Thank God, this has not yet been achieved on Earth! But a beginning lies within: the movement of the sun and planets is imitated. Do you believe that now, since the movement of the sun and planets has such great significance for our Earth when it shines in, it has no significance when we imitate it here on a small scale and let it shine out again into space? What happens there has great significance for the cosmos. Here you can see directly how the vibrations are added to the demon, enabling it to unfold its activity in cosmic space. Of course, no one should believe that what I have just said means that we should abolish the steam engine. Many things would have to be abolished, because steam engines are not even the most demonic. Wherever electricity is used, and many other things besides, there is much more demonic magic, because it works with completely different forces that have a different meaning for the cosmos. Of course, anyone who understands spiritual science will realize that these things should not be abolished, that we cannot be reactionary or conservative in the sense of rebelling against progress. Oh, demonic magic means progress, and the earth will make more and more such progress! We will even succeed in developing great, great effects out into the universe. It is not a question of abolishing or criticizing, for these things are of course justified. But the point is that, while these things must occur in the progress of humanity, counterforces must be created on the other side to bring about balance. Counterforces must be created. These counterforces that bring about balance can only be created when humanity once again understands the Christ principle, when humanity finds the way to Christ. For a while, humanity has been led away from Christ. Even those who officially call themselves representatives of Christ are only looking for an angel instead of Christ. But the path that the soul must take to Christ will have to be found. For just as we work out into the cosmos through the demons of the machines to the physical stars, so we must find the path spiritually into the worlds in which man is between death and a new birth, in which the beings of the higher hierarchies are. And what I am now hinting at is connected with what I have already explained: how human beings become more and more involved in a professional karma on the one hand, as I have described, and how, on the other hand, this professional karma must be counteracted by an understanding of the spiritual world, which in turn can pave the way to finding Christ.
We will talk more about these things tomorrow.