The Weaving and Living Activity of the Human Etheric Bodies
GA 174a
20 March 1916, Munich
Translator Unknown
For a gradual acquisition of that science which we designate as spiritual science, it is necessary that we should have the good will of filling out the thoughts and thought-connections which are indicated almost in the form of a plan with real ideas relating to those things which can at first only be given in a more general outline. We say that the human being consists of physical body, etheric body, astral body, Ego, etc. This is quite correct, to begin with, for it is necessary that we should orient ourselves with the aid of encompassing schematic ideas. But if we wish to continue in the acquisition of spiritual science, we must penetrate more accurately into everything which has thus been given in a schematic form. We already possess quite a considerable number of lecture-cycles, which are read particularly within the more restricted circle connected with our Society; but these cycles of lectures still contain relatively little of what should be known to humanity in a near future, at least to a certain number of people! This would be most desirable. To begin with, we say: We designate as man’s physical body his external appearance, which can be perceived through the physical senses and which can be observed with the aid of that science that is linked up with the intellect, with experiments and observations. We know that the etheric body lies at the foundation of the physical body. Let us, first of all, cast our spiritual eye upon these two members of human nature.
Spiritual science as such, needs to say least of all (of course, this is at first only apparently the case) about the physical body, for the physical body is the only thing which the ordinary science, dealing with the physical world, is willing to contemplate with the aid of its methods. But although the physical body may at first seem to be what natural science considers, it to be, its true significance and its position within the universe can only be recognised if the higher members of the human organisation are also borne in mind.
You will undoubtedly recollect that man’s physical body, in the form in which it envelops him here upon the. earth, could only arise during the Earth-epoch, but it received its first foundation during the ancient Saturn-epoch. During the Sun, Moon and Earth epochs, it then underwent a constant transformation. It was gradually transformed under the influence of the processes which were taking place: it was transformed through the fact that the etheric body was incorporated with it. When the physical body passed on from the Saturn epoch to a new epoch, it had to change, for it became permeated with the etheric body. And it also had to change when it became permeated with the astral body upon the Moon. Not only has the astral body been added to the physical body, but the physical body has been transformed through the fact that the etheric body penetrated into it, as it were, during the Sun-epoch and the astral body during the. Moon-epoch, whereas the Ego is gradually developing in every direction here, upon the Earth; of course, it develops first of all within the astral body, then within the etheric body, but then also within the physical body.
If we now pass on from the human being to the cosmos, we only need to remember what is contained in our lecture-cycles. We must remember, in this case, that just as the first foundation of the physical body has been made possible through the outpouring, as we may call it, of the Spirits of the Will or the Thrones, so the transformation during the Sun-epoch became possible through the Spirits of Wisdom, and the transformation during, the Moon-epoch through the Spirits of Movement. The transformation during the Earth-epoch, that is to say, the change entailed through the fact that an Ego now dwells within the physical body, has been made possible through the Spirits of Form, This is a most significant fact, which we must bear in mind. When we encounter man’s physical body upon the Earth, we must think of it as being endowed with an Ego, and since it is endowed with an Ego, we must bear in mind that it has received a certain form, the form which is most appropriate to it. During the Moon epoch, it has merely received the inner movement which was most adapted to it. The form which was most suited to it, is a gift of the Spirits of Form, and is in keeping with the fact that an Ego had to be Implanted in it.
We may thus say: Our earthly body, which has a physical form, has been formed in such a way as to become a bearer of the Ego. Together with the Ego, the Spirits of Form gave the human physical body the form which it now has and which is in keeping with the fact that it is the bearer of an Ego. The beings that belong to the other kingdoms of Nature, have received their forms later. If you read the more intimate descriptions of the Moon-epoch,1See The Akasha Chronicals you will find that they describe all the other beings in such a manner that it is not possible to say that also these beings had their forms at that time. They are described with a certain mobility. Bear in mind, for instance, the description contained in my Occult Science.
Also the other kingdoms of Nature have received their stable forms through the Spirits of Form, during the Earth-epoch. Let us now contemplate the animal kingdom. Also the animal kingdom has its definite forms. It has acquired these forms only during the Earth. epoch. But think of the great difference between the forms of the animal kingdom and of the kingdom of man! If we cast our gaze over the surface of the earth, we may indeed find certain differences among men, but these differences belong to another field of study. We also come across certain differences in the external human form. All the interesting peoples which the West Europeans now lead into the field against Central Europe of course present a different aspect from the European populations! Differences can of course be perceived when we cast our gaze over the surface of the earth and study the form of various individual human beings. The colour of the skin must, for instance, be considered in connection with the bodily form. But if you compare the differentiations which exist in regard to the human being with the great differentiations which exist in regard to the various animal species, you will have to admit: The various species of animals differ far more from one another than the human beings. In comparison to the various animal species we can speak of an individual human species; in the human kingdom, however, we cannot find such a great difference as may be found, for instance, between a lion and a nightingale. If there would be such a great difference in the kingdom of man as that between a lion and a nightingale, we would not hear even such peculiar observations that it is not possible to notice the differences which exist among human beings. The fact to be borne in mind is that the animals show infinitely greater differences than the human being, within his own general human species.
Although the things which I have just now explained to you are undoubtedly right, they are only right within certain limits, if we consider them from the aspect of spiritual science. The following fact should be looked upon as a truth: In your thoughts and, in your observation, add the etheric body to man’s physical body and imagine that a certain experiment is to be made; in reality, of course, this experiment cannot be made. Imagine the following experiment and that you see it being enacted; imagine that the whole physical body of man can be separated from him, detached from him scientifically, piece by piece and that before we begin to detach the physical body from the human being we are in the position to invoke the Spirits of the higher hierarchies—to send an invocation to the Spirits of the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. We would have to utter this invocation in such a way that its request would be granted, namely, that the Spirits of the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai might withdraw from the human being and cease; to influence his etheric body. We would, therefore—we cannot say, excoriate—but we would have to take away from the human being everything pertaining to his physical body and then we would have to ask the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai to withdraw their influences, so that man’s etheric body may be left entirely to its own resources, and may no longer be influenced by anything else. For the etheric body is subjected to certain influences; it is inserted in the physical body and the physical body has its own solid form, to which the etheric body must adapt itself. If you take a very soft piece of rubber and put it into a glass, it will adapt itself to the form of the glass and will no longer maintain its own form. But if you take it out of the glass, it will bound back into its own form. In a similar way, the etheric body must adapt itself to the physical body, without a form of its own. Consequently, if we draw away the physical body, we eliminate the forces to which the etheric body had to adapt itself; however, it would not immediately take on its own form, owing to the fact that the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai still work upon it, but we have asked them to withdraw, so that the etheric body can now obey its own forces to the fullest extent. In that case, the etheric body would take on its own elasticity. And this would be visible; we would see the etheric body jumping out. And what would occur?—You would have before you the whole animal kingdom! The etheric body would split up into portions, and these would show in their fundamental types the forms of the whole animal kingdom. In other words: etherically, the human being carries about within him the whole animal kingdom, which is simply held together by the form of his physical body and by the activity of the Beings of the above-named hierarchies. It is unquestionably true that the human being bears within him, as a disposition, the whole animal kingdom. From this standpoint, the animal kingdom differs from man only through the fact that every animal-species has assumed a form of its own, which it has developed independently into a physical shape. Consequently, the animal kingdom is the expanded etheric body of man,
A strange fact should be borne in mind. At the turn of the 18th and of the 19th century, something special arose within the world-conception of Europe, and we may observe this, for instance, more in detail in the case of Oken. From the standpoint of his time, the scientist Oken could not as yet speak of etheric bodies; indeed, he was far from doing so. But in his books we may find the following peculiar statement: “The animal kingdom is the human being, expanded.” This means that in his fantasy he had caught, a glimpse of the truth. It rose up on his spiritual horizon at a time when the great ideas of the Central European world-conception had developed. Indeed, this truth even rose up on Schelling’s horizon, and this same statement can also be found in Schelling’s books. Those who were unable to penetrate into such a lofty idea, which could not, of course, be developed fully, those who were unable to penetrate into such a great idea, went through a terrible time. We should think of Oken in such a way, that the things which he could not as yet grasp clearly, nevertheless lived within his soul as a marvellous conception, so that he could feel the single parts of the human being really consist of animal forms. He even had the courage to express this, but this courage very much annoyed the learned Philistines. Just think that Oken conceived the following idea: What is the tongue?—Well, he said that the tongue is a cuttlefish. Of course, the things which I have just explained to you lay at the foundation of this statement ... but just imagine what the learned Philistines thought about it! If we wish to grasp the development of man’s spiritual life we must become broad-minded and we must realise that things which may apparently sound like nonsense may bear within them a great truth. Oken subdivided the human being as follows: The tongue is a cuttlefish, other organs are something else. After all, it was merely the exact repetition of a truth which existed in a very ancient conception of man and which brought into evidence the fundamental types, subdividing the human being in accordance with the four fundamental animal types: Lion, eagle, angel and calf.
Thus we may say: Things are not as easy as they appear to be, for in reality, the human being bears within his etheric body the whole animal kingdom. As a philosopher might express himself, he bears it within him as a disposition.
Now you should bear in mind the following fact: If the things which I have just now described to you would not take place, if in addition to the fact that the physical body holds together the whole animal kingdom, the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai would not exercise their influence, then the process explained above would necessarily take place, when the human being lays aside the physical body and passes through the portal of death; namely, the etheric body would, in that case, jump out elastically into the world when the astral body and the Ego have abandoned it, and a whole etheric animal kingdom would rise out of the etheric body. But in reality, this does not take place; this animal kingdom does not rise out of the human being, for the etheric body detaches itself in an entirely different form; it detaches itself and becomes incorporated with the universal ether and interweaves with it.2Compare: Inner Being of Man and Life Between Death and a New Birth
What lies before us in that case? The fact that the Beings of the hierarchies of the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai work upon our etheric body and do not allow it to reach the point of splitting up into the animal kingdom. What does really take place?—You see, I would like to describe these things by drawing in a comparison. Here upon the earth we human beings work. We build machines, for instance, machines made of wood or of iron. Wood and iron are our fundamental materials. We use them to construct machines. The way in which these materials are put together is our own work, but wood and even iron are raw materials which we take from the earth. We take them from a kingdom which lies below our human kingdom.
If you now imagine that the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai live above us, you will also realise that these Beings do not exist in the universe simply in order to have a perpetual holiday. They have their work, tasks which they must fulfil. What do they really do? They, too, must use a material for their work, just as we use wood and iron which we take from the earth, and they, too, will work upon this material. Our etheric bodies are the material used by the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai. For the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai, our etheric bodies have the same value that the wood and iron which we take from the earth have for us, when we use them to build machines. The Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai work upon our etheric bodies, and when we walk about upon the earth and harbour, as it were, the thought (if we have such thought at all!) that we carry about within us our etheric body, believing that we carry it about as something that belongs to us in the same way in which the lungs that we carry about within us belong to us—then the whole essence of the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai is active around us and works out forms for the spiritual world, forms that are needed there, just as machines are needed here upon the earth. They work out what is needed in the spiritual world. What aids these spiritual beings in their work?
You see, throughout our life we think; we think, from the moment that we attain the capacity of thinking up to the moment of death. Our thinking consists therein that it weaves and lives in our etheric body. Yet, while we live within our physical body, we believe that only the things we mould in the shape of thoughts belong to us. But what we thus possess in the shape of thoughts, what we thus form and mould within our thoughts is, as it were, only the inner aspect of our whole thought-life. From outside, the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai work upon our thoughts, particularly in regard to our etheric body. As human beings, it is not at all unnecessary that we should think. Our thoughts are necessary not only for the physical earth, but also for the cosmos. For what we transform within our etheric body through our thinking, is employed during our earthly life as a material which is used in accordance with higher standpoints. While we pass through the world as thinking human beings, the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai work upon our thoughts, so that after our death something may arise that can be incorporated with the whole ether of the universe. When our astral body and our Ego lay aside our etheric body, they sew into the cosmos the wool of our etheric body, that has arisen essentially through our manner of thinking.
As human beings, we do not only live for ourselves; we also live for the whole universe. We know that Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan will follow our Earth. But all this must be prepared; it must be interwoven with the universe as forces. This entails work. It forms part of this work, for instance, that the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai carry it on in accordance with our thoughts. (Stupid thoughts are not the same kind of material as clever thoughts). Coarsely speaking, the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai work upon these etheric machines in accordance with the material that we supply to them, and these “machines” then exist, in order that the evolution of the universe may continue. When our etheric body is handed over to the cosmos after our death, this kind of work is therefore handed over at the same time to the Beings of the three, above-mentioned hierarchies.
Let us now contemplate from a similar standpoint man’s astral body. We always contemplate things from different standpoints, so that we always obtain other connections with the surrounding kingdoms, and those who cannot read (an encompassing view of things is needed in order to be able to read) may discover many contradictions in our descriptions, but this is only due to the fact that they ignore the standpoints from which these things are viewed.
You see, our astral body is connected with the earthly surroundings in a similar way as our etheric body. From the standpoint just indicated, our etheric body is the whole ANIMAL KINGDOM. Our astral body is, instead, the whole VEGETABLE KINGDOM. In exactly the same way in which I spoke to you of the etheric body in connection with the animal kingdom, I would now have to speak to you of the astral body in connection with the vegetable kingdom. All the vegetable forms of our earth are contained in the astral body. And again, we find that if nothing else were to occur, if the Beings of the higher Hierarchies would not work upon our astral body, if during the time between death and a new birth, when we live backwards through our life, nothing would occur except the fact that the astral body is discarded, then the astral body would appear as the whole vegetable kingdom outside in the world. Indeed, this would even take on the form of a sphere, it would follow its own elasticity. The astral body would really take on the form of a sphere; but it cannot do this because during our life between birth and death the Spirits of Form have been working upon our astral body, also the Spirits of Movement, the Spirits of Wisdom, and even the Spirits of the Will. When after years or decades we have lived backwards through our earthly life and have thus gradually freed the astral body from its connection with earthly existence, then the astral body will contain the results of a work, results that the Spirits of Form, the Spirits of Movement, the Spirits of Wisdom and the Spirits of the Will require in order to incorporate something with the cosmos, namely, to incorporate with it, what they MUST incorporate with it. Of course, what thus becomes incorporated with the cosmos is to our own profit; for this must be contained in the cosmos. However, this becomes inwoven with the cosmos in a manner that differs from the process described above.
When we discard our etheric body, this becomes inwoven, I might say, with the universal ether of the cosmos. But what appears now, as a woof woven out of our astral body as a result of the work of the Spirits of Form, the Spirits of Movement, the Spirits of Wisdom and of the Thrones, cooperates with our Ego that is passing through its time between death and a new birth and contains forces which must be active, in order that we may once more enter a new incarnation. Many things are needed in order that we may enter a new incarnation! Many things, indeed! To-day, the ordinary science of the physical world really knows quite a lot about the structure of the skull and of the human brain; such a lot, that many people find it is too much to learn all these things! It is undoubtedly a lot. But suppose that all the knowledge which is acquired through external science were to be considered from a particular standpoint ... from the standpoint that the _skull containing that wonderful structure of the brain has actually arisen, that it could really be formed in its minutest details, whereas if all this had to be formed with the aid of our ordinary external science, very little indeed could be achieved!
Here we face a significant mystery, a mystery that obtuse men (the sort of men whom we can really designate as obtuse) think to cope with so easily by saying: “Well, the human being simply arises! In the course of the generations, it so happened that human bodies develop spontaneously within the bodies of mothers. This is quite spontaneous.” Indeed, the arguments adopted by such people can be grasped ... but let me show you, with the aid of a comparison, how clever they really are!
For instance, you may take for granted that here in Munich there are certain Beings able to perceive many things, but unable to perceive man, and thus unable to see his activities. It is quite possible, to imagine this! But those Beings who cannot see man, nor his activities, may, for instance, be able to see—a clock. They would, therefore, know that there are clocks and also how they are made. They would not, however, see the man who makes the clock; they would only see how a clock arises from its single parts. They would perhaps see the different kinds of pincers taking hold of the clock’s parts, but they would see them gripping, as it were, out of the air. What a conception would these Beings have of a clock? They would not say: “In Munich there are clock-makers”, but they would say: “Clock-makers do not exist; the clocks arise spontaneously, of their own accord, for we can see how they form themselves.” This is the manner of thinking adopted by people who take for granted that things that gradually develop in a physical way must arise quite spontaneously! However, everything that arises is the result of actions fulfilled by spiritual Beings belonging to the higher Hierarchies. Indeed, the human being does not arise spontaneously, merely through the interchanging influence of father and mother and through what develops within the mother’s body, but the whole cosmos participates in his development.
Particularly the external world, as far as its highest regions, cooperates in the formation of the human head. It participates less in what is attached to the head, and participates in a particular way in the development of the human head. In a not too distant future, even ordinary science will learn to think differently in embryology concerning all the organs and also concerning the human head. It will discover that the other organs depend very strongly upon hereditary qualities, whereas the formation of the head depends upon them only very slightly. The form of the head is simply pushed together after the formation of the other organs. The whole cosmos participates in the forming of the head and the influences of the cosmos penetrate into the mother’s body. Those who do not see these forces ... well, also a farmer does not see the forces that are active in a magnet, but this does not prove the non-existence of these forces. What exists in the human head, has been worked out, as it were, in connection with all that the human being has received from the Spirits of Form, the Spirits of Movement and the Thrones, with what he bears along within his Ego, carrying it over into the time between death and a new birth, as a mighty spherical form. What is thus elaborated is gigantic; it is a sphere and within this sphere everything is worked out.3“MACROCOSM AND MICROCOSM”.
Imagine a gigantic sphere, upon whose surface is engraved, as upon a globe, everything that must be worked into it in accordance with what the human being handed over, to begin with, to the universal cosmos through his etheric body, through the extract of his etheric body; this forms, as it were, something that is copied on to the surface of the sphere. We then work into it what should be engraved upon it in accordance with what we have brought along with us through the work done upon our astral body. And then comes the time—it begins with that moment designated by me as the world’s midnight hour—when the sphere gradually grows smaller and finally this sphere, upon which, the higher Spirits work, becomes quite small, it grows smaller and smaller, until it unites with the human germ conceived within the mother’s body. This, above all, gives rise to the form of the head. The gradual development of the form of the head is the result of centuries of work on the part of the higher Hierarchies.
Just imagine how man’s feelings in regard to his relationship with the world could be deepened if he would be aware of his position within the whole cosmic connections! The human being who carries his head upon his shoulders should learn to think in all humility, without any pride and arrogance, that human wisdom and all that may be found in it, contains very little indeed of what is required for the forming of the head bestowed upon the human being! Man bears within him everything that is contained in the cosmos. If we consider things from this standpoint, spiritual science acquires an immense value through, the fact that it becomes the point of departure for certain feelings, that may, indeed, endanger souls filled with pride and arrogance.
In my second Mystery Play I have alluded to this fact, in the scene where Capesius, conversing with Benedictus, feels the approach of truths telling him that the deeds of gods are needed in order to give rise to man. Truths of this kind may increase the vanity of many, who may at first be disposed to vanity. They may attribute enormous importance to themselves. Yet it would be far more reasonable to foster the feeling showing us how little of all that wisdom which gave rise to the human being really exists within our own consciousness! Of course, we may snare the opinion of those who say: “Of what use is it to know all these things? We can quite well do without this knowledge. Indeed, we can live quite comfortably without knowing, all these, things” ... Yet a great error is contained in the belief that we can quite well do without this knowledge! For, in reality, we cannot live without it. Indeed, at the present time we easily yield to the erroneous belief that we can lead quite a decent life without having a knowledge of the spiritual world; that is to say, that we can breakfast, etc., and do many things in between ... Undoubtedly, it is very easy to believe this at the present time; nevertheless, such a belief is not based upon truth. We should gradually be brought to the point of feeling that such beliefs are not based upon truth. For this reason, I mention a subject such as that of Planck. I mention Planck, that strange man, who lived for many years an extremely lonely life at Ulm and was not even offered a chair at the university of Tübingen, because nobody really understood his true value and significance; the significance of a man concerning whom obtuse persons would certainly say: “Towards the end of his life, he grew so nervous that he said all manner of things that sounded like megalomania.” Well, obtuse men may argue like that. But even someone who had not to endure the sufferings that Planck had to endure, would have grown nervous through the way in which his fellow men treated him, and he would also have uttered the words which may be found in Planck’s introduction to his “Philosophy of Nature and of Mankind”, the words of an ancient Roman: “Ungrateful country of mine! You shall not even have my bones!” I am quoting these words purposely; they were uttered in 1889, the year of Planck’s death, and they really convey exactly what we tried to explain just now.
The reality could be perceived by a man with idealistic conceptions, because the forces that develop within us when we are able to think in this manner, are, at the same time, the most practical thing in the world. The most practical thing is not at all as imagined by those who believe that they really are in touch with the most practical things in life; this can only be explained through the brutality with which they face life’s practical aspects. When I advance such examples, I only advance them in order to show you that all those human forces which are also needed in practical life, can give rise to clear thoughts filled with insight, only if the soul is fertilized by spiritual scientific truths.
Is it possible to-day that people actually believe that human life on earth is possible, without the slightest idea of spiritual scientific truths? Why do people believe such things?—Because they are so terribly short-sighted! If they were not so short-sighted, it would be possible to prove, even in an entirely external way, how mistaken are those who say: “Well, people simply believe that they need not concern themselves with a spiritual world. They are born without doing anything towards this, and they grow ...” Of course, some kind of education must be offered to man. Modern pedagogy is so extremely clever, that it sets up clever principles, reaching the gigantic heights of Forster’s pedagogy! And then we gradually become mature men, who concern themselves with the problem of what we should do, in order to give others something to eat and to drink.
Yet it was not always so within the human race. It is not so long ago that the present conditions arose, inducing men to believe that they can live upon the earth without possessing any spiritual knowledge. External proofs may be advanced, in support of this.
Let me advance one of these proofs. Probably, if we had time to spare (but here in Munich, people do not have much time), we might even come across a similar proof here in Munich. At the Museum of Art, in Hamburg we recently discovered a proof that may be advanced externally. It results from the following fact:
Let us bear in mind that great symbol at the beginning of the Old Testament: Adam and Eve’s Temptation, what is known to us as the Luciferic temptation. Let us think of this. When a modern painter paints this (his standpoint is quite an indifferent matter; it is all the same whether he is a realistic or an idealistic painter, an expressionist, impressionist, or futurist), he thinks that the reality can be conveyed best of all if he paints Adam and Eve in a more or less ugly way; between them, he will paint the Tree of Paradise and upon it the Serpent, with a real serpent’s head, as large as the Tree. Can this be termed realistic, in the true meaning of the word? I do not think so. Leaving aside the present assumption, it is impossible to believe that the archetypal mother Eve could have been so stupid as to be tempted by a real serpent. Imagine, a real serpent creeping through the green grass should have caught mother Eve! Even the present serpent can only be looked upon as a symbol of something else. Let us recall the thoughts that should really be connected with the Luciferic temptation. The serpent is Lucifer. It can only symbolize Lucifer. The fact that this being remained behind upon the Moon-stage of development, is connected with the Luciferic principle. It is therefore impossible to see Lucifer through physical eyes, for these have only developed upon the earth. Lucifer can only be perceived through the inner eye, and so he cannot resemble an earthly serpent that can be seen through our ordinary earthly eyes. Lucifer should be imagined as spiritual science is able to represent him. Imagine now that man carries upon him his head, as the most perfectly formed member of his body. Attached to it (it suffices if you study a skeleton) is the remaining organism; the spine is attached to the head. Everything that has, later on, developed physically, was formed in advance. If we go back into evolution, if we were to perceive Lucifer through our inner power of vision, we would see him in the form which he had upon the Moon, when he was preparing the earthly human head, a human head that was not so dense and solid as the present one, for it was inwardly mobile, manifold in its forms, and attached to it was a human spine, a spinal cord, that may be imagined in the form of a serpent’s body. Lucifer would, therefore, have to be painted with a countenance as expressive as possible, and attached to it, a serpent’s body, but one that resembles the archetypal human spine. This would be a kind of picture of Lucifer.
At the Museum in Hamburg there is a picture by Master Bertram representing a Story, of the Creation, and there the Paradise-symbol is represented in such a way that Lucifer is portrayed as described, exactly in accordance with spiritual science. In the 13th and 14th century, Master Bertram therefore painted Lucifer correctly, in a spiritual-scientific sense. This can be seen; it is a historical fact. We have frequently spoken of the ancient atavistic clairvoyance. What Master Bertram painted, shows that up to the 13th and 14th century it was possible to paint Lucifer correctly, in accordance with an ancient spiritual science. It can therefore be proved, it can be proved externally, that the human beings have become, so abandoned by the spirit as they are now, only a few centuries ago. This can be proved, and you will be able to discover such proofs.
In other words: What the obtuse people of to-day consider as the everlasting human nature ... the fact that they look out into the world through their eyes and then combine the things they see through their intellect, has become a human soul-quality only a few centuries ago. Before that time, man was aware of his connection with the spiritual world. This has faded. But we can learn to know that even in the 13th and 14th century people were still able to paint in such a way that this was in keeping with the ancient spiritual science. It is important to bear in mind such a fact. It shows us that the ancient spiritual science had to vanish for the sake of the development of human freedom, for in the 5th post-atlantean epoch arose something that has often been described: namely, the, consciousness-soul had to develop and consequently the old spiritual science had to recede. But it must be brought back again.
In regard to what constitutes the spirit of invention, the creative spirit, humanity still lives to-day upon the old inheritance in every sphere, upon the old inheritance that entered human evolution with the ancient spiritual science. When someone has a new idea to-day and invents something quite new, he does this because the ancient spiritual science still continues to be active. But in less than a hundred, in less than fifty years time, every kind of invention, every creative kind of thought shall have disappeared; it shall have disappeared even in the mechanical sphere, unless spiritual science influences humanity in a fruitful way. Spiritual science must begin to penetrate livingly into the development of the human race, for otherwise, the human race must grow barren.
In the sphere of art, this, fact is more or less evident to-day. In art it is strongly evident that the human beings are, as it were, abandoned by the spirit, seeing that they can only weave into their works of art what they find as a model, outside, in Nature; thus the inner fertilization on the part of the spirit is completely lacking.
These facts stand on one side. They show us how necessary it is for the human being to become aware of the fact that he is connected, as a whole human being, with Beings belonging to the higher kingdoms. We may think of people—some still exist to-day—who do not know that air exists. For them, space is empty. At least this fact does not reach their consciousness. After all, the physical body cannot be thought of without the environing air—for what would we be with our physical body without any air! We imagine that the physical body is closed up, because it is enveloped in its skin,—but here is the air outside the body: we breathe it in, and now it is inside us; we breathe it out, and then it is outside. Does not the air belong to the physical body in the same way as the muscles? Do you not have within you what is outside, and outside what is within? In the same way in which we are connected with the air in regard to our physical body, so we are connected, in regard to our soul-element, with the Beings that weave through the world as Spirits of Form, Spirits of Movement and Thrones; through our astral body we are united with the Beings who weave through the world as spiritual Hierarchies; they are incessantly active in us, just as the air is active within our physical body. If we know this, we have the right kind of consciousness of man’s being.
This is one aspect of the matter. But then there is still another aspect. Now I wish to awaken in you a conception of these things, by contemplating them from several aspects, as it is necessary to-day.
Read, for instance, (I might also indicate another example) Dostojevski’s “Karamasov Brothers”. Four characters appear, among others, in this book: the four sons of the old Karamasov, Ivan, Dmitri, Aljosha, Smerdiakov. It is very strange to see what an influence this novel of Dostojevski had, particularly in Europe. I would have to say many things if I wished to explain the whole way in which such things rise out of human life and pass through a soul such as that of Dostojevski where they develop into a work such as his “Brothers Karamasov”. Let me only say this: In spite of the greatest admiration which we may have for the penetrating psychological art (this is the name given to it by many modern people, because they know so little what psychology really is!), in spite of the penetrating insight of Dostojevski’s psychological art, also in spite of his fine and penetrating observation of life, those who have really reached the point of taking up spiritual-scientific conceptions not only in such a way as to say, man consists of physical body, etheric body, astral body and Ego, but so that they are filled with what may be experienced in connection with these members of human nature—those who strive to build up feelings in the way in which we endeavour to do it, will have an uncomfortable feeling when they read the frequently chaotic descriptions of the Karamasov brothers. For this book contains many things that may indeed be designated as fine observations of life, if we simply bear in mind an external, superficial observation of life ... for instance the fact that the eldest brother is the son of another mother and has an entirely different character than that of his two younger brothers; the fourth son is again the offspring of another mother (the old Karamasov is namely a thorough scoundrel!), whereas the third son has a most peculiar mother. One does not know if he is really the son of the old Karamasov ... But I do not intend to tell you the story of the book. Indeed, if we also bear in mind the aspect, who were the mothers, we may feel throughout: there is something behind all that! In fact, this is so, for a Central-European writer would not describe things in that way; he would describe things far more consciously and thus he would not bring into his description so many sub-conscious factors; as is the case with Dostojevski, he constructs more, and since he only brings into his book what he more or less knows, his book will not contain such a wealth of things as that of Dostojevski, who takes the things he writes from LIFE.
Life contains more than that which rises up in the consciousness of the human soul. Towards all these things we feel that in the case of Dostojevski we have before us an extremely chaotic mind, rendered chaotic through his epilepsy; but, in spite of this, many things passed through his entirely diseased soul, things which could pass through it, because human nature is, in our time, inclined, as it were, to reveal certain Things. We may then come to the following result: If we have acquired the right kind of feeling, the right kind of idea in regard to what is meant by physical body, etheric body, astral body and Ego, we shall find in the four Karamasov brothers four human beings who can only be understood in the right way if we say to ourselves: In one of them, we have before us a human being in whom the physical body is specially active; in the other one, a human being in whom the etheric body is particularly active; in the third one, a human being in whom the astral body is more active; and in the fourth one, a human being in whom the Ego is more active. It is indeed so: If you take the Karamasov brothers and study them from an inner aspect, you will be able to say that, in accordance with. the present cycle of human evolution, and in a case where everything is active in such a way that the poet is influenced and stimulated to describe things more from out his sub-consciousness, the various members of human nature are active so that in one brother one particular member has the upper hand, and in another one, another member; the four brothers therefore appear like the drawn-out image of humanity. In Dmitri we find that the Ego is preponderant; in Aljosha, the astral body; in Ivan, the etheric body; and in Smerdiakov, the physical body. Though at first this may seem strange, it is nevertheless so, from the standpoint of reality.
You see, here we have the strange case of a poet who produces chiefly from out his sub-conscious depths and even has a chaotic soul life owing to his epilepsy, but who is nevertheless pushed towards the reality and whose astral body, that is to say, his sub-consciousness, becomes connected with what weaves and lives in the world.
We may well believe that the experience of standing beneath the gallows and. being unexpectedly pardoned at the last minute (Dostojevski’s comrades have already been hung, while Dostojevski himself is facing the moment of being hung), is not an indifferent experience; indeed, such an experience awakens in a human soul altogether different feelings than those of a soul that has never passed through a similar experience. This is a fact that should be borne in mind. But all this shows us that at the present time, in particular, a soul of Dostojevski’s kind could be influenced by the real facts in such a manner that his soul felt induced to describe throughout his book, in a chaotic way, these four brothers, who possess the qualities just described, whom we can only understand if we know this and if we are able to feel it. In that case, we shall understand why the brother in whom the etheric body predominates and the one in whom the astral body predominates, must be the sons of a mother afflicted with hysterical fits. If we know this, the details in particular become wonderfully transparent. This reveals the tendency of our time within the sphere of a nation inclined to offer (I have already explained this to you), as it were, those blood qualities which must become united with the Central European qualities. We can grasp what is taking place, also in the case of men in whom these events are still inwoven unconsciously; but we can grasp this only if we understand spiritual science.
Even though it may seem stupid, let me nevertheless say that the world is deep, and that it is not such a simple matter to gain some knowledge in regard to it, nor to judge it; it is not so simple a matter as imagined by those who lead the usual kind of life. The human beings pass through life in a dream or in a state of intoxication. Yet great things are preparing and it is not so easy to attract people’s, attention to these things.
Through your Karma you belong to those who are gradually penetrating into these things; you have been listening to them for many years and have thus gradually become familiar with them, acquiring an idea of all that lies concealed beneath the surface of life. But in regard to outsiders:—we may sometimes allude to such things in their presence and the very people may be sitting there, who belong to the clever set and believe, above all, that the person who speaks in a spiritual-Scientific manner and mentions this or that thing to them, does not really know anything beyond what he is saying. They have not the slightest idea that this knowledge must be drawn out of an all-encompassing knowledge, one that can really be proved in every detail and that becomes interesting just when it can be substantiated through details.
That many things in human evolution must change, can be seen therein that I have put before you two facts: I have shown you, on the one hand, what is connected with the human being, but on the other hand, I have also shown you the way in which we should contemplate the events that are now taking place. If someone who knows nothing of microscopy looks through a microscope, he will see nothing whatever. In a similar way, nothing whatever can be discerned when we contemplate human experience. Nothing whatever can be discerned in the experiences of the East during the 19th century; nothing can be seen in a Dostojevski, who wrote the book, “The Brothers Karamasov”, a book that indicates a sub-earthly element. In the East, in the Russian East, people have become aware of this, for a certain attitude towards life has been designated, as “Karamasovshchina”. It is difficult to explain this word; it is a far more qualitative concept than, for instance, the word “Strizitum” (a word in Austrian dialect, indicating a loose, half rascally, half good-fellow attitude towards life). “Karamasovshchina” is a far more concrete thing. We may come across this in life itself and even in art, and in order to perceive what is taking place, it is easy to realise that when we contemplate things, it is necessary to have in our soul’s background a knowledge that can only come from spiritual science.
Even the external processes rising up before us at the present time in particular, reveal this necessity; if we only look upon life thoughtfully, they reveal the necessity to which I allude and which I illuminated from two aspects. For instance, a very distressing phenomenon of the present is the following one:—General opinions existed long before the war. Certain people were considered to be prominent in this or in that sphere. There was no reason to object to this because they really achieved extraordinary things in the meaning of modern civilisation. Then war broke out. These prominent people expressed their views, they wrote letters. It is almost incredible what nonsense these prominent men wrote! For instance, Krapotkin, who enjoyed a great reputation in England. But read the letters written by him at the beginning of the war! He was looked upon as a broad-minded free-thinker, yet how stupid were the letters he wrote!
These are weighty facts. Indeed, I might say: Particularly now that humanity is facing such a sudden and powerful situation, we can see how little their thoughts are capable of grasping something that does not, for once, break in upon mankind in accordance with an ordinary, easy programme. From their own standpoint, the ordinary Philistines are better off than others, for they judge things in accordance with their views. But how do these views generally arise? At the present time, people despise authority and have their own views! Yet their opinions are merely based upon the fact that they have forgotten where they have read them! These are the “individual opinions”, that are simply characterised through the fact that they have been read or heard somewhere. All these things show that particularly the so deeply incisive events of the present contain something that must become a distinctive mark of humanity: namely, the fact that many, many things in spiritual life must change completely; human beings must make up their mind not to pass through life in the same way as the materialists, who merely dream of the world ... Of course, they think that the others are dreaming, nevertheless it is THEY who really dream, for they have never really woken up properly. Spiritual life must indeed change, and this fact must penetrate into the consciousness of those who wish to become united in their heart with the true life-essence of the spiritual-scientific world-conception.
Earnest words had to be said at this meeting, simply because to-day things present such an aspect that every opportunity must be used which may, perhaps, not always be available. It is difficult to travel about, at present.
It is therefore necessary to discuss these earnest things. They are also connected with questions discussed on previous occasions, questions that may be considered in connection with those of to-day. I explained that our etheric body is not something that may be designated as the bearer of our thoughts; it does not simply evaporate: no, the etheric body does not evaporate ... it becomes inwoven with the world-ether. When, however, as is the case at present, hundreds and thousands of deaths prevent human beings from carrying their etheric bodies through several decades, as would be the case normally, when these etheric bodies are handed over to the spiritual world, then something arises which I have frequently described: They remain here, with that part of the etheric body which may still have been used, and this will be found ABOVE. But its INFLUENCE in the future will depend upon the constitution of the souls BELOW. Strength for a spiritual progress will in future be found by those souls below who say to themselves: Many men have passed through the sacrifice of death and if we grow conscious of the forces contained in what they leave behind, then a spiritual growth will be possible. Souls must be there who are open to the comprehension of the spiritual world. In that case, the forces existing through the death-sacrifices can become fruitful for the earth. Otherwise, they must fall a prey to Ahriman. It need not NECESSARILY arise that these forces become fruitful for the earth ... for this will depend either upon the greatest possible number of souls that are inclined to unite in their feelings with what has arisen spiritually through the death-sacrifices; it will depend upon the possibility of utilising this later on, or else it will depend upon whether this will fall a prey to Ahriman. Meditate this thought, for then it will acquire significance and you will be able to feel the words with which I once more wish to conclude my lecture:
From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of the battles,
From the suffering of the abandoned,
From the nation's deeds of sacrifice,
Shall spring forth a Spirit-fruit,
If souls, in spirit-consciousness,
Lead their heart and mind into the Spirit-realm.
Sechster Vortrag
Es ist für ein allmähliches Sich-Aneignen dessen, was wir Geisteswissenschaft nennen, notwendig, den guten Willen dazu zu haben, die, ich möchte sagen, zunächst mehr wie eine Art von Plan angegebenen Begriffe und Begriffszusammenhänge auszufüllen mit wirklichen Vorstellungen über dasjenige, was zunächst in einem allgemeinen Umriß ja nur gegeben werden kann.
Sehen Sie, wir sagen so: Der Mensch besteht aus physischem Leib, Ätherleib, astralischem Leib und Ich und so weiter. - Das ist zunächst ganz richtig, wenn wir so sagen, denn wir haben nötig, uns gewissermaßen in umfassenden schematischen Begriffen zu orientieren. Aber im weiteren Verlauf einer Aneignung der Geisteswissenschaft ist es schon nötig, sich auf all das, was so schematisiert ist, auch genauer einzulassen.
Wir haben gerade in dem engeren Felde des durch unsere Gesellschaft gebotenen Leserkreises eine große Anzahl von Zyklen, aber in diesen Zyklen steht doch noch verhältnismäßig wenig von dem, was eigentlich schon wünschenswert wäre, daß es von der Menschheit, wenigstens von einem kleinen Kreise der Menschheit, recht bald gewußt werde.
Wenn wir das Äußere am Menschen, das mit den physischen Sinnen erschaut werden kann, das mit jener Wissenschaft betrachtet werden kann, die an den Verstand, an Versuche, an Beobachtungen gebunden ist, physischen Leib nennen, so liegt, wie wir wissen, diesem physischen Leibe zugrunde der Atherleib.
Wir wollen zunächst auf diese beiden Glieder der menschlichen Natur heute ein wenig das geistige Auge werfen. Über den physischen Leib braucht ja Geisteswissenschaft als solche zunächst scheinbar am allerwenigsten zu sagen, denn dieser physische Leib ist das einzige, was der physischen Wissenschaft vorliegt und was diese physische Wissenschaft zunächst mit ihren Methoden zu betrachten die Absicht hat. Allein auch dieser physische Leib wird, wenn er zunächst auch das ist, als was ihn die physische Wissenschaft betrachtet, in seiner richtigen Bedeutung und Stellung in der Welt doch nur dadurch erkannt, daß auch die höheren Glieder der Menschennatur ins Auge gefaßt werden.
Nun erinnern Sie sich wohl, daß der physische Leib, so wie er hier auf der Erde den Menschen, wir können sagen, umkleidet, eigentlich erst entstehen konnte während der Erdenzeit. Seine geistigen Anlagen aber hat er schon erhalten während der alten Saturnzeit. Er wurde fortwährend umgewandelt während der Sonnen-, Monden- und Erdenzeit. Umgewandelt wurde er unter dem Einflusse dessen, was da während der Sonnen-, Monden- und Erdenzeit geschehen ist. Er wurde umgewandelt unter dem Einflusse der Tatsache, daß ihm auf der Sonne einverleibt worden ist der Ätherleib. Er mußte anders werden, dieser physische Leib, wie er vom Saturn herübergekommen ist, anders werden, als er durchtränkt wurde von dem Atherleib. Und dieser physische Leib mußte auch anders werden, als er dann auf dem Monde durchtränkt worden ist von dem Astralleib. Nicht nur, daß der Astralleib dazugekommen ist zu der ganzen Mensch-Bildung, sondern dieser physische Leib ist umgewandelt worden dadurch, daß gewissermaßen während der Sonnenzeit der Atherleib hineingefahren ist, während der Mondenzeit der Astralleib, während der Erde sich allmählich das Ich allseitig ausbildet, gewiß zunächst innerhalb des Atherleibes, aber auch innerhalb des physischen Leibes.
Wenn wir nun von dem Menschlichen zu dem Kosmischen gehen, dann brauchen wir uns ja auch nur an das zu erinnern, was wir oft besprochen haben, was in unseren Zyklen enthalten ist. Wir müssen da wissen, daß, wie die erste Anlage des physischen Leibes auf dem Saturn durch, nun, wir können sagen, die Ergießung der Geister des Willens, der Throne, möglich geworden ist, die Umgestaltung während der Sonnenzeit durch die Geister der Weisheit, die Umgestaltung während der Mondenzeit durch die Geister der Bewegung, die Umgestaltung während der Erdenzeit — also dasjenige, was bewirkt werden mußte am physischen Leib dadurch, daß ein Ich in ihm wohnt — durch die Geister der Form bewirkt worden ist.
Das ist schon etwas Wichtiges, das wir ins Auge fassen müssen. Wenn uns der physische Leib des Menschen auf der Erde entgegentritt, so müssen wir ihn Ich-begabt denken, und wir müssen ihn so denken, daß er, weil er Ich-begabt ist, während der Erdenzeit eine bestimmte, ihm angemessene Form erhalten hat. Während der Mondenzeit aber hat er nur die ihm angemessene innere Bewegung erhalten. Diese ihm angemessene Form während der Erdenzeit mußte er erhalten durch die Gaben der Geister der Form, in Gemäßheit der Tatsache, daß ein Ich in ihn verpflanzt werden mußte. Wir können also sagen, dieser physisch geformte Erdenleib ist so geformt, weil er Ich-Träger werden mußte. Mit dem Ich gaben die Geister der Form dem menschlichen physischen Leib die Form, die er eben hat und die dem Ich-Träger angemessen ist.
Die anderen Wesen der anderen Naturreiche haben auch ihre Formen bekommen. Wenn Sie die intimeren Beschreibungen lesen, die von der alten Mondenzeit gegeben werden, so werden Sie sehen: alle die Wesen werden so beschrieben, daß man nicht davon sprechen kann, sie hätten damals schon ihre jetzige Form gehabt; sie sind da in einer gewissen Beweglichkeit geschildert. Erinnern Sie sich nur an die Schilderungen in der «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß» oder in einzelnen Zyklen: Die Formen sind in einer gewissen Beweglichkeit geschildert. Auch die anderen Naturreiche haben ihre Form erst durch die Geister der Form während der Erdenzeit, ich möchte sagen, bleibend erhalten.
Betrachten wir das dem Menschen am nächsten stehende Erdenreich, das Tierreich. Das Tierreich lebt auch in Formen. Es hat die Formen, die es gegenwärtig hat, auch erst während der Erdenzeit erhal. ten. Aber bedenken Sie, wie gerade der Unterschied ist zwischen den Formen des tierischen Reiches und den Formen des menschlichen Reiches! Wir wenden den Blick über die Oberfläche der Erde hin und finden ja allerdings gewisse Unterschiede zwischen den einzelnen Menschen, Unterschiede, die auf ein anderes Gebiet der Schilderung gehören; aber wir finden natürlich auch gewisse Unterschiede in bezug auf die äußere Gestaltung. Alle die interessanten Völkerschaften, die jetzt von den Westeuropäern in Mitteleuropa ins Feld geführt werden, sie sehen ja natürlich etwas anders aus als die mitteleuropäische Bevölkerung! Also ein Unterschied ist schon vorhanden, wenn wir den Blick über die Erdoberfläche schweifen lassen in bezug auf die Gestaltung der einzelnen Menschen. Zu der Gestaltung ist zum Beispiel auch zu rechnen die Farbe. Aber wenn Sie das, was an Differenzierungen, an Unterschieden vorhanden ist zwischen den Menschen, vergleichen mit den Differenzierungen zwischen den verschiedenen Tiergattungen, da werden Sie sich sagen müssen: Die Tiergattungen sind natürlich in einem unendlich weiteren, unendlich größeren Sinne voneinander verschieden als die Menschen. Wir können schon von einer einzelnen Menschengattung sprechen im Gegensatz zu den verschiedenen vielgestaltigen Tierformen. Denn ein so starker Unterschied wie etwa zwischen einem Löwen und einer Nachtigall, die ja beide Tiere sind, ist natürlich im Reiche der Menschen nicht zu finden. Wenn ein so großer Unterschied wäre, wie zwischen einem Löwen und einer Nachtigall, so würde niemand behaupten können, daß Unterschiede zwischen den Menschen nicht zu bemerken seien. Aber darauf muß man schon den Blick wenden, daß die Tiere unendlich größere Differenzierungen haben als der Mensch in seiner allgemeinen Menschengattung.
Trotzdem das, was ich Ihnen eben gesagt habe, durchaus richtig ist, so ist es von dem Standpunkt der Geisteswissenschaft gleichwohl nur in eingeschränktem Sinne richtig. Denn auch folgendes ist eine Wahrheit: Nehmen Sie in Ihrer Betrachtung, in Ihren Gedanken zu dem physischen Leib des Menschen den Atherleib dazu und stellen Sie sich vor, daß ein gewisses Experiment, das man ja natürlich nicht ausführen kann, möglich wäre: daß man den ganzen physischen Leib vom Menschen trennen, stückweise herauspräparieren könnte und daß man, bevor man beginnt, diesen physischen Leib herauszupräparieren durch eine Anrufung von Geistern der höheren Hierarchien, der Angeloi, Archangeloi und Archai, bewirken könnte, daß diese Angeloi, Archangeloi und Archai sich zurückziehen von dem Menschen, daß sie nicht tätig sind am Ätherleib. Also zweierlei müßte man machen: Man müßte den Menschen gar nicht einmal, sagen wir, schinden wollen, sondern man müßte ihm alles wegnehmen, was zu seinem physischen Leibe gehört. Und dann müßte man alle die Einflüsse der drei Hierarchien, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, zurückerbitten, so daß dieser Ätherleib des Menschen ganz und gar allein sich selber überlassen wäre, daß er nicht mehr von irgend etwas anderem beeinträchtigt wäre. Er ist nämlich beeinträchtigt, er steckt in dem physischen Leibe, und dieser physische Leib hat seine feste Form, die ihm von den Geistern der Form zugewiesen ist. Deswegen muß er sich dieser festen Form fügen. Wenn Sie einen sehr weichen Kautschukkörper nehmen und in ein Glas stekken, so wird er sich der Form des Glases anpassen, er wird nicht seine eigene Form behalten. Wenn Sie ihn wieder aus dem Glase herausziehen, so springt er in seine eigene Form zurück. So muß sich auch der menschliche Ätherleib der Form anpassen, die der physische Leib ihm aufdrängt, er hat nicht seine eigene Form. Wenn wir also den physischen Leib wegziehen, so fällt diese Kraft weg, der sich der Ätherleib anpassen muß. Doch er würde auch da noch gar nicht seine eigene Form bekommen, weil in diesen Ätherleib hinein — was wir noch des genaueren ausführen werden — die Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai arbeiten. Aber die bitten wir ja weg, so daß der Ätherleib seinen Kräften nun ganz allein folgen kann. Da würde der Ätherleib herausspringen, seine eigene Elastizität annehmen. Die Sache müßte sichtbar ausgeführt werden können; dann würden Sie sehen können, wie der Ätherleib herausspringt und seine eigene Form annimmt.
Was würde geschehen? Das ganze Tierreich hätten Sie vor sich! Der Ätherleib würde sich in Portionen teilen, und es würden — wenigstens im wesentlichen, in den Haupttypen — die Formen des ganzen Tierreiches sein. Das heißt: Der Mensch trägt ätherisch das ganze Tierreich in sich. Es ist nur zusammengehalten auf der einen Seite durch die Form des physischen Leibes, auf der anderen Seite durch die Tätigkeit der Wesen der drei genannten Hierarchien. Das ist durchaus wahr, daß der Mensch dieses ganze Tierreich in seinem Ätherleib der Anlage nach in sich trägt! Dieses ganze Tierreich unterscheidet sich von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus vom Menschen nur dadurch, daß jede Tiergattung eine eigene Form, die im menschlichen Ätherleib aber auch darinnen lebt, für sich genommen hat und für sich ausgebildet hat zur physischen Gestalt. So daß, wenn wir das Tierreich anschauen, wie es auf der Erde verwirklicht ist, es in der Tat der ausgebreitete menschliche Ätherleib ist.
Da liegt eine eigentümliche Sache vor. Da trat innerhalb der Weltanschauungs-Entwickelung Europas um die Wende des 18. zum 19. Jahrhundert das auf, was man, genauer ausgeführt, bei solchen Persönlichkeiten wie zum Beispiel Oken findet. Der Naturforscher Oken konnte nach dem Standpunkt der damaligen Zeit noch nicht vom Ätherleib sprechen; das lag ihm fern. Aber bei ihm findet sich zum Beispiel der merkwürdige Satz: Das Tierreich ist der ausgebreitete Mensch. — Das heißt, er hatte eine Phantasiekonzeption von der Wahrheit. Diese Vorstellung trat dazumal, als sich die großen Gedanken der mitteleuropäischen Weltanschauung ausbildeten, in seinen geistigen Gesichtskreis herein. Das ist sehr interessant! Diese Vorstellung trat zum Beispiel auch in den Gesichtskreis von Schelling, und bei Schelling finden Sie auch diesen Satz. Und denjenigen, die auf die genialen, aber selbstverständlich noch nicht abgeschlossenen Gedanken zunächst nicht eingehen konnten — weil die genauen Tatsachen eben nicht gesagt werden konnten -, denen ging es dazumal ganz schrecklich. Bei Oken muß man sich vorstellen, daß das, was er noch nicht wissen konnte, in Form einer genialen Konzeption in seiner Seele lebte. Man möchte sagen, er hatte das Gefühl: Die einzelnen Glieder des Menschen sind eigentlich aus Tiergestalten zusammengesetzt. — Er hatte auch den Mut, so etwas auszusprechen, aber darüber, daß er so etwas aussprach, waren die gelehrten Philister furchtbar skandalisiert. Er hatte sich zum Beispiel auch gefragt: Was ist die Zunge? — Er konnte nicht wissen, daß man da einen Ätherleib braucht, und nun sagte er: Die Zunge ist ein Tintenfisch.- Gewiß, es liegt diesem Ausspruch das zugrunde, was ich eben auseinandergesetzt habe. Aber denken Sie sich nun das ganze gelehrte Philistertum der Behauptung gegenüber: Die menschliche Zunge ist ein Tintenfisch!
Wenn man den Gang des menschlichen Geisteslebens einsehen will, so muß man schon weitherzig werden. Man muß sich klar darüber sein, daß etwas, das vielleicht sogar ausschauen kann wie ein Unsinn, eine große Wahrheit in sich bergen kann. Und so gliederte Oken dann den Menschen so ein: Die Zunge ist ein Tintenfisch, andere Organe sind etwas anderes und so weiter. - Im Grunde genommen war es ja nur die genauere Wiederholung desjenigen, was in uralter menschlicher Anschauung vorhanden war, wo man nur die Haupttypen heraushob und den Menschen nach den vier Haupttiergruppen gliederte: Löwe, Adler, Engel und Kalb.
Also man kann schon sagen: So einfach liegt die Sache doch nicht, sondern der Mensch hat in seinem Ätherleib schon das ganze Tierreich eigentlich in sich. Er trägt es, wie der Philosoph sagen würde, der Möglichkeit nach in sich. - Nun müssen Sie allerdings etwas ins Auge fassen, damit die Sache nicht einseitig wird. Wenn das nicht stattfinden würde, was wir jetzt angeführt haben, daß — außerdem, daß der physische Leib diese ganze Tierheit zusammenhält — noch die Angeloi, Archangeloi und Archai ihre Kräfte betätigen, so würde ja, wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes geht und den physischen Leib ablegt, das eintreten müssen, was ich gerade beschrieben habe: es würde wirklich in diesem Falle, wenn der Ätherleib entlassen würde nach den paar Tagen von dem Astralleib und dem Ich, das herausfallen, elastisch, in die Welt, und es würde die ganze ätherische Tierwelt aus der menschlichen Ätherwelt entstehen. Das ist aber in der Erfahrung nicht der Fall. Das entsteht nicht. Das geht nicht hervor aus dem Menschen, sondern der Ätherleib löst sich los in einer ganz anderen Form. Er löst sich los und wird dem allgemeinen Weltenäther einverwoben.
Was liegt da eigentlich vor? Nun, es arbeiten eben an unserem Ätherleib die Wesenheiten aus der Hierarchie der Angeloi, der Archangeloi und der Archai, und die lassen es nicht dazu kommen, daß das ganze Wesen des Ätherleibes sich in das Tierreich zersplittert. Was geschieht da eigentlich? Sehen Sie, was da geschieht, möchte ich Ihnen so beschreiben, daß ich zunächst einmal an einen Vergleich appelliere. Wir Menschen auf der Erde arbeiten, wir machen zum Beispiel Maschinen aus Holz oder aus Eisen. Das Holz oder das Eisen sind unsere stofflichen Grundlagen, und dann arbeiten wir Holz oder Eisen zu Maschinen zusammen. Die Anordnung des Stoffes, das ist unsere Arbeit, die Anordnung des Holzes oder des Eisens, aber das Eisen oder das Holz selber müssen wir der Erde entnehmen. Wir brauchen diese Rohmaterialien, wir entnehmen sie aus einem Reich, das unter unserem Menschenreich ist.
Wenn Sie sich nun vorstellen, daß über uns leben die Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, so sind sie auch nicht im Weltenall dazu da, um fortwährend «Sonntagsruhe» zu pflegen, sondern sie haben ihre Arbeit, sie haben ihre Leistungen zu tun. — Was arbeiten denn Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai eigentlich? Wenn sie arbeiten, dann werden sie auch ein Material brauchen, wie wir Holz und Eisen aus der Erde heraus brauchen, und sie werden dieses Material zu bearbeiten haben. Das Material für die Angeloi, Archangeloi und Archai, das sind unsere Ätherleiber! Was für uns Holz und Eisen der Erde ist, wenn wir es zu Maschinen verarbeiten, das sind unsere Ätherleiber für die Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai; daran arbeiten sie. Und während wir Menschen hier auf der Erde herumgehen und gewissermaßen den Gedanken haben, wenn wir ihn überhaupt haben: Wir tragen da in uns unseren Ätherleib und wir tragen ihn so mit uns als unser Eigentum wie unsere Lunge -, ist um uns herum betätigt dieses ganze Wesen der Angeloi, Archangeloi und Archai, und arbeitet Gebilde für die geistige Welt heraus, die dort gebraucht werden für unser Leben. Sie arbeiten aus diesem Ätherleib heraus das, was in der geistigen Welt gebraucht wird.
Mit wessen Hilfe arbeiten diese höheren Wesenheiten? Nun, unser Leben hindurch denken wir; von dem Moment ab, wo wir zum Denken kommen, bis zum Tode, denken wir. Das Wesentliche beim Denken, wie Sie zum Beispiel auch dem gestrigen öffentlichen Vortrage entnehmen konnten, besteht gerade darinnen, daß das Denken im Ätherleibe webt und lebt. Es webt und lebt dann nur fort in dem physischen Leibe. Wir glauben im physischen Leibesleben, daß das nun unser Eigentum allein ist, was wir da als unsere Gedanken bilden. Aber was wir da haben von unseren Gedanken, was wir in unseren Gedanken ausbilden und an was wir uns erinnern können, das ist gewissermaßen nur die innere Seite unseres Denklebens. Von außen arbeiten gerade mit Bezug auf den Ätherleib an unserem ganzen Denkleben die Angeloi, Archangeloi und Archai, und es ist nicht unnötig, daß wir denken als Menschen. Unnötig ist es ja schon nicht für die physische Erde, aber es ist auch nicht unnötig für den Kosmos. Denn was wir durch unser Denken verändern in unserem Ätherleib zwischen unserer Geburt und unserem Tode, das wird als Material benützt und nach höheren Gesichtspunkten ausgearbeitet. Während unseres Lebens, während wir als denkende Wesen durch die Welt gehen und unser Gedankenleben nur von innen sehen, wird von den Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai gearbeitet an unseren Gedanken, damit nach unserem Tode das zustande komme, was sie dann dem Weltenäther einverleiben können. Wenn unser Astralleib und unser Ich den Ätherleib ablegen, da nähen sie — wenn ich den groben Ausdruck gebrauchen darf -— dem Kosmos das Gewebe unseres Ätherleibes ein, das im wesentlichen zustande gekommen ist durch die Art, wie wir gedacht haben im Leben. Das gehört von jetzt ab dazu zu dem Kosmos. Wir leben als Mensch nicht bloß für uns, wir leben als Mensch für den ganzen Kosmos.
Wir wissen ja, nach unserer Erde soll Jupiter, Venus, Vulkan entstehen. Das muß alles vorbereitet werden, das muß alles als Kräfte dem Kosmos einverwoben werden. Dazu ist Arbeit nötig. Zu dieser Arbeit gehört zum Beispiel das, was ich jetzt eben ausgeführt habe: daß die Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai in Gemäßheit unserer Gedanken tätig sind. Ein etwas anderes Material sind dumme Gedanken, die wir während unseres Lebens haben, ein etwas anderes Material sind gescheite Gedanken. Aber je nachdem wir ihnen das als Material liefern, werden da diese — grob gesprochen — «ätherischen Maschinen» ausgearbeitet, die dann dazu da sind, daß die Entwickelung im Kosmos weitergeht. Wenn also unser Ätherleib nach dem Tode dem Kosmos übergeben wird, so wird zugleich übergeben die Arbeit der Wesen der drei genannten Hierarchien.
Betrachten wir jetzt von einem ähnlichen Gesichtspunkte aus den menschlichen Astralleib. Wir stellen unsere Betrachtungen von neuen Gesichtspunkten aus an; daher erscheinen immer andere Beziehungen zu den umliegenden Reichen. Derjenige, der nicht lesen kann — und zum Lesen gehört die Möglichkeit des Zusammenfassens der Dinge -, der kann viele Widersprüche sehen in den Dingen, die dargestellt werden. Aber das rührt nur davon her, daß er nicht die Gesichtspunkte ins Auge faßt, von denen aus die Dinge beleuchtet werden.
Unser astralischer Leib ist in einem ähnlichen Verhältnisse zur Erdenumgebung wie unser Ätherleib. Unser Ätherleib ist das ganze Tierreich, von dem Gesichtspunkte aus, den ich Ihnen angegeben habe. Unser Astralleib ist das ganze Pflanzenreich. Ganz genau so, wie ich gesprochen habe über den Ätherleib mit Bezug auf das Tierreich, müßte ich nun sprechen über unseren Astralleib in bezug auf das Pflanzenreich. Da stecken alle Pflanzenformen unserer Erde darinnen. Und wiederum ist das so: Wenn nicht alle höheren Hierarchien arbeiten würden an unserem Astralleib, so würde nach dem Durchmachen dieses Rücklaufes von dem Tod zur Geburt, wo der Astralleib allmählich abgeworfen wird, nichts anderes eintreten, als daß der Astralleib eben abgeworfen würde, und der Astralleib draußen in der Welt würde das ganze Pflanzenreich sein. Ja, es würde sich das ganze sogar zur Kugel ordnen, es würde seiner eigenen Elastizität folgen. Aber der Astralleib kann sich nicht zur Kugel ordnen, weil während unseres Lebens zwischen Geburt und Tod an unserem astralischen Leib arbeiten die Geister der Form selber, die Geister der Bewegung, die Geister der Weisheit, sogar die Geister des Willens bis zu einem gewissen Grade.
Und wenn wir nach Jahren oder Jahrzehnten in der oftmals beschriebenen Weise nach dem Rücklauf durch das Leben den astralischen Leib allmählich befreit haben von seinem Zusammenhange mit dem irdischen Leben, dann ist zu gleicher Zeit in der Arbeit an diesem astralischen Leibe das, was die Geister der Form, der Bewegung, der Weisheit, des Willens brauchen, um dem Kosmos das einzuverleiben, was sie ihm einverleiben müssen. Das allerdings, was auf diese Weise dem Kosmos einverleibt wird, das kommt uns zugute, denn das muß darinnen sein im Kosmos. Das wird dem Kosmos anders einverwoben, als das eben vorhin Beschriebene. Wenn unser Ätherleib abgeworfen wird, wird er geradezu dem allgemeinen Weltenäther eingenäht, einverwoben, könnte ich sagen. Dasjenige aber, was jetzt, gewoben aus unserem astralischen Leib, als Arbeit der Geister der Form, der Bewegung, der Weisheit, der Throne erscheint, das wirkt zusammen mit unserem Ich, das die Zeit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt durchmacht, und es enthält die Kräfte, die wirken müssen, damit wir wiederum in eine neue Inkarnation eintreten können. Denn damit wir in eine neue Inkarnation eintreten können, dazu gehört sehr, sehr viel! Wirklich, dasjenige, was die äußere physische Wissenschaft heute über den Bau des Schädels, des Hirnes weiß, das ist viel, so viel, daß es ja recht viele Leute gibt, denen es zuviel ist, das zu wissen. Aber wenn man dieses Wissen der äußeren Wissenschaft daraufhin betrachten würde, daß der Schädel mit dem Gehirn, dieser Wunderbau, bis in seine kleinsten Teile hinein gebildet werden sollte: wie wenig würde man mit der äußeren Wissenschaft zustande kommen, um das wirklich zu bilden! Da liegt doch ein bedeutendes Geheimnis vor. Mit diesem Geheimnis sind zwar Stumpflinge, diese Sorte von Menschen, die man Stumpflinge nennen kann, bald fertig, indem sie sagen: Was da am Menschen in der fortlaufenden Generationenfolge entsteht, kommt ganz von selbst. Daß sich so ein Menschenkopf formt im Leibe der Mutter, das kommt also ganz von selbst. |
Man kann begreifen, daß die Leute das sagen, aber wie gescheit es ist, das möchte ich Ihnen durch einen Vergleich klarmachen. Wir können hypothetisch einmal annehmen, daß es in München Wesen gäbe, die vieles sehen könnten, aber gerade den Menschen nicht, auch den Menschen bei seiner Tätigkeit nicht sehen könnten. Es wäre doch denkbar, daß solche Wesen München bevölkern, die den Menschen bei seiner Tätigkeit nicht sehen könnten. Solche Wesen, die den Menschen bei seiner Tätigkeit nicht sehen könnten, könnten aber, sagen wir zum Beispiel, die Uhren sehen. Die würden also sehen, wie es Uhren gibt und wie die Uhren gemacht werden, den Menschen sähen sie nicht, den Uhrmacher, der die Uhr zusammenfügt. Die Hände sähen sie nicht, die die einzelnen Teile zusammenfügen, sie sähen nur, wie sich aus den einzelnen Teilen die Uhr formt. Sie sähen vielleicht noch die verschiedenen Pinzetten und Zangen und so weiter, mit denen die Teile angefaßt werden, aber es wird für sie gleichsam aus der Luft heraus zusammengefaßt dasjenige, was die einzelnen Teile der Uhr sind. Was würden diese Wesen denn für eine Ansicht von den Uhren haben? Sie würden nicht sagen: In München gibt es Uhrmacher -, das würden sie ganz in Abrede stellen. Sie würden sagen: Oh, das ist ein entsetzlicher Aberglaube, anzunehmen, daß es Uhrmacher gibt, denn die Uhren entstehen ganz von selbst, man sieht ja, wie sie sich von selbst zusammenfügen.
So, wie diese Wesen urteilen würden, so urteilen die Menschen, die annehmen, daß dasjenige, was nun schon einmal auf dem physischen Wege sich nach und nach bildet, von selber entsteht. All das, was da
entsteht, das entsteht durch die Handlungen der geistigen Wesen der höheren Hierarchien. Wahrhaftig nicht bloß durch die Wechselwirkung von Vater und Mutter und durch dasjenige, was dann im Leibe der Mutter sich bildet, bildet sich «von selbst» der Mensch, sondern die ganze Welt wirkt herein, da ist der ganze Kosmos mit den Wesen der höheren Hierarchien daran beteiligt.
Natürlich ist der Kosmos bis in die höchsten Regionen hinauf auch an dem beteiligt, was am Haupte daranhängt; aber am menschlichen Haupt ist er ganz besonders beteiligt. Dazu wird es auch noch die physische Wissenschaft bringen — wie sich im allgemeinen physische Wissenschaft und Geisteswissenschaft allmählich ausgleichen werden -, daß sie lernen wird, in der Embryologie anders zu denken über das menschliche Haupt und anders über alle anderen Organe. Die anderen Organe, so wird man herausfinden in verhältnismäßig gar nicht ferner Zeit, hängen sehr stark von vererbten Eigenschaften ab. Viel weniger hängt die Bildung des Hauptes von vererbten Eigenschaften ab. Da werden sie nur hineingedrängt durch den Zusammenhang mit den anderen Organen. An der Bildung des menschlichen Hauptes ist wirklich der ganze Kosmos beteiligt, und zwar geistig beteiligt; er wirkt hinein in den Leib der Mutter.
Daß die Leute die Kräfte nicht sehen — nun, der Bauer schaut auch nicht die Kräfte, die am Magneten wirken -, das ist kein Beweis, daß es diese Kräfte nicht gibt. Und was da an diesem menschlichen Kopfe vorhanden ist, das ist gewissermaßen etwas, was ausgearbeitet wird im Zusammenhang mit dem, was der Mensch mitbringt in seinem Ich in die Zeit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, was ausgearbeitet wird von den Geistern der Form, von den Geistern der Bewegung, den Geistern der Weisheit, den Thronen, die da alle an einer mächtigen Hohlkugel arbeiten. Das, was da ausgearbeitet wird, ist riesig groß, ist eine Sphäre, und in diese Sphäre wird alles eingearbeitet. Denken Sie sich eine riesige Kugel, in deren Oberfläche eingearbeitet wird wie in einen Globus alles das, was eingearbeitet werden soll nach Maßgabe desjenigen, was zuerst einmal der Mensch da dem allgemeinen Kosmos übergeben hat in seinem Ätherleib. Das bildet gewissermaßen etwas, das man abzeichnet, wenn ich den Ausdruck gebrauchen darf. Dann aber namentlich dasjenige, was da mitgebracht worden ist aus dem Verarbeiten des astralischen Leibes. Dann kommt die Zeit — sie beginnt mit dem, was ich in dem einen Mysterium bezeichnet habe als die Mitternachtsstunde des Daseins -, wo allmählich diese Sphäre wiederum kleiner und kleiner wird. Und diese Sphäre, die da ausgearbeitet wird von hohen Geistern nach Maßgabe früherer Inkarnationen des Menschen, wird endlich so klein, immer kleiner und kleiner, und vereinigt sich mit dem Menschenkeim, der im Leibe der Mutter empfangen wird. Daraus entsteht dann vor allen Dingen die Kopfesform. Diese Entstehung der Kopfesform ist ein wunderbares Geheimnis, sie ist das Ergebnis einer jahrhundertelangen Arbeit höherer Hierarchien.
Denken Sie nur einmal, wie des Menschen Empfinden über sein Verhältnis zur Welt vertieft werden kann, wenn er weiß, wie er drinnensteht im ganzen kosmischen Zusammenhange! Dieser Mensch, der sein Haupt trägt, muß lernen — in aller Bescheidenheit, ohne Stolz und Hochmut selbstverständlich -, daran zu denken, wie wenig dasjenige, was in menschlicher Weisheit vorhanden ist, von dem enthalten kann, was notwendig ist, um dieses Haupt zu bilden, das ihm gegeben ist. Den ganzen kosmischen Inhalt trägt der Mensch in sich.
Da gewinnt, wenn man so die Sache betrachtet, Geisteswissenschaft Unendliches dadurch, daß sie der Ausgangspunkt wird für gewisse Empfindungen, die ja gefährlich werden können in der hochmütigen Seele. Ich habe darauf angespielt in dem zweiten Mysterium, wo Capesius im Gespräch mit Benedictus diese Wahrheiten an sich herantreten fühlt: daß ganze Götterleistungen dazu notwendig sind, um den Menschen zustande zu bringen. Bei vielen, die zunächst eitel veranlagt sind, kann das, und zwar recht unbewußt, die Eitelkeit noch fördern; der Mensch kann sich ungeheuer wichtig vorkommen. Gescheiter ist, wenn man mehr die Empfindung hegt, wie wenig man im Bewußtsein hat von all der Weisheit, die notwendig ist, um einen selbst zustande zu bringen!
Man kann natürlich der Ansicht derjenigen sein, die da sagen: Ja, aber wozu ist es notwendig, daß der Mensch das alles weiß? Er kann ja auch ohne das Wissen von diesen Dingen leben, er lebt ganz gut ohne das Wissen von diesen Dingen. — Darin liegt ein großer Irrtum, daß der Mensch ganz gut ohne dieses Wissen leben könne. Er kann es nämlich in Wahrheit nicht. Wir leben allerdings gerade in demjenigen Zeitalter, wo man sich diesem Irrtum hingeben kann, daß man ohne das Wissen von der geistigen Welt ganz anständig auf der Erde leben kann, nämlich frühstücken, Mittag essen, Abendbrot essen und so weiter, und auch sonst noch verschiedenes daneben und dazwischen tun. Aber dieser Glaube beruht nicht auf Wahrheit. Man muß allmählich den Menschen zur Empfindung bringen, daß dieser Glaube nicht auf Wahrheit beruht.
Aus einer solchen Grundlage heraus führe ich jetzt zum Beispiel in öffentlichen Vorträgen Karl Christian Planck an, diesen merkwürdigen Menschen, der jahrelang in Ulm ein einsames Dasein verlebt hat, den die Universität Tübingen nicht einmal berufen hat, als der Lehrstuhl dort frei geworden ist, weil niemand da war, der einen Einblick hatte in die Bedeutung dieses Mannes. Gewiß, die Stumpflinge werden sagen, er ist ja am Ende seines Lebens so nervös geworden, daß er allerlei, was man als Größenwahn auslegen kann, gesagt hat. Nun, das sagen die Stumpflinge. Aber ein Mensch, dem ja, wie Planck, nicht Geisteswissenschaft schon vollständige Bestätigung gegeben hat, der konnte schon nervös werden unter solcher Mißhandlung von seiten seiner Mitmenschen, und dann auch solch ein Wort aussprechen, wie er es in der Vorrede seines «Testamentes eines Deutschen» ausgesprochen hat, wo ihm das Wort des alten Römers in den Mund kam: «Undankbares Vaterland, nicht einmal meine Gebeine sollst du haben!» Aber ich habe jenen Ausspruch angeführt, den Karl Christian Planck getan hat vor dem Jahre 1880, wo er gestorben ist, und der genau dasjenige wiedergibt, was wir jetzt als unseren europäischen Weltkrieg haben. Der idealistisch anschauende Mensch war geeignet, auch die Wirklichkeit zu sehen, weil die Kraft, die sich innerlich entwickelt, wenn man in einer solchen Weise aus den Quellen des Daseins heraus zu denken vermag, zugleich das Praktischste in der Welt ist. Nicht dasjenige, was die Menschen denken, die die Praxis mit Löffeln gegessen zu haben vermeinen, ist das eigentlich Praktische. Nur durch die Brutalität der Menschen kann zur Praxis erklärt werden, wenn man jedes berechtigte Streben einfach totdrückt, das aus den wirklichen Quellen des Lebens hervorgeht.
Ich führe solche Beispiele an, um zu zeigen, wie jene Kraft des Menschen, die auch notwendig ist im äußeren praktischen Leben, das klare, eindringliche Denken, nur dadurch entstehen kann, daß die Seele des Menschen befruchtet ist von geisteswissenschaftlichen Wahrheiten. Warum können denn die Menschen in unserem Zeitalter glauben, daß das Leben der Menschheit auf Erden möglich ist, ohne daß man von geisteswissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen eine Ahnung hat? Weil sie so unendlich kurzsichtig sind! Wenn sie nicht so kurzsichtig wären, könnte man nämlich ganz äußerlich beweisen, wie unrecht diejenigen haben, die da sagen, der Mensch brauche sich nicht zu kümmern um eine geistige Welt: er werde ja von selbst geboren, wachse dann von selbst heran; eine Art Erziehung müsse ihm allerdings geboten werden, aber da stelle die heutige Pädagogik so unendlich gescheite Erziehungsprinzipien auf, die sogar heranreichen bis zu der Riesenhöhe Foersterscher Pädagogik. Nun, und dann werde man allmählich ein gesetzter Mensch, der über dasjenige nachdenkt, was er machen muß, damit die Menschheit etwas zu essen und zu trinken hat, und er auch.
Aber so war es nicht immer im Menschengeschlecht. Und es ist noch nicht lange her, daß man es für möglich hält, daß der Mensch ohne den Besitz geistiger Erkenntnisse überhaupt auf der Erde leben kann. Dafür kann man auch schon äußere Beweise erbringen, und einen solchen möchte ich Ihnen anführen. Ich habe ihn jetzt in verschiedenen Zweigen angeführt. Wahrscheinlich würde man, wenn man Zeit hätte — aber in München gibt es diese Zeit ja nicht —, auch hier in München selber einen solchen Beweis finden können. Wir haben ihn neulich bei einer Betrachtung des Hamburgischen Bildermuseums gefunden. Er ergibt sich aus dem folgenden: Denken wir einmal an jenes große Symbolum, das am Beginne des Alten 'Testamentes steht, von der Verführung der Eva und des Adam, was wir kennen als die luziferische Versuchung. Nicht wahr, wenn das heute der Maler malt — es ist ja ziemlich gleichgültig, auf welchem Standpunkte er steht, ob er realistisch malt oder idealistisch, als Expressionist, Impressionist, Futurist oder was immer -, er wird immerhin glauben, am meisten der Wirklichkeit Rechnung zu tragen, wenn er Adam und Eva, nun ja, nicht wahr, mehr oder weniger scheußlich malt. Aber dazu wird er malen den Baum des Paradieses, darauf die Schlange mit einem richtigen Schlangenkopf, die Schlange so groß wie der Baum, aber mit einem richtigen Schlangenkopf. Kann das im wahren Sinne des Wortes realistisch genannt werden? Ich glaube nicht, meine lieben Freunde! Von der jetzigen Frau gar nicht zu sprechen — aber nicht einmal die Urmutter Eva kann man für so beschränkt halten, daß sie sich von einer wirklichen Schlange verführen ließe! Das kann doch nicht «realistisch» sein! Denken Sie sich eine wirkliche Schlange, die durchs grüne Gras schleicht; auf die sollte die Urmutter Eva hereingefallen sein? Nicht wahr, naturalistisch kann die Sache doch wohl nicht sein! Auch die gegenwärtige Schlange kann, trotzdem sie als wirkliches Tier herumkriecht, nur als ein Symbolum für etwas anderes aufgefaßt werden.
Aber jetzt erinnern wir uns einmal daran, was wir eigentlich für Begriffe verbinden müssen mit dieser luziferischen Verführung. Luzifer ist es ja! Die Schlange kann ja höchstens das Symbolum vom Luzifer sein. Mit dem Luziferischen ist verbunden, daß dieses Wesen während der Mondenbildung zurückgeblieben ist. Da kann man es also überhaupt nicht sehen, dieses Wesen als solches, mit physischen Augen der Erde. Wenn der Luzifer noch auf dem Standpunkte der Mondenbildung ist, da kann man ihn natürlich nicht sehen mit den gewöhnlichen physischen Augen der Erde, man kann ihn nur sehen mit innerlichen Augen. Er kann also nicht sein wie eine irdische Schlange, die man sehen kann mit gewöhnlichen physischen Augen.
Man muß sich den Luzifer schon so vorstellen, wie ihn die Geisteswissenschaft vorstellen kann. Bedenken Sie nur, daß der Mensch sein Haupt an sich trägt als dasjenige Glied, das am vollkommensten ausgebildet ist. Daran hängt — Sie brauchen ja nur das Skelett anzusehen -, ich möchte sagen auf ganz dünne Weise, wie angehängt, der übrige Organismus. An dem Haupte hängt allerdings dann das Rückgrat mit dem Rückenmark. Aber das, was physisch später entstanden ist, das hat sich vorher gebildet. Würde man zurückgehen in der Entwickelung und mit dem inneren Auge Luzifer sehen, so würde man ihn selbstverständlich in seiner Mondenbildung sehen müssen, vorbereitend das menschliche Erdenhaupt. Da würde man ein menschliches Haupt sehen, noch nicht so verdichtet, innerlich beweglich, noch vielgestaltig, und daran hängend so etwas wie menschliches Rückgrat, Rückenmark, von dem man sich ja vorstellen kann, daß es in Form eines Schlangenleibes daranhängt. So müßte man also eigentlich Luzifer malen, mit einem möglichst vieldeutigen Antlitz, und daran hängend einen Schlangenleib, der aber sich nähert dem Urbeginne des menschlichen Rückgrats. Das wäre im Sinne der Geisteswissenschaft eine Art Bild von Luzifer.
Nun gibt es in dieser Hamburgischen Bildergalerie aus dem 13., 14. Jahrhundert ein Bild von Meister Bertram, das die biblische Schöpfungsgeschichte darstellt, und wo dieses paradiesische Symbolum wirklich in der Weise gemalt ist, daß Luzifer, so wie ich ihn jetzt beschrieben habe, genau im Sinne unserer Geisteswissenschaft gemalt ist. Also im 13., 14. Jahrhundert hat der Meister Bertram richtig im geisteswissenschaftlichen Sinne den Luzifer gemalt. Das ist etwas, was man sehen kann. Dies ist eine historische Tatsache.
Wir haben ja öfter hingewiesen auf das alte atavistische Hellsehen, das erst nach und nach verglommen ist. Aber was der Meister Bertram da gemalt hat, das weist noch darauf hin, daß bis ins 13., 14. Jahrhundert herein die Möglichkeit vorhanden war, Luzifer richtig im Sinne der alten Geisteswissenschaft, der atavistischen Geisteswissenschaft zu malen. Man kann also äußerlich beweisen, daß es erst ein paar Jahrhunderte her ist, seit die Menschen so geistverlassen geworden sind wie jetzt. Solche Beweise werden Sie genug finden.
Das heißt, dasjenige, was die Stumpflinge heute für die urewige Natur der Menschenseele halten — daß man durch seine Augen hinaussieht und das, was man durch seine Augen sieht, mit dem Verstande kombiniert —, das ist überhaupt erst eine menschliche Seeleneigenschaft seit ein paar Jahrhunderten. Vorher haben alle Menschen gewußt von einem Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt. Natürlich ist es allmählich verglommen. Aber wir finden, daß selbst noch im 13., 14. Jahrhundert Menschen so malen konnten, daß es im Sinne der alten Wissenschaft ist. Es ist wichtig, eine solche Tatsache zu beachten. Aus dieser Tatsache ersieht man, wie die alte Geisteswissenschaft, die ja, wie wir wissen, weichen mußte um der Ausbildung der menschlichen Freiheit willen, bis ins 13., 14. Jahrhundert noch in den Seelen lebendig war. Weil da die Bewußtseinsseele ausgebildet werden mußte, mußte zurückweichen die alte Geisteswissenschaft.
Aber die Geisteswissenschaft muß wieder zurückgeholt werden. Heute lebt die Menschheit noch in bezug auf alles dasjenige, was Erfindungsgeist ist, was schöpferischer Geist ist, auf allen Gebieten von der alten Erbschaft, die durch die alte Geisteswissenschaft hereingekommen ist. Wenn heute einem etwas einfällt, das noch nicht da war, so ist es, weil noch immer fortwirkt die alte Geisteswissenschaft. Aber es wird keine fünfzig, keine hundert Jahre mehr dauern, da werden alle Erfindungen und alle Einfälle, die durch Schöpferisches in der Menschenentwickelung bewirkt werden, verschwunden sein, auch auf dem Gebiet des Maschinenwesens, wenn die Geisteswissenschaft nicht befruchtend auf die Menschheit wirken kann. Geisteswissenschaft muß eben von unserer Zeit an in die Entwickelung des Menschengeschlechts sich hineinstellen, sonst wird dieses Menschengeschlecht auf der Erde steril und unfruchtbar im Seelenleben.
Heute tritt es einem ja erst mehr oder weniger stark entgegen, aber gar oftmals sehr stark auf dem Gebiet der Kunst. Da tritt es einem recht stark entgegen, daß die Menschen gewissermaßen geistverlassen sind, wenn sie nichts anderes mehr in das Kunstwerk hineinzugeheimnissen finden als dasjenige, was sie in der äußeren Natur vorgebildet haben, wenn also die innerliche Befruchtung vom Geiste aus schon vollständig fehlt.
Diese Dinge stehen auf der einen Seite. Sie zeigen uns, wie es notwendig ist, daß der Mensch gewahr werde, daß er als ganzer Mensch im Zusammenhange mit Wesen höherer Reiche steht. Man kann sich Menschen denken - es gibt heute noch solche -—, die nichts davon wissen, daß es Luft gibt; für sie ist der Raum leer. Wenigstens kommt es ihnen nicht zum Bewußtsein, daß es Luft gibt. Aber der physische Leib ist im Grunde genommen gar nicht denkbar ohne die umliegende Luft, denn, was sind wir mit unserem physischen Leib ohne die umliegende Luft? Wir denken ihn abgeschlossen, weil er in seiner Haut eingeschlossen ist. Aber das ist ja ein dummer Gedanke. Hier ist die Luft, im nächsten Moment ist die Luft in Ihnen, dann wieder draußen. Gehört diese Luft, die dann im nächsten Moment draußen ist, nicht ebenso zu Ihnen wie der Muskel in Ihrem physischen Leib? Haben Sie da nicht, was draußen ist, drinnen? Und dann wiederum, was drinnen ist, draußen? Aber ebenso, wie wir mit unserem physischen Leib eins sind mit der Luft, so sind wir mit Bezug auf unser Seelisches, mit Bezug auf unseren Ätherleib eins mit den Wesen, die durch die Welt weben und leben als Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, durch unseren Astralleib eins mit den Wesen, die durch die Welt weben und leben, den Thronen, den Geistern der Weisheit, der Bewegung, der Form. Die wirken fortwährend in uns, wie die Luft fortwährend in unserem physischen Leib wirkt. Das gibt uns das rechte Bewußtsein der Wesen heit des Menschen, wenn wir solches wissen.
Das ist.die eine Seite der Sache. Dann aber gibt es noch eine andere Seite der Sache. Und ich möchte schon von diesen verschiedenen Seiten einer heute notwendigen Betrachtungsweise eine Vorstellung bei Ihnen hervorrufen. Lesen Sie einmal - es ist ein anschaüliches Beispiel — «Die Brüder Karamasow» von Dostojewskij. In diesen «Brüdern Karamasow» kommen unter anderen Gestalten vier Persönlichkeiten vor, die vier Söhne des alten Karamasow, Dmitrij Karamasow, Iwan Karamasow, Aljoscha Karamasow, Smerdjakow Karamasow. Es ist sehr merkwürdig, wie dieser Roman Dostojewskijs gerade in Mitteleuropa gewirkt hat. Ich müßte viel sprechen darüber, wenn ich die ganze Art und Weise darlegen wollte, wie aus dem Menschenleben so etwas hervorgeht und durch eine Seele, wie die Dostojewskij-Seele war, zieht und solches Werk wird wie «Die Brüder Karamasow». Aber ich will nur soviel sagen: Man kann große Bewunderung haben für die eindringliche psychologische Kunst — so nennen sie ja wohl viele Leute der Gegenwart, weil heute so wenig bekannt ist, was wirkliche psychologische Kunst ist —, auch für eine gewisse eindringliche feine Beobachtung des Lebens; trotzdem, wer es vielleicht dazu gebracht hat, geisteswissenschaftliche Begriffe und Vorstellungen nicht so aufzunehmen, daß er lernt: der Mensch besteht aus physischem Leib, Ätherleib, astralischem Leib und Ich, auf einer Tafel aufgeschrieben oder, wie man es früher gemacht hat, mit Farben, daß man es sich merken kann, wer das also nicht so aufnimmt, sondern sich allmählich durchdringt mit diesen Gliedern der Menschennatur, so wie wir es im Laufe der Jahre versuchen, der hat ein unbehagliches Gefühl gegenüber der ja vielfach chaotischen Schilderung in den «Brüdern Karamasow». Da ist allerdings vieles, das, wenn man nur auf das Äußere sieht, schon feine Lebensbeobachtung genannt werden kann, zum Beispiel, daß der älteste Karamasow von einer anderen Mutter ist, mit ganz anderen Charaktereigenschaften als die beiden mittleren Brüder, der Iwan, der Aljoscha, und daß der vierte, der eigentlich eine Art Kind ist, wieder von einer ganz anderen Mutter abstammt. Der alte Karamasow ist ja ein außerordentlich großer, ganz phänomenaler Lump, der alle möglichen Lebensallotria treibt, so daß dieser Smerdjakow eine ganz eigentümliche Person zur Mutter hat. Man weiß eigentlich gar nicht von ihm, daß er der Sohn des alten Karamasow ist. — Aber ich will ja nicht den Roman erzählen, doch wenn man das auch einmal in dieser Weise betrachtet, wer die Mütter der vier Brüder Karamasow waren, so kann man das Gefühl haben: da steckt überall etwas dahinter! Und es ist schon so, ein mitteleuropäischer Mensch würde nicht so schildern. Ein mitteleuropäischer Mensch schildert viel, viel bewußter, und daher bringt er nicht so viele ganz unterbewußte Faktoren in seine Schilderungen hinein wie Dostojewskij. Er stellt mehr zusammen, und da er nur das zusammenstellt, was er mehr oder weniger weiß, so ist er natürlich weniger reich als ein Dostojewskij, der nicht auf das hingeht, was er weiß, sondern vom Leben abschreibt. Aber das Leben ist reicher, als die Menschenseele weiß, durch das, was da als Geist dahinter ist.
Und nun bekommt man dem allem gegenüber ein solches Gefühl: Da ist durch einen unendlich chaotischen Geist, durch einen Geist, der ja durch seine Epilepsie ganz chaotisch gemacht worden ist, durch eine ganz krankhafte Seele vieles gezogen, und zwar deshalb, weil in unserem Zeitalter gleichsam die Natur das Menschenleben geneigt macht, das eine oder das andere zu offenbaren. Und dann kann man darauf kommen, wenn man sich eine richtige Empfindung, eine reale Vorstellung verschafft hat von dem, was man unter physischem Leib, Ätherleib, Astralleib und Ich versteht, daß in den vier Brüdern Karamasow menschliche Wesenheiten dastehen, die man richtig begreift, wenn man sagt: In dem einen liegt ein Mensch vor, in dem mehr das eine Glied der menschlichen Natur, der physische Leib, wirkt, zur Wirkung gekommen ist; in dem anderen der Brüder liegt mehr eine menschliche Wesenheit vor, wo der Ätherleib zur Wirkung gekommen ist, in dem dritten Bruder mehr der Astralleib, in dem vierten Bruder mehr das Ich.
So ist es wirklich, wenn Sie diesen Roman Dostojewskijs «Die Brüder Karamasow» nehmen und diese vier Brüder innerlich betrachten, daß Sie sich sagen können: In all dem, was da als Menschenstrudel auf den Dichter wirkt und ihn anleitet, mehr aus einem Unbewußten heraus zu schildern, wirken diese vier verschiedenen Glieder der Menschennatur so, daß bei dem einen das Ich, bei dem anderen der Astralleib und so weiter die Oberhand hat, so daß diese vier Brüder Karamasow gleichsam die auseinandergezogene Menschheit sind, wie das Tierreich der auseinandergezogene Ätherleib ist. Und da findet man, wenn man einzugehen vermag auf eine solche Sache, in Smerdjakow Karamasow den physischen Leib vorwiegend, in Iwan Karamasow den Ätherleib, in Aljoscha den Astralleib, in Dmitri das Vorwiegen des Ich. Wenn das auch zunächst sonderbar ist, aber es ist eben nach realen Anschauungen geschaut, nicht wie man es konstruieren würde; konstruieren würde man es wahrscheinlich ganz anders, aber so ist es, wenn man die Dinge in der Wirklichkeit sieht.
So liegt hier das Eigentümliche vor, daß ein Dichter, der vorzugsweise aus dem Unterbewußten heraus schafft und sogar ein chaotisches Seelenleben durch seine Epilepsie hat, hingestoßen wird nach der Wirklichkeit, außerdem noch verwandt wird in seinem astralischen Leibe, also wiederum in seinem Unterbewußten, mit dem, was durch die Welt webt und lebt. Denn, meine lieben Freunde, wir dürfen es schon glauben, daß man nicht umsonst, wie Dostojewskij, bereits unter dem Galgen steht und wartet, daß man gehängt wird — vorher sind die anderen gehängt worden; man wartet und ist bereit, gehängt zu werden -, und im allerletzten Augenblick kommt noch die Begnadigung! Es ist das allerdings etwas, was in einer Menschenseele andere Empfindungen auslöst, als ausgelöst werden können in einer Menschenseele, die das nicht durchgemacht hat: im nächsten Augenblick gehängt werden zu können. Man muß das schon berücksichtigen.
Das alles aber zeigt uns, wie dadurch, ich möchte sagen, die Wirklichkeit gerade auf eine solche Seele in unserer Zeit so wirken konnte, daß diese Seele nun chaotisch durch das ganze Romanwerk hindurch wirklich vier Brüder schildert, die in dieser Weise ausgestattet sind, wie ich es Ihnen geschildert habe, und die man nur versteht, wenn man dieses weiß und empfinden kann. Dann wird man zum Beispiel begreifen, warum derjenige, der den Ätherleib vorwiegend hat, und derjenige, der den physischen Leib vorwiegend hat, warum diese gerade abstammen müssen auch von einer Person, die wiederholt gewisse hysterische Anfälle hat. Und so klären sich alle Einzelheiten wunderbar auf, wenn man dies berücksichtigt.
Daraus ist aber ersichtlich, wonach unsere Zeit drängt in einem Volksgebiete, das, wie ich wiederholt geschildert habe, dazu geeignet ist, gewissermaßen die Blutseigenschaften herzugeben, die sich verbinden sollen mit den mitteleuropäischen Eigenschaften, wie ich es vorgestern hier beschrieben habe. Verstehen, was geschieht — auch bei denen, die in dieses Geschehen noch unbewußt einverwoben sind —, man kann es in der Gegenwart nur, wenn man Geisteswissenschaft hat, Es sieht albern aus, wenn man das sagt, aber lassen Sie uns das schon einmal aussprechen: Die Welt ist tief, und etwas zu wissen und beurteilen zu können über die Welt, ist nicht eine so einfache Sache, wie es sich die Menschen heute vorstellen, die das Leben so führen, wie nun schon einmal dieses Leben geführt wird. Diese Menschen gehen traumhaft und berauscht durch das Leben, ohne daß sie irgend etwas wissen von dem, was um sie her vorgeht.
Es bereiten sich schon einmal große Dinge vor, und es ist ja nicht so leicht, die Menschen auf solche Dinge aufmerksam zu machen. Nicht wahr, Sie gehören — wenigstens durch Ihr Karma - zu denjenigen Menschen, die nach und nach sich auf diese Dinge einlassen, durch Jahre hindurch diese Dinge anhören und sie sich so allmählich aneignen und eine Vorstellung dafür bekommen, was alles unter der Oberfläche des Lebens ist. Der außenstehenden Menschheit kann man wohl manchmal — und man kann ja nicht weit gehen — Andeutungen geben über diese Dinge. Dann sitzen aber gerade diejenigen da, die besonders Gescheite sind und die vor allen Dingen den Glauben haben, daß der, der wirklich geisteswissenschaftlich spricht und dies oder jenes sagt, nichts anderes weiß, als was er sagt; die gar keine Ahnung haben, daß alles aus einem umfassenden Wissen heraus geholt werden muß, aber aus einem Wissen, das wirklich erhärtet werden kann an den Einzelheiten, das gerade dann interessant wird, wenn es an den Einzelheiten erhärtet wird.
Daß manches in der Menschheitsentwickelung anders werden muß, das werden Sie daraus erkennen, daß ich Ihnen diese zwei Tatsachen zusammengestellt habe: auf der einen Seite habe ich Ihnen gezeigt, was im Menschen ist, auf der anderen Seite, wie man Dinge, die sich wirklich jetzt vollziehen, sehen muß. Wenn ein Mensch, der nichts gelernt hat vom Mikroskopieren, ins Mikroskop hineinschaut, so sieht er doch gewöhnlich nichts. So sieht der Mensch auch gewöhnlich nichts, wenn er so ins Leben schaut, das 19. Jahrhundert im Osten betrachtet und bemerkt, daß da auch ein Dostojewskij gelebt und «Die Brüder Karamasow» geschrieben hat. Und weil in dem, was in den «Brüdern Karamasow» von Dostojewskij da ist, das unterirdische Element lebt, weil das wirklich in ihm vorhanden ist — mit dem, was da wiederum im Osten vorhanden ist -, so ist es auch zum Bewußtsein gekommen im Osten, daß man eine gewisse Art, sich ins Leben hineinzustellen, genannt hat «Karamasowschtschina». Dasjenige, was so gelebt wird wie das Leben der Brüder Karamasow, ist die Karamasowschtschina. Ja, es ist eigentlich schwer zu sagen, denn es ist ein viel qualitativerer Begriff, als wenn man für München hier sagen würde «Strizzitum»; das ist viel abstrakter! Es ist dort viel konkreter. Es ist ja auch selbstverständlich nicht dasselbe. Aber es steht dort im Leben darinnen und geht in die Kunst über, und man versteht, wie notwendig es ist, damit man sieht, was vorgeht, daß man im Hintergrund seiner Seele beim Schauen das hat, was eben nur aus der Geisteswissenschaft stammen kann.
Auch aus den äußeren Vorgängen, die ja insbesondere jetzt dem Menschen so vor Augen treten können, wenn er nur gedankenvoll auf das Leben hinsieht, zeigt sich dieselbe Notwendigkeit, von der ich eben gesprochen habe und die ich Ihnen von zwei Seiten her zu beleuchten versuchte.
Eine außerordentlich betrübliche Erscheinung in der jetzigen Zeit ist zum Beispiel die folgende. Sehen Sie, da hat es lange Zeit vor dem Kriege ja allgemeine Urteile gegeben: man hat gewisse Menschen für auf diesem oder jenem Gebiete hervorragende Menschen gehalten. Es war gar kein Grund, sich besonders dagegen aufzulehnen, denn sie haben im Sinne der heutigen Kultur, die materialistisch ist, auch Hervorragendes geleistet. Nun kam der Krieg. Diese Menschen haben sich geäußert, haben Briefe geschrieben. Es ist ganz unglaublich, was Menschen, die als hervorragende Menschen in aller Welt galten, nachdem dieser Krieg ausgebrochen ist, für Zeug geschrieben haben! Lesen Sie die Briefe, die sie seit Kriegsausbruch geschrieben haben, lesen Sie, um auf ein anderes Gebiet zu kommen, die Briefe, die zum Beispiel der Mann geschrieben hat — man braucht ja seine Ansichten nicht zu teilen -, der ja vielen als ein hervorragender, überzeugter Freigeist gelten mußte: Kropotkin! Was hat er für dumme, blitzdumme Briefe geschrieben seit dem Ausbruch dieses Krieges! Das sind Dinge, die doch außerordentlich ins Gewicht fallen.
Ich möchte sagen: Es zeigt sich gerade jetzt, wo die Menschheit sehr schnell hereingebrochenen, gewaltigen Situationen gegenübersteht, wie wenig eigentlich die Menschen, auch wenn es hervorragende Leute sind, gerade mit ihrem Denken demjenigen gewachsen waren, was da eben einmal nicht im gewöhnlichen bequemen Programm hereingebrochen ist. Am besten sind dabei noch — von ihrem Standpunkte aus — die gewöhnlichen Philister daran; nicht für unseren Standpunkt, aber für den modernen Standpunkt. Nun, die leben ja jetzt auch weiter und urteilen weiter nach ihren eigenen Anschauungen. Diese eigenen Anschauungen, wie kommen die zumeist zustande? Man kennt das ja, die Menschen geben heute nichts auf Autorität, sie haben ihre eigenen Anschauungen, die sie sich selber gebildet haben. Diese eigenen Anschauungen beruhen allerdings meist nur darauf, daß es sich bei diesen eigenen Anschauungen um solche handelt, bei denen man vergessen hat, in welchem Blatte oder in welchem Programm man sie gelesen hat. Das sind die eigenen Anschauungen! Man unterscheidet zwischen fremden Anschauungen und eigenen Anschauungen; die letzteren zeichnen sich dadurch aus, daß man vergessen hat, wo man sie gelesen hatte.
Alle diese Dinge weisen uns darauf hin, daß vieles, vieles gerade im geistigen Leben ganz anders werden muß, daß die Menschen sich werden bequemen müssen, nicht so durch die Welt zu gehen, wie die Materialisten durch die Welt gehen, die da eigentlich immer träumen über die Welt. Sie glauben natürlich, daß die anderen träumen, aber in Wahrheit träumen die Materialisten, die eigentlich niemals recht aufwachen. Es muß schon anders werden mit dem Anschauen des geistigen Lebens, und daß es anders werden soll, das müßte schon in das Bewußtsein derjenigen eindringen, die sich mit dem eigentlichen Lebensnerv gerade der geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung mit ihrem Herzen verbinden wollen.
Wir mußten bei dieser Anwesenheit einmal ernstere Worte sprechen, aus dem einfachen Grunde, weil ja heute gerade die Dinge so stehen, daß man die Gelegenheiten benützen muß, die sich vielleicht nicht immer so leicht finden. Es ist gegenwärtig das Herumreisen schwierig. Es hängt das alles doch auch mit dem zusammen, was ich ja wiederholt schon hier erwähnt habe und was im Zusammenhange auch betrachtet werden kann mit dem, was ich auch heute wiederum gesagt habe.
Ich habe heute wiederum gesagt, daß unser Ätherleib nicht einfach so etwas ist, was wir wie den Träger unserer Gedanken, die wir als unser Eigentum betrachten, so durch das Leben schleppen, und er sich dann einfach so verflüchtigt. Nein, er verflüchtigt sich nicht! Er ist dasjenige, was einverwoben wird dem allgemeinen Weltenäther, nachdem ganze Hierarchien daran gearbeitet haben.
Wenn aber Hunderte und Tausende von Menschen, so wie es jetzt der Fall ist, durch den Tod abgehalten worden sind, ihren Ätherleib durch so viele Jahrzehnte zu tragen, wie das im menschlichen Leben normal ist, wenn so viele junge Ätherleiber übergeben werden der geistigen Welt, der Ätherwelt, so tritt eben dasjenige ein, was ich oftmals geschildert habe: diese Ätherleiber bleiben da mit demjenigen Teil, der noch hätte verwendet werden können für die Welt selber; denn es geht keine Kraft verloren. Das wird oben sein. Aber wie es wirken wird oben, das wird davon abhängen, wie die Seelen unten sind. Kraft zum geistigen Fortschritt werden die Seelen in der Zukunft finden können, die wissen werden: Da sind viele durch den Opfertod gegangen; ihre Ätherleiber sind noch da. Wenn man sich ihrer bewußt wird, bewußt wird der Kräfte, die da hereinwirken können aus diesem, was die da zurückgelassen haben, dann wird ein großer spiritueller Aufschwung kommen können. Aber es müssen die Seelen auf der Erde sein, die empfänglich sind für Spirituelles, wie für geistiges Erfassen der Welt. Dann wird das, was da in der geistigen Welt vorhanden ist durch die Opfertode, für die Erde fruchtbar gemacht werden. Sonst wird es Beute des Ahriman! Denn es muß ja nicht fruchtbar gemacht werden für die Erde, weil die Dinge nicht von selbst kommen, sondern dadurch, daß sie durch die Vermittlung der Menschenseelen kommen.
Davon, ob sich möglichst viele Menschenseelen finden werden, die geneigt sind, sich in Gedanken, in der Empfindung zu verbinden mit dem, was in den noch unverbrauchten Ätherleibern an Kräften vorhanden ist von den durch die Opfertode Gegangenen, davon wird es abhängen, ob das für eine zukünftige spirituelle Kulturepoche der Erde verwendet werden kann, oder ob es eine Beute des Ahriman wird.
Denken Sie diese Gedanken meditativ durch, meine lieben Freunde, dann wird es schon bedeutungsvoll werden für Ihre Seelen, und dann wird sich schon finden dasjenige, was ich öfter hier gesprochen habe, und mit dem ich auch heute wieder schließen will:
Aus dem Mut der Kämpfer,
Aus dem Blut der Schlachten,
Aus dem Leid Verlassener,
Aus des Volkes Opfertaten
Wird erwachsen Geistesfrucht —
Lenken Seelen geist-bewußt<
Ihren Sinn ins Geisterreich.
Sixth Lecture
In order to gradually acquire what we call spiritual science, it is necessary to have the good will to fill in, what I would call, initially more like a kind of plan, with real ideas about what can initially only be given in a general outline.
You see, we say: The human being consists of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and the I, and so on. This is quite correct at first, because we need to orient ourselves in comprehensive schematic concepts. But as we progress in our study of spiritual science, it becomes necessary to engage more deeply with everything that has been schematized in this way.
We have a large number of cycles, especially in the narrow field of our society's readership, but these cycles contain relatively little of what would actually be desirable for humanity, or at least for a small circle of humanity, to know quite soon.
If we call the outer aspect of the human being, which can be perceived by the physical senses and observed by science based on reason, experiments, and observations, the physical body, then, as we know, this physical body is based on the etheric body.
Let us first cast our spiritual eye on these two members of human nature. Spiritual science as such has seemingly very little to say about the physical body, for this physical body is the only thing that physical science has at its disposal and that physical science intends to observe with its methods. However, even this physical body, although it is initially what physical science considers it to be, can only be recognized in its true meaning and position in the world by also taking into account the higher elements of human nature.
Now you will remember that the physical body, as it here on Earth, so to speak, envelops human beings, could actually only come into being during the Earth period. But it already received its spiritual elements during the ancient Saturn period. It was continually transformed during the Sun, Moon, and Earth periods. It was transformed under the influence of what happened during the Sun, Moon, and Earth periods. It was transformed under the influence of the fact that the etheric body was incorporated into it on the Sun. This physical body, as it came over from Saturn, had to become different, different from what it was before it was permeated by the etheric body. And this physical body also had to become different when it was then permeated by the astral body on the moon. Not only did the astral body come into being as part of the whole human formation, but this physical body was transformed by the fact that, during the solar period, the etheric body entered into it, during the lunar period the astral body, and during the earth period the I gradually developed in all directions, certainly at first within the etheric body, but also within the physical body.
If we now move from the human to the cosmic, we need only remember what we have often discussed, what is contained in our cycles. We must know that, just as the first formation of the physical body on Saturn was made possible, so to speak, by the outpouring of the spirits of will, the thrones, became possible, the transformation during the Sun period by the spirits of wisdom, the transformation during the Moon period by the spirits of movement, the transformation during the Earth period — that is, what had to be brought about in the physical body by the fact that an I dwells in it — was brought about by the spirits of form.
This is something important that we must bear in mind. When we encounter the physical body of a human being on earth, we must think of it as endowed with an I, and we must think of it in such a way that, because it is endowed with an I, it has acquired a certain form appropriate to it during the earth time. During the lunar period, however, it only received the inner movement appropriate to it. It had to receive this form appropriate to it during the earthly period through the gifts of the spirits of form, in accordance with the fact that an I had to be implanted in it. We can therefore say that this physically formed earthly body is shaped as it is because it had to become the bearer of the I. With the I, the spirits of form gave the human physical body the form that it has and that is appropriate to the bearer of the I.
The other beings of the other natural realms also received their forms. If you read the more detailed descriptions given of the ancient lunar period, you will see that all the beings are described in such a way that one cannot say they already had their present form at that time; they are described as having a certain mobility. Just remember the descriptions in “An Outline of Secret Science” or in individual cycles: the forms are described as having a certain mobility. The other natural kingdoms also only received their form through the spirits of form during the Earth period, and I would say that they have retained it permanently.
Let us consider the earthly realm closest to human beings, the animal kingdom. The animal kingdom also lives in forms. It only acquired the forms it currently has during the Earth period. But consider how great the difference is between the forms of the animal kingdom and the forms of the human kingdom! We look across the surface of the earth and find certain differences between individual human beings, differences that belong to a different realm of description; but we also find certain differences in relation to external appearance. All the interesting peoples now being brought into the field by Western Europeans in Central Europe naturally look somewhat different from the Central European population! So there is already a difference when we look across the surface of the earth in terms of the form of individual human beings. Color, for example, must also be included in this form. But when you compare the differences that exist between human beings with the differences between the various animal species, you will have to say to yourself: The animal species are, of course, infinitely more diverse and infinitely greater than humans. We can speak of a single human species in contrast to the various multiform animal species. For such a stark difference as that between a lion and a nightingale, both of which are animals, cannot be found in the human realm. If there were such a great difference as between a lion and a nightingale, no one could claim that differences between human beings are not noticeable. But we must turn our attention to the fact that animals have infinitely greater differentiations than human beings in their general human species.
Nevertheless, although what I have just said is absolutely correct, from the standpoint of spiritual science it is only correct in a limited sense. For the following is also true: in your contemplation, in your thoughts about the physical body of the human being, add the etheric body and imagine that a certain experiment, which of course cannot be carried out, were possible: that one could separate the entire physical body from the human being, dissect it piece by piece, and that, before beginning to dissect this physical body, one could cause the spirits of the higher hierarchies, the angeloi, archangeloi, and archai, to withdraw from the human being so that they would not be active in the etheric body. So two things would have to be done: One would not even have to want to, say, flay the human being, but one would have to take away everything that belongs to his physical body. And then one would have to ask all the influences of the three hierarchies, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, to withdraw, so that this etheric body of the human being would be left entirely to itself, so that it would no longer be affected by anything else. For it is affected, it is stuck in the physical body, and this physical body has its fixed form, which is assigned to it by the spirits of form. That is why it must conform to this fixed form. If you take a very soft rubber body and put it in a glass, it will adapt to the shape of the glass; it will not retain its own shape. If you pull it out of the glass again, it springs back into its own shape. In the same way, the human etheric body must adapt to the form imposed on it by the physical body; it does not have its own form. So when we remove the physical body, the force that causes the etheric body to adapt disappears. But even then it would not take on its own shape, because working within this etheric body — as we will explain in more detail later — are the angeloi, archangeloi, and archai. But we ask them to withdraw, so that the etheric body can now follow its forces entirely on its own. The etheric body would then spring out and take on its own elasticity. The process would have to be carried out visibly; then you would be able to see how the etheric body springs out and takes on its own form.
What would happen? You would have the entire animal kingdom before you! The etheric body would divide into portions, and these would be — at least in essence, in the main types — the forms of the entire animal kingdom. This means that the human being carries the entire animal kingdom within himself in etheric form. It is held together only on the one hand by the form of the physical body and on the other by the activity of the beings of the three hierarchies mentioned above. It is absolutely true that the human being carries this entire animal kingdom within himself in his etheric body in the form of potential! From this point of view, the entire animal kingdom differs from the human being only in that each animal species has taken on its own form, which also lives in the human etheric body, and has developed it into a physical shape. So when we look at the animal kingdom as it is realized on earth, it is in fact the spread-out human etheric body.
There is something peculiar here. At the turn of the 18th to the 19th century, something emerged in the development of European worldview that can be found, more precisely, in personalities such as Oken. The natural scientist Oken could not yet speak of the etheric body from the standpoint of his time; that was far from his mind. But he wrote, for example, the strange sentence: “The animal kingdom is the extended human being.” This means that he had a fantasy conception of the truth. This idea entered his spiritual field of vision at a time when the great ideas of the Central European worldview were taking shape. This is very interesting! This idea also entered Schelling's field of vision, for example, and you will find this sentence in Schelling as well. And those who could not initially respond to these brilliant but, of course, as yet incomplete ideas — because the exact facts could not be stated — found it quite terrible at the time. With Oken, one must imagine that what he could not yet know lived in his soul in the form of a brilliant conception. One might say that he had the feeling that the individual limbs of the human being are actually composed of animal forms. He also had the courage to say such a thing, but the learned philistines were terribly scandalized by his saying so. For example, he also asked himself: What is the tongue? He couldn't know that an etheric body is needed there, and so he said: The tongue is an octopus. Certainly, what I have just explained is at the root of this statement. But now imagine all the learned philistines faced with the assertion: The human tongue is an octopus!
If one wants to understand the course of human mental life, one must become broad-minded. One must be clear that something that may even appear to be nonsense can contain a great truth. And so Oken classified humans as follows: The tongue is an octopus, other organs are something else, and so on. Basically, it was just a more precise repetition of what existed in ancient human perception, where only the main types were highlighted and humans were classified according to the four main animal groups: lion, eagle, angel, and calf.
So one can say that the matter is not so simple, but that humans actually have the entire animal kingdom within their etheric body. They carry it within themselves, as the philosopher would say, as a possibility. Now, however, you must take something into consideration so that the matter does not become one-sided. If what we have just mentioned did not take place, namely that — in addition to the physical body holding all this animal nature together — the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai also exert their powers, then when human beings pass through the gate of death and shed their physical bodies, what I have just described would have to happen: in this case, when the etheric body is released after a few days by the astral body and the I, it would actually fall out elastically into the world, and the entire etheric animal world would arise from the human etheric world. But this is not the case in experience. That does not happen. It does not emerge from the human being, but the etheric body dissolves in a completely different form. It dissolves and becomes interwoven with the general world ether.
What is actually happening here? Well, the beings from the hierarchy of the Angeloi, the Archangeloi, and the Archai are working on our etheric body, and they do not allow the whole being of the etheric body to fragment into the animal kingdom. What is actually happening there? I would like to describe what is happening there by first appealing to a comparison. We humans on Earth work; for example, we make machines out of wood or iron. The wood or iron are our material foundations, and then we work the wood or iron together to make machines. The arrangement of the material is our work, the arrangement of the wood or iron, but we have to take the iron or wood itself from the earth. We need these raw materials, we take them from a realm that is below our human realm.
If you now imagine that the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai live above us, they are not there in the universe to continuously enjoy “Sunday rest,” but rather they have their work to do, their tasks to perform. — What do the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai actually do? When they work, they also need material, just as we need wood and iron from the earth, and they have to process this material. The material for the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai is our etheric bodies! What wood and iron are to us when we process them into machines, our etheric bodies are to the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai; that is what they work on. And while we humans walk around here on earth and, in a sense, have the thought, if we have it at all, that we carry our etheric body within us and carry it with us as our property, like our lungs, the whole being of the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai is active around us, working out structures for the spiritual world that are needed there for our life. They work out of this etheric body what is needed in the spiritual world.
With whose help do these higher beings work? Well, we think throughout our lives; from the moment we begin to think until we die, we think. The essence of thinking, as you could also gather from yesterday's public lecture, consists precisely in the fact that thinking weaves and lives in the etheric body. It then weaves and lives on in the physical body. In our physical life, we believe that what we form as our thoughts is our sole property. But what we have of our thoughts, what we form in our thoughts and what we can remember, is, so to speak, only the inner side of our thinking life. From outside, the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai work on our entire thinking life in relation to the etheric body, and it is not unnecessary for us to think as human beings. It is not unnecessary for the physical earth, but it is also not unnecessary for the cosmos. For what we change in our etheric body between birth and death through our thinking is used as material and worked out according to higher points of view. During our life, while we go through the world as thinking beings and see our thought life only from within, the angeloi, archangeloi, and archai work on our thoughts so that after our death what they can then incorporate into the world ether may come about. When our astral body and our ego shed the etheric body, they sew—if I may use the crude expression—the fabric of our etheric body into the cosmos, which has essentially come into being through the way we have thought in life. From now on, this belongs to the cosmos. We do not live as human beings merely for ourselves; we live as human beings for the whole cosmos.
We know that after our Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan will come into being. All of this must be prepared; all of this must be woven into the cosmos as forces. This requires work. This work includes, for example, what I have just explained: that the angeloi, archangeloi, and archai are active in accordance with our thoughts. A somewhat different material is the foolish thoughts we have during our lives; a somewhat different material is intelligent thoughts. But depending on what we supply them with as material, these — roughly speaking — “etheric machines” are worked out, which are then there to ensure that development in the cosmos continues. So when our etheric body is handed over to the cosmos after death, the work of the beings of the three hierarchies mentioned above is also handed over.
Let us now consider the human astral body from a similar point of view. We approach our observations from new angles, and therefore different relationships to the surrounding realms always appear. Those who cannot read—and reading includes the ability to summarize things—may see many contradictions in the things that are presented. But this only stems from the fact that they do not take into account the points of view from which things are illuminated.
Our astral body is in a similar relationship to the earthly environment as our etheric body. Our etheric body is the entire animal kingdom from the point of view I have indicated to you. Our astral body is the entire plant kingdom. Just as I have spoken about the etheric body in relation to the animal kingdom, I must now speak about our astral body in relation to the plant kingdom. All the plant forms of our earth are contained within it. And again, if all the higher hierarchies did not work on our astral body, then after going through this return from death to birth, where the astral body is gradually shed, nothing else would happen except that the astral body would be shed, and the astral body outside in the world would be the entire plant kingdom. Yes, it would even arrange itself into a sphere, following its own elasticity. But the astral body cannot arrange itself into a sphere because during our life between birth and death, the spirits of form themselves, the spirits of movement, the spirits of wisdom, and even the spirits of will to a certain degree work on our astral body.
And when, after years or decades, in the manner often described, we have gradually freed the astral body from its connection with earthly life after passing through life again, then at the same time, in the work on this astral body, what the spirits of form, movement, wisdom, and will need in order to incorporate into the cosmos what they need to incorporate into it. However, what is incorporated into the cosmos in this way benefits us, because it must be in the cosmos. It is woven into the cosmos in a different way than what was just described. When our etheric body is cast off, it is literally sewn into the general world ether, woven into it, I might say. But that which now appears, woven from our astral body, as the work of the spirits of form, movement, wisdom, and thrones, works together with our I, which passes through the time between death and new birth, and it contains the forces that must work so that we can enter into a new incarnation. For in order for us to enter into a new incarnation, very, very much is required! Indeed, what external physical science knows today about the structure of the skull and the brain is so much that there are quite a few people who find it too much to know. But if one were to consider this knowledge of external science in terms of the fact that the skull with the brain, this marvelous structure, had to be formed down to its smallest parts, how little one would achieve with external science in order to really form it! There is a significant mystery here. With this mystery, dullards, that type of people who can be called dullards, are quickly finished, saying: What arises in humans in the continuous succession of generations comes about entirely by itself. That such a human head forms in the mother's body comes about entirely by itself.
One can understand why people say this, but I would like to clarify how clever this is by means of a comparison. Let us hypothetically assume that there are beings in Munich who can see many things, but who cannot see human beings, not even human beings in their activities. It would be conceivable that such beings populate Munich who cannot see human beings in their activities. Such beings, who could not see humans in their activities, could, however, see clocks, for example. They would see that clocks exist and how they are made, but they would not see the humans, the clockmakers who assemble the clocks. They would not see the hands that assemble the individual parts; they would only see how the clock is formed from the individual parts. They might also see the various tweezers and pliers and so on that are used to handle the parts, but for them, the individual parts of the clock are assembled out of thin air, as it were. What view would these beings have of clocks? They would not say, “There are clockmakers in Munich” — they would deny that completely. They would say, “Oh, it is a terrible superstition to assume that there are watchmakers, because watches arise all by themselves; you can see how they assemble themselves.”
Just as these beings would judge, so do people who assume that what is gradually forming in the physical realm arises by itself. Everything that arises there arises through the actions of the spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies. Truly, it is not merely through the interaction of father and mother and through what then forms in the mother's body that the human being forms “by itself,” but the whole world has an influence, the whole cosmos with the beings of the higher hierarchies is involved in it.
Of course, the cosmos is involved up to the highest regions in what is attached to the head; but it is particularly involved in the human head. Physical science will also come to this conclusion—as physical science and spiritual science will gradually balance each other out—that it will learn to think differently in embryology about the human head and differently about all other organs. The other organs, as will be discovered in the not too distant future, depend very strongly on inherited characteristics. The formation of the head depends much less on inherited characteristics. These are only forced into it through its connection with the other organs. The entire cosmos is truly involved in the formation of the human head, and it is involved spiritually; it works into the mother's body.
The fact that people do not see these forces — well, the farmer does not see the forces acting on a magnet either — is no proof that these forces do not exist. And what is present in the human head is, in a sense, something that is worked out in connection with what the human being brings with them in their ego between death and new birth, something that is worked out by the spirits of form, the spirits of movement, the spirits of wisdom, the thrones, all of whom are working on a mighty hollow sphere. What is being worked out there is enormous, it is a sphere, and everything is incorporated into this sphere. Imagine a huge sphere, into the surface of which everything that is to be incorporated is worked, as into a globe, according to what the human being has first handed over to the general cosmos in his etheric body. This forms, in a sense, something that can be traced, if I may use that expression. But then, in particular, there is that which has been brought along from the processing of the astral body. Then the time comes—it begins with what I have described in one of the Mysteries as the midnight hour of existence—when this sphere gradually becomes smaller and smaller. And this sphere, which is being worked out by high spirits according to the measure of the human being's earlier incarnations, finally becomes so small, smaller and smaller, and unites with the human germ that is conceived in the mother's body. From this, the shape of the head emerges first of all. The emergence of the head shape is a wonderful mystery; it is the result of centuries of work by higher hierarchies.
Just think how deeply a person's perception of their relationship to the world can be deepened when they know how they stand within the whole cosmic context! This human being, who carries his head, must learn — in all modesty, without pride or arrogance, of course — to remember how little of what is available in human wisdom can contain what is necessary to form this head that has been given to him. Human beings carry the entire cosmic content within themselves.
When you look at it this way, spiritual science gains something infinite by becoming the starting point for certain feelings that can become dangerous in the arrogant soul. I alluded to this in the second mystery, where Capesius, in conversation with Benedictus, feels these truths approaching him: that the whole power of the gods is necessary to bring human beings into being. In many people who are initially vain, this can, quite unconsciously, further promote vanity; people can feel incredibly important. It is wiser to cherish the feeling of how little we are aware of all the wisdom that is necessary to bring ourselves into being!
One can, of course, take the view of those who say: Yes, but why is it necessary for man to know all this? He can live without this knowledge, he lives quite well without it. — Therein lies a great error, that man can live quite well without this knowledge. In truth, he cannot. We live in an age where it is easy to succumb to the misconception that one can live quite decently on earth without knowledge of the spiritual world, namely by having breakfast, lunch, dinner, and so on, and doing various other things in between. But this belief is not based on truth. We must gradually bring people to realize that this belief is not based on truth.
From this basis, I now cite, for example, in public lectures, Karl Christian Planck, this remarkable man who lived a lonely existence in Ulm for many years and whom the University of Tübingen did not even appoint when the chair there became vacant because there was no one who understood the significance of this man. Certainly, the dull-witted will say that he became so nervous at the end of his life that he said all sorts of things that could be interpreted as megalomania. Well, that's what the dullards say. But a man who, like Planck, had not yet received complete confirmation from the humanities, could well become nervous under such mistreatment by his fellow human beings, and then utter words such as those he uttered in the preface to his “Testament of a German,” where he quoted the words of the old Roman: “Ungrateful fatherland, you shall not even have my bones!” But I have quoted that statement made by Karl Christian Planck before 1880, when he died, which reflects exactly what we now have as our European world war. The idealistic observer was able to see reality because the power that develops within when one is able to think in this way, from the very sources of existence, is at the same time the most practical thing in the world. What people who think they have practical experience by the spoonful believe is not actually practical. Only through human brutality can it be declared practical to simply stifle every legitimate aspiration that arises from the real sources of life.
I cite such examples to show how that power of human beings, which is also necessary in external practical life, clear and penetrating thinking, can only arise when the human soul is fertilized by spiritual scientific truths. Why can people in our age believe that human life on earth is possible without any knowledge of spiritual science? Because they are so infinitely short-sighted! If they were not so short-sighted, it could be proven quite externally how wrong those are who say that human beings need not concern themselves with a spiritual world: they are born of themselves, grow up of themselves; they do need to be educated, but modern pedagogy has established such infinitely clever educational principles that they even reach the lofty heights of Foerster's pedagogy. Well, and then one gradually becomes a settled person who thinks about what one must do so that humanity has something to eat and drink, and so does one.
But this was not always the case with the human race. And it is not long since it was considered possible that human beings could live on earth without possessing spiritual knowledge. External evidence can be provided for this, and I would like to present one such example to you. I have already cited it in various contexts. If one had the time—but in Munich there is no such time—one could probably find such evidence here in Munich itself. We found it recently while viewing the Hamburg Art Museum. It arises from the following: Let us think of that great symbol at the beginning of the Old Testament, of the seduction of Eve and Adam, which we know as the Luciferic temptation. Isn't it true that if a painter paints this today — it doesn't really matter what his point of view is, whether he paints realistically or idealistically, as an expressionist, impressionist, futurist, or whatever — he will still believe that he is doing justice to reality if he paints Adam and Eve, well, more or less hideous. But to do so, he will paint the tree of paradise with the serpent on it, with a real serpent's head, the serpent as big as the tree, but with a real serpent's head. Can that be called realistic in the true sense of the word? I don't think so, my dear friends! Not to mention women today—but not even the first mother Eve can be considered so limited that she would allow herself to be seduced by a real snake! That can't be “realistic”! Imagine a real snake slithering through the green grass; was the first mother Eve supposed to have fallen for that? Surely the matter cannot be naturalistic! Even the present-day snake, despite crawling around as a real animal, can only be understood as a symbol for something else.
But now let us remember what concepts we actually have to associate with this Luciferic seduction. It is Lucifer! The snake can at most be the symbol of Lucifer. Associated with the Luciferic is the fact that this being remained behind during the formation of the moons. So you cannot see this being as such with the physical eyes of the earth. When Lucifer is still at the stage of the formation of the moon, you cannot see him with the ordinary physical eyes of the earth; you can only see him with your inner eyes. So he cannot be like an earthly snake that you can see with ordinary physical eyes.
One must imagine Lucifer as spiritual science can imagine him. Just consider that the human being carries his head as the most perfectly formed member of his body. Attached to it—you need only look at the skeleton—I would say in a very thin way, as if attached, is the rest of the organism. The spine with the spinal cord is attached to the head. But what developed physically later had already been formed before. If we were to go back in evolution and see Lucifer with our inner eye, we would naturally have to see him in his lunar form, preparing the human head on Earth. One would see a human head, not yet so condensed, internally mobile, still multiform, and hanging from it something like a human spine, spinal cord, which one can imagine hanging in the form of a serpent's body. This is how Lucifer should actually be painted, with a face that is as ambiguous as possible, and attached to it a serpent's body, which, however, approaches the original beginning of the human spine. In the sense of spiritual science, this would be a kind of image of Lucifer.
Now, in this Hamburg picture gallery from the 13th and 14th centuries, there is a picture by Master Bertram depicting the biblical story of creation, and where this paradisiacal symbol is really painted in such a way that Lucifer, as I have now described him, is painted exactly in the sense of our spiritual science. So in the 13th and 14th centuries, Master Bertram painted Lucifer correctly in the spiritual scientific sense. This is something that can be seen. It is a historical fact.
We have often referred to the ancient atavistic clairvoyance that has gradually faded away. But what Master Bertram painted there still indicates that until the 13th and 14th centuries, it was still possible to paint Lucifer correctly in the sense of the old spiritual science, the atavistic spiritual science. So it can be proven externally that it is only a few centuries since people became as spiritually deprived as they are now. You will find enough evidence of this.
This means that what the dull-witted people of today consider to be the eternal nature of the human soul — that one looks out through one's eyes and combines what one sees with one's intellect — has only been a human soul characteristic for a few centuries. Before that, all people knew of a connection with the spiritual world. Of course, this gradually faded away. But we find that even in the 13th and 14th centuries, people were still able to paint in a way that was in keeping with the old science. It is important to note this fact. From this fact we can see how the old spiritual science, which, as we know, had to give way for the sake of the development of human freedom, was still alive in the souls of people until the 13th and 14th centuries. Because the consciousness soul had to be developed, the old spiritual science had to recede.
But spiritual science must be brought back. Today, humanity still lives in relation to everything that is inventive spirit, creative spirit, in all areas of the ancient heritage that came through ancient spiritual science. If something new occurs to us today, it is because the old spiritual science is still at work. But it will not be fifty or a hundred years before all inventions and ideas brought about by creativity in human evolution will have disappeared, even in the field of mechanical engineering, if spiritual science cannot have a fruitful effect on humanity. Spiritual science must become part of the development of the human race from now on, otherwise the human race on earth will become sterile and barren in its soul life.
Today, this is more or less evident, but very often very strongly in the field of art. It is quite striking that people are, in a sense, spiritually bereft when they can find nothing else to conceal in a work of art than what they have already seen in the external world, when the inner fertilization by the spirit is completely lacking.
These things are on the one hand. They show us how necessary it is for human beings to become aware that they, as whole human beings, are connected with beings of higher realms. One can imagine people—there are still such people today—who know nothing about the existence of air; for them, space is empty. At least, they are not aware that air exists. But the physical body is basically inconceivable without the surrounding air, for what are we with our physical body without the surrounding air? We think of it as closed because it is enclosed in its skin. But that is a foolish thought. Here is the air, in the next moment the air is inside you, then outside again. Does this air, which is outside in the next moment, not belong to you just as much as the muscles in your physical body? Do you not have what is outside inside you? And then again, what is inside outside? But just as we are one with the air through our physical body, so too, in relation to our soul, in relation to our etheric body, we are one with the beings who weave and live through the world as angeloi, archangeloi, archai, and through our astral body we are one with the beings who weave and live through the world, the thrones, the spirits of wisdom, movement, and form. They are constantly at work within us, just as the air is constantly at work in our physical body. Knowing this gives us the right awareness of the beings within the human being.
That is one side of the matter. But there is another side to it. And I would like to give you an idea of these different sides of a way of looking at things that is necessary today. Read, for example, Dostoyevsky's “The Brothers Karamazov.” Among other characters, four personalities appear in “The Brothers Karamazov”: the four sons of old Karamazov, Dmitri Karamazov, Ivan Karamazov, Alyosha Karamazov, and Smerdyakov Karamazov. It is very remarkable how this novel by Dostoyevsky has had such an impact in Central Europe. I would have to say a great deal if I wanted to explain the whole process by which something like this emerges from human life and passes through a soul like Dostoyevsky's, resulting in a work such as The Brothers Karamazov. But I will say only this: one can have great admiration for the penetrating psychological art—as many people today call it, because so little is known today about what real psychological art is—and also for a certain penetrating, subtle observation of life; nevertheless, anyone who has perhaps managed not to take in spiritual-scientific concepts and ideas in such a way that he learns that that the human being consists of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and the I, written down on a blackboard or, as was done in the past, with colors so that one can remember it, that anyone who does not take this in in this way, but gradually permeates himself with these members of human nature, as we try to do over the years, will have an uncomfortable feeling about the often chaotic description in The Brothers Karamazov. There is, of course, much that, if one looks only at the surface, can be called a fine observation of life, for example, that the eldest Karamazov is from a different mother, with completely different character traits than the two middle brothers, Ivan and Alyosha, and that the fourth, who is actually a kind of child, comes from yet another mother. The old Karamazov is an extraordinarily large, completely phenomenal scoundrel who gets up to all sorts of mischief, so that Smerdyakov has a very peculiar person for a mother. You don't really know that he is the son of old Karamazov. — But I don't want to tell the story, yet when you look at it this way, at who the mothers of the four Karamazov brothers were, you get the feeling that there is something behind it all! And it is true that a Central European would not describe it this way. A Central European describes things much, much more consciously, and therefore does not bring as many completely subconscious factors into his descriptions as Dostoyevsky does. He puts more things together, and since he only puts together what he more or less knows, he is naturally less rich than a Dostoyevsky, who does not go to what he knows, but copies from life. But life is richer than the human soul knows, through what lies behind it as spirit.
And now one gets such a feeling about all this: through an infinitely chaotic spirit, through a spirit that has been made completely chaotic by his epilepsy, through a completely sick soul, many things have been drawn out, and this is because in our age, nature, as it were, inclines human life to reveal one thing or another. And then, if you have gained a proper feeling, a real idea of what is meant by the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I, you can come to the conclusion that in the four Karamazov brothers there are human beings who can be properly understood when you say: In one of them there is a human being in whom the one member of human nature, the physical body, is more active, has come to effect; in another of the brothers there is more of a human being in whom the etheric body has come to effect, in the third brother more of the astral body, in the fourth brother more of the ego.
This is really the case when you take Dostoyevsky's novel “The Brothers Karamazov” and look at these four brothers inwardly, you can say to yourself: In everything that acts upon the poet as a human whirlpool and leads him to describe more from the unconscious, these four different members of human nature are at work, that in one the ego has the upper hand, in the other the astral body, and so on, so that these four Karamazov brothers are, as it were, humanity pulled apart, just as the animal kingdom is the etheric body pulled apart. And if one is able to enter into such a matter, one finds in Smerdyakov Karamazov the predominant physical body, in Ivan Karamazov the etheric body, in Alyosha the astral body, and in Dmitri the predominance of the ego. Although this may seem strange at first, it is based on real observations, not on a constructed theory; one would probably construct it quite differently, but this is how it is when one sees things in reality.
So here we have the peculiarity that a poet who creates primarily from the subconscious and even has a chaotic inner life due to his epilepsy is thrust into reality and, moreover, is connected in his astral body, i.e., again in his subconscious, with that which weaves and lives through the world. For, my dear friends, we may well believe that it is not for nothing that one stands, like Dostoyevsky, under the gallows waiting to be hanged—the others have been hanged before you; you wait and are ready to be hanged—and at the very last moment pardon is granted! This is certainly something that triggers different feelings in a human soul than those that can be triggered in a human soul that has not gone through this: to be able to be hanged at any moment. One must take this into account.
But all this shows us how, I would say, reality could have had such an effect on a soul in our time that this soul now chaotically depicts four brothers throughout the entire novel who are endowed in the way I have described to you, and who can only be understood if one knows and can feel this. Then one will understand, for example, why the one who has the etheric body predominating and the one who has the physical body predominating must descend from a person who repeatedly has certain hysterical attacks. And so all the details are wonderfully clarified when one takes this into account.
From this, however, it is clear what is urgently needed in a region that, as I have repeatedly described, is suited to imparting, so to speak, the blood characteristics that are to be combined with the Central European characteristics, as I described here the day before yesterday. Understanding what is happening — even among those who are still unconsciously involved in these events — is only possible in the present if one has spiritual science. It sounds silly to say so, but let us say it anyway: The world is deep, and knowing and being able to judge something about the world is not as simple as people imagine today who lead their lives as they do. These people go through life in a dreamlike and intoxicated state, without knowing anything about what is going on around them.
Great things are already in the making, and it is not so easy to make people aware of such things. Isn't that true? You belong — at least through your karma — to those people who gradually become involved in these things, who listen to them over the years and gradually acquire them and gain an idea of what lies beneath the surface of life. To the outside world, one can sometimes — and one cannot go very far — give hints about these things. But then it is precisely those who are sitting there who are particularly clever and who, above all, believe that anyone who speaks from a spiritual scientific perspective and says this or that knows nothing more than what he says; who have no idea that everything must be drawn from a comprehensive knowledge, but from a knowledge that can be substantiated in the details, which becomes interesting precisely when it is substantiated in the details.
You will recognize that some things in human development must change from the fact that I have presented these two facts to you: on the one hand, I have shown you what is in human beings, and on the other hand, how things that are really happening now must be seen. When a person who has learned nothing about microscopy looks into a microscope, he usually sees nothing. In the same way, people usually see nothing when they look at life, consider the 19th century in the East, and notice that Dostoyevsky lived there and wrote The Brothers Karamazov. And because the underground element lives in Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, because it is really present in him — with what is also present in the East — it has also become conscious in the East that there is a certain way of placing oneself in life, which has been called “Karamazovschina.” What is lived like the life of the Karamazov brothers is Karamazovschina. Yes, it is actually difficult to say, because it is a much more qualitative term than if one were to say “Strizzitum” for Munich here; that is much more abstract! It is much more concrete there. Of course, it is not the same thing. But it is part of life there and carries over into art, and one understands how necessary it is in order to see what is going on, to have in the background of one's soul, when one looks, something that can only come from spiritual science.
The same necessity I have just spoken of, which I have tried to illuminate from two sides, is also evident in external events, which are particularly apparent to people now if they look at life thoughtfully.
An extremely sad phenomenon in the present time is the following, for example. You see, long before the war there were general judgments: certain people were considered outstanding in this or that field. There was no reason to rebel against this, because in the sense of today's materialistic culture, they had also achieved outstanding things. Then the war came. These people expressed their opinions and wrote letters. It is quite unbelievable what people who were considered outstanding throughout the world wrote after this war broke out! Read the letters they wrote after the war broke out. To move on to another area, read the letters written, for example, by the man who must have been considered by many to be an outstanding, convinced free spirit—one does not have to share his views—Kropotkin! What stupid, utterly stupid letters he wrote after the outbreak of this war! These are things that carry extraordinary weight.
I would like to say: It is precisely now, when humanity is facing rapidly unfolding, violent situations, that it is becoming apparent how little people, even outstanding people, were actually able to cope with what has broken into their comfortable routine, precisely because of their way of thinking. From their point of view, the ordinary philistines are still the best at this; not from our point of view, but from the modern point of view. Well, they are now continuing to live and continue to judge according to their own views. How do these views usually come about? We know that people today do not value authority; they have their own views, which they have formed themselves. However, these views are usually based only on the fact that they are one's own views, and one has forgotten in which newspaper or program one read them. These are one's own views! A distinction is made between foreign views and one's own views; the latter are characterized by the fact that one has forgotten where one read them.
All these things indicate to us that much, much must change in spiritual life, that people must learn to walk through the world differently than materialists do, who are actually always dreaming about the world. They believe, of course, that others are dreaming, but in truth it is the materialists who are dreaming, who never really wake up. We must look at spiritual life differently, and the fact that it must become different must penetrate the consciousness of those who want to connect their hearts with the actual lifeblood of the spiritual scientific worldview.We had to speak more seriously in this gathering for the simple reason that things are as they are today, and we must take advantage of opportunities that may not always be so easy to find. Traveling is difficult at present. All this is connected with what I have already mentioned here repeatedly and what can also be seen in connection with what I have said again today.
I said again today that our etheric body is not simply something that we carry through life like the carrier of our thoughts, which we consider our property, and that it then simply evaporates. No, it does not evaporate! It is that which is woven into the general world ether after entire hierarchies have worked on it.
But when hundreds and thousands of people, as is now the case, have been prevented by death from carrying their etheric body through as many decades as is normal in human life, when so many young etheric bodies are handed over to the spiritual world, the etheric world, then what I have often described occurs: these etheric bodies remain there with the part that could still have been used for the world itself, for no power is lost. That will be above. But how it will work above will depend on how the souls are below. The souls who know that many have gone through a sacrificial death and that their etheric bodies are still there will be able to find the power for spiritual progress in the future. When people become aware of them, aware of the forces that can work in from what they have left behind, then a great spiritual upsurge will be able to come. But it must be the souls on earth who are receptive to the spiritual, to the spiritual understanding of the world. Then what is present in the spiritual world through the sacrificial deaths will be made fruitful for the earth. Otherwise it will fall prey to Ahriman! For it does not have to be made fruitful for the earth, because things do not come of themselves, but through the mediation of human souls.
Whether as many human souls as possible can be found who are inclined to connect themselves in thought and feeling with what is present in the still unspent etheric bodies of those who have passed through sacrificial death will determine whether this can be used for a future spiritual cultural epoch on Earth or whether it will become the prey of Ahriman.
Meditate on these thoughts, my dear friends, and they will become meaningful for your souls, and then you will find what I have often spoken of here and with which I would like to conclude again today:
From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of the battles,
From the suffering of the forsaken,
From the sacrifices of the people
The fruit of the spirit will grow —
Souls guided by spirit-consciousness
Will turn their minds to the spirit realm.