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On the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Times
GA 180

29 December 1917, Dornach

III. Realities Beyond Birth and Death

The Christian consciousness of to-day is still aware—or can, at least, still be aware—of two poles, representing as it were the outermost extremes of world-outlook. The two poles to which I refer are the Christmas secret and the Easter secret. To begin with—even if you only compare them outwardly—it will strike you at once that the Christmas secret is really the secret of birth; it represents the birth of Christ Jesus, and therewithal attaches itself to the secret of birth in general, the Easter secret is connected with the secret of death, inasmuch as it is a festival associated with the death of Christ Jesus. Now birth and death are the two boundaries of human life, as it runs its course within the physical body. Thus, in truth, we may say: over against what stands before man as the visible part of his being, birth and death veil from his sight the invisible part; they are the two gateways to the invisible world.

In the festivals of Christmas and Easter, two gateways to the invisible world are thus made the basis of the Christian year; and inasmuch as this is so, the Christian world-conception is indeed connected with the Mysteries of all the World. Wherever we may look—among all peoples and in the most varied regions of the Earth, we find Mysteries everywhere associated either with the secret of birth or with the secret of death, Not that it lies so patently at hand in every case; the inner connections are not always visible at once. Thus, certain Mysteries (I am only referring now to post-Atlantean time) were connected with the secret of birth in a more indirect way. I refer to those Mysteries which place into the very centre of their life what the profane world calls the Sacred Fire; ‘Sacred Fire’ is very different from what the profane world can understand. It is essentially Man himself—the super-sensible Man who underlies the human being of the sense-world. What is it that the profane world knows as the Sacred Fire (or, as we might also call it, the Sacred Warmth)? What is it in reality, when they revere this Fire? It is a symbol of the super-sensible Man. It is that which descends through birth from spiritual heights to grow and evolve in it physical body. It is the invisible or super-sensible Man—perceptible, however, to an old atavistic clairvoyance!

This, then, is the type of the Mysteries which takes its start from the super-sensible Man who underlies the man of the sense-world—the super-sensible Man who passes through birth to clothe himself with a sensely garment. This is the type of Mystery which afterwards passed over into the secret of Christmas; it is essentially the Mystery of birth.

Less hidden, we may truly say, is the other kind of Mystery,—that which belongs to the secret of death. While the former is associated with Fire, this kind of Mystery is associated with the Light. Here too, however, as in the case of Fire, something quite different is meant by ‘the Light.’ ‘The Light’ refers to that which speaks to man at night-time when the star-lit sky sends him its language of Light. All astrological Mysteries in ancient time were in reality Mysteries of Light,—in the times, I mean, before the arrival of the Mystery of Golgotha. Only, here again we must remember that the ancient Astrology was not pursued with the abstract calculations of to-day, but with an atavistic clairvoyant power. Man did not merely observe the mineral-physical world of stars above him; in those most ancient times, he had an organ with which to behold the secret of the constellations. It was, especially, a customary art in certain Mysteries of olden time, to observe the Moon establishing its various positions through the constellations of the Zodiac. They knew that when the Moon was shining from the region of the Pleiades, or from Taurus, it signified something quite different than if it were shining from some other region of the sky. Likewise the other planets in their several constellations were brought home to the consciousness of men. It was, however, a very different consciousness from what has remained to us in this materialistic epoch. They knew, moreover, that the Mystery of human death is connected with what is thus spoken to man by the starry constellations. Throughout the ever-changing association of the fixed stars with the several planets, they saw the expression, as it were, of a language which he who sojourns in the body hears from the Earth, while at the same time the souls of the dead perceive it from the other side. They were clearly conscious of the fact that when a man gives himself up with devotion to the language of the stars, he lives in that element which receives the human being when he passes through the Gate of Death.

They looked on birth as on a Question, in those ancient times; and the old kind of Mysticism—that is, the experience in consciousness of the invisible or super-sensible Man—was intended as an answer to this question. What the stars were speaking through their constellations,—they did not regard it as a mere outer fact, to be summed-up as we are wont to do. No! in the times of the old Mysteries—the Mysteries of the Stars, the Mysteries of Light—they regarded the starry constellations as a Question, and human death as the real answer thereto. (Even as birth was associated with the super-sensible Man, so was death associated with the constellations. Hence we may truly call the ‘Mysteries of Fire’ the Mysteries of Birth, the Christmas Mysteries; and the ‘Mysteries of Light’ the Star-Mysteries—the East Mysteries, the Mysteries of Death. And we may add: those Mysteries which afterwards merged into the real secret of Christmas, are the ones which really underlie all that humanity possessed by way of Mystery secrets, before Golgotha, in ancient India and Egypt. Chaldea and Western Asia was more the soil for Easter Mysteries—that is to say, for a Science of the Stars.

In Western Asia, especially among the so-called Iranian peoples and notably in the 3rd post-Atlantean epoch, the Science of the Stars was well developed. Only we must conceive that in the earliest times man had an exact super-sensible vision of the entity which clothes itself at birth with the physical body, just as he had on the other hand a direct vision and perception of the language of the stars. As I have often said, when ancient charts depict all manner of Beings in the Heavens, such Beings are no mere figment of human fancy. They are the image of what the old atavistic clairvoyance actually saw in the starry sky; for the old atavistic consciousness did really see the human being in connection with the entire Universe. This consciousness was thoroughly aware of the truth that the cosmos is a self-contained organism—in which organism we, as Man, do live and move and have our being.

This consciousness, needless to say, has been lost. It must be regained by mankind in course of the 5th post-Atlantean epoch; and that, in all essentials, by the two streams aforesaid—the streams of Star-wisdom and of Mysticism—finding one another once more. In ancient times they could appear distinct—two separate poles, as it were. In our time it must be possible to unite the Christmas and the Easter Mystery in one; to see them as the two sides of one and the same Being.

When we transplant ourselves into ancient times of human knowledge, we find a clear awareness of the fact that the Zodiac is not only to be found up yonder in the Heavens, but that man too carries within him the same law and principle as is represented for example by the Zodiac,—that is to say, by the farthest circumference of the Universe of the fixed stars.

You know that in olden times not only certain places in the Heavens were thus named, as Aries and Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, etc., but the human being too was membered thus: head = Aries; neck = Taurus; the two sides of man in their lateral symmetry = Gemini; the chest and ribs = Cancer; the heart as Leo, and so on, Man bears microcosmically within him the several regions which are also the fundamental places of the Heavens. This connection of microcosm and macrocosm was deemed most essential in those ancient times. Man, as it were, bore within him the Heavens of the fixed stars, by virtue of the Zodiac which represents it. It was said, of old time: When a man uses his larynx in speech, there sounds forth from him the same cosmic stream which flows down to us from the cosmos when the Moon is shining from the Pleiades. They felt the kinship of the Light and of that which the Light carries down when the Moon is shining from the region of the Pleiades,—they felt the kinship of this macrocosmic stream with that which issues from man when he makes use of his larynx. So too with the Sun. So too, they felt Man penetrated with the same law and principle that works in the planetary system, yet with this difference:—They knew that the system of the fixed stars corresponds to fixed places in Man, namely, the Ram to the head, the neck to the Bull, and so on. Fixed portions of the human being were thus associated with the heaven of the fixed stars. Those organs on the other hand which represent, as it were, the mobile element in man, sending the saps and fluids throughout man's nature, were connected by them, and rightly, with the planetary system. Man is himself, as it were, a heaven of the fixed stars, and he carries a planetary system within him. Thus in the oldest Mysteries they conceived an intimate relationship as between Man and the whole cosmos.

To perceive the full scope and range of this matter, must, however, also bear the following in mind. In man we have the several constellations like fixed places—Aries the head, Taurus the neck, and so on. Thereby, man stands in a certain relation—a quite individual relation—to the starry heavens. Assume for a moment that a man is born to-day in the Spring, when the Sun rises in Pisces. Pisces will be quite especially determined by his inner system of fixed stars. Now Pisces is associated with the feet,—that is to say, with what man experiences through his feet, inasmuch as he is born in the Spring, when the Sun rises in Pisces, a man is born with that part of his being which corresponds to this particular constellation to the Sun. If he were born at another season of the year, his constellation would be less in accordance with the cosmic constellation. Nowadays, this attunement or non-attunement of the human being is determined according to certain hard-and-fast schemes. In the ancient Mysteries they felt in a very living way the peculiar unison, the sounding-together of the human constellation after birth with the heavenly constellation.

Now you will bear in mind that a very special constellation existed in the age of Aries, precisely in the Mystery of Golgotha. For at that very time the whole of mankind, with that portion of the human being which corresponds to the head, was in harmony with the constellation of Aries in the Spring. Here was another reason why those who knew the Mysteries felt something quite peculiar in this correspondence of the human constellation of the head with the constellation of the Cosmos. Man is related, through the head, not with the Earth but with the Cosmos. Through the head, therefore, he is especially adapted to receive the forces of the Cosmos. With his head—that is to say, with his Aries—he reaches out into the Cosmos. What constellation will therefore be the most favourable one, of all that can exist in the Cycle of 25,920 years in which we are now living? Precisely that, in which the constellation of the Ram is with the rising Sun in Spring. In short, I wish to indicate this fact. They studied Man in his whole being, in his attunement with the macrocosm. They studied this especially because they were well aware how much depended, even for earthly events, on this attunement of Man with the macrocosm.

They perceived the manifold secrets of these constellations of the stars; and they always knew that with every secret of a starry constellation a human secret is connected. More and more, they tried to express how each secret of the stars is connected with an inner secret of Man. It is remarkable how far they got in this direction with their ancient science. We see it in the Pyramids. Even if crudely studied, the structure of the Pyramids proves to contain all manner of secrets. Take the length of the four basic sides, forming the plan of the Pyramid; compare it with the height. It corresponds exactly to the proportion of the diameter of a circle to its circumference. It is a true correspondence to a large number of decimal places. But it not only applies to things like this. Certain sub-divisions in the Pyramids correspond to the Zodiacal sub-divisions of the macrocosm. The weight of the Pyramids—it has only been calculated approximately—is a certain fraction of the weight of the whole Earth. Certain measurements of the Pyramids, multiplied by a power of 18, give you the distance from the Earth to the Sun. In short, such are the measurements of the Pyramids that they can only be the result of a marvellous and intimate knowledge of the relationships of the stars and the Heavens.

These Pyramids were not really the work of the Egyptians, Whenever conquerors came into Egypt from Iranian countries, from Western Asia, they created Pyramidal structures, The Egyptians learned to build Pyramids from these peoples, peoples who possessed Star-Mysteries; their own Mysteries were not Star-Mysteries, but rather a kind of Christmas Mysteries.

The study of the Pyramids had led to this result, even during the 19th century. Men like Carus declared that the pure study of the Mysteries was enough to show us that there was a Science in ancient times which has since been lost, and which is calculated to make the civilisation of to-day blush for shame. These are Carus' own words, not mine. The humanity of to-day are not very prone to believe that there existed in primeval human times a science—acquired by somewhat different means, it is true—but a true science none the less, able to shed its light into deep secrets of the Cosmos.

But the most important thing is not the mere fact that the Wise Men of those Mysteries were acquainted with such distant cosmic measures or secreted them into the structure of the Pyramids. The most remarkable is quite another thing. It was by no means an abstract knowledge which they had, of man's relation to the Universe of stars. It was a very concrete knowledge—a knowledge whereby Man could feel himself within the whole Cosmos. He knew that with his head, which he turns freely to the Cosmos, he is directly related to the Heaven of the fixed stars. All that appeared to the human being as the secret of the head—the Wise Men of the Mysteries perceived it as the secrets of the heaven of the fixed stars. And it is perfectly true the human head is formed by the heaven of the fixed stars. It is but a materialistic prejudice of to-day to suppose that everything is inherited from the ancestors,—that everything comes from the germ. The germ itself—in so far as it is the germ of the head—is informed and filled with forces, within the human mother, by the heaven of the fixed stars. According to his head, Man is connected with the fixed stars. His head is an image of the whole heaven of the fixed stars. You may read of it from another point of view in my booklet, The Spiritual Guidance of Mankind, where I have also touched upon this matter. Likewise on the other side, the rest of the human organism corresponds to all that is connected with the secret of the Sun. Even in this direction, Man is really of a twofold nature; and this was well known to those Wise Men of the ancient Mysteries who were the keepers of the Star-Mysteries, or Easter Mysteries. Man is a twofold nature: his head is assigned to the heaven of the fixed stars; and the rest of his body, with the centre in the heart, to the Sun.

Now these ancient astronomers (or you may call them astrologers, if you will) knew something else as well. When we observe the stars in their relation to the Sun, we see the Sun gradually remaining behind as against the movement of the fixed stars. Thereby the vernal point keeps on appearing at a different place; the Sun is always being left behind a little. The stars seem to go a little quicker in their annual movement than the Sun. And the strange thing is (though for the old astronomers it was not strange at all—it was a deep and significant Mystery for them) that after 72 years the fixed stars in their movement have sped on exactly a day ahead of the Sun—one day in 72 years.

What does this signify, transferred to Man; For the old astronomers it was fraught with meaning, though for the clever people of to-day, no doubt, it may seem nonsense. It meant that among all other things we also have in us this twofold, fixed-star and solar nature. With our head we go quicker than with the rest of our body. And when we have lived for 72 years (these things, of course, arc only to be taken approximately), our head has gone ‘ahead’ of the rest of our body by a whole day of stars. That is why the average—as I have often explained from other points of view—human life lasts for 72 years. It can be much longer, of course, or shorter as the case may be; but on the average, the span of human life is 72 years. All this is connected with the duality between the course of life in the head, and in the rest of the human body. It corresponds exactly to the duality of the movements of the heaven of the fixed stars and of the Sun.

So does Man stand as a microcosm in the macrocosm. In those olden times, Man was indeed able to feel himself within the macrocosm, just as our little finger now feels itself to be part and parcel of the organism as a whole. Man was really able to feel himself a member of the whole.

And they considered this the most important thing: to perceive how human life is connected with the secret of the stars. Therefore especially the Mystery of death, the Easter Mystery, was associated with the Star-Mystery.

The Christian World-conception now had the task of connecting the two together. This must essentially be contained in the concrete development of Christian World-conceptions. The Mystery of birth, the Christmas Mystery, the Mystery of super-sensible Man on the side of birth, must be connected with the Mystery of death, the Easter Mystery, the Mystery of the super-sensible Man on the side of death.

That which is generally known as Science nowadays, concerns itself with birth; that which is generally known as Religion, concerns itself with death. The Religion of to-day lacks any inclination to turn to the super-sensible Man. It sounds a strange thing to say; but the mere fact that Religion still talks of the super-sensible Man does not imply that it has any strong inclination to concern itself with super-sensible Man in any real way. For we can only concern ourselves with the super-sensible Man if we take our start from what was felt most strongly in the ancient Mysteries of Christmas—that is to say, if, taking our start from birth, we find our way through birth into human pre-existence. Therefore the Mysteries of birth laid the greatest stress on the pre-existence—the existence before birth—of super-sensible Man. The other Mysteries—those that then culminated in the Easter Mysteries—laid especial stress on the post-existence, on the existence of Man beyond death. It is to this latter side that the Religions have inclined, at the same time rejecting the Science that is connected therewith, namely the wisdom of the stars. Meanwhile the Science of to-day, which concerns itself chiefly with problems of descent—with all that belongs to birth—has rejected what leads to the super-sensible Man and to the conscious experience of him, which is true Mysticism.

Thus it has come about that Science on the one hand, by rejecting the super-sensible Man, has become materialistic; while on the other hand Religion, by declining to study the super-sensible Man, has become unscientific. In our time the two are standing side by side, without any bridge between them. Those who seem to represent Religion—though in reality, broadly speaking, they only want to “guard their pounds and talents”—those who call themselves official representatives of the religious faiths, are most annoyed when you speak of the pre-existence of the soul, that is, of super-sensible Man in his reality.

Needless to say, I have been speaking of all this only in the briefest aphorisms. I only wished to emphasise how we must try once more to widen out man's vision, beyond what is immediately present in the physical world. Inasmuch as we have pointed to the two directions in the Mysteries, our outlook has indeed been widened in the two directions in which the sense world must he transcended. For on the one hand we must seek again for the true inner Man, who can only be found within us by the path described in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment. That is the one side; and the other is, to seek in a new form for what the stars can say to us. But we shall only find it in its new form if we are able once again to bring into direct relation to the Macrocosm what is there in Man himself. Such is the inner composition a book like Occult Science. Here the attempt is made once more to build the bridge between Man and the Macrocosm. What can be found in man himself, the evolution of man, is connected with that in the macrocosm to which man's evolution belongs. Definite stages in the evolution of man are connected with definite processes in the macrocosm. Thus, in our anthroposophical Spiritual Science we have begun again to look in both directions—to look for the super-sensible man and for the secrets of the Macrocosm. This also means the building of it bridge, once more, between Religion and Science.

Religion has become void of science. Any one who will, can see that it is so. And, that the science of to-day has become void of Religion, is still more obvious. Quite unconnectedly, the two stand side by side in the so-called civilisation of our time. In this way alone was it possible for such strange errors to arise as I described in these lectures,—errors of which the sharp-witted intellectual theories of Dupuis are a particulate example. Dupuis, as I said, considered the ancient Mysteries mere error and deceit. He believed that in those ancient Mysteries certain tales were invented merely in order to delude the people, while in reality they had nothing else in view than the mere movements of the stars. Dupuis made the simple mistake of believing that the Ancients could see nothing else in the star-lit sky than a modern astronomer can see; whereas in reality, what the modern astronomer sees in the star-lit sky is precisely equivalent to what the modern anatomist sees in the human body. Just as the corpse is not the man, so too, the content of modern Astronomy is not the real heaven of the stars. Natural-scientific Astronomy is only in its initial stages; it has experienced no more, as yet, than a mere mathematical, mechanical and summary description of what goes on in the great Universe outside us. Study what is afforded by the Astronomy of to-day; you will find mathematical and mechanical relationships; it is the mere expression of an immense celestial machinery. Meanwhile, all that takes place on Earth (with the exception of the coarsest physical processes), the scientist only seeks to investigate on the Earth itself. Wherever a plant arises, wherever a human being or an animal is born, it is all supposed to be due to “inheritance.” For it goes without saying, you can in no way apply to man what the modern astronomer finds in the stars. But in real fact there is a mutual interplay between the starry Heavens and the Earth. No seed or germ can arise on the Earth—neither the germ of a plant, nor of an animal or man—unless it be prepared and laid down by the whole macrocosm.

What does the scientist of to-day say? Here is the hen, and in the hen, the egg. It goes without saying: from the egg a new hen is derived, and from the hen an egg again, and thence again a hen. Therefore the scientist follows it up from hen to hen. Whereas the truth is: Here are the starry heavens, here is the hen. The whole of the heavens send their forces, from all the constellations, into the hen; and the germ inside the hen is an expression of the entire heaven of the stars.

It is strange to look into the course of evolution in this respect. A science existed, once upon a time, which might well make the people of to-day blush for shame. It has been lost and ruined. We must be conscious that we are living to this day in the age of a lost science. The first beginnings of a science have been planted again in a new form, and they must be developed. What is admired so much, in the progress of science during the last four centuries, can only justly be admired if looked upon as a beginning. It is only when the bridge is built from this beginning to the real Mysteries of Christmas and Easter—only when this bridge is built, at least for human feeling—that something real will have been achieved.

We should make this thought living in our soul, for this thought alone is prone to unite the man of to-day, in his soul, with the Universe. Every seed is united with the macrocosm; the seeds of the Spirit likewise. Man unites himself with the macrocosm when he tries to receive into his soul a macrocosmic science. To begin with at least in the idea, in the intuition thereof, this consciousness of the macrocosmic connections of Man and the Earth needs to be carried into all branches of life. Our time is far remote from such a consciousness. In this respect, our time is indeed in a certain sense in the reverse position, as compared with a certain epoch of the past. For we may ask: How could a primeval wisdom of mankind—so great and so far-reaching that this present time could blush for shame to contemplate it,—how could such a science have been lost? We need not wonder very much that it was lost. We must remember that in the evolution of humanity the positive is most certainly connected with the negative aspect. We have often spoken of the progress humanity has undergone by the spread of Christianity; let us not, however, forget that the spread of Christianity—the positive aspect—is also connected with the negative aspect of the same, namely the laying-waste of an ancient culture. Let us not forget that tens of thousands of works of ancient culture were destroyed while Christianity was being spread abroad. Thousands and thousands of symbols in which the Ancient Wisdom had been handed down, were destroyed. People to-day have little conception of the ruthless work of destruction which culminated in the third and fourth centuries of our era. Julian the Apostate still tried to some extent to stem this work of destruction; but the time was against him. He did not succeed. Humanity to-day ought to be well aware how many things were destroyed and lost and ruined in those centuries.

Precisely from such things, we can learn that evolution, so-called, is by no means simple. Suppose for a moment that Christianity had not gone on its way through the world as an appalling destroyer. Mankind would have had to remain in their old state of un-freedom. For the attainment of freedom is after all, only possible by that Impulse which is also the Impulse of the Mystery of Golgotha.

On the other hand, the negative side must not be allowed to get the upper hand. For there exists a certain spirit which has preserved far more the negative aspect of Christianity. It appears in this form to-day: it wants to destroy—this time, in the soul-life—all that arises towards the re-conquest of the Ancient Wisdom. This ought not to be allowed to happen. To-day, again and again—wherever they have the opportunity—the so-called official representatives of Christianity bring forward this idea: “At the time of Christ,” they say, “in the apostolic age, there were Revelations. To-day no such thing is permissible. Today it is sin or swindle or deceit; it is anti-Christian.” To see clearly in these matters is also one of the tasks of today, for every human being who strives for the truth. The striving for clarity is one of the essential tasks for to-day. Alas! in other matters too, clarity has grown befogged by all manner of feelings which people associate with mere empty phrases. I do believe the healthy feeling of the truth can only be sought and found again along the paths of the Spirit.

Words are terribly misused to-day. Think of all the words that are sounding through the world to-day, and taken seriously as though there were anything contained in the empty words. In this domain, Spiritual Science is no less important as an educator than by its immediate contents. If it claims to be true Spiritual Science, it can never feed men with mere words. Why not? For the very simple reason that you can talk of anything nowadays if you remain at the mere words, if you remain at the mere words, you can talk much about Natural Science. Fritz Mauthner proves, in his dictionary that Natural Science, whenever it claims to become a “Science,”—whenever it goes beyond the mere notification of facts,—becomes a science of mere words. And in the science of History there is nothing else than words, for—as I told you—everything else is passed-through by man in a dreaming condition. And so it is in other spheres. In Politics,—go to work uprightly and honestly, and you will probably find still less behind the words than in the other spheres of life. If you hold to the mere words, you can talk a lot nowadays about Nature and History and Politics and Economics. But you can not talk of the Spirit if you hold fast to the mere words for the Spirit, to-day, is nowhere contained in the words. I mean this in all earnestness. Yet the converse is also true. Namely, in compensation for this, the Spiritual Science of to-day is a real education, for men to grow beyond the prevailing attachment to words.

It is the paramount task of those who believe in Anthroposophy to go beyond the words to the real things; and—as the “thing” of Spiritual Science is the Spirit itself—this means to go beyond the words to the Spirit. This will be fruitful; this will endow us with new purposes and aims in all domains of life One fruit, above all, it will bear. It will liberate—all those who are willing to be liberated—from the belief in authority; from that credulity and superstition which is so widespread in the humanity of to-day—so widespread that they even fail to notice its existence. Alas! many a bitter experience will still be necessary for poor mankind of to-day to find its way, more or less, on to the path to which I here refer.

The poor humanity of to-day!—it prides itself on the very thing which it most lacks, namely, on freedom from faith in authority, freedom from idol-worship. In the eyes of him who knows the Spirit, many an idol of the past is worth more than the idols of the present. As to the idols of the present... The conscious man, no doubt, has fallen out of the habit of prayer; but the unconscious man prays to the idols of the present all the more fervently. For in the eyes of him who sees through the evolution of the world, the Woodrow Wilsons and the rest are far more perilous idols of superstition than any idols of the past. The humanity of to-day is far more attached to its idols and superstitions than ever primeval humanity were attached to theirs. Even the clearest signs will scarcely avail the humanity of to-day. Precisely in these things, they are extraordinarily difficult to bring on to the oaths of truth.

The earnestness of the moment does indeed require it again and again.—Even when we bring forward truths that reach out into such far and wide perspectives, we must conclude with such remarks as I have made just now. It is essential to Spiritual Science to serve real life; and that which claims to be serving life nowadays is serving it least of all.

Fünfter Vortrag

Im christlichen Bewußtsein der Gegenwart sind noch — oder könnten wenigstens noch angesehen werden — zwei Pole, welche gewissermaßen die äußersten Enden der Weltanschauung darstellen: das Weihnachtsgeheimnis und das Ostergeheimnis. Wenn Sie nur äußerlich zunächst vergleichend anschauen das Weihnachtsgeheimnis und das Ostergeheimnis, so kann Ihnen auffallen, daß das Weihnachtsgeheimnis eigentlich das Geburtsgeheimnis ist. Es stellt dar die Geburt des Christus Jesus. Damit knüpft es an das Geburtsgeheimnis überhaupt an. Das Ostermysterium knüpft in ebensolcher Weise an das Todesgeheimnis an, indem es festlich sich anlehnt an den Tod des Christus Jesus. Geburt und Tod aber begrenzen ja das menschliche Leben, insofern es verläuft im physischen Leib. Und man kann in der Tat sagen, gegenüber dem, was dem Menschen vorliegt als Sichtbares seines Wesens, verschleiern ihm Geburt und Tod das Unsichtbare seines Wesens. Gewissermaßen sind auch Geburt und Tod die beiden Tore zur unsichtbaren Welt.

Dadurch, daß diese beiden Tore zur unsichtbaren Welt zur Grundlage des christlichen Jahres gemacht worden sind, indem in dieses christliche Jahr eben das Weihnachts- und das Osterfest hineingestellt werden, dadurch knüpft in der Tat die christliche Weltanschauung an das Mysterienwesen der ganzen Welt an. Denn, wo wir Umschau halten nach den Mysterien, unter den verschiedensten Völkern, auf den verschiedensten Gebieten der Erde, wir finden überall, daß die Mysterien entweder anknüpfen an das Geheimnis der Geburt oder anknüpfen an das Geheimnis des Todes. Allerdings, so offen, daß die Anknüpfungen immer gleich sichtbar werden, liegt die Sache nicht vor, denn in mehr mittelbarer, indirekter Weise knüpften gewisse Mysterien - ich spreche jetzt natürlich nur von der nachatlantischen Zeit - an das Geburtsgeheimnis an. Es waren insbesondere diejenigen Mysterien, welche in den Mittelpunkt ihres Mysterienwesens das stellten, was die profane Welt das Heilige Feuer nennt. Aber dieses Heilige Feuer ist eben durchaus etwas anderes, als was die profane Welt verstehen kann.

Dieses Heilige Feuer ist eigentlich der Mensch, wie er als übersinnlicher Mensch dem sinnlichen Menschen zugrunde liegt. Das, was durch die Geburt heruntersteigt aus den geistigen Höhen, um sich auszugestalten in einem physischen Leibe, dieser unsichtbare Mensch, aber für das alte atavistische Hellsehen eben wahrnehmbare übersinnliche Mensch, ist eigentlich dasjenige, was die profane Welt unter dem Heiligen Feuer, man könnte auch sagen, unter der Heiligen Wärme versteht, wenn sie das Symbolum dieses Menschen, das Feuer verehrt. Das ist dasjenige Mysterienwesen, welches also ausgeht von dem übersinnlichen Menschen, der dem sinnlichen Menschen zugrunde liegt, so daß er durch die Geburt sich mit der sinnlichen Hülle umkleidet. Das ist das Mysterium, welches dann übergegangen ist in das Weihnachtsgeheimnis, das Mysterium, das also eigentlich das Mysterium der Geburt ist.

Noch verhüllter ist das andere Mysterienwesen, welches mit dem Geheimnis des Todes zusammenhängt. Denn dieses Mysterienwesen knüpft an das Licht an, so wie das andere an das Feuer anknüpft. Aber mit diesem Lichte ist etwas anderes gemeint, geradeso wie mit dem Feuer. Mit dem Licht ist gemeint das, was zu den Menschen spricht, wenn der nächtliche Sternenhimmel seine Lichtsprache zu den Menschen sendet. Die Mysterien des Lichtes in alten Zeiten, in den Zeiten, bevor das Mysterium von Golgatha gekommen ist, waren eigentlich im Grunde alle astrologische Mysterien. Nur müssen wir uns wiederum klarmachen, daß diese alte Astrologie nicht mit der abstrakten Mathematik betrieben worden ist, wie das heute geschieht, sondern mit atavistischer Hellseherkraft, daß der Mensch nicht bloß die mineralisch-physikalische Sternenwelt über sich beobachtete, sondern daß er in diesen ältesten Zeiten ein Organ hatte, die Geheimnisse der Sternenkonstellationen zu erschauen.

Insbesondere war es in diesen alten Zeiten eine gebräuchliche Kunst gewisser Mysterien, den Mond zu beobachten, wie er durch die verschiedenen Sternbilder des Tierkreises hindurch sich seine Stellungen schafft. Man wußte, wenn der Mond aus der Gegend her scheint, in der die Plejaden stehen, wenn der Mond aus der Stiergegend her scheint, so bedeutet das etwas anderes, als wenn der Mond aus einer andern Himmelsgegend her scheint. Und so brachte man auch die andern Planeten in ihren Konstellationen in das Bewußtsein des Menschen herein, aber in ein anderes Bewußtsein als dasjenige, das für das materialistische Zeitalter noch geblieben ist, und man war sich klar darüber, daß mit dem, was sich da ausspricht durch die Sternenkonstellationen, zusammenhängt das Mysterium des menschlichen Todes.

In dem ganzen wechselnden Zusammensein der Fixsterne mit den Planeten sah man gewissermaßen den Ausdruck einer Sprache, welche sich der im Leibe Lebende von der Erde aus anhört, und welche der Tote von der andern Seite her vernimmt. Und so hatte man ein deutliches Bewußtsein davon: Wenn man sich der Sternensprache hingibt, so lebt man in demjenigen Elemente, das den Menschen aufnimmt, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes tritt. Die Geburt hat man in alten Zeiten gewissermaßen angesehen wie eine Art von Frage, und die alte Mystik, das Erleben des unsichtbaren, des übersinnlichen Menschen, sollte die Antwort auf diese Frage sein. Was die Sterne sprechen durch ihre Konstellationen, das hat man nicht als eine Tatsache angesehen, nicht als irgend etwas, das man so zusammenfaßt, wie man es heute zusammenfaßt, sondern die Sternenkonstellationen hat man eigentlich in älteren Zeiten, in den Zeiten der alten Mysterien, der Sternenmysterien, der Lichtmysterien, als Frage angesehen und den menschlichen Tod als die Antwort auf diese Frage. So, wie die Geburt zusammengebracht wurde mit dem übersinnlichen Menschen, so wurde der Tod zusammengebracht mit den Sternenkonstellationen. Daher kann man auch die Mysterien des Feuers die Mysterien der Geburt, die Weihnachtsmysterien nennen; man kann die Mysterien des Lichtes oder die Sternenmysterien auch nennen die Ostermysterien, die Mysterien des Todes. Man kann sagen: Die Mysterien, die dann in das Weihnachtsgeheimnis übergegangen sind, liegen hauptsächlich zugrunde alldem, was die Menschheit in den Zeiten vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha in Indien, in Ägypten als Mysteriengeheimnisse gehabt hat. Dagegen in Chaldäa und Vorderasien war mehr der Boden für die Ostermysterien, war mehr der Boden für die Sternenwissenschaft.

Diese Sternenwissenschaft hat gerade in Vorderasien bei den sogenannten iranischen Völkern der dritten nachatlantischen Periode vorzugsweise ihre ganz besondere Ausbildung erfahren. Nur muß man sich eben vorstellen, daß in ältesten Zeiten ebenso auf der einen Seite eine genaue übersinnliche Anschauung vorhanden war von dem, was sich bei der Geburt mit dem physischen Leib umhüllt, wie auf der anderen Seite eine anschauliche Erkenntnis der Sternensprache vorhanden war. Wenn alte Sternkarten allerlei Wesen auf den Himmel zeichnen, um die Sterne zu verbinden, so sind das - und ich habe das schon öfter gesagt - nicht Ausflüsse der menschlichen Phantasie, sondern es sind Abbildungen desjenigen, was das alte atavistische Bewußtsein tatsächlich am Himmel gesehen hat. Denn dieses alte atavistische Bewußtsein hat wirklich den Menschen im ganzen Zusammenhang gesehen mit dem Weltenall. Es hat dieses alte Bewußtsein tatsächlich das in sich aufgenommen, daß der Kosmos ein Organismus ist, und daß man in diesem Organismus drinnen webt und lebt als Mensch.

Dieses Bewußtsein ist natürlich verlorengegangen. Es muß im Laufe des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraumes von der Menschheit wiederum erworben werden, und zwar im wesentlichen dadurch, daß die beiden getrennten Strömungen der Sternenweisheit und der Mystik sich wiederum finden. In alten Zeiten konnten sie gewissermaßen getrennt als zwei verschiedene Pole auftreten. In dieser unserer Zeit muß das Weihnachtsmysterium mit dem Ostermysterium verbunden werden können, die beiden müssen als die zwei Seiten eines Wesens gesehen werden können. Wenn wir uns zurückversetzen in Zeiten früherer menschlicher Erkenntnis, so finden wir ein deutliches Bewußtsein davon, daß nicht nur da droben am Himmel der Tierkreis zu finden ist, sondern daß auch der Mensch dieselbe Gesetzmäßigkeit in sich trägt, die zum Beispiel der Tierkreis, also im weitesten Umfange die Fixsternwelt darstellt. Sie wissen ja, daß in älteren Zeiten nicht nur gewisse Orte am Himmel: Widder, Stier, Zwillinge, Krebs, Löwe und so weiter genannt worden sind, sondern daß auch die menschliche Wesenheit gegliedert worden ist nach: Kopf als Widder, Hals als Stier, die beiden seitlichen symmetrischen Teile als Zwillinge, der Brustkorb als Krebs, das Herz als Löwe und so weiter, so daß der Mensch in der Tat mikrokosmisch die verschiedenen Orte in sich trägt, welche auch die Grundorte des Himmels sind. Diesen Zusammenhang des Makrokosmos und Mikrokosmos betrachtete man als etwas Wichtiges und Wesentliches in alten Zeiten. Und wie der Mensch gewissermaßen den Fixsternhimmel in sich trug durch seinen Repräsentanten im Tierkreis, wurde er zum Beispiel auch so angesehen, daß man sagte: Wenn der Mensch sich seines Kehlkopfes bedient zur Sprache, so tönt aus ihm derselbe Weltenstrom, welcher herabfließt aus dem Kosmos, wenn der Mond aus den Plejaden scheint. — Man fühlte die Verwandtschaft des Lichtes und desjenigen, was das Licht herabträgt, wenn der Mond aus der Plejadengegend her scheint, die Verwandtschaft dieses makrokosmischen Stromes mit dem, was aus dem Menschen kommt, wenn er sich seines Kehlkopfes bedient.

Ähnlich mit der Sonne. Ebenso fühlte man innerlich den Menschen durchdrungen von derselben Gesetzmäßigkeit, welche im Planetensystem wirkt. Nur war man sich bewußt, daß, während das Fixsternsystem im Menschen entspricht fixen Stätten: der Widder dem Kopf, der Hals dem Stier und so weiter, während man also fixe Teile der menschlichen Wesenheit mit dem Fixsternhimmel zusammenbrachte, brachte man diejenigen Organe, welche im Menschen gewissermaßen das bewegliche Element darstellen, dasjenige, welches die Säfte durch den ganzen Organismus schickt, mit dem Planetensystem in einen richtigen Zusammenhang. So wie der Mensch gewissermaßen ein Fixsternhimmel ist, so trägt er auch ein Planetensystem in sich. Damit war für die ältesten Mysterien in der Tat eine enge Beziehung gedacht zwischen dem Menschen und dem ganzen Kosmos.

Nun müssen wir das Folgende bedenken, wenn wir die ganze Tragweite ins Auge fassen wollen. Im Menschen haben wir doch gewissermaßen die Sternbilder als fixe Orte: Widder als Kopf, Stier als Hals und so weiter. Dadurch steht der Mensch in einer gewissen Beziehung, in einer individuellen, in einer ganz besonderen Beziehung zum Sternenhimmel. Denn nehmen Sie einmal an, ein Mensch ist heute in der Frühlingszeit geboren, wo die Sonne aufgeht in den Fischen, dann wirkt dasjenige, was ganz besonders bestimmt ist durch seine inneren Fixsterne: Fische. Das ist, Fische werden in Zusammenhang gebracht mit den Füßen, das heißt aber mit alledem, was der Mensch durch seine Füße erlebt. Es wird also der Mensch dadurch, daß er zur Frühlingszeit geboren ist, wenn die Sonne in den Fischen aufgeht am Morgen, gewissermaßen mit demjenigen Teil seines Wesens geboren, das gerade dieser Sonnenkonstellation entspricht. Wird er zu einer andern Jahreszeit geboren, so stimmt seine Konstellation mit der kosmischen Frühlingskonstellation weniger zusammen.

Heute wird dieses Zusammenstimmen oder Nichtzusammenstimmen des Menschen nach gewissen Schemen bestimmt. In den alten Mysterien empfand man eine solche Sache sehr lebendig. Man empfand das eigentümliche Zusammentönen der menschlichen Konstellation nach der Geburt mit der Himmelskonstellation. Aber nun bedenken Sie, daß eine besondere Konstellation im Widderzeitalter gerade im Mysterium von Golgatha vorhanden war. Da war gewissermaßen die ganze Menschheit mit dem Teil ihres Wesens, das gerade dem Kopf entspricht, zusammenstimmend mit der Widderkonstellation des Frühlings. Das war aber ein weiterer Grund, daß die Kenner der Mysterien in diesem eigentümlichen Zusammenstimmen der menschlichen Konstellation des Kopfes mit der Konstellation des Kosmos etwas ganz Besonderes empfanden. Durch den Kopf steht der Mensch nicht mit der Erde, sondern mit dem Kosmos in Beziehung; da ist er besonders geeignet, die Kräfte des Kosmos zu empfangen. Er streckt seinen Kopf, das heißt seinen Widder, in den Kosmos hinaus. Welche Konstellation muß also die günstigste sein von denen, die sein können in dem Zyklus von 25920 Jahren, in dem wir jetzt leben? Diejenige, in der die Widderkonstellation ist bei der aufgehenden Sonne im Frühling. - Kurz, ich will damit nur andeuten: man studierte die Art und Weise, wie der Mensch in seinem Wesen zusammenklang mit dem Makrokosmos. Und man studierte dieses insbesondere, weil man ein Bewußtsein davon hatte, was abhängig ist für das Erdengeschehen selber von diesem Zusammenklingen des Menschen mit dem Makrokosmos.

Die Menschen kamen hinter die verschiedensten Geheimnisse dieser Sternenkonstellation und wußten immer, daß mit jedem Geheimnis einer Sternenkonstellation auch ein menschliches Geheimnis zusammenhängt. Sie haben gewissermaßen gesucht immer mehr auszudrücken, wie ein Sternengeheimnis mit einem inneren menschlichen Geheimnis zusammenhängt. Es ist merkwürdig, wie weit die Menschen durch eine alte Wissenschaft in dieser Richtung gekommen sind. Das zeigt ja, was die Pyramiden lehren. Ganz roh die Pyramiden betrachtet, zeigt schon, daß in diesen Pyramidenbauten allerlei Geheimnisse stecken. Wenn man die Länge der vier Grundlinien, welche die Grundfläche der Pyramiden bilden, bei gewissen Pyramiden nimmt, sie mit der Höhe vergleicht, so entspricht das genau der Länge des Durchmessers eines Kreises zu dem Umfange, auf eine große Anzahl von Dezimalen.

Aber nicht nur so etwas, sondern es gibt gewisse Einteilungen in den Pyramiden, die den Einteilungen des Makrokosmos in bezug auf den Tierkreis entsprechen. Das Gewicht der Pyramiden - es ist ja nur annähernd berechnet worden - ist ein gewisser Teil des Erdengewichtes. Gewisse Abmessungen an den Pyramiden, wenn man sie multipliziert mit einer Potenz von achtzehn, geben die Entfernung der Erde von der Sonne. Kurz, die Abmessungen der Pyramiden sind solche, daß sie nur stammen können aus einer intimen, wunderbaren Erkenntnis der Verhältnisse des Sternenhimmels. Diese Pyramidenbauten haben nicht eigentlich die Ägypter gemacht, sondern immer, wenn Eroberer aus iranischen Gegenden, aus Vorderasien nach Ägypten gekommen sind, haben diese die Pyramidenbauten aufgeführt. Die Ägypter haben die Pyramiden erst bauen gelernt von solchen Völkern, welche Sternenmysterien gehabt haben, während die Ägypter selber nicht Sternenmysterien, sondern eine Art Weihnachtsmysterien gehabt haben.

Diese Betrachtung der Pyramiden hat im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts immerhin doch dazu geführt, daß einzelne Menschen, wie zum Beispiel Carus, gesagt haben: Einfach die Betrachtung der Pyramiden weist darauf hin, daß es in Urzeiten eine Wissenschaft gegeben hat, die verlorengegangen ist und deren Betrachtung geeignet ist, die Menschheit der Gegenwart schamrot werden zu lassen. - Das sind nicht meine Worte, sondern es sind Carus’ Worte! Das glaubt der heutige Mensch ja wirklich recht wenig, daß es in Urzeiten der Menschheit eine auf etwas andere Art erworbene Wissenschaft gegeben hat, aber eben eine Wissenschaft, welche in tiefe Geheimnisse des Weltenalls hineinleuchten konnte. Und das Bedeutende ist nicht einmal bloß das, daß diese Mysterienweisen so weite Abmessungen des Weltenalls kannten, daß sie das Geheimnis in den Bau der Pyramiden hineingelegt haben, sondern das Bemerkenswerte ist eben doch etwas ganz anderes noch. Es war nicht ein abstraktes Wissen, das man von der Beziehung des Menschen zu dem Sternenkosmos hatte, sondern es war wirklich ein ganz konkretes Wissen, ein Wissen, durch das sich der Mensch drinnenstehend erfühlte im Kosmos. Der Mensch wußte: er steht mit seinem Haupte, das er frei hinausrichtet in den Kosmos, in unmittelbarer Beziehung zum Fixsternhimmel. Alles dasjenige also, was der Mensch als die Geheimnisse seines Hauptes betrachtete, betrachteten diese Mysterienweisen als Geheimnisse des Fixsternhimmels. Das Haupt des Menschen wird in der Tat ausgebildet vom Fixsternhimmel. Es ist ja nur ein heutiges materialistisches Vorurteil, daß alles von den Vorfahren geerbt wird, daß alles aus dem Keime stamme. Der Keim selbst wird, insofern er Haupteskeim ist, in der menschlichen Mutter vom Fixsternhimmel ausgekraftet.

Wie der Mensch mit dem Fixsternhimmel nach seinem Haupte zusammenhängt, wie das Haupt ein Abbild des Fixsternhimmels ist — von einem andern Gesichtspunkte können Sie darüber nachlesen in meiner kleinen Schrift «Die geistige Führung des Menschen und der Menschheit», wo ich die Sache auch berührt habe -, so ist auf der andern Seite der übrige menschliche Organismus zugeteilt alldem, was mit dem Geheimnisse der Sonne zusammenhängt. So daß der Mensch eigentlich — das wußten die alten Mysterienweisen, welche Sternenmysterien, Ostermysterien pflegten - zwiefacher Natur nach dieser Richtung schon ist: sein Haupt ist dem Fixsternhimmel zugeteilt, der übrige Organismus mit dem Herzen als Mittelpunkte ist der Sonne zugeteilt.

Nun wußten diese alten Astronomen - oder nennen Sie sie meinetwillen Astrologen - auch noch etwas anderes. Sie wußten: Wenn man die Sterne beobachtet in ihrem Verhältnis zur Sonne, so bleibt die Sonne gegenüber den Fixsternbewegungen nach und nach immer etwas zurück; dadurch erscheint ja der Frühlingspunkt immer an einem andern Punkt, die Sonne bleibt immer etwas zurück. Scheinbar gehen die Sterne schneller als die Sonne in der Jahresbewegung. Das Merkwürdige — was aber für die alten Astronomen nicht etwas Merkwürdiges, sondern ein bedeutsames Mysterium war — ist, daß nach zweiundsiebzig Jahren die Fixsterne der Sonne in ihren Bewegungen gerade um einen Tag vorangeeilt sind, um einen Tag in zweiundsiebzig Jahren. Dieses, auf den Menschen übertragen - für die alten ‚Astronomen hatte es Sinn, für die gescheiten Leute der Gegenwart ist es selbstverständlich Unsinn -, bedeutet, daß wir unter mancherlei anderem in uns selbst auch diese zwiespältige Fixstern- und Sonnennatur haben, daß wir mit unserem Haupte voraneilen unserem übrigen Organismus. Und wenn wir zweiundsiebzig Jahre gelebt haben, natürlich sind die Dinge approximativ zu betrachten, dann ist unser Haupt um einen Sternentag unserem übrigen Organismus vorangegangen, und daher ist das menschliche Leben durchschnittlich, ich habe es von andern Gesichtspunkten aus auch schon erörtert, ein zweiundsiebzigjähriges. Es kann natürlich viel länger sein, auch viel kürzer sein, aber durchschnittlich ein zweiundsiebzigjähriges. Das hängt zusammen mit der Zwiespältigkeit des Lebensverlaufes im menschlichen Haupte und im menschlichen übrigen Organismus, die genau entspricht der Zwiespältigkeit der Bewegungen am Fixsternhimmel und der Sonne. So steht der Mensch drinnen als ein Mikrokosmos im Makrokosmos. In jenen alten Zeiten war man eben in der Lage, sich selber so im Makrokosmos drinnen zu fühlen, wie jetzt der kleine Finger sich am ganzen Organismus fühlt, also als ein Glied des Ganzen sich zu fühlen.

Und weil man dieses als das Wichtigste betrachtete, daraufzukommen, wie das menschliche Leben zusammenhängt mit dem Geheimnis der Sterne, so kam insbesondere zusammen das Mysterium des Todes, das Ostermysterium, mit dem Sternenmysterium. Die christliche Weltanschauung hatte die Aufgabe, die beiden miteinander zu verknüpfen. Und in der Ausbildung der christlichen Weltanschauungen nach der konkreten Seite hin muß gewissermaßen das liegen, daß das Geburtsmysterium, das Weihnachtsmysterium, das Mysterium vom übersinnlichen Menschen nach der Geburtsseite hin, wiederum verknüpft wird mit dem Todes-, mit dem Ostermysterium, mit dem Mysterium des übersinnlichen Menschen nach der Todesseite hin.

Mit der Geburt befaßt sich dasjenige, was man heute vorzugsweise Wissenschaft nennt, mit dem Tode dasjenige, was man vorzugsweise Religion nennt. Der Religion von heute fehlt die Hinneigung zum übersinnlichen Menschen. Sonderbar gesagt, nicht wahr! Aber daß die Religion auch vom übersinnlichen Menschen spricht, ist kein Beweis, daß sie eine besondere Neigung hat, sich irgendwie mit dem übersinnlichen Menschen auch zu befassen. Mit dem übersinnlichen Menschen kann man sich nur befassen, wenn man anknüpft an dasjenige, was insbesondere empfunden worden ist in den Weihnachtsmysterien, wenn man anknüpft an die Geburt und durch die Geburt zur Präexistenz kommt. Daher haben die Geburtsmysterien auch vorzugsweise die Präexistenz, das Vor-der-Geburt-Existieren des übersinnlichen Menschen betont. Die andern Mysterien, die dann im Ostermysterium gipfelten, haben insbesondere die Postexistenz, die Existenz des Menschen über den Tod hinaus betont. Die Religionen haben sich dieser letzteren Seite mehr zugewendet. Aber sie haben die Wissenschaft, die damit in Verbindung steht, die Sternenweisheit, abgelehnt, so wie die Wissenschaft der heutigen Zeit selber, die sich ja mit der Abstammung befaßt, mit alledem, was zur Geburt gehört, abgelehnt hat dasjenige, was zum übersinnlichen Menschen, zum Erleben des übersinnlichen Menschen, zur Mystik führt.

Und so ist die Wissenschaft, indem sie abgelehnt hat den übersinnlichen Menschen, auf der einen Seite materialistisch geworden, und die Religion, indem sie es abgelehnt hat, den übersinnlichen Menschen zu betrachten, ist wissenschaftslos geworden. Beide stehen ohne Brücke nebeneinander in der Gegenwart. Und über nichts werden Menschen mehr aufgeregt — welche scheinbar die Religion vertreten, in Wahrheit aber nur mehr oder weniger ihre Pfründe verwalten wollen, die Menschen, die sich offizielle Vertreter der Religionsgemeinschaften nennen -, als wenn man von der Präexistenz der Seele, das heißt von dem übersinnlichen Menschen in Wirklichkeit redet.

Das alles, was ich sagte, war ja natürlich aphoristisch gemeint, aber es sollte hinweisen darauf, daß wieder gesucht werden muß eine Erweiterung des menschlichen Blickes über das unmittelbar in der physischen Welt Vorhandene hinaus. Und indem wir auf die beiden Mysterienrichtungen hingewiesen haben, eröffnen sich ja auch Ausblicke auf die Richtungen, in denen die Sinnenwelt überschritten werden muß: Auf der einen Seite, indem wieder gesucht werden muß der innere Mensch, welcher in uns gefunden werden kann auf dem Wege, der beschrieben ist in dem Buche «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?». Das ist die eine Seite. Die andere Seite ist diese, in der neuen Form zu suchen, was uns die Sterne sagen können. Das werden wir allerdings in der neuen Form nur finden, wenn wir dasjenige, was im Menschen selbst ist, wiederum in unmittelbare Beziehung zu bringen vermögen zu dem Makrokosmos. Nach diesem ist solch ein Buch wie meine «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß » konstruiert. Da ist wiederum gesucht, die Brücke zu schlagen zwischen dem Menschen und dem Makrokosmos, indem dasjenige, was im Menschen gefunden werden kann, die Evolution des Menschen, angeknüpft ist an dasjenige im Makrokosmos, wozu diese Evolution gehört, indem bestimmte Entwickelungsstadien des Menschen geknüpft sind an gewisse Vorgänge im Makrokosmos. Damit ist in unserer anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft ein Anfang genommen nach den beiden Richtungen hin: zu suchen sowohl wiederum nach dem übersinnlichen Menschen wie nach den Geheimnissen des Makrokosmos.

Damit aber wird auch wiederum eine Brücke geschlagen zwischen Religion und Wissenschaft. Die Religion ist wissenschaftslos geworden. Das kann ja jeder, der es will, bemerken. Noch mehr kann man bemerken, daß die Wissenschaft der Gegenwart religionslos geworden ist, daß beide ganz unvermittelt nebeneinander stehen in der sogenannten Kultur unserer Zeit. Nur aus diesem Grunde konnten jene eigenartigen Irrtümer entstehen, die ich Ihnen durch diese Betrachtungen versuchte zu charakterisieren; jene Irrtümer, von denen ein besonderes Beispiel die scharfsinnigen Unternehmungen von Dupuis sind, der geglaubt hat, daß in den alten Mysterien, die er überhaupt für Betrug und Irrtum hält, nur um das Volk zu täuschen, gewisse Erzählungen erfunden worden sind, während man eigentlich nichts in Aussicht gehabt hätte als nur Bewegungen der Sterne. Dupuis macht eben nur den Fehler, daß er glaubt, dasselbe, was ein heutiger Astronom am Sternenhimmel sieht, habe auch der alte bloß gesehen. Aber der heutige Astronom sieht ja am Sternenhimmel dasselbe, was ein heutiger Anatom vom Menschen sieht; und so wenig der Leichnam der Mensch ist, so wenig ist der Inhalt der heutigen Astronomie der Sternenhimmel.

Die naturwissenschaftliche Astronomie steht im Anfange. Sie hat es heute zu nicht weiteren Ergebnissen gebracht, als rein mechanisch-mathematisch zusammenzufassen dasjenige, was da draußen im Weltenall vor sich geht. Studieren Sie heute dasjenige, was Ihnen die Astronomie gibt: Sie können nur mathematisch-mechanische Verhältnisse finden, nur den Ausdruck einer großen Himmelsmaschinerie. Dagegen sucht der Naturforscher alles dasjenige, was hier auf der Erde vorgeht, mit Ausnahme der gröbsten physikalischen Vorgänge, auf der Erde selbst. Wenn irgendeine Pflanze entsteht, ein Tier geboren wird, ein Mensch geboren wird, so soll das alles auf Vererbung beruhen, weil selbstverständlich aus dem, was der heutige Astronom in den Sternen findet, man nicht irgendeine Anwendung auf den Menschen machen kann. Aber die Tatsache liegt vor, daß fortwährend ein Wechselverhältnis besteht zwischen dem Sternenhimmel und der Erde, daß kein Keim, weder ein Pflanzen-, noch ein Tier-, noch ein Menschenkeim auf der Erde entsteht, ohne daß dieser Keim von dem ganzen Makrokosmos angelegt wird. Man muß schon festhalten: Was tut der heutige Naturforscher? Er hat hier die Henne und in dieser das Ei. Selbstverständlich stammt von diesem Ei eine neue Henne, wiederum ein Ei, daraus eine neue Henne. So geht er von Henne zu Henne hinauf. Während die Sache in Wahrheit so ist: Hier ist der Sternenhimmel, hier ist die Henne, und der ganze Sternenhimmel sendet seine Kräfte aus den verschiedenen Konstellationen in die Henne hinein, und der Keim in der Henne ist der Ausdruck des gesamten Sternenhimmels.

Auf diese Weise sieht man, daß dasjenige, was heute Wissenschaft vom Himmel ist, was ja in einer gewissen großartigen Weise mit Kopernikus, Kepler, Galilei einen Anfang genommen hat, eben nur ein Anfang ist, und daß von da aus wiederum gewonnen werden muß ein Wissen, das jetzt nicht nur mechanischer Natur ist, das nicht nur von einer großen Himmelsmaschinerie handelt, sondern das gesamte Weltenall als Organismus, aber auch als Seele und Geist zu fassen imstande ist.

Man blickt da in einer merkwürdigen Weise in den Gang der Entwickelung zurück. Eine alte Wissenschaft, die schon da war - schamrot könnte sie die Menschen machen -, ist zugrunde gegangen. Man muß sich bewußt sein: Man lebt noch immer im Zeitalter der zugrunde gegangenen Wissenschaft. Die ersten Wissenschaften sind in einer neuen Form angelegt; sie müssen ausgebildet werden. Dasjenige, was so bewundert wird von dem Fortschritt der Wissenschaft in den letzten vier Jahrhunderten, darf nur dann bewundert werden, wenn es als ein Anfang angesehen wird. Erst wenn die Brücke geschlagen sein wird von diesem Anfang zum Weihnachts- und Ostermysterium, wenigstens für die menschliche Empfindung, wird einiges getan sein.

Diesen Gedanken sollte man in seiner Seele so recht lebendig machen, denn er ist der Gedanke, der gewissermaßen allein dazu geeignet ist, seelisch den gegenwärtigen Menschen an das Weltenall anzuknüpfen: Jeglicher Keim ist an den Makrokosmos gebunden, auch die Geistkeime sind an den Makrokosmos gebunden. Und so bindet sich der Mensch an den Makrokosmos, wenn er versucht, eine makrokosmische Wissenschaft wenigstens in der Idee zunächst, in der Intention in seine Seele aufzunehmen. Es müßte in alle Zweige des Lebens hineingetragen werden dieses Bewußtsein von makrokosmischen Zusammenhängen des Menschen mit der Erde. Weit, weit entfernt ist im Grunde genommen die Gegenwart von einem solchen Bewußtsein. In dieser Beziehung ist ja die Gegenwart auch gewissermaßen in einer umgekehrten Lage als eine gewisse Zeit der Vergangenheit. Man kann fragen: Wie konnte denn eigentlich ein Urwissen der Menschheit von so weittragender Art, daß die Gegenwart schamrot werden könnte, verlorengehen?

Nun, man braucht sich nicht sehr zu verwundern, daß es verlorengegangen ist. Man denke nur einmal daran, daß in der Menschheitsentwickelung ganz sicher das Positive mit dem Negativen zusammenhängt. Wir haben ja oft gesprochen von dem Fortschritt, den die Menschheit gemacht hat durch das Verbreiten des Christentums. Aber vergessen wir nicht, daß die Ausbreitung des Christentums geknüpft ist als das Positive an die negative Seite, die Zertrümmerung einer alten Kultur. Man vergesse nicht, daß Zehntausende und aber Zehntausende von Werken der alten Kultur vernichtet wurden, während das Christentum ausgebreitet worden ist, daß Tausende und aber Tausende Symbole, welche alte Weisheit fortgepflanzt hatten, vernichtet worden sind. Von jenem Zerstörungswerk, das seinen Abschluß gefunden hat im 3., 4. Jahrhundert der Zeitrechnung, davon macht man sich ja gegenwärtig nur wenig einen Begriff. Julian der Apostat wollte - es war nicht an der Zeit - noch ein wenig abhalten dieses Zerstörungswerk. Er konnte es nicht.

Was alles zugrunde gegangen ist in diesen Jahrhunderten, sollte schon auch von der Menschheit gewußt werden. Aber gerade an solchen Dingen kann man lernen, daß die sogenannte Evolution eben nichts Einfaches ist. Denken Sie einmal, es wäre das Christentum nicht als ein furchtbarer Vernichter und Zertrümmerer durch die Welt gezogen - die Menschheit hätte in ihrer alten Unfreiheit bleiben müssen. Denn die Erwerbung der Freiheit ist doch nur möglich durch jenen Impuls, der auch der Impuls des Mysteriums von Golgatha ist. Aber auf der anderen Seite darf die negative Seite nicht überhandnehmen. Es gibt eine gewisse Gesinnung, welche sich mehr die negative Seite des Christentums bewahrt hat. Heute tritt diese Gesinnung in der Form auf, daß sie alles dasjenige, was zur Wiedereroberung der alten Weisheit auftritt, nun seelisch zerstören will. Dies dürfte nicht geschehen. Wenn heute immer wieder und wiederum vorgebracht wird, wo man nur kann, von sogenannten offiziellen Vertretern des Christentums: Ja, zu Christi Zeiten, zu der Apostel Zeiten, da gab es eben Offenbarungen; heute darf es das nicht geben, heute ist das Sünde, heute ist das Schwindel, heute ist das Betrug dann ist dieses anti-, ist dieses widerchristlich. Und auf diesem Gebiete klar zu sehen, gehört auch für den Menschen, der nach Wahrheit strebt, in gewissem Sinne schon zu den Aufgaben der Gegenwart. Zu den Aufgaben der Gegenwart gehört die Sehnsucht nach Klarheit. Und mit Bezug auf alles übrige ist nach und nach die Klarheit zugedeckt durch alle möglichen Mitempfindungen, die man mit der bloBen Phrase verbindet so, daß Empfindung für die Wahrheit wohl nur auf dem Wege des Geistes noch gesucht und gefunden werden kann.

Die Worte werden ja heute in der furchtbarsten Weise mißbraucht. Was tönt alles durch die Welt, und was wird namentlich durch die Welt tönend vernommen, als ob etwas in den Worten enthalten wäre! Auf diesem Boden ist Geisteswissenschaft als Erzieherin ebenso wichtig als durch ihren unmittelbaren Inhalt. Sie kann nicht, wenn sie wirkliche Geisteswissenschaft sein will, mit bloßen Worten die Menschen abfertigen. Warum nicht? Nun, aus dem sehr einfachen Grunde, weil man heute über alles reden kann, wenn man bei Worten stehenbleibt. Sie können reden über Naturwissenschaft, wenn Sie bei Worten stehenbleiben. Sehen Sie an, wie Fritz Mauthner in seinem «Wörterbuch» Ihnen beweist, wie die Naturwissenschaft da, wo sie zur Wissenschaft werden will, wo sie nicht bloße Tatsachen notifiziert, eine Wortwissenschaft ist. In der Geschichtswissenschaft redet man überhaupt nur mit Worten, denn das andere wird ja verträumt, wie ich Ihnen erzählt habe. Und so auf andern Gebieten. In der Politik, da würde man wahrscheinlich überhaupt, wenn man aufrichtig und ehrlich zu Werke ginge, noch weniger hinter den Worten finden als auf den übrigen Gebieten des Lebens. Wenn man sich an Worte hält, kann man heute über die Natur reden, kann über Geschichte, über Politik, über Nationalökonomie reden. Nur kann man nicht, wenn man sich an Worte hält, über den Geist reden; denn der Geist liegt heute nirgends in den Worten. Das ist ganz ernsthaft gemeint. Dafür ist aber auch umgekehrt Geisteswissenschaft eine Erziehung, um über das heutige Hängen an Worten hinauszukommen.

Es ist die vorzüglichste Aufgabe des heutigen Bekenners der Anthroposophie, von den Worten überzugehen zu den Sachen, und da die Sache der Geisteswissenschaft der Geist ist, zum Geiste. Das wird Frucht bringen, es wird neue Ziele geben auf allen Gebieten des Lebens. Vor allen Dingen eine Frucht wird es bringen: Die Menschen, die es wollen, freizumachen vom Autoritätsglauben, freizumachen von jenem Aberglauben, der in der heutigen Menschheit so verbreitet ist und den die heutige Menschheit gar nicht einmal bemerkt. Es wird allerdings noch mancherlei notwendig sein an Erfahrungen für diese arme Menschheit der Gegenwart, um einigermaßen sich auf den Weg zu begeben, der hier gemeint ist. Denn diese arme Menschheit der Gegenwart ist stolz auf dasjenige, was sie am allerwenigsten hat, ist stolz auf ihre Freiheit vom Autoritätsglauben, ihre Freiheit vom Götzendienst.

Mancher Götze der Vergangenheit ist mehr wert in den Augen des Geistkenners als die Götzen der Gegenwart. Die Götzen der Gegenwart: Der bewußte Mensch hat sich die Gebete abgewöhnt, der unbewußte betet diese Götzen der Gegenwart um so inbrünstiger an. Alle diese Woodrow Wilsons sind in den Augen dessen, der die Weltenentwickelung durchschaut, weit gefährlichere Götzen des Aberglaubens, als die verachteten Götzen der Vorzeit waren. Die Menschheit der Gegenwart hängt viel mehr an diesen Götzen und an diesem Aberglauben, als eine Vormenschheit gehangen hat. Selbst die deutlichsten Zeichen werden der Menschheit der Gegenwart kaum viel nützen, weil sie außerordentlich schwer gerade in solchen Sachen auf die Bahn der Wahrheit zu bringen ist.

Es fordert schon der Ernst der Gegenwart, daß man auch in weite Perspektiven blickende Dinge immer wieder und wiederum in solche Bemerkungen auslaufen läßt. Denn Geisteswissenschaft soll eben auch durchaus dem Leben dienen. Dasjenige aber, was heute dem Leben dienen will, dient am allerwenigsten dem Leben.

Fifth Lecture

In the Christian consciousness of the present day, there are still — or at least could still be regarded as — two poles that represent, in a sense, the extreme ends of the worldview: the mystery of Christmas and the mystery of Easter. If you compare the mystery of Christmas and the mystery of Easter, even if only superficially, you may notice that the mystery of Christmas is actually the mystery of birth. It represents the birth of Christ Jesus. In this way, it ties in with the mystery of birth in general. The mystery of Easter is linked in the same way to the mystery of death, in that it is festively based on the death of Christ Jesus. But birth and death limit human life insofar as it takes place in the physical body. And it can indeed be said that, in contrast to what is visible to human beings as their physical nature, birth and death veil the invisible nature of their being. In a sense, birth and death are also the two gates to the invisible world.

By making these two gates to the invisible world the foundation of the Christian year, by placing Christmas and Easter within this Christian year, the Christian worldview is indeed linked to the mystery of the whole world. For wherever we look for mysteries among the various peoples and in the various regions of the earth, we find everywhere that the mysteries are connected either with the mystery of birth or with the mystery of death. However, the connections are not always immediately apparent, because certain mysteries – I am speaking now, of course, only of the post-Atlantean period – were linked to the mystery of birth in a more indirect way. These were, in particular, those mysteries that placed at the center of their mystery teachings what the profane world calls the Holy Fire. But this Holy Fire is something completely different from what the profane world can understand.

This Holy Fire is actually the human being as he lies at the foundation of the sensual human being as a supersensible human being. That which descends from the spiritual heights through birth in order to take shape in a physical body, this invisible human being, but for the ancient atavistic clairvoyance a perceptible supersensible human being, is actually what the profane world understands by the Holy Fire, one could also say by the Holy Warmth, when it worships the symbol of this human being, the fire. This is the mysterious being that emanates from the supersensible human being underlying the sensual human being, so that through birth he clothes himself in the sensual shell. This is the mystery that then passed into the mystery of Christmas, the mystery that is actually the mystery of birth.

Even more veiled is the other mystery being, which is connected with the mystery of death. For this mystery being is linked to light, just as the other is linked to fire. But something else is meant by this light, just as something else is meant by fire. By light is meant that which speaks to human beings when the starry night sky sends its language of light to them. The mysteries of light in ancient times, in the times before the mystery of Golgotha came, were actually all astrological mysteries. But we must again realize that this ancient astrology was not practiced with abstract mathematics, as is done today, but with atavistic clairvoyant powers, so that human beings did not merely observe the mineral-physical world of the stars above them, but in those most ancient times had an organ with which to perceive the secrets of the constellations.

In particular, it was a common art of certain mysteries in those ancient times to observe the moon as it moved through the various constellations of the zodiac. It was known that when the moon shines from the region where the Pleiades are located, when the moon shines from the region of Taurus, this means something different than when the moon shines from another region of the sky. And so the other planets were also brought into human consciousness in their constellations, but in a different consciousness than that which has remained for the materialistic age, and it was clear that the mystery of human death was connected with what was expressed through the constellations of the stars.

In the whole changing relationship between the fixed stars and the planets, people saw, as it were, the expression of a language which those living in the body hear from the earth and which the dead hear from the other side. And so people were clearly aware that if they devoted themselves to the language of the stars, they would live in the element that receives human beings when they pass through the gate of death. In ancient times, birth was regarded as a kind of question, and ancient mysticism, the experience of the invisible, the supernatural human being, was supposed to be the answer to this question. What the stars say through their constellations was not regarded as a fact, not as something that can be summarized as we summarize it today, but in earlier times, in the times of the ancient mysteries, the mysteries of the stars, the mysteries of light, the constellations of the stars were actually regarded as a question, and human death as the answer to this question. Just as birth was associated with the supersensible human being, so death was associated with the constellations of the stars. Therefore, the mysteries of fire can also be called the mysteries of birth, the Christmas mysteries; the mysteries of light or the mysteries of the stars can also be called the Easter mysteries, the mysteries of death. One can say that the mysteries that then passed into the mystery of Christmas lie mainly at the foundation of everything that humanity had as mystery secrets in India and Egypt in the times before the mystery of Golgotha. In Chaldea and the Near East, on the other hand, there was more ground for the mysteries of Easter, more ground for astrology.

This science of the stars underwent its most special development in the Near East among the so-called Iranian peoples of the third post-Atlantean period. One must simply imagine that in the most ancient times, on the one hand, there was a precise supersensible perception of what envelops the physical body at birth, and on the other hand, there was a vivid knowledge of the language of the stars. When ancient star charts depict all kinds of beings in the sky to connect the stars, these are not, as I have often said, figments of the human imagination, but rather representations of what the ancient atavistic consciousness actually saw in the sky. For this ancient atavistic consciousness really saw human beings in their entire connection with the universe. This ancient consciousness actually took in the fact that the cosmos is an organism and that human beings weave and live within this organism.

This consciousness has, of course, been lost. It must be regained by humanity in the course of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, essentially through the two separate streams of star wisdom and mysticism finding each other again. In ancient times, they could appear, as it were, separately as two different poles. In our time, the mystery of Christmas must be able to be connected with the mystery of Easter; the two must be seen as two sides of the same being. If we go back to times of earlier human knowledge, we find a clear awareness that not only is the zodiac to be found up there in the sky, but that human beings also carry within themselves the same laws that, for example, the zodiac, that is, in the widest sense, the world of fixed stars, represents. You know that in ancient times, not only were certain places in the sky named Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, and so on, but that the human being was also divided into: the head as Aries, the neck as Taurus, the two symmetrical parts on either side as Gemini, the chest as Cancer, the heart as Leo, and so on, so that human beings actually carry within themselves, in microcosmic form, the various places that are also the fundamental places of the heavens. This connection between the macrocosm and the microcosm was regarded as something important and essential in ancient times. And just as man carried the fixed stars within himself through their representatives in the zodiac, he was also regarded in such a way that it was said, for example, that when man uses his larynx to speak, the same world stream sounds from him that flows down from the cosmos when the moon shines from the Pleiades. One felt the relationship between light and that which light carries down when the moon shines from the Pleiades, the relationship between this macrocosmic stream and that which comes out of man when he uses his larynx.

It's similar with the sun. You could also feel inside that people were filled with the same laws that work in the planetary system. But you knew that while the fixed star system corresponds to fixed places in people: Aries corresponds to the head, Taurus to the throat, and so on, so that while fixed parts of the human being were associated with the fixed stars, those organs which in a sense represent the mobile element in man, that which sends the juices through the whole organism, were brought into a proper relationship with the planetary system. Just as the human being is, in a sense, a fixed starry sky, so he also carries a planetary system within himself. Thus, in the oldest mysteries, a close relationship was indeed conceived between the human being and the entire cosmos.

Now we must consider the following if we want to grasp the full significance of this. In the human being, we have, in a sense, the constellations as fixed places: Aries as the head, Taurus as the neck, and so on. This puts humans in a certain relationship, an individual, very special relationship with the starry sky. For suppose a person is born today in the springtime, when the sun rises in Pisces, then what is particularly determined by their inner fixed stars, Pisces, will have an effect. Pisces is associated with the feet, which means everything that humans experience through their feet. So, by being born in the spring, when the sun rises in Pisces in the morning, humans are born, in a sense, with that part of their being that corresponds to this particular constellation of the sun. If they are born at another time of year, their constellation is less in harmony with the cosmic spring constellation.

Today, this harmony or disharmony of human beings is determined according to certain patterns. In the ancient mysteries, such things were felt very vividly. People sensed the peculiar harmony between the human constellation after birth and the constellation in the heavens. But now consider that a special constellation was present in the Age of Aries, precisely in the mystery of Golgotha. There, the whole of humanity, with that part of its being that corresponds to the head, was, in a sense, in harmony with the Aries constellation of spring. This was another reason why those who knew the mysteries felt that there was something very special in this peculiar harmony between the human constellation of the head and the constellation of the cosmos. Through the head, the human being is not connected to the earth, but to the cosmos; there he is particularly suited to receiving the forces of the cosmos. He stretches his head, that is, his ram, out into the cosmos. So which constellation must be the most favorable of those that can occur in the 25,920-year cycle in which we now live? The one in which the constellation of Aries is at the rising sun in spring. In short, I only want to suggest that people studied the way in which human beings harmonized in their essence with the macrocosm. And this was studied in particular because there was an awareness of what depends on this harmony between man and the macrocosm for the events on Earth itself.

People discovered the most diverse secrets of this constellation and always knew that every secret of a constellation is connected to a human secret. They sought, as it were, to express more and more how a star secret is connected with an inner human secret. It is remarkable how far people have come in this direction through an ancient science. This is shown by what the pyramids teach us. Even a very rough examination of the pyramids shows that all kinds of secrets are hidden in these pyramid structures. If you take the length of the four base lines that form the base of certain pyramids and compare them with the height, this corresponds exactly to the length of the diameter of a circle to its circumference, to a large number of decimal places.

But not only that, there are certain divisions in the pyramids that correspond to the divisions of the macrocosm in relation to the zodiac. The weight of the pyramids – which has only been calculated approximately – is a certain fraction of the weight of the Earth. Certain dimensions of the pyramids, when multiplied by a power of eighteen, give the distance of the Earth from the Sun. In short, the dimensions of the pyramids are such that they can only originate from an intimate, wonderful knowledge of the proportions of the starry sky. These pyramids were not actually built by the Egyptians, but whenever conquerors from Iranian regions, from the Near East, came to Egypt, they erected the pyramids. The Egyptians first learned to build pyramids from peoples who had star mysteries, whereas the Egyptians themselves did not have star mysteries, but rather a kind of Christmas mystery.

This view of the pyramids led some people, such as Carus, to say during the 19th century: Simply looking at the pyramids indicates that there was a science in ancient times that has been lost and that looking at them is enough to make the people of today blush with shame. These are not my words, but Carus' words! People today find it hard to believe that in ancient times there was a science acquired in a different way, but a science that could shed light on the deep mysteries of the universe. And what is significant is not merely that these mystics knew such vast dimensions of the universe that they incorporated the secret into the construction of the pyramids, but something else entirely. It was not abstract knowledge that people had about the relationship between humans and the starry cosmos, but rather concrete knowledge, knowledge that allowed humans to feel themselves standing within the cosmos. Humans knew that they stood in direct relationship to the fixed stars with their heads, which they could freely turn toward the cosmos. Everything that humans considered to be the mysteries of their heads, these mystics considered to be the mysteries of the fixed starry sky. The human head is indeed formed by the fixed starry sky. It is only a modern materialistic prejudice that everything is inherited from our ancestors, that everything comes from the germ. The germ itself, insofar as it is the germ of the head, is formed in the human mother from the fixed starry sky.

How the human being is connected with the fixed starry sky through his head, how the head is an image of the fixed starry sky — you can read about this from another point of view in my little book “The Spiritual Guidance of the Human Being and Humanity,” where I also touched on this subject — so, on the other hand, the rest of the human organism is assigned to everything which is connected with the mysteries of the sun. So that man is actually — as the ancient mystics who practiced star mysteries and Easter mysteries knew — of a dual nature in this respect: his head is assigned to the fixed starry sky, and the rest of the organism, with the heart as its center, is assigned to the sun.

Now these ancient astronomers — or call them astrologers, if you like — also knew something else. They knew that when one observes the stars in relation to the sun, the sun gradually lags behind the fixed stars; as a result, the vernal equinox always appears at a different point, while the sun always lags behind. Apparently, the stars move faster than the sun in their annual movement. The strange thing — which was not strange to the ancient astronomers, but rather a significant mystery — is that after seventy-two years, the fixed stars have moved ahead of the sun in their movements by exactly one day, one day in seventy-two years. Applied to humans—which made sense to ancient astronomers but is obviously nonsense to intelligent people today—this means that, among other things, we also have this dual nature of fixed stars and the sun within ourselves, that our heads rush ahead of the rest of our organism. And when we have lived seventy-two years, of course things must be viewed approximately, then our head has gone ahead of the rest of our organism by one star day, and therefore human life is on average, as I have already discussed from other points of view, seventy-two years. It can of course be much longer, or much shorter, but on average seventy-two years. This is connected with the duality of the course of life in the human head and in the rest of the human organism, which corresponds exactly to the duality of the movements in the fixed starry sky and the sun. Thus, the human being stands within as a microcosm in the macrocosm. In those ancient times, people were able to feel themselves within the macrocosm in the same way that the little finger now feels itself within the whole organism, that is, as a member of the whole.

And because it was considered most important to discover how human life is connected with the mystery of the stars, the mystery of death, the mystery of Easter, came together with the mystery of the stars. The Christian worldview had the task of linking the two together. And in the development of Christian worldviews toward the concrete, there must lie, in a sense, the fact that the mystery of birth, the mystery of Christmas, the mystery of the supersensible human being on the side of birth, is in turn linked to the mystery of death, to the mystery of Easter, to the mystery of the supersensible human being on the side of death.

What we today prefer to call science deals with birth, and what we prefer to call religion deals with death. Today's religion lacks an inclination toward the supersensible human being. Strange to say, isn't it? But the fact that religion also speaks of the supersensible human being is no proof that it has a particular inclination to deal with the supersensible human being in any way. One can only deal with the supersensible human being if one ties in with what has been felt in particular in the Christmas mysteries, if one ties in with birth and through birth comes to pre-existence. That is why the mysteries of birth have also emphasized pre-existence, the existence of the supersensible human being before birth. The other mysteries, which then culminated in the mystery of Easter, emphasized post-existence, the existence of the human being after death. Religions have turned more to this latter aspect. But they have rejected the science associated with it, the wisdom of the stars, just as modern science itself, which deals with descent, with everything that belongs to birth, has rejected that which leads to the supersensible human being, to the experience of the supersensible human being, to mysticism.

And so, by rejecting the supersensible human being, science has become materialistic on the one hand, and religion, by refusing to consider the supersensible human being, has become unscientific. The two stand side by side in the present, with no bridge between them. And nothing excites people more — those who apparently represent religion, but in reality only want to administer their privileges, the people who call themselves official representatives of religious communities — than when one speaks of the pre-existence of the soul, that is, of the supernatural human being in reality.

Everything I have said was, of course, meant aphoristically, but it should point to the fact that we must once again seek to expand our human vision beyond what is immediately present in the physical world. And by pointing to these two mystery traditions, we also open up perspectives on the directions in which the sensory world must be transcended: on the one hand, by seeking once again the inner human being who can be found within us by following the path described in the book How to Know Higher Worlds. That is one side. The other side is to seek in a new form what the stars can tell us. However, we will only find this in the new form if we are able to bring what is in the human being itself back into direct relationship with the macrocosm. A book such as my “Outline of Occult Science” is constructed according to this principle. Here again, an attempt is made to build a bridge between the human being and the macrocosm by linking what can be found in the human being, namely human evolution, to what belongs to the macrocosm, by linking certain stages of human development to certain processes in the macrocosm. This marks the beginning of our anthroposophically oriented spiritual science in both directions: seeking both the supersensible human being and the mysteries of the macrocosm.

But this also builds a bridge between religion and science. Religion has become unscientific. Anyone who wants to can see that. Even more, one can see that contemporary science has become religionless, that the two stand side by side in the so-called culture of our time. It is only for this reason that the peculiar errors I have tried to characterize in these reflections could arise; errors of which a particular example is the astute undertakings of Dupuis, who believed that in the ancient mysteries, which he considers to be nothing but fraud and error, certain stories were invented solely to deceive the people, when in fact there was nothing to be seen but the movements of the stars. Dupuis makes the mistake of believing that what a modern astronomer sees in the starry sky is the same thing that the ancients saw. But the modern astronomer sees in the starry sky the same thing that a modern anatomist sees in the human body; and just as the corpse is not the human being, so the content of modern astronomy is not the starry sky.

Scientific astronomy is in its infancy. Today, it has achieved nothing more than to summarize in purely mechanical and mathematical terms what is happening out there in the universe. Study what astronomy gives you today: you will find only mathematical and mechanical relationships, only the expression of a great celestial machine. In contrast, the natural scientist seeks everything that happens here on Earth, with the exception of the grossest physical processes, on Earth itself. When a plant emerges, an animal is born, a human being is born, all of this is supposed to be based on heredity, because, of course, one cannot make any application to humans from what today's astronomers find in the stars. But the fact remains that there is a constant interaction between the starry sky and the earth, that no germ, whether plant, animal, or human, arises on earth without this germ being created by the entire macrocosm. One must note: What does the natural scientist of today do? He has the hen and in it the egg. Of course, a new hen comes from this egg, and then another egg, and then another new hen. And so he goes from hen to hen. Whereas the truth of the matter is this: here is the starry sky, here is the hen, and the entire starry sky sends its forces from the various constellations into the hen, and the germ in the hen is the expression of the entire starry sky.

In this way, one can see that what is today the science of the heavens, which began in a certain magnificent way with Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, is only a beginning, and that from there, knowledge must be gained that is not only of a mechanical nature, that does not only deal with a great celestial machinery, but is capable of grasping the entire universe as an organism, but also as soul and spirit.

In a strange way, one looks back on the course of development. An ancient science that already existed — and could make people blush with shame — has been destroyed. One must be aware that we are still living in the age of destroyed science. The first sciences have been laid out in a new form; they must be developed. What is so admired about the progress of science in the last four centuries can only be admired if it is regarded as a beginning. Only when the bridge has been built from this beginning to the mystery of Christmas and Easter, at least for human perception, will something have been accomplished.

This thought should be made truly alive in one's soul, for it is the thought that is, in a sense, alone capable of connecting the present human being spiritually to the universe: every seed is bound to the macrocosm, even the seeds of the spirit are bound to the macrocosm. And so human beings bind themselves to the macrocosm when they try to take up a macrocosmic science, at least in idea, in intention, into their souls. This awareness of the macrocosmic connections between human beings and the earth should be carried into all branches of life. The present is, in essence, very far removed from such an awareness. In this respect, the present is, in a sense, in a reverse situation to a certain period in the past. One may ask: How could the original knowledge of humanity, which was so far-reaching that the present could be ashamed of it, actually be lost?

Well, one need not be very surprised that it has been lost. Just think of the fact that in human development the positive is certainly connected with the negative. We have often spoken of the progress that humanity has made through the spread of Christianity. But let us not forget that the spread of Christianity is linked, as the positive, to the negative side, the destruction of an ancient culture. Let us not forget that tens of thousands upon tens of thousands of works of the old culture were destroyed during the spread of Christianity, that thousands upon thousands of symbols that had perpetuated ancient wisdom were destroyed. People today have little idea of the destruction that was completed in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. Julian the Apostate wanted to delay this destruction a little, but it was too late. He could not do it.

Humanity should be aware of all that was destroyed during those centuries. But it is precisely from such things that we can learn that so-called evolution is not a simple matter. Just imagine if Christianity had not swept through the world as a terrible destroyer and smasher – humanity would have had to remain in its old bondage. For the acquisition of freedom is only possible through that impulse which is also the impulse of the mystery of Golgotha. But on the other hand, the negative side must not be allowed to gain the upper hand. There is a certain attitude that has preserved more of the negative side of Christianity. Today, this attitude manifests itself in the form of a desire to destroy everything that arises in the recapture of the old wisdom. This must not be allowed to happen. Today, so-called official representatives of Christianity repeatedly assert wherever they can: Yes, in Christ's time, in the time of the apostles, there were revelations; today this cannot be, today it is sin, today it is deception, today it is fraud, and therefore it is anti-Christian, it is anti-Christianity. And to see clearly in this area is, in a certain sense, already one of the tasks of the present for people who strive for truth. One of the tasks of the present day is the longing for clarity. And with regard to everything else, clarity is gradually being covered up by all kinds of sympathies that are associated with mere phrases, so that a feeling for the truth can probably only be sought and found through the spirit.

Words are abused in the most terrible way today. What sounds throughout the world, and what is heard resounding throughout the world, as if something were contained in the words! On this ground, spiritual science is just as important as an educator as through its immediate content. If it wants to be real spiritual science, it cannot dismiss people with mere words. Why not? Well, for the very simple reason that today you can talk about anything if you stick to words. You can talk about natural science if you stick to words. Look how Fritz Mauthner proves to you in his “Dictionary” how natural science, where it wants to become science, where it does not merely report facts, is a science of words. In historical science, one talks only with words, because everything else is dreamt away, as I have told you. And so it is in other fields. In politics, if one were to proceed sincerely and honestly, one would probably find even less behind the words than in other areas of life. If one sticks to words, one can talk about nature today, one can talk about history, about politics, about national economy. But one cannot talk about the spirit if one sticks to words, for the spirit is nowhere to be found in words today. I mean this quite seriously. Conversely, however, spiritual science is an education that enables us to overcome today's attachment to words.

It is the most important task of today's followers of anthroposophy to move from words to things, and since the subject of spiritual science is the spirit, to the spirit. This will bear fruit and give rise to new goals in all areas of life. Above all, it will bear one fruit: it will free those who want to be freed from their belief in authority, from the superstition that is so widespread in humanity today and which humanity today does not even notice. However, this poor humanity of the present will need to go through many experiences before it can set out on the path that is meant here. For this poor humanity of the present is proud of what it has least, proud of its freedom from belief in authority, its freedom from idolatry.

Many idols of the past are worth more in the eyes of the spirit-knower than the idols of the present. The idols of the present: conscious people have given up praying, while the unconscious pray all the more fervently to these idols of the present. In the eyes of those who see through the development of the world, all these Woodrow Wilsons are far more dangerous idols of superstition than the despised idols of the past. The humanity of the present day is much more attached to these idols and this superstition than a pre-humanity ever was. Even the clearest signs will be of little use to the humanity of the present day, because it is extremely difficult to set it on the path of truth in such matters.

The seriousness of the present demands that even things that look into the distant future be repeatedly and repeatedly expressed in such remarks. For spiritual science should also serve life. But what wants to serve life today serves life least of all.