Polarities in the Evolution of Mankind
GA 197
7 March 1920, Stuttgart
Lecture II
It has been said on a number of occasions, and also two days ago when I presented the subject from a slightly different point of view, that it is important for us to consider the evolution of the human race in the light of spiritual science and grow aware of the gravity of the present moment. We shall then have to act out of our realization of the gravity of the situation, irrespective of our position in life.
Today I should like to add some further building stones to an edifice that seen in its entirety can show us the present-day tenor of the human mind and spirit and how we shall have to work for the further progress of humankind by taking this state of mind and spirit as our basis. To begin with let us refer to things which in the main are already known to us.
We know that the human race in its present state of civilization has by and large descended from the human race that evolved before disaster befell the continent of Atlantis. It has been said on a number of occasions that Atlantis occupied an area between present-day Europe, Africa and America that is today covered by the Atlantic Ocean. We know that under the influence of that disaster—in the course of its preparation and later as it proceeded—the peoples of that time migrated first in an eastward direction, populating Europe and then Asia as they moved on, and that the European and Asian peoples of the present day are in fact the descendants of the peoples of Atlantis. We also know that civilization then took the opposite route and people coming to colonize Europe brought civilization with them, as it were: cultural contents that had first been achieved in Asia. These then spread further from a number of centres in Europe. Thus I would say that the physical basis for modern civilization is provided by the peoples of Europe and Asia, descendants of the ancient Atlantean race that moved from the west to the east. Civilization itself however moved from east to west. These two movements can only be properly distinguished on the basis of spiritual-scientific investigation. The two are confused in conventional anthropology and it is not realized that only the culture, the civilization, has been transplanted from east to west, whilst the physical basis comes from migrations that proceeded from west to east.
People always have some relationship to the locality where they live. We relate in some way to the soil under our feet, to everything this soil produces, to the way the soil comes to expression in climatic conditions and provides a habitat. You can conclude from this—and spiritual science fully confirms it—that the peoples who went further into Asia in the course of those post-Atlantean migrations inevitably had to develop in a different way from those who had remained in Europe. In ordinary terms this means that the soil of Europe had a different effect on the descendants of the Atlanteans than the soil of Asia. In a way, we can define the difference between the populations of Asia and of Europe. The difference is that particularly during the earliest periods of post-Atlantean civilization, during the 9th, 8th, 7th and 6th millennium BC and the millennia that followed, the people of Asia adopted intellectual thinking, thinking as we know it, in a different way. This type of thinking did not fully emerge until the 15th century, as I said on the last occasion, but it was in preparation for centuries and indeed millennia before that.
This form of thinking as we know it today only developed in very recent times, assuming its true character in intellectual thinking as the soul itself became inwardly active. But the whole of our evolution, particularly in post-Atlantean times, has been tending towards this intellectual approach. It is significant that the post-Atlantean population of Asia accepted all that we may call intellectual more into its soul elements. We can say that due to local conditions the peoples of Asia were specifically predestined for the early stages of intelligence to enter into their souls. The most remarkable aspect of Asian civilization is that the soul element as such became the instrument for adopting the intellectual principle.
It was different with the people who had remained in Europe. Quite specifically the situation was that physical development, the physical organization that later on was to become the real instrument of intellectual development, evolved in such a way that even at an earlier stage it became the essential characteristic of these peoples, constituting itself in a way that was particularly suited to be the vehicle for the intellectual principle. If we therefore wish to characterize the descendants of the Atlanteans' earliest descendants, that is ourselves, we have to say that the Asian peoples got more into the habit of thinking with their souls; the Europeans got into the habit of thinking more with their bodies. That is in fact the major difference between the civilizations of Asian and Europe. If you want to show up the clear difference which exists between the kind of intelligence apparent in the Vedic writings or Vedantic philosophy and other cultural streams in Asia compared to European culture you have to say to yourselves: Asians are thinking more with their souls, Europeans more with their bodies.
The people of Asia may thus be said to have taken the intellectual element into a higher aspect of their human nature, with the result that an advanced civilization developed much earlier. This however was a civilization of the soul that had fewer abstract concepts, a culture that found its own ways to higher things, using the human soul and spirit to reach the soul and spirit of the world without resorting to abstract concepts. That is where the spiritual nature of Asian civilization lies—inasmuch as it is essentially a civilization based on soul qualities. The peoples of Asia largely left their bodies unused when it came to thinking; they merely carried their bodies with them through life on earth. The life of the mind was nurtured entirely at soul level. You cannot understand the peculiar nature of Asian culture unless you look at it from this point of view.
Europeans were basing their thinking more and more on the physical body. That is also why the foundations were more strongly laid among them than in Asia for a culture in which freedom can be the central principle. The people of Asia, endowed with intelligence at soul level, still were more part of the whole cosmic organism. The human body specifically isolates itself from the rest of the cosmic organism. Using it as the instrument for our intellectual life we become more independent, though this independence is more bound up with the body than is the case with the people of Asia who have developed intelligence within the soul principle and are consequently less independent.
As the time approached in the history of humankind that was to bring the Mystery of Golgotha, an advanced culture of soul and spirit had evolved in Asia. At the time of the Mystery of Golgotha it had already reached its culmination and was in the early stages of decline. Do not let us deceive ourselves: European ideas do not make it easy to grasp the great culture which had grown out of the soul and spirit of the Asian peoples. When people who are thoroughly European in their way of thinking, people for whom the physical body is the instrument of thinking, want to get Europeans to appreciate Asian ideas, as Deussen4 Paul Deussen, philosopher and Sanscrit scholar. has done, for example, the outcome in no way represents the contents of Asian civilization of soul and spirit, for everything alive in it has been translated into European thought. It has even happened that interpretations of certain spiritual streams in India caused a sensation in Europe—those published by von Garbe5 Richard von Garbe, Sancrit scholar. for instance, yet it was nothing more than European materialism producing a garbled translation of Asian soul and spirit culture. Publications of this kind contain a trace of the real spirit of ancient Asia. It is necessary to point this out very firmly because, as I have said before, belief in authority has reached an extreme degree and people really have nothing in them that permits them to acknowledge the validity of something, except the fact that it has been written by university professors. There is of course no real inner reason why Deussen's or Garbe's botchwork should be considered important in any way, except that there is this belief in authority in Europe which is going sadly astray. People are no longer in a position even to find any kind of inner reason; they merely believe one thing or another to be right because some outer authority says so. It does not help to avoid saying the truth about these things—even if it means making more enemies—for the gravity of the present situation absolutely demands that there shall be no compromise where certain things are concerned and that the truth must be clearly stated.
The advanced culture of the spirit in Asia was already to some extent in decline when the event of Golgotha occurred. This event of Golgotha—it cannot be sufficiently stressed—was first of all taken in and understood by minds that were the product of Asian culture. It is important to distinguish between the Mystery of Golgotha as a historical event that happened in the Near East at the beginning of Christian era and the notions people have of this Mystery of Golgotha. At the time when the event occurred, Europe did not have the capacity to grasp it fully, for it was an event that could only be grasped in soul and spirit. European civilization, however, had spread by using physical matter as its instrument. The event which occurred at the beginning of our Christian era could not be directly grasped in a civilization based on physical and material things. Asian civilization on the other hand had an intellectual life based on soul and spirit and out of this was able to find concepts with which to grasp the event of Golgotha. The event that happened in Palestine was thus poured into the conceptual world of the Orient. In that form it travelled westward through Greece and Italy and came to Europe as a tradition.
People can be given something in an external way that they cannot yet grasp in their hearts and minds. Things may come to them in the form of a tradition or through the written word. Europe initially was given the explanation, its understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha, out of the oriental tradition. Christianity was understood in the light of oriental wisdom, a wisdom of soul and spirit that was truly great at a time when the Mystery of Golgotha, and the way Christ related to the whole of Earth evolution, were still perceived gnostically. It dwindled more and more as Europeans were increasingly blending their own unique characteristic into this tradition. They had to bring their particular characteristic of an intellectual life bound to the physical body into the way they saw these things. The following happened, particularly in Europe: In early times the human bodies of Europeans were very much the instrument of their kind of elementary intellectual thinking, but then this body gradually began to die. Physical evolution of European humanity until the 15th century and even to this day consisted in the physical body growing more and more dead. Our physical bodies are growing denser and denser and more and more bony. We cannot demonstrate this with the methods of ordinary anatomy and physiology, but it is true. We no longer have bodies as inwardly alive as those of people living in the 1st, 3rd and even the 10th and 11th centuries. Our European bodies of today have grown bony, paralyzed, compared to those ancient bodies that were inwardly alive. Thus you have on the one hand a tradition designed for the soul and spirit of Asian people who preserved the ecclesiastical creeds, and on the other hand a more and more European body that increasingly felt those Asian traditions to be alien and in the end no longer found itself able to take in the ideas coming from Asia.
From the middle of the 15th century onwards the influence of the bony European body has been such that in the end that old tradition only survived in empty outer phrases among religious communities. For many centuries the tradition had been so much alive that little regard was paid to the Gospels and people took their cue from life itself. As the European body came to die off people felt impelled to say: Let us cast off the old tradition; we want to put our faith only in the Word, the Word as it is written. People believe they have the Word when in fact they only have a poor translation of it. It gradually came about—though no one is willing to admit it—that really all one had was the outer shell of the Word of old that once held within it the tidings of the Mystery of Golgotha in the garb of oriental wisdom, a wisdom of soul and spirit.
This oriental wisdom is little understood by the people who generally interpret or translate the Gospels; they understand little, if any of it. The point is that it is necessary to see the Mystery of Golgotha in a new light. However, unless we Europeans get beyond what a dying physical body is able to give we will be unable to do so. We must develop through spiritual science and come to grasp the spiritual world in a way where we are independent of this body. Our future salvation entirely depends on our ability to grasp the spiritual world in this way, independently of our physical bodies, going straight for the spirit. It will have to be different in essence from the oriental culture of soul and spirit, which came as though of its own accord as human beings evolved. Europeans of the present time will need to achieve it by their own efforts. They will have to nurture spiritual science. They will have to create an educational system where from the bottom rung upwards spiritual science is not presented as a theory but flows into everything we do as we teach and train the children. Spiritual science should also flow into higher education and should be alive in everything connected with art, literature and so on, everything that is our common cultural life. This European culture must provide for the nurturing of spiritual science itself. On the basis of such a spiritual science the Mystery of Golgotha will then be seen in a new light. We shall have to say that those were the old times when the Mystery of Golgotha was only interpreted in the light of the wisdom of spirit and soul that belonged to the Orient. A new wisdom will have to grasp the Mystery of Golgotha in a new and living way.
We have spoken about these things quite often and in many respects. It is necessary, however, that they take hold of our soul from all sides. It is necessary that we come to experience a seriousness that absolutely fills our hearts and minds with the realization that new insight has to be gained into the Mystery of Golgotha. This is something that makes the seriousness that is required particularly in Central Europe even more austere.
Looking with more profound insight at what has become cultural life in the second half of the 18th and first half of the 19th century particularly in Central Europe you really have to say this: The bodies of people in Central Europe were already dying, but they still were so much alive that the people were able to rise to a world of ideas more alive than ever seen before in the evolution of humankind. Nowhere else did human minds rise to abstract ideas in such a way that whilst living in these abstract ideas one was not in the sphere of death but in the sphere of life. That was achieved in Goetheanism, for instance, and by German idealist philosophers. It is not something to be found anywhere else in human evolution. It was also in a way a culmination, one merely has to get this quite clear in one's mind. People today no longer want to know how Schelling, for instance, to take just one of the Goetheanists, moved in a sphere of abstract thoughts and yet, whilst speaking in quite abstract terms, was alive in the way he moved in the sphere of abstract thoughts: as alive as people usually are when they speak of food and drink. The same applies to Fichte. This was an area of human evolution where we are especially aware of an ability to descend into the sphere of concepts and ideas in a way that was very much alive. Something quite special exists therefore for this Central European population, special in the whole context of human evolution in more recent times. They have their own characteristics that enable them in particular to take up the vocation of humankind for the present day: namely, to enter into spirituality again. These characteristics only came to be submerged beneath other things in the second half of the 19th century.
It is terribly painful to be aware of a very sleepy human being in Central Europe today walking over the graves of Lessing and Goethe and Herder and Schelling. This human being considers its role to be that of a soul asleep. If we were to pick up the thread of the writings and thoughts of those great minds, not in an external way but entering into the spirit in which they wrote, we would find the element that can raise Europe to the heights. Europe cannot be made to rise to the heights by Gospel words repeated parrot-fashion in the churches that no one understands. Europe can only be made to rise if people seek to grasp the spiritual worlds by developing further what Herder, Goethe and others have been working towards. There is however hardly any awareness of this at the present time. It is a sad sign of the times for example that in a cultural community which possesses treasures like Fichte's Goal and Purpose of the Human Being, Schelling's Bruno and Schiller's Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man 6 Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher. Die Bestimmung des Menschen 1800.
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling German philosopher. Bruno, oder über das göttliche and natürliche Prinzip der Dinge. Ein Gespräch (Bruno, or concerning the divine and natural principle of things. A dialogue).
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, German dramatist, poet and historian. Briefe über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen (letters on aesthetic education) 1795.—there are many more I could mention—that in such a cultural community people could follow a trend that led to the inane and superficial Americanisms of Ralph Waldo Trine 7 Ralph Waldo Trine, American writer. and the like. We have things that are much more sublime but we let them sleep and turn to other things.
The further we penetrate into the actual life of the mind and spirit the more it becomes apparent that something new is emerging in the life of humankind today. Central Europeans are far from understood by Western Europeans; Western Europeans are far from understood by Central Europeans, even in ordinary life. People are not aware of this, however. They think they understand each other. They do not realize that they are not communicating their thoughts. I am not referring to the way Americans and Europeans fail to communicate, but Central and Western Europeans. You come across some odd things in this respect.
The last time I was here I told you that vilification is rife not only within Germany but also outside its borders.8Stuttgart, 21 December 1919. In Weltsilvester and Neujahrsgedanken GA 195. English in The Cosmic New Year. London: Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co. 1938. I told you about this man Ferriére,9A. Ferrière. La loi du progres economique et la justice sociale. Suisse-Belgique Outremer juillet-aout 1919; 1: 3-4 for instance, who spread one of the strangest tales in a Swiss-Belgian journal, saying that it was of course generally known that I was ‘Rasputin’ to William II10Grigoriy Efimovich Rasputin, reputed ‘holy man’ who influenced the Tsarina and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
TN. William II (1859–1941), third German emperor and ninth king of Prussia. and had a major share in all the bad advice William II was given in those terrible days. This slanderous story came to be widely known particularly in French-speaking Switzerland and I therefore defended myself by writing down the truth of the matter, stating the bare facts. I said that I had only ever seen the former emperor briefly and from a distance, had never spoken with him at all and never sought to contact him even through others. These are the bare facts I stated in a letter to Dr Boos11Dr Roman Boos. anthroposophical lecturer, writer in the field of social sciences. Pioneer of the Threefold Movement. who then gave Mr Ferriére the necessary set-down. The matter was published in the journal in question together with Ferriére's reply. This went more or less as follows: Once again the great difference between the Latin and the Germanic mind is demonstrated. The Germanic mind takes everything so seriously. ‘My readers’, Ferriére wrote, ‘will of course not have been deceived; they will have realized that what I wrote was intended to be plaisanterie and not méchanceté.12plaisamerie—joke; méchanceté—spitefulness, malice. Apart from that let me state that it is possible to learn that something we may have heard from people whom we think we can believe need nevertheless not be true, even if it is a widely believed rumour. I am taking note of this.’ And so on.
That was the elegant reply the ‘Latin mind’ was able to give, with a plaisanterie concerning the Germanic mind. At least one has the satisfaction that these things have come to the fore; very often they are not even noticed.
They assume even greater significance where a more profound view is taken of the world, at the point where they relate to initiation knowledge and everything connected with this. This is a sphere where it is indeed necessary to mention these things just for once, though some people consider it highly dangerous to touch on them even today. I want to talk to you today about a matter that in the opinion of representatives of initiation knowledge, Western representatives in particular, should not be discussed.
Western representatives of initiation knowledge will tell you again and again that it simply will not do for anyone to spread initiation knowledge they have gained for themselves. You will find that when genuine initiates in the West present initiation knowledge in books available to the public they always deny having personal experience of the things of which they are writing. You will find that it is quite typical—such things have appeared particularly in America—to have a preface, that is part of the whole technique, which says the following: ‘None of these things are my own, of course, for if they were just my own I would not mention them’. Take a look, you will find this kind of thing in many documents published particularly by Western initiates. If you ask why it is done like this you will be given an answer that within certain limits is certainly true for Western initiation science. You will be told that anyone learning something directly from the spiritual world, who knows the secrets of the spiritual world, cannot tell another person that he has it from personal experience—these will be the words used to answer the question—for if he betrays the fact that he has initiation knowledge from personal experience he becomes dependent for life on the person to whom he betrayed his secret.
This attitude has its roots in the essential nature of Western initiation science. The effect is that anything to do with initiation is discussed in a very superficial way among Western initiates in their societies, and that there are indeed initiates moving around among Western humanity of whom nobody knows that they are initiates. This is an attitude that has to be overcome in the new age; it cannot hold true in Central Europe, and the spirit which must arise in Central Europe will have to fight this attitude. It will have to fight it by coming to understand the Mystery of Golgotha in the new and spiritual way I have talked about. It will have to come to understand the presence of the Christ in human life.
Here lies a major secret. The usual initiation knowledge in Western countries is far removed from Christianity; otherwise the Theosophical Society would not have excluded or caricatured the Christian faith and presented a purely oriental, pre-Christian Indian wisdom as something new. It is a peculiar characteristic of this Western initiation knowledge that its initiates only have something of their initiation if they have at least one pupil who reiterates their ideas. There is no point whatsoever in having initiation knowledge just for oneself. If your eyes look straight ahead you will not see a single object. In the same way you will not encounter your own ideas of the spirit as a Western initiate unless you can see your own ideas repeated by someone else. There are all kinds of indications of this, but it is not properly realized.
Indeed, if this is the case then it is true that someone who betrays to another person the fact that he is an initiate will be in the power of that other person for the rest of his life. The other could then refuse to serve him and say: I am not going to repeat your ideas. That implies some degree of dependence. That essentially is a characteristic of the initiation knowledge I have frequently referred to in other respects, referring to it as the dominant initiation science in the West.
There is only one way out of this dependence on one's followers and that is to be in communion with Christ, who can truly be found on earth since the Mystery of Golgotha. We are not then in communion with a human being who is not perceptible to the senses but with the first among brothers who has come among men, with the living Christ walking among us. If we are in a communion with Christ the way we had to be in communion with other persons in pre-Christian initiation, we need not be afraid to share our own wisdom with our fellow human beings. There is no other way in the present time in which original initiation wisdom can be directly communicated than by being in communion with Christ. There is no other way. A genuine initiation wisdom of the present age will have to look for such communion with Christ.
If this initiation wisdom were not there to be found we could make no progress in social understanding. It is no longer possible to evolve social ideas nowadays unless we base ourselves on initiation. Yet we have need of social ideas. A social system born wholly out of Western initiation wisdom would depend on that initiation wisdom being kept secret even at its lowest levels—certain higher levels cannot be made known today because people must have the necessary preparation. Keeping things secret in this way is not compatible however with the principle of people being equal, a principle modern Europeans and indeed the whole civilized world consider important today. So you see that exactly when it comes to initiation wisdom a colossal difference shows itself between the Central European and the Western mind. The difference becomes even more apparent in the case of initiation wisdom than in the situation where people talk above each others heads in the present time and believe humankind can be brought to an abstract uniformity. That cannot be done. Human beings are differentiated and this differentiation shows itself particularly if one takes a more profound look at initiation knowledge. This is an important subject and it will no doubt be necessary for me to explain it in more detail during the time I am here. When it comes to genuine spiritual insight one simply cannot be slipshod about things, and a lack of seriousness concerning the truth is unacceptable. It simply will not do. Truthfulness is of the essence.
Zweiter Vortrag
Es handelt sich darum, wie schon öfter hier gesagt und vorgestern von einem wieder etwas andern Gesichtspunkte ausgeführt worden ist, aus der Entwickelungsgeschichte der Menschheit heraus, wie sie der geisteswissenschaftlichen Forschung vor Augen treten kann, den Ernst der gegenwärtigen Zeit zu empfinden, und aus diesem Ernst der Zeit heraus, gleichgültig an welchem Platz man steht im Leben, zu handeln.
Ich möchte heute wiederum einige Bausteine beitragen zu dem Gebäude, das in seiner Gänze uns zeigen kann, wie die Geistesverfassung der gegenwärtigen Menschheit beschaffen ist und wie aus dieser Geistesverfassung heraus für den weiteren Fortschritt der Menschheit gearbeitet werden muß. Wir werden zurückgreifen zunächst zu einigem, das uns in seinen Hauptzügen schon bekannt ist.
Wir wissen, daß die gegenwärtige zivilisierte Menschheit im wesentlichen darstellt die Fortbildung derjenigen Menschheit, die sich vor der atlantischen Katastrophe entwickelt hat auf dem atlantischen Kontinent, von dem wir ja des öfteren gesagt haben, daß er sich ausbreitete zwischen dem heutigen Europa, Afrika und Amerika an der Stelle, wo heute der Atlantische Ozean ist. Wir wissen, daß unter dem Einfluß der atlantischen Katastrophe, schon als sie sich vorbereitet hat und wie sie dann ihren Fortgang nahm, die damalige Menschheit unseres Westens sich zunächst nach Osten hin bewegte, Europa und weiterziehend Asien bevölkerte, und daß eigentlich die gegenwärtige europäische und asiatische Bevölkerung besteht aus der Nachkommenschaft der alten atlantischen Bevölkerung. Wir wissen auch, daß die Zivilisation dann in einer gewissen Weise den umgekehrten Weg genommen hat, daß Zivilisationsinhalt, Kulturinhalt, der zunächst in Asien erobert worden ist, von der Menschheit durch die Einwanderung von Kolonisatoren nach Europa gebracht worden ist, daß er dann da von verschiedenen Zentren ausgegangen ist. So ist, ich möchte sagen, die physische Grundlage der modernen Zivilisation, die Menschheit Europas und Asiens, Nachkommenschaft der alten atlantischen Bevölkerung, die vom Westen nach Osten gezogen ist; die Zivilisation selbst aber hat den Zug von Osten nach Westen gemacht. Diese zwei Wanderzüge werden eigentlich nur richtig unterschieden, wenn man von geisteswissenschaftlicher Forschung ausgeht. Die äußere Anthropologie verwirrt die beiden Dinge und weiß nicht, daß dasjenige, was von Asien nach Europa sich herüber verpflanzt hat, eigentlich nur die Kultur ist, während die physische Grundlage Wanderzügen ihr Dasein verdankt, die von Westen nach Osten sich erstreckten.
Nun aber ist der Mensch niemals ganz ohne Beziehung zu seiner örtlichen Daseinsgrundlage. Er ist in einer gewissen Verwandtschaft zu dem, was unter ihm der Erdboden ist, was der Erdboden hervorbringt, wie der Erdboden in klimatischen Verhältnissen sich auslebt und ihm eine Stätte bereitet. Daraus können Sie schon schließen — was aber durch geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung voll bestätigt wird -, daß diejenigen Menschen, die durch die nachatlantischen Wanderungen weiter nach Asien herübergekommen sind, sich anders entwickeln mußten als diejenigen, die in Europa zurückgeblieben sind. Trivial gesprochen, kann man sagen: Der europäische Boden wirkte eben anders auf die Nachkommen der Atlantier als der asiatische Boden. Und wir können in einer gewissen Weise den Unterschied der asiatischen Bevölkerung von der europäischen Bevölkerung angeben. Dieser Unterschied besteht darin, daß tatsächlich gerade in den ältesten Zeiten der nachatlantischen Zivilisationsentwickelung, im 9., 8., 7., 6. vorchristlichen Jahrtausend und auch noch in den folgenden Jahrtausenden, die asiatische Bevölkerung in einer andern Weise dasjenige aufgenommen hat, was eigentlich voll herausgekommen ist erst seit dem 15. Jahrhundert, wie ich das letzte Mal angedeutet habe, was aber schon vorbereitet worden ist in den früheren Jahrhunderten nicht nur, sondern in Jahrtausenden: das Intellektualistische, das eigentliche Denken.
So wie wir heute dieses Denken kennen, so wie wir heute den menschlichen Intellektualismus als innere Selbstbetätigung der Seele anerkennen, so kam er in seiner ureigenen Gestalt erst heraus in der allerneuesten Zeit. Aber die ganze Entwickelung, namentlich die nachatlantische, ist ein Hintendieren zu diesem Intellektualismus. Und das Bedeutsame ist, daß die asiatische nachatlantische Bevölkerung alles dasjenige, was wir als Intellektualistisches ansprechen können, aufgenommen hat mehr mit den seelischen Elementen; so daß wir da, innerhalb dieser asiatischen Bevölkerung, sagen können: Die örtlichen Verhältnisse prädestinieren diese Bevölkerung besonders dazu, das Seelische mit den Vorstufen des intelligenten Wesens zu durchdringen. Das ist das Bemerkenswerteste in der asiatischen Zivilisation, daß das Seelische als solches das Werkzeug wurde für das Aufnehmen des intelligenten Prinzips.
In Europa, bei den dort zurückgebliebenen Menschen, war das anders. Da war es ganz ausgesprochen so, daß die körperliche Entwickelung, die physische Organisation, nicht nur später das wirkliche Werkzeug des Intellektualismus wurde, sondern sich schon so herausbildete, daß sie das Wesentliche dieser europäischen Bevölkerung bildete, daß sie sich besonders geeignet machte, der Träger des intelligenten Wesens zu werden. Wenn man daher die Nachkommen der frühesten Nachkommen der Atlantier, welche wir also selber sind, charakterisieren will, so muß man sagen: Die Asiaten gewöhnten sich daran, mehr mit der Seele zu denken; die Europäer gewöhnten sich daran, mehr mit dem Körper zu denken. - Das ist auch der wesentliche Unterschied zwischen asiatischer und europäischer Zivilisation. Wenn Sie einen durchgreifenden Unterschied aufzeigen wollen zwischen dem, was als intelligentes Wesen in den Veden oder in der Vedantaphilosophie oder andern asiatischen Geistesströmungen hervortritt gegenüber dem europäischen Wesen, so werden Sie sich sagen müssen: Der Asiate denkt eben mehr durch die Seele, der Europäer mehr durch das Leibliche.
Und so kommt es denn, daß, weil der Asiate das Intellektuelle gewissermaßen mit einem höheren menschlichen Wesensglied auffaßte, er viel früher zu einem hohen Grade der Zivilisation, aber einer mehr seelischen Zivilisation kam, einer Zivilisation, die weniger abstrakte Begriffe in ihrer Struktur hatte, die aber die Wege weiter hinauf findet zu dem seelisch-geistigen Weltinhalt durch den seelisch-geistigen Menscheninhalt, ohne zu abstrakten Begriffen ihre Zuflucht zu nehmen. Das macht das spirituelle Wesen der asiatischen Zivilisation aus, daß sie im wesentlichen eine seelische Zivilisation ist. Der Asiate ließ. im hohen Grade seine Leiblichkeit unbenützt bei seinem Denken; er trug seinen Leib durch seine irdische Laufbahn. Dasjenige, was sein Geistesleben ausmachte, das pflegte er im Rein-Seelischen. Sie verstehen nicht die ganze eigentümliche Artung des asiatischen Wesens, wenn Sie sie nicht von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus betrachten. Der Europäer dachte immer mehr und mehr mit dem Körperlichen. Daher wurde auch bei ihm mehr als beim Asiaten der Grund gelegt zu einer Kultur, welche das Freiheitsprinzip in die Mitte stellen kann. Der Asiate, dem die Intelligenz beschieden war im Seelischen, der war noch mehr darinnen in dem allgemeinen Weltenorganismus. Der menschliche Leib sondert sich ja besonders heraus aus dem übrigen Weltenorganismus, und benutzt man ihn als das besondere Werkzeug des intellektuellen Lebens, so wird man selbständiger, aber auch mehr mit seiner Selbständigkeit an den Leib gebunden als der Asiate, der die Intelligenz innerhalb des seelischen Prinzips entwickelt hat und dafür weniger selbständig wird.
Wir haben also über Asien hin, je mehr wir uns der Zeit nähern in der Menschheitsentwickelung, die das Mysterium von Golgatha brachte, eine hohe seelisch-geistige Kultur, die nun sogar schon wiederum ihren Höhepunkt überschritten hatte, als das Mysterium von Golgatha eintrat, die schon wiederum etwas im Niedergang war. Denn man sollte sich nicht darüber täuschen: Mit europäischen Begriffen ist nicht so ohne weiteres dasjenige zu fassen, was an hoher Kultur durch das Seelisch-Geistige im Asiatentum hervorgebracht worden ist. Und wenn so richtig europäisch denkende Menschen, das heißt Menschen, die ganz mit dem Werkzeug des Leibes denken, wie zum Beispiel Deussen, es unternehmen, das Asiatische dem Europäer nahezubringen, dann kommt etwas heraus, was eben durchaus nicht dem Inhalt der seelisch-geistigen Zivilisation Asiens entspricht, sondern das alles, was dort lebt, ins Europäische übersetzt. Es ist ja sogar unter solchen Einflüssen möglich geworden, daß Interpretationen gewisser indischer Geistesströmungen in Europa Aufsehen gemacht haben, wie die Garbeschen, die nichts anderes bedeuten als die konfuse Übersetzung des asiatischen seelisch-geistigen Wesens durch den europäischen Materialismus. In den Schriften dieser Art ist eben auch nicht eine Spur vorhanden von dem, was der Geist des alten Asiatentums war. Es ist notwendig, heute auf diese Dinge streng hinzuweisen, weil gerade heute, wie ich des öfteren erwähnt habe, der Autoritätsglaube einen furchtbar hohen Grad erreicht hat und man eigentlich schon gar nichts mehr hat, was einen veranlaßt, irgend etwas als gültig anzusehen als die Tatsache, daß irgend etwas aus akademischen Kreisen kommt. Es gibt natürlich keinen wirklich inneren Grund, die Deussensche oder Garbesche Verhunzung des Asiatentums als irgend etwas Bedeutsameres anzusehen als den auf Irrpfaden gehenden Autoritätsglauben Europas, der gar nicht mehr in der Lage ist, irgendwie innerliche Gründe zu finden, sondern der eben nur auf äußere Autorität hin noch glaubt, daß das oder jenes richtig ist. Es hilft nichts - wenn das auch neue Feindschaften hervorbringt -, über diese Dinge nicht die Wahrheit zu sagen, denn der Ernst der Zeit fordert durchaus, daß in gewissen Dingen keine Kompromisse geschlossen werden, sondern daß auf die Wahrheit rückhaltlos hingedeutet wird.
Schon als die spirituelle Hochkultur Asiens in einem gewissen Niedergang war, fiel in diese Hochkultur hinein das Ereignis von Golgatha. Dieses Ereignis von Golgatha — man kann es nicht oft genug betonen — wurde zunächst aufgefaßt, begriffen durch dasjenige, was asiatische Kultur hervorgebracht hat. Man muß wirklich unterscheiden zwischen dem Mysterium von Golgatha als Erdentatsache, zwischen dem, was sich im Beginn unserer Zeitrechnung in Vorderasien zugetragen hat, und demjenigen, was die Menschen sich als Vorstellung gemacht haben über dieses Mysterium von Golgatha. Europa hatte zur Zeit, als das Mysterium von Golgatha geschah, noch keine Möglichkeit, dieses Mysterium von Golgatha voil zu begreifen, denn es war ein Ereignis, das nur vom Geistig-Seelischen aus zu begreifen war. Die europäische Zivilisation aber hatte sich ausgebreitet mit dem Werkzeug des Materiell-Körperlichen; mit dem, was in Europa hervorgebracht wurde an materiell-körperlicher Zivilisation, war diese Tatsache, die da geschah im Beginn unserer Zeitrechnung, aber nicht unmittelbar zu begreifen. Die asiatische Zivilisation jedoch konnte Vorstellungen finden aus dem geistig-seelischen Intellektualismus heraus, um dieses Ereignis von Golgatha zu begreifen. Und so ist dasjenige, was geschehen ist in Palästina, gegossen worden in die Vorstellungswelt des Orients. Und es ist als solches gewandert nach dem Westen über Griechenland nach Italien und ist als Tradition gebracht worden nach Europa.
Nun kann der Mensch äußerlich etwas empfangen, was er innerlich noch nicht erfassen kann; er kann es äußerlich empfangen durch Tradition, durch Überlieferung, durch das geschriebene Wort. Und so bekam Europa zunächst die Erklärung, die Auffassung für das Mysterium von Golgatha durch die orientalische Überlieferung, das heißt, man verstand das Christentum im Lichte orientalischer, geistigseelischer Weisheit. Sie war groß zur Zeit, als man noch gnostisch begriff das Mysterium von Golgatha und die Stellung des Christus zur ganzen Erdenentwickelung. Sie wurde immer geringer und geringer, als die Europäer immer mehr und mehr ihre Eigenart hineinmischten in die Tradition. Sie mußten ihre Eigenart, das heißt das Gebundensein mit dem Intellektualismus an das Leibliche, hineinmischen in ihre Auffassung. Und was sich insbesondere in Europa zeigte, das war, daß zwar in den alten Zeiten der menschliche Leib der Europäer in hohem Maße das Werkzeug für ihre Art elementaren Intellektualismus war, daß aber dieser Körper allmählich erstarb. Und eigentlich ist die körperliche Entwickelung der europäischen Menschheit bis ins 15. Jahrhundert und noch bis in unsere Zeit herauf ein Ersterben des materiellen Leibes. Unser materieller Leib wird immer dichter und knöcheriger. Das kann man nicht mit äußerer Anatomie und Physiologie nachweisen, aber es ist der Fall. Wir haben heute nicht mehr diesen innerlich lebendigen Leib, den die Menschen des 1., des 3., ja sogar des 10. und 11. Jahrhunderts noch hatten. Wir haben heute einen europäischen Leib, welcher gegenüber diesem alten, innerlich lebendigen Leib verknöchert ist, abgelähmt ist. Daher stand auf der einen Seite die für das asiatische Geistig-Seelische berechnete Tradition, die die kirchlichen Glaubensbekenntnisse bewahrten, und auf der andern Seite immer mehr und mehr der europäische Leib, dem fremd und fremder wurde das, was aus Asien herübergekommen war, und der nach und nach auch nicht mehr empfangen konnte, was aus Asien herübergekommen war.
Und jetzt kam immer mehr und mehr seit der Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts herauf unter dem Einflusse des verknöcherten europäischen Leibes die Tatsache, daß die alte Tradition nur noch dem äußeren, phrasenhaften Wortlaute nach innerhalb der Bekenntnisgemeinschaften bewahrt wurde. Jahrhunderte hindurch war noch die Tradition so lebendig, daß man nicht viel Rücksicht nahm auf das Evangelium, sondern sich an das Leben hielt. Unter dem Einfluß des ersterbenden europäischen Leibes fand man sich dann genötigt zu sagen: Die Tradition wollen wir abwerfen, nur noch an das Wort wollen wir glauben, an das Wort, das aufgeschrieben ist. Man glaubt nämlich, man hätte das Wort, indem man die schlechte Übersetzung des Wortes hat. Und so ist man allmählich dazu gekommen, ohne daß man sich das gestehen will, daß man eigentlich nur mehr die äußere Hülle des alten Wortes hatte, das in sich schloß die Kunde über das Mysterium von Golgatha in dem Gewande orientalischer geistig-seelischer Weisheit.
Diese orientalisch geistig-seelische Weisheit wird wenig verstanden von denen, die heute oftmals die Evangelien interpretieren, oder übersetzen, wenig, fast gar nicht. Wir stehen eben heute vor der Notwendigkeit, das Mysterium von Golgatha neu aufzufassen; aber wir können es nicht auffassen, wenn wir in Europa nicht hinauskommen über das, was uns der schon ersterbende europäische Leib gibt. Wir müssen durch geisteswissenschaftliche Entwickelung zu einem Erfassen der geistigen Welt kommen, unabhängig von diesem Leibe. Und alles Heil der Zukunft hängt daran, daß wir zu einem solchen Erfassen der geistigen Welt kommen, das unabhängig ist von dem Leiblichen, das direkt auf das Geistige losgeht. Es wird sich unterscheiden müssen von dem, was die orientalische geistig-seelische Kultur in sich hat. Diese orientalische geistig-seelische Kultur kam durch die Entwickelung des Menschen wie von selbst an diesen heran. Der Europäer der neueren Zeit muß sie sich erwerben. Er muß Geisteswissenschaft pflegen. Er muß die öffentliche Erziehung von der untersten Stufe an so einrichten, daß nicht theoretisch Geisteswissenschaft getrieben wird, aber daß diese einfließt in das ganze Gebaren namentlich des Unterrichts und der Erziehung, daß Geisteswissenschaft auch hineinfließt in den höheren Unterricht, daß Geisteswissenschaft lebt in alledem, was Kunst, Literatur und so weiter, was in dieser Beziehung öffentliches geistiges Leben ist. Und es muß diese europäische Kultur dafür sorgen, daß Geisteswissenschaft als solche gepflegt werde. Was wird dann aus dieser Geisteswissenschaft herauswachsen? Es wird herauswachsen ein neues Verständnis des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Und sagen wird man müssen: Das sind alte Zeiten, in denen man nur nach der orientalischen geistig-seelischen Weisheit interpretiert hat das Mysterium von Golgatha, und eine lebendige neue Weisheit muß in neuer Weise das Mysterium von Golgatha erfassen.
In vieler Beziehung haben wir ja über diese Dinge öfter gesprochen, aber sie müssen von allen Seiten unsere Seele ergreifen. Es ist notwendig, daß wir den Ernst in unsere Empfindung aufnehmen, der wirklich uns durchdringt mit der Einsicht von der Notwendigkeit eines neuen Verständnisses des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Und da liegt immerhin etwas vor, was, ich möchte sagen, den Ernst gerade für die mitteleuropäische Bevölkerung zu einem noch herberen macht.
Wenn wir mit einem tieferen Verständnis hinblicken auf dasjenige, was Geistesleben geworden ist in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts, in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts gerade innerhalb Mitteleuropas, so werden Sie sagen müssen: Da ist, trotzdem natürlich auch die Bevölkerung dieses Mitteleuropa Leiber hatte, die schon im Absterben waren, doch noch so viel Lebendiges gewesen, daß sich diese Bevölkerung Mitteleuropas herauf erheben konnte zur Lebendigkeit der Ideenwelt, wie sie eigentlich niemals vorher in der Menschheitsentwickelung erreicht worden ist. Es gibt keine solche Erhebung des Menschen zu abstrakten Begriffen, aber zugleich so, daß, wenn man in diesen abstrakten Begriffen lebt, man nicht im Toten lebt, sondern im Lebendigen, wie es zum Beispiel erreicht worden ist vom Goetheanismus oder von den idealistischen deutschen Philosophen. Das gibt es sonst in der Menschheitsentwickelung nicht. Das ist auch in einer gewissen Beziehung ein Höhepunkt, den man sich nur wirklich ganz klarmachen muß. Die heutige Menschheit will eben nichts mehr davon wissen, wie, um jetzt einmal einen Geist aus der Reihe der Goetheanisten herauszugreifen, ein Mensch wie Schelling - ich habe das öfter geschildert - sich in der Sphäre abstrakter Begriffe bewegt, und doch, obwohl er in abstrakten Begriffen redet, so lebendig in dieser Welt der abstrakten Begriffe sich bewegt, wie sonst einer nur, wenn er von Essen und Trinken spricht. Auch bei Fichte war das der Fall. Dieses Heraufsteigenkönnen in die Sphäre der Begriffe und Ideen in Lebendigkeit tritt uns auf diesem Gebiet menschlicher Entwickelung ganz besonders entgegen. Daher liegt wirklich für diese mitteleuropäische Bevölkerung doch etwas ganz Besonderes vor im ganzen Zusammenhang der neueren Menschheit. Bei dieser mitteleuropäischen Bevölkerung liegt nämlich tatsächlich das vor, daß sie durch ihre besondere Eigenart, die eigentlich erst in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts überflutet worden ist von etwas anderem, am ehesten ergreifen kann den Beruf der modernen Menschheit, wiederum in die Geistigkeit hineinzukommen. Deshalb ist es so furchtbar schmerzlich zu empfinden, daß es heute in Mitteleuropa ein so schläfriges Menschenwesen gibt, das in einem gewissen Sinn auf den Gräbern Lessings und Goethes und Herders und Schellings herumgeht und selber seine Aufgabe im seelischen Schlafen sieht. Denn tatsächlich, im Wiederanknüpfen an dasjenige, was diese Geister geschrieben und gedacht haben, aber nicht in äußerlicher Weise, sondern im Wiederanknüpfen an den Geist, aus dem heraus sie geschrieben haben, würde dasjenige liegen, was Europa in die Höhe bringen könnte. Europa kann nicht in die Höhe gebracht werden, wenn in seinen Kirchen die unverstandenen Evangelienworte nachgeplappert werden. Europa kann nur in die Höhe gebracht werden, wenn die Erfassung der geistigen Welten gesucht wird in einer weiteren Fortbildung desjenigen, was ein Herder, ein Goethe und andere erstrebt haben. Aber davon wird in der Gegenwart fast gar nichts bemerkt. Es ist schon ein trauriges Zeichen der Zeit, daß zum Beispiel innerhalb einer Kulturgemeinschaft, die so etwas besitzt wie Fichtes «Bestimmung des Menschen», wie Schellings «Bruno», wie Schillers «Ästhetische Briefe», und ich könnte Ihnen noch vieles nennen, daß innerhalb einer solchen Kulturgemeinschaft ein Streben aufkommen konnte, das sich zu den lächerlichen, oberflächlichen Amerikanismen eines Ralph Waldo Trine und ähnlichen andern hingewandt hat. Man hat hier weit, weit Höheres, läßt es schlafen und wendet sich zu anderem hin.
Und je mehr man in das eigentliche geistige Gebiet hineindringt, desto stärker offenbart es sich, daß im Leben der heutigen Menschheit Neues offenbar wird. Der Mitteleuropäer wird von dem Westeuropäer wenig verstanden; der Westeuropäer wird von dem Mitteleuropäer wenig verstanden, auch schon im gewöhnlichen Leben. Aber man bemerkt es da nicht so. Man glaubt sich zu verstehen. Man merkt nicht, daß man aneinander vorbeiredet. Ich will nicht reden von dem Aneinandervorbeireden der Amerikaner und Europäer, sondern von dem der Mittel- und Westeuropäer. In diesen Dingen kann man ja auch Merkwürdiges erleben.
Ich habe Ihnen auch das letzte Mal, als ich hier war, erzählt, daß das Verleumdungssystem nicht nur hier innerhalb Deutschlands spielt, sondern daß es auch außerhalb der Grenzen Deutschlands spielt. Ich habe Ihnen von diesem Ferrière erzählt, der in einer belgisch-schweizerischen Zeitschrift sich zum Verbreiter eines sonderbaren Märchens gemacht hat, indem er erzählte, daß es ja allbekannt wäre von mir, daß ich der «Rasputin» Wilhelms II. gewesen sei und wesentlich beigetragen hätte zu all den schlechten Ratschlägen, die Wilhelm II. in der Schreckenszeit gegeben worden sind. Ich habe nun, genötigt durch diese Verleumdung, die sich namentlich innerhalb der französischen Schweiz ausgebreitet hatte, entgegnet in der Form, daß ich die Wahrheit, um die es sich hier handelt, niederschrieb, nämlich die nackten Tatsachen: daß ich den ehemaligen Kaiser nur von ferne flüchtig gesehen habe, daß ich niemals ein Wort mit ihm gesprochen habe, daß ich niemals auch nur eine mittelbare Verbindung mit ihm gesucht habe. Ich habe diese nackten Tatsachen niedergeschrieben in einem Brief an Herrn Dr. Boos, der dann seinerseits dem Ferrière die nötige Abfertigung gegeben hat. Es wurde dies aufgenommen in der betreffenden Zeitschrift und auch gleich die Erwiderung abgedruckt. Diese Erwiderung hat ungefähr den folgenden Inhalt: Man sehe an diesem Beispiel wiederum den großen Unterschied zwischen dem lateinischen Geist und dem germanischen Geist. Der germanische Geist nähme alles so seriös. «Meine Leser», so schreibt Ferrière, «werden sich aber nicht haben täuschen lassen; sie werden schon herausgefunden haben, daß dasjenige, was ich niederschrieb, als ‹plaisanterie> gemeint ist und nicht als ‹méchanceté›. Im übrigen konstatiere ich, daß man die Erfahrung machen kann, daß auch dann, wenn man etwas hört von Menschen, von denen man glaubt, daß man ihnen glauben könnte, auch wenn das Gerücht eine weite Verbreitung gefunden hat, es doch nicht wahr sein kann. Ich nehme davon Notiz.» Und so weiter.
Das war die elegante Erwiderung, die der «lateinische Geist» mit «plaisanterie» über den seriösen germanischen Geist geben konnte. Wenn solche Dinge noch hervortreten, dann kann man ja noch zufrieden sein, aber sie werden sehr häufig nicht bemerkt.
Aber noch bedeutsamer treten diese Dinge hervor gerade auf dem Gebiet einer tieferen Weltauffassung, da, wo diese Dinge hineinspielen in die Wissenschaft von der Initiation, in die Wissenschaft der Einweihung und in all das, was damit zusammenhängt. Und hier auf diesem Gebiet ist es in der Tat schon notwendig, daß einmal an diese Dinge gerührt werde, an die zu rühren allerdings manche Menschen heute noch für außerordentlich gefährlich halten. Und so möchte ich denn heute zu Ihnen von einer Tatsache sprechen, die nach der Meinung namentlich westlicher Vertreter der Einweihungswissenschaft eben nicht besprochen werden soll.
Sie können von westlichen Vertretern der Einweihungswissenschaft immer wieder und wiederum hören, daß es eigentlich ganz untunlich sei, daß jemand von sich selber aus die selbsterkannte Einweihungswissenschaft verbreitet. Sie werden daher immer finden, daß, wenn wirklich Eingeweihte des Westens durch öffentliche Schriften Einweihungswissenschaft zur Darstellung bringen, sie es ablehnen, selber erfahrungsgemäß von den Dingen, die sie mitteilen, etwas zu wissen. Sie finden es als eine typische Tatsache, daß irgend jemand Dinge mitteilt, die durchaus Einweihungswissenschaft sind, besonders in Amerika erscheinen solche Dinge, da wird dann eine Vorrede dazu gemacht, das gehört einfach zur Technik der Behandlung der ganzen Sache, und darin wird gesagt: Es ist selbstverständlich, daß ich alle diese Dinge nicht von mir habe, denn hätte ich sie von mir, so würde ich sie nicht mitteilen. — Sehen Sie nach, Sie werden bei einer großen Anzahl von Dokumenten gerade der Einweihungswissenschaft des Westens solche Dinge finden. Und wenn dann die Frage entsteht, warum so verfahren wird, dann bekommen Sie eine gewisse Antwort, die innerhalb bestimmter Grenzen für westliche Einweihungswissenschaft durchaus zutreffend ist. Da wird Ihnen gesagt: Derjenige, der direkt, unmittelbar in der geistigen Welt etwas erfährt, der also die Geheimnisse der geistigen Welt kennt, der kann ja dem andern nicht sagen, daß er sie durch eigene Erfahrung kennt — so wird in der Regel die Antwort wörtlich lauten -, denn verrät er, daß er aus eigener unmittelbarer Erfahrung Einweihungserkenntnisse besitzt, so begibt er sich lebenslänglich in Abhängigkeit von dem, dem er sein Geheimnis verrät.
Diese Anschauung, die in dem Wesen der westlichen Einweihungswissenschaft begründet ist, führt dazu, daß in einer ganz äußerlichen Weise über alles Einweihungsgemäße bei den westlichen Einweihungsgesellschaften gesprochen wird, daß durchaus unter den westlichen Menschen Eingeweihte herumgehen, von denen kein Mensch weiß, daß sie Eingeweihte sind. Diese Anschauung, die überwunden werden muß von der neueren Zeit, die kann gar nicht in Mitteleuropa gelten, und es muß gerade der Geist, der in Mitteleuropa sein sollte, diese Anschauung bekämpfen. Und zwar muß dieser mitteleuropäische Geist sie dadurch bekämpfen, daß er in der vorhin charakterisierten neuen geistigen Weise verstehen lernt das Mysterium von Golgatha, verstehen lernt das Leben mit dem Christus-Wesen.
Hier liegt ein wichtiges Geheimnis. In westlichen Ländern ist es heute mit der gebräuchlichen Einweihungswissenschaft noch vielfach so, daß sie ferne steht dem Christentum; sonst hätte nicht die Theosophical Society mit Ausschluß des Christentums oder mit einem karikierten Christentum eine rein orientalische, indische Weisheit, eine vorchristliche Weisheit als etwas Neues angewandt. Es ist eine Eigentümlichkeit dieser westlichen Einweihungswissenschaft, daß derjenige, der dort eingeweiht ist, nur etwas hat von seiner Einweihung, wenn er wenigstens einen Schüler hat, der seine Vorstellungen wiederholt. Es nützt gar nichts, die Einweihungswissenschaft nur für sich allein zu haben. Geradeso wie Sie geradeaus sehend mit Ihren Augen auf keinen Gegenstand treffen, so treffen Sie nicht auf Ihre eigenen geistigen Begriffe, wenn Sie als westlicher Eingeweihter nicht schauen können auf die Wiederholung Ihrer Vorstellungen bei einem andern. In der mannigfaltigsten Form wird das schon angedeutet, aber man erkennt es nicht richtig. In der Tat, wenn es so ist, dann gilt es, daß derjenige, der einem andern verrät, daß er selber ein Eingeweihter ist, lebenslänglich in die Gewalt dieses andern kommt; denn der andere kann ihm den Dienst aufsagen und kann ihm sagen: Ich wiederhole deine Vorstellungen nicht. — Es kommt eine gewisse Abhängigkeit heraus unter diesem Prinzip. Das gehört im wesentlichen zu den charakteristischen Eigenschaften derjenigen Einweihungswissenschaft, von der ich Ihnen oftmals von andern Gesichtspunkten aus als herrschender Einweihungswissenschaft des Westens erzählt habe.
Nun gibt es gegenüber dieser Abhängigkeit von der Anhängerschaft nur ein einziges: Die Gemeinschaft zu haben mit dem Christus, der ja seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha auf der Erde wirklich zu finden ist. Wer in dieser Gemeinschaft nicht mit einem nichtsinnlichen Menschenwesen, sondern mit dem unter die Menschen gegangenen ersten Bruder die Gemeinschaft hält, mit dem lebendigen, unter uns wandelnden Christus diejenige Gemeinschaft hält, die man in der vorchristlichen Einweihung mit einem andern Menschen haben mußte, der braucht nicht davor zurückzuschrecken, seine eigene Weisheit an die Mitwelt mitzuteilen. Aber es gibt in der Gegenwart keinen andern Weg, ursprüngliche Initiationsweisheit unmittelbar mitzuteilen, als wenn man die Gemeinschaft mit dem Christus hält. Einen andern Weg gibt es nicht. Und daher wird wirkliche Initiationsweisheit der neueren Zeit diese Gemeinschaft mit dem Christus suchen müssen. Wenn sie nicht gesucht werden könnte, diese Initiationsweisheit, wir könnten in sozialer Erkenntnis nicht vorwärtskommen. Denn mit dem, was nicht aus der Einweihung stammt, ist heute kein soziales Denken mehr zu entwickeln. Das aber gerade brauchen wir. Und wenn aus der westlichen Initiationsweisheit allein herausgeboren würde ein soziales System, so würde das darauf beruhen müssen, daß die Initiationsweisheit selbst bis in weite Gebiete herunter — gewisse höhere Gebiete können ja heute den Menschen nicht mitgeteilt werden, weil dazu Vorbereitung nötig ist — geheimgehalten wird. Aber mit dieser Art von Geheimhaltung ist ja von vornherein nicht vereinbar das Prinzip der Gleichheit aller Menschen, welche immer mehr und mehr angestrebt wird von dem neueren europäischen, überhaupt vom modernen zivilisierten Menschentum. Daraus sehen Sie, daß gerade da, wo man Initiationsweisheit findet, hineinspielt der kolossale Unterschied zwischen der Veranlagung der mitteleuropäischen Menschen und derjenigen der westlichen Menschen. Viel mehr wird dieser Unterschied deutlich, wenn es sich handelt um die Initiationsweisheit, als wenn es sich handelt um dasjenige, worin man in der Gegenwart so aneinander vorbeigeht und glaubt, man könne die Menschheit in eine abstrakte einheitliche Form bringen. Das kann man nicht. Die Menschheit ist differenziert und die Differenzierung zeigt sich besonders, wenn man in die Tiefen der Einweihungswissenschaft hineingeht. Mit diesem Thema ist tatsächlich etwas sehr Bedeutsames angeschlagen und ich werde es schon nötig haben, einzelne weitere Erklärungen zu diesem Thema noch zu geben während meiner hiesigen Anwesenheit. — Auf dem Gebiete der wirklichen Geist-Erkenntnis kann nicht mit Überhudeln, mit Nachlässigkeiten, mit einem Wenig-Ernst-Nehmen der Wahrheit gerechnet werden. Das geht eben einfach nicht. Es ist Wahrhaftigkeit notwendig.
Second Lecture
As has been said here many times before, and explained from a slightly different perspective the day before yesterday, it is a matter of perceiving the seriousness of the present time from the history of human development as it appears to spiritual scientific research, and of acting out of this seriousness of the times, regardless of one's position in life.
Today I would like to contribute a few more building blocks to the edifice that, when viewed as a whole, can show us the nature of the spiritual constitution of the present human race and how we must work for the further progress of humanity on the basis of this spiritual constitution. We will first refer back to a few things that are already familiar to us in their main features.
We know that present-day civilized humanity essentially represents the further development of the humanity that developed before the Atlantean catastrophe on the Atlantean continent, which, as we have often said, stretched between present-day Europe, Africa, and America, where the Atlantic Ocean is today. We know that under the influence of the Atlantean catastrophe, even as it was preparing and then unfolding, the humanity of our West at that time first moved eastward, populating Europe and then Asia, and that the present European and Asian populations actually consist of the descendants of the ancient Atlantean population. We also know that civilization then took the opposite path in a certain sense, that the content of civilization and culture, which had initially been conquered in Asia, was brought to Europe by the immigration of colonizers, and that it then spread from various centers. Thus, I would say that the physical foundation of modern civilization, the humanity of Europe and Asia, is the descendants of the ancient Atlantean population that migrated from west to east; civilization itself, however, moved from east to west. These two migrations can only be properly distinguished if one starts from spiritual scientific research. External anthropology confuses the two things and does not know that what has been transplanted from Asia to Europe is actually only culture, while the physical foundation owes its existence to migrations that extended from west to east.
Now, however, human beings are never completely without a relationship to their local basis of existence. They are related in a certain way to the earth beneath them, to what the earth produces, to how the earth lives out its life in climatic conditions and prepares a place for them. From this you can already conclude — and this is fully confirmed by spiritual scientific research — that those people who came further to Asia through the post-Atlantean migrations had to develop differently from those who remained in Europe. To put it simply, one can say that the European soil had a different effect on the descendants of the Atlanteans than the Asian soil. And we can, in a certain sense, indicate the difference between the Asian population and the European population. This difference consists in the fact that, especially in the earliest times of post-Atlantean civilization, in the 9th, 8th, 7th, 6th millennia BC and even in the following millennia, the Asian population absorbed in a different way what actually only fully emerged in the 15th century, as I indicated last time, but which had already been prepared not only in earlier centuries, but in millennia: intellectualism, actual thinking.
Just as we know this thinking today, just as we today recognize human intellectualism as the inner self-activity of the soul, it only emerged in its original form in the most recent times. But the entire development, especially the post-Atlantean one, is a tendency toward this intellectualism. And what is significant is that the Asian post-Atlantean population has absorbed everything that we can refer to as intellectualism more with the soul elements; so that we can say, within this Asian population, that the local conditions predestine this population in particular to permeate the soul with the preliminary stages of the intelligent being. This is the most remarkable thing about Asian civilization, that the soul as such became the tool for absorbing the intelligent principle.
In Europe, among the people who remained behind there, it was different. There it was quite clear that physical development, physical organization, not only later became the real tool of intellectualism, but had already developed to such an extent that it formed the essence of this European population, making it particularly suited to become the bearer of the intelligent being. Therefore, if one wants to characterize the descendants of the earliest descendants of the Atlanteans, which we ourselves are, one must say: The Asians became accustomed to thinking more with the soul; the Europeans became accustomed to thinking more with the body. This is also the essential difference between Asian and European civilization. If you want to point out a fundamental difference between what emerges as an intelligent being in the Vedas or in Vedanta philosophy or other Asian intellectual currents and the European being, you will have to say: Asians think more through the soul, Europeans more through the body.
And so it comes about that, because Asians perceived the intellectual with a higher human faculty, so to speak, they arrived much earlier at a high degree of civilization, but a more soulful civilization, a civilization that had fewer abstract concepts in its structure, but which finds its way further up to the soul-spiritual content of the world through the soul-spiritual content of human beings, without resorting to abstract concepts. This is what constitutes the spiritual essence of Asian civilization, that it is essentially a soul-based civilization. Asians left their physicality largely unused in their thinking; they carried their bodies through their earthly existence. They cultivated what constituted their spiritual life in the purely soul realm. You cannot understand the whole peculiar nature of the Asian being unless you view it from this perspective. Europeans thought more and more with the physical. This is why the foundation was laid for a culture that could place the principle of freedom at its center more than in Asia. Asians, who were gifted with intelligence in the soul, were even more immersed in the general world organism. The human body stands out from the rest of the world organism, and if you use it as a special tool for intellectual life, you become more independent, but also more bound to your independence than Asians, who have developed their intelligence within the spiritual principle and have become less independent as a result.
Thus, the closer we come to the time in human evolution that brought the Mystery of Golgotha, the more we find in Asia a highly spiritual culture that had already passed its peak when the Mystery of Golgotha occurred and was already in decline. For we should not deceive ourselves: it is not easy to grasp in European terms what has been brought forth in Asian culture through the soul-spiritual. And when truly European-minded people, that is, people who think entirely with the tools of the body, such as Deussen, attempt to bring Asian culture closer to Europeans, the result is something that does not correspond at all to the content of the spiritual civilization of Asia, but rather translates everything that lives there into European terms. Under such influences, it has even become possible for interpretations of certain Indian spiritual currents to cause a sensation in Europe, such as those of Garbe, which mean nothing more than the confused translation of the Asian soul-spiritual essence through European materialism. In writings of this kind, there is not a trace of what the spirit of ancient Asian culture was. It is necessary to point this out strictly today because, as I have often mentioned, belief in authority has reached a terribly high degree and one actually has nothing left that causes one to regard anything as valid except the fact that it comes from academic circles. There is, of course, no real inner reason to regard Deussen's or Garbe's mangling of Asian culture as anything more significant than the misguided belief in authority in Europe, which is no longer capable of finding any inner reasons, but only believes that this or that is right because of external authority. It does not help – even if it creates new enmities – not to tell the truth about these things, because the seriousness of the times demands that no compromises be made in certain matters, but that the truth be pointed out without reservation.
Even when the spiritual high culture of Asia was in a state of decline, the event of Golgotha fell upon this high culture. This event of Golgotha — one cannot emphasize this enough — was initially understood and comprehended through what Asian culture had produced. One must really distinguish between the mystery of Golgotha as an earthly fact, between what happened in the Near East at the beginning of our calendar, and what people have imagined about this mystery of Golgotha. At the time when the mystery of Golgotha took place, Europe had no way of fully understanding this mystery, for it was an event that could only be understood from the spiritual-soul realm. European civilization, however, had spread with the tools of the material-physical realm; with what had been produced in Europe in terms of material-physical civilization, this event that took place at the beginning of our calendar could not be directly understood. Asian civilization, however, was able to find ideas from spiritual-soul intellectualism to understand this event of Golgotha. And so what happened in Palestine was poured into the world of ideas of the Orient. And as such it migrated to the West via Greece to Italy and was brought to Europe as tradition.
Now, human beings can receive something externally that they cannot yet grasp internally; they can receive it externally through tradition, through handed-down knowledge, through the written word. And so Europe first received the explanation, the understanding of the mystery of Golgotha through the Eastern tradition, that is, Christianity was understood in the light of Eastern spiritual wisdom. This was great at a time when people still understood the mystery of Golgotha and the position of Christ in the whole development of the earth in a Gnostic way. It became less and less as Europeans increasingly mixed their own characteristics into the tradition. They had to mix their own characteristics, that is, their attachment to intellectualism and the physical, into their understanding. And what was particularly evident in Europe was that, although in ancient times the human body of Europeans was to a high degree the instrument for their kind of elementary intellectualism, this body gradually died. And actually, the physical development of European humanity up to the 15th century and even up to our time is a dying off of the material body. Our material body is becoming denser and more bony. This cannot be proven by external anatomy and physiology, but it is the case. Today we no longer have this inwardly living body that people of the 1st, 3rd, and even the 10th and 11th centuries still had. Today we have a European body that is ossified and atrophied in comparison to this old, inwardly living body. On the one hand, therefore, there was the tradition calculated for the Asian spirit and soul, which preserved the creeds of the Church, and on the other hand, there was the European body, which found what had come over from Asia increasingly foreign and which gradually became incapable of receiving what had come over from Asia.
And now, from the middle of the 15th century onwards, under the influence of the ossified European body, it became increasingly apparent that the old tradition was only preserved within the confessional communities in its external, phraseological wording. For centuries, tradition was still so alive that people did not pay much attention to the Gospel, but held fast to life. Under the influence of the dying European body, people then found themselves compelled to say: We want to cast off tradition; we want to believe only in the Word, in the Word that is written down. For people believe that they have the word by having the poor translation of the word. And so, without wanting to admit it, they have gradually come to have only the outer shell of the old word, which contained the message of the mystery of Golgotha in the garb of Oriental spiritual and soul wisdom.
This spiritual-soul wisdom of the East is little understood by those who today often interpret or translate the Gospels, little, almost not at all. We are now faced with the necessity of reinterpreting the mystery of Golgotha; but we cannot understand it if we in Europe cannot go beyond what the already dying European body gives us. We must come to an understanding of the spiritual world through spiritual scientific development, independent of this body. And all salvation in the future depends on our coming to such an understanding of the spiritual world that is independent of the physical and goes directly to the spiritual. It will have to differ from what the Eastern spiritual-soul culture has in itself. This spiritual-soul culture of the East came to mankind as if by itself through the development of the human being. The European of the modern age must acquire it. He must cultivate spiritual science. They must organize public education from the lowest level in such a way that spiritual science is not pursued theoretically, but that it flows into the whole of behavior, especially into teaching and education, that spiritual science also flows into higher education, that spiritual science lives in everything that is art, literature, and so on, in everything that is public spiritual life in this sense. And this European culture must ensure that spiritual science as such is cultivated. What will then grow out of these spiritual sciences? A new understanding of the mystery of Golgotha will grow out of them. And we will have to say: Those were old times when the mystery of Golgotha was interpreted only according to Oriental spiritual wisdom, and a living new wisdom must grasp the mystery of Golgotha in a new way.
We have often spoken about these things in many respects, but they must grasp our souls from all sides. It is necessary that we take seriously the insight that truly permeates us with the necessity of a new understanding of the mystery of Golgotha. And there is something here, I would say, that makes this seriousness even more acute for the people of Central Europe.
If we look with a deeper understanding at what spiritual life became in the second half of the 18th century and in the first half of the 19th century, especially in Central Europe, we must say: Even though the population of Central Europe had bodies that were already dying, there was still so much life that this population of Central Europe was able to rise up to the liveliness of the world of ideas in a way that had never before been achieved in human evolution. There is no such elevation of the human being to abstract concepts, but at the same time, when one lives in these abstract concepts, one does not live in the dead, but in the living, as was achieved, for example, by Goetheanism or by the idealistic German philosophers. This does not exist elsewhere in human development. In a certain sense, this is also a high point that one must only really make clear to oneself. Today's humanity no longer wants to know anything about how, to pick out a spirit from the ranks of the Goetheans, a man like Schelling — I have described this often — moved in the sphere of abstract concepts, and yet, although he spoke in abstract concepts, he moved so vividly in this world of abstract concepts as one would otherwise only do when talking about eating and drinking. This was also the case with Fichte. This ability to ascend into the sphere of concepts and ideas in a lively way is particularly striking in this area of human development. Therefore, there is really something very special about this Central European population in the whole context of modern humanity. For this Central European population, due to its special character, which was only flooded by something else in the second half of the 19th century, is most capable of taking up the task of modern humanity, of re-entering the realm of the spiritual. That is why it is so terribly painful to feel that there is such a sleepy human being in Central Europe today who, in a certain sense, walks around on the graves of Lessing and Goethe and Herder and Schelling and sees his own task in spiritual sleep. For indeed, it is in reconnecting with what these spirits wrote and thought, not in an external way, but in reconnecting with the spirit from which they wrote, that lies what could lift Europe up. Europe cannot be lifted up if the misunderstood words of the Gospels are parroted in its churches. Europe can only be elevated if the spiritual worlds are sought in a further development of what Herder, Goethe, and others strove for. But almost nothing of this is noticed in the present day. It is a sad sign of the times that, for example, within a cultural community that possesses something like Fichte's “Destiny of Man,” Schelling's “Bruno,” and Schiller's “Aesthetic Letters,” and I could name many more, that a striving could arise that has turned to the ridiculous, superficial Americanisms of a Ralph Waldo Trine and others like him. Here we have something far, far greater, but we let it lie dormant and turn to other things.
And the more one penetrates into the actual spiritual realm, the more it becomes apparent that something new is emerging in the life of humanity today. Central Europeans are little understood by Western Europeans; Western Europeans are little understood by Central Europeans, even in everyday life. But one does not notice it there. One believes one understands each other. One does not notice that one is talking at cross purposes. I am not talking about Americans and Europeans talking at cross purposes, but about Central and Western Europeans. One can experience strange things in this regard.
Last time I was here, I told you that the system of slander is not only at work here in Germany, but also outside Germany's borders. I told you about this Ferrière, who, in a Belgian-Swiss magazine, made himself the propagator of a strange fairy tale, saying that it was well known that I was Wilhelm II's “Rasputin” and had contributed significantly to all the bad advice that Wilhelm II received during the period of terror. Compelled by this slander, which had spread particularly in French-speaking Switzerland, I responded by writing down the truth, namely the bare facts: that I had only seen the former emperor from a distance, that I had never spoken a word to him, that I had never sought even indirect contact with him. I wrote down these bare facts in a letter to Dr. Boos, who in turn gave Ferrière the necessary response. This was published in the magazine in question, and the reply was also printed immediately. This reply has approximately the following content: Let us see once again in this example the great difference between the Latin spirit and the Germanic spirit. The Germanic spirit takes everything so seriously. “My readers,” writes Ferrière, “will not have been deceived; they will have already figured out that what I wrote was meant as ‘plaisanterie’ and not as ‘méchanceté’. Incidentally, I note that experience shows that even when you hear something from people you believe you can trust, even when the rumor has spread widely, it may still not be true. I take note of that.” And so on.
That was the elegant reply that the “Latin spirit” could give to the serious Germanic spirit with “plaisanterie.” If such things still stand out, then one can still be satisfied, but very often they go unnoticed.
But these things are even more significant in the realm of a deeper understanding of the world, where they play a role in the science of initiation, in the science of initiation, and in everything related to it. And here, in this field, it is indeed necessary that these things be touched upon, even though some people today still consider it extremely dangerous to do so. And so today I would like to speak to you about a fact that, in the opinion of Western representatives of the science of initiation in particular, should not be discussed.
You will hear time and again from Western representatives of the science of initiation that it is actually quite inadvisable for anyone to spread the self-recognized science of initiation on their own initiative. You will therefore always find that when truly initiated individuals in the West present the science of initiation in public writings, they refuse to acknowledge any personal knowledge of the things they communicate, based on their experience. You will find it a typical fact that someone communicates things that are definitely initiation science, especially in America, where such things appear with a preface that is simply part of the technique of dealing with the whole matter, and in which it is said: It goes without saying that I did not come up with all these things myself, because if I had, I would not communicate them. — Look, you will find such things in a large number of documents, especially in Western esoteric science. And when the question arises as to why this is done, you will receive a certain answer that is entirely accurate within certain limits for Western esoteric science. You will be told: The person who experiences something directly, immediately in the spiritual world, who therefore knows the secrets of the spiritual world, cannot tell others that he knows them from his own experience — this is usually the literal answer — because if he reveals that he has initiatory knowledge from his own direct experience, he places himself in lifelong dependence on the one to whom he reveals his secret.
This view, which is rooted in the nature of Western esoteric science, leads to a completely superficial way of talking about everything related to initiation in Western esoteric societies, and to the fact that there are initiates walking around among Western people whom no one knows are initiates. This view, which must be overcome in the new era, cannot apply in Central Europe, and it is precisely the spirit that should be present in Central Europe that must combat this view. And this Central European spirit must combat it by learning to understand the mystery of Golgotha in the new spiritual way characterized above, by learning to understand life with the Christ being.
Here lies an important secret. In Western countries today, the common science of initiation is still often so far removed from Christianity that the Theosophical Society, excluding Christianity or caricaturing it, has applied a purely Oriental, Indian wisdom, a pre-Christian wisdom, as something new. It is a peculiarity of this Western esoteric science that those who are initiated into it only benefit from their initiation if they have at least one disciple who repeats their ideas. It is of no use to have esoteric science only for oneself. Just as you cannot see any object with your eyes when you look straight ahead, so you cannot encounter your own spiritual concepts if, as a Western initiate, you are unable to see the repetition of your ideas in another person. This is already hinted at in many different ways, but it is not properly recognized. In fact, if this is the case, then it follows that anyone who reveals to another that he himself is an initiate comes under the power of that other for life; for the other can refuse to serve him and say: I will not repeat your ideas. — A certain dependence arises under this principle. This is essentially one of the characteristic features of the science of initiation, which I have often described to you from other points of view as the dominant science of initiation in the West.
Now there is only one thing that stands in opposition to this dependence on followers: having communion with Christ, who has truly been present on earth since the mystery of Golgotha. Those who, in this community, maintain fellowship not with a non-sensory human being, but with the first brother who came among human beings, with the living Christ walking among us, the kind of fellowship that one had to have with another human being in pre-Christian initiation, need not shrink from sharing their own wisdom with their fellow human beings. But in the present there is no other way to communicate original initiatory wisdom directly than by maintaining fellowship with Christ. There is no other way. And therefore, true initiatory wisdom of the newer times will have to seek this fellowship with Christ. If this initiation wisdom could not be sought, we could not advance in social knowledge. For with what does not come from initiation, no social thinking can be developed today. But that is precisely what we need. And if a social system were to arise solely from Western initiatory wisdom, it would have to be based on the initiatory wisdom itself being kept secret in many areas — certain higher areas cannot be communicated to people today because preparation is necessary —. But this kind of secrecy is from the outset incompatible with the principle of the equality of all human beings, which is increasingly being sought by the newer European, indeed by modern civilized humanity in general. From this you can see that it is precisely where one finds initiation wisdom that the colossal difference between the disposition of Central European people and that of Western people comes into play. This difference becomes much clearer when it comes to initiation wisdom than when it comes to what people in the present day pass by each other and believe that humanity can be brought into an abstract, uniform form. This cannot be done. Humanity is differentiated, and this differentiation becomes particularly apparent when one enters into the depths of the science of initiation. This topic has indeed touched on something very significant, and I will need to provide further explanations on this subject during my stay here. — In the field of true spiritual knowledge, one cannot expect to get away with glossing over things, with carelessness, with taking the truth lightly. That simply does not work. Truthfulness is necessary.