Polarities in the Evolution of Mankind
GA 197
30 July 1920, Stuttgart
Lecture VII
Today I shall have to continue with some of the topics I discussed the last time I was here. It is particularly important, indeed necessary, to stress the connection between what I have said before and what I wish to add today. I have explained that the road to spiritual science calls for recognition to be given to two facts. One fact is that it is impossible to imagine that matter, physical substance, can be found to the outer world of our human environment. This can be clearly understood on the basis of many different things that can be learned through spiritual science. Our eyes behold the outside world, our ears hear the outside world, and we come to understand nature in a way when we use the intellect to combine the things we see, hear and Perceive with the other senses. We then think we know something about outer nature. Yet we are in error if we think and believe some form of science will help us to find physical matter and the laws pertaining to it in that outer nature. Materialism was in error not because it was speaking of physical matter but because materialists thought they could find physical matter and the laws of physical matter, its infrastructure and essential nature, in the outside world. People saying they do not want to know about the outside world because it is a material world, and that they want to follow the inner mystical path to a world of the spirit, are therefore materialists just as much as people who simply interpret the outside world in materialistic terms. Their search along the path of mysticism shows that in their view, too, Physical matter is to be found in the outside world. The people of more recent times are in error when they look for the essential nature of matter in the outside world. To put things right essentially means that we must no longer look for the nature of matter in the outside world and be very clear in our minds that however far we extend our sensory perceptions we shall never discover the nature of matter and its infrastructure, its laws. It has to be understood that all that exists in the outside world is Maya. It is the world of phenomena. Look as we may we shall never find anything material in that outside world.
On the other hand we must grasp a second, quite different fact. It is that the nature of matter, which materialism is erroneously looking for in the outside world, may be found within ourselves. We shall find it particularly if we become one-sided, abstract mystics. The contents of a certain mysticism coming to our awareness—experiences we think we are having—are nothing but the flame, I would say, that is lit within us by processes involving our physical organs. Considering the mysticism of Tauler and of Meister Eckhart, one is right in thinking that these men had a special faculty for experiencing these things and interpreting the physical matter in their bodies when the flame of awareness was ignited. They found the material world through mysticism. Until we know that external observation reveals only the world of phenomena, Maya, and that inward observation reveals only physical matter and its flame, we cannot get a clear, true picture of the nature of the world and the way human beings relate to this world. Physical matter is not to be found by applying science to the outside world, it must be sought within us, through mysticism. There we shall find its laws. The essential nature of gravity is not to be found with the aid of Atwood's machine.51Atwood, George. English mathematician, invented a machine to illustrate the motion of a body falling under the action of gravity. Instead we can try—in our thirty-second year, or perhaps at another time in our lives—to become inwardly aware of gravity, so that we know from inner experience what it really means to experience gravity. Concrete inner experience should show us that between the thirtieth and fortieth year we grow heavier and heavier inside. We can gain inner experience of a property of matter that merely comes to expression in mystical experiences. I have tried to demonstrate the essential point by saying that anyone finding himself in the midst of the chaos of the planet, the way modern scientists do, cannot get a clear idea concerning these things. We see the plants, the animals, the cloud cover; we see the glittering light of the stars, we see rivers, hills and valleys and so on. Yet if someone were to observe the earth from Mars, for instance, none of these would matter. An inhabitant of the planet Mars observing the earth through some instrument or other—we may well imagine, and it would be in accord with the truth, though in a different way, that those who inhabit Mars have the kind of organization that enables them to observe the earth—would perceive nothing of the cloud formations, rivers and mountains we see, nothing of the phenomena relating to the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms. He would only perceive what goes on inside the skin of the human beings living on earth. Everything else would vanish before the eye of an inhabitant of Mars. He would perceive only what goes on inwardly in the organic life of human beings and for him that would be the material world of the earth. When we grow aware of a mystical element within us it is not what many mystics think it is but the flame that is cooked inside us. That is the place where we can find out about the physical matter of the earth. This form of self-perception takes us into the sphere of matter and of energy, an area where the people of the Western world have arrived at exactly the opposite view over the last centuries.
This gives an indication of the extent to which we have to change our thinking if the decline is to become an upward movement again. People think they are materialists or idealists or spiritualists because they follow a particular philosophy. That is not the case. We are far from being spiritualists when we say we contemplate the inner and not the outer life. It could indeed happen that someone is concentrating on his inner life and exactly by doing so comes to observe matter; the way it turns into a flame inside us. To find the right path it will be necessary to grasp what I mean, and to do so with the right inner attitude. The outer world as we perceive it with the senses offers only phenomena; it does not reveal the root and origin of the phenomena. Their root and origin lies inside our own skins. Anything we see outside should be regarded in the same way as we regard a rainbow. Anyone who believes a rainbow to be more than merely a phenomenon, thinking it to be something material spanning the heavens, is taking the wrong view. In the same way we are in error If, due to the fact that our sense of touch is also involved when we perceive the world around us, we believe we are surrounded by material things and not mere phenomena. The only difference compared to a rainbow is that other senses are also involved. Materiality cannot be found there, however, just as it does not exist in a rainbow. Everything outside us is phenomenon. The root and origin of the phenomena therefore is inside the human skin. The processes that carry the affairs of the earth from one age to another take place inside the human skin.
It may seem highly improbable and paradoxical to modern minds but it is nevertheless true that the phenomena which surround us today, and the laws apparent in these phenomena, are not the outer consequence of material events that occurred three thousand years before the Mystery of Golgotha. They are the consequence of what went on inside the bodies of Egyptians, of Chaldeans and others three thousand years before the Mystery of Golgotha. Those inner events have become outer ones. The outside world of those times has vanished, disappeared. Human bodies hold the germ for a future that may be reckoned in thousands of years. It is possible to see this by considering the natural phenomena of today, drawing a conclusion that may be bold but nevertheless revealing. People talk about the properties of the element radium. To someone able to perceive the reality of the spirit this sometimes sounds like children talking about something adult minds have long since come to understand on the basis of different facts. Modern physicists know that the radium which existed on the earth's surface up to AD 140 has since disappeared and no longer is radium. The radium that is found today has only formed since AD 140. Physicists are actually teaching this now. These things present themselves to human minds to force them, as it were, finally to give up the erroneous ways of thinking which had to be pursued for centuries for the sake of human freedom.
All this shows that it is necessary to consider the things spiritual science working towards anthroposophy presents to human minds in a totally different way from the way we usually look at things. It is necessary to abandon mere theory and consider the reality: to progress at all levels from abstract intellectual knowledge to active perceptiveness, to doing things, really doing something in relation to the world. As I have said before—but it is essential to make this point with real forcefulness—people think that some are materialists nowadays and others are spiritualists. A spiritualist will say: ‘He's a materialist and has to be opposed because it is not true that the soul is the product of physical matter. What the materialist says is wrong and we have done enough when we have refuted his arguments. The materialist is in error and therefore must be opposed.’ That is not the point, however. It is not a question of logic, of theories. Yet people always think spiritual science is all theory. Spiritual science working towards anthroposophy always bases itself on reality, sometimes of course seeking it in the place where it is to be truly found: in the true realm of the spirit. People who look to the outside world and seek to find matter everywhere by the methods now used in molecular and atomic theory—it makes no difference if they see matter as point sources of energy or as tiny building stones—are not merely subject to an error in logic that can be refuted. True spiritual science has nothing to do with purely theoretical concepts. It is concerned with reality. Anyone looking for more than phenomena in the outside world Is on the road not only to logical error but to organic illness affecting the whole of his person. We should not say that to follow this road Is an error in logic. We should say that anyone searching for truth In that direction is on the road to organic illness, on the road to feeblemindedness. Spiritual science working towards anthroposophy often has to change theoretical views into views that relate to reality. The search for clarity of ideas and concepts has nothing to do with merely agreeing or disagreeing with the views of others; it has to do with sickness and health, very real things in our lives. It therefore has to be said that a seeker who looks to phenomena for more than mere phenomena, for physical matter, is on the road to feeblemindedness, to organic illness. This is entirely within the sphere of reality.
In the same way we cannot simply oppose people who look to find abstract spirituality within themselves. Someone looking for the spirit by following the path of mere one-sided inner mysticism, failing to realize that when he comes to see through the tissue of this mysticism it is materiality he finds, is on the way to becoming infantile, to developing an organic illness taking the form of childishness. (I have given it the name that may well be given when one perceives this from beyond the threshold.) If we call this the threshold from the Physical to the non-physical world, with the Guardian of the Threshold standing there, the quality we call inspiration, or genius, on this side may justifiably be called childishness on the other side of the threshold. Childishness goes the wrong way in the physical world if it persists throughout life. Genius on the other hand means that a certain childlike quality persists in the background throughout life. Genius is achieved when we are able to retain into ripe old age a quality of soul that normally belongs to childhood. This is seen in its true form from beyond the threshold. If however that childlike soul quality persists one-sidedly into subsequent life stages, then this element, which in its rightful place in the human sphere is genius, becomes childishness instead. Once again we see that purely logical ideas must be replaced with ideas relating to reality as soon as we enter the sphere of spiritual science. They must be replaced with concepts that not merely change our views but produce inner organic changes.
Spiritual science working towards anthroposophy is a very serious matter. The seriousness of it is not given full recognition when people approach the work of spiritual science with their ordinary mental attitudes. They want to agree or disagree the way they usually do in the outside world; they want to continue in their habitual ways as they approach spiritual science. Spiritual science working towards anthroposophy can however only be taught by speaking in the terms of the world beyond. There words have entirely different meanings. Gravity, which exerts a downward pull here on earth, exerts an upward pull in that world. In the spiritual world we have to speak of what draws us down in a way that makes it the exact opposite. It is not surprising then that anyone taking spiritual science seriously is, to begin with, completely misunderstood by people who want to proceed in the customary way—a way that was inevitable in the age of materialism—when they approach spiritual science. The inevitable result is that things like those I dared to put to you yesterday are misunderstood.
Someone presenting his own views in opposition to Oswald Spengler would simply refute him. A spiritual scientist finds himself obliged not to refute Spengler's view in the usual way. He has to assume points of view rather than follow a rigid line; he will have to say that Oswald Spengler speaks from a different point of view, one that offers no prospects for the immediate future. We do justice to such phenomena if we do not simply refute them but show the genius that is in them, speaking with inner concern about the things one would like to see overcome. Spiritual science has much more to do with the way in which we deal with these things than with bald statements, with the kind of mystical platitude that the person who produces it even believes to be a particularly inspired truth. We have to consider these things, for we are moving into an age where we have to get beyond the mere contents of intellectual life. This is something I want to stress over and over again: we must get beyond the mere content of intellectual life.
Going just by the content, even a fool would find it relatively easy to refute Oswald Spengler's ideas. That is by no means difficult, but it is not what matters. What matters is to establish the concrete reality of Spengler's work and show how it can be overcome in a real and concrete way. In future the essential point in characterizing a person Will be more and more to consider what they are actually saying rather than to respond in sympathy or antipathy to what he or she has to say. We should not consider whether certain contents please or displeases us, but whether there is a spiritual quality to them. It is more important for the overall outcome of world evolution that there is someone who is an inspired materialist, a genius in representing materialism, for that calls for a brilliant mind whilst it often needs very little intelligence to represent platitudinous mysticism. A platitudinous mystic may on occasion do more to make the world materialistic than an inspired materialist. It is the quality of mind that matters. Recognition of this fact will count for much more in future than the actual content. This is something we have to learn. We must not seek for the spirit as though it were a system of logic; we must look for its reality. Let me ask you this. Would it not be possible for You to see that more of the spirit is alive in an inspired materialist than in a spiritualist full of platitudes? These are the things spiritual science working towards anthroposophy must come to see clearly. It is the reality of the spirit that matters, not the abstract statements made by one person or another. People fail to realize how important it is to consider realities and not theories!
Some of the things we see in ordinary life simply must be considered from the point of view of spiritual science today if we are to get them clear in our minds. Consider the parties which have formed in public life in our everyday world. Let us first of all consider the ordinary political parties. You know that the most miserable, sterile cliches are to be found in party politics. Yet to some extent we are all part of this, willy-nilly, unless we want to withdraw completely from public life or perhaps cannot have a vote because we are stateless and have not been given the right to vote anywhere. Everybody who has the right to vote is forced to support one line or another, i.e. to work along party lines. Parties are a fact of life. They go back to better times, to the English see-saw system when there was the Conservative Party on one side and the Liberal Party on the other. It may be said that all the parties that now exist are different combinations of those two shades. Sometimes the liberal element which is to the left takes on some colour from conservatism on the right, and conservatism is coloured with liberalism from the left, as in the case of the Social Democrats, or conservatism turns radical, as we have seen in the present time. All in all it can be said that the conservative-liberal seesaw is the pattern on which all our parties are based. That is the picture one gets when looking at this in an outer way. The most dreadful things are happening in those party organizations—everybody would admit this. The thing exists, however, and the question is why it exists. What does it rally represent? What in fact are parties?
Everything that presents itself in the physical world is an image of the non-physical world. What is it that exists in the non-physical world with the result that in the physical world we have parties as an image of it? The matter can only be properly understood if we grasp the conditions which apply when we go across the threshold to the spiritual world. There we arrive at something very different, at the real nature of things. Here in the physical world we are idealists, sceptics, realists, spiritualists or any other kind of -ists. We are something that can be summed up in a manifesto, as a political or sociological system. In short, we are something-ists. We base ourselves on an abstract notion, for parties always base themselves on manifestos, systems and the like, i.e. on abstract notions. As soon as we cross the threshold to the spiritual world we are no longer dealing in mere logic and abstract notions, we are dealing with realities. It is merely that this is not usually taken seriously. You cannot give your allegiance to a party programme when you have gone past the Guardian of the Threshold, you can only hold to the essential spirit of things, for there everything has to do with the essential spirit. You can merely hold to a spirit of the higher hierarchies and say: That is the one I follow, the one I unite with. Let others present their affairs in their own way, I am uniting with that one, I take his side. The term 'to side with one or another' achieves very real significance then; it is no longer merely abstract. Being human we are inclined to say that as soon as we look beyond the threshold we find three essential spirits: the Christ, Ahriman and Lucifer. It is of course possible to prepare oneself carefully to gain comprehension of the spiritual world and then to say: I choose Christ's party, or Ahriman's or Lucifer's Party. It is however also possible to obscure the issue, being badly Prepared, and choose Ahriman but call him Christ. We follow a spiritual entity, however—everything is of the essence beyond the threshold! We are always dealing with realities there, not with anything by way of a programme or system.
These words I say to characterize the relationship of the human being to the non-physical world are weighty words. In one particular respect it is not yet possible to say the final word on the subject, because that would be too provocative. Very few people on this earth however are aware that basically it is an illusion to follow party lines, to accept the abstract notions of parties. There is no reality to it and when we begin to follow something that is real we must in fact follow something that lies in the spiritual world beyond the threshold. There is however one party that may immediately be characterized as being well aware of this secret and indeed acting upon it. This was said in public in the course of lectures given at Karlsruhe in 191152Von Jesus zu Christus GA 131. English translation: From Jesus to Christ. H. Collison tr., C. Davy rev. London: Rudolf Steiner Press 1973. and has brought me the hatred of the party in question. These are the Jesuits. They know very well that to follow a party programme—forgive me for using a term commonly used in Germany—is nonsense. One follows a spiritual entity in the non-physical world! That is why their exercises start with the Jesuit having to visualize the spirit whom he is to follow in the Society of Jesus, forming a military corporation for him. When I say that the last word cannot yet be said, I want to hold back concerning the nature of what is called 'Jesus' there. The point is to show that Jesuitism forms a party that follows a spiritual entity and that Jesuits are very well aware that to follow some party or other that goes no further than a programme to be followed in the physical world is a nonsense. The effectiveness of the Society of Jesus is due to the fact that it trains its followers to be the soldiers of a spiritual entity. The do not say this is right and this is wrong. They say: ‘It is part of the mission of the spiritual entity I am following; I shall defend it. I shall oppose anything that is not part of the Mission of the spiritual entity I am following, even if it is logically defensible; it is just as possible to defend what Lucifer and Ahriman are about as it is to defend the things Christ is about. There are exactly three logical defenses and they are all equally valid.’
We therefore have the strange phenomenon that the Jesuits are of course aware that anthroposophy is taking a spiritual line that is wholly defensible and yet they oppose it. They know full well that logical argument is no effective opposition, for it merely means playing with logic. They know that they are facing an adversary in this battle of minds and they will use all available means. It is therefore pointless to join battle by refuting the refutations of the Jesuits. They know exactly what objections we can raise; the fact that they know them and consider them to be fair makes no difference, however, for they follow another spirit than the one anthroposophy must now follow for the weal of humankind. As soon as one is in the realm of the spirit it is reality that counts. What counts is that one really gets a clear understanding of the spiritual paths, using the whole human being in arriving at such understanding—which certainly can be achieved with healthy common sense nowadays—and not the human dwarf who tends to be the end product of the kind of educational establishments we have today.
The parties which exist in physical life are therefore caricatures of something that rightfully exists in the spiritual world. That is what is so difficult about it. Things appearing in the physical world may be a reflection of something of genuine significance in the spiritual world. In the physical world it is pernicious and abominable, because every world has its own laws, and today we face the growing necessity to work our way up into the spiritual world again. The first stage consists of caricatures of spiritual life appearing in physical life; of people setting up party banners and following party idols when in fact they should be giving their allegiance to spiritual entities. It is truth and reality when it occurs in the non-physical world, and a lie and illusion when it occurs here in the physical world. You see I am not using empty words when I tell you that what matters is to transform purely theoretical things into the reality whenever we wish to speak of the truths that exist beyond the threshold.
Mere refutation of materialism will not achieve anything, because the situation is like this where the human being is concerned: In their whole make-up human beings are really spirit and soul. This element of spirit and soul exists even before we are conceived, before we are born. It has evolved out of our previous earth incarnation; it has gone through the spiritual world. It now assumes flesh, creating a physical Image of itself that consists of nervous system, skeletal system, blood system. So we now have two things: the human being in soul and spirit and the human being of flesh and bone that is its image. When we are thinking the usual abstract thoughts, what is it that thinks in us? Not the human being of soul and spirit. It is particularly when we think abstract thoughts, above all using earthly logic, that the Physical brain in us is thinking. It is important to know that when materialists say that the brain does the thinking they are quite correct as far as abstract thoughts ar concerned. The physical brain is an image of the spiritual brain, and this image creates an image, abstract thinking being merely an image. It may thus be said that when it comes to abstract ideas the physical brain does the thinking.
This is simply a special case of what I have said before. Materialism has merely found out that the brain is thinking the thoughts that from the middle of the 15th century onwards have become standard in Western civilization. The materialism presented by Moleschott, Buechner and that fat man Vogt cannot be simply refuted by saying it is wrong. It is quite appropriate for human beings who, from the middle of the 15th century onwards, have turned more and more to mere materialism. Human beings of the Western world are in the process of becoming beings that think only with the physical brain. The prophets of such physical brain thinking, Moleschott and Buechner, merely stated what Western humankind was going to be. They were wrong only in so far as they applied this to humankind as a whole. What they said applies only to people living after the middle of the 15th century, and in their case it does apply. People have got used to thinking only with their brains; it is the common way of thinking nowadays. Everything to be found in our ordinary literature, in the whole of modern science, is material thinking, is that kind of thinking. The materialists are quite right, and we could say that Buechner and Vogt would have been unfair to their colleagues if they had said that they thought with the spirit. That is not the case; they think merely with their brains. This cannot be argued against, and it has to be recognized that the road to materiality is not merely a false philosophy but something with a very real effect. That is also the reason why, when something like spiritual science working towards anthroposophy appears on the scene, those people will say: ‘These are thoughts beyond comprehension; they cannot be grasped.’ Well, they want to think with their brains: the thoughts of spiritual science are however thought with a soul and spirit element that has torn itself away from the brain. People must make efforts to tear their soul and spirit away from the brain with the help of thoughts that have been produced in this way; they must think those thoughts through. People must make an effort to think those thoughts through, to use the opportunity that still exists of tearing the element of soul and spirit away from the physical aspect of the brain. This element is on the way to being chained to the physical brain. People must tear themselves free. It is not a question therefore of right views and wrong views but of a process. The thoughts of spiritual science working towards anthroposophy are given to the world in the hope that people who are still capable of handling the old faculty of tearing themselves away that lies in them, will indeed make use of it and try and understand thoughts that are independent of the physical body, so that their souls may grow free of the body. It is therefore a question of having the will to understand anthroposophy; anthroposophy is intended to tear the element of spirit and soul away from the physical body. Our mission therefore is not merely to refute views that are wrong; but we must face the fact that very many people want to slither into them, want to be sheer matter and want to think, use their will and feel out of matter. We want to give spiritual science working towards anthroposophy to the world as something real, so that spirit and soul may be torn away from matter. The aim is to prevent the possibility of people losing their spirit and soul, for they now run the risk of slithering entirely into the ahrimanic sphere. People face the risk of losing soul and spirit and of losing themselves as human beings when the material world vanishes into nothingness, as I have described on an earlier occasion.
It is not a question therefore of replacing the old with the new, but to become active in the search for truth. This saves the soul from slithering into mere materiality; it saves the spirit and soul element from slithering into the ahrimanic sphere, where egoity would be lost. It is not a question therefore of refuting materialism, but of saving humankind from materialism coming true. Materialism is in the process of developing into something that is true rather than false. When People say that materialism is wrong they are not talking about what really matters. No, we have to say that materialism is coming to be more and more right; in our present culture it is coming to be more and more right. We may well find that by the beginning of the 3rd millenium humankind will have developed in such a way that materialism is the correct view. It is not a question of refuting materialism, for it is in the process of becoming right. It is a question of making it not right, because it is on the way to becoming a fact and no longer merely a wrong theory.
Certain people are trying to ignore these things. They want to make It as easy as possible for others, telling them to see how wrong materialism is and inviting them to turn to an abstract mysticism that Will give them everything they need. We could take up such abstract mysticism, but that would encourage materialism to become real and not mere theory. We do not have to overcome materialism because it is wrong, using words that remain theory; we have to overcome it because it is right and we must fight against it being the right thing. This puts another face on things, and this is also where we find ourselves in the reality of the spiritual world—not with theories, but with a living approach to the truth that in the cosmic scheme of things is an active deed. People find it unpalatable to have to listen to such things, yet that is the light in which everything should be regarded, even individual events. Believe me, the old methods of combat are finished with; everything that could be the habitual way in the past Is now finished. We must consider things in the light of the spirit.
What is conservatism? What is liberalism? Here on earth they are caricatures of the spiritual world. Conservatives are followers of Ahriman, liberals of Lucifer. Having passed the Guardian of the Threshold one can see how the whole of conservatism is running after Ahriman and the whole of liberalism after Lucifer. That may seem peculiar to the sophisticated people of today. It is however because this seems so peculiar that spiritual science working towards anthroposophy is so difficult to understand. We shall never understand spiritual science by merely thinking it; we shall only come to understand it if every one of its concepts makes us suffer and rejoice, when we feel lifted up and cast down, when we want to despair over a word, or think we shall be redeemed because of a word, when we see destiny at work in what normally appears as a shadowy theory just as we see it at work in things that are done in the outside world, when what spiritual science working towards anthroposophy has to say goes beyond being mere words and becomes reality. Then, when the inner impulse alive in this spiritual science is understood and felt, it will be rightly seen why things that for a time were maintained as mere theory, because people first had to come to know about them, must now become reality, why we have to be serious about the reality that lives in the words of spiritual science working towards anthroposophy. It will be seen that the necessity arises in our age to make the substantial essence of those words come to reality.
It is still the case that what is really intended with such a Waldorf School is not at all seen in the light of reality, that it is far too little considered in the sense which I have tried to characterize for you. Believe me, this is not to touch your hearts, nor to gain a little more support. Things have been said that had to be said now because humankind must know them. That is why I have said the things I have been saying. I merely wish that the opportunity would arise to say these things to a sufficiently large number of people, so that these people develop an inner impulsiveness where they take words as realities and do not merely listen in the belief that one is speaking theories.
This is what I have wanted to put to you on these two occasions. It will have to happen that outer events follow not on the external contents of spiritual science as it is presented, but out of inner impulses. Fighters like the Jesuits know very well what many followers of anthroposophy still fail to realize: that spiritual science working towards anthroposophy is a reality. Since they have come to realize this—they have done so for some time now, from about 1906 or 1907—since they have come to realize it they are opposing this spiritual science with increasing vigour. Many anthroposophists have no idea of the methods that are used, the sheer ingenuity, because there is a refusal to be really sure in one's mind of the seriousness of the situation. Words will only evoke a little bit of the things one really wishes people to take to heart; I have tried, however, to present just a little of it to you on these two occasions. If we reflect on what has been said, if we progress from reflection to feeling, to letting it become part of the whole of our being, there will be an end to abstract mysticism and to modern science. It will become the essential inner nature of the human being, it will be the power that releases spirit and soul again from physical matter, it will overcome a materialism that unfortunately is not wrong but is indeed true.
Siebenter Vortrag
Es ist nötig, daß ich heute anknüpfe an einiges, das ich schon bei der vorigen Betrachtung hier gesagt habe, weil es ganz besonders wichtig und auch nötig ist, den Zusammenhang des Gesagten mit demjenigen, was ich heute hinzufügen will, besonders zu betonen. Ich habe neulich ausgeführt, daß der Weg, der zur Geisteswissenschaft führen muß, die Anerkennung fordert von zwei Tatsachen. Die eine Tatsache ist diese, daß man sich klarmache aus dem verschiedensten, das aus der Geisteswissenschaft aufgenommen werden kann, wie unmöglich es ist, sich zu denken, Materie, Stoff seien in der den Menschen umgebenden Außenwelt zu finden. Wir sehen durch unsere Augen in die Außenwelt, hören durch unsere Ohren in die Außenwelt und bauen ein gewisses Naturerkennen dann auf, wenn wir dasjenige, was wir sehen und hören und durch die andern Sinne wahrnehmen, durch den Verstand verknüpfen und dann eben meinen, wir wissen etwas über die äußere Natur. Solange man so denkt und glaubt, in dieser äußeren Natur könne man — durch irgendwelche Wissenschaft von ihr — Materie und ihre Gesetze finden, so lange ist man im Irrtum. Und der Irrtum des Materialismus bestand nicht darin, daß er überhaupt von Materie sprach, sondern darin, daß man meinte, Materie und ihre Gesetze, ihr innerliches Gefüge, ihr Wesen in der Außenwelt finden zu können. Daher wird derjenige, der da sagt: Ich will von der Außenwelt nichts wissen, denn die ist ja die materielle Welt; ich will in meinem Inneren mystisch aufsuchen eine geistige Welt —, der wird ebenso zum Materialisten wie derjenige, der einfach diese Außenwelt im materialistischen Sinn interpretiert; denn er glaubt ja, daß in der Außenwelt das Materielle aufzufinden sei. Und darin hauptsächlich besteht der Irrtum der neueren Zeit, daß man in der Außenwelt das Wesen des Materiellen sucht. Darin wird die wesentliche Berichtigung bestehen, daß man in der Außenwelt nicht mehr das Wesen des Materiellen sucht, daß man sich klar darüber ist: wie weit wir auch den Bereich unserer Sinnesbeobachtung dehnen, wir können nirgends etwas finden von dem, was die Materie und ihre innere Struktur, ihre Gesetzmäßigkeit ist. Wir müssen uns klar sein, daß uns in der Außenwelt nur vorliegt dasjenige, was man im Orient Maja nennt, dasjenige, was wir Erscheinungswelt, phänomenale Welt nennen, und daß wir, wohin wir auch blicken, etwas Materielles in dieser Außenwelt nicht finden können.
Dagegen muß etwas anderes als zweites Faktum klarliegen: daß wir dieses Materielle, das irrtümlicherweise der Materialismus in der Außenwelt sucht, in unserem eigenen Inneren finden und daß wir es gerade dann finden, wenn wir im einseitigen abstrakten Sinn Mystiker werden. Denn dasjenige, was aufsteigt in unserem Bewußtsein als Inhalt einer gewissen Mystik, dasjenige was wir da zu erleben glauben, ist nichts anderes als, ich möchte sagen, die Flamme, die innerlich angezündet wird durch unsere materiellen organischen Prozesse. Und derjenige denkt eigentlich richtig, der die Mystik des Tauler, des Meister Eckhart so auslegt, daß diese Geister mit einer besonderen inneren Erlebnismöglichkeit das Materielle in ihrem Inneren, so wie es sich entzündet zur Bewußtseinsflamme, zu interpretieren wußten und daß sie durch Mystik das Materielle fanden. Ehe man nicht weiß, daß man durch äußere Beobachtung nur das Phänomenale, die Maja, und durch innere Beobachtung nur Materielles und seine Flamme findet, kommt man nicht zu einer wirklichen Klarheit vom Wesen der Welt und vom Stehen des Menschen in der Welt. Wir dürfen nicht in der Außenwelt durch Naturwissenschaft das Materielle suchen, wir müssen innerlich durch Mystik das Materielle suchen; denn da sind seine Gesetze. Wer das Wesen der Schwerkraft suchen will, soll es nicht suchen durch die Atwoodsche Fallmaschine, sondern er soll versuchen — sagen wir in seinem zweiunddreißigsten Lebensjahre, es kann ja auch ein anderer Zeitpunkt sein —, zu einem innerlichen Bewußtsein zu kommen von der Schwerkraft, so daß er aus innerem Erlebnis heraus weiß, was es heißt, Schwere wirklich zu erleben. Er soll durch inneres konkretes Erleben erfahren lernen, wie man vom dreißigsten bis zum vierzigsten Jahr innerlich immer schwerer und schwerer wird, wie man innerlich erlebt eine Eigenschaft des Materiellen, die sich nur ausdrückt in demjenigen, was mystisches Bewußtsein ist. Und ich habe versucht, dasjenige, was da in Betracht kommt, dadurch zu interpretieren, daß ich sagte: Wenn man so drinnensteht im Chaos eines Planeten, wie die heutigen Wissenschafter drinnenstehen, so kann man einen klaren Begriff über diese Dinge gar nicht gewinnen. - Wir sehen dasjenige, was da ist als Pflanzen und Tiere, als Wolkendecke; wir sehen, was die Sterne als ihren Glanz auf uns herabwerfen, sehen Flüsse und Berge und Täler und so weiter. Aber all das kommt gar nicht in Betracht, wenn zum Beispiel beobachtet würde schon vom Mars herunter, was auf unserer Erde ist. Ein Marsbewohner, der durch ein wie immer geartetes Instrument unsere Erde beobachten würde — man könnte sich denken, wie es in Wirklichkeit ja auch ist, wenn auch in anderer Art, daß der Marsbewohner so organisiert ist, daß er die Erde beobachten kann -, der würde nichts wahrnehmen von demjenigen, was wir sehen an Wolkenbildungen, Flüssen und Bergen, von den Erscheinungen des mineralischen, pflanzlichen, tierischen Reiches; dasjenige was er wahrnehmen würde auf unserem Planeten, das würde im Inneren der Häute der auf der Erde lebenden Menschen sich abspielen. Alles übrige würde vor dem Anblick des Marsbewohners verschwinden. Das allein, was im inneren des organischen Lebens der Menschen vorgeht, würde er wahrnehmen; denn das würde er als materielle Welt der Erde empfinden. Und wenn man dieses innerlich Mystische sich zum Bewußtsein bringt, so ist es nicht dasjenige, was viele Mystiker glauben, sondern es ist die Flamme, die gekocht ist in unserem Inneren. Das ist der Ort, wo man die Erdenmaterie kennenlernt. Diese Art der Selbsterkenntnis führt uns in das Wesen der Materie und der Kraft, und in dieser haben die Anschauungen der Menschen des Abendlandes in den letzten Jahrhunderten gerade den entgegengesetzten Gang genommen.
Daran kann man ermessen, wie umgedacht werden muß, wenn der Niedergang wiederum sich in einen Aufgang verwandeln soll. Man glaubt heute, Materialist oder Idealist oder Spiritualist sei man durch den Inhalt einer Weltanschauung. Das ist nicht der Fall. Man ist noch lange nicht Spiritualist, wenn man sagt, man widmet sich der Betrachtung des Innerlichen und nicht der Betrachtung des Äußerlichen. Denn es könnte passieren, daß man sich seinem Inneren widmet und dann erst recht die Materie beobachtet, nämlich so, wie sie innerlich Flamme wird. Man ist nur auf dem rechten Wege dann, wenn man in innerlicher Gesinnung erfaßt, was ich meine. Wir finden, wenn wir die äußere Wahrnehmungswelt überschauen, nur Phänomene, nur Erscheinungen und nicht etwas, worin diese Phänomene, diese Erscheinungen wurzeln; denn worin sie wurzeln, das liegt innerhalb unserer eigenen Haut. Dasjenige, was wir außen sehen, ist genau so zu bewerten wie dasjenige, was wir am Regenbogen sehen. Wie derjenige falsch sieht, der glaubt, der Regenbogen sei etwas anderes als ein Phänomen, sei etwas, was sich da ausspannt als eine Materialität, so ist im Irrtum auch derjenige, der glaubt — weil die andern ihn umgebenden Wahrnehmungen neben den andern Sinnen auch den Gefühlssinn berühren, während man durch den Regenbogen durchgreifen kann -, es wären die Erscheinungen, die uns umgeben, nicht Erscheinungen, sondern Materialität. Sie unterscheiden sich vom Regenbogen nur dadurch, daß sie auch andere Sinne berühren; aber Materialität ist in ihnen ebensowenig zu finden wie im Regenbogen. Äußerlich ist alles Erscheinung. Dasjenige, worin die Erscheinungen wurzeln, liegt also innerhalb der menschlichen Haut. Innerhalb dieser menschlichen Haut geschehen die Vorgänge, welche die Ereignisse der Erde tragen von einem Zeitalter zu dem andern Zeitalter.
So unwahrscheinlich und paradox es dem Menschen der Gegenwart erscheint, wahr ist es doch, daß dasjenige, was uns heute äußerlich an Phänomenen umgibt, was sich in diesen Phänomenen an Gesetzmäßigkeit zeigt, nicht die äußere Folge desjenigen ist, was ungefähr drei Jahrtausende vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha materiell geschehen ist, sondern die Folge von demjenigen, was drei Jahrtausende vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha in den Leibern der Ägypter, der Chaldäer und so weiter vorgegangen ist. Das ist von innen nach außen getreten. Und was dazumal äußere Welt war, das ist verflogen, ist versunken. In den Leibern der Menschen liegt der Keim für eine Zukunft, die schon nach Jahrtausenden berechnet werden kann. Das ist etwas, was schon aus den äußeren Naturerscheinungen heute vielleicht durch einen kühnen, aber doch durch einen Schluß erkannt werden kann. Die Menschen sprechen von den Eigenschaften des Radiums. Demjenigen, der die geistige Welt durchschaut, kommt dieses Sprechen manchmal so vor, wie wenn Kinder sprechen würden von demjenigen, was dem geistigen Erkennen des Erwachsenen längst aus andern Tatsachen heraus klar war. Die Physik weiß heute, daß das Radium, das auf der Erdoberfläche vorhanden war vor dem Jahre 140 nach Christi Geburt, heute verflogen ist, heute kein Radium mehr ist. Das Radium, das heute vorhanden ist, hat sich erst seit dem Jahre 140 nach Christi Geburt gebildet. Das sind Dinge, die heute schon die Physik lehrt, Dinge, die heute an den Menschen herantreten, um ihn gewissermaßen zu zwingen, endlich abzulassen von demjenigen, was er, als einen Irrtum eben, zur menschlichen Befreiung jahrhundertelang verfolgen mußte.
Das alles aber nötigt uns, dasjenige, was anthroposophisch orientierte Geisteswissenschaft an die Menschen heranbringt, in ganz anderer Weise zu betrachten, als die Dinge sonst gewöhnlich betrachtet werden. Es nötigt uns, von bloßen Theorien zu Realitäten überzugehen, überall überzugehen von dem abstrakten Verstandeswissen zur Taterkenntnis, zu demjenigen, was ein Tun ist, ein wirkliches Tun ist im Weltenzusammenhang. Denn ich habe es schon gesagt — aber es ist notwendig, daß dies mit besonderer Schärfe hervorgehoben werde -, die Leute glauben heute, der eine ist Materialist, der andere ist Spiritualist. Derjenige, der Spiritualist ist, sagt: Der ist Materialist, man muß ihn widerlegen; denn es ist nicht wahr, daß die Seele ein Produkt der Materie ist. Daher ist es falsch, was der Materialist behauptet, und es ist genügend erreicht, wenn man ihn widerlegt hat. Der Materialist ist in einem logischen Irrtum, und man muß ihn widerlegen. - Nein, darum handelt es sich nicht. Das ist keine Sache der Logik, das ist keine Sache des Theoretisierens, und man meint nur, daß Geisteswissenschaft Theoretisieren sei. Anthroposophisch orientierte Geisteswissenschaft steht überall auf dem Boden der Realitäten, wenn sie diese auch manchmal da sucht, wo sie wirklich zu suchen sind: in demjenigen, wo der Geist waltet und west. Wer die äußere Welt ansieht und überall die Materie sucht nach der Methode der neueren Molekular- und atomistischen Theoretiker, gleichgültig ob er sie ansieht als Kraftpunkte oder als kleine Klötzchen, der ist nicht bloß in einem logischen Irrtum, den man zu widerlegen hat. Mit solchen Dingen, die bloß theoretische Begriffe sind, hat es die wahre Geisteswissenschaft nicht zu tun. Sie hat es zu tun mit Realitäten. Wer in der äußeren Welt etwas anderes sucht als Phänomene, ist auf dem Wege nicht bloß zu einem logischen Irrtum, sondern zur organischen Erkrankung seines ganzen Wesens. Und man muß nicht sagen, die Verfolgung dieses Weges ist ein logischer Irrtum, sondern man muß sagen, derjenige, der so sucht, ist auf dem Wege zur organischen Erkrankung, auf dem Wege zum Schwachsinn. Das ist es, daß wir vielfach auf dem Gebiete der anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft umwandeln müssen die Dinge, die theoretisch gemeint sind, in solche, die real gemeint sind. Das Erklären auf geistigem Gebiete hat es nicht zu tun mit dem bloßen Zustimmen oder Widerlegen, sondern hat es zu tun mit dem, was Gesundheit und Krankheit, was Realitäten im Leben sind. Und so müssen wir sagen: Wer so sucht, daß er in den Phänomenen nicht bloß die Phänomene, sondern die Materie sucht, der ist auf dem Wege zum Schwachsinn, zur organischen Erkrankung. Das ist etwas, was innerhalb der Wirklichkeit verläuft.
Ebenso ist derjenige, welcher das abstrakt Geistige in seinem Inneren sucht, nicht bloß zu widerlegen; sondern derjenige, der das Geistige sucht auf dem Wege bloßer einseitiger innerer Mystik und nicht daraufkommt, daß er, wenn er durchschaut das Gewebe dieser Mystik, gerade auf die Materialität kommt, der ist auf dem Wege - ich habe es so genannt, wie man es wohl nennen kann, wenn man es von jenseits der Schwelle aus bezeichnet — zur Erkrankung seines Organismus: der Infantilität, der Kindsköpfigkeit. Wenn hier die Schwelle ist zwischen der sinnlichen und der übersinnlichen Welt und der Hüter der Schwelle da steht, so ist diesseits des Hüters dasjenige, was wir hier Genialität nennen; das aber kann mit Recht jenseits der Schwelle Kindsköpfigkeit genannt werden. Denn kommt es in unrichtiger Weise hier in der sinnlichen Welt zum Ausdruck, dann ist es Kindsköpfigkeit durch das ganze Leben hindurch, während Genialität das ist, daß ein gewisser Fond von Kindlichkeit durch das ganze Leben bewahrt ist. Wir gelangen nur dadurch zur Genialität, daß wir bis ins späte Alter hineintragen können die Art der Seele, die sonst im kindlichen Alter vorhanden ist, und das wird in seiner wahren Gestalt von jenseits der Schwelle aus gesehen. Wenn aber einseitig erfolgt jenes Hineintragen der kindlichen Art der Seele in das spätere Alter, wird das, was, richtig hineingestellt in die menschliche Welt, Genialität wird, zur Kindsköpfigkeit. Das ist wiederum etwas, was uns zeigt, wie wir die bloß logischen Begriffe, sobald wir in das Gebiet der Geisteswissenschaft kommen, ersetzen müssen durch reale Begriffe, durch das, was den Menschen nicht bloß zu andern Ansichten bringt, sondern was ihn innerlich seiner organischen Struktur nach verändert.
Das ist der Ernst der anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft, der so wenig gewürdigt wird, weil die Menschen die gewöhnliche Gesinnung hineintragen in die geisteswissenschaftlichen Gebiete. Sie möchten so zustimmen oder so widerlegen, wie das gewöhnlich in der äußeren Welt geschieht, möchten die Gepflogenheiten der äußeren Welt hineintragen in die geisteswissenschaftlichen Gebiete, während die anthroposophisch orientierte Geisteswissenschaft nur richtig gelehrt werden kann, wenn man mit den Worten von der jenseitigen Welt spricht. Da haben die Worte ganz andere Bedeutung, da ist dasjenige, was hier Schwere ist, was nach unten zieht, Zug nach oben. In der geistigen Welt muß man von dem, was uns hinunterzieht, so sprechen, daß es genau umgekehrt ist. Daher brauchte man sich nicht zu verwundern, wenn derjenige, der es mit der Geisteswissenschaft ernst nimmt, zunächst ganz mißverstanden wird von denjenigen, die auch in die geisteswissenschaftlichen Gebiete hineintragen möchten die Gepflogenheiten, die sich nun einmal im Zeitalter des Materialismus ausgebildet haben. Das ist es, was immer dazu führt, daß solche Dinge, wie ich sie gestern gewagt habe vorzubringen, mißverstanden werden.
Derjenige, der seinen Standpunkt darlegen würde gegen Oswald Spengler, der würde ihn einfach widerlegen. Der Geisteswissenschafter ist in die Notwendigkeit versetzt, ihn nicht in der gewöhnlichen Weise zu widerlegen. Er muß Gesichtspunkte einnehmen und nicht Stierhaftigkeit; er muß sagen: Was durch Oswald Spengler behauptet wird, ist von einem andern Gesichtspunkte aus behauptet, von einem Gesichtspunkt, der unfruchtbar für die nächste Zukunft ist. Dann wird man den Erscheinungen gerecht, wenn man sie nicht einfach widerlegt, sondern ihre Genialität zeigt und mit innerem Anteil von dem spricht, was man überwunden haben möchte. In der Art und Weise, wie man die Dinge behandelt, liegt viel mehr das Geisteswissenschaftliche als in dem platten Vorbringen irgendwelcher mystischer Allgemeinheiten, von denen diejenigen, die sie vorbringen, meinen, daß sie ganz besonders gottbegnadete Wahrheiten seien. Diese Dinge müssen betrachtet werden, denn wir gehen einem Zeitalter entgegen, wo wir über das bloß Inhaltliche des intellektuellen Lebens hinauskommen müssen. Und das ist etwas, was ich oft und oft, immer wieder und wiederum betonen möchte: daß wir über das bloß Inhaltliche des intellektuellen Lebens hinauskommen müssen.
Es ist heute, wenn man den bloßen Inhalt nimmt, für jeden törichten Menschen verhältnismäßig leicht, Oswald Spengler zu widerlegen. Das ist nicht schwer, aber darauf kommt es nicht an, sondern darauf, zu sagen, was in Oswald Spengler konkret, real lebt und wodurch er konkret, real überwunden werden kann. Und es wird in der Zukunft immer mehr und mehr darauf ankommen, daß wir, wenn wir eine Persönlichkeit charakterisieren wollen, mehr darauf schauen, was sie vorbringt, als darauf, ob sie gerade das vorbringt, was einem inhaltlich gefällt oder mißfällt. Man muß nicht darauf sehen, ob einem inhaltlich etwas gefällt oder mißfällt, sondern ob es geistige Qualitäten hat. Es ist viel wichtiger für den Gesamteffekt der Weltevolution, daß ein genialer Materialist da ist, der den Materialismus genial vertritt — dazu gehört Geist, und manchmal gehört sehr wenig Geist dazu, um platte Mystik zu vertreten. Der platte Mystiker kann unter Umständen viel mehr zur Vermaterialisierung der Welt beitragen als der geniale Materialist. Auf die Qualitäten des Geistigen kommt es an. Darauf, daß dies erkannt wird, wird es viel mehr ankommen in der Zukunft als auf den Inhalt. Das ist das, was gelernt werden muß; denn wir wollen nicht den Geist anstreben als ein logisches System, sondern in seiner Realität, und da frage ich Sie: Können Sie sich nicht vorstellen, daß Geist lebt in dem geistvollen Materialisten, mehr als in dem platten Spiritualisten? Diese Dinge, die müssen von der anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft eingesehen und durchschaut werden; denn auf die Realität des Geistes kommt es an, nicht auf die abstrakte Behauptung des einen oder des andern. Das verkennt man gerade, wie sehr es wirklich ankommt auf Realitäten und nicht auf Theorien!
Daher müssen wir manche Erscheinung des gewöhnlichen Lebens gerade von dem Gesichtspunkt der geisteswissenschaftlichen Erkenntnis heute ansehen, sonst kommt man mit ihr nicht zur Klarheit. Bedenken Sie einmal, daß wir in der gewöhnlichen Welt, in die wir uns heute hineinleben, im öffentlichen Leben diese oder jene Partei finden. Wir wollen zunächst die gewöhnlichen Parteien ins Auge fassen. Sie wissen, das Trostloseste, das Odeste, das Platteste ist es, was sich in diesen Parteien darlebt; aber mehr oder weniger steht ja heute fast gezwungen jeder darin, der sich nicht ganz zurückziehen will vom äußeren Leben, oder der durch seine Heimatlosigkeit nicht gleich gezwungen ist, nirgends zu wählen, weil es ihm nirgends gelungen ist, das Recht zu wählen zu erlangen; also jeder, der das Recht zu wählen hat, steht heute unter dem Zwang, nach einer bestimmten Richtung hin seine Stimme abzugeben, das heißt, im Sinne dieser Parteien zu wirken. Parteien sind also da. Diese gehen zurück auf bessere Zeiten des Parteilebens, auf das bekannte englische Schaukelsystem der Konservativen Partei auf der einen und der Liberalen Partei auf der andern Seite. Und wir können sagen: In diesen beiden Schattierungen drücken sich gewissermaßen alle Parteien aus, die heute vorhanden sind. Es färbt sich manchmal das Liberale von links mit dem Konservativismus von rechts und der Konservativismus mit dem Liberalismus von links, wie in der Sozialdemokratie, oder es färbt sich der Konservativismus zum Radikalismus, wie wir das ja heute erlebt haben. Aber im ganzen kann man sagen, dieses Musterschaukelsystem Konservativ und Liberal ist dasjenige, worauf unsere Parteien zurückgehen. Ja, das ist das Bild, das man so äußerlich hat. Man erlebt innerhalb dieser Parteibildungen wie jeder zugeben muß — das Allerschlimmste. Aber es ist eben da, und die Frage ist nun: Ja, warum ist es da? Was ist denn das eigentlich? Was sind denn eigentlich Parteien?
Alles, was hier in der physischen Welt erscheint, ist ja ein Abbild der übersinnlichen Welt. Wovon sind denn dann die Parteien ein Abbild? Was ist denn in der übersinnlichen Welt dafür da, daß hier in der sinnlichen Welt Parteien sind? Dasjenige, um was es sich da handelt, versteht nur der richtig, der die Voraussetzungen dazu verstanden hat, der versteht, daß man zu etwas ganz anderem, nämlich zu den Realitäten kommt, wenn man die Schwelle der geistigen Welt überschreitet. Hier in der physischen Welt ist man Idealist oder Skeptiker oder Realist oder Spiritualist oder wie die -isten alle heißen. Man ist etwas, was man in ein Programm, in ein politisches, soziologisches System zusammenfassen kann, kurz, man ist ein -ist. Da richtet man sich nach einer Abstraktion. Denn alles das, was den Parteien zugrunde liegt, sind ja solche Parteiprogramme oder Systeme oder dergleichen, sind irgendwelche Abstraktionen. Sobald man die Schwelle zur geistigen Welt überschreitet, hat man es nicht mit bloßer Logik und Abstraktionen zu tun, sondern mit Realitäten. Das wird nur gewöhnlich nicht sehr ernst genommen. Aber Sie können nicht auf Parteifahnen schwören, sobald Sie am Hüter der Schwelle vorbeigekommen sind, sondern da können Sie sich nur zu Wesen halten, da wird alles wesenhaft. Da können Sie sich nur an irgendein Wesen der höheren Hierarchien halten und sagen: Das ist derjenige, dem ich nachfolge, mit dem ich mich verbinde. Der andere mag seine Sache in seiner Art vertreten, ich bin mit dem verbunden, ich ergreife dessen Partei. Da bekommt das Wort «Ich ergreife Partei von dem oder jenem» eine sehr reale, nicht bloß eine abstrakte Bedeutung. Für uns Menschen liegt es nahe, uns zu sagen: Sobald wir jenseits der Schwelle hinüberblicken, finden wir die dreifache Art von Wesenheiten: das Christus-Wesen, Ahriman und Luzifer. Man kann nun allerdings zunächst, indem man sich sorgfältig vorbereitet hat für das Erfassen der geistigen Welt, sagen: Ich wähle die Partei des Christus oder die des Ahriman oder die des Luzifer. Man kann aber die Sache auch maskieren, man kann schlecht vorbereitet sein und kann Ahriman wählen und ihn Christus nennen. Aber man folgt einem Wesen - es wird alles wesenhaft jenseits der Schwelle! Man hat es immer mit Realitäten zu tun, nicht mit irgendwelchen programmatischen oder systemhaften Dingen!
Das ist ein gewichtiges Wort, das ich damit ausspreche, charakterisierend das menschliche Verhältnis zur übersinnlichen Welt. Und es gibt da einen Punkt, wo es, weil es zu sehr ärgerlich ist, heute noch nicht möglich ist, das allerletzte Wort zu sprechen; aber die wenigsten Menschen hier auf der Erde wissen heute, daß alles Folgen von Parteifahnen, von Parteiabstraktionen im Grunde genommen gar keine Realität ist, sondern eine Illusion ist, und daß, wenn man anfängt etwas Realem zu folgen, man eigentlich etwas folgen muß, was sich jenseits der Schwelle befindet in der übersinnlichen Welt. Aber eine Partei können Sie gleich so charakterisieren, daß sie sehr wohl dieses Geheimnis kennt und es auch befolgt. Und daß in dem Karlsruher Zyklus vom Jahre 1911 dieses öffentlich ausgesprochen ist, hat mir den Haß dieser Partei zugezogen. Das sind nämlich die Jesuiten. Die wissen ganz genau: Einem Parteiprogramm folgen — verzeihen Sie, daß ich mich eines in Deutschland gebräuchlichen Ausdrucks bediene -, ist Mumpitz. Man folgt einem Wesen der übersinnlichen Welt! Daher sehen Sie die Jesuitenübungen damit beginnen, daß der Jesuit sich zunächst vorzustellen hat denjenigen, dem er dann als die Kompanie Jesu nachfolgt, für den er eine militärische Korporation bildet. Und wenn ich sage, das letzte Wort kann nicht gesprochen werden, so möchte ich zurückhalten mit demjenigen, was das ist, was da als der «Jesus» getauft wird. Aber es kommt uns darauf an, zu charakterisieren, daß der Jesuitismus eine Partei bildet, indem er einem geistigen Wesen folgt, und daß er also dieses Geheimnis sehr wohl kennt: daß irgendeiner Parteiung zu folgen, die sich erschöpft in einem Programm innerhalb der irdischen Welt, Mumpitz ist. Und die Wirksamkeit des Jesuitenordens beruht darauf, daß er seine Angehörigen zur Gefolgschaft eines geistigen Wesens erzieht. Da heißt es nicht: Irgend etwas ist richtig oder unrichtig —, sondern da heißt es: Es gehört zu der Mission desjenigen geistigen Wesens, dem ich folge; das verteidige ich. Was nicht zu der Mission des geistigen Wesens gehört, dem ich folge, das bekämpfe ich, wenn es auch in logischer Beziehung verteidigt werden kann, denn logisch verteidigt werden können die Inhalte des Ahriman und Luzifer genauso wie die des Christus. Logische Verteidigungen gibt es in ganz gleichwertiger Weise gerade drei.
Daher erleben wir jetzt das merkwürdige Schauspiel, daß der Jesuitismus, indem er den Kampf gegen die Anthroposophie führt, selbstverständlich weiß, daß die Anthroposophie einer geistigen Richtung folgt, in der sich die Dinge verteidigen lassen. Er weiß ganz gut, daß darin die Dinge nicht damit bekämpft sind, daß er sie logisch widerlegt, denn er weiß allzu gut, daß eine logische Widerlegung ein bloßes Spiel mit Logik ist; er weiß, daß er einfach im geistigen Kampf einem Gegner gegenübersteht, und ihm ist jedes Mittel recht. Daher ist es so unsinnig, bloß den Kampf führen zu wollen, indem man das Widerlegen der Jesuiten wieder widerlegt. Dasjenige, was man einwendet, kennen die Jesuiten sehr gut; aber daß sie es kennen und für richtig halten, das ist für sie kein Grund, es nicht zu bekämpfen, weil sie einer andern Wesenheit folgen, als zum Heile der Menschheit Anthroposophie jetzt folgen muß. Da kommt es, sobald es sich um geistige Angelegenheiten handelt, auf Realitäten an; da kommt es darauf an, daß man die geistigen Wege wirklich durchschaut, da kommt es schon darauf an, daß man zum Durchschauen dieser geistigen Wege — was aber dem gesunden Menschenverstand durchaus möglich ist — den ganzen Menschen anwendet, nicht jenen Menschenzwerg, der heute auf unseren gebräuchlichen Lehranstalten ausgebildet wird.
Was sind denn also Parteien hier im physischen Leben? Sie sind die Karikaturen von demjenigen, was in der übersinnlichen Welt seine gute Berechtigung hat; sie sind die verzerrten Schattenbilder von Dingen, die in der geistigen Welt ihre gute Berechtigung haben. Das ist das Schwierige der Sache, daß dasjenige, was in der sinnlichen Welt auftritt, das Abbild sein kann von etwas, was in der geistigen Welt eine ganz gute Bedeutung hat. In der sinnlichen Welt ist es verderblich, verwerflich, denn die Welten haben alle ihre eigenen Gesetze — und wir steuern heute hinein in die Notwendigkeit, uns zur geistigen Welt wieder hinaufzuarbeiten. Aber die erste Etappe wird damit begonnen, daß hier in dem physischen Leben die Karikaturen des geistigen Lebens auftreten, daß die Menschen zunächst hier Parteifahnen aufrichten und Parteigötzen folgen, während sie geistigen Wesenheiten folgen sollten. Da ist es Wahrheit, wenn es in der übersinnlichen Welt geschieht; Lüge und Illusion ist es, wenn es hier in der physischen Welt geschieht. Sie sehen, es ist keine Phrase, wenn davon gesprochen wird, daß es darauf ankommt, das bloß theoretische Wesen in Wirklichkeit zu verwandeln, sobald man von den Wahrheiten jenseits der Schwelle sprechen will.
Mit bloßen Widerlegungen des Materialismus ist es nicht getan, denn die Sache liegt so in bezug auf den Menschen: Der Mensch besteht wirklich seiner ganzen Veranlagung nach aus einem Geistig-Seelischen. Dieses Geistig-Seelische lebt schon vor unserer Konzeption, vor unserer Geburt. Es hat sich herausgebildet aus unserer früheren Erdenverkörperung, es ist durch die geistige Welt hindurchgegangen; aber es schafft sich hier, indem es Fleisch annimmt, ein physisches Nachbild, aus Nervensystem, Knochensystem, Blutsystem bestehend. Und nun haben wir hier zweierlei: den geistig-seelischen Menschen, und das Abbild davon, den physisch-leiblichen Menschen. Wenn wir nun gewöhnliche abstrakte Gedanken fassen, was denkt da in uns? Da denkt nicht der geistig-seelische Mensch. Gerade dann, wenn wir abstrakte Gedanken fassen, wenn wir am meisten mit irdischer Logik arbeiten, dann denkt in uns das leibliche Gehirn. Und das Wichtige ist, daß man weiß, die Behauptung der Materialisten, daß das Gehirn denke, ist ganz richtig für den Fall, daß in abstrakten Gedanken gedacht wird, denn das physische Gehirn ist ein Abbild des geistigen Gehirns, und dieses Abbild schafft ein Abbild, und das abstrakte Denken ist nur Abbild. So daß man sagen kann, für diesen Fall des abstrakten Denkens denkt das Gehirn.
Das ist nur eine Spezialwahrheit dessen, was ich an früherer Stelle gesagt habe. Der Materialismus ist nur darauf gekommen, daß in demjenigen Denken, welches in unserem Kulturzeitraum, namentlich seit der Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts, im Abendlande üblich geworden ist, das Gehirn denkt. Und was Moleschott, Büchner und der dicke Vogt behauptet haben als Materialismus, das ist nicht einfach damit widerlegt, daß man sagt, das ist falsch, sondern das ist richtig für die Menschheit, die sich immer mehr und mehr, namentlich seit der Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts, zum bloßen Materialismus hinwendet. Es ist einfach der abendländische Mensch auf dem Wege, ein Wesen zu werden, das nur noch mit dem physischen Gehirn denkt. Die Propheten dieses physischen Gehirndenkens, Moleschott, Büchner, haben nur verkündet, was aus dem abendländischen Menschen wird. So daß die Materialisten Recht haben mit demjenigen, was sie für den abendländischen Menschen behaupten; es ist nur falsch, wenn sie es für den Menschen überhaupt behaupten. Was sie sagen, ist nur richtig für die Menschen seit der Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts, aber für diese ist es richtig. Und die Menschen haben sich nun gewöhnt, bloß mit dem Gehirn zu denken; das ist die heute übliche Denk weise. Alles, was in unserer gewöhnlichen Literatur, in unserer ganzen modernen Wissenschaft liegt, ist materielles Denken, ist solches Denken. Da haben die Materialisten schon Recht, und man könnte sagen, daß Büchner, Vogt unkollegial gehandelt hätten gegen ihre materialistischen Kollegen, wenn sie ihnen nachgesagt hätten, daß sie mit dem Geist denken. Das ist ja nicht wahr; sie denken bloß mit dem Gehirn. Da gilt es nicht zu widerlegen, sondern anzuerkennen, daß tatsächlich der Weg zur Materialität nicht bloß eine falsche Weltanschauung ist, sondern etwas, was real wirkt. Deshalb aber sagen diese Menschen auch, wenn so etwas auftritt wie anthroposophisch orientierte Geisteswissenschaft: Diese Gedanken kann man nicht fassen, die kann man nicht begreifen. — Ja, die wollen mit dem Gehirn denken; aber diese Gedanken der Geisteswissenschaft sind mit dem Geistig-Seelischen gedacht, das sich erst losgerissen hat vom Gehirn. Daher müssen die Menschen streben, daß sie durch die Gedanken, die so entstanden sind, selber wieder losreißen ihr Geistig-Seelisches vom Gehirn, indem sie diese Gedanken nachdenken. Die Menschen müssen sich bemühen, die Gedanken nachzudenken, die heute noch bestehende Möglichkeit zu benützen, das Geistig-Seelische loszureißen von dem Materiellen des Gehirns. Denn es ist auf dem Wege, sich an das Materielle des Gehirns zu ketten. Die Menschen müssen sich davon losreißen. Also wir haben es nicht mit einer falschen und richtigen Anschauung zu tun, sondern mit einem Vorgang. Indem die Gedanken der anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft der Welt übergeben werden, rechnet man darauf, daß die Menschen, die noch fähig sind, die alten Möglichkeiten des Losreißens in sich zu handhaben, sie wirklich handhaben und die leibfreien Gedanken zu verstehen suchen, damit ihre Seelen leibfrei werden. Also es ist eine Willenssache, Anthroposophie zu verstehen; es ist etwas, was losreißen soll das Geistig-Seelische von dem Physisch-Leiblichen. Daher stehen wir nicht bloß vor der Aufgabe, eine falsche Weltanschauung zu widerlegen, sondern vor der Tatsache, daß ein großer Teil der Menschheit hineinsegeln will, bloß Materie zu werden und aus ihr heraus zu denken, zu wollen und zu empfinden, und daß wir der Welt als Realität übergeben wollen die anthroposophisch orientierte Geisteswissenschaft, damit Geist.und Seele losgerissen werden von der Materie. Die Menschen sollen vor der Möglichkeit bewahrt werden, ihr Geistig-Seelisches zu verlieren, denn dieses Geistig-Seelische steht vor der Gefahr, ganz und gar in das Ahrimanische hineinzusegeln. Die Menschen stehen vor der Gefahr, das GeistigSeelische zu verlieren und mit dem Materiellen sich zu verlieren als Menschen, wie ich es Ihnen früher schon geschildert habe, daß das Materielle verschwindet.
Also es handelt sich nicht um die Ersetzung einer alten Erkenntnis durch eine neue, sondern darum, Taterkenntnis zu gewinnen, durch welche die Seele bewahrt wird vor dem Hineinsegeln in die bloße Materialität, vor dem Hineinsegeln des Geistig-Seelischen -— wodurch das Ich aufgehoben würde - in das Ahrimanische. Also nicht darum handelt es sich, den Materialismus zu widerlegen, sondern darum, die Menschheit zu bewahren davor, daß der Materialismus richtig werde; denn er ist auf dem Wege, eine Richtigkeit, nicht eine Falschheit zu sein. Wenn man von falschem Materialismus spricht, so spricht man heute gar nicht von dem, worauf es ankommt, sondern man muß sprechen davon, daß der Materialismus richtig und richtiger wird und heute in der Kultur mit jedem Tag immer richtiger und richtiger wird. Wir können es schon mit dem Beginn des 3. Jahrtausends erleben, daß die Menschheit sich so entwickelt haben wird, daß der Materialismus die richtige Anschauung ist. Nicht darum handelt es sich, den Materialismus zu widerlegen; denn er ist auf dem Marsche, richtig zu werden, sondern darum, ihn unrichtig zu machen, weil er auf dem Wege ist, eine Tatsache zu werden, weil er nicht eine falsche Theorie bloß ist.
Diese Dinge möchten jene Menschen verschweigen, welche es den Menschen möglichst bequem machen möchten, indem sie sagen: Seht nur die Falschheit des Materialismus ein! Wendet euch zu einer abstrakten Mystik hin, dann habt ihr alles! - Man kann sich einer solchen abstrakten Mystik hingeben; aber dadurch fördert man den realen Materialismus und nicht den Materialismus als bloße "Theorie. Wir haben diesen Materialismus nicht zu überwinden, weil er falsch ist, durch das Wort, das Theorie bleibt, sondern weil er richtig ist und weil wir gerade bekämpfen müssen, daß er als Richtiges dasteht. Da bekommen die Dinge ein anderes Gesicht, da aber steht man in der Realität der geistigen Welt darin nicht mit Theorien, sondern mit einer Erkenntnis, die im kosmischen Zusammenhang eine Tat ist. Es ist den heutigen Menschen höchst unbequem, diese Dinge anzuhören, doch in diesem Licht müßte eigentlich alles betrachtet werden, was auch im einzelnen geschieht. Wahrhaftig, die alten Kampfmethoden sind verbraucht; alles das, was früher üblich sein konnte, ist verbraucht. Die Dinge müssen im geistigen Licht gesehen werden.
Was ist Konservativismus? Was ist Liberalismus? Hier auf der Erde sind das Karikaturen der geistigen Welt. Der Konservative ist ein Ahrimananhänger, der Liberale ist ein Luziferanhänger. Und derjenige, der an dem Hüter der Schwelle vorbeischreitet, der sieht, wie der ganze Konservativismus hinter Ahriman, der ganze Liberalismus hinter Luzifer herläuft. Dem heutigen sehr gescheiten Menschen erscheint das als eine Paradoxie; aber von dem, daß dieses als Paradoxie erscheint, rührt es her, daß anthroposophisch orientierte Geisteswissenschaft so schwer verstanden werden kann. Man versteht eigentlich nie Geisteswissenschaft, wenn man sie bloß denkt, sondern man versteht sie nur, wenn man bei jeder ihrer Vorstellungen leiden kann und sich freuen kann, wenn man Erhebungen hat und Niedergeschlagenheiten, wenn man verzweifeln möchte bei einem Worte, oder bei einem Worte glauben kann, erlöst zu werden, wenn man das Schicksalsmäßige in demjenigen, was man als schattenhafte Theorie gewöhnlich ansieht, ebenso sieht wie in äußeren Taten, wenn Realität wird dasjenige, was nur Wort zu sein scheint aus den Verkündigungen der anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft. Dann aber, wenn der innere Impuls dieser anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft eingesehen und gefühlt wird, dann erst wird im richtigen Licht gesehen, warum es heute notwendig ist, dasjenige, was eine Zeitlang nur als Theorie gepflegt werden ‘konnte, weil ja die Menschen zuerst davon wissen mußten, überzuführen in die Realität und Ernst zu machen mit dem, was als Realität in den Worten der anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft liegt und wie aus den Notwendigkeiten der Zeit heraus folgt, dasjenige in die Realität überzuführen, was aus den substantiell-wesenhaften Inhalten der Worte folgt.
Noch immer sieht man dasjenige, was man mit solch einer Waldorfschule eigentlich meint, viel zu wenig im Lichte der Realität, viel zu wenig in dem Sinn, den ich eben jetzt charakterisieren wollte. Wahrhaftig nicht, um Ihre Herzen zu rühren und wahrhaftig nicht, um auch noch ein wenig zu werben, sondern um das zu sagen, was heute gesagt werden muß, weil die Menschheit es wissen muß, spreche ich hier die Dinge aus, die ich heute ausgesprochen habe. Und man möchte nur wünschen, daß die Möglichkeit herbeigeführt würde, wirklich einmal diese Dinge vor einer genügend großen Anzahl von Menschen aussprechen zu können, so daß diese Menschen die innerliche Impulsivität haben, Worte als Realitäten zu nehmen und nicht bloß sie anzuhören und zu glauben, es seien Theorien gemeint.
Das ist es, was ich durch diese beiden Betrachtungen habe vor Sie hinstellen wollen. Und es wird schon dahin kommen müssen, daß die äußeren Geschehnisse dem nachfolgen, was in der verkündeten Geisteswissenschaft jetzt nicht an äußerem Inhalte liegt, sondern an inneren Impulsen. Diejenigen, die so kämpfen wie zum Beispiel die Jesuiten, die wissen eben sehr gut, was viele Anhänger der Anthroposophie noch nicht wissen: daß in der anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft eine Realität vorliegt, und erst seit sie das merkten - es ist allerdings schon lange her, ungefähr seit 1906, 1907 —, seit sie das wissen, bekämpfen sie immer stärker und stärker diese Geisteswissenschaft. Und die Art, wie sie sie bekämpfen, ihre besondere Raffiniertheit, ahnt eine große Anzahl von unseren Anthroposophen noch gar nicht, weil man sich nicht will des Ernstes der Lage wirklich innerlich versichern. Man kann ja immer nur mit Worten ein klein wenig von dem hervorrufen, was man eigentlich an die Herzen der Menschen heranbringen möchte; aber ein klein wenig von dem wollte ich auch in diesen zwei Betrachtungen an Sie heranbringen. Überlegen wir uns das, was gesagt worden ist, bringen wir es aus der Überlegung zum Fühlen, zur Durchdringung unseres ganzen Menschenwesens, dann wird es nicht abstrakte Mystik und Naturwissenschaft, dann wird es innerliches Wesen des Menschen, dann wird es die Kraft, welche das Geistig-Seelische wiederum loslöst von dem Materiellen, dann wird es zum Überwinder nicht des falschen, sondern des leider richtigen Materialismus.
Seventh Lecture
Today I must follow up on something I said in my previous lecture, because it is particularly important and necessary to emphasize the connection between what I said then and what I want to add today. I recently explained that the path that must lead to spiritual science requires the recognition of two facts. The first fact is that, based on the most diverse things that can be gleaned from spiritual science, it is impossible to imagine that matter, substance, can be found in the external world surrounding human beings. We see the external world with our eyes, hear it with our ears, and then build up a certain knowledge of nature when we connect what we see and hear and perceive through the other senses with our intellect and then believe that we know something about external nature. As long as one thinks and believes that matter and its laws can be found in this external nature—through some science of it—one is in error. And the error of materialism did not consist in speaking of matter at all, but in thinking that matter and its laws, its inner structure, its essence, could be found in the external world. Therefore, anyone who says, “I want to know nothing of the external world, for that is the material world; I want to search mystically within myself for a spiritual world,” becomes just as much a materialist as someone who simply interprets the external world in a materialistic sense; for he believes that the material can be found in the external world. And this is the main error of modern times, that people seek the essence of the material in the external world. The essential correction will consist in no longer seeking the essence of the material in the external world, in being clear about the fact that no matter how far we extend the range of our sensory observation, we cannot find anything anywhere that is matter and its inner structure, its lawfulness. We must be clear that what is available to us in the external world is only what is called Maya in the East, what we call the world of appearances, the phenomenal world, and that wherever we look, we cannot find anything material in this external world.
On the other hand, something else must be clear as a second fact: that we find this material, which materialism mistakenly seeks in the external world, within ourselves, and that we find it precisely when we become mystics in a one-sided, abstract sense. For what rises in our consciousness as the content of a certain mysticism, what we believe we experience there, is nothing other than, I would say, the flame that is kindled within us by our material organic processes. And those who interpret the mysticism of Tauler and Meister Eckhart in such a way that these spirits, with a special inner capacity for experience, knew how to interpret the material in their inner being as it ignites into the flame of consciousness, and that they found the material through mysticism, are actually thinking correctly. Until one knows that through external observation one finds only the phenomenal, the Maya, and through internal observation only the material and its flame, one cannot arrive at a real clarity about the nature of the world and the place of human beings in it. We must not seek the material in the external world through natural science; we must seek it internally through mysticism, for that is where its laws are to be found. If you want to find the essence of gravity, you shouldn't look for it with Atwood's falling machine, but you should try—let's say at the age of thirty-two, but it could be another time—to get an inner awareness of gravity so that you know from inner experience what it means to really experience heaviness. He should learn through inner concrete experience how, between the ages of thirty and forty, one becomes inwardly heavier and heavier, how one inwardly experiences a property of the material world that is expressed only in what is mystical consciousness. And I have tried to interpret what comes into consideration here by saying: When one stands inside the chaos of a planet, as today's scientists do, one cannot gain a clear understanding of these things. We see what is there as plants and animals, as a blanket of clouds; we see what the stars cast down upon us as their brilliance, we see rivers and mountains and valleys and so on. But none of that comes into consideration if, for example, one were to observe what is on our Earth from Mars. A Martian who were to observe our Earth through some kind of instrument — one could imagine, as is indeed the case in reality, albeit in a different way, that Martians are organized in such a way that they can observe Earth — would perceive nothing of what we see in cloud formations, rivers, and mountains, or of the phenomena of the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms. What he would perceive on our planet would be what is happening inside the skins of the people living on Earth. Everything else would disappear from the Martian's view. He would perceive only what goes on inside the organic life of human beings, for he would experience this as the material world of the earth. And when one brings this inner mysticism to consciousness, it is not what many mystics believe, but rather the flame that burns within us. This is the place where one gets to know the matter of the earth. This kind of self-knowledge leads us to the essence of matter and power, and in this, the views of Westerners in recent centuries have taken precisely the opposite course.
This shows how much rethinking is needed if decline is to be transformed into growth again. Today, people believe that they are materialists, idealists, or spiritualists based on the content of their worldview. That is not the case. One is far from being a spiritualist if one says that one devotes oneself to the contemplation of the inner and not to the contemplation of the outer. For it could happen that one devotes oneself to one's inner self and then observes matter all the more, namely as it becomes a flame within. One is only on the right path when one grasps what I mean in one's inner attitude. When we survey the external world of perception, we find only phenomena, only appearances, and not something in which these phenomena, these appearances, are rooted; for what they are rooted in lies within our own skin. What we see outside is to be evaluated in exactly the same way as what we see in the rainbow. Just as the person who believes that the rainbow is something other than a phenomenon, something that stretches out there as a materiality, is mistaken, so too is the person who believes — because the other perceptions surrounding him touch not only the other senses but also the sense of feeling while one can reach through the rainbow—that the phenomena surrounding us are not phenomena, but materiality. They differ from the rainbow only in that they also touch other senses; but materiality is just as little to be found in them as in the rainbow. Outwardly, everything is appearance. That in which appearances have their roots therefore lies within the human skin. Within this human skin, the processes that carry the events of the earth from one age to another take place.
As improbable and paradoxical as it may seem to people today, it is nevertheless true that what surrounds us today in external phenomena, what appears in these phenomena as lawfulness, is not the external consequence of what what happened materially about three millennia before the Mystery of Golgotha, but rather the consequence of what took place three millennia before the Mystery of Golgotha in the bodies of the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, and so on. This has emerged from within. And what was then the outer world has vanished, has sunk into oblivion. Within human bodies lies the seed for a future that can already be calculated thousands of years ahead. This is something that can already be recognized today from external natural phenomena, perhaps through a bold conclusion. People speak of the properties of radium. To those who see through the spiritual world, this talk sometimes sounds like children talking about things that have long been clear to adults through other facts. Physics today knows that the radium that was present on the earth's surface before the year 140 AD has now vanished, is no longer radium. The radium that exists today has only been formed since the year 140 AD. These are things that physics already teaches today, things that are now approaching human beings in order to compel them, as it were, to finally abandon what they have had to pursue for centuries as an error in order to achieve human liberation.
All this, however, compels us to view what anthroposophically oriented spiritual science brings to human beings in a completely different way than things are usually viewed. It compels us to move from mere theories to realities, to move everywhere from abstract intellectual knowledge to practical knowledge, to that which is action, real action in the context of the world. For I have already said — but it is necessary to emphasize this with particular clarity — that people today believe that one person is a materialist and another is a spiritualist. The spiritualist says: He is a materialist, he must be refuted; for it is not true that the soul is a product of matter. Therefore, what the materialist asserts is false, and it is sufficient to refute him. The materialist is in a logical error, and he must be refuted. No, that is not the point. This is not a matter of logic, it is not a matter of theorizing, and one only thinks that spiritual science is theorizing. Anthroposophically oriented spiritual science stands firmly on the ground of reality, even if it sometimes seeks reality where it really is to be found: in that which the spirit rules and breathes. Anyone who looks at the external world and searches everywhere for matter according to the methods of modern molecular and atomistic theorists, regardless of whether they view it as points of force or as tiny blocks, is not merely committing a logical error that needs to be refuted. True spiritual science has nothing to do with such things, which are merely theoretical concepts. It has to do with realities. Anyone who seeks anything other than phenomena in the outer world is not merely on the path to a logical error, but to the organic disease of his entire being. And one must not say that following this path is a logical error, but rather that anyone who seeks in this way is on the path to organic disease, on the path to insanity. This is why we often have to transform things that are meant theoretically into things that are meant realistically in the field of anthroposophically oriented spiritual science. Explanation in the spiritual realm has nothing to do with mere agreement or refutation, but has to do with what health and illness are, what realities are in life. And so we must say: anyone who searches in phenomena not merely for the phenomena themselves, but for matter, is on the path to insanity, to organic disease. This is something that takes place within reality.
Likewise, those who seek the abstract spiritual within themselves are not merely to be refuted; but those who seek the spiritual by means of mere one-sided inner mysticism and do not realize that, when they see through the fabric of this mysticism, they arrive precisely at materiality, are on the path — I have called it what it can be called, if one describes it from beyond the threshold — on the path to the illness of his organism: infantilism, childishness. If the threshold between the sensual and the supersensible world is here and the guardian of the threshold stands there, then on this side of the guardian is what we call genius here; but that can rightly be called childishness beyond the threshold. For if it is expressed in the wrong way here in the sensual world, then it is childishness throughout life, whereas genius is the preservation of a certain childlike quality throughout life. We attain genius only by carrying into old age the nature of the soul that is otherwise present in childhood, and this is seen in its true form from beyond the threshold. But if this carrying of the childlike nature of the soul into later life is one-sided, then what, when correctly placed in the human world, becomes genius, becomes childishness. This is something that shows us how, as soon as we enter the realm of spiritual science, we must replace purely logical concepts with real concepts, with something that does not merely lead people to different views, but changes them inwardly according to their organic structure.
This is the seriousness of anthroposophically oriented spiritual science, which is so little appreciated because people carry their ordinary attitudes into the fields of spiritual science. They want to agree or disagree in the way that is customary in the outer world, they want to carry the customs of the outer world into the fields of spiritual science, whereas anthroposophically oriented spiritual science can only be taught correctly if one speaks with words from the world beyond. There, words have a completely different meaning; what is heaviness here, what pulls down, is upward pull there. In the spiritual world, one must speak of what pulls us down in such a way that it is exactly the opposite. Therefore, one should not be surprised if those who take spiritual science seriously are initially completely misunderstood by those who want to carry over into the spiritual realms the conventions that have developed in the age of materialism. This is what always leads to misunderstandings of the kind I dared to express yesterday.
Anyone who would argue against Oswald Spengler would simply refute him. The spiritual scientist is compelled not to refute him in the usual way. He must take a different point of view and not be stubborn; he must say: What Oswald Spengler asserts is asserted from a different point of view, from a point of view that is unproductive for the immediate future. Then one does justice to phenomena when one does not simply refute them, but shows their genius and speaks with inner sympathy about what one would like to overcome. The way in which things are treated is much more spiritual than the flat presentation of some mystical generalities which those who put them forward believe to be particularly God-given truths. These things must be considered, for we are entering an age in which we must go beyond the mere content of intellectual life. And that is something I would like to emphasize again and again: that we must go beyond the mere content of intellectual life.
Today, if one takes the mere content, it is relatively easy for any foolish person to refute Oswald Spengler. That is not difficult, but that is not the point. The point is to say what lives concretely and really in Oswald Spengler and how he can be concretely and really overcome. And in the future it will become increasingly important that, when we want to characterize a personality, we look more at what it brings forth than at whether it brings forth what we like or dislike in terms of content. One must not look at whether one likes or dislikes something in terms of content, but whether it has spiritual qualities. It is much more important for the overall effect of world evolution that there is a brilliant materialist who brilliantly represents materialism — this requires spirit, and sometimes very little spirit is needed to represent shallow mysticism. Under certain circumstances, the shallow mystic can contribute much more to the materialization of the world than the brilliant materialist. It is the qualities of the spirit that matter. Recognizing this will be much more important in the future than the content itself. This is what must be learned, for we do not want to strive for the spirit as a logical system, but in its reality, and so I ask you: Can you not imagine that spirit lives more in the spiritual materialist than in the shallow spiritualist? These things must be understood and seen through by anthroposophically oriented spiritual science, for what matters is the reality of the spirit, not the abstract assertion of one or the other. People fail to recognize how much it really depends on realities and not on theories!
That is why we must view many phenomena of ordinary life from the perspective of spiritual science today, otherwise we will not be able to understand them clearly. Consider, for example, that in the ordinary world in which we live today, we find this or that political party in public life. Let us first consider the ordinary parties. You know that the most dismal, the most odious, the most trite is what thrives in these parties; but today, more or less everyone who does not want to withdraw completely from external life, or who is not immediately forced by their homelessness to refrain from voting because they have not succeeded in obtaining the right to vote anywhere, is more or less compelled to join one of these parties; in other words, everyone who has the right to vote is today compelled to cast his vote in a certain direction, that is, to act in the interests of these parties. Parties therefore exist. They date back to better times in party politics, to the well-known English swing system of the Conservative Party on the one side and the Liberal Party on the other. And we can say that all the parties that exist today are expressed in these two shades, so to speak. Sometimes the liberal elements are colored by conservatism from the right, and conservatism by liberalism from the left, as in social democracy, or conservatism is colored by radicalism, as we have seen today. But on the whole, one can say that this model swing system of conservative and liberal is what our parties are based on. Yes, that is the picture one has on the surface. Within these party formations, everyone must admit that one experiences the very worst. But it is there, and the question is now: Why is it there? What is it actually? What are parties actually?
Everything that appears here in the physical world is a reflection of the supersensible world. What, then, are the parties a reflection of? What is there in the supersensible world that causes parties to exist here in the sensible world? Only those who have understood the prerequisites can understand what this is all about, who understand that when one crosses the threshold of the spiritual world, one arrives at something completely different, namely at realities. Here in the physical world, one is an idealist or a skeptic or a realist or a spiritualist or whatever the -ists are called. One is something that can be summarized in a program, in a political or sociological system; in short, one is an -ist. You orient yourself toward an abstraction. For everything that underlies the parties are such party programs or systems or the like, which are abstractions of some kind. As soon as you cross the threshold into the spiritual world, you are no longer dealing with mere logic and abstractions, but with realities. This is just not usually taken very seriously. But you cannot swear allegiance to party flags once you have passed the guardian of the threshold; there you can only hold on to beings, everything becomes essential. There you can only hold on to some being of the higher hierarchies and say: That is the one I follow, the one I connect with. The other may represent his cause in his own way, but I am connected to this one, I take his side. Then the words “I take the side of this one or that one” take on a very real, not merely abstract meaning. It is natural for us humans to say to ourselves: as soon as we look beyond the threshold, we find the threefold kind of beings: the Christ being, Ahriman, and Lucifer. Now, having carefully prepared ourselves to grasp the spiritual world, we can say: I choose the side of Christ, or that of Ahriman, or that of Lucifer. But we can also mask the matter; we can be ill-prepared and choose Ahriman and call him Christ. But we are following a being—beyond the threshold, everything becomes essential! One is always dealing with realities, not with some programmatic or systematic things!
This is a weighty word that I am using here to characterize the human relationship to the supersensible world. And there is a point where, because it is too annoying, it is not yet possible to say the very last word; but very few people here on earth today know that everything that follows party banners, party abstractions, is basically not reality at all, but an illusion, and that when you start to follow something real, you actually have to follow something that lies beyond the threshold in the supersensible world. But you can characterize a party right away as knowing this secret very well and also following it. And the fact that this was publicly stated in the Karlsruhe Cycle of 1911 has earned me the hatred of this party. For they are the Jesuits. They know very well that following a party program—forgive me for using an expression common in Germany—is nonsense. One follows a being of the supersensible world! That is why you see the Jesuit exercises begin with the Jesuit first having to introduce himself to the one whom he then follows as the Society of Jesus, for whom he forms a military corporation. And when I say that the last word cannot be spoken, I would like to refrain from saying what it is that is baptized as “Jesus.” But it is important for us to characterize that Jesuitism forms a party by following a spiritual being, and that it therefore knows very well this secret: that to follow any party that exhausts itself in a program within the earthly world is nonsense. And the effectiveness of the Jesuit order is based on the fact that it educates its members to follow a spiritual being. It does not say: Something is right or wrong — but rather: It belongs to the mission of the spiritual being whom I follow; that is what I defend. What does not belong to the mission of the spiritual being I follow, I fight against, even if it can be defended logically, for the contents of Ahriman and Lucifer can be defended logically just as those of Christ. There are three logical defenses of equal value.
That is why we are now witnessing the strange spectacle of Jesuitism, in its fight against anthroposophy, knowing full well that anthroposophy follows a spiritual direction in which things can be defended. It knows very well that things cannot be fought in this way by refuting them logically, for it knows only too well that logical refutation is merely a game with logic; it knows that it is simply facing an opponent in a spiritual battle, and that any means are acceptable to it. That is why it is so senseless to want to wage battle merely by refuting the Jesuits' refutations. The Jesuits know very well what objections are raised against them, but the fact that they know them and consider them correct is no reason for them not to fight against them, because they follow a different essence than the one that anthroposophy must now follow for the salvation of humanity. When it comes to spiritual matters, what matters is reality; what matters is that one truly sees through the spiritual paths; what matters is that one uses the whole human being to see through these spiritual paths — which is entirely possible for healthy human beings — and not the human dwarf that is educated in our educational institutions today.
What, then, are parties here in physical life? They are caricatures of what has its rightful place in the supersensible world; they are distorted shadows of things that have their rightful place in the spiritual world. That is the difficult thing about it, that what appears in the sensory world can be the image of something that has a very good meaning in the spiritual world. In the sensory world it is corruptible, reprehensible, because the worlds all have their own laws — and today we are heading toward the necessity of working our way back up to the spiritual world. But the first stage begins with the caricatures of spiritual life appearing here in physical life, with people first raising party flags and following party idols, when they should be following spiritual beings. It is truth when it happens in the supersensible world; it is lie and illusion when it happens here in the physical world. You see, it is no mere phrase when we say that it is essential to transform the merely theoretical being into reality as soon as we want to speak of the truths beyond the threshold.
It is not enough to merely refute materialism, for the situation is as follows with regard to human beings: Human beings really consist, in their entire constitution, of a spiritual-soul element. This spiritual-soul element already exists before our conception, before our birth. It has developed out of our earlier earthly incarnations; it has passed through the spiritual world; but here, by taking on flesh, it creates for itself a physical image consisting of a nervous system, a skeletal system, and a blood system. And now we have two things here: the spiritual-soul human being and the image of it, the physical-bodily human being. When we form ordinary abstract thoughts, what is thinking within us? It is not the spiritual-soul human being who is thinking. Precisely when we form abstract thoughts, when we are working most with earthly logic, it is the physical brain that is thinking within us. And the important thing is to know that the materialists' assertion that the brain thinks is entirely correct in the case of abstract thinking, because the physical brain is a reflection of the spiritual brain, and this reflection creates a reflection, and abstract thinking is only a reflection. So that one can say that in this case of abstract thinking, it is the brain that thinks.
This is only a special truth of what I said earlier. Materialism has only come to the conclusion that in the thinking that has become common in our cultural period, especially since the middle of the 15th century in the West, it is the brain that thinks. And what Moleschott, Büchner, and the fat Vogt claimed as materialism is not simply refuted by saying that it is wrong, but rather that it is right for humanity, which has been turning more and more toward mere materialism, especially since the middle of the 15th century. Western man is simply on the way to becoming a being that thinks only with the physical brain. The prophets of this physical brain thinking, Moleschott and Büchner, have only proclaimed what Western man will become. So the materialists are right in what they claim about Western man; it is only wrong when they claim it about man in general. What they say is only true for people since the middle of the 15th century, but for them it is true. And people have now become accustomed to thinking only with the brain; that is the usual way of thinking today. Everything in our ordinary literature, in all our modern science, is material thinking, is such thinking. In this respect, the materialists are right, and one could say that Büchner and Vogt acted uncollegially toward their materialistic colleagues when they accused them of thinking with the spirit. That is not true; they think only with the brain. It is not a matter of refuting this, but of acknowledging that the path to materialism is not merely a false worldview, but something that has a real effect. That is why these people also say, when something like anthroposophically oriented spiritual science arises: These thoughts cannot be grasped, they cannot be understood. — Yes, they want to think with the brain; but these thoughts of spiritual science are thought with the spiritual-soul, which has first broken away from the brain. Therefore, people must strive to break away their spiritual-soul life from the brain through the thoughts that have arisen in this way, by thinking these thoughts. People must strive to reflect on these thoughts, to use the possibility that still exists today to tear the spiritual-soul life away from the material of the brain. For it is in the process of chaining itself to the material of the brain. People must tear themselves away from it. So we are not dealing with a false or correct view, but with a process. By handing over the thoughts of anthroposophically oriented spiritual science to the world, we hope that people who are still capable of utilizing the old possibilities of breaking away within themselves will actually do so and seek to understand the body-free thoughts, so that their souls may become body-free. So it is a matter of will to understand anthroposophy; it is something that should tear the spiritual-soul element away from the physical-bodily element. Therefore, we are not merely faced with the task of refuting a false worldview, but with the fact that a large part of humanity wants to sail into becoming mere matter and to think, will, and feel from within it, and that we want to hand over to the world as reality the anthroposophically oriented spiritual science, so that spirit and soul may be torn away from matter. People must be saved from the possibility of losing their spiritual and soul life, for this spiritual and soul life is in danger of sailing completely into the Ahrimanic. People are in danger of losing their spiritual and soul life and, with it, losing themselves as human beings, as I have already described to you, that the material disappears.
So it is not a matter of replacing an old insight with a new one, but of gaining practical knowledge through which the soul is preserved from drifting into mere materiality, from the spiritual-soul drifting — whereby the I would be abolished — into the Ahrimanic. So it is not a matter of refuting materialism, but of preserving humanity from materialism becoming true; for it is on the way to becoming true, not false. When we speak of false materialism today, we are not speaking of what is important, but we must speak of the fact that materialism is becoming true and truer, and that today, in culture, it is becoming truer and truer with each passing day. We can already see at the beginning of the third millennium that humanity will have developed in such a way that materialism will be the correct view. It is not a matter of refuting materialism, for it is on the march toward becoming true, but of making it untrue, because it is on the way to becoming a fact, because it is not merely a false theory.
Those who want to make life as comfortable as possible for people would like to conceal these things by saying: Just see how false materialism is! Turn to abstract mysticism, and you will have everything! One can devote oneself to such abstract mysticism, but in doing so one promotes real materialism and not materialism as a mere “theory.” We do not have to overcome this materialism because it is false, through words that remain theory, but because it is true and because we must fight against it standing as truth. Then things take on a different appearance, but then one stands in the reality of the spiritual world not with theories, but with a knowledge that is an act in the cosmic context. It is extremely uncomfortable for people today to hear these things, but in this light, everything that happens, even in detail, should actually be viewed. Truly, the old methods of struggle are worn out; everything that used to be common is worn out. Things must be seen in the spiritual light.
What is conservatism? What is liberalism? Here on earth, these are caricatures of the spiritual world. The conservative is a follower of Ahriman, the liberal is a follower of Lucifer. And those who pass by the guardian of the threshold see how all conservatism runs after Ahriman and all liberalism runs after Lucifer. To today's very intelligent people, this seems like a paradox; but the fact that it seems like a paradox is the reason why anthroposophically oriented spiritual science is so difficult to understand. One never really understands spiritual science by merely thinking about it, but only by suffering with each of its ideas and rejoicing when one experiences uplift and despondency, when one wants to despair at a word or can believe in a word that one will be redeemed, when one sees the fatefulness in what what is usually regarded as a shadowy theory, just as one sees it in external deeds, when what seems to be only words in the proclamations of anthroposophically oriented spiritual science becomes reality. But then, when the inner impulse of this anthroposophically oriented spiritual science is understood and felt, only then is it seen in the right light why it is necessary today to take what what for a time could only be cultivated as theory, because people first had to know about it, be translated into reality and taken seriously, and how, out of the necessities of the times, it follows that what follows from the substantial, essential content of the words must be translated into reality.
What one actually means by a Waldorf school is still seen far too little in the light of reality, far too little in the sense that I have just tried to characterize. Truly not to move your hearts, and truly not to advertise a little more, but to say what must be said today because humanity needs to know it, I am saying here the things I have said today. And one can only hope that the opportunity will arise to really say these things in front of a large enough number of people so that these people have the inner impulse to take words as realities and not just listen to them and believe that they are theories.
That is what I have wanted to present to you through these two reflections. And it will have to come to pass that external events follow what is now contained in the proclaimed spiritual science, not in its external content, but in its inner impulses. Those who fight as the Jesuits do, for example, know very well what many followers of anthroposophy do not yet know: that there is a reality in anthroposophically oriented spiritual science, and only since they realized this — which was, however, a long time ago, around 1906, 1907 —, since they have known this, have they fought this spiritual science more and more fiercely. And the way they fight it, their particular sophistication, is something that a large number of our anthroposophists do not yet suspect, because they do not want to truly convince themselves of the seriousness of the situation. One can only ever use words to evoke a little of what one actually wants to bring to people's hearts; but I wanted to bring a little of that to you in these two reflections. Let us consider what has been said, let us bring it from consideration to feeling, to the penetration of our whole human being, then it will not become abstract mysticism and natural science, then it will become the inner being of the human being, then it will become the force that in turn detaches the spiritual-soul from the material, then it will become the conqueror not of false materialism, but of materialism that is unfortunately true.