Man—Hieroglyph of the Universe
GA 201
24 April 1920, Dornach
Lecture Eight
I would like to bring forward again, in a rather different form, a few remarks made in the course of our studies. You know that the fact of the intimate relation between man and the Universe was much better known to methods of perception used by the ancients than to ours of the present day. If we were to go back to the period of the Egypto-Chaldean culture, we should find that man did not look upon himself as a separate being who perambulates the Earth, but as a being belonging to the whole Universe. He knew of course to begin with that in a certain sense he was dependent upon the Earth. That can easily be observed; even our own materialistic age admits that Man, as far as his physical metabolism is concerned, depends upon the Earth's products, which he assimilates. But in those ancient times, by means of course of atavistic perception, Man knew himself to be dependent also in his soul on the one hand on the elements of fire, water and air, and on the other hand on the movements of the planets. These he related to his soul-nature in the same way as he related the products of the Earth to his physical metabolism. And the part of the Universe that is outside or beyond the planetary system, all that is in the starry heavens—this he connected with his spirit.
Thus in those past ages, when materialism was out of the question, man knew himself to be living in the bosom of the Universe. You may now ask: Yes, but how is it that the man of those times made such big mistakes in connection with the movements of the heavenly bodies, while today, in this materialistic age, he has made such magnificent progress in relation to the real truth of these movements? Well, we have spoken of these things for a considerable time and we have pointed out that the movements man believes in today are asserted by science merely on the basis of certain prejudices. Upon this subject I shall have more to say tomorrow, but for the moment we may remind ourselves that present-day man has entirely lost consciousness of the fact that that which belongs to the whole man can no more be discovered in the physical world than in the visible stellar world. For it is absolutely impossible to gain a true perception even of the visible starry heavens, unless man combines with the outer physical life the super-physical in his considerations—that super-physical part of his life through which he passes between death and re-birth. Yesterday we drew attention to the metamorphosis that takes place in man in this change from earthly to super-earthly life and showed how the organs which we consider as belonging to the lower man (and of which we said yesterday that they open inwards), transform themselves—as regards their forces, though obviously not in their substance—during the period between death and a new birth, and become what is considered to be the more noble head-organism. This latter is in reality nothing more than the metamorphosis—as regards the structure of its forces—of the so-called ‘lower’ man of the last Earth-life.
If we really think this matter over, we can see—in spirit—how between death and re-birth, man has a certain content within him of his experiences, as he has also here between birth and death. But the content is essentially different in each case. We may make this difference clear by saying: between birth and death, man has, as the circumference for his experiences, the circumference in Space, and also that which takes place in Time. He has these—Space and Time—as a circumference for his experiences.
You know in how small a degree man really experiences the processes of his inner organism. He is not conscious of them. All the organisation within the skin is known to man only indirectly and incompletely. The knowledge gained through anatomy and physiology is not real knowledge, for we do not by means of this investigation look into the actual interior of man; it is an illusion to believe that we do. Spiritual Science alone gradually reveals all that is within man. But how do we find conditions in this respect during the interval between death and a new birth? We have to put it in this way. In a certain sense we look then from the periphery upon the centre. And we know just as little of the periphery as we do here of our centre or interior. But on the other hand we have during this period a direct perception of the secrets and mysteries of Man himself. That which is hidden within us—within our skin—that we observe between death and a new birth as our experiences.
Now you will perhaps say that this world which we view during the time between death and re-birth must be a very small one indeed. But spatial dimensions do not count at all. It is the fullness or poverty of the content that matters, not the size. If we combine all we observe in the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms, and add thereto the starry heavens, it would not compare in richness with the mysteries within Man himself. The real process is approximately as follows. We lose the structural forces of the head when we pass over in death. They have completed their office. But then the spiritual world takes up the structural forces of the remaining (lower) organism, which from being inner experience belong now to the periphery, and transforms them in such a way that when the time is ripe, from out of the spiritual world the human head is determined in the womb of the mother.
We must be absolutely clear upon this point. The very first beginning of the corporeal man within the mother, is a result of the whole process we have been describing. Conception is merely the opportunity given for a certain cosmic activity to penetrate the human body, and that which is formed first in the process of man's formation is indeed an image of the whole Cosmos. He who wishes to study the human embryo from its first stage onwards, must consider it as an image of the Cosmos.
These matters are today almost entirely overlooked. For of what do we generally think when we speak of the origin of a human being in the physical sense? Of heredity! We observe how the child-organism is formed within the parent-organism, and we are ignorant of how the cosmic forces which surround us are active within the parent-organism; we are ignorant of the fact that the whole Macrocosm projects its force into the human being in order to make possible the genesis of a new human being.
Of course, the great fault of our present-day world-philosophy is that we never take the Macrocosm into consideration, and therefore never become conscious of where lie the forces whose effect we observe. I must once again remind you of the following. The modern physicist or chemist says that there are molecules which are composed of atoms, that the atoms possess forces by means of which they act upon each other. Now this is a conception which simply does not accord with reality. The truth is, that the minutest molecule is acted upon by the whole starry heavens. Suppose here is a planet, here another, here another, and so on. Then there are the fixed stars, which transmit their forces into the molecule. All these lines of force intersect each other in various ways. The Planets also transmit their forces in the same way, and we come to realise that the molecule is nothing but a focus of macrocosmic forces. It is the ardent desire of modern science to bring microscopy far enough to enable the atoms to be seen within the molecule. This way of looking at the subject must cease. Instead of wishing to examine the structure of the molecule microscopically, we must turn our gaze outwards to the starry heavens, we must look at the constellations and see copper in one, tin in another! Out there in the Macrocosm we have to behold the structure of the molecule that is only reflected in the molecule. Instead of passing into the infinitely little, we must turn our gaze outwards to the infinitely great, for it is there we have to look for the reality of what lives in the little.
In this way does the materialistic conception of things also affect other domains of thought. Someone who considers himself capable of giving an opinion on the progress of human knowledge may say: the nineteenth century materialism is now overcome! No! It is not overcome so long as men still think atomically, so long as they fail to search in the great for the form and configuration of the small. Neither is the materialism relative to humanity overcome, so long as we continue to ignore the connection of Man the Microcosm with the Macrocosm.
And at this point we are confronted with a new—I might say a monstrous—evidence of materialism, to which I have previously drawn attention. It is in so-called Theosophy that its traces are often to be found, where a tendency is present to look at things in the following way. Here we have matter; then ether, thinner than matter but otherwise similar to physical matter; then comes the astral—again thinner or finer than the etheric; and after that quite a number of other beautiful things, all thinner and thinner and thinner. Call it Kama-manas, or what you will, it is not spiritual, but remains materialistic! The truth is that in order to arrive at a real understanding of the world, we must conceive of heavy, ponderable matter as ceasing at the ether; for we must clearly understand that this ether is essentially a very different thing from that substance of which we speak as filling space. When speaking of this latter substance, we think of space as filled with matter. But this we cannot do when we speak of ether, for then we must conceive space as being empty of matter. When ordinary matter strikes some other object, the object is repelled or pushed away. When ether approaches an object, it attracts it and draws it within itself. The activity of ether is the exact opposite to that of matter. Ether acts as an absorbent. Were this otherwise, you would present the same appearance back and front, for even in this diversity of the physical appearance of man we have the result, on the one hand of the pressure of ponderable matter, and on the other of the absorbing action of ether. Your nose is forced outwards, as it were, from your organism through the pressure of matter, while the eye sockets are drawn inward through the action of ether. It is therefore simply a pressing and absorbing substance acting within you which differentiates the exterior appearance of your front and back. These are things which are not usually taken into consideration.
Further, when we come to speak of the astral, we must not think of three-dimensional physical matter extending in a three-fold way in space, nor must we think of the absorbent ether, but of a third factor, one that forms the adjustment or connection between the other two. And should we then go on and attempt to form some approximate idea of that part of our being termed the Ego—the ‘I am’—we would have to include a fourth factor, which acts as mediator between, on the one hand, the absorbent-repelling action of ether and physical matter, and on the other hand, the astral substance. These are the things that must be taken into consideration.
You cannot logically ask: If the ether has merely a sucking, absorbing action, how then is it possible for us to perceive it? The fact is, ether stands, figuratively speaking, in the same relation in respect to ponderable matter—I am speaking now in a picture—as the relation we find in another plane if we have a bottle of soda-water. We cannot see the water in the bottle, but the pearly bubbles we can see, although these are ‘thinner’ than the water. And so it is in the case of the ether, which is a ‘hollow’ in physical matter and therefore the essential antithesis of physical matter; it also can be perceived.
From the foregoing you will now see that it is necessary, when speaking of the life between death and re-birth, to realise that this life is actually lived beyond space—beyond the space of which we are cognisant on the Earth-plane; and we shall have to endeavour to gain a conception of this ‘beyond’ of space. You can best do so by trying first to imagine ‘filled’ space. Take for instance, a table; it fills or occupies space. Then you pass from ‘filled’ space to ‘empty’ space, and perhaps you would say that you cannot go beyond this. But as I have previously pointed out to you, this would be about as sensible as to say: ‘I have a full purse out of which I continue to take money till nothing is left; this “nothing” cannot be less than it is’. But it can be less if you get into debt, when you would have less than nothing in your purse! Similarly empty space can be less than empty by being filled with ether, when it becomes a negative entity.
And that which adjusts or connects the two, that which mediates also in you between pressure and suction, is the astral. No relation would exist between the front and back of a human body did not the astral activity within form the connection between the absorbent and the pressing elements. You will say: I do not observe this connecting element. But try to follow the digestive process, and you will find the connecting link very clearly manifested. The astral is active there, and its activity is based upon the contrast between the front and back nature of the human being, even as the connection between the higher (head) man and lower (limb) man by way of the astral is based upon the Ego. We must therefore consider man, as he stands before us, in a quite concrete manner and make clear to ourselves that while he has existence upon this plane between birth and death he imprints his astral part and his Ego in the absorbent and pressure-producing elements, but his being only manifests here on Earth as the mediator between the front and the back, and between the upper and the lower parts of the body.
Now, what is this mediator or connecting link? It is that which we experience within us when we feel our equilibrium. We do not jerk the head forward and backward; we stand and walk erect. We accommodate our posture to the demands of the laws of equilibrium. We cannot see this, but we experience it inwardly. When we pass through the gate of death we consciously adjust ourselves to this condition, of which here we take no heed. If we possessed eyes only, it would then be dark around us, and if we had ears only, stillness would envelop us. But we have also the sense of equilibrium, and the sense of motion, and so we become able after all to ‘experience’ there. We take part in that which on Earth is implied in the words ‘equilibrium’ and ‘movement’. We adapt ourselves to the movements of the external world, we find our way into them.
You see, here, in the life between birth and death, the only way we experience the activity of the Earth's revolution upon its axis is in our daily metabolic process. We must take our daily meals, and this together with the succeeding digestive processes takes place within the limits of 24 hours, uniform with one revolution of the Earth. These two things belong together, the one is proof of the other. When we die, the revolution of the Earth becomes something real, as real as are the visible objects here. Then we live with this terrestrial motion; we begin to experience this motion consciously.
There are also other motions connected with the starry heavens, all of which we experience after death. Correctly considered, the description of our experiences already includes this experience, for we do not expand into the Cosmos like a jelly-fish, but we take part in the life of the Cosmos—and as beings taking part in cosmic life we experience at the same time the inner being of man. Between birth and death we say: My heart is within my breast, and in it converge the streams or motions of the blood-circulation. At a certain stage of development between death and re-birth we say: In my inner being is the Sun—and by this expression we mean the actual Sun, which the physicist claims to be a ball of gas, but which is in reality something quite different. We experience the actual Sun in the same manner as we experience here the heart. Here the Sun is visible to the eye, whereas during the time between death and re-birth the evolution of the heart on its path to the pineal gland, as it undergoes on the way a wonderful metamorphosis, is the cause of sublime experiences. The complete system of our blood-circulation we experience consciously in its transformation; we have this system within existence between death and re-birth proceeds, these forces undergo transmutation, so that, when once again we arrive at the gates of a new Earth-life, they have become the forces of us—not, of course, the substance, but the forces. As our new nervous-system. Look at the plates and illustrations scattered through modern books on anatomy or physiology and examine the circulatory system of the blood in one incarnation. This in the next incarnation becomes the life of the nerves. (We must not depict in diagrammatic form the head, breast (rhythmic) and limb systems as existing side by side, for they interpenetrate each other.) Note the wonderful structure of the human eye; there we find blood-vessels, choroid and retina (omentum). The last two are transformations of each other. What today is retina, was in the last incarnation choroid, and what is choroid today will be retina in the next incarnation. Of course this must not be taken too literally, but such is the approximate course of events. So you will understand that we cannot gain an essential conception of man if we merely study him as he appears between birth and death or even along the lines by which he develops through the forces of physical heredity. For thereby we understand man at most as far as the circulatory system; that would be the last process we would understand. The nervous system of the present life is a result of a former life, and can never be understood if studied in connection with the present life alone.
Now my dear friends, I beg of you not to object to what I have explained, by saying that animals have also a nervous system although they have no earlier lives. Such an objection would indeed be very short-sighted; for though in man the forces of his nervous system are the transformation of the blood-circulation of the former life, that does not imply that the same is valid in the case of animals. It would be just as logical to go to a barber and ask him to sell you a razor for the dinner-table—a razor being a knife, and knives forming part of the dinner service! Razors however do not! Nothing carries within itself its immediate purpose, neither does a physical organ. The human organ is entirely different from the animal organ. It depends upon the use to be made of an organ. We should not compare the human nervous system with that of an animal, but rather observe the fact that human nerves have become similar—during the course of their evolution—to animal nerves, just as the razor has become similar to the table-knife. This again demonstrates that when man follows the ordinary materialistic line of investigation, he can arrive at no true conclusion. Yet that is just the path which is being followed today.
It is this kind of investigation that prevents us from arriving at a conception of man as a product of the spiritual world. Our religious creeds, as they have gradually developed, have pandered too much to human egoism. It may almost be said that their one and only aim is to convince their followers of a continuation of life after death, because the egoism of humanity demands it. Yet it is equally important to prove to men the continuation in this life of a pre-natal life, so that they may comprehend—‘Here upon this earth I have to be a continuation of what I was between death and my present birth. I have to continue a spiritual life here on this plane.’ This indeed is not likely to please egoism so much; but it is something that must of necessity again imbue our civilisation, so that humanity can be liberated from its anti-social instincts. Try to imagine what it will mean when we can look upon a human countenance and say: ‘That is not of this world. The spiritual world has been at work upon it between the last death and this birth.’ For a time will come when we shall see within the material the imprint of the spiritual work between death and re-birth. It will indeed be a very different kind of culture which will guide humanity then; and it will bring in its train very different convictions and tendencies of thought, which will not permit the contemplation of the Cosmos as a vast machine set in motion by the mutual attraction between the stars—apart from the fact that this abstraction has already reached its zenith. Abstraction is deeply rooted in our ordinary conception of the planetary system, and it produces today some very strange results. For example, a great deal of popular literature is permeated with glorification of an idea which originates from Einstein. This idea is said to have shaken the theory of gravitation. Imagine that, far away from all celestial bodies—so that an interference by a field of gravity may be obviated—there is a box. Inside it is a man who holds a stone in one hand, and some down in the other. He lets both out of the box and see—they begin to fall—and fall until they reach the ground. Yes, says Einstein, men will no doubt say that the stone and the down both fall to the ground. But it need not be so; for up above a rope may be fastened and by some means or other the box is drawn up. The stone and the down—owing to the absence of any celestial body—do not fall, but remain where they are. When the bottom of the box reaches them, it takes them up with it.
This kind of discussion concerning an extreme abstraction, can be found today in the modern theory of relativity which Albert Einstein has propounded. Just think how far humanity has deviated from actuality! We can talk of relativity—well and good, but just imagine what would happen were this picture taken in earnest! A box, some inconceivable distance away from any celestial body that might attract (by gravitation) the stone and the down; and inside this box a man (air is only found of course in the neighbourhood of heavenly bodies, but the man is quite happy and content; as for his stone and his down, they of course need no air!), and now the box is suspended from outside and is then lifted up!
All this is a further development of the theory of Newton who postulated that ‘push’ or impetus which is imparted to a globe in the direction of a tangent, so that it is able with centrifugal force to escape the centripetal force. Such things as these actually form the contents of scientific discussions today, and are considered great achievements, whereas they are nothing more than a testimony to the fact that we have arrived at the most extreme abstraction, and that materialism has produced a state of complete ignorance in humanity as to what matter really is, and caused man to live in a series of mental pictures far removed from all reality.
But, my dear friends, these things are not in the least observed today, and we find our newspapers proclaiming that a new discovery has been made: the theory of gravitation has been replaced by the theory of inertia. The stone and down are not attracted; they remain in their original place—perhaps only because we can manage to imagine such a thing—while the box is raised! One can in truth say that so much nonsense masquerades as genius today that it becomes difficult to distinguish the one from the other. Can we wonder that in these times when in many other departments of thought too as well as that just described, men's ideas have grown quite crooked—can we wonder that we have at last been brought to the conditions of the last five or six years! These are things of which we need again and again to be reminded.
I have had to recall them to you today, and tomorrow I will add something further concerning the structure of the Universe.
Achter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Ich möchte zunächst einige Bemerkungen, die im Laufe der letzten Betrachtungen vorgekommen sind, in einer gewissen Form heute wieder vorbringen. Sie wissen, daß die Zugehörigkeit des Menschen zum ganzen Weltenall älteren Erkenntnisrichtungen viel näher gelegen hat als unserer Gegenwart. Wenn wir zurückgehen würden noch in die ägyptisch-chaldäische Kulturperiode, so würden wir finden, daß in jener Kulturperiode, also selbst auch nur im zweiten Jahrtausend vor unserer Zeitrechnung, der Mensch sich nicht gefühlt hat wie ein abgesondertes Wesen, das hier auf dem Erdball herumläuft, sondern wie ein Wesen, das zu der ganzen sichtbaren Welt gehört. Der Mensch wußte, daß er in einer gewissen Weise allerdings abhängig ist von der Erde. Das ist ja leicht wahrzunehmen. Das ist etwas, was selbst das Zeitalter des Materialismus nicht ableugnet, denn das Zeitalter des Materialismus gibt ja auch zu, daß der Mensch in bezug auf seinen physischen Stoffwechsel abhängig ist von den Produkten der Erde, die er in sich aufnimmt. Der Mensch der Vorzeit wußte sich aber - allerdings mit einem atavistischen Erkennen - in bezug auf sein Seelisches abhängig auf der einen Seite von den Elementen Feuer, Wasser, Luft, und auf der andern Seite von den Planetenbewegungen. Das bezog er ebenso auf sein Seelisches, wie er die Produkte der Erde auf seinen physischen Stoffwechsel bezog. Und er bezog dasjenige, was im Sternenhimmel ist außer dem unmittelbaren Planetensystem, auf seinen Geist.
[ 2 ] So also wußte sich der Mensch in Zeitaltern, in denen von Materialismus nicht die Rede sein konnte, im Schoße des ganzen Weltenalls. Sie können nun fragen: Ja, wie kommt es denn, daß dazumal der Mensch in bezug auf die Bewegungen der Himmelskörper in einem so gewaltigen Irrtum war, während er heute im materialistischen Zeitalter es so herrlich weit gebracht hat, gerade mit Bezug auf diese äußeren Vorgänge des Weltenalls das Richtige zu wissen? Nun, wir haben schon einige Zeit von diesen Dingen gesprochen und darauf hingewiesen, daß ja der Mensch heute durchaus an die Bewegungen, die ihm von der sogenannten Wissenschaft für die Sternenwelt vorgeschrieben werden, auch nur aus gewissen Vorurteilen heraus glaubt. Davon wollen wir dann morgen noch ein Weiteres sprechen. Jetzt aber wollen wir vor allen Dingen einmal darauf sehen, wie ja den Menschen der Gegenwart ganz und gar verlorengegangen ist ein Bewußtsein davon, daß dasjenige, was zum ganzen Menschen gehört, ja nicht gefunden werden kann in der irdischen Welt, so wenig als in der sichtbaren Sternenwelt. Es ist doch nicht möglich, eine richtige Anschauung zu gewinnen auch über die sichtbare Sternenwelt, wenn man nicht zu dem äußerlich-physischen Leben das Überphysische in der Betrachtung hinzufügt, das ja der Mensch durchzumachen hat zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Darauf haben wir ja bereits auch gestern wiederum hingewiesen, wie die Gesamtmetamorphose des Menschen in diesem Wechsel zwischen irdischem Leben und überirdischem Leben drinnensteht; wie diejenigen Organe, die wit heute als die des niederen Menschen betrachten, die Organe, von denen wir gestern sagten, daß sie sich nach innen öffnen, wie diese sich umbilden in bezug auf ihre Kräfte — selbstverständlich nicht in bezug auf ihre Substanz - in der Zeit zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, und zu dem sogenannten edleren Organ, zu dem Kopforgan werden. Unser physischer Kopf, er ist ja in der Tat nichts weiter in bezug auf seine Kraftstruktur, als die Umbildung des sogenannten niederen Menschen aus dem vorigen Erdenleben.
[ 3 ] Wenn wir dies uns wirklich vor Augen führen, so können wir ja zunächst im Geiste darauf hinschauen, wie zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt der Mensch einen gewissen Inhalt seines Erlebens hat, wie er einen Inhalt hier hat zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode. Aber diese Inhalte seines Erlebens sind wesentlich andere. Wenn wir uns schematisch klar machen wollen, worinnen der Unterschied besteht, so können wir sagen: Wenn hier (Tafel 15, Mitte oben) der Mensch ist zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode, so hat der Mensch den Umkreis zu seinen Erlebnissen, den räumlichen Umkreis und dasjenige, was in der Zeit verläuft; das hat er zu seinen Erlebnissen. Sie wissen ja, daß zum allergeringsten Teile der Mensch hier auf dieser Erde sein eigenes inneres Leben zum wirklichen Erlebnis hat. Die inneren Vorgänge des Organismus werden ja nicht erlebt. Sie wissen von dem, was um Sie ist. Von dem, was innerhalb der Haut ist, ist dem Menschen unmittelbar ja nichts bekannt, denn die Bekanntschaft, welche uns Anatomie und Physiologie liefern, die kann ja nicht als wirkliche Bekanntschaft gerechnet werden, denn sie ist durchaus so, daß wir ja in das wirkliche Innere durch die entsprechenden Untersuchungen doch nicht hineinschauen. Nur eine Illusion kann glauben, daß man in das Innere wirklich hineinschaut. Und nur Geisteswissenschaft kann nach und nach dieses Innere wirklich enthüllen.
[ 4 ] Aber wie ist es in der Zeit zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt? Da müssen wir uns sagen, wir schauen in einer gewissen Weise von der Peripherie nach dem Zentrum (Tafel 15, rechts oben). Da wissen wir so wenig von der Peripherie, wie wir in dem Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod von dem Zentrum, von unserem Innern wissen. Dafür aber schauen wir während dieser Zeit die Geheimnisse, die Mysterien des Menschen selber. Dasjenige, was verborgen ist in unserem Innern innerhalb unserer Haut, das schauen wir als unsere Erfahrung zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt.
[ 5 ] Sie werden vielleicht sagen, dann sei diese Welt doch eine furchtbar kleine, die wir da schauen zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Aber auf die räumliche Größe kommt es eben nicht an. Es kommt auf die Reiche oder Armut des Inhaltes an, nicht auf die räumliche Größe. Gerade das muß uns immer wieder und wieder zum Bewußtsein kommen, daß es auf die Reiche oder Armut des Inhaltes ankommt. Wenn Sie alles zusammennehmen, was Sie im mineralischen Reiche, im pflanzlichen, im tierischen Reiche, im Reiche der Wälder und Berge, im Reich der Gestirne hier von der Erde aus wahrnehmen, so ist das noch nicht zu vergleichen an Reichtum mit dem, was der Mensch selbst in seinem Innern an Mysterien enthält.
[ 6 ] Der wirkliche Vorgang ist etwa der, daß wir die Strukturkräfte des Hauptes verlieren, wenn wir durch den Tod gehen. Die haben ihre Dienste getan. Dagegen werden diejenigen Strukturkräfte aufgenommen von der geistigen Welt, welche eben Strukturkräfte sind des übrigen Organismus. Und sie werden aus den inneren Erlebnissen, die jetzt die peripherischen Erlebnisse sind, so umgewandelt, daß, nachdem die Zeit dafür reif geworden ist, aus der geistigen Welt herein das Haupt des Menschen im Leibe der Mutter determiniert wird.
[ 7 ] Sie müssen sich durchaus klar darüber sein, daß das, was als der erste Anfang des Prozesses der Menschwerdung im Leibe der Mutter vor sich geht, ein Ergebnis ist des ganzen Kosmos. In der Befruchtung wird nur Veranlassung dazu gegeben, daß eine gewisse Wirkung von dem Kosmos in einen Menschenleib herein geschieht. Und dasjenige, was zuerst bei der Menschenbildung entsteht, ist durchaus ein Abbild des ganzen Kosmos. Wer studieren will den Embryo von seinen ersten Stadien an, der muß studieren diesen Embryo als ein Abbild des ganzen Kosmos. Das sind die Dinge, die heute fast ganz übersehen werden.
[ 8 ] Worauf schaut man denn eigentlich heute, wenn man von Menschenentstehung im physischen Sinne spricht? Man schaut auf die Vererbungslinie. Man sieht, wie in dem Elternorganismus der Kindesorganismus sich bildet und weiß nicht, daß in dem Elternorganismus tätig sind die kosmischen Kräfte, die außer uns sind in unserer Umgebung, weit hinaus in das Weltenall reichend, daß der ganze Makrokosmos seine Kräfte spendet in das Menschenwesen, damit ein neues Menschenwesen entstehen könne.
[ 9 ] Das ist ja überhaupt der Fehler unserer Weltenbetrachtung von heute, daß wir nirgends hinschauen auf den Makrokosmos, daß wir uns niemals bewußt werden, worin die Kräfte liegen, die wir beobachten. Sehen Sie, ich muß doch noch einmal auf dieses zurückkommen: Der heutige Physiker oder Chemiker sagt, es gibt Moleküle; die Moleküle bestehen aus Atomen (Tafel 16, links oben). Die Atome haben Kräfte, durch die sie aufeinander wirken. Das ist eine Vorstellung, die eigentlich ganz und gar nicht der Wirklichkeit entspricht. In Wahrheit ist es beim kleinsten Molekül so, daß auf dieses Molekül der ganze Sternenhimmel wirkt. Nehmen wir an, hier wäre ein Planet, dort wäre ein Planet und so weiter (Kreislein der Zeichnung rechts), dann Fixsterne. Die Fixsterne senden Kräfte herein. Diese Kräfte, die hereingesendet werden, schneiden sich in der mannigfaltigsten Weise, bilden Schnittpunkte. Die Planeten senden auch ihre Kräfte herein, die sich schneiden, so daß in diesem Molekül überall nichts anderes ist als die Zusammenfassung der Kräfte des Makrokosmos. Es ist die Sehnsucht der heutigen Wissenschaft, endlich die Mikroskopie so weit zu treiben, daß man die Atome in einem Molekül betrachten kann. Diese Betrachtungsweise muß aufhören. Statt mikroskopisch die Struktur des Moleküls untersuchen zu wollen, schaue man sie an draußen im Sternenhimmel, in der Konstellation des Sternenhimmels; das Kupfer in der einen, das Zinn in der andern Konstellation. Man schaue an die Struktur der Moleküle, die sich nur abspiegelt im Molekül, draußen im Makrokosmos. Statt bei allem ins Kleinste hineinzugucken, sollte man den Blick hinauswenden ins Größte, denn da ist zu suchen dasjenige, was im Kleinsten lebt.
[ 10 ] Und so wirkt die materialistische Denkweise auch auf anderen Gebieten. Sehen Sie, Sie werden heute von manchem, der nun auch glaubt, etwas sagen zu können über den Fortschritt der Erkenntnis, sagen hören: Oh, der Materialismus des 19. Jahrhunderts ist ja überwunden. - Nein, er ist solange nicht überwunden, solange man atomistisch denkt, solange man nicht die Gestaltung, die Konfiguration des Kleinsten im Größten sucht. So ist der Materialismus, in der Menschheit betrachtet, auch nicht überwunden, wenn man nicht einzugehen weiß auf die Beziehung des Menschen zum Größten, zum ganzen Weltenall.
[ 11 ] Nun treffen wir da aber ja sogleich eine neue, ich möchte sagen, ungeheuerliche Spur des Materialismus, auf die ich schon öfter aufmerksam gemacht habe. Und wir treffen diese Spur gerade oftmals in gewissen Richtungen der sogenannten Theosophie. Da ist die physische Materie, dann der Äther, nur dünner, aber im übrigen so ähnlich wie die physische Materie, nur dünner; das Astralische wieder dünner; dann kommen noch allerlei andere schöne Dinge, immer dünner und dünner und dünner. Das ist - ob man das nun astralische Welt, Kama Manas oder wie immer nennt -, das ist deshalb nicht spirituell, das bleibt materialistisch. Will man wirklich zum Verständnis der Welt kommen, dann muß man bereits das schwer Materielle beim Äther aufhören lassen. Dann muß man sich klar sein, daß der Äther nicht mehr solche Materie ist wie diejenige, von der wir als den Raum erfüllend sprechen. Wenn wit von der Materie, die den Raum füllt, sprechen, so denken wir uns, wenn ich schematisch spreche, eben den Raum ausgefüllt mit Materie. Wenn wir aber von Äther sprechen, so dürfen wir uns nicht den Raum ausgefüllt denken von Materie, sondern wir müssen uns den Raum entleert denken von Materie. Wenn gewöhnliche Materie an etwas anstößt, so drückt es dieses, schiebt es weiter. Wenn Äther sich diesem nähert, so saugt er das an sich und zieht es in sich herein (Tafel 15, links oben). Es ist die gerade entgegengesetzte Wirkung zu der gewöhnlichen Materie. Der Äther übt Saugwirkungen. Wenn der Äther nicht Saugwirkungen übte, dann schauten Sie hinten so aus wie vorne, denn schon in dem, was die Verschiedenheit des Menschen macht hinten und vorne, ist ein Ergebnis auf der einen Seite der drückenden Wirkung der Schwere-Materie und der saugenden Wirkung der Äther-Materie oder des Äthers. Ihre Nase wird herausgetrieben aus Ihrem Organismus durch die Schwere-Materie, Ihre Augenhöhle wird hineingesaugt durch die saugende Kraft des Äthers. Und so, indem Sie hinten anders sind wie vorne, vorne anders sind wie hinten, wirkt in Ihnen drückende und saugende Substantialität.
[ 12 ] Sehen Sie, solche Dinge beachtet man eigentlich gar nicht, an sie denkt man heute im materialistischen Zeitalter gar nicht. Wenn man weiter von dem Astralen spricht, dann kann man weder denken an die dreifach ausgedehnte, dreidimensionale physische Materie, noch an den saugenden Äther, sondern da muß man an ein Drittes denken, das die Vermittelung zwischen beiden bildet. Und denkt man nun gar an dasjenige, als das man sich das Ich-Wesen vorzustellen hat, da hat man an ein Viertes zu denken, das wiederum vermittelt auf der einen Seite die saug-drückende Wirkung von Äther und physischer Materie und auf der andern Seite die astrale Substantialität. Das sind die Dinge, welche berücksichtigt werden müssen (Tafel 15, Mitte unten).
[ 13 ] Sie können nicht sagen: Ja, wenn der Äther bloß eine saugende Wirkung hat, woher kommt es denn, daß der Äther wahrnehmbar ist? Es ist eben so, daß der Äther sich so verhält zu der Schwere-Materie, wie sich - im Bilde ist das jetzt gesprochen, gleichsam auf einem anderen Niveau - verhält, was ich hier in einer Selterswasserflasche habe (Tafel 16, links). Da habe ich da drinnen Wasser und darinnen Perlen. Nicht wahr, das Wasser sehe ich nicht, aber die Perlen sehe ich, trotzdem die Perlen dünner sind. Und so ist es, daß auch in gewissen Fällen der Äther, der überhaupt eine Aussparung der physischen Materie ist, der der physischen Materie gegenüber das Entgegengesetzte ist, daß der auch wahrgenommen werden kann.
[ 14 ] Nun werden Sie sehen aus dem eben Dargestellten, daß ja allerdings, wenn wir sprechen von dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, wir uns tatsächlich zu denken haben, daß dieses Leben außerhalb des Raumes, des gewöhnlichen Raumes, den wir hier wahrnehmen, gelebt wird, und unsere Anstrengung müßte dahin gehen, eine Vorstellung von diesem Außerhalb-des-Raumes zu gewinnen. Sie werden sie gewinnen, wenn Sie sich zuerst versuchen vorzustellen den erfüllten Raum. Das können Sie sich vorstellen. Sie brauchen sich nur einen Tisch vorzustellen; der erfüllt den Raum. Dann gehen Sie über von dem erfüllten Raum zum leeren Raum. Nun werden Sie sagen: Leerer Raum - das kann nicht mehr überboten werden. - Ich habe Ihnen gesagt, das ist geradeso gescheit, als wenn jemand sagt: Ich habe mein Portemonnaie voll Geld, da nehme ich immerfort heraus, bis ich nichts mehr habe; das Nichts kann nicht mehr überboten werden. Es kann überboten werden. Ich mache Schulden, dann habe ich weniger als nichts in meinem Beutel. Und so kann auch der leere Raum überboten werden. Wenn er von Äther erfüllt ist, ist er weniger als leer, ist et von negativer Entität.
[ 15 ] Und dasjenige, was die Vermittelung bildet, was auch in Ihnen als astralischer Leib die Vermittelung bildet zwischen dem Saugenden und dem Drückenden, das ist eben das Astralische. Sehen Sie, es gäbe keine Beziehung zwischen Ihrem Vorne und Hinten, die nicht gleich sind, sondern verschieden sind, weil in Ihnen Saug- und Druckwirkungen sind, wenn in Ihnen nicht Astralität tätig wäre, die die Vermittelung bildet. Sie werden sagen: Ich bemerke diese Vermittelung nicht. - Ja, bitte, verfolgen Sie den Verdauungsprozeß, dann werden Sie schon sehen, daß diese Vermittelung da ist, daß sich diese Vermittelung sehr genau ausdrückt. Da ist das Astralische drinnen tätig. Und die Tätigkeit des Astralischen beruht gerade auf dem Gegensatze der vorderen Wesenheit und der rückwärtigen Wesenheit des Menschen, ebenso, wie nun die Vermittelung durch das Astralische hindurch zwischen dem oberen und dem unteren Menschen auf der Ich-Wesenheit beruht. So handelt es sich darum, diesen Menschen, wie er vor uns steht, konkret aufzufassen, wirklich konkret aufzufassen, und uns dazu klar zu sein darüber, daß, indem der Mensch hier zwischen Geburt und Tod lebt, er sein Astralisches und sein Ich im Saugenden und Drückenden abdrückt, und daß er zurückträgt seine Wesenheit in dasjenige, was hier auf dieser Erde nur die Vermittelung bildet zwischen Vorne und Hinten und Oben und Unten.
[ 16 ] Ja, diese Vermittelung zwischen Vorne und Hinten, Oben und Unten, was ist denn das? Sehen Sie, das ist dasjenige, was wir in uns erleben, indem wir unser Gleichgewicht erleben. Wir schnappen mit dem Kopf nicht nach vorne und nach rückwärts über; wir können uns auch aufrichten. Wir ordnen uns in die Gleichgewichtslage ein. Das sehen wir nicht, das erleben wir. In das leben wir uns zunächst ein, was wir im Leben hier nicht berücksichtigen; in das leben wir uns zunächst ein, wenn wir durch die Pforte des Todes gehen. Wenn wit nur Augen hätten, es wäre dann finster um uns, wenn wir nur Ohren hätten, es wäre dann stumm um uns. Aber wir haben auch einen Gleichgewichtssinn und einen Bewegungssinn. Da wird es erlebbar in uns. Wir machen mit dasjenige, was in der Welt Gleichgewicht und Bewegung bedeuten. Wir finden uns hinein in die Bewegungen der Außenwelt.
[ 17 ] Sehen Sie, hier in dem Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod, da erleben wir eigentlich nur die Wirkung der Erdbewegung um ihre Achse im täglichen Stoffwechsel. Wir müssen täglich frühstücken, täglich mittagsmahlen, und das, was da geschieht, das geschieht in 24 Stunden und ist gleichlaufend der Umdrehung der Erde um ihre Achse. Diese zwei Dinge gehören zusammen. Das eine ist ein Beweis für das andere. So gehören sie zusammen. Wenn wir sterben, dann wird diese Bewegung der Erde etwas ganz Reales, wie hier die sichtbaren Dinge. Dann leben wir mit diese Bewegung der Erde. Dann beginnen wir zunächst damit, daß wir diese Bewegung der Erde miterleben.
[ 18 ] Und so erleben wir noch andere Bewegungen des Sternenhimmels mit. Wir erleben sie mit, und es ist auch eigentlich in dieser Zeichnung (Tafel 15, rechts oben) das Miterleben schon drinnen, denn Sie dehnen sich ja in den Weltenraum hinaus nicht wie eine Qualle aus, sondern Sie machen das Leben dieses Weltenraumes mit, und als ein das Leben des Weltenraumes miterlebendes Wesen erleben Sie das Innere des Menschen. Hier zwischen Geburt und Tod sagen Sie: Mein Herz ist in meiner Brust, in dem Herzen laufen zusammen die Säftebewegungen der Blutzirkulation; in einem gewissen Reifestadium zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt sagen Sie: In meinem Innern ist Sonne - und Sie meinen die wirkliche Sonne, von der sich die Physiker einbilden, sie wäre ein Gasball, die aber etwas ganz anderes ist. Sie erleben die wirkliche Sonne. Sie erleben die Sonne zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt so, wie Sie hier Ihr Herz erleben. Und wie die Sonne hier für Ihr Auge sichtbar ist, so ist zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt das Herz in seinem Werden auf dem Wege zur Zirbeldrüse in einer wunderbaren metamorphosischen Umbildung die Ursache grandioser Erlebnisse zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Ihr ganzes Blutsystem erleben Sie in Umwandelung, natürlich immer nicht die Substanz, sondern die bewegenden Kräfte. Hier haben Sie Ihr Blutsystem in sich. Indem Sie zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt weiterleben, werden diese Kräfte, die im Blutsystem liegen, immer andere. Und wenn Sie wiederum hier ankommen in einem neuen Erdenleben, dann sind das die Kräfte des neuen Nervensystems geworden. Sehen Sie sich an auf den heutigen Tafeln der Anatomie oder der Physiologie das Bild der Nervenstränge und der Blutzirkulation; sehen Sie sich an die Blutzirkulation: eine Inkarnation. Daraus wird in der nächsten Inkarnation das Nervenleben. Und wenn ich sage: Kopfsystem, Brustsystem, Gliedmaßensystem, so dürfen Sie auch das nicht nur so schematisierend nebeneinanderstellen, denn die Dinge gehen ineinander. Sehen Sie sich den Wunderbau des menschlichen Auges an: Blutgefäße, Aderhaut, Netzhaut. Die letzten beiden sind Metamorphosen voneinander. Was heute Netzhaut ist, war in der vorhergehenden Inkarnation Aderhaut, und was heute Aderhaut Ihres Auges ist, wird in der nächsten Inkarnation Netzhaut sein - allerdings nicht gerade so unmittelbar. Aber es ist trotzdem das gültig, was ich gesagt habe. Sie sehen, ein wirkliches Verständnis des Menschen, der vor uns steht, kann man nicht gewinnen, wenn man den Menschen nur so betrachtet, wie er sich zwischen der Geburt und dem Tod oder höchstens durch die Kräfte der physischen Vererbung entwickelt. Denn durch all das verstehen wir höchstens die Dinge bis, sagen wir, zu der Säftebewegung. Aber diese Säftebewegung ist ja auch das Letzte, was wir da verstehen. Die Nervenanlagen eines gegenwärtigen Lebens sind das Ergebnis eines vorigen Lebens und sind aus dem gegenwärtigen Leben überhaupt nicht zu verstehen.
[ 19 ] Ich bitte Sie nun, nicht etwa einzuwenden: Ja, die Tiere haben ja auch Nerven, und die haben keine früheren Leben. - So die Welt zu beurteilen, heißt eben, sie sehr kurzsichtig zu beurteilen. Wenn das Nervensystem beim Menschen in seinen Kräften die Umwandelung des Blutsystems im vorigen Leben ist, so muß bei den Tieren nicht auch dasselbe für das Nervensystem gelten. Sonst, wenn Sie eine solche Logik anwenden würden - sie wird allerdings heute vielfach angewendet -, dann bedeutet das ganz genau dasselbe, wie wenn Sie zu einem Raseur hineingehen, bei ihm eine Anzahl Rasiermesser finden und sagen: Bitte, das wollen wit uns einmal als Besteck kaufen für unseren Mittagstisch, denn Messer gehören zum Essen! - Rasiermesser nur just nicht, sondern die gehören zu etwas anderem! Es trägt nicht ein Dinge in dieser Weise seine unmittelbare Bestimmung in sich, ebensowenig ein Organ. Das Organ beim Menschen ist etwas ganz anderes als das Organ beim Tiere. Es kommt darauf an, wozu man das Organ verwendet. Man sollte nicht vergleichen Nervensystem mit Nervensystem, nämlich Menschennerven mit Tiernerven, sondern man sollte darauf sehen, daß allerdings der Menschennerv dem Tiernerv gegenüber etwas Ähnliches geworden ist wie das Rasiermesser gegenüber dem Tischmesser, so daß man auf dem gewöhlichen Wege der materialistischen Untersuchung zu nichts kommen kann. Das ist aber der Weg, der heute hauptsächlich eingeschlagen wird.
[ 20 ] Und dieser Weg, der verhindert, daß nun wirklich ins Auge gefaßt wird, was den Menschen als Produkt der geistigen Welt erklärlich macht. Denn sehen Sie, unsere religiösen Bekenntnisse, wie sie sich nach und nach entwickelt haben, haben auch - das habe ich schon öfter gesagt - sehr dem Egoismus gefrönt, gedient. Sie gehen ja fast allein darauf hinaus, dem Menschen sein Fortleben nach dem Tode bloß zu beweisen, weil er das in seinem Egoismus verlangt. Aber ebenso wichtig ist es, dem Menschen die Fortsetzung zu beweisen des vorgeburtlichen Lebens, daß der Mensch begreift: hier auf dieser Erde habe ich ein Fortsetzer dessen zu sein, was ich zwischen dem Tod und meiner jetzigen Geburt war. Ich habe ein geistiges Leben hier fortzusetzen. Das frönt allerdings weniger dem Egoismus, aber es ist zu gleicher Zeit etwas, was wiederum in die Kultur einfließen muß, damit diese unsere Kultur die Menschen von den antisozialen Instinkten befreit. Denken Sie nur einmal, was es heißen wird, wenn man ein menschliches Antlitz betrachten und sagen wird: Das ist nicht von dieser Welt, daran hat gearbeitet die geistige Welt zwischen dem letzten Tode und dieser Geburt; was es heißen wird, wenn man in dem Materiellen schon sehen wird das Bild der geistigen Arbeit zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Es wird in der Tat eine andere Art der Bildung sein, die dann unter den Menschen ist, und diese andere Art der Bildung wird eine andere Gesinnung zuwegebringen. Und diese Gesinnung wird es nicht zulassen, daß wir den Sternenhimmel erblicken und da bloß eine große Maschinerie sehen von sich gegenseitig Newtonisch anziehenden Sternen. Dies auch, wenn man davon absieht, daß heute die Abstraktion auf den höchsten Gipfel gekommen ist.
[ 21 ] Sehen Sie, die Abstraktion ist schon sehr stark in unserem gewöhnlichen Sonnen- und Planetensystem enthalten. Aber heute treibt die Abstraktion ganz kuriose Blüten. So zum Beispiel werden Sie heute durch einen großen Teil der populären Literatur gehen sehen die Glorifizierung einer gewissen Idee, die zum Beispiel Einstein gehabt hat. Da wird gesagt, durch diese Idee sei die Gravitation erschüttert. Denn man stelle sich einmal vor (Tafel 15, rechts unten), weit weg von allen Weltenkörpern, so daß kein Schwerefeld wirkt, sei ein Kasten. In diesem Kasten befinde sich ein Mensch; der halte in seinen zwei Händen einen Stein und eine Flaumfeder. Er ist irgendwo, wo es keine Weltenkörper gibt, in einem Kasten und hält einen Stein und eine Flaumfeder in dem Kasten drinnen. Jetzt läßt er sie los, und siehe da, sie fangen an zu fallen. Sie fallen auf den Boden herunter. Ja, sagt Einstein, da wird der Mensch vielleicht sagen: Der Stein und die Flaumfeder fallen auf den Boden herunter. Aber so braucht es nicht zu sein, sondern da oben kann ein Seil angebracht sein, das hängt da (Zeichnung) — wo, das weiß ich nicht! und statt dessen, daß der Stein und die Flaumfeder herunterfallen, wird der ganze Kasten da heraufgezogen. Der Stein und die Flaumfeder - weil ja kein Weltenkörper in der Nähe ist - fallen nicht, sondern sie bleiben da; aber der Kasten wird in die Höhe gehoben, und der Stein und die Flaumfeder bleiben an derselben Stelle. Wie der Kasten da bei ihnen angekommen ist mit seinem Boden, nimmt er sie mit.
[ 22 ] Diese Erörterung einer äußersten Abstraktion können Sie heute als die moderne Relativitätstheorie Albert Einsteins geschildert finden. Denken Sie, wie weit die Menschheit abgekommen ist vom Wirklichkeitsdenken! Man redet von Relativität. Schön, das kann man. Aber denken Sie sich einmal, was werden sollte, wenn die ganze Vorstellung nur ernst genommen würde: ein Kasten da, weit weg von allen Weltenkörpern, kein Weltenkörper in der Nähe, der den Stein und die Flaumfeder anziehen könnte, ein Mensch da drinnen! Luft ist nur in der Nähe von Weltenkörpern, aber der ist da ganz froh darinnen mit seinem Stein und seiner Flaumfeder; die brauchen nicht zu atmen natürlich. Und der Kasten ist außerdem aufgehängt, wird da hinaufgezogen.
[ 23 ] Das ist noch eine Steigerung jenes Newtonschen Stoßes, der dem Weltenkörper gegeben wird in der Tangente, damit er mit Zentrifugalkraft zu der Zentripetalkraft noch fortfliegen könne. Aber solche Dinge bilden heute tatsächlich den Gegenstand wissenschaftlicher Erörterung, und man hält sie für große Taten, während sie nichts anderes sind als Zeugnis dafür, wie man bei der äußersten Abstraktion angekommen ist und wie der Materialismus es gerade dahin gebracht hat, daß der Mensch nichts mehr weiß von der Materie, daß der Mensch in Gedankengebilden leben kann, die fernliegen aller Wirklichkeit.
[ 24 ] Nur werden diese Dinge heute nicht beachtet, sondern es geht durch alle Zeitungen, daß eine große Entdeckung gemacht worden ist: Die Gravitationstheorie ist abgelöst durch die bloße Trägheitstheorie. Der Stein und die Flaumfeder werden nicht angezogen, sondern sie beharren - vielleicht nur, weil man sich auch vorstellen kann, daß sie da beharren, während der Kasten da hinaufgezogen wird. Man kann wirklich sagen, es lebt heute soviel Unsinn als Genialität, daß es grotesk ist, darauf zu kommen, wieviel Unsinn als Genialität lebt. Wie kann man sich denn wundern darüber, daß in dieser Zeit auch auf andern Gebieten die Gedanken kreuz und quer und grad und krumm gehen und endlich das bewirkt haben, was die Menschen erlebten in den letzten fünf bis sechs Jahren.
[ 25 ] Das ist das, woran immer wieder erinnert werden muß. Ich mußte heute daran erinnern und werde morgen auf diesen Voraussetzungen einiges über das Weltengebäude auch für unsere zur Generalversammlung gekommenen Freunde anfügen.
Eighth lecture
[ 1 ] I would first like to revisit some remarks that have come up in the course of our recent reflections. You know that older schools of thought were much closer to recognizing that human beings belong to the entire universe than we are today. If we were to go back to the Egyptian-Chaldean cultural period, we would find that in that cultural period, even in the second millennium before our era, human beings did not feel like separate beings running around here on the globe, but rather like beings belonging to the entire visible world. Man knew that he was, in a certain sense, dependent on the earth. That is easy to perceive. It is something that even the age of materialism does not deny, for the age of materialism also admits that man is dependent, in terms of his physical metabolism, on the products of the earth that he takes into himself. However, the people of ancient times knew—albeit with an atavistic recognition—that in relation to their soul life they were dependent on the one hand on the elements of fire, water, and air, and on the other hand on the movements of the planets. They related this to their soul life in the same way that they related the products of the earth to their physical metabolism. And they related what was in the starry sky beyond the immediate planetary system to their spirit.
[ 2 ] Thus, in ages when materialism was unheard of, human beings knew themselves to be in the bosom of the entire universe. You may now ask: How is it that human beings were so greatly mistaken in their understanding of the movements of the heavenly bodies in those days, while today, in the materialistic age, they have progressed so wonderfully in knowing the truth about these external processes of the universe? Well, we have already spoken about these things for some time and pointed out that human beings today believe in the movements prescribed for the starry world by so-called science only out of certain prejudices. We will talk more about this tomorrow. But now let us first of all consider how modern man has completely lost the awareness that what belongs to the whole human being cannot be found in the earthly world, any more than in the visible starry world. It is not possible to gain a correct view of even the visible starry world if one does not add to one's observation of external physical life the superphysical life that human beings must go through between death and a new birth. We already pointed this out yesterday, how the entire metamorphosis of the human being is contained in this transition between earthly life and super-earthly life; how those organs which we today regard as those of the lower human being, the organs of which we said yesterday that they open inward, how they transform in relation to their powers — not, of course, in relation to their substance — in the time between death and a new birth, and become the so-called higher organ, the head organ. Our physical head is, in fact, nothing more in relation to its power structure than the transformation of the so-called lower human being from the previous earthly life.
[ 3 ] If we really keep this in mind, we can first look at it in our minds and see how, between death and a new birth, the human being has a certain content of experience, just as he has content here between birth and death. But the content of this experience is essentially different. If we want to clarify schematically what the difference is, we can say: When the human being is here (plate 15, top center) between birth and death, he has the sphere of his experiences, the spatial sphere and that which passes in time; this is what he has for his experiences. You know that the smallest part of human beings here on earth is their own inner life as a real experience. The inner processes of the organism are not experienced. You know about what is around you. Human beings have no immediate knowledge of what is inside the skin, for the knowledge provided by anatomy and physiology cannot be counted as real knowledge, since it is entirely such that we cannot see into the real interior through the corresponding investigations. Only an illusion can believe that one can really see into the interior. And only spiritual science can gradually reveal this inner reality.
[ 4 ] But what about the time between death and a new birth? We must say that we are looking in a certain way from the periphery toward the center (plate 15, upper right). We know as little about the periphery as we know about the center, about our inner being, in the life between birth and death. But during this time we see the secrets, the mysteries of the human being itself. What is hidden within us, within our skin, we see as our experience between death and a new birth.
[ 5 ] You may say that the world we see between death and a new birth is terribly small. But it is not the spatial size that matters. It is the richness or poverty of the content that matters, not the spatial size. We must always be aware that it is the richness or poverty of the content that matters. If you take everything you perceive in the mineral kingdom, in the plant kingdom, in the animal kingdom, in the kingdom of forests and mountains, in the kingdom of the stars here on Earth, it cannot be compared in richness to what man himself contains within himself in terms of mysteries.
[ 6 ] The real process is something like this: when we pass through death, we lose the structural forces of the head. They have done their work. In contrast, those structural forces are taken up by the spiritual world which are precisely the structural forces of the rest of the organism. And they are transformed from the inner experiences, which are now peripheral experiences, in such a way that, when the time is ripe, the human head is determined from the spiritual world in the mother's body.
[ 7 ] You must be quite clear that what takes place as the first beginning of the process of becoming human in the mother's body is the result of the entire cosmos. Fertilization merely provides the impetus for a certain effect from the cosmos to enter the human body. And what first arises in human formation is entirely a reflection of the entire cosmos. Anyone who wants to study the embryo from its earliest stages must study this embryo as a reflection of the entire cosmos. These are things that are almost completely overlooked today.
[ 8 ] What do we actually look at today when we speak of human origin in the physical sense? We look at the line of inheritance. We see how the child's organism forms in the parent's organism and do not know that cosmic forces are at work in the parent's organism, forces that are outside of us, in our environment, reaching far out into the universe, that the entire macrocosm gives its forces to the human being so that a new human being can come into being.
[ 9 ] That is precisely the mistake in our view of the world today, that we never look at the macrocosm, that we never become aware of the source of the forces we observe. You see, I must come back to this once more: today's physicists and chemists say that molecules exist; molecules consist of atoms (plate 16, top left). Atoms have forces through which they interact with each other. This is a concept that does not correspond to reality at all. In truth, even the smallest molecule is influenced by the entire starry sky. Let us assume that there is a planet here, a planet there, and so on (small circles in the drawing on the right), and then fixed stars. The fixed stars send forces into the universe. These forces that are sent in intersect in the most diverse ways, forming points of intersection. The planets also send in their forces, which intersect, so that everywhere in this molecule there is nothing but the sum of the forces of the macrocosm. It is the desire of modern science to finally advance microscopy to the point where we can observe the atoms in a molecule. This way of looking at things must stop. Instead of trying to examine the structure of the molecule microscopically, look at it outside in the starry sky, in the constellations of the starry sky; the copper in one constellation, the tin in another. Look at the structure of the molecules, which is only reflected in the molecule, outside in the macrocosm. Instead of looking into the smallest details of everything, we should turn our gaze to the greatest, for that is where we must seek what lives in the smallest.
[ 10 ] And so the materialistic way of thinking also affects other areas. You see, today you will hear many people who believe they can say something about the progress of knowledge say: Oh, the materialism of the 19th century has been overcome. No, it has not been overcome as long as one thinks atomistically, as long as one does not seek the design, the configuration of the smallest in the largest. Thus, when viewed in relation to humanity, materialism has not been overcome if one does not know how to enter into the relationship between the human being and the greatest, the entire universe.
[ 11 ] Now, however, we immediately encounter a new, I would say monstrous trace of materialism, to which I have often drawn attention. And we encounter this trace frequently in certain directions of so-called theosophy. There is physical matter, then the ether, which is only thinner but otherwise similar to physical matter, only thinner; then the astral, which is even thinner; then come all kinds of other beautiful things, thinner and thinner and thinner. That is—whether you call it the astral world, Kama Manas, or whatever—that is not spiritual, it remains materialistic. If you really want to understand the world, then you must stop with the heavy materiality of the ether. Then you must be clear that the ether is no longer matter as we speak of it as filling space. When we speak of matter filling space, we imagine, schematically speaking, space filled with matter. But when we speak of ether, we must not imagine space filled with matter, but rather empty of matter. When ordinary matter encounters something, it presses against it and pushes it further. When ether approaches it, it sucks it toward itself and pulls it in (plate 15, top left). This is the exact opposite effect of ordinary matter. Ether exerts suction. If the ether did not exert suction, then the back would look like the front, because the difference between the front and back of the human being is already a result of the pushing effect of heavy matter and the suction effect of ether matter or the ether. Your nose is pushed out of your organism by heavy matter, your eye sockets are sucked in by the suction force of the ether. And so, because you are different at the back than at the front, and different at the front than at the back, a pressing and sucking substantiality is at work within you.
[ 12 ] You see, people don't really pay attention to such things; they don't even think about them in today's materialistic age. When we speak further of the astral, we cannot think of the three-fold, three-dimensional physical matter, nor of the sucking ether, but we must think of a third element that mediates between the two. And if you now think of that which you have to imagine as the I-being, you have to think of a fourth element, which in turn mediates on the one hand the sucking-pressing effect of ether and physical matter and on the other hand the astral substantiality. These are the things that must be taken into account (Plate 15, bottom center).
[ 13 ] You cannot say: Yes, if the ether has only a sucking effect, where does it come from that the ether is perceptible? It is simply that ether behaves in relation to heavy matter as—to use a metaphor, as if on another level—what I have here in a bottle of seltzer water (plate 16, left). I have water in there and pearls in it. I cannot see the water, but I can see the pearls, even though they are thinner. And so it is that in certain cases, the ether, which is essentially a void of physical matter, the opposite of physical matter, can also be perceived.
[ 14 ] Now you will see from what has just been said that when we speak of life between death and a new birth, we must indeed think that this life is lived outside of space, outside of the ordinary space that we perceive here, and our effort must be directed toward gaining an idea of this outside of space. You will gain this idea if you first try to imagine filled space. You can imagine this. You only need to imagine a table; it fills the space. Then move from the filled space to empty space. Now you will say: Empty space—nothing can surpass that. - I have told you that this is just as clever as if someone says: I have my wallet full of money, I keep taking it out until I have nothing left; nothingness cannot be surpassed. It can be surpassed. I run up debts, then I have less than nothing in my purse. And so empty space can also be surpassed. When it is filled with ether, it is less than empty, it is a negative entity.
[ 15 ] And that which forms the mediation, which also forms the mediation in you as the astral body between the sucking and the pressing, is precisely the astral. You see, there would be no relationship between your front and back, which are not the same but different, because there are suction and pressure effects within you if astrality were not active within you to form the mediation. You will say: I do not notice this mediation. Yes, please follow the digestive process, and you will see that this mediation is there, that this mediation expresses itself very precisely. The astral is active within. And the activity of the astral is based precisely on the contrast between the front and rear entities of the human being, just as the mediation through the astral between the upper and lower human beings is based on the I-entity. So it is a matter of understanding this human being as he stands before us in concrete terms, really concretely, and to be clear about the fact that, in living here between birth and death, the human being imprints his astral and his ego in the sucking and pressing, and that he carries back his being into that which here on earth forms only the mediation between front and back and above and below.
[ 16 ] Yes, this mediation between front and back, top and bottom, what is that? You see, that is what we experience within ourselves when we experience our balance. We do not jerk our heads forward and backward; we can also straighten up. We adjust ourselves to a position of balance. We don't see this, we experience it. We first live into what we don't take into account in our lives here; we first live into this when we pass through the gate of death. If we only had eyes, it would be dark around us; if we only had ears, it would be silent around us. But we also have a sense of balance and a sense of movement. That is where it becomes tangible within us. We participate in what constitutes balance and movement in the world. We find ourselves in the movements of the outside world.
[ 17 ] You see, here in the life between birth and death, we actually only experience the effect of the earth's movement around its axis in our daily metabolism. We have to eat breakfast every day, lunch every day, and what happens there happens in 24 hours and is parallel to the rotation of the earth around its axis. These two things belong together. One is proof of the other. That is how they belong together. When we die, this movement of the earth becomes something very real, like the things we can see here. Then we live with this movement of the earth. Then we begin by experiencing this movement of the earth.
[ 18 ] And so we experience other movements of the starry sky. We experience them, and this experience is actually already contained in this drawing (plate 15, top right), because you do not expand into the world space like a jellyfish, but you participate in the life of this world space, and as a being who experiences the life of the world space, you experience the inner life of the human being. Here, between birth and death, you say: My heart is in my chest, the sap movements of the blood circulation converge in the heart; at a certain stage of maturity between death and new birth, you say: There is a sun within me—and you mean the real sun, which physicists imagine to be a ball of gas, but which is something completely different. You experience the real sun. You experience the sun between death and new birth in the same way that you experience your heart here. And just as the sun is visible to your eye here, so between death and new birth the heart, in its becoming on its way to the pineal gland, is the cause of magnificent experiences between death and new birth in a wonderful metamorphic transformation. You experience your entire blood system in transformation, naturally not the substance, but the moving forces. Here you have your blood system within you. As you continue to live between death and new birth, these forces that lie in the blood system become ever different. And when you arrive here again in a new earthly life, they have become the forces of the new nervous system. Look at the pictures of the nerve strands and blood circulation on today's anatomy or physiology charts; look at blood circulation: an incarnation. In the next incarnation, this becomes the nervous life. And when I say head system, chest system, limb system, you must not just juxtapose these in a schematic way, because these things are intertwined. Look at the miraculous structure of the human eye: blood vessels, choroid, retina. The last two are metamorphoses of each other. What is now the retina was the choroid in the previous incarnation, and what is now the choroid of your eye will be the retina in the next incarnation — though not immediately. But what I have said is still valid. You see, we cannot gain a real understanding of the human being standing before us if we only look at them as they develop between birth and death, or at most through the forces of physical heredity. For through all this we understand things at most up to, let us say, the movement of juices. But this movement of juices is also the last thing we understand. The nerve structures of a present life are the result of a previous life and cannot be understood at all from the present life.
[ 19 ] I beg you not to object: Yes, animals also have nerves, and they have no previous lives. To judge the world in this way is to judge it very short-sightedly. If the nervous system in humans is, in its powers, the transformation of the blood system in the previous life, then the same must not apply to the nervous system in animals. Otherwise, if you were to apply such logic—which is, incidentally, widely applied today—it would mean exactly the same as if you were to go into a barber's shop, find a number of razors, and say: “Please, we would like to buy these as cutlery for our dinner table, because knives are part of eating!” Razors are not just knives, they are part of something else! Things do not have their immediate purpose in themselves in this way, and neither do organs. An organ in humans is something completely different from an organ in animals. It depends on what the organ is used for. One should not compare nervous systems, namely human nerves with animal nerves, but one should see that the human nerve has become something similar to the animal nerve, just as the razor has become something similar to the table knife, so that one cannot arrive at anything by the usual means of materialistic investigation. But that is the path that is mainly taken today.
[ 20 ] And this path prevents us from really seeing what explains the human being as a product of the spiritual world. For you see, our religious beliefs, as they have gradually developed, have also — as I have often said — indulged and served egoism. They are almost solely aimed at proving to people that they will live on after death, because that is what their egoism demands. But it is just as important to prove to people that life continues after birth, so that they understand that here on earth they are the continuation of what they were between death and their present birth. I have a spiritual life to continue here. This indulges egoism less, but at the same time it is something that must flow back into culture so that our culture can free people from their antisocial instincts. Just think what it will mean when you look at a human face and say: That is not of this world; the spiritual world worked on it between the last death and this birth; what it will mean when one will already see in the material the image of the spiritual work between death and a new birth. It will indeed be a different kind of education that will then exist among people, and this different kind of education will bring about a different mindset. And this attitude will not allow us to look at the starry sky and see merely a great machinery of stars attracting each other according to Newton's laws. This is true even if we disregard the fact that abstraction has reached its highest peak today.
[ 21 ] You see, abstraction is already very strong in our ordinary solar and planetary system. But today abstraction is producing some very curious results. For example, you will find in much of popular literature today the glorification of a certain idea that Einstein, for example, had. It is said that this idea has shaken the foundations of gravity. Imagine (plate 15, bottom right) a box far away from all celestial bodies, so that no gravitational field is acting on it. Inside this box is a person holding a stone and a feather in his two hands. He is somewhere where there are no celestial bodies, in a box, holding a stone and a feather inside the box. Now he lets go of them, and lo and behold, they begin to fall. They fall to the floor. Yes, says Einstein, the person might say: The stone and the feather fall to the floor. But that does not have to be the case; instead, there could be a rope attached up there, hanging down (drawing) — where, I do not know! And instead of the stone and the feather falling down, the entire box is pulled up. The stone and the feather—because there is no world body nearby—do not fall, but remain where they are; but the box is lifted up, and the stone and the feather remain in the same place. When the box arrives with its bottom, it takes them with it.
[ 22 ] This discussion of an extreme abstraction can be found today in Albert Einstein's modern theory of relativity. Think how far humanity has strayed from realistic thinking! People talk about relativity. Fine, they can do that. But just imagine what would happen if the whole idea were taken seriously: a box there, far away from all celestial bodies, no celestial body nearby that could attract the stone and the feather, a man inside! Air is only found near celestial bodies, but he is quite happy there with his stone and his feather; they don't need to breathe, of course. And the box is also suspended, pulled up there.
[ 23 ] This is a further intensification of Newton's impulse, which is given to the world body in the tangent so that it can continue to fly away with centrifugal force in addition to centripetal force. But such things are actually the subject of scientific discussion today, and they are considered great achievements, when they are nothing more than testimony to how we have arrived at the utmost abstraction and how materialism has brought us to the point where man knows nothing more about matter, where man can live in thought constructs that are far removed from all reality.
[ 24 ] Only these things are not noticed today, but it is reported in all the newspapers that a great discovery has been made: the theory of gravity has been replaced by the mere theory of inertia. The stone and the feather are not attracted, but they remain in place—perhaps only because one can imagine that they remain there while the box is being pulled up. One can truly say that there is so much nonsense living as genius today that it is grotesque to realize how much nonsense lives as genius. How can one be surprised that in this age, thoughts in other fields also run hither and thither, straight and crooked, and have finally brought about what people have experienced in the last five or six years?
[ 25 ] This is what must be remembered again and again. I had to remind you of this today, and tomorrow I will add a few words about the structure of the world for our friends who have come to the general meeting, based on these premises.