Man—Hieroglyph of the Universe
GA 201
16 May 1920, Dornach
Lecture Sixteen
When we try to ascertain man's position in the Universe as a whole, it is a question of turning our attention not only to Space but to Time. Anyone who follows the history of human evolution at all, will find that it is a peculiarity of the Oriental conception of the Universe to set Space in the foreground, not leaving Time wholly disregarded, but placing everything pertaining to Space in the foreground. The peculiarity of the Western conception of the Universe is to reckon to a very special degree with Time, and it is precisely this regard for the temporal in human evolution and the Universe which must have primary consideration in a right view of the Christ-Force. To recognise the full significance of the Christ-Force in human evolution on Earth, we must be able to place Man himself correctly in the whole Universe, in a temporal sense. The customary belief in the law of the conservation of force, and especially that of the conservation of substance, hinders this. The law of the conservation of force is one which would so place Man in the Universe that he stands there as a mere product of nature. Attempts have been made to discover the procedure of the transformation through combustion of what man takes in as nourishment, and to find out how the heat of combustion is set up and how other forces arise in man as transformed forces of the food. Such attempts have already been made in modern times by students. They are like thoughts which find expression somewhat in the following way. A man sees a building, he hears that it is a Bank, and endeavours by some method to calculate how much money is put into the Bank and how much taken out; and finding that the amounts are the same, draws the conclusion that the money has either transformed itself in there or has remained the same, but that there are no officials there in the Bank at all. This is approximately the logic of the thought that whatever a man has eaten may be found again in the transformed forces of his calefaction, his activity. Here too courage is lacking actually to put to the test the depth of thought underlying these modern principles. One might indeed arrive at many things by testing what we find in modern science; one has only to test its logic and more especially its reality.
Now the point is that on account of a mass of unreality and of illogical methods of thought, man is placed in the dilemma in which, as I have already pointed out, on the one hand stand ideals, as secondary effects, and on the other, natural occurrences; and we can find no means of building a bridge between them. At most an attempt is made today by chatterers in the sphere of philosophy to talk of natural occurrences in a way which flatters the primitive thought of man; this kind of talk has no desire to go into anything concrete, but prefers to acquiesce in such nonsense as that of Eucken or Bergson. What is of real consequence is, first of all, that one should ask oneself: What it is that man bears within him out of the whole compass of the Universe? What enables him as a member of the Universe so to work with his Ego, that one can see that what results from his activity is his own? Now of all things of the Universe, of all properties of being in the Universe, one such property is easier to study than others, if one only sets aside the prejudices of modern science, and that is the element of heat.
Certainly it must be said in the first place that even the animal world, and perhaps to some extent the plant world, have heat of their own; but the heat of the higher animal world and of man can be distinguished from other kinds of individual heat. And it is necessary to enquire now into what may be called the heat peculiar to man. For in this particular heat (leaving aside for the moment that of the animal, although what I am saying does not contradict the facts in the animal world; but it would lead us too far to include it in our present observations), in what man possesses as his own heat—in this he has his inmost corporeality, his inmost bodily field of activity. Our attention is not drawn to this, only because it escapes ordinary observation that the element of soul and spirit dwelling in man finds its immediate continuation in the effect it has on the heat within him. In speaking of man's bodily nature pure and simple, one should really speak of his heat-body. When we see a man before us, we are also confronted by an enclosed heat-space, which is at a higher temperature than its environment. In this increased temperature lives the soul and spirit element of man, and the soul and spirit in him is indirectly conveyed by means of the heat, to his other organs. In this way too, man's Will comes into existence.
The Will comes into being through the fact that in the first instance man's heat is acted upon, then his lung-organisation, thence his fluid-organisation, and thence only what is mineral or solid in his organism. Thus the human organisation must be represented as follows: The first part to be acted upon is the heat, then through heat the air is worked upon; thence an influence acts upon the water—the fluid-organism—and thence upon the solid organisation. (I have drawn attention to the fact that the solid part of man's organisation is the smallest, for he is more than 75% water-body.) This fact, that we really live and move in our heat element, is one of the physiological facts which we must keep carefully in mind, for we must not simply regard what forms an isolated heat-space as though it were just a space of pure uniform heat, having a higher temperature than the environment—no, we must regard it as having differentiated parts, warmer and colder. Just as our liver, lungs and so forth, differ from each other, so do the parts of our heat-organism; and this differentiation is continually changing inwardly. It is a constantly moving differentiation, and that which in the first instance unites with the activity of the soul and spirit has its being in this inner heat-organisation.
Philosophers today say that the effect of the soul and spirit upon the body cannot be perceived, because they imagine an arm as a sort of solid lever appliance; and of course they cannot see how the activity of the soul and spirit, which is conceived of as abstractly as possible, is to be transmitted to this solid lever-appliance. But one need only fix one's attention on the transition, and we find there that which has been organised for man out of the whole Universe. If we really study human thought, we find that the thought which asserts itself in our head has very much to do with this inner work that goes on within the heat-relationships. (This is not quite exactly spoken, but the inaccuracy can perhaps only be corrected in the course of time. We must try to get a complete picture, therefore I will begin with a more cursory description.) If we observe this inter-working of thoughts in the heat-space, in the isolated heat-space, it is evident that something like a co-operation of thought-activity and heat-activity takes place. In what does this consist? Here we come to something which demands very careful consideration.
Taking first the whole of the rest of man, and then his head, we can of course, trace a transmutation of matter (metabolism) from the former to the latter; and the fact that ultimately the head has to do with thought—that we perceive as a direct experience. Yet what really happens? We will lead up to this gradually by way of appropriate imagery. Let us suppose we have some fluid substance; we bring it to boiling point, then it evaporates, and changes into a more rarefied substance. This same process takes place far more intensely with human thought. All that plays its part as transmutation of substances in the human head, brings it about that all substance falls away like a sediment, it is precipitated, and nothing remains of it but the mere picture.
I will now use another example. Suppose you have a vessel containing a solution. This you cool down, which is again a heat-process. A sediment collects below, and above remains finer liquid. This is also the case with the human head; only here no substance whatever is collected above, nothing but pictures, all matter is expelled. This is the activity of the human head; it forms what are mere pictures, and expels the matter.
This process, as a matter of fact, takes place in everything that may be called the transition to pure thinking. All the material substance which has co-operated in the human inner life falls back into the organism, and pictures alone remain. It is a fact that when we rise to pure thought, we live in pictures. Our soul lives in pictures; and these pictures are the remains of all that has gone before. Not the substance, but the pictures remain.
What has just been presented can be followed into the thoughts themselves, for this process only takes place at the moment when thoughts change into mere pictures. At first thoughts live, as it were, embodied. They are permeated by substance; but as pictures they separate themselves out from this substance. If however, we go to work in a truly spiritually scientific way, we can quite easily distinguish pure thought, sense-free thought that has separated itself out from the material process, from all thoughts belonging to what I have called in these lectures the “instinctive wisdom of the ancients.”
This instinctive wisdom of the ancients, as we learn it today, bears in it, quite literally and exactly, the character of not being brought to such filtration of thought that all material substance fell away. Such falling away of all matter is a result of human development. Although not observed by external physiology, it is a fact that virtually—of course virtually and approximately—the thoughts of earthly humanity before the Mystery of Golgotha were always united with matter, and that at the time of the intervention of the Mystery of Golgotha in Earth-life, humanity had arrived at the point in evolution of being able to dissociate itself from matter in the inner process of thought; matter-free thought became possible.
This is not to be regarded as unimportant! It is indeed of the utmost importance that we should observe this development in earthly life—that man in his evolution has become free from the embodiment of thoughts; that they have changed to pure pictures. Thus we may say that up to the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, embodied pictures lived in man; but after the Mystery of Golgotha, matter-free pictures lived in man. Before the Mystery of Golgotha, the Universe worked upon man in such a way that he could not attain to pictures free of the body, free of matter. Since the Mystery of Golgotha, the Universe has, as it were, withdrawn. Man has been transposed to an existence which only takes place in pictures.
What man felt before the Mystery of Golgotha as his connection with the Universe, that he related also to the Universe. He related human life on Earth to Heaven. This we can observe quite exactly. The Hebrew of old was clearly and distinctly conscious that the twelve tribes of old Israel were projections on Earth of the constellations of the Zodiac. The twelve-foldness of the Universe comes to expression in the life of man; and we may say that in those days the life of man was pictured as a result of the twelve-foldness of the Heavens, of the Zodiac. Every man felt the starry Heaven streaming into him; and above all a group of men felt themselves as a group into which the starry Heaven rayed. In the evolution of Hebrew antiquity we must go back to the time when we are told of the twelve sons of Jacob as the projection on Earth of the twelve regions of Heaven. Just as there was this in-streaming of the heavenly forces upon Earth-man in gray antiquity, so also, since in the different parts of the Earth's surface evolution came about at different times, in Europe we find a similar thing at a later time. We must go back to the Middle Ages and study the legends of King Arthur and his Round Table, those significant Celtic legends. For Mid-Europe developed later to the stage reached by the old Hebrews thousands of years before. Mid-Europe was only so far on at the time to which the Legends of Arthur and his Round Table are assigned. There was however, a difference. Hebrew antiquity evolved to the point where the in-streaming from the Universe still yielded embodied pictures. Then came the point of time when the body was withdrawn from the pictures, when the pictures had to be given a new substance. There was indeed a danger that, as regards his soul-life, man would pass completely into a picture-existence. This danger man did not at once recognise. Even Descartes was still floundering, and instead of saying: ‘I think, therefore I am not’, he said the opposite of the truth: ‘I think, therefore I am’. For when we live in pictures, we really are not! When we live in mere thoughts, it is the surest sign that we are not. Thoughts must be filled with substance. In order that man might not continue to live in mere pictures, in order that inner substance might once more be in the human being, that Being intervened who entered through the Mystery of Golgotha. Hebrew antiquity was the first to meet with this intervention of the central force, which was now to give back reality to the human soul that had become
picture. This, however, was not at once understood. In the Middle Ages we have the last ramifications in the twelve around King Arthur's Table; but this was soon replaced by something else—the Parsifal Legend, which places One man over against the twelve, One man, who develops the twelve-foldness from out of his own inner centre. Thus, over against that picture which was essentially the Grail picture, must be the Parsifal picture, in which what man now possesses within him, rays out from the centre. The endeavour of those in the Middle Ages who wished to understand the Parsifal picture, who wished to make the Parsifal striving active in the human soul, was to bring into the picture-existence that could crystallise out in man after all the materiality had filtered away—to bring into it true substance, inwardness of being. Whereas the Grail legend shows still the in-streaming from without, the Parsifal figure is now set over against it, raying out from the pictures that which can restore reality to them.
Inasmuch as the Parsifal Legend appeared in this form, it represented the striving of humanity in the Middle Ages to find the way to the Christ within. It represents an instinctive striving to understand that which lives as the Christ in the evolution of humanity. If one studies inwardly what was experienced in the form of this figure of Parsifal, and compares it with what is to be found in the modern creeds, one receives a strong impulse towards that which must happen today. People are now satisfied with the mere husk of the word ‘Christ’ and believe that they thus possess Christ, whereas even the theologians themselves do not possess Him but hold to the outer interpretation of the word. In the Middle Ages there was still so much direct consciousness left, that by comprehending the representative of humanity, Parsifal, men were able to wrest their way upwards to the form of Christ. If we reflect on this we receive the impression of man's place in the whole Universe. Throughout the world of Nature, conversion of forces prevails. In man alone matter is thrown out by pure thought. That matter which is actually cast out of the human being by pure thought is also annihilated, it passes into nothingness.
If we reflect upon this, we must think of all Earth-existence as follows: Here is the Earth, and on the Earth, man; into man passes matter. Everywhere else it is transmuted. In man it is annihilated. The material Earth will pass away in proportion as matter is destroyed by man. When, some day, all the substance of the Earth will have passed through the human organism, being used there for thinking, the Earth will cease to be a cosmic body. And what man will have gained from this cosmic Earth will be pictures. These however, will have a new reality, they will have preserved an original reality. This reality is that which proceeds from the force which, as central force, makes itself felt through the Mystery of Golgotha. Thus, when we look to the end of the Earth, what do we see? The end of the Earth will come when all its substance is destroyed as described above. Man will then possess pictures of all that has taken place in earthly evolution. At the end of the earthly period the Earth will have sunk into the Universe, and there would remain merely pictures, without reality. What gives them reality however, is the fact of the Mystery of Golgotha having been there in humanity; that gives these pictures inner reality for the life to come. Through the Mystery of Golgotha, a new beginning is set for the future existence of the Earth.
From this we can see that what is contained in our stream of evolution is not to be regarded merely as a continuous stream, where one thing is always related to another as effect to cause, but we must so consider the Earth-evolution that we recognise in the first place a pre-Christian evolution, out of which came all that men were able to think at that time, for what they were able then to think was contained in the Father-God, was imparted to the Earth through Him. The nature and work of the Father-God however, was such that what He created as Earth-evolution was given over to that part of Earth-evolution that tends to pass away. A new beginning was made with the Mystery of Golgotha. Of all that went before only pictures were to remain, as it were descriptive paintings of the world. These pictures were, however, to receive new reality through that which entered as Being into the evolution of the Earth through the Mystery of Golgotha. That is the cosmic significance of the Mystery of Golgotha; that is what I meant years ago, when I said: Christianity will not be understood until it has penetrated even into the physics of our Earth, until we understand how, even in physical things, the Christian substance works in the world-existence. We have not grasped Christianity until we can say to ourselves: Precisely in the domain of heat such a change is taking place in man that through it matter is being destroyed and a purely picture-existence comes forth out of the matter; but through the union of the human soul with the Christ-substance this picture-existence is made into a new reality.
If we compare this thought, showing us the interweaving of what man has transformed into soul and spirit with physical existence, if we compare this whole thought with the cheerless scientific thoughts of modern times which can lead only to a blind alley, we shall see its great and deep significance, and we shall see how we are to regard thoughts like those of Julius Robert Mayer, which are in reality that which falls away from cosmic existence, even as ice and snow melt before the Sun. Man however, retains these pictures, and they derive a reality for the future because a new substance has laid hold of them, the substance which has passed through the Mystery of Golgotha.
And through this, the thought of freedom is established for man and is united with scientific thinking. This comes about because man says: Not ‘conservation of matter and of energy’; but, ‘matter and energy have a temporal life allotted to them.’ We take part not in the developing material Universe, but in its decay, and we have now to raise ourselves out of it to mere picture-existence and permeate ourselves with That to which we can only devote ourselves with our free-will, to the Christ-Being. For He so stands in human evolution that man's connection with Him can only be a free one. Anyone who seeks to be constrained to recognise Christ cannot find His Kingdom, he can rise only to the Universal Father-God, who however, in our world, has now only a share in a decaying world, and precisely on account of the decay of His own world, has sent the Son. Spiritual cosmogony must unite with natural cosmogony, but they must unite in man—and that by a free act. Hence we can only say of one who wishes to prove freedom that he is still at an ancient heathen standpoint. All proofs of freedom fail; our task is not to prove freedom, but to take hold of it. It is grasped when one understands the nature of sense-free thinking. Sense-free thinking however needs again the connection with the world, and this connection it does not find unless it unites with what has been introduced into the evolution of the world as new substance through the Mystery of Golgotha.
Thus the bridge between natural and moral cosmogony lies in a right understanding of Christianity. It might at first appear very strange that just those who uphold the modern creeds—as well as ancient creeds that extend their influence into modern life—do not desire a science leading towards Christianity, but desire a science as materialistic as possible, so that an unscientific faith may hold its own alongside of it.
In this connection we might say: Modern materialism and reactionary Christianity are very closely related, for the latter has driven mankind into the conception that things spiritual must not be penetrated by true knowledge. Knowledge must be kept free from the Spiritual, must be kept away from it, must extend only to the material. Thus on the one hand stands the advocate of one or other creed, who says: Science extends only to what is sense-perceptible; all else must be grasped by faith alone. On the other side stands the materialist, who says: science extends only to what is sense-perceptible; and faith I have given up.
Spiritual Science is not related to materialism. Modern creeds are indeed very closely related to it; that is to say, old creeds as introduced into modern life are indeed closely related to materialism.
I think I have now shown how the possibility of permeating the moral law with what we can know of nature, and conversely, of permeating nature-knowledge with moral law—is bound up with Spiritual Science. For the phantom which figures today in external science as Man, that delusive picture which shows Man as a configuration of mineral substance, simply does not exist. Man is just as much organised into the Fluid element as into the Solid; he is organised also into the element of Air, and above all, into that of Heat. When we come as far as Heat, we find the transition to the soul-and-spirit nature, for in Heat we have already the transition from Space to Time; and that which is of the soul flows in the temporal. Beyond Heat we pass more and more out of Space into Time, and it becomes possible, by the roundabout way here indicated, to seek the moral in the physical. Indeed it might be said that one who thinks short-sightedly will scarcely arrive at the connection of the moral with the physical in human nature—for one might certainly go to meet death as a miscreant without dislocating a limb, but remaining a well-formed man. The heat condition in the man is however not examined. The heat condition is changed far more subtly and delicately than is supposed, and works back upon what man carries through death. Today the method of study is such that we look up into abstraction, we have our thoughts up there; and we look down into the physical-material. We do not make the transition unless we pass over to the inwardly stirring heat lying between these, which has, at least for human instinct, still a physical as well as a soul aspect. We can develop warmth for our fellows morally—soul-warmth, which is the counterpart of physical warmth. This soul-warmth however, does not arise through a physical change in the sense of Julius Robert Mayer's theory; it arises—but how does it arise? I might say that here it gives palpable evidence of itself. Why do we speak of ‘warm’ feelings? Because we feel, we experience that the feeling we call ‘warm’ gives the picture of outer, physical warmth. The warmth percolates into the picture. What today is only soul-warmth will in a future cosmic existence play a physical part, for the Christ-Impulse will live therein. What today is simply picture-warmth in our world of Feeling—will live on, that it may become physical when the Earth-warmth has disappeared, for it is what the Christ-Substance, the Christ-Nature is. Let us try to find that delicate connection between external physical warmth and that which we instinctively call warmth of feeling; let us try to find it. Let us go to what Goethe said in his book called ‘The Material-Moral effects of Colours’, let us see how in his colour-perception he places the cooling colours on one side, and the warming colours on the other; how he unites the material-moral with the physical conditions which can to a certain extent be measured with a thermoscope, and shows how the element of soul interplays with the external and physical. Then we arrive at one aspect of how a moral cosmogony can be found in the study of Goethe.
The Jesuits of course hate this alliance. Therefore the best book on Goethe written out of the Jesuit thought is a poisonous book, a terrible book, though much more ingenious and effective than anything written about him elsewhere, because written with inner Jesuitical rhetoric. I refer to the three-volumed work on Goethe by Father Baumgartner. It is full of spite and malice, but it is both powerful and effective. We may be very sure that in that world, of which many people have no conception, a world which opposes us too, Goethe is better known than he is among more cultured circles. Those who appreciate Goethe and understand him from the positive standpoint, form but a small community. There is a large community of those who hate him; we do not conceive it half large enough. Some time ago I pointed out how little people are awake to what lives among us—I once said I would have liked counts to be taken at the door of all those who knew the German work, Weber's Thirteen Limetrees, a work that was truly Roman Catholic in the most positive sense. I should like to know how many it would be! The result would have been deplorable. Yet soon after publication this work ran through hundreds of editions. Have those who bring humanity forward any idea in their waking consciousness of how widespread these things are? That they have a widespread effect is certain; so too have those things from which the conflict with us proceeds. Whereas we have a small community which holds to Goethe, but is yet never able to point to anything of importance from Goethe's wisdom, the Jesuit book on Goethe is written with great cleverness and acumen—and that is precisely what we need, that we may be filled with spirit that is awake. Spiritual Science will surely succeed if a wakeful spiritual life really takes root in us.
Sechzehnter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Wenn man versucht zu erkennen, wie der Mensch im ganzen Universum drinnensteht, so handelt es sich darum, nicht nur das Räumliche dabei ins Auge zu fassen, sondern auch das Zeitliche. Wer die Entwickelungsgeschichte der Menschheit etwas verfolgt, wird finden, daß es eine Eigentümlichkeit orientalischer Weltanschauung ist, das Räumliche in den Vordergrund zu stellen, allerdings nicht so, daß das Zeitliche dabei ganz unberücksichtigt bleibt; aber es steht das Räumliche im Vordergrunde. Dahingegen ist es das Eigentümliche abendländischer Weltanschauung, mit dem Zeitlichen in ganz besonderem Maße zu rechnen. Und gerade der Hinblick auf dieses Zeitliche in der Entwickelung der Menschheit und des Universums überhaupt ist dasjenige, was bei einer richtigen Anschauung über die Christus-Kraft vor allen Dingen berücksichtigt werden muß. Dann aber, wenn man die Christus-Kraft in ihrer ganzen Bedeutung innerhalb der Evolution der Menschheit und der Erde richtig erkennen will, dann muß man den Menschen selbst zeitlich richtig in das ganze Universum hineinstellen können. Daran hindert heute, wie ich schon mehrfach erwähnte, der allgemeine Glaube an das Gesetz von der Erhaltung der Kraft und namentlich auch an das Gesetz von der Erhaltung des Stoffes. Dieses Gesetz von der Erhaltung der Kraft, das ist es ja vor allen Dingen, welches den Menschen so in das Weltenall hineinstellen möchte, daß dieser Mensch dabei eigentlich nur wie ein Naturprodukt in diesem Weltenall drinnensteht. Es sind ja sogar schon Versuche gemacht worden zu ergründen, wie die Umwandelung desjenigen, was der Mensch aufnimmt als Nahrung, durch die Verbrennung geschieht in Kräfte, und wie die dann in dem Menschen auftretende Verbrennungswärme und seine sonstige Kraft sich als die umgewandelte Kraft der Nahrungsmittel ergibt. Solche Versuche sind bereits in der neueren Zeit mit Studenten gemacht worden. Sie gleichen dem Gedanken, der etwa in der folgenden Weise sich geltend machen wollte: Man sieht ein Haus, hört, das ist eine Bank, versucht durch irgendwelche Manipulationen alles Geld, welches hineingetragen wird in diese Bank, zu zählen und zählt dann auch alles dasjenige Geld, das wiederum herausgetragen wird; und man findet, daß das dasselbe ist. Und jetzt zieht man daraus den Schluß: also hat sich das Geld darinnen umgewandelt, oder es ist das gleiche geblieben, und es sind keine Beamten, keine Menschen in diesem Bankhaus drinnen. So ungefähr ist ja die Logizität des Gedankens, daß man alles dasjenige, was der Mensch in sich hineinißt, in den umgewandelten Kräften seiner Erwärmung, seiner Betätigung wiederum finden könne. Man hat auch da nur nicht den Mut, wirklich einmal, ich möchte sagen, die Gedankentiefe zu prüfen, die diesen modernen Prinzipien zugrunde liegt. Man würde gar mancherlei herausbekommen, wenn man das, was in der sogenannten Wissenschaft der Gegenwart figuriert, auf seine Logizität und namentlich auf seinen Wirklichkeitscharakter hin prüfen würde.
[ 2 ] Nun handelt es sich darum, daß ja durch alle diese unwirklichkeitsgemäßen und im Grunde genommen auch unlogischen Denkoperationen der neueren Zeit, der Mensch eben in diesen Zwiespalt hineingestellt ist, auf den ich in diesen Tagen aufmerksam machte, wo auf der einen Seite die Ideale stehen, Nebeneffekte, auf der anderen Seite das Naturgeschehen steht und man keine Brücke von dem einen zu dem andern finden kann. Höchstens wird in der neueren Zeit von dekadenten Schwätzern auf dem Gebiete der Philosophie, wie etwa Eucken oder Bergsor, versucht, in das Naturgeschehen in einer Weise hineinzureden, durch die ein wenig geschmeichelt werden kann dem primitiven Denken derjenigen Menschen, die durchaus nicht auf etwas Konkretes eingehen wollen, sondern die sich mit solch einem Gefasel, wie es der Euckenismus oder der Bergsonismus ist, zufrieden geben wollen. Um was es sich handelt, ist zunächst einmal, sich zu fragen: Was trägt der Mensch in sich aus dem ganzen Umfange des Universums heraus? Was trägt der Mensch in sich so, daß er sich in diesem Gliede des Universums mit seinem Selbst betätigen kann, so betätigen kann, daß man sieht, was da entsteht, ist sein Eigenes. — Alle anderen Dinge des Universums, alle anderen Wesenschaften, wenn ich das Wort bilden darf, alle andern Wesenschaften des Universums sind weniger leicht zu übersehen, aber eine Wesenschaft ist ja zunächst wirklich leicht zu studieren, wenn man nur absieht von allen Vorurteilen der sogenannten neueren Wissenschaft, das ist die Wärme.
[ 3 ] Gewiß, man muß zunächst sich sagen, auch die Tierwelt und vielleicht bis zu einem gewissen Grade die Pflanzenwelt haben Eigenwärme; aber in einer solchen Weise, wie die höhere Tierwelt und die Menschenwelt Eigenwärme haben, kann man sie doch unterscheiden von anderen Arten von Eigenwärme, die entwickelt werden. Jedenfalls ist es notwendig, einmal auf dieses, was wir Eigenwärme im Menschen nennen können, hinzusehen. Ich will heute von der Tierheit ganz absehen, obwohl das, was ich sage, durchaus nicht im Widerspruche steht mit den Tatsachen innerhalb der Tierwelt; aber es würde heute zu weit führen, die Betrachtung auch auf die Tierwelt auszudehnen. In dem, was der Mensch als seine Eigenwärme hat, und in dem zunächst etwas vorliegt, was sich gewissermaßen als eine Art Wärmeorganismus absondert für jeden Menschen von der übrigen universellen Wärme, in dem hat er sein innerstes körperliches, sein innerstes leibliches Betätigungsfeld. Man ist nur darauf nicht aufmerksam, weil dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein sich ja entzieht, wie im Grunde genommen dasjenige, was im Menschen als Seelisch-Geistiges lebt, seine unmittelbare Fortsetzung findet in einer Wirkung auf die im Menschen vorhandene Wärme. Man sollte eigentlich zunächst, wenn man von des Menschen Leiblichkeit spricht, von seinem Wärmeleib sprechen. Man sollte sagen: Wenn ein Mensch vor dir steht, so steht vor dir auch ein abgeschlossener Wärmeraum, der in einer gewissen Beziehung höhere Temperatur hat als die Umgebung. In dieser erhöhten Temperatur lebt zunächst das, was geistig-seelisch im Menschen ist, und auf dem Umwege durch die Wärme überträgt sich das, was im Menschen geistig-seelisch ist, auch auf die übrigen Organe. So kommt ja auch der Wille zustande. |
[ 4 ] Der Wille kommt dadurch zustande, daß zuerst auf die im Menschen befindliche Wärme gewirkt wird und dann, indem auf die Wärme gewirkt wird, auf den Luftorganismus, von da auf den Wasserorganismus und von da erst auf das, was im Menschen mineralisch fester Organismus ist. So daß man also sich die menschliche Organisation so vorzustellen hat: Man wirkt innerlich zuerst auf die Wärme, dann durch die Wärme auf die Luft, von da auf das Wasser, auf den Flüssigkeits-Organismus, und von da auf den festen Organismus. Ich habe Sie darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß der Mensch ja zum geringsten Teile seines Organismus aus Festem besteht, daß er zu mehr als 75 Prozent ja Wasserkörper ist. Dies, daß wir eigentlich leben und weben in unserer Wärme, das gehört zu den physiologischen Tatsachen, die streng ins Auge gefaßt werden müssen. Wir dürfen auch dasjenige, was da als ein abgeschlossener Wärmeraum ist (Tafel 30, große Form Mitte oben), nicht einfach etwa so auffassen, daß da eben ein Wärmeraum von einer höheren Temperatur als die Umgebung ist, sondern wir müssen das so auffassen, daß da differenziert wärmere und kältere Partien sind. Ebenso wie in uns Leber, Lunge und so weiter differenziert sind, so ist unser Wärmeorganismus differenziert, und er ist so, daß er seine Differenzierung innerlich fortwährend ändert. Er ist in einer bewegten Differenzierung. Und in diesem innerlichen Organisieren von Wärme besteht dasjenige, was sich zunächst an die seelisch-geistige Tätigkeit anschließt.
[ 5 ] Sehen Sie, heute reden die Philosophen davon, man könne nicht die Wirkung des Geistig-Seelischen auf das Leibliche einsehen, weil sie sich einen Arm etwa so wie irgendeine feste Hebelvorrichtung vorstellen (dieselbe Tafel, Winkel rechts oben). Dann kann man natürlich nicht einsehen, wie auf diese feste Hebelvorrichtung sich die Tätigkeit des Geistig-Seelischen, das man möglichst abstrakt vorstellt, übertragen soll. Man muß nur sein Augenmerk auf die Übergänge richten. Da also finden wir dasjenige, was für den Menschen herausorganisiert ist aus dem ganzen Universum. Und nun handelt es sich darum, daß, wenn wir real den Gedanken des Menschen studieren, wir daraufkommen, daß das Denken, das sich in unserem Haupte geltend macht, sehr viel zu tun hat mit diesem innerlichen Arbeiten in den Wärme-Verhältnissen. Es ist das etwas ungenau gesprochen, aber es kann nur im Laufe der Zeit das Ungenaue vielleicht durch das Genauere ergänzt werden. Wir müssen versuchen, ein abgeschlossenes Bild zu bekommen. Daher will ich mehr kursorisch zunächst charakterisieren. Es ist so, daß, wenn man beobachtet dieses Ineinanderarbeiten von Gedanken im Wärmeraum, im abgeschlossenen Wärmeraum, wenn man das beobachtet, dann zeigt sich, daß so etwas wie ein Zusammenwirken von dem, was die Denktätigkeit ist, mit der Wärmetätigkeit vor sich geht. Und worinnen besteht das? Sehen Sie, da kommen wir auf etwas, was ich Sie bitte, sehr genau zu berücksichtigen.
[ 6 ] Wenn Sie den ganzen übrigen Menschen nehmen und dann sein Haupt (dieselbe Tafel, ganz rechts), so können Sie natürlich einen Stoffwechsel vom ganzen übrigen Menschen zum Haupt hin vetfolgen. Und daß schließlich das Haupt mit dem Denken etwas zu tun hat, das spüren Sie ja als eine unmittelbare Erfahrung. Aber was geschieht da in Wirklichkeit? Sehen Sie, was da in Wirklichkeit geschieht, darauf möchte ich Sie führen, indem wir nach und nach zu dem entsprechenden Bilde kommen wollen. Nehmen Sie einmal an, Sie haben eine Flüssigkeit; Sie bringen sie zum Kochen; da verdunstet sie, da geht sie in eine Substanz von größerer Dünnigkeit über. Noch viel intensiver geschieht dieser Vorgang durch das menschliche Denken. Es bewirkt, daß in dem, was da als Stoffwechsel sich abspielt im menschlichen Haupte, aller Stoff abfällt, gewissermaßen als Bodensatz abfällt und dann ausgeschieden wird (Pünktchen in der Zeichnung), und daß zurückbleibt von dem das bloße Bild.
[ 7 ] Ich will ein anderes Bild noch gebrauchen, damit Sie mich verstehen. Denken Sie sich einmal, Sie haben hier ein Gefäß (ganz links). In diesem Gefäß haben Sie eine Lösung. Sie bringen die Lösung zum Abkühlen, was auch ein Wärmeprozeß ist. Unten sammelt sich ein Bodensatz, oben sammelt sich die feinere Flüssigkeit. So ist es hier (in der Zeichnung ganz rechts) durch das menschliche Haupt. Nur sammelt sich da oben überhaupt nichts Materielles, sondern die bloßen Bilder, und das Materielle wird ausgeschieden. Das ist die menschliche Hauptestätigkeit, daß sich die bloßen Bilder sammeln und das Materielle ausgeschieden wird. Dieser Prozeß vollzieht sich tatsächlich in alledem, was man den Übergang des Menschen zum reinen Denken nennen kann. Da fällt gewissermaßen in den Organismus zurück alles Materielle, das sich an dem menschlichen Innenleben beteiligt hat, und es bleiben allein die Bilder. Tatsächlich ist es so, daß wir, wenn wir uns zum reinen Denken aufschwingen, in Bildern leben. Unsere Seele lebt in Bildern. Und diese Bilder, sie sind dasjenige, was von allem Früheren bleibt. Nicht das Materielle bleibt, sondern die Bilder bleiben.
[ 8 ] Das, was ich Ihnen jetzt auseinandergesetzt habe, das ist zu verfolgen bis in die Gedanken selbst hinein, denn es geschieht dieser Vorgang nur dann, wenn sich eben die Gedanken umwandeln in bloße Bilder. Gedanken leben ja zunächst, ich möchte sagen, verleiblicht. Sie sind von Substanz durchdrungen. Aber sie sondern sich als Bilder aus dieser Substanz heraus. Aber wir können, wenn wir richtig geisteswissenschaftlich zu Werke gehen, gut unterscheiden, was sich da als reine Gedanken, als sinnlichkeitsfreie Gedanken heraussondert aus dem materiellen Prozeß, wir können das unterscheiden von allen solchen Gedanken, welche eigen waren dem, was ich in diesen Tagen wiederum und sonst auch immer genannt habe «die instinktive Weisheit der Alten». Diese instinktive Weisheit der Alten, sie trägt, wenn wir sie heute kennenlernen, ganz genau den Charakter an sich, daß die Alten es nicht gebracht haben bis zu einer solchen Filtrierung der Gedanken, daß wirklich alles Materielle herausgefallen wäre. Daß wirklich alles Materielle herausfällt, das ist ein Ergebnis der Menschheitsentwickelung. Und wenn es auch durch äußere Physiologie nicht zu konstatieren ist, es ist so, daß im wesentlichen - natürlich im wesentlichen und approximativ — die Menschheit der Erde vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha immer bloß Gedanken hatte in Verbindung mit dem Materiellen und daß in der Zeit, in der das Ereignis von Golgatha in das Erdenleben eingeschlagen hat, die Menschheit in ihrer Entwickelung so weit war, daß sie absondern konnte in dem innerlich seelisch-geistigen Gedankenprozeß das Materielle; daß materienfreies Denken möglich geworden ist.
[ 9 ] Ich bitte, fassen Sie das nicht als etwas Unbedeutendes auf. Es ist sozusagen eine der allerwichtigsten Tatsachen, die wir im Erdenleben beobachten können, daß in diesem Erdenleben einmal das eintritt, daß die Menschen in ihrer Fortentwickelung frei werden von der Verleiblichung der Gedanken, daß die Gedanken sich umwandeln in bloße Bilder. So daß wir sagen können: Entwickelung bis zum Mysterium von Golgatha - verleiblichte Bilder leben im Menschen; Entwickelung nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha — materienfreie Bilder leben im Menschen (Tafel 31, oben). Das Universum wirkt vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha so auf den Menschen, daß er zu leibfreien, materienfreien Bildern nicht kommt. Das Universum zieht sich gewissermaßen zurück seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Der Mensch wird in ein Sein versetzt, das nur in Bildern geschieht.
[ 10 ] Sehen Sie, was da der Mensch vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha als seinen Zusammenhang mit der Erde erfühlt hat, das bezog er auch auf das Universum. Er bezog gewissermaßen das irdische Menschenleben auf den Himmel. Wir können das ganz genau beobachten. Es war ein deutliches Bewußtsein vorhanden im hebräischen Altertum, daß die 12 Stämme Israels irdische Projektionen sind der 12 Sternbilder des Tierkreises. Die Zwölfteiligkeit der Welt drückt sich im Menschenleben aus. (Tafel 31, rechts.) Und wir können sagen: Dazumal wurde dieses Menschenleben so vorgestellt, daß es als ein Ergebnis vorgestellt wurde der Zwölfheit des Himmels, des Tierkreises. Die Menschen fühlten sich, auch jeder einzelne, so, daß der Sternenhimmel in sie hereinstrahlte. Sie fühlten sich vor allen Dingen als Gruppe so, daß der Sternenhimmel in sie hereinstrahlte. In der Entwickelung des althebräischen Altertums müssen wir zurückgehen bis zu der Zeit, wo uns gesprochen wird von den 12 Jakobssöhnen als den Projektionen der 12 Gebiete des Himmels auf der Erde. Wie da im grauen Altertum sich innerhalb der hebräischen Entwickelung dieses Hereinstrahlen der Kräfte des Himmels auf den Erdenmenschen ergab, so ergab sich, weil auf den verschiedenen Punkten der Erdoberfläche die Entwickelung in verschiedenen Zeiten auftritt, für Europa ein späterer Zeitpunkt. Da müssen Sie ins Frühmittelalter zurückgehen und die Artussage, die Sage vom König Artus und seiner Tafelrunde, die bedeutsame Keltensage, studieren. Denn Mitteleuropa, das in späterer Zeit jene Etappe der Kultur entwickelte, die die alten Hebräer schon vor Jahrtausenden entwickelt haben, Mitteleuropa war erst zu der Zeit, für die angesetzt wird die Artussage, die Sage von Artus’ Tafelrunde, so weit. Aber es ist ein Unterschied jetzt. Das hebräische Altertum entwickelte sich bis zu dem Punkte hin, wo diese Einstrahlungen aus dem Universum in dem Menschen noch das ergaben, was die verleiblichten Bilder waten. Dann kam der Zeitpunkt, wo der Leib sich von den Bildern zurückzog. Jetzt mußte den Bildern eine neue Substantialität gegeben werden. Es war ja die Gefahr vorhanden, daß der Mensch in bezug auf sein Seelenleben völlig überging in ein Bilddasein. Diese Gefahr wurde von den Menschen nicht gleich erkannt. Und noch der Cartesius zappelte; und statt den Satz auszusprechen: Ich denke, also bin ich nicht -, sprach er den Satz aus, der das Gegenteil der Wahrheit ist: Ich denke, also bin ich. - Denn wenn wir in den Bildern leben, sad wir eben nicht. Es ist das beste Zeichen, daß wir nicht sind, wenn wir in bloßen Gedanken leben, daß der Gedanke substantiell erfüllt werden muß. Damit die Menschheit nicht in bloßen Bildern fortlebe, schlägt diejenige Wesenheit in die Menschheitsentwickelung herein, die durch das Mysterium von Golgatha hereingeschlagen ist, damit wiederum innerliche Substantialität im Menschenwesen ist. Dieses Hereinschlagen der Zentralkraft, die nun der zum Bild gewordenen menschlichen Seele wieder Realität geben soll, wird aber nicht gleich verstanden. Sie trifft zunächst allerdings das althebräische Altertum. Im Mittelalter haben wir von diesem den letzten Ausläufer in der Tafelrunde der 12 um den König Artus; aber es stellt sich gleich etwas anderes entgegen: die Parzival-Sage, die den einen Menschen den Zwölften gegenüberstellt, den einen Menschen, der nun aus seinem eigenen inneren Zentrum die Zwölfheit herausentwickelt. So daß diesem Bilde (Tafel 31, rechts), das im wesentlichen das Gralsbild wäre, entgegenzustellen ist das ParzivalBild (links), wo aus dem Zentrum ausstrahlt, was der Mensch jetzt in sich hat. Und das Bestreben derjenigen, die im Mittelalter den Parzival begreifen wollten, die rege machen wollten in der menschlichen Seele das Parzival-Streben, das Bestreben dieser war, hineinzubtringen in das menschliche Bilddasein, das sich herauskristallisieren kann nach der Filtration von allem Materiellen, Substantialität, Innerlichkeit, Wesenhaftigkeit. Während die Gralssage noch die Einstrahlung von außen zeigt, wird entgegengestellt die Parzival-Gestalt, die vom Zentrum aus in die Bilder das hineinstrahlen soll, was ihnen wieder Realität gibt.
[ 11 ] Und indem die Parzival-Sage auftritt, ist diese Parzival-Sage das Bestreben der mittelalterlichen Menschheit, den Weg zu finden zum innerlichen Christus. Es ist ein instinktives Streben, dasjenige zu verstehen, was als der Christus in der Menschheitsentwickelung lebt. Wenn man innerlich studiert, was bei der Ausgestaltung dieser Parzival-Gestalt empfunden wurde, und dann es mit dem vergleicht, was heute in den Bekenntnissen lebt, dann bekommt man so recht einen Antrieb für das, was heute geschehen muß. Denn heute begnügen sich die Leute mit der Worthülse «Christus» und glauben, den Christus zu haben, während ihn nicht einmal die Theologen haben, die ja auch an der äußerlichen Wort-Interpretation hängen. Im Mittelalter ist noch so viel unmittelbares Bewußtsein vorhanden, daß man sich durch das Erfassen des MenschheitsRepräsentanten, des Parzival, zu der Christus-Gestalt hinaufringen will. Wenn man dies überdenkt, bekommt man aber auch einen Eindruck von der Stellung des Menschen zum ganzen Universum. Überall draußen in der natürlichen Welt herrscht Umwandelung der Kräfte; im Menschen allein wird durch das reine Denken der Stoff herausgewortfen. Der Stoff, der nun wirklich durch das reine Denken aus dem Menschlichen herausgeworfen wird, der ist auch vernichtet als Stoff, der geht in die Vernichtung hinein. Das Menschenleben steht so im Universum drinnen, daß im Menschen der Ort vorhanden ist, wo Stoffliches aufhört, so daß es nicht mehr vorhanden ist.
[ 12 ] Wenn Sie dies bedenken, dann müssen Sie ja sich das ganze Erdendasein so vorstellen (Tafel 30, oben rechts der Mitte): Hier die Erde, auf der Erde die Menschen, in die Menschen hinein geht der Stoff. Überall sonst wandelt er sich um; im Menschen wird er vernichtet. Die stoffliche Erde wird in dem Maße verschwinden, als dutch die Menschen der Stoff der Erde vernichtet wird (unten, rechts der Mitte, Erde mit abwärts strahlenden Linien). Wenn einmal aller Stoff der Erde durch die menschliche Organisation durchgegangen sein wird, so daß er in den menschlichen Organisationen gebraucht sein wird zum Denken, dann hört die Erde als Weltenkörper auf zu sein. Und was die Menschen herausgewonnen haben aus dieser Weltenerde, das sind die Bilder (dreieckige Formen). Aber diese Bilder, die haben eine neue Realität, eine ursprüngliche Realität erhalten. Und diese Realität ist diejenige, die von der Kraft ausgeht, die sich als die Zentralkraft geltend machte durch das Mysterium von Golgatha (Kreis MG mit horizontal in die Bilder einstrahlender Linie). Das heißt, wenn wir hinblicken auf das Ende der Erde, wie stellt sich die Sache dar? Das Ende der Erde wird dann vorhanden sein, wenn auf die eben geschilderte Art der ganze Stoff der Erde vernichtet sein wird. Von dem, was innerhalb der Erdenentwickelung dann geschehen sein wird, werden die Menschen Bilder haben. Es würde am Ende der Erdenzeit die Erde im Weltenall versunken sein, und es würden bloß die Bilder da sein ohne Realität. Was ihnen aber Realität gibt, das ist, daß in der Menschheit das Mysterium von Golgatha da war, welches diesen Bildern weiterhin für das folgende Leben die innerliche Realität gibt. Damit aber ist ein neuer Anfang gesetzt für das Zukunftsdasein der Erde durch das Mysterium von Golgatha.
[ 13 ] Sie sehen daraus, daß wir dasjenige, was in unserer Entwickelungsströmung enthalten ist, nicht bloß so anzusehen haben, daß das eine fortlaufende Entwickelungsströmung ist, wo sich eins ans andere immer wie Wirkung zur Ursache anschließt, sondern wir haben die Erdenentwickelung so anzusehen, daß es eine vorchristliche Erdenentwickelung gegeben hat, aus der alles dasjenige herauskam, was dazumal auch Menschen denken konnten. Denn das war im Vatergott enthalten, das war der Erde mitgeteilt durch ihren Vatergott. Aber der Vatergott hatte es so eingerichtet, daß dasjenige, was er als Erdenentwickelung schuf, dem absterbenden Teile der Erdenentwickelung gewidmet war. Ein neuer Anfang setzte ein mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Von allem Früheren sollten nur zurückbleiben die Bilder, gewissermaßen das Gemälde der Welt. Aber diese Bilder sollten eine neue Realität erhalten durch dasjenige, was als Wesenheit in die Erdenentwickelung hereingedrungen ist durch das Mysterium von Golgatha. Das ist die kosmische Bedeutung des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Das ist es, was ich schon vor Jahren meinte, als ich sagte: Nicht eher ist das Christentum begriffen, als bis es bis zur Physik herunter all unser Erkennen durchdringt. Nicht eher ist das Christentum begriffen, bis wir herunter bis zum Physikalischen verstehen, wie die christliche Substantialität im Weltendasein wirkt. Nicht eher ist das Christentum begriffen, bis wir uns sagen: Gerade im Gebiet der Wärme vollzieht sich im Menschen eine solche Umwandelung, daß durch sie Materie vernichtet wird, daß sich bloßes Bilddasein aus der Materie herauszieht, daß dieses Bilddasein aber durch die Verbindung der Menschenseele mit der Christus-Substanz zu neuer Realität gemacht wird.
[ 14 ] Und vergleichen Sie mit diesem Zusammenschlingen desjenigen, was geistig-seelisch durch den Menschen ist, mit dem, was physisches Dasein ist, vergleichen Sie diesen ganzen Gedanken mit dem trostlosen naturwissenschaftlichen Gedanken der neuen Zeit, der Sie nur in eine Sackgasse führen kann, so werden Sie sehen, welche Bedeutung dieser Gedanke hat; denn dieser Gedanke zeigt uns, wie wir uns alles das vorzustellen haben, was in die bloßen Julius Robert Mayerschen Gesetze eingeschlossen ist, wie wir uns das vorzustellen haben als dasjenige, was abfällt vom Weltendasein, wie Eis vor der Sonne schmilzt, Schnee in der Sonne schmilzt. Aber der Mensch behält zurück die Bilder. Diese Bilder bekommen aber eine Realität für die Zukunft dadurch, daß eine neue Substanz in diese Bilder fährt, die Substanz, die durch das Mysterium von Golgatha gegangen ist.
[ 15 ] Damit aber wird auch der Menschengedanke der Freiheit begründet, und er wird zusammengeschlossen mit dem naturwissenschaftlichen Denken. Er wird dadurch zusammengeschlossen mit dem naturwissenschaftlichen Denken, daß man nicht sagt: Erhaltung des Stoffes und der Kraft, sondern: Es ist dem Stoff und der Kraft eine bloße zeitliche Lebensdauer bestimmt. Wir nehmen nicht bloß teil an dem sich fortentwickelnden stofflichen Weltenall, sondern an dem Absterben dieses Weltenalls, und wir sind jetzt schon dabei, uns herauszuringen bis zum bloßen Bilddasein und uns mit dem zu durchdringen, dem wir uns freiwillig allein hingeben können, dem Christus-Wesen. Denn das Christus-Wesen steht so in der Menschheitsentwickelung drinnen, daß das Verhältnis des Menschen zum Christus nur ein freies sein kann. Derjenige, der sucht, gezwungen zu werden, den Christus anzuerkennen, der kann sein Reich nicht finden. Der kann nur zu dem allgemeinen Vatergott gehen, der aber in unserer Welt sich nur noch mit einer untergehenden Welt beteiligt, der eben wegen dieses Unterganges seiner Welt den Sohn gesandt hat. Es muß sich geistige Weltanschauung mit natürlicher Weltanschauung zusammenschließen; aber sie schließen sich im Menschen zusammen. Und sie schließen sich im Menschen zusammen dutch eine freie Tat. Daher kann man nicht anders sagen, als wer die Freiheit beweisen will, der steht auf einem alten heidnischen Standpunkt. Deshalb mißglücken auch alle Beweise für die Freiheit, denn die Freiheit muß man nicht beweisen wollen, sondern ergreifen wollen. Und man ergreift sie in dem Momente, wo man den Charakter des sinnlichkeitsfreien Denkens erfaßt. Aber dieses sinnlichkeitsfreie Denken, das braucht wiederum den Zusammenhang mit der Welt. Es findet ihn nicht, wenn es sich nicht verbindet mit dem, was als neue Substanz geradezu in die Weltenevolution eingezogen ist dutch das Mysterium von Golgatha.
[ 16 ] So liegt schon im richtigen Erfassen des Christentums die Brücke zwischen der natürlichen Weltanschauung und der moralischen Weltanschauung. Und es könnte zunächst sehr eigentümlich erscheinen, daß gerade Träger moderner oder alter, ins moderne Leben hereinragender Bekenntnisse nicht eine Wissenschaft wollen, welche sich gegen das Christentum hinbewegt, daß sie womöglich eine bloß materialistische Wissenschaft wollen, damit daneben ein wissenschaftsloser Glaube zu seinem Rechte kommen könne. In dieser Beziehung kann man sagen: Sehr verwandt sind sich der moderne Materialismus und das reaktionäre Christentum. Denn das reaktionäre Christentum hat geradezu die Menschheit hineingetrieben in die Auffassung, es dürfe nichts Geistiges mit dem wirklichen Wissen durchdrungen werden. Das wirkliche Wissen müsse sich freihalten von dem Geistigen, müsse wegbleiben von dem Geistigen, dürfe sich nur auf das Materielle erstrecken. Und so steht auf der einen Seite der Verteidiger dieses oder jenes Bekenntnisses, der sagt: Wissenschaft erstreckt sich nur auf das Sinnlich-Wahrnehmbare, das andere soll nur vom Glauben erfaßt werden; und auf der anderen Seite steht der Materialist, der sagt: Wissenschaft erstreckt sich nur auf das Sinnlich-Wahrnehmbare, den Glauben habe ich mir aber abgewöhnt.
[ 17 ] Geisteswissenschaft ist nicht verwandt mit dem Materialismus. Die modernen Bekenntnisse, also die alten Bekenntnisse, die in das moderne Leben hereinragen, sind gar sehr verwandt mit dem Materialismus.
[ 18 ] Damit glaube ich, Sie darauf hingewiesen zu haben, wie verankert ist in der Geisteswissenschaft die Möglichkeit, die moralische Weltordnung wirklich zu durchdringen mit dem, was wir auch über die Natur wissen können, und umgekehrt das Naturwissen wirklich zu durchdringen mit der moralischen Weltordnung. Denn, sehen Sie, jenes Phantom, welches heute in der äußeren Wissenschaft noch als Mensch figuriert, jenes trügerische Bild, das mit dem Menschen wie mit einer Konfiguration von Mineralischem rechnet, das ist ja in Wahrheit beim herumgehenden Menschen nicht vorhanden. Der Mensch ist ebenso organisiert im Flüssigen wie im Festen, organisiert im Luftförmigen und vor allen Dingen organisiert in der Wärme. Und kommen Sie herauf bis zur Wärme, so finden Sie den Übergang in das Geistig-Seelische, denn Sie haben in der Wärme bereits den Übergang von dem Räumlichen in das Zeitliche. Und das Seelische verfließt ja in dem Zeitlichen dort. Sie kommen immer mehr und mehr über die Wärme herauf aus dem Räumlichen in das Zeitliche, und Sie erhalten die Möglichkeit, auf dem Umwege, den ich hier angedeutet habe, das Moralische zu suchen im Physischen. Wer, ich möchte sagen, kurzsinnig denkt, der wird ja kaum herausbekommen, wie der Zusammenhang des Moralischen mit dem Physischen in der Menschennatur ist. Denn man vermag ja allerdings seinem Tode entgegenzuleben als ein Bösewicht, und man verrenkt sich dadurch die Arme nicht, sondern bleibt dabei ein wohlgestalteter Mensch. Aber der Wärmezustand wird dann nicht untersucht, der Wärmezustand, der sich allerdings in viel minuziöserer Weise ändert, als man glaubt, der aber wiederum zurückwirkt auf dasjenige, was der Mensch durch den Tod trägt. Heute ist die Betrachtungsweise so, daß wir gewissermaßen auf dieses Niveau hinsehen (Tafel 30, links oben wird angeschrieben und gezeichnet), hinaufsehen in die Abstraktion, da oben das Gedankliche und so weiter haben, hinuntersehen in das Physisch-Materielle. Wir bekommen aber den Übergang nicht, wenn wir nicht zu der in sich beweglichen Wärme, die dazwischen liegt, übergehen; zu jener Wärme, die wenigstens für den menschlichen Instinkt noch einen ebenso seelischen wie physischen Aspekt hat. Aus dem Instinkt ist es wenigstens noch nicht herausgebracht worden, daß der Mensch auch moralisch für seinen Mitmenschen Wärme entwickeln kann, seelische Wärme entwickeln kann, die das wirkliche Gegenbild der physischen Wärme ist. Aber diese seelische Wärme entsteht allerdings nicht dutch eine physische Umwandelung im Sinne der Julius Robert Mayerschen Theorie. Wie entsteht sie denn? Ich möchte sagen: Hier zeigt es sich handgreiflich. Warum reden Sie denn überhaupt von warmem Fühlen? Weil Sie fühlen, weil Sie empfinden, daß die Gefühlswärme das Bild ist der äußeren physischen Wärme. Da filtriert sich die Wärme in das Bild. Und das, was heute nur seelische Wärme ist, es wird im späteren, zukünftigen Weltendasein eine physische Rolle dadurch spielen, daß der Christus-Impuls darinnen leben wird. Und in dem, was heute nur Bild-Wärme ist in unserer Gefühlswelt, wird leben, damit es physisch sein kann dann, wenn die Erdenwärme verschwunden sein wird, dasjenige, was die Christus-Substanz, die Christus-Wesenschaft ist. Versuchen Sie nur einmal, jenes zarte Verhältnis zwischen der äußeren physischen Wärme und dem, was man instinktiv als die Gefühlswärme bezeichnet, zu finden. Gehen Sie dann zu dem, was Goethe in seiner Farbenlehre in der sechsten Abteilung: «Sinnlichsittliche Wirkung der Farben» nennt. Sehen Sie, wie er in den Farbenwahrnehmungen selber auf der einen Seite die erkältenden Farben hat, auf der andern Seite die erwärmenden Farben; sehen Sie, wie da das Sinnlich-Sittliche sich zusammenschließt mit dem physischen Zustande, den wir gewissermaßen mit dem Thermoskop abmessen können; sehen Sie, wie da ineinanderspielt das Seelische und das äußerlich Physische. Dann werden Sie einen Aspekt von dem bekommen, wie durch echten Goetheanismus der Zusammenschluß zwischen der moralischen Weltanschauung und der physischen Weltanschauung gefunden werden kann.
[ 19 ] Allerdings, der Jesuitismus haßt diesen Zusammenschluß. Deshalb ist auch das beste Buch über Goethe, das aus jesuitischem Geiste geschrieben worden ist, ein giftiges Buch, ein furchtbares Buch, aber viel scharfsinniger, viel wirkungsvoller als alles, was sonst über Goethe geschrieben worden ist, weil mit innerlicher jesuitischer Rhetorik geschrieben. Ich meine das dreibändige Goethewerk von Pater Baumgartner. Es ist haßerfüllt, voller Giftigkeit, aber es ist eben eindrucksvoll und wirksam. Und Sie können ganz sicher sein, in der Welt, von der sich viele Menschen heute keine Vorstellung machen, in der Welt, die aber auch uns bekämpft, da ist Goethe verbreiteter als unter den Gebildeten. Diejenigen, die zu Goethe halten und die Goethe verstehen vom positiven Standpunkte aus, sind eine kleine Gemeinde. Diejenigen, die Goethe hassen, das ist eine große Gemeinde; man stellt sie sich nur nicht groß genug vor. Ich habe Sie einmal, vor jetzt schon längerer Zeit, darauf hingewiesen, wie wenig man eigentlich gegenüber dem, was unter uns Menschen immerhin lebt, wach ist. Ich habe dazumal gesagt, ich möchte an der Türe Zettel abnehmen lassen, um zu wissen, wie viele von den Anwesenden das deutsche Machwerk «Dreizehnlinden» von Weber kennen. Ich hätte gern gewußt, wie viele Zettel abgegeben worden wären. Es wäre damals sicher ein trauriges Resultat herausgekommen. Und dennoch, dieses Werk «Dreizehnlinden», ein Werk im Sinne des positiven Katholizismus, hat bald nach seinem Erscheinen schon eine außergewöhnlich große Anzahl von Auflagen erlebt. Wissen denn diejenigen, die die Menschheit gern vorwärts bringen möchten, in ihrem Wachbewußtsein etwas davon, wie breite Wirkung solche Dinge haben? Und breite Wirkung haben alle diese Dinge, aus denen auch der Kampf gegen uns hervorgeht, davon können Sie überzeugt sein. Diese Dinge sind wirksam. Sie sind es in viel breiterem Umfange, als sich die schläfrige Menschheit vorstellen möchte. Und während wir wirklich eine kleine Goethe-Gemeinde haben, die zu Goethe hält, die gar nicht einmal hinweisen kann auf irgendwie Beträchtliches aus dieser Goethe-Weisheit heraus, ist das Jesuitenbuch über Goethe mit großem Scharfsinn geschrieben, geschickt gemacht und ein sehr wirksames Buch.
[ 20 ] Das ist es aber, was wir nötig haben: uns zu durchdringen mit wachem Geistesleben. Dann wird Geisteswissenschaft schon gedeihen, wenn waches Geistesleben wirklich unter uns Platz greift.
Sixteenth Lecture
[ 1 ] When attempting to understand how humans fit into the universe as a whole, it is important to consider not only space, but also time. Anyone who follows the history of human development will find that it is a peculiarity of the Eastern worldview to place spatial considerations in the foreground, though not to the extent that temporal considerations are completely disregarded; but spatial considerations are in the foreground. In contrast, it is a peculiarity of the Western worldview to take temporal considerations into account to a very special degree. And it is precisely this consideration of the temporal in the development of humanity and of the universe in general that must be taken into account above all else in a correct view of the Christ force. But then, if one wants to correctly recognize the Christ force in its full significance within the evolution of humanity and the earth, one must be able to place the human being himself temporally in the whole universe. As I have already mentioned several times, this is prevented today by the general belief in the law of the conservation of energy and, in particular, in the law of the conservation of matter. It is this law of the conservation of energy that wants to place human beings in the universe in such a way that they are actually only a natural product within it. Attempts have even been made to investigate how the transformation of what humans take in as food occurs through combustion into energy, and how the heat of combustion that then arises in humans and their other energy results from the transformed energy of the food. Such experiments have already been carried out in recent times with students. They are similar to the idea that wanted to assert itself in the following way: You see a house, hear that it is a bank, try by some manipulation to count all the money that is carried into this bank, and then count all the money that is carried out again; and you find that it is the same. And now you draw the conclusion: therefore, the money has been transformed inside, or it has remained the same, and there are no officials, no people inside this bank. This is roughly the logic of the idea that everything that a person eats can be found again in the transformed forces of their warmth, their activity. But people do not have the courage to really examine the depth of thought that underlies these modern principles. One would discover many things if one were to examine what appears in so-called contemporary science for its logic and, in particular, for its character of reality.
[ 2 ] Now the point is that through all these unrealistic and, in essence, illogical operations of the mind in modern times, man has been placed in the dilemma I pointed out the other day, where on the one hand there are ideals, side effects, and on the other side there are natural events, and no bridge can be found between the two. At most, in recent times, decadent chatterers in the field of philosophy, such as Eucken or Bergsor, have attempted to talk their way into the natural world in a way that flatters the primitive thinking of those people who do not want to deal with anything concrete, but are content with such gibberish such as Euckenism or Bergsonism. The first thing to ask is: What does man carry within himself from the entire scope of the universe? What does man carry within himself in such a way that he can act in this part of the universe with his self, act in such a way that one can see that what emerges is his own? All other things in the universe, all other essences, if I may use the word, all other essences of the universe are less easy to overlook, but one essence is really easy to study at first, if one disregards all the prejudices of so-called modern science, and that is heat.
[ 3 ] Certainly, one must first say that the animal world and perhaps, to a certain extent, the plant world also have their own heat; but in such a way that the higher animal world and the human world have their own heat, which can be distinguished from other types of heat that are developed. In any case, it is necessary to take a look at what we can call the inherent warmth in humans. I will refrain from discussing animal nature today, although what I say is by no means in contradiction with the facts within the animal world; but it would go too far today to extend the discussion to the animal world. In what humans have as their own heat, and in what initially exists as a kind of heat organism that separates each human being from the rest of the universal heat, humans have their innermost physical, their innermost bodily field of activity. We are simply not aware of this because it eludes ordinary consciousness, just as, in essence, what lives in humans as soul and spirit finds its immediate continuation in an effect on the warmth present in humans. When speaking of the physicality of humans, one should actually first speak of their warmth body. One should say: when a human being stands before you, there also stands before you a closed heat space which, in a certain sense, has a higher temperature than its surroundings. In this elevated temperature lives, first of all, that which is spiritual and soul-like in the human being, and indirectly, through the warmth, that which is spiritual and soul-like in the human being is also transferred to the other organs. This is also how the will comes into being.
[ 4 ] The will comes into being through the fact that first the warmth within the human being is affected, and then, through the effect on the warmth, the air organism is affected, and from there the water organism, and only then that which is the mineral, solid organism within the human being. So one must imagine the human organization as follows: one acts internally first on the warmth, then through the warmth on the air, from there on the water, on the fluid organism, and from there on the solid organism. I have pointed out to you that the human being consists of very little solid matter, that more than 75 percent of the human body is water. The fact that we actually live and breathe in our warmth is one of the physiological facts that must be strictly taken into account. We must not simply understand what is shown here as a closed heat space (plate 30, large form in the middle at the top) as a heat space with a higher temperature than the environment, but we must understand it as having differentiated warmer and colder parts. Just as our liver, lungs, and so on are differentiated within us, so too is our heat organism differentiated, and it is such that it continually changes its differentiation internally. It is in a state of dynamic differentiation. And it is in this internal organization of heat that what initially follows on from the soul-spiritual activity consists.
[ 5 ] You see, philosophers today say that we cannot understand the effect of the spiritual-soul on the physical because they imagine an arm to be something like a fixed lever (the same table, angle at the top right). Then, of course, it is impossible to understand how the activity of the spiritual-soul, which is imagined as abstractly as possible, can be transferred to this fixed lever device. One need only direct one's attention to the transitions. There we find that which is organized out of the whole universe for the human being. And now it is a matter of the fact that when we study human thought in reality, we come to realize that the thinking that asserts itself in our heads has a great deal to do with this inner workings in the heat conditions. This is somewhat imprecise, but perhaps the imprecise can be supplemented by the more precise in the course of time. We must try to obtain a complete picture. Therefore, I will first characterize it more briefly. When one observes this interaction of thoughts in the heat space, in the enclosed heat space, one sees that something like a cooperation between the activity of thinking and the activity of heat is taking place. And what does this consist of? You see, this brings us to something that I would ask you to consider very carefully.
[ 6 ] If you take the rest of the human being and then his head (the same board, far right), you can of course trace a metabolism from the rest of the human being to the head. And you sense as an immediate experience that the head ultimately has something to do with thinking. But what is actually happening there? I would like to lead you to what is actually happening by gradually coming to the corresponding image. Suppose you have a liquid; you bring it to the boil; it evaporates and is transformed into a substance of greater thinness. This process occurs even more intensely through human thinking. It causes all the substance in the metabolism taking place in the human head to fall away, as it were, like sediment, and then be excreted (the dots in the drawing), leaving behind only the mere image.
[ 7 ] I will use another image to help you understand. Imagine you have a vessel (on the far left). In this vessel you have a solution. You allow the solution to cool, which is also a heating process. A sediment collects at the bottom and the finer liquid collects at the top. This is what happens here (in the drawing on the far right) through the human head. Only nothing material collects at the top, but mere images, and the material is excreted. This is the main activity of the human head, that mere images are collected and the material is excreted. This process actually takes place in everything that can be called the transition of man to pure thinking. In a sense, everything material that has participated in human inner life falls back into the organism, and only the images remain. In fact, when we rise to pure thinking, we live in images. Our soul lives in images. And these images are what remain of everything that has gone before. It is not the material that remains, but the images.
[ 8 ] What I have now explained to you can be traced back to the thoughts themselves, for this process only takes place when thoughts are transformed into mere images. Thoughts initially live, I would say, embodied. They are permeated with substance. But they separate themselves from this substance as images. However, if we proceed correctly in the humanities, we can easily distinguish what separates itself from the material process as pure thoughts, as thoughts free of sensuality. We can distinguish this from all such thoughts that were characteristic of what I have called “the instinctive wisdom of the ancients” in recent days and elsewhere. This instinctive wisdom of the ancients, when we get to know it today, has precisely the character that the ancients did not manage to filter their thoughts to such an extent that everything material was really left out. That everything material really falls away is a result of human evolution. And even if it cannot be observed through external physiology, it is nevertheless true that, essentially — of course essentially and approximately — before the mystery of Golgotha, humanity on Earth had only thoughts connected with the material, and that at the time when the event of Golgotha struck into Earth life, humanity had progressed in its development to such an extent that it was able to separate the material from the inner soul-spiritual thought process; that thinking free of matter had become possible.
[ 9 ] Please do not regard this as something insignificant. It is, so to speak, one of the most important facts we can observe in earthly life that at some point in this earthly life, human beings in their further development become free from the embodiment of thoughts, that thoughts are transformed into mere images. So we can say: Development up to the Mystery of Golgotha — corporealized images live in human beings; development after the Mystery of Golgotha — immaterial images live in human beings (plate 31, above). Before the Mystery of Golgotha, the universe acts on human beings in such a way that they do not arrive at immaterial images. The universe has, in a sense, withdrawn since the mystery of Golgotha. Human beings are placed in a state of being that exists only in images.
[ 10 ] You see, what human beings felt before the mystery of Golgotha as their connection with the earth, they also related to the universe. They related earthly human life to the heavens, so to speak. We can observe this very clearly. In ancient Hebrew times, there was a clear awareness that the 12 tribes of Israel were earthly projections of the 12 constellations of the zodiac. The twelvefold nature of the world is expressed in human life. (Plate 31, right.) And we can say that at that time, human life was conceived as the result of the twelvefold nature of the heavens, of the zodiac. People felt, even each individual, that the starry sky shone into them. Above all, they felt as a group that the starry sky shone into them. In the development of ancient Hebrew culture, we must go back to the time when we are told of the twelve sons of Jacob as projections of the twelve regions of the heavens onto the earth. Just as in ancient times, within the Hebrew development, this shining in of the forces of the heavens upon the earthly human being came about, so too, because development occurs at different times in different places on the earth's surface, it came about at a later time for Europe. You have to go back to the early Middle Ages and study the Arthurian legend, the legend of King Arthur and his Round Table, the significant Celtic legend. For Central Europe, which in later times developed the stage of culture that the ancient Hebrews had already developed thousands of years earlier, Central Europe had only reached that stage at the time when the Arthurian legend, the legend of Arthur's Round Table, is set. But there is a difference now. Hebrew antiquity developed to the point where these rays from the universe still produced in human beings what the embodied images waded through. Then came the moment when the body withdrew from the images. Now the images had to be given a new substance. There was a danger that human beings would completely transform into image beings in terms of their soul life. This danger was not immediately recognized by human beings. Even Descartes struggled with it, and instead of saying, “I think, therefore I am not,” he uttered the sentence that is the opposite of the truth: “I think, therefore I am.” For when we live in images, we do not exist. The best sign that we do not exist when we live in mere thoughts is that the thought must be substantially fulfilled. In order that humanity should not continue to live in mere images, that entity which was brought about by the Mystery of Golgotha strikes into the development of humanity, so that inner substantiality may once again be present in the human being. However, this striking of the central force, which is now to give reality back to the human soul that has become an image, is not immediately understood. It first encounters ancient Hebrew antiquity. In the Middle Ages, we see the last remnants of this in the Round Table of the Twelve Knights around King Arthur; but something else immediately opposes it: the Parzival legend, which contrasts the one human being with the twelve, the one human being who now develops the twelve out of his own inner center. So that this image (plate 31, right), which is essentially the image of the Grail, is contrasted with the image of Parzival (left), where what the human being now has within himself radiates out from the center. And the endeavor of those who wanted to understand Parzival in the Middle Ages, who wanted to awaken the Parzival striving in the human soul, was to bring into human pictorial existence that which can crystallize after the filtration of all materiality, substantiality, inwardness, and essentiality. While the Grail legend still shows the influence from outside, the figure of Parzival is contrasted with this, who is supposed to radiate from the center into the images, giving them reality again.
[ 11 ] And in its appearance, the Parzival legend represents the striving of medieval humanity to find the way to the inner Christ. It is an instinctive striving to understand what lives as Christ in human evolution. If you study inwardly what was felt in the creation of this Parzival figure and then compare it with what lives in today's confessions, you really get a drive for what needs to happen today. For today people are content with the empty word “Christ” and believe they have Christ, while not even the theologians have him, who are also attached to the external interpretation of words. In the Middle Ages there was still so much direct consciousness that people wanted to struggle their way up to the Christ figure by grasping the representative of humanity, Parzival. When one thinks this through, however, one also gains an impression of the position of the human being in relation to the entire universe. Everywhere out there in the natural world, forces are in a state of transformation; in the human being alone, matter is thrown out through pure thinking. The substance that is truly cast out of the human being through pure thinking is also destroyed as substance; it enters into destruction. Human life stands within the universe in such a way that there is a place within the human being where substance ceases to exist, so that it is no longer present.
[ 12 ] If you consider this, then you must imagine the whole of earthly existence as follows (plate 30, top right of center): Here is the earth, on the earth are human beings, and matter enters into human beings. Everywhere else it is transformed; in human beings it is destroyed. The material earth will disappear to the extent that the substance of the earth is destroyed by humans (below, right of center, earth with downward-radiating lines). Once all the substance of the earth has passed through the human organization so that it is needed in human organizations for thinking, then the earth ceases to exist as a world body. And what human beings have gained from this world earth are the images (triangular forms). But these images have acquired a new reality, an original reality. And this reality is that which emanates from the force that asserted itself as the central force through the mystery of Golgotha (circle MG with a line radiating horizontally into the images). That is to say, when we look at the end of the earth, how does the situation appear? The end of the earth will come when all the matter of the earth has been destroyed in the manner just described. Human beings will have images of what will then have happened within the earth's evolution. At the end of the earth's time, the earth would have sunk into the universe, and only the images would remain without reality. But what gives them reality is that the mystery of Golgotha was present in humanity, which continues to give these images their inner reality for the life that follows. This sets a new beginning for the future existence of the Earth through the mystery of Golgotha.
[ 13 ] You can see from this that we must not view what is contained in our stream of development as merely a continuous stream of development, where one thing always follows another like effect and cause, but we must view the development of the earth in such a way that there was a pre-Christian development of the earth from which everything that people were then capable of thinking emerged. For this was contained in the Father God; it was communicated to the earth through its Father God. But the Father God had arranged it in such a way that what he created as the earth's development was dedicated to the dying part of the earth's development. A new beginning began with the Mystery of Golgotha. Of everything that had gone before, only the images, the picture of the world, so to speak, were to remain. But these images were to be given a new reality through that which entered into the earth's evolution as a being through the Mystery of Golgotha. That is the cosmic significance of the Mystery of Golgotha. This is what I meant years ago when I said: Christianity is not understood until it penetrates all our knowledge down to physics. Christianity is not understood until we understand, down to the physical, how Christian substantiality works in the world's existence. Christianity is not understood until we say to ourselves: it is precisely in the realm of warmth that such a transformation takes place in human beings that matter is destroyed, that mere image existence withdraws from matter, but that this image existence is made into a new reality through the connection of the human soul with the Christ substance.
[ 14 ] And compare this intertwining of what is spiritual and soul-like in human beings with what physical existence is, compare this whole idea with the bleak scientific thinking of the modern age, which can only lead you into a dead end, and you will see the significance of this thought; for this thought shows us how we are to imagine everything that is enclosed in the mere laws of Julius Robert Mayer, how we are to imagine it as that which falls away from world existence, as ice melts before the sun, as snow melts in the sun. But man retains the images. However, these images become reality for the future through the infusion of a new substance into them, the substance that has passed through the mystery of Golgotha.
[ 15 ] This also establishes the human idea of freedom and connects it with scientific thinking. It connects it with scientific thinking because we do not say: matter and energy are conserved, but rather: matter and energy are assigned a mere temporal lifespan. We do not merely participate in the evolving material universe, but in the dying of this universe, and we are already in the process of struggling our way out to a mere pictorial existence and of permeating ourselves with that to which we can voluntarily give ourselves, the Christ being. For the Christ being is so embedded in human evolution that the relationship between human beings and Christ can only be a free one. Those who seek to be compelled to acknowledge Christ cannot find their kingdom. They can only go to the universal Father God, who, however, in our world is only participating in a world that is coming to an end, and who sent his Son precisely because of this coming to an end of his world. The spiritual worldview must unite with the natural worldview, but they unite in human beings. And they unite in human beings through a free act. Therefore, one cannot say anything other than that those who want to prove freedom are standing on an old pagan point of view. That is why all proofs of freedom fail, because freedom must not be something one wants to prove, but something one wants to grasp. And one seizes it at the moment when one grasps the character of thinking free from sensuality. But this thinking free from sensuality, in turn, needs a connection with the world. It does not find it unless it connects with what has entered the world evolution as a new substance through the mystery of Golgotha.
[ 16 ] Thus, the bridge between the natural worldview and the moral worldview already lies in the correct understanding of Christianity. And it might seem very strange at first that precisely those who hold modern or ancient beliefs that loom large in modern life do not want a science that moves away from Christianity, that they want a purely materialistic science so that an unscientific faith can come into its own alongside it. In this respect, it can be said that modern materialism and reactionary Christianity are very similar. For reactionary Christianity has driven humanity into the belief that nothing spiritual should be allowed to permeate real knowledge. Real knowledge must remain free of the spiritual, must stay away from the spiritual, and must extend only to the material. And so, on the one hand, there is the defender of this or that creed who says: Science extends only to what is sensually perceptible; the rest must be grasped only by faith. And on the other hand, there is the materialist who says: Science extends only to what is sensually perceptible; but I have weaned myself from faith.
[ 17 ] Spiritual science is not related to materialism. Modern beliefs, that is, the old beliefs that have carried over into modern life, are very much related to materialism.
[ 18 ] I believe I have thus pointed out to you how deeply rooted in spiritual science is the possibility of truly penetrating the moral world order with what we can know about nature, and conversely, of truly penetrating our knowledge of nature with the moral world order. For, you see, that phantom which still figures as a human being in external science today, that deceptive image which treats the human being as if he were a configuration of minerals, does not in reality exist in the human being who walks around. The human being is just as organized in the fluid as in the solid, organized in the gaseous and, above all, organized in warmth. And if you come up to warmth, you find the transition to the spiritual-soul realm, for in warmth you already have the transition from the spatial to the temporal. And the soul flows into the temporal there. You rise more and more through warmth from the spatial into the temporal, and you gain the opportunity, by the detour I have indicated here, to seek the moral in the physical. Anyone who thinks in a narrow-minded way will hardly be able to understand the connection between the moral and the physical in human nature. For one can certainly live one's life as a villain, and one does not dislocate one's arms in doing so, but remains a well-formed human being. But the state of warmth is not investigated, the state of warmth, which changes in a much more minute way than one believes, but which in turn has an effect on what the human being carries through death. Today, the way we look at things is that we look up to this level (table 30, top left is written and drawn), look up into abstraction, where we have the intellectual and so on, and look down into the physical-material. However, we cannot understand the transition unless we move on to the heat that lies between, the heat that is in motion within itself, the heat that, at least for the human instinct, still has an aspect that is as spiritual as it is physical. It has not yet been brought out of the instinct that human beings can also develop moral warmth for their fellow human beings, spiritual warmth, which is the real counterpart of physical warmth. But this spiritual warmth does not arise through a physical transformation in the sense of Julius Robert Mayer's theory. How does it arise? I would say: here it becomes tangible. Why do you talk about warm feelings at all? Because you feel, because you sense that emotional warmth is the image of external physical warmth. The warmth filters into the image. And what is today only spiritual warmth will play a physical role in the future existence of the world through the fact that the Christ impulse will live within it. And in what is today only image warmth in our emotional world, that which is the Christ substance, the Christ essence, will live so that it can be physical when the earth's warmth has disappeared. Just try to find that delicate relationship between external physical warmth and what we instinctively call emotional warmth. Then go to what Goethe calls “the sensual-moral effect of colors” in the sixth section of his Theory of Colors. See how, in the perception of colors themselves, he has the cooling colors on one side and the warming colors on the other; see how the sensual-moral is connected with the physical state, which we can measure, so to speak, with a thermoscope; see how the soul and the external physical interact. Then you will gain an insight into how, through genuine Goetheanism, the connection between the moral worldview and the physical worldview can be found.
[ 19 ] Of course, Jesuitism hates this connection. That is why even the best book about Goethe, written in the Jesuit spirit, is a poisonous book, a terrible book, but much more astute and effective than anything else written about Goethe, because it is written with inner Jesuit rhetoric. I am referring to the three-volume work on Goethe by Father Baumgartner. It is hateful, full of venom, but it is impressive and effective. And you can be quite sure that in the world of which many people today have no idea, in the world that is also fighting against us, Goethe is more widespread than among the educated. Those who stand by Goethe and understand him from a positive point of view are a small community. Those who hate Goethe are a large community; it's just that we don't imagine them to be large enough. Some time ago, I pointed out to you how little we are actually aware of what lives among us humans. I said at the time that I would like to have slips of paper taken from the doors to find out how many of those present were familiar with Weber's German piece of trash “Dreizehnlinden.” I would have liked to know how many slips would have been handed in. The result would certainly have been sad at the time. And yet, this work, “Dreizehnlinden,” a work in the spirit of positive Catholicism, soon after its publication experienced an exceptionally large number of editions. Are those who would like to advance humanity aware in their conscious minds of the broad impact such things have? And you can be sure that all these things, from which the struggle against us also arises, have a broad impact. These things are effective. They are effective on a much broader scale than sleepy humanity would like to imagine. And while we do have a small Goethe community that stands by Goethe, but cannot point to anything significant that has come out of Goethe's wisdom, the Jesuit book about Goethe is written with great acumen, skillfully crafted, and a very effective book.
[ 20 ] But that is what we need: to permeate ourselves with an alert spiritual life. Then spiritual science will flourish when an alert spiritual life really takes hold among us.