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Materialism and the Task of Anthroposophy
GA 204

15 April 1921, Dornach

Lecture IV

A study I began before our course started will become fully comprehensible only if we go back even further in considering the development of humanity in recent history. Basically, we have only given a few indications concerning the developments in the nineteenth century. It will be our purpose today to follow the spiritual development of mankind further back in time, giving special attention to an extraordinarily important and incisive event in the evolution of Western civilization. It is the turning-point that came about in the fourth century. There emerged at that time a figure still vivid in the memory of Western civilization, namely, Aurelius Augustinus.1 Aurelius Augustinus, A.D. 354–430, Church Father and philosopher. See Rudolf Steiner, Christianity as Mystical Fact and the Mysteries of Antiquity, Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1972. We find in him a personality who had to fight with the great intensity, on the one hand, against what had come down from ancient times, something attempting during those first Christian centuries to establish Christianity on the basis of a certain ancient wisdom. On the other hand, he had to struggle against another element, the one that eventually was victorious in Western civilization. It rejected the more ancient form and limited itself to comprehending Christianity in a more external, material way, not to penetrate Christianity with ideas of ancient wisdom, but simply to narrate its events factually according to the course it had taken since its establishment, comprehending it intellectually as well as that was possible at that time.

These conflicts between the two directions—I would like to say, between the direction of a wisdom-filled Christianity and a Christianity seemingly tending toward a more or less materialistic view—these conflicts had to be undergone particularly by the souls of the fourth and the early fifth century in the most intense way. And in Augustine, humanity remembers a personality who took part in such conflicts.

In our time, however, we have to understand clearly that the historic documents call forth almost completely false ideas of what existed prior to the fourth century A.D. As clear as the picture may be since the fifth century, as unclear are all the ordinary ideas concerning the preceding centuries. Yet, if we focus on what people in general could know about this period prior to the fourth century A.D., we are referred to two areas. One area is that of knowledge, cultivated in the schools; the other is the area of ritual, of veneration, of the religious element. Something belonging to very ancient times of human civilization still extends into these two areas. Though cloaked in a certain Christian coloring, this ancient element was still more or less present during the first Christian centuries in both the stream of wisdom and that of ritual.

If we look into the sphere of wisdom, we find preserved there a teaching from earlier times. In a certain sense, however, it had already begun to be replaced by what we today call the heliocentric world system—I have spoken of this in earlier lectures here. Nevertheless, it still remained from former astronomical teachings, and might be designated as a form of astronomy, but now not from the standpoint of physical cosmological observation. In very ancient times, people arrived at this astronomy—let us call it etheric in contrast to our physical astronomy—in the following way: People of old were still fully aware of the fact that human beings by nature belong not only to the earth but also to the cosmic surroundings of the earth, the planetary system. Ancient wisdom had quite concrete views concerning this etheric astronomy. It taught that if we turn our attention to what makes up the organization of the upper part of the human being—and here I make use of expressions that are familiar to us today—insofar as we view the etheric body of man, the human being stands in interaction with Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. People thus considered certain reciprocal effects between the upper part of the human etheric body and Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. Furthermore, people found that the part of the human being that is of a more astral nature has a sort of interrelationship with Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. The forces that then lead man into his earthly existence and that bring it about that a physical body is fitted into this etheric body, these are the forces of the earth. Those forces, on the other hand, that cause the human being to have a certain perspective leading beyond his earthly life, are the forces of the sun.

Thus it was said in those ancient times that the human being comes out of unknown spiritual worlds he passes through in prenatal life but that it is not as if he merely entered into terrestrial life. Rather, he enters from extraplanetary worlds into planetary life. The planetary life receives him as I have described it, relating him to the sun, moon, earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The orbit of Saturn was considered to be the approximate sphere the human being enters with his etheric body out of extraplanetary into planetary life. Everything that is etheric in the human being was definitely related to this planetary life. Only insofar as the etheric body then expresses itself in the physical body, only to that extent was the physical body related to the Earth. Insofar as the human being in turn raises himself with his ego beyond the etheric and astral body, the ancients related this to the sun.

Thus, one had a form of etheric astronomy. It was certainly still possible for this etheric astronomy not merely to look upon the physical destinies of the human being in the way physical astronomy does. Instead, since people viewed the etheric body, which in turn stands in a more intimate relationship to the spiritual aspect of the human being, in an interplay with the same forces of the planetary system, the following possibility existed. Since the forces of destiny can express themselves out of the planetary system by way of the etheric body, it was possible to speak of the human constitution and to include in the latter the forces of destiny.

In this teaching of antiquity, this etheric astronomy, which was continued even after people already had developed the heliocentric system as a kind of esoteric-physical science, a last wisdom teaching had emerged from ancient instinctive wisdom investigations and had been retained as a tradition. People spoke of the influences of heaven in no other way but by saying, Indeed, these influences of heaven exist; they bear not only the affairs of nature but also the forces of human destiny. Thus, there certainly existed a connection between what we might call a teaching of nature, namely cosmology, and what passed over later into all that people now consider as astrology, something that in ancient times, had a much more exact character and was based on direct observation.

It was thought that when the human being has entered the planetary sphere on his way to a new birth and has been received by it insofar as his etheric body is concerned, he subsequently enters the earth. He is received by the earth. Yet, even here, people did not merely think of the solid earth. Rather, they thought of the earth with its elements. Apart from the fact that the human being is received by the planetary sphere—whereby he would be a super-earthly being, whereby he would be what he is only as a soul—it was said that like a child he is received by the elements of the earth, by fire or warmth, by air, water, and the solid earth. All of these elements were considered the actual earth. Consequently, it was thought, the human being's etheric body is so tinged by these external elements, so saturated, that now the temperaments originate in it. Thus, the temperaments were pictured as closely tied to the etheric body, hence to the life organization of the human being. Therefore, in what is actually physical in man—at least, in what manifests through the physical body—this ancient teaching also saw something spiritual.

The most human aspect of this teaching, I would say, was something that can still be clearly discerned in the medical science period. The remedies and the teaching of medicine were certainly a product of this view of the relationship of the etheric body to the planetary system as well as of the way the etheric human being penetrates, as it were, into the higher spheres, into air, water, warmth, and earth, so that the physical impressions of the etheric soul temperaments found their way into his organization: black gall, white gall, and the other fluids, phlegm, blood, and so on. According to this commonly held view the nature of the human constitution can be known from the body fluids. It was not customary in medicine in those days to study the individual organs, of which drawings could be made. The intermingling of the permeation with fluids was studied, and a particular organ was viewed as a result of a special penetration of fluids. People then thought that in a healthy person the fluids intermingled in a specific manner; an abnormal intermingling of fluids was seen in a sick person. Thus we may say that the medical insight resulting from this teaching was definitely founded on the observation of the fluid human organism. What we call knowledge of the human organism today is based on the solid, earthly organism of man. In regard to the view of the human being, the course taken has led from an earlier insight into the fluid man to a more modern insight into the solid human being with sharply contoured organs.

The direction taken by medicine runs parallel to the transition from the ancient etheric astronomy to modern physical astronomy. The medical teaching of Hippocrates2 Hippocrates, 460–377 B.C., founder of Greek medicine. Explained illnesses as results of faulty mixture of four body fluids: blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile. still corresponds essentially to etheric astronomy, and, actually, the accomplishments of this medical conception concerned with the intermingling of fluids in man remained well into the fourth century A.D. in an exact manner, not only in tradition as it was later. Just as this ancient astronomy was subsequently obscured after the fourth century and physical astronomy took the place of the old etheric astronomy in the fifteenth century, so, too, pathology and the whole view of medicine was then based on the teachings of the solid element, of what is bounded and expressed by sharp contours in the human organism. This is in essence one side of humanity's evolution in the inorganic age.

Now we can also turn our attention to what has remained of those ancient times in cultic practices and religious ceremonies. The religious ceremonies were mainly made available to the masses; what I have just been describing was predominantly considered to be a treasure of wisdom belonging to centers of learning. Those cultic practices that found their way from Asia into Europe and that, insofar as they are religious endeavors, correspond to the view I have just explained, are known as Mithras worship.3 Mithras: Persian-Indian cult of Mithras, the god of light and sun, spread through Europe in first century B.C. by Roman troops. Celebrations in underground caves, knew baptism, communion, celebration of birthday of the god on December 25. It is a worship we find even as late as the first Christian centuries extending from East to West; we can follow its path through the countries of the Danube as far as the regions of the Rhine and on into France. This Mithras worship, familiar to you as far as its outer forms are concerned, may be briefly characterized by saying that along with the earthly and cosmic context the conqueror of the Mithras-Bull was depicted imaginatively and pictorially in the human being, riding on the bull and vanquishing the bull-forces.

Nowadays, we are easily inclined to think that such images—all cultic pictures, religious symbolizations which, if we may say so, have emerged organically out of the ancient wisdom teachings—are simply the abstract, symbolic product of those teachings. But it would be absolutely false if we were to believe that the ancient sages sat down and said, Now we must figure out a symbol. For ourselves we have the teaching of wisdom; for the ignorant masses we have to think up symbols that can then be employed in their ceremonial rites, and so on. Such assumptions would be totally wrong. An assumption approximately like that is entertained by modern Freemasons; they have similar thoughts about the nature of their own symbolism. But this was certainly not the view of the ancient teachers of wisdom.

I should now like to describe the view of these sages of old by referring in particular to the connections of the Mithra worship to the world view I have just outlined above. A fundamentally important question could still be raised by those who had retained a vivid view of how the human being is received into the planetary world with his etheric body, of how man is subsequently received into the sphere of earthly elements into warmth or fire, air, water, and earth, of how through the effects of these elements on the human etheric being black gall, white gall, phlegm, and blood are formed. They asked themselves a question that can occur now to a person who truly possesses Imaginative perception. In those times, the answer to this question was based on instinctive Imaginative perception, but we can repeat it today in full consciousness. If we develop an Imaginative conception of this entrance of the human being from the spiritual world through the planetary sphere into the terrestrial sphere of fire, air, water, and earth, we arrive at the realization that if something enters from the spheres beyond into the planetary sphere, hence into the earth's sphere, and is received there, this will not become a true human being. If we develop a picture of what is actually evolving there, if we have an Imaginative view of what can be beheld in purely Imaginative perception outside the planetary sphere, then enters into and is received by the planetary sphere and is subsequently taken hold of by the influences emanating from the earth sphere, we see that this does not become a human being. We do not arrive at a view of man; instead we attain to a conception that can be most clearly represented if we picture not a human being but a bull, an ox.

The ancient teachers of wisdom knew that no human beings would exist on earth if there were nothing besides this extraplanetary being that descends into the planetary sphere of evolution. They saw that at first glance one does arrive at the conception of the gradual approach of an entity out of extraplanetary spheres into the planetary and hence the earth sphere. But if one then proceeds from the content of these conceptions and tries to form a vivid Imaginative view, it does not turn into a human being; it becomes a mere bull. And if one comprehends nothing more in the human being but this, one merely comprehends what is bull-like in human beings. The ancient teachers of wisdom formed this conception. Now they said to themselves, In that case, human beings must struggle against this bull-like nature with something still higher. They must overcome the view given by this wisdom. As human beings, they are more than beings that merely come from the extra-planetary sphere, enter into the planetary sphere, and from there are taken hold of by the terrestrial elements. They have something within them that is more than this.

It is possible to say that these teachers of wisdom came as far as this concept. This was the reason they then developed the image of the bull and placed Mithras on top of it, the human being who struggles to overcome the bull, and who says of himself, I must be of far loftier origin than the being that was pictured according to the ancient teaching of wisdom.

Now these sages realized that their ancient teaching of wisdom contained an indication of what is important here. For this teaching did look upon the planetary sphere, upon Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Venus, moon, and so on. It also said that as the human being approaches the earth, he is constantly lifted up by the sun so as not to be submerged completely in the terrestrial elements, so as not to remain merely what proceeds from the etheric body and the mixture of black and white gall, phlegm, and blood when it is received by the planetary sphere and when the astral body is received by the other planetary sphere through Mercury, Venus, moon. What lifts man upward dwells in the sun. Therefore, these sages said, Let us call man's attention to the sun forces dwelling in him; then he will turn into Mithras who is victorious over the bull!

This then was the cultic image. It was not meant to be merely a thought-out symbol but was actually to represent the fact, the cosmological fact. The religious ceremony was more than a mere outer sign; it was something that was extracted, as it were, out of the essence of the cosmos itself.

This cultic form was something that had existed since very ancient times and had been brought across from Asia to Europe. It was, in a sense, Christianity viewed from one side, viewed from the external, astronomical side, for Mithras was the sun force in man. Mithras was the human being who rebelled against the merely planetary and terrestrial aspects.

Now, a certain endeavor arose, traces of which can be observed everywhere when we look back at the first Christian centuries. The tendency arose to connect the historical fact, the Mystery of Golgotha, with the Mithras worship. Great were the numbers of people at that time, especially among the Roman Legions, who brought with them into the lands on the Danube and far into central Europe, indeed even into western Europe, what they had experienced in Asia and the Orient in general. In what they brought across as the Mithras worship there lived feelings that, without reflecting the Mystery of Golgotha, definitely contained Christian views and Christian sentiments. The worship of Mithras was considered as a concrete worship relating to the sun forces in man. The only thing this Mithras worship did not perceive was the fact that in the Mystery of Golgotha this sun force itself had descended as a spiritual entity and had united itself with the human being Jesus of Nazareth.

Now there existed schools of wisdom in the East up until the fourth century A.D. that by and by received reports and became aware of the Mystery of Golgotha, of Christ. The further east we go in our investigations, the clearer this becomes. These schools then attempted to spread a certain teaching throughout the world, and for a time there was a tendency to let flow into the Mithras cult what agrees with the following supersensory perception: The true Mithras is the Christ; Mithras is his predecessor. The Christ force must be poured into those forces in man that vanquish the bull. To turn the Mithras worship into a worship of Christ was something that was intensely alive in the first Christian centuries up until the fourth century. One might say that the stream intending to Christianize this Mithras worship followed after the spreading of the latter. A synthesis between Christendom and the Mithras worship was striven for. An ancient, significant image of man's being—Mithras riding on and vanquishing the bull—was to be brought into relationship with the Christ Being. One might say that a quite glorious endeavor existed in this direction, and in a certain respect it was a powerful one.

Anyone who follows the spread of Eastern Christianity and the spread of Arianism4 Arianism, teachings of the presbyter Arius of Alexandria (died A.D. 336), who rejected the idea that Christ's being was identical with the being of God the Father. can see a Mithras element in it, even though in already quite weakened form. Any translation of the Ulfilas-Bible5 Ulfilas (Wulfila in Germanic), A.D. 311–383, missionary to the West-Goths in the Balcan region; founder of Arianic-Germanic Christendom, who translated the Bible into Gothic. into modern languages remains imperfect if one is unaware that Mithras elements still play into the terminology of Ulfilas (or Wulfila). But who pays heed nowadays to these deeper relationships in the linguistic element? As late as in the fourth century, there were philosophers in Greece who worked on bringing the ancient etheric astronomy into harmony with Christianity. From this effort then arose the true Gnosis, which was thoroughly eradicated by later Christianity, so that only a few fragments of the literary samples of this Gnosis have remained.

What do people really know today about the Gnosis, of which they say in their ignorance that our anthroposophy is a warmed-over version? Even if this were true, such people would not be able to know about it, for they are familiar only with those parts of the Gnosis that are found in the critical, Occidental-Christian texts dealing with the Gnosis. They know the quotes from Gnostic texts left behind by the opponents of the Gnosis. There is hardly anything left of the Gnosis except what could be described by the following comparison. Imagine that Herr von Gleich would be successful in rooting out the whole of anthroposophical literature and nothing would remain except his quotations. Then, later on, somebody would attempt to reconstruct anthroposophy based on these quotes; then, it would be about the same procedure in the West as that which was applied to the Gnosis. Therefore, if people say that modern anthroposophy imitates the Gnosis, they would not know it even if it were the case, because they are unfamiliar with the Gnosis, knowing of it only through its opponents.

So, particularly in Athens, a school of wisdom existed well into the fourth century, and indeed even longer, that endeavored to bring the ancient etheric astronomy into harmony with Christianity. The last remnants of this view—man's entering from higher worlds through the planetary sphere into the earth sphere—still illuminate the writings of Origen; they even shine through the texts of the Greek Church Fathers. Everywhere one can see it shimmer through. It shines through particularly in the writings of the genuine Dionysius the Areopagite.6 Dionysius the Areopagite, member of the Areopagus in Athens, around A.D. 500. Converted by Paul (Acts 17:34). Connected Christianity with neo-Platonic philosophy. Also compare with Lecture XV of June 2, 1921, in this volume. This Dionysius left behind a teaching that was a pure synthesis of the etheric astronomy and the element dwelling in Christianity. He taught that the forces localized, as it were, astronomically and cosmically in the sun entered into the earth sphere in Christ through the man Jesus of Nazareth and that thereby a certain previously nonexistent relationship came into being between the earth and all the higher hierarchies, the hierarchies of the Angels, of Wisdom, the hierarchies of the Thrones and the Seraphim, and so on. It was a penetration of this teaching of the hierarchies with etheric astronomy that could be found in the original Dionysius the Areopagite.

Then, in the sixth century, the attempt was made to obliterate the traces even of the more ancient teachings by Dionysius the Areopagite. They were altered in such a way that they now represented merely an abstract teaching of the spirit. In the form in which the teaching of Dionysius the Areopagite has come down to us, it is a spiritual teaching that no longer has much to do with etheric astronomy. This is the reason he is then called the “Pseudo-Dionysius.” In this manner, the decline of the teaching of wisdom was brought about. On the one hand, the teachings of Dionysius were distorted; on the other hand, the truly alive teaching in Athens that had tried to unite etheric astronomy with Christianity was eradicated. Finally, in regard to the cultic aspect, the Mithras worship was exterminated.

In addition, there were contributions by individuals such as Constantine.7 Constantine I., the Great, A.D. 286 or 287–337. Roman emperor from 306 to 337, made Christianity the state religion in 324. His actions were intensified later by the fact that Emperor Justinian8 Justinian I, A.D. 483–565, Byzantine emperor from A.D. 527–565, builder of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. In A.D. 529, he closed the Platonic Academy of Athens. ordered the School of Philosophers in Athens closed. Thus, the last remaining people who had occupied themselves with bringing the old etheric astronomy into harmony with Christianity had to emigrate; they found a place in Persia where they could at least live out their lives. Based on the same program, according to which he had closed the Athenian Academy of Philosophers, Justinian also had Origen declared a heretic. For the same reason, he abolished Roman consulship, though it led only a shadowy existence, people sought in it a kind of power of resistance against the Roman concept of the state, which was reduced to pure jurisprudence. The ancient human element people still associated with the office of consul disappeared in the political imperialism of Rome.

Thus, in the fourth century, we see the diminishing of the cultic worship that could have brought Christianity closer to man. We observe the diminishing of the ancient wisdom teaching of an etheric astronomy that tried to unite with the insight into the significance of the Mystery of Golgotha. And in the West, we see an element take its place that already carried within itself the seeds of the later materialism, which could not become a theory until the fifteenth century when the fifth post-Atlantean epoch began, but which was prepared in the main through taking the spiritual heritage from the Orient and imbuing it with materialistic substance.

We must definitely turn our minds to this course of European civilization. Otherwise, the foundations of European civilization will never become quite clear to us. It will also never become really clear to us how it was possible that, again and again, when people moved to the Orient, they could bring back with them powerful spiritual stimuli from there. Above all else, throughout the first part of the Middle Ages, there was lively commercial traffic from the Orient up the Danube River, following exactly those routes taken by the ancient Mithras worship, which, naturally, had already died away at the beginning of the Middle Ages. The merchants who traveled to the Orient and back again, always found in the East what had preceded Christianity but definitely tended already towards Christianity. We observe, moreover, that when the Crusaders journeyed to the Orient, they received stimuli from the remnants they could still discern there, and they brought treasures of ancient wisdom back to Europe.

I mentioned that the ancient medical knowledge of fluids was connected with this old body of wisdom. Again and again, people who traveled to the Orient, even the Crusaders and those who journeyed with the Crusades, upon their return always brought back with them remnants of this old medicine to Europe. These remnants of an ancient medicine were then transmitted in the form of tradition all over Europe. Certain individuals who at the same time were ahead of their age in their own spiritual evolution then went through remarkable developments, such as the personality we know under the name Basilius Valentinus.9 Basilius Valentinus, born around 1394, alchemist of the fifteenth century. His collected writings were first published in Hamburg by W. S. Lange in 1677.

What kind of personality was he? He was somebody who had taken up the tradition of the old medicine of fluids from the people with whom he had spent his youth, at times without understanding it from this or that indication. Until a short time ago—today it is already less often the case—there still existed in the old peasant's sayings remnants of this medical tradition that had been brought over from the Orient by the many travelers. These remnants were in a sense preserved by the peasantry; those who grew up among peasants heard of them; as a rule they were those who then became priests. In particular those who became monks came from the peasantry. There, they had heard this or that of what was in fact distorted treasure of ancient wisdom that had become decadent. These people did undergo an independent educational development. Up until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the educational development an individual went through by means of Christian theology was something much more liberal than it was later on. Based on their own spirituality, these priests and monks gradually brought a certain amount of order into these matters. They pondered what they had heard; out of their own genius, they connected the various matters. Thus originated the writings that have been preserved as the writings of Basilius Valentinus.

Indeed, these conditions also gave rise to a school of thought from which Paracelsus10Theophrastus Bombastus Paracelsus of Hohenheim, 1493–1541. Concerning this great Swiss doctor and philosopher, see Rudolph Steiner: Eleven European Mystics, Rudolf Steiner Publications, New York, 1971. even Jacob Boehme11Jacob Boehme, 1575–1624, concerning the mysticism of the master shoemaker, see above book. learned. Even these individuals still took up the treasure of ancient medical wisdom that lived, I might say, in the folk group soul. One can notice this primarily in Jacob Boehme, but also in Paracelsus and others, even if one considers their writings only in a superficial way. If you look closely at, for example, Jacob Boehme's text “De Signatura Rerum,” you will find in the manner of his presentation that what I have said is very obvious. It is a form of old folk wisdom that basically contained distorted ancient wisdom. Such old folk wisdom was by no means as abstract as our present-day science; instead, there still existed a sensitivity for the objective element in words. One felt something in the words. Just as one tries to know through concepts today, one felt in the words. One knew that the human being had drawn the words out of the objective essence of the universe itself.

This can become evident in Jacob Boehme's efforts to feel what really lies concealed in the syllable, “sul,” or again in the syllable, “phur” of “sulphur”. See how Jacob Boehme struggles in “De Signatura Rerum,” to draw something out of a word, to draw out an inner word-extract, to draw something out of the word “sulphur” in order to come to an entity. The feeling is definitely present there that when one experiences the extract of words, one arrives at something real. In former times, it was felt, something had settled into the words the human soul absorbed when it moved from spheres beyond through the planetary sphere into earthly existence. But what the soul placed into the words due to its closeness to the intermingling of fluids when the child learned to speak was still something objective. There was still something in speech that was like instruction by the gods, not merely like human instruction. In Jacob Boehme we see this noble striving that can be expressed somewhat as if he had felt, I would like to consider speech as something in which living gods work behind the phenomena into the human organization in order to form speech and, along with speech, a certain treasure of wisdom.

Thus we see that the ancient body of wisdom does indeed continue on into later ages, though already taken up by modern thinking, which, it is true, is yet barely evident in such original and outstanding minds like Jacob Boehme and Paracelsus. Into what has thus been brought forth the purely intellectualistic, theoretical element is now imprinted, the element that is based on man's physical thinking and takes hold only of the physical realm. We see how, on the one hand, purely physical astronomy arises, and how, on the other hand, physiology and anatomy come about, which are directed exclusively upon the clearly defined organs of man—in short, the whole medical adumbration.

Thus, the human being gradually finds himself surrounded by a world that he comprehends only in a physical sense and in which he himself as a cosmic being certainly has no place. Concerning himself, he grasps only what he has become by virtue of the earth; for it is thanks to the earth that he has become this solidly bounded, physical, organic being. He can no longer reconcile what is revealed to him of the universe through physical astronomy with what dwells in his form and points to something else. He turns his attention away from the manner in which the human form indicates something else. He finally loses all awareness of the fact that his striving for erect posture and the special manner and means by which he attains to speech out of his organism cannot originate from the Mithras-Bull, but only from Mithras. He no longer wishes to occupy himself with all this, for he is sailing full force into materialism. He has to sail into materialism, for religious consciousness itself, after all, has absorbed only the external, material phenomenon of Christianity. It has then dogmatized this external, material phenomenon without attempting to perceive through some wisdom how the Mystery of Golgotha took place, but instead trying to determine through stipulations what truth is.

Thus we observe the transition from the ancient Oriental position of thinking based on cosmic insight to the specifically Roman-European form of observation. How were matters "determined" in the Orient, and how could something be “determined” about the Mystery of Golgotha based on Oriental instinctive perception? If we take the insight coming out of the cosmos, looking up at the stars, that insight, though it was an instinctive, elemental insight, should lead to, or was at least supposed to lead to, the meaning of the Mystery of Golgotha. This was the path taken in the Orient. Beginning with the fifth century, there was no longer any sensitivity for this path. By replacing the Asiatic manner of determination more and more with the Egyptian form, earlier Church Councils had already pointed out that the nature of the Mystery of Golgotha should not be determined in this manner, but that the majority of the Fathers gathered at the Councils should decide. The juristic principle was put in the place of the Oriental principle of insight; dogmatism was brought into the juristic element. People no longer had the feeling that truth must be determined out of universal conscience. They began to feel that it was possible to ascertain, based on resolutions of the Councils, whether the divine and the human nature in Christ Jesus was two natures or one, and other such things. We see the Egypto-Roman juristic element pervading the innermost configuration of Occidental civilization, an element that even today is deeply rooted in human beings who are not inclined to permit truth to determine their relationship to it. Instead, they wish to make decisions based on emotional factors; therefore, they have no other measure for determining things except majority rule in some form.

We shall say more about this tomorrow.

Vierter Vortrag

[ 1 ] Eine Betrachtung, die ich begonnen habe, bevor unser Kursus in Szene gesetzt worden ist, wird erst völlig verständlich werden, wenn wir noch weiter zurückgehen in der Betrachtung der Entwickelung der Menschheit der neueren Geschichte, denn wir haben ja im wesentlichen nur zunächst einige Andeutungen gegeben über die Menschheitsentwickelung im 19. Jahrhundert. Nun wollen wir heute einmal die geistige Entwickelung der Menschheit um einiges weiter zurück verfolgen und zwar zurückweisend auf einen außerordentlich wichtigen Einschnitt in der abendländischen Zivilisationsentwickelung, auf jenen Wendepunkt, der da liegt im 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert. In diesem 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert taucht ja auf als eine Gestalt, deren Andenken gewissermaßen noch klar geblieben ist für die abendländische Zivilisation, Aurelius Augustinus. In ihm sehen wir eigentlich eine Persönlichkeit, welche in der intensivsten Weise zu kämpfen hat auf der einen Seite mit demjenigen, was herübergekommen ist aus alten Zeiten, was in den ersten Jahrhunderten des Christentums aus einer gewissen alten Weisheit heraus das Christentum zu begründen versuchte, und einem anderen Elemente, demjenigen, das dann zunächst für die abendländische Zivilisation gesiegt hat, das diese ältere Weise ablehnte und sich darauf beschränkte, das Christentum mehr in einer äußerlich materiellen Weise aufzufassen, es nicht zu durchdringen mit Ideen alter Weisheit, sondern einfach es seinem tatsächlichen Gründungsverlaufe nach zu erzählen und es dann, so gut es damals schon ging, intellektuell zu begreifen.

[ 2 ] Diese Kämpfe zwischen diesen zwei Richtungen, ich möchte sagen, zwischen der Richtung eines weisheitsvollen Christentums und eines mehr oder weniger nach einem materialistischen Auffassen hin erscheinenden Christentums, diese Kämpfe mußten die Seelen gerade des 4. und des beginnenden 5. Jahrhunderts am intensivsten durchmachen. Und in Augustinus ist eben eine solche Persönlichkeit dem Andenken der Menschheit erhalten geblieben, welche solche Kämpfe durchgemacht hat. Wir müssen uns nur heute darüber völlig klarsein, daß über dasjenige, was eigentlich vor diesem 4.nachchristlichen Jahrhundert lebte, die historischen Dokumente fast völlig irrtümliche Vorstellungen hervorrufen. So klar dies eben liegt seit dem 5. Jahrhundert, so unklar sind eigentlich alle gewöhnlichen Vorstellungen über diejenigen Jahrhunderte, die vorangehen. Wenn wit aber zunächst ins Auge fassen, was eigentlich die meisten wissen könnten aus dieser Zeit vor dem 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert, so werden wir auf zwei Gebiete verwiesen, auf ein Gebiet, das mehr ein Gebiet, sagen wir, des Erkennens ist, ein mehr in den Schulen gepflegtes Gebiet, und ein anderes Gebiet, das mehr ein solches des Kultus ist, der Verehrung, des religiösen Elementes. In diese zwei Gebiete ragt allerdings noch etwas sehr Altes aus der Menschheitszivilisation herein; aber in einer gewissermaßen christlichen Umfärbung war dieses Alte nach den beiden Richtungen hin, nach der Weisheitsseite und nach der Kultusseite eben in den ersten vier christlichen Jahrhunderten mehr oder weniger noch vorhanden.

[ 3 ] Sehen wir nach der Weisheitsseite hin, so finden wir eine Lehre bewahrt aus früheren Zeiten, die allerdings schon in einem gewissen Sinne ersetzt worden war durch dasjenige, was wir heute das heliozentrische Weltsystem nennen - ich habe darüber in früheren Vorträgen auch hier gesprochen -, aber das doch noch vorhanden war aus älteren astronomischen Lehren heraus und das man nennen könnte eine Art Astronomie, jetzt nicht vom Standpunkt physischer kosmologischer Betrachtung aus. Man ist in sehr alten Zeiten auf diese — nennen wir sie ätherische im Gegensatz zu unserer physischen — Astronomie auf folgende Art gekommen. Man hatte in alten Zeiten durchaus noch ein Bewußtsein davon, daß der Mensch mit seinem Wesen nicht nur der Erde angehört, sondern daß er auch angehört zunächst der kosmischen Nachbarschaft der Erde, dem Planetensystem, und eine alte Weisheit hatte ziemlich konkrete Vorstellungen über diese ätherische Astronomie. Es wurde etwa das Folgende gelehrt. Wenn man dasjenige ins Auge faßt, was mehr die Organisation des oberen Menschen ausmacht - ich bediene mich jetzt derjenigen Ausdrücke, die uns heute geläufig sein sollten -, insofern man seinen Ätherleib betrachtet, so steht der Mensch im Wechselverhältnis mit Saturn, Jupiter und Mars, so daß also hingesehen worden ist auf gewisse Wechselwirkungen zwischen dem oberen Teil des menschlichen Ätherleibes und Saturn, Jupiter und Mars. Dann sagte man sich, derjenige Teil des Menschen, der mehr astralischer Natur ist, der steht wiederum in einer Art von Wechselwirkung mit Venus, mit Merkur und mit dem Mond. Und diejenigen Kräfte, welche den Menschen dann hereinführen in sein irdisches Dasein, welche machen, daß sich diesem Ätherleib ein physischer Leib eingliedert, das sind die Kräfte der Erde. Diejenigen Kräfte aber, welche machen, daß der Mensch nicht aufgeht im irdischen Leben, daß der Mensch gewissermaßen eine Art Ausblick hat vom irdischen Leben hinaus, das sind die Kräfte der Sonne.

[ 4 ] Und so sagte man sich: Der Mensch kommt aus unbekannten geistigen Welten, die er durchgemacht hat im präexistenten Leben, und er tritt ein nicht etwa bloß ins irdische Leben, sondern er tritt ein aus außerplanetarischen Welten in das planetarische Leben. Das planetarische Leben nimmt ihn so, wie ich es beschrieben habe, nach Sonne, Mond, Erde, Merkur, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn auf. In dem Umlaufe des Saturn sah man etwa die Sphäre, in die der Mensch eintritt seinem ätherischen Leibe nach aus dem außerplanetarischen Leben in das planetarische Leben. Und man brachte durchaus dasjenige, was ätherisch ist am Menschen, mit diesem planetarischen Leben in Beziehung. Nur insofern der Ätherleib sich dann auslebt im physischen Leib, brachte man diesen physischen Leib mit der Erde in Beziehung. Insofern der Mensch aber durch sein Ich sich wiederum heraushebt aus ätherischem und astralischem Leib, brachte man das mit der Sonne in Beziehung.

[ 5 ] So hatte man eine Art ätherischer Astronomie. Diese ätherische Astronomie hat durchaus auch noch die Möglichkeit gehabt, nicht so bloß auf die physischen Geschicke des Menschen hinzuschauen wie die physische Astronomie; sondern, da man des Menschen Ätherleib, der wiederum mit dem Geistigen des Menschen in einem intimeren Zusammenhange steht, im Wechselverhältnis erblickte mit denselben Kräften des Planetensystems, so hatte man die Möglichkeit, weil ja im Menschen sich aus dem Planetensystem heraus auf dem Umwege dutch den ätherischen Leib die Schicksalskräfte ausleben können, von der menschlichen Konstitution zu reden und in diese menschliche Konstitution die Schicksalsmächte einzubeziehen.

[ 6 ] Es war also in dieser Lehre alter Schule, weiche fortgepflanzt wurde, nachdem man schon das heliozentrische System als eine Art esoterisch-physischer Wissenschaft ausgebildet hatte, es war in dieser ätherischen Astronomie eine letzte Weisheitslehre aus alten instinktiven Weisheitsforschungen hervorgegangen, und diese hatte sich als Tradition erhalten. Man redete nicht anders von den Einflüssen des Himmels, als daß man sich sagte: Ja, diese Einflüsse des Himmels sind vorhanden; sie tragen aber nicht bloß die Naturangelegenheiten, sie tragen auch die menschlichen Schicksalskräfte. Und so war durchaus dazumal eine Verbindung zwischen dem, was man nennen könnte die Naturlehre, die Kosmologie, und dem, was dann später übergegangen ist in alles das, was die Leute nun als Astrologisches auffassen, was aber in alten Zeiten einen viel exakteren und auf unmittelbarer Beobachtung ruhenden Charakter hatte.

[ 7 ] Wenn der Mensch dann gewissermaßen auf seinem Weg zur neuen Geburt die Planetensphäre - so dachte man sich das - betreten hat und von ihr seinem ätherischen Leib nach aufgenommen worden ist, so betritt er fernerhin die Erde. Er wird von der Erde aufgenommen. Aber auch da dachte man noch nicht bloß etwa an die feste Erde, sondern auch da dachte man eigentlich an die Erde in ihren Elementen. Man sagte sich: Der Mensch wird außerdem, daß er von der Planetensphäre aufgenommen wird - wodurch er aber ein überirdisches Wesen sein würde, wodurch er dasjenige sein würde, was er eigentlich nur als Seele ist -, als Kind aufgenommen von den Elementen der Erde, von Feuer oder Wärme, von Luft, von Wasser und von der eigentlichen Erde. - Das war erst die eigentliche Erde. Und dadurch, dachte man sich, wird sein Ätherleib von diesem äußeren Elemente so tingiert, so durchtränkt, daß nun in diesem Ätherleib die Temperamente entstehen. So dachte man sich diese Temperamente an den Ätherleib und damit an die Vitalorganisation des Menschen eng gebunden. Man sah also in demjenigen, was eigentlich physisch im Menschen ist, oder wenigstens was durch den physischen Leib sich offenbart, durchaus etwas Geistiges mit in dieser alten Lehre. Und ich möchte sagen, der menschlichste Teil dieser Lehre war dann dasjenige, was zum Beispiel noch deutlich zu sehen ist in der Medizin der damaligen Zeit. Die Arzneimittel, die Heillehre, das war durchaus hervorgegangen aus dieser Anschauung von dem Verhältnis des ätherischen Leibes des Menschen zu dem Planetensystem und außerdem zu dem Eindringen gewissermaßen des ätherischen Menschen in die höheren Sphären, in Luft, Wasser, Wärme, Erde, wodurch sich also in seine Organisation hineinfanden die physischen Abdrücke seiner ätherisch-seelischen Temperamente: schwarze Galle, weiße Galle, die anderen Säfte, Phlegma, Blut und so weiter. Diese Anschauungsweise also, daß in den Säften des Menschen erkannt werden kann das Wesen der menschlichen Konstitution, das war etwas, was in dieser Lehre gang und gäbe war. Man studierte dazumal nicht etwa die einzelnen Organe, die sich zeichnen ließen, sondern man studierte in der Medizin die Säftezusammenmischung, die Säftedurchdringung, und man sah in einem Organ eben ein Ergebnis einer besonderen Säftedurchdtingung. Man sah in dem gesunden Menschen eine bestimmte Art, wie sich die Säfte durchdringen, man sah in dem kranken Menschen eine abnorme Durchdringung der Säfte, so daß man sagen kann: Die Medizin, welche sich aus dieser Lehre ergab, war durchaus begründet auf der Anschauung des wäßrigen menschlichen Organismus, des flüssigen menschlichen Organismus. Was wir heute die Erkenntnis des menschlichen Organismus nennen, das ist ja begründet auf dem festen menschlichen Organismus, auf dem erdigen menschlichen Organismus. In bezug auf die Anschauung vom Menschen ist der Gang der, daß man von einem älteren Durchschauen des flüssigen Menschen übergegangen ist zu einem neueren Durchschauen des festen Menschen mit den scharfen Konturen der Organe.

[ 8 ] Dieser Gang der medizinischen Lehre geht parallel dem Übergang der alten ätherischen Astronomie zu der modernen physischen Astronomie. Der ätherischen Astronomie entspricht noch im wesentlichen die Medizin des HippoXrates, aber auch noch bis in das 4. nachchristliche Jahrhundert hinein sind die Leistungen dieser medizinischen Anschauung vorhanden, welche sich auf die Säftemischung des Menschen bezieht, und zwar in einer exakten Weise, nicht wie später in der Tradition. Und indem verdunkelt worden ist diese alte Lehre seit dem 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert, und dann heraufgekommen ist mit dem 15. Jahrhundert die physische Astronomie an die Stelle der alten ätherischen Astronomie, ist auch die Pathologie, ist die ganze medizinische Anschauung begründet worden auf der Lehre von dem Festen im Menschen, von dem dutch scharfe Konturen im menschlichen Organismus zu Begrenzenden und Auszudrückenden. Das ist im wesentlichen die Seite der Entwickelung der Menschheit in dem anorganischen Zeitalter.

[ 9 ] Wir können nun aber auch den Blick werfen auf dasjenige, was von jenen Zeiten zurückgeblieben ist an Kulthandlungen, an religiösen Zeremonien. Die religiösen Zeremonien wurden mehr der großen Masse gegeben; dasjenige, was ich jetzt auseinandergesetzt habe, wurde mehr eben als ein Weisheitsgut der Schule betrachtet. Diejenigen kultischen Verrichtungen, welche sich von Asien herüber nach Europa erstreckt haben und welche durchaus entsprechen als Kultusbestrebungen dieser Anschauung, die ich Ihnen jetzt entwickelt habe, die sind der Mithrasdienst, jener Mithrasdienst, den wir ja durchaus noch in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten finden, sich herübererstreckend vom Osten nach dem Westen, den wit verfolgen können den Donauländern entlang bis zu den Rheingegenden, bis nach Frankreich hinein. Dieser Mithrasdienst, den Sie ja seinen äußerlichen Formen nach kennen, läßt sich etwa kurz durch eine Formel dadurch charakterisieren, daß mit dem irdischen und kosmischen Zusammenhange imaginativ bildhaft der Besieger des Mithrasstieres dargestellt worden ist: der Mensch auf dem Stiere reitend und die Stierkräfte besiegend. Man hat heute sehr leicht die Vorstellung, daß sich solche Bilder, die ja alle Kultbilder sind religiöse Versinnbildlichungen, wenn wir so sagen dürfen, die aus den alten Weisheitslehren organisch hervorgegangen sind -, daß sich solche Kultbilder einfach abstrakt-symbolisch aus den alten Weisheitslehren ergeben hätten. Aber es ist eine ganz und gar falsche Vorstellung, wenn man glauben würde, es hätte alte Weisheitslehrer gegeben und die hätten sich hingesetzt und hätten gesagt: Jetzt wollen wir ein Symbol ausdenken; für uns ist die Weisheitslehre, für das dumme Volk müssen wir Symbole ausdenken, die dann zu ihren Kultushandlungen führen können und dergleichen. — Solche Voraussetzungen wären grundfalsch. Eine solche Voraussetzung haben ungefähr die modernen Freimaurer, und die modernen Freimaurer denken ähnlich auch über das Wesen ihrer Symbolik. Aber es ist das nicht die Anschauung der alten Weisheitslehrer gewesen. Die Anschauung der alten Weisheitslehrer, möchte ich Ihnen jetzt gerade an den Beziehungen des Mithrasdienstes zu derjenigen Anschauung, die ich eben entwickelt habe, darlegen. Diejenigen Menschen, die noch eine lebendige Anschauung hatten von diesem Aufgenommenwerden des Menschen durch die planetarische Welt hinsichtlich seines Ätherleibes, von dem Aufgenommenwerden des Menschen dann in die irdische Elementensphäre, Wärme oder Feuer, Luft, Wasser, Erde, und von dem Herausbilden von schwarzer Galle, weißer Galle, Phlegma, Blut aus der Einwirkung dieser Elemente auf die menschliche Ätherwesenheit, diejenigen, die davon eine Ahnung hatten, die konnten sich auch noch eine bedeutsame Frage vorlegen, eine grundbedeutsame Frage. Sie legten sich eine Frage vor, auf die man kommen kann, wenn man wirklich eine imaginative Anschauung hat. Die Antwort auf diese Frage, sie war dazumal eine instinktive imaginative Anschauung, aber man kann sie heute wiederholen mit vollem Bewußtsein. Wenn man sich eine imaginative Anschauung, von diesem Hereingehen des Menschen aus der geistigen Welt durch die Planetensphäre in die irdische Feuer-, Luft-, Wasser-, Erdensphäre, wenn man sich eine solche Vorstellung bildet, da kommt man nämlich dazu, sich zu sagen: Ja, wenn da etwas hereingeht aus der außerplanetarischen Sphäre in die planetarische und in die Erdensphäre und aufgenommen wird von der Erdensphäre, da wird ja gar kein wirklicher Mensch daraus; ich meine, wenn man sich die Vorstellung bildet von dem, was da eigentlich wird, wenn man dasjenige, was man in rein imaginativer Vorstellung erblicken kann außerhalb der Planetensphäre, was da hereingeht und aufgenommen wird von der Planetensphäre, was dann ergriffen wird von dem, was von der Erdensphäre ausgeht, wenn man das als imaginative Anschauung hat, so wird ja kein Mensch daraus. Man kommt nicht zu der Vorstellung des Menschen. Man kommt zu der Vorstellung, die sich am deutlichsten wiedergibt, wenn man nicht einen Menschen sich vorstellt, sondern einen Stier sich vorstellt, ein Rind sich vorstellt. - Es sagten sich die alten Weisheitslehrer: Wenn es nur das gäbe, was da als eine außerplanetarische Wesenheit herunterzieht in diese planetarische Werdesphäre, so lebten auf Erden keine Menschen. Man kommt allerdings, sagten sie sich, wenn man das zunächst betrachtet, dazu, sich diese Vorstellung zu bilden von dem Hereinziehen einer Wesenheit aus der außerplanetarischen in die planetarische und Erdensphäre; aber wenn man nun herausgestalten will ganz plastisch eine imaginative Anschauung aus dem, was man in diesen Vorstellungen hat, da wird es kein Mensch, da wird es ein bloßer Stier. Und wenn man nichts anderes begreift im Menschen als dieses, begreift man im Menschen auch nur das Stierhafte. - Diese Vorstellungen haben die alten Weisheitslehrer sich gebildet, diese Vorstellung war da. Nun sagten sie sich: Also muß der Mensch gegen dieses Stierhafte mit noch einem Höheren ankämpfen. Er muß dasjenige, was diese Weisheit als Anschauung gibt, überwinden. Er ist als Mensch mehr ein Wesen, das bloß aus der außerplanetarischen Sphäre kommt, in die planetarische Sphäre hineinkommt und von den irdischen Elementen ergriffen wird; er hat etwas in sich, was mehr ist.

[ 10 ] Ich möchte sagen, bis zu diesem Begriff kamen diese Weisheitslehrer, und deshalb bildeten sie dann den Stier aus, setzten den Mithras darauf, den kämpfenden Menschen, der den Stier überwindet und der sich sagt: Ich muß einen weit höheren Ursprung haben als denjenigen, den ein solches Wesen hat, welches im Sinne jener alten Weisheitslehre vorgestellt wurde. — Und nun sagten sich diese Lehrer: Diese alte Weisheitslehre enthält allerdings eine Hindeutung auf das, worauf es hier ankommt. Diese alte Weisheitslehre blickt auf in die Planetensphäre zu Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Merkur, Venus, Mond und so weiter; aber sie sagt auch: Indem der Mensch sich der Erde nähert, wird er fortwährend von der Sonne herausgehoben, daß er nicht aufgehe in dem Irdischen, daß er nicht bloß bleibe dasjenige, was aus der Mischung von schwarzer und weißer Galle, Phlegma und Blut und aus dem Ätherleib hervorgeht, wenn er von der Planetensphäre aufgenommen wird, und wenn der astralische Leib von der anderen Planetensphäre aufgenommen wird durch Merkur, Venus, Mond. Was den Menschen heraushebt, es wohnt in der Sonne. Daher sagten sich diese Lehrer: Machen wir den Menschen aufmerksam auf die in ihm wohnenden Sonnenkräfte, so ist er der Mithras, der den Stier besiegt!

[ 11 ] Das war dann das Kultusbild. Es sollte nicht bloß ein ausgedachtes Symbolum sein, sondern es sollte tatsächlich das Faktum, das kosmologische Faktum geben. Die religiöse Zeremonie war mehr als ein bloßes äußeres Zeichen; sie war etwas, was gewissermaßen herausgeschnitten war aus dem Wesen der Welt selber.

[ 12 ] Dieses Kultartige, das war etwas, was seit sehr alten Zeiten da war, was aus Asien nach Europa herübergebracht worden war. Es war, ich möchte sagen, das Christentum von der einen Seite angesehen, von der äußeren, von der astronomischen Seite angesehen, denn Mithras war die Sonnenktaft im Menschen. Mithras war der Mensch, der sich auflehnte gegen das bloß Planetarische und Irdische. Und nun entstand ein gewisses Bestreben, dessen Ausläufer wir überall wahrnehmen können, wenn wir auf die ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte zurückgehen. Es entstand das Bestreben, die historische Tatsache, das Mysterium von Golgatha zusammenzunehmen mit dem Mithrasdienst. Zahlreich waren in der damaligen Zeit, insbesondere innerhalb der römischen Legionschaft, die Menschen, die dasjenige, was sie in Asien, was sie überhaupt im Oriente erfahren konnten, herübertrugen in die Donauländer bis weit herein nach Mitteleuropa, ja sogar nach Westeuropa. In dem, was sie da als Mithrasdienst herübertrugen, lebten Empfindungen, die, ohne das Mysterium von Golgatha zu reflektieren, durchaus christliche Anschauungen, christliche Empfindungen in sich hatten. Der Mithrasdienst wurde als ein konkreter Dienst betrachtet, der sich bezog auf die Sonnenkräfte im Menschen. Nur wurde noch nicht gesehen in diesem Mithrasdienst, daß mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha diese Sonnenkraft selber heruntergestiegen war als die geistige Wesenheit und sich mit dem Menschen Jesus von Nazareth vereinigt hatte.

[ 13 ] Und nun gab es - und je weiter wir in den Untersuchungen nach Osten gehen, desto klarer wird es - bis in das 4. nachchristliche Jahrhundert herein Weisheitsschulen im Osten, welche nach und nach Berichte bekamen, Nachrichten bekamen, Kenntnis bekamen von dem Mysterium von Golgatha, von dem Christus. Sie bemühten sich nun, ein Diktum über die Welt hin zu verbreiten, und es war eine Zeitlang durchaus das Bestreben, in den Mithraskultus hineinzugießen dasjenige, was der übersinnlichen Anschauung entspricht: Der wahre Mithras, das ist der Christus, und Mithras ist sein Vorläufer; man muß hineingießen in diejenigen Kräfte im Menschen, welche den Stier besiegen, die Christus-Kraft. Aus dem Mithrasdienst einen Christus-Dienst zu machen, das ist etwas, was in den ersten nachchristlichen Jahrhunderten bis ins 4. hinein intensiv lebte. Und ich möchte sagen, der Verbreitung des Mithrasdienstes folgte die Strömung, welche nun diesen Mithrasdienst verchristlichen wollte. Eine Synthese wurde angestrebt zwischen dem Christentum und dem Mithrasdienst. Ein altes bedeutsames Bild vom Wesen des Menschen, der auf dem Stier reitende und den Stier besiegende Mithras, sollte in Zusammenhang gebracht werden mit der ChristusWesenheit. Man möchte sagen: Ein ganz glorioses Bestreben bestand in dieser Richtung, und es war in einer gewissen Weise dieses Bestreben stark.

[ 14 ] Wer nun die Verbreitung des östlichen Christentums, die Verbreitung des Arianismus beobachtet, kann an der Verbreitung des Arianismus wahrnehmen, wie ein Mithraselement in diesem Arianismus drinnen ist, obwohl es schon sehr geschwächt ist. Und jede Übersetzung der Ulfilas-Bibel in die neueren Sprachen bleibt unvollkommen, wenn man nicht weiß, daß in die Termini des Ulfilas, des Wulfila, noch Mithraselemente hineinspielten. Aber wer beachtet denn heute im linguistischen, im sprachlichen Elemente noch diese tieferen Zusammenhänge. In Griechenland gab es bis ins 4. Jahrhundert hinein Philosophen, welche daran arbeiteten, die alte ätherische Astronomie mit dem Christentum in Einklang zu bringen, und daraus entstand jene wahre Gnosis, welche durch das spätere Christentum gründlich ausgerottet worden ist, so daß nur einige Fragmente von den literarischen Proben dieser Gnosis übriggeblieben sind. Was wissen denn die heutigen Menschen, das sagte ich schon neulich, eigentlich über die Gnosis, von der sie in ihrer Torheit sagen, daß unsere Anthroposophie eine Aufwärmung dieser Gnosis sei. Selbst wenn sie es wäre, so könnten es diese Menschen gar nicht wissen, denn sie kennen von der Gnosis eben nur das, was in den abendländischen christlichen kritischen Schriften über die Gnosis steht. Die Zitate kennen sie, welche die Bekämpfer der Gnosis von ihr hinterlassen haben. Von der Gnosis ist ja kaum mehr vorhanden als nur dasjenige, was sich etwa durch folgenden Vergleich ausdrücken läßt: Denken Sie einmal, es gelänge dem Herrn von Gleich, alles auszurotten, was von der anthroposophischen Literatur da ist, und es bliebe nichts anderes als seine Zitate, und dann würde man später einmal konstruieren wollen diese Anthroposophie nach diesen Zitaten, dann würde man im Abendlande ungefähr das Verfahren haben, das man hat mit der Gnosis. Wenn also die Leute sagen, die neuere Anthroposophie ahme die Gnosis nach, so können sie, selbst wenn sie es täte, es ja nicht wissen, denn sie kennen die Gnosis nicht, sie kennen sie ja nur von den Gegnern!

[ 15 ] Also in Athen namentlich war bis ins 4. Jahrhundert herein, ja noch länger, eine Weisheitsschule, welche sich bemühte, die alte ätherische Astronomie mit dem Christentum in Einklang zu bringen. Die letzten Reste dieser Anschauung von dem Hereinkommen des Menschen aus höheren Welten durch die Planetensphäre in die Erdensphäre, sie durchglänzen noch die Schriften des Origenes, glänzen noch durch selbst durch die Schriften der griechischen Kirchenväter. Man kann überall sehen, wie das da durchglänzt; und es glänzte namentlich durch die Schriften des wahren Dionysius des Areopagiten. Dieser Dionysius der Areopagite hinterließ ja eine Lehre, die eine reine Synthesis war zwischen der ätherischen Astronomie und demjenigen, was im Christentum lebte: daß sich die gewissermaßen in der Sonne astronomisch oder kosmisch lokalisierten Kräfte in dem Christus durch den Menschen Jesus von Nazareth in die Erdensphäre hineinbegeben haben, und daß damit eine gewisse Beziehung, die vorher nicht vorhanden war, zur Erde entstanden ist in bezug auf alle höheren Hierarchien, die Hierarchien der Engel, die Hierarchien der Weistümer, die Hierarchien der Throne, die Hierarchien der Seraphime und so weiter. Eine Durchdringung dieser Hierarchienlehre mit ätherischer Astronomie, das war es, was beim ursprünglichen Dionysius dem Areopagiten vorhanden war.

[ 16 ] Im 6. Jahrhundert hat man dann versucht, die Spuren zu verwischen auch der älteren Lehren des Dionysius des Areopagiten, und man hat sie so umgestaltet, daß man darin eigentlich nur noch eine abstrakte Geisteslehre hatte. So wie heute die Lehre des Dionysius des Areopagiten vorliegt, ist sie ja eine Geisteslehre die nicht mehr viel mit ätherischer Astronomie zu tun hat. Und so nennt man ihn dann den Pseudo-Dionysius. Auf diese Weise hat man der Weisheitslehre einen Untergang bereitet, auf der einen Seite, indem man den Dionysius verballhornt hat, und auf der anderen Seite dadurch, daß man jene noch in Athen ganz lebhaft lebendige Lehre, welche die ätherische Astronomie mit dem Christentum vereinigen wollte, ausgerottet hat, und daß man in bezug auf das Kulthafte dann den Mithrasdienst ausgerottet hat.

[ 17 ] Und dann haben ein übriges getan solche Persönlichkeiten wie Konstantin, dessen Taten in späterer Zeit verstärkt wurden dadurch, daß ja der Kaiser Justinian die Athenische Philosophenschule schließen ließ, so daß die letzten Menschen, welche sich damit befaßt haben, die alte ätherische Astronomie mit dem Christentum in Einklang zu bringen, auswandern mußten und in Persien eine Stätte fanden, wo sie wenigstens ihr Leben fortfristen konnten. Justinian hat ja aus demselben Programm heraus, aus dem er die Athenische Philosophieschule schloß, auch den Origenes für einen Ketzer erklären lassen, und er hat die römische Konsulswürde aus demselben Grunde abgeschafft, die ja eigentlich nur noch ein Schattendasein führte, in der man aber doch, selbst als sie nur noch ein Schattendasein führte, eine Art Widerstandskraft suchte gegenüber der _ romanischen Staatsidee, die in der reinen Juristerei aufging. Das alte Menschliche, das man noch mit der Konsulswürde verband, ließ man verschwinden in dem staatlichen Imperialismus des Romanentums.

[ 18 ] So sehen wir im 4. Jahrhunderte abglimmen, was als Kultusdienst mit dem Menschen näher hätte zusammenbringen können das Christentum, wir sehen abglimmen dasjenige, was als alte Weisheitslehre in einer ätherischen Astronomie sich vereinigen wollte mit der Erkenntnis von der Bedeutung des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Und wir sehen im Westen an dessen Stelle treten dasjenige, was nun schon die Keime des späteren Materialismus in sich trug, der ja erst sich theoretisieren konnte im 15. Jahrhundert, als der fünfte nachatlantische Zeitraum begann, der aber vorbereitet wurde im wesentlichen durch die Vermaterialisierung desjenigen, was noch spirituell aus dem Oriente herübergekommen war.

[ 19 ] Diesen Gang der europäischen Zivilisation müssen wir durchaus ins Auge fassen. Es wird uns sonst niemals ganz durchsichtig werden, - welches eigentlich die Grundlagen der europäischen Zivilisation sind. Und es wird uns sonst niemals ganz klar werden, wie es eigentlich hat möglich sein können, daß immer wieder und wiederum die Menschen, wenn sie nach dem Orient gezogen sind, starke spirituelle Anregungen aus diesem Orient haben mitnehmen können. Vor allen Dingen war ja durch das ganze erste Mittelalter hindurch ein lebendiger Handelsverkehr von dem Orient an der Donau herauf, gerade jene Wege entlang, die der alte Mithrasdienst, der natürlich im ersten Mittelalter bereits verklungen war, genommen hatte. Die Leute,.die da als Handelsleute nach dem Orient und vom Orient her zogen, haben immer wieder das im Orient gefunden, was dem Christentum vorangegangen war, was aber durchaus schon nach dem Christentum hintendierte. Und wir sehen es ja auch, als die Kreuzfahrer nach dem Oriente zogen, wie sie aus den Resten, die sie noch haben erkennen können im Orient, Anregungen empfangen haben, wie sie altes Weisheitsgut nach Europa gebracht haben. Ich sagte: Mit diesem alten Weisheitsgut war die alte Säftemedizin verknüpft. — Immer wieder brachten die Menschen, die nach dem Orient zogen, auch noch diejenigen, die als Kreuzfahrer oder mit den. Kreuzzügen nach dem Orient zogen und die wiederum nach Europa zurückkamen, immerzu brachten sie auch noch Reste dieser alten Medizin nach Europa. Diese Reste einer alten Medizin wurden überall durch Tradition dann in Europa fortgepflanzt. Einzelne Menschen, die dann zu gleicher Zeit mit ihrer eigenen geistigen Entwickelung ihrer Zeit vorangegangen waren, machten dann merkwürdige Entwickelungen durch, wie die Persönlichkeit, die unter dem Namen des Basilius Valentinus weiterlief.

[ 20 ] Was war denn das für eine Persönlichkeit? Es war eine Persönlichkeit, welche unter den Leuten, mit denen sie ihre Jugend verlebt hatte, die Tradition der alten Säftemedizin, zuweilen ganz unverständig, übernommen hatte, in dieser oder jener Andeutung. Bis vor ganz kurzer Zeit - heute ist das schon weniger der Fall - waren in den alten Bauernregeln noch Überreste dieser aus dem Orient durch die Wanderzüge herübergetragenen medizinischen Tradition vorhanden, die eigentlich im Bauerntum sich ablagerten, die dann gehört wurden von denjenigen, die im Bauerntum aufwuchsen; sie : waren. in der Regel diejenigen, die dann Priester wurden. Namentlich diejenigen, die Mönche wurden, wuchsen aus dem Bauerntum heraus. Sie hatten da dies oder jenes gehört, was aber eben verballhorntes, dekadent gewordenes altes Weisheitsgut war. Sie machten aber eine selbständigere Entwickelung durch. Was man als Entwickelung durchmachte durch die christliche Theologie, war ja bis zum 15., 16. Jahrhundert noch etwas viel Freieres als es später geworden war. Da brachten diese Priester und Mönche allmählich aus ihrer eigenen Geistigkeit heraus eine gewisse Ordnung in die Dinge hinein. Sie dachten nach über das, was sie gehört hatten; aus dem eigenen Genie heraus verbanden sie die Dinge, und so entstanden dann die Schriften, die sich erhalten haben als die Schriften des Basilius Valentinus. Ja, es bildete sich dutch so etwas sogar durchaus noch eine Schule, in der auch Paracelsus und selbst Jakob Böhme lernten. Auch diese nahmen noch das, ich möchte sagen, in der Volksgruppenseele lebende alte medizinische Weisheitsgut auf. Man kann das ja bei Jakob Böhme, wo dieses elementar gilt, auch bei Paracelsus und anderen bemerken, auch wenn man die Schriften nur so äußerlich nimmt. Aber wenn man so etwas nimmt bei Jakob Böhme, wie seine Schrift «De signatura rerum», da wird man in der Art der Darstellung finden, daß das, was ich gesagt habe, da mit Händen zu greifen ist. Es ist das solch ein altes Volksgut, das aber im Grunde genommen in sich verballhorntes Weisheitsgut enthielt. Solch ein altes Volksgut war durchaus noch nicht so abstrakt, wie unsere heutige Wissenschaft es ist, sondern es war da etwas von dem Erfühlen des Objektiven in den Worten. Man fühlte in den Worten. So wie man heute in den Begriffen erkennen will, so fühlte man in den Worten. Man wußte, daß der Mensch die Worte aus dem objektiven Wesen der Welt selber hervorgeholt hat. Das kann man merken, wenn sich Jakob Böhme so viel Mühe gibt, zu fühlen, was eigentlich steckt in der Silbe «Sul», und was wiederum steckt in der Silbe «fur»: Sulfur. Sehen Sie sich an, wie zum Beispiel in «De signatura rerum» Jakob Böhme ringt, ich möchte sagen, um etwas herauszusaugen aus einem inneren Wort, einen inneren Wortextrakt, aus dem Worte Sulfur etwas herauszusaugen, um auf eine Wesenheit zu kommen. Es ist da durchaus das Gefühl vorhanden, daß, wenn man den Extrakt der Worte erlebt, man auf etwas Reales kommt. Es hat sich in älteren Zeiten, so fühlte man, in die Worte dasjenige hineingesetzt, was aufgenommen hat die menschliche Seele, als sie hereingezogen ist aus außerweltlichen Sphären durch die Planetensphäre ins irdische Dasein. Was sie da aber aus ihrem noch Näherstehen der Säftemischung in die Worte hineingelegt hat, wenn das Kind sprechen lernte, das war noch etwas Objektives, es war noch etwas in der Sprache, was wie ein Götterunterricht war, nicht bloß ein menschlicher Unterricht. Und man sieht bei Jakob Böhme dieses schöne Bestreben, das etwa sich so aussprechen läßt, wie wenn er gefühlt hätte: Ich möchte in der Sprache etwas sehen, wo noch hinter den Erscheinungen lebendige Götter in die menschliche Organisation hereinwirken, um in den Menschen die Sprache zu formen und mit der Sprache zugleich ein gewisses Weisheitsgut. Da sehen wir, wie durchaus auch noch in spätere Zeiten sich fortsetzt das alte Weisheitsgut, aber schon aufgenommen vom modernen Denken, das allerdings kaum angedeutet ist bei solchen elementaren Geistern wie Jakob Böhme oder Paracelsus. Und in das prägt sich jetzt hinein dasjenige, was rein intellektualistisch-theoretisch ist, was aus dem physischen Denken des Menschen heraus bloß das Physische ergreift. Wir sehen, wie auf der einen Seite entsteht die rein physische. Astronomie, wie auf der anderen Seite entsteht die rein auf die festbegrenzten Organe des Menschen gerichtete Physiologie und Pathologie, kurz, die ganze medizinische Abschattung. Und so steht allmählich der Mensch da mit einer Welt um sich, die er nur physisch begreift, in der er natürlich als kosmisches Wesen nicht darinnen sein kann. Er begreift an sich nur noch dasjenige, was er durch die Erde geworden ist, denn durch die Erde ist er dieses festbegrenzte physische organische Wesen geworden. Er kann keinen Einklang mehr finden zwischen dem, was ihm vom Kosmos durch die Erkenntnis gegeben wird, durch die physische Astronomie gegeben wird, und demjenigen, was in seiner Gestalt lebt, was allerdings auf etwas anderes weist; aber er wendet den Blick ab von dem, wie diese menschliche Gestalt auf etwas anderes weist. Er verliert schließlich ganz das Bewußtsein, daß sein Aufrichtebestreben und die besondere Art und Weise, wie er aus seinem Organismus heraus die Sprache hat, nicht entstehen können in dem Mithrasstier, sondern erst in dem Mithras. Er will mit alledem sich nicht mehr beschäftigen, denn er segelt dann hinein in den Materialismus. Er muß hineinsegeln in den Materialismus, denn das religiöse Bewußtsein selber hat ja von dem Christentum nur aufgenommen die äußere materielle Erscheinung und diese äußere materielle Erscheinung dogmatisiert, indem man nicht versucht hat, aus irgendeiner Weisheit heraus zu erkennen, wie sich das Mysterium von Golgatha zugetragen hat, sondern indem man versuchte, durch Beschlüsse festzustellen, was die Wahrheit ist.

[ 21 ] So sehen wir den Übergang von der orientalischen alten Gedankenstellung aus der Welterkenntnis heraus zu der besonderen römisch-europäischen Art der Feststellung. Wie wurde im Orient «festgestellt», und wie mußte aus orientalischem instinktivem Anschauen heraus auch etwas über das Mysterium von Golgatha «festgestellt» werden? - Indem man nahm die Erkenntnis, die sich aus der Welt heraus ergeben hatte, indem man hinaufschaute in Sternenwelten, da ergab sich aus der Erkenntnis heraus, wenn sie auch eine instinktive, elementare war, oder sollte sich wenigstensergeben, auch das, was das Mysterium von Golgatha war. Das war der Weg, der im Orient genommen wurde. Dieser Weg wurde vom 5. Jahrhundert an nicht mehr empfunden. Frühere Konzilien schon hatten, indem sie an die Stelle des Asiatischen mehr das Ägyptische gesetzt hatten, darauf hingewiesen, daß man ja nicht auf diese Art ausmachen solle, wie es mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha eigentlich beschaffen ist, sondern daß man durch die Mehrheit der Väter, die auf den Konzilien versammelt sind, entscheiden lassen solle. Es wurde das juristische Prinzip an die Stelle des orientalischen Erkenntnisprinzips gestellt, es wurde die Dogmatik in das Juristische herübergebracht. Man hatte nicht mehr das Gefühl, daß aus dem Weltengewissen heraus über die Wahrheit zu entscheiden ist. Man eignete sich das Gefühl an, daß man auf juristische Art durch Konzilbeschlüsse sagen könne, ob die göttliche und die menschliche Natur in Christus Jesus zwei Naturen oder eine Natur sei und dergleichen. Wir sehen in das innerste Gefüge der abendländischen Zivilisation das Ägyptisch-Romanisch-Juristische einziehen, dasjenige, was heute noch so tief in den Menschen sitzt, die nicht die Neigung haben, entscheiden zu lassen über ihr Verhältnis zur Wahrheit diese Wahrheit, sondern die aus ihren Affekten heraus entscheiden wollen und daher keinen anderen Maßstab für das Festsetzen haben als die Majorität in irgendeiner Form. Davon wollen wir dann morgen noch weiter sprechen.

Fourth lecture

[ 1 ] A consideration that I began before our course was staged will only become fully understandable when we go back even further in our examination of the development of humanity in recent history, for we have essentially only given a few hints about the development of humanity in the 19th century. Today, we want to trace the spiritual development of humanity a little further back, referring to an extremely important turning point in the development of Western civilization, namely the 4th century AD. In this 4th century AD, a figure emerges whose memory has remained clear, so to speak, for Western civilization: Aurelius Augustine. In him we see a personality who had to struggle intensely on the one hand with what had come down from ancient times, what in the first centuries of Christianity had attempted to establish Christianity out of a certain ancient wisdom, and on the other hand with another element, that which initially prevailed in Western civilization, which rejected this older way and limited itself to understanding Christianity in a more outwardly material way, not permeating it with ideas of ancient wisdom, but simply recounting its actual founding and then, as best it could at the time, comprehending it intellectually.

[ 2 ] These struggles between these two directions, I would say, between the direction of a wise Christianity and a Christianity that appeared more or less materialistic, these struggles had to be endured most intensely by the souls of the 4th and early 5th centuries. And in Augustine, a personality who went through such struggles has been preserved in the memory of mankind. We must be completely clear today that the historical documents give us an almost completely erroneous picture of what actually existed before the 4th century AD. As clear as this has been since the 5th century, all common ideas about the preceding centuries are actually unclear. But if we first consider what most people might actually know about this period before the 4th century AD, we are referred to two areas: one area that is more, let us say, an area of knowledge, an area cultivated more in schools, and another area that is more one of cult, of worship, of the religious element. However, something very old from human civilization still protrudes into these two areas; but in a kind of Christian transformation, this old element was still more or less present in both directions, on the side of wisdom and on the side of cult, in the first four Christian centuries.

[ 3 ] If we look at the side of wisdom, we find a teaching preserved from earlier times, which had, however, already been replaced in a certain sense by what we now call the heliocentric world system – I have spoken about this in earlier lectures here – but it was still present from older astronomical teachings and could be called a kind of astronomy, not from the point of view of physical cosmological observation. In very ancient times, people arrived at this astronomy – let us call it ethereal, in contrast to our physical astronomy – in the following way. In ancient times, people were still very much aware that human beings, by their very nature, did not belong only to the Earth, but also, first and foremost, to the cosmic neighborhood of the Earth, the planetary system, and an ancient wisdom had quite concrete ideas about this etheric astronomy. The following was taught, for example. If we consider what constitutes the higher part of the human being — I am now using terms that should be familiar to us today — insofar as we consider the etheric body, then the human being stands in a reciprocal relationship with Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, so that certain interactions between the upper part of the human etheric body and Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars were observed. Then it was said that the part of the human being that is more astral in nature is in turn in a kind of interaction with Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. And the forces that then lead human beings into their earthly existence, that cause a physical body to be incorporated into this etheric body, are the forces of the Earth. But the forces that prevent humans from disappearing into earthly life, that give humans a kind of view beyond earthly life, are the forces of the sun.

[ 4 ] And so it was said: Man comes from unknown spiritual worlds, which he has passed through in his pre-existent life, and he does not merely enter earthly life, but he enters planetary life from extra-planetary worlds. Planetary life takes them up, as I have described, according to the sun, moon, earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. In the orbit of Saturn, for example, one saw the sphere into which human beings enter with their etheric bodies from extra-planetary life into planetary life. And what is etheric in human beings was definitely related to this planetary life. Only insofar as the etheric body then lives out its life in the physical body was this physical body related to the Earth. But insofar as human beings, through their I, lift themselves out of the etheric and astral bodies, this was related to the Sun.

[ 5 ] Thus, there was a kind of etheric astronomy. This etheric astronomy also had the possibility of not merely looking at the physical fate of human beings, as physical astronomy does, but, since the etheric body of human beings, which in turn is more intimately connected with the human spirit, in an interrelationship with the same forces of the planetary system, it was possible to speak of the human constitution and to include the forces of destiny in this human constitution, because in the human being the forces of destiny can live out their destiny from the planetary system via the etheric body.

[ 6 ] It was therefore in this teaching of the old school, which was propagated after the heliocentric system had already been developed as a kind of esoteric-physical science, that a final wisdom teaching emerged from ancient instinctive wisdom research in this etheric astronomy, and this had been preserved as a tradition. People spoke of the influences of the heavens in no other way than to say: Yes, these influences of the heavens exist; but they do not merely carry natural events, they also carry the forces of human destiny. And so, at that time, there was definitely a connection between what one might call natural science, cosmology, and what later became everything that people now understand as astrology, but which in ancient times had a much more precise character based on direct observation.

[ 7 ] When human beings, on their way to a new birth, entered the planetary sphere—as it was thought—and were taken up by their etheric body, they then entered the earth. They were taken up by the earth. But even then, people did not think merely of the solid earth, but rather of the earth in its elements. It was said: In addition to being taken up by the planetary sphere — which would make him a super-earthly being, which would make him what he actually is only as a soul — man is taken up as a child by the elements of the earth, by fire or warmth, by air, by water, and by the actual earth. That was the actual earth. And through this, it was thought, his etheric body is so tinged, so saturated by this outer element that the temperaments now arise in this etheric body. Thus, these temperaments were thought to be closely bound to the etheric body and thus to the vital organization of the human being. In this old teaching, therefore, people saw something spiritual in what is actually physical in the human being, or at least in what is revealed through the physical body. And I would say that the most human part of this teaching was what can still be clearly seen, for example, in the medicine of that time. Medicines and healing practices emerged entirely from this view of the relationship between the human etheric body and the planetary system, and also from the penetration, so to speak, of the etheric human being into the higher spheres—air, water, warmth, earth—through which the physical imprints of his etheric-soul temperaments found their way into his organization: black bile, white bile, the other humors, phlegm, blood, and so on. This view, that the essence of the human constitution could be recognized in the humors, was something that was common practice in this teaching. At that time, people did not study the individual organs that could be distinguished, but rather the mixture of fluids and the interpenetration of fluids, and they saw an organ as the result of a particular interpenetration of fluids. In healthy people, they saw a certain way in which the fluids interpenetrated, and in sick people they saw an abnormal interpenetration of the fluids, so that one can say: The medicine that resulted from this teaching was based entirely on the view of the watery human organism, the fluid human organism. What we today call knowledge of the human organism is based on the solid human organism, on the earthly human organism. With regard to the view of the human being, the course of development has been from an older understanding of the fluid human being to a newer understanding of the solid human being with the sharp contours of the organs.

[ 8 ] This development in medical teaching runs parallel to the transition from ancient ethereal astronomy to modern physical astronomy. The medicine of Hippocrates still essentially corresponds to etheric astronomy, but even into the 4th century AD, the achievements of this medical view, which refers to the mixture of human fluids, are still present, and in an exact manner, not as later in the tradition. And as this old teaching has been obscured since the 4th century AD, and then physical astronomy emerged in the 15th century to take the place of the old etheric astronomy, pathology and the entire medical view were also based on the doctrine of the solid in humans, of the sharp contours in the human organism that limit and express it. This is essentially the side of human development in the inorganic age.

[ 9 ] But we can now also take a look at what has remained from those times in terms of cult practices and religious ceremonies. The religious ceremonies were given more to the masses; what I have now explained was regarded more as wisdom to be learned in school. Those cultic practices which spread from Asia to Europe and which correspond entirely to the cultic aspirations of the view I have now developed for you are the cult of Mithras, that cult of Mithras which we still find in the early Christian centuries, extending from the East to the West, which we can follow along the Danube countries to the Rhine regions and into France. This Mithras cult, which you are familiar with in its external forms, can be characterized briefly by a formula that imaginatively depicts the earthly and cosmic connection in the image of the conqueror of the Mithras bull: man riding on the bull and defeating the forces of the bull. Today, it is very easy to imagine that such images, which are all cult images, religious allegories, if we may say so, that have organically emerged from the ancient wisdom teachings, that such cult images simply arose abstractly and symbolically from the ancient wisdom teachings. But it is a completely false idea to believe that there were ancient wisdom teachers who sat down and said: Now let us think up a symbol; for ourselves we have the wisdom teachings, but for the ignorant people we must think up symbols that can then lead to their cult practices and the like. Such assumptions would be fundamentally wrong. Modern Freemasons have a similar assumption, and they also think similarly about the nature of their symbolism. But that was not the view of the ancient wisdom teachers. I would now like to explain the view of the ancient wisdom teachers to you in relation to the Mithras cult and the view I have just developed. Those people who still had a living view of this reception of the human being by the planetary world with regard to his etheric body, of the reception of the human being into the earthly sphere of elements, warmth or fire, air, water, earth, and of the formation of black bile, white bile, phlegm, and blood from the influence of these elements on the human etheric being, those who had some inkling of this could also ask themselves a significant question, a fundamentally important question. They asked themselves a question that one can arrive at if one really has imaginative perception. The answer to this question was then an instinctive imaginative perception, but today it can be repeated with full consciousness. If you form an imaginative view of this entry of the human being from the spiritual world through the planetary sphere into the earthly spheres of fire, air, water, and earth, if you form such a picture, you come to say to yourself: Yes, if something enters from the extra-planetary sphere into the planetary sphere and into the earth sphere and is taken up by the earth sphere, then it does not become a real human being; I mean, if you form a picture of what actually happens when you take what you can see in pure imagination outside the planetary sphere, what enters and is taken up by the planetary sphere, what is then grasped by what emanates from the Earth sphere, if you have that as an imaginative perception, then it does not become a human being. You do not arrive at the idea of a human being. One arrives at the idea that is most clearly expressed when one imagines not a human being, but a bull, a cow. The ancient wisdom teachers said: If there were only that which descends as an extra-planetary entity into this planetary sphere of becoming, then no human beings would live on Earth. However, they said, when you first consider this, you come to form this idea of an entity drawing in from the extra-planetary into the planetary and earthly sphere; but when you then want to form a vivid, imaginative picture from what you have in these ideas, it does not become a human being, it becomes a mere bull. And if one understands nothing else in man than this, one understands only the bullish in man. The ancient wisdom teachers formed these ideas; this idea existed. Now they said to themselves: So man must fight against this bullishness with something higher. He must overcome what this wisdom gives as a view. As a human being, he is more of a being who comes from the extra-planetary sphere, enters the planetary sphere, and is seized by the earthly elements; he has something in him that is more.

[ 10 ] I would say that these wisdom teachers arrived at this concept, and that is why they then created the bull, placed Mithras on it, the fighting man who overcomes the bull and says to himself: I must have a far higher origin than that of such a being as was imagined in the ancient wisdom teachings. — And now these teachers said to themselves: This ancient wisdom teaching does indeed contain a hint of what is important here. This ancient wisdom teaching looks up into the planetary sphere to Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Venus, the Moon, and so on; but it also says: As man approaches the Earth, he is continually lifted out of the Sun so that he does not sink into the earthly, so that he does not remain merely what emerges from the mixture of black and white bile, phlegm, and blood, and from the etheric body when it is taken up by the planetary sphere, and when the astral body is taken up by the other planetary sphere through Mercury, Venus, and the moon. What lifts man up dwells in the sun. Therefore, these teachers said to themselves: Let us make man aware of the solar forces dwelling within him, and he will be Mithras, who conquers the bull!

[ 11 ] This was then the cult image. It was not meant to be merely a symbol devised by the mind, but was supposed to represent a fact, a cosmological fact. The religious ceremony was more than a mere outward sign; it was something that had been cut out, as it were, from the very essence of the world itself.

[ 12 ] This cult-like thing was something that had been around since ancient times, something that had been brought over from Asia to Europe. It was, I would say, Christianity viewed from one side, from the external, astronomical side, because Mithras was the power of the sun in man. Mithras was the human being who rebelled against the merely planetary and earthly. And now a certain striving arose, the ramifications of which we can perceive everywhere when we go back to the first Christian centuries. There arose a striving to bring together the historical fact, the mystery of Golgotha, with the Mithras cult. At that time, especially within the Roman legions, there were many people who carried what they had experienced in Asia, what they had experienced in the Orient in general, to the Danube countries, far into Central Europe, and even to Western Europe. What they brought over as the Mithras cult contained feelings which, without reflecting the mystery of Golgotha, were thoroughly Christian in their outlook and Christian in their nature. The Mithras cult was regarded as a concrete service relating to the solar forces in human beings. However, it was not yet recognized in this Mithras cult that with the mystery of Golgotha, this solar power itself had descended as a spiritual being and united with the human being Jesus of Nazareth.

[ 13 ] And now there were—and the further we go eastward in our investigations, the clearer it becomes—until well into the fourth century after Christ, schools of wisdom in the East which gradually received reports, news, knowledge of the mystery of Golgotha, of the Christ. They now endeavored to spread a dictum throughout the world, and for a time there was a definite effort to pour into the Mithras cult that which corresponds to supersensible perception: the true Mithras is Christ, and Mithras is his forerunner; one must pour into those forces in human beings which defeat the bull, the Christ force. Turning the Mithras cult into a Christ cult was something that was intensely alive in the first post-Christian centuries, right up to the fourth century. And I would say that the spread of the Mithras cult was followed by a movement that wanted to Christianize this Mithras cult. A synthesis was sought between Christianity and the Mithras cult. An ancient and significant image of the nature of man, Mithras riding and defeating the bull, was to be brought into connection with the Christ being. One might say that there was a very glorious endeavor in this direction, and in a certain sense this endeavor was strong.

[ 14 ] Anyone who observes the spread of Eastern Christianity, the spread of Arianism, can perceive in the spread of Arianism how an element of Mithras is present in this Arianism, even though it is already very weakened. And every translation of Ulfilas' Bible into modern languages remains incomplete if one does not know that elements of Mithraism still played a role in the terminology of Ulfilas, of Wulfila. But who today still pays attention to these deeper connections in linguistic, in linguistic elements? In Greece, until the 4th century, there were philosophers who worked to reconcile the old ethereal astronomy with Christianity, and out of this arose that true Gnosis which was thoroughly eradicated by later Christianity, so that only a few fragments of the literary samples of this Gnosis remain. What do people today actually know, as I said recently, about Gnosis, which they foolishly claim that our Anthroposophy is a rehash of? Even if it were, these people could not possibly know, because they only know what is written about Gnosis in Western Christian critical writings. They know the quotations left behind by the opponents of Gnosis. There is hardly anything left of Gnosis except what can be expressed by the following comparison: Just imagine that Mr. von Gleich succeeded in eradicating all anthroposophical literature, and nothing remained but his quotations. If someone later wanted to construct anthroposophy based on these quotations, the procedure in the West would be roughly the same as that used with Gnosticism. So when people say that the newer anthroposophy imitates Gnosticism, they cannot know this, even if it were true, because they do not know Gnosticism; they only know it from its opponents!

[ 15 ] In Athens in particular, until the 4th century, and even longer, there was a school of wisdom that endeavored to reconcile ancient ethereal astronomy with Christianity. The last remnants of this view of the arrival of human beings from higher worlds through the planetary sphere into the Earth sphere still shine through the writings of Origen and even through the writings of the Greek Church Fathers. One can see this shining through everywhere, and it shone particularly brightly through the writings of the true Dionysius the Areopagite. This Dionysius the Areopagite left behind a teaching that was a pure synthesis between ethereal astronomy and what lived in Christianity: that the forces located, so to speak, in the sun astronomically or cosmically, entered the Earth sphere through the human being Jesus of Nazareth, and that with this a certain relationship arose that had not existed before with the Earth in relation to all higher hierarchies, the hierarchies of angels, the hierarchies of the wise, the hierarchies of thrones, the hierarchies of seraphim, and so on. An interpenetration of this doctrine of hierarchies with etheric astronomy was what was present in the original Dionysius the Areopagite.

[ 16 ] In the 6th century, attempts were made to cover up the traces of the older teachings of Dionysius the Areopagite, and they were reworked in such a way that what remained was essentially just an abstract spiritual teaching. As the teachings of Dionysius the Areopagite exist today, they are a spiritual teaching that no longer has much to do with etheric astronomy. And so he is then called Pseudo-Dionysius. In this way, the wisdom teaching was brought to ruin, on the one hand by distorting Dionysius, and on the other hand by by eradicating the doctrine that was still very much alive in Athens, which sought to unite ethereal astronomy with Christianity, and by eradicating the cult of Mithras.

[ 17 ] And then personalities such as Constantine did the rest, whose deeds were reinforced in later times by the fact that the Emperor Justinian had the Athenian school of philosophy closed, so that the last people who had been concerned with reconciling the old ethereal astronomy with Christianity had to emigrate and found a place in Persia where they could at least continue their lives. Justinian, following the same program that led him to close the Athenian school of philosophy, also had Origen declared a heretic, and for the same reason he abolished the Roman consulship, which was actually only a shadow of its former self, but in which, even when it was only a shadow of its former self, people sought a kind of resistance to the Roman idea of the state, which was based on pure jurisprudence. The old human values that were still associated with the consular dignity were allowed to disappear in the state imperialism of Romanism.

[ 18 ] Thus, in the 4th century, we see the decline of what could have brought Christianity closer to humanity as a cultic service; we see the decline of what, as an ancient wisdom teaching, sought to unite itself with the recognition of the significance of the mystery of Golgotha in an ethereal astronomy. And we see in the West, in its place, the emergence of what already contained the seeds of later materialism, which could only be theorized in the 15th century, when the fifth post-Atlantean period began, but which was essentially prepared by the materialization of what had still come over spiritually from the East.

[ 19 ] We must take this course of European civilization into account. Otherwise, it will never become completely clear to us what the foundations of European civilization actually are. And otherwise it will never become completely clear to us how it was actually possible that time and again, when people moved to the Orient, they were able to bring back strong spiritual impulses from there. Above all, throughout the entire Middle Ages, there was lively trade from the Orient up to the Danube, along the very routes that the ancient Mithras cult, which had of course already faded away in the early Middle Ages, had taken. The people who traveled to and from the Orient as traders repeatedly found there what had preceded Christianity, but which was already pointing toward Christianity. And we can see this when the Crusaders went to the Orient, how they were inspired by the remnants they could still recognize in the Orient, how they brought ancient wisdom back to Europe. I said: This ancient wisdom was linked to the ancient medicine of juices. Again and again, the people who went to the Orient, even those who went as Crusaders or with the Crusades to the Orient and who returned to Europe, always brought back remnants of this ancient medicine to Europe. These remnants of an ancient medicine were then propagated everywhere in Europe through tradition. These remnants of an ancient medicine were then propagated throughout Europe by tradition. Individual people who had advanced with their own spiritual development at the same time then underwent remarkable developments, such as the personality who continued under the name of Basilius Valentinus.

[ 20 ] What kind of personality was this? It was a personality who, among the people with whom he had spent his youth, had taken over the tradition of ancient juice medicine, sometimes quite unintelligibly, in this or that hint. Until very recently—today this is less the case—the old peasant rules still contained remnants of this medical tradition brought over from the Orient by migrants, which actually became embedded in peasant culture and were then heard by those who grew up in the peasantry; they were usually those who then became priests. Those who became monks, in particular, grew out of the peasantry. They had heard this or that, but it was just a distorted, decadent form of ancient wisdom. However, they underwent a more independent development. What was experienced as development through Christian theology was, until the 15th and 16th centuries, something much freer than it later became. Gradually, these priests and monks brought a certain order to things out of their own spirituality. They thought about what they had heard; out of their own genius, they connected things, and thus the writings that have survived as the writings of Basilius Valentinus came into being. Yes, something like this even developed into a school, where Paracelsus and even Jakob Böhme studied. They, too, took up what I would call the ancient medical wisdom that lived in the soul of the people. You can see this in Jakob Böhme, where it is fundamental, and also in Paracelsus and others, even if you only take the writings at face value. But if you take something like Jakob Böhme's writing “De signatura rerum,” you will find in the way it is presented that what I have said is tangible there. It is such an old folk tradition, but one that basically contained wisdom that had been distorted over time. Such an old folk tradition was not at all as abstract as our science is today, but there was something of the feeling of the objective in the words. One felt in the words. Just as one wants to recognize in concepts today, one felt in the words. People knew that humans had extracted words from the objective essence of the world itself. You can see this when Jakob Böhme takes such pains to feel what is actually contained in the syllable “sul” and what is contained in the syllable “fur”: sulfur. Look, for example, at how Jakob Böhme struggles in “De signatura rerum,” I would say, to extract something from an inner word, an inner word extract, to extract something from the words sulfur in order to arrive at an essence. There is definitely a feeling that when you experience the extract of the words, you arrive at something real. In earlier times, it was felt that words contained that which the human soul had absorbed when it was drawn from otherworldly spheres through the planetary sphere into earthly existence. But what it put into the words when the child learned to speak, because it was still closer to the mixture of juices, was still something objective; it was still something in the language that was like a lesson from the gods, not merely a human lesson. And we see this beautiful aspiration in Jakob Böhme, which can be expressed as if he had felt: I would like to see something in language where, behind appearances, living gods still work into the human organization in order to form language in human beings and, at the same time, a certain wisdom. Here we see how the old wisdom continued into later times, but already taken up by modern thinking, which is, however, hardly hinted at by such elementary spirits as Jakob Böhme or Paracelsus. And now what is purely intellectual and theoretical, what grasps only the physical out of human physical thinking, is imprinted on this. We see how, on the one hand, purely physical astronomy arises, and on the other hand, physiology and pathology arise, which are purely directed toward the fixed organs of the human being—in short, the entire medical shadow. And so, gradually, the human being stands there with a world around him that he understands only physically, in which he cannot, of course, exist as a cosmic being. He understands only what he has become through the earth, for through the earth he has become this limited physical organic being. He can no longer find harmony between what is given to him by the cosmos through knowledge, through physical astronomy, and what lives in his form, which indeed points to something else; but he turns his gaze away from how this human form points to something else. He finally loses all awareness that his striving for uprightness and the special way in which he has language from his organism cannot arise in the Mithras bull, but only in Mithras himself. He no longer wants to concern himself with all this, for then he sails into materialism. He must sail into materialism, because religious consciousness itself has only taken up the outer material appearance from Christianity and dogmatized this outer material appearance by not attempting to recognize out of any wisdom how the mystery of Golgotha came about, but by trying to determine what the truth is through resolutions.

[ 21 ] Thus we see the transition from the ancient Eastern way of thinking based on knowledge of the world to the special Roman-European way of determination. How was something “determined” in the East, and how did something about the mystery of Golgotha have to be “determined” from the Eastern instinctive way of looking at things? By taking the knowledge that had emerged from the world, by looking up into the starry worlds, then what the mystery of Golgotha was also emerged from this knowledge, even if it was instinctive and elementary, or at least it should have emerged. That was the path taken in the Orient. This path was no longer followed from the 5th century onwards. Earlier councils, by replacing the Asian with the Egyptian, had already pointed out that one should not determine in this way what the mystery of Golgotha actually is, but that the majority of the Fathers gathered at the councils should decide. The legal principle was substituted for the Eastern principle of knowledge, and dogmatics was transferred to the legal sphere. People no longer felt that decisions about truth should be made on the basis of the world conscience. People adopted the feeling that it was possible to say in a legal manner, through council decisions, whether the divine and human natures in Christ Jesus were two natures or one nature, and so on. We see the Egyptian-Roman-legal element entering into the innermost structure of Western civilization, that which still sits so deeply in people today who do not have the inclination to let others decide their relationship to the truth, but who want to decide out of their emotions and therefore have no other standard for determining the truth than the majority in some form. We will talk more about this tomorrow.