Cosmosophy I
GA 207
14 October 1921, Dornach
Lecture IX
In our recent studies I have shown how the human being can find a relationship to the world, a relationship that he is seeking to the spiritual, the soul, and the bodily. I have also shown you that if we seriously wish to bring the spiritual nature of the human being into our consciousness, we can only apply our gaze to the spiritual worlds. For, in fact, playing into our human spirit are the deeds and reciprocal relationships of those hierarchies that we group together as the hierarchies of the angeloi, archangeloi, archai, and so on. By bringing the deeds and relationships of these beings to consciousness, the human being at the same time brings his own spirituality to consciousness.
In relation to the soul element, I was able to describe to you how thinking occurs between man's etheric body and physical body, how feeling occurs between man's etheric body and his astral body, and how willing occurs between the astral body and the I. Then I showed you how what man today can call his bodies must now be understood—if one wishes to bring them in their true form into consciousness—as the seed for future worlds. In fact, what will be formed in the world's future existence has its seed in the human bodies that we bear with us in life: in our physical body, which we lay aside here on the earth, but which, in being dissolved in the earthly realm, becomes seed for what the earth becomes after it has disappeared as earth; we learn to know our etheric body—for a short time, after we have passed through the portal of death, it apparently dissolves itself in the wide universe, but it becomes the seed for what the earth is to become in the future. This is also the case with our astral body and with that which is the sheath of our I. This I-sheath, however, as we have it here on earth as human beings, we received into our being only during this earthly existence.
We live today, which means that we have already been living for a long time in the intellectual age. The human being understands what surrounds him in the world in the same way as things generally are understood today, by means of the intellect, by means of intellectual knowing. Everything that the human being encounters today as culture, as civilization, is adjusted to this outer knowledge. Even when we feel, then, the feeling remains dull and dreamlike. What becomes clear to the human being in feeling is just what the world today presents from its authoritative science as an outer knowledge. Thus the human being, from the time he enters school, receives as inner soul life within our ordinary civilization only an intellectual mastery of the environment. How far, however, will this kind of intellectual mastery of the environment take us? I could also put the question this way: how deeply does this intellectual mastery of the environment penetrate into our soul life?
Let us consider a person who today enters school at six years of age, enters the kind of school in which he is brought into a relationship to the outer world only by outer methods. Let us assume that this person goes right through our higher education. He then is able to learn even more, is able to pass through the higher stages of culture and absorb all this into himself, by which means one becomes a leader of humanity in some realm today, in a spiritual respect. What does such a person, who has formed his soul life in accordance with the culture of our modern time, actually receive in his soul? He receives only what goes as far as his I. He receives no more than what goes as far as his I. He receives it, then, rayed back by those members of his human nature in which the I is certainly immersed but that are not called to do actual self-conscious activity. He receives as reflections his thoughts, his memory pictures, his feelings, and what he knows about his will impulses. Everything else he experiences is weakened, paralyzed. His soul life runs its course merely in the I, and everything that is communicated to him is communicated only to the extent that it enters his I.
What happens, then, if what we call anthroposophical spiritual science approaches a person? If this happens he should actually learn to feel something that can be expressed in the following way: he should feel a recognition of “... the I as a structure that strives to attain, with a power against which the force of gravity is like the breath of a snowflake, a state of being in which nothing that modern culture designates as talent plays a role. ...”9 Quotation from Epilog, by the German poet Gottfried Benn, 1886–1956. A person, in approaching anthroposophical spiritual science, really should arrive at the point of being able to say: a very special demand is made on you with this anthroposophical spiritual science. You are able to understand things that you receive as ideas in your soul, which other people, who live only in today's culture, claim to be fantasies or deranged visions; you receive, therefore, what those who live in today's culture do not approach with their I-culture. They do not approach this with their I-culture. The earthly I cannot comprehend the concepts which, following one another, proceed from anthroposophy: what is related about the ancient Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions or about the spiritual, soul, and bodily nature of the human being. It can only be assumed that if one had a competent modern philosopher, one who has not become deranged or “clever” to the extent that he “takes Darwin for a midwife and the ape for an artist,”10Ibid. if one takes such a competent modern philosopher he should understand that the spirit of the human being, about which he says so much—though the philosopher of today speaks only with words—can be comprehended only in connection with the higher hierarchies, that the soul of the human being can be comprehended according to thinking, feeling, and willing only if one looks between man's members, the physical body, etheric body, astral body, and I. Could you expect that such a philosopher would see in the bodily sheathes of the human beings, which he considered as fantasy, seeds for future worlds? One cannot arrive at such a view, of course, with what the modern I encompasses. If one is nevertheless able to link something from the soul life with this unusual idea—and to do this it is not necessary to be a clairvoyant oneself, but only to the research of the clairvoyant as ideas—this is done not in the I but in the astral body. The thought shadows, which one receives today in the I as a reflection of the astral body, do not strain the astral body. One can have these with the I-culture. If the astral body is here (see next drawing, red) and the I here (green), then all that modern man experiences is here in the I, and his thoughts are nothing but what the astral body casts into the I as shadow images (yellow). It is not necessary to strain oneself by these. One allows the I to prevail, which has been received through the earthly organization. A person constructs a microscope, places a slide under it, followed by another slide and another, peers at them, and compares the thought shadows, making some mathematical calculations that proceed just as they are given, as shadow processes. It is thus possible to relate to the world, in relation to one's inner experience, completely passively. This passivity is then developed further by shifting this way of viewing to one's inner work, though not now in the Goethean sense. Such a person no longer likes to attend lecture courses in which he must participate actively with his thinking; he prefers lecture courses in which lots of experiments are done and, between the experiments, in the unpleasant babble by which the experiments are explained, he falls asleep. Or he even goes to the movies. There one need not be active at all.
This is truly the I-culture. It is prevailing more and more. Anthroposophical spiritual science comes along, however, and with that one cannot work in this way. A modern theologian said that he would not read the Akashic Chronicle even if it were bestowed on him in a special illustrated edition;11Christoph Schrempf, theologian, 1860–1944. but he need not have feared that he would receive the Akashic Chronicle in a special illustrated edition, for it must be acquired in such a way that one participates in an inwardly forming way. Even if once one were really to fix in a symbolic, artistic way what is found in the Akashic Chronicle, this theologian still could not do anything with it because he primarily values the illustrations.
With anthroposophical spiritual science, one must participate inwardly, for otherwise one naturally hears only the words, which can be regarded arbitrarily as fantasy. This inner participation, however, one must learn to love. One must resolve to do this. It is uncomfortable, but it becomes noticeable, if one resolves to do it, that this activity refreshes, that it makes the human being fresher in soul and body. I know that many people raise objections concerning this becoming refreshed, but they would very much like to attain through merely passive thinking what should be attained through an active participation of the astral body in a difficult wrestling for comprehension, just as that theologian would have been most content to have the entire Outline of Occult Science played out for him in a movie. This is just how he uses his concepts in the essay where he speaks of a “special illustrated edition of the Akashic Chronicle.”
Briefly, by means of anthroposophical spiritual science something comes into activity that is no longer merely the I but that includes the astral body. There are certainly those people who sense this when they read an anthroposophical book. As they read it they sense something; something stirs in them. Before things were disposed to move inwardly only passively, as thought shadows. Now something like an active intellect begins to stir in them. Something emerges from them as if inwardly they had lice, and then they become so nervous about this inner stirring that they say: this is unhealthy. Then they complain about the difficult things with which people in anthroposophical spiritual science are challenged. Especially those who then observe people who are noticeably affected inwardly in this way—their brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles—complain that anthroposophy is something that makes people nervous.
What happens, however, if we now ask, what is the relationship between the I-culture, which man received first during earthly existence, and the culture that can be acquired through anthroposophical spiritual science? A simple sketch can make this clearer. Let us assume that the earth is here (see drawing below, red). It would have been preceded by ancient Moon, Sun, and Saturn. Here we would have the next planet, Jupiter (green), which will be transformed from the earth after the earth has passed through its decline. On Jupiter, then, there participate intensively those members of the human being that exist now, as seed: the physical body, etheric body, and astral body; the I, however, takes part only under a certain condition. If the I takes up only what can be taken up through earthly culture, this I-consciousness ceases along with the earth; then the human being becomes an earthly I, and, as an earthly I, he ceases to exist along with the earth. He must evolve himself further in other forms.
If the human being has developed himself right into his astral body, however, if he has brought his astral body into activity, then this activity radiates back to his I. The being of man then consists of an I and astral body that are inwardly active. He does not feel—as I described it previously—as though he had lice inside but rather as if inwardly he were permeated by strong, healthy life forces, by life forces that now link him with what already proceeds from his bodily sheaths, as seed, into future metamorphoses of the earth, in order to develop himself further in these future earthly metamorphoses.
Anthroposophical spiritual science absolutely must be studied as something living. Then it gives the human being not merely a theory or a theoretical world view, but it gives the human being the life force that can guide him beyond mere earthly existence.
Especially if we take completely seriously a knowledge such as we have unfolded before our souls in the last three lectures—if we place the human being from the point of view of spirit, soul, and body within the entire evolution of the world and feel something as a result in the inner human content by which we become richer—then we incorporate into this human being something that carries him beyond earthly existence. For it could be—although this will not be the case, one hopes—that the human being, because he has become tired in the way characterized before, rejects anthroposophical spiritual science. Then the human sheath would continue to develop further, but it would be taken hold of by other beings than by the human beings entitled to it, and the human beings would sink into a lower existence than the one intended.
This is ultimately what it is that makes a few people in the present fearful about the cosmic future of the human being, that makes a few people sense that man, due to his trespasses, could be lost in the universe. Therefore still others must come whose insight extends beyond the assumption that “Darwin is a midwife and the ape a work of art,” who do not merely believe that one ultimately speaks “under the guidance of standard medicine,” about “weak nerves, fatigue, psychological weaknesses,”12Quotation from Epilog, by Gottfried Benn. and so, who do not merely come to the point of saying to themselves, “I won't write any more, for one would have to write with pinworms. I won't read anymore. Who is there to read? The ancient, honest Titans wrapped in sandwich paper?”13Ibid.
Now, despite the infernal laughter which is welling up on every side, one must still say that those who have no faith anymore in the “Titans with Icarus wings wrapped in sandwich paper,” those who see that everything that still has a germinal quality in our declining culture actually can only be “written about with pinworms,” then ask themselves, what should one read, what should one concern oneself with? They should be given anthroposophical literature, despite the infernal laughter coming today from all sides, and they should receive, if at all possible, a soul remedy so that they can be relieved of the inhibitions that prevent them from receiving what the soul undoubtedly needs today.
Many people go around in the world who do not know what to do with themselves, people whose body becomes too heavy, inwardly crippled. They often must be shown in full seriousness the strengthening, health-giving impulses that lie in a real self-achievement of the thoughts, the ideas of anthroposophical spiritual science.
These things—I must say this again and again—have to be taken up with the greatest seriousness. It is necessary to have a little insight into the consequences actually imminent in our time from the direction upon which materialistic culture has entered.
May it also be felt how very necessary it is for the renewal of our culture to take place today from primal sources! Tomorrow we shall continue.
Neunter Vortrag
[ 1 ] In den letzten Betrachtungen habe ich gezeigt, wie der Mensch ein Verhältnis zur Welt dadurch finden kann, daß er dieses Verhältnis sucht zum Geistigen, zum Seelischen und zum Leiblichen. Und ich habe Ihnen gezeigt, daß wenn wir im Ernste das geistige Wesen des Menschen zu unserem Bewußtsein bringen wollen, wir das nicht anders können als dadurch, daß wir den Blick hinaufwenden in die geistigen Welten. Denn tatsächlich spielen in unserem Menschengeiste die Taten und die gegenseitigen Beziehungen derjenigen Hierarchien, die immer von uns zusammengefaßt worden sind als Hierarchie der Angeloi, Archangeloi und Archai und so weiter. Und die Taten und Beziehungen dieser Wesenheiten sich zum Bewußtsein zu bringen, heißt zugleich des Menschen eigene Geistigkeit sich zum Bewußtsein bringen.
[ 2 ] Von dem Seelischen konnte ich Ihnen ausführen, wie das Denken sich abspielt zwischen dem ätherischen Leibe des Menschen und dem physischen Leib, wie das Fühlen sich abspielt zwischen dem ätherischen Leibe des Menschen und seinem astralischen Leibe, wie das Wollen sich abspielt zwischen dem astralischen Leib und dem Ich des Menschen. Und dann zeigte ich Ihnen, wie das, was der Mensch heute seine Leiber nennen kann, nunmehr aufgefaßt werden muß, wenn man es in seiner wahren Gestalt sich zum Bewußtsein bringen will, als Keim für zukünftige Welten. So daß tatsächlich dasjenige, was im Weltensein der Zukunft sich gestalten wird, die Keime hat in den Menschenleibern, die wir an uns tragen: in unserem physischen Leib, den wir hier auf der Erde ablegen - aber indem er im Erdenbereich aufgelöst wird, wird er Keim für dasjenige, was die Erde wird, nachdem sie als Erde verschwunden sein wird. Unseren Ätherleib lernen wir kennen — kurze Zeit, nachdem wir durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, löst er sich scheinbar im weiten Weltenall auf; aber er wird Keim für dasjenige, was die Erde werden soll in Zukunft. Und so ist es auch mit unserem astralischen Leib und mit dem, was unsere Ich-Hülle ist. Diese Ich-Hülle aber, so wie wir sie hier auf Erden haben als Menschen, haben wir in unser Wesen erst während dieses Erdendaseins eingegliedert bekommen.
[ 3 ] Nun leben wir heute, das heißt, wir leben schon durch lange Zeiten hindurch im intellektualistischen Zeitalter. Die Menschen begreifen, was in der Welt um sie herum ist, so wie man es eben heute begreift, durch den Intellekt, durch das verstandesmäßige Erkennen. Alles, was heute an den Menschen als Bildung, als Zivilisation herantritt, ist eingestellt auf diese äußere Erkenntnis. Und auch dann, wenn wir fühlen, so bleibt ja das Gefühl dumpf und traumhaft. Was auch im Fühlen dem Menschen klar wird, ist eben das, was die Welt heure aus ihrer autoritativen Wissenschaft heraus als eine äußere Erkenntnis liefert. So daß der Mensch heute von der Zeit an, da er der Schule übergeben wird, innerhalb unserer gewöhnlichen Zivilisation nur dasjenige als inneres Seelenleben erhält, was verstandesmäßige Beherrschung der Umwelt ist. Wie weit aber wirkt das, was verstandesmäßige Beherrschung der Umwelt ist? Ich könnte auch so sagen: Wie tief kommt das, was verstandesmäßige Beherrschung der Umwelt ist, in unser Seelenleben hinein?
[ 4 ] Nehmen wir einen Menschen, der heute mit sechs Jahren der Schule übergeben wird, jenen Schulen, in denen an die Menschen nur nach äußeren Methoden eine Beziehung zur äußeren Welt herangebracht wird. Nehmen wir an, dieser Mensch werde durch unsere höheren Schulen durchgeführt. Er kann dann sogar weiter irgend etwas lernen, kann die höheren Bildungsstufen durchmachen und all das in sich aufnehmen, wodurch man heute ein Führer der Menschheit auf irgendeinem Gebiete wird in geistiger Beziehung. Was nimmt denn ein solcher Mensch, der im Sinne der Bildung unserer heutigen Zeit sein Seelenleben gestaltet bekommt, was nimmt denn der eigentlich in diese seine Seele auf? Er nimmt nur das auf, was bis in sein Ich geht. Er nimmt nicht mehr auf als das, was bis in sein Ich geht. Er bekommt es dann zurückgestrahlt von denjenigen Gliedern seiner Menschenwesenheit, in die das Ich zwar eingesenkt ist, die aber nicht zur eigentlichen selbstbewußten Betätigung aufgerufen werden. Er nimmt von diesen wie Zurückstrahlungen auf seine Gedanken, seine Erinnerungsbilder, seine Gefühle, das, was er weiß über seine Willensimpulse. Alles übrige, was er erlebt, ist abgeschwächt, abgelähmt. Sein Seelenleben verläuft lediglich im Ich. Und alles das, was ihm vermittelt wird, wird ihm nur soweit vermittelt, daß es in sein Ich hineinkommt.
[ 5 ] Wie ist es nun, wenn an einen Menschen herantritt, was wir anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft nennen? Wenn an einen Menschen herantritt, was wir anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft nennen, dann sollte er eigentlich so etwas fühlen lernen, was ähnlich ausgesprochen werden kann wie: «... das Ich zu erkennen als ein Gebilde, das mit einer Gewalt, gegen die die Schwerkraft der Hauch einer Schneeflocke war, zu einem Zustande strebte, in dem nichts mehr von dem, was die moderne Kultur als Geistesgabe bezeichnete, eine Rolle spielte... .» Der Mensch sollte nämlich, indem er an anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft herantritt, wirklich dazu kommen, sich zu sagen: An dich wird mit dieser anthroposophischen Geisteswissenschaft ein ganz besonderer Anspruch gemacht. Du kannst Dinge verstehen, die du als Ideen in deine Seele aufnimmst, von denen die anderen, die nur in der heutigen Bildung leben, sagen, sie seien phantastisch oder verrückt, denen also diejenigen, die in der heutigen Bildung leben, mit ihrer Ich-Kultur nicht beikommen. Sie kommen nicht an sie heran mit ihrer Ich-Kultur. Das Erden-Ich kann das nicht begreifen, was da aus Anthroposophie heraus als ein Begriff an den anderen gereiht wird, was da erzählt wird über Saturn-, Sonnen-, Mondenentwickelung, über die geistige, seelische, leibliche Wesenheit des Menschen. Man denke nur, wenn man einen heutigen richtigen Philosophen, der nicht bis zu diesem Grade verrückt oder «gescheit« geworden ist, daß er «den Darwin für eine Hebamme und den Affen für Kunstgewerbe anschaut», wenn man einem heutigen richtigen Philosophen zumutet, er solle verstehen, daß der Geist des Menschen, über den er so viel redet aber er redet nur Worte, der Philosoph von heute -, nur begriffen werden kann im Zusammenhange mit den höheren Hierarchien; daß die Seele des Menschen nur begriffen werden kann nach Denken, Fühlen, Wollen, wenn man zwischen die Glieder physischen Leib, Ätherleib, astralischen Leib und Ich hineinschaut! Und nun sollte man gar einem solchen Philosophen zumuten, daß er in den Leibeshüllen des Menschen, die er ja schon als phantastisch ansieht, Keime für Weltenzukünfte sche! Dazu kann man natürlich mit dem, was das heutige Ich überschaut, nicht kommen. Ist man nun doch in der Lage, irgend etwas vom seelischen Leben mit diesen grotesken Ideen verbinden, verknüpfen zu können — man braucht dazu gar nicht selbst Hellseher zu sein, sondern braucht nur die Dinge des Hellsehers hinzunehmen als Ideen -, dann tut man dies nun nicht im Ich, sondern im astralischen Leibe. Die Gedankenschatten, die man heute im Ich als Reflexion aus dem astralischen Leibe bekommt, die strengen den astralischen Leib nicht an. Die kann man mit der Ich-Kultur haben. Denn wenn das der astralische Leib ist (siehe Zeichnung, rot) und hier das Ich (grün), dann ist alles das, was der moderne Mensch erlebt, hier im Ich, und seine Gedanken sind nichts anderes als das, was der astralische Leib als Schattenbilder in das Ich hineinwirft (gelb). Man braucht sich dabei nicht anzustrengen. Man läßt das Ich walten, das man eben durch die Erdenorganisation bekommen hat. Man braucht sich wirklich nicht anzustrengen. Man konstruiert ein Mikroskop, legt darunter ein Präparat, verfolgt ein Präparat, ein zweites Präparat, guckt und stellt die Gedankenschattenbilder zusammen, macht einige Rechnungsoperationen, die ja auch so, wie sie als Schattenoperationen gegeben werden, in sich ablaufen. Man kann sich dabei in bezug auf sein inneres Miterleben der Welt ganz passiv verhalten. Man bildet dann diese Passivität weiter aus, indem man sich — aber jetzt nicht im Goetheschen Sinne - vom inneren Arbeiten auf das Schauen verlegt. Man geht nicht mehr gern zu Vortragsbetrachtungen, in denen man mitdenken muß, sondern lieber zu Vortragsbetrachtungen, in denen viel Experimente gemacht werden, und zwischen den Experimenten, in dem unangenehmen Geräusch, durch das die Experimente erklärt- werden, schläft man dann ein. Oder aber man geht gar ins Kino. Da braucht man schon gar nicht irgendwie aktiv zu sein.
[ 6 ] Das ist eben die Ich-Kultur. Sie wird immer weiter und weiter kommen. Aber da tritt anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft auf, da kann man es nicht so machen. Ein Theologe der Gegenwart hat zwar gesagt, er würde die «Akasha-Chronik» selbst dann nicht lesen, wenn ich sie ihm in einem illustrierten Prachtexemplar spendieren würde. Aber er braucht nicht zu fürchten, daß er die «Akasha-Chronik» in einem illustrierten Prachtexemplar spendiert bekommen würde, denn man muß sie in einer Weise sich aneignen, daß man innerlich bildend mitarbeitet. Wenn man wirklich symbolisierend künstlerisch auch das, was man in der «Akasha-Chronik» findet, einmal fixieren würde dieser Theologe, der würde auch dann nicht in der Lage sein, mit einem solchen «illustrierten Prachtexemplar» der «Akasha-Chronik» irgend etwas anzufangen, weil er eben auf das «Illustrierte» den Hauptwert legte. - Nun ja.
[ 7 ] Bei anthroposophischer Geisteswissenschaft, da muß man innerlich mitarbeiten, sonst hört man natürlich nur Worte, die man ja in beliebiger Weise als Phantasterei ansehen kann. Aber dieses innerliche Mitarbeiten, das muß man lieben lernen. Zu dem muß man sich entschließen. Es ist unbequem; aber man merkt, wenn man sich dazu entschließt, daß es erfrischt, daß es den Menschen seelisch und leiblich frischer macht.
[ 8 ] Ich weiß, daß manche Menschen auch manches einwenden gegen dieses Frischerwerden. Aber die möchten gern das, was sie durch ein aktives Mitarbeiten des astralischen Leibes in einem schwer sich weiterringenden Verständnis sich erwerben sollen, sich eben nur durch das passive Denken erwerben, so wie jener Theologe wohl am liebsten haben würde, wenn man ihm die ganze «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß» im Kino abspielen würde. Denn so ungefähr sind seine Begriffe, die er ja auch sonst in dem Aufsatz gebraucht, wo er von der «illustrierten Prachtausgabe» der «Akasha-Chronik» spricht.
[ 9 ] Kurz, durch die anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft kommt etwas in Regsamkeit, was nun nicht das bloße Ich ist, sondern was der astralische Leib ist. Es gibt allerdings auch solche Leute, die das dann spüren, wenn sie ein anthroposophisches Buch lesen. Da spüren sie so etwas; da quirlt in ihnen etwas. Nun sind sie darauf eingerichtet, sich innerlich nur passiv, als Gedankenschatten, fortzubewegen. Nun fängt da so etwas wie ein aktiver Verstand an zu quirlen. Da kommt es ihnen so vor, wie wenn sie innerlich Läuse hätten, und dann werden sie nervös über dieses innerliche Quirlen, und dann sagen sie: Das ist ungesund. Und dann klagen sie über diese schwierigen Dinge, die den Menschen in anthroposophischer Geisteswissenschaft dargeboten werden. Und insbesondere diejenigen, die dann solche innerlich merkwürdig affizierten Menschen als Bruder, Schwester, Tante, Onkel beobachten können, die machen sich dann die Klage zu eigen, daß Anthroposophie etwas ist, was die Menschen nervös macht.
[ 10 ] Aber wie steht es da nun, wenn wir jetzt fragen: Welches Verhältnis ist zwischen der Ich-Kultur, die der Mensch zunächst während der Erdenzeit aufnimmt, und derjenigen Kultur, die angeeignet werden kann durch anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft? Das kann eine einfache schematische Zeichnung klarmachen. Nehmen wir also an, wir hätten hier die Erde (siehe Zeichnung, rot). Ihr würden vorangegangen sein Mond, Sonne, Saturn. Wir hätten hier als nächsten Planeten, der sich aus der Erde herausverwandelt, nachdem die Erde ihrem Untergang entgegengegangen ist, den Jupiter (grün). An dem Jupiter sind nun intensiv beteiligt diejenigen Glieder der menschlichen Wesenheit, jetzt als Keim, die physischer Leib, Ätherleib, astralischer Leibsind;aber das Ich nur unter einer bestimmten Voraussetzung. Wenn das Ich nämlich nichts aufnimmt, als was es aufnehmen kann durch die Erdenkultur, dann hört dieses Ich-Bewußtsein auch mit der Erde auf, dann ist der Mensch ein Erden-Ich geworden, und er hört auf, ein Erden-Ich zu sein mit der Erde. Er muß in andere Formen sich weiterentwickeln.
[ 11 ] Wenn aber der Mensch sich hineinentwickelt hat bis in seinen astralischen Leib, wenn er seinen astralischen Leib in Aktivität gebracht hat, dann strahlt diese Aktivität auch zu seinem Ich zurück. Der Mensch hat dann eine Wesenheit von Ich und astralischem Leib, die innerlich tätig sind. Er fühlt nicht, als ob er - wie ich vorhin gesagt habe - innerlich Läuse hätte, sondern er fühlt, als ob er innerlich von starken, gesunden Lebenskräften durchzogen wäre, von solchen Lebenskräften, die ihn nun verbinden mit dem, was eben schon von seinen Leibeshüllen als Keim hinausgeht in zukünftige Erdenmetamorphosen, um in zukünftigen Erdenmetamorphosen sich weiterzuentwickeln.
[ 12 ] Anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft muß durchaus als etwas Lebendiges betrachtet werden. Sie gibt dem Menschen nicht bloß eine "Theorie oder eine theoretische Weltanschauung, sie gibt dem Menschen die Lebenskraft, die ihn über das bloße Erdendasein hinausführen kann.
[ 13 ] Insbesondere nun, wenn wir eine solche Erkenntnis, wie wir sie in den letzten drei Vorträgen hier vor unserer Seele sich haben entrollen lassen, ganz ernst nehmen, wenn wir den Menschen hineinstellen nach Geist, Seele und Leib in das ganze Weltenwerden und etwas dabei fühlen an innerem menschlichem Gehalte, reicher werden dadurch, dann gliedern wir diesem Menschen etwas ein, was ihn hinausträgt über das Erdendasein. Denn es könnte durchaus so sein -— obwohl es hoffentlich nicht der Fall sein wird -, daß die Menschen, weil sie in der vorhin charakterisierten Weise müde davon werden, abweisen anthroposophische Geisteswissenschäft. Darin würde allerdings die menschliche Hülle sich auch weiterentwickeln, aber sie würde von anderen Wesen als von den Menschen in Anspruch genommen werden, und die Menschen würden hinuntersinken in ein niedrigeres Dasein als das ist, zu dem sie bestimmt sind.
[ 14 ] Das ist es schließlich, was ein paar Menschen in der Gegenwart dazu bringt, ängstlich zu werden über des Menschen kosmische Zukunft, was ein paar Menschen dazu bringt, zu ahnen, daß der Mensch durch seine Schuld verlorengehen könnte im Weltenall. Und dazu muß nur noch manches andere kommen, daß die Menschen nicht etwa bloß einsehen: «Darwin war eine Hebamme und der Affe ein Kunstgewerbe», daß sie nicht bloß einsehen, daß man schließlich «unter Führung der Schulmedizin» redet von «Nervenschwäche, Ermüdbarkeit, Psychasthenie» und so weiter, daß sie nicht bloß dazu kommen, sich zu sagen: «Ich schreibe nichts mehr, man müßte mit Spulwürmern schreiben. Ich lese nichts mehr. Wen denn? Die alten ehrlichen Titaniden in Stullenpapier?»
[ 15 ] Nun, trotz des Höllengelächters, das von manchen Seiten angestimmt wird, muß man eben sagen: Diejenigen, die keinen Glauben mehr haben an die «Titaniden mit den Ikaridenflügeln in Stullenpapier», diejenigen, die einsehen, daß man über all das, was keimhaft veranlagt ist in unserer Niedergangskultur, eigentlich nur «mit Spulwürmern schreiben» müßte, die dann fragen: Was soll man denn noch lesen, womit soll man sich denn beschäftigen? — die dann fragen können: Lebt man denn überhaupt noch? - denen sollte, wie gesagt, trotz des Höllengelächters, das von manchen Seiten in der Gegenwart angestimmt wird, anthroposophische Literatur in die Hand gegeben werden, und sie sollten auf irgendeine Weise, sofern das nur irgend vermocht wird, eine seelische Arzenei bekommen, damit sie die durch die Gegenwartskultur verursachten Hemmungen loswerden, welche sie hindern, das aufzunehmen, was die Seele heute unbedingt braucht.
[ 16 ] Es gehen viele Leute heute in der Welt herum, die mit sich nichts anzufangen wissen, denen ihr Leib zu schwer, innerlich zu krüppelig wird. Gerade sie müßten oftmals im vollen Ernste darauf hingewiesen werden, welch kraftende, gesundende Impulse in einem wirklichen Sich-Erarbeiten der Gedanken, der Ideen anthroposophischer Geisteswissenschaft liegen.
[ 17 ] Diese Dinge müssen schon durchaus, ich kann es immer nur wieder und wiederum sagen, mit hohem Ernste genommen werden. Man muß schon heute durchaus ein wenig einsehen können, wie es eigentlich liegt in unserer Zeit mit demjenigen, was so als die Konsequenzen hervorgehen kann aus den Richtungen, die die materialistische Kultur eingeschlagen hat.
[ 18 ] Möge nun auch gespürt werden, wie sehr es notwendig ist, daß heute aus Ursprungsquellen heraus eine Erneuerung unserer Kultur stattfindet!
Ninth Lecture
[ 1 ] In my last few lectures, I showed how human beings can find a relationship to the world by seeking this relationship to the spiritual, the soul, and the physical. And I have shown you that if we seriously want to bring the spiritual nature of human beings to our consciousness, we cannot do so except by turning our gaze upward into the spiritual worlds. For in fact, the deeds and mutual relationships of those hierarchies that we have always summarized as the hierarchy of the angeloi, archangeloi, archai, and so on, play out in our human spirit. And to bring the deeds and relationships of these beings to consciousness means at the same time to bring the human being's own spirituality to consciousness.
[ 2 ] From the soul realm, I was able to explain to you how thinking takes place between the etheric body of the human being and the physical body, how feeling takes place between the etheric body of the human being and his astral body, and how willing takes place between the astral body and the human ego. And then I showed you how what human beings today call their bodies must now be understood if one wants to bring them to consciousness in their true form, as seeds for future worlds. So that what will actually take shape in the future world has its seeds in the human bodies that we carry within us: in our physical body, which we lay down here on Earth—but when it is dissolved in the Earth realm, it becomes the seed for what the Earth will become after it has disappeared as Earth. We get to know our etheric body—shortly after we have passed through the gate of death, it seems to dissolve into the vast universe; but it becomes the seed for what the Earth will become in the future. And so it is with our astral body and with what is our ego shell. However, we have only incorporated this ego shell, as we have it here on Earth as human beings, into our being during our earthly existence.
[ 3 ] Now we live today, that is, we have been living for a long time in the intellectual age. People understand what is in the world around them as we understand it today, through the intellect, through rational cognition. Everything that approaches people today in the form of education and civilization is geared toward this external knowledge. And even when we feel, our feelings remain dull and dreamlike. What becomes clear to people in their feelings is precisely what the world today provides as external knowledge from its authoritative science. So that from the moment they enter school, people in our ordinary civilization receive only that inner soul life which is intellectual control of the environment. But how far does this intellectual control of the environment extend? I could also say: How deeply does what is intellectual control of the environment penetrate into our soul life?
[ 4 ] Let us take a person who is sent to school at the age of six, to schools where people are taught to relate to the external world only by external methods. Let us assume that this person passes through our higher schools. He can then even continue to learn something, can go through the higher levels of education and absorb all that is necessary to become a leader of humanity in some field in a spiritual sense. What does such a person, whose soul life is shaped in accordance with the education of our time, actually absorb into his soul? He takes in only what reaches his ego. He takes in no more than what reaches his ego. He then receives it back from those members of his human being into which the ego is immersed but which are not called upon for actual self-conscious activity. From these, he takes back into his thoughts, his memory images, his feelings, what he knows about his impulses of will. Everything else he experiences is weakened, paralyzed. His soul life takes place solely in the ego. And everything that is conveyed to him is conveyed to him only to the extent that it enters his ego.
[ 5 ] What happens when a person encounters what we call anthroposophical spiritual science? When a person encounters what we call anthroposophical spiritual science, they should actually learn to feel something that can be expressed as follows: "... to recognize the ego as a structure that, with a force against which the gravity of a snowflake was nothing, strived to reach a state in which nothing of what modern culture calls a spiritual gift played a role... ." For when a person approaches anthroposophical spiritual science, they should really come to say to themselves: This anthroposophical spiritual science makes a very special demand of you. You can understand things that you take into your soul as ideas, things that others, who live only in today's education, say are fantastic or crazy, things that those who live in today's education, with their ego culture, cannot comprehend. They cannot approach them with their ego culture. The earthly ego cannot comprehend what is presented in anthroposophy as a series of concepts, what is said about the development of Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon, about the spiritual, soul, and physical nature of the human being. Just think, if you expect a real philosopher today, who has not become so crazy or “clever” that he “considers Darwin a midwife and monkeys as arts and crafts,” if you expect a real philosopher today to understand that the spirit of the human being, about which he talks so much but only in words, the philosopher of today — can only be understood in connection with the higher hierarchies; that the soul of the human being can only be understood through thinking, feeling, and willing, if one looks between the members of the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I! And now one should expect such a philosopher to see in the physical body, which he already considers fantastical, the seeds of future worlds! Of course, with what the present ego can comprehend, one cannot arrive at this conclusion. If one is nevertheless able to connect or link anything of the soul life with these grotesque ideas — one need not be clairvoyant oneself, but only accept the clairvoyant's observations as ideas — then one does this not in the ego, but in the astral body. The shadows of thoughts that we receive today in the ego as reflections from the astral body do not constrain the astral body. You can have them with ego culture. For if this is the astral body (see drawing, red) and here is the ego (green), then everything that modern man experiences is here in the ego, and his thoughts are nothing other than what the astral body casts into the ego as shadow images (yellow). You don't need to make any effort. One allows the ego, which one has just received through the earthly organization, to rule. One really does not need to make any effort. One constructs a microscope, places a specimen under it, observes one specimen, then a second specimen, looks and puts the thought shadow images together, performs a few calculations, which, as shadow operations, take place within oneself. In doing so, one can remain completely passive in relation to one's inner experience of the world. One then further develops this passivity by shifting — but not in the Goethean sense — from inner work to observation. One no longer likes to go to lectures where one has to think along, but prefers lectures where a lot of experiments are done, and between the experiments, in the unpleasant noise with which the experiments are explained, one then falls asleep. Or one goes to the cinema. There one does not need to be active in any way.
[ 6 ] That is precisely the culture of the ego. It will continue to spread further and further. But that is where anthroposophical spiritual science comes in, where you cannot do that. A contemporary theologian once said that he would not read the Akashic Records even if I gave him a beautifully illustrated copy. But he need not fear that he would be given a beautifully illustrated copy of the Akashic Records, because one must acquire them in such a way that one cooperates inwardly in their formation. If one were to symbolically and artistically capture what one finds in the Akashic Records, this theologian would still not be able to do anything with such an “illustrated copy” of the Akashic Records, because he placed the main value on the “illustrated” aspect. - Well, yes.
[ 7 ] In anthroposophical spiritual science, you have to work with it inwardly, otherwise you will of course only hear words that can be regarded as fantasy in any way you like. But you have to learn to love this inner cooperation. You have to decide to do it. It is uncomfortable, but once you decide to do it, you notice that it refreshes you, that it makes you feel fresher, both mentally and physically.
[ 8 ] I know that some people also object to this feeling of becoming fresher. But they would like to acquire what they should acquire through active cooperation of the astral body in a difficult process of understanding, simply through passive thinking, just as that theologian would probably prefer if the entire “Secret Science in Outline” were shown to him in the cinema. For that is roughly the nature of his concepts, which he also uses elsewhere in the essay where he speaks of the “illustrated deluxe edition” of the “Akashic Chronicle.”
[ 9 ] In short, through anthroposophical spiritual science, something comes to life that is not merely the ego, but what the astral body is. There are, however, people who feel this when they read an anthroposophical book. They sense something; something stirs within them. Now they are attuned to moving inwardly only passively, as shadows of thoughts. Now something like an active mind begins to stir within them. It seems to them as if they have lice inside them, and then they become nervous about this inner stirring, and then they say: That is unhealthy. And then they complain about these difficult things that are presented to people in anthroposophical spiritual science. And especially those who can then observe such strangely affected people as brothers, sisters, aunts, or uncles, they then adopt the complaint that anthroposophy is something that makes people nervous.
[ 10 ] But what about when we ask: What is the relationship between the ego culture that people initially absorb during their time on earth and the culture that can be acquired through anthroposophical spiritual science? A simple diagram can clarify this. Let's assume that we have the Earth here (see drawing, red). It would have been preceded by the moon, sun, and Saturn. The next planet to emerge from the Earth after its demise would be Jupiter (green). The members of the human being that are now intensively involved in Jupiter, as germs, are the physical body, etheric body, and astral body; but the I is only involved under certain conditions. For if the I takes in nothing more than what it can take in through the Earth culture, then this I-consciousness also ceases with the Earth, then the human being has become an Earth-I, and he ceases to be an Earth-I with the Earth. He must evolve into other forms.
[ 11 ] But when the human being has developed into his astral body, when he has brought his astral body into activity, then this activity also radiates back to his ego. The human being then has an entity consisting of the ego and the astral body, which are active internally. He does not feel as if he has lice inside him, as I said earlier, but rather as if he is permeated by strong, healthy life forces, life forces that now connect him with what is already emerging from his physical shell as a seed for future earth metamorphoses, in order to develop further in future earth metamorphoses.
[ 12 ] Anthroposophical spiritual science must definitely be regarded as something living. It does not merely give people a “theory or a theoretical worldview”; it gives them the life force that can lead them beyond mere earthly existence.
[ 13 ] Especially now, when we take seriously the insights we have allowed to unfold before our souls in the last three lectures, when we place human beings with their spirit, soul, and body into the whole process of world evolution and feel something of inner human content, becoming richer as a result, then we incorporate into these human beings something that carries them beyond their earthly existence. For it could well be — although hopefully it will not be the case — that human beings, because they become weary in the manner just described, will reject anthroposophical spiritual science. In that case, the human shell would continue to evolve, but it would be taken up by beings other than humans, and humans would sink down into a lower existence than that for which they are destined.
[ 14 ] This is ultimately what causes a few people today to become fearful about the cosmic future of humanity, what causes a few people to suspect that humanity could be lost in the universe through its own fault. And then there are a number of other things that people fail to realize: “Darwin was a midwife and the ape was a craft,” that they do not merely realize that, under the guidance of conventional medicine, people talk about “nervous weakness, fatigue, psychasthenia,” and so on, that they do not merely come to say to themselves: "I am not writing any more; one would have to write with roundworms. I'm not reading anything anymore. Who would I read? The old honest Titanides in sandwich paper?"
[ 15 ] Well, despite the hellish laughter that is being raised from some quarters, one must say: Those who no longer believe in the “Titanids with Icarus wings in sandwich paper,” those who realize that all that is germinally present in our culture in decline can really only be written “with roundworms,” who then ask: What is there left to read, what is there left to concern oneself with? — who can then ask: Are we even still alive? — should, as I said, despite the hellish laughter that is being raised from many quarters at present, be given anthroposophical literature to read, and they should, in whatever way possible, be given spiritual medicine to help them overcome the inhibitions caused by contemporary culture, which prevent them from taking in what the soul so desperately needs today.
[ 16 ] There are many people in the world today who do not know what to do with themselves, whose bodies have become too heavy and inwardly crippled. It is precisely these people who often need to be made aware, in all seriousness, of the powerful, healing impulses that lie in a genuine working out of the thoughts and ideas of anthroposophical spiritual science.
[ 17 ] These things must be taken very seriously, I can only say it again and again. We must be able to see a little today what is actually happening in our time as a consequence of the direction that materialistic culture has taken.
[ 18 ] May we now also sense how necessary it is that a renewal of our culture take place today from its very sources!