Human Questions and Cosmic Answers
GA 213
30 June 1922, Dornach
2. The Relation of the Planets to the Human Organism. The Participation of the Cosmos in the Development of Man.
I will allude briefly to the indications given in last Sunday's lecture. They were on the subject of man's relationship to the universe and attention was called to how the forces of the human will find their way out into the cosmic expanse in the direction opposite to that of the light streaming from the sun to the earth. So it can be said that forces of will stream out from earthly humanity to meet the light. On the other hand, the element of thought is borne to the earth along the waves of the moon's light.
It was further explained that what is spreads out from man at the dissolution of his physical body is of the nature of will and thus streams out into the cosmos towards its inflowing light; and that man is borne back again towards earthly existence on the currents of the thought-element which flow along the lines of light together with everything that proceeds from the moon.
Naturally, in regard to this aspect of the will-element and the light-element, of the thought-element and the moon's light, and also to what I shall say in the present lecture, it must be remembered that when speaking of these things and making use, as it were, of the structure of the universe to illustrate them, an illustration only is meant. For it must not be thought that in these happenings the actual physical sun and the physical moon are anything else than signs for what is taking place spiritually. The true state of affairs can be described approximately in the following way.
I want to speak of these things from a certain historical aspect, but they could also be presented in a different way. My aim is to make the things I am now saying intelligible to you in greater detail.—You know that according to a more materialistic mode of thinking, our solar system originated from a kind of primal nebula. Thinking that is bound up with purely material existence conceives that our visible cosmos, our solar system, sprang from a kind of primal nebula which then consolidated and contracted into what now exists as the solar system.
From all you have heard in Anthroposophy it will be clear to you from the outset that this cannot be an exhaustive presentation of the process. However much this material explanation of cosmic happenings may be modified by saying that the nebula is permeated with forces, and so on, what is actually present cannot be fully explained in this way, for the reason that nothing contained in a Kant-Laplace or other primal nebula, or what develops from it according to the laws governing the gasiform or aeriform states, could ever have produced the animal and human souls that are living on earth, or even the forces working in the growth of plants. Such an explanation of cosmic happenings is an abstraction even if a materialistic abstraction. It must surely be obvious that in the primal nebula conceived by materialistic thinking, a spiritual reality is contained and that this primal nebula is only the outer, material expression of something spiritual. To be complete, therefore the idea of the primal nebula must include the weaving activity of the spiritual. So this Kant-Laplace nebula must be amplified by being regarded as the body of an element of spirit-and-soul—not, it is true, uniform and individual as in man, but manifold, diversified, yet for all that of the nature of spirit-and-soul.
The purely materialistic way of thinking and of formulating hypotheses goes no farther than this primal nebula. Now let us imagine that not we ourselves, but other beings, beings of the future, were to evolve ideas, based on similarly materialistic thinking, of the genesis of the world-system in which they are, or rather will be, living. Whether what I am now saying represents the reality is quite beside the point; it is said only for the sake of clarifying a thought.—We will assume, then, that in a distant future such beings conceive of a Kant-Laplace nebula as the beginning of the world's existence. At what point in the course of the ages would this nebula exist? When such beings of the future look back, it would have to be assumed—in order to make the thought clear—that our earth, that is to say, our solar system, had long since passed away, that the space it occupied had as it were become free, and that then, in this freed space, a Kant-Laplace nebula of a future world had come into existence. As long as our solar system is there, this future nebula could obviously not be imagined to exist in the space it occupies, I will formulate this example by assuming that these beings who might elaborate a materialistic theory of a future world-system place their primal nebula in the space now occupied by our own. But in accordance with what has been said, spirit-and-soul too would have to be contained in such a nebula of the future; this nebula could only be the bodily expression of an element of cosmic spirit-and-soul. Where would this cosmic element originate? What would have to be said about it?
Suppose that here (drawing on blackboard) is our Kant-Laplace primal nebula (physical plus spirit-and-soul) and here the primal nebula conceived at some future time by beings of whom I have spoken. In that nebula too, the element of spirit-and-soul would have to be contained. Where would it originate? If this future nebula were to be at the place occupied by our own solar system it would include an element of cosmic spirit-and-soul. But this would be what has remained over from the solar system in which we ourselves have lived. Our solar system would have come to an end, would have dispersed in cosmic space. The element of spirit-and-soul would have remained and that would be embodied in a new Kant-Laplace primal nebula. In other words: what I have here described would represent the Jupiter evolution. But within this Jupiter evolution would be contained the element of spirit-and-soul prepared during the Earth-evolution of humanity. In the same way we must go back beyond the Kant-Laplace nebula of the Earth to the spirit-and-soul contained in it. And this was prepared by the beings of the (Old) Moon-existence.
So when you look at the present solar system, you are beholding the outer corporeality of what passed away with the Moon-existence or was transformed from the Moon-existence into the Earth-existence. And again, what we today send out into the cosmic expanse prepares the Jupiter-existence. When, therefore, we look at our solar system we are actually looking at something that is the product of an earlier stage of existence. So when I speak of the light streaming to us from the physical sun I am speaking of something that comes out of the past. And when I speak of the streams of will flowing out to meet this light, I am speaking of something that is preparing the future. The primal work, the cosmic element of which I speak in order to have a form of expression for what happens spiritually, was thus prepared by the Old Moon-existence; and what I describe as the Spiritual is already the foundation for what will live on into the Jupiter-existence. Hence it must not be said that the sun seen by our eyes out in cosmic space draws the human will to itself. This physical sun is only the symbol for that sun-nature towards which the human will streams. And equally, the physical moon is only the physical sign for the Moon-nature which in streams of thoughts pours continually into Earth-existence.
You will find these thoughts necessary if you want to understand rightly what is meant when, in what follows, I shall be speaking of cosmic relationships which reflect, in pictures, what takes place spiritually through mankind on the Earth. And here an addition must be made to what was said in the last lecture. When our solar system as a whole is observed from the Earth, we have the Sun, and, as outer planets: Mars, Jupiter, Saturn—others are of less importance. Nearer to the Earth than to the Sun we have Venus and Mercury. Let us now recall that the element of will streams out from humanity on Earth towards the Sun in cosmic space, and that after the dissolution of the body the soul too is borne out into the cosmos through this element of will, which reaches, first, the Sun-existence, the Sun-sphere.
What must in this way be stated as a fact was discovered, as I said in the last lecture, through the experiences of the ancient initiates. They sent their questions towards the Sun along the streams of the will and then received the answers from the Moon in the form of thoughts. So that what I have now said, expressing it in this particular way, is a reality. And again, if more insight is to be gained, we must go back to the experiences of the initiates in the ancient Mysteries.
Think once again of the initiate of these Mysteries sending out his questions, giving them over to the stream flowing out towards the rays of the Sun; he waits, and then, after a time, receives his answers from the Moon—in this respect holding converse with the universe.
But in this process the answers received by the ancient initiates had a specific bearing only; they were answers relating to the actual structure of the universe. So that what was contained in that ancient, more primitive science—which was in truth a lofty, although dreamlike wisdom—was brought into being by the answers received to questions sent out to meet the rays of the Sun streaming from the opposite direction. These answers were to questions referring to the structure of the universe, to the forces at work in the universe, and so on. In short, they were answers relating to the realm of physics, astronomy, to the music of the spheres, to everything embraced in these domains of knowledge in the ancient sciences.
But these initiates sent out other questions as well into the universe. They also knew, for example, how to send out questions to Mars, to the Mars-sphere. At the time when Mars could be seen in the sky they gave over their questions to currents streaming in the opposite direction to the rays of Mars. When they sent their questions to Mars they did not await the answers from the Moon but from Venus, when Venus was standing in a position facing Mars. The important point, however, is that they awaited from Venus the answers to the questions they had sent upwards to Mars.
And again, they awaited from Mercury the answers to the questions sent upwards to Jupiter. The questions to Saturn were sent far out into the cosmic expanse, and the initiates knew that in this case the answers could be awaited from the heaven of the fixed stars only, or from what represented it in those olden times—the Zodiac itself.
What was the nature of these latter questions that were sent out into the universe by the ancient initiates, the answers to which they awaited? These answers were not the abstract, scientific truths connected with the structure of the universe, as I indicated just now; but the questions were those which the initiates wished to address directly to the divine-spiritual Beings.
Thus they sent upwards to Mars questions they had to put to the Angeloi, and awaited the answers from Venus. They sent upwards to Jupiter questions addressed to the Archangeloi, awaiting the answers from Mercury. And to Saturn they addressed questions to be answered by the Archai, awaiting the answers from the Zodiac.
Whereas, therefore, direct converse was held with the cosmos in a more abstract, impersonal form, in the converse of which I am now speaking the initiates were conscious of speaking to actual Beings, divine-spiritual Beings, and of receiving utterances individually from them. In this way, therefore, decisions of will were received from the choir of the Angeloi, from the choir of the Archangeloi, from the choir of the Archai. The discourse between Sun and Moon and the initiates was concerned with the outer aspect of the cosmos; the discourse with the other planets and with the Zodiac was directed to the spiritual Beings in the cosmos.
And so there was actual and continuous intercourse between man and the cosmos, not only concerning its outer structure, but also with the cosmic Beings themselves. The old initiates knew that if, for example, they were directing their forces to Mars, it would not do merely to formulate and send out their cherished questions in terms of thought. Such questions reached only as far as the Sun and the answers came back from the Moon. When the ancient initiates wished to address questions to Mars, they were obliged to do it by composing aphoristic sayings, recitatives, mantrams, which could also be declaimed. These, sent out into the universe, were the means whereby the Mars-forces were activated in such a way that the answers to the questions, coming back from Venus, were audible to a kind of inner hearing.
If it was desired to address questions Jupiter, even the declamation of mantrams did not suffice; in this case the performance of certain definite rites was necessary. And what streamed out into the universe from these rites in the form, shall we say, of cosmic thought, came back from Mercury in certain signs which the ancient initiates knew how to interpret. If they allowed themselves to be inspired by Venus they were able to interpret the corresponding signs; so, too, if they allowed themselves to be inspired by Mercury. These signs were infinitely varied. They meant nothing at all unless a man was inspired by Mercury. If he was inspired by Mercury, he knew: This or that event is an answer to a question asked by means of ritualistic acts.
In this way, happenings and processes in nature, and also those in history which otherwise appear to be nothing more than natural or historical processes, acquired definite content; they could as it were be read. Questions addressed to Saturn entailed very special difficulty, for actions lasting over a lengthy period of time were necessary before they could even be put as questions. In the ancient Mysteries this was as a rule arranged in such a way that the teachers in the Mysteries gave their pupils a certain mission to fulfil, a mission in which the life of the pupil was dedicated to some actual achievement. What it was incumbent upon these pupils to accomplish, often extending over a period of many years, constituted the questions put to the Saturn-existence. And the answers then came back from the Zodiac.
An actual and intimate participation in the cosmos and its happenings was achieved in those rites of prayer and meditation, and by other procedures carried out by the initiates and their pupils in the ancient Mysteries. Nor was anything accomplished in a short time; what took place in such Mysteries through the course of years consisted in unceasing acts of knowledge, and in acts by which the right impulses for the deeds of men were engendered.
Insight into such happenings also enables us to picture how the forces designated as those of Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Moon, Venus and Mercury, work upon man and their significance for him. The significance of the Sun-forces is that they draw man's will-nature towards the Sun and after his death lead him out into the cosmos and thence into the spiritual world. The particular quality of the Moon-forces is that they instill into man the organic configuration which makes thinking and reflection possible; but they are also the forces which bear him back again when, coming down from the spiritual world, he must find his way through the spheres of ether to earthly incarnation.
We can speak in a similar way of the other forces, known by the names of the celestial bodies they represent, and of their effects upon man. As an example, let us take the Mercury-forces. These forces are not concentrated exclusively in the planet Mercury. They permeate the whole of space that is accessible to us and the physical Mercury is merely a manifestation of the Mercury-forces in a concentrated mineral form.
Imagine the whole of our solar system filled with the Mercury-forces. They permeate all the bodies in the solar system, and naturally our own bodies as well; but at the point where Mercury appears in the heavens they are concentrated in a physical-mineral form and so are visible there.
The Venus-forces again are all-pervading. They are merely concentrated in a physical-mineral form at the definite point where Venus is seen. And so it is with all these forces. Speaking in accordance with the reality, we must say: Venus, Mercury, Moon and the rest, all interpenetrate, but their concentrations stand at different places in the heavens.
If we can gradually form a conception of this by perceiving how Mercury gives the answers for Jupiter, by learning to know Mercury, then we also acquire knowledge of what these Mercury-forces signify for man, in the unconscious realms of his life as well. To take a simple example; When we want to walk we must have certain forces by means of which, from out of the spirit, we permeate our bones and muscles. With our spirit-and-soul we have to penetrate into the physical, into the solid constituents of our body. That we are able to do this is due to the Mercury-forces.
It can therefore be said:
1. The effect of the Mercury-forces is that man can take hold of the solid constituents of his body. If there were no Mercury-forces in the world, we should be outside the solid constituents of our body all the time.
2. The Venus-forces enable man to take hold of the fluids in his body. You know that 90 per cent of you is a column of fluid. So if the Venus-forces were not in the world you would be obliged as beings of spirit to move around the outside of this column of fluid; you could not take hold of the fluids if the Venus-forces were not in the world.
3. The Moon-forces enable man to take hold of the aeriform element in his organism.
These things can be known by studying cosmology, but such study can advance to further stages. The ancient initiates pursued this kind of study, although their science was only primitive and their clairvoyance dreamlike. Let us say, for example, that from their cosmological studies they had discovered that the Venus-forces enable man to take hold of everything that is fluid in him. Then they waited until they came across someone in whom this inability to take hold of the fluids was evident—in other words, definite forms of illness were present. A very definite form of illness sets in when, for example, a man is unable to take hold of the fluid element even in a single organ only. In such a case these ancient initiates asked themselves: What kind of medicament must be administered? When a man was not properly interpolated into the Venus-forces—when, therefore, the fluids in his organism were not under sufficient control—the initiates realised that copper must be administered as a medicament. In finding that copper has the effect of enabling the soul-and-spirit to take hold of the body; that its effect is similar to that of the Venus-forces, they discovered that the nature of the forces in the metal copper is the same as the nature of those of the Venus-sphere. Hence they connected the metal copper with Venus. Or when illness was caused by a man's incapacity to take proper hold of the solid constituents of his organism, the ancient initiates found that mercury or quicksilver must be administered. In this way they established the parallelisms between the metals and the planets. The parallelisms are given in extant literature today; but it never occurs to anybody to ask: Why is copper related to Venus?—and so on. Nevertheless these things were the outcome of genuine investigation.
If, therefore, a man speaks out of real knowledge of copper as a means of healing, it is knowledge of the connection of the human being with the cosmos. To discover whether some metallic element found in a plant has a remedial effect in one respect or another, the whole relationship of this plant to the universe must be borne in mind. And from the plant's relationship to the universe, and again from the relationship of the universe to the human being, the insight comes to us of how the medicament can take effect.
The fact that there is a certain disinclination today to admit these things can be well understood. For the endeavour nowadays is to learn in four or five years—admittedly in a way somewhat open to question—everything that is needed in order to be able to heal. But because this is not possible, because we must forever be learning more, whereas the desire is to be fully qualified after these four or five years and there is unwillingness to admit that a great deal more remains to be learnt—that is why there is this aversion to something to which no end can be in sight. But the world itself is without end, not only in the extensive but also in the intensive sense, as that is usually understood.
Unlike the Mercury-, Venus-, and Moon-forces, the Mars-forces do not enable us to take hold of something, but they protect us from dissolving away in the element of warmth.
4. The Mars-forces protect us from the tendency to flow out and away in the element of Warmth. If the Mars-forces were not present and functioning in the right way, man would have the constant tendency to dissolve in the Warmth. The Mars-forces hold him together, guard him from this. This is a matter of supreme importance, for since the warmth in man's organism is greater than the warmth of his environment, he is in perpetual danger of flowing away in the element of Warmth. To prevent this is of the very greatest importance. Therefore there must be a concentration of the Mars-forces in the human organism. And this is brought about through the presence of iron in man's blood. Iron contains forces that are identical with those of Mars and they hold man together in opposition to the tendency to dissolve away into the warmth.
The Jupiter- and Saturn-forces are not present in the human organism in this material form. They are there, but in a different form, not immediately detectable.
5. The Jupiter-forces. These forces protect man from dissolving away in the element of Light, in the Light-Ether. He would become an ever-expanding cloud of light if the Jupiter-forces were not present and at work.
6. The Saturn-forces. These forces protect man from dissolving in the Chemical Ether. Penetrating as they do into the human constitution, these Saturn-forces are connected, in a certain sense, with the innermost essence of man's nature. We speak of a “sour” or a “sweet” disposition, for example, more in a metaphorical sense. But these things are not merely metaphorical; if a human being makes an impression of sourness in the moral-physical sense, this has some connection with his chemical make-up. And the Saturn-forces have their share in this chemical make-up. The particular manner in which a human being gives expression to his nature as a whole depends upon the way in which Saturn is working in him.
A melancholic person has this particular temperament because he lives very strongly in his chemical constitution, in everything that seethes and is astir in the liver, in the bile and even in the stomach; the melancholic temperament is therefore due to this living into the chemical make-up of the organism. And this characteristic again is due to the fact that in such a person the Saturn-forces work with particular strength.
The human being appears to be concentrated inside his skin, but this is only apparently so; in reality he is part and parcel of the whole cosmos, and it is possible to indicate in detail how the cosmos has its share in the formation of the human constitution.
Thus the planets near the Sun have to do more with the physical elements in man's organism: solid, fluid aeriform. The planets distant from the Sun have to do more with the etheric elements in man s organism. Between the two groups of planets is the Sun itself. The forces of Mercury, Venus and Moon bring the human being into connection with the solid, fluid and aeriform elements. The forces of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. protect him from flowing away into the Warmth, Light and Chemical Ethers. As you see, the effects are polaric. And the Sun stands between, preventing the two groups of planetary forces from interpenetrating. Suppose the Mars-forces were able to work without restraint—and they could do so on the Moon-forces, for example. If the Sun-forces were not placed in the middle, acting as a kind of dividing-wall which simply does not allow these forces to unite, the Mars-forces—which hold the human being together as an independent entity in the Warmth-element—would, it is true, still prevent him from flowing away into the Warmth; but this independent entity would then at once be obliged to take possession of the Air, and man would become a spectre of air. In order that both processes may take place, in order that man may take hold of the aeriform constituents in his organism but also live as an independent being in the Warmth-element, the two sets of forces, those of Mars and Moon, must be kept separated. And for this purpose the Sun stands between them.
This too was well known to the old initiates. If, for example, definite symptoms of illness appear in a man owing to the fact that the Mars-forces are working too strongly, so that they break through the Sun-element, with the result that the man is then living intensely in the aeriform organism because he is better able to take hold of it—in such a case the Mars-forces must be kept separate from the Moon-forces. And for this purpose aurum (gold) must be administered. To prevent the Mars-forces and Moon-forces from flowing into one another, the Sun-forces must be strengthened. In this way the remedial effect of aurum was discovered; its effect is to bring the organism again into harmonious balance, so that what ought not to flow away is kept in check.
From all this it will be evident to you that knowledge of the universe is not possible without knowledge of man, nor is knowledge of man possible without knowledge of the universe, above all in the domain where it is a matter of applying science in the art of healing.
Dritter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Mit ein paar Worten darf ich noch einmal hinweisen auf die Ausführungen, die ich am letzten Sonntag hier gemacht habe. Sie berührten das Verhältnis des Menschen zur Welt insofern, als darauf aufmerksam gemacht wurde, wie dasjenige, was menschliche Willensentfaltung ist, seinen Weg hinausfindet in die Weiten der Welt, entgegen der Lichtrichtung, die von der Sonne aus zur Erde strömt. So daß man sagen kann, daß dem Lichte entgegen von der Erdenmenschheit etwas in den Weltenraum hinausströmt, das Willensentfaltung ist. Dagegen kommt gewissermaßen mit den Wellen des Mondenlichtes herein auf die Erde dasjenige, was Gedankenhaftes ist. Wir konnten dann des weiteren dazu übergehen, zu zeigen, wie dasjenige, was vom Menschen mit der Auflösung des physischen Leibes sich verbreitert, einen willensartigen Charakter trägt, und eben dem Lichte entgegen hinaus in das Weltenall strömt, und wie dann der Mensch wiederum zurückkommt zum irdischen Dasein auf den Strömen des Gedankenelementes mit den Lichtlinien und überhaupt mit alledem, was vom Monde ausgeht.
[ 2 ] Nun muß natürlich sowohl für diese Anschauung bezüglich des Willenselementes und des Lichtelementes, des Gedankenelementes und des Mondenscheinelementes, wie auch für die Ausführungen, die ich heute weiter in diesem Stile machen möchte, ins Auge gefaßt werden, daß wenn man über diese Dinge spricht und sich gewissermaßen des Weltengebäudes als einer Veranschaulichung bedient, damit eben nur eine Veranschaulichung gemeint ist. Denn man sollte nicht denken, daß in alledem, was da ausgeführt wird, unmittelbar die physische Sonne und der physische Mond etwas anderes zu tun haben, als daß sie gewissermaßen Zeichen für das sind, was geistig geschieht. Das wirkliche Verhältnis kann etwa in der folgenden Weise dargestellt werden.
[ 3 ] Ich möchte diese Darstellung geschichtlich formulieren. Man könnte sie auch anders formulieren. Ich möchte Ihnen verständlich machen, was eigentlich mit solchen Ausführungen, wie ich sie jetzt mache, im genaueren gemeint ist. Sie wissen ja, daß das sich mehr an das. Materielle haltende Denken den Ursprung unseres Weltensystems in einer Art Urnebel sieht, das heißt, man kommt mit dem rein an das Materielle gebundenen Denken dazu, sich vorzustellen, daß unser Kosmos, so wie wir ihn überschauen, daß unser Sonnensystem hervorgegangen ist aus einer Art Urnebel (weiß), der sich dann geballt und zusammengezogen hat zu demjenigen, was eben das Sonnensystem darstellt.
[ 4 ] Nun ist es Ihnen ja wohl von vorneherein klar, nach allem, was Sie auf dem Boden der Anthroposophie gehört haben, daß dies nicht eine restlose Darstellung des Vorganges sein kann. Wie sehr man diese materielle Ausdeutung des Weltgeschehens auch modifiziert, sie mit Kräften durchsetzt und dergleichen: dasjenige, was wirklich ist, kann damit nicht erschöpft sein, aus dem Grunde nicht, weil ja aus allem, was so ein Kant-Laplacescher oder ein anderer Urnebel enthält, und was er nach den Gesetzen der Gas- oder Luftmechanik aus sich heraus entwickeln kann, niemals dasjenige sich bilden könnte, was auf der Erde als "Tier- und Menschenseelen, ja nicht einmal was als Pflanzen-Wachstumskräfte lebt. Wit haben es, wenn wir eine solche Ausdeutung vollziehen, eben zu tun mit einer Abstraktion, wenn diese Abstraktion auch eine materialistische Abstraktion ist. Es muß klar sein, daß dem, was da von dem materialistischen Denken als Urnebelmasse gedacht ist, schon innewohnt ein Geistiges (s. Zeichnung S. 49 links, rot), und daß diese Urnebelmasse nur der äußere materielle Ausdruck eines Geistigen ist. Also es muß, wenn die Vorstellung eine vollständige ist, darinnen das Weben und Wesen von Geistigem gedacht werden. So daß wir, wenn wir auf diesen Kant-Laplaceschen Urnebel hinschauen, ihn ergänzen müssen dadurch, daß wir ihn als den Leib ansehen eines Geistig-Seelischen, eines Geistig-Seelischen allerdings, das nicht jene Einheitsnatur ist, wie der Mensch sie hat, sondern das mannigfaltig, vielgestaltig ist, aber das eben doch ein Geistig-Seelisches ist.
[ 5 ] Die bloß materialistische Denkbetrachtung, die bloß materialistische Hypothesenbildung kommt ja nicht weiter zurück als zu diesem Urnebel. Nun stellen wir uns einmal vor, nicht wir, sondern andere Wesen, Wesen der Zukunft würden sich einmal aus einem solchen materialistischen Denken heraus Vorstellungen machen über die Entstehung des Weltensystems, in welchem sie sind oder sein werden. Es hängt gar nichts davon ab, ob das, was ich jetzt darstelle, eine Wirklichkeit darstellt, es soll nur zur Verdeutlichung eines Gedankens dienen. Wir nehmen also an, es würde Wesen in einer fernen Zukunft geben, die einen solchen Kant-Laplaceschen Urnebel an dem Ausgangspunkt der Weltenentstehung sehen. Wohin würde er in dem Zeitenlaufe fallen? Es müßte doch, wenn solche Zukunftswesen zurückschauen, angenommen werden, damit der Gedanke richtig verdeutlicht werden kann, unsere Erde, das heißt unser Sonnensystem, wäre längst zugrunde gegangen, der Raum wäre gewissermaßen frei geworden, und in diesem frei gewordenen Raume würde dann angenommen werden müssen das Kant-Laplacesche Urnebelsystem einer zukünftigen Welt. Denn solange unser Sonnensystem da ist, könnte ja in ihrem Raum dieser Kant-Laplacesche Urnebel selbstverständlich nicht angenommen werden. Ich will das Beispiel so gestalten, daß die Wesen, die dann eine solche materialistische Zukunftstheorie ausbilden, ihren Kant-Laplaceschen Urnebel an die Stelle unseres Weltensystems hinsetzen. Nach dem, was wir eben gesagt haben, müßte aber auch in diesem Kant-Laplaceschen Zukunftsnebel Geistig-Seelisches enthalten sein. Er müßte nur die körperliche Ausgestaltung eines kosmischen Geistig-Seelischen sein. Woher würde dieses Geistig-Seelische kommen? Was würde es mit diesem Geistig-Seelischen für eine Bewandtnis haben? Ich will schematisch zeichnen.
[ 6 ] Das hier (siehe Zeichnung links) wäre das Geistig-Seelisch-Physische unseres Kant-Laplaceschen Urnebels; und da wäre in einem Zukunftsmomente der Kant-Laplacesche Urnebel jener Zukunftswesen, von denen ich eben gesprochen habe (rechts). In diesem KantLaplaceschen Urnebel müßte nun auch wiederum ein Geistig-Seelisches enthalten sein (rot). Woher würde denn das kommen? Nun, wenn dieser Kant-Laplacesche Urnebel (rechts) gewissermaßen an der Stelle wäre, wo unser Sonnensystem gestanden hat, dann würde er sich gebildet haben; er würde ein kosmisches Geistig-Seelisches umkleidet haben. Aber dieses kosmische Geistig-Seelische wäre dasjenige, was übriggeblieben ist von dem Sonnensystem, in dem wir gelebt haben. Wir würden also unser Sonnensystem, wie wir es jetzt haben, zu Ende leben. Das würde zerstäuben im Weltenraum. Übrigbleiben würde das Geistig-Seelische, und das würde sich verkörpern in einem neuen Kant-Laplaceschen Urnebel. Mit anderen Worten: Was ich hier geschildert habe (Zeichnung S. 49 rechts), würde die Jupiterentwickelung darstellen. Aber innerhalb dieser Jupiterentwickelung würde sich als Geistig-Seelisches dasjenige finden, was bereitet worden ist während des Erdendaseins der Menschheit. Und ebenso muß man eigentlich von dem Kant-Laplaceschen Urnebel der Erde wiederum weiter zurückgehen zu dem Geistig-Seelischen, das er enthält. Und das ist von den Wesenheiten des Mondendaseins bereitet worden.
[ 7 ] Wenn Sie also hinausschauen, das gegenwärtige Sonnensystem anschauen, so ist das gewissermaßen die äußere Körperlichkeit desjenigen, was vom Mondendasein verschwunden ist oder sich vom Mondendasein verwandelt hat zu dem Erdendasein. Und wiederum, was wir heute hinaussenden in unseren Weltenraum, das bereitet das Jupiterdasein vor. Wir haben also, indem wir das äußere Sonnensystem anschauen, eigentlich immer etwas, was das Werk einer früheren Daseinsstufe ist.
[ 8 ] Rede ich also von dem Licht, das zu uns strömt von der physischen Sonne, so rede ich von etwas, was aus der Vergangenheit herüberkommt. Und rede ich von den Willensströmungen, die diesem Lichte entgegenströmen, dann rede ich von etwas, was Zukunft bereitet. So daß also gewissermaßen das Uhrwerk, das kosmische — ich nenne es so, um eine Art Ausdrucksform zu haben für das, was geistig geschieht -, vom Monde bereitet worden ist, und dasjenige, was ich als Geistiges schildere, das ist schon die Grundlage für das, was sich zum Jupiterdasein hinüberlebt. Sie dürfen also nicht sagen, daß die heutige Sonne, so wie wir sie mit den Augen draußen im Weltenraum sehen, den menschlichen Willen anzieht. Diese physische Sonne ist eben nur das Symbolum für jenes Sonnenhafte, dem der menschliche Wille zuströmt. Und ebenso ist der physische Mond nur das physische Zeichen für das Mondenhafte, das in Gedankenströmungen sich fortwährend in das Erdendasein hereinergießt.
[ 9 ] Diese Gedanken müssen Sie schon haben, wenn Sie in der richtigen Weise verstehen wollen, was es bedeutet, wenn ich nun auch in den folgenden Ausführungen von kosmischen Zusammenhängen sprechen werde, die als Bilder wiedergeben, was als Geistiges sich abspielt durch die Erdenmenschheit. Und da muß zu dem schon das letzte Mal Ausgeführten noch das Folgende hinzugefügt werden. Wenn wir unser gesamtes Sonnensystem nehmen, so haben wir, von der Erde aus betrachtet, die Sonne, wir haben als äußere Planeten Mars, Jupiter, Saturn und so weiter — die anderen sind von geringer Bedeutung -, und wit haben näher zur Erde als zur Sonne Mond, Venus, Merkur (siehe Zeichnung). Nun halten wir uns einmal an das, was ich gesagt habe, daß von der Menschheit der Erde nach dem Weltenraum hinaus das willenhafte Element der Sonne zuströmt, und daß auch die Seele nach der Auflösung des Leibes (rot) durch dieses Willenselement sich in den Kosmos hinausbewegt. Da trifft gewissermaßen unser willenhaftes Element zuerst auf das Sonnendasein, auf die Sonnensphäre.
[ 10 ] Sie wissen nun, dasjenige, was auf diese Weise als eine Tatsache hingestellt werden muß, es ist ja gefunden worden, wie ich Ihnen das letzte Mal ausgeführt habe, durch die Erfahrungen der alten Eingeweihten. Die haben ihre Rätselfragen den Willensströmungen übergeben, der Sonne entgegengeschickt, und haben dann die Antworten vom Monde wiederum in Gedankenform zurückbekommen (blau), so daß einfach das, was ich hier darstelle, in dieser Form, wie ich es Ihnen eben jetzt gesagt habe, als Tatsache vorhanden ist. Und wir müssen wiederum, wenn wir das Weitere einsehen wollen, auf die Erfahrungen der alten Mysterien zurückgehen.
[ 11 ] Nehmen Sie noch einmal diese Tatsache: Der Initiierte der alten Mysterien sendet seine Rätselfragen hinaus. Er übergibt sie jener Strömung, die den Sonnenstrahlen entgegengeht, wartet, und bekommt nach einiger Zeit vom Monde her seine Antworten. Er redet in dieser Beziehung mit dem Kosmos.
[ 12 ] Nun hat aber der alte Initiierte durch diesen Vorgang nur ganz bestimmte Antworten erhalten, und das waren die Antworten, die sich bezogen auf den Bau des Weltenalls als solchen. Also, was in der alten primitiveren Wissenschaft, die aber eine hohe Weisheit, wenn auch eine träumerische, war, enthalten war, das wurde auf eine solche Weise zustande gebracht, daß man den Sonnenstrahlen in entgegengesetzter Richtung die Fragen übergab und dann die Antworten empfing. Da empfing man die Antworten auf jene Fragen, die den Bau des Weltenalls, die die Kräfte betrafen, die im Weltenall wirken und so weiter. Kurz, man bekam alles das, was sich auf physikalische Anschauung, auf astronomische Anschauung, auf die Sphärenmusik und so weiter bezog, und was innerhalb dieser Gebiete verzeichnet wurde in den alten Wissenschaften.
[ 13 ] Nun aber sandten diese alten Initiierten auch andere Fragen in das Weltenall hinaus. Sie kannten zum Beispiel auch die Kunst, hinauszusenden Fragen bis zum Mars, bis zur Marssphäre (siehe Zeichnung). Sie übergaben in der Zeit, wo der Mars am Himmel stand, den Strahlungen in entgegengesetzter Richtung ihre Fragen. Nun erwarteten sie die Antworten nicht vom Monde, sondern wenn sie zum Mars ihre Fragen schickten, dann erwarteten sie die Antworten, wenn die Venus in der Weise stand, daß sie gewissermaßen den Mars anschaute; aber das Wichtige ist: Sie erwarteten die Antworten auf die Fragen, die sie zum Mars hinaufschickten, von der Venus. Und weiter, die Fragen, die sie hinaufschickten zum Jupiter, die erwarteten sie vom Merkur beantwortet. Die Fragen, die sie zum Saturn schickten, die schickten sie gewissermaßen ganz in die Weiten des Weltenalls hinaus, und für diese erwarteten sie die Antworten nur vom Fixsternhimmel oder von dem, was ihnen in jenen alten Zeiten der Repräsentant des Fixsternhimmels war, vom Tierkreis selber.
[ 14 ] Aber was war denn in jenen Fragen enthalten, welche die alten Initiierten in dieser Weise in das Weltenall hinaussandten und wofür sie dann die Antworten erwarteten? Das waren jetzt nicht die abstrakt-wissenschaftlichen Wahrheiten, welche vom Bau des Weltenalls handelten, wie ich Ihnen das eben angedeutet habe, sondern es waren diejenigen Fragen, welche diese alten Initiierten direkt an göttlich-geistige Wesenheiten richten wollten.
[ 15 ] So richteten sie an den Mars die Fragen, die sie an die Engelwesen zu stellen hatten, und erwarteten die Antworten von der Venus aus. So richteten sie an den Jupiter die Fragen an die Erzengelwesen und erwarteten die Antworten vom Merkur aus; und so richteten sie an den Saturn die Fragen, die gewonnen werden sollten von den Urkräften, von den Archai, und erwarteten von dem Tierkreise die Antworten.
[ 16 ] Also während gewissermaßen mit dem Kosmos unmittelbar in einer mehr abstrakten Form, ich möchte sagen in einer unpersönlichen Form gesprochen wurde, wurde diejenige Sprache, die ich eben jetzt charakterisiere, in der Weise geführt, daß man dabei das Bewußtsein haben konnte: Man redet mit wirklichen geistig-göttlichen Wesenheiten und man bekommt deren individuelle Aussagen. Also von dem Chor der Engel, von dem Chor der Erzengel, von dem Chor der Archai bekam man gewissermaßen die Willensentschließungen auf diese Weise. Dasjenige, was man abwickelte als einen Diskurs zwischen Sonne, Mond und dem Initiierten, das war auf das Äußere des Kosmos gerichtet. Was man mit den anderen Planeten abmachte und mit dem Tierkreis, das war auf die geistigen Bewohner des Kosmos gerichtet.
[ 17 ] Man weiß also, daß es Tatsache ist, daß eine Wechselwirkung des Menschen mit dem Kosmos, und zwar nicht nur mit seinem äußeren Bau, sondern auch mit den Bewohnern des Kosmos fortwährend vorhanden ist. Die alten Eingeweihten wußten, daß wenn sie zum Beispiel zum Mars hinaus ihre Kräfte richteten, es dann nicht etwa genügte, daß sie bloße Rätselgedanken-Fragen hegten und sie hinaussandten in das Weltenall. Solche Rätselgedanken-Fragen gingen nur bis zur Sonne, und für solche Rätselgedanken-Fragen kamen auch nur von dem Monde Antworten zurück. Wollten die alten Eingeweihten nach dem Mars Fragen richten, so konnten sie das nicht mit dem bloßen Denken machen, sondern das mußten sie so machen, daß sie in einer bestimmten Weise Formeln bildeten, Rezitative, Mantren bildeten, die auch wirklich ausgesprochen werden konnten. Die wurden dann hinausgesandt, und die bildeten dasjenige, was die Marskräfte so in Bewegung setzte, daß die Antworten wiederum für eine Artinneren Hörens von der Venus aus zurückkamen. Wollte man den Jupiter fragen, so genügte auch das nicht mehr, sondern da mußten gewisse kultische Opferhandlungen vollzogen werden von einer ganz bestimmten Form. Und was da als die, sagen wir, Weltgedanken-Form von diesen kultischen Opferhandlungen hinausströmte in das Weltenall, das kam dann wiederum in gewissen Zeichen, welche die alten Eingeweihten zu deuten verstanden, von der Venus zurück. Ließen sie sich von der Venus inspirieren, so konnten sie, wenn zum Jupiter hinausgesandt wurde, diese Zeichen deuten; ließen sie sich vom Merkur inspirieren, so konnten sie auch da die entsprechenden Zeichen deuten. Es waren dies Zeichen von der verschiedensten Art. Man sah in ihnen überhaupt nichts, wenn man nicht eben gerade merkurinspiriert war. War man merkur-inspiriert, so wußte man: Wenn das oder jenes Ereignis einem begegnet, so ist es diese oder jene Antwort auf eine durch eine kultische Handlung gestellte Frage.
[ 18 ] So bekamen Naturereignisse und auch Geschichtsereignisse, die sonst für den Menschen nichts anderes sind als eben Naturvorgänge und Geschichtsvorgänge, einen gewissen Inhalt; sie konnten gewissermaßen gelesen werden. Was an den Saturn als Frage gestellt wurde, das war ganz besonders schwierig, denn das konnte nur durch langwierige menschliche Handlungen selber als Frage gestellt werden. Das wurde in der Regel in den alten Mysterien so gemacht, daß die Mysterienlehrer eine gewisse Mission ihren Schülern gaben, eine Mission, die in der Verwendung des Lebens dieser Schüler zu diesem oder jenem Tatinhalt bestand. Und in dem, was dann oftmals durch viele Jahre hindurch solche Schüler zu verrichten hatten, bestanden die Anfragen an das Saturndasein. Und die Antworten kamen dann vom Tierkreise zurück.
[ 19 ] Es war wirklich ein Hineingewobensein in den ganzen Kosmos, was sich da abspielte in jenen Gebets-, Meditations-, kultischen Diensten und anderen Verrichtungen, die durch die alten Mysterien von den Eingeweihten und ihren Schülern gepflegt wurden. Da war auch nichts, was nur in kurzer Zeit etwa sich abspielte; sondern da war alles dasjenige, was sich im Laufe der Jahre in solchen Mysterien abspielte, fortlaufende Erkenntnishandlung oder auch Handlung zur Herbeiführung der für das menschliche Handeln richtigen Impulse.
[ 20 ] Durch das Hineinschauen in diese Verhältnisse bekommt man auch eine Anschauung, wie die Kräfte, die man in solchem Sinne als Sonnen-, Mars-, Jupiter-, Saturn-, Monden-, Venus- und Merkurkräfte bezeichnen kann, auf den Menschen wirken, was sie für den Menschen für eine Bedeutung haben. Die Sonnenkräfte haben ja für den Menschen die Bedeutung - Sie können das entnehmen aus dem, was ich bisher ausgeführt habe -, daß sie gewissermaßen sein Willensartiges an die Sonne heranziehen, daß sie ihn selbst, wenn er gestorben ist, in den Weltenraum hinaus und durch den Weltenraum in die geistige Welt führen. Die Mondenkräfte haben die Eigentümlichkeit, daß sie die Organisation in den Menschen hineinbringen, die das Denken, das Sinnen möglich macht; aber sie sind auch diejenigen Kräfte, die den Menschen wiederum hereintragen, wenn er, aus der geistigen Welt ankommend, durch die Äthersphäre hindurch seinen Weg finden muß zur irdischen Verkörperung.
[ 21 ] In einer ähnlichen Weise können wir von den anderen Kräften, denen wir ihre Namen geben nach den Weltenkörpern, die sie repräsentieren, in bezug auf ihre Wirkung auf den Menschen sprechen. Nehmen wir zum Beispiel die Merkurkräfte. Diese Merkurkräfte sind ja nicht etwa bloß konzentriert in dem Weltenkörper Merkur. Sie erfüllen den ganzen uns zugänglichen Raum, und der physische Merkurkörper ist bloß die im Mineralischen konzentrierte Ausgestaltung dessen, was da als Merkurkräfte vorhanden ist. Stellen Sie sich vor, wir hätten unser ganzes Sonnensystem mit den Merkurkräften angefüllt (gelb). Die gehen durch alle Körper des Sonnensystems durch, natürlich auch durch uns Menschen, nur da, wo am Himmel der Merkur ist, da sind sie physisch-mineralisch konzentriert, so daß man sie da sieht (gelber Punkt). Aber sie sind überall.
[ 22 ] Nehmen Sie die Venuskräfte, so sind diese Venuskräfte wiederum überall (rot). Sie sind nur an einer bestimmten Stelle, wo man die Venus sieht, mineralisch-physisch konzentriert (roter Punkt). Und so ist es mit allen diesen Kräften. Sie sind, wenn man die Wirklichkeit nimmt, so, daß man sagen muß: Venus, Merkur, Mars und so weiter stecken ineinander, nur ihre mineralischen Konzentrationen sind auf verschiedene Orte verteilt.
[ 23 ] Wenn man allmählich sich eine Anschauung erwirbt davon, wie der Merkur antwortet auf den Jupiter, dadurch, daß man ihn also erkennen lernt, dann gewinnt man auch eine Erkenntnis davon, was nun für den Menschen auch im Unbewußten diese Merkurkräfte für eine Bedeutung haben. Wir müssen ja, um ein einfaches Beispiel zu nehmen, wenn wir gehen wollen, gewisse Kräfte haben, durch die wir unsere Knochen und Muskeln durchdringen vom Geiste aus. Wir müssen da hinein in das Physische; wir müssen in das Feste unseres Körpers, in all das, was feste Bestandteile unseres Körpers sind, mit unserem Geistig-Seelischen hinein. Daß wir das können, das bewirken die Merkurkräfte.
[ 24 ] Wir können also sagen:
[ 25 ] Erstens: Die Merkurkräfte haben die Wirkung, daß der Mensch Besitz ergreifen kann vom Festen seines Körpers. Wir würden fortwährend außerhalb des Festen unseres Körpers sein, wenn es in der Welt keine Merkurkräfte gäbe.
[ 26 ] Zweitens: Die Venuskräfte bewirken, daß der Mensch Besitz ergreifen kann von dem Flüssigen seines Körpers. Sie wissen ja, daß Sie zu neunzig Prozent eine Wassersäule sind. Sie würden also fortwährend außerhalb dieser Wassersäule herumgehen müssen als Geist, Sie könnten nicht Besitz ergreifen von dieser Wassersäule, wenn nicht die Venuskräfte in der Welt wären.
[ 27 ] Drittens: Die Mondenkräfte lassen den Menschen Besitz ergreifen von seinem luftförmigen Inhalt.
[ 28 ] Diese Dinge, die kann man wissen, wenn man Kosmologie studiert. Nun kann aber das Studium weitergehen, und solche Studien haben die alten Initiierten angestellt, trotzdem sie nur ein primitives Wissen, eine Art träumerischen Hellsehens gehabt haben. Sagen wir zum Beispiel, sie haben aus ihren kosmologischen Studien gefunden: Die Venuskräfte bewirken, daß der Mensch Besitz ergreifen kann von alledem, was in ihm flüssig ist. Nun haben sie probiert; sie haben gewartet, bis bei irgendeinem Menschen der Fall eingetreten ist, daß er schlecht Besitz ergreifen konnte von seinem Flüssigen. Dann treten bestimmte Krankheiten auf. Eine ganz bestimmte Krankheitsform tritt zum Beispiel dann auf, wenn der Mensch nur für ein Organ nicht richtig Besitz ergreifen kann von seinem Flüssigkeitsmenschen. Nun haben diese alten Eingeweihten probiert: Was muß man da für ein Heilmittel verwenden? Wenn der Mensch nicht richtig eingeschaltet war in die Venuskräfte, wenn also die Besitzergreifung von dem Flüssigen im Menschen nicht richtig funktioniert hat, dann sahen sie, daß sie Kupfer verwenden mußten als Heilmittel. Indem sie fanden, daß das Kupfer so wirkt, daß es das Seelisch-Geistige wieder Besitz ergreifen läßt vom Körper, daß es also ganz ähnlich wirkt wie sonst die Venuskräfte, fanden sie, daß im metallischen Kupfer dieselben Kräfte stecken wie in der Venussphäre. Dadurch haben sie das Metall Kupfer in Zusammenhang gebracht mit der Venus.
[ 29 ] Oder wenn es sich darum gehandelt hat, daß eine Krankheit aufgetreten ist, weil der Mensch nicht richtig Besitz ergreifen konnte von seinen festen Bestandteilen, dann fanden sie, daß sie Merkur oder Quecksilber anwenden mußten. Und so haben sie die Parallelisierung der Metalle mit den Planeten gefunden. Heute werden in den gangbaren Darstellungen gewöhnlich diese Dinge parallelisiert, aber kein Mensch frägt sich: Warum entspricht der Venus das Kupfer? - und so weiter. Das führt auf vollberechtigte Forschung zurück.
[ 30 ] Wenn also aus wirklicher Erkenntnis heraus der Mensch von dem Kupfer als einem Heilmittel spricht, so hat er diese Erkenntnis aus dem Zusammenhange des Menschen mit dem Weltenall. Wenn man zum Beispiel davon sprechen soll, ob irgendein Metall, das in einer Pflanze vorkommt, nach dieser oder jener Richtung ein Heilmittel ist, dann hat man die ganze Beziehung auch dieser Pflanze zum Kosmos ins Auge zu fassen. Und aus der Beziehung der Pflanze zum Kosmos und wiederum aus der Beziehung des Kosmos zum Menschen gewinnt man dann die Anschauung, wie das Heilmittel wirken kann.
[ 31 ] Man kann ganz gut begreifen, daß heute eine gewisse Abneigung vorhanden ist, diese Dinge zuzugeben. Denn heute ist das Bestreben vorhanden, auf eine allerdings etwas anfechtbare Art in vier, fünf Jahren alles zu lernen, was man als Heiler braucht. Weil man aber das nicht kann, sondern weil man immer weiterlernen muß und man eigentlich nach diesen vier, fünf Jahren fertig sein will und nicht zugeben will, daß man noch viel mehr lernen muß, deshalb bilden sich eben diese Abneigungen gegen etwas, bei dem man kein Ende sieht. Aber die Welt hat eben kein Ende, nicht nur extensiv, sondern auch intensiv nicht, wie man sich das gewöhnlich vorstellt.
[ 32 ] Bei den Marskräften handelt es sich darum, daß sie uns nicht etwa Besitz ergreifen lassen, sondern daß sie uns behüten vor demjenigen, was die Äther-Wärmekräfte, das Wärmeelement in der Welt ist.
[ 33 ] Also viertens die Marskräfte: Sie bewahren uns vor dem Verfließen in dem Wärmeelemente. Würden die Marskräfte nicht in der richtigen Weise da sein, so würde der Mensch in der Wärme ausfließen. Er würde immerfort das Bestreben haben, zu zerfließen in dem Wärmeelement. Die Marskräfte halten ihn gegenüber dem Wärmeelemente zusammen. Es ist das sogar das Wichtigste im Menschen, denn weil er in sich mehr Wärme hat, als in seiner Umgebung vorhanden ist, ist er fortwährend in der Gefahr, im Wärmeelemente auszufließen. Das ist das Allerwichtigste. Daher müssen die Marskräfte geradezu im Menschen konzentriert sein. Und das geschieht dutch das Eisen, das der Mensch im Blute hat. Das Eisen enthält Kräfte, die mit den Marskräften gleich sind und die den Menschen zusammenhalten gegenüber dem Zerfließen in der Wärme.
[ 34 ] Die anderen, die Jupiter- und Saturnkräfte, hat er nicht in dieser materiellen Weise in sich. Sie sind auch in ihm vorhanden, nur in einer anderen Form, nicht unmittelbar nachweisbar. Allein man sollte glauben — davon will ich dann morgen reden -, daß gewisse neuere Forschungen die Menschen schon gerade mit Bezug auf diese Dinge auch aus der äußeren Naturwissenschaft heraus bedenklich machen könnten.
[ 35 ] Fünftens die Jupiterkräfte: Sie bewahren den Menschen vor dem Verfließen in dem Lichtelemente, also in dem Lichtäther. Der Mensch würde eine Lichtwolke werden, die sich immerfort verbreitet, wenn nicht die Jupiterkräfte in der entsprechenden Weise da wären.
[ 36 ] Sechstens die Saturnkräfte: Sie bewahren den Menschen davor, in dem chemischen Äther zu zerfließen. Diese Saturnkräfte, die in den Menschen hineinwirken, sind wirklich Kräfte, die eigentlich in gewissem Sinne mit dem Innersten der Menschennatur zusammenhängen. Man spricht ja eher in übertragenem Sinne, wenn man zum Beispiel von einem säuerlichen oder von einem süßlichen Menschen spricht. Aber die Dinge sind nicht bloß im übertragenen Sinne so, sondern ob irgendein Mensch säuerlich wirkt moralisch-physisch, das hängt schon ein bißchen mit seiner chemischen Zusammensetzung zusammen. Und an dieser chemischen Zusammensetzung haben die Saturnkräfte ihren Anteil. Wie der Saturn in einem Menschen wirkt, davon hängt es ab, wie er aus dem Organismus heraus sich auslebt. So daß in der Tat der Melancholiker dadurch Melancholiker ist, daß er ganz besonders sich hineinsetzt in seine chemische Zusammensetzung, in all dasjenige, was da gekocht wird in der Leber, in der Galle und schon im Magen; das Melancholische beruht also auf diesem Sich-Hineinsetzen in die chemische Zusammensetzung. Und das wiederum beruht darauf, daß die Saturnkräfte bei einem solchen Menschen eben ganz besonders stark entwickelt sind.
[ 37 ] Und so können wir sagen, daß der Mensch allerdings innerhalb seiner Haut konzentriert erscheint, daß aber das eigentlich nur ein Schein ist, daß in Wahrheit der Mensch dem ganzen Kosmos angehört und daß man auch auf die Einzelheiten hinweisen kann, wie der Kosmos an der menschlichen Gestaltung seinen Anteil hat.
[ 38 ] Sie sehen, die sonnennahen Planeten haben es mehr zu tun mit demjenigen, was im Menschen physische Elemente sind: das Feste, das Flüssige, das Luftförmige. Die sonnenfernen Planeten, die haben es mehr zu tun mit dem, was im Menschen Ätherelemente sind. Die Sonne selbst trennt beides voneinander. Merkur-, Venus-, Mondenkräfte bringen den Menschen heran an das Feste, Flüssige und Luftförmige. Mars-, Jupiter-, Saturnkräfte bewahren ihn davor, daß er in das Warme, in das Lichtvolle, in das Chemisch-Wirksame ausfließt. Sie sehen, es sind polarische Wirkungen. Und zwischenhinein, damit die beiden nicht durcheinander wirken, stellt sich das sonnenhafte Element. Würden die Marskräfte ohne weiteres wirken können — die Marskräfte würden ja zum Beispiel ohne weiteres auf die Mondenkräfte wirken können -, würden sich nicht die Sonnenkräfte mitten hineinstellen, so daß da gleichsam eine Scheidewand ist, die sie nicht einfach zusammenkommen läßt, so würden die Marskräfte, die den Menschen im Wärmeelement verselbständigen, ihn wohl bewahren vor dem Verfließen im Wärmeelement; aber was sich da verselbständigte, müßte sogleich von der Luft Besitz ergreifen, und der Mensch würde ein Luftgespenst werden. Daß das beides getrennt vor sich gehen kann, daß der Mensch sowohl von seinem luftförmig-organisch Gestalteten Besitz ergreifen kann, aber auf der anderen Seite auch wiederum im Wärmeelement selbständig leben kann, dazu müssen die beiden voneinander getrennt sein. Und da ist das Sonnenhafte dazwischen.
[ 39 ] Auch das war schon den alten Initiierten gut bekannt. Wenn zum Beispiel ein Mensch dadurch eine bestimmte Krankheitserscheinung hat, daß die Marskräfte zu stark wirken, so daß sie gewissermaßen das Sonnenelement durchbrechen und der Mensch dann zu stark in seinem luftförmigen Elemente lebt, weil er alsdann von dem besser Besitz ergreifen kann, dann muß man die beiden trennen. Und dazu muß man Aurum verwenden. Damit nicht die Marskräfte und die Mondenkräfte ineinander schwimmen, muß man die Sonnenkräfte verstärken. So kam man zu der medizinischen Wirkung des Aurum, was den Organismus wiederum harmonisiert, so daß dasjenige, was nicht zusammenfließen darf, auch wirklich nicht zusammenfließt.
[ 40 ] Aus alledem wird Ihnen durchaus ersichtlich sein, daß Welterkenntnis nicht ohne Menschenerkenntnis und Menschenerkenntnis nicht ohne Welterkenntnis möglich ist, insbesondere auf demjenigen Gebiete nicht, wo es sich zum Beispiel um das Anwenden der Wissenschaft in der Heilkunst handelt.
Third Lecture
[ 1 ] Allow me to briefly refer once again to the remarks I made here last Sunday. They touched on the relationship between human beings and the world insofar as they drew attention to how the expression of human will finds its way out into the vastness of the world, contrary to the direction of the light streaming from the sun to the earth. So that one can say that something that is the expression of the will flows out into the world space from the human race on Earth, counter to the light. In contrast, what is thought enters the Earth with the waves of the moonlight, so to speak. We could then go on to show how that which expands from the human being with the dissolution of the physical body has a will-like character and streams out into the universe against the light, and how the human being then returns to earthly existence on the streams of the thought element with the lines of light and with everything that emanates from the moon.
[ 2 ] Now, of course, both for this view of the element of will and the element of light, the element of thought and the element of moonlight, as well as for the explanations I would like to give further in this style today, it must be borne in mind that when one speaks of these things and uses the structure of the world as an illustration, so to speak, it is only meant as an illustration. For one should not think that in all that is being explained here, the physical sun and the physical moon have anything else to do than to be, so to speak, signs for what is happening spiritually. The real relationship can be represented in the following way.
[ 3 ] I would like to formulate this representation historically. It could also be formulated differently. I would like to make it clear to you what I actually mean by such statements as I am now making. You know, of course, that this is more akin to the Materialistic thinking sees the origin of our world system in a kind of primordial nebula, that is, thinking that is purely bound to the material leads one to imagine that our cosmos, as we see it, that our solar system emerged from a kind of primordial nebula (white), which then condensed and contracted into what we now call the solar system.
[ 4 ] Now, after everything you have heard on the basis of anthroposophy, it is clear to you from the outset that this cannot be a complete description of the process. No matter how much one modifies this material interpretation of world events, imbues it with forces and the like, what is real cannot be exhausted by it, for the simple reason that nothing that is contained in such a Kant-Laplace or other primordial nebula, and which it can develop from itself according to the laws of gas or air mechanics, could never form what lives on earth as "animal and human souls, or even as plant growth forces. When we carry out such an interpretation, we are dealing with an abstraction, even if this abstraction is a materialistic abstraction. It must be clear that what is conceived by materialistic thinking as primordial nebula mass already has a spiritual essence (see drawing on p. 49, left, red), and that this primordial nebula mass is only the outer material expression of a spiritual essence. Therefore, if the conception is complete, the weaving and essence of the spiritual must be conceived within it. So that when we look at this Kant-Laplace primordial nebula, we must supplement it by viewing it as the body of a spiritual-soul entity, a spiritual-soul entity that is not the unified nature that humans possess, but one that is manifold and multiform, yet still a spiritual-soul entity.
[ 5 ] Purely materialistic thinking, purely materialistic hypothesis formation, cannot go back any further than this primordial nebula. Now let us imagine that not we, but other beings, beings of the future, would once form ideas about the origin of the world system in which they are or will be, based on such materialistic thinking. It does not matter whether what I am now describing is a reality; it is only meant to illustrate a thought. So let us assume that there would be beings in the distant future who would see such a Kant-Laplace primordial nebula at the starting point of the creation of the worlds. Where would it fall in the course of time? If such future beings were to look back, it would have to be assumed, in order to clarify the idea correctly, that our Earth, that is, our solar system, would have long since perished, that space would have become free, so to speak, and that the Kant-Laplace primordial nebula system of a future world would then have to be assumed in this space that had become free. For as long as our solar system exists, this Kant-Laplace primordial nebula could not, of course, be assumed to exist in its space. I will construct the example in such a way that the beings who then develop such a materialistic theory of the future place their Kant-Laplace primordial nebula in the place of our world system. According to what we have just said, however, this Kant-Laplace future nebula would also have to contain spiritual-soul elements. It would only have to be the physical manifestation of a cosmic spiritual-soul element. Where would this spiritual-soul element come from? What would be the nature of this spiritual-soul element? Let me draw a diagram.
[ 6 ] This (see drawing on the left) would be the spiritual-soul-physical of our Kant-Laplace primordial nebula; and there, at some point in the future, would be the Kant-Laplace primordial nebula of those future beings I just mentioned (on the right). This Kant-Laplace primordial nebula would also have to contain a spiritual-mental element (red). Where would that come from? Well, if this Kant-Laplace primordial nebula (right) were, so to speak, in the place where our solar system used to be, then it would have formed; it would have enveloped a cosmic spiritual-soul element. But this cosmic spiritual-soul element would be what remained of the solar system in which we lived. We would therefore live out our solar system as we know it now. It would disintegrate into space. What would remain would be the spiritual-soul element, and this would become embodied in a new Kant-Laplace primordial nebula. In other words, what I have described here (drawing on p. 49, right) would represent the development of Jupiter. But within this development of Jupiter, the spiritual-soul element would be found, which was prepared during the earthly existence of humanity. And in the same way, one must actually go back from the Kant-Laplace primordial nebula of the Earth to the spiritual-soul element that it contains. And that was prepared by the beings of the Moon's existence.
[ 7 ] So when you look out and see the present solar system, it is, in a sense, the outer physicality of what has disappeared from the moon's existence or has been transformed from the moon's existence into the earth's existence. And again, what we send out today into our world space is preparing the Jupiter existence. So when we look at the outer solar system, we actually always see something that is the work of an earlier stage of existence.
[ 8 ] So when I speak of the light that streams to us from the physical sun, I am speaking of something that comes from the past. And when I speak of the currents of will that flow toward this light, I am speaking of something that prepares the future. So that, in a sense, the clockwork, the cosmic clockwork—I call it that to have a kind of expression for what happens spiritually—has been prepared by the moon, and what I describe as spiritual is already the foundation for what lives on into the Jupiter existence. So you must not say that the sun as we see it with our eyes out there in space attracts the human will. This physical sun is merely the symbol of that sun-like quality to which the human will flows. And in the same way, the physical moon is only the physical sign of the moon-like quality that continually pours into earthly existence in thought currents.
[ 9 ] You must already have these thoughts if you want to understand correctly what I mean when I now speak in the following explanations of cosmic connections that reflect as images what is happening spiritually through the human race on Earth. And to what was explained last time, the following must be added. If we take our entire solar system, then, viewed from the Earth, we have the Sun, we have the outer planets Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and so on—the others are of little importance—and closer to the Earth than to the Sun we have the Moon, Venus, Mercury (see drawing).. Now let us stick to what I have said, that the willful element of the Sun flows out from the humanity of the Earth into the world space, and that after the dissolution of the body (red), the soul also moves out into the cosmos through this will element. There, our willful element first encounters, as it were, the Sun's existence, the Sun's sphere.
[ 10 ] You now know that what must be presented as a fact in this way has been discovered, as I explained to you last time, through the experiences of the ancient initiates. They handed their riddles over to the currents of will, sent them to the sun, and then received the answers back from the moon in thought form (blue), so that what I am presenting here, in the form I have just described to you, simply exists as fact. And if we want to understand more, we must again turn to the experiences of the ancient mysteries.
[ 11 ] Consider once again this fact: the initiate of the ancient mysteries sends out his riddles. He hands them over to the stream that goes out toward the sun's rays, waits, and after some time receives his answers from the moon. In this way, he speaks with the cosmos.
[ 12 ] However, through this process, the ancient initiate received only very specific answers, and these were answers that related to the structure of the universe as such. So, what was contained in the ancient, more primitive science, which was nevertheless a high wisdom, albeit a dreamy one, was brought about in such a way that questions were sent in the opposite direction to the sun's rays and then the answers were received. There one received the answers to those questions concerning the structure of the universe, the forces at work in the universe, and so on. In short, one obtained everything that related to physical observation, astronomical observation, the music of the spheres, and so on, and everything that was recorded within these fields in the ancient sciences.
[ 13 ] But these ancient initiates also sent other questions out into the universe. For example, they also knew the art of sending questions out to Mars, to the sphere of Mars (see drawing). At the time when Mars was in the sky, they sent their questions in the opposite direction of the rays. Now they did not expect the answers from the moon, but when they sent their questions to Mars, they expected the answers when Venus was in such a position that it was, as it were, looking at Mars; but the important thing is: they expected the answers to the questions they sent up to Mars from Venus. Furthermore, they expected the questions they sent up to Jupiter to be answered by Mercury. The questions they sent to Saturn, they sent, as it were, out into the vastness of the universe, and for these they expected answers only from the fixed stars or from what was, in those ancient times, the representative of the fixed stars, from the zodiac itself.
[ 14 ] But what was contained in those questions that the ancient initiates sent out into the universe in this way and for which they then expected answers? These were not abstract scientific truths about the structure of the universe, as I have just indicated, but questions that these ancient initiates wanted to address directly to divine spiritual beings.
[ 15 ] So they addressed the questions they had for the angelic beings to Mars and expected the answers from Venus. They addressed the questions for the archangelic beings to Jupiter and expected the answers from Mercury; and they addressed the questions that were to be obtained from the primordial forces, from the archai, to Saturn and expected the answers from the zodiac.
[ 16 ] So while, in a sense, one was speaking directly with the cosmos in a more abstract form, I would say in an impersonal form, the language I have just characterized was used in such a way that one could be conscious of the following: One speaks with real spiritual-divine beings and receives their individual statements. Thus, from the choir of angels, from the choir of archangels, from the choir of archai, one received, in a sense, the decisions of will in this way. What was carried out as a discourse between the sun, the moon, and the initiate was directed toward the exterior of the cosmos. What was agreed with the other planets and with the zodiac was directed toward the spiritual inhabitants of the cosmos.
[ 17 ] We therefore know that it is a fact that there is a constant interaction between human beings and the cosmos, not only with its external structure, but also with the inhabitants of the cosmos. The ancient initiates knew that when they directed their powers toward Mars, for example, it was not enough to simply entertain enigmatic questions and send them out into the universe. Such riddle-like questions only reached the sun, and only answers to such riddle-like questions came back from the moon. If the ancient initiates wanted to send questions to Mars, they could not do so by mere thinking, but had to form formulas in a certain way, recitatives, mantras that could actually be spoken aloud. These were then sent out, and they formed what set the forces of Mars in motion in such a way that the answers came back from Venus in a kind of inner hearing. If one wanted to ask Jupiter, that was no longer enough; certain cultic sacrificial acts had to be performed in a very specific form. And what flowed out into the universe from these cultic sacrificial rites as, let us say, world thought forms, then returned from Venus in certain signs which the ancient initiates knew how to interpret. If they allowed themselves to be inspired by Venus, they could interpret these signs when they were sent out to Jupiter; if they were inspired by Mercury, they could also interpret the corresponding signs. These were signs of the most diverse kinds. One saw nothing in them at all unless one was inspired by Mercury. If one was inspired by Mercury, one knew: if this or that event occurs, it is this or that answer to a question posed by a cultic act.
[ 18 ] In this way, natural events and historical events, which are otherwise nothing more than natural processes and historical processes for human beings, were given a certain content; they could be read, so to speak. What was asked of Saturn as a question was particularly difficult, because it could only be asked as a question through lengthy human actions. In the ancient mysteries, this was usually done in such a way that the mystery teachers gave their students a certain mission, a mission that consisted in the use of the students' lives for this or that action. And in what these disciples then often had to accomplish over many years, the questions to Saturn's existence were contained. And the answers then came back from the zodiac.
[ 19 ] What took place in those prayers, meditations, cultic services, and other activities cultivated by the initiates and their disciples through the ancient mysteries was truly a weaving into the whole cosmos. There was nothing that took place in a short period of time; rather, there was everything that took place over the years in such mysteries, a continuous process of gaining knowledge or also of bringing about the right impulses for human action.
[ 20 ] By looking into these relationships, one also gains an insight into how the forces that can be described in this sense as solar, Martian, Jovian, Saturnian, lunar, Venusian, and Mercurian forces work on human beings and what significance they have for them. The forces of the sun have the following significance for human beings—you can see this from what I have said so far—that they draw, as it were, their will toward the sun, that they lead them, when they have died, out into the world space and through the world space into the spiritual world. The forces of the moon have the peculiarity of bringing into human beings the organization that makes thinking and feeling possible; but they are also the forces that carry human beings back in when they arrive from the spiritual world and must find their way through the etheric sphere to their earthly embodiment.
[ 21 ] In a similar way, we can speak of the other forces, which we name after the world bodies they represent, in relation to their effect on human beings. Take, for example, the Mercury forces. These Mercury forces are not merely concentrated in the world body Mercury. They fill the entire space accessible to us, and the physical Mercury body is merely the mineral concentration of what is present there as Mercury forces. Imagine that we had filled our entire solar system with Mercury forces (yellow). They pass through all the bodies of the solar system, including us humans, of course, but only where Mercury is in the sky are they concentrated in physical-mineral form so that we can see them (yellow dot). But they are everywhere.
[ 22 ] Take the Venus forces, for example. These Venus forces are also everywhere (red). They are only concentrated in a mineral-physical form at a specific point where Venus can be seen (red dot). And so it is with all these forces. If you take reality as it is, you have to say that Venus, Mercury, Mars, and so on are intertwined, only their mineral concentrations are distributed in different places.
[ 23 ] When one gradually gains an understanding of how Mercury responds to Jupiter, by learning to recognize it in this way, one also gains an understanding of what significance these Mercury forces have for human beings, even in the unconscious. To take a simple example, when we want to walk, we must have certain forces that enable our spirit to penetrate our bones and muscles. We must enter into the physical realm; we must enter into the solidity of our body, into all that is a solid component of our body, with our spiritual-soul life. The Mercury forces enable us to do this.
[ 24 ] We can therefore say:
[ 25 ] Firstly: Mercury forces have the effect of enabling human beings to take possession of the solid parts of their bodies. We would be constantly outside the solid part of our body if there were no Mercury forces in the world.
[ 26 ] Secondly, the forces of Venus enable human beings to take possession of the fluid content of their bodies. As you know, you are ninety percent water. You would therefore have to wander around outside this column of water as a spirit; you would not be able to take possession of this column of water if the forces of Venus did not exist in the world.
[ 27 ] Thirdly, the forces of the moon enable human beings to take possession of their gaseous contents.
[ 28 ] These things can be known by studying cosmology. But the study can go further, and the ancient initiates did so, even though they had only primitive knowledge, a kind of dreamlike clairvoyance. Let us say, for example, that they found out from their cosmological studies that The forces of Venus enable human beings to take possession of everything that is fluid within them. Now they tried this; they waited until a person arose who was unable to take possession of his fluid nature. Then certain illnesses appeared. A very specific form of illness occurs, for example, when a person is unable to take possession of his fluid nature in one organ. Now these ancient initiates tried to find out what remedy to use in such cases. When a person was not properly attuned to the Venus forces, when the fluid in the human being could not be properly possessed, they saw that they had to use copper as a remedy. They found that copper has the effect of allowing the soul and spirit to regain possession of the body, that it acts in much the same way as the Venus forces normally do, and so they concluded that metallic copper contains the same forces as the Venus sphere. This led them to associate the metal copper with Venus.
[ 29 ] Or if a disease arose because a person was unable to take proper possession of his solid constituents, they found that they had to use mercury. And so they found the parallelism between metals and planets. Today, these things are usually parallelized in common descriptions, but no one asks: Why does copper correspond to Venus? And so on. This leads back to fully justified research.
[ 30 ] So when people speak of copper as a remedy based on real knowledge, they have gained this knowledge from the connection between human beings and the universe. If, for example, one is to speak about whether a metal found in a plant is a remedy in one direction or another, then one must also consider the entire relationship of this plant to the cosmos. And from the relationship of the plant to the cosmos, and in turn from the relationship of the cosmos to human beings, one then gains an understanding of how the remedy can work.
[ 31 ] It is quite understandable that there is a certain reluctance to admit these things today. For today there is a tendency to want to learn everything one needs as a healer in four or five years, albeit in a somewhat questionable manner. But because this is not possible, because one must continue learning and because one actually wants to be finished after these four or five years and does not want to admit that there is still much more to learn, this aversion to something for which there is no end in sight develops. But the world has no end, not only in an extensive sense, but also in an intensive sense, as one usually imagines it.
[ 32 ] The Mars forces do not take possession of us, but protect us from the etheric forces of warmth, the element of warmth in the world.
[ 33 ] So fourthly, the Mars forces: they protect us from flowing away into the heat element. If the Mars forces were not present in the right way, human beings would flow away into the heat. They would constantly strive to melt away into the heat element. The Mars forces hold him together in relation to the heat element. This is actually the most important thing in humans, because they have more heat within themselves than is present in their environment, and are therefore constantly in danger of flowing out into the heat element. This is the most important thing of all. That is why the Mars forces must be concentrated in humans. And this happens through the iron that humans have in their blood. Iron contains forces that are the same as the Mars forces and that hold humans together, preventing them from dissolving into heat.
[ 34 ] He does not have the other forces, the Jupiter and Saturn forces, within himself in this material form. They are also present in him, but in a different form, not immediately detectable. However, one should believe — and I will talk about this tomorrow — that certain recent research could give people cause for concern about these things, even from the perspective of external natural science.
[ 35 ] Fifthly, the Jupiter forces: they prevent human beings from dissolving into the light element, that is, into the light ether. Human beings would become a cloud of light that would spread out endlessly if the Jupiter forces were not present in the appropriate way.
[ 36 ] Sixthly, the Saturn forces: they prevent human beings from dissolving into the chemical ether. These Saturn forces, which work within human beings, are really forces that are actually connected in a certain sense with the innermost nature of human beings. One speaks rather figuratively when one speaks, for example, of a sour or sweet person. But things are not merely figurative; whether a person appears sour in a moral-physical sense has something to do with their chemical composition. And the Saturn forces play a part in this chemical composition. How Saturn works in a person determines how they express themselves through their organism. So that, in fact, the melancholic person is melancholic because they are particularly immersed in their chemical composition, in everything that is cooking in their liver, in their bile, and already in their stomach; melancholy is therefore based on this immersion in the chemical composition. And this in turn is based on the fact that the Saturn forces are particularly strongly developed in such a person.
[ 37 ] And so we can say that although human beings appear to be concentrated within their skin, this is only an appearance, that in reality human beings belong to the whole cosmos, and that one can also point to details that show how the cosmos has a share in the human form.
[ 38 ] You see, the planets close to the sun have more to do with what are physical elements in human beings: the solid, the liquid, the gaseous. The planets far from the sun have more to do with what are etheric elements in human beings. The sun itself separates the two. The forces of Mercury, Venus, and the Moon bring humans closer to the solid, liquid, and gaseous. The forces of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn prevent them from flowing into the warm, the light, the chemically active. You see, these are polar effects. And in between, so that the two do not interfere with each other, stands the solar element. If the forces of Mars could act without hindrance — the forces of Mars could, for example, act without hindrance on the forces of the moon — and if the forces of the sun did not intervene to form a partition that prevents them from coming together, then the forces of Mars, which give human beings independence in the element of warmth, would indeed protect them from flowing away into the element of warmth; but what became independent there would immediately take possession of the air, and the human being would become an air ghost. In order for both to happen separately, for the human being to be able to take possession of his airy-organic form, but on the other hand also to be able to live independently in the heat element, the two must be separated from each other. And there is the solar element in between.
[ 39 ] This was also well known to the ancient initiates. For example, if a person has a certain symptom of illness because the Mars forces are too strong, so that they break through the solar element, so to speak, and the person then lives too strongly in their airy element because they can then take possession of it more easily, then the two must be separated. And for this purpose, Aurum must be used. In order to prevent the forces of Mars and the Moon from mixing, the forces of the Sun must be strengthened. This is how the medicinal effect of Aurum was discovered, which in turn harmonizes the organism so that what should not flow together does not actually flow together.
[ 40 ] From all this, it will be quite clear to you that knowledge of the world is not possible without knowledge of human beings, and knowledge of human beings is not possible without knowledge of the world, especially in the field of applying science to the art of healing, for example.