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Self Knowledge and the Christ Experience
GA 221

2 February 1923, Dornach

Translated by Mona Bradley, edited by Dr. A. J. Welburn

My dear Friends,

Suppose that we observe an animal during the course of a year. We will find that its life follows the cycle of the seasons. Take for example an insect: according to the time of year it will form a chrysalis (pupate), at another season it will emerge and shed its chrysalis-form, at another time lay its eggs, and so on. We can follow the course of nature, follow the stages of such an insect's life, and find a certain connection between them, for the animal organizes its life according to its natural surroundings.

If we then go on to consider people—say, the people of one of the larger human communities during earlier stages of the earth's evolution—we find that they too experienced, more or less instinctively, the Life of nature. But as humanity developed further, those instincts, which enabled people to experience their natural surroundings so directly, largely died out. Among more advanced humanity, therefore, we will not find that spontaneous harmony—a harmony between what arises from the human side and the immediate setting or natural surroundings. That has to do with the fact that humanity itself is undergoing a development, which constitutes its history, and which will form a whole within the long planetary development of the earth.

Returning to our example of a lower animal, in insect, where these matters are revealed most clearly, we find that its experience spans a comparatively short space of time—a year. Then the cycle repeats itself. With regard to mankind, a certain law of development is found to run like a thread through long ages of our earth's planetary evolution, as we have repeatedly observed during our historical studies. We have become familiar, for instance, with the type of instinctive clairvoyance belonging to earlier peoples. Their pictorial consciousness gradually diminished during an intermediate period of human development, eventually giving place to modern consciousness which is intellectual, conceptual. Our own historical time, dating from the first third of the fifteenth century, is the time of the developing Consciousness Soul. It is that time when man will step fully into his capacity of intellectual thinking in its narrower sense, which will then bring him fully to free consciousness of the Self.

If we consider a longer space of time from this point of view, we begin to find certain observable laws in the development of humanity. We can compare these developmental laws with those which, say, an insect experiences during the course of a year. Now in ancient times people still instinctively lived together with their natural surroundings and with the cycle of nature but these instincts have more or less died away, and nowadays we live in a time in which conscious inner life must replace them. What would happen nowadays if a man were to give himself up entirely to chance! Suppose he were not to adopt any inner guiding principles or rules, or that he did not tell himself at a certain moment: ‘This is how you should orientate yourself’—suppose that he were not to arrive at any such inner orientation but lived his life though, from birth to death, as chance directed. Man who by virtue of his higher soul development is ranged above the animals would sink because of the manner in which he handled his soul-life, below the animal level.

We may say, therefore, that the insect has a certain direction in its life through spring, summer, autumn and winter. It does not give its development up to chance, placing itself as it does within certain laws in each succeeding phase of its life. Mankind, however, has left behind the age of instinctive co-existence with nature. In his case it was more ensouled than that of the animals, but still instinctive. His life has taken on a newer, more conscious form. Yet we find that man, in spite of his higher soul-life and capacity to think, has given himself over to a more chaotic life. With the dying away of his instincts he has fallen, in a certain way, below the level of the animals. However much one may emphasize man's further steps forward, towering above the animals, one must still concede that he has lost a particular inner direction in his life. This directing quality of his life could be found once more by seeing himself as a member of the human race, of this or that century. And just as, for a lower form of life, the month of September takes its place in the course of the year, so does this or that century take its place in the whole development of our planet. And man needs to be conscious of how his own soul-life should he placed historically in a particular epoch.

This is an idea to which man needs to grow accustomed so as to step even further into the development of the Consciousness Soul. A man should be able to say to himself: ‘I live in this or that epoch. I am not man in the full sense of the word if I give myself over to chance. Chance has deposited me into earthly life through birth. But to give myself up to change as far as my consciousness is concerned would be simply to abandon myself to karma. I am only man, in the full sense of being man, if I take account of what the historical development of humanity asks from my soul-life, belonging as I do to this particular epoch.’ An animal lives within the cycle of the year: man must learn to live as part of the earth's history.

We have placed as the most vital event in the earth's history the Mystery of Golgotha. And we have often considered what it meant to live before the Mystery of Golgotha, or at some point after it. We have here a kind of fulcrum in historical development, from which vital, historical deed one can reckon backwards and forwards. But to do justice to such reckoning we must keep in mind the particular tasks awaiting the human soul in each historical age. The kind of presentation of the past which is customary cannot lead to such an understanding of each particular age. We may be told in bald terms, how Persian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek or Roman history unfolded, but that leaves us without any key to the position of each in the whole regular historical development of our planet—in the whole regular way an animal stands within the course of the year. Now, in order to gain a concept of what we need to arouse in our own soul-life in this age, we have had to consider the various ages of history from many points of view. Life is rich and diverse, and if one wants to reach some reality concerning our life on earth, we shall have to look at human life from ever-differing points of view, from which the particular tenor of soul-life in our own time.

If we look back to ancient times in human history we shall find, scattered about the inhabited earth, what are know as the Mysteries. We find that various groups of people, living their lives scattered about the earth, develop under the influence of the Mysteries. They do so outwardly—but more particularly in regard to culture and the life of the soul. We find that individuals are accepted into the Mysteries, according to their degree of maturity. There they undergo further development, which is to lead them to a particular grade of knowledge, of feeling, and willing. Then, when they have advanced in knowledge, in higher feeling, and higher willing, they step out again and move among the majority of mankind, giving guidance for the details of daily life, for the strengthening of the soul's inner work and of their will, their actual deeds. With regard to past ages of man, the best place in which to study such guidelines is actually the training of those preparing for initiation in the Mysteries.

Though not of course in the abstract, intellectual manner of today, the pupils in the Mysteries were led to know the world about them. Most importantly, they learned to know the so-called three kingdoms of nature and all that lives in them. In the lowest classes of our schools we learn, by way of all sorts of concepts and pictures, how we stand within the three realms of nature. Through concepts and ideas we learn to know mineral, plant and animal. We then seek there the key to understanding human life itself. Such concepts, with the intellectual soul-content imparted to people these days, did not exist among those working for initiation in the ancient Mysteries. Concepts did exist then; but they were not won, as today, through the exercise of observation and logic. Rather, people had to exercise their souls inwardly, so as to arrive eventually at inner pictures of mineral, of plant, and animal. These people did not absorb the abstract concepts of today but experienced pictures—pictures that intellectual modern man might find fantastic but, nevertheless, pictures. And man knew from direct experience that what he discovered, when he experienced these pictures, actually yielded him something that lived in the mineral, plant or animal—of what grew there, took form, and unfolded within them. This he knew: and he knew it from those pictures which to modern man would appear fantastic myths.

Ancient man knew that reality expressed itself in things which today are considered mere mythology. He could certainly say: ‘The animal before me has firm visible outlines.’ But these firm outlines were not what he tried to grasp or understand. He tried rather to follow the flowing, mobile, fluid quality of its life. He could not do this, however, in sharp outlines, in sharply defined concepts. He had to teach in pictures that were fluid, metamorphosing, changing. And thus it was taught in the Mysteries.

But when, on the basis of this Mystery-knowledge, a man was to rise to self-knowledge, he underwent a significant crisis in his soul. According to the type of knowledge available in those ancient times, early man obtained pictures of mineral, plant and animal. With his dreamlike consciousness, he could then see, as it were, into the inner realms of nature. From the content of the Mysteries he also received the guiding principles of self-knowledge, much as he did in later times. ‘Know Thyself’ has been an ideal in all civilizations, in all ages of human cultural development. But in progressing from his kind of imaginative, natural knowledge towards knowledge of himself, ancient man underwent an inner crisis of the soul. I can only describe the nature of the crisis by saying that when he learned to look at the nature of the mineral as it was spread before him man found fulfillment in his soul-life. He bore in himself the effects of physical-mineral processes. He bore in himself pictures of interweaving vegetative life, and also of animal life. In his world he was able to bring all these together: mineral, plant and animal. Looking back from the vantage point of the world around him into his own inwardness, he had, in his primitive type of memory, an inner picture of mineral, plant and animal, and of how they worked together.

Undertaking to obey the injunction ‘Know Thyself’, however, he found himself suddenly at a stand. He had a world of inner pictures, varied, richly diverse in form and colour, and sounding with inner music—this was his experience of his earthly surroundings. Yet he felt that this world of forms, diversity, and constant flux, this world that trembled with glowing colour and radiance and musical tones, let him down when he made the attempt to know himself. The pictorial way in which he tried to grasp the nature of man itself baffled him in his attempt. He was able to attain pictures of man too: but even while experiencing them he knew that the reality of man's being, the source of his human dignity, escaped him—it was not there.

In his Mystery-initiation man lived through this crisis. Yet out of it, arising from the impotence of self-knowledge, something else developed: a particular conviction about Life, a conviction on which every ancient civilization was based. It meant that really enlightened people in those ancient times could say: ‘Man does not reveal his true nature here on earth. The minerals, plants and animals all achieve their end here on earth; they can reveal themselves fully in the pictures which I have of them.’ This is at the root of all ancient civilizations: this living conviction that man does not belong to the earth in the same sense as do the other realms of nature. His home is elsewhere than on the earth. His home lies essentially in the super-sensible world. And this belief was no arbitrary figment. It was achieved through a crisis of the soul—after gaining the knowledge available at that time about the world external to man. And a solution to the crisis was only possible because people still had the capacity to turn their minds to life before birth, and from there to life after death. Everyone then knew instinctively of life before birth. It was part of earthly life, like a pre-natal memory. And they learned about life after death on the basis of life before birth.1I refer to my remarks in the so-called ‘French Course’.(Published as Cosmology, Religion and Philosophy)

On the basis of those capacities which he then had, man learned that after crossing the threshold of death the moment would come when he would not only have around him the natural world, external to man, but his own being would arise before his soul. For it was characteristic of the more ancient stages of human development that, between birth and death, man developed an exclusively pictorial consciousness. I have often spoken about this. He did not yet possess the intellectual consciousness which we have today. In those days this was only developed immediately after death. And people retained it then, after death. It is a peculiarity of man's progress that, in ancient times, man's consciousness after death was an intellectual one; whereas we experience a purely pictorial panorama of our life during the three days after death. There lies the peculiarity, that in ancient times men had a dreamy pictorial consciousness on earth, whereas nowadays we have an intellectual consciousness. Then after death, they grew into an intellectual consciousness which enabled them, once free of the body, to gain freedom. In ancient times man became an intellectual and free being after death.

On being initiated into this fact, the pupil in the Mysteries would be told that he could win knowledge of the world external to man through his picture-consciousness. If however he obeys the imperative ‘Know Thyself’, and looks back upon himself, he will not find his full human dignity there. He will not find it in earthly life before death. He will only become fully human when he has crossed the threshold of death, and pure thinking becomes his; for with pure thinking he can become a free being. It is a strange thing that this type of consciousness occurred after death in past ages of human development, whereas today after death we have the panorama of past life spread out before us. In a sense this consciousness has entered man's life in a counter-stream. It has moved from the life after death into his actual earthly life. And what we have gained, particularly since the first third of the fifteenth century, has trickled into earthly man from post-earthly man. The pupil in the ancient Mysteries knew clearly that the essence of man could only be found in super earthly life, after death. This has now taken its place in life on earth. A real super-sensible stream has entered into our life on earth. This sets up an opposition to the direction of our human life, moving from ‘before’ to ‘after’, the super-sensible stream moving from ‘after’ to ‘before’. Thus, as modern people, we take part in super-earthly life. We have undertaken to become worthy—worthy of what has been drawn from super-sensible into sensible existence. We now have to win our freedom by inner right. We must recognize fully the import of the super-sensible for the development of the Consciousness Soul.

For the people of ancient times, when the injunction ‘Know Thyself’ loomed before them, their response had to be that there is no self-knowledge on earth: for the essence of humanity is simply not fulfilled here on earth. Man reaches it only when he has gone through the threshold of death into the super-sensible world.

At the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, and for centuries afterwards, man as he lived on earth was still called, in the language of ancient Mystery wisdom, the ‘natural man’. And it was considered that this natural man was not the real human being. The natural man was clearly differentiated from the spiritual being which bore the essence of man. The view then was that one only became spiritual man with the laying aside of the physical body. Only after crossing the threshold of death did one become spiritual man and, as such, ‘fully human.’ Initiation in the ancient Mysteries led to great humility with regard to earthly consciousness. Earthly man could not be made arrogant through Mystery-initiation. For whilst on earth he did not even feel that he was man in the fullest sense. He felt that he was more a candidate for humanity, and that he needed to use his life on earth in such a way that, after death, he could become fully man. So, according to Mystery-wisdom, man, as he went about his business on earth, was not a revelation of full humanity.

Now we must come to ancient Greece, and the time when Greek culture was widely influential. For it was then that people began to be aware, with their intellect and in freedom, that the true being of man was pouring from the sphere of after-death into man's earthly being. In Greek civilization the individual on earth was not regarded as entirely fulfilling his humanity. Men saw the work of the super-earthly, as it was drawing into the earthly. They saw in the detail of man's physiognomy, his way of going about, his shape—in all this they beheld with reverence, the super-earthly streaming into the earthly.

With the recent development of humanity all that has changed. Now man says: My great task is to become aware of my humanity. My task on this earth is to reveal, at least to some degree, man's being in its fullness. I too stand under the banner of the exhortation ‘Know Thyself’. I can compose my soul for freedom, because I have gained intellectual consciousness. I can lay hold of the inner strength of pure thinking in the act of self-knowledge. Before the eye of my soul man can appear. Not that man should grow proud in the partial fulfillment of this injunction ‘Know Thyself’. He should realize how at every moment this freedom of his has to be wrestled for. He should realize how, in his passions, emotions, feelings and sensibilities, he is always dependent on the subhuman. What was seen by that high form of pictorial consciousness in the world around, by ancient humanity, was also this realm of subhuman. They recognized that all their knowledge was of the subhuman realm in those ancient times. That was a significant point. For, they said, true man does not exist on earth. To grasp the intellectual nature of man they would have needed intellectual capacities themselves. With their non-intellectual form of knowledge they could only grasp the subhuman.

I have described in my (Philosophy of Freedom) how the intellectual is further developed into conscious, exact clairvoyance. It then lives in a free inner constitution of the soul. Only then can man know himself and his relation to the other parts of his being, outside his pure thinking and his free will. Through such a higher consciousness—imaginative, inspired and intuitive consciousness—man may reach in self-knowledge beyond his intellect and know himself as part of the super-sensible world. And then it will be clear to him that although he is fully human, as has become clear to him in his self-knowledge, full humanity requires of him that he perfect it ever more and more.

Thus modern man cannot develop the same sort of humility that he needed in ancient times, which arose when he had to say of himself: ‘Living in a physical body you are not yet fully human, you are only a candidate for humanity, not yet fulfilling your human dignity and worth. All you can do is prepare yourself for consciousness and freedom as they will arise in you immediately after death.’ A more modern man, who has meanwhile lived under Greek conditions in a different incarnation, would say: ‘Take heed that in your fleshly body between birth and death you do not neglect to be fully man. For as a modern man your inner task is the working-out of what has entered earthly life from the realm of the pre-earthly. You can become man on earth, and you must therefore take upon yourself the difficulty of becoming man on earth.’

All this is expressed in the development of man's religious consciousness. On a previous occasion we saw how in earlier times man looked up principally to the Father God, and in Christ he had the Son of God. In God the Father he saw the creative source of substance and the super-sensible origin of divine providence. Of this the earthly, perceptible world is merely an impress. He looked up to the cosmos from the earth; and in religious consciousness he looked up to God the Father. The pupils in the Mysteries had always been conscious that the most they could learn about man would be a preparation for the life after death. Now, through the Mystery of Golgotha, the Son of God has united with the earth's life, and man is able to develop an awareness of what St. Paul meant when he said ‘Not I, but Christ in me’. Now man can so direct his inner life as to let the Christ-impulse come to flower in him; he can let Christ's life flow and breathe through him. He can absorb the stream which has come to us from pre-earthly life and bring it to fruition in his life on earth.

A first stage in the reception of this stream consists in man noticing that at a particular point in his life he feels something flowering and coming alive in him. Previously it sat under the threshold of his consciousness, and he notices for the first time that it is there. It rises, filling him with inner light, inner warmth, and he knows that this inner life, inner warmth, inner light, has arisen in him during life on earth. He acquires a greater knowledge of life on earth than was his birthright. He learns to know something which arises within his humanity during his life on earth. And if man is sensible of the light and Life, of the love arising in him, and feels there the flowing, living presence of the Christ, he will receive strength—strength to grasp the fully human, the post-earthly, in the free activity of his own soul. Thus the Mystery of Golgotha and the Christ-impulse are intimately bound up with the attainment of human freedom, of that consciousness which is able to suffuse with inner life and warmth our mere thinking that is otherwise dead and abstract.

The exhortation ‘Know Thyself—bring your humanity to fruition in your own inner life’ has been addressed to humanity through all time, and is still in force today. But the experience of Christ in man is essential to our own day. It takes its place alongside the injunction ‘Know Thyself’, and must be given its full weight.

This indicates once again the enormous difference between the soul-constitution of the present day and that which prevailed in times past. We learn to consider man over great periods of time. The whole process is compatible with what takes place when the insect is sensitive to the period of summer in the setting of this world. For man should be able to live in the whole history of the earth as an animal lives in the course of the year. The insect ensures that it notices the transition to autumn, and it sets in motion another aspect of its life accordingly, as it did for spring and summer. And man knows: Once upon a time we were instinctively clairvoyant; we were unfree; our consciousness was pictorial; we were unable to obey the injunction ‘Know Thyself’; we know we could fully realize our humanity only on the other side of the gate of death; that time was analogous to spring in the life of the insect. Then came the Greek era, as summer and autumn come round for the insect. This was a bridge to that later era in which we now live. Our soul's work is different. We should be able to know ourselves to a certain degree here on earth, and accordingly be free after death to reach higher stages of development than in previous ages of man. Then one was wholly man only after death. In those ancient times man's task on the earth was to be a candidate for life, becoming fully man after death. In this, our own age, it is man's task to realize himself here in earth, that after death he may rise to higher stages of development than he could in former ages.

In those times the danger was that if he did not live his life on earth properly, man would not arrive at his full humanity. Today we face something different. We have to achieve our full humanity while on earth. If we fail in this, we betray ourselves and in the life after death plunge further down into the subhuman. In ancient days things could be left undone; today destruction follows. Then, not to become a candidate for life was an omission; today a man destroys, through his own humanity, something in the whole human race if he does not strive after full humanity in his own life. In past ages he merely left something undone; by doing so today he betrays mankind.

Thus we must grasp the need to place ourselves consciously in the world on a higher Level of being, as the insect does instinctively, on a lower Level, in its world. Otherwise man delivers himself up to chaos, which the animal instinctively does not do. We must learn through Anthroposophy to be really human, that we may not experience the scandal of being less in the world-order than the animals—despite the Gods having determined us for higher things. The animals do not neglect their part in the cosmic harmony, yet we as mankind turn the cosmic harmony into dissonance. And thus, I may say, we shall heap upon ourselves cosmic scandal, if we do not learn to think in this way and make our consciousness accord with the demands of the age. This we must learn in these days to join our feeling to our intellectual life. We must take in what would follow upon our not striving after that knowledge which makes us fully man. It would be a scandal before the Gods themselves.

I. Erkenne Dich Selbst. Das Erleben des Christus im Menschen als Licht, Leben und Liebe

Wenn wir ein tierisches Wesen betrachten in seinem Leben, sagen wir während eines Jahreslaufes, so finden wir, daß das Tier den Jahreslauf in einer gewissen Weise miterlebt. Bedenken Sie zum Beispiel ein Insekt, das sich im Zusammenhange mit der Jahreszeit verpuppt, das zu einer anderen Zeit als Schmetterling auskriecht, dann zu einer anderen Jahreszeit seine Eier ablegt und so weiter. Wir können den äuBeren Naturlauf verfolgen, können dann den Lebenslauf eines solchen Insektes verfolgen, und wir werden einen gewissen Zusammenhang finden, gewissermaßen so etwas, wovon wir sagen können, das Tier richtet sich in seinem eigenen Leben nach seiner natürlichen Umgebung ein. Wenn wir den Menschen irgendeiner Menschengruppe, einer größeren Menschengemeinschaft, in älteren Zeiten der Erdenentwickelung betrachten, so finden wir, daß er auch mehr oder weniger instinktiv das Äußerlich-Natürliche miterlebt. Indem aber die Menschheitsentwickelung vorwärtsgeschritten ist, hörten jene Instinkte mehr oder weniger auf, welche den Menschen dazu brachten, seine unmittelbare natürliche äußere Umgebung mitzuerleben. So daß wir bei den Mitgliedern der vorgeschritteneren Menschheit nicht mehr ein solches äußeres Zusammenstimmen finden zwischen der unmittelbaren Umgebung der Natur und demjenigen, was an dem Menschen selbst auftritt. Das hängt damit zusammen, daß der Mensch ja einer Entwickelung unterliegt, welche die Geschichte der Menschheit ausmacht, und welche ein Ganzes innerhalb der langen planetarischen Entwickelungsepoche der Erde bildet.

Wenn wir, weil dabei ja die Verhältnisse am deutlichsten auftreten, ein niederes Tier nehmen, ein Insekt eben, so finden wir, daß ein solches Tier einen verhältnismäßig kurzen Zeitraum, einen Jahreslauf etwa miterlebt. Dann wiederholt sich mit dem Tiere dasjenige, was in einem einzelnen Jahreslauf sich abspielt.

Für die Menschheit haben wir ja bei unseren geschichtlichen Betrachtungen des öfteren eine gewisse Gesetzmäßigkeit gefunden, die durch lange Erdenzeiten, durch lange Zeiten unseres Planeten hindurchgeht. Wir haben zum Beispiel das uns ja so Geläufige gefunden, daß in älteren Zeiten die Menschen eine Art instinktiven Hellsehens hatten, ein Bilderbewußtsein, daß dann dieses Bilderbewußtsein abgeglommen ist in einer mittleren Zeit der Menschheitsentwickelung, wo ein Übergang war von dem alten Bilderbewußtsein zu dem modernen intellektualistischen Begriffsbewußtsein. Und unsere geschichtliche Gegenwart seit dem ersten Drittel des 15. Jahrhunderts haben wir ja öfters angeführt als die Zeit der eigentlichen Bewußtseinsseelenentwickelung, da wo der Mensch eintritt in das intellektualistische Denken im engeren Sinne, das ihn dann zum freien Selbstbewußtsein erst vollständig bringt.

Wenn wir von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus also einen langen Zeitraum betrachten, dann erst finden wir eine gewisse überschaubare Regelmäßigkeit in der Entwickelung der ganzen Menschheit, eine Regelmäßigkeit, die wir für diesen langen Zeitraum schon vergleichen müssen mit der Regelmäßigkeit in einem verhältnismäßig kurzen Zeitraum, sagen wir für ein Insekt, das den Jahreslauf miterlebt.

Nun, in älteren Zeiten war noch ein gewisses Miterleben, ein instinktives Miterleben der Menschheit mit dem natürlichen Lauf, mit der natürlichen Umgebung. Aber die Instinkte sind mehr oder weniger abgelähmt worden, und heute leben wir in einer Zeit, in der das bewußte Innenleben an die Stelle des alten instinktiven Lebens treten muß.

Würde nun der Mensch nur so leben, daß er, ich möchte sagen, sich dem Zufall übergibt, daß er nicht aufnimmt innere Richtungslinien und Gesetzmäßigkeiten, in einem bestimmten Zeitpunkte nicht sich sagt: So mußt du deine ganze Wesenheit orientieren -, würde der Mensch nicht zu einer solchen inneren Orientierung kommen, sondern sich dem Zufall überlassen in seinem Hinleben von der Geburt bis zum Tode hier auf Erden, er würde, trotzdem er durch sein höher entwikkeltes Seelenleben über das Tier hinausragt, durch diese Handhabung seines Seelenlebens unter die Tierheit heruntersinken.

Dann müßten wir sagen: Das Insekt hat eine gewisse Richtung seines Lebens für den Frühling, Sommer, Herbst und Winter. Es überläßt sich nicht dem Zufall des Werdens, es stellt sich in einer gewissen RegelmäBigkeit in der Aufeinanderfolge der Lebensstadien in die Welt hinein.

Wenn wir aber sehen, wie der Mensch aus dem instinktiven älteren Miterleben mit der Natur, das zwar seelischer war als das der Tiere, das aber dennoch instinktiv war, herausgetreten ist und die neuere, bewußtere Form angenommen hat, so finden wir allerdings, daß der Mensch, trotz seines höheren Seelen- und Denklebens, mit der Ablähmung seiner Instinkte sich mehr in ein chaotisches Leben hineinbegeben hat und dadurch in einer gewissen Weise unter das Tierische heruntergesunken ist.

Man möge noch so sehr hervorheben, was der Mensch zunächst als herausragend über die Tierheit hat, dasjenige, was er auf der anderen Seite als seinen neueren Fortschritt entwickelt hat, wir werden dennoch gerade von den hier angegebenen Gesichtspunkten aus sagen müssen: Jenes innere Richtunggebende seines Lebens hat der Mensch eigentlich verloren. Denn er müßte dieses Richtunggebende seines Lebens darinnen sehen, daß er als ein Glied der Menschheit sich bewußt ist: Du bist ein Mensch dieses oder jenes Jahrhunderts. Dieses oder jenes Jahrhundert nimmt aber in dem Gesamtwerden deines Planeten eine bestimmte Stellung ein, so wie der Monat September eine bestimmte Stellung im Jahreslauf für ein niederes Lebewesen einnimmt. Du mußt dir bewußt werden, wie dein Seelenleben sich in eine bestimmte historische Epoche hineinstellen muß.

Das muß allerdings etwas werden, das sich der Mensch aneignet, indem er immer mehr und mehr hineintritt in die Bewußtseinsseelenentwickelung. Der Mensch muß bewußt sich sagen können: Ich lebe in dieser oder jener Epoche, und ich bin nicht im vollen Sinne des Wortes Mensch, wenn ich mich dem Zufall überlasse, der mich durch die Geburt ins irdische Dasein hereingestellt hat, das heißt für mein Bewußtsein dem Zufall überlasse, sonst bin ich dem Karma überlassen. Ich bin nur dann im vollen Sinne des Wortes Mensch, wenn ich mir Rechenschaft darüber ablege, was die geschichtliche Entwickelung der Menschheit von meinem Seelenleben will, indem ich einer gewissen Epoche angehöre. Das Tier lebt im Jahreslauf. Der Mensch muß lernen, in der Geschichte der Erde zu leben.

Wir haben ja als wichtigstes Ereignis in diese Geschichte der Erde das Mysterium von Golgatha hineingestellt. Und wir haben des öfteren betrachtet, was es heißt, der Mensch habe vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha gelebt, oder er lebte in einem gewissen Zeitpunkt nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Wir haben gewissermaßen einen Ruhepunkt in der geschichtlichen Entwickelung, indem wir von diesem größten historischen Ereignis auf Erden zurück- und vorwärtsrechnen. Aber wir werden einem solchen Rechnen in bezug auf das Mystetium von Golgatha erst voll gerecht, wenn wir auch für die einzelnen Epochen des geschichtlichen Lebens ins Auge fassen können, was eben des Menschen Seelenaufgabe in einer bestimmten Epoche ist.

Die geschichtliche Darstellung, wie man sie heute gewöhnlich hat, genügt nicht, um ein solches Bewußtsein für eine bestimmte Epoche zu gewinnen. Denn die bloße Erzählung, wie sich das persische, das babylonische, das ägyptische, das griechische, das römische Leben und so weiter entwickelt hat, das gibt dem Menschen doch keinen Aufschluß über ein regelmäßiges Sich-Hineinstellen in das ganze geschichtliche Werden seines Planeten, so wie sich regelmäßig das Tier hineinstellt in den Jahreslauf.

Nun haben wir ja schon in der verschiedensten Weise die einzelnen Epochen der Geschichte studiert, um daraus einen Begriff zu bekommen, was wir besonders in unserer Epoche innerhalb unseres Seelenlebens lebendig zu machen haben. Aber das Leben ist reich und vielartig, und wenn man zu der wahren Wirklichkeit des Erdenlebens, des Menschheitslebens überhaupt kommen will, so muß das Leben immer wieder von den verschiedensten Gesichtspunkten aus betrachtet werden. Und so möchte ich Ihnen heute wiederum einen Gesichtspunkt im Menschenleben entwickeln, der geeignet ist, hinzuweisen auf die besondere Artung des Seelenlebens des Menschen in unserer Zeit.

Wenn wir in sehr alte Zeiten der Menschheitsentwickelung zurückblicken, so finden wir ja in den einzelnen Lebensgebieten der Erde eingestreut dasjenige, was wir als die Mysterien kennengelernt haben. Wir finden, daß die einzelnen über die Erde hin lebenden Menschengruppen sich äußerlich sogar, aber namentlich seelisch, kulturell, unter dem Einfluß dieser Mysterien entwickeln. Wir finden, daß einzelne Menschen je nach ihrem Reifegrade in die Mysterien aufgenommen werden, daß sie dort eine Entwickelung durchmachen, die sie zu einer gewissen Stufe des Erkennens, des Fühlens, des Wollens bringt, und daß sie dann als solche Erkennende, Höher-Fühlende, Höher-Wollende unter die übrigen Menschengenossen hinaustreten und diesen für die einzelnen Dinge des Lebens, für die innere Stärke und Kräftigung der Seele, für das äußere Wollen und Tun die Richtungslinien geben. Man kann daher das, was solche Richtungslinien für ältere Epochen der Menschheit waren, am besten daran studieren, wie die in die Mysterien Einzuweihenden zu solchen Richtungslinien gebracht worden sind.

Ähnlich wie heute, nur eben nicht, wie wir oft gehört haben, in der abstrakt-intellektualistischen Weise wie gegenwärtig, wurden die Schüler der Mysterien dazu gebracht, ihre Umwelt kennenzulernen, sagen wir, um das Hauptsächlichste herauszugreifen, dasjenige kennenzulernen, was in den sogenannten drei Reichen der Natur lebt. Wir lernen heute schon von der untersten Schulstufe ab durch allerlei Begriffe und Vorstellungen uns hineinversetzen in die drei Reiche der Natur. Wir lernen durch Begriffe und Ideen das Mineralische, das Pflanzliche, das Tierische kennen und wollen, von da ausgehend, auch Aufschlüsse über das menschliche Leben und Wesen selber gewinnen.

Solche Begriffe, solchen intellektualistischen Seeleninhalt, wie er heute den Menschen mitgeteilt wird, gab es allerdings in jenen älteren Zeiten bei den in die Mysterien Einzuweihenden nicht. Begriffe waren auch da, aber sie waren nicht in der Weise errungen, erarbeitet im inneren Seelenleben durch Logik, Beobachtung und so weiter wie heute, sondern sie waren dadurch an den Menschen herangebracht, daß der Mensch eine innere Seelenentwickelung durchzumachen hatte, und daß er dann zu Bildern kam über das Mineralische, über das Pflanzliche, über das Tierische. Nicht jene abstrakten Begriffe nahm er auf, die er heute aufnimmt, sondern Bilder - Bilder, die der heutige intellektualistische Mensch vielleicht als phantastisch empfinden wird, aber eben Bilder nahm er auf, der Mensch. Er wußte aber von diesen Bildern durch unmittelbares Erleben, daß ihm das, was er in den Bildern erfuhr, in den Bildern erlebte, etwas gab von dem, was in den Dingen, in den Mineralien, Pflanzen, Tieren selber drinnen war, was in ihnen wuchs, was in ihnen Gestalt annahm, was in ihnen sich entfaltete. Das wußte er. Er wußte es eben aus den Bildern, die dem heutigen Menschen wie phantastische Mythen und dergleichen vorkommen.

Der alte Mensch wußte, daß er Wirklichkeitsgemäßes hatte an dem, was der heutige Mensch mehr oder weniger als mythologisch-phantastisch empfindet. Der ältere Mensch wußte: Wenn ich ein Tier in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt anschaue, so steht es vor mir in festen Umtissen. — Diese festen Umrisse zu begreifen, war aber nicht eigentlich seine Absicht. Seine Absicht war vielmehr, das überall flutende, bewegliche, flüssige Leben zu verfolgen. Das konnte man nach seinen Anschauungen nicht in scharf umrissenen Bildern, nicht in scharf umtissenen Begriffen, sondern das mußte man in flüssigen, sich verwandelnden, sich metamorphosierenden Bildern vermitteln. Und so wurde es ihm in den Mysterien vermittelt.

Dann aber, wenn der Mensch auf Grundlage dieser Mysterienerkenntnis aufsteigen sollte dazu, sich selbst zu erkennen, dann machte er in seiner Seele zunächst eine bedeutungsvolle Krise durch. Er hatte in seiner für die alte Zeit zeitgemäßen Erkenntnis Bilder empfangen von dem Mineralischen, von dem Pflanzlichen, von dem Tierischen. Er konnte in der seinem traumhaften Bewußtsein entsprechenden Weise gewissermaßen das Innere der Naturreiche durchschauen. Er hatte aus seinem Mysterienwesen heraus in einer ähnlichen Weise, wie spätere Zeiten, die Richtungslinien daraufhin bekommen, sich selbst zu erkennen. Das «Erkenne dich selbst» war doch ein Ideal durch alle Zeiten der menschlichen Kultur- und Zivilisationsentwickelung hindurch. Aber indem er, dieser ältere Mensch, von seiner Art imaginativer Naturerkenntnis aufsteigen sollte zur Selbsterkenntnis, machte er eine innere Seelenkrise durch.

Soll ich Ihnen schildern, worin diese innere Seelenkrisis bestand, so muß ich das Folgende sagen: Der Mensch hatte sein Seelenleben erfüllt, indem er hinaussehen gelernt hatte auf das Wesen des ausgebreiteten Mineralischen, er trug Wirkungen der mineralisch-physischen Vorgänge in sich. Er trug des weiteren Bilder von dem mannigfaltig in sich verwebenden pflanzlichen Leben in sich. Er trug Bilder des Tierischen in sich. Er konnte das auch zusammenfügen zu einer mineralisch-pflanzlich-tierischen Welt. Indem er, gewissermaßen von dem Hinausschauen ausgehend, zurückschaute in sein Inneres, hatte er in seiner primitiveren Art von Gedächtnis ein inneres Bild des Mineralreiches, des Pflanzenreiches, des Tierreiches und ein inneres Bild des Zusammenwirkens.

Wenn er dann heranging an die Erfüllung der Forderung: «Erkenne dich selbst», dann mußte er plötzlich stehenbleiben, dann mußte er sich sagen: Ich habe eine mannigfaltige, formenreiche, farbenreiche, sogar innerlich tönende, man möchte sagen, innerlich musikalische Bilderwelt von demjenigen, was außer dem Menschen im Erdenleben vorhanden ist. Aber diese ganze formenreiche, mannigfaltige, sich verwandelnde, in Farben überall schillernde und leuchtende und glänzende, in Tönen erklingende Welt, sie läßt mich im Stiche, wenn ich die Forderung «Erkenne dich selbst» erfüllen will. Indem ich das Menschenwesen selber in einer solch bildhaften Weise fassen will, kann ich das nicht. Ich bekomme zwar auch für den Menschen Bilder, aber indem ich diese Bilder erlebe, weiß ich aus dem Erleben der Bilder selbst heraus: das ist nicht der wirkliche Mensch, das ist nicht das, was ich empfinde, wenn ich meine Menschenwürde empfindend erlebe. Das bin ich nicht in Wirklichkeit.

Und aus dieser Krise heraus, die da der Mensch durchmachte in bezug auf die Ohnmacht der Selbsterkenntnis, entwickelte sich dann für den Menschen, der durch die Mysterieneinweihung eben diese Krisis durchlebt hat, etwas anderes. Es entwickelte sich daraus eine ganz bestimmte Lebensüberzeugung, eine Lebensüberzeugung, die wir auf dem Grunde aller alten Zivilisationen finden.

Diese Lebensüberzeugung bestand darinnen, daß der Mensch, der wirklich aufgeklärt war in älteren Zivilisationen, sich sagte: Hier auf Erden, wo die Mineralien, die Pflanzen, die Tiere ihre Bestimmung finden, wo sie in der Lage sind, ihr Wesen zu offenbaren in den Bildern, die ich mir selber von ihnen machen kann, hier auf dieser Erde offenbart der Mensch sein Wesen nicht.

Das ist die auf dem Grunde aller älteren Zivilisationen lebende Überzeugung, daß der Mensch nicht in demselben Sinne zur Erde gehört, wie die Wesen der anderen Naturreiche, daß er gewissermaßen die Heimat seines eigenen Wesens woanders als auf Erden hat, daß er diese Heimat seines eigenen Wesens in der übersinnlichen Welt hat. Und das war keine willkürliche Glaubensvorstellung, sondern das war etwas, was die Menschen sich in einer Krisis ihres Seelenlebens errungen haben, nachdem sie eben zunächst die ihrer Zeit gemäße Erkenntnis über das Außermenschliche im Erdenleben erworben hatten.

Und eine Lösung dieser Krisis gab es ja nur dadurch, daß in jenen älteren Zeiten der Mensch vermöge der in ihm damals noch vorhandenen Fähigkeiten hingewiesen werden konnte auf das vorirdische Leben, und von da aus auch auf das nachirdische Leben, auf das Leben nach dem Tode.

Das vorirdische Leben war in einer gewissen Weise jedem instinktiven Menschen bewußt. Es ragte herein wie eine vorirdische Erinnerung in das irdische Leben. Und das nachirdische Leben wurde in der Weise, wie ich das ja in dem sogenannten Französischen Kurs angedeutet habe, dann in der Erkenntnis auf Grundlage des vorirdischen Lebens erworben.

Aber was lernte der Mensch da auf Grundlage seiner alten Fähigkeiten wissen? Er lernte wissen: Wenn du durch die Pforte des Todes getreten bist, dann erst wird der Zeitpunkt gekommen sein, in dem du nicht nur das Wesen der außermenschlichen Natur vor dir haben wirst, sondern in der du dein eigenes Wesen vor deiner Seele wirst auftreten schauen. Denn das war das Eigentümliche einer älteren Menschheitsentwickelung, daß der Mensch damals zwischen Geburt und Tod ausschließlich ein Bilderbewußtsein entwickelte, wie ich es öfters geschildert habe, noch nicht das intellektualistische Bewußtsein, das wir heute haben. Dieses intellektualistische Bewußtsein, das wir heute haben, das entwickelte der Mensch in jenen älteren Zeiten unmittelbar nach dem Tode. Und er behielt es dann nach dem Tode.

Das ist das Eigentümliche im Fortschritt der Menschheitsentwickelung, daß das intellektualistische Bewußtsein, das die Menschen einer älteren Zeit nach dem Tode so hatten, wie wir heute für den Menschen die bloß bildhafte Rückschau der drei Tage nach dem Tode beschreiben, das war das Eigentümliche, daß der Mensch einer älteren Zeit auf der Erde ein traumhaftes Bilderbewußtsein hatte, so wie wir heute schon im Erdenleben das intellektualistische Bewußtsein haben, und nach dem Tode hineinwuchs in das intellektuelle Leben, das ihm dann, wenn er körperbefreit war, die Freiheit gab. In älteren Zeiten wurde der Mensch nach dem Tode ein intellektualistisches und freies Wesen.

Und indem der Mysterienschüler eingeweiht wurde in diese Tatsache, konnte ihm klargemacht werden, auf Grundlage der damaligen Menschenerkenntnis: Hier auf dieser Erde kannst du durch dein Bilderbewußtsein eine Erkenntnis gewinnen von dem Außermenschlichen. Aber indem du gemäß der Forderung «Erkenne dich selbst» auf dich zurückblickst, findest du dich mit deiner vollen Menschenwürde im irdischen Leben vor dem Tode eigentlich nicht. Du wirst ein voller Mensch erst, wenn du durch die Pforte des Todes getreten bist. Dann wirst du das reine Denken in deinen Besitz bekommen können, dann wirst du mit dem reinen Denken ein freies Wesen werden können.

Das ist das Eigentümliche, diese Form des Bewußtseins, die für ältere Zeiten der Menschheitsentwickelung so für den Menschen nach dem Tode eingetreten ist, wie für uns heute die Rückschau nach dem Tode; die hat sich gewissermaßen in einer dem Menschenleben entgegengesetzten Strömung hereinbewegt von dem nachtodlichen Leben, von dem nachirdischen Leben in das irdische Leben herein. Und das, was wir in ausgesprochenem Maße als Menschen uns erworben haben seit dem ersten Drittel des 15. Jahrhunderts, das ist hereingewandert von dem nachirdischen Menschen in den irdischen Menschen. Das heißt, es ist das wirkliche Menschenwesen, von dem den älteren Mysterienschülern klargeworden ist, du findest es erst im überirdischen Dasein nach dem Tode, es ist dieses Menschenwesen in das irdische Leben hereingezogen. Ein wirklicher übersinnlicher Strom ist in das irdische Menschenleben hereingezogen, indem er unserem Menschenleben, das vom Vorher zu dem Nachher geht, sich entgegensetzt, vom Nachher zum Vorher bewegt. Wir sind als Menschen eines Überirdischen teilhaftig geworden und haben damit allerdings die Aufgabe übernommen, dieses aus dem Übersinnlichen in das Sinnliche Hereingezogenen würdig zu werden, unsere Freiheit auch innerlich zu gewinnen, das Übersinnliche bewußt im Sinn der Bewußtseinsseelenentwickelung voll anzuerkennen.

Es ist wirklich so, daß, wenn auch ältere Zeiten gewissermaßen über den Menschen erhoben gefunden haben die Forderung: «Erkenne dich selbst», ihm als Antwort wurde: Hier auf Erden gibt es keine Selbsterkenntnis, denn hier auf Erden ist das volle Menschenwesen gar nicht erfüllt. Du bist nicht voll Mensch auf der Erde, du bist voll Mensch erst, wenn du durch die Pforte des Todes geschritten sein wirst und hineingegangen sein wirst in die übersinnliche Welt.

Noch zur Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha und Jahrhunderte später nannte man daher den Menschen, wie er auf Erden lebt, im Sinne der alten Mysterienweisheit: den natürlichen Menschen. Aber man war zu gleicher Zeit der Ansicht, dieser natürliche Mensch ist nicht der wahre Mensch, ist nicht der volle Mensch, trägt das volle Menschenwesen gar nicht in sich. Und man unterschied von diesem natürlichen Menschen den pneumatischen Menschen, den geistigen Menschen. Und man war der Ansicht, daß der Mensch erst, wenn er nach Ablegung des physischen Leibes mit Durchschreiten der Todespforte pneumatischer Mensch geworden ist, er erst als ein solcher pneumatischer Mensch voller Mensch sein kann. Daher war mit der Mysterieneinweihung der alten Zeiten die Entwickelung höchster Bescheidenheit für das Erdenbewußtsein des Menschen verbunden. Hochmütig konnte der Erdenmensch durch die Mysterieneinweihung nicht gemacht werden, denn er bekam nicht etwa das Gefühl: du bist auf dieser Erde schon im vollen Sinne des Wortes Mensch, sondern er bekam das Bewußtsein: du bist gewissermaßen ein Kandidat des Menschlichen hier auf Erden, und du mußt dein Erdenleben so anwenden, daß du nach deinem Tode voll Mensch werden könntest.

So also empfand man den auf der Erde herumwandelnden Menschen im Sinne dieser Mysterienweisheit nicht als eine wahre Offenbarung des Vollmenschlichen. Erst in der Griechenzeit und in derjenigen Zeit, die dann später unter dem Einflusse der griechischen Kultur bestanden hat, empfand man, ich möchte sagen, mit der Intellektualität und mit der Freiheit das Hereinströmen des nachirdischen wahren Menschenwesens in das irdische Menschenwesen. Und man sah im Sinne der griechischen Zivilisation den irdischen Menschen so an, daß zwar auch nicht in dem einzelnen auf Erden herumwandelnden irdischen Menschen das ganze menschliche Wesen voll erfüllt war, aber in dem, was der irdische Mensch war, sah man gewissermaßen den aus dem Überirdischen in das Irdische hereinziehenden arbeiten. In der Art und Weise, wie sich ausprägten des Menschen Physiognomie, seine Betätigungsweise, seine Gestaltung, in alledem sah man verehrungsvoll das Hereinströmen des Überirdischen in das Irdische.

Das alles ist mit der neueren Menschheitsentwickelungsphase anders geworden. Mit der neueren Menschheitsentwickelungsphase muß sich der Mensch sagen: Ich habe die große Aufgabe, meiner Menschheit mir bewußt zu werden. Ich habe die Aufgabe auf dieser Erde, wenigstens bis zu einem gewissen Grade den Menschen in seinem Wesen schon voll darzustellen. Auch über mir erhebt sich die Forderung: «Erkenne dich selbst.» Aber indem ich ein intellektualistisches Bewußtsein erworben habe, kann ich eben die innerliche Kraft des reinen Denkens und die innerliche Seelenverfassung der Freiheit erfassen in der Selbsterkenntnis des Menschen. Ich kann vor mein Seelenauge den Menschen bekommen. Hochmütig darf der Mensch auch durch diese, bis zu einem gewissen Grade sich erfüllende Forderung «Erkenne dich selbst» nicht werden. Denn in jedem Momente muß er sich ja bewußt werden, wie er zu erringen hat dasjenige, was seine wirkliche Freiheit ist, wie er in seinen Leidenschaften, in seinen Emotionen, in seinen Gefühlen und Empfindungen von dem abhängig ist, was untermenschlich ist, und was in einem so hohen Grade eine alte Menschheit durch das Bilderbewußtsein lebendig im Außermenschlichen geschaut hat, und damit auch schauen konnte im Menschlichen, das heißt aber im Untermenschlichen. Und die Anerkennung dieses Untermenschlichen für das, was man erkennen konnte, die war eine große in jenen alten Zeiten. Denn man sagte sich: Der wahre Mensch lebt gar nicht auf Erden - denn den wahren Menschen hätte man als intellektualistisches Wesen mit dem intellektualistischen Erkennen erfassen müssen. Mit dem nichtintellektualistischen Bildererkennen kann man nur das Untermenschliche zunächst erfassen. Erst dann, wenn das Intellektualistische, das in freier innerer Seelenverfassung lebt, so wie ich es dargestellt habe in meiner «Philosophie der Freiheit», erst wenn dieses nun weiterentwickelt wird zur bewußten exakten Hellsichtigkeit, vermag der Mensch auch sich zu erkennen in bezug auf die anderen Glieder seiner Wesenheit, außer dem intellektualistischen reinen Denken und dem freien Impuls des Wollens.

Er vermag durch ein solches höheres Bewußtsein, durch das imaginative, inspirierte, intuitive Bewußtsein sich auch in seinem außerintellektuellen Wesen zu erkennen als einen Angehörigen der übersinnlichen Welt. Und dann wird ihm klar: Du bist zwar ein voller Mensch — das enthüllt sich vor deiner Selbsterkenntnis -, aber das volle Menschentum erfordert von dir, daß es immer vollkommener und vollkommener werde.

Und so kann der Mensch der neueren Zeit nicht jene Art von Bescheidenheit entwickeln, die er entwickeln mußte in älteren Epochen der Zivilisation, und die ihm dadurch kam, daß er sich sagen mußte: Indem du in einem physischen Leibe lebst, bist du ja gar nicht Vollmensch, erfüllst du ja gar nicht deine volle Menschenwürde und deinen vollen Menschenwert, sondern du bist nur ein Kandidat des Menschenwesens. Du kannst dich nur vorbereiten für Bewußtsein und Freiheit, wie sie unmittelbar nach dem Tode in dir auftreten.

Der neuere Mensch aber muß sich sagen, nachdem er die Zwischenstufe des Griechischen in anderen Erdenleben durchgemacht hat: Du mußt achtgeben, daß du nicht versäumst, ein wahrer Vollmensch zu sein in deinem fleischlichen Leibe zwischen Geburt und Tod, denn dir ist es beschieden als moderner Mensch, innerlich auszuarbeiten dasjenige, was aus dem vorirdischen Leben in das irdische Leben hereingetreten ist. Du kannst Mensch auf Erden werden. Du mußt daher die Schwierigkeit auf dich nehmen, Mensch zu werden auf der Erde.

Das drückt sich auch aus in der Entwickelung des religiösen Bewußtseins der Menschen. Wir haben ja das letzte Mal hier gehört, wie eine ältere Zeit vorzugsweise aufblickte zu dem Vatergotte und in dem Christus den Gottsohn hatte. Den Vatergott aber sah man in dem Substantiell-Schöpferischen und Lenkerischen des Übersinnlichen, von dem das Sinnlich-Irdische nur ein Abglanz ist. Man blickte auf zu dem Kosmischen von der Erde aus. Und im religiösen Bewußtsein blickte man in diesem Sinne zum Vatergotte auf.

Die Mysterienschüler waren sich immer bewußt: das Höchste, was sie über den Menschen lernen konnten, ist eine Vorbereitung für das Leben nach dem Tode. Nun ist durch das Mysterium von Golgatha der Gottessohn verbunden worden mit dem Erdenleben, und der Mensch kann im Sinne des Paulinischen Wortes das Bewußtsein entwickeln: «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir.» Dadurch aber, daß der Mensch den Christus-Impuls in sich aufleben läßt, daß er seine innere Tätigkeit orientiert, so daß ihn der Sinn, das Leben des ChristusImpulses durchweht und durchwellt, dadurch kann der Mensch eben jenen Strom erfühlen, der zu uns Menschen gekommen ist aus dem vorirdischen Leben und ihn während des irdischen Lebens in sich aufnehmen. Und das erste primitive Aufnehmen dieses Stromes in das irdische Leben besteht eben darin, daß sich der Mensch sagt: In einem gewissen Zeitpunkte meines Lebens komme ich dazu, innerlich aufsprießen und aufleben zu fühlen etwas, was bisher unter der Schwelle meines Bewußtseins gesessen hat, wovon ich jetzt merke, es ist da. Jetzt steigt es herauf! Es erfüllt mich mit innerem Lichte, also mit innerer Wärme. Ich weiß neuerdings dadurch, daß dieses innere Leben, diese innere Wärme, dieses innere Licht im Laufe des Erdenlebens nach der Geburt erst in mir aufgestiegen ist, ich weiß jetzt vom Erdenleben mehr, als mir angeboren ist. Ich lerne im Erdenleben etwas kennen, was in meiner Menschheit heraufsteigt.

Indem dann der Mensch dieses in ihm heraufsteigende Licht und Leben und diese in ihm heraufsteigende Liebe als den in ihm webenden und lebenden Christus-Impuls empfindet, bekommt er in sich die Kraft, das Nachirdische als das Vollmenschliche im freien inneren Seelenleben zu erfassen.

Und so hängt das Mysterium von Golgatha und der Christus-Impuls innig zusammen mit der Erlangung des menschlichen Freiheitsbewußtseins, jenes Bewußtseins, das auch imstande ist, das bloße Denken, das sonst tot und abstrakt wird, mit innerem Leben und mit innezer Wärme zu durchpulsen.

Dadurch aber wird das Erleben des Christus in dem Menschen in der neueren Zeit hingestellt in seiner ganzen Wichtigkeit und Wesentlichkeit neben die Forderung, die an den Menschen zu allen Zeiten ergangen ist und auch heute ergeht: «Erkenne dich selbst. Befruchte dich in dir selbst zum vollen Menschentum.»

Damit ist aber wieder in einer gewissen Weise angedeutet, wie unterschieden dasjenige im Menschen ist, was in der heutigen Epoche in seiner Seelenverfassung zu leben hat, gegenüber der Seelenverfassung in einer älteren Zeitepoche. Und wir lernen über einen großen Zeitraum hinüber den Menschen so betrachten, wie wir betrachten müssen das Insekt, von dem wir sagen müssen: es spürt, es empfindet im ganzen Weltenzusammenhange die Epoche des Sommers, und schickt sich an, zur rechten Zeit zu empfinden den Übergang in die Herbstepoche, um eine andere Lebensgestaltung in diese Herbstepoche hineinzusetzen, als es in die Frühlings- und Sommerepoche hineingesetzt hat. So wie das Tier im Jahreslauf lebt, so soll der Mensch in der Geschichte seines Erdenplaneten leben können. Er soll sich sagen können: Da war, wie für das Insekt die Frühlingszeit, so für mich einmal die Zeit des alten instinktiven Hellsehens mit Unfreiheit, mit dem Bilderbewußtsein, mit der Unmöglichkeit der Erfüllung der Forderung «Erkenne dich selbst», mit dem Bewußtsein: du bist ein Vollmensch erst, wenn du durch die Pforte des Todes geschritten bist. Dann kam, wie für das Insekt der Sommer und Herbst, die Griechenzeit. Da war der Übergang zu einer späteren Zeitepoche, in der ich nun lebe, und in der jetzt die Seelenaufgabe diese ist: in einem gewissen Sinne hier auf Erden zu erfüllen das «Erkenne dich selbst», und dadurch auch nach dem Tode zu höheren Stufen der Lebensentfaltung zu kommen, als es diejenigen einer älteren Menschheit waren, wo der Mensch eben erst nach dem Tode ein voller Mensch werden konnte.

In jenen älteren Zeiten hatte der Mensch die Aufgabe, hier auf Erden ein Kandidat des Lebens zu sein, nach dem Tode dadurch ein voller Mensch zu werden. In dieser unserer gegenwärtigen Epoche hat der Mensch die Aufgabe, hier auf Erden sich die Möglichkeit zu erringen, ein Vollmensch zu sein, damit er dann nach dem Tode in höhere Stufen der Entwickelung eintreten könne, als das der ältere Mensch konnte. Der ältere Mensch setzte sich der Gefahr aus, wenn er das Erdenleben nicht richtig lebte, nicht bis zur vollen Menschheit zu kommen. Der neuere Mensch steht vor etwas anderem. Er steht davor, auf Erden erringen zu müssen das volle Menschentum. Und erringt er es nicht, dann verleugnet er es, und dann stößt er sich für das Leben nach dem Tode weiter in das Untermenschliche hinunter. Der ältere Mensch konnte etwas unterlassen; der neuere Mensch zerstört etwas. Der ältere Mensch unterließ etwas, wenn er nicht ein Kandidat des Lebens wurde; der neuere Mensch zerstört in seinem Menschentum etwas für die ganze Menschheit, wenn er nicht darnach strebt, auf Erden ein vollmenschliches Wesen zu werden, denn er verleugnet dadurch die Menschheit, während der ältere Mensch sie nur versäumte.

So muß gedacht werden, wenn der Mensch auf seiner höheren Stufe des Daseins bewußt in demselben Sinne in die Welt sich hineinstellen will, wie das Tier instinktiv auf einer niederen Stufe in seine Welt sich hineinstellt, sonst liefert sich der Mensch dem Chaos aus, was das Tier aus seinem Instinkte heraus nicht tut.

Das ist etwas, was wir lernen müssen durch Anthroposophie: wirklich Mensch zu sein, damit wir nicht die Schande erleben, weniger zu sein im Weltenall, trotzdem uns die Götter zu Höherem bestimmt haben, weniger zu sein im Weltenall als das Tier, das nicht versäumt, die Harmonie des Weltenalls mitzumachen, während wir Menschen, wenn wir so nicht denken wollen, wie es angedeutet ist durch das Hineinstellen des rechten Bewußtseins in die rechten Zeiten, die Weltenharmonie in Mißtöniges verwandeln und dadurch, ich möchte sagen, kosmisch Schande auf uns laden.

So müssen wir unser Gefühlsleben verbinden lernen mit unserem intellektualistischen Leben in der modernen Zeit. Wir müssen erleben lernen, daß es eine Schande sein kann, nicht nach derjenigen Erkenntnis zu streben, welche uns zum vollen Menschen macht, eine Schande vor den Göttern der Welt.

I. Know Thyself. The Experience of Christ in Man as Light, Life and Love

If we consider an animal being in its life, let us say during the course of a year, we find that the animal experiences the course of the year in a certain way. Consider, for example, an insect that pupates in connection with the season, that emerges as a butterfly at another time, then lays its eggs at another time of the year, and so on. We can follow the outer course of nature, we can then follow the course of life of such an insect, and we will find a certain connection, something of which we can say that the animal adapts its own life to its natural environment. If we look at the human being of any human group, a larger human community, in older times of earthly development, we find that he also more or less instinctively experiences the external-natural. But as the development of mankind has progressed, those instincts which led man to experience his immediate natural external environment have more or less ceased. Thus we no longer find in the members of the more advanced human race such an external harmony between the immediate environment of nature and that which appears in man himself. This is connected with the fact that man is subject to a development which constitutes the history of mankind and which forms a whole within the long planetary developmental epoch of the earth.

If we take a lower animal, an insect, because the relationships are clearest here, we find that such an animal experiences a relatively short period of time, a year. Then that which takes place in a single year is repeated with the animal.

In our historical observations we have often found a certain regularity for humanity that runs through long periods on earth, through long periods on our planet. For example, we have found what is so familiar to us, that in older times people had a kind of instinctive clairvoyance, a consciousness of images, that this consciousness of images then faded away in a middle period of human development, where there was a transition from the old consciousness of images to the modern intellectualistic consciousness of concepts. And we have often referred to our historical present since the first third of the 15th century as the time of the actual development of the consciousness soul, when man enters into intellectualistic thinking in the narrower sense, which then brings him fully to free self-consciousness.

If we look at a long period of time from this point of view, only then do we find a certain manageable regularity in the development of the whole of humanity, a regularity that we must compare for this long period of time with the regularity in a relatively short period of time, let us say for an insect that experiences the course of the year.

Now, in older times there was still a certain co-experience, an instinctive co-experience of humanity with the natural course, with the natural environment. But the instincts have been more or less paralyzed, and today we live in a time in which the conscious inner life must take the place of the old instinctive life.

If now man would only live in such a way that he, I would like to say, surrenders himself to chance, that he does not take up inner lines of direction and laws, that he does not say to himself at a certain point in time: This is how you must orient your whole being - if man did not come to such an inner orientation, but left himself to chance in his life from birth to death here on earth, he would, in spite of his higher developed soul life, rise above the animal, sink below the animal through this handling of his soul life.

Then we would have to say: The insect has a certain direction in its life for spring, summer, fall and winter. It does not abandon itself to the chance of becoming, it places itself in the world with a certain regularity in the succession of life stages.

But when we see how man has stepped out of the instinctive older co-experience with nature, which was indeed more soulful than that of the animals, but which was nevertheless instinctive, and has assumed the newer, more conscious form, we find, however, that man, despite his higher soul and thinking life, with the paralysis of his instincts, has moved more into a chaotic life and has thereby sunk in a certain way below the animal.

No matter how much we emphasize what man initially has as outstanding over animality, that which he has developed on the other side as his more recent progress, we will nevertheless have to say precisely from the points of view indicated here: Man has actually lost that inner direction of his life. For he ought to see this direction-giving aspect of his life in the fact that, as a member of humanity, he is aware that he is a man of this or that century. But this or that century occupies a certain position in the overall development of your planet, just as the month of September occupies a certain position in the course of the year for a lower living being. You must become aware of how your soul life must place itself in a certain historical epoch.

This must, however, become something that the human being acquires by entering more and more into the development of the consciousness soul. Man must be able to consciously say to himself: I live in this or that epoch, and I am not human in the full sense of the word if I leave myself to chance, which has brought me into earthly existence through birth, that is, if I leave my consciousness to chance, otherwise I am left to karma. I am only human in the full sense of the word if I give an account of what the historical development of humanity wants of my soul life by belonging to a certain epoch. The animal lives in the course of the year. Man must learn to live in the history of the earth.

We have placed the Mystery of Golgotha as the most important event in this history of the earth. And we have often considered what it means to say that man lived before the Mystery of Golgotha, or that he lived at a certain point in time after the Mystery of Golgotha. To a certain extent we have a point of rest in the historical development by calculating backwards and forwards from this greatest historical event on earth. But we can only do full justice to such a calculation in relation to the Mystery of Golgotha if we can also visualize for the individual epochs of historical life what the task of the soul of man is in a particular epoch.

The historical narrative, as we usually have it today, is not sufficient to gain such an awareness for a particular epoch. For the mere narration of how Persian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman life and so on has developed does not give man any information about a regular placing of himself in the whole historical development of his planet, just as the animal regularly places itself in the course of the year.

Now we have already studied the individual epochs of history in the most varied ways in order to gain a concept of what we have to bring to life within our soul life, especially in our epoch. But life is rich and varied, and if we want to arrive at the true reality of life on earth, of human life in general, then life must always be viewed from the most diverse points of view. And so today I would like to develop another point of view in human life which is suitable to point to the special nature of the soul life of man in our time.

If we look back into very old times of human development, we find interspersed in the individual areas of life on earth that which we have come to know as the Mysteries. We find that the individual groups of people living across the earth develop outwardly, but especially spiritually, culturally, under the influence of these mysteries. We find that individual human beings are admitted into the Mysteries according to their degree of maturity, that they undergo a development there which brings them to a certain stage of cognition, of feeling, of volition, and that they then, as such cognizers, higher-feeling, higher-wanting, step out among the other human fellows and give them the lines of direction for the individual things of life, for the inner strength and invigoration of the soul, for the outer volition and action. One can therefore best study what such lines of direction were for older epochs of humanity by how those to be initiated into the Mysteries were brought to such lines of direction.

Similar to today, only not, as we have often heard, in the abstract-intellectualistic way as at present, the students of the Mysteries were brought to get to know their environment, let us say, to pick out the most important thing, to get to know that which lives in the so-called three realms of nature. We learn today, even from the lowest school level, through all kinds of concepts and ideas, to place ourselves in the three realms of nature. We learn about the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms through concepts and ideas and, starting from there, we also want to gain insights into human life and nature itself.

Such concepts, such intellectualistic soul content as is communicated to people today, did not, however, exist in those older times among those to be initiated into the Mysteries. Concepts were also there, but they were not acquired in the same way, worked out in the inner life of the soul through logic, observation and so on as today, but they were brought to man by the fact that man had to go through an inner development of the soul, and that he then came to images of the mineral, the vegetable, the animal. He did not take up the abstract concepts that he takes up today, but images - images that today's intellectualist man will perhaps regard as fantastic, but it was precisely images that he took up, man. But he knew from these images through direct experience that what he experienced in the images gave him something of what was in the things, in the minerals, plants, animals themselves, what grew in them, what took shape in them, what unfolded in them. He knew that. He knew it precisely from the images that seem like fantastic myths and the like to modern man.

The ancient man knew that he had something real about what modern man perceives more or less as mythological-fantastic. The older man knew: When I look at an animal in the physical-sensual world, it stands before me in solid outlines. - But it was not really his intention to grasp these fixed outlines. Rather, his intention was to follow the flowing, moving, fluid life everywhere. According to his views, this could not be conveyed in sharply defined images, not in sharply defined concepts, but rather in fluid, transforming, metamorphosing images. And this is how it was conveyed to him in the Mysteries.

But then, when man was to rise to recognize himself on the basis of this knowledge of the Mysteries, he first went through a significant crisis in his soul. He had received images of the mineral, of the vegetable, of the animal in his knowledge, which was contemporary with the old times. He was able to see through the interior of the kingdoms of nature in a way that corresponded to his dreamlike consciousness. Out of his mystery being he had received, in a similar way to later times, the guidelines for recognizing himself. “Know thyself” has been an ideal throughout all the ages of human cultural and civilizational development. But in that he, this older man, was to ascend from his kind of imaginative knowledge of nature to self-knowledge, he underwent an inner crisis of the soul.

If I am to describe to you what this inner crisis of the soul consisted of, I must say the following: Man had fulfilled his soul life by learning to see beyond to the essence of the expanded mineral, he carried within him the effects of the mineral-physical processes. He also carried within him images of the manifold interweaving of plant life. He carried within him images of the animal. He was also able to combine this into a mineral-vegetable-animal world. By looking back into his inner being, so to speak, starting from looking outwards, he had an inner image of the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom and an inner image of their interaction in his more primitive kind of memory.

When he then set about fulfilling the demand: “Know thyself”, then he suddenly had to stop, then he had to say to himself: I have a manifold, form-rich, color-rich, even inwardly sounding, one might say, inwardly musical world of images of that which is present in earthly life apart from man. But this whole world, rich in form, manifold, transforming, shimmering in colors everywhere, shining and shining, resounding in tones, it lets me down when I want to fulfill the demand “Know thyself”. I cannot do this by trying to grasp the human being itself in such a pictorial way. I do receive images for the human being, but by experiencing these images, I know from the experience of the images themselves: this is not the real human being, this is not what I feel when I experience my human dignity. That is not who I am in reality.

And out of this crisis that man experienced in relation to the powerlessness of self-knowledge, something else developed for the person who experienced this crisis through the Mystery initiation. A very specific conviction of life developed from this, a conviction of life that we find at the basis of all ancient civilizations.

This conviction of life consisted in the fact that man, who was truly enlightened in older civilizations, said to himself: Here on earth, where the minerals, the plants, the animals find their destiny, where they are able to reveal their essence in the images that I can make of them myself, here on this earth man does not reveal his essence.

This is the conviction of life at the basis of all ancient civilizations.

This is the conviction, living at the basis of all older civilizations, that man does not belong to earth in the same sense as the beings of the other kingdoms of nature, that he has, so to speak, the home of his own being somewhere else than on earth, that he has this home of his own being in the supersensible world. And this was not an arbitrary belief, but something that people acquired in a crisis of their soul life, after they had first acquired the knowledge of the extra-human in earthly life that was appropriate to their time.

And there was only a solution to this crisis because in those older times man could be pointed to the pre-earthly life by means of the abilities still existing in him at that time, and from there also to the post-earthly life, to the life after death.

Every instinctive man was aware of the pre-earthly life in a certain way. It protruded into earthly life like a pre-earthly memory. And the after-earthly life was then acquired in the way I have indicated in the so-called French Course, in knowledge based on the pre-earthly life.

But what did man learn to know on the basis of his old abilities? He learned to know: When you have passed through the gate of death, only then will the time have come in which you will not only have the essence of extra-human nature before you, but in which you will see your own essence appear before your soul. For that was the peculiarity of an earlier development of mankind, that between birth and death man then developed exclusively a consciousness of images, as I have often described it, not yet the intellectual consciousness we have today. This intellectual consciousness that we have today was developed by man in those older times immediately after death. And he retained it after death.

This is the peculiar thing in the progress of human development, that the intellectualistic consciousness that people of an older time had after death, as we today describe for man the merely figurative review of the three days after death, that was the peculiar thing, that the human being of an older time on earth had a dreamlike consciousness of images, just as we today already have intellectual consciousness in earthly life, and after death grew into the intellectual life, which then gave him freedom when he was free of his body. In older times man became an intellectual and free being after death.

And by initiating the Mystery student into this fact, it could be made clear to him, on the basis of the knowledge of man at that time: Here on this earth you can gain knowledge of the extra-human through your image-consciousness. But by looking back at yourself in accordance with the demand “Know thyself”, you do not actually find yourself with your full human dignity in earthly life before death. You only become a full human being when you have passed through the gate of death. Then you will be able to get pure thinking into your possession, then you will be able to become a free being with pure thinking.

This is the peculiarity, this form of consciousness, which for older times of human development has occurred for man after death in the same way as for us today the retrospection after death; it has moved in a certain way in a current opposite to human life from the after-death life, from the after-earthly life into the earthly life. And that which we have acquired to a marked degree as human beings since the first third of the 15th century has migrated from the afterlife into the earthly human being. In other words, it is the real human being, which the older students of the Mysteries realized you would only find in the supernatural existence after death, this human being has been drawn into earthly life. A real supersensible current has been drawn into earthly human life by opposing our human life, which goes from before to after, moving from after to before. As human beings we have become partakers of a supernatural and have thus taken on the task of becoming worthy of what has been drawn from the supersensible into the sensible, of also gaining our freedom inwardly, of consciously acknowledging the supersensible in the sense of the development of the consciousness soul.

It is indeed the case that, even if older times found the demand “Know thyself” raised above man, it became his answer: Here on earth there is no self-knowledge, for here on earth the full human being is not fulfilled at all. You are not fully human on earth, you are only fully human when you have passed through the gate of death and entered the supersensible world.

At the time of the Mystery of Golgotha and centuries later, man as he lives on earth was therefore called the natural man in the sense of the ancient wisdom of the Mysteries. But at the same time it was believed that this natural man is not the true man, is not the full man, does not carry the full human being within himself. And this natural man was distinguished from the pneumatic man, the spiritual man. And it was believed that a person could only be fully human as a pneumatic person when he had become a pneumatic person by passing through the gate of death after discarding the physical body. Therefore, the development of the highest modesty for man's earthly consciousness was connected with the initiation into the Mysteries in ancient times. The initiation into the Mysteries could not make the earth-man arrogant, for he did not get the feeling: you are already human in the full sense of the word on this earth, but he got the consciousness: you are, so to speak, a candidate for the human here on earth, and you must use your earthly life in such a way that you could become fully human after your death.

So the human being walking around on earth was not perceived as a true revelation of the fully human in the sense of this mystery wisdom. Only in Greek times and in the time that later existed under the influence of Greek culture did people perceive, I would say, with intellectuality and freedom, the influx of the after-earthly true human being into the earthly human being. And in the sense of Greek civilization, earthly man was seen in such a way that, although the whole human being was not completely fulfilled in the individual earthly man wandering about on earth, in what the earthly man was, one saw, as it were, the work of drawing in from the supernatural into the earthly. In the way in which man's physiognomy, his mode of activity, his form were expressed, in all this one saw reverently the streaming in of the supernatural into the earthly.

This has all changed with the more recent phase of human development. With the newer phase of human development, man must say to himself: I have the great task of becoming conscious of my humanity. I have the task on this earth, at least to a certain degree, to fully represent the human being in his essence. The demand also rises above me: “Know thyself.” But by acquiring an intellectual consciousness, I can grasp the inner power of pure thinking and the inner state of the soul of freedom in the self-knowledge of man. I can get the human being before my soul's eye. Man must not become arrogant even through this demand “Know thyself”, which is fulfilled to a certain degree. For at every moment he must become aware of how he has to attain that which is his real freedom, how in his passions, in his emotions, in his feelings and sensations he is dependent on that which is sub-human, and which to such a high degree an ancient humanity has seen alive in the extra-human through the consciousness of images, and thus could also see in the human, but that means in the sub-human. And the recognition of this sub-human for that which could be recognized was a great one in those ancient times. For one said to oneself: The true human being does not live on earth at all - for the true human being would have had to be grasped as an intellectualist being with intellectualist cognition. With non-intellectualistic image recognition, one can only grasp the sub-human at first. Only then, when the intellectualistic, which lives in a free inner state of soul, as I have described it in my “Philosophy of Freedom”, only when this is further developed into conscious, exact clairvoyance, is man also able to recognize himself in relation to the other members of his being, apart from the intellectualistic pure thinking and the free impulse of the will.

Through such a higher consciousness, through the imaginative, inspired, intuitive consciousness, he is also able to recognize himself in his non-intellectual being as a member of the supersensible world. And then it becomes clear to him: You are indeed a full human being - this is revealed before your self-knowledge - but full humanity requires of you that it becomes more and more perfect.

And so the man of the newer time cannot develop that kind of modesty which he had to develop in older epochs of civilization, and which came to him through having to say to himself: By living in a physical body you are not fully human, you do not fulfill your full human dignity and your full human worth, but you are only a candidate of the human being. You can only prepare yourself for consciousness and freedom as they appear in you immediately after death.

But the newer man must say to himself, after he has passed through the intermediate stage of the Greek in other lives on earth: You must take care that you do not fail to be a true full man in your fleshly body between birth and death, for as a modern man you are destined to work out inwardly that which has entered earthly life from the pre-earthly life. You can become a human being on earth. You must therefore take upon yourself the difficulty of becoming a human being on earth.

This is also expressed in the development of people's religious consciousness. We heard last time how an older time looked up to the Father God and had the Son of God in Christ. The Father God, however, was seen in the substantial, creative and directing nature of the supersensible, of which the sensual-earthly is only a reflection. One looked up to the cosmic from the earth. And in religious consciousness one looked up to the Father God in this sense.

The students of the Mysteries were always aware that the highest thing they could learn about man was a preparation for life after death. Now, through the Mystery of Golgotha, the Son of God has been united with earthly life, and man can develop the awareness in the sense of Paul's words: “Not I, but the Christ in me.” But by allowing the Christ impulse to come to life in him, by orienting his inner activity so that the meaning, the life of the Christ impulse blows and waves through him, man can feel the very stream that has come to us humans from the pre-earthly life and absorb it into himself during earthly life. And the first primitive absorption of this current into earthly life consists precisely in the fact that the human being says to himself: “At a certain point in my life I come to feel something sprouting up inwardly and coming to life that has hitherto sat below the threshold of my consciousness, but which I now realize is there. Now it is rising up! It fills me with inner light, that is, with inner warmth. I now know that this inner life, this inner warmth, this inner light has only arisen in me in the course of life on earth after birth, I now know more about life on earth than I was born with. In earthly life I get to know something that rises up in my humanity.

When a person then feels this light and life rising up in him and this love rising up in him as the Christ impulse weaving and living in him, he receives the strength within himself to grasp the post-earthly as the fully human in the free inner life of the soul.

And so the Mystery of Golgotha and the Christ-impulse are intimately connected with the attainment of the human consciousness of freedom, that consciousness which is also capable of pulsating mere thinking, which otherwise becomes dead and abstract, with inner life and inward warmth.

This, however, places the experience of Christ in man in modern times in all its importance and essentiality alongside the demand that has been made to man at all times and is also made today: “Know thyself. Fructify yourself in yourself to full humanity."

This again indicates in a certain way how different that is in man which has to live in his soul constitution in the present epoch compared to the soul constitution in an older epoch. And we learn to look at man over a great period of time in the same way as we must look at the insect, of which we must say: it senses, it feels the epoch of summer in the whole world context, and prepares itself to feel the transition into the autumn epoch at the right time, in order to put a different way of life into this autumn epoch than it has put into the spring and summer epoch. Just as the animal lives in the course of the year, so man should be able to live in the history of his earth planet. He should be able to say to himself: There was, as for the insect the time of spring, so for me once the time of the old instinctive clairvoyance with lack of freedom, with the consciousness of images, with the impossibility of fulfilling the demand “Know thyself”, with the consciousness: you are a full man only when you have passed through the gate of death. Then came, as for the insect, the summer and fall, the Greek period. There was the transition to a later epoch, in which I now live, and in which the task of the soul is now this: to fulfill in a certain sense here on earth the “know thyself”, and thereby also after death to come to higher stages of life unfolding than those of an older humanity, where man could only become a full human being after death.

In those older times man had the task of being a candidate of life here on earth, thereby becoming a full human being after death. In this present epoch, man has the task of acquiring the possibility of being a full human being here on earth, so that after death he can enter into higher stages of development than the older man was able to do. The older man exposed himself to the danger of not reaching full humanity if he did not live his earthly life properly. The newer man faces something different. He is faced with having to attain full humanity on earth. And if he does not attain it, then he denies it, and then he pushes himself further down into the sub-human for life after death. The older man could omit something; the newer man destroys something. The older man omitted something if he did not become a candidate for life; the newer man destroys something in his humanity for all mankind if he does not strive to become a fully human being on earth, for he thereby denies humanity, whereas the older man only missed it.

This must be the way of thinking if man on his higher level of existence wants to consciously place himself in the world in the same sense as the animal instinctively places itself in its world on a lower level, otherwise man surrenders himself to chaos, which the animal does not do out of its instinct.

This is something we have to learn through anthroposophy: To be truly human, so that we do not experience the shame of being less in the universe, even though the gods have destined us for higher things, of being less in the universe than the animal, which does not fail to participate in the harmony of the universe, while we humans, if we do not want to think in this way, as is indicated by placing the right consciousness in the right times, transform the harmony of the world into dissonance and thereby, I would like to say, bring cosmic shame upon ourselves.

So we must learn to combine our emotional life with our intellectual life in modern times. We must learn to experience that it can be a disgrace not to strive for the knowledge that makes us fully human, a disgrace before the gods of the world.