The Cosmic Word and Individual Man
GA 224
2 May 1923, Stuttgart
Translated by Adam Bittleston
In present-day anthroposophical life we must begin to develop an art which was one of the arts of the old Mysteries—those Mysteries which were based on a quite different kind of knowledge from that of to-day, and yet possessed in their customs, and in their whole way of conducting affairs, a great deal that has been lost, and must be renewed. The art I mean can be described, quite in accordance with the intentions of the old Mysteries, thus: from words there must be drawn Spirit. But when, in the old Mysteries, they spoke of Word, or Logos, they meant something very much more significant than is generally meant to-day. We have to learn to find again a deeper and deeper meaning in the objects and processes of the world—and in this sentence, once more: Spirit must be drawn forth from words.
To speak of the human being as consisting of physical body, etheric body, astral body, Ego, and so on, is really very abstract. For this reason we have tried on many occasions to describe what is really meant by these members of man's being. It is always possible to go further in such descriptions, and so to approach nearer to spiritual reality. To-day we shall consider the human etheric body, describing what is discovered by super-sensible vision about the real being of this human etheric body. We should not stop at the vague conception conveyed by describing how the etheric body is related to the physical body, how it differs in substance, and so on. Such descriptions are only approximate, and only by developing these approximate descriptions very much further do we penetrate to reality.
We know that when, under earthly conditions, the human being goes to sleep, the etheric body remains within the physical body, and that—as we have always described it—the astral body and the Ego leave this physical body and etheric body. The life of the astral body and Ego is still so weak, at the present stage of their cosmic development, that they are not capable of conscious experience between falling asleep and awakening. We have often discussed, up to a point, the subconscious experiences through which the astral body and the Ego pass during this time.
But to-day we shall look back at what is left behind in bed when a human being is asleep, and in particular at the etheric body. In this way we shall treat the term “etheric body” so as to draw out the Spirit from it, by that art of which I said just now that it was cultivated in the ancient Mysteries. Looking at this etheric body, we shall consider its real nature, as it is beheld super-sensibly, when the human being is asleep.
We see the physical body grow still. We see the human being unable to move his limbs—unable also to pour his will through his bodily form, so as to make use of his senses. The relation of the external world to his senses does not change. But the relation of the senses to the external world changes, inasmuch as the human being becomes inwardly still. Just as externally his arms and legs are still, in his organs of perception his will is not active in the delicate movements of response to the external world which are necessary for sense-perception. But it is a complete mistake to believe that the sense-organs themselves, or more exactly the sites of the sense-organs, are not filled by any activity during sleep. Over its whole extent, the physical body rests—but the human etheric body becomes all the more active and inwardly mobile between falling asleep and awakening. This is a characteristic fact: in the same measure as the functions of the physical body come to rest, at and after the moment of falling asleep, a more and more lively activity of the etheric body begins.
This lively activity of the etheric body streams out, in particular, from the senses. If the super-sensible gaze is directed upon the sleeping human being—that is to say upon the part of the human being present in the physical frame—then it is found that from those places where the sense-organs are located, a continual lively activity streams inwards. This is the life of the etheric body, or vital body during sleep.
For example, from the moment of falling asleep there is a particular process which originates from the region of the human eyes. It is as if, through the influence of light during the waking period, the eye had stored up forces for an activity that develops only after sleep begins. And this is in fact an etheric activity. In the same measure as the influence of light and colour from outside upon the eye is darkened, the eyes themselves begin, like two phosphorescent suns, to irradiate the interior of the physical part of the sleeping human being. The interior space of the human being is illumined by a phosphorescent, glimmering light. It is not surprising that this light, which streams into the interior of the human being, cannot be seen in the ordinary way. External, physical eyes do not see what goes on in the interior of man; there is no organ within the physical body which could immediately perceive this phosphorescent glow.
One of the inner activities of the etheric body in the human being during sleep can be described in this way. Into this there flows a further process. What a man can still observe while he is going to sleep—a kind of humming and singing, a changing murmur within his organism—continues during sleep itself as a music, extraordinarily rich in melody and harmony, which also fills the whole interior of man during sleep. From falling asleep to awakening, this musical activity continues. And the Ego and astral body, which are outside the physical and etheric body, receive strong impressions from this—from what they have left behind, the resounding music in the etheric body. And while it resounds in music, the etheric body is at the same time radiant with light. But the impression made upon the Ego and the astral body remains unconscious.
In the same way, etheric streams of warmth flow into the interior of man from the whole surface of the skin. The result—with much else that is more remote from what we perceive in the external world as warmth, light, and sound, and is thus difficult to describe—is an immensely beautiful and impressive living and streaming activity of the human etheric body.
Distinct, like an island, there stand out from the general etheric life of the cosmos this particular music, and radiance, and flooding stream of warmth. They stand out for inner reasons—which are rooted in the very existence and being of man himself. They belong to man's individual etheric body. And this flooding warmth, this phosphorescent glow, this resounding music—it is these that detach themselves, a few days after man's death, as etheric body from the astral body and Ego, and flow out into the general cosmic ether.
Many of you may have noticed how, after attending a concert the previous evening, one may wake up with the feeling that the soul has been listening again to the same music; as if the whole concert had been repeated for the soul during sleep. But this is a more complicated process than for the ordinary consciousness it appears to be. In reality the soul is emerging from the impressions of the cosmic music, which resounds in an individualised form in the human etheric body. But when the human being returns into the etheric body, all that I have described as going on in the etheric body is blotted out for consciousness by the perceptive activity of the physical body. And the human soul translates what is really individualised cosmic music into the recently-experienced earthly sounds. They are in a sense the clothing assumed by the cosmic music at the moment of awakening, because it has something in common with the stream of sound received at the concert. Because in the ordinary consciousness man cannot perceive the cosmic music, it is clothed in the sounds taken from earthly experience that are most nearly comparable to it. This is the real experience behind the phenomenon most of you may have met at some time.
You see what complex processes are embraced in the human etheric body. And if the attempt is made to penetrate further—using the methods with which penetration into such realms is possible—then it can be observed that in reality this flowing warmth, this gentle phosphorescent glow, this living music, are an outer revelation of cosmic beings. All that I have described is the external clothing, the revelation, the glory of mighty cosmic beings. And these beings disclose themselves as those we know from anthroposophical writings as the Exusiai. I have often named these Exusiai Revelations, because they live, in accordance with their inner nature, in the shining stream which during earthly sleep flows from the human sense-organs towards the interior of man. In this stream the weaving life of those beings we name Exusiai is revealed.
And now, with the same methods with which one observes these revelations of the human senses, so active in their etheric substance during sleep, these streams can be followed further along their course into the interior of man's organism. If one is looking at some shining object, one can follow the line from the eye towards this object. It is to be found somewhere on this line that leads outwards, the visual line. In the same way you can follow inwards from the senses the streaming, flooding etheric radiance.
There is not so far to go; very soon something different is reached. The mild phosphorescent glow, proceeding from the eyes; the living music, which comes from the region of the organs of hearing; the streaming warmth, which goes inward from the whole surface of the skin—all these become an organically coherent etheric system. (When one observes the waking human being, one sees the etheric body in activity—the physical body of course as well—and this activity is somewhat different from that I have described for sleep; the activity then extends a little outside the physical body.) Now one sees how all that streams and flows and shines inwards, from the senses and from the whole skin, is formed into a shell-like copy of man, but within him, extending to a certain depth. From the eyes, one sees this phosphorescent glow, inwards, changing into something I will describe in a moment. The streaming warmth goes inwards from the skin, attains a certain thickness like a shell, and then forms a kind of etheric organism which is compounded of the living music, the glowing light, the streaming warmth, intermingled with one another. All these, and much else, flow through one another, influence one another mutually, and form an organism—the etheric organism of man. If one contemplates this etheric organism with spiritual vision, and begins to understand its phenomena, one is bound to describe it as consisting simply of the forms of thoughts, of flowing thoughts. What is flowing within it is everywhere Thought.
If one were to follow this inner activity of the etheric body during sleep, in its continual fluctuation, and then draw it at a particular moment, one would draw of course lines, or coloured forms. But to describe the substance of these lines or coloured forms one could only say: it is as if thoughts were starting to flow. What lives otherwise in the activity of thought becomes an ever-changing flood and flow. It is the thought-process of the Universe individualised. This individualised thought-process of the Universe reveals itself as individualised Logos. One cannot really say: this forming of thoughts, which streams and weaves within man, connected with these movements shining in from the senses, is only thought. For it speaks. It speaks indeed a silent language, but one that can be perceived as belonging to the interior of man. It speaks indeed—as all things through the Logos speak to us—in an individual form, expressing in an inner Word, that can be perceived spiritually, the essential being of Man.
Thus when we proceed further inwards from the senses there appears to us: the human speech that is directed inwards. It can really be said: the Ego and astral body of man, which from falling asleep to awakening are outside the physical and etheric bodies, are unconscious, as far as the ordinary consciousness is concerned. But they do experience what is happening. And just as they experience the etheric activity of the senses during sleep, as an inward streaming and flowing, they experience too during sleep the etheric body as individualised Logos. Speech, which otherwise is directed outwards to the ears of our fellow men, is as if transformed, turned inwards etherically. It is as if we were to repeat inwards everything which we have said during the day, from waking to falling asleep—but in the opposite order, beginning with the evening and ending with the morning. In a silent language we repeat all that we have said from morning to evening—but in a way that reveals the whole nature of our soul. In so far as man's essential being is experienced in what is spoken, from morning to evening, this experience is manifested inwardly, from evening to morning, in the resounding, speaking, individualised Logos. And this resounding, speaking, individualised Logos brings to expression at the same time—writing, as it were, into the time-sequence of the etheric, in that gleaming, gently phosphorescent light—the occult script corresponding to everything that works inwardly during the night, as the other side of what is spoken during the day. (The same thing happens during every sleep, even during a daytime nap, but in a more fragmentary way.)
Looking at this still more closely, using the same methods through which the individualised Logos that weaves within man is revealed—seeking the ultimate reality, behind what is fundamentally only appearance—one finds all those hierarchical beings called in the anthroposophical writings Dynamis, who are above the Exusiai.
Thirdly—in this attempt to exercise the art of seeking the real being behind the words—we find the ultimate reality of what I once described as a kind of opposite vertebral column. Perhaps some of you remember how I described the human etheric body many years ago. In the periodical, Luzifer Gnosis, it is described how the streams that compose the etheric body as a whole work together to form a structure that lies towards the front of man, just as in the physical body the bony structure of the vertebral column, and the vertebral canal, lie towards the back. In the physical body we have this vertebral column and vertebral canal, running vertically. And in the etheric body we have a confluence, a radiating together of what I have just described, into a kind of opposite vertebral column—lying in relation to the physical body towards the front. And just as the nerves proceed from the physical vertebral column, and also the rib-bones, for example—in the same way the rays and the streams in the etheric body flow together into this other column. They do not proceed from it, but flow together and work together, with all that they contain, here in the front of the human etheric body.
The result is an exceptionally beautiful and impressive etheric organ. Particularly during sleep, it is revealed in its gleaming and glowing, its resounding and its manifold effects of warmth, its inner language. And beholding it more closely, one can see that this organ permeates what I once described (because these things must be described in vivid pictures) as the various Lotus-flowers. Thus you can realize how through this organ—which develops in this confluence of the etheric body, and connects with the streams of the astral body, forming the Lotus-flowers—man finds his connection with the external astral and cosmic universe.
This, too, is a manifestation. This, too, can be described as an appearance, and its true inner reality must be sought. This reality is found in the Hierarchy which in anthroposophical writings I have called the Kyriotetes.
You have now drawn out from the word “etheric body” its ultimate reality. It is a working and flowing and weaving together of the Exusiai, Dynamis, and Kyriotetes, who individualize their streaming, flowing, resounding, speaking activity, and form the human etheric body.
When we contemplate all that Kyriotetes, Dynamis, and Exusiai have formed and made individual, which shines and warms and sounds and speaks into the human physical body as the individual human etheric body—we have also reached man's astral body. For in this living activity of the Second Hierarchy, which streams from the Cosmos and is individualized in the human being, there is really contained the human astral body itself. This activity shows itself in the etheric body—it exists in the astral body.
Think of this whole activity, in which man is interwoven during sleep. For during sleep he is interwoven, unconsciously, with the activity of the Second Hierarchy. When he has gone through the gate of death, man needs this whole activity. For he must live on within it, when he has laid aside the etheric body as such; when after some days this sounding, this living music, this gently phosphorescent glow, these streams of warmth, have flowed away. When all this has flowed into the cosmic Universe, when one has observed the glow extending more and more widely, but growing fainter and fainter, and the music growing softer.... Really this should be described differently. When these regions are described it becomes natural to explain a thing by its polar opposite. It would correspond better to the perceptions of one who has died if I were to say: what is at first like a silent resounding—but one that is perceptible within man—becomes louder and louder, spreading outwards. But just because it grows louder this is perceived as a fading away of the inner etheric music; it can no more be perceived by the being of soul and spirit, who for the earth has died. For this being no longer has physical ears—and physical ears would be needed.
It is similar with the other experiences of man in the first days after death. Then he feels himself in his astral body. But again it is only the external side, a word, if one says: Man is now in the Soul-World. I have described it in this way in my book Theosophy, in accordance with the perceptions of the soul-organ most immediately accessible by man. But for the universal, cosmic intelligence, developed in cosmic realms, this region reveals itself as an interwoven activity of the beings of the Second Hierarchy.
Observe what sort of existence it is, at first, within the activity of the Second Hierarchy after death. Between birth and death the human being lives on earth, alternating between waking and sleeping. During waking, although his soul is woven into the activity of Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, he is compelled to plunge down continually into the forms of the physical body. During sleep he lives with the etheric body, but this, too, imposes an individual quality on the activity of the spiritual beings, in accordance with the forms of the physical body. Thus the work of the Second Hierarchy has to absorb what the human being is, morally—whether he is good or evil, devoted to error or to truth. The activities appropriate to the beings of the Second Hierarchy are individualised according to what man is, as good or evil earthly man, as earthly man living in truth or in error. But account must be taken of what these beings of the Second Hierarchy, according to their own essential nature, purpose to do for the being of man.
Let us assume that a human being has a relation to a particular Being belonging to the Hierarchy of the Dynamis. Through this is developed, with the help of an Archangel as intermediary, the faculty of speech in man's organism. But in the development of this faculty the work of the Dynamis is in a sense dislocated, and distorted into triviality. And when a human being uses his words to say something evil, something filled with hatred, this work of the Second Hierarchy is violently dislocated. And it must be restored again. The human being must not live on after death in those forms which he has given to all I have described through his moral or immoral being. He must strip them off, and find his way into the living work of the Second Hierarchy. This stripping off of the dislocations, of the trivializations—this stripping off of those uses of the work of the Second Hierarchy which distort it into its opposite—this is accomplished by all that I have described as the passage of man through the Soul-World. And then man has ascended to what I spoke of in Theosophy as the World of Spirits, when he can follow with his own Ego-being, with his innermost being of soul and spirit, those activities which correspond to the Being of the Dynamis and Kyriotetes.
You see—in this way, through the art that seeks out the reality in words, the Being of Man can be described once again. We get nearer and nearer to a real picture of this Being. Just as one might indicate on the blackboard the distribution of the figures in a picture by Raphael, say the Sistine Madonna, with a few characteristic strokes—the words physical body, etheric body, astral body and Ego are only an indication. The reality is living activity, inwardly full and rich; and in this activity the Beings of the Cosmos, in realm's of body, soul, and spirit, are revealed. In the end one comes always to Beings.
If anything is described as if it were vaguely extended in Space or swimming in Time, or as a Physical World, Etheric World, and so on—it is the manifestation which is being described. It is like describing a swarm of gnats seen in the distance, so that the particular gnats cannot be distinguished, only a grey patch in the air. In the real world, what are at first called etheric body, astral body, are such grey patches. If one looks closely at these grey patches in the physical air, one discovers the particular existing gnats. If one looks closely at these spiritual grey patches, “etheric body”, “astral body”, one always discovers Beings.
To Beings one must come at last in all understanding of the world. For Beings alone are real. Anything comes into existence only through the co-operation of Beings—presenting then an unreal appearance to unclear vision. Just as in the unreal grey cloud the gnats are the real, particular beings—everywhere in the world it is particular Beings that are at work, and the rest is illusion, arising from the co-existence of Beings. Physical matter, too, is an illusion of this kind—something of the nature of a Being underlies everything. Men must understand this again, in order not to speak of something that is not really there: of Matter—or (which is no better) of Spirit in general—in order to learn to speak about beings, individual Beings of the universe.
Once, in the old Mysteries, they knew how to speak about the Beings of the universe. They knew that realities could not be described by talking either of Matter or of what is called Spirit in the ordinary consciousness—a grey spirituality, conceived pantheistically as present in all things. They knew that if one wants realities, one must have particular Beings. But consciousness of these Beings has gradually been lost—to the same degree that in Man himself the equality of individual being has developed more and more. As I have often said, Man has become more and more intellectual ever since the first third of the fifteenth century. What he knows about himself becomes more and more abstract. But behind this abstract life there is a being living more and more within itself; increasingly rich in inner spirituality. Man lost the dreamy consciousness he once possessed of the Beings of the universe, in becoming a self-apprehending being himself. He must realize again that only when we can point to individual Beings in the universe do we grasp realities.
It was the necessary course of human evolution to see Being everywhere in ancient times, but in a dreamy consciousness. Then the time came, when things were felt in the following way. The realities consist of all these Beings, living in the Cosmos: Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai, Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi, human Egos, animal group-souls, the cosmic souls of the plants and so on. Not even the animals, as they live on earth, are realities; they too are illusion; the realities are the group-souls. The whole plant world on earth is no reality; the earth-soul is the reality. Plants are only as hair upon the earth organism, like the hair upon our own organism. Men knew that all these Beings I have named existed in the universe, and shine out, manifesting themselves, revealing themselves in speech. They knew that this expression in speech proceeded from their essential being. And that universal resounding, which arises from the confluence of what is spoken by the particular Beings in self-revelation, this is the Logos. But to begin with, the Logos was also only an Appearance. Only because Christ united this appearance, and made it concrete in His own Being, was through the Mystery of Golgotha the apparent Logos born upon earth as real Logos.
We must understand the connection of these things. Then the particular Beings can be described spiritually—how they shine, with gentle phosphorescence, and resound: how they spread streaming warmth, how they speak out their own essence. For each particular Being a full spiritual Form can be found in this way. And these full spiritual Forms are the only real things in the universe. In the old dreamy consciousness they knew a great deal about these realities. But this knowledge has shrunk more and more. Once it was known: Form shines out in this way from a certain Being who is reckoned among the Kyriotetes, in this way from human Egos, in this way from Angels, and so on. All this shrank, and contracted at last into a point, because the realities were seen less and less.
Originally they knew very well how the manifestations of the Exusiai, for example, differ from the manifestations of the human Egos, or these from the manifestations of the group-souls of the animals or of the plant Earth-soul. The differences were known, but gradually they fell into unconsciousness. A time came, when there was only the feeling: Yes, there are such realities, everything else is not real ... Space is not real, Time is not real, Matter is not real, Spirit in vague generality is not real—but cosmic individualities are real. But they could no longer be distinguished. And so they were described with the uniform word Monad. Leibnitz and Giordano Bruno spoke of Monads in this way. These Monads were the Realities I have spoken of, shrivelled up small. And no distinction was made between one Monad and another—or at most by tacking on an attribute to the word: the Monads of the Exusiai, the Monads of men, the Monads of animals, and so on.
And at last men lost the power even to speak about the Monads—to which the great German thinker ascribed a conceptual faculty, because he felt that spirit did indeed live in what had shrunk to the Monad. We have not only to remember that the Monad is something living; if human civilization is not to fall into decay, but develop further, we must not only remember the Monads, but we must understand once more, and now with a clear, enhanced consciousness, that all true reality consists in living, ensouled spirit-beings. And what is sketched first with a few lines—physical body, etheric body, astral body—must be brought to life, in the way we have done today.
And so one reaches the point of seeing man's soul and spirit-nature interwoven with the Beings of the second Hierarchy. One observes how man goes from earthly life to earthly life, and how from life to life a compensating cosmic Justice, a Karma, is at work. And here, too, considering this power at work in the Cosmos, one need not stop at the abstractions “Karma”, or “universal Justice”, or “moral world order”—but can go on to the realities.
Beginning with the etheric body, a description can ascend to the second Hierarchy, and therewith describe the human astral body as well. Just in the same way, one can begin with the astral body, and take hold of Thinking, Feeling, and Willing in the astral body, as they fade away at the moment of falling asleep, and go out with the astral body. If one begins there, and looks for the realities, one finds the following.
In our human Thinking there lives the activity of the Angels. In our human speech, which springs from Feeling, there lives for man as he sleeps during the night the activity of the Archangels. And in what is revealed in waking life through human movement of the limbs, through all that is imbued with Willing—and which also goes on in the astral body—there lives during the night, when the astral body is outside, the world of the Archai.
But what lives outside in this way, these super-sensible activities of Archai, Archangels, and Angels, which are reflected in the waking human being in Willing, Feeling, and Thinking—these must be harmonized with the etheric and physical bodies. The physical body must be formed in such a way that it can become the organ of thought, of speech, and of movement. One sees then how the activity of the Kyriotetes, Dynamis, and Exusiai passes over into a still higher activity: that of the Thrones, who bring human Willing into accord with the physical human organism, the human metabolism and limbs. Then we come to the Hierarchy of Cherubim, who bring the human faculty of speech into accord with its physical basis. In all that serves speech or song in the organism, or anything similar to speech—the Cherubim bring the human life of Feeling into accord with the organs of speech. And now the faculty of Thought must also have its physical organ in the human nerves and senses. It is the Seraphim who bring Thinking into accord with the nerves and senses of man. Speech, and all that is connected with it, is brought into accord with Thinking and Feeling by the Cherubim.
Thus we see, when we have threefold Man before us:—
In the organism of nerves and senses, in the basis of Thinking, the creating Seraphim.
In all that is the rhythmic man, which must as physical organism be brought into harmony with the faculty of speech—in all this we see the creating Cherubim.
In all that is expressed in the movement of the human limbs, in all activities of Will, for which the inner structure of metabolism and limbs must be present in man, harmony is accomplished by the Thrones.
From this we see how the physical human form dissolves into appearance, and behind it there stand as realities: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones. We are always looking into the activity of the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones, when the human Ego is interwoven with its inner activity, when man in waking life moves, speaks, feels, and thinks.
In this way we can find again a renewed Mystery wisdom for men; a Mystery wisdom which once more exercises the art of releasing Spirit from the word—of finding real Being in what is at first only sketched in a few lines as physical Man, etheric Man, astral Man. Real Being consists always in individual Spirits, who bear in experience within them what is of the nature of Soul, and who create what is outwardly manifest, the physical. Only existent Spirit-individualities are real. Their expression as Soul comes about because these individual Spirits experience themselves inwardly, and each other in mutual stimulus. That a physical world exists is because these Spirits (who have been rendered abstract as Monads and then have disappeared altogether from human observation) reveal themselves in creation, according to their various stages of existence. We can go back from the created world, which is really nothing but the outer Glory of creating Beings, to the world of experience, of Soul—which is the self-experience of the world of individual Spirits. And when we go on to the true reality, we come to the individual Spirits themselves, of whom the Universe is the revelation and the life.
As long as man stands upon Earth, he lives among the revelations of the individual Spirits. Between death and a new birth he must behold and pass through in full reality the individual Spirits in their own immediate forms. And in order to complete his development he must achieve the passage from the beholding of the spiritual realities in their true form to the order of Earth, in which he does not behold the individual Spirits, but in which they show themselves as it were only from outside, in their outer garments.
But if earthly life is not to fall into complete decay, man must learn once more to behold, and to know, and to understand, through the outer garment, the individual Spirits belonging to a higher world. Then man will see how his whole life consists in a struggle and effort among all that is outer garment of the Divine, and in a life within the Being of the Divine. But he can achieve a right existence within the Being of the Divine only if he develops himself more and more in the true beholding of the outer garment. He must learn to penetrate to the Being through the outer garment. He must not stop at the outer description, but press on to the inner life.
When once this is attempted by a considerable number of human beings, there will be the dawn of a future Earth-evolution, and of the metamorphosis of earthly being into the forms of Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. The Anthroposophical Society must unite human beings who feel themselves today as the nucleus of what must spread to wider and wider circles in human civilisation, that progress in the evolution of mankind may really come about, and that earthly life may not fall into decay.
Der Individualisierte Logos Und Die Kunst, Aus Dem Worte Den Geist Herauszulösen
Auf dem anthroposophischen Boden der Gegenwart muß es dazu kommen, wiederum die Kunst zu entwickeln, welche eine der Künste der alten Mysterien war, jener Mysterien, die auf eine ganz andere Art menschlicher Erkenntnis aufgebaut waren, als wir heute aufbauen, die aber in ihren Gebräuchen, in demjenigen, was ihrer ganzen Handlungsweise zugrunde lag, vieles hatten, was der Menschheit verlorengegangen ist, und was wieder erneuert werden muß. Diejenige Kunst, die ich gerade mit diesen Worten meine, kann man ganz im Sinne der alten Mysterien bezeichnen, indem man sagt: Es muß aus den Worten Geist geholt werden. Es war allerdings in den alten Mysterien so, daß man, wenn man «Wort», «Logos» gesagt hat, etwas viel Vollwichtigeres meinte, als man heute bei dem Worte «Wort» meint. Aber wir müssen lernen, mit den Dingen und Vorgängen der Welt wiederum tieferen und immer tieferen Sinn zu verbinden, und so auch mit dem Satze: Es muß wiederum dazu kommen, aus den Worten den Geist zu holen. Wir wollen uns das heute mit einem ganz bestimmten Beispiel einmal vor die Seele stellen.
Es ist im Grunde genommen etwas außerordentlich Abstraktes, wenn man davon spricht, der Mensch bestehe seinem Wesen nach aus dem physischen Leibe, dem Ätherleibe, dem astralischen Leibe, dem Ich und so weiter. Deshalb wurde auch bei den verschiedensten Gelegenheiten versucht zu charakterisieren, was mit diesen einzelnen Wesensgliedern des Menschen eigentlich gemeint ist. Aber man kann in solchen Charakteristiken immer weiter gehen, man wird dadurch immer geistiger. Und in dieser Art wollen wir heute einmal den menschlichen Ätherleib so ins Seelenauge fassen, daß wir dasjenige charakterisieren, was sich dem übersinnlichen Schauen über die Wesenheit dieses menschlichen Ätherleibes ergibt. Man darf nicht bei der unbestimmten Vorstellung stehenbleiben, die sich etwa daraus ergibt, daß man das Verhältnis dieses Ätherleibes zum physischen Leibe in seiner andersartigen substantiellen Beschaffenheit charakterisiert oder dergleichen. Das alles sind Annäherungen an die Wirklichkeit, und erst wenn man diese Annäherungen an die Wirklichkeit immer weiter treibt, dann kommt man dazu, in das wahre Wesen einer solchen Sache einzudringen.
Nun wissen wir alle, daß, wenn der Mensch innerhalb seiner Erdenwirklichkeit in den schlafenden Zustand übergeht, dann innerhalb des physischen Leibes auch der Ätherleib zurückbleibt und daß, wie wir es ja immer charakterisiert haben, herausgehen aus diesem physischen Leibe und dem Ätherleibe der astralische Leib und das Ich. Dieser astralische Leib und das Ich sind auf der gegenwärtigen Stufe ihrer kosmischen Entwickelung, ich möchte sagen, noch so lebensschwach, daß sie keine bewußten Erlebnisse zwischen dem Einschlafen und dem Aufwachen haben können. Welcher Art diese unbewußten Erlebnisse sind, die astralischer Leib und Ich zwischen dem Einschlafen und dem Aufwachen haben, davon haben wir auch annäherungsweise schon des öfteren gesprochen.
Wir wollen aber heute den Blick einmal zurückrichten auf dasjenige, was sozusagen im Bette liegen bleibt, wenn der Mensch schläft, und insbesondere auf den ätherischen Leib sehen, gewissermaßen das Wort Ätherleib so behandeln, daß wir aus ihm den Geist herausholen mit derjenigen Kunst, von der ich eben sagte, daß sie in den alten Mysterien geübt worden ist. Da handelt es sich wirklich dann darum, diesen Ätherleib einmal ins Seelenauge zu fassen, zu sagen, was da eigentlich der übersinnlichen Anschauung sich ergibt als das Wesen dieses Ätherleibes, wenn der Mensch schläft. Wir sehen mit dem Einschlafen den physischen Leib immer mehr und mehr zur Ruhe kommen, wir sehen, wie der Mensch während des Schlafzustandes die Möglichkeit verliert, seine Glieder zu bewegen. Wir sehen aber auch, wie er die Möglichkeit verliert, seinen Willen durch die innere leibliche Struktur so zu senden, daß seine Sinne tätig sein müßten. Das Verhältnis der Außenwelt zu den Sinnen ändert sich nicht, aber das Verhältnis der Sinne zur Außenwelt ändert sich dadurch, daß der Mensch gewissermaßen auch innerlich so ruhig wird, wie er mit Bezug auf seine Arme und Beine äußerlich ruhig wird, so daß der Wille nicht durch die Sinnesorgane geschickt wird und die Sinnesorgane nicht der Außenwelt jene feinen Bewegungen entgegenbringen, die da sein müssen, wenn Sinneswahrnehmungen zustande kommen. Aber es ist ein völliger Irrtum, zu glauben, daß die Sinnesorgane selbst, oder besser gesagt der Raum, in dem die Sinnesorgane sich ausbreiten, von Untätigkeit erfüllt ist während des Schlafes. Der physische Leib bleibt ruhig seiner ganzen Ausdehnung nach, aber der Ätherleib des Menschen wird um so tätiger, um so innerlich beweglicher zwischen dem Einschlafen und dem Aufwachen. Das ist gerade das Charakteristische, daß in demselben Maße, in dem sich die Tätigkeit des physischen Leibes beim Einschlafen und nach demselben beruhigt, um so mehr eine immer regere Tätigkeit des ätherischen Leibes mit dem Schlafen beginnt. Und diese Tätigkeit und Regsamkeit des ätherischen Leibes strahlt insbesondere von den Sinnen aus. So daß man sagen kann: Richtet man den übersinnlichen Blick, das übersinnliche Anschauen auf den schlafenden Menschen, das heißt auf dasjenige vom Menschen, was in der physischen Hülle da ist, dann findet man, wie von den Orten, an denen die Sinnesorgane lokalisiert sind, nach innen eine fortwährende Tätigkeit und Regsamkeit strahlt. Und diese Tätigkeit und Regsamkeit ist das Leben des Ätherleibes oder Lebensleibes während des Schlafes.
Man sieht zum Beispiel, wie mit dem Einschlafen eine besondere Regsamkeit beginnt von dem Orte der menschlichen Augen aus. Es ist mit diesen Augen so, als ob durch die Einwirkungen des Lichtes während des Wachens das Auge sich anfüllte mit Kräften zu einer Tätigkeit, die sich erst entfaltet mit dem Einschlafen. Und diese Tätigkeit ist eben eine ätherische. In demselben Maße, in dem die Licht- und Farbenwirkungen von außen im Auge sich verfinstern, beginnen die Augen selber wie zwei phosphoreszierende Sonnen ätherisch das innere Wesen des physischen Teiles des schlafenden Menschen zu durchstrahlen. Ein phosphoreszierendes Glimmlicht durchhellt den Innenraum des Menschen. Sie brauchen sich nicht zu verwundern, daß dieses phosphoreszierende Glimmlicht, das nach dem Inneren des Menschen erstrahlt, nicht in der gewöhnlichen Art gesehen werden kann. Denn daß die Augen des andern Menschen dasjenige, was da im Inneren während des Schlafens glimmt, nicht sehen, das ist zu begreifen, weil der Mensch durch seine ganze Organisation für das physische Auge undurchsichtig ist, zu den undurchsichtigen Körpern gehört. Dasjenige, was im Inneren vorgeht, wird mit den äußeren physischen Augen nicht gesehen. Aber im Inneren des physischen Leibes ist zunächst kein Organ, welches dieses Glimmende, Phosphoreszierende unmittelbar sehen könnte.
Damit haben wir eine der inneren Tätigkeiten und Regsamkeiten des ätherischen Leibes im Menschen während des Schlafes charakterisiert. In diese Tätigkeit strömt eine andere hinein. In der Tat, dasjenige, was ja der Mensch noch im Einschlafen verspüren kann - ein gewisses Summen und Zirpen, strömendes Rauschen seiner Innenorganisation -, setzt sich während des Schlafzustandes in einer außerordentlich melodien- und harmonienreichen musikalischen Regsamkeit fort, die auch das ganze Innere des Menschen während des Schlafes durchsetzt. Diese musikalische Regsamkeit dauert vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen. Und die außerhalb des physischen und Ätherleibes befindlichen Wesensglieder Ich und astralischer Leib werden stark beeindruckt von demjenigen, was sie da im Bette zurückgelassen haben als den tönenden, klingenden ätherischen Leib, der aber in seinem Tönen und Klingen zugleich leuchtet. Nur bleibt zunächst dasjenige, was da als Eindruck auf Ich und astralischen Leib ausgeübt wird, im Unbewußten.
Ebenso werden nach dem Inneren des Menschen ätherische Wärmeströmungen, und zwar von der ganzen Oberfläche der Haut, nach innen gestrahlt. Zusammen mit manch anderem, was ferner liegt dem in der äußeren Welt als Wärme, Licht und Töne Wahrgenommenen, was man daher auch schwer charakterisieren kann, ergibt das alles ein ungeheuer schönes, großartiges, gewaltiges inneres Regen und Bewegen und Fluten des ätherischen menschlichen Leibes. Das ist so, wie wenn sich aus dem Universum mit dem ätherischen Leibe des Menschen herauserhöbe, aus inneren Gründen -— welche inneren Gründe aber keine andern sind als die menschliche Wesenheit selber, als ihr Dasein -, erhöbe inselartig, möchte ich sagen, aus dem allgemeinen Ätherischen des Kosmos heraus: dieses besondere Tönen und Leuchten und Fluten in Wärmeströmungen des individuellen ätherischen Leibes des Menschen. Und dieses wärmende Fluten, dieses phosphoreszierende Leuchten, dieses musikalische Tönen, sie sind es ja auch, welche wenige Tage nach dem Tode des Menschen als äthetischer Leib sich loslösen vom astralischen Leibe und Ich und hinausfluten, hinausströmen in den allgemeinen Äther des Universellen, des Kosmischen.
Vielleicht haben manche von Ihnen bemerkt, wie dem Menschen, wenn er des Morgens aufwacht und abends etwa bei einem Konzerte war, das auf ihn einen lebendigen Eindruck gemacht hat, das Aufwachen so erscheint, als ob die Seele sich herauserhöbe aus dem wiederholten Erleben der im Konzert gehörten Musik. Es ist so, als ob die Seele noch einmal während des Schlafes das ganze Konzert durchgemacht hätte. Der Vorgang ist aber komplizierter, als er dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein erscheint. Denn in Wahrheit erhebt sich die Seele von den Eindrücken jener Weltenmusik, die sich individualisiert im menschlichen Ätherleibe. Aber indem der Mensch wiederum zurückkehrt in seinen Ätherleib und durch die Eindrucksfähigkeit des physischen Leibes alles dasjenige, was ich Ihnen für diesen Ätherleib geschildert habe, übertönt wird, übersetzt die menschliche Seele dasjenige, was individualisierte kosmische Musik ist, in die zuletzt gehörten irdischen Töne. Die sind gewissermaßen das Kleid, das sich diese kosmische Musik im Momente des Aufwachens überzieht, weil diese kosmische Musik eine gewisse Gemeinschaft mit den flutenden Tonmassen des gehörten Konzertes hat. Weil der Mensch im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein unfähig ist, die kosmische Musik zu vernehmen, umkleidet sich diese kosmische Musik mit dem, was ihr am meisten vergleichbar ist aus dem irdischen Leben: mit den im Konzert gehörten Tonmassen. So ist das wirkliche Erlebnis, das einer Erscheinung zugrunde liegt, die vielleicht die meisten von Ihnen einmal gehabt haben.
Sie sehen also, welch Kompliziertes eigentlich im menschlichen Ätherleib enthalten ist. Und wenn man versucht, weiter einzudringen mit den Mitteln, mit denen man in solche Welten eindringen kann, dann merkt man, daß dieses wärmende Strömen, dieses phosphoreszierende milde Leuchten, diese fluktuierende Musik die äußere Offenbarung für waltende Weltenwesen ist. Eigentlich ist alles dasjenige, was ich Ihnen beschrieben habe, wiederum das äußere Kleid, die äußere Offenbarung, der Schein von waltenden Weltenwesen. Und diese waltenden Weltenwesen enthüllen sich als diejenigen, die wir aus der anthroposophischen Literatur kennen als die Exusiai. Ich habe daher diese Exusiai auch öfter Offenbarungen genannt, weil sie ihrer inneren Wesenheit nach leben in demjenigen, was in den menschlichen Sinnesorganen während des irdischen Schlafzustandes des Menschen nach dem Inneren des Menschenwesens hin erstrahlt. In diesem Erstrahlen offenbart sich eben das Leben und Weben jener Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien, die wir die Exusiai nennen.
Nun kann man aber mit denselben Mitteln, mit denen man diese Offenbarungen der gerade im Schlafe in ihrer ätherischen Substanz so rege werdenden menschlichen Sinne beobachtet, weiter verfolgen, wie dieses Nach-innen-Strahlen-und-Strömen eben weiter nach innen wirkt. Geradeso wie man im tagwachen Zustande sich sagt: Du siehst irgendeinen leuchtenden Gegenstand; man verfolgt dann gewissermaßen die Linie vom Auge nach diesem leuchtenden Gegenstande hin, der leuchtende Gegenstand wird irgendwo auf der Strecke außen gefunden, die da die Sehlinie des Auges, also des Sinnesorganes bildet -, so kann man, aber jetzt nach innen, dasjenige verfolgen, was ätherisch von den Sinnen nach innen strömt, flutet und strahlt. Man wird da nicht so lange Wege durchzumachen haben, kurze Wege, man wird sehr bald auftreffen auf ein anderes. Das phosphoreszierende Mildleuchten, das von den Augen ausgeht, das musikalische Wirken, das lokal ausgehend von den Gehörorganen sich darstellt, das strömende Wärmen, das von dem ganzen Umfange der Haut nach innen geht, all das geht sehr bald über in ein organisch in sich geschlossenes ätherisches System. Während man, wenn man den wachenden Menschen beobachtet, den ätherischen Leib in Tätigkeit sieht - den ganzen physischen Leib des Menschen allerdings auch, aber in einer etwas andern Tätigkeit, als ich sie für den Schlaf beschrieben habe; man sieht dann diese Tätigkeit sich ein wenig über den physischen Leib des Menschen heraus ausdehnen -, sieht man jetzt gewissermaßen dasjenige, was von den Sinnen und von der ganzen Haut nach innen strömt und wellt und strahlt, eine gewisse Strecke gestaltet wie eine Art schalenartige Nachbildung des Menschen, die sich nach innen erstreckt. Man sieht von den Augen nach innen phosphoreszierendes Leuchten, das dann übergeht in etwas anderes, was ich gleich beschreiben werde. Man sieht das wärmende Strömen von der Haut nach innen gehen, so eine Art Schale, die dem menschlichen physischen Organismus nachgebildet ist, die eine gewisse Dichte erreicht, dann aber übergeht in eine Art Ätherorganisation, die in ihrem substantiellen Gehalt wie durchmischt, zusammengesetzt ist aus musikalischem Wirken, phosphoreszierendem Lichte, Wärmeströmungen. Das alles und manches andere strömt durcheinander, beeinflußt sich gegenseitig, bildet eine Art Organisation, die eben die ätherische Organisation des Menschen ist. Und wenn man nun diese ätherische Organisation des Menschen ins Geistesauge faßt, wenn man beginnt, sie zu verstehen nach alledem, wie sie sich enthüllt, dann kann man sie nicht anders ansprechen als: sie besteht aus lauter Gedankenformen, aus strömenden Gedanken. Was da drinnen strömt, ist in jedem Punkte Gedanke. Würde man in irgendeinem Augenblick diese fortwährend fluktuierende innere Regsamkeit des schlafenden Ätherleibes verfolgen und in einem Augenblick dann aufzeichnen, würde man natürlich Linien oder Farbenformen hinmalen, aber wenn man die Substanz dieser Linien oder Farbenformen charakterisieren sollte, könnte man nicht anders sagen als: Das ist, wie wenn Gedanken anfangen würden zu strömen. — Es ist dasselbe, was sonst in der Gedankentätigkeit lebt, was aber da ein Strömen, ein Wellen, ein Fluktuieren wird. Es ist die individualisierte Gedankenbildung des Kosmos. Diese individualisierte Gedankenbildung des Kosmos enthüllt sich als der individualisierte Logos. Denn eigentlich kann man gar nicht einmal sagen: Was da im Menschen drinnen strömt und webt als Gedankenbildung, als innerer Anschluß an diese nach innen strahlenden und strömenden Sinnesbewegungen, das ist bloß strömender Gedanke -, sondern das redet, redet allerdings eine stumme, aber eben eine für das Innere des Menschen wahrnehmbare Sprache, redet wirklich — wie alle Dinge durch den Logos zu uns sprechen - in einer individuellen Gestalt, drückt aus in einem geistig wahrzunehmenden inneren Worte das Wesen des Menschen. |
Wenn wir also von den Sinnen tiefer nach innen gehen, so erscheint uns gewissermaßen die nach innen gewendete menschliche Sprache. Ja, es ist durchaus so, daß man sagen kann: Ich und astralischer Leib des Menschen, die vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen außerhalb des physischen und Ätherleibes sind, bleiben allerdings für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein unbewußt, aber sie erleben deshalb doch dasjenige, was geschieht. Und wie sie die ätherische Tätigkeit der Sinne während des Schlafes erleben als nach einwärts gerichtetes Strömen und Strahlen, so erleben dieses Ich und dieser astralische Leib während des schlafenden Zustandes des Menschen den Ätherleib als individualisierten Logos, wie eine nach innenwärts gewendete Sprache. Es ist, wie wenn die Sprache, die sonst nach außen strahlt zu den Ohren unserer Mitmenschen, sich während des Schlafes ätherisch gewandelt nach innen gewendet hätte, und wie wenn wir alles dasjenige, was wir während des Tages vom Aufwachen bis zum Einschlafen gesprochen haben, noch einmal in rückwärtiger Folge - es beginnt mit dem Abend und endet mit dem Morgen - nach innen aussprechen würden. Wir reden nach innen in einer stummen Sprache wiederum alles dasjenige, was wir vorn Morgen bis zum Abend ausgesprochen haben, aber so, daß wir unser ganzes Seelisches in dieser nach innenwärts gewendeten Sprache zur Offenbarung bringen. Also insofern das Wesen des Menschen in demjenigen erlebt wird, was der Mensch vom Morgen bis zum Abend spricht, wird dieses im Sprechen Erlebte vom Abend bis zum Morgen nach innen realisiert in dem tönenden, sprechenden Logos, jenem tönenden, sprechenden, individualisierten Logos, der aber zu gleicher Zeit, wie in das Ätherische zeitlich hineinschreibend, in jenem glimmenden, mild phosphoreszierenden Lichte die okkulte Schrift zum Ausdruck bringt für all das, was da innenwärts als die andere Seite des am Tage Gesprochenen während der Nacht zur Wirksamkeit kommt — überhaupt während des Schlafens: es ist ja geradeso, wenn der Mensch ein Tagesschläfchen hält, nur daß die Dinge sich dann fragmentarischer ausleben.
Und wenn man wiederum mit denselben Mitteln, mit denen sich das innere Weben des individualisierten Logos offenbart, nun nachforscht, was da eigentlich ist, was er da zunächst in einem für das eigentliche Wesen der Welt doch äußeren Schein kundgibt, wenn man weiter prüft, was das Wesenhafte ist, dann kommt man darauf: Das ist die Summe jener Hierarchien, die wir bezeichnet haben in der anthroposophischen Literatur als die Dynamis, die über den Exusiai stehen.
Und als drittes findet man dann, wenn man versucht, die Kunst zu entwickeln, aus den Worten die Wesenhaftigkeiten zu suchen, als drittes findet man die Wesenhaftigkeiten für das, was ich einmal beschrieben habe wie eine Art Gegenrückgrat. Vielleicht erinnern sich manche von Ihnen, wie ich vor vielen Jahren beschrieben habe den menschlichen Ätherleib. Schon in « Lucifer-Gnosis», in den Artikeln, welche das Wesen des Menschen dort wiedergeben, ist beschrieben, wie die Strömungen, die im Ätherleib im allgemeinen liegen, sich auch ergeben in ihrem Zusammenwirken in solch einem Gebilde, das nach vorne beim Menschen liegt, wie beim physischen Leibe nach rückwärts die Knochenbildungen des Rückgrates mit dem Rückenmarkskanal liegen. Wir haben im physischen Leibe dieses vertikal verlaufende Rückgrat mit dem Rückenmarkskanal, und wir haben im ätherischen Leibe ein Zusammenströmen, Zusammenstrahlen desjenigen, was ich Ihnen eben jetzt beschrieben habe in einer Art von Gegenrückgrat, das aber, wenn man den physischen Leib ins Auge faßt, an der vorderen Seite des Menschen liegt. Und wie von dem physischen Rückgrat die Nervenstränge, aber auch zum Beispiel die Rippenknochen ausgehen, so verlaufen die erwähnten Strahlungen und Strömungen in dem ätherischen Leibe so, daß sie jetzt nicht ausgehen von diesem Gegenrückgrat, sondern in ihm gewissermaßen zusammenströmen, mit alldem, was sie haben, an der Vorderseite des menschlichen ätherischen Leibes zusammenwirken. Das gibt ein ungemein schönes, großartiges, gewaltiges ätherisches Organ, das aber insbesondere in einer glitzernden, leuchtenden, tönenden, in allerlei Wärmewirkungen sich entladenden, aber auch innerlich sprechenden Wesenheit besteht und sich insbesondere so enthüllt während des Schlafzustandes des Menschen. Und man bekommt, wenn man genauer zusieht, durchaus eine Anschauung davon, wie dann dieses Organ dasjenige durchsetzt, was ich einmal, weil solche Dinge mit völliger anschaulicher Bildhaftigkeit beschrieben werden müssen, als die einzelnen Lotusblumen charakterisiert habe. So daß Sie erkennen können, wie durch dieses Organ, das aus dem Ätherleibe zusammenströmend sich selber erwirkt und dann mit den Strömungen des astralischen Leibes die Lotusblumen formt, wie durch dieses Organ der Mensch eben weiter seinen Anschluß findet an die äußerliche astralische, kosmische Welt.
Und wieder ist das eine Art von Offenbarung. Doch wieder ist das etwas, was man ansprechen kann als einen äußeren Schein, für den man die innere Wesenheit suchen muß. Und sucht man diese innere Wesenheit, so findet man sie in der Hierarchie, die ich in der anthroposophischen Literatur genannt habe die Kyriotetes. Jetzt erst haben Sie aus dem Worte Ätherleib herausgeholt dasjenige, was wesenhafter Ätherleib des Menschen eigentlich ist. Br ist ein Zusammenwirken, Zusammenfluten, Zusammenweben der Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, die ihre strömende, flutende, tönende, sprechende Wirksamkeit individualisieren und den menschlichen Ätherleib bilden.
Aber indem wir dasjenige anschauen, was da individualisierend Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai so bilden, daß es, hineinleuchtend in seiner Individualisierung in den menschlichen physischen Leib, hineinwärmend, hineintönend, hineinsprechend den menschlichen Ätherleib bildet, dann sind wit auch schon beim astralischen Leib des Menschen angelangt. Denn in diesem Sich-regend-Betätigen, in diesem individualisierenden, aus dem Kosmos strömenden, aber im Menschen sich individualisierenden Betätigen der zweiten Hierarchie ist dasjenige enthalten, was menschlicher astralischer Leib ist. Im Ätherleibe zeigt sich diese Tätigkeit, im astralischen Leibe ist sie.
Und nun bedenken Sie diese ganze Tätigkeit, in die da der Mensch während des Schlafes verwoben ist. In diese Tätigkeit der zweiten Hierarchie ist er ja während des Schlafes unbewußt verwoben, diese ganze Tätigkeit braucht der Mensch, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes hindurchgeschritten ist. Denn in dieser Tätigkeit muß er weiterhin leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, wenn er den Ätherleib als solchen abgestreift hat, wenn hingeflutet ist nach einigen Tagen das Tönen, dieses musikalische Wirken, dieses mild phosphoreszierende Leuchten, dieses wärmende Strömen. Wenn das einige Tage nach dem Tode ausgeflossen ist in den universellen Kosmos, wenn man das Leuchten immer weiter sich ausbreitend, aber auch immer schwächer und schwächer werdend bemerkt hat, wenn man die Musik immer stiller und stiller werdend bemerkt hat - ich müßte eigentlich anders sprechen: wenn man von diesen Regionen spricht, ist es natürlich, ein Ding durch seinen polarischen Gegensatz auszudrücken; besser wäre es, denn das entspricht mehr dem, was der Tote wahrnimmt, wenn ich sagen würde: Dasjenige, was zuerst wie ein stummes Tönen ist, das aber für den inneren Menschen wahrnehmbar ist, das wird immer lauter und lauter, indem es sich verbreitet, und es ist dann so, wie wenn man — gerade durch das Lauterwerden, das man nun als geistig-seelisches, aber für die Erde abgestorbenes Wesen nicht mehr vernehmen kann, weil man die physischen Ohren nicht hat, es müßten eben physische Ohren da sein — das immer Lauterwerden eben vernimmt wie ein Verglimmen der inneren ätherischen Musik.
Ähnlich ist es mit dem andern, das der Mensch da unmittelbar nach dem Tode in den ersten Tagen durchlebt. Da aber fühlt er sich in seinem astralischen Leibe. Aber das ist ja wieder nur die Außenseite, von der man spricht, ein Wort: Der Mensch befindet sich in der Seelenwelt, wie ich es in der «’Theosophie» beschrieben habe. Aber das, was ich dort beschrieben habe, was zunächst den Eindruck wiedergibt für das dem Menschen zugängliche nächste Seelenorgan, das enthüllt sich ja für die im Kosmischen zu entwickelnde universelle, kosmische Intelligenz als eine in sich sich verschlingende, in sich sich verwebende Tätigkeit der Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie.
Und nun bemerken Sie, wie dieses Sein in der Tätigkeit dieser Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie nach dem Tode zunächst eigentlich ist. Man hat gelebt auf Erden zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode, man hat abgewechselt zwischen dem Wachen und dem Schlafen. Während des Wachens war man mit dieser ganzen Tätigkeit, in der die menschliche Seele lebt, verwoben in Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. Man war mit alldem immer genötigt, in die Formen des physischen Leibes unterzutauchen. Während des Schlafes lebte man mit dem Ätherleibe, der aber auch diese ganze Tätigkeit hinindividualisiert auf ‚die Formen des menschlichen physischen Leibes. Da nahm aber diese Tätigkeit, in die man verwoben war, für diese zweite Hierarchie auch all das an, was der Mensch moralisch war: inwiefern er gut und böse war, inwiefern er dem Irrtum oder der Wahrheit hingegeben war. Die den Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie angemessenen Tätigkeiten individualisieren sich nach dem hin, was da der Mensch ist als guter oder böser Erdenmensch, als in Wahrheit oder in Irrtum lebender Erdenmensch. Und man muß sich erst richten nach dem, was nun die Wesen dieser zweiten Hierarchie aus ihrem Sein heraus für eine Tätigkeit ausüben wollen für das Wesen des Menschen.
Man muß gewissermaßen, wenn ich mich grob ausdrücken will, das Folgende berücksichtigen. Nehmen Sie an, man ist verknüpft mit irgendeinem Wesen aus der Hierarchie der Dynamis. Dadurch daß man das ist, entwickelt man ja dann, indem noch ein Erzengelwesen diese Tätigkeit vermittelt, die Fähigkeit des Sprechens im menschlichen Organismus. Aber indem man diese Fähigkeit entwickelt, werden gewissermaßen die Tätigkeiten der Dynamis verrenkt und auch ins Kleinliche verzerrt. Und wenn der Mensch seine Worte dazu verwendet, Böses, Haßerfülltes zu sagen, dann werden sie stark verrenkt, diese Tätigkeiten der zweiten höheren Hierarchie. Und das alles muß wieder eingerichtet werden. Das alles muß so werden, daß der Mensch nicht in den Formen weiterlebt, die er all dem, was ich da geschildert habe, gegeben hat durch seine moralische Wesenheit oder auch seine unmoralische Wesenheit, sondern daß er das alles abstreift und daß er sich hineinfindet in die Betätigung und Regsamkeit, welche die der Wesen der zweiten Hierarchie ist. Dieses Abstreifen der Verrenkungen, der Verkleinlichungen, dieses Abstreifen der ins Gegenteil gehenden Verkehrungen der Regsamkeiten der zweiten Hierarchie, das wird bewirkt durch alles dasjenige, was ich als den Durchgang des Menschen durch die Seelenwelt beschrieben habe. Und dann ist der Mensch aufgestiegen zu dem, was ich in der «’Theosophie» beschrieben habe als das Geisterland, wenn der Mensch folgen kann mit seinem eigenen Ich-Dasein, mit seinem geistig-seelischen innersten Dasein den Tätigkeiten, die entsprechen dem Wesen der Dynamis und Kyriotetes.
Da haben Sie - mit der Kunst, aus Worten das Wesenhafte hervorzusuchen - noch einmal geschildert, charakterisiert das Wesen des Menschen. So nähert man sich immer mehr und mehr einer Anschauung des Wesens des Menschen. Man muß, geradeso als wenn man die Verteilung der Figuren eines Raffaelschen Madonnenbildes, der Sixtina zumBeispiel, zuerst mit ein paar charakteristischen Strichen auf die Tafel bloß hinzeichnen würde, so mit den Worten physischer Leib, Ätherleib, astralischer Leib, Ich hinzeichnen dasjenige, was in Wirklichkeit aber voll erfüllte innerliche Regsamkeit und Tätigkeit ist, innerhalb welcher Regsamkeit und Tätigkeit sich eben die Wesenheiten des Kosmos, des physischen, seelischen und geistigen Kosmos offenbaren. Zuletzt kommt man immer auf Wesenhaftes. Wenn man irgend etwas so schildert, als ob es ein räumlich sich unbestimmt Ausbreitendes wäre, als ob es ein in der Zeit Schwimmendes wäre, wenn man so etwas schildert, was man dann nennt physische Welt, ätherische Welt, so schildert man eigentlich immer die Offenbarung. Man schildert eigentlich so, wie man, wenn irgendwo in der Ferne ein Mückenschwarm ist, nicht die einzelnen Mücken unterscheidet, sondern nur einen grauen Fleck in der Luft sieht: man malt dann einen grauen Fleck, weil man auch nur einen solchen sieht. So ist ein solcher grauer Fleck in der eigentlichen Welt das, was man zuerst nennt Ätherleib, astralischer Leib. Sind solche grauen Flecke in der physischen Luft und schaut man dann näher hin, geht man näher heran, so entdeckt man die einzelnen wesenhaften Mücken. Schaut man näher zu bei diesen geistigen grauen Flecken, Ätherleib, astralischer Leib, dann entdeckt man immer Wesenheiten.
Wesenheiten, das ist dasjenige, wozu man zuletzt bei aller Welterklärung kommen muß. Denn Wesenheiten sind einzig und allein das Reale. Es entsteht irgend etwas nur durch das Zusammenwirken von Wesenheiten, wodurch dann dem undeutlichen Gesichte sich eben dasjenige ergibt, was nicht wirklich ist. Wie da in der grauen Wolke, die ja nicht wirklich ist, die Mücken wirklich die einzelnen Wesenheiten sind, so sind überall in der Welt die einzelnen Wesenheiten das Wirksame, und das andere ist nur ein Schein, der aus dem Zusammensein der Wesenheiten entsteht. Auch die physische Materie ist ein solcher Schein. In Wahrheit liegt allem Wesenhaftes zugrunde. Das muß der Mensch wiederum einsehen, damit er nicht von dem spricht, was gar nicht da ist, von Materie, oder auch, was nicht besser ist, vom Geist im allgemeinen, sondern damit er sprechen lernt von Wesenheiten, von individuellen Wesenheiten des Weltenalls.
Man hat einstmals in den alten Mysterien verstanden, von Wesenheiten des Weltenalls zu sprechen. Und man hat schon einmal gewußt, daß Materie sowohl wie dasjenige, was man im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein als Geist bezeichnet, was aber nur ein graues Geistiges ist, das in allen Dingen pantheistisch darin sein soll, dies nicht etwas ist, womit man Realitäten bezeichnet, sondern daß man, wenn man Realitäten haben will, die einzelnen wesenhaften Dinge haben muß. Nur ist das Bewußtsein von diesen Wesenheiten allmählich verlorengegangen; verlorengegangen in dem Maße, als sich im Menschen selber dieses Wesenhafte immer mehr und mehr herausgebildet hat. Es ist durchaus so, daß in der neueren Zeit, beginnend mit dem ersten Drittel des 15. Jahrhunderts - ich habe diesen Zeitpunkt oft erwähnt - der Mensch immer intellektueller wird. Dasjenige, was er von sich weiß, wird immer abstrakter. Aber hinter diesem abstrakteren Leben steckt eine immer mehr in sich lebende Wesenhaftigkeit, die in sich immer voller wird an innerer Geistigkeit. Und der Mensch hat das traumhafte Bewußtsein verloren, das er einmal hatte von den Wesenhaftigkeiten im Kosmos, gerade indem er immer mehr und mehr eine sich erfassende Wesenhaftigkeit wurde. Er muß wiederum die Anschauung gewinnen, daß nur da Realitäten sind, wo individuelle Wesenheiten aufgezeigt werden können im Kosmos. Das war der notwendige Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung, daß man in alten Zeiten überall Wesenhaftes gesehen hat, aber das war eben ein Traumbewußtsein. Dann ist die Zeit gekommen, wo man gewissermaßen die Sache so empfunden hat, als ob all dieses Wesenhafte, all das, was im Kosmos lebt als das Wesenhafte, Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai, Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi, Menschen-Iche, tierische Gruppenseelen, pflanzliche kosmische Seelen und so weiter, die Realitäten sind. Nicht einmal die Tiere, wie sie auf der Erde leben, sind Realitäten, sie sind auch nur Schein; die Realitäten sind die Gruppenseelen. Die ganze Pflanzenwelt der Erde ist keine Realität, sondern die Erdenseele ist die Realität. Pflanzen sind ja nur wie die Haare auf dem Erdenorganismus, gleich den Haaren auf unserem eigenen Organismus. Aber indem man einmal gewußt hat, alle diese Wesenheiten, die ich eben genannt habe, sind - sich hinstrahlend, offenbarend, sich aussprechend - im Weltenall vorhanden, wußte man: Das Sich-Aussprechen kommt aus ihrer Wesenheit. Jenes allgemeine Erklingen, das aus dem Zusammenfluß dessen entsteht, wenn sich die einzelnen Wesenheiten aussprechen, das ist der Logos. Aber der Logos, er ist auch zunächst nur ein Schein gewesen. Nur dadurch, daß ihn der Christus zusammengefaßt hat, diesen Schein gewissermaßen in seiner eigenen Wesenheit verdichtet hat, ist durch das Mysterium von Golgatha der Scheinlogos als wirklicher Logos auf der Erde geboren worden.
So muß man diesen Zusammenhang durchschauen. Man kann dann die einzelnen Wesenheiten geistig beschreiben, wie sie mild phosphoreszierend leuchten und tönen, wie sie Wärmeströmungen verbreiten, wie sie sich aussprechen. Das ergibt für jedes einzelne Wesen eine volle geistige Gestaltung. Und diese vollen geistigen Gestaltungen sind das einzig Wirkliche im Weltenall. Viel hat man im alten traumhaften Bewußtsein von diesen einzigen Wirklichkeiten im Weltenall gewußt. Aber, ich möchte sagen, es schrumpfte immer mehr und mehr dieses Wissen zusammen. Man wußte einmal: So strahlt eine gewisse Wesenheit Form, die man zu den Kyriotetes zählt, so strahlen menschliche Iche, so strahlen Angeloi und so weiter. Aber man konnte immer weniger und weniger schauen von den Realitäten, das alles schrumpfte immer mehr wie in einem Punkte zusammen. Man wußte ursprünglich ganz gut, wie sich die Offenbarungen der Exusiai zum Beispiel von den Offenbarungen der Menschen-Iche unterschieden, wiederum die Offenbarungen der Menschen-Iche von den Offenbarungen der tierischen Gruppenseelen oder der pflanzlichen Erdenseele. Man wußte die Unterschiede, allmählich aber breitete sich Unbewußtheit über diese Unterschiede aus. Und es gab eine Zeit, in der nur mehr das Bewußtsein vorhanden war: Ja, es gibt solche Realitäten, alles andere ist nicht real. Raum ist nicht real, Zeit ist nicht real, Materie ist nicht real, auch die allgemeine Geistigkeit ist nicht real, sondern Weltenindividualitäten sind real. Aber man konnte sie nicht mehr voneinander unterscheiden. Da bezeichnete man sie mit einem gleichförmigen Worte, mit dem gleichförmigen Worte Monade. So war. es bei Leibniz, bei Giordano Bruno. Sie sprachen von Monaden. Diese Monaden waren, bis ins Winzige zusammengeschrumpft, jene Realitäten, von denen ich eben sprach. Und man unterschied die eine Monade von der andern höchstens noch in dem Attribut, das man hinzufügte zu dem Worte Monas: die Monade der Exusiai, die Monade der Menschen, die Monade der Tiere und so weiter.
Und endlich haben die Menschen auch die Möglichkeit verloren, von den Monaden zu sprechen, denen zunächst der große deutsche Denker eine vorstellende Kraft zugeschrieben hatte, weil er eine Ahnung hatte davon, daß eben Geistiges lebt in dem, was zur Monade zusammengeschrumpft war. Wir müssen uns nicht nur erinnern, daß die Monade ein Lebendiges ist. Soll die Menschheitszivilisation nicht verfallen, sondern sich immer weiter entwickeln, müssen wir uns nicht nur an die Monade erinnern, wir müssen wiederum verstehen, und zwar jetzt mit einem erhöhten, klaren Bewußtsein, wie alle wirklichen Realitäten geistig-seelische, lebendige Wesenhaftigkeiten sind. Da aber muß das, was zuerst wie mit ein paar Linien hingezeichnet wird — physischer Leib, Ätherleib, astralischer Leib -, in der Weise belebt werden, wie wir das heute getan haben.
Und man gelangt dazu, gewissermaßen das menschliche GeistigSeelische verwoben zu sehen in die Wesenhaftigkeiten der zweiten Hierarchie. Aber indem man dann verfolgt, wie der Mensch von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben geht, wie eine ausgleichende kosmische Gerechtigkeit, ein Karma wirkt von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben, wie das zu gleicher Zeit entspricht einer gewissen Wirksamkeit im Kosmos, gelangt man dazu, auch hier wiederum nicht bei der Abstraktion Karma, bei der Abstraktion Weltengerechtigkeit stehenzubleiben oder gar bei der Abstraktion moralische Weltenordnung, sondern man gelangt da auch zu Realitäten. Wie man, wenn man beim ätherischen Leibe zu beschreiben beginnt, hinaufkommt bis zur zweiten Hierarchie, damit aber zugleich den astralischen Leib des Menschen beschrieben hat, so kann man beim astralischen Leibe beginnen, kann im astralischen Leibe Denken, Fühlen, Wollen, die da verglimmen mit dem Einschlafen, die mit dem astralischen Leibe hinausgehen, gewissermaßen auffangen. Fängt man da an, sucht man dafür die Realitäten, dann findet man: In unserem menschlichen Denken lebt eigentlich die Tätigkeit der Angeloi, in unserer menschlichen Sprache, die aus dem Gefühl entspringt, lebt, nächtlich schlafend für den Menschen, die Tätigkeit der Archangeloi, und in dem, was durch die menschlichen Bewegungen der Gliedmaßen, durch das Willensdurchsetzte im wachen Leben zur Offenbarung kommt, was ja auch im astralischen Leibe vor sich geht, lebt nächtlich, wenn der astralische Leib draußen ist, die Welt der Archai. Aber das, was da draußen lebt, diese übersinnlichen Tätigkeiten von Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi, die dann sich spiegeln beim wachenden Menschen im Wollen, Fühlen, Denken, die müssen zusammengestimmt werden mit Ätherleib und physischem Leib. Der physische Leib muß nun auch so gestaltet werden, daß er zum Denkorgan, zum Sprachorgan oder zum Bewegungsorganismus werden kann. Da sieht man, wie wieder die Tätigkeit der Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai in noch höhere Tätigkeit übergeht: in die Tätigkeit der Throne, welche die menschliche Willensbetätigung in Einklang bringen mit der Organisation des physischen Menschen, des Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßenmenschen. Wir kommen dann zur Hierarchie der Cherubim, welche in Einklang bringen die menschliche Sprachfähigkeit mit der Organisation desjenigen, was der Sprache physisch zugrunde liegen kann. Im Sprach- und Gesangsorganismus, überhaupt in alledem, was Organismus ist für Sprache oder Sprachähnliches im Menschen, da bringen das menschliche Gefühlsleben mit der Sprachorganisation in Einklang die Cherubim. Alles dasjenige, was nun Denkfähigkeit ist, das muß auch sein physisches Organ haben im Nerven-Sinnesmenschen: das Denken bringen in Einklang mit dem Nerven-Sinnesmenschen die Seraphim. Das Sprechen und alles, was mit dem Sprechen zusammenhängt, das wird mit Denken und Fühlen in Einklang gebracht von den Cherubim.
So sehen wir, wenn wir den dreigliedrigen Menschen haben, in der Nerven-Sinnesorganisation, in der Grundlage für das Denken die schaffenden Seraphim; in all dem, was der rhythmische Mensch ist, was als physischer Organismus in Einklang gebracht werden muß mit der Sprachfähigkeit, in all dem sehen wir die schaffenden Cherubim. In all dem, was in der Bewegung der menschlichen Glieder, in allen Willensbetätigungen zum Ausdruck kommt, dafür muß die innere Organisation des Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßenmenschen da sein; dieKonkordanz wird bewirkt von den Thronen. Wir sehen auch daraus, was physische Menschengestalt ist, wie sie in Schein sich auflöst. Die Realitäten stehen dahinter: die Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne. In die Tätigkeit der Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne sehen wir immer, wenn das menschliche Ich verwoben ist mit seiner Innentätigkeit, wenn der Mensch sich wachend bewegt, wachend spricht, wachend fühlt, wachend denkt.
Auf diese Weise können wir wiederum erneuerte Mysterienweisheit für den Menschen finden, jene Mysterienweisheit, die sozusagen wieder die Kunst handhabt, aus dem Worte den Geist herauszulösen, aus demjenigen, was zuerst nur mit Strichen skizziert werden kann als physischer Mensch, ätherischer Mensch, astralischer Mensch und Ich, Wesenhaftes zu finden. Wesenhaftes besteht immer in individuellen Geistwesenheiten, die erlebend in sich tragen das Seelische, die schaffen das sich Offenbarende, das Physische. Realitäten sind eigentlich nur seiende Geistindividualitäten. Daß sie sich äußern als Seelisches, das ist, weil sie sich innerlich und gegenseitig sich anregend erleben. Daß es eine physische Welt gibt, das ist, weil diese Geistindividualitäten, die zu den Monaden verabstrahiert worden und dann ganz aus dem Gesichtskreise der Menschen verschwunden sind, je nach ihren verschiedenen Daseinsstufen sich schaffend offenbaren. Hier können wir zurückgehen von der geschaffenen Welt, die eigentlich nichts anderes ist als das äußere Scheinen schaffender Wesenheiten, zu der sich erlebenden Welt, zur seelischen Welt, die aber die sich erlebende Welt geistiger Individualitäten ist. Dann kommen wir, wenn wir selbst zur wahren Wirklichkeit zurückgehen, zu den Geistindividualitäten selber, deren Ausdruck und Leben die Welt ist. Indem der Mensch auf der Erde steht, lebt er immer in den Offenbarungen der geistigen Individualitäten. Zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt muß er ansichtig werden und voll durchgehen durch die eigene Gestalt der Geistindividualitäten. Und er muß sich zu seiner Vollkommenheit in seiner Gesamtentwickelung dadurch hindurchringen, daß er aus dem Ansichtigsein der Gestalt der Geistrealitäten übergeht in die Erdengestaltung, in der er nicht ansichtig ist der Geistindividualitäten, in der sich die Geistindividualitäten gewissermaßen nur von außen in ihrer Umkleidung zeigen.
Aber der Mensch muß, wenn das Erdenleben nicht in die völlige Verkommenheit verfallen soll, wiederum lernen, aus der äußeren Umkleidung die innere Geistindividualität der höheren Welt zu erschauen, zu erkennen, zu verstehen. Dann wird der Mensch sehen, wie sein ganzes Leben besteht aus einem Ringen innerhalb der Umkleidungen des Göttlichen und einem Leben innerhalb des Wesens des Göttlichen. Aber er kann nur erlangen ein richtiges Darinnenstehen im Wesen des Göttlichen, wenn er sein eigenes Wesen immer mehr und mehr ausbildet im Ansichtigwerden auch der äußeren Umkleidung. Lernen muß er aber auch, durch die Umkleidung hindurchzudringen zu den Wesen. Nicht stehenbleiben darf er bei der äußeren Schilderung, sondern vordringen muß er zum inneren Leben.
Wenn solches von einer größeren Anzahl von Menschen einmal angestrebt werden wird, dann wird die Morgenröte da sein für eine künftige Erdenentwickelung, auch zur Neugestaltung des Erdendaseins, zu Jupiter-, Venus-, Vulkangestaltung. Die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft muß Menschen vereinigen, die sich heute als den Kern von dem fühlen, was immer weitere und weitere Kreise ziehen muß in der Zivilisation der Menschheit, damit die Fortschrittsentwickelung der Menschheit wirklich geschehen könne und das Erdenleben nicht verfalle.
The Individualized Logos and the Art of Extracting the Spirit from Words
On the anthroposophical ground of the present, it must come about that we once again develop the art that was one of the arts of the ancient mysteries, those mysteries which were based on a completely different kind of human knowledge than we have today, but which in their customs, in the basis of their entire way of acting, had much that has been lost to humanity and must be renewed. The art I mean by these words can be described in the spirit of the ancient mysteries by saying: Spirit must be extracted from words. In the ancient mysteries, however, when one said “word” or “logos,” one meant something much more important than what we mean today when we use the word “word.” But we must learn to connect the things and processes of the world with a deeper and ever deeper meaning, and thus also with the sentence: We must once again bring forth the spirit from the words. Let us consider this today with a very specific example.
It is basically something extremely abstract to say that human beings consist of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, the I, and so on. That is why attempts have been made on various occasions to characterize what is actually meant by these individual elements of the human being. But one can always go further with such characterizations, becoming more and more spiritual. And in this way, let us today try to grasp the human etheric body with the soul's eye in such a way that we characterize what is revealed to supersensible vision about the essence of this human etheric body. We must not stop at the vague idea that arises, for example, from characterizing the relationship of this etheric body to the physical body in its different substantial nature, or something similar. All these are approximations to reality, and only when one pushes these approximations further and further does one come to penetrate the true essence of such a thing.
Now we all know that when a person passes into the sleeping state within their earthly reality, the etheric body also remains within the physical body and that, as we have always characterized it, the astral body and the I emerge from this physical body and the etheric body. At the present stage of their cosmic development, this astral body and the I are, I would say, still so weak that they cannot have conscious experiences between falling asleep and waking up. We have already spoken frequently and in some detail about the nature of these unconscious experiences that the astral body and the ego have between falling asleep and waking up.
Today, however, we want to turn our gaze back to what remains, so to speak, in bed when a person sleeps, and look in particular at the etheric body, treating the word “etheric body” in such a way that we extract the spirit from it using the art I just mentioned that was practiced in the ancient mysteries. It is really a matter of grasping this etheric body with the soul's eye and saying what actually reveals itself to supersensible perception as the essence of this etheric body when a person is asleep. As we fall asleep, we see the physical body coming more and more to rest; we see how, during the state of sleep, the human being loses the ability to move his limbs. But we also see how they lose the ability to send their will through their inner physical structure in such a way that their senses must be active. The relationship between the external world and the senses does not change, but the relationship between the senses and the external world changes in that the human being becomes, in a sense, as calm inwardly as they become outwardly calm in relation to their arms and legs, so that the will is not sent through the sense organs and the sense organs do not respond to the external world with those subtle movements that must be present for sense perceptions to occur. But it is a complete mistake to believe that the sense organs themselves, or rather the space in which the sense organs are spread out, are filled with inactivity during sleep. The physical body remains calm in its entire extension, but the etheric body of the human being becomes all the more active, all the more internally mobile between falling asleep and waking up. It is precisely characteristic that, to the same extent that the activity of the physical body calms down during falling asleep and after it, an ever more active activity of the etheric body begins with sleep. And this activity and liveliness of the etheric body radiates in particular from the senses. So that one can say: if one directs one's supersensible gaze, one's supersensible observation, toward the sleeping human being, that is, toward that part of the human being which is present in the physical shell, then one finds that a continuous activity and liveliness radiates inward from the places where the sense organs are located. And this activity and liveliness is the life of the etheric body or life body during sleep.
For example, one sees how, as one falls asleep, a special activity begins at the location of the human eyes. It is as if, through the effects of light during waking, the eye fills with forces for an activity that only unfolds with the onset of sleep. And this activity is precisely an etheric one. To the same extent that the effects of light and color from outside darken in the eye, the eyes themselves begin to radiate etherically like two phosphorescent suns through the inner being of the physical part of the sleeping person. A phosphorescent glow illuminates the inner space of the human being. You need not be surprised that this phosphorescent glow, which shines within the human being, cannot be seen in the ordinary way. For it is understandable that the eyes of another human being cannot see what glows within during sleep, because the human being, through his entire organization, is opaque to the physical eye and belongs to the opaque bodies. What goes on inside cannot be seen with the outer physical eyes. But inside the physical body there is initially no organ that could directly see this glowing, phosphorescent light.
We have thus characterized one of the inner activities and movements of the etheric body in humans during sleep. Another activity flows into this activity. In fact, what the human being can still feel as they fall asleep—a certain humming and chirping, a flowing noise from their inner organization—continues during the state of sleep in an extraordinarily melodious and harmonious musical activity that also permeates the entire inner being of the human being during sleep. This musical activity lasts from falling asleep until waking up. And the members of the being that are outside the physical and etheric bodies, the I and the astral body, are strongly impressed by what they have left behind in bed as the sounding, ringing etheric body, which, however, shines at the same time as it sounds and rings. Only what is exerted as an impression on the I and the astral body remains in the unconscious at first.
Similarly, etheric heat currents are radiated inward from the entire surface of the skin. Together with many other things that lie further away from what is perceived in the outer world as heat, light, and sounds, and which are therefore difficult to characterize, all this results in an immensely beautiful, magnificent, powerful inner rain and movement and flooding of the etheric human body. It is as if, for inner reasons—which are none other than the human essence itself, its existence—the etheric body of the human being rises out of the universe, rising, I might say, like an island out of the general ether of the cosmos: this particular sound and glow and flooding in heat currents of the individual etheric body of the human being. And it is this warming flooding, this phosphorescent shining, this musical sounding, which, a few days after the death of the human being as an etheric body, detach themselves from the astral body and the I and flood out, stream out into the general ether of the universal, the cosmic.
Perhaps some of you have noticed how, when a person wakes up in the morning and has been to a concert in the evening that made a vivid impression on them, waking up seems as if the soul is rising out of the repeated experience of the music heard at the concert. It is as if the soul had gone through the whole concert again during sleep. However, the process is more complicated than it appears to ordinary consciousness. For in truth, the soul rises from the impressions of that world music which is individualized in the human etheric body. But when the human being returns to his etheric body and everything I have described to you about this etheric body is drowned out by the impressionability of the physical body, the human soul translates what is individualized cosmic music into the earthly sounds last heard. These are, so to speak, the garment that this cosmic music puts on at the moment of awakening, because this cosmic music has a certain affinity with the flowing sound masses of the concert heard. Because human beings in their ordinary consciousness are incapable of perceiving cosmic music, this cosmic music clothes itself in what is most comparable to it in earthly life: the sound masses heard in a concert. This is the real experience underlying a phenomenon that most of you have probably had at some time.
So you see how complex the human etheric body actually is. And when one tries to penetrate further with the means available to enter such worlds, one realizes that this warming stream, this phosphorescent, mild glow, this fluctuating music is the outer manifestation of ruling world beings. Actually, everything I have described to you is, in turn, the outer garment, the outer manifestation, the appearance of ruling world beings. And these ruling world beings reveal themselves as those we know from anthroposophical literature as the Exusiai. I have therefore often called these Exusiai revelations, because their inner essence lives in that which shines from the human sense organs toward the inner being of the human being during the earthly state of sleep. In this shining, the life and weaving of those beings of the higher hierarchies whom we call the Exusiai are revealed.
Now, however, using the same means by which we observe these revelations of the human senses, which become so active in their etheric substance during sleep, we can further pursue how this inward shining and streaming continues to work inwardly. Just as in the waking state one says to oneself: You see some shining object; one then follows, as it were, the line from the eye to this shining object, and the shining object is found somewhere along the way outside, which forms the line of sight of the eye, i.e., of the sense organ—so one can follow, but now inwardly, that which flows, floods, and radiates etherically from the senses inward. One will not have to travel very far, only short distances, and one will very soon encounter another. The phosphorescent, mild glow emanating from the eyes, the musical effect that arises locally from the organs of hearing, the flowing warmth that goes inward from the entire surface of the skin—all of this very soon passes into an organically closed etheric system. While observing the waking human being, one sees the etheric body in activity — the entire physical body of the human being as well, but in a somewhat different activity than I have described for sleep; one then sees this activity extending a little beyond the physical body of the human being — one now sees, as it were, that which flows, undulates, and radiates inward from the senses and from the entire skin, formed for a certain distance like a kind of shell-like replica of the human being, extending inward. One sees a phosphorescent glow emanating inward from the eyes, which then transitions into something else, which I will describe in a moment. One sees the warming flow going inward from the skin, a kind of shell that is modeled after the human physical organism, which reaches a certain density but then transitions into a kind of etheric organization that is, in its substantial content, mixed together, composed of musical activity, phosphorescent light, and heat currents. All this and much else flows together, influences each other, forms a kind of organization, which is precisely the etheric organization of the human being. And when one now grasps this etheric organization of the human being with the mind's eye, when one begins to understand it after all this, as it reveals itself, then one cannot address it in any other way than to say: it consists of nothing but thought forms, of flowing thoughts. What flows there is thought in every point. If one were to follow this constantly fluctuating inner activity of the sleeping etheric body at any moment and then record it in an instant, one would naturally draw lines or color forms, but if one were to characterize the substance of these lines or color forms, one could only say: It is as if thoughts were beginning to flow. — It is the same thing that otherwise lives in thought activity, but here it becomes a flowing, a wave, a fluctuation. It is the individualized thought formation of the cosmos. This individualized thought formation of the cosmos reveals itself as the individualized Logos. For in fact, one cannot even say: What flows and weaves within the human being as thought formation, as an inner connection to these inwardly radiating and flowing sense movements, is merely flowing thought — but rather, it speaks, speaks indeed, a silent language, but one that is perceptible to the inner being of the human being, speaks truly — as all things speak to us through the Logos — in an individual form, expressing the essence of the human being in an inner word that can be perceived spiritually. |
So when we go deeper inward from the senses, the human language turned inward appears to us, so to speak. Yes, it is quite true to say that I and the astral body of the human being, which are outside the physical and etheric bodies from the moment of falling asleep until the moment of waking up, remain unconscious to ordinary consciousness, but they nevertheless experience what is happening. And just as they experience the etheric activity of the senses during sleep as an inward flow and radiation, so this I and this astral body experience the etheric body during the sleeping state of the human being as an individualized Logos, like a language turned inward. It is as if the language that otherwise radiates outward to the ears of our fellow human beings had been transformed etherically during sleep and turned inward, and as if we were repeating inwardly, in reverse order—beginning with the evening and ending with the morning—everything we had spoken during the day from waking up to falling asleep. We speak inwardly in a silent language, repeating everything we have said from morning to evening, but in such a way that we reveal our entire soul in this inwardly turned language. So insofar as the essence of the human being is experienced in what the human being speaks from morning to evening, what is experienced in speech is realized inwardly from evening to morning in the sounding, speaking Logos, that sounding, speaking, individualized Logos, which, however, at the same time, as it writes itself temporally into the etheric, expresses in that glowing, mildly phosphorescent light the occult writing for all that comes to effect inwardly during the night as the other side of what is spoken during the day — indeed, during sleep: it is just as when a person takes a nap during the day, only that things then live out more fragmentarily.
And if, using the same means by which the inner weaving of the individualized Logos reveals itself, we now investigate what is actually there, what it initially manifests in an appearance that is, after all, external to the actual essence of the world, if we examine further what the essential nature is, then we arrive at the following conclusion: This is the sum of those hierarchies that we have described in anthroposophical literature as the dynamis that stands above the exusiai.
And thirdly, when one tries to develop the art of seeking the essences from the words, one finds the essences for what I once described as a kind of counter-spine. Some of you may remember how I described the human etheric body many years ago. Already in Lucifer-Gnosis, in the articles that describe the nature of the human being, it is described how the currents that generally lie in the etheric body also arise in their interaction in such a structure that lies at the front of the human being, just as in the physical body the bone formations of the spine with the spinal canal lie at the back. In the physical body, we have this vertically running spine with the spinal canal, and in the etheric body, we have a convergence, a radiating together of what I have just described to you in a kind of counter-spine, which, however, when one considers the physical body, lies at the front of the human being. And just as the nerve strands, but also, for example, the rib bones, emerge from the physical spine, so the aforementioned radiations and currents run in the etheric body in such a way that they do not emerge from this counter-spine, but rather converge in it, so to speak, and interact with everything they have on the front side of the human etheric body. This results in an extraordinarily beautiful, magnificent, powerful etheric organ, which, however, consists in particular of a glittering, luminous, sounding entity that discharges itself in all kinds of warming effects, but also speaks inwardly, and reveals itself in particular during the human state of sleep. And if you look more closely, you can actually see how this organ permeates what I once characterized as individual lotus flowers, because such things must be described with complete visual imagery. So you can see how, through this organ, which flows out of the etheric body and then forms the lotus flowers with the currents of the astral body, how through this organ the human being finds his connection to the outer astral, cosmic world.
And again, this is a kind of revelation. But again, it is something that can be addressed as an outer appearance, for which one must seek the inner essence. And if one seeks this inner essence, one finds it in the hierarchy that I have called the Kyriotetes in anthroposophical literature. Only now have you extracted from the word ether body what the ether body of the human being actually is in its essence. Br is a cooperation, a confluence, a weaving together of the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, which individualize their flowing, flooding, sounding, speaking activity and form the human ether body.
But when we look at what Kyriotetes, Dynamis, and Exusiai form in such a way that, shining into the human physical body in their individualization, warming, sounding, and speaking into it, they form the human etheric body, then we have already arrived at the astral body of the human being. For in this stirring activity, in this individualizing activity of the second hierarchy, which flows out of the cosmos but individualizes itself in the human being, there is contained that which is the human astral body. This activity shows itself in the etheric body; it is in the astral body.
And now consider all this activity in which the human being is woven during sleep. During sleep, the human being is unconsciously woven into this activity of the second hierarchy, and the human being needs all this activity when he has passed through the gate of death. For in this activity he must continue to live between death and a new birth, when he has cast off the etheric body as such, when after a few days the sounds, this musical activity, this mild phosphorescent glow, this warming stream has ebbed away. When this has flowed out into the universal cosmos a few days after death, when one has noticed the glow spreading further and further, but also becoming weaker and weaker, when one has noticed the music becoming quieter and quieter—I should actually speak differently: when speaking of these regions, it is natural to express a thing through its polar opposite; it would be better, because it corresponds more to what the dead person perceives, if I were to say: That which is at first like a silent sound, but which is perceptible to the inner human being, becomes louder and louder as it spreads, and it is then as if one — precisely because it is becoming louder, which one can no longer hear as a spiritual-soul being, but which is dead to the earth because one does not have physical ears, there would have to be physical ears — hears the ever-increasing loudness as a fading of the inner etheric music.
It is similar with the other thing that human beings experience immediately after death in the first few days. But then they feel themselves in their astral body. But that is again only the outer side, so to speak: human beings find themselves in the soul world, as I have described in Theosophy. But what I have described there, which initially gives the impression of the next soul organ accessible to human beings, reveals itself to the universal, cosmic intelligence developing in the cosmic realm as an activity of the beings of the second hierarchy, devouring and interweaving themselves.
And now notice how this being in the activity of these beings of the second hierarchy is actually at first after death. One lived on earth between birth and death, alternating between waking and sleeping. During waking hours, one was interwoven with all the activity in which the human soul lives, in exusiai, dynamis, kyriotetes. One was always compelled to immerse oneself in the forms of the physical body. During sleep, one lived with the etheric body, which also individualized all this activity into the forms of the human physical body. But this activity in which one was interwoven also took on for this second hierarchy everything that was moral in the human being: the extent to which he was good or evil, the extent to which he was devoted to error or truth. The activities appropriate to the beings of the second hierarchy are individualized according to what the human being is as a good or evil earthly human being, as an earthly human being living in truth or error. And one must first judge according to what the beings of this second hierarchy want to do for the essence of the human being out of their own being.
To put it bluntly, one must take the following into account. Suppose you are connected to some being from the hierarchy of the dynamis. By virtue of this connection, you develop the ability to speak in the human organism through the mediation of an archangelic being. But in developing this ability, the activities of the dynamis are, in a sense, distorted and also distorted into trivialities. And when human beings use their words to say evil and hateful things, these activities of the second higher hierarchy become greatly distorted. And all of this must be restored. All this must become such that human beings do not continue to live in the forms they have given to all that I have described through their moral or immoral nature, but that they cast all this off and find their way into the activity and liveliness that is characteristic of the beings of the second hierarchy. This stripping away of the distortions, the belittlements, this stripping away of the perversions of the activities of the second hierarchy, which have gone in the opposite direction, is brought about by everything I have described as the passage of the human being through the soul world. And then the human being has ascended to what I have described in “Theosophy” as the spirit realm, when the human being can follow with his own I-existence, with his innermost spiritual-soul existence, the activities that correspond to the essence of dynamis and kyriotetes.
Here you have once again described and characterized the essence of the human being with the art of seeking out the essential from words. In this way, one approaches more and more a view of the essence of the human being. It is just as if one were to sketch the distribution of the figures in a Madonna painting by Raphael, the Sistine Madonna for example, with the words physical body, etheric body, astral body, and I, we describe what is in reality a fully fulfilled inner activity and movement, within which the entities of the cosmos, the physical, soul, and spiritual cosmos, reveal themselves. In the end, one always arrives at the essential. When one describes something as if it were spreading out spatially in an undefined manner, as if it were floating in time, when one describes something that one then calls the physical world or the etheric world, one is actually always describing revelation. One actually describes it in the same way as when there is a swarm of mosquitoes somewhere in the distance and one does not distinguish the individual mosquitoes, but only sees a gray spot in the air: one then paints a gray spot because that is all one sees. So such a gray spot in the actual world is what we first call the etheric body, the astral body. If such gray spots are in the physical air and you look closer, you discover the individual mosquitoes. If you look closer at these spiritual gray spots, the etheric body, the astral body, you always discover beings.
Entities are what we must ultimately arrive at in any explanation of the world. For entities are the only thing that is real. Something only comes into being through the interaction of entities, whereby that which is not real appears to the indistinct vision. Just as in the gray cloud, which is not really there, the mosquitoes are really the individual entities, so everywhere in the world the individual entities are the active forces, and the rest is only an appearance that arises from the coexistence of the entities. Physical matter is also such an appearance. In truth, all that is essential lies at the foundation of everything. Man must realize this again so that he does not speak of what is not there at all, of matter, or, which is no better, of spirit in general, but so that he learns to speak of entities, of individual entities of the universe.
In the ancient mysteries, people once understood how to speak of entities of the universe. And it was once known that matter, as well as what is called spirit in ordinary consciousness, which is only a gray spirituality that is supposed to be pantheistically present in all things, is not something with which realities can be designated, but that if one wants to have realities, one must have individual essential things. But the awareness of these entities has gradually been lost, lost to the extent that this essential nature has become more and more developed in human beings themselves. It is certainly true that in recent times, beginning with the first third of the 15th century—I have often mentioned this date—human beings have become increasingly intellectual. What they know about themselves becomes increasingly abstract. But behind this more abstract life lies an increasingly self-contained essence that becomes ever fuller of inner spirituality. And human beings have lost the dreamlike consciousness they once had of the essences in the cosmos, precisely because they have become more and more a comprehensible essence themselves. They must regain the insight that realities exist only where individual beings can be revealed in the cosmos. It was a necessary stage in human development that in ancient times people saw beings everywhere, but that was just a dream consciousness. Then the time came when people felt, as it were, that all these essential beings, everything that lives in the cosmos as essential beings, Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai, Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi, human I-ness, animal group souls, plant cosmic souls, and so on, are realities. Not even the animals that live on Earth are realities; they are also only appearances; the realities are the group souls. The entire plant world of the Earth is not a reality; rather, the Earth soul is the reality. Plants are only like the hairs on the Earth organism, like the hairs on our own organism. But once one knew that all these beings I have just mentioned exist in the universe, radiating, revealing themselves, expressing themselves, one knew that their expression comes from their essence. That general sound that arises from the confluence of the individual beings expressing themselves is the Logos. But the Logos was also initially only an appearance. Only through Christ's gathering it together, condensing this appearance, as it were, in his own essence, was the apparent Logos born on earth as the real Logos through the mystery of Golgotha.
This is how one must understand this connection. One can then describe the individual beings spiritually, how they glow and sound with a mild phosphorescence, how they spread streams of warmth, how they express themselves. This results in a complete spiritual form for each individual being. And these complete spiritual forms are the only reality in the universe. Much was known in the old dreamlike consciousness about these only realities in the universe. But, I would say, this knowledge shrank more and more. It was once known that a certain entity, which is counted among the Kyriotetes, radiates in a certain way, that human egos radiate in a certain way, that Angeloi radiate in a certain way, and so on. But one was able to see less and less of these realities; everything shrank more and more, as if into a single point. Originally, one knew quite well how the revelations of the Exusiai differed, for example, from the revelations of the human I, and how the revelations of the human I differed from the revelations of the animal group souls or the plant earth soul. One knew the differences, but gradually unconsciousness spread over these differences. And there was a time when only consciousness remained: Yes, such realities exist, everything else is not real. Space is not real, time is not real, matter is not real, even general spirituality is not real, but world individualities are real. But it was no longer possible to distinguish them from one another. So they were designated with a uniform word, with the uniform word “monad.” This was the case with Leibniz and Giordano Bruno. They spoke of monads. These monads, shrunk down to the tiniest size, were the realities I just mentioned. And the only way to tell one monad from another was by adding an attribute to the word monad: the monad of the Exusiai, the monad of humans, the monad of animals, and so on.
And finally, people also lost the ability to speak of monads, to which the great German thinker had initially attributed a power of imagination because he had an inkling that something spiritual lives in what had shrunk to a monad. We must not only remember that the monad is a living thing. If human civilization is not to decay but continue to develop, we must not only remember the monad, we must also understand, now with a heightened, clear consciousness, how all real realities are spiritual-soul, living essences. But what is first sketched out with a few lines — the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body — must be enlivened in the way we have done today.
And one comes to see, as it were, the human spiritual-soul nature woven into the essences of the second hierarchy. But then, by tracing how the human being passes from one earthly life to another, how a balancing cosmic justice, a karma, works from one earthly life to another, how this corresponds at the same time to a certain activity in the cosmos, one comes to the conclusion once again, one does not remain at the level of abstraction—karma, cosmic justice—or even at the level of moral world order, but one arrives at realities. Just as, when one begins to describe the etheric body, one ascends to the second hierarchy and thereby describes the astral body of the human being, so one can begin with the astral body and, in the astral body, catch, as it were, the thinking, feeling, and willing that fade away with falling asleep and leave the astral body. If you start there and look for the realities, you find that the activity of the angeloi actually lives in our human thinking, and the activity of the archangeloi lives in our human language, which springs from feeling and sleeps at night for the human being, and in what is revealed through the human movements of the limbs, through the will in waking life, which also takes place in the astral body, lives at night when the astral body is outside, the world of the Archai. But what lives out there, these supersensible activities of Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi, which are then reflected in the waking human being in willing, feeling, and thinking, must be harmonized with the etheric body and the physical body. The physical body must now also be formed in such a way that it can become an organ of thought, an organ of speech, or an organ of movement. Here we see how the activity of the Kyriotetes, Dynamis, and Exusiai again transitions into an even higher activity: into the activity of the Thrones, which harmonize the human exercise of will with the organization of the physical human being, the human being as a metabolic limb. We then come to the hierarchy of the cherubim, who harmonize human speech with the organization of that which can physically underlie speech. In the speech and singing organism, indeed in everything that is an organism for speech or speech-like phenomena in the human being, the cherubim harmonize human feeling life with speech organization. Everything that is thinking ability must also have its physical organ in the nerve-sense human being: the seraphim bring thinking into harmony with the nerve-sense human being. Speaking and everything connected with speaking is brought into harmony with thinking and feeling by the cherubim.
Thus, when we have the threefold human being, we see in the nerve-sense organization, in the foundation for thinking, the creative seraphim; in everything that is the rhythmic human being, which as a physical organism must be brought into harmony with the faculty of speech, we see the creative cherubim. In everything that is expressed in the movement of the human limbs, in all acts of the will, the inner organization of the metabolic-limb human being must be present; the concordance is brought about by the thrones. We also see from this what the physical human form is, how it dissolves into appearance. The realities stand behind it: the seraphim, cherubim, thrones. We always see the activity of the seraphim, cherubim, and thrones when the human I is interwoven with its inner activity, when the human being moves awake, speaks awake, feels awake, thinks awake.
In this way, we can find renewed mystery wisdom for human beings, the mystery wisdom that, so to speak, once again masters the art of extracting the spirit from the word, of finding the essential in what can initially only be sketched out in lines as the physical human being, the etheric human being, the astral human being, and the I. Essential beings always consist of individual spirit beings who carry within themselves the soul, which creates what is revealed, the physical. Realities are actually only existing spirit individualities. They express themselves as soul beings because they experience themselves internally and mutually stimulating each other. The physical world exists because these spiritual individuals, which have been abstracted into monads and then disappeared completely from human view, reveal themselves in creation according to their different stages of existence. Here we can go back from the created world, which is actually nothing other than the outer appearance of creative beings, to the world of experience, to the soul world, which is, however, the world of spiritual individualities. Then, when we ourselves return to true reality, we come to the spiritual individualities themselves, whose expression and life is the world. As long as human beings stand on earth, they always live in the revelations of spiritual individualities. Between death and a new birth, they must become aware of and pass completely through the own form of the spirit individualities. And he must struggle to attain perfection in his overall development by passing from seeing the form of spiritual realities to the earthly form, in which he does not see the spiritual individualities, in which the spiritual individualities show themselves, so to speak, only from the outside in their outer covering.
But if earthly life is not to fall into complete decay, human beings must learn once again to see, to recognize, and to understand the inner spiritual individuality of the higher world from the outer covering. Then human beings will see how their entire life consists of a struggle within the coverings of the divine and a life within the essence of the divine. But he can only attain a true standing within the essence of the divine if he develops his own essence more and more by also becoming aware of the outer covering. He must also learn to penetrate through the covering to the beings. He must not remain with the outer description, but must advance to the inner life.
When a large number of people strive for this, then the dawn will break for a future development of the earth, including the reformation of earthly existence into Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan forms. The Anthroposophical Society must unite people who today feel themselves to be the core of what must draw ever wider circles in human civilization, so that the progressive development of humanity can truly take place and earthly life does not fall into decay.