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Karmic Relationships II
GA 236

30 May 1924, Dornach

Lecture XV

Our study of karma can lead us only slowly and by degrees to an understanding of this fundamental and complicated law. To-day I should like, first of all, to repeat that in the elaboration of karma during the life stretching between death and a new birth there is co-operation primarily between those human beings who are living this life between death and a new birth. We work together with those with whom we are specially connected by karma. In the elaboration of karma during this life between death and a new birth, groups of human beings united by their karma work together and it can truly be said that in this purely spiritual life there are clear differentiations between the groups. This does not preclude the fact that we also form part of the whole of humanity in the life between death and a new birth, and still more do we form part of the life of those who are incarnate on the earth. The fact that we belong to a particular group of souls does not exclude us from forming part of humanity as one whole. And into all these groups and down into the destiny of each individual there flows the work of the Beings of the higher Hierarchies.

Those Beings of the higher Hierarchies who elaborate karma by the side of man during the life between death and a new birth, work also into the life we spend between birth and death, where karma works itself out in the moral sense, as destiny. And to-day we must find an answer to the question: In what way does the work of the Hierarchies influence human life?

Speaking now with the help of Initiation-Science, we shall admit that this is a deep and searching question. For you can understand from what I have told you in the course of recent lectures, that the phenomena of nature too are connected with the karma of mankind.

The man who directs his gaze to the whole flow of cosmic and human events and not alone to the immediate facts presented by the world of nature, perceives the connection between the events which take place among larger or smaller groups of men at one epoch and the facts of nature at another. There are occasions when we can observe events in nature breaking into the orbit of human life on earth. We witness devastating volcanic eruptions and we know what is brought about by natural influences during floods or suchlike phenomena.

If we regard such events as belonging merely to the natural order, we are confronted with something that is incomprehensible in its relation to the general impression we have of the world. For here we behold events that simply break into the cosmic order, events which are so envisaged by man that he gives up all hope of understanding them and accepts the distress they bring as a stroke of destiny. The investigations of spiritual science are able, however, to take us a little further, for they open up remarkable information precisely in connection with these elemental events in nature.

When we let our mind's eye scan the face of the earth, we find certain areas of the earth literally covered with volcanoes. We find that other parts of the earth are liable to earthquakes or other catastrophes. And if we examine the karmic connections of such events as these in the same way as we have examined them in recent lectures from the point of view of the history of certain personalities, then we arrive at very remarkable results. We find the following: Up above in the spiritual worlds, human souls are gathered together in groups according to their karma; they are elaborating their karma in conformity with their past and future existence. And we see one of these groups of human souls in their descent from pre-earthly into earthly existence wander to regions situated, for example, in the vicinity of volcanoes, or to districts where earthquakes are liable to occur, in order there to receive their destiny from the elemental phenomena of nature.1The Deed of Christ and the Opposing Spiritual Powers. Two Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, 1st Jan. and 22nd March, 1909. We even find that during this life between death and a new birth when man's conceptions and feelings are of quite a different nature, that such places are deliberately chosen by the souls thus karmically connected, in order that they may experience this very destiny. For a thought which finds little enough understanding in our souls on earth, such as the thought: “I choose a great disaster on earth in order to become more perfect, I choose it because I am still so far from fulfilling what lies in my past karma”—such a thought for which, as I have said, there is so little understanding in earthly life, can be present in the life between death, and a new birth, and has there an inherent value.

It can happen that we deliberately seek out a volcanic eruption, or an earthquake, in order to find in the path of disaster the path to perfection. Clear distinction must be made between these two completely different outlooks upon life,—one outlook being that of the spiritual world and the other of the physical world.

But in this connection there are other things to be considered. In the outer world, the everyday happenings of nature proceed with an ordered regularity inasmuch as the world of the stars is playing a part in them. For the world of stars with its mysteries works with a certain regularity. This above all is the case in connection with the sun and moon, indeed with all the stars with the outstanding exception of the enigmatic phenomena of meteorites and comets which burst in upon the regular, rhythmical order of the cosmos in a most mysterious way. But that which cuts across the regular course of natural existence in the way of thunderstorms, hailstorms and other climatological and meteorological events—all this interrupts the regular rhythm of natural happenings. We realise these things and, to begin with, resign ourselves to the outer course taken by natural phenomena. But later on, when a longing to understand spiritual things awakens within us, we listen to what is told us by Initiation-Science, namely that besides this outwardly visible world there is also the super-sensible world where dwell the Beings of the higher Hierarchies. And in our life between death and a new birth we enter the domain of these higher Hierarchies, just as in our life between birth and death we live among the three kingdoms of nature—the mineral, the plant and the animal kingdoms.

We listen to what is taught by Initiation-Science and try to envisage the existence of this second world, but we often stop short at the idea of the two worlds being there side by side, without connecting them together in our thought. We can form a true idea of the two worlds only when we are able to realise their existence simultaneously, and when with inner vision we can realise the way in which they work together and are interwoven. For this interworking must be known if we are to understand the shaping and forming of karma. In the life between death and a new birth, karma is prepared. But karma is worked out and elaborated on earth, too, with the help of the Beings of the higher Hierarchies who are also active during the life we lead between birth and death.

The question therefore arises: In what way do the higher Hierarchies work into earthly life?

In their work upon earthly life, these Beings of the higher Hierarchies make use of earthly processes. We shall best understand what this means if we look, to begin with, at all that is spread out before our senses, in the world of stars as well as in the physical world. Throughout our waking-day life, we see the sun up there in the heavens. Through the hours of the night we behold the radiance of the moon and of the stars. Think, my dear friends, of how we look out into the world, and how we allow what is above us, and what is around us in the kingdoms of nature, to work upon us. And let us remind ourselves that this world of the senses has in itself just as little meaning as a human corpse. The forces that are at work in the earth outside man are the forces that are in a corpse. But in a corpse we do not find the forces of the living man. In itself, the corpse is meaningless. It has significance only inasmuch as it is the remains of a living human being. It is not reasonable to imagine for a moment that a corpse could exist in itself as a collection of phenomena having an independent being of their own. A corpse can only reveal the form of something that is no longer visible. Just as one is led back from a corpse to a living human being, so too are we led by everything in the visible world of physical existence to the spiritual world. For this physical sense-existence has just as little meaning of its own as has a corpse.

Just as we are led in thought from the corpse to a living man, and say: This is the corpse of a living human being; so, in relation to nature, we say: This is the revelation of divine-spiritual powers.

No other way of thinking can be reasonable, indeed no other way is sound or healthy. To hold a different view would imply a morbid way of thinking.

But what is the nature of the spiritual world for which we are to look behind the physical world of sense? The spiritual world behind the physical world is the world of the Beings of the Second Hierarchy: Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. The Second Hierarchy is behind everything on which the sun sheds its light. And what is there in the whole compass of our sense-experience that is not lit up and kept alive by the sun? The sun is the source of the light and the life of everything.

These Beings of the Second Hierarchy have their chief dwelling place in the sun. From the sun they rule over the visible world which is their revelation. Thus we can say: There we have the earth, with the sun shining down upon it, and behind and through the workings of the sun weave the Beings of the Second Hierarchy: Exusiai, Kyriotetes, Dynamis.

Upon the rays of the sun which are the deeds of the Second Hierarchy are borne all the sense-impressions that come to our senses through the hours of waking-day consciousness.

And so we speak truly if we say: Within and through and behind the workings of the sun throughout our physical sense-existence is the super-sensible world of the Second Hierarchy.

Now there is another and different condition of our earthly existence. We spoke of this different condition in the last lecture from a certain point of view. We have the condition of sleep. How does this condition of sleep present itself in its cosmic counterpart? Let us consider it for a moment. When our physical and etheric bodies are there in the bed, and our astral body and ego outside, then out in the cosmos we have to think of the sun at a position where the earth must first let the rays of the sun pass through it before they reach us. Now in all the ancient Mysteries a certain teaching was given which, if fully understood, produced a profoundly moving impression in those who become pupils in the Mysteries and gradually mastered the Science of Initiation. They reached a certain stage of inner development which they might have described in the following way.—I am now telling you what might have been said by one of these ancient Initiates when he had attained to a certain degree of Initiation.—He would have spoken somewhat as follows: “When I stand in the open fields in the daytime, when I direct my gaze upwards and give myself up to the impressions of the senses, then I behold the sun; I see it in its dazzling strength at noontide and behind the dazzling strength of the noontide sun I behold the working of the spiritual Beings of the Second Hierarchy in the substance of the sun. Before my Initiation the substance of the sun vanished from me at the moment of its setting. The shining radiance of the sun vanished in the purples of sunset. Before my Initiation I went through the dark path of night, and in the morning, when the dawn came, I remembered this darkness. Out of the dawn the sun shone forth again and took its course onward towards the dazzling brightness of noon. But now, having attained to Initiation, when I experience the dawn and behold the sun as it passes from dawn on through its daily course, a memory of my life during the night-time awakens within me. I know what I have experienced in this night life, I remember clearly how I beheld a blue, glimmering light arise from the evening twilight and gradually spread, travelling from west to east. And I remember how I beheld the sun at the midnight hour, at the opposite point in the firmament to where it had stood in its noontide, dazzling strength; I saw it gleaming there behind the earth, full of deep and solemn meaning. I beheld the Midnight Sun!”

Such has actually been the monologue of Initiates in their meditation, and it faithfully expresses their experience. The Initiate is conscious of these things. And when we read Jacob Boehme's book entitled Aurora then we cannot help being deeply moved by the realisation that the words which are written in this book are echoes of a wonderful teaching of the ancient Mysteries.

What is the “Dawn” to Initiates? It is an instigation to cosmic remembrance, to remembrance of the vision of the Midnight Sun behind the earth. With our ordinary sight we see the radiant yellow-white disc of the sun at noon, but with the vision of Initiation we see the bluish-violet sun at the opposite point of the heavens. The earth appears as a transparent body, with the sun gleaming on the other side of it with a bluish-red light. But this bluish-red sheen is not what it seems. I must utter the paradox:—it is not what it seems. When we are gazing at the Midnight Sun it seems at first that we are looking at something hazy in the distance. And when we learn with the help of Initiation more and more clearly to see what at first appears as a blur in the distance, then the bluish-red light will begin to take shape and form; it will spread itself over the whole of the sky but still on the other side of the earth and covered by the earth. It becomes peopled. And just as when we go out of our house on a starlit night and look up at the majestic spectacle of the starry heavens with its sparkling points of light, perhaps with the moon in the centre, so to the gaze of Initiation a whole world becomes visible on the farther side of the earth which is now transparent. It is a world that emerges, as it were, out of the clouds, becoming a world of living forms. It is the world of the Second Hierarchy, of the Exusiai, Kyriotetes, Dynamis. There they appear, these Beings of the Second Hierarchy. And as we watch more and more closely, if we can attain the stillness of soul that is required, then something else happens. All this reveals itself after preparation and meditation and only becomes a conscious experience at dawn, as an after-memory, when it is immediately present with us, when we know we have actually beheld it during the night. What appears on yonder side of the earth is in reality the weaving world of the Beings of the Second Hierarchy. And from out of this weaving, living world of the Second Hierarchy there now radiates a world of other Beings—raying to us through the earth. It is a truly wonderful world of Beings that works thus through the earth at night, hovering there in the firmament, now approaching man, now drawing away, now approaching him again. We see how the line of the weaving Beings of the Second Hierarchy ever and again fades out, while another Hierarchy approaches man, now hovering towards him and now drawing away from him again. And by-and-by we learn to know what all this really means.

We have been conscious the whole day long and now we lie down in sleep. This means that the physical and etheric bodies are left to themselves, working in sleep as a plant and mineral world. But by day we have thoughts; all day long, ideas have been passing through our being. They have left their traces in our physical and etheric bodies. We should not be able to remember the experiences of our earthly existence at all if these traces which we subsequently use in our memories did not remain. There they remain, these traces, in what is left of man as he lies asleep at night—in that part of his being which he has left behind. A mysterious process takes place there, above all in the etheric body. All that man has thought during his waking life from morning till evening begins to move and ring on waves of sound. If you think of a certain region of the earth where men are sleeping, and think of all that weaves and works in the etheric bodies as an echo of all that these sleeping men have been thinking during the hours of their waking life, this will give you a picture of what has happened through the hours of the day.

And those Beings who hover over us, rising and descending, busy themselves through our hours of sleep with the traces that have remained in our etheric bodies. This becomes their field of action. It is an immediate experience in them and absorbs their attention. When this is revealed to us, we say with a sense of deep reverence: “Thou, 0 Man, hast left thy body. And as it lies there it bears within it the traces of the day's experiences. It is the field where live the fruits of thy thoughts and ideas during the day. The Beings of the Third Hierarchy, the Angels, Archangels and Archai, now enter this field. While thou hast left thy physical and etheric bodies, these Beings experience what thou hast thyself experienced from the thoughts and ideas of thy waking hours.”—Deep reverence fills us at the sight of some region of the earth where human bodies are left in sleep and whither the Angels, Archangels and Archai wend their way to all that unfolds as an echo of the life of day. And we here behold a wonderful life, born of all that is unfolded between the Beings of the Third Hierarchy and the traces of the thoughts we have left behind.

As we gaze at this field, we become aware how, as human beings, we have our place within the spiritual cosmos, and how, when we wake, we create work for the Angels during our hours of sleep. It is so indeed: during our waking hours we create work for the Angels during the time of sleep. And now we learn to understand something about our world of thought. We realise that the thoughts which pass through our heads contain the fruits of what we lay into our own physical and etheric bodies—fruits which Angels gather at night. For Angels gather these fruits and bear them out into the cosmos in order that they may find there their place in the cosmic Order.

One thing more we see as we behold these Beings of the Third Hierarchy—Angels, Archangels and Archai—coming forth from the Beings of the Second Hierarchy and their activity. We behold how behind this weaving, again Beings of sublime majesty and grandeur take part in the activity of the Second Hierarchy. We gaze at the Second Hierarchy, and we see how into this weaving life of the Second Hierarchy something else works from behind; and we soon become aware how this not only strikes, lightning-like, into the weaving and working of the Second Hierarchy, but striking right to the other side of the earth, it has to do, not with the part of man that is left on the earth, but with that other part of his being that has gone out, namely, the ego-organisation and astral body. And as we gaze at what has been left behind and behold it as a field where the fruits of thoughts throughout the day are being gathered by the Angels, Archangels and Archai for the purposes of cosmic activity, so too we see how the Beings of the Second Hierarchy, the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, uniting their activity with that of the First Hierarchy—the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones—concern themselves with the astral body and ego. And in his morning memory the Initiate says to himself: “I have lived from the time of falling asleep till the time of waking in my ego and astral body. I have felt myself enwrapped in all that the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones are unfolding, together with the Kyriotetes, Dynamis and Exusiai. Living in this world I gazed down at my physical body and my etheric body and hovering above them I perceived the Angels, Archangels and Archai, gathering the fruits of my thoughts. I felt myself one with the Beings of the First and Second Hierarchies, and I beheld the weaving and working of the Third Hierarchy in mighty spirit-clouds over my body.”

And so, my dear friends, in this way you can get a clear picture of how the Beings of the three Hierarchies appear to the imaginative vision of Initiation, how they appear there on the opposite side of the earth in the picture of the physical world, but only when this physical world is plunged in darkness.

Knowledge and vision of these sublime truths penetrated more and more deeply into the hearts and souls of those who in days long since gone by, partook in the ancient mysteries of Initiation.

And once again this knowledge can find its way into the hearts and souls of those who are led to the modern science of Initiation.

Let us picture this majestic imagination which arises before the soul. We can picture the human soul liberated from the body, free from its physical and etheric bodies, weaving in the streaming forces of the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, the Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai.

In the ancient Mystery rite this was wont to be presented to the uninitiated in plastic form and in colour. The purpose was to present in plastic form what the Initiate was able to see in such sublime grandeur on the other side of the earth. And, in order to show that this world is also the world where karma is elaborated in communion with the highest Beings, in front of the plastic form stood the highest Initiates, those who during earthly existence itself could already behold with that vision which otherwise comes to man only between death and a new birth. The highest Initiates stood in front of the plastic form and still another form was set up, with human figures all around it. There stood the lesser Initiates whose work upon their physical and etheric bodies was not yet complete. The spectacle thus placed before the eyes of men was a copy of what the Initiates beheld in the Mysteries. Such was the origin of the altar, where the ritual was enacted by the higher and lower grades of the priesthood as a copy of what is revealed in Initiation-Science.

In Roman Catholic Churches to-day, as you look from the nave towards the altar, you have a faint copy of what was once inaugurated by Initiation-Science. And you begin to understand the origin of the cult. A ritual is not invented, for if it is invented it is not a true ritual. True ritual is brought into existence as a copy of happenings in the spiritual world.

If I may give an example, let me speak of one part of that great and all-embracing cult which has found its place in the Christian Community, and with which the majority of you are already familiar. Let me remind you of the ritual for the burial of the dead, as it is given in our Christian Community.

Watch the order of this ritual. There rests the coffin, containing the mortal remains of the dead. And before the coffin a ritual is enacted. Prayer is uttered by the priest. Other things could be introduced to make the ceremony more complicated, but the help it can be to humanity can also be clothed in simplicity. What is this ceremony? Let us suppose, my dear friends, that here we have a mirror and here again some object. You see the reflection of the object in the mirror. You have the two things—the original and the reflection. Similarly, when a ritual for the dead is enacted, there are the two things. The ritual enacted by the priest before the coffin is a reflection. It is a reflection, and it would be no reality if it were not a reflection. What does it reflect? The acts of the priest as he stands before the dead body have their prototype in the super-sensible world. For while we celebrate the earthly rite before the physical body, and the etheric body is still present, on the other side the heavenly ritual is enacted by the Beings beyond the threshold of earthly existence. Over yonder, the soul and spirit are received by what we may call a ritual of welcome, just as here on earth we assemble before the dead for a ritual of farewell. A cult or ceremony is only true when it has its origin in reality.

Thus you see how the super-sensible life works into earthly life and permeates it. If we celebrate a true ritual for the dead, a super-sensible ritual is enacted simultaneously. The two work together. And if there is sanctity, truth and dignity in the prayers for the dead, then the prayers of the Beings of the Hierarchies in the super-sensible world echo in the prayers for the dead and weave in them. The spiritual world and the physical unite.

Thus in all things there is accordance between the spiritual world and the physical world. The spiritual and the physical world interplay in the very truest way when there comes into being on earth a copy of what is woven as karma in the super-sensible world between death and a new birth together with the Beings of the higher Hierarchies.

Sechzehnter Vortrag

Die Auseinandersetzungen über das Karma können nur langsam und allmählich in das Verständnis dieser weltgrundlegenden und komplizierten Gesetzmäßigkeit hineinführen. Ich möchte heute zunächst darauf verweisen, wie wir betonen mußten, daß mitarbeiten an der Gestaltung des Karma des Menschen in dem Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt zunächst die Menschen selber, die Menschen, die in diesem Leben zwischen dem 'Tod und einer neuen Geburt sind, in demjenigen Zustande, den ich da geschildert habe. Zusammen arbeiten da die Menschen mit anderen Menschen, mit denjenigen Menschen, mit denen sie vorzugsweise karmisch verbunden sind. So daß wir in der Gestaltung des Karma in dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt sehen Menschengruppen, karmisch verbundene Menschengruppen, und wir können schon sagen: Deutlich voneinander gliedern sich ab in diesem rein geistigen Leben die Menschengruppen, die miteinander etwas zu tun haben. Das schließt ja nicht aus, daß wir auch in dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, und insbesondere in diesem Leben teilhaben an der ganzen Menschheit, daß wir, weil wir innerhalb einer Menschengruppe stehen, oder sagen wir einer Seelengruppe, dadurch nicht ausgeschlossen sind von dem Anteilnehmen an der Gesamtmenschheit.

Aber in alle diese Gruppen, bis herein in das individuelle Schicksal des einzelnen Menschen, arbeiten die Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien. Und diese Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien, die also mit dem Menschen zusammen karmagestaltend sind zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, die wirken nun auch herein in dasjenige Leben, das wir zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode verbringen, indem sich ja das Karma auf moralische Art auslebt, im Schicksal der Menschen auslebt. Und wir müssen heute einmal die Frage beantworten: Wie spielt die Arbeit, das Wirken der Hierarchien eigentlich herein in das Leben der Menschen?

Da muß man schon sagen, wenn man heute mit Initiationswissenschaft redet, daß diese Frage eigentlich eine herzeinschneidende ist; denn Sie können ja schon ahnen, meine lieben Freunde, aus dem, was ich im Laufe der letzten Vorträge gesagt habe, daß das äußere naturhafte Geschehen im Zusammenhange steht mit dem Karmageschehen der Menschheit.

Derjenige, der seinen Blick eben nicht bloß auf das naturhafte Geschehen hinwendet, sondern der seinen Blick auf das gesamte kosmischmenschliche Geschehen hinwendet, der sieht den Zusammenhang zwischen dem, was namentlich innerhalb von Menschengruppen und Menschenmassen auf Erden vorgeht in irgendeinem Zeitalter, und was sich in einem anderen Zeitalter als Naturvorgänge abspielt. Wir können ja manchmal hinschauen auf Naturereignisse, die hereinspielen in das Erdenleben. Wir schauen hin auf die verheerenden Vulkanausbrüche, wir schauen hin auf dasjenige, was durch die natürlichen Elementarereignisse bewirkt wird in Überschwemmungen, in ähnlichen Erscheinungen.

Wir stehen zunächst, wenn wir diese Ereignisse bloß naturhaft auffassen, doch vor etwas, was unbegreiflich ist gegenüber dem Gesamteindrucke, den wir von der Welt erhalten. Denn wir blicken da auf Ereignisse, die eben hereinbrechen in die Weltenordnung, und denen gegenüber der Mensch eigentlich gewöhnlich so steht, daß er das Begreifen aufgibt, daß er nur das Unglück, die Schicksalsereignisse einfach hinnimmt. Die geisteswissenschaftliche Untersuchung führt aber da schon rein durch sich ein Stückchen weiter. Denn sie liefert uns merkwürdige Anschauungen gerade mit Bezug auf solche elementarischen Naturereignisse.

Wir lassen den Blick hinschweifen über die Erdoberfläche. Wir finden gewisse Gegenden der Erdoberfläche geradezu mit Vulkanen besät. Wir finden an anderen Stellen der Erdoberfläche die Möglichkeit erdbebenartiger Katastrophen oder anderer Katastrophen. Und wenn wir dann gerade mit Bezug auf solche Dinge die karmischen Zusammenhänge verfolgen, wie wir sie in historischer Beziehung für manche historischen Persönlichkeiten in den verflossenen Vorträgen verfolgt haben, dann stellt sich uns etwas sehr Eigentümliches heraus. Dann finden wir die merkwürdige Tatsache: Da oben in der geistigen Welt zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt leben Menschenseelen in Gruppen zusammenhängend nach ihrem Karma, ausarbeitend nach ihren vergangenen karmischen Zusammenhängen ihre zukünftigen karmischen Zusammenhänge. Und wir sehen solche Menschengruppen, Gruppen von Menschenseelen bei ihrem Heruntersteigen aus dem vorirdischen Dasein in das irdische Dasein geradezu hinwandern an die Orte, die in der Nähe von Vulkanen liegen, oder da liegen, wo erdbebenartige Katastrophen eintreten können, um dasjenige Schicksal zu empfangen aus den elementarischen Naturereignissen heraus, das durch solche Wohnplätze kommen kann. Ja wir finden sogar, daß in diesem Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, wo der Mensch ja ganz andere Anschauungen und Empfindungen hat, von den Seelen, die zusammengehören, zuweilen solche Orte aufgesucht werden, um das Schicksal, das man auf diese Weise erleben kann, eben zu erleben. Denn dasjenige, was hier auf Erden wenig Anklang findet in unseren Seelen, etwa der Satz: Ich wähle mir ein großes Unglück, um vollkommener zu werden, weil ich sonst unvollkommen bliebe gegenüber dem, was in meinem vergangenen Karma liegt -, dieses Urteil, das, wie gesagt, wenig Anklang findet innerhalb des Erdenlebens, es ist da, es ist als ein vollgültiges Urteil da, wenn wir in dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt stehen. Da suchen wir auch einen Vulkanausbruch, da suchen wir auch ein Erdbeben, um auf dem Wege des Unglückes den Weg zur Vollkommenheit zu finden.

Wir müssen uns eben durchaus diese zwei verschiedenen Beurteilungsarten des Lebens, diejenige von der geistigen Welt aus und diejenige von der physischen Welt aus, zu eigen machen.

Aber weiter müssen wir uns in diesem Zusammenhange etwa so fragen: Da draußen fließen die Naturerscheinungen ab, die alltäglichen, die den verhältnismäßig regelmäßigen Gang gehen, insofern die Sternenwelt daran beteiligt ist; denn diese Sternenwelt verfließt mit einer gewissen Regelmäßigkeit, namentlich was Sonne und Mond anbetrifft, was die übrigen Sterne betrifft, mit Ausnahme der fragwürdigen Meteoren- und Kometenwelt, die schon in einer merkwürdigen Weise hereinplatzt in das regelmäßige rhythmische Geschehen des Kosmos.

Aber nur eigentlich dasjenige, was wir Wind und Wetter nennen, dasjenige, was in Gewitter und Hagelschlägen, überhaupt in dem Klimatologischen und Meteorologischen sich hereinmischt in unser natürliches Dasein, das durchbricht diesen regelmäßigen rhythmischen Gang alltäglich. Wir sehen das. Wir sind zunächst diesem äußeren Gang der Naturereignisse hingegeben. Dann wohl, wenn wir den Drang haben nach dem Geistigen, dann hören wir wohl auch zu, wenn aus der Initiation heraus die Mitteilung gemacht wird: Es gibt nicht nur diese äußerlich sichtbare Welt, es gibt eine Welt des Übersinnlichen. In dieser Welt des Übersinnlichen leben die Wesen der höheren Hierarchien. Und wir kommen in den Bereich dieser höheren Hierarchien in dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt ebenso, wie wir in den Bereich der drei Naturreiche, des mineralischen, des pflanzlichen, des tierischen, in dem Leben zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode kommen.

Wir hören uns das an. Wir versuchen uns die Vorstellung zu bilden, daß es sozusagen diese zweite Welt gibt, bleiben dann aber oftmals dabei, die zwei Welten eben einfach nebeneinanderzustellen, sie nicht in unseren Vorstellungen miteinander zu verbinden.

Aber erst dann bekommen wir eine reale Anschauung über diese beiden Welten, wenn wir sie zusammenschauen können, wenn wir ihr Zusammenwirken ins Seelenauge fassen können. Denn dieses Wirken müssen wir ja durchschauen, wenn wir die Gestaltung des Karma verstehen wollen. In dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt wird dieses Karma bereitet. Aber durch die Wirksamkeit der höheren Hierarchien auch in dem Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod wird das Karma hier auf Erden ausgebildet.

Wir müssen uns also fragen: Wie wirken in das Erdenleben herein diese höheren Hierarchien?

Nun, sehen Sie, diese höheren Hierarchien wirken in das Erdenleben so herein, daß sie die Vorgänge des Irdischen benützen, um in diesen Vorgängen des Irdischen zu wirken.

Wir werden, was da vorliegt, am leichtesten verstehen, wenn wir zunächst unseren Blick auf dasjenige hinwenden, was sich eben in der Sternenwelt und in der irdischen Welt vor unseren Sinnen ausbreitet. Wir schauen während des täglichen wachenden Lebens die Sonne über uns. Wir nehmen wahr in nächtlichen Stunden das Scheinen des Mondes, das Scheinen der Sterne. Vergegenwärtigen wir uns einmal, meine lieben Freunde, wie wir da hinausschauen in die Welt, wie wir auf unsere Sinne wirken lassen dasjenige, was über uns ist, dasjenige, was auf der Erde um uns ist in den Naturreichen. Und vergegenwärtigen wir uns, daß diese Sinneswelt ja für sich ebensowenig einen Sinn hat wie die Form eines menschlichen Leichnams. Wenn wir im ganzen Umkreis auf dasjenige sehen, was es auf der Erde an Kräften außer dem Menschen gibt, so finden wir zwar alle die Kräfte, die in einem Leichnam sind, aber wir finden nicht die Kräfte des lebendigen Menschen. Der Leichnam, der vor uns liegt, ist ein Unsinn; er hat nur einen Sinn als ein Überbleibsel vom lebendigen Menschen. Und niemand kann als vernünftig angesehen werden, der da glaubt, der Leichnam könnte für sich bestehen als irgendein Zusammenhang von Tatsachen, der in sich begründet ist. Er kann eben nur als Überbleibsel da sein, er kann eben nur eine Form zeigen, die von etwas ist, das nicht mehr in ihm sichtbar ist. Ebenso wie man auf vernünftige Weise vom Leichnam auf den lebendigen Menschen geführt werden muß, ebenso muß man von alledem, was man im Umkreise des physisch-sinnlichen Daseins sieht, zur geistigen Welt geführt werden. Denn dieses physisch-sinnliche Dasein hat eben an sich ebensowenig einen Sinn wie der Leichnam.

Wie wir vom Leichnam zum lebendigen Menschen hingelenkt werden in unseren Vorstellungen, wie wir sagen: Das ist der Leichnam eines Menschen -, so sagen wir gegenüber der Natur: Das ist die Offenbarung göttlich-geistiger Mächte. — Kein anderes kann vernünftig sein, ja es ist nicht einmal gesund, anders zu denken. Es bezeugt ein krankhaftes Denken, wenn man anders denkt.

Aber was für eine geistige Welt haben wir zu vermuten hinter dieser physisch-sinnlichen Welt? Diejenige geistige Welt, sehen Sie, die wir hinter dieser physisch-sinnlichen Welt zu vermuten haben, ist die, welche wir als die zweite Hierarchie kennengelernt haben: Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes.

Die zweite Hierarchie, sie steht hinter alledem, was sonnenbeschienen ist. Und was ist denn nicht sonnenbeschienen und sonnenerhalten im Umkreise desjenigen, was wir durch unsere Sinne darleben? Alles ist sonnenbeschienen und sonnenerhalten.

Diese Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie haben vorzugsweise in der Sonne ihren Wohnsitz. Von der Sonne aus beherrschen sie die sichtbare Welt, die ihre Offenbarung ist. So daß wir sagen können: Haben wir hier die Erde, haben wir auf die Erde herabschauend irgendwo die Sonne, so haben wir hinter dem Sonnenwirken, in dem Sonnenwirken, durch das Sonnenwirken das Wirken der zweiten Hierarchie, der Exusiai, Kyriotetes, Dynamis.

Auf den Strahlungen, die die Taten der zweiten Hierarchie sind, werden alle sinnlichen Eindrücke getragen, die auf den Menschen ausgeübt werden können, alle die Eindrücke, die während des Tages im Wachen an unsere Sinne herankommen. $o daß wir in einem gewissen Sinne richtig sprechen, wenn wir sagen: In und durch und hinter dem Wirken des Sonnenhaften im Umkreise unseres physisch-sinnlichen Daseins steht die übersinnliche Welt der zweiten Hierarchie.

Nun haben wir einen anderen Zustand unseres irdischen Daseins. Wir haben das letzte Mal von einem gewissen Gesichtspunkte aus schon über diesen anderen Zustand gesprochen. Wir haben den Zustand, wo wir schlafen. Dieser Zustand, wo wir schlafen, wie stellt er sich kosmisch, wie stellt er sich im kosmischen Gegenbilde dar? Fassen wir das einmal ins Auge.

Da haben wir -— wenn wir dies das Erdoberflächenstück nennen (siehe Zeichnung Seite 278, kreisförmige Linie oben), auf dem wir leben so, daß wir unseren physischen Leib und unseren Ätherleib im Bette liegen (links), unseren astralischen Leib und unser Ich draußen haben (rechts) -, da haben wir es im Kosmos damit zu tun, daß die Sonne hinter dem Irdischen steht, daß die Erde erst die Sonnenstrahlen durch sich durchgehen lassen muß, bis sie zu uns kommen. Da ist alles Sonnenhafte erdbedeckt.

Sehen Sie, in allen alten Mysterien galt eine bestimmte Lehre, die, wenn man sie in ihrem Inhalte gewahr wird, eigentlich einen tief erschütternden Eindruck macht. Derjenige, der in ein altes Mysterium eingeführt worden ist, Schüler geworden ist, nach und nach in die Initiationswissenschaft hineingekommen ist, der kam auf einer gewissen Stufe seiner inneren Entwickelung dazu, daß er die Eindrücke, die er empfing, so charakterisierte — nun, meine lieben Freunde, geben Sie acht darauf, wie ich etwa den Monolog eines solchen alten Initiierten, den er nach dem Erreichen einer gewissen Initiationsstufe hätte sprechen können, jetzt vor Ihnen spreche -, solch ein Initiierter würde also etwa so gesagt haben: Wenn ich während des Tages auf freiem Felde stehe, den ahnenden Blick nach aufwärts richte, mich den Eindrücken der Sinne hingebe, so sehe ich die Sonne. Ich nehme sie wahr in ihrer blendenden Stärke am Mittag, und ich ahne und schaue hinter der blendenden Stärke der Sonne am Mittag das Wirken von geistigen Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie im Sonnenhaften. Vor meiner Initiation schwand hinunter das Sonnenhafte mit dem abendlichen Untergange der Sonne. In dem Erscheinen der Abendröte verschwand das Scheinen der Sonne. Und ich machte vor meiner Initiation den Nachtweg durch, indem Finsternis um mich ward, und am Morgen erinnerte ich mich an diese Finsternis, wenn die Morgendämmerung kam und aus der Morgendämmerung heraus wiederum die Sonne erschien, um ihren Weg zu machen zur blendenden Helle des Mittags. Jetzt aber, nachdem ich die Initiation erlangt habe, ist es so: Wenn ich die Morgenröte erlebe, und die Sonne aus der Morgenröte wiederum zu ihrem Tagesgange sich anschickt, wird in mir die Erinnerung an das nächtliche Leben wach. Ich weiß, was ich während des nächtlichen Lebens erlebt habe. Ich erinnere mich ganz genau, daß ich geschaut habe, wie nach und nach ein bläulich glimmerndes Licht von der Abenddämmerung aus weiterhin ging von Westen nach dem Osten, und wie ich schaute, woran ich mich jetzt genau erinnere, um die Mitternachtsstunde die Sonne am entgegengesetzten Himmelspunkte, gegenüber dem Punkte, wo sie in ihrer glänzenden Mittagsstärke war, in ihrem Glimmen, das so moralisch eindrucksvoll ist, hinter der Erde. Ich habe gesehen die Sonne um Mitternacht.

Solch einen Monolog, der vollen Wahrheit entsprechend, haben solche Initiierten durchaus in ihrer Meditation ausgesprochen. Denn dieses Sprechen eines solchen Monologes war ja nichts anderes als das Sich-zum-Bewußtsein-Bringen desjenigen, was da war. Und wenn wir noch bei Jakob Böhme in einem Buch lesen, das er geschrieben hat: «Die Morgenröte im Aufgang», dann können wir daraus den erschütternden Eindruck gewinnen, daß diese Worte, die in dem Buche «Die Morgenröte im Aufgang» stehen, die Überbleibsel einer wunderbaren alten Lehre sind.

Was ist die «Morgenröte im Aufgang» für Initiierte? Die «Morgenröte im Aufgang» ist die Veranlassung zu kosmischer Erinnerung an das Schauen der Sonne um Mitternacht hinter der Erde, bedeckt von der Erde, durchglimmend durch die Erde. Wenn wir die gelbweiße Sonnenscheibe hellglänzend am Mittag erblicken im gewöhnlichen Anschauen, im initiierten Anschauen erblicken wir die bläulich-violette Sonne an der entgegengesetzten Stelle des Himmels, indem uns die Erde erscheint wie ein durchsichtiger Körper, durch den hindurch eben die weißlich-gelbe Sonnenscheibe des Mittags, auf der anderen Seite bläulich-rötlich gefärbt, glimmend erscheint. Aber dieses bläulich-rötlich glimmende Erscheinen - ich muß das paradoxe Wort aussprechen -, das ist ja nicht so, wie es ist. Es ist ja wirklich so, wie wenn wir zunächst, indem wir diese Sonne um Mitternacht schauen, schauen würden etwas, was in der Ferne undeutlich ist. Und wenn man sich mit der Initiation gewöhnt, dasjenige, was zunächst wie in der Ferne undeutlich erscheint, genauer und immer genauer anzuschauen mit dem initiierten Blicke, dann wird dasjenige, was da ein bläulich-rötlicher Schein ist, immer mehr und mehr Gestalt und Form annehmen, sich über den ganzen abgewendeten Himmel ausbreiten, der von der Erde bedeckt ist, der wird bevölkert. Und so wie, wenn wir in einer sternenhellen Nacht aus unserem Haus hinaustreten, uns der majestätische Anblick des Sternenhimmels gewährt wird mit den einzelnen funkelnden, leuchtenden Punkten, und der Mond vielleicht in der Mitte erscheint, so wird dem initiierten Blicke auf der abgewendeten Seite durch die durchsichtig gewordene Erde hindurch erscheinend eine ganze Welt, die sich herauserhebt wie aus Wolken, die sich zu lebensgeformten Gestalten bilden: Alles dasjenige, was in der zweiten Hierarchie, in der Welt der Exusiai, Kyriotetes, Dynamis lebt — da erscheinen sie, diese Wesenheiten!

Und wenn wir immer genauer und genauer zusehen, wenn wir die Seelenruhe gewinnen können, da zuzusehen - und das ganze spielt sich ja ab nach Vorbereitungen, nach Meditationsvorbereitungen, denn bewußt wird es eigentlich in der Morgendämmerung, in der Nacherinnerung, aber da hat man es vor sich, so daß man weiß, man hat es geschaut während der Nacht -, so spielt sich da noch ein anderes ab. Es ist, als ob aus dem, was da erscheint auf der abgewendeten Seite der Erde, was ich hier andeute in einer solchen wolkenartigen Zeichnung (hell-lila, rot und blau), - das ist durchaus alles webende, wesende Welt der Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie, als ob aus dieser webenden, wesenden Welt der zweiten Hierarchie gewissermaßen herausstrahlt eine Welt anderer Wesenheiten. Ich will schematisch das, was da herausstrahlt, durch die Erde zunächst durchstrahlt, so andeuten (gelb). Oh, das ist wirklich eine Welt von Wesenheiten, die in dieser Konstellation, in dieser nächtlichen Konstellation durch die Erde so durchwirkt, daß sie gewissermaßen in ihrem Dasein heranschwebt an den Menschen, wegschwebt — wieder zurück! Wir sehen die gewissermaßen in dieser Linie webend-wesenden Wesen der zweiten Hierarchie entlassen, fortwährend entlassen eine andere Hierarchie, auf und ab schwebend, heran zum Menschen, wiederum zurück. Und wir lernen nach und nach dasjenige kennen, was da eigentlich ist.

Wir haben den ganzen Tag bewußt gelebt, liegen jetzt im Schlafe. Das heißt, unser physischer und unser Ätherleib liegen auf sich angewiesen, wie eine mineralische und pflanzliche Welt wirksam, im Schlafe. Aber wir haben den ganzen Tag gedacht, Vorstellungen sind den ganzen Tag durch unsere Menschenwesenheit gegangen, sie haben ihre Spuren zurückgelassen im physischen und Ätherleib. Wir würden uns des Morgens nicht erinnern an dasjenige, was die Erlebnisse unseres Erdendaseins waren, wenn nicht zurückblieben die Spuren der Eindrücke, die wir dann heraufholen in den Erinnerungen. Da sind sie, diese Spuren, in dem, was vom Menschen in nächtlichen Stunden im Bette liegenbleibt, von dem er weg ist. Da spielt sich namentlich im ätherischen Leibe ein merkwürdiges Geschehen ab: Das Nachklingen, Nachwehen, Nachvibrieren, Nachwellen desjenigen, was der Mensch wachend vom Morgen bis zum Abend gedacht hat.

Und wenn Sie dasjenige nehmen, was über eine Erdenfläche hin schläft auf der Erde, was da alles in diesen — nehmen wir jetzt nur zunächst die Ätherleiber -, was in diesen Ätherleibern webt und west als Nachklänge desjenigen, was all diese schlafenden Menschen, die über eine Erdfläche hin schlafend sind, gedacht haben: so sind das Bilder desjenigen, was in den Tagesstunden auf Erden vor sich gegangen ist.

Und diejenigen Wesenheiten, die da auf und ab schweben, die beschäftigen sich während unserer Schlafstunden mit demjenigen, was da als Spuren in unserem Ätherleib zurückgeblieben ist. Das wird ihre Welt. Das wird ihre Welt, die ihre Erfahrung jetzt ist, die sie beschäftigt. Und uns geht die Tatsache auf, vor der wir mit scheuer Ehrfurcht stehen: Du hast deinen Leib im Bette zurückgelassen — da ist er. Er trägt in sich die Spuren des Tageslebens. Er ist der Acker deiner Vorstellungsfrüchte vom Tage. Diesen Acker betreten die Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. Da drinnen erleben sie, während du außerhalb deines physischen und Ätherleibes bist, dasjenige, was durch Menschen während der wachenden Tagesstunden in Vorstellungen erlebt worden ist.

Und wir schauen eben in scheuer Ehrfurcht hin auf eine solche Erdenfläche, in der Menschenleiber zurückgelassen sind im Schlafe, und hinwandelnd nach demjenigen, was sich da als Nachklänge des Tageslebens abspielt: Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. Und ein wunderbares Leben sehen wir sich vor uns entwickeln, das sich abspielt zwischen den Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie und unseren hinterlassenen Gedankenspuren.

Wir schauen hin auf dieses Feld und vernehmen, wie wir als Menschen in den geistigen Kosmos hineingestellt sind: daß wir den Engeln Arbeit schaffen für unsere Schlafstunden, während wir wachen. Ja, wir schaffen den Engeln Arbeit für die Schlafstunden, während wir wachen.

Und jetzt geht uns etwas auf über unsere Gedankenwelt. Jetzt geht uns das über unsere Gedankenwelt auf: Ja, diese Gedanken, die dir durch den Kopf gehen, die enthalten ja die Früchte, die du in deinen eigenen Ätherleib und physischen Leib hineinsenkst, welche Engel während der nächtlichen Zeit pflücken, um sie hinauszutragen in den Kosmos und dort den Weltenwirkungen einzuverleiben.

Noch ein anderes sehen wir. Während wir sehen, daß diese Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, so herausschweben aus den Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie und ihrem Tun, schauen wir, wie hinter dem Weben (siehe Zeichnung Seite 278, helllila, unten) Wesenheiten von besonderer Majestät und Größe sich hinzugesellen zu dem Wirken der zweiten Hierarchie. Wir schauen hin auf das bläulich-rötliche Sich-Formen der Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie, aber wir sehen hineinspielen wie von hinten her in dieses Weben und Leben der zweiten Hierarchie ein anderes, und werden bald gewahr, daß das zum Teil wie blitzartig hineinschlägt (rot) in das Weben und Wesen der zweiten Hierarchie, aber durchschlägt bis nun auch in den abgewendeten Teil der Erde hinein und zu tun hat jetzt nicht mit dem, was im Bette liegengeblieben ist, sondern mit demjenigen, was herausgetreten ist mit unserer Ich-Organisation und unserem astralischen Leibe,

Und wie man hinschauen kann auf dasjenige, was im Bette liegengeblieben ist, wie auf ein Feld, wo die Gedankenfrüchte des menschlichen Tageswirkens von den Engeln, Erzengeln und Urkräften gepflückt werden für das kosmische Weltenwirken, so können wir schauen, wie sich zu tun machen, gemeinsam ihr Wirken miteinander verbindend, die Wesen der zweiten Hierarchie, Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, und der ersten Hierarchie, Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne, mit unserem Astralleibe und mit unserem Ich.

Da sagt sich der Initiierte in der Morgenerinnerung: Da habe ich gelebt vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen mit meinem Ich und mit meinem astralischen Leibe. Da fühlte ich mich wie eingewoben, wie einverleibt in dasjenige, was Seraphim, Cherubim und Throne zusammen mit Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai wirken. Dadrinnen bin ich, und da schaue ich hinüber auf meinen physischen Leib und Ätherleib: da sehe ich darüber weben das gelblich-weißliche Wirken der meine Gedankenfrüchte pflegenden Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. Verbunden weiß ich mich mit den Wesenheiten der ersten und zweiten Hierarchie. Schauend in mächtigen Geistwolken über meinem Leibe, den ich verlassen habe, erblicke ich das Weben und Wesen der dritten Hierarchie.

Und so, meine lieben Freunde, können Sie eine konkrete Vorstellung bekommen, wie in der Initiationsanschauung imaginativ-bildlich die Wesenheiten der drei Hierarchien innerhalb des Bildes der physischen Welt, nur eben, wenn diese physische Welt in Nacht gehüllt ist, auf der abgewandten Seite der Erde, erscheinen. Und wir können uns vorstellen, daß das Wissen, die Anschauung von diesen erhabenen Tatsachen immer mehr und mehr sich einlebte in die Herzen und in die Seelen derjenigen, die einmal der alten Initiationswissenschaft teilhaftig waren.

Es kann sich wiederum einleben in die Herzen und Seelen derjenigen, die eingeführt werden in die moderne Initiationswissenschaft.

Aber stellen wir uns vor, daß diese mächtige Imagination vor des Menschen Seele hintritt, so vor des Menschen Seele hintritt, daß man jetzt ihr Dasein in der folgenden Weise aussprechen muß. Da stelle man sich die menschliche Seele vor, leibfrei, befreit vom physischen und Ätherleib, webend in den Ausstrahlungen der Seraphim, Cherubim und Throne, Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai. Denken wir uns, in einem plastischen Gebilde, mit Farben begabt (siehe Zeichnung), würde dieses in einem alten Mysterium dargestellt sein für die Menge, die nicht eingeweiht war; man hätte versucht, dasjenige, was in solcher majestätischer Größe der Eingeweihte sah von der abgewendeten Seite der Erde, plastisch darzustellen. Und um zu zeigen, daß das zugleich diejenige Welt ist, in der das Karma mit den Wesenheiten der beiden höchsten Hierarchien ausgearbeitet wird, hat man an diese Plastik die höchsten Initiierten hingestellt, diejenigen, die während ihres Erdendaseins schon teilhaftig waren derjenigen Anschauung, in die sonst der Mensch eintritt zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Und es stehen also dann die höchsten Initiierten davor (obere Kreise).

Dann errichtete man eine andere Plastik mit Menschenbildern herum. Da stellte man hin die etwas niedrigeren Initiierten (untere Kreise), diejenigen, die es noch zu tun hatten mit dem menschlichen physischen und ätherischen Leibe.

Und man hatte, indem man die Menschen hineinfügte in diese Darstellung, damit ein Abbild desjenigen, was in den Mysterien von den Initiierten geschaut wurde. Das war der Anfang des Altars, der umrahmt ist nach vorne und an dem die Kultushandlung verrichtet wird von der hohen und niedrigen Priesterschaft, als Abbild desjenigen, was geschaut werden kann von der Initiationswissenschaft. Und heute noch, wenn Sie in katholische Kirchen hineingehen, so haben Sie, wenn Sie aus dem Schiff der Kirche hinausblicken nach dem Altar, ein schwaches Abbild desjenigen, was da einmal inauguriert wurde durch die Initiationswissenschaft, und Sie bekommen einen Eindruck von der Entstehung eines Kultus. Ein Kultus entsteht nicht dadurch, daß man ihn ausdenkt, denn dann ist er kein Kultus. Ein Kultus entsteht dadurch, daß er das Abbild ist von demjenigen, was in der geistigen Welt vorgeht.

Wenn ich nur ein Beispiel gebrauchen darf, ich möchte sagen, wenn ich neben diesem Kultus, der ja das Umfassendste einer Weihehandlung darstellt, die ich jetzt nicht erörtern will, wenn ich nur einen kleinen Kultusausschnitt nehme, der schon eingezogen ist in die Gemeinschaft für christliche Erneuerung und den ja die meisten von Ihnen wohl kennen: wenn ich vor Sie hinstelle die Erinnerung an dasjenige, was Sie als Totenkultus gesehen haben — als Kultus bei einer Kremation, wo die meisten von Ihnen da waren, oder bei einer Begräbnisfeier —, dieser Kultus, ausgebildet im Sinne unserer Christengemeinschaft, was ist das?

Sie sehen ihn verlaufen, den Kultus. Sie sehen da vorne den Sarg stehen, in dem die irdischen Überreste des Toten sind. Sie sehen davor einen gewissen Kultus sich abspielen. Sie hören gebetartige Formeln durch den Priester gesprochen. Es könnte auch noch komplizierter sein, aber in seiner Einfachheit, so wie es jetzt ist, kann ja schon dasjenige, was dadurch erobert werden soll, für die Menschheit erobert werden. Was ist das?

Meine lieben Freunde, wenn hier ein Spiegel ist, hier irgendein Gegenstand oder ein Wesen, so sehen Sie hier das Spiegelbild darin. Sie haben zwei, das Wesenhafte und das Spiegelbild. So haben Sie zwei, wenn ein Totenkult sich abspielt. Dasjenige, was der Kult ist, der vor dem Sarge durch den Priester gehalten wird, das ist nur eine Spiegelbild. Das ist ein wirkliches Spiegelbild und wäre nicht eine Realität, wenn es nicht ein Spiegelbild wäre. Was spiegelt es? Dasjenige, was der Priester hier tut, indem er vor der Leiche steht, seinen Kultus verrichtet, das hat sein Ursprungsbild in der anstoßenden übersinnlichen Welt, wo, während wir hier vor dem physischen Leibe und dem eigentlich noch immer anwesenden Ätherleibe den irdischen Kultus verrichten, der himmlische Kultus verrichtet wird von der anderen Seite, von den Wesenheiten der anderen Seite des Daseins, wo das SeelischGeistige empfangen wird mit dem Empfangskultus, wie wir hier mit dem Abschiedskultus vor der Leiche stehen. Nur dann ist ein Kultus eine Wahrheit, wenn er diesen realen Ursprung hat.

Und so sehen Sie, wie in das irdische Leben das überirdische Leben hereinspielt, das überirdische Leben überall da ist. Verrichten wir . einen wahren Totenkult, so korrespondiert diesern Totenkult die übersinnliche Handlungsweise. Das wirkt zusammen. Und ist Andacht, Wahrheit, Würdigkeit in dem Totengebet, so klingen in dem Totengebet die Gebete der Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien in der übersinnlichen Welt mit. Sie vibrieren mit. Da spielt geistige Welt und physische Welt zusammen.

Es spielt überall geistige Welt und physische Welt zusammen. So spielt sie zusammen in realster Weise, wenn im Irdischen das Abbild desjenigen erscheint, was im Überirdischen zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt gewoben wird mit den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien: das Karma.

Sixteenth Lecture

The discussions about karma can only lead slowly and gradually into the understanding of this world-fundamental and complicated law. Today I would first like to point out, as we had to emphasize, that the people themselves, the people who are in this life between death and a new birth, in the state that I have described, work together to shape the karma of the human being in the life between death and a new birth. People work together with other people, with those people with whom they are preferably karmically connected. So that in the shaping of karma in the life between death and a new birth we see groups of people, karmically connected groups of people, and we can already say that in this purely spiritual life the groups of people who have something to do with each other are clearly separated from each other. This does not exclude the fact that in the life between death and a new birth, and especially in this life, we participate in humanity as a whole, that we are not excluded from participating in humanity as a whole because we are part of a human group, or let us say a soul group.

But the entities of the higher hierarchies work in all these groups, right into the individual destiny of the individual human being. And these entities of the higher hierarchies, which together with the human being shape karma between death and a new birth, now also have an effect on the life that we spend between birth and death, in that karma is lived out in a moral way, in the destiny of human beings. And today we must answer the question: How does the work, the activity of the hierarchies, actually play into the lives of human beings?"

It must be said, if we are talking about initiation science today, that this question is actually a heart-rending one; for you can already guess, my dear friends, from what I have said in the course of the last lectures, that the external natural events are connected with the karmic events of humanity.

Those who do not merely look at natural events, but who look at the entire cosmic-human event, will see the connection between what takes place within groups of people and masses of people on earth in one age and what takes place as natural processes in another age. We can sometimes look at natural events that play into life on earth. We look at the devastating volcanic eruptions, we look at what is caused by natural elemental events in floods, in similar phenomena.

First of all, if we understand these events merely in terms of nature, we are faced with something that is incomprehensible compared to the overall impression we receive of the world. For we are looking at events that are just breaking into the order of the world, and towards which man usually stands in such a way that he gives up understanding, that he simply accepts the misfortune, the events of fate. Spiritual-scientific investigation, however, leads us a little further in this respect. For it provides us with strange views precisely in relation to such elementary natural events.

We let our gaze wander over the surface of the earth. We find certain areas of the earth's surface virtually covered with volcanoes. We find the possibility of earthquake-like catastrophes or other disasters in other places on the earth's surface. And if we then trace the karmic connections in relation to such things, as we have traced them in historical terms for some historical personalities in the past lectures, then something very peculiar emerges for us. Then we find the strange fact: up there in the spiritual world between death and a new birth, human souls live together in groups according to their karma, working out their future karmic connections according to their past karmic connections. And we see such groups of people, groups of human souls, on their descent from the pre-earthly existence into the earthly existence, virtually wandering to places that lie near volcanoes or where earthquake-like catastrophes can occur, in order to receive that fate out of the elementary natural events that can come through such dwelling places. Indeed, we even find that in this life between death and a new birth, when the human being has quite different views and feelings, souls who belong together sometimes seek out such places in order to experience the fate that can be experienced in this way. For that which finds little resonance in our souls here on earth, such as the sentence: I choose a great misfortune in order to become more perfect, because otherwise I would remain imperfect in relation to what lies in my past karma - this judgment, which, as I said, finds little resonance within earthly life, is there, it is there as a fully valid judgment when we stand in life between death and a new birth. There we also seek a volcanic eruption, there we also seek an earthquake, in order to find the path to perfection on the path of misfortune.

We must certainly adopt these two different ways of judging life, the one from the spiritual world and the one from the physical world.

But furthermore, we must ask ourselves in this context something like this: Out there, the natural phenomena flow, the everyday phenomena that follow a relatively regular course, insofar as the starry world is involved; for this starry world flows with a certain regularity, especially as far as the sun and moon are concerned, as far as the other stars are concerned, with the exception of the questionable world of meteors and comets, which already bursts into the regular rhythmic events of the cosmos in a strange way.

But only that which we call wind and weather, that which interferes with our natural existence in thunderstorms and hailstorms, in general in the climatological and meteorological, breaks through this regular rhythmic course every day. We see this. At first we are devoted to this external course of natural events. Then, if we have the urge for the spiritual, we will probably also listen when the message is given out of the initiation: There is not only this outwardly visible world, there is a world of the supersensible. In this world of the supersensible live the beings of the higher hierarchies. And we come into the realm of these higher hierarchies in the life between death and a new birth, just as we come into the realm of the three kingdoms of nature, the mineral, the vegetable and the animal, in the life between birth and death.

We listen to this. We try to form the idea that this second world exists, so to speak, but then we often stick to simply placing the two worlds next to each other, not connecting them in our imaginations.

But only then do we get a real view of these two worlds when we can see them together, when we can grasp their interaction in the eye of the soul. For we must see through this work if we want to understand the shaping of karma. This karma is prepared in the life between death and a new birth. But it is also through the activity of the higher hierarchies in the life between birth and death that karma is formed here on earth.

We must therefore ask ourselves: How do these higher hierarchies work into life on earth?

Well, you see, these higher hierarchies work into earthly life in such a way that they use the processes of the earthly in order to work in these processes of the earthly.

We will understand what is here most easily if we first turn our gaze to that which is spread out before our senses in the starry world and in the earthly world. We look at the sun above us during our daily waking life. In the night hours we perceive the shining of the moon, the shining of the stars. Let us visualize, my dear friends, how we look out into the world, how we allow that which is above us, that which is around us on earth in the realms of nature, to affect our senses. And let us realize that this world of the senses has just as little meaning in itself as the form of a human corpse. If we look around us at the forces that exist on earth apart from man, we find all the forces that are in a corpse, but we do not find the forces of the living human being. The corpse that lies before us is nonsense; it only has a meaning as a remnant of the living man. And no one can be regarded as reasonable who believes that the corpse could exist in itself as any connection of facts that is founded in itself. It can only be there as a remnant, it can only show a form that is of something that is no longer visible in it. Just as one must be led in a rational way from the corpse to the living human being, one must also be led from all that one sees in the circle of physical-sensual existence to the spiritual world. For this physical-sensual existence has just as little meaning in itself as the corpse.

As we are led from the corpse to the living man in our ideas, as we say: This is the corpse of a man - so we say to nature: This is the revelation of divine-spiritual powers. - Nothing else can be reasonable, indeed it is not even healthy to think otherwise. It is evidence of pathological thinking to think otherwise.

But what kind of spiritual world do we have to suspect behind this physical-sensual world? The spiritual world, you see, which we have to suspect behind this physical-sensual world, is that which we have come to know as the second hierarchy: Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes.

The second hierarchy, it stands behind everything that is sunlit. And what is not sunlit and sun-preserved in the circle of that which we experience through our senses? Everything is sunlit and sun-preserved.

These beings of the second hierarchy preferably reside in the sun. From the sun they rule the visible world, which is their revelation. So that we can say: If we have the earth here, if we have the sun somewhere looking down on the earth, then we have behind the working of the sun, in the working of the sun, through the working of the sun, the working of the second Hierarchy, the Exusiai, Kyriotetes, Dynamis.

On the radiations, which are the deeds of the second hierarchy, are borne all the sensual impressions that can be exerted on man, all the impressions that come to our senses during the day while we are awake. So that in a certain sense we speak correctly when we say: In and through and behind the working of the solar in the circle of our physical-sensual existence stands the supersensible world of the second Hierarchy. We have already spoken last time about this other state from a certain point of view. We have the state where we sleep. This state in which we sleep, how does it present itself cosmically, how does it present itself in the cosmic counter-image? If we call this the surface of the earth (see drawing on page 278, circular line above), on which we live in such a way that we have our physical body and our etheric body lying in bed (left), our astral body and our ego outside (right), then in the cosmos we have to deal with the fact that the sun stands behind the earthly, that the earth must first allow the sun's rays to pass through it until they reach us. Everything solar is covered by the earth.

You see, in all the ancient mysteries there was a certain teaching which, when one becomes aware of its content, actually makes a deeply shattering impression. The one who has been initiated into an ancient mystery, who has become a disciple, who has gradually entered the science of initiation, who at a certain stage of his inner development came to characterize the impressions he received in such a way - now, my dear friends, pay attention to how I now speak before you the monologue of such an ancient initiate, which he could have spoken after reaching a certain stage of initiation - such an initiate would have said something like this: When I stand out in the open field during the day, directing my foreboding gaze upwards, giving myself over to the impressions of the senses, I see the sun. I perceive it in its dazzling strength at noon, and I sense and see behind the dazzling strength of the sun at noon the working of spiritual beings of the second hierarchy in the solar. Before my initiation, the solar nature disappeared with the setting of the sun in the evening. In the appearance of the evening glow, the shining of the sun disappeared. And before my initiation I went through the night way, in that darkness became around me, and in the morning I remembered this darkness when the dawn came and out of the dawn the sun appeared again to make its way to the dazzling brightness of noon. But now, after I have attained initiation, it is like this: when I experience the dawn, and the sun from the dawn again prepares for its daytime course, the memory of the nocturnal life awakens in me. I know what I experienced during the night life. I remember quite clearly that I saw how gradually a bluish glimmering light continued from the evening twilight from the west to the east, and how I saw, what I now remember exactly, at the midnight hour the sun at the opposite point of the sky, opposite the point where it was in its brilliant noon strength, in its glow, which is so morally impressive, behind the earth. I have seen the sun at midnight.

Such a monologue, corresponding to the full truth, has certainly been uttered by such initiates in their meditation. For this speaking of such a monologue was nothing other than bringing to consciousness that which was there. And when we read Jakob Böhme in a book he wrote: “The Dawn at Rising”, then we can gain the shattering impression that these words, which are written in the book “The Dawn at Rising”, are the remnants of a wonderful old teaching.

What is the “Dawn at Rising” for initiates? The “dawn in the rising” is the cause of cosmic remembrance of seeing the sun at midnight behind the earth, covered by the earth, glowing through the earth. When we see the yellow-white sun disk shining brightly at noon in ordinary viewing, in initiated viewing we see the bluish-violet sun at the opposite point of the sky, in that the earth appears to us like a transparent body through which the whitish-yellow sun disk of noon, colored bluish-reddish on the other side, appears glowing. But this bluish-reddish glowing appearance - I must pronounce the paradoxical word - is not what it is. It is really as if, by looking at this sun at midnight, we were first looking at something that is indistinct in the distance. And when, with initiation, we become accustomed to looking more and more closely at that which at first appears indistinct, as if in the distance, with the initiated gaze, then that which is a bluish-reddish glow will take on more and more shape and form, spreading out over the whole of the averted sky covered by the earth, which will become populated. And just as, when we step out of our house on a starlit night, we are granted the majestic sight of the starry sky with its individual sparkling, shining points, and the moon perhaps appears in the middle, so the initiated gaze on the averted side will see a whole world appearing through the earth that has become transparent, rising up as if from clouds that form themselves into life-shaped figures: All that which lives in the second Hierarchy, in the world of the Exusiai, Kyriotetes, Dynamis - there they appear, these Beings!

And if we watch more and more closely, if we can gain the peace of mind to watch - and the whole thing takes place after preparations, after meditation preparations, because it actually becomes conscious in the dawn, in the after-remembering, but there you have it in front of you, so that you know you have seen it during the night - then another thing takes place. It is as if from what appears there on the far side of the earth, what I am indicating here in such a cloud-like drawing (light-purple, red and blue), - that is definitely all the weaving, wafting world of the entities of the second Hierarchy, as if from this weaving, wafting world of the second Hierarchy a world of other entities radiates out, as it were. I want to indicate schematically what radiates out of it, radiates through the earth at first (yellow). Oh, this is really a world of beings which in this constellation, in this nocturnal constellation, works through the earth in such a way that it floats, as it were, in its existence towards man, floats away - back again! We see the beings of the second Hierarchy, as it were weaving in this line, being released, continually releasing another Hierarchy, floating up and down, towards man, back again. And we gradually get to know that which is actually there.

We have lived consciously all day and are now asleep. In other words, our physical and etheric bodies lie asleep, dependent on each other, working like a mineral and vegetable world. But we have been thinking all day, ideas have passed through our human being all day, they have left their traces in the physical and etheric body. In the morning we would not remember what the experiences of our earthly existence were if the traces of the impressions that we then bring up in our memories had not remained behind. There they are, these traces, in what remains of man in his bed at night, from which he has departed. A strange event takes place in the etheric body in particular: The reverberation, aftermath, after-vibration, after-wave of that which the human being has thought while awake from morning to evening.

And if you take that which sleeps over an earthly surface on the earth, what is weaving in these etheric bodies - let us now only take the etheric bodies for now - what is weaving in these etheric bodies and west as echoes of that which all these sleeping people, who are asleep over an earthly surface, have thought: these are images of that which has gone on during the daytime hours on earth.

And those beings who float up and down are occupied during our sleeping hours with what has remained as traces in our etheric body. That becomes their world. That becomes their world, which is their experience now, which occupies them. And we realize the fact before which we stand in shy awe: You have left your body in bed - there it is. It bears the traces of daily life. It is the field of your imaginary fruits of the day. The beings of the third hierarchy, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, enter this field. In there, while you are outside your physical and etheric body, they experience that which has been experienced by humans in imagination during the waking hours of the day.

And we look in shy reverence at such an earthly surface, in which human bodies are left behind in sleep, and wander towards that which takes place there as echoes of daytime life: Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. And we see a wonderful life developing before us, which takes place between the beings of the third hierarchy and the traces of thought we have left behind.

We look at this field and hear how we as human beings are placed in the spiritual cosmos: that we create work for the angels for our sleeping hours while we are awake. Yes, we create work for the angels for the hours of sleep while we are awake.

And now we realize something about our world of thoughts. Now this opens up to us about our thought world: Yes, these thoughts that go through your mind, they contain the fruits that you sink into your own etheric body and physical body, which angels pluck during the nighttime in order to carry them out into the cosmos and incorporate them into the world's effects there.

Another thing we see. While we see that these Beings of the Third Hierarchy, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, thus float out of the Beings of the Second Hierarchy and their work, we see how behind the weaving (see drawing page 278, light purple, below) Beings of special majesty and greatness join the work of the Second Hierarchy. We look at the bluish-red forms of the beings of the second Hierarchy, but we see how from behind this weaving and life of the second Hierarchy another plays into it, and we soon realize that this partly strikes like lightning (red) into the weaving and being of the second Hierarchy, but now also strikes through into the turned away part of the earth and now has to do not with that which has remained in the bed, but with that which has emerged with our ego organization and our astral body,

And just as one can look at that which has remained in the bed, as at a field where the thought-fruits of human daily activity are plucked by the angels, archangels and elemental forces for the cosmic world activity, we can see how the beings of the second hierarchy, Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, and of the first hierarchy, Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, connect their work together with our astral body and with our ego.

Then the initiate says to himself in the morning recollection: "I lived with my ego and with my astral body from the time I fell asleep until I woke up. There I felt as if woven into, as if incorporated into that which seraphim, cherubim and thrones work together with kyriotetes, dynamis, exusiai. I am within it, and there I look over to my physical body and etheric body: there I see woven over it the yellowish-white working of the beings of the third Hierarchy, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, who nurture my thought-fruits. I know myself to be connected with the beings of the first and second hierarchy. Looking in mighty clouds of spirit above my body, which I have left, I behold the weaving and being of the third Hierarchy.

And so, my dear friends, you can get a concrete idea of how in the initiatory vision the beings of the three Hierarchies appear imaginatively-pictorially within the image of the physical world, only when this physical world is shrouded in night, on the far side of the earth. And we can imagine that the knowledge, the perception of these sublime facts became more and more ingrained in the hearts and souls of those who were once partakers of the ancient science of initiation.

It can again settle into the hearts and souls of those who are introduced to the modern science of initiation.

But let us imagine that this mighty imagination steps before the human soul, steps before the human soul in such a way that one must now express its existence in the following way. Imagine the human soul, body-free, liberated from the physical and etheric body, weaving in the emanations of the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai. Let us imagine that in a plastic structure, endowed with colors (see drawing), this would have been represented in an ancient mystery for the multitude who were not initiated; one would have tried to depict plastically that which the initiate saw in such majestic grandeur from the opposite side of the earth. And in order to show that this is at the same time the world in which karma is worked out with the beings of the two highest hierarchies, the highest initiates were placed next to this sculpture, those who during their earthly existence were already partakers of that vision into which man otherwise enters between death and a new birth. And so the highest initiates stand in front of it (upper circles).

Then another sculpture was erected with human images around it. There they placed the somewhat lower initiates (lower circles), those who still had to deal with the human physical and etheric body.

And by inserting the humans into this representation, they had an image of what was seen by the initiates in the mysteries. This was the beginning of the altar, which is framed towards the front and at which the ritual act is performed by the high and low priesthood, as an image of that which can be seen by the science of initiation. And even today, when you go into Catholic churches, if you look out of the nave of the church towards the altar, you have a faint image of what was once inaugurated there through initiation science, and you get an impression of the origin of a cult. A cult does not come into being by being thought up, for then it is not a cult. A cult is created by the fact that it is the image of that which takes place in the spiritual world.

I would like to use just one example, I would like to say, in addition to this cult, which represents the most comprehensive act of consecration, which I will not discuss now, if I take just a small excerpt from the cult that has already entered the Community for Christian Renewal and which most of you probably know: if I place before you the memory of what you have seen as a cult of the dead - as a cult at a cremation, where most of you were present, or at a funeral service - this cult, formed in the sense of our Christian community, what is it?

You see it passing, the ritual. You see the coffin in front, containing the earthly remains of the deceased. You see a certain cult taking place in front of it. You hear prayer-like formulas spoken by the priest. It could be even more complicated, but in its simplicity, as it is now, that which is to be conquered through it can already be conquered for humanity. What is that?

My dear friends, if there is a mirror here, any object or being, you see the reflection in it. You have two, the being and the reflection. So you have two when a cult of the dead takes place. That which is the cult held by the priest before the coffin is only a mirror image. It is a real reflection and would not be a reality if it were not a reflection. What does it reflect? That which the priest does here by standing before the corpse, performing his cult, has its original image in the adjacent supersensible world, where, while we perform the earthly cult here before the physical body and the etheric body that is actually still present, the heavenly cult is performed by the other side, by the beings of the other side of existence, where the soul-spiritual is received with the receiving cult, just as we stand here before the corpse with the farewell cult. Only then is a cult a truth if it has this real origin.

And so you see how the supernatural life plays into earthly life, how the supernatural life is everywhere. If we practise a true cult of the dead, the supernatural way of acting corresponds to this cult of the dead. This works together. And if there is devotion, truth and dignity in the prayer for the dead, then the prayers of the beings of the higher hierarchies in the supersensible world resound in the prayer for the dead. They vibrate with it. The spiritual world and the physical world play together.

The spiritual world and the physical world play together everywhere. This is how it interacts in the most real way when the image of that which is woven in the supernatural between death and new birth appears in the earthly world with the beings of the higher hierarchies: karma.