Karmic Relationships III
GA 237
4 July 1924, Dornach
II. Forces of Karmic Preparation in the Cosmos
Today I shall have to say some more of how the karmic forces of preparation undergo their further course of evolution when man has passed through the gate of death. So far as the ordinary consciousness is concerned, the forming of karma, and indeed that whole intercourse with the world which we call ‘karmic,’ takes place in the human being in a more instinctive way. We see the animals act ‘instinctively.’ Words like ‘instinct,’ which are used so frequently in science and every-day life, are generally applied in a vague and undefined way. People make no real effort to associate them with clear conceptions. What is it that we call instinct in the animals? We know that the animals have a Group-soul. The animal, such as it is, is not a self-contained being. The Group-soul is standing there behind it. Now to what world does the Group-soul belong? We must first answer this question: Where do we find the Group-souls of the animals? They are certainly not to be found here in the physical world of sense. Here we have only the single individual animals. We do not find the Group-souls of the animals until, by Initiation or in the ordinary course of human evolution between death and a new birth, we come into that altogether different world which man passes through between his successive earthly lives. There indeed we find, among the beings with whom we are then together, including above all those of whom I have been speaking to you, those with whom we elaborate our karma,—there we find the Group-souls of the animals. And the animals that are here on the earth, when they act instinctively, they act out of the full consciousness of the Group-souls.
You may conceive it thus, my dear friends. (Dr. Steiner here made a drawing on the blackboard). Here we have the realm in which we live between death and a new birth; and out of it there work the forces which proceed from the Group-souls of the animals. And here upon this earth we have the single animals which act and move about, guided as it were by threads which pass to the Group-souls—the beings whom we ourselves discover in the realm between death and a new birth. Such in truth is instinct.
It is obvious that a materialistic world-conception cannot explain instinct, for instinct is:—to act out of that sphere of being which you will find described as Spirit-land in my Theosophy for example, and in my Occult Science.
For man however it is different. Man too has instinct, but when he acts through his instinct, he is not acting out of yonder Spirit-realm, but out of his own former lives on earth. He is acting across time, out of his former earthly lives, out of a whole number of former lives on earth.
As the spiritual realm works upon the animals, causing them to act instinctively, so do the former incarnations of man work on his later incarnations in such a way that he instinctively lives out his karma. But this is a spiritual instinct—an instinct that works within the Ego.
It is just by understanding this, that we shall come to understand the absolute consistency of this instinctive working with human freedom. For the freedom of man proceeds from the very realm out of which the animals act instinctively, namely the realm of the spirit.
Today we will concern ourselves especially with the way in which this instinct is gradually prepared when man passes through the gate of death. Here in earthly life, as we have seen, the inner experience of karma is instinctive. It takes its course beneath the surface of consciousness; but the moment we pass through the gate of death we become objectively conscious, during the first few days, of all the experiences which we first underwent on earth. We have them before us in ever expanding pictures; and what we thus behold as a great tableau of our life contains, in addition, all that took place instinctively in the working of our karma.
When man passes through the gate of death, and his life, expanding ever more and more, is unfolded before his eyes, there goes with it all that was instinctive, of which he was not conscious in his life—the web of karma. He does not actually see it in the first days after death. But what he would otherwise perceive only in pale images of memory, this he now beholds vividly as a living configuration, nor does he fail to perceive that something more is contained in it than ordinary memory. And if we look with the vision of Initiation on all that the human being has before him at this stage, we can describe it as follows:
The man himself, who has passed through the gate of death having possessed the ordinary consciousness during his earthly life, sees his life spread out before him as a mighty panorama. But he sees it only ‘from in front.’ The vision of Initiation sees it also from the other side—‘from behind,’ as it were. The human being himself sees it only from the one side. With the vision of the Initiate we can see it ‘from behind,’ and then the whole web of karmic relationships springs forth from it. We behold this web of karmic relationships arising to begin with from the Thoughts, that lived within the Will during the man's earthly life. But immediately something else enters into it, my dear friends.
I have often emphasised the fact:—The thoughts we experience consciously during our earthly life are dead thoughts. But the thoughts that are woven into our karma, the thoughts that now emerge, are living. Thus—on the ‘other side,’ as it were, of the panorama of our life—the living thoughts spring forth. And now, (this is a fact of untold significance)—now the Beings of the Third Hierarchy draw near, and receive what is springing forth from the ‘other side’ of the panorama. Angels, Archangels and Archai draw it into themselves, they breathe it in!
This takes place during the time when man ascends on his way upward, after death, to the end of the Moon Sphere. Thereafter he enters the Moon Sphere, and his backward journey through his life begins, lasting—as we know—a third of the time he spent on earth, or—to speak more accurately—lasting for the same length of time as the periods of sleep which he spent while he was on the earth.
I have often described how this backward journey through life takes place. We may now ask ourselves: What is man's condition in ordinary sleep, in relation to the condition in which he finds himself directly after death? Normally when he goes to sleep, man as a being of soul and spirit is only in his astral body and his Ego. He has not his etheric body with him, for this has remained behind in the bed. Hence his thoughts remain unliving; they have no active power, they are mere pictures. But when he passes through the gate of death, to begin with he takes his etheric body with him, and the etheric body begins to expand. Now the etheric body has a life-giving quality, not only for the physical existence, but for the thoughts themselves. By this means the thoughts can become alive, inasmuch as man has taken his etheric body with him. The etheric body, as it frees itself, carries forth the living thoughts from man to the Angels, Archangels and Archai, who in their Divine Grace receive the thoughts.
This, if I may so describe it, is the first Act that is unfolded in the life between death and a new birth. Beyond the threshold of death, the Beings of the Third Hierarchy approach that which loosens itself from the human being—which is entrusted to his etheric body as it dissolves away. The Beings of the Third Hierarchy receive it into Their care. And we as human beings on the earth utter a simple and good, a wonderful and beautiful prayer, when we think of the connection of life and death, or of one who has passed through the gate of death, in this way, saying:—
Angels, Archangels and Archai in the Ether-weaving
receive the human being's Web of Destiny.
For as we say these words we turn our eyes to a real spiritual fact. Much depends upon it, whether human beings on the earth think the spiritual facts or not: whether they merely accompany the Dead with thoughts that remain behind on the earth, or accompany them on their further path with thoughts which are a true image of what takes place in yonder realm which they have entered.
This, my dear friends, appears so infinitely desirable to Initiate Science:—That thoughts shall be within the earthly life, which are a true image of real spiritual happenings. By merely thinking in theories—enumerating so many higher members of the human being, and the like,—we achieve no union with the spiritual world. We can only do so by thinking the realities that are enacted there.
Therefore, human hearts should be ready to hear once more, what human hearts did hear in the old ages of Initiation, in the ancient Mysteries, when they called out impressively, again and again, to those who were about to be initiated:—‘Accompany the Dead in their further Destinies!’ ‘Memento mori’ is all that is left of it now, a more or less abstract exhortation which no longer affects the human being deeply. For it no longer expands his consciousness into a life more living than this life in the world of the senses.
Now the reception of the human web of destiny by Angels, Archangels and Archai, unfolds before us in this wise:—we have the impression: it lives and moves and has its being in the bluish-violet ethereal atmosphere. It is a living and weaving in the bluish-violet atmosphere of the ether.
When the etheric body is dissolved, that is, when the thoughts have been breathed-in by the Angels, Archangels and Archai, then, after a few days, man enters into that backward course of life which I have described to you. There he experiences his deeds, his impulses of will, his tendencies of thought, in the way in which they worked on other men, to whom he did either good or evil. He enters right into the minds and feelings of other men. He does not live in his own mind. With the clear consciousness that it is his concern, he undergoes all that took place in the depths of other human beings' souls, with whom he entered into any kind of karmic relationship,—to whom he did anything whatever good or ill. And once again it shows itself, how that which the human being thus experiences is received. He experiences it in fullness of reality—a reality, which I had to describe not long ago as a reality more real than that of the senses between birth and death. He experiences a reality in the midst of which he stands more fully, more glowingly than in any reality of this earthly life down here.
But if we look at it once more with the vision and insight of Initiation from the ‘other side,’ we see all this, which the human being experiences, received into the essence, into the reality and being of the Kyriotetes, Dynamis and Exusiai. They draw into themselves, as it were, the ‘Negative’ of the human deeds. This wondrous process unfolds before the vision of the Initiate. The consequences of man's actions, transformed in righteousness and justice, are taken up into the Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes.
Now the vision of all this transplants him who has it into such a consciousness that he knows himself to be in the centre of the Sun and with it of the whole Planetary system. From the aspect of the Sun he beholds what is now taking place. He sees a lilac-coloured living and weaving; he sees the Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes absorbing the human deeds, transformed into righteousness, in the living and weaving of a pale violet, lilac-coloured astral atmosphere.
Here, you see, we have the truth:—the aspect of the Sun as it appears to earthly man is only the one side, it is seen here from the periphery. From the centre the Sun is seen as the field of action for the living spiritual deeds of Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes. There it is all spiritual action, spiritual happening. There we find as it were the ‘other side’ of the pictures of that earthly life which we experienced consciously here between birth and death.
Once again we can think truly of what is happening there. We must think of the word ‘verwesen’ which is ordinarily used for the fading, dying, destroying process, the passing out of existence,—in its true and original meaning, which is: ‘to carry the real Being away.’ (As when we say ‘to forgive’ or ‘to forego,’ which means in reality a ‘giving away’ in devotion).
Thinking thus we may say:
In Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes, in the astral
feeling of the Cosmos the righteous consequences of
the earthly life of man die into the realm of Being.
At length, this too has been accomplished. Man after death has lived through a third of the time of his earthly life. Journeying backward, he feels himself once more at the starting point of his earthly life—in the spaces of the Spirit—at the moment before his entry into his past earthly life. And now, we may say, he enters through the centre of the Sun into the essential Spirit-land, and in the Spirit-land his earthly deeds—transformed into the Divine Righteousness—are received into the activity of the first Hierarchy. They come into the domain of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. Man feels, as he steps out into this new kingdom:—‘All that took place through me on earth is now being received by Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, into their own active Being.’
Consider well what this means, my dear friends. We are thinking truly of what happens to the Dead in his further life after death, if we cherish the thought: The web of destiny which he wove here on earth, is caught up, to begin with, by the Angels, Archangels and Archai. In the next part of the life between death and new birth, They bear it into the kingdom of Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes. These in turn are gathered in and woven around by the Beings of the first Hierarchy. And in the process, ever and again, man's action upon earth is received into the Being—into the Deeds of Being, into the living Action—of Thrones and Cherubim and Seraphim.
Once again we are thinking rightly if to the first and the second saying we now add the third, which is as follows:—
In Thrones and Cherubim and Seraphim, as their
Deeds of Being, the justly transmuted ‘fruits of the
earthly life’ of man are resurrected.
Thus we can turn the gaze of Initiation upon what is going on perpetually in the spiritual world. Here on earth we have the unfolding life and action of men with their instinct of karma, their ceaseless weaving of destiny—a weaving more or less similar to the weaving of thought. Looking up into the spiritual worlds, we see there what were once the earthly deeds of man—having passed through Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes—received by the Thrones and Cherubim and Seraphim, expanding as their heavenly Deeds above.
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Es empfangen Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai im Aetherweben das Schicksalsnetz des betreffenden Menschen.
Angels, Archangels and Archai in the Ether-weaving receive his Web of Destiny.
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Es verwesen in Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes—im Astralempfinden des Kosmos—die gerechten Folgen des Erdenlebens des Menschen.
In Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, in the astral feeling of the Cosmos, the righteous consequences of his earthly life die into the realm of Being.
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Es auferstehen in Thronen, Cherubim, Seraphim—als deren Tatenwesen—die gerechten Ausgestaltungen des Erdenlebens des Menschen.
In Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim, as their Deeds of Being, the justly transmuted fruits of his earthly life are resurrected.
This is a succession of spiritual facts infinitely sublime and significant especially for our present age. For the dominion of Michael has now begun, and in this world-historic moment it is as though we could behold the deeds of those who lived upon earth before the end of Kali-Yuga, in the 1880's and 90's. That which was then enacted among men on earth, has now been received by Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim. Yet never was the spiritual contrast-of-light so great as it is to-day, in the realm of these spiritual facts.
In the 1880's one could look upward and see how the people of the Revolution period of the middle of the 19th century, were received as to their deeds by Thrones and Cherubim and Seraphim. But as one looked, a kind of darkling cloud settled over the middle of the 19th century. What one then saw passing into the realm of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, lighted up only a very little.
But today, when we look back to all that took place at the end of the 19th century—the deeds of men, their relations to one another,—having seen it clearly still, only a short time ago, it vanishes away ... We saw it clearly still, a moment since,—all that took place in that declining age of Kali-Yuga,—like thought-masses wafted away before our eyes ... We saw what was worked out in destiny among the human beings of the end of Kali-Yuga. And then it vanishes, and we behold in clear, radiant light what became of it as it passed heavenward.
This fact bears witness to the immense importance of what is taking place at the present time in the transmutation of the earthly deeds of men into the heavenly deeds of souls.
What man experiences as his destiny or karma takes place for him, within him and about him, from earthly life to earthly life. But in the heavenly worlds the consequences of what he did and experienced on earth go working on—and they work on even into the historic shaping of this earthly life. For there are many things which are not grasped or controlled by the individual human being here upon earth.
My dear friends, you must take this statement in its full weight and importance. The individual man experiences his destiny. But as soon as two human beings are working together, something more arises,—more than the working out of the individual destinies of the one and of the other. Something takes place as between the two, transcending the individual experiences of either. Ordinary consciousness perceives no connection of what happens between man and man, with what goes on in the spiritual worlds above. For ordinary consciousness the connection is at most established when sacred spiritual actions are brought into this physical world of sense,—as when in sacred cult or ritual men consciously transform their physical actions so as to make them actions of the spiritual world at the same time.
But in a far wider sphere, all that happens between man and man is more than what the individual man experiences as his destiny. All that is not merely the destiny of individual men, but that is brought about by the feeling-together and working-together of men on earth, is for ever in connection with the deeds of Seraphim and Cherubim and Thrones above. Into the latter there flow the deeds of men in their mutual connection with one another, as well as the individual earthly lives of men.
Most important at this point is the wider range of vision that opens out for the Initiate. For today as we look upward we behold the heavenly deeds and consequences of what took place on earth in the late 70's, the 80's and 90's of last century. And it is as though a fine spiritual rain were falling, falling to the earth, moistening the souls of men, impelling them to many things that arise historically in our time, in the relations between man and man.
Once more we can see, how there lives again today in living mirror-images of thought—through Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones—what was enacted here on earth by men of the 1870's, 80's and 90's.
When one sees through these things, again and again one must say to oneself:—Here you are speaking to a human being of today. What he says to you out of the commonly accepted opinion—not from his own emotions or inner impulses but simply as a person of this age—seems often as though it stood in connection with human beings who lived in the 70's, 80's and 90's of last century. It is so really. We see many a human being of today as though he were in a meeting of departed spirits, surrounded by human beings who are busily at work upon him. But in reality they are only the after-images, rained down from heaven, of what lived through human beings upon earth in the last third of the 19th century.
Thus in a spiritual sense the shades—the real ghosts, I would say,—of a former age are roaming about in a later age. This is one of the more intimate workings of karma which are indeed widely present in the world, though they frequently remain unnoticed even by the most occult of occultists. To many a man of today, when he utters some opinion not individual but stereotyped, one would fain whisper in his ear: ‘That was said to you by this man or that, of the last third of the 19th century.’
Only so does life become a real totality. And in this respect once more we must say of the present age—the age that began with the end of the Kali-Yuga—that it is different from all historic ages preceding it. It is different in this sense, that in very truth the human deeds on earth in the last third of the 19th century have the greatest imaginable influence on the first third of the 20th.
My dear friends, I am saying something far removed from any superstitious use of words. I say it with the full consciousness of voicing an exact and scientific fact:—Never before did the ghosts of the preceding age move about among men so palpably as they do in this present time. And if men fail to perceive them, it is not because we are living in an age of darkness. Rather is it that they are still dazzled by the light of the new Age of Light. But as a consequence, what is done among us by the shades of the past century is an all the more fruitful field for the people of Ahriman. Though man is unaware of it, the people of Ahriman are working today in a more than usually evil way. They are at pains—if I may so describe it—to galvanize into Ahrimanic life as many as possible of these ghosts of the past century and bring them to bear upon the human beings of today. This Ahrimanic quality of our age is fostered most of all when societies are formed to popularise erroneous ideas of the 19th century—Ideas which, for all men of insight, are out of date and discarded. There never was a time when amateurish persons popularised the outlived errors of the past to the extent they do today. Indeed we have opportunities on all hands today, to acquaint ourselves with the essential nature of the deeds of Ahriman. We need only visit many a meeting where people are working out of the ordinary consciousness. We have many an opportunity to learn to know the Ahrimanism in the world today, for it is at work most strongly. By the very path which I have now described, it hinders people from receiving into their hearts and souls what must come forth anew, what was not there before,—what is coming to the light of day in Anthroposophy.
How happy men are when they can somehow contrive to cover up the New, that is coming forth in Anthroposophy today, with some old saying. How contented they are, if in some lecture that I give something occurs of which they can subsequently prove: ‘Look, here it is in an old book!’ In reality, of course, it is there in quite a different form, coming out of altogether different foundations of consciousness. The people of today have so little courage to receive what grows on the soil of the living present. Their minds are set at rest as soon as they can bring something forward out of the past.
It shows, my dear friends, how powerfully the impulses of the past work upon the men of the present time,—how contented they feel under these influences. It is due to the fact that the 19th century is working still so strongly into the 20th. Future historians—who will write their descriptions spiritually, as we write ours today by reference to outer documents,—future historians will have to describe this feature above all, and they may well express it in some such words as these:—‘Look at the first three decades of the 20th century. Nearly everything appears as though it were being done by the shades, the images of deeds of men of the end of the 19th century.’
At this point I may perhaps say a word that is truly not intended in any political sense. Politics must be eliminated altogether from our Society. May I say this word, my dear friends, simply as a characterisation of the facts:—We can look back on the stupendous, revolutionising actions—or rather, happenings, I should have said, for they were not really active deeds,—which took place notably in the second decade of the 20th century. It has been said so often that it has become a truism. Since time has been, since men have written history, such world-shaking events have not happened. But are not men standing in the midst of them as though they were not there at all? We see it everywhere,—it is as though the revolutionising events were taking place outside the human beings, and the latter had no part in them at all. Almost every man we meet today, we would fain ask of him: ‘Did you really live through the second decade of this century?’ And how much more do we feel it when we look at it from a somewhat different point of view! How helpless, how infinitely helpless do the human beings seem today—helpless in judgment, helpless in action. Never were there such difficulties as there are today in filling the ministerial benches—the Cabinets! Consider only how curious this is,—how helpless men are in the midst of the events. At long last we are impelled to raise the question, who then is doing anything? Who is playing an active part? My dear friends, more than any of the men of the present time, it is the men of the last third of the 19th century! Their shadow-forces are to be seen at work in everything.
This is the very secret of our time. Never were the Dead so powerful as are the Dead of the last third of the 19th century. This too is a world-aspect of realities.
When we enter into the spiritual content of these things in a single instance, we often come to strange conclusions. I recently had to consider whether I would alter this or that in the new edition of my books, written in the 70's, 80's and 90's of last century. The pedants of today declare: Everything has altered, the scientific theories and hypotheses of that time are out-of-date and long ago discarded. But when we look at it from a standpoint of reality, we can alter nothing at all! For in reality, behind everyone who writes a book today, or lectures from a professional chair, there stands the shade, the shadow-picture of another. There they still are,—the Du Bois Reymonds, the Helmholtzes, the Haeckels,—all those who were the spokesmen of that time, (in medicine the Obholzers, the Billroths and the rest)—they are still speaking.
Here we are lifting a corner of the veil, a secret of the present time. Initiate Science says in all truth: ‘Never were the Dead so mighty as in our age!’
This is what I wish to insert today in the course of our studies on karma.
Zweiter Vortrag
Ich werde heute noch einiges darüber anzudeuten haben, wie die karmischen Vorbereitungskräfte im Menschen dann weiter ihre Entwickelung durchmachen, wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist. Wir müssen uns ja vorstellen, daß für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein die Sache so liegt, daß die Bildung des Karma, jener Verkehr überhaupt mit der Welt, den man karmisch nennen kann, sich im Menschen mehr instinktiv abspielt. Wir sehen die Tiere instinktiv handeln. Gerade solche Worte, die sehr häufig innerhalb und außerhalb der Wissenschaft gebraucht werden, wie Instinkt, werden ja gewöhnlich in ganz unbestimmter Weise gebraucht. Man gibt sich keine Mühe, etwas Deutlicheres darunter sich vorzustellen. Was ist denn eigentlich bei den Tieren dasjenige, was man Instinkt nennt?
Wir wissen, die Tiere haben eine Gruppenseele. Das Tier ist ja, so wie es ist, kein abgeschlossenes Wesen, sondern dahinter steht die Gruppenseele. Welcher Welt gehört denn eigentlich die Gruppenseele an? Da muß man die Frage beantworten: Wo findet man die Gruppenseelen der Tiere? Hier in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt findet man die Gruppenseelen der Tiere ja nicht, hier sind nur die einzelnen Individuen der Tiere. Man findet die Gruppenseelen der Tiere erst, wenn man entweder durch Initiation oder im gewöhnlichen Verlauf der menschlichen Entwickelung zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt in die ganz andere Welt hineinkommt, die der Mensch zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt durchmacht. Da findet man unter den Wesenheiten, mit denen man dann zusammen ist und unter denen ja vorzugsweise diejenigen sind, die ich angeführt habe als solche, mit denen man das Karma ausarbeitet, die Gruppenseelen der Tiere. Und die Tiere, die hier auf dieser Erde sind, handeln, wenn sie instinktiv handeln, aus dem vollen Bewußtsein dieser Gruppenseelen heraus. So können Sie sich vorstellen, meine lieben Freunde, wie, wenn wir, schematisch gezeichnet, hier das Reich haben, in dem wir zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt leben (siehe Zeichnung, gelb), die Kräfte wirken, die von den Gruppenseelen der Tiere ausgehen (blau). Die sind da drinnen auch. Und hier auf dieser Erde sind dann die einzelnen Tiere, die wirken, indem sie gewissermaßen an den Fäden gezogen werden, die zu den Gruppenseelen hingehen, die man in dem Reiche zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt findet. Das ist Instinkt.
Es ist ganz natürlich, daß eine materialistische Weltanschauung den Instinkt nicht erklären kann, weil der Instinkt ein Handeln aus dem heraus ist, was Ste zum Beispiel in meinem Buche « Theosophie» und in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß» als «Geisterland» bezeichnet finden. Beim Menschen ist das anders. Der Mensch hat auch einen Instinkt, aber er handelt, wenn er hier ist, durch diesen Instinkt nicht aus diesem Reiche heraus, sondern er handelt aus seinen früheren Erdenleben heraus, über die Zeit hinaus aus seinen früheren Erdenleben, aus einer Anzahl früherer Erdenleben (rot). Wie das geistige Reich auf die Tiere in der Art wirkt, daß sie instinktiv handeln, so wirken die früheren Inkarnationen des Menschen auf die späteren Inkarnationen so, daß das Karma einfach instinktmäßig ausgelebt wird, aber es ist ein geistiger Instinkt, es ist ein Instinkt, der innerhalb des Ich wirkt. Gerade wenn man dies ins Auge faßt, wird man die absolut widerspruchslose Vereinigung dieses Instinktwirkens mit der menschlichen Freiheit ins Auge fassen. Denn die Freiheit wirkt aus dem Gebiete heraus, aus dem die Tiere instinktiv wirken: aus dem Geisterreiche heraus.
Nun wird es sich uns aber heute viel mehr darum handeln, wie dieser Instinkt sich vorbereitet, wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes geht. Hier im Erdenleben ist das karmische Erleben eben instinktiv, es spielt sich sozusagen unter der Oberfläche des Bewußtseins ab. In dem Augenblicke, wo wir durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, wird alles das, was wir zunächst auf Erden erlebt haben, während weniger Tage ja objektiv bewußt; wir haben es vor uns in sich immer vergrößernden Bildern. Da geht mit dem, was wir da überschauen, auch dasjenige mit, was sich instinktiv im karmischen Walten abgespielt hat. So daß also, wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet und das Leben, sich immer mehr vergrößernd (siehe Zeichnung, gelb) vor seinem Anblick sich abspielt, mit alledem auch dasjenige mitgeht, was ihm nur instinktiv, nicht bewußt war: das ganze karmische Gewebe (blau). Das sieht er nicht gleich in den nächsten Tagen nach dem Tode, aber er sieht allerdings das, was er sonst nur in der blassen Erinnerung überblickt, in lebendiger Gestaltung; er sieht zum Beispiel, daß da schon etwas anderes drinnen ist als die gewöhnliche Erinnerung. Wenn man dann mit dem Initiationsblick überschaut, was da der Mensch vor sich hat, so kann man folgendes ausführen.
Der Mensch selbst, der gestorben ist und das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein gehabt hat während des Erdenlebens, sieht ja sozusagen dasjenige, was er da vor sich hat als sein Erdenleben in einem mächtigen Panorama, das sieht er ja sozusagen von vorne (siehe Zeichnung, blau). Mit dem Initiationsblick kann man es auch von der anderen Seite, von rückwärts anschauen (gelb), dann sprießt da heraus das Netz der karmischen Zusammenhänge. Da sieht man es dann, dieses Netz der karmischen Zusammenhänge, die ja zunächst noch aus Gedanken gesponnen sind, die in dem Willen während des Erdenlebens gelebt haben - da kommt es heraus.
Aber jetzt gliedert sich gleich ein anderes an, meine lieben Freunde. Ich habe es Ihnen ja oftmals betont: die Gedanken, die man während des Erdenlebens bewußt durchlebt, sind tot; diejenigen Gedanken aber, die ins Karma hineinverwoben sind, und die da herauskommen, sie sind lebendig. So daß nach dem Rückwärts der Lebensüberschau lebendige Gedanken heraussprießen. Und jetzt ist das ungeheuer Bedeutsame und Wesenhafte dieses, daß nun die Wesen der dritten Hierarchie herankommen und das, was da aufsprießt, ich möchte sagen von der Hinterseite der Lebensüberschau, in Empfang nehmen. Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai saugen gewissermaßen dasjenige auf, was da aufsprießt, atmen es auf.
Das geschieht während der Zeit, während welcher der Mensch sich hinauflebt bis zum Ende der Mondsphäre. Dann tritt er ein in diese Mondsphäre, und die Rückwärtswanderung durch das Leben beginnt, die ein Drittel der Zeit dauert, die der Mensch auf der Erde durchlebt hat, die eigentlich, genauer gesprochen, so lange dauert, wie die Schlafenszeiten dauerten, die der Mensch auf der Erde verbracht hat.
Wie dieses Rückwärtsleben geschieht, habe ich Ihnen ja auch schon öfter dargestellt. Wir können uns aber zunächst fragen: Wenn der Mensch im gewöhnlichen Schlafe ist, wie ist er da im Verhältnis zu dem Zustande, in dem er so unmittelbar nach dem Tode ist? Ja, sehen Sie, wenn der Mensch in den gewöhnlichen Schlaf kommt, so ist er ja als geistig-seelisches Wesen nur in seinem Ich und in seinem astralischen Leibe. Er hat nicht seinen Ätherleib bei sich, der ist zurückgeblieben im Bette. Dadurch bleiben die Gedanken leblos, haben gar keine Wirkungsweise, sind Bilder. Jetzt, indem der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes geht, nimmt der Mensch zunächst seinen Ätherleib mit, der sich dann vergrößert, und der Ätherleib hat nun nicht nur für das physische Wesen das Belebende in sich, sondern auch für die Gedanken. Dadurch können die Gedanken lebendig werden, daß der Mensch eben seinen Ätherleib mitgenommen hat, der ja im Loslösen die lebendigen Gedanken hinausträgt von dem Menschen zu dem gnadenvollen Empfangen der Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai hin.
Das ist zunächst, ich möchte sagen, der erste Akt, der sich abspielt im Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, daß jenseits der Schwelle des Todes herankommen an das, was sich vom Menschen loslöst, was seinem sich auflösenden ätherischen Leibe anvertraut ist, die Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie, daß das in Empfang genommen wird von den Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie. Und wir verrichten als Menschen ein gutes, ein schönes, ein herrliches Gebet, wenn wir über den Zusammenhang des Lebens mit dem Tode oder über einen Verstorbenen so denken, daß wir sagen:
Es empfangen Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai im Ätherweben
das Schicksalsnetz des betreffenden Menschen.
Denn da schauen wir hin auf einen geistigen Tatbestand. Und es hängt schon etwas davon ab, ob Menschen geistige Tatbestände denken oder nicht, ob sie bloß mit Gedanken, die auf der Erde zurückbleiben, Tote begleiten, oder ob sie die Toten begleiten auf ihrem weiteren Wege mit Gedanken, die Abbilder sind dessen, was in jenem Reiche geschieht, in das der Tote eingetreten ist.
Das ist ja dasjenige, meine lieben Freunde, was der heutigen Initiationswissenschaft als so ungeheuer wünschenswert erscheint: daß innerhalb des Erdenlebens solches gedacht werde, was Abbild ist eines wirklichen geistigen Geschehens. Mit bloßem Theoriendenken, mit dem bloßen Denken darüber, daß der Mensch höhere Glieder hat, mit dem Aufzählen dieser höheren Glieder ist ja noch keine Verbindung hergestellt mit der geistigen Welt. Erst mit dem Denken von Realitäten, die sich in der geistigen Welt abspielen, ist eine solche Verbindung mit der geistigen Welt hergestellt.
Daher sollten es wiederum Herzen vernehmen können, was Herzen vernommen haben während der alten Initiationszeiten in den alten Mysterien, wo man den zu Initiierenden eindrucksvoll immer zugerufen hat: Macher mit die Schicksale der Toten! Es ist ja nur das mehr oder weniger abstrakt gewordene Wort davon geblieben: «Memento mori», das auf den gegenwärtigen Menschen nicht mehr in der tiefen Weise wirken kann, weil es eben abstrakt geworden ist, weil es nicht das Bewußtsein hinausdehnt in ein lebendigeres Leben, als es hier in der Sinneswelt ist.
Und was da der Empfang des menschlichen Schicksalsnetzes ist durch Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, das entwickelt sich so, daß man den Eindruck hat: das webt und lebt in violett-blauer Ätheratmosphäre. Es ist Weben und Leben in violett-blauer Ätheratmosphäre.
Und wenn sich der Ätherleib auflöst, das heißt, wenn die Gedanken eingeatmet sind von Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, dann tritt der Mensch nach einigen Tagen in dieses Zurückleben ein, wie ich es Ihnen geschildert habe. Da erlebt der Mensch seine Taten, seine Willensimpulse, seine Gedankenrichtungen so, wie sie gewirkt haben in den anderen Menschen, denen er irgend etwas Gutes oder Böses zugefügt hat. Er lebt sich ganz ein in die Gemüter der anderen Menschen, er lebt nicht in seinem eigenen Gemüte. Mit dem deutlichen Bewußtsein, daß er es ist, der mit diesen Dingen etwas zu tun hat, erlebt er die Erlebnisse, die in den Tiefen der Seelen der anderen Menschen vor sich gegangen sind, mit denen er in karmische Verbindung getreten ist, denen er überhaupt irgend etwas in Gutem oder Bösem zugefügt hat. Da zeigt es sich wieder, wie nunmehr dasjenige aufgenommen wird, was der Mensch so erlebt. Er erlebt es in voller Wirklichkeit, in einer Wirklichkeit, die ich ja schildern mußte als wirklicher noch als die Sinneswirklichkeit zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode. Er erlebt also eine Realität, in der er, ich möchte sagen, glutvoller drinnen steht als hier im Erdenleben.
Schaut man das wiederum mit dem Blick der Initiationseinsicht von der anderen Seite an, so sieht man, wie jetzt das, was da der Mensch erlebt, in die Wesenhaftigkeit, in die Realität der Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai aufgenommen wird. Die saugen die Negative der menschlichen Taten auf. Die durchdringen sich damit. Und dieser Blick, dieser Initiiertenblick, der nun auf dieses ganz Wunderbare hinschaut, wie der Menschen in Gerechtigkeit umgesetzte Tatenfolgen aufgesogen werden von Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, dieser ganze Anblick versetzt denjenigen, der ihn hat, in ein solches Bewußtsein, daß er sich weiß im Mittelpunkt der Sonne, und damit im Mittelpunkte des Planetensystems. Er schaut vom Gesichtspunkt der Sonne aus auf dasjenige, was geschieht. Und er sieht ein lilaartiges Weben und Leben, er sieht das Aufsaugen der in Gerechtigkeit umgesetzten Menschentaten durch Exusiai, Dynamis und Kyriotetes in dem Weben und Leben einer hellvioletten, einer lilafarbigen Astralatmosphäre.
Sehen Sie, da hat man die Wahrheit, daß der Sonnenanblick, so wie er sich dem Erdenmenschen darstellt, ja nur von der einen Seite her ist, von der Peripherie her. Vom Mittelpunkte erscheint die Sonne als das Feld, wo die Geisteswirkungen, die Taten von Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes vor sich gehen. Da ist alles geistige Tat, geistiges Ereignis. Da finden wir, ich möchte sagen, die Rückseite der Bilder des Erdenlebens, das wir hier zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode erleben.
Und wiederum denken wir in der richtigen Weise an dasjenige, was da geschieht, wenn wir den Gedanken so gestalten, daß wir das Wort, das gewöhnlich bloß für Verwehen, Vergehen, Verwelken, Vernichtetwerden gebraucht wird, in seiner eigentlichen Bedeutung nehmen. Wir haben das Wort «Wesen», wir haben das Wort «Geben». Wenn wir sagen: «Vergeben», so heißt das «Hingeben». Nur im Kartenspiel heißt es anders, aber in der naturgemäßen Sprache heißt es «FHingeben». Wenn wir sagen: «Verwesen», heißt es: das Wesen hinleiten. Mit diesem Bewußtsein bilden wir den Satz:
Es verwesen in Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes
im Astralempfinden des Kosmos
die gerechten Folgen des Erdenlebens des Menschen.
Dann, wenn dieses vollbracht ist, wenn der Mensch dieses Drittel des irdischen Lebens verlebt hat nach dem Tode, zurückgewandert ist, sich nun wiederum am Ausgangspunkte des Erdenlebens, aber im Geistesraum fühlt, in dem Momente vor seinem Eintritt in das Erdenleben, da tritt der Mensch, man kann sagen, durch den Mittelpunkt der Sonne in das eigentliche Geisterland ein. Da drinnen werden nun diese ins Gerechte umgesetzten Erdentaten aufgenommen in die Tätigkeit der ersten Hierarchie. Da gelangen sie in den Bereich der Seraphim, Cherubim und Throne. Da tritt der Mensch ein in ein Reich, bei dessen Betreten er fühlt: was auf der Erde durch mich geschehen ist, das nehmen in ihr eigenes Tatenwesen auf Seraphim, Cherubim und Throne, Bedenken Sie nur, meine lieben Freunde, wir denken richtig über dasjenige, was mit dem 'Toten vorgeht im weiteren Leben nach dem Tode, wenn wir den Gedanken hegen: Das, was er hier auf der Erde am Schicksalsnetz gesponnen hat, das wird zunächst aufgefangen von Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. Die tragen es hin, in dem nächsten Abschnitt zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, in den Bereich der Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. Diese werden umfangen, umsponnen von den Wesenheiten der ersten Hierarchie. Und immer wird in diesem Umspinnen, Umfangen in das Wesen, in das Tatenwesen, in das Tun der Throne, Cherubim und Seraphim des Menschen Tun auf Erden aufgenommen. Und wir denken wiederum richtig, wenn wir uns nun zu dem ersten und zu dem zweiten Satze den dritten hinzufügen:
Es auferstehen in Thronen, Cherubim, Seraphim
als deren Tatenwesen
die gerechten Ausgestaltungen des Erdenlebens des Menschen.
So daß, wenn man den Initiationsblick hinrichtet auf das, was fortwährend geschieht in der geistigen Welt, wir hier auf der Erde das Treiben der Menschen haben mit ihrem Karma-Instinkte, mit dem, was sich als das Schicksalsgewebe abspielt: ein mehr oder weniger dem Gedankengewebe ähnliches Gewebe. Richten wir aber den Blick hinauf in die geistigen Welten, dann sehen wir, wie dasjenige, was einstmals Erdentaten der Menschen war, nachdem es durch Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes durchgegangen ist, aufgenommen wird, sich oben als Himmelstaten verbreitet bei Thronen, Cherubim, Seraphim (es wird an die Tafel geschrieben):
1. Es empfangen Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai im Ätherweben das Schicksalsnetz des Menschen.
2. Es verwesen in Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes im Astralempfinden des Kosmos die gerechten Folgen des Erdenlebens des Menschen.
3. Es auferstehen in Thronen, Cherubim, Seraphim als deren Tatenwesen die gerechten Ausgestaltungen des Erdenlebens des Menschen.
Das, meine lieben Freunde, ist insbesondere in der Gegenwart eine bedeutsame, eine unendlich bedeutsame und eine unendlich erhabene Tatsachenreihe. Denn jetzt eben ist es so im eingetretenen MichaelReiche, daß, ich möchte sagen, in diesem weltgeschichtlichen Augenblicke geschaut werden können die Taten derjenigen Menschen, die vor Ablauf des Kali Yuga in den achtziger, neunziger Jahren des vorigen Jahrhunderts hier auf Erden gelebt haben; dasjenige, was damals war unter Menschen, das ist jetzt aufgenommen worden von Thronen, Cherubim und Seraphim. Aber niemals war der geistige Lichtkontrast ein so großer, wie er in der Gegenwart ist für diese Tatsachenreihe.
Wenn man in den achtziger Jahren des vorigen Jahrhunderts den Blick hinaufgerichtet hat und gesehen hat, wie die Revolutionsleute von der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts in ihren Taten gewissermaßen oben aufgenommen wurden von Thronen, Cherubim und Seraphim, dann sah man, daß etwas von Düsternis über der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts lagerte. Und es hellte sich nur wenig auf dasjenige, was man dann sah beim Übergange in das Reich der Seraphim, Cherubim und Throne.
Wenn man aber jetzt zurückblickt auf das, was am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts als Taten der Menschen in dem Verhältnis der Menschen untereinander sich abgespielt hat, dann -— nachdem man eben noch klar hat sehen können in dieser auslaufenden Kali Yugazeit, nachdem man eben noch einigermaßen hat sehen können, was sich da abgespielt hat und sozusagen wie verwehende Gedankenmassen durchschauen konnte dasjenige, was sich schicksalsmäßig unter diesen Menschen vom Ende des Kali Yuga abgespielt hat -, dann entschwindet einem das, und man schaut dasjenige, was himmelwärts daraus geworden ist, in einem strahlend hellen Lichte.
Das aber bezeugt nichts anderes als die ungeheure Bedeutung dessen, was da eigentlich geschieht im Umsetzen von Menschen-Erdentaten in Seelen-Himmelstaten in der Gegenwart. Denn, was der Mensch als sein Schicksal, als sein Karma erlebt, das spielt sich ab für ihn, in ihm, um ihn, von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben. Aber dasjenige, was sich abspielt noch in der Region der Himmelswelten als die Folge dessen, was er hier auf der Erde erlebt und verrichtet hat, das wirkt fortwährend auch in der historischen Gestaltung des Erdenlebens weiter. Das spielt sich ab in dem, was der Mensch hier auf Erden nicht als einzelner Mensch beherrscht.
Nehmen Sie diesen Satz nur in seiner vollen Schwere, meine lieben Freunde. Der einzelne Mensch erlebt sein Schicksal. Schon wenn zwei Menschen zusammenwirken, entsteht ja ganz etwas anderes als der Vollzug des Schicksals des einen und des anderen Menschen. Es spielt sich sozusagen zwischen den beiden Menschen etwas ab, was herausgeht aus demjenigen, was jeder einzelne erlebt. Für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein ist ja kein Zusammenhang zunächst bemerkbar zwischen dem, was sich da zwischen Menschen abspielt, und dem, was oben in den geistigen Welten geschieht. Nur wenn heilig-geistiges Handeln hereingeholt wird in die physisch-sinnliche Welt, wenn die Menschen bewußt ihre physisch-sinnlichen Taten so umgestalten, daß sie zugleich Taten in der geistigen Welt sind, dann wird ein solcher Zusammenhang hergestellt.
Aber alles das, was dann zwischen Menschen geschieht im größeren Umkreise, das ist ja noch etwas anderes, als was der einzelne Mensch als Schicksal erlebt. Das alles, was so nicht einzelmenschliches Schicksal ist, sondern was durch das Zusammen-Denken und ZusammenEmpfinden, Zusammen-Fühlen und Zusammen-Handeln der Menschen auf Erden bewirkt wird, das steht im Zusammenhange mit demjenigen, was da oben Seraphim, Cherubim und Throne tun. Und in das fließen ein die Taten der Menschen in dem Zusammenhange dieser Menschen, und auch die einzelnen menschlichen Erdenleben.
Dann ist eben der weitere Anblick, der sich dem Initiiertenblick darbietet, von einer besonderen Wichtigkeit. Wir schauen hinauf. Oben zeigt sich heute die himmlische Tatenfolge desjenigen, was in den letzten siebziger Jahren, den achtziger, den neunziger Jahren des vorigen Jahrhunderts sich hier auf Erden abgespielt hat. Dann ist es, wie wenn ein feiner Regen, ein geistiger Regen herunterfiele auf die Erde und benetze die Menschenseelen und triebe sie zu dem, was zwischen den Menschen gewissermaßen historisch entsteht.
Und da kann man dann wiederum sehen, wie in lebendigen Gedanken-Spiegelbildern dasjenige auf dem Umwege durch Seraphim, Cherubim und Throne heute lebt, was in den siebziger, achtziger, neunziger Jahren des 19. Jahrhunderts hier auf der Erde durch Menschen getan worden ist.
Wenn man dieses durchblickt, ist es einem ja wirklich oftmals so, daß man ganz genau sieht: Man spricht heute mit einem Menschen; dasjenige, was er einem sagt durch die allgemeine Meinung, was nicht aus seinen eigenen Emotionen, seinen inneren Impulsen kommt, sondern was er einem sagt, weil er eben ein Angehöriger dieses Zeitalters ist, das erscheint einem oftmals wie im Zusammenhang stehend mit denjenigen Menschen, die in den siebziger, achtziger, neunziger Jahren des vorigen Jahrhunderts gelebt haben. Es ist wirklich so, daß man manchen heutigen Menschen wie in einer Geistversammlung sieht, umringt von gewissen Menschen, die sich um ihn bemühen, die aber eigentlich nur die vom Himmel geregneten Nachbilder dessen sind, was durch Menschen im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts gelebt hat.
So gehen wirklich auf geistige Art die Revenants, ich möchte sagen, die sehr realen Gespenster eines früheren Zeitalters, in einem späteren Zeitalter um. Es ist das eine der feinen, generellen Karmawirkungen, die in der Welt vorhanden sind, und die oftmals auch von den okkultesten der Okkultisten nicht beachtet werden. Man möchte manchem, der einem heute etwas nicht Persönliches, sondern Stereotypes sagt, ins Ohr raunen: Das hat dir der oder jener im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts gesagt!
So erst wird das Leben ein Ganzes. Und wieder muß von diesem Zeitalter, von diesem mit dem Ablauf des Kali Yuga begonnenen Zeitalter gesagt werden, daß es sich unterscheidet von allen zunächst historischen früheren Zeitaltern. Es unterscheidet sich in der Art, daß tatsächlich diejenigen Menschentaten, die verflossen sind im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts, auf das erste Drittel dieses 20. Jahrhunderts den denkbar größten Einfluß haben.
Meine lieben Freunde, ich sage es, indem ich damit etwas bezeichnen will, was fern ist allem Gebrauche von abergläubischen Worten, ich sage es als etwas, das mit dem vollen Bewußtsein, eine exakte Tatsache auszusprechen, gesagt wird: Noch nie sind so vernehmbar die Gespenster der letzten uns vorangegangenen Zeit unter uns herumgegangen wie in der Gegenwart. Und wenn die Menschen heute diese Gespenster nicht wahrnehmen, so ist es nicht deshalb, weil wir im finsteren Zeitalter leben, sondern weil die Menschen zunächst noch durch das Licht des lichten Zeitalters geblendet sind. Dadurch ist das, was durch die Revenants des vorigen Jahrhunderts unter uns vollzogen wird, etwas so ungeheuer Fruchtbares für die Ahrimanleute. Die Ahrimanleute wirken heute, ohne daß es die Menschen bemerken, in einer besonders schlimmen Weise. Sie versuchen, möglichst viel von diesen Gespenstern des vorigen Jahrhunderts, ich möchte sagen, ahrimanisch zu galvanisieren und zu Einfluß zu bringen auf die Menschen der Gegenwart.
Man kann durch nichts diesem ahrimanischen Zuge unseres Zeitalters mehr entgegenkommen als durch alles das, was geschieht, indem sich für die Verirrungen des vorigen Jahrhunderts, die ja eigentlich heute für die Einsichtigen längst verglommene Ideen sind, populäre Vereinigungen bilden. Das Laientum hat ja niemals so stark in einem Zeitalter die Verirrungen des vorigen Zeitalters popularisiert wie in dem heutigen Zeitalter, wie in der Gegenwart. Und man kann schon sagen: will man das Wesen der ahrimanischen Taten kennenlernen, so kann man das heute eigentlich überall, wo man Versammlungen besucht, die aus dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein heraus wirksam sind. Man hat heute viel Gelegenheit, den Ahrimanismus in der Welt kennenzulernen, denn er wirkt außerordentlich stark. Und er ist es ja, der auf diesem Umwege, wie ich es heute geschildert habe, die Menschen abhält davon, dasjenige in ihr Herz, in ihre Seele aufzunehmen, was neu hervortreten muß, weil es eben früher nicht da war, wie das, was eben in der Anthroposophie zutage tritt.
Die Menschen sind schon zufrieden, wenn sie nur irgendwie dasjenige, was in der Anthroposophie neu zutage tritt, decken können mit irgendeinem alten Ausspruch. Man soll nur sehen, wie zufrieden die Menschen sind, wenn in irgendeinem Vortrage von mir etwas vorkommt, von dem dann einer sagen kann: Sieh einmal, das steht auch in einem alten Buche. — Es steht doch ganz anders darinnen, eben aus ganz anderen Bewußtseinsgründen heraus! Aber man ist so wenig mutig, das, was auf dem Boden der Gegenwart wächst, aufzunehmen, daß man sich schon beruhigt fühlt, wenn man so etwas aus der Vergangenheit herbeibringen kann.
Das eben bezeugt, wie stark Vergangenheitsimpulse auf die gegenwärtigen Menschen wirken und wie beruhigt sich die Menschen der Gegenwart fühlen, wenn Vergangenheitsimpulse auf sie wirken. Und das kommt eben davon her, daß dieses 19. Jahrhundert so stark in das 20. Jahrhundert noch hereinwirkt. Künftige Betrachter der Menschheitsgeschichte der Gegenwart, die ja geistig schildern werden, während wir heute bloß aus Dokumenten schildern, die werden vor allen Dingen das zu schildern haben, was in den Worten liegt: Schaut man hin auf den Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts, auf die ersten drei Jahrzehnte, so nimmt sich alles das zumeist so aus, wie wenn es eigentlich getan wäre von den Schattenbildern der Menschentaten vom Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts.
Wenn ich vielleicht ein Wort hier aussprechen darf, das wahrhaftig nicht politisch gemeint ist — Politik muß aus unserer Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft ganz herausbleiben -, aber wenn ich ein Wort hier aussprechen darf, das eben einfach Tatsachen charakterisieren soll, so ist es dieses: Man kann hinschauen auf die weltumwälzenden Taten Geschehnisse, meine ich, Ereignisse, denn Taten waren es ja nicht -, aber auf die weltumwälzenden Ereignisse namentlich des zweiten Jahrzehnts des 20. Jahrhunderts. Es ist ja schon so oft ausgesprochen worden, daß es eine Trivialität geworden ist, zu sagen, daß eigentlich, solange die Zeit währt, über die man Geschichte schreibt, solch Weltumwälzendes sich nicht zugetragen hat. Aber stehen denn nicht die Menschen im Grunde genommen in diesen weltumwälzenden Taten so darinnen, als wenn sie nicht darinnen stünden? Man geht überall herum; es ist so, als ob sich die weltumwälzenden Ereignisse außerhalb der Menschen abspielten, als wenn die Menschen gar keinen Anteil daran hätten. Man möchte fast jeden Menschen, den man heute trifft, fragen: Ja, hast denn du mitgemacht das zweite Jahrzehnt des 20. Jahrhunderts? Und erst, wenn man die Sache noch von einem anderen Gesichtspunkte ansieht: wie hilflos nehmen sich die Menschen aus, wie unendlich hilflos, wie hilflos im Urteilen, wie hilflos im Tun! Ministerstühle sind ja noch niemals unter so großen Schwierigkeiten besetzt worden wie in dieser Zeit. Bedenken Sie nur, wie kurios es ist, was nach dieser Richtung eigentlich geschieht, wie hilflos die Menschen sind in dem, was sich da abspielt! Da kommt man schon darauf, die Frage aufzuwerfen: Ja, wer tut denn da eigentlich etwas? Wer ist denn daran beteiligt? Nun, wer daran beteiligt ist, meine lieben Freunde, das sind, mehr als die Menschen der Gegenwart, die Menschen vom letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts. Deren Schattenkräfte sieht man in allem wirksam.
Sehen Sie, das ist das Geheimnis unserer Zeit. Man möchte sagen: Keine anderen Toten waren jemals so mächtig wie diejenigen vom letzten Drittel des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Das ist auch ein Weltaspekt. Und wenn man mit Bezug auf den geistigen Inhalt sich die entsprechenden Dinge anschaut im einzelnen Falle, kommt man doch auf ganz Merkwürdiges.
Es hat sich für mich darum gehandelt, ob ich bei der Neuauflage meiner Schriften, die geschrieben worden sind in den siebziger, achtziger, neunziger Jahren des vorigen Jahrhunderts, dies oder jenes ändern sollte. Diejenigen, die einfache Philister der Gegenwart sind, sagen: Alles hat sich erneut; die wissenschaftlichen Theorien und Hypothesen von dazumal sind ja längst abgetane Dinge. — Betrachtet man aber die Sache vom realen Standpunkte, so kann man nichts ändern. Denn eigentlich steht hinter jedem, der heute ein Buch schreibt, oder der von einer Lehrkanzel herunterspricht, einer dahinter im Schattenbilde: da sprechen noch immer die Du Bois-Reymonds, die Helmholtzens, die Haeckels, diejenigen, die eben in der damaligen Zeit gesprochen haben; in der Medizin die Oppolzer, Billroths und so weiter. Das ist etwas vom Geheimnis der Gegenwart. Deshalb sagt die Initiationswissenschaft: Niemals waren die Toten so mächtig wie in unserem Zeitalter.
Das ist dasjenige, was ich jetzt in diese Karmabetrachtungen einfügen wollte.
Second Lecture
Today I shall still have to indicate something about how the karmic preparatory forces in man continue their development when man has passed through the gate of death. We must imagine that for the ordinary consciousness the situation is such that the formation of karma, that intercourse with the world in general which can be called karmic, takes place more instinctively in man. We see animals acting instinctively. Just such words as instinct, which are very frequently used both inside and outside science, are usually used in a very vague way. No effort is made to imagine something clearer. What is that which is called instinct in animals?
We know that animals have a group soul. The animal, as it is, is not a self-contained being, but behind it is the group soul. To which world does the group soul actually belong? You have to answer the question: Where do you find the group souls of animals? Here in the physical-sensual world one does not find the group souls of the animals, here are only the single individuals of the animals. The group souls of the animals can only be found when, either through initiation or in the normal course of human development between death and a new birth, one enters the completely different world that man passes through between death and a new birth. Among the beings with whom one is then together, and among whom are preferably those whom I have mentioned as those with whom one works out karma, one finds the group souls of the animals. And the animals that are here on this earth, when they act instinctively, act out of the full consciousness of these group souls. So you can imagine, my dear friends, how, if we have here, schematically drawn, the realm in which we live between death and new birth (see drawing, yellow), the forces that emanate from the group souls of the animals are at work (blue). They are in there too. And here on this earth are the individual animals that work by being pulled, so to speak, by the strings that go to the group souls that are found in the realm between death and a new birth. That is instinct.
It is quite natural that a materialistic world-view cannot explain instinct, because instinct is an action out of what you find, for example, in my book “Theosophy” and in my “Secret Science in Outline” described as “spirit-land”. With man it is different. Man also has an instinct, but when he is here he does not act out of this realm through this instinct, but he acts out of his earlier earth lives, beyond time out of his earlier earth lives, out of a number of earlier earth lives (red). Just as the spiritual kingdom acts on the animals in such a way that they act instinctively, so the earlier incarnations of man act on the later incarnations in such a way that karma is simply lived out instinctively, but it is a spiritual instinct, it is an instinct that acts within the ego. It is precisely when one considers this that one will realize the absolutely uncontradictory union of this instinctive working with human freedom. For freedom works out of the area from which the animals work instinctively: out of the spirit realm.
Now, however, we will be much more concerned today with how this instinct prepares itself when the human being passes through the gate of death. Here in earthly life the karmic experience is instinctive, it takes place, so to speak, beneath the surface of consciousness. At the moment when we have passed through the gate of death, everything that we initially experienced on earth becomes objectively conscious for a few days; we have it before us in ever-increasing images. What we see there is also accompanied by what has instinctively taken place in the karmic workings. So that when the human being passes through the gate of death and life, enlarging more and more (see drawing, yellow), plays itself out before his eyes, that which he was only instinctively, not consciously aware of, also goes with it: the whole karmic fabric (blue). He does not see this immediately in the next few days after death, but he does see what he otherwise only sees in the pale memory in a living form; he sees, for example, that there is already something else in there than the usual memory. If one then looks with the initiatory gaze at what the human being has before him, the following can be explained.
The human being himself, who has died and has had the ordinary consciousness during his life on earth, sees, so to speak, what he has before him as his life on earth in a powerful panorama, which he sees, so to speak, from the front (see drawing, blue). With the initiatory view you can also look at it from the other side, from behind (yellow), and then the network of karmic connections sprouts out of it. There you can see it, this web of karmic connections, which are initially still spun from thoughts that have lived in the will during life on earth - that's where it comes out.
But now, my dear friends, another one follows. I have often emphasized it to you: the thoughts that one lives through consciously during life on earth are dead; but those thoughts that are woven into karma and that come out of it, they are alive. So that living thoughts sprout forth after the backward of the life-overview. And now the tremendously significant and essential thing is that now the beings of the third hierarchy approach and receive what sprouts up, I would like to say from the back of the life overshadowing. Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai absorb, as it were, that which sprouts up, breathe it in.
This happens during the time in which the human being lives up to the end of the lunar sphere. Then he enters this lunar sphere, and the backward journey through life begins, which lasts a third of the time that man has lived through on earth, which actually, to be more precise, lasts as long as the periods of sleep that man has spent on earth.
I have already explained to you several times how this backward life happens. But we can first ask ourselves: When man is in ordinary sleep, how is he in relation to the state in which he is immediately after death? Yes, you see, when a person enters ordinary sleep, he is only a spiritual-soul being in his ego and in his astral body. He does not have his etheric body with him, it has remained behind in the bed. Thus the thoughts remain lifeless, have no effect at all, are images. Now, as the human being passes through the gate of death, he first takes his etheric body with him, which then enlarges, and the etheric body now not only has the animating power for the physical being, but also for the thoughts. In this way the thoughts can become alive, because the human being has taken his etheric body with him, which in detachment carries the living thoughts out from the human being to the gracious reception of the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai.
First of all, I would like to say, this is the first act that takes place in life between death and a new birth, that beyond the threshold of death the beings of the third hierarchy approach that which is detached from the human being, that which is entrusted to his dissolving etheric body, that it is received by the beings of the third hierarchy. And we as human beings perform a good, a beautiful, a glorious prayer when we think about the connection of life with death or about a deceased person in such a way that we say:
It receives Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai in the etheric weaving
the web of destiny of the person concerned.
For there we are looking at a spiritual fact. And something depends on whether people think spiritual facts or not, whether they merely accompany the dead with thoughts that remain on earth, or whether they accompany the dead on their further path with thoughts that are images of what happens in that realm into which the dead person has entered.
That, my dear friends, is what seems so tremendously desirable to today's initiation science: that within earthly life such things are thought of which are images of a real spiritual event. With mere theoretical thinking, with the mere thinking that man has higher members, with the enumeration of these higher members, no connection is yet established with the spiritual world. Only with the thinking of realities that take place in the spiritual world is such a connection with the spiritual world established.
Therefore hearts should in turn be able to hear what hearts heard during the old initiation times in the old mysteries, where one always called out impressively to those to be initiated: 'Join in the destinies of the dead! Only the more or less abstract word has remained: “Memento mori”, which can no longer have a profound effect on the present human being because it has become abstract, because it does not extend the consciousness into a more vivid life than it is here in the sensory world.
And what is the reception of the human web of destiny through Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, develops in such a way that one has the impression that it weaves and lives in a violet-blue etheric atmosphere. It is weaving and living in a violet-blue etheric atmosphere.
And when the etheric body dissolves, that is, when the thoughts are inhaled by Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, then after a few days the human being enters this return to life, as I have described it to you. There the human being experiences his deeds, his will impulses, his thought directions as they have worked in the other people to whom he has done something good or bad. He lives completely in the minds of other people, he does not live in his own mind. With the clear consciousness that it is he who has something to do with these things, he experiences the events that have taken place in the depths of the souls of other people with whom he has entered into karmic contact, to whom he has done something good or bad. There it becomes apparent again how that which the human being experiences in this way is now absorbed. He experiences it in full reality, in a reality which I had to describe as even more real than the sense reality between birth and death. He therefore experiences a reality in which he is, I would like to say, more ardent than here in earthly life.
If we look at this from the other side with the insight of initiation, we see how what the human being experiences is now absorbed into the beingness, into the reality of the Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai. They absorb the negatives of human deeds. They permeate themselves with it. And this gaze, this initiate gaze, which now looks at this quite marvelous thing, how man's deeds transformed into righteousness are absorbed by Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, this whole sight puts the one who has it into such a consciousness that he knows himself to be in the center of the sun, and thus in the center of the planetary system. He looks from the point of view of the sun at what is happening. And he sees a purple-like weaving and life, he sees the absorption of human deeds translated into justice through Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes in the weaving and life of a light purple, a purple-colored astral atmosphere.
You see, there you have the truth that the view of the sun, as it presents itself to the earthman, is only from one side, from the periphery. From the center, the sun appears as the field where the spiritual effects, the deeds of Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes take place. There everything is spiritual action, spiritual event. There we find, I would like to say, the reverse side of the images of earthly life that we experience here between birth and death.
And again we think in the right way of what happens there when we form the thought in such a way that we take the word, which is usually used merely for passing away, withering, being destroyed, in its actual meaning. We have the word “being”, we have the word “giving”. When we say “forgive”, we mean “give”. Only in the card game does it mean something different, but in natural language it means “giving”. When we say: “decay”, it means: to lead the being away. With this awareness we form the sentence:
It decays into exusiai, dynamis, kyriotetes
in the astral perception of the cosmos
the just consequences of man's life on earth.
Then, when this has been accomplished, when the human being has lived out this third of earthly life after death, has wandered back, now feels himself again at the starting point of earthly life, but in the spiritual realm, in the moments before his entry into earthly life, then the human being, one can say, enters the actual spirit land through the center of the sun. There, these earthly deeds, transformed into righteousness, are taken up into the activity of the first Hierarchy. There they enter the realm of the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. There man enters a realm, on entering which he feels: what has happened on earth through me, that is taken up into their own being of deeds Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, just think, my dear friends, we think correctly about that which happens to the 'dead in the further life after death, when we cherish the thought: That which he has spun here on earth in the web of fate will first be caught up by Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. They carry it into the next stage between death and a new birth, into the realm of the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. These are embraced, entwined by the beings of the first hierarchy. And it is always in this entwining, enfolding into the being, into the being of action, into the action of the thrones, cherubim and seraphim of man's action on earth. And we again think correctly when we now add the third sentence to the first and the second:
There arise in thrones, cherubim, seraphim
as their deeds
the righteous manifestations of man's life on earth.
So that, if one directs the initiatory gaze towards what is continually happening in the spiritual world, we have here on earth the goings-on of people with their karmic instincts, with what takes place as the fabric of fate: a fabric more or less similar to the fabric of thought. But if we direct our gaze upwards into the spiritual worlds, then we see how that which was once the earthly deeds of men, after it has passed through Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, is taken up, is spread above as heavenly deeds with Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim (it is written on the blackboard):
1. There receive Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai in the ether-weaving the web of man's destiny.
2. decay in Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes in the astral perception of the cosmos the righteous consequences of man's life on earth.
This, my dear friends, is a significant, an infinitely significant and an infinitely sublime series of facts, especially in the present. For it is just now in the realm of Michael that has come to pass that, I would like to say, in this world-historical moment the deeds of those people can be seen who lived here on earth before the end of the Kali Yuga in the eighties and nineties of the last century; that which was then among men has now been taken up by thrones, cherubim and seraphim. But the spiritual contrast of light has never been as great as it is in the present for this series of facts.
When one looked up in the eighties of the last century and saw how the revolutionaries of the middle of the 19th century were, so to speak, taken up in their deeds by thrones, cherubim and seraphim, then one saw that something of gloom lay over the middle of the 19th century. And it brightened only a little what was then seen in the transition into the kingdom of seraphim, cherubim and thrones.
But if one now looks back on what was seen at the end of the 19th century as the deeds of men in the kingdom of the seraphim, cherubim and thrones. But when one now looks back at what took place at the end of the 19th century as deeds of men in the relationship between men, then -- after one has just been able to see clearly in this expiring Kali Yuga time, after one has just been able to see to some extent what took place there and could see through, so to speak, like drifting masses of thoughts, that which took place fatefully among these men from the end of the Kali Yuga - then that vanishes from one's mind, and one sees that which has become of it heavenwards in a radiantly bright light.
But this testifies to nothing other than the tremendous significance of what is actually happening in the transformation of human earthly deeds into soul-heavenly deeds in the present. For what man experiences as his destiny, as his karma, takes place for him, in him, around him, from earth-life to earth-life. But that which still takes place in the region of the heavenly worlds as the consequence of what he has experienced and accomplished here on earth continues to have an effect in the historical formation of earthly life. This takes place in that which man does not master here on earth as an individual human being.
Take this sentence in its full gravity, my dear friends. The individual experiences his destiny. Even when two people work together, something quite different arises than the fulfillment of the destiny of one person and the other. Something takes place, so to speak, between the two people that goes beyond what each individual experiences. For the ordinary consciousness no connection is initially noticeable between what takes place between people and what happens above in the spiritual worlds. Only when sacred-spiritual action is brought into the physical-sensual world, when people consciously transform their physical-sensual actions in such a way that they are simultaneously actions in the spiritual world, is such a connection established.
But everything that then happens between people in the larger environment is still something else than what the individual person experiences as fate. Everything that is not individual human destiny, but that which is brought about by people on earth thinking and feeling together, feeling together and acting together, is connected with what the seraphim, cherubim and thrones do up there. And into this flow the deeds of men in the context of these men, and also the individual human earth lives.
Then the further sight that presents itself to the initiate's gaze is of particular importance. We look up. Above, the heavenly sequence of deeds of what took place here on earth in the last seventies, eighties and nineties of the last century can be seen today. Then it is as if a fine rain, a spiritual rain fell down on the earth and wetted the human souls and drove them to that which, so to speak, arises historically between people.
And there again one can see how that which was done by men here on earth in the seventies, eighties and nineties of the 19th century lives today in living thought-mirror images through seraphim, cherubim and thrones.
When you see through this, it is often the case that you can see quite clearly: You talk to a person today; what he says to you through general opinion, which does not come from his own emotions, his inner impulses, but what he says to you because he is a member of this age, often seems to you to be connected with those people who lived in the seventies, eighties and nineties of the last century. It really is the case that you see some people today as if they were in a spiritual gathering, surrounded by certain people who are trying to help them, but who are actually only the afterimages rained down from heaven of what people lived through in the last third of the 19th century.
Thus the Revenants, I would like to say the very real ghosts of an earlier age, are really walking around in a spiritual way in a later age. It is one of the subtle, general karmic effects that are present in the world, and which are often ignored even by the most occult of occultists. You would like to whisper in the ear of someone who says something not personal but stereotypical today: This is what this or that person said to you in the last third of the 19th century!
This is how life becomes a whole. And again it must be said of this age, of this age that began with the passing of the Kali Yuga, that it differs from all earlier historical ages. It differs in such a way that those human deeds which passed in the last third of the 19th century actually have the greatest conceivable influence on the first third of this 20th century.
My dear friends, I say this to describe something that is far removed from the use of superstitious words, I say it as something that is said with the full awareness of stating an exact fact: Never before have the ghosts of the last time that preceded us walked among us so audibly as in the present. And if people today do not perceive these ghosts, it is not because we are living in the Dark Ages, but because people are still blinded by the light of the Age of Light. This is why what is being carried out among us by the Revenants of the last century is so tremendously fruitful for the Ahriman people. The Ahriman people work today in a particularly evil way without people realizing it. They try to galvanize as much as possible of these ghosts of the last century, I would like to say, ahrimanically, and bring them to influence the people of the present.
Nothing can be more conducive to this ahrimanic course of our age than everything that happens when popular associations are formed for the aberrations of the last century, which are actually ideas that have long since faded away for those of insight. Never in any age has the laity popularized the aberrations of the previous age as strongly as in the present age. And it can be said that if you want to get to know the nature of the Ahrimanic deeds, you can actually do so today wherever you attend meetings that are effective out of the ordinary consciousness. Today you have many opportunities to get to know Ahrimanism in the world, for it is extraordinarily powerful. And it is this detour, as I have described today, which prevents people from taking into their hearts, into their souls, that which must emerge anew because it was not there before, such as that which emerges in anthroposophy.
People are already satisfied if they can somehow cover what emerges anew in anthroposophy with some old saying. One should only see how satisfied people are when something appears in one of my lectures of which someone can then say: Look, that's also in an old book. - But it is written quite differently, for quite different reasons of consciousness! But we are so lacking in courage to accept what grows on the soil of the present that we feel reassured when we can bring something like this from the past.
This shows how strongly impulses from the past affect people in the present and how reassured people in the present feel when impulses from the past affect them. And that comes from the fact that this 19th century still has such a strong effect on the 20th century. Future observers of the history of mankind in the present, who will describe it intellectually, whereas today we only describe it from documents, will above all have to describe what lies in the words: if you look at the beginning of the 20th century, at the first three decades, it all looks for the most part as if it had actually been done by the shadow images of human deeds from the end of the 19th century.
If I may perhaps say a word here that is truly not meant politically - politics must remain completely out of our Anthroposophical Society - but if I may say a word here that is simply meant to characterize facts, it is this: We can look at the world-changing deeds - events, I mean, because they were not deeds - but at the world-changing events of the second decade of the 20th century in particular. It has been said so often that it has become a triviality to say that as long as the period about which history is being written has lasted, no such world-changing events have actually taken place. But aren't people basically as involved in these world-changing deeds as if they were not? People walk around everywhere; it is as if the world-changing events took place outside of people, as if people had no part in them at all. You almost want to ask every person you meet today: Yes, did you take part in the second decade of the 20th century? And only when you look at the matter from another angle: how helpless people appear, how infinitely helpless, how helpless in judgment, how helpless in action! Never before have ministerial chairs been filled with such great difficulty as at this time. Just think how strange it is what is actually happening in this direction, how helpless people are in what is going on! It's enough to raise the question: Yes, who is actually doing something? Who is involved? Well, who is involved, my dear friends, more than the people of the present, are the people of the last third of the 19th century. Their shadowy forces can be seen at work in everything.
You see, that is the secret of our time. One would like to say: no other dead people were ever as powerful as those from the last third of the nineteenth century. That is also a world aspect. And if you look at the spiritual content of the individual cases, you come up with some very strange things.
For me, it was a question of whether I should change this or that in the new edition of my writings, which were written in the seventies, eighties and nineties of the last century. Those who are simple philistines of the present say: everything has changed again; the scientific theories and hypotheses of that time have long since been dismissed. - But if you look at the matter from a real point of view, nothing can be changed. Because actually, behind everyone who writes a book today, or who speaks from a pulpit, there is someone behind them in the shadows: the Du Bois-Reymonds, the Helmholtzes, the Haeckels, those who spoke at that time are still speaking; in medicine, the Oppolzer, Billroths and so on. That is something of the mystery of the present. That is why the science of initiation says that the dead have never been as powerful as in our age.
This is what I wanted to add to these karma considerations.