Karmic Relationships IV
GA 238
14 September 1924, Dornach
Lecture V
Having spoken so often about the School of Chartres and its great significance for the inner spiritual life of the West, I have received a welcome gift during the last few days: a gift of pictures, some of which have been put up here for you to see. Others will be added next Tuesday. In these pictures you will see what wonderful architectural works and works of sculpture in the mediaeval sense, arose at the place where flourished that spiritual life of which I have now spoken so often.
The personalities who were gathered in the School of Chartres still had the impulse, even in the 12th century, to enter as teachers or students into the living spiritual life that had arisen in the turning-point of time—I mean in the epoch of European evolution when humanity, inasmuch as they were seekers after knowledge, still sought it in the living weaving and working of the nature-beings, and not in the conception of void and abstract natural laws.
Thus in the School of Chartres there was a deep devotion to spiritual powers, notably to those that hold sway in Nature. All this was cultivated there—no longer, it is true, by Initiates into the ancient Mysteries—but by personalities who had the heart and mind to receive from tradition much that had once been direct spiritual experience. And I have told you of the mysterious radiations of light from the School of Chartres which we can truly recognise in the spirit of Brunetto Latini, the great teacher of Dante. I tried to explain how the individualities of Chartres worked on in the spiritual worlds in unison with those who afterwards came down, more in the Dominican Order, as the bearers of Scholasticism. We may put it thus.—The individualities of Chartres were obliged to see, out of the signs of the times, that there would be no place for them within the earthly life until the time when the element of Michael, which was to begin at the end of the 19th century, should have been working for a while on earth.
In a far-reaching sense these individualities of Chartres took part in the super-sensible teachings of which I spoke last time—teachings that were given under the aegis of Michael himself, so as to pour forth impulses which were to hold good for the spiritual life of coming centuries. And it may be said indeed that anyone who would devote himself to the cultivation of spiritual life to-day must necessarily stand under the influence of those great impulses.
Broadly speaking we may say that there have been very few reincarnations of the spirits of Chartres hitherto. Nevertheless it was granted to me to look back upon the School of Chartres through a certain stimulus, if I may describe it so, which came to me out of the life of the present time.
There was a monk in the School of Chartres who was altogether devoted to the life-element that existed in that school. But in the School of Chartres, especially if one was truly devoted to it, one felt as it were a twilight mood of the spiritual life. All that was reminiscent still of the great and deep impulses of the spiritual Platonism that had been handed down—all this was living in Chartres. But it lived in such a way that the bearers of the spiritual life of Chartres said to themselves: In the future, alas, the civilisation of Europe will no longer be receptive for this living, Platonic spirituality.
It is touching to see how the School of Chartres preserves as it were the portraits of the inspiring genii of the Seven Liberal Arts, as they were called: Grammatica, Dialectica, Rhetorica, Arithmetica, Geometría, Astronomía and Musica. Even in the reception of the Spiritual that was contained in the Seven Liberal Arts, they still saw in them the living gifts of the gods, coming to man through spiritual beings. They did not see the mere communication of dead thoughts about dead laws of Nature. And they could see that Europe in the future would no longer be receptive to these things. Hence there was a feeling of evening twilight in the spiritual life.
Now one of those monks who was especially devoted to the teachings and the works of Chartres, was, after all, reincarnated in our time. He was reincarnated, moreover, in such a way that one could find in this case most wonderfully the echo and reflection of the former life in the present. This personality lived in our time as an authoress who was not only my acquaintance, but my friend. [Marie Eugenie delle Grazie.] She died a considerable time ago. She bore within her a strange mood of soul, about which I should not have spoken until now, although I observed it many years ago. To speak of these things has indeed only been possible since the Christmas feeling came over our Anthroposophical Society. For this has brought a peculiar illumination over these things, and it is possible, as I have already said, to speak about such matters openly and without embarrassment to-day.
When one was in conversation with that authoress, she returned again and again to the theme that she would like to die. But her desire to die did not spring from a sentimental or hypochondriac, nay, not even from a melancholic mood of soul. If one had the psychological vision to enter into such things, one found one's way far, far back into her soul until at length one had to say: It is the echo and reflection of a former life on earth. In a former life on earth a seed was planted which now comes forth, I will not say in the longing for death, but in this feeling that the soul, being now incarnated, yet has nothing really to do with this present age.
Her writings, too, are of this nature. They seem to be written out of a different world—not indeed as to their facts and communications—but as to their mood and feeling. And we can understand this mood only if we find the way from the dim light of her writings, from the dim light that lived as a fundamental disposition in her own soul, back to that monk of Chartres who felt in Chartres the evening twilight mood of a living Platonism.
In this authoress it was not a question of temperament or melancholy or sentimentality; it was the raying-in of a former life on earth. And her present soul was like a mirror into which the life of Chartres really penetrated. Not indeed the content of the teachings of Chartres, but their moods and feelings, had been transmitted from the one life to the other in this personality. Transplanting oneself into these moods, and looking back, one could receive in them as it were spiritual photographs of the personalities who are also to be found by direct spiritual research in the worlds where they now are—the personalities who taught in Chartres.
Thus you see, life brings to one in many ways the karmic possibilities to gaze into these matters. Last time, I described my experiences with the Cistercian Order. To-day I would supplement what I then said by referring to the evening twilight mood of the School of Chartres which penetrated into the heart and soul of an extraordinarily interesting personality, who lived again in the present time. She has long ago found her way back into the worlds for which she longed. She has found her way back to the Fathers of Chartres. And if her whole soul-life had not been dominated by a kind of weariness as the karmic outcome of the mood-of-soul of yonder monk of Chartres, I could scarcely imagine a personality more fitted to behold the spiritual life of the present day in connection with the traditional life of the Middle Ages.
There is another thing which I would mention here. When there are such karmic impulses working deep in the foundations of the soul, we find what is otherwise a very rare occurrence: we find in the physical expression of the countenance in a later incarnation, a likeness to the former. The face of yonder monk and of the authoress of the present time were indeed extraordinarily alike.
Now in these connections I will gradually pass on to the karma of the Anthroposophical Society, or of the individualities of its members. For as I said last time, a large number of the souls who stand sincerely within the Anthroposophical Movement were connected somewhere and somewhen with that stream of Michael which I must now characterise. You will remember all that I have said in this connection about Alexander and Aristotle and about the events in super-sensible worlds at the time when the 8th Council in Constantinople took place here in this world of sense. You will remember what I said of the continuation, in the spiritual and in the physical, of the life of the Court of Haroun al Raschid, until at length I spoke of that super-sensible School which stood under the aegis of Michael himself. Deeply significant was the teaching of that School. On the one hand it pointed again and again to the connections with the ancient Mysteries, to all that must now come forth once more in a new form from the content of the ancient Mysteries, to permeate modern civilisation with spirituality. On the other hand it pointed to the impulses which souls, devoted to the spiritual life, must have for their work into the future. And we know that from an understanding of the spiritual stream we may also come to understand how Anthroposophy, in its real essence, signifies the impulse for a renewal, for a true and sincere understanding of the Christ-Impulse.
For in the Anthroposophical Movement we find two kinds of souls. A large number of them have partaken in those currents which were, so to speak, the officially Christian ones in the first centuries. They witnessed all that came into the world as Christianity, notably in the times of Constantine, and immediately after him. Many of those who approached Christianity with the very deepest sincerity at that time and received it with inner depth and penetration, many of them are found in the Anthroposophical Society to-day with the deep impulse towards an understanding of Christianity. I do not mean so much the Christians who followed such movements as that of Constantine himself; I rather mean those Christians who claimed to be the true Christians, who were distributed in different Christian sects. In those Christian sects we find many of the souls who to-day approach the Anthroposophical Movement sincerely, though often through subconscious impulses which the surface consciousness may even largely misinterpret.
But there are other souls: there are those who did not partake directly in that development of Christianity. They either partook in Christianity at a later stage of its development when the deep inner life of the sects was no longer there, or on the other hand—and this is the most important thing—they still had, living and unextinguished in the depths of their souls, much of what was experienced in pre-Christian time as the ancient wisdom of the heathen Mysteries. They too often partook in Christianity; but it did not make so deep an impression upon them as upon the other souls described before. For there still remained alive in them the impression of the teachings, the rituals and practices of ancient Mysteries. Now among those who have entered the Anthroposophical Movement in this way we find many who are seeking for the Christ in an abstract sense. The other souls above described are happy, so to speak, to find Christianity once more within the Anthroposophical Movement. But many of the souls I now mean grasp with real inner understanding the Cosmic Christianity which Anthroposophy contains. Christ as the Cosmic Spirit of the Sun is taken hold of most especially by the souls (and they are very numerous in the Anthroposophical Movement) in the depths of whom much is still living of what they underwent in connection with ancient heathen Mysteries.
Now all this is deeply connected with the currents of the whole spiritual life of mankind in the present time—I mean the present time in a wider sense, reaching over decades and centuries.
Anthroposophy after all has grown out of the spiritual life of the present time, and though in its contents it has nothing directly in common with this spiritual life, karmically it has grown out of it in many ways. We must turn our eyes to many things which do not apparently belong to what works in Anthroposophy directly, if we would include in our spiritual horizon all that partook in the different streams I have mentioned. I said a little while ago that we only truly understand what takes place outwardly on the physical plane if we see in the background what is poured down from the fields of the spirit into these events as they take place on the physical plane. We must regain the courage to bring into our present life that feeling of the ancient Mysteries. We must connect the physical events not merely abstractly with a vaguely Pantheistic or Theistic or whatever spiritual life. We must become able to trace the detailed events, nay more, the inner experiences of men within these events, to the spiritual source and background.
We are led to do so among other things by something that belongs to the deepest tasks of the present time. For in the present time we must seek again for a real knowledge of man in body, soul and spirit—not a knowledge rooted in abstract ideas or laws, but one that is able to look into the true foundation of the human being as a whole. To gain such knowledge man must be searched through and through in his conditions of health and sickness; and not in a merely physical sense as is customary to-day, for then we should not learn to know the human being. By merely physical knowledge we can never learn to know what works so deeply into the life of man, determining his destiny: his unhappiness, his sickness, his abilities or absence of abilities. Karma in all its forms—this we can only know if from the starting-point of the physical we can trace the spiritual life of a man and his inner life of soul.
How do people work, in the ordinary scientific striving of to-day? They study the human being quite externally as to his organs and vessels, his nerves, the vessels of the circulation of the blood and so forth. But when the health and sickness of man are studied in this fashion one cannot find the spirit and soul in all these things.
Indeed the anatomist or physiologist of to-day may well speak in the words of a famous astronomer of the past, who, in answer to a question which his sovereign had put to him, replied:“I have searched through the whole universe, through all the stars and all their movements, but I have found no God!” So said the astronomer. And the anatomist or physiologist of to-day could say: “I have searched through them all—heart and kidneys, stomach and brain, blood-vessels and nerves—but I have found neither soul nor spirit.”
All the problems and difficulties of modern medicine, for example, are subject to this influence. And all these things must be dealt with in the Anthroposophical Movement today, according to the tasks which are placed before it. In general terms these questions must be unfolded before the Anthroposophical Society as a whole; in detail they must be treated in an expert way within the several groups. Thus, for example, I am now speaking on Pastoral Medicine to a group who are prepared for it by training and profession. Here we must seek the way into those great connections which proceed in the last resort from the workings of the streams of karma. In time to come it will be seen how pathology and therapeutics, how the observation of man in sickness and disease, will make it absolutely necessary to enter into the deep questions of the soul and spirit. As I have said again and again, the external and physical—the physical as presented by natural science—is to be respected in the fullest sense. Yet men will find themselves compelled to take into account the higher members of man's nature when considering disease and health. This will be seen in the book1Fundamentals of Therapy; an Extension of the Art of Healing through Spiritual Knowledge, by Rudolf Steiner, Ph.D. and Ita Wegman, M.D. (Zurich). English translation by George Adams, M.A. on which my dear fellow-worker Frau Dr. Wegman and I are working together, on the subject of man in health and in disease. Now these researches especially, seeking the ways of entry from the physical man into the spiritual, can only lead to good and promising results if we set about them in the right way. For in such work we must not only use the knowledge-forces of the present, but we must use the knowledge-forces which arise by picking up the threads of karma—the karmic threads proceeding from the history and evolution of mankind. We must indeed work with the forces of karma in order to penetrate these secrets.
In the first volume, only the beginnings of our work will be published. The work will then be carried forward and from the more elementary expositions we shall proceed to unfold the particular knowledge of man which can arise from this medical, therapeutic and pathological aspect of spiritual science. This work has only been made possible through the presence in Frau Dr. Wegman of a personality whose medical studies have entered into her in such a way as to evolve quite naturally, as a matter of course, towards a spiritual conception and perception of the human being.
Now it is in the course of these researches, when we behold in spiritual perspective all the workings of the human organs, that those perceptions also arise which lead us in turn to the deeper karmic connections. The same manner of perception must be evolved to perceive the spiritual realities that underlie, not the whole man, but his several organs. (For, if you will, it is the Jupiter world that underlies one organ, the Venus world that underlies another, and so forth.) The same insight which we must evolve in this direction, leads also to the possibility of perceiving human personalities in past earthly lives. For in the present earthly life man stands before us within the limits of his skin. But when we become able to gaze into his single organs, what was contained within the skin expands and expands. Each of the single organs points us to a different direction of the universe. The organs prepare the roads that lead us far out into the macrocosm, until far out yonder the human being once again appears as a complete and rounded whole. It is the human being built up once more in the spirit, having transcended the present form, the form that is enclosed within the skin—it is this that we need. For the sum-total of the human organs—which even physically is altogether different from what the present-day anatomist or physiologist conceives—when we trace it out into the cosmos, leads to perceptions which correspond in turn to the spiritual perception of the former earthly lives of man. Then we experience the inner connections that shed their light upon the evolution and history of mankind, explaining what is physically there to-day. For in reality the whole past of human beings lives in the present time. Yet the vague and abstract saying by itself is of no avail. Materialists too will say the same. The point is to perceive how the past is living in the present.
And of this I would now give you an example, an example which is in itself so wonderful that it called forth in me the greatest imaginable wonder when I first came to it as a result of spiritual research. And many things which I have said before must now be rectified, or at any rate must be completed, by that which I shall now set forth.
You see, for one who studies history with feeling for its inner meaning, a certain event in the first centuries of Christianity is wrapped in the atmosphere of a strange mystery. We see on the one side a personality of whom we may well think that in his inner life he was little fitted to take hold of Christianity or to make it what it then became, the official Christianity of the West. I mean the Emperor Constantine, of whom we have so often spoken. Then, side by side with him (not literally of course, but gazing back into that age from a considerable distance in time), side by side with Constantine we see Julian the Apostate. Julian the Apostate, he of a truth was one in whom the wisdom of the Mysteries was living, as we may know. Julian the Apostate could speak of a Threefold Sun. Indeed he lost his life through being regarded as a betrayer of the Mysteries, because he spoke about the Threefold Sun. Of these things it was no longer allowed to speak in his time; still less would it have been allowed in earlier times. But Julian the Apostate stood in a peculiar relation to Christianity. In a certain sense we must again and again be surprised that the genius, the fine spirituality and intellect of Julian was so little receptive to the greatness of Christianity. It was simply due to the fact that in his environment he saw very little of what he conceived as a true inner sincerity, whereas among those who introduced him to the ancient Mysteries he found great sincerity—positive, active sincerity. Such was the case with Julian the Apostate.
Yonder in Asia he was murdered. Many a fable is told about the murder. The truth is that it took place because he was regarded as a betrayer of the Mysteries. It was a murder altogether pre-arranged.
Now if we make ourselves to some extent acquainted with that which lived in Julian we cannot but be deeply interested in the question: How did his individuality live on in later times? For his was a peculiar individuality, one of whom it must be said that he would have been better fitted than Constantine, better than Clodvig and all the others, to make straight the ways of Christianity. This lay inherent in his soul. If the time had been favourable, if the conditions had existed, he could have brought about out of the ancient Mysteries a straightforward continuation from the pre-Christian Christ, the true macrocosmic Logos, to the Christ who was to work on within mankind after the Mystery of Golgotha. He was indeed a vessel well prepared. Strange as it may sound, we find it so, if we enter into his true spirit. We find in the foundations of his soul the true impulse to take hold of Christianity. But he did not let it emerge, he suppressed it, misled by the stupidities which Celsus had written about Jesus. It does indeed happen now and then that men of real genius are led astray by the stupidest effusions of their fellow-men. Thus we may have the feeling: Julian would really have been the soul to make straight the ways of Christianity and to bring Christianity into its true and proper channel.
We now leave the soul of Julian the Apostate in that earthly life and follow the same individuality with the highest interest through spiritual worlds. But there is always something vague and unclear about it. Only the most intense spiritual striving can come at length to a clear perception of his further course.
On many matters very adequate ideas existed in the Middle Ages. They might be legendary, but they were adequate; they corresponded to the real events. Legendary though they may be, how adequate are the narratives that centred round the personality of Alexander the Great. How vividly his life appears, as I already said, in the description of Lamprecht the Priest!
But that which lives on of Julian, lives on in such a way that we must say again and again: It seeks to disappear from before the vision of mankind. And as we seek to follow it we have the greatest difficulty, so to speak, in keeping it within our spiritual field of vision. Again and again it escapes us. We trace it through the centuries into the Middle Ages and it escapes us. But when at length we do succeed in following it to the end, we land at a strange place, which though it be not historic in the proper sense, is in reality more than historic. We come at length to the figure of a woman, in whom we find again the soul of Julian the Apostate. It was a woman who accomplished an important deed in her life under the impression of an essentially painful event. For she beheld, not in herself, but in the person of another, an image of the fate of Julian the Apostate, inasmuch as Julian the Apostate went on a campaign to the East and there lost his life by treachery.
The woman whom I mean is Herzeleide, the mother of Parsifal, who was an historic character though history itself tells nothing of her. In Gamuret, whom she married and who lost his life through treachery upon an Eastern campaign, she was pointed to her own destiny in the former life as Julian the Apostate. This went deep into her soul, and under this impression she achieved what is told to us in a legendary way—yet it is historic in the truest sense—of the education of Parsifal by Herzeleide.
The soul of Julian the Apostate who had remained thus in the depths and of whom one would believe that it should have been his very mission to prepare the right way for Christianity—this soul is found again in the Middle Ages in the body of a woman who sent out Parsifal, to seek and to find the esoteric paths for Christianity.
Mysterious like this, and full of riddles, are the paths of mankind in the background, in the foundations of existence. This example—and it is strangely interwoven with the one which I already told you in connection with the School of Chartres—this example may make you realise how wonderful are the paths of the human soul and the paths of evolution for all mankind.
We shall continue speaking of it in the next lecture, when I shall have more to say of the life of Herzeleide and of what was then sent forth, physically, in Parsifal. I shall begin next time at this point where we must break off to-day.
Fünfter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Ich habe heute hier die Bilder befestigen lassen, die einen Teil einer Gabe bilden, welche mir in den letzten Tagen zugekommen ist infolge des öfteren Sprechens über die für das abendländische innere Geistesleben so bedeutungsvolle Schule von Chartres. Sie sehen auf diesen Bildern — ich werde am Dienstag andere aus der Sammlung hier befestigen lassen —, was an wunderbar Architektonischem, an im Sinne der mittelalterlichen Plastik wunderbar Bildhauerischem, an der Stätte geworden ist, wo einstmals jenes Leben geblüht hat, von dem ich auch hier als einem für das Abendland wichtigen geistigen Leben nun schon öfter gesprochen habe.
[ 2 ] Diese Schule von Chartres, sie hatte ja diejenigen Persönlichkeiten in sich, welche im zwölften Jahrhundert noch den Drang hatten, sich lehrend oder lernend in dasjenige zu vertiefen, was an lebendigem Geistesleben in der Zeitenwende heraufgekommen ist, was heraufgezogen ist in jener Epoche europäischer Zivilisationsentwickelung, in der die Menschheit, insofern sie Erkenntnis suchte, diese Erkenntnis noch im lebendigen Wirken und Weben der Naturwesen, nicht im Begreifen der wesenlosen abstrakten Naturgesetze suchte. Und so wurde in der Schule von Chartres, wenn auch nicht mehr durch alte Initiaten, so doch aber durch Persönlichkeiten, welche Sinn und Herz dafür hatten, aus der Tradition manches von dem aufzunehmen, was einstmals auf spirituelle Art erlebt worden war, in einem intensiven Sinne eine Hingabe an die geistigen Mächte gepflegt, namentlich an diejenigen, die in der Natur walten. Und ich habe es ja bemerklich gemacht, meine lieben Freunde, wie man geradezu eine geheimnisvolle Lichtausstrahlung der Schule von Chartres in dem Geiste Brunetto Latinis, des großen Lehrers Dantes, sehen kann. Und ich habe dann begreiflich zu machen gesucht, wie die Persönlichkeiten, die Individualitäten von Chartres in geistigen Welten weitergewirkt haben, im Bunde mit denen, die nachher im Dominikanerorden mehr als die Träger der Scholastik gekommen sind.
[ 3 ] Man kann sagen, die Individualitäten von Chartres mußten aus den Zeichen der Zeit heraus zu der Anschauung kommen, daß innerhalb des Erdenlebens für sie erst dann wiederum die Zeit kommen werde, wenn das Michael-Element, das am Ende des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts beginnen sollte, eine Zeitlang auf Erden gewirkt haben wird. Teil nahmen diese Individualitäten von Chartres in einer weitgehenden Weise an jenen übersinnlichen Lehren, die in dem Sinne gegeben wurden, wie ich das letztemal davon gesprochen habe, unter der Ägide Michaels selber, um sozusagen die Impulse ausströmen zu lassen, welche für das spirituelle Leben in den nächsten Jahrhunderten gelten sollten und unter deren Einfluß derjenige heute notwendig stehen muß, welcher sich der Pflege des geistigen Lebens widmen will.
[ 4 ] Im großen und ganzen kann man sagen: Wiederverkörperungen der Geister von Chartres sind eigentlich nur in geringem Maße dagewesen. Aber dennoch war es mir gegönnt, gerade eine Möglichkeit zu finden, durch eine Anregung in der Gegenwart auf die Schule von Chartres zurückzublicken. Es gab da in der Schule von Chartres einen Mönch, der ganz demjenigen hingegeben war, was dazumal in der Schule von Chartres ja an Lebenselement war. Aber man fühlte in der Schule von Chartres, gerade wenn man ihr recht hingegeben war, etwas von Abenddämmerungsstimmung des geistigen Lebens. Denn alles, was noch an die großen, bedeutungsvollen Impulse des geisterfüllten Platonismus erinnerte, wie er sich fortgepflanzt hat, das lebte in Chartres, aber so, daß die Träger dieses Chartresschen Lebens sich sagen mußten: Ja, in der Zukunft wird die Zivilisation Europas keine Empfänglichkeit haben für diese platonische Lebendigkeit.
[ 5 ] Rührend, möchte ich sagen, ist es ja, wenn wir sehen, wie die Schule von Chartres Bildnisse der inspirierenden Genien für die sogenannten sieben Freien Künste bewahrt: Grammatik, Dialektik, Rhetorik, Arithmetik, Geometrie, Astronomie, Musika. Auch in dem Empfangen des Geistigen, das in diesen sieben Freien Künsten gegeben war, sah man noch lebendige Göttergaben, die durch Wesen an den Menschen herankamen, nicht Mitteilungen nur toter Gedanken über tote Naturgesetze. Und man konnte sehen, daß eben Europa keine Empfänglichkeit haben wird in der Zukunft für alles das. Deshalb empfand man etwas wie Abenddämmerungsstimmung des geistigen Lebens.
[ 6 ] Und ein solcher Mönch, ein einzelner, besonders den Arbeiten, den Lehren in Chartres hingegebener Mönch, wurde ja in unserer Zeit doch verkörpert, aber verkörpert in einer Weise, daß man geradezu in wunderbarer Art den Abglanz des vorigen Lebens in diesem Leben bei der betreffenden Persönlichkeit finden konnte. Diese Persönlichkeit in unserer Zeit war eine mir bekannte, sogar befreundete Schriftstellerin, die jetzt schon seit längerer Zeit gestorben ist, die eine in unserer Zeit ganz merkwürdige Seelenstimmung in sich trug, eine Seelenstimmung, über die ich früher nicht gesprochen haben würde, trotzdem ich sie vor Jahren beobachtet habe. Aber über diese Dinge zu sprechen ist eigentlich erst möglich, seitdem die Weihnachtsstimmung über unsere Anthroposophische Gesellschaft gekommen ist, weil diese ja eine besondere Beleuchtung für diese Dinge gebracht hat und weil heute die Möglichkeit vorliegt, über diese Dinge, wie ich schon ausführte, unbefangen zu sprechen.
[ 7 ] Wenn man mit dieser Persönlichkeit sprach, so sprach sie eigentlich nur davon, daß sie sterben wolle. Dabei war dieses Sterbenwollen nicht aus einer sentimentalen, auch nicht aus einer hypochondrischen, man könnte nicht einmal sagen aus einer melancholischen Seelenstimmung heraus, sondern wenn man den psychologischen Blick hatte, auf solche Dinge einzugehen, so fand man sich so weit zurück in der Seele dieser Persönlichkeit, daß man sich sagte: Da ist der Abglanz eines vorigen Erdenlebens. Da ist in einem vorigen Erdenleben etwas als Keim gelegt worden, was jetzt herauskommt. Jetzt — nicht in dieser Todessehnsucht, sondern in der Empfindung, daß eigentlich diese Seele, die da verkörpert war, gar nichts mit der Gegenwart zu tun hatte.
[ 8 ] Die Schriften dieser Persönlichkeit sind auch so, daß sie wie aus einer anderen Welt heraus, nicht den Mitteilungen nach, nicht den Tatsachen nach, wohl aber der Stimmung nach geschrieben sind. Und man kommt nur dann zu einem Verständnisse dieser Stimmung, wenn man den Weg findet von dem düsteren Lichte dieser Schriften und dem düsteren Lichte, das in dieser Seele selbst als deren Grundlage gelebt hat, zurück zu jenem Mönch von Chartres, der die Abenddämmerungsstimmung des lebendigen Platonismus dazumal in Chartres miterlebt hat.
[ 9 ] Es war bei dieser Persönlichkeit nicht Temperament, nicht Melancholie, nicht Sentimentalität, es war das Hereinleuchten eines früheren Lebens. Und die gegenwärtige Seele dieser Persönlichkeit war wie ein Spiegel, in die wirklich das Chartres-Leben hereinragte. Nicht der Inhalt der Lehren von Chartres war herübergekommen, wohl aber waren herübergekommen in dieser Persönlichkeit die Stimmungen. Und wenn man rückschauend in diese Stimmungen sich versetzt, dann kann man in ihnen, ich möchte sagen, etwas bekommen wie geistige Photographien jener Persönlichkeiten, die man sonst auch durch Geistesforschung innerhalb derjenigen Welt findet, in der sie zu finden sind, und die in Chartres gelehrt haben.
[ 10 ] Sehen Sie, so bringt eben das Leben in der verschiedensten Weise durch Karma die Möglichkeiten, in diese Dinge hineinzuschauen. Und wenn ich die Erlebnisse mit dem Zisterzienserorden das letzte Mal angeführt habe, so möchte ich in Ergänzung davon dasjenige anführen, was von der Abenddämmerung der Schule von Chartres in Herz und Seele einer außerordentlich interessanten Persönlichkeit der Gegenwart hereinragte. Sie hat nun seit langem diejenigen Welten wiedergefunden, nach denen sie sich so sehr sehnte, zurück zu den Vätern von Chartres. Und wenn nicht Müdigkeit als karmisches Ergebnis der Seelenstimmung in Chartres bei jenem Mönch das ganze Seelenleben dieser Persönlichkeit beherrscht hätte, ich könnte mir kaum denken, daß es eine geeignetere Persönlichkeit in der Gegenwart gegeben hätte, in Verbindung gerade mit dem traditionellen Leben des Mittelalters das Geistesleben der Gegenwart zu pflegen. Und dabei möchte ich erwähnen, daß, wenn solche tief in den Untergründen der Seele wirkende Karma-Impulse da sind, man das Eigentümliche vor sich hat, daß im physischen Gesichtsausdrucke einer nachfolgenden Inkarnation eine Ähnlichkeit zu finden ist — es ist das in seltenen Fällen so, aber es ist der Fall —, eine Ähnlichkeit mit der vorigen Inkarnation. Die beiden Antlitze jenes Mönches und jener Schriftstellerin der Gegenwart waren wirklich ganz ausserordentlich ähnlich.
[ 11 ] Nun, meine lieben Freunde, im Zusammenhang damit möchte ich nach und nach dasjenige betrachten, was Karma der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft beziehungsweise Karma der Individualitäten ihrer einzelnen Mitglieder ist dadurch, daß, wie ich schon das letzte Mal sagte, ein großer Teil der Seelen, die in der anthroposophischen Bewegung ehrlich drinnen stehen, irgendwo und irgendwann den Anschluß an jene Michael-Strömung gefunden hat, die ich eigentlich zu charakterisieren habe mit alledem, was ich bisher zu sagen hatte über Aristoteles und Alexander, über das, was im Übersinnlichen geschehen war zur Zeit, als in der Sinnenwelt hier das achte Konzil in Konstantinopel stattgefunden hat, über das, was als Fortsetzung geschah im Geistigen und im Physischen des Lebens am Hofe Harun al Raschids, und endlich über jene übersinnliche Schule, die unter der Ägide des Michael selber stand. Das Bedeutungsvolle in der Lehre dieser Schule war ja dieses, daß innerhalb ihrer Schule immer wieder hingewiesen wurde erstens auf die Zusammenhänge mit den alten Mysterien, auf die Zusammenhänge mit all dem, was wiederum heraufkommen muß in einer neuen Form aus dem Inhalte der alten Mysterien, um die neuere Zivilisation mit Spiritualität zu durchdringen; daß aber auf der anderen Seite auch auf die Impulse hingewiesen wurde, welche die für geistiges Leben begeisterten Seelen für ihr Wirken in die Zukunft hinein haben müssen. Und aus dem Verständnisse dieser Geistesströmung heraus kann es ja auch sein, daß verstanden werde, inwiefern Anthroposophie in ihrem Wesen die Impulse für ein erneuertes, wahres, ehrliches Verstehen des Christus-Impulses bedeutet.
[ 12 ] Denn in der anthroposophischen Bewegung finden sich eigentlich Seelen zweifacher Art. Eine ganze Anzahl dieser Seelen hat jene Strömungen mitgemacht, die sozusagen die offiziellen christlichen Strömungen der ersten Jahrhunderte waren; sie haben mitgemacht alles das, was als Christentum in die Welt gekommen ist, namentlich in den Zeiten des Kaisers Konstantin und in den unmittelbar daran anschließenden. Gerade unter denen, die dazumal mit einer ungeheuren Ehrlichkeit an das Christentum herangetreten sind, die in innerlicher Vertiefung das Christentum aufgenommen haben, sind eben solche Seelen, die sich mit dem Drange nach einem Verständnis des Christentums heute in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft befinden; nicht eben Christen, die solchen Bewegungen wie der des Kaisers Konstantin einfach nachfolgten, sondern mehr diejenigen Christen, die gerade für sich in Anspruch nahmen, als die echten Christen zu gelten, die in einzelne Sekten verteilt waren. Christliche Sekten mit innerlicher Vertiefung, sie enthielten viele der Seelen, die heute in ehrlicher Weise — manchmal aus unterbewußten Impulsen, die das Oberbewußtsein sogar in vieler Beziehung mißdeutet — herankommen an die anthroposophische Bewegung.
[ 13 ] Andere Seelen sind dann diejenigen, die diese christliche Entwickelung nicht unmittelbar mitgemacht haben, die entweder die spätere christliche Entwickelung mitgemacht haben, wo jene innerliche Vertiefung in Sekten nicht mehr da war, die aber vor allen Dingen auf dem Grunde ihrer Seelen viel von dem haben, unausgelöscht, lebendig, was in der vorchristlichen Zeit als alte heidnische Mysterienweisheit erlebt werden konnte. Auch sie haben vielfach das Christentum mitgemacht, aber es hat auf sie nicht solch einen Eindruck gemacht wie auf jene anderen Seelen, weil in ihnen der Eindruck und die Lehre, die Kultusübungen und so weiter der alten Mysterien lebendig geblieben waren. Gerade unter denen, die so in die anthroposophische Bewegung hineinkamen, befinden sich nun solche Seelen, die nicht in einem abstrakten Sinne Christus suchen. Die vorher Charakterisierten sind sozusagen froh, das Christentum wieder in der anthroposophischen Bewegung zu finden. Aber unter den andern sind diejenigen, die mit einem inneren Verständnis ergreifen, was in der Anthroposophie kosmisches Christentum ist. Christus als den kosmischen Sonnengeist, ihn erfassen vor allem diejenigen zahlreich in der anthroposophischen Bewegung stehenden Seelen, die viel Lebendiges noch in dem Untergrunde ihrer Seelen haben von dem, was sie aus den alten heidnischen Mysterien mitgebracht haben. Mit alledem sind ja die Strömungen des ganzen geistigen Lebens der Menschheit der Gegenwart verbunden; und ich meine eine weite Gegenwart, die über Jahrzehnte, die über Jahrhunderte reicht.
[ 14 ] Anthroposophie ist ja schließlich doch herausgewachsen aus dem Geistesleben der Gegenwart. Wenn sie auch in ihrem Inhalt nichts unmittelbar gemein hat mit diesem Geistesleben der Gegenwart, karmisch ist sie vielfach aus ihm herausgewachsen, und man muß auf manches, das scheinbar nicht in die Reihe dessen gehört, was unmittelbar in der Anthroposophie wirkt, man muß schon auch dahin schauen, um alles das in sein geistiges Gesichtsfeld hereinzubekommen, was in den Strömungen, die ich genannt habe, im Laufe der Zeit mitgewirkt hat. Ich sagte ja, man bekommt eigentlich ein wirkliches Verständnis für das, was äußerlich auf dem physischen Plane geschieht, erst dann, wenn man auf dem Hintergrunde dieses Geschehens schaut, was vom geistigen Felde aus in diese auf dem physischen Plane vor sich gehenden Ereignisse hineingeströmt wird. Und wir müssen, sagte ich schon das letzte Mal, wieder den Mut gewinnen, jene alte Mysterien-Empfindung in die Gegenwart hereinzuleiten, die nicht bloß in abstrakter Weise das physische Geschehen an ein allgemein pantheistisches oder theistisches oder wie immer geartetes Geistesleben anknüpft, sondern die konkret in der Lage ist, die einzelnen Geschehnisse, ja die menschlichen Erlebnisse innerhalb der Geschehnisse bis zu den geistigen Urgründen und Urwesen zurückzuverfolgen.
[ 15 ] Dazu gibt ja gerade dasjenige Veranlassung, was heute durch eine der tiefsten Aufgaben der Gegenwart gesucht werden muß. Es muß in der Gegenwart wiederum eine wirkliche Menschenerkenntnis nach Leib, Seele und Geist gesucht werden, aber nicht eine solche, die in abstrakten Ideen oder in abstrakten Gesetzen wurzelt, sondern die hineinschauen kann in die wirklichen Untergründe des ganzen menschlichen Wesens. Es muß dann der Mensch wirklich durchforscht werden nach seinen gesunden, nach seinen kranken Zuständen, nicht so, wie es sonst in der Gegenwart üblich ist, nach bloß physischen Erkenntnissen. Da lernt man den Menschen nicht kennen; da lernt man vor allen Dingen dasjenige im Leben nicht kennen, was in den Menschen hereinwirkt und so bedeutungsvoll in sein Schicksal eingreift: Unglück, Krankheit, Fähigkeit oder Unfähigkeit. Karma in allen seinen Formen lernt man nur kennen, wenn man den Menschen in seine Geistigkeit und in sein inneres Seelenleben hinein verfolgen kann von dem Ausgang des physischen Lebens aus.
[ 16 ] Heute steht ja das Erkenntnisstreben so da, daß in ganz äußerlicher Weise der Mensch in bezug auf seine Organe, in bezug auf seine Gefäße, in bezug auf seine Nerven, in bezug auf die Gefäße seines Blutumlaufes und so weiter betrachtet wird. Und wer die Dinge so betrachtet nach Gesundheit und Krankheit des Menschen, der ist nicht in der Lage, in all dem etwas zu finden, was Geist oder Seele ist. Und man möchte sagen: Der Anatom, der Physiologe von heute, er könnte so reden, wie einstmals ein berühmter Astronom zu einem Herrscher gesprochen hat in Beantwortung einer Frage, die der Herrscher gestellt hatte: Ich habe das ganze Weltall durchsucht, überall herumgesucht unter Sternen und ihren Bewegungen, aber einen Gott habe ich nicht gefunden. — So sagte der Astronom. Der Anatom und Physiologe von heute könnte sagen: Ich habe alles, Herz und Nieren und Magen und Gehirn und Blutgefäße und Nerven untersucht, aber die Seele und den Geist nicht gefunden.
[ 17 ] Sehen Sie, alles was die Schwierigkeiten zum Beispiel der heutigen Medizin sind, das steht unter diesem Einflusse. Und all das muß heute entwickelt werden, im allgemeinen nach den Anforderungen, die der anthroposophischen Bewegung gestellt sind, der ganzen Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft, und im einzelnen fachmännisch für die einzelnen Gruppen, wie zum Beispiel jetzt über Pastoral-Medizin vor einer Gruppe gesprochen wird, die fachmännisch dazu vorbereitet ist. Denn da muß das Tor gesucht werden, auch in diejenigen Zusammenhänge hereinzukommen, die sich zuletzt als die größeren Zusammenhänge in der Wirksamkeit der Karma-Strömungen ergeben. Und man wird sehen in der Pathologie und Therapie, wie die Beobachtung des kranken und gesunden Menschen notwendig macht, auf alles das einzugehen, was über Seele und Geist gesagt wird neben dem äußeren Physischen, das, wie ich immer wiederhole, so wie die Naturwissenschaft es darbietet, voll respektiert wird. Man wird aber schen, wie man genötigt ist, mit Bezug auf den gesunden und den kranken Menschen auf die höheren Glieder der Menschennatur einzugehen, wenn demnächst das Buch erscheinen wird, das von mir zusammen mit meiner lieben Mitarbeiterin, Frau Dr. Wegman, gerade auf diesem Gebiete des gesunden und kranken Menschen gearbeitet wird. Nur ergeben gerade solche Forschungen, welche die Tore suchen, um vom physischen Menschen auf eine richtige Art in den geistigen Menschen hineinzukommen, nur dann ein aussichtsvolles Resultat, wenn sie in der richtigen Weise angestellt werden. So daß zu einer solchen Arbeit, wie es hier der Fall ist, nicht bloß die Forschungskräfte der Gegenwart mitverwendet werden, sondern eben gerade Forschungskräfte, die sich dadurch ergeben, daß man die karmischen Fäden aufnimmt, die sich aus der Entwickelungsgeschichte der Menschheit heraus ergeben. Man muß sozusagen mit den Kräften des Karma arbeiten, um hinter die Geheimnisse zu kommen, um die es sich da handelt. Es werden zunächst nur die Anfänge im ersten Bande dieses Werkes erscheinen. Das Werk wird seine Fortsetzung finden, und es wird dann weitergeschritten werden von dem, was zunächst in mehr elementarer Weise entwickelt wird, zu demjenigen, was gerade von dieser Seite her, von der medizinisch-pathologischen Seite her, eine Menschenerkenntnis geben kann. Es ist das ja nur dadurch möglich, daß gerade in Frau Dr. Wegman eine Persönlichkeit vorliegt, welche in ihren medizinischen Studien die Dinge so aufgenommen hat, daß sie sich bei ihr selbstverständlich hinüberentwickeln zu demjenigen, was geistige Anschauung der Menschenwesenheit ist. Da aber, im Verlaufe dieser Forschung, ergeben sich gerade in der Anschauung der Organologie des Menschen, die man in geistiger Perspektive schaut, die Dinge, welche nun auch auf die karmischen Zusammenhänge hinführen. Denn dieselbe Art der Anschauung, die man entwickeln muß, um das Geistige zu schauen, das nicht hinter dem ganzen Menschen, sondern hinter den einzelnen Organen steht — hinter dem einen Organ steht meinetwillen die Jupiterwelt, hinter dem anderen Organ die Venuswelt und so weiter —, diejenigen Einsichten, die man da entwickeln muß, führen eben zu dem, was sich als die Möglichkeit darstellt, hinter menschliche Persönlichkeiten in ihren abgelaufenen Erdenleben zu kommen. Denn im gegenwärtigen Erdenleben steht der Mensch in seiner Hautumgrenzung vor uns. Bekommen wir die Fähigkeit, hineinzuschauen in die einzelnen Organe des Menschen, dann erweitert sich das, was innerhalb der Haut ist, indem jedes Organ nach einer anderen Richtung der Welt hinweist, die Wege bildet hinaus in den Makrokosmos. Dann rundet sich draußen wiederum der Mensch, und das braucht man: diesen Menschen, der sich geistig wieder aufbaut, nachdem er die gegenwärtige Form, die durch die Haut begrenzt ist, überwunden hat. Und wenn man das, was physisch etwas ganz anderes ist, als sich der heutige Anatom und Physiologe vorstellt, hinaus verfolgt, dann gibt das Anschauungen, die auch dem entsprechen, was die Schauungen in frühere Erdenleben des Menschen sind. Und da erlebt man ja dann die Zusammenhänge, die eben hineinleuchten in die Entwickelungsgeschichte der Menschheit, und die Gegenwart in dem, was physisch da ist, erklärlich machen. Es lebt ja die ganze Vergangenheit der Menschen eigentlich in der Gegenwart. Aber mit diesem allgemein abstrakten Satze ist natürlich nichts gesagt, den sagen ja die Materialisten auch; darauf kommt es aber nicht an, sondern es kommt darauf an, wie diese Vergangenheit in der Gegenwart lebt.
[ 18 ] Da möchte ich Ihnen auch dafür ein Beispiel sagen, ein Beispiel, das eigentlich so in sich wunderbar ist, daß es in mir selbst die größte Verwunderung hervorgerufen hat, als es sich als Resultat der Forschung ergeben hat. Und manches von dem, was von mir auf diesem Gebiete früher gedacht worden ist, mußte rektifiziert werden oder wenigstens ergänzt werden.
[ 19 ] Sehen Sie, es wird für den, der sinnvoll die Geschichte betrachtet, ein Ereignis gerade in den ersten Jahrhunderten des Christentums von einem merkwürdigen Geheimnis umschwebt. Wir sehen da eine Persönlichkeit, die wir vielleicht innerlich sehr wenig dazu geeignet finden, wir sehen den schon erwähnten Kaiser Konstantin das Christentum ergreifen, um es zu dem zu machen, was dann eigentlich das offizielle Christentum des Abendlandes geworden ist. Aber wir sehen — natürlich nicht im wörtlichen Sinne, aber wenn man über größere Zeiträume hinwegsieht —, wir sehen neben dem Konstantin stehen Julian Apostata, wahrhaftig eine Persönlichkeit, von der man wissen kann, in ihr lebte Mysterien- Weisheit. Julian Apostata konnte von der dreifachen Sonne sprechen. Und er hat ja sein Leben eingebüßt, weil er eben dadurch als Verräter an den Mysterien angesehen worden ist, daß er von der dreifachen Sonne gesprochen hat. Das durfte man in der damaligen Zeit nicht; früher hat man es schon erst recht nicht gedurft. Aber Julian Apostata stand in einer eigentümlichen Weise zum Christentum. Man möchte in gewissem Sinne oftmals verwundert sein, daß gerade dieser feine, geniale Kopf für die Größe des Christentums so wenig empfänglich war; aber das kommt davon her, daß er eben in seiner Umgebung wenig von innerlicher Ehrlichkeit, wie er sie auffaßte, sah. Und unter denen, die ihn in die antiken Mysterien einführten, fand er noch viel Ehrlichkeit, positive, aktive Ehrlichkeit.
[ 20 ] Julian Apostata wurde ja drüben in Asien ermordet. Über den Mord wurde mancherlei gefabelt. Aber er ist eben erfolgt, weil man in Julian Apostata einen Verräter der Mysterien gesehen hat. Es war ein ganz arrangierter Mord.
[ 21 ] Wenn man sich nun etwas bekannt macht mit dem, was in Julian Apostata lebte, dann wird man ja tief interessiert dafür: Wie lebte diese Individualität weiter? — Denn es ist eine ganz eigenartige Individualität, eine Individualität, von der man sagen muß: Mehr als Konstantin, mehr als Chlodwig, mehr als alle anderen wäre er geeignet gewesen, dem Christentum die Wege zu ebnen! Und es lag in seiner Seele. Er hätte, wenn die Zeit dazu günstig gewesen wäre, wenn die Verhältnisse dazu dagewesen wären, aus den alten Mysterien heraus eine geradlinige Fortsetzung bewirken können vom vorchristlichen Christus, von dem wirklichen makrokosmischen Logos, zu dem Christus, der fortwirken sollte in der Menschheit nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Und wenn man geistig auf den Julian eingeht, so findet man eben das Merkwürdige: Es ist Schale bei ihm gewesen dieses Apostata-Wesen, und auf dem Grunde seiner Seele findet man eigentlich einen Trieb, das Christentum zu erfassen, den er aber nicht heraufkommen ließ, den er unterdrückte, wegen der Albernheiten des Celsus, der über den Jesus geschrieben hat. Es kommt eben vor, daß auch eine geniale Persönlichkeit bisweilen auf Albernheiten von Leuten hereinfällt. Und so hat man das Gefühl, Julian wäre eigentlich die geeignete Seele gewesen, dem Christentum die Bahnen zu ebnen, das Christentum in die Bahn zu bringen, in die es gehört.
[ 22 ] Und man verläßt dann diese Seele des Julian Apostata in ihrem Erdenleben und folgt ihr als Individualität mit höchstem Interesse durch die geistigen Welten. Aber da ist etwas Unklares. Es umschwebt diese Seele etwas Unklares, und nur dem intensivsten Bestreben kann es gelingen, in dieser Beziehung zur Klarheit zu gelangen. Über vieles existieren im Mittelalter ja Anschauungen, die immer legendär sind, die aber adäquat sind den wirklichen Ereignissen. Ich habe das schon erwähnt, wie adäquat — wenn auch natürlich legendär — die Sagen sind, die sich an die Persönlichkeit des Alexander angeschlossen haben. Wie lebendig erscheint das Leben Alexanders noch in der Schilderung des Pfaffen Lamprecht! Was von Julian fortlebt, das lebt so fort, daß man immer sagen kann: Es will eigentlich verschwinden in der Menschenbetrachtung. Und wenn man es verfolgt, hat man sozusagen die größte Mühe, mit dem geistigen Blick dabeibleiben zu können. Es entzieht sich einem fortwährend. Man verfolgt es durch die Jahrhunderte bis in das Mittelalter herein: es entzieht sich einem. Und wenn es einem dann doch gelingt, die Sache zu verfolgen, dann landet man mit der Betrachtung an einer merkwürdigen Stelle, die eigentlich gar nicht historisch ist, die aber historischer als historisch ist: Man landet endlich bei einer weiblichen Persönlichkeit, in der man die Seele Julian Apostatas findet, bei einer weiblichen Persönlichkeit, die unter einem für sie selbst bedrückenden Eindrucke ein Wichtiges im Leben vollzog. Diese weibliche Persönlichkeit sah nicht in sich, sondern in einer anderen ein Abbild des Schicksals Julian Apostatas, insofern Julian Apostata einen Zug nach dem Oriente machte und im Orient durch Verrat umgekommen ist.
[ 23 ] Sehen Sie, das ist Herzeloyde, die Mutter des Parsifal, die eine historische Persönlichkeit ist, über die aber die Historie nicht berichtet, die in Gamuret, den sie geheiratet hat und der auf einem Zug nach dem Orient durch Verrat zugrunde gegangen ist, auf ihr eigenes Schicksal in dem früheren Julian Apostata hingewiesen wird. Durch diesen Hinweis, der ihr tief in die Seele ging, vollbrachte Herzeloyde, was nun legendär, aber ungemein historisch doch von der Erziehung des Parsifal durch Herzeloyde gesagt wird. Diese Seele des Julian Apostata, die so in den Untergründen geblieben war, bei der man glauben möchte, daß sie eigentlich wie berufen gewesen wäre, dem Christentum die rechte Bahn zu weisen, die findet sich dann im Mittelalter in einem weiblichen Leibe, in einer weiblichen Persönlichkeit, die den Parsifal aussendet, um dem Christentum die esoterischen Wege zu suchen und zu weisen.
[ 24 ] Sehen Sie, so geheimnisvoll, so rätselhaft gehen oft die Wege der Menschheit in den Unter- und Hintergründen des Daseins. Dieses Beispiel, das sich in einer merkwürdigen Weise verwebt mit dem, was ich schon erzählt habe in Anknüpfung an die Schule von Chartres, kann Sie aufmerksam darauf machen, wie wunderbar im Grunde genommen die Wege der menschlichen Seele und die Entwickelungswege der ganzen Menschheit sind. Dieses Beispiel wird noch eine Art Fortsetzung erfahren dürfen, indem ich über das Leben von Herzeloyde, über den, der dazumal physisch als Parsifal hinausgesendet wurde, einiges sprechen werde. Da, wo wir jetzt die Betrachtungen unterbrechen müssen, werde ich das nächste Mal anknüpfen.
Fifth Lecture
[ 1 ] I have had the pictures mounted here today, which form part of a gift that has come to me in the last few days as a result of speaking frequently about the School of Chartres, which is so significant for the inner spiritual life of the West. In these pictures - I will have others from the collection mounted here on Tuesday - you can see what has become of the marvelous architectural, the marvelous sculptural in the sense of medieval sculpture, at the place where that life once flourished of which I have often spoken here as an important spiritual life for the Occident.
[ 2 ] This school of Chartres had within it those personalities who, in the twelfth century, still had the urge to immerse themselves in teaching or learning about the living spiritual life that emerged at the turn of the century, which emerged in that epoch of European civilization development in which mankind, in so far as it sought knowledge, still sought this knowledge in the living working and weaving of natural beings, not in the comprehension of the insubstantial abstract laws of nature. And so in the school of Chartres, even if no longer by old initiates, but by personalities who had the sense and heart to absorb from tradition much of what had once been experienced in a spiritual way, an intense devotion to the spiritual powers was cultivated, especially to those who rule in nature. And I have already pointed out, my dear friends, how one can almost see a mysterious radiance of light from the School of Chartres in the spirit of Brunetto Latini, the great teacher of Dante. And I then tried to make it clear how the personalities, the individualities of Chartres have continued to work in spiritual worlds, in alliance with those who came later in the Dominican Order more than the bearers of scholasticism.
[ 3 ] It can be said that the individualities of Chartres had to come to the conclusion from the signs of the times that the time would only come for them again within earthly life when the Michael element, which was to begin at the end of the nineteenth century, would have worked on earth for a time. These individualities of Chartres took part in a far-reaching way in those supersensible teachings which were given in the sense in which I spoke of them last time, under the aegis of Michael himself, in order to let flow out, so to speak, the impulses which were to apply to the spiritual life in the centuries to come and under whose influence he must necessarily stand today who wishes to devote himself to the cultivation of the spiritual life.
[ 4 ] On the whole, one can say that reincarnations of the spirits of Chartres have actually only occurred to a small extent. Nevertheless, it was my privilege to find an opportunity to look back on the School of Chartres through a suggestion in the present. There was a monk in the school of Chartres who was completely devoted to what was the element of life in the school of Chartres at that time. But in the school of Chartres, especially when one was really devoted to it, one felt something of the twilight mood of spiritual life. For everything that still recalled the great, meaningful impulses of spirit-filled Platonism as it was propagated lived in Chartres, but in such a way that the bearers of this Chartresian life had to say to themselves: Yes, in the future the civilization of Europe will have no receptivity for this Platonic vitality.
[ 5 ] I would like to say that it is touching to see how the School of Chartres preserves images of the inspiring genii for the so-called seven liberal arts: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music. Even in the reception of the spiritual, which was given in these seven liberal arts, one still saw living gifts of the gods, which came to man through beings, not only communications of dead thoughts about dead natural laws. And one could see that Europe would have no receptivity for all this in the future. That is why one felt something like the twilight of spiritual life.
[ 6 ] And such a monk, a single monk, especially devoted to the works, the teachings in Chartres, was embodied in our time, but embodied in such a way that one could find the reflection of the previous life in this life in the personality concerned in an almost wonderful way. This personality in our time was a writer I knew, even a friend of mine, who has now been dead for a long time, who carried a mood of soul that is quite strange in our time, a mood of soul that I would not have spoken about in the past, even though I observed it years ago. But it has only really been possible to talk about these things since the Christmas mood has come over our Anthroposophical Society, because it has brought a special illumination to these things and because today it is possible to talk about these things, as I have already mentioned, in an unbiased way.
[ 7 ] When one spoke to this personality, she actually only spoke about wanting to die. This desire to die was not a sentimental, nor a hypochondriacal, one could not even say a melancholy mood, but if one had the psychological insight to go into such things, one found oneself so far back in the soul of this personality that one said to oneself: "There is the reflection of a previous life on earth. In a previous life on earth something was laid as a seed which is now coming forth. Now - not in this longing for death, but in the feeling that actually this soul, which was embodied there, had nothing at all to do with the present.
[ 8 ] The writings of this personality are also such that they are written as if from another world, not according to the messages, not according to the facts, but according to the mood. And one only comes to an understanding of this mood if one finds the way from the dark light of these writings and the dark light that lived in this soul itself as their foundation, back to that monk of Chartres who experienced the twilight mood of living Platonism at that time in Chartres.
[ 9 ] It was not temperament, not melancholy, not sentimentality in this personality, it was the shining forth of a former life. And the present soul of this personality was like a mirror into which the Chartres life really shone. Not the content of the teachings of Chartres had come over, but the moods had come over in this personality. And if one looks back into these moods, then one can, I would like to say, obtain in them something like spiritual photographs of those personalities who can otherwise also be found through spiritual research within the world in which they are to be found and who taught in Chartres.
[ 10 ] You see, through karma, life brings the possibilities to look into these things in various ways. And if I mentioned the experiences with the Cistercian order last time, I would like to add to them what penetrated the heart and soul of an extraordinarily interesting personality of the present day from the twilight of the Chartres school. She has now long since rediscovered those worlds for which she longed so much, back to the fathers of Chartres. And if fatigue as a karmic result of the mood of the soul in Chartres had not dominated the whole soul life of this monk, I could hardly imagine that there would have been a more suitable personality in the present to cultivate the spiritual life of the present in connection with the traditional life of the Middle Ages. And here I would like to mention that when such karmic impulses are present, working deep in the subsoil of the soul, one has the peculiarity that in the physical facial expression of a subsequent incarnation a resemblance is to be found - it is so in rare cases, but it is the case - a resemblance to the previous incarnation. The two countenances of that monk and that writer of the present day were really quite extraordinarily similar.
[ 11 ] Now, my dear friends, in connection with this I would like to consider, one by one, that which is the karma of the Anthroposophical Society, or rather the karma of the individualities of its individual members, in that, as I said last time, a large proportion of the souls who are honestly within the anthroposophical movement have somewhere and at some time found connection with that Michael current, which I actually have to characterize with all that I have had to say so far about Aristotle and Alexander, about what happened in the supersensible at the time when the eighth council took place here in Constantinople in the world of the senses, about what happened as a continuation in the spiritual and in the physical of life at the court of Harun al Raschid, and finally about that supersensible school which stood under the aegis of Michael himself. What was significant in the teachings of this school was that within it reference was repeatedly made firstly to the connections with the ancient Mysteries, to the connections with all that which in turn must come up in a new form from the content of the ancient Mysteries in order to permeate the newer civilization with spirituality; but that on the other hand reference was also made to the impulses which the souls enthusiastic for spiritual life must have for their work into the future. And from the understanding of this spiritual current it can also be understood to what extent anthroposophy in its essence means the impulses for a renewed, true, honest understanding of the Christ impulse.
[ 12 ] For in the anthroposophical movement there are actually souls of two kinds. Quite a number of these souls have participated in those currents which were, so to speak, the official Christian currents of the first centuries; they have participated in everything that came into the world as Christianity, especially in the times of the Emperor Constantine and in those immediately following. It is precisely among those who approached Christianity with tremendous sincerity at that time, who absorbed Christianity with an inner deepening, that there are souls who are in the Anthroposophical Society today with the urge to understand Christianity; not Christians who simply followed such movements as that of Emperor Constantine, but rather those Christians who claimed to be true Christians, who were divided into individual sects. Christian sects with inward deepening, they contained many of the souls who today come to the anthroposophical movement in an honest way - sometimes from subconscious impulses which the superconscious even misinterprets in many respects.
[ 13 ] Other souls are then those who have not directly participated in this Christian development, who have either participated in the later Christian development, where that inner deepening in sects was no longer there, but who above all have at the bottom of their souls much of that which could be experienced in pre-Christian times as ancient pagan mystery wisdom, still alive and unquenched. They, too, have often experienced Christianity, but it has not made such an impression on them as on those other souls, because the impression and the teaching, the cult practices and so on of the ancient mysteries had remained alive in them. It is precisely among those who came into the anthroposophical movement in this way that there are now souls who are not seeking Christ in an abstract sense. Those characterized above are, so to speak, happy to find Christianity again in the anthroposophical movement. But among the others are those who grasp with an inner understanding what cosmic Christianity is in anthroposophy. Christ as the cosmic Sun-Spirit is grasped above all by the many souls in the anthroposophical movement who still have much that is alive in the depths of their souls from what they have brought with them from the old pagan mysteries. The currents of the whole spiritual life of humanity in the present are connected with all this; and I mean a broad present that extends over decades, over centuries.
[ 14 ] Anthroposophy has, after all, grown out of the spiritual life of the present. Even if in its content it has nothing directly in common with this spiritual life of the present, karmically it has grown out of it in many ways, and one must look at many things that do not seem to belong to the series of things that are directly at work in anthroposophy in order to bring into one's spiritual field of vision everything that has contributed to the currents I have mentioned over the course of time. As I said, you only gain a real understanding of what is happening externally on the physical plane when you look at the background of these events and see what is flowing from the spiritual field into the events taking place on the physical plane. And we must, as I said last time, regain the courage to bring into the present that old mystery-perception which does not merely link physical events in an abstract way to a generally pantheistic or theistic or whatever kind of spiritual life, but which is concretely able to trace the individual events, indeed the human experiences within the events, back to the spiritual primal causes and primal beings.
[ 15 ] The reason for this is precisely that which must be sought today through one of the most profound tasks of the present. In the present we must again seek a real knowledge of man according to body, soul and spirit, but not one that is rooted in abstract ideas or abstract laws, but one that can look into the real foundations of the whole human being. The human being must then really be investigated according to his healthy and sick states, not, as is usual in the present, according to merely physical knowledge. In this way one does not get to know the human being; above all, one does not get to know those things in life that have an effect on the human being and intervene so significantly in his destiny: misfortune, illness, ability or inability. Karma in all its forms can only be known if one can follow a person into his spirituality and into his inner soul life from the beginning of his physical life.
[ 16 ] Today the striving for knowledge is such that in a quite external way man is considered in relation to his organs, in relation to his vessels, in relation to his nerves, in relation to the vessels of his blood circulation and so on. And anyone who looks at things in this way in terms of human health and illness is not in a position to find anything in all this that is spirit or soul. And one would like to say: the anatomist, the physiologist of today, he could speak as a famous astronomer once spoke to a ruler in answer to a question that the ruler had asked: I have searched the whole universe, looked everywhere among stars and their movements, but I have not found a god. - So said the astronomer. The anatomist and physiologist of today could say: I have examined everything, heart and kidneys and stomach and brain and blood vessels and nerves, but I have not found the soul and the spirit.
[ 17 ] You see, everything that is difficult in today's medicine, for example, is under this influence. And all this must be developed today, in general according to the demands made on the anthroposophical movement, on the whole Anthroposophical Society, and in detail, expertly for the individual groups, as, for example, pastoral medicine is now being discussed before a group that is expertly prepared for it. For there the gateway must be sought to enter into those connections which ultimately arise as the greater connections in the effectiveness of the karma currents. And one will see in pathology and therapy how the observation of the sick and healthy person makes it necessary to go into everything that is said about the soul and spirit alongside the external physical, which, as I always repeat, is fully respected as presented by natural science. However, it will become clear how necessary it is to deal with the higher members of human nature in relation to healthy and sick people when the book that I am working on together with my dear colleague, Dr. Wegman, in this area of healthy and sick people is published soon. It is just that such research, which seeks the gates to get from the physical human being into the spiritual human being in the right way, only gives a promising result if it is done in the right way. So that for such work, as is the case here, not only the research powers of the present are used, but precisely the research powers that result from taking up the karmic threads that arise from the developmental history of mankind. You have to work with the forces of karma, so to speak, in order to get to the bottom of the secrets involved. Initially, only the beginnings will appear in the first volume of this work. The work will be continued, and it will then progress from that which is initially developed in a more elementary way to that which can provide knowledge of the human being precisely from this side, from the medical-pathological side. This is only possible because Dr. Wegman is a personality who has absorbed things in her medical studies in such a way that they naturally develop into what is the spiritual view of the human being. In the course of this research, however, it is precisely in the view of the organology of the human being, which is seen from a spiritual perspective, that things arise which now also lead to the karmic connections. For the same kind of view that one must develop in order to see the spiritual, which does not stand behind the whole human being, but behind the individual organs - behind one organ stands the Jupiter world, behind the other organ the Venus world and so on - those insights that one must develop there lead precisely to what presents itself as the possibility of coming behind human personalities in their expired earth lives. For in the present life on earth, the human being stands before us in his or her skin boundary. If we acquire the ability to look into the individual organs of the human being, then that which is within the skin expands, in that each organ points in a different direction of the world, forming paths out into the macrocosm. Then the human being rounds itself out again, and that is what is needed: this human being who rebuilds himself spiritually after he has overcome the present form, which is limited by the skin. And if you follow what is physically something quite different from what today's anatomist and physiologist imagines, then this gives views that also correspond to what the views of man's earlier earthly lives are. And there one experiences the connections that shine into the history of mankind's development and explain the present in what is physically there. The whole past of mankind actually lives in the present. But of course nothing is said with this generally abstract sentence, the materialists also say that; but that is not what matters, what matters is how this past lives in the present.
[ 18 ] I would like to give you an example of this, an example that is actually so wonderful in itself that it caused me the greatest astonishment when it emerged as a result of research. And much of what I had previously thought in this field had to be rectified or at least supplemented.
[ 19 ] You see, for those who look at history sensibly, an event in the first centuries of Christianity is shrouded in a strange mystery. We see a personality who we perhaps find inwardly very unsuitable for this, we see the aforementioned Emperor Constantine seize Christianity to make it what actually became the official Christianity of the West. But we see - not in the literal sense, of course, but if we look beyond larger periods of time - we see Julian Apostata standing next to Constantine, truly a personality of whom we can know that mystery wisdom lived in him. Julian Apostata could speak of the threefold sun. And he lost his life because he was regarded as a traitor to the Mysteries precisely because he spoke of the threefold sun. That was not allowed in those days; it was certainly not allowed in the past. But Julian Apostata had a peculiar relationship to Christianity. In a certain sense, one might often be surprised that this fine, brilliant mind was so little receptive to the greatness of Christianity; but that is because he saw little of the inner honesty he perceived in those around him. And among those who introduced him to the ancient mysteries, he still found much honesty, positive, active honesty.
[ 20 ] Julian Apostata was murdered over in Asia. There were many stories about the murder. But it happened because Julian Apostata was seen as a traitor to the Mysteries. It was a completely arranged murder.
[ 21 ] If you now familiarize yourself with what lived in Julian Apostata, then you become deeply interested in it: How did this individuality live on? - For it is a very peculiar individuality, an individuality of which one must say: More than Constantine, more than Clovis, more than anyone else, he would have been suitable for paving the way for Christianity! And it was in his soul. If the time had been favorable, if the circumstances had been right, he could have brought about a straight continuation from the ancient mysteries from the pre-Christian Christ, from the real macrocosmic Logos, to the Christ who was to continue to work in humanity after the Mystery of Golgotha. And if we look at Julian spiritually, we find the curious thing: this apostate being was a shell in him, and at the bottom of his soul we actually find an impulse to grasp Christianity, but which he did not allow to emerge, which he suppressed because of the foolishness of Celsus, who wrote about Jesus. It just happens that even a brilliant personality sometimes falls for people's silliness. And so one has the feeling that Julian would actually have been the right person to pave the way for Christianity, to put Christianity on the right track.
[ 22 ] And one then leaves this soul of Julian Apostata in its earthly life and follows it as an individuality with the greatest interest through the spiritual worlds. But there is something unclear. Something unclear hovers around this soul, and only the most intense endeavor can succeed in achieving clarity in this relationship. In the Middle Ages, there are views about many things that are always legendary, but which are adequate to the real events. I have already mentioned how adequate - although of course legendary - the legends are that are connected to the personality of Alexander. How vividly the life of Alexander still appears in the description of the priest Lamprecht! What lives on from Julian lives on in such a way that one can always say: It actually wants to disappear in the contemplation of man. And when one follows it, one has, so to speak, the greatest difficulty in keeping one's spiritual gaze on it. It constantly eludes you. You follow it through the centuries right up to the Middle Ages: it eludes you. And when you do manage to follow it, you end up at a strange point that is not actually historical at all, but which is more historical than historical: you finally end up with a female personality in whom you find the soul of Julian Apostata, a female personality who carried out an important act in her life under an impression that was depressing for her. This female personality did not see in herself, but in another, an image of Julian Apostata's fate, inasmuch as Julian Apostata made a journey to the Orient and perished in the Orient through betrayal.
[ 23 ] You see, this is Herzeloyde, the mother of Parsifal, who is a historical personage, but about whom history does not tell, who in Gamuret, whom she married and who perished by treachery on a journey to the Orient, is referred to her own fate in the earlier Julian Apostata. Through this reference, which penetrated deep into her soul, Herzeloyde accomplished what is now legendary, but nevertheless incredibly historical, about the education of Parsifal by Herzeloyde. This soul of Julian Apostata, which had thus remained in the underground, which one would like to believe would actually have been called to show Christianity the right path, is then found in the Middle Ages in a female body, in a female personality, who sends Parsifal out to seek and show Christianity the esoteric paths.
[ 24 ] You see, so mysterious, so enigmatic are often the ways of mankind in the under- and backgrounds of existence. This example, which interweaves in a strange way with what I have already related in connection with the School of Chartres, can draw your attention to how wonderful the paths of the human soul and the developmental paths of all humanity are. I will be able to continue this example by talking about the life of Herzeloyde, the man who was physically sent forth as Parsifal. Where we now have to interrupt our reflections, I will pick up next time.