The Occult Movement in the Nineteenth Century
GA 254
10 October 1915, Dornach
Lecture I
You will have realised from lectures given recently that in our times a materialistic view of the world, a materialistic way of thinking, is not the outcome of man's arbitrary volition but of a certain historical necessity.
Those who have some understanding of the spiritual process of human evolution know that, fundamentally speaking, in all earlier centuries and millennia man participated in spiritual life to a greater extent than has been the case during the last four or five hundred years. We know with what widespread phenomena this is connected. At the very beginning of Earth-evolution, the heritage of the Old Moon clairvoyance was working in mankind. We can envisage that in the earliest ages of Earth-evolution this faculty of ancient clairvoyance was very potent, very active, with the result that the range of man's spiritual vision in those times was exceedingly wide and comprehensive. This ancient clairvoyance then gradually diminished until times were reached when the great majority of human beings had lost the faculty of looking into the spiritual world, and the Mystery of Golgotha came in substitution. But a certain vestige of the old faculties of soul remained, and evidence of this is to be found, for example, in the nature-knowledge which was in existence until the fourteenth and fifteenth, and indeed until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This nature-knowledge was very different in character from modern natural science. It was a nature-knowledge able to some extent still to rely, not upon clear, Imaginative clairvoyance but nevertheless upon vestiges of the Inspirations and Intuitions which were then applied and elaborated by the so-called alchemists. If an alchemist of those times was honourable in his aims and not out for egotistic gain, he still worked, in a certain respect, with the old Inspirations and Intuitions. While he was engaged in his outer activities, vestiges of the old clairvoyance were still astir within him, although no longer accompanied by any reliable knowledge. But the number of people in whom these vestiges of ancient clairvoyance survived, steadily decreased. I have often said that these vestiges can very easily be drawn out of the human soul today in states of atavistic, visionary clairvoyance. We have shown in many different ways how this atavistic clairvoyance can manifest in our own time.
From all this you will realise that the nearer we come to our own period in evolution, the more we have to do with a decline of old soul-forces and a growth of tendencies in the human soul towards observation of the outer, material world. After slow and gradual preparation, this reached its peak in the nineteenth century, actually in the middle of that century. Little as this is realised today by those who do not concern themselves with such matters, it will be clear to men of the future that the materialistic tendencies of the second half of the nineteenth century had reached their peak in the middle of the century; it was then that these tendencies developed their greatest strength. But the consequence of every tendency is that certain talents develop and the really impressive greatness of the methods evolved by materialistic science stems from these tendencies of the soul to hold fast to the outer, material world of sense.
Now we must think of this phase in the evolution of humanity as being accompanied by another phenomenon. If we carry ourselves back in imagination to the primeval ages of humanity's spiritual development, we shall find that in respect of spiritual knowledge, men were in a comparatively fortunate position. Most human beings, in fact all of them, knew of the spiritual world through direct vision. Just as men of the modern age perceive minerals, plants and animals and are aware of tones and colours, so were the men of old aware of the spiritual world; it was concrete reality to them. So that in those olden times, when full waking consciousness of the outer, material world was dimmed during sleep or dream, there was really nobody who would not have been connected with the dead who had been near him during life. In the waking state a man could have intercourse with the living; during sleep or dream, with the dead. Teaching about the immortality of the soul would have been as superfluous in those primeval times as it would be nowadays to set out to prove that plants exist. Just imagine what would happen at the present time if anyone set out to prove that plants exist! Exactly the same attitude would have been adopted in primeval times if anyone had thought it necessary to prove that the soul also lives after death.
Humanity gradually lost this faculty of living in communion with the spiritual world. There were, of course, always individuals who used whatever opportunity was still available to develop seership. But even that became more and more difficult. How did men in olden times develop a particular gift of seership? If with insight today we study the philosophy of Plato, or what exists of that of Heraclitus, we must realise—and this applies especially to the still earlier Greek philosophies—that they are altogether different from later philosophies. Read the first chapter of my book Riddles of Philosophy, where I have shown how these ancient philosophers, Thales and Parmenides, Anaximenes and Heraclitus, are still influenced by their particular temperaments. This has not hitherto been pointed out; the first mention of it is in my book. Inevitably, therefore, some time must elapse before it is accepted—but that does not matter. Of Plato, we can still feel: this philosophy still lays hold of the whole man. When we come to Aristotle however, the feeling is that we have to do with an academic, learned philosophy. Therefore to understand Plato requires more insight than a modern philosopher usually has at his command. For the same reason there is a gulf between Plato and Aristotle. Aristotle is already a scholar in the modern sense. Plato is the last philosopher in the old Greek sense; he is a philosopher whose concepts are still imbued to some extent with life. As long as a philosophy of this kind exists, the link with the spiritual world is not broken, and indeed it continued for a long time, actually into the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages did not develop philosophy to further stages but simply took over Aristotelian philosophy; and up to a certain point of time this was all to the good. Platonic philosophy too was taken over in the same way.
Now in days of antiquity, as long as at least the aptitude for clairvoyance of a certain kind was present, something very significant took place when men allowed this philosophy to work upon them. Today, philosophy works only upon the head, only upon the thinking. The reason why so many people avoid philosophy is because they do not like thinking. And especially because philosophy offers nothing in the way of sensationalism they have no desire to study it. Ancient philosophy, however, when received into the human soul, was still able, because of its greater life-giving power, to quicken still existing gifts of seership. Platonic philosophy, nay, even Aristotelian philosophy, still had this effect. Being less abstract than the philosophies of modern times, they were still able to quicken faculties of seership inherent in the human soul. And so it came to pass that in men who devoted themselves to philosophy, faculties that were otherwise sinking below the surface were quickened to life. That is how seers came into existence. But because what had now to be learnt about the physical world—and this also applies to philosophy—was of importance for the physical plane alone, and became increasingly important, man alienated himself more and more from the remnants of the old clairvoyance. He could no longer penetrate to the inner depths of existence and it was increasingly difficult to become a seer. Nor will this again be possible until the new methods indicated as a beginning in the book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds. How is it achieved? are accepted by mankind as plausible.
We have heard that a period of materialism reached its peak—one could also say, its deepest point—in the middle of the nineteenth century. It is certain that conditions will become more and more difficult but the threads of connection with the earlier impulses in the evolution of humanity must nevertheless not be broken. The following diagram indicates how seership has developed:

Here (yellow) seership is still present in full flower; it vanishes more and more completely until the lowest point is reached in the middle of the nineteenth century, and then there is again an ascent. But understanding of the spiritual world is not the same as seership. Just as in regard to the world, science is not the same thing as mere sensory perception, clairvoyance itself is a different matter from understanding what is seen. In the earliest epochs men were content, for the most part, with vision; they did not get to the point of thinking to any great extent about what was seen, for their seership sufficed. But now, thinking too came to the fore. The line a–b, therefore, indicates seership, vision; line c–d indicates thought or reflection about the spiritual worlds.
In ancient times man was occupied with his visions and thinking lay, as it were, in the subconscious region of the soul. The seers of old did not think, did not reflect; everything came to them directly through their vision. Thinking first began to affect seership about three or four thousand years B.C. There was a golden age in the old Indian, Persian, Egypto-Chaldean and also in very ancient Greek culture when thinking, still youthful and fresh, was wedded with vision in the human soul. In those times, thinking was not the laboured process it is in our day. Men had certain great, all-embracing notions, and, in addition, they had vision (e in diagram) . Something of the kind, although already in a weaker form, was present to a marked degree in the seers who founded the Samothracian Mysteries and there gave the monumental teaching of the four gods: Axieros, Axiokersos, Axiokersa and Kadmillos. In this great teaching which once had its home in the island of Samos, certain lofty concepts were imparted to those who were initiated in the Mysteries and they were able to unite with these concepts the still surviving fruits of ancient seership. It may be possible on some other occasion to speak of these things too in greater detail.1See Mystery Knowledge and Mystery Centres, Lecture XII. Fourteen lectures given in Dornach, 23rd November to 21st December, 1923. (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1973)
But then seership gradually sank below the threshold of consciousness and to call it up from the depths of the soul became more and more difficult. It was, of course, possible to retain some of the concepts, even to develop them further; and so finally a time came when there were initiates who were not necessarily seers—mark well, initiates who were not necessarily seers.
In different places where there were assemblies of these initiates, they simply adopted what was in part preserved from olden times, of which it could be affirmed that ancient seers revealed it—or what could be drawn forth from men who still possessed the faculties of atavistic clairvoyance. Conviction came partly through historical traditions, partly through experiments. Men convinced themselves that what their intellects thought was true. But as time went on the number of individuals in these assemblies who were still able to see into the spiritual world, steadily diminished, while the number of those who had theories about the spiritual world and expressed them in symbols and the like, steadily increased.
And now think of what inevitably resulted from this about the middle of the nineteenth century, when the materialistic tendencies of men had reached their deepest point. Naturally, there were people who knew that there is a spiritual world and also knew what is to be found in the spiritual world, but they had never seen that world. Indeed, the most outstanding savants in the nineteenth century were men who, although they had seen nothing whatever of the spiritual world, knew that it exists, could reflect about it, could even discover new truths with the help of certain methods and a certain symbolism that had been preserved in ancient tradition. To take one example only.—Nothing special is to be gained by looking at a drawing of a human being. But if a human form is drawn with a lion's head, or another with a bull's head, those who have learnt how these things are to be interpreted can glean a great deal from symbolical presentations of this kind—similarly, if a bull is depicted with the head of a man or a lion with the head of a man. Such symbols were in frequent use, and there were earnest assemblies in which the language of symbols could be learnt. I shall say no more about the matter than this, for the schools of Initiation guarded these symbols very strictly, communicating them to nobody who had not pledged himself to keep silence about them. To be a genuine knower a man needed only to have mastered this symbolic language—that is to say, a certain symbolic script.
And so the situation in the middle of the nineteenth century was that mankind in general, especially civilised mankind, possessed the faculty of spiritual vision deep down in the subconsciousness, yet had materialistic tendencies. There were, however, a great many people who knew that there is a spiritual world, who knew that just as we are surrounded by air, so we are surrounded by a spiritual world. But at the same time these men were burdened with a certain feeling of responsibility. They had no recourse to any actual faculties whereby the existence of a spiritual world could have been demonstrated, yet they were not willing to see the world outside succumbing altogether to materialism. And so in the nineteenth century a difficult situation confronted those who were initiated, a situation in face of which the question forced itself upon them: Ought we to continue to keep within restricted circles the knowledge that has come over to us from ancient times and merely look on while the whole of mankind, together with culture and philosophy, sinks down into materialism? Dare we simply look on while this is taking place? They dared not do so, especially those who were in real earnest about these things.
And so it came about that in the middle of the nineteenth century the words “esotericist” and “exotericist” which were used by the initiates among themselves, acquired a meaning deviating from what it had previously been. The occultists divided into exotericists and esotericists. If for purposes of analogy, expressions connected with modern parliaments are adopted—although naturally they are unsuitable here—the exotericists could be compared with the left-wing parties and the esotericists with the right-wing parties. The esotericists were those who wanted to continue to abide firmly by the principle of allowing nothing of what was sacred, traditional knowledge, nothing that might enable thinking men to gain insight into the symbolic language, to reach the public. The esotericists were, so to speak, the Conservatives among the occultists. Who, then—we may ask—were the exotericists ? They were and are those who want to make public some part of the esoteric knowledge. Fundamentally, the exotericists were not different from the esotericists, except that the former were inclined to follow the promptings of their feeling of responsibility, and to make part of the esoteric knowledge public.
There was widespread discussion at that time of which the outside world knows nothing but which was particularly heated in the middle of the nineteenth century. Indeed the clashes and discussions between the esotericists and the exotericists were far more heated than those between the Conservatives and Liberals in modern parliaments. The esotericists took the stand that only to those who had pledged themselves to strictest silence and were willing to belong to some particular society should anything be told concerning the spiritual world or any knowledge of it communicated. The exotericists said: If this principle is followed, people who do not attach themselves to some such society or league will sink altogether into materialism.
And now the exotericists proposed a way. I can tell you this today: the way proposed by the exotericists at that time is the way we ourselves are taking. Their proposal was that a certain part of the esoteric knowledge should be popularised. You see, too, how we ourselves have worked with the help of popular writings, in order that men may gradually be led to knowledge of the spiritual worlds.
In the middle of the nineteenth century things had not reached the point at which anyone would have ventured to admit that this was their conviction. In such circles there is, of course, no voting, and to say the following is to speak in metaphor. Nevertheless it can be stated that at the first ballot the esotericists won the day and the exotericists were obliged to submit. The society or league was not opposed, because of the good old precept of holding together. Not until more modern times has the point been reached when members are expelled or resign. Such things used not to happen because people understood that they must hold together in brotherhood. So the exotericists could do no other than submit. But their responsibility to the whole of mankind weighed upon them. They felt themselves, so to speak, to be guardians of evolution. This weighed upon them, with the result that the first ballot—if I may again use this word—was not adhered to, and—once again I will use a word which as it is drawn from ordinary parlance must be taken metaphorically—a kind of compromise was reached. This led to the following situation.
It was said, and this was also admitted by the esotericists: it is urgently necessary for humanity in general to realise that the surrounding world is not devoid of the spiritual, does not consist only of matter nor is subject to purely material laws; humanity must come to know that just as we are surrounded by matter, so too we are surrounded by the spiritual, and that man is not only that being who confronts us when we look at him in the material sense, but also has within him something that is of the nature of spirit and soul. The possibility of knowing this must be saved for humanity. On this, agreement was reached—and that was the compromise.
But the esotericists of the nineteenth century were not prepared to surrender the esoteric knowledge, and a different method had therefore to be countenanced. How it came into being is a complicated story. Particularly on occasions of the founding of Groups I have often spoken of what happened then. The esotericists said: We do not wish the esoteric knowledge to be made public, but we realise that the materialism of the age must be tackled.—In a certain respect the esotericists were basing themselves on a well-founded principle, for when we see repeatedly the kind of attitude that is adopted today towards esoteric knowledge we can understand and sympathise with those who said at that time that they would not hear of it being made public. We must realise, however, that over and over again it can be seen that open communication of esoteric knowledge leads to calamity, and that those who get hold of such knowledge are themselves the cause of obstacles and hindrances in the way of its propagation. In recent weeks we have often spoken of the fact that far too little heed is paid to these obstacles and hindrances. Most unfortunate experiences are encountered when it is a matter of making esoteric knowledge public. Help rendered with the best will in the world to individuals—even there the most elementary matters lead to calamity! You would find it hard to believe how often it happens that advice is given to some individual—but it does not please him. When the outer world says that an occultist who works as we work here, exercises great authority—that is just a catchword. As long as the advice given is acceptable, the occultist, as a rule, is not grumbled at; but when the advice is not liked, it is not accepted. People even browbeat one by declaring: “If you do not give me different advice, I simply cannot get on.” This may come to the point of actual threats, yet it had simply been a matter of advising the person in question for his good. But as he wants something different, he says: “I have waited long enough; now tell me exactly what I ought to do.” He was told this long ago, but it went against the grain. Finally things come to the point where those who were once the most credulous believers in authority become the bitterest enemies. They expect to get the advice they themselves want and when it is not to their liking they become bitter enemies. In our own time, therefore, experience teaches us that we cannot simply condemn the esotericists who refused to have anything to do with popularising the esoteric truths.
And so in the middle of the nineteenth century this popularising did not take place; an attempt was, however, made to deal in some way with the materialistic tendencies of the age. It is difficult to express what has to be said and I can only put it in words which, as such, were never actually uttered but none the less give a true picture. At that time the esotericists said: What can be done about this humanity? We may talk at length about the esoteric teaching but people will simply laugh at us and at you. At most you will win over a few credulous people, a few credulous women, but you will not win over those who cling to the strictly scientific attitude, and you will be forced to reckon with the tendencies of the age.
The consequence was that endeavours were made to find a method by means of which attention could be drawn to the spiritual world, and indeed in exactly the same way as in the material world attention is called to the fact that in a criminal the occipital lobe does not or does not entirely cover the corresponding part of his brain.—And so it came about that mediumship was deliberately brought on the scene. In a sense, the mediums were the agents of those who wished, by this means, to convince men of the existence of a spiritual world, because through the mediums people could see with physical eyes that which originates in the spiritual world; the mediums produced phenomena that could be demonstrated on the physical plane. Mediumship was a means of demonstrating to humanity that there is a spiritual world. The exotericists and the esotericists had united in supporting mediumship, in order to deal with the tendency of the times.
Think only of men such as Zöllner, Wallace, du Prel, Crookes, Butlerow, Rochas, Oliver Lodge, Flammarion, Morselli, Schiaparelli, Ochorowicz, James, and others—how did they become convinced of the existence of a spiritual world? It was because they had witnessed manifestations from the spiritual world. But everything that can be done by the spiritual world and by the initiates must, to begin with, be in the nature of attempts in the world of men. The maturity of humanity must always be tested. This support of mediumship, of spiritualism, was therefore also, in a certain sense, an attempt. All that the exotericists and esotericists who had agreed to the compromise could say was: What will come of it remains to be seen.—And what did, in fact, come of it?
Most of the mediums gave accounts of a world in which the dead are living. Just read the literature on the subject! For those who were initiated, the result was distressing in the utmost degree, the very worst there could possibly have been. For you see, there were two possibilities. One was this.—Mediums were used and they made certain communications. They were only able to relate what they communicated to the ordinary environment—in the material elements of which spirit is, of course, present. It was expected, however, that the mediums would bring to light all kinds of hidden laws of nature, hidden laws of elemental nature. But what actually happened was inevitable, and for the following reason.—
Man, as we know, consists of physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego. From the time of going to sleep to waking, therefore, the real man is in his ego and astral body; but then he is at the same time in the realm of the dead. The medium sitting there, however, is not an ego and an astral body. The ego-consciousness and also the astral consciousness have been suppressed and as a result the physical and etheric bodies become particularly active. In this condition the medium may come into contact with a hypnotist, or an inspirer—that is to say, with some other human being. The ego of another human being, or also the environment, can then have an effect upon the medium. It is impossible for the medium to enter the realm of the dead because the very members of his being which belong to that realm have been made inoperative. The mediums went astray; they gave accounts allegedly of the realm of the dead. And so it was obvious that this attempt had achieved nothing except to promulgate a great fallacy. One fine day, therefore, it had to be admitted that a path had been followed which was leading men into fallacy—to purely Luciferic teachings bound up with purely Ahrimanic observations. Fallacy from which nothing good could result had been spread abroad. This was realised as time went on.
You see, therefore, how an attempt was made to deal with the materialistic tendencies of the age and yet to bring home to men's consciousness that there is a spiritual world around us. To begin with, this path led to fallacy, as we have heard. But you can gather from this how necessary it is to take the other path, namely, actually to begin to make public part of the esoteric knowledge. This is the path that must be taken even if it brings one calamity after another. The very fact that we pursue Spiritual Science is, so to say, an acknowledgment of the need to carry into effect the principle of the exotericists in the middle of the nineteenth century. And the aim of the Spiritual Science we wish to cultivate is nothing else than to carry this principle into effect, to carry it into effect honourably and sincerely.
From all this it will be clear to you that materialism is something about which we cannot merely speculate; we must understand the necessity of its appearance, especially of the peak—or lowest point—it reached about the middle of the nineteenth century. The whole trend had of course begun a long time before then—certainly three, four or five centuries before. Man's leanings to the spiritual passed more and more into his subconsciousness, and this state of things reached its climax in the middle of the nineteenth century. But that too was necessary, in order that the purely materialistic talents of men might develop unhindered by occult faculties. A materialistic philosopher such as Kant, a materialistic philosopher from the standpoint of the Idealists of the nineteenth century—you can easily read about this in my book Riddles of Philosophy—could not have appeared if the occult faculties had not drawn into the background. Certain faculties develop in man when others withdraw, but while the one kind of faculties and talents develops outwardly, the other kind takes its own inner path. These three, four or five centuries were not, therefore, a total loss for the spiritual evolution of mankind. The spiritual forces have continued to develop below the threshold of consciousness, and if you think about what I have indicated in connection with von Wrangell's pamphlet2Published in Leipzig in 1914, with the title, Wissenschaft and Theosophie. on the subject of what he there calls the “dreamlike”, you will be able to recognise the existence of occult faculties which are merely waiting to unfold. They are present in abundance in the souls of men; it is only a matter of drawing them out in the right way.
It was necessary to say these things by way of introduction, and tomorrow we will pass on to the question of the relation between the Living and the Dead, bearing in mind that in one respect the wrong path resulting from the compromise between the exotericists and the esotericists has actually been instructive. To understand the nature of this compromise we must study the questions of birth and death and then show what effect the materialistic methods have had in this connection.
Erster Vortrag
Wenn Sie solche Auseinandersetzungen nehmen, wie wir sie in der letzten Zeit gepflogen haben, so werden Sie einsehen, wie in unserer Zeit, nicht aus menschlicher Willkür heraus, sondern gewissermaßen aus einer geschichtlichen Notwendigkeit, eine materialistische Weltanschauung, ein materialistisches Denken herrscht.
Wer die Entwickelung der Menschheit in bezug auf deren geistige Angelegenheiten kennt, der weiß, daß im Grunde genommen alle früheren Jahrhunderte und Jahrtausende eine größere Teilnahme der Menschheit an dem spirituellen Leben zeigten als die letzten vier bis fünf Jahrhunderte. Wir wissen ja, mit welcher allgemeinen Erscheinung dies zusammenhängt. Wir wissen, daß ganz ursprünglich in der Erdenentwickelung die Menschheit die Erbschaft des alten Mondenhellsehens hatte. Wir können uns auch eine Vorstellung darüber machen, daß in den ersten Zeiten der Erdenentwickelung dieses alte Hellsehen sehr bedeutend, sehr rege war, so daß dazumal die Menschen außerordentlich viel gewissermaßen spirituell überschauen konnten. Dann wurde das alte Hellsehen geringer und geringer, es traten die Zeiten ein, in denen für die große Mehrzahl der Menschen die Fähigkeit, in die geistige Welt hineinzuschauen, hingeschwunden war, und es trat die Zeit ein, in der für die menschliche Seelenentwickelung als Ersatz das Mysterium von Golgatha eintrat. Aber es blieb immer noch ein gewisser Rest der alten menschlichen Seelenfähigkeiten zurück, und diesen Rest finden wir, wenn wir zum Beispiel den Blick auf dasjenige richten, was bis ins 14., 15., auch noch bis ins 16., 17. Jahrhundert hinein Naturwissenschaft war. Denn diese war etwas ganz anderes als die heutige Naturwissenschaft; es war eine Naturwissenschaft, die zum Teil noch, wenn auch nicht mit einem klaren imaginativen Hellsehen, so doch mit den Überresten alter Inspirationen und Intuitionen rechnen konnte, die dann verarbeitet wurden von den sogenannten Alchimisten. Solch ein Alchimist, wenn er ehrlich war und nicht auf egoistischen Gewinn ausging, arbeitete in gewisser Beziehung noch mit den alten Inspirationen und Intuitionen. Indem er äußerlich hantierte, wirkten in ihm, wenn auch nicht mehr mit einem starken Wissen, doch noch die alten Reste des Hellsehens. Aber immer geringer wurde die Zahl der Menschen, welche solche alte hellseherische Reste hatten. Ich habe schon oft angedeutet: diese hellseherischen Reste können heute sehr leicht herausgeholt werden aus dem menschlichen Gemüte in dem atavistisch-visionären Hellsehen. Wir haben in der verschiedensten Weise gezeigt, wie in unserer heutigen Zeit dieses atavistisch-visionäre Hellsehen auftreten kann.
Aus alledem aber wird Ihnen hervorgehen, daß, je mehr wir uns in der Menschheitsentwickelung unserer Zeit nähern, wir es doch zu tun haben mit einer Abnahme alter Seelenkräfte und mit einem Heraufkommen von solchen Neigungen der menschlichen Seele, die mehr auf die Beobachtung der äußeren sinnlichen Welt gehen. Es bereitete sich das langsam vor und hat wirklich im 19. Jahrhundert seinen Höhepunkt erlangt, gerade in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. So wenig klar dies auch heute noch dem Menschen ist, der sich mit diesen Dingen weniger beschäftigt, so klar wird es dem Menschen der Zukunft sein, daß wirklich in bezug auf die materialistischen Neigungen in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts, namentlich um die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts, ein Höhepunkt war. Die stärksten materialistischen Neigungen entwickelten sich da. Aber jede Neigung hat zur gleichen Zeit zur Folge, daß sich gewisse Talente ausbilden. Und das Große, das Gewaltige, das sich in der materialistischen wissenschaftlichen Methode ausgebildet hat, das rührt eben davon her, daß diese Neigungen der Seele, sich an die äußere sinnliche Welt zu halten, damals aufgetaucht sind.
Nun müssen wir uns aber das, was eben gewissermaßen als Entwickelungsmoment der Menschheit angegeben worden ist, begleitet denken von einer anderen Erscheinung. Wenn Sie sich im Geiste zurückversetzen in die Urzeiten der geistigen Menschheitsentwickelung, so werden Sie finden: Dazumal waren, namentlich in bezug auf spirituelles Wissen, die Menschen in einer verhältnismäßig glücklichen Lage. Die meisten, fast alle Menschen wußten von der geistigen Welt durch unmittelbare Anschauung. So wie die heutigen Menschen von den Mineralien, Pflanzen und Tieren Wahrnehmungen haben, so wie sie von Tönen und Farben wissen, so wußten diese Menschen von der geistigen Welt. Sie wußten auch ganz im Konkreten von dieser geistigen Welt, so daß es in diesen alten Zeiten niemand eigentlich gab, der nicht in der Zeit, in der das volle Wachbewußtsein für die äußere sinnliche Welt schlafend oder träumend herabgedämmert war, mit den in seinem Leben ihm nahegestandenen Toten einen Zusammenhang gehabt hätte. Man konnte gewissermaßen während des Wachzustandes mit den Lebenden, während des Schlaf- oder Traumzustandes mit den Toten verkehren. Eine Lehre darüber, daß es eine Unsterblichkeit der Seele gibt, wäre in den Urzeiten der Menschheit selbstverständlich eine überflüssige Sache gewesen, so wie es heute eine überflüssige Sache wäre, zu beweisen, daß es Pflanzen gibt. Denken Sie, wie das wäre, wenn heute jemand beweisen wollte: es gibt Pflanzen. So aber wäre es in den Urzeiten gewesen, wenn jemand hätte beweisen wollen: es gibt ein Seelenleben auch nach dem Tode.
Diese Fähigkeit, mit der geistigen Welt zusammenzuleben, hat sich nach und nach in der Menschheit verloren. Gewiß waren immer einzelne da, die das Sehertum ausbildeten, die die Gelegenheit benutzten, welche der Menschheit noch gegeben war, ein besonderes Sehertum auszubilden. Aber auch das wurde immer schwieriger. Wie bildete man in alten Zeiten ein besonderes Sehertum aus? Sehen Sie, wenn man zum Beispiel heute noch mit Innigkeit die Philosophie Platos oder das, was von der Philosophie Feraklits vorhanden ist, durcharbeitet, so muß man diese Philosophien, insbesondere die älteren griechischen Philosophien ganz anders nehmen als die Philosophien der späteren Zeit. Versuchen Sie einmal das erste Kapitel der «Rätsel der Philosophie» zu lesen, wo ich dargestellt habe, wie diese alten Philosophen, Thales und Parmenides, Anaximenes und Heraklit noch zusammenhängen mit ihrem "Temperament. Das ist bisher noch nicht dargestellt worden. Es ist das zum erstenmal in meinem Buche «Die Rätsel der Philosophie» dargestellt. Es wird daher noch eine lange Zeit brauchen, bis es geglaubt werden wird. Das macht aber nichts. Bis zu Plato hat man das Gefühl, die Philosophie, die da geboten wird, ergreift noch den ganzen Menschen. Das hört auf bei Aristoteles. Bei dem hat man das Gefühl, daß man es mit einer gelernten, einer Gelehrtenphilosophie zu tun hat. Daher gehört auch noch etwas mehr dazu, Plato zu verstehen, als der heutige Philosoph gewöhnlich aufzubringen vermag. Daher kommt es auch, daß zwischen Plato und Aristoteles eine Kluft besteht. Aristoteles ist schon Gelehrter im neueren Sinne, Plato ist der letzte Philosoph im alten griechischen Sinne, er ist ein Philosoph, der noch etwas von den lebendigen Begriffen hat. Solange man solch eine Philosophie hat, geht der Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt nicht verloren, und sie hat sich lange, bis ins Mittelalter hinein, fortgepflanzt. Das Mittelalter hat die Philosophie nicht fortgebildet, sondern hat die aristotelische Philosophie übernommen. Und es tat in bezug auf seine Zeit gut daran, diese aristotelische Philosophie bis zu einer gewissen Zeit einfach zu übernehmen. Auch die platonische Philosophie wurde übernommen. | Nun, solange in alten Zeiten wenigstens die Anlagen da waren zu einem gewissen Hellsehen, da geschah etwas sehr Bedeutsames, wenn die Menschen diese Philosophie auf sich wirken ließen. Heute wirkt eine Philosophie nur auf den Kopf, nur auf das Denken. Daher meiden so viele die Philosophie, weil sie das Denken nicht lieben. Und besonders weil es keine Sensationen bietet, wollen sie Philosophie nicht studieren. Die alte Philosophie aber, hereingenommen in die menschliche Seele, befruchtete noch durch ihre größere lebendige Gewalt die zurückgebliebenen Reste der seherischen Anlagen. Eine solche Philosophie war noch die platonische, selbst noch die aristotelische. Sie waren noch nicht so abstrakt wie die heutigen Philosophien, sie befruchteten noch die seherischen Anlagen. Und so geschah es, daß diejenigen Menschen, die sich solcher Philosophie hingaben, die sonst unter das Niveau hinuntersinkenden seherischen Anlagen befruchteten. So entstanden die Seher. Weil nun das, was man über die physische Welt lernen mußte — und auch die Philosophie -, nur für den physischen Plan Bedeutung hatte, aber immer mehr an Bedeutung gewann, entfernte man sich mehr und mehr von den Resten des alten Hellsehens. Da konnte man nicht mehr hinunter. Es gab immer mehr Schwierigkeiten, ein Seher zu werden. Das wird erst wieder möglich sein, wenn die neue Methode, deren Anfang gemacht worden ist mit «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?», der Menschheit plausibel erscheinen wird.
Sie sehen, es geht also zunächst durchaus abwärts, um bei einer materialistischen Periode anzukommen, die, wie wir sahen, ihren Höhepunkt, man könnte auch sagen Tiefpunkt, in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts hat. Es ist sicher: Die Verhältnisse werden immer schwieriger und schwieriger, aber es dürfen doch nicht gewissermaßen die Fäden zerrissen werden mit den früheren Entwickelungsimpulsen der Menschheit.
Wenn wir uns die Linien aufzeichnen, wie sich das Sehertum entwickelt hat, dann ist es so:

Hier (gelb) ist das Sehertum noch vorhanden in voller Blüte, es schwindet immer mehr und mehr (grün); hier hätten wir die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts, den Tiefpunkt, und da müßte es wieder hinaufgehen.
Aber wenn wir nun das Verstehen der geistigen Welt nehmen - ja, das Verstehen der geistigen Welt ist wieder etwas anderes als das Sehertum. So wie die Wissenschaft für die Welt etwas anderes ist als bloße Sinneswahrnehmung, so ist das Hellsehen etwas anderes als das Verstehen des Gesehenen. So kommt es, daß in den ältesten Zeiten die Menschen sich zum großen Teile mit dem Sehen begnügt haben, daß sie überhaupt nicht dazu kamen, viel nachzudenken; sie hatten alles in ihrem Sehertum gegeben. Aber immer mehr und mehr kam auch das Denken herauf. So daß ich die Linie des Denkens über die geistigen Welten so ziehen kann (siehe Zeichnung): Das wäre die Linie des Schauens, des Sehens: a-b, und das wäre die Linie des Denkens: c-d.
In den alten Zeiten des Sehens ist der Mensch mit seinem Sehen beschäftigt, da liegt das Denken gewissermaßen im Unterbewußten der Seele. Die alten Seher denken nicht. Es ist ihnen alles durch ihr Sehen unmittelbar gegeben. Erst in den Zeiten um das 3. bis 4. Jahrtausend ergreift das Denken das Sehen. Da gab es eine Blütezeit in der indischen, persischen, ägyptisch-chaldäischen und auch in der ganz alten griechischen Kultur; eine Blütezeit, in welcher in der Menschenseele das noch ganz frische Denken sich vermählte mit dem Schauen. Da war das Denken noch nicht so ausspintisiert wie in unserer Zeit. Da hatte man einige große, umfassende Begriffe und dazu das Schauen (e). So etwas war, wenn auch da schon abgeschwächt, zum Beispiel besonders heimisch bei den Sehern, welche die samothrakischen Mysterien gründeten und darin brachten die große, monumentale Lehre von den vier Göttern: Axieros, Axiokersos, Axiokersa und Kadmillos. Diese große, monumentale Lehre von den vier kabirischen Göttern, die einstmals vorhanden war auf der thrakischen Insel Samos, in Samothrakien, war so, daß derjenige, der in sie eingeweiht wurde, einige große Begriffe bekam und damit dann verbinden konnte, was noch an Ergebnissen des alten Sehertums vorhanden war. Vielleicht können wir auch solche Dinge noch einmal genauer schildern.
Dann sehen wir gewissermaßen das Sehertum versinken unter die Schwelle des Bewußtseins. Es wurde immer schwieriger, heraufzubringen aus den Tiefen der Seele das Sehertum. Aber natürlich konnte man einige der Begriffe behalten, sogar weiter ausbilden, und so kam endlich eine Zeit herauf, in der es Eingeweihte gab, die nicht notwendigerweise Seher zu sein brauchten; also wohlgemerkt, Eingeweihte, die nicht notwendigerweise Seher zu sein brauchten.
An den verschiedenen Orten, an denen diese Eingeweihten Vereinigungen hatten, in den Eingeweihtenschulen, nahm man einfach das, was zum Teil von alten. Zeiten her aufbewahrt war, von dem also gesagt werden konnte, alte Seher haben es gesehen, zum Teil nahm man auch dasjenige, was heraufgeholt werden konnte von Menschen, die noch die atavistischen Anlagen des Hellsehens hatten. Davon überzeugte man sich zum Teil durch historische Überlieferungen, zum Teil durch Experimente. Man überzeugte sich davon, daß es wahr ist, was man dachte. Aber nach und nach gab es in diesen Vereinigungen immer weniger Menschen, die noch in die geistige Welt hineinschauen konnten, und immer mehr solche, die die Theorie von der geistigen Welt hatten und diese in Symbolen und dergleichen ausdrückten.
Denken Sie nur einmal darüber nach, was sich daraus ergeben mußte in der Zeit um die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts, wo die materialistischen Neigungen der Menschen auf einem Tiefpunkte angelangt waren. Es gab selbstverständlich Leute, die wußten, daß es eine geistige Welt gibt und die auch wußten, was in der geistigen Welt darinnen ist, die aber die geistige Welt nie gesehen hatten. Ja, gerade die hervorragendsten Wissenden im 19. Jahrhundert waren solche Menschen, die eigentlich gar nichts irgendwie gesehen haben von der geistigen Welt, die aber wußten, daß es eine geistige Welt gibt und die nachdenken konnten über die geistige Welt, die auch neue Wahrheiten finden konnten mit Hilfe gewisser Methoden, mit Hilfe einer gewissen Symbolik, die in der alten Tradition aufbewahrt waren. Wenn man zum Beispiel, um nur eines zu sagen, einen Menschen aufzeichnet, so kann man nichts: Besonderes daraus gewinnen, wenn man das Bild anschaut. Wenn man aber eine menschliche Gestalt mit einem Löwenkopf aufzeichnet und eine andere mit einem Stierkopf, dann kann derjenige, der gelernt hat solche Dinge auszudeuten, sehr vieles aus einer solchen symbolischen Darstellung entnehmen. Oder wenn man einen Stier mit einem Menschenkopf oder einen Löwen mit einem Menschenkopf malt, so kann derjenige, der in solche Dinge eingeweiht ist, sehr viel daraus lernen. Solche Symbole wurden sehr viel aufgezeichnet und es gab dann ernsthafte Vereinigungen, bei denen man die symbolische Sprache lernen konnte, über die ich nicht mehr sagen will, als ich gesagt habe, da die Eingeweihtenschulen diese Symbole sehr streng behütet und sie niemand mitgeteilt haben, der sich nicht verpflichtet hatte, über diese Dinge zu schweigen. Man brauchte, um ein guter Wissender zu sein, überhaupt nur diese symbolische Sprache, das heißt eine gewisse symbolische Schrift.
So war also der Stand in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts, daß die allgemeine Menschheit, gerade die zivilisierte Menschheit, tief im Unterbewußtsein alles Schauen des Geistigen hatte, daß diese Menschheit jedoch nur materialistische Neigungen hatte. Aber es gab eine große Anzahl von Leuten, welche wußten, daß es eine geistige Welt gibt, welche wußten, daß ebenso wie wir von der Luft umgeben sind, wir von einer geistigen Welt umgeben sind. Diese Menschen waren aber zugleich mit einer gewissen Verantwortlichkeit belastet, denn sie konnten auf keine unmittelbar vorhandenen Fähigkeiten verweisen, um zu zeigen, daß es eine geistige Welt gibt, und doch wollten sie die Welt draußen nicht versinken lassen in ihre materialistischen Neigungen. So standen diejenigen, die eingeweiht waren, im 19. Jahrhundert einer ganz besonderen Situation gegenüber, der Situation, daß sie sich sagen mußten: Sollen wir ferner bloß in den engen Kreisen, in Kreisen von Vereinigungen bewahren, was uns von alten Zeiten überkommen ist, und sollen wir zusehen, wie die ganze Menschheit samt ihrer Kultur und Philosophie in den Materialismus versinkt? Sollen wir da zuschauen? — Sie durften gar nicht gleichgültig zuschauen, insbesondere diejenigen nicht, die die Dinge ganz ernst nahmen.
So geschah es denn auch, daß in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts unter denjenigen Menschen, die eingeweiht waren, die Worte «Esoteriker» und «Exoteriker», wenn sie so untereinander waren, eine von der früheren abweichende Bedeutung erhielten. Es teilten sich geradezu die Okkultisten in zwei Parteien, in Exoteriker und Esoteriker. Wenn man vergleichsweise die Ausdrücke der heutigen Parlamente benützen will, die natürlich im Grunde ungeeignet sind, so könnte man vergleichen die Exoteriker mit den in den Parlamenten links sitzenden Parteien, und die Esoteriker mit den rechts sitzenden Parteien. Die Esoteriker waren nämlich diejenigen, welche auf dem strengen Standpunkte weiter fortbestehen wollten, nichts in die Öffentlichkeit kommen zu lassen von dem, was heiliges überliefertes Wissen ist, und nichts in die Offentlichkeit kommen zu lassen von dem, was für den denkenden Menschen zum Eindringen führen könnte in die symbolische Sprache. Die Esoteriker waren also gewissermaßen die Konservativen unter den Okkultisten. Und die Exoteriker — ja, man kann fragen, was sind denn die Exoteriker? Das sind eigentlich diejenigen, welche einen Teil des Esoterischen exoterisch machen wollen. Im Grunde waren die Exoteriker nichts anderes als die Esoteriker, nur waren sie geneigt, auf ihr Verantwortlichkeitsgefühl zu hören und einen Teil des esoterischen Wissens zu veröffentlichen.
Das gab damals wirklich eine ausgebreitete Diskussion, von der die äußere Welt freilich nichts weiß, die aber gerade besonders heftig war in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Wahrhaftig, viel heftiger als in den Parlamenten die Streitigkeiten zwischen den Konservativen und Liberalen waren die Streitigkeiten und Diskussionen zwischen den Esoterikern und Exoterikern. Die Esoteriker stellten sich auf den Standpunkt, nur für diejenigen, welche die strengste Schweigepflicht übernehmen und einer Gesellschaft angehören wollten, irgend etwas zu sprechen von der geistigen Welt, ein Wissen von der geistigen Welt zu übergeben. Die Exoteriker sagten: Auf diesem Wege versinken diejenigen Menschen, die sich nicht einer solchen Gesellschaft, nicht einem solchen Bunde anschließen, in den Materialismus.
Und nun schlugen die Exoteriker einen Weg vor, und ich kann Ihnen das heute sagen: den Weg, den dazumal die Exoteriker vorgeschlagen haben, gehen wir heute. Der Weg, den wir gehen, das ist der Weg, den die Exoteriker vorgeschlagen haben, nämlich einen bestimmten Teil des esoterischen Wissens populär zu machen. Sie sehen auch, wie wir gearbeitet haben mit Zuhilfenahme dessen, was man finden kann in populären Schriften, so daß man allmählich aufsteigen kann in die geistigen Welten.
In der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts war man noch nicht so weit, daß irgend jemand aus den Anschauungen heraus so etwas zuzugeben wagte. Selbstverständlich geht es in solchen Kreisen nicht so zu, daß Abstimmungen stattfinden. Es ist, wenn man das Folgende sagt, auch schon symbolisch, aber man kann doch sagen: bei der ersten Abstimmung hatten die Esoteriker gesiegt, und die Exoteriker mußten sich fügen. Man widerstrebte nicht der Gemeinschaft, weil man die alten guten Gebote der Zusammengehörigkeit hatte. Erst in der neueren Zeit ist man so weit gekommen, daß man Mitglieder ausschließt, oder daß Mitglieder austreten. So etwas gab es früher nicht, weil man verstand, was zusammenzustehen hat in Bruderschaft. So konnten selbstverständlich die Exoteriker nichts anderes tun, als sich fügen. Aber es lastete auf ihnen ihre Verantwortlichkeit, die Verantwortlichkeit gegenüber der ganzen Menschheit. Sie fühlten sich gewissermaßen als Hüter der Evolution. Das lastete auf ihnen, und so kam es, daß es bei der ersten Abstimmung, wenn ich noch einmal das Wort gebrauchen darf, nicht blieb, sondern daß man zu dem schritt - ich werde wieder ein Wort gebrauchen, das von der Außenwelt genommen, also symbolisch ist -, was man Kompromiß nennt, zu einer Art Kompromiß. Das bedeutet das Folgende.
Man sagte sich, das gaben auch die Esoteriker zu: Es ist dringend notwendig, daß die allgemeine Menschheit erfährt, daß es nicht bloß Materie und nicht bloß materielle Gesetze und nichts Geistiges in der Umgebung gibt, sondern daß die allgemeine Menschheit erfährt, daß wir ebenso, wie wir von Materiellem umgeben sind, von Geistigem umgeben sind, und daß der Mensch nicht nur das ist, als was er uns entgegentritt, wenn wir ihn im materiellen Sinne anschauen, sondern daß er noch etwas in sich hat, was geistig-seelischer Natur ist. Man muß der Menschheit die Möglichkeit retten, so etwas zu wissen. Darüber kam man überein, das war der Kompromiß.
Aber das esoterische Wissen preiszugeben, dazu fanden sich die Esoteriker des 19. Jahrhunderts nicht bereit. Das esoterische Wissen sollte nicht preisgegeben werden. Daher mußte man eine andere Methode zulassen, die in der Welt auftrat. Wie sie zustande kam, ist eine komplizierte Geschichte. Ich habe davon öfter gesprochen; namentlich bei Gelegenheit der Gründung einzelner Zweige habe ich öfter gesprochen von den Tatsachen, die da geschehen sind. Man sagte also: Das esoterische Wissen veröffentlichen, das wollen wir nicht; aber wir wollen einmal mit dem Materialismus des Zeitalters rechnen. — Gewissermaßen war es ein begründeter Erfahrungssatz, von dem namentlich die Esoteriker ausgingen. Denn wenn wir immerhin sehen, wie in der Gegenwart das esoterische Wissen vielfach entgegengenommen wird, dann können wir schon Verständnis und Mitgefühl haben mit denjenigen, die dazumal als Esoteriker sagten: Wir wollen nichts wissen von einer Veröffentlichung esoterischen Wissens. — Wir müssen uns nur klarmachen, daß wir es immer wieder und wieder beobachten können, wie die Veröffentlichung des esoterischen Wissens geradezu zu einer Kalamität wird, und wie diejenigen, die das esoterische Wissen bekommen, selber Hemmnisse und Hindernisse aufwerfen gegen die Verbreitung des esoterischen Wissens. Wir haben ja in den letzten Wochen vielfach davon gesprochen, Solche Hemmnisse und Hindernisse, die da aufgeworfen werden, werden noch viel zu wenig berücksichtigt. Man muß wirklich die schlimmsten Erfahrungen machen, wenn es sich darum handelt, das esoterische Wissen zu veröffentlichen. Wenn man den besten Willen hat, auch dem einzelnen Hilfe zu leisten: schon in den elementarsten Dingen ergeben sich Kalamitäten! Sie glauben gar nicht, wie oft es immer wieder vorkommt, daß dem einzelnen dieser oder jener Rat gegeben wird. Der Rat gefällt ihm aber nicht. Wenn die Außenwelt davon spricht, daß ein Okkultist, der so wirkt, wie hier gewirkt wird, eine große Autorität habe, so ist das nur eine Rederei. Solange Ratschläge gegeben werden, die gefallen, kommt der Okkultist meist durch. Aber wenn Ratschläge gegeben werden, die nicht mehr gefallen, so nimmt man sie nicht an. Die Menschen drohen sogar und sagen: Wenn du mir nicht andere Ratschläge gibst, so komme ich mit mir nicht zurecht. — Bis zu Drohungen geht das, und dabei liegt nichts anderes vor, als daß man das,was dem Betreffenden gut ist, gesagt hat. Da er aber etwas anderes haben will, so sagt er: Ich habe jetzt lange genug gewartet, sage mir jetzt, um was es sich handelt! Es wurde ihm das schon längst gesagt, aber das gefällt ihm nicht. Das führt dann immer weiter und endlich dazu, daß diejenigen, welche zuerst die allerautoritätsgläubigsten Anhänger waren, die allererbittertsten Feinde werden. Sie erwarten nämlich Ratschläge, die sie haben möchten, und sobald sie andere erhalten als die, welche sie haben wollen, verwandeln sie sich in erbitterte Feinde. Gerade unsere Zeit also lehrt uns, daß wir nicht einfach verurteilen können die Esoteriker, die da sagten, sie lassen sich nicht ein auf eine Popularisierung der esoterischen Wahrheiten.
Und so kam es in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts nicht dazu, eine solche Popularisierung zu geben, sondern man wollte rechnen mit den materialistischen Neigungen des Zeitalters. Ja, es ist schwierig, das auszusprechen, was zu sagen ist, ich kann es nur in Worte, die nie so gesprochen worden sind, fassen, sie sind aber wahr. Dazumal sagte der Esoteriker: Was soll ich mit dieser Menschheit! Ich könnte ihr lange vorreden von den eigentlichen Lehren der Esoterik, da werden sie mich und euch höchstens auslachen. Ihr werdet höchstens einige Leichtgläubige bekommen, einige leichtgläubige Frauen, wenige leichtgläubige Männer, aber die, welche auf Wissenschaftlichkeit halten, die werdet ihr nicht gewinnen können. Ihr müßt rechnen mit den Neigungen der Zeit!
Die Folge davon war, daß man versuchte eine Methode aufzufinden, durch die man auf die geistige Welt aufmerksam gemacht werden konnte, und zwar ganz so, wie man materialistisch aufmerksam gemacht wird auf so etwas wie die Tatsache, daß beim Verbrecher der Hinterhauptlappen das Kleinhirn gar nicht oder nicht ganz bedeckt. So kam es, daß bewußt in Szene gesetzt wurde der Mediumismus. Gewissermaßen waren die Medien die Agenten derjenigen, die auf diesem Wege den Menschen die Überzeugung von einer geistigen Welt beibringen wollten, weil man durch sie mit äußeren Augen sehen konnte, was aus der geistigen Welt stammte, weil sie etwas hervorbrachten, was man auf dem physischen Plane zeigen konnte. Der Mediumismus war ein Mittel, um dem Menschen beizubringen, daß es eine geistige Welt gibt. Es hatten sich die Exoteriker und Esoteriker geeinigt, den Mediumismus zu protegieren, um dem Hang des Zeitalters entgegenzukommen.
Nehmen Sie - denn in gewisser Beziehung ist das nicht schlecht -, was Herr von Wrangell geschrieben hat auf Seite 41 seiner Broschüre: «Es genügt, an Namen wie Zöllner, Wallace, du Prel, Crookes, Butlerow, Rochas, Oliver Lodge, Flammarion, Morselli, Schiaparelli, Ochorowicz, James und andere zu erinnern.» Wodurch sind sie zu der Überzeugung einer geistigen Welt gekommen? Dadurch, daß sie Kundgebungen aus der geistigen Welt erhalten hatten und sie vielleicht erhalten mußten. Aber alles, was durch die geistige Welt und durch die Eingeweihtenwelt getan werden kann, sind zunächst eigentlich Versuche mit der Menschenwelt. Man muß immer prüfen, wozu die Menschheit schon reif ist. Es war also auch dieses Protegieren des Mediumismus, des Spiritismus, gewissermaßen ein Versuch. Und dieser Versuch ist dann eigentlich auch so gewesen, daß sie nur sagen konnten, beide, die Exoteriker und die Esoteriker, die den Kompromiß geschlossen haben: Wir wollen sehen, was da herauskommt. — Und was ist da herausgekommen?
Der größte Teil der Medien berichtete von einer Welt, in der die Toten wohnen. Lesen Sie nur die diesbezügliche Literatur. Was da herausgekommen ist, das war für diejenigen, die eingeweiht waren, im höchsten Maße betrübend. Das schlimmste Resultat, das man hat erzielen können, war herausgekommen. Denn, sehen Sie, zwei Dinge waren möglich. Das eine war: Man benützte Medien. Die Medien teilen irgend etwas mit. Das, was sie mitteilen, können sie nur beziehen auf die gewöhnliche Umwelt, die ja auch in ihren sinnlichen Elementen Geist enthält. Es haben nun die Leute erwartet, daß die Medien allerlei geheime Naturgesetze, elementare Naturgesetze zutage fördern werden. Etwas anderes konnte zunächst auch nicht kommen, aus dem Grunde nicht, der sich aus dem Folgenden ergibt.
Wir wissen, der Mensch besteht aus physischem Leib, ätherischem Leib, astralischem Leib und Ich. Der eigentliche Mensch ist also vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen im Ich und astralischen Leibe. Da ist er aber zugleich auch in der Welt, in der die Toten sind. Aber das Medium, das da sitzt, das ist nicht ein Ich und ein astralischer Leib. Bei diesem Medium, das da sitzt, dämpft man das Ich-Bewußtsein und auch das astralische Bewußtsein herunter; man macht gerade recht regsam den physischen und den ätherischen Leib. Dadurch kann es dann in Beziehung treten zu einem Hypnotiseur oder zu einem Inspirator, also zu einem anderen Menschen. Das Ich eines anderen Menschen oder auch die Umgebung kann dann auf das Medium wirken. Eigentlich fehlt dem Medium die Möglichkeit, in das Reich der Toten hineinzugehen, weil es gerade dasjenige ausgelöscht hat, was im Bereiche der Toten ist. Also die Medien haben versagt. Sie haben Berichte gegeben angeblich gerade aus jenem Reiche, in dem die Toten darinnen sind. Man hat also gesehen, daß man mit diesem Versuche nichts anderes erreicht hatte, als daß man einen großen Irrtum verbreitete. Man konnte sich also eines schönen Tages sagen, daß man einen Weg gegangen war, der die Menschen in einen Irrtum hineinführte, denn er führte sie hinein in eine rein luziferische Lehre, die verbunden war mit rein ahrimanischen Beobachtungen. Man hatte also einen Irrtum verbreitet, und es konnte nichts Gutes dabei herauskommen. Das hat man nach und nach eingesehen.
So sehen Sie, wie ein Versuch seinen Weg genommen hat, mit den materialistischen Neigungen des Zeitalters zu rechnen und dennoch den Menschen ein Bewußtsein beizubringen davon, daß eine geistige Welt um uns herum ist. Der Weg führte zunächst zu einem Irrtum, wie wir gesehen haben. Daraus aber können Sie entnehmen, wie notwendig es ist, den anderen Weg wirklich zu gehen. Dieser Weg, wirklich damit zu beginnen, einen Teil des esoterischen Wissens exoterisch zu machen, muß eben gegangen werden, und man muß ihn selbst dann gehen, wenn er Kalamität über Kalamität bringt. Die Tatsache, daß wir eben Geisteswissenschaft treiben, ist sozusagen eine Anerkennung der Notwendigkeit, daß das Prinzip der Exoteriker von der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts durchgeführt werde. Und nichts anderes ist die Art und das Streben der Geisteswissenschaft, die wir treiben wollen, als dieses Prinzip in einer gewissen Weise durchzuführen, ehrlich durchzuführen.
Aus alledem aber ersehen Sie, daß wir in dem Materialismus es zu tun haben mit etwas, worüber man nicht bloß spintisieren kann, sondern was man verstehen muß in der Notwendigkeit seines Heraufkommens, insbesondere seines Höhepunktes oder Tiefpunktes um die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Begonnen hat die Sache allerdings schon vor längerer Zeit, schon vor drei, vier, fünf Jahrhunderten. Da gingen immer mehr und mehr ins Unterbewußte jene spirituellen Neigungen der Menschen hinunter. Es war also in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts nur der Höhepunkt erreicht. Aber das war auch notwendig, damit sich, ungehindert von okkulten Fähigkeiten, die rein materialistischen Talente der Menschen ausbilden konnten. Ein materialistischer Philosoph wie Kant, ein materialistischer Philosoph von dem Standpunkte der Idealisten des 19. Jahrhunderts — Sie können das leicht nachlesen in meinem Buche «Die Rätsel der Philosophie» —, wäre nie möglich gewesen, wenn nicht die okkulten Fähigkeiten zurückgetreten wären. Gewisse Fähigkeiten bilden sich im Menschen aus, wenn andere zurücktreten. Aber während gewissermaßen die eine Art der Fähigkeiten, der Talente, nach außen sich ausbildet, geht die andere Art ihren inneren Weg. Diese drei, vier, fünf Jahrhunderte der materialistischen Entwickelung, sie waren deshalb für die spirituelle Entwickelung der Menschheit nicht etwa verloren. Unter der Schwelle des Bewußtseins hat sich das Spirituelle fortentwickelt; und wenn die Menschen das überdenken, was ich angedeutet habe in der Besprechung über Herrn von Wrangells Broschüre, über das, was er genannt hat das Traumhafte, so werden Sie heraufholen können die nur auf ihre Entfaltung wartenden okkulten Fähigkeiten. Sie sind da, sie sind in den Seelen der Menschen reichlich vorhanden, sie müssen nur heraufgeholt werden, in der richtigen Weise heraufgeholt werden.
Das sind die Dinge, die ich zunächst sagen mußte, um dann morgen überzugehen zu der Frage, welche Aussichten sich mit Bezug auf das Verhältnis zwischen Lebenden und Toten ergeben, wenn man berücksichtigt, wie aufklärend einerseits doch der falsche Weg gewesen ist, der sich aus dem Kompromiß der Exoteriker und Esoteriker ergeben hat. Gerade um den Zusammenhang des Wesens dieses Kompromisses zu erkennen, müssen wir die Betrachtungen über Geburt und Tod anstellen und dann den Zusammenhang mit den materialistischen Methoden zeigen.
First Lecture
If you consider the debates we have been having recently, you will see how, in our time, not out of human caprice, but rather out of a historical necessity, a materialistic worldview and materialistic thinking prevail.
Anyone familiar with the development of humanity in relation to spiritual matters knows that, fundamentally, all previous centuries and millennia showed greater participation by humanity in spiritual life than the last four to five centuries. We know, of course, what general phenomenon this is connected with. We know that in the very beginning of Earth's development, humanity had inherited the old lunar clairvoyance. We can also imagine that in the early days of Earth's development, this old clairvoyance was very significant and very active, so that at that time people were able to see extraordinarily much spiritually, so to speak. Then the old clairvoyance became less and less, and times came when the ability to see into the spiritual world had disappeared for the great majority of people, and the time came when the mystery of Golgotha took its place as a substitute for human soul development. But a certain remnant of the old human soul abilities remained, and we find this remnant when we look, for example, at what was natural science up until the 14th, 15th, and even the 16th and 17th centuries. For this was something quite different from today's natural science; it was a natural science that could still count, in part, if not on clear imaginative clairvoyance, then on the remnants of ancient inspirations and intuitions, which were then processed by the so-called alchemists. Such an alchemist, if he was honest and not motivated by selfish gain, still worked in a certain way with the old inspirations and intuitions. As he worked externally, the old remnants of clairvoyance still worked within him, even if no longer with strong knowledge. But the number of people who had such old clairvoyant remnants became fewer and fewer. I have often pointed out that these clairvoyant remnants can now be very easily brought out of the human mind in the form of atavistic-visionary clairvoyance. We have shown in various ways how this atavistic-visionary clairvoyance can occur in our time.
From all this, however, it will become clear to you that the closer we come to the development of humanity in our time, the more we are dealing with a decline in ancient soul forces and with the emergence of tendencies in the human soul that are more focused on observing the external sensory world. This developed slowly and really reached its peak in the 19th century, right in the middle of the 19th century. As unclear as this may still be today to people who are less concerned with these matters, it will be clear to the people of the future that there was indeed a peak in materialistic tendencies in the second half of the 19th century, particularly around the middle of the 19th century. The strongest materialistic tendencies developed there. But every tendency has the effect of developing certain talents at the same time. And the great and powerful things that developed in the materialistic scientific method stem precisely from the fact that these tendencies of the soul to cling to the outer sensory world emerged at that time.
Now, however, we must consider what has just been described as a moment of development for humanity to be accompanied by another phenomenon. If you transport yourself back in spirit to the primeval times of spiritual human development, you will find that at that time, especially with regard to spiritual knowledge, people were in a relatively happy situation. Most, almost all people knew about the spiritual world through direct observation. Just as people today have perceptions of minerals, plants, and animals, just as they know about sounds and colors, so these people knew about the spiritual world. They also knew about this spiritual world in very concrete terms, so that in those ancient times there was actually no one who, during the time when full waking consciousness of the outer sensory world was dormant or dreaming, did not have a connection with the dead who were close to them in their lives. In a sense, one could communicate with the living while awake and with the dead while asleep or dreaming. A teaching about the immortality of the soul would have been superfluous in the early days of humanity, just as it would be superfluous today to prove that plants exist. Imagine what it would be like if someone today wanted to prove that plants exist. That is how it would have been in primitive times if someone had wanted to prove that there is life after death.
This ability to coexist with the spiritual world has gradually been lost to humanity. Certainly, there were always individuals who developed clairvoyance, who took advantage of the opportunity that was still given to humanity to develop a special clairvoyance. But even that became increasingly difficult. How was a special clairvoyance developed in ancient times? You see, if, for example, one still studies Plato's philosophy or what remains of Heraclitus' philosophy with intensity today, one must take these philosophies, especially the older Greek philosophies, quite differently from the philosophies of later times. Try reading the first chapter of “The Riddles of Philosophy,” where I have described how these ancient philosophers, Thales and Parmenides, Anaximenes and Heraclitus, are still connected with their “temperament.” This has not been described before. It is described for the first time in my book “The Riddles of Philosophy.” It will therefore take a long time before it is believed. But that doesn't matter. Up to Plato, one has the feeling that the philosophy offered there still grips the whole person. That stops with Aristotle. With him, one has the feeling that one is dealing with a learned, scholarly philosophy. Therefore, understanding Plato requires something more than today's philosophers are usually capable of mustering. This is also why there is a gap between Plato and Aristotle. Aristotle is already a scholar in the modern sense, while Plato is the last philosopher in the ancient Greek sense, a philosopher who still has something of the living concepts. As long as one has such a philosophy, the connection with the spiritual world is not lost, and it continued for a long time, into the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages did not develop philosophy further, but adopted Aristotelian philosophy. And in relation to its time, it did well to simply adopt this Aristotelian philosophy until a certain point in time. Platonic philosophy was also adopted. Well, as long as the predisposition for a certain clairvoyance existed in ancient times, something very significant happened when people allowed this philosophy to influence them. Today, philosophy only affects the head, only the thinking. That is why so many people avoid philosophy, because they do not love thinking. And especially because it offers no sensations, they do not want to study philosophy. Ancient philosophy, however, when taken into the human soul, still fertilized the remaining vestiges of clairvoyant abilities through its greater living power. Such philosophy was still Platonic, even Aristotelian. They were not yet as abstract as today's philosophies; they still fertilized the clairvoyant abilities. And so it happened that those people who devoted themselves to such philosophy fertilized the seer faculties that would otherwise have sunk below the level. This is how the seers came into being. Because what had to be learned about the physical world—and also philosophy—was only of significance for the physical plane, but became increasingly important, people moved further and further away from the remnants of ancient clairvoyance. It was no longer possible to descend. It became increasingly difficult to become a seer. This will only be possible again when the new method, which began with “How to Attain Knowledge of Higher Worlds,” appears plausible to humanity.
So you see, things are initially going downhill, arriving at a materialistic period which, as we have seen, reached its peak, or rather its low point, in the middle of the 19th century. It is certain that conditions are becoming increasingly difficult, but the threads of humanity's earlier developmental impulses must not be severed, so to speak.
If we trace the lines of how clairvoyance has developed, we see the following:

Here (yellow) clairvoyance is still in full bloom, it is dwindling more and more (green); here we have the middle of the 19th century, the low point, and from there it should rise again.
But if we now take the understanding of the spiritual world—yes, the understanding of the spiritual world is something different from clairvoyance. Just as science is something different for the world than mere sensory perception, so clairvoyance is something different from the understanding of what is seen. Thus it came about that in the earliest times, people were largely content with seeing, that they did not get around to thinking much at all; they had given everything to their clairvoyance. But more and more, thinking also came to the fore. So that I can draw the line of thinking about the spiritual worlds as follows (see drawing): That would be the line of seeing, of vision: a-b, and that would be the line of thinking: c-d.
In the ancient times of seeing, people are preoccupied with their vision, and thinking lies, as it were, in the subconscious of the soul. The ancient seers do not think. Everything is given to them directly through their seeing. It is only in the times around the 3rd to 4th millennium that thinking takes hold of seeing. There was a heyday in Indian, Persian, Egyptian-Chaldean, and also in the very ancient Greek culture; a heyday in which the still very fresh thinking in the human soul married with seeing. At that time, thinking was not yet as elaborate as it is in our time. There were a few large, comprehensive concepts and, in addition, seeing (e). Something like this, even if already weakened, was particularly common among the seers who founded the Samothracian mysteries and brought with them the great, monumental teaching of the four gods: Axieros, Axiokersos, Axiokersa, and Kadmillos. This great, monumental teaching of the four Kabirian gods, which once existed on the Thracian island of Samos, in Samothrace, was such that those who were initiated into it received a few great concepts and could then connect them with what was still available from the results of the ancient seers. Perhaps we can describe such things in more detail again.
Then we see, as it were, clairvoyance sinking below the threshold of consciousness. It became increasingly difficult to bring seership up from the depths of the soul. But of course, some of the concepts could be retained and even further developed, and so a time finally came when there were initiates who did not necessarily need to be seers; that is to say, initiates who did not necessarily need to be seers.
In the various places where these initiates had associations, in the schools of initiates, they simply took what had been preserved in part from ancient times, what could be said to have been seen by ancient seers, and in part what could be brought forth by people who still had the atavistic predisposition for clairvoyance. This was verified in part by historical traditions and in part by experiments. People became convinced that what they thought was true. But gradually there were fewer and fewer people in these associations who could still see into the spiritual world, and more and more who had a theory about the spiritual world and expressed it in symbols and the like.
Just think about what must have resulted from this in the mid-19th century, when people's materialistic tendencies had reached a low point. Of course, there were people who knew that there was a spiritual world and who also knew what was in the spiritual world, but who had never seen the spiritual world. Indeed, the most outstanding scholars of the 19th century were people who had never actually seen anything of the spiritual world, but who knew that it existed and who were able to reflect on it and discover new truths with the help of certain methods and symbols preserved in ancient traditions. For example, to mention just one thing, if you draw a human being, you cannot gain anything special from looking at the picture. But if you draw a human figure with a lion's head and another with a bull's head, then someone who has learned to interpret such things can glean a great deal from such a symbolic representation. Or if you paint a bull with a human head or a lion with a human head, someone who is initiated into such things can learn a great deal from it. Such symbols were recorded extensively, and there were serious associations where one could learn the symbolic language, about which I will say no more than I have already said, since the schools of the initiated guarded these symbols very strictly and did not communicate them to anyone who had not pledged to remain silent about these things. To be a good scholar, one needed only this symbolic language, that is, a certain symbolic script.
So the situation in the middle of the 19th century was that humanity in general, especially civilized humanity, had a deep subconscious awareness of everything spiritual, but that this humanity had only materialistic inclinations. But there were a large number of people who knew that there was a spiritual world, who knew that just as we are surrounded by air, we are surrounded by a spiritual world. However, these people were also burdened with a certain responsibility, because they could not point to any immediately available abilities to show that there is a spiritual world, and yet they did not want to let the world outside sink into its materialistic tendencies. Thus, in the 19th century, those who were initiated faced a very special situation, the situation of having to ask themselves: Should we continue to preserve what has been handed down to us from ancient times only within the narrow circles of associations, and should we stand by and watch as the whole of humanity, together with its culture and philosophy, sinks into materialism? Should we stand by and watch? — They could not remain indifferent, especially those who took things very seriously.
And so it came to pass that in the middle of the 19th century, among those who were initiated, the words “esoteric” and “exoteric” took on a meaning different from their earlier one when they were among themselves. The occultists were divided into two parties, the exotericists and the esotericists. If one wants to use the terms used in today's parliaments, which are of course fundamentally unsuitable, one could compare the exotericists with the parties sitting on the left in parliament and the esotericists with the parties sitting on the right. The esotericists were those who wanted to continue to take a strict stance, not allowing anything that was sacred, traditional knowledge to become public, and not allowing anything that could lead thinking people to penetrate the symbolic language to become public. The esotericists were, in a sense, the conservatives among the occultists. And the exotericists — yes, one may ask, what are the exotericists? They are actually those who want to make part of the esoteric exoteric. Basically, the exotericists were no different from the esotericists, except that they were inclined to listen to their sense of responsibility and publish part of the esoteric knowledge.
There was indeed a widespread discussion at that time, of which the outside world knows nothing, of course, but which was particularly heated in the middle of the 19th century. Truly, the disputes and discussions between the esotericists and exotericists were much more heated than the disputes between the conservatives and liberals in the parliaments. The esotericists took the position that they would only speak about the spiritual world and pass on knowledge of the spiritual world to those who undertook the strictest confidentiality and belonged to a society. The exotericists said: In this way, those people who do not join such a society, such a union, will sink into materialism.
And now the exotericists proposed a path, and I can tell you today: we are following the path that the exotericists proposed at that time. The path we are following is the path that the exotericists proposed, namely to popularize a certain part of esoteric knowledge. You can also see how we have worked with the help of what can be found in popular writings, so that one can gradually ascend into the spiritual worlds.
In the middle of the 19th century, people were not yet ready to admit such a thing based on their views. Of course, in such circles, there are no votes taken. It is symbolic to say the following, but one can say that in the first vote, the esotericists prevailed, and the exotericists had to comply. There was no resistance to the community because of the old, good commandments of togetherness. It is only in recent times that we have reached the point where members are expelled or resign. This did not happen in the past because people understood what it means to stand together in brotherhood. So, of course, the exotericists had no choice but to submit. But they were burdened by their responsibility, their responsibility to all of humanity. They felt, in a sense, that they were the guardians of evolution. This weighed heavily on them, and so it came about that the first vote, if I may use that word again, was not the end of the matter, but that they proceeded to what is called a compromise, a kind of compromise. This means the following.
They said to themselves, and the esotericists admitted this too: it is urgently necessary for humanity in general to learn that there is not only matter and not only material laws and nothing spiritual in the environment, but that humanity in general should learn that just as we are surrounded by material things, we are also surrounded by spiritual things, and that human beings are not only what they appear to be when we look at them in a material sense, but that they also have something within them that is spiritual and soul-like. Humanity must be given the opportunity to know this. This was agreed upon; that was the compromise.
But the esotericists of the 19th century were not prepared to reveal esoteric knowledge. Esoteric knowledge should not be revealed. Therefore, another method had to be allowed to emerge in the world. How this came about is a complicated story. I have spoken about this often; particularly on the occasion of the founding of individual branches, I have often spoken about the facts that occurred there. So it was said: We do not want to publish esoteric knowledge, but we want to take into account the materialism of the age. — In a sense, it was a well-founded empirical principle, which the esotericists in particular took as their starting point. For when we see how esoteric knowledge is often received in the present day, we can already have understanding and sympathy for those who, as esotericists at that time, said: We want nothing to do with the publication of esoteric knowledge. — We must simply realize that we can observe again and again how the publication of esoteric knowledge becomes a calamity, and how those who receive esoteric knowledge themselves raise obstacles and barriers to its dissemination. We have spoken about this many times in recent weeks. Such obstacles and barriers that are erected are still given far too little consideration. One really has to go through the worst experiences when it comes to publishing esoteric knowledge. Even if you have the best of intentions to help individuals, calamities arise even in the most elementary things! You would not believe how often it happens that individuals are given this or that advice. But they do not like the advice. When the outside world says that an occultist who works as we do here has great authority, that is just empty talk. As long as advice is given that is pleasing, the occultist usually gets by. But when advice is given that is no longer pleasing, it is not accepted. People even threaten and say: If you don't give me other advice, I won't be able to cope. — It goes as far as threats, and yet all that has been done is to say what is good for the person concerned. But since they want something else, they say: “I've waited long enough, now tell me what it's all about!” They have already been told, but they don't like it. This then leads further and further, and finally those who were initially the most authoritative followers become the most bitter enemies. They expect advice that they want to hear, and as soon as they receive advice other than what they want, they turn into bitter enemies. Our time in particular teaches us that we cannot simply condemn the esotericists who said they would not engage in popularizing esoteric truths.
And so, in the middle of the 19th century, such popularization did not take place, but instead people wanted to reckon with the materialistic tendencies of the age. Yes, it is difficult to say what needs to be said, I can only put it into words that have never been spoken before, but they are true. At that time, the esotericist said: What am I to do with this humanity! I could talk to them at length about the actual teachings of esotericism, but they would only laugh at me and you. At best, you will find a few gullible people, a few gullible women, a few gullible men, but you will not be able to win over those who believe in science. You must reckon with the tendencies of the times!
The result was that people tried to find a method by which they could draw attention to the spiritual world, just as materialists draw attention to something like the fact that the occipital lobe of a criminal's brain does not cover the cerebellum at all or only partially. Thus, mediumship was deliberately staged. In a sense, the mediums were the agents of those who wanted to use this method to convince people of the existence of a spiritual world, because through them it was possible to see with the outer eyes what came from the spiritual world, because they produced something that could be shown on the physical plane. Mediumship was a means of teaching people that there is a spiritual world. The exotericists and esotericists had agreed to promote mediumship in order to accommodate the tendencies of the age.
Take, for example, what Mr. von Wrangell wrote on page 41 of his brochure, which is not bad in a certain respect: "It suffices to recall names such as Zöllner, Wallace, du Prel, Crookes, Butlerow, Rochas, Oliver Lodge, Flammarion, Morselli, Schiaparelli, Ochorowicz, James, and others." What led them to believe in a spiritual world? The fact that they had received messages from the spiritual world and perhaps had to receive them. But everything that can be done through the spiritual world and through the world of the initiated is, at first, actually an experiment with the human world. One must always examine what humanity is already ready for. So this promotion of mediumship and spiritualism was also, in a sense, an experiment. And this experiment was actually such that both the exotericists and the esotericists who had reached a compromise could only say: Let's see what comes of it. — And what came of it?
Most of the mediums reported on a world where the dead dwell. Just read the literature on this subject. What came out of it was extremely distressing for those who were initiated. The worst possible result came out. For, you see, two things were possible. One was: mediums were used. The mediums communicate something. What they communicate can only relate to the ordinary environment, which also contains spirit in its sensory elements. People now expected the mediums to reveal all kinds of secret laws of nature, elementary laws of nature. At first, nothing else could come of it, for the reason that follows.
We know that human beings consist of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an ego. From the moment we fall asleep until we wake up, the actual human being is in the ego and astral body. But at the same time, they are also in the world where the dead are. However, the medium sitting there is not an ego and an astral body. In this medium who sits there, the ego consciousness and also the astral consciousness are suppressed; the physical and etheric bodies are made particularly active. This enables the medium to enter into a relationship with a hypnotist or an inspirer, that is, with another human being. The ego of another human being or even the environment can then have an effect on the medium. In fact, the medium lacks the ability to enter the realm of the dead because it has extinguished precisely that which is in the realm of the dead. So the mediums have failed. They have given reports supposedly from the very realm where the dead are. It has thus been seen that these experiments have achieved nothing but the spread of a great error. One day, it became clear that a path had been taken that led people into error, because it led them into a purely Luciferic teaching that was connected with purely Ahrimanic observations. An error had been spread, and nothing good could come of it. This was gradually realized.
So you see how an attempt was made to reckon with the materialistic tendencies of the age and yet to teach people an awareness that there is a spiritual world around us. The path initially led to an error, as we have seen. But from this you can see how necessary it is to really take the other path. This path, of really beginning to make part of esoteric knowledge exoteric, must be taken, and one must take it even if it brings calamity upon calamity. The fact that we are engaged in spiritual science is, so to speak, a recognition of the necessity of carrying out the principle of the exotericists of the mid-19th century. And the nature and striving of the spiritual science we want to pursue is nothing other than to carry out this principle in a certain way, to carry it out honestly.
From all this, however, you can see that in materialism we are dealing with something that cannot simply be speculated about, but must be understood in terms of the necessity of its emergence, especially its peak or low point around the middle of the 19th century. The process began, however, a long time ago, three, four, five centuries ago. More and more of people's spiritual inclinations sank into the subconscious. So the mid-19th century was only the culmination. But this was also necessary so that people's purely materialistic talents could develop unhindered by occult abilities. A materialistic philosopher like Kant, a materialistic philosopher from the point of view of the idealists of the 19th century — you can easily read about this in my book “The Riddles of Philosophy” — would never have been possible if occult abilities had not receded. Certain abilities develop in human beings when others recede. But while one type of ability, one type of talent, develops outwardly, so to speak, the other type follows its inner path. These three, four, five centuries of materialistic development were therefore not lost for the spiritual development of humanity. Spirituality has continued to develop beneath the threshold of consciousness; and if people reflect on what I have indicated in the discussion of Mr. von Wrangell's brochure, on what he has called the dreamlike, they will be able to bring forth the occult abilities that are only waiting to unfold. They are there, they are abundant in human souls, they only need to be brought up, brought up in the right way.
These are the things I had to say first, in order to move on tomorrow to the question of what prospects arise with regard to the relationship between the living and the dead, when one considers how enlightening, on the one hand, the wrong path has been, which resulted from the compromise between exotericists and esotericists. In order to recognize the connection between the essence of this compromise, we must consider birth and death and then show the connection with materialistic methods.