The Occult Movement in the Nineteenth Century
GA 254
24 October 1915, Dornach
Lecture IX
If you recall what was said in the lecture yesterday, it will be clear to you that, fundamentally speaking, the appearance of materialism—I do not say the materialistic conception of the world, but materialism itself—has its very good sides. The harm occurs when materialism is made the basis of a conception of the world. As a method for investigating the external phenomena of the physical world, materialism is good; it is a good instrument for investigating the mineral world in Earth-evolution. Again it is of importance that man is embodied in this mineral world, for thereby he develops those faculties which can be acquired only in the physical-mineral body. Intelligence and free will must be acquired to a certain degree during the Earth-period. In the Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan periods, man will possess these faculties, but a being of soul such as he is, can acquire them only by being incarnated during the Earth-period in a mineralised body.
A counterbalance to this evolution in mineralised earthly bodies is created by the fact that man passes ever and again, without a mineralised body, through the life of soul between death and a new birth. It can be said that man must undergo very much on the Earth, on account of the fact that between birth and death he has a mineralised body. But what he undergoes, as it were to his cosmic disadvantage, by being embodied in a mineralised body, is balanced out by what he lives through between death and a new birth, when he is not a corporeal being but entirely a being of soul—using the word in its right sense.
To examine into the mineral element contained in stones, plants, animals and men is the task of materialism and its method; in practising this method in the course of the centuries man acquires that which, fundamentally speaking, he must acquire during the Earth-period. The modes of investigation preceding those of materialism were all still influenced by the clairvoyance inherited by man from his previous evolutionary states. And when, after our fifth postAtlantean, and the post-Atlantean epoch as a whole, he has passed through his mineral evolution and enters a different form of evolution, the closeness of his relationship to the spiritual world will depend upon whether he has already acquired, during the Earth-period, the intelligence and the measure of free will foreordained for him; otherwise he will not have fulfilled the purpose of his evolution.
Viewed in this light, the method of materialism assumes great significance; but it must remain “method”, a method for investigating the physical, material world. It is there that, even in the higher sense, it has its truly great significance. In that man observes and also investigates the purely mineral world, is active in the mineral world, he gradually unfolds his free will. For while he stands in the mineral world, what really underlies this world is veiled from him.
We have heard during recent weeks what is the outcome if man limits himself to theoretical speculation within the perimeter of physical sense-perceptions. The outcome is atomism, and as we have also heard, atomism is nothing else than a subjective delusion. But if a man who allows himself to be thus deluded were to go out into the world where he looks for the atoms, he would find Ahriman and his beings. For through those spiritual beings of whom I spoke yesterday and whom man encounters when he breaks through the veil of nature, he will be led to develop forces of destruction. These beings, too, it must be remembered, are cosmic beings.
Thus we can understand what has to be said about materialistic methods. They provide man with illusion, maya. But this illusion is actually advantageous to man, for when he sees through it, he enters, to begin with, into the kingdom of Ahriman and his spiritual hosts—beings who are out for destruction and death and who cause him to develop certain subtly destructive forces in his own human nature. Intellect in particular, purely external cleverness, is developed in him by the powers into whose realm he enters, so that he becomes crafty, astute in a subtle way. If his earthly intelligence is not sufficiently developed to see through these things, he becomes unconsciously, but subtly cunning and crafty. It may therefore be said that materialistic philosophy represents a period during which man can mature and thus be able, later on, to enter this realm of Ahriman without danger.
So it is evident that materialistic natural scientists or philosophers follow a certain justifiable instinct. The custodians of the ancient symbols had not dared to make esotericism public and so hand over the secrets to men. The natural scientists said to themselves—not literally, of course, but one can put it in this way—‘we do great good if we lead men only so far as the veil and not behind it.’ Naturally they do this instinctively, but they do it, nevertheless. Fundamentally speaking, they render humanity good service, for if the natural scientists were to succeed in piercing the veil, they would make man acquainted with the forces of those destructive beings of whom I spoke yesterday, beings who are in the service of Ahriman. And the consequence would be that men still unprepared would come into possession of the forces proceeding from that realm and would be able to bring about very much by their means—but it would all tend towards destruction, towards extermination of the good. Thus even the ignorance in which man is left through the natural scientific view of the world has in a certain sense something good about it. That is one side of the matter. But the other side is this.—
Man has been living, already for a number of centuries, in this world of illusions into which, instinctively, he is placed by the scientists. Yes—but this has not been without its effects on human nature! When a man is living in illusion he is not living in the world of reality. This illusion does not affect his forces of soul as strongly as reality would affect them, and the consequence is that doubt upon doubt heaps up in the soul—doubts which make themselves felt even in the domain of science. Natural scientists of great eminence have declared: Ignorabimus—we shall never know. The second half of the nineteenth century did everything to cause men to be beset by doubt upon doubt. But the truth is that we are facing the approach of an era brought about by the fact that man is living more and more in illusion, while believing he has reality. He steeps himself more and more deeply in the materialistic view of the world, but doubts about its validity constantly increase, and it would not take long for every human being to be living in a condition of unalloyed doubt as the outcome of scientific philosophy. People would then no longer be able to hold fast to anything; doubt would inevitably arise over every problem, every task. Scepticism would become a vast ocean in which the human soul would inevitably be engulfed.
It is the task of Spiritual Science to make men realise that a great ocean of scepticism and doubt threatens to break in and engulf the human soul. And the further task of Spiritual Science is to erect dams which will hold back this flood of scepticism and doubt. We are here facing a vista of something that will inevitably befall man if natural scientific doctrine continues as a view of the world.
What I am now saying is connected with a deep secret: the secret that everything in the outer, material world lives itself out in duality. Two is the number of manifestation; two is the number which governs all material manifestation—but material manifestation only. The world of material manifestation always passes through a certain process of evolution.—Let us think of the evolution of the maya presented by nature—nature-maya. Reaching its zenith in the nineteenth century, this nature-maya gradually emerged together with the natural scientific view of the world. But the consequence of man's living in maya is that underneath this view of the world, something else takes place, namely, the preparation for a different view, the preparation for penetrating into reality. This preparation is going on in the sub-consciousness; but timely care must be taken that the next phase of evolution is steered into reality—otherwise nature-maya will assert itself as scepticism, as the most terrible doubt which will engulf the human soul. Thus we are approaching a time of which it may be said that without Spiritual Science, man will fall more and more deeply into scepticism; but if Spiritual Science is accepted, then in the place of the doubt that would engulf the soul, there will come what men truly need.
There is duality, as you see. Nature-maya continues, but underneath it is the budding life, the preparation for Spiritual Science. In the material world, duality prevails everywhere. Therefore the occultist says: Two is the number of material manifestation. Directly one passes from the material world into another world, the number Two no longer has this significance, and it is entirely erroneous to characterise higher worlds as if duality also prevailed there. It is only the basic law of the material-physical world that can be so characterised. In the higher world, if we are to start from number, we must, for example, start from Three; this governs everything in that world, just as the material world is governed by duality. In the material world, duality prevails; in the spiritual world, threefoldness.
There are circumstances when it is by no means unimportant to understand that if someone says that there is white magic and black magic, this implies duality. But duality can have meaning only in the material world; such a person therefore immediately shows that he has no notion of the fundamental laws of the spiritual world, for in the spiritual world duality can never be a basic principle. True as it is that duality lies at the basis of the physical-material world, it is also true that in the super-sensible world we never have to do with duality.
Now the human being is related to the whole Cosmos; as earthly man he is a microcosm, and in order to understand certain matters it is necessary to learn more about this relationship.
We have heard that when man breaks through the veil of nature and penetrates into the world lying behind nature, he encounters Ahrimanic beings, beings intent upon destruction. In the World Order these beings are bitter enemies of man's earthly nature, so that if, through weakness, he allies himself with them—and this is possible, as I have indicated—he is allying himself with the enemies of man on Earth. That is a fact, and a certain relationship existing between the human being and the Cosmos does much to promote such an alliance.
These beings behind the veil of nature are highly intelligent. I have spoken of human intelligence, but these beings have their own kind of thinking and intelligence; they have feeling, although it is different from human feeling; they also have will, although it, too, is different from human will. They perform certain deeds which come to expression outwardly in manifestations of nature, but the essential substantiality of which lies behind the veil. Now there is a remarkable affinity between something in man and the highest faculties of these beings. I will make this clear in the following way. When man crosses the Threshold of the spiritual world and approaches these beings, it may seem to him as if he were entering a veritable inferno, or whatever he conceives it to be. What matters is that he shall understand the experience aright. What will strike him most forcibly is the remarkable intelligence of these beings. For they are extraordinarily clever, extraordinarily wise. Their faculties of soul come to expression in this cleverness. But the soul-forces, the higher forces of these beings are all related to the forces of man's lower nature. Sensuous urges in man are, in these beings, the very forces which strike one as so significant. Thus there is a relationship between the lowest forces of man and the highest forces of these spiritual beings. That is why they strive to identify themselves with the lower forces in man. When a man enters this other world, instincts of destruction or hatred, or the like, arise in him, because these beings draw up what constitutes man's lower nature to their own higher nature, and with their higher forces work through man's lower forces. Nobody can ally himself with these beings without debasing his own nature, without greatly enhancing the strength of certain sensuous urges and impulses.
This is a fact of which special account must be taken, for it shows us unambiguously how we must picture our relation to the Cosmos. In our own human nature there are lower urges and impulses. But these lower urges are forces which represent lower impulses only in us, as human beings. These same urges are, in these spiritual beings, higher forces. But these beings are working all the time within us. They are always there within our nature. Our progress in Spiritual Science depends essentially upon our recognising them, knowing that they are there. This enables us to say: we have our higher forces and we have our lower forces, and, in addition, those forces which in us are lower forces but in these spiritual beings are higher forces.—This expands the duality of our higher and lower forces into a triad. We are already at the border of the Threshold of the spiritual world when, instead of the duality of our higher and lower forces, we recognise the triad.
Now as I said, in our age it is impossible to adopt the method employed by Father Antonius in dealing with Paul the Simpleton; it is also impossible to do many things in the way certain Orders have been wont to do them.—It amounts to this: the knowledge in its old form cannot be used. For if it were thus presented to men, it would bring about exactly what I have been speaking about. It would without any doubt arouse lower instincts in them.
For example, there actually exists in the world an Order which leads men to knowledge of these mysterious beings without any preparation. In all such men, instincts of destruction are aroused, so that this Order is actually responsible for sending human beings with destructive instincts out into the world. In a passage in one of his writings Nietzsche hinted at the existence of this Order without knowing the actual circumstances.1Dr. Steiner may have been referring to a passage in The Genealogy of Morals, Section XXIV, page 287 in the translation (together with The Birth of Tragedy) by Francis Golffing. (Doubleday Anchor Books, New York). “When the Christian Crusaders in the East happened upon the invincible Society of Assassins, that order of free spirits par excellence, whose lower ranks observed an obedience stricter than that of any monastic order, they must have got some hint of the slogan reserved for the highest ranks, which ran, ‘Nothing is true, everything is permitted.’ ” See also Dr. Steiner's own work, Friedrich Nietzsche. Ein Kampfer gegen seine Zeit, page 25 in the Gesamtausgabe 1963 volume. (Bibl. No. 5).
That is the one side which I have felt it essential to bring to your attention. Here (drawing on the blackboard) is a veil covering the secrets behind nature. The veil represents everything that can be acquired by materialistic methods. The real world lies behind, and to enter this world is verily no simple matter. Let us hold this firmly in our minds.
The other side is that of our life of soul, with its activities of thinking, feeling and willing. But in the form in which this life of soul appears to us inwardly as we actually experience it, it is maya, just as external nature is maya. The true form of our inner life is not that which appears to our own soul as thinking, feeling and willing; the true reality lies behind this thinking, feeling and willing.
Just as the learned scientists today instinctively develop the view that nature herself presents the reality, but ultimately arrive at atomism, so are the representatives of certain religious bodies at pains to indicate that the thinking, feeling and willing of which the soul is aware in the ordinary way are the reality, and continue in human beings after their death. Just as the scientists describe naturemaya, so do the representatives of certain religious bodies describe the maya of the life of soul, and in so doing, again instinctively, bring a certain trend into the evolution of mankind.
You know that already from the early Middle Ages onwards, trichotomy, as it was called—the division of man into body, soul and spirit—began to be a heresy in historical Christianity. As you know, a comparatively early Council abolished the Spirit and decreed that man was to be regarded as a being consisting only of body and soul. And since that time this has become customary in the West. In the Middle Ages it was a most terrible thing to speak of Spirit, of a trichotomy; it was deemed the worst of all heresies, because Spirit had been abolished and body and soul established as a duality. This is evidence of the endeavour to look, even in number as applied to the human being, for what has significance only for this earthly world. The tendency is to keep man within a world that is in truth only maya, because he stops short at the thinking, feeling and willing which are themselves of the same character. Attention is limited to those effects of the present incarnation which last only through the first period between death and a new birth. What is elaborated in man's being in order subsequently to come forth in the next incarnation is left entirely out of account.
I may perhaps indicate this diagrammatically in the following way (see diagram). Here is the body (red) and here what lies behind it—which is not visible and could be perceived only by penetrating through the nerve endings. If atoms were not accepted as forming the basis of the world but one were to go out of the body with vision, one would come to the realm where the beings of destruction seize hold of the whole man. And now, within this, I draw the life of soul unfolded by man in the physical world (blue). Thus the red and the blue represent what man is aware of here, namely, his bodily nature and his life of soul. But while we are living between birth and death, the imperceptible (yellow) develops, and remains wholly imperceptible to us. When we die, our thinking, feeling and willing do not continue; they are exhausted, and in the process the yellow is elaborated (the imperceptible). This increases in power between death and a new birth and in so doing becomes the foundation of the new incarnation. We are reincarnated with new thinking, new feeling, new will, and a new bodily nature. Thus when we speak of what is revealed to our soul here on Earth, we are speaking of something that comes to an end, does not go with us into the next incarnation. Of the soul itself, the representatives of certain religious bodies say: the human being dies, goes either to heaven or to hell, and we concern ourselves no more with him. According to certain representatives of religion, this is enough; what passes on to the next incarnation is not important. The aim is to conceal the fact that the spirit in man passes into the spiritual world and lives on until the next incarnation. It can be said that representatives of certain religious bodies are intent upon not allowing man to become aware of the yellow (diagram) in his nature, upon preventing him from knowing anything of it. Here again, they are really obeying a certain sound instinct, but one which shows even more clearly than the instinct prompting the learned naturalists, that in our time it has really lost its value.

The efforts of the representatives of various religious communities all tend quite decisively in the direction of concealing the fact that there is a spiritual world to which belongs the inmost core of our being, which is destined to appear in repeated Earth-lives, and in the intervals between them to pass through an entirely spiritual form of existence; they try to conceal this by offering men the consolation that the life of soul which comes to expression in thinking, feeling and willing is, after all, sufficiently immortal.
In their actions and trend of thinking these pastors of souls instinctively prevent men from coming into contact with certain beings. Man can never penetrate into the world of his true and innermost being without coming into contact with certain beings—just as in the way described he comes into contact with different beings if he desires or is actually able to break through the veil of nature. But the beings with whom he is related in this other world are of a Luciferic order.
If, as the result of certain teachings having been imparted to him without the requisite caution, a man comes into contact with certain destructive beings behind the veil of nature, he will become one who values nothing in the world, and it will soon be apparent that he takes actual pleasure in destruction—which need not necessarily be destruction of external things. Many men to whom this has happened have shown that they take pleasure in tormenting and oppressing other souls. These are the characteristics which come into evidence. But it can never be said that men who have such traits owing to their alliance with Ahrimanic elementary beings, are invariably egotistic. They need not be and indeed usually are not, egotists. They act out of an urge quite different from that of egotism. They act out of a lust for destruction, and they destroy without the slightest benefit accruing to themselves. The beings into whose sphere a man enters are essentially beings of destruction, and they tempt him, lure him, to destroy.
The other beings into whose sphere man comes when he penetrates behind the veil of the life of soul have a quite different character. They have no particular lust for destruction. In point of fact, what we know as destruction does not enter their ken. They have a veritable passion for creating, for bringing something into being—a tremendous urge for activity, for productivity. And they too have certain higher faculties which are less closely related to our thinking than to our feeling, and especially to our will. We enter here into a sphere of beings preeminently related to our will, but—curiously enough—to the noblest sides of our will.
Thus if we enter this world without knowing anything of what the Initiate knows, namely, that behind the world of nature and also behind the world of soul there is a spiritual world, when we fill our will with ideals, when we unfold noble, spiritualised will, this will becomes allied precisely with the lower attributes of these beings into whose sphere we have entered. There is a mysterious bond of attraction between the noble side of our will and the lower urges and desires of these beings.
And now think of it.—If a man's spiritual pastor gives him the consolation of immortality, laying stress on the dignity of the human soul, the majesty of the Divine and the like, it may happen that through some slight incitement, particularly if he was a noble character, he breaks through the membrane of his soul-activity at some point and penetrates behind the secrets of his thinking, feeling and willing. But he then comes into the region of these beings of will, and the consequence is that the idealistic side of his will actually begins to assume a sensuous character. And now, with this in mind, please read the descriptions given by certain mystics of either sex. As you read the biographies of these mystics, notice the sultry, voluptuous atmosphere which pervades them. The most sublime ideals assume a sensuous character. I would remind you of the rapture experienced by mystics in connection with their “soul-bride” or “soul-bridegroom”; in women mystics the mystical union is like a sensuous union with the Saviour, and in male mystics like an actual bond with the bride of the soul, with the Virgin Mary.
It is the endeavour of these beings of will to pour into man's thinking, into his ideals, what he otherwise knows as sensuousness. This is a hard saying. These beings into whose regions a man there enters, strive—and from their own standpoint it is a justified striving—to pour their sensuous instincts into his idealised will. And then the willing that goes out from the head, which otherwise has a certain quality of cool detachment about it, is pervaded by a sultry, voluptuous experience of the spiritual world, which often seems to have the character of fevered mysticism. The representatives of the various religious bodies have an infinite dread of this, and their greatest fear of all is aroused by those among their believers who come forward as mystics.
Verily, we have here Scylla and Charybdis. If we desire to pierce through the veil of nature, we come to Scylla, to the Ahrimanic beings who wish to endow us abundantly with destructive forces of intelligence. If we desire to pierce through the veil of the life of soul, we come to Charybdis, to the Luciferic beings of will, who would fain pervade us with the fumes of spiritual ecstasy, spiritual rapture, spiritual instincts.
Priestly Orders intent upon the cultivation of the religious life were therefore in a certain sense right to take care that when mystics appeared among them, at least the shadow-side of mysticism should not come to the fore. Hence in a certain sense they erected barriers against the entrance into the spiritual worlds. Just think how certain religious Orders—I am speaking, not of occult but of religious Orders—were associated with manual work, with labour that allows delight in nature, delight in what lives in the world around, to arise in the soul; just think how such Orders, if the right principles were understood, insisted upon outer, manual work. Those who founded such Orders said to themselves: “The worst thing we could do would be to isolate men and allow the mystic life to develop in them as the outcome of inertia and idleness.” Read the monastic rules originating in better times and in the better Orders, and you will everywhere see that full account was taken of what I have just mentioned, how mystic rapture and fevered ecstasy were counteracted by manual labour.—And now you will also understand why Father Antonius caused Paul the Simpleton to work, even if it served no useful purpose. Had he allowed him to cultivate idleness for years, Paul the Simpleton would have become a senuous, ecstatic mystic.
We have, as you see, to do with a duality: with objective occultism which, if it is simply handed over to unprepared men, makes them destroyers; and with subjective mysticism, which if it is cultivated or suddenly appears in idealistic natures, makes men egotists—egotists such as are to be met with in numbers of mystics who have developed merely a subtle form of egotism, a subtle mania for fostering their own souls. If you read the biographies of the mystics, you will often be appalled by the egotism they display.
The region of Scylla is that of the spirits who serve Ahriman. We come into their sphere if we cultivate, not egotism but the will for destruction. If we cultivate the subjective mysticism connected with the Luciferic spirits of will into whose sphere we enter, then Charybdis approaches us from the other side; for these spirits do everything to foster egotism, so that our own inner nature forms the world for us. This is the duality in the material world: objective occultism—subjective mysticism. In both realms there may be aberrations.
Fundamentally speaking, in what has been developing for centuries there is present, on the one side, objective occultism, guarded in the Secret Societies and Orders but no longer effectively protected owing to the insistent trend towards publicity. We have heard of the efforts that were made to find a way out of the dilemma. And on the other side there is subjective mysticism.
It follows from this that when we wanted to lay the foundations of Spiritual Science, it behoved us not to allow ourselves to be enticed either by Scylla or Charybdis, but to steer between them; it behoved us neither to cultivate the old, traditional occultism, nor the old, traditional mysticism. And now you have a deeper conception of what gives our Movement its direction. Both objective occultism and subjective mysticism in the old sense had to be avoided. Our Spiritual Science had to be of a character ensuring that Scylla as well as Charybdis are avoided.
I have still to speak to you about the fundamental character which our Spiritual Science must bear in order that it may steer clear of both these dangers. But it obviously cannot be avoided that at the present time, out of mistaken notions, certain people come to us because some of them are looking for an old, objective occultism, while others are hankering after old, subjective mysticism. It is hardly likely that either the one type or the other will find among us what they are looking for. But they believe they find it by simply interpreting our teaching to suit their own liking. The form which our teaching must take, and what our attitude to it must be if our ship is to be steered between Scylla and Charybdis—of this I must speak again tomorrow.
Neunter Vortrag
Wenn Sie sich erinnern an das, was ich gestern versuchte auszuführen, dann werden Sie sich sagen können, im Grunde genommen hat das Heraufkommen des Materialismus — ich sage nicht der materialistischen Weltanschauung, sondern des Materialismus - seine recht guten Seiten. Das Schlimme besteht ja darin, daß der Materialismus zur Grundlage einer Weltanschauung gemacht wird. Das Gute des Materialismus besteht darin, daß er als Methode gebraucht wird, um die äußeren Erscheinungen der physisch-sinnlichen Welt zu untersuchen, die uns, wie Sie gesehen haben, während der Erdenzeit als mineralische Welt gegeben ist. Dazu ist der Materialismus ein vorzügliches Instrument, die mineralische Welt zu untersuchen. Diese mineralische Welt ist eben für die irdische Entwickelung ein besonders Wichtiges. Und wiederum ein Wichtiges für die Erdenentwickelung ist, daß der Mensch dieses Verkörpertsein in der materiell-mineralischen Welt durchmacht, daß er damit zugleich die Entwickelung derjenigen Fähigkeiten durchmacht, die wir nur erlangen können, wenn wir einen mineralisch-physischen Leib haben. Intelligenz und freier Wille müssen bis zu einem gewissen Grade angeeignet werden während der Erdenzeit. In der Jupiter-, Venus- und Vulkanzeit wird der Mensch diese Fähigkeiten handhaben können, aber es ist unmöglich für irgendein Wesen in der Welt, sie sich auf andere Weise zu erwerben als dadurch, daß ein solches Seelenwesen, wie der Mensch es ist, diese Erdenzeit so durchmacht, daß es in einem mineralisierten Leibe verkörpert ist.
Ein Gegengewicht zu unserer Entwickelung im mineralisierten Erdenleibe wird im Menschen dadurch geschaffen, daß er immer wieder das Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt durchmacht, das Leben der Seele ohne einen solchen mineralisierten Leib. Man kann sagen, daß der Mensch vieles nur dadurch mitmachen muß auf der Erde zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode, weil er einen mineralisierten Leib hat. Aber was er gewissermaßen zu seinem kosmischen Nachteile durch das Verkörpertsein in einem mineralisierten Leibe durchmacht, das wird alles aufgehoben durch das, was er zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt durchmacht, wenn er nicht verleiblicht, sondern verseeligt ist, das Wort im richtigen Sinne gebraucht.
Dasjenige zu untersuchen, was die Mineralien, Pflanzen, Tiere und Menschen an Mineralischem aufgenommen haben, das obliegt der materialistischen Methode; und indem der Mensch im Laufe von Jahrhunderten diese materialistische Methode ausübt, eignet er sich im Grunde genommen dasjenige an, was er sich während der Erdenzeit aneignen muß. Die Forschungsweisen, welche der materialistischen Methode vorangegangen sind, waren noch alle beeinflußt von dem hellseherischen Erbgut, das der Mensch aus seinen früheren Entwickelungszuständen mitbekommen hat. Und wenn der Mensch nach unserer fünften nachatlantischen Zeit und im Gange unserer gesamten nachatlantischen Epoche seine mineralische Entwickelung im wesentlichen wird durchgemacht haben, wenn er wieder eintreten wird in eine andere Entwickelung, dann wird er wieder der geistigen Welt so nahestehen müssen, daß er sich die Intelligenz, die ihm zugedacht ist, schon während der Erdenzeit wird angeeignet haben müssen. Und ebenso wird er sich das Maß von freiem Willen, das ihm zugedacht ist, schon angeeignet haben müssen, sonst würde er mit seiner Entwickelung nicht zurechtkommen können.
So betrachtet, bedeutet die materialistische Methode etwas sehr Bedeutsames; aber sie muß Methode bleiben, Methode zur Erforschung der äußeren physischen, materiellen Welt. Und sie hat da auch im höheren Sinne ihr Bedeutsames, ihr sehr Bedeutsames. Sie hat das Gute, daß der Mensch, indem er rein in der mineralischen Weit wahrnimmt und auch forscht und sich in der mineralischen Welt betätigt, seinen freien Willen nach und nach entwickelt. Denn indem der Mensch in der mineralischen Welt so darinnensteht, verdeckt sich für ihn, was der mineralisch-physischen Welt eigentlich zugrunde liegt, was sie eigentlich ist.
Wir haben in diesen Wochen gesehen, worauf man kommt, wenn man theoretisch-spintisierend bleibt innerhalb der physisch-sinnlichen Wahrnehmungen. Man kommt zur Atomistik. Wir haben auch gesehen, daß die Atomistik nichts anderes ist als eine subjektive Täuschung der Menschen. Würde man aber hinausgehen in die wirkliche Welt, dahin, wo der Mensch, der sich täuschen läßt, die Atome sucht, so würde man Ahriman mit seinen Wesenheiten finden. Denn durch diejenigen geistigen Wesen, von denen ich gestern gesprochen habe und zu denen der Mensch gelangt, wenn er den Schleier der Natur durchstößt, wird der Mensch dazu kommen, zerstörende Kräfte zu entwickeln; das sind auch kosmische Wesen.
So können wir sehen, wie es sich mit dieser materialistischen Methode verhält. Sie liefert dem Menschen eine Täuschung, eine Maja. Aber diese Täuschung ist für den Menschen sogar günstig, denn in jedem Augenblicke, wo er diese Täuschung durchschaut, dringt er zunächst ein in das Reich Ahrimans und seiner geistigen Wesenheiten, die auf Zerstörung, auf Töten ausgehen, die bewirken, daß sich in seiner eigenen menschlichen Natur bis zu einem gewissen Raffinement zerstörende Kräfte entwickeln. Namentlich der Verstand, die rein äußerliche Klugheit werden so ausgebildet durch die Mächte, in deren Bereich man da kommt, daß man raffiniert klug wird. Wenn man seine Erdenklugheit noch nicht so weit gebracht hat, diese Dinge zu durchschauen, so wird man eben unbewußt, aber raffiniert klug. Die materialistische Naturphilosophie stellt also gewissermaßen eine Schonzeit dar, während der der Mensch heranreifen kann, um später einmal ungefährdet in dieses Reich des Ahriman hineinzukommen.
So kann man sagen, die materialistischen Naturgelehrten oder Naturphilosophen folgen einem gewiß sehr berechtigten Instinkte. Die Bewahrer der alten Symbole haben es aus dem Grunde nicht gewagt, das Esoterische zum Exoterischen zu machen und den Menschen die Geheimnisse auszuliefern. Die Naturgelehrten sagen sich, selbstverständlich nicht wirklich, aber man kann es symbolisch so ausdrücken: Wir tun etwas sehr Gutes, wenn wir den Menschen nur bis an den Vorhang führen und nicht dahinter. - Sie tun es natürlich nur instinktiv, aber sie tun es eben. Im Grunde leisten sie der Menschheit einen guten Dienst, denn würden die Naturgelehrten dahin kommen, den Schleier, den Vorhang zu durchstoßen, so würden sie die Menschen bekanntmachen mit den Kräften von jenen zerstörenden Wesen, von denen ich gestern gesprochen habe: Wesen im Dienste des Ahriman. Und die Folge davon würde sein, daß die noch unvorbereiteten Menschen sozusagen mit Kußhand die Kräfte übernehmen würden, die von dieser Seite herkommen. Und mit diesen Kräften würden die Menschen viel vermögen, aber alles im Dienste der Zerstörung, im Dienste der Ertötung des Guten. Also selbst die Unwissenheit, in welcher der Mensch durch die naturwissenschaftliche Weltanschauung gelassen werden soll, hat in gewisser Beziehung ein Gutes. Das ist die eine Seite der Sache. Die andere Seite der Sache ist aber diese.
Damit der Mensch in dieser Welt der Täuschung leben kann, in die er instinktiv durch die Naturgelehrten versetzt wird, muß er eine Zeitlang, Jahrhunderte hindurch, darinnen leben. Wir haben schon eine Anzahl von Jahrhunderten, in denen der Mensch in dieser Täuschung, in dieser Maja lebt. Aber das geht an der menschlichen Natur nicht ohne weiteres vorüber! Der Mensch lebt da doch, wenn er in der Täuschung in bezug auf eine Sache lebt, nicht in der Wirklichkeit, und so lebt sich der Mensch wirklich seit Jahrhunderten in eine Täuschung hinein. Diese Täuschung ergreift seine Seelenkraft nicht so stark, wie sie von der Wirklichkeit ergriffen würde; und die Folge davon ist, daß in der Menschenseele nach und nach Zweifel über Zweifel auftauchen, die, wie ich schon angedeutet habe, auch in diesem Zusammenhange sich geltend gemacht haben. Bedeutende Naturforscher haben das «Ignorabimus» aufgerichtet. Das 19. Jahrhundert hat in seiner zweiten Hälfte schon alles zutage gefördert, was man nennen kann: das Hineinleben in Zweifel über Zweifel. Aber die Wahrheit ist, daß eine Zeit bevorsteht, die dadurch herbeigeführt wird, daß der Mensch immer mehr und mehr in der Täuschung lebt und glaubt, daß er eine Realität in dem Vorhandenen hat. Immer mehr lebt er sich hinein in das Materialistische als Weltanschauung, immer mehr werden aber Zweifel dadurch herauskommen, und es würde nicht lange dauern, so würden überall in jeder Menschenseele durch die naturwissenschaftliche Philosophie lauter Zweifel leben. Die Menschen würden dann gar nichts mehr festhalten können, sie würden über jedes Problem, über jede Aufgabe Zweifel über Zweifel haben müssen. Der Skeptizismus würde ein ungeheures Meer werden, in dem die Menschenseele ertrinken müßte. Das ist die Aufgabe der Geistesforschung, daß so etwas erkannt werde; daß erkannt werde, wie ein ungeheures Meer hereinbrechen will von Skeptizismus, von Zweifelsucht, in dem die Menschenseele ertrinken würde. Und ihre weitere Aufgabe ist, Dämme aufzurichten, daß diese Zweifel, dieses Meer der Zweifelsucht, dieses Meer des Skeptizismus nicht hereinbrechen kann. Wir stehen da vor einer Perspektive von etwas, das ganz gewiß über die Menschen kommen wird, wenn die naturforscherische Lehre als Weltanschauung fortbesteht. Das ist die andere Seite.
Das, was ich jetzt sage, hängt mit einem tiefen Geheimnis zusammen, mit dem Geheimnis, daß in der äußeren sinnlichen Welt alles, was sich in ihr auslebt, in der Zweiheit sich ausleben muß. Die Zweizahl ist die Zahl der Offenbarung, habe ich einmal gesagt; die Zweizahl ist die Zahl, welche die ganze sinnliche Offenbarung beherrscht. Aber auch nur für die sinnliche Offenbarung hat die Zweizahl ihre Bedeutung. Es ist immer so in der Welt der Offenbarung, daß wir sagen müssen: es wird eine gewisse Evolution durchgemacht. Nehmen wir die Evolution der Naturmaja. Ich will das, was ich hier zeichne, die Naturmaja nennen, die sich allmählich heraufbewegte seit dem Heraufkommen der naturwissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung und im 19. Jahrhundert einen Höhepunkt erlangt hat. Aber daß man in dieser Maja lebt, hat zur Folge, daß in gewisser Beziehung unter dieser Anschauung, die in der Naturmaja lebt, sich etwas anderes vollzieht: die Vorbereitung für eine andere Anschauung, für ein Eindringen in die Wirklichkeit.

Im Unterbewußten bereitet sich das vor. Und es muß Vorsorge getroffen werden, daß nun die nächste Entwickelung in die Wirklichkeit einläuft, sonst geht die Naturmaja weiter als Skeptizismus, als die furchtbarste Zweifelsucht, welche die Menschenseele ertrinken macht. So daß wir einer Zeit entgegengehen, von der wir sagen können: Würde die Geisteswissenschaft nicht kommen, dann würde der Mensch immer mehr in die Zweifelsucht hineinkommen; kommt die Geisteswissenschaft, dann wird an die Stelle dessen, was in der Menschenseele die Zweifelsucht einnehmen würde, was die Menschenseele ertrinken machen würde, dasjenige treten, was die Menschen brauchen.
Sie sehen, es ist eine Zweiheit. Die Naturmaja geht weiter. Aber darunter ist das grüne Leben, die Vorbereitung für die Geisteswissenschaft. Alles in der sinnlichen Welt geht in der Zweiheit weiter. Daher sagt der Okkultist: die Zweizahl ist die Zahl der sinnlichen Offenbarung. In dem Augenblick, wo man von der sinnlichen Welt in eine andere Welt eintritt, hat die Zweizahl diese Bedeutung nicht, und man geht ganz falsch, wenn man höhere Welten unmittelbar mit der Zweiheit charakterisieren will. Nur das Grundgesetz der physisch-sinnlichen Welt kann man mit der Zweiheit charakterisieren. In der höheren Welt muß man, wenn man von der Zahl ausgehen will, sich klar sein darüber, daß man zum Beispiel von der Dreiheit auszugehen hat, und daß diese zunächst alles geradeso beherrscht, wie die sinnliche Welt von der Zweiheit beherrscht wird. Geradeso wie die sinnliche Welt von der Zweiheit beherrscht wird, so hat man es in den geistigen Welten gleich mit einer Dreiheit zu tun. Das ist zuweilen nicht unwichtig zu wissen. So zum Beispiel ist es gut zu wissen, daß alles, was im Sinne einer Zweiheit charakterisiert werden kann, überhaupt nur eine Bedeutung für die sinnliche Welt hat. Wenn einer sagt, die Magie zerfalle in eine weiße und schwarze Magie, so hat er eine Zweiheit aufgestellt. Eine solche Zweiheit kann aber nur für die sinnliche Welt Bedeutung haben. Er zeigt also sogleich, daß er keinen Begriff hat von den Grundgesetzen der geistigen Welt, denn in der geistigen Welt würde man niemals eine Zweizahl zugrundelegen können. So wahr es ist, daß man in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt die Zweizahl zugrunde legen muß, so wahr ist es, daß man es in der übersinnlichen Welt niemals mit der Zweizahl zu tun hat.
Nun besteht ja eine Verwandtschaft des Menschen mit dem ganzen Kosmos. Der Mensch, so wie er einmal lebt als Erdenmensch, ist — wie wir oft betont haben — doch ein Mikrokosmos. Eine Verwandtschaft besteht mit dem ganzen Kosmos, und für gewisse Dinge, um sie zu erkennen, ist es notwendig, die Beziehung des Menschen zum Kosmos zu enthüllen. Wir haben auf ein Faktum, auf eine Tatsache hingewiesen, auf die Tatsache, daß der Mensch, wenn er den Vorhang der Natur durchstößt und in die Welt, die hinter ihr vorhanden ist, eintritt, auf ahrimanische Wesen trifft, auf Wesen, die einen zerstörerischen Charakter haben. Diese Wesen sind eigentlich zunächst in der Weltenordnung scharfe Feinde der menschlichen Erdennatur; so daß, wenn man sich mit ihnen durch Schwäche verbindet, was so geschehen kann, wie ich es angedeutet habe, man sich mit Feinden des Erdenmenschen verbindet. Man kommt wirklich in ein Bündnis hinein mit Feinden des Erdenmenschen, und dieses Bündnis wird durch ein gewisses Verhältnis des Menschen zum Kosmos ganz besonders begünstigt.
Diese Wesenheiten, die hinter dem Vorhang der Natur sind, sind intelligent, sie haben ihre Intelligenz. Ich habe vorhin von des Menschen Intelligenz gesprochen, aber diese Wesen haben ihr Denken, ihre Intelligenz, sie haben ein Fühlen, wenn es auch anders ist als das menschliche Fühlen, ein Wollen, wenn es auch anders ist als das menschliche Wollen. Sie verrichten gewisse Taten, die sich äußerlich in Naturerscheinungen ausdrücken, deren ganz wesentliche Substantialität aber hinter dem Vorhang ist. Nun besteht aber eine merkwürdige Verwandtschaft zwischen etwas im Menschen und den höchsten Fähigkeiten dieser Wesen. Ich will das in folgender Weise klarmachen. Wenn derjenige, der die Schwelle der geistigen Welt überschreitet, herantritt an diese Wesen — mag es ihm vorkommen, wie wenn er in die Hölle käme oder wie immer er es sich vorstellen will, darauf kommt es aber nicht an; es handelt sich darum, daß man dieses Erlebnis in der richtigen Weise beurteilt —-, da muß einem solchen Menschen vor allem auffallen die hohe, die außerordentliche Intelligenz solcher Wesen. Sie sind außerordentlich gescheit, weise. Darin äußert sich ihre Seelenkraft. Aber diese Seelenkräfte, diese höheren Kräfte dieser Wesen sind alle verwandt mit den Kräften der niederen Natur des Menschen. Was die sinnlichen Triebe des Menschen sind, das sind bei diesen Wesen diejenigen Kräfte, welche einem besonders imponieren. Es besteht also eine Verwandtschaft zwischen den niedersten Kräften des Menschen und den höchsten dieser geistigen Wesen. Daher suchen sie sich zu identifizieren mit den niederen Kräften des Menschen. Wenn man in diese Welt eintritt, so stacheln sie Zerstörungs- und Haßinstinkte oder sonstige Instinkte auf, deshalb, weil solche Geister dasjenige, was das Niedere im Menschen ist, zu ihrem Höheren hinaufziehen, und mit ihrem Höheren durch das menschliche Niedere wirken. Man kann nicht gut einen Bund mit diesen Wesen schließen, ohne seine Natur zu erniedrigen, ohne gewisse sinnliche Triebe besonders stark auszubilden.
Das ist eine Tatsache, die ganz besonders in Betracht gezogen werden muß, denn sie zeigt uns so recht, wie wir uns unser Verhältnis zum Kosmos vorstellen müssen. Da sind in unserer eigenen Menschennatur niedere Triebe. Aber diese niederen Triebe sind Kräfte, die nur in uns Menschen niedere Triebe darstellen. Sobald jene geistigen Wesen diese Kräfte haben, so sind dieselben Triebe bei ihnen höhere Kräfte. Aber diese geistigen Wesen wirken immer in unserer Natur. Sie sind immer darinnen. Das Wesentliche des geisteswissenschaftlichen Fortschrittes besteht nur darin, daß wir sie erkennen, daß wir wissen, daß sie da sind, so daß wir sagen können, wir haben unsere höheren Kräfte und wir haben unsere niederen Kräfte, und wir erkennen als ein Drittes dazu: die Kräfte, die bei uns niedere Kräfte sind, sind bei den charakterisierten Wesen höhere Kräfte. Das ergänzt die Zweiheit unserer Welt, unserer höheren und niederen Kräfte, zu einer Dreiheit. Damit berühren wir schon die Schwelle der geistigen Welt, wenn wir, statt der Zweeiheit unserer niederen und höheren Kräfte, diese Dreiheit berühren.
Nun habe ich Ihnen gesagt, daß es unmöglich ist in unserer Gegenwart, etwas ähnliches zu tun, wie es etwa Pater Antonius getan hat mit Paulus dem Einfältigen. Unmöglich ist es auch, manches zu tun, wie es manche Orden getan haben. Es ist eben einfach das alte Wissen nicht zu gebrauchen. Denn würde man es an die Menschen heranbringen, so würde man gerade das zustande bringen, was ich jetzt auseinandergesetzt habe: man würde im Menschen niedere Instinkte wachrufen. Es ist ganz ohne Zweifel, daß man das täte.
Es gibt zum Beispiel in der Welt sogar einen Orden, der die Menschen ohne weiteres zur Erkenntnis von jenen geheimnisvollen Wesen führt, von denen ich eben gesprochen habe. Solche Menschen bekommen aber alle zerstörerische Instinkte, so daß dieser Orden einfach in Wirklichkeit bedingt, daß Menschen mit zerstörerischen Instinkten von ihm ausgehen. Nietzsche weist einmal in seinen Schriften auf diesen Orden hin, ohne daß er den eigentlichen Tatbestand wirklich kennt und ihn bei seinem Vorgehen in Rechnung zieht.
Also das ist das eine, worauf ich aufmerksam machen muß, daß wir hier einen Vorhang haben gegenüber den Naturgeheimnissen. Der Vorhang stellt alles, was durch die materialistischen Methoden gewonnen werden kann, dar. Dahinter liegt die wahre Welt. Diese zu betreten, ist zunächst keine so einfache Sache. Halten wir das auf der einen Seite fest. Auf der anderen Seite liegt unser menschliches Seelenleben mit dem Denken, Fühlen und Wollen. Aber so, wie es da vor das innere Auge tritt, so wie wir es da erleben, ist es ebenso eine Maja, wie die äußere Natur nur eine Maja ist. Das ist nicht die richtige Gestalt unseres inneren Lebens, das uns vor der Seele selber als Denken, Fühlen und Wollen erscheint; sondern hinter dem Denken, Fühlen und Wollen liegt erst wieder die wahre Wirklichkeit.
So wie nun die Naturgelehrten instinktiv heute die Anschauung entwickeln, daß die Natur schon selber die Wirklichkeit darbietet, aber höchstens zum Atomismus kommen, so sind die Vertreter gewisser Religionsgemeinschaften heute bemüht, dieSache gegenüber der Seele so darzustellen, als ob die Seele mit ihrem Denken, Fühlen und Wollen schon das Wirkliche wäre, und sie dann nach dem Tode mit diesem Denken, Fühlen und Wollen weiterleben würde. So wie die Naturgelehrten die Naturmaja beschreiben, so beschreiben die Vertreter gewisser Religionsgemeinschaften die Seelenmaja, und sie dienen mit diesen Anschauungen wiederum instinktiv in gewissem Sinne der Evolution der Menschheit.
Sie wissen vielleicht, ich habe es öfter angedeutet, daß schon vom Mittelalter an in der historischen Form des Christentums die sogenannte Trichotomie, die Dreiteilung des Menschen in Leib, Seele und Geist, eine Ketzerei zu sein begann. Vom frühen Mittelalter ab begann sie eine Ketzerei zu sein. Ein verhältnismäßig frühes Konzil hat, wie Sie wissen, den Geist abgeschafft, und man teilt den Menschen nun ein in Leib und Seele. Man hat sich im Abendlande seit jener Zeit daran gewöhnt, den Menschen einzuteilen in Leib und Seele. Es war im Mittelalter etwas ganz Furchtbares, wenn einer von Geist, Seele und Leib, von einer Dreiheit sprach. Es war die ärgste Ketzerei, weil ja der Geist abgeschafft war, und weil Leib und Seele als eine Zweiheit aufgestellt waren. Das entspricht dem Instinkt, schon in der Zahl nur bei demjenigen zu bleiben, was nur für diese Welt hier eine Bedeutung hat. So daß wirklich diese Tendenz vorhanden ist, von der ich gesprochen habe: den Menschen darinnen zu halten in der Welt, die eigentlich doch nur eine Maja ist, weil man bei dem majahaften Denken, Fühlen und Wollen stehenbleibt. Dann faßt man eigentlich nur dasjenige ins Auge, was von der gegenwärtigen Inkarnation verbraucht wird in der nächsten Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Das, was im Menschen ausgebildet wird, um in der nächsten Inkarnation zu erscheinen, läßt man ganz aus dem Spiele.

Vielleicht zeichne ich das schematisch in der folgenden Weise. Nehmen Sie an, ich zeichne hier des Menschen Leib (rot). Wollte ich nun das, was hinter des Menschen Leib liegt, zeichnen, so müßte ich es so zeichnen. Das ist natürlich schematisch; es liegt gewissermaßen außerhalb des menschlichen Leibes. Ich müßte in Wahrheit hier zeichnen; das wäre nicht sichtbar. Das würde man sehen, wenn man durch die Nervenendigungen durchdringen würde. Wenn man nicht Atome der Welt zugrunde legen würde, sondern da hinausginge aus dem Leibe mit dem Schauen, so würde man dahin gelangen, wo die zerstörenden Wesen den ganzen Menschen besetzt halten. Und nun will ich darinnen zeichnen das Seelische, das der Mensch zunächst in der physischen Welt entwickelt (blau). Das Rote und das Blaue sind also dasjenige, was der Mensch hier wahrnimmt: seine Leiblichkeit und sein Seelisches. Aber während wir hier zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode leben, entwickelt sich das Unwahrnehmbare (gelb). Das bleibt uns ganz unwahrnehmbar. Nun sterben wir. Wenn wir sterben, entwickelt sich unser Denken, Fühlen und Wollen nicht weiter. Es wird verbraucht, und während das verbraucht wird, entwickelt sich das hier Gelbe, das Unwahrnehmbare. Dieses Unwahrnehmbare wird immer mächtiger und mächtiger zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt und wird, indem es sich immer mächtiger entwickelt, zur Grundlage der neuen Verkörperung. Mit neuem Denken, Fühlen und Wollen, mit neuer Leiblichkeit werden wir wiederverkörpert.

Wenn wir also von dem sprechen, was sich jetzt hier auf Erden unserer Seele offenbart, dann sprechen wir von etwas, was da aufhört, was gar nicht mitgeht in die nächste Inkarnation. Sprechen wir vom vollständigen Seelischen, dann müssen wir es lassen, so zu sprechen wie die Religionsvertreter: Der Mensch stirbt, geht in den Himmel ein oder in die Hölle, und weiter kümmern wir uns nicht mehr um ihn. - Das genügt nach der Ansicht gewisser Religionsvertreter, das ist schon unsterblich genug, das andere, das weitergeht zur nächsten Inkarnation, ist nicht so wichtig. Die Tatsache soll verhüllt werden, daß das Geistige in die geistigen Welten hineingeht und weiterlebt bis zur nächsten Inkarnation.
Nun können wir sagen: Es sind die Vertreter der verschiedenen Religionsgemeinschaften stark darauf bedacht, den Menschen ja nicht auf das Gelbe seines Wesens kommen zu lassen, ihn ja nichts davon wissen zu lassen. Und sie dienen damit — so kann man auch wiederum sagen — einem gewissen richtigen Instinkte, der aber eigentlich noch deutlicher zeigt, daß er in unserer Zeit schon seinen Wert verloren hat, als es der andere Instinkt uns zeigt, dem die Naturgelehrten folgen.
Alles Bestreben der Vertreter der verschiedenen Religionsgemeinschaften geht vorzugsweise ganz entschieden darauf hinaus, die Tatsache zu verhüllen, daß es eine geistige Welt gibt, der unser innerster Wesenskern angehört, welcher bestimmt ist, in wiederholten Erdenleben zu erscheinen und dazwischen ein wirklich geistiges Leben durchzumachen; sie dadurch zu verhüllen, indem man die Menschen damit tröstet, daß dasjenige der Seelenhaftigkeit, das sich im Denken, Fühlen und Wollen auslebt, schon genügend unsterblich sei.
Was da die Seelenpfleger instinktiv tun und denken, ist, daß sie die Menschen davon abhalten, wiederum mit gewissen Wesen in Berührung zu kommen. Man kann nie in die Welt, die unser wahres Inneres ist, eindringen, ohne in ähnlicher Art mit gewissen Wesen in Berührung zu kommen, wie man in der geschilderten Art mit gewissen Wesen in Berührung kommt, wenn man den Schleier der Natur durchstoßen will und kann; nur sind diejenigen Wesen, mit denen man jetzt in Beziehung kommt, luziferischer Art.
Sehen Sie, wenn der Mensch dadurch, daß man ihm ohne die nötige Vorsicht gewisse Lehren ausliefert, wirklich in Beziehung kommt mit gewissen zerstörenden Wesen hinter dem Schleier der Natur, dann wird er von solcher Art, daß er nichts schätzt in der Welt, und er wird bald zeigen, daß er Freude am Zerstören, am Vernichten hat. Es muß nicht immer Äußeres sein, was er vernichtet. Manche, bei denen das der Fall war, haben Freude gezeigt, andere Seelen zu quälen, zu schinden. Diese Eigenschaften treten da auf. Aber man kann nicht sagen, daß Menschen mit solchen Eigenschaften wegen des Bündnisses mit ahrimanischen Elementarmächten immer egoistisch sind. Sie brauchen gar keine Egoisten zu sein, sie sind es auch gewöhnlich nicht. Sie tun das aus einem ganz anderen Triebe, als aus einem egoistischen Triebe heraus. Sie tun es aus der Lust am Zerstören, und sie zerstören, auch wenn sie nicht das geringste davon haben. Die Wesen, in deren Sphäre man da kommt, sind wirklich zerstörende Wesen, und sie versuchen und verleiten einen zum Zerstören.
Die anderen Wesen, in deren Sphäre man kommt, wenn man hinter den Schleier des Seelenlebens geht, sind ganz anderer Natur. Die haben gar keine besondere Lust am Zerstören. Eigentlich kennen sie das, was man Zerstören nennt, gar nicht. Sie haben eine wahre Wut, zu schaffen, etwas entstehen zu lassen; sie haben einen ungeheuren Tätigkeits- und Produktionstrieb. Und auch sie haben gewisse höhere Fähigkeiten, die jetzt weniger mit unserem Denken verwandt sind, dagegen aber mehr verwandt sind mit unserem Fühlen und namentlich mit unserem Wollen. Da kommen wir in eine Sphäre hinein, wo Wesen sind, die eminent verwandt sind mit unserem Wollen, aber mit den edelsten Seiten unseres Wollens, kurioserweise.
Also wenn wir in der Welt zunächst, ohne daß wir etwas von dem wissen, was der Fingeweihte weiß — daß sowohl hinter der Naturwelt wie auch hinter der Seelenwelt eine geistige Welt ist -, wenn wir unser Wollen durchdringen, imprägnieren mit Idealen, wenn wir edles, vergeistigtes Wollen entwickeln und wir treten ein in diese Welt, dann wird dieses edle Wollen verbündet gerade mit den niederen Eigenschaften dieser Wesen, in deren Sphäre wir hineinkommen. Es ist ein geheimnisvolles Anziehungsband zwischen unserer edlen Willensseite und den niederen Trieben und Bedürfnissen dieser Wesenheiten.
Denken Sie nun, wenn ein Mensch einem Seelenpfleger gegenübersteht, der ihm zur Pflege seiner Seele den Trost der Unsterblichkeit gibt, den Wert der Menschenseele, den Wert des Göttlichen und so weiter, da kann es dazu kommen, daß durch einen geringfügigen Anstoß der Mensch, gerade wenn er ein edler Mensch war, das Seelenhäutchen an irgendeiner Stelle durchstößt und hinter die Geheimnisse des Denkens, Fühlens und Wollens kommt. Aber er kommt in die Region dieser Willenswesen hinein, und die Folge davon ist, daß wirklich nun gerade die ideale Seite des Wollens anfängt, einen sinnlichen Charakter anzunehmen. Und nun, bitte, lesen Sie mit diesen Geleitworten viele Beschreibungen von Mystikern und Mystikerinnen. Beachten Sie, wenn Sie Biographien von Mystikern und Mystikerinnen lesen, in welche schwüle Atmosphäre Sie da hineinkommen. Denken Sie nur, wie da die höchsten Ideale einen sinnlichen Charakter annehmen. Ich erinnere Sie nur an das starke Erleben von Mystikern und Mystikerinnen mit ihrer Seelenbraut und ihrem Seelenbräutigam, wo die mystische Vereinigung bei der Mystikerin wie eine sinnliche Vereinigung mit dem Heiland ist, oder bei dem Mystiker wie eine reale Verbindung mit der Seelenbraut, mit der Jungfrau Maria.
Es ist das Bestreben dieser Willenswesen, in unser Denken, in unsere Ideale hineinzugießen, was wir sonst nur als Sinnlichkeit kennen. Es ist ein schweres Wort, das man damit ausspricht. Diese Wesen, in deren Regionen man da hineinkommt, haben das Bestreben — und das ist von ihrem Standpunkte auch ganz gut -, ihre sinnlichen Instinkte in unser idealisiertes Wollen hineinzugießen. Und es ist dann so, als wenn in dem Wollen unseres Kopfes, das sonst eine gewisse Kühle hatte, nun ein schwüles Empfinden der geistigen Welt leben würde, was oft als Charakter heißer, schwüler Mystik auftritt. Davon haben die Vertreter verschiedener Religionsgemeinschaften eine heillose Angst, und vor nichts fürchten sich die Vertreter gewisser Religionsgemeinschaften mehr als vor denen, die in ihrer gläubigen Gemeinde sich als Mystiker auftun.
Es ist wirklich ein Skylla und Charybdis. Wollen wir durch den Vorhang der Natur durch, wir kommen an die Skylla, an die ahrimanischen Intelligenzwesen, die uns reichlich ausstatten wollen mit zerstörenden Intelligenzkräften. Wollen wir durch den Schleier der Seelenwesen hindurch, wir kommen an die Charybdis der Willenswesen luziferischer Art, die uns reichlich ausstatten wollen mit spirituellem Dunst, spiritueller Schwüle und spirituellen Instinkten.
Die geistlichen Orden, die das religiöse Leben besonders pflegen wollten, mußten daher mit einem gewissen Rechte darauf sehen, daß, wenn schon Mystiker in ihrer Mitte auftraten, diese Mystik wenigstens nicht mit ihren Schattenseiten auftrat. Daher richteten sie gewissermaßen auch Barrieren auf vor dem Eintreten in die geistigen Welten. Denken Sie nur einmal, wie gewisse religiöse Orden - ich meine nicht geheime Orden, sondern religiöse Orden - in Verbindung gebracht wurden mit äußerer Arbeit, mit solcher Arbeit, die in die Menschenseelen einziehen läßt die Freude an der Natur, die Freude an allem, was draußen in der Welt lebt, daß solche Orden, wenn sie das richtige Prinzip verstanden, äußere Handarbeit tun ließen. Denn diejenigen, die solche Orden gegründet haben, haben sich gesagt: Das Schlimmste, was wir tun können, ist, wenn wir die Menschen vereinsamen und in ihnen das mystische Leben sich entwickeln lassen, und dieses mystische Leben aus der Trägheit sich entwickelt, aus dem äußeren Nichtstun. — Lesen Sie die verschiedenen, aus den besseren Zeiten und aus den besseren Orden herrührenden Klosterregeln, so werden Sie überall sehen, wie auf das, was ich gesagt habe, voll Rücksicht genommen worden ist, wie da entgegengewirkt worden ist gegen die mystischen Dünste und gegen die mystische Schwüle durch äußere Arbeit. Jetzt werden Sie es auch begreifen, warum der Antonius den Paulus die Arbeit an sich schaffen ließ, selbst wenn sie auch keinen äußeren Zweck hatte. Denn hätte er den sich hinlegen und der Faulheit pflegen lassen durch Jahre hindurch, so wäre dieser Paulus der Einfältige ein ganz sinnlicher Mystiker geworden.
Sie sehen, mit einer Zweiheit haben wir es zu tun: mit dem objektiven Okkultismus, der, wenn er einfach den Menschen ausgeliefert wird, die nicht dazu vorbereitet sind, die Menschen zu zerstörerischen Wesen macht; und mit der subjektiven Mystik, die, wenn sie von den Menschen gepflegt wird, oder aufkommt, diese Menschen aus Idealisten zu Egoisten macht, zu Egoisten, wie sie uns entgegentreten in zahlreichen Mystikern, die nur einen raffinierteren Egoismus, eine raffiniertere Sucht, ihre Seele zu pflegen, entwickelten. Lesen Sie die Biographien der Mystiker, und Sie werden oftmals in der furchtbarsten Weise berührt sein von jenem seelischen Egoismus, der in solchen Mystikern lebt. Die Geister, die dem Ahriman dienen und in deren Sphäre wir hineingeraten, wenn wir nicht den Egoismus, sondern den Zerstörungssinn pflegen, sind die Skylla, in deren Bereich wir kommen. Pflegen wir die subjektive Mystik der luziferischen Willensgeister, in deren Bereich wir kommen, dann wird von der anderen Seite die Charybdis an uns herantreten; denn diese pflegen ganz besonders den inneren Egoismus, so daß unser eigenes Innere uns die Welt bildet. Das ist die Zweiheit in der sinnlichen Welt: objektiver Okkultismus — subjektive Mystik. Beide können ihre Abwege haben.
Aber im Grunde genommen lebt in dem, was sich so durch Jahrhunderte hindurch entwickelt hat seit der neueren Zeit auf der einen Seite der objektive Okkultismus, in den geheimen Orden bewacht, aber nicht mehr richtig bewacht, weil die Leute nicht mehr richtig bewachen können, weil alles in die Öffentlichkeit dringt. Aber wir haben gesehen, welche Mühe die Leute gehabt haben, um irgendeinen Ausweg zu finden. Das habe ich in diesen Wochen gezeigt. Und auf der anderen Seite lebt die subjektive Mystik.
Was folgt daraus? Daraus erfolgt, daß, wenn wir eine Geisteswissenschaft begründen wollten, wir uns weder anziehen lassen durften von der Skylla noch von der Charybdis, sondern mitten durch mußten; daß wir weder pflegen konnten den alten, hergebrachten Okkultismus, noch pflegen durften die alten, hergebrachten Formen der Mystik. Und hier haben Sie noch tiefer erfaßt, was unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Strömung die Richtung gibt. Beides, der objektive Okkultismus im alten Sinne wie die subjektive Mystik im alten Sinne, mußten vermieden werden, und unsere Geisteswissenschaft mußte einen Charakter haben, durch welchen sowohl die Skylla wie die Charybdis vermieden wird.
Ich werde Ihnen nun auseinanderzusetzen haben den Grundcharakter unserer Geisteswissenschaft, den sie haben muß, weil sie beide Klippen vermeiden muß. Aber es kann selbstverständlich nicht vermieden werden in der Gegenwart, daß auf mißverständliche Weise einerseits Menschen in unsere Richtung hereinkommen, die eigentlich einen alten objektiven Okkultismus suchen, und auf der anderen Seite Menschen hereinkommen, welche die alte subjektive Mystik suchen. Beide finden bei uns kaum, was sie suchen. Aber sie glauben zu finden, was sie suchen, indem sie unsere Lehre einfach umdeuten. Wie unsere Lehre sein muß, und wie wir sie auffassen müssen, damit wir zurechtkommen auf unserem geistigen Lebensschiffe, damit wir durchkommen zwischen der Skylla und Charybdis, davon muß ich doch noch morgen sprechen.
Ninth Lecture
If you remember what I tried to explain yesterday, you will be able to say to yourself that, basically, the rise of materialism — I am not talking about the materialistic worldview, but materialism — has its good sides. The bad thing is that materialism is made the basis of a worldview. The good thing about materialism is that it is used as a method for investigating the outer phenomena of the physical-sensory world, which, as you have seen, is given to us as the mineral world during our time on earth. Materialism is an excellent instrument for investigating the mineral world. This mineral world is particularly important for earthly development. And again, it is important for earthly development that human beings go through this embodiment in the material-mineral world, that they thereby undergo the development of those abilities that we can only attain if we have a mineral-physical body. Intelligence and free will must be acquired to a certain degree during the earthly period. In the Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan periods, human beings will be able to use these abilities, but it is impossible for any being in the world to acquire them in any other way than by such a soul being as the human being undergoing this earthly life in such a way that it is embodied in a mineralized body.
A counterbalance to our development in the mineralized earthly body is created in humans by the fact that they repeatedly go through life between death and a new birth, the life of the soul without such a mineralized body. It can be said that humans have to go through many things on earth between birth and death only because they have a mineralized body. But what he experiences, in a sense, to his cosmic disadvantage through being embodied in a mineralized body is all offset by what he experiences between death and a new birth, when he is not embodied but soulified, to use the word in its proper sense.
Investigating what minerals, plants, animals, and humans have absorbed in terms of minerals is the task of the materialistic method; and by practicing this materialistic method over the course of centuries, humans basically acquire what they need to acquire during their time on earth. The methods of research that preceded the materialistic method were all still influenced by the clairvoyant heritage that man had acquired from his earlier stages of development. And when, after our fifth post-Atlantean epoch and in the course of our entire post-Atlantean epoch, human beings will have essentially completed their mineral development and will enter into another stage of development, they will again have to be so close to the spiritual world that they will have to have acquired the intelligence intended for them during their time on earth. And likewise, they will have to have already acquired the measure of free will that is intended for them, otherwise they would not be able to cope with their development.
Viewed in this way, the materialistic method means something very significant; but it must remain a method, a method for researching the outer physical, material world. And it also has its significance, its very significant meaning, in a higher sense. It has the advantage that, by perceiving and researching purely in the mineral world and by being active in the mineral world, human beings gradually develop their free will. For when human beings stand within the mineral world in this way, what actually underlies the mineral-physical world, what it actually is, is concealed from them.
In recent weeks, we have seen what happens when one remains theoretical and speculative within the realm of physical-sensory perception. One arrives at atomism. We have also seen that atomism is nothing more than a subjective delusion of human beings. But if one were to go out into the real world, where the human being who allows himself to be deluded seeks atoms, one would find Ahriman with his beings. For through those spiritual beings of whom I spoke yesterday, and to whom man comes when he pierces the veil of nature, man will come to develop destructive forces; these are also cosmic beings.
So we can see how this materialistic method works. It provides man with an illusion, a maya. But this deception is actually beneficial for human beings, because every moment they see through this deception, they first enter the realm of Ahriman and his spiritual beings, who seek destruction and killing, causing destructive forces to develop in their own human nature to a certain degree of sophistication. Specifically, the intellect, purely external intelligence, is developed by the powers in whose realm one enters, so that one becomes sophisticatedly clever. If one has not yet developed one's earthly intelligence to the point of seeing through these things, one becomes unconsciously, but sophisticatedly, clever. Materialistic natural philosophy thus represents, in a sense, a period of respite during which human beings can mature so that they can later enter this realm of Ahriman without danger.
Thus, one can say that materialistic natural scientists or natural philosophers follow a certainly very justified instinct. The keepers of the old symbols did not dare to make the esoteric exoteric and reveal the secrets to people for this reason. Natural scientists say to themselves, not really, of course, but one can express it symbolically as follows: We are doing something very good if we only lead people up to the curtain and not behind it. They do this instinctively, of course, but they do it nonetheless. Basically, they are doing humanity a good service, because if natural scientists were to pierce the veil, the curtain, they would acquaint people with the forces of those destructive beings I spoke of yesterday: beings in the service of Ahriman. And the result would be that people who are not yet prepared would, so to speak, welcome with open arms the forces that come from this side. And with these forces, people would be able to do a great deal, but all in the service of destruction, in the service of killing the good. So even the ignorance in which people are supposed to be left by the scientific worldview has, in a certain sense, a good side. That is one side of the matter. But the other side of the matter is this.
In order for human beings to live in this world of deception, into which they are instinctively placed by natural scientists, they must live in it for a time, for centuries. We already have a number of centuries in which man has been living in this deception, in this Maya. But this does not simply pass over human nature! When man lives in deception with regard to a matter, he does not live in reality, and so man has really been living in deception for centuries. This deception does not seize their soul power as strongly as reality would; and the result is that doubts upon doubts gradually arise in the human soul, which, as I have already indicated, have also made themselves felt in this context. Important natural scientists have erected the “Ignorabimus.” The second half of the 19th century brought to light everything that can be called living in doubt upon doubt. But the truth is that a time is coming which will be brought about by people living more and more in deception and believing that they have a reality in what exists. They are increasingly immersing themselves in materialism as a worldview, but this will give rise to more and more doubts, and it would not be long before scientific philosophy filled every human soul with nothing but doubt. People would then be unable to hold on to anything; they would have to doubt everything, every problem, every task. Skepticism would become a vast sea in which the human soul would drown. It is the task of spiritual research to recognize this, to recognize how a vast sea of skepticism and doubt is about to break in, in which the human soul would drown. And its further task is to build dams so that these doubts, this sea of doubt, this sea of skepticism, cannot break in. We are faced with the prospect of something that will certainly come upon people if the natural science doctrine continues to exist as a worldview. That is the other side.
What I am about to say is connected with a profound mystery, with the mystery that in the outer sensory world everything that lives out its existence must do so in duality. The number two is the number of revelation, I once said; the number two is the number that governs the entire sensory revelation. But the number two has its significance only for sensory revelation. It is always the case in the world of revelation that we must say: a certain evolution is being undergone. Let us take the evolution of nature's Maya. I will call what I am describing here natural Maya, which gradually emerged since the advent of the scientific worldview and reached its peak in the 19th century. But living in this Maya has the consequence that, in a certain sense, something else is taking place under this view that lives in natural Maya: the preparation for a different view, for a penetration into reality.

This is being prepared in the subconscious. And precautions must be taken to ensure that the next stage of development now enters into reality, otherwise natural Maya will continue as skepticism, as the most terrible doubt that drowns the human soul. So that we are approaching a time of which we can say: if spiritual science did not come, then human beings would sink deeper and deeper into doubt; if spiritual science comes, then what would take the place of what would occupy the human soul with doubt, what would drown the human soul, will be replaced by what human beings need.
You see, it is a duality. Nature's Maya continues. But underneath it is green life, the preparation for spiritual science. Everything in the sensory world continues in duality. That is why the occultist says: the number two is the number of sensory revelation. The moment one enters another world from the sensory world, the number two has no meaning, and it is completely wrong to characterize higher worlds directly with duality. Only the basic law of the physical-sensory world can be characterized with duality. In the higher world, if one wants to start from numbers, one must be clear that one must start from the number three, for example, and that this number initially governs everything in the same way that duality governs the sensory world. Just as the sensory world is governed by duality, so in the spiritual worlds one is immediately confronted with a trinity. This is sometimes important to know. For example, it is good to know that everything that can be characterized in terms of duality has meaning only for the sensory world. When someone says that magic can be divided into white and black magic, they have established a duality. But such a duality can only have meaning for the sensory world. He thus immediately shows that he has no concept of the fundamental laws of the spiritual world, for in the spiritual world one could never base anything on a duality. As true as it is that one must base everything on duality in the physical-sensory world, it is equally true that one never has anything to do with duality in the supersensible world.
Now, there is a kinship between human beings and the entire cosmos. Human beings, as they live on earth, are — as we have often emphasized — a microcosm. There is a kinship with the entire cosmos, and in order to recognize certain things, it is necessary to reveal the relationship between human beings and the cosmos. We have pointed to a fact, to the fact that when human beings pierce the veil of nature and enter the world that lies behind it, they encounter Ahrimanic beings, beings of a destructive nature. These beings are actually, in the world order, fierce enemies of human nature on earth; so that if one connects with them through weakness, which can happen, as I have indicated, one connects with enemies of earthly human beings. One really enters into an alliance with enemies of earthly human beings, and this alliance is particularly favored by a certain relationship of human beings to the cosmos.
These beings behind the curtain of nature are intelligent; they have their own intelligence. I spoke earlier about human intelligence, but these beings have their own thinking, their own intelligence, they have feelings, even if they are different from human feelings, and they have a will, even if it is different from the human will. They perform certain deeds that are expressed outwardly in natural phenomena, but whose essential substance lies behind the veil. Now, however, there is a remarkable relationship between something in human beings and the highest abilities of these beings. I will explain this in the following way. When someone who crosses the threshold of the spiritual world approaches these beings — it may seem to them as if they were entering hell, or whatever they want to imagine, but that is not important; what matters is that this experience is judged in the right way — such a person must first of all notice the high, extraordinary intelligence of such beings. They are extraordinarily clever and wise. This is an expression of their soul power. But these soul powers, these higher powers of these beings, are all related to the powers of the lower nature of human beings. What are the sensual drives of human beings are, in these beings, those powers that are particularly impressive. There is therefore a relationship between the lowest powers of human beings and the highest powers of these spiritual beings. Therefore, they seek to identify with the lower powers of human beings. When one enters this world, they incite instincts of destruction and hatred or other instincts, because such spirits draw up what is low in human beings to their higher level and work through the human low with their higher level. It is not possible to form a bond with these beings without debasing one's nature, without developing certain sensual urges particularly strongly.
This is a fact that must be taken into account, because it shows us how we should imagine our relationship to the cosmos. There are lower urges in our own human nature. But these lower instincts are forces that only represent lower instincts in us humans. As soon as those spiritual beings have these forces, the same instincts are higher forces in them. But these spiritual beings always work in our nature. They are always within it. The essence of spiritual scientific progress consists solely in our recognizing them, in our knowing that they are there, so that we can say we have our higher forces and we have our lower forces, and we recognize as a third thing: the forces that are lower forces in us are higher forces in the beings described. This complements the duality of our world, our higher and lower forces, to form a trinity. We already touch the threshold of the spiritual world when we touch this trinity instead of the duality of our lower and higher powers.
Now I have told you that it is impossible in our present time to do something similar to what Father Antonius did with Paul the Simple. It is also impossible to do some of the things that certain orders have done. It is simply not possible to use the old knowledge. For if one were to bring it to people, one would achieve precisely what I have just explained: one would awaken base instincts in people. There is no doubt that this would happen.
For example, there is even an order in the world that readily leads people to the knowledge of those mysterious beings I have just spoken of. But such people all acquire destructive instincts, so that this order simply causes people with destructive instincts to emerge from it. Nietzsche once refers to this order in his writings, without really knowing the actual facts and taking them into account in his approach.
So that is one thing I must point out, that we have a curtain here in front of the secrets of nature. The curtain represents everything that can be gained through materialistic methods. Behind it lies the true world. Entering this world is not so easy at first. Let us keep that in mind on the one hand. On the other hand lies our human soul life with thinking, feeling, and willing. But as it appears before the inner eye, as we experience it there, it is just as much a maya as outer nature is only a maya. This is not the true form of our inner life, which appears to us before the soul itself as thinking, feeling, and willing; rather, behind thinking, feeling, and willing lies true reality once again.
Just as natural scientists today instinctively develop the view that nature itself presents reality, but at most arrive at atomism, so the representatives of certain religious communities today strive to present the matter to the soul as if the soul, with its thinking, feeling, and willing, were already the real thing, and that it would then continue to live after death with this thinking, feeling, and willing. Just as natural scientists describe natural maya, so the representatives of certain religious communities describe soul maya, and with these views they in turn instinctively serve, in a certain sense, the evolution of humanity.
You may know, as I have often hinted, that from the Middle Ages onwards, in the historical form of Christianity, the so-called trichotomy, the division of man into body, soul, and spirit, began to be considered heresy. From the early Middle Ages onwards, it began to be considered heresy. As you know, a relatively early council abolished the spirit, and human beings are now divided into body and soul. Since that time, the West has become accustomed to dividing human beings into body and soul. In the Middle Ages, it was considered quite terrible for anyone to speak of spirit, soul, and body, of a trinity. It was the worst heresy, because the spirit had been abolished and body and soul were established as a duality. This corresponds to the instinct to remain, even in numbers, only with what has meaning for this world here. So there really is this tendency I have spoken of: to keep people within the world, which is actually only an illusion, because one remains stuck in illusory thinking, feeling, and willing. Then one actually only considers what is consumed by the present incarnation in the time between death and a new birth. What is developed in the human being in order to appear in the next incarnation is completely left out of the picture.

Perhaps I will sketch this schematically in the following way. Suppose I draw the human body (red) here. If I wanted to draw what lies behind the human body, I would have to draw it like this. This is, of course, schematic; it lies, so to speak, outside the human body. In truth, I would have to draw here; that would not be visible. One would see that if one were to penetrate through the nerve endings. If one did not take atoms as the basis of the world, but went beyond the body with one's gaze, one would arrive at the place where the destructive beings occupy the whole human being. And now I want to draw inside the soul that the human being first develops in the physical world (blue). The red and the blue are therefore what the human being perceives here: his physicality and his soul. But while we live here between birth and death, the imperceptible (yellow) develops. This remains completely imperceptible to us. Now we die. When we die, our thinking, feeling, and willing do not develop any further. It is consumed, and while it is being consumed, the yellow, the imperceptible, develops. This imperceptible becomes more and more powerful between death and a new birth and, as it develops more and more powerfully, becomes the basis of the new embodiment. With new thinking, feeling, and willing, with new physicality, we are reincarnated.

So when we speak of what is now revealed to our soul here on earth, we are speaking of something that ceases to exist, something that does not go with us into the next incarnation. If we speak of the complete soul, then we must refrain from speaking as the representatives of religion do: Man dies, enters heaven or hell, and we no longer concern ourselves with him. According to the view of certain representatives of religion, that is enough; that is immortal enough; the other, which continues into the next incarnation, is not so important. The fact that the spiritual enters the spiritual worlds and lives on until the next incarnation is to be concealed.
Now we can say: The representatives of the various religious communities are very keen not to let people get to the heart of their being, not to let them know anything about it. And in doing so, they are serving — one might say — a certain correct instinct, which, however, shows even more clearly that it has already lost its value in our time, as the other instinct shows us, which the natural scientists follow.
All the efforts of the representatives of the various religious communities are primarily aimed at concealing the fact that there is a spiritual world to which our innermost core belongs, which is destined to appear in repeated earthly lives and to undergo a truly spiritual life in between; concealing it by comforting people with the idea that the soul aspect that lives out in thinking, feeling, and willing is already sufficiently immortal.
What the soul caregivers instinctively do and think is to prevent people from coming into contact with certain beings again. One can never penetrate the world that is our true inner being without coming into contact with certain beings in a similar way, just as one comes into contact with certain beings in the manner described when one wants to and is able to pierce the veil of nature; only the beings with whom one now comes into contact are of a Luciferic nature.
You see, when a person, through being taught certain doctrines without the necessary caution, really comes into contact with certain destructive beings behind the veil of nature, he becomes such that he values nothing in the world, and he will soon show that he takes pleasure in destroying and annihilating. It is not always external things that he destroys. Some who have been in this situation have shown pleasure in tormenting and tormenting other souls. These characteristics appear there. But one cannot say that people with such characteristics are always selfish because of their alliance with Ahrimanic elemental forces. They do not need to be egoists at all, and usually are not. They do it out of a completely different impulse than a selfish one. They do it out of a desire to destroy, and they destroy even if they do not gain anything from it. The beings in whose sphere one enters are truly destructive beings, and they try to tempt one into destroying.
The other beings whose sphere you enter when you go behind the veil of soul life are of a completely different nature. They have no particular desire to destroy. In fact, they do not even know what is called destruction. They have a true passion for creating, for bringing something into being; they have an enormous drive for activity and production. And they also have certain higher abilities that are now less related to our thinking, but more related to our feeling and especially to our will. Here we enter a sphere where there are beings who are eminently related to our will, but curiously enough, to the noblest aspects of our will.
So when we enter the world without knowing anything of what the initiated know — that there is a spiritual world behind both the natural world and the soul world — when we permeate our will with ideals, when we develop a noble, spiritual will and enter this world, then this noble will is allied precisely with the lower qualities of these beings, into whose sphere we enter. There is a mysterious bond of attraction between our noble side of will and the lower drives and needs of these beings.
Now think, when a person stands before a spiritual caregiver who gives them the comfort of immortality, the value of the human soul, the value of the divine, and so on, it can happen that, with the slightest push, the person, especially if they were a noble person, pierces the soul's membrane at some point and comes behind the secrets of thinking, feeling, and willing. But they enter the region of these will beings, and the result is that the ideal side of willing now begins to take on a sensual character. And now, please, read many descriptions of mystics with these introductory words in mind. When you read biographies of mystics, notice the sultry atmosphere you enter. Just think how the highest ideals take on a sensual character there. I remind you only of the powerful experience of mystics with their soul bride and soul bridegroom, where the mystical union is, for the female mystic, like a sensual union with the Savior, or, for the male mystic, like a real union with the soul bride, with the Virgin Mary.
It is the endeavour of these beings of will to pour into our thinking, into our ideals, what we otherwise know only as sensuality. It is a heavy word to utter. These beings, into whose regions one enters, have the endeavour — and this is quite understandable from their point of view — to pour their sensual instincts into our idealised will. And then it is as if a sultry sensation of the spiritual world now lives in the will of our head, which otherwise had a certain coolness, which often appears as a character of hot, sultry mysticism. The representatives of various religious communities are terribly afraid of this, and there is nothing that the representatives of certain religious communities fear more than those who reveal themselves as mystics in their faithful community.
It is truly a Scylla and Charybdis. If we want to pass through the veil of nature, we come to Scylla, to the Ahrimanic beings of intelligence who want to endow us abundantly with destructive powers of intelligence. If we want to pass through the veil of soul beings, we come to the Charybdis of Luciferic will beings, who want to lavish us with spiritual haze, spiritual sultriness, and spiritual instincts.
The spiritual orders that wanted to cultivate religious life in particular therefore had to ensure, with a certain degree of justification, that if mystics appeared in their midst, this mysticism at least did not appear with its dark sides. Therefore, they also erected barriers, so to speak, before entering the spiritual worlds. Just think how certain religious orders – I don't mean secret orders, but religious orders – were associated with external work, with work that allows the joy of nature, the joy of everything that lives outside in the world, to enter into people's souls, so that such orders, if they understood the right principle, had their members do external manual labor. For those who founded such orders said to themselves: The worst thing we can do is to isolate people and allow the mystical life to develop in them, and this mystical life develops out of idleness, out of external inactivity. If you read the various monastic rules originating from better times and better orders, you will see everywhere how what I have said has been taken fully into account, how external work has been used to counteract mystical vapors and mystical sultriness. Now you will also understand why Anthony had Paul do the work, even if it had no external purpose. For if he had let him lie down and cultivate laziness for years, this simple-minded Paul would have become a completely sensual mystic.
You see, we are dealing with a duality: with objective occultism, which, when simply handed over to people who are not prepared for it, turns people into destructive beings; and with subjective mysticism, which, when cultivated or developed by people, turns them from idealists into egoists, egoists such as we encounter in numerous mystics who developed only a more sophisticated egoism, a more sophisticated addiction to cultivating their souls. Read the biographies of mystics, and you will often be touched in the most terrible way by the spiritual egoism that lives in such mystics. The spirits who serve Ahriman and into whose sphere we enter when we cultivate not egoism but the spirit of destruction are the Scylla into whose domain we come. If we cultivate the subjective mysticism of the Luciferic spirits of will, into whose realm we enter, then Charybdis will approach us from the other side; for these spirits cultivate inner egoism in a very special way, so that our own inner being forms our world. This is the duality in the sensory world: objective occultism — subjective mysticism. Both can have their aberrations.
But basically, what has developed over the centuries since modern times is, on the one hand, objective occultism, guarded by secret orders, but no longer properly guarded, because people can no longer guard it properly, because everything is becoming public. But we have seen how hard people have tried to find some way out. I have shown this in recent weeks. And on the other hand, there is subjective mysticism.
What follows from this? It follows that if we wanted to establish a spiritual science, we could not allow ourselves to be drawn either to Scylla or to Charybdis, but had to go straight through the middle; that we could neither cultivate the old, traditional occultism, nor were we allowed to cultivate the old, traditional forms of mysticism. And here you have grasped even more deeply what gives direction to our spiritual scientific movement. Both objective occultism in the old sense and subjective mysticism in the old sense had to be avoided, and our spiritual science had to have a character that avoids both Scylla and Charybdis.
I will now have to explain to you the fundamental character that our spiritual science must have in order to avoid both pitfalls. But of course, in the present situation, it cannot be avoided that, on the one hand, people who are actually seeking an old objective occultism will enter our movement in a misleading way, and on the other hand, people who are seeking the old subjective mysticism will also enter. Neither of them will find what they are looking for with us. But they believe they will find what they are looking for by simply reinterpreting our teaching. How our teaching must be, and how we must understand it, so that we can get along on our spiritual ship of life, so that we can get through between Scylla and Charybdis, I must still speak about tomorrow.