The Christmas Conference
GA 260
Part II. The Proceedings of the Conference
1 January 8:30 p.m., Dornach
XX. On the Right Entry into the Spiritual World: The Responsibility Incumbent on Us
My dear friends!
We are gathered together for the last time in this Conference from which much that is strong and important is to go forth for the Anthroposophical Movement. So now let me shape this final lecture in a way that connects it inwardly, in its impulse, with the various prospects thrown open to us by this series of lectures as a whole,79See Rudolf Steiner World History in the Light of Anthroposophy, op. cit. but also in a way that will allow us to gain a sense for the future, especially the future of anthroposophical endeavour.
When we look out into the world today we see something that has already been there for many years: a tremendous amount of destructiveness. There are forces at work that give us an inkling of the abysses into which western civilization is still to plunge. Looking at those individuals who externally are the cultural leaders in the various fields of life, we notice how they are enmeshed in a terrible cosmic sleep. They think, and until recently most people thought, that until the nineteenth century mankind was childlike and primitive in its insights and views, and that now that modern science has entered into all the various fields truth has at last arrived, truth that must be upheld forever.
People who think like this are, without knowing it, living in a state of tremendous arrogance. On the other hand, here and there amongst mankind today there are some inklings that things are perhaps not as the majority would like to imagine.
Some time ago I was able to give a number of lectures in Germany organized by the Wolff agency.80See Note 3. The audiences were exceptionally large, so that people here and there began to notice that Anthroposophy was something for which people were looking. All kinds of foolish voices were raised in antagonism, among them one which was not much more intelligent than any of the others but which nevertheless expressed a kind of presentiment. It consisted of a note in a newspaper referring to one of the lectures in Berlin. This notice in the newspaper said: Listening to stuff like this you get the impression—I am quoting the article approximately—that something is happening not only on the earth but also in the whole of the cosmos that is calling mankind to a form of spirituality that is different from what has existed so far; even the forces of the cosmos, not merely earthly impulses, are demanding something of mankind; a kind of revolution in the cosmos which must lead man to strive for a new spirituality.
So there was this voice, which was in its way quite remarkable. For it is true: The proper impulse for what must now go forth from Dornach must, as I have emphasized from various angles over the last few days, be an impulse arising not on the earth but in the spiritual world. Here we want to develop the strength to follow the impulses coming from the spiritual world. In the evening lectures during this Christmas Conference I have spoken about manifold impulses present in historical development so that your hearts might be opened to take in spiritual impulses which still have to stream into the earthly world and are not taken from the earthly world itself. Everything that has hitherto borne the earthly world in the right way has had its source in the spiritual world. And if we are to achieve something fruitful for the earthly world, we must turn to the spiritual world for the appropriate impulses.
My dear friends, this encourages me to point out that the impulses we are to bear away with us from this Conference must be linked to a great sense of responsibility.
Let us spend a few minutes on the great responsibility that is now incumbent on us as a result of this Conference. In recent decades it has been possible for someone with a sense for the spiritual world to wander, in spiritual observation, past many personalities, gaining bitter sensations with regard to the future destiny of mankind on earth. It has been possible to wander past one's fellow human beings in the manner available to spiritual insight, observing how they lay aside their physical and etheric bodies in sleep and live in the spiritual world with their ego and astral body. Wandering among the destinies of those egos and astral bodies while human beings slept has, in recent decades, given rise to experiences which can point to a heavy responsibility incumbent on the one who can know such things. These souls, having left behind their physical and etheric bodies between going to sleep and waking up, were often to be seen approaching the Guardian of the Threshold.
The Guardian of the Threshold has entered the awareness of human beings in many and various ways during the course of human evolution. Many a legend and many a saga—for this is the form in which the most important things are preserved, rather than that of historical records—many a legend and many a saga tells of the approach by one personality or another to the Guardian of the Threshold in order to receive instruction on how to enter the spiritual world and then return once more to the physical world. Entering rightly into the spiritual world must bring with it the possibility of returning to the physical world at any moment with the full ability to stand on both feet as a practical and thoughtful human being, not as a dreamer, not as a dreamy mystic.
Throughout all the thousands of years during which human beings have striven to enter the spiritual world, this has been the fundamental stipulation of the Guardian of the Threshold. But especially in the final third of the nineteenth century hardly any human beings were to be seen approaching the Guardian of the Threshold in a state of wakefulness. And even more so in our own time, when mankind as a whole has the historical task of passing by the Guardian of the Threshold in one way or another, do you find, when wandering in the spiritual world, that souls are asleep when they approach the Guardian of the Threshold as egos and astral bodies. This most significant picture meets us today: There stands the Guardian of the Threshold surrounded by groups of sleeping human souls who do not have the strength to approach him in a waking state but who approach him instead while they are asleep.
Witnessing this scene, you become aware of a thought which is bound up particularly with what I would like to call the germination of a necessary great responsibility. The souls who thus approach the Guardian of the Threshold in a state of sleep demand entry into the spiritual world. They demand to be allowed to wander across the threshold in a state of sleep; their consciousness is that of a sleeping human being—which so far as the waking state is concerned remains unconscious or subconscious. And countless times the voice of the grave Guardian of the Threshold is heard: For your own good, you may not cross the threshold; you may not gain entrance to the spiritual world. Go back! For if the Guardian of the Threshold were to allow them to enter without more ado, they could come over into the spiritual world with all the concepts passed on to them by today's schools, today's education, today's civilization; with all those concepts and ideas with which human beings have to grow up nowadays from their sixth year onwards right, you could say, until the end of their earthly lives.
These concepts and ideas have a particular characteristic: If you enter into the spritual world with them, with the way you have become with them through present-day civilization and schooling, you become paralysed in your soul. And on returning to the physical world you would be void of thoughts and ideas. If the Guardian of the Threshold did not gravely reject these souls, if he were not to reject many, many of today's human souls but were to let them step over into the spiritual world, then, waking up on their return, waking up at the decisive moment on their return, they would have the feeling: I cannot think; my thoughts do not grasp my brain; I have to live in the world without thoughts. For the world of abstract ideas which human beings today attach to everything is such that one can indeed go into the spiritual world with them but one cannot bring them out again. And when you watch this scene, which is experienced today by more souls than you would ordinarily imagine, you say to yourself: If only these souls could be successfully protected from experiencing also in death what they are now experiencing in sleep. For if the inner condition experienced before the Guardian of the Threshold were to endure for a sufficiently long period of time, if human civilization were to remain for a long time under the influence of what can be taken in in schools by way of what is traditionally passed down by civilization, then sleep would become ordinary life. Human souls would pass through the portal of death into the spiritual world and then be incapable of bringing any strength of ideas with them into their new life on earth. For though you can enter the spiritual world with today's thoughts, you then cannot leave it with them. You can only leave it in a state of soul paralysis.
You see, present-day civilization can be founded on the kind of cultural life that has been nurtured for so long. But life cannot be founded on it. It would be possible for this civilization to endure for a while. During their waking hours, the souls would have no inkling of the Guardian of the Threshold; then while they slept they would be turned away by him so that they should not become paralysed; and the final consequence would be that a human race would be born in the future without any understanding, without any possibility of applying ideas to life when they were born in this future time, so that the faculty of thinking and living in ideas would have disappeared from the earth. A sick human race, living only in instincts, would have to populate the earth. Terrible feelings and emotions alone, without orientation through the force of ideas, would come to dominate human evolution.
Indeed, the soul failing to gain entry into the spiritual world, and being turned away by the Guardian of the Threshold in the way I have just described, is not the only sad sight to meet the one who has spiritual vision. If such a one were to take with him a human being from eastern civilization on his journeyings to where the sleeping souls can be observed approaching the Guardian of the Threshold, then such an eastern human being would be heard to utter spirit words of terrible reproach towards the whole of western civilization: See, if this goes on, then the earth will have fallen into barbarism by the time those living today return for a new incarnation; people will live by instincts alone, without ideas; this is what you have brought about by falling away from the ancient spirituality of the orient.
Thus a glimpse like this into the spiritual world bears witness to a strong sense of responsibility for the task of man. And here in Dornach there must be a place where it is possible to speak, to those who wish to listen, about every important direct experience of the spiritual world. Here there must be a place where the strength is found to point to those little traces of the spirit not only in the cleverly put together dialectical and empirical scientific manner of the present time. If Dornach is to fulfil its task, then it must be a place where human beings can hear openly about what is going on historically in the spiritual world and about the spiritual impulses which then enter into the world of nature and govern it. Human beings must be able to hear in Dornach about genuine experiences, genuine forces and genuine beings of the spiritual world. This is where the School of true Spiritual Science must be. And we must henceforth not shy away from the demands of modern scientific thought which causes human beings to approach the earnest Guardian of the Threshold in a state of sleep in the way I have described. In Dornach it must be possible to win the strength, spiritually, to look the spiritual world in the eye, to learn about the spiritual world.
Therefore we shall not let loose a tirade of dialectics on the inadequacy of present-day scientific theory. Instead I had to draw your attention to the position in which this scientific theory, and its consequences in ordinary schools, places the human being with regard to the Guardian of the Threshold. If we can face up to this in our soul in all earnestness during this Conference, then this Christmas Conference will send a strong impulse into our souls which can carry them away to do strong work of the kind needed by mankind today, so that in their next incarnation human beings will be able to encounter the Guardian of the Threshold properly, or rather so that civilization as a whole will measure up to the Guardian of the Threshold.
Compare today's civilization with that of former times. In all former civilizations there were ideas, concepts, which were turned first of all towards the super-sensible world, towards the gods, towards the world which engendered, which created, which brought forth. Then with those concepts, which belonged above all to the gods, it was possible to look down onto the earthly world in order to understand it with concepts and ideas which were worthy of the gods. And if souls then approached the Guardian of the Threshold with these ideas which had been formed in a manner that was worthy of the gods and that had a value for the gods, then the Guardian said: You may pass, for you are bringing with you into the super-sensible world something that is directed towards this super-sensible world even during the time of your life on earth in a physical body; therefore when you return to the physical, sense-perceptible world sufficient strength will remain to prevent you from becoming paralysed through having seen the super-sensible world. Nowadays human beings elaborate concepts and ideas which, in accordance with the genius of the times, they want to apply solely to the physical, sense-perceptible world. These concepts and ideas deal above all with anything that can be weighed and measured, but they are not at all concerned with the gods. They are not worthy of the gods and they are of no value to the gods. That is why the souls who have fallen entirely under the spell of the materialism of these ideas which are unworthy of the gods and valueless for the gods are met, when they cross the threshold in sleep, by the thundering voice of the Guardian of the Threshold: Do not step across the threshold! You have misused your ideas for the sense-perceptible world; therefore you must remain with them in the sense-perceptible world; if you do not want to become paralysed in your soul, you cannot enter with them into the world of the gods.
Such things have to be said, not because it is necessary to brood upon them but so that heart and mind and soul may become filled to the brim with them. Then we may come into the mood that will be the right mood to bear away from this solemn Christmas Conference of the Anthroposophical Society. The most important thing of all is the mood of soul we bear away with us, a mood of soul for the spiritual world that gives us the certainty: In Dornach a central point for spiritual knowledge will be created.
That is why it was so good to hear Dr Zeylmans speak this morning about a field which is to be cultivated here in Dornach, the field of medicine, and to hear him say that it is no longer possible to build bridges from ordinary science to what is to be founded here in Dornach. If we have the ambition to make what grows in the soil of our own medical research into something that can stand the scrutiny of present-day clinical requirements, then we shall never achieve any definite goal in the things that really make up our task, for then other people will simply say: Well, yes, here is a new method; we too have initiated new methods once in a while.
The important thing is that a branch of practical life, such as medicine, should be taken up into anthroposophical life. I think I understood rightly this morning that this is what Dr Zeylmans longs for. Did he not say in connection with this goal that someone who today becomes a doctor longs for impulses from a new corner of the universe. Let me tell you that in the field of medicine the work here in Dornach is to be carried on just as has that in a number of other fields of anthroposophical work which have remained within the bosom of Anthroposophy. With Dr Wegman as my helper, work is already in train on a system of medicine based entirely on Anthroposophy, a system which is needed by mankind and which will be presented to mankind quite soon. Equally it is my purpose to bring about the closest ties between the Goetheanum and the Clinic in Arlesheim which is working so beneficially. In the very near future such ties are to be brought about so that all that is flourishing there may be truly oriented towards Anthroposophy, which is indeed the intention of Dr Wegman.
In what he said, Dr Zeylmans was indicating with reference to one particular field what the Vorstand in Dornach will make its task in all the fields of anthroposophical work. Thus in future the situation will be clear. No one will say: Let us first show people eurythmy; if they hear nothing about Anthroposophy, then they will like eurythmy; and then, having taken a liking to eurythmy, if they hear that Anthroposophy stands as the foundation for eurythmy, they will take a liking to Anthroposophy as well. No one will say: First we must show people how the medicines work in practice so that they see that they are proper medicines, and will buy them; then, if they later hear that Anthroposophy is behind the medicines, they will also approach Anthroposophy.
We must have the courage to regard such a method as dishonest. Not until we have the courage to regard such a method as dishonest, not until we inwardly detest such a method will Anthroposophy find its way through the world. So in future here in Dornach we shall fight for the truth, not fanatically but simply in an honest, straightforward love of the truth. Perhaps this will enable us to make good some of what has so sinfully been made bad in recent years.
With thoughts which are not easy but which are grave we must depart from this Conference that has led to the founding of the General Anthroposophical Society. But I do not think that it will be necessary for anybody to go away with pessimism from what has taken place here this Christmas. Every day we have had to walk past the sad ruins of the Goetheanum. But as we have walked up this hill, past these ruins, I think that in every soul there has also been the content of what has been discussed here and what has quite evidently been understood by our friends in their hearts. From all this the thought has emerged: It will be possible for spiritual flames of fire to arise, as a true spiritual life for the blessing of mankind in the future, from the Goetheanum which is being built anew. They shall arise out of our hard work and out of our devotion. The more we go from here with the courage to carry on the affairs of Anthroposophy, the better have we heard the breath of the spirit wafting filled with hope through our gathering. For the scene which I have described to you and which can be seen so frequently, that scene of present-day human beings, the products of a decadent civilization and education, approaching the Guardian of the Threshold in a state of sleep, is actually not one which is found amongst the circle of sensitive anthroposophists. Here on the whole the circumstance is such that only a warning, one particular exhortation, resounds: In hearing the voice from the land of the spirit you must develop the strong courage to bear witness to this voice, for you have begun to awaken; courage will keep you awake; lack of courage alone could lead you to fall asleep.
The exhortation to be awake through courage is the other variation, the variation for anthroposophists in the life of present-day civilization. Those who are not anthroposophists hear: You must remain outside the land of the spirit, you have misused ideas for merely earthly objects, you have not gathered ideas which have value for the gods and which are worthy of the gods; you would be paralysed on your return to the physical, sense-perceptible world. But those souls who are the souls of anthroposophists hear: Your remaining test is to be that of your courage to bear witness to that voice which you are capable of hearing because of the inclination of your soul, because of the inclination of your heart.
My dear friends, yesterday was the anniversary of the day on which we saw the tongues of flame devouring our old Goetheanum. Today we may hope—since a year ago we did not allow even the flames to distract us from continuing with our work—today we may hope that when the physical Goetheanum stands here once more we shall have worked in such a way that the physical Goetheanum is only the external symbol for our spiritual Goetheanum which we want to take with us as an idea as we now go out into the world.
We have here laid the Foundation Stone. On this Foundation Stone shall be erected the building whose individual stones will be the work achieved in all our groups by the individuals outside in the wide world. Let us now look in spirit at this work and become conscious of the responsibility about which I have spoken today, of our responsibility towards the human being who stands before the Guardian of the Threshold and has to be refused entry into the spiritual world.
Certainly it should never occur to us to feel anything but the deepest pain and the deepest sorrow about what happened to us a year ago. But let us not forget that everything in the world that has any stature has been born out of pain. So let us transform our pain so that out of it may arise a strong and shining Anthroposophical Society by dint, my dear friends, of your work.
For this purpose we have immersed ourselves in those words with which I began, in those words with which I wish to close this Christmas Conference, this Christmas Conference which is to be for us a festival of consecration not merely for the beginning of a new year but for the beginning of a new turning point of time to which we want to devote ourselves in enthusiastic cultivation of the life of spirit:
Soul of Man!
Thou livest in the limbs
Which bear thee through the world of space
In the spirit's ocean-being.
Practise spirit-recalling
In depths of soul,
Where in the wielding will
Of world-creating
Thine own I
Comes to being
Within God's I.
And thou wilt truly live
In the World-Being of Man.For the Father-Spirit of the heights holds sway
In depths of worlds begetting being.
Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones!
Let there ring out from the heights
What in the depths is echoed
Speaking:
Ex Deo nascimur.
The spirits of the elements hear it
In East, West, North, South,
May human beings hear it.Soul of Man!
Thou livest in the beat of heart and lung
Which leads thee through the rhythm of time
Into the realm of thine own soul's feeling.
Practise spirit-awareness
In balance of the soul,
Where the surging deeds
Of the world's becoming
Thine own I
Unite
With the World-I.
And thou wilt truly feel
In the Soul-Weaving of Man.For the Christ-Will in the encircling round holds sway
In the rhythms of the worlds, bestowing grace on the soul.
Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai!
Let there be fired from the East
What through the West is formed
Speaking:
In Christo morimur.
The spirits of the elements hear it
In East, West, North, South,
May human beings hear it.Soul of Man!
Thou livest in the resting head
Which from the grounds of eternity
Opens to thee the world-thoughts.
Practise spirit-beholding
In stillness of thought,
Where the eternal aims of Gods
World-Being's Light
On thine own I
Bestow
For thy free willing.
And thou wilt truly think
In the Spirit-Foundations of Man.For the world-thoughts of the Spirit hold sway
In the being of worlds, craving for light.
Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi !
Let there be prayed from the depths
What in the heights will be granted
Speaking:
Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus.AAccording to the shorthand report, the final words of the verse were not spoken on this occasion.At the turning of the time
The Spirit-Light of the world
Entered the stream of earthly being.
Darkness of night
Had held its sway,
Day-radiant light
Streamed into souls of men:
Light that gives warmth
To simple shepherds' hearts,
Light that enlightens
The wise heads of kings.Light Divine
Christ-Sun
Warm thou our hearts,
Enlighten thou our heads,
That good may become
What we from our hearts would found
What we from our heads would direct
In conscious
Willing.
And so, my dear friends,BIn the following sentences, as in the gathering on 25 December 1923 at which the Foundation Stone was laid in members' hearts, Rudolf Steiner once again changed from the formal mode of address to the more intimate ‘Du’. (Tr.) bear out with you into the world your warm hearts in whose soil you have laid the Foundation Stone for the Anthroposophical Society, bear out with you your warm hearts in order to do work in the world that is strong in healing. Help will come to you because your heads will be enlightened by what you all now want to be able to direct in conscious willing. Let us today make this resolve with all our strength. And we shall see that if we show ourselves to be worthy, then a good star will shine over that which is willed from here. My dear friends, follow this good star. We shall see whither the gods shall lead us through the light of this star.
Light Divine
Christ-Sun,
Warm thou
Our hearts,
Enlighten thou
Our heads!
Das Richtige Hineinkommen in die Geistige Welt. Die Uns Auferlegte Verantwortung
Meine lieben Freunde!
Da wir nun zum letzten Mal in dieser Tagung, von der Kraftvolles, Wichtiges für die anthroposophische Bewegung ausgehen soll, zusammen sind, lassen Sie mich wohl den letzten Vortrag so gestalten, daß er sich innerlich, dem Impulse nach, anschließt an die mancherlei Ausblicke, die uns diese Vortragsreihe gegeben hat, daß aber auch auf der anderen Seite in einer gewissen Weise, ich möchte sagen empfindungsmäßig, auf die Zukunft, namentlich die Zukunft des anthroposophischen Strebens dadurch hingewiesen werde.
Wenn man heute in die Welt hinaussieht, so bietet sich, zwar seit Jahren schon, außerordentlich viel Zerstörungsstoff. Kräfte sind am Werk, die ahnen lassen, in welche Abgründe die westliche Zivilisation noch hineinsteuern wird. Aber man möchte sagen: Wenn man gerade nach denjenigen Menschen sieht, welche gewissermaßen äußerlich die geistige Führerschaft auf den verschiedensten Gebieten des Lebens innehaben, dann wird man bemerken, wie diese Menschen in einem furchtbaren Weltenschlafe befangen sind. - Sie denken ja ungefähr so, noch vor kurzer Zeit dachten die meisten vielleicht so: Bis ins 19. Jahrhundert herein war die Menschheit in bezug auf ihre Einsichten und Anschauungen kindlich, primitiv. Dann ist die neuere Wissenschaft auf den verschiedensten Gebieten gekommen, und nun sei etwas da, was wohl in alle Ewigkeit als die Wahrheit weitergepflegt werden müsse.
Die Menschen, die so denken, leben eigentlich in einem ungeheuren Hochmut, wissen es nur nicht. Demgegenüber erscheint manchmal doch innerhalb der heutigen Menschheit diese oder jene Ahnung, daß die Dinge doch nicht so sind, wie ich sie eben als in der Meinung der meisten liegend dargestellt habe.
Während ich vor einiger Zeit jene Vorträge halten konnte in Deutschland, die vom Wolffschen Büro organisiert waren und die eine außerordentlich reiche Zuhörerschaft gebracht haben, so daß schon mancher aufmerkte, wie Anthroposophie eigentlich begehrt wird, da zeigte sich unter so vielen albernen gegnerischen Stimmen eine, die ja inhaltlich nicht viel gescheiter als die anderen war, die aber dennoch eine merkwürdige Ahnung verriet. Sie bestand in einer Zeitungsnotiz, die anknüpfte an einen der Vorträge, die ich in Berlin zu halten hatte. Da sagte eine Zeitungsstimme: Wenn man sich so etwas anhört — wie ich es dazumal in jenem Berliner Vortrage vorgebracht habe -, dann würde man doch aufmerksam darauf, daß nicht nur auf der Erde - ich zitiere ungefähr, wie die Notiz war —, sondern im ganzen Kosmos etwas vorgeht, was die Menschen zu einer anderen Geistigkeit aufruft, als sie vorher da war. Man sehe, daß jetzt sozusagen die Kräfte des Kosmos, nicht bloß die irdischen Impulse, von den Menschen etwas fordern; eine Art Revolution im Kosmos, deren Ergebnis eben das Streben nach neuer Geistigkeit sein müsse.
Solch eine Stimme war immerhin da, und sie war eigentlich recht bemerkenswert. Denn wahr ist es ja: Was in richtiger Art impulsieren muß dasjenige, was nunmehr von Dornach ausgehen soll, das muß, wie ich in diesen Tagen von den verschiedensten Gesichtspunkten aus betonte, ein Impuls sein, nicht auf der Erde entsprossen, sondern ein Impuls, entsprossen in der geistigen Welt. Wir wollen hier die Kraft entwickeln, Impulsen aus der geistigen Welt zu folgen. Deshalb habe ich in diesen Abendvorträgen während dieser Weiihnachtstagung von mannigfaltigen Impulsen, die in der geschichtlichen Entwickelung da waren, gesprochen, damit die Herzen aufgehen können für das Aufnehmen geistiger Impulse, die erst einströmen sollen in die irdische Welt, die nicht von der irdischen Welt selber genommen sein sollen. Denn alles, was bisher die irdische Welt in richtigem Sinne getragen hat, war aus der geistigen Welt entsprungen. Und sollen wir etwas für die irdische Welt Fruchtbares leisten, so müssen die Impulse dazu aus der geistigen Welt geholt werden.
Das, meine lieben Freunde, regt an, hinzuweisen darauf, wie die Antriebe, die wir mitnehmen sollen aus dieser Tagung in unser ferneres Wirken, verbunden sein müssen mit einer großen Verantwortung.
Lassen Sie uns einmal einige Minuten verweilen bei dem, was uns auferlegt ist durch diese Tagung als eine große Verantwortung. Man konnte in den letzten Jahrzehnten mit einem Sinn für die geistige Welt an mancherlei Persönlichkeiten vorbeigehen, geistig beobachtend und bittere Gefühle empfangend aus dieser geistigen Beobachtung für das kommende Schicksal der Erdenmenschheit. Man konnte vorbeigehen an den Mitmenschen der Erde auf jene Art, wie man es eben im Geiste kann, und diese Menschen beobachten, wenn sie schlafend ihren physischen und Ätherleib verlassen haben und mit ihrem Ich und mit ihrem astralischen Leib in der geistigen Welt weilen. Ja, Wanderungen anzustellen über die Schicksale der Iche und astralischen Leiber in den letzten Jahrzehnten, während die Menschen schliefen, das war schon die Veranlassung zu Erfahrungen, die auf schwere Verantwortlichkeiten für den, der diese Dinge wissen kann, hinweisen. Diese Seelen, die vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen ihren physischen Leib und ihren Ätherleib verlassen hatten, diese Seelen sah man dann öfter herankommen an den Hüter der Schwelle.
Dieser Hüter der Schwelle in die geistige Welt ist ja im Laufe der Menschheitsentwickelung den Menschen in der mannigfaltigsten Weise vor das Bewußtsein getreten. Manche Legende, manche Sage - denn in solcher Form erhalten sich ja die wichtigsten Dinge, nicht in der Form der geschichtlichen Überlieferung -, manche Legende, manche Sage weist eben darauf hin, wie in älteren Zeiten diese oder jene Persönlichkeit dem Hüter der Schwelle begegnet ist und von ihm die Unterweisung bekommen hat, wie sie hineinkommen soll in die geistige Welt und wiederum zurück in die physische Welt. Denn alles richtige Hineinkommen in die geistige Welt muß begleitet sein von der Möglichkeit, in jedem Augenblicke wiederum zurückkehren zu können in die physische Welt und in ihr wirklich auf beiden Beinen zu stehen als ein durchaus praktischer, besonnener Mensch, nicht als ein Schwärmer, nicht als ein schwärmerischer Mystiker.
Das wurde im Grunde genommen gegenüber dem Hüter der Schwelle durch all die Jahrtausende des Menschenstrebens in die geistige Welt hinein verlangt. Aber insbesondere im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts, da sah man kaum Menschen, die im wachen Zustande an den Hüter der Schwelle herangelangten. Um so mehr aber in unserer Zeit, wo es der ganzen Menschheit historisch auferlegt ist, in irgendeiner Form am Hüter der Schwelle vorbeizukommen, um so mehr findet man, wie gesagt, bei entsprechenden Wanderungen in der geistigen Welt, wie die schlafenden Seelen als Iche und astralische Leiber an den Hüter der Schwelle herankommen. Das sind die bedeutungsvollen Bilder, die man heute bekommen kann: Der ernste Hüter der Schwelle, um ihn herum Gruppen von schlafenden Menschenseelen, die im wachenden Zustande nicht die Kraft haben, an diesen Hüter der Schwelle heranzukommen, die an ihn herankommen, während sie schlafen.
Dann, wenn man die Szene sieht, die sich da abspielt, dann bekommt man einen Gedanken, der gerade verbunden ist mit dem, was ich das Aufkeimen einer notwendigen, großen Verantwortung nennen möchte. Die Seelen, die so im schlafenden Zustande an den Hüter der Schwelle herankommen, sie fordern mit demjenigen Bewußtsein — für das wache bleibt es unbewußt oder unterbewußt -, das der Mensch im Schlafe hat, den Einlaß in die geistige Welt, das Hinüberwandern über die Schwelle. Und in zahllosen Fällen hört man dann die Stimme des ernsten Hüters der Schwelle: Du darfst zu deinem eigenen Heile nicht hinüber über die Schwelle. Du darfst nicht den Einlaß gewinnen in die geistige Welt. Du mußt zurück. - Denn, würde der Hüter der Schwelle solchen Seelen ohne weiteres den Einlaß in die geistige Welt gewähren, sie würden über die Schwelle hinübergehen, sie würden in die geistige Welt hineinkommen mit den Begriffen, die ihnen die heutige Schule, die heutige Bildung, die heutige Zivilisation überliefert, mit den Begriffen und Ideen, mit denen der Mensch heute aufwachsen muß zwischen dem sechsten Jahre und im Grunde genommen dem Ende seines Erdenlebens.
Diese Begriffe und Ideen, sie haben die Eigentümlichkeit: Wenn man mit ihnen, so wie man mit ihnen geworden ist durch die gegenwärtige Zivilisation und Schule, in die geistige Welt eintritt, wird man seelisch paralysiert. Und man würde zurückgelangen in die physische Welt in Gedanken- und Ideenleerheit. Würde der Hüter der Schwelle nicht ernst diese Seelen zurückstoßen, viele Seelen der gegenwärtigen Menschen zurückstoßen, würde er sie hinüberlassen in die geistige Welt, dann würden sie, wenn sie wiederum aufwachend zurückkommen, beim entscheidenden Aufwachen zurückkommen, das Gefühl haben: Ich kann ja nicht denken, meine Gedanken ergreifen mein Gehirn nicht, ich muß gedankenlos durch die Welt gehen. - Denn so ist die Welt der abstrakten Ideen, die der Mensch heute anknüpft an alles: Man kann mit ihnen hinein in die geistige Welt, aber nicht wieder mit ihnen heraus. Und wenn man diese Szene sieht, die wirklich heute im Schlafe mehr Seelen erleben, als man gewöhnlich glaubt, dann sagt man sich: Oh, wenn es nur gelänge, diese Seelen davor zu behüten, daß, was sie im Schlafe erleben, sie nicht auch im Tode erleben müssen. - Denn wenn der Zustand, der so erlebt wird vor dem Hüter der Schwelle, lange genug fortdauern würde, das heißt, wenn die menschliche Zivilisation lange unter demjenigen bliebe, was man heute in den Schulen aufnehmen, durch die Zivilisation überliefert erhalten kann, dann würde aus dem Schlafe Leben werden. Die Menschenseelen würden hinübergehen durch die Pforte des Todes in die geistige Welt, aber nicht wieder eine Kraft der Ideen in das nächste Erdenleben bringen können. Denn man kann hinein mit den heutigen Gedanken in die geistige Welt, nicht aber mit ihnen wieder heraus. Man kann nur seelisch paralysiert wieder herauskommen.
Sehen Sie, die Zivilisation der Gegenwart läßt sich begründen mit dieser Form des geistigen Lebens, die eben seit so langer Zeit gepflegt worden ist; aber das Leben läßt sich damit nicht begründen. Diese Zivilisation könnte eine Zeitlang fortgehen. Die Seelen würden eben während des Wachens nichts ahnen von dem Hüter der Schwelle, während des Schlafens von ihm zurückgewiesen werden, damit sie nicht paralysiert würden, und zuletzt würde das bewirken, daß ein Menschengeschlecht in der Zukunft geboren würde, welches keinen Verstand, keine Möglichkeit, Ideen im Leben anzuwenden, in diesem künftigen Erdenleben zeigte, und das Denken, das Leben in Ideen würde von der Erde verschwinden. Ein krankhaftes, bloß instinktives Menschengeschlecht würde die Erde bevölkern müssen. Schlimme Gefühle und Emotionen allein, ohne die orientierende Kraft der Ideen, würden Platz greifen in der Menschheitsentwickelung. Ja, es ist so, daß nicht nur in der geschilderten Weise sich durch die Beobachtung der vor dem Hüter der Schwelle stehenden Seele, die keinen Einlaß gewinnen kann in die geistige Welt, daß nicht nur dadurch ein trauriges Bild sich darbietet dem geistig Schauenden, sondern auch noch in einer anderen Beziehung.
Nimmt man eine Menschenwesenheit, die nun nicht aus westlicher Zivilisation, sondern aus östlicher Zivilisation entsprungen ist, mit auf jener Wanderung, die ich charakterisiert habe, auf der man beobachten kann die schlafenden Menschenseelen vor dem Hüter der Schwelle, nimmt man eine solche östliche Menschenwesenheit mit, dann kann man von ihr die Geist-Worte wie einen furchtbaren Vorwurf gegenüber der gesamten westlichen Zivilisation erheben hören: Seht ihr, wenn das so fortgeht, wird schon, wenn die Menschen, die heute leben, neuerdings in einer Inkarnation auf Erden erscheinen, die Erde barbarisiert sein. Die Menschen werden ohne Ideen, nur noch in Instinkten leben. So weit habt ihr es gebracht, weil ihr abgefallen seid von der alten Spiritualität des Morgenlandes.
In der Tat, für dasjenige, was Aufgabe des Menschen ist, kann gerade ein solcher Blick in die geistige Welt hinein, wie ich ihn geschildert habe, von einer starken Verantwortlichkeit zeugen. Und hier in Dornach muß eine Stätte sein, wo für diejenigen Menschen, die es hören wollen, gesprochen werden kann von allen wichtigen, unmittelbaren Erlebnissen in der geistigen Welt. Hier muß eine Stätte sein, wo die Kraft gefunden wird, nicht bloß in ausspintisierender, dialektisch-empirischer Wissenschaftlichkeit der Gegenwart hinzudeuten darauf, daß es da oder dort solche kleinen Spuren des Geistigen gibt, sondern wenn Dornach seine Aufgabe erfüllen will, dann muß hier offen von dem, was in der geistigen Welt vorgeht geschichtlich, was in der geistigen Welt vorgeht als Impulse, die dann in das natürliche Dasein hineingehen und die Natur beherrschen, es muß in Dornach von wirklichen Erlebnissen, von wirklichen Kräften, von wirklichen Wesenheiten der geistigen Welt der Mensch hören können. Hier muß die Hochschule der wirklichen Geisteswissenschaft sein. Und wir dürfen fortan nicht zurückweichen vor den Anforderungen heutiger Wissenschaftlichkeit, die die Menschen so, wie ich es geschildert habe, schlafend vor den ernsten Hüter der Schwelle führt. Man muß sozusagen in Dornach Kraft gewinnen können, sich — geistig sei es gemeint - Auge in Auge der geistigen Welt wirklich gegenüberzustellen, von der geistigen Welt zu erfahren.
Daher soll auch hier nicht in dialektischen Tiraden von dem Ungenügenden der heutigen Wissenschaftstheorie gesprochen werden, sondern ich mußte darauf aufmerksam machen, in welche Lage der Mensch gegenüber dem Hüter der Schwelle durch diese Wissenschaftstheorien, mit ihren Ausläufern in die gewöhnliche Schule, kommt. Wenn man sich jetzt bei dieser Tagung hier einmal dies ernsthaftig gegenüber der eigenen Seele eingestanden hat, dann wird diese Weihnachtstagung einen kräftigen Impuls in die Seelen hineinsenden, der dann diese Seelen hinaustragen kann zu kräftigem Wirken, wie es die Menschheit heute braucht, damit die nächste Inkarnation die Menschen so finde, daß sie wirklich dem Hüter der Schwelle begegnen können, das heißt, daß die Zivilisation so werde, daß sie selbst als Zivilisation vor dem Hüter der Schwelle bestehen kann.
Vergleichen Sie die heutige Zivilisation mit früheren Zivilisationen. In allen früheren Zivilisationen gab es Ideen, Begriffe, die zuerst hinaufgingen nach der übersinnlichen Welt, nach den Göttern, nach der Welt, wo gezeugt, geschaffen wird, hervorgebracht wird; dann konnte man mit den Begriffen, die vor allem den Göttern gehörten im Aufblicke, herabblicken auf die irdische Welt, um diese irdische Welt nun mit den götterwürdigen Begriffen und Ideen auch zu verstehen. Kam man mit diesen Ideen, die götterwürdig und götterwert ausgebildet waren, vor den Hüter der Schwelle, dann sagte einem der Hüter der Schwelle: Du kannst passieren, denn du bringst hinüber in die übersinnliche Welt dasjenige, was schon während deines Erdenlebens im physischen Leibe nach der übersinnlichen Welt gerichtet ist. Dann bleibt dir bei der Rückkehr in die physischsinnliche Welt noch genug der Kraft übrig, um nicht gelähmt zu werden durch den Anblick der übersinnlichen Welt. — Heute entwickelt der Mensch Begriffe und Ideen, die er nach dem Genius der Zeit nur anwenden will auf die physisch-sinnliche Welt. Diese Begriffe und Ideen handeln von allem möglichen Wägbaren, Meßbaren und so weiter, nur nicht von den Göttern. Sie sind nicht götterwürdig, sie sind nicht götterwert. Deshalb donnert es den Seelen, die nun schon ganz verfallen sind dem Materialismus der götterunwerten und götterunwürdigen Ideen, deshalb donnert es ihnen, wenn sie schlafend den Hüter der Schwelle passieren, entgegen: Tritt nicht über die Schwelle! Du hast deine Ideen mißbraucht für die Sinneswelt. Du mußt mit ihnen deshalb in der Sinneswelt bleiben, kannst mit ihnen nicht, wenn du nicht seelisch paralysiert werden willst, in die Götterwelt eintreten.
Sehen Sie, solche Dinge müssen gesagt werden, nicht, damit man über sie spintisiert, sondern sie müssen gesagt werden, damit man sein Gemüt von ihnen durchströmen und durchdringen läßt und in die rechte Stimmung kommt, die man mitnehmen soll von dieser so ernsten Weihnachtstagung der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft. Denn wichtiger als alles übrige, was wir mitnehmen, wird sein die Stimmung, die wir mitnehmen, die Stimmung für die geistige Welt, die Gewißheit gibt: In Dornach wird ein Mittelpunkt geistiger Erkenntnis geschaffen werden.
Deshalb klang es heute vormittag wirklich schön, als gesprochen worden ist für ein Gebiet, das hier in Dornach gepflegt werden soll, für das Gebiet der Medizin, von Dr. Zeylmans, daß heute nicht mehr Brücken gebaut werden können von der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft aus in dasjenige, was hier in Dornach begründet werden soll. Wenn wir dasjenige, was auf unserem Boden medizinisch erwächst, so beschreiben, daß wir den Ehrgeiz haben: Unsere Abhandlungen können bestehen vor den gegenwärtigen klinischen Anforderungen — dann, dann werden wir niemals mit den Dingen, die wir eigentlich als Aufgabe haben, zu einem bestimmten Ziele kommen, denn dann werden die anderen Menschen sagen: Nun ja, das ist ein neues Mittel; wir haben auch schon neue Mittel gemacht.
Dasjenige, um was es sich handelt, ist doch, daß tatsächlich hereingenommen werde in das anthroposophische Leben solch ein Zweig der Lebenspraxis, wie es die Medizin ist. Das habe ich wohl als eine Sehnsucht von Dr. Zeylmans heute vormittag richtig verstanden. Denn zu diesem Ziele sagte er doch: Derjenige, der heute Arzt geworden ist, sagt: Ich bin eben Arzt geworden -, aber er sehnt sich nach etwas, was aus einer neuen Weltenecke heraus Impulse gibt. - Und sehen Sie, auf dem Gebiete der Medizin soll das in eindeutiger Weise in der Zukunft von Dornach aus hier so gemacht werden, wie mancher andere Zweig des anthroposophischen Wirkens, der im Schoße des Anthroposophischen geblieben ist, eben gewirkt hat und wie jetzt mit Frau Dr. Wegman als meiner Helferin ausgearbeitet wird gerade jenes ganz aus der Anthroposophie herauskommende medizinische System, das die Menschheit braucht, und das demnächst vor die Menschheit treten wird. Ebenso wird es meine Absicht sein, eine engste Beziehung zu dem ja so segensreich wirkenden Klinisch-Therapeutischen Institut in Arlesheim, eine möglichst intime Verbindung des Goetheanums mit diesem Institute in möglichster Bälde, in kurzer Zukunft herzustellen, so daß tatsächlich dasjenige, was da gedeiht, in der wirklichen Orientierungslinie der Anthroposophie liegen wird. Das ist auch dasjenige, was Frau Dr. Wegmans Absicht ist.
Nun, damit aber hat ja Dr. Zeylmans hingewiesen für ein Gebiet auf dasjenige, was sich der Vorstand von Dornach nun auf allen Gebieten des anthroposophischen Wirkens zu seiner Aufgabe machen wird. Man wird daher in der Zukunft wissen, wie die Dinge stehen. Man wird nicht sagen: Bringen wir dorthin Eurythmie; wenn die Leute zuerst Eurythmie sehen und nichts hören von Anthroposophie, da gefällt ihnen die Eurythmie. Dann vielleicht kommen sie später, und weil ihnen die Eurythmie gefallen hat und sie erfahren, daß hinter der Eurythmie die Anthroposophie steht, dann gefällt ihnen die Anthroposophie auch. — Oder: Man muß den Leuten zuerst die Praxis der Heilmittel zeigen, man muß ihnen zeigen, daß das richtige Heilmittel sind, dann werden die Leute das kaufen. Dann werden sie später einmal erfahren, da stecke die Anthroposophie dahinter, und dann werden Sie auch da an die Anthroposophie herankommen. —
Wir müssen den Mut haben, solch ein Vorgehen verlogen zu finden. Erst wenn wir den Mut haben, solch ein Vorgehen verlogen zu finden, es innerlich verabscheuen, dann wird Anthroposophie ihren Weg durch die Welt finden. Und in dieser Beziehung wird schon gerade das Wahrheitsstreben dasjenige sein, was in der Zukunft von Dornach hier ohne Fanatismus, sondern in ehrlicher, gerader Wahrheitsliebe verfochten werden soll. Vielleicht können wir gerade dadurch eben manches gutmachen, was in den lezten Jahren in so schwerer Weise versündigt worden ist.
Mit nicht leichten, sondern ernsten Gedanken müssen wir diese Tagung, die zur Begründung der Allgemeinen Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft geführt hat, verlassen. Aber ich denke, daß es für niemanden nötig geworden ist, aus dem, was sich hier abgespielt hat an Weihnachten, Pessimismus mitzunehmen. Zwar gingen wir jeden Tag vorbei vor der traurigen Goetheanum-Ruine, aber ich denke, in jeder Seele, die hier zu der Tagung auf diesen Hügel heraufsteigend an dieser Ruine vorbeiging, ging zu gleicher Zeit durch dasjenige, was hier verhandelt worden ist, was hier, wie man sichtlich hat bemerken können, von unseren Freunden wohl in ihren Herzen verstanden worden ist, aus alledem ging doch der Gedanke hervor: Es wird geistige Feuerflammen geben können, die gerade als wahres Geistesleben aus dem wiedererstehenden Goetheanum zum Segen der Menschheit in der Zukunft hervorgehen sollen, hervorgehen sollen durch unseren Fleiß, hervorgehen sollen durch unsere Hingabe. Und je mehr wir mit Mut zur Führung der anthroposophischen Angelegenheiten von hier weggehen, desto besser haben wir vernommen, was immerhin wie ein hoffnungsvoller Geisteszug in diesen Tagen durch unsere Versammlung gegangen ist. Denn gerade die Szene, die ich Ihnen geschildert habe, die so oftmals zu sehen ist: Der heutige Mensch mit der dekadenten Zivilisation und Schule, schlafend vor dem Hüter der Schwelle - der ist eigentlich in den Kreisen der empfindenden Anthroposophen doch nicht vorhanden. Da ist doch dasjenige vorhanden, das unter Umständen nur die eine Ermahnung braucht, die ezne Ermahnung die da lautet: Du mußt zu dem Vernehmen der Stimme aus dem Geisterland den starken Mut, dich zu dieser Stimme zu bekennen, entwickeln, denn du hast begonnen zu wachen. Der Mut wird dich wach erhalten; die Mutlosigkeit allein könnte dich zum Einschlafen führen.
Die mahnende Stimme zum Mut, die mahnende Stimme durch den Mut zum Wachsein, das ist die andere Variante, die Variante für Anthroposophen im gegenwärtigen Zivilisationsleben. Die NichtAnthroposophen hören: Bleibe draußen aus dem Geisterland, du hast mißbraucht die Ideen für die bloß irdischen Gegenstände, du hast keine Ideen gesammelt, die götterwert und götterwürdig wären. Daher würdest du paralysiert werden beim Wieder-Zurückkommen in die physisch-sinnliche Welt. - Denjenigen Seelen, die Anthroposophenseelen sind, denen aber wird gesagt: Ihr sollt nur noch erprobt werden in eurem Mute zum Bekenntnis dessen, was ihr als Stimme ja durch die Neigung eures Gemütes, durch die Neigung eures Herzens wohl vernehmen könnt. —
Meine lieben Freunde, wie es gestern Jahresfrist war, daß wir hinschauten auf die züngelnden Flammen, die uns das alte Goetheanum verzehrten, so dürfen wir schon heute - da wir, selbst als die Flammen draußen brannten, uns hier nicht stören ließen in der Fortsetzung der Arbeit vor einem Jahre -, so dürfen wir schon heute wohl darauf hoffen, daß wir, wenn das physische Goetheanum dastehen wird, so gearbeitet haben werden, daß das physische Goetheanum bloß das äußere Symbolum ist für unser geistiges Goetheanum, das wir mit als Idee nehmen wollen, wenn wir jetzt in die Welt hinausgehen.
Den Grundstein haben wir hier gelegt. Auf diesem Grundstein soll das Gebäude errichtet werden, dessen einzelne Steine sein werden die Arbeiten, die in allen unseren Gruppen nun von den einzelnen draußen in der weiten Welt geleistet werden. Auf diese Arbeiten wollen wir hinschauen im Geiste jetzt und uns bewußt werden der Verantwortung, von der heute gesprochen worden ist gegenüber dem vor dem Hüter der Schwelle stehenden Menschen der Gegenwart, dem der Einlaß in die geistige Welt verwehrt werden muß.
Ganz gewiß darf es uns niemals einfallen, anders als den tiefsten Schmerz und die tiefste Trauer zu empfinden über dasjenige, was uns vor Jahresfrist passiert ist. Aber alles in der Welt - dessen dürfen wir auch eingedenk sein -, alles in der Welt, was eine gewisse Größe erreicht hat, ist aus dem Schmerz heraus geboren. Und so möge denn unser Schmerz so gewendet werden, daß aus ihm eine kräftige, leuchtende Anthroposophische Gesellschaft durch Ihre Arbeit, meine lieben Freunde, entstehe.
Zu diesem Zwecke haben wir uns vertieft in jene Worte, mit denen ich begonnen habe, in jene Worte, mit denen ich schließen möchte diese Weihnachtstagung, diese Weihnachtstagung, die eine Weihenacht, ein Weihefest für uns sein soll für nicht nur einen Jahresanfang, sondern für einen Welten-Zeitenwende-Anfang, dem wir uns widmen wollen zu hingebungsvoller Pflege des geistigen Lebens:
Menschenseele!
Du lebest in den Gliedern,
Die dich durch die Raumeswelt
Im Geistesmeereswesen tragen:
Übe Geist-Erinnern
In Seelentiefen,
Wo in waltendem Weltenschöpfer-Sein
Das eigne Ich
Im Gottes-Ich
Erweset;
Und du wirst wahrhaft leben
Im Menschen-Welten-Wesen.Denn es waltet der Vater-Geist der Höhen
In den Weltentiefen Sein-erzeugend.
Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne,
Lasset aus den Höhen erklingen,
Was in den Tiefen das Echo findet;
Dieses spricht:
Ex deo nascimur.
Das hören die Elementargeister
Im Osten, Westen, Norden, Süden;
Menschen mögen es hören.Menschenseele!
Du lebest in dem Herzens-Lungen-Schlage,
Der dich durch den Zeitenrhythmus
Ins eigne Seelenwesensfühlen leitet:
Übe Geist-Besinnen
Im Seelengleichgewichte,
Wo die wogenden
Welten-Werde-Taten
Das eigne Ich
Dem Welten-Ich
Vereinen;
Und du wirst wahrhaft fühlen
Im Menschen-Seelen-Wirken.Denn es waltet der Christus-Wille im Umkreis
In den Weltenrhythmen Seelen-begnadend.
Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai,
Lasset vom Osten befeuern,
Was durch den Westen sich gestaltet;
Dieses spricht:
In Christo morimur.
Das hören die Elementargeister
Im Osten, Westen, Norden, Süden;
Menschen mögen es hören.Menschenseele!
Du lebest im ruhenden Haupte,
Das dir aus Ewigkeitsgründen
Die Weltgedanken erschließet:
Übe Geist-Erschauen
In Gedanken-Ruhe,
Wo die ew’gen Götterziele
Welten-Wesens-Licht
Dem eignen Ich
Zu freiem Wollen
Schenken;
Und du wirst wahrhaft denken
In Menschen-Geistes-Gründen.Denn es walten des Geistes Weltgedanken
Im Weltenwesen Licht-erflehend.
Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi,
O lasset aus den Tiefen erbitten,
Was in den Höhen erhöret wird;
Dieses spricht:
Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.1Die Schlußworte wurden gemäß Stenogramm hier nicht gesprochen.
In der Zeiten Wende
Trat das Welten-Geistes-Licht
In den irdischen Wesensstrom;
Nacht-Dunkel
Hatte ausgewaltet;
Taghelles Licht
Erstrahlte in Menschenseelen;
Licht,
Das erwärmet
Die armen Hirtenherzen;
Licht,
Das erleuchtet
Die weisen Königshäupter.Göttliches Licht,
Christus-Sonne,
Erwärme
Unsere Herzen;
Erleuchte
Unsere Häupter;
Daß gut werde,
Was wir aus Herzen Gründen,
Aus Häuptern
Zielvoll führen wollen.
So, meine lieben Freunde, traget hinaus Eure warmen Herzen, in denen Ihr hier eingegründet habt den Grundstein für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft, traget hinaus diese warmen Herzen zu kräftigem, heilkräftigem Wirken in die Welt. Und Hilfe wird Euch werden, daß erleuchtet Eure Häupter dasjenige, was Ihr jetzt alle wollt zielvoll führen können. Das wollen wir uns heute in aller Kraft vornehmen. Wir werden doch sehen: Wenn wir uns dessen würdig erzeigen, wird ein guter Stern walten über demjenigen, was von hier aus gewollt wird. Folget, meine lieben Freunde, diesem guten Stern. Wir wollen sehen, wohin uns die Götter durch das Licht dieses Sternes führen werden.
Göttliches Licht,
Christus-Sonne,
Erwärme Unsere Herzen,
Erleuchte Unsere Häupter!
Entering the Spiritual World in the Right Way. The Responsibility Imposed on Us
My dear friends!
As we are now together for the last time at this conference, which is intended to generate powerful and important impulses for the anthroposophical movement, let me structure my final lecture in such a way that it follows on internally, in terms of its impulse, from the various perspectives that this series of lectures has given us, but also, in a certain sense, I would say emotionally, to the future, namely the future of anthroposophical endeavors.
When we look out into the world today, we see, as we have for years, an extraordinary amount of destructive material. Forces are at work that give us a glimpse of the abyss toward which Western civilization is still heading. But one might say: if one looks precisely at those people who, in a sense, hold spiritual leadership in the most diverse areas of life, then one will notice how these people are caught up in a terrible world of sleep. They think something like this, and until recently most people probably thought this way: Until the 19th century, humanity was childish and primitive in terms of its insights and views. Then modern science arrived in various fields, and now there is something that must be preserved as the truth for all eternity.
People who think this way actually live in tremendous arrogance, but they don't know it. In contrast, there is sometimes a hint within humanity today that things are not as I have just described them to be in the opinion of most people.
While I was able to give those lectures in Germany some time ago, which were organized by Wolff's office and attracted an extraordinarily large audience, so that many people noticed how much anthroposophy is actually desired, among so many silly opposing voices there was one that was not much smarter than the others in terms of content, but which nevertheless revealed a strange inkling. It consisted of a newspaper article that followed on from one of the lectures I had to give in Berlin. A newspaper voice said: When you listen to something like this — as I presented it at that time in that Berlin lecture — then you become aware that not only on Earth — I am quoting approximately from the article — but in the entire cosmos, something is happening that calls people to a different spirituality than existed before. One can see that now, so to speak, the forces of the cosmos, not just earthly impulses, are demanding something from human beings; a kind of revolution in the cosmos, the result of which must be the striving for a new spirituality.
Such a voice was there, after all, and it was actually quite remarkable. For it is true: what must now emanate from Dornach in the right way must, as I have emphasized from various points of view in recent days, be an impulse that has not sprung from the earth, but an impulse that has sprung from the spiritual world. We want to develop the strength here to follow impulses from the spiritual world. That is why, in these evening lectures during this Christmas conference, I have spoken of the manifold impulses that have been present in historical development, so that hearts can open to receive spiritual impulses that are only to flow into the earthly world and not be taken from the earthly world itself. For everything that has truly sustained the earthly world up to now has sprung from the spiritual world. And if we are to achieve something fruitful for the earthly world, the impulses for this must be drawn from the spiritual world.
This, my dear friends, prompts us to point out how the impulses we are to take with us from this conference into our future work must be connected with a great responsibility.
Let us pause for a few minutes to consider what this conference has imposed on us as a great responsibility. In recent decades, it has been possible to pass by many personalities with a sense of the spiritual world, observing them spiritually and receiving bitter feelings from this spiritual observation about the coming fate of humanity on earth. One could pass by one's fellow human beings on earth in the way that one can in spirit, and observe these people when they have left their physical and etheric bodies in sleep and dwell in the spiritual world with their ego and astral body. Yes, to wander through the fates of the egos and astral bodies in recent decades while people slept was already the cause of experiences that point to heavy responsibilities for those who can know these things. These souls, who had left their physical and etheric bodies from the moment they fell asleep until they woke up, were often seen approaching the guardian of the threshold.
This guardian of the threshold to the spiritual world has, in the course of human development, come to the attention of people in the most diverse ways. Many legends and sagas — for it is in such forms that the most important things are preserved, not in the form of historical tradition — point out how, in ancient times, this or that personality encountered the guardian of the threshold and received instruction from him on how to enter the spiritual world and return to the physical world. For every true entry into the spiritual world must be accompanied by the possibility of being able to return to the physical world at any moment and to stand firmly on both feet as a thoroughly practical, level-headed person, not as a dreamer, not as an enthusiastic mystic.
This has basically been required of the Guardian of the Threshold throughout the millennia of human striving into the spiritual world. But especially in the last third of the 19th century, one hardly saw any people who approached the Guardian of the Threshold in a waking state. But all the more so in our time, when it is historically incumbent upon all of humanity to pass the Guardian of the Threshold in some form, all the more so, as I said, when wandering in the spiritual world, one finds how sleeping souls approach the Guardian of the Threshold as egos and astral bodies. These are the meaningful images that can be obtained today: the serious guardian of the threshold, surrounded by groups of sleeping human souls who, in their waking state, do not have the strength to approach this guardian of the threshold, but who approach him while they are asleep.
Then, when one sees the scene that is taking place there, one gets a thought that is directly connected with what I would like to call the sprouting of a necessary, great responsibility. The souls who approach the guardian of the threshold in their sleeping state demand, with the consciousness that humans have in sleep (which remains unconscious or subconscious to the waking mind), admission to the spiritual world, the crossing over the threshold. And in countless cases, one then hears the voice of the serious guardian of the threshold: For your own good, you must not cross the threshold. You must not gain entry into the spiritual world. You must turn back. For if the guardian of the threshold were to grant such souls entry into the spiritual world without further ado, they would cross the threshold they would enter the spiritual world with the concepts handed down to them by today's schools, today's education, today's civilization, with the concepts and ideas with which human beings today must grow up between the age of six and, basically, the end of their earthly life.
These concepts and ideas have the peculiarity that if one enters the spiritual world with them, as one has become through present-day civilization and schooling, one becomes spiritually paralyzed. And one would return to the physical world empty of thoughts and ideas. If the guardian of the threshold did not seriously repel these souls, repel many souls of present-day human beings, if he allowed them to pass into the spiritual world, then when they returned, when they awoke again, they would have the feeling: I cannot think, my thoughts do not grasp my brain, I must go through the world without thoughts. For such is the world of abstract ideas that people today attach to everything: one can enter the spiritual world with them, but one cannot leave it again with them. And when you see this scene, which more souls experience in their sleep today than is commonly believed, you say to yourself: Oh, if only it were possible to protect these souls from having to experience in death what they experience in sleep. For if the state experienced before the guardian of the threshold were to continue long enough, that is, if human civilization were to remain long below what can be absorbed in schools today and preserved through civilization, then sleep would become life. Human souls would pass through the gate of death into the spiritual world, but would not be able to bring the power of ideas back into the next earthly life. For one can enter the spiritual world with today's thoughts, but one cannot leave it with them. One can only come out again spiritually paralyzed.
You see, present-day civilization can be justified by this form of spiritual life, which has been cultivated for so long; but life cannot be justified by it. This civilization could continue for a while. During waking hours, souls would have no inkling of the guardian of the threshold, and during sleep they would be rejected by him so that they would not become paralyzed. Ultimately, this would result in the birth of a future human race that would show no understanding, no ability to apply ideas in life, and thinking and living in ideas would disappear from the earth. A sickly, purely instinctive human race would have to populate the earth. Bad feelings and emotions alone, without the orienting power of ideas, would take hold in human development. Yes, it is true that not only in the manner described, through the observation of the soul standing before the guardian of the threshold, which cannot gain entry into the spiritual world, does a sad picture present itself to the spiritual seer, but also in another respect.
If one takes a human being who has not sprung from Western civilization but from Eastern civilization on the journey I have described, on which one can observe the sleeping human souls before the Guardian of the Threshold, if one takes such an Eastern human being with one, then one can hear it utter spiritual words like a terrible reproach to the whole of Western civilization: Look, if this continues, when the people who are alive today reappear in a new incarnation on earth, the earth will be barbarized. People will live without ideas, only by instinct. You have brought it this far because you have fallen away from the ancient spirituality of the Orient.
Indeed, for what is the task of human beings, it is precisely such a view into the spiritual world, as I have described it, that can testify to a strong responsibility. And here in Dornach there must be a place where, for those who want to hear it, all the important, immediate experiences in the spiritual world can be spoken of. There must be a place here where the strength is found not merely to point out, in the speculative, dialectical-empirical scientific spirit of the present, that there are small traces of the spiritual here and there, but if Dornach wants to fulfill its task, then what is happening in the spiritual world must be spoken of openly here, what is happening in the spiritual world as impulses that then enter into natural existence and govern nature; in Dornach, people must be able to hear about real experiences, real forces, real beings of the spiritual world. This must be the center of true spiritual science. And from now on, we must not shy away from the demands of today's scientific approach, which, as I have described, leads people asleep before the serious guardian of the threshold. In Dornach, one must be able to gain the strength, so to speak, to truly face the spiritual world eye to eye — spiritually speaking — and to learn about the spiritual world.
Therefore, I do not want to speak here in dialectical tirades about the inadequacy of today's scientific theories, but I had to draw attention to the situation in which human beings find themselves in relation to the guardian of the threshold as a result of these scientific theories, with their ramifications in ordinary schools. If we have now seriously admitted this to our own souls at this conference, then this Christmas conference will send a powerful impulse into our souls, which can then carry these souls out to powerful action, as humanity needs today, so that the next incarnation will find people who can truly encounter the Guardian of the Threshold, that is, that civilization becomes such that it can stand before the Guardian of the Threshold as a civilization.
Compare today's civilization with earlier civilizations. In all earlier civilizations, there were ideas, concepts that first ascended to the supersensible world, to the gods, to the world where things are conceived, created, and brought forth; then, with the concepts that belonged above all to the gods, one could look down on the earthly world in order to understand this earthly world with the godly concepts and ideas. When one came before the guardian of the threshold with these ideas, which were developed in a godly and god-worthy manner, the guardian of the threshold said: You may pass, for you bring into the supersensible world that which is already directed toward the supersensible world during your earthly life in the physical body. Then, when you return to the physical-sensory world, you will still have enough strength left not to be paralyzed by the sight of the supersensible world. Today, human beings develop concepts and ideas that, in accordance with the spirit of the times, they only want to apply to the physical-sensory world. These concepts and ideas deal with everything that can be weighed, measured, and so on, but not with the gods. They are not worthy of the gods, they are not godly. That is why it thunders at the souls who have now completely succumbed to the materialism of ideas that are unworthy of the gods and ungodly, that is why it thunders at them when they pass the guardian of the threshold in their sleep: Do not cross the threshold! You have misused your ideas for the sensory world. You must therefore remain in the sensory world with them; you cannot enter the world of the gods with them unless you want to be spiritually paralyzed.
You see, such things must be said, not so that people can speculate about them, but they must be said so that they can flow through and permeate our minds and put us in the right mood to take with us from this very serious Christmas conference of the Anthroposophical Society. For more important than anything else we take with us will be the mood we take with us, the mood for the spiritual world, which gives us the certainty that a center of spiritual knowledge will be created in Dornach.
That is why it sounded so beautiful this morning when Dr. Zeylmans spoke about an area that is to be cultivated here in Dornach, the field of medicine, saying that today it is no longer possible to build bridges from conventional science to what is to be established here in Dornach. If we describe what is growing medically on our soil in such a way that we have the ambition that our treatises can stand up to current clinical requirements, then we will never achieve a specific goal with the things that we actually have as our task, because then other people will say: Well, that's a new remedy; we have already made new remedies.
What is at stake here is that such a branch of life practice as medicine should actually be incorporated into anthroposophical life. I understood this correctly this morning as a longing of Dr. Zeylmans. For he said about this goal: Those who have become doctors today say: I have just become a doctor — but he longs for something that provides inspiration from a new corner of the world. And you see, in the field of medicine, this is to be done in a clear-cut manner in the future from Dornach, just as many other branches of anthroposophical work that have remained within the bosom of anthroposophy and is now being developed with Dr. Wegman as my assistant, namely the medical system that comes entirely out of anthroposophy, which humanity needs and which will soon be presented to humanity. It will also be my intention to establish the closest possible relationship with the Clinical-Therapeutic Institute in Arlesheim, which is having such a beneficial effect, and to establish the closest possible connection between the Goetheanum and this institute in the very near future, so that what flourishes there will indeed be in line with the true orientation of anthroposophy. This is also Dr. Wegman's intention.
Well, with this, Dr. Zeylmans has pointed to an area that the Executive Council in Dornach will now make its task in all areas of anthroposophical work. In the future, therefore, we will know how things stand. We will not say: Let's bring eurythmy there; when people first see eurythmy and hear nothing about anthroposophy, they will like eurythmy. Then perhaps they will come later, and because they liked eurythmy and learn that anthroposophy is behind eurythmy, they will also like anthroposophy. — Or: First you have to show people the practice of the remedies, you have to show them that they are the right remedies, then people will buy them. Then later they will learn that anthroposophy is behind them, and then they will also come to anthroposophy. —
We must have the courage to find such an approach dishonest. Only when we have the courage to find such an approach dishonest, to inwardly abhor it, will anthroposophy find its way through the world. And in this regard, it is precisely the pursuit of truth that should be championed here in Dornach in the future, without fanaticism, but with an honest, straightforward love of truth. Perhaps in this way we can make up for some of the serious sins that have been committed in recent years.
We must leave this conference, which led to the founding of the General Anthroposophical Society, with thoughts that are not easy but serious. But I think that no one needs to take away pessimism from what took place here at Christmas. It is true that we passed the sad ruins of the Goetheanum every day, but I think that in every soul that climbed this hill to attend the conference and passed these ruins, at the same time, through what was discussed here, what was clearly understood in the hearts of our friends, the thought arose: There will be spiritual flames of fire that will emerge from the rebuilt Goetheanum as true spiritual life for the blessing of humanity in the future, emerging through our diligence, emerging through our devotion. And the more we leave here with courage to lead anthroposophical affairs, the better we have heard what has passed through our assembly these days as a hopeful spirit. For the scene I have described to you, which is so often seen: modern man with his decadent civilization and schooling, sleeping before the guardian of the threshold — that is not actually present in the circles of sensitive anthroposophists. What is present is that which, under certain circumstances, needs only one admonition, the admonition that says: You must develop the strong courage to acknowledge the voice from the spirit world, for you have begun to wake up. Courage will keep you awake; despondency alone could lead you to fall asleep.
The admonishing voice calling for courage, the admonishing voice calling for wakefulness through courage, that is the other variant, the variant for anthroposophists in contemporary civilization. Non-anthroposophists hear: Stay out of the spirit world, you have misused the ideas for merely earthly objects, you have not gathered ideas that are godly and worthy of the gods. Therefore, you would be paralyzed when returning to the physical-sensory world. But to those souls who are anthroposophical souls, it is said: You are only to be tested in your courage to profess what you can indeed hear as a voice through the inclination of your mind, through the inclination of your heart. —
My dear friends, just as it was a year ago yesterday that we watched the flickering flames consuming the old Goetheanum, so today — since we did not allow ourselves to be disturbed in our work here a year ago, even as the flames burned outside — we can already hope today that when the physical Goetheanum stands there, we will have worked in such a way that the physical Goetheanum will be merely the outer symbol of our spiritual Goetheanum, which we want to take with us as an idea when we now go out into the world.
We have laid the foundation stone here. On this foundation stone, the building is to be erected, whose individual stones will be the work now being done in all our groups by the individuals out there in the wide world. Let us now look at this work in spirit and become aware of the responsibility that has been spoken of today towards the people of the present who stand before the guardian of the threshold, who must be denied entry into the spiritual world.
Certainly, we must never allow ourselves to feel anything other than the deepest pain and sorrow for what happened to us a year ago. But everything in the world—and we must also remember this—everything in the world that has attained a certain greatness is born out of pain. And so may our pain be transformed in such a way that, through your work, my dear friends, a strong and shining Anthroposophical Society may arise.
To this end, we have immersed ourselves in the words with which I began, the words with which I would like to conclude this Christmas conference, this Christmas conference that is to be a Christmas, a festival of consecration for us, not only for the beginning of a new year, but for the beginning of a new world era, to which we want to devote ourselves to the devoted cultivation of spiritual life:
Human soul!
You live in the limbs
That carry you through the spatial world
In the sea of spirit:
Practice spiritual remembrance
In the depths of the soul,
Where in the ruling being of the world creator
The own I
In the God-I
Exists;
And you will truly live
In the human-world-being.For the Father-Spirit of the heights reigns
In the depths of the world, creating being.
Seraphim, cherubim, thrones,
Let resound from the heights,
What finds its echo in the depths;
This speaks:
Ex deo nascimur.
The elemental spirits hear this
In the east, west, north, south;
May human beings hear it too.Human soul!
You live in the beating of your heart and lungs,
Which guides you through the rhythm of time
Into the feeling of your own soul:
Practice spiritual reflection
In the balance of the soul,
Where the surging
World-becoming deeds
Unite the individual self
With the world-self;
And you will truly feel
In the workings of the human soul.For the will of Christ reigns in the sphere
In the rhythms of the worlds, blessing souls.
Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai,
Let the East be fired,
What is formed through the West;
This speaks:
In Christo morimur.
The elemental spirits hear this
In the East, West, North, South;
May human beings hear it.Human soul!
You live in a resting head,
Which, from reasons of eternity,
Opens up the thoughts of the world to you:
Practice spiritual vision
In the tranquility of thought,
Where the eternal goals of the gods
The light of the essence of the world
To your own self
For free will
;
And you will truly think
In human-spirit reasons.For the spirit's world thoughts reign
In world beings, imploring light.
Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi,
O let them implore from the depths,
What is heard in the heights;
This speaks:
Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.1The closing words were not spoken here according to the shorthand notes.
At the turn of time
The light of the world spirit entered
The earthly stream of being;
The darkness of night
Had passed;
Daylight
Shone in human souls;
Light,
Which warms
The poor shepherds' hearts;
Light,
That illuminates
The wise royal heads.Divine light,
Christ-sun,
Warm
Our hearts;
Illuminate
Our heads;
That good may come,
What we desire from our hearts,
From our heads
May be purposefully guided.
So, my dear friends, carry out your warm hearts, in which you have laid the foundation stone for the Anthroposophical Society here, carry out these warm hearts to have a powerful, healing effect on the world. And help will come to you, so that your heads may be enlightened by what you all now want to lead purposefully. Let us resolve to do this today with all our strength. We will see: if we prove ourselves worthy, a good star will shine over what is desired from here. Follow this good star, my dear friends. Let us see where the gods will lead us through the light of this star.
Divine light,
Christ Sun,
warm our hearts,
enlighten our minds!