Spiritual Scientific Notes on Goethe's Faust, Vol. II
GA 273
17 January 1919, Dornach
10. Faust's Knowledge and Understanding of Himself and of the Forces Actually Slumbering in Man
The scene from “Faust” just presented, which comes at the end of the second act of Part II, forms the bridge for Faust's entrance into ancient Greece. Those who have gone most deeply into Goethe's world-conception will see how, through it he has penetrated deeply into the spiritual, in both universe and the mystery of man, in so far as the latter is connected with what is spiritual in the universe. It should first be emphasised, on the one hand, that what Goethe meant by saying he had put a great deal in a veiled way into Part II of “Faust”, applies especially to this profound, most significant scene. In this second part of “Faust” there is much wisdom. On the other hand, when represented on the stage, this wisdom is able through its imagery to make a great appeal to the senses.
If we are to understand Goethe's Faust, particularly the second part, we must always keep these two aspects in mind. As Goethe says, the simple minded spectator of Faust will experience pleasure and aesthetic satisfaction in its series of pictures; the Initiate, however, is meant to find there profound secrets of life. If we start with what the pictures give us, this scene represents a festival of the seas to which Homunculus has been taken by Thales. This festival, however, contains a great deal that is veiled, and is meant actually to introduce the demonic powers dwelling in the sea,—that is, the spiritual powers.
Why does Goethe have recourse to the demonic powers of ancient Greece when wishing to lead Faust to the highest point of self-knowledge and self-understanding in human evolution? It may be stated that Goethe was perfectly clear that it is impossible for man ever to arrive at a true conception of his own nature by merely acquiring knowledge received through the senses and the understanding associated with them. True knowledge of man can only be imparted through true spiritual perception. So that all the knowledge and perception of man sought simply through the external physical world, to which the senses and the physical understanding are directed, is no real knowledge of man at all. Goethe indicates this by introducing Homunculus into his poem.
Now Homunculus is the result of the knowledge of man to which Wagner is capable of aspiring with ideally conceived physical means, such ideally conceived means as would. naturally be considered by ordinary science to be its goal, from which, however, no result can be expected either today or in the future. Goethe advances the hypothesis that it might be possible to produce a Homunculus in a retort, that is, to gain such complete knowledge of combining the forces of nature that a human being could be intellectually put together out of various ingredients. But it is no man who arises thus, even when all that can be attained in the physical world is thought out to the highest point of perfection—no man arises, no homo, but only a homunculus. Considered dramatically, this homunculus is simply the image of himself that a man can form with the help of his reason, of his ordinary earthly knowledge. How can this man-made image that is a homunculus provide a true conception of man? How can it be brought about that in this conception man does not stop short at the simple homunculus but pushes on to the homo? It is clear to Goethe that this goal can only be reached through knowledge acquired by the human soul and spirit when free of the body.
Now, by most various ways Goethe endeavours to reach the realm to which a human being must come if he wishes to acquire complete knowledge of man, that is, the knowledge acquired when free of the body. Goethe really wishes to show that it is possible too out of the body to gain knowledge, decisive knowledge, concerning the nature of man. He was by no means one of those who plunges lightheartedly into such matters. His whole life through he was striving to to make his soul more profound. For it was clear to him that when a man grows old, he does not live in vain, but that the forces of knowledge are always increasing, so that in old age it is possible for us to know more than in our youth. But he realised, also the problematic nature of the sojourn of soul and spirit outside the body. Hence he sought in the most varied ways to bring man, to his Faust, knowledge in the form of pictures, that we call Imagination. And he does this first in the Romantic Walpurgis-Night of Part I, and then again in the Classical Walpurgis-Night where he takes the Imaginations from ancient Greece, whither he would transport Faust. We might perhaps say that Goethe thinks that, when a man leaves the body in order to change Homunculus into Homo, into man, he has Imaginations appearing to different people in different forms. And, in the perception of the ancient Greeks, these Imaginations in some degree still approached spiritual reality. Setting before the soul the demonic world of ancient Greece, we can see how, in this traditional realm of myths, when outside the body with his soul and spirit, in highly developed atavistic clairvoyance, man contemplated nature from whose womb he sprang. I might therefore say that Goethe, not wanting to invent an imaginative world himself, calls in the Greek world in order to tell us that, whatever a man may contrive out of his ordinary knowledge, he still remains a Homunculus; if, however, he wishes to become a real man, he must first advance to the world of Imagination, Inspiration, and so on. That is how the nature of man should first be conceived.
Why does Goethe choose a sea-festival, or rather the dream of a sea-festival? To understand his feelings, we must take ourselves back into the conceptions of the old Greeks, to which Goethe himself went back in his representation of this gay feast. We must realise that, to the Greeks, there was a special significance in foresaking the land and sailing out to the open sea. The Greeks, like all ancient peoples, still lived in the outside world. Just as a change took place in these people when they forsook the level ground, the plain, and went up into the mountains—a change experienced by modern man in an abstract prosaic way—so the was some tremendous change in their soul on leaving dry land for the open sea. This feeling that the open sea has special power to release the soul and spirit from the body was universally experienced in olden times, and much is connected with the feeling.
I must ask you, my dear friends, to remember what an important part in the various symbols, on the path of knowledge, was played by the Pillars of Hercules in ancient myths. It was constantly said that when a man has gone through various stages of knowledge he sails, through the Pillars of Hercules. This meant that he sails out into the limitless, open sea, where he no longer feels himself within reach of any coast. For man today that has ceased to mean very much, but for the Greek it meant entering a completely different world. Once past the Pillars of Hercules, he became free of all that bound him to earth, above all through his bodily forces. In olden days, when everyday matters were still experienced by soul and spirit, sailing over the open sea wan felt as freeing one from the body.
Goethe's poetical works were not like those of lesser poets; he wrote out of his feeling for the cosmos, and when he speaks of all that he transposed into the Greek world, he transposes himself there with his whole soul. It is of this that we must constantly remind those who read Goethe as if he were any other poet—those who, whey they are reading Goethe, have no consciousness of having been carried into another world.
Now as the scene begins, we see the ‘alluring Sirens.’ Goethe presents a scene that, though externally in picture-form, might equally be one of everyday life. For the Sirens are collecting wreckage for the Nereids and Tritons. Considered from the other side, however, these alluring creatures, these voices, are not only within man but also outside him. They are the voices of different stages in the world, and on these stages, as I have often shown, inner and outer flow together. The Siren-sounds are those that entice the souls of men out of their bodies, and set them in the spiritual cosmos.
Let us sum up all this. First, Goethe shows a festival of the sea, or rather, dreams evoked during this festival. Secondly, this festival took place during the night, under the influence of the Moon. Goethe arranges everything to show that here it is a question of having to gain a conception independently of the body, a conception of the kind that would be attained consciously, outside the body, is then experienced in pictures. And now we see that, while on the one hand, Goethe wishes to satisfy those who keep to the superficial—this is not said in any belittling sense—by making the Sirens collect wreckage for the Nereids and Tritons who covet it, yet these Nereids and Tritons are on the way to Samothrace to seek the Kabiri and bring them to the festival of the sea. By introducing the Gods of the primeval Samothracian sanctuary into this scene, Goethe shows that he is touching upon the highest human and cosmic secrets. What, then, must take place when Homunculus is to become Homo, when the outlook of Homunculus is to become the outlook of Homo? What must then actually happen?
Now the idea of Homunculus, as understood within the world of the senses, must be taken out of that world and transposed into the world of soul and spirit where, between falling asleep and waking, man has his being. Homunculus must be taken into the world man experiences when, free of his body, he is united with the existence of soul and spirit. It is in this picture-world that we must now find Homunculus, he must then transfer this picture of Homunculus, he must then transfer this picture into that other world, the world of Imagination, Inspiration, and so forth. There alone can the abstract idea of Homunculus be grasped by the real forces of being, those forces that never enter human knowledge when we stop short at the understanding through the senses. When Homunculus, the idea of Homunculus, is separated from the body and transferred to the world of so and spirit, then in all earnestness everything becomes real. Then we have to come upon those forces that are the real ones behind the origin and evolution of man.
In all this Goethe is showing that he had a profound and significant comprehension of the Samothracian Kabiri, that he had a feeling how, in primeval times, these Kabiri were worshipped as guardians of the forces connected with the origin and evolution of mankind. Thus, by evoking from the age if atavistic clairvoyance, pictures of the divine forces associated with human evolution, Goethe was touching upon what is highest.
When dealing with the Samothracian Mysteries, the conception of the Greeks referred back to what was very ancient. And it may be said that the ideas about these Samothracian Mysteries about the Kabiri divinities, permeated all the various ideas the Greeks held about the Gods, all their ideas concerning the connection between these Gods and mankind. And the old Greek was convinced that his idea of human immortality was a legacy bequeathed to the Greek consciousness by the Samothracian Mysteries. It was to the influence of these Mysteries he felt he owed the idea of man's immortality, the idea of man's membership of the world of soul and spirit.
Goethe therefore wishes at the same time to suggest that, were the impulses of the Greeks, that are associated with the Kabiri of Samothrace, grasped in a state free of the body, perhaps the abstract human idea of Homunculus might be united with the true evolutionary forces of man. In the Greek consciousness there was definitely something that could live again, vividly, in Goethe when he touched on this profound mystery. To take an example, this may be seen in what the Greeks used to say of Philip of Macedonia how, by watching the Mysteries of Samothrace, he found Olympia. And the Greeks had in their consciousness how, at that time, the great Alexander decided to descend to these parents when coming to earth, when soul to soul before the divinities of Kabiri Philip of Macedon and Olympia found each other. Those things must be touched upon for the awe to be felt which the Greeks actually experienced when the Kabiri were in question, an awe shared later by Goethe.
From an external point of view they are simply ocean-deities. The Greeks knew that, in an age relatively not very ancient, Samothrace had been inundated, rent asunder, and reduced to confusion by most fearful volcanic storms. The nature-demons had shown their power here in such a terrific way that it still remained in historic memory among the Greeks. And in the woods, in the forests of Samothrace, at that time very dense, the Kabiren Mysteries were concealed. Among the many different names they bore is one Axieros; a second, Axiokersos; a third, Axiokersa; the fourth was Kadmyllos. And a vague feeling existed that there were also a fifth, sixth and seventh. But man's spiritual gaze was mainly fixed on the first three. The old ideas of the Kabiri centered round the secret of men's becoming; and the initiate it in to the holy Mysteries of Samothrace was supposed to come to the perception that what is seen spiritually in the spiritual world corresponds to what happens on earth when, for an incarnating soul a man arises, a man comes to birth. In the spiritual world the spiritual correlate of the human birth was supposed to be watched.
Through such vision, Goethe believed he could change the idea of a homunculus to that of homo. And it was to this vision the Samothracian Initiates were led. We cannot see a man in his true nature when we regard him as a being enclosed within his skin and when we are under the delusion that all we are concerned with in man stands before us in external, physical human form, visible to the external eye. Whoever wishes really to know man must go beyond what is enclosed within the skin and look upon the human being as extending over the entire universe. He must have in mind, what extends spiritually outside the skin.
Now many of the ideas about the Gods depend on this impulse of the Greeks to see the human being outside his skin. And connected with these ideas there was an exoteric and an esoteric side. The exoteric side of man's becoming related, however, to the whole of nature's becoming; the connection of man's becoming with the becoming of nature was involved when, later, the Greeks spoke of Demeter, of Ceres. The esoteric side of Ceres, of Demeter, of the world in its becoming, was the Kabiri. We must know how to look at him, if in any way we are to be able to penetrate the secret of man.
You see, to look at man simply as a figure standing on the physical earth is, really, to deceive yourself about him. For the human being has been united from a threefold stream, a trinity. And as three lights cast their beams on a point—a circle—and we see the fusion of the lights and then refuse to recognise how one, perhaps yellow, another blue, and the third of reddish colour flow together into one, refuse to see this harmony, preferring to believe that what has arisen from a mingling of lights is a unity and so deceive ourselves in believing this mixed product we see before us as man in his skin to be a unity. He is not a unity and if we take him for one we shall never read the secret of mankind. At the present time man is unconscious of not being a unity. But he was conscious of it while atavistic clairvoyance glowed warmly through human knowledge. Thus, the Initiates of Samothrace put men together out of Axieros standing in the middle, and the two extremes, Axiokersos and Axiokersa, whose forces were united with those of Axieros. We might say than that there are three—Axieros, Axiokersos, and Axiokersa. These three forces flowed together to form a unity. The higher reality is the trinity; the unity springs from the trinity. This is what comes before the eye of man.
It might also be said that the Samothracian Initiate learned to know man who stood, physically perceptible, before him. He was told: You must take away from this man the two extremes, Axiokersos and Axiokersa, that only ray into him. Then you can retain Axieros. So the matter stands thus: Of the three, Axieros represents the centre condition of the human being, and the others the two invisible ones, merely shine upon him.
Thus, in the Mysteries of Samothrace, man is shown to be a trinity. Goethe asks himself: Can the idea of the abstract Homunculus perhaps be changed into that of the complete Homo by turning to what, in the Samothracian Mysteries, was regarded as the secret of man—the human trinity? And he said: This trinity can only be arrived at as a conception when man, with his soul and spirit, leaves the body. This is what he told himself.
We must, however, always emphasise that, as regards spiritual perception, Goethe was only a beginner. What is so wonderful about all that Goethe stands for will, as I said recently, only be rightly understood when we think of it as being continually developed, being necessarily developed in order to lend to ever greater heights. In Goethe himself we have the theory of metamorphosis, from leaf to leaf, from the green leaf of the foliage to the coloured petal of the flower, or from the spinal vertebrae, perhaps, to the bones of the head—this secret, if rightly understood, leading from one incarnation to another, from one earth-life to another, as I have often shown you. Hence, from the standpoint of Goethe's own conception of the world, we may ask: How then should the Mystery of Samothrace be pictured today? The Samothracian Mystery, as such, with its Kabiri-symbolism of the secret of humanity, corresponds entirely with the atavistic clairvoyant world-conception; but the living content of knowledge at any one human period, cannot be continued on in the right way, and must be re-moulded. It is not suitable for a return to old conceptions adapted to a quite different state of human evolution; the conceptions must be transformed. The Samothracian Mystery has naturally only historical value. Today we should say: We represent how in the centre of the Representative of Man there stands Axieros, how he is encircled by Axiokersa, and how Axiokersos must be placed in connection with all that is earthly—thus giving us the Representative of Man, Lucifer and Ahriman. And here we have the re-moulding suited to the present age, and on into the future, of the holy Mystery of Samothrace.
It might be said: Were Goethe to appear among us today, wishing, in conformity with all that man has since won for himself, to tell us what is able to change Homunculus to Homo, he would point to the Representative of Man, surrounded by, and in combat with, Lucifer and Ahriman. I beg of you, however, not to make an abstraction of these things, not to apply the favorite modern method of settling these matters by a few abstract concepts, and taking them for symbols. the more you feel that a whole world, containing the secret of man, lies hidden in the figure of the Representative of Man in connection with Lucifer and Ahriman; the more you repudiate the pride, the unjustified, childish pride, of modern man in his abstract scientific concepts; the more you open your soul to a world giving you a view of this image of the mystery of man—then the nearer you come to this secret.
Spiritual Science meets with all kinds of opposition today. But one of its strongest opponents is man's desire for abstraction, his desire to label everything with a few concepts. Goethe's teaching is, in feeling, the exact opposite of this mischievous modern habit of pasting concepts everywhere. One has peculiar experiences in this regard. Men come to a movement like Spiritual Science from very different motives. There are many who wish to reduce everything to abstractions. For instance, man consists of seven principles—I once had the experience, a horrible experience, of someone explaining Hamlet by attributing to him the principle of Buddhi on one place, in another, Manes, and so on. That, my dear friends, is something much worse than all materialism. These quite abstract explanations, all this symbolising of an abstract nature is, regarded inwardly, much worse than any external materialism. Anyhow, we see that, in showing his Nereids and Tritons on the way to Samothrace to fetch the holy Kabiri, Goethe wished, above all, to raise the idea of Homunculus to a very high human plane.
And so, with regard to the Kabiri, we must experience what the ancient peoples did with regard to their deities. These deities of primeval peoples appear primitive to man today—mere idols. This is so because modern man has no understanding for idols. This is so because modern man has no understanding for all that flows out of elemental forces. Not even in art does man rise today to anything really creative. He keeps to a model, or judges what is represented for him in art by the question: Is it like?—Often indeed one hears the objection that it is not natural, because, among men today, there is very little real artistic feeling. In any case, whoever wishes to understand the sometimes grotesque looking figures of the ancient Gods, must try to form an idea of the beings belonging to the third elemental world, from which our world springs, on the one hand in its mineral, on the other, in its organic products.
You know how the scene begins. The Nereids and Tritons are on their way to Samothrace to fetch the Kabiri, amongst whom Homunculus is to be transformed into Home. In the meantime, while they are on their journey, Thales, who is to be the guide of Homunculus in becoming man, betakes himself to the old sea God, Nereus. It was Thales, the old philosopher of nature, whom first Homunculus had sought out. Now, Goethe is neither a mystic in the bad sense of the word, not a mere natural philosopher, when it is a question of finding reality. Hence Thales himself cannot be made to help Homunculus to become Home. Goethe had a deep respect for Thales conception of the world, but did not attribute to him the ability, the force, to advise Homunculus how to become man, complete man. For this, one should betake oneself outside the body to a demonic power—to old Nereus. Goethe brings the most various demonic powers to Homunculus. What kind of power is this Nereus? Now we can see this by the way the old sea-God speaks in Goethe's poem. It might be said that Nereus is the wise, prophetic, but somewhat philistine inhabitant of the spiritual world nearest man, the world man first enters on leaving the body. And, we ask, does he know at all how Homunculus is to become man? Nereus has indeed understanding, even to the point of prophetic clairvoyance; and he makes noble use of this understanding, but even so does not really succeed in reaching what is innermost in the human being. Because of this he feels men do not listen to him, do not heed his counsel. He has, as it were, no access to the human soul. On many occasions he has advised men, warned men; once he warned Paris against bringing so much misery on Troy, but to no effect. Now Nereus, since he is not hampered by a physical body, has developed on the physical plane to a very high degree human understanding that is possessed in a much less degree by man. But even with this understanding he cannot help Homunculus very far on the road to becoming Homo. What Nereus is able to say does not entirely meet the case. So by that nothing is actually gained for Homunculus' task.
Nereus says, however, that although he will not concern himself in giving Homunculus advice about becoming Homo, he is expecting his daughters, the Dorides (or Nereides). In particular, he expects Galatea, the most outstanding of them; for they are to attend the ocean-festival. Galatea! and Imagination of a mighty kind.
What the question is here, is to see how things are connected in the world. It is not very easy to speak on this point, because of the soul's desire today to reduce everything to abstractions. But anyone who looks into these matters may experience a great deal. There are, no doubt, well-intentioned people who say they believe in the spirit. Certainly, it is not a bad thing at least to believe in the spirit; but how do they answer the weighty question: What do you mean exactly by the ‘spirit’ in which you believe? What is the spirit? Spiritualists generally renounce all claim to learning anything of the spirit by doing much that is quite unspiritual. Spiritualism is the most materialistic doctrine that can exist. Certain souls more finely tuned speak indeed of the spirit, but what is it exactly that they have i mind when so speaking? That is why very modern and sceptical minds prefer to forgo the spirit—I mean, of course, only in thought—prefer to give up the spirit as against what can be known today through the senses. Read the article called “Spirit” in Fritz Mauthner's Dictionary of Philosophy; there you will probably be able to get bodily conditions but not those of the head.
Now, you see, in Spiritual Science one should rise above all this abstract talking, even if it is about the spirit. Follow what is said in Spiritual Science, and you will see how it rises progressively as we work. Everything is drawn upon that, step by step, can lead into the actual spiritual world. What is said is not merely the spoken word but derives its force from a method of comparison. Only think how, by the very way Spiritual Science is presented here, it becomes comprehensible that man is pursuing a certain path in life, in the physical body. Read, for instance, what is given comprehensively in the October number of Das Reich (1918). It is shown there how, and by means of what forces, a human being while quite a child has the closest affinity to the material world; how in middle life his soul gains in importance; how in later life he becomes spiritual. This, however, he often does not recognise because he is not prepared for it. He becomes spiritual as the body falls into decay, as the body becomes dry and sclerotic the spirit becomes free, even during the waking condition. Only, a man is very seldom conscious of what he is able to experience if he grows old with a certain gift. I mean here with a gift of the spiritual; that is to say if, not simply growing decrepit in body, he experiences the soul becoming young, becoming spirit.
This makes us realise, my dear friends, that the spirit cannot be seen in an old man or old woman; naturally it is invisible. The decrepit body can be seen but not the spirit growing young and fresh. Wrinkles may be perceived in the flesh of the cheeks, but not the growing fullness of the spirit; that is supersensible. We can, however, indicate where the spirit may be found here in the world where we are leading our everyday existence. And if we then say: The whole of nature is permeated by spirit, we reach the point when we realise that outside in nature where the minerals and plants make manifest the external world, there dwells something of the same force into which we men and women grow as we become old. There you have the visible expression of it. To say, in a pantheistic way, that outside lives the spirit, means nothing at all, because spirit then remains a mere word. But if we say, not in a direct abstract way, but with the necessary and various details: To find the force that as you grow old is always becoming stronger in you, look to the innermost and most active of the forces of nature—then we are speaking of a reality. The essential thing is to set the one force by the side of the other, and to notice the place of each. These things can be livingly realised by turning one's gaze to the force-impulses in the whole connection of a physical human being's descent to earth—from conception, throughout the embryonic life till birth. The dull, dry-as-dust scientist stops short at this force; it is true, he examines it punctiliously but only in his own way, and then comes to a standstill. When a man is able to survey the world from the standpoint of Spiritual Science, he knows, however, that this force is also present in other places. Acting more quickly, the very same force makes itself felt when you wake in the morning, when you wake out of sleep. Exactly the same force, though in a more tenuous form, is present, as the one leading from conception through the embryonic life to birth; it is the identical force. This force is not only in you, in your innermost being; it is diffused outside, throughout everything and every process in the whole wide cosmos.
This force is the daughter of cosmic intelligence. You see, if we wish to describe these things, we must touch on many matters that, today, are quite out of the ordinary. What then does the modern scientist do, when wishing to come upon the secret of physical germination? He uses the microscope; he examines the germ-cell under the microscope, before it is fertilised, after it is fertilised, and so on. He has no feeling that what he thus examines in the smallest object under the microscope is constantly before his eyes in the macrocosm. The very same process that goes on, for example, in the womb of the mother, before and during conception, and during the whole embryonic life, this same process, this very same process, goes on macrocosmically when, after the seed has sunk down into the earth, the earth sends forth the little plant. The warmth of the womb, the warmth of the pregnant mother, is exactly the same as is the sun outside for the whole vegetation of the world. It is important to be able to realise that what can be seen in the smallest object under the microscope, can be looked upon macrocosmically all around in the external world. When we wander about among he growing plants, we are actually in the womb of the world. In short, the force underlying the becoming of man is outside in the whole macrocosmic world, seething and weaving there. Imagine this force personified, imagine this same force of human becoming grasped spiritually in its spiritual counterpart outside the human body, and you have Galatea, with those akin to her, her sisters, the Dorides. In these Imaginations we are led into a mysterious but quite real world. This is one of the most profound scenes written by Goethe, who was conscious that, at the most advanced age, man may have a premonition of these secrets of nature.
There is something overwhelmingly significant in Goethe beginning Faust in his youth and then, shortly before the end of his life, writing such scenes as are now being shown. For sixty years he was striving to find the way of putting into outward form what, at the beginning of that time, he had conceived. He draws upon everything he considers relevant to raise the idea of Homunculus to the idea of Homo, and to present man's becoming outside the body, in all its mystery. He draws upon the Kabiri Mystery, and the mystery of becoming man as it appeared in the figure of Galatea. And he knows that reality is so all-embracing, so profound, that the Imaginations awakened by the Kabiri impulses, by the Galatea-impulse, can do no more than hover on its surface. The mystery is far greater than what can be contained even in such impulses.
Goethe himself tried every means of approaching the secret of life in a true and living way. Thus he evolved his theory of metamorphosis, in which he follows up the different forms in nature—how one form develops out of another. Now Goethe's theory of metamorphosis must not be regarded in and abstract way. He shows us this himself. It is perhaps because it can only be conceived and brought to man's soul in a world-outlook free of the body that, with his theory of metamorphosis Goethe approaches what was atavistically experienced in the old Proteus-myth. Perhaps Proteus, who in his own becoming takes on such different forms, perhaps through his experiences it would be possible to find how Homunculus can become Homo. (You know how, in this scene, Goethe introduces him, and we present him, as tortoise, man, dolphin, three forms appearing one after another.)
But Goethe felt that there were still limitations to his theory of metamorphosis. Surely, you may say, a man with such profound, such fundamental knowledge, as Goethe could see what follows from this theory; with it one can watch one leaf of a plant changing into another, up to the petal of the flower, the spinal vertebrae transforming themselves into the bones of the head, the skull-bones? But Goethe—anyone who has worked on Goethe's world-conception knows how he wrestled in this sphere—Goethe knew he could go no farther. Yet he felt: There is something beyond all this.—We know what that something is—the head of the present man is the metamorphosis of the body of the previous man, the man of an earlier life on earth; the rest of his body in this earth-life will, in the next life, become the head. There, for man's life, we have metamorphosis—the crown of metamorphosis. He draws on what he feels about Proteus, but that can lead only to raising the idea of Homunculus to that of Homo. Goethe felt he had made a great beginning with the Protean idea of metamorphosis, but that this had to be developed were Homunculus to become Homo. Goethe in all honesty represents poetically both what he can and what he cannot do, and we see deep into his soul. It is no doubt, easier to picture an abstract, perfect Goethe and to assure ourselves he knew everything. But No! Goethe becomes all the greater by our recognising the limitations he himself so honestly admits, as may be seen, for instance, in his not allowing Proteus—that is, the way he conceives his theory of metamorphosis—to give counsel regarding Homunculus becoming Homo.
Goethe strove, indeed, form the most varied directions to approach this becoming—this growing to true man. For him, artistic conception was not, as it is for so many, fundamentally abstract. He considered that everything expressed in works of art was part of all that is creative in the world. Into this scene he puts all that was to have led him to his heart's desire—to fathoming the mystery of becoming man. As he stood before the Greek works of art, or rather, the Italian work which made Greek art real for him, he said to himself: I am an the track of what the Greeks were doing in the creation of their works of art; they acted in accordance with the same forces as does nature, in her creations. And he had the experience that, if the artist is a true artist, he unites himself in marriage, as it were, with the forces creating in nature; he creates his forms, and all that can be created artistically, out of what is working in the arising, the growing, of plants of animals, of man. But in all this there is still no inner knowledge. That is what Goethe had to admit to himself. The creative forces present themselves to our vision, allow us to feel them, but in metamorphosis we do not go right within them.
There next appear the Telchines of Rhodes. They are such great artists that, naturally. all external human art seems small in comparison. They forged Neptune's trident. They were the first who tried to represent Gods in human form, that is, to create man out of the actual cosmic forces. This art of the Telchines comes nearer reproducing man's becoming, but does not quite reach it. This is what Goethe is wishing to tell us. He expresses it through Proteus who says finally: Even this does not lead to the real mystery of man.
Thus does Goethe wish to evoke a true feeling that there are two worlds—the waking world of day, and the world that is entered when man is free of the body, the world he would see if, during sleep he became awake to this body-free condition. Everything of the kind that he would say, is indicated by Goethe in this scene most delicately and sublimely. Take, for example, the passage where the Dorides bring in the sailor-lads; read the works in which the world is described, how the physical world is set beside the world entered when man is free of the body—how this is pictured in the Dorides set beside the physical sailor boys. They have found each other and yet not found each other. Human beings and spirits meet one another, yet do not meet; they approach each other and remain strangers. In this passage, the relation of the two worlds is wonderfully indicated. Everywhere Goethe endeavours to show how essential it is to place oneself into the spiritual world to find what makes Homunculus into Homo. At the same time he delicately indicates how physical world and spiritual world are together yet apart.
One might say that in his artistic representation, Goethe sees—or rather, makes us see—how Homunculus can become Homo if the soul approaches the intimate mystery of the Kabiri, if it approach what Nereus evoked in his daughter Galatea. All that is active in the true art that works out of the cosmos. But, alas, it is as if one were grasping after reality in a dream, and the dream immediately fades away. It is as though one wished to hold fast what welds together the physical and the spiritual worlds. The Gods will not suffer it; the worlds fall apart.
This difficulty of knowing the spirit is the fundamental experience, the fundamental impulse in the soul of one who watches this scene with true understanding. It is this that leads Goethe to his mighty finale—the shattering of Homunculus against the shell-chariot of Galatea, the shattering that is at the same time an arising, a coming into being, the ascent into the elements, which is a finding of the self in reality.
We will speak again tomorrow of this conclusion of the scene, in connection with its representation.
Die Samothrakischen Kabiren-Mysterien das Geheimnis der Menschwerdung
nach einer Darstellung der «Klassischen Walpurgisnacht»
Wer sich intimer auf Goethe und Goethes Weltanschauung einläßt, wird in der Szene, die wir jetzt hier zur Vorführung bringen, die den zweiten Akt des zweiten Teiles des «Faust» abschließt und den Übergang bildet zum Eintritte Fausts in das alte Griechenland, sehen, wie tief Goethe durch seine Weltanschauung eingedrungen ist in das Geistige des Weltenalls und in das Menschengeheimnis, insofern dieses Menschengeheimnis zusammenhängt mit dem Eindringen in das Geistige des Weltenalls. Zunächst darf betont werden, daß auf der einen Seite gerade den tiefsten, den bedeutsamsten Szenen des zweiten Teiles gegenüber gilt, was Goethe einmal dadurch aussprechen wollte, daß er sagte, er habe viel in den zweiten Teil des «Faust» hineingeheimnißt. Es ist viel Weisheit, allerdings von vollkommenem Künstlertum verarbeitete Weisheit, im zweiten Teil des «Faust». Aber auf der andern Seite ist alles so, daß es, auf der Bühne dargestellt, durch seine unmittelbar sinnliche, anschauliche Bildlichkeit anziehen kann.
Diese zwei Seiten in der Betrachtung namentlich des zweiten Teiles des Goetheschen «Faust» muß man sich, wenn man Verständnis dieser Dichtung sucht, immer vor Augen halten. Wer — so meint Goethe - mit naiven Sinnen diesen «Faust» ansehen will, soll Freude, soll ästhetische Lust haben an der Bilderfolge; der Eingeweihte soll aber tiefe Lebensgeheimnisse darinnen anschauen können. Nun ist, wenn man zunächst ausgeht von dem Bildhaften, diese Szene die Darstellung eines Meeresfestes, zu dem Homunkulus durch Thales geführt wird. Aber dieses Meeresfest enthält allerlei in dasselbe Hineingeheimnißtes. Dieses Meeresfest soll eigentlich darstellen die das Meer bewohnenden dämonischen, das heißt geistigen Gewalten. Warum greift Goethe in seinem «Faust» zu solchen dämonischen Gewalten, wie sie sich ihm darboten in der griechischen Welt, indem er seinen Faust durch die menschliche Entwickelung zu höchstem Ziel der Selbsterkenntnis und der Selbsterfassung hinaufführen will? Man kann sagen, daß Goethe sich vollkommen klar war darüber, daß der Mensch unmöglich zu der wirklichen Anschauung seines eigenen Wesens jemals dadurch kommen könne, daß er bloß die Erkenntnis seiner Sinne und des an diese Sinne gebundenen Verstandes sich erwirbt. Wirkliche Menschenerkenntnis kann nur vermittelt werden durch wirkliche Geistesanschauung, so daß alles dasjenige, was an Menschenerkenntnis und Menschenanschauung durch die bloße äußere physische Welt erstrebt wird, auf welche die Sinne und der sinnliche Verstand gerichtet sind, keine wirkliche Menschenerkenntnis ist. Das will Goethe dadurch andeuten, daß er in seine Dichtung den Homunkulus einführt.
Homunkulus entsteht durch dasjenige, was Wagner an Erkenntnis über den Menschen erreichen kann, erreichen kann mit ideal gedachten physischen Mitteln, so ideal gedachten physischen Mitteln, daß sie natürlich von der gewöhnlichen Naturerkenntnis höchstens als ein Ziel angesehen werden können, aber daß nicht daran gedacht werden kann, mit ihnen irgend etwas heute oder in der Erdenzukunft zu erreichen. Goethe setzt gewissermaßen als Hypothese, es sei möglich, einen Homunkulus in der Retorte zu erzeugen, das heißt, den Zusammenhang der Naturkräfte bis zu einer solchen Vollkommenheit erkannt zu haben, daß man aus den verschiedenen Ingredienzien den Menschen verstandesmäßig zusammensetzt. Aber es kommt eben kein Mensch dabei heraus, selbst nicht, wenn das, was der Mensch in der physischen Welt erreichen kann, im höchsten Maße der Vollkommenheit gedacht wird, es kommt kein Mensch, kein Homo heraus, sondern nur ein Homunkulus. Dieser Homunkulus ist also dramatisch gedacht im Grunde nichts anderes als das Bild, das der Mensch sich von sich selbst machen kann mit Hilfe seines physischen Verstandes, mit Hilfe seiner gewöhnlichen irdischen Erkenntnis. Dieses Bild, das sich der Mensch machen kann, das also ein Homunkulus ist, wie kann es dahin kommen, wirkliche Menschenanschauung zu vermitteln? Wie kann es dahin kommen, daß der Mensch in dieser Anschauung nicht beim bloßen Homunkulaus bleibt, sondern zum Homo vorrückt? Da ist sich Goethe klar, daß dieses nur erreicht werden kann durch jene Erkenntnisse, die im leibfreien Zustand von dem Geistig-Seelischen des Menschen erlangt werden können.
Nun versucht Goethe in der verschiedensten Weise nahezukommen jenem Reiche, in das der Mensch sich versetzen muß, wenn er völlige Menschenerkenntnis, das heißt, Erkenntnis im leibfreien Zustande sich erwerben will. Also Goethe will wirklich zeigen, daß es möglich ist, aus seinem Leib herauszugehen, Erkenntnisse zu gewinnen, die dann als Erkenntnisse etwas über das Wesen des Menschen ausmachen. Nun war Goethe keineswegs eine derjenigen Persönlichkeiten, welche leichtfertig in Erkenntnisfragen vorgegangen sind. Goethe strebte sein ganzes Leben hindurch, um die Seele immer mehr und mehr zu vertiefen. Denn er war sich klar darüber, daß man, wenn man alt wird, nicht umsonst lebt, sondern daß auch die Erkenntniskräfte immer zunehmen und zunehmen, und daß man im Alter mehr wissen kann als in der Jugend. Er war sich aber auch klar darüber, welch problematischer Art der Aufenthalt des Geistig-Seelischen außerhalb des Leibes ist. Daher versuchte er in der verschiedensten Weise, die bildhafte Erkenntnis, die wir die imaginative nennen, an den Menschen, an seinen Faust heranzubringen. So schon in der «Romantischen Walpurgisnacht» des ersten Teiles des «Faust», und so wieder in der «Klassischen Walpurgisnacht», wo er die Imaginationen vom alten Griechenland her nimmt, in das er den Faust versetzen will. Man könnte etwa so sagen: Goethe denkt sich, wenn man zur Verwandlung des Homunkulus in den Homo, in den Menschen, aus dem Leibe herausrückt, so bekommt man Imaginationen, die für den einen so, für den andern anders aussehen. — In der Anschauung der alten Griechen waren diese Imaginationen noch so, daß sie gewissermaßen an die geistige Wirklichkeit herankamen. Man kann, wenn man sich die Dämonenwelt der alten Griechen vor die Seele rückt, durch die Anschauung dieser überlieferten Mythenwelt sehen, wie in hochgebildetem, atavistischem Hellsehen der Mensch wirklich die Natur geschaut hat, deren Schoß er selber entquillt, wenn er geistig-seelisch außerhalb seines Leibes ist. Also ich möchte sagen: Goethe zieht, weil er nicht selber erfinden will eine imaginative Welt, die griechische Welt heran, um sagen zu können, was auch der Mensch ersinnen mag aus seiner gewöhnlichen Erkenntnis, es bleibt ein Homunkulus, mit dem muß man erst einrücken in die imaginative, inspirierte Welt und so weiter, wenn ein Mensch daraus werden soll. - Das ist die Anschauung eines Menschen natürlich zunächst.
Warum wählt Goethe gerade das Meeresfest, ich möchte sagen, den Traum vom Meeresfest? Man muß, um die Empfindungen, die da Goethe beseelten, zu verstehen, sich wirklich ein wenig zurück versetzen in die Anschauungsweise der alten Griechen, in die sich Goethe selber zurückversetzt hat, als er an die Darstellung dieses «heiteren Meeresfestes» ging. Man muß sich da nämlich klar sein darüber, daß bei den Griechen das noch etwas bedeutete, wenn der Mensch das Land verließ und in das freie, offene Meer hinausfuhr. Der Grieche lebte noch mit der äußeren Welt wie die alten Völker überhaupt. Wie für die alten Völker innerlich etwas vorging, wenn sie den flachen Erdboden, die Ebene verließen und hinaufstiegen auf den Berg, was der gegenwärtige Mensch in abstrakt prosaischer Weise erlebt, so ging auch in der menschlichen Seele Gewaltiges vor, wenn sie das Land verließ und hinausschiffte ins freie Meer. Diese Empfindung, daß das freie Meer besonders loslöst das Geistig-Seelische vom Leibe, diese Empfindung hatten alle Menschen der älteren Völker. Mit dieser Empfindung hängt mancherlei zusammen.
Erinnern Sie sich bitte, welche große Rolle in den verschiedenen Verbildlichungen des Erkenntnisweges die Säulen des Herkules in der alten Mythe spielten. Da wird immer gesagt: Wenn der Mensch verschiedene Erkenntnisstufen durchschritten hat, schifft er hinaus durch die Säulen des Herkules. - Man meinte, er schiff hinaus ins unbegrenzte, freie Meer, wo er sich nicht mehr in der Nähe von Küsten weiß. Heute bedeutet das für den Menschen kaum noch etwas. Für den Griechen bedeutete es, daß er eigentlich eine ganz andere Welt betrat, und er fühlte, wenn er über die Säulen des Herkules hinausschiffte, daß er dann frei wurde von alldem, was ihn mit der Erde zusammenhielt, vor allen Dingen mit den Kräften seines Leibes. Das Seefahren ins freie Meer hinaus wurde schon empfunden in diesen älteren Zeiten, wo man Alltägliches noch in einer geistig-seelischen Weise erfühlte, als eine Befreiung vom Körperlichen.
Goethe dichtete nicht wie andere Dichterlinge, sondern er dichtete aus Weltenempfinden heraus, und wenn er von etwas spricht, das er in die griechische Welt versetzt, dann versetzt er sich mit seiner ganzen Seele da hinein. Das ist dasjenige, was man immerzu den Menschen zurufen möchte, die Goethe auch so lesen wie irgendeinen andern beliebigen Dichter, die gar keine Empfindung dafür haben, daß, wenn sie Goethe lesen, sie dann wirklich in eine andere Welt eingeführt werden.
Nun sehen wir, indem die Szene beginnt, die lockenden Sirenen. Äußerlich bildlich stellt Goethe eine Szene dar, die auch eine alltägliche Szene sein könnte. Die lockenden Sirenen sammeln Strandgut, das sie den Nereiden und Tritonen verschaffen. Aber dabei sind zu gleicher Zeit, von der andern Seite gesehen, diese lockenden Sirenen jene Stimmen nicht nur des menschlichen Inneren, sondern auch des Äußeren, Stufen der Welt, weil auf diesen Stufen der Anschauung Inneres und Äußeres zusammenfließt, wie ich das öfters angeführt habe. Es sind die Sirenenklänge diejenigen, welche die Seele des Menschen herauslocken aus der Leiblichkeit und versetzen in die Weiten des geistig-seelischen Kosmos.
Und nun nehmen wir zusammen: erstens läßt Goethe ein Meeresfest sich abspielen, also Träume, die erweckt werden durch das Meeresfest. Zweitens spielt sich dieses Meeresfest unter dem Einfluß des Mondes in der Nacht ab. Alles wird veranstaltet von Goethe, um zu zeigen, es handelt sich darum, Anschauung zu gewinnen, die unabhängig vom Leibe gewonnen wird, Anschauung zu gewinnen, die der Mensch gewinnen würde, wenn er vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen außerhalb des Leibes bewußt würde und die Bilder jenes Seins wahrnehmen würde, in das er dann versetzt ist außerhalb des Leibes. Und nun sehen wir gleich, während Goethe auf der einen Seite die Triviallinge befriedigen will - das ist jetzt gar nicht im absprechenden Sinne gesagt -, indem er die Sirenen die Sammler des Strandgutes für die nach solchem Strandgut begehrenden Nereiden und Tritonen sein läßt, wir sehen, wie diese Nereiden und Tritonen auf dem Wege sind nach Samothrake, um die Kabiren aufzusuchen, ja, zu holen zu diesem Meeresfeste. Indem Goethe die Götter des uralten samothrakischen Heiligtums hier in dieser Szene auftreten läßt, deutet er wirklich an, daß er an höchstes menschliches und Weltengeheimnis hier rühren will. Was muß denn eigentlich geschehen, wenn der Homunkulus Homo werden soll, die Anschauung vom Homunkulus die Anschauung des Homo werden soll? Was muß denn eigentlich geschehen?
Nun, die Idee des Homunkulus, die innerhalb der Sinneswelt gefaßt ist, muß aus der Sinneswelt herausgenommen und hineinversetzt werden in die geistig-seelische Welt, in welcher der Mensch vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen ist. Da hinein muß der Homunkulus getragen werden, in die Bilderwelt, die dann der Mensch durchlebt, wenn er leibfrei zusammen ist mit jenem Dasein, das ein geistig-seelisches ist. In diese Bilderwelt hinein muß Homunkulus getragen werden.
Wenn der Mensch zuerst sich mit Hilfe seiner gewöhnlichen physischen Anschauung das Homukulusbild verschaftt, so muß er dann dieses Homunkulusbild in die andere Welt, in die imaginative, inspirierte Welt und so weiter hineintragen. Dadrinnen kann erst die abstrakte Homunkulusidee ergriffen werden von den realen Kräften des Daseins, von jenen Kräften, die nimmermehr an die menschliche Erkenntnis herantreten, wenn der Mensch beim bloßen Sinnesverstand bleibt. Da wird alles wirklich, wenn man mit der Homunkulusidee herauskommt aus dem Leibe und sie hineinträgt in die geistig-seelische Welt. Da wird es ernst mit der Wirklichkeit. Da muß man also herantreten an diejenigen Kräfte, welche dem Menschenentstehen, dem Menschenwerden gegenüber die wirklichen Kräfte sind.
Damit aber zeigt Goethe, daß er eine tiefe und bedeutungsvolle Auffassung von den Kabiren von Samothrake hatte, daß er eine Empfindung dafür hatte, daß diese Kabiren im uralten Altertum verehrt wurden als die Hüter jener Kräfte, die mit dem Menschenwerden, mit der Menschengenesis zusammenhängen. Also an Höchstes rührt Goethe, indem er aufruft aus der Zeit des atavistischen Hellsehens die Bilder jener Götterkräfte, die mit dem Menschenwerden zusammenhängen.
Die griechische Anschauung verwies selbst schon auf sehr Altes, wenn sie von den Mysterien von Samothrake sprach. Und man darf sagen: Gegenüber allem, was die Griechen an verschiedenen Göttervorstellungen und an Vorstellungen des Zusammenhanges des Menschen mit diesen Göttern hatten — die Vorstellungen über die Gottheiten von Samothrake, über die kabirischen Gottheiten durchzogen alles. Und der alte Grieche war davon überzeugt, daß er durch dasjenige, was als Vermächtnis der samothrakischen Mysterien in das griechische Bewußtsein hineingekommen war, eine Vorstellung, eine Idee bekommen hat von der menschlichen Unsterblichkeit. Der Grieche dachte sich, daß er verdankt die Idee der menschlichen Unsterblichkeit, das heißt, der Zugehörigkeit des Menschen zum geistig-seelischen Weltenall, dem Einfluß der samothrakischen Kabiren-Mysterien.
So will also Goethe zu gleicher Zeit sagen: Vielleicht kommt die abstrakte Menschenidee des Homunkulus mit den wirklichen Menschenwerdekräften zusammen, wenn im leibfreien Zustande erfaßt werden die Impulse, die sich der Grieche verbunden dachte mit seinen Kabiren von Samothrake. - Daß schließlich im griechischen Bewußtsein etwas war, was gewissermaßen in Goethe wieder so lebendig werden konnte gerade da, wo er an ein solches tiefstes Geheimnis rührte, das kann man etwa daraus sehen, auch aus vielem andern, aber auch daraus sehen, daß sich die Griechen sagten: Philipp von Macedonien fand Olympias beim Anblicke der samothrakischen Mysterien. —- Und es war im griechischen Bewußtsein, daß dazumal der große Alexander beschlossen hat, zu diesem Elternpaar hinunterzutauchen in die Erdenwelt, als sich vor den Kabirengöttern Seele an Seele Philipp von Macedonien und Olympias gefunden haben. Man muß an solche Vorstellungen rühren, um all den Schauer in die Seele hereinzubekommen, den der Grieche wirklich empfand und Goethe nachempfand, wenn es sich handelte um die Kabiren.
Äußerlich betrachtet sind sie wiederum einfache Meeresgötter. Samothrake - die Griechen wußten es — war in verhältnismäßig gar nicht alter Urzeit von den furchtbarsten, erdbebenartigen Stürmen umbrandet, zerklüftet, durcheinandergeworfen. Also die Naturdämonen hatten hier in ganz ungeheuerlicher Weise so gewaltet, daß das noch wie in einer historischen Erinnerung für die alten Griechen war. Und in den Wäldern, in den dichten, damals dichten Wäldern von Samothrake.war verborgen das Mysterium der Kabiren. Unter den mancherlei Namen, die die Kabiren tragen, sind auch die, wo der eine Kabir genannt wird Axieros, der zweite Axiokersos und der dritte Axiokersa, Kadmilos der vierte. Dann hatte man so ein unbestimmtes Gefühl, daß es noch einen fünften, sechsten und siebenten gab. Aber im wesentlichen war der Menschen geistiger Blick hingerichtet auf die drei ersten Kabiren. Es handelte sich bei den alten Vorstellungen von den Kabiren nun wirklich um das Menschenwerde-Geheimnis. Und eigentlich sollte derjenige, der in die heiligen Mysterien von Samothrake eingeweiht wurde, zu der Anschauung kommen: Was entspricht in der geistigen Welt, geistig angeschaut, demjenigen, was hier auf Erden geschieht, wenn für eine auf der Erde sich verkörpernde Seele der Mensch entsteht, der Mensch wird in der Generationsfolge? — Gewissermaßen das geistige Korrelat des menschlichen Geborenwerdens sollte geschaut werden in der geistigen Welt.
Durch diese Schauung glaubte Goethe den Homunkulus zu einem Homo in der Idee bekommen zu können. Aber in dieses Schauen sollte auch der Eingeweihte der samothrakischen Mysterien eingeführt werden. Nun kann man nicht den Menschen in seinem Wesen wirklich schauen, wenn man ihn eingeschlossen sich denkt in seine Haut, wenn man der Täuschung unterliegt, daß das nur mit dem Menschen etwas zu tun hat, was da in äußerer physischer Gestalt vor einem steht, wenn man einen Menschen mit Augen schaut. Wer einen Menschen wirklich kennenlernen will, der muß aus diesem herausgehen, was innerhalb der Haut eingeschlossen ist, und das menschliche Wesen als ausgebreitet im ganzen Weltenall ansehen. Er muß die geistige Fortsetzung außer der Haut wirklich ins Auge fassen.
Nun hingen mit diesem Impuls der Griechen, das Menschenwesen außerhalb der Haut zu schauen, mancherlei Göttervorstellungen zusammen. Aber von allen diesen Göttervorstellungen gab es gewissermaßen eine exoterische und eine esoterische Seite. Die exoterische Seite des Menschenwerdens, aber im Zusammenhange mit dem ganzen Naturwerden, also des Menschenwerde-Geheimnisses mit dem NaturwerdeGeheimnis, diese ganzen Vorstellungen wurden angeschlagen, wenn der Grieche sprach von Demeter, später, wenn gesprochen wurde von Ceres, Kersa. Die esoterische Seite der Ceres, der Demeter, der Werdewelt, waren gewissermaßen die Kabiren. Aber man muß den Menschen in der richtigen Weise anschauen, wenn man irgendwie hinter sein Geheimnis kommen will.
Den Menschen so anschauen, wie seine Gestalt hier in der physischen Welt ist, das hieße eigentlich, sich über den Menschen täuschen. Denn dieser Mensch ist zusammengeflossen zunächst aus einer Trinität. Und wie wenn drei Lichter ihren Schein nach einem Punkte, nach einem Kreise meinetwillen hinwerfen, und man den Zusammenfluß der drei Lichter sieht, und man nicht dazu übergehen will, zu sehen, wie das eine, meinetwillen ein gelbes, das andere ein blaues, das dritte ein rötliches Licht zusammenfließen in einem, wenn man nicht dieses Zusammenklingen sehen will, wie man da glauben kann, das, was da als Mischlicht entsteht, sei eine Einheit, so täuscht man sich, wenn man dieses Mischprodukt, das man vor sich hat in dem, was als Mensch innerhalb seiner Haut vor uns steht, für eine Einheit hält. Es ist keine Einheit. Und nie kann man hinter das Menschengeheimnis kommen, wenn man das für eine Einheit hält. Jetzt ist es den Menschen nicht bewußt, daß das keine Einheit ist. Aber als das atavistische Hellsehen die Menschenerkenntnis durchglühte, da waren die Menschen sich dessen bewußt. Und so setzten die samothrakischen Eingeweihten den Menschen zusammen gewissermaßen aus dem, was in der Mitte steht: Axieros, und aus dem, was Extreme sind: Axiokersos und Axiokersa, deren Kräfte sich mit der Kraft des Axieros verbanden. Man könnte sagen: Drei sind da — Axieros, Axiokersos, Axiokersa. Diese drei Kräfte fließen zusammen, bilden eine Einheit. Die höhere Wirklichkeit ist die Dreiheit. Aber die Einheit entsteht dadurch. Das tritt vor das Menschenauge.
Man könnte auch so sagen: Der samothrakische Eingeweihte lernte den Menschen kennen, wie er vor ihm stand im sinnlichen Anschauen, und ihm wurde gesagt: Du mußt von diesem Menschen zwei Extreme abziehen; Axiokersa, Axiokersos, die strahlen nur herein. Dann kannst du eventuell zurückbehalten Axieros. — So daß man auch die Sache so darstellen konnte, daß von den dreien Axieros gewissermaßen darstellt den menschlichen Mittelzustand, und die andern, die beiden Unsichtbaren, bestrahlen ihn nur.
Also als eine Trinität stellte man sich in den samothrakischen Mysterien den Menschen dar. Goethe fragte sich: Kann man vielleicht den abstrakten Homunkulus zu dem völligen Homo in der Idee umbilden, wenn man sich anlehnt an dasjenige, was in den samothrakischen Mysterien als ein Geheimnis des Menschen selbst, als die menschliche Trinität, angeschaut worden ist? Er sagte sich: Man kann zu dieser Trinität nur dadurch kommen, anschauungsgemäß, wenn man mit dem Geistig-Seelischen aus dem Leibe herausrückt. — So sagte er sich.
Aber man muß immer betonen, Goethe lebte mit Bezug auf die geistige Anschauung gewissermaßen in einem Anfangszustande. Das ist gerade das Wunderbare am Goetheanismus, daß er, wie ich neulich sagte, nur richtig vorgestellt wird, wenn man ihn so vorstellt, daß er fortgesetzt, ausgebildet, daß er entwickelt werden muß, daß er zu immer höheren und höheren Höhen hinanführt, daß man bei Goethe einfach die Metamorphosenlehre hat von Blatt zu Blatt, vom grünen Laubblatt zum farbigen Blumenblatt und so weiter, oder etwa vom Rückenwirbel zu den Kopfknochen, daß aber dieses Geheimnis von einer Inkarnation zur andern Inkarnation, von einem Erdenleben zum andern Erdenleben führt, wenn man das richtig versteht, wie ich Ihnen öfter ausgeführt habe. Daher kann man ganz innerhalb der Goetheschen Weltanschauung stehenbleibend sagen: Wie würde denn das samothrakische Mysterium sich heute verbildlichen lassen für die Gegenwart? — Das samothrakische Mysterium als solches, mit seinen Kabirenverbildlichungen des Menschengeheimnisses, ist ganz und gar entsprechend der alten atavistisch-hellseherischen Weltanschauung, aber dasjenige, was in irgendeiner Menschheitsperiode lebt an Erkenntnisinhalt, kann in rechtmäßiger Weise fortgesetzt, muß umgebildet werden. Es ist unberechtigt, zu den alten Anschauungen, die für ganz andere Menschheitsepochen da waren, einfach wieder zurückkehren zu wollen; sie müssen umgebildet werden. Das samothrakische Geheimnis hat natürlich nur einen historischen Wert. Heute würden wir sagen: Wir stellen dar, wie in der Mitte der Menschheitsrepräsentant steht, Axieros, wie der Menschheitsrepräsentant umkreist wird von Axiokersa, wie Axiokersos heute wiederum mit dem Irdischen in Zusammenhang gebracht werden muß, und wir haben den Menschheitsrepräsentanten, Luzifer, Ahriman. Wir haben darinnen die für das heutige und das kommende Zeitalter angemessene Umgestaltung des heiligen samothrakischen Mysteriums.
Man möchte sagen: Goethe, wenn er heute unter uns treten würde und mit dem, was die Menschheit sich mittlerweile hat erringen können, das sagen wollte, was seinen Homunkulus zum Homo umgestaltet, so würde er hinweisen auf den Menschheitsrepräsentanten, umkreist und im Kampfe mit Luzifer, Ahriman. Nur bitte ich Sie, diese Dinge nicht in abstrakter Weise zu nehmen, ja nicht die beliebte Methode von heute anzuwenden, diese Dinge als Symbol zu nehmen, diese Dinge mit ein paar abstrakten Begriffen abtun zu wollen. Je mehr Sie fühlen, daß auch bei der Darstellung des Menschheitsrepräsentanten im Zusammenhang mit jeder Linie des Luzifer und Ahriman eine ganze Welt verborgen liegt über das Menschheitsgeheimnis, je mehr Sie verleugnen den Hochmut, den unbegründeten, kindischen Hochmut des modernen Menschen auf seine abstrakten naturwissenschaftlichen Begriffe, und je mehr Sie erweitern die Seele zu einer Welt im Anblicke dieser Verbildlichung des Menschengeheimnisses, desto näher kommen Sie dadurch dem Menschengeheimnis.
Heute hat Geisteswissenschaft mannigfaltige Gegnerschaft. Aber einer ihrer stärksten Feinde ist die Sehnsucht des Menschen nach Abstraktion, die Sehnsucht der Menschen, alles mit ein paar Begriffen überkleistern zu wollen. Goetheanismus ist auch empfindungsgemäß das gerade Gegenteil dieses modernen Unfuges, alles mit ein paar Begriffen überkleistern zu wollen. Man macht in dieser Beziehung besondere Erfahrungen. Die Menschen kommen zunächst aus den verschiedensten Motiven in eine geisteswissenschaftliche Bewegung hinein. Viele gibt es, die fangen dann an, möglichst alles verabstrahieren zu wollen. Sieben Prinzipien hat der Mensch - ich habe es einmal erlebt, oh, schauderhaft, ganz schauderhaft, wie jemand den Hamlet dadurch erklärt hat, daß er das eine Prinzip zum Buddhi, das andere zum Manas und so weiter gemacht hat. Das ist etwas, was viel schlimmer ist als aller äußere Materialismus. Diese ganzen abstrakten Erklärungen, diese ganze Symbolisierung abstrakter Natur ist viel schlimmer, innerlich angeschaut, als aller äußere Materialismus. Jedenfalls aber sehen wir, daß Goethe zunächst wirklich an ein höchstes Menschliches heranführen will die Idee des Homunkulus, indem er seine Nereiden und Tritonen auf dem Wege zeigt nach Samothrake, um die heiligen Kabiren zu bringen.
Und so werden wir denn bei den Kabiren empfinden müssen, was gerade Urvölker bei ihren Göttergestalten empfunden haben. Diese Göttergestalten der Urvölker kommen den heutigen Menschen primitiv vor: Götzen. Als Götzen erscheinen dem heutigen Menschen diese Götterbilder der Urvölker, weil der heutige Mensch kein Verständnis hat für dasjenige, was aus den Elementarkräften hervorquillt. Der heutige Mensch erhebt sich nicht einmal in der Kunst zu einem wirklich Schöpferischen. Er hält sich ans Modell, oder beurteilt irgend etwas, was ihm in der Kunst dargestellt wird, so, daß er sagt: Ist das ähnlich? Ja, man hört oftmals sogar den Einwand gegen irgendeine Darstellung: Das ist nicht natürlich —, weil heute wirklich wenig künstlerische Empfindung unter den Menschen ist. Wer allerdings zum Verständnisse vorrücken will der vielleicht grotesk ausschauenden alten Götterbilder, muß versuchen, sich von jenen Wesenheiten eine Vorstellung zu machen, die der dritten elementarischen Welt angehören, aus der erst unsere Welt hervorquillt in ihren mineralischen Produkten auf der einen Seite, und auf der andern Seite in ihren organischen Produkten.
Sie wissen, wie die Szene damit beginnt, daß die Nereiden und Tritonen auf dem Wege nach Samothrake sind, um die Kabiren heranzubringen, unter die Homunkulus zum Homo-Werden versetzt werden soll. In der Zwischenzeit, während die Nereiden und Tritonen auf der Reise nach Samothrake sind, begibt sich Thales, der den Homunkulus zum . Menschwerden führen soll, zum alten Meergreis Nereus. 'Thales, der alte Naturphilosoph, ist es, den der Homunkulus zunächst aufgesucht hat. Nun, Goethe ist weder Mystiker im schlechten Sinne des Wortes noch bloßer Naturphilosoph, wenn es ihm darauf ankommt, die Wirklichkeit zu finden. Daher kann der Thales selber dem Homunkulus nicht zum Homowerden verhelfen. Gerade .die Weltanschauung des Thales verehrte Goethe sehr, aber er schreibt dem Thales nicht das Vermögen, die Kraft zu, dem Homunkulus den Rat zu geben, wie man es zum Menschen, zum wirklichen Menschen bringen kann. Da sol! man sich also schon zu einer dämonischen Macht begeben — außerhalb desLeibes -, zum alten Nereus. Goethe bringt die verschiedensten Dämonengewalten an den Homunkulus heran. Was ist denn der Nereus eigentlich für eine Gewalt? Nun, das sieht man aus der Art und Weise, wie dieser Meergreis spricht in der Goetheschen Dichtung. Man möchte sagen: Dieser Nereus ist im gewissen Sinne doch der allerdings weise, prophetische, aber etwas philiströse Bewohner der dem Menschen nächsten geistigen Welt, in die der Mensch eintritt, wenn er aus seinem Leibe herauskommt. — Ob der nun etwas weiß, wie der Homunkulus Homo werden kann? Ja, sehen Sie, Verstand, sogar bis zur prophetischen Hellsehergabe, hat der Nereus schon; er handhabt zwar diesen Verstand großartig, aber so, wie er ihn handhabt, gelangt er wirklich nicht an das Innere des Menschen damit heran. Daher empfindet er, wie die Menschen ihn nicht hören, auf seinen Rat nicht hören. Er hat gewissermaßen keinen Zugang zu der Seele des Menschen. Er hat den Menschen geraten, von Verschiedenem abgeraten, hat einstmals Paris abgeraten, die ganze Misere über Ilion zu bringen. Nichts hat es gefruchtet. Es hat also einfach dieser Nereus den menschlichen Verstand, den die Menschen in einem sehr minderen, ich will sagen, in einem sehr hohen Grade schon auf dem physischen Plane ausgebildet haben, aufs Höchste ausgebildet, weil er gar nicht beschränkt ist auf einen physischen Leib. Aber es hilft doch mit diesem Verstande nicht recht weiter vom Homunkulus zum Homo. Es langt nicht dazu, was der Nereus zu sagen hat, es wird dadurch für die Aufgabe des Homunkulus nichts eigentlich gewonnen.
Aber es sagt der Nereus, daß er, während er sich nicht beschäftigen will mit dem Ratgeben zum Menschwerden des Homunkulus, seine Töchter erwartet, die Doriden, und namentlich die auserlesenste von ihnen, Galatee, die zu diesem Meeresfeste heute kommen soll, die der Vater erwartet. Galatee: eine Imagination gewaltigster Art.
Zusammenhänge zu sehen in der Welt, das ist dasjenige, auf was es ankommt. Es ist sogar gar nicht leicht, über diesen Punkt zu sprechen, weil die heutige Seele die Sehnsucht hat, alles zu verabstrahieren. Wer sich in diesen Dingen umschaut, erfährt gar manches. Gewiß, es gibt gutwillige Leute, die sprechen davon, daß sie an den Geist glauben. Es ist nicht übel, wenn die Menschen wenigstens an den Geist glauben. Aber wie ist es, wenn man nachgeht und so recht aufs Herz hin die Menschen frägt: Was stellt ihr eigentlich euch unter dem Geist vor, an den ihr glaubt? Was ist das, der Geist? — Nicht wahr, die Spiritisten verzichten überhaupt darauf, vom Geist etwas zu erfahren, indem sie sich allerlei Ungeistiges vormachen. Es ist die materialistischste Lehre, die überhaupt existieren kann, der Spiritismus. Gewisse feiner gestimmte Seelen sprechen wohl vom Geist, aber was ist denn eigentlich das, was sie im Kopfe haben, wenn sie vom Geist sprechen? Das ist es ja, warum skeptische, so recht moderne Gemüter den Geist am liebsten aufgeben - nein, ich meine natürlich nur in Gedanken -, den Geist am liebsten aufgeben gegenüber dem, was man im modernen Sinne wissen kann. Lesen Sie den Artikel «Geist» im philosophischen Wörterbuch von Fritz Mauthner, dann werden Sie wahrscheinlich Zustände Ihres Leibes erhalten können, die nicht Zustände des Kopfes sind.
Alles dieses abstrakte Gerede, selbst wenn es das Gerede vom Geist ist, sollte überwunden werden gerade in wahrer Geisteswissenschaft. Verfolgen Sie, wie aufsteigend im Fortgange unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Arbeiten eigentlich gesprochen wird. Es wird alles herangezogen, was nach und nach wirklich in die geistige Welt hineinführen kann. Es wird nicht bloß mit Worten gesprochen, sondern es wird gewissermaßen eine vergleichsweise Methode herangezogen. Denken Sie doch, daß wirklich begreiflich wird durch die Art, wie Geisteswissenschaft hier vertreten wird, daß der Mensch einen Lebensweg durchmacht hier im physischen Leibe. Lesen Sie zum Beispiel die zusammenfassenden Darstellungen im letzten Hefte «Das Reich». Es wird da angedeutet, wie und durch welche Kräfte der Mensch, wenn er ein ganz kleines Kind ist, am meisten der materiellen Welt ähnlich ist, wie er dann mehr seelisch wird in der Mitte seines Lebens, wie er aber geistig wird — nur daß er diesen Geist oftmals nicht erfaßt, weil er sich nicht vorbereitet dazu -, wie er geistig wird dann, wenn der Leib verfällt, wenn der Leib trocken und sklerotisch wird, wie da der Geist sich dann befreit, auch im wachen Zustande. Nur wird der Mensch sehr selten sich bewußt dessen, was er da erleben kann, wenn er mit einiger Begabung alt wird, ich meine jetzt mit spiritueller Begabung alt wird, wenn er nicht einfach hinfällig wird im Leibe, sondern wenn er dann die sich verjüngende, zum Geist verjüngende Seele erlebt.
Dies zeigt, daß man aufmerksam wird darauf, daß man natürlich den Geist nicht anschauen kann im Greis oder in der Greisin, daß er unsichtbar ist. Man sieht den verfallenden Leib, sieht nicht den Geist, der jung und frisch wird; man sieht die Runzeln auf den fleischlichen Wangen und sieht nicht die Pausbacken des Geistes, die dann entstehen; die sind übersinnlich. Aber man weist wenigstens darauf hin, wo man finden kann hier in der Welt, in der wir unseren gewöhnlichen Umgang haben, das Geistige. Und wenn man dann sagt, die ganze Natur ist durchdrungen vom Geiste, dann verlangt man eigentlich, daß man sich vorstellt, da draußen in der Natur, wo die Mineralien, wo die Pflanzen die äußere Welt offenbaren, lebt etwas von derselben Kraft, in die man hineinwächst, wenn man ein alter Mann oder eine alte Frau wird. Sehen Sie, da ist anschaulich ausgedrückt die Sache. In pantheistischer Weise zu reden: D& draußen ist Geist — das ist gar nichts, weil da Geist ein bloßes Wort bleibt. Wenn man aber nicht in direkt abstrakter Weise, sondern in den verschiedensten Umschreibungen, die dazu notwendig sind, darauf aufmerksam macht, die Kraft, die in dir immer größer wird, wenn du alt wirst, suche als die innigste, schärfste Naturkraft auf, dann sagt man etwas. So eine Kraft neben die andere stellen und aufmerksam machen, wo die eine und die andere Kraft ist, das ist das Wesentliche. Und so kann man, wenn man den Blick hinwendet auf diejenigen Kraftimpulse, die da leben im ganzen Zusammenhange von der Empfängnis durch das Embryonalleben bis zu der Geburt, wenn ein physischer Mensch hier auf der Erde entsteht, sich diese Dinge vergegenwärtigen. Der trockene Naturforscher, der besser ein Naturschleicher genannt werden könnte, bleibt stehen bei dieser Kraft, die er auf alle mögliche Weise untersucht, aber er untersucht sie auf seine Art; er bleibt stehen dabei. Derjenige aber, der sich einen geisteswissenschaftlichen Überblick über die Welt zu verschaffen vermag, weiß, daß diese Kraft auch an andern Orten vorhanden ist. Ganz dieselbe Kraft, nur rascher wirksam, macht sich geltend, wenn Sie des Morgens aufwachen, genau dieselbe Kraft, die von der Empfängnis durch das Embryonalleben bis zu der Geburt führt, gewissermaßen verdünnt, macht sich geltend, wenn Sie vom Schlafen ins Aufwachen übergehen. Es ist genau dieselbe Kraft. Aber diese Kraft ist nicht nur in Ihnen, im Inneren in Ihnen, sondern diese Kraft ist durch das ganze äußere Kosmische ausgedehnt, lebt überall in den Dingen und Vorgängen.
Diese Kraft ist die Tochter des kosmischen Verstandes. Man muß an mancherlei heute recht Ungewohntes rühren, wenn man diese Dinge charakterisieren will. Was tut denn eigentlich der heutige Naturforscher, wenn er dem physischen Geheimnis des Keimens nahekommen will? Er mikroskopiert, er untersucht im Mikroskop, wie der Keim ist, wenn er unbefruchtet ist, wenn er befruchtet ist und so weiter. Er hat keine Ahnung davon, daß er, was er da im Kleinsten darinnen in dem Mikroskop untersucht, im Makrokosmischen fortwährend vor sich sieht. Genau derselbe Vorgang, der sich zum Beispiel im Leibe der Mutter abspielt vor der Empfängnis, während der Konzeption, nach der Konzeption, dann im Embryonalleben, genau derselbe Prozeß spielt sich makrokosmisch ab, indem die Pflanze dem Samen nach in die Erde gesenkt wird, die Erde den Pflanzenkeim herausschickt. Die Uteruswärme, die Gebärmutterwärme ist genau dasselbe, was die Sonne draußen ist für die gesamte Weltvegetation. Es ist schon sehr bedeutsam, anerkennen zu können, daß dasjenige, was der Mikroskopiker im Kleinsten sieht, fortwährend makrokosmisch überschaut werden kann draußen in der Welt. Wir gehen gewissermaßen, indem wir unter der werdenden Pflanzenwelt herumgehen, eigentlich in dem Weltenuterus herum in Wahrheit. Kurz, die Kraft, die dem Menschenwerden zugrunde liegt, ist draußen in der makrokosmischen Welt, durchwallt und durchwebt die ganze makrokosmische Welt. Denken Sie sich diese Kraft personifiziert, diese heilige Kraft des Menschenwerdens in ihrem geistigen Korrelat draußen erfaßt außerhalb des menschlichen Leibes, geistig-seelisch, und Sie haben Galatee, verwandt mit alledem, was zu ihr gehört, ihren Schwestern, den Doriden. In diesen Imaginationen werden wir schon hineingeführt in eine geheimnisvolle, aber durch und durch wirkliche Welt. Es ist eine der tiefsten Szenen, die Goethe geschrieben hat. Und er war sich dessen bewußt, daß man im höchsten Alter eine Ahnung haben kann von diesen tiefsten Naturgeheimnissen.
Es hat etwas ungeheuer Bedeutungsvolles, wenn man sich vergegenwärtigt: Goethe hat als Jüngling seinen «Faust» begonnen, und kurz vor seinem Lebensende sind solche Szenen geschrieben wie diejenigen, die wir jetzt vorführen. Gestrebt hat er durch sechzig Jahre hindurch, den Weg zu finden, um das auszugestalten, was er in frühester Jugend konzipiert hat. Alles zieht er heran, da es sich ihm darum handelt, die Homunkulus-Idee zur Homo-Idee zu erheben, alles zieht er heran, da es sich ihm darum handelt, das Geheimnis der Menschwerdung außerhalb des Leibes darzustellen. Er zieht heran das Kabiren-Geheimnis, er zieht heran das Geheimnis vom Menschwerden, wie es sich im Bilde der Galatee abspiegelt. Und er weiß, daß dasjenige, was die Wirklichkeit ist, so umfassend und so tief ist, daß ihm gegenüber die Imaginationen, zu denen man kommen kann, die erweckt werden durch die KabirenImpulse, durch den Galatea-Impuls, doch vorüberhuschen,.daß das Geheimnis noch größer ist als dasjenige, das so festgehalten werden kann.
Goethe hat selbst wirklich alles versucht, um in lebendiger Art dem Geheimnis des Lebens nahzukommen. So hat er seine Metamorphosenlehre ausgebildet, wo er die verschiedenen Formen in der Natur verfolgt, wie eine Form aus der andern wird. Diese Metamorphosenlehre Goethes darf auch nicht abstrakt vorgestellt werden. Daß sie das nicht darf, zeigt uns Goethe, der mit dieser Metamorphosenlehre, die doch nur konzipiert werden kann in leibfreier Weltanschauung, an dasjenige herantritt, was atavistisch empfunden wurde in der alten ProteusMythe. Vielleicht kann Proteus, der in seinem eigenen Werden verschiedene Gestalten annimmt — Sie wissen, er führt ihn vor, oder wir stellen ihn dar in der Szene als Schildkröte, als Mensch, als Delphin: diese Gestalten stehen nebeneinander, treten nacheinander auf -, vielleicht kann man durch dasjenige, was Proteus erlebt, von ihm erfahren, wie Homunkulus zum Homo werden kann.
Aber Goethe empfand das doch noch Eingeschränkte seiner Metamorphosenlehre. Ja, meinen Sie, ein so gründlicher, ein so tiefer Erkenntnismensch, wie Goethe war, hat das nicht empfunden, was ihm da folgte aus der Tatsache: Du kannst, wenn du die Metamorphosenlehre hast, Pflanzenblatt nach Pflanzenblatt bis zum Blütenblatt verfolgen, wie sie sich verwandeln, du kannst auch den Rückenwirbelknochen verfolgen, wie er sich verwandelt in den Kopfknochen, Schädelknochen. — Aber Goethe — das weiß der, der Goethes eigene Anschauung durchgearbeitet hat, wie Goethe ringt auf diesem Gebiete — wußte: Da kann ich nicht weiter. Er empfand: Da gibt es etwas darüber hinaus. — Wir wissen, was es gibt! Der Kopf des gegenwärtigen Menschen ist die Metamorphose des Leibes des früheren Menschen, des Menschen im früheren Erdenleben. Der übrige Leib des Menschen in diesem Erdenleben wird zum Kopf im nächsten Erdenleben. Da haben wir die Metamorphose, die Krönung der Metamorphose für das Menschenleben. Das empfand Goethe, daß er einen großen Anfang gemacht hat mit der proteischen Metamorphosen-Idee, daß sie aber ausgebildet werden muß, wenn man von Homunkulus zum Homo kommen will. Er zieht heran, was er empfindet beim Proteus. Aber das kann nicht dazu führen, die Idee des Homunkulus zu der Idee des Homo zu bringen. Goethe stellt in ehrlicher Weise dichterisch dar, was er kann und was er nicht kann. Man sieht schon tief in die Seele Goethes hinein. Bequemer ist es freilich, sich einen abstrakten, vollkommenen Goethe vorzustellen, um sich dann zu sagen: Der hat alles gewußt. — Nein, Goethe wird gerade dadurch groß, daß man auch seine Grenzen kennenlernt, sintemalen er diese Grenzen so ehrlich selbst gestanden hat, wie das geschehen ist, indem er auch den Proteus, wie er ihn fassen konnte, das heißt die Metamorphosenlehre, wie er sie fassen konnte, nicht ratgeben läßt über das Werden des Homunkulus zum Homo.
Goethe hat allerdings in der verschiedensten Richtung gestrebt, diesem Werden, welches das Menschenwerden ist, näherzukommen. Für ihn war auch die Kunstanschauung nicht das, was sie so vielen ist, im Grunde auch etwas Abstraktes. Für Goethe ging dasjenige, was im Kunstwerke sich ausdrückte, zusammen mit alldem, was schöpferisch in der Welt lebte. All das, was ihn hat führen sollen nach seinen Sehnsuchten, das Geheimnis des Menschenwerdens zu ergründen, führt Goethe in dieser Szene vor. Wie er vor den griechischen Kunstwerken, vor den ihm die griechische Kunst vergegenwärtigenden italienischen Kunstwerken stand und sich sagte: Ich bin auf der Spur, wie die Griechen verfahren sind, indem sie ihre Kunstwerke geschaffen haben; sie verfuhren nach denselben Kräften, nach denen die Natur schafft -, da hat Goethe empfunden: Ja, wenn der Künstler ein wirklicher Künstler ist, dann vermählt er sich mit denselben Kräften, die in der Natur schaffen, schafft seine Formen, schafft alles dasjenige, was künstlerisch zu schaffen ist, aus demselben heraus, was da wirkt im Pflanzen-, im Tier-, im Menschenwerden. — Aber es bleibt doch ohne das innere Wissen. Das ist dann dasjenige, was Goethe sich auch gestehen mochte: Die schöpferischen Kräfte, sie lassen sich anschauen, sie lassen sich fühlen, aber man steht nicht darinnen in der Metamorphose. — Die Telchinen von Rhodus treten auf; sie sind so große Künstler, daß natürlich jede äußere Menschenkunst klein dagegen erscheint. Sie haben Neptunen den Dreizack geschmiedet, sie haben es zuerst versucht, Götter in Menschengestalt darzustellen, also den Menschen wirklich aus den kosmischen Kräften heraus nachzuschaffen. Man ist auf dem Wege damit, wenn man diese Telchinenkunst ausführt, das Menschenwerden nachzubilden, aber man kommt doch nicht an es heran. Das will Goethe sagen. Er spricht es aus durch den Proteus, der zuletzt sagt: Auch das führt nicht zum wirklichen Menschengeheimnis heran.
So recht will Goethe die Empfindung hervorrufen, wie das doch zwei Welten sind: die wache Tageswelt und die, in welche man eintritt, wenn man leibfrei wird, und die man schauen würde, wenn man aus dem Leibe aufwachte im leibfreien Zustande im Schlafe, die Welt, die man schaut, wenn man nicht im Leibe herinnen ist. All das, was er da sagen will, deutet Goethe in dieser Szene so fein, so großartig an. Bitte, nehmen Sie nur den Teil der Szene, wo die Doriden herbeiführen die Schifferknaben, und lesen Sie diese Worte. Lesen Sie die Worte, wie da die Welt charakterisiert ist, wie zusammenkommt die physische Welt mit der geistigen, in die man eintritt, wenn man leibfrei ist: die Doriden mit dem Physischen, mit den hier in der Welt herinnen stehenden Schifferknaben. Sie haben sich gefunden und doch nicht gefunden; Menschen und Geister finden sich und finden sich doch nicht, nähern sich und bleiben sich fremd. Dieses Verhältnis der physischen Welt zur geistigen Welt ist in diesem Teil der Szene wunderbar angedeutet. Überall das Bestreben bei Goethe, zu zeigen, wie notwendig es ist, in die geistige Welt sich zu versetzen, wenn das erreicht werden soll, was aus dem Homunkulus einen Homo macht, und zugleich die Andeutung, die feine, intime Andeutung des Zusammen- und Getrenntseins der physischen Welt und der geistigen Welt.
Man möchte sagen: Goethe sieht oder läßt in seiner künstlerischen Darstellung sehen, wie der Homunkulus zum Menschen werden könnte für die Seele, wenn sie sich nähert dem intimen Mysterium der Kabiren, demjenigen, was Nereus heraufruft in seiner Tochter Galatee, demjenigen, was in der wahren, aus dem Kosmos heraus wirkenden Kunst wirkt. Aber ach, es ist, wie wenn man im Traume eine Wirklichkeit ergreift, und der Traum gleich wieder vorbeihuscht, es ist, wie wenn man halten möchte dasjenige, was zusammenschmiedet die geistige Welt und die physische Welt. Aber: «Die Götter wollen’s nicht leiden.» Es geht wieder auseinander.
Diese Schwierigkeit des Geist-Erkennens steht als die Grundempfindung, als der Grundimpuls vor der Seele dessen, der diese Szene mit wirklichem Verständnisse schaut. Das ist es, was dann Goethe dazu führt, den gewaltigen Abschluß dieser Szene herbeizuführen: das Zerschellen des Homunkulus am Muschelwagen der Galatee, jenes Zerschellen, das zugleich ein Entstehen ist, jenes Entwerden, das zu gleicher Zeit ein Werden, jenes Aufgehen in den Elementen, das zu gleicher Zeit ein Sich-Finden in der Wirklichkeit ist. Davon wollen wir dann morgen sprechen, von diesem Schluß der Szene im Anschlusse an die Vorstellung.
The Samothracian Cabirian Mysteries: The Secret of Incarnation
based on a depiction of the “Classical Walpurgis Night”
Those who engage more intimately with Goethe and his worldview will see in the scene we are now presenting, which concludes the second act of the second part of “Faust” and forms the transition to Faust's entry into ancient Greece, how deeply Goethe penetrated the spiritual realm of the universe and the mystery of humanity through his worldview. insofar as this mystery of man is connected with penetrating the spiritual realm of the universe. First of all, it should be emphasized that, on the one hand, what Goethe once wanted to express by saying that he had put a lot of mystery into the second part of Faust applies precisely to the deepest, most significant scenes of the second part. There is much wisdom in the second part of Faust, wisdom that has been processed with consummate artistry. But on the other hand, everything is such that, when presented on stage, it can attract attention through its immediately sensual, vivid imagery.
These two sides, particularly in the second part of Goethe's Faust, must always be kept in mind when seeking to understand this work of poetry. According to Goethe, those who want to view Faust with naive senses should enjoy the sequence of images and derive aesthetic pleasure from it, while those who are initiated should be able to see the deep secrets of life within it. Now, if one starts from the imagery, this scene is the depiction of a sea festival to which Homunculus is led by Thales. But this sea festival contains all kinds of mysteries. This sea festival is actually supposed to represent the demonic, that is, spiritual powers that inhabit the sea. Why does Goethe resort to such demonic powers in his “Faust,” as they presented themselves to him in the Greek world, in his attempt to lead his Faust through human development to the highest goal of self-knowledge and self-understanding? It can be said that Goethe was perfectly clear that it is impossible for human beings to ever arrive at a true understanding of their own nature merely by acquiring knowledge through their senses and the intellect bound to those senses. True knowledge of human beings can only be conveyed through true spiritual insight, so that everything that is sought in terms of knowledge and insight into human beings through the mere external physical world, to which the senses and the sensual intellect are directed, is not true knowledge of human beings. Goethe suggests this by introducing the homunculus into his poetry.
The homunculus arises from what Wagner can achieve in terms of knowledge about human beings, can achieve with ideally conceived physical means, physical means so ideally conceived that they can naturally be regarded at most as a goal by ordinary knowledge of nature, but that it is unthinkable that anything could be achieved with them today or in the future of the earth. Goethe hypothesizes, in a sense, that it is possible to create a homunculus in a retort, that is, to have understood the interrelationship of the forces of nature to such a degree of perfection that one can rationally compose a human being from various ingredients. But no human being emerges from this, even if what human beings can achieve in the physical world is conceived to the highest degree of perfection; no human being, no homo emerges, but only a homunculus. This homunculus is therefore, dramatically conceived, basically nothing more than the image that human beings can form of themselves with the help of their physical intellect, with the help of their ordinary earthly knowledge. How can this image that humans can form, which is a homunculus, convey a true view of humanity? How can it come about that humans do not remain at the level of the mere homunculus in this view, but advance to the level of homo? Goethe is clear that this can only be achieved through the insights that can be gained from the spiritual-soul aspect of the human being in a body-free state.
Goethe now attempts in various ways to approach the realm into which the human being must transport themselves if they want to acquire complete knowledge of humanity, that is, knowledge in a body-free state. Goethe really wants to show that it is possible to leave one's body and gain insights that then constitute knowledge about the nature of human beings. Now Goethe was by no means one of those personalities who approached questions of knowledge lightly. Throughout his life, Goethe strove to deepen his soul more and more. For he was clear that when one grows old, one does not live in vain, but that one's powers of knowledge also increase and increase, and that one can know more in old age than in youth. But he was also clear about the problematic nature of the spiritual-soul's stay outside the body. Therefore, he tried in various ways to bring the pictorial knowledge, which we call imaginative, to man, to his Faust. This is already evident in the “Romantic Walpurgis Night” in the first part of “Faust,” and again in the “Classical Walpurgis Night,” where he takes the imaginings from ancient Greece, into which he wants to transport Faust. One could say something like this: Goethe thinks that when one steps out of the body in order to transform the homunculus into the homo, into the human being, one obtains imaginations that look different for one person than for another. — In the view of the ancient Greeks, these imaginations were still such that they approached spiritual reality, so to speak. If one brings the demon world of the ancient Greeks to mind, one can see through the view of this traditional mythical world how, in highly educated, atavistic clairvoyance, man really saw nature, from whose womb he himself springs when he is spiritually and soulfully outside his body. So I would like to say: because he does not want to invent an imaginative world himself, Goethe draws on the Greek world in order to be able to say that whatever man may conceive from his ordinary knowledge, it remains a homunculus, with which one must first enter the imaginative, inspired world and so on, if a human being is to become of it. That is, of course, the view of a human being at first.
Why does Goethe choose the sea festival, or rather, the dream of the sea festival? In order to understand the feelings that inspired Goethe, one must really put oneself back a little into the way of thinking of the ancient Greeks, into which Goethe himself put himself when he set about depicting this “cheerful sea festival.” One must be clear that for the Greeks, it still meant something when a person left the land and sailed out into the free, open sea. The Greeks still lived with the outside world, as did the ancient peoples in general. Just as something happened internally to the ancient peoples when they left the flat earth, the plains, and climbed up the mountain, which modern man experiences in an abstract, prosaic way, so too did something tremendous happen in the human soul when it left the land and sailed out onto the open sea. All people of ancient peoples had this feeling that the open sea particularly detached the spiritual and soul from the body. Many things are connected with this feeling.
Please remember what a major role the Pillars of Hercules played in the various representations of the path to knowledge in ancient mythology. It is always said that when a person has passed through various stages of knowledge, he sails out through the Pillars of Hercules. It was believed that he sailed out into the boundless, open sea, where he was no longer near the coast. Today, this means very little to people. For the Greeks, it meant that they were actually entering a completely different world, and when they sailed beyond the Pillars of Hercules, they felt that they were then freed from everything that bound them to the earth, above all from the forces of their bodies. In those ancient times, when everyday life was still experienced in a spiritual and emotional way, sailing out into the open sea was already perceived as a liberation from the physical.
Goethe did not write poetry like other poets, but from a sense of the world, and when he speaks of something he transposes into the Greek world, he transposes himself into it with his whole soul. This is what one always wants to call out to people who read Goethe like any other poet, who have no sense that when they read Goethe, they are really being introduced to another world.
Now, as the scene begins, we see the alluring sirens. Outwardly, Goethe depicts a scene that could also be an everyday scene. The alluring sirens collect flotsam, which they give to the Nereids and Tritons. But at the same time, seen from the other side, these alluring sirens are not only the voices of the human inner world, but also of the outer world, stages of the world, because on these stages of perception the inner and the outer flow together, as I have often pointed out. It is the sounds of the sirens that lure the human soul out of the physical body and transport it into the vastness of the spiritual-soul cosmos.
And now let us summarize: first, Goethe has a sea festival take place, that is, dreams that are awakened by the sea festival. Second, this sea festival takes place at night under the influence of the moon. Everything is arranged by Goethe to show that it is a matter of gaining insight that is independent of the body, insight that a person would gain if, from falling asleep to waking up, they became conscious outside the body and perceived the images of that being into which they are then transported outside the body. And now we see how, while Goethe wants to satisfy the trivial minds on the one hand — this is not said in a derogatory sense — by letting the sirens be the collectors of flotsam for the Nereids and Tritons who desire such flotsam, we see how these Nereids and Tritons are on their way to Samothrace to seek out the Cabiri, indeed to fetch them to this sea festival. By having the gods of the ancient Samothracian sanctuary appear here in this scene, Goethe really indicates that he wants to touch upon the highest human and cosmic mystery here. What must actually happen if the homunculus is to become homo, if the concept of the homunculus is to become the concept of homo? What must actually happen?
Well, the idea of the homunculus, which is conceived within the sensory world, must be taken out of the sensory world and transferred into the spiritual-soul world, in which man is from falling asleep to waking up. The homunculus must be carried into the world of images that human beings experience when they are free of their physical bodies and united with the spiritual-soul existence. The homunculus must be carried into this world of images.
When the human being first obtains the image of the homunculus with the help of his ordinary physical perception, he must then carry this image of the homunculus into the other world, into the imaginative, inspired world, and so on. Only there can the abstract idea of the homunculus be grasped by the real forces of existence, by those forces that never approach human knowledge when the human being remains with mere sensory understanding. Everything becomes real when one takes the homunculus idea out of the body and carries it into the spiritual-soul world. Then reality becomes serious. One must therefore approach those forces which are the real forces in relation to human emergence, to becoming human.
In this way, Goethe shows that he had a deep and meaningful understanding of the Cabiri of Samothrace, that he had a sense that these Cabiri were worshipped in ancient times as the guardians of those forces connected with becoming human, with human genesis. Goethe thus touches on the highest by evoking images from the time of atavistic clairvoyance of those divine forces associated with becoming human.
The Greek view itself referred to something very ancient when it spoke of the mysteries of Samothrace. And it can be said that, in contrast to everything the Greeks had in terms of various conceptions of gods and ideas about the connection between humans and these gods, the ideas about the deities of Samothrace and the Cabirian deities permeated everything. And the ancient Greeks were convinced that through what had entered Greek consciousness as the legacy of the Samothracian mysteries, they had gained a conception, an idea of human immortality. The Greeks thought that they owed the idea of human immortality, that is, the belonging of human beings to the spiritual-soul universe, to the influence of the Samothracian Cabirian mysteries.
So Goethe wants to say at the same time: perhaps the abstract human idea of the homunculus comes together with the real powers of becoming human when, in a bodiless state, the impulses that the Greeks thought were connected with their Cabiri of Samothrace are grasped. That there was something in the Greek consciousness that could, in a sense, come alive again in Goethe precisely when he touched on such a profound mystery can be seen from this, among many other things, but also from the fact that the Greeks said: Philip of Macedonia found Olympias when he saw the Samothracian mysteries. —- And it was in the Greek consciousness that the great Alexander decided to descend into the earthly world to this pair of parents when, before the Cabiri gods, soul met soul, Philip of Macedon and Olympias found each other. One must touch upon such ideas in order to feel all the awe in the soul that the Greeks truly felt and Goethe empathized with when it came to the Cabiri.
Outwardly, they are again simple sea gods. Samothrace—as the Greeks knew—was battered, ravaged, and thrown into confusion by the most terrible, earthquake-like storms in relatively recent times. So the demons of nature had raged here in such a monstrous way that it was still like a historical memory for the ancient Greeks. And in the forests, in the dense, then dense forests of Samothrace, the mystery of the Cabiri was hidden. Among the various names given to the Cabiri are those where one Cabiri is called Axieros, the second Axiokersos, the third Axiokersa, and the fourth Kadmilos. Then there was a vague feeling that there was also a fifth, sixth, and seventh. But essentially, people's spiritual gaze was fixed on the first three Cabiri. The ancient ideas about the Cabiri really concerned the mystery of becoming human. And actually, those who were initiated into the sacred mysteries of Samothrace were supposed to come to the realization: What corresponds in the spiritual world, viewed spiritually, to what happens here on earth when a soul incarnating on earth becomes a human being, becomes a human being in the succession of generations? — In a sense, the spiritual correlate of human birth should be seen in the spiritual world.
Through this vision, Goethe believed he could obtain the homunculus as a homo in the idea. But the initiate of the Samothracian mysteries was also to be introduced to this vision. Now, one cannot truly see the human being in its essence if one thinks of it as enclosed in its skin, if one is under the illusion that only what stands before one in external physical form has anything to do with the human being, if one sees a human being with one's eyes. If you really want to get to know a human being, you must go beyond what is enclosed within the skin and see the human being as spread out throughout the entire universe. You must truly contemplate the spiritual continuation beyond the skin.
Now, this impulse of the Greeks to see the human being outside the skin was connected with various ideas about gods. But all these ideas about gods had, in a sense, an exoteric and an esoteric side. The exoteric side of becoming human, but in connection with the whole process of becoming nature, that is, the mystery of becoming human with the mystery of becoming nature, all these ideas were touched upon when the Greeks spoke of Demeter, and later, when they spoke of Ceres, Kersa. The esoteric side of Ceres, Demeter, the world of becoming, were, in a sense, the Cabiri. But one must look at the human being in the right way if one wants to somehow discover his secret.
To look at the human being as his form is here in the physical world would actually mean to deceive oneself about the human being. For this human being has first of all come together from a trinity. And as when three lights cast their rays toward a point, toward a circle for my sake, and one sees the confluence of the three lights, and one does not want to go on to see how the one, one a yellow light, the other a blue light, and the third a reddish light, come together for my sake, if one does not want to see this coming together, how can one believe that what arises as a mixture of light is a unity? One deceives oneself if one considers this mixture, which one has before one in what stands before us as a human being within its skin, to be a unity. It is not a unity. And one can never get to the bottom of the mystery of man if one considers this to be a unity. Now, people are not aware that this is not a unity. But when atavistic clairvoyance glowed through human knowledge, people were aware of this. And so the Samothracian initiates composed the human being, as it were, from what is in the middle: Axieros, and from what are extremes: Axiokersos and Axiokersa, whose powers were combined with the power of Axieros. One could say: there are three — Axieros, Axiokersos, Axiokersa. These three powers flow together, forming a unity. The higher reality is the trinity. But unity arises from this. This is what appears before the human eye.
One could also say: The Samothracian initiate came to know man as he stood before him in sensory perception, and he was told: You must subtract two extremes from this man; Axiokersa, Axiokersos, they only radiate in. Then you can possibly retain Axieros. — So that one could also represent the matter in such a way that, of the three, Axieros represents, as it were, the human middle state, and the others, the two invisible ones, only radiate upon it.
So, in the Samothracian mysteries, man was represented as a trinity. Goethe asked himself: Can the abstract homunculus perhaps be transformed into the complete homo in the idea, if one relies on what was regarded in the Samothracian mysteries as a mystery of man himself, as the human trinity? He said to himself: One can only arrive at this trinity, in terms of perception, by moving out of the body with the spiritual-soul. — So he said to himself.
But it must always be emphasized that Goethe lived, in terms of spiritual perception, in a kind of initial state. That is precisely what is so wonderful about Goetheanism, that, as I said recently, it can only be properly understood if one presents it as something that must be continued, developed, that it leads to ever higher and higher heights, that with Goethe one simply has the doctrine of metamorphosis from leaf to leaf, from the green leaf to the colorful flower petal and so on, or from the vertebrae to the bones of the head, but that this mystery leads from one incarnation to another, from one earthly life to another, if one understands this correctly, as I have often explained to you. Therefore, remaining entirely within Goethe's worldview, one can say: How could the Samothracian mystery be visualized today for the present? The Samothracian mystery as such, with its Kabirian illustrations of the mystery of man, is entirely in accordance with the old atavistic-clairvoyant worldview, but that which lives in any period of human history in terms of knowledge can be legitimately continued, must be transformed. It is unjustified to simply want to return to the old views that existed for completely different epochs of humanity; they must be transformed. The Samothracian mystery naturally has only historical value. Today we would say: We show how Axieros stands in the middle as the representative of humanity, how the representative of humanity is surrounded by Axiokersa, how Axiokersos must again be connected with the earthly today, and we have the representatives of humanity, Lucifer and Ahriman. In this we have the transformation of the sacred Samothracian mystery appropriate for the present and coming age.
One might say: if Goethe were to come among us today and, with what humanity has been able to achieve in the meantime, wanted to say what transforms his homunculus into homo, he would point to the representative of humanity, encircled and in struggle with Lucifer, Ahriman. But I beg you not to take these things in an abstract way, not to use the popular method of today, which is to take these things as symbols and dismiss them with a few abstract concepts. The more you feel that, even in the representation of the representative of humanity in connection with each line of Lucifer and Ahriman, a whole world lies hidden about the mystery of humanity, the more you deny the arrogance, the unfounded, childish arrogance of modern man in his abstract scientific concepts, and the more you expand your soul to a world in view of this visualization of the mystery of humanity, the closer you come to the mystery of humanity.
Today, spiritual science has many opponents. But one of its strongest enemies is the human longing for abstraction, the longing of people to want to cover everything with a few concepts. Goetheanism is also, in terms of feeling, the very opposite of this modern nonsense of wanting to cover everything with a few concepts. One has special experiences in this regard. People initially come to a spiritual science movement for a wide variety of reasons. There are many who then begin to want to abstract everything as much as possible. Human beings have seven principles — I once experienced, oh, how dreadful, how utterly dreadful, how someone explained Hamlet by making one principle Buddhi, another Manas, and so on. That is something much worse than all external materialism. All these abstract explanations, all this symbolization of an abstract nature, is much worse, viewed inwardly, than all external materialism. In any case, we see that Goethe initially really wants to lead us to the highest human ideal, the idea of the homunculus, by showing his Nereids and Tritons on their way to Samothrace to bring the sacred Cabiri.
And so we will have to feel with the Cabiri what primitive peoples felt with their god figures. These god figures of primitive peoples seem primitive to people today: idols. These god figures of primitive peoples appear as idols to people today because people today have no understanding of what springs from the elemental forces. People today do not even rise to truly creative heights in art. They stick to the model, or judge something that is presented to them in art by asking: Is it similar? Yes, one often even hears the objection to some representation: That is not natural — because there is really little artistic feeling among people today. However, anyone who wants to advance to an understanding of the perhaps grotesque-looking ancient images of gods must try to form an idea of those beings that belong to the third elemental world, from which our world springs forth in its mineral products on the one hand, and in its organic products on the other.
You know how the scene begins with the Nereids and Tritons on their way to Samothrace to bring the Cabiri, among whom the homunculus is to be transformed into a human being. In the meantime, while the Nereids and Tritons are on their way to Samothrace, Thales, who is to lead the homunculus to the old sea god Nereus, goes to the ancient natural philosopher Thales. Thales, the old natural philosopher, is the one whom the homunculus sought out first. Now, Goethe is neither a mystic in the negative sense of the word nor a mere natural philosopher when it comes to finding reality. Therefore, Thales himself cannot help the homunculus become human. Goethe greatly admired Thales' worldview, but he does not attribute to Thales the ability or power to advise the homunculus on how to become a human being, a real human being. So one must turn to a demonic power—outside the body—to the old Nereus. Goethe brings the most diverse demonic powers to the homunculus. What kind of power is Nereus actually? Well, you can see that from the way this sea elder speaks in Goethe's poetry. One might say: this Nereus is, in a certain sense, the wise, prophetic, but somewhat philistine inhabitant of the spiritual world closest to humans, which humans enter when they leave their bodies. — Does he know anything about how the homunculus can become human? Yes, you see, Nereus already has understanding, even to the point of prophetic clairvoyance; he handles this intellect magnificently, but the way he handles it does not really allow him to reach the innermost being of human beings. Therefore, he feels that people do not hear him, do not listen to his advice. In a sense, he has no access to the human soul. He has advised people against various things, once advised Paris against bringing the whole misery upon Ilion. Nothing has come of it. So this Nereus has simply developed the human intellect, which people have already developed to a very low, I would say, to a very high degree on the physical plane, to the highest degree, because he is not limited to a physical body at all. But this intellect does not really help to get from the homunculus to the homo. What Nereus has to say is not enough; it does not really help the homunculus in his task.
But Nereus says that while he does not want to concern himself with advising the homunculus on how to become human, he is expecting his daughters, the Dorids, and in particular the most exquisite of them, Galatea, who is to come to this sea festival today, whom her father is expecting. Galatea: an imagination of the most powerful kind.
Seeing connections in the world is what matters. It is not easy to talk about this point, because today's soul has a longing to abstract everything. Those who look around at these things learn a great deal. Certainly, there are well-meaning people who say they believe in the spirit. It is not a bad thing if people at least believe in the spirit. But what happens when you probe deeper and ask people from the heart: What do you actually imagine when you think of the spirit in which you believe? What is the spirit? — Isn't it true that spiritualists refrain from learning anything about the spirit by imagining all kinds of unspiritual things? Spiritualism is the most materialistic doctrine that can possibly exist. Certain more finely tuned souls do speak of the spirit, but what is it that they have in mind when they speak of the spirit? That is why skeptical, truly modern minds prefer to abandon the spirit — no, I mean only in thought, of course — prefer to abandon the spirit in favor of what can be known in the modern sense. Read the article “Spirit” in Fritz Mauthner's philosophical dictionary, and you will probably be able to attain states of your body that are not states of the mind.
All this abstract talk, even when it is talk about the spirit, should be overcome, especially in true spiritual science. Notice how ascending the language actually is in the course of our spiritual scientific work. Everything is brought in that can gradually lead us into the spiritual world. It is not just spoken in words, but a comparative method is used, so to speak. Consider how the way spiritual science is presented here makes it truly comprehensible that human beings go through a life journey here in their physical bodies. Read, for example, the summary descriptions in the last issue of Das Reich. There it is indicated how and through what forces human beings, when they are very young children, is most similar to the material world, how he then becomes more soulful in the middle of his life, but how he becomes spiritual — only that he often does not grasp this spirit because he is not prepared for it — how he becomes spiritual when the body decays, when the body becomes dry and sclerotic, how the spirit then frees itself, even in the waking state. However, humans very rarely become aware of what they can experience when they grow old with a certain gift, I mean when they grow old with a spiritual gift, when they do not simply become frail in body, but when they then experience the rejuvenating soul, rejuvenating towards the spirit.
This shows that we become aware that we cannot, of course, see the spirit in the old man or woman, that it is invisible. One sees the decaying body, one does not see the spirit, which becomes young and fresh; one sees the wrinkles on the fleshly cheeks and does not see the chubby cheeks of the spirit that then arise; these are supersensible. But at least one points out where one can find the spiritual here in the world in which we have our ordinary dealings. And when one then says that the whole of nature is permeated by the spirit, one actually demands that one imagine that out there in nature, where the minerals and plants reveal the outer world, there lives something of the same power into which one grows when one becomes an old man or woman. You see, that is how the matter is vividly expressed. To speak in a pantheistic way: “Out there is spirit” — that is nothing, because spirit remains a mere word. But if, instead of speaking in a directly abstract way, one draws attention to it in the various descriptions that are necessary, saying, “Seek out the force that grows ever greater within you as you grow old as the most intimate, most intense force of nature,” then one is saying something. Placing one force next to another and drawing attention to where one force and the other are located is the essential thing. And so, when we turn our gaze to those impulses of force that live in the whole context from conception through embryonic life to birth, when a physical human being comes into being here on earth, we can visualize these things. The dry natural scientist, who could better be called a natural stalker, stops at this force, which he examines in every possible way, but he examines it in his own way; he stops there. But those who are able to gain a spiritual-scientific overview of the world know that this force is also present in other places. The very same force, only acting more quickly, makes itself felt when you wake up in the morning; the very same force that leads from conception through embryonic life to birth, diluted in a sense, makes itself felt when you pass from sleep to waking. It is exactly the same force. But this force is not only within you, inside you, but this force extends throughout the entire outer cosmos, living everywhere in things and processes.
This force is the daughter of the cosmic mind. One must touch on many things that are quite unfamiliar today if one wants to characterize these things. What does today's natural scientist actually do when he wants to approach the physical mystery of germination? He uses a microscope to examine what the germ is like when it is unfertilized, when it is fertilized, and so on. He has no idea that what he is examining in the smallest detail in the microscope is constantly happening in the macrocosm. Exactly the same process that takes place, for example, in the mother's body before conception, during conception, after conception, then in embryonic life, exactly the same process takes place macrocosmically when the plant is lowered into the earth after the seed, and the earth sends out the plant germ. The warmth of the uterus is exactly the same as what the sun is outside for all the vegetation in the world. It is very significant to be able to recognize that what the microscopist sees in the smallest detail can be continually observed macrocosmically outside in the world. In a sense, when we walk among the nascent plant world, we are actually walking in the world womb. In short, the force that underlies human becoming is out there in the macrocosmic world, permeating and interweaving the entire macrocosmic world. Imagine this force personified, this sacred force of becoming human, grasped in its spiritual correlate outside the human body, spiritually and soulfully, and you have Galatea, related to all that belongs to her, her sisters, the Dorids. In these imaginings, we are already led into a mysterious but thoroughly real world. It is one of the most profound scenes Goethe ever wrote. And he was aware that in old age one can have an inkling of these deepest secrets of nature.
It is tremendously significant when one realizes that Goethe began his “Faust” as a young man, and shortly before the end of his life he wrote scenes such as those we are now presenting. For sixty years he strove to find a way to develop what he had conceived in his earliest youth. He draws on everything, because his aim is to elevate the homunculus idea to the homo idea; he draws on everything, because his aim is to portray the mystery of human becoming outside the body. He draws on the Cabiri mystery, he draws on the mystery of human becoming as reflected in the image of Galatea. And he knows that reality is so comprehensive and so profound that the imaginations that can be awakened by the Cabiri impulses, by the Galatea impulse, are but fleeting in comparison, that the mystery is even greater than that which can be grasped.
Goethe himself really tried everything to approach the mystery of life in a living way. Thus, he developed his theory of metamorphosis, in which he traces the various forms in nature, how one form becomes another. Goethe's theory of metamorphosis must not be imagined in abstract terms. Goethe shows us that it must not be, for with this theory of metamorphosis, which can only be conceived in a worldview free of the physical, he approaches what was felt atavistically in the ancient myth of Proteus. Perhaps Proteus, who takes on different forms in his own becoming—you know, he presents him, or we portray him in the scene as a turtle, as a human, as a dolphin: these forms stand side by side, appear one after the other—perhaps through what Proteus experiences, we can learn from him how homunculus can become homo.
But Goethe still felt the limitations of his theory of metamorphosis. Yes, do you think that a man of such thorough and profound knowledge as Goethe did not feel what followed from the fact that, if you have the theory of metamorphosis, you can follow plant leaf after plant leaf to the petal, how they transform, you can also follow the vertebrae as they transform into the bones of the head, the skull. But Goethe — as anyone who has studied Goethe's own views knows, how Goethe wrestled with this question — knew: I cannot go any further. He sensed that there was something beyond this. We know what that something is! The head of the present human being is the metamorphosis of the body of the former human being, the human being in a previous earthly life. The rest of the human body in this earthly life becomes the head in the next earthly life. There we have the metamorphosis, the crowning glory of metamorphosis for human life. Goethe felt that he had made a great start with the protean idea of metamorphosis, but that it had to be developed further if one wanted to get from homunculus to homo. He draws on what he feels about Proteus. But that cannot lead to bringing the idea of the homunculus to the idea of homo. Goethe honestly and poetically depicts what he can and cannot do. One can already see deep into Goethe's soul. Of course, it is more convenient to imagine an abstract, perfect Goethe, and then say to oneself: He knew everything. No, Goethe becomes great precisely because we also learn about his limitations, since he admitted these limitations so honestly, as happened when he did not let Proteus, as he understood him, that is, the doctrine of metamorphosis as he understood it, advise on the becoming of the homunculus into homo.
Goethe did indeed strive in many different directions to come closer to this becoming, which is the becoming of man. For him, the view of art was not what it is for so many, something fundamentally abstract. For Goethe, what was expressed in the work of art went hand in hand with everything that lived creatively in the world. In this scene, Goethe presents everything that was supposed to lead him, according to his longings, to fathom the mystery of becoming human. As he stood before the Greek works of art, before the Italian works of art that brought Greek art to life for him, and said to himself: I am on the trail of how the Greeks proceeded in creating their works of art; they proceeded according to the same forces that nature creates with – Goethe felt: Yes, if the artist is a real artist, then he marries himself to the same forces that create in nature, creates his forms, creates everything that is to be created artistically from the same thing that works in the becoming of plants, animals, and humans. — But it still lacks inner knowledge. That is what Goethe was also willing to admit: the creative forces can be seen, they can be felt, but one does not stand within them in metamorphosis. — The Telchines of Rhodes appear; they are such great artists that, naturally, all external human art seems small in comparison. They forged Neptune's trident; they were the first to attempt to represent gods in human form, that is, to recreate humans from cosmic forces. When one practices this Telchin art, one is on the way to recreating human becoming, but one cannot quite reach it. That is what Goethe wants to say. He expresses it through Proteus, who finally says: Even that does not lead to the real mystery of man.
Goethe really wants to evoke the feeling that these are two worlds: the waking world of the day and the world one enters when one becomes disembodied, the world one would see if one woke up from the body in a disembodied state during sleep, the world one sees when one is not inside the body. Goethe hints at all that he wants to say so subtly, so magnificently in this scene. Please take only the part of the scene where the Dorids bring the boatmen's boys and read these words. Read the words that characterize the world, how the physical world comes together with the spiritual world that one enters when one is free of the body: the Dorids with the physical, with the boatmen's boys who are here in the world. They have found each other and yet have not found each other; humans and spirits find each other and yet do not find each other, they approach each other and yet remain strangers. This relationship between the physical world and the spiritual world is wonderfully hinted at in this part of the scene. Everywhere in Goethe's work, there is an effort to show how necessary it is to enter the spiritual world if one is to achieve what makes a homunculus a homo, and at the same time, there is a subtle, intimate hint of the togetherness and separateness of the physical world and the spiritual world.
One might say that Goethe sees, or allows us to see in his artistic representation, how the homunculus could become human for the soul when it approaches the intimate mystery of the Cabiri, that which Nereus evokes in his daughter Galatea, that which works in true art emanating from the cosmos. But alas, it is as if one grasps reality in a dream, and the dream immediately slips away again; it is as if one wants to hold on to that which forges together the spiritual world and the physical world. But: “The gods will not allow it.” It falls apart again.
This difficulty of spiritual recognition is the basic feeling, the basic impulse before the soul of those who view this scene with real understanding. This is what then leads Goethe to bring about the powerful conclusion of this scene: the shattering of the homunculus on Galatea's shell chariot, that shattering which is at the same time a coming into being, that becoming nothing which is at the same time a becoming, that dissolving into the elements which is at the same time a finding oneself in reality. We will talk about this tomorrow, about this conclusion of the scene following the performance.