Planetary Spheres and Their Influence on Man's Life on Earth and in the Spiritual Worlds
GA 218
12 November 1922, London
IV. Life in the Spiritual Spheres and the Return to Earth
You will remember that on the last occasion when I was able to speak to you here, I gave you a description of the experiences of the soul during sleep. Today I would like to carry the subject a little further. It will, I am sure, already be clear to you that one whose knowledge of human life confines itself to daytime existence, knows only half the life of man; for things of the very greatest importance take place during sleep. There is no need for me here to explain first the methods by which one comes to know these things; I assume from the outset that you receive what I say as coming from the exact clairvoyance which you will remember I described in my lectures here in London, a few months ago.1Knowledge and Initiation and Knowledge of the Christ through Anthroposophy. Two lectures, London, 14 and 15 April, 1922.
When man passes from day-consciousness into sleep-consciousness—which is for the man of the present time unconsciousness—he is not in his physical body, nor in his etheric body. During sleep he is a purely spiritual being. On my last visit I gave you a description, from one aspect, of the experience man undergoes as soul and spirit between the times of falling asleep and awaking. Today I want to describe this experience from another side.
You will remember how in sleep man goes out into the cosmic ether, and feeling himself in the midst of a vast and vague unknown is at first overcome with anxiety and apprehension; then you will also remember how in this moment something awakens in the soul which one can call—borrowing the expression from conscious life—a yearning for the Divine. And we went on to speak of how in the second stage of sleep man experiences a reflection of the movements of the planets, and how, for one who has already a relation to the Mystery of Golgotha, Christ then appears, to be his Guide through the otherwise chaotic experiences that come to him while he is living his way through a kind of reproduction or copy of the life of the stars and the planets. For now comes the experience of the fixed stars. Man goes forth, from the planetary spheres—we mean of course the copy of the planetary spheres—and enters upon an experience of the constellations of the fixed stars. So that between falling asleep and awaking, man actually covers the whole cosmic existence beyond the Earth. I told you moreover that it is the forces of the Moon (the spiritual counterpart of what reveals itself to us in the various lunar phenomena) that bring man back again in the morning—or whenever he wakes up—bring him back into his physical and into his etheric body.
And now I should like, as I said, to describe these experiences from another angle. Unless we have allowed ourselves to become completely involved and imprisoned in the materialistic ideas of modern times, the conscious life that we lead in the daytime has for us a moral and also a religious foundation. We have our knowledge of Nature; but we cannot help feeling that we have in us something more than knowledge and science, that we have as well, moral duties, moral responsibilities, and we feel moreover that our whole being is grounded in a spiritual world. This latter realisation may be described as a religious consciousness. It is, however, only because he is in the physical body, that he is able to have this religious consciousness. It is, however, only because he is in the physical body, that he is able to have this religious consciousness in waking life. For you must understand that in his physical body man is not alone, but with him are spirits of higher cosmic rank; in his physical body, man lives together with higher spirits. And man lives, in his ether-body, with the moral purposes of these higher spirits. Thus, the religious consciousness of man is dependent on his life in the physical body, and his moral consciousness on his life in the etheric body. And this leads us to distinguish two parts in the cosmic ether, from which, as you know, our own ether-body is derived. One part is warmth, light, chemical ether, life ether. But behind all this, behind the warmth and light and chemical processes and life, is a moral element—the moral essence of the cosmic ether.
Now this moral essence of the cosmic ether is present only in the neighbourhood of stars and planets. If you are living on the Earth, then you are not only within the cosmic ether, but also within its moral essence, although by day you do not know it. And when you wander through the cosmos, then whenever you are in the environment of a star, you are in the moral essence of the cosmos ether. But in between the stars, the moral element is driven out of the ether by the action of the sunlight. Note that I say the sunlight, not the Sun, which is a cosmic body within which is contained the very source and origin of the moral ether; but when the Sun shines, then by means of its light it drives away the moral essence of the ether. And so it comes about that when we look out through our eyes on to the world, we see flowers, we see springs and brooks, we see the whole face of Nature, but without any moral element discernible within it; the sunlight has killed out the moral element. And when we fall asleep and leave our physical and etheric bodies, then we take with us what we have acquired in this way during waking hours on Earth by beholding Nature; but strange as it may sound, we leave behind us our religious feeling and our moral feeling, we leave them behind with the physical and with the ether-body, and our soul and spirit live as an a-moral being during the time of sleep.
This has an important consequence for us. We are living during this time in a world that has been irradiated by the light of the Sun. This means that the moral ordering of the world has gone out of the ether. Consequently the Ahrimanic Being has access to the ether in which we find ourselves as soon as we fall asleep. And this Ahrimanic Being speaks to man while he is asleep. And what he says is most mischievous, for he is rightly called the father of lies; he makes good appear bad to the sleeping human being and bad good.
Reference has been made in the newspapers recently to questions that are being investigated by scientists, as to why criminals sleep well, while moral people with a good conscience often sleep badly. The matter is explained when you consider what I have been telling you. In the case of a highly conscientious and devout man, who has a fine moral feeling, his moral sensibility enters so deeply into his soul that he takes it with him into sleep; with the result that he sleeps badly, believing as he does that he has been guilty of many misdeeds. A bad man, on the other hand, whose moral sensibility is very little developed, will carry with him into sleep no such pangs of conscience,—and this will mean of course at the same time that he will have, spiritually speaking, an open ear for the whisperings of Ahriman who makes evil appear good. Hence the quiet and contented sleep of the criminal! People say, it is not fair that criminals should sleep well, while good people often have poor and disturbed slumber. The fact is to be accounted for in the way I have shown.
The enticement to evil to which man is exposed during sleep is, in truth, exceedingly great, and it can easily happen that in the morning he brings over with him from sleep terrible demonic forces of temptation. Only when he has come down again into his physical and etheric body, will a man who is not very good and upright begin to feel pricks of conscience,—not before. There is thus abundant possibility for, man to fall a victim to Ahriman during the time of sleep.
The danger has by no means always been so great as it is today. In the course of the centuries it has gradually come about that men are so gravely exposed during sleep to the seductions of demonic powers, which make evil appear good. In earlier times of the evolution of mankind things were different. Man had then, as I have often explained to you, nothing like so strong an ego-consciousness as he has now. In the daytime, when he was awake, his ego-consciousness was weaker; and that meant also that during sleep he did not sail so smoothly into evil as he does today. He was protected. The fact is, we are living today in a time that is bringing us to a certain crisis in evolution. It behoves men to arm themselves against the powers of evil that approach them when they fall asleep. In older times men were protected through the fact that when they went to sleep, they entered more into the group-soul. During sleep man lived in the group-soul. We today still live to a certain extent in the group-soul during our waking hours; we feel we belong to a particular nation, often even to a particular clan; or perhaps we are inclined to put on aristocratic airs, and like to feel ourselves as members of a certain family. But sleep takes us right out of the group-soul feeling. It is hardly possible for the man of today to be an aristocrat in sleep. Yes, sleep is a great educator, more than you would think; on the one hand it educates man, it is true, in evil, as we have seen; but on the other hand, it educates him in democracy. The man of olden time passed into the group-soul when he fell asleep; and when he awoke and returned to his physical and to his etheric body, he brought with him a strong feeling of belonging to his group.
There you have the one side of man's life,—what he is during sleep. Man, of course, carries in him all the time the part of his nature that is exposed in sleep at the present day to the temptations of demonic forces, he has it in him continuously. Only, when he is awake, he has to let it merge into the moral and religious consciousness. The religious side of man is given to him, as we saw, by the powers that live with him in his physical body, and the moral side by the powers that live with him in his ether-body.
The man of an older time, who during sleep lived strongly, as we have seen, in the group-consciousness—it was with the Mystery of Golgotha that all this became changed for the further evolution of mankind—the man of an older time, when he dived down again, on awaking, into his physical and his etheric body, began to live then more in himself, But here we discover another difference between him and us. For when he was waking up and coming down again into his physical and ether body, before he was quite awake, he had a clear consciousness of the life he had lived ere he descended to Earth. And he had the same clear consciousness again just before falling asleep. Whilst, therefore, on the one hand he developed a strong group-consciousness, he had at the same time also a strong feeling of belonging to the life that is beyond the Earth. He knew quite well that he had come down from the spiritual world, had passed through the world of the stars, and had chosen for himself a physical body here on Earth. As time went on, this consciousness became darkened. In compensation, men became ‘clever’—as we understand the word today. They developed powers of judgment and discrimination. This kind of faculty has evolved only in the course of time. It is our physical body that gives us the power of judgment,—and this is the reason we are able to exercise the power best during the morning hours. We enter more deeply in these days into our physical and etheric bodies than men did in olden times. Consequently, while they had a consciousness of their life before birth, we have a consciousness rather of earthly existence. We establish ourselves firmly in our physical and etheric body. They did not do so. They might be said to ‘carry’ their physical and etheric body, they carried it round with them, feeling it as something external to themselves, rather as we feel the clothes that we wear. We have quite lost this feeling. We no longer say as they did, when they were going through a door: I carry my physical being through the door. That was for them an entirely natural way of speaking. We would never say that; we say: I walk through the door. We press our I, our ego, right into the physical body; it is therefore perfectly natural for us to express ourselves in this way. And in consequence of this development, we have lost also the consciousness of our connection with the spiritual world and with the world of the stars. The man of an earlier time knew that he was connected with the world of the stars. He knew quite well that he was connected with the world of the stars, and also with the spiritual world that is behind the world of the stars: he knew that he had descended from these worlds to earthly existence.
Modern man will say: In order to live, I need meat, vegetables, eggs, etc. He needs, that is, products of the physical world, and with these he must concern himself from birth to death. Please do not imagine for a moment dear friends, that I mean to speak scornfully or slightingly of the food we eat. It is good in itself and belongs to life; let that be fully recognised. I want only to point out that the men of olden time[s] knew that in order to have strength to live, man needs more than the forces of the Earth that reside in beef and cabbage and egg, he needs also Jupiter and Venus and Saturn, They knew for a fact that just as man, when he is here on Earth, needs to eat eggs, so too has he need to have received, before he came down to Earth, the strength of Jupiter and of Venus; otherwise he could not be earthly man at all. Modern man feels united with the Earth and is very much concerned about what he must eat to keep his body in health. The man of an older time felt a need to be in right relationship with the stars. He said to himself: If I suffer, here on Earth, from some inability or lack of skill, it must be that I did not acquit myself well while descending into the world of the stars; I must put that right next time I make the journey from death to a new birth.
It is indeed so that in those times man evolved what might be called a spiritual diet. In the Mysteries there were leaders and guides who were not unlike our modern doctors of medicine. The modern doctor gives his advice about man's body. That is quite understandable, and no reproach is intended. But the leaders in the Mysteries, who were also physicians, would for example, if a man suffered from some physical infirmity, give instruction as to how he could better his relationship to Venus, or it may be to Saturn. It was thus advice for the soul that these leaders in the Mysteries gave. Let us suppose a physician of this kind found that the person who had come to him for healing was too strongly attracted to his physical body. Instead of feeling his body merely as a garment for his soul, he was firmly bound to it, rather like a man of the present day who persisted in sleeping in his clothes. The physician would say to such a person: When the Moon is full, try going out for a walk in its light, when it is rising in the evening; and while you walk, repeat a certain mantram.
Why did the physician of the ancient Mysteries give this advice? Because he knew that when a person goes for a walk in the light of the Moon, repeating the while certain mantrams, that will counteract the Saturn force, and so it will come about that Saturn has less power over him. For, you see, this physician of olden times knew that the clinging to the physical body, the being so closely knit with it, was due to the fact that the person in question had held on too strongly to Saturn when he was passing through the world of the stars, on his way from the spiritual world into earthly life. This excessive attraction to the life of Saturn had given him the infirmity from which he was suffering. But now the two heavenly bodies, Moon and Saturn, tend to counteract one another. In order, therefore, to cure an affliction due to the Saturn forces, the physician would have recourse to the forces of the Moon. He would, in effect, prescribe a spiritual diet.
We have today a physical diet and that is quite right and suitable for us. In the olden times man felt the need for a diet of a more spiritual kind, and we must now learn to add to our physical diet also a spiritual diet. That is the mission of the present age; we have our physical diet, and we must regain a feeling for the importance of a spiritual diet as well. If we can do this, it will enable us to achieve the tasks that call for fulfilment at this present moment in earth evolution.
This is what I wanted to put before you in the first part of my lecture.
It is a satisfaction to me, my dear friends, that I shall be able to give you two more lectures after today, and so I do not need to hurry—as I would otherwise be obliged to do—but can go more fully into that which lies on my heart to say to you on the occasion of this visit.
Vision of the pre-earthly life, of the life man lived in the spiritual world before he united himself here on Earth with a physical and an etheric body, was possible to the men of old, for they possessed an elemental clairvoyance. To attain such vision today we need the help of anthroposophical science. When with this help we have learned to look with the consciousness of Inspiration upon the time we pass through before we descend to Earth, we behold how we live for a long while in an entirely spiritual world, a world where there is no mineral kingdom, no plant kingdom, no animal kingdom,—a world where there are not even the stars that we see shining far away in the encircling heavens, a world, where we have around us spiritual beings, beings of the higher hierarchies. Throughout this period of the time between death and a new birth, we live among spiritual beings. And then we begin to travel through the starry heavens on our way back to Earth, passing—now with more, now again with less, sympathy—through the various starry spheres. And this is the time when we prepare our coming earthly life. For according as we relate ourselves to the starry spheres through which we pass, so will be our life on Earth. Let me give you an example of how this preparation takes place.
Coming forth from the world that is purely spiritual, we pass first through the sphere of the fixed stars. Of these I will not speak just now; that will come in the next lecture. Then we pass through the spheres of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, through the Sun sphere, and through the spheres of Mercury, Venus and Moon, and so by gradual stages come down to Earth. You will realise from the description that we approach the spheres of the stars from the other side. When you stand on Earth and look at Jupiter, you are seeing Jupiter from one side. And when a being—in this case, a human being—is descending from the spiritual world and passes, on his way to Earth, through the spheres of the stars, then at the time when we, looking from the Earth, see Saturn, this being, as he approaches Saturn, will be seeing it from the other side. It will be the same with all the stars. Coming from the spiritual world, he approaches the stars from behind, as it were, and sees the reverse of what men see on Earth with physical sight. You will not of course imagine that the human being who is making his journey to the Earth ‘sees’ in the way we do. He has no eyes as yet, he will only get eyes when he has a physical body. What he sees is spiritual. He sees Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, in their spiritual aspect; Venus also, then Mercury and Moon. And according to the measure of the sympathy or antipathy with which he passes through the one or other sphere, so will be the forces he receives in the course of his descent from each sphere in turn,—forces of Saturn, forces of Jupiter, and so on.
Let us imagine a particular case. In consequence of the way in which he lived his former life on Earth, a human soul may have the feeling, when the time comes to descend to a new life: It will be good if this time I come to Earth as a woman; if this time I incarnate in a female body.
It is an important question for the descending human soul to decide, whether it shall become man or woman. Its whole destiny on earth depends on the decision; for it is by no means a matter of indifference whether in one particular incarnation we go through our life as a man or a woman. But it is not enough for the soul simply to come to the conclusion: I will be a man, or, I will be a woman. Due preparation has to be made. If the soul desires to be a woman, it will approach the Earth at the time of Full Moon. When we, looking from the Earth, see the Moon full, the soul that is approaching from the spiritual world will see it dark. Now what the soul sees is of course, the spiritual aspect of the Moon. Seeing it dark, the soul sees it ‘peopled,’ as it were, with certain beings. And these beings it is who will prepare the soul, so that, when it comes on Earth, it shall be attracted to a female body. On the other hand, when we, looking from the Earth, see New Moon—which means, we cannot see it at all—then the soul that is descending and sees the Moon from the other side, will see it lit up, will see the light that rays forth from it out into cosmic space,—that is, of course, the spiritual in the light. In this case, the soul can become a man. Whether it receives the forces that bring it to a male or to a female incarnation depends, you see, on the manner of the soul's journey through the spheres of the stars.
And now, in addition to passing through the sphere of the Moon, the soul has also to go, for example, through the spheres of Mercury and Venus. While the manner of its journey through the sphere of the Moon determines whether the soul is to become man or woman, by its passage through the sphere of Venus the soul is endowed with greater or less sympathy for a particular family. For the soul could, of course, be man or woman in this or that or any other family. This attraction to a family is determined in the following way.
A human soul may be descending, for instance, at a time when Venus is right on the other side of the Earth, and the soul may thus be able to disregard the Venus sphere. Such a soul will then have no great connection with his family. Or the soul may, on the other hand, go past Venus, and it can do so in a variety of ways. It will then elect to take the path through the Venus sphere that guides it to some particular family. For the soul has this possibility; it can prepare itself for belonging to a particular family by choosing, as it were, the ‘ray’ that goes from Venus to this family. Coming down from the other side, the dark side, of Venus, the soul then draws near to Earth and finds its way to that family,
The same kind of thing may happen in regard to the Mercury sphere. The sphere of Mercury leads the soul to find its way into a particular folk or people. When the region inhabited by this people is receiving rays of Mercury, then the soul, coming from the other side and approaching the dark side of Mercury, will be helped to find its way to this people.
Thus are human souls prepared for life on Earth. Through the influence of the Moon—and when we speak of these heavenly bodies, it is always the spiritual in them that we have in mind—through the influence of the Moon, preparation is made for the soul to become man or woman; through the influence of Venus, for the soul to belong to some family; through the influence of Mercury, to belong to some folk or people.
The whole life of man on Earth depends, as you see, on the relationship he establishes with the spheres in the course of his descent from the spiritual world. The knowledge of this has been lost. We must regain it. We are accustomed to think of ourselves as composed of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, sulphur, etc. But we must come also to feel—quite simply and naturally—that we are composed and are created out of the world of the stars. For we are not just physical human beings made up of protein and a few other substances. All the forces of the universe have combined to form us. These forces of the universe work upon us while we are descending. When we come to Earth, we have them within us,—and something of a memory of this remains to us in sleep. Memory is however always, as you know very well, weaker than the actual experience. When someone who is dear to you has died, think how the memory of the event grows less vivid and powerful as time goes on. And it is the same with the memory we still have in sleep, of how it was with us when we had living and present experiences of the spiritual world, and of the world of the stars. The memory grows dim; and that is why man is exposed now in sleep to the temptations I described earlier in today's lecture. Thus a dim and feeble after-image in sleep—a weak cosmic memory—is all that is left of the experience we had with the spiritual world and with the stars during the time between death and our last birth.
This, dear friends, is what I wanted to say to you today by way of introduction. We shall continue with it next time we meet.
Erlebnisse Der Menschenseele Im Schlafe Und Nach Dem Tode In Der Geistigen Welt I
Sie werden sich erinnern, daß ich das letzte Mal, als ich hier vor Ihnen sprechen durfte, Ihnen die Erlebnisse der Menschenseele während des Schlafes geschildert habe, und ich möchte heute in einer gewissen Weise Ihnen eine Fortsetzung der Betrachtungen geben, die ich damals vor Ihnen dargestellt habe.
Es ist wirklich so, daß derjenige Mensch, welcher das Menschenleben nur von der Tagesseite her kennt, eben auch nur die Hälfte dieses Menschenlebens kennt, denn Allerwichtigstes geht während des Schlafes vor sich. Ich brauche in Ihrer Gegenwart nicht auseinanderzusetzen, wie die Erkenntnisse, von denen ich Ihnen auch heute wiederum sprechen will, gewonnen sind durch jene exakte Clairvoyance, die ich auch hier in London schon geschildert habe. Ich werde also voraussetzen, daß Sie annehmen, dasjenige, was ich sagen werde, ist aus dieser exakten clairvoyanten Wissenschaft heraus gesprochen.
Wenn der Mensch aus dem Tagesbewußtsein in das Schlafbewußtsein übergeht, das ja für die Menschen der Gegenwart im Grunde ein unbewußter Zustand ist, dann ist er nicht in seinem physischen Leibe und nicht in seinem ätherischen Leibe. Er ist während des Schlafens ein rein geistiges Wesen. Und was er als dieses geistig-seelische Wesen zwischen dem Einschlafen und dem Aufwachen erlebt, das habe ich Ihnen von der einen Seite das vorige Mal geschildert. Ich will es heute von einer anderen Seite betrachten.
Sie erinnern sich, daß der Mensch im Schlafe durchlebt erstens das Eindringen seiner Wesenheit in den Weltenäther, wodurch ihn eine gewisse Angst überkommt vor dem Unbekannten, Unbestimmten, Undifferenzierten. Sie erinnern sich ferner, daß in diesem Augenblicke in der Seele etwas aufwacht, was man mit einem Ausdrucke, der aus dem Bewußtsein genommen ist, nennen kann: die Sehnsucht nach dem Göttlichen. — Sie erinnern sich ferner, daß der Mensch dann im zweiten Stadium des Schlafes durchmacht Nachbildungen der Planetenbewegungen, und daß für denjenigen, der eine Beziehung zu dem Mysterium von Golgatha hat, Christus .als Führer auftritt für die sonst chaotischen Erlebnisse, die man hat, während man Nachbildungen des Sternen-Planetenlebens im Schlafe durchlebt. Dann kommt das Fixsternerlebnis. Man ist aus der Planetensphäre — nur in der Nachbildung — heraus und erlebt die Konstellationen der Fixsterne. Man erlebt also tatsächlich vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen das ganze kosmische außerirdische Dasein. Und ich habe Ihnen auch gesagt, daß die Mondenkräfte, das, was geistig der Offenbarung der Mondenerscheinungen entspricht, den Menschen immer wiederum am Morgen oder überhaupt beim Aufwachen in seinen physischen und in seinen Ätherleib zurückbringen.
Nun möchte ich Ihnen heute zunächst noch von einer anderen Seite schildern, wie dieses Erleben zwischen dem Einschlafen und Aufwachen ist. Wenn wir während des Tages unser Bewußtsein haben, so haben wir ja, wenn wir nicht in die materialistischen Vorstellungen der modernen Menschheit uns einspinnen, eine moralische und eine religiöse Grundlage unseres Lebens. Der Mensch muß fühlen außer dem, daß er Naturerkenntnis hat, daß er moralische Verpflichtungen, Verantwortungen hat, und ferner, daß er mit seinem ganzen Wesen in einer geistigen Welt darinnen ruht. Das letztere können wir nennen das religiöse Bewußtsein. Dieses moralische und religiöse Bewußtsein hat der Mensch während des Wachzustandes. Aber das religiöse Bewußtsein hat der Mensch im Wachen nur dadurch, daß er in seinem physischen Leibe ist. In diesem physischen Leibe ist ja der Mensch nicht allein, sondern es sind mit ihm zusammen Geister höherer Weltordnungen, und er lebt in seinem physischen Leibe zusammen mit Geistern höherer Weltordnungen. Und er lebt in seinem ätherischen Leibe zusammen mit demjenigen, was diese Geister höherer Weltordnungen mit dem Moralischen meinen.
Also das religiöse Bewußtsein des Menschen ist abhängig von seinem Leben im physischen Leibe, im physischen Körper; das moralische Leben ist abhängig von dem Leben im ätherischen Leibe. Und das führt uns dazu, darauf aufmerksam zu werden, daß der Weltenäther, aus dem unser Ätherkörper genommen ist, zwei Glieder hat. Das eine Glied dieses Weltenäthers ist Wärme, Licht, chemischer Äther, Lebensäther. Aber all diesem Ätherischen, das in der Wärme, im Lichte, in den chemischen Vorgängen und im Leben existiert, alldem liegt zugrunde ein moralisches Wesen des Weltenäthers. Dieses moralische Wesen des Weltenäthers ist aber nur vorhanden in der Nähe der Gestirne und Planeten. Also wenn Sie auf Erden leben, dann sind Sie, obwohl Sie es bei Tage nicht wissen, auch in dem Weltenäther als moralische Essenz drinnen. Und wenn Sie wandern durch die Welt der Gestirne, sind Sie in dem Weltenäther auch in der moralischen Essenz, wenn Sie in der Umgebung eines Gestirnes sind. Zwischen den Gestirnen wird das Moralische aus dem Äther durch das Sonnenlicht herausgetrieben; das Sonnenlicht — nicht die Sonne selber, die Sonne ist ein Weltenkörper, sie hat in sich geradezu für uns Menschen den Urquell des moralischen Äthers —, aber indem die Sonne scheint, vertreibt sie durch ihr Licht die moralische Essenz des Äthers. Und so, wenn wir durch unser Auge in die Welt hinausschauen, sehen wir Blumen, sehen wir Quellen, sehen wir das alles, ohne daß wir es mit Moralischem durchziehen, durchschauen, weil uns das Sonnenlicht das Moralische heraustötet.
Und wenn wir nun beim Einschlafen aus unserem physischen und Ätherleib herausgehen, dann haben wir als geistig-seelische Menschenwesen nichts anderes, als was wir uns zunächst während des irdischen Lebens durch das Anschauen der Natur erworben haben. Wir lassen in unserem Bette — so paradox das klingt — auch die religiöse Empfindung und die moralische Empfindung zurück mit dem physischen und mit dem Ätherleibe, und wir leben als ein amoralisches Wesen zwischen dem Einschlafen und dem Aufwachen. Aber in dieser Zeit leben wir in einer Welt, die sonst von dem Sonnenlichte durchschienen ist. Und dadurch, daß die moralische Weltordnung aus dem Äther heraußen ist, dadurch hat Zugang zu diesem Äther, in den wir uns mit dem Einschlafen hineinbegeben, die ahrimanische Wesenheit. Diese 'ahrimanische Wesenheit spricht zu den Menschen während des Schlafes. Und was diese ahrimanische Wesenheit spricht, das ist im Grunde genommen eine fatale Sache, denn diese ahrimanische Wesenheit wird mit Recht der Lügengeist genannt, aus dem Grunde, weil er dem schlafenden Menschen die Dinge so darstellt, als wenn das Gute böse und das Böse gut wäre.
Es ist neulich durch die Zeitungen eine Notiz gegangen über etwas, das heute auch schon die Naturwissenschaft erforscht hat, die Frage, warum Verbrecher einen so guten Schlaf haben, während gerade moralische Menschen mit einem guten Gewissen oftmals einen schlechten Schlaf haben. Das erklärt sich aus dem, was ich Ihnen jetzt sage. Derjenige, der ein starkes Gewissen entwickelt, der also ein inniger Mensch ist, ein moralisch empfindender Mensch, bei dem geht in die Seele so tief das moralische Empfinden hinein, daß er es in den Schlaf hinübernimmt, und dann schläft er schlecht, wenn er glaubt, viel Böses getan zu haben. Wer aber ein schlechter Mensch ist, wer kein stark entwickeltes moralisches Gewissen hat, der nimmt nichts in den Schlaf hinüber von Gewissensbissen. Und dann hat er ein reines geistiges Ohr für die Einflüsterungen des Ahriman, der ihm das Böse gerade als gut darstellt. Daher ist der Verbrecher im Schlafe so zufrieden.
Die Menschen sagen: Das ist doch ungerecht, daß die Verbrecher gut schlafen und die guten Menschen schlechten Schlaf haben! —, was heute, wie gesagt, schon eine naturwissenschaftliche Entdeckung ist. Aber es ist so aus dem Grunde, den ich Ihnen angeführt habe. In der Tat ist die Verführung zum Bösen während des Schlafzustandes eine ungeheuer große, und der Mensch bringt sich aus dem Schlaf am Morgen leicht die dämonischsten Versucherkräfte mit. Wenn man dann wiederum in seinen physischen und ätherischen Leib hineinkommt, dann wachen erst wiederum die Gewissensbisse auf bei demjenigen, der kein sehr guter Mensch ist. Also es ist so, daß dem Menschen in der Tat als Erdenmensch während der Zeit seines Schlafes alle Möglichkeit gegeben ist, dem versuchenden Ahriman zum Opfer zu fallen.
Das aber ist erst im Laufe der Zeit so stark geworden, wie es jetzt ist. Erst in unserem Zeitalter sind die Menschen im höchsten Grade während des Schlafes den dämonischen Mächten ausgeliefert, die ihnen das Böse, während sie schlafen, als gut vorstellen. Das war in älteren Zeiten der Menschheitsentwickelung nicht der Fall. In älteren Zeiten der Menschheitsentwickelung hatte der Mensch, wie ich Ihnen oftmals gesagt habe, kein so starkes Ich-Bewußtsein wie jetzt. Er hatte während des Tagwachens ein schwächeres Ich-Bewußtsein; das bewirkte, daß er während des Schlafes auch nicht so rein in das Böse hineinsegelte, wie er es jetzt tut. Jetzt haben wir in der Tat für die Menschheitsentwickelung ein entscheidendes Zeitalter, eine Krisis. Die Menschen müssen sich wappnen gegen die Mächte des Bösen, die an sie herantreten. Davor waren die Menschen der älteren Zeiten geschützt, denn indem sie einschliefen, gingen sie mehr in die Gruppenseele hinein. Da lebte der Mensch während des Schlafes mehr in der Gruppenseele. Dieses Leben in der Gruppenseele ist etwas, das wir ja noch während des Wachens bis zu einem gewissen Grade entwickeln, wir fühlen uns als Volk, wir fühlen uns sogar oftmals als Stamm, wir fühlen uns, wenn wir etwas aristokratische Allüren haben, als Glieder einer Familie; aber der Schlaf nimmt wirklich dem Menschen heute dieses Gruppenseelengefühl schon ganz weg. Im Schlaf kann der Mensch heute nicht mehr gut Aristokrat sein. Ja, der Schlaf erzieht viel mehr, als Sie meinen, allerdings auf der einen Seite zum Bösen, auf der anderen Seite aber zur Demokratie. Er ist schon ein großer Lehrmeister, der Schlaf. Die älteren Menschen, sie gingen, wenn sie schliefen, in die Gruppenseele über. Sie brachten sich dann mit dem Aufwachen, indem sie wiederum in ihren physischen und in ihren Ätherleib zurückkehrten, ein starkes Bewußtsein von der Zusammengehörigkeit mit ihrer Gruppe mit. Das ist die eine Seite des Menschen, das, was er ist während des Schlafes.
Aber der Mensch hat ja dasselbe, was er im Schlaf drinnen hat, was nur dem Bösen so stark ausgesetzt ist, wie ich es jetzt beschrieben habe, in der gegenwärtigen Zeit, das hat er ja auch in sich. Nur muß er es während des Tagwachens in das moralische und in das religiöse Bewußtsein eintauchen, einströmen lassen. Das Religiöse wird ihm gegeben von den Mächten, die mit dem physischen Leib leben, und das Moralische von den Mächten, die mit dem Ätherleib leben.
Es ist das alles mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha eben anders geworden für die Entwickelung der Menschheit. Wie aber der alte Mensch während des Schlafes stark im Gruppenbewußtsein drinnen lebte, so lebte er, wenn er wiederum untertauchte beim Wachen in seinen physischen und in seinen Ätherleib, mehr in sich. Aber da ist wiederum ein Unterschied zwischen dem alten Menschen und dem modernen Menschen. Der alte Mensch, wenn er aufwachte und untertauchte in seinen physischen Leib und Ätherleib, hatte, bevor er ganz wach wurde, ein deutliches Bewußtsein von seinem Leben, bevor er auf die Erde heruntergestiegen war, und ebenso wiederum vor dem Einschlafen. So daß also dieser ältere Mensch, während er auf der einen Seite ein starkes Gruppenbewußtsein entwickelte, auch ein starkes Bewußtsein von seiner Zusammengehörigkeit mit dem Leben außer der Erde hatte. Er wußte, wie er heruntergekommen ist aus der geistigen Welt, dann durch die Sternenwelt gegangen ist und sich einen physischen Leib eigentlich ausgewählt hat hier auf Erden. Dieses Bewußtsein wurde später verdunkelt. Dafür wurden die Menschen gescheit, was wir heute gescheit nennen. Sie wurden durchdrungen von Urteilskraft, Diskrimination und solchen Dingen. Das kam erst im Laufe der Entwickelung, und deshalb können wir gerade am Morgen so gut urteilen, weil uns unser physischer Leib die Kraft des Urteils gibt. Wir dringen mehr in unseren physischen und Ätherleib ein als der alte Mensch. Der alte Mensch hatte daher ein Bewußtsein von dem vorigen Dasein; wir haben mehr ein Bewußtsein von dem irdischen Dasein. Wir setzen uns fest in unseren physischen und Ätherleib hinein. Das tat der alte Mensch nicht. Der alte Mensch trug den physischen und Ätherleib mehr an sich, er hat ihn mehr als etwas Äußerliches gefühlt, so wie wir heute unsere Kleider fühlen. Dieses Gefühl haben wir nicht mehr. Wir sagen nicht mehr, wie es der alte Mensch getan hat, wenn er zur Türe hereinging: Ich trage meinen Menschen zur Türe herein —; er meinte den physischen Menschen. Das war durchaus in alten Sprachen eine natürliche Redensart. Wir werden ganz gewiß sagen: Ich - indem wir unser Ich ganz fest in den physischen Leib hinunterdrängen — gehe zur Türe herein. — Wir finden es ganz selbstverständlich, daß wir das sagen.
Nun, dadurch aber auch ist den Menschen verlorengegangen das Bewußtsein ihres Zusammenhanges mit der geistigen und mit der Sternenwelt. Der Mensch früherer Zeiten wuißte eben, er hängt mir der Sternenwelt und hinter der Sternenwelt noch mit der geistigen Welt zusammen und ist aus diesen Welten zum irdischen Dasein heruntergestiegen. Der moderne Mensch sagt: Ich brauche zum Leben Fleisch und Gemüse und Eier. — Das sind alles Produkte der physischen Welt, mit denen wir es zu tun haben von der Geburt bis zum Tode. Glauben Sie nicht, daß ich Verachtung aussprechen will über diese Dinge; diese Dinge sind ja alle sehr gut und gehören zum Leben, das soll absolut anerkannt werden in seiner vollen Bedeutung. Aber ich will nur sagen, daß der alte Mensch wußte, er braucht zu diesem Leben nicht nur die Kraft der Erde, die im Rindvieh und im Kohl und im Ei liegt, sondern er braucht zu der Kraft zum Leben auch Jupiter und Venus und Saturn. Er hat gewußt: Wie ich hier auf der Erde Eier essen muß, so muß ich, wenn ich herabsteige aus der geistigen Welt, die Kraft des Jupiter und der Venus in mich aufgenommen haben, sonst könnte ich gar kein Erdenmensch sein. -— Wie sich der moderne Mensch verbunden fühlt mit der Erde und wie er die große Besorgnis hat: Was soll ich nur essen, damit ich einen gesunden Körper habe? -, so fühlte sich der alte Mensch gedrungen, ein Verhältnis zu den Sternen zu haben. Und er sagte sich: Wenn ich hier auf der Erde dieses oder jenes nicht kann, dann habe ich eben beim Herabsteigen zu den Sternen mich nicht richtig benommen und muß das beim nächsten Durchgang durch die Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt korrigieren. — Also der Mensch entwickelte in alten Zeiten etwas für das Leben, was man nennen kann: eine spirituelle Diät. Es gab in den alten Mysterien Führer und Leiter, die waren so etwas Ähnliches, wie der moderne Arzt ist. Aber der moderne Arzt gibt nur Anweisungen über den Körper. Das ist ja ganz selbstverständlich und soll auch nicht gescholten werden. Aber die alten Führer in den Mysterien, die in dieser Beziehung auch Ärzte waren, gaben Anweisungen darüber, wie man, wenn man unter diesen oder jenen Gebrechen litt, sein Verhältnis zur Venus oder zum Saturn zu verbessern hatte. Das bestand dann darin, daß sie den Leuten gewisse seelische Anweisungen gaben. Sagen wir zum Beispiel, solch ein alter Arzt in den Mysterien fand: Der Mensch, der Heilung bei ihm suchte, hat eine zu starke Anziehung zu seinem physischen Leib; dieser ist ihm nicht genug Kleid bloß, sondern er lebt zu stark mit seinem physischen Leib. — So ungefähr, wie wenn ein Mensch der heutigen Zeit immer in seinen Kleidern schliefe, so kam einem solchen Arzt ein Mensch vor, der ein gewisses Gebrechen hatte, wodurch er stark an seinen physischen Leib gebunden war. Dann sagte ein solcher Arzt zu einem solchen Kranken: Versuche, wenn des Abends der Vollmond aufgeht, dich ein wenig zu ergehen im Vollmonde, und während du dich ergehst, dies oder jenes Mantram zu sagen.
Warum tat das der Arzt der alten Mysterien? — Er tat es aus dem Grunde, weil er wußte: Wenn der Mensch nun im Mondenlichte spazierengeht und Mantrams aufsagt, so wirkt das der Saturnkraft entgegen; der Saturn gewinnt weniger Macht über diesen Menschen. Und es wußte dieser alte Arzt in den Mysterien, daß dieses Haften am physischen Leibe, dieses volle Drinnenstecken im physischen Leibe die Ursache davon ist, daß der Mensch sich zu stark an den Saturn gehalten hat, als er von der geistigen Welt durch die Sternen welt ins irdische Dasein hereingegangen ist. Von dieser zu starken Sympathie mit dem Saturnleben hat der Mensch dieses Gebrechen erhalten. Mond und Saturn sind einander entgegenwirkende Himmelskörper. Also kurierte ein alter Arzt durch die Mondenkräfte die Schäden der Saturnkräfte. Er gab also eine spirituelle Diät. Das gab es in alten Zeiten.
Wir haben eine physische Diät, die ja für uns ganz angemessen ist. Aber in den alten Zeiten brauchte man eine spirituelle Diät. Diese spirituelle Diät müssen wir nun zu unserer physischen noch hinzuzufügen lernen. Das ist die Aufgabe der Gegenwart, daß wir Menschen uns wiederum zu der physischen Diät aneignen einen Sinn für die spirituelle Diät. Und dann werden wir unsere Aufgaben gerade gegenüber der jetzigen Zeit im Erdenleben lösen können. Das ist dasjenige, was ich Ihnen im ersten Teil sagen wollte.
Da ich zu meiner Befriedigung noch zwei Vorträge an diesem Orte vor Ihnen halten darf, so brauche ich heute nicht so zu eilen, wie das sonst geboten ist, und werde Ihnen daher mit aller Langsamkeit einiges von dem sagen können, was ich Ihnen während dieser meiner Anwesenheit gerne sagen möchte.
Hinschauen nach dem vorirdischen Leben, nach dem Leben, das der Mensch in der geistigen Welt zugebracht hat, bevor er sich mit seinem physischen und ätherischen Leib hier auf Erden vereinigt hat, das haben die alten Menschen durch ein elementarisches Hellsehen, durch eine elementare Clairvoyance gekonnt; das kann heute nur erreicht werden durch wirkliche spirituelle Wissenschaft, wie sie angestrebt wird in der Anthroposophie.
Dann aber wird durch das Hinschauen des inspirierten Bewußtseins auf die Zeit, die wir zugebracht haben, bevor wir zu der Erde als Menschen heruntergekommen sind, dann wird durch dieses Hinschauen klar, wie wir eine Zeitlang leben in einer rein geistigen Welt, in einer Welt, in der nicht Reiche sind, nicht Mineralreich, nicht Pflanzenreich, nicht Tierreich, in der auch zunächst die Sterne, die wir in dem Umkreis des Irdischen erblicken, nicht sind, in der aber um uns herum die Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien sind. Wir leben also eine Zeitlang zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt unter geistigen Wesenheiten. Dann erst dringen wir durch den Sternenhimmel auf die Erde herunter, und wir gehen mit einer größeren oder geringeren Sympathie durch die eine oder die andere Sternensphäre durch. Und da ist es so, daß wir uns wirklich unser irdisches Dasein vorbereiten. Nach der Artund Weise, wie wir uns verhalten zu den Sternensphären, durch die wir durchgehen, wird unser irdisches Dasein. Und ich möchte Ihnen das durch ein Beispiel zunächst veranschaulichen.
Wir gehen, wenn wir aus der rein geistigen Welt herauskommen, zunächst durch die Fixsternsphäre, von der will ich heute noch nicht sprechen; das nächste Mal dann. Wir gehen dann durch die Saturnsphäre, durch die Jupitersphäre, Marssphäre, durch die Sonnensphäre, durch die Merkursphäre, Venussphäre, durch die Mondensphäre und kommen allmählich auf die Erde herunter. Sie sehen daraus, daß, indem wir aus der rein geistigen Welt eintreten in die Sternensphäre, wir gewissermaßen von der anderen Seite an die Sterne herankommen. Wir sehen hier zum Beispiel auf der Erde den Jupiter von einer gewissen Seite, wenn wir auf der Erde stehen. Wenn ein Menschenwesen, das aus der geistigen Welt durch die Sternensphäre herunterkommt, sich der Erde nähert, so sieht es den Saturn von der anderen Seite, und so alle Sterne. Das Wesen kommt also gewissermaßen von hinten an den Stern heran, sieht immer das Entgegengesetzte von dem, was physisch die Menschen auf der Erde sehen. Aber das Menschenwesen, das aus der geistigen Welt an die Erde herankommt, das sieht nicht so, wie wir sehen. Es hat ja noch keine Augen, die bekommt es erst durch den physischen Leib. Es sieht also das Geistige des Saturn, des Jupiter, des Mars, der Sonne, das Geistige von Venus, Merkur, Mond. Sie sehen, darnach muß das Wesen, je nachdem es mit Sympathie oder Antipathie durchgeht durch die eine oder durch die andere Sphäre, die Kräfte dieser Sphäre, also die Saturn-, Jupiter- und so weiter -kräfte aufnehmen beim Heruntersteigen.
Nun kann es so sein. Ein Menschenwesen, das im früheren Erdenleben in einer bestimmten Weise gelebt hat, das bekommt beim Heruntersteigen zu einem neuen Leben die Impression: Es ist gut für mich, wenn ich das nächste Mal als Frau auf die Erde heruntersteige, wenn ich mich also in einem weiblichen Körper verkörpere. — Das ist durchaus ein Gegenstand der Erwägungen für die heruntersteigende Menschenseele, ob sie Mann oder Frau werden will. Denn davon hängt natürlich das ganze Schicksal im wesentlichen auf der Erde ab. Es ist nicht einerlei, ob man als Mann oder Frau in einem Erdenleben sein Dasein zubringt. Aber für die Menschenseele ist es nicht genügend, einfach sich zu überlegen: Ich werde Mann oder Frau! - Das muß vorbereitet werden. Und das wird so vorbereitet, daß die Menschenseele, wenn sie Frau werden will, sich der Erde dann nähert, wenn wir von der Erde den Mond als Vollmond sehen. Wenn wir von der Erde aus den Mond als Vollmond sehen, dann sieht die Menschenseele das Geistige des Mondes, wenn sie hereinkommt aus der geistigen Sphäre, dann sieht sie ihn dunkel, das heißt, mit bestimmten Wesen ausgerüstet; sie sieht ihn ja geistig. Und diese Wesen, die bereiten die Seele so vor, daß sie auf der Erde die Anziehungskraft zum weiblichen Leibe erhält.
Wenn aber von der Erde aus gesehen werden kann Neumond, dann sieht die Seele, die heruntersteigt, von der anderen Seite den beleuchteten Mond, also das in den Weltenraum hinausstrahlende Licht, das heißt, das Geistige davon. Und dann kann sie Mann werden.
So hängt es davon ab, wie die Seele durch die Sternensphäre hindurchgeht, ob sie Kräfte zum Männlichen oder zum Weiblichen aufnimmt. Ebenso aber, wie die Seele durch die Mondensphäre durchgeht, geht sie ja zum Beispiel durch die Merkur- und Venussphäre hindurch. Wenn die Seele Mann oder Frau wird durch die Mondensphäre, so wird sie andererseits mit Sympathie ausgestalter — denn sie könnte ja in der oder jener Familie Mann oder Frau werden -, für die Familie wird sie ausgestaltet durch die Sphäre der Venus.
Also derjenige Mensch, der als Seele heruntersteigt auf die Erde, kann entweder zu einer Zeit heruntersteigen, zu der die Venus auf der ganz anderen Seite der Erde ist, zu der er die Venussphäre gar nicht zu durchschreiten braucht. Dann wird er ein Mensch sein, dem an seiner Familie nicht viel liegt. Oder aber er wird durch die Venussphäre gehen und gerade denjenigen Weg wählen beim Durchgange durch die Venussphäre, der ihn zu einer bestimmten Familie hinleitet. Das ist also die Möglichkeit für die Seele, sich für eine bestimmte Familie vorzubereiten, wenn der Mensch sozusagen den Strahl wählt, der von der Venus nach dieser Familie hingeht. Er nähert sich dann von der anderen Seite, der dunklen Seite der Venus, der Erde und gelangt auf diese Weise in eine bestimmte Familie hinein. Ebenso geht er durch die Merkursphäre, durch die er in ein bestimmtes Volk hineinkommt. Also wiederum: wenn die Gegend dieses Volkes bestrahlt wird von den Merkurstrahlen und er von der anderen Seite kommt nach der dunklen Seite des Merkur, so ist das für ihn der Weg, zu diesem Volke hinzugehen.
So also sind die Menschenseelen präpariert durch den Mond, wobei wir immer das Geistige berücksichtigen, ob man Mann oder Frau wird, durch die Venus, ob man der oder jener Familie angehört, durch den Merkur, ob man diesem oder jenem Volke angehört.
Das sind Dinge, die Ihnen zeigen, wie das ganze Leben des Menschen auf der Erde durchaus davon abhängt, wie er sich sein Verhältnis gestaltet beim Heruntersteigen. Das ist etwas, was wir wiederum wissen, lernen müssen. Wir müssen einfach wiederum dazu kommen, uns ebenso als Geschöpfe der Sternenwelt zu fühlen, wie wir uns auf der Erde als Geschöpfe von Wasserstoff, Sauerstoff, Stickstoff, Kohlenstoff, Schwefel und so weiter fühlen. Wir sind nicht bloß aus Eiweiß und einigen anderen Stoffen zusammengesetzte physische Menschen, sondern wir sind Menschen, die zusammengesetzt sind aus allen Kräften des Weltenalls, nur daß diese Kräfte des Weltenalls auf uns wirken im Heruntersteigen. Dann haben wir sie in uns. Und wir haben gewissermaßen eine Erinnerung daran im Schlafe.
Aber die Erinnerung, die ist ja immer, wie Sie wissen, schwächer als das Erlebnis. Denken Sie nur, wenn Sie ein Todeserlebnis eines lieben Menschen haben, wie sich das abschwächt nach einiger Zeit. So schwächt sich im Schlafe dieses lebhafte Drinnenstehen in der geistigen und Sternenwelt ab. Und daher ist der Mensch eben im Schlafe ausgesetzt alledem, wovon ich Ihnen im Anfang der heutigen Auseinandersetzungen erzählt habe. Im Schlafe haben wir eben nur ein schwaches Nachbild, gewissermaßen eine kosmische Erinnerung an die geistigen und Sternenerlebnisse, die wir zwischen Tod und dieser Geburt haben.
Experiences of the human soul during sleep and after death in the spiritual world I
You will remember that the last time I was allowed to speak to you here I described the experiences of the human soul during sleep, and today I would like to give you a continuation in a certain way of the observations I presented to you then.
It really is the case that the person who only knows human life from the day side also only knows half of this human life, because the most important things happen during sleep. I need not explain in your presence how the knowledge of which I wish to speak to you again today is gained by that exact clairvoyance which I have already described here in London. I will therefore assume that you assume that what I am going to say is spoken out of this exact clairvoyant science.
When man passes from day-consciousness into sleep-consciousness, which is basically an unconscious state for people of the present, then he is not in his physical body and not in his etheric body. During sleep he is a purely spiritual being. And what he experiences as this spiritual-soul being between falling asleep and waking up, I have described to you from one side last time. Today I want to look at it from another angle.
You remember that in sleep man firstly experiences the penetration of his being into the world ether, whereby he is overcome by a certain fear of the unknown, the undefined, the undifferentiated. They also remember that at this moment something awakens in the soul which can be called, with an expression taken from consciousness, the longing for the divine. - You will also remember that in the second stage of sleep man then undergoes reproductions of planetary movements, and that for those who have a relationship to the Mystery of Golgotha, Christ appears as a guide for the otherwise chaotic experiences one has while living through reproductions of star-planet life in sleep. Then comes the fixed star experience. One is out of the planetary sphere - only in the recreation - and experiences the constellations of the fixed stars. So you actually experience the whole cosmic extraterrestrial existence from the moment you fall asleep until you wake up. And I have also told you that the lunar forces, that which corresponds spiritually to the revelation of the lunar phenomena, always bring man back to his physical and etheric body in the morning or even when he wakes up.
Now I would like to describe to you today from a different perspective what this experience is like between falling asleep and waking up. When we have our consciousness during the day, we have a moral and a religious basis for our life, if we do not get caught up in the materialistic ideas of modern humanity. Man must feel that he has knowledge of nature, that he has moral obligations and responsibilities, and furthermore that he rests with his whole being in a spiritual world within it. We can call the latter the religious consciousness. Man has this moral and religious consciousness during the waking state. But man only has religious consciousness when he is awake because he is in his physical body. In this physical body man is not alone, but there are spirits of higher world orders together with him, and he lives in his physical body together with spirits of higher world orders. And he lives in his etheric body together with what these spirits of higher world orders mean by the moral.
So the religious consciousness of man is dependent on his life in the physical body, in the physical body; the moral life is dependent on the life in the etheric body. And this leads us to realize that the world ether, from which our etheric body is taken, has two limbs. One member of this world ether is heat, light, chemical ether, life ether. But all this etheric, which exists in warmth, in light, in chemical processes and in life, is based on a moral essence of the world ether. However, this moral essence of the world ether is only present in the vicinity of the stars and planets. So when you live on earth, although you do not know it during the day, you are also inside the world ether as a moral essence. And when you wander through the world of the heavenly bodies, you are also in the moral essence of the world ether when you are in the vicinity of a heavenly body. Between the celestial bodies the moral is driven out of the ether by the sunlight; the sunlight - not the sun itself, the sun is a world body, it has in itself for us humans the very source of the moral ether - but as the sun shines, it drives out the moral essence of the ether through its light. And so, when we look out into the world through our eyes, we see flowers, we see springs, we see all this without imbuing it with morality, without seeing through it, because the sunlight kills out the morality for us.
And when we now go to sleep out of our physical and etheric body, then we have nothing else as spiritual-soul human beings than what we first acquired during our earthly life by looking at nature. We leave behind in our bed - as paradoxical as it sounds - also the religious feeling and the moral feeling with the physical and with the etheric body, and we live as an amoral being between falling asleep and waking up. But during this time we live in a world that is otherwise shone through by sunlight. And because the moral world order is out of the ether, the ahrimanic entity has access to this ether, into which we enter when we fall asleep. This 'ahrimanic entity speaks to people during sleep. And what this ahrimanic entity speaks is basically a fatal thing, for this ahrimanic entity is rightly called the lying spirit, for the reason that it presents things to the sleeping person as if good were evil and evil good.
The other day the newspapers carried a note about something that has already been investigated by natural science, the question of why criminals sleep so well, while moral people with a good conscience often sleep badly. This can be explained by what I am about to tell you. A person who develops a strong conscience, i.e. a person with a deep conscience, a morally sensitive person, has such a deep moral feeling in his soul that he takes it over into his sleep, and then he sleeps badly if he believes he has done a lot of evil. But he who is a bad person, who has no strongly developed moral conscience, takes nothing of remorse into his sleep. And then he has a pure spiritual ear for the whisperings of Ahriman, who presents evil to him as good. That is why the criminal is so content in his sleep.
People say: It is unjust that criminals sleep well and good people sleep badly! - which today, as I said, is already a scientific discovery. But it is so for the reason I have given you. In fact, the temptation to evil during sleep is immense, and a person easily brings the most demonic temptations with him from his sleep in the morning. When he then enters his physical and etheric body again, it is only then that remorse awakens in those who are not very good people. So it is the case that as an earthly human being, during the time of his sleep, man is indeed given every opportunity to fall victim to the tempting Ahriman.
But this has only become as strong as it is now in the course of time. It is only in our age that people are to the highest degree at the mercy of demonic powers during sleep, which present evil to them as good while they are asleep. This was not the case in earlier times of human development. As I have often told you, in earlier times of human development man did not have such a strong ego-consciousness as he has now. During the waking hours he had a weaker ego-consciousness; this meant that during sleep he did not sail as purely into evil as he does now. Now we have indeed a decisive age, a crisis, for the development of mankind. People must arm themselves against the forces of evil that approach them. The people of the older times were protected against this, for by falling asleep they entered more into the group soul. During sleep, people lived more in the group soul. This life in the group soul is something that we still develop to a certain extent when we are awake, we feel like a people, we often even feel like a tribe, we feel like members of a family if we have somewhat aristocratic airs and graces; but sleep really does take away this group soul feeling completely from people today. People can no longer be good aristocrats in their sleep. Yes, sleep educates much more than you think, but on the one hand to evil, and on the other hand to democracy. Sleep is a great teacher. The older people, when they slept, went into the group soul. When they woke up and returned to their physical and etheric bodies, they brought with them a strong awareness of belonging to their group. This is one side of the human being, what he is during sleep.
But man also has within himself what he has during sleep, which is only so strongly exposed to evil, as I have now described, in the present time. But during the day's waking hours he must let it flow into his moral and religious consciousness. The religious is given to him by the powers that live with the physical body, and the moral by the powers that live with the etheric body.
With the Mystery of Golgotha all this has just changed for the development of mankind. But just as the old man lived strongly within the group consciousness during sleep, so he lived more within himself when he again immersed himself in his physical and etheric body during waking. But again there is a difference between the old man and the modern man. The old man, when he woke up and immersed himself in his physical body and etheric body, had, before he became fully awake, a clear consciousness of his life before he had descended to earth, and likewise again before he fell asleep. So that this older man, while on the one hand he developed a strong group consciousness, also had a strong consciousness of his belonging to life outside the earth. He knew how he came down from the spiritual world, then passed through the starry world and actually chose a physical body here on earth. This consciousness was later obscured. But people became clever, what we call clever today. They became imbued with the power of judgment, discrimination and such things. That only came in the course of development, and that is why we can judge so well in the morning, because our physical body gives us the power of judgment. We penetrate our physical and etheric bodies more than the old man. The old man therefore had a consciousness of the previous existence; we have more of a consciousness of the earthly existence. We settle firmly into our physical and etheric bodies. The old man did not do that. The old man wore the physical and etheric body more on his person, he felt it more as something external, just as we feel our clothes today. We no longer have this feeling. We no longer say, as the old man did when he went in the door: I carry my human being in at the door -; he meant the physical human being. That was a natural expression in ancient languages. We will certainly say: I - by pushing our I quite firmly down into the physical body - go in at the door. - We find it quite natural to say that.
Now, because of this, people have also lost the awareness of their connection with the spiritual and starry world. The man of earlier times knew that he was connected with the starry world and behind the starry world with the spiritual world and descended from these worlds to earthly existence. Modern man says: I need meat and vegetables and eggs to live. - These are all products of the physical world with which we have to do from birth to death. Do not think that I am expressing contempt for these things; they are all very good and belong to life, and should be recognized in their full significance. But I only want to say that the old man knew that for this life he needed not only the power of the earth, which lies in cattle and cabbage and eggs, but that he also needed Jupiter and Venus and Saturn for the power to live. He knew that just as I must eat eggs here on earth, so when I descend from the spiritual world I must have absorbed the power of Jupiter and Venus, otherwise I could not be an earthling. -- How modern man feels connected with the earth and how he has great anxiety: What shall I eat that I may have a healthy body? -, the old man felt compelled to have a relationship with the stars. And he said to himself: "If I cannot do this or that here on earth, then I have not behaved properly when I descended to the stars and must correct this the next time I pass through the time between death and a new birth. - So in ancient times man developed what you might call a spiritual diet for life. There were guides and leaders in the ancient mysteries who were something similar to the modern doctor. But the modern doctor only gives instructions about the body. That is quite natural and should not be scolded. But the old leaders in the Mysteries, who were also doctors in this respect, gave instructions on how to improve one's relationship with Venus or Saturn if one suffered from this or that ailment. This consisted of giving people certain spiritual instructions. Let us say, for example, that such an old doctor found in the Mysteries: The person who sought healing from him has too strong an attraction to his physical body; it is not enough clothing for him, but he lives too strongly with his physical body. - Just as if a man of the present time always slept in his clothes, so a man who had a certain infirmity, whereby he was strongly attached to his physical body, appeared to such a doctor. Then such a doctor said to such a sick person: "When the full moon rises in the evening, try to indulge yourself a little in the full moon, and while you are indulging yourself, say this or that mantram.
Why did the doctor of the ancient mysteries do this? - He did it because he knew that when a person walks in the light of the moon and recites mantrams, this counteracts the power of Saturn; Saturn gains less power over this person. And this old doctor in the Mysteries knew that this clinging to the physical body, this full absorption in the physical body, is the cause of man's having clung too strongly to Saturn when he entered earthly existence from the spiritual world through the world of the stars. From this too strong sympathy with Saturn's life man has received this affliction. The moon and Saturn are opposing celestial bodies. So an old doctor cured the damage caused by Saturn's forces through the powers of the moon. So he gave a spiritual diet. That existed in ancient times.
We have a physical diet, which is quite appropriate for us. But in ancient times we needed a spiritual diet. We must now learn to add this spiritual diet to our physical diet. That is the task of the present, that we humans acquire a sense for the spiritual diet in addition to the physical diet. And then we will be able to solve our tasks in relation to the present time in earthly life. That is what I wanted to tell you in the first part.
Since, to my satisfaction, I am allowed to give two more lectures to you in this place, I do not need to hurry today as I normally would, and will therefore be able to tell you some of what I would like to say to you during my presence with all slowness.
Looking into the pre-earthly life, into the life that man spent in the spiritual world before he united with his physical and etheric body here on earth, the ancients were able to do this through elementary clairvoyance; today this can only be achieved through real spiritual science, as it is striven for in anthroposophy.
But then, by the inspired consciousness looking at the time we spent before we came down to earth as human beings, it becomes clear through this looking how we live for a time in a purely spiritual world, in a world in which there are no kingdoms, no mineral kingdom, no plant kingdom, no animal kingdom, in which even the stars, which we see in the orbit of the earthly, are not there at first, but in which the beings of the higher hierarchies are around us. We therefore live for a time between death and a new birth among spiritual beings. Only then do we penetrate down to earth through the starry heavens, and we pass through one or the other starry sphere with greater or lesser sympathy. And it is there that we really prepare our earthly existence. Our earthly existence is determined by the way we relate to the star spheres through which we pass. And I would first like to illustrate this with an example.
When we come out of the purely spiritual world, we first go through the fixed star sphere, which I will not talk about today; next time we will. We then pass through the sphere of Saturn, the sphere of Jupiter, the sphere of Mars, the sphere of the sun, the sphere of Mercury, the sphere of Venus, the sphere of the moon and gradually come down to earth. You can see from this that by entering the starry sphere from the purely spiritual world, we approach the stars from the other side, so to speak. Here on earth, for example, we see Jupiter from a certain side when we stand on the earth. When a human being coming down from the spiritual world through the starry sphere approaches the earth, it sees Saturn from the other side, and thus all the stars. The being approaches the star from behind, so to speak, and always sees the opposite of what people on earth physically see. But the human being that approaches the earth from the spiritual world does not see as we see. It does not yet have eyes, it only gets them through the physical body. It therefore sees the spiritual of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, the spiritual of Venus, Mercury and the Moon. You see, according to this, the being, depending on whether it passes through one or the other sphere with sympathy or antipathy, must absorb the forces of this sphere, that is, the forces of Saturn, Jupiter and so on, as it descends.
Now it can be like this. A human being who has lived in a certain way in a previous life on earth receives the impression when descending to a new life: It is good for me if I descend to earth as a woman the next time, that is, if I embody myself in a female body. - This is definitely an object of consideration for the descending human soul, whether it wants to become a man or a woman. For, of course, the whole of one's fate on earth essentially depends on this. It is not the same whether one spends one's life on earth as a man or a woman. But it is not enough for the human soul to simply think about it: I will become a man or a woman! - It has to be prepared. And this is prepared in such a way that the human soul, if it wants to become a woman, approaches the earth when we see the moon as a full moon from the earth. When we see the moon as a full moon from the earth, then the human soul sees the spiritual of the moon, when it comes in from the spiritual sphere, then it sees it darkly, that is, equipped with certain beings; it sees it spiritually. And these beings prepare the soul in such a way that it receives the attraction to the female body on earth.
But when new moon can be seen from earth, then the soul, which descends, sees the illuminated moon from the other side, therefore the light radiating out into the world space, that is, the spiritual of it. And then it can become a man.
So it depends on how the soul passes through the sphere of stars whether it absorbs forces towards the masculine or the feminine. But just as the soul passes through the lunar sphere, it also passes through the spheres of Mercury and Venus, for example. When the soul becomes man or woman through the sphere of the moon, it is, on the other hand, shaped with sympathy - for it could become man or woman in this or that family - for the family it is shaped through the sphere of Venus.
So the human being who descends to earth as a soul can either descend at a time when Venus is on the completely opposite side of the earth, when he does not need to pass through the Venus sphere at all. Then he will be a person who does not care much about his family. Or he will pass through the Venus sphere and choose precisely the path through the Venus sphere that leads him to a particular family. So this is the possibility for the soul to prepare itself for a certain family, if the person chooses, so to speak, the ray that goes from Venus to this family. He then approaches the earth from the other side, the dark side of Venus, and in this way enters a particular family. In the same way he passes through the sphere of Mercury, through which he enters a certain people. So again: if the region of this people is irradiated by the rays of Mercury and he comes from the other side to the dark side of Mercury, this is the way for him to go to this people.
So the human souls are prepared by the moon, whereby we always take into account the spiritual, whether one becomes man or woman, by Venus, whether one belongs to this or that family, by Mercury, whether one belongs to this or that people.
These are things that show you how man's whole life on earth depends entirely on how he shapes his relationship as he descends. This is something that we must know and learn. We simply have to come to feel ourselves as creatures of the starry world, just as we feel ourselves on earth as creatures of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, sulphur and so on. We are not merely physical human beings composed of protein and a few other substances, but we are human beings composed of all the forces of the universe, except that these forces of the universe act upon us as we descend. Then we have them within us. And we have a kind of memory of it in our sleep.
But the memory, as you know, is always weaker than the experience. Just think, when you experience the death of a loved one, how it weakens after a while. In sleep, this lively presence in the spiritual and starry world weakens. And that is why in sleep the human being is exposed to all that I told you about at the beginning of today's discussions. In sleep we only have a faint afterimage, a cosmic memory, so to speak, of the spiritual and starry experiences we have between death and this birth.