Supersensible Influences in the History of Mankind
GA 216
24 September 1922, Dornach
Lecture III
A wise man of ancient Egypt once spoke to a wise man of Greece words to this effect: You Greeks are a people who live only in the present, without taking history into account. You speak of what is happening immediately around you and give no thought to how the present has been taking shape since primeval times.
What did the Egyptian sage mean by this? He wanted to convey that the thoughts of the Egyptians were concerned with great problems of the cosmos, with the evolution of the earth through different forms, and that the Greeks, at most, had only pictures of these things in myth and saga. But in reality the Egyptian sage wanted to indicate what had resulted from the use made of the mummified human being, as I have been trying to explain in the last two lectures. The Egyptians set out to bring into the rhythm of inbreathing, impulses derived from certain Spiritual Beings for whom dwelling places had been created in the mummies. Let us try to picture as clearly as possible the significance of the mummy in days when Egyptian Initiation-culture was at its prime.
The mummy was the human being after the spirit-and-soul had departed from his physical form. While a man is alive, the forces active in his etheric organism, his astral organism and Ego, work within this form. The form is irradiated and permeated by the human “tincture” proceeding from the blood and the rest of the organism. The mummy was bare form, a form that could exist on earth only because the human being exists on earth. The Egyptian Initiates used this form—in which the soul and the spirit were not actually present—in order to acquire a power which, without the cult of the mummy, they could not have possessed.
We must try to picture times when the life of soul was quite unlike that of today. Before the Egyptian epoch, all the ideas and thoughts of man, all the experiences of his inner life, were imparted to him directly from the spiritual world. Even when immersed in his thoughts, therefore, he was living in revelations of the spiritual world. In the days of the ancient Indian and ancient Persian civilisations, all the thoughts of man were revelations from the spiritual world. No thoughts were stimulated in him by the external world, by plants, animals or other human beings. His life of soul was replete with thoughts proceeding from the Spiritual and they shed abundant light upon the world. Man lived in communion with the plants and animals and he also gave them names. But these names, too, came to him as revelations from the Gods. When, in the epochs of ancient India and ancient Persia, man gave a name to a flower, it seemed to him that a divine voice said to him distinctly: This is the name by which the flower is to be known. When he gave a name to an animal, he was conscious of hearing inwardly: This is the name by which the animal is to be known. In the civilisations of ancient India and ancient Persia, all such names came to men via their inner life of soul.
In the civilisation of ancient Egypt it was different. Clairvoyant experiences were now fading more and more into twilight and man no longer had clear perception of what was being revealed to him from the spiritual world. As a result he felt it increasingly necessary to live in communion with external nature, with the kingdoms of the animals, the plants and the minerals. But this, too, was out of his reach, for the time was not yet ripe. It was to come in the real sense only after the Mystery of Golgotha. The development of the human being in ancient Egypt had not reached the point where he could have lived in direct communion with the external world. He was obliged, therefore, to mummify the human body. For out of what was present in the mummified form from which the soul and the spirit had departed, he could receive enlightenment about nature around him, about the plants, the animals, the minerals. The first facts of knowledge about these kingdoms of nature came to man from the Spirits who spoke to him from the dwelling places provided for them on earth in the mummies. In the days when the Gods ceased to speak to man from the super-sensible world, he had recourse to helpers who were now able to live on the earth because the human form was preserved by mummification.
But the matter was full of complication. True, it would have been possible for the Initiates to receive from the Moon-Beings indwelling the mummies, enlightenment upon what should be introduced into human life and directives for the guidance and education of men. But because the necessary faculties of soul were still undeveloped, it would not have been possible, even for the Initiates, to obtain, without further measures, enlightenment on nature, on the kingdoms of the plants, animals and minerals, from the Moon-Beings in the mummies. And yet in this very domain the Egyptians were great. With the help of the culture connected with the mummies, they founded, for example, a wonderful art of medicine.
Of course, when a “clever” man of today interprets these things, he says: By preserving the mummies, the Egyptians obtained knowledge of the various organs and founded a science of anatomy, not merely of medicine. This, however, is an illusory conception. The truth is that purely empirical research and logical deliberation would have been no use to the Egyptians for their intercourse with the external world was not of this character; it was much more delicate, much subtler. But something was achieved by this careful preservation of the mummified form, namely, that the souls of the Dead were fettered for a time to their mummies.
Herein lies the dubious character of Egyptian culture, a perpetual reminder that it was a culture in decline, in degeneration, and cannot be said to represent a golden age in human evolution. It was a culture that encroached upon the super-sensible destinies of men, for human souls after death were fettered, as it were, to the preserved, mummified form. And whereas through the Spiritual Beings indwelling the mummies, directives for human affairs could be received, it was not possible to obtain enlightenment about nature, about the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms directly, but only indirectly, in this sense, that the Moon-Beings were able to communicate secrets of nature to the human souls still fettered to the mummies. And so it was from the human souls lingering with their mummies that the Initiates of Egypt, in their turn, obtained enlightenment about the kingdoms of the plants, animals and minerals. A strange atmosphere pervaded Egyptian culture. The Initiates said to themselves: Before death our bodies are not suited to receive enlightenment about nature; a science of nature is beyond our reach; this can come only later, after the Mystery of Golgotha has taken place; our bodies now are unsuitable. Nevertheless we need enlightenment. As human bodies now are, men can acquire knowledge about nature only after their death. They live in the midst of nature here, but they cannot use the body in order to form concepts about nature. After death, however, such concepts can arise. Let us therefore detain the Dead for a period in order that they may give us enlightenment about nature.
Thus a dubious element was introduced into the historical development of humanity through Egyptian culture. Chaldean culture held aloof in this respect and was, so to speak, a culture of greater purity.
Now all these things—modern science, of course, will regard them as so much fantasy, but modern science holds the same opinion of a great deal that is true—all these things were known, particularly, to men of Hebrew antiquity. Hence the aversion to Egyptian culture indicated in the Old Testament although, through Moses, many elements of Egyptian culture found their way into the events there recorded. The Old Testament indicates the kind of attitude that prevailed in regard to all those things I have described as typifying Egyptian development. The attitude of the Initiates in ancient Egypt was this. They said: In order to acquire the powers that are essential for the direction and education of men, we must create external means since inner means are no longer available to us. But we must also anticipate something that will arise only in the future, namely, a science of nature. And there is no other way of achieving this than by letting the Dead, whom we fetter to their mummies, impart it to us. Time ran on and the Mystery of Golgotha took place. By the fourth or fifth century A.D., the old constitution of the soul, with its pictorial conception of the world, had completely passed away. Indications were already appearing of an epoch when men were to form their concepts of outer nature from outer nature herself and moreover when they would be capable of doing so. The whole organisation of man was inwardly transformed. He felt more and more that his soul remained empty when he waited for thoughts and ideas to be revealed to him directly out of the spiritual world. And so he turned to the observation of external phenomena; he formed his concepts and ideas from observations and, later on, from experiments. The process was exactly reversed.
And now, once again it was a matter of acquiring by other means something that was no longer within the reach of man's own powers. More and more since the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., it has been borne in upon men that a future must come when, despite the gift of intellect and the capacity to form thoughts and ideas about external nature through the intellect, this intellect must be spiritualized, so that thoughts will once again lead directly to Divine-Spiritual reality and the power inherent in such thoughts pass into the out-breathing. But this power has not yet come into existence. For the time being we have recourse only to the intellect that is bound up with the physical body.
Certain traditional conceptions which today have almost entirely died out and of which history knows nothing, were alive all through the early Middle Ages, from the fourth and fifth to the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and even later, although hidden in obscurity. Men now proceeded to make “mummies” of a certain kind, out of these conceptions—mummies that are analogous to those of Egypt although they take a different form and the analogy is not perceived. Modern humanity could have gained nothing by preserving the human form in the mummy, as was the custom in Egypt. What modern humanity preserved, was something different, namely ancient cults, mainly pre-Christian cults. And particularly since the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with the birth of a completely intellectualistic culture, ancient ceremonies and rites were preserved in all kinds of occult Orders. Wonderful cults of antiquity, occult rites and ceremonies have been continued in Orders and Lodges of different kinds. They are mummies, like the mummies of human beings in ancient Egypt, as long as they are not irradiated and quickened by the Mystery of Golgotha. There is a very great deal in these cults and ceremonies, but of the wisdom they contained in ancient times only dead elements have been preserved, just as the mummy preserved the dead form of man. And in many respects it is so to this very day. There are innumerable Orders where ceremonials and rituals of all kinds are enacted; but the life has gone out of them, they are mummified. Just as the Egyptian felt a kind of awe when he gazed at a mummy, so in modern man there is not exactly awe, but a feeling of uneasiness perhaps, when he comes across these mummified procedures in his civilisation. He feels them to be something mysterious, as the mummy was felt to be mysterious.
Now just as among the Initiates of Egypt there were some who acted unlawfully, who used the information conveyed to them by the Spirits indwelling the mummies to give false instruction and direction to humanity, so in the mummified ceremonies of many occult Orders an impetus is given to introduce a false twist here or there in the guidance of mankind. I told you that something made possible by mummification of the corpse, passed into the human being by way of the inbreathing. As I said yesterday, the Spiritual Beings needed by the Egyptians had no dwelling-place on earth. And this was provided by the mummies. Those Spiritual Beings and forces which by way of the out-breathing are to bear the inner configuration of man into the ether-world, find no paths in the everyday world, but they are able to move along paths created in these ceremonies—even though they are not understood and are mummified.
In the epoch of Egyptian civilisation, the Moon-Spirits found themselves homeless during the hours of the day. The Spirits who work in the out-breathing of man, these elementary Earth-Spirits who are to be the helpers of mankind today—they have no dwelling-place by night, but they slip down into these ceremonies and ritualistic enactments. There they find paths and are able to live. During the day it is still possible for these Beings to live as it were an honourable existence, for by day the human being thinks, and his intellectualistic thought-forms are passing outwards all the time with the breath as, driven through the cerebral fluid, through the spinal canal, it is then again exhaled. During the hours of night, however, when a man is not thinking, no thought-forms go forth from him; there are no little “ether-ships” upon which the Earth-Spirits can go forth into the world in order to impress man's form into the cosmos of ether. And so ways and directions for the Earth-daemons have been created through these mummified ceremonies. What is contained in all kinds of occult Orders, especially since the birth of modern intellectualism, has a basis similar to that of the cult of the mummy in Egypt, which so suddenly made its appearance. For the human being cannot have knowledge of outer nature without knowledge of himself and of his own form. When the Egyptians set out to acquire a knowledge of nature, they were able to have the mummified human form before them. When it behooved men of the modern age to find something that is not merely passive, ineffective thought elaborated by the intellect but that can really go forth into the world and produce an effect there, then they were obliged to surround themselves with symbolism, symbolism which points to what should really take shape within them in a spiritual sense.
These ceremonial forms and enactments in Lodges and Orders are devoid of soul—the soul has departed from them. As little as the soul of a man indwelt his mummy, as little does there inhere in these ceremonies the power of soul that once was present when they were conducted by the Initiates of olden time. Spiritual life pulsated through the ceremonies when they were being enacted among the ancient Initiates—a spiritual life flowed out from human beings into the ceremonies. In those days, man and the ceremony were one. Think, by way of comparison, of how externalised the ceremonies have become in Orders of the modern age!
The modern man cannot get beyond his intellect. I told you yesterday how even a Benedictine Father, whose vocation it is to be a servant of the Spirit, how even he cannot get away from intellectualism. Modern man cannot find his way out of intellectualism any more than the ancient Egyptian could find his way into it. The ancient Egyptians needed the souls of men already dead in order that a science of nature might be imparted to them. The man of modern times needs something that again imparts to him a spiritual science, a knowledge of the Spirit, because as yet he is unable to unfold this himself.
Now quite apart from the many occult Orders which have become pure mummies, have no deep background, and are carried on more out of a liking to dabble in mysteries, we find that as late as the first half of the nineteenth century there always existed, as well as these others, very earnest and sincere Orders, in which more was imparted than, for example, an average Freemason today receives from his Order. The Orders to which I am referring were able to impart more, because certain needs prevailed in the spiritual world among Beings belonging to the Hierarchy of the Angeloi who are of less interest to us on the earth but very important in our pre-earthly existence. Certain Beings of the Hierarchy of the Angeloi, too, have needs of knowledge, and can only satisfy them by letting human beings reach over, probingly as it were, to these genuine occult Orders before they have come down from pre-earthly into earthly existence. It has actually happened that in connection with certain Lodges working with ancient ceremonial forms, men of vision have been able to assert: Here there is present the soul of a human being who will descend to the earth only in the future. Before the man is born, the soul may be present in such a Lodge and, through their feelings, men can acquire a great deal from this source. Just as the human soul hovered around the mummy, was still bound in a sense to the mummy, so in certain occult Lodges the spirits of human beings not yet born hover in a kind of anticipatory existence. What happens in a case like this does not stimulate intellectual thoughts, for modern men have these thoughts naturally and need no such stimulus. But when they are working in their occult Lodges with the right mood of soul, they can receive communications from human beings not yet born, who are still in their pre-earthly existence and who can be present as a result of the ceremonies. Such men feel the reality of the spiritual world and can, moreover, be inspired by the spiritual world.
There is something in the biography of Goethe which strikes anyone who has a feeling for such things as very significant, particularly when it is mentioned by people who, although they do not know the whole truth, none the less indicate it out of a kind of half-conscious knowledge. Karl Julius Schröer, of whom I have often told you, was quite remarkable in this respect when he was speaking of Goethe. Again and again when he was lecturing on the works and biography of Goethe, a striking phrase would fall from his lips. Schröer would say: “Goethe experienced that once again and the experience rejuvenated him.” Schröer spoke of Goethe as a personality who, say at the age of seven, had had a certain experience; then at the age of fourteen, perhaps, he experienced something different, but the second experience really brought him back a little nearer childhood. Goethe became younger, was rejuvenated. At the age, say, of twenty-one, he was again rejuvenated. Schröer depicted Goethe as if, from stage to stage, he was constantly being rejuvenated.
Study Goethe's biography with care and you will find clear indications of this. Even when he had become a corpulent official in Weimar with a double chin, even in the days when in his dealings with certain people he was a surly, morose old man—and there is much to suggest that in his intercourse with others he was anything but pleasant—even then, in advanced age, Goethe underwent a rejuvenation. It would have been impossible for him, at a great age, to write the second part of Faust if he had not been thus rejuvenated. For about the year 1816 or 1817, Goethe was not a personality from whom one could have expected anything like the second part of Faust, which was written from the year 1824 onwards. A rejuvenation had actually taken place. Moreover Goethe himself had an inkling of this, at any rate in his younger years, when he depicts Faust being given a draught of youth. It is really part of his own biography.
When we investigate what was responsible for this, we realise that it was Goethe's membership of a Lodge. Other venerable figures of Weimar, perhaps only with the exception of Wieland, Chancellor von Muller and one or two others, were ordinary members of the Lodge like many bona fide officials in Weimar. It was their habit to go to Church on Sundays and also be members of the Lodge—the contrast did not worry them! It was the custom in such circles. But it was different in Goethe's case, different too, in the cases of Chancellor von Muller, Wieland and one or two others. They actually experienced these rejuvenations because in their souls they had intercourse with men as yet unborn. Just as the priests of the temples in ancient Egypt had intercourse with the souls of men after their death, so persons such as I have named had intercourse with human beings still living in pre-earthly existence. And from this existence before birth, human beings can bring spirituality into the world of the present. They bring, not intellectualism, but spirituality, which a man then receives through his feelings and which can pervade his whole life.
Thus it may be said that the first elements of intellectual thinking unfolded by mankind in the course of evolution, were learnt by the Egyptians from the Dead, And the first elements of spiritual truths, which have been learnt again by men in the modern age, were acquired from unborn human beings by certain outstanding personalities out of the Initiation-teachings given in occult Orders. Study Goethe's works and again and again you will find flashes of spiritual wisdom which he is not able to express in the form of thoughts but which he clothes in pictures often reminiscent of symbols used in occult Orders. The pictures came to Goethe in the way described. And there are many other such cases.
Now these unborn human souls can give enlightenment only about spiritual truths which can be experienced in the non-earthly world—about the things of heaven and what lies out-side the actual arena of earth-evolution. But because the elementary Earth-Spirits find a foothold in the ceremonies, communications can be made by the Unborn to these Earth-Spirits. And if there is anyone present at the ceremonies with a gift for hearing from the Earth-Spirits what has been communicated to them by the Unborn, such men can, in their turn, give voice to what the Unborn say to the Earth-Spirits. Think of the wonderful understanding of nature possessed by Goethe and by other men in those days, for example, the Danish writer Steven, or men like Troxler, or Schubert who wrote so prolifically on the subject of dreams and whose best inspirations came from the Nature-Spirits. And there were many others—more numerous in the first half of the nineteenth century than later on—who are examples of what came to men by this means. Often, too, something else happened. Communications made in this way by the Unborn to the Nature-Spirits did not always result in the voicing of spiritual secrets of nature. In some human beings these communications became part of their very soul. The forces of the Nature-Spirits were received into their individual qualities of soul and this expressed itself in the style in which such men wrote. Anyone who has a feeling for such things today will realise that the very style of historians such as Ranke or Taine or a typically modern English historian, is intellectualistic. Ranke's style in itself is intellectualistic. The sentences are strung together in an intellectualistic way; the subject is cleverly placed, the predicate just where it should be, and so on. It is all so clever that even a schoolmaster could be satisfied with it, but compare this kind of style with that of Johannes Muller in his twenty-four volumes of world-history: that is a style ... well ... as though an angel were speaking. And in other domains too, in the eighteenth century, many things were written in a style which has no trace of this lack of individuality, this irritating objectivity, but on the contrary, has a quality which makes us feel that elementary forces of nature are streaming through the writer, so that his style seems to flow from the cosmos, from the universe. In such cases something resembling what went out from the mummies to the Initiates of ancient Egypt, comes to modern man. These are facts of great significance, taking place behind the veils of outer history, and they must be recognised by anyone who desires really to understand the evolution of humanity. And so, although these things have remained unrecognised for a time because nowadays there are no ears to hear them—we see how preparation was made for the spiritual power that must enter into and live within the intellect in future ages if humanity does not wish to take the path leading towards the decline of the West depicted by Spengler.
The ancient Egyptians mummified the human form. Since the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., humanity has mummified ancient cults, making it possible, in this way, for forces from beyond the earth to work in the ceremonial of these old cults. Human beings themselves contributed little to these cults; but superhuman beings often contributed a great deal. It is the same with cults of the Churches, and those who have vision of realities can often dispense with the person who stands in the flesh before the altar, because—apart altogether from the officiating priests—they are able to perceive the presence of these Spiritual Beings in the ceremonies.
When we think about these things, it will be clear to us that if we really desire to approach what is all around us spiritually, quite a different kind of language is necessary from that to which modern man is accustomed. Nor shall we be surprised at the appearance of a work like Fritz Mauthner's Kritik der Sprache, which sets out to prove that the ideas men have conceived of Spiritual Beings are words and nothing more. And if words are not to be believed, then, obviously, one cannot believe in Spiritual Beings. Such is the purport of Mauthner's Kritik der Sprache.
Yes, but as far as a large proportion of modern humanity is concerned, Mauthner is quite right. A large proportion of modern humanity has nothing but words with which to speak of the super-sensible. Here, unfortunately, the Kritik der Sprache is right. What is necessary is that real spiritual substance shall again be brought into words. And so it was also necessary in the course of historical evolution that during a period when men themselves were unable to lay hold of this spiritual substance, it should be continued and developed for them by superhuman Beings and by unborn human beings, just as intellectuality was prepared for the Egyptians by those who had already passed through death. The Egyptians received from the Dead the intellectuality in which we are now steeped. We, in the present age, have to learn or at least study by way of the now mummified cult, the spirituality we have not yet acquired—for cult has many things to tell us. Through this different kind of mummy we must supplement our intellectual knowledge with the spirituality of the future. Mummified enactments have taken the place of the mummified human being; mummified ceremonies have superseded the mummified human form.
In this way we must study what proceeds behind the veils of world-history; otherwise every account of the flow of history remains a jumble of external, seemingly fortuitous happenings. But they are not fortuitous when their background is known and understood; they become so only if men refuse to recognise their background. They throw up waves, as it were, of which man believes that each is separate and distinct from the other, whereas the truth is that they all surge upwards together from the depths of an ocean. In reality, processes in history are waves thrown up to the surface, into the sphere of man's life, from the depths of a spiritual sea of world-evolution. In each historical fact we should perceive one such wave, and abandon the belief that one wave arises fortuitously by the side of another. Each wave, that is to say, each historical fact, arises from spiritual depths of that historical evolution which flows onwards eternally, from age to age.
Fünfter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Ein ägyptischer Weiser sprach zu einem griechischen Weisen einmal Worte, etwa dahingehend: Ihr Griechen seid eigentlich ein Volk, das ohne Geschichte nur in der Gegenwart lebt. Ihr sprecht von dem, was sich unmittelbar um euch herum zuträgt, und macht euch keine Gedanken über die Art und Weise, wie sich das seit uralten Zeiten gestaltet und gebildet hat, was in der Gegenwart vorhanden ist.
[ 2 ] Was meinte jener ägyptische Weise eigentlich? Er wollte sagen, daß die Ägypter sich Gedanken machten über kosmische Probleme im Großen, über die Entwickelung der Erde durch verschiedene Formen hindurch, und er meinte, daß die Griechen über diese Dinge höchstens in Mythen und Sagen ausgesprochene Bilder haben. Aber eigentlich wollte der Ägypter gerade hindeuten auf das, was aus dem Gebrauche des mumifizierten Menschen hervorging, wie ich das in den beiden vorangehenden Auseinandersetzungen klarzulegen versuchte. Die Ägypter hielten darauf, in ihren Einatmungsrhythmus dasjenige hereinzubekommen, was ihnen dadurch werden konnte, daß sie eben sich den Behausungen gewisser geistiger Wesenheiten gegenüberstellten, denen sie in den Mumien Gestalt zu geben in der Lage waren. Wir müssen uns einmal ein möglichst sprechendes Bild machen von dem, was in der Blütezeit der ägyptischen Einweihungskultur die Mumie bedeutete.
[ 3 ] Die Mumie war der Mensch in seiner Form, in seiner Gestaltung, nachdem das Geistig-Seelische von dieser Gestaltung, von dieser Form weggenommen war. Während der Mensch lebt, ist das, was in seinem ätherischen Organismus, in seinem astralischen Organismus, in seiner Ich-Wesenheit tätig ist, wirksam in der Form. Die Form wird durchleuchtet von dem, was aus dem Blute und der übrigen Organisation heraus die Form als die Menschenfarbe durchdringt. An der Mumie hatte man die bloße Form, die nur durch den Menschen auf der Erde da sein kann, die nicht entstehen könnte, wenn der Mensch nicht auf der Erde wäre. Ohne daß unmittelbar das Seelische und Geistige dabei war, brauchte der ägyptische Eingeweihte diese Form, um etwas haben zu können, was er, wenn er nicht zur Mumienkultur geschritten wäre, nicht hätte haben können.
[ 4 ] Wir müssen versuchen, uns von diesen Zeiten, die in ganz andern Seelenverfassungen als den heutigen lebten, ein Bild zu machen, das allerdings unserem heutigen Weltbilde sehr unähnlich ist. Wir müssen uns klar darüber sein, daß alles, was bis zur ägyptischen Zeit der Mensch innerlich an Ideen, an Gedanken hatte, was er innerlich im Seelischen erlebte, ihm unmittelbar aus der geistigen Welt gegeben war, daß er also in Offenbarungen der geistigen Welt lebte, auch wenn er sich seinen Gedanken hingab. In der Zeit der urindischen und der urpersischen Kultur hatte der Mensch eben nur solche, ihm vom Geistigen aus geoffenbarte Gedanken. An der äußeren Welt, an Pflanzen, Tieren, Mineralien machte sich der Mensch keine Gedanken. Er hatte sein Seelenleben voll ausgefüllt mit den aus dem Geistigen heraus kommenden Gedanken; die klärten ihn hinlänglich über die Welt auf. Er lebte mit den Pflanzen, mit den Tieren, er gab ihnen auch Namen. Aber auch diese Namen empfand er so, daß sie ihm von den Göttern geoffenbart waren. Wenn in der urindischen, in der urpersischen Kultur ein Mensch einer Blume einen Namen gab, so hatte das für ihn die Bedeutung, daß ihm eine göttliche Stimme gesagt hatte, so daß er es deutlich vernahm: so solle er zu der Blume sagen. Wenn er einem Tiere den Namen gab, dann hatte er das Bewußtsein, in seinem Innern zu hören: so solle er zu dem Tiere sagen. Alle Namen für das, was er bezeichnete, kamen den Angehörigen der urindischen, der urpersischen Zivilisation von innen heraus.
[ 5 ] In der ägyptischen Zivilisation wurde es anders. Da kamen die inneren Erlebnisse immer mehr in die Dämmerung. Der Mensch konnte nicht mehr so deutlich überschauen, was sich ihm da aus der geistigen Welt offenbarte. Daher fühlte er immer mehr die Notwendigkeit, mit der äußeren Natur, mit dem Tier-, Pflanzen- und Mineralteich zu leben; aber das konnte er auch noch nicht, denn die Zeit war noch nicht gekommen. Diese Zeit kam eigentlich erst nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Der Mensch war nicht so weit, daß er mit der Außenwelt hätte leben können. Dadurch war er genötigt, den Menschen zu mumifizieren. Denn aus dem, was jetzt in dem nicht mehr beseelten Menschen wohnte, aus dem gerade konnte er Aufschlüsse gewinnen über die ihn umgebende Natur, über Pflanzen, Tiere, Mineralien. Die ersten Kenntnisse über Pflanzen, Tiere, Mineralien sind dem Menschen dadurch geworden, daß jene Geistwesen aus den Mumien zu ihnen sprachen, denen er auf der Erde dutch die Mumien Wohnsitze verschafft hatte. Man möchte sagen, in der Zeit, als aus den übersinnlichen Welten die Götter immer mehr aufhörten für die Menschen zu reden, nahm der Mensch seine Zuflucht zu den Helfern, die nun auf der Erde dadurch leben konnten, daß der Mensch die Menschenform konservierte durch die Mumien. Der Vorgang war eigentlich ein ziemlich komplizierter. Für die Eingeweihten wäre es wohl möglich gewesen, unmittelbar durch jene mondgeistigen Wesenheiten, die in den Mumien wohnten, Aufschlüsse darüber zu bekommen, was im Menschenleben vor sich gehen sollte, Direktionslinien zum Lenken und Leiten und Erziehen der Menschen zu erhalten. Aber nicht ohne weiteres wäre es auch für die Eingeweihten möglich gewesen — denn dazu waren zunächst keine Fähigkeiten in den menschlichen Seelen vorhanden -, durch die die Mumien bewohnenden Wesen Aufschlüsse über die Natur zu bekommen, über das Pflanzen-, Tier- und Mineralreich. Und dennoch, gerade darin waren die Ägypter groß. Sie haben zum Beispiel schon eine wunderbare Medizin gerade mit Hilfe der Mumienkultur begründet.
[ 6 ] Natürlich, wenn ein heutiger gescheiter Mensch diese Dinge auslegt, so sagt er: Die Ägypter haben die Mumien konserviert, dabei haben sie die verschiedenen Organe kennengelernt, die sie konserviert haben, und dadurch eine Anatomie begründet, nicht bloß eine Medizin. -— Aber das ist bloß eine Scheinansicht, das ist keine wahre Ansicht. Die Wahrheit ist, daß in der damaligen Zeit durch solche logische Erwägungen, durch solche reine Beobachtungsforschungen den Ägyptern gar nicht gedient gewesen wäre; denn in dieser Weise verkehrten sie überhaupt nicht mit der Außenwelt. Ihr Verkehr mit der Außenwelt war ein viel feinerer. Aber eines ist dadurch bewirkt worden, daß in einer so sorgfältigen Weise die Mumienform erhalten wurde: die Seelen der Menschen, die gestorben waren, sind eine Zeitlang an ihre Mumie gefesselt worden.
[ 7 ] Das ist das Bedenkliche der ägyptischen Kultur, was uns immer darauf hinweisen muß, daß diese ägyptische Kultur eigentlich doch eine absteigende war, eine Dekadenzkultur, von der man nicht als von einer Blütekultur innerhalb der Gesamtmenschheit sprechen darf, denn sie griff auch in die übersinnlichen Schicksale der Menschen ein. Sie fesselte in einer gewissen Weise die Menschenseelen nach dem Tode an ihre konservierte Form, an die Mumie. Und während man durch die die Mumie bewohnenden geistigen Wesenheiten über Direktionslinien für die Menschheit Aufschluß gewann, konnte man über die Natur, über das 'Tier-, Pflanzen- und Mineralreich, solche Aufschlüsse nicht unmittelbar gewinnen, wohl aber mittelbar dadurch, daß diese mondgeistigen Wesenheiten den Menschenseelen, die sich noch bei den Mumien aufhielten, wiederum die Naturgeheimnisse mitteilten. Und von diesen noch bei den Mumien verweilenden Menschenseelen bekamen dann wiederum die Initiierten Ägyptens Aufschlüsse über das Tier-, Pflanzen- und Mineralreich. So war also innerhalb der ägyptischen Kultur eine merkwürdige Stimmung da. Die ägyptischen Eingeweihten sagten sich: Unsere Menschenleiber sind bis zum Tode nicht geeignet, Aufschlüsse über die Natur zu bekommen. Eine Naturwissenschaft können wir nicht erringen, dazu sind unsere Leiber noch nicht geeignet, das wird erst später, nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha möglich sein. Aber wir müssen doch einen Aufschluß gewinnen. So wie unsere jetzigen Leiber sind, so werden die Menschen erst nach dem Tode geeignet sein, etwas über die Natur zu wissen. Sie leben hier zwar in der Natur, aber sie können ihren Leib noch nicht gebrauchen, um sich Begriffe über die Natur zu machen. Erst nach dem Tode gehen ihnen diese Begriffe über die Natur auf. Daher halten wir die Toten eine Weile fest, daß sie uns Aufschlüsse über die Natur geben. — Es trat also im Grunde genommen etwas recht Bedenkliches in die geschichtliche Entwickelung der Menschheit gerade durch die ägyptische Kultur ein. Die chaldäische hielt sich in dieser Zeit fern und ist, man möchte sagen, eine reinere Kultur.
[ 8 ] Das alles, was ich Ihnen jetzt auseinandergesetzt habe — was natürlich für die heutige Wissenschaft eine Phantasterei ist, aber vieles Wahre ist eben für die heutige Wissenschaft eine Phantasterei —, das wußten vor allen Dingen die Angehörigen des hebräischen Altertums. Daher jene Abneigung, jene Aversion, die Sie im Alten Testament gegen das Ägyptertum finden, obwohl wiederum auf dem Umwege durch Moses sehr vieles Ägyptisches in das Alte Testament hereingekommen ist. Sie können aus dem Alten Testament ablesen, wie die Stimmung war gegenüber allem, was ich Ihnen eben als das Wesen der historischen Entwickelung Ägyptens darstellen mußte. Und so war in dem alten Ägypten eben die Stimmung: Wir müssen äußere Mittel schaffen, da wir innere nicht mehr haben, um die die Menschen regierenden und erziehenden Kräfte zu bekommen. Wir müssen aber auch etwas vorausnehmen, was in der Zukunft erst kommen soll, eine Naturwissenschaft. Das können wir nicht anders, als daß wir sie uns von den Toten, die wir an ihre Mumien fesseln, zunächst einmal geben lassen.
[ 9 ] Nun kam das Mysterium von Golgatha, nun kamen nachher das 4., 5. Jahrhundert nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Die alte Seelenverfassung mit der bildhaften Weltvorstellung dämmerte vollständig hinab. Die Zeit kündigte sich schon an, wo der Mensch sich aus der äußeren Natur heraus Vorstellungen machen sollte über diese Natur, wo er es auch konnte. Die ganze menschliche Organisation wurde innerlich umgestaltet. Der Mensch fühlte immer mehr und mehr, daß seine Seele leer blieb, wenn er auf geoffenbarte Gedanken und Ideen wartete, die unmittelbar aus der geistigen Welt kommen sollten. Dafür aber schaute er die äußeren Dinge und Wesenheiten an, beobachtete sie und bildete sich aus der Beobachtung und später aus den Experimenten heraus seine Begriffe und Ideen. Und jetzt entstand wiederum die Aufgabe, das, was man noch nicht oder nicht mehr durch eigene menschliche Kräfte haben konnte, auf eine andere Weise zu bekommen. Immer mehr und mehr seit dem 4., 5. nachchristlichen Jahrhunderte mußte sich die Menschheit sagen: Es muß eine Zukunft kommen, wo, trotzdem wir durch unseren Verstand uns an den äußeren Naturdingen Ideen und Gedanken machen, wo wiederum eine Art Spiritualisierung des Intellekts eintritt, wo wiederum die Gedanken und Ideen unmittelbar hinweisen auf ein Göttlich-Geistiges, wo das, was in den Ideen als Kraft liegt, in die Ausatmung übergehen kann. Aber sie ist eben noch nicht da, diese Kraft. Vorläufig sind wir angewiesen auf den Intellekt, der nur an den physischen Leib gebunden ist.
[ 10 ] Aus gewissen traditionellen Vorstellungen heraus, die heute geschichtlich fast ganz verglommen sind, von denen man geschichtlich nichts mehr weiß, die aber im Mittelalter vom 4., 5. bis zum 12., 13. Jahrhunderte lebten und dann, obwohl ziemlich im Verborgenen, weiterlebten innerhalb der Menschheitszivilisation, bildete man nun auch eine Art von Mumien, die analog den ägyptischen Mumien sind, die aber, weil sie eben doch etwas anderes als die ägyptischen Mumien sind, nicht als solche empfunden werden.
[ 11 ] Von einer Konservierung der menschlichen Form zur Mumie, wie das die Ägypter gemacht haben, hätte die moderne Menschheit nichts gehabt. Sie mußte etwas anderes konservieren, und sie konservierte alte Kulte, vorzugsweise vorchristliche Kulte. Als dann insbesondere vom 14., 15. Jahrhundert herauf die völlig intellektualistische Kultur kam, da wurden in den verschiedensten okkulten Orden alte Kulte konserviert. Und es sind in der Tat wunderbare alte Kultushandlungen in allen möglichen Orden konserviert. Wir sehen, wie Gebräuche, okkulte Zeremonien in den verschiedenen okkulten Logen fortleben. Die sind wahrhaftig ebenso Mumien wie die Menschenmumien Ägyptens. Sie sind dann Mumien, wenn sie nicht von dem Mysterium von Golgatha durchglüht und durchwärmt werden. In solchen Kulten und Zeremonien ist außerordentlich vieles enthalten, aber sie haben von dem, was einstmals in ganz alten Zeiten in ihnen lag, ebenso nur das Tote bewahrt, wie die Mumie nur die tote Form des Menschen bewahrt hatte. Und das ist vielfach so bis zum heutigen Tage geblieben. Es gibt unzählige Orden, die Zeremonien betreiben, Ritualien haben, alles mögliche, aber das Leben ist daraus gewichen, sie sind mumifiziert. Geradeso wie der gewöhnliche Ägypter nur eine Art von Schauer hatte, wenn er die Mumie anschaute, so hat der moderne Mensch, wenn auch vielleicht nicht gerade einen Schauer, aber doch irgend etwas, was auch kein rechtes Gefühl der Seele ist, wenn er diesen mumifizierten spirituellen Verrichtungen nahekommt. Er empfindet sie als etwas Geheimnisvolles, wie die Mumie auch als etwas Geheimnisvolles empfunden wurde.
[ 12 ] Aber geradeso wie unter den ägyptischen Eingeweihten solche waren, die aus den Mitteilungen jener Geister, die die Mumien bewohnten, etwas Falsches machten in der Menschheitserziehung und Menschheitsdirektion — und es gab durchaus solche unter ihnen -, so ist in den mumifizierten Zeremonien vieler okkulter Orden eben ein falscher Antrieb vorhanden, um dieses oder jenes in der Lenkung und Leitung der Menschheit zu erreichen. Was damals in den Menschen auf dem Wege der Einatmung hereinkam, das kam aus dem, was er von der Mumie hatte. Ich habe Ihnen gestern gesagt, daß die geistigen Wesenheiten, welche die Ägypter brauchten, kein Obdach hatten, daß in den Mumien Obdach geschaffen werden mußte. Die geistigen Wesenheiten nun, die auf dem Wege der Ausatmung die innere Menschenform in die ätherische Welt tragen sollten, die, habe ich Ihnen gesagt, finden keine Wege draußen in der Welt, aber sie können sich auf dem Wege innerhalb der Zeremonien bewegen, wenn auch unverstandene, mumifizierte Zeremonien verrichtet werden. Die Mondengeister zur Zeit der ägyptischen Zivilisation waren namentlich bei Tag obdachlos. Die Ausatmungsgeister, diese Erdenelementargeister, die die heutigen Helfer der Menschheit sein sollen, sind bei der Nacht obdachlos, abet sie schlüpfen unter in das, was in solchen Zeremonien vollzogen wird. Da finden sie ihre Wege, da können sie leben. Bei Tag ist es ihnen noch möglich, ich möchte sagen, auf ehrliche Art mit dem Atem zu leben, denn bei Tag denkt der Mensch, und immerhin sendet er seine intellektualistischen Denkformen mit dem Atem hinaus, der durch das Gehirnwasser durch den Rückenmarkskanal getrieben wird und dann wieder ausgestoßen wird. In der Nacht aber, wo der Mensch nicht denkt, gehen keine Denkformen hinaus, leben gewissermaßen keine ätherischen Schifflein, auf denen diese Erdgeister vom Menschen in die Welt hinausgehen könnten, um dort seine Form dem Ätherkosmos einzuprägen.
[ 13 ] So schafft der Mensch das, was diese Erddämonen an Wegen, an Richtungen finden sollen, durch solche mumifizierten Zeremonien. Die haben ihren guten Sinn. Was in der neueren Zeit, namentlich seit dem Aufkommen des Intellektualismus, alle möglichen okkulten Orden haben, das hat einen ähnlichen Grund wie das Auftreten der Mumien in Ägypten. Denn der Mensch kann das, was in der äußeren Natur ist, nicht ohne sich, ohne seine eigene Form erkennen, und als die Ägypter darauf angewiesen waren, eine Naturerkenntnis zu schaffen, konnten sie durch die Mumien die menschliche Form vor sich hinstellen. Als die neueren Menschen darauf angewiesen waren, nun auch etwas zu bekommen, was nicht bloß passiv machtloser Gedanke ist, den sich. der Mensch intellektualistisch erarbeitet, sondern was in die Welt hinausziehen kann, um wirksam zu werden, da hatte der Mensch nötig, draußen etwas um sich zu haben, was symbolistisch, ist, was eine Ausdeutung von dem ist, was sich spirituell eigentlich in ihm gestalten sollte.
[ 14 ] Nun sind diese Formen, die da als Zeremoniell in den Logen getrieben werden, ja auch entseelt. Ebensowenig wie in der Mumie die Seele des Menschen lebte, so lebt in diesen Verrichtungen eigentlich jene Beseelung, die einstmals in ihnen vorhanden war, als sie unter den alten Eingeweihten ausgeübt wurden. Damals pulsierte noch durch jene Zeremonien unmittelbares spirituelles Leben, das vom Menschen in die Zeremonie floß. Da waren der Mensch und die Zeremonie eines. Man vergleiche damit, wie äußerlich die Zeremonien und Verrichtungen unter den modernen Menschen in den modernen Orden sind.
[ 15 ] Aber da kommt nun etwas anderes an den modernen Menschen heran. Der moderne Mensch kann aus seinem Intellekt nicht heraus. Ich habe Ihnen gestern an einem Benediktinerpater gezeigt, wie selbst ein Mensch, der berufsmäßig ein Diener des Spirituellen sein soll, aus dem Intellektuellen nicht herauskommt. Der moderne Mensch kann aus dem Intellektuellen nicht heraus, wie der alte Ägypter nicht hineinkonnte in das Intellektuelle. Der alte Ägypter brauchte die Menschenleiber, wenn sie schon tot waren, damit sie ihm eine Naturwissenschaft vermitteln konnten. Der moderne Mensch braucht etwas, was ihm wiederum eine geistige Wissenschaft, eine Geist-Erkenntnis vermittelt.
[ 16 ] Nun will ich dabei ganz von denjenigen okkulten Orden absehen die ja vielfach bestehen -, die vollständige Mumien sind, die also eigentlich mehr aus einer Kulturkoketterie heraus getrieben werden, die tiefere Untergründe nicht haben. Aber es gibt doch auch und hat namentlich bis in die erste Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts herein immerhin sehr ernsthafte Ordensverbindungen gegeben, die mehr vermittelten, als was zum Beispiel ein heutiger Durchschnittsfreimaurer aus seinem Orden erhält. Und die konnten nun auch wirklich mehr vermitteln aus dem Grunde, weil in der geistigen Welt heute gewisse Bedürfnisse unter der Hierarchie der Angeloi herrschen, die uns auf der Erde allerdings weniger interessieren, die uns aber in unserem vorirdischen Dasein sehr wichtig sind. Da haben gewisse Wesen der Hierarchie der Angeloi nun auch gewisse Erkenntnisbedürfnisse, die sie nur dadurch befriedigen können, daß sie gerade dahin, wo solche ernsthafte okkulte Orden sind, gewissermaßen schon probeweise die Menschenseelen hingelangen lassen, bevor sie eigentlich aus dem vorirdischen Dasein in das irdische Dasein herunterkommen.
[ 17 ] Es ist durchaus so gewesen, daß in gewissen mit alten Zeremonien wirkenden Logen derjenige, der die Dinge wirklich verfolgen konnte, sich sagte: Hier ist schon die Seele eines Menschen gegenwärtig, der erst in der Zukunft auf die Erde heruntersteigen wird. — Bevor der Mensch heruntersteigt auf die Erde, kehrt diese Seele in einer solchen okkulten Loge ein, und man kann gefühlsmäßig aus ihr außerordentlich viel gewinnen. Geradeso wie die Menschenseele die Mumie umschwirrte, also noch an die Mumie gewissermaßen gebannt war, so schwirren in okkulten Logen die Geister der noch nicht geborenen Menschen wie in einem vorher sich auswirkenden Dasein herum. Es kommt das wiederum nicht durch intellektuelle Gedanken zum Vorschein, denn die haben die modernen Menschen ohnedies, die brauchen sie nicht, aber wenn sie mit der richtigen Seelenstimmung in ihren okkulten Logen sind, so bekommen sie da Mitteilungen von noch nicht geborenen Menschen, von Menschen, die noch in dem vorirdischen Dasein sind und die jetzt durch dieses Zeremoniell gegenwärtig sein können. Und sie fühlen die spirituelle Welt, diese Menschen, und können auch aus der spirituellen Welt heraus reden.
[ 18 ] Es gibt etwas in der Goethe-Biographie, das auf einen Menschen, der für solche Dinge ein Gefühl hat, außerordentlich bedeutsam wirkt, besonders dann, wenn es von Leuten gesagt wird, die nicht eigentlich das Rechte wissen, die aber aus einer gewissen Erkenntnis heraus sozusagen halbbewußt auf das Rechte hinweisen. In dieser Beziehung war Karl Julius Schröer, von dem ich Ihnen oftmals erzählt habe, ganz merkwürdig, wenn er über Goethe sprach. Wenn er so die GoetheBiographie mit den Werken von Goethe vor die Seelen seiner Zuhörer stellte, so kam immer wiederum ein Wort heraus, das einen frappierte, das einen ungeheuer gefangennahm, das Wort: Das hatte Goethe wiedererlebt, und er hatte sich an diesem Erlebnis verjüngt. Und so hat Schröer eigentlich Goethe so dargestellt, als ob dieser eine Persönlichkeit gewesen wäre, die, nachdem sie einmal mit sieben Jahren jung gewesen ist, dann mit vierzehn Jahren etwas anderes erlebte, und durch dieses Erlebnis eigentlich ein bißchen weiter in die Kindheit zurückgebracht wurde. Goethe verjüngte sich. Und dann, meinetwillen mit einundzwanzig Jahren, verjüngte er sich wiederum. Und so hat tatsächlich Schröer den Goethe so dargestellt, als ob er von Etappe zu Etappe immer solche Verjüngungsprozesse durchgemacht hätte.
[ 19 ] Und schauen Sie sich schließlich die Goethe-Biographie an: es ist etwas daran, daß diese Verjüngung in ihm war. Selbst als Goethe in Weimar schon der dicke Geheimrat mit dem Doppelkinn war, selbst in der Zeit, als er gewissen Leuten so gegenübertrat, daß sie in ihm oftmals schon mehr oder weniger einen Sauertopf verspürten — in dieser Beziehung ist ja vieles bekannt, was durchaus im persönlichen Verkehr von Goethe mit andern Menschen nicht ganz nett war -, selbst da kam es immer mehr und mehr über ihn, und er hat eigentlich im spätesten Alter eine Verjüngung durchgemacht. Und schließlich hätte er das, was er im spätesten Greisenalter am zweiten Teile des «Faust» geschrieben hat, wahrhaftig nicht schreiben können, wenn er nicht eine solche Verjüngung durchgemacht hätte. Denn Goethe war so ungefähr im Jahre 1816 oder 1817 eine Persönlichkeit, der man nichts von dem zumuten konnte, was Goethe im zweiten Teile des «Faust» später vom Jahre 1824 an geschrieben hat. Das war wirklich eine Verjüngungskur. Goethe hat das auch geahnt, allerdings in früheren Jahren, da, wo er dem Faust einen Verjüngungstrank geben ließ. Das ist auch so etwas wie eine Art Selbstbiographie. Und wenn man nachforscht, wodurch Goethe zu so etwas gekommen ist, dann sieht man: es ist seine Mitgliedschaft zur Loge gewesen. Die andern ehrsamen Weimaraner, höchstens mit Ausnahme von Wieland, Kanzler von Müller und ein paar andern — nun, die waren halt Mitglieder der Loge, wie die Leute es eben sind. Wenn man in Weimar ein ordentlicher Beamter ist, kann man nicht anders, als am Sonntag in die Kirche gehen, und so ist man auch, trotzdem das gerade das Gegenteil ist, Mitglied der Loge. Das war schon einmal so Sitte, in diesen Kreisen wenigstens. Aber bei Goethe war das nicht so, auch bei dem Kanzler von Müller und bei Wieland und bei einigen andern nicht; die machten wirklich solche Verjüngungen durch, weil sie in ihrer Seele den Verkehr mit noch ungeborenen Menschenkindern hatten.
[ 20 ] Geradeso wie der alte ägyptische Tempelpriester mit den Menschenseelen nach ihrem Tode verkehrte, so verkehrten solche Leute mit den Menschen vor ihrer Geburt. Und die Menschen können nun, bevor sie geboren sind, etwas von Spiritualität in die Welt der Gegenwart hereintragen. Intellektualistisches tragen sie nicht herein, aber Spirituelles tragen sie herein, was der Mensch dann durch seine Gefühle aufnimmt und was sich in sein ganzes Leben hereinlebt.
[ 21 ] So kann man sagen: Das erste von Intellektualismus, was die Menschheit in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung gelernt hat, haben die Ägypter von den Toten gelernt, und das erste, was in der neueren Zeit über Spirituelles gelernt worden ist, das haben wiederum hervorragende Persönlichkeiten aus ihrer Initiationslehre in okkulten Logen von ungeborenen Menschen bekommen. Das ist etwas, was einander in einer merkwürdigen Weise entspricht. Sehen Sie nur einmal, wenn Sie Goethes Werke verfolgen, wie Ihnen manchmal daraus etwas entgegenblitzt, was in spirituelle Weisheit zu dringen scheint, was er nicht imstande ist, in Gedankenform auszusprechen. Aber er prägt es in ein Bild, und das Bild hat eine große Ähnlichkeit mit irgendeinem Logensymbolum. Er hat es nur auf diese Weise bekommen. Und so gibt es viele, die auf diese Weise etwas bekommen haben. Aber diese ungeborenen Menschen können doch nur über das Aufschluß geben, was eben in der nichtirdischen Welt an Geistigem erfahren werden kann, sie können natürlich nur über das Himmlische Aufschluß geben, über das, was außerhalb der Erdenentwickelung liegt. Dadurch aber, daß dutch die Zeremonien die elementarischen Erdengeister festgehalten wurden, dadurch können wiederum Mitteilungen gemacht werden von den ungeborenen Menschen an die elementarischen Erdengeister. Und ist dann gar noch ein Talent, ein Genie vorhanden, um die elementarischen Erdengeister abzuhorchen über das, was ihnen die ungeborenen Menschen mitteilen, dann sprechen die betreffenden Menschen, die so etwas abhören können, eben das aus, was die ungeborenen Menschen den Naturgeistern, den Erdgeistern sagen.
[ 22 ] Versuchen Sie einmal auf das hin so manches wunderbare Naturbekenntnis Goethes zu verfolgen, manches Naturbekenntnis auch eines andern Menschen dieser Zeit, in dem so etwas besonders rege war, zum Beispiel in dem Dänen Steffens, oder sagen wir in Menschen wie etwa Troxier, Schubert, der so viel über den 'Iraum geschrieben hat, aber eigentlich die besten Anregungen dazu von den Naturgeistern bekommen hat. Verfolgen Sie das bei vielen andern, die in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts noch zahlreicher waren als später, dann bekommen Sie Zeugnis für das, was auf diese Weise unter die Menschen gekommen ist. Aber manchmal ist sogar noch etwas anderes zustande gekommen. Manchmal ging die Mitteilung, welche die ungeborenen Menschen auf diese Weise den Naturgeistern auf Erden machten, nicht so in die Menschen über, daß diese aus der Natur und ihren Geheimnissen heraus spirituelle Dinge sprachen, sondern die Menschen nahmen sie manchmal in ihrer ganzen Seelenverfassung auf. Sie nahmen die Kräfte der Naturgeister in ihrer ganzen Seelenverfassung auf, und das kam dann zum Vorschein in dem Stil, den solche Menschen schrieben. Und wo ein Gefühl für so etwas vorhanden ist, da kann der heutige Mensch sich folgendes sagen: Wenn ich heute einen Historiker lese, wie zum Beispiel Ranke oder Taine oder einen gegenwärtigen englischen Historiker, da wird der Stil schon intellektualistisch. Ranke schreibt ja schon im Stil intellektualistisch, die Sätze sind schon intellektualistisch gefügt, es ist alles so gescheit, das Subjekt gescheit an seine Stelle gesetzt, das Prädikat gescheit an seine Stelle gesetzt, so daß schon fast die Schulmeister sogar mit einem solchen Stil zufrieden sein könnten. Aber man vergleiche solch einen Stil zum Beispiel mit dem von Johannes Müller in seinen «24 Büchern allgemeiner Geschichte». Es ist ein Stil, man möchte sagen, wie wenn ein Engel sprechen würde. Und auch in andern Kulturen ist im 18. Jahrhundert eben noch manches in einem solchen Stil geschrieben, der tatsächlich nicht dieses Unindividuelle, dieses beleidigend Objektive eines jetzigen historischen oder naturwissenschaftlichen Stiles hat, sondern der etwas von dem hat, woran man sieht: es gehen elementare Naturkräfte durch den schreibenden Menschen hindurch und sein Stil ist aus dem Kosmos, aus dem Universum heraus geschrieben.
[ 23 ] Da kommt an den modernen Menschen etwas heran, was für die moderne Zeit ähnlich ist wie das, was von den Mumien ausging für den ägyptischen Eingeweihten. Das sind außerordentlich wichtige, hinter den Kulissen der äußeren Geschichte sich abspielende historische Begebenheiten, die man eben kennen muß, wenn man überhaupt etwas von der Entwickelung der Menschheit verstehen will. Und so sehen wir, wie auf diese Weise vorbereitet wurde — was jetzt nur eine Weile verkannt wird, weil eigentlich kein Mensch mehr auf so etwas in der richtigen Weise hinhorcht -, wie vorbereitet wurde das Spirituelle, das wiederum auch in den Intellekt hereinkommen soll und in der Zukunft im Intellekt leben muß, wenn die Menschheit der neueren Zivilisation nicht ganz den Spengler-Weg gehen will in den Niedergang des Abendlandes hinein. So können wir sagen: Die alten Ägypter mumifizierten die Menschenform; die neuere Menschheit seit dem 4., 5. nachchristlichen Jahrhunderte mumifizierte die alten Kulte auf allen Gebieten. Aber sie gab dadurch immerhin Veranlassung, daß ein Außerirdisches in dem Zeremoniell der alten Kulte leben konnte. Von dem Menschen lebte ja nicht viel darinnen in diesen Kulten, aber von außermenschlichen Wesenheiten lebt doch manches darinnen.
[ 24 ] So ist es ja auch mit den Kirchenkulten, und wer in die Dinge hineinschaut, wirklich der Realität nach hineinschaut, der kann manchmal ganz gut auch bei den Kirchenkulten die Persönlichkeiten, die mit Fleisch und Blut vor dem Altare stehen, entbehren, weil die geistigen Wesenheiten, ganz abgesehen von den zelebrierenden Priestern, da sind, weil er auf die geistigen Wesenheiten, die da eben in den Zeremonien drinnen leben, hinschauen kann. Wenn Sie das alles ins Auge fassen, so werden Sie sich sagen: Man muß schon eine ganz andere Sprache wählen, als es die heutige Menschheit gewöhnt ist, wenn man überhaupt an das herankommen will, was im spirituellen Sinne wirklich um uns herum ist. — Deshalb brauchen Sie sich gar nicht zu verwundern, wenn heute solche Werke erscheinen wie Frirz Mauthners «Kritik der Sprache», in der bewiesen werden soll, daß alles, was die Menschen sich an geistigen Wesenheiten vorgestellt haben, nur in den Worten liegt — und wenn man nicht an die Worte glauben will, so kann man auch nicht an Geister glauben! Das ist ja der Sinn der «Kritik der Sprache» von Fritz Mauthner. Fritz Mauthner hat für einen großen Teil der modernen Menschheit recht, wirklich recht. Ein großer Teil der modernen Menschheit hat nichts als Worte, wenn er von übersinnlichen Dingen spricht. Für diese gilt die «Kritik der Sprache» - leider. Aber es ist ebenso notwendig, daß wiederum in die Worte der substantielle geistige Gehalt hineingebracht wird. Und deshalb war es auch in der geschichtlichen Entwickelung notwendig, daß eine Zeit hindurch, in der die Menschen selber noch nicht diesen geistigen Gehalt erfassen konnten, dieser ihnen fortentwickelt wurde von außermenschlichen Wesenheiten und von den Menschen, die noch nicht geboren sind, wie ebenso von außermenschlichen Wesenheiten und von Menschen, die nicht mehr irdisch lebten, die schon in dem Leben nach dem Tode standen, den Ägyptern die Intellektualität vorbereitet worden ist. Die Intellektualität, in der wir stehen, lernten die Ägypter von den Toten. Wir müssen die Spiritualität, in der wir noch nicht drinnen sind, in der Gegenwart lernen auf dem Umwege durch den mumifizierten Kultus, den wir uns wieder aneignen müssen, den wir mindestens studieren müssen. Denn dann ist er vielsagend. Wir müssen uns die Spiritualität der Zukunft zu unserer Intellektualität hinzu durch diese andere Mumie aneignen. An die Stelle des mumifizierten Menschen ist die mumifizierte menschliche Verrichtung getreten, an die Stelle der mumifizierten menschlichen Form ist die mumifizierte menschliche Handlung getreten. In entsprechender Weise hat sich das andere so ausgebildet, wie ich es charakterisiert habe.
[ 25 ] So muß man das studieren, was hinter den Kulissen der Weltgeschichte vor sich geht, sonst bleibt alles, was die Leute über geschichtliche Vorgänge erzählen, dennoch ein für die Menschheit unverstandenes Konglomerat von äußeren Zufallstatsachen, reinen Zufallstatsachen. Sie sind aber nicht Zufallstatsachen, wenn man ihren Hintergrund kennt. Sie werden erst Zufallstatsachen, wenn die Menschen es verschmähen, die Hintergründe zu erkennen. Sie werden sozusagen Wellen, von denen man glaubt, daß eine jede neben der andern steht, während sie alle zusammen aus den Tiefen des Meeres heraufspielen. In Wahrheit sind die geschichtlichen Vorgänge Wellen, die aus ungeheuren Tiefen eines spirituellen Meeres der Weltevolution heraufgeworfen werden auf die Oberfläche des unmittelbar von den Menschen zu erreichenden Geschehens. Und man sollte in jeder einzelnen historischen Tatsache eine solche Welle sehen, aber nicht glauben, daß Welle sich neben Welle durch sich selbst stellt, sondern daß jede einzelne Welle, das heißt jede einzelne historische Tatsache, aus spirituellen Tiefen der von Zeitenferne zu Zeitenferne gehenden spirituellen historischen Entwickelung herrührt.
Fifth Lecture
[ 1 ] An Egyptian sage once said to a Greek sage: "You Greeks are actually a people who live only in the present, without history. You talk about what is happening immediately around you and do not think about how what exists in the present has developed and been shaped since ancient times."
[ 2 ] What did the Egyptian sage actually mean? He wanted to say that the Egyptians thought about cosmic problems on a grand scale, about the development of the earth through various forms, and he meant that the Greeks had at most images of these things expressed in myths and legends. But what the Egyptian really wanted to point out was what came out of the use of mummified humans, as I tried to explain in the two previous discussions. The Egyptians insisted on incorporating into their breathing rhythm that which could become theirs by confronting themselves with the dwellings of certain spiritual beings, whom they were able to give form in the mummies. We must try to form as vivid a picture as possible of what the mummy meant in the heyday of Egyptian initiation culture.
[ 3 ] The mummy was the human being in its form, in its configuration, after the spiritual-soul element had been removed from this configuration, from this form. While the human being lives, what is active in his etheric organism, in his astral organism, in his ego-being, is effective in the form. The form is illuminated by what permeates the form as the human color from the blood and the rest of the organization. In the mummy, one had the mere form, which can only exist through the human being on earth, which could not arise if the human being were not on earth. Without the immediate presence of the soul and spirit, the Egyptian initiate needed this form in order to have something that he could not have had if he had not progressed to the mummy culture.
[ 4 ] We must try to form a picture of these times, which were lived in a completely different state of mind than today, even though it is very different from our present worldview. We must be clear that everything that humans had in their inner lives in terms of ideas and thoughts, everything they experienced in their souls, was given to them directly from the spiritual world, that they lived in revelations from the spiritual world, even when they were absorbed in their thoughts. In the time of the ancient Indian and Persian cultures, human beings had only such thoughts revealed to them by the spiritual world. They did not concern themselves with the outer world, with plants, animals, or minerals. Their soul life was completely filled with thoughts coming from the spiritual world, which explained the world to them sufficiently. They lived with plants and animals, and they also gave them names. But they also felt that these names had been revealed to them by the gods. When a person in the ancient Indian or Persian culture gave a name to a flower, it meant to them that a divine voice had told them, so that they heard it clearly, that this was how they should address the flower. When he gave an animal a name, he was conscious of hearing within himself that this was how he should address the animal. All the names for the things he designated came from within the members of the ancient Indian and Persian civilizations.
[ 5 ] In Egyptian civilization, things were different. Inner experiences became increasingly obscured. People could no longer clearly perceive what was being revealed to them from the spiritual world. Therefore, they felt an increasing need to live with the outer nature, with the animal, plant, and mineral world; but they could not yet do so, for the time had not yet come. This time actually came only after the Mystery of Golgotha. Human beings were not yet ready to live with the outer world. This compelled them to mummify human beings. For it was from what now dwelt in the no longer animated human being that he could gain insights into the nature surrounding him, into plants, animals, and minerals. Human beings gained their first knowledge of plants, animals, and minerals through the spirit beings who spoke to them from the mummies, to whom they had provided a dwelling place on earth through the mummies. One might say that at the time when the gods from the supersensible worlds gradually ceased to speak to humans, humans took refuge in the helpers who were now able to live on Earth because humans preserved the human form through mummies. The process was actually quite complicated. For the initiated, it would have been possible to obtain information about what was to happen in human life and to receive guidelines for directing, guiding, and educating people directly through those moon-spirit beings who lived in the mummies. But even for the initiated, it would not have been easy to obtain information about nature, about the plant, animal, and mineral kingdoms, through the beings dwelling in the mummies, because the human soul did not initially possess the necessary abilities. And yet, this was precisely where the Egyptians excelled. For example, they developed a wonderful form of medicine with the help of the mummy culture.
[ 6 ] Of course, when a clever person today interprets these things, he says: The Egyptians preserved the mummies, thereby learning about the various organs they preserved, and thus established anatomy, not just medicine. But that is merely a superficial view, it is not the true view. The truth is that at that time, such logical considerations, such pure observational research, would not have been of any use to the Egyptians, for they did not interact with the outside world in this way at all. Their interaction with the outside world was much more subtle. But one thing was achieved by preserving the mummy form so carefully: the souls of the people who had died were bound to their mummies for a time.
[ 7 ] This is the questionable aspect of Egyptian culture, which must always remind us that this Egyptian culture was actually a declining culture, a decadent culture, which cannot be described as a flowering culture within humanity as a whole, because it also interfered with the supernatural destinies of human beings. In a certain way, it bound human souls after death to their preserved form, to the mummy. And while information about humanity was gained through the spiritual beings inhabiting the mummies via lines of direction, such information could not be gained directly about nature, about the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms, but indirectly through these moon-spirit beings communicating the secrets of nature to the human souls still dwelling in the mummies. And from these human souls still lingering with the mummies, the initiates of Egypt in turn received insights into the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms. Thus, there was a remarkable atmosphere within Egyptian culture. The Egyptian initiates said to themselves: Our human bodies are not suitable for gaining insights into nature until death. We cannot attain a natural science; our bodies are not yet suitable for this. This will only be possible later, after the mystery of Golgotha. But we must gain some insight. As our bodies are now, human beings will only be able to know something about nature after death. Although they live here in nature, they cannot yet use their bodies to form concepts about nature. Only after death do these concepts about nature become clear to them. That is why we hold on to the dead for a while, so that they can give us insights into nature. — So, basically, something quite alarming entered into the historical development of humanity precisely through Egyptian culture. The Chaldean culture kept its distance during this period and is, one might say, a purer culture.
[ 8 ] Everything I have explained to you now — which is of course fantasy for modern science, but much that is true is fantasy for modern science — was known above all to the people of ancient Hebrew times. Hence the aversion, the repugnance you find in the Old Testament toward Egyptian culture, even though, indirectly, through Moses, much of Egyptian culture found its way into the Old Testament. You can see from the Old Testament what the mood was toward everything I have just described to you as the essence of Egypt's historical development. And so the mood in ancient Egypt was: We must create external means, since we no longer have internal ones, in order to obtain the forces that govern and educate people. But we must also anticipate something that is yet to come in the future, a natural science. We can do this only by first allowing it to be given to us by the dead, whom we bind to their mummies.
[ 9 ] Then came the Mystery of Golgotha, and then came the 4th and 5th centuries after the Mystery of Golgotha. The old soul state with its pictorial worldview faded completely. The time was already announcing itself when human beings were to form ideas about external nature from within themselves, where they were able to do so. The entire human organization was being transformed internally. Human beings felt more and more that their souls remained empty when they waited for revealed thoughts and ideas that were to come directly from the spiritual world. Instead, they looked at external things and beings, observed them, and formed their concepts and ideas from observation and later from experiments. And now the task arose again to obtain in another way what could not yet or no longer be obtained through human powers alone. More and more since the 4th and 5th centuries AD, humanity had to say to itself: There must be a future where, even though we form ideas and thoughts about external natural things through our intellect, a kind of spiritualization of the intellect occurs, where thoughts and ideas point directly to something divine and spiritual, where what lies in the ideas as a force can pass into exhalation. But this force is not yet there. For the time being, we are dependent on the intellect, which is bound only to the physical body.
[ 10 ] Based on certain traditional ideas that have now almost completely disappeared from history, of which nothing more is known historically, but which lived on in the Middle Ages from the 4th, 5th to the 12th centuries, 13th centuries and then, although quite secretly, continued to live within human civilization, a kind of mummy was created that is analogous to the Egyptian mummies, but because they are something different from the Egyptian mummies, they are not perceived as such.
[ 11 ] Modern humanity would have gained nothing from preserving the human form as mummies, as the Egyptians did. It needed to preserve something else, and so it preserved ancient cults, preferably pre-Christian cults. Then, especially from the 14th and 15th centuries onwards, when a completely intellectual culture emerged, old cults were preserved in various occult orders. And indeed, wonderful old cult rituals have been preserved in all kinds of orders. We see how customs and occult ceremonies live on in various occult lodges. They are truly as much mummies as the human mummies of Egypt. They are mummies if they are not permeated and warmed by the mystery of Golgotha. Such cults and ceremonies contain an extraordinary amount, but they have preserved only the dead of what once lay in them in ancient times, just as the mummy had preserved only the dead form of the human being. And this has remained so in many cases to this day. There are countless orders that perform ceremonies, have rituals, all sorts of things, but the life has drained out of them; they are mummified. Just as the ordinary Egyptian felt a kind of shudder when he looked at the mummy, so modern man, even if he does not exactly feel a shudder, feels something that is not quite a feeling of the soul when he comes close to these mummified spiritual activities. He perceives them as something mysterious, just as the mummy was perceived as something mysterious.
[ 12 ] But just as there were those among the Egyptian initiates who misused the messages of the spirits inhabiting the mummies in the education and guidance of humanity — and there were certainly such people among them — so too, in the mummification ceremonies of many occult orders, there is a false impulse to achieve this or that in the guidance and direction of humanity. What entered people at that time through inhalation came from what they had received from the mummy. I told you yesterday that the spiritual beings whom the Egyptians needed had no shelter, that shelter had to be created in the mummies. The spiritual beings that were supposed to carry the inner human form into the etheric world through exhalation, I told you, cannot find their way out into the world, but they can move within the ceremonies, even if these are performed in an incomprehensible, mummified manner. The moon spirits at the time of Egyptian civilization were homeless, especially during the day. The exhalation spirits, these earth elemental spirits, who are supposed to be the helpers of humanity today, are homeless at night, but they slip into what is performed in such ceremonies. There they find their ways, there they can live. During the day, it is still possible for them, I would say, to live honestly with the breath, because during the day, human beings think, and they send out their intellectual thought forms with the breath that is driven through the brain fluid by the spinal canal and then expelled again. At night, however, when people do not think, no thought forms go out, and in a sense no etheric little ships exist on which these earth spirits could go out into the world from the human being in order to imprint its form on the etheric cosmos.
[ 13 ] Thus, through such mummification ceremonies, humans create what these earth demons need to find in terms of paths and directions. These ceremonies have a good purpose. What all kinds of occult orders have in modern times, especially since the advent of intellectualism, has a similar reason to the appearance of mummies in Egypt. For human beings cannot recognize what is in outer nature without themselves, without their own form, and when the Egyptians needed to create a knowledge of nature, they were able to place the human form before themselves through the mummies. When newer humans needed to obtain something that was not merely passive, powerless thought that humans develop intellectually, but something that could go out into the world and become effective, humans needed to have something around them that was symbolic, that was an interpretation of what should actually be forming spiritually within them.
[ 14 ] Now these forms, which are carried out as ceremonies in the lodges, are also soulless. Just as the soul of a human being did not live in a mummy, so the soul that once existed in these rituals when they were performed by the ancient initiates no longer lives in them. At that time, direct spiritual life still pulsated through those ceremonies, flowing from the human being into the ceremony. The human being and the ceremony were one. Compare this with how external the ceremonies and rituals are among modern people in modern orders.
[ 15 ] But now something else is approaching modern man. Modern man cannot escape from his intellect. Yesterday I showed you, using the example of a Benedictine priest, how even a person who is supposed to be a servant of the spiritual by profession cannot escape from the intellectual. Modern man cannot escape from the intellectual, just as the ancient Egyptians could not enter into the intellectual. The ancient Egyptians needed human bodies, even after they were dead, so that they could impart natural science to them. Modern man needs something that in turn imparts spiritual science, spiritual knowledge, to him.
[ 16 ] Now I will refrain from mentioning the occult orders that exist in many forms — which are complete mummies, driven more by cultural coquetry than by any deeper foundations. But there have also been, and indeed until the first half of the 19th century, very serious orders that imparted more than what, for example, the average Freemason of today receives from his order. And they were able to impart more for the simple reason that certain needs prevail in the spiritual world today under the hierarchy of the Angeloi, which are of little interest to us on Earth, but which are very important to us in our pre-earthly existence. Certain beings in the hierarchy of the Angeloi now also have certain needs for knowledge, which they can only satisfy by allowing human souls to go there, where such serious occult orders exist, as a kind of trial run, before they actually descend from their pre-earthly existence into earthly existence.
[ 17 ] It has certainly been the case that in certain lodges operating with ancient ceremonies, those who were able to truly follow things would say to themselves: Here is already present the soul of a human being who will only descend to earth in the future. Before a human descends to Earth, this soul enters such an occult lodge, and one can gain an extraordinary amount from it emotionally. Just as the human soul hovered around the mummy, still bound to it in a sense, so the spirits of unborn human beings hover around in occult lodges as if in a pre-existing existence. This does not come to light through intellectual thoughts, because modern people have those anyway; they do not need them. But when they are in the right frame of mind in their occult lodges, they receive messages from people who have not yet been born, from people who are still in their pre-earthly existence and who can now be present through this ceremony. And they feel the spiritual world, these people, and can also speak from the spiritual world.
[ 18 ] There is something in Goethe's biography that has an extraordinarily significant effect on people who have a feeling for such things, especially when it is said by people who do not actually know the truth, but who, out of a certain insight, point to the truth in a semi-conscious way, so to speak. In this respect, Karl Julius Schröer, whom I have often told you about, was very strange when he spoke about Goethe. When he presented Goethe's biography alongside his works to his listeners, a word would always come out that struck you, that captivated you immensely: Goethe had relived this, and he had been rejuvenated by this experience. And so Schröer actually portrayed Goethe as if he were a personality who, after having been young once at the age of seven, experienced something else at the age of fourteen and was actually brought back a little further into childhood by this experience. Goethe rejuvenated himself. And then, for my sake, at the age of twenty-one, he rejuvenated himself again. And so Schröer actually portrayed Goethe as if he had gone through such rejuvenation processes from stage to stage.
[ 19 ] And finally, take a look at the Goethe biography: there is something about him that suggests this rejuvenation. Even when Goethe was already the fat privy councilor with the double chin in Weimar, even at the time when he treated certain people in such a way that they often perceived him as more or less a sourpuss—much is known in this regard that was not entirely pleasant in Goethe's personal interactions with other people—even then it came over him more and more, and he actually underwent a rejuvenation in his latest years. And finally, he could not have written what he wrote in the second part of Faust in his late old age if he had not undergone such a rejuvenation. For around 1816 or 1817, Goethe was a personality from whom one could not expect anything like what Goethe later wrote in the second part of Faust, beginning in 1824. It was truly a rejuvenation cure. Goethe also sensed this, albeit in earlier years, when he had Faust drink a rejuvenating potion. It is also a kind of autobiography. And if you investigate what led Goethe to do this, you see that it was his membership in the lodge. The other respectable Weimarers, with the exception of Wieland, Chancellor von Müller, and a few others—well, they were members of the lodge, just like everyone else. If you are a respectable civil servant in Weimar, you have no choice but to go to church on Sundays, and so you are a member of the lodge, even if you are the opposite. That was once the custom, at least in those circles. But that was not the case with Goethe, nor with Chancellor von Müller, Wieland, and a few others; they really underwent such rejuvenation because they had contact in their souls with unborn human children.
[ 20 ] Just as the ancient Egyptian temple priests communicated with human souls after their death, such people communicated with humans before their birth. And human beings can now, before they are born, bring something of spirituality into the present world. They do not bring in intellectual things, but they do bring in spiritual things, which human beings then take in through their feelings and which become part of their whole life.
[ 21 ] So one can say: The first thing that humanity learned about intellectualism in its historical development, the Egyptians learned from the dead, and the first thing that has been learned about spirituality in more recent times has been received by outstanding personalities from their initiation teachings in occult lodges from unborn human beings. This is something that corresponds to each other in a remarkable way. Just look at Goethe's works and see how something sometimes flashes out at you that seems to penetrate spiritual wisdom, something he is unable to express in thought form. But he molds it into an image, and the image bears a great resemblance to some lodge symbol. He received it only in this way. And so there are many who have obtained something in this way. But these unborn human beings can only provide information about what can be experienced in the non-earthly world in terms of the spiritual; they can, of course, only provide information about the heavenly, about what lies outside the development of the earth. But because the ceremonies held the elemental spirits of the earth in place, messages can in turn be communicated from the unborn people to the elemental spirits of the earth. And if there is also a talent, a genius, for listening to the elemental earth spirits about what the unborn humans are communicating to them, then the people who are able to hear such things express what the unborn humans are saying to the nature spirits, the earth spirits.
[ 22 ] Try to trace some of Goethe's wonderful confessions about nature, as well as some of the confessions of other people of that time who were particularly active in this area, for example the Dane Steffens, or people such as Troxier, Schubert, who wrote so much about the ‘I-space’, but actually got the best inspiration for this from the nature spirits. Follow this in many others who were even more numerous in the first half of the 19th century than later, and you will find evidence of what came among people in this way. But sometimes something else came about. Sometimes the message that unborn humans conveyed to the nature spirits on earth in this way did not pass over to humans in such a way that they spoke of spiritual things from nature and its secrets, but rather humans sometimes absorbed it in their entire soul constitution. They absorbed the forces of the nature spirits in their entire soul constitution, and this then came to the fore in the style in which such people wrote. And where a feeling for such things exists, modern people can say the following to themselves: When I read a historian today, such as Ranke or Taine or a contemporary English historian, the style is already intellectualistic. Ranke already writes in an intellectual style, the sentences are already intellectually constructed, everything is so clever, the subject is cleverly placed in its place, the predicate is cleverly placed in its place, so that even schoolmasters could almost be satisfied with such a style. But compare such a style, for example, with that of Johannes Müller in his “24 Books of General History.” It is a style, one might say, as if an angel were speaking. And in other cultures in the 18th century, too, some things were still written in such a style, which in fact does not have this unindividual, this insultingly objective quality of a current historical or scientific style, but has something that shows that elementary forces of nature are passing through the writer and that his style is written out of the cosmos, out of the universe.
[ 23 ] This touches modern people in a way that is similar to what the mummies did for the Egyptian initiates. These are extraordinarily important historical events taking place behind the scenes of external history, which one must know if one wants to understand anything at all about the development of humanity. And so we see how, in this way, preparations were made — which is now only misunderstood for a while, because no one really listens to such things in the right way anymore — how the spiritual was prepared, which in turn must also enter the intellect and live in the intellect in the future, if humanity of the newer civilization does not want to go completely down the Spengler path into the decline of the West. So we can say: the ancient Egyptians mummified the human form; the newer humanity since the 4th and 5th centuries AD mummified the old cults in all areas. But in doing so, they at least made it possible for something extraterrestrial to live in the ceremonies of the old cults. Not much of the human being lived in these cults, but much of non-human beings did live in them.
[ 24 ] This is also the case with church cults, and anyone who looks into these things, who really looks into the reality, can sometimes quite easily dispense with the personalities who stand in flesh and blood before the altar in church cults, because the spiritual beings are there, quite apart from the celebrating priests, because he can look at the spiritual beings who live in the ceremonies. If you consider all this, you will say to yourself: one must choose a completely different language than that to which humanity today is accustomed if one wants to approach what is really around us in the spiritual sense. That is why you should not be surprised when works such as Fritz Mauthner's “Critique of Language” appear today, in which it is attempted to prove that everything that human beings have imagined about spiritual beings exists only in words — and if one does not want to believe in words, one cannot believe in spirits either! That is the meaning of Fritz Mauthner's “Critique of Language.” Fritz Mauthner is right, really right, for a large part of modern humanity. A large part of modern humanity has nothing but words when it speaks of supernatural things. For them, the “Critique of Language” applies — unfortunately. But it is equally necessary that substantial spiritual content be brought back into words. And that is why it was also necessary in the course of historical development that, during a period when human beings themselves were not yet able to grasp this spiritual content, this was developed for them by non-human beings and by people who were not yet born, as well as by non-human beings and people who no longer lived on earth, who were already in the life after death, and intellectuality was prepared for the Egyptians. The Egyptians learned the intellectuality in which we stand from the dead. We must learn the spirituality in which we are not yet immersed in the present through the detour of the mummified cult, which we must reappropriate, which we must at least study. For then it is meaningful. We must acquire the spirituality of the future in addition to our intellectuality through this other mummy. The mummified human being has been replaced by mummified human activity, and the mummified human form has been replaced by mummified human action. In the same way, the other has developed as I have characterized it.
[ 25 ] One must study what goes on behind the scenes of world history, otherwise everything people say about historical events will remain a conglomeration of external coincidences, pure coincidences, which humanity does not understand. However, they are not coincidental facts if one knows their background. They only become coincidental facts when people refuse to recognize the background. They become, so to speak, waves that one believes to be standing next to each other, while they are all rising together from the depths of the sea. In truth, historical events are waves that are thrown up from the immense depths of a spiritual sea of world evolution onto the surface of events immediately accessible to human beings. And one should see such a wave in every single historical fact, but not believe that wave stands next to wave by itself, but that every single wave, that is, every single historical fact, originates from the spiritual depths of the spiritual historical development that goes from time to time.