The Rudolf Steiner Archive

You will have gathered from our last lecture how extremely difficult it is to describe the early condition of our evolution before our own Earth came into being. For we have seen that we must first of all build up concepts and ideas through which we may reach those strange and distant conditions of the evolution of our world. I have already called attention to the fact that the description in my Occult Science of the period of ancient Saturn, as well as that of the following embodiments of our Earth is not only not exhaustive, but that, in a sense, we had to be satisfied (in order not to startle the public, to whom the book is accessible) with clothing the subject in pictures taken from what is near at hand and familiar. The description given there is in no respect incorrect, but it is very deeply immersed in Maya and Illusion; and we must first work our way through the illusion in order to penetrate further into the truth of the matter. For instance, the old Saturn period is described (and this is quite correct within certain limits) as a heavenly body whose essential parts did not consist of what we know as earth, water and air, but of ‘heat.’ So, too, in first speaking of ‘space,’ that also is merely a pictorial description; for, as we saw in the last lecture, ‘time’ itself did not even exist. When we speak of ‘space’ we are speaking pictorially. Of space there was none in our sense. And time first came into being on Saturn itself. When we carry our thought back to ancient Saturn we are absolutely in the realm of spaceless eternity. When, therefore, something is said to call up a picture before our minds, we must be clear that it is only a picture. If we could have observed the space of ancient Saturn we should have found no substance dense enough to be called gas, nothing but heat and cold.

In reality we could not speak of coming from one part of space into another, but only the sensation of passing through warmer and colder conditions; so that even the clairvoyant, when he transports himself back to the time of Saturn, receives the impression of being in spaceless ebb and flow of heat. That is only the outer veil of the Saturn condition. For this ‘heat’ or ‘fire’ as it is called in occultism, is concealed from us in the fundamental depths of its being; and we have seen that spiritual achievements formed in truth the very existence of ancient Saturn; and we have formed a picture of the spiritual deeds then existing. We have said that the Spirits of Will or Thrones achieved sacrificial acts; so that when we look back to the concrete occurrences on Saturn, we have the Cherubim and the sacrifice flowing forth from the Thrones. Sacrifice streamed from the Thrones to the Cherubim. And it is these sacrificial deeds seen from without, as it were, which appear as ‘heat.’ Conditions of heat are the external expression—speaking in a general sense—the external physical expression of sacrifice, and throughout the world, wherever heat is perceptible it is the outer expression of what lies behind it. Conditions of heat are the sacrificial acts of beings. Thus in describing heat we must say ‘Cosmic heat is the manifestation of Cosmic sacrifice, or of Cosmic sacrificial deeds.’

For we have seen that from this sacrificial deed offered by the Thrones to the Cherubim is brought to birth that which we call time: though I have already called attention to the fact that ‘brought to birth’ is a modern term and does not quite apply. For time was not then that abstraction man now accepts as time, but a totality of beings, the Spirits of Personality, whom we have therefore come to recognise as ‘Time-Spirits.’ The Time-Spirits are the true ancient time—and they are the children of the Thrones and the Cherubim. The condition by means of which the Beings of Time originated on ancient Saturn was sacrifice. Thus, in order to obtain an actual comprehension of what lies behind, when it is said: Ancient Saturn consists of ‘heat,’ we do not merely require external, physical concepts (for ‘heat’ is a physical concept), but we must acquire concepts which can only be derived from the soul-life itself, from the ethical wisdom-laden life of the soul. No man can know what heat is who is not able to form a conception of what it means; to be ready to sacrifice what he has, everything he possesses, indeed, not only everything he possesses, but also what he himself is. The sacrifice of the individual being, the soul's determination to renounce individual being, so regarding it as to be ready to devote its best to the welfare of the world, wishing to keep back nothing of the heat for itself, but gladly to offer it in sacrifice on the altar of the universe; if this becomes a living idea permeating our soul, it will gradually lead to the understanding of what lies behind the phenomenon of heat. If it is to be recognised as what in our modern life—even today—is bound up with the conception of sacrifice, it is hardly thinkable that anyone sacrificing himself with understanding ever does so against his own will. A sacrifice offered against the will argues some compelling motive; there must be compulsion. But this would not apply to what we are now discussing. The sacrifice that flows forth from a being as a matter of course is what is meant here. And if a man should make a sacrifice, not because he is forced to do so by any external motive, not because he hopes to gain something by so doing, but because he feels within him the impulse to sacrifice, it is then unthinkable that he should feel anything but inner warmth of bliss. If we feel ourselves glowing with this inner warmth of bliss, it is an expression of what can be described in no other way than by saying that the one making the sacrifice feels himself warmed through and through, glowing with bliss. In this way it is possible for us to feel the glow of sacrifice in the outer Cosmic heat. He alone understands what really is who can grasp the thought: Whenever heat appears in the world there is always in some way underlying it something of a soil-spiritual nature which is behind the heat and brings about the warmth through the special bliss. He who can feel all this about the warmth will gradually arrive at the reality of what is concealed behind the illusion of warmth, behind the phenomenon of heat.

Now if we wish to penetrate further, from the life of ancient Saturn to that of the Sun, we must again first form an idea by which we can imagine the substance of the ancient Sun—not our present Sun. For when we read in Occult Science that ancient Sun re-organised heat by adding to it air and light, that again is depicted merely by an external phenomenon. Just as behind the heat we must seek for the glow of sacrifice of the Spirits of Will, so must we look behind ‘air’ and ‘light’ for something ethical if we wish to understand the air and the light which are added to the heat on ancient Sun. Now we can only obtain a feeling of this substance of the ancient Sun through something of a spiritual psychic nature which we may experience in our souls.

We can describe it in the following way as a soul-experience. Let us imagine that a man were to see a real, genuine act of sacrifice, or that he were to picture to himself what we described in the last lecture as the sacrificial act of the Thrones, the Thrones offering up their sacrifice to the Cherubim—so that he is moved by the picture of the beatific sacrifice which he contemplates and which awakens the life in the soul. What would our souls feel through either the vision of the sacrificing Beings themselves, or by the picture we make truly living in our souls? If the feelings of this man are vivid, if the beatific sacrifice does not leave him unaffected, he will feel a profound feeling of bliss at the vision of the sacrifice; he will feel in his soul that it is the most beautiful deed, the most beautiful experience that can be called forth in our souls, the vision of the beatitude of sacrifice! We should be soul-less lumps if this experience did not arouse in the soul a passionate desire to understand inwardly with intensest reverence, what the beatitude of sacrifice is—if we did not learn the spirit of utter devotion. Sacrifice is devotion transformed into activity. The contemplation of active practical devotion may call forth the attuning of the soul's being to self-surrender, to the casting off of self, to self-effacement. Imagine this spirit of disinterested casting off of self wholly flooding the soul through the vision; then we have with this spirit that which can come nearer to us for our understanding, inasmuch as without such a spirit—without at least a hint, a foretaste of such a spirit—never could we really attain to what the higher knowledge gives. He who is unable to feel this spirit of self-surrender can never attain to higher knowledge. For what would be the opposite of this spirit? It would be self-will, assertion of individual will. These are, as it were, the two opposite Cosmic poles; devoted absorption in that which is contemplated, and self-willed assertion of individuality. These are two great opposites. Personal will fatally opposes the permeation of the higher Self with wisdom. In ordinary life we only know self-will in the form of prejudice, and prejudices always destroy the higher insight. But we must imagine what is here called self-surrender as intensified; for this can only be conceived when a man has worked his way up to the higher worlds. There he must be able to experience this casting off of self—at least as a frame of mind. Therefore it must always be emphasised that we can never attain higher knowledge so long as we work after the fashion of ordinary science and trivial thought. Let us be clear; ordinary science and everyday thought work out whatever self-will has created by means of the ordinary will of man, through the inherited or educated sensations and feelings. We can deceive ourselves greatly as to this. For instance, people may say: ‘Suppose one takes up any science, such as that set forth in spiritual science or Theosophy; I will not accept anything that does not agree with my thought, I will accept nothing unproved.’ Certainly we should not accept anything unproved. But neither do we advance a single step further if we only accept what is proved. And a man who wishes to be clairvoyant will never say that he can only accept what he has first proved. He must be completely free of all self-seeking and must wait what comes to him from the Cosmos, and which can only be designated by the word ‘grace.’ From the grace which illuminates he expects everything. For how do we acquire clairvoyant knowledge? Only by eliminating everything we have ever learnt. As a rule a man says, I have my own opinion. But what he ought to say is: This only comes because I have revived what my ancestors have thought, or what my desires have aroused in me, etc. For there can never be any question of these being his own opinions, and those who attach most value to their own opinions are not in the least aware that they are being led by the leading-strings of their prejudices. All this must be done away with when we wish to attain to higher knowledge. The soul must be empty able to wait quietly for what may enter into it from the concealed secret world free from space and time, free from things and deeds. And we must never believe that we can acquire any conception of clairvoyant knowledge except by creating a suitable frame of mind through which we may receive what may be offered to us as revelation or illumination, so that we can never expect anything to come to us except from the grace which approaches and brings gifts.

How then does such knowledge reveal itself? How is that which comes to us revealed when we have prepared ourselves sufficiently? It reveals itself as the feeling of being endowed with grace through the gifts that come to meet us from the spiritual world. If we wish to describe what thus approaches us, bringing us grace and pouring knowledge into us, we can only make use of the expression: it is that which comes to meet us, an active inspiring with grace; a bestowing, a giving. Let us grasp the nature of a being chiefly characterised by what I have just described, so as to say of him: he is a bestower, a giver, an offerer of gifts. Such a being whose chief characteristic is the showering of grace around him, the shedding forth of grace from himself. Let our conception of this being show us that in order to attain this possibility of giving forth grace there must be the vision of the sacrifice made by the Thrones to the Cherubim; let us suppose that he was present when the sacrifice was being offered. Let us clearly imagine a being such as this, who through having had this vision is stimulated to shower the gifts of his grace around him. Suppose we were to see a rose and were charmed by it, experiencing the feeling of one enraptured by what we call ‘beautiful.’ Suppose another being through the vision of what we have described as the sacrifice by the Thrones to the Cherubim, were inspired to pour forth into the world, to offer to the world as a gift, everything ho possessed—we should thus be describing those beings spoken of in Occult Science as Spirits of Wisdom who on the Sun were added to the beings with whom we become acquainted on ancient Saturn. If now we were to put the question, what is the character of these Spirits who appeared on the Sun in addition to the Saturn Spirits? We must reply: The principal characteristic of these spirits is the virtue of giving, of pouring forth grace. If we wish to find a title for them, we must say: These are the Spirits of Wisdom, the great Bestowers, the great Givers of the Universe. Just as we have called the Thrones ‘The great Sacrificers,’ so we must say of the Spirits of Wisdom, they are ‘the great Givers’ who so devote their gift that it weaves and lives in the universe, flowing out into it and first bringing about its order.

That is the activity of the Spirits of Wisdom on the Sun, they endow their environment with their own being. And what is presented to the external view when we look up and wish to have a higher sense-perception of what takes place on the Sun?

When we look at it, it is as described in Occult Science. Besides heat, the Sun consists externally of air and of light. But when we say this, it is as though someone were to say: ‘In the distance I see a grey cloud.’ And if he were an artist he would paint the impression; but if he were to come nearer he might perhaps see, instead of the grey cloud, a swarm of midges. Thus in reality, what he took for a grey cloud is nothing but a number of living beings. In like manner do we confront the ancient Sun-existence. Seen from afar it appears as the illusion of a body consisting of light and air; but if we approach nearer, we have no longer a body of light and air but it appears as the great bestowing virtue of the Spirits of Wisdom. And no one learns the real nature of air who only describes it according to its external physical properties. That is only maya and illusion, only outer manifestation. For wherever there is air in the world, the deeds of the Spirits of Wisdom lie behind it. Weaving, active air means the manifestation of the bestowing virtue of the macrocosm, and only he looks rightly upon air who says: ‘I see air in this way,’ in reality within it something is bestowed by the Spirits of Wisdom, something streams out into their environment.

And now we know what was meant by describing ancient Sun as consisting of air. We now know that what appears outwardly as air is a gift which the Spirits of Wisdom allow to flow forth from their own being. But now something wonderful is seen by the clairvoyant. We must clearly understand how we obtain from our own soul-life a still more accurate idea of this virtue of giving. Let us bring home to our mind the feeling we may ourselves have if through the above-described mode of devotion we are able to permeate ourselves with a perception, with an idea; such an idea may produce in us a distinct perception of which the best is the artistic longing to master colour or form in some way or other, to send it forth into the world, thus to give to the world something having an independent existence. We may describe the nature of such a capacity of giving by saying that productivity and creative activity is connected with it; this giving is self-creative. Anyone who has an idea and feels that he can give it forth for the good of the world, and can represent it in a work of art, has the right conception of this productivity of the virtue of giving. This it is which as air weaves through the Sun. When we think of this creative idea in the mind of the artist, and how it imprints itself into matter (besides everything else), this is the spiritual being of air. Wherever there is air we are concerned with it in some such way. But from the living productivity having been on the Sun, proceeds the following.

Let us hold firmly in mind that on ancient Saturn the Spirits of Time had been born, therefore ‘time’ could be present on the Sun; for it came over from Saturn. Thus on ancient Sun there was the possibility of giving, which could not have been found on ancient Saturn. For just imagine. How could there have been any giving if there had been no time? It would not have been possible, for giving must include acceptance, the one is not to be thought of without the other. Thus giving must consist of two actions, giving and accepting, otherwise giving has no object. On the Sun, however, giving and accepting occupied a peculiar relation to one another, for—as time was already there—the gifts offered to the environment on ancient Sun had been, as it were, stored up in time: as it were, guarded in time so that the Spirits of Wisdom pour forth their gift—and it endures. But now something must enter to accept this. This occurs comparatively speaking at a later time than the gifts of the Spirits of Wisdom. They give at an earlier moment, and that which is necessarily connected with receiving appears later. We can only obtain a correct conception of this if here too we use our own soul-experience as a foundation.

Suppose you are trying very hard to understand something, or to form some sort of thought. Suppose you have formed the thought. The next day you will make your mind as clear as possible so that the thought you formed yesterday may come back into it. What you formed yesterday is received by you to-day. Thus it was on ancient Sun; what was given at an earlier time was guarded till a later moment and was then received. What then was this acceptance? It was a deed, an occurrence only distinguished from the other occurrence in that it occurred later. The giving comes from the Spirits of Wisdom. Who then accepts? If there is to be an acceptance there must be someone to accept! In the same way as the Spirits of Time arose from the sacrifice of the Thrones to the Cherubims on ancient Saturn—through an act of nativity—so through ‘an act of giving’ to the world by the Spirits of Wisdom on the Sun, the Spirits we call Archangels or Archangeloi, came into being. They are these who accept on ancient Sun. But they receive in a very special way, for they do not retain for themselves the gift received from the Spirits of Wisdom, but reflect it, just as a mirror reflects an image. Thus the task of the Archangels on the Sun was to collect at a later epoch what had been given earlier, what was still there and could be reflected by the Archangels. Thus we have on the Sun an earlier act of giving and a subsequent accepting, but this accepting is a reflection back. Just suppose that the earth were not as it is now, but that what occurred at an earlier age could be reflected again at the present time. We actually know that something of the sort does take place. We are now living in the fifth post-Atlantean age of civilisation, when the events of the third, the ancient Egyptian-Chaldean age are being reflected. What formerly was received is now reflected. Everything that formerly existed is recapitulated. So that we have to think of the Archangels on the one side and as the recipients on the other the Spirits of Wisdom who in the ancient Sun-period were the bestowers. From this something quite special arises, which can only be properly conceived by thinking of a globe complete in itself and radiating forth from its centre that which is given. It radiates out to the periphery—whence it is radiated back to the centre. Thus we have to think of what comes from the Spirits of Wisdom as proceeding from the centre; this radiates forth in all directions, is collected by the Archangels and reflected back. What is thus reflected back into space is the gift from the Spirits of Wisdom. It is light that re-conducts the radiations of the Spirits of Wisdom, and the Archangels are at the same time creators of light. Light is not in the least the external illusion presented to us; but wherever light appears we have the gifts of the Spirits of Wisdom radiated back to us. And the beings whose existence must be presumed behind all light are the Archangels. Hence we must say: Wherever light appears to us, behind it are the Archangels; but they are only able to ray forth light to us because they reflect back what has streamed out to them—namely, the bestowing virtue of the Spirits of Wisdom.

In this way we obtain a picture of ancient Sun: We think of a centre in which is focussed what came over from ancient Saturn; the sacrificial acts of the Thrones to the Cherubim. Absorbed in contemplation of these acts of sacrifice are the Spirits of Wisdom. This vision causes them to radiate forth from themselves that which is their real being: streaming, flowing wisdom is the virtue they give. However, as this is radiated through by ‘time’ it is sent forth and sent back again, so that we have a globe, inwardly illuminated by the virtue returning to it; for we must not think of the ancient Sun as outwardly but as inwardly luminous, because the Spirits of Wisdom radiate outwards. Thus something new is created which we may describe as follows: Let us imagine the Spirits of Wisdom as sitting at the centre of the Sun absorbed in contemplation of the vision of the sacrificing Thrones; and by reason of this vision, radiating forth their own being; and receiving back their radiating being which they sent forth, receiving it reflected back from the surface, so that they receive it back as light. Everything is illuminated. What then do they receive back! Their own being surrendered by them became a gift to the Macrocosm, it was their inner being. Now it rays back to them; their own being meets them coming back from outside. They see their own inner being outspread in the Cosmos—and reflected back as light, as the reflection of their own being.

The inner and the outer are the two opposites which we now meet. The earlier and the later are transformed into the inner and the outer; and space is born! Space comes into existence through the bestowing virtue of the Spirits of Wisdom on ancient Sun. Before that, space could only have pictorial value. Now we have space—but consisting at first of only two dimensions. There was as yet no above and below, no right or left, nothing but an outer and an inner.—In reality these opposites appear at the end of ancient Saturn; but they repeat themselves as space-creation on ancient Sun. And if we wish to obtain a conception of all these occurrences, as we did of the last when the picture appeared before our soul of the sacrificing Thrones, giving birth to the Spirits of Time, we must not even picture a body consisting of light, for the light within it was only a reflection. We must think of it as a globe of inner space, in the centre of which the picture of Saturn is recapitulated: the Thrones as Spirits as though kneeling before the Cherubim, those winged beings, sacrificing their own being, and, in addition to these, the Spirits of Wisdom, absorbed in the vision of the sacrifice. And now it is also possible to have the vision of the heat of the sacrifice being so transmitted that we may think of it objectively as the incense of sacrifice, as air ascending from the sacrifice as incense. We obtain a complete picture if we imagine: the sacrificing Thrones kneeling before the Cherubim, and as though participating, the Spirits of Wisdom, absorbed in the contemplation of what they perceive in the centre of the Sun as the sacrifice of the Thrones, and thereby ascending in their conception to the idea of the sacrificial incense pouring forth and spreading out on all sides, and finally condensing, while from its clouds proceed the figures of the Archangels,--who reflect back the incense from the periphery as light, illuminating the interior of the Sun, returning the gift of the Spirits of Wisdom, and in this way creating the sphere of the Sun. This sphere consists of the outpoured gift of glowing heat and sacrificial incense. At the outer periphery are the Archangels, the creators of the light, who, later depict what was first on the Sun; it then returns as light. What then, do these Archangels preserve! They guard the beginnings, what was formerly there, the earlier. The gifts they receive they reflect. That which was there in the beginning they radiate forth at a later time, and in as much as they do this, they are the Angels of the Beginning, because they bring into activity in later times what was previously there. ‘Archangeloi’ ‘Messengers of the Beginning’!

It is very wonderful when such a word arises from the depths of true occult knowledge and we remember that this word comes across to us from primeval traditions, along the path of the School of Dionysius the Areopagite, who was the pupil of Paul. It is wonderful to see that this word is so deeply stamped that when we evolve it again, independently of what is written, what stands there arises before us. And we then feel ourselves united with the ancient holy schools of Initiation-Wisdom, of the science of Initiation, so that we feel as though this ancient time were streaming into us, we picture it with understanding after having ourselves created the possibility of accepting it Independently of what we have heard. Anyone feeling even a little of the spirit of these old expressions which have descended to us without our having paid attention to them, will feel himself within the current of the mighty power of the Spirits of Time passing through humanity. What is thus felt in contemplation of these things is in marvellous connection with the whole human evolution, it makes us feel one with it. The Archangels preserve the memorial of the primordial beginnings; but whatever takes place on any one planet is always recapitulated later, only when it occurs later there is always something added to it. So that we meet with the being of the Sun again in what we find on our own earth.

The whole conception, the whole feeling that we are thus able to acquire—which gives us a picture of the sacrifice of the Thrones, of the Cherubim receiving the sacrifice, of the glow given forth by the sacrifice, of the sacrificial incense spreading out as air, of the light radiated back by the Archangels who preserve for later ages what took place at the beginning—this feeling is something that can call up inns a true understanding of everything connected with the creation of such a feeling, with the sacrifice proceeding from it.

We have now contemplated in a more spiritual sense, what I have just described as a soul-sphere whereas previously we considered it from a physical aspect. And we shall now see that the Being who appeared on earth as the Christ-being when we grasp the idea of the bestowing virtue, the grace-bestowing virtue in its reflection in the light of the universe in the inner substance of the Sun-body, which was permeated and illuminated through and through by this light. If we can exalt our conception of what has just been described and transform that into an imagination, bearing in mind that something of all that was brought to the earth by the Christ-Being is on the earth, fulfils its life on the earth, we can then go still more deeply into the actual spiritual nature of the Christ-impulse. We are then able to understand the dim idea that can stir in a human soul on hearing such an account, when it dawns on the soul that what has been described may in a certain sense again come to life on earth. Just imagine all that has been described of the Sun as absolutely concentrated in the soul of one Being, suppose all this gathered up and taken away to reappear at a later period and so to reappear and work, that He would bring with Him an extract of what came into existence through the ancient primordial sacrificial deed and the smoke of sacrifice through the light-creating time and the bestowing Virtue and would reflect it out of the universe of radiant light. Imagine all this concentrated in one soul, think of that soul as giving all this to the Earth-existence; around Him are assembled those who now as earth-beings are destined to radiate this back again and preserve it for the remainder of the earth-existence. In the centre is the One Who comes forth from the Sacrifice and Who bestows through the sacrifice, and around Him are gathered those who are to receive it—on the one side all that the sacrifice is and everything belonging to it, as it were translated into earthly life; on the other hand the possibility of destroying the sacrifice for everything that can be given to the human being in the way of Divine grace may be either accepted or rejected. If we think of all this as embodied in an intuition, we can, on looking at the ‘The Last Supper’ by Leonardo da Vinci, have somewhat the following feeling. The entire Sun with the sacrificial Beings the Beings of Bestowing Virtue, the Beings of warmth-giving bliss, of the radiant light, spiritually grasped, radiated back by those selected to preserve into later ages what belongs to the earlier, and so ordained for the earth that it may also be rejected by the traitor. We may feel that this is the Earth-Being, in as much as the Sun-Being reappears on the Earth. If this is felt—not in an external intellectual manner, but in true artistic way; then something of the actual driving-force of such a great work of art can be felt, a work which reflects, as it were, the extract of the Earth existence. When we see this picture again, and see how the Christ grows forth from the Sun-Sphere, we shall better understand what I have often said: If a spirit were to come down to the Earth from Mars, while he would not be able to understand everything that he saw here, he would understand the actual mission of the Earth if he allowed the ‘Last Supper’ of Leonardo da Vinci to work upon him. The inhabitant of Mars would then see that the Sun-existence must lie concealed within that of the Earth; and thereby everything he might be told concerning the meaning of the Earth would become clear to him. He would understand that the Earth had a meaning, and he would know what was involved. He would say to himself: ‘What is taking place on the Earth may perhaps be only of importance to one part of it: but could the deed represented in the colouring of this picture really take place? When I concentrated on the central Figure with those other around Him, I feel what the Spirits of Wisdom felt on the Sun, and what is re-echoed here in the words; “This do in remembrance of me.”‘ The earlier preserved in the later: this saying will only be comprehensible to us when we grasp it in its whole cosmic connection, as we have just learnt to do.

In the next lecture it will be our task to study the Christ-Being in the spiritual nature of the Sun, in order to pass on from that to the spiritual nature of the Moon.

In the last two lectures an endeavour was made to call attention to the fact that behind all the material phenomena of the substance of our earth something spiritual is to be sought. We endeavoured to describe the spiritual to be found behind the phenomenon of heat, and then that behind the phenomenon of flowing air. As, in order to do this, it was necessary to turn back to the very early ages of our evolution, we had to glance into our own soul-life to describe the spiritual conditions underlying matter. For it is obvious that the concepts by means of which anything is described must necessarily be drawn from somewhere. Words alone will not suffice; we must have quite definite conceptions. As we have seen, the spiritual conditions to which we referred are so far removed from anything experienced by man at the present time, or of which he can have knowledge—that we had to appeal to certain conditions in our soul-life, conditions by no means universal. We have seen that the deepest being of all conditions of heat and fire must be sought very far away from what we know as external physical fire or heat. To a man of the present day it must appear truly absurd that sacrifice should be recognised as the essence of all conditions of heat: a sacrifice made by very definite Beings to be met with in the old Saturn state of the Earth—the Thrones—who then brought their sacrifice to the Cherubim. And yet in truth we must say that a sacrifice such as possessed its starting point in the world-evolution, appears to us—although in maya or illusion—in all external conditions of heat or fire. In the last lecture we also recognised that behind all that we may call flowing air or flowing gas, there is something very far away, which we have called ‘the virtue of bestowal,’ the devotional pouring forth by spiritual Beings of their own being. This is to be found in every breath of wind, in all flowing air. Thus what is perceived externally, physically, is in reality mere illusion, nothing but maya; and only when we progress from maya to the incorporeal, the spiritual, do we obtain the correct conception of fire and heat; for in fact fire, heat and light bear the same relation to the real world as does the reflected image of a man seen in a mirror to the person himself. For, just as the mirror presents merely an illusion in relation to the man, so in this sense, fire, heat and air are illusions; and the realities behind these bear the same relation to them as the real man to his reflection. Neither fire nor air should be sought in the world of reality, but sacrifice, and the virtue of bestowal.

When we saw the virtue of bestowal added to that of sacrifice we ascend from the life of ancient Saturn to that of ancient Sun. In the latter, the second cosmic embodiment of our earth, we find something which brings us a step nearer to the real conditions of development. Yet another concept must now be introduced, which belongs to the world of reality as concerned with the world of illusion. But before passing to the actual conditions of development we must acquire a definite idea from the following.

When in his external life a man does something, accomplishes something, the impulse of his will as a rule underlies it. Whatever he does, be it the movement of a hand or the greatest of deeds, the impulse of the will underlies them. From his will proceeds everything that leads to an act, to an achievement. Now at first a man would say that a strong, forceful act, one for instance that is to bring about great healing and blessing, must proceed from a stronger impulse of will, while a less important act comes from a weaker impulse. And in general it is assumed that the greatness of the deed depends upon the strength of the impulse of the will. But only in a certain degree is it correct that as we intensify our will we accomplish great things in the world. Certain deeds that man may do—particularly such as bear upon the spiritual world—do not, strange to say, now depend upon the strengthening of our impulses of will. In the physical world, in which we particularly live, the greatness of our deeds certainly does depend upon the strength of our impulses of will, for the more we wish to accomplish, the greater are the efforts we must make. But in the spiritual world this is not so, there the opposite comes to pass. There it is the case that the greatest deeds or better said, the greatest results do not necessitate any strengthening of the positive impulses of will, but far more a certain resignation, a renouncing. Take the very smallest purely spiritual facts. We do not attain any spiritual effects by bringing strong desires into play, or by bestirring ourselves as much as possible; no—in the spiritual world we attain certain results by controlling our wishes and desires, and renouncing all idea of satisfying them. Suppose a man has made up his mind to bring something about in the world by means of inner spiritual workings. To do this he would have to prepare himself by learning above all to suppress his own wishes and desires. For whereas in the physical world we grow stronger when we eat well, when we are well nourished and acquire greater strength thereby, so, in the spiritual world, when we wish to attain something important we can precisely do so with the greatest ease, if, by fasting or other means, we repress and control our wishes and desires; (this is only a statement, and not given by way of advice). The greatest spiritual, magical effects, always require preparation connected with the renunciation of wishes, desires, and impulses of will which may appear within us. The less we ‘will’ the more we say: We will allow life to flow over us, not longing for this or that, but accepting everything just as Karma sends it to us, the more we are able to accept Karma and its workings in this way, keeping quietly ready to renounce all that we should otherwise wish to choose for this life, the more forceful shall we become as regards the activity of our thinking. In the case of a teacher or tutor who is above all things fond of eating and drinking and has other masterful passions, it will be noticeable that his words to his pupils will not accomplish very much, his words will go in at one ear and out at the other. He will think that this is the fault of the pupils, but that is not always the case. A man who has begun to lead a higher life, who lives temperately, who only eats as much as is necessary to support life, who is determined to accept what destiny brings him with equanimity, will gradually notice that his words have great force; he will not even require to look at his pupils, but only to be near them and have encouraging thought without expressing it, and that thought will pass over to the pupil. It all depends on the degree of renunciation and self-denial he has acquired as regards the things usually desired by man.

The right path for spiritual activities intended to lead to spiritual effects in the higher worlds, is that of renunciation. In relation to this many delusions are met with, and delusions while resembling true renunciation, do not lead to the right results. We are all acquainted with what in ordinary life is called ‘asceticism,’ self-inflicted suffering. In many cases the practice of this may be a spiritual self-indulgence, for a person may practise it in order to obtain great results, or from some other source of desire for self-satisfaction. In such cases asceticism produces no results; it is of no avail unless it is a sign of the renunciation rooted in the spirit. Let us then acquire the concept of the creative renunciation, the creative resignation. It is indeed of immense importance that we should accept this renunciation, this creative resignation, which we may experience in the soul, as a conception of something far removed from our everyday life; and then we are guided a step deeper into the evolution of humanity. For in the process of evolution something of the kind really does take place in the transition from the conditions of ancient Sun to those of ancient Moon. Something of the nature of renunciation takes place in the realm of the Beings of the higher worlds, for these Beings, as we know already, are connected with the process of the earth's development. At this juncture let us once again call to mind the ancient Sun evolution. But let us first give our attention to something else with which we are already familiar, but which may until now have appeared in some respects to be somewhat of an enigma.

We have repeatedly drawn attention to occurrences in evolution which must be traced back to those beings who have in the course of evolution ‘remained behind.’ We know that the Luciferic beings have invaded the domain of our earth humanity. It has repeatedly been necessary to draw attention to the fact that these beings are able to enter our astral body during the development of our earth because they did not, during the evolution of the Moon, reach the stage they ought to have attained. A commonplace comparison has often been used, that as in our schools some pupils remain behind, so even in the great cosmic evolution there are cosmic beings who, remaining behind in the stages of their own evolution, subsequently interfere with the evolutionary stages of other beings, with a result similar to that produced by the Luciferic beings, who lingered behind on the ancient Moon. We might easily suppose these to be faulty beings actually injurious to the evolution of the world; for why did they linger behind? Such a thought might occur to us. The thought, however, which we should entertain is this: that man would never have attained his freedom, or the capacity for individual initiative action had not the Luciferic beings remained behind on the Moon. So that on the one hand man owes to the Luciferic beings the fact that he has in his astral body passions, emotions, and desires driving him constantly down from a certain height into lower parts of his nature. But, on the other hand, if man were incapable of wickedness, unable to err from good through the forces of the Luciferic beings in his astral body he could not act freely, or possess what we call freewill, freedom of choice. We must therefore admit that to the Luciferic beings we owe our freedom. The deduction to be drawn from this is that the one-sided view is not valid that claims that they only lead man astray; their remaining behind must be regarded as something beneficial, as something without which he could never have acquired his human dignity, in the true sense of the word.

Now what we call the ‘remaining behind’ of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings is based on something much deeper, something already to be encountered in connection with ancient Saturn, although it is there so difficult to perceive that words could hardly be found in any language to describe it. But when we advance to the ancient Sun-existence, we are able to describe it quite distinctly if we bear in mind the idea of resignation or renunciation which we just described at the beginning of this lecture. For what lies beneath all such remaining behind and all its influence is renunciation, resignation by higher Beings. So now, on the Sun we see the following taking place. We have said that the Thrones, the Spirits of Will, offer sacrifice to the Cherubim; and this they do, as we have seen in the last lecture, not only during the Saturn period, but they continue their sacrifice through that of the Sun, so that there too we have the idea of the Thrones or Spirits of Will sacrificing to the Cherubim. In this sacrifice is to be found the actual essence of all the conditions of heat or fire present in the world. Now: if we look back into the Akashic Record of the Sun-age we can quite distinctly notice the following. The Thrones offer and continue their sacrificial activity; so that we have there the sacrificing Thrones and a host of Cherubim to whom, as we see, the sacrifice rises, while they take into themselves the heat which flows forth from it. However, another host of Cherubim accomplish something else; these renounce the sacrifice, they do not accept what is offered them. We must therefore complete the picture we called up before our minds in the last lecture.

In this picture we have the sacrificing Thrones and those Cherubim who accept their sacrifice, and we also have the Cherubim who do not accept it—but give back that which was offered up to them. It is extraordinarily interesting to follow this in the Akashic Record. For by reason of the bestowing virtue of the Spirits of Wisdom now flowing into the sacrificial heat we are able during the ancient Sun-period to see ascending something like sacrificial smoke of which we have said, that it is reflected back by the Archangels from the outermost periphery of the Sun, in the form of light. But now besides this, something altogether different seems to appear in the space of ancient Sun; not merely the sacrificial smoke thrown back by the Archangels in the form of light, but also that smoke which was not accepted by the Cherubim and which as it were flows back again, as though dammed back. So that we have permanent clouds of sacrifice in space; Sacrifice that ascends, Sacrifice that descends, Sacrifice accepted and Sacrifice rejected. The encounter of these intrinsically Spiritual cloud-formations is seen to take place between what in the last lecture we called the ‘outer’ and the ‘inner’, until the separation occurs. Thus in the centre we have the sacrificing Thrones, then in the heights above the Cherubim accepting the sacrifice, and beside these, those other Cherubim who did not accept the proffered sacrifice, but diverted its course back again. Through this diversion arises, as it were, an encircling cloud, and right outside we have the cast-back masses of light. Let us try to form a picture of this in our minds. We must think of this ancient Sun-space, the ancient Sun-mass as a cosmic globe beyond which we conceive of nothing, so that we only imagine space extending as far as the Archangels. Let us further picture in the centre of this globular formation the meeting of the accepted and the rejected sacrifices. From these two, the accepted and rejected sacrifices, there comes into being in the ancient Sun something that we may call a division of the whole Sun-substance, a divergence. If we wish to compare the Sun in that bygone age with any external image, we can only compare it with the form of our present Saturn which is a globe encircled by rings; for that which is in the centre is thrown inwards by volumes of sacrifice and that which was outside is arranged as an encircling mass. Thus we have the Sun's substance divided into two parts by the force of the arrested and dammed up powers of the sacrifice.

What then is brought about by this renunciation of the sacrifice on the part of certain of the Cherubim?

We are now coming to an extremely difficult chapter indeed, and we shall only be able gradually to grasp, by means of meditation, what is comprised in the conceptions about to be set forth. Only after long and profound reflection upon the conceptions about to be given can we discern what the realities are that underlie them. That resignation of which mention has already been made, must be brought into connection with the origin of Time—the scene of which we have laid in ancient Saturn. Time, as we have seen, actually originated on ancient Saturn, with the Archai or Spirits of Time, and there is no sense in referring to Time previous to ancient Saturn. Now at the risk of repeating ourselves, we may say that Time continues. Continuity or Duration is a conception which contains Time within itself. Thus when we say that Time is continuous it means that when we observe Saturn and Sun in the Akashic records, on Saturn we find the origin of Time—and on the Sun we still find Time present. Now if all conditions remained as they were, as we described them in the last two lectures when speaking of Saturn and Sun. Time would then form an element in everything that happens in evolution. We could not in thought eliminate Time from any occurrence in evolution. We have seen that the Spirits of Time came into being on ancient Saturn, and that Time is implanted into everything. All that we have hitherto thought whether in pictures or in imagination concerning evolution we must bring into connection with Time. All that has taken place—sacrifice and the virtue of bestowal, which we have mentioned—would be subject to Time, nothing would not be subject to Time, which means that all arising and passing away which indeed pertains to Time, must be subject to it.

Now those Cherubim who renounced the acceptance of the sacrifice and of that which was, as it were, contained in the smoke of the sacrifice, did so because in so doing, they withdrew from the properties of this sacrificial smoke. And to these properties belongs above all Time, which includes ‘arising’ and ‘passing away.’ The whole renunciation of the sacrifice on the part of these Cherubim signifies that they had grown beyond the conditions of Time. These Cherubim extended beyond Time and withdrew from subjection to it. The combination of circumstances during the evolution of ancient Sun was such, that the sacrificing and the virtue of bestowal, which conditions continued in a direct line from Saturn, remain subject to Time; whilst others, brought about by the other Cherubim who renounced the acceptance of the sacrifice wrested themselves free, and chose Eternity, Duration, permanence, the non-subjection to arising and passing away. It is in the highest degree remarkable; during the evolution of ancient Sun we come to a severance between Time and Eternity. Through the resignation made by the Cherubim during the Sun-evolution, Eternity was gained, as a property of certain conditions which then came about. Just as we saw, on looking into our soul, that in it certain effects were produced through the acquisition by man of the qualities of renunciation and resignation—so we see, speaking now of the ancient Sun alone, that eternity and immortality were acquired by certain divine Spiritual Beings, that they resigned the sacrifice and all that might have come to them from the virtue of bestowal and all its diffused gifts. Whereas we have seen Time coming into being on ancient Saturn, we have also seen certain conditions wresting themselves free from it during the Sun development. But we must take special care to note that this was prepared even during the Saturn-age; so that Eternity does not actually begin during the Sun age. This can however, only be sufficiently clearly and distinctly observed so that it can be expressed in concepts, in the Sun-age: on Saturn the division between Time and Eternity is so faintly perceptible that our ideas and words do not prove precise enough to define anything of the sort for ancient Saturn and its evolution.

We have now learnt the significance of resignation, the renunciation made by the gods during the time of ancient Sun, and the attainment of immortality. What was the further consequence of this?

From the study of the book Occult Science which must in certain respects still be veiled in Maya, we learn that the evolution of ancient Moon followed that of ancient Sun, that at the close of the Sun-age all the existing conditions were immersed in a kind of twilight, in a sort of cosmic chaos, from which emerged the Moon. And we see the sacrifice re-issuing in the form of heat. All that remained as heat on ancient Sun reappears as heat on the Moon; we see the virtue of bestowal reappearing as gas, or air. And with the resignation also continues the renunciation of the sacrifice; all that we have called ‘resignation’ is within whatever takes place on ancient Moon. It is actually the case, that what we can ourselves experience as resignation we must think of in everything on ancient Moon, carried over from ancient Sun, and as we think of everything else in the external world. That which had been sacrifice reappears in Maya as Heat; and that which was bestowing virtue appears in Maya as gas or air. Resignation as it has now become appears in external Maya as Fluidity, as ‘Water’. ‘Water’ is Maya and would not be in the world at all were it not that its spiritual foundation is renunciation, or resignation. Wherever water is to be found in the world there is divine-renunciation. Just as heat is an illusion behind which is sacrifice, and gas or air an illusion behind which is the virtue of bestowal, so is water as a substance, as an external reality, nothing but an illusion of the senses, a reflection; the only reality existing in it, is resignation by certain Beings of that which they receive from other Beings. It might be said, water could only flow in the world because resignation underlies it. Now, we know that while the Sun progressed to Moon, airy conditions condensed to watery conditions. Water first appeared on the Moon; on ancient Sun there was as yet no water. What we see gathering like clouds during the old Sun development coagulated as they interpenetrated each other, to denser substance, to ‘water,’ and this appears on ancient Moon as the Moon-ocean.

If we bear this in mind it will at any rate be possible to grasp a question that may be raised. From resignation comes forth water; water is in literal truth resignation. We acquire a peculiar kind of spiritual insight into the actual nature of water. But now the question may be raised: There is after all a certain difference between the conditions which would have arisen if the Cherubim had not made this resignation, and that which has actually come about through their having done so. Is this difference in any way conveyed? Yes, it is. It is conveyed in the fact that the consequences of that resignation appeared clearly during the Sun-State. If it had never been made, if the Cherubim had accepted the proffered sacrifice, they would—speaking figuratively—have had the sacrificial smoke as part of their own inner substance; what they themselves had done would have found expression in the smoke of the sacrifice. Suppose these Cherubim had accomplished this or that; this would have been apparent, it would have been outwardly expressed by the changing clouds of the air; that is to say: In the outer form of the air would have been expressed what the Cherubim who made no resignation did with the substance of the sacrifice. But they did reject it, and in so doing they passed from mortality to immortality, from a transitory state into a State of Duration. However the substance of the sacrifice is there to begin with; it is released from the forces, so to speak, which it would otherwise have absorbed, and is now obliged to follow the inclinations and impulses of the Cherubim; for they gave it up, they renounced it. What then happens to this substance of sacrifice? The following occurs: It happens that other beings, because the sacrificial substance is not with the Cherubim, take possession of it, become independent of the Cherubim, self-reliant beings; whereas they would otherwise have been directed from the sacrificial substance within the Cherubim, if the latter had accepted it. Thus it became possible for the opposite of resignation to arise; in that certain beings attracted to themselves the substance of the sacrifice that had been poured forth and become active within it. These beings are ‘they who remained behind’; ‘remaining behind’ was therefore a consequence of the resignation made by the Cherubim. Through the very substance which they refused to accept, the Cherubim themselves furnished backward beings with the first possibility of staying behind. Through the rejection of a sacrifice, other beings who did not resign it, but gave way to their wishes and desires, bringing them to expression were enabled to take possession of the object of the sacrifice, of the sacrificial substance, thereby attaining the possibility of taking their place as independent beings side by side with those who here were offering.

Thus, when evolution passed from ancient Sun to Moon, with the immortality of the Cherubim, the possibility was given for other beings to separate in their own substance from the uninterrupted evolution of the Cherubim, generally speaking from the immortal beings. So now, when we learn the deeper reasons of the remaining behind, we see that the original fault—if we may venture to speak of such an original fault—did not lay with those who remained behind. This is the important point, which we must realise: If the Cherubim had accepted the proffered sacrifice, the Luciferic beings could not have remained behind; they would have had no opportunity of embodying themselves in that substance. To make it possible for beings to become thus independent, renunciation previously took place. Thus, in cosmic evolution it is the case that the gods themselves called their opponents into being. If the gods had not renounced the sacrifice, beings would not have been able to oppose them. Put into simple words we may suppose the gods had foreseen as follows: ‘If we merely go on creating as we have done from Saturn to Sun there would never be any free beings, capable of acting from their own initiative. In order that beings of this nature might come into existence, the possibility must be given for opponents to arise against us in the Universe, so that we should meet with resistance in that which is subject to time. If we ourselves ordain everything we shall meet with no such resistance. We could make everything very easy for ourselves by accepting the sacrifice offered to us; then would the whole of evolution be subject unto us. But this will not do, we want beings able to resist us. We will therefore not accept the sacrifice; so that through our resignation and because they accept the sacrifice, they become our opponents!’

So we see that we must not look for the origin of evil in the so-called ‘evil’ beings, but in the ‘good’ Beings, who, through their resignation first brought evil about through those beings who were able to bring it into the world. But now the following objection may easily be made, (and I want you to let these thoughts work profoundly upon your souls): I have till now thought more highly of the gods! I have always believed them able to give freedom to man without creating the possibility of evil. How is it that all these ‘good gods could not produce something like human freedom without bringing evil into the world?’ In this connection I should like to remind you of that Spanish King who considered the world dreadfully complicated, and who said on one occasion that if God had allowed him to create it he would have made it much simpler—Man in his weakness may think that the world might have been made simpler than it is, but the gods knew better and therefore they did not allow man to create the world.

From the standpoint of scientific perception, we might describe these circumstances more accurately. Suppose something required supporting and the suggestion were made that a column might be erected and the weight rested on that. This person in question might say: ‘There must be some other way of doing it!’ Why, indeed, should it not be done in some other way? Or again, when a triangle is made use of in building, it might be said: Why should a triangle have only three angles? Perhaps a god might make a triangle not having three angles? There would be just as little sense in thinking of a triangle without three angles, as in supposing that the gods might have created freedom without the possibility of evil and suffering. Just as three angles are necessary to a triangle, so the possibility of evil, given by the resignation of Divine Beings, is necessary to freedom. It all forms part of the Divine resignation, for the gods created evolution out of immortality, after they had through their renunciation or sacrifice, ascended to immortality, in order to lead back evil to good. The gods did not shrink from the evil, which alone could give the possibility of freedom. Had the gods avoided evil, the world would be poor, without variety. For the sake of freedom the gods had to allow evil to enter the world, and for this reason they had to acquire the power enabling them to lead evil back again to good. This power is such it can only be acquired as a consequence of renunciation and resignation.

Religions always exist for the purpose of showing us the great cosmic mysteries in symbols, in imaginations. In this lecture we have alluded to primordial phases of evolution, and by adding the conception of resignation to those of sacrifice and of the bestowing virtue we have come a step further, from Maya and illusion into the realities. Conceptions such as these are presented to man in religions. And in that of the Bible there is something whereby man can acquire a conception of resignation, of the rejection of the sacrifice. That is the story of the sacrifice about to be made by Abraham who was ready to offer his own son to God, and of the renouncing by God of the sacrifice offered by the patriarch. If we take into our souls this conception of sacrifice, then intuitive visions such as those described, may come to us. On one occasion I suggested that we should suppose that the sacrifice of Abraham had been accepted, that Isaac had been sacrificed. As all the ancient Hebrew people are descended from him, God would then by accepting the sacrifice have taken this whole nation from the earth. Everything derived from Abraham was a gift of God through the renunciation of a sphere to be outside Himself; if He had accepted the sacrifice He would have taken into Himself the whole sphere which played its part within the ancient Hebrew people; for the sacrificed Isaac would have been with God. But He renounced this and therewith He gave over that whole line of evolution to the earth. Thus in the significant picture of the offering made by the old patriarch, the conception of renunciation and of sacrifice can arise within us.

And in yet another part of our earth-history do we find this resigning on the part of Higher Beings, and here too we must again refer to something alluded to in the last lecture—the picture of the ‘Last Supper,’ by Leonardo da Vinci. It represents the scene in which as it were, we have before us the meaning of the earth, the Christ. While trying to penetrate the whole meaning of the picture, let us recollect those words, which are to be found alone in the Gospel: ‘Am I not able to call forth a whole multitude of angels if I wish to avoid the death of sacrifice.’ That which Christ might have accepted at that moment, which would of course have been quite easy for Him to do, He rejected in resignation and renunciation. And the greatest renunciation made by Christ Jesus confronts us when, by having made it, He allows the opponent himself—Judas—to enter His sphere. If we are able to see in Christ Jesus all that is to he seen, we must see in Him an image of those Beings with whom, at a certain stage of evolution, we have just become acquainted, those who were compelled to renounce the proffered sacrifice, those whose very nature was resignation. Christ renounced that which would have occurred if He had not allowed Judas to appear as His opponent just as once upon a time, during the Sun-age, the gods themselves called forth their opponents by the renunciation they made. And we see a repetition of this event in a picture here on earth: that of the Christ seated among the twelve, and Judas, the betrayer, in the centre. In order that that which makes mankind of such immeasurable value might enter into evolution, Christ Himself had to place His opponent in opposition to Him. This picture makes such a profound impression on us because when we contemplate it, it reminds us of such a great cosmic moment; and when we recall the words: ‘He who dips his bread into the bowl with me, he it is who shall betray me,’ we see an earthly reflection of the opponent of the gods, placed in opposition to them by the gods themselves. For this reason I have often ventured to say that if an inhabitant of Mars were able to descend to the earth, he might find things which would be of more or less interest to him although he might perhaps not understand them properly; but as soon as he saw this picture by Leonardo da Vinci he would, through a certain position in the cosmos which has the same connection with Mars as with the earth, learn something which would teach him the meaning of the earth. The incident represented in the earthly picture is of significance to the whole Cosmos: that is the fact that certain powers place themselves in opposition to the immortal Divine power. And this representation of Christ surrounded by His Apostles, He who on the earth overcomes death and thus proves the triumph of immortality, is intended to point to that significant universal moment when the gods severed themselves from temporal existence and gained the victory over Time, that is they became immortal. When we contemplate the ‘Last Supper’ by Leonardo da Vinci, we may feel this in our hearts. Do not object that a person of simple mind may contemplate this picture and not know all that has been referred to to-day. It is not necessary that he should. For such are the mysterious depths of the human soul, that it is not necessary to understand with the intellect what the soul feels. Does the flower know the laws which regulate its growth? No! Yet none the less it grows. What does the flower want with laws or the human soul with intellect to feel the whole immeasurable greatness of the subject, when before our eyes we see depicted a God and His opponents; when the highest that can possibly be expressed, the opposition of immortality to the transitory is brought before our eyes. It is not necessary to know this; for it passes into the soul with magic force when one stands before this picture, which represents in painting an image of the cosmic purpose. The artist [is not required] to be an occultist in this sense in order to paint this picture. But in the soul of Leonardo da Vinci were precisely the necessary forces to enable him to express this, the highest and most significant. That is why great works of art make such a tremendous impression, because they are intimately connected with the purpose of the cosmic order. In earlier ages artists in dim consciousness were in touch with this cosmic purpose without being aware of it. Art would however, die out altogether if nothing were received by way of continuation of this, if, in the future Anthroposophy were not there as the knowledge of these things to give to art a new foundation. Subconscious art has become a thing of the past. The art which submits to the inspiration of Anthroposophy is only at its starting point, its beginning. This will be the art of the future. Just as the artist of old had no need to know what lay behind his works of art, so the artist of the future must know this—but knowledge with those forces which represent afresh an aspect of immortality, something of the perfection of the soul. For a man who uses Anthroposophy as an intellectual science knows nothing of it. That man alone understands who has made it his own, who in every conception that we evolve—sacrifice, bestowing virtue, resignation—is able to feel in every word what it is that is trying to burst forth in that word or idea, what at the most can flow forth in the many-sided significance of the pictures. If a man believes the evolution of the world is accomplished by means of abstract conceptions, he will perhaps make diagrams. If we wish to represent living conceptions such as sacrifice, or the virtue of bestowal and renunciation, diagrams are of no use; we must paint pictures in our minds like those described in the last lectures: of the Thrones offering sacrifice and sending up to the Cherubim the smoke of the sacrifice, ever spreading more widely and of the Archangels sending hack the light; and so on. And when in our next study we pass on to the Moon. existence we shall see how much richer the picture becomes, how something like the liquefying of the dammed up masses of cloud actually had to take place, and that this becomes drizzling rain, into which flashes the lightning of the Seraphim. We must then pass on to richer conceptions still with regard to which we must say: The future of mankind will certainly find the possibility, the artistic ways and means to convey to the consciousness and express to the outer world what can otherwise only be read in the Akashic Records.

In our survey of the world we have now carried a difficult aspect of it far enough to discover to some extent the spiritual behind the phenomena of the external sense-world. Concerning such phenomena, at first outwardly revealing little of the fact that the spiritual in its own peculiar form stands behind them, as we experience this spiritual in our own soul-life—concerning such phenomena we have recognised that nevertheless spiritual qualities and properties do stand behind them. For example, in ordinary life we recognise the properties of heat or fire, and we have learnt to see in these the expression of sacrifice. In what meets us as air and at any rate, to our ideas, seems to reveal so little of its spiritual nature, we have recognised the bestowing virtue of certain Spiritual Beings. And we have learnt to perceive in water what might be called resignation. It may just be mentioned here, that in earlier conceptions of the world there was naturally a greater sense of the spiritual behind the outer material element, and the fact that specially volatile substances have been designated “Spirits” may be looked upon as proving this, for we make a peculiar use of the word ‘Spirit’ to-day. Even in saying “Spiritual”; and indeed in the outer world it may often occur that people use this word with very little application to spiritual things, on one occasion (as some here present are aware) a letter was addressed to a spiritualist union at Munich, and so little did the postman know what a spiritualistic circle was, that the letter was delivered to the Central Committee of Wine and Spirit merchants!

But to-day, when we wish to study that significant transition in the evolution of the Earth planet which took place in the passing from ancient Sun to ancient Moon, we must bear in mind a different kind of development of the spiritual. We must now start from that point which we reached in the last lecture, when we came to the subject of “renunciation.” This, as we have seen, consisted essentially in the refusal of Beings of exalted Spiritual rank to accept the sacrifice, which as we were told, consisted for the most part of will or will-substance. If we represent this to our minds in such a way that we picture certain Beings desirous of offering the substance of their will in sacrifice which through the renunciation of yet higher Beings was rejected, it will be easy to rise to the conception that this substance was compelled to remain with the Beings desirous of sacrificing; who were prevented from doing so. Thus we are introduced to Beings in the Cosmic scheme ready to contribute with fervour what dwells within them—but who are not able to do this, are obliged to retain this substance within them. The Beings whose sacrifice was rejected were unable to establish a particular connection with still higher Beings, which might have been established had their offering been accepted. What we must understand by this is symbolically expressed in the world's history by the figure of Cain confronting Abel, though there the contrast is more sharply emphasised. Cain too wished to offer sacrifice to his God. But it was not pleasing unto God and He would not accept it. The sacrifice offered by Abel was accepted. What we must bear in mind in this story is the inner experience which came to Cain through the rejection of his sacrifice.

If we wish to raise ourselves to the height necessary for the comprehension of what is now under consideration, we must clearly realise that in speaking of the regions referred to, both conceptions and ideas slip into use regarding them which only have meaning in our ordinary life. It will be incorrect to speak of ‘Sin’ or ‘wrong-doing’ as coming into being by the rejection of the sacrifice. Guilt or atonement as we know it in our ordinary life, could not as yet be spoken of in those regions. Rather must we think of these Beings in such a way, that on the part of those Higher Ones who rejected the proffered sacrifice, there is renunciation or resignation. In the soul described in the last lecture there is nothing of guilt or omission; on the contrary, it contains all the greatness and significance to be found in resignation. None the less the fact remains that in those other Beings who wished to contribute their sacrifice there arose a feeling, though very faint, which was the beginning of an opposition to those who rejected it. So that when at a much later epoch, the story of Cain is brought to our notice our feeling is represented in an accentuated form. Hence we do not find in those Beings who continued to evolve from the Sun and to pass over to the Moon, the same disposition of mind as in Cain; in them the mood is different in degree. We only really become acquainted with this if we look into our own souls as we did in the last lecture, trying to find its counterpart there, and thus get a hint of that feeling which was developed in the Individualities whose sacrificial gifts were rejected.

Coming nearer and nearer to the earthly life of man, we find this mood in ourselves—everyone knows it—as uncertainty and at the same time as torment in the domain which can well be included in the hidden depths of Soul-life. This feeling with which we are all acquainted holds sway in the secret depth of our Soul-life, and sometimes pushes its way up to the surface; and then perhaps its torment is least. We often go about with these feelings without being aware of them in our superficial consciousness; yet there they are within us. We might recall the words of the poet: ‘He alone who longing knows, knows what I suffer,’ if we wish to convey an idea of the tormenting nature of this mood with which is connected a certain degree of pain. The longing to be found in the souls of men, is what is here meant.

In order to transport ourselves into what went on spiritually in the evolutionary phases of ancient Saturn and Sun, it was necessary to raise our vision to peculiar states of the soul which only appear, so to speak, when the human soul begins to aspire and prepares for higher striving. We saw this when we tried to understand the nature of sacrifice by referring to our own Soul-life, when we tried to comprehend the nature of the wisdom man can acquire, which we saw trickling in, and which has its origin in what may be called: ‘readiness to bestow,’ ‘readiness to give’, even to giving oneself, so to speak. When we come on to the more earthly conditions which have evolved out of the earlier ones, we encounter a Soul-mood resembling in many respects what a man may even yet experience at the present day. But we must quite clearly realise, that although our Soul-life is fitted into our earth-body, an upper layer exists over this hidden Soul-life in the depths. Who could fail to know that there is such a hidden life of the Soul? Life itself amply teaches us this.

Now in order to make clear to ourselves something of this hidden life of the Soul, let us take the case of a child who in his seventh or eighth year, or at some other age may have experienced some injustice, to which children are particularly sensitive. He perhaps may have been blamed for something which he really had not done, but it suited to convenience of those around him to throw the blame on the child, so as to have an end of the matter. Now children are very specially sensitive to unjust accusation; but as life now is, although such an experience may have bitten deeply into the childish life, the later Soul-life put another layer of existence over it, and as far as everyday life is concerned the child forgot it. And indeed it may very well never crop up again. But suppose that in his fifteenth or sixteenth year this boy should experience fresh injustice, perhaps at school; then that which has lain dormant in the depths below the superficial waves of his soul, begins to stir. The boy need not know that a memory of what he had formerly endured is rising to the surface, he may have different concepts and ideas on the subject. But if his earlier experience had not occurred he would simply have gone home, perhaps grumbled and complained, and shed a few tears, and that would have been the end of the matter. The first injustice had however been experienced, and although, as I make a point of saying, the boy need have no recollection of it, yet it works! It becomes active beneath the surface of the Soul-life just as there may be movements beneath the surface of a calm and glassy sea, and what might have ended in a few grumblings and tears now becomes the suicide of a schoolboy! Thus do the hidden depths of the Soul-life play their part on the surface. The most important of all the forces ruling below in these depths one which governs every Soul and occasionally emerges in, its original form, is—longing. We also know the names by which this force is known to the outer world, but they are only metaphoric and indefinite, for they express very complicated connections and thus do not enter a man's consciousness at all.

Take as an example a phenomenon with which we are all well acquainted; perhaps a man who lives in great cities is less affected by it, but he will have seen it in others:—I refer to what is known as ‘home-sickness’. If you investigate into the true nature of home-sickness you will find it differs fundamentally in every one. Sometimes it takes one form and sometimes another. One person may long for the homely stories of the family circle; he does not know that he is longing for home, he only feels an undefined craving, an undefined want. Another longs for his mountain, or for the river on whose banks he used to play, watching the movement of the rippling water. He is seldom aware of what it is that is working within him. All these diverse characteristics we include in the term ‘home-sickness,’ expressing something that may be active in a thousand forms, and would be more accurately defined as a kind of longing. And what is this longing? We have just said that it is a kind of willing, and whenever we investigate this longing, we find that is of this nature. What kind of willing? It is a will towards an inclination which in its immediate form cannot be satisfied; for were it satisfied, the longing would cease. What we described as longing is an unattainable wish.

So must we define the frame of mind of those Beings whose sacrifice was rejected, it was somewhat of this nature. What we may discover in the depths of our Soul-life is a heritage coming to us from those primeval times of which we are now speaking. Just as we have inherited other things from that ancient stage of evolution, so do we inherit all kinds of longings, all kinds of repressed wishes impossible to fulfil. It is in this way we must also conjecture that through the rejection of the sacrifice during the phase of evolution there came into existence beings whom we may designate as: Beings with wishes which are repressed. Now because they were obliged to exercise this repression they were in a very special position. And as we can hardly rise into these conditions by means of thought, we must once again turn to certain conditions in our own Soul, if we wish to feel, to sense the reflection of them.

A being able to sacrifice its own will, passes in a certain sense, into the being of the other. We can feel this even in our human life, we live and move in one for whom we sacrifice ourselves, we feel glad and satisfied when in that person's presence. And as we are now speaking of the sacrifice offered to highest Beings, to more widely-extending, universal Beings, by others who found their greatest bliss in gazing up at them, what remains behind as repressed longings and wishes can never create the same inner disposition of Soul as would have been theirs if they had been allowed to complete their sacrifice. For if they had been able to do this what they offered would have passed over into the other Beings. We might, by way of example suggest, that if the earth and the other planets could have made sacrifice to the Sun—they would be with the Sun. But if they were not allowed to do this, if they had been forced to withhold what they were preparing to offer up, they would then have been driven back into themselves. If we can understand what has just been said in these few words, we observe that at this stage something new enters the universe. It must be clearly understood that it is impossible to express this in any other way than by saying that the Beings who were ready to offer to others all that dwelt within them, were compelled on the rejection of their sacrifice, to draw all this into themselves. Do you not guess what now flashed up—that this was what is called ego-nature which comes out in every form? It is thus that we must look upon what lives on in the Beings as a heritage—which later on was poured into evolution, so to speak. We see egoism flashing up in the weakest form, as longing, but we can also see it slipping into the evolution of the Cosmos. Thus we see how Beings devoted to themselves, to their own Ego-nature, would in a certain respect have been condemned to a one-sided development, to living only in themselves, if something else had not occurred.

Let us picture a Being, permitted to make sacrifice; such a one lives in the other Being, and does so for all time. One not allowed to made sacrifice can only live within itself. It is thereby shut off from what it would have experienced in another, in this case a higher Being. Thus from the outset it is condemned and exiled by evolution to a one-sided existence, were it not that something here enters evolution to redress the balance. This is the arrival on the scene of new Beings who prevent the one-sidedness. Just as on Saturn there were the Spirits of Will, and on ancient Sun Spirits of Wisdom, so, on ancient Moon the Spirits of Movement make their appearance; we must not, however, think of movement in space, but movement rather more like the nature of thought. Every one knows the expression “thought-vibrations” though this only refers to the fluidic movement of our own thought; yet this expression may serve, if we want to acquire a more comprehensive conception of movement, to show us that we think of something more than the mere movement from one place to another, for that is only one of the many forms of movement. If a number of persons devote themselves to a higher Being who is expressive of all that is within them, and who accepts all the sacrifices they offer Him, these people live in that Being as a plurality in unity, and find full satisfaction in so doing. But if their sacrifices are rejected, the plurality is driven back upon itself and is never satisfied. Then came the Spirits of Movement and in a sense they guide the Beings who would have simply been driven back upon themselves and bring them into relation with all other Beings. The Spirits of Movement should not be thought of as merely bringing about changes of place; they are Beings able to bring forth something whereby one Being is constantly brought into new relation with others.

We can form an idea of what was attained in the Cosmos at this stage if we once more reflect upon a corresponding disposition of the Soul. Who does not know the longing when a condition of Soul approaches in which a man is at a standstill, when he can experience no change! Who does not know the torment of it, how it drives a man into a state of mind which becomes unendurable, and which in a merely superficial person takes the form of boredom? But between the boredom which is as a rule only ascribed to a shallow-pated person, and that which is an attribute of noble character in whom dwells what is generated by their own natures as longing and cannot be satisfied in this world, there are many intermediate states—what better method is there of quieting longing than by change? This is proved by the fact that persons who suffer from it incessantly seek to form relationships to new Beings. The torment of longing can often be overcome by changing the conditions to ever new beings.

Thus we see that while the earth was passing through her Moon-phase, the Spirits of Movement brought into the lives of those Beings who were filled with longing and would otherwise have been desolate--for boredom is also a kind of desolation—the change which is brought about by movement, a constantly renewed relation to ever new Beings and new conditions. Movement in space, movement from one place to another, is but one form of the more comprehensive movement which has just been mentioned. When in the morning we have a definite train of thought in our Soul, not necessarily to be kept to ourselves, but passed on to others—a ‘movement’ takes place. We can then overcome one-sidedness of longing by means of variety, by change and the movement of the things experienced. In outer space there is only one particular form of change. In this connection let us imagine a planet in relation to a Sun: if it always occupied the same position to the Sun, if it never moved, it would be subject to that one-sidedness, which can only accrue when it presents invariably the same aspect to the Sun. Then the Spirits of Movement turn the planet round so as to bring about a change in its conditions. Change of place is but one of the many forms of change. And the Spirits of Movement, by bringing change of place into the Cosmos, merely introduce one specific part of Movement in general.

But as the Spirits of Movement introduce change and movement into the Universe as we know it up to the present, something else must follow. We know that in the whole Cosmic multiplicity in the upward course of development during this evolution, besides the Spirits of Movement, of Personality, of Wisdom, and of Will—there is also what we have called ‘Bestowing Virtue,’ which is radiated forth as Wisdom, and Spirituality behind air and gas. This then combines with the Will now transformed into longing, and within these Beings it becomes what is known to man hardly yet as ‘thoughts’ but as ideas. We can best picture these to ourselves by the ideas that a man has when he dreams; the fluidic ideas that succeeding one another in a dream may evoke a conception of what takes place in a Being in whom the volition of longing dwells, and is guided by the Spirits of Movement into relation with other Beings. But when this is thus guided into a relation with the other Beings, it cannot completely surrender itself—the egotism within it prevents that; but it is able to take in the transitory idea of the other Beings, which lives in him like a dream-picture. This is the origin of what we call the ‘arising’ of pictures of the other world. At this phase of development we see the arising of the picture-consciousness. And as we human Beings our selves passed through this phase of evolution without then possessing our present earthly ego-consciousness, we must think of ourselves at that time without that which we can now acquire through our ego, but living and weaving in the universe, while within us lived something which we can compare with the present feelings of longing. We can in a certain fashion realise, if we do not regard these conditions of suffering as earthly that they could not possibly be so, by reflecting on the following:—Sorrow and suffering—naturally in its Soul-form, came at that time into our being and that of other entities connected with our evolution; through the activity of the Spirits of Movement the inner nature which would otherwise have been barren and empty, suffering the tortures of longing, was filled with the balm which flowed into these Beings in the form of picture-consciousness, otherwise these Beings would have been empty-Souled, empty of everything not to be called longing. But the balm of the pictures was slowly poured in, filling the desolate void with variety, and thus the Beings were led away from exile and condemnation. If we take what is here said seriously, it gives us both the spiritual basis of what developed during the Moon-phase of our Earth, and of what we now have in the deep subsoil of our consciousness, for that has stretched over to the earth-stage of our nature. And this is so imbedded in the subsoil of our Soul, that, as the disturbance beneath the surface of the sea drives up the waves, it can influence us, without our being aware of the cause of what enters our consciousness. Beneath the surface of our ordinary ego-consciousness we have a Soul-life which can play its part. And when it does so, what does the Soul-life say? If we bear in mind the Cosmic subject of this subconscious Soul-life, we can say that what we can thus trace back to the subsoil of the soul is a bursting-forth within that which we have acquired through our earth-phase, of what has moved across from the Moon-phase of evolution. If we clearly grasp what it is that has come into our nature here on the Earth, we really have an explanation of what has been spiritually brought over from the ancient Moon into our Earth-existence.

If we just grasp the fact that it was necessary, as has just been described, that pictures should continually arise to assuage the feeling of desolation, we obtain a conception which is of very great importance and weight: that of the longing human Soul, in all its yearning emptiness. By the constant succession of pictures, arising one after the other, the yearning is satisfied and brought into harmony; but should a picture remain any length of time the old longing begins to glimmer faintly afresh in the background—and the Spirits of Movement call up new pictures. When these have been there for some little time the longing pushes up again, demanding fresh ones. Now with respect to the Soul-life such as this the momentous sentence must be pronounced: that if this longing can only be satisfied by a continual flow of pictures following one after the other, there would be no end to the infinite flow. The only thing that can supervene on this is what must come if the endless flow of pictures is to be replaced by something else, something that is able to redeem it by something other than mere pictures—namely, by realities! In other words, the planetary embodiment of our earth through which we have passed, when pictures were brought to us by the activity of the Spirits of Movement, must be replaced by that planetary phase of the earth's embodiment which we can the phase of redemption. We shall see presently that the earth is to be called the ‘Planet of Redemption,’ just as her last embodiment—that of the Moon-existence may be called the ‘Planet of Longing’; longing capable of satisfaction yet flowing on endlessly. And while we live in the consciousness belonging to this earth, in which as we know redemption comes to us through the Mystery of Golgotha—there arises continually within us from the subsoil of our soul, a never-ceasing craving for redemption. It is as though, on the surface, we had the waves of our ordinary consciousness—while below, in the depths of the ocean of the Soul-life, is longing, which is the ocean-bed of our Soul. This strives continually to ascend to one who accomplishes the sacrifice, the Universal Being, Who is able to satisfy the longing once and for all time—not in a never-ceasing succession of pictures.

The earth-man already feels moods such as these, and they are the very best he is capable of feeling. The citizens of earth of our time who feel this longing—which belongs to this particular age of ours—are those who enter our own movement of Spiritual Science. In external life people have become acquainted with all that can satisfy the ordinary superficial individual consciousness; but from the subconsciousness pushes up that which in its individuality can never be satisfied, but yearns for the central basis of life. This basis can only be provided by a universal science which occupies itself with the totality rather than with the individuality. That which rises from the subconsciousness must in the mind of to-day be brought into touch with application to the study of universal Being living in the world; otherwise that which ascends from the subsoil of the Soul will be further longing for something which can never be attained. In this sense anthroposophy is a response to those longings which dwell in the depths of the Soul. As everything that happens in the world has had a prelude, we need not wonder at a man who at the present day longs through spiritual science for satisfaction for the powers of his Soul, above all, when the unconscious Soul-forces akin to longings, burn up ardently as longing. Suppose that he, through living in an earlier age, in which this spiritual wisdom had not been given, had been unable to have it, and had come to long for it, to have a persistent longing for it, unable to grasp the meaning of life, just because he was an eminently great Soul. If only something could have flowed into his Soul, drowning, silencing the longing for ideas while he yearned for an end to this search for ideas—the greater the yearning, the more intense the search. And is it not like a voice expressing itself to us, the utterance of a spirit living at a time when it could not yet have the Spiritual wisdom which, like balsam, is shed forth into the longing Soul, when we hear Heinrich Von Kleist writing to a friend. In the following words we seem to hear him say:—‘Who would desire to be happy in this world! I could almost say, shame on you if you wished to be. Would it not be short-sighted, noble man, to strive for anything here below, where all ends in death! We meet here, three Springs long we love, and then we shun each other for an eternity. And what is worth striving for, if love be not? Oh! There must be something more than love, happiness, fame, and so on; something of which our Souls do not even dream. It can be no evil spirit at the head of the world, He is only not understood. Do not we smile too when children cry? Just think of the endless continuity! Myriads of ages, each having its own life, and to each a manifested existence like this world of ours! What is the name of the little star we see in the sky when the night is clear and we gaze at Sirius? All this immense firmament but a speck of dust compared with infinity! Tell me, is this nothing but a dream? At night when we are reposing between our linen sheets, we have a wider aspect, richer in intuition than thoughts can grasp or words describe. Come, let us do something good, and die in doing it! One of the million deaths we have already died, and shall yet die. It is as though we pass from one room to another. Lo! The world to me appears enclosed in a nest of boxes, the smallest exactly like the biggest!’—(From a letter written by Heinrich Von Kleist, in 1806.)

The longing expressed in these words was felt by a man who could not then find anything able to satisfy it—such as a modern thinker may find if he studies Anthroposophy in the right way. The writer of these words took his own life 100 years ago, shooting first his friend, Henriette Vogel and then himself, and now he rests on the banks of Lake Vann in that lonely grave which for a century has closed over his remains.

In speaking of the frame of mind which best illustrates what we are endeavouring to grasp, when we speak of the combined action of the sacrifice of will held back in longing, of the satisfaction of this longing, which could only come through the Spirits of Motion, and the urge towards its ultimate satisfaction, only to come on the planet of redemption—a singular Karmic link has caused us to speak here, in accordance with our ordinary programme, on the very day which reminds us of how a great mind expressed this undefined longing in the grandest of words, and finally poured it forth in the most tragic act in which longing could be embodied. How can we fail to recognise that this man's spirit in its entirety as he stands before us, is an actual living embodiment of that which dwells in the depths of the Soul, which we must trace back to something other than the life of earth if we wish to recognise it? Has not Heinrich Von Kleist described in the most significant manner what may live within a man (a description of which you will find at the very beginning of The Spiritual Guidance of Man and Mankind), as something transcending him and driving him, and which he will only understand later on if he does not snap the threads of his life before! Think of his ‘Penthesilea’; how much more there is in her than she can span with her earthly consciousness! We should not be able to describe her at all, did we not take for granted that her Soul was immeasurably further advanced than the narrow little soul (although it was a great one) which she could span with her earthly consciousness. Hence a situation must arise which artistically introduces the whole process of the Drama. Indeed, it was necessary to prevent the whole transaction—which Kleist introduces with Achilles—from being grasped with the higher consciousness; otherwise the whole tragedy could not be perceived. Hence Achilles is called ‘her’ Achilles. What lies in the higher consciousness must be plunged into the non-conscious. Again, what part does this subconsciousness play in Katchen Von Heilbronn, especially in the remarkable relation between her and Wetter Von Strahl, which plays no part in the higher consciousness, but in the deeper strata of the Soul where dwells the forces of which man knows nothing, which pass from one to another. When we have this before us we can trace the spiritual nature of the world's forces of gravity and attraction. For instance, in the scene where Katchen stands before her admirers, do we not feel what lives in the subconsciousness, and how it is related to what is outside in the world which has been dryly called the forces of our planet's attractions? Yet only 100 years ago a truly penetrating and striving mind was not able to find his way into that subconsciousness. But it must be done to-day. And the tragedy of a Prince of Homburg strikes us in a very different way now. I should like to know how an abstract thinker, one who accounts for everything by reason alone, could account for a figure such as the Prince of Homburg, who carried out all his great deeds in a kind of dream-state, even those leading finally to victory. Kleist indicates very clearly that he could not possibly gain the victory by means of his higher consciousness, for as far as that was concerned he was not a particularly great man, for he whines and whimpers over everything he has to do. Only when by a special effort of the will, he brings up what dwells in the depths of his Soul, does he play the man.

What still belongs to a man as heritage of the old Moon consciousness cannot be brought to the surface by abstract science, but by that science which has many sides, and can lay hold in a delicate and subtle way of spiritual contours: that is, Spiritual Science. The greatest unites itself with the mediocre and the ordinary.

Thus we see that Anthroposophy shows that the conditions we are experiencing in our Souls to-day are connected with the Cosmos, with the Universe. We see also, however, how that which we experience in the Soul to-day can alone provide us with an understanding of the spiritual foundation of things. We see, too, that our era had to come to satisfy what was yearned for in the age preceding our own, when men longed for what cannot be given until our age. We feel a kind of veneration for such men, who could not find their bearings as regards what they longed for in their hearts, and what the world could not give them. When we recollect that all human life is linked together, and that the man of to-day can devote his life to those spiritual movements which—as their destiny shows bygone men have so long desired—we cannot but feel a veneration for them. So, on the centenary of the tragic death of one who was consumed by that longing, we may in a sense point to Anthroposophy or Spiritual Science as being the redemption of mankind from that longing. This day may serve to remind us how tragically and stormily that which Anthroposophy is able to give us, has been desired and longed for. This is a thought that we may well take hold of, which perhaps is also theosophical, on the centenary of the death of one of the greatest German poets.

In a series of lectures the fact has now been brought home to us that behind all that we call Maya or the great illusion, there is the Spiritual. Let us once again ask ourselves in what way it has been made evident that the spiritual is to be discerned behind everything perceptible to our senses and our physically limited view.

In order to describe this spiritual essence we were obliged in the last lecture to sweep the nearest external phenomena away from our field of vision and pierce through to such qualities of the reality as those described as the willingness to sacrifice, and the virtue of bestowal or renunciation, in fact, to those virtues with which we can only become acquainted by looking into our own souls, and which we can only fully comprehend by means of our own souls. Now if we are really to attribute such virtues as these to what we have to think of as the reality—we might almost say the ‘true’—behind the world of illusion, we must admit that in this world of true existence, in this world of reality, there lives that which fundamentally, as regards its qualities, can only be compared with the qualities we primarily perceive in our souls. For instance if we have to characterise that which is outwardly expressed in the phenomena of heat, presenting it in its true character of sacrificial service, as the flowing sacrifice in the world, it means precisely that we must reduce the elements of heat back to the spiritual, to the incorporeal, doing away, as it were, with the outer veil of existence, showing that which in the external world is similar to what we recognise as the spiritual in ourselves.

Now before we carry these observations further, another idea is necessary. That is the following. Does all that we have in this world of Maya or illusion really vanish into a sort of nothingness? Is everything around us in this world of sense, the world of our external comprehension which to us appears as the real or part of the real—is all this actually nothing?

It would indeed be quite a good comparison if we were to say that the world of truth, the world of reality, is at first concealed, as the inner forces of a lake or even of the ocean are concealed in the body of water, and that the world of Maya might be compared with the rippling play of the waves on the surface. That would be a good comparison; for it shows exactly that there is in the depths of the ocean something that causes the movement of the waves above, something that is the substantiality of the water and the configuration of its force. So that whether we select this example or any other is a matter of indifference, we may very well put the question:--Is there in the wide realms of our Maya or illusion, anything that is real? In this lecture we shall follow the same system as in the last. We shall slowly approach what we wish to bring before our mind, by starting with the inner experience of our soul; and indeed, as we have moved forward spiritually through the Saturn, Sun and Moon-existence, and have now approached that of the earth, we shall start from more intimate, we might almost say more common soul-experience than those referred to in our last lecture. We then started from the hidden depths of the soul-life, from what arises in the astral body. There we felt longing arising within it, and we saw how the longing works in the nature of man, actually leading the life of the soul to find satisfaction only in the advance of that world of ideas which we have been able to grasp as the inner movement of that life. We thus found the way from the microcosmic soul to that cosmic creating which we ascribed to the Spirits of Movement. To-day we shall begin with a still more intimate experience of the soul, one indeed to which attention was already drawn in ancient Greece, which in its reality is even to-day of profound significance. It is indicated in the words: all philosophy, and all striving for a certain kind of human knowledge, must come from Wonder. This is really the case. Any man who has devoted a little reflection and thought to the whole sequence in experience in his own soul, as to how he was brought to any particular learning, will come to know that a sound way to learning is always to start from wonder, from astonishment at something. This wonder, this astonishment, from which every form of learning must proceed, belongs precisely to those experiences of the soul which we described as bringing sublimity and life into anything, however dry. What kind of learning would it be which found a place in our soul, without proceeding from wonder! It would truly be a learning swamped in prosiness and pedantry. That process in the soul which leads from wonder to the bliss we feel when our riddles are solved, which first arises from wonder, in that alone constitutes the sublimity and vital power of the process of acquiring knowledge. We should be able actually to feel the dryness and withering of any knowledge not originating in these two movements of the mind. Sound knowledge is framed in wonder and the bliss of solved riddles: Any other kind of knowledge may be acquired externally and established by man through any kind of reasoning. But a knowledge not framed by these two feelings, does not spring from the soul of man in real earnest. All the fragrance of knowledge created by the atmosphere of vital power, proceeds from these two, from wonder and the bliss of is satisfaction.

But what is the origin of wonder itself? Why is it that wonder, astonishment at anything external, arises in our souls? It arises, because, when we first meet with a being, a thing or a fact, it appears strange to us. This strangeness is the first element leading to wonder and astonishment. But we do not feel this for everything that is strange to us; but only for that to which we feel ourselves in a sense related, so related that we say: ‘In this being or thing there is something that is not as yet in me, but which may fill me.’ So that we can feel related to a thing yet strange, which at first we must grasp through wonder and astonishment, our inner ‘wondering’ is our perception of the quality of an outer ‘wonder’ to which a man at first as far as his own perception goes, considers himself in no wise related. That however depends on himself, or at least it need only do so. And he should not adopt a challenging attitude towards what appears to him as ‘a wonder’ unless he can in a certain way make claim to explain it because it is related to him. Why else should people who start from purely materialistic or purely intellectual concepts deny what others designate as a ‘wonder’, when they have no direct proof that a fabrication, a falsehood, is brought forward? Even philosophers to-day are obliged to admit that it can never be proved by any of the phenomena known to man, that the Christ incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth did not rise again. Proof can be brought against this assertion; but what is the manner of these proofs? Logically they are not tenable! Even enlightened philosophers now admit that. For all the reasons brought against it from the materialistic side—as for instance, the statement that no man has yet been seen to have risen like Christ—all these reasons are on the same level as the argument of a man who had never seen anything but fish and therefore wished to prove the non-existence of birds. It is impossible logically to prove by the existence of one class of beings, that others do not exist. Just as little is it possible through the experience a man may have on the physical plane to disprove, what must at first be described as a ‘miracle’, anything connected with the event of Golgotha. But if something is communicated to a person, which although it may be true, he must call a miracle and he says that he cannot understand it, he does not thereby contradict what we have said about the idea of wondering; for his attitude shows clearly that this fundamental basis of all knowledge is already established in him. He demands that what he has been told should find an echo in himself. He wishes it to become its own property intellectually and as he believes that he cannot have that, and it is not related to him, he challenges it. Even if we ourselves arrive at the concept of the miraculous, we should see that astonishment or marvel, upon which is based all the ancient Greek philosophy, is aroused by a man finding himself confronted with something strange to him, but to which at the same time he recognises a relationship. Let us try to create a connecting link between this idea and those brought before our minds in the last lecture.

We have said that a particular advance in evolution was brought about through the willingness of certain Beings to sacrifice, and their sacrifices being rejected and thrown back, and we learnt to recognise in the rejected sacrifice one of the principle factors in the ancient Moon-evolution. One of the most vital points in that evolution is the fact that during that period sacrifice was to be offered by certain Beings to Entities even more exalted, and that it was renounced by them; so that, as it were, the smoke of the sacrifice offered by the ancient Moon-Beings pressed through to the Higher Entities but was not accepted by them; and that this was sent back as substance into the Beings who had desired to offer it up. We also saw that much of the peculiar character of the Beings belonging to ancient Moon was caused by their feeling within them what they had wished to send up to the Higher Entities as sacrificial substance. We saw, indeed that this, which aspired, but was unable to ascend to the Higher Entities, remained behind within the Beings themselves—thereby was developed in certain Beings—in the Beings of the rejected, the force of Longing. We have still, in all that we sacrifice in our own souls as longing, a legacy from the bygone events on ancient Moon when those Beings found their sacrifice rejected. In a spiritual sense the whole character of the ancient Moon-evolution, its whole spiritual atmosphere, may be described in many respects by saying that Beings were present there who desired to offer sacrifice, but found that this sacrifice was not accepted because the Higher Entities resigned it. The peculiar feature of the spiritual atmosphere of ancient Moon was; the rejected sacrifice. And the rejection of the sacrifice offered by Cain, which symbolically represents one of the starting points of the evolution of earthly humanity, appears as a kind of recapitulation of this peculiar feature of the ancient Moon evolution taking place in the soul of Cain, who sees that his sacrifice is not accepted. This is something which reveals to us a pain, which gives birth to Longing, just as was the case with the Beings belonging to the old Moon-existence. We saw in the last lecture, that between this rejected sacrifice and the longing arising in these beings through its rejection, an adjustment was produced through the appearances on the old Moon of the Spirits of Movement. They created a possible way by which the longing arising in the Entities of the rejected sacrifice, could in a sense be satisfied. You must picture the position very clearly in your minds. You have the exalted Beings to whom sacrifice is about to be made; the substance offered in sacrifice to them rejected; and the longing thereby arising within the Beings who desired to offer and now feel: ‘Had I been able to accomplish my sacrifice, the best part of my own being would be living in those exalted ones; but now lam shut out from them, I am here while they are yonder!’ The Spirits of Movement, however, and this can be taken almost literally, bring the Beings in whom the rejected sacrifice is as a longing after the Higher Beings, into such a condition that they can approach them from many different sides. That which remains in them as the sacrifice which could not be offered, can at any rate now be adjusted, through the wealth of impressions received from the Higher Beings, who are as it were, encircled by the substance of the rejected sacrifice. So is adjusted what could not be harmonised, because of the rejection of the sacrifice, inasmuch as a relation is established between these beings and the Higher Entities which conveyed the impression of a presented sacrifice. We can form a clear idea of what this implies, if we think symbolically of the more exalted Entities united as a Sun, and then, in one position, as a planet, the less exalted gathered together. Now suppose that the Beings of the lesser planet wished to make sacrifice to the greater planet—to the Sun [Editor's Note: The Sun was once a planet]—and that the Sun refused to accept it and threw it back; the substance of the sacrifice must remain in the Beings whose sacrifice was not accepted. Then in their loneliness, their isolation fills their Being with longing. Now the Spirits of Movement bring them into the periphery of the more exalted Entities; this makes it first possible for them, hi place of the direct upward flow of their sacrificial substance, to set that substance itself in motion and thereby to bring it into connection with the Higher Entities. This is exactly like a man who cannot be contented within himself by means of a single great satisfaction, but experiences a number of partial satisfactions; the result of these different experiences being to set all his feelings in motion. This was gone into more minutely in the last lecture. We saw that as the Beings were unable to feel an inner connection with the Higher Beings through the sacrifice, impressions came to them outside in the place of this, by which we saw that they were still able to obtain a certain satisfaction.

But it is an undeniable fact that that which was to have been offered up would have continued its existence within the Higher Entities in a different fashion from its state within the lower Beings. The actual conditions necessary to that existence are in those Higher Beings. It became necessary, therefore, for different conditions of existence to arise in the lower Beings. This again can be symbolically expressed. If a planet were able to pour all its contents into the Sun and these were not rejected, the essence of that planet would find different conditions of existence within the Sun from those it would have met with in the planet outside if the Sun had thrown it back: an estrangement of what we must call the contents of the sacrifice takes place, it is alienated from its origin.

Now bear in mind the thought that certain Beings are compelled to retain within them something which they would gladly have offered up in sacrifice, and concerning which they both feel and perceive that it could only attain its real meaning, if it could be offered up.

If you can picture the feelings of such Beings, you will have an idea of what may be called: ‘The exclusion of a certain number of Cosmic Beings from their actual meaning, their great Cosmic purpose.’ Certain Beings have within them something, which, speaking symbolically, could only fulfil its purpose elsewhere. The consequence of this is that the ‘displacement’—if we may once more speak symbolically—of the rejected incense, of the rejected sacrificial substance, excludes it at first from the rest of the Cosmic process.

If you grasp these thoughts with your feeling—not with your reason, for that does not extend to matters such as these—you will perceive that this represents something like a rending away from the universal Cosmic process. To the Beings who rejected the sacrifice it is only something they put away from them; to the other Beings, those within whom the sacrificial substance is retained, this is a something on which an alien character is imprinted from the outset. Thus there are Beings in whose substance this alien stamp is imprinted from the beginning. If we can present these things to our soul through inner feeling, we are reminded of something in which an alien character is inherent from the beginning:—that is Death! Death is none other than that which necessarily enters the universe with the rejection of the sacrificial substance of those Beings who then had to retain it within themselves. Thus we advance from Resignation, from Renunciation—which we encounter at the third stage of evolution; to that which comes into existence through the renunciation by the Higher Entities of Death.

In its true significance death is neither more nor less than the attribute of the inner contents of certain Beings, contents which are shut out and not in their proper place. Even when death comes to a man in a concrete form it is fundamentally the same thing. For when we look at a corpse left behind in the world of Maya, we know that it consists of nothing but matter which at the moment of death, was shut out from the Ego, astral body, and etheric body, alienated from that within which alone it had a meaning. The physical body without the etheric body, astral body, and Ego has no meaning, it is purposeless; at that moment it is excluded from its purpose. That which we can no longer perceive when a man dies, is then for us in the macrocosm. On account of the Cosmic Beings who belong to higher spheres having rejected what was to have been brought to them in sacrifice, the rejected sacrificial substance within the Beings to whom it was thrown back lapses into death, for death signifies the exclusion of any Cosmic substance or Cosmic Being from its actual purpose.

We have now come to a spiritual characteristic of what we call the fourth element in the Universe. If (1) fire represents the purest sacrifice—and where-ever we encounter fire or heat, behind it there is its spiritual counterpart: Sacrifice—if (2) behind all the air spread out around our earth there really lies the virtue of giving, a really flowing virtue; if (3) we may describe flowing water or the element of fluidity as spiritual resignation or renunciation, so must we describe the element of Earth, (4) which alone can be the bearer of death—for death would not exist without it—as that which was severed from its purpose by renunciation. Now we have something in a concrete form, showing how the solid was formed from the fluidic. For this too reflects a spiritual process, in a certain sense. Suppose ice forms in a pond; the water then becomes solid. The real reason of this is that the water in becoming ice is cut off from its purpose. This gives us the process of solidification, the spiritual process of the Earth's becoming; for as far as the distinguishing marks of the four elements are concerned, ice too is earth, and fluid alone is water. Earth is the element in which death appears and may be experienced.

We began by putting the question as to whether anything real could be found in our world of illusion and Maya, whether there is anything in it corresponding to a reality. I want you to hold clearly to the idea we have just been considering. At the beginning of this course I told you that the concepts to be considered were somewhat complicated. It will therefore be necessary that we should not only try to understand them, but also to meditate upon them; for only then will they be clear to us. Now let us take this conception of the relation of death to the earth; for it presents a truly remarkable aspect. Whereas concerning all our other concepts we could say that there was nothing real in all the world of Maya around us, but that the reality must be looked for in the spiritual behind it—we have now ascertained that within the world of Maya there is that, which, precisely because it is divided from its purpose, because it ought to be in the spiritual world may be called death. Thus something is cut off in Maya, which actually ought not to be there. In the whole wide realm of Maya or the great illusion, we have nothing but deception and illusion before us. Yet there is something there which corresponds to a reality, because it is cut off from its true meaning in the spiritual; and as soon as it enters Maya it encounters annihilation and death. That declares to us nothing less significant than the great occult truth: ‘In the whole world of Maya one thing only shows itself in its reality—Death!’ All other phenomena must be traced back to their reality; all other phenomena entering into Maya have reality behind them; death is the single reality in Maya for it consists in the fact that something was cut off from reality and taken into Maya. That is why death is the one and only reality in Maya. And now if we turn from the universal Maya to the great principles of the world, a very important and essential consequence of this statement presents itself to occult science from yet another side, that in our world of Maya, Death is the only reality. We can begin by considering the beings of the other kingdoms surrounding us. We may ask: do minerals die? To the occultist there could be no sense in saying that minerals die. It would he just the same as saying that our fingernails die when we cut them. The finger-nail is nothing which s complete being has claim to existence; but it is part of us, and when we/cut it off we separate it from ourselves, tear it away from the life it has in connection with us. In reality it dies only when we ourselves die. In the same sense, according to occult science, the minerals do not die. They are merely members of one great organism, just as a finger-nail is a member of our own, and although a mineral may appear to perish, it is in reality only severed from this great organism, just as the piece of finger-nail is severed from our organism when we trim it off. The destruction of a mineral is no death for the mineral has no life in itself, but only in the great organism of which it is a member. The plant as such is not independent; it is a member—not of one great organism, like the mineral—but of the whole organism of the earth. To occult observation there would be no sense in speaking of individual plant-organisms, only of the organism of the earth of which the plants everywhere form part. And when we put them to death it is just as when we cut away one of our finger-nails. We cannot say that the finger-nail has died. Just as little can we say that of the plants; for they belong to a great organism that is identical with the whole earth, and that is an organism which falls asleep in spring, sending forth the plants as its organ towards the Sun; and in Autumn it takes them back into itself when it gathers their seeds into itself. There is no sense in considering the plants as independent, for the whole earth organism does not die when its separate plants fade—just as we ourselves do not die when our hair goes grey, although we cannot restore it its natural colour even if we dye it.

We are, however, in a different position from the plants. But the earth may in this respect be compared to a man who could restore his grey hair to its natural colour. The earth does not die; what is observed in the fading of the plants is a process that takes place on the surface. So we can never say that the plants really die. And even of the animals we cannot actually say that they die, as we die. For in reality a separate animal does not exist; what really exists is its group-soul, which is in the super-sensible world. The reality of the animals is only to be found on the astral plane as group-soul, and the individual animal is condensed out of that. The death of an animal means the casting off a member of the group-soul, which replaces it by another.

Thus what we encounter at death in the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms is only apparent death, only in the world of Maya is that ‘death’. In reality man alone dies, for he has developed his individuality so far that it descends into his physical body, in which during the earth-existence he must become real. In reality death has only meaning for the Earth-existence of man.

If we grasp this we must say: Man alone can truly experience death. Thus for man there is, as we learn through occult research, a real overcoming of death, a real victory over death. For every other being death is only apparent, and does not in reality exist. If again we were to ascend higher—from man to the Beings of the Higher Hierarchies—we should find that they do not know death in the human sense; so that in reality actual death, that is death on the physical plane, comes only to those beings who have to acquire something on that plane. Now man has to acquire his ego-consciousness there. Without death he could never find it. Neither with respect to the beings below man in rank, nor to those higher than man, is there any meaning in speaking of actual death. But on the other hand as regards the Being whom we call the ‘Christ-Being’ it must clearly be impossible to obliterate his most significant earth deed. For indeed we have seen that the most essential event to be considered in connection with the Christ-Being is the Mystery of Golgotha; that is, the conquest of death by life. But where can this conquest of death alone be accomplished? Can it be accomplished in the higher worlds? No! For even as regards the lower beings referred to as the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms—as they have their beings in the higher, super-sensible worlds—we cannot speak of death. And in the course of our studies this winter we shall further show that neither among the Higher Beings can there be a question of death; only of change, metamorphosis, transformation. Only with regard to man can we speak of the incision into life that we call ‘death.’ Man can only experience this death on the physical plane. If man had never descended to the physical plane, he would know nothing of death; for no being who has not trodden the physical plane knows anything about death. In other worlds there is no such thing as that which we call death, nothing but transformation, metamorphosis. Would Christ undergo death He must descend to the physical plane! There alone could He experience it.

Thus we see that even in the historical development of man, the realities of the higher worlds play their part in Maya, in a remarkable way. Whereas concerning every other historical event we can only interpret it correctly by saying: ‘This historical event took place here on the physical plane, but the cause of it is up above in the spiritual world, we must look for that’; we cannot say of the event of Golgotha, ‘this event is here below on the physical plane and something corresponding to it exists in the higher worlds’. Christ Himself belongs to the higher worlds and came down to the physical plane. But there is no prototype above of what was accomplished on Golgotha, such as we must look for with respect to other historical events. That was enacted on the physical plane alone! Among the many proofs of this fact which occult science is able to provide, is the following: That the event of Damascus will, in the course of the next three thousand years, as we have often said, be renewed for an ample multitude of mankind. This means, that capacities will be developed in man which will enable him to perceive the Christ as an etheric figure of the astral plane, as Paul saw Him on the road to Damascus. The event on of man gradually becoming able to perceive the Christ by means of the higher faculties which will be developed in the next three thousand years, has its beginnings in the 20th century. From now on these capacities will gradually spread, and in the course of that span of time a vast number of persons will know, by personal vision into the higher worlds, that Christ is a reality; that He lives; they will learn to know Him in the life He lives now. And not only will they know the nature of His present life, but they will also be convinced just as Paul was—that He died, and rose again. But the foundation for this cannot be laid in the higher worlds: it must be laid on the physical plane. Thus if anyone comes to have an understanding of these things, if even at the present time he understands that the development of Christ Himself is progressing—and that at the same time certain human capacities are also developing, if his understanding of modern Anthroposophy has taught him this, then there is nothing to prevent him, when he has passed through the portal of death, from taking part in this event when it actually appears as a first shining forth of Christ in the world of man. So that a man who prepares himself in his physical body to-day for this event, may be able to experience it in the intermediate life, between death and re-birth. But those who do not prepare for it, who acquire no understanding in this incarnation, will, in the life immediately following this—the life between death and re-birth--know nothing of what is taking place with respect to the Christ for the next three thousand years from our present century. They will have to wait until they are again incarnated and then make necessary preparations on the earth. The death at Golgotha, which is enacted on earth as the origin of all the subsequent Christ development can only be understood in the physical body. Of all the facts important to our higher life, this alone is comprehensible in the physical body. It is then further developed and perfected in the higher worlds, but we must first have understood it while in the physical body. Just as the Mystery of Golgotha could never have taken place in the higher worlds and has no prototype there, but is an event which—since it includes death--is confined to the physical plane, so, too must the comprehension of it be acquired on this plane. Indeed, it is one of the tasks of man on earth to acquire this understanding first in some one of his incarnations.

So that we must say: we have found pre-eminently on the physical plane something which displays an undeniable reality, a direct truth. What then is real on the physical plane? On the physical plane so that we can stand by it, we have a reality, death—death in the world of man, not in the other kingdoms of nature. When we wish to study the historical events that occur in the course of the earth's development, we must look for a spiritual prototype for each one of them—but not for the Mystery of Golgotha! There we have something which in itself directly belongs to the world of Reality!

Now it is extremely interesting that another aspect of what has just been said, can also be seen. It is really remarkably significant to observe that this event of Golgotha as a real event is to-day denied, and that people say—speaking of external history—that it cannot be proved by any historical connection. Among vital historical facts there is hardly one so difficult to prove on external realistic, historical grounds, as the Mystery of Golgotha. Just think how easy it is in comparison with this to work on historical ground if we wish to prove the existence of a Socrates, a Plato, or any of the Greek heroes, in so far as they were of significance to the progress of man in the external world, and how up to a certain point it is perfectly justifiable to say that ‘no history can assert that there ever was a Jesus of Nazareth!’ This statement cannot be contradicted historically! This cannot be dealt with like other historical facts. It is very remarkable that this Event, which occurred on the external physical plane, has this in common with all super-sensible facts: they cannot be ‘proved’. Much the same people who deny the existence of a super-sensible world lack the capacity for grasping this fact, which is not super-sensible. Its existence can be surmised by its effects. But, these people think that effects such as these might also appear, even without the real event having occurred in history; and they attribute these effects to sociological relations. To one who knows the inner course of the world's development, the idea that effects such as these produced by Christianity could be brought about without having a power behind them, is just as wise as it would be to say cabbages could grow in a field without having been sown there I Indeed we might go yet further, and admit that it was not possible for those who took part in the final shaping of the Gospels to prove, the historical event of the Mystery of Golgotha—as historical event—on historical grounds! For it took place leaving hardly any trace perceptible to outer observation. Do you know how those who took part in the later compiling of the Gospels convinced themselves as to these events, with the exception of the writer of the John-Gospel, who was an immediate contemporary? They could not above all convince themselves by historical documents, for they had nothing but oral traditions and the Mystery-Books, as is set forth in Christianity as a Mystical Fact. They were able to convince themselves of the actual existence of Christ Jesus by the constellations, for they were then still very learned as to the connection between the Macrocosm and the Microcosm. They knew how to set up a map of the heavens for that point of the world's history (as can still be done to-day); and they concluded: if the stars were in such and such a position, then He whom they call the Christ must have lived on earth at that time. In this very way the writers of the Gospel of Matthew, Mark and Luke convinced themselves of the historical happenings; they obtained the rest clairvoyantly. But first they convinced themselves in the same way as we can make sure to-day that any particular event will happen on the earth; by the position of the constellations in the Macrocosm. Anyone who knows anything of this cannot but believe in them. It is a fruitless task to prove the inaccuracy of what is brought against the historical status of the Gospels. Rather should we, as anthroposophists, understand that we must take a very different stand: one which is only possible through an insight into occult science.

With reference to this I should just like to mention a point I already endeavoured to establish elsewhere. That is, that the realities of which Anthroposophy speaks cannot be injured by any objections, however correct these may be in themselves; no matter how correctly people may argue from the knowledge they themselves may possess. Anthroposophy cannot be contradicted. In the lecture I gave here, entitled: ‘How can Theosophy be established?’ I made use of the example of the little boy in a village whose duty it was to fetch rolls for the family breakfast. Now in that village each roll cost two kreuzers and he was always given ten kreuzers. The baker gave him a number of rolls, and being no great arithmetician, he did not trouble to count them, but brought them home. But a foster-son entered the family and was sent for the rolls instead of the other boy. This lad was a good reckoner and he said to himself: ‘I have been given ten kreuzers, each roll costs two kreuzers, therefore I must bring home five rolls’; off he went, bringing back six rolls. He said to himself: ‘This must be wrong, I ought not to have so many, and as my reckoning is correct, tomorrow I must only bring back five rolls’. The next day he took the ten kreuzers, and again he received six rolls. The reckoning was correct—only it did not correspond with the reality; for that was a different matter. The reality was that it was the custom in that place to give six rolls instead of five to anyone who spent ten kreuzers. The boy's argument was quite correct; but did not accord with reality.

In like manner the cleverest thought-out objections to Anthroposophy may all agree with each other, yet need have nothing to do with the reality; for ‘reality’ may be based on very different foundations. The example quoted is quite practical, and serves to explain, even scientifically, what is correctly calculated, and what is actual fact.

We have tried to trace the world of Maya back to the realities and in doing so we have shewn that all Fire is sacrifice, everything of the nature of Air is the generous flowing virtue of giving, and Fluid the results of renunciation and resignation. To these three truths we have to-day added the fact that the true essence of the earth or solid matter is death, like the cutting off of any substance from its cosmic purpose. Because this has occurred death itself has entered the world of Maya or illusion as a reality. Even the Gods themselves could not taste death at all without descent into the physical world in order to comprehend death in the physical world, the world of Maya, or illusion. This is what I wished to add to-day to the concepts we have already formed. But once more let it be said that if we wish to arrive at a clear understanding of these concepts which are so necessary, and if we are thoroughly to enter into the various ideas in St. Mark's Gospel, the only possible way of doing so is by careful meditation and by bringing these things again and again before the soul. The Gospel of St. Mark can only be understood if based on the greatest and most significant cosmic conceptions.

If we wish to pursue the studies we carried on in our lectures last year, it will be necessary to acquire still other concepts and views than those that have so far been discussed. We know that what we have to say about the Gospels and other spiritual documents of humanity would not suffice if we did not pre-suppose the evolution of our whole cosmic system, which we describe as the embodiments of our planet itself, through the Saturn-existence the Sun-existence, the Moon-existence on to our present Earth-existence. Anyone who recollects how often we have had to start from these fundamental conceptions will know how necessary they are for all occult observations of human evolution. If you now turn to the accounts given, for instance, in my Occult Science about Saturn, Sun and Moon evolution, to that of the Earth, you will admit that nothing but a sketch could be given (indeed even if it were much more amplified it would still be no more), nothing but a sketch from one side, from one point of view. For just as the Earth-existence comprises an infinite wealth of detail, it is quite obvious that the former embodiments are equally detailed, and that it would never be possible to give more than a merely rough charcoal drawing, just an outline of these. It is, however, necessary for us to describe evolution from yet another side.

If it be asked, whence arise all the accounts given here, we know that they arise from the so-called entries in the Akashic Record. We know that what has once taken place in the course of the world's evolution is in a sense to be read as though registered in a delicate spiritual substance, the Akashic substance. There is a register there of everything that has taken place, by which we can discover how things once were. Now it is natural that just as the ordinary vision, contemplating anything of our physical world, sees the details of objects in its vicinity more or less clearly, and that the further away they are the less clear do they appear, so we may also admit that those things that are near us in time, belonging to the Earth or the Moon evolutions can be more minutely observed; while on the other hand those further removed from us in time take on more or less indistinct outlines—as for instance when we look back clairvoyantly into the Saturn or Sun existence.

Why do we do this at all, why do we set value on following up an age so far behind our own? It might well be objected: for what reason do students of Spiritual Science bring up such primeval subjects for discussion at the present day? We really do not need to trouble ourselves about these ancient matters, we have quite enough to do with what is going on now in the world!

It would be wrong to speak in this way. For what has once happened is fulfilling itself continuously even at the present day. What occurred in the time of Saturn did not only take place then—it goes on even to-day; only it is covered over and made invisible by what to-day surrounds man on the physical plane. And the ancient Saturn-existence which played its part so long ago, has been made utterly invisible to us; but it still somewhat concerns man even now, this old Saturn-existence. And in order that we may form a conception of how it concerns us to-day, let us place the following before our souls.

We know that the innermost core of our being meets us in what we call our Ego. This ego, the innermost core of our being, is, in reality, for people of the present day an absolutely super-sensible and imponderable entity. This can be seen in the fact that there are to-day teachings regarding the soul, so-called official psychologies which no longer have the slightest inkling that such an ego is to be alluded to. I have often drawn your attention to the fact that in the German psychology of the nineteenth century the following expression has come into use: “Soul-teaching without soul.” In the celebrated School of Wundt, which is considered decisive not only in German countries, but everywhere where psychology is discussed, it is mentioned with great respect. This school was well known for the “soul-teaching without soul” although it did not coin the expression. This teaching insisted, without taking an independent soul-being into consideration, that all the qualities of the soul are gathered into a sort of focus—into the ego. It would be impossible to think of greater nonsense, yet the psychology of the present day is absolutely under the influence of this nonsense. This “soul-teaching without soul” is to-day famous throughout the world. Future writers on the history of civilisation will have much to do to make it appear plausible to our successors that in the nineteenth century and well on into the twentieth it was possible that such a thought could have arisen as the greatest production of the psychological field. This is only mentioned to point out how vague is official psychology respecting what we designate as the central point of the human being.

If we could have a clear grasp of the ego and place it before us like the external physical body; if we could look for the environment upon which the ego depends in the same way as the physical body is dependent upon what is seen by the eyes and perceived by the senses—if we could look for the environment of the ego in the same way as we do for that of the physical realm, in the clouds, mountains, etc., or, in the same way as the physical body does for its means of nourishment, we should come even to-day to an expression of the cosmos, to a cosmic tableau in which, as it were, our environment is imprinted invisibly and which is similar to the cosmic tableau of ancient Saturn. This means that a man who wishes to learn to know the ego in its own world must represent to himself a world such as ancient Saturn. This world is hidden; to man it is a super-sensible world. At the present stage of his evolution man could not possibly bear the perception of it. It is veiled by the Guardian of the Threshold Who conceals it from him. And it requires a certain grade of spiritual development to support such a vision. It is indeed a vision to which we must first become accustomed. And above all you must form a conception of what is necessary, to be able to feel such a cosmic tableau as reality. You must think away everything that can be perceived by the senses, you must even think away your own inner world, in so far as this consists of the wonted working of the mind. Further you must think away from everything that is in the world, all the concepts you have within you. Thus you must remove from the external world all that the senses can perceive, and from the inner world all the workings of the mind, all conceptions. And now, if you wish to form an idea of that soul-disposition which a man must have if he really holds the thought that everything is taken away and man alone remains, we cannot say otherwise than that he must learn to feel dread and fear of the infinite emptiness yawning around us. He must be able to feel, as it were, his environment tinged and saturated with that which inspires dread and fear wherever he turns, and at the same time he must be able to overcome this fear by inner firmness and certainty.

Without these two frames of mind—dread and fear of the infinite emptiness of existence and the overcoming of this fear—it is impossible to have the faintest conception of the ancient Saturn-existence underlying our own world. Neither of these feelings is much cultivated by people in themselves. Hence, even in literature we find but few descriptions of this condition. It is naturally known to those who in course of time endeavour to seek the origin of things by means of clairvoyant forces. In external literature, however, whether written or printed, you will find but few indications of man having felt anything like the dread of the infinite emptiness or the overcoming of this. In order to obtain a sort of insight into this, I have tried to investigate some of the more modern literature where the consciousness of this dread of the immeasurable emptiness might be found. The philosophers are as a rule extremely clever and speak in clear concepts—they avoid speaking of the mighty, awe-inspiring impressions; it will not be easy to find anything of the sort in their writings. Now I shall not speak of those in which I have found nothing. But I once found one small echo of these feelings, and this was in the diary of Karl Rosenkrantz, the writer on Hegel, in which he sometimes describes intimate feelings produced in him by engrossing himself in the Hegel philosophy. I came upon a remarkable passage, which is simply expressed and noted in his diary. It had become clear to Karl Rosenkrantz that this philosophy proceeds from pure being. This “pure being “of Hegel is much discussed in philosophical literature of the nineteenth century—but we must say that it was very little understood. We might almost say (though, of course, this can only be said in the most intimate circles) that the philosophy of the second half of the nineteenth century understood just as little of the “pure being “of Hegel as the ox understands of Sunday, when he has eaten grass all the week. This concept of the “pure being” of Hegel is one that has been sifted again and again (not existing but Absolute Being); it is a concept which indeed is not quite what I have described as the dreadful emptiness into which flows fear. But all space in Hegel's sense is tinged with the quality containing nothing that can be experienced by man; it is infinity filled with “being.” Karl Rosenkrantz once felt this to be as a dreadful shuddering recoil from a coldness, tinged with nothing but “being.”

In order to understand what underlies the world it does not suffice to speak of it in concepts, or to form concepts and ideas on it; it is far more necessary to call up an impression of the feeling aroused by the infinite emptiness of the ancient Saturn-existence. A feeling of horror accompanies the mere hint of it. If we wish to ascend clairvoyantly to the state of Saturn, we must prepare ourselves by acquiring a feeling, more or less known to everyone, that may be compared to the giddiness experienced on a mountain, when a man stands at the edge of an abyss and feels that he has no sure footing under him, that he cannot retain it in any place and wants to give way to forces over which he has no longer any control. But that is only the most elementary of these apprehensive feelings. For he loses not only the ground beneath him, but also what eyes can see, ears hear and hands grasp; in fact all spatial environment. And he can do no other than lose every thought that may come to him, in a sort of condition of dimness or sleep; and then he can arrive at having no perception at all. He may be so deeply absorbed in this impression that he can do no other than come to the condition of dread, which often is like a giddiness not to be overcome.

Man of to-day has two possibilities. The first is that he may have understood the Gospels, or the Mystery of Golgotha. Anyone who has really understood these in their full depths—naturally not as modern theologians speak of them, but in such a way that he has drawn from them the deepest that can be expressed in them—will take something with him into that emptiness, which seems to expand from a given point and fills emptiness with something similar to courage. It is a feeling of courage, of protection through being united with that Being Who accomplished the sacrifice on Golgotha. The other way is to penetrate into the spiritual worlds without the Gospels through a genuine true Spiritual Science or Anthroposophy. This is also possible. (You know that we emphasise the fact that we do not start from the Gospels when we consider the Mystery of Golgotha, but that we should arrive at it even if there were no Gospels at all.) That would not have been possible before the Mystery of Golgotha took place; but it is the case to-day, because something entered the world through the Mystery of Golgotha which enables a man to understand the impressions of the spiritual world directly through his own impressions. This is what we call the ruling of the Holy Spirit in the world, the ruling of cosmic thought in the world. Whether we take one or the other of these with us, we cannot lose ourselves and we cannot, so to say, fall into the bottomless abyss when we stand before the dreadful emptiness. If we now approach this dreadful emptiness with the other preparations given us by the various methods, for instance, those in my book, The Knowledge of Higher Worlds, etc., and other methods dependent on these—and enter a world born from that which can shake our minds, which can seize upon our conceptions, when we live into that world, when we place ourselves, so to say, in the Saturn-existence, then we learn to know Beings—not in the least similar to those we perceive in the animal, plant or mineral kingdoms but Beings. This is a world where there are no clouds, no light, where it is quite devoid of sound, but we become acquainted with Beings—indeed those Beings called in our terminology Spirits of Will or Thrones. We learn so to know them that it becomes a true objective reality for us—a surging sea of courage.

What at first can only be pictured in thought, becomes through clairvoyance, objective reality. Think of yourself as immersed in this sea—but now immersed as a spiritual being, feeling one with the Christ-Being, carried by the Christ-Being, swimming—though not in a sea of water but in a sea filling infinite space, a sea (there is no other description for it) of flowing courage, flowing energy. This is not simply a uniform and undifferentiated sea, but we meet here with all the possibilities and diversities of what we call a feeling of courage. We become acquainted with beings who, to be sure, consist of courage, but although they consist of courage alone, we meet them as really concrete beings. Naturally it may appear strange to say that we meet beings just as real as man who is made of flesh, and yet they are not of flesh but consist of courage. Yet such is the case. Of such a nature are the Spirits of Will. To begin with, we shall only designate as Saturn-existence what the Spirits of Will, consisting of courage, represent—and nothing else. This, in the first place is “Saturn.” It is a world of which we cannot say that it is spherical, hexagonal or square. None of these definitions of space applies to it, for there is no possibility of any end being discoverable. If we revert to the simile of swimming, we may say it is not a sea in which one would come to any surface, but on all sides and in all directions are to be found Spirits of Courage or Will.

In later lectures I shall describe how we do not at once come to this: for the present I will keep to the same order as formerly: Saturn—Sun—Moon; though it is much better to keep to the reverse direction, from Earth to Saturn. I am now describing the other way round, but it is of no importance.

When we have lifted ourselves to this vision, something meets us of which it is extremely difficult to form an idea, except for one who has taken the trouble, slowly and gradually to attain to such conceptions. For something ceases, which is more intimately connected with our ordinary human ideas than anything else: space ceases! It no longer has any meaning to say—we swim “up or “down,” “forward “or “backward,” “right or left,” these have no longer any meaning. In this respect it is everywhere the same. But the important thing is when we reach these first ages of the Saturn-existence time, too, ceases; there is no longer “earlier “or “later.” It is naturally very difficult for man to imagine this to-day, because his ideas themselves flow in time. On Saturn no thought is before or after another. This again can only be described by a feeling that time ceases. This feeling is certainly not pleasant. Imagine that your concepts are benumbed, that everything that you can remember, everything which you undertake is benumbed into a rigid rod, so that you feel yourself held in your conceptions and are no longer able to move, then you will no longer be able to say that what you formerly experienced you experienced “formerly”; you are fastened to it; it is there, but it is benumbed: time ceases to be of significance, it is absolutely no longer there. On this account it is rather foolish for anyone to say: “you describe the Saturn-existence, the Sunexistence, etc., now tell us what was before Saturn.” “Before” has no longer any meaning because time ceases to exist; we must also cease all definitions of time. In the old Saturn-existence, speaking very comparatively—the world is really boarded up, inasmuch as thought must stand absolutely still. It is the same with clairvoyance, ordinary thoughts must be left behind, they do not extend so far. By way of a comparison and expressing it in image, we must say that our brain is frozen. And when we realise this condition of rigidity, we shall have a comparative conception of the consciousness no longer enclosed in time.

Now when we have got as far as this we become aware of a remarkable alteration in the whole picture. It can now be observed that out of this rigidity, this timeless character of the infinite sea of courage with its Beings whom we call the Spirits of Will, come the Beings of other Hierarchies, as though striking into it and playing into it. We can only notice that other Beings here play into it when we become aware of the cessation of time. We notice an indefinite experience of which we cannot say that we ourselves experience it, but that it is there. We can only say that it is within the whole infinite sea of courage. We observe something passing through this like a flashing-up, like a becoming lighter, but not a real illumination, more like a glimmer. This glimmer does not give the impression of a glimmering light, but as we must understand these things in various ways and we desire to make this comprehensible, we must imagine the following: Suppose a man says something to you and you think, “how clever he is!” and as he talks on further, this feeling increases and the thought comes: “he is really wise, he must have had endless experience, to say such wise things.” ... Besides this feeling, the person makes an impression upon you like a breath of enchantment. Imagine this breath of enchantment enormously enhanced—and within it clouds, which do not flash up but glimmer; if you take this altogether you will have a conception of how Beings consisting entirely of Wisdom interact with the hierarchy of the Spirits of Will. Their Wisdom is not Wisdom alone, but streams which are actively radiant. In short, you then obtain clairvoyantly the conception of what the Cherubim are. The Cherubim play into it.

Now imagine yourself surrounded by nothing but what I have described. I have already said, and have laid certain stress upon it, that we cannot say of it: “we have it around us,” we can only say, “it is there.” We must think ourselves into this. And concerning the conception that something is there flashing up, I said it was not a flash but a glimmering. It is not as though something arose and vanished again; everything is simultaneous. Now, however, the feeling comes that there is some connection between these Spirits of Will and the Cherubim. The feeling comes to us that they have established a relationship to one another; we become conscious of this. And indeed we become conscious that the Spirits of Will or Thrones sacrifice their own being to the Cherubim. That is the last conception to which we can attain when we approach Saturn in retrospect, that of the sacrificing Spirits of Will offering their sacrifice to the Cherubim. There the world is ‘boarded up’. And inasmuch as we can experience the sacrifice that the Spirits of Will make to the Cherubim, something looses itself from our being. This we can express by saying: through the sacrifice made by the Spirits of Will to the Cherubim, time is born. But “time” here is not the abstract time of which we usually speak, but independent being. We can now first speak of something that begins. Time begins with the birth of time-beings--whose nature is pure time. Beings are born consisting only of time. These are the Spirits of Personality, known to us as Archai in the hierarchy of spiritual beings. In the Saturn-existence they are nothing but time. We have also described them as Time-Spirits, as Spirits who rule time. But there they are born as spirits, they are really beings consisting of nothing but time.

To take part in this sacrifice of the Spirits of Will to the Cherubim, and in the birth of time is something of extraordinary importance. For it is only now, when time is born, that something else appears—something that makes it possible for us to speak of the Saturn condition as having anything in the least similar to our environment. What we call the element of warmth in Saturn is, as it were, the sacrificial smoke of the Thrones giving birth to time. Hence I have always said, in describing the Saturn-condition, that it was one of warmth. Of all the elements we have around us now, the only one we can speak of as being on ancient Saturn is warmth. And this warmth arises as sacrificial heat offered by the Spirits of Will to the Cherubim. This should give us an indication of how we should really look upon fire. Where-ever we see fire, wherever we feel warmth, we should not think in so materialistic a fashion as is natural and usual to the man of to-day. But wherever we see and feel warmth appear we should feel that what is at the spiritual foundation of our life is present, though it is still invisible, namely the sacrifice of the Spirits of Will to the Cherubim. The world only acquires its truth when we know that behind every development of heat, there is sacrifice.

In Occult Science, in order not to shock people outside unduly, I have begun by describing the more external condition of ancient Saturn. They are quite shocked enough by this, and people who can only think in accordance with modern science look upon the book as pure nonsense. Just think what it would mean if we were to say, “Ancient Saturn has in its innermost being—in its very foundation—this fact, that the beings belonging to the Spirits of Will offered sacrifice to the Cherubim, that in the smoke of their sacrifice time came to birth as the sacrifice they brought to the Cherubim, and that from this have proceeded the Archai, the Time-Spirits, and that external heat is nothing but a maya as compared with the sacrifice of the Spirits of Will!” But so it is. Externally heat is really only a maya. And if we wish to speak truly we must say that wherever there is heat we have in reality sacrifice, sacrifice of the Thrones to the Cherubim.

And now an excellent “imagination” is the following: In Knowledge of Higher Worlds and elsewhere it is frequently said that the second stage of Rosicrucian initiation is the forming of imagination. The Anthroposophist must build up these imaginations from the right conceptions of the world. Thus we can think of what we have discussed to-day as transformed into an “imagination “: we can imagine the Thrones, the Spirits of Will, kneeling in absolute devotion before the Cherubim, but so that their devotion does not proceed from a feeling of littleness but from a consciousness that they have something to offer. Imagine the Thrones, with this desire of sacrifice founded upon their strength and courage as kneeling before the Cherubim and sending up their sacrifice to them. ... And they send up this sacrifice as foaming heat, so that the sacrificial smoke ascends to the winged Cherubim. So might we picture it. And proceeding from this sacrifice (just as though a word of ours spoken into the air became time—in this case it is time-beings) and emerging from this whole proceeding the Spirits of Time—Archai. This sending forth of the Archai gives a grand and powerful picture. And this picture placed before our souls is extremely impressive for certain imaginations, which can then lead us further and further into the realm of occult knowledge.

This is precisely what we have to attain; we must be able to transform the ideas we receive into imaginations, into pictures. Even if the pictures are clumsily formed, even if they are anthropomorphic, even if the beings appear as winged angels, etc., that does not signify. The rest will be given to us later; and what they ought not to have will fall away. When we yield ourselves to these pictures we penetrate into imaginative perception.

If you take what I have just endeavoured to describe you will see that the soul will soon have recourse to all kinds of pictures unconnected with intellectual ideas. These latter owe their existence to a much later period, so that we should not at first take such things intellectually. And you must comprehend what is meant when some minds describe things differently from the intellectualists; the intellectualist will never be able to understand such minds. I will give a hint to anyone who wishes for instruction on this point: take out of the public library a book—which is quite a good one—the so-called “Old Schwegler,” formerly much used by students for examinations, but now no longer applicable since the “soul” is dethroned; although this book has been mutilated by way of improvement, it is not quite spoilt. You can take old Schwegler's History of Philosophy and you will have quite a good book. If you read there about the philosophy of Hegel you will find everything splendidly described. But now read the short chapter on Jacob Boehme, and try to obtain a correct idea of how helpless a man is who writes an intellectual philosophy when confronted with a spirit such as Jacob Boehme! Paracelsus—thank goodness—he left out entirely; for concerning him he would have written completely unjustifiable things. But just read what he says about Jacob Boehme. Here Schwegler comes to a spirit to whom there objectively appeared—not the Saturn picture—but the recapitulation of the Saturn picture taking place in the Earth period; this he can only do in words and concepts that cannot be approached by the intellect. To the intellectual man all comprehension here ceases. It is not as though these things were impossible of comprehension, but they cannot be understood if the standpoint of the dry philosophic intellect is insisted upon.

You see, precisely the most important thing for us is that we lift ourselves to what the ordinary intellect is unable to grasp. Even though the ordinary intellect produces something as excellent as The History of Philosophy by Schwegler (for I have expressly called this a good book), it is still an example by which we must see how a splendid intellect is completely at a standstill before a spirit such as Jacob Boehme.

Thus to-day we have endeavoured in our consideration of ancient Saturn to penetrate more inwardly, so to say, into this old planetary embodiment of our Earth. We shall presently do the same with the Sun- and the Moon-existence. And in doing so we shall see that there too we come to ideas which perhaps may not appear less impressive than the glimpse afforded us when we look back to the old Saturn condition, and to the Thrones sacrificing to the Cherubim and resulting in the creation of the Beings of Time. For time is a result of sacrifice, and first arises as living time, as a creation of sacrifice. Then we shall see how all these things are transformed on the Sun, and other glorious events of the cosmic existence will confront us, when we pass from Saturn to the Sun, and then to the Moon-existence.

You will have gathered from our last lecture how extremely difficult it is to describe the early condition of our evolution before our own Earth came into being. For we have seen that we must first of all build up concepts and ideas through which we may reach those strange and distant conditions of the evolution of our world. I have already called attention to the fact that the description in my Occult Science of the period of ancient Saturn, as well as that of the following embodiments of our Earth is not only not exhaustive, but that, in a sense, we had to be satisfied (in order not to startle the public, to whom the book is accessible) with clothing the subject in pictures taken from what is near at hand and familiar. The description given there is naturally in no respect incorrect, but it is very deeply immersed in Maya and Illusion; and we must first work our way through the illusion in order to penetrate further into the truth of the matter. For instance, the old Saturn period is described (and this is quite correct within certain limits) as a heavenly body whose essential parts did not consist of what we know as earth, water and air, but of “heat.” So, too, in first speaking of “space,” that also is merely a pictorial description; for, as we saw in the last lecture, “time” itself did not even exist. When we speak of “space” we are speaking pictorially. Of space there was none in our sense on ancient Saturn. And time first came into being there. When we carry our thought back to ancient Saturn we are absolutely in the realm of spaceless eternity. When, therefore, something is said to call up a picture before our minds, we must be clear that it is only a picture. If we could have observed the space of ancient Saturn we should have found no substance dense enough to be called gas, nothing but heat and cold.

In reality we could not speak of coming from one part of space into another, but only the sensation of passing through warmer and colder conditions; so that even the clairvoyant, when he transports himself back to the time of Saturn, receives the impression of being in spaceless ebb and flow of warmth. That is only the outer veil of the Saturn condition. For this “heat” or “fire” as it is called in occultism, is concealed from us in the fundamental depths of its being; and we have seen that spiritual achievements formed in truth the very existence of ancient Saturn; and we have formed a picture of the spiritual deeds then existing. We have said that the Spirits of Will or Thrones achieved sacrificial acts; so that when we look back to the concrete occurrences on Saturn, we have the Cherubim and the sacrifice flowing forth from the Thrones. Sacrifice streams from the Thrones to the Cherubim. And it is these sacrificial deeds seen from without, as it were, which appear as “heat.” Conditions of heat are the external expression—speaking in a general sense—the external physical expression of sacrifice, and throughout the world, wherever heat is perceptible it is the outer expression of what lies behind it. Conditions of heat are the sacrificial acts of beings. Thus in describing heat we must say “Cosmic heat is the manifestation of Cosmic sacrifice, or of Cosmic sacrificial deeds.”

Then we have seen that from this sacrificial deed offered by the Thrones to the Cherubim is brought to birth that which we call time: though I have already called attention to the fact that “time” is a modern term and does not quite apply. For time was not then that abstraction man now accepts as time, but a totality of beings, the Spirits of Personality, whom we have therefore come to recognise as “Time-Spirits.” The Time-Spirits are the true ancient time—and they are the children of the Thrones and the Cherubim. The condition by means of which the Beings of Time originated on ancient Saturn was sacrifice. Thus, in order to obtain an actual comprehension of what lies behind, when it is said: Ancient Saturn consists of “heat,” we do not merely require external, physical concepts (for “heat” is a physical concept), but we must acquire concepts which can only be derived from the soul-life itself, from the ethical wisdom-laden life of the soul. No man can know what warmth is who is not able to form a conception of what it means to be ready to sacrifice what he has, everything he possesses, indeed, not only everything he possesses, but also what he himself is. The sacrifice of the individual being, the soul's determination to renounce individual being, so regarding it as to be ready to devote its best to the welfare of the world, wishing to keep back nothing of the best for itself; but gladly to offer it in sacrifice on the altar of the universe; if this becomes a living idea permeating our soul, it will gradually lead to the understanding of what lies behind the phenomenon of heat. Try to picture what in our modern life—even to-day—is bound up with the conception of sacrifice; one can hardly think that anyone sacrificing himself with understanding ever does so against his will. A sacrifice offered against the will argues some compelling motive; there must be compulsion. But this would not apply to what we are now discussing. The sacrifice that flows forth from a being as a matter of course is what is meant here. And if a man should make a sacrifice, not because he is forced to do so by any external motive, nor because he hopes to gain something by so doing, but because he feels within him the impulse to sacrifice, it is then unthinkable that he should feel anything but inner warmth of bliss. If we feel ourselves glowing with this inner warmth of bliss, it is an expression of what can be described in no other way than by saying that the one making the sacrifice feels himself warmed through and through, glowing with bliss. In this way it is possible for us to feel how the glow of sacrifice can come to meet us in the outer cosmic heat. He alone understands what warmth really is who can grasp the thought: Whenever warmth appears in the world there is always in some way underlying it something of a soul-spiritual nature which is behind the warmth and brings about the warmth through the special bliss. He who can feel all this about warmth will gradually arrive at the reality of what is concealed behind the illusion of warmth, behind the phenomenon of heat.

Now if we wish to penetrate further, from the existence of ancient Saturn to that of the Sun, we must again first form an idea by which we can imagine the substance of the ancient Sun—not our present Sun. For when we read in Occult Science that ancient Sun reorganised heat by adding to it air and light, that again is depicted merely by an external phenomenon. Just as behind the heat we must seek for the glow of sacrifice of the Spirits of Will, so must we look behind “air and “light” for something moral if we wish to understand the air and the light which are added to the heat on ancient Sun. Now we can only obtain a feeling of this substance of the ancient Sun through something of a spiritual psychic nature which we may experience in our souls.

We can describe it in the following way as a soul-experience. Let us imagine that a man were to see a real, genuine act of sacrifice, or that he were to picture to himself what we described in the last lecture as the sacrificial act of the Thrones, the Thrones offering up their sacrifice to the Cherubim—so that he is moved by the picture of the beatific sacrifice which he contemplates and which awakens the life in the soul. What would our souls feel through either the vision of the sacrificing Beings themselves, or by the picture we make truly living in our souls. If the feelings of this man are vivid, if the beatific sacrifice does not leave him unaffected, he will feel a profound feeling of bliss at the vision of the sacrifice; he will feel in his soul that it is the most beautiful deed, the most beautiful experience that can be called forth in our souls, the vision of the beatitude of sacrifice! We should be soulless lumps if this experience did not arouse in the soul a passionate desire to understand inwardly with intensest reverence, what the beatitude of sacrifice is—if we did not learn from it the spirit of utter devotion. Sacrifice is devotion transformed into activity. The contemplation of active practical devotion may call forth the attuning of the soul's being to self-surrender, to the casting off of self, to self-effacement. Imagine this spirit of disinterested casting off of self wholly flooding the soul through the vision; then we have with this spirit that which can come nearer to us for our understanding, inasmuch as without such a spirit—without at least a hint, a foretaste of such a spirit—never could we really attain to what the higher knowledge gives. He who is unable to feel this spirit of self-surrender can never attain to higher knowledge. For what would be the opposite of this spirit? It would be self-will, assertion of individual will. These are, as it were, the two opposite cosmic poles; devoted absorption in that which is contemplated, and self-willed assertion of individuality. These are two great opposites. Personal will fatally opposes the permeation of the higher Self with wisdom. In ordinary life we only know self-will in the form of prejudice, and prejudices always destroy the higher insight. But we must imagine what is here called self-surrender as intensified; for this can only be conceived when a man works his way up to higher worlds. There he must be able to experience this casting off of self—at least as a frame of mind. Therefore it must always be emphasised that we can never attain higher knowledge so long as we work after the fashion of ordinary science and trivial thought. Let us be clear; ordinary science and everyday thought work from whatever self-will has created by means of the ordinary will of man, through the inherited or educated sensations and feelings. We can deceive ourselves greatly as to this. For instance, people may say: “Suppose one takes up any science, such as that set forth in Spiritual Science; I will not accept anything that does not agree with my thought, I will accept nothing unproved.” Certainly we should not accept anything unproved. But neither do we advance a single step further if we only accept what is proved. And a man who wishes to be clairvoyant will never say that he can only accept what he has first proved. He must be completely free of all self-seeking and must await what comes to him from the Cosmos, and which can only be designated by the word “grace.” From the grace which illuminates he expects everything. For how do we acquire clairvoyant knowledge Only by eliminating everything we have ever learnt. As a rule a man says: I have my own opinion. But what he ought to say is: This only comes because I have revived what my ancestors have thought, or what my desires have aroused in me, etc. For there can never be any question of these being his own opinions; and those who attach most value to their own opinions are not in the least aware that they are being led by the leading-strings of their prejudices. All this must be done away with when we wish to attain to higher knowledge. The soul must be empty and able to wait quietly for what may enter into it from the concealed secret world free from space and time, free from things and deeds. And we must never believe that we can acquire any conception of clairvoyant knowledge except by creating a suitable frame of mind through which we may receive what may be offered to us as revelation or illumination, so that we can never expect anything to come to us except from the grace which approaches and brings gifts.

How then does such knowledge reveal itself? How is that which comes to us revealed when we have prepared ourselves sufficiently? It reveals itself as the feeling of being endowed with grace through the gifts that come to meet us from the spiritual world. If we wish to describe what thus approaches us in order to bring us grace and pour knowledge into us, we can only make use of the expression: that which comes to meet us is an active inspiring with grace; a bestowing, a giving. Let us grasp the nature of a being chiefly characterised by what I have just described, so as to say of him: he is a bestower, a giver, an offerer of gifts, such a being whose chief characteristic is the showering of grace around him, the shedding forth of grace from himself. Let our conception of this being show us that in order to attain this possibility of giving forth grace there must be the vision of the sacrifice made by the Thrones to the Cherubim; let us imagine: he would draw near to what happened when the sacrifice was being offered by the Thrones to the Cherubim. Let us clearly imagine a being such as this, who, through having had this vision, is stimulated to shower the gifts of his grace around him. Suppose we were to see a rose and were charmed by it, experiencing the feeling of one enraptured by what we call “beautiful.” Suppose another being through the vision of what we have described as the sacrifice by the Thrones to the Cherubim, were inspired to pour forth into the world, to offer to the world as a gift, everything he possessed—we should thus be describing those beings spoken of in Occult Science as Spirits of Wisdom who on the Sun were added to the beings with whom we become acquainted on ancient Saturn. If now we were to put the question, what is the character of these Spirits who appeared on the Sun in addition to the Saturn Spirits? We must reply: The principal characteristic of these spirits is the virtue of giving, of pouring forth grace. If we wish to find a title for them, we must say: These are the Spirits of Wisdom, the great Bestowers, the great Givers of the Universe. Just as we have called the Thrones” The great Sacrificers,” so we must say of the Spirits of Wisdom, they are “the great Givers” who so devote their gift that it weaves and lives in the universe, flowing out into it and first bringing about its order.

That is the activity of the Spirits of Wisdom on the Sun, they endow their environment with their own being. And what is presented to the external view when we look up and wish to have a higher sense-perception of what takes place on the Sun?

When we look at it, it is as described in Occult Science. Besides heat, the Sun consists of air and of light. But when we say this, it is as though someone were to say: “In the distance I see a grey cloud.” And if we were a painter he would paint the impression; but if he were to come nearer he might perhaps see, instead of the grey cloud, a swarm of midges. Thus in reality, what he took for a grey cloud is nothing but a number of living beings. In like manner do we confront the ancient Sun-existence. Seen from afar it appears as the illusion of a body consisting of light and air; but if we approach nearer, we have no longer a body of light and air but it appears as the great bestowing virtue of the Spirits of Wisdom. And no one learns the real nature of air who only describes it according to its external physical properties. That is only maya and illusion, only outer manifestation. For wherever there is air in the world, the deeds of the Spirits of Wisdom lie behind it. Weaving, active air means the manifestation of the bestowing virtue of the macrocosm, and only he looks rightly upon air who says: “Here I perceive ‘air.’ But in reality within it something is bestowed by the Spirits of Wisdom, something streams out into their environment.”

And now we know what was actually meant by describing ancient Sun as consisting of air. We now know that what appears outwardly as air is a gift which the Spirits of Wisdom allow to flow forth from their own being. But now something wonderful is seen by the clairvoyant. We must clearly understand how we can obtain from our own soul-life a still more accurate idea of this virtue of giving. Let us bring home to our mind the feeling we may ourselves have if through the above-described mode of devotion we are able to permeate ourselves with a perception, with an idea. Such an idea will always produce in us a distinct feeling. One has the best impression of such an idea if one thinks of Art, where the idea has an urge to master colour or form in some way or other, to send it forth into the world, thus to give to the world something having an independent existence. We may describe the nature of such a capacity of giving by saying that productivity and creative activity is connected with it; for this giving is self-creative. Anyone who has an idea and feels that he can give it forth for the good of the world, and can represent it in a work of art, has the right conception of this productivity of the virtue of giving. This it is which as air weaves through the Sun. When we think of this creative idea in the mind of the artist, and how it imprints itself into matter (besides everything else), this is the spiritual being of air. Wherever there is air we are concerned with something of this sort. But from the living productivity having been on the Sun, proceeds the following.

Let us hold firmly in mind that on ancient Saturn the Spirits of Time had been born, therefore “time” could be present on the Sun; for it came over from Saturn. Thus on ancient Sun there was the possibility of giving, which could not have been found on ancient Saturn. For just imagine—how could there have been any giving if there had been no time It would not have been possible, for giving must include acceptance, the one is not to be thought of without the other. This giving must consist of two actions, giving and accepting, otherwise giving has no object. On the Sun, however, giving and accepting occupied a peculiar relation to one another, for—as time was already there—the gift offered to the environment on ancient Sun had been, as it were, stored up in time: as it were, guarded in time so that the Spirits of Wisdom pour forth their gift—and it endures. But now something must enter to accept this. This occurs comparatively speaking at a later time than the gift of the Spirits of Wisdom. They give at an earlier moment, and that which is necessarily connected with it as receiving appears later. We can only obtain a correct conception of this if here too we use our own soul-experience as a foundation.

Suppose you are trying very hard to understand something, or to form some sort of thought. Suppose you have formed the thought. The next day you will make your mind as clear as possible so that the thought you formed yesterday may come back into it. What you formed yesterday is received by you today. Thus it was on ancient Sun; what was given at an earlier time was guarded till a later moment and was then received. What then was this acceptance? It was a deed, an occurrence only distinguished from the other occurrence in that it occurred later. The giving comes from the Spirits of Wisdom. Who then accepts? If there is to be an acceptance there must be someone to accept! In the same way as the Spirits of Time arose from the sacrifice of the Thrones to the Cherubim on ancient Saturn—through an act of nativity—so through “an act of giving” to the world by the Spirits of Wisdom on the Sun, the Spirits we call Archangels or Archangeloi, came into being. They are these who accept on ancient Sun. But they receive in a very special way, for they do not retain for themselves the gift received from the Spirits of Wisdom, but reflect it, just as a mirror reflects an image Thus the task of the Archangels on the Sun was to collect at a later epoch what had been given earlier, what was still there and could be reflected by the Archangels. Thus we have on the Sun an earlier act of giving and a subsequent accepting, but this accepting is a reflection back of an earlier time. Just suppose that the earth were not as it is now, but that what occurred at an earlier age could be reflected again at the present time. We actually know that something of the sort does take place. We are now living in the fifth post-Atlantean age of civilisation, when the events of the third, the ancient Egyptian-Chaldean age are being reflected. What formerly was there is now reflected. Everything that formerly existed is recapitulated. So that we have to think of the Archangels on the one side as the recipients, on the other the Spirits of Wisdom who in the earlier Sun-periods were the bestowers. From this something quite special arises, which can only be properly conceived by thinking of a globe complete in itself and radiating forth from its centre that which is given. It radiates out to the periphery—whence it is radiated back to the centre. Thus we have to think of what comes from the Spirits of Wisdom as proceeding from the centre; this radiates forth in all directions, is collected by the Archangels and reflected back. What is thus reflected back into space is the gift from the Spirits of Wisdom. It is light that leads back the radiations of the Spirits of Wisdom, and the Archangels are at the same time creators of light. “Light” is not in the least the external illusion presented to us; but wherever light appears we have the gifts of the Spirits of Wisdom radiated back to us. And the beings whose existence must be presumed behind all light are the Archangels. Hence we must say: Wherever light appears to us, behind it are the Archangels; but they are only able to ray forth light to us because they reflect back what has streamed out to them—namely, the bestowing virtue of the Spirits of Wisdom.

In this way we obtain a picture of ancient Sun: We think of a centre in which is focused what came over from ancient Saturn; the sacrificial acts of the Thrones to the Cherubim. Absorbed in contemplation of these acts of sacrifice are the Spirits of Wisdom. This vision causes them to radiate forth from themselves that which is their real being: streaming, flowing wisdom as bestowing virtue. However, as this is radiated through by “time” it is sent forth and sent back again, so that we have a globe, inwardly illuminated by the virtue returning to it; for we must not think of the ancient Sun as outwardly but as inwardly luminous, because the Spirits of Wisdom radiate outwards. Thus something new is created which we may describe as follows: Let us imagine the Spirits of Wisdom situated at the centre of the Sun absorbed in contemplation of the vision of the sacrificing Thrones; and by reason of this vision, radiating forth their own being; and receiving back their radiating being which they sent forth, receiving it reflected back from the surface, so that they receive it back as light. Everything is illuminated. What then do they receive back? Their own being surrendered by them became a gift to the Macrocosm, it was their inner being. Now it rays back to them; their own being meets them coming back from outside. They see their own inner being outspread in the Cosmos—and reflected back as light, as the reflection of their own being.

The inner and the outer are the two opposites which we now meet. The earlier and the later are transformed into the inner and the outer; and “Space” is born! Space comes into existence through the bestowing virtue of the Spirits of Wisdom on ancient Sun. Before that, space could only have an allegorical significance. Now we have space—but consisting at first of only two dimensions. There was as yet no above and below, no right or left, nothing but an outer and an inner.—In reality these opposites appear at the end of ancient Saturn; but they repeat themselves as space-creative on ancient Sun. And if we wish to obtain a conception of all these occurrences, as we did of the last when the picture appeared before our soul of the sacrificing Thrones, giving birth to the Spirits of Time, we must not even picture a body consisting of light, for the light within it is only an inner reflection. We must think of it as a globe of inner space, in the centre of which the picture of Saturn is recapitulated: the Thrones as Spirits as though kneeling before the Cherubim, those winged beings, sacrificing their own being, and, in addition to these, the Spirits of Wisdom, absorbed in the vision of the sacrifice. And now it is also possible to have the vision of the heat of the sacrifice being so transmuted that we may think of it objectively as the incense of sacrifice, as air ascending from the sacrifice as incense. We obtain a complete picture if we imagine: the sacrificing Thrones kneeling before the Cherubim, and as though participating, the Spirits of Wisdom, absorbed in the contemplation of what they perceive in the centre of the Sun as the sacrifice of the Thrones, and thereby ascending in their mood to the picture of the sacrificial incense pouring forth and spreading out on all sides, and finally condensing, while from its clouds proceed the figures of the Archangels—who reflect back the incense from the periphery as light, illuminating the interior of the Sun, returning the gift of the Spirits of Wisdom, and in this way creating the sphere of the Sun. This sphere consists of the outpoured gift of glowing heat and sacrificial incense. At the outer periphery are the Archangels, the creators of the light, who later depict what was first on the Sun; it then returns as light. What then, do these Archangels preserve? They guard the beginnings, what was formerly there, the earlier. The gifts they receive they reflect. That which was there in the beginning they radiate forth at a later time, and inasmuch as they do this, they are the Angels of the Beginning, because they bring into activity in later times what was previously there. “Archangeloi” “Messengers of the Beginning”!

It is very wonderful when such a word arises from the depths of true occult knowledge and we remember that this word comes across to us from primeval traditions, along the path of the School of Dionysius the Areopagite, who was the pupil of Paul. It is wonderful to see that this word is so deeply stamped that when we evolve it again, independently of what is written, what stands there arises before us. And we then feel ourselves united with the ancient holy schools of Initiation-Wisdom, of the science of Initiation, so that we feel as though this ancient time were streaming into us, we picture it with understanding after having ourselves created the possibility of accepting it independently of what we have heard. Anyone feeling even a little of the spirit of these old expressions which have descended to us without our having paid attention to them, will feel himself within the current of the mighty power of the Spirits of Time passing through humanity. What is thus felt in contemplation of these things is in marvellous connection with the whole human evolution, it makes us feel one with it. The Archangels preserve the memorial of the primordial beginnings; but whatever takes place on any one planet is always recapitulated later, only when it occurs later there is always something added to it. So that we meet with the being of the Sun again in what we find on our own earth.

The whole conception, the whole feeling that we are thus able to acquire—which gives us a picture of the sacrifice of the Thrones, of the Cherubim receiving the sacrifice, of the glow given forth by the sacrifice, of the sacrificial incense spreading out as air, of the light radiated back by the Archangels who preserve for later ages what took place at the beginning—this feeling is something that can call up in us a true understanding of everything connected with the creation of such a feeling, with sacrifices which proceed from such a feeling.

We have now conceived in a more spiritual sense, what we have previously considered from a more physical aspect. And we shall now see that out of this milieu was born the Being who appeared on earth as the Christ-Being. And we shall only understand what was brought to earth through the Christ-Being when we grasp the idea of the bestowing virtue, the grace-bestowing virtue in its reflection in the light of the universe in the inner substance of the Sun-body, which was permeated and illuminated through and through by this light. If we can exalt our conception of what has just been described and transform that into an imagination, bearing in mind that something of all that was brought to the earth by the Christ-Being is on the earth, fulfils its life on the earth, we can then go still more deeply into the actual spiritual nature of the Christ-impulse. We are then able to understand the dim idea that can stir in a human soul on hearing such an account, when it dawns on the soul that what has been described may in a certain sense again come to life on earth. Just imagine all that has been described of the Sun as absolutely concentrated in the soul of one Being, suppose all this gathered up and taken away to reappear at a later period and so to reappear and work, that He would bring with Him an extract of what came into existence through the ancient primordial sacrificial deed and the smoke of sacrifice through the light-creating time and the bestowing Virtue and would reflect it out of the universe of radiant light. Imagine all this concentrated in one soul, think of that soul as giving all this to the Earth-existence; around Him are assembled those who now as earth-beings are destined to radiate this back again and preserve it for the remainder of the earth-existence. In the centre is the One Who bestows out of sacrifice and through sacrifice, and around Him are gathered those who are to receive it—on the one side all that the sacrifice is and everything belonging to it, as it were translated into earthly life; on the other hand the possibility of destroying the sacrifice, for everything that can be given to the human being in the way of Divine grace may be either accepted or rejected. If we think of all this as embodied in an intuition, we can, on looking at the “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci, have somewhat the following feeling. The entire Sun with the sacrificial Beings, the Beings of Bestowing Virtue, the Beings of warmth-giving bliss, of the radiant light, spiritually grasped, radiated back by those selected to preserve into later ages what belongs to the earlier, and so ordained for the earth that it may also be rejected by the traitor. We may feel that this is the Earth-Being, inasmuch as the Sun-Being reappears on the Earth. If this is felt—not in an external intellectual manner, but in true artistic way; then something of the actual driving-force of such a great work of art can be felt, a work which reflects, as it were, the extract of the Earth existence. When we see this picture again, and see how the Christ grows forth from the Sun-Sphere, we shall better understand what I have often said: If a spirit were to come down to the Earth from Mars, while he would not be able to understand everything that he saw here, he would understand the actual mission of the Earth if he allowed the “Last Supper” of Leonardo da Vinci to work upon him. The inhabitant of Mars would then see that the Sun-existence must lie concealed within that of the Earth; and thereby everything he might be told concerning the meaning of the Earth would become clear to him. He would understand that the Earth had a meaning, and he would know what was involved. He would say to himself: “Something may take place on the Earth of which only a part is important for the Earth: but could the deed really be represented which radiates to me from the colouring of this picture? When I concentrate on the central Figure with those other around Him, I feel what the Spirits of Wisdom felt on the Sun, and what is re-echoed here in the words: ‘This do in remembrance of me.’”—The earlier preserved in the later: this saying will only be comprehensible to us when we grasp it in its whole cosmic connection, as we have just learnt to do.

In the next lecture it will be our task to study the Christ-Being in the spiritual nature of the Sun, in order to pass on from that to the spiritual nature of the Moon.

In the last two lectures an endeavour was made to call attention to the fact that behind all the material phenomena of the substance of our earth something spiritual is to be sought. We endeavoured to describe the spiritual to be found behind the phenomenon of heat, and then that behind the phenomenon of flowing air. As, in order to do this, it was necessary to turn back to the very early ages of our evolution, we had to glance into our own soul-life to describe the spiritual conditions underlying matter. For it is obvious that the concepts by means of which anything is described must necessarily be drawn from somewhere. Words alone will not suffice; we must have quite definite conceptions. As we have seen, the spiritual conditions to which we referred are so far removed from anything experienced by man at the present time, or of which he can have knowledge—that we had to appeal to certain conditions in our soul-life, conditions by no means universal. We have seen that the deepest being of all conditions of heat and fire must be sought very far away from what we know as external physical fire or heat. To a man of the present day it must appear truly absurd that sacrifice should be recognised as the essence of all conditions of heat: a sacrifice made by very definite Beings to be met with on the old Saturn state of the Earth—the Thrones—who then brought their sacrifice to the Cherubim. And yet in truth we must say that a sacrifice such as possessed its starting point in the world-evolution, appears to us—although in maya or illusion—in all external conditions of heat or fire. In the last lecture we also recognised that behind all that we may call flowing air or flowing gas, there is something very far away, which we have called “the virtue of bestowal,” the devotional pouring forth by spiritual Beings of their own being. This is to be found in every breath of wind, in all flowing air. Thus what is perceived externally, physically, is in reality mere illusion, nothing but maya; and only when we progress from maya to the incorporeal, the spiritual, do we obtain the correct conception of fire and heat; for in fact fire, heat and light bear the same relation to the real world as does the reflected image of a man seen in a mirror to the person himself. For, just as the mirror presents merely an illusion in relation to the man, so in this sense, fire, heat and air are illusions; and the realities behind these bear the same relation to them as the real man to his reflection. We have to seek neither fire nor air in the world of reality, but sacrifice, and the virtue of bestowal.

When we saw the virtue of bestowal added to that of sacrifice we ascend from the life of ancient Saturn to that of ancient Sun. In the latter, the second cosmic embodiment of our earth, we find something which brings us a step nearer to the real conditions of our evolution. Yet another concept must be introduced to-day, which belongs to the world of reality as concerned with the world of illusion. But before passing to the actual conditions of evolution we must acquire a definite idea from the following.

When in his external life a man does something, accomplishes something, the impulse of his will as a rule underlies it. Whatever he does, be it the movement of a hand or the greatest of deeds, the impulse of the will underlies them. From his will proceeds everything that leads to an act, to an achievement. Now at first a man would say that a strong, forceful act, one for instance that is to bring about great healing and blessing, must proceed from a stronger impulse of will, while a less important act comes from a weaker impulse. And in general it is assumed that the greatness of the deed depends upon the strength of the impulse of the will. But only in a certain degree is it correct that as we intensify our will we accomplish great things in the world. From a certain point onwards that is no more the case. Certain deeds that man may do—particularly such as bear upon the spiritual world—do not, strange to say, now depend upon the strengthening of our impulses of will. In the physical world, in which we particularly live, the greatness of our deeds certainly does depend upon the strength of our impulses of will, for the more we wish to accomplish, the greater are the efforts we must make But in the spiritual world this is not so, there the opposite comes to pass. There it is the case that the greatest deeds, or, better said, the greatest results, do not necessitate any strengthening of the positive impulses of will, but far more a certain resignation, a renouncing. Take the very smallest purely spiritual facts. We do not attain any spiritual effects by bringing strong desires into play, or by bestirring ourselves as much as possible; no—in the spiritual world we attain certain results by controlling our wishes and desires, and renouncing all idea of satisfying them. Suppose a man has made up his mind to bring something about in the world by means of inner spiritual workings. To do this he would have to prepare himself by learning above all to suppress his own wishes and desires. For whereas in the physical world we grow stronger when we eat well, when we are well nourished and acquire greater strength thereby, so, in the spiritual world, when we wish to attain something important we can precisely do so with the greatest ease, if, by fasting or other means, we repress and control our wishes and desires; (this is only a statement, and not given by way of advice). The greatest spiritual, magical effects, always require preparation connected with the renunciation of wishes, desires, and impulses of will which may appear within us. The less we “will,” the more we say: We will allow life to flow over us, not longing for this or that, but accepting everything just as Karma sends it to us, the more we are able to accept Karma and its workings in this way, keeping quietly ready to renounce all that we should otherwise wish to choose for this life, the more forceful shall we become as regards the activity of our thinking. In the case of a teacher or tutor who is, above all things, fond of eating and drinking and has other masterful passions, it will be noticeable that his words to his pupils will not accomplish very much, his words will go in at one ear and out at the other. He will think that this is the fault of the pupils, but that is not always the case. A man who has begun to lead a higher life, who lives temperately, who only eats as much as is necessary to support life, who is determined to accept what destiny brings him with equanimity, will gradually notice that his words have great force; he will not even require to look at his pupils, but only to be near them and have encouraging thought without expressing it, and that thought will pass over to the pupil. It all depends on the degree of renunciation and self-denial he has acquired as regards the things usually desired by man.

The right path for spiritual activities intended to lead to spiritual effects in the higher worlds, is that of renunciation. In relation to this many delusions are met with, and delusions while resembling true renunciation, do not lead to the right results. We are all acquainted with what in ordinary life is called “asceticism,” self-inflicted suffering. In many cases the practice of this may be a spiritual self-indulgence, for a person may practise it in order to obtain great results, or from some other source of desire for self- satisfaction. In such cases asceticism produces no results; it is of no avail unless it is a sign of the renunciation rooted in the spirit. Let us then acquire the concept of the creative renunciation, the creative resignation. It is indeed of immense importance that we should accept this renunciation, this creative resignation, which we may experience in the soul, as a conception of something far removed from our everyday life; and then we are guided a step deeper into the evolution of humanity. For in the process of evolution something of the kind really does take place in the transition from the conditions of ancient Sun to those of ancient Moon. Something of the nature of renunciation takes place in the realm of the Beings of the higher worlds, for these Beings, as we know already, are connected with the process of the earth's development. At this juncture let us once again call to mind the ancient Sun evolution. But let us first give our attention to something else with which we are already familiar, but which may until now have appeared in some respects to be somewhat of an enigma.

We have repeatedly drawn attention to occurrences in evolution which must be traced back to those beings who have in the course of evolution “remained behind.” We know that the Luciferic beings have invaded the domain of our earth humanity. It has repeatedly been necessary to draw attention to the fact that these beings are able to enter our astral body during the development of our earth because they did not, during the evolution of the Moon, reach the stage they ought to have attained. A commonplace comparison has often been used, that as in our schools some pupils remain behind, so even in the great cosmic evolution there are cosmic beings who, remaining behind in the stages of their own evolution, subsequently interfere with the evolutionary stages of other beings, with a result similar to that produced by the Luciferic beings, who lingered behind on the ancient Moon. We might easily suppose these to be faulty beings actually injurious to the evolution of the world; for why did they linger behind? Such a thought might occur to us. The thought, however, which we should entertain is this: that man would never have attained his freedom, or the capacity for individual initiative action had not the Lucifer beings remained behind on the Moon. So that on the one hand man owes to the Lucifer beings the fact that he has in his astral body passions, emotions, and desires driving him constantly down from a certain height into lower pats of his nature. But, on the other hand, if man were incapable of wickedness, unable to err from good through the forces of the Lucifer beings in his astral body he could not act freely, or possess what we call freewill, freedom of choice. We must therefore admit that to the Luciferic beings we owe our freedom. The deduction to be drawn from this is that the one-sided view is not valid that claims that they only lead man astray; their remaining behind must be regarded as something beneficial, as something without which he could never have acquired his human dignity, in the true sense of the word.

Now what we call the “remaining behind” of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings is based on something much deeper, something already to be encountered in connection with ancient Saturn, although it is there so difficult to perceive that words could hardly be found in any language to describe it. But when we advance to the ancient Sun-existence, we are able to describe it quite distinctly if we bear in mind the idea of resignation or renunciation which we have to-day described. For what lies beneath all such remaining behind and all its influence is renunciation, resignation by higher Beings. So now, on the Sun we can see the following taking place. We have said that the Thrones, the Spirits of Will, offer sacrifice to the Cherubim; and this they do, as we have seen in the last lecture, not only during the Saturn period, but they continue their sacrifice through that of the Sun, so that there too we have the idea of the Thrones or Spirits of Will sacrificing to the Cherubim. In this sacrifice is to be found the actual essence of all the conditions of heat or fire present in the world. Now, if we look back into the Akashic Record of the Sun-age we can quite distinctly remark the following. The Thrones offer and continue their sacrificial activity; so that we have there the sacrificing Thrones and a host of Cherubim to whom, as we see, the sacrifice rises, while they take into themselves the heat which flows forth from it. However, another host of Cherubim accomplish something else; these renounce the sacrifice, they do not accept what is offered them. We must therefore complete the picture we called up before our minds in the last lecture.

In this picture we have the sacrificing Thrones and those Cherubim who accept their sacrifice, and we also have the Cherubim who do not accept it—but give back that which was offered up to them. It is extraordinarily interesting to follow this in the Akashic Record. For by reason of the bestowing virtue of the Spirits of Wisdom now flowing into the sacrificial heat we are able during the ancient Sun-period to see ascending something like sacrificial smoke of which we have said, that it is reflected back by the Archangels from the outermost periphery of the Sun, in the form of light. But now besides this, something altogether different seems to appear in the space of ancient Sun; not merely the sacrificial smoke thrown back by the Archangels in the form of light, but also that smoke which was not accepted by the Cherubim and which as it were flows back again, as though dammed back. So that we have permanent clouds of sacrifice in space; Sacrifice that ascends, Sacrifice that descends, Sacrifice accepted and Sacrifice rejected. The encounter of these intrinsically Spiritual cloud-formations is seen to take place between what in the last lecture we called the “outer” and the “inner,” until the separation occurs. Thus in the centre we have the sacrificing Thrones, then in the heights above the Cherubim accepting the sacrifice, and beside these, those other Cherubim who did not accept the proffered sacrifice, but diverted its course back again. Through this diversion arises, as it were, an encircling cloud, and right outside we have the cast-back masses of light. Let us try to form a picture of this in our minds. We must think of this ancient Sun-space, the ancient Sun-mass as a cosmic globe beyond which we conceive of nothing, so that we only imagine space extending as far as the Archangels. Let us further picture in the centre of this globular formation the meeting of the accepted and the rejected sacrifices. From these two, the accepted and rejected sacrifices, there comes into being in the ancient Sun something that we may call a division of the whole Sun-substance, a divergence. If we wish to compare the Sun in that bygone age with any external image, we can only compare it with the form of our present Saturn which is a globe encircled by rings; for that which is in the centre is thrown inwards by volumes of sacrifice and that which was outside is arranged as an encircling mass. Thus we have the Sun's substance divided into two parts by the force of the arrested and dammed up powers of the sacrifice.

What then is brought about by this renunciation of the sacrifice on the part of certain of the Cherubim?

We are now coming to an extremely difficult chapter indeed, and we shall only be able gradually to grasp, by means of meditation, what is comprised in the conceptions about to be set forth. Only after long and profound reflection upon the conceptions about to be given can we discern what the realities are that underlie them. That resignation of which mention has already been made, must be brought into connection with the origin of Time—the scene of which we have laid in ancient Saturn. Time, as we have seen, actually originated on ancient Saturn, with the Archai or Spirits of Time, and there is no sense in referring to Time previous to ancient Saturn. Now at the risk of repeating ourselves, we may say that Time continues. Continuity or Duration is a conception which contains Time within itself. Thus when we say that Time is continuous it means that when we observe Saturn and Sun in the Akashic records, on Saturn we find the origin of Time—and on the Sun we still find Time present. Now if all conditions remained as they were, as we described them in the last two lectures when speaking of Saturn and Sun, Time would then form an element in everything that happens in evolution. We could not in thought eliminate Time from any occurrence in evolution. We have seen that the Spirits of Time came into being on ancient Saturn, and that Time is implanted into everything. All that we have hitherto thought whether in pictures or in imagination concerning evolution we must bring into connection with Time. All that has taken place—sacrifice and the virtue of bestowal, which we have mentioned—would be subject to Time, nothing would not be subject to Time, which means that all arising and passing away which indeed pertains to Time, must be subject to it.

Now those Cherubim who renounced the acceptance of the sacrifice and of that which was, as it were, contained in the smoke of the sacrifice, did so because in so doing, they withdraw from the properties of this sacrificial smoke. And to these properties belongs, above all, Time, which includes “arising” and “passing away.” The whole renunciation of the sacrifice on the part of these Cherubim signifies that they had grown beyond the conditions of Time. These Cherubim extended beyond Time and withdrew from subjection to it. The combination of circumstances during the evolution of ancient Sun was such, that the sacrificing and the virtue of bestowal, which conditions continued in a direct line from Saturn, remain subject to Time; whilst others, brought about by the other Cherubim who renounced the acceptance of the sacrifice wrested themselves free, and chose Eternity, duration, permanence, the non-subjection to arising and passing away. This is in the highest degree remarkable: during the evolution of ancient Sun we come to a severance between Time and Eternity. Through the resignation made by the Cherubim during the Sun-evolution, Eternity was gained, as a property of certain conditions which then came about. Just as we saw, on looking into our soul, that in it certain effects were produced through the acquisition by man of the qualities of renunciation and resignation—so we see, speaking now of the ancient Sun alone, that eternity and immortality were acquired by certain divine Spiritual Beings, that they resigned the sacrifice and all that might have come to them from the virtue of bestowal and all its diffused gifts. Whereas we have seen Time coming into being on ancient Saturn, we have also seen certain conditions wresting themselves free from it during the Sun development. But we must take special care to note that this was prepared even during the Saturn-age; so that Eternity does not actually begin during the Sun-age. This can however, only be sufficiently clearly and distinctly observed so that it can be expressed in concepts, in the Sun-age: on Saturn the division between Time and Eternity is so faintly perceptible that our ideas and words do not prove precise enough to define anything of the sort for ancient Saturn and its evolution.

We have now learnt the significance of resignation, the renunciation made by the gods during the time of ancient Sun, and the attainment of immortality. What was the further consequence of this?

From the study of the book Occult Science which must in certain respects still be veiled in Maya, we learn that the evolution of ancient Moon followed that of ancient Sun, that at the close of the Sun-age all the existing conditions were immersed in a kind of twilight, in a sort of cosmic chaos, and emerged again as “Moon.” And we see the sacrifice reissuing in the form of heat. All that remained as heat on ancient Sun reappears as heat on the Moon; we see the virtue of bestowal reappearing as gas, or air. And the resignation also continues, the renunciation of the sacrifice; all that we have called “resignation” is within whatever takes place on ancient Moon. It is actually the case, that what we can ourselves experience as resignation we must think of in everything on ancient Moon, carried over from ancient Sun, and as we think of everything else in the external world. That which had been sacrifice reappears in Maya as Heat; and that which was bestowing virtue appears in Maya as gas or air. Resignation as it has now become appears in external Maya as Fluidity, as “Water.” “Water” is Maya and would not be in the world at all were it not that its spiritual foundation is renunciation, or resignation. Wherever water is to be found in the world there is divine-renunciation. Just as heat is an illusion behind which is sacrifice, and gas or air an illusion behind which is the virtue of bestowal, so is water as a substance, as an external reality, nothing but an illusion of the senses, a reflection; the only reality existing in it, is resignation by certain Beings of that which they receive from other Beings. It might be said, water could only flow in the world because resignation underlies it. Now, we know that while the Sun progressed to Moon, airy conditions condensed to watery conditions. Water first appeared on the Moon; on ancient Sun there was as yet no water. What we see gathering like clouds during the old Sun development coagulated as they interpenetrated each other, to denser substance, to “water,” and this appears on ancient Moon as the Moon-ocean.

If we bear this in mind it will at any rate be possible to grasp a question that may be raised. From resignation comes forth water; water is in literal truth resignation. We thus acquire a peculiar kind of spiritual insight into the actual nature of water. But now the question may be raised: is there after all a certain difference between the condition which would have arisen if the Cherubim had not made this resignation, and that which has actually come about through their having done so? Is this difference in any way conveyed? Yes, it is. It is conveyed in the fact that the consequences of that resignation appeared clearly during the Sun-State. If it had never been made, if the Cherubim had accepted the proffered sacrifice, they would—speaking figuratively—have had the sacrificial smoke as part of their own inner substance; what they themselves had done would have found expression in the smoke of the sacrifice. Suppose these Cherubim had accomplished this or that; this would have been apparent, it would have been outwardly expressed by the changing clouds of the air; that is to say: In the outer form of the air would have been expressed what the Cherubim who made no resignation did with the substance of the sacrifice. But they did reject it, and in so doing they passed from mortality to immortality, from a transitory state into a State of Duration. However, the substance of the sacrifice is there to begin with; it is released from the forces, so to speak, which would otherwise have absorbed it, and is now not obliged to follow the inclinations and impulses of the Cherubim; for they gave it up, they renounced it. What then happens to this substance of sacrifice? The following occurs: Other beings, because the sacrificial substance is not with the Cherubim, take possession of it, become independent of the Cherubim, self-reliant beings; whereas they would otherwise have been directed from the sacrificial substance within the Cherubim, if the latter had accepted it. Thus it became possible for the opposite of resignation to arise; in that certain beings attract to themselves the substance of the sacrifice that had been poured forth and become active within it. These beings are “they who remained behind”; “remaining behind” was therefore a consequence of the resignation made by the Cherubim. Through the very substance which they refused to accept, the Cherubim themselves first furnished backward beings with the possibility of staying behind. Through the rejection of a sacrifice, other beings who did not resign it, but give way to their wishes and desires and bring them to expression, were enabled to take possession of the object of the sacrifice, of the sacrificial substance, thereby attaining the possibility of taking their place as independent beings side by side with those who here were offering.

Thus, when evolution passed from ancient Sun to Moon, with the immortality of the Cherubim, the possibility was given for other beings to separate in their own substance from the progressive evolution of the Cherubim, generally speaking from the immortal beings. So now, when we learn the deeper reasons of the remaining behind, we see that the original fault—if we may venture to speak of such an original fault—did not lie with those who remained behind. This is the important point, which we must realise: If the Cherubim had accepted the proffered sacrifice, the Luciferic beings could not have remained behind; they would have had no opportunity of embodying themselves in that substance. To make it possible for beings to become thus independent, renunciation previously took place. Thus, in cosmic evolution it is the case that the gods themselves have called their opponents into being. If the gods had not renounced the sacrifice, beings would not have been able to oppose them. Put into simple words we may suppose the gods had foreseen as follows: “we merely go on creating as we have done from Saturn to Sun there would never be any free beings, capable of acting from their own initiative. In order that beings of this nature might come into existence, the possibility must be given for opponents to arise against us in the Universe, so that we should meet with resistance in that which is subject to time. If we ourselves ordain everything we shall meet with no such resistance. We could make everything very easy for ourselves by accepting the sacrifice offered to us; then would the whole of evolution be subject unto us. But this will not do, we want beings able to resist us. We will therefore not accept the sacrifice; so that through our resignation and because they accept the sacrifice, they become our opponents!”

So we see that we must not look for the origin of evil in the so-called “evil” beings, but in the “good” Beings, who, through their resignation first brought evil about through those beings who were able to bring it into the world. But now the following objection may easily be made (and I want you to let these thoughts work profoundly upon your souls): I have till now thought more highly of the gods! I have always believed them able to give freedom to man without creating the possibility of evil. How is it that all these “good gods” could not produce something like human freedom without bringing evil into the world In this connection I should like to remind you of that Spanish King who considered the world dreadfully complicated, and who said on one occasion that if God had allowed him to create it he would have made it much simpler—Man in his weakness may think that the world might have been made simpler than it is, but the gods knew better and therefore they did not leave it to man to create the world.

From the standpoint of scientific perception, we might describe these circumstances more accurately. Suppose something required supporting and the suggestion were made that a column might be erected and the weight rested on that. This person in question might say: “There must be some other way of doing it!” Why, indeed, should it not be done in some other way? Or again, when a triangle is made use of in building, it might be said: Why should a triangle have only three angles a Perhaps a god might make a triangle not having three angles? There would be just as little sense in thinking of a triangle without three angles, as in supposing that the gods might have created freedom without the possibility of evil and suffering. Just as three angles are necessary to a triangle, so the possibility of evil, given by the resignation of Divine Beings, is necessary to freedom. It all forms part of the Divine resignation, for the gods created evolution out of immortality, after they had through their renunciation or sacrifice, ascended to immortality, in order to lead back evil again to good. The gods did not shrink from the evil, which alone could give the possibility of freedom. Had the gods avoided evil, the world would be poor, without variety. For the sake of freedom the gods had to allow evil to enter the world, and for this reason they had to acquire the power enabling them to lead evil back again to good. This power is such as can only be acquired as a consequence of renunciation, resignation.

Religions always exist for the purpose of showing us the great cosmic mysteries in symbols, in imaginations. In this lecture we have alluded to primordial phases of evolution, and by adding the conception of resignation to those of sacrifice and of the bestowing virtue we have come a step further from Maya and illusion into the realities. Conceptions such as these were presented to man in religions. And in that of the Bible there is something whereby man can acquire a conception of resignation, of the rejection of the sacrifice. That is the story of the sacrifice about to be made by Abraham who was ready to offer his own son to God, and of the renouncing by God of the sacrifice offered by the patriarch. If we take into our souls this conception of sacrifice, then intuitive visions such as those described may come to us. On one occasion I suggested that we should suppose that the sacrifice of Abraham had been accepted, that Isaac had been sacrificed. As all the ancient Hebrew people are descended from him, God would then by accepting the sacrifice have taken this whole nation from the Earth. Everything derived from Abraham was a gift of God through the renunciation of a sphere which is outside Himself; if He had accepted the sacrifice He would have taken into Himself the whole sphere which played its part within the ancient Hebrew people; for the sacrificed Isaac would have been with God. But He renounced this and therewith He gave over that whole line of evolution to the earth. Thus in the significant picture of the offering made by the old patriarch, the conception of renunciation and of sacrifice can arise within us.

And in yet another part of our earth-history do we find this resigning on the part of Higher Beings, and here too we must again refer to something alluded to in the last lecture—the picture of the “Last Supper,” by Leonardo da Vinci. It represents the scene in which as it were, we have before us the meaning of the earth, the Christ. While trying to penetrate the whole meaning of the picture, let us recollect those words, which are to be found in the Gospel: “Am I not able to call forth a whole multitude of angels if I wish to avoid the death of sacrifice?” That which Christ might have accepted at that moment, which would of course have been quite easy for Him to do, He rejected in resignation and renunciation. And the greatest renunciation made by Christ Jesus confronts us when, by having made it, He allows the opponent himself—Judas—to enter His sphere. If we are able to see in Christ Jesus all that is to be seen, we must see in Him an image of those Beings with whom, at a certain stage of evolution, we have just become acquainted, those who must renounce the proffered sacrifice, those whose very nature was resignation. Christ renounced that which would have occurred if He had not allowed Judas to appear as His opponent just as once upon a time, during the Sun-age, the gods themselves called forth their opponents by the renunciation they made. So we see a repetition of this event in a picture here on earth: that of the Christ seated among the twelve, and Judas, the betrayer, in the centre. In order that that which makes mankind of such immeasurable value might enter into evolution, Christ Himself had to place His opponent in opposition to Him. This picture makes such a profound impression on us because when we contemplate it, it reminds us of such a great cosmic moment; and when we recall the words: “He who dips his bread into the bowl with me, he it is who shall betray me,” we see an earthly reflection of the opponent of the gods, placed in opposition to them by the gods themselves. For this reason I have often ventured to say that if an inhabitant of Mars were able to descend to the earth, he might find things which would be of more or less interest to him although he might perhaps not understand them properly; but as soon as he saw this picture by Leonardo da Vinci he would, through a cosmic position which has a connection with Mars just as with the earth, learn something which would teach him the meaning of the earth. The incident represented in the earthly picture is of significance to the whole Cosmos: the fact that certain powers place themselves in opposition to the immortal Divine powers. And this representation of Christ surrounded by His Apostles, He who on the earth overcomes death and thus proves the triumph of immortality, is intended to point to that significant universal moment when the gods severed themselves from temporal existence and gained the victory over Time, that is, they became immortal. When we contemplate the “Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci, we may feel this in our hearts. Do not object that a person of simple mind may contemplate this picture and not know all that has been referred to to-day. It is not necessary that he should. For such are the mysterious depths of the human soul, that it is not necessary to understand with the intellect what the soul feels. Does the flower know the laws which regulate its growth? No! yet none the less it grows. What does the flower want with laws or the human soul with intellect to feel the whole immeasurable greatness of the subject, when before our eyes we see depicted a God and His opponents; when the highest that can possibly be expressed, the opposition of immortality to the transitory is brought before our eyes. It is not necessary to know this; for it passes into the soul with magic force when one stands before this picture, which represents in painting an image of the cosmic purpose. The artist did not require to be an occultist in this sense in order to paint this picture. But in the soul of Leonardo da Vinci were precisely the necessary forces to enable him to express this, the highest and most significant. That is why great works of art make such a tremendous impression, because they are intimately connected with the purpose of the cosmic order. In earlier ages artists in dim consciousness were in touch with this cosmic purpose without being aware of it. Art would, however, die out altogether, there would be no continuation, if in the future Anthroposophy were not there as the knowledge of these things to give to art a new foundation. Subconscious art has become a thing of the past. The art which is inspired by Anthroposophy is only at its starting point, its beginning. This will be the art of the future. Just as the artist of old had no need to know what lay behind his works of art, so the artist of the future must know this—but with those forces which represent a kind of immortality, something from the full contents of the soul. For a man who uses Anthroposophy as an intellectual science knows nothing of it. That man alone understands who has made it his own, who in every conception that we evolve—sacrifice, bestowing virtue, resignation—is able to feel in every word what it is that is trying to burst forth in that word or idea, what at the most can flow forth in the many-sided significance of the pictures. If a man believes the evolution of the world is accomplished by means of abstract conceptions, he will perhaps make diagrams. If we wish to represent living conceptions such as sacrifice, or the virtue of bestowal and renunciation, diagrams are of no use; we must paint pictures in our minds like those described in the last lectures: of the Thrones offering sacrifice and sending up to the Cherubim the smoke of the sacrifice, ever spreading more widely and of the Archangels sending back the light; and so on. And when in our next study we pass on to the Moon-existence we shall see how much richer the picture becomes, how something like the liquefying of the dammed up masses of cloud actually had to take place, and that this becomes drizzling rain, into which flashes the lightning of the Seraphim. We must then pass on to richer conceptions with regard to which we must say: The future of mankind will certainly find the possibility, the artistic ways and means to express to the outer world what can otherwise only be read in the Akashic Records.

In our survey of the world we have now carried a difficult aspect of it far enough to discover to some extent the spiritual behind the phenomena of the external sense-world. Concerning such phenomena, at first outwardly revealing little of the fact that the spiritual in its own peculiar form stands behind them, as we experience this spiritual in our own soul-life—concerning such phenomena we have recognised that nevertheless spiritual qualities and properties do stand behind them. For example, in ordinary life we recognise the properties of heat or fire, and we have learnt to see in these the expression of sacrifice. In what meets us as air and at any rate, to our ideas, seems to reveal so little of its spiritual nature, we have recognised the bestowing virtue of certain Spiritual Beings. And we have learnt to perceive in water what might be called resignation. It may just be mentioned here, that in earlier conceptions of the world there was naturally a greater sense of the spiritual behind the outer material element, and the fact that specially volatile substances have been designated “spirit” may be looked upon as proving this, for we make a peculiar use of the word “spirit” to-day. Indeed in the outer world it may often occur that people use the word “spiritual” with very little application to spiritual things. On one occasion (as some here present are aware) a letter was addressed to a spiritualist union at Munich, and so little did one know what a spiritualistic circle was, that the letter was delivered to the Central Committee of Wine and Spirit merchants!

But to-day, when we wish to study that significant transition in the evolution of the Earth planet which took place in the passing from ancient Sun to ancient Moon, we must bear in mind a different kind of development of the spiritual. We must now start from that point which we reached in the last lecture, when we came to the subject of “renunciation.” This, as we have seen, consisted essentially in the refusal of Beings of exalted Spiritual rank to accept the sacrifice, which as we were told, consisted for the most part of will or will-substance. If we represent this to our minds in such a way that we picture certain Beings desirous of offering the substance of their will in sacrifice which through the renunciation of yet higher Beings was rejected, it will be easy to rise to the conception that this substance must remain with the Beings desirous of sacrificing, who were prevented from doing so. Thus we are introduced to Beings in the Cosmic scheme ready to contribute with fervour what dwells within them—but who are not able to do this, are obliged to retain this substance within them. The Beings whose sacrifice was rejected were unable to establish a particular connection with still higher Beings, which might have been established had their offering been accepted. What we must understand by this is symbolically expressed in the world's history by the figure of Cain confronting Abel, though there the contrast is more sharply emphasised. Cain too wished to offer sacrifice to his God. But it was not pleasing unto God and He would not accept it. The sacrifice offered by Abel was accepted. What we must bear in mind in this story is the inner experience which came to Cain through the rejection of his sacrifice.

If we wish to raise ourselves to the height necessary for the comprehension of what is now under consideration, we must clearly realise that in speaking of the regions referred to, both conceptions and ideas slip into use regarding them which only have meaning in our ordinary life. It would be incorrect to speak of “sin” or “wrong-doing” as coming into being by the rejection of the sacrifice. Guilt or atonement as we know it in our ordinary life, could not as yet be spoken of in those regions.

Rather must we think of these Beings in such a way, that on the part of those Higher Ones who rejected the proffered sacrifice, there is renunciation or resignation. In the mood of soul described in the last lecture there is nothing of guilt or omission; on the contrary, it contains all the greatness and significance to be found in resignation. None the less the fact remains that in those other Beings who wished to contribute their sacrifice there arose a feeling, though very faint, which was the beginning of an opposition to those who rejected it. So that when at a much later epoch, the story of Cain is brought to our notice this feeling is represented in an accentuated form. Hence we do not find in those Beings who continued to evolve from the Sun and to pass over to the Moon, the same disposition of mind as in Cain; in them the mood is different in degree. We only really become acquainted with this if we look into our own souls as we did in the last lecture, trying to find its counterpart there, and thus get a hint of that feeling which was developed in the Individualities whose sacrificial gifts were rejected.

Coming nearer and nearer to the earthly life of man, we find this mood in ourselves—everyone knows it—as uncertainty and at the same time as torment in the domain which can be included in the hidden depths of soul-life. This feeling with which we are all acquainted holds sway in the secret depth of our soul-life, and sometimes pushes its way up to the surface; and then perhaps its torment is least. We often go about with these feelings without being aware of them in our superficial consciousness; yet there they are within us. We might recall the words of the poet: “He alone who longing knows, knows what I suffer,” if we wish to convey an idea of the tormenting nature of this mood with which is connected a certain degree of pain. The longing to be found in the souls of men, is what is here meant.

In order to transport ourselves into what went on spiritually in the evolutionary phases of ancient Saturn and Sun, it was necessary to raise our vision to peculiar states of the soul which only appear, so to speak, when the human soul begins to aspire and prepares for higher striving. We saw this when we tried to understand the nature of sacrifice by referring to our own soul-life, when we tried to comprehend the nature of the wisdom man can acquire, which we saw trickling in, and which has its origin in what may be called: “readiness to bestow,” “readiness to give,” even to giving oneself; so to speak. When we come on to the more earthly conditions which have evolved out of the earlier ones, we encounter a soul-mood resembling in many respects what a man may even yet experience at the present day. But we must quite clearly realise, that although the whole of our soul-life is inserted into our earth-body, an upper layer lies over the hidden soul-life in the depths. Who could fail to know that there is such a hidden life of the soul? Life itself amply teaches us this.

Now in order to make clear to ourselves something of this hidden life of the soul, let us take the case of a child who in his seventh or eighth year, or at some other age may have experienced some injustice, to which children are particularly sensitive. He perhaps may have been blamed for something which he really had not done, but it suited the convenience of those around him to throw the blame on the child, so as to have an end of the matter. Now children are very specially sensitive to unjust accusation; but as life now is, although such an experience may have bitten deeply into the childish life, the later soul-life put another layer of existence over it, and as far as everyday life is concerned the, child forgot it. And indeed it may very well never crop up again. But suppose that in his fifteenth or sixteenth year this boy should experience fresh injustice, perhaps at school; then that which has lain dormant below in the surging waves of his soul, begins to stir. The boy need not know that a memory of what he had formerly endured is rising to the surface, he may have different concepts and ideas on the subject. But if his earlier experience had not occurred he might simply have gone home, perhaps grumbled and complained, and shed a few tears, and that would have been the end of the matter. The first injustice had, however, been experienced, and although, as I make a point of saying, the boy need have no recollection of it, yet it works! It becomes active beneath the surface of the soul-life just as there may be movements beneath the surface of a calm and glassy sea, and what might have ended in a few grumblings and tears now becomes the suicide of a schoolboy! Thus do the hidden depths of the soul-life play their part on the surface. The most important of all the forces ruling below in these depths, one which governs every soul and occasionally emerges in its original form, is—longing. We also know the names by which this force is known to the outer world, but they are only metaphoric and indefinite, for they express very complicated connections and thus do not enter a man's consciousness at all.

Take as an example a phenomenon with which we are all well acquainted: perhaps a man who lives in great cities is less affected by it, but he will have seen it in others:—I refer to what is known as “home-sickness.” If you investigate into the true nature of home-sickness you will find it differs fundamentally in every one. Sometimes it takes one form and sometimes another. One person may long for the homely stories of the family circle; he does not know that he is longing for home, he only feels an undefined craving, an undefined want. Another longs for his mountain, or for the river on whose banks he used to play, watching the movement of the rippling water. He is seldom aware of what it is that is working within him. All these diverse characteristics we include in the term “home-sickness,” expressing something that may be active in a thousand forms, and would be most accurately defined as a kind of longing. And what is this longing? We have just said that it is a kind of willing, and whenever we investigate this longing, we find that it is of this nature. What kind of willing? It is a will which in its immediate form cannot be satisfied; for were it satisfied, the longing would cease. What we described as longing is an unattainable desire of the will.

So must we define the frame of mind of those Beings whose sacrifice was rejected, it was somewhat of this nature. What we may discover in the depths of our soul-life is a heritage coming to us from those primeval times of which we are now speaking. Just as we have inherited other things from that ancient stage of evolution, so do we inherit all kinds of longings, all kinds of repressed wishes impossible to fulfil. It is in this way we must also conjecture that through the rejection of the sacrifice during the phase of evolution there came into existence beings whom we may designate as: Beings with wishes which are repressed. Now because they were obliged to suffer this repression they were in a very special position. And as we can hardly rise into these conditions by means of thought, we must once again turn to certain conditions in our own soul, if we wish to feel, to sense the reflection of them.

A being able to sacrifice its own will passes, in a certain sense, into the being of the other. We can feel this even in our human life, we live and move in one for whom we sacrifice ourselves, we feel glad and satisfied when in that person's presence. And as we are now speaking of the sacrifice offered to higher Beings, to more widely-extending, universal Beings, by others who found their greatest bliss in gazing up at them, what remains behind as repressed longings and wishes can never create the same inner disposition of soul as would have been theirs if they had been allowed to complete their sacrifice. For if they had been able to do this what they offered would have passed over into the other Beings. We might, by way of example suggest, that if the earth and the other planets could have made sacrifice to the Sun—they would be with the Sun. But if they were not allowed to do this, if they had to withhold what they were preparing to offer up, they would then have been driven back into themselves. If we can understand what has just been said in these few words, we observe that at this stage something new enters the universe. It must be clearly understood that it is impossible to express this in any other way than by saying that the Beings who were ready to offer to another all that dwelt within them, were compelled on the rejection of their sacrifice, to draw all this unto themselves. Do you not guess what now flashed up—that this was what is called egoity which comes out in every form? It is thus that we must look upon what lives on in the Beings as a heritage—which later on was poured into evolution, so to speak. We see egoism flashing up in the weakest form, as longing, but we can also see it slipping into the evolution of the Cosmos. Thus we see how Beings devoted to themselves, to their egoity, would in a certain respect have been condemned to a one-sided development, to living only in themselves, if something else had not occurred.

Let us picture a being, permitted to make sacrifice; such a one lives in the other being, and does so for all time. One not allowed to make sacrifice can only live within itself. It is thereby shut off from what it would have experienced in another, in this case a higher Being. Thus from the outset it is condemned and exiled by evolution to a one-sided existence, were it not that something here enters evolution to redress the balance. This is the arrival on the scene of new Beings who prevent the one-sidedness. Just as on Saturn there were the Spirits of Will, and on ancient Sun Spirits of Wisdom, so, on ancient Moon the Spirits of Movement make their appearance; we must not, however, think of movement in space, but movement rather more like the nature of thought. Every one knows the expression “thought-vibrations,” though this only refers to the fluidic movement of our own thought; yet this expression may serve, if we want to acquire a more comprehensive conception of movement, to show us that we think of something more than the mere movement from one place to another, for that is only one of the many forms of movement. If a number of persons devote themselves to a higher Being who is expressive of all that is within them, and who accepts all the sacrifices they offer him, these people live in that Being as a plurality in unity, and find full satisfaction in so doing. But if their sacrifices are rejected, the plurality is driven back upon itself and is never satisfied. Then came the Spirits of Movement and in a sense they guide the Beings who would have simply been driven back upon themselves and bring them into relation with all other Beings. The Spirits of Movement should not be thought of as merely bringing about changes of place; they are Beings able to bring forth something whereby one Being is constantly brought into new relation with others.

We can form an idea of what was attained in the Cosmos at this stage if we once more reflect upon a corresponding disposition of the soul. Who does not know the longing when a condition of soul approaches in which a man is at a standstill, when he can experience no change! Who does not know the torment of it, how it drives a man into a state of mind which becomes unendurable, and which in a merely superficial person takes the form of boredom? But of this boredom which is as a rule only ascribed to a shallow-pated person, there are all manner of in-between stages up to that which is an attribute of noble characters in whom dwells what is generated by their own natures as longing and cannot be satisfied in this world. And what better method is there of quieting longing than by change? This is proved by the fact that persons who suffer from it incessantly seek to form relationships to new beings. The torment of longing can often be overcome by changing the conditions to ever new beings.

Thus we see that while the earth was passing through her Moon-phase, the Spirits of Movement brought into the lives of those beings who were filled with longing and would otherwise have been desolate—for boredom is also a kind of desolation—the change which is brought about by movement, a constantly renewed relation to ever new beings and new conditions. Movement in space, movement from one place to another, is but one form of the more comprehensive movement which has just been mentioned. When in the morning we have a definite train of thought in our soul, not necessarily to be kept to ourselves, but passed on to others—a “movement” takes place. We can then overcome one-sidedness of longing by means of variety, by change and the movement of the things experienced. In outer space there is only a particular form of change. In this connection let us imagine a planet in relation to a Sun: if it always occupied the same position to the Sun, if it never moved, it would be subject to that one-sidedness, which can only result when it presents invariably the same side to the Sun. Then the Spirits of Movement turn the planet round so as to bring about a change in its conditions. Change of place is but one of the many forms of change. And the Spirits of Movement, by bringing change of place into the Cosmos, merely introduce one specific part of movement in general.

But as the Spirits of Movement introduce change and movement into the Universe as we have learnt to know up to the present, something else must follow. We know that during this evolution, in the whole Cosmic multiplicity that evolves upwards as the Spirits of Movement, of Personality, of Wisdom, and of Will—there is also what we have called “Bestowing Virtue,” which is radiated forth as Wisdom, and is the spiritual element behind air and gas. This then combines with the Will now transformed into longing, and within these Beings it becomes what is known to man hardly yet as “thoughts” but as “picture.” We can best realise this in the picture that a man has when he dreams; the fluidic pictures that succeed one another in a dream may evoke a conception of what takes place in a being in whom the volition of longing dwells, and is guided by the Spirits of Movement into relation with other beings. But when it is thus guided into a relation with the other beings, it cannot completely surrender itself—the egotism within it prevents that; but it is able to take in the transitory picture of the other being, which lives in him like a dream-picture. This is the origin of what we call the “arising” of pictures of the other world. At this phase of development we see the arising of the picture-consciousness. And as we human beings ourselves passed through this phase of evolution without then possessing our present earthly ego-consciousness, we must think of ourselves at that time without that which we can now acquire through our ego, but living and weaving in the universe, while within us lived something which we can compare with the present feelings of longing.

We could in a certain fashion imagine, if we do not remember such conditions of suffering as we know on earth, that they could not possibly exist, by reflecting on the following:—Sorrow and suffering—naturally in its soul-form, came at that time into our being and that of other entities connected with our evolution; through the activity of the Spirits of Movement the inner nature which would otherwise have been barren and empty, suffering the tortures of longing, was filled with the balm which flowed into these beings in the form of picture-consciousness, otherwise these beings would have been empty-souled, empty of everything not to be called longing. But the balm of the pictures was slowly poured in, filling the desolate void with variety, and thus the beings were led away from exile and condemnation. If we take what is here said seriously, it gives us both the spiritual basis of what developed during the Moon-phase of our Earth, and of what we now have in the deep subsoil of our consciousness, for it has been covered over by the earth-stage of our nature. And it is so embedded in the subsoil of our soul, that, as the disturbance beneath the surface of the sea drives up the waves, it can influence us, without our being aware of the cause of what enters our consciousness. Beneath the surface of our ordinary ego-consciousness we have such a soul-life as can play up into it. And when it does so, what does the soul-life say? If we bear in mind the cosmic subsoil of this subconscious soul-life, we can say that what we can sense arising from the depths of the soul is a bursting-forth within what we have acquired through our earth-phase, of what has come over from the Moon-phase of evolution. If we clearly grasp what it is that has come into our nature here on the Earth, we have a true explanation of what has been spiritually brought over from the ancient Moon into our Earth-existence.

If you grasp the fact that it was necessary, as has just been described, that pictures should continually arise to assuage the feeling of desolation, you obtain a conception which is of very great importance and weight: that of the longing human soul, in all its yearning emptiness. By the constant succession of pictures, arising one after the other, the yearning is satisfied and brought into harmony; but should the pictures remain any length of time the old longing begins to glimmer faintly up from the depths and the Spirits of Movement call up new pictures. And when these have been there for a little time the longing arises again, demanding fresh ones. Now with respect to a soul-life such as this the momentous sentence must be pronounced: if this longing can only be satisfied by a continual flow of pictures following one after the other, there would be no end to the infinite flow. The only thing that can supervene on this is what must come if the endless flow of pictures is to be replaced by something that is able to redeem it otherwise than by mere pictures—namely, by realities! In other words, the planetary embodiment of our earth through which we have passed, when pictures were brought to us by the activity of the Spirits of Movement, must be replaced by that planetary phase of the earth's embodiment which we call the phase of redemption. We shall see presently that the earth is to be called the “Planet of Redemption,” just as her last embodiment—that of the Moon-existence—may be called the “Planet of Longing”; longing capable of satisfaction yet flowing on endlessly. And while we live in the consciousness belonging to this earth, in which as we know redemption comes to us through the Mystery of Golgotha—there arises continually within us from the subsoil of our soul, a never-ceasing craving for redemption. It is as though, on the surface, we had the waves of our ordinary consciousness—while below, in the depths of the ocean of the soul-life, lives longing, which is the ocean-bed of our soul. This strives continually to ascend to the One who accomplishes the sacrifice, the Universal Being, Who is able to satisfy the longing once and for all time—not in a never-ceasing succession of pictures.

The earth-man already feels moods such as these, and they are the very very best for him to feel. The citizens of earth of our time who feel this longing—which belongs to this particular age of ours—are those who enter our own movement of Spiritual Science. In external life people have learnt to know all the separate things that can satisfy the ordinary superficial consciousness; but from the subconsciousness pushes up that which can never be satisfied in details but yearns for the central basis of life. This basis can only be provided by a universal science which occupies itself with the totality of life rather than with details. That which rises from the subconsciousness must in the sense of to-day be brought into touch with the study of the universal existence living in the world; otherwise that which ascends from the subsoil of the soul will be further longing for something which can never be attained. In this sense anthroposophy is a response to those longings which dwell in the depths of the soul. As everything that happens in the world has had a prelude, we need not wonder at a man who at the present day longs through spiritual science for satisfaction for the powers of his soul, above all, when the unconscious soul-forces akin to longings, would consume themselves as longing. Suppose that he, through living in an earlier age, in which this spiritual wisdom had not been given, had been unable to have it, and had come to long for it, to have a persistent longing for it, unable to grasp the meaning of life, just because he was an eminently great soul. If only something could have flowed into his soul, drowning, silencing the longing for pictures while he yearned for an end to this search for pictures—the greater the yearning, the more intense the search. And is it not like a voice expressing itself to us, the utterance of a spirit living at a time when it could not yet have the spiritual wisdom which, like balsam, is shed forth into the longing soul, when we hear Heinrich Von Kleist writing to a friend. In the following words we seem to hear him say:—“Who would desire to be happy in this world!” I could almost say, shame on you if you wished to be. Would it not be short-sighted, noble man, to strive for anything here below, where all ends in death! We meet here, three Springs long we love, and then we flee apart for an eternity. And what is worth striving for, if love be not? Oh! there must be something more than love, happiness, fame, and so on; something of which our souls do not even dream. It can be no evil spirit at the head of the world, it is merely not understood. Do not we smile too when children cry? Just think of the endless continuity! Myriads of ages, each having its own life, and to each a manifested existence like this world of ours! What is the name of the little star we see in the sky when the night is clear and we gaze at Sirius? All this immense firmament but a speck of dust compared with infinity! Tell me, is this nothing but a dream? At night when we are reposing between our linen sheets, we have a wider aspect, richer in intuition than thoughts can grasp or words describe. Come, let us do something good, and die in doing it! One of the million deaths we have already died, and shall yet die. It is as though we pass from one room to another. Lo! The world to me appears enclosed in a nest of boxes, the smallest exactly like the biggest!”—(From a letter written by Heinrich Von Kleist, in 1806.)

The longing expressed in these words was felt by a man who could not then find anything able to satisfy it—such as a modern thinker may find if he studies anthroposophy in the right way. The writer of these words took his own life a hundred years ago, shooting first his friend, Henriette Vogel and then himself, and now he rests on the banks of Lake Vann in that lonely grave which for a century has closed over his remains.

In speaking of the frame of mind which best illustrates what we are endeavouring to grasp, when we speak of the combined action of the sacrifice of will held back in longing, of the satisfaction of this longing, which could only come through the Spirits of Motion, and the urge towards its ultimate satisfaction, only to come on the Planet of Redemption—a singular Karmic link has caused us to speak here, in accordance with our ordinary programme, on the very day which reminds us of how a great mind expressed this undefined longing in the grandest of words, and finally poured it forth in the most tragic act in which longing could be embodied. How can we fail to recognise that this man's spirit in its entirety as he stands before us, is an actual living embodiment of that which dwells in the depths of the soul, which we must trace back to something other than the life of earth if we wish to recognise it? Has not Heinrich Von Kleist described in the most significant manner what may live within a man (a description of which you will find at the very beginning of The Spiritual Guidance of Man and Mankind), as something transcending him and driving him, and which he will only understand later on if he does not snap the threads of his life before! Think of his “Penthesilea”; how much more there is in her than she can span with her earthly consciousness! We should not be able to describe her at all, did we not take for granted that her soul was immeasurably further advanced than the narrow little soul (although it was a great one) which she could span with her earthly consciousness. Hence a situation must arise which artistically introduces the whole process of the Drama. Indeed, it was necessary to prevent the whole transaction—which Kleist introduces with Achilles—from being grasped with the higher consciousness; otherwise the whole tragedy could not be perceived. Hence Achilles is called “her” Achilles. What lies in the higher consciousness must be plunged into the non-conscious. Again, what part does this subconsciousness play in Kätchen Von Heilbronn, especially in the remarkable relation between her and Wetter Von Strahl, which plays no part in the higher consciousness, but in the deeper strata of the soul where dwell the forces of which man knows nothing, which pass from one to another. When we have this before us we can feel the spiritual nature of the world's forces of gravity and attraction. For instance, in the scene where Kätchen stands before her admirers, do we not feel what lives in the subconsciousness, and how it is related to what is outside in the world which has been drily called the planet's force of attraction? Yet only one hundred years ago a truly penetrating and striving mind was not able to find his way into that subconsciousness. But it must be done today. And the tragedy of a Prince of Homburg strikes us in a very different way now. I should like to know how an abstract thinker, one who accounts for everything by reason alone, could account for a figure such as the Prince of Homburg, who carried out all his great deeds in a kind of dream-state, even those leading finally to victory. Kleist indicates very clearly that he could not possibly gain the victory by means of his higher consciousness, for as far as that was concerned he was not a particularly great man, for he whines and whimpers over everything he has to do. Only when by a special effort of the will, he brings up what dwells in the depths of his soul, does he play the man.

What still belongs to a man as heritage of the old Moon consciousness must not be brought to the surface by abstract science, but by that science which has many sides, and can lay hold in a delicate and subtle way of spiritual contours: that is, Spiritual Science. The greatest unites itself with the mediocre and the ordinary.

Thus we see that Anthroposophy shows that the conditions we are experiencing in our souls to-day are connected with the Cosmos, with the Universe. We see also, however, how that which we experience in the soul to-day can alone provide us with an understanding of the spiritual foundation of things. We see, too, that our era had to come to satisfy what was yearned for in the age preceding our own, when men longed for what cannot be given until our age. We feel a kind of veneration for such men, who could not find their bearings as regards what they longed for in their hearts, and what the world could not give them. When we recollect that all human life is linked together, and that the man of to-day can devote his life to those spiritual movements which—as their destiny shows—bygone men have so long desired we cannot but feel a veneration for them. So, on the centenary of the tragic death of one who was consumed by that longing, we may in a sense point to Anthroposophy or Spiritual Science as being the redemption of mankind from that longing. This day may serve to remind us how tragically and stormily that which Anthroposophy is able to give us, has been desired and longed for. This is a thought that we may well take hold of, which perhaps is also anthroposophical, on the centenary of the death of one of the greatest German poets.

Thus the fact has now been brought home to us in a series of lectures that behind all that we call Maya or the great illusion, there is the Spiritual. Let us once again ask ourselves in what way it has been made evident that the spiritual is to be discerned behind everything perceptible to our senses and our physically limited grasp of the world.

In order to describe this spiritual element we were obliged in the course of the last lectures to sweep the nearest external phenomena away from our field of vision and pierce through to such qualities of reality as those described as the willingness to sacrifice, and the virtue of bestowal or renunciation, in fact, to those virtues with which we can only become acquainted by looking into our own souls, and which we can only fully comprehend by means of our own souls. Now if we are really to attribute such virtues as these to what we have to think of as the reality—we might almost say the “true”—behind the world of illusion, we must admit that in this world of true existence, in this world of reality, there lives that which fundamentally, as regards its qualities, can only be compared with the qualities we primarily perceive in our souls. For instance if we have to characterise that which is outwardly expressed in the phenomena of heat, presenting it in its true character of sacrificial service, as the flowing sacrifice in the world, it means precisely that we must reduce the element of heat back to the spiritual, to the incorporeal, doing away, as it were, with the outer veil of existence, showing that which in the external world is similar to what we recognise as the spiritual in ourselves.

Now before we carry these observations further, another idea is necessary. That is the following. Does all that we have in this world of Maya or illusion really vanish into a sort of nothingness? Is everything around us in this world of sense, the world of our external comprehension which to us appears as the real or part of the real—is all this actually nothing?

It would indeed be quite a good comparison if we were to say that the world of truth, the world of reality, is at first concealed, as the inner forces of a lake or even of the ocean are concealed in the body of water, and that the world of Maya might be compared with the rippling play of the waves on the surface. That would be a good comparison; for it shows exactly that there is in the depths of the ocean something that causes the rippling of the waves above, something that is the substantiality of the water and the configuration of its force. So that whether we select this example or any other is a matter of indifference, we may very well put the question:—Is there in the wide realms of our Maya or illusion, anything that is real? To-day we shall follow the same system as in the last lectures. We shall slowly approach what we wish to bring before our mind, by starting with inner experiences of our soul; and indeed, as we have moved forward spiritually through the Saturn-, Sun- and Moon-existence, and have now approached that of the Earth, we shall start from more intimate, we might almost say more common soul-experiences than those referred to in our last lecture. We then started from the hidden depths of the soul-life, from what arises in what we call the “astral body.” There we felt longing arising within it, and we saw how the longing works in the nature of man, actually leading the life of the soul to find satisfaction only in meeting that picture-world which we have been able to grasp as the inner movement of that life. We thus found the way from the microcosmic soul to that cosmic creating which we ascribed to the Spirits of Movement. To-day we shall begin with a still more intimate experience of the soul, one indeed to which attention was already drawn in ancient Greece, which in its reality is even to-day of profound significance. It is indicated in the words: all philosophy, and all striving for a certain kind of human knowledge, proceeds from Wonder. This is really the case. Any man who has devoted a little reflection and thought to the whole process in experience in his own soul, as to how he was brought to any particular learning, will come to know that a sound way to learning is always to start from wonder, from amazement at something. This wonder, this amazement, from which every form of learning must proceed belongs precisely to those experiences of the soul which we described as bringing sublimity and life into anything, however dry. What kind of learning would it be which found a place in our soul, without proceeding from wonder! It would truly be a learning swamped in prosiness and pedantry. That process in the soul which leads from wonder to the bliss we feel when our riddles are solved, which has raised itself above wonder, that alone constitutes the sublimity and vital power of the process of acquiring knowledge. We really ought to be able to feel the dryness and withering of any knowledge not originating in these two movements of the mind. Sound knowledge is framed in wonder and the bliss of solved riddles; any other kind of knowledge may be acquired externally and established by man through some kind of reasoning. But a knowledge not framed by these two feelings, does not spring from the soul of man in real earnest. All the fragrance of knowledge that is created by the atmosphere of the life element in knowledge, proceeds from these two, from wonder and the bliss of its satisfaction. But what is the origin of wonder itself? Why is it that wonder, amazement at anything external, arises in our souls? It arises, because, when we first meet with a being, a thing or a fact, it appears strange to us. This strangeness is the first element leading to wonder and amazement. But we do not feel this for everything that is strange to us; but only for that to which we feel ourselves in a sense related, so related that we say: “In this being or thing there is something that is not as yet in me, but which may pass over into me.” So that we can feel related to a thing yet strange, which at first we must grasp through wonder and astonishment, our inner “wondering” is our perception of the quality of an outer “wonder” to which a man at first as far as his own perception goes, considers himself in no wise related. That, however, depends on himself; or at least it need only do so. And he would not adopt a challenging attitude towards what appears to him as “a wonder” unless he were in a certain way to demand that it should disclose itself to him because it is related to him. Why else should people who start from purely materialistic or purely intellectual concepts deny what others designate as a “wonder,” when they have no direct proof that a fabrication, a falsehood, is brought forward? Even philosophers to-day are obliged to admit that it can never be proved by any of the phenomena known to man, that the Christ incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth did not rise again. Proof can be brought against this assertion; but what is the manner of these proofs? Logically they are not tenable! Even enlightened philosophers now admit that. For all the reasons brought against it from the materialistic side—as for instance, the statement that no man has yet been seen to have risen like Christ—all these reasons are on the same level as the argument of a man who had never seen anything but fish and therefore wished to prove the non-existence of birds. It is impossible logically to prove by the existence of one class of beings, that others do not exist. Just as little is it possible through the experiences one may have of men on the physical plane to deduce something—which in the first place is described as a “miracle,” concerning the event of Golgotha. But if something is communicated to a person, which although it may be true, he must call a miracle and he says that he cannot understand it, he does not thereby contradict what we have said about the idea of wondering; for his attitude shows clearly that this starting point of all knowledge is already established for him. He demands, in fact, that what he has been told should find an echo in himself. He wishes it to become its own property intellectually and as he believes that he cannot have that, and it is not related to him, he challenges it. Even if we ourselves arrive at the concept of the miraculous, we should see that amazement or marvel, upon which is based all philosophy in the sense of ancient Greece, is aroused by a man finding himself confronted with something strange to him, but to which at the same time he recognises a relationship. Let us try to create a connecting link between these ideas and those brought before our minds in the last lecture.

We have shown that a particular advance in evolution was brought about through the willingness of certain Beings to sacrifice, but that their sacrifices were rejected and thrown back, and we learnt to recognise in the rejected sacrifice one of the principal factors in the ancient Moon-evolution. One of the most important points in that evolution is the fact that during that period sacrifice was to be offered by certain Beings to Beings even more exalted, and that it was renounced by them; so that, as it were, the smoke of the sacrifice offered by the ancient Moon-Beings pressed up to the higher Beings but was not accepted by them; and that this was sent back as substance into the Beings who had desired to offer it up. We also saw that much of the peculiar character of the Beings belonging to ancient Moon consisted in their feeling within themselves what they had wished to send up to the higher Beings as sacrificial substance. We saw, indeed, that this, which aspired, but was unable to ascend to the higher Beings, remained behind within the Beings themselves—and that thereby was developed in certain Beings, in the Beings of the rejected, the force of Longing. We have still, in all that we experience in our own souls as longing, a legacy from the bygone events on ancient Moon when those Beings found their sacrifice rejected. In a spiritual sense the whole character of the ancient Moon-evolution, its whole spiritual atmosphere, may be described in many respects by saying that Beings were present there who desired to offer sacrifice, but found that this sacrifice was not accepted because the higher Beings resigned it. The peculiar feature of the spiritual atmosphere of ancient Moon was: the rejected sacrifice. And the rejection of the sacrifice offered by Cain, which symbolically represents one of the starting points of the evolution of earthly humanity, appears as a kind of recapitulation of this peculiar feature of the ancient Moon evolution taking place in the soul of Cain, who sees that his sacrifice is not accepted. This is something which reveals to us a sorrow, a pain which gives birth to longing, just as was the case with the beings belonging to the old Moon-existence. We saw in the last lecture, that between this rejected sacrifice and the longing arising in these beings through its rejection, an adjustment was produced through the appearance on the old Moon of the Spirits of Movement. They created a possible way by which the longing arising in the Beings of the rejected sacrifice, could in a sense be satisfied. You must picture the position very clearly in your minds. You have the exalted Beings to whom sacrifice is about to be made; the substance offered in sacrifice to them rejected; and the longing thereby arising within the Beings who desired to offer and now feel: “Had I been able to accomplish my sacrifice, the best part of my own being would be living in those exalted ones; but now I am shut out from them, I am here while they are yonder!” The Spirits of Movement, however, and this can be taken almost literally, bring the Beings in whom the rejected sacrifice glows as a longing for the higher Beings, into such positions that they can approach them from many different sides. That which remains in them as the sacrifice which could not be offered, can at any rate now be adjusted, through the wealth of impressions received from the higher Beings, who are as it were, encircled by the Beings of the rejected sacrifice. So is adjusted what could not be harmonised, because of the rejection of the sacrifice, inasmuch as in the position of these Beings to the higher Beings a relation is established between them which conveys the impression of a presented sacrifice. We can form a clear idea of what this implies, if we think symbolically of the more exalted Beings united as a Sun, and then, in one position, as a planet, the less exalted gathered together. Now suppose that the Beings of the lesser planet wished to make sacrifice to the greater planet—to the Sun, and that the Sun refused to accept it; the substance of the sacrifice must remain in the Beings whose sacrifice was not accepted. Then in their loneliness, their isolation fills their being with longing. Now the Spirits of Movement bring them into the periphery of the more exalted Beings; this makes it first possible for them, in place of the direct upward flow of their sacrificial substance, to set that substance itself in motion and thereby to bring it into connection with the higher Beings. This is exactly like a man who cannot be contented within himself by means of a single great satisfaction, but experiences a number of partial satisfactions; the result of these different experiences being to set all his feelings in motion. This was gone into more minutely in the last lecture. We saw that as the Beings were unable to feel an inner connection with the higher Beings through the sacrifice, impressions came to them outside in the place of this, by which we saw that they were still able to obtain a certain satisfaction.

But it is an undeniable fact that that which was to have been offered up would have continued its existence within the higher Beings in a different fashion from its state within the lower Beings. The actual conditions necessary to that existence are in those higher Beings. It became necessary, therefore, for different conditions of existence to arise in the lower Beings. This again can be symbolically expressed. If the whole substance of a planet could flow into the Sun and it were not rejected, the Beings of that planet would find different conditions of existence within the Sun from those they would have met with in the planet outside if the Sun throws them back: an estrangement of what we must call the “contents of the sacrifice” takes place, it is alienated from its origin.

Now bear in mind the thought that certain Beings are compelled to retain within them something which they would gladly have offered up in sacrifice, and concerning which they both feel and perceive that it could only attain its real meaning, if it could be offered up.

If you can picture the feelings of such Beings, you will have an idea of what may be called: “The exclusion of a certain number of Cosmic Beings from their actual meaning, their great cosmic purpose.” Certain Beings have within them something, which, speaking symbolically, could only fulfil its purpose elsewhere. The consequence of this is that the “displacement”—if we may once more speak symbolically—of the rejected incense, of the rejected sacrificial substance, excludes it at first from the rest of the cosmic process.

If you grasp these thoughts with your feeling—not with your reason, for that does not extend to matters such as these—you will perceive that this represents something like a rending away from the universal cosmic process. To the Beings who rejected the sacrifice it is only something they put away from them; to the other Beings, those within whom the sacrificial substance is retained, this is a something on which an alien character is imprinted. Thus there are Beings in whose substance this estrangement from its origin is imprinted. If we can present these things to our soul through inner feelings, we are reminded of something in which an alien character is inherent: that is Death! Death is none other than that which necessarily enters the universe with the rejection of the sacrificial substance of those Beings who then had to retain it within themselves. Thus we advance from the resignation, the renunciation of what has been rejected by the higher Beings—which we encounter at the third stage of evolution—to Death.

In its true significance death is neither more nor less than the nature of essential contents, contents which are shut out and not in their proper place. Even when death comes to a man in concrete form it is fundamentally the same thing. For when we look at the corpse left behind in the world of Maya, we know that it consists of nothing but matter which at the moment of death was shut out from the Ego, astral body, and etheric body, alienated from that within which alone it had a meaning. The physical human body without the etheric body, astral body, and Ego has no meaning, it is purposeless; at that moment it is excluded from its purpose. That which we can no longer perceive when a man dies, is then for us in the macrocosm. On account of the Cosmic Beings who belong to higher spheres having rejected what was to have been brought to them in sacrifice, the rejected sacrificial substance within the Beings to whom it was thrown back lapses into death, for death signifies the exclusion of any cosmic substance or cosmic being from its actual purpose.

We have now come to a spiritual characteristic of what we call the fourth element in the Universe. If fire represents the purest sacrifice—and wherever we encounter fire or heat, behind it there is its spiritual counterpart: Sacrifice—if behind all the air spread out around our earth there really lies the virtue of giving, a really flowing virtue; if we may describe flowing water or the element of fluidity as spiritual resignation or renunciation, so must we describe the element of Earth, which alone can be the bearer of death—for death would not exist without it—as that which has been severed from its purpose by renunciation. Now we have something in a concrete form, showing how the solid is formed from the fluidic. For this too reflects a spiritual process, in a certain sense. Suppose ice forms in a pond; the water then becomes solid. The real reason of this is that the water in becoming ice is cut off from its purpose. This gives us the spiritual process of solidification, the spiritual process of the Earth's becoming; for as far as the distinguishing marks of the four elements are concerned, ice too is earth, and fluid alone is water. Earth is the element in which death appears and may be experienced.

We began by putting the question as to whether anything real could be found in our world of illusion and Maya, whether there is anything in it corresponding to a reality. I want you to hold clearly to the idea we have just been considering. At the beginning of this course I told you that the concepts to be considered were somewhat complicated. It will therefore be necessary that we should not only try to understand them, but also to meditate upon them; for only then will they be clear to us. Now let us take this conception of death, that is, of the earthly; for it presents a truly remarkable aspect. Whereas concerning all our other concepts we could say that there was nothing real in all the world of Maya around us, but that the reality must be looked for in the spiritual behind it—we have now ascertained that within the world of Maya there is that, which, precisely because it is divided from its purpose, because it ought to be in the spiritual world, may be called death. Thus something is cut off in Maya, which actually ought not to be there. In the whole wide realm of Maya, or the great illusion, we have nothing but deception and illusion before us. Yet there is something there which corresponds to a reality, because it is cut off from its true meaning in the spiritual; and as soon as it enters Maya it encounters annihilation and death. That declares to us nothing less significant than the great occult truth: “In the whole world of Maya one thing only shows itself in its reality—Death! All other phenomena must be traced back to their reality; all other phenomena entering into Maya have reality behind them; death is the single reality in Maya for it consists in the fact that something was cut off from reality and taken into Maya, That is why death is the one and only reality in Maya. And now if we turn from the universal Maya to the great principles of the world, a very important and essential consequence of this statement, that in our world of Maya, Death is the only reality, presents itself to occult science.

We can approach what I want to say from yet another side. We can begin by considering the beings of the other kingdoms surrounding us. We may ask: do minerals die? To the occultist there could be no sense in saying that minerals die. It would be just the same as saying that our finger-nails die when we cut them. The finger-nail is nothing which as complete being has claim to existence; but it is part of us, and when we cut it off we separate it from ourselves, tear it away from the life it has in connection with us. In reality it dies only when we ourselves die. In the same sense, according to occult science, the minerals do not die. They are merely members of one great organism, just as a finger-nail is a member of our own, and although a mineral may appear to perish, it is in reality only severed from this great organism, just as the piece of finger-nail is severed from our organism when we cut it off. The destruction of a mineral is no death; for the mineral has no life in itself, but only in the great organism of which it is a member. The plant as such is not independent; it is a member—not of one great organism, like the mineral—but of the whole organism of the earth. To occult observation there would be no sense in speaking of individual plant-organisms, only of the organism of the earth of which the plants everywhere form part. And when we bring them to their “death” it is just as when we cut away one of our finger-nails. We cannot say that the fingernail has died. Just as little can we say that of the plants; for they belong to a great organism that is identical with the whole earth, an organism which falls asleep in spring, sending forth the plants as its organs towards the Sun; and in autumn it takes them back into itself when it gathers their seeds into itself. There is no sense in considering the plants as independent, for the whole earth organism does not die when its separate plants fade—just as we ourselves do not die when our hair goes grey, although we cannot restore its colour by natural means.

We are, however, in a different position from the plants. But the earth may in this respect be compared to a man who could restore his grey hair to its natural colour. The earth does not die; what is observed in the fading of the plants is a process that takes place on the surface. So we can never say that the plants really die. And even of the animals we cannot actually say that they die, as we die. For in reality a separate animal does not exist; what really exists is its group-soul, which is in the super-sensible world. The reality of the animals is only to be found on the astral plane as group-soul, and the individual animal is condensed out of that. The death of an animal means the casting off a member of the group-soul, which replaces it by another.

Thus what we encounter at death in the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms is only apparent death, only in the world of Maya is that “death.” In reality man alone dies, for he has developed his individuality so far that it descends into his physical body, in which during the earth-existence he must become real. In reality death has only meaning for the Earth-existence of man.

If we grasp this we must say: Man alone can truly experience death. Thus for man there is, as we learn through occult research, a real overcoming of death, a real victory over death. For every other being death is only apparent, and does not in reality exist. If again we were to ascend higher—from man to the Beings of the Hierarchies—we should find that they do not know death in the human sense; so that in reality actual death, that is death on the physical plane, comes only to those beings who have to acquire something on that plane. Now man has to acquire his ego-consciousness there. Without death he could never find it. Neither with respect to the beings below man in rank, nor to those higher than man is there any meaning in speaking of actual death. But on the other hand as regards the Being whom we call the “Christ-Being it must clearly be impossible to obliterate his most significant earth deed. For indeed we have seen that the most essential event to be considered in connection with the Christ-Being is the Mystery of Golgotha; that is, the conquest of death by life. But where can this conquest of death alone be accomplished? Can it be accomplished in the higher worlds? No! For even as regards the lower beings referred to as the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms—as they have their true being in the higher, super-sensible worlds—we cannot speak of death. And in the course of our studies this winter we shall further show that neither among the Higher Beings can there be a question of death; only of change, metamorphosis, transformation. Only with regard to man can we speak of the incision into life that we call “death.” Man can only experience this death on the physical plane. If man had never descended to the physical plane, he would know nothing of death; for no being who has not trodden the physical plane knows anything of death. In other worlds there is no such thing as that which we call death, nothing but transformation, metamorphosis. Would Christ undergo death He must descend to the physical plane! There alone could He experience it.

Thus we see that even in the historical development of man, the reality of the higher worlds plays its part in Maya, in a remarkable way. Whereas concerning every other historical event we can only interpret it correctly by saying: “This historical event took place here on the physical plane, but the cause of it is up above in the spiritual world, we must look for it there”; we cannot say of the event of Golgotha, “this event is here below on the physical plane and something corresponding to it exists in the higher worlds.” Christ Himself belongs to the higher worlds and came down to the physical plane. But there is no prototype above of what was accomplished on Golgotha, such as we must look for with respect to other historical events. That was enacted on the physical plane alone! Among the many proofs of this fact which occult science is able to provide, is the following: That the event of Damascus will, in the course of the next three thousand years, as we have often said, be renewed for a sufficiently great number of mankind. This means, that capacities will be developed in man which will enable him to perceive the Christ as an etheric figure on the astral plane, as Paul saw Him on the road to Damascus. The event of man's gradually becoming able to perceive the Christ by means of the higher faculties which will be developed in the next three thousand years, has its beginnings in our twentieth century. From now on these capacities will gradually arise, and in the course of that span of time a vast number of persons will know, by personal vision into the higher worlds, that Christ is a reality; that He lives; they will learn to know Him in the life He lives now. And not only will they know the nature of His present life, but they will also be convinced just as Paul was—that He died, and rose again. But the foundation for this cannot be laid in the higher worlds: it must be laid on the physical plane. Thus if anyone comes to have an understanding of these things, if even at the present time he understands that the development of Christ Himself is progressing—and that at the same time certain human capacities are also developing, if his understanding of modern Anthroposophy has taught him this, then there is nothing to prevent him, when he has passed through the portal of death, from taking part in this event when it actually appears as a first shining forth of Christ in the world of man. So that a man who prepares himself in his physical body to-day for this event, maybe able to experience it in the intermediate life, between death and re-birth. But those who do not prepare for it, who acquire no understanding in this incarnation, will, in the life immediately following this—the life between death and re-birth—know nothing of what is taking place with respect to the Christ for the next three thousand years from our present century. They will have to wait until they are again incarnated and then make necessary preparations on the earth. The death at Golgotha, which is enacted on earth as the origin of all the subsequent Christ development can only be understood in the physical body. Of all the facts important to our higher life, this alone is comprehensible in the physical body. It is then further developed and perfected in the higher worlds, but we must first have understood it while in the physical body. Just as the Mystery of Golgotha could never have taken place in the higher worlds and has no prototype there, but is an event which—since it includes death—is confined to the physical plane, so, too must the comprehension of it be acquired on this plane. Indeed, it is one of the tasks of man on earth to acquire this understanding in some one of his incarnations.

So that we must say: we have found pre-eminently on the physical plane something which displays an undeniable reality, a direct truth. What then is real on the physical plane On the physical plane, so that we can recognise it as real, we have a reality, death—death in the world of man, not in the other kingdoms of nature. When we wish to study the historical events that occur in the course of the earth's development, we must look for a spiritual prototype for each one of them—but not for the Mystery of Golgotha! There we have something which in itself directly belongs to the world of Reality!

Now it is extremely interesting that another aspect of what has just been said, can also be seen. It is really remarkably significant to observe that this event of Golgotha as a real event is to-day denied, and that people say—speaking of external history—that it cannot be proved by any historical connection. Among vital historical facts there is hardly one so difficult to prove on external realistic, historical grounds, as the Mystery of Golgotha. Just think how easy it is in comparison with this to work on historical ground if we wish to prove the existence of a Socrates, a Plato, or any of the Greek heroes, in so far as they were of significance to the progress of man in the external world, and how up to a certain point it is perfectly justifiable to say that “no history can assert that there ever was a Jesus of Nazareth!” This statement cannot be contradicted historically! This cannot be dealt with like other historical facts. It is very remarkable that this Event, which occurred on the external physical plane has this in common with all super-sensible facts: they cannot be “proved.” Much the same people who deny the existence of a super-sensible world lack the capacity for grasping this fact, which is not super-sensible. Its existence can be surmised by its effects. But, these people think that effects such as these might also appear, even without the real event having occurred in history; and they attribute these effects to sociological relations. To one who knows the inner course of the world's development, the idea that effects such as those produced by Christianity could be brought about without having a power behind them, is just as wise as it would be to say cabbages could grow in a field without having been sown there! Indeed we might go yet further, and admit that it was not possible for those who took part in the final shaping of the Gospels to prove the historical event of the Mystery of Golgotha—as historical event—on historical grounds! For it went by leaving hardly any trace perceptible to outer observation. Do you know how those who took part in the later compiling of the Gospels convinced themselves as to these events, with the exception of the writer of the John-Gospel, who was an immediate contemporary? They could not above all convince themselves by historical documents, for they had nothing but oral traditions and the Mystery-Books (as is set forth in Christianity as Mystical Fact). They were able to convince themselves of the actual existence of Christ Jesus by the star-constellation, for they were then still very learned as to the connection between the Macrocosm and the Microcosm. They knew how to set up a map of the heavens for that point of the world's history (as can still be done to-day); and they concluded: if the stars were in such and such a position, then He whom they call the Christ must have lived on earth at that time. In this very way the writers of the Gospel of Matthew, Mark and Luke convinced themselves of the historical event; they obtained the rest clairvoyantly. But first they convinced themselves in the same way as we can make sure to-day that any particular event can happen on the earth; through the constellations in the Macrocosm. Anyone who knows anything of this cannot but believe in them. It is a fruitless task to prove the inaccuracy of what is brought against the historical status of the Gospels. Rather should we, as anthroposophists, understand that we must take a very different stand: one which is only possible through an insight into occult science.

With reference to this I should just like to mention a point I already endeavoured to establish elsewhere. That is, that the realities of which Anthroposophy speaks cannot be injured by any objections, however correct these may be in themselves. No matter how correctly people may argue from the knowledge they themselves may possess, that does not disprove Anthroposophy. In the lecture I gave entitled: “How can Theosophy be established?” I made use of the example of the little boy in a village whose duty it was to fetch rolls for the family breakfast. Now in that village each roll cost two kreuzers and he was always given ten kreuzers. The baker gave him a number of rolls, and being no great arithmetician, he did not trouble to count them, but brought them home. But a foster-son entered the family and was sent for the rolls instead of the other boy. This lad was a good reckoner and he said to himself: “I have been given ten kreuzers, each roll costs two kreuzers, therefore I must bring home five rolls;” off he went, bringing back six rolls. He said to himself: “This must be wrong, I ought not to have so many, and as my reckoning is correct, tomorrow I must only bring back five rolls.” The next day he took the ten kreuzers, and again he received six rolls. The reckoning was correct—only it did not correspond with the reality; for that was a different matter. The reality was that it was the custom in that place to give six rolls instead of five to anyone who spent ten kreuzers. The boy's argument was quite correct; but did not accord with reality.

In like manner the cleverest thought-out objections to Anthroposophy may all agree with each other, yet need have nothing to do with the reality; for “reality” may be based on very different foundations. The example quoted is quite practical, and serves to explain, even scientifically, what is correctly calculated, and what is actual fact.

We have tried to trace the world of Maya back to reality and in doing so we have shown that all Fire is sacrifice, everything of the nature of Air is the generous flowing virtue of giving, and Fluid the result of renunciation and resignation. To these three truths we have to-day added the fact that the true nature of the Earth or solid matter is death, the cutting off of any substance from its cosmic purpose. Because this severing has entered, death itself enters the world of Maya or illusion as a reality. Even the Gods themselves could not taste death at all without descent into the physical world in order to comprehend death in the physical world, the world of Maya, or illusion. This is what I wished to add to-day to the concepts we have already formed. But once more let it be said that if we wish to arrive at a clear understanding of these concepts which are so necessary, and if we are thoroughly to enter into the various ideas in St. Mark's Gospel, the only possible way of doing so is by careful meditation and by bringing these things again and again before the soul. The Gospel of St. Mark can only be understood if based on the greatest and most significant cosmic conceptions.

Now that we are together again after a rather lengthy summer interval, a few words may be said about what has been happening in our Movement meanwhile, particularly about activities which have by no means been without significance for our work in Middle Europe. You know that from the time we were last together here before the summer interval, preparations were in train for the meeting at Munich, which generally begins with a dramatic performance produced in a form appropriate to the spirit of our Movement. During the last few years we have been able to develop this dramatic work. We began, first of all, by having one such performance before a Course of Lectures in Munich, last year we were able to give two performances, and this year we have been able to attempt three.¹ These performances are always, of course, a somewhat hazardous enterprise, but thanks to the ready self-sacrifice of those who helped with their production, we really have succeeded in making a beginning—the beginning of something which, as it develops, will be a very important impulse in anthroposophical life when we ourselves shall no longer be able to be present in the physical body. But things of this kind—which extend far beyond the narrow limits of personal activity—must have a beginning somewhere, and those who participate in them must realise—in order that they may have the due humility and strength—that they are nothing more than a beginning. These performances, combined as they always are with a Course of Lectures, bring together not only members of our own section but also many friends of the Movement who now come to Munich from all over Europe. Those who try to understand the outer and the inner aspects of these activities may have been particularly struck, this year, by two things. The first is the way in which we are striving to carry the impulse of Anthroposophy, to begin with, into Art. Our aim, of course, is that the spiritual life shall be carried into every branch and sphere of existence. The reason why it seems so important to bring this spiritual life into Art is that Spiritual Science must not remain abstract theory or teaching, but must be made part of actual life, and take practical effect there. It was strikingly evident in these Munich performances that it is not the aim of Spiritual Science to achieve this by external subtlety or cleverness, but that its very life can pour vigour into that of Art. This was proved by the whole-heartedness and growing understanding with which Anthroposophists who were present in Munich threw themselves into the work. It is also evident from the fact that in the year 1909 we gave one dramatic performance, two last year, and this year—in spite of great difficulties—we were able to prepare three performances. If you study deeply enough, a work like The Soul's Probation will indicate to you that occult observations, just as those of external life, can be presented in artistic form. If it were a matter of speaking about the essence of these things, I should have a very great deal to say.

What is particularly striking in these Munich gatherings is the steady increase in the number of those who throng to the meetings, with the result that we are becoming acutely conscious of the lack of space, not only for the performances but also for the lectures. During the Lecture-Course, this lack of space was such that the heat of the hall caused great discomfort to the listeners. The obvious answer would be to take a larger hall. But there is a difficulty there too. As you all know, Spiritual Science calls for a certain intimacy. It would be highly inappropriate to produce one of the old Greek dramas in a circus-stadium. (According to reliable reports, this has been done recently, although nothing but an entire absence of understanding for Art could win for it any general approval or encouragement. One cannot help being astounded that such a thing has been thought possible ... but, after all, it is not to be wondered at when we realise how greatly our age lacks true feeling for Art.) Inappropriate as it would be to produce an old Greek Drama in a circus-stadium—(I do not mean in an actual circus, of course) such premises would be equally inappropriate for Spiritual Science. Ancient Greek theatre might be suitable, but not a vast stadium. I must confess that the size of the Architectenhaus in Berlin seems to me to be the maximum, and instead of taking a still larger hall I would much prefer to give a lecture twice over in the Architectenhaus than once in a still larger hall. These things are so connected with the innermost character of Spiritual Science that they may not be understood today, but it will be different when Spiritual Science finds its way into the many domains and spheres of life.

Now in connection with our activities in Munich ... if through what can be done in one hall, anything worthy of Anthroposophy is to be achieved ... we have, come, inevitably, to the conclusion that we must create our own premises and surroundings. This has led to the idea of erecting a building in Munich which would enable us to have a hall of our own, adequate for the needs of the Gatherings there. The near future will show whether such a project will meet with success. For this much is certain: if we do find the way clear to erect a building in Munich, it must be done soon; otherwise the finest results of our work will be lost, precisely because during the next few years it will be possible to carry on our work adequately, provided only we have the space. That something is really achieved by building our own premises—this we have seen, not only in various small beginnings, but now again in Stuttgart, where the Group has built the first house for Anthroposophy existing in Middle Europe. Those who were present at its Opening will have been amply convinced of what it means to have premises that are dedicated to anthroposophical work, and how completely different it is to go into such a room, compared with other rooms—quite apart from the details of which I spoke at the Opening, in connection with the significance of colour, the shaping of the space, and so on, for the cultivation of spiritual knowledge.

Many ears, hearts and souls are open to receive the deepening for which we are striving in Anthroposophy, and there will be many, many more. We have seen, too—indeed it is constantly forced upon us—how eager people are to acquire knowledge of the spiritual world by an easy path. I believe that as the necessity for a deepening of thought and feeling, a widening of knowledge in the different domains of life, and in the occult life too, is brought home in Course after Course of Lectures, many who have worked with us will already have discovered that in our stream of spiritual life, things are not made too easy. When we think of all the literature that has accumulated through the years—and I am sometimes appalled at the number of Lecture Courses and publications piled on our book tables—literature with which every sincere member desires to make himself intimately acquainted, or at any rate must study to some extent ... when we think about this, we may truly say that we do not make it easy for anybody to reach the spiritual world. And yet as the years go by, it is more and more evident that ears and hearts and souls of human beings are open, whenever we have been able to approach them. Although for strange reasons into which we will not enter now, the Congress of the European Sections of the Theosophical Society in Genoa fell through, our own activities did not cease on that account. When the Congress was abandoned (its cancellation was announced only at the last minute and we will speak of the reasons later on), some people might have thought that we could still have held meetings, but it became evident at once that the time must be put to a different use. And so during the days that had been fixed for the Genoa Congress, lectures² were given in Lugano, Locarno, Milan, Neuchâtel and Berne. We were able, therefore, to work during this time in places which it would have been difficult to visit in the near future. In Neuchâtel a Group was founded, desiring to adopt the name of a great spiritual Individuality, Christian Rosenkreutz, of whom the members were eager to hear more intimate details. (I will shortly give a lecture on this subject here too.) When it is remembered that in order to speak about Christian Rosenkreutz at all, in order to understand this mysterious Individuality, all the occult truths gathered in the course of many years are required and that was a real longing for a more intimate knowledge, then it is clear that understanding of Spiritual Science has been deepened, although it has not been made easy for those who are working with us. And yet, on the other hand, how easy it is made, in reality, for those who sincerely strive for this deepening—how easy it is made! It may be said without boasting that it is made easy for them.

Think, for example, about the following. I have said repeatedly that, in our Movement, the basis of anthroposophical life must be this occult ideal: There is in reality only one true form of occultism. To distinguish between an “Eastern” and a “Western” occultism would make as much sense as to distinguish between Eastern and Western mathematics. But on account of intrinsic characteristics, one kind of problem falls more readily into the sphere of occultism in the East and another into that of occultism in the West. Everything that relates to the great Appearance of which we have been speaking for years as the Appearance of Christ, is the result of the occult investigations pursued during recent centuries in the European esoteric schools, the European centres of occultism. All that has been said concerning the Individuality known to us as “Jesus of Nazareth,” concerning the two Jesus boys, the descent of Christ into the body of Jesus of Nazareth at the time of the Baptism by John in Jordan, concerning the Mystery of Golgotha and now recently, in Carlsruhe, concerning the Mystery of the Resurrection³—all these are truths which could not have been given out today were it not for the occult investigations which have continued in the West from the twelfth century down to the present time. Christianity cannot be understood without knowledge of these truths. Nobody—however great a theologian he may be—can understand Christianity unless he understands the Resurrection, for example. Those who speak like the theologians of today simply cannot understand Christianity—for what can they make of the words of St. Paul: “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith also is vain”? In short, where there is no understanding of the Resurrection, there can be no understanding of Christianity! On the other hand it must also be remembered that the intellect as such, whether directed to Spiritual or to Natural Science, is incapable of approaching subjects like the Resurrection. A modern thinker will say that he must abandon the whole structure of his thought if he is really to believe in the Resurrection and what is described in the Gospel of St. John. Many people have realised and said as much. It is therefore necessary for light to be shed on these things by occultism in the West. So far as can be known from outside, the trend of occultism pursued in the East does not cover these particular truths, which are connected with the Mysteries of the West, with the Mysteries of Christianity. And why? Over in Asia, with the exception of regions in and around Asia Minor, men are not, and have not been, interested in Christ. They do not feel the need to ask about Him, nor have they done so for hundreds and thousands of years. In India and in Thibet, wonderful occult teachings exist about the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas, but nobody has been particularly interested in occult research concerning the Being of Christ. The Oriental school of Theosophy cannot, therefore, be expected to have any real knowledge of the Christ.

You all know of the tremendous service rendered by H. P. Blavatsky to the Theosophical Movement when it first came into being. Did the greatness of her achievement consist in formulating the three “Principles” of the Theosophical Society which are still printed on our forms of application for membership? It certainly did not lie in the statement that there must be a society for the cultivation of Universal Brotherhood! There are many such societies and every normal, thinking person will approve of the cultivation of Universal Brotherhood. The greatness of H. P. Blavatsky's work lay in the fact that,through her, an untold number of occult truths found their way into the world. Anyone who studies Isis Unveiled and then The Secret Doctrine which appeared years later, will realise that in spite of everything that can be said against these works, they do, nevertheless, contain countless truths, truths of which, until then, nobody except those who had experienced Initiation, had any inkling. Although Madame Blavatsky had an illogical, disorderly mind, although her own speculations are placed, inappropriately, side by side with communications from the Masters (to go into this now would lead too far)—although she was passionate and impetuous and often said things she should not have said (for it is not legitimate in occultism to speak so passionately and illogically)—although it might be considered advisable to get some system and logical sequence into Isis Unveiled, or to eliminate five-sixths of The Secret Doctrine and re-edit the remaining sixth ... yet in the theosophical life we must look at the positive side and say that a great and powerful impulse was there brought into the occult life.

The truth of these matters is that when H.P. Blavatsky wrote Isis Unveiled, she was under a kind of Rosicrucian inspiration. Isis Unveiled contains great Rosicrucian truths—even the shortcomings of Rosicrucianism are included. Everything of real importance in the book is Rosicrucian, I said: “even the shortcomings of Rosicrucianism”—because insight into the truths of reincarnation and karma, for instance, was not possible in the old Rosicrucianism of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It was only later on that they could be recognised in the West. In Isis Unveiled, Madame Blavatsky gave nothing that even approximates to an adequate explanation of reincarnation and karma; in short, she took over all the shortcomings of Rosicrucianism. Then it came about that through circumstances to describe which would lead too far, Madame Blavatsky fell away from the Rosicrucian influences and was enticed into an Oriental form of Theosophy.⁴ The outcome of this was The Secret Doctrine which in regard to everything that is not connected with Christianity contains great truths, but the greatest nonsense in regard to Christianity. Concerning the various religions and system of thought in the world—with the exception of Judaism and Christianity—The Secret Doctrine is very useful, but nothing the book says about Judaism and Christianity is of the slightest value, because H. P. Blavatsky had entered a sphere in which the truths in these two religions had not been cultivated. The whole direction subsequently taken by the Theosophical Movement is connected with this. The Theosophical Movement proved incapable of any real understanding of Christianity. Let me make it clear, by an example that is important for us, how the Theosophical Movement has failed in this respect.

In Oriental occultism—apart from its very highest Initiates who do not speak otherwise than we—the loftiest Individuality is that of the Bodhisattva. One such Bodhisattva was the Individuality who, about five hundred years before our era, rose to the next rank, which again is understood in Orientalism. In his twenty-ninth year, the Bodhisattva who had been born as the son of King Suddhodana became the Buddha. The attainment of Buddhahood, as everyone conversant with Buddhism understands, means that the Being in question, after the physical life during which he has become Buddha, can never again appear on the earth. When the Bodhisattva becomes Buddha he no longer returns to the Earth in an ordinary body, nor is he subject to the laws of reincarnation. But he has a “successor.” When the Bodhisattva received Enlightenment and rose to Buddhahood, he “nominated” a successor to become Bodhisattva. This next Bodhisattva will be born as a human being, a human being towering above others, until he himself ascends to the rank of Buddha. It is known to every true disciple of Orientalism that exactly five thousand years after the Enlightenment of Gautama Buddha under the Bodhi Tree, the Bodhisattva succeeding him will attain to Buddhahood, and will appear as Maitreya Buddha—in three thousand years' time from now. Up to then a Bodhisattva will live in manifold incarnations yet to come; he will appear again and again on the Earth, but will not rise to the rank of Buddha for another three thousand years—and then he will be a great Teacher on the Earth.

This is the highest Individuality recognised by Oriental occultism. Because Madame Blavatsky had been captured, as it were, by the Oriental trend of occultism, such understanding of these things as might have been attained, was limited by Eastern conceptions. At the same time, also, there was the desire to bring to Europeans further light on Christianity; but no real understanding of Christianity was possible by means of Eastern teachings—for they lead only to the Individualities of the Bodhisattva and the Buddha. The consequence of this was that even those who were endowed with clairvoyance could only perceive the Individuality of a Bodhisattva. A Bodhisattva was, however, incarnated in Jeschu ben Pandira, who lived 105 years before our era. He was closely connected with the Essenes and had pupils, among them one who was afterwards responsible for the Gospel of St. Matthew. A Bodhisattva-Individuality, the successor of Gautama Buddha, was incarnated in Jeschu ben Pandira, of whom Oriental Theosophy speaks. And to clairvoyant vision it seemed as though nothing of particular importance happened 105 years after Jeschu ben Pandira had lived. Think of H. P. Blavatsky. She directed her occult gaze to the time when Jeschu ben Pandira was living and saw that a great Bodhisattva-Individuality was incarnated in him. But because her entanglement in an Oriental trend of Theosophy had limited her powers of vision, she was incapable of seeing that 105 years afterwards, the Christ had come. Of Christ she knew only what was said in the West, and from this she conceived the notion that no “Christ” ever lived, that it was all make-believe; but that 105 years before our era there had lived a certain Jeschu ben Pandira, who was stoned and then hanged on a tree—who was not, therefore, crucified. Jeschu ben Pandira was now described as if he had been Jesus of Nazareth. This is a complete confusion. Concerning the real Jesus of Nazareth who was the Bearer of the Christ, nothing is said. Jeschu ben Pandira, who had lived 105 years earlier was said to be “Christ,” because a European name was thought to be desirable.

• See: Jeschu ben Pandira, by Rudolf Steiner.

We, however, are obliged to say that those who stand within that Oriental stream do not perceive Who the Christ Being is. It cannot be denied that the moment attention has to be drawn to a matter like this, we find ourselves in an unpleasant position. And why? Every one who is acquainted with the sciences knows that there are matters which can be disputed; but there are others which cannot be disputed—and there, if someone holds a contrary opinion, it can only be said that he does not understand the point at issue. Now if we say: “You do not understand this”—we may be considered extremely arrogant! We are in this unpleasant position in that we cannot agree with those who speak of Jeschu ben Pandira as the “Christ.” The fact is that they simply have not reached the stage of being able to understand. It is unpleasant to have to say this, but it is a fact. They are really not to be blamed when they speak of the Being, whom they too recognise, as though He could come again and again in the body—for they have no real knowledge of the Christ Being Who could appear only once in the flesh! And now take Esoteric Christianity by Annie Besant, and read it with more care than is usual in theosophical circles. It speaks of an Individuality who lived 105 years before our era; but the mistake is that he is called “Christ” Suppose some person—the authoress of this book, for instance—were now to say that during the twentieth century the Being described in Esoteric Christianity is to appear in some human being in the flesh. Nothing more could be said against this, from our standpoint, than would be said to anyone who might go to India and proclaim that the Buddha will incarnate again. He would be told: “You are an ignorant European! Everyone knows that the Buddha can never appear again in the flesh; you therefore understand nothing about Buddhism”. But we too, in Europe, must be entitled to take the same attitude when it is alleged that Christ will incarnate a second time! Our reply can only be: “You do not understand. True knowledge of the Christ Being reveals that He is a Being Who can appear once, and once only, in a body of flesh.” Let us say that understanding here lies on different levels; then there can be no misunderstanding!

What is the point that might really separate us from an Oriental trend of Theosophy? Do we deny that a man lived 105 years before our era, who was stoned for blasphemy and afterwards hanged on a tree? No, we do not deny it. Or do we deny that a great Individuality dwelt in that being? We do not. Neither do we deny that this being may reincarnate in the twentieth century. We admit it. Is there therefore any real issue concerning which we should have to repudiate the statements made by the other school of Theosophy? Only this, that we are bound to say: “You do not know the Being Whom we call Christ: you call another by His Name. We must have the right to correct this. As for the rest ... it is only a question of nomenclature, except when you expressly ignore matters of which we speak in connection with the beginning of our era. We speak of the two Jesus children, the Baptism by John in the Jordan, the Mystery of Golgotha. Of these, you say nothing! We must be allowed the right to know things of which you are ignorant! Otherwise one would be under the decree: What we do not know, nobody else has the right to know; for what we do not know is all false!” In this connection our position is that we do not make the trouble, and when any is made, it is the others who are responsible for it.

All misunderstandings could very easily be avoided. So far as we are concerned there is no reason for misunderstanding, and none exists. Only we must have the right to bring to theosophical life the results of occult researches of which nothing is known on the other side, and which immeasurably deepen our understanding of the problems of the West. So in one important respect, provided only that good-will exists, it is not in the least necessary for disharmony to arise in the Theosophical Movement. Good-will is necessary—not the attitude that is ready to repudiate some authenticated truth ... for that would not be good-will but denial of truth! Good-will must be accompanied by reason. Why do differences of opinion arise? Is it because some subject is looked at from different standpoints or also, possibly, from different levels? If the latter is the case, the others will not be able to substantiate their opinion. And then it is a matter of realising how the land lies, and of having tolerance.

For us, at any rate, this principle must be established and I had to refer to it on this first occasion when we are together again. I have referred to it as a proof that in our Movement it is very easy to see things clearly, if there is a sincere wish to do so. We ourselves may truly say that there is no need for us to oppose anyone. We can afford to wait until the opposition comes from elsewhere. We can go on working quietly, and this subject would not have been raised or mentioned at all, if friends had not been distressed by the rumour that Theosophists are all at variance among themselves. It is true that ultimately we may find ourselves in the very disagreeable position of being obliged to say: “On the other side they have no knowledge of certain truths.” This may lead to an accusation of arrogance, but we can put up with that, provided we know what real humility is.

During this last year it has been necessary to give expression to the progress—for so it may truly be called—that has taken place in occult investigation since the middle of the thirteenth century. This has been done, for instance, in my book, The Spiritual Guidance of Man and of Mankind. These developments are hardly mentioned in any Movement other than our own. It may be said, therefore, that we have had to undertake the difficult task of assimilating the most recent results of occult research. It may be regarded as a good augury that at the founding of the Neuchâtel Group, the need was expressed for more intimate knowledge of the greatest Teacher of Christianity—Christian Rosenkreutz—of his incarnations and of the nature of his work. I have spoken as I have today, in order that each of you may know how things really are, when someone on the other side says: “Here we are told that Christ will incarnate again in the twentieth century, but over there it is said that He will appear as a Spiritual Being only. These are two conflicting standpoints.” No, we must not allow this to be said. It must, however, be emphasised—and admitted by the other side, too—that they are speaking of Jeschu ben Pandira, who was stoned 105 years before our era. When, for instance, in Annie Besant's last book, The Changing World, everything is jumbled up and no mention made of the usurpation of the name “Christ,” when sheer contradiction exists between Esoteric Christianity and The Changing World ... these are matters which really must be pointed out, in order to prevent people from being misled into thinking that in her latest book Annie Besant is speaking of the real Christ. If this were so, she would have to repudiate the book Esoteric Christianity and say that its contents are not correct—for that book speaks of a being who lived 105 years before our era, not at its beginning.

Our work is characterised by the fact that the findings of occult investigation cover even the most modern times. From one point of view, therefore, it is a kind of aspersion—although an unintentional one—when outsiders call us “Rosicrucians.” It really is a kind of aspersion: at any rate it reminds me of an amusing incident which once took place in the market of a town in Central Germany.—One man said: “So-and-so is a sluggard.” “What?” said another, “you say he is a sluggard? But I know that he is a butcher, not a sluggard!” The same kind of logic which implies that if a man is a butcher he cannot be a sluggard, underlies assertions to the effect that our Movement is not “Theosophical” but “Rosicrucian.” Why do we cultivate Rosicrucian principles? Because genuine Rosicrucian schools of occultism have existed and because the results of Rosicrucian knowledge must be received into our own Movement—just as we have spoken, without any bias whatever, about Brahmanism, Orientalism, about ancient and modern Christianity. I do not think that in many other theosophical Groups mention has been made, for instance, of the Mexican deities Quitzalcoatl and Texkatlipoka, as has been done among us.⁵ So, in addition to all the other subjects, we have also included the results reached by genuine Rosicrucian investigation—naturally so, since we do not disdain the fruits of genuine occultism. If we have become familiar with a number of symbols derived from Rosicrucianism it is because they have the best influence upon the minds and hearts of modern men. We are “modern” Theosophists precisely because we do not refuse to accept the results of the most modern research. Perhaps someone has heard that I have sometimes used the form of address: “My dear Rosicrucian friends” ... These things occur just because we stand upon the universal foundations of Theosophy. It is, therefore, an unconscious aspersion when the designation “Rosicrucian” is imposed upon our Movement. We must, however, be tolerant about these things.

Our task this winter will be to deepen still further the teachings and truths already received. And so, in order to prepare the ground for speaking about Christian Rosenkreutz here, too, I want to speak about the threefold nature of man and its true basis, in so far as man is a being capable of receiving intellectual, aesthetic and moral impulses. We shall have to search very deeply into the occult foundations of these things, and expand the teachings already received, for instance about the Saturn- Sun- and Moon-evolutions, by studying man as an intellectual, an aesthetic and a moral being.

• 1. The Portal of Initiation and The Soul's Probation by Rudolf Steiner. See “Four Mystery Plays.”
• 2. The Christ Impulse through the Course of History. Lugano, 17.9.11; Locarno, 19.9.11,
  Buddha and Christ. The Spheres of the Bodhisattvas. Milan, 21.9.11.
  Rosicrucian Christianity. Neuchâtel, 27 and 28.9.11. Not yet published in English.
• 3. From Jesus to Christ. (In English translation.) Ten lectures.
• 4. See: The Story of My Life, by Rudolf Steiner. Chap. XXIX.
• 5. See: Inner Impulses in the Evolution of Mankind, by Rudolf Steiner. (Lecture III and Lecture V.) Not yet published in English.