The Rudolf Steiner Archive

In these six public lectures, delivered in Berlin in 1911 and 1912, Rudolf Steiner presents key turning points in Mankind's spiritual development. His objective, to show how evolving human consciousness can lead to the experience of the Self as the spiritual essence of the human being, is clearly outlined through the five individuals selected. Each one of them brought into the human condition on Earth an added, different awareness of the relation between the human Spirit-Self and its earthly environment.

Having spent a lifetime presenting these past experiences of the human Spirit-Self on its spiritual journey through its various stages and conditions, Steiner concentrated, in his last years, on the new spiritual turning point of the present. His crystal-clear statements as to the nature of the present-day, different, spiritual condition of the human being places him in the same firmament as the five individuals he speaks of in these lectures. The final lecture on Christ in the Twentieth Century, is essentially his own announcement of the present and future human relation to the Christ, as different from, yet in addition to, what the previous five have brought into mankind with respect to the Christ-Being, the central figure in Human Beingness.

The specific, unique, necessary, new, human experience that Steiner is responsible for presenting is, the spiritual foundation of human destiny and the human laws of reincarnation based on the awakening to self-consciousness of the human Spiritual-Soul. This particular experience of self-consciousness requires that the human soul-force of the Will be trained in freedeeds, so that the truly free, individual Self can now consciously create and determine its own destiny, its own environment, its own physical body even while earthbound.

This is a magnificent possibility that is both necessary and doable. Each human being, because of Steiner's achievements, now has the method outlined and the means made available to achieve this condition of the truly free, independent, self-conscious, human, Spiritual Being; the Tenth Hierarchy; the Entity of Love incarnate on Earth and what this awareness means in the total spectrum of the Universe.

I present the following words, selected from among Steiner's last writings, as an indication to the reader of the basis for the remarks made above as to Steiner's spiritual significance, and for placing him with Zarathustra, Hermes, Buddha, Moses and Elijah, the personalities discussed in this book.

"In the evolution of mankind consciousness descends on the ladder of unfolding Thought. There was an earliest stage in consciousness when man experienced the Thoughts in the Ego -- experienced them as real Beings, imbued with Spirit, soul and life. At a second stage he experienced the Thoughts in the astral body; henceforth they only appeared as the images of Spirit-beings -- images, however, still imbued with soul and life. At a third stage he experienced the Thoughts in the etheric body; here they only manifest an inner quickness, like an echo of the quality of soul. At the fourth, which is the present stage, man experiences the Thoughts in the physical body, where they appear as the dead shadows of the Spiritual.

In like measure as the quality of Spirit, soul and life in human Thought recedes, man's own Will comes to life. True freedom becomes possible.

It is the task of the Archangel Michael, to lead man back again, on paths of Will, whence he came down when with his earthly consciousness he descended on the paths of Thought from the living experience of the Supersensible to the experience of the world of sense.

Michael goes upward again along the paths by which mankind descended, stage by stage in the evolution of the Spirit, down to the exercise of the Intelligence. Michael, however, will lead the Will upward, retracing the paths by which the Wisdom descended to the final stage of Intelligence.

From this moment onward in World-evolution, Michael merely shows His way, so that man may follow it in perfect freedom. This distinguishes the present guidance by Michael from all preceding guidances of the Archangels, including even those of Michael Himself. For the former guidances did not only reveal their working. They worked themselves out in man. Hence in the working of his own life man could not be free.

To see and understand that this is so: this is the present task of man. For then he will find, with all the forces of his soul, his spiritual path within the age of Michael.

To become truly conscious of the working of Michael in the spiritual order of the World, is to solve the riddle of human freedom in relation to the Cosmos, in so far as the solution is necessary for man on Earth.

For 'Freedom' as a fact is directly given to every human being who understands himself in the present period of mankind's evolution. No one can say, `Freedom is not,' unless he wishes to deny a patent fact. But we can find a certain contradiction between this fact of our experience and the processes of the Cosmos. In contemplating the mission of Michael within the Cosmos this contradiction is dissolved.

In my book, Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, the 'Freedom' of the human being in the present World-epoch is proved as an essential element of consciousness. In the descriptions here given of the Mission of Michael, the cosmic foundations of the 'coming-into-being' of this Freedom are disclosed."

Bernard J. Garber
February 1987

If an esoteric mediates on these lines and the diagram they give him much strength. During the Saturn period there was only a warmth globe on which the spirits of darkness attained their human stage. The blood we had then was dark. There was a hidden fire or warmth on the planet, but no light. When Saturn disappeared, the Sun rose from the darkness, the second, air element with its oxygen made Saturn's glimmer burst into flames, and then there was light, as is symbolized by the alchemist's sulfur. Blood turned from black to yellow.

During the Moon period the whole atmosphere was watery, but not like the water we know. It was divided into spherical drops that moved past each other with tremendous speed. One finds this condition of Moon substance in quicksilver, that also divides into very small spheres and is more mobile than all other substances. During the Moon period blood was as white as this substance, and it was given forms by the world tone. These forms are female. The whole Moon represents the female principle.

The fourth, earth element appeared during the Earth period in connection with the third alchemistic substance—salt, the symbol of crystallization and dissolution. This is where the male element appears. Our present men with their red blood are shaped on the earth. Everything that dissolves is salt.

Thus we have four kinds of fire in the four kinds of blood: black on old Saturn, yellow on old Sun, white on old Moon and red on earth. The warmth that now lives in our blood is the warmth of the planet Saturn. All these bloods or fires are still in us and are instruments for spirits who work in and on us, until we'll be individualized enough to do what these spirits do. The air we inhale is the instrument, bearer or body of a certain kind of spirit. The light rays that pass into our eyes have a light spirit in them who works upon our eyes. Saturn spirits find a point of attack in the warmth of the blood and ego. Some of them are very bad and dangerous.

The verse above shows the way to control our instruments. The four kinds of fire refer to our four lower sheaths that are the “children” of the I. They must be “burned in the fire of the spirit,” so that they can become a fourfold philosophical fire in the Vulcan period. We must “add fire to fire,” that is, the fiery, lower passions must be purified by uniting them with the higher, spiritual fire.

We might get a clearer idea of how this happens if we consider that our whole life is filled with four kinds of activity. We perceive the surroundings with our physical senses. We feel sympathy or antipathy for others with our life body. We feel wishes and emotions with our desires body. We draw conclusions and make decisions with our intellect. That's the most important part, that we form conclusions and decisions. We can change our opinions about a thing, but a done deed remains, and the result of a whole planetary period depends upon the decisions that were made during it. Just as fire leaves ashes of the burnt material behind, so a resolve or decision leaves something good or bad behind forever. That's why an occult principle says: when in doubt, do nothing.

The ashes that a thought leaves strengthen bones, and so people with rickets do better if they think abstractly. Our sympathy or antipathy works on the etheric body. We can easily see this through ordinary observation. We know that the etheric body controls glands. A gourmet drools when he sees good food. The glands in our body dry out and become like the bark of a tree that protects the interior to the extent that we learn to control ourselves and to bring our sympathy or antipathy into harmony. Saps rise and fall in a plant, and in winter it dies because it has no protection from the cold. Whereas a tree allows its outer side to dry out and become bark; this protects it from the cold and storms. That's the way an initiate is; his life body doesn't die from one incarnation to the next. That's the way Druids were, and “Druid” means oak—the strongest tree.

Blood is the I's instrument. Saturn spirits work in the warmth of our blood, as Christ worked in Jesus' blood from age 30 on. Before that Jesus had worked on his physical, etheric and astral bodies. Then Christ took hold of the blood and purified it during the three years. That's why blood had to flow. When we've purified our four bodies in the same way we'll then have the four-fold philosophical fire that belongs to the Vulcan period.

Although one can't eat one's way into the spiritual world, eating the wrong things can make spiritual development difficult or impossible.

Alcohol only arose after the Atlantean epoch to help men to become individualized. It closes man off from his higher capacities and encloses him in himself. That's why alcohol was used in the Dionysian mysteries. But now all civilized people have reached that stage so that alcohol is an unnecessary evil today. Through its use one loses the ability to get along with others and to understand them. Alcohol is especially harmful for esoterics since its use changes all developed higher forces into forces of the personal ego, repeatedly locks it into itself, and tears the astral body apart through the opposing streams of the higher and lower I forces. The principle through which everyone can consciously attain his individualization was brought through the coming of Christ to the earth. That's why Christ Jesus says: I am the true vine.

By consuming alcohol one prepares a fertile soil for hosts of spiritual beings, just as a dirty room gets filled with flies.

The meat (but not milk and eggs) that we eat is permeated by the animal's astral body, and so our astral body has to work to digest it. This takes it away from its real task of creating pictures. Also at night it's held fast by the etheric body so that it can't leave it properly. This hinders it from its nightly task of restoring vital forces. Vegetarian food that consists of physical and etheric things support the creation of large, comprehensive pictures and so gives a greater insight that lets one oversee things better without much deliberation. The greater force doesn't exhaust us, but summons spiritual forces.

Vegetarian food is excellent for doctors and lawyers who will find it easier to see through their patients or their clients' affairs, but it's not the right thing for bankers, industrialists, salesmen and others who have a lot of calculating, for one loses the ability to make physical combinations. People who inherited a body that can't stand vegetarianism should not undertake an esoteric training.

The jogging, exercising and bathing that are often recommended are wrong for an esoteric; they pull him down into his physical body. He should try to move his limbs as little as possible.

A budding esoteric doesn't need faith, but only confidence in his teacher, as is true for any kind of instruction, and he needs his healthy human intellect. This will lead him to the conviction that masters of wisdom must exist since it would be illogical to assume that evolution stopped with us, although this in itself wouldn't tell him who or what these masters are. But his teacher knows who they are. A pupil can assume that basic truths like karma and reincarnation are true on a trial basis. Then he can find out for himself whether they're true. When something happens to him he'll tell himself that he must have caused it, and he'll act accordingly. That's why Jesus says that if someone strikes you on one cheek you should offer him the other one also, because if he hits you there too he's making bad karma good. A meditant should do six subsidiary exercises:

1. Think about a simple object for at least five minutes. Hold it fast in thoughts without going over to other things. One can prepare for this by familiarizing oneself with the object first. After a few days one can choose another object. This exercise arouses a feeling of firmness in the pupil as it activates the chakram between his eyebrows. One should send this feeling through the brain and down the backbone.

2. Do an unimportant thing every day at a certain time. This exercise also gives firmness.

3. Develop equanimity, that is, one shouldn't fluctuate between rejoicing to heaven and despairing to death. A joke can be enjoyed just as much if one doesn't laugh boisterously at; one can bear a pain better if one doesn't wallow in it too much. This gives one a feeling of quiet calm that one lets stream from the heart to the arms, and out through the hands.

4. See the beautiful and true elements in all things. Christ Jesus admired the beautiful teeth in a rotting dog, where his disciples only saw ugliness. One can discover at least a small kernel of truth and something beautiful in everything. If one does this exercise for some time it gives one a feeling of great joy.

5. Always be open to new things. One should never say: I never heard of that, that can't be, or I don't believe that. One should always leave the possibility open that one can learn something from everything that people say. Thereby one can learn from children, animals and everything else. This gives one the feeling that one could also perceive things while one is partly outside one's body.

6. This exercise is a combination of the preceding ones, so that one can combine two and two or any way one wants. By doing this, one gets the feeling that one has grown beyond the limits of one's skin.

Anyone who undertakes an esoteric training must be clear about what he is doing thereby. We're karmically connected with what we are and do; we're placed into the whole of earth existence by leading divine beings. Everything that we think, feel and will in the way of the most sublime beauty and the highest morality is always still connected with general evolution. But by deciding to begin an esoteric training we step out of this general development that's guided by higher beings. Thereby we begin something absolutely new. In an esoteric training we stop being led by spiritual, divine beings and we become independent companions of these creator spirits.

Man on earth consists of the tetralogy: physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego, which are kept in harmony by higher beings. If we carry out the resolve to begin an esoteric training we then begin to work independently at the transformation of these individual bodies. This takes place through the exercises that are given to us. They gradually work on our etheric body in such a way that it becomes loosened from the firm structure of the physical body. This influence is not directly on the etheric body but on the astral body or soul which we work on through the regular daily or weekly repetition of exercises and pictures.

Every sound, word and sequence of sounds and concepts in the meditation verses is of some significance; they have an effect through the regular repetition while one completely forgets oneself.

When we wake up in the morning we sometimes have a dim memory of the spiritual world, of the world from which strength flows to us through our exercises, and some of an esoteric student's nicest experiences are these faint memories of the world where we were at the sources of strength. If someone had to leave a friend who was dear to him, it could be that something about this person will flow into the esoteric pupil together with his memory of the spiritual world. Someone who's given something like this should look upon it as grace.

After meditating for some times we notice that we've changed; we no longer say some of the unkind things that we used to and we acquire a much finer logic. We feel that we've improved. We get better.

But because we place ourselves outside of the customary framework we lose the support that's given by convention. We become inwardly freer but thereby your bad sides come out more; then we notice how bad we are. We're really a lot worse than we usually think.

Difficult, unpleasant hours come to every esoteric striver, and then it's good to have some support. We find this support in the New Testament; we find advice and support for every case and situation and in every weakness; we only have to look for it. And if we don't find it, we can comfort ourselves with the conviction that it's our own weakness that keeps us from finding the right thing but that it's nevertheless in the Bible.

Deceptions in clairvoyance can easily occur at first. One thinks that one is seeing something outside, and it's one's own interior that's reflected there. It's even worse with sounds that one thinks one hears; beings who want to pull a meditator down deceive him thereby.

An esoteric striver not only has to do his meditations, to pray in the best sense of the word, but also to watch, to be on the lookout for bad influences that want to interfere when an independent transformation of bodies is undertaken. An occult sentence against all deception is: Every path into the spiritual world goes through the heart. During the meditation one can feel that lines go from every point of the outer physical body towards a center, which is the heart. These lines then go on in the opposite direction and into the spiritual world. This is like a feeling that Christ is in one, and it's a sign that there's no deception.

Each of our members is connected with one sign of the Zodiac; forces from Leo flow down into our heart. Forces from the sun also stream into our heart. Likewise, fire spirits work on our heart. Leo, sun, and flame are often used as symbols for the heart. Like the heart every part of us is related to outside forces; we've grown out of the whole world and are imbedded in it.

If we really let this fact live in our soul we then rightly understand the verse:

In the spirit lay the germ of my body.
And the spirit has imprinted in my body
The eyes of sense,
That through them I may see
The lights of bodies.
And the spirit has imprinted in my body
Reason and sensation
And feeling and will,
That through them I may perceive bodies
And act upon them.
In the spirit lay the germ of my body.
In my body lies the germ of the spirit.
And I will incorporate into my spirit
The super-sensible eyes
That through them I may behold the light of spirits.
And I will imprint in my spirit
Wisdom and power and love,
So that through me the spirits may act
And I become a self-conscious organ
Of their deeds.
In my body lies the germ of the spirit.

The first step of the Rosicrucian training, which we have already considered, was study; the second is imagination. It is imperative that we clothe our thoughts in figurative representations. The purpose of the lectures was not to present the development in an abstract way, but to depict it by looking at images.

Plants occupy a certain place in the universe; with their roots they follow the force of attraction that emanates from the center of the earth. They open their flowers chastely to the sunlight. The animal, with its horizontal backbone, stands in the middle. Man is the transformed plant, he carries his head up, his reproductive organs bashfully turned towards the earth. Plato said: When evolution moves upwards, creatures turn back; the soul of the world is crucified on the cross of the world. In plants, the sacred love lance, the kiss of sunlight, brings forth the blossom; chastely it opens to the sun.

The animal body is permeated by desire, which is why it turns around. The human being has the task of purifying his flesh. The flesh is the plant body permeated by desire. The Cup of Amfortas represents man, which opens upwards again to receive the sunbeam. The larynx is the chalice that will open upwards through the lance of Saint Amfortas when the word itself becomes creative. The legend of the Holy Grail represents the development in a profound way.

In the time of the ancient Atlanteans, nature expressed itself in images. This wisdom in images has been drained away with the waters and vanished into the air. It was dissolved into the blanket of fog.

The dew pearls on the meadow flowers in the morning; it is the condensed, hidden wisdom that has been precipitated. It is the ancient sign of the cross. Crux in Latin. Rosae Crux is the emblem of the Rosicrucians.

Through thinking, we come from the world of the senses into the absolute world. Theosophy is truth and science; it unites in itself pure thinking, as far as it is occultally hidden in the world. We must learn to watch our thinking; by letting the thoughts sprout out of the other, we are led to self-developing thinking.

In the Apocalypse of John, thoughts are condensed into images. The seals signify images related to other worlds. They are formed from the deepest occultism.

The Alpha and the Omega. The seer John describes the beginning and the end of human development, guided by the twenty-four elders.

The earth was in the beginning a fiery matter, and in the end it will be so again. Man will be mighty through his larynx. He will call all things into existence through his word, as all things have come forth through the word. Thus the sun gods spoke the words: “In the beginning was the word!” Things came into being. Man will spiritualize and be creative.

When all was formless, God spoke the word into it. The sword is the symbol of the creative sun god.

In the volcanic state, man will hammer and forge his new world in the fire.

Man of the past can be compared to the animal of today. It still has a single group soul. The ego of the animals on the astral plan:

Man also used to have a group soul. Leo, Taurus, Aquila and Man are the individualized group souls of the Apocalypse. The “Lamb” is the sign for the individual soul. The seer sees the group souls on the astral plane. The trumpets of which John speaks come from the Devachan, which is still higher. The seer describes human development in powerful images. He marks each stage of this development with a seal. The four horses represent the four stages of human intelligence. These are all things that have been thoroughly examined in occult science.

When we go out of ourselves and strive for the sun, then the etheric body is related to the sun, wisdom does not penetrate it from the outside, it has absorbed it as a book. Man is then master of the world, he becomes a being of the sun.

We usually think of space as having three dimensions. In its original state, space was transparent, so we have to imagine a vapor-like state. Beings came into being through the condensation of matter present in space. In the astral world there are already four major and five to six counter-dimensions. By purifying his nature, man sheds the lower self. The symbol for this is the staff of Mercury. The coiling serpents become the World Spiral and the Cup of the Holy Grail.

The dove is the symbol of spiritual fertilization. This is expressed in the Rosicrucian motto: E.D.N. – From God we are born – 1.C.M. – in Christ we died, P.S.S.R. – in the Holy Ghost we rose.

The leaves of the plants are arranged in such a way that they face each other in a spiral. There we have the Mercury staff again.

The wavy line represents how the forces meander through the external world.

The return from the created world to the creating one is represented by the sacred triangle.

After Dr. Steiner had given an overview of how to gain consciousness in higher realms the previous afternoon, this time he spoke in detail about the results of clairvoyant research into cosmic development. Dr. Steiner outlined the following very briefly:

First of all, the esoteric teachings of the Rosicrucians should not be seen as different from other teachings. They present only one particular aspect of the truth that meets the demands of certain individuals. They are one side of a mountain that has a summit where all the mountain slopes come together.

The Rosicrucian teaching is, however, best suited to the man of the modern world, in which industry and the struggle for material things come to the fore and the intellect rules. Since the year 1400, human brains have been changed by the transformation of the astral and etheric bodies, and the teachings of the Messenger of the White Lodge, known as Christian Rosenkreutz, also date from this time. The main idea is the intimate connection between man and the world, microcosm and macrocosm, both forming an inseparable whole. Through the conscious “I am,” man distinguishes himself from all lower beings in creation.

The material body of man is the oldest and therefore the most perfect. The higher bodies do not yet have such a perfect organization, but one day the whole four-membered human being - consisting of I, the astral, the etheric and the coarse material body - must become just as perfect as the perfectly organized coarse material body. The development of the physical body begins on our planet in the state of Saturn, that is, on the first planetary chain. The etheric body begins its development on the second chain, when our planet was in the state of the sun. The astral body was born on the third chain, when our planet was in the state of the moon; and finally the I, which was only formed on this earth in the human being and is therefore the youngest link.

The four successive states of Saturn, Sun, Moon and Earth correspond to the four elements of fire, air, water and earth.

The first sphere could be compared to a mirror of warmth that reflected everything it received, in which the spirits of will, wisdom, movement and form were mirrored, and the resulting mirror images were the germs of the future human being. In the Saturn state, the human body was nothing but a particle in a conglomeration. The first state of consciousness was very dull, but all-encompassing, like a stone in the material realm.

After the pralaya came the solar condition, here the gaseous formation occurs. The fire spirits then went through the human condition, and the future human being received his ethereal body. The human bodies looked like mirages, the consciousness was that of the plant, that is, the dreamless consciousness of sleep.

In the moon state, the astral bodies were added, and the liquid formation arose. Consciousness reached the third state, image consciousness, the imaginative.

Something special about this third period is that at a certain moment a part of the planet split off, taking with it the rapidly developing beings. This part became a sun; the old moon remained behind with the slower developing beings, the people of today. The moon also became denser, but there was no mineral kingdom yet. The moon can best be compared to a mass of spinach. Mountains and valleys were plant-like. On each following chain, a lower realm was created by those who were left behind, so that starting with man, the fourth realm or mineral realm did not arise until the earth period.

In this state of the earth, man finally received the ego, and a slower pace of development was adopted. The sun, the area of much faster development, emerged from our earth during the second root race; the moon, the area of crystallization of all development, emerged during the period of the third root race. In the first three rounds of the earth chain, the earth, sun and moon were connected.

On Earth, development progressed at a moderate pace, and in the period of the third root race, conditions had become such that man could receive the I.

Now the speaker briefly outlined the higher states of our planet, that is, the three later chains, which correspond to the Venus, Mercury and Vulcan states. In the Venus state, the higher manas is developed, in the Mercury state, budhi, while atma is unfolded in the Vulcan state. From the planets that had already reached this higher stage of development, guides and teachers came to our Earth to help humanity.

By considering the organs of the material body, the speaker pointed out that they were not all the same age. The heart, for example, is very old; the foundation for it was laid first. The reproductive organs, on the other hand, are younger and were only developed in a plant state.

In summary, the Rosicrucian esoteric doctrine regards the human being as a microcosm, a product of the macrocosm; everything that is revealed in the macrocosm must be able to be found in it.

At the end of the lecture, some questions were asked, in response to which Dr. Steiner gave his view of the composition and development of life in the planetary chains, whereby a very different view was given of the theory of the chains, rounds and races than we had been accustomed to until now, so that a great deal of adaptability was needed to think one's way into this way of thinking.

Ultimately, all knowledge serves to prepare our future. Other beings are guided; the law of crystallization is prescribed for the crystal; it does not need to be prefigured. This is how it is with plants and animals. Only in the middle of the Lemurian period did man begin to set goals for himself. Effective knowledge of the future is only possible if one knows the past. Thus, all human knowledge is destined to preserve the ideal for the future.

To understand how the earlier and the present round went, one must understand that the highest realm, the mineral realm, has reached its highest perfection, which is why it ends at the end of the fourth round. We must not confuse the mineral with the physical realm. If we could look ahead to the fifth round, we would see that there is no longer a mineral realm. This does not exclude the physical. Imagine intertwined plants, with man in the midst of them; everything in the lower world will have been transformed into plants. At the end of the fourth round, man will have reached the highest perfection of his mineral foundation. In the fifth, he will no longer have it, he will not produce anything mineral from himself.

He cannot enter this plant life immediately, but must go through three previous stages. His astral-mental body would not fit this plant body. Therefore, he must prepare himself and go through the three stages, which are called globes. Then they fit into the new physical stage. What has ceased is only what is connected with the mineral kingdom.

Birth and death are the same; they only come about in the fourth round because two different things, higher individuality and lower nature of man, come into contact with each other.

When you think of your individuality, it comes from much higher realms, while the body is made up of air, water and earth. Only a part of what the individuality is capable of can be expressed in the body. It is like a tent that is outlasted by the human being. He must change again and again because he is more. During the fifth round, we are dealing with the emergence of ever new human beings from the others.

Nothing dies, it is always all life. What arises in a certain respect from the shadow side is that the astral human being will have reached his actual organization. Today he is unorganized, not yet a bearer of the image of God; only the physical will become the image of God at the end of the fourth round. In the fifth round, man will have astral organs of action and sense. The sense organs will be the so-called chakras – five. They are named according to their form:

- the six-petalled lotus flower, in the center of the body, indicated in certain people, rotating in clairvoyants,
- a little further on is a ten-petalled organ,
- in the heart a twelve-petalled one,
- sixteen-petalled at the throat,
- between the eyebrows eighteen-petalled.

The outer body will form itself according to these organs. This has a specific consequence. Now the outer body is given by the outer nature, by the animal kingdom. Now it comes from what flows from the astral body; it is constructed from the astral realm and is therefore a reflection of what lives in the astral nature of the individual in question. So that Christian esotericism expressed it in such a way that it made it clear to the priests that <«Cain's» and «Abel's» will be the outward signs in people.

During the sixth round, the plant kingdom will have been completed and only the animal kingdom will exist, brought to its highest peak; only sentient life will exist. The whole earth will be sensation and movement. While in the fifth round the astral expressed itself as an outer body, in the sixth round thought will express itself in the animal body, in which the whole body moves rhythmically. That which lives in the soul will be expression, thought will be expression, a world communicating itself in sound. This is why Christian esotericism says: in the sixth round, all is sounding word.

Man's thinking life becomes direct expression. The previous proclamation of the walking word was the Word made flesh. The reference to this in the fourth round was Christ.

In the seventh round, the entire inner being of man will be turned outwards. Man can only stammer about that which lives on the Arupa plane. Then the “I am” will flow out. It is not confined in a body that separates it from the other “I”; all “I's” will be tones in a great symphony. In Christian esotericism, this is called “divinity”. This is what man must achieve in order to pass over to Mercury, just as he came from the moon before. To do this, we must have placed all our powers at the service of our ego in such a way that we are just as willing to receive as to give. This blessedness also means resting in oneself. For all previous states are striving; here there is a looking back on all that has been gathered.

In this image of God there will be no further work; the Godhead rests, looks back and rejoices in its works. “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all the host of them...”

Holy – is absolutely healthy, as
blessed – is completely imbued with soul.

It is the desire and intention of the Anthroposophical Movement founded by Rudolf Steiner to meet man's hunger for the spirit and for freedom from the fetters of a soul-destroying materialism, to guide him also to some solution of the riddles of the great world in which he lives. Among those who have looked to the Movement for help have been actors, who have suffered under the conditions and methods of the modern stage and have not been able to find an answer to the problems that vexed and harassed them in the pursuance of their art and in their endeavours after deeper knowledge and understanding. Some of these came to Rudolf Steiner, and he responded to their call. He gave for them this course of lectures on the Arts of Speech and Drama which is now appearing in a second edition. The actors had to wait a long time for the lectures while still more urgent problems were demanding his attention.

Rudolf Steiner saw in art a redemptive and healing power for man's life of soul, that cannot be too highly valued; and he was untiring in his efforts to plant and foster there seeds for the future. Right through all the activities he undertook for the spiritual and social life of mankind, his work in the field of art was never interrupted; it reached a kind of zenith in his own Mystery Plays. In eurhythmy he gave a new art that has power in it to animate and fructify all the other arts. And in the very last days of his outer activity, full as they were to overflowing, he added also these lectures on the Arts of Speech and Drama. The interest and eagerness with which the announcement of the course was greeted made it impossible to limit the audience to actors alone, as had been at first intended. No sooner, in response to urgent entreaty, had a few exceptions been made, than a whole stream of people began asking to be allowed to take part. Had the original plan been adhered to, the lectures would perhaps have had a different, a rather more professional character. The fact that they were delivered to a wider audience may however have helped to give them a certain large and universal quality and afforded occasion for some of the humorous and topical allusions.

Although the shorthand report of the lectures was imperfect, there was an urgent call for it to appear in print in order that the suggestions contained therein might be taken up and worked out. And publication having once been decided upon, obviously the only thing to do was to retain the spoken word in all the freshness and directness in which it was heard. The reader is asked to remember that the words were spoken right out of the immediate situation, and to make allowance for the quick responses in feeling and the silent questionings that they met with in the hearers. Obviously, the content of the lectures would have been given a different form had it been intended from the first for publication.

Many may be disinclined to enter upon a study of the advice given here, because a particular philosophy lies behind it,—and that for them is taboo! Anthroposophical terminology will even be found to occur in the explanations. Yes, it will certainly mean that one is under the necessity of forming for oneself a picture of man in body, soul and spirit; and for this one will have to undertake study. A plentiful supply of literature exists on the subject. Besides Rudolf Steiner's more general works on Spiritual Science, his many lectures on education will be found particularly helpful. The opinion prevails today, however, that art and a philosophy of life do not go well together. And yet every art, in the time of its full flowering, has had as its content a living philosophy, a living conception of the world. And this is what we need today if the decadent tendencies of a worn-out civilisation are to be overcome. To understand what is offered to us in these lectures on the Arts of Speech and Drama, we must be ready to affirm the cosmic spirituality that lies hidden behind the world of appearances; and if we want to go further and put into practice what we have learned from the lectures, we shall find we need to have real experience of this hidden cosmic substantiality. Prejudice should not be allowed to stand in our way, nor any aversion to the things of the spirit,—which in the last resort is bred of fear. Provided our vision is free and unclouded, we shall be able to recognise in the sounds of speech our divine teachers, and to know the very breath of man as cosmic substance actively at work within him. These are the materials, these are the instruments, for the artist in speech. Through them he can indeed come to know himself anchored in the spirit, and can then follow the spirit on its path into matter and into the course of history. He will see drama coming to birth in long-past times in the original Mystery Play; he will see it shaping the souls of men, inspiring them, stirring them to their very depths, and purifying them. And he will see how drama afterwards loses its way in the low levels of the ebb-tide of civilisation. And then he will come to recognise that it is for him, strengthened as he is in soul, and awakened in his ego-consciousness thanks to the gifts and achievements of long epochs of cultural development—it is for him now to restore to drama its character as of a Mystery. And speech, as it gradually reveals its hidden depths to bis consciousness, will be his guide, will verily show him the way.

Dornach, September 1941.
MARIE STEINER

Impatience slows development of the organs one needs to see into higher worlds. For many pupils already have spiritual organs developed before they know about them or know how to use them. It's like a sleeper who hears nothing because the ego and astral body have left his ears.

When we look at a rose its red color, form, etc. has a destructive effect on our retina. The rose sensation runs along our nerves and has a destructive effect on them. The astral body throws what the retina receives into the etheric body that thereby gets many impressions from outside daily.

What tears down the physical body builds things up in the etheric body. The latter builds itself up through impressions and experiences from outside. The astral body is also destroyed by outer impressions and then the I is supposed to build things up again. The astral body is harmoniously organized when it comes to a new incarnation and is then made disharmonious. That's the occult explanation for the fact that most children cry after they're born. Their astral body feels that entry into life destroys its harmony and it feels this as pain. This harmony can only be restored by the I, through the creation of thought pictures that the I throws into the etheric body via the astral body, and that are viable. Most of the impressions that we send to our etheric body in ordinary life are worthless as far as their vitality is concerned. We should create mental images that are clear and rightly structured and therefore are able to live. For instance, what the eyes receive from outside they throw onto the etheric body, on which the picture arises. The I then works on the etheric body from the other side via the astral body by forming a thought in this that it throws on the etheric body as an impression; and the main thing is that they should be the right, viable thoughts. These viable thoughts form our spiritual organs that'll make us clairvoyant. Just as Gods created our physical body harmoniously so that each organ and limb is at the right place, so we must form our astral and etheric bodies harmoniously and make our thoughts viable. This doesn't have to take long. An experienced esoteric often only needs a minute to harmonize his impressions again. One creates such organ-forming, vital impressions in one's etheric body through meditation, by immersing oneself in certain concepts, in eternal thoughts.

For instance, it's important for every pupil to meditate on the wisdom concept. This doesn't mean that he should form a firmly outlined, intellectual definition of wisdom. He should have mobile views about it that are easy to change. Wisdom and cleverness or erudition are very different things. Some beings don't think and yet are very wise. They execute plans very wisely, although they were created by other beings. There are also men who aren't clever or erudite but are wise. Now if one meditates on the wisdom concept in the right way some wisdom will flow into us, enlightenment from higher worlds will come to us.

A second concept that one should meditate on is love. What the average person calls love is often nothing but crass egotism. True love is always productive, as when an artist devotes himself creatively to his work. The Gods created our earth out of love as they devoted themselves entirely to the creation that they sweat out of themselves, as it were. What can unite love and wisdom is that I that always works at itself, that must always be egofied anew, as Fichte puts it. One only understands Fichte's philosophy rightly if one sees that the I must always create itself anew, must know itself anew. That's also what Meister Eckhart means when he says: What good is it to be a king if one isn't aware that one is one.

All things on higher planes throw shadows onto lower ones, and so I, wisdom and love work as thinking, feeling and willing on the next, lower plane. One who thinks intentively about it will realize that the I is changed into thinking, wisdom passes over into feeling, and productive love becomes will, that is the impulse to creativity, to devotion. To complement these three points and the triangle it's good to meditate on four other points and a square. Choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic and melancholic beings create an etheric body for a man when he presses towards a new incarnation. Each man gets something from each of these beings, although one or the other usually predominates. This dominant temperament becomes manifest in a man's whole behavior, especially when he is young. For instance, phlegmatic beings are enemies of the philistine, petty things that a man would get into if he got too much from the melancholic beings. Choleric beings also become manifest in fire, sanguine ones in air, phlegmatics in water and melancholic beings in earth. Our earth is the outer expression for melancholy that has become physical. If one meditates on all of this one will someday lose consciousness of the outer world and will then know what eternity is and that birth and death are only changes. The etheric body will light up from the other side through the I and we'll see the effects of the eternal, live thoughts that we imprinted on it, namely, the clairvoyant organs that we can now use. If we're impatient and try to speed up this process the I illumines the etheric body, but we only see the outer impressions that were put into it, distorted pictures that are often horrible, or else beautiful, deceptive pictures. Therefore it's advisable to use the greatest care and patience in creating well formed, proper spiritual organs, for we're creating our future, our new earth with them. The Gods meditated our present planet, and what we create should be just as full of wisdom.

Every perusal of art also strengthens clairvoyant organs. For instance, when we look at a statue it's good to feel the forms and lines in one's thoughts. This strengthens our creative capacities.

We must take esoteric life seriously, and so an esoteric class must always be something sacred for us. We should never take it to be something ordinary. Probably not all of us were aware of the seriousness that is necessary when we asked to be admitted to this esoteric circle. But now we should place this ever more before our souls and strive for a connection with the spiritual worlds so that we don't fall back into everyday life again.

One should always look upon the exercises that are given to us as ones that come from the masters. An esoteric should watch himself and his feelings and to especially focus on self-knowledge. Most people—and we are probably among them—are living in big delusions about themselves. We must especially pay attention to egoism. We often imagine that we're doing something selflessly, or we feel hatred and envy towards someone that we haven't become aware of yet. Then as esoterics we think that we must tell him the “truth,” and that we don't have to take this or that from him. As soon as such feelings arise in us, one should realize that one is living under big delusions whose deeper cause is always egoism. Such feelings always become manifest together with a feeling of warmth that goes through the etheric body's warmth ether and works right into the physical body through the blood. Such feelings always have a harmful effect on men and world evolution.

The hierarchies who direct karmic connections work in such a way that they appoint special beings who destroy certain upbuilding effects in us, and therewith have a destructive effect on the soul and indirectly on the body. These are Luciferic beings who are appointed for this kind of work.

When we have correct self-knowledge and see our own badness, an ice-cold feeling goes through us instead of the aforementioned feeling of warmth that satisfies us. All the passions and desires that get satisfied in us express themselves in the described feeling of warmth, in contrast to the feeling of coldness that appears in true self-knowledge.

The Luciferic beings that thereby approach a pupil destructively reveal themselves to a clairvoyant as certain hosts, whose leader is Samael. These beings who don't look human at all are always perceptible for a spiritual eye. If on awakening, we have a feeling of disgust, as is often the case in an esoteric pupil, then such a feeling can almost always be ascribed to the egoism that often sits unrecognized deep in subconscious soul depths.

We must also direct our attention to everything that's connected with untruthfulness. Thanks to our education, we don't tell any big lies, but we always have the inclination to seem to be better than we really are. Or if the truth could endanger us, we prefer to keep quiet about it and to conceal the facts. This kind of thing also has a harmful effect on world events and therewith on the men themselves. Such untruths work on our astral body and then on our light ether. From there such harmful influences work on the physical body, especially on the nervous system. The Luciferic beings who are connected with this and whose leader is Azazel look partly like men, mostly a head with raven's wings.

One who tends to be untruthful will usually be able to feel a choking, scratchy sensation in the throat, and he often feels as if he was being pinched with pincers and tormented with a thousand arms. One who observes himself exactly will then notice how deeply he's still entangled in lies and dissimulations.

Then we should also become aware of a certain indifference and dullness with respect to spiritual worlds and their influences. Many pupils listen to an esoteric lecture, but what's given finds no echo in them. They can't lift themselves spiritually above everyday life or occupy themselves with spiritual thoughts. Others only want to see something in spiritual worlds out of curiosity, and meditate blind—to this end, without wanting to devote themselves to regular study, for that's too inconvenient for them. This has a harmful effect on the ego, from there on the astral body, then on the etheric body and namely on the part we call chemical ether, and from there on the physical glands and fluids.

There's a difference between esoterics and nonesoterics in their relation to Lucifer's hosts. For instance, Azazel and his hosts want to produce good effects on the latter, since they only work on them in a complementary way, as it were, and not to make them sick. But esoteric pupils are expected to be fully aware of their responsibility towards the world and themselves. That's why a dull esoteric can easily have the feeling on waking in the morn that he's drowning, especially if he abandons himself to ordinary sense life. And so an esoteric must constantly watch himself, and it doesn't hurt if he sometimes becomes a brooder about himself. Then he'll understand what the masters of wisdom bring home to him at the close of each class:

In the spirit lay the germ of my body.
And the spirit has imprinted in my body
The eyes of sense,
That through them I may see
The lights of bodies.
And the spirit has imprinted in my body
Reason and sensation
And feeling and will,
That through them I may perceive bodies
And act upon them.
In the spirit lay the germ of my body.
In my body lies the germ of the spirit.
And I will incorporate into my spirit
The super-sensible eyes
That through them I may behold the light of spirits.
And I will imprint in my spirit
Wisdom and power and love,
So that through me the spirits may act
And I become a self-conscious organ
Of their deeds.
In my body lies the germ of the spirit.