The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Note 1732-1735, undated, c. 1904

1.) Dreams are an influence of the spiritual on the human soul. The dreamer is the human being as a soul being. What the dreamer perceives, however, are the after-effects of his life in his formative forces body. In a dream, the human being is cut off from his physical surroundings and from his own physical body, just as he is in a real sleep. The dream shows the meaning of life in the physical world. This world provides the logical and the moral. Therefore, in a dream, man is neither logical nor moral. One should not describe a dream as a mental disorder. This disorder consists precisely in the fact that the supersensible aspect of dreaming takes hold of the body without the control of spiritual self-awareness. In a dream, the eternal is at work, but it is directed towards the temporal. It depends on the drama of the dream.

2.) In hallucination, unlike in dreams, there is not a spiritual-mental but a physical-mental appearance. The person is given over to the body. Instead of the whole body being used as a mediator to generate the perceptions, only part of the body is used. In the hallucination, the temporal is active, but this temporal dares to approach the eternal: that which should only be active in the creation of the human body itself.

3.) The somnambulist has infected his sensory life and sometimes - as a medium - his will life from the soul-bodily organs. He has become a physical and mental automaton. This results in an imitation of the spiritual. The temporal dares to approach the eternal; but in a way that should only be conveyed through sensory perception and through the willful misuse of will impulses that are only justified in interaction with beings of the physical world. Mediums sin against the common good; they act like someone who, for example, uses a substance that he has received as a gift for a crowd to adorn his own personality.

4) The artistic is related to the dream-like; but it differs from it in that the dreamer focuses on the temporal aspect of his own life, while the artist's soul is turned towards the spiritual, the eternal. The artist translates his spiritual experiences into the soul, but not into the activities that underlie the imagination and the will. He can do this because he only refers to that in the spirit which corresponds to his individual contemplation.

5.) The Contemplative Consciousness lifts the spiritual into the ordinary life that every human being has. One's own spirit stands in relation to the spiritual world. The experiences of the Contemplative Consciousness:

1.) cannot be remembered in the usual sense. Only when they are converted into representations;
2.) they do not become stronger in repetition like the habitually acquired representations and actions;
3.) they must be experienced with presence of mind.

Man is in relationship with a spiritual world. The beings of this world are not bodily-soul-spiritual like humans, but soul-spiritual. But within this world of the spiritual-soul there are levels, realms, as in the sensory world: the realm that has to do with the subconscious of the individual human being is active in his animal life; the realm that is active in his vegetative processes; the realm that is active in his mineral nature. This brings us to the unconscious of world-becoming. The original states were those that were more spiritual than the later ones.

1.) The dreamer has a reciprocal relationship with the being that serves him to guide his soul in the spiritual world.

2.) The somnambulist enters into a reciprocal relationship with an unjustified spirit world; the hallucinator with the 'human instinctual world'; the perceiving and acting somnambulist with the external world, which should legitimately only be experienced through sensory perception and influenced by the physical work of the will.

Goethe:

When the healthy nature of man works as a whole, when he feels himself [in the world] as a great, beautiful, dignified and valuable whole, when harmonious comfort gives him a pure, free delight – then the universe, if it could feel itself, would exult as having reached its goal and would admire the summit of its own becoming and being.

Dream recognition:

1.) The spiritual researcher can compare what he experiences with imaginative knowledge.

2.) The spiritual researcher has a different experience with him. He becomes aware of this.

In dreams, anesthesia of the higher senses and of touch. —

In the dream, self-observation is practiced. The thinking activity, which otherwise disturbs self-observation, stands still; so does the sensory activity.

Imagination and inspiration are present.

The will rests on intuition; the presentation on sensory activity; both are absent.

The dream takes place outside the senses and outside the metabolism.

It takes place in the rhythm of breathing and blood circulation.

Memory weak because sensory activity is absent. False memory – hyperesthesia.

The dream proceeds like a mental disorder, but is quite unlike it, because it takes place in the soul. In a mental disorder, the physical intrudes into the soul without justification; in a dream, the spirit intrudes into the soul without understanding.

In a dream, a person is neither moral nor logical.

Dreaming continues in waking life.

Hallucination: the unwarranted conscious perception of a part of the body instead of the whole body. The dream image: one knows only through a part of the soul instead of through the whole soul.

Imagination must not become hallucination; inspiration must not become autosuggestion.

It depends on the drama of the dream. He clothes his tensions, solutions, his rhythms in the images of personal experience.

The somnambulist is in relationship with the outside world; but not through his normal physical body, but through that part of his being that is associated with the imaginative and inspired world. In dream consciousness, it is the soul that is active; in somnambulism, it is the body. A person is somnambulant if, instead of extinguishing prenatal experiences in the body (and merely seeing them in the spiritual) and instead imprinting them in the body (which enables the person to perceive in the sensory world). —

In post-hypnosis, the organ remains imprinted until the command is carried out. Instead of being a soul-spiritual being that reveals itself through the body, the person has become a physical-soul automaton that apes the true human being.

The human being carries his childhood within him; but in the normal state he does not relate it to the outside world, to which he relates only his present human being. In the morbid state, however, he relates his childhood to the outside world. This is when a lack of direction in life occurs. It is easy for a person in a civilized society to get into this situation if they cannot keep up with life and are therefore unable to place their present human being in a fulfilled relationship with the outside world. Hypersthesia: aping artistic activity.

Hyperesthesia: aping of artistic activity.

If sensory activity is heightened and combines with healthy mental life, then artistry arises. But if the activity of perception, which lies behind the senses, is heightened, then it fabricates unauthorized sensory activity and apes artistry.

Diagnosis for increased sensitivity. -!?

Healing instincts.

The etheric body is the creator of the physical body, while it itself is created by the astral body. The physical body can be seen as the manifestation and condensation of the creative part of the etheric body; whereas the receptive parts of it remain open to the influence of the astral body. The etheric body of a man is female, that of a woman is male. Originally, however, the etheric body is of both sexes. And this bisexuality is nothing other than the condensation of a part of the completely sexless astral body. The external physical sex arises only from the fact that one side of the bisexual etheric body condenses physically. The man arises through the condensation of the male side; the woman through the condensation of the female side. In the former, an ethereal-female remains, in the latter an ethereal-male.

These remaining parts of the etheric body are again divided into two parts, one of which retains its sexual characteristics, while the other takes on an asexual nature. That which remains sexual permeates itself with desire and becomes the basis for human physical reproduction. While the physical organs of reproduction are the expression of the lowest part of the etheric body, the organs of affection, the heart, are the creatures of the second part of the etheric body. The woman has a male heart, the man a female heart. The male heart expresses itself in active love, in compassionate devotion; the female heart of the man finds expression in courage and bravery. At this stage, one should no longer interpret the expressions male and female here as having exactly the same meanings as they have for physical corporeality. Although love and courage first reveal themselves to the opposite sex, they nevertheless take on a more general character that relates to more general life circumstances.

The third part of the etheric body contains the forces that produce the sense organs. The entire sensory apparatus is produced by this etheric body. But these sense organs would be without effect if the etheric body did not imbibe with the astral body. The eye and the etheric forces that produce it would bring forth something that is also present in the photographic apparatus, if these emanations were not transformed by the astral body into sensations of color.

What the astral body produces in connection with this third highest link of the etheric body and the physical organs it generates forms the basis of the soul's life. These are the perceptions.

When observing the eye, for example, one has to consider three things: firstly, the ether eye, which is the creator of the eye. Secondly, the creature, namely the physical eye itself. And thirdly, the astral limb that extends into this eye and in which, for example, the color “red” is formed.

The astral body also breaks down into three parts. The lowest is the one that fills the sense organs in the manner indicated. It is of a creative nature, for it has given the uppermost part of the etheric body the ability to form sense organs. The second, middle link of the astral body, on the other hand, is less creative. It has a character that finds expression in the preservation of what it has received, in pleasure and pain. It is connected to the heart in the same way that the first link is connected to the objects of the external world through the sense organs. It experiences the impressions that are conveyed through the heart.

The third limb of the astral body is essentially independent of the external world of the senses as well as of the internal world of the heart. It finds its expression in the “I”. But this limb can let etheric forces flow into it. These etheric forces at play in the I are initially thoughts. With these thoughts, the I enters into contact with the universal ether. The thoughts of things embodied in the ether flow into the ego, and so the ego first forms the third, uppermost limb of its astral body. With the help of this “ego work”, the astral body becomes an organized entity, whereas before it was a chaotic, virgin being. This astral body now in turn has an effect on the lower limbs of the astral body. First of all, on the second limb. The forms of the consciousness soul are imprinted on the desire soul. The heart undergoes a process of ennoblement and spiritualization. It is directed towards the spirit. Initially, this can only happen when the externally stimulated experiences are silent. In the quiet hours of life. Above all, during sleep, when the soul is disconnected from the body, the spiritualized astral part imprints its character on the intellectual and sensual part. Therefore, time must be given to the person to consolidate what the malleable astral soul absorbs. Forces must develop in the middle part of the soul that can then act on the heart. Then the heart will release its powers again, so that the physical parts for the spirit can also be formed. These are then clairvoyant organs.

When the uppermost part of the astral soul can no longer evoke mere thoughts but actual images, the next step can begin on the lowest part of the astral body. Before, it was only able to build sensory organs that reflected external things. Now it becomes capable of making these sensory organs the realization of internal things. The human perceptions are then no longer mere images of the external, but they radiate the things of the inner world outwards. Man becomes the bearer of causes, whereas before he could only receive effects.

In the waking state, the astral body works through the third part of the ether body in the senses.

In the dream state, the astral body withdraws into itself; the astral body transforms into images what the ether body has received from the senses. In the actual state of sleep, the astral body frees itself even from these perceptions of the senses. It lives only in the ether, which is not changed by the human being himself. He lives the general life of the world.

This latter state is connected with the waking life only through the ego-concept. It is pure will, creating out of nothing.

The dream state is connected to waking life through the desires and feelings. They only have an existence in the soul. You experience them, but you do not look at them. Clairvoyance consists of looking at this world. It then becomes images, just as the external world is represented by the sense organs in images. This is astral vision.

But when the will itself becomes pictorial, then mental seeing occurs. Man then sees thoughts as he sees trees.

If this state increases to such an extent that the thoughts of his seeing prove to be independent beings, spirit beings, then will perceives the will. And through the will perceived [a part of the manuscript is missing here]

In this state, the human being transforms the third and uppermost part of his etheric body himself. This becomes more and more his own creation.

Finally, this transformed highest part of the etheric body then influences the second. It makes it creative too. This has previously been stimulated to its productive achievements by the outside world. The most prominent stimulus came from the perception of sexual desire. Now the stimulus comes from within. The one-sidedness of the masculine or feminine disappears completely. A non-sexual generative power of this etheric body begins: Budhi. It again affects the physical organism, which now develops the organ of will in the highest sense.

The first sentence of “The Voice of Silence” speaks of the lower soul powers (Iddhi or Siddhis). And it points to the “dangers of these soul powers”. First of all, I would like to point out that the little book, “The Voice of Silence”, is intended to serve as material for meditation. It is written entirely from an occult knowledge. And occult knowledge is living knowledge, i.e., it has an effect as a force on the whole person when he or she penetrates it through meditation. But, as I have already said, it is not a matter of rationally absorbing and dissecting this knowledge, but of completely surrendering to it. Only those who succeed in clearing their field of consciousness for a short time of all impressions of everyday life and in filling themselves completely with the meditation thought for that time will receive the fruit of meditation.

I would now like to point out some of the occult knowledge that underlies the “Voice of Silence”. But I must explicitly state that it is not a matter of speculating such knowledge into the sentences of the “Voice of Silence” in moments of meditation, but of appropriating this knowledge in times that lie outside of meditation. Then the same becomes a component of our soul and it works in us, even if we do not analyze it in detailed thoughts during meditation.

All truly occult sentences are based on the knowledge of world development and are written out of the knowledge that sees man in harmony with the One All-Life, which lives out in ever new forms. But man should recognize himself as one of these forms. He should learn to understand that the developmental processes of a long past have flowed into his being, and that he himself forms the transitional form to higher states.

As man is today, he consists of a series of bodies: the physical, the astral, the lower spiritual body, and the higher spiritual body. And even higher bodies are for the time being only hinted at in him. Man understands himself even less if he knows that the bodies mentioned are not all developed to the same degree. For although, for example, the astral body as such is higher than the physical body, man's present astral body is nevertheless lower than his physical body. One must distinguish between perfection in its kind and perfection in itself. Man's physical body has today reached a certain level of perfection in its kind, and it will be complete when the present so-called [4th] “round” of our earth has come to an end. The astral body, however, still stands today at a lower degree of perfection, and it will only be in the 5th round that it will have progressed as far as the physical body has today in its kind. The higher bodies are even further behind in their development. Therefore, one can say: Man still has a lot of work to do on himself so that his higher bodies are organized and developed to the same extent as his physical body is. Today, man cannot essentially sin as much against his physical organization as he can against his higher bodies. Of course, one can also damage one's physical organization; but damaging the higher bodies means something quite different. For these higher bodies are still in a kind of embryonic state, and by acting on them, we act on predispositions, not on organs that have reached their finished form to a certain extent in the realm of nature. We organize our higher bodies in the same way that we think, feel, sense, and desire. We do this in the same way that natural forces did long ago, when they formed our physical organs, our lungs, heart, eyes, ears, etc., from lower structures. We see ourselves as the continuation of nature on higher planes. That we direct our thoughts, desires, sensations, feelings in such a way that we organize our higher bodies in the way nature has organized our physical body: such instructions as the “Voice of Silence” are for this purpose. And we bring ourselves into the right direction of development when we let such sentences take effect on us in meditation. For these sentences are precisely spiritual natural forces that guide us, and through which we guide ourselves. If we let them guide us, then our higher bodies will organize themselves and we will receive sensory organs for the higher planes. We will see, hear and act on these higher planes, just as we have come to see, hear and act on the physical plane through the natural forces. It is easy to see that there are “dangers” in such a development. The so-called lower soul powers present these dangers if the spiritual power is not directed in the appropriate direction. The Voice of the Soul was written to achieve this direction.

It is also a danger for a person if they acquire a false sense of the idea that the “outer world” is a mere illusory world. This is certainly true in one sense. But man is not called upon to withdraw from this “outer world” and flee to higher worlds. We should gain insight into the higher worlds, but we should be clear about the fact that we should seek the causes for effects in our physical world in these higher worlds. We should always bear in mind that we have to delve into our own spirit. Through such deepening, we learn to understand the spirit that speaks to us through every leaf, through every animal, through every human being. But it would be wrong if we sought the spirit and disregarded its organs, and the organs of the spirit are the phenomena and processes of this world. We are to draw the impulses, the motives for our activity in this world from higher planes; the activity itself must lie between birth and death in this world. We are not to disdain the world, but to love it; but we are not to love it as it appears to the mere physical senses, but we are to learn daily, hourly how it is an expression of the spirit. Everywhere, in the sense of the third sentence of “The Voice of Silence”, one seeks the “Creator” on a higher plane. Certainly, in this way the world of the senses becomes an illusory world. But only to the extent that man usually regards it. For example, we see a criminal. As most people look at such a person, they see only appearance. We get to know the truth about the criminal when we confront him with a gaze that is sharpened by the higher worlds. When we look deeply into the workings of the world, then all our feelings, all our perceptions of the reality around us change. And through such knowledge we become capable for the real world in which we live. We must realize more and more that we are much less called to correct the world than to correct our illusory views of the world. Only then can we intervene in the world in a bettering way, if we have improved ourselves by struggling through from false to true views. That is why it says in “The Voice of Silence”: “Only then, only when the human being no longer perceives the many entities of appearance as such, but directs his gaze to the One True, will the feeling close to the realm of falsehood and open to the realm of truth.”

The “creative spirit” works around us, but the “creative spirit” also works within us. The outer world will always reveal this creative spirit to us if we maintain the “silver thread” that binds us to the creative spirit itself. We should therefore listen to everything that reaches our ears and look at everything that presents itself to our eyes. However, we should never allow ourselves to be directed by external influences, but we should be clear that within us is the interpreter, the conductor, who places everything external in the right light. By tearing the “silver thread” within, we ourselves make the outer world an illusory one, which then deceives us at every turn; by maintaining the inner connection with the source of the spirit, all the light of truth also pours out for us over the outer world.

We must search in our own spirit: then the spirit of the world opens up to us. It is not usually assumed that this is the way to see in higher worlds. Yet it is. —

The “halls” in “The Voice of Silence” are real experiences of self-knowledge in the human being.

It is important that we clearly bring the stages described here to our minds. It is not a matter of grasping intellectually what is meant by these “halls”. We must experience this meaning. Understanding is the least; and this understanding also does not open up higher powers. But even if we believe that we have long since understood, we must live in this sense again and again: that opens up [higher powers]. Experienced occultists know that understanding occult tenets is nothing. That is why every occultist will live and let live again and again what has long been understood. And no true occultist should fail to meditate daily on the most important and simplest truths. This does not give him knowledge in the worldly sense, but it gives him strength and life in the occult sense. Just as you love a child that you see and know every day, so the occultist loves the truths and must be with them and live with them every day. Occult knowledge is therefore different from the external knowledge gained from mere civilization. You have it once, and you are, so to speak, done with the understanding. Not so with occult knowledge. You have it again and again in your living environment, even if you know it, like lovingly embracing a child, even if you have known it for a long time.

The “first hall” makes it clear to us that our usual point of view is that of ignorance. And ignorance must remain our part if we remain with what, so to speak, has fallen to us through nature itself. All external knowledge, too, is only a collection of what ignorance yields. As long as we are not clear about the fact that we can remain in ignorance despite having much knowledge, true wisdom is impossible for us, as is any kind of progress. It is essential that we imbibe this attitude with a sense of being alive, that we are “learners”. With every step we take, life must be a school for us. Then we experience life in the second hall. Our whole relationship to the world changes under the influence of such an attitude. We then have the faith that we can learn from everything that comes our way. We become students of the All-One Life, which continually reveals itself to us. And only then do we learn to love; to love the All. Thus the isolation banished into the narrow self melts away, and we learn not to remain with pain and joy, but to let pain and joy teach us. We come to understand that our own organism is an organ for the whole world. We realize that our real self is not at all identical with this organism; we learn to regard ourselves as a tool through which the world acts on our higher self, and this higher self on the world. But then we will also soon find that this higher self is a member in the spirit-all-organism, entrusted to us as a pledge, so that we can regard ourselves as emissaries of the divine all-will. We feel more and more like missionaries of the great world spirit. And when we feel like this, we sense something of the atmosphere of the “Hall of Learning”. But then we can also ascend to the feeling of what the 3rd hall, that of “Wisdom”, is. We experience the connection with the All-Spirit and become aware that the highest knowledge flows to us from within. We begin to allow ourselves to be carried along by this stream. The gates of inspiration open for us. We will guide ourselves in the true sense, not be guided by the impulses of the outside world. We are reborn in this way. For, as we were previously a child of the world, so now we become a child of the spirit. The spirit within shows us the way. An infinite sense of security and calm comes over us; all success does not decide anything about our actions, but only the view of what is right. And this feeling of inner security opens our eyes to the hall of bliss. And then the seven voices resound. These seven voices, like all occult truths, have a sevenfold interpretation. And more and more we ascend to the highest interpretation, which is actually no longer an interpretation but a spiritual reality. But one must meditate within oneself to open up the following interpretations, then higher interpretations and ultimately realities will reveal themselves.

First, the first (symbolic-allegorical) interpretation.

1.) Feeling alive and immersing oneself in this living feeling, one must always renew the feeling that the world, as one initially sees it, is an outer work, an illusory world. One must immerse oneself in the living belief that this world will reveal the truth to us more and more as we immerse ourselves in ourselves. It cannot be easy for us to completely imbue ourselves with such a mood. For we must not forget that this world is ours after all, that we are indeed called to love this world. If it were very easy for us to say goodbye to the way we live in the world, then this farewell would not be a sacrifice. Then we would seek a new way of life only as we rush from distraction to distraction in ordinary life. Therefore, the voice that speaks to us in this moment of farewell must be the sweet song of the nightingale; there must be a real farewell to the illusory feelings of life. If we can often imbue ourselves with such a mood for a few moments, then we ascend the ladder of mystical perfection.

And we can discern the second voice in the things of this world. For as long as we live in illusory feelings, the world sounds disharmonious to us. We judge and criticize because we perceive the discords on the surface of things. But when we dampen our perception of the discords, we dampen judgment and criticism; and we immerse ourselves in the harmony at the basis of things. We learn to understand evil ourselves. We learn to recognize that evil is a force that asserts itself in the wrong place. If it were in the right place, it would be good. And so, at the bottom of things, what previously appeared to be discord is transformed into harmony. Not judging, not criticizing, but hearing and understanding makes the second sound resonate out of the silence. Every occultist knows that it has helped him infinitely to understand and seek everywhere, to understand uncritically, compassionately; and then the silver cymbal resounded to him, which is only drowned out by what an external hearing perceives from the surface of things.

“Listen within,” the occultist urges us. If you compare one thing with another, you may well find one thing perfect and the other imperfect. But it is not such a comparison that will tell you what is in the thing, but the third sound that is hidden in every thing like the sound in the sea shell. You will not understand the ugliness in nature, the wrong in life, the corruption in man by comparing one with the other, but by listening to the hidden inner self of each thing and being. Go into the silence, where nothing intrudes on you that prompts you to compare, and be spiritually alone with each being, then the “silence” reveals to you the muffled sound in each thing and being.

And after such an exercise, seriousness and dignity pervade our entire being. We learn to understand the world in its seriousness and dignity. Something must stir in us that allows us to feel fully serious about all things. This is the moment when it is revealed to us how everything is an expression of the most dignified whole. We get used to looking up from the smallest to the infinite, because even when we are confronted with the smallest thing, we are not left with the thought that it is an expression of the language of the universe, which speaks to us with the calmest dignity. This feeling, vividly grasped in our meditation, gives the fourth tone.

But then, when we have prepared ourselves, the spirit beings in the world begin to resound for us; then it sounds like the trumpet call, for we will no longer hear the secret of a single thing, but the sound of the universe itself. If we let the spirit of the world speak to us, it will resound to us from all things; but no longer as the individual sound of these things, but as the harmony of the universe. This is the fifth sound.

And this sound can intensify. It penetrates from being to being for us. It reveals to us the secrets of the world. Once we have grasped that everything is the manifestation of the One Spirit, we can surrender ourselves completely to this manifestation. We then see the world as a spiritual sound, permeating everything and finding an echo everywhere. This is the sixth voice.

We should bring ourselves to experience the ideas thus suggested in a spiritual, meditative way. We should be still within, very still, and vividly recall the images with which the tones are characterized in the “St. d. St.”, so that we listen imaginatively to them with the spiritual ear. And in doing so, we should fill ourselves with thoughts such as those given here for the exegesis of the tones. Not speculatively, but in a living feeling. Then we meditate correctly and fruitfully.

And finally, we let all the revelations of the six tones resound together in one. For we should not remain in one relationship to the world, but be all-embracing. And whoever has already heard the sixth voice must return to the first, to the second, etc. Only when we love the individual as well as the harmony in the whole do we approach perfection.

(continued next time). —

[Part 1: Enclosure to a letter to Marie von Sivers, early January 1906]

The development of the Earth

The earth is the fourth of the seven planets on which the human being successively develops his seven states of consciousness. It has been shown that the moon is the arena for the development of image consciousness. An “image” is only similar to, but not the same as, its object. But the consciousness that is developed on earth produces images that are “equal” to the object to which they belong in a certain respect. That is why earthly consciousness is also called “object consciousness”. However, this object consciousness only develops during the fourth, smaller cycle of the earth (round). During the first three, the conditions previously experienced on Saturn, the Sun and the Moon are briefly repeated. But it must be said again that it is not a mere repetition, but that during this repetition the physical body, the etheric body and the astral body are transformed in such a way that they can become the carriers of the “I”, on whose development in the fourth round the object consciousness depends.

So when, after the third round of repetition on earth, a kind of state of sleep is again experienced - between the so-called archetypal and the arupic globe - then, at the beginning of the fourth round, everything that can be considered the result of the development of Saturn, the sun and the moon emerges, initially in an arupic form. So we are dealing here with the descendants of the three lunar realms: the mineral realm, which is still in some sense plant-like, the plant realm, which has something of animal life, and an animal realm that is higher than the present animal kingdom. These three realms together form the planet that is emerging from the twilight: the Earth. It should be noted, however, that the former Sun and Moon are still contained in this Earth. When the Moon Manvantara came to an end, the Sun and Moon reunited and passed into Pralaya as one body. They will also emerge again as one body, although the tendency to split has already become apparent in the third round of the earth. Now the earth is going through the rupa and astral state during the fourth round, and is then preparing to become physical again.

The development of this physical state in the three kingdoms mentioned is the responsibility of the “spirits of form”. They transform the earlier “sense-germs” into truly formed sense organs, especially in the case of the highest kingdom, the animal-human kingdom. In all the earlier physical states through which man has passed, the sense organs had not yet taken on a fixed form.

Now, by acquiring a fixed form, these organs cease to be active; they lose their productivity, they become purely passive, suitable for merely perceiving what is offered from outside as objects. The productive power thus withdraws from the sense organs; it goes more inward; it forms the organ of reason. But this organ cannot be formed without a certain part of the human comrades being pushed down to a lower level. But now man himself pushes part of his being down into a subordinate region. He separates off a part of his being as his own lower nature. And this lower nature retains the productive power that the sense organs have had to give up. This productive power, pushed down into a lower sphere, becomes the power of sexual procreation as it occurs on earth. The “spirits of form” would cause all generative power and thus all life to solidify, to harden into mere form, if they did not concentrate this power on one part of the human being. Therefore, the spirits of form bring about sexual development. Without this, statues would have to be created instead of living human beings.

Now the whole process is linked to a complete transformation of the earth. Conditions arise that allow the beings described to live. This is made possible by the fact that the earth – still united with the moon – splits off from what remains as the sun. As a result, the sun emerges as an independent body opposite the earth. This is the external physical condition for the emergence of external perception, of object consciousness, and for the development of sexual predispositions. But at this time we are still dealing with a dual sexuality. This is because all the moon forces are still contained in the earth. During this time, however, although the organ of intellect is present, it is still completely inactive. It will only be able to develop its activity when the power of sex production has diminished by half, so that each being has only half of the former power of production. This then gives the two sexes. Outwardly, this is brought about by the emergence of those forces from the earth, which then orbit the earth as the present moon. If this separation had not taken place, the whole earth would have had to become a rigid mass, a mere form. But in this way only that which absolutely had to become firm has been removed from it, and this has become the moon, on which human life could not develop. Thus, out of the common planetary matter, the earth has saved what could be productive, even if only in the lower realm of sexual life. The representative of the “spirits of form” is Jehovah. He thus brings about the formation of the sense organs; but he also brought about, if he were now more alone in his activity, the complete solidification into mere form.

Now two events are significant for the further development. The one is the origin of the two sexes for the reason given above. The form of the sexual stems from the form-spirits. But this does not yet give the attraction of the two sexes for each other, their inclination towards each other. This is due to the fact that special beings embody themselves in the life of the two sexes, which descend from a foreign place: from Venus. Through them, love in its most subordinate form, as an inclination of the sexes, is now incorporated into the earth. This love is called upon to ennoble itself more and more and later to take on the highest forms.

Just as the Venus beings now release the element [of inclination] of the separate sexes [to each other], they also enable the intellect to become fruitful. It receives half of the productive capacity saved from the sexual power. For this reason, the monads – initially their manas part – which, as shown, formed during the Saturn, Sun and Moon cycles, can now descend into the organ of mind. But the activity of the monads would have remained cold and dry if the astral body had not received such an impact that the human being would have pursued the activity of his mind with a certain higher passion. This influence came to man from Mars. And those who conveyed it are the luciferic beings, who on the moon have indeed gone beyond the stage of the later existence of man on earth, but have not yet reached the point where, like the Lunar Pitris, they could have concluded their lunar development with the Lunar Manvantara. They, as initiates, now bring the astral forces of Mars into the astral body of man and thus fan the passion for the activity of the intellect in him. In this way they quicken man's realization; they stir him up to independence. This is the help in man's further development, which is provided by the luciferic principle. Admittedly, they also combined self-interest with knowledge. For they do indeed kindle thinking through passion, and this brings about self-interest. But only through this has it become possible for man to make the earth subservient to his purposes, to use it for his own benefit. Jehovah would have given only the form of the organ of understanding, and the spirits from Venus would have awakened only in this one dispassionate sense; for what could be given by them in this direction has indeed been delivered to the power of reproduction.

[Part 2: From the letter of January 7, 1906 to Marie von Sivers]

Yesterday it seemed to me that the thoughts I wrote down for you to read tomorrow still need to be expanded. Perhaps you will receive these lines soon enough. Therefore, I still want to add a few things to the chapter “Earth Education”.

You know that the Lunar Pitris, the beings who precede man by one stage, have to bring their existence on the moon to a stage that is analogous to the stage of human existence on earth. Let us now consider the middle of the earth's development. You know that man absorbs the impacts of Mars and Mercury and thus strives towards his “Jovian existence” as one strives towards an ideal. Of the three parts of the astral body – the sentient soul, the mind soul and the consciousness soul – man brings only the first, the sentient soul, from the moon; the mind soul comes from the impact of Mars, the consciousness soul from that of Mercury. The consciousness soul can only unfold because the forces that will later come to full development on Jupiter are already casting their shadows, so to speak. The consequence of this casting of shadows is the unfolding of the consciousness soul, which, as described in my Theosophy, can only then become the bearer of the spirit self. Insofar as the human being develops 'Manas' today, he is already living into the Jupiter stage. The Jupiter stage is now followed by the development of Venus for all beings that belong to the seven-part human evolution. Just as the human being lives towards Jupiter, so the Lunar Pitris of the moon (the 'twilight spirits'), when they have undergone their normal development, live towards the Venus existence. And the “fire spirits” are already there. They live there towards their existence on Vulcan.

If we want to describe the present situation correctly, we have to say: the human being lives on Earth towards Jupiter; the Zunar Pitris live on Jupiter towards Venus, and the fire spirits live on Venus towards Vulcan. When a being has reached the level of Vulcan itself, it has become a creator. During the development of the earth, the “spirits of form” are now in this situation. They are therefore the creators of the earthly human being. And to the extent that they are this, “Jehovah” is their representative. Since the middle of the earth's development, man has been dealing with: 1) With his creators, the spirits of form, who gave him his earthly form; 2.) with the fire spirits, which gave his astral body the sensual affects; 3.) with the Lunar Pitris, who gave this astral body earthly knowledge; and finally 4.) with himself, who lives as “I” in the consciousness soul.

The intervention of the fire spirits occurs in the Lemurian period, then the work of the lunar Pitris is added, and in the fifth sub-race of the Atlantean period, man begins to develop into an independent “I”. The incomplete lunar Pitris now work differently in this order than the complete ones. The latter impress the astral body from the outside in perfection with the Mercury impact; the former, however, must first complete themselves with what is developing in man. So they are stuck in man with their own essence. This makes them the luciferic principle.

Very early on, I was drawn to Kant. At the age of fifteen or sixteen, I studied Kant very intensively, and before I went to the University of Vienna, I occupied myself intensively with the orthodox followers of Kant from the beginning of the nineteenth century, who have been completely forgotten by the official history of science in Germany and are hardly ever mentioned anymore. Then I immersed myself in Fichte and Schelling. During this time — and this belongs already to the external occult influences — the conception of time became completely clear. This realization had no connection with the studies and was directed entirely from occult life. It was the realization that there is a backward-going evolution interfering with the forward-going evolution — the occult-astral one. This realization is the condition for spiritual vision.

Then came the acquaintance with the agent of the Master.

Then an intensive study of Hegel.

Then the study of the newer philosophy as it had been developing in Germany since the 1850s, namely the so-called theory of knowledge in all its ramifications.

My childhood passed without anyone outwardly intending to do so, so that I never encountered anyone with a superstition; and when someone around me spoke of superstitions, it was always with a strongly emphasized rejection. I did get to know the church cultus, as I was called upon to assist at cultic services as an altar boy, but nowhere, not even among the priests I met, was there any real piety or religiosity. Instead, certain dark sides of the Catholic clergy kept coming to my attention.

I did not meet the master immediately, but first one of his disciples, who was completely initiated into the secrets of the effectiveness of all plants and their connection with the cosmos and with human nature. For him, dealing with the spirits of nature was something that was taken for granted, and it was presented without enthusiasm, but it aroused all the more enthusiasm.

The official studies were directed towards mathematics, chemistry, physics, zoology, botany, mineralogy and geology. These studies offered a much more secure foundation for a spiritual world view than, for example, history or literature, which, in the absence of a specific method and also without significant prospects in the German scientific community at the time, stood there.

During his first years at university in Vienna, he met Karl Julius Schröer. At first, I attended his lectures on the history of German poetry since Goethe's first appearance, on Goethe and Schiller, on the history of German poetry in the 19th century, on Goethe's “Faust”. I also took part in his “exercises in oral and written presentation”. It was a kind of college college based on Uhland's institution at the University of Tübingen. Schröer came from German language research, had done significant studies on German dialects in Austria, he was a researcher in the style of the Brothers Grimm and in literary research an admirer of Gervinus. He was previously director of the Viennese Protestant schools. He is the son of the poet and extraordinarily meritorious pedagogue Christian] Oeser. At the time I got to know him, he was turning entirely to Goethe. He has written a widely read commentary on Goethe's “Faust” and also on Goethe's other dramas. He completed his studies at the German universities of Leipzig, Halle and Berlin before the decline of German idealism. He was a living embodiment of the noble German education. In him, the human being attracted. I soon became friends with him and was then often in his house. With him it was like an idealistic oasis in the dry materialistic German educational desert. In the external life, this time was filled with the nationality struggles in Austria. Schröer himself was far from science.

But I myself had been working since early 1880 on Goethe's scientific studies.

Then Joseph Kürschner founded the comprehensive work “Deutsche National-Literatur” (German National Literature), for which Schröer edited Goethe's dramas with introductions and commentaries. Kürschner, on Schröer's recommendation, entrusted me with the edition of Goethe's scientific writings.

Schröer wrote a preface for it, through which he introduced me to the literary public.

Within this collection, I wrote introductions to Goethe's botany, zoology, geology and color theory.

Anyone reading these introductions will be able to find the theosophical ideas in the guise of a philosophical idealism.

It also includes an examination of Haeckel.

My 1886 work, Erkenntnistheorie, is a philosophical supplement to this.

Then, through my acquaintance with the Austrian poet M. E. delle Grazie, who had a fatherly friend in Professor Laurenz Müllner, I was introduced to the circles of Viennese theological professors. Marie Eugenie delle Grazie has written a great epic “Robespierre” and a drama “Shadow”.

At the end of the 1880s, I became an editor of the “Deutsche Wochenschrift” in Vienna for a short time. This gave me the opportunity to study the national psyche of the various Austrian nationalities in depth. The guiding thread for an intellectual cultural policy had to be found.

In all this there was no question of publicly emphasizing occult ideas. And the occult powers behind me gave me only one piece of advice: “All in the guise of idealistic philosophy”.

All this went hand in hand with my more than fifteen years of work as an educator and private teacher. My first contact with Viennese theosophical circles at the end of the 1880s had no lasting external effect.

During my last months in Vienna, I wrote my small paper: “Goethe as the Father of a New Aesthetic”.

Then I was called to the then newly established “Goethe and Schiller Archives” in Weimar to edit Goethe's scientific writings. I did not have an official position at this archive; I was merely a contributor to the great “Sophien Edition” of Goethe's works.

My next goal was to lay the purely philosophical foundations of my world view. This was done in the two works: “Truth and Science” and “Philosophy of Freedom”.

The Goethe and Schiller Archives were visited by a large number of scholars and literary figures, as well as other personalities from Germany and abroad. I got to know some of these personalities better because I soon became friends with the director of the Goethe and Schiller Archives, Prof. Bernhard Suphan, and visited his house a lot. Suphan invited me to many private visits that he had from visitors to the archives. It was on one of these occasions that I met Treitschke.

But the friendship I formed soon after with the German mythologist Ludwig Laistner, the author of “Riddle of the Sphynx,” was much deeper. I had repeated conversations with Herman Grimm, who spoke to me a great deal about his uncompleted work, a “History of German Imagination.”

Then came the Nietzsche episode. Shortly before, I had even written about Nietzsche in an opposing sense.

My occult powers pointed out to me the need to let my interest in the true spiritual flow unnoticed into the currents of the times. One does not arrive at knowledge by wanting to assert one's own point of view absolutely, but by immersing oneself in foreign currents of thought.

Thus I wrote my book on Nietzsche by placing myself entirely in Nietzsche's point of view. It is perhaps for this very reason the most objective book on Nietzsche in Germany. Nietzsche as an anti-Wagnerian and an anti-Christian is also fully represented.

For some time I was considered the most uncompromising “Nietzschean.”

At that time the “Society for Ethical Culture” was founded in Germany. This society wanted a morality with complete indifference to all worldviews. A complete construct and a danger to education. I wrote a sharp article against this foundation in the weekly “Die Zukunft”.

The result was sharp replies. And my previous study of Nietzsche led to the publication of a pamphlet against me: “Nietzsche-Narren” (Nietzsche Fools).

The occult standpoint demands: “No unnecessary polemic” and “Avoid defending yourself wherever you can”.

I calmly wrote my book, “Goethe's World View,” which marked the end of my Weimar period.

Immediately after my article in “Zukunft,” Haeckel approached me. Two weeks later, he wrote an article in “Zukunft” in which he publicly acknowledged my point of view that ethics can only arise on the basis of a worldview.

Not long after that was Haeckel's 60th birthday, which was celebrated as a great festivity in Jena. Haeckel's friends invited me. That was the first time I saw Haeckel. His personality is enchanting. In person, he is the complete opposite of the tone of his writings. If Haeckel had ever studied philosophy, in which he is not just a dilettante but a child, he would certainly have drawn the highest spiritualistic conclusions from his epoch-making phylogenetic studies.

Now, despite all of German philosophy, despite all of Haeckel's other German education, Haeckel's phylogenetic thought is the most significant achievement of German intellectual life in the second half of the nineteenth century. And there is no better scientific foundation of occultism than Haeckel's teaching. Haeckel's teaching is great and Haeckel is the worst commentator on this teaching. It is not by showing Haeckel's contemporaries his weaknesses that one benefits culture, but by presenting to them the greatness of Haeckel's phylogenetic ideas. I did this in the two volumes of my:

“Welt- und Lebensanschauungen im 19. Jahrhundert” (World and Life Views in the 19th Century), which are also dedicated to Haeckel, and in my small work: “Haeckel and his opponents”.

In Haeckel's phylogeny, only the time of the German intellectual life actually lives; philosophy is in a state of the most desolate infertility, theology is a hypocritical fabric that is not remotely aware of its untruthfulness, and the sciences, despite the great empirical upsurge, have fallen into the most barren philosophical ignorance.

From 1890 to 1897 I was in Weimar.

In 1897 I went to Berlin as editor of the “Magazine for Literature”. The writings “Welt- und Lebensanschauungen im 19. Jahrhundert” (World and Life Views in the 19th Century) and “Haeckel und seine Gegner” (Haeckel and his Opponents) already belong to the Berlin period.

My next task was to bring an intellectual current to bear in literature. I placed the Magazin für Literatur at the service of this task. It was a long-established organ that had existed since 1832 and had gone through various phases.

I gently and slowly led it in the direction of esotericism. Carefully but distinctly, by writing an essay for the 150th anniversary of Goethe's birth, “Goethe's Secret Revelation,” which only reflected what I had already hinted at in a public lecture in Vienna about Goethe's fairy tale of the “green snake and the beautiful lily”.

It was only natural that a circle of readers should gradually gather around the direction I had inaugurated in the Magazin. They did gather, but not quickly enough for the publisher to consider the venture financially promising. I wanted to give the young literary movement an intellectual foundation and was actually in the most lively contact with the most promising representatives of this movement. But on the one hand I was abandoned; on the other hand, this direction soon either sank into insignificance or into naturalism.

Meanwhile, contact with the working class had already been established. I had become a teacher at the Berlin Workers' Education School. I taught history and natural science. My thoroughly idealistic history method and my way of teaching soon became both appealing and understandable to the workers. My audience grew. I was invited to give a lecture almost every evening.

Then the time came when I, in agreement with the occult forces behind me, could say: You have given the philosophical foundation of the world view, you have shown an understanding of the currents of the time by treating them as only a complete believer could treat them; no one will be able to say: This occultist speaks of the spiritual world because he is ignorant of the philosophical and scientific achievements of the time.

I had now also reached the fortieth year, before the onset of which, in the sense of the masters, no one may publicly appear as a teacher of occultism. (Wherever someone teaches earlier, there is an error).

Now I could devote myself to Theosophy publicly.

The next consequence was that, at the urging of certain leaders of German socialism, a general assembly of the Workers' Educational School was convened to decide between Marxism and me. But the ostracism did not decide against me. In the general assembly, it was decided with all against only four votes to keep me on as a teacher.

But the terrorism of the leaders meant that I had to resign after three months. In order not to compromise themselves, they wrapped the matter up in the pretext that I was too busy with the Theosophical movement to have enough time for the labor school in.

Miss v. Sivers was at my side almost from the beginning of the theosophical work. She also personally witnessed the last phases of my relationship with the Berlin laborers.

For information; it cannot yet be said in this form.

The Theosophical Society was founded in New York in 1875 by H. P. Blavatsky and H. $. Olcott. This first foundation had a distinctly Western character. And also the writing “Isis Unveiled”, in which Blavatsky published a great deal of occult truths, has such a Western character. However, it must be said of this writing that it presents the great truths that are communicated in it in a distorted, often caricatured way. It is as though a harmonious countenance were seen entirely distorted in a convex mirror. The things said in Isis are true, but the way they are said is an irregular reflection of the truth. This is due to the fact that the truths themselves are inspired by the great initiates of the West, who are also the initiators of the Rose Cross wisdom. The distortion stems from the inappropriate way in which these truths were absorbed by the soul of H. P. Blavatsky. For the educated world, this fact should have been proof of the higher source of inspiration for these truths. After all, no one who expressed them in such a distorted way could have received them through themselves. Because the initiators of the West saw how little chance they had of continuing the flow of spiritual wisdom into humanity in this way, they decided to abandon the matter in this form for the time being. But once the gate was open, Blavatsky's soul was prepared so that spiritual wisdom could flow into it. Eastern initiators were able to take possession of it. These Eastern initiators initially had the very best of intentions. They saw how humanity was heading towards the terrible danger of a complete materialization of the way of thinking through Anglo-Americanism. They, the Eastern Initiators, wanted to instill their form of anciently preserved spiritual knowledge into the Western world. Under the influence of this current, the Theosophical Society took on an Eastern character, and under the same influence, Sinnett's “Esoteric Buddhism” and Blavatsky's “Secret Doctrine” were inspired. But both became distortions of the truth. Sinnett's work distorts the lofty pronouncements of the initiators through an inadequate philosophical intellectualism carried into it, and Blavatsky's “Secret Doctrine” through their own chaotic soul.

The result of this was that the initiators, including the Eastern ones, increasingly withdrew their influence from the official Theosophical Society, and that this became a playground for all kinds of occult powers that distorted the high cause. There was a brief episode in which Annie Besant, through her pure, lofty way of thinking and living, came into the initiators' current. But this little episode came to an end when Annie Besant surrendered to the influence of certain Indians who, under the influence of German philosophers, who they misinterpreted, developed a grotesque intellectualism. That was the situation when I myself was faced with the necessity of joining the Theosophical Society. It had been founded by true initiates, and thus it is, even if subsequent events have given it a certain imperfection, for the time being an instrument for the spiritual life of the present. Its beneficial further development in Western countries depends entirely on the extent to which it proves capable of incorporating the principle of Western initiation among its influences. For the Eastern initiations must necessarily leave untouched the Christ principle as the central cosmic factor of evolution. Without this principle, however, the theosophical movement would have to remain without a decisive influence on Western cultures, which have the Christ life at their starting point. The revelations of Oriental initiation would have to present themselves in the West as a sect alongside living culture. They could only hope to succeed in evolution if they eradicated the Christ principle from Western culture. But this would be identical with extinguishing the actual purpose of the earth, which lies in the realization and realization of the intentions of the living Christ. To reveal this in its full wisdom, beauty and form is the deepest goal of Rosicrucianism. Regarding the value of Eastern wisdom as a subject of study, there can only be the opinion that this study is of the highest value because Western peoples have lost their sense of esotericism, while the Eastern peoples have retained it. But only the opinion should exist about the introduction of the right esotericism in the West that this can only be the Rosicrucian-Christian one, because it also gave birth to Western life, and because by losing it, humanity would deny the meaning and purpose of the earth. Only in this esoteric can the harmony of science and religion flourish, while any fusion of Western knowledge with Eastern esotericism can only produce such barren bastards as Sinnett's “Esoteric Buddhism” is. One can schematically represent the correct:

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[Transcription:] Primordial Revelation Evolution Indian esotericism Christ / Esoteric Rosicrucianism Modern Western materialistic science Synthesis: fruitful modern Theosophy

the incorrect, of which Sinnett's “Esoteric Buddhism” and Blavatsky's “Secret Doctrine” are examples:

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[Transcription:] Primordial Revelation Evolution Indian esotericism / Development not shared by the Eastern world / Modern materialistic science / Synthesis: Sinnett, Blavatzki.

In union with death, love is created by the soul; in union with unconscious life, memory is created by the soul: and in memory [only] is self-awareness created. In the realm of love, the objective spiritual world comes into being; in the realm of memory, the subjective spiritual world comes into being. Memory is imagination set in physical life; love is intuition set in physical experience.

In the consciousness of the self, memory creates the image of the self; in the experience of death, love creates the substance of the eternal world.

The knower of the supersensible is not born into the normal life of the human being before the age of 35: He should not be obscured by the dying body. Before the age of 35, the human being has the eternal within him as an “object”. He only becomes the “subject” at the age of 35. In our time, the so-called initiation can take place at the age of 35 if the conditions have been established beforehand. Before that, people could perceive the spirit in the descending life, but they had to learn to understand it through the mysteries.

Today, at the age of 29, the human being enters the age when he can begin to look back in order to perceive something objective within himself.

Sensory perception: seeing death in the field of the external world.

Inner, spiritual experience: sensing life in the field of the inner world.

We are separated from life by memory; we draw the power of love from death.

We should not seek the “I” within. It is there no more than air is in the lungs. The “I” comes with perceptions and thoughts. In the course of life, it passes over into feeling and will.

When you look at youth from an older perspective, the eternal is revealed in the young person. In old age you become a “father”; before that you were a “cosmic knower”; with the “young person” you still see the “world of the spirit”; before that you see “humanity in yourself”

Before: “the human being” Before: the soul still turns against humanity: 21st-28th year.

Before: the soul turns against “cosmic lawfulness”.

Do not just ask: Is the soul immortal? Instead, ask yourself: What is initially experienced in consciousness is there because of the mortal body? You must first get to know what is immortal within the soul. The soul is in the realm that it leaves with death – its body is removed from this realm. In it, between birth and death, it reflects what is not in the spiritual world; through it it cannot reflect what it itself is. This would be reflected if what is newly developing in the body were to look at what has entered the body. In this, the soul is intuitively united with the universe: hence no capacity for love.

In the soul that is in the body, the ability to remember is preparing itself so that the self can become conscious.

The right questions only arise for a person in the second half of life. In the first half, one only feels these questions. The questions are received from the “elders” - in the second half of life, a life of perception and imagination arises in the life of feelings and will.

The spiritual being of the human being closes in on itself.

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As a result, the other, material world enters the vacuum; in this vacuum the spiritual world is only reflected. The “I” has no positive reflection, but is merely a mirror image.

From the universal Saturn sun are the reflections: in the bone-muscle system.

From the telluric Saturn-Sun beings: sense system, apparatus of representation.

From the universal Moon: nervous system.

From the telluric Moon: vascular system.

From the Earth: circulatory system.

Spiritually: I

Spiritual: I

turned towards the “I”: nervous system
turned towards the “etheric body”: vascular system

Physical:

The reflections of the pre-earthly systems have been filled.

As the human being develops physically, his ego descends into the body; it reappears when the body organization recedes; but it comes up empty if it does not draw from the spiritual world, because the withering away of the body no longer yields spiritual substance.

1. The processing of nature observation by the intellect leads away from the connection in which man initially stands in perception with nature. This connection is a living one - senses and thinking are involved in it -: man loses himself in it - nature offers what it has as living spiritual.

1. Modern natural science has concepts that no longer include the soul. (This was still different in the 16th century).

2. Only by penetrating into the supersensible is it possible to observe nature. This shows that the sensory side of nature is one with the inner world of the human being. It brings man to his own ephemeral being. Either you stop at observation and description, in which case you live in the living world; but you have not understood it. Or you proceed to explanation, which brings you more and more to experimentation, and then you have understood it, but in a dead way. There lies the transition to the pure supersensible.

Behind the world of the senses lies the supersensible; but man in the world of the senses as a sensual being. The supersensible is contained in the sensual. The supersensible is experienced in such a way that one strives for a kind of knowledge that goes in a completely different direction.

3. A social science will be a barren one if it does not absorb the powers of supersensible knowledge. A social theory modeled on natural science and put into practice creates processes of destruction. A purely anthropological foundation of sociology does not really speak at all of the forces at work in social life, but only of the processes of social dissolution. In this respect, the scientific study of life exposes humanity to the greatest dangers.

4. A scientific age cannot remain on the ground of the old cooperations. For science isolates the human individual.

5. The supernatural, grasped through science, does not give the personal relationship to the divine that is necessary for man. This belongs to the special field of religion. Man of the scientific age alone would lose the religious if he did not gain it through supersensible knowledge.

Theologia naturalis, Raymund von Sabunde, † 1432.

6. The age of religious justification is over; it is impossible to speak of a “religion of the future” because that personal relationship of man to the divine, which must take place in a religious justification, no longer exists. It requires the direct working of the spirit in the human soul, which has ceased with scientific thinking. Revival is necessary in each individual. Stronger inner powerful worship for the supernatural.

Jesus seen as earthly king.

My kingdom is not of this world. — Jerusalem = temple = destruction of the temple =

The human being is born in the sign of equality; it veils itself in the world order present in the sensual world; freedom develops within, in death the human being is free in the external; during life, fraternity should prevail, which has its culmination point in the middle of life.

Thus, in the course of life, man goes from the spirit through the body to the soul – for the spiritual in the earthly belongs to the earth: the talents are Luciferic; the body is of the earth: the habits are Ahrimanic –: the “human being” is to rise above both.

Greek attempts at justification, etc. Roman body.

Jesus' birth – this thought leads to it.

The characteristic peculiarities and deeds of the peoples are the after-image of past spiritual processes — what appears as the mission of a people is only the living out of the spiritual past; and in this there is nothing that has any other significance for people of the present than that in it the germs of the individual human beings develop for their abilities in the future.

Everything that lives in such historical events is Ahrimanic: war, material progress. Sleeping man is led out of the luciferic sphere, so that Jahve can work on the luciferic during sleep.

The working person is led out of the Ahrimanic, so that the “Holy Spirit” may work in him. Insofar as a person lives spiritually with other people.

Christmas: a festival of childhood - reminding us of spiritual equality.

Christ has nothing to do with processes of destruction; these are processes on the physical plane - man participates in them through selfishness, untruth and illness (death); the contemplation of Christ is a contemplation of supersensible truth - it invigorates (makes one newly born) the power of imagination; it destroys appearances by impressing upon it the revealing essence; it dispels selfishness by presenting a matter of concern to all mankind; in Christ men might understand each other if they would take him supersensibly — if they would regard him as the sun, which has different reflections in the nations, but can be regarded in itself as it moves. The differences should be recognized; but “man is not of this earth,” the nations are. Through ordinary judgment and conclusion, man reaches only to the “spirits of personality”; but they already escape this ordinary conclusion — and man would be condemned to worship a mere folk spirit as “God” if he did not ascend to imaginative knowledge. Man is seen to be slipping away from himself – how he becomes incomprehensible –: –

In social life: one treats labor as a commodity; one should recognize the unchristian aspect of this – one turns a part of the human being into a machine –; how did slaves come about? Through conquest. Christ overcame that. He equalized the difference before men through equality before God. What one has made should be judged according to the value of consumption.

The concept of value cannot be applied to nations in the same way as to people.