The Calendar of the Soul
GA 143
7 May 1912, Cologne
Translated by Dorothy S. Osmond
The importance of Anthroposophy for present and future mankind will only gradually be realised, but insight will come when understanding has been gained of certain things indicated in occult writings though not, as a rule, studied in sufficient depth. Reference could be made to innumerable passages in books on occultism or also in writings on religion in support of what I am referring to here, but I shall mention only this well-known and very significant passage in the New Testament: ‘Unto them that are without, the mysteries are revealed in parables, that seeing they may see and not understand. But unto you’—so says Christ Jesus—‘the mysteries of the kingdoms of heaven shall be revealed in their true form.’1The first edition of the Calendar (1912) contained reproductions of sketches made by Imme von Eckardstein according to indications given by Dr Steiner and corresponding to each sign of the Zodiac. Subsequent editions have contained only the verses for the 52 weeks of the year, with a short Foreword by Dr Steiner. The Calendar of the Soul is contained in volume No. 40. An article by Margot Rössler entitled Rudolf Steiner's Calendar appeared in the Spring number of Anthroposophical Quarterly in 1958 (Vol. 3, No. 1) and contains information on Imme von Eckardstein's work.
The profound significance of such a passage is generally overlooked. What does it really mean? Which are the most important parables in which Christ Jesus speaks to His disciples? They are those which, as a rule, are not considered to be parables at all. What man sees in the kingdoms of Nature around him on the physical plane, he takes to be reality. He looks at an animal or a plant, and pictures to himself that these are realities in the forms in which they appear. But in truth it is not so, for what is actually present as a reality is the spiritual world—that and that alone. And not until we nave recognised the Spiritual in the things around us do we truly know reality.
Everything else that is revealed to us in surrounding nature is tantamount only to a symbol for the spiritual world behind it. Everything to be seen in the kingdoms of mineral, plant, animal, and also in the physical human kingdom, everything that makes an impression upon the sense-organs, upon intellect and intelligence—all these things are nothing but symbols of the Spirit; and only one who learns how to interpret these symbols reaches the reality, the Spirit.
And so as men pass through the world, observing its beings and its happenings, what they perceive are symbols, nothing but symbols. Nature herself addresses man in parables, in symbols. In the Spirit alone there is reality. When the spirit is being spoken of in images taken from Nature, Christ Jesus is explaining processes pertaining to the Spirit. He speaks in a parable of the seed that is sown and undergoes different forms of destiny. (St Mark, IV, 1–9). The process of which He is speaking belongs to the kingdoms of outer Nature—hence it can only be described in the form of a parable. But when Christ Jesus is making clear to His disciples that He is one with the Father of all existence, that he has to live on the earth and suffer death, that within Him is a Christ-power, a Christ-impulse that must pass through death as a force by which courage and consolation can be given to all men through all time to come—then He is speaking of reality, He is speaking of the Spirit.
Knowledge, therefore, can only be genuine when man has succeeded in penetrating behind the mysterious secrets of the world, so that he learns to recognise symbols which indicate spiritual processes. And in truth the soul will be tremendously enriched when man is able to be aware of his relationship with the outside world.
We will consider a particular example.—Going to sleep and waking is an ever-recurring rhythmic experience. Man must experience in rhythmic sequence the flashing up of the normal day-consciousness and its subsequent darkening into the state of sleep. If we now ask, what may be compared in Nature outside with this rhythmic alternation of sleeping and waking in man, many will think of the rhythmic alternation in the growth and withering of plants in the spring and autumn. Man sees the green foliage appearing, the blossoming, the ripening of the fruits, the forming of the seed; then, during the winter, all this seems to be obliterated and to reappear in the spring. It might come naturally to him to compare the processes of his own waking and going to sleep with the budding of the plants in spring and their withering in the autumn. That would, however, be a fallacy, merely an external comparison.
What is it that we actually experience when we go to sleep at night? Our astral body and our Ego emerge from the etheric body and the physical body. If we now look back spiritually upon the physical body and the etheric body we shall perceive that their activity at night and by day is entirely different. During the day, through our normal consciousness, we wear out our physical and etheric bodies through acts of will, through feeling and through thinking; fatigue is evidence that we have worn out our physical and etheric bodies. In fact our daily life is a process of ruining and wearing out our physical and etheric bodies, and they are most thoroughly worn out in the evening. With clairvoyant sight we shall perceive that during sleep the physical body and the etheric body begin to manifest a plantlike activity. The worn-out nervous system and etheric body begin as it were to bud and blossom at the moment of going to sleep and within the human being something takes place that may be compared with what happens in the spring, when everything buds and sprouts. The moment of going to sleep must be compared with the spring and the deeper our sleep the more do our physical and etheric bodies pass over into a condition of budding, sprouting life. It is then spring and summer within us, and as the moment of waking approaches it is autumn; consciousness lights up, clear day-consciousness. The summer-like condition is brought to its close and, during the course of the day, desolation resembling that of Nature during winter, when the Earth's activity has died away, is brought about in our physical and etheric bodies.
Thus going to sleep must be compared with the season of spring and waking with that of autumn. The Earth-spirits in the plants liberate themselves in spring from the physical element of the plant world and the spiritual beings connected with the plants sink into a kind of sleeping condition during the summer and are awake during the winter; where there is winter on the Earth, there these spirits permeate the planetary body. Admittedly, it might be said in connection with the Earth that it is not possible to speak of sleeping and waking, because conditions are different in each hemisphere. But the rhythmic movement is such that when the Earth-spirits depart from the north they go towards the south; they permeate the planet in rhythmic alternation. A certain comparison is possible here with what takes place within the human being. Man so easily forgets that he is a whole man. He supposes that thoughts and consciousness reside only in the head, and when the astral body and the Ego are outside, he believes that there is nothing within him that thinks. In reality the lower half of his body is all the more active, only he knows nothing of it. The essential point is to realise that we can actually speak of the Earth-spirits beginning to sleep in the spring, that they withdraw from the body of the Earth where it is spring and summer ... Similarly, a vegetative life unfolds in the human being while he is asleep. And in the winter, when the Earth-spirits stream in again, the seeds remain hidden and the Earth-spirits wake; they are then united with the Earth. Thus we may say: When we stand on the Earth in summer we have around us physical Nature; everything buds and blossoms and lower elemental spirits are active on the Earth. Divine life, divine consciousness, penetrate into the Earth in wintertime, not in summertime.
True spiritual science helps us to recognise this because it is able to penetrate into these things with clear, clairvoyant consciousness. Man can say, if only he is capable of feeling it: spring—and summer—forces which cause outer Nature to bud and blossom call forth the lower elemental beings out of the Earth, whereas the highest Spirits who are connected with the Earth have withdrawn from it. And in the middle of the summer the lower elemental spirits, driven forth by the power of the Sun, celebrate a kind of ecstasy of their lower forces.
Then comes wintertime; the warmth and light of the Sun decrease, and with the approach of winter the highest divine forces unite with the part of the Earth on which we live. In winter the Earth feels as though enwrapped in the Beings with whom we are connected in the depths of our nature. We may then feel reverence which takes the form of a prayer to these sublime Beings, to the divine Powers who have been allied to man from the primal beginning.
It is the mission of Spiritual Science or Anthroposophy to teach us to know and understand what is living in our environment. And this it will do, with all clarity. We know that men once possessed this knowledge, although in the form of dreamlike, clairvoyant consciousness; what we reacquire to-day was once primordial wisdom revealed to mankind through dreamlike clairvoyance.
Is there external evidence too for what has been said to-day? Yes, there is. In far past ages men knew well that in the summer season the lower elemental spirits rise up and reach a state of ecstasy at midsummer, that the activity of outer physical life is then at its highest point. Hence the middle of the summer was chosen as the right time for festivals that were intended to be intimations of man's physical connection with Nature. With their ancient clairvoyance men knew that the greatest intensity of physical life, the ecstasy of physical life, is reached when the human being surrenders himself at midsummer to the splendour and glory of outer physical Nature. And it was also known that the approach of winter means an awakening of the divine forces, a union of the divine forces with the body of the Earth. For this reason ancient consciousness placed in midwinter the festival that was meant to betoken man's feeling of union with what is intimately related to the most divine forces of his own soul; it was the festival of the divine Being who would one day become the Spirit of the Earth. This festival could not take place in the summer; it was celebrated in December as the Christmas festival, the festival of the Spirit. The festival of physical Nature, the St John's festival, was celebrated in the summer; Christmas, the festival of the highest Spirits, belongs to the season of winter.
When we realise what intimate messages the festivals have for us, we feel united with the whole spiritual evolution of mankind. What men have established in this way reveals the knowledge they have possessed and the fruits of this knowledge. The external physical light of the Sun, the physical forces of the Heavens, come down to the Earth in the spring. This descent of the physical light and this withdrawal of the Spirit to the heavenly world just as the Spirit withdraws from man during the night, is wonderfully expressed in the Easter festival, which is determined every year by the constellations. Just as in the spring the forces of Heaven and Earth work together visibly, so was the Easter festival fixed according to the visible positions of heavenly bodies, according to knowledge of the stars.
The suggested introduction of a fixed Easter because material considerations seem to require this, is absolutely characteristic of our age. It amounts to taking away from the Easter festival the very feature that gives it meaning, and this for the sake of material, industrial and commercial interests. A movable Easter may be inconvenient for balancing accounts and be troublesome for certain business arrangements but the very fact of the date of the Easter festival being determined by the constellation in the heavens is an expression of the feeling man has of the inter-working of the earthly and the heavenly in the spring.
And just as these forces work in man when he goes to sleep, so in the autumn, and when he wakes from sleep, a spiritual element is active; but when he goes to sleep, and in the spring, physical and spiritual, heavenly and earthly, work together. In fixing the year's festivals this had naturally to be given physical expression too. Herein lies profound wisdom. It is probable that the commercial, materialistic interests of our time will gain the day and Easter will become a fixed festival. But it would fare ill with knowledge that humanity ought to preserve if men were to forget the essential meaning of such a festival. For this reason it will be incumbent upon the anthroposophical Movement always to celebrate Easter as a movable festival. An Easter festival determined by materialistic principles would then exist by the side of the Easter festival fixed according to spiritual principles; and we shall celebrate this festival truly when we have learnt to regard the external world itself as a symbol.
The coming of spring is a symbol of an event performed by the Spirit—namely, that of going to sleep. In the autumn, Nature withers away and the Spirit wakes. The withering away is no reality; it is a symbol of the fact that the divine forces allied with the Earth are waking. And with their wisdom the men of ancient times placed in the winter season the festivals which indicate the connection with spiritual worlds. Infinitely deep wisdom is everywhere in evidence here, wisdom through which man becomes aware that he lives in the flow of Time, together with spiritual Beings to whom he belongs. And so man will gradually learn to know that he belongs to the Spirit of which external Nature is merely a symbol; more and more he will long to experience his relation to the Spirit, not to its outer symbol.
We know that the great Atlantean catastrophe was followed by the period of ancient sacred Indian culture; then came the ancient Persian and the Egypto-Chaldean-Babylonian epochs of culture, then the fourth, the Graeco-Latin epoch, and we ourselves are living in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. But attention has also been called to another rhythm. The Graeco-Latin epoch stands, as it were, by itself; the fifth epoch is a kind of repetition of the third, the Egypto-Chaldean-Babylonian epoch; the sixth epoch will be a repetition of the Persian, and the seventh a revival and renewal of the spiritual content of ancient Indian culture. Qualities and features of Egypto-Chaldean civilisation therefore come into evidence again in a certain way in our own thinking, feeling and impulses of will. During that third epoch men were destined to unfold and intensify their connection with the world of the stars. Astrology was elaborated and cultivated in the third epoch. Men had direct clairvoyant insight into the mysterious connections between the world of stars and human destiny.
There have been highly spiritual men who felt this inwardly, as though through a resurgence of incarnations in that third epoch. It was like a recollection of what they had achieved in ages of the distant past, when there was direct, intuitive astrological knowledge. This was the case with Tycho de Brahe, the reincarnated Julian the Apostate. [See also Occult History, lecture IV, and Appendix; also Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies - Volume IV, Vol. IV, lecture V and VII.] Copernicus too, like Kepler, was an astrologer and attached great value to those mysterious connections through which human destiny can become intelligible.
This is naturally regarded as utter superstition by the ‘enlightened’ mentality of to-day and the attitude of a modern man who prides himself upon possessing it will be that Tycho de Brahe was admittedly a great astronomer and in those days it was excusable that he should also have been an astrologer! Enlightened men of the present age see fit to ‘excuse’ a great deal; for example, they excuse Tycho de Brahe for having astonished the whole world at that time by foretelling the death of the Sultan Soliman. They regard this as an understandable weakness of the great man who made the first map of the heavens. Indeed these enlightened minds even find an excuse for the circumstance that the death of the Sultan Soliman actually occurred within a few days of the date foretold by Tycho de Brahe!
So we see how the ancient Egypto-Chaldean wisdom flashed up again in certain individuals. It is present even now, only we must seek it in a new form, and then anthroposophical study of the symbols and parables to be found in the external world will reveal many secrets. We perceive, for example, that in every plant, if a connecting line is drawn between the points around the stalk where the leaves are attached to it, we get a spiral; it is as if the leaves made their way around the stalk in spirals; and in a plant where the stalk is not rigid it follows this law itself, describing spirals as, for instance, is the case in the bindweed. These are everyday phenomena but no attention is paid to them. Some day, however, these things will again be studied and then the striking discovery will be made that these movements of the leaves depend upon forces that are not to be found on the Earth but work down from the planets; and because the planets describe certain spiral movements in the heavens, their forces actually guide the leaves in spirals around the stalk. The stalk grows vertically and the blossom is the culmination. The spiral lines differ in the various species of plants because there are several planets and their effect upon the plants is different in each case.
A time will come when it will be known, for example, how Venus moves, and what species of plant corresponds to this movement. Such a plant will then rightly be regarded as a mirror image in miniature of the movement described by Venus. Other plants mirror the movement described by Mercury in the spiral line connecting the points at which the leaves are attached to the stalk; others mirror the movement described by Jupiter, others again that described by Saturn. The planets impress their scripts upon the plants of the Earth, and the Sun's force regulates the whole process in such a way that the effect produced by the planets culminates in the blossom. Some day men will study the connection of the spiral growth of the plants with the movements of the planets and then they will feel the kinship of the kingdoms of the Earth with the kingdoms of Heaven.
Everything in the external world is a parable, a symbol; the laws of the growth of plants symbolize the movements of the planets, and these in turn are symbols of something even more sublime—deeds of spiritual Beings in the Cosmos. It will eventually be possible to discover how individual physical entities and beings are connected with the Cosmos. A beginning will be made by studying physical matter, and what grows and thrives on the Earth will be connected with the deeds of spiritual Beings in cosmic space. Men will gain knowledge of how minerals, plants and animals and even human destiny, are connected with deeds in the Cosmos. This knowledge will be gained anew during our present epoch but for a long time yet external science will refuse to adapt itself to such ways of approach and those who busy themselves with astrology will continue to cling to old traditions instead of going to the real sources. That is what ought to happen, but it can only do so if men confront the world with an attitude resulting from the stage of occult development appropriate for the modern age—regarding everything in the external world as signs and symbols.
Signs that had meaning for ancient clairvoyant consciousness have been handed down from olden times without being understood. For example, the sign of Aries was full of meaning and living content to the men of old; the sign did not apply to the constellation of Aries as such but indicated that the Sun or the Moon was standing in a certain relationship to this constellation, enabling certain forces to work in a definite way.
What we call ‘space’ at the present time is nothing but fantasy—it too is a ‘symbol.’ There is no space as such; spiritual forces are working from all directions. This is a difficult concept to grasp but the reality of certain facts can be felt instinctively.—On the morning of 21st March the Sun rises approximately in front of the constellation of Pisces, but this is simply the indication that particular spiritual forces—or Beings, to be more exact—are exercising a definite influence upon the Earth at that time. When we feel how this sign—the Sun in the constellation of Pisces—should be interpreted, we can translate it into terms of imaginative knowledge and speak of its inner significance.
An endeavour has been made to indicate these things in the Calendar which has just appeared. In this Calendar will be found signs that differ from those handed down by tradition, because the latter are no longer suitable for modern consciousness. (See note at end of lecture.) These pictures of the Zodiacal constellations are representations of actual experiences connected with the waking and sleeping of particular spiritual Beings. We have in these pictures a renewal of certain knowledge that needs to be renewed at the present time, because the third post-Atlantean culture-epoch must as it were rise again in the fifth epoch.
One must, of course, begin with a correct computation of time, and this brings me to a matter that will be regarded by those outside our Movement as sheer distortion and lunacy. It will be found that the Calendar indicates the year 1879 [i.e., 1879 years after the birth of Ego-consciousness at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. In many other lectures Dr Steiner indicates the year 1879 as the beginning of the Michael Age.]; this is because it is important for people of the present age to regard the year of the Event of Golgotha as the most momentous of all, as the year which determines how time is to be computed. When on a Friday in April in the year 33 A.D. the Mystery of Golgotha took place, Ego-consciousness in the present sense was actually born. It matters not at all on what part of the Earth a man lives, to which nation, race or religion he belongs. Just as the day of Caesar's death is the same for a Chinese or a European, the fact well known in occult life is that the Mystery of Golgotha took place in the year 33 A.D. The birth of Ego-consciousness is a fact of international significance, having nothing whatever to do with nationality.
It is therefore surprising to read in foreign theosophical periodicals that here we are promoting theosophy in a form patterned entirely in accordance with German culture! No credence whatever should be given to this statement for it gainsays the very essence of our Movement. One is little inclined to enter into or discuss these things and would much prefer to ignore them. But it is a duty and a necessity to call attention to them so that friends may be forearmed when sheer misstatements are made. Unfortunately, however, such misstatements are sometimes believed. It is anything but pleasant to have to speak of these things and it is done only because it is a duty to safeguard mankind against fallacy. If it is insisted that equal rights must be accorded to opinions but the interpretation of this is to distort one opinion and connect a particular region of the earth with it, warning is essential. What really matters is that truth must reign among us as a sacred law.
Our desire was to express in the Calendar the objective fact of the birth of the Ego. We reckon from the Mystery of Golgotha, hence from Easter to Easter, not from one New Year's Day to the next. This has been the cause of further derision and mockery, because it compels us to reckon with years of unequal length. But in what is unequal there is life; in what is uniform and fixed there is the impress of death, and our Calendar is intended to be a creative impulse for life.
There still remains the question: how can all this be a matter of actual experience? The answer to this question will be found in the Calendar itself. As its second part you will find the ‘Calendar of the Soul’ which I myself regard as very important. For each consecutive week I have tried to draw up verses for meditation, the effect of which will enable the soul gradually to discover in itself and in its own experiences the connection with the great cosmic constellations. These formulae for meditation do in all reality lead the soul out of its narrow confines to experience of the heavens. I can assure you that the results of long, long occult investigations are contained in these 52 verses which will enable the soul to find access to happenings in the great universe and thereby to experience the Spirits working in the onward flow of Time. But if you ponder on the texts of the verses in the Calendar you will discern an element of Timelessness, in rhythmic alternation, an element that is experienced inwardly by the human being, the laws of which run parallel to those of Time in the outer world. Mere analogies do not suffice here.
Each one of you will be able to use this Calendar of the Soul every year. In it you will find something that might be described as the finding of the path leading from the human soul to the living Spirit weaving through the Universe.
I have thus tried to justify the deed that has taken the form of the Calendar. It is not to be regarded as a sudden inspiration but as something organically connected with our whole Movement.
Die Geheimnisse Der Reiche Der Himmel In Gleichnissen Und In Wirklicher Gestalt
Welche Bedeutung Theosophie für die Menschen der Gegenwart und Zukunft immer mehr gewinnen muß, das wird man erst langsam und allmählich einsehen. Man wird es einsehen, wenn man sich hineinleben wird in das Verständnis gewisser Dinge, die ja angedeutet sind in religiösen und okkulten Schriften, die aber gewöhnlich nicht tief genug genommen werden. Da könnte man auf tausend und aber tausend Stellen hinweisen in solchen religiösen und okkulten Schriften, deren Tiefe gar nicht erkannt wird, weil die Menschen nur oberflächlich darauf hinschauen. Heute will ich nur hinweisen auf eine tief, tief bedeutsame Stelle in den Evangelien: «Denjenigen, die draußen stehen, ihnen werden die Geheimnisse offenbart in Gleichnissen, so daß sie sehen und doch nicht sehen, daß sie hören und doch nicht hören, daß sie verstehen und doch nicht begreifen. Euch aber sollen die Geheimnisse der Reiche der Himmel ohne Gleichnis in ihrer wahren Gestalt offenbar werden.» 1Mark. 4, 11f; Matthew 13, 11.
Man denkt gewöhnlich gar nicht daran, welche unendlich tiefe Bedeutung solch eine Stelle hat. Was heißt denn dies, und wo sind diese wichtigsten Gleichnisse, von denen der Christus zu seinen Jüngern spricht? Die wichtigsten Gleichnisse sind diejenigen, die man gewöhnlich gar nicht als Gleichnis auffaßt.
Der Mensch nimmt dasjenige, was er sieht im mineralischen, im pflanzlichen, im tierischen Reich neben sich auf dem physischen Plan, an als eine Wirklichkeit, als etwas, was da ist. Er sieht dieses Tier, jene Pflanze und stellt sich vor, das seien Dinge, die wirklich da sind. Er sieht Vorgänge in Luft und Wasser und stellt sich vor, das seien Vorgänge, die wirklich da wären. Sie sind es nicht. Denn alle diese Vorgänge in den Naturreichen um uns herum, alles, was sich abspielt in Luft und Wasser, ist nichts anderes als Vorgänge in der geistigen Welt, die sich offenbaren durch das, was im Physischen geschieht. Sie sind Offenbarungen geistiger Vorgänge. Diese sind die wahre Wirklichkeit, die Realität. Nichts ist real als die geistige Welt, und erst wenn wir in allen Dingen und Vorgängen das Geistige erkennen können, dann haben wir in Wahrheit die Realität erkannt. Alles in der physischen Welt hat nur den Wert eines Gleichnisses für dasjenige, was dahintersteht, die geistige Welt. Alle Vorgänge in der Tier- und Pflanzenwelt müssen wir so betrachten lernen und auch alles, was wir im Menschenreich sehen, was Eindruck macht auf den Verstand, den Intellekt. Alles das sind nichts als Gleichnisse, und erst derjenige, der sie deuten lernt, kommt zu der Wirklichkeit, der Realität.
So gehen die Menschen durch die Welt, schauen sich die Vorgänge an und wissen nicht, daß diese nur Gleichnisse sind. Durch Gleichnisse wird durch die Natur selbst zum Menschen gesprochen; erst dann wird von der Wirklichkeit gesprochen, wenn vom Geiste die Rede ist. - In Bildern, die der Natur entnommen sind, erklärt der Christus Jesus seinen Jüngern Vorgänge, die dem Geiste angehören. Da spricht er vom Samenkorn, das ausgestreut wird und die verschiedensten Schicksale erlebt. Das kann nur Gleichnis sein, weil die Dinge in der Natur ja selber Gleichnisse sind. Dann aber, wenn er seinen Jüngern klarmacht, daß er eins ist mit der geistigen Natur alles Daseins, daß er durchgehen müsse durch den Tod, daß dasjenige, was in ihm lebt und was hineingesenkt werden muß in den Tod, um dann aufzugehen als eine Kraft der Menschenseelen und Menschenherzen, die er allen Menschen geben soll durch diesen Tod, da spricht er von der Wirklichkeit, denn da spricht er vom Geiste und davon, was durch diesen Geist geschieht. Daher ist es auch nur dann eine wahre Erkenntnis, wenn der Mensch nach und nach hinter die Geheimnisse der Welt so kommt, daß er dasjenige, was ihm draußen entgegentritt, kennenlernt als Gleichnis für geistige Vorgänge. In der Tat bereichert sich die Seele des Menschen erst dann fruchtbringend, wenn er diesen Standpunkt finden kann gegenüber der Außenwelt.
Wenn sich ihm diese Außenwelt nach und nach vom Geiste durchleuchtet zeigt, da lebt sich der Mensch anders in sie hinein als vorher, da findet er überall die Spuren des Geistes in ihren Rhythmen. Wir sehen an uns selber ein immer wiederkehrendes rhythmisches Ereignis: das Einschlafen und Aufwachen. Wir wissen, daß der Mensch innerhalb vierundzwanzig Stunden wiederholen muß dieses Aufglänzen des normalen Tagesbewußtseins und wiederum das Herabdunkeln in den Schlafzustand. Wenn wir uns nun fragen, was sich denn draußen in der großen Welt vergleichen läßt mit diesem rhythmischen Wechsel von Schlafen und Wachen beim Menschen, so würde ja vielleicht vielen einfallen der rhythmische Wechsel im Pflanzenreich, das Wachsen der Pflanzen im Frühling und ihr Verwelken im Herbst. Der Mensch sieht im Frühling die Pflanzen sprossen und sprießen bis in den Sommer hinein, er sieht im Herbst die Früchte reifen durch die Kraft der Sonne, die im Frühling und Sommer in die Erde hineinströmt. Scheinbar ausgelöscht ist dann alles im Winter, um dann wiederum im Frühling aufzusprießen. Da könnte der Mensch wohl vergleichen sein eigenes Aufwachen am Morgen mit dem Aufwachen der physischen Natur, und sein Einschlafen mit dem Verwelken im Herbst. Aber das wäre ein schwerer Irrtum, dem wir uns nicht hingeben dürfen, wenn wir auf die Wahrheit sehen.
Was erleben wir denn, wenn wir einschlafen? Da gehen hinaus Astralleib und Ich. Sie verlassen den physischen und den Ätherleib. Wenn wir nun sehen würden, was physischer und ätherischer Leib in der Nacht tun, da würden wir beobachten können, daß sie in ganz anderer Tätigkeit sind als in einer solchen, die man mit dem Verwelken im Herbst vergleichen könnte. Das kann man aber nur sehen, wenn man von der geistigen Welt aus hinabschaut auf den physischen und ätherischen Leib. Da sieht man sie sich anders verhalten als am Tage. Denn am Tage sieht man, daß sie sich abnutzen, und wenn wir abends ermüdet sind, so ist das nur ein Zeichen dafür, daß wir unseren physischen und ätherischen Leib abgenützt haben. Das Leben im vollen Tagesbewußtsein ist ein Ruinieren, ein Zum-Absterben-Bringen unseres physischen und ätherischen Leibes. Abends sind sie am meisten abgenutzt; dann schlafen wir ein. Und wenn wir dann geistig hinschauen auf sie, da sehen wir, wie im physischen und Ätherleibe eine rein vegetative Tätigkeit beginnt, die wir vergleichen können mit dem, was im Frühling geschieht. Es beginnt da wie zu blühen, zu sprossen, zu grünen im physischen und Ätherleibe, als ob im Inneren des Menschen sich etwas vollzöge, was sich vergleichen läßt mit dem, was im Frühling draußen in der Natur geschieht. Den Moment des Einschlafens müssen wir also vergleichen mit dem Frühling, und je tiefer wir in die Nacht hineinschlafen, desto mehr ist es so, daß wir das, was im Inneren des Menschen sich vollzieht, vergleichen können mit dem, was im Sommer draußen geschieht. Denn immer intensiver wird diese vegetative Tätigkeit in unserem Leibe. Dann aber beim Aufwachen ist es wie der Herbstzustand draußen in der Natur. Da tritt mit dem aufwachenden Bewußtsein das ein, was den Sommerzustand zum Welken bringt, und im Laufe des Tages tritt eine solche Öde des physischen und ätherischen Leibes ein, daß dasselbe verursacht wird wie der Winterzustand draußen, wenn die Pflanzen verwelkt sind und die vegetative Tätigkeit erstorben ist. —- So müssen wir im geisteswissenschaftlichen Sinne das Einschlafen mit dem Frühling und das Aufwachen mit dem Herbst vergleichen.
Beim Einschlafen, also im Frühlingszustande, verlassen nun der astralische Leib und das Ich den physischen und den ätherischen Leib. Draußen in der Natur ist es in der Tat auch so, daß die Geister der Erde, die verbunden sind mit dem Pflanzenreich, sich im Frühling sozusagen freimachen von dem Physischen der Pflanzenwelt und daß diese dann erst eigentlich so recht in wirkenden Tätigkeitszustand kommt. Es schlafen im Sommer diese geistigen Wesenheiten, die mit dem Pflanzenreich verbunden sind, und im Winter wachen sie auf und durchziehen die Planetenmasse. Man könnte fragen: ja, während es Winter ist auf der einen Hälfte der Erde, ist es ja Sommer auf der anderen? - Nun, das rhythmische Spiel ist so, daß die Geister der Erde, wenn sie im Sommer die Nordhälfte der Erde verlassen, nach der Südhälfte hinziehen. Sie durchziehen und umkreisen rhythmisch die Erde. Im Menschen geschieht dasselbe. Er glaubt zwar, sein Denken, sein Bewußtsein sei nur im Kopfe, und wenn er nachts heraußen sei, glaubt er, in ihm sei nichts mehr, was da denkt. Aber in Wahrheit ist es so, daß dann die untere Hälfte seines Leibes tätig ist, daß da ein Denken und Bewußtsein anderer Art als das menschliche sich abspielt, so daß da auch ein rhythmisches Umkreisen im Leibe des Menschen stattfindet. Im Frühling können wir sagen: Nun beginnen die Erdgeister zu schlafen; sie haben sich zurückgezogen von dem Teil der Erde, wo Sommer ist. Da ist dann vegetatives Leben wie beim Menschen, wenn er einschläft und in seinem Leibe das vegetative Leben beginnt. Im Winter aber wachen die Erdgeister. Da sind sie mit der Erde vereinigt, wie im Menschen im Tagesleben sein waches Bewußtsein in ihm ist. Wenn wir im Sommer auf der Erde stehen, haben wir die physische Natur um uns, die aufjubelt in ihrem Physischen. Da sprießt und sproßt alles in der Pflanzenwelt, und auch alle niederen geistigen Wesenheiten, die die Baumeister sind am Pflanzenwuchs, sind da in Tätigkeit. Im Winter aber, wenn die Schneedecke sich über die Erde breitet, wenn die vegetative Tätigkeit schlummert, da wissen wir, daß die höchsten göttlichen Wesenheiten, die da schaffend, wirkend, webend sind im kosmischen All, daß diese um uns sind, daß das höchste göttliche Leben, göttliches Bewußtsein in der Erde wirkt. So ist es, wenn es Winter ist, nicht, wenn es Sommer ist. -— Das lehrt uns erkennen eine wahre Geisteswissenschaft.
Die Geisteswissenschaft, die mit vollem, klarem Bewußtsein in diese Dinge einzudringen vermag, weiß, daß der Mensch, wenn er dies alles nicht nur theoretisch im Kopfe hat, sondern es auch mit dem Herzen fühlen kann, sagen kann: O du heraufkommende Frühlings- und Sommerkraft, du bringst alles in der physischen Natur zum Sprießen und Blühen, du rufst die Elementarwesen heraus aus der Erde an ihre Arbeit. - Und während des Sommers, in der Soemmermitte, da feiern diese niederen Elementarwesen etwas wie eine Ekstase, wie einen Paroxysmus. Das ist dann, wenn die Sonnenwende, das Johannifest gefeiert wird. Dann kommt der Herbst und die Winterzeit, und da soll der Mensch in tiefster Seele fühlen: Mit dem Nachlassen der äußeren physischen Sonnenkräfte, mit dem Heraufkommen der Winterzeit, wenn alles draußen abstirbt, wenn es dunkler und immer dunkler wird, dann vereinigen sich die höchsten göttlich-geistigen Kräfte mit dem Erdenstück, auf dem wir leben, da fühlen wir uns wie eingehüllt in diese höchsten geistigen Wesenheiten, fühlen uns ihnen in tiefster Seele zugehörig. So fühlen wir tiefste Andacht, wenn wir das wissen, daß wir beim Heraufkommen des Winters zuschauen dürfen den dem Menschen urverwandten geistigen Kräften, wie sie sich unmittelbar in unserer Umgebung offenbaren. Sie kennenzulernen, dazu ist Theosophie berufen. Sie wird über dieses alles den Menschen Klarheit bringen.
Wir wissen, daß Theosophie uns wiederzubringen hat dasjenige, was die Menschen einst in traumhaft-dumpfem Hellsehen besessen haben. Wir erobern uns wieder eine uralte Erbschaft der Menschen. Eine traumhafte hellseherische Uroffenbarung war das für die Menschen, und es gibt Zeugnisse dafür, daß dem so war. Denn deshalb ist das Johannifest in die Mitte des Sommers verlegt, weil es die Menschen hinführen soll zu dem Bewußtsein: Jetzt ist das Physische am meisten entfaltet, jetzt feiern die niederen Elementarwesen etwas wie eine Ekstase in der Entfaltung ihrer stärksten Kräfte. Die Zeit des Johannifestes ist festgelegt aus einem uralten Bewußtsein der Menschen heraus. In dieser Ekstase des Physischen vergißt der Mensch sein Geistiges, da gibt er sich hin an die unmittelbare Pracht der physischen Natur. Aber ebensogut haben diese alten Hellseher gewußt, daß im Winter sich die höchsten geistigen Kräfte mit unserem Erdenleibe vereinigen. Daher hat jenes alte Bewußtsein überall, wo es tätig sein konnte, jenes Fest, das andeuten soll, daß der Mensch sich vereinigt fühlt mit dem Geistigen der Erde, das Weihnachtsfest, in die Mitte des Winters gelegt. Das Fest des göttlichen Wesens, des Erdgeistes, konnte eine hellsichtig wissende Menschheit niemals in die Sommerzeit legen, sondern es mußte in der Winterzeit gefeiert werden. In der Weihezeit, da fühlte sich die Seele vereinigt mit den göttlich-geistigen Kräften, die dann die Erde durchdringen. Das Weihnachtsfest gehört in den Winter, wie das Johannifest in den Sommer gehört.
Wenn man dies gewahr wird, wie die Feste lebendig zu uns sprechen in dem Sinne, wie das alte Menschheitsbewußtsein sie festgesetzt hat, da fühlt man sich geistig vereinigt mit dem Sinn dieser Feste. Man erkennt, was durch eine solche Erkenntnis in der Menschenseele angeregt werden soll.
Das Herabkommen des äußeren physischen Sonnenlichtes, der physischen Himmelskräfte auf die Erde im Frühling und das sich Zurückziehen des Geistes in die heiligen Sphären — wie sich in der Nacht zurückzieht der Geist des Menschen in die geistige Welt -, das ist wunderbar ausgedrückt im Osterfest, das festgelegt ist so, daß die Konstellation von Sonne und Mond und der Gestirne zur Festsetzung dieses Festes benutzt sind. Wie sichtbarlich einschlafen die geistigen Kräfte im Frühling, das wird durch diese Konstellation ausgedrückt. Es ist charakteristisch für unsere materialistische Zeit, daß man daran denkt, weil es der Materialismus so braucht, das Osterfest festzulegen, es zu fixieren, das also, was ihm seinen Sinn gibt, aufzugeben um industrieller und kommerzieller Erleichterungen willen. Ein rechter Ausdruck des materialistischen Sinnes unserer Zeit! Für den Abschluß gewisser Rechnungen mag es ja bequem sein, daß das Osterfest nicht einmal im April und im nächsten Jahre im März gefeiert wird, aber gerade dieses Bestimmen des Osterfestes nach der Konstellation am Himmel drückt aus, wie Irdisches und Himmlisches zusammenwirken. In dieser Festsetzung der Feste ruht eine große Weisheit der Urmenschheit. Allerdings siegen werden wohl die kommerziellen Interessen, und man wird wohl das Osterfest auf eine äußere Zeit fixieren, aber es würde schlimm stehen um dasjenige, was die Menschheit sich bewahren soll, wenn man den Sinn eines solchen Festes vergessen würde. Daher wird die Theosophie berufen sein, wenn auch das Osterfest nach äußeren Interessen festgelegt wird, es fortzuzählen als ein bewegliches Fest, das allein fixiert werden kann durch die Konstellation von Sonne, Mond und Gestirnen.
Neben dem materialistischen Osterfest wird es daher ein spirituelles Osterfest geben, das wir in unseren Herzen weiter feiern, so daß wir uns des Zusammenhangs mit der geistigen Welt bewußt sind. Dieses spirituelle Osterfest wird sein ein Gleichnis für den geistigen Vorgang: Im Frühling schlafen ein die Bewußtseine der höheren geistigen Wesenheiten, es kommen hervor die Bewußtseine niederer Wesenheiten. Im Herbste aber erwachen die hohen göttlichen Kräfte, die in ihrem Bewußtsein verbunden bleiben mit der Erde. - Wenn man das recht fühlt, dann wird man auch nach und nach erkennen, daß der Mensch überhaupt zum Geiste gehört und daß die äußere physische Natur nur ein Gleichnis ist. Und immer mehr wird der Mensch erfahren wollen, wie er zum Geiste, nicht aber, wie er zur äußeren Natur, dem Gleichnis, steht.
Wir leben im fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraum, und öfter ist darauf aufmerksam gemacht worden, daß dieser Zeitraum eine Wiederholung des dritten, des ägyptischen Zeitraums ist.2siehe u.a.«Die geistige Führung des Menschen und der Menschheit» (1911), GA 15, und «Welt, Erde und Mensch, deren Wesen und Entwickelung sowie ihre Spiegelung in dem Zusammenhang zwischen ägyptischem Mythos und gegenwärtiger Kultur», GA 105. Wir leben so, daß in unserem Denken, Fühlen und Wollen dasjenige wieder herauskommt, was im alten Ägyptertum lebte. Nun sollten im ägyptisch-chaldäischen Zeitraum die Menschen hauptsächlich ihren Zusammenhang mit der Sternenwelt entwickeln. Die Astrologie wurde in diesem Zeitraum gefunden und besonders gepflegt. Da wußten die Menschen unmittelbar hellsichtig, wie die Sternkonstellation zusammenhängt mit dem Leben und Schicksal des Menschen. Man sah tief hinein in die geheimnisvollen Zusammenhänge zwischen dem Sternenraum und dem menschlichen Schicksal. Es hat außerordentliche, große Geister gegeben in der Neuzeit, in denen das gleichsam weiterwirkte. Sie waren ja auch im ägyptisch-chaldäischen Zeitraum inkarniert, und in den darauffolgenden Inkarnationen leuchtete ihnen wie unmittelbar aus einer inneren Seelenkraft auf ein tiefes, intuitives astrologisches Wissen. So war es bei dem wiedergeborenen Julian Apostata, bei Tycho Brahe.3vgl. dazu die eingehenden Ausführungen Rudolf Steiners in den Vorträgen vom 30. Dezember 1910 in «Okkulte Geschichte», GA 126, und vom 16. September 1924 in «Esoterische Betrachtungen karmischer Zusammenhänge. Vierter Band», GA 238.
Tycho Brahe, 1546–1601, dänischer Astronom, wirkte in Prag unter Rudolf II.; auf der Basis seiner zahlreichen Beobachtungen konnte sein Schüler Kepler seine berühmten Gesetze aufstellen. Er selbst entwickelte das Tychonische Weltsystem, das eine Art Kompromiß zwischen dem kopernikanischen und dem ptolemäischen Weltsystem darstellt.
Julian Apostata, 331–363, eigentlich Julian Flavius Claudius, römischer Kaiser. Obwohl christlich erzogen, wandte sich Julian den alten Mysterienkulten zu, deshalb wird er auch Julian Apostata (der Abtrünnige) genannt. 31jährig wurde er auf einem Feldzug in Asien ermordet. Er hat viel auf jenen geheimnisvollen Zusammenhang gegeben, wie man das menschliche Schicksal verknüpft denken kann mit dem, was als geheimnisvolle Formen in den Sternkonstellationen sich bildet. Das gilt heute der Wissenschaft als unumstößlich, daß Tycho Brahe ein großer Astronom war, der eine Anzahl neuer Sterne am Himmel entdeckt, eine Sternkarte gezeichnet hat. Da ist es verzeihlich, so sagen die Wissenschafter, daß er auch ein Astrolog war, der aus den Sternen heraus den Leuten allerlei prophezeite. Sie verzeihen es dem Tycho Brahe, daß er durch seine tiefen astrologischen Erkenntnisse den Tod des Sultans Soliman 4Soliman II. (Suleiman), 1495-1566, türkischer Sultan, Belagerer von Wien 1529, starb am 5. September 1566 auf einem Heereszug gegen Ungarn. voraussagte,5Anläßlich einer Mondfinsternis am 28. Oktober 1566 trug Brahe auf der Universität Rostock einige lateinische Verse vor, in denen er den Tod des Sultans voraussagte. Nach einigen Wochen traf tatsächlich die Nachricht vom Tode Solimans ein. Allerdings war er schon am 5. September, also vor der Mondfinsternis verstorben, was einige zum Anlaß nahmen, über Tycho Brahes «Voraussage» zu spotten. Er jedoch verteidigte sich, indem er eingehend auf Solimans Horoskop einging, aus der er die Todeskonstellation gelesen hatte. Siehe «Tycho Brahe. Ein Bild wissenschaftlichen Lebens und Arbeitens im 16. Jahrhundert» von J. L. E. Dreyer (dt. von M. Bruhns, Karlsruhe 1894), II. Kapitel. als er an der Universität Rostock lehrte. Sie verzeihen es ihm, daß er durch eine solche Voraussage die Welt in Erstaunen setzte und sagen: das war nur eine Schwäche dieses sonst großen Mannes, über die man hinwegsehen muß. Und sie verzeihen es ihm sogar, daß der Tod des Sultans genau nach der Prophezeiung wirklich eingetroffen ist! - In Tycho Brahe aber sehen wir die alte ägyptische Weisheit wiederum aufleuchten. Sie muß hineinleuchten in unsere Zeit, die eine Wiederholung der ägyptischen Zeit ist. Heute müssen wir auch den Zusammenhang des Irdischen mit dem Göttlichen aufsuchen. Da müssen wir aber nicht nur in den Himmelsraum hinausschauen, sondern wir müssen studieren die Gleichnisse für die göttlichen Welten, die wir in der physischen Welt finden. Im Kleinsten und im Größten können wir die finden. Wenn wir zum Beispiel studieren, wie an jeder Pflanze die Blattansätze sind, da werden wir finden, wenn wir die Linie verfolgen, wie um den Stengel herum sich Blatt an Blatt ansetzt, daß wir da eine Spirallinie bekommen. Wir sehen, daß die Blätter in Spiralenrhythmisch um den Stengel wachsen da, wo der Stengel steif ist. Bei anderen Pflanzen, zum Beispiel bei der Ackerwinde, da sehen wir den Stengel selber diese Spirallinie beschreiben. Die Menschen beachten solche Dinge nicht. Wenn sie so etwas studieren würden, da würden sie eine neue Entdeckung machen. Sie würden sehen, daß diese Spiralbewegung abhängt von Kräften, die gar nicht auf der Erde sind, die von den Planeten herabwirken. Diese Planeten machen eine spiralige Bewegung im Himmelsraum und wirken so herab, daß sie die Pflanzen veranlassen, dieselbe spiralige Bewegung um ihren Stengel zu machen. Der Stengel wächst aber von unten nach oben. Durch diese Bewegung wird durchschnitten diese Spiralbewegung. Das ist die Kraft, die den Abschluß macht nach oben, die die Blüte zum Ansatz bringt. Diese Kraft geht von der Erde aus zur Sonne und umgekehrt. Eine Pflanzenart ist dem einen, eine andere dem anderen Planeten mit ihrer Bewegung zugeteilt. Es wird eine Zeit kommen, wo man wissen wird, wie sich die Venus oder ein anderer Planet bewegt. Nicht aus einer äußeren astronomischen Berechnung heraus wird man das wissen, sondern man wird studieren die Pflanzen, die Venuswesen sind und die in ihrer Spiralbewegung ein Spiegelbild sind im Kleinen zu der absoluten Venusbewegung. Droben zieht die Venus die große Spirale im kosmischen Raum, und die Pflanzen ahmen sie nach in ihrer Bewegung in ihren kleinen Spiralen. Ihre Schriftzüge prägen in die Erde die Gestirne ein im Pflanzenwachstum, und die Sonne macht den Abschluß. Sie ergießt sich über alles und regiert dasjenige, was die Planeten tun. In dem spiraligen Wachstum der Pflanzen wird man studieren das Zusammenwirken der irdischen Reiche mit den himmlischen Reichen. Das Pflanzenwachstum ist Gleichnis für Tatsachen geistiger Wesen im Weltenraum.
So wird man für die einzelnen physischen Wesen ihre Zugehörigkeit finden zum Weltenraum. Man wird sie anknüpfen an die Taten im Weltenraum, und so wird man sich nach und nach erobern die Zugehörigkeit von Mineralien, Pflanzen, Tieren und auch des Menschen in seinen Taten und Schicksalen zum Weltenraum. Im Kleinen beginnen wir solche Dinge zu studieren in der Art, wie wir es geisteswissenschaftlich heute hier getan haben. Nur wird man lange brauchen, um in der Wissenschaft diese Wege zu gehen und bis man aus okkulten Quellen heraus diese Dinge in ihrem wahren Zusammenhang studieren wird. Aber geschehen muß es.
Wenn man im Sinne der heutigen okkulten Entwickelung sich wiederum der Welt gegenüberstellt und alles Äußere als Zeichen und Gleichnis nimmt, wird man in unserem «Seelenkalender» 5Ostern 1912 war der «Anthroposophische Seelenkalender» erstmals erschienen. In der Gestalt, die ihm Imme von Eckardtstein gegeben hart, ist der Kalender nicht wieder aufgelegt worden. Bei der Neuauflage im Jahre 1925 erhielt er durch Rudolf Steiner die seither beibehaltene Form; siehe «Beiträge zur Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe», Heft 37/38, 1972. Der Seelenkalender ist enthalten in «Wahrspruchworte», GA 40, und auch als Einzelausgabe erhältlich. einen Leitfaden haben. Aber man darf nicht glauben, daß die Zeichen für die Tierkreisbilder diese selbst bedeuten. Das Zeichen des Widders bedeutet nicht das Sternbild des Widders, sondern daß sich die Sonne oder der Mond in einem bestimmten Verhältnis zu diesem Sternbild befinden und daß da besondere Kräfte wirken. Nicht ein in den Raum Gestelltes bedeuten diese Zeichen, sondern daß Kräfte so oder so wirksam sind. Das, was man Raum nennt, ist eine Phantasterei. Geistige Kräfte wirken von überall her, und wie sie wirken, das drücken diese Zeichen aus. Wenn die Sonne zum Beispiel morgens, wenn sie aufgeht, über dem Sternbild der Fische steht, so ist diese Konstellation der Ausdruck für eine ganz bestimmte Art des Wirkens von geistigen Kräften hinab auf die Erde.
Das alles können wir fühlen und umsetzen in imaginative Erkenntnis. Was aus unserer Seele heraussprießen kann, wenn wir wirklich das fühlen, was uns aus der geistigen Welt entgegenstrahlt, das haben wir versucht, in dem Kalender, der für dieses Jahr innerhalb der theosophischen Bewegung erschienen ist, zum Ausdruck zu bringen. Andere Zeichen finden wir da als die traditionellen alten Kalenderzeichen, als neuen Ausdruck dessen, was die Seelen in diesem Zeitraum neu zu lernen haben. Sie sind so entstanden, daß verfolgt wurde mit dem Gefühl, nicht mit dem Verstand, das, was wir als den rhythmischen Wechsel auf unserer Erde eben betrachtet haben: das Einschlafen der geistigen Wesenheiten, die mit unserer Erde in Verbindung stehen, im Frühling, ihr Aufwachen im Herbst. Eine Erneuerung dieser Dinge, die in unsere Feste aus uralter hellsichtiger Weisheit hineingegossen sind, ist notwendig. Sie müssen erneuert werden, weil im fünften Zeitraum wiederum aufersteht dasjenige, was Weisheitsgut des dritten Zeitraums war.
Allerdings muß es Außenstehenden als äußerste Verdrehtheit erscheinen, daß wir das Jahr 1879 an den Anfang unseres Kalenders setzten. Da wollten wir aufmerksam machen darauf, daß es außerordentlich wichtig ist, das Jahr des Mysteriums von Golgatha als Anfang unserer Zeitrechnung zu nehmen, und nicht das Jahr der Geburt des Jesus. An einem Freitag, am 3. April des Jahres 33, drei Uhr am Nachmittag fand das Mysterium von Golgatha statt. Und da fand auch statt die Geburt des Ich in dem Sinne, wie wir es oftmals charakterisiert haben. Und es ist ganz gleichgültig, auf welchem Erdenpunkte der Mensch lebt, oder welchem Religionsbekenntnis er angehört, das, was durch das Mysterium von Golgatha in die Welt kam, gilt für alle Menschen. So wie es für alle Welt gilt, daß Cäsar an einem bestimmten Tage gestorben ist, und nicht für die Chinesen ein anderer und für die Inder wieder ein anderer Tag dafür gilt, ebenso ist es eine einfache Tatsache des okkulten Lebens, daß das Mysterium von Golgatha sich an diesem Tage zugetragen hat und daß man es da zu tun hat mit der Geburt des Ich. Das ist eine Tatsache ganz internationaler Art. Und man muß sich wundern, daß von einer gewissen Seite her behauptet wird, das, was hier getrieben werde, diese unsere rosenkreuzerische Theosophie, die das Mysterium von Golgatha als den Mittelpunkt von allem betrachtet, sei eine Theosophie, die nur auf das Deutschtum zugeschnitten und für die anderen Völker nicht geeignet sei.
Wo solche Dinge behauptet werden, da hat man allerdings nicht die Neigung, sich mit solchen Dingen, wie wir sie hier treiben, zu beschäftigen. Da versteht man eben einfach nichts vom Christus und vom Mysterium von Golgatha. Da setzt man Entstellungen in die Welt, und leider werden solche Entstellungen auch geglaubt. Es ist aber heilige Pflicht, die Menschen vor Irrtum zu bewahren. Es ist zwar keine angenehme Aufgabe, ihnen solche Wahrheiten zu sagen, aber es muß geschehen. — Da sagt man an anderer Stelle, gleiches Recht gelte für alle, aber man bricht selber das Recht. Nicht darum handelt es sich, daß man diese oder jene Dinge sagt und drucken läßt, sondern darum, daß Wahrheit herrsche unter uns und daß Wahrheit unser heiliges Gesetz sei.
Wir wollen die Geburt des Ich in unserem Kalender zum Ausdruck bringen. Damit ist aber verbunden, daß wir den Zeitpunkt dieser Geburt als Ausgangspunkt nehmen mußten. Also mußten wir von Ostern bis Ostern zählen, und nicht von Neujahr bis Neujahr. Wenn dadurch vielleicht auch neues Ärgernis gegeben wird und neuer Spott und Hohn hervorgerufen wird, so darf uns das wenig kümmern, denn wir wissen, wollten wir nur immer ein Altes, schon Dagewesenes in gleicher Weise wiederholen, so würde kein neues Leben entstehen. Das Gleiche, immer wiederholt, ist das Tote; das Ungleiche, in das Gleiche eingerückt, ist das Leben. Eine Lebensaufgabe aber ist unser Kalender. Und haben wir ihn Jetzt sehr schlecht gemacht, so werden wir ihn im nächsten Jahre besser machen.
Wichtig vor allem ist der zweite Teil, der «Seelenkalender». Da suchte ich zusammenzustellen Woche für Woche solche Meditationsformeln, wie sie die Seele innerlich meditativ durchleben kann, und die so wirken in der Seele, daß diese den Zusammenhang finder zwischen ihrem eigenen innerlichen Erleben und dem, was durch göttlichgeistige Wesenheiten im Zeitenlauf dirigiert wird. Wahrhaft zum Erleben dieser Wesenheiten führen diese Meditationen, wenn sie ernst und hingebungsvoll gemacht werden. Lange okkulte Erfahrung und Forschung ist in diese zweiundfünfzig Formeln zusammengedrängt, die die Zeitformeln sein können für ein inneres Seelenerleben, das dadurch angeschlossen sein kann an die Vorgänge des göttlich-geistigen Erlebens. Sie sind etwas Zeitloses, das die Beziehung zwischen dem Spirituellen und dem sinnlich Angeschauten darstellt. Jeder wird nach und nach den Wert dieses «Seelenkalenders» einsehen, der seine Bedeutung behalten wird für alle Jahre, und wird nach und nach den Weg finden aus der menschlichen Seele heraus in den Geist, der das ganze Weltenall durchlebt und durchwebt. Aber es ist nicht so leicht, diese Meditationsformeln ganz in ihrem tiefen Sinn sich zu eigen zu machen. Dazu braucht die Menschenseele Jahre und Jahre. So dokumentiert sich in diesem Kalender nicht ein bloßer Einfall, der plötzlich gekommen ist, sondern eine Tat, die in organischem Zusammenhang steht mit unserer ganzen Bewegung, und nach und nach wird schon erkannt werden, warum in ihm dieses so und jenes anders gemacht ist.
The Secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven in Parables and in Reality
Only slowly and gradually will people begin to understand the ever-increasing importance that theosophy will have for people today and in the future. People will come to understand it when they immerse themselves in the understanding of certain things that are hinted at in religious and occult writings, but which are usually not taken deep enough. One could point to a thousand and one places in such religious and occult writings whose depth is not recognized because people only look at them superficially. Today I want to point out only one deeply, deeply significant passage in the Gospels: “To those who are on the outside, the mysteries are revealed in parables, so that they may see and yet not see, that they may hear and yet not hear, that they may understand and yet not grasp. But to you the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven shall be revealed without a parable, in their true form.” 1Mark. 4, 11f; Matthew 13, 11.
We usually do not even think about the infinitely deep meaning of such a passage. What does this mean, and where are these most important parables that the Christ speaks of to his disciples? The most important parables are those that are usually not even understood as parables.
A person takes what he sees in the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms alongside him on the physical plane and accepts it as reality, as something that is there. He sees this animal, that plant and imagines that these are things that really exist. He sees processes in the air and water and imagines that these are processes that really exist. They are not. Because all these processes in the natural world around us, everything that takes place in the air and water, is nothing more than processes in the spiritual world, which reveal themselves through what happens in the physical. They are revelations of spiritual processes. These are the true reality, the reality. Nothing is real except the spiritual world, and only when we can recognize the spiritual in all things and processes have we truly recognized reality. Everything in the physical world has only the value of a parable for that which stands behind it, the spiritual world. We must learn to look at all the processes in the animal and plant world in this way, and also at everything we see in the human realm that makes an impression on the mind, the intellect. All these are nothing but parables, and only the one who learns to interpret them comes to reality.
Thus people go through the world, observing the events and not knowing that these are only parables. Through parables, nature itself speaks to man; reality is only spoken of when the spirit is mentioned. - In images taken from nature, the Christ Jesus explains to his disciples processes that belong to the spirit. He speaks of the seed that is sown and experiences the most diverse destinies. This can only be a parable because the things in nature are themselves parables. But then, when He makes it clear to His disciples that He is one with the spiritual nature of all existence, that He must pass through death, that what lives in Him and what must be sunk into death in order to arise as a power of human souls and human hearts, which He is to give to all people through this death, then He speaks of reality, for then He speaks of the Spirit and of what happens through this spirit. Therefore, it is only true knowledge when man gradually comes to understand the secrets of the world in such a way that he recognizes what he encounters outside as a parable for spiritual processes. Indeed, man's soul only truly enriches itself when he can find this point of view in relation to the outside world.
When this external world gradually reveals itself to him through the spirit, the human being lives differently in it than before, and he finds the traces of the spirit in its rhythms everywhere. We see a recurring rhythmic event in ourselves: falling asleep and waking up. We know that within twenty-four hours, a person must repeat this brightening of normal daytime consciousness and then darkening again into a state of sleep. If we now ask ourselves what in the great world outside can be compared with this rhythmic change of sleeping and waking in humans, then perhaps many would think of the rhythmic change in the plant kingdom, the growth of plants in spring and their withering in autumn. In spring, people see the plants sprout and continue to sprout throughout the summer; in autumn, they see the fruits ripen through the power of the sun, which streams into the earth in spring and summer. In winter, everything seems to be extinguished, only to sprout again in spring. In this way, a person could compare their own waking up in the morning with the waking up of physical nature, and their falling asleep with the withering in the fall. But that would be a serious mistake that we must not make if we are looking for the truth.
What do we experience when we fall asleep? The astral body and I go out. They leave the physical and etheric bodies. If we were now to see what the physical and etheric bodies do at night, we would be able to observe that they are engaged in quite different activities from those that could be compared to withering away in the fall. But this can only be seen by looking down from the spiritual world upon the physical and etheric bodies. There one sees them behaving differently than during the day. For during the day one sees that they wear out, and when we are tired in the evening, it is only a sign that we have worn out our physical and etheric bodies. Living life in full daytime consciousness is a process of ruining and killing our physical and etheric bodies. In the evening, they are most worn out; then we fall asleep. And when we look at them spiritually, we see how a purely vegetative activity begins in the physical and etheric bodies, which we can compare to what happens in spring. It begins to flourish, to sprout, to green in the physical and etheric bodies, as if something were taking place inside the human being that can be compared to what happens outside in nature in spring. So we have to compare the moment of falling asleep with spring, and the deeper we sleep into the night, the more we can compare what is happening inside a person with what is happening outside in summer. For this vegetative activity in our body becomes more and more intense. But when we wake up, it is like the autumnal state outside in nature. As we awaken, consciousness enters and brings about the withering of the summer state, and in the course of the day such a desolation of the physical and etheric body occurs that the same is caused as the winter state outside, when the plants have withered and the vegetative activity has died. In the spiritual-scientific sense, we must compare falling asleep with spring and waking up with autumn.
When falling asleep, that is, in the spring state, the astral body and the I leave the physical and etheric bodies. Out in nature, it is indeed the case that the spirits of the earth, which are connected with the plant kingdom, free themselves, so to speak, from the physicality of the plant world in spring, and only then does the plant world really come into a state of active activity. These spiritual beings, which are connected with the plant kingdom, sleep in summer, and in winter they wake up and permeate the planetary mass. One could ask: yes, while it is winter on one half of the earth, is it summer on the other? Well, the rhythmic play is such that the spirits of the earth, when they leave the northern half of the earth in summer, move towards the southern half. They rhythmically permeate and circle the earth. The same happens in man. He believes that his thinking, his consciousness, is only in his head, and when he is out at night, he believes that there is nothing left in him that thinks. But in reality, the lower half of his body is then active, a thinking and consciousness of a different kind than the human one takes place, so that a rhythmic circling also takes place in the human body. In spring we can say: Now the earth spirits begin to sleep; they have withdrawn from the part of the earth where summer is. Then there is vegetative life as in man when he falls asleep and the vegetative life begins in his body. But in winter the earth spirits are awake. Then they are united with the earth, as in man in the life of the day his waking consciousness is in him. When we stand on the earth in summer, we have physical nature around us, which rejoices in its physicality. Everything in the plant world sprouts and bursts into leaf, and all the lower spiritual entities, who are the architects of plant growth, are also active. But in winter, when the snow covers the earth and the vegetative activity is dormant, we know that the highest divine beings, who are creating, working and weaving in the cosmic universe, are around us, that the highest divine life, divine consciousness, is working in the earth. This is the case in winter, but not in summer. This teaches us to recognize a true spiritual science.
Spiritual science, which is able to penetrate into these things with full, clear consciousness, knows that when man has not only this in his head theoretically, but can also feel it with his heart, he can say: Oh, you rising spring and summer power, you make everything in physical nature sprout and flourish, you call the elemental beings out of the earth to their work. And during the summer, at midsummer, these lower elemental beings celebrate something like an ecstasy, like a paroxysm. That is when the summer solstice, the feast of St. John, is celebrated. Then comes autumn and winter, and then man should feel in his deepest soul: With the waning of the external physical forces of the sun, with the onset of winter, when everything outside dies, when it gets darker and darker, then the highest divine spiritual forces unite with the piece of earth on which we live, and we feel as if we are enveloped in these highest spiritual beings, we feel that we belong to them in our deepest soul. Thus we feel deepest devotion when we know that we may watch the spiritual forces, which are primordially akin to man, as they reveal themselves directly in our surroundings at the advent of winter. It is the calling of Theosophy to make us acquainted with them. It will bring clarity to man about all this.
We know that Theosophy has to bring us back what people once possessed in dreamlike, dull clairvoyance. We are reclaiming an ancient human inheritance. It was a dreamlike, clairvoyant, primeval revelation for people, and there is evidence that this was so. The reason that St. John's Festival is celebrated in the middle of summer is that it should lead people to the realization that the physical plane is now most developed, and that the lower elemental beings are celebrating something like an ecstasy in the development of their strongest powers. The time of the St. John's Festival is fixed on the basis of an ancient human consciousness. In this physical ecstasy, man forgets his spiritual self and surrenders to the immediate splendor of physical nature. But these ancient clairvoyants also knew that in winter the highest spiritual forces unite with our earthly body. That is why the old consciousness, wherever it was able to be active, placed that festival, which is meant to suggest that the human being feels united with the spiritual essence of the earth, the Christmas festival, in the middle of winter. A clairvoyantly knowing humanity could never place the festival of the divine being, the earth spirit, in the summer season; rather, it had to be celebrated in the winter season. During the time of consecration, the soul felt united with the divine spiritual forces that then permeate the earth. Christmas belongs in winter, like St. John's Festival belongs in summer.
When we become aware of how the festivals speak to us vividly in the sense in which the old consciousness of humanity has defined them, we feel spiritually united with the meaning of these festivals. We recognize what such knowledge is intended to stimulate in the human soul.
The descent of the outer physical sunlight, of the physical powers of heaven, upon the earth in spring, and the withdrawal of the spirit into the sacred spheres – just as the human spirit withdraws into the spiritual world at night – is wonderfully expressed in Easter, which is timed to coincide with the constellation of the sun and moon and the stars at the time of the festival. How visibly the spiritual forces fall asleep in spring is expressed by this constellation. It is characteristic of our materialistic time that people think of fixing Easter, of setting it, because materialism needs it, thus giving up what gives it its meaning for the sake of industrial and commercial convenience. A fitting expression of the materialistic meaning of our time! It may be convenient for the conclusion of certain accounts that Easter is not celebrated in April one year and in March the next, but it is precisely this determination of Easter according to the constellation in the sky that expresses how earthly and heavenly things interact. In this determination of the festivals rests a great wisdom of primitive mankind. Of course commercial interests will probably win out, and Easter will probably be fixed to an external time, but it would be a sad state of affairs for that which humanity should preserve if the meaning of such a festival were forgotten. Therefore, even if Easter is fixed according to external interests, Theosophy will be called upon to continue counting it as a movable feast, which can only be fixed by the constellation of the sun, moon and stars.
Thus, alongside the materialistic Easter, there will be a spiritual Easter, which we will continue to celebrate in our hearts, so that we are aware of the connection with the spiritual world. This spiritual Easter will be a parable for the spiritual process: in spring, the consciousness of the higher spiritual beings falls asleep, and the consciousness of lower beings comes forth. In the fall, however, the high divine powers awaken, which remain connected to the earth in their consciousness. If one feels this correctly, then one will also gradually recognize that man belongs to the spirit at all and that the outer physical nature is only a parable. And man will want to learn more and more about how he relates to the spirit, but not how he relates to the outer nature, the parable.
We live in the fifth post-Atlantean period, and it has been pointed out often that this period is a repetition of the third, Egyptian period.2see, among other things, “The Spiritual Guidance of the Human Being and of Humanity” (1911), GA 15, and “World, Earth and Man, Their Nature and Development and their Reflection in the Connection between Egyptian Myth and Present-day Culture”, GA 105. We live in such a way that what lived in ancient Egypt comes out again in our thinking, feeling and willing. Now, in the Egyptian-Chaldean period, people were to develop their connection with the world of the stars. Astrology was found and particularly cultivated during this period. People knew directly and clairvoyantly how the constellations of the stars are connected with the life and destiny of the human being. They saw deeply into the mysterious connections between the starry space and human destiny. There have been extraordinary great minds in modern times in whom this continued to have an effect, so to speak. They had also been incarnated in the Egyptian-Chaldean period, and in the subsequent incarnations, a deep, intuitive astrological knowledge shone for them as if directly from an inner soul power. This was the case with the reincarnated Julian Apostata, with Tycho Brahe. 3cf. Rudolf Steiner's detailed explanations in the lectures of December 30, 1910 in “Occult History”, GA 126, and of September 16, 1924 in “Esoteric Reflections on Karmic Connections. Fourth Volume”, GA 238.
Tycho Brahe, 1546–1601, Danish astronomer, worked in Prague under Rudolf II; on the basis of his numerous observations, his student Kepler was able to establish his famous laws. He himself developed the Tychonic system, which represents a kind of compromise between the Copernican and Ptolemaic systems.
Julian the Apostate, 331–363, actually Julian Flavius Claudius, Roman emperor. Although he was raised as a Christian, Julian turned to the old mystery cults, which is why he is also called Julian the Apostate (the apostate). He was murdered at the age of 31 during a campaign in Asia. He placed a great deal of emphasis on the mysterious connection between how human destiny can be thought of as interrelated with the mysterious forms that form in the star constellations. Today, science considers it an irrefutable fact that Tycho Brahe was a great astronomer who discovered a number of new stars in the sky and drew a star map. So it is forgivable, say the scientists, that he was also an astrologer who predicted all kinds of things to people from the stars. They forgive Tycho Brahe for predicting the death of Sultan Soliman 4Soliman II. (Suleiman), 1495-1566, Turkish sultan, besieged Vienna in 1529, died on September 5, 1566 on a military campaign against Hungary. predicted5On the occasion of a lunar eclipse on October 28, 1566, Brahe recited a few Latin verses at the University of Rostock in which he predicted the death of the Sultan. A few weeks later, news of Soliman's death actually arrived. However, he had already died on September 5, that is, before the lunar eclipse, which some took as an opportunity to mock Tycho Brahe's “prediction.” He defended himself, however, by going into detail about Soliman's horoscope, from which he had read the constellation of death. See “Tycho Brahe. A Picture of Scientific Life and Work in the 16th Century” by J. L. E. Dreyer (German translation by M. Bruhns, Karlsruhe 1894), Chapter II. when he taught at the University of Rostock. They forgive him for astounding the world with such a prediction and say: that was just a weakness of this otherwise great man, which one must overlook. And they even forgive him for the fact that the sultan's death actually occurred exactly as predicted! But in Tycho Brahe we see the ancient Egyptian wisdom shine forth again. It must shine forth into our time, which is a repetition of the Egyptian time. Today we must also seek out the connection between the earthly and the divine. But we must not only look up at the heavens, we must also study the parables for the divine worlds that we find in the physical world. We can find them in the smallest and in the largest. For example, if we study how the leaves are arranged on each plant, we will find that if we follow the line around the stem, leaf by leaf, we get a spiral line. We see that the leaves grow in spirals around the stem, where the stem is stiff. In other plants, for example in the field bindweed, we see the stem itself describing this spiral line. People do not pay attention to such things. If they would study something like this, they would make a new discovery. They would see that this spiral movement depends on forces that are not at all on earth, that work down from the planets. These planets make a spiral movement in space and have an effect in such a way that they cause the plants to make the same spiral movement around their stems. However, the stem grows from bottom to top. This movement intersects the spiral movement. This is the force that brings the conclusion upwards, that brings the flower to the beginning. This force goes from the earth to the sun and vice versa. One plant species is assigned to one planet, another to the other planet with its movement. The time will come when we will know how Venus or another planet moves. This knowledge will not come from an external astronomical calculation, but from the study of plants, which are Venus beings and whose spiral movement is a microcosmic reflection of the absolute movement of Venus. Above, Venus draws the great spiral in cosmic space, and the plants imitate it in their movement in their small spirals. Their writing imprints the stars into the earth in plant growth, and the sun completes it. It pours over everything and governs that which the planets do. The spiral growth of plants will be studied to understand the interaction of the earthly realms with the heavenly realms. Plant growth is a parable for the facts of spiritual beings in space.
In this way, each individual physical being will be found to belong to the universe. They will be linked to the deeds in the universe, and so, little by little, we will discover the connection of minerals, plants, animals and also of humans in their deeds and destinies to the universe. We begin to study such things on a small scale, in the way we have done here today in spiritual science. But it will take a long time before science will follow these paths and study these things in their true context from occult sources. But it must happen.
If, in the sense of today's occult development, one again confronts the world and takes everything external as a sign and a parable, one will have a guide in our “Calendar of the Soul” 5The Anthroposophical Calendar of the Soul was first published at Easter 1912. The hardback version designed by Imme von Eckardtstein has not been reprinted. When it was reprinted in 1925, Rudolf Steiner gave it the form that has been retained ever since; see “Beiträge zur Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe”, issue 37/38, 1972. The Calendar of the Soul is contained in “Wahrspruchworte”, GA 40, and is also available as a separate publication.. But one must not believe that the signs for the signs of the zodiac mean these themselves. The sign of Aries does not mean the constellation of Aries, but that the sun or the moon are in a certain relationship to this constellation and that special forces are at work there. These signs do not mean something that is placed in space, but that forces are at work in one way or another. What we call space is a fantasy. Spiritual forces are at work from everywhere, and how they work is expressed by these signs. For example, when the sun rises in the morning and is above the constellation of Pisces, this constellation is the expression of a very specific way in which spiritual forces work down to earth.
We can feel all this and transform it into imaginative knowledge. In the calendar published this year by the Theosophical Society, we have tried to express what can spring up from our soul when we truly feel what radiates towards us from the spiritual world. We find other signs there than the traditional old calendar signs, as a new expression of what the souls have to learn anew in this period. They have arisen in such a way that what we have just considered as the rhythmic change on our earth was followed with feeling, not with the mind: the spiritual beings that are connected to our earth fall asleep in spring and awaken in autumn. These things, which are incorporated in our festivals from ancient clairvoyant wisdom, need to be renewed. They must be renewed because in the fifth period of time that which was the wisdom of the third period of time rises again.
However, to outsiders it must appear as the utmost absurdity that we set the year 1879 at the beginning of our calendar. By doing so, we wanted to draw attention to the fact that it is extremely important to take the year of the Mystery of Golgotha as the beginning of our calendar, and not the year of the birth of Jesus. On a Friday, on April 3 of the year 33, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the Mystery of Golgotha took place. And there also took place the birth of the ego in the sense in which we have often characterized it. And it does not matter at all at which point on earth the human being lives or to which religious confession he belongs, what came into the world through the Mystery of Golgotha applies to all people. Just as it applies to the whole world that Caesar died on a certain day, and not for the Chinese another day and for the Indians another day, so it is a simple fact of occult life that the Mystery of Golgotha took place on this day and that one is dealing with the birth of the I. This is a fact of a very international nature. And one is surprised that it is claimed from a certain quarter that what is being done here, this our Rosicrucian theosophy, which regards the Mystery of Golgotha as the center of everything, is a theosophy that is only tailored to Germanness and is not suitable for other peoples.
Where such things are claimed, there one does not have the inclination to occupy oneself with the kind of things we are doing here. There one simply understands nothing of the Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha. There one spreads distortions, and unfortunately such distortions are also believed. But it is a sacred duty to protect people from error. It is not a pleasant task to tell them such truths, but it must be done. — They say elsewhere that the same rights apply to everyone, but they themselves break the law. It is not a question of saying and printing this or that, but of allowing the truth to prevail among us and for truth to be our sacred law.
We want to express the birth of the I in our calendar. However, this means that we had to take the moment of this birth as the starting point. So we had to count from Easter to Easter, and not from New Year to New Year. Even if this might cause new annoyance and new ridicule and scorn, we should care little about that, because we know that if we only ever wanted to repeat an old, already existing thing in the same way, no new life would arise. The same, repeated over and over, is dead; the unequal, incorporated into the same, is life. But our calendar is a life's work. And if we have done it a disservice this year, we will do it better next.
The second part, the “Calendar of the Soul”, is particularly important. Here I tried to put together week after week such meditation formulas as the soul can live through inwardly in meditation, and which work in the soul in such a way that it finds the connection between its own inner experience and what is directed by divine spiritual beings in the course of time. These meditations truly lead to an experience of these beings when they are done earnestly and devotedly. Fifty-two formulas are condensed from long occult experience and research, which can be the time formulas for an inner soul experience that can be connected to the processes of divine spiritual experience. They are something timeless that represents the relationship between the spiritual and the sensually observed. Everyone will gradually understand the value of this “soul calendar”, which will retain its significance for all years, and will gradually find the way out of the human soul and into the spirit that lives and weaves through the whole universe. But it is not so easy to make these meditation formulas one's own in their full and profound meaning. The human soul needs years and years for this. Thus this calendar does not document a mere sudden inspiration, but an act that stands in organic connection with our entire movement, and little by little it will be recognized why this and that is done differently in it.