The Rudolf Steiner Archive

It is fitting to speak words of comfort that are not lightly woven when one stands as a friend of a deceased among those who have lost a most precious one. For the deep pain that we feel in such a moment, when life bonds are torn apart that are tightly woven, that were woven to endure existence together in shared destinies and shared life tasks, is all too justified, all too understandable.

But another thing may perhaps also speak into the greatest, most bitter pain and the most bitter grief at such a moment: it is the compassion and mourning of those who, in addition to those closest to them, have come to appreciate and love those who have left the physical plane in the deepest part of their souls and from the bottom of their hearts. And perhaps I may, in this moment of mourning, remember the soul of the one whom we know we are hurrying to join the one who is now leaving us in our physical existence on earth. For I remember the soul of the dear husband who has become so dear to us, of the dearly departed, this searching personality, delving deeply into the mysteries of existence. Many unforgettable moments remain with me, which I was privileged to have in conversation with the soul, who has now been gone for a long time into spiritual worlds, about spiritual matters, about spiritual conditions and spiritual worlds, with the soul of the husband of the departed and the father of those sadly left behind here. And when the dear, seeking soul of the departed now appeared in our circle, the same power of genuine, true, spiritual striving and seeking for higher, lighter worlds was reflected in her eyes, in these seeking and, one may well say, light-bearing and love-bearing eyes, which lived in the soul of her predecessor. And we may, in this moment of mourning, remember the beautiful spiritual encounter of the two, which may be a reconciliation for the departed soul, in the face of all that she has left here in her dear, loving circle, in that circle for which she seemed so deeply predestined by fate, in that circle, from which world interest in the deepest sense approached everyone who approaches this circle. It was uplifting to hear and see how those to whom mother became the dear departed through the will of fate, how they carried the seeking spirit of the Dieterle family out into the furthest circles of the world, how they sought to find human happiness in human activity, how they sought to always move out of the narrow into the wide.

That is what we may visualize for this circle that the dear departed has left, and we may be assured that the circle of relatives will find sympathy and mourning in the wider circle of those whom the deceased has entered in order to search for the spirit, to find an approach to the solution of those riddles that burned so strongly in their souls. And those who were connected with them in this circle, searching for the spirit, they will remain unforgettable to them, the two deceased who were seeking the spirit and loving. We will not see them here in the physical life anymore, these two, these mild, strong, these seeking souls, but we will know that our memory will remain alive and feel connected as a living memory with the living soul of those who have only physically left us, that soul sought harmony with the eternal spirit and to a certain extent certainly found it, so that she can carry it over into spiritual worlds, in order to continue there in the appropriate way to care for her own and other people's salvation, for her own and other people's development.

And so, as a last greeting, I may repeat from memory, from the union with the soul and spirit of my dear friend, the words that came to my soul when this soul, this spirit, left its earthly cover:

Soul, arisen from the realm of mild strength,
Which in the struggle of earthly life, rock-bottom
For the inner depths of being
Courageously acquired,

Which, in the search for truth, blessing
Genuine human goal striven for,
And in noble human love
wanted to work meaningfully;

A spirit that in the vastness of life
strived for the depths of the soul,
and wanted to fathom the sources of true values of existence,

Who in the stream of life
always kindly offered what he had achieved for himself
to other people, beneficially, effectively:

You enter the soul's realm of light.
Look into the hearts of your children,
And into the souls of your friends,
Look down to us,

How we would like to accompany you
With the soul step of love,
With the word of the heart of loyalty,
Here from the place of mourning

To the heights where you can know
Our soul senses are not lost,
Where the light through the veil of death
Cannot be darkened.

And so we depart from your earthly shell, which will shine for us in the never-extinguishing light of spiritual life, and we know that in that spirit which has sought in you for the origin of its being, has sought for that conquest of death which, out of spiritual knowledge, wants to come to the Christ, who wants to find the power of rebirth, the eternal power of the soul, by immersing himself in the Christ-being, - so we know that in the search for this spirit we have found each other with you, and that this spirit, which carries human souls through eternities and gates of death and gates of life, will keep us together with you forever. We will know that we are connected not only in dead memory, but in full vitality, because we have found You in such a way that we can never lose You.

My dear friends!

Since we last saw each other here, both within and outside the circle that is united here, numerous of our members have left the physical plane, partly as a result of the events that are currently so severely testing humanity, and partly without any connection to this external, physical plane. It is not possible to refer to all those who have joined us in the spiritual world and no longer on the physical plane by name. The heavy losses that our movement has suffered here through the death of our dear Mr. Barth, our dear Miss Reitich and our dear Mrs. Pauline Dieterle are vividly present in our minds. It would take a long time if I were to recount to you now all that arises in our souls at this moment when we think of these dear souls. But that is not what we are here for. For each of them there is a very large circle here that can feel in its own soul with tremendous intensity and complete devotion to these souls what would take a long time to express in words. And that we keep this alive in our soul, that we vow, so to speak, to keep this alive in our souls, that we do not lose any opportunity to maintain the connection with these souls, that is what must move us.

Anyone who knew Miss Rettich's quiet, calm nature, who lived with her, who worked with her, knows that a rich spirit, which has gone through the difficult trials of life, which was inspired by serious, most sacred pursuit of truth, was inspired by purest benevolence and philanthropy, lived in this our friend. And the individuality of Miss Rettich is such that no one who has ever been in any kind of contact with her will ever be able to forget her. The quiet, modest nature, combined with a strong inner power of aspiration, was what was particularly appealing about this personality. That was what made the continuing soul of Miss Rettich, with whom we want to feel united, remain particularly close to us, insofar as we were lucky enough to be close to her during her lifetime.

What Mr. Barth was for the Kerningzweig in terms of his special individuality and way of working, some others here will be able to tell better than I can, because they will have much to say about what they owe to Mr. Barth. That a large circle was devoted to him with the most ardent love is widely known; that he spared no effort, left no strength ineffective, to work in the direction he recognized as the right one, that is what must live in lasting memory, what can act as an example beyond this memory, and what will underlie what many souls experienced in a living connection with this soul. What Mr. Barth was to his circle, it has been described by a member of this circle when our dear members parted from the earthly shell of this our dear friend, and we can honor the memory of him best when we never lose sight of the tremendously devoted nature of the cause and the personalities.

What is alive in my soul, and what I believe is alive in many souls as a result of the departure of dear Frau Dieterle, I tried to hint at with a few words this morning when we parted from the earthly shell of this dear friend. I felt I could touch on this occasion in particular how this soul was born out of contradictions, which united into the most beautiful harmony, as is always the case with true contradictions. I had to think of the broad interests in life into which this woman's karma had brought her. And above all, I had to think of the broad spiritual interests that were vividly present in my soul at this moment of mourning, the spirit of her husband, who had passed away long before her, the father of those left behind. I had to remember many a conversation with this man, which was always filled with the purest spiritual, impersonal spiritual interests, filled with what never actually took the point of reference to the personal. And in this moment we may remember this man entirely in the sense of our spiritual-scientific attitude, which lets us look in the spirit to the now to be taking place meeting of our friend with the soul that preceded her into the spiritual world. What she herself meant to me through the way she has always participated here for a long time in our work and life, that presented itself to me in the words that I said as a last farewell to our dear friend this morning and which I may perhaps repeat here, which were intended to express how the relationship of the soul, the spirit of this woman, presented itself to me:

Soul, arisen from the realm of mild strength,
In the struggle of earthly life, the rock bottom
For the inner depths of being
Bravely acquired,

In the search for the truth blessing
Genuine human goal,
And in noble human love
wanted to work meaningfully;

A spirit that in the vastness of life
strived for the depths of the soul,
and wanted to fathom the sources of true values of existence,

Who in the stream of life
always kindly offered what he had achieved for himself to other people benevolently and effectively:

You enter the soul's realm of light.
Look into the hearts of your children,
and into the souls of your friends,
look down to us,

How we would like to accompany you
with the soul step of love,
With the heartfelt word of loyalty,
Here from the place of mourning

To the heights where you can know
Our soul's sense not lost,
Where the light through the veil of death
Cannot be darkened.

To honor the memory of all our dear departed, we rise from our seats. And we think about how we gain strength when we remain firmly connected to the departed in spirit.

Dear Mourners!

Now that the solemn priestly ceremony for our dear 'friend Elisabeth Maier has been performed here, I would like to say a few words on behalf of the spiritual community to which the dearly departed belonged from the bottom of her heart, the dear, good soul.

Elisabeth Maier sought this spiritual community from the depths of her soul because she had an intimate affinity to spiritual being and spiritual work through her entire being, because she knew with human clarity, through the best forces that lived in her soul, how life in the spirit must always triumph over death in the material. Her soul sought the company of human souls united with her in this sacred conviction, united so completely that nothing could sever the bond that bound them together. They therefore also know that death is only a transition from one life to another. But that is why, beloved mourners, the pain and sorrow that such souls feel at the coffins of those who leave them remains in its full magnitude. The pain and sorrow are transfigured, but they are not diminished.

Therefore, in this moment of sorrow and grief, I may turn especially to the beloved mother of the dear ones who have passed away from us, to assure her that there is in the souls that were connected with the dear Elisabeth Maier, the deepest, most sincere and honest sorrow for those who can understand the feeling of life that can comprehend such pain and that expresses itself in the realization that one must say: You gave life to a dear being as a mother, and you had to watch her earthly life disappear earlier than you were able to lift yourself up into the spiritual realm.

And it is out of this deep shared pain that I turn to all the other brothers and sisters, to all the other relatives and to the wider community of sorrow and mourning that is united here. All of you, dear mourners, may in this case truly regard pain as the basis for beautiful, good, sacred feelings and thoughts that may and can accompany the soul now rising up. And on the basis of this genuine pain, but transfigured by our conviction, we may speak the words that are to be a vow to remain in further loyal connection with the soul departing from the earth.

Souls that were intimately connected here on earth with that which flows as spiritual life and spiritual uplift through the spiritual conviction in which Elisabeth Maier lived, of such souls it may be said that they already stepped into life, destined to seek the spirit again here on earth, from which they had descended from the spirit-filled breath of existence in the pre-earthly life, from the community in the spirit, the divine spirit that lives and weaves through the world. Such souls bear the spirit-sign here on earth. And such a soul was Elisabeth Maier. One could truly say of her: she was born of the spirit that was seized in God. And the power of this spirit led her to that spiritual knowledge and spiritual conviction that shone before her like an ideal that carried her like a strong soul. That, in particular, was something, my dear mourners, dear funeral party, that one could experience with our dear Elisabeth Maier, and what, in this hour, with a painful heart, but also, I would like to say, with great supplication, can be expressed here, justifying the dear soul. The spiritual ideal that Elisabeth Maier had set for herself from the depths of her soul was a lofty ideal. It was an ideal that required strong forces. In her always weak body, these forces called for spiritual strength. For a long time, these soulful eyes have looked out of the frail body, gazing so longingly towards her lofty ideal. That was the deeper soul basis of this physical suffering from which our Elisabeth Maier had been suffering for a long time. Her courage to face life wanted to falter, her will to live wanted to falter because she felt weak in the face of the greatness of her ideal. And human words were not strong enough to give her the courage to face life, to give her the strength to live that she needed. And so she died, in a sense also against her soul, against life in the eternal realms of existence, to which she now ascends from this earth. Precisely from the strength with which we were often met here, something like a lack of hope in life, will come to her that strong soul power that will now lead her on in the spirit. For in the last analysis, what sapped her vitality was rooted in her soul strength. She wanted to combine in the great ideal of the spiritual community, of which she was a member with such heartfelt devotion, everything that her soul could muster in the way of strength.

Because the strongest life forces for the soul come from this spiritual community, we stand, allowing this feeling to arise very gently and intimately in our soul, at the disappearing soul that is rising up, the soul of Elisabeth Maier.

We know, dear mourners, dear funeral guests, that through this strong power she has found communion with the one who descended from spiritual heights in intimate communion of spirit with humanity in order to unite with human destiny, who is the conqueror of death, who is the founder of eternal life in all people. We know, dear mourners, dear funeral guests, that she has found the Christ who guides the human souls that seek him through the portal of death, and we know that such souls, which look up to this spirit with such intimacy, find the spirit that reigns through all spaces and times. We know that the spirit of Elisabeth Maier, who is now fading from our lives, will find this spirit.

We will no longer see with her eyes. But we will want to unite our thoughts with her soul, our feelings with the feelings of her soul, our best human existence with her soul existence, and so we can assure those who are the next to grieve, her mother, siblings, other relatives and her spiritual kin, that all thoughts that rush up to the spiritual being Elisabeth Maier will unite with her soul in the future. All those who were intimately connected with her spirit within the spiritual community sought by Elisabeth Maier.

Just as those who were dear to her will find this precious soul up in the spiritual heights, so they will always find the thoughts of those to whom she was, to their sorrow, snatched from the earth all too soon. They will find her in the spiritual heights. And so today, with our soul ascending, we send up the thoughts that most intimately and warmly connected us with dear Elisabeth Maier. We send them up through the same paths that you take, spiritual paths, so that they will always find you. From the words of today's vow, we want to draw the strength that our thoughts connected with you will always seek you, so that you will find the community forever through all worlds in which human souls live through all transformations of existence in world distances and through all time spaces. This we want to vow to you today with your dear ones and those close to you for all time.