The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The theosophical worldview seeks to deepen our spiritual life, not arbitrarily, but because it wants to serve, to satisfy the deeply felt yearning of our time. That the theosophical worldview is not arbitrary can be seen by comparing it with other spiritual currents.

Today we want to consider a cultural current in art in relation to Theosophy. We want to talk about Richard Wagner. Richard Wagner always emphasized that he wanted to serve an ideal that could permeate people like any other religious ideal.

Goethe longed for an interpreter of art. Richard Wagner endeavored to be such an interpreter throughout his life. One could say: What is not said about Richard Wagner, what is not thought of him! Richard Wagner himself would not have thought that. Nor is it necessary that he should have consciously thought all this so clearly. Just as a plant cannot itself say what a poet might say about it, so Richard Wagner does not need to have said or thought all that is said about him. The botanist cannot place himself above the forces of the plant. He only knows their laws. The plant, on the other hand, can grow according to these laws without knowing them. The same applies to the artist: he implements the laws of art. Richard Wagner himself was of the opinion that truth comes to light in philosophy and that the secrets of the world are revealed in art. He says of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony that in such a creation there is a revelation of another world, much more than through logical thinking.

Richard Wagner always had the feeling that the spiritual world, as the basis of the sensual world, stands behind this sensual world. He sees beings in the devachanic world, as we call it, that are connected to the physical bodies. An extract of this spiritual world is the physical. One must have what Goethe calls spiritual eyes and ears in order to see and perceive this spiritual world.

The Pythagorean spoke of the harmony of the spheres, which is not an arbitrarily chosen, superficial image. Goethe speaks very clearly about this spiritual world of the music of the spheres. For him, what is around us is the material expression of this spiritual world. He says in Faust:

What a roar brings the light! It trumpets, it trombones, the eye blinks and the ear is amazed, the unheard does not listen.

And elsewhere:

The sun sounds in the ancient manner In the song of the spheres, And it completes its prescribed journey With a thunderclap.

A great artist does not just use images like these as pictures.

Richard Wagner said that the individual musical instruments are like individual organs through which the world expresses itself in primal feelings. He had no theosophical view. However, since he was imbued with a theosophical attitude, he always knew that there are deep relationships between people and what stands behind them. Much of this is contained in old legends, for example in the legend of “Poor Henry”. A maiden must sacrifice herself so that the sick Poor Henry can be healed. The sacrifice acts as a force from one to the other. The outer science can find nothing of the magical power that passes from the redeemer to the redeemed.

In the Flying Dutchman, we have before us a man who has become sinful. The sacrifice of Senta, the power that passes from person to person, must have an effect here.

The whole music drama is imbued with this idea. Richard Wagner felt: In the ordinary drama, only the external action takes place, only the purely external expression of inner experiences. In the symphony, on the other hand, we experience the feeling only inwardly, that is, what is missing in the drama. Beethoven sought a balance in the Ninth Symphony, in which the feeling resonated in the word. Wagner's music drama also arose from the same endeavor.

Richard Wagner saw the ideal human behind the ordinary everyday person. He saw this ideal human in myths and legends, which contain in the imagination what man contains in his nature and in his germs. The saga of the Nibelungs is a particularly vivid expression of this. At the time of the ancient Atlantis, people lived under very different conditions than we do today. Year in, year out, Atlantis was covered by dense masses of fog. Rain and sunshine were not distributed as they are today, so that the rainbow could only appear after the great flood, the Deluge, because only then were the conditions for its appearance present. Noah saw the first rainbow. In myths and legends, the memory of the old conditions has been preserved, for example in the name Niflheim – Mistheim. We receive truer knowledge from the myths than from materialistic science. The state of mind at that time was such that the individual ego did not yet exist. In the course of the migration from the west to the east, the human being developed his ego nature. The Atlanteans had a collective consciousness at that time. The Germanic tribes, for example the Cherusci, still had this collective consciousness as well. Legends and myths depicted this in images.

In the transition from the collective self to the individual self, to the single self, the self contracts more and more around the individual human being. This increasingly contracting individual self was depicted as a ring. Truth and wisdom are interwoven with the image of poetry. The human egoistic self is expressed in the ring. The masses of mist flowed together to form rivers where people now live. In the Rhine, the myth sees what has become of the harmonious, collective consciousness of the self. The last stragglers of those endowed with universal consciousness have been drawn into the waves of the Rhine, as it were. Gold is the symbol of power.

With love, the possibility of selfish love also flows into the soul of the self. What is represented by gold, the symbol of power, is what the egoistic self strives for. Alberich kills love in order to take for himself what used to come to every individual from the All-consciousness. In the long-held E-flat major pedal in the prelude to “Rheingold”, we see the drawing in of the self into the human being.

The relationship between people must be regulated by external law. We find this with Wotan. Through his love for his wife, he loses his only eye, even if it is only slightly clairvoyant. For what the giants have done for him, he wants to give up the representative of love, of that which preserves youth, love for selfish power. Wotan still has connections to the All-consciousness. This emerges in Erda, this ancient consciousness, which is a dim but clairvoyant consciousness. She experiences the depths of the natural world clairvoyantly in what lives and weaves in springs and waters:

Her sleeping is dreaming, her dreaming is sensing, her sensing is prevailing knowledge.

This ancient consciousness cannot be expressed better, and all this is also expressed in drama and music. When the I was locked in the ring, it was locked in the skin. People who have the clairvoyant consciousness and the consciousness of today are called initiates. This was always represented in the image of the feminine. Goethe's words:

The Eternal Feminine

Draws us upward

refers to the higher human consciousness that humanity yearns for. Every nation has leaders who correspond to its character. Here, among the Germanic peoples, bravery is the corresponding characteristic. The soul of the warrior rises above the ordinary consciousness. This is symbolized in a female personality, the Valkyrie. Those who do not die on the battlefield die a death on the battlefield. But those who fall in battle are led up by the Valkyries. The feminine leads into the spiritual realm.

The initiate experiences in life what the ordinary person experiences only after death. Siegfried is an initiate. He unites with the Valkyrie already here. The All-consciousness passes over into the I-consciousness. From close marriage gradually arises distant marriage. The mixing of related blood gave the power of vision. This power passes with distant marriage. When distant blood is brought to distant blood, clairvoyance and ruling knowledge perish.

This transition to long-distance marriage can be found in the world of legends, where a member of the blood relationship goes out and marries outside of it. This is characterized in the saga in such a way that it is always associated with suffering and hardship. Siegmund and Sieglinde are characteristic representatives of close marriage. The child of this marriage, Siegfried, must not know any of this. He must grow up, completely on his own. Fricka, the representative of the new order, rebels against the union of Sieglinde and Siegmund.

In his unfinished drama “Der Sieger”, begun in 1856, Richard Wagner incorporated theosophical teachings. Amander, an Indian prince, is loved by a Jandalah maiden. He does not consider her worthy of him and enters a monastery. The maiden remains behind and later realizes that in a previous incarnation she was a king's daughter and that the present prince was a Jandalah, whom she did not want to marry. A balance had now been struck. She too enters a Buddhist monastery. This would have been a purely theosophical drama with reincarnation in it, but Richard Wagner did not yet feel up to it.

The following year he was invited to stay at Villa Wesendonck. From his window he saw spring outside, the first signs of sprouting, the resurrection of nature. He recognized the connections between this cosmic event and the mystery of resurrection. The “Parsifal” was created from this. The symbol at the center of the Parsifal problem is the Holy Grail. There really was a school of the Holy Grail. It still exists today: the realization of the pure ideal.

What the Grail student and the Rosicrucian student go through is to be reflected in a dialogue that did not take place literally in this form, but in spirit. The pupil was shown: Look at the plant. The root goes down into the soil, the sap – the “blood” – goes up, where the fruit attaches itself. It stretches the calyx towards the sunbeam, the holy lance of love. Compare this with man. Unconscious, the plant is not yet permeated by desires. It develops upwards to become human. Then the plant sap becomes blood, permeated with desires, the plant leaf becomes flesh. By incorporating the desires, the human being acquires day-consciousness in contrast to the sleep-consciousness of the plant.

One also spoke of future development: everything is in development. The human being will develop to ever more perfect levels. Richard Wagner also points this out. An organ that is still developing, that is still at the lowest level – every materialist will find what I am about to say terrible, but that does not matter, it is still true – the heart, it is indeed a real crux for materialistic science; it is an involuntary muscle with striated fibers like the voluntary muscles. This already points to a later stage of development. The human larynx will also have a higher development. It will be productive, it will create the image of man: it will become the future organ of reproduction. Later, like the plant now, man will turn his chalice chastely towards the sun, towards the holy lance of love. This was said to the Grail disciple. One can only arrive at this knowledge through spiritual insight, not through speculation. The Grail disciple should feel and relive it.

In “Parsifal” the one who strives for the Grail ideal is portrayed, the Christian initiate. The pure fool, he knows nothing through his own speculation, but he has felt it, he knows through compassion.

In Kundry, Wagner depicts the lower sensuality that passes from incarnation to incarnation. Kundry is Eve, is Herodias. She mocked the Redeemer. But she must not be lost; she must also be redeemed. This happens through the kiss of Parsifal. Klingsor represents black magic, brute force.

In Siegfried, the old initiation is combined with the Christian initiation. Siegfried is vulnerable only in one place: where the Redeemer later carried the cross. The old can only develop into unselfish free love if Christian love is grasped. This is expressed in Richard Wagner's transition from the “Nibelungen” to “Parsifal”, when he moved from the Nibelung saga to the Parzival saga. Richard Wagner himself felt he was a herald.

Wahnfried shall this house be called,
Where my delusion found peace.

That is written on his house. Man must pass through delusion if he wants to ascend to the spiritual world.

If one wants to interpret the secrets of the world, one must turn to art.

Report in “Göteborgs Aftonblad”, No. 81, April 7, 1908

“Theosophy – Goethe and Hegel” was the subject of a lecture by Dr. Rudolf Steiner, a German writer and lecturer and one of the leading German Theosophists, as well as a prominent Goethe expert, which was also mentioned during his introduction to a Swedish audience.

As can be seen from the title, yesterday's lecture was a theosophical lecture, the purpose of which was to show that the worldviews of both Goethe and Hegel essentially corresponded to those of modern theosophy. With a flowing eloquence, sometimes driven by high-spirited pathos, the speaker developed his theories in a lecture that lasted almost an hour and a half, apparently holding the interest of the few spectators the whole time.

Strangely, the audience in this otherwise quite Theosophically interested city consisted of just under 100 people. Perhaps it was the German language that deterred them – the universal Theosophical language is actually English – or perhaps it was the old Hegel, with whom probably the majority of today's audience has failed to become more closely acquainted. Goethe, on the other hand, we should all know – including his rather indigestible second part of “Faust”.

However, it is from this part that Dr. Steiner draws his evidence that Goethe appears as one of the “initiates” - one of those who, through the power of higher intuition, can see a higher reality behind the physical world, an embodiment of ideas - and, in the theosophical sense, comes into contact with the divine spirit that permeates the universe. In particular, the speaker tried to show that Goethe paid homage to the theosophical doctrine of reincarnation.

The speaker emphasized that in order to understand the second part of “Faust”, it must be studied in the theosophical light.

That “the universal Goethe” and in particular his Faust poem, the subject of seventy times seven interpreters, was thus also exploited for the theosophical exegesis, is hardly more than one might expect.

This part of the lecture was undoubtedly the most interesting. The speaker's attempt to turn the pantheist Hegel, with his idea of the individual as a transitory momentum, into a theosophical adept seemed less successful. Finally, the speaker returned to the Faust poet and ended with these his words, which, like so much else of what “the great pagan” said, bear wonderful witness to his belief in the divine in man:

If not the eye be solar,
How could we see the light?
If not divine power lie within us,
How could we feel divine delight?

Dear attendees! For many years now, I have had the honor of addressing you from this very spot about subjects related to spiritual science or, as it has become customary to call it, theosophy. Those of you in the audience who have attended several lectures over the past years will have seen that the basis of spiritual science as represented here is such that one can say: Spiritual science or Theosophy should not be considered merely as a dreamy, idle occupation of a few people who are far removed from life, but should rather shine more deeply into the tasks and riddles of life.

On the one hand, it is true that this spiritual-scientific world view is intended to direct our gaze up into the spheres of the spiritual foundations of the world, to convey knowledge of these spiritual foundations of the world; but on the other hand – and it need only be recalled here to the lecture on the education of the child from the point of view of spiritual science, which has been given here — on the other hand, this spiritual-scientific world view has the task of making life understandable, of giving guidelines and guiding stars to action and work in practical life, of providing orientation in the broadest sense precisely about what is going on around us before our eyes and ears, and of giving a deeper understanding of it by drawing precisely this understanding from the deeper, spiritual causes. What we are to deal with today can be considered a contribution in this direction.

What can initially confuse people, what initially causes people all kinds of conflict, is when their world view, when the affairs of life confront them with important personalities, with their opinions, with their thoughts, and when these personalities contradict each other so often. Many of you will have already felt how Theosophy or spiritual science, by broadening one's view, leads precisely to a harmonization of opinions through understanding.

Today we will deal with two contemporary personalities whose work is taking place right among us, whose opinions, so to speak, are going around the world from east to west and from west to east. These are personalities who are so well suited to leading us to the deep contradictions that run through our lives – for perhaps you will not find two personalities who are so opposed in all that they think and feel, in all that they express as being the right thing to do for our needs today – on the one hand we have Tolstoy, the much-mentioned, the effective one, a personality of whom one might say that no term is sufficient to properly encompass what he actually is for the present day; it will hardly suffice to say that Tolstoy is a moralist, if one believes a reformer in certain areas , if one wanted to use the term prophet or the like, but whoever pronounces the name of this personality will always be aware that something very inner to human nature is struck in this, that something lives in this personality that seems to emerge from other depths of the soul than those that move on the surface of existence today – and the other personality that is to be contrasted with it, so to speak, is the American millionaire Carnegie.

Why is Carnegie being contrasted with this personality today? Just as Tolstoy is trying to find a satisfactory solution to life and the riddles of life from the depths of his soul, so Carnegie, in his own way, is also seeking to gain principles of action and direction from the depths of our time, from his practical, one might say, “fundamentally intelligent” view of life. Perhaps one could say – but it sounds almost trivial – that just as idealism and realism have confronted each other in all ages – but with these shades as radically pronounced as possible – so do Tolstoy and Carnegie confront each other.

The great German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte once said: “What one's worldview is depends on what kind of person one is.” He was pointing out how a person's worldview is sometimes more subtly and sometimes more coarsely intertwined with their unique character and temperament, with their entire life. And if we first look at the life, the character traits, and the personality traits of the two people we want to talk about, we already have the greatest possible contrast.

The rich Russian aristocrat, who was born into the opulence of life, so to speak, who is virtually forced by his social position in life not only to get to know all sides of this life down to the most superficial outbursts of our present day, but to live with them and savor them, we see how, oversaturated to these contents of life, which are offered on the surface today, he takes refuge in the highest moral ideals, which seem to fly over life endlessly, and of which most people, even if they admire them, will be convinced today that they may be beautiful, but that they can only realize a little in life.

On the other hand, we see Carnegie, born, one might say, out of need and misery, at least educated out of need and misery, familiar with all kinds of privation, with the necessity of doing the most menial of work, endowed with none of the things that life offered to someone like Tolstoy on the surface of today's social order, endowed with an honest will to work, with an one might say, idealistically colored certain ambition to become a whole human being, he worked his way up; Carnegie works his way up through this sphere to a kind, one might say, of realistic idealism, also to a kind of moralism that counts on what is immediately apparent, what can be directly experienced in practical life.

We see how Tolstoy, in the most radical way, throws down the gauntlet, so to speak, to today's social order, how his criticism becomes not only harsh when he speaks of the current social order, but how it seeks to intervene, so to speak, in a devastating way in current thoughts, feelings and impulses of the will.

Carnegie sees how life has developed historically up to our present time and, for his soul, has the one word, so to speak, that expresses everything in relation to his first, most direct relationship to life: Yes, he says to everything that the present has brought us – a full satisfaction with what is around us! He sees how the gap between rich and poor has grown, how the ways of earning a living have changed, and everywhere he is permeated by the judgment: It does not matter whether we find this good or bad, but that it must be so, that we just have to reckon with it, and yet, working his way through – this is the characteristic feature of this personality – working his way through from a realistic view to a kind of idealism that sets itself the great goal of providing guidelines for a good life within these existing conditions, for a life that serves human progress in the most beautiful way, and for a social order that serves human progress and development.

Our consideration should not take sides with one or the other school of thought; it should be clear from the conditions of human development how such contradictions could have arisen. And if Theosophy has a task in relation to such phenomena as these two personalities present, then it is precisely to understand, from the deep foundations of existence, preferably of spiritual development, where such phenomena come from. It is not my intention to teach anything biographical about either of these personalities, only to say what the souls of both can reveal to us so that we can then penetrate to a deeper understanding of them.

From the outset, Tolstoy is a person who does not have to struggle with the external hardships of life, but is born into wealth and abundance, so to speak. He could easily have done so if he had harbored a superficial soul, as so many thousands and thousands more do, lost in wealth and abundance. But his individuality was not suited to that. From the very beginning, from childhood on, what could have an effect on this soul was always that which touched the deepest questions of the soul, of the world view. At first, he accepts life as it presents itself to him. As a boy, he is not yet able to think critically about what is going on around him; what later emerged in him in a monumental way as a critique of today's way of life is far from that. As a boy, he takes for granted what is around him and going on.

But there is already something in the boy like a lightning strike in his soul. One of his childhood friends once came home from high school with a strange message. He said something like, “Yes, someone – maybe a teacher – has made a new discovery, namely that there is no God.” This was something that struck like lightning into this young soul, which had actually taken for granted not only everything external but also the religious life as it played out around him.

That something like this is possible, that presented itself together with another thing to this youthful mind. You only have to put yourself in a child's shoes for once, and you will be able to know that a child's soul could actually believe that such a discovery could possibly be made. And such events have been incorporated again and again into this soul life. And we could give a long description of how Tolstoy, during his military service, in his dealings with the social classes to which he belongs, gets to know all the misery of today's life, how he becomes weary of it, how he the most diverse thoughts, how he, after he had got to know the misery of war and its social history, the literary life in Petersburg, how he became tired of what life is today in other areas of Europe. We could describe all this – it is well known today – but what can interest us are the questions that arose for Tolstoy.

First of all, the question increasingly and more sharply arises in his soul: What is actually a certain center of life in the face of all the confusing circumstances around us, where can a center be found? Gradually, religion becomes an important question for him, and this question becomes all the more significant for him as he is unable to break away from external customs for a long time. But the religious question becomes something deeply incisive for him. More and more clearly and distinctly he asks himself: What exactly is religion for man? And for a long time he is not really clear about how that connecting bond of the soul with some higher world, with an unknown spiritual source, what that bond looks like, where it goes from the soul, etc. Above all, the people he has met in his circles seem to him to be so detached from the religious mood of the soul, so parched in relation to the living source of life.

Not, as I said, to take sides, but only to describe this mood of the soul as clearly as possible. And then, in my opinion, he sees himself as a soldier in the Caucasus, during the siege of Sevastopol, among the lower classes of the population. He gets to know their souls; he delves into such souls in an intimate way. He finds that there is something original in such souls, that they are even less torn away from the original ground, and the problem arises before his soul as to whether there is not more truth and authenticity in the naivety of the existence of lower, subordinate social classes than in the circles in which he had to live. And lo and behold, here too, one mystery after another presents itself to him and he cannot solve any of them. You only need to read something like his unfinished novel “Morning Hours of a Landowner” to see how he wrestled with the question: Yes, now I have seen the people who have broken away from the original source of existence, who have withered away on the periphery; I have sought a path to religious depth from the soul of primitive people, but an answer to this question fails because today's so-called educated people can never communicate with these primitive original states of the soul. In short, there is no answer to the burning questions that existed for him either.

And so it goes on, and so he comes to see all the contradictions and contradictions in life more and more clearly, and one need only go through his original artistic work: “War and Peace”, his novellas, “Anna Karenina” and so on, and one will see how, although the artistic form is always the most important thing at first glance, these works are permeated by the desire to understand life in all its contradictions, and above all to understand the contradictory nature of human character, because that is what confronts him as contradictory. You feel how true it is, what he says later, when he has already turned to a kind of moral writing: “It has caused me unspeakable torment, and I know that it has caused many of my colleagues in literature just as much torment, to depict an ideally psychologically constructed character that is true to reality. It torments him that there can be such a contradiction between what one must imagine as ideal if there is to be salvation and order in the world, and what presents itself to his spiritual eyes in reality. That always tormented him as long as he was still artistically active.

There was something else. Tolstoy was not just an objective observer during the whole period in which the mental torments took place; he experienced life and took part in everything. He also experienced these things inwardly; he could feel the intimate pangs of conscience, the intimate reproaches that a person must make to himself when he suddenly realizes in a certain respect that he was born into certain circles and must take part in everything that happens there, and yet it seems contradictory to him when he judges it. Those personalities who felt this were driven to the brink of suicide; one need only sense what is going on inside such people. Man learns infinitely more through the opportunities he has to criticize himself than through criticism of his surroundings.

And so Tolstoy's view broadened more and more, until he went from a survey of the immediate circumstances to an overview, so to speak, of the entire developmental history of humanity, and there it became clear to him to what extent great and significant, namely religious impulses of humanity have come into decline. Thus, without any intention of being critical, he was confronted with the depth and intensity of feeling of the great impulse given to the world by Christ Jesus, and alongside it the Roman world, the Roman Caesaranism, which had completely subjugated Christianity to the service of power of things that do not serve the salvation of humanity, as the Christian impulse was to and could do, but which bring humanity into the confusion that presented itself to it, and so his view became more and more a criticism of everything that existed, and it is harsh enough. From his historical perspective, he believed that he had to perceive the contradictions of people as the most difficult. On the one hand, the greatest wealth, on the other, the most terrible poverty, which was particularly evident in the stunted development of the souls, so that people in this stunted development of spiritual matters are not able to find their way out of what they experience to the great spiritual treasures, especially to those that can be found in original Christianity, to which they must penetrate!

Thus, the most comprehensive problem for him was the contrast between the ruling upper class of society, with its power and luxury, and the downtrodden masses, oppressed in mind and body. This presented itself to him in the most comprehensive way. And he became a critic, perhaps in a more comprehensive way than any before him, who never tires of describing more and more the way things are, and who is so skilled at describing that the mere description can sometimes inspire shudder.

It is perhaps quite characteristic if we highlight a symptomatic feature from his view of the world, which will immediately show us how he approached the tasks of life. He once said that he would have liked to write a fairy tale with something like the following content: A woman had learned something very bad about another woman and had developed the deepest antipathy towards her as a result. She wanted to do something to her that could not really be compared to anything in terms of evil. She went to a magician and asked for advice. She stole a child from her enemy. The magician told her that she could satisfy her hatred in the most intense way if she could bring this child, who she had stolen from a woman living in the poorest of circumstances and who would have ended up in need and misery there, to a rich house. And indeed, she succeeds in bringing the child to a rich house. The child is adopted. It is cared for in every way in the manner of the rich – it is pampered, and has it pretty good, so to speak. The woman who had brought the child to the rich woman is furious when she finds out; because that is not how she had imagined the child would fare. She goes to the magician and complains that he has given her such bad advice. He, however, says she should just wait. More and more, the child is embedded in luxury. The woman says: The magician has deceived me. But he replied: Just wait. It is the worst thing you have done to your enemy.

The child continued to develop. It becomes conscious and feels an inner contradiction to the external situation. It says to itself: “Everything I long for must be in an unknown world; but I cannot find it. I know that the way I have been cared for has made me too weak to make the decision to take any reasonable path to the foundations of existence. All this becomes the worst inner torment for the developing human being.

Tolstoy knew well how such psychological experiences appear; he wanted to show how this human being was driven to the brink of suicide by this inner turmoil. You can see symptomatically from such a thing how Tolstoy thinks. Much more than from definitions, we can see from Tolstoy's will about social order how he thought about social order. This was the attitude of one of the two personalities we are dealing with today towards the world.

Now let us add the opposite: Carnegie. He is the child of a master weaver. His father has some work as long as there are no large factories. Carnegie's childhood falls precisely during the boom of big industry in this area. His father no longer receives orders. He has to emigrate from Scotland to America. He can only earn the barest necessities with difficulty. The boy had to work in a factory as a schoolboy. He recounts it himself, and one senses the tone of such a description if one has previously delved into the psychological experiences that we have just explored in Tolstoy. He himself describes what an event it was when he received a wage of one dollar and twenty cents for his work for the first time. He later became one of the richest personalities of the present day, one of those who, as we shall see shortly, actually had to find ways of investing their millions; but he can say, and this is significant: No income later, no matter how large it was – and a lot of money passed through his hands – no income gave me as much joy as that first dollar.

And so it goes on. He works in this way for a long time and contributes to the family's upkeep. There is something in him like a hidden strength that works towards him becoming what, in the circles in which he now moves, is called a “self-made man”. This satisfies him, that as a twelve-year-old boy he had the feeling: Now you will become a man, because he feels that you are a man when you can earn something. That was the thought of his soul. Later he will go to another factory, work in an office, and later become a telegraph operator and earn more.

He recounts: “A telegraph operator in America had the task of knowing all the addresses by heart. I was worried about losing my job.” — He quickly learned all the names of an entire street. So he was a “made man” again. Now he sneaks into the office with other messengers before official duty begins. They practice telegraphing. His highest ideal is to become a telegraphist himself. He actually finds employment as such. Now his greatest joy is to find a patron from whom he can borrow a book every Saturday. He waits longingly for such a book.

Now events occur that are significant for him. A higher-ranking railroad official, who has played a major role, gives him the task of working his way out by taking shares in a certain enterprise. With great effort, he raises the $500 that is necessary; he has been contributing to the family's upkeep in the most arduous way for some time. It is only through the efforts of his mother that he is able to raise the $500 to buy ten shares. And now – again, we have to feel what this means emotionally – there comes a day when he receives the first small dividend corresponding to his shares. It strikes him as a mystery, like the solution to a mystery, which he could not have grasped before: that money can make money. The concept of capital dawns on him. This was now as important to him as any idealistic problem is to some thinker. Before that, he only knew the possibility of getting a wage in return for work. That capital can generate money now dawned on him.

And now it is interesting to see the intensity with which such experiences can be absorbed by such a soul. He is making progress. The right thing dawns on him at the right moment. When the problem of the sleeping car arises, he is ready to take part. Step by step, he advances until he finally knows how to exploit the situation in the right way. When the time came to change from building bridges of wood to bridges of iron, he adjusted himself to the new trend, grew richer and richer, and finally became the steel king, who must seek ways - and now he has a practical sense of morality - how he, in relation to his practical sense of morality, must behave with his wealth.

For him, as I said, there is none of what Tolstoy felt: no criticism of life, but an acceptance of life as a matter of course. What Tolstoy found so contradictory is what Carnegie imagines: If we look back at older phases of human feeling, we see that, in primitive conditions, princes do not differ particularly in terms of their lifestyle from those living around them. There is no luxury, no wealth in today's sense, but also none of the things that bring wealth; there is no contrast between rich and poor. In primitive times, however, as development was, this had to develop, and the contrasts became more and more pronounced. It is good, he says, that there are palaces next to the hut; because there is a lot in it that is supposed to be there, we have to understand its necessity.

But he notices how, in primitive conditions, there is a personal, human relationship between master and servant, how everything becomes impersonal in our relationships, how the employer stands in relation to the employee without knowing him, without knowing anything about the servant's spiritual needs, how hatred and so on must develop as a result; but that's how we have to accept it, that's just how it is. So an absolute yes to all outer life!

And when we consider how he is a thoroughly practical and sober-minded thinker of his kind, how he views this life, how he knows all the different chains that capital takes precisely because he is inside it, how he knows many a healthy things to say when you see that, then you have to say: this man, too, has tried to enlighten himself about life, and there is something complacent in him towards Tolstoy; and his practical morality – I use the word deliberately – it presents him with the question: How should our life be shaped if what has developed as a necessity is to have meaning? He says: Well, old conditions have led to wealth being inherited from ancestors to descendants. Is this still possible in our conditions, where capital shoots from capital in such an eminently necessary way? He asks himself this question vividly. He looks at life with penetrating meaning and says: No, it can't be done that way, and by considering all things, he comes to a peculiar view. He comes to the following conclusion; he says to himself that the only way this whole life of the rich man can make sense is if the rich man regards himself as the steward of wealth for the rest of humanity, that the owner of the wealth says to himself: I should not only acquire the wealth, not only have it and perhaps bequeath it to my family members, but rather, I should use what I have acquired, since I have used mental and other powers to bring it together, since I have poured industriousness into it, I should in turn use this industriousness to administer this wealth for the benefit of humanity.

Thus it actually becomes an ideal for him that man, while acquiescing in the conditions of the time, acquires as much wealth as possible, but leaves no wealth behind, but applies it for the good of mankind. Now he comes to a sentence that is characteristic of this world view; the sentence is: 'Died rich dishonored!' So, the ideal he sets for himself is that one may indeed become rich in order to gain the opportunity through wealth to work with it for the benefit of humanity, but he imagines that one must be done with the work of putting wealth at the service of humanity by the time of one's death. He says: It is honorable to leave nothing behind when one dies. Of course, this “nothing” is not to be taken pedantically; the daughters, for example, are to inherit enough to live on, but in radical terms he says: getting rich is a necessity, dying rich is dishonorable. For him, an honest man is one who, so to speak, comes to terms with life and does not leave to some uncertainty what he has acquired through his own hard work.

And now we have to feel the contrast between two such opposing personalities as Tolstoy and Carnegie are. Carnegie himself feels the contrast and he speaks out: Oh, Count Tolstoy wants to lead us back to Christ, but in a way that no longer fits with our lives. Instead of wanting to lead us back to Christ, it would be better to show what Christ would advise people to do today, under today's conditions. In his sentence: He who dies rich is dishonored, he finds the real expression of the Christian idea and lets it be known that he believes that if Christ were to speak audibly to people today, he would agree with him and not Tolstoy.

At the same time, however, we see that this man, Carnegie, is truly a noble nature, and not, as many are who accept circumstances and do not reflect on them, a lazy one. He has not only said what I have presented as the main point; he has sought the most diverse ways to use his wealth and more. It does seem strange at first when life can confront us with such contradictions, when two personalities arise in the same era who, from what one may call an objective world view, come to such different points of view, and the may be quite difficult for the human being, and it is not at all to be criticized from the outset if someone were to say today: Oh, my whole soul goes to where Tolstoy preaches his great ideals; how sublime this personality appears. But I also have to think about the practical demands of life, and if a person is not an abstract dreamer and idealist, but really goes through the thought processes of such a person with a realistic mind, as Carnegie offers them, then you have to say: that is perfectly justified. But it shows me how, for the person who lets the practical demands of life affect him, it is impossible to truly do justice to the ideals, to truly believe in the fulfillment of the great ideals. And so a new conflict can arise for such a person, as it did for Tolstoy.

And now let us try, I would like to say, to delve a little deeper into these two personalities, now from the perspective of the science of the soul. Tolstoy does indeed succeed in fully defending what he believes to be the original Christian teaching; he tries to criticize in the harshest possible way everything that has become of Christianity, that has emerged here and there, and he seeks to find the great impulses of Christianity. Tolstoy presents these impulses of Christianity in a relatively simple way. He says: When man understands these impulses, it is clear that he has within himself a spark of an eternal divine power that permeates the world. And the second thing that becomes clear to him is that this spark contains the essence of his own immortality and that, if he has understanding, he can no longer do anything other than seek a deeper human being in the ordinary earthly human being. And when he follows this feeling, when he realizes that he has to seek a deeper person in himself, then he cannot help but overcome what lies in his lower nature, and so he becomes a strict demands of the other nature, the development of the higher person in himself, the person who follows the Christ. How would a person - I will not say Carnegie himself, but someone who considers what might follow from Carnegie's view of life - how would such a person relate to Tolstoy's position on Christ? He would say: Oh, it is great and powerful to live in Christ, to let Christ come alive in oneself. But he would say to him: In the external circumstances, this cannot be realized. How should the state's circumstances be shaped if one lives according to this strict Christian demand?

Even if the question has not been asked from a different angle, Tolstoy gives the answer as definitely as possible. He says: “What such a view leads to in the external order, for the state, for external historical events, I do not know, that is beyond my knowledge; but that one must live in the spirit of this Christian faith, that is a certainty for me.” And so for Tolstoy the words: “The kingdom of God is within you!” (Luke 17:21) into a deep and significant view of the kind of certainty that a person can have about the highest things. The view of an inner certainty gradually takes shape in him, and so he seeks to find this foundation stone in the soul, which makes it possible for the soul to become ruthlessly certain about certain things, about this or this soul says to itself: however strange it may seem, what will become of it if only the outer world view is maintained, because this inner certainty is the only one, it must be fulfilled. It eludes my observations what may follow, but they must be good because under certain circumstances they must arise from the eternal good source of all things.

Perhaps in no other contemporary personality is there such a strong reliance on inner certainty and the firm belief that, in this reliance, whatever may come, good must come. Perhaps in no other contemporary personality is this belief as intense as in Tolstoy. Therefore, no other personality with such a personal, individual share, with such inner truth, has professed such a world view.

And here we have another opportunity to illustrate the state of mind of both. Carnegie reflects: How should people behave towards each other, how should the rich behave towards the poor? And then the thought goes through his mind: It is not always good to give something to someone who begs for it; because it is possible that you might make the beggar lazy - says Carnegie; maybe you are not doing any good by doing so. You should look at the people you support. Actually, only those who have the will to work should be supported. And Carnegie implements this in a whole system. He says he understands very well that the man who gives something just to get rid of the beggar does more harm than the miser who gives nothing at all.

We do not want to judge such things, we want to characterize them, but let us look at a similar situation in Tolstoy: He meets a person who becomes his friend. This friend does not form a worldview, but feelings within himself. Tolstoy sees a peculiar behavior in him – many people today cannot believe such things; but they are true nonetheless. His friend is robbed. Thieves steal sacks from him; they leave one behind. What does the friend do? He doesn't chase after the thieves, but carries the one sack to them as well and says: They certainly wouldn't have stolen if they hadn't needed the things. And in other circumstances, Tolstoy sees this friend – and he becomes his admirer, he understands this very clearly. There you have the view of people who are considered parasites, so to speak, on one side and on the other. Life views intervene in life in this way, and the symptoms on the surface can characterize the mood of the soul.

But now we have to say: Tolstoy is not only a harsh critic of life in relation to all that we have mentioned; but by grasping the fundamental source of human certainty, he is also led to a remarkable point in his soul development, and that is where Tolstoy actually appears to us in his full greatness for the first time – for those who can appreciate such greatness. One thing that flows from this view of certainty, which one cannot admire enough, is Tolstoy's position on the value of science, contemporary science, and then a certain world of ideas about life and other important problems and questions flows out. Because he tried so hard to look inside the human being, he was able to see through all the futility in the methods of our worldly sciences. Of course, it is easy to understand what these sciences achieve, to follow the paths they take, but what these sciences – and here I am speaking entirely in the spirit of Tolstoy – can never do is answer the question: How do these various external, chemical-physical processes fit into life? What is life?

And now we come to what must actually be meant here. Tolstoy comes to a peculiar way of exploring a deep, scientific problem, the problem of life. Please, my dear attendees, look around you at our Western science, where life is spoken of, and make only one comparison to that, which Tolstoy uses in relation to this riddle of life. He says: “People who try to solve the riddle of life in the sense of today's science seem to me like people who want to get to know the trees in their uniqueness and do it this way: they are in the middle of the trees, but don't look at them, but take a telescope and point it at distant mountain slopes, where, as they have heard, there should be trees whose essence and nature they want to explore. “That's how people strike me who carry their soul, the source of their life, within themselves, who only need to look within themselves to see through the mystery of life, but what do they do? They make instruments for themselves, build methods for themselves and try to dissect what is around them, and there they see even less what life is. Through such a comparison, a thinker like Tolstoy - an eminent thinker - shows us that he feels what is important in relation to this question. Those who work their way into this side of Tolstoy's worldview know that what his book “On Life” has to say about the exploration and evaluation of life is worth more than entire libraries of Western Europe written from the standpoint of today's science on the problem of life. And then one also learns to feel what it means to have such spiritual experiences as Tolstoy, what it means to think about certainty as he did. One then learns to admire how things that one, when one is, so to speak, in the scientific method of our present time, has to go through with long-folded trains of thought, has to write whole books, as Tolstoy's are completed in five lines. The value of such a book as this one about the life of Tolstoy cannot be overestimated. Today's scientist may find it to be mere feuilleton; but anyone who is able to adapt their way of thinking to the spirit of these discussions will find a solution to the problem of life that is not available elsewhere.

And so we see, as this observation shows more and more, how Tolstoy's spirit becomes something that concentrates more and more, that with a few strokes is able to conjure up and solve great problems not in many words, but with radiant words of power, in contrast to the long discussions of a scientific and philosophical nature that are otherwise common. Here we are confronted with the very depths of Tolstoy's soul, and only when we know him from this point of view can we begin to understand the profound spiritual reasons why a person can become someone like Tolstoy on the one hand or someone like Carnegie on the other, who seems very plausible to us and is an important personality. We shall understand the spiritual foundations that lead to Tolstoy on the one hand and to Carnegie on the other if we now characterize from the point of view of spiritual science how this spiritual development takes place and is expressed in certain personalities.

The spiritual researcher sees something quite different from the ordinary in the course of human development. Just as spiritual science sees a multi-faceted being in the person standing before us, and sees in the physical body only one facet, only the effect of higher spiritual facets, with the etheric, astral and ego bodies behind them, so she also sees in what confronts us in the social order, in human life, what confronts us externally visible as a people, as a tribe, as a family, the physical body, the physical body of the people, the physical body of the tribe, the physical body of the family, a spiritual reality behind it. When one speaks of the spirit of the people, the spirit of the time, in today's science, these are words that do not mean much. What is the person thinking who speaks of the German, French or English national spirit? For the modern thinker, it is really only the sum of so and so many people; they form the reality, and the national spirit is a complete abstraction, something that one forms in one's mind when one seeks the concept from the many details. People have no idea that what appears to us as so many people is just as much the expression of an etheric body, an astral body and an ego as it is of the human body, and that it is truly also the expression of a spiritual. Today we have lost what we used to possess; it is no longer easy to explain how this spiritual reigns behind the sensual.

An old friend of mine, a good Aristotelian, tried to make his audience understand how the spiritual can be objectified in the sensual appearance by means of a simple example. Vincent Knauer – that was the man – tried to make it clear that spirit prevails in form, by saying: Let us consider a wolf that eats nothing but lambs for a whole lifetime for my sake; it then consists of nothing but lamb matter; but it has not become a lamb because of that. It does not depend on the matter, but on the fact that there is something in the wolf, which stands behind it as the spiritual, which is the essential, which structures and builds up the matter. This is a very real thing, something that one must know, otherwise all study of the external world moves in the insubstantial. No matter how much you examine in the sensual world, if you do not penetrate to the spiritual, then you do not come to the essential.

But it is the same with terms such as 'popular spirit' or 'zeitgeist'. For the spiritual researcher, a group of people is not just what can be observed in the physical world; there is something spiritual living behind it. And so, for the spiritual researcher, there is a spiritual reality, a real spiritual reality, not a mere, insubstantial abstraction in the Christian development, for example. Besides the Christian, there is a spirit of Christianity, which is a substantial reality. Such a spirit works in a very peculiar way; it works in such a way that we can make it understandable in the briefest way by means of a parable. Imagine that a farmer has brought in some kind of harvest and is now dividing it up. He sells one part, one part goes aside to be consumed, one part he keeps back; this is to form the next sowing. It then comes to light again as something new. It would be bad if nothing were kept back; what lies within would die. This is a comparison that leads us to a real law in human development. Development takes place so rapidly that at a certain point in time certain impulses are given; these must become established and spread. If at a certain point in time a spiritual impulse such as Christianity were given, it would become established in the outer world and take on this or that form, but it would dry up and die in the same way that the outer parts of a tree merge into the bark. These outer forms are destined to gradually wither away, no matter how fruitful the impulse is. However, just as the farmer retains something, something of the spiritual impulses must remain, flowing as it were through underground channels and then reappearing with original strength as a fertilizing influence in the development of mankind. Then personalities appear to us in whom such an impulse, perhaps going through centuries, is embodied. Such personalities appear to us in strong contrast to the environment; they must indeed stand in contrast because the environment is what is withering away. Such personalities are often inclined not to take the environment into account at all. From a spiritual point of view, Tolstoy is such a personality in whom the Christian impulse has been kindled for our time. And things are happening powerfully in the world so that they can achieve far-reaching effects. If we seek them out at their source, they appear radically; for they must radiate. And we will no longer be surprised when we know such a law that such personalities appear to us in this one-sidedness, and on the other hand, not be surprised at personalities who cannot have anything at all in them of these central currents, who are completely within the peripheral effects of the world. One such personality is Carnegie. He can see the whole picture and think out the best way to find one's way in it. Carnegie does not see what is pulsating through humanity as the spiritual. Tolstoy, because he seeks inner certainty so strongly, can seek the kingdom of God within, but because that which has spread as a real current under the surface is embodied in him, he can, to a certain extent, have no heart or mind for what is happening around him as it dies away. And so we see such contradictions that cannot come together. We have an external material aspect, and the observer, who is important to us, does not see the spiritual that prevails in it; we have the spiritual that wells up powerfully from the depths of a personality, and we cannot grasp how this can be realized in the external world. Humanity would increasingly come to such contradictions if another spiritual current did not also arise, a spiritual current that can look equally at underlying spiritual causes and at what these spiritual causes become in external reality. And if we follow theosophy from this point of view, it leads into the deepest depths of spiritual life; it does not seek this merely in such powerful impulses that do not organize themselves into ideas and facts, it seeks to get to know this spiritual life in concreteness. Thus it can see how the spiritual flows into reality; it is able to build the bridge between the most spiritual and the most material, and in this way can bring these points of view together in a higher balance. — We shall see another example of this coming together tomorrow.

Today we want to present such contrasts in two personalities and learn to understand them from the point of view of spiritual life. Thus, Theosophy appears to be called upon not only to preach tolerance in an external way, but to find that inner tolerance that looks with admiration into a soul that gives great impulses from the center of life, which today must seem improbable, impossible, and radical because it contains in a concentrated way what must be spread out over a whole area in the future, and what must then look quite different.

Theosophy can see this; it can also look at reality objectively and do justice to another personality like Carnegie. Life is not a monotonous phenomenon, life is a many-voiced phenomenon, and it is only through the expression of all contrasts that it can develop in its richness. But it would be bad if these did not find their harmonious balance. Man's nature will tend to crystallize one or other of the contradictions, and so it must be, but in order that people may not lose their way in human life, there must also be a central world-view that can, in a sense, identify with all contradictions and thereby gain understanding for what appears to be so contradictory.

If Theosophy works in this sense, harmonizing souls in their contradictions, then it will be able to truly establish what external harmony in the world should be. External harmony can only be the reflection of the inner harmony of the soul. If Theosophy can achieve this – and that is its real goal in relation to cultural life – then it will find the proof it seeks. It does not want theoretical proofs, it does not want to be called crazy; it wants to establish what it has to say, to introduce it into life, and then to see how life becomes harmonious and blissful as a result, as what it has to say becomes established in life as guiding principles. When Theosophy can see in life how what it incorporates is reflected back to it and how it makes life appear in such a way that it becomes harmoniously balanced within despite the contradictions, then it sees this as the proof of its principles, its true evidence.

Man's striving and searching for the spirit is ancient, as old as the thinking, feeling and sensing of humanity itself. But at the most diverse times in human development, people had to give themselves the most diverse forms of answers to the great riddle questions of existence, which are also precisely the riddle questions about the spirit. In our time, what is called spiritual science or, as it has become accustomed to being called, theosophy, wants to give an answer to these great riddles of existence, and it wants to give an answer that corresponds to the feelings and needs of present-day humanity.

Contemporary humanity wants to know, wants to include in its understanding and knowledge of feelings that which is connected with the higher forms of existence. From the outset, it must be assumed that suspicions and belief in relation to the spirit or, as one can also say, in relation to the supersensible world, will lose nothing when the clarity of knowledge is poured out over what man has to say in relation to these questions.

The fact that behind everything sensual, behind everything physical, there is a supersensible, a superphysical, is basically only denied by a small number of people today. But when we approach these questions, then not only either the admission or the rejection of the spiritual, of the supersensible, mingles in what fills the human heart, but the most diverse feelings mingle in everything that comes into consideration comes into consideration, the most varied feelings mingle, not only in the answers, but already in the questions the most varied feelings mingle: above all, doubt and timidity mingle with what comes into consideration.

There are many people who say: Of course, we have to assume that behind the world that appears to our eyes, that we can perceive with our senses at all, that behind this world there is another one that makes the meaning of this sensual world understandable to us. But we humans cannot penetrate this supersensible world through our own research, through our own science. In recent times, spiritual science or theosophy has emerged as a message to man that shows not only that there is a supersensible world behind the sensory world, but also that man is capable of penetrating into this supersensible world through his own research. In doing so, we have drawn the attention of those present to the question that we shall deal with today: Where and how can we find the spirit at all?

Those who, from the outset, dogmatically doubt the possibility of human knowledge rising up into the spiritual world cannot, in principle, even raise this question properly. Theosophy or spiritual science does not want to bring anything completely new to humanity. If it were to claim to do so, it would be giving a poor account of itself, for who would want to believe that truth and wisdom have been waiting for our present time to be recognized and studied? Therefore, spiritual science or theosophy also shows that throughout all periods of human spiritual development, in the most diverse forms, the one, eternal truth and wisdom has been striven for by people and possessed to a certain degree, that only the perceptions and feelings change in the different ages – and therefore the old truth must approach humanity in ever new forms.

And so, without much preparation, let us approach the question of where and how to find the spirit in this spiritual or theosophical sense. We only need to point out that the search for the spirit depends on man finding the right tool to search for this spirit. You know, my dear audience, that in what is called external science, what is called the science of nature, there are tools, instruments, through which the external riddles of existence are gradually revealed to man. You know how man peers into the life of the smallest creatures through what is called a microscope; you know what wonders of space have been revealed to man by those instruments we call telescopes. These external instruments have indeed brought about something like external wonders in human knowledge for a long time. And you can also appreciate it when you think about the things that man is dependent on to grasp and comprehend the external mysteries of nature through such tools. In terms of the spirit, there are no such external tools; there is only one tool, the one that Goethe refers to in the well-known “Faust” poem with the words:

Mysterious in the bright day
Nature cannot be robbed of her veil,
And what she may not reveal to your mind,
You cannot force from her with levers and screws.

And Goethe points out in this sentence that all those tools and instruments that are composed of external, sensual things – however useful they may be for revealing the outer secrets of the world – cannot reveal the primal secret of existence, they cannot reveal the questions and riddles about the spiritual. But there is an instrument, only this instrument must be prepared. What is this instrument?

This instrument, through which man can penetrate into the spiritual world, is none other than man himself, not as man is in the average life, but as he can make himself when he applies the methods and means of secret science to himself. In this, esoteric science assumes that the magic word that moves so many minds and souls in relation to the outer world today is not taken entirely seriously and honestly. Today, there is much talk of evolution. It is said that the highest of sentient beings, the human being, has gradually developed from imperfect states to its present height. Through the study of natural science, attempts are being made to look back into the distant primeval times of humanity. It is said that in these distant primeval times, man was an imperfect being and gradually developed.

Theosophy or spiritual science in the broadest and therefore most honest sense of the word sees in man not only the powers and abilities that are in this person's normal life today, but it sees in him dormant abilities and powers that can be developed, that can be drawn out of the soul. And so it starts from the premise that this soul of man does not have to remain as it is, but that it can be shaped, and that in this way the abilities and powers that initially lie dormant in the human soul in a normal way can be called out of this soul, and then, when they are called forth, they enable the person to see something completely different in his environment, to perceive something completely different than he can recognize with his sensory eyes, with his sensory organs of perception. And so spiritual science speaks of a possible awakening of the human soul, of an awakening of the forces and abilities slumbering within it, by man applying such means to himself as we will have to cite later. Through this he comes to make such an instrument for the perception of the spiritual world out of himself.

What is an awakening? We can best imagine what an awakening, a development of the abilities lying dormant in the soul, is by first placing an image before our soul. Imagine, ladies and gentlemen, this hall by seeing the colors of the walls, the lights, by perceiving the other objects, these roses here and everything that is around you, what is perceptible, the sound that is recognizable to the ears. We bring a man born blind into this hall. The colors, the perceptions of light, which are evident to you, are hidden from this man born blind. Let us assume that we have the good fortune to operate on this man born blind here in this hall. Gradually, a whole new world would reveal itself to him around him. What he might have been able to deny before is now there for him.

Perhaps, if he had been a doubter, an unbeliever, he could have said before: You tell me about colors, you tell me about lights. There is only darkness around me. I do not believe in the fantastic stuff of light and colors you tell me about. The moment the organs are opened, the world he previously thought was a fantasy is there. It is there in the same space where there was darkness for him before.

Something similar happens to a person when they make themselves an instrument to perceive a higher world. If they apply the methods that will be mentioned below to themselves, then it is not sensory or physical organs of perception that are opened to them, but spiritual and soul ones. And that which was always around them before, which they just could not perceive, becomes perceptible to them. What Goethe called the spiritual eyes and spiritual ears develops from the soul, and a new world opens up before him [the human being]. The great moment of awakening occurs for him, that moment which is described to us in the deeper wisdom of all peoples and all different eras of the various peoples as the one through which the human being could become a messenger from another world.

There have always been people whose soul powers were awakened. In different periods they were called initiates. They were the ones who could tell what is fact in the other worlds, in the supersensible worlds, to the one who was perhaps not exactly in that place. Initiates, awakened ones have existed at all times. They were the seekers, the researchers of the spirit.

Now, one could say, and this objection will always be raised, one could say: Yes, what use is it to other people if there are a few awakened ones who can tell of higher worlds, who bring the message of the supersensible, if not all people can see into these worlds? Now, when today within the theosophical school of thought it is said that this or that is the case in the spiritual worlds, then many a person says: What use is it to me if others can see into the spiritual world but I cannot? I do not concern myself with these spiritual worlds at all, since I would only have to believe what others tell me.

This is not a valid objection. This objection would only apply, my esteemed audience, if supersensible powers of the human soul were just as necessary for understanding and insight as they are for research into the higher worlds. To penetrate into the higher world as a researcher, it is necessary that the person slowly and gradually, with patience and energy and perseverance, makes himself an instrument to look into the other world with spiritual eyes, to listen with spiritual ears. But then, when the one who has looked into the other world comes and tells the secrets of the higher worlds, then everyone is capable, with ordinary human logic, with common sense, if he is only unbiased enough, without being led astray by all kinds of prejudices, of realizing that what is said about the higher world is true. This can be recognized and understood. However, it can only be researched through the development of the human being himself into an instrument of spiritual research. For man, my honored audience, is not designed for error and doubt, but for truth. And when the initiates tell us about what is going on in the higher worlds, and the human being listens and just gives himself to his unbiased soul, then he senses, long before he can see into the spiritual world himself, that what is communicated about these worlds is true.

How can a person now reshape his inner being, his soul, so that these higher worlds become an experience for him, open to observation and direct exploration? If we want to answer this question, we have to delve a little deeper. After all, it is no less a question than this: how does a person develop the ability to see the spiritual world, how does he acquire the abilities that are also called clairvoyant? Let us start with what is an experience for the normal person: the external world of the eyes and the other external organs of perception. You know that a person perceives an object of the ordinary sensory world by directing his sensory organs towards the object, and once he has perceived it, he can retain an idea, an image of this object in his soul.

You are looking at this bouquet of roses. By fixing your eyes on this bouquet, it is a perception for you. You experience its existence, you are with it. You now turn around, and the image of this bouquet of roses remains with you as a mental image. It may be pale compared to the direct perception, but the image remains with you and you may carry this image for a long time until it disappears, so to speak, from your memory. But this is how a person relates to their experiences of the external world in general. We can say: in relation to the external sense world, a person experiences things in such a way that they actually encounter the objects first, and then the image of these external objects forms in their soul.

But precisely the opposite must occur, my dear audience, in relation to the supersensible world and everything that is connected with the great goals of supersensible development, as well as with the dangers that we will point out. All of this ultimately comes down to the fact that man must start by developing a certain kind of inner life, by first bringing about certain changes in his soul, certain experiences that he would otherwise not have in everyday life, in order to see the supersensible world. Then the great moment can come for him when – just as the outer, sensory light comes to the blind-born who have undergone an operation – the spiritual, supersensible world begins to make an impression on him.

The soul is not transformed into such an instrument of higher spiritual experience in an outward tumultuous way, not through outward events, but quietly within itself, in the course of an intimate inner life; and many a person who in life in this or that profession among people, of whom those around him knew nothing but that he had this or that position in life, has led or is leading a second life within himself. This second life consists in the fact that he has transformed his soul into such a characterized instrument of higher perception. When a person has gradually come so far, then he must develop a certain level of knowledge within himself, which external science, external experience, does not know at all. Spiritual science speaks of the fact that all external knowledge is knowledge of objects. It is precisely the kind of knowledge that arises when a person encounters the objects of the world and connects the ideas to them.

The next higher knowledge is called imaginative knowledge in spiritual science, and there is nothing fantastical, as we shall see in a moment, associated with this imaginative knowledge, not even anything that could even approximately be described by the mere word imagination. However, it must be clear that the path is the opposite of that of external experience, of external perception.

There are two means that must be applied intimately to the soul in order to advance it inwardly. These two means consist in man not abandoning himself to the mere outer life, but taking this soul life into his own hands through the inner powers of the soul, and initially directing this soul life through the inner powers of the will.

To fully understand what this is about, let us consider the following: We try to imagine how our soul life would be different if one or other of us had been born not in the year of the nineteenth century and not in the city of Europe, but a hundred years earlier and in a completely different city. We imagine how different objects around the person would affect him, how different ideas, sensations and feelings would then fill his soul. Think for a moment about how much of what fills your soul from morning till evening can be traced back to external impressions of place and time, and then imagine for a moment all the things in your soul that are not somehow connected to some external object in your environment, to some external event of your time. Ask yourself how much remains in the soul of a person, in the soul of many people, if they disregard what affects them in their immediate environment. Everything that affects the soul from the outside, everything that affects us because we were born and develop in a certain time and in a certain place, can contribute nothing, absolutely nothing, to the inner unfolding, to the inner awakening of the soul.

Completely different conceptions must enter into the life of the soul, conceptions that are independent of external impressions; and the most effective conceptions are initially those which are called imaginative or perhaps pictorial-symbolic. Such conceptions were always those which the teachers of supersensible abilities gave to their pupils, and by living in these conceptions, the pupils developed their souls upwards into the higher worlds.

We do not wish to speak in generalities, but to make ourselves understood by means of an example. Let us place before our minds, here and now, a symbol, a picture, which the pupils, under the influence of their spiritual science teachers, have long used to develop their souls higher. This is a picture, of which there are countless numbers, but we wish to make clear, by means of this one picture, how the soul is affected. The picture is simple to describe, and yet it has a magical effect on the soul.

Imagine a black cross. This black cross is adorned at the top, where the beams cross, with roses, with red roses. This is called the Rosicrucian symbol. When the disciple, as it were, becomes blind and deaf to the external environment, when he can, for a while, however short, refrain from all that can make an impression on his eyes, on his ears and on the other senses , when he is completely absorbed in himself and also erases the memory of everyday experiences and now fills himself completely with the one pictorial representation of the Rosicrucian – what happens to the soul?

Let us first answer this question. To do so, we must first understand something that can help us to understand the profound symbol of the Rosicrucian. However, what I am about to say is not what is important for the inner development to clarify this symbol or image, but rather the inner deepening and immersion of the soul. Nevertheless, we must explain the symbol to ourselves.

I will try to present this Rosicrucian symbol to you in the form of a dialogue, as the teacher would have spoken to his student in the field of spiritual science. This conversation, as I relate it, did not take place in the form in which I relate it, because what is implied in it always took place over long periods of time. Nevertheless, by retelling it in this way, we can get a sense of what happened.

Imagine that the teacher says to the student: Take a look at a plant, a plant that takes root in the ground, grows out of the ground, out of the root, with green leaves. And now compare the human being with this plant. Look at the human being in his present form, pervaded by red blood. Look at the plant and see how its life organs, its leaves, are permeated with the green sap, chlorophyll. Compare the two. You find the plant insensitive, immobile; you find the human being mobile, sensitive. You find that the human being has an inner life filled with pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow. You say that the human being stands at a higher level of existence than the plant. How did the human being come to a higher level of existence, how was he able to develop within himself that which could be called self-awareness, his ego? The plant has not developed such self-awareness, such an ego, as it stands before us.

The human being was only able to develop his higher consciousness to the point of self-awareness by accepting something else. In this higher development, the human being accepted the passions, the drives, the instincts, the desires. The plant does not have these. Although the plant does not have an inner life of thoughts and feelings, it stands in a certain respect higher than man in its kind; chaste and pure, without sensual urges and desires, without instincts and passions. And by imagining how the green plant sap flows through it, we say: this green sap is for us at the same time the symbol of the pure, chaste nature of plants. And as the pure, chaste nature of plants develops upward to man, so in man a self-awareness, an inner life, is developed. But this pure chastity is transformed at the same time into the life of desire. Man has partly risen higher, partly sunk lower.

Now the teacher continues to the student: But do not just look at the person as he stands before you in the present; look at a distant, very distant human future, at a human goal! Man has the goal of striving higher and higher, step by step, and overcoming what he had to accept in his development to date: to purify and cleanse the instincts, desires and passions, so that one day, while maintaining his consciousness, his self-aware nature, he is pure and chaste within himself, like the plant being at his level, in his way. What the human being is to achieve again in the future is overcoming, purifying what he had to accept, so to speak, shedding, taking away from himself that through which he has become lower than the chaste plant being, and only in this way can he revive in himself a higher nature, a higher human being, which today slumbers in him. Once again we can refer to Goethe when we want to draw attention to the deepest meaning of this development of humanity. We can say, and we fully capture the meaning of what the spiritual teacher said to his pupil with these words of Goethe's. We can draw attention to the words in Goethe's West-Eastern Divan:

And as long as you do not have this,
this dying and becoming!
If you are only a gloomy guest
on the dark earth.

“Stirb und Werde”: What does that mean? Stirb und Werde is a deeply symbolic word. It expresses approximately that which has now been said in the symbolum, it expresses that man wants to let die that which he has taken on in order to reach a higher level, to bring it to a higher flowering, his lower nature, and a higher nature is to be driven out as a flowering of the supersensible.

If we now look at the plant, it becomes a symbol for us in a certain form, a clear symbol of this human development. We see how the rose plant develops into its red blossom. The green sap of the plant changes before our eyes, so to speak, as it shoots into the blossom, into the red sap of the blossom. If we now imagine, symbolically, that we are always in the conversation between the teacher and the disciple, we think of the human being in terms of the passions and drives that are bound to his red blood, so purified and cleansed that this red blood flows through the veins in chastity and purity, like the red sap through the rose petal. Then we have in the rose itself the symbol of the higher human nature.

This is expressed in the rose cross, the “die and become” of the lower man, the shedding and casting off of what man has taken on in the black cross. The “becoming” at a higher level of development of the innermost spiritual nature of man is also reflected in the pure, chaste plant-juice in the roses that adorn the Rosicrucian cross. Thus we have explained this picture intellectually from one side. Much more could be said about it.

Now someone could, of course, say – and it would be a very easy objection to raise – that everything that has been said about the Rose Cross does not correspond to scientific conceptions. Certainly, my dear audience, it does not correspond to external scientific conceptions, but the Rose Cross is not there to express some outer fact in accordance with truth. What matters is not such a representation of the outer world, but that the person who, precisely because the Rosicrucian cross corresponds to no outer reality, allows this cross to enter his soul, becomes completely absorbed in this Rosicrucian cross and, as if below the threshold of consciousness, feels and experiences everything we have said here. His soul becomes something other than it was before. Such symbols have this effect on the human soul, precisely because they do not correspond to any external reality. They stimulate the soul to so-called imaginative knowledge, to that knowledge which represents the first step in the ascent to the higher worlds.

I have been able to present only the Rosicrucian cross as an example. We could cite a hundred other examples. The disciple must gradually familiarize himself with these symbols, just as someone who wants to learn to read must become acquainted with letters and signs. Only in this way can he attain a higher form of existence, and then such a one, who has the patience and persistence to live himself into the pictorial representations of such symbols, has a special experience.

To get an idea of what kind of experience a person has when they are awakened, we need to gain some insight into human nature. This nature offers man the great riddles of existence, and it is precisely in what he experiences daily, so to speak, and what can present him with the deepest riddles, that he passes by indifferently. These riddles of existence are encapsulated in four words: waking and sleeping, life and death. These four words describe the greatest riddles of life.

Of course, it is not possible in a short hour to discuss in detail how one, in terms of spiritual science, should think about the nature of man in relation to these four words. But what should be mentioned is what the one who is able to explore the spirit in the way described today experiences in man and his changes in everyday life. Is not this everyday life, with its alternation of waking and sleeping, a mystery? We see how, from morning till evening, a person is filled with the impressions of the day, how all his senses are constantly taking in perceptions. We see how the person then processes his external impressions with his mind. But we see how, in the evening, when he falls asleep, the person sees all his impressions of the day and all the experiences of the soul sink away. We see how man sinks, as it were, into the sea of temporary forgetfulness of pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, but also of all perceptions of everyday life, of sounds, of warmth and so on, which fill his soul from morning to evening, how he sees all his inner soul experiences fade away and, as it were, unconsciousness surrounds him.

Now it would, of course, be foolishness – an easily understandable foolishness – to say that a person ceases to exist in the evening and is reborn in the morning. What is at issue is rather that man is a complex being, a being not merely consisting of those limbs, the eyes with which we see, the hands with which we can feel, but that in addition to this physical body we have even higher, superphysical perceptual faculties. When a person falls asleep at night – and we will now only consider the transition from waking to dreamless sleep, leaving the intermediate state and the state filled with dreams to one side – when a person falls asleep, part of their being remains in bed and another part, the one that cannot be seen with any external eye, withdraws; the very vehicle of joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure and passion, the vehicle of sensory perceptions, withdraws, and during the night it is outside the physical human body.

In spiritual science, we call that which leaves the physical body when we fall asleep the astral body. Don't be put off by this word; it has nothing to do with the stars, it is simply the supersensible part of the human nature, which withdraws in the evening and leaves the physical body to itself. The human being truly exists from the evening when he falls asleep until the morning when he wakes up. He sleeps and the consciousness of which we shall now speak, which is developed here as clairvoyant consciousness at awakening, emerges like a fine but spiritual luminous form as the astral body itself when the person falls asleep. In the spiritual world, the human being is present in his spiritual essence, which is around him.

Why does man not see these facts and entities when he is in his astral body at night among spiritual facts and entities? For the same reason that a blind person does not see colors and light. Imagine your eyes being closed to your physical body! The world around you is dark and gloomy, colorless. Think away the ears! The world is mute and soundless. And if you think away all the organs, the world gradually becomes a nothing. Only that is there for man, for which he has organs, nothing else! When, let us say, the luminous cloud of the astral body withdraws from the physical body at night, the human being has no organs in his astral body with which to perceive in the spiritual world. The result of this is unconsciousness and darkness around him.

What happens when a person does not live an ordinary, normal life, but allows himself to be affected by what has just been described to you through the one symbol, when he devotes himself to such things in his soul , when he develops his soul with calmness and perseverance in such a way that, while becoming deaf and blind to his external surroundings, he is able to immerse himself completely in his inner life, which is called a life of meditation and concentration? What happens then? This is something that clairvoyant consciousness can observe. An indeterminate astral body becomes a definite one. What happens in the astral body is as if the physical body were to gradually develop eyes within it. In the manner described, spiritual eyes and ears are incorporated into the astral body; an indeterminate cloud becomes a structured astral organism. The consequence of this is that the human being now no longer experiences nothing, but that what enters spiritually for the sensual body when the eyes and ears are incorporated into it. This now occurs for the astral body.

What man achieves through patient meditation and concentration in such pictorial and other representations through the corresponding teaching of spiritual science, that was called the process of purification in circles where people knew something about spiritual science. Why purification or catharsis? For the reason that man from now on in terms of his development was no longer dependent merely on external impressions and then must remain unconscious and has no external impressions, but because he now, when he leaves out all impressions, as it is in sleep, nevertheless has a world around him. Because he can be purified and refined and still have experiences, just spiritual experiences. This is the first step, which is achieved by such means as we have described.

But there must also be a second stage in spiritual development if man is to become a real clairvoyant. We will be able to understand this stage, this higher stage, when we realize that when we fall asleep, not only a physical part remains. Even in this physical body, which remains in bed at night when we fall asleep, we have a superphysical, a supersensory. The easiest way to understand this – and today it can only be mentioned – is to go deeper and deeper into theosophy. You will see that this is being elevated to the level of proof despite all the objections of external science. The easiest way to understand this is to compare the human being as he stands before us with some external physical object.

What is the physical body of man is, has the same forces and materials as the external inanimate so-called mineral bodies. But there is a huge difference between the people and a mere mineral being. You can see a mineral being that has a certain shape. How can the form disappear? By being smashed or destroyed from the outside. From the outside, the form must be destroyed. What is the human physical body – and we are now speaking of the human being, otherwise we would have to say that it is the same for every living being – what is the human physical body, it is also made of physical forces and substances, just like the outer nature, but when these forces and substances are left to themselves, what do they do? They dissolve the form, they disintegrate.

What can be called the dissolution of the form of the physical human body occurs at death. When a person dies, what remains before our eyes, before the external senses, is a physical body; this now disintegrates into the physical and chemical substances that are within it. But it is no longer a human body, it is a corpse; and while a stone retains its form through the forces and substances at work in it, the human body will disintegrate and dissolve the moment it is left to its own physical and chemical substances. Spiritual science shows us that from the moment of its formation until the moment of death, an enduring fighter lives in our body, as it does in every living being. This fighter continually works to prevent the physical body from disintegrating during our lifetime. Just as we see the astral body floating out of what remains in bed when the person falls asleep in the evening, so we see that which remains in the physical body during sleep floating out at death. In this way, death differs from ordinary sleep. That which we find in life as a fighter against the disintegration of our body, we call the etheric or life body in relation to the physical, and the difference between sleep and death now becomes clear to us.

During sleep, not only the physical body but also the etheric or life body remains lying, and from these two the astral body rises with self-awareness. So every night. In the morning, when the person wakes up, his astral body descends again into the physical body and into the etheric or life body and uses the organs, the eyes, the ears and so on. When a person passes through the gate of death, only the physical body remains, which is now a corpse, and the etheric body lifts off with the astral body. Such is the difference between sleep and death.

The fact that the etheric body, with what this etheric body has experienced in the earthly, is raised up, enables the human being to pass over into a spiritual world after his death, in which he continues to live. But this question should not concern us, what the human being takes with him from his life into the other existence, but rather what is connected with the where and how of the spiritual researcher.

The etheric body does not emerge even during sleep, but remains with the physical human body. The astral body, on the other hand, floats out during sleep, and when the person wakes up, it re-enters the physical body. At the moment when the astral body, through the contemplation described to you, through that meditative life, when it acquires imaginative knowledge in symbolic and other representations, for example, at that moment when the astral body receives its spiritual and so forth, he brings these into the etheric body in the morning, and the result of this is that the person does not wake up in the morning with the feeling, “You were unconscious.” Instead, when he awakens, he says, I was in a spiritual world among spiritual things and beings, I was in my true home, in that world from which my soul and spirit come just as my physical body is from the physical world.

The second, higher stage of clairvoyant life contributes to the fact that the astral body, with what it develops at night under the influence of the inner life, illuminates the etheric body. This is called enlightenment. These are the first two stages of clairvoyant life.

At first, there is the realization that the person does not wake up from the sea of unconsciousness, but with the memory that he was among spiritual beings during the night. He knows that there was a spiritual world around him; and then he comes further and further so that during the day, in his physical body, he can see around him that which is around us, which fills space just as much as the physical world, that he can see the spiritual world around him between and through physical things. Thus man does not find the spirit through external perception, but he finds it by awakening his soul through precisely defined methods and means, which could only be explained by an example today. He brings the forces and abilities slumbering in him to a higher level, finds the spirit in himself, and thus can perceive the spiritual world in the spirit that he has awakened in himself.

Thus, through the development of a new consciousness, through purification and enlightenment, the human being lives his way up into the spiritual world. And again, imagination, this immersion in images, is only the preparation for the perceptions of the actual spiritual world. For here we are faced with an important fact of inner experience. Someone might raise the question: Yes, but what a person has in his inner life at first are only unreal images, only pictures, only symbols. — Of course, at first they are. But if he assimilates these symbols in the right way in his life, then the time comes when he can say to himself: Now, now I have arrived at the moment when I no longer have only my real ideas, but now, because I have made something specific out of my life, an objective world flows in on me.

Only experience itself, observation, can teach one to distinguish between how long one lives in mere ideas and when one arrives at the spiritual facts and spiritual entities that come from outside. Just as you can distinguish in the sensual life between mere conception and the perception of reality, so too there comes a moment when you can distinguish through experience the inner life of mere conception in the imagination from outer [supernatural] reality.

One could indeed say: In the physical world, the existence of real things can be proven. No, it can only be experienced; it can never be proved by experience. The mere idea in the sensual world is to be clearly distinguished from perception, and if someone wanted to claim, as a false philosophy does, that our world consists only of ideas, he may consider what a difference there is between the idea of a glowing steel and the perception of a glowing steel. He can clearly see the difference that exists. Imagine being in front of a glowing piece of steel and try to determine such clear and correct concepts from it. The philosophical prejudice that the world is our imagination cannot be proven, only the reality of things can be experienced.

Just as things are outside of us and become our ideas when we face them, so too the inner, intimate life that arises through meditation and concentration in those images and in other ideas, which of course cannot be described here due to the limited time, but can only be illustrated by the example of the Rosicrucian , then man, when he practices the inner life, can see the time approaching when he says: I no longer have a Rosicrucian before me, but I have reached the moment when spiritual beings approach me who are just as real as the external sensual things when I imagine them. This is experienced, and what he does is a preparation. This is indeed how the life of the soul unfolds during awakening.

When ascending into the spiritual world, the opposite of what happens in external reality occurs. In external reality, we first have the objects and the experience; then we form the ideas. In the higher, spiritual, supersensible world, we must first transform our imaginative life and then wait patiently until we are able to allow the truth, the spiritual, the supersensible reality to take effect on our soul. And it will depend entirely on whether the person has practised a corresponding development of character, parallel to meditation and concentration, and has maintained such certainty and stability by that time that he can distinguish between imagination, hallucination and reality at the decisive moment. Ultimately, only life can give this distinction. Just as the fool is a fool who mistakes his imagination of the rose for a real rose, so man can naturally hallucinate and have illusions in the spiritual realm, even more easily, of course, if he does not retain inner security until the decisive point. But if he retains his inner strength and certainty, so that he does not waver for a moment, and says to himself: Only when something comes to meet me in my prepared soul is reality, I speak of spiritual reality; everything else I regard only as preparation; only then will he be able to distinguish spiritual reality from deception just as surely at the decisive moment as the outer man can distinguish between imagination and reality.

So, my honored attendees, today we should deal with the question: Where and how can we find the spirit? It is not by constructing some external instrument that one can find the spirit, but by transforming oneself into an instrument for perceiving the spiritual world. And so it is true that the soul's inner powers are capable of development, that, to speak again in Goethe's sense, spiritual ears can develop out of this soul, just as sensory ears and eyes develop out of the body.

Thus man finds the higher world through his own higher development. Even if today only a few can make themselves spiritual instruments for the exploration of the spiritual world, these few can still tell of the facts of the spiritual world. Since the human soul is not designed for delusion and error, but for truth, the communication of the spiritual world can be received by unbiased thinking in such a way that man first receives a presentiment of the truth of the spiritual world. Then there is the hope that, with appropriate instruction, he can gradually make himself such an instrument of spiritual perception over the course of a long, austere life. The best preparation is to begin with, to absorb and understand, in pure, unbiased thinking, in sound mind, what the spiritual researcher can grasp in the spiritual world.

Then, through such intellectual preparation, the presentiment and hope of higher experience will arise, and the human being will have in his feelings that which solves the riddles of the higher worlds and reveals the secrets of these riddles. And he will feel, experience, the truth of Goethe's words, who stood more than is usually believed in these spiritual worlds and secrets, which Goethe also expresses in his life poem, in “Faust”, at the point where he says that the sage speaks. Yes, it is precisely by living in the facts that each of us can find for ourselves within ourselves the confirmation of the words of this wise Goethe, for spiritual science offers messages about the spiritual world and awakens the hope of one day passing through the gate that currently separates human beings from these worlds. And so it will come true, through what is today called theosophy or spiritual science, when it becomes more familiar with humanity, what Goethe has the wise man say in “Faust”:

The spiritual world is not closed;
Your mind is closed, your heart is dead!
Rise up, bathe, disciple, undeterred
The earthly breast in the morning dawn!

In their simplicity, legends and fairy tales often express the yearning and searching of the human soul better than the problems, philosophies and questions that the mind poses. Therefore, perhaps we may be permitted today, when we want to reflect on the relationship between the scientific creed and the spiritual scientific worldview, to recall a fairy tale that is, however, far removed from us, a Mongolian fairy tale that can really awaken in us a sense of what man longs for in all his knowledge and research. This Mongolian fairy tale says: A woman who has an eye on her forehead, that is, no second eye, only one eye, wanders the wide world, and everything she encounters, every stone, every object, is taken up by her, lifted to the one eye, looked at and then flung far away, and a feeling of bitter disappointment is expressed on the woman's face. The fairy tale goes on to tell us that the woman has lost her only child, which has largely caused her to lose her mind, and now she is wandering the wide world, searching for her child again. She believes she can pick up her child in every stone, in every object, and again and again she has to realize how she has been deceived, and out of her disappointment she hurls the object far away from her.

With a certain wistfulness, this fairy tale can evoke in our soul that mood that a person can often develop, that mood that comes from the human soul's search and yearning for truth. A person is searching for something; he knows that in a certain respect he cannot live without the object of this search, that this object is connected with what is most important and meaningful to him. And he searches and searches the whole world. He seizes on all things because he senses that something mysterious must be hidden behind all things, which should finally reveal the truth to him. And again and again, it may be that man, through the objects he finds here and there and through which he wanted to find the answer to the riddle of life, sees that he has been deceived and has to throw these objects away again.

And if you look at things superficially – and it is said with care – you could almost be tempted to believe that, since the development of humanity, the human soul itself has been a seeker like the woman in the Mongolian fairy tale when it comes to deeper truths. In particular, today, in contrast to what the culture of our time can offer people in their striving and searching for truth, today in particular, such a mood will be able to arise in many, because we live in a time in which, in the broadest circles, that satisfaction and that bliss have vanished from the hearts of people, which once came over people when they sought answers to the great riddles of existence from the old traditions, from the religious traditions.

Many of our contemporaries say to themselves, oh, what people believed about spiritual, about soul worlds behind physical existence, that was nothing more than childish fantasies, humanity has now entered into manhood , in the stage of maturity; admirable results have been given to the human spirit by external science, especially in the last century, and it is only fitting for man today to build a worldview on the basis of these certain results of natural science. And all old beliefs and prejudices, all old fantasies of nations, must fade. And we have heard of many a genuine and honest striving for truth in the time when so-called enlightenment has taken hold in the widest circles, that he who looks at the results of natural science can do no other than throw overboard the old, traditional views of nature and adhere solely to what the solid ground of facts shows.

But many a soul has never been able to overcome the feeling that, however admirable and magnificent the results of natural science may be, and however profound and incisive the thoughts of the bold minds that have drawn from these facts may be, these external sciences have increased rather than decreased the riddles for man. And so many a person, when they pick up some popular book on these things, for example Haeckel's “Welträtsel” (World Riddle) or his “Naturliche Schöpfungsgeschichte” (Natural History of Creation), stands there and says to themselves: Yes, actually what is offered to me here is not a solution to the great riddles of existence, but an even greater riddle itself.

On the other hand, however, we must say – and it is important that we do not ignore it – that anyone who today immerses themselves in the field of natural science and honestly and sincerely strives to gain a world view from this field of natural science, that such a person basically has a very difficult time with anything that, to a certain extent, is based on different premises than natural science. In our time we see two directions: one is that which wants to form a world building solely on the basis of external scientific facts. And we see another school of thought, which is almost the spiritual-scientific, or - as one has become accustomed to calling it - theosophical, a school of thought which in turn wants to point to the spiritual facts and spiritual entities behind the physical-sensual world. This spiritual science tells us: Certainly, the great achievements of natural science are admirable, and particularly in the nineteenth century, magnificent, admirable instruments and methods have been invented through which man is able to look into the most distant regions of the heavens. All this is certainly admirable, but all of it lacks one instrument: the one through which man can look into the spiritual world.

Such an instrument does exist, but this instrument must be prepared no less carefully than any instrument of the external sciences if it is to be of use. This instrument is none other than man himself.

All spiritual science is based on two principles: firstly, that there is a spiritual world behind the sensual one; secondly, that man is able to penetrate into this spiritual world with his capacity for knowledge. However, one should not penetrate into this spiritual world if one takes the view that one wants to remain as one is. For this it is necessary that man first awakens certain powers and abilities that lie dormant in his soul for ordinary life, that he first develops himself up to these abilities, to the point of view that we cannot otherwise describe than as that of “awakening”.

There may come a great moment for a person when, in terms of the soul and spirit, they will be like a blind person who has been born and is operated on.

If we were to bring a blind person into this room, they would see none of the light and colors that surround us. But if we were lucky enough to give them their sight here, they would suddenly see a world around them that was also there before, even if they were unable to perceive it – a physical awakening to the ability to see would have occurred for them.

In no other sense does spiritual science assert the reality of the spiritual world than when the blind man is surrounded by a world of light and colors, even if he does not perceive them. The spiritual world, the higher world, is also around us, within our ordinary world. It is only a matter of man learning to see it, of him penetrating to what Goethe calls the eyes of the spirit, the ears of the spirit. Then the human being becomes an instrument for seeing new things around him, so to speak.

If we speak of the spiritual world in this sense and then communicate what the seer, the awakened one, sees in this spiritual world, what he learns to recognize, what he learns as the very foundations of this existence there, then the person who today stands firmly on the ground of natural science has great difficulties of understanding in the face of such communications. But it would be completely unjust to assume ill will or something similar in the person who considers the spiritual scientist to be a dreamer or fantasist. Because what is called “staying on the ground of natural science” makes it very difficult for a person to let go of their thought habits and to acknowledge what must first be acknowledged in spiritual science.

Of course, you can say: What use is it to us when individuals make themselves into such an instrument and tell us this or that from the spiritual world, what use is it to you if you cannot see it for yourself? But now ask yourself: has the person who studies natural science actually seen everything they learn? That is certainly not the case. Just as one relies on the accuracy of the methods, how one adheres to what one perceives through the instruments, the microscope and so on, so it could well be in spiritual science. But things are not even like that. In spiritual science, it is even made easier for a person than in ordinary natural science. It cannot be emphasized enough that one can only research and investigate in the spiritual world if one applies the method that must be applied for this research and that is described in “Lucifer - Gnosis” in the essay “How to Obtain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds”. If you apply this to yourself, you will already notice how little it is fantasy or reverie.

So one comes to see the spiritual world behind the sensual one. Certainly, one can do it, but when those who have applied this to themselves tell the results, tell what they have seen and experienced, then the quite ordinary, unprejudiced human understanding is enough to grasp it too. Research and investigation are only possible after this method has been applied to oneself. To recognize that what is being said is correct, all that is needed is an unprejudiced, healthy human understanding. This human understanding, however, must not be clouded by all sorts of suggestions and prejudices. Basically, spiritual science makes it easier for people than natural science. It demands only that what the seer has to tell be examined without prejudice and logically, and then one will find that it is internally consistent and stands up to logical examination.

Nevertheless, it is difficult to accept the results of spiritual science if one stands on the ground of a more materialistic world view. This can become clear to us in a certain respect through our present consideration.

First, let us consider the difference between the two schools of thought that are relevant to our present situation: spiritual science and natural science, the science that is based on mere external facts.

Let us start from one point. Let us start from that which is connected with our own human development. Through tremendous progress, the nineteenth century has managed to prove that there is a relationship between humans and higher animals. Who would want to object to the comprehensive sense of fact and the tremendous talent for combination of Charles Darwin? Who would deny that Ernst Haeckel has achieved something tremendous in penetrating the inner facts in the development of living beings up to the point of man? As far as facts are concerned, we must fully recognize from a spiritual-scientific point of view what great and significant work has been done. To object to facts would not be to pursue science, but to be insane.

But now something else comes into consideration. Nineteenth-century natural science has derived from this sum of facts a kind of creed, a creed which, when it comes right down to it, is not at all a necessary result of the facts, but is believed by many as such. It says: Man, with the perfections that we recognize in him, has developed out of the lower animal world, and the line is traced from the simplest, most subordinate living creature up to man. And it is to be shown that these simplest living beings, up to man, are increasingly structured and receive more and more organs, and that man has developed in this way through the external penetration of facts.

The aim is to link the human being more and more to the animal world. The aim is to bring his expressions of life, his soul and spirit, closer to what is also found in the animal world. Even the human being's feelings and will impulses should only be higher results of animal ancestors, perfection brought about at a higher level by our organs, a variation of what is also found in the animal kingdom. Yes, even the moral life of man is said to be only an elaboration of certain instincts. Some have even gone so far as to derive the origin of religious aspirations in man from the attachment of animals.

We can say: Those who are grounded in external science think of the development something like this: If we look at our environment today, we see animals of different kinds up to man. We trace the development back and we come further and further back to more and more imperfect and imperfect human beings, finally to people who stand at a very low level of human culture. Then finally further backwards we would urgently come to beings that cannot yet be called people. We would come to beings between people and ape-like animals, then to epochs where man was not yet present, but where everything that was physically present on earth had developed into man. And one would like to say: If such an observer could take a chair and place it in outer space, and sit on it, he would believe he could see how all this has happened purely externally. That is the picture of this view.

Let us now ask: What is the picture from the point of view of spiritual science? We want to see what this conclusion looks like from the point of view of spiritual science. We will involve ourselves as little as possible in the mere telling of the facts today, but also point out how this spiritual science proceeds quite scientifically in terms of its conclusions and thoughts. For the time being, it must be assumed that spiritual science regards the spirit, the actual spiritual, as the original, and it regards everything material as an effect of the spiritual. So it says: Let us assume that a large cloud or water is spread out in front of us. Because it is transparent, it cannot be seen at first. So someone who stands there and wants to rely on nothing but his own eyesight would not see the cloud. Now let us assume that the parts of these water masses become compressed through some process into ice blocks, then the person who relies only on appearances would see how pieces of ice come out of nowhere and would say: There is nothing around the ice blocks, they are the reality.

Spiritual science says: the spiritual world is all around us, and in a much wider sphere than the physical world, the spiritual world is full of facts, full of realities. This spiritual world is a real one. Out of it emerge, as if through a condensation, the facts, events and happenings of the physical-sensual world. Now, the one who relies only on the physical senses sees only the effects, but not the causes. The physical-sensual materiality is like a condensation of the spiritual. In the spiritual, spiritual science sees the cause of the physical-sensual.

And now we want to tie in with a well-known fact in order to explain how spiritual science thinks about these things. Let us take two feelings of the human soul that everyone knows: fear and shame. Fear occurs in the human soul and makes a person pale. What has happened here? The fact that a person has been overcome by fear has caused a change in the processes of his blood. The blood has receded. So an inner feeling, the person's feeling of fear, has brought about a rearrangement of his material parts. A material event is the consequence of its psychological cause. It is the same with the feeling of shame. When the soul wants to hide something within itself, then a blush appears on the face, which is again a rearrangement of the blood. Physical processes are thus directed by soul and spiritual processes. Here we have something on a small scale, on an extremely small scale, which shows us how physical and sensory processes can be the effect of soul and spiritual processes.

Spiritual science now says: What we encounter today in these two examples, that soul-spiritual causes physical processes, is a last remnant of ancient spiritual-soul processes that, in a broader sense, represented the same thing. It now shows – how it shows this is not our concern today – it also shows this in accordance with facts that still exist today. She says: If we go back into the far, far reaches of the past, we are dealing with simpler material processes than today, but with more comprehensive spiritual-soul processes. Today, man is a physically and sensually complex being. Today, through his emotional agitation, man can only direct physical processes on such a small scale as in the case of shame and fear. But if we go back far, far into the development of the earth, we find that now the spiritual-soul not only evokes processes, events and facts, but that it has also, through its own condensation, brought forth matter itself out of itself. And going still further back, we come to ancient times when only the spiritual-soul was present in man. And then we see the physical form emerging from the spirit in a simple way at first – the physical was directed by the spiritual-soul – and because the spiritual is complicated, the physical has gradually become more and more complicated.

Natural science says: If we go back in time, we will arrive at a point in the not too distant past when humans did not yet exist, when only animals were present. And then humans developed from the higher animals.

Spiritual science says: Yes, if we go back far enough in the development of the earth, we do see that physically and sensually the earth is only populated by animals and plants. Man, in the time when he does not yet appear as a physical and sensual being, is connected spiritually and soulfully with the earth. Our earth was surrounded by our spiritual and soul, as we are surrounded by the air today. We are going further and further back in time. We do not come from a time when the earth was without people, because humans have been connected to our earthly body far earlier than all other beings: animals, plants, minerals.

How did animals, plants and minerals come into being at all? Originally there was actually nothing but the potential for human beings. Yes, let us form a picture of how the lower creatures actually came into being in the course of the earth's development. The process is a very complicated one and is described in detail in my book 'Geheimwissenschaft'. We assume that there are lower and higher civilized peoples on earth. We do not want to argue about the difference now; we take it as it is in ordinary life. Let us take a specific example, such as the decline of the Native Americans and the Europeans. Those who think in terms of today's more materialistic approach will say that all the people who live today in nations that are at a higher cultural level originally belonged to nations that were at a lower cultural level, and they have simply developed to a higher cultural level.

Spiritual science says: Those peoples who are today “primitive”, so-called wild peoples, would never be able to develop directly as peoples to a higher level of culture, but the fact is that in the progress of human development, certain peoples had the potential to develop higher. They waited, so to speak, to develop until a later time. They kept their abilities more inwardly and only brought them out at a later time. Those peoples who remained at a lower level entered the dense earth sphere too early, so to speak. They lost themselves too soon in the physical-sensual existence, they held nothing back. They remained standing with all their abilities, the others progressed. Yes, we have to say: the less developed a human species is, the less it could expect to descend into the physical, while others waited until favorable conditions existed on earth.

Now we apply this thought to the whole of earth's development: let us look at the time when our earth was still at the beginning of its development and man was spiritual and soul-like. Now, certain spiritual-soul abilities cannot wait for favorable earthly conditions to arise; they come into existence too early and become lowly beings. Others wait and come into existence at a certain time, and so we see that at a certain time those beings from which our ape race developed descended too early into physical development. And further, we see that man is the being that has embodied itself the latest, that has preserved its spirituality the longest. The other lower beings have been left behind because they entered physical, sensual existence too early.

Thus we see that man is spiritually and psychically more advanced than all other creatures, but that he waited the longest before entering into physical existence. He developed out of the spiritual, but later than the other beings, which also developed out of the spiritual. The differentiation that the beings are at different levels of development is rooted in the spiritual. We must not say that man developed from a lower animal form, but we must say that man comes directly from the spiritual, and that the lower animal forms also developed from the spiritual, but entered physical existence too early. This also helps us to understand the relationship between animals and humans. Animals must bear the same forms and traits as humans, because they have undergone the same line of development, but have condensed too early.

This is, of course, a picture that is very difficult to understand for those who only want to accept physical and sensual facts about human development. Another example, a second fact, is given to show how completely different natural science and spiritual science facts are.

You all know for certain that the course of scientific creeds in the nineteenth century – especially towards the middle of the century – led to the construction of a so-called atomistic worldview. Let us recall in all simplicity how this atomistic creed came about. A person hears a sound and says to themselves: I hear the sound with my ear, and I realize that the air is in a certain vibration. A cannon has been fired somewhere far away from me. The vibration has propagated. My ear perceives this air vibration as sound. You can also say: Take a string and stroke it with a bow, and you can prove that the string vibrates in a regular manner, and you perceive the vibrations as a tone. If we allow these vivid facts to enter our soul, it is easy for us to say: Apart from myself, there is nothing at all except vibrating matter, and the ear and hearing perceive the vibrating air as a tone.

But the course of the scientific creed has been such that this fact has gradually been transferred to the field of vision, that is to say, to the field of light and colors. In numerous writings, you can read again and again how that which is color is something that does not exist outside of us. Outside of us, science says, there is nothing but moving matter. Just as the air vibrates when we hear sounds, so fine matter, called ether, vibrates when we perceive colors and light. This ether makes certain movements and our eye perceives a certain number of vibrations as blue, as red. Outside of us is not blue or red, outside of us is not light, outside of us is vibrating matter, and what we perceive as color and light is caused by us in that these vibrations reach our eye and propagate to the brain.

Similar things have been claimed for other areas, for example, in what occurred in the last third of the nineteenth century as the so-called mechanical theory of heat. For example, when our hand comes into contact with gas and we feel heat, the heat of the gas is not outside of us. In the gas itself there are millions upon millions of parts that move, and this movement causes the feeling of warmth inside us. Thus a strange doctrine could develop that could be called an atomistic world view.

If you follow this doctrine to its ultimate conclusion, you end up saying to yourself: everything we perceive, all the sounds that rise and fall, all the colorful and wonderful carpet of color and light, all the warmth and cold, everything we perceive through our senses, all this is only something we experience within ourselves, and outside of us there is nothing but moving matter, vibrating atoms. If there is nothing else outside, what must the next conclusion be? Then there is nothing in our brain but vibrating matter. Well, what does that get us?

We have filled the perceivable space with atoms and think that they vibrate, that they dance, that they swirl together into the most diverse tissues, that they affect our eyes and ears and evoke sounds and colors. This naturally leads to the conclusion that the world of reality is composed of atoms, that it is nothing but a world of atoms in motion. And in this world of moving atoms, what is seen as the inner life of different beings arises as a phantom.

If such a theory is put forward as a science, it may be useful in some respects; but if it is put forward as a worldview, then one would also have to draw the consequences, and these cannot be anything other than that the only reality in the world is a world of atomic motion, and then man would also be nothing more than a sum of moving atoms.

What remains of a person when they die? When they die, these atoms scatter, nothing remains of the person, nothing of what their soul was, nothing of what their spirit was, only the atom is eternal. The atoms are the only thing that is eternal and indestructible. Thus this train of thought, when thought out, becomes a creed of the eternity of the most indifferent: the little atomistic idol.

It was basically only out of a certain feeling of inadequacy that Du Bois-Reymond said in his famous speech: Natural science can lead to nothing other than an explanation of all the facts of the world through the movement of atoms. He said: To explain the human being scientifically means to understand these atomic movements down to the last detail. But he found the inadequacy of this explanation, and he said to himself: But it is something else whether I see movements, moving atoms, or whether I experience the unique fact in myself: I see red, or I smell the scent of roses, or hear the sound of an organ.

Du Bois-Reymond was drawing attention to something that the German philosopher Leibniz had already said: Imagine the human brain as a giant machine, so big that you can walk around in it. While I am thinking, “I see red,” you are observing what is going on. Like the wheels and belts of a machine, you can all see the movements of the atoms in my brain while I am thinking this. But what the soul experiences while these movements are taking place, you cannot see. The fact does not become clear to you why I feel: “I see red”. Du Bois-Reymond felt the same way, and he said: natural science can give no other explanation for any inner experience than the movement of atoms and molecules – and he called that the astronomical realization of man. He said that it is impossible for science to advance from what are merely movements of atoms to a real explanation of what is present after all as certain ideas in the soul. Why should a group of atoms not care about how they are arranged or will be arranged, how they swirl and dance? Why should they evoke the ideas that cannot be denied: One time I see red, the other time blue, and so on? Never will science be able to bridge the gap from external perception to my inner imagination, Du Bois-Reymond said.

That was the one confession of the natural scientist about the limits of science at the time. At the same time, it was the confession that struck this atomism in FCSSCII'I.

Now, where natural science ends, spiritual science begins. What does spiritual science have to say about all this? It has this to say: Yes, no matter how much you state that there is only moving air out there, when you hear a sound, you must not conclude from this that the ear creates the sound. That is about as clever as the following: suppose I receive a telegram from America: “Send me immediately such and such,” and I go and examine the wire and find material processes going on in it and want to conclude from that: So my own inner being or the telegram official creates the content of the telegram.

The wire, the material, is used here – reasonably – to mediate between the recipient and the sender. We never have the right to believe that only this material process exists as reality when we see it. We must not judge a field for which we have not yet created the organs of perception; we have no more right to do so than a blind person has to judge color and light.

Spiritual science says: Sound belongs to the real world, and it was the sound that caused the vibrations of the air.

What is an atom? How do we know that a thing is in front of us in space and has a material existence? We know it first of all through our external sensory perception, in that it appears to us with a certain color or a certain shine, or in such a way that it can make a sound, or shows us a certain warmth, smells or tastes; we perceive it through its properties, which it reveals to our senses and through which it stimulates us to have sensations of color, sound, smell, taste and warmth.

What then is an atom? An atom is not a real thing in space. It has no inherent warmth, because warmth arises only from the movement of atoms; it has no inherent color, because color is only produced by the movement of atoms; it has no other properties either, because all these properties are only produced by the movement of atoms. This atom, which has no reality, is nothing at all for the one who thinks in real terms. It is something that has been invented in addition to things, a unit of account for research, a human thought that makes it possible for us to understand the world from a certain perspective.

The world of atoms is a dreamy, purely imaginative world, not even as real as color and light, but only thought of in addition to everything.

Spiritual science is thus completely grounded in Goethe, whom very few people know was as great a naturalist as he was a poet. And just as he saw reality in what is before our senses, so does the person who thinks in spiritual terms. He sees nothing in the sensory world but a compilation of what we experience in the spiritual world.

When we see a rose and it is yellow, we see a certain shape, a color, perceive a certain degree of warmth, a particular smell and so on, and then we have to say to ourselves: if you want to look behind things, you must not examine the atoms that you have invented, but the spirit that stands behind things and that your soul can experience. The phenomenon itself is the reality, the spirit in it, that is what we can seek in the expanse of space. Just as ice condenses out of water, so the physical world has condensed out of the spiritual.

Natural science and spiritual science are opposed to each other: spiritual science does not invent fantastic atom dances behind the physical-sensual world, but sees spiritual entities behind colors, behind sounds, behind warmth and so on.

It is difficult to achieve an understanding between the two currents, but only if one remains on the ground of materialistic thinking. If we approach the world of facts by way of an example, we find that precisely as scholars of spiritual science, as true confessors of the spiritual world, what has been considered the firm foundation for the scientific creed has crumbled away piece by piece in recent years. Just two years ago it was claimed that man descended from higher animals.

Let us consider the question: What about the descent of man from the higher animals, from the apes? There is a certain similarity between the body of a human being and that of a higher ape. This has led Huxley, in his more superficial consideration, to say that there is less difference between the structure of a human being and that of a higher ape than between the higher and lower ape species. In recent years, however, it has become clear that it is impossible to base the human build on the ape build. In some respects, however, humans do bear a great similarity to gibbons, except that gibbons have terribly large front feet, almost touching the ground. In this respect, they are much more similar to much lower-ranking ape species than to gibbons.

If you wanted to stick with the idea that humans descended from gibbons, you would think: Well, the story goes like this: First, they, the apes, have short hands, but then, when the gibbon ape was created, they got long hands, and then they became short again in humans. So they gradually came to the conclusion that, although the gibbon is most similar to humans in terms of certain characteristics, this human being must in turn have descended from a lower-ranking ape, and the gibbon would only be a kind of side line that had developed particularly long hands.

This is a simple case; but in relation to such comparisons, it has been shown that it is quite impossible to derive man from the higher apes. You would have to go back to lower apes, so that all higher apes would be only side lines. But it still does not want to be right. Yes, important voices have been raised that man would have to go back to much lower animal forms, and one has been forced, so to speak, to move those groups of animals that are closest to man further and further away from man. This path will continue, and it will be found that everything that is directly related to man is not found, and the line of development will have to be traced further and further back, and it will be realized that the being from which man is derived was not physical at all, but spiritual.

Natural science does not yet know this, but the facts have pushed it onto the path that is mapped out by spiritual science. The physical world of facts will increasingly prove to be a confirmation of spiritual science.

And now we ask ourselves: What about our other example, the atomic world? On the basis of certain more penetrating theories, a more recent naturalist, the chemist Ostwald, has rejected the whole atomic theory. At the Lübeck Naturalists' Conference at the end of the 1880s, Ostwald had spoken about overcoming materialism and pointed out the contradictions of it. He did not advocate the view of the eternal material atom, but rather said: “Everything that occurs as atoms is a center of energy.”

He used an analogy and said: “When I receive a blow with a stick, am I not affected by the matter of the stick and only the force with which I received the blow, the essence? The energy that is released on you? Everywhere there are forces, energies, and when man perceives the forces as filling space, then he perceives matter.

That was still speculation, others have already been further developed by the facts. Let us assume that copper and chlorine combine. These combine under the appearance of fire. Heat occurs. If you now want to separate these bodies again, you have to supply the same heat again. So this heat proves to be something very real, which is supposed to be only movement.

Certain researchers who thought more deeply about this said to themselves: heat occurs when certain atoms combine and come into contact with each other; if you want to separate them again, you have to add heat again. From this they concluded: we must imagine the atoms in a similar way to children's balloons filled with air. When you squeeze them, the air comes out. If you want them to be plump again, you have to let air in. Heat in atoms is like the air in these children's balloons, they reasoned. We have to imagine atoms and molecules themselves as a kind of sack, and heat is what fills the sacks, like flour in flour sacks. When copper and chlorine are free, these sacks are completely filled with heat. But when these bodies combine, these sacks are pressed together and the heat is expelled. If we separate them again with something, then we also have to add the heat again.

Such thinkers have been forced to recognize heat – something that is otherwise only seen as a movement – as something real, although it is still supposed to be in a shell. The humanities scholar would now say: So you are reckoning with warmth as something real and tangible, and you are only adding the shell so that you can still save your atom. I'll give you the shell too. — The humanities believe that the atom and molecule are nothing more than the condensed quality of warmth itself, and not only the filling, but also the sacks for it. If we leave out the shell, what remains is shaped warmth, and we imagine nothing other than the shaped sensation under a material particle. That is then what is really real.

Others have gone a step further. If you conduct an electric current through pumped-out glass tubes, so-called Geissler tubes, light phenomena occur in them.

This led to the assumption that it was not just moving matter inside, but it has been shown that one cannot think otherwise than that electricity detaches from matter and continues to flow independently. It has been seen that electricity flows at all. What was previously regarded as just a property of matter was now seen as something independent. The property itself flows in electricity and such flowing electricity was called electrons.

In a speech in 1904, the former British Prime Minister Balfour pointed out that such views must lead to significantly different ways of looking at matter... /Lücke] that matter is nothing more than electricity frozen in a certain way.

Does this revolution in thinking not clearly show us how science is on the way to the theosophical teaching that spirit is the original and the rest is only condensed spirit?

Thus, what used to be considered merely the movement of matter is now seen to be something else entirely: flowing electricity. Matter itself is basically condensed, flowing electricity.

But the crowning achievement in all this is a discovery that has only emerged in recent years: radium. What has radium research shown? You all know that radium has drawn people's attention to the fact that certain substances – radioactive substances – have strange radiations that can only be detected by their effects, for example, that they make the non-conductive air electrically conductive and that they affect the photographic plate. These emanations of radium could not be explained in any other way by the thinkers concerned than by assuming that the emanation goes right into the atom. The atom itself emits these emanations, and indeed one has been forced to the idea that the atom gradually radiates itself completely in its effects. We see that the atom is completely broken down and fragmented, so that we can only perceive it in its effects, in its properties.

Yes, we see even more. The ingenious English physicist Ramsay showed that a certain radiation, an emanation of radium, can be transferred to another substance, another element, helium. Physicists are beginning to calculate when the properties of such a substance will cease altogether, when such an atom will completely fragment. We see how it is calculated today – I do not want to talk about the correctness of the calculation, but only about the transformation of the way of thinking – how certain substances will be so far in 5000 million years that they have lost all their properties, that they will no longer be there as material substance, but will have dissolved into space. Only the chemical elements, the atoms are eternal, everything else passes.

These new research results now bring facts into people's view, the factual results that show how that which had been considered the most solid, the atom, dissolves, splinters, how the body of this atom disintegrates in the hands of the natural scientist into the properties that should have been created by its movements alone. Thus the idea of an eternal atom had to be shattered; it is transient, it disintegrates, and nothing remains in the hands of those who want to be atomists in the old sense.

Thus, in our time, science is at a crossroads. Either it can continue to build on its old theories and then have theories that increasingly contradict the facts, against which the facts are almost a mockery, or it can go the way that gradually leads to moving further and further back from the ancestors of man, into the spiritual and soul, and dissolving matter more and more - and the last product of dissolution will be the spirit. Thus we see how spiritual science is a pioneer, working ahead of the future, and before us in this future stands something that we can express with the words: We foresee peace between natural science and spiritual science, between what is the knowledge of nature and what, through the knowledge of the spirit, can fill man with certainty and bliss.

Of course, more than 100 years ago it was still too early for such a connection between these two currents, and Schiller was right when he said: Both would still have to go separate ways and only in later times could they unite.

The nineteenth century has now shown the way: the science of the external, the sensory, has found facts and produced results that themselves go beyond the purely sensory-real. Alongside this, theosophy has developed. It, theosophy, will be able to show the way to the facts from within itself, from its spiritual knowledge. It will be able to show how the external sense world is an expression of the spiritual. In this way spiritual science will lead philosophy down, knowledge of the supersensible, which a hundred years ago still lived only in abstract concepts, hovering in cloud-like heights. It will lead philosophy down so that it does not just deal with abstract concepts and ideas alone, but points to the real, concrete knowledge of facts in the spiritual, and natural science will rise and find its way from the purely external sense phenomena to the spirit, and so the two will meet, while more than a hundred years ago the philosophy of concepts could not come down to the facts of concrete reality.

Time had to pass for that. It has now passed. The spirit presses down into reality and wants to be applicable and fruitful in this outer reality as well. And so we can present a beautiful horizon, a beautiful perspective of the spiritual world, and can say: Just when we realistically face the facts, both the sensual and the spiritual world, we see how natural science and spiritual science converge to give something that is life for the human being, that will transform in the human soul and give the human being strength and security and confidence in themselves in life and what will also give them strength to feel and sense and recognize that which can only be recognized through the spirit: the eternal in the human soul.

Anyone who superficially and casually reads a brochure about the aims of spiritual science or Theosophy and what their goals are can easily come to a judgment, as undoubtedly many, many of our contemporaries do who listen to this kind of Theosophy. This judgment is: What does spiritual science or Theosophy actually have to say about the practical training of thinking? For many people form their opinion from such superficial acquaintance that spiritual science or Theosophy is something that floats in cloud-cuckoo-land, is alien and far removed from the world, and that it draws people away from the true, genuine practice of life, and that it can therefore say the least about the demands of practical thinking, which should actually be linked to the demands of practical life.

Those who delve a little deeper into the nature of spiritual science or Theosophy will come to a different conclusion and will recognize that there are two reasons why it is particularly suited to say something about thinking as a practical task in life.

The first reason is that Theosophy or spiritual science is not intended to educate impractical, unworldly and hostile people. On the contrary, in all that it seeks to be, it can reach into the most everyday life, one might say, into the handholds of the hourly life with which we deal in the practice of life. Only then is the task of spiritual science or theosophy properly grasped when it permeates us into all our individual activities, when it not only makes us wise, not only teaches us about the highest tasks and riddles of existence, but when it also makes us skillful and practical for the most everyday life. That is one reason. The other is one that is more closely related to the task and mission of spiritual science or theosophy.

It has often been emphasized here in this city that what spiritual science or Theosophy has to say about the highest problems of existence, about the secrets of life, about the riddles of man, what is presented through the observations of clairvoyant consciousness, that all this, when presented, can be understood by the unprejudiced, healthy human mind. That has been said often. Research and investigation into the laws and secrets of existence in the higher worlds can only be carried out by those who have developed the abilities and powers slumbering in their souls, the spiritual eye and the spiritual ear. When what has been researched in the higher worlds is then related, it can be understood by anyone who does not let themselves be deterred from this understanding by the prejudices that flow into them through the suggestion of our contemporary culture or any other culture.

If Theosophy can be understood in this way, then it is not only useful but necessary for everyone, regardless of their station in life. It is what makes them a true human being, so to speak. It is therefore a universal human good, and it can and must also be of interest to those who perhaps say to themselves: I will never get around to becoming a spiritual researcher myself in this life, to having my eyes opened to see into the spiritual worlds. You don't need to do that to get to know spiritual science or theosophy; but from certain points of view, spiritual science or theosophy is a preparation for this opening of the spiritual eyes, of the spiritual organs of perception and cognition in general. It should lead people up into the spiritual world.

So for anyone who wants to penetrate into these spiritual worlds, who, so to speak, wants to acquire clairvoyant consciousness, the right foundation is not enthusiasm, not overheated enthusiasm, but for them the right foundation is to stand firmly on the ground of life with both feet. One would almost like to say, although it may sound grotesque, that the less a person approaches spiritual research with overheated imagination and reveries and fantasies, the better it is. Not the enthusiast, not the person with a particularly vivid imagination, not they are the ones who can actually become the spiritual researcher's dearest students, but rather those who stand firmly on the ground of life. He prefers sober people, because enthusiasm comes from the thing itself, when the great facts of life affect us. Then we are already raised to the poetic, enthusiastic attitude by the facts, and that is what is healthy — not by letting an overheated inner self bring us to enthusiasm.

Therefore, a practical thinking that stands firmly on the ground of life is also a good, even the very best prerequisite for those who aspire, so to speak, to clairvoyant consciousness. The more sober a person is, the more practical, the better if he is to be raised to the spheres of clairvoyant vision.

All this can show you that, on the one hand, spiritual science has every reason to believe that something can be said about the practice of thinking and its training on the basis of its results, and that, on the other hand, it has a profound interest in giving a great deal of practical thinking. However, it will therefore quite easily come into conflict with those people who usually, especially today, call themselves practitioners of life, with those practitioners of life who, when they hear just a few words about spiritual science, will immediately speak of fantasy and say: This is something that contradicts all practice.

But what is life practice for these practitioners, for those who are so proud of their life practice, who are so full of themselves about their life practice, who reject everything that does not fit neatly into their life practice? For those who are able to observe life, it is the case that these people are accustomed as early as possible, early and diligently accustomed to walking on well-trodden paths – to observe what one sees, how it is done, and to observe it in such a way that one can see how it is done, whether in the trading office or in the workshop, everywhere, and yes, yes, not to step out of the usual hand movements; otherwise, if you wanted to step out, you expose yourself to the danger of being expelled from the spheres in which you want to be included; that is the usual practice of life, that you only muddle through in the way it has become everywhere.

For those who are able to observe life, this practice consists of short-sightedness, habit, intolerance, always with certain additives - this will soon be apparent to the psychoanalyst - brutality. This is necessary so that everything that does not want to fit into this dogmatic practice of life can be trampled down. But then very strange things happen.

It is best to illustrate this with examples, some of which have already been mentioned here. Today, we want to bring one of these examples to mind in order to hold up our usual way of life to it. Who would not find it practical today that you don't have to go to the post office with every letter and that you don't have to open a huge book to look up how far away the place is to which the letter is addressed, and then determine, based on half-pennies, how much postage you have to pay? In the few cases where you still have to do that today, you can see how practical it is to have what is known as the penny postage stamp, the standard stamp, even for long distances. That was not the case eighty years ago. In the forties of the last century, you still had to go to the post office counter with a letter and it was very complicated. It was not a postal practitioner who invented this standard stamp, but an Englishman named Hill, who was not from the “practical” side of life. He was the first to say what advantages there would be if postage stamps were introduced. This is no myth. You can read it in the records of the English Parliament. The one who was the practitioner said: Oh, I don't believe what Hill has calculated; because such a device certainly cannot improve our traffic as he claims. And even if it were true, then one would have to be against it, because then one would have to make the post office building three times as large as it is. – That was the practical man, while the impractical man has just made this world-changing discovery of the penny postage stamp.

And I need only remind you of something that should be known here. When the first railroad was to be built, a medical council was asked whether, for hygienic reasons, railroads should be built. The document can be read, and the judgment was passed by the practitioners – it is not that many years ago – that railroads should not be built because, as the practitioners judged, people would destroy their nervous systems. But if you wanted to build railways anyway and people could be found to ride them, then you would have to build high board walls on both sides so that those who pass by the railroad would not get concussions. Another example of such a judgment based on practical experience is when the postmaster Nagler in Potsdam said: “I already send two stagecoaches out every day with no one sitting in them; how is anyone supposed to sit in the train if I send even more every day?”

These are all facts from practical life. With such a view of the practice of life, however, truly practical thinking can come into conflict. But these truly practical thinkers must penetrate a little deeper into the nature of actual thinking, and there I may perhaps start from something very concrete. Here we have a case of thinking that is quite impractical. During my time as a student, I experienced an instance of impractical thinking that was so pronounced that it revealed to me a type of impractical thinker that I would call “the inner prankster.” This category can be used to describe many people in terms of their thinking.

And I can make it clear to you what these inner pushers of thought are. During my time as a student, a colleague approached me with a red face and said: I have now made a wonderful invention; I have to go quickly to Radinger – that was the departmental representative – and explain my invention to him. It's something revolutionary. — He couldn't be stopped, he ran to the specialist and came back a little dejected. He had to wait an hour and yet had no time to lose with his world-changing invention! In the meantime, he wanted to explain the matter to me. He started. He was very perceptive and told me about an extraordinarily well-designed machine construction. He couldn't come to any other conclusion than that he had solved the problem: by using as little steam power as possible, which the machine initially consumes, with the help of the most diverse translations, it ultimately achieves a huge amount of work. I had the matter explained to me and finally I said: Yes, you see, if you boil the matter down to a simple idea, it is just as feasible as the important problem of standing inside a railroad car and pushing it. As surely as you move it forward, so surely does this machine work. — He also saw the matter immediately and no longer went to the expert.

The way this man thought at the time is how many people think, and that is why they can be called the “inner pushers”. They think in certain contexts that represent a limited area. They do not see what goes beyond that. They are inside the matter and find everything very astute, as it must be inside the matter. But people do not think that there must also be something out there. It is actually the case, without people realizing it, that the vast majority of them move in a very limited circle, without even looking out into the distance and without knowing that you have to look for resistance outside in order to push. People don't think about the fact that you can't push from the inside as long as you're just fiddling around inside the car, in your own limited area. They think they need not know anything about what is going on outside. But the world has little to do with these pushers. They make no progress in the world, just as the cart pushed from the inside makes no progress. But many people make no progress because they think in the same way as this category.

What is important is that we learn to develop our thinking so that we can see beyond the wagon. Even if we also have an overview of the sciences, we very, very often find precisely this element, the thinking of pushing the wagon inwardly, within them. For it is usually — and this is characteristic of our sciences — the person who works in a particular field who does not see beyond the narrowest view. I have already explained this. Think of the Kant-Laplace theory. For many people it is still something to which they cling, even if it is no longer held to in some places. But the other theories are no better.

This theory, which assumes an original nebula, lets it rotate, lets it secrete the rings and planets, it sensualizes very nicely in our schools, very cute, on a small scale the formation of a world system. You take a certain substance that floats on water, make large drops out of it, cut a map sheet into a circle and slide it into the equator direction. Then you take a pin, stick it in and make the drop rotate. Droplets separate and rotate. You have a nice, cute little planetary system; the sun in the middle and the planets around it. How could one, people think, more vividly show that things can really come into being through something like this? You see it coming into being on a small scale. That is obvious proof. It's quite pretty. But that is an inner cart-pusher thinking. The experimenter has forgotten that he is turning and that the cute thing would not come into being if he did not turn. Of course, you don't need to think that there is a giant standing out there in the room setting the primeval nebula in motion. But you must not forget the spiritual foundations that must underlie what is taking place mechanically.

All this shows you how necessary it is for our outer life and for our life in science that our thinking is truly rooted in the soil of thinking practice. Spiritual science itself can now show us three things that must be fulfilled if we really want to train our thinking in a practical sense. And it is the case that, however little it may initially appear to lead to thinking practice, the person who applies it to themselves will experience how their thinking becomes clearer, sharper and more comprehensive.

We will look at these three stages of practical thought training in a moment. But first we must consider the basic condition, the attitude needed if we want to think about acquiring the right attitude towards thinking. I have already used the image. No one should think they can draw water from a glass that contains none. Those who think about thinking today think according to this pattern. They think that they can draw thoughts from a world in which there are none. This alone gives our thoughts and concepts and ideas that arise in our soul the possibility of meaning something, of not being something insubstantial, but rather that the world is only really built according to the thoughts that we find in it. Only a world that has arisen from the thoughts that we find is entitled to be thought through thoughts. The person looking at a clock will readily see that the thoughts inherent in it were had by the clockmaker. Only he who reflects on the world would wish to believe that the world is ordered according to thoughts that are only conceived afterwards by man. He would only accept thoughts that the soul forms, and would not believe that things are only formed according to the thoughts that man forms last.

Aristotle coined the phrase: What man finds last in things is what was first put into them. If man finds thoughts last, it is because they were first put into things. But if you take this seriously, you gain, above all, what could be called trust in such thinking, which seeks to be in league with reality. If I know that thinking is not only found in the mind, as materialistic thinking believes, but that everything that confronts me is thought, then I will seek to see the thoughts in the things, to hold to the things when I should think.

A psychologist of Goethe's time, Heinroth, has just Goethe's thinking - because Goethe was born into this life as if by predisposition with the aim of thinking about things with thinking, as it were, in thinking in things, not abstractly. Heinroth called Goethe's thinking concrete thinking, which, so to speak, only thinks what is in the objects, and only thinks what can really flow into the objects. And Goethe himself found this to be extremely true. Truly, Goethe had this disposition – as we shall perhaps see more clearly, to think precisely in things – so that thinking was not separate from things, but immersed in the fabric of things.

Those who are not born with such an inclination but have to gradually acquire this practical, objective thinking that lives in things must observe three things: First, if we want to become practical thinkers, we as human beings must have a certain relationship to the objects and facts around us, and this relationship can be expressed as follows: We must strive as much as possible to have interest in the objects and facts of life. Interest in the outside world is the first magic formula for acquiring practical thinking.

The second is: Our own actions, our own activities must be controlled as activities of joy and love.

The third is: When we think for ourselves, when we go beyond life and turn our thoughts inward, then we must preferably have inner satisfaction for doing so.

These are indeed the three gradations, the magic means of all practical thinking: interest in the environment, pleasure and love for all activities, and inner satisfaction, as one says, in reflection, that is, in the thinking that we do silently to ourselves, apart from things. But we must really have these things.

Yes, but what is interest in things, really? Interest in things is nothing other than a real introduction to practical thinking, when we do not approach things with our templates, with our preconceived notions, but when we are inclined to take things as individualities at every moment and to say to ourselves: They always have something to tell us.

It seems to be saying little, but it means an enormous amount when applied to life practice. Most people approach people and the things around them with stereotyped concepts. And they look at an individual person, for example; but they do not see this person, only something superficial and fleeting, and if that fits with their stereotyped concepts, then they are done. This never leads to practical thinking.

It is very difficult to be understood in these matters. When I gave this lecture recently, someone said afterwards: Yes, I always have the idea: If someone has a thick, red neck and also looks very thick in other ways, then he is a materialist, the person himself “tells” me that through his appearance. — The person who spoke has heard everything that has been said, but has not understood it. He has been in the case that he has formed the dogmatic concept: When he sees a man with a red, thick neck, who is also otherwise thick, he judges him to be a materialist, instead of looking at the individual being and thinking: “She has something to say to me, she has the spiritual-conceptual within herself, I have to respond to her; each individual can still say something to me.”

That is one thing. But then it is not just a matter of cultivating such an interest for this individual thing, but for the course of events itself. And here one can go a long way by means of special exercises. Suppose you are confronted with a very specific event, a specific fact; you observe the fact; a person does this or that. You record this faithfully. Then form the following thoughts: If this happens today, then, on the basis of this fact, I will form an idea of what may have happened yesterday as a prerequisite for what is happening today. I will construct in my mind what has gone before, that is, I extend the fact backwards in my mind. And then I go about and research how it was. At first, the person will find that he was mistaken, but little by little he will realize that by doing such exercises, by constructing backwards the causes up to a certain time and then then, by looking at the facts, he will see whether his thinking is based in such a way that it meets reality. After some time, he will see that he thinks from the facts themselves, that they guide him, that he makes the right assumptions.

But you can also do it differently, like this: You can examine a natural event or any event in human life that happens today, and then you constructively imagine in your thoughts what will happen tomorrow as a result of this event. You wait quietly for what actually occurs and compare it with what you have thought up yourself. Again, you will see that you are initially wrong. But if you stick so faithfully to real facts and have the confidence: you immerse yourself in the facts and let that arise in your thoughts, which must also arise in reality, you stick to the event and demand of yourself that the thoughts themselves take a course like the facts, then you will get ahead.

These are tremendously effective exercises that can be done in relation to practical thinking. But there is one thing to watch out for. Such an exercise must be done selflessly in a certain way, otherwise it will not work. That is experience. It is ineffective if this selfishness is involved, which can be expressed in this way: if a person imagines that this or that must happen, and then when it actually happens, he says, “Didn't I predict it just like that?” This selfish joy is an obstacle to the power we are developing actually working. This is a fact, a real experience that anyone who does the exercises can experience for themselves. These things are subject to certain laws, just like the facts of chemical analysis and synthesis.

So we see how man can, as it were, creep into things, can identify himself with facts in thought. Then what he thinks takes place in the sense of the facts. I am speaking today to adults – it would be going too far for children – but let me just say this: if someone wants to develop real thinking that is connected to the outside world, so that, as it were, their thinking corresponds to what is going on outside, then they must be careful not to do such exercises in such a way that one event is placed next to the other, but they must take care to develop a feeling for the weight of an event. This is something that is connected with the practical training of thinking, but which very few people today know. Anyone who observes knows how little people have a feeling for the fact that it makes a difference whether one thing is said by one person or another. Both can express the same thing. But the way one presents himself to us gives his statements a different weight than the way the other presents himself to us. For the weight of what we acquire, we must, above all, acquire a certain feeling.

Goethe was born with such talents. He had developed them in previous incarnations. Therefore, he became something — for those who know the facts, this is clear —, therefore he became something that many who call themselves practical today are not at all. Goethe, of course, became a lawyer and also practised law. Those who know of his work in this field are aware that although his legal knowledge was not very extensive, his legal work was characterized by the opposite of what can be observed today: a lawsuit is in progress and it is handed over to a lawyer. You go there and want to ask him something. But there is no real reflection. You are not immersed in it. Bundles of files are opened, notes are looked at. You can find the most impractical thing there. For many, the people you have to turn to as practitioners are those who make things as impractical as possible. Goethe was practical. He didn't know much about law, but what he touched, he touched in the most practical way. We must not imagine that a person like Goethe is necessarily impractical. If the files that Goethe created as a minister in Weimar are ever released, we will see that he was a practical man. Goethe's practice was quite different from that of non-poets, although this is not meant as a dig at practitioners who are so arrogant.

Another thing can be said about Goethe: it is well known that he accompanied his duke to Apolda and that he practically carried out everything that needed to be done during the recruitment of new soldiers. And when they were finished, he worked on his “Iphigenia”, and he was already working on it during this process. Now we have to say, how many of our poets would not feel disturbed if they had to dig up recruits in addition to writing down their brilliant ideas! But I don't think that the “Iphigenia” has become worse than some contemporary poetry because it was worked on during the recruitment of recruits. But Goethe did that because his thoughts were concrete, so that his thoughts worked in the things, not detached from the things, not speculative.

This is evident when Goethe was able to explain the connection between his train of thought and the course of events outside in the most eminent way. Goethe studied meteorology. Today's meteorologists look down on the dilettantism of his knowledge of the weather; but with him things were such that they were practical eye movements, eye movements that sensed when they looked over something what an event would become in the near future. It often happened that Goethe would stand at the window, look out and see a small piece of sky and say: “In three hours it will rain.” That was a better prediction than many today. Goethe wove his thoughts into the things within it. It is precisely through his interest in the world around him that we can also artificially acquire this level of intellectual practice.

A second important thing is the joy and love for what we do. This means that we must try to have joy and love for the hand movements themselves, regardless of what comes of them. Then we will also gladly do what can be missed, where nothing comes of it but that which leads to beautiful results. This is really a condition of practical thinking.

I knew a young person who practised his practical thinking by binding his schoolbooks himself. He took great pleasure in doing all the various steps involved in binding a book. This is a better training for practical thinking than all brooding and ruminating. The necessity to check, so to speak, every thread that you stretch and pull for its effectiveness, to always pay attention to how the fingers move, that is really a good pre-school for practical thinking. And the more you have made futile attempts, the better for practical thinking.

Even excellent people in the field of theory and practice, such as Leonardo da Vinci, emphasize this, and they never tire of characterizing the details. Leonardo da Vinci talks about how to try to draw a template, first drawing the template on tracing paper; then you place the drawing over the template and memorize where you have deviated. Then you draw again, taking special care in those places. This simple matter was not too insignificant for Leonardo da Vinci to fill an entire page of his works with it. And you can try to apply this instruction to all possible areas of life to shape your thinking into a practical one.

The third thing is the inner satisfaction of the thought process. Everyone should have this, regardless of their station in life. Even if you devote only a little time to it, it will come back to you in abundance, even in material terms. No matter what area of life you are in, you should be able to reflect not only on the things you are involved with, but also on other areas. You should have moments of reflection on this or that question. Such minutes of reflection, in which you think in such a way that you do not desire that your thoughts flow into the outside world, should fill you with inner satisfaction. As a human being, you will get nowhere by solving problems that are actually far removed from what you are thinking in relation to the immediate practicalities of life. If you initially only have inner satisfaction from what you are doing with your thoughts, you will get ahead as a human being. If the carpenter only thinks about making tables and chairs, he will get nowhere as a human being. As a human being, you get ahead when you think about what gives you inner satisfaction. This trains the thinking organs. As a human being, and indirectly as a practitioner, you get ahead. No one will deny that you face life differently if you are this or that being. There is a big difference between a dog and a human standing before the Sistine Madonna. Man has a completely different relationship to it. Because man always remains in a certain area, he does not go beyond himself. Because he engages in thought and finds satisfaction in it, he advances. Through the process of reflection, in which he finds satisfaction, he affects practice differently than without it, and it is precisely through this that he will transcend a narrow field. He will rise above the standpoint of the inner coachman with an inwardly satisfying thinking, which is nothing more than what grants and seeks inner satisfaction.

Here one can also find the reasons why it is wrong that it is emphasized over and over again by our schools: Oh, what things are taught that cannot be applied in practical life! If only they are taught properly, then these things, which cannot be applied directly, are of immense importance. They transform the human being, these things that cannot be applied in life. What flows into life flows less into the human being himself; what does not flow into life forms the fine organs. This helps people to progress. It makes them more independent, and their minds are so imbued with the ferment of thought that it goes right to their limbs. You can see that a person develops such inner, satisfying thinking that does not directly involve the outside world; they become more agile, more skillful in their limbs.

There is no substitute for such training of the mind. Anyone who has experience in these matters can very precisely distinguish between those who do the exercises mentioned and those who do not. If you are traveling, for example, you can easily recognize the “practitioners”. Those who are practical in the workshop are sometimes quite awkward in other respects. It makes one feel peculiar when one sees how the simplest finger movement cannot be performed when the situation is different from what it usually is. This is a direct result of the fact that they have not been accustomed to developing thoughts inwardly and deriving satisfaction from them. Of course, one does not have to do one without the other. Those who only want to live in reflection become a foe of life and a speculator. But the person in whom the two things are in balance, who looks at things calmly and reflects calmly, will live his whole life, one might say, with skill. He will be able to do anything; he will even use the soup spoon differently than someone who does not do that.

This can be taken into the details of life, because thoughts are realities. They communicate with the material in all possible ways. That is what matters. In this way, we train our thinking for right practice. We then look out the windows of the car in which we sit and see the laws that are given by the fact that the car is still connected to the world, and not just pushing inside. This pushing inside is very widespread; and especially in today's culture, as it is so intimately and intensely influenced by science, those who have engaged in real practical training of thinking can see how much depends on the mere impracticality of thinking.

If people had any idea of what practical thinking is, they would see from the impracticality of thinking that certain things must be wrong. The facts investigated by science can be admirable, but the conclusions drawn from them are often dreadful because of the impractical thinking of the person drawing them. How can it be proved to many today that there is actually no soul, that everything a person accomplishes is based on purely mechanical laws? Yes, you can still find a very strange conclusion in the first pages of a “Outline of Psychology” — written by a person who is highly respected. Anyone with even a spark of understanding and practical thinking will immediately be able to reduce this to its true value. It says: Earlier times said that there was an independent soul; but today man has also been drawn into this web of the preservation of strength. It was first investigated, they say, in animals that everything that is fed to them is only transformed, and that what they do is transformed food. What the animals receive as strength is only converted food. How could there be an independent soul when only what you have stuffed in comes out converted?

They were not satisfied with showing this in animals; they also tried to show in humans that what you put into people in the way of the energy values of food comes out again in other forms. Why do you need a soul for that? This was tried on students. The calculations are very ingenious and are supposed to prove that there is no soul in it, that everything is converted food energy, what a person thinks and does. The facts are admirably observed. The methods are very well thought out, the instruments are magnificent. But the conclusions are the most gruesome one can imagine. One only has to trace the thought back to the simplest elements to see this immediately.

The thought is constructed exactly according to the following pattern. We line up at a bank. We know that money is carried into it. Now we check all the money, we write everything down, individually. Then we check what is carried out. We then come to the wonderful conclusion that the money that is carried out is exactly the same amount as what is carried in. From this we conclude that there is no need for officials inside; because just as much money is carried out as comes in. The other judgment is equally astute: just as much work and thought goes out as food value goes into people.

But it goes into much more subtle areas. Today we have a wonderful field of research that shines a light into the smallest organs of beings. There we find very significant small organs. The research methods are admirable, through which one is able to prove something in plants that imitates the human soul organs. It is proven that there are faceted organs that form the eye. Yes, they even photograph images that arise in the plant eyes, and from this it is concluded – nothing is to be disparaged about the wonderful research method, but only the conclusion is to be put into the right perspective – it is concluded: because it can be observed in this way, the plant must be ensouled in a similar way to animals and humans. One sees certain plants that draw insects through their organs and consume them. They develop a certain digestive activity; they attract insects and, as it were, digest them. And the conclusions that are drawn from this are very likely to blur the difference, which must not be blurred, between plants, animals and humans.

Someone who is familiar with practical thinking can say the following: I also know a strange creature that has the property of attracting small creatures by certain actions within itself, as if with magnetic force, and, when they approach, not only to transport them into its interior, but even to kill them there. That is the mousetrap. And the thought form that is now applied to the mousetrap is formed according to the same pattern as the thought forms that some people apply to something that is supposed to open up a new field of plants, to the soul life of plants.

When you consider things like this, you can begin to appreciate how important it is to really train this thinking through the specified means in practice. You cannot just train the circumspection of thinking, but also achieve a certain clarity of thinking through artificial means, through the following exercises. Again, the exercises differ from the habits of thinking.

Most people will not be able to form their judgments about any matter quickly enough. And once they have them, they are satisfied. They do not consider that it could have been different; if someone else says otherwise, they are a fool. This is not how you learn to think. You learn it by considering other possibilities for thought when you have formed an opinion, by not clinging to what you yourself have thought, but also putting the other opinion alongside in all love. You will see that it is possible, which can only be characterized by saying: Only those who disregard their own opinion can recognize the truth.

It is very useful when answering a question or solving a task to first consider the different ways in which it can be resolved, and then to leave it at that, to say to yourself: “Now I'll leave it.” You have to have a belief that is very important for practice, the belief that you have something within you, a kind of higher person who can think even better than you think when you are present. You don't have to be so selfish that you want to be everywhere in your soul and believe that you know the very best. Those who believe in the real validity of thinking and have confidence in it will say to themselves: my thoughts will progress most beautifully and objectively through their own powers if I am not there at all, if I switch off and turn to something else, and then present it all to myself again tomorrow or the day after. You will notice that, if you have not been there, you have become much wiser about this question. The possibilities of thought then work in one, and one comes to a decision in a much more favorable sense. This is of tremendous importance. And if one believes that selflessness has not yet allowed a decision to be made a second time, then it is of tremendous educational importance to wait again. And one will very soon notice how thinking becomes clearer and more forceful. It becomes much easier to quickly put things together once you have trained your thinking.

In this way, you can specify the things through which thinking can gradually be trained. Again, something of great importance is that you pay attention to the following for practical training in thinking: As long as you are interested in something, you should look at it, observe it and remain silent. You should only speak when you no longer have any direct interest in it, when you have risen above it. As long as you are still too involved in your interest in something, you should consider it and remain silent. It is best to speak when you no longer have a direct interest in something, but have detached yourself from it with joy and sorrow. Those who can do this will get very far. Those who resolve to form an opinion only when their interest has waned, who can take an interest in anything and hold back with their judgment, who only form their opinion in retrospect, will go a long way. This is a very significant pointer to how one can essentially train one's practical thinking.

And what is particularly important now is that one is not at all with what one already is, with the way thinking develops. It is very important for those who want to train themselves practically to try not to think at all for certain periods of the day. For the best training of the thinking is achieved when we harm it as little as possible by our thinking. When we can refrain from all thoughts, when we are able not to grasp the thoughts we can grasp, but to think nothing, then the inner, ever-present power of the soul takes effect and actually brings us a step forward.

This is very difficult and requires a great deal of energy. But it is of immense value to suppress all those errant thoughts that surge up and down within us and to think nothing at all. What is thinking in us is also there when we are not thinking along with it. This is best achieved when we are not present for a while. Because then we do not stand in the way through our personality, through our individuality. Just as it is work when we consider various possibilities and then let the thoughts work by themselves, it is essential that we let the power of thought work without us being there, that we let the thinking being develop in us, even if only for a few moments, without our intervention. Anyone who does this for a long time will notice the great benefit of such a thing.

Fichte was right when he said something completely different. You see, he was talking about the “destiny of the scholar” and knew in advance that he would have to set such high ideals that people would not go along with them because they would find them impractical. So he says:

We know full well that ideals cannot be applied directly in real life. We only claim that reality must be judged by them and modified by those who feel the strength within themselves to do so. Even if they cannot be convinced, once they are what they are, they lose very little; and humanity loses nothing. It merely makes it clear that they cannot be counted on in the plan of ennobling humanity. The latter will undoubtedly continue on its way; let benign nature prevail over the former and give them, in due course, rain and sunshine, wholesome nourishment and an undisturbed circulation of the fluids, and with that, wise thoughts.

Thus says Fichte about those who speak of the impracticality of ideals. A benevolent providence does indeed do its part in relation to human thinking. For much of what man spoils of his power of thought, the balance is created by man sleeping. If he were always awake and impairing his mental power with his thoughts, it would be unbearable. The fact that a person sleeps gives him the opportunity to repeatedly advance into his inner thinking power. However, thinking is much more effectively promoted when a person decides not to think, even though he is awake. The moments of not thinking are the greatest educational means for thinking.

Only isolated points could be selected from the whole range of what could be said and what could not be exhausted in twenty lectures. These points can indicate how one can find one's way out of the laws of spiritual science or theosophy and how thinking can be trained for practical life. For truly, thinking is trained by such things, it is trained for both perspicacity and clarity as well as for presence of mind. We make constant progress if we do not let ourselves be annoyed when we apply such things. One would like to say: If only such inner schooling of thinking were applied pedagogically early enough, everything that can be chiseled out inwardly would permeate the human organism so completely that it would become skillful.

What has been said today is concrete thinking that makes people skillful. I tell you, as strange as it sounds: nature still ensures that people can pick up what they have dropped. But if one were to train the powers of thinking as it has been said today, one would bring people to the point where they can pick up with their toes what falls down. It is only the lack of training of thinking that makes us so clumsy in many things, because the training of thinking does not work in the center of the human being, does not go to the center. This principle lies in everything that has been said today: to go to the center of the human being, to let the forces radiate out from there into all human limbs, so that the human being is enabled to use even the soup spoon correctly.

When spiritual science introduces proper schooling of the thinking, then people will systematically see an example in Goethe, and they will arrive at valid thinking by immersing themselves in things. It is precisely by training one's thinking in this way that one comes to find the simplest thoughts everywhere, to find what can be easily grasped. It must be possible to trace all things back to their simple thought construction. This is only possible if thinking is trained in the indicated way, otherwise thinking goes its own way. In detail, the thoughts can be correct, but as a whole they are not useful.

Isn't it true that, especially today, science is proving that or the other, which clear thinking recognizes as an error at first glance. There are people today, for example, who say: Actually, there is no substance, only movement. A witty brochure has recently been published that takes the view that everything is movement. It really says that when a person walks from one place to another, he does not carry what appears to us to be his substantiality from one place to another, but only movement, and by walking to the other place, he adds a new movement. This is thought of in terms of the pattern of the sun being up there, the solar particles are moving, they are dancing; by dancing, something does not go from the sun to us, it is said, the nearest ether environment dances, and the ether dances down to us. Only the movement is transmitted, it is said, and that is perceived as light. In this perceptive book, this whole ether dance is applied to the human being. The whole human being is actually just a dance. When I go to the next place, I create a new movement and so on. One would just like to advise the good man, when he walks, never to forget that he is creating the movement again, otherwise he would have to disappear into nothingness.

This is an example of how everything today is traced back to movement. But Goethe, in his straightforward thinking, had to experience that in his time everything was traced back to rest. All this is caused by impractical thinking, which is incapable of reducing complexity to simplicity. Goethe, as a practical man, faced all this, and the fact that he found his way through all the quirks is based on what he said in his practical thinking.

Let us also say this to ourselves in conclusion. It can also indicate the right point of view for the attitude we should acquire. He experienced that people who thought impractically confronted his practical way of thinking, and there he said the principle that one should really write for all thinking practice in one's soul, the principle:

Enemy eyes may meet mine,
But I will keep calm and silent;
And though they deny you movement,
Go on as if before them I do not exist.

From a soul struggling for knowledge of the world, Goethe spoke the sentence:

Mysterious in the clear light of day
Nature cannot be robbed of her veil.
And what she may not reveal to your spirit,
You cannot force from her with levers and screws.

And much of what has taken place in the field of science since his time would have prompted him to say:... you cannot force that from her with microscopes and telescopes. — The saying does not arise from a lack of knowledge, but from an attitude that does not want to accept only the material. From his youth to his old age, he held fast to what he says in Faust:

The spiritual world is not closed;
Your mind is closed, your heart is dead!
Up! Bathe, disciple, undeterred
The earthly breast in the morning dawn!

And so he has here, as also expressed in the sentence mentioned earlier, not that man could not penetrate the mystery of existence, but to draw attention to the fact that the human spirit itself, in its development, can do what instruments cannot, that the human spirit is able to ascend from level to level.

What the human spirit can do can only be answered from an understanding of the secrets of our consciousness. Consciousness as it is experienced by people today relates to the other consciousnesses that exist and relate to today's normal consciousness in such a way that they, so to speak, plunge the human being into dark depths, and on the other hand lead him up to the summit of knowledge.

Let us ask ourselves today: Is there only the “normal” consciousness or are there other consciousnesses and thus the possibility of penetrating into the causes of our existence? Today, we will deal with the relationship between consciousnesses from a particular point of view. What the word “clairvoyance” encompasses is something that is unpopular and contested in our present time. People who only recognize normal consciousness will consider everything that has to be said as folly and fantasy.

It is based on nothing more than a lack of knowledge of the nature of human consciousness; it must be said that the common inner ignorance of facts speaks in this way. And it should not go unmentioned that one would wish that what is called 'clairvoyance' in the spiritual sense be known to those who speak of it and who know very little about it and crave it. They imagine something quite wrong under clairvoyance. Therefore, it must be spoken of that clairvoyance, which lies below our normal consciousness and also brings out the human being below normal consciousness. And in comparison, it must be spoken of what clairvoyance is in the spiritual-scientific sense and how it leads beyond normal consciousness. It can only be understood by placing oneself before the soul, which has often been said about the nature of man, about the visible and invisible man.

Spiritual science does not have it as easy as recognizing man as an external science that is tied to sensual matter. It regards only the outer physical part, and then speaks of the physical human body. Within this physical human body, the consciousness of which we will speak in a moment sees the invisible, the supersensible human bodies. Isn't it the case that the ordinary mind could form enough reasons for the existence of these bodies if it would only say the following to itself: I wake up every morning; during the night my normal consciousness is immersed in darkness and gloom. In the morning, entities from the most diverse realms of nature penetrate into the field of vision of consciousness; everything that was there yesterday penetrates back into consciousness.

Now everyone should continue by saying to themselves: If it were not too absurd, what fills the field of consciousness would have to disappear in the evening and arise again in the morning. They should say to themselves: Its existence would have to have disappeared during the night. Spiritual science tells us that the human being still has an astral body, which is the carrier of lust and joy, of urges and desires, etc. For clairvoyant consciousness, the astral body descends when we fall asleep. Why do we have no impressions during the night? Because it is in the spiritual world and because we have no organs for it. Imagine what would happen in the physical body. The eyes disappear; the ears stop hearing; you would have no sound, no color around you. Likewise, you could imagine that the other senses gradually fade away. This is what the astral body is like at night because it has not formed any organs in the course of human development; in the morning it uses the organs of the physical body. Thus we recognize in it one of the invisible links.

Between the astral body and the physical body lies a second link: the etheric body. During the time between birth and death, this is a fighter against the decay of the physical body. And then, when the human physical body is a corpse, it only follows the physical and chemical forces, because the etheric body moves out at death with the astral body. Sleep is separation from the astral body; physical body and etheric body remain in bed at night.

Then we distinguish a fourth element: the “I”, with which the human being can come to self-awareness. Thus, we see the human being as a composite of the physical body and three invisible elements: the etheric body, the astral body and the I.

Only when we consider the human being in its entirety can we form an idea of the stages of consciousness. There is only one thing we must be clear about: how do we look at the limbs? Once the physical body was of a spiritual nature; it has disintegrated, like ice separates from water. And the ether body is, as it were, a little denser spirit, and the astral body is still a little denser, and the I-bearing body is still a little denser spirit. Therefore, we also call the “I” that which is a “divine spark” or “drop”. It is only through the fact that man has gradually developed that he has become an “I-bearer” and awakened to his self-awareness.

If we go back, we find the first formation of the physical body. Then, as it were, as the physical body became denser, the etheric body was set apart. Even later, the astral body was added, and even later the I. Only through this did he - the human being - receive his normal consciousness, through which we perceive external objects.

This consciousness was not always there; it is a product of development. We could go back into the past and we would find that the human being was a being consisting of a physical body, an etheric body and an astral body. In this very distant past, man did not have today's consciousness; he had a completely different one, a consciousness that is one step lower. We can call this consciousness, in relation to today's, an “image consciousness”. The only way we can study this consciousness is to restore consciousness to a higher degree. In those days, people could not perceive objects in outer space. Imagine that there is some object lying nearby that has a certain taste. Today, a person has to become aware of it through the taste, through the tongue; he perceives from the outside what the object is. The image consciousness cannot perceive such an external object; an image arises, and this image is a symbol of what taste the external object has. Or one approaches an object that would shine for today's consciousness; the image consciousness does not see that; but through a mysterious bond between the soul and the body, an image arises again.

And so we may say that such a consciousness has images that surge up and down, images that are closely related to our present-day ideas, except that they are symbols; our present-day ideas are only photographic images. What the astral body experiences is an awareness of images. Indeed, if today's human being could erase his “self-awareness”, he would disappear into the sea of astral images. He would experience the surging images in the astral body. We can characterize our present-day consciousness by means of a comparison. Imagine a creature that lives in the sea for a certain period of time, so that it only stays at certain depths. It knows the animals and plants that are embedded in the sea, but it never looks at the sky. This is roughly how we have to imagine human consciousness. Man emerges from a sea of astral images, and self-awareness is ignited by the outside world. This could never have developed if he had remained in the sea of the astral; but only by having objects in the external world does self-consciousness ignite.

Thus we have pointed to a certain level of consciousness that lies below our present, ordinary sense of self, from which humanity has developed. If we go further, we would find a person who did not yet have the astral body. And so we could say that image consciousness has developed out of an “ether image consciousness”. If we were to descend further, we would perceive a consciousness that differs essentially from what the modern human being knows as consciousness. But you can get an idea from what has been said today: the ether consciousness is contained in what remains in bed during the night. And our astral consciousness has submerged in the sea of the astral.

Now we do not have to imagine extreme contrasts here, but differences in degree. We do not have to think that the consciousness during sleep is the opposite of our own today; imagine that you also know something similar in our daytime consciousness. When you walk down the street, it may happen that you say to yourself: Didn't I see something just now? — You did not pay attention to it. There you have a lower consciousness. There is only a duller consciousness in what remains in bed. The plant has the consciousness of sleep continually - they are sleeping beings.

And we can descend even further, we can enter the physical body and come to the mineral consciousness. This is the consciousness in which the whole mineral world lives. So we have listed four levels: mineral, plant, animal and human consciousness. Three levels of consciousness therefore lie below our everyday, normal consciousness. These three levels were completed by man in prehistoric times.

Today, people are occasionally able to revive the last remnants of ancient levels of consciousness within themselves. There are also such heirlooms in the physical world, such as the auricles, which are an atavistic remnant; likewise, certain states of consciousness, which are usually called clairvoyant states, are heirlooms from ancient developmental states. However, they are not the true ones in the sense of spiritual science; they are only old heirlooms that sometimes live into our present-day consciousness.

People have two very different types of such inherited traits, which express themselves in very different ways. One is what encompasses the dream world. What a person experiences in a dream are not perceptions that are made in the same way as those experienced by daytime consciousness. They are images of external events. You only need to imagine characteristic dreams. Let us take one as an example: a young man dreams that the vault of heaven has opened up in front of him and a number of shining beings have emerged. He wakes up and sees that the morning sun has shone on the wall through the window. The dream has symbolically expressed this shining of the morning sun in such a way that it allowed the experience to arise in the soul as an image. Here you have an image experience. That is why the dream is an heirloom from the time when man had inner soul experiences that were linked in their form to external objects. For example, if you see a symbol with an ugly color in your astral consciousness, you know that there is a harmful object nearby. The not yet awakened object consciousness does not see the object, but only an image, so that one could arrange one's actions accordingly.

The dream images are only a remnant, but since they have different degrees of approximation, the “dream can sometimes light up that it really corresponds to a real fact that appears symbolically. Let us take the case of a person who dreams of the colony of Kiau-tschau, how he sits in a meeting and is constantly confronted with the name Kiau-tschau. He wakes up and sees that a cat has crept into his room and is meowing. In fact, the dream is such an arbitrarily drawn conception.

If you study the dream in this way, you will see that it is lines of life that have been preserved, but that it mixes lines with the greatest arbitrariness, mixing in certain interests of the day. Such a mixing of interests is, for example, when an important philosopher dreams the following. In his soul lived the poem:

Do you want to roam into the distance,
when the good is so close,
just learn to grasp luck,
because luck is always there.

And he dreams:

Do you want to roam afar?
See, the money is so close.
Just learn to grasp the money,
Because the money is always there.

You see how the dream from the source of the inner imagination deals arbitrarily with what it has experienced – the structure of Goethe's poem, for example.

If we were to follow this, we would have an immersion in an earlier state of consciousness. All our ideas can be symbolized in this way. Imagine you are lying in bed, you press your feet against the lower edge of the bed and release them again. The dream symbolizes: the feet become free and a flight arises. What causes the dream? The fact that what happens does not happen completely when a person sinks into dreamless sleep.

It is now possible that the astral body has already left the physical body and not yet the etheric body; this is particularly the case when waking up and falling asleep. Then the astral experiences are reflected and the dream experiences arise. The dream stands on its own; it is really a last remnant of old, overcome states of consciousness.

It is different with other states of “abnormal consciousness”, which can develop in certain respects in humans. Because they submerge in the astral, so that they give up their full self-awareness in certain respects, completely different states of the subconscious arise than in a normal dream. What must be tuned down is what man calls his 'I', his healthy thinking, to distinguish it precisely from what is in the environment. Every time the actual 'I' of the human being is tuned down, when the human being does not feel: Here I stand —, then it is as if the human being were diving below the surface of the astral sea. Then what can be called the subconscious comes to him.

There are three forms of the subconscious: what is called presentiment, what is called vision and then second sight. These are three different forms of the subconscious. It is natural that when man muffles his ego, he enters into a closer relationship with all the threads that nature connects than he would otherwise. When we raise our usual ego consciousness, then man must be content to see only part of the space; there he is always in such a restricted area, and what effort it costs to pull the connecting threads of nature. In a limited consciousness – that is the work of our 'ego' itself, when we dampen it down, when we dampen down our abilities, when we let our reason fall silent, then we descend into our astral body and this is connected with many intimate threads to what lives in the astral. There the ordinary connections of space and time come to an end. There we dampen down all these concepts.

Because of the completely different concepts of space and time, it can happen, as it does in presentiment, that time is overcome. At the slightest immersion, what might be called “dark feeling” arises; this comes from the currents that run beneath the surface, which one senses gently when one descends into the astral world. If you dive deeper, then, just as it was with the astral consciousness, the experiences form into very specific images and the vision occurs. We are then in the world of causes, in the world of the primal reasons. Then those beings emerge that are invisible to the physical eye. We get to know such entities, and the visions are often the physical expression of beings that are behind the sense world.

Thus we can actually encounter those entities that are there and can also be human souls. This enters our consciousness when we descend. And the actions of these spiritual beings, what they undertake unbound by space and time, we experience in second sight. When we see things far away in second sight, it is a descent into the depths of consciousness.

Today's man cannot dive into the depths of consciousness without taking with him what he has experienced up here. Man has acquired the habit of seeing animals and plants, etcetera, in a very specific way. He takes the way with him and with it he covers, as it were, the beings that come to meet him. They are true beings that appear to him, but they are false images. The fact is that he submerges, that he sees a being that does not appear in its true form, and he covers that with the images he is accustomed to. For example, someone submerges and he thinks he sees the Christ himself. Nevertheless, it is a real being from the spiritual world, but he has endowed it with the image of the Christ himself. And so what he sees is an illusion of a real being. And because people who are not trained clairvoyants cannot know whether they are seeing what they are taking with them or what is the truth, such people can be very sure that they are indulging in the greatest deceptions. Descending is therefore always accompanied by deception after deception.

You can dive even deeper, into the sea of ether, and you also take with you the way of seeing things very definitely. You can perceive powers in this way, but they will be blurred. If you saw them clearly, you would see what could be described as an all-encompassing life. For example, you would see our earth as an all-encompassing living being. But in this world man perceives the images to which he has become accustomed, and sees all kinds of things that have indeed been caused by spiritual entities; but the forms that the lower clairvoyant perceives are in deceptive form. These clairvoyants are what are called the dream walker, for example, where the person in the dream performs actions with the physical body in the dullness of the etheric body.

Likewise, what is called “magnetic sleep consciousness” is to be sought in this sphere, because usually causes of illness underlie it; suppose you have an organ that is diseased, you do not need to know it, something is abnormal about the person, which steers the person towards becoming conscious in the etheric body, especially when another person strokes them, etc., accelerates this process. All kinds of events in the spiritual world appear to him in all kinds of illusions. So we see that one can descend into different states of consciousness. In occult science, they are called the “subconscious”.

All these states of consciousness are not relevant to what is said in esoteric science. Many people are eager to switch off their ordinary daily consciousness and descend. They only want to experience something strange, they want to experience spirits. That human beings are spirits is not proof enough for them; they want to have spirits without physical expression. This is not to say anything against the truth and reality of these spheres; but what would come from such states could never be decisive for spiritual science.

Just as there is a subconscious, there is also a superconscious. This can only be achieved through training in the occult sciences. This includes learning to manage one's ordinary consciousness in the most precise way. It is therefore always emphasized that what spiritual science hears from the spheres can only be grasped with ordinary human understanding. It cannot be expressed strongly enough that Theosophy can be grasped with ordinary human understanding. Only those who are trained clairvoyants can see the true shape of the spiritual world. But when it is related after he has seen it, those who absorb these facts, when they are presented in a sensible, comprehensive way, can understand everything and they can say to themselves: If I do this, I can then check whether all this can be applied to life. One must keep common sense as one's own possession. You have to keep telling people who come to you: Approach the physical world first, apply our minds to these facts and try to understand them.

But who has an unimpaired mind, unclouded by the suggestion of so-called scientific facts! You have to realize that this is no easy task! Never before has the human mind been so limited as it is today. Everyone is satisfied when they can construct a whole edifice of the world from a few pegged-out concepts, and when someone comes along who wants to build the edifice from the sum of spiritual truths, they say that this is folly, fantasy or something even worse.

This must be taken into account. Only unprejudiced thinking can approach the physical world, not judgment clouded by all sorts of suggestions. Today people talk a lot about the “independence of judgment”; they want to be free of authority. They do not accept what they have not examined themselves; but they do not ask themselves whether they are capable of examining everything. What matters is that they want to be independent of any authority and yet are dependent on a great authority: “They say.” This intangible authority has a tyrannical effect on people. Humanity languishes under it, believing itself to be free from all authority. It absorbs everything that is a matter of contemporary judgment; one believes everything that science has established, as if no one cared.

He who stands face to face with the facts of the spiritual world must free himself from this. There he has to use his usual healthy judgment to progress to superconsciousness. Many a person comes and says: I used to see all kinds of things, but now everything has disappeared. Those who understand will say: That is good. You should ascend to the superconscious; to do that, the best transition is to go through a sphere of spiritual darkness. You can expose yourself to danger if you don't want to. When [the person] descends into the subconscious and all the confusing impressions of the astral world come, then perhaps in a certain respect he will come to have premonitions, visions, etc.; he may still see so many black poodles that only pretend to be something. That is not the point of seeing this. He who is not yet mature enough not to have respect for these scraps of the spiritual world is also not mature enough to penetrate into the superconscious. To do this, he must undergo catharsis or purification. Man must be cleansed of all subconsciousness if he wants to ascend into the first sphere of the superconscious. There he also experiences a consciousness of images, but in the same way as he lives in everyday life. To do this, it is necessary to strengthen one's consciousness and throw out everything that is subconscious. And that is a lot! You can see this if you remember that in early childhood, a lot of things penetrate you; you have forgotten them in your sense of self, but they are inscribed in your etheric and astral bodies. Certain childhood impressions would come up and disturb a person every time he or she tries to penetrate into a higher consciousness. In a sense, diving into the spheres of the subconscious is a dressing up of the real facts with images from the real world. Try to register the images of such “clairvoyants”, follow them back to a time when there were no railways or telegraphs, wait and you will not be surprised that railways and telegraphs will play major roles in the “spirit realm”. This is only because the seer takes with him what has been imprinted in the etheric body. Therefore, if you want to penetrate unclouded, it is necessary to throw everything out of your subconscious. You can only acquire it by going through it with complete consciousness, which is provided by the spiritual scientific method. There is what the student has to practice, what he has to experience, absorbed in imagination, and that is pictorial representation, which proceeds according to the rule:

All that is transitory is but a parable.

Thus you will find that in every training session symbols are given such as the rose cross, the serpent staff of Hermes, etc. They have something tremendously significant when a person has to experience certain facts of the outer world inwardly. One forms a symbol that one does not use in the same way as a photographic image of the outer world.

Let me mention here once more, in the form of a dialogue between teacher and student – this dialogue did not take place, but the facts do take place –: Look at a plant; it takes root in the ground and lets stems, leaves and flowers emerge. And now compare the plant with the human being. You call him a higher being. You know that the red blood that makes man a higher being also enables him to develop passions, instincts and desires, but also the soul world, the higher consciousness. The plant has no desires and instincts; it stands there in pure, high chastity. But you see the human being with a higher consciousness; however, he pays for that which is connected with the red blood through passion and desire. And then imagine the high ideal that the human being will become like the plant; he has subdued the desires and purified his red blood.

For man the plant is a model; he forms a picture of how, in time, everything degrading will have died out in man, and his blood will be pure, like the sap in the red rose. Think of this as a symbol in the red rose and apply to it Goethe's saying:

Before you do not have this,
this: Die and become!
Are you only a gloomy guest
On the dark earth!

And when we feel the burgeoning and sprouting in the soul, like the reddened sap in the red rose, we feel that and let the image work on us in inner meditation! And the image has a certain effect: it pushes out everything that fills the subconscious, and we have taken the first step towards the superconscious.

There are countless symbols just as I have described the Rose Cross. The disciple must immerse himself in these and then put them together in the “occult writing”, and in this way he comes, purified and cleansed, to an ether consciousness. Through what we gain from the occult writing, we receive the so-called inspired consciousness in that which is not tied to space and time; but we do not see it clouded by the images of everyday life.

And then there is a higher link of the superconscious: intuition. — In all these spheres of the superconscious, man takes his full “self-awareness” with him. If someone says: You are describing a consciousness in vain, that does not reflect a true world, then let someone who understands it tell them: These things are there so that the forces develop in us that free the astral body, the etheric body, from the physical body, and by doing so, we learn to see into the spiritual world while being fully aware of our ego.

There is no danger associated with this path, nothing can happen to us on it, it is safe if we follow it with patience and perseverance. If you submerge yourself, if you dampen the I, there is a danger; we fall prey to the passions that reside in the astral, and eventually we can lose our minds, while we become more and more understanding as we ascend in superconsciousness. Hence the insistence that the road to superconsciousness lies through day-consciousness. Those who find it too dull and uncomfortable to go through the study of the physical often pay for it with the loss of their reason, which they have sought through their greed.

Thus we see that there are stages that lead up and stages that lead down. The former lead to true clairvoyant states, where the ego is among the actions of spiritual beings [in inspiration] and finally where it is spirit among spirits [in intuition]. Nothing less is achieved than the cleansing of the physical body, the etheric body and the astral body. There are some things you have to accept; for example, when a person frees his etheric body, he may experience a temporary loss of memory because it is attached to his etheric body. If a person partially draws it out so that he can use it, his memory fades. But it will be amply restored to him later, albeit in a different way. And the qualities and abilities of consciousness are lost for a time; even self-awareness takes on a different form. Like a wanderer who feels lonely, the person walks along. As he penetrates further, the common memory disappears and a certain insight into past things arises.

Those who undertake the right training must have composure and perseverance. They must enter the path with courage and boldness, but it will be rewarded with the great reward of insight into the spiritual world, where the powers lie to become master of the physical world. A time will come when only those who recognize the spiritual forces behind the physical and can make them fruitful will be considered practical people. This leads us into the spiritual world while fully maintaining self-awareness. Not instruments, telescopes and microscopes, which only explain the veil of nature, only the spirit leads into nature.

Mysterious in the bright day

Nature cannot be robbed of the veil.

And what it may not reveal to your mind,

You do not force it out with levers and with screws.

If we want nature to come to meet us, we must go to meet it by developing our consciousness into superconsciousness. Then man will live his way into what Goethe described with the words he put into the mouth of the wise man:

The spirit world is not closed; your mind is closed, your heart is dead! Arise, student, arise,

The earthly breast in the morning dawn!

Dear attendees! Not so long ago, only 300 years, not only laymen but also learned naturalists believed that lower animals, worms, even fish could arise from inanimate river mud. And it was a great advance in human thinking when the Italian naturalist Redi first stated that, under our present-day conditions, living things could only arise from a living germ. Today, anyone who still wanted to claim that earthworms or fish can simply form from ordinary sand or mud would be considered a fool or an ignorant person. Indeed, the vast majority of today's thinking people are hardly aware that these three hundred years ago, people still believed that such a thing was possible! What is taken for granted today by laypeople and by science, that under our present conditions, living things can only arise from living things, is something that humanity had to gain for its thinking only over the course of centuries, and so it is, honored attendees, for many achievements of human knowledge. Today, spiritual science or theosophy has a very similar truth to implement and introduce into human consciousness. That this truth will become part of human consciousness in the future depends solely on whether people will just as naturally accept what many people today consider to be folly, a reverie or a fantasy: that the spiritual and soul can only arise from the spiritual and soul. Basically, all that is needed to understand all the things that will form today's topic is a thorough living through of this simple sentence. Nevertheless, much, much water will flow into the Elbe before the advocates of this sentence will no longer be regarded as fools, dreamers or fantasists.

The sentence that living things can only arise from living germs was not easily accepted either, and Redi only narrowly escaped the fate of Giordano Bruno. Today, those who bring something similar together are no longer condemned to death by fire, that has gone out of fashion. But they are condemned to the other death, which burns less, but which is therefore still equivalent to the way in which uncomfortable truth seekers were eliminated from the world in the past. Today they are condemned as dreamers, fantasists, fools or the like. But the time will come, and it is not so far away, when it will seem self-evident that the spiritual and the soul can only arise from the spiritual and the soul. And the whole question at issue today, the question of such immeasurable importance for people, the question of the supersensible worlds and the destiny of the human soul in the supersensible worlds, the question of the riddles of human death and life, the question that is not just a theoretical, but a practical question in the most eminent sense, because the one who is able to solve it for his own soul draws certainty and strength for life from the answer, hope and confidence for his work, in short, everything that allows people to stand upright in the most difficult struggles of fate, in all that life brings.

Today we will approach the question of the destiny of man in life and in death from two sides. One approach will bring this question before the court of facts, the other before the court of common sense. If we want to speak of facts, then we must first form an idea of what we actually have to understand as facts. We speak so easily of proving. We shall see that these things are taken very superficially in the wide circle of humanity. The fate of the human soul in the supersensible world will be the subject.

Now, dear audience, when I was still a little boy, I often listened to conversations of very simple people about that mysterious land where man comes after death. There were religious people who, out of their faith, gave certain answers about fate, but there were also free-spirited people among the simple folk, unbelievers. One sentence always worked to beat the others. That was the sentence: No one can know anything about that country from which no wanderer has yet returned. It was said more simply: Have you seen one who has told of the events after death?

That was something that was taken by many as something striking. Now, honored attendees, people would not attach so much importance to such words if they wanted to reflect more thoroughly on the ordinary events of the day that happen to every human being in 24 hours. In the ordinary course of daily life, a person clearly experiences different states. In 24 hours, you go through two states of consciousness: waking and sleeping. Of course, the most ordinary and everyday things are the least thought about; but the riddles of the world are present in the everyday. It should seem mysterious to man that what he experiences within himself from morning to evening, the whole world of surging and swaying sensations, perceptions and thoughts, lust and suffering, joy and pain, drives and desires and passions, that he sees this whole world of the evening sinking into an indeterminate darkness. Everything that a person perceives through his eyes from morning till evening, which awakens desires, lust and suffering in him, etc., descends into the darkness of consciousness like the setting sun. In the morning, the person wakes up again; what he left behind for his consciousness yesterday dawns again out of the darkness. All the familiar images, thoughts, impressions come to consciousness just as the sun rises over the horizon. All the pains and sufferings that had been forgotten come back up like the sun rising over the horizon.

Would it not be foolish to claim that every evening the sum of perceptions, sensations and perceptions, pleasure and pain, pain and joy, that they disappear and merge into an indeterminate nothing and are recreated tomorrow? Anyone who thinks thoroughly says: It would be the greatest folly to claim such a disappearance of mental life and a new creation. The soul is there, it is present, it is real, anything else is contrary to common sense. What distinguishes the sleeping soul from the waking soul? Only that the sleeping soul cannot perceive, it has no consciousness of what fills its field of vision during the day as its experiences. States of consciousness change in every person in 24 hours.

Now, honored attendees, when the world of facts is to be explored, that which can be called clairvoyant human consciousness comes into play. With this word, I have expressed what may seem like something fantastic or foolish to the very enlightened of the present, especially at first. What is this clairvoyant human consciousness? First, let us clarify this consciousness through a comparison. You imagine, honored attendees, you are leading a person born blind into this hall. For you, these lamps shine, these doors appear brown. For the man born blind, this hall does not appear in this way; the lights and colors are not there for him. If you were to succeed in operating on this man born blind here, what would enter his field of vision is what was there before, but what he did not see. What was there before has now become perceptible to him.

What this man born blind can experience through the operation can be experienced in relation to the spiritual abilities of the soul. Just as in this man, whom you operated on, the ability to see was dormant, so in every human soul there is something dormant of higher abilities that can likewise be brought out of the human soul through an operation. What Goethe, for example, referred to as spiritual eyes, slumbers in the soul of every human being. And then, when these spiritual eyes are awakened in the soul of a person, it is just as much on a higher level as it is for a person born blind on a lower level whose physical eye has been operated on. A new world invades him, the world that is always around us, the spiritual world. But man's soul is also in this world during the state of sleep, during the night.

Why can't the human soul see this spiritual world in its normal state? It is easy to see why. Imagine that you were standing here with your body alive, but you lost your sight and could see nothing. If you also lost your hearing and other senses, the world would be imperceptible to you. So how can we know that a world exists for us? Only on the fact that we have organs for this world. When a person is in the spiritual world at night while sleeping, then in his normal present state he has no organs for this world, he has no spiritual eyes. But when a person develops what are called these spiritual eyes, then it is not dark and gloomy around him, but then he lives in the sleeping state so that he perceives: There is a world, I have left the physical world; I have entered another world. Now another world has become visible, a fact, as the world of physical colors and lights for the blind man who has undergone an operation.

What is described here as opening the spiritual eyes is called awakening or initiation. Such initiated people, who had developed their spiritual abilities, have always existed. Because they had developed their spiritual abilities, they could see into the spiritual world, into the world of which they now had to say: When a person falls asleep, what we call his outer physical body remains in bed, and a spiritual-soul entity leaves this physical body. This being really does leave the physical body when we fall asleep. During sleep it is in another world. In the morning, the soul once again enters the physical body. It then uses the eyes and ears again and perceives the physical world. What is the difference between the unawakened person and the awakened person? The difference is that in that part of his being that goes out at night, there are no spiritual eyes; but in the awakened person, spiritual eyes have developed. Those who want to study these questions more deeply and thoroughly will see that what has been said is not something plucked out of the blue, but something definite and real. Of course you can ask the question: Yes, but how does one achieve this awakening? The answer to this question is also given. There are certain methods and certain practices that a person must apply to his soul, and then he draws out of his inner being the dormant spiritual eyes, the slumbering soul abilities. It can only be hinted at that by allowing very specific inner soul experiences, which have been established for thousands of years in what is called concentration, meditation, or inner contemplation, to take effect on his soul, man can change his soul and develop spiritual eyes as a result. Then man becomes clairvoyant in a world that is otherwise closed to him.

If you look through the little booklet on initiation and mysteries, you will see that there is a very specific way of making the soul clairvoyant, just as there are methods for making microscopes. Certain ideas have an effect on this soul, and then it transforms, and then abilities arise, which you can call hallucinations or visions if you like, but they change very quickly so that they become the mediators of the spiritual worlds that are around us. In this development, one very soon learns to distinguish from one another what a vision is and what corresponds to reality in the spiritual world. Just as in the physical world you can only come to distinguish between ideas and reality through experience and living, the same applies to the spiritual world.

Someone may say: I believe in Schopenhauer that the world is my idea. We say: Very well, just imagine a piece of burning iron or glowing steel. It does not burn you, but now, if you touch it, you will very soon realize the difference between your idea and reality; the imagined glowing steel does not burn, but the real one does. You will have the same experience as you develop your spiritual powers and abilities.

When I said this once in southern Germany, someone said: But you can evoke the ideas in your mind so vividly that they even have a physical effect; so someone could have hallucinations through contemplation and other exercises that they mistake for reality. You can also, he said, make your mouth water when you imagine lemon juice. “Then I said that he should try to quench his thirst with imagined lemon juice. You can only do that with real lemon juice, and you notice the difference. It is the same in the spiritual world. Those who are spiritually awakened and have developed their spiritual senses know from experience where the boundary is between imagination and spiritual reality.

These are the facts on which spiritual research is based. When someone comes and says: Yes, these people claim not only the physical body, but what they – oh, these fantasists and fools – call the astral body, these awakened ones claim that. They should just prove it and list all the facts. Well, ladies and gentlemen, firstly, the person who makes such a speech has not thoroughly informed himself about the nature of proof. I would like to advise him to think about the proof that the horse has its head in front and its tail behind. Just because people always see normal horses, that is why they take such a thing for granted. Proofs, which are to be based on facts, must be based on these facts. The spiritual researcher is on no different ground than the natural scientist. If someone comes and says, “There are natural scientists who say that plants consist of cells.” “I have never seen cells, only leaves and flowers.” What I have not seen, I do not believe. — Then the natural scientist will say to him: You must get a microscope and learn to work scientifically, then you will see the cells as facts. Only if you take the appropriate precautions will you see them.

But the methods by which the invisible, supersensible aspects of human nature can be seen are accessible to everyone. If he undergoes the methods that the initiate has to undergo, if he develops clairvoyance, then he undergoes something similar in the spiritual life to what the person working with the microscope undergoes in the physical life. The analogy of the facts is complete, at most the matter is more uncomfortable in the spiritual life. It is more uncomfortable in the spiritual life because a microscope can be fabricated. But what the spiritual microscope is, everyone must develop in their own soul; they must transform themselves if they want to see for themselves. But there have always been such initiates who knew what message to bring from these spiritual worlds.

And now let us present to our soul what these initiates have to say about the cycle of man through the different worlds. It is presented in much the same way as if someone were to tell you that he has seen this or that through the microscope. The spiritual researcher speaks from his research: What you call the human being is by no means as simple as you imagine. This human being consists of many, many parts; he has visible, tangible parts, but in addition he also has invisible, supersensible parts. The first part is the physical human body. This physical human body he has in common with all other inanimate beings, with crystals, rocks, with mineral beings. In addition, he has an invisible part that is a loyal fighter in the physical body. This second link, which only a clairvoyant can see, is the etheric or life body. This permeates the human being. If one did not have it, the human body would be in every moment what it becomes with death: a corpse. A crystal follows its own physical and chemical laws. The human body cannot follow its own chemical and physical laws during its lifetime. If it did follow them, then what it is as a corpse would show up, it would dissolve. But the etheric body is a faithful fighter against decay. The human being has the etheric or life body in common with all plants.

The third link of the human being is the astral body; it is the carrier of desire and suffering, joy and pain, of all the feelings and passions that arise and ebb away in the waking consciousness, etc. This astral body is just as real and true for the spiritual researcher as the physical body, indeed even more real. If someone objects: You are not going to imagine that such astral bodies can fly around in the air, then the spiritual researcher answers: I can imagine it very well; not only imagine it, but to the spiritual researcher the astral body shows itself as an independent part of the human being.

Today, such an awareness would be considered fantasy; but the real fantasy lies on the other side. A healthy understanding of human nature will say: Here I see the person, the tear rolls out of his eyes. Therefore, I assume that he is sad. The grief is an experience of the soul or the astral body. This experience has a physical effect, it presses tears out of the eyes. Here we see how physical effects arise from experiences of the soul. Some schools of philosophy say that this is a mistake. They say that when a person cries, a secret effect occurs that is mediated by material things, and this secret effect presses tears out of the eyes and when the person notices this, then he becomes sad. So the person does not cry because he is sad, but he is sad because he cries.

The third part of human nature, the astral body, is shared by humans and all animals. Then there is a fourth element, which is the carrier of self-awareness, the carrier of our ego. Through this element, humans rise above all the beings that surround them in the sensory world. He towers above his fellow creatures, he is the greatest of earthly creation. In spiritual research, we speak of the physical body, the etheric body and the astral body in animals. In the case of humans, we speak of four members: the physical body, etheric body, astral body and the I-vehicle.

What is sleep for spiritual research? When a person falls asleep, his physical body and ether body remain in bed, while the astral body and the I-bearing body separate out for the clairvoyant. In the sleeping person we have a separation of the four limbs. Because in today's normal consciousness the I and the astral body have no organs of their own, but only in clairvoyant consciousness, these organs are dark and there is darkness around the person. In the morning he plunges into his physical and etheric bodies. Throughout life between birth and death, except in states of emergency, the physical body is firmly connected to the etheric body. The astral body goes out at night.

After death, something very special happens. The mere physical body remains behind and the connection between these three invisible members, ether body, astral body and I, goes out. And from that time on, the physical body begins to be a mere physical body, that is, it follows its physical and chemical laws; it dissolves; it is a member of the mineral world.

But then, when spiritual research follows what emerges from the physical body, it shows that the person remains connected to their etheric body for a while. After death, there occurs for a time what could be called a review of the whole past life. You will already have heard that people who are close to death in abnormal conditions – for example, when drowning – review their whole life like a panorama. This gives the person a shock because the entire etheric body is detached from the physical body. The entire life is written in the etheric body, it is the carrier of memory, and only the physical body prevents it from showing this. But it immediately shows this memory of past life when it is freed from the physical body for a moment.

The same is also evident after death. Man then has a review of the past life. Then comes the second cadaverization. After a few days, the etheric body detaches itself from the actual inner core of the being, just as the physical body detached itself earlier. What remains is an extract of this etheric body, and the etheric body dissolves into the general etheric matter just as the physical body dissolves into the physical matter. After the human being has freed himself from his etheric body, he now consists of the ego, the astral body and an extract of the etheric body. This extract represents the fruit of the last life, what we have experienced in the last life. You can say to yourself: when you have grown older, you have experienced more than you did earlier. The whole of life consists of becoming more and more attuned to the spiritual; that is not lost, it is written into your etheric body, and you take it with you as a fruit.

After death, something very special happens. What I am about to say is a fact for clairvoyant research, but it can also be grasped by common sense. We have seen: the physical body has fallen away, we will leave the etheric body out of consideration for the time being, but what has lived in man, lust and suffering, joy and pain, that has not only existed as an effect in the physical body, but we must consider that as reality, and then we can say: what is the reason why the desires should immediately fall away when the physical body falls away? There is no reason for it. Spiritual research now shows that the astral body remains present after death with the desires.

An example: a person was a gourmet in life, he had desires for these or those delicious foods. This desire does not depend on the physical body - minerals have no desires - but it depends on the astral body. Now the physical body is dead, the craving has remained, and now the person is in a special situation: in life he satisfies it by eating the food in question, but for that he needs the palate and tongue, organs of the physical body. After death, he still has the craving, but he lacks the organs to satisfy it. The human being is in the same situation as someone who suffers from thirst in solitude and finds no water or beer far and wide. It is the same after death with everything that lives in the human being's astral body and that can only be satisfied through connection with the physical body. After death, spiritual research can confirm that the human being gradually weans from everything that can only be satisfied by the organs of the physical body. This state lasts until the person has given up all impulses in life that require physical organs. This period, which varies in length in different individuals, is called in spiritual science the time of man's passage through the world of souls or Kamaloka; what is meant is a state. After death, man has to go through this state. Certain religions call it purgatory, a time of trial, purification, cleansing. Then the parts of the astral body that contain only what can be satisfied by the physical body fall away from the person like scales. Then the soul is able to make something out of what it has taken with it as an extract, out of what it has taken with it as the fruit of life.

And now the time of the actual spiritual life begins, the time in which man lives in increasingly spiritual worlds, which first begins with man reversing his activity from the physical world. What does that mean? What man does first among many other things, we can understand, honored attendees, if we look at the light with common sense. It is true that if man had no eyes, he would not see the light. But for those who always claim that without eyes there would be no world of light, the other side, the other side, must also be asserted. Where do eyes come from? Goethe speaks from a deep knowledge of the world when he says, “The eye is formed by light for light.” That is to say, if there were no light, if the sun did not give off light, there would be no eye. Light has formed and shaped the eye out of indifferent organs.

The organs that we have as human beings have been formed gradually, after undergoing very imperfect states. So how could an eye come into being? Because there was light around the human being. If you look at certain animals that live outside in the world, they have eyes. When such animals change their way of life and come into dark caves, their eyes wither, they recede, they lose their sight because there is no light in their environment. As the missing light takes the eyes, so the light has also given them. But in the same way, what we encounter as a person's soul with these or those abilities can only be built up by the surrounding spiritual world. But in this world is the human being after Kamaloka, and in this spiritual world he has the fruit of his last life. From this spiritual world he begins to build up his spiritual organs with what he has learned in the last life, what he has experienced. Bit by bit, he now builds up his spiritual organism with the experiences he has had in the last life. It is true that the human being builds up this spiritual organism bit by bit. Just as he builds his destiny in the physical world according to the experiences he has in the physical world, so he directs his actions in the spiritual world according to the spiritual experiences around him. And he is busy, among many others in the spiritual world, creating a kind of archetype, spiritual model for his spiritual organs.

When this spiritual organism is now created out of the materials of the spiritual world, then the human being experiences the longing to realize in the physical world what he has built spiritually, to descend again into the physical world. So those bodies that he had previously discarded are built up again piece by piece around this spiritual organism according to the conditions of the physical world. For what the human being has taken from the physical world has been prepared for him in the physical world. That which is in the physical and etheric bodies must be given back to him from a world to which he had given it back; his parents give it to him. The physical and etheric bodies are brought up to him by his parents from a world from which he has only just departed, and what has taken shape as an archetype in the spiritual world is connected with him. And we can see how this archetype works on the formation of the physical body.

Physical science is not a counter-proof of this. Once the facts of natural science are properly examined, then natural science will correctly find the fact of spiritual life. Look at the child after it is born. The child has developed certain parts of its brain that can be said to be sensory centers, nerve pathways; these are already developed in the first week after birth. On the other hand, if you examine the brain at the end of the first month, you see that almost two-thirds of the brain is only formed during the last four weeks after birth. Bit by bit, the inner two-thirds of the cerebral cortex are permeated with nerve marrow, which transmits one sensory impression to another. The child sees colors and hears sounds, but cannot connect them. The nerve cords that transmit the impressions of the senses are built up bit by bit. Those who insist that these nerve cords build themselves can cling to their superstition; but they should also claim that some complicated apparatus also assembles itself.

We take on board what science says. We see the physical body and its mechanism, but we also make the comparison: No mechanism can be built without intelligence. No machine is made in the world by itself. That which is formed in the human brain does not do itself. What works on it? The archetype, which for the clairvoyant consciousness comes from that spiritual organism, works on this brain. And when this brain is worked through more and more, the fruits of life are woven into it. Man had, after all, taken the fruits of life into the spiritual world. He transforms his brain into this archetype. Depending on how he has used this life, his brain is now transformed by this archetype. For example, someone who has lived in dullness will think nothing of what happens when he sees a church lamp burning and swinging. But for the one who has used life in a different way, it works in such a way that he discovers the influential laws of the pendulum and gives them to humanity, like Galilei, who first saw the laws of the pendulum vibrations in the church lamp in the cathedral of Pisa. Indeed, with him the archetype worked differently than with the thousands upon thousands who also saw that lamp and who did not notice anything. Here we have a tangible example of how the spiritual works on the physical.

Those who do not admit this can be said to be beyond help, not admitting obvious facts. They cannot demand: prove your case, but rather it is a matter of the other person creating conditions to produce evidence. Those who look deeper will realize that the best evidence requires recognition.

Thus we see how man, passing through the gate of death, enters into other worlds: first into a preparatory world, then into the world of spiritual creation, where he prepares a new life. Then, through conception and birth, he enters into a new life. After birth, the human being still works on his brain. Either say: it all takes care of itself —, or there is no other possibility than that the human being is accepted with such a spiritual life.

Now one could say: Of course I will admit a soul that exists before conception; but I will not admit that the soul owes its working capacity and form to a previous life; rather, it descends from the spiritual world anew each time. — Under today's conditions, such a soul that descends anew would not fit well into the present world. That is another necessary assumption of common sense, that one turns one's attention to the harmony and fit between what descends and what is brought in the line of inheritance. Only such a soul can come into harmony with the conditions in the physical world that has acquired the prerequisites for a life in the present conditions in a previous life.

This is how we move from the present life to a previous one. When the soul descends again and develops in the body in this life, it is exactly the same as in the previous one, except that the person has woven in the fruits of the earlier existence. Thus enriched, the person lives again between birth and death, and so it goes on.

Thus man passed through the cycle from the sensual world through the world of the mere soul, the world of purification, to the spiritual world, and then again he descended into the sensual world, and so on. He goes through this cycle again and again, and therein lies, honored attendees, the guarantee of an ever-higher development of man. This teaching, which shows us the causes of our present life in previous lives, is not a bleak one. One can only say: if you build up this life in an inadequate way, then the cause lies in a previous life. But one can also point to the future and say: use your life well and you will carry the fruits of this life over into the following one; then confidence and energy follow from such a realization.

For those present, who approach this sentence with common sense, the facts of clairvoyant consciousness cannot, of course, be proven externally, but they can understand them. They can say to themselves: If I accept the facts, then life becomes understandable to me. Facts cannot be proven; I would like to see someone prove that there is a whale when no one has seen it. But by creating the appropriate organs, one can come to see the facts of spiritual life. Only connections can be proven, never facts.

Now, dear audience, common sense may want to object to some things and say: If you tell me that the human being descends from spiritual heights and connects with the physical, I don't believe it, because I don't see it.

Today, certain abilities are attributed to heredity. In the radical case of genius, people today try to present a genius and say: Now we go peddling and see if we can find the qualities that the genius has in the father or mother or up to aunt-like ancestors, and so the genius should be the last link in the line of inheritance. The fact that genius always appears at the end of the line of inheritance is cited as proof that genius arises through inheritance. For those who want to think in a thoroughly materialistic way, this sounds reasonable; but there is no logic behind it at all. For the doctrine would really be proven if the ancestor had the genius and this had inherited its properties to the descendants. But that is not the case. Those who take a closer look at human life will know that certain traits are inherited. We know that there are 29 musicians of varying ability in the Bach family. There is nothing miraculous about that. To become a proficient musician, one needs not only mental and spiritual qualities, but if the soul descends and meets no parents who can give it a developed ear, then it cannot become a musician. So just as the soul's qualities come from past lives, so the inner physiognomy of the ear depends on the ancestors. But when man becomes a closer observer of life, when he, as a thinking educator, sees this human soul developing in its manifold individualities, then he sees how the spiritual abilities by no means develop out of the physical human being, but he gets the feeling that something is working its way in that has lived in the spiritual world before. One then notices that the human being has often existed in this world, that he has adapted to this world in his various stages of existence.

Today we know that an earthworm can only develop from an earthworm germ, that it cannot grow from river mud, which all natural scientists believed 300 years ago. Today, people think that the wonderful human soul can arise without being transmitted from the spiritual and soul realm. Living things can only arise from living things, and spiritual and soul qualities only from spiritual and soul qualities. If one leads the spiritual-mental, which works in from a dark background, back to earlier spiritual-mental, and one is clear that the consequence of the spiritual-mental lies again in the spiritual-mental, that it goes beyond our present life, and that these different lives have nothing to do with what is called the line of inheritance.

A worldview like this will give courage and strength. The more materialistic people have become, the more they have become afraid of things. What is more widespread today than the fear of hereditary burden? The view has changed, and the result of this view, which is based on materialistic ideas, is fear of people, and this has an enormously paralyzing effect on life. If people live their soul unused and do not want to be filled with spiritual content, then what they inherit is indeed fatal for them. For they are weak in their soul.

The soul, like the body, wants to be nourished. It wants to be nourished with truths and insights. If a person trains himself in soul knowledge, he becomes strong and can control and overcome the laws of inheritance. Of course, today's materialists do not believe this. When the soul becomes desolate, then life remains unused, then what is called heredity carries a great deal of weight. It is therefore up to man to make his soul strong and powerful. A world view is not without practical consequences. He who has no idea that the soul really exists, lets his soul become desolate. The materialistic world view brings with it a desolation of the soul's feelings and emotional life. And it is true that such a soul has more to fear than a soul that strengthens itself with spiritual content. Here we see how the spiritual worldview provides enlightenment and security for life. At any time, so to speak, the two things interlock: the facts that arise in the clairvoyant consciousness about the fate of the soul, and the common sense that can say: I can understand life. And so the soul works its way through the individual lives to ever greater perfection. There is for the human soul, apart from the sensual life, a soul life and still another spiritual one. The soul passes through these lives, only to undergo a new one.

Even if life in the material world sometimes appears to be in decline, in general, life on earth and the intervening lives in the spiritual worlds are a continuous ascent. This worldview offers a wonderful perspective on the goal of life. This goal is becoming more and more spiritual in nature, both physically and spiritually. Indeed, we can say “spiritualization”, because the human being will increasingly recognize the foundations of physical life. More and more, he will work from the spiritual world. Ultimately, his own act will be his deliverance from the sensual world.

Thus man progresses towards his perfection in a way that is completely comprehensible to us. Those who extend the law of cause and effect, which is a scientific fact in the physical world, to the spiritual world, say to themselves: “Let people call you a dreamer and a fantasist – the time will come when the sentence: spiritual-mental can only come from spiritual-mental, will be recognized, where the realization will come of man's passage through all worlds, through many lives, and of man's perfection. When one comprehends the human development in this way, then one has certain concepts not only for the physical, sensual world, but also for the soul and spiritual world. These are not fantastic ideas, but concepts with which one connects something, just as man connects these or those concepts with ordinary sensual things.

And so today we can say: Yes, of course, the things that are facts for the initiate, such as the cycle of life through the different worlds, are still little recognized; but they will be recognized, and they will become a fact of the inner soul life for people. Humanity is moving from progress to progress, and it will also have to accept this progress. And those in particular who today still do not want to recognize these facts will have to recognize this progress, which solves the riddles of life, from the mystery of death.

Then people will understand that at first they can believe that what the initiates say is a reality, just as they believe when a microscopist says that a plant consists of cells. If we are willing to think through the analogy correctly, we will gain the courage to develop our own spiritual abilities, our spiritual eyes and ears, as Goethe says, and to learn to recognize what can give us a truly new religious religious consciousness, a religious consciousness that already lies in what we know as the truth of Christianity, which shows us that life in the world of the senses also has value for eternal, heavenly and spiritual life. With Christianity, a religious consciousness has entered into people that sees redemption not only in the spiritual world, but also in the taking over of the fruits of physical life, of what one has learned here.

Finally, let us visualize two images. The progress in our religious life goes from Buddha to Christ. We can only express our admiration for the great figure of Buddha to those who can understand the depth of the Buddha's soul. What Buddha expresses as the great truths of life is infinitely profound. It seems like a legend when Buddha, emerging from wealth and the king's environment, finds a corpse outside, a poor, miserable, sick man. He looks deep into the depths of life and speaks his great truths: life is suffering, death is suffering, illness is suffering, old age is suffering; being separated from what one loves is suffering; being connected to what one does not love is suffering. Desire for what cannot be obtained is suffering. The teaching of Buddha is that the thirst for existence, for re-embodiment and for new life must be quenched and mankind must be released from this sensual existence, which is called Nirvana. Buddha proclaims the fourfold suffering. Liberation from the suffering of this world, that is, ascending to the Buddha's teaching. And then Christ came into the world, that was a strange advance. Those who understand the essence of Christianity, who understood it in the first century, for example, had a different feeling about the name Christ. They had a feeling for how the spiritual life is clothed with the sensual existence, the material for which is supplied by the physical, sensual world. But we do not say with Buddha: We only want liberation and salvation from the sensual world. We say: This earth is worthy and dignified, because the body of Christ is also taken from the material of this earth. The earth over which Christ walked gives fruit for eternal life. And so, for those who recognized him, the existence of Christ became a certainty that from life to life, man takes the fruits of his existence into the spiritual world. And now the teaching of the Buddha changed. In the schools of spiritual science, it has always been expressed that the truth of life through Christ has changed. Birth, that is, entering life, is not just suffering, because we enter a life in which Christ has lived. Illness is not just suffering, because by connecting with Christ's powers we become master over illnesses. In the future, people will learn how to work externally on physical illnesses; the conqueror of illnesses is Christ in the human breast. And old age is not suffering, because as a person ages and the physical body declines, he will carry the fruits he receives in the physical body over into the spiritual world. And death is certainly not suffering, because it is a wonderful image of contrast: Buddha goes out of his royal castle and sees the corpse and there he comes to the great truth: death is suffering. And in the first centuries of Christianity, we gradually see people turning their eyes to the wood of the cross and seeing the corpse. And this is the guarantee of eternal life, of glorious eternal life, of the victory of eternal life. This corpse is not the proof that life is suffering, but that life is victory over all suffering.

The one who comprehends Christianity knows that he cannot be separated from what he loves, because the spiritual bond is woven from soul to soul. It is impossible not to be connected in a spiritual sense to what one loves, because one learns to embrace the whole universe and to purify one's desires.

The full meaning of Christianity will only be revealed by research, which we call spiritual science, not from any documents, but from the clairvoyant consciousness, independently of all records. Then Christianity will show itself as something that has not yet by a long way brought its deepest impulses to the surface. But not just a dead observation of the course of development of Christianity, but a deepening into the spiritual world and a bringing forth of these living germs from Christianity will mean the progress of Christianity. Spiritual science does not seek the Christ where he walked the earth, but is a faithful follower of the words:

I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Therefore, we rediscover the Christ every day, and we find him, if we want to seek him today, through spiritual science, which, independently of all documents, looks into the spiritual world and sees the Christ as a guide to ever higher progress in it. This is how the cycle presents itself, and this is how it will always present itself to those who will understand spiritual people.

That everyone will experience this one day was the profound realization expressed by Goethe at an early age. He confirmed that he recognized a spiritual world to which the human being belongs just as he now belongs to the physical world. Yes, it was from the depths of his discerning soul that he spoke when he pointed out what can be renewed again and again in the human soul, what can constitute the happiness and blessing and blessedness of the human soul, which this spiritual world recognizes, which Goethe also recognized when he said:

The spiritual world is not closed;
Your mind is closed, your heart is dead.
Rise up, bathe, disciple, undaunted,

The earthly breast at dawn!

Those who reflect on such questions of human mental life as those on our winter program this year, on character, conscience, on the healthy and sick soul, on life and death, mysticism and so on, those who reflect on such questions will perhaps be able to be reminded again and again of a saying of an old sage from the fifth century BC, Heraclitus, whom is called the “Dark” because of the significantly deep nature of his thinking. He, Heraclitus, spoke the words:

You cannot fathom the depths of the soul, even if you wanted to travel all the roads. The soul has such deep reasons.

We are reminded of this depth of the soul in many ways when dealing with matters of the soul. But only slowly and gradually, over the course of this winter, can we, so to speak, engage with the deeper questions of the soul life.

Today and tomorrow, we will deal with phenomena of human inner life that are perhaps no less interesting precisely because they are closer to the most everyday and because one thinks about them less. It is in such phenomena that the noblest and highest core of human inner life, which we call self-consciousness, is obscured for certain periods of time in a certain relationship, obscured by all kinds of feelings, but mainly by affects.

Today we will deal with one of these affects, which plays a significantly profound role in the human soul. We will deal with the force within us that underlies anger and everything related to it. When speaking of the soul qualities and expressions of the human soul, one can ask: How is it that the human soul, which is supposed to lift itself ever higher and higher intellectually and morally through its self-awareness, is repeatedly thrown back by impulses of the kind that anger is? Is a quality of the soul like anger a mere hindrance on the path of human beings upwards to the great ideals of life? And in a practical sense, too, such questions are of the greatest importance in our immediate lives.

The educator, anyone who is entrusted with the care of another person, will readily admit and will recognize how important it is to know what role an emotion like anger plays in the soul's life. Once we recognize such a thing, we can treat everything connected with it in a correspondingly tactful and wise manner. However, our present consideration of the soul life will encounter the greatest difficulties in dealing with such a question as the meaning of anger. Only a deeper penetration into the undercurrents of existence, into the winding paths of the spiritual life, allows us to provide some insights into such a question. So today we will first have to allow something to enter our soul that those of our revered listeners who are present at these lecture cycles have heard from a certain quarter, who have been present more often at these lecture cycles.

But it will be necessary again and again to allow the unique nature of the human being to enter our soul if we want to understand human expressions and effects of force. From a spiritual point of view, the mission of anger is to be considered today. Here we must consider man, not only as he presents himself to our outer senses, to the intellect that is bound to the instrument of the brain, and which is limited to processing the impressions that direct sense observation provides. For such a spiritual-scientific consideration, that which the senses see and which the human intellect, conscious in this sense, can comprehend, is only a part of the human being. That part of the human being that we can perceive with our senses – external science is only concerned with the physical body insofar as it is a science of nature, and in a certain respect it is right with this limitation – spiritual science calls the physical human being. But beyond that, it distinguishes the higher nature of the human being. What we call the physical body has the same composition of substances and forces as everything we call the mineral kingdom, the seemingly dead nature around us. The same world of forces is in our physical body as it is out there in the world.

But there is also a question that the ordinary human mind can ask and to some extent answer, namely, whether these forces and substances that are at work in the human body and that are the same as those in the rest of mineral nature act in the same way as they do in the rest of mineral nature. The answer is no, they do not. When the human physical body – and the physical body of any living being, for that matter – is left to itself, it follows the laws of the mineral world. We see this when the physical body is left to itself at the point of death. We see the way in which the composition of the physical body works when it is left to its own physical and chemical forces. That which, from the beginning of physical life to the end, fights against the physical and chemical forces so that they cannot follow their own path, which they only follow in death, we call the first link of higher human nature – do not be put off by expressions, stick to the concepts – we call the etheric body or the life body. With this, we ascend to the first supersensible link of human nature.

Even for someone who merely employs logic and the instrument bound to the physical, such a life body can be reasonably inferred. For someone who stands on the ground of spiritual science, this life body is a fact of the same reality as the world of sounds and colors. And the spiritual researcher can say to those who reply: “This etheric or life body does not exist at all.” It is not perceptible to the ordinary senses, just as color is not perceptible to someone who is blind. But it exists for the person who has developed the corresponding powers in his soul so that he can really perceive this life body as a fact.

All these things can be discussed in the course of winter in a different context. Today it must be left at that. — Then we come to the third link of the human being, which is called the astral body. This astral body is the carrier of pleasure and suffering, of joy and pain, of urges, desires and passions. This astral body is what humans have in common with animals, just as they have the etheric or life body in common with plants and the physical body in common with minerals. For reason, this astral body, if it is to make use of logic in an unbiased way, can be something that can be logically deduced. For spiritual research, it is a fact, something that is just as present for the perception of the spiritual researcher as color is for the eye and sound is for the ear. Thus, in the astral body we have a second link in the supersensible human being.

And if we ascend further in the composition of human nature, we come to what he no longer has in common with the other realms of nature around him, what we call human self-consciousness or its expression, the ego. This ego is that which, so to speak, every sensible human nature is surprised by when it perceives it for the first time. I would like to quote again the beautiful saying of Jean Paul, when he was still a boy and stood in the courtyard of his parents' house and felt the 'I' for the first time [gap]. From now on, the question of God and immortality was understandable to him. It would be so easy to arrive at the human 'I', at an understanding of it, if one were to say to oneself: There is something expressed in the I that is distinguished from all other concepts or names by the very fact that it is spoken. Anyone can call a table a 'table' and a chair a 'chair'. But when you say the word 'I', it denotes something that only refers to itself, but that has no meaning and cannot be applied to your higher self-awareness when it is spoken by another. Your “I” can never sound sweet to your ear if it is not meant to signify your own soul. This is truly the expression for the “shrouded sanctuary” of the human soul. This is the expression that, as in a short monologue, describes the essence of the human being within, or what can also be described as the divine in human nature.

We have thus placed the four aspects of the human being: physical body, etheric body, astral body and I, before your soul. When we look at the person as he stands before us, these four elements are what constitute his interaction, his mutual interpenetration. What is significant is that the human being is not a closed being, that he is not a being who is finished at any given moment, but a being who is in the process of living development, a being who progresses from this or that stage of progress to another stage.

What then is the nature of this human development? What is the interplay between these aspects of the human being, which we can call the wonder of human development? They interact in the way that presents itself to our minds when we consider what an astral body might look like in a person at a low level of cultural development, and in a person at a higher level of cultural development, in that he does not live in his wild desires and instincts, that he does not desire and crave everything that comes to him in terms of the senses, but that he has purified his urges and desires through the ideals of moral life. You can place two people side by side: the one whose senses are still covetous, who still desires what his senses present to him; and the other, with fine tact and a sense of duty, who shows that he has undergone a refinement of his soul, has purified and cleansed it.

What is this purification based on? It is based on the fact that the human being works from his ego on the other members of his being. The ego has done this, which has become out of instincts, desires and passions. The ego has purified the astral body, transformed instincts, desires and passions, made them into something different from what they were before. In spiritual science, the part of the astral body that the ego has already transformed – insofar as the ego has worked with full consciousness on the transformation of drives and passions, on its moral perfection, on the transformation of the astral body – is called the “spirit self”, or, in an expression of oriental philosophy, the “manas” of the human being.

In general, we can say that in present human development, the human ego has only just reached the point of working on the manas or spirit self, consciously working. In the future, the high spiritual ideal for human beings will be to consciously work not only on the astral body, on the purification of passions, instincts and desires, but also on the transformation of the etheric or life body. Today, human beings can only work unconsciously on this etheric body. What he once transformed in his life body is called the spirit of life or Budhi in spiritual science.

And now an even higher ideal in the sense of spiritual science arises before the human soul; this is an ideal in which the human soul today, when it has a sense of it, can be overcome by a sense of vertigo at the height and grandeur and sublimity of the future of human development. When man is able to work consciously on the physical body, then he will also rework the physical body from his ego or self-awareness.

Today, a person can only do this unconsciously. But you can see it happening in everyday life. You just have to look at life impartially. Imagine a person who feels shame, that is, he feels something in his soul as if he wanted to hide something about himself; a blush of shame rises to his face. What does that mean? A purely inner experience has triggered a physical process, a redistribution of the blood. It is the same when a person turns pale. The blood then moves from the surface to the inner parts. This is a process in the physical body that takes place unconsciously. What a person consciously works on in his physical body is referred to in spiritual science as the Atma or spiritual man.

If we describe the course of human development in this way, we can say that the human being consists of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body and an I. If the I transforms something of the astral body, the spirit self or manas arises. If something of the etheric body is transformed, the life spirit or budhi arises. And if the physical body is transformed, then the spiritual man or Atma arises.

But that is not the only thing that comes into consideration. When a person can also look at his ideal, in which he has completed the transformation of the astral body, then he has unconsciously already worked on this astral body from his I. He already has something within him that can be described by saying that the I lives in the astral body. That part of the astral body that is not consciously transformed by the I, but which - as we shall see is correct - is already an instrument of the I, is called the sentient soul by spiritual science.

But the etheric or life body has already been transformed to a certain extent by the I, and today it already serves the I as an instrument in a certain way. The I has already sent its power into the etheric or life body. Insofar as this body is merely an etheric body, it is connected with the forces of reproduction and growth. But insofar as the etheric body is transformed by the I, we call it the mind soul or emotional soul of the human being.

But the physical body of the human being is also transformed and becomes an instrument of the I. This physical body of the human being, insofar as it is an instrument of the I, serves precisely as a sensory organ; through the wonderful apparatus of the sensory organs, it serves the consciousness of the I. That is why we call that part of the physical body that is capable of being an instrument of the ego the consciousness soul, which thus dwells in the physical body.

Thus, in the sense of spiritual science, we first have three bodily members: the physical body, the etheric body and the astral body; then three soul members in which the ego lives to a certain extent: the sentient soul , the soul of feeling, and the soul of mind; and finally, by making use of these three members, the I works them over in a conscious way to become the spiritual self, the spirit of life and the spiritual human being.

This is a meaningful scheme. But it is not just a scheme, it is an active force. Only the one in whom it becomes so alive that he sees the forces of the individual human members interacting, comprehends human development. Yes, this human nature is deep, deep, as Heraclitus correctly said. Thus we see the human ego at its work, and within the human body we see the transformation of the inner soul-elements of the human being. If we want to understand this ego, we must ask ourselves, above all, what is the present stage of the human ego, what has it achieved, conquered by working, partly unconsciously, on its astral body? What it has conquered lies in what we can describe with the words: The I makes the human being a being capable of judgment, a being that judges from within, be it judgments of the intellect, feelings or will; this makes the human being a being capable of judgment.

This says a great deal when one says that it makes a human being a being capable of judgment, a being that can think, feel and want from reasonable judgments. It is said that one really learns to distinguish between what is the sensation of a physical being and what is the impulse of a human being. When we look at animals, we can find all the qualities of the human soul in animals to a certain extent. We find sympathies and antipathies in animals, even what is analogous to one of the highest feelings of the human soul, an analogy to love. We find analogies to what we call human intellectual activity. It is easy to observe in the animal kingdom how everything works similarly to that in humans; but who could fail to recognize the difference between what is present in humans and what is present as a quality in animals? We can say with certainty, based on the animal's organization and form, what it will be driven to do in this or that case. Necessity is quite different in the case of a human being who ponders the question: Should you do this or should you not do it? He weighs it up before coming to a decision. Only those who do not look closely at the matter can fail to see the enormous difference. In the course of his development, man has acquired the power of judgment through the interplay of his development, which has just been characterized.

If we want to place before our soul the highest ideal of this discerning human being in relation to an area, in relation to human coexistence, in relation to the way two people relate to each other, two things arise. If we look at the judgment that confronts people, it is the concept of justice and the concept of love. When the human being places the concept of justice before him, he will be able to say to himself: Justice is something that can be regarded as a higher ideal. This means harmony, balance in life's circumstances. One need only think of good and evil, right and wrong. But what is it that afflicts the human soul when it utters the word “justice,” when it surrenders to the concept of justice? It is something cold that the human soul experiences in its feeling when it surrenders to this concept. It feels justice as a necessity, as something that must be, as something that man must submit to based on his sound judgment.

The soul feels differently when it contemplates the concept related to justice, so to speak, the concept of love. Here the soul does not feel coldness, but inner warmth, something of what elevates human nature, because it must say to itself: That is only a truly human ideal when justice is no longer practiced because it is perceived as a necessity, but because one loves what is right, because one loves to do what should be done.

Thus, justice and love stand side by side as a cold ideal that is nevertheless recognized as necessary, and as a warm ideal that fills our soul with inner fire. And in them is contained what the human soul sees as the two ideals when it asks itself: In what direction must it develop its power of judgment first? That through her judgment, through her deliberations, through what lives in her, she experiences the coexistence of human beings in such a way that it is in the sense of justice and love. - In this sense, man looks up to justice and love as two lofty ideals of development, and he sees, enclosed in the interplay of his forces, that which leads to justice and love in coexistence.

That is how it is. But one cannot understand human development, or development in general, without another feeling, which provides insight into the actual nature of development. Development is something that, if it is to flourish, must include something else. And this other process can perhaps best be described by the word maturing. Maturation over time is something that cannot be separated from the concept of development. And we understand each other best when we apply the concept of maturation to the concept of the human ego itself.

Take the life of a single human being, take it in the sense that a serious observer of existence should take it. Is it possible to expect the same of a person in their third year as in their twelfth or sixteenth year? That is impossible. The same cannot possibly be expected of a developing being when the interplay of forces is such that it is developing. There is a time for every stage of development, and it is detrimental to the being's overall development to transgress this law of maturation. It is also detrimental to the individual's human development between birth and death to expect something of the ego at one stage of life that should only be expected at a different stage of life, according to the degree of maturity. But it is also unhealthy to expect a person at a lower stage of development, who has not yet sufficiently purified his passions and instincts, to do things that can only be expected of such an ego in a truly fruitful way after it has gone through the various stages of purification. This is how it is when the human ego sees such significant ideas as justice and love as ideals and says to itself: You must rise up — so that they work like two great guiding stars in the life of man. But the path must be traveled in the right way. If we now consider not the individual life, but the whole of human life over the course of centuries and millennia, how the human ego returns and works on the human being, then we will have a complicated fact before us, which is very compelling to draw attention to the maturing process. If – and this can only be stated today, but will be touched on from various points of view during the winter lectures – if the human being not only lives once between birth and death, but returns again and again, then what spiritual science recognizes as a necessary consequence of development, that the I does not live only once between birth and death, but returns again and again, then it is [conceivable] that spiritual science recognizes as a necessary consequence of development, that the I does not live only once in this life between birth and death, but undergoes successive embodiments.

During all these embodiments, the I works in such a way that it has worked in the distant past on the astral body, etheric body and physical body, so that the sentient soul, mind or mind soul and consciousness soul; let us continue to work so that spirit self, spirit of life and spiritual man will arise. The forces of this development permeate each other in interplay and unite in the ideals of justice and love. This work is done by the “I”. Thus, if we take the word experience in the right way, we must understand that at every moment of life – if we speak of different embodiments, in every single embodiment – the soul acts on the other members of the body in the right way, that the “I” works on every work on every single development, that it does not do too much in terms of acquiring justice and love; for the ego should never go further in relation to what is capable of judgment within it, and it cannot go further than its degree of maturity makes possible.

But what is the regulator in this relationship? What ensures that the ego does not go beyond the degree of maturity at certain stages? Do we understand what the regulator is, what ensures that the ego can at least do the right thing at each stage? What is said here can only be understood if we turn our attention to something that is becoming clearer and clearer to people through spiritual science: If we turn our attention to what man's knowledge, his insights, his ideas and concepts (to name briefly the means by which we know the world) give him, we see that these are not found in man alone, but are poured out over the whole world.

Man tries to understand the world by forming concepts and ideas about the world. Just as you cannot scoop water out of a glass that does not contain water, you cannot scoop wisdom out of a world that is not full of wisdom. Man draws wisdom out through his judgment, through his capacity for knowledge. He comprehends the plant because it is constructed in a way that is full of wisdom. He forms concepts. It is nonsense and foolish to believe that man could form a concept about the plant if the plant itself were not built according to this concept. What man draws out of the world is poured out into the world and underlies things. In the human soul, what is poured out in the rest of the world or in nature outside appears in a different form as wisdom.

If you want to visualize this, all you need to do is think about the following. It took a long time in the development of mankind for man to reach a certain stage of historical development, let us say, to produce paper. Try to imagine the sum of thoughts and work that were necessary to produce paper so that it could enter human development. One could say, if one wanted to speak grotesquely, that within the wasp world this paper was not invented thousands of years ago, but much longer before, because the wasp nest is built from the same material that we have as paper. We have real paper there. What man produces in his materials is worked out into the outer nature.

As such stages, you can realize how what man has acquired as wisdom is poured out into the world. The world is permeated by wisdom and built up of judgments. Wisdom is a rediscovery of judgments that are spread like a net over all existence in nature. Wisdom-filled furnishings are not only to be found in what human consciousness works out, what human beings shape in their souls; wisdom-filled furnishings can be found everywhere. They were already there when the human ego could not yet consciously work. And it was this wisdom-filled work that made it possible for the human ego to work on the physical body, the etheric and astral bodies, even before it was able to work consciously. But this wisdom must also be out there in life today. The human ego is not yet so far advanced that it can find the right thing all by itself, that which would correspond to a much higher power of judgment.

What I want to say becomes clear when you consider the following. Imagine a person standing before a child that he wants to educate. The child does something that it should not do. It becomes necessary for an action to take place; it can be punishment or something else. Such a thing is possible. One possibility is that the educator says that the pupil is doing something incorrectly. The educator dislikes this, and it is possible that he may become angry and that this anger may develop to a certain degree, in an impulse to a certain action. That is one possibility. The other possibility, however, is that the educator, although he has seen the injustice and felt displeasure, remains calm, feels composure and, based on mere judgment and a certain maturity of soul, does what is necessary as a punishment or otherwise in the case in question. Outwardly, the same can happen. The difference lies in the soul being filled with anger one time and with composure the other.

When we consider this difference, we will ask ourselves: Why is there anger in the one case and composure in the other? Would the person who looks at what the child is doing with anger be able to do the right thing in the case in question because of the maturity of his or her self? If you look at life, you will say to yourself that as a rule he will not be able to do the right thing. It takes a certain degree of maturity of the ego to do the right thing despite not feeling any emotion and remaining cold and calm, but still loving the matter at hand and loving what should be. A certain degree of maturity is required for this. And every person stands at a certain point in relation to this maturity. The human ego cannot always have the degree of composure that enables it to do the right thing despite not feeling any emotion. To do so, the human ego must develop to a certain level. What would the educator do if he were calm and did not feel anger? Then the educator would stand by with his composure, do nothing, and leave the matter be.

The wise order of the world ensures that the I is guided towards what is right, at least to some extent, by forces other than those to which it has not yet matured. Before the I is mature enough to act from serenity, it acts out of affect, out of anger. Here we see that in the course of development, the human ego does work on the human astral body, so that in the course of development the astral body develops in such a way that composure blossoms; but as long as the ego is not yet able to attain this maturity, it does not want to work on this composure, then the human being should be driven by something within him to do something. One such mechanism, and a very important one at that, which allows the ego to mature within the astral body and yet still drives it to enter into a certain relationship with its fellow human beings before it is mature, is anger. Just as, for example, the outer nature in its plant kingdom, in its animal kingdom, is wisely arranged, so is everything that we can call the astral nature of human beings wisely arranged. It is arranged in such a way that people enter into a relationship with each other before they can build themselves up completely on the basis of their ideals of justice and love, using their power of judgment. The forerunner of serenity is anger.

In development, it must be the case that what leads up to higher levels of development can also lead to error. If man did not now enter into error, he could not work his way to the truth. So even if anger gets out of hand, if we consider it in its full significance, we can see how it works. Take a young person in his youth, who is not yet able to develop certain ideals; but he sees this or that injustice in his environment; he comes to what one can call a noble anger. And what one can call noble anger at what he cannot approve of, that works in him to help the soul mature into working out in itself what the great ideals of life can become. Like a mother substance, the self, left to its own devices, is made mature through qualities such as anger. That the self is made mature can also be seen from other facts. Because the young man never sees his ideals realized in his environment in the case of things that he cannot yet have any concept of, he repeatedly feels the same noble anger at what displeases him. When people look into life, they can perceive that all the noble surges of anger in youth later come out as love and gentleness. He who views life in its entirety sees the transformation of youthful anger into the love and gentleness of old age.

Thus we see how love and justice, which stand before the human soul as lofty ideals, but which the ego must mature — for it takes an enormous effort to develop the system of human justice and the truth, the real of love, which is not burdened by clouded feelings, we see how justice and love, these high ideals, have set up wrath as a champion in the human social order. It is wrath's [mission] to prepare love.

This is understandable when you consider that what is supposed to become judgment in reality threatens to degenerate into extremism. If we consider the various embodiments, we can say that what a person brings with them in the way of justice and love goes back to a time when they were not yet able to recognize what the right balance should be, when they had no idea of the true feeling of love, but when what arises is anger. Like the dawn of the sun, so shines the nobility of anger, the noble anger that precedes love. In wisdom, the powers that rule the world have placed the nobility of anger in the astral body before a full consciousness of love can be developed, before love can become full justice in the soul.

In times when things were examined more closely than today, it was possible to determine what was in the soul members just by their names. If we go back to the great Greek philosopher Plato, we will find that Plato calls that which we call the consciousness soul, the reasonable soul. But what we call the intellectual or mind soul must be endowed with the ideals of justice and love, and Plato calls this the wrathful soul. What we call the sentient soul, Plato calls the desires soul.

If we turn to Aristotle, we find that he uses similar terms in a similar way; we can also see that they correspond exactly to the expressions of spiritual research. Why does Plato call the soul that precedes the consciousness soul, the wrathful soul? He calls it that because not only wrath but also all wisdom-filled institutions are written into this soul, because he found the wisdom that was poured out into the world also poured out in the human astral body, precisely as a wrathful soul.

In the case of those who have looked more deeply into the nature of the soul, we find that the essence is already indicated in the name. The person who, from the point of view of spiritual science, looks at what passes through the ages as legends and myths of the peoples, as a transmission of the peoples, makes a remarkable discovery in his soul. What might be called the “science of the green table” can answer when you ask where this or that myth comes from: “That is folk poetry.” Only someone who is unfamiliar with folk poetry can speak of folk poetry in this way. But anyone who delves deeper and shines a light into this or that saga or myth will make the remarkable discovery that it contains great wisdom. Before humanity was educated by logical judgment, by pondering and counting, as is right today, before this ability to judge led to the contemplation of truth, another, clairvoyant recognition led to it, to contemplate the truth. So the myths and legends are something quite different than they initially appear. They become an expression of profound truths.

A saga that leads us into the depths of the truth that interests us today was processed by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus in his “Prometheus Bound”. When we delve into the life of this poet, who lived two thousand years before us, we are seized by the world view that permeates his poetry, the world view that is poured out in the Greek myths, the world view of the Greek people.

I could fill the entire lectures over the winter if I wanted to tell you what there is to say about “Prometheus”. This poem ties in with the myths that the name Prometheus encompasses. You are all familiar with the Prometheus myth. Let us briefly recall it. When the Greeks looked back in time, they saw ancient generations of gods at work within our earthly nature, within our earthly and cosmic evolution. Today it is not intended to explain what is meant by this. Imagine that they are personifications of natural forces, or whatever and however you want; that is not the point today. The Greeks saw two ancient dynasties of gods: Uranus and Gaea; these ancient dynasties of heavenly gods, who brought about the first processes on our Earth, were replaced by the dynasty of Titans; the dynasty of Titans to which Cronus and Saturn belonged. Kronos was the son of Uranos. We are told that the Titans, with Kronos at their head, seized power and overthrew the old Uranos. We can assume from the outset – and this is pointed out, and it is true – that according to Greek belief, certain forms of life existed in ancient times that were subject to different rulers then than in later epochs of development. Anyone who is aware that the forms of events change over time will admire the ingenious view of Greek myth, which expresses the beginning of [earthly] development, that interplay of simple primal forces of the world, through the marriage between Uranus and Gäa, and then expresses a later epoch by saying that the Titans appear. The whole face of the earth changes, so that other forms of life, of happening and becoming are there. Thus, in the Titans, we have a second generation of gods, forces that work within the development of the earth. Why is the generation of Titans replaced by the generation whose leader is Zeus? He is, so to speak, a member of the youngest of the generations of gods. He therefore overthrew Kronos and his followers into an unknown world, a hidden world to which the Titans belong, and in which Zeus is the one who exercises world domination.

In Zeus's fight against the Titans, Prometheus, a descendant of the Titans, sided with Zeus. It was he who helped Zeus to achieve his goal. But Prometheus experiences a bitter disappointment, so to speak. He helped Zeus to achieve world domination. Within what the Greeks imagined as a succession of these three corporations of the gods: Uranus, Titans and Zeus's generation, human beings developed into various abilities, they developed into certain stages. When Zeus had taken over the rule, human beings had developed to the point where they could absorb the impressions of their surroundings into their consciousness.

If we understand this Greek myth in the right way, if we really engage with it in a spiritual-scientific way, then we find that the Greek genius, where it expresses itself mythically, takes the concept of development into account in a wonderful way. People who can see what is a few steps in front of their noses believe that as long as man and his consciousness have moved up from the animal to the human form in the sense of today's natural science, they have always been as they are today. So human consciousness is also in a state of development. It has only gradually taken on the forms it has today.

If we go back on the basis of research that is no longer accessible to external natural science, but [rather] to spiritual science, we would come to ancient stages of human consciousness where judgment and deliberation were not yet present. Instead, however, there was an image consciousness, an image consciousness that works differently, that works in such a way that when a person encounters an impression, an image arises within him. He knew directly through the images, through the impressions that the image made on his feelings, he knew in an old, dim consciousness that is preserved like an old relic, like a traditional heirloom in a dream. An old, dim, clairvoyant consciousness was there in those days. It was only into this consciousness that man first acquired the ability to conceptualize. Everything was in development; above all, human consciousness.

This is expressed in the fact that Zeus has taken power. Consciousness increasingly makes way for what is to develop into judgment and deliberation. The sure insight that was conveyed by images was lost. Man only began with the first facts of calculating and counting and considering. People were clumsy. They became dull in relation to their old consciousness. They could no longer grasp their environment. They lived in an almost inhuman way. But out of this dullness there developed more and more that which, as we have indicated, was present in the first beginnings and which worked in man in such a way that it gradually brought him to judge, brought him to posit out of his ego into the world something that was not there before. Call it power, call it essence. The Greek genius expresses it by saying: Prometheus works in human nature that sense which makes it possible for human nature to process the individual things of life into art productions by means of tools. Prometheus is the great benefactor of mankind who, in the name of love, has given humanity what it will continue to develop ever further. Zeus, that is the disappointment that Prometheus experiences, would only have developed in man what is independent of judgment, independent of calculation and deliberation, what has not led to the arts. Zeus had left man without fire.

Travelers will tell you that higher animals, for example monkeys, were spectators and saw travelers warming themselves by the fire. If the travelers leave the fire while it is still burning, they will also warm themselves; but what they do not do is to bring wood and make a fire themselves. This is closely related to the making of fire, to the foresight to bring about something that will serve one later. The foresight is interpreted in Prometheus, who is the forward thinker. The becoming is interpreted by the Greek genius in the form of Prometheus. In Zeus, we see that which is not active in the human ego, that which does not make the human being capable of judgment, but which only works in the human astral body. The Greeks focus on human nature, and they say to themselves: the threefold nature of man — whether they say it to themselves in this form or not is irrelevant — is made up of drives, desires and instincts. These must play against each other. What permeates the astral nature with wisdom was seen by the Greeks in Zeus. What penetrates the human I, what leads the I to a higher level, was seen in Prometheus.

Thus Zeus and Prometheus faced each other, like the I reflecting judgment and intellect and the astral body. Thus they fight against each other in the I, which purifies the astral body. When the Greek allows us to see the whole astral nature, he says to himself: When we look at the human being with his astral body and his I — he stands in the world, suffering pain and joy, doing good and evil; pain and joy, good and evil, are in need of balance. It causes displeasure in the human soul when good is unrewarded and without success, and evil goes unpunished or is successful in the wrong way. It is justice that brings about balance in suffering and joy, in good and evil.

But when we survey the world, says the Greek Genius, then we see that in the world, within human nature and the human astral body, justice is very limited. Man is powerless; that is how the Greek genius felt with regard to justice. Now he looks out into nature, sees and says: Development is what comes before our soul in the sunrise and sunset, in the rise and fall of the plant world; what comes before us is everything that does not comes up to the human astral body; that something is at work in it that is connected with human nature, that is connected with the whole world as something that is a far deeper justice than man in his powerlessness can realize. — He then looked up and said to himself: There must be hidden forces and powers after all, that are behind what we can see, and that have a balancing effect.

These powers are the ones that are powerful in the face of the human impotent being; they are the powers of justice, so that they prevail everywhere, that they can count on these powers that work with might and power to bring about balance and that do not succumb to human powerlessness. They are hidden, and there they must be. The Greek genius saw them and called them the Titans for the reason that they do not have human powerlessness; and Themis, the goddess of justice, belongs to the special female Titans.

Thus, before the eyes of the Greek genius, there is an all-pervasive justice in the realm of the Titans. But then it must transform itself into love. The warm feeling of love must absorb it. That is why it is not Themis who is worshiped as the figure who also penetrates into man, who leads him to the ideal of justice, to love, but the son of Themis, Prometheus. He is the one who takes hold of human beings in their very essence. While Zeus belongs to the realm that pours wisdom and balance into human knowledge on earth, insofar as the astral comes into consideration, Prometheus pours into the human I that which should bring this I ever further forward.

However, we can recognize a force in the individual human being that prevents the I from going too far in its development, a force that stands in its way. Just as anger precedes the still immature composure, the Greek genius saw the interplay of Prometheus' deed with Zeus' anger in the great cosmic context. Zeus is the one who has to watch over the human development of the self so that it does not advance too quickly. Therefore, he must create balances. Prometheus provides people with what is common to ordinary people: understanding, reason, feeling, that is, what comes from the ability to judge.

But this means that something else has emerged in human development. In the human being who has advanced from the earlier to this stage, his consciousness has narrowed. When man still had his old consciousness, the clairvoyant one, man saw through his image consciousness into his spiritual, at least into his soul world. This is connected with a conscious appearance of image forms, so that man can see into a soul world that is hidden from the mind and sense consciousness. Thus a world withdrew from human consciousness. The gaze was tied down on earth, while at the same time advancing to a higher level. What man had implanted as his ideals of justice and love had to pay the price of being banished to the outer sensual world, to earth.

This was the counteraction of the astral. As man developed his ego further, the astral worked like a counterblow. Whereas man could formerly see into the world of the soul, this counterblow obscured the view into the world of the soul, and the view remained limited to the outer physical world. He was chained to the world of the earth. What was in Prometheus chained him to the earth. And so Prometheus was chained to the earth in human nature through what works as a counterbalance in the astral nature in the realm of Zeus, through the wrath of Zeus, forged to the earth. He had developed a higher ability. But it was darkened by the wrath of Zeus.

There are all possible degrees between the brightness of consciousness that a person has during the day and the darkness during sleep. What occurs in affect is, to a certain degree, its darkness. And the cosmic degree of darkness was that human consciousness was chained to the physical world. The consciousness that should have looked into the spiritual world was paralyzed. This paralysis was the chaining of Prometheus to the rock.

The forward-looking in Greek human nature is precisely depicted in the myth in the Prometheus myth. And the Greek tragedian presents this in such a powerful way in the “Prometheus Bound”. If you let the nerve of this wonderful drama take effect on you, then you will see what confronts you in it; what you encounter is something of which one can say: it stands in the world like an old heirloom from earlier times. Certainly, man has developed in a certain way, but all development does not proceed in a straight line. There are always heirlooms from old developments; they do not fit into later times; they seem out of place. Imagine a being with the old image consciousness in our time – it is an impossible being; it cannot possibly find its way in today's world. It is not for nothing that the human soul's powers change. They change so that they are adapted to human conditions on earth.

The image consciousness is adapted to the earlier earth conditions. The mind consciousness corresponds to the present time. The artist presents this to us in the form of Io. She represents a being that has emerged from the level of consciousness of the ancients. What will become of this [image consciousness when it occurs in our time]? Madness! What is the image of the earlier time supposed to say? It may be that one also has the ability to say it, but these abilities are not good. They produce error and deception for the soul.

The Greek genius represents such an awareness, which has remained like an old heirloom, so that error and deception and illusion arise, by seeing the hundred-eyed Argus. Images confront her. But these are deceptions, illusions, that is illusion. Even if this consciousness, when it has seized the human soul abilities, when this consciousness would also fall into madness, one must not believe that it will not have a meaning. That which the developed consciousness has grasped has only grasped one part of the human being, the brain, and has made it its organ.

But the Io is still working on people today. This is human future development, that all the forces that can be there will appear in later times in new forms, like the Io with its consciousness in ancient times. So she is a madwoman. But how she will be when that in human nature which the subconscious works on connects with what is higher human nature, then human judgment will be conscious; the Prometheus in human nature will be redeemed. The Greek sets this whole thing in the past, and in a way it also refers to past events. Just as he was able to extract the meaning of each individual move of the drama from this train of Prometheus bound with Io, he could also extract it from the drama.

I could only hint at where the drama's nerve lies. I could show how the playwright's mind was filled with what is in human nature and how it interacts. That is why Aeschylus was able to show how anger arises from the astral body when the ego is bound in the cosmos, so that it can mature and develop the abilities that are appropriate to it, as it were, projected out of the cosmos into inner human nature. Through this powerful drama, we will see how anger has the mission of being a harbinger of love. In a certain respect, this is also what connects us with the noble word truth, which is related to human nature in a different way to anger.

We will see how Goethe has incorporated into his “Pandora” what he himself felt in his deepest soul about these riddles of life. But because humanity today is so far removed from spiritual science, from that which lives in the soul of a poet, the poems like “Pandora” were not understood. This was already the case in Goethe's time. That is why Goethe felt lonely at the height of his life. In this loneliness, he also felt many dangers – as people still say today: In his youth, Goethe still wrote understandably, but in his old age he came down and wrote [unintelligible]. – In contrast to this, Goethe once broke out in words that you will find spoken in his works: “There they praise my Faust and what else is in my works... and there the old rag-tag believes it is no longer.” That is how he felt about the misunderstood spiritual world. Especially when you are looking at the human soul and want to understand it practically, then you have to start from spiritual science. You have to be able to observe the interplay of forces and the meaning of the individual forces, as spiritual science presents them to us. Then we can look into the deep abysses of the soul in such a way that we can apply it practically. Only then do we understand as different fruits that which speaks to us spiritually from this point of view [through] Aeschylus in his drama [of] Zeus towards Prometheus, whom we will only understand when we understand what the mission of anger is in the astral body for the development of the I into the ability to love. The veil that we must lift if we want to penetrate to our satisfaction and to the right practical life is lifted so that we can say: Certainly, when we look at the soul in a spiritual scientific way, we feel how deep the fundamental tone is, and we also feel that we are on the way to penetrating into this ground. Spiritual science will first advise us to strive for the right thing little by little in order to penetrate the ideals and insights of the soul life that are to be attained; it will show us how to make the words of the ancient sage from the fifth and sixth century, whom we can remember when we explore the depths of the soul to find the boundaries of the soul, understandable in a new way, starting from these ideals. It will be difficult if we also travel a distance, because the soul's ground is infinitely deep.

The last lectures in this series were devoted to a consideration of the human soul. And it will have become clear to those members of the audience who have followed the last three lectures what inner justification there is for not regarding the human soul as an indeterminate being, with its qualities swimming around in confusion, but for actually pursuing it in the most careful way in its individual subdivisions. For those who are here today for the first time, it is enough to point out that, in the sense of spiritual science, this human soul is distinguished into what we call the sentient soul, which is, so to speak, the lowest of the members of the human soul, which is still close to what we call the bodily members of the human being. Then, in this soul, a distinction is to be made between the mind or emotional soul, which already stands out as an independent entity, making itself independent of the sentient soul and the bodily life, and finally, the consciousness soul can still be seen.

We have pointed out that what is generally regarded today in every science as development, in a higher sense as self-development of the human being, comes to us within this soul life. Man is in development and stands at the lowest level so that what we call the sentient soul comes into its own. With further development, the mind or feeling soul comes into its own. Then, to a certain extent, a person can find themselves and examine themselves with the light of thought, understanding and knowledge. We then speak of the consciousness soul. We have not just talked about these soul elements, but emphasized the qualities that take on very special forms when this self-development of the person is taken seriously.

In particular, we pointed out one of the qualities, anger, and showed how self-development lies in overcoming such an affect. Man's sense of truth [as educator of the mind or intellectual soul] was further found, and how then a special impulse for the development of the consciousness soul is what we described yesterday as devotion in the right sense of the word. As we were asking ourselves about that in the human inner being, which actually guides and leads the development, we came across that which we had to say could essentially reveal itself in two ways: We have come across the I that pulsates and interweaves through the whole soul. It is what works on the soul. It must reveal itself in two ways: on the one hand, strongly and powerfully and meaningfully, richer in thoughts, feelings and will impulses, which itself must expand more and more; in this way we have shown how selfhood grows more and more. Furthermore, that on the other hand this ego, by expressing selfhood in a special way, can degenerate into selfishness and egoism. ... Thus, in a certain respect, the ego became the center of the soul's life.

Today it is our task to eavesdrop even further on the work of this ego on the soul. We have seen what it does for the individual members when we look at each of them purely in itself. But it is also called upon to bring about order and harmony in the life of the soul... to work the individual members of the soul, sentient, intellectual and consciousness soul, in the appropriate way, to fertilize one through the other, to let the sentient soul play into the intellectual soul and this again into the consciousness soul, and so on.

If the human ego was unable to relate these individual soul elements to each other, to establish order, harmony, etc., then the individual soul elements fall apart. The ego must prove itself strongly through all the individual soul elements and allow each individual to play into the others in an appropriate way.

You can imagine that, by allowing the individual soul links to interact, the I plays in the same way as a musician plays an instrument – even if we can only see three strings of it at first. But the I plays very special harmonies and melodies on the three strings of the soul life: depending on whether it strikes one or the other string more, strikes it at the same time as the other, and so on, a very special music of the soul arises in the person. This is how the human soul life expresses itself, as this I plays on the three strings of the soul life.

What is this expression of the I playing on the three strings of the soul? —Nothing else emerges from it but the human character. Only someone who does not question how this I plays and works in the harmonious interaction of the various soul elements can understand what is meant by the [phenomenon of human character], which is so often enigmatic and yet confronts us at every turn in life. Yes, when the individual abilities of the human soul, the individual activities, fall apart, when the ego does not exercise joint control, then the human being appears to us as if he is striving in different directions. This is the most trivial thing in the life of the character, so that his soul activities work in one direction on the one hand and in another on the other. In life, the patriot and the private man can thus diverge. In such cases, we are not talking about a unified character, and by this we mean that the ego does not distribute its effect evenly among the various parts [of the soul].

This occasional inability to create harmony between the various activities of the human soul has always been a kind of material for artists to use in poetry or other artistic forms of expression. Consider Shakespeare's Hamlet; there is a spiritual activity that the ego cannot reconcile with action. Goethe has already expressed this dichotomy of the soul life in Hamlet by saying: A great task is placed on a soul that is not up to it.

Thus we see how the I can live fully in the consciousness soul. When it emphasizes this life in the consciousness soul, it is activated in the innermost link of the human soul life, which can hide its impulses from the outside world within itself. When it emphasizes its work in the consciousness soul, what arises is what we call the hidden, closed character. We cannot get at him because the consciousness soul withdraws from the outside world. We can therefore be separated from a person as if by a partition. His I is locked up in the consciousness soul.

The I can continue to be active and live in what we call the mind or feeling soul. This is how the malleable character is formed, which is somewhere between the other two. In this way, the I provides what could be called the balance of the soul forces. People who exercise their I within the mind soul are those who are willing to be stimulated by the outside world, but also willing to process these impressions in the service of their own self, to educate themselves more and more through the impressions of the outside world, through what is heard, seen and known of it.

If you want to educate, you have to know how the I works in the mind or soul. If such an inclination is present in a person, you have to make sure that you do the right thing in one direction or another. Such people are the most malleable, easily influenced by what is around them, and they use it for their own development.

But when the I lives it up in the sentient soul, it tends to turn outward what is in the sentient soul, its drives and so on. As soon as the I begins to be active in the sentient soul, the will arises to work outward. We have before us people who have a preference for an active character, who are always available to do this or that. When taken to an extreme, they become the busy people.

Thus we see how the human being expresses himself when the I strikes one or other chord. We can also say that the human being's I initially acts in such a way that it itself rests as if hidden in the sentient soul, namely in young people or at a low level of culture. There the I is closed in the sentient soul, it does not yet have the possibility to ascend into the mind soul and show its activities, as it expresses itself unconsciously in the sentient soul. In this case, we speak of a character that is at a low level and expresses base urges and desires.

This is different from the character where the I has already ascended into the consciousness soul, but which nevertheless then expresses itself in the sentient soul. Then the I carries what it has learned within the consciousness soul into the sentient soul; then it follows its instincts, desires, but with what it has learned through the consciousness soul. And because he follows them, such a person appears in life in such a way that we say: Oh, he only follows his instincts and desires, but in such a way that he pursues them in a clever, sophisticated way. At the same time, his character is imbued with low-mindedness [and clever reflection. It gives the] character a higher meaning when, with attitude, the person rises as high as with knowledge.

We must grasp this wonderful phenomenon of human character as a kind of inner soul music, a play of the I on the various strings of the human soul life. Now it plays not only in general with the soul members, but in all that is present in these individual soul parts of the human being. For example, we see one such soul quality as an affect of the sentient soul: anger. When the ego is little developed, has not ascended into the higher regions of the soul life, it gives itself over to anger; then we find an outburst of anger that shows us how an ego unconscious of itself storms out into the world. It is not in control of itself because it has remained undeveloped in a certain respect, ... not in control of itself when it is overcome by anger.

[Imagine a] teacher in front of a student [: [the] student [has] noticed something wrong with a fellow student and, in anger, hits the fellow student with a book. The teacher may be a person who has developed the mind soul and the consciousness soul, but in this moment, anger can overwhelm him so much that a young lad can get so angry. Then the teacher hits the boy a few lefts and rights. When the surge of anger comes, only a very controlled person can suppress it.

The stopping of the I in the sentient soul manifests itself as if in a rage. This is the extreme of anger, when the I almost sinks in anger and the soul becomes similar to a state of powerlessness. Then anger arises. The ego cannot conquer anger. If it conquers, then, by being conquered, anger becomes an educator in the right way, indirectly through the ego itself, if the ego does not let itself be overcome by the emotion but exercises self-control. In the sentient soul, the I has to accomplish its own education, which we call education in self-control. On the one hand, there is rage that breaks out blindly, and on the other, there is self-control, which is achieved through noble self-education.

Let us now take the I that is in the soul of reason or feeling. The mission of the sense of truth is revealed in it. It consists in the fact that the human being has something in the truth that he may cultivate – because when he devotes himself to the truth, he cultivates something – that he may cultivate in his own inner being. He can only assimilate truth within himself, in order to unfold the supreme power of the I in inwardness. At the same time, however, it unites us with the whole of humanity and with the world. In the cultivation of truth we see something by which the I can develop into selfhood and self-strength, and thereby at the same time into selflessness.

But one or other of these strings can be struck in the wrong way. It can happen that the I makes a mistake in a certain way, or where it should have a strong effect, it has a weak effect. If it makes a mistake within the soul of the intellect, then what arises is a demonstration of how even the noblest in human life can be distorted, can become a caricature, when the I loses itself in what it has recognized as truth.

When the I is immersed in the truth, the following can occur: Because man is not capable of mastering a comprehensive field of truth on all sides, and can only master part of the truth, when the ego loses itself in it, it can forget itself and blindly rage in its limited circle of truth. Then it becomes a fanatic, and what is called the fanatical character in life comes to meet us.

The opposite is true when the I not only devotes itself to the truth with the right strength, but also looks into itself in the right way and becomes aware that a person can also err. If the I does not lose itself in the truth, but always looks at itself in the intellect and in the mind, then the fanatic cannot arise.

By increasingly practicing this self-examination according to the qualities of the intellect and the soul, the I attains what in characterology is called healthy self-esteem or healthy self-confidence, combined with proper self-criticism, [which] allows one to maintain balance with regard to recognized truth(s) and the possibility of error on the other hand.

Then... to that which contributes most to the soul's upward development into the consciousness soul, to devotion. Here too, the I can strike the right or the wrong chord. It can lose itself in devotion, give itself up in surrender to the Other and the Unknown. Then we are dealing with the self-losing ego, with the false holiness of man, which amounts to a kind of self-sacrifice. But when the I resonates with this quality of the consciousness soul in the right way, when it works strongly into devotion with its self, then we come to what can be called justified self-respect and self-knowledge.

Thus we see how the I expresses itself in the most diverse ways. It is the unifier of the individual members of the human soul. And it is the characterological activity of the I on the individual soul members, as just described, that prevents the human being from falling apart. But if the I does not maintain control over the individual soul-members, then the human being appears to us as fragmented, the I sinks down and can no longer be seen: lack of character, surrender to the demons of one's own soul, torn back and forth by instincts and feelings; thoughts that bring one to despair, surrender on the other hand, etc.

[I have] already pointed out in an example from art the loss of control over the individual parts, where the ego has sunk into self-loss. This work of art is the famous Laocoon: a priest with his two sons standing there and entwined by snakes. Many people have endeavored to understand this work of art. ... All this is expressed in a wonderful way, one must... in the right way understand. /Larger gaps; probably a description of “Laocoon”.] Even those who have devoted themselves to it with devotion have said many erroneous things in their understanding of this work of art. Winckelmann, who became Lessing's and Goethe's teacher in the study of art, looked at Laocoon in such a way that he said that it was particularly beautiful that here

the highest ennoblement of pain takes place. He sees the soul in its sublimity in Laocoon, who in the moment before death musters his full soul power; and in the face, namely in the eyes, one can see how the inner soul powers look up to a supreme being. The father shows in the eyes expressing mercy that compassion for his sons triumphs over pain.

This description fails when confronted with the overall view of the work of art. It can already be seen in a cast. If you want to judge the eye in this way, it fails because the eye is directed upwards and Laocoon does not see any of his sons. [The compassion for the sons is] not visible, because Winckelmann has invented it. But this group is illuminated by the light of understanding when one sees what is there and is clear about it: this Laocoon with the drawn-in abdomen, with the protruding chest, with the upward-looking, surrounding eyes, the hair standing on end – when we see all this, it is clear to us that here the effect of the human being is no longer overcome by the sense of self, but we are confronted with the moment when this sense of self has disappeared. The ego has just emerged, and at this moment it no longer follows the effect of the ego, which would hold the strong reins with regard to the expressions of the soul life. Individual limbs go their own ways. Nature... [the pain] draws in the abdomen, the upper body is protruding, other limbs go their own ways; everything is torn apart. Through the loss of soul that has just occurred, it shows what man is when the ego is truly suppressed and the individual strong limbs go their own ways in a final flurry.

When we have such a work of art before us, it is a negative symbol [for] what the I must be that brings about this interplay of the individual soul members. By looking at human character in this way, we can gain much for our understanding of life, but also many things that the educator needs if he wants to develop human character step by step. We will understand life if we ask ourselves: What is the peculiarity of human character itself?

If we look at animal character, we can say: the animal comes into the world with a ready-made character, which remains throughout the animal's lifetime. What is at the beginning is also at the end: a distinctly pronounced generic or species character. If you characterize a hyena, you have characterized them all. Why is that? It is because the animal, in a sense, has no history and does not incorporate the element of time into its life. The experiences of youth cannot be learned and carried into the later elements of development.

What we call time is incorporated into the human being's soul life. The I gradually develops out of the hidden germ, the peculiarities of the sentient soul and the mind soul, up into the consciousness soul. Thus, the child approaches us in a different way in terms of character than a young animal. From the earliest times, the latter practices the activities that are incumbent on it by virtue of its nature. In a sense, the human being enters the world without character. The individual forms, even those based on his nature, even what he acquires by being worked on by others, all that arises in later life, must be acquired over time.

Initially, a person can be determined in terms of their character. We can work into them, but we cannot use a word that describes a child in terms of character; the child does not yet have character. By showing itself differently from other children in its individual activities, it does not have character, but it does have individuality. The self has not yet taken self-development into its own hands. It is still pressed down under the sentient soul, still contained in the most hidden part. As long as it has not yet developed into activity, into an inner play on the strings of the soul instrument, it is only an individuality, not a character. Only then does the character begin to emerge when the I begins to become aware of itself, at first dimly. Then, in the course of life, this self-education by the I occurs more and more.

But one educates a person in the right way only when one pays attention to whether it is the I that is inclined to rummage around in the sentient soul or one that wants to express the qualities of the mind soul or consciousness soul in particular. Here one has to be careful not to limit one's view and to ensure that the various activities of the I are stimulated in the right way. If one sees that a child is inclined to lose itself in the individual activities, that it tends towards selflessness in the bad sense, then it is good to start teaching this child the concepts of human dignity and human significance as early as possible. You will educate badly if you encourage your selfishness here, appeal to the child's own selfishness. You will educate well if you teach him general concepts of what a human being is and means in the world.

When the sense of life is strongly developed in the soul of the mind, it can indeed bubble over and be lost on unworthy things. In this case, when it wants to lose itself on unworthy things, then one must ensure that such a growing person forms the right concepts of the world, of things and of beings, in order to assess them correctly in relation to each other. We have to ensure that he learns to appreciate things correctly.

Thus, as educators, we have to do the work of transferring the work of the ego to the neglected side. We have to do a balancing and harmonizing job with regard to character, but first we have to gain an understanding for the peculiar way in which the ego plays with the different parts of the soul.

Thus we see how justified it was to form the word character, that is to say, “imprinting”. The whole life of the soul receives a certain imprinting and shaping through this I. How the human being then affects life itself is best shown when we understand how the I is active in the individual members of the soul and how these interact.

Now there is something else to be borne in mind in particular. I have said that the I educates the soul up to the level of the consciousness soul. Is this education complete with this? It is not yet finished. Only then does what is important in terms of character development in human life occur. Only then is the consciousness soul accessible to what can reach into the human soul from a higher world. What can reach into the consciousness soul first of all?

What is most important in terms of character are moral concepts and ideas, which we do not find in our lives outside. There we find drives and instincts in which a self works that is blind. We cannot gain our [rational insights] and ideals and moral judgments from life. We must first carry these into life. The human soul must receive these as an inspiration from another world and try to bring them into life; but not just like that.

In the human soul, the moral imperative [lights up], the great ideals through which we can advance life, what life does not yet have and man must first bring into it. Then the I grasps this light from another world in the moral concepts and ideals. They first flow into the consciousness soul; the I grasps them. Previously, development took place from bottom to top; now, when the I has gained these moral judgments and ideals, it carries them back down into the mind soul, transforming the moral thought into moral feeling. The moral feeling in the soul of feeling is what was in the consciousness soul [moral concept]. When such a moral concept is brought down into the soul of feeling, we glow with a moral deed. Then we have sympathy for what is going on around us. More and more, moral judgments and thoughts push their way down and become feelings. We become inflamed with enthusiasm for what is done out of high moral ideals. Through the “I” bringing moral judgments and ideals down from the consciousness soul, we are moved to glow with enthusiasm for what is good and to feel sympathy for what is noble and great.

But the I must also carry these ideals down into the sentient soul. There the moral ideals also work on our drives, instincts and passions, transforming them into something completely different. Gradually, the moral ideal pours into this drive life, the drive now works as a force, and the moral ideal gains the power to be realized. The drive has abandoned its instinctive nature and what is in it as a force becomes the bearer of moral judgment and ideal. Thus, in life, we become people of action who not only live out drives and passions, but also carry the light of moral ideals, so that there is no contradiction in them between what they carry the passions in and what shines there as moral judgments and ideals. Thus the self carries down into the lower regions of the soul what it has gained above. In this way, it warms the soul with what it has gained in the consciousness soul.

By developing itself up into the consciousness soul, the I becomes a human being in terms of character. By carrying it down again into the lower members, the human being becomes a moral character. This carrying up and down of what has been gained... this is how we understand what character is, what moral character is.

This [the work of the ego on the soul members] gives the human being his character to such an extent that it expresses itself [in the body]. Just as the soul expresses itself in the outer body, so this work of the ego on the soul members expresses itself in the outer body. We can follow this down to the last detail and are amazed at how the I appears in the outer physical body of the human being. There we see how the I works in the consciousness soul. When this work expresses itself outwardly, it is in that which, in the outer world, belongs to the highest human activity. What elevates human beings above animals is the free mobility of their limbs and the subordination of their limbs to the sensations and concepts of their soul life.

One movement that expresses the inner soul life [in particular] is facial expression [and gesture]. We see how the activity of the soul in particular acquires an external expression in mimic [and gestural] expression. The one who is able to interpret the facial expressions and gestures of a person in the right way sees how the whole play of the I on the various soul members is revealed in the outer gestures. If, for example, the I in the consciousness soul is active, but has dragged up what it actually is in the sentient soul and allows it to play up into the consciousness soul, then it expresses itself as if one could say: The person lives in his feelings, brings this to consciousness and expresses it. Outwardly, this is expressed by the person tapping himself on the abdomen with great comfort, for example after a meal.

Suppose that what stirs particularly in the feeling soul and through which the I is stimulated by the feeling soul is particularly developed and expressed outwardly in the gesture: Man then reaches to his heart. Thus he rises up by his own body, by rising with his I and by playing in ever higher limbs. If the 'I' expresses itself in such a way that it only expresses the consciousness soul and is not touched by the other parts, only the consciousness soul, where thoughts and knowledge dominate, where human discernment is expressed – when a person reflects sharply on something and reflects in such a way that he wants to analyze something – then he puts his finger to his nose to, as it were, divide his face into two parts. What is worked in the consciousness soul is expressed. The character is reflected in the outward gesture by scratching behind the ear, or by grasping the head when something does not occur to one.

In the whole play of facial expressions, both the ascent in the soul life and the ascent in the soul life are expressed. When a person makes a judgment and wants to negate something, this can be expressed in the consciousness soul of this person by quietly judging. A negation expressed without emotion is then a movement of the head simply to the left and right. But if he negates with the will, he throws his head back.

It is particularly interesting to study the outward gestures of different nations. Here one could recognize the play of the I if one were to ask: How does one nation or another express negation? — and so on. Here we see how character is expressed and shaped in the play of facial expressions.

When the I allows the other soul members to play into the mind soul, this is expressed in the human physiognomy. What we read in a person's face is the expression of the work of the I on the mind or soul of mind, where the I allows the other soul members to work. Now, we have said that the human being, where the ego plays particularly in the soul of the mind, gets a malleable character; therefore, this malleability will also show externally. This malleability, which belongs to the time, to history, we can read from the physiognomy: a face furrowed with grief. The history of a person is imprinted here, the writing of what the person has experienced in his destiny.

In the animal physiognomy, one can wonderfully observe the animal species or generic character. What a [single] person has suffered, what has become of him, can be seen by observing the human physiognomy. His story is written there. In a deeper sense, the various dispositions of the character are also expressed in a special way in the facial expression. But one must not be pedantic about this, because everything can also be balanced out by other effects.

Thus, in the human being, we can distinguish the mental part in the face, the lower part around the mouth and chin, then the nasal part and the frontal part or forehead. Depending on whether the ego [has an effect] on the rational soul, the sentient soul or the consciousness soul, this is expressed in a variety of ways. A person who acts out his or her individuality only through the sentient soul is often characterized by a pointed chin.

Everything that happens in life is most pronounced in the middle part. When the ego particularly appeals to the emotional soul, allows the consciousness soul to play from above and the sentience soul from below, when there is a balance in the mind soul, then this is expressed in the physiognomic form in such a way that the middle part of the face has a special expression. Those who are able to observe life will find such harmony in the soul life of the Greeks. That is why the famous Greek nose is regarded as the model for the human body in all of sculpture. In the Greek way of life, the entire human countenance is reduced to the human nose.

The character that the I has shaped in the soul is impressed on the human body. When the consciousness soul in particular is pressed down into the mind soul, the forehead takes on a special shape. One must not exaggerate these things, but must be clear that the I works individually in each person. If pedantry intervenes here, such things are distorted. It must repel when approached by pedantic schoolcrafting. Here it is not abstract judgment that distinguishes, but scientific tact. This does not always proceed in the right way, and many a foolish thing comes about when these things are exaggerated.

When the I in the rational soul is active, then the I leaves its mark on the physiognomy, not only in the physical body, but also in the handwriting. The character and style of the handwriting are to a certain extent a reflection of the work of the I in the rational soul. Here, of course, the [urge to] interpret is quite dangerous. If a healthy comprehensiveness is not applied in the assessment, the result is either dilettantism or humbug in the interpretation of handwriting. This does not reject the idea that character can really flow into handwriting, but rather justifies it from a higher point of view.

Thus, one can also understand that because the soul of the mind is the malleable character, the changes in the handwriting can be observed over the course of several years and one can get an idea of the changes in one's character; [this makes more sense] than if one has made this from a single piece of writing. Without knowing the age, nothing proper can come out here either. If one is knowledgeable in these matters, one can even draw conclusions about earlier experiences from certain characteristics of the handwriting rather than being able to read the characteristic itself from the handwriting. But only with the right tact can the right thing come out.

What happens when the ego works primarily on the sentient soul, but as a strong ego that works inwardly on the human soul? Of particular importance is the case that shows us this ego at the stage where it is enlightened by moral judgments and ideals. But when the I has now carried moral ideals and judgments down into the sentient soul and the drives and passions have been purified and give strength to the moral ideals, how is this expressed in the external physical body?

When the I has worked in this way, it cannot be expressed externally at first. What is brought down from the heights of the consciousness soul must remain permeated by the consciousness soul and should express itself in the physical tool of the consciousness soul, the human brain. However, due to the firm cranial box, the skullcap does not offer the possibility of expressing this. The individual bones, which have hardened, can no longer be reshaped appropriately.

This is where we see that we are predisposed to certain dispositions with the most diverse formations of the skullcap. He has formed the skullcap with the most diverse elevations and depressions. As long as the skullcap is firm in life, what character has formed cannot play in it.

Here we are at the point where we receive a reasonable explanation [of] an appearance, if we refer to what is to be discussed later in its context, if we refer to the re-embodiment of the human soul. What the soul cannot do in a particular life comes to light when the soul is reborn. What the soul has taken in of moral judgments and ideals in the sentient soul is imprinted in the soft organism. This appears in the plastic formation of the human skull.

If we look at this human skull, a kind of craniology, we can look back at the person's previous incarnation. What we get is very unlike what has been practiced as phrenology throughout many ages. Here, all kinds of predispositions have been discovered. An overview of this shows us how powerless human knowledge is when it does not go into depth. What we see on the skullcap cannot be broken down into individual forms, but is the result of the work of the ego on the sentient soul in a previous life. This is entirely individual and cannot be explained by any classification. What a person has acquired in a lifetime, that he has not remained closed in himself, but has allowed the moral ideals within him to take effect, will reappear in a later incarnation.

Thus what the spirit and soul are becomes embodied in the outer physicality, and the body becomes a reflection of the spirit, becoming a character in itself. Phrenology, when it does not want to deal with things in this way, can become folly. But if we look at things this way, we see what Goethe calls the creative nature, in contrast to the created. Thus we grasp the spirit of the cosmos that permeates everything and is expressed in external phenomena.

Here we see how character is formed and how the I shapes the soul in character. Only when the I withdraws into the consciousness soul does a closed character arise that shuts itself off from the world. But when it takes hold of the other soul members, something arises that is developed into the formation of the body. It was a deep insight of the poet when he spoke the word: When man develops his abilities and talents, the I works within him; but when he develops his character, it works on the world and the outer life:

A talent develops in silence,
a character in the stream of the world.

When the poet approaches these phenomena, it can become deeply apparent to him that something has flowed through him in all his ways... Thus, he who observes life can see how life is formed from within. It is nature that stands firm in its foundations. But it is that which contains the spirit within itself and allows it to be born out of itself. But the spirit allows nature to emerge from itself again, in mimic play, [in] physiognomy, [in] the shaping of the skullcap. It imprints on matter, through the I, that which the I plays on that wonderful musical instrument in the hidden depths of the soul.

This can occur to someone who stands before such a miracle of such molding. Such a thought once flashed through a man's mind when, after many years, a friend's tomb was opened and the skull was removed. Contemplating this skull, the thought occurred to him how the form expresses what the soul has lived. Goethe wrote, as he looked at Schiller's skull:

What more can man desire in life
than to see how nature reveals the divine,
how it allows the solid to flow into the spiritual,
how it firmly preserves what has been created by the spirit.