The Rudolf Steiner Archive

18. The European Mysteries and Their Initiates

[ 1 ] In the last lecture, it was pointed out that in the early days of European development, a kind of ancient, primordial clairvoyance existed among the various peoples, and that present-day consciousness developed only out of this earlier state of consciousness, out of an ancient, clairvoyant faculty. It has been pointed out how what the ancient clairvoyant was able to perceive under certain circumstances in his life found expression in the legends and myths dealing with mountain spirits, elves, dwarves, and gnomes. These legends and myths are of the most diverse kinds, and if we were to survey only those myths and legends in Europe that have been preserved from such ancient, clairvoyant observations, we would indeed find certain similarities and parallels in all these traditions, but also, again, great differences, because the clairvoyant abilities of individual people varied greatly.

[ 2 ] There is already a much greater degree of consistency in the grand mythological structures, in the grand structures of the legends of gods and heroes. These tales of gods and heroes, too, can be traced back to clairvoyant abilities, albeit of a different kind. They do not stem from experiences that human beings might have had through natural clairvoyant gifts; rather, the great, unified mythological structures that we collectively refer to as mythology can be traced back to the experiences that the initiates in the mysteries had. Today, there are few prerequisites in our educational consciousness that would allow us to form a concept of what are called “mysteries” and “initiates.” For what constitutes our external education—our external knowledge—is far removed from the essence of initiation. If one were to characterize these two using terms common in our time, one would have to say: The mysteries are schools in which abilities within the human soul are cultivated, through which the soul is guided to independent observation in the spiritual worlds. In particular, the Mysteries are schools that, in a thoroughly methodical and systematic way, provide guidance to those who are ready, so that the soul may become capable of perceiving the higher worlds with spiritual eyes and ears. Although modern education knows little about the Mysteries, which still exist today, they are nevertheless present and lead upward into the spiritual worlds. And the entire content of spiritual science—everything that is communicated in spiritual science—is essentially the content of the wisdom of the mysteries. Anyone who trains their soul in an appropriate way to make observations in higher worlds is an initiate. Such places, where one acquires the ability of fully conscious clairvoyance, have always existed.

[ 3 ] Today we will provide a brief overview of the European mysteries. To do so, we must go back to ancient times that preceded Christianity and try to form a picture of what took place in the schools of initiation or mystery schools and how this influenced general culture. It has, after all, often been pointed out how people today can embark on the path of the initiate, how thinking, feeling, and willing are trained in order to be able to undertake the “journey to the Mothers.” The students of all the mysteries had to undertake this journey to the Mothers.

[ 4 ] We have had European mysteries of great significance and profound influence on ancient European culture in various regions of France, Germany, and Britain. In all these regions, they were of a very distinct and unique nature. The starting point everywhere was a realization that we were able to allude to in the lecture on Isis and the Madonna. There it was pointed out that human beings have a spiritual origin, that they once dwelt in spiritual worlds, and that the human spirit and soul were born out of the primordial spiritual worlds. It was pointed out that even today, when a person looks deeply into the soul, they feel—when they rise above physical observation—that they possess something that is a final remnant of their former being in the spiritual world. Today, this final remnant—the human soul—is enclosed within the physical body, which is a condensation of the primordial spiritual being. Of that which human beings know to be enclosed within them as their soul-spirit, they say to themselves: This shows me how I was once part of the whole; it shows how I was born forth from the womb of the world, from the entire universe. Today, the universe reveals itself to the outer intellect in all that unfolds before the senses; but behind all that the senses see, behind all that the intellect can comprehend, lies the spiritual universe. This is the Primordial Father and the Primordial Mother from whom the soul was born, a soul that still retains today the forms that the body also possessed back then.

[ 5 ] Essentially, the physical body, too, is born from the spiritual universe; it, too, once had a spiritual form. What reveals the human being in its true form is hidden today. Even in these ancient European mysteries, the human being was regarded in its true form as a hidden aspect of the visible human being. And in this, one saw an Isis seeking that from which she arose. Initiation was the experience of the entirety of those procedures through which the human soul could once again behold that from which it was born—the development of the soul’s ability through which it can reunite with the spiritual source. Whether in the depths of a sacred grove or in specially prepared mystery sites is irrelevant; everywhere, the candidate was placed in situations through which he could find a connection to the spiritual origins of humanity.

[ 6 ] That which is hidden behind the sensory world, like the sun behind veils of clouds—the hidden spiritual beings—were called “Hu” here; “Ceridwen,” however, was the seeking soul. And all the rites of initiation were designed to show the student that death is a process of life like any other. It does not alter the inner core of human life. Where the Druidic mysteries have been preserved in name—Druid means “initiate of the third degree”—the initiate was brought into a death-like state so that he perceived nothing with his senses. His mind was silent. Anyone who lives solely in his body and can perceive only with his physical mind—whose instrument is the brain—has no consciousness at all in such a state where the senses are silent. This is precisely what initiation is: that the senses—touch, hearing, and so on—are silent, and yet, even when the brain is silent, the initiate has experiences and makes observations. That which makes observations within us was called the soul, Ceridwen. And that which came to meet her—just as light and sound come to the outer eye and ear—the world of spiritual realities, was called Hu. The initiates experienced the marriage between Ceridwen and Hu.

[ 7 ] Such experiences are described in the myths. When we are told today that the ancients worshipped a god named Hu and a goddess named Ceridwen, this is merely a euphemism for initiation. That is the essence of the true myth. It is mere empty talk to say that such myths have astronomical significance, that Ceridwen is the moon and Hu is the sun. Such myths could only have arisen because people were aware of an inner connection between the soul that ascends and the spirit of the sun—not the physical sun. The mysteries of Hu and Ceridwen were those into which the people of these regions were initiated.

[ 8 ] Further north, in Scandinavia and northern Russia, we find the Drotten Mysteries, founded by the original initiate Sieg, Siegfried, or Sigge. All the legends about Siegfried trace back to him. It is precisely in these mysteries that we see something that essentially underlies all mysteries, but which emerges here particularly clearly for the first time. Let us proceed from a comparison to the actual fact. To make this clear to ourselves, let us start with the human being as he appears to us in life, with a head, hands, feet, and so on. If we were to remove even one of these members, the human being could no longer be a complete, whole person. Let us consider the most important members: the heart and the stomach, each of which contributes a certain part to human life and must perform its function. Only through the cooperation of these members is it possible for a soul to live and develop within the human body. The soul lives in a physical body, which is a collection of many members. From this we gain the insight that wherever the human soul or a higher being is to live, individual members must work together, each of which must perform its own function. Thus, we find even in the Nordic mysteries the insight that this can be expressed within the human world by forming a gathering of people, so that each individual takes on a specific task. Let us say, for example, that one person undertakes to develop within themselves, in particular, the power of thought; another, the power of feeling; and a third, the power of will. Here, too, further subdivisions are possible.

[ 9 ] It was assumed that when a circle of people is brought together—in which each person takes on a specific task, yet they work together as a whole—something invisible acts within them, much like the soul in a human being. When people gather in this way and each does their part, they form something like a higher organism, a higher body, and through this they make it possible for a higher spiritual being to dwell among them. Sieg thus formed a circle of twelve people, each of whom developed their soul in a very special way. When they all worked together, when everything came together during their sacred gatherings, they were aware that a higher spiritual being dwelt among them, just as the soul dwells in the human body—that the souls are the members of a higher body. The Thirteenth thus dwelt among the Twelve. They knew: We are twelve, and the Thirteenth dwells among us. Or a Thirteenth would be chosen, who would then, within the circle of the Twelve, form the bond of attraction for that which was to descend. Thus, this Thirteenth was one whom they called a representative of the Deity in the places of initiation. And because everything was associated with the sacred number three, the one who united within himself the essence pertaining to the number three was called the representative of the sacred number three, and around him were the Twelve, who had very specific functions, like the members of an organism.

[ 10 ] Thus, it was clearly understood: when twelve people were united who developed within themselves the power to have a Higher Being among them, they would rise from the physical world into the spiritual world; they would rise to their God. They regarded themselves as the twelve attributes, the twelve qualities of God. All of this was reflected in the twelve Germanic gods of Norse mythology. Anyone who wished to be a member of this illustrious circle had the task of seeking out Baldur. That was the initiation. Who was Baldur in reality? Baldur is that part of the human being which is its spiritual aspect—what the soul seeks, what it finds in the initiation, and what confronts it there. Who killed Baldur? Those who killed Baldur are the ones who killed the clairvoyant aspect of the human being, who brought the physical together, who gave humanity sensory perception, and who were all too quick to abuse the physical: Loki, the fire force, and its manifestation Hödur, the Blind One, who represents human sensuality, which is incapable of looking into the higher realms, into the spiritual world. This is the expression of the initiation procedures that were undergone. Sensuality has blinded human beings; through initiation, they regain access to the higher worlds. Thus, we have, as it were, the trained clairvoyance of the initiates in its ancient, corresponding form, rising above general clairvoyance. The Druidic and Drotten mysteries were the source from which European culture emerged in the pre-Christian era.

[ 11 ] Of course, what is of great significance here—and what is developing here—namely, the sense of individuality, also poses a danger. The danger here is much greater than in other regions. The sense of individuality forms the fundamental tone of all culture in Europe. More so than in the East, where people readily surrendered themselves to Brahman, a sense of individuality was present in the Germanic lands. Consequently, there was a clear danger that those who were initiated might very quickly misunderstand or misuse what was offered to them during the initiation, or portray it in distorted forms and caricatures. Initiation also leads to the mastery of spiritual powers. Those who learn to use them easily learn to abuse them. This is why the mysteries of ancient Europe easily fell into decay, why the initiates proved immature and became the cause of many atrocities, and why they became an object of revulsion to the people in many regions. Much of what is told today about the mysteries refers to their decline, though not everything. The fact that the nature of the mysteries can often be misunderstood need not come as much of a surprise to people today. For if someone cannot learn through spiritual science what actually took place in the Mysteries, but can only absorb what was later written down—the gossip and rumors of world history—then over the course of time they may arrive at the most wild and distorted views of the Mysteries. Just think for a moment what it must be like for someone today who wants to learn about what anthroposophy and the anthroposophical movement are based on what is reported in the public sphere: they would get a rather distorted picture! And if what is said about this today were to be preserved, it could result in something far worse than what is known about the mysteries.

[ 12 ] It would be a wonderful task to trace various elements of European mythology back to what took place in the Mysteries. We would delve into the Nibelungen and Siegfried sagas and find much that can be traced back to the ancient Mysteries. But one must not make arbitrary connections. The only thing that can determine whether a particular element is a product of imagination or stems from the Mysteries is precisely knowledge of the Mysteries and the ability to trace these things back to them.

[ 13 ] In all these mysteries, wherever we examine them, there is a theme that could be described as tragic. One could express it something like this: Although the initiate of the ancient Druidic or Drotten mysteries could attain union with Hu or Baldur, this spiritual world did not appear to him as something supreme. There had to be something else beyond that. Or, to put it in layman’s terms: Our gods, to whom we aspire, are mortal; they are doomed to perish. Hence the myth of the twilight of the gods, the tragic prophecy of the downfall of the gods.

[ 14 ] It was into this context that the powerful Christ impulse entered—an impulse that could take effect here more strongly than anywhere else—the revelation that a supreme spiritual being, the Christ principle, had lived in an earthly body and was present among human beings, and that everything one can experience in the mysteries is a historical fact embodied in the Christ event. In the ancient mysteries, the initiate did not fully become a conqueror of death. But now the great Mystery of Golgotha came to meet him. It was precisely within the European mysteries that this historical mystery was received with the deepest understanding, unlike anywhere else. A mood prevailed there that can be expressed roughly as follows. People said to themselves: When we were initiated, it was an ascent into a divine-spiritual world, but one that was permeated by the breath of mortality. — But whoever immerses themselves in what can be experienced in the figure of Christ—this greatest impulse—and whoever finds a connection to Christ, can arrive at such an understanding that they know: Just as the sun shines through the plant and thereby awakens life within it, so can the Christ impulse flow into the human soul. Through this, the soul draws in strength that gives it knowledge of its eternity and immortality, knowledge of victory over death. By gaining a true understanding of the Christ, the soul is enlivened. People said to one another: Beyond what can be taught externally about the Christ, there is also an inner knowledge—the soul’s search, like Ceridwen’s search for a Hu or Baldur, but for a different Baldur who has accomplished the mystery of Golgotha. — When the soul experiences this, it attains a higher clairvoyance than through the ancient mysteries. And here in Europe, people immediately understood very deeply what this means.

[ 15 ] I have often explained to you the great leap forward that human development took as a result of the Christ impulse. To understand this, let us go back once more to the ancient Hebrew consciousness. There, the “I” still felt a sense of security when a person felt at one with his fathers and forefathers, and for the people of the Old Testament, it was a profound feeling when they could say to themselves: I am one with my ancestors. That which I can call “I,” I see as enclosed between birth and death; but a stream of blood flows down from Father Abraham to me. The blood that flows through my veins is the expression of my “I,” of my own individuality; the stream of blood that flows through the generations is the expression of my God. — And so he felt secure within the great whole, gladly immersing himself in the stream of blood that flows through the generations.

[ 16 ] Christ says: “Before the Father, there was Abraham, there was the ‘I Am,’” and he says, “I and the Father are one.” Our “I” has within it threads of connection leading up into a spiritual world that everyone can find in their own individuality. The “I” that stands on its own—even though it does not deny the connection through blood ties, nor does it despise those ties, and has an understanding of the physical—this “I” came to be understood by humanity through the Mystery of Golgotha. That is why people saw in the blood flowing from the Saviour’s wounds the expression of the universal human “I,” and they said to themselves: Whoever brings this blood to life within themselves will attain true clairvoyance. — But the world was not yet ready to receive what is given as the true mystery of Golgotha. Even in the centuries following the coming of Christ, the world was not yet ready, and it is still not ready even today. Paul beheld the living Christ in the spiritual world. Who today understands the profound letters of Paul, this initiate, and who correctly characterizes Paul’s disciple, Dionysius the Areopagite? And yet there has always been a Mystery Christianity.

[ 17 ] In the mysteries I have just described to you—in Wales and Britain—the teachings of Dionysius were adopted. Thus, the Druidic and Drotten mysteries became imbued with and interwoven with the Christ mystery. Through this, they came to the full realization that what people had sought in Hu and Baldur had come in Christ. But they told themselves that people in general are not yet ready to consciously accept what Christ has brought: the blood flowing from the Savior’s wounds, which flows through everyone.

[ 18 ] This had remained alive only in small circles of initiates as the sacred Christian mystery. But whoever was initiated into this mystery experienced the overcoming of the ordinary “I” focused on the sensory world. And he experienced it in the following way. They asked themselves: How have I lived until now? When I wanted to know the truth, I turned to the things of the external world. But when the initiates of the Christian mystery took me under their wing, they demanded of me that I not wait for external things to tell me what is true, but that I seek the invisible within my soul, not merely prompted by the external world. — The soul’s quest for the highest it could find came to be known in later times, out in the world, as “The Mystery of the Holy Grail.” And the Grail legend, the legend of Parzival, is nothing other than an expression of the Christ Mystery. The Grail is that holy chalice in which Christ partook of the Last Supper, in which Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood of Christ as it flowed on Golgotha. Enclosed in such a chalice, the blood of Christ was brought to a holy place. As long as people do not seek the invisible, they fare like Parzival. Only when he asks does he become an initiate into the Mystery of Christ.

[ 19 ] Thus we see how Wolfram von Eschenbach weaves into his account the three stages of the human soul, which begins with external sensory perception, where—entrapped in the material world—it allows the material spirit to tell it what is true. This is the soul in its “stupor,” as Wolfram von Eschenbach puts it. Then the soul recognizes that the external world offers only illusions. When the soul realizes that what natural science has to offer contains not answers but only questions, the soul falls into what Wolfram von Eschenbach calls “doubt.” But then it ascends to “Saelde”—to bliss, to life in the spiritual worlds. These are the three stages of the soul.

[ 20 ] The mysteries of later times, which are illuminated by the Christ impulse, all share a very specific characteristic. This is what elevates them above all the ancient mysteries. All initiation is based, after all, on the human being rising to a higher level of perception, to a higher development of the soul. Before rising in this way, the human being possesses three faculties within the soul: thinking, feeling, and willing. These three soul forces are present within him. As he usually lives in today’s world, these three soul forces are intimately connected. Through their “I,” they are interwoven with thinking, feeling, and willing, because before ascending through initiation, human beings have not yet worked on the development of the higher bodies from the perspective of the “I.” First, what is in the astral body—that is, the human being’s feelings and sensations, drives, and desires—is purified and cleansed. This gives rise to the spiritual self, or “Manas.” Then the human being progresses to the point where he infuses every thought with a specific emotional tone, so that every thought becomes either cold or warm, thereby transforming his etheric or life body. This is the transformation of feeling, and thus “Buddhi” arises. This is followed by the transformation of volition, extending into the physical body, into “Atma” or the spiritual human being. In this way, the human being transforms his thinking, feeling, and willing—and thereby his astral body—into Manas or the spiritual self; his etheric body into Buddhi or the life spirit; and his physical body into Atma or the spiritual human being. This transformation is the expression of the initiate’s systematic work on his soul, through which he elevates himself into the spiritual worlds.

[ 21 ] But something very specific occurs when initiation is pursued with the utmost seriousness, not as a mere game. If initiation is practiced with dignity, it is as if the human organism were divided into three parts and the “I” were enthroned as king over these three parts, While in ordinary human beings the spheres of thinking, feeling, and willing are not clearly separated, as a person develops to a higher level, they become increasingly capable of forming thoughts that are not immediately transformed into feelings, but are instead directed by the “I” through free choice toward sympathy or antipathy. The feeling does not immediately follow a thought; rather, the human being splits into a feeling self, a thinking self, and a willing self. The human being feels like an “I-King” enthroned over a trinity. He is divided into three beings. This occurs at a certain stage of initiation. He feels that, through the astral body, he experiences all the thoughts that relate to the spiritual world; through the etheric body, he experiences everything that pervades the spiritual world as feelings; and through the physical body, he experiences everything that lives through and permeates the spiritual world as impulses of will. It is said: The human being feels himself to be a king within the sacred triad. But the one who is not capable or mature enough to bear being thus divided will not be able to reap the fruits of initiation. Because suffering upon suffering confronts him, he is held back from that for which he is not yet ready. Whoever approaches the Holy Grail unworthily will suffer like Amfortas and can be redeemed only by the one who brings the good forces into his presence. He will be freed by Parzival.

[ 22 ] Let us now return to how the principle of initiation manifests itself. The seeking soul finds the spiritual world, the Holy Grail, which has now become the symbol, the expression of the spiritual world. What is described here is what individual initiates have truly experienced. They have traveled the path of Parzival. But there they were also like those who, as kings, looked back upon the three bodies. Those who experienced this said to themselves: I sit enthroned above my purified astral body, which, however, is purified and refined only through its following of Christ. It was not permitted for him to cling to any external connection, nor to anything that links him to the external world; rather, he had to unite himself in the innermost soul with the Christ principle. Everything that bound him externally to the sensory world had to fall away in the highest moments—the truly mystical moments.

[ 23 ] The representative of the initiate is Lohengrin. One must not ask him about his name or status—that is, about what connects him to the sensory world. One who has neither name nor status is called a “homeless being.” He is permeated and lived through by the Christ principle. He also looks down upon the etheric or life body—which has become the life spirit—as something separate from the astral body, something distinct. It is this body that carries him up into the higher worlds, where the laws of space and time do not apply. This etheric body and its organs correspond to the swan. It carries Lohengrin across the sea in a boat—in the physical body—across the material realm. The physical body is perceived as the boat. And the seeking soul on Earth, which experiences something new through initiation, is symbolized by Elsa of Brabant. Thus, we have the opportunity here to characterize the legend of Lohengrin—which also has many other meanings—as an expression of initiation within the mysteries centered around the Holy Grail.

[ 24 ] Thus, from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, these mysteries—which were taught in connection with the Mystery of Christ—were expressed in the Mystery of the Holy Grail. The Knights of the Holy Grail were the initiates of later times. They stood in contrast to exoteric Christianity, whereas the mysteries always cultivated esoteric Christianity, which sought such a relationship with Christ that the outer Christ would awaken the inner Christ in the soul—the inner Christ being symbolized by the dove.

[ 25 ] The entire development of the European mystery tradition is also expressed in another world of legends. But it is very difficult to shed light on this here. We will do so later. Today we will merely shed some light on it by seeking its reflection in what seeped out into the open and appeared in a remarkable world of legends. It is a relatively little-noticed legend that was put into poetic form by Konrad Fleck in 1230. It belongs to the legends and myths of Provence and is connected to the initiation of the Knights of the Grail or the Templars. It tells of an elderly couple, “Flor and Blancheflor.” In modern language, this roughly means: the flower with red petals—or the rose—and the flower with white petals—or the lily. In the past, much was associated with this legend. Today, it can only be summarized in broad strokes. It was said that Flor and Blancheflor are souls, incarnated as human beings, who have lived before. The legend links them to the grandparents of Charlemagne. But in Charlemagne, those who studied the legends more closely saw the figure who, in a certain way, connected inner, esoteric Christianity with exoteric Christianity. This is expressed in the imperial coronation. If we go back to his grandparents, Flor and Blancheflor, we find that the rose and the lily lived within them, intended to preserve in purity esoteric Christianity, as it goes back to Dionysius the Areopagite. Now, the rose—Flor or Flos—was seen as the symbol of the human soul that has taken in the impulse of personality, the “I,” that allows the spiritual to work through its individuality, and that has brought the “I” impulse right down into the red blood. In the lily, however, one saw the symbol of the soul that can remain spiritual only by the ego remaining outside of it, approaching only as far as the boundary. Thus, the rose and the lily are two opposites. The rose holds self-consciousness entirely within itself; the lily holds it entirely outside itself. Yet the union of the soul that is within and the soul that animates the world from without as the world spirit has always existed. Flor and Blancheflor express the discovery of the world soul, the world “I,” through the human soul, the human “I.”

[ 26 ] What later came to be expressed in the legend of the Holy Grail is also expressed here through this legend. It is not an external pair. The lily symbolizes the soul that finds its higher selfhood. In the union of the lily soul and the rose soul, one saw what could connect with the Mystery of Golgotha. Therefore, it was said: In contrast to the current of European initiation brought about by Charlemagne—which fuses exoteric and esoteric Christianity—purely esoteric Christianity must be kept alive and continued in its pure form. In the circles of the initiated, it was said: The very same soul that was in Flos or Flor—and which is celebrated in the song—reincarnated in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to found a new school of mysteries, which is to cultivate the mystery of Christ in a new way appropriate to the modern age, in the founder of Rosicrucianism. Thus, the mystery of the rose confronts us even in a relatively ancient time. The legend is even traced back to the time before Charlemagne. And so esoteric Christianity found refuge in Rosicrucianism. Since the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Rosicrucianism has trained the initiates who are the successors of the ancient European mysteries and the successors of the School of the Holy Grail.

[ 27 ] Much has leaked out from the mysteries of the Rosicrucians. But what is recounted there is often a caricature of what is true. Profound achievements in spiritual life can be traced back to Rosicrucianism, from which mysterious threads always extend into outer culture. For example, there is a connection between the writing of *Nova Atlantis* by Bacon of Verulam and Rosicrucianism. With this work, Bacon presented more than just a utopia. He sought to point toward higher levels that would revive the dormant clairvoyant abilities of ancient Atlantis. But what is associated with this from the external society of the Rosicrucians is that charlatanism and quackery, that caricature-like quality, which has been inevitable in our time ever since the invention of the printing press.

[ 28 ] Since then, it has no longer been possible to let a secret remain a secret, as in the old days. It depends on maturity or immaturity; everything is easily distorted and misrepresented. This can happen on a tremendous scale with the teachings of the anthroposophical movement! If it were what people say it is in circles that know nothing about it and yet talk about it, it would be something to run away from! In truth, however, it is the element that is nourished—more than has ever been the case—from the sources that lie within the Mysteries. It is this that has, in fact, brought about the greatest achievements of all time in their impact on humanity. Goethe’s greatest poetic works were nourished by the sources of Rosicrucianism. It was not for nothing that Goethe spoke in *The Secrets* of a person being led to a house adorned with a Rosicrucian cross. “Who has joined roses to the cross?” Who were they, the initiates of the European Mysteries, who joined the mystery of the rose to the mystery of the cross? How deeply Goethe had penetrated these mysteries is also evident in the fact that there were twelve around the assembly table, just as in the ancient Drotten Mysteries. Oh, Goethe knew all these things! But those who study Goethe today are like the Goethe they are able to comprehend. Goethe was only allowed to express this in a mysterious way; but today is the time to speak openly about what is the subject of initiation. It is to this fact—that this may be so—that these lectures owe their existence.

[ 29 ] Through anthroposophy, the realization will increasingly take hold that spiritual science does not produce unworldly dreamers, but rather people who are practical and capable in life. It gives them hope and confidence. Thinking will increasingly take on a form such that one could say of it what Wagner says of Faust—who represents materialistic thinking—namely, that it “digs for treasures with a greedy hand, and is glad when it finds earthworms!” — Indeed, materialism is glad when it finds earthworms and can prove that they are, in a certain sense, necessary for the reorganization of everything that lives and thrives on Earth. But what flows as spirit from the mysteries makes human thinking supple, enabling it to adapt to all possible situations in life. And how could it be otherwise, since the very meaning of the world’s evolution is reflected in the mysteries of spiritual science!

[ 30 ] That was what these lectures were intended to bring to your attention: that the meaning which reigns in the world itself is reflected in spiritual science. If this has been achieved to some extent, then the modest goal I set for myself has been attained.

[ 31 ] It has become clear that the world, with everything that lives within it, is born of the Spirit, and that human beings are born and called to rise up to the Spirit. Spiritual science shows us more and more that the Spirit is enchanted within the material world, that the sensory-material realm is the magical garment of the spiritual. Human beings are called to dispel this enchantment within the material world and reveal the Spirit from within this magical garment. The spiritual finds its resurrection in the human being, in the human soul that rises above itself. But it is the task of spiritual science to enable the soul to find the path beyond itself. Thus does spirit find spirit. Human beings will come to understand the spirit more and more as they make themselves more and more like it.