The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. Spiritual Insight in Life's Joyful and Serious Moments

[ 1 ] In yesterday’s lecture, I took the liberty of pointing out how the struggles and aspirations of German intellectual development contain the seeds of a true spiritual science—one that the future will bring us, one that is to emerge from the present. Specifically, I attempted to suggest that in that spiritual work, in that spiritual striving—which was necessary to lead to the ideas, concepts, and perspectives that emerged in German intellectual life during the first half of the nineteenth century—that in this striving and struggle lies the groundwork for the recognition of what, admittedly, can still be recognized only to a limited extent in our present time — for understandable reasons that have, after all, been discussed here in these lectures on several occasions. For the point is that one can arrive at this spiritual science only through the development of those powers of the human soul that are initially hidden within the soul for the person themselves; that one can arrive at it only when, through energetic inner mental work—through so-called concentration and meditation — those powers are drawn forth from within the human being that once, in more twilight states of consciousness, led to the clairvoyance mentioned yesterday; powers that were present in the souls at the dawn of humanity and of the peoples, and that can be brought forth again through conscious mental work. But then they emerge as conscious forces within the soul, so that these states of clairvoyance—revealing the conditions of the spiritual world—approach the soul fully consciously and while preserving human individuality, just as the conditions of the material world approach the human soul. Those meditations, those acts of concentration, and that inner work of the soul in the life of imagination, feeling, and will—which are necessary for such a development of the soul—have often been the subject of the lectures here. Today, however, I cannot speak of these matters again. For today I would like to point out how the results of this spiritual knowledge—to be attained through spiritual work—can lead to an increase in life energy, to the strengthening and invigoration of human life in both serious and joyful moments of life.

[ 2 ] It is quite natural and understandable that, to the consciousness of our time, which tends toward materialistic thinking, it seems absurd, paradoxical, perhaps even ridiculous when spiritual science today speaks of the human being as consisting not only of what external science—biology, physiology, etc.—recognizes about this human being, and what so-called psychology, which adheres only to external facts, recognizes; but when this spiritual research asserts that human beings are in truth composed of a series of elements, of which the physical, material aspect—the body—is only one, while the other elements—perceivable only through the aforementioned spiritual knowledge—operate in the invisible, supersensible realm and act upon human beings from there. As I said: it is only natural that people today may still mock this idea, that they argue against the notion that human beings do not merely possess a physical body—which serves them in the sensory world for external actions and external sensory perception—but that they also possess finer, more spiritual aspects of human nature. That, in addition to the physical body, human beings first and foremost possess what is called an etheric body—a finer body, “finer” in contrast to the conditions of the coarse physical body; that these two members of the human being are the ones that remain with the human being in physical existence even when the human being sinks into the unconsciousness of sleep; but that higher members, more spiritual members of human nature—those we call the astral body and the human ego—pass into a spiritual world from the moment of falling asleep until waking. Spiritual science must recognize this, and furthermore that these aspects of human nature, which rest in the unconscious during sleep, are the actual agents, the actual active forces that animate and permeate the physical and etheric bodies, and that enter into them when the person awakens from sleep.

[ 3 ] If today an external scientific perspective cannot or will not speak of these higher aspects of human nature, or refuses to acknowledge them, then such a refusal is akin to a person’s refusal to acknowledge the existence of air—a person who accepts only what is visible to the physical eyes and what, of the visible, can also be touched by the physical hands. For just as we inhale and exhale air as physical matter in short intervals, so the physical and etheric bodies of the human being inhale the astral body and the “I” upon waking; and upon falling asleep, they exhale them again—if we understand the word “breathe” figuratively. Upon falling asleep, the physical human body sends the astral body and the “I” out into the spiritual world. And this spiritual insight becomes fruitful when it can be applied appropriately in life, when the human soul can allow itself to be permeated by it and can view life in its light.

[ 4 ] As human beings, we are carried along by the current of life. Between our birth and our death, we are, as it were, swept along in this current of life. I would like to begin with a comparison intended to illustrate this journey through the current of life. - When we sit in a train and ride along, looking out the window, it seems to us at first—especially if we are not yet accustomed to traveling by train—as if the trees and houses were passing us by, moving past us. — This is more or less how a person lives, journeying through life with his worldviews and life experiences, facing happiness and unhappiness, successes and failures. For how do happiness and unhappiness, successes and failures affect human nature? Just as human nature is initially shaped by what it can draw from the physical world, so do happiness and unhappiness, success and failure affect us in such a way that they, as it were, constantly sweep along our perception of the world and our sense of existence—so that, in our feelings and sensations, the world itself seems to pass us by, depending on whether we experience suffering or pain within it. And just as we must first accustom ourselves to moving through the physical world in order to maintain the proper perspective during this journey toward what outside us only appears to be passing us by, so too must a person gain the right perspective in order to journey through the stream of life in such a way that he is able to remain calm in his sense of the world and his sense of existence—calm in the spiritual world, even when happiness and suffering, success or failure, seek to show him that his sense of the world and his sense of existence are in motion, or in apparent motion.

[ 5 ] Now, however, we must take into account that human development is in a state of constant progress, that epochs follow one another in this development, that ever new experiences enter into this development, and that, therefore, the soul, too, must experience different things in the various epochs of humanity’s historical development—and, based on these experiences, must also relate to life as a whole in different ways through its life feelings and its sense of existence. This is why the human being of the present needs a different relationship to the world than the one the human soul could have had with the world in bygone times in order to find inner satisfaction and peace in the flow of existence. Now, spiritual science shows us that within the human souls of the present day lies a certain sum, a kind of reservoir of forces of spiritually springing life, which seek to emerge from these human souls, so much so that they do not remain hidden within the soul, but step forward into human consciousness, so that the human being not only feels them as an inner urge, as an inner pressure, but can place them within his world of imagination, within his world of ideas. For with what attitude does spiritual science actually speak to people? It does not speak as if it were seeking to bring news from foreign realms of existence—as it were, from unknown lands—but rather from the perspective that, fundamentally, it wishes to say to every soul only that which lies deep within the soul itself. And the spiritual researcher is, in essence, convinced that what he merely attempts to clothe in words and express in external concepts and ideas is already present in all, all human beings—that he has nothing else to say to people than what they already carry within themselves. The entire field of spiritual science, when presented to humanity by the spiritual researcher with the right attitude, seeks to offer nothing other than what lies at the very depths of every human soul; this spiritual science is merely a call to the human soul to draw forth from within itself that which rests at the very depths of every soul.

[ 6 ] Thus we can say: in these depths of the human soul lies a whole store of forces which, when brought up into human consciousness, reveal what truly moves a person from within, what truly animates them from within. Truly, human beings are richer and more profound than they often imagine themselves to be.

[ 7 ] There is a curious law governing the relationship between human beings and their knowledge and perception of the world—a law that, once understood, can provide deep insights into many of the mysteries of the human soul. To illustrate this in the simplest way, I would like to refer once again to a fact that can be investigated through spiritual science: that every time a person falls asleep, they send their higher being—their “I” and their astral body—into a spiritual world. In this spiritual world, they are initially unable to perceive anything. But what he sends into this spiritual world truly contains—and is largely composed of—at least a large part of what spiritual science seeks to bring forth from the deep sources of existence for waking life. It is only in everyday life that human beings are constituted in such a way that unconsciousness veils what rests within their soul when, in the sleeping state, they are outside their physical and etheric bodies; and when, upon waking, they carry their “I” and their astral body into the physical and etheric bodies, then this “I” and this astral body are filled with the impressions arising from external perception—what the material world conveys to us. The soul is then devoted to the external world; and just as, at night, unconsciousness veils what lies in the depths of the soul, so, during the day, it is the impressions that come to us from the material external world. But everything that spiritual science seeks to bring to human consciousness truly lies in the depths of the soul. — There is now a law, an important, essential law, which we will gradually come to recognize as fundamentally governing all of existence: that which may be beneficial in one state can have a destructive effect when it asserts itself in another state, as it were, in another place.

[ 8 ] In what remains hidden from human material consciousness lie invisible, supersensory forces. They lie dormant in what a person releases into the spiritual world while asleep; they stir within, causing uncertainty in a person’s behavior and a sense of aimlessness in life. If these forces are brought up into consciousness and transformed into conscious insights, concepts, and ideas, then they become a blessing; then they become healing; then they give a person direction and purpose, peace, and security in life. This is a peculiar law, and it must be admitted that it is a difficult law to grasp. But it is nevertheless true: while what spiritual science offers can provide the spiritual seeker with deep satisfaction when it enters his consciousness, it becomes an element that breeds uncertainty—a force that breeds uncertainty—if it remains only below, unconscious, in the dark regions of the soul. If what spiritual science seeks to elevate to clear awareness remains unconscious in these regions, then it has no influence on the human “I”; then it surges and swells in the subconscious, and it cannot influence what the human being experiences in terms of happiness and pain, success and failure. Then a person can bring into their successes and failures, into their happiness and pain, only that part of their being which goes along with happiness and pain in such a way that the soul loses itself in happiness, sinks into pain, is numbed by its successes, and filled with pain by its failures. Then the soul goes along with everything; then it sways and floats in the stream of life. But if what lies down there in the dark regions of the soul—the powers of insight into the spiritual world—is brought up into the “I,” so that this “I” can carry these spiritual insights with it when life smiles upon us in happiness, when life brings us pain and suffering, then the “I” no longer sways and floats in the current of life through happiness and misfortune; then it carries a strengthened inner self into happiness and misfortune, into pain and suffering, and happiness and pain are then experienced differently.

[ 9 ] However, we must gain some awareness of the nature of happiness and suffering, of success and failure, if we are to properly consider the application of what has just been described. What do happiness and misfortune actually bring to a person?

[ 10 ] To truly understand what a person experiences in happiness, in success, in life’s joyful moments, or in pain and in the sad moments brought on by failure—one cannot really grasp this unless one takes into account that a human being consists of a physical outer aspect and a spiritual-soul inner aspect. What is happiness? What is a life of success?

[ 11 ] What is brought together in a human being through the elements of their nature takes on a different composition in relation to the finer aspects of existence—in happiness as well as in suffering. When we experience happiness, when the soul immerses itself in this happiness, or even when it becomes absorbed in its successes, what happens to human nature? Then, as it were, that which otherwise lies dormant within human nature bursts forth from within, pursuing what enters us from the outside in the form of happiness and success; the human being becomes estranged from his inner self; he ceases to be merely within himself. The human being enters into a foreign realm. This becoming alienated, this stepping outside of oneself, is what presents itself to us, as it were, as the single swing of the pendulum of human inner experience in happiness. When a person experiences pain, when they face failure, then the spiritual-soul aspect—as if fleeing from the pain and failure—withdraws deeper into the inner self than it would normally have to coexist with this inner self in the regular course of existence; it is then as if the spiritual-soul aspect were, so to speak, clenching itself up, so that the person does not, as in happiness and success, lose themselves in the external world, but rather withdraws into themselves. And since human beings are so constituted that they can find peace and satisfaction only in harmonious connection with the world, their clenched inner state throws them out of harmony with life just as much as their absorption in happiness and success alienates them from their true nature. This is the other swing of the pendulum of human inner life, in contrast to a life of happiness and success: this desire to live entirely within oneself, to flee the world because it seeks to pour failure and pain upon us. However, it is essential to the fullness of human experience that a person undergo these two swings of the pendulum; the question is simply how they experience them. If they do not experience them, then they even seek them out. And I wish, as an aside to this reflection, to show how a person can seek this alienation, which we experience in the natural course of happiness—that is, when a person is no longer at one with himself, when he wishes to lose himself in an element that is alien to his true self. |

[ 12 ] This is the case when a person refuses to acknowledge what is actually contained within this “I,” when he does not truly allow what is contained within this “I” to rise into consciousness, but instead immerses himself in another element and numbs himself to the truth of the “I” by resting in the external world. This numbness can be sought, and it is sought. And we see—let me add this—precisely in our time the saddest examples of such a search, of such alienation from oneself and a desire to immerse oneself in what does not belong to the “I,” because one does not want to admit this “I” in its true form. Thus it may be that entire masses of people are seized by such a feeling of wanting to numb themselves with something other than what the “I” actually says. Let us suppose that the “I” of a number of people had been saying for decades: “We want revenge for what has been taken from us—revenge for our sake,” and then a moment comes when one does not want to admit what lies at the core of the true “I,” when one seeks to move beyond it; then one looks for something to numb oneself—and no longer says: “We want revenge,” but instead one says: “We want to fight for the freedom and justice of the peoples!” This is nothing other than the search for the extreme of one swing of the pendulum: numbing oneself. Or one sings for decades or even longer: “Rule Britannia,” “Britain, rule!”—and as the continuation, which is well known, goes—and at a certain moment one does not want to admit this to oneself: one does not then say what lies at the very core of one’s being, but one feels it necessary to step outside one’s own nature by saying: Let us fight for the freedom and rights of the peoples!

[ 13 ] Like an epidemic, this addiction can sweep over entire masses of people, leading them to seek numbness in external experiences because they do not want to remain within their own selves. But a person finds their direction and security in life only when they are not only able to remain within their “I,” but also when they know how to carry their “I” into every joy, every sorrow, every success, and every failure. We attain the strengthening of this “I”—its inner security and resilience—when we bring to the surface what makes the “I” insecure. And what makes us insecure is the knowledge of the spiritual world that remains in the dark regions of the soul below, where it rests and takes the form of a rocking boat; as long as it remains down in the depths of the soul, it causes insecurity, but it provides security in life when it is, as it were, brought up to another place—into consciousness. And it is strange that, when asked, “Why do we seek spiritual science?” we cannot answer, “To find satisfaction in this spiritual science, to experience the joy of elevation through this spiritual science”; rather, we must bring this capacity for insight up into consciousness because we already possess it in our subconscious, but because it must not remain there. And the more we strive to gain insights into the spiritual world within us, the more we will find that—whether this spiritual insight brings us joy or sorrow—something else is taking shape within us. For it is easy to imagine that, while this unconscious inner self is otherwise filled with the forces that can emerge as spiritual science, our subconscious inner self becomes empty to the extent that we consciously imbue ourselves with what spiritual science is able to give us. The comparison is truly apt when we say: It is as if we were trying to pump the air out of a bell jar—we empty the space of the vessel, and other air can flow into it. In the same way, other things can enter our soul when we empty it of what we bring up into our consciousness.

[ 14 ] And what, then, can enter the soul? The forces with which the soul is intrinsically connected can then enter it. For when we empty our soul of whatever seeks to rise into consciousness, we open the now-empty soul to the influence of the divine-spiritual impulses that set our will ablaze, that warm our feelings with the forces springing from these divine-spiritual impulses, and that give us security in life—so that at the right moment we say to ourselves: “This is where you should turn; this is how you should perceive what comes to you in life as happiness and joy, as pain and suffering.” Therefore, a person will realize that what matters is not so much what comes to us as spiritual science, but rather what spiritual science brings about in our soul. We can diligently observe the soul and will notice: As you strive to bring these insights into your soul, something quite different emerges from your soul than what it used to be. Moments arise that were not there before, in which the soul feels: “Now I have this to do—now I have that to do,” moments in which impulses arise that bring us what gives us balance in life—impulses that would not be there if they had not been suppressed by the insights that remained unconscious and are now brought to the surface through spiritual science.

[ 15 ] When we practice spiritual science, we behave toward our inner self, as it were, just as someone who wants to regulate a stream would behave: he does not approach the water directly to divert it somewhere, for that would get him nowhere; rather, he first approaches the earth, seeks to hollow it out in one spot, and seeks to create a fissure through which the stream can then flow. The same is true of our soul. Whatever can bring us security in life, harmony in life, and a peaceful outlook on life in both happiness and suffering—we cannot approach these things as we would if we were to approach the water directly; but just as the water flows of its own accord into the space we have prepared for it in the earth, so do the spiritual forces flow of their own accord into the will and the mind when we prepare a channel for them. And we prepare this channel for them when we draw out from the depths of our soul what otherwise prevents the divine-spiritual world from entering—but which no longer prevents this entry once we bring it up into consciousness. That is why, through the study of spiritual science, we do not merely recognize something or experience something, but are transformed in the true sense of the word, because what otherwise cannot enter our soul then flows into it, and we feel, as it were, an inner strengthening, an inner fortification of the soul as the result of our study of spiritual science.

[ 16 ] What gives us strength? What makes us strong? We cannot feel it at every moment. But we can perceive it in this way: when we encounter a happiness that might otherwise numb us or take us captive, we do indeed experience this happiness and go through it fully, yet we carry ourselves into this happiness with a strengthened inner soul, with our inner being imbued with strength; that while we experience a pain just as sorrowfully, we can immerse ourselves in this pain, carrying our self into it.” and need not alienate ourselves from the world by carrying our “I” into that pain.

[ 17 ] One must look a little deeper into spiritual science if one wishes to grasp the full scope of what such a change—in relation to happiness or suffering—actually means for life. The state that arises in the human soul—if the term is not misunderstood—as the soul’s becoming clairvoyant can be regarded as a kind of awakening, through which one enters a world of which one knew nothing as long as one had only perceptions of the physical world and intellectual judgments about that world. Let us now suppose that a person, while immersed in happiness and success, were to suddenly “awaken” in this way. So let us imagine a person who, until now, was accustomed only to observing the physical world and allowing it to affect him—that is, immersing himself in this physical world without the power that spiritual science can provide; and let us imagine that such a person were to “awaken” in the midst of success, and the spiritual world were to be there. What would he then see?

[ 18 ] Such an awakening can become a deeply dark moment in a life that is otherwise filled with happiness. In such a moment, what has been described comes to the forefront of the soul: the soul’s alienation from itself. And what a person has enjoyed in happiness and success—what they have just experienced—they see, as it were, sinking away, and sinking so deeply that they cannot hold on to it, because they lack the strength to do so. The fact that we lose ourselves in life when we, without spiritual insight, rush headlong into happiness and success—this can be brought particularly vividly before our soul through such an awakening. For—as spiritual science reveals—those moments we attain through happiness and success can only become truly strengthening forces for our eternal “I,” which passes through the gate of death into eternity, if we do not lose ourselves but rather preserve ourselves within the experience of happiness. Spiritual science is not intended to sour or diminish a person’s happiness; it does not seek to take away or weaken even a shred of a person’s happiness or joy. What it does, however, seek to point out is that happiness experienced without this specific connection to the world cannot, in its effects, unite with the deepest forces of our “I.” For those who go through the world in such a way that—without spiritual insight—they remain unstrengthened in relation to their “I,” nothing emerges from happiness except the longing for new happiness, and from this, in turn, only the longing for further happiness. They do not draw from a single experience of happiness the strengthening forces for all their future lives. But whoever brings into happiness those forces that open up to him when he seeks spiritual knowledge draws from happiness a sustaining, vitalizing power, which he carries into his “I” because he has strengthened it through spiritual science; and he carries with him, for all eternity, whatever happiness and success can give him.

[ 19 ] And the same is true of pain, suffering, and failure. Once again, we can start from that spiritual insight that answers the question: What would a person perceive if, at the moment of greatest pain and suffering, he were to suddenly awaken and see what exists as the spiritual world? They would then see the effect of the world recoiling, of its convulsive contraction; they would see the darkening of everything around them. A person would perceive a spiritual darkening if they were to suddenly awaken without spiritual insight. This darkening, however, transforms for the one who carries a soul strengthened by spiritual science into the pain; for them, the awakening is different—there is light around such a soul. And so, by living through pain with spiritual awareness, the soul triumphs over pain and over all failures, and the fruit of pain and failure emerges for the soul from such an experience. This fruit is an elevation of knowledge, an infusion of that knowledge with an awareness of spiritual life.

[ 20 ] That is why, in these lectures, I have often cited an experience that the spiritual researcher may undergo. Happiness and joy, after all, always—or at least most of the time—come to our soul from the outside. They are like something that comes toward us. When we become absorbed in our pain and suffering in our own experience, we withdraw into ourselves. We want to seize happiness; we want to flee from pain; but we can only escape it by clenching ourselves up inside. Now one might ask someone who has gathered some spiritual insight in their soul: What would you rather do without in your life: the happiness and joy you have experienced—or the pain and suffering, indeed the failures, that you have experienced yourself? And the one who has gained spiritual insight will answer: I am grateful, deeply grateful to the spiritual worlds for having sent me my happiness and joy; but if I were to choose what I would rather do without in my life—happiness or pain—I would rather do without happiness; for although I owe much to happiness, the light I have gained about the world I owe to the failures I have lived through; and what I have become through my insight, I have become through the pain I have experienced, and in the truest sense of the word, I must say: I have found myself through my pain; through my experiences of pain, I have found my harmonious place in the world!

[ 21 ] This is how thoroughly a person comes to understand pain and happiness once they have gained a relationship with spiritual knowledge. And when we ask ourselves: What, then, is it that—one might say—flows into the soul like an elixir of life, like a living force of life, as a person allows the spiritual-divine forces to flow into the soul and fills it with spiritual insight? Then we can say: Peace, balance, and security flow into the soul—such peace, such balance, such security that, as a result, happiness and suffering, successes and failures become something entirely new in life.

[ 22 ] What will they become? — Well, since happiness is what binds us to the outside world, it becomes a source of strength for our entire being; happiness flows into our feelings, our mind, and our impulses of will. We do not dim our happiness, we do not sour it; we do not despise happiness. We accept it—gratefully—from the hands of the powers of the world, but we pass through it in such a way that we pluck eternal fruits from the tree of happiness—fruits for our will, fruits for our mind. And whoever finds themselves in a position to enjoy happiness in this way can discover that they truly experience no less of this happiness than those who go through it without spiritual awareness. These experiences of happiness are more subtle and intimate; they are more subtle and intimate because they, as it were, open windows into a spiritual world for us, because they serve to convey that strengthening of our soul which can come to us from the spiritual worlds.

[ 23 ] And so, what if we immerse ourselves in pain? Truly, spiritual science is not meant to be a sentimental remedy for life’s pains; spiritual science cannot turn people into shallow beings. What causes us pain must cause us pain; that is healing; for pain tempers life, pain tempers strength. Thus, spiritual science does not seek to lift us above pain. On the contrary; one must penetrate even deeper into it, one must truly savor its essence, precisely when one has become spiritually aware. But just as happiness can strengthen the will and the mind, so too will pain give rise to a strengthening of knowledge, the certainty of knowledge, and the strengthening and certainty of another part of the mind—more so than happiness ever could. Just as the one who, as a martyr, passes away through the pain of life, shows us in a wonderfully moving way the victory of light over the darkness of life, so too does the human being, by carrying his spiritually conscious “I” into the pain, perceive for himself how the spiritually conscious “I” rises above the pain, but, as it rises above it, becomes ever brighter and brighter and fills itself with that light which is a beacon in the storm of life and in the struggle of existence.

[ 24 ] Spiritual science does not give us knowledge alone. What it gives us is, at first, merely a cause. The effect, however, is an “I” strengthened by life’s balance and tranquility—the attainment of a point of stillness amid the flux of phenomena. But the most important thing is the life energy that spiritual science gives us, and the awareness through which we tell ourselves: Through your efforts in spiritual science, you do not merely attain what ultimately presents itself to you as knowledge; you have sought knowledge, but you have drawn it forth from the depths of your soul only because you wanted to empty your soul; and now it becomes clear to you that it has become full, that the divine-spiritual life flows graciously into the depths of your being, making you secure and harmonious in life. Thus, a profoundly religious mood characterizes the effect of spiritual science—a feeling of the divine surging through the soul. And we are filled with a spirit of gratitude, with a continuous spirit of prayer toward that which permeates the world, when we have freed the soul for what can flow into it, when we recognize how the Divine—once we have prepared a place for it—truly becomes one with our soul—entirely in accordance with the teachings of Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, Jacob Böhme, and Angelus Silesius. And by placing ourselves in such a state of anticipation—as it were, in the emptiness of our soul—we open ourselves to the possibility that, in the intuitions and inspirations of life, that which leads us to do what is right will warm and pulse through our hearts. We recognize ourselves as instruments of the spirits of the worlds, who wish to enter into a relationship with us. And this gives life a richness and security that cannot be lost.

[ 25 ] What is it, then, that draws into our empty soul? What is it that connects the soul, in its very essence, to that which is its very essence? The divine-spiritual draws into it. Only then can the soul become conscious of the divine-spiritual. For it remains unconscious in the depths of sleep, when the “I” and the astral body are at rest; it also remains unconscious in waking life, because it is then drowned out and overshadowed by the external impressions of physical existence. But when spiritual insight fills us, we become vividly aware of the eternally living within our soul, and then we find the path to grow together in the right way with that which carries us through life via the stream of life.

[ 26 ] But what carries us spiritually through the stream of life? One word hints at it—a word rich in meaning: human destiny. How do we comprehend fate as long as we cling only to the outward appearances of material existence, as long as we seek to grasp these outward appearances solely with the analytical mind bound to the brain? We perceive it as something that befalls us, that comes upon us; we speak of the “coincidences” of life. Already in one of the recent lectures, it was mentioned here how, even without delving into spiritual science, these coincidences of life stand out. If, at any moment in life, we examine what we actually are, what we have become, and then look back in our lives to a certain point after our birth, we find that we have become what we are because certain twists of fate have befallen our “I.” Perhaps we experienced real setbacks at some point during our youth: when we had to solve a routine school problem, we were unable to solve it, or we solved it incorrectly; but the fact that we solved it incorrectly had certain consequences for us. These consequences, however, have become deeply ingrained in our soul; they still remain there, even in old age. The fact that we are able to make a quick decision in a particular situation in life is, however, the result of what previously brought us failure. In this way, we have been able to strengthen our powers. What we are now, we owe to what fate has brought upon us.

[ 27 ] If we pursue this insight, we can already—without even touching on spiritual knowledge—find the identification of life, of our “I,” with destiny. We are our destiny; for our destiny has made us what we are. If we extend this insight to the spiritual-scientific understanding that, in happiness and suffering, we carry our “I” out into the vicissitudes of fate, then we enter into those vicissitudes. And while we might otherwise think, in times of happiness and suffering, that we must, as it were, separate ourselves from them—that we must not be swallowed up by them—we will now, when we consider our destiny—everything that befalls us as a matter of fate—find precisely the opposite: It had to come to us and through us! For everything that destiny has wrought is intimately connected with our “I.” Gradually, a union with fate takes place in our consciousness: We grow together with fate; we carry our “I” into the course of our destiny. We detach ourselves from our own selves. We step into our destiny; we go out into the course of the world. We become one with the course of the world, stepping into the very stream of life itself; we selflessly merge into that which we otherwise regard only with sympathy and antipathy. Whereas we used to view a stroke of good fortune with sympathy and a stroke of misfortune with antipathy, from now on we will know, when faced with fate: “There you are, right there inside it, and if you weren’t in there, you wouldn’t have become what you are now!”

[ 28 ] What I have just explained is easier said than done in real life. But when a person brings their true self into the course of fate, then the question of fate becomes something entirely different from what it usually is in everyday life. Then it becomes something alive within life itself; then it kindles forces within us. Just as insight empties our soul, allowing divine-spiritual forces to flow into us so that we can feel ourselves strengthened, so now—whereas the “I” was otherwise empty in the face of the events of fate—by carrying our “I” out into fate, into this “I” flows that which passes through death and birth, that which leads us back to earlier earthly lives and shows us how this present earthly life is the starting point for future earthly lives. There is no other way for a human being to become one with their eternal nature and being—which passes through births and deaths—than to become one with the current of destiny, to become one through the realization that we have often already prepared our own destiny, and that we have prepared our destiny for this existence in our past lives. We become one with that which connects us to the Spirit within the depths of our soul. Whereas otherwise we are like a person floating in a boat on an infinite sea, knowing nothing but what is happening in that boat or in its immediate vicinity, through spiritual insight a person comes to realize that there is not just this one boat in the sea; rather, he sees many boats heading in one direction, many boats in the other direction, and he then knows that his life in this one boat—between birth and death—lasts for a certain time, but that he then, freed from the forces that bind him to life in this boat, undergoes a life in the spiritual world, only to find himself in another boat after some time—just as he knows that he was previously in another boat. Just as one would feel insecure if one felt bound only to one boat, but would feel secure knowing that one can escape from that one boat to another at a certain time, so life in the eternal stream of existence becomes secure when we place ourselves within destiny in such a way that we identify our “I” with destiny. What we experience in life—what comes to us as our karma, as our destiny—becomes what we have become in life. We learn to recognize the question of destiny as the question of our soul’s perfection. We then say to ourselves: If you experience suffering, pain, or failure, these sufferings, pains, and failures permeate your soul, strengthening it in that part where the conscious powers reside, and you pass through the gate of death with a strengthened soul and enter another life with strengthened powers. While the question of fate might otherwise cast darkness over our lives, it becomes a question of spiritual perfection for our soul as soon as we penetrate it with spiritual insight; and inner peace pours over our lives when we are thus able to approach the question of fate. One might say: Whatever may come to meet a person in life, whatever life necessarily demands of people—all of this appears in a new light, and the person faces all of this with new strength when he or she enables the divine-spiritual forces to enter the soul by filling the conscious part of the soul’s powers with spiritual insight. Therefore, spiritual knowledge is not mere theoretical knowledge, not something we merely take in through concepts and ideas; rather, by taking it in through concepts and ideas, we transform our soul into something else. We do not “prove” the immortality of the soul through spiritual science; rather, by devoting ourselves to spiritual science, we prepare the soul in such a way that it experiences itself in its living nature and thus experiences its immortality. Spiritual science gives the human soul a new life, a life that has been awakened.

[ 29 ] In a few brief strokes, I have attempted to show that spiritual science can become a true elixir of life for the soul. And anyone who follows the course of German spiritual life can recognize for themselves, through the inner nature and essence of this spiritual life, that it is a preparation for coming to an appreciation of a true, living spiritual science. It is what was described yesterday as Germanic spiritual steadfastness, as German spiritual life—a contest, as it were, of spiritual forces—aimed at attaining what can still be achieved—which can be achieved, in particular, by the entire national soul having strengthened itself through its initial striving to gain the insights, concepts, and ideas discussed yesterday. All of this served as a strengthening toward a new life. But in life, everything is connected in a living, inner relationship. Therefore, we may justifiably believe that what has emerged in German spiritual life as a preparatory, life-strengthening spiritual insight—what has manifested itself as soul-forming forces—lives not merely in German philosophy and literature, but in the innermost roots of the German national spirit. This, indeed, is the distinctive feature of the German national spirit: that whenever we follow German art, German literature, and German philosophy, it never appears to us as if it were merely foam on the surface of life, but rather as if it were constantly welling up from the depths, from the very foundations of life. We can look at the finest achievements of German intellectual life—as we encounter it, for example, in its most refined form in Novalis—and we will always find that a stream flows from this refined life all the way down to the roots of the national spirit. For most people, Hegelian philosophy is certainly a mental exercise they shy away from, because it is difficult to find one’s way into its crystal-clear, crystal-cold trains of thought; but as crystal-clear and crystal-cold as these trains of thought may be, there is a path from what appears so abstract all the way down to the roots of the national spirit, from which flow those forces that, in both the East and the West, constitute our hope for the complete salvation of German existence against the advancing enemies. In a living organism—and such a living organism is what we call the German spiritual essence—everything belongs together. And when it is said that other peoples, too, are now united, we must always emphasize what has often been emphasized here before: What often appears to us as the same thing in the various spheres of existence is not always the same. In that which we hope for—in the German essence, in what now unites and strengthens the German essence and calls for selfless action—there lives, albeit still unconsciously, that power which is destined to gush forth in the life-awakening and life-nurturing spiritual insight; and because this force lives within it—unconsciously, yet with a sense of foreboding—it now breathes the magical breath of unity into the deeds of the German people. Therefore, we may hope that this unity in action will bring about what the German spirit, in its germinal power, intends. And the German spirit seeks nothing other than to perceive the physical and spiritual worlds in unity, to perceive and organize all life—in both the spiritual and physical worlds—in unity, based on spiritual knowledge.

[ 30 ] To recognize unity—oh, how much this means! Much so, too, in the outer spheres of life. We are living in difficult, serious times. There will also have to come times again when we live under different circumstances, when people will once more live peacefully, yet devoted to the pursuit of spiritual goods—devoted to that which, after all, must fill the greater part of our time in life. And there will have to be strength—as strong as the strength we have now—if the sun of culture is to shine its proper warmth, a sun that must emerge from the twilight we are now experiencing. What kind of people will there be then, when humanity becomes imbued with a little spiritual insight, when it begins to integrate the spiritual with the physical?

[ 31 ] We look upon what now touches our souls so painfully; we look upon so many who have gone through pain, suffering, and death—whose souls we already know to be in those worlds toward which we look up through spiritual insight. But we are learning to look into these spiritual worlds in accordance with the demands of our time, in accordance with the demands of the human soul in our time. What is being considered here has already been hinted at once before. When we turn our gaze to all those who, in the prime of their lives and in faithful love for their people, have passed through the gate of death, we behold a sum of unspent forces—those unspent forces of the mind and will that these individuals could still have applied in life had they not passed through the gate of death prematurely due to the events of our time of duty. Let us look at this entire sum of unspent forces in the physical world—forces that could still have developed within those who were cut down by the grave events of the time. Is what these people could still have experienced—had they not passed through the gate of death prematurely—no longer there? Is it lost?

[ 32 ] If we were to look up into the spiritual worlds using only what our physical vision provides, we would find no answer to this question. But if we know how to unite the worldviews of the spiritual and physical worlds into a single life force, then we look into the spiritual world, and then we know that these forces are not lost, that they flow through existence, and that those who have now passed through the gate of death prematurely have given their forces for future times, for entire generations, for entire epochs. And united with these forces, we will in the future behold the workings on Earth, as the spiritual world unites with the physical world; we will gain a new understanding of how the forces—which now seem to be lost—flow into our empty souls, souls that have been emptied through spiritual knowledge. The people of the future, strengthened by spiritual insight, will, through this spiritual insight, have the opportunity not to let the forces that now seem lost go to waste. Rather, the lost forces will continue to work within the course of history; and in what people will do in days to come, there will live on in their strength what has flowed through the gates of death on the battlefields of our time—but consciously, not unconsciously as in earlier times. In earlier times, the peoples had this awareness of the existence of their departed ones unconsciously, as long as they still possessed remnants of the ancient clairvoyance. It can strike us as remarkable when we hear how, in the year 378, the Goths marched into battle against the Romans: while at the start of the battle an inarticulate cry rang out on the Roman side, the Goths struck up battle songs in which they sang of the glory and honor of their invisible dead. They felt themselves consciously guided by their dead; they had an understanding of the eternal, ongoing influence of the invisible. Humanity will regain this understanding—but now in a conscious way; and through this understanding, security and the ability to bear fruit in life will also develop, spreading throughout this entire great life. Thus, as the souls of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and all those remaining in the physical world look toward those who have been torn from them in their grief, they will look upon them as truly living beings, as those who, having broken free from the confines of their physical existence, have poured their powers into the collective existence of humanity; and the dead will not be lost, because they will be perceived as continuing to live within the collective human existence. Spiritual science will be able to bring about such a transformation even in the simplest human soul. For spiritual science is an elixir of life; spiritual science gives direction to life and brings harmony to the soul; spiritual science is that which sustains us and carries us through joy and sorrow, success and failure, happiness and misfortune, because it is able to give us from the Divine that for which we have emptied our souls. Souls that have emptied themselves through spiritual knowledge will also be open to receiving what can flow into these human souls and hearts from the spirits who have passed through the gate of death—the fallen ones. Only souls that have not thus emptied their inner being will have to lose themselves in the pain and suffering that the great events of the present must bring upon so many individuals. But people who pass through this time strengthened by spiritual knowledge will find that what the earth has taken from them physically will be returned to their emptied souls by the gods. They will understand the language of the spirit, which speaks to them vividly after death, when they have had to cease listening with their physical ears to the loving words of their dear loved ones.

[ 33 ] Thus, by strengthening the heart and the mind, life and being, spiritual science should not only pass through human reason and the human intellect, but it should pass through human hearts; it should pass through everything that fills the human soul. And spiritual science, in particular, can do this even for those who consider themselves the most enlightened of all. It can give us the assurance that we can have hope, that we can pass through with a sense of light all that now so seriously surrounds us. And everything that may arise for us in our serious reflections at this moment, we may indeed focus on the gravity and the great dignity of our time. We may also, as it were, summarize today’s reflection in a feeling through which we wish to share in the experience of all those who are currently engaged in the struggle and who may have already passed through the gates of death—summarize it in a language that may be conscious to one, unconscious to another—but conscious to all the dead. We can look forward, full of hope, to those times that must come to humanity for its progress, for its salvation—times that must come as the fruits of our present age. We can look forward to what will once again bring peaceful days to humanity—peaceful days in which, throughout the world, through human souls and hearts, will flow that which, from the totality of the divine-spiritual power of blessing, can flow for the salvation of humanity, for human progress, and for human strengthening. People will act, inspired and empowered by these divine-spiritual forces that surge and ripple through the world. But we can look toward this future with the uplifting feeling that spiritual science gives us the answer to an anxious question of our time: What will then live within all those who will once be active in a peaceful time, in which the arts, knowledge, and the power of peace will be cultivated? And we will be able to know that in all that people will then do, there will live on that which is now passing through the gates of death in such great numbers—human strength that once looked so youthfully toward the future—in the fields of the East and West!

[ 34 ] Is this not also a lesson in how to endure life in both happiness and suffering, when we look upon death and suffering in our troubled times and are allowed to know that from this death and suffering emerge forces—invisible forces—that will prevail, especially in the most peaceful times of the future, for the salvation and progress of humanity? For forces will emerge with which those will connect who will then have a mission on Earth—those who will have to synthesize the visible and the invisible processes of becoming, in order to work among brothers not only in the visible world but also in the supersensible world—and who, in turn, will have won over—spiritually—those hearts that they have lost in our trying times.

[ 35 ] That, too, seems to me to be an elixir of life! Strengthening and invigorating, it can flow into our strength and through our veins, especially in our time, when we truly—truly!—need such an elixir of life. And if we grasp the true inner meaning of spiritual science, we know that this elixir of life must come. For whatever external life may bring: this elixir of life is not connected to what external life brings, but to what we can become, can be, in our innermost being through our own power. And what we have attained through the deepest, most inner effort of our true inner essence is not lost to us as human beings—neither in time nor in eternity. No suffering, no pain—and not even death—can take that away from us!