The Rudolf Steiner Archive

26. The Origin of Evil

[ 1 ] Today, my task is to speak to you about the origin of evil from the perspective of spiritual science. The reality of evil and its presence in the world stands, after all, as one of life’s great mysteries right at the heart of our existence. And anyone who, having deeply reflected on human development, believes in divine power and divine providence, asks themselves: How is it possible that the divine allows evil to exist? And for those who deny the divine, the existence of evil is easily cited as one of the reasons for such denial. They say: How can one conceive of a world, where evil reigns and spreads in such diverse forms, as being under divine guidance? In any case, this question of evil intrudes into our lives in a mysterious and unsettling way.

[ 2 ] Since time immemorial, the question of the cause and origin of evil has been a central one. So today let us consider the reality of evil; and let us discuss and draw attention to specific points of resolution. In doing so, we must above all remember Jakob Böhme, who repeatedly raises the question in his writings: How does evil enter the world, and what role does it play in human development?

[ 3 ] In his reflections on this topic, Schelling draws on Böhme to form a conception of evil and its existence in the world. For Böhme, evil is to light what darkness is to light. Böhme says: Beings owe their existence to the light of the sun; light is the sustainer, the creator of existence in the world. It is only through darkness that light is recognized, and light exists only when mixed with darkness. If we ask about the cause of darkness, or if we even seek to explain light through darkness, we arrive at the correspondence between the “unground” and the “primordial ground.”

[ 4 ] If light is to appear, it must dispel and overcome that which exists for no reason and yet stands in opposition to the light; in doing so, the divine source of existence—the Good—emerges of its own accord. It is good; it is pure good; but the light penetrates the abyss of evil in order to unfold fully. This is an explanation of the concept that appears illuminating to our understanding.

[ 5 ] In modern times, the question of good and evil seems to have regained prominence, for example in the work of Nietzsche, who has impressed many, many people. You are all familiar with the book Beyond Good and Evil. The modern philosopher Nietzsche contrasts good and bad, not good and evil. He says: We need not concern ourselves at all with the origin of evil; we distinguish between the weak and the strong—those with a strong will. The strong-willed rule; they seek to assert themselves and their ideas, and this must naturally lead to a struggle with the weak and to their oppression. The rulers regard themselves as the good. The oppressed think quite differently about this. They feel that what the rulers do is to their—the weak’s—detriment. Since they are the weak, they come to the conclusion that there is still a form of good that has not been realized. They regard what the strong do as evil. This is the origin of the contradiction in thought between the weak and the strong. From this flows what is called “slave morality.”

[ 6 ] Essentially, those who have thought more deeply have always viewed the concept of good and evil in relative terms; we need only think of Goethe when he says: “Oh, if only people would not always speak in the same way—‘this is good’ and ‘that is evil’—but would instead consider the driving force behind their actions.”

[ 7 ] In his Faust, Goethe depicted the struggle between good and evil within humanity. In his youth, Goethe had not yet fully developed these powerful contrasts in his initial draft of Faust. In the current version, however, the defining characteristics of this struggle between the forces of good and Mephistopheles are already evident in the “Prologue in Heaven.” Goethe skillfully sensed the profound impact of good and evil within human beings; in Faust, he seeks to fathom this higher realm of emotions.

[ 8 ] Our task today is to explore, in light of modern spiritual research or theosophy, the origin of good and evil. To do so, we must indeed go far back in human evolution. The Bible also goes very far back in this regard, almost to the very origin of humankind. One of the most wonderful and grand allegories on this subject is the “Fall of Man,” even for those who do not believe in the event itself. The serpent is the tempter of humankind, who in the beginning were created for good alone. It is only through an act of human free will that the distinction between good and evil is conceived. Animals do things far more terrible than what we call evil in humans; but who would ever think to speak of an “evil” animal in this sense? In its actions, the animal follows a law implanted within it, and so it makes no sense to speak of good and evil; that applies only to human beings. Spiritual science must go back in this question to the point where humanity appears as the crown of our Earth. Why can we not speak of evil in relation to animals? The animal does indeed have a soul, but not an individual soul—rather, a group soul. What is a group soul? What constitutes an entire group for the animal is what the human being possesses all by himself. To understand this, we need only consider the single fact that the human being has a life story, whereas the animal does not.

[ 9 ] Every human being, without exception, is of biographical interest to us, and we know that there is no one else with exactly the same biography. With animals, it is to the same extent only the entire genus and species that interests us. Just as we are interested in all lions collectively, so too are we interested in the individual human being. The soul exists collectively for an entire animal species. Human beings have only recently evolved from a group soul to an individual one. Humanity stands right in the midst of this development. We still encounter people who appear as members of a tribe.

[ 10 ] However, the richer the soul’s life becomes, the less that soul is a generic soul, and the more it takes on its own character in its gestures and feelings. Thus, the human being is usually situated between the group soul and the individual soul; and as we look to the future, the human being will become increasingly individual, and in the past, increasingly a group soul,

[ 11 ] We must go all the way back to the beginning of human evolution. When we trace human origins, we go back through what we call historical times. We conclude the historical period with the fifth main race and its five distinct subraces.

[ 12 ] Let us consider the Indian Vedas; there we sense a magnificent culture that even Max Müller, a thoroughly objective scholar, acknowledges. Historical times extend back that far. From there, spiritual science traces back to prehistoric times. The methods for tracing back through the development of the inner senses are explained in greater detail in my journal Luzifer — Gnosis. Theosophy posits that a vast continent, Atlantis, once existed between America, Africa, and Europe; it was destroyed by natural disasters, and today only small island peaks remain. Today, modern science is beginning to confirm this. You can read about Atlantis in the magazine Kosmos. Spiritual science has always spoken of Atlantis. Living conditions there were completely different; the atmosphere was like billowing masses of fog, hence “Nibelheim.” This “Land of Mist” is still preserved for us in folk legends. That was still an ancient human race; however, we must look even further back for the origin of earthly humanity—to Lemuria, a continent that was located in what is now the Indian Ocean. There we find the first humans of the same nature as modern humans.

[ 13 ] How, then, does spiritual science conceive of the origin of humankind? According to spiritual science, humankind did not originally descend from a material being; rather, the spiritual is primary. The physical body was still very imperfect at that time. Spiritual science takes the view that the Lemurian human was outwardly very imperfect, but never descended from apes; rather, the opposite is true: he left the apes behind at a lower stage.

[ 14 ] At that time, the physical human being’s constitution was at the level of the reptilian constitution, and his soul still resided outside his body. Today, the waking human being has his soul within his body; in the case of the sleeping person, who does not perceive through the gates of the senses, spiritual science knows that his soul is outside his body. The clairvoyant sees the astral body and its work on the physical body at night. The further back we go, the more we see how the astral body is active in relation to the physical body. For spiritual science, the spiritual body is the creator of the physical body. In Lemuria, we see the physical human being still surrounded by the active astral body. For the astral body—or the soul—has created the physical body; it is the creator of the physical body, and the crucial moment is when this soul was entirely outside the body—when, after having perfected it, the soul now shifts from purely external activity inward and becomes the “I.” This is a crucial moment in how human evolution unfolded during the Lemurian era. This is expressed in a grand, powerful, and meaningful way where the Bible says: “And God breathed into the man the breath of life; and he became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) This alludes to the moment when the group soul becomes the individual soul within the human being—the moment the astral body enters the physical body. As a group soul, it dwelt in the spiritual world; the religious expression for this would be: As long as the soul rested in the bosom of the Godhead, it was a group soul. An example of this: the fingers of the hand; they are limbs, organs; they stand in exactly the same relationship to the physical body as the soul did before its entry into the physical body—that is, as a group soul. It was a limb of the great Being that one might now call God or the Universal Spirit. In these souls, it was the Divinity that acted. Example: water and sponges that fill themselves with water. Upon entering the physical body, these souls became individual drops of water.

[ 15 ] Thus, in the course of development, the physical body, as it were, snatches the soul away from the Divine—and what is the consequence of this? Previously, the soul did not feel or act independently, but rather as the Divine inspired it to do. This Divine is a part of the common divine substance. All souls therefore knew something of one another; they shared a common consciousness; this now came to an end. Individual existence now begins. Previously, divine law was their conductor; now it is no longer. And with this, egoism—selfishness—begins to play a role. God’s will had previously been the will of the soul itself; now it had to arrive at its own will, at self-interest. Now it had to arrive at the birth of self-interest, and with it, the birth of self-consciousness. The replacement of the world order of wisdom by the world order of love now took place—as spiritual science throughout the ages has called it. Love and egoism had not existed before.

[ 16 ] Love requires that one independent being join another independent being, that free devotion be given. An example of how love was previously impossible: My right hand cannot love my left hand. — So now love entered the world, in its most subordinate form, namely, sexual love. Spiritual science tells us that this was also the moment of the separation of the sexes. With physical incarnation, they appear simultaneously with the differentiation into male and female; and with this comes the first impulse, the first force to be harnessed by the body. Thus we have two epochs: one entirely dominated by wisdom, the second entirely dominated by the development of love—the higher and the lower human beings. At that time, the body was less developed, the soul more so.

[ 17 ] At its present stage, the soul is far from possessing the perfection that the physical body has as such. Later, the soul will develop to the same degree. An example of the marvelous perfection of the physical body: the thigh bone, which, with the least amount of material, develops a load-bearing capacity that even the most brilliant engineer could not conceive. The spiritual researcher knows that this body is the expression of divine wisdom. Example: Consideration of the heart. — The physical body of man is embodied wisdom. When, on the other hand, we consider the soul—which in the future will far surpass the physical body in perfection—we see that it is currently very imperfect. It is the soul, not the physical body, that is the instigator of all human actions. The soul fails, sins, and strays within the body.

[ 18 ] In terms of its nature and perfection, the body today stands higher than the soul. The human body was already predisposed toward this perfection back when it was inhabited by the soul. Today, this indwelling of the soul has not yet been fully accomplished. Whatever part of the soul belongs to the group soul has been built up by the physical body. The part that has entered the body must still go through this process. There is no other path of development for human beings than passing through the physical body. That is why the soul was called a “bee” in the Greek mystery teachings. It sucks in the light, it hears, it gathers by using the body as an instrument. And what the soul gathers here on Earth, it will carry with it and one day place upon the altar of the Deity.

[ 19 ] In this way, it will become perfect and increasingly capable of immortalizing the temporal. The temporal passes away, but its fruits will be immortalized by the human soul. All wonders, however—all joys—are destined to remain mere sensations. Thus, the life of the soul is an essence that leads it to spiritual existence.

[ 20 ] Through its passage through physical existence, it must establish something that is wisely integrated into the wise structure of the cosmos. This did not come into being all at once, but rather through a long, long process of becoming.

[ 21 ] What is built with wisdom today was once built without wisdom. Let us consider the same process, for example, in the context of love; here we see the same development. In the same way, love rises toward ever higher and purer aspects and forms, toward the love that will one day make all people brothers. Love will one day be what burns through and drives the entire cosmos. The whole world is permeated by a current of love that will then rule over everything, just as wisdom does now. Wisdom flows toward us from the world; for them—the future races—love will then flow toward them from the world. To instill love in the world—that is our work. But that could never be the case if the opposite were not also possible. Love must be conveyed independently and freely from person to person; that is why the era of love begins at the same time as that of selfishness. Love will develop in order to overcome selfishness—that is its goal. The starting point of the cosmos is love; selfishness, too, has grown out of it all by itself.

[ 22 ] The family, the tribe, and groups of people were permeated by love; those who are related to one another, who share the same blood, love one another. The struggle may rage, but little by little, humanity is drawn toward love. It spreads from tribe to tribe, from generation to generation, from people to people. As the principle of Jehovah or Yahweh gradually took hold among the Jewish people, they embraced the esoteric science or spiritual science that predated our era. And now there is talk of a force, of a principle called “evil”—a force in spiritual science that opposes the Jehovah principle.

[ 23 ] Let me illustrate this with an example. As you know, in school there are students who do not move up from one grade to the next; they have to repeat the grade; the same is true in the cosmos. Back then, the world was governed by beings like us; these beings had completed their evolution during the Age of Wisdom. But there were also forces in that epoch that had not completed their development during the Age of Wisdom; these forces continue to act in the Age of Love. This is the lagging, Luciferic principle; we regard this as the antithesis of the Yahwistic principle. Therefore, so that love may be free, the separating principle is at work in the world. It exerts its influence on the person who loves others, on the person who wishes to be a free, independent personality. In this opposition, we see the counterforce—the evil that, to speak in the words of Goethe’s Faust, actually creates the good. This force—which is the egoistic principle—drives people apart; but love must therefore become ever greater and greater in order to unite them. The Yahweh principle required blood kinship to establish the principle of love, and alongside it operated the Lucifer principle, promoting selfishness and independence. Love and selfishness are growing ever greater, and humanity swings back and forth between them; and that is why the existence of good and evil—the oscillation between love and selfishness—is so very natural. Evil entered the world with selfishness; selfishness must now be overcome. It must accept this, because good could not be attained without evil. It provides the opportunity for the development of love. Spiritual science views it this way: a time had to come when an act—the greatest in our earthly evolution—would take place, one capable of bringing people together; and the forerunner of this is John the Baptist, who prepares the way, and this act is embodied in Christ Jesus. The words of Christ Jesus: “Whoever does not forsake father and mother and brothers for my sake cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26; Matthew 19:29)—these must be understood spiritually.

[ 24 ] Christ, through whom we can preserve both great love and the free human being—who is capable of overcoming all the impulses of evil—Christ is the embodiment of this great power, which, after overcoming all selfishness, is to become the bond of love between one human being and another. Through Christ, the bond of love is to unite free human beings with one another.

[ 25 ] Christianity is a force that is only at the beginning of its development; it will overcome the necessary evil and the world. Only a free person can become a true Christian; such a person can see in the Savior the power that leads to a personality that has become completely free. Thus, evil is the ground into which the light of love shines; thus, the light is recognizable only through the darkness. “And the light shone in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:5)

[ 26 ] Love will gradually permeate the development of humanity; the greater the force it must overcome, the more it will grow. It is this love that explains the meaning of evil and the place of evil in the world.

[ 27 ] And so we may compare this to a remark by Fabre d’Olivet. Explaining the existence of evil in the world, he says: “Look at the pearl with its wondrous luster and delicate beauty; how is it formed? From a disease of the oyster.”

[ 28 ] Thus, even from what is terrible, beauty emerges. This is how we must view evil and its mission. Love unfolds as the pearl of the world. Where does it originate? Let us recall the parable of the pearl!