The Rudolf Steiner Archive

19. The Course of Human Life from the Perspective of Esoteric Science

[ 1 ] When people speak of Theosophy or the Theosophical worldview, they often think: “Oh, this must be something that leads into remote realms of thought; it must be something that takes us into nebulous, fantastical regions.” In any case, many people have the notion that Theosophy—or, as we might also say in the true sense of the word, spiritual science—is of no use to practical people, to those who are fully immersed in life!

[ 2 ] Well, my most esteemed audience, but whoever delves more deeply into what Theosophy or spiritual science has to offer, and is then able to view life—our immediate existence—in the light of this spiritual science, will soon be able to see how Theosophy is something that leads to the right, true way of living; how it is not merely some theoretical knowledge, or mere speculation, but something that makes a person capable and able to work in life, full of hope, confident, and indeed healthy—because it makes our everyday life immediately understandable and transparent to us, provided we approach it from the right perspective.

[ 3 ] This everyday life truly presents us with enough mysteries. We can solve these mysteries only if we are able to comprehend what lies behind sensory phenomena, if we are able to rise to the world of supersensible realities. On the few occasions when I was permitted to speak to you here in this city about theosophical matters, I already familiarized the audience at that time with what underlies the entire theosophical worldview. Therefore, I shall only briefly allude to it here.

[ 4 ] What is known as the theosophical worldview rests on two pillars, two foundations of knowledge. First, it shows people that there is a supersensible, a superphysical world beyond our sensory, physical world. Second, it makes people aware that they themselves can enter—if they so desire—these supersensory realms, and that they can draw their powers and abilities from within themselves.

[ 5 ] Thus, however, theosophy faces widespread prejudices in the present day; yet, even if not overnight, these prejudices—which currently grip broad segments of our society—will gradually fade away over time.

[ 6 ] Many people today say: To speak of supernatural worlds, of a spiritual backdrop to existence—that is utterly inappropriate for our enlightened age, for our age of great scientific achievements ... In humanity’s early cultures, where imagination still reigned, that was where people dreamed—so they say—of supernatural realities, of supernatural phenomena beyond our sensory world; but now we have reached the point where science, with its tools and methods, makes the world clear to us—as is commonly believed—in its natural, law-governed context, and makes it seem unnecessary to assume anything beyond what one sees and what the intellect can grasp; and many of our contemporaries consider themselves quite enlightened when they deny everything everything that lies beyond appearances!

[ 7 ] This brings us to the question: In what sense does Theosophy speak of supersensible worlds? Not in the sense that these supersensible, otherworldly realms are located somewhere in a fantasy world, but in a perfectly natural sense, in a completely logical sense, Theosophy speaks of other, higher worlds than the one accessible to our senses; in the same sense, Theosophy speaks of these higher worlds as a German philosopher, Johann Gottlieb Fichte spoke of these worlds when he was at the height of his intellectual powers: in 1809, for example, before his audience in Berlin. At that time he said: “I have something to tell you about worlds that lie beyond the ordinary sensory world, which therefore cannot be perceived by the ordinary physical senses.” Therefore, anyone who is willing to acknowledge only a world accessible to the physical senses may easily regard everything said about supersensible worlds as mere fantasy. But—as Fichte said at the time, not I—imagine that you are walking through a world of nothing but blind people as the only one who can see, and you are telling these blind people about the world of colors, about the world of light. If they wish, those people can also say: “Everything you’re telling me about color and light is empty daydreaming, mere fantasy...”

[ 8 ] ... and we can now build on Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s ideas and say: Let us suppose that a person born blind were led into this hall and we were able to perform surgery on him here to restore his sight. What was around him before—what you can all see with your physical eyes, light and color—did not exist for him; for him, the world was only what was accessible to his sense of touch and his other senses. But now that he has undergone the operation, light, color, and brilliance are gradually emerging from the barren darkness and gloom; they were always around him, but for him they have only now become a world, now that he possesses the organs to perceive them.

[ 9 ] Not every physically blind person can undergo surgery, but it is possible for every human being to awaken the abilities and powers that lie dormant within them—what Goethe calls “spiritual eyes”—so that this is revealed to them, that it reveals itself through appropriate behavior, and they become aware of an awakening of a higher order, of a more resplendent nature, than that through which the person born blind sees a new world open up to them when they undergo surgery.

[ 10 ] Logically speaking, who can deny that there are worlds around us that the senses cannot perceive? Logically, no one can! Logically, a person can only make a statement about what they see and perceive, never about what they do not perceive. But there have always been people in the world—and even today there are people—who have awakened these abilities and powers slumbering within us and who know, from their own experience, that there are spiritual worlds around us—worlds that are active and whose forces influence our world.

[ 11 ] And it is of these worlds that spiritual science and theosophy speak—we call them “esoteric sciences” only because human beings must first awaken the powers slumbering within them in order to attain them, and because until then all of this remains hidden from them, but when he becomes a citizen of these worlds, when the spiritual lights around us dawn upon him, then beings emerge into this life for him—beings he can only now recognize, beings that... and in this way he attains insights that make him, in the fullest sense, capable of work and full of vitality.

[ 12 ] This will become clear to us now when, from the standpoint of this supersensible knowledge, we consider not some distant matter but our entire human life course—the most everyday aspects of our existence. There we will see how we can apply this spiritual science.

[ 13 ] As far as I'm concerned, someone can come along and say: “There are these twisted minds, these mavericks, who call themselves Theosophists and spout all sorts of confused nonsense; let them keep that to themselves—it's none of a sensible person's business!” Well, let him act on that!

[ 14 ] However, there is another point of view that says: Well, since these ideas don’t seem entirely unreasonable, let’s try—for once—to live our lives and work as if these premises were true, and if they prove themselves in practice, then we can engage with them. This is certainly a sound point of view, and today’s topic in particular will enable us to find such a kind of validation—such proof—of the theosophical premise if we seek to put into practice what is contained in this lecture.

[ 15 ] However, we must first take a brief look at the nature of the human being in the theosophical or esoteric sense.

[ 16 ] When we view human beings from this perspective, what the senses can perceive—what the eyes see, what the hands can grasp—... all of this appears to us as only a part, a component of the entire human being ... and this is what we call the physical body in the spiritual-scientific sense of the human being.

[ 17 ] Human beings share this physical body with all the seemingly lifeless entities surrounding them; the same substances and forces that are found outside in lifeless minerals are also found in the human physical body, but in this physical human body—indeed, in the body of every living being—these substances and forces that we find in the mineral world are so intricately assembled, so intricately interwoven, that the physical body of a living being, if left solely to the physical substances and forces, would disintegrate within itself.

[ 18 ] Whatever a purely materialistic school of thought may say—the Theosophist knows full well what it can say—whatever it may say: Embedded in the physical body of every living being is a principle—logical to those who are able to view these things solely from a philosophical perspective, perceptible to those who have developed the higher faculties, the “spiritual eyes,” as Goethe says—that is the second member of the human being, which we designate as the life body or etheric body. To those who think materialistically, it is, of course, nothing; that is easy to understand. ...

[ 19 ] What, to those who see through things, is this etheric or life body is, at every moment, a fighter within us against the decay of the physical body. Within all of you, this life body is a fighter that prevents the physical substances and forces from following their own laws. At the moment death occurs, the physical body separates from the etheric body; then the physical body follows its own substances and forces, and it becomes a corpse and decays. Thus, every living being possesses this second component, the etheric body, which humans share with all plants and animals.

[ 20 ] The third member is what is known as the astral body ... This, too, is a reality for the spiritual seer. But you can form a logical conception of it if you consider the following: when you look at the person standing before you, what you see is not only what you can perceive as the physical body with your physical senses, not only what, as the etheric and life bodies, constantly preserves this physical body from decay... but there is something else in that space before you: There is something within him that is much closer to many people than the physical body and the etheric body. As for the details of the physical body, what do many people know about them… but there is something that is close—infinitely close—to even the simplest person, much closer than his physical body; that is the sum of pleasure and suffering, of joy and pain, of instincts, desires, and passions. The sum of all sensations that ebb and flow in the soul—what we humans call inner life, or human inner life. And the vessel of this human inner life—which we in spiritual science call the astral body—is something that humans no longer share with plants and minerals; they share it only with the animal kingdom. As long as one holds the view that this astral body—or, to put it in everyday terms: that drives, desires, and passions, feelings and instincts, and the ebbing and flowing sensations—are caused solely by the physical body...

[ 21 ] Only then does one have the right to speak of it ... when one sees the original not in the physical body nor in the etheric body, but precisely in this astral body ...

[ 22 ] It would take us too far afield today to show in full—we have a different goal today—that the physical body and the etheric body relate to this astral body in the same way, for example, that ice relates to water.

[ 23 ] If a child comes up to you and shows you a piece of ice, and you tell the child, “That's water in its solid form,” the child might not understand right away, and you'll have to explain to the child in some way that ice is water in a different form.

[ 24 ] Just as a child may not know that ice is merely water in another form, so too does the person who is accustomed to viewing these things from a materialistic perspective not yet realize that the physical body and the etheric body are, in essence—to put it, so to speak, in condensed terms—condensed and crystallized from this spiritual vehicle of pleasure and suffering, joy and pain, instincts, desires, passions, and sensations.

[ 25 ] Everything that is physical is, in terms of its substance, produced—let us say, condensed or crystallized—from the spiritual.

[ 26 ] ... You’ll get an idea of this ... if you take this as a small theoretical down payment on what spiritual science will gradually reveal to you in its entirety. Consider, for example, the two very simple phenomena that a person experiences within themselves: The feeling of shame, or the feeling that arises when something in our vicinity fills a person with fear and terror. Fear and terror make him turn pale; his blood takes on very specific movements; it changes within the body, flowing—if we may put it that way—from the outer surface toward the center. The opposite happens with the feeling of shame ...

[ 27 ] Thus, we have an external physical process influenced by mental states.

[ 28 ] This is a small example that shows you how to perceive effects in the material world as arising from the spiritual realm. Imagine this process intensified to the point where the outer physical world is built up from the spiritual... the material itself, the physical—then you will have what, though not in an instant, but through patient learning... spiritual science will be able to increasingly consolidate and guide you toward,

[ 29 ] But there is one thing that sets human beings apart from all the visible, earthly creatures around them. We arrive at this when we closely study a very simple fact of human experience—one that is usually not properly interpreted or appreciated; you will understand what this is all about if you go through a very simple exercise with me, one that is, admittedly, somewhat subtle.

[ 30 ] Anyone can say “table” for a table, “clock” for a clock, and anyone can say the name given to an external object in their language; yet there is one name—a single, small name—within the German language that not everyone can say to the thing that this name designates.

[ 31 ] That is the name contained in the little word “I.” Only one person can say “I” if that “I” is to mean what it is.

[ 32 ] If the word “I” is meant to refer to yourself, then no one can ever say “I” to you. To everyone else, you are “you,” and everyone else is “you” to you! If the little word “I” is meant to refer to yourself, then it must resound from the very depths of your soul. That is why all religions and worldviews ... that are based on spiritual science ... have called this little word “I” the unpronounceable name of God ... so that the inner force—which cannot access the soul through external senses and organs—can utter this name ... this has been called the divine power, the spark of God that is within us. ...

[ 33 ] “Yes, you're turning people into gods,” many say. ...

[ 34 ] Anyone who makes this accusation can consider another example] ... I have taken a drop of water from the vast, all-encompassing sea, and I now claim that this drop is of the same substance and essence as the sea, but it is not the entire sea ...

[ 35 ] Nor does the Theosophist make the human “I” into a god when he declares: This “I” is a drop, a spark of the divine substance. ... This “I” and the entire sum of forces and principles that enable human beings to let this divine, this God, speak within them—this is what we call the fourth member of the human being, which makes human beings the crown of earthly creation. ... This is what distinguishes them from all other beings on Earth. ...

[ 36 ] Thus, the human being stands before us as a fourfold entity ... We will not go into the further, higher aspects of human nature today. ... This classification is sufficient for us today. ... When we consider these aspects of the human being and observe the human being in his development from birth to death, spiritual science reveals to us that these individual aspects do not develop in the same way or at the same pace. ...

[ 37 ] When we look at a person of any age, we do not see them in such a way that these four stages always stand before us in a fixed and complete form. We can only understand a person if we realize that human development proceeds in different ways at different stages of life... after all, a person’s life is preceded by a prenatal existence...

[ 38 ] We know that when a human being is born, he has already lived a life within his mother’s womb, where his physical body was completely enclosed by the physical womb, and where all his organs gradually developed to such an extent that, when he first sees the light of day, his physical body had previously been protected by an outer physical shell … which he now sheds …

[ 39 ] We speak of the outer physical birth of a human being when the person sheds this physical shell and his physical body is surrendered to the outer physical elements. Before that, the rays of light could not penetrate the eyes. If these rays of light had penetrated his eyes directly before that, those eyes would not have been able to develop into the human eyes we see today. ... And so it is with all of the human organs. ... Only then can a person be directly exposed to and subjected to external impressions and influences—once his organs have matured under the protection of this shell to the point where they are ready for such influences ...

[ 40 ] Spiritual science also speaks of other births of the human being. ... When the spiritual seer now observes the human being as he is born after his physical birth, he sees, indeed, how the physical body is surrendered to the external physical elements ... but the second member of the human being is not yet surrendered to the external forces that act upon the etheric body.

[ 41 ] What we have referred to as the etheric body is still surrounded by a—albeit etheric—sheath … and we speak of a second birth, through which the human being also sheds this etheric sheath. When a human being is physically born, according to their etheric body, they still have an etheric mother around them who protects them; she protects them until their teeth change—until the time when the human being loses their so-called baby teeth and gradually receives their own teeth, around the age of seven—at which point the human being is born according to their second member; he sheds the protective etheric sheath, just as he sheds the physical mother’s sheath at physical birth. We will soon come to understand the full significance of these spiritual facts.

[ 42 ] But there is still another birth; this occurs because, even though the human being has, through the change of teeth, freed his etheric body to external influences, he is still, as it were, surrounded by an astral protective motherly shell—his astral body, the third member of his being—until he reaches sexual maturity.

[ 43 ] With this sexual maturity, which occurs around the ages of 14 to 15, this further spiritual birth is also slowly accomplished—that is, the astral maternal sheath is shed—and thus the human astral body is set free and can be directly exposed to the astral influences... that are at work around him.

[ 44 ] Then, later on, there comes a time when, in a similar way, what we call the “I” is born. ...

[ 45 ] One can only understand a person’s life course, and one can only reasonably influence a person through education, if one knows and applies all of this to the fullest extent. ...

[ 46 ] Let us first turn our attention to the ascending life. ...

[ 47 ] This brings us to an important field of human activity: education and instruction. Let us consider this and see how it presents itself to us when we look at human beings in terms of their entire nature and essence.

[ 48 ] We know that from the time of a person’s physical birth until the time they lose their baby teeth, they are enveloped by an etheric sheath, which they then shed. When we observe this, we will say to ourselves: We must keep away everything that has a direct effect on the etheric body or life body until this second birth has taken place.

[ 49 ] For the spiritual seer, it is just as nonsensical to allow direct influences on the etheric body before its birth, while it is still within its etheric maternal sheath,

[ 50 ] Just as it would be nonsensical for the average person to allow direct influences on a child's physical body before its physical birth.

[ 51 ] What happens first is that his physical body, which was previously protected by a shielding covering, is exposed to direct external physical influences; the period from birth to the age of seven is especially the time when we must monitor the direct influence of physical elements on the physical human being. ...

[ 52 ] When worked out in detail, this yields many, many rules that spiritual science can provide you with for sound pedagogy. Above all, it is a matter of knowing what happens during these formative years leading up to the loss of baby teeth. Spiritual science tells us that by the time the teeth are replaced, the forms—the physical forms of the physical body—are already established. ...

[ 53 ] The forms continue to grow in size, but the plasticity of the forms—including their finer plasticity—and the balance of forces within which they will develop are established by the age of seven; and whatever has been neglected in human development up to that point can never be made up for later—it has been missed for the rest of one’s life ...

[ 54 ] For from the age of seven onward, it becomes possible to influence the etheric body. ... The physical body is then under the influence of the etheric body, which continues to regulate growth ...

[ 55 ] It follows that the physical environment—and the way in which this environment must be structured until the child’s teeth come in—must be arranged with the utmost care. Not only the coarse, but also the finer structural and formative aspects of the physical body develop under the influence of this physical environment. ...

[ 56 ] A rough comparison: ...

[ 57 ] When one exerts any muscle—that is, subjects it to the function for which it is intended—it becomes strong, powerful, and expands ... so it is, above all, with all the internal structural relationships of the physical body ... SO it is with our visual relationships, our powers of vision ...

[ 58 ] The forces within our physical body are tools that serve the soul in perceiving the physical world ...

[ 59 ] An example: It matters what kind of color environment a person is exposed to in their physical surroundings between birth and the age of seven. Depending on the colors we choose for the child’s surroundings, the inner forces of form will develop in response to this world of colors. Let’s assume, for example, that we have a restless child, a nervous child, and in another case, an overly quiet, “lifeless” child whose behavior and demeanor are “lifeless.” ... In order for these temperamental types to develop appropriately, both must be placed in the right physical environment. ... Anyone who views the world solely with the physical eye will usually place a restless child in an environment of so-called calming colors—blue or green—while believing that a calm child should be placed in an environment of red or yellow ...

[ 60 ] Countless mistakes are made here. ... Because the exact opposite is true. If you want to do it the right way, you should, whenever possible, place a restless child in a red or red-and-yellow environment, and a calm child in a blue ... or blue-green one.

[ 61 ] If you understand how the internal structure of the organs is formed, you will be able to grasp this through simple logic. If you stare at a red spot on a white surface and then, after doing so for some time, suddenly look at another part of the white surface, you will see a green afterimage on the empty white surface ...

[ 62 ] What does that mean? While you are looking at the color red externally, the interior of the body tends to develop the complementary color. When you look at red, the body internally adjusts itself to form green, and this is what matters in the internal development of the structure of the organs. ...

[ 63 ] If you have a restless, nervous child and place them in a red environment, a counterforce toward green and blue-green develops within them, and this has a calming effect on the vital forces of the internal organs ...

[ 64 ] Here, things run much deeper than a superficial sensory observation would normally suggest ...

[ 65 ] Sometimes people have said to me: “But that’s quite strange—when I work under any lamp with a red shade, it makes me feel agitated; so why should that have a beneficial effect on a child?” — ... Nor have I claimed that a red glow has a beneficial effect on a 56-year-old man; I have only said that it stimulates the child’s internal organs—the structure of the child’s internal organs—in a soothing way. ...

[ 66 ] Something extraordinarily important also becomes apparent when we consider children’s toys from this perspective. You will have often observed that a child with sound judgment rejects dolls with beautifully painted faces and natural hair—or at least quickly sets them aside. Let’s take a closer look at this doll and admit to ourselves: It is, of course, hideous...

[ 67 ] But if you’ve ever made this child a doll out of an old napkin, you’ll have a completely different experience. For a while, the child will certainly enjoy the so-called “beautiful” doll. But then the child will soon throw it away and return again and again to the homemade napkin doll. This is a very genuine, healthy instinct. ... For there is a force constantly at work within the child that shapes the organs in a plastic way.

[ 68 ] When the child has this homemade doll in front of them, the following occurs: The child must exert themselves to first transform it into a human being through inner imagination; they must first counteract the imperfect doll with their own powers in order to arrive at the image of a human being. This is beneficial to the child’s inner life and develops the internal organs in a more perfect way. These inner formative forces remain inactive if you present the child with such a “beautiful” doll; these forces remain dormant, and what should be active internally—the process of forming the organs—cannot take place. This is how the instruments in our physical body develop—those that are meant to be active forces—... when we give the child something to do that requires them to be active through their own imagination, to imagine something that the external object does not provide but merely inspires.

[ 69 ] And people have no idea how much harm they do to a child when they do not give it the opportunity to allow this inner counterforce to take effect in the appropriate way. ...

[ 70 ] Oh, anyone who looks more deeply into human nature knows something else as well. They know that there is a tremendous difference between keeping a child occupied by having them assemble figures from individual small stones and keeping them occupied with a toy that gives the impression of being alive and internally animated. ... Something quite different is happening internally ... and it vividly animates the body ... when you give a child a toy that creates the illusion of life through the connection with the child’s own movement ... There used to be old picture books in which entire scenes were depicted in moving images—entire plots—and which thereby evoked inner plasticity. They were wonderfully suited to developing the organs internally in a vivid way during the time when they need to be developed. Anyone who looks more deeply into this will want to... when, time and again, with a bleeding soul, they must watch how, out of instinctive materialism, everything—everything—is being neglected. ...

[ 71 ] Anyone who can look into our time with spiritual insight can trace materialistic thinking back to its origins and see how it has been fostered—how children were given building sets instead of living toys, with which they constructed whatever they wanted from individual parts. That is precisely what gives rise to the materialistic spirit, far more so than materialistic literature... Materialistic theories are the least dangerous aspect of materialism; but when a child, at the very time when its body—this instrument of the human being—is supposed to be malleably shaping its form, occupies itself with assembling individual parts instead of contemplating inner life, it comes to imagine that the world is composed of individual clusters of atoms. ...

[ 72 ] This is how you can see the practical effects of spiritual science. But it goes even further. ... Through spiritual science, you can understand the course of a person’s life right down to their nutritional instincts and influence how that life unfolds.

[ 73 ] Spiritual science can point out that certain foods can hinder the development of something that needs to be nurtured in the child’s soul...

[ 74 ] The tools for healthy instincts and desires must develop within the child’s soul. It is not for nothing that we have certain desires. ... That is why they exist: so that when an instinct arises and is satisfied, life is steered onto a healthy course. ... Look at how animals walk across the pasture and take only the food that is good for them, leaving the rest behind ... What is the process of human development? ... It gives humans higher gifts, but it also exposes them to the possibility of error—a risk to which animals, with their instinctive certainty, are not subject. What matters is that humans, with their higher gifts, nevertheless retain this certainty. And we can preserve this certainty of healthy instinct in children if we do not stuff them full of an excess of substances that kill such an instinct.

[ 75 ] Many people today believe that overfeeding children with protein-rich foods is the best way to care for young children. But this is by no means true. The moment a child receives too much protein—the moment it is overfed with protein—it loses its reliable nutritional instincts, whereas another child will sometimes reject even a glass of water if it is harmful to him and crave what is good for him—[what] is healthy.

[ 76 ] This is extremely important. It is an example of how spiritual science can be put into practice in daily life. ... We could accomplish a great deal if only we were willing to follow the principles involved ...

[ 77 ] We may ask: What, in fact, is the law governing the course of human life up to this stage of tooth replacement? ... This is described by a single word that resonates like a magic [word] for everything that falls under the influence of these years. Imitation is the magic formula of education during these years, when the physical body has become receptive to the direct influence of the outside world. Whatever the child sees, it strives to imitate. Therefore, education must, above all, aim to encourage imitation on the part of the child; it must not demand or admonish—that is not the main thing during these years. The main thing is that during these years the child can model its behavior on what it sees, and that nothing happens that the child is not allowed to imitate. ...

[ 78 ] However, there are all sorts of points to keep in mind here. Imagine a couple...—I always use real-life examples like this—they have a child who is very well-behaved, with nothing to complain about, but suddenly one day, the child “stole,” as they say, from his parents’ piggy bank. The child is so good that he or she didn’t use this money for himself or herself, but gave it away to others whom he or she believed needed it. ...

[ 79 ] You can probably imagine how distraught the parents would be if they didn’t know: During this period leading up to the loss of baby teeth—and these phases do not transition abruptly into one another—everything is characterized by imitation; the child has always seen the parents taking money out of there themselves... and whatever the child sees the parents do is right for the child; the child imitates it. Applying moral concepts here, such as “stealing” or the like, is in no way appropriate. The child simply imitates what the parents demonstrate. Therefore, we know that with regard to everything we wish to instill in the child, a malleable shaping from within must be brought about through imitation.

[ 80 ] We must therefore rely entirely on imitation in the child during this early period; that is to say, the adults in the child’s environment must not do or say anything that the child would not also be allowed to do in exactly the same way. ... This is of profound significance. ...

[ 80 ] We must therefore rely entirely on imitation in the child during this early period; that is to say, the adults in the child’s environment must not do or say anything that the child would not also be allowed to do in exactly the same way. ... This is of profound significance. ...

[ 82 ] Just as a child must be able to imitate what is happening around them until they lose their baby teeth... so, in addition to others, there must now be—in the second stage of life—what is called a natural authority.

[ 83 ] ... To be more specific, we might say something like this: That time comes only after puberty, when a person, through their intellectual faculties, comes to understand what is good or bad, wise or foolish. ...

[ 84 ] It is an injustice to young people to place undue emphasis on rational insights and intellectual education before this time, before they are ready. During this period leading up to puberty, it is essential that a figure of authority stand by the child’s side and distinguish between what is true or false, good or bad, beautiful or ugly. At this age, these concepts must influence the child authoritatively not through rational judgments, but through the power of that figure’s personality. ... And the greatest blessing for a child during these years is to have such figures by their side—figures they can look up to as natural authorities, figures who are truly worthy of emulation. A person becomes mature enough to judge when, during these years of their life, they have been under the influence of an authoritative figure whom they looked up to and followed with reverence. This is a soothing force that influences a person throughout their entire life. Oh, if only people could know what this means for a person’s entire life—when something like this happens to them, such as hearing about a much-revered figure in the family whom they have not yet seen. A sense of shy reverence already dwells in their soul; their heart pounds until they are allowed to see that person for the first time. ... These are the most beautiful, most wonderful feelings in one’s soul for a lifetime—those moments of celebration that ignite forces so vital to a person’s entire life, right up until death.

[ 85 ] Everything one carries within oneself in the etheric body—the body that holds all growth, but also temperament, habits, and character—is decisively influenced in this way during the period between the change of teeth and sexual maturity.

[ 86 ] And it is important, for example, that this etheric or life body is at the same time the bearer of memory. That is why it is essential that, during this time, conscious care be taken above all to develop memory. In this lies an immense

[ 87 ] Confusion has arisen. Especially in our time, as a result of materialistic worldviews, many educational efforts are aimed at having children engage in mental work as early as possible, so that they can calculate and perform similar tasks based on their own judgment. This may seem quite progressive, but it is nevertheless extremely harmful to the development of the growing human being. First, one must have a treasure trove of knowledge and insights stored in memory; only then can one judge them. The time for judgment comes with sexual maturity. Until then, the time is for learning based purely on memory. Memory must be developed during the time leading up to that point. It is not a matter—as some would like to claim today—of the child already being able to judge, for example, what it needs to learn in history. It is precisely this—attempting to elicit judgment at this stage—that is so harmful. During this period, events must be presented to the soul in a purely factual and objective manner, through a natural authority, using broad, memorable images. These events must first come alive in the child’s soul; only then has the time for judgment arrived.

[ 88 ] And what is of great importance at this time is that, because the etheric body now receives the direct influence of the forces that express themselves in memory and other spiritual faculties and powers, we will develop these forces—the qualities anchored in the etheric body—in a special way during this period. Anchored there above all is what is called the human capacity for pictorial perception. ... Many people today view the world in such an unimaginative and sober way precisely because the world has not been presented to them in vivid, life-filled images during this period of their lives. ... A person should first come to know this world through images. If you wish to give a person a healthy foundation for the higher supersensible truths, then you must teach them the appropriate images at this stage of life. The truths must first be presented to a person through images and symbols during this period if they are to truly comprehend them later on. If a person is to be able to say to themselves later in life: “The human soul is immortal; when a person passes through the gate of death, the soul ascends to higher realms, while only the body remains behind and decays”—then this is properly prepared for at this stage of life by, for example, telling the child: “Look at the caterpillar as it transforms into a chrysalis and thus falls into the rigidity of death; then watch as the chrysalis cracks open and the butterfly rises from the breaking shell into an airy, light existence.”

[ 89 ] But that would not be enough if teachers today wanted to use these images. They no longer have an effect today because those who use them no longer believe in what they are supposed to express. Only when the image is a reality for them as well does something within it take effect—something that flows naturally into the child’s soul and acts as a force that later awakens true understanding. For the scholar of the spiritual sciences, what is given is an image of immortality in reality, in truth. For him, it is not something he laboriously works out with his intellect; rather, for him, life passes through a series of stages… and on the lowest stage, this emergence of the butterfly from the chrysalis is truly what, on the higher stage, is the emergence of the soul from the dying body. If this is the case for you, then that natural aura emerges—that you are able, before cultivating the child’s sober intellectual judgments, to first evoke, through the magical breath of imagery, an emotional understanding that makes a later, correct grasp by the whole personality possible in the first place.

[ 90 ] Here we see the rationality of something that is often regarded as irrational today. I am aware of the misconceptions surrounding this matter, but this must be said—not out of a reactionary mindset, but in the interest of truth. ...

[ 91 ] How wise we have become, many people think today, as they look back on our forefathers, who made children believe all sorts of things. ... Today, we must no longer feed such lies to children. Our forefathers taught children things that aren’t true at all—the story of the stork, for example. —Yet, again, not out of reactionary sentiment, but here too it must be said that the older generation’s approach was far more correct than modern enlightenment. For when one sees through these things, one simply cannot tell a child anything more childish or naive than that nothing more than a purely physical process is necessary for a human being to come into the world. ... From a deeper perspective, this is fundamentally wrong. The reality is: A human being comes from a spiritual world … from a spiritual existence prior to birth, and the physical process is merely the medium through which the spiritual human being enters this sensory world; and what our Enlightenment thinkers today would have children believe is far, far more untrue and unreal than the old stork fairy tale. ... Everything that was said in the image of the flying stork was, for our ancestors, the symbol of the spiritual. ...

[ 92 ] The image of something flying always appears in fairy tales when the story is meant to allude to the spiritual realm. Thus, in the children’s song “Fly, little bird, fly … your mother is in Pommerland” … Pommerland is not Pomerania … Pommerland is Children’s Land … “Fly, little beetle, fly” … everywhere the same image, which also underlies the stork fairy tale. ... People in an earlier stage of development, before the time when they were supposed to come to terms with it in sober everyday life, believed in the stork fairy tale themselves, because in those days, the world around us was initially imbued with the magical breath of imagery. ...

[ 93 ] It is quite different when I first had a mysterious natural phenomenon as an image in my mind … carried that image around with me for a long time, and only then was faced with the task of comprehending it intellectually. Only then have I become ready, and only then do I take in what comes later in a completely different way.

[ 94 ] This, in turn, shows us how important it is to understand the forces that develop at a certain age. ... And so we can specify, for each stage of life, what exactly is involved. ... Thus, around the ages of 14 or 15, the time of sexual maturity is an important phase. For at that point, the adolescent’s astral maternal sheath is cast off, and the astral body—to which, for example, the power of judgment and many other qualities are attached—is exposed to the direct influence of the external world. That is why it is only at this stage that a person is mature enough to be exposed to external judgments and to develop the ability to judge independently. If we rush this process of judgment, we end up with the very things that are forcing their way into modern life as immense dark forces... where people grow into this state without any regard for the consequences...

[ 95 ] Only once sexual maturity has been reached should independent judgment be developed on the basis of what has developed in terms of imagery and noble feelings ... under the influence of authority. ... otherwise, we see that the youngest people—who are not yet fully formed, people who should first be learning to mature their judgment—are already acting on their own judgment at a time when they should still be developing it. ...

[ 96 ] But this is also the time when the astral body emerges, bringing with it the instincts and drives for life that are inherent within it. ... These forces manifest in the form we refer to as “youthful ideals,” “springtime hopes,” and hopes for life. A dry, sober person can easily dismiss what he experienced in his youthful soul as mere fanciful enthusiasm. Even if none of this comes to pass, even if these are all hopes that eventually prove to have no basis in reality, the fact that they were hopes and ideals—during the time when the astral body gradually emerges—represents a reservoir of strength; and whoever lacks this will be missing something for the rest of their life! What matters is not that hopes are fulfilled or that ideals are realized, but that they exist. For they are forces within the soul, and as forces they are formative; they give life inner depth; they give life strength, even if they existed only as hopes that were later shattered. Therefore, we must do everything we can to ensure that these springtime hopes of life are nurtured during this time, so that they exist. ...

[ 97 ] Then, gradually, the time comes for human beings when their full self is born, a self that now approaches the world around it in a completely free manner. ...

[ 98 ] And just as there is such an “ascending” phase of life, there is also a “descending” phase in the second half. Here are just a few hints about this: The birth and gradual development of the “I” come to a conclusion in a normal life around the age of 35. At that point, the person is at the zenith of life. Everything that was predisposed in them at birth comes to the fore by this time. But now something else begins; now begins the time when, just as things were previously shaped out of life and predispositions were developed, they are now gradually processed and consumed, starting at the age of 35, when, in a normal life, the forces of the astral body are first gradually consumed from within. We see everything astral gradually receding once more. The human being becomes more down-to-earth, develops a greater sense of reality... he becomes what, mind you, is fashionable in our times—what one might call a philistine.

[ 99 ] While up until then a person was more concerned with himself, the time begins at age 35 when he becomes valuable to those around him. Previously, they had to devote their time to maturing their judgment and establishing a firm, definite relationship between their “I” and the environment; now, what they are begins to hold value for their fellow human beings. Now their judgment carries weight; now people begin to listen to them; now they radiate, as something of value, what they themselves have to assimilate. Now he also reveals to a close observer whether the path he has taken was the right one; now it becomes clear how barren and empty are the scattered judgments of those who did not grow up under the influence of ideals between the ages of 14 and 21 ...

[ 100 ] What is to radiate outward must first be acquired in the right way and at the appropriate time...

[ 101 ] All development in the field of esoteric science is governed by strict laws ... those who have become teachers in this spiritual science strictly observe the rules ... and today the situation is such that, precisely because of our culture, the competent authorities do not allow anyone to be sent out into the world before they reach middle age. ...

[ 102 ] True secret teachers do not allow their students to present to the world what they are meant to impart until they have come to terms with themselves. Only by the middle of life is one’s tongue truly loosened. And if individuals appear on the scene before this time, you can be certain that they are doing so without a mandate, that they are doing so without authorization from the individualities standing behind our movement. On average, no one is sent out to the people before this time... It is only the folly of our time that causes... in these areas... the folly that young people, who are far from having come to terms with themselves, also make appearances in this field...

[ 103 ] And then [we] see how, starting around the age of forty, a new phase begins as life begins its downward course, even though there is not as much regularity in this phase as there is in the upward phase. ...

[ 104 ] Now that the astral body has been depleted, the time comes when the person also begins to draw upon his etheric body, which he has built up during the period from the change of teeth to sexual maturity. This, in turn, is depleted around the age of fifty... You can see this from certain signs that appear at this stage of life.

[ 105 ] Try to look at life in its truth, and you will see how, in this time, memory is precisely what cannot retain new impressions or new forces. In contrast, precisely what was inside this etheric body—what is emerging right now—what this etheric body has absorbed—this appears in the sharpest, strongest memory during this stage of life. ... Observe life from this perspective, and you will experience time and again how people at this stage of life keep returning to and retain a vivid memory of what was instilled in them during those earlier stages of life. Notice the sense of well-being that older people experience at this time of life when they can recount their memories of youth again and again... and consider how you can do them a favor by enabling them to share such stories...

[ 106 ] And then, in the final stage of life, you see how the physical body, too, is gradually worn away... you see how more and more calcium is deposited in the bones, how they become more physical. The cartilage ossifies... this final stage of life also wears away the physical body...

[ 107 ] Once the ascending life is properly regulated, something else will become apparent—something that is often ...

[ 108 ] From the age of 35 onward, a person projects judgments that are authoritative and of value to those around him or her ... Then they come to a point where they not only express authoritative judgments to those around them, but also reach a stage where what they project as authority is recognized as such by those around them...

[ 109 ] First, judgments become decisive; then, in the penultimate phase of life, the radiations of life themselves become decisive and a source of value for one’s surroundings... and finally... a person attains such a judgment, such inner richness, that what he then gives of himself is something mature—not only for his own time, but for all time.

[ 110 ] Those who look into the heart of things therefore come to understand in a completely different way … why certain people speak of this particular era in such a special way … With Dante, for example, you can see this right in the first lines of his *Divina Commedia*. There you see how he says: “In the middle of life I saw all this…”

[ 111 ] And so you can examine all the great minds in this light... And when it comes to a person like Goethe... one must take into account the difference between what he created while he was in a phase of ascending development and what he created after the midpoint of his life. That which made him what he is to humanity—that came after the middle of his life...

[ 112 ] But when we look at the second half of life in this way, we see that nothing external develops for the temporal human being—for the outer members, the physical body, and the etheric and astral bodies. These are consumed. But at the very moment when the outer shell begins to be consumed, that is when the inner self begins to grow richer and more substantial. As the outer shell begins its downward course of development, the inner forces—the forces of the true “I”—become ever more powerful and more powerful, ... so that in the second half of life, something also develops within the human being ... In the second half of life, the eternal, the enduring, and the immortal aspects of the human being develop, and when death then occurs, we see how the outer shell falls away and how—even though it may have seemed for a time as if the inner life had diminished—we nevertheless see how what the human being possesses … ...how, at death—which is the birth of the spiritual, the eternal—what emerges at death is that which the person has developed as something valuable within themselves, in their inner being.

[ 113 ] Death is physical death; spiritually, for the spiritual world, it is a new birth, and ... this is prepared during the second half of life. During this time, as the outer bodies gradually wither away, the human being shapes what remains—that which is eternal within him.

[ 114 ] The great poet sensed that when the outer shells of the senses fade away, the inner form—the spiritual form, which is that which remains and is eternal—unfolds within. Great minds have always intuitively expressed what a wisdom that looks deeply into spiritual processes must confirm in every detail ...

[ 115 ] What Schiller said can be presented to you not as blind faith, but as fully valid knowledge ...

[ 116 ] Today, only brief, fleeting hints could be given ... about the course of human life ... If we allow ourselves to be fully permeated by this way of living, which can spring from spiritual science, then we will experience that life takes shape in such a way that, precisely through it, we become hopeful, capable of living, and capable of working—because in every moment we truly understand:

Only the body is subject to those powers
That weave the dark fate,
But free from every power of time,
The playmate of blissful natures
Wanders above in the realms of light
Divine among gods, her form.

[ 117 ] Q&A

Question: What are some truly good ideals for young people?

[ 118 ] Rudolf Steiner: In this regard, we must learn to place the principle of freedom above all else when it comes to the developing human being. It is easy to believe that this or that ideal is the right one at first. But we must not create idealized, formulaic ideals. The developing human being is, after all, a mystery that the educator must solve, and the educator learns just as much from the human being who is gradually emerging from his outer shells in a mysterious way, allowing this process to dictate the ideals that are right for him. In this way, we learn to respect the freely unfolding individuality when we know that the spirit is realizing itself ...

[ 119 ] This question can only be resolved through education in real life, on a case-by-case basis ...

[ 120 ] However, there are also certain fundamental ideals that are relevant just about everywhere ... above all, there is one beautiful ideal: a human being who is as fully realized as possible in every detail, whom we can justifiably hold up as an example from history. ... when we hold up figures from world history and allow our own strengths to be inspired by these great figures ... but when we then turn to practical life, we can also use practical life to kindle these ideals ... it is important to keep our sense of the need to transform the world alive, to maintain the belief that the world can change. ...

[ 121 ] On the True Meaning of Ideals: Fichte, “On the Vocation of the Scholar.”