The Rudolf Steiner Archive

22. A Little About the Progress of Spiritual Life – William Blake

[ 1 ] We have seen how, throughout the course of history, theosophical ideas—which are also found in the Bible—were disseminated among individual souls, and it is interesting to delve into human history in this way. We have seen from Ms. Wolfram’s lecture, which ingeniously attempted to link the Wieland legend to what spiritual science can reveal to us about prehistoric structures and events in the European world. We have seen how, at various times, the insights—and those to which one can arrive—and the wisdom that human beings can gain through the druids, bards, and Egyptian priests of Hermes, who were called to this task, are meant to serve life.

[ 2 ] Such lectures seem to be useful time and time again—even among those who are far removed from Theosophy—precisely for arousing an inclination and sympathy for Theosophy in wider circles. They can also awaken in those who are distant the realization that the things Theosophy asserts today are not entirely distorted, because it has sensed the spirit within humanity, even if it was expressed in symbols or myths. After all, wisdom has always been there, and it is a pity that we cannot spend a long series of days discussing myths. Then you would see how even the smallest details in the myths can be traced back to actual experiences. The myths and legends of different peoples correspond with one another. If we trace the legends of the peoples of the North, we find them in a rather similar form, if only we try to investigate them.

[ 3 ] It has often been emphasized how materialistic thinking has gradually emerged over the course of human development. We may speak unreservedly of this proliferation of materialism, not because we wish to criticize rational thinking, but because we recall that this way of thinking was necessary on the physical, materialistic plane—for we know it was something that had to come about so that humanity could achieve what it has achieved. Those who were born into and raised with this materialistic way of thinking may have come to believe that anything else that falls outside this way of thinking is foolishness and fantasy. That is, in fact, what is most often held against us. Those who tell us that these things are illogical say that Theosophy appears to be logical, but when they then look at its structure, they say it becomes fanciful because it constructs the world so precisely. Regarding the various principles, for example, we would speak of them as, so to speak, entering only into human beings. And we speak of the physical body in such a way that we possess it in conjunction with the etheric body, and that a higher world begins with the forces in the etheric body; furthermore, that it concentrates the substances and forces from the physical world, forming them, as it were, into an essence, and shaping the microcosm out of the macrocosm. If we have not yet come to terms with this, we must nevertheless acknowledge that, even if the world is not yet as expansive on the outside as the physical body, it is nonetheless an extract of the physical world. The etheric body is, as it were, an extract of the etheric world, and the astral body an extract of the astral world. The spiritual human being is a spiritual extract from even higher worlds.

[ 4 ] Anyone who has studied spiritual science in the sense in which it is presented here must now realize that the physical body is currently the most fully developed. The etheric body, because it is younger than the physical body, is therefore also less developed. And the same is true of the astral body. These higher members will continue to develop further and further. But human beings had to capture the higher worlds within their own bodies. As a result, these principles—which otherwise permeate the entire cosmos—separated from their source, took up residence in the human body, and now look out into the world through the senses. Every single individuality is a kind of “fall” and must, in the course of development, strive upward toward that which will in turn bring about within it what serves its likeness to God. This is what has always been perceived as the fall of higher spirits into personality and individuality, which must rise again from densification to higher spirituality.

[ 5 ] You see, one might think that this is some ancient wisdom. But many attributed this ancient wisdom to the childlike imagination of the peoples. It was a fairy tale concocted by the scholarly elite—this poetic folk imagination. One could also say that something of the higher worlds lives on once more in the minds of certain individuals today. But this need not find any resonance among reasonable people. As soon as humanity learned to think, it moved beyond that, and since there are a few minds today who have fallen into such great darkness, this also affects the others. But that will pass. Those who are well-versed in theosophy know how things really stand. Yet, as a rule, a somewhat inaccurate picture of the course of human development is presented. What I have already said in other gatherings is often carried to extremes here as well. They stick their heads in the sand like an ostrich, pay no attention to what is happening around them, and then claim that it does not exist. But just as true spiritual science has always existed, so too have all people possessed a deeper disposition of heart and soul. There has always been something similar to Theosophy. Yet it was always present only as a vague feeling, or perhaps as confused concepts.

[ 6 ] If one looks into people’s souls, one finds individuals who long for such a worldview. What was known about the principles of the world before 1879? Back then, they could not satisfy their longing. Yet there were such people—and these are characteristic phenomena in human life—who possessed a vivid impulse and the most alert spirit, who were all adherents of this worldview, who, in a certain sense, derived it entirely from human thought as it had been developed, and who at the same time give us a sense of just how much was alive within them. Such views also exist in the course of the materialistic age—and this is the interesting part—of which one can say that the minds held theosophical thoughts, but not theosophical thinking. There are those who were like someone looking at themselves in a concave mirror in a garden and seeing a distorted image. They see themselves in such a way that they cannot be photographed well.

[ 7 ] The person who establishes a worldview is not the one who suffers from it. The same is true of the materialist worldview. It is not the founder of the materialist worldview who becomes anxious, but rather his followers. The followers of occult-distorted worldviews would also show us the serious consequences. Among the many beautiful thoughts that appear to us like beautiful reflections on the surface of life, there are also other thoughts that show us such distorted images. There is an example from the last century of such a distorted theosophical worldview that is extremely interesting because it shows us that the theosophical worldview can naturally grow out of a visionary nature. For this is a case of a visionary nature, where brilliant thoughts are found even in astral visions, but they are mixed with the most hideous and gruesome elements. Beautiful images are found alongside the most unbelievable distortions, combined with the power of language. At the same time, we also find instances where we see that such distorted images give rise to petty human passions. Thus, we see precisely from such an example how theosophy has become necessary for humanity. For theosophy is natural and self-evident to the human soul. The superficial person may not come to it; but the deeper thinker must come to it—if not otherwise, then through a reaction against materialism.

[ 8 ] Such is the case with William Blake, who lived out a unique path within theosophy on his own terms. He speaks of something like higher worlds in which the principles first exist, which then crystallize within human beings. Thus, he is familiar with something similar to what we call the spirits of the Devachanic world, where all spirit is still generally present. He calls the guide in this world [Urizen]. And all of this springs from his own mind, at times with an accurate perspective, but at other times with a terribly distorted one. He calls the astral nature [Luvah], the etheric body [Tharmas], and regarding the various principles that we present in a purer and more perfect form in spiritual science, he shows how these imprint themselves upon the individual. In a certain sense, this has dawned on him. He says: As long as he was out there in his realm, he was a high divine spirit, but when he descended into human beings, he fell into “decadence” and became a spirit containing all manner of human trivialities. Thus, a kind of completely distorted theosophy arises.

[ 9 ] He also says there are four Zoas, four principles, all of which are good. When immersed in the human soul, they become evil. There they become hostile and personal. He then goes even further and demonstrates that he has deep insights, albeit distorted ones. The “I” expresses itself in the circulatory system, the astral in the nervous system, and the Higher in the glandular system of the etheric body. He sees a physical apparatus in the physical body. Tomorrow we will speak of what we can perceive as the spiritual self in modern human beings. When you hear this, you will see that we are constructing and depicting the whole human being from the spiritual world. We will see how the higher principles flow forth from nature.

[ 10 ] That is what William Blake says, and he sometimes describes such things magnificently. He is one of those spirits who possess a theosophical insight—a certain vague, even natural intuition—and who observe in detail, indeed even astral-level observation, how these principles enter into human beings. We can empathize with him as he actually seeks to put his theosophy into practice. Everything is inaccurate and distorted in the details, but it shows how such things exist in the world. You can see this, for example, when he says:

The earth trembled. And Urizen, seated
The black clouds anointed the aching wound,
The ointment flowed down into the room
Mixed with blood; thus the serpent draws its venom.

With great effort and immense pain,
Urizen lifted the dead body high,
and carried it on his shoulders to the place where
a tree hangs over [the] infinity.

For when Urizen turned away
from the Eternal, he sat down
on a barren rock, which he himself
had petrified from surging fantasies.

[ 11 ] Here you have a wonderful image of the weaving of Urizen, who petrifies the fantasies of the cosmos. Who does not recall that description of the mineral kingdom, where the spirit that reigns in the realm of Devachan creates and condenses the mineral kingdom down here? — Then he continues:

A tear or two fell upon the rock,
A crumb or two of plant growth
…
It became a sturdy tree; he wrote
Silently, his book of iron.

[ 12 ] You know what is said about Mars—of blood and iron.

Until the dreadful plant bent its branches
And turned into roots as they fell to the ground,
And sprouted anew into many trees.

Urizen was astonished when he
found himself surrounded on all sides
and high above, shaded by trees.
He stood up, but the trees stood so thick,
That with great effort and great pain,
He brought all his books—except the book
Of iron—out of the ominous shadow.

[ 13 ] We see how the light emerges from the darkness.

The tree still grows above the void
And entwines itself with its roots, –
An endless labyrinth of woe!

The body of his firstborn
is nailed to the accursed Tree of Mystery
at the very top of this trunk
Urizen—Fuzon’s body.

[ 14 ] He channeled his power into the tree, so that these forces in human beings are no longer what they are in the spiritual world. He now describes with striking clarity how the astral worldview has given way to abstract thinking. He hates abstraction. It seemed to him like a disease.

[ 15 ] Here is a remarkable person who lived in the second half of the eighteenth century, proving to you just how necessary it is for that primordial wisdom, which was alive back then, to be revived today. Where there was a boundary, there was a longing for this wisdom. We sense it clearly when we see how wisdom reigns. It is a book in which you sometimes sense something like a witches’ sabbath—so confusing is it—and yet it also contains fragments of the most beautiful theosophical truths. This is an eighteenth-century seer, a remarkable seer, who can prove to you that the gift of clairvoyance had not entirely disappeared in those materialistic times. That was a small sample, and now let us hear more from Miss Garmatter from the rich treasure of her expertise.