The Rudolf Steiner Archive

90. The Mystery of Death as the Key to the Enigma of Humanity

[ 1 ] Lecture. Dr. Rudolf Steiner spoke on Thursday evening in the auditorium in Berlin to a large audience on “The Mystery of Death as the Key to the Enigma of Humanity.” In doing so, he refuted opposing views and asserted that the spiritual-soul realm can arise only from the spiritual-soul realm. This assertion would, in the not-too-distant future, become part of general human knowledge, just as the Italian researcher’s statement did a few centuries ago: “The living can arise only from the living.” The speaker then introduced his audience to the theory of Theosophy, while at the same time offering a glimpse into the supersensible spiritual world envisioned by the movement—a world into which, upon a person’s physical death, their spiritual being, the bearer of the “I,” separates from the decaying physical body, only to descend later, purified, to a new life in a new physical body. Thus, wandering from existence to existence, the present life is both a consequence and a cause. The speaker described Christianity’s objections to Theosophy as erroneous, for Christianity finds its foundation in Theosophy’s doctrine of the body. At the conclusion of the nearly two-hour lecture, Dr. Steiner answered a series of questions that attested to the interest,