The Rudolf Steiner Archive

51. Where Does Evil Come From?

[ 1 ] Every religion must grapple with the question of the origin of evil. Where does evil—that which is imperfect—come from? This is a question that the teachers of all major religions have repeatedly addressed and answered. It must be asked because one imagines that the divine origin must be perfect. If, then, the world originates from the divine, the natural question arises: How can something evil arise from what was originally good? Why does the perfect allow something imperfect?

[ 2 ] One must correctly grasp the nature of evil and then understand its necessity. Here’s an analogy: a piano workshop, with a master piano builder who not only possesses the highest technical skill but also puts his heart into crafting the pianos. Within the workshop, we will find nothing imperfect. When we bring a piano into the concert hall and a virtuoso sits down at it, something perfect will emerge once again. Everyone, in their own place, achieves perfection. But suppose the piano maker were too enthusiastic and continued hammering while the virtuoso was playing; this activity, performed in the wrong place, would produce something imperfect. We will find that this analogy applies everywhere if we look a little deeper.

[ 3 ] Let us imagine the task on the Moon—similar to, but somewhat different from, earthly development. Imagination did not exist, nor did any of the spiritual faculties that develop in human beings. A dream consciousness existed; its task was to build upon the animal organs of human beings. The animal physicality was formed and transformed into seed. But on the Moon, these organs were predisposed and formed as they must be when they are not the bearers of a spinal cord and a brain. Therein lay the difference in the formation of the organs. A skeletal structure can be different when it does not need to taper toward the spinal cord and the cranial cavity. In order for all of this to be formed over seven cycles, each comprising seven globes, the dream consciousness had to serve as the regulator of all animal organs. When it fully fulfilled its task, special care had to be taken to carry out the formation lying beneath the sphere of brain development. Great wisdom was necessary, but not a clear consciousness—rather, species-specific wisdom. This immense wisdom had to devote great care to the plastic formation of every organ. Everything that had been accomplished back then had been accomplished and likewise overcome. But how varied was the development of the Pitris?

[ 4 ] Let us imagine a person who has remained behind, now placed on the earthly path. He has a tendency to make up for what was missed back then and would take great care to devote everything to the gratification of the lower organs. Such Pitri beings are found partly within the human organism and partly as temptresses in the astral realm; they seek to hold human organs back. They have not found the proper connection; they cannot slip into the earthly shell and instead hover around people, tempting them and seeking to keep them in the lower service that was once a higher service on the Moon. This retarded activity contradicts earthly activity; and through this perfection that has been misplaced, evil has arisen.

[ 5 ] The process unfolds in such a way that lessons must be learned; one cannot be automatically pushed onto a set path, as that can lead to peculiarity. Because the world evolves in space and time, imperfection arises from this staggered perfection.

[ 6 ] If we follow the great current of the development of consciousness, it is clear and perfect; but now it must unfold in space and time and becomes interwoven into particularity—that is, different currents of development intermingle and then coexist side by side at different stages of development; thus, things that would be perfect in their proper place on their own interact to produce something imperfect.

[ 7 ] Therefore, no being that exists in space and time may claim perfection for itself; only the divine origin is perfect.

[ 8 ] Christian esotericism refers to this perfect source of all beings as the “Father.” “Do not call me good, for no one is good except the Father.” Be perfect, as your Father is perfect; strive to seek your ideal in the Father—that is, in the timeless and spaceless.

[ 9 ] But isn’t it contradictory to the concept of divinity to allow evil to exist despite space and time? If we think that all other beings exist for our sake, that we have separated the realms from ourselves, we will say: Actually, it all depends on human development, for they exist because of us. We must accept /gap in the transcript]

[ 10 ] Evil, as we know it, exists only in earthly evolution. To what extent is it justified in the divine primordial law? Could the human world exist without evil? The question arises as to how the guiding Being relates to humankind. It could prescribe a fixed course of life for humankind; in that case, the Deity would be omnipotent, but the creatures would be powerless. This is impossible if the Deity desired creatures that are in its own image. If the Deity wished to divest itself of itself, it would have to create mirror images, giving the creatures the opportunity to discover from within themselves the freedom of their being /gap in the transcript] In the love of God lies the complete self-emptying of God.

[ 11 ] First, there is the supreme deity; then, the reflections and the life within them—Sat; still in its fullness, not yet manifested; devotion—Ananda—and dissolution into the creature—Chit. This is the relationship between the divine essence and the creatures.

[ 12 ] Without freedom, beings created in God's image are impossible; but with freedom comes the necessity that beings can also err.

[ 13 ] In earthly evolution, beings are thereby endowed with one of the highest powers: love. A being whose path is predetermined could not do good of its own accord, freely out of love. A free being does so out of love. Thus, God created beings out of self-sacrificing love and gave them the opportunity to reciprocate life with free love. That is why the Earth’s cosmos, unlike all others, is called the cosmos of love. Acting out of love is its purpose.