The Rudolf Steiner Archive

10. Global Justice, A Wise Plan for the World, the Pringst Festival Symbol

[ 1 ] The questions are as follows:

— Can a systematic connection be discerned in the phenomena of the external world?
— Can one assume that there is a systematic connection?
— Are the events and phenomena part of a systematic connection?
— Does wisdom or chance prevail in the world?

[ 2 ] (These questions bring to mind war, earthquakes, a brick falling on a passerby’s head, and so on.)

[ 3 ] In some respects, things in the world seem to be arranged quite wisely. Human beings will have to learn about the plan of the whole. The world order seems to be a mixture of harmony and disharmony. [Last time I gave an example:] A man is standing on the bank of a river. He is full of compassion and goodwill; seeing a man drowning in the river, he jumps into the water and rescues him, but [later] perishes as a result of a cold. Here is a second case: Out of a desire for revenge, one person pushes another into the water [and falls into the water himself in the process]. He, too, catches a cold and dies [as a result]. Although we can contemplate the grand, mighty plan, the philosopher Baumann cannot bring himself to commit to the theosophical worldview.

[ 4 ] Just imagine for a moment: could we find wisdom in the world if it were not [already] there? The laws of mathematics can be studied [by a person] in a room, all by oneself, apart from the rest of the world. There [in the study of mathematics], we find that the celestial bodies move according to the laws of the ellipse, which we have explored in a room.

[ 5 ] From the world of animal and plant life, we ascend to the world of humankind. But then it seems as though everyone must go their own way, without any plan. Thus, the world appears to be a mixture of wise order and chaos. Yet even in that chaos, we can find such marvelous wisdom that we stand in awe. Take a look at a beaver’s lodge. It is constructed with tremendous artistic skill. An engineer could not have built it any better. Upstream from its dwelling, the beaver builds dams. They are not always the same; they always follow the course of the river. Taken as a whole, it appears chaotic, but in detail, it is wisdom; the dams are designed and built according to natural laws.

[ 6 ] What, then, does a law mean? Statistics teach us a very specific regularity in the external world: for every six hundred fifty French people, there is one criminal; a certain number of people die after ten years. Life insurance companies base their calculations on the regularity of deaths. Such an order would seem oppressive. But even though a pattern is discernible in the whole, the individual is not subject to this law. Therefore, no fatalistic interpretation should be attributed to it.

[ 7 ] Here lies an important mystery of existence. What I have alluded to here is also connected to the fifth mystery of the world [, which I have already hinted at].

[ 8 ] Could there perhaps be wisdom even in apparent ignorance? Perhaps it is absent only because we have not yet seen through it. A person must never assume that they have reached a conclusion. It is a process of eternal development. What we do not yet understand today, we may understand tomorrow.

[ 9 ] Why do we easily find regularity in the external, inanimate world? It is a world that has not yet evolved to the level of diversity found in human life. The further development has progressed, the deeper the regularity becomes and the more difficult it is to understand. I have shown you examples of systematic regularities. I demonstrated this to you using the beaver’s dam. Beavers do not possess human intellect. Yet an effective form of reason is also present in animals. If you examine the animal’s body, you will not find a soul as you do in humans. You will not find such an individual soul in animals. You must seek the animal soul in the non-physical realm. The relationship is similar to that between the hand and the brain. There is no spiritual reason in the hand, but there is in the brain. The same is true for animals.

[ 10 ] What dwells within human beings, within the soul, is found in animals behind that very thing. A scholar once said: “If I were to find a nervous system in the worlds and stars, I would believe in a soul; otherwise, I would not.” That is precisely the difference: in humans, the soul can dwell within the nerves; elsewhere, the soul exists beyond the physical world. That is why it is impossible, from a purely physical perspective, to perceive this connection everywhere.

[ 11 ] This also means that, in a certain sense, vindictiveness and compassion lead to the same consequences. However, the causes lie in the higher spiritual spheres. If the causes were to descend from the higher worlds into the physical world, they would have to appear to us as a matter of wisdom. Anyone who acts in the world must listen to one who looks deeper into the world [than he himself does]. There are successive levels in this process. [A genuine hierarchy naturally emerges.]

[ 12 ] We can only perceive a law to the extent that we are developed. Today’s reflection makes it clear that universal wisdom exists. But if this wisdom exists, then we must strive to do everything that is in accordance with it. This is not meant to imply a specific course of action, but rather free decision-making. What divine wisdom has reserved for the animals—namely, to guide them—it has relinquished in the case of human beings. This is the descent of the tongues of fire, the descent of the Spirit into every human being: the Feast of Pentecost. Each tongue guides an animal kingdom. The animal need only surrender to the wisdom that guides it. Human beings must express their wisdom by consulting with the worldly powers.

[ 13 ] We must listen [to the wise world powers]. We are not here to ponder the divine plan for the world [or to] simply believe, but rather we are here to act wisely ourselves, to absorb the hidden wisdom within us and to penetrate it. Through human development, the hidden wisdom is revealed: through human action, through human work.