The Rudolf Steiner Archive

5. Spiritual Knowledge as the Highest Form of Liberation

Man's Role in the Higher Worlds

[ 1 ] I am delighted to welcome you all again after such a long time—both the members of the branch and the others who have gradually gathered here over the past year. Let us hope that this winter season will once again advance our work and our spiritual movement a little further, and that we will be able to deepen our immersion in the spiritual world once more.

[ 2 ] We haven’t seen each other for a long time, but in a certain sense, even this time belongs to all those with whom we have not been physically together. For the members of this local branch have, in the truest sense, a deep interest in ensuring that this spiritual movement not only takes root in their own hearts but also spreads throughout the world. What would all theosophical striving be other than a refined form of egoism if we were not just as eager to see others out in the world hear about this movement and take part in it as we are to participate in it ourselves?

[ 3 ] The speaker has recently had the opportunity to speak to a wide range of people from diverse backgrounds, and it is gratifying to see that people from all walks of life and social classes feel a longing for the spiritual life, as expressed in the existence of the Theosophical Movement.

[ 4 ] Perhaps we can take a brief look back at this region as the starting point for our winter reflections. The journey I was permitted to undertake to spread the Theosophical Movement took me through Leipzig, Stuttgart, Baden-Baden, Alsace, Switzerland, and Bavaria. I was able to give lectures in Leipzig, Stuttgart, Baden-Baden, Colmar, Strasbourg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Heidelberg, Basel, Bern, St. Gallen, Regensburg, Nuremberg, and Weimar. Among these lectures were also longer series. The Leipzig series comprised fourteen lectures. The Stuttgart series lasted more than fourteen days, during which those interested in the Theosophical Movement who were present there had to gather daily. It was precisely such series in the other cities that may have proven most effective in enabling the Theosophical spiritual movement to gain a deeper foothold in our time. When one visits this or that city and is allowed to give one or two lectures to spark interest, it is not so easy to present the Theosophical Movement in a sufficiently intense manner. But anyone who is introduced to this spiritual life over the course of fourteen days gains a sense that a new world is opening up to them. When one gives individual lectures, it becomes clear that interest in spiritual life and a deep longing for it endure, and that the need for it exists. But there are countless obstacles that stand in people’s way and prevent them from drawing closer to spiritual science and living in harmony with it. One must engage more deeply with what we have come to call Theosophy. Only then does something open up in the heart that awakens an inkling, a feeling, a sense that one is dealing here with a true, real higher world. At first, however, everything that confronts people here is regarded not only as something incomprehensible, but as something fantastical, and people struggle to move beyond the widespread view that what is presented in Theosophy is dreamlike and fanciful, to the realization that our spiritual movement deals with something that, in the deepest sense, underlies the true world. Many believe that people who speak of such things are far removed from practical life. Gradually, however, one becomes accustomed to the perspective that must be gained, and one then learns that we are dealing with the true practice of life—one that does not exist in a fantasy world but resides in the deeper realms, and which imparts strength, knowledge, and truth. This enables us to truly solve the great tasks that fall to human beings in the world. It is a prejudice to view Theosophy as something that is hostile to life or negates it. One often hears: “Theosophy is something that portrays the world in a rather beautiful light, that conveys high ideals, but that nevertheless leads one away from life, alienating one from the true enjoyment of life and the true joy of living.” — It has even been claimed: “What the Theosophists say is beautiful, but it is not wholesome.”

[ 5 ] This kind of prejudice will perhaps take the longest to wear away. There will certainly be people who understand the teachings conveyed in theosophical literature and lectures. It is harder to free oneself from ingrained sensibilities and deeply rooted feelings than from learned prejudices. Sensibilities and feelings are much more difficult to overcome than thoughts that one is supposed to cast aside. One may even encounter someone who says: “Certainly, we want to devote ourselves to Theosophy, but we also do not want to spoil life for those who want to enjoy it.” One must consider, for example, that young people should also find joy in life. Of course, it depends on what one finds joy in; it depends on asking the question a little more deeply—namely, that it might be a matter of seeking more beautiful and nobler objects of joy and cultivating them into a nobler life. Then we will give life a new meaning and will not need to spoil young people’s joy of life if we provide them with a new kind of joy, a new kind of pleasure. People often cannot imagine that anyone could find the pleasures that people today consider entertaining to be insipid: going to the movies and spending time on entertainment that has nothing to do with real life. Perhaps there may yet come a time when people will speak of today’s trivial popular amusements as if they were a pipe dream.

[ 6 ] It is probably rare for someone to envy another person because of that person’s inability to enjoy life, but it does happen. In one city, we have a small Theosophical circle. One of our Theosophists, who is deeply interested in spiritual science and has also embraced a certain Theosophical way of life, lives in constant companionship with another who is also drawn to spiritual science but cannot yet break free from the pleasure of eating suckling pig—that is, he is all too fond of eating suckling pig. When he sits down to a suckling pig, he feels pangs of conscience about still being attached to this pleasure. Then he thinks the other man has it good, since he no longer takes any pleasure in suckling pigs. For this other person, however, his needs have simply changed. Thus, it could one day come to pass that those who no longer seek everyday pleasures will be regarded as the true role models, and people will look to them for what is good.

[ 7 ] The prejudices that stand in the way of human progress—prejudices rooted in cleverness, intelligence, and erudition—run much deeper. You can find an article in a journal that discusses “epidemics among the people.” A well-known researcher who specializes in psychiatry and issues at the intersection of psychology and psychiatry discusses “popular epidemics” and describes a phenomenon that lasted two hundred years, until around the end of the Middle Ages, when, in fact, excessive asceticism was practiced in wide circles as if it were a cult—where people threw themselves to the ground, flagellated themselves, tortured themselves, and where their overactive imaginations indulged in strange excesses. One can view this as an illness. The psychiatrist describes it as hysteria that occurred epidemically. He then explains that such hysterical individuals are often susceptible to suggestions that can no longer be controlled by our thinking. When a person sees another who has injured their arm, they will feel compassion and step in to help. There is no need to describe in detail what goes on in a normal person. But there are also people who themselves feel the pain in their arm—an abnormal sensation—when the other person is injured. This is a suggestive effect that can accumulate significantly, leading a person to a complete loss of control, so that they lead a disordered inner life, entirely at the mercy of all external impressions. When a materialistic psychologist speaks of such a phenomenon—one that affects entire segments of the population—he points to the public suggestion emanating from certain circles—in those days, the monasteries—and spreading far and wide. A kind of “disease of the times” arises. People are not inclined to ask, when confronted with something of this kind: “How am I to take this?”—They are completely under the influence of the suggestion. Such a psychologist speaks about it quite earnestly, but he fails to realize one thing: that a free person, who is able to delve into their own self, can recognize a different kind of epidemic social ailment and draw a sharp distinction between them. Today, this has taken hold of numerous circles, including educated and scholarly ones, and manifests itself in the fact that people live under certain positive and negative suggestions. If you approach such a person with spiritual-scientific truths, they will have the effect of a negative suggestion on him. He cannot understand them; they are something he cannot tolerate. Numerous materialistic prejudices, which are widespread today, act as positive suggestions. What do you find in the faculties of medicine, theology, and law? Suggestions that influence certain circles, which intensify to the point that they can be described, with just as much justification as that widespread ailment, as a kind of disease.

[ 8 ] A prominent biologist wrote something quite strange in a widely read journal. It is strange—perhaps not so much for those who read only isolated articles. But for those who follow the whole picture, it is something that runs counter to ninety-five percent of the entire scholarly world, and they find that in the future one may speak of a kind of scholarly madness or scholarly insanity just as one speaks of hysteria. In that essay, it is stated: When a billiard ball rolls, strikes another, and propels that one forward, I cannot imagine that absolutely nothing is transferred from the first to the second. This scholar calls the peculiar specter that emerges from the first billiard ball to creep into the second and set the second in motion under the influence of the first the “materia movens.” The person in question believes himself to be immensely clever, but is merely under the influence of materialistic suggestion, which affects him just as mass hysteria affected the general public in the 16th century. Now consider how such suggestions, to which he is subject, can thrive all around him. The number of such suggestions is infinite. When they occur in large numbers—and one can list a great many—they can be pieced together into a picture that would represent a clinical picture of contemporary scholarship just as one speaks extensively of dementia praecox.

[ 9 ] Therein lies the degree of bondage in which one lives who is under the influence of suggestion. Things have changed just a little bit compared to the Middle Ages. Only the theosophist can understand to what extent. In the Middle Ages, when something other than the person’s true self spoke through them, people spoke of possession. Today, people laugh at possession and regard it as a kind of illness. This form of possession, as it occurred in the Middle Ages, has receded somewhat in recent times. It now occurs only in isolated circles. In its place, however, another form of possession—of real, genuine possession—is widespread. Medieval possession is astral possession; today’s is mental possession. In the Middle Ages, people were possessed by beings who, when examined through spiritual research, were found to be on the astral plane. The entities, however, that dwell within scholars today and by which they are possessed are on the mental plane, the Devachan plane. In the world that is regarded as the only real one, they manifest themselves only as thoughts, and therefore they are attributed only with a thought-existence. Just as the world of human feelings, sensations, passions, instincts, and desires is not merely an outflow of physical existence but something independent, true, and real in itself, so too is the world of thought a reality in itself. However, just as human thoughts exist only in the mind, they are not reality. These human thoughts are merely the shadows of real thoughts, just as human passions and feelings are merely the shadows of something entirely different. We have often discussed here how these things are connected. We know that what we can observe in a human being with the physical senses—namely, the physical body—is only one aspect of the human being. We know that muscles and nerves, bones and blood are only a part of this human being. What we call the constituents, the elements of the physical body, belong to the physical world. Likewise, however, human feelings and thoughts belong to another world, namely the astral world.

[ 10 ] Here, contemporary logic, with all its prejudices, takes some very strange leaps. Contemporaries do not even realize that their own thinking, their own logic, should actually be telling them how impossible the conclusions they continually draw are, and that they are incorporating public suggestions into their trains of thought. It is incredibly easy, and even the most trivial thoughts suffice, so that an audience is compelled to agree with you for five minutes when you present them with a “compelling line of reasoning.” But they fail to notice that a heap of old ways of life and old feelings lies buried beneath it. Such is the nature of the “compelling line of reasoning.”

[ 11 ] A person who has been blind since birth and is among us would, from his point of view, be right to regard us as dreamers when we speak to him of light and color. That has never been a reality for him. He will object: Things can only be perceived by touch. He need not believe what we tell him. Nevertheless, he is wrong. But the point is not that he is wrong, but that he lacks the organ for perceiving light and color. The moment he acquires that organ, a new world opens up around him. True theosophy will never assume the existence of another world; it will merely perceive it in a different way. What theosophists call higher worlds are right here around us, just as the world of colors is for the blind. A person born blind who is a candidate for surgery can regain the use of his physical eyes. Theosophy asserts nothing else when it says that it is possible to develop the inner eyes. Just as the physical eye could be formed, so too is it possible to weave, from the passions, instincts, and feelings that live within human beings, organs—organs of perception—through which new worlds truly open up around the human being. Thus, it is possible to educate and develop human beings so that they themselves are able to look into these other worlds just as they otherwise look into the physical world. In this sense, Theosophy speaks of an astral world that is as real within the outer world as the world of colors is within the world of the sense of touch.

[ 12 ] No one who knows nothing about such worlds should object to them. As a matter of principle, it should be clear to everyone that one may only make claims about what one knows, and that one should never speak about what one does not know. Therefore, all judgments directed against spiritual science that are based on the premise—“These are worlds about which nothing can be known”—are a hopeless logical absurdity. One must never pass the judgment: “A world does not exist for me because I know nothing about it!” — This characterizes the prejudices directed against us. These are the scientific suggestions of the present day. And how many people are under the influence of these scientific suggestions! How difficult it is today to fight against these suggestions! A lecture on the humanities is heard once, and then people are again presented with hundreds and thousands of things that are held up to them as highly significant facts, but always interwoven with what springs not from materialistic science, but from the materialistic interpretation of science.

[ 13 ] Only those who look more deeply into spiritual life can know how difficult it is to combat these suggestions with reason. Thus, popular scientific discourse in particular has an extremely detrimental effect, because it presents itself with an authoritative infallibility that only future generations will be able to judge in the proper light. People today have no idea to what extent they are subject to the suggestions emanating from the authorities. Consider what I am saying merely as a characterization, and reflect on how paradoxical it is that peoples fight to shake off one authority only to fall prey to another. When human beings in the past were subject to these suggestions, when their “I” was surrendered to that which was at work within them, these were true beings—beings perceived by those who can look into the higher worlds. Human thoughts relate to certain beings of a so-called devachanic world like a shadow relates to a real object. The mental images you have are the shadows cast from the devachanic or mental world. The thought that lives within you is nothing but such a shadow image—self-contained. The seer, who has developed his higher sense organs, perceives it in connection with a being. If you see a shadow on the wall, you will only be able to understand it if you relate it to its object. The same is true of your thoughts. Without something else to which they refer, your thoughts are shadows. They relate to beings who are just as real in a higher world as this hand here. Just as this hand casts a shadow on the wall, so do the higher beings cast their shadows into this world. And these shadows are your thoughts. The human being, as he stands before us, is actually the stage for processes that take place outside the physical realm. As a physical being, he is, at first, a self-contained entity. As such, he lives in a self-contained world. To understand the human being as a physical being, we must remain in the physical world. If, for example, you wish to examine and understand blood as a physical substance, you must remain within the physical world. But if you wish to understand what feelings, sensations, and passions are, you must either speak in figurative terms or relate these things to beings that lie beyond the physical world—to a world that relates to this one as the world of colors relates to the world of touch. And you must seek to understand the world of thought in a similar way. Thus you see how human beings participate in the higher worlds, how the astral body extends into these worlds, and how the Devachan world, in turn, casts a kind of shadow image into this world. If a person knows nothing of these higher worlds, they are at their mercy, like a slave who is powerless against the one pulling the chains. Just as the physical personality becomes free only by being able to unfold its will within itself and to face others freely, so the human astral being can become free only by recognizing its connection to the entire astral world. As long as a person lives only in ordinary sensations, the astral being pulls him along as if on a leash: he is always possessed by it. He becomes free when he recognizes it. Just as we perceive the physical world around us, so must we face these entities, spiritual eye to spiritual eye, and know whom we are dealing with. The same is true of the human world of thought. This leads to true freedom, to seeing through our surroundings. To perceive things in their proper perspective, we must look at what lies behind the physical. The first step is for you to study these things, for the world to study these things.

[ 14 ] Many people rightly object: What good does it do us if this or that person tells us about those worlds, if we cannot look into them ourselves? — That is precisely the first step toward looking into the higher worlds ourselves. Why is it the first step? Because the physical world then reveals itself to the discerning mind as something different from what it is to the materialistic mind. A comparison can make it clear to us what a different perspective on the physical world the theosophist is to adopt—a comparison drawn from an ordinary piece of writing. This writing can be looked at by someone who cannot read and by another who can read. Both see the same thing; there is no difference in what they see. The one who cannot read will say: “I see lines going up and down, larger and smaller lines.” He can then describe them. But the one who can read finds meaning in them. He does not describe the shape of the letters, but finds meaning in them. So it is with the entire world from the perspective of spiritual science. Take, by contrast, modern science: it describes the world just as someone who has not learned to read describes the written word. For the other person, all things in the world become letters; they take on meaning; he learns to read. It is not wrong for someone who cannot read to describe the shape of the letters. Many say: “You are dreamers because you still see a special meaning in the word or in the world.” — This, of course, cannot be disputed, for that is the everyday view of things. Beyond that, however, there is a perspective in which every flower becomes a letter, every genus of flowers can be regarded as a word, and the world as a great script. The world contains something that is by no means limited to the physical realm. But the signs of this have no voice; therefore, meaning must be imbued into them. In Devachan, a whole new world opens up to those who learn to read the language of plants. You can also regard every animal in the world as a letter. Gradually, you will be able to decipher these letters. If you understand animals in their expressions of life, you will stand before them like one who can read, and not like one who does as materialistic science does, which merely describes the letters. If you learn to recognize the animal as a word, you will look beyond the physical world into a completely different one—the astral world. If you learn to regard the plant world as letters, you will gain the ability to look into the mental world. This is not something unreal; on the contrary, it is something that is entirely grounded in reality and actually teaches us to recognize the rich meaning of life: Indeed, the true significance of a spiritual understanding of the world only becomes clear to us when we compare it to reading. What purpose would it serve if I were to draw something on the blackboard here and write on it without it meaning anything? It gains meaning when one recognizes its significance. And so it is with the world. One gradually learns to recognize why the world exists, what it can be for human beings, and what human beings themselves are within it.

[ 15 ] I did not intend to tell you anything new with all of this. Those who have heard about theosophy on more than one occasion already know all this. I have told you this to give you a basis for refuting the claim that theosophy is not scientific, and to equip you to counter objections that seek to invoke logic. Only a logic that is too limited has objections to spiritual science. Logic that searches into the very furthest corners of the logical realm will find nothing to object to in its absolute rationality. Thus it must become clear that those who oppose “theosophy” from a scientific standpoint do so not for logical reasons, but out of suggestion. When one frees oneself from these suggestions and knows that thoughts are nothing but shadows of devachanic entities, and when one then witnesses how a professor, under influences from the mental world, claims that a billiard ball is moved by *materia movens*, which is transmitted to the other billiard ball—then one can look behind the scenes and see that he is being influenced by other entities.

[ 16 ] The world is in a state of upheaval, in a certain sense. It presents us with great challenges. There are questions that arise from the serious demands of our time. The social question, which has already cost so much bloodshed, cannot be resolved by the suggestions of our present age. Even the political parties that seek to resolve the social question are subject to such suggestions. They are possessed by mental entities. Anyone capable of looking beyond the physical realm can see, behind many a party supporter, the demon standing behind him. It will never work any differently than it did for Robert Owen, who, as a noble man and philanthropist—and as someone with a deep understanding of social conditions in England—sought to introduce a kind of model economy by recruiting both good and bad workers and attempting to establish a social community on a larger scale. He proceeded from the understandable prejudice that human beings are good by nature; one need only place them in adequate circumstances. If such conditions were created, they would then lead lives as they themselves desired. But this very philanthropist ultimately had to admit that one could not begin one’s efforts toward social progress with practical measures, but only with teaching and enlightenment.

[ 17 ] Anyone who looks into the spiritual world recognizes the interconnections that underlie the physical plane. They see people living together: some in the deepest misery, poor and weighed down by work and hardship; others feasting in abundance, enjoying this or that. It is easy to imagine how this could be changed if one were to remain solely on the physical plane. This is what most people do who feel called upon to bring about reform today. They are not in the same situation as the man born blind who, after a successful operation, suddenly sees the world around him in colors; otherwise, they would perceive the most diverse beings behind everything physical. If they attempt to implement their well-intentioned reform plans while disregarding spiritual entities, then in fifty years things will be far worse than they have ever been before. All of today’s social ideals would stand in grotesque contradiction to the astral world in fifty years, unless that astral world—along with human passions, desires, and wishes—were to undergo a change as well. Widespread misery, a terrible global upheaval, and a horrific struggle for existence would take the place of today’s already dreadful struggle. One need only look a little into the spiritual world to see what is at stake. Human beings are not merely bodies that must be fed; they are also spirits, and they are in contact with other spirits. Making them aware that they are fellow beings of higher worlds is the task of the occult worldview. Imagine a human being with a few beetles crawling around on them: these beetles would have no conception that this human being, this entity, represents anything other than themselves. They describe the form—for example, the nose. In the same way, human beings describe the sky, Mars, the Sun, Mercury, and the other stars. Just as the beetle has no idea that the nose belongs to a soul, so today’s astronomer describes Mercury, Mars, and the Sun. He describes them as he sees them—like a beetle on the cosmic world. Only then will we learn to describe things realistically again, when we come to realize that the stars are animated, that spirit is everywhere, that the entire universe is animated. This is the sole purpose of the spiritual-scientific worldview; that is how logical it is. Prejudices—which are nothing more than suggestions—make it difficult to bring to the awareness of all people today what this spiritual worldview is actually about.

[ 18 ] The purpose of this introductory lecture is to illustrate the kinds of resistance faced by those who think in terms of spiritual science and advocate for it in the world. Each of you may find yourselves in a situation where you must demonstrate steadfastness in the face of views that come at you from the outside. It is part of the work of the branches to help their members develop this steadfastness. You should be so inwardly grounded that, despite everything you encounter in the world, you experience the certainty of the spiritual world within yourselves and are thereby armed against any contradiction. It is not the breadth of theosophical knowledge, but rather inner consciousness, inner life, and inner certainty that make the difference. We do not need to fight against what we encounter in the world. Many representatives of other schools of thought come here and want to discuss matters with us; they wish to present the very wisdom that Theosophy itself can offer. They repeatedly say things that the Theosophist has long since set aside. The Theosophist characterizes, but does not criticize. He does not engage in propaganda in the ordinary sense, for that cannot be our task. Only those who come to Theosophy of their own free will should be warmly welcomed. Engaging in propaganda and agitation is not the task of Theosophy. Therefore, it is also not its task to refute others. One seeks to characterize the standpoint of spiritual science itself. The other must come to terms with it. Agitation—if one includes a public lecture in this—consists of explaining: “Theosophy has this and that to offer”; and those who are meant to come to it will eventually do so. The Theosophist does not have to represent opinions or views. He recounts facts of the higher world, and one does not argue about facts. A theosophist who disseminates the spiritual-scientific worldview refrains from expressing his own opinion. What we proclaim as theosophists is the ancient wisdom to which all sages have arrived. There are not two who hold differing opinions once they have reached the higher realm. At most, one of them may not have progressed far enough. — This is a mindset that the theosophist can cultivate within himself. He should not be pushy about it, but he should certainly experience it within himself in order to convey it just as firmly to the world. He who knows will also find the words for the knowledge that lies within him.

[ 19 ] This is how the theosophical outlook—and the other outlooks that stand in opposition to it—should be characterized today, rather than criticized. As we cultivate this outlook more and more, we will have the best means of working theosophically in the world. We will increasingly understand our surroundings and explore them spiritually. That is theosophical work.

[ 20 ] Finally, here is an example of the kind that shocks people as soon as it is spoken of in public. These things are simply true and can be discovered through our spiritual research. I would like to describe a contemporary phenomenon to you, and you will see how one learns to understand one’s surroundings when one truly delves into what spiritual research has to offer. Please do not take what I am about to say too negatively, for we will have to get used to the fact that there are still things about which we have no idea. Who would have had any inkling fifty years ago that there is a substance of which a single tiny grain is enough to harm our health? Fifty years ago, no one knew anything about it. There are simply things that have an effect before people know anything about them or are aware of them. This substance is called radium. In the case of radium, it was the physical instruments that people lacked. In the case of spiritual matters, it is the spiritual instruments.

[ 21 ] Within the socialist movement, there are people who are extremely radical, who would love nothing more than to smash everything to smithereens. There are also those with a certain conservative bent. You find all kinds of tendencies there. Thus, within the socialist movement, there is one organization that, as a cohesive group, has always displayed a remarkably homogeneous, uniform mindset and a consistent approach. These were the least radical. Essentially, it is a class, a trade, from which the socialist labor movement originated—namely, the book printers. They were the first to develop a kind of order within the socialist movement. Collective bargaining agreements were concluded to regulate the relationship between workers and employers. It has even reached the point where the printers have a newspaper whose editor is not a socialist at all, because he was expelled from the Socialist Party. This shows just how moderate this group is.

[ 22 ] Now the question may arise: Is it possible to investigate these things in terms of their spiritual causes, just as one investigates the physical effects of radium? Yes, it is. Do not be too surprised by what spiritual scientific research tells us in answer to the question of why such a group exists within the socialist movement. This is the effect of lead on the human soul. Everything in our environment—from the smallest to the largest—represents the body of a spiritual entity. Gold, silver, copper—everything that lives there—is the body of something spiritual. Lead, too, is the outer body of a certain spiritual quality. And anyone who works with lead is dealing not only with lead in the chemical sense, but also with its spiritual aspect. Lead not only attacks the lungs, but also has a very specific effect on the rest of the person. Therein lies the origin of the peculiar mindset within this social class.

[ 23 ] Here is yet another experience that happened to me just a few days ago. A good acquaintance of mine came to see me; he could not explain why, in his scientific work, he was able to find analogies and establish connections without any particular difficulty—and to an extent that is extremely rare even among scholars. Such an ability stems from a certain agility of the mental body. I wanted to find out how this phenomenon comes about. After some time, I was able to tell the man that he probably had a lot to do with copper. This was indeed confirmed, for the man in question is a French horn player. It was the small amount of copper that triggered such an effect in him.

[ 24 ] Now consider what kind of being man is—without even realizing it—a being subject to all manner of influences! I spoke earlier about suggestion. Now we see the influence of the entire spiritual world that surrounds man. And what is theosophy? It is the penetration into the spiritual world and its laws. And what does this penetration into the spiritual world mean? It means freedom, for only knowledge brings freedom. When one knows something, one can place oneself in the proper relationship to it. Thus, spiritual knowledge is the highest process of liberation we can undergo within ourselves. True development is what spiritual science is meant to teach us. Only if people want to become free will they be able to approach spiritual knowledge. But if they wish to remain dependent not only on social prejudices but also on everything they cannot even begin to grasp with their thinking, then they will not yet be able to approach spiritual science today, and we will understand that they cannot approach it. Those who are still dependent on fashion and the like will not be very inclined to recognize the influence of the metals around them. But a start must be made—a small beginning toward a great, very great undertaking. Today I wanted to offer just a brief glimpse of what spiritual science aspires to be a beginning of.