The Rudolf Steiner Archive

17. Elementary Beings and other Higher Spiritual Beings — spiritual beings of the natural kingdoms

[ 1 ] We have often emphasized that the worldview of Spiritual Science should not remain merely something abstract and conceptual, nor should it remain merely something we present as our worldview during life’s moments of celebration to satisfy our inner spiritual needs; rather, it should be something that deeply permeates our entire life and being, in our activities from morning to night, this becomes particularly clear to us when we consider the relationships and connections between spiritual beings and the spiritual world in general—which are always around us—and our own lives. So to speak, the physiognomy of external life becomes understandable to a person only when he or she can look into that which, from the spiritual world, brings about this physiognomy of existence. Just as we only begin to truly understand a person’s character when we know their soul—and can then interpret their gaze and explain their expressions—so, too, does the outer world, in all its phenomena, great and small, become comprehensible to us when we come to know its spiritual underpinnings. We can, after all, make a great deal clear to ourselves if we follow and observe life at every turn with a gaze sharpened by Spiritual Science.

[ 2 ] If I may begin the introduction with an insight that has come to me recently, it is intended solely to help us get into the right frame of mind for today’s reflection.

[ 3 ] I have often drawn your attention to how strangely events have become intertwined in European culture within the context of the destiny of the world and historical karma. I have pointed out to you how, in the Nordic world of mysteries—in the world of mysteries of the Druids and the Trottens—a certain tragic element prevailed in the teachings. In the ancient pre-Christian world of mysteries, students were initiated into high spiritual wisdom and high spiritual science, but they were always made aware of one thing: they were told that the view of the spiritual world that could be conveyed—particularly in northern and northwestern Europe—would be shed upon in a special light by a future event. They pointed prophetically to the later appearance of the Christ. And the whole of European culture becomes understandable to us when we trace the remarkable threads showing how Christianity intertwined itself with what remained of the ancient Nordic conceptions of the spirit world, how Christianity was drawn into them. And sometimes even small, external facts appear to us as symptoms—they are more than symptoms: they are genuine testimonies—of what is happening within; and for those who trace these subtle threads, the nature of external events is thereby revealed.

[ 4 ] During one of my recent lecture tours, it really came alive in my soul how, in the northern regions—in Sweden and Norway—the aftereffects of the ancient Norse spirit world come into play in everything to the left and right of the railroad tracks, shaping a spiritual perspective on the landscape, and how these effects can still be perceived in every detail. And one feels this particularly keenly when, right in the midst of these echoes of the ancient Norse world of the gods, something appears that points to strange karmic connections in history. Amid these echoes of the ancient Norse spirit world, so to speak, an impressive picture presents itself. When one arrives in Uppsala and finds oneself, so to speak, right in the midst of things that are more a reminder of the ancient Norse world of mysteries, one encounters right there the first Germanic Bible translation by Ulfilas—this marvelous document of Christianity’s entry into the European world. Even if we do not delve into specific spiritual connections, we will sense something of karmic connections when we consider that this document was first in Prague, then captured during the Swedish War, and was brought to this very place through a series of remarkable circumstances. This first translation of the Bible into the Germanic language strikes us as a living monument to the penetration of Christianity into the ancient Nordic spiritual world.

[ 5 ] Everything thus comes to life, and everything becomes understandable from within, when one truly regards the things that come one’s way as the outward expression of inner spiritual realities. And so today let us bring to mind various aspects of what external events and external facts reveal to us as consequences, as physiognomic expressions of inner spiritual entities and events—of facts pertaining to such spiritual entities and events.

[ 6 ] When we survey human life, we may first notice—especially in today’s materialistic age—that people actually study and pay attention only to those connections that are visibly apparent on the surface. Something is called harmful if one can see with one’s eyes the harm it causes, and useful if one can perceive its benefit with one’s eyes in a general sense. The fact that spiritual realities unfold between the sensory events of life—so to speak, between our physical bodies— such spiritual realities—which are connected with human life—will become particularly clear to us when, in the first part, we consider certain actions of beings whose effects influence our world; actions that human beings naturally do not perceive with their physical senses, but which have profound significance for the whole of human life.

[ 7 ] Since there are so many of them, we can only consider a certain type of such beings. The space around us is filled not only with air, but with spiritual beings of the most diverse kinds. There are those whom we call elemental beings. They are characterized by the fact that, for the most part, they lack what actually makes a human being a human being, namely, a sense of moral responsibility. They cannot possess this; they are organized in such a way that they cannot be held accountable in the moral sense. One must not believe that these beings—who enter and leave our bodies—at least a certain type of them—lack reason or intelligence. Some of them are very clever beings, beings who, in terms of cleverness and intellect, are not particularly inferior to human beings. Let us first turn our attention to those beings who are found in the higher worlds but who have a certain relationship to human beings that has an effect on their lives. Let us consider this.

[ 8 ] We start from the premise that human beings actually live in two states. Within a twenty-four-hour period, the average person today alternates between the waking state of the day and the state of sleep, and we know from earlier considerations that during the day, a human being is regularly composed of four members: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I; that at night, when a person falls asleep, the physical and etheric bodies remain in bed while the astral body withdraws along with the I. Now we have also heard that these four members of the human body find their expression in the physical body. We know that the “I” finds its expression in the blood. The blood, in its movements, is nothing other than the material manifestation of the “I.” Likewise, the nervous system is the material manifestation of the astral body; the glands are those of the etheric body; and the physical body has, so to speak, its own manifestation. If you keep this in mind, you will be able to understand that this human nervous system in the physical body is, after all, structured in such a way that it can only exist if it is permeated by the astral body; for it is organized by the astral body, depends on it—this astral body is its creator and sustainer. It can only live under the influence of the astral body. Likewise, the blood is connected to the “I.” Think about what happens when you callously abandon your physical body every night! You leave your nervous system behind in the physical body and take the astral body—which is its nurturer—out with you. You leave what the astral body is meant to sustain to fend for itself. Likewise, your “I” steps out and leaves the blood to fend for itself. This is what a human being does every night. He leaves his physical body—or rather, the nervous and circulatory systems—to fend for themselves. But they could not survive if they were left to their own devices. For, as they are, they must, in the human form, be permeated by an astral body, just as the blood must be permeated by something akin to the “I.”

[ 9 ] What you yourself do not do—nourish your nervous system—must be done by other beings. Therefore, you see how, at the very moment when the astral body and the “I” withdraw from the physical and etheric bodies, higher beings from higher realms move in; they lower their astral nature into the nervous system and nourish the nerves and blood. Every night, that which descends from higher worlds takes possession of the physical body when the human being carelessly leaves it. So we can say: Astral substances that create the physical and etheric bodies—and are involved in their creation—take them back when the human being leaves them. In doing so, they find them different from how they originally delivered them to the human being. The human being was present within them with his astral body and I, and carried out his activities there; and there the spiritual beings from higher regions of the world find effects within that do not at all correspond to their higher spirituality—effects that are the aftereffects of what the human being has wrought in his physical body throughout the day through his astral nature and his I. Now, a materialistic perspective is concerned only with the gross; but when one delves into the mysterious realities of the spiritual world, one finds that there are entirely different effects extending right into the physical body. One cannot have a single thought, sensation, or feeling without these expressing their effects right down into the physical body. Even if the anatomist cannot prove this, every sensation and every form of feeling brings about a certain change in the structure of the physical body, and these are then encountered by those beings who sink into the human being.

[ 10 ] Of particular significance are the effects exerted on our physical body by everything a person harbors in their soul—lies, slander, and hypocrisy. The materialistic mind believes that lies, slander, and hypocrisy are things that are only as harmful as can be observed externally. This is not the case; rather, very subtle effects—though imperceptible even to a microscope—extend all the way to the physical body. When the soul then leaves the body during sleep, these effects remain within the physical body, where they are encountered by the spiritual beings. And this includes not only those soul experiences that are described in the grossly sensory realm as lies, slander, and hypocrisy, but also the subtle, conventional lies—for example, those necessitated by today’s social order. Lies told out of politeness or custom, and the entire spectrum—ranging from insincerity and hypocrisy to minor slanders, even those merely in thought—all of this finds expression in the effects on the physical body, and this is what these descending entities encounter. And because this is present within the physical body at night, a particular effect is brought about. As a result, pieces are constantly torn away from the substance of these entities sinking into the body. Certain parts of the higher entities must thereby be severed. The consequence of lies, hypocrisy, and slander during the day is the severing of certain beings at night, which thereby acquire a certain kinship with the physical human body. Through this, these beings gain an independent existence in the spiritual world surrounding us; they are beings we classify as phantoms. Phantoms are spiritual entities whose outward appearance consists of physiognomic expressions; in a certain sense, they are replicas of the human limbs and form. They are of such a fine materiality that the physical eye cannot see them, yet they possess, so to speak, a physical form. The clairvoyant sees fragments of human heads, human hands, and entire figures flitting through the air; indeed, he sees the inner parts of human bodies flitting about—the stomach, the heart—he sees all the phantoms that have broken free in this way because the person has surrendered to their physical body that which is the consequence of lies, hypocrisy, and slander.

[ 11 ] Such phantoms, which constantly flit through our mental space, will serve as proof to you that human life itself is the source of entities that by no means have a particularly beneficial effect on humans; for, in a certain sense, they possess intelligent qualities but bear no moral responsibility. They eke out their existence by placing obstacles in people’s paths—far more obstacles than what are commonly called bacteria. There is even something else at work. Important pathogens are to be found in such entities; for if these phantoms are created by human beings, then they find in germs and bacteria a very good opportunity for their existence—they find nourishment in them, so to speak. They would more or less wither away in their spiritual essence if this nourishment were not there. But these bacteria, in a certain sense, are in turn created by them. By virtue of their existence, these entities of the physical world serve a purpose. Thus, what is needed in a certain way is also present there through mysterious causes.

[ 12 ] Thus, through lies, slander, and hypocrisy, so to speak, human beings create an army of spiritual beings belonging to the class of phantoms.

[ 13 ] The situation is similar with the etheric body, which the human being leaves at night. He has arranged this etheric body for his life in such a way that it can exist as a human etheric body only when it is permeated by higher beings; when his own astral nature is outside the body, those beings also enter the etheric body. This must be kept in mind! Then, however, it will become clear to us that certain processes in our soul life produce effects in the etheric body that remain during the night and cause beings to be cut off—according to the pattern of the etheric body—from whatever sinks into it. The soul processes that lead to such beings are processes brought about in human social life by what we might call: bad laws, misguided measures. All manner of things that the soul experiences in human interaction—things that are wrong due to lawful effects—affect the soul in such a way that an aftereffect remains in the etheric body at night, which gives rise to those entities we call ghosts. This is the second type of entity that belongs to the category created by human beings.

[ 14 ] Then we must consider that the reverse is also true. That which has emerged at night—the astral body—is organized in such a way that it depends on being embedded within the nervous system; when it is outside, it is not in its proper place. It, too, must be sustained from higher worlds; higher, protective spirits must unite with it. And even from these, something can in turn be cut off through the activity of the human soul—through peculiar soul processes—by the fact that what we might describe as “giving wrong advice” acts upon the human being, imposing false advice on others, forming prejudices that are not sufficiently grounded, persuading people in such a way that one treats their soul by not leaving them the freedom to consent, but rather, so to speak, forcibly driving them toward a conviction to which one is oneself fanatically attached.

[ 15 ] When such an influence is exerted from one person to another, an effect remains in the astral body during the night that causes higher beings to cut off certain entities we classify as demons. They are created in the manner described because people do not face one another with the attitude that can be expressed by the words: “I want to tell the other person what I mean—whether they agree is their business!” —A hundred kinds of demons are generated at the card table, during the gatherings known in Germany as “gentlemen’s evenings,” and at coffee parties, where the attitude stemming from inner tolerance is indeed very rare, and where the prevailing attitude is one in which the individual says to himself: “If you do not share my opinion, then you are a fool.” - This interaction from soul to soul is demon-generating to the highest degree. Thus, spiritual beings literally spring forth from human life; they enliven the spiritual world. And all these beings—phantoms, ghosts, and demons—in turn exert a influence back on human beings. When this or that prejudice, this or that foolish fad, spreads epidemically in our surroundings, it is the demons created by human beings that are holding back the very path of progress. Human beings are always surrounded and swarmed by the beings they have created.

[ 16 ] Thus we see how human beings hinder their own progress by being creative in the spiritual world. We must become aware that everything we think, feel, and sense has effects that are just as significant—and, in the grand scheme of things, even more significant—than those caused by firing a bullet. The latter may be terrible, but it is considered more dangerous than the former only because human beings can perceive it with their gross senses, whereas they do not observe the former.

[ 17 ] This is an aspect of spiritual life that human beings, so to speak, develop on their own. Another aspect—how human beings participate in the interplay of the spiritual world—may become apparent to us through certain human cultural activities, which are not merely what they appear to be to the external senses. To understand this, you must bear in mind that there are beings other than human beings.

[ 18 ] Human beings are such that we say: They have the physical body as the lowest component of their being. Now there are beings who, at their present stage of development, do not possess such a coarse physical body, but rather have the etheric body as the lowest link in their being—beings who are, however, actually real. Human beings can now draw such beings into their sphere of influence to a greater extent than occurs spontaneously. In fact, part of cultural development consists in seeking contact with these beings, whose lowest component is the etheric body. Such contact is established by human beings, in a certain sense, creating physical forms that these beings can use to literally attach themselves to them and complement themselves through them; in this way, bridges of connection are created to these beings. Imagine if we were to create a mental image of a physical form within this basket of flowers standing here on the desk—one whose shapes corresponded to certain forms of the etheric body of the aforementioned higher beings—then these beings would be inclined to settle there, to surround the basket of flowers, and to connect with it. We would see how this basket prompts spiritual beings to descend, lovingly embrace it, and feel at ease, thus being able to descend into human society in this way. We need only create the appropriate forms; then we build such bridges between ourselves and these beings. And people have always done this at certain times through one means or another. Thus, during the era of Greek culture, people indeed possessed, to a high degree, the gift of establishing communication with the spiritual beings they called their gods. For these Greek gods are not figments of the popular imagination; rather, they are true beings, they exist and must be regarded as such—this Zeus, this Pallas Athena, and so on—whose lowest member is the etheric body.

[ 19 ] And how did the Greeks incorporate these gods into their circle? — By the fact that they, the Greeks, had to a high degree mastered what we might call an “architectural sense of space.” The person who studies space from the standpoint of Spiritual Science knows that this space is not that abstract void of which our ordinary mathematicians, physicists, and mechanics dream, but rather something highly differentiated. It is something that contains within itself lines here and there, lines in all directions—lines of force from top to bottom, from right to left, from front to back, straight and curved, in every direction. These are spiritual forces of compression and tension within space; in short, one can feel space, penetrate it intuitively. In this regard, I have often used the example that anyone with a sense of space knows why certain old painters depict three angels floating so wonderfully lifelike—so that anyone with a sense of space knows that these three angels hold each other up, like three celestial bodies in space, through their mutual attraction. If this is explained to an undeveloped person, they come to the conclusion: “They must fall down.” They cannot grasp that the angels support and hold one another. It is these mutually supporting, dynamic proportions that the old masters became aware of—those who still possessed a living sense of that ancient clairvoyance that once existed. It is quite different when you look at such a composition as you find, for example, in a Böcklin painting. In contrast to its other merits—against which nothing at all should be objected—you find there that peculiar angelic figure, which, if you have retained a vivid sense of space, gives you the feeling that it must plop down at any moment.

[ 20 ] In more recent times, that vivid sense of space has been lost. The Greeks possessed it as an architectural and artistic concept. A Greek temple is a crystallized concept of space in the purest sense of the word. The column, which supports what rests horizontally or at an angle, is not something contrived, but rather something that, for those with a sense of space, is already inherent in the space itself and cannot be any other way. The entire temple is born out of the concrete space itself; this is evident to anyone who perceives the spatial lines. And all one needs to do is to insert the stone material where these lines are visible, simply to fill in what is ideally pre-drawn with physical material. In the Greek temple, the spirituality of space is entirely transformed into a visible form. By creating the crystallized concept of space in this way, forms have been created such that those spiritual beings whose etheric body is their lowest member can sink into the enclosed space thus created and find an opportunity to be present through the forms of the space.

[ 21 ] It is therefore not mere fantasy, but the full truth—the true truth—that the Greek temple was the dwelling place of God. Yes, the god dwelt within it! Through the forms of the space, he dwelt within it. And it is the distinctive feature of the Greek temple that the invisible god descends and takes possession of these forms. In the Greek temple, you can imagine all people gone, see no sign of people far and wide—the place may be completely deserted of people—and yet the temple is not deserted! God is within it! That is the distinctive feature of the Greek temple, but not of the Gothic cathedral. It is something entirely different when you imagine the Gothic cathedral without people and picture it as empty. Then it is not a whole. The Greek temple is a whole without people; the Gothic cathedral is a whole only when it holds the congregation within it, and when folded hands are added to the pointed arches, when thoughts and feelings unite with the architectural forms. If you imagine these away, the Gothic cathedral is not a whole. This is what distinguishes it from the Greek temple. It is a different architectural concept, born in a magnificent way from the spiritual realm, but without people it is not a whole. And yet, when it is spiritually populated, spiritual beings of the kind described can descend when it is filled with the faithful congregation. And so every architectural concept is designed very precisely and concretely for something specific.

[ 22 ] The Egyptian pyramid is also designed so that the soul, upon leaving the body, may follow the path traced out in the inner passages of such a pyramid; it expresses the soul’s journey from the body into the spiritual world. In Romanesque architecture, the concept of the tomb is expressed architecturally. A Romanesque church without a crypt—unless it can be conceived as a vault rising above corpses—is incomplete. This is an integral part of it. It is thus born of the idea of the risen Savior; it is the reverent edifice for the tomb of Christ Jesus.

[ 23 ] In this way, you can see that through what humans create in their forms, they build a bridge from the physical world to the spiritual world. While it may seem little consolation that human beings create a host of spiritual beings that hinder their own development, it may be a source of comfort to see that, through the architectural forms they introduce into the world, human beings are paving their own way upward toward higher spiritual beings.

[ 24 ] And the same is true of other works of the visual arts. It is equally the case with works of sculpture and painting that, through their forms, they provide an opportunity for those entities—which, in their ethereal forms, are able, so to speak, to adapt to what is being created—to surround it. In the case of sculptures, it is more a matter of being applied from the outside, of these plastic works being surrounded; in the case of architectural works, it is more a matter of inner filling. In painting, we encounter other entities—entities whose lowest physical limb consists of very fine etheric matter. The person who understands such things knows how astral-etheric beings feel at home where the painter, through his harmony of colors and his lines and forms, gives them the opportunity to enter our world from the spiritual world.

[ 25 ] Then there are spiritual beings whose astral body is their lowest member—that is, beings composed of an even finer substance. These beings find a way to commune with human beings through the arts that express themselves in moving form, namely, music. A room filled with the sounds of music provides an opportunity for spiritual beings whose lowest member is the astral body to enter. Thus, filling a room with musical tones is indeed a means by which human beings create interaction between themselves and other spiritual beings. Just as a person draws, so to speak, good spiritual beings into their circle through lofty, meaningful music, so it is also true that repulsive music draws evil astral beings into the sphere of human influence; and you would be little edified if I were to describe to you, in connection with certain modern musical works, what kind of hideous astral figures dance about when the orchestra plays. These matters must be taken seriously! In this way, we have seen how our visible world and an invisible world of spiritual beings that lie behind it interact.

[ 26 ] The spiritual worlds also continue to manifest themselves in certain other types of beings. Thus, we can observe, in particular, that where different kingdoms of nature intersect, conditions are created for the appearance of spiritual beings. Here we can point to elemental beings, which help us understand life even more clearly. Thus, certain beings are prompted to manifest themselves when metal comes into contact with, or clings to, ordinary soil. Wherever ordinary soil is traversed by metal veins, we find such elemental beings—who are very clever but use their cleverness to play pranks on humans, though they also sometimes act benevolently—whom we call gnomes. We find gnome-like beings in the interior of the Earth, and they huddle together in certain places as long as the soil remains solid; they gather there by the hundreds. When the vein is exposed, they scatter. Everything then comes alive and stirs with such figures that had been huddled together there. This is the case, as I said, when the Earth comes into contact with the metallic realm. Where, in turn, the plant kingdom touches the mineral kingdom at a spring—in what winds itself so mossily and fraternally around the stones, where things are together that otherwise, so to speak, do not belong together, that come together in a peculiar way—there we find such beings that we call Undines and Nymphs. These, too, are real beings.

[ 27 ] And finally, we find such entities, such elemental beings, where the spiritual interacts with the physical—when the animal kingdom comes into contact with the plant kingdom in such a way that the beings are initially separated from one another and later come into contact, for example, when a bee sips nectar from a flower. In the space where the bee and the flower come together, there is a unfolding of flavor; the flower’s nectar is absorbed, and a flavor effect is present. This effect is so perceptible to the spiritual researcher that he sees something like an aura forming around the flower’s corolla. This is the expression of the flavor process. And all of this gives rise to the manifestation of beings we call sylphs. These sylphs have a special role in the life of the bee, for they appear not only when the little bee is feeding but also in the swarm; there they show the way—they are the guides of the bee.

[ 28 ] Here we have an example of how Spiritual Science will one day prove useful. The beekeeper’s wisdom regarding bees has its origins in clairvoyance. The practices of beekeeping have been handed down from ancient times; they are instinctive actions. In the past, there was likely still a dim form of clairvoyance; back then, beekeepers were able to harness the activity of the sylphs to organize the life of the hive. Modern beekeeping knows nothing of this anymore and therefore makes many mistakes with its innovations. Modern science lacks the necessary insights. People will be able to shape such natural processes—in which they themselves must participate—in a far more fruitful way if they once again consciously understand the workings of spiritual beings. Anyone who takes a closer look at life in this field will see that, when it comes to the science of beekeeping, what is good is what comes from ancient times, while today’s natural scientists are, in part, producing appalling results. This is completely inapplicable and leads people astray. Most beekeepers are guided by sound instincts and, fortunately, pay no heed to modern science. Even that which plays a major role—for example, the existing theory regarding the pollination process—is false and cannot stand up to knowledge that penetrates reality.

[ 29 ] Humans give rise to such types of elemental beings when they live in harmony with the animal kingdom—not merely as in a sports club, but, for example, as the Arab does with his horse or the shepherd with his flock of sheep. The spiritual interaction between the shepherd and the flock is similar to the interaction between a bee and a flower, and therefore the feelings between the shepherd and the flock give rise to very special beings: the salamanders. These are beings of a subtle substance who are very intelligent and very wise, even though they bear no moral responsibility. And their wisdom is expressed in what they whisper to the shepherds from the shepherds’ wisdom. It is not foolishness that is attributed to shepherds who are not swindlers; therein lies much of what such beings—which arise from the shepherd’s coexistence with the flock—whisper to the shepherds.

[ 30 ] But anyone who wants to pursue such studies will not have much opportunity to do so, for such things are dying out. Yet some time ago, it was still quite possible to conduct such studies if one could find selfless people in the countryside who knew all sorts of things about health and healing practices. They knew very important things. So much so that Paracelsus could say he had learned more from associating with such people than at all the universities. — And that was not without reason. So we see, then, that there is still such a realm where spiritual beings in our surroundings enter our sphere in a peculiar way. One must not ask: “But where do these beings come from?” — The world harbors all manner of spiritual beings in its depths. It is simply a matter of creating the opportunity to bring them to the right place in some way. Even if the comparison isn’t elegant, it is accurate: In a clean room, there are no flies; but if the house is poorly kept, if all sorts of food scraps are left lying around, then the flies will soon appear. It is the same in the invisible world around us: as long as we do not provide an opportunity, spiritual beings are not there; but when we do provide an opportunity, they are always there—they enter our circle and interact with us.

[ 31 ] This is something that shows us how human perception can expand beyond the physiognomy of the external world. Just as the soul creates its own face, so do spiritual beings create and act within our world. And an age will come for humanity when human beings will necessarily have to shape their lives based on knowledge of this spiritual world. Today, they can only perceive the world through coarse, sensory means; but we shall see how we are once again moving toward a time when human beings will create out of the spiritual, how we are advancing toward an age in which our entire surroundings will be an expression of the spirit—even if this age cannot be like ancient ages, even if it cannot initially be an age like that of the Gothic cathedrals or the Greek temples.

[ 32 ] But even in our age of technology and practicality, it is possible for more to happen than is happening today. People have lost the ability to sense, perceive, and experience spirits; that is why we have also lost the longing to give spiritual forms expression in the external world. But even in our utilitarian buildings, if people come to feel the spiritual again, this can once more be realized. In this connection, I am reminded of something I experienced as a young man. When Ferstel, the architect of Vienna’s Votivkirche, delivered his inaugural lecture on architectural styles, he said: “Architectural styles are not invented; they are born out of the entire culture of the ages.” — This can be demonstrated by studying the architectural style of the Egyptian pyramids in the context of the entire spiritual life of that era. In our time, only the materialistic concept of utility finds expression; our time cannot have an architectural style similar to the Gothic or Greek styles. This is something the anthroposophist should heed.

[ 33 ] From the spiritual life of the anthroposophical movement, a veritable sea of culture must be created, out of which forms representing a new architectural style will once again crystallize. An expression of humanity is possible only where there is a shared spiritual culture. Our time does indeed have a style that is truly new: the architectural style of the department store. It is possible that a person, looking back from a later time to an earlier one, might characterize the eras by their styles. One can characterize the Middle Ages solely on the basis of Gothic cathedrals. All other records could be disregarded, yet one could discern the nature of the High Middle Ages solely from the Gothic cathedrals. The same is true of the period between the 19th and 20th centuries; this can later be traced through the style of the department store; the department store fully embodies the materialistic concept of utility. This is evident in them just as what lived spiritually in Tauler or Eckhart is expressed in the Gothic cathedrals.

[ 34 ] But even in our time, it is possible to exert a stylistic influence in other ways. Our cultural media are so capable of shaping form that they can still have a much greater educational impact on the human psyche than they do today. For example, we are now in the age of railroads, but we still lack an architectural style for train stations, because people do not sense what happens when a train arrives and departs; because people do not sense that what takes place when a train is running can be expressed outwardly. Arriving and departing locomotives—that which must enter—can find expression in the hollow forms of the buildings. Hopefully, once humanity has mastered air travel, it will have reached the point where it can also connect the idea of departure with the departure point, so that one senses in the very form of the structure that only an airship can take off from there. Spiritual life can find formal expression in everything. Only when we feel that we are surrounded everywhere by the expression of the soul—as was the case in the Middle Ages—will the right goal be achieved. This can only happen when a culture such as that arising from the insights of Spiritual Science permeates human life. Spiritual Science is not an impractical matter; it is, in fact, something that must permeate and take hold of the world’s culture. It does not consist of abstract thoughts, but—according to the intention of those who brought it into being—is meant to flow into all cultural currents. It should manifest itself in everything. We should permeate everything with these thoughts that Spiritual Science offers us,

[ 35 ] Let us also take to heart another thought—the one that can give us a certain awareness of how the impulses of Spiritual Science must take effect if they are to become what they are destined to be. And it is good, especially as we conclude a winter season and go our separate ways, to take such emotional and spiritual strength with us; to let some of it flow into our hearts and carry it outward, and to always feel ourselves to be members of the spiritual-scientific world movement. It may be that today many people out there still know nothing about Spiritual Science. Look at these small gatherings, and look at everything that is being done out there: it knows nothing, feels nothing of the essence of Spiritual Science!

[ 36 ] When something like this is set before our souls, may another image arise—an image that strengthens the soul and the heart, the image we can have when we look back to the very earliest Christian times, when we see what set the tone then, what lived as culture in the era of ancient imperial Rome. Let us bring to mind what life was really like in that ancient imperial Rome—how the ruling classes settled in, floor upon floor, and how, at the same time, a small group lived banished down in vaulted cellars; how censers had to be set up so that the stench of decay emanating from the decomposing bodies of the persecuted and slain members of that small group would not be so noticeable. Let us observe how the wild beasts burst out of their cages, tearing to pieces those who had been thrown to them from the ranks of that small group; let us descend from the palaces of the ruling elite of imperial Rome into the passageways where the first Christians, that very small group, lived—where they erected their first altars upon the bones of their dead and developed their worship, invisible to the dominant imperial Rome, invisible like today’s followers of a new spiritual insight who gather there, invisible, spiritually invisible to the official, dominant culture! Let us follow those down there who were not even allowed to show themselves in the light of day, as they lay buried there by the thousands, hidden—they who planted a new, spiritual culture within humanity beneath the earth’s surface, while above, Imperial Rome operated as is well known—and let us then consider the circumstances a few centuries later: What Imperial Rome—which set the tone at that time—produced has been blown away, swept away. And what remains is that which had to eke out its existence, invisible to the eyes of those in power, down in the vaults. That is what has remained.

[ 37 ] This is how cultures arise in the darkness of obscurity, how they take shape, and how they then emerge from the darkness. And we can take this realization to heart: that this movement of Spiritual Science is truly called to something similar to the early Christian movement. No matter how underground its existence may be at first, no matter how much those in the above-ground worlds—who harbor entirely different ideas—may regard themselves as the authorities, in a few centuries the situation will have changed. Then the anthroposophist will have the feeling that he will carry up into the light what reigns underground today; that he will carry the ideas of Spiritual Science, just as the first Christians carried their culture up from the catacombs. Such awareness gives us the strength and the opportunity to incorporate spiritual knowledge into our inner lives. Let us go forth with these feelings, so that we may come together again in the same spirit. Let us not engage in abstractions, but rather in something that can become the lifeblood of our existence. Thus, let us pour into our souls what we hear from the higher worlds. Let us draw strength from this and remember, at least a little, that the idea of Spiritual Science should have grown so dear to our hearts that, even if we are separated for a while, we are still united in the spiritual realm. And may this feeling bring us together again!