The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Second Lecture

[ 1 ] In this lecture, which is intended to serve as one of the introductions to our actual “General Assembly Campaign,” a specific purpose will be pursued: to show that spiritual science—or rather, the spiritual approach to the world upon which it is based—is in complete accord and perfect harmony precisely with certain findings of specialized scientific research. As is often evident, particularly in popular and public lectures, it is not entirely easy for the anthroposophist to find full understanding among a completely unprepared audience. When spiritual science encounters a completely unprepared audience, the anthroposophist must be somewhat aware that, in many respects, he speaks a completely different language than those who have heard nothing at all—or only very superficially and externally—about the insights underlying the spiritual science movement. It requires a certain deeper insight to find the harmony between what can be so easily conveyed in modern external science—namely, the findings of sensory research—and what is given to us through the knowledge of the spiritual, the higher, and the supersensible consciousness. One must immerse oneself in order to gradually gain a true overview of this harmony. But then one will see how beautifully the claims of the spiritual researcher align with the assertions—that is, the enumeration of facts—put forward by physical research. One should therefore not be too harsh on those who cannot understand the anthroposophists, for they lack all the necessary preparation that is absolutely essential to grasp the results of spiritual research; and so, in most cases, they must interpret the words and concepts to mean something entirely different from what is actually intended. For this reason, a greater understanding of spiritual science can, to a large extent, be achieved only by speaking quite openly from a spiritual standpoint, even before an unprepared audience. Then, among these unprepared people, there will be a large number who say: “This is all just nonsense, fantasy, nothing but elaborate rubbish that’s being presented here!”—But there will always be some who, through the innermost needs of their souls, first get a sense that there is indeed something behind it all, and they will continue on and gradually become familiar with it. It is this patient familiarization that is essential, and it is also what we can achieve. Therefore, it will be quite natural that a large portion of those who come to a lecture on spiritual science out of mere curiosity will afterward readily spread the judgment in the world: “This is a sect that merely spreads its own special gibberish!” - But if one is aware of the difficulties, one will also have the calm patience required for the process of selection that must take place. The right individuals will emerge from the audience themselves and form a core through which spiritual science will then gradually permeate our entire lives.

[ 2 ] Today, a specific example will be used to show how students of spiritual science who are well-prepared—and who have already become accustomed to thinking and living within the concepts awakened by spiritual knowledge—will find it easy to come to terms with even the most seemingly difficult findings of positive physical-sensory research. In this way, the student will gradually come to realize: It is entirely possible for me that, the further I progress, the more I will come to see what a solid foundation spiritual research is for all knowledge of the world. - This will give the seeker the peace of mind he needs in the face of the storms that rage against spiritual science, precisely because it speaks a language that is entirely foreign to many. And if we have the patience to attune ourselves to this harmony, we will also gain ever greater certainty. When people then say: “What you’re telling us doesn’t agree with the most basic scientific research!” - then the anthroposophist will reply: “I know that through what spiritual science can offer, complete harmony can be established with regard to all these facts, even if there may not be any possibility of reaching an understanding on this at the moment. As a special chapter, intended more to strengthen our consciousness, let us allow what is about to be said to take root in our souls.”

[ 3 ] The student of spiritual science, having lived for some time within the spiritual worldview, becomes accustomed to speaking of the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body in such a way that they increasingly become concepts he can handle—concepts that guide and direct him as he seeks to understand the external world. He must gradually accustom himself to seeing in what surrounds him as physical corporeality not a homogeneous but a differentiated corporeality. He looks at a stone and does not say: The stone consists of such-and-such substances, as does the human body, and therefore I can treat the human body just as I would a stone. For even the plant’s body, though it consists of the same physical substances as the stone, is something entirely different: it contains within itself the etheric body, and the plant’s physical body would disintegrate if the etheric body did not permeate it in every part. Therefore, the spiritual scientist says: The physical body of the plant would decay if, during its life, the etheric body did not protect it from this dissolution and fight against it. When we view the plant in this way, we find it to be a combination of the principle of the physical body and the etheric body.

[ 4 ] It has often been emphasized what the most fundamental principle of the etheric body is, namely, that of repetition. A being that were subject only to the principles of the etheric body and the physical body would express the principle of repetition within itself. We see this emerge most clearly in the plant. We see how, in the plant, leaf after leaf develops. This stems from the fact that the plant’s physical body is permeated by an etheric body, and that etheric body embodies the principle of repetition. It forms one leaf, then a second, a third, and thus adds leaf upon leaf in constant repetition. But even when the plant’s growth reaches its conclusion at the top, repetition still prevails there as well. At the top of the plant, you see, as it were, a wreath of leaves that form the calyx of the flower. These sepals have a different shape than the other leaves. But even there you can develop the awareness that this is merely a slightly modified form of the repetition of the same leaves, which unfolds in a similar repetition all the way up the stem. So that we can say: Even up there, where the plant reaches its conclusion, the green sepals are a kind of repetition. And even the petals are a repetition. Admittedly, they have a different color. Although they are essentially still leaves, they are already highly modified leaves. Now, Goethe’s great contribution to the field of botany was that he showed how not only the sepals and petals are modified leaves, but also how the pistil and stamens must be regarded as such a modified repetition of the leaves.

[ 5 ] However, what we encounter in the plant is not merely a repetition. If only the elementary principle of the etheric body were at work, the etheric body would permeate the plant from bottom to top. Leaf after leaf would develop, and there would be no end to it; nowhere would there be a conclusion.

[ 6 ] How does this process of completion occur during flowering, so that the plant brings its existence to a close and once again becomes fertile in order to produce a new plant? It is because, as the plant grows upward, the plant’s astral body meets it from above, enclosing it from the outside. The plant does not possess its own astral body, but as it grows upward, the plant’s astral body meets it from above. It brings to completion what the etheric body would do in eternal repetition; it brings about the transformation of the green leaves into sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils. We can therefore say: From the occult perspective, the plant grows toward its soul-like part, its astral part; this part brings about the transformation. The fact that the plant remains a plant—that it does not transition into arbitrary movement or sensation—stems from the fact that this astral body, which meets the plant up there, does not take inner possession of its organs but merely surrounds it externally, working into it from above. To the extent that the astral body touches the organs from within, to that same extent the plant transforms into an animal. That is the entire difference.

[ 7 ] If you take a petal from the plant, you can say: Even in the plant’s petal, the etheric body and the astral body work together, but the etheric body has, so to speak, the upper hand. The astral body is unable to extend its sensory threads inward; it acts only from the outside. - If we wish to express this spiritually, we can say: What is internal in the animal—what it experiences internally as pleasure and suffering, joy and pain, drive, desire, and instinct—is not internal in the plant; rather, it continually descends upon the plant from the outside. This is indeed something of a soul-like nature. And while the animal turns its eyes outward, derives joy from its surroundings, directs its sense of taste outward, and is refreshed by the pleasure that comes to it, that is, feels pleasure within, anyone who can truly view things from a spiritual perspective can tell you that this astral being of the plant also experiences joy and pain, pleasure and suffering—but in such a way that it looks down upon what it brings about. It rejoices in the red color of the rose and in everything that comes its way. And when the plants form leaves and flowers, this permeates and is savored by the plant soul that looks down upon them. This gives rise to an exchange between the descending part of the plant soul and the plants themselves. The plant world exists in its soulfulness for joy, and at times also for suffering. Thus we truly see a sense of exchange between the plant cover of our Earth and the astral nature of the Earth that envelops the plants, which represents the soulfulness of the plants. What acts externally upon the plants as astral nature seizes the soulfulness of the animal internally and makes it an animal in the first place. But there is an important difference between the active soulfulness in the astral nature of the plant world and that in the astral nature of animal life.

[ 8 ] If you examine, through clairvoyance, what acts upon the plant canopy as astral energy, you will find in the soul-life of the plants a certain sum of forces, and all these forces at work within the plant souls possess a certain distinctiveness. When I speak of the soul-life of plants—of that astral quality that permeates the Earth and within which the soul-life of plants unfolds—you must realize that these plant souls do not live in their astral existence in the same way as, for example, physical beings on our Earth. Plant souls can interpenetrate one another, so that they flow through each other as if in a liquid element. But one thing is peculiar to them: namely, they develop certain forces, and all these forces have the property of flowing toward the center of the planet. Thus, a force acts within all plants that moves from top to bottom and strives toward the center of the Earth. It is precisely this that regulates the direction of plant growth. If you extend the axis of the plants, you will reach the center of the Earth. This is the direction given to them by the soul-like quality coming from above. If we examine the soul-like quality of plants, we find that its most important characteristic is that it is permeated by forces that all strive toward the center of the Earth.

[ 9 ] The situation is different when we consider, in general, that aspect of the astral realm surrounding our Earth which belongs to the animal kingdom and which gives rise to the animal realm. What constitutes plant soul-ness would not, in and of itself, be capable of giving rise to animal life. For animal life to exist, it is necessary that other forces permeate the astral realm, so that the occult researcher, when remaining solely in the astral realm, can distinguish whether a particular astral substance will give rise to plant growth or animal growth. This distinction can be made in the astral sphere. For everything that exhibits only forces tending toward the center of the Earth or another planet will give rise to plant growth. If, on the other hand, forces arise that, while perpendicular to this center, move with extraordinary agility in every direction around the entire planet in continuous circular motions, then this is a different kind of substance that gives rise to animal life. At every point where you make observations, you will find that the Earth is surrounded in every position, direction, and altitude by currents which, if their direction is extended, form circles that encircle the Earth. This astral nature is quite compatible with the plant astral nature. Both interpenetrate one another and yet are internally distinct. They differ, however, in their inner properties. Thus, both types of astral energy can certainly flow intermingled at one and the same point on the Earth’s surface. There, when the clairvoyant examines a specific part of space, he finds forces that converge only toward the center of the Earth; these are interwoven with other forces that are purely circular, and the clairvoyant then knows: these contain the cause of animal life.

[ 10 ] I have already emphasized here and there that the astral realm is governed by entirely different laws—including different laws of space—than the physical realm. If tomorrow we can lay out some thoughts on the four-dimensional concept of space, you will be able to understand even better some of what I am now sharing with you based on occult facts. Today, drawing on these occult facts, we want to bring to our attention just one more peculiarity of this animal astral realm.

[ 11 ] If you have a physical body—whether that of a plant or an animal—you must regard it as a spatially distinct entity, and you no longer have the right, so to speak, to consider anything that is spatially separated from it as part of that particular body. Where spatial separation exists, you will have to speak of different bodies. Only when a spatial connection also exists can you speak of a single body. This is not the case in the astral world, especially not in the part of it that gives rise to the animal kingdom. There, astral forms that actually live apart from one another can constitute a single whole. There may be one astral entity in one part of space, and in a completely different part of space there may be another astral entity that is, in turn, spatially self-contained. It may, however, be the case that these two astral entities—which are not connected by even the slightest spatial distance—nevertheless constitute a single being. Yes, three, four, or five such spatially separate formations can be connected. And the following can even occur: Suppose you have such an astral being that has not incarnated physically in any way; then you may find another formation that belongs to it. Now observe one of these forms and notice that something is happening within it—which you describe as the intake of certain substances and the excretion of others—as if it were consuming something. And while you perceive this in one entity, you may notice that in another astral entity, spatially separate from it, other processes are taking place that correspond exactly to what is happening in the first one as the intake of food. On the one hand, the being eats; on the other hand, it experiences the taste. And although there is no spatial connection, the process in one entity corresponds exactly to the process in the other entity. Thus, astral entities that are spatially quite separate can nevertheless be intrinsically connected. Indeed, it happens that a hundred astral forms widely separated from one another are so interdependent that no process can occur without it also taking place in the other forms in the corresponding manner. When these beings then find their embodiment in the physical realm, you can still detect echoes of this astral peculiarity in the physical world. You will have heard, for example, that twins exhibit a remarkable parallelism. This stems from the fact that, while they are spatially separated in their physical bodies, they have remained related in their astral bodies. And when something happens in the astral body of one, it cannot occur in isolation but also manifests itself in the astral body of the other. Even where it appears as plant astraality, the astral realm exhibits this characteristic of interdependence between things that are spatially quite separate from one another. Thus, with regard to the plant kingdom, you will already have heard of the peculiarity that wine in barrels exhibits a most remarkable process when the wine season returns. Then what causes the ripening of the new grapes makes itself felt once again, even in the wine barrels.

[ 12 ] I simply wanted to point out that in the process of revelation, something of the hidden is always revealed—something that can be brought to light through the methods of occult research. From this, you will see that it does not seem at all unnatural that our entire organism is astral in composition, consisting of elements that are quite distinct from one another.

[ 13 ] There are peculiar marine formations that will make sense to you if you take as a given what we have now briefly discussed regarding the mysteries of the astral world. In the astral realm, it is by no means the case that the astral forces responsible for nutrition must be connected to those that govern movement or reproduction. When the clairvoyant researcher explores the astral space for such formations that give rise to animal life, he discovers something very remarkable. He finds a certain astral substance about which he must conclude: When it is at work within an animal body, the forces active within it make it particularly suited to transforming the physical body in such a way that it becomes an organ of nutrition. Now there may be entirely different astral constituents elsewhere, which, when they sink into a body, do not form organs of ingestion but rather organs of movement or perception. You can imagine it this way: If, on the one hand, you have an apparatus for ingesting food, on the other hand you have an apparatus for moving your hands and feet. Thus, forces from the astral world have descended into you, but these forces can flow together from very different directions. One astral force has given you one thing, another has given you another, and they come together in your physical body because your physical body must be a spatially coherent physical entity. This depends on the laws of the physical world. The various masses of force that come together from outside must form a unified whole there. They do not form a unified whole right from the start. We can actually observe the effects on the physical world of what we have just understood as a result of occult research in the astral realm.

[ 14 ] There are certain animals, the siphonophores, that lead a very peculiar existence as marine creatures. We see in them something like a communal trunk, which is a kind of hollow tube. At the top of this, a structure forms that has no other function than to fill with air and then empty again; and this process causes the entire structure to stand upright. If this bell-shaped structure were not there, the whole organism attached to it would not be able to remain upright. It is, therefore, a kind of balancing mechanism that provides stability to the whole organism. This might not seem particularly remarkable to us. But it becomes remarkable when we realize that the structure up there, which provides balance to the entire organism, cannot survive without nourishment. It is an animal, and animals must feed themselves. However, it lacks the means to do so because it has no tools for taking in food. So that this structure can now feed itself, there are certain outgrowths—distributed at various points along this tube—that are simply genuine polyps. They would constantly topple over and be unable to maintain their balance if they were not attached to a common stem. But now they can take in nourishment from the outside. They pass this food to the entire tube through which they extend, and in this way the air-balancing organism is also nourished. Thus, on the one hand, there is an organism that can only maintain balance, and on the other, an organism that can nourish the whole structure. Now we have a structure in which, however, food intake can be quite problematic: Once the food is ingested, there is nothing left. The animal must seek out other places where it can find new food. To do this, it must have organs of movement. This, too, is provided for; for there are other structures attached to this tube that can do something else—they cannot maintain balance or provide nourishment, but they do possess certain muscular structures within them. These structures can contract, thereby expelling water and creating a counter-thrust in the water, so that when the water is expelled, the entire structure is propelled in the opposite direction. This enables it to capture other animals for food. The medusae move forward precisely by expelling water and thereby creating a counterforce. Such medusae, which are, so to speak, true locomotive structures, have now also developed there.

[ 15 ] So here you have a conglomerate of various animal forms: one type that merely maintains balance, another that merely provides nourishment, and then other beings that facilitate movement. Such a being, however, if it existed on its own, would perish completely; it could not reproduce. But provision has been made for this as well. Once again, spherical structures grow in other parts of the tube, which have no other function than reproduction. Inside these organisms, in a hollow cavity, both male and female reproductive cells develop, which fertilize each other internally; and through this process, organisms of their own kind are produced. Thus, the process of reproduction in these organisms is also distributed among very specific structures that are incapable of performing any other function.

[ 16 ] You will also find certain outgrowths on this tube, on this common stem: these are other organisms in which everything has atrophied. They exist solely to provide some protection for what lies beneath them. Certain structures have sacrificed themselves, giving up everything else to become mere cover polyps. Now there are also certain long filaments to be noted, called tentacles, which are in turn modified organs. They lack all the capabilities of the other structures, but when the animal is attacked by any hostile creature, they ward off the attack. These are defensive organs. And there is yet another type of organ, called tentacles. These are fine, movable, and very sensitive organs of touch and sensation—a kind of sensory organ. The sense of touch, which in humans is distributed throughout the entire body, is present here in a specialized appendage.

[ 17 ] Such a siphonophore—that is the name of this animal you see swimming about in the water—what is it to one who can view things through the eyes of an occultist? Here, the most diverse forms have converged astralically: forms of nutrition, movement, reproduction, and so on. And because these various qualities of astral substance sought to embody themselves physically, they had to thread themselves onto a common substance. Thus, you see here a being that, in a most remarkable way, foreshadows us humans. Imagine all the organs that appear here as independent beings, in inner contact with one another, fused together—then you have the human being, and also the higher animals, in physical terms. There you see how tangibly the facts of the physical world confirm what clairvoyant research reveals to you: that within the human being, too, the most diverse astral forces converge, which he then holds together through his “I,” and which, when they no longer interact, cause the human being to drift apart as a being who no longer feels himself to be a unity.

[ 18 ] The Gospel speaks of this: a certain number of demonic entities, having gathered together, are inside a person, forming a unity. You will recall that in certain abnormal life situations—in cases of illness of the soul—a person loses their inner coherence. There are certain cases of insanity in which a person can no longer hold onto their “I” and becomes aware that their being is being divided into various entities; they confuse themselves with the original partial entities that have converged within them.

[ 19 ] There is a certain occult principle that states: Essentially, everything that exists in the spiritual world eventually reveals itself somewhere in the outer world. Thus, you can see the structure of the human astral body physically embodied in such a siphonophore. Through a peephole, the occult world peers into the physical world. If human beings, with their physical embodiment, had not been able to wait until they could attain sufficient physical density, they would be—not physically, but spiritually—beings composed of such disparate parts. Size has nothing to do with it. Such a being, which belongs to the phylum of coelenterates—a creature that every natural history textbook today describes so beautifully and which, in a certain sense, holds a kind of fascination for the natural scientist—becomes inwardly comprehensible to us when we can understand it from the occult foundations of animal astral nature. This is one such example. You can calmly listen to those who speak a completely different language and claim that physical research contradicts what anthroposophy proclaims; for to that you can reply: If one truly takes the time patiently to bring things into harmony, then harmony will reveal itself even in the most complex matters. The idea people usually have of evolution is, for the most part, a very simple one. But evolution has by no means taken place in such a simple manner.

[ 20 ] In closing, I would like to raise a kind of problem that is intended to serve as an exercise; and we will attempt to solve precisely such a problem from an occult perspective. We have seen an important occult truth externally documented in a relatively lower animal. Let us now move on to a somewhat higher animal genus—for example, fish—which can present us with even more mysteries. I will highlight only a few characteristics for you.

[ 21 ] Time and again, as you watch the fish in the aquariums, you will be able to admire the marvelous life of the water. But do not think that any occult insight will disturb these observations. When you shed light on them with the findings of occult research and see what other occult beings are swarming about there, shaping these animals exactly as they are, such understanding will not diminish your admiration—it will only increase it. But let’s take an ordinary fish. It already presents us with quite formidable mysteries. The average fish, for one thing, has strange stripes running along its sides, which also give the scales a different shape. They run along both sides like two longitudinal lines. If you were to remove these longitudinal lines from the fish, it would go haywire. For then it would have lost the ability to detect pressure differences in the water—to determine where the water provides more buoyancy and where less, where it is less dense and where it is denser. The fish would then no longer be able to move in response to pressure differences in the water. The water has varying densities at different points, so different pressures are exerted. The fish moves differently near the water’s surface than it does at the bottom. The fish perceives the various pressure conditions and all the movements caused by the water’s motion through these lateral lines. But the individual points along these lateral lines are connected—via delicate organs, which you can also find described in any natural history text—to the fish’s very primitive auditory organ. And the way the fish perceives the movements and the inner life of the water in this manner is very similar to how humans perceive air pressure. Only, at first, the pressure conditions exert their influence on the lateral lines, and this is transmitted to the auditory organ. The fish hears this. But the matter is even more complicated. Fish have a swim bladder. This serves, first and foremost, to allow them to utilize the pressure conditions of the water and to move precisely under certain pressure conditions. The pressure exerted on the swim bladder enables the fish, first of all, to swim. But because the various movements and vibrations affect the swim bladder and cause it to act like a membrane, this in turn affects the auditory organ, and with the help of the auditory organ, the fish orients itself in all its movements. The swim bladder is thus, in fact, a kind of membrane that is stretched out and begins to vibrate, which the fish hears. Where the fish’s head ends at the back, it has gills, which enable it to use the air in the water to breathe.

[ 22 ] If you follow all these concepts in standard biological theories of evolution, you’ll actually always find evolution depicted in a rather primitive way. The thinking goes: The fish’s head develops into something more advanced, and then the head of a more highly organized animal emerges; the fin develops into something more advanced, and then the locomotive organs of higher animals emerge, and so on. But the matter is not that simple when one observes the processes with spiritual insight. For a spiritual entity that has incarnated as a fish to develop further, something much more complex must take place. Many of the organs must be turned inside out and transformed. The very forces at work in the fish’s swim bladder contain within themselves—as it were, like a maternal substance—the forces that humans possess in their lungs. Yet these forces themselves are not lost either. Small fragments remain, but they are turned inside out; everything material that belongs to them perishes, and they then form the human eardrum. In fact, the eardrum—as an organ that protrudes very far in spatial terms in the human body—is a fragment of that membrane; the forces that once operated in the fish’s swim bladder are at work within it. And furthermore: The gills transform into the ossicles of the ear, at least in part, so that in the human auditory organ, for example, you have gills that have been transformed. Now you can see that it is roughly as if the fish’s swim bladder had been turned inside out right over the gills. That is why, in humans, the eardrum is on the outside and the auditory organs are on the inside. What is located entirely on the outside in the fish—the peculiar longitudinal lines through which the fish orients itself—forms, in humans, the three semicircular canals through which humans maintain their balance. If you were to destroy these three semicircular canals, a person would become unsteady and would no longer be able to maintain their balance.

[ 23 ] So you do not have a simple process from natural history, but rather a remarkable astral process in which things are constantly being turned inside out. Imagine this: You have covered this hand with a glove, but inside there are structures that are elastic. If you now turn it inside out, it will become a very small structure; the organs that were on the outside will become small and tiny, and the organs that were on the inside will form a wide surface. Only then can we understand this development—when we know that, in the most mysterious way, such a turning inside out takes place within the astral realm, and how the progression of the physical world arises from there.