The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Twelfth Lecture

[ 1 ] We have now reached an important point in our discussion—a climax, so to speak. It goes without saying that we must overcome all sorts of difficult passages in the explanation of the Gospels. Therefore, at the beginning of today’s discussion—before we continue where we left off yesterday—I would like to provide a brief overview of what was said yesterday regarding the fundamental principles.

[ 2 ] We know, of course, that human development in ancient times took a form that was fundamentally different from what it is today. And we know that the concept of “human” takes on a different form the further back we look at earlier stages of human history. We have already touched upon the fact that we can go back from our own time—which we might call the Central European cultural era—to the Greco-Latin era; that we can go even further back to the Egyptian-Chaldean era, and then to the time when the ancient Persian people were led by Zarathustra. Then, in that ancient past, we arrive at the Indian culture, which was very different from our own, and with that we enter a period of cultural development that followed a great, mighty catastrophe. And this catastrophe, which unfolded through stormy events in the elements of air and water, led to the disappearance of the land that humanity had inhabited before the Indian culture—ancient Atlantis, which was situated between Europe, Africa, and America, disappeared; people migrated westward and eastward, settling in America on one side and, on the other, the lands of Europe, Asia, and Africa, which had gradually taken on their present form. This Atlantean era witnessed a humanity that, in terms of the soul—especially in earlier times—was quite different from today’s humanity. And what interests us first and foremost is the spiritual aspect of human development, for we know that everything physical is a consequence of spiritual and mental development. What, then, was the life of the soul like in the ancient Atlantean era?

[ 3 ] We know that during the Atlantean epoch, human beings had a very different consciousness than they did later; that in a certain sense, they possessed an ancient form of clairvoyance at that time, but did not yet have the ability to develop a clearly defined self-consciousness, an “I”-consciousness. For this sense of “I” is attained only by learning to distinguish oneself from external objects. At that time, however, human beings could not fully distinguish themselves from external objects. Let us imagine for a moment how things would unfold in our present age if, under today’s circumstances, human beings were unable to distinguish themselves from their surroundings.

[ 4 ] People today ask—let us take a moment to consider this in broad terms—: Where is the boundary of my being? And from their present standpoint, they say, with some justification: The boundary of my human being lies where my skin separates me from the outside world. — People believe that only what lies within their skin belongs to them, and that everything else consists of external objects that stand in opposition to them, from which they are distinct. They say this because they know that they are no longer—and cannot be—a whole person if a part of what lies within their skin is taken away. That he is no longer a whole human being if a piece of flesh is cut from him is, from a certain point of view, a correct statement. But we also know that with every breath, a person inhales air. And if we ask, “Where is this air?”—we must say: It is all around us; it is everywhere our surroundings meet us; there is the air that will be inside us in the next moment. Now it is outside; in the next moment, it will be inside us. — Cut off this air, remove this air, and you can no longer live! You are less of a whole person than if a hand were cut off that lies within your skin!

[ 5 ] Strictly speaking, then, we should say: It’s not true at all that our boundary lies where our skin ends! The air that surrounds us is part of us—it constantly flows in and out, and we must not set the arbitrary boundary that our skin represents. —If a person wanted to make this clear to themselves—and they would have to do so theoretically, since perception does not provide this insight—then they would have to reflect on what is not imposed on them by the external world itself. The moment a person could see at any time the stream of air flowing into them, how it spreads within them, changes within them, and leaves them again—if this were before their eyes at every moment—it would never occur to them to say: “This hand belongs to me more than the stream of air that enters me.” He would count the air as part of himself, and he would regard himself as someone suffering from hallucinations if he were to say to himself: “I am an independent entity that could exist even without my surroundings.”

[ 6 ] The Atlantean could not succumb to this illusion, for his observations clearly showed him something else: He did not see the objects around him with distinct outlines, but rather saw them surrounded by colored auras. He did not see a plant as we see it, but rather, much like we see streetlights on a foggy autumn evening, he saw everything as if surrounded by a large colored aura. This was because between all things in the outer world there is spirit—spiritual beings—which he was still able to perceive with his then-dull clairvoyance. Just as fog lies between the streetlights, so too are spiritual beings present everywhere in space. The Atlantean saw these spiritual beings just as you see the fog. Therefore, the spiritual beings formed for him something like a foggy aura that lay over the external objects. The external objects themselves were unclear to him. But because he saw the spirit, he also saw everything spiritual that flowed in and out of him. In doing so, however, he also saw himself as a part of his entire environment. He saw currents flowing into his body everywhere—currents that you cannot see today. The air is, after all, the coarsest; much finer currents flow into human beings. Human beings have forgotten how to perceive the spiritual because they no longer possess the ancient, twilight-like clairvoyance. The people of Atlantis saw the spiritual currents flowing in and out, just as your finger—if it were conscious—would see the blood flowing in and out, and would realize that it would wither away if you were to tear it off. Just as the finger would feel, so did the Atlantean feel himself to be a limb of an organism. He felt: Here the currents are flowing in through my eyes and my ears and so on. And if I were to force myself out of them, I could no longer be a human being. — He felt himself poured out into the entire outer world. Human beings perceived the spiritual world, but they could not distinguish themselves from it; they lacked the strong sense of self, the self-consciousness in the modern sense. It became possible for them to develop this when that which had presented their dependence on the external world to their inner eye withdrew from their observation. Because this had become invisible, the possibility arose for them to develop self-consciousness and a sense of self.

[ 7 ] This was the task of humanity in the post-Atlantean era: to develop self-awareness and a sense of the “I.” After the great Atlantean catastrophe, the peoples of the post-Atlantean era were organized in such a way that the spiritual world withdrew from their consciousness, and they gradually learned to perceive the external, physical-sensory world with ever greater clarity and distinctness. But everything that develops in the world does not happen all at once, but rather step by step; it unfolds slowly and gradually. And so the old, twilight-like clairvoyance has also been lost slowly and gradually. Indeed, it still exists today in certain people who have inherited it as an ancestral trait, and in mediumistic individuals under certain conditions. Slowly and gradually, that which reached its peak at a certain time fades away. |

[ 8 ] In the earliest times of the post-Atlantean era, ordinary people still possessed a great deal of the gift of clairvoyance. And what these people saw in the spiritual world was constantly supplemented, expanded, and inspired by the initiates, who were guided into the spiritual world through special methods, as described to you, and thus became messengers of what all people had once seen in a certain way. The legends and myths preserve for us what is true of ancient times better than any external historical research—above all, all those legends and myths connected to the oracle sites. It was the case that certain individuals were guided into unusual states—as one might say: into a dream state, a mediumistic state—by being brought into a state of consciousness that was more subdued and darker than the usual bright state of daylight. They were in a diminished state of consciousness in which, although they were physically present among the objects of the external world, they did not actually see them. Nor was this the old state of clairvoyance, but rather an intermediate state, half dreamlike, half clairvoyant in nature. If one wished to know something about certain aspects of the world—such as how to behave in this or that matter—one would consult the oracles, that is, places where ancient, twilight-like states of clairvoyance persisted as a legacy of the old ways.

[ 9 ] Thus, at the beginning of human evolution, wisdom was bestowed upon humankind. Wisdom flowed into them. But that wisdom gradually dried up. And even the initiates, in their own abnormal state—for they had to be guided into the spiritual world by lifting their etheric bodies—even they were gradually able to make only uncertain observations in the spiritual world. This, however, had led those who were not only initiated in the old sense but who kept pace with their times—who were at the same time prophets of the future—to the realization that a new impulse was necessary for humanity. An ancient treasure of wisdom had been bestowed upon humanity when it descended from divine-spiritual heights; but it has grown darker and darker. In the past, all people possessed it; then only a few who were led into special states through the oracles; and finally, only the initiates.

[ 10 ] There must come a time—so said the initiates, who knew the signs of the times—when this ancient store of wisdom will have dried up so completely within humanity that this wisdom can no longer guide and direct people. But then humanity would fall into uncertainty in the world. This would be expressed in their will, in their actions, and in their feelings. And as wisdom gradually faded away, people would lead themselves unwisely. Their ego would grow more and more, so that when wisdom withdrew, each person would begin to seek the truth within their own ego, to develop their own feelings, to develop their own will—each on their own—and people would become more and more separated, increasingly alien to one another, and they would understand one another less and less. Because each person wants to have his own thoughts, which do not flow to him from the unified wisdom, one person cannot understand the thoughts of another. And because his feelings are not guided by the unified wisdom, it will come to pass that people’s feelings will clash. And the same would be true of their actions. People would all act, think, and feel in opposition to one another, and humanity would ultimately be fragmented into nothing but individuals in constant conflict with one another.

[ 11 ] And what was the outward, physical sign that appeared to us as the expression of this development? It was the change that humanity experienced in its blood. In ancient times, as we know, marriages were confined to close relatives. People married only within their own blood-related tribe. But more and more, marriages between distant relatives replaced close-kin marriages. Foreign blood mingled with foreign blood, and that is why the hereditary traits of ancient times became fewer and fewer. Let us recall once more Goethe’s words, which we quoted yesterday:

“From my father I inherited my stature,
A serious approach to life,
From my dear mother, a cheerful disposition
And a love of storytelling.”

[ 12 ] Yesterday we attributed this to the fact that what is present in the human etheric body derives from the maternal element, as it is inherited from generation to generation, so that every human being carries the legacy of the maternal element in their own etheric body, just as they carry the legacy of the paternal element in their physical body. Since there was blood kinship, the inheritance that continues from etheric body to etheric body was a powerful one, and the ancient ability of clairvoyance depended on this inheritance. People who were descended from close marriages inherited the ancient wisdom through their blood—through the related blood in their etheric bodies. But as the blood became increasingly mixed—as more and more foreign tribes intermarried in distant marriages—the possibility of passing on the ancient wisdom also diminished. For, as we said yesterday, human blood changed; through this mixing of blood, it became such that people increasingly obscured the ancient wisdom. In other words: The blood—the carrier of inherited maternal traits—became less and less capable of passing on the ancient gift of clairvoyance. The blood evolved in such a way that people became increasingly unable to glimpse into the spiritual world. Physically, then, we must say: Human blood evolved in such a way that it became less and less capable of carrying the ancient wisdom that safely guided humanity, and increasingly fell into the other extreme of becoming the bearer of egoism—that is, of what sets people against one another and apart from one another as “I’s.” And with that, it also became less and less capable of bringing people together in love.

[ 13 ] We are, of course, still in the midst of this process of the deterioration of human blood. For this process—insofar as this deterioration of the blood stems from ancient times—is slowly running its course until the end of the Earth’s age. Therefore, an impulse had to come into humanity that was capable of restoring what had been corrupted through the blood. With regard to their blood ties, people would be led into error and misery. This is what the ancient sages tell us through their legends and myths. People could no longer rely on what had been bequeathed to them as a legacy of ancient wisdom: Even if you send for the oracle and ask, “What is to happen?”—the oracle will say only such things as will lead you all the more into the wildest strife and discord. —For example, the oracle predicted that Laius and Jocasta would have a son who would kill his father and marry his mother. But even so, despite the existence of this legacy of ancient wisdom—the wisdom of the oracles—it could no longer be prevented in those days that more and more blood was shed as a result of error: Oedipus does indeed kill his father and marry his mother, committing patricide and incest.

[ 14 ] The old sage meant to say: People once possessed wisdom. But even if it had been preserved, people would still have had to continue developing their “I,” and selfishness would have grown so strong that blood would have raged against blood. Blood is no longer capable of leading people to higher realms if guided solely by the ancient wisdom. —Thus, the one who, as a clairvoyant initiate, had presented the original image of the Oedipus legend, sought to set forth a warning before humanity and say: “This is what would become of you one day if nothing else were to come but the ancient oracular wisdom!” —And in the Judas legend, it is preserved even more clearly for us what would have become of the ancient oracular wisdom. Judas’s mother, too, was foretold that her son would kill his father and marry his mother, thereby bringing unspeakable misery upon them. And yet it all came to pass! This means that the ancient inherited wisdom is incapable of protecting humanity from the fate into which it must fall unless a new impulse reaches humanity.

[ 15 ] Now let us ask ourselves the more specific reasons why this came to pass. Let us ask: Why did ancient wisdom gradually become unsuitable for guiding humanity? We can find an answer to this question by taking a closer look at the origins of ancient wisdom as it relates to humanity.

[ 16 ] I have already indicated to you that during the ancient Atlantean era, the relationship between the human physical body and the human etheric body was quite different from what it was later. Of the four members of human nature, it is true today that the physical body and the etheric body are connected in such a way that they roughly coincide, and this is especially the case with the head region of the human being. But this is true only for the present day. If we go back to the Atlantean era, we find a relationship such that the human etheric body extended far beyond the physical body in every direction, particularly with regard to the head. In the Atlantean era, the human etheric body—especially in relation to the head—extended far beyond the physical body. Now, the course of Atlantean development was such that the etheric body increasingly came to coincide with the physical body, particularly in relation to the head. The etheric body is drawing further and further into the physical body, and this naturally alters this aspect of the human being as well. So this is the essential point regarding this aspect of human evolution: that the etheric part of the human head is drawing further and further into the physical part of the head, and that the two come to coincide. Now, as long as the etheric body was outside the physical head, it was in a completely different state than it was later. It was connected on all sides by currents to other spiritual beings; and what flowed in and out there gave this human etheric body the ability to see clearly during the Atlantean era. So this ability to see clearly stems from the fact that the etheric body was not yet fully within the physical body as far as the head was concerned, and that currents flowed into the head from all sides, giving this etheric body the ability to see clearly.

[ 17 ] Now came the time when the etheric body drew itself into the physical body. Then the etheric body broke away—in a certain sense, though not entirely—from these currents. It thus began to cut itself off from the inflows that had given it the ability to see clearly into the wisdom of the world. Conversely, when someone was initiated in ancient times and their etheric body was lifted out, their etheric head was once again connected to the surrounding currents, and through this they regained their clairvoyance. If, however, it had happened all at once around the middle of the Atlantean epoch that the etheric body had suddenly been completely cut off from contact with the outside world, then human beings would have lost all their ancient clairvoyance much more quickly. In that case, no remnants of this ancient clairvoyance would have remained for the post-Atlantean epoch, and human beings would have entered the later era without any memory of clairvoyance. However, in a certain sense, human beings remained connected to the outer currents, and something else occurred as well. This etheric body of the human being, which had torn itself away from the currents of its surroundings, retained within itself remnants of the old capacity for wisdom. Now you will surely realize: At the end of the Atlantean era, after human beings had taken their etheric bodies into themselves, there was still a reserve within this etheric body—a remnant of what the etheric body had once possessed externally—a “savings penny,” if I may put it that way. It is like a son having a father. The father earns a living, and the son continually receives this or that from his father as he needs it. In the same way, human beings drew wisdom from their surroundings—as much as they needed—until their etheric bodies were separated from the physical world. But now let us suppose, to stay with our analogy: The son loses his father; only a certain portion remains to him, and the son earns nothing additional; then he will eventually run out of it and have nothing left. This was the situation of humankind. It had severed itself from its fatherly wisdom, had not added anything to it, and had lived off it right into the Christian era. Indeed, even into our own time, he still lives off what he has inherited, not what he has acquired. He lives, so to speak, off the principal. In the earliest times of post-Atlantean development, humanity still had some of this principal, though without having worked out the wisdom itself; it lived, so to speak, off the interest and sometimes received a supplement from the initiates. But eventually, the currency of ancient wisdom became obsolete. And when this ancient currency was paid out to Oedipus, it was no longer valid. This ancient wisdom did not protect him from the most terrible error, nor did it protect Judas from it.

[ 18 ] This is how far the course of human development had progressed. How did it actually come about that human beings gradually depleted their store of wisdom? It came about because they had already taken in two kinds of spiritual beings: first the Luciferic beings, and then, as a consequence of the Luciferic beings, the Ahrimanic or Mephistophelean beings. These prevented him from gaining anything in addition to the ancient wisdom. For they worked within his being in the following ways: the Luciferic beings corrupted the passions and the feelings; the Ahrimanic and Mephistophelean beings corrupted, externally, our view of the world and our perception of it. Had the Luciferic beings not intervened in the Earth’s evolution, human beings would not have developed an interest in the physical world that drags them down below their proper station. Had the Mephistophelean, Ahrimanic, or Satanic beings not intervened as a consequence of the Luciferic beings, human beings would know—and would always have known—that: Behind every external sensory object lies something spiritual. And he would be able to see through the surface of the external sensory world to the spiritual. But Ahriman has mingled something like a dark smoke into his perception, and so human beings cannot see through to the spiritual. Through Ahriman, human beings are entangled in falsehood; through this, they are entangled in Maya, in illusion. These two kinds of beings prevent them from adding anything to the ancient treasure of wisdom that human beings once received. And so it dried up and gradually lost its usefulness entirely.

[ 19 ] But in a certain other respect, evolution continues to follow its course. During the Atlantean epoch, the human being was submerged, with the etheric body within the physical body. This was, so to speak, his misfortune—since he was, in a certain sense, forsaken by God—that he experienced the influences of Lucifer and Ahriman right there in this physical world, within the physical body. It was his downfall. And the consequence of this was that, precisely through the influence of the physical body—through life in the physical body—the ancient wisdom became unusable. How did this happen? In the past, human beings did not live in a physical body. They drew wisdom, so to speak, from their father’s storehouse—the ancient treasures of wisdom—meaning they had their storehouse outside their physical body, because they were present outside it with their etheric body. This storehouse gradually dried up. Human beings would have had to have a store within their own bodies in order to increase their store of wisdom. But they did not have one. And so it came to pass that, because human beings had no source within their own bodies for the renewal of wisdom, every time they emerged from their physical bodies after death, there was less wisdom within their etheric bodies. Every time after death, after every incarnation, there was less wisdom in his etheric body. The etheric body became ever poorer in wisdom.

[ 20 ] But the course of evolution continues, and just as human beings once evolved during the Atlantean era in such a way that their etheric body became immersed in their physical body, so too, as we move into the future, evolution is unfolding in such a way that human beings are gradually emerging once again from their physical bodies. Whereas the etheric body had previously been drawn inward—and had continued to move even further inward until the appearance of the Christ—the time has now come when the course of evolution has changed. At the very moment the Christ appeared, the etheric body began to emerge once more, and today it is already less closely connected to the physical body than it was during the time of the Christ’s presence. As a result, the physical body has become even coarser.

[ 21 ] Humanity is thus moving toward a future in which its etheric body will become increasingly prominent, and it will gradually reach a point again where its etheric body is just as far out as it was during the Atlantean era. We will be able to take our comparison a step further.

[ 22 ] If the son, who used to live off his father’s money, spends everything and acquires nothing, his situation will become increasingly bleak. But if he also has a son—that is, a grandson—this grandson will not be in the same situation as his father. The father at least inherited something and was always able to continue spending. The grandson, however, has nothing left; he inherits nothing either; he is left with nothing at first. In a certain sense, this was the course of human development. When the etheric body entered and took with it the sum of divine wisdom from the treasuries of the Deity, it also brought wisdom to the physical body. But within the physical body, the Luciferic and Ahrimanic spirits prevented that wisdom from increasing or anything from being added to it. When the etheric body now withdraws, it takes nothing with it from the physical body. And the consequence would be—if nothing else had intervened—that humanity would be heading toward a future in which, although the etheric body belongs to the human being, it would possess no wisdom whatsoever, no knowledge at all. And while the physical body withers away completely, the etheric body would also have nothing, for it cannot gain anything from the withering physical body. So if the physical body is not to wither away in that future, then the etheric body must be given strength—the strength of wisdom. This etheric body, as it emerges from the physical body, must have received the power of wisdom while still within the physical body. There, inside, it must have received something that it carries with it as it leaves. Once it is outside, having received this wisdom, it then acts back upon the physical body, giving it life and preventing it from withering away.

[ 23 ] There are two possibilities for the development of humanity. One possibility is this:

[ 24 ] Human beings develop without Christ. In this case, the etheric body could not bring anything with it from the physical body, for it has received nothing there; it emerges empty. But since the etheric body has nothing, it cannot enliven the physical body; it cannot protect it from wear and tear or from withering away. Human beings would gradually lose all the fruits of physical life; the physical body could offer them nothing, and they would have to leave the physical body behind. Yet human beings have come to Earth precisely to receive a physical body in addition to the predispositions they had previously. The predisposition for the physical body came earlier. But without the formation of the physical body, human beings would never fulfill their earthly mission. Now the influences of Lucifer and Ahriman have come to Earth. If human beings gain nothing in their physical bodies, if their etheric bodies leave the physical body again without being able to take anything new with them—and if, on top of that, they have even exhausted the old store of wisdom—then the Earth mission is lost. Then the Earth’s mission is lost to the universe. Humanity would carry nothing into the future. It would bring back the empty etheric skull that it had brought into Earth’s evolution already filled!

[ 25 ] But let us now suppose that something were to happen at just the right moment, whereby, as the human being draws his etheric body out of the physical body once more, he would be able to give something to that etheric body, to revive it, to imbue it once more with wisdom. Then, as the future unfolds, the etheric body would also move outward, but it would now possess new life, new strength. It could then use this to revitalize the physical body. It could now send strength and life back into the physical body. But it would first have to possess it itself; it would first have to receive strength and life itself. But if it can receive strength and life, then the human being’s earthly fruit is saved. Then the physical body does not merely decay; rather, the physical body—the perishable—takes on the form of the etheric body, the imperishable! And the human being’s resurrection, together with the achievements within the physical body, is saved.

[ 26 ] An impulse, then, had to come to Earth through which the reserves of ancient wisdom that had been exhausted could be renewed, thereby instilling new life into the etheric body, so that the physical body—which would otherwise be destined to decay—could attract the imperishable and be filled with an etheric body that renders it imperishable, rescuing it from the course of Earth’s evolution. But this—this life infused into the etheric body—is what Christ brought. It is therefore connected with Christ that what would otherwise be doomed to death—the human physical body—is transformed, preserved from decay, and given the ability to attract the imperishable. The Christ impulse has poured life into the human etheric body—new life, after the old life had been exhausted! And when a person looks into the future, they must say to themselves: When my etheric body is one day separated from my physical body, I will have to have developed to such an extent that my etheric body is completely permeated by the Christ. The Christ must live within me. In the course of my earthly development, I must gradually allow the Christ to permeate my entire etheric body!

[ 27 ] What I have just described to you are the deeper processes that are hidden from the outward eye. They are the spiritual forces behind the physical development of the world. But what must the outward form have been?

[ 28 ] What, then, was it that entered the physical body through the Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings? What had entered the physical body was the predisposition toward decay, the predisposition toward dissolution—in other words, the predisposition toward death. The seed of death had entered the physical body. This seed of death would not have fully manifested itself until the end of Earth’s evolution, had Christ not come. For then the etheric body would have been incapable, for all time to come, of reviving the human being. And when Earth’s evolution were complete, everything that had come into being as a physical human body would fall prey to decay, and the Earth mission itself would succumb to death. Whenever we behold death today, this present death is a symbol of what would stand as universal death at the end of Earth’s evolution. Only slowly and gradually does that which was once bestowed upon humanity dry up. The fact that human beings are born again and again, able to pass from one incarnation to the next, has become possible only because humanity was endowed with a reserve of life. As for purely external life in successive incarnations, all possibility of life would indeed cease only at the end of Earth’s evolution. But little by little it would already become apparent that human beings are dying off. This would take place slowly, part by part, and the physical body would wither away more and more. Had the Christ impulse not come, human beings would have died off piece by piece toward the end of Earth’s evolution. Now the Christ impulse is only at the beginning of its development. It will only gradually take root in humanity, and what the Christ will be for humanity will only be fully revealed in times to come—right up to the end of Earth’s evolution.

[ 29 ] But the various human activities and things have not been touched by the Christ impulse in the same way. There are many things today that have not been touched by the Christ impulse at all, things that will have to be touched by the Christ impulse only in the future. I would like to give you a striking example of how, in our time, there is an entire field of human activity that has not yet been touched by the Christ impulse.

[ 30 ] As the pre-Christian era drew to a close, around the seventh or sixth century B.C., ancient wisdom and ancient power began to wane in the realm of human knowledge. With regard to other aspects of life, it retained a youthful, fresh vitality for a long time, but particularly in the realm of knowledge, it was running out. From the eighth, seventh, and sixth centuries B.C., what remained could be described as a remnant of a remnant. If you had turned to Egyptian-Chaldean wisdom, or to ancient Persian and Indian wisdom, you would have found this wisdom permeated everywhere with genuine spiritual insights, with the findings of ancient clairvoyance. Those who were not particularly clairvoyant relied on the reports of the clairvoyants. Science without a foundation in clairvoyance did not exist and has never existed—neither in the Indian and Persian eras nor in later times. Even in the early days of Greek civilization, there was no science without underlying clairvoyant research. But then the time came when clairvoyant research dried up for human science. And now we see human science emerging for the first time from which clairvoyance has been excluded—or at least is gradually being cast out.

[ 31 ] Why is clairvoyance disappearing? Because the etheric body is already beginning to emerge again from above. The first signs are already apparent. Clairvoyance is waning, belief in the messages of clairvoyants is waning, and what can be called a human science—from which the results of spiritual research are increasingly being driven out—took root in the seventh and sixth centuries before the coming of Christ. And this process continues further and further. From Parmenides and Heraclitus, through Plato, and even up to Aristotle, you can find evidence everywhere in the writings of the natural philosophers and the ancient physicians that what we call science was originally permeated by the findings of spiritual research. But spiritual science gradually dried up, becoming less and less prevalent. It still exists in relation to our soul’s capacity; it remains present in relation to feeling and willing; but in relation to human thinking, it is gradually drying up.

[ 32 ] Thus, with regard to human thinking—and specifically scientific thinking—the influence of the etheric body on the physical body had already begun to wane when Christ appeared. Everything happens step by step, gradually. Then Christ came and provided the impulse. But of course, not everyone accepted the Christ impulse right away, and in certain fields in particular, it was not accepted. It was accepted in various fields, but it was outright rejected in the scientific fields. Just look at the science of the Roman Empire. Look into the writings of Celsus. There you can find all sorts of things he wrote about Christ. This Celsus, who was a very great scholar but understood nothing regarding the human perception of the Christ impulse, reports: There is said to have once lived in Palestine a married couple named Joseph and Mary, and the Christian sect is linked to them. But everything that is told about this is mere superstition. The truth is that this Joseph’s wife once was unfaithful to her husband with a Roman centurion named Panthera. Joseph, however, did not know who the father of her child was.

[ 33 ] This is one of the best-known stories of that era. Anyone who follows contemporary literature will know that certain people today have not yet moved beyond Celsus. Certainly, in some areas the Christ impulse is taking root only slowly, but with regard to the areas we are now discussing, it has not yet been able to take root at all. There we see one of the limbs withering away. There we see that something is withering away in the human brain, whereas, if this brain were influenced by the Christ impulse, it would revive science in an entirely different form. As strange as this may sound in our age of scientific fanaticism, it is nonetheless true: the part of the human brain that is called upon to think scientifically is succumbing to a slow death. That is why you see how, very slowly and gradually, the old legacies are disappearing from scientific thinking. We see how Aristotle still possesses a relatively large amount of it, but how, little by little, science is being squeezed out of these old legacies, and how, through the external observations it later acquires, science becomes forsaken by God in terms of thinking—how it no longer possesses anything from that old storehouse. And we see how it is possible that, no matter how strongly one experiences Christ, one can no longer find a connection between the Christ impulse and what humanity has achieved in the realm of science. There is external evidence for this.

[ 34 ] Imagine if there had been a person in the thirteenth century who had been deeply moved by the Christ impulse and who had said: “We have the Christ impulse.” Like a sum of powerful new revelations, it flows to us from the Gospel, and we can let it permeate us!”—And let us suppose that this person had set himself the task of creating a link between science and Christianity: even in the thirteenth century, he would have found nothing to support this in contemporary science! He would have had to go back as far as Aristotle. And it was only through Aristotle—not through thirteenth-century science—that he could have interpreted Christianity. Science was such that it became increasingly incapable of reconciling itself with the Christ principle. That is why the men of the thirteenth century had to go back to the Aristotle of that time. He still possessed the ancient heritage of wisdom, and he could provide the concepts through which science could be reconciled with Christianity. Then science became poorer and poorer in concepts, precisely as it grew richer in observations. And then came the time when all the concepts of ancient wisdom vanished from science.

[ 35 ] The greatest minds are, of course, also children of their time when it comes to their science. Galileo could not think from the Absolute; he could only think in the spirit of his time. Unders, on the other hand, is great precisely because he establishes thinking that is entirely divorced from God—purely mechanistic thinking. A major shift becomes evident precisely with Galileo. The most ordinary phenomenon, as explained in physics today, was described differently before Galileo than after him. For example, someone throws a stone. Today we say that, due to inertia, the stone maintains its motion until it is counteracted by another force. Before Galileo, people thought quite differently; they were convinced that, for the stone to continue moving, someone had to push it forward. There was an active force behind the flying stone. Galileo completely taught people to think differently—but in such a way that they learned to view the world as a mechanism. And today, it is virtually considered an ideal to explain the world mechanically, in a mechanistic way, and to drive all spirit out of it. This stems precisely from the fact that those parts of the human brain—the instrument of thought—which constitute the organ of scientific thought have already withered to such an extent that they can no longer breathe new life into concepts, causing these concepts to become poorer and poorer.

[ 36 ] It could easily be demonstrated that science, no matter how much it accumulates detail upon detail, has not enriched humanity with a single concept. Mind you: observations are not concepts! Do not say that things like Darwinism and the like have enriched humanity with concepts. Others have done that—not scientists, but people who drew on entirely different sources. Goethe was one such person. He enriched humanity with concepts drawn from entirely different sources. For this, however, he is regarded by scientists as a dilettante.

[ 37 ] The fact is that science has not actually been enriched with concepts. You will find concepts that are far, far more vibrant, far loftier, and more magnificent in ancient times. The concepts of Darwinism have been squeezed dry like a lemon. It has merely collected observations and linked them to these impoverished concepts. This scientific direction is something that shows us quite clearly the process of gradual withering away. There is a part of the human brain that is withering away. This is the part that is at work in science today. And the reason for this is that the part of the human etheric body that is supposed to enliven this withering brain has not yet received the Christ impulse. Until the Christ impulse also flows into this part of the human brain—which is meant to nourish science—no life will come into this science. This is rooted in the great laws of the universe. If science continues in this way, it will become ever poorer in concepts; more and more concepts will die out. And there will be more and more people in science who simply string one observation after another—and who have a hopeless fear of anyone who ever begins to think. It is a dreadful thing today for a professor when a young person brings him a doctoral dissertation that contains even a little bit of thinking.

[ 38 ] But anthroposophy already exists today! And this anthroposophy will make the Christ impulse increasingly understandable to humanity and thereby infuse the etheric body with ever more life. And it will be able to infuse so much life into it that it will even cause the withering part of the brain—which has brought about our current scientific way of thinking—to melt away. This is an example of how the Christ impulse, by gradually taking root in humanity, revives the dying members. As humanity moves toward its future, more and more members would wither away. But for every withering limb, the Christ impulse will flow into humanity, and by the end of Earth’s evolution, all the limbs that would otherwise have withered away will have been revived by the Christ impulse, which will then have permeated the entire etheric body, with which the human etheric body will then have become one. And the first impulse toward this gradual revival of humanity—the first impulse toward the resurrection of humanity—occurred at a moment beautifully described to us in the Gospel of John.

[ 39 ] Let us imagine that the Christ entered the world in a completely universal way and first accomplished the Great Deed from a completely Christ-imbued etheric body. For that is precisely what the Christ made of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth—so that this etheric body could also animate the physical body. At the very moment when the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth—in which Christ now resided—had become the full animator of the physical body, the etheric body of Christ appeared transfigured! And the author of the Gospel of John describes this moment to us:

“Father, glorify your name!” — Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there and listening said, “It thundered.”

[ 40 ] It is said that those who were standing there heard a thunderous sound. But it is never said that anyone who was not prepared for it would have heard it as well.

“But the others said, ‘An angel spoke to him.’ Jesus answered and said, ‘This voice was not for my sake, but for yours.’”

[ 41 ] Why? So that those around him would understand what had happened. And Christ speaks about what had happened:

“Now judgment is coming upon the world; now the prince of this world is going to be cast out.” (12:28–31)

[ 42 ] At this very moment, Lucifer-Ahriman has been cast out of the physical body of Christ! Here stands the great example that must be realized in the future throughout all humanity: The hindrances of Lucifer-Ahriman must be cast out of the physical body by the Christ impulse! And the human physical body must be so enlivened by the Christ impulse that the fruits of the earthly mission will be carried over into those times that will succeed the earthly ages.