The Rudolf Steiner Archive

3. Inner Evolution and Opportunities for External Development

[ 1 ] In the development of both the individual human being and humanity as a whole, we must never seek something too simple or too straightforward; otherwise, we cannot truly understand the complex processes of life as they unfold before our eyes day by day. Even when considering the individual human being, we must be clear that, so to speak, two currents of development converge. You will recall that we—as explained, for example, in the short booklet The Education of the Child from the Perspective of Spiritual Science —distinguish individual periods within a single human life: the period from physical birth until about the age of 7, extending into the time of tooth replacement; then from age 7 to about 14; and again from about 14 to 21—periods, in other words, that run roughly from seven to seven years. This division of human life into such distinct periods follows a fairly regular pattern in the first half of a normal life. This division, this structuring into seven-year periods, becomes irregular in the second, descending half of life. The reason for this is that, with regard to the first half of our lives, we are actually living out today those laws and facts that are a kind of repetition of the regular course of human development since time immemorial, whereas in the second half of our lives we are not yet living out something that has already happened in the outer world, but rather something that will only happen in the future. The second half of human life will therefore become much more regular in the future than it is today—increasingly more and more regular. But let this be said only to point out that such a regular development takes place in human life. We know that this can be expressed as follows: Until the age of seven, a human being is still in an etheric state, in an etheric sheath. In regard to their etheric body, they are, so to speak, not truly born until the age of seven. In regard to their astral body, they are born around the age of fourteen, and so on. What we are describing here is actually a current of human development; it is the more external current of development. In addition to this developmental current, there is also an inner one that, to a certain extent, proceeds independently of the outer current. The inner current encompasses all that pertains to the deeper processes, causes, and effects within our karma—those that continue from one incarnation to the next.

[ 2 ] When we say that up to the age of 7, or up to the age of 14 or 21, a person develops in a very specific way, we must be clear that this applies—more or less—to everyone on average. We can consider these rules—as set forth, for example, in the aforementioned short treatise—to be true for all human beings. These rules are true for the upbringing of a person in our time who has few talents and few abilities, but they are also true for geniuses, for all human beings, because this is a law according to which the human vehicles develop. What lies within this line of development thus applies more or less to all human beings, but it is by no means irrelevant what these individuals have experienced, for example, in their earlier incarnations. One person has experienced much that is wise, beautiful, and good. Their abilities take shape accordingly, as does their destiny; the actual inner core of the human being takes shape accordingly, and this is unique to each individual. What runs alongside the outer development as a kind of inner current of development is, in a sense, what constitutes the particular nuance of each person’s being. As a result, it can happen that—even though the general structure based on seven-year periods applies to all human beings—the mysteries of development vary from person to person. Someone may enter the world with great, wide-ranging abilities; although they will have to wait until the age of 7 for the complete formation of their physical body, and until the age of 14 for the complete development of their etheric body, what is at work within them is nevertheless quite different from that in a person who possesses fewer abilities.

[ 3 ] So two lines of development run parallel to one another, and from this we can now also see how, so to speak, certain ambivalent states of mind can arise in human beings. With regard to external development, one cannot help but think—and this is entirely in line with Spiritual Science—that up until the age of 14, let’s say, a person develops the capacities of their etheric body. Around the age of 14 or 15, their astral body actually becomes free and is born. Now it may be that we are dealing with an individuality—that is, with what comes from previous incarnations—that possesses strong, great inner soul capacities. We are thus assuming the case of a person who, through their karma and their earlier development in past lives, possesses strong inner capacities. In order to live out these capacities in the world, one needs the forces and organs of each human sheath. Now let us suppose that, in the upbringing of a person who possesses such abilities—abilities that can be expressed particularly through the astral body—we neglect to foster the development of their astral body at the right time. What will happen then? To understand what happens, let us create a mental image of the situation.

[ 4 ] Let’s suppose we have such a child. The child is growing up. We do take care to ensure that the child develops normally until the age of 7; we make sure the child eats and drinks well and develops chubby cheeks. This is viewed quite favorably. The child looks well-nourished. We continue to ensure that the child is well-nourished after the age of seven, but now we begin to disregard the rules that should reasonably govern the child’s upbringing from the age of seven onward. We now begin to disregard these rules, and we make the mistake, for example, of succumbing to materialistic prejudices regarding such a person and saying that we want to focus primarily on ensuring that the child arrives at rational judgments as early as possible, that it learns to form its own judgments as early as possible. This is, after all, common practice today, stemming from our materialistic way of thinking. I have cited this example many times before.

[ 5 ] While between the ages of 7 and 14, particular attention should be paid to developing the child’s memory, calculators are introduced. Whereas in the past children were taught that 2 × 2 = 4 and similar concepts before they understood them, today it is said that children should not be taught anything they learn merely by rote; they should know only what they can form their own judgment about. This is done using red and white beads. Instead of accustoming the child to authority—which, for children between the ages of 7 and 14, should be the source of truth—the child is encouraged to become precocious in forming judgments. While a child of this age should feel, “I must believe what the revered authority says,” one overlooks the fact that the child needs to have parents and teachers whom it looks up to with heartfelt reverence and from whom it accepts truth out of a sense of self-evident authority.

[ 6 ] Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that we disregard the fact that the word “authority” must be a sacred one for the period between the ages of 7 and 14. If we disregard such important laws between the ages of 7 and 14, then a properly developing astral body cannot emerge from an inadequately developed etheric body starting at age 14 or 15. And let us now suppose we are dealing with a person who has brought with them from past lives special powers and strong, positive abilities—talents, however, for which they need an astral body capable of being inspired by lofty ideals. It depends, for example, on the astral body that, when one sees an injustice in one’s surroundings, one can be stirred to righteous anger long before one can assess it through independent, clear thinking. Such qualities of a healthy astral body would naturally have to be present in the person in question, for he needs them so that what lives within him from his previous incarnations can emerge. Now let us assume that we have neglected the principles that must be observed so that the astral body is born capable of devotion and enthusiasm by the age of 14 or 15; then, even though significant aptitudes and great abilities have been carried over from earlier lives, the possibility of developing these aptitudes is still lacking because the astral body does not allow these aptitudes to emerge. It lacks those forces, those currents, which the “I”—that passes from incarnation to incarnation—must draw upon in order to unfold its aptitudes. Now we have an “I” that could develop high abilities; but the organs of the astral body, through which this “I” could express its abilities, are crippled. The current of development that governs the progression of the sheaths has not come into its own.

[ 7 ] Anyone who observes life—especially today, in our terribly materialistic age—will find that the situation I have just described actually occurs countless times in life. Countless times in life, it happens that the person who can see through life—who, through occult development, has been trained to do so—sees with a bleeding heart: There is something within the individuality, but it cannot emerge because the other stream of development has not been properly nurtured until the appropriate moment. It is precisely at that moment—when the absent organs would be needed—that the characteristic symptoms known as “early-onset insanity” (dementia praecox) appear. All manner of evil, terrible passions arise, along with the most horrific forms of mental aberration. Where do these aberrations come from? They do not stem merely from the fact that the individual in question also possesses predispositions that incline toward evil, but rather from the fact that in the present incarnation he lacks the faculties necessary to develop his good predispositions. It may therefore be a blessing for them that these tendencies of the “I” destroy and tear apart the outer shell, in order to create a better opportunity for their development in a subsequent incarnation. As strange as this may seem, it must nevertheless be taken into account, because development is often viewed in far too simplistic terms, even by those who turn to Spiritual Science.

[ 8 ] Inner evolution and outer opportunities for development must be in harmony. This is true for the individual, just as it is true for the development of an entire era. I have presented you with only one radical example to help you more easily understand what is present in many forms. It will not always manifest in this extreme way, but in our time it occurs even more frequently in what is so common today: in feelings of dissatisfaction, in hopelessness, in not knowing what to do with oneself—especially between the ages of 14, 15, and 21. Then it lingers and can no longer be remedied in life. It then remains an inner state of hopelessness, aimlessness, pessimism, and dissatisfaction. And in this milder form, it would occur more and more frequently if humanity were not set on a different course—one different from the one it has followed until now—through a spiritual, Spiritual Science worldview, as materialistic thinking has increasingly imprinted itself even on the deepest thoughts and feelings of human beings.

[ 9 ] When one hears what has just been said, as a researcher of the humanities one must tell oneself: Spiritual Science—if one has grasped even a little of it—must appear to one not as something one pursues as a hobby because one enjoys it, or because one finds subjective satisfaction or bliss through it, but rather, once one has approached its deeper aspects even a little, one must pursue Spiritual Science as a duty—a duty toward all of humanity. — For the worldviews that prevail today lead to an ever-diminishing understanding of life. One will come to understand non-life ever more clearly. And in order to understand non-life ever more clearly, materialism has indeed been necessary for a time. Based solely on an understanding of life, one would never have been able to build steamships, railroads, or tunnels. Nor could one have hoped to advance our external science—focused on the physical—as far as it has come today, or to make further progress in this field.

[ 10 ] People had to be guided in such a way that they would, so to speak, absorb into their souls worldviews capable of accurately expressing all kinds of cultures as distinct perspectives on existence.

[ 11 ] No one may say: Was it not unjust that, over the centuries, people had to adopt materialistic views? No, one cannot speak that way. After all, these are the very same souls who, having been subjected to the influence of materialism, will in future incarnations be led back to spiritual life.

[ 12 ] But everything must happen in its own time, at the right time. You need only consider that certain things can be very good—even excellent—when done during the day. If the same things are to be done at night, then they are simply bad. Everything has its time, and this is also true of the great course of human development, the evolution of humanity. What was good in the centuries just past would be a grave sin against humanity if it were to be perpetuated for the coming centuries. We have now reached the point where materialistic thinking must give way to thinking and perception that lead into life in the spirit itself. What drove people toward materialism in times past must be followed by a spiritual worldview, and people must step forward to ensure that this spiritual worldview finds its way into the human race and its history. You should know: If what might be called the addition of a spiritual worldview to the materialistic one were not to occur at this very moment, the right moment for humanity would be missed. But in many other respects as well, we may miss out on what is most important in our time. And we can understand to what extent we may miss out on what is most important in our time if we now consider these two currents of development—which I previously indicated in relation to the individual—within the broader context of humanity.

[ 13 ] Human beings pass from incarnation to incarnation, from one embodiment to another. But they do not pass from one embodiment to another in vain. Why does the human being descend from spiritual heights to Earth again and again? Why is one incarnation on Earth not enough? The reason is that the Earth itself changes over the course of long periods of time—it changes in regard to everything that is physical on it, as well as everything that is spiritual and psychological. Now compare the Earth’s outward appearance—what has grown here—with what was here as far back as 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. Compare the landscape around Pforzheim as it looked back then with how it looks today. Even ordinary natural science can provide insight into what the landscape looked like here 2,000 years ago. But also compare what a person learned back then in childhood and youth with what they learn today, and you will have to admit: physical and spiritual life on Earth are changing. The Earth was quite different 2,000 to 3,000 years ago, and it has continually changed and will continue to change. The Earth is constantly changing. And every time we descend to Earth, we encounter new circumstances; we can learn new things, gain new experiences, and live through new events, integrating them into our being and carrying these new experiences back up into the spiritual world. That is why—because we are meant to gradually absorb Earthly experiences within ourselves over successive periods—we are born into successive Earthly lives. We harmonize what external earthly life can offer us over the course of successive eras with what we are meant to learn within that earthly life. These must be in harmony.

[ 14 ] Let us suppose for a moment that there is a soul living today. After all, it has already lived during the time of ancient Egypt and the time of ancient India. All the souls sitting here today have lived on Earth countless times, have lived here under different circumstances, and are living here again today because what they were able to learn and experience on Earth back then no longer exists, and new things can be experienced and learned today. Let us suppose a person who, for example, did not make proper use of their incarnations in ancient Egypt—who did not draw out everything that could be drawn out on Earth at that time. Let us assume that people—such as those who, according to the karma of the Earth and their individual karma, were still few and far between in ancient Egypt—had failed to unite their souls with what could be experienced in ancient Egypt. That would not have prevented them from dying in ancient Egypt at the appropriate time. But it would have prevented them, when they were born the next time, from bringing with them what they would then need to be fully developed human beings. They cannot simply acquire this in subsequent incarnations. However, in a later incarnation—in order to avoid having stunted souls—one needs the abilities and powers that one was able to acquire in the previous incarnation from the earthly conditions of that time. There are things that, once missed, can never be made up for. Perhaps you will say: “Now he’s painting a rosy picture for us!” After all, we have no way of knowing whether we have missed something incredibly important in earlier incarnations. That would indeed be a bleak prospect, for perhaps we have missed something terrible in earlier incarnations—and what good is anything else to us now! What good does it do us, for example, if we now devote ourselves so wholeheartedly to Spiritual Science and strive to make the best use of our present incarnation? We might not even be able to do it, precisely because we have neglected something particularly important in our past incarnations!

[ 15 ] So it seems as though this truth I have just spoken might cast a terrible shadow over your soul, might become a source of despair for you. For if one can no longer make up for what one has once missed, then I must say that no matter how earnestly I begin to work on my soul, it will no longer help, because I can no longer make up for what I have missed—what I might have been able to instill in this soul only in ancient Indian or Egyptian times.

[ 16 ] This bleak prospect would only exist if the conclusion that has now been drawn were the correct one. But it is not the correct conclusion, for the matter is different. It is certainly true, however, that whatever our soul failed to acquire in the ancient Egyptian, Indian, Persian, and Greek eras, it could no longer make up for today—that would be impossible. The point is simply this: at present, in our time, we are experiencing the very first human incarnations in which one can consciously, through one’s own fault, fail to achieve something in this regard. And this will continue for some time yet. And this may also explain why Spiritual Science is now beginning to emerge into the world: because only now is the possibility arising for human beings to fail to achieve something. Now these truths must begin to reach people, for now human beings are entering incarnations in which—if these truths were not properly applied—it would become more difficult to make up for what had been missed in later earthly conditions. And it is also true that people, if they so desire, can gain access to the spiritual scientific explanation of reincarnation and karma and other truths in Spiritual Science, so that they need not take this self-inflicted guilt upon themselves. Spiritual Science will do everything in its power over the coming centuries and millennia to ensure that people have the opportunity to make proper use of these incarnations and do not need to take this guilt upon themselves. A single incarnation is of lesser importance, but if, in our age—which has just begun and will last 2,000 to 3,000 years—one has lived through two or three incarnations without having drawn the right lessons from what can be gained on Earth, then one will have missed something important in the times to come. That is why Spiritual Science is now stepping forward and telling people how important it is that they make proper use of their incarnations.

[ 17 ] Now let us ask ourselves: Why, then, were people in earlier times unable to make these mistakes? The reason is that human beings have evolved from incarnation to incarnation in such a way that, in the distant past, they themselves were fellow inhabitants of the spiritual worlds. What we consider our abilities today—especially the limitation of our senses to the physical world—was not always the case. In earlier times, human beings possessed a dim form of clairvoyance; they could look into the spiritual worlds. And this clairvoyance grew stronger the further back in time we go. In those days, human beings knew: “I come from the spiritual world.” And they did not merely possess this abstract knowledge; they also knew what that world looked like and were familiar with the laws of the spiritual world. They lived in accordance with these laws almost as if by instinct—instinctively. Because they were still connected to the spiritual world, our souls essentially lived out their incarnations in an orderly manner. Because human beings were still linked to the divine-spiritual worlds, therefore the knowledge continued to work within them, and under the influence of this ancient knowledge, they instinctively did what was right. Only in our time do we live in an age where, so to speak, the gates to the spiritual world are closed, and where human beings, between birth and death, are entirely dependent on perceiving the world solely through their sensory-physical existence.

[ 18 ] This age, in which the ancient clairvoyance—through which people received insights as if from heaven—has vanished, began—and we can specify the exact date quite precisely—3,101 years before Christ walked the earth. In earlier times, there were such ages in which people—even though they did not possess the strong self-awareness of today, nor a clear consciousness of their “I”—could still glimpse into the spiritual worlds, albeit dimly and hazily; and even further back, they could see clearly into those worlds. This brings us to an age prior to the year 3101, in which people had a knowledge of the spiritual world that was indeed quite clouded, but a knowledge nonetheless. This age is called the Dvapara Yuga. This Dvapara Yuga, or Age of Bronze, spans the ancient Egyptian-Babylonian-Chaldean period and the Persian era. Going even further back, to even older times, we find an even deeper insight into the spiritual world among the people of the Treta Yuga, or Silver Age. And then we move beyond the Atlantean catastrophe, where those who were incarnated at that time still looked into the spiritual worlds to such an extent that they felt themselves to be companions of those beings whom you today can only perceive in the state between death and a new birth. This is the Krita Yuga, which begins here.

[ 19 ] In the year 3101 B.C., the age began in which, little by little, all possibility for human beings to glimpse into the spiritual world through external, natural, and ordinary forces first came to an end. During this age—from 3101 B.C. to the present day—only faint, inherited remnants of dim, twilight-like clairvoyance remained in a few people. In this age, one could ascend regularly into the spiritual worlds only through genuine esoteric training. But human beings’ normal faculties developed in such a way that they extended only to the outer physical world. This age is called, using an Eastern term, the Kali Yuga, the dark age, because human beings can no longer perceive the spiritual world through their natural faculties. The Kali Yuga is thus this age, which began around 3101 B.C. and which has led people more and more onto the physical plane.

[ 20 ] The most important events taking place on the spiritual plane usually go unnoticed by people because they do not pay sufficient attention to them. Significant things are happening in our age. The most important thing is that the Kali Yuga came to an end in 1899. This means that the era of human development intended to direct human faculties toward the observation and perception of the physical plane has come to an end. And now, since the year 1899, an era has begun in which, over the course of about 2,500 years, other faculties—as normal faculties—will slowly develop within human souls. We are therefore already living in an age in which other abilities are being developed. The Kali Yuga has come to an end, and people are moving toward an age in which—whether they want to or not—certain new abilities will develop naturally in the soul, abilities of a different nature than those that developed during the Kali Yuga.

[ 21 ] What are these abilities? Under the influence of the Kali Yuga, those human faculties that make a person an inventor, an explorer, and a master of the physical forces of the physical plane have become increasingly strong. This, of course, continues, for abilities that have once been acquired are naturally not lost again. So one cannot say that the ability to work with natural forces has now come to an end. But other abilities are being added. In addition to what humanity has acquired during the Kali Yuga, a special ability—natural-etheric clairvoyance—is emerging; that is, the age is now beginning in which certain clairvoyant abilities will awaken as normal abilities in human souls—first in a few, then in more and more human souls. We must therefore distinguish this from what—albeit as a much higher ability—is acquired by those who apply the methods of spiritual training to themselves. In every age, such individuals will, with their abilities, go beyond what is considered normal for humanity. But now an age is beginning in which the ability to see not only the physical but also that which, as the etheric, underlies the physical will be awakened as a normal ability. That is to say, souls with such abilities will come—and indeed, in a time that is already here, that has already begun—only they will come more and more frequently. For the time being, they are still quite few and far between on Earth. But these abilities will begin to spread more and more widely among people. They will be distinctly present in the years 1930 to 1940. This will be an important era, for it is then that people’s new abilities will come to the fore. Whereas today people see only the physical body, they will then also acquire the ability to perceive certain essential aspects of the etheric body at first, and then more and more of it. This will come to pass. Humanity will develop in the near future in such a way that there will be people—and more and more of them, eventually a large number of people (in fact, this is intended for all of humanity)—who will see not only the human physical body but will also see this physical body as if enclosed in an etheric body, as if surrounded by etheric rays and an etheric aura. That is one thing they will see. The other thing is that it will seem quite strange to them: images will appear before them, and all manner of things will be revealed in these images. At first, people will not realize what is at stake; then they will consider it a sign of mental illness; but then more and more people will realize that such an image is an event that will take place in two to four days and that is reflected in the etheric realm beforehand. These abilities will develop as early as the first half of our century.

[ 22 ] There are two possibilities. One is that, in their thinking, feeling, and perception, people today remain stuck at the level they have now attained in the Kali Yuga. Those who, in their worldview, philosophy, thinking, and feelings, remain at the level of what they have learned up to now will very soon be done passing judgment on fellow human beings who perceive such things. They will say that these are fools who are beginning to go mad, who see all sorts of illusory things that do not even exist. — But there will be others who will have heard from Spiritual Science that these are realities. And this will be emphasized again and again in the coming decades and centuries. They will have heard that such things exist as realities, and they will find the right relationship to these newly emerging abilities.

[ 23 ] What are we doing when we engage in Spiritual Science? We are not simply doing something that satisfies our curiosity and is therefore our favorite pastime; rather, we are doing something that prepares people for what must come and what will come. And this thing that is to come—it simply could not be understood if Spiritual Science did not exist. Humanity would lose what is meant to be gained. And that could very well happen if Spiritual Science were to be completely banned on Earth, if it were possible that all those who work for Spiritual Science were perhaps left to starve, or perhaps forced out of their positions and left to starve. Then humanity would completely lose the ability to understand what is to come as a natural development. If that were to happen, human development would become desolate and wither away. It would have to continue without this influence and would wither and become desolate. This is what makes Spiritual Science a responsibility we must uphold.

[ 24 ] If we look at the matter this way, then we might also ask: In what way, for example, will what has just been described manifest as an effect? Well, the souls sitting here now will be reincarnated in an age in which human souls will already have possessed, for a long time, the soul capacities that have just been described. What will this bring about? Along with those capacities, something else will come. It will come to pass that human beings will be able to look back on their present incarnation. As a natural ability—arising from the spiritual faculties just described and inherent in them—a memory will emerge, not only of the life between death and birth, but also of the previous life, as a natural characteristic. But now the task will be to develop something in this or the next incarnation that we can remember. What we do on a day-to-day basis—things that will long since have passed when we are reborn—will not, at first, be what we will be able to remember. What we will be able to remember will be only what has taken place within the central power of our inner being, within our “I.” One cannot then remember what happened in the course of everyday life. What remains from the present incarnation into the next must already be grasped and felt within the “I.” It is true, however, that most people do not yet have the inclination to penetrate so deeply into their inner being that they perceive themselves as an “I.” After all, as Fichte said, most people still consider themselves more a piece of slag on the moon than a “I”! But if one does not nurture this “I,” does not learn to recognize it through Spiritual Science, does not learn to feel it, then it is not even present as an inner spiritual asset. First, we must create that which we will then be able to remember in the next incarnation.

[ 25 ] Thus, by learning to recognize the human being, Spiritual Science creates the elements of the world that find their best expression in his “I”; it creates, as facts, that which he is to remember in his next incarnation. If a person does not apply what is thus offered to him in the proper way, then in his next incarnation he will indeed have the ability to recall, but nothing will come to mind as the object of that recollection, because he has created nothing that he can remember.

[ 26 ] One of the greatest torments a human being can experience is to possess an ability yet have nothing on which to apply it. One will want to look back on past incarnations, since one will have the ability to do so, but will find nothing within oneself that one can bring into this power of remembrance. There will be a terrible thirst to look back on past incarnations. But this will be like an inner torment, an inner desire to look back, and one will see nothing, because one has created nothing that one could see. We therefore work out in the present incarnation that which is to be created as a fact, as an object for memory, for we already attain the ability to recall through the natural course of human development.

[ 27 ] Here again we find two currents. An external one: people acquire abilities; and an internal one: people must do what they can apply these abilities to. We find these two currents everywhere. But what acts as the most important force, the driving impulse behind it all, is that as people live their way into this era—as they acquire the new ability to see the ethereal—they will, in connection with this, have a great, indeed the greatest, experience during the first half of the 20th century.

[ 28 ] Back then, when the Kali Yuga had lasted about 3,100 years, people had reached a state where they had to admit to themselves: We can no longer look up into the spiritual realms of heaven. The gates to the spiritual world are closed. — But then first came John the Baptist, followed by Christ, and they showed people that on the physical plane, through appropriate inner development, the central power of the soul—the “I”—can be awakened, and that through this, the spiritual can be understood. God descended to the physical plane as Christ because human capacities had reached a point where people could understand things only on the physical plane. Christ made this sacrifice of descending to the physical plane because the gods, who had not descended that far, were no longer comprehensible to human beings, who had now developed within themselves the capacity to exist only on the physical plane.

[ 29 ] But now the ability to perceive the supersensible and the etheric is developing once again. As a result, during the period from about 1930 to 1940, a number of people—who will be the first pioneers of this etheric clairvoyance—will see what Christ is in our time. Christ lived in a physical body on our Earth only once. Since that time, however, our Earth has changed. If someone had become clairvoyant in the time before Christ’s birth and had looked into the world of spiritual beings and phenomena that immediately surround our Earth, they would not have found what they later found after the event at Golgotha had taken place, when Christ had descended to Earth. One individual knew this precisely. There was a person who knew from their teachings: When people become clairvoyant, they do not yet see on Earth something that will, however, be present in the future in the Earth’s spiritual atmosphere once the Christ has descended from the Sun. — This individual said to themselves: We will experience on Earth the great moment when Christ will appear spiritually to those who are becoming clairvoyant, for He will then have descended to Earth and will also be visible spiritually in its atmosphere. — This person knew this, but he had not yet reached the point where he could gain the conviction, based on the events in Palestine, that this expected being—the Christ—had already been present in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. He could not acknowledge Jesus as the Christ; he did not acknowledge him. Then came the time, long after the event at Golgotha had passed, when this person became clairvoyant: Then he saw the Christ in his etheric body. Now he could see something in the earthly environment! Now this person knew that the Christ was there. Physical reality, physical sight, had not convinced him—this man—but clairvoyance, the clairvoyant perception of the Christ in his etheric body, that is what convinced him. This individual was Paul. During the event at Damascus, he first saw the Christ clairvoyantly in his etheric body, just as He has always been seen since the event at Golgotha by those who have attained clairvoyance.

[ 30 ] This is, in fact, the most important event that befalls those trained in clairvoyance today: that they see the Christ in the spiritual atmosphere of the Earth. Since this ability will manifest in a larger number of people during that period, this group of people will then have a direct perception of the Christ—the Christ in his etheric body—conveyed through natural vision, and they will interact with him as they would with a physical personality. Christ will not descend a second time into a physical body, but people will, through their own abilities, ascend into the etheric realm where he now reveals himself. Christ will have returned to them within the realm of their expanded experience.

[ 31 ] This is the Second Coming of Christ, which began approximately between the years 1930 and 1940 of our era. This event could pass humanity by unnoticed if people did not prepare themselves to understand this great event. Spiritual Science has prepared humanity for this future event. It is not meant to pass humanity by unnoticed. If it were to pass unnoticed, humanity would become desolate and wither away.

[ 32 ] What I have just said will be proclaimed from various places over the next two decades and expressed in various forms, for it is a most important truth—a truth intended to prepare people for the most significant events of our time. Once again, the time has come for the most significant events to take place. But in our time, a materialism of the most dreadful kind prevails, and it may happen that even those who hear and accept these teachings will be tempted by the materialistic mindset and led astray by it into the belief that Christ will only appear again if He appears in a physical body. That would be a materialistic belief; only those who have not truly risen to the realization that the spirit is more real than the physical can believe this. Now, materialism could lead people into this temptation: to confuse the return of Christ in a real etheric body—visible to the more highly developed faculties of human beings—with a return in a physical, fleshly form. But if that were to happen, it would be yet another great misfortune for humanity. Yet there are enough individuals in our time, enough personalities who will take advantage of this and, in doing so—either by falling prey to an illusion or self-deception, or by succumbing to their own base instincts—will present themselves as false Christs, as Christ in the flesh.

[ 33 ] False Christs—they will appear in this age, in which humanity is to see the true Christ in His etheric body. Anthroposophists, however, are called to be able to distinguish between the spiritual and the material and to be firmly armed against all claims—whichever source they may come from—that a Christ would come in the flesh. Anthroposophists are called to recognize that this would be materialism—the worst temptation that could arise during one of the most important events in human evolution, the event we call the Second Coming of the Christ, and during which it will become clear whether human beings have already progressed far enough not merely to speak of the spirit, but to be able to recognize the essence of the spirit as something higher than the essence of matter.

[ 34 ] It remains to be seen whether people will be ready to recognize Christ in all his significance, precisely because he reveals himself to them as a spiritual being. This will be the greatest test and trial for humanity: that the greatest impulse of our Earth will reveal itself to them and say: You can only recognize me if you do not merely speak of the spiritual, but know that the spiritual is more real, more genuine, and more valuable than the merely physical and material. — This is part of what we must take to heart so that we may face the coming decades in the appropriate manner. This event, however, will be important not only for those who will still be in the physical body, but also for those souls who will already be between death and a new birth. For this will be just as important for the so-called dead as the death on Golgotha was important—not only for the people of that time in the physical body, but also for the souls who were in Kamaloka or Devachan. Symbolically speaking, it was said that Christ also descended to those who were in the other world: “descended into hell.” The great test of spirituality in our century will be important both for those living on the physical plane and for those living on the spiritual plane—the so-called dead.