The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. The Secrets of the Universe: Cometary and Lunar Phenomena

[ 1 ] On a starry night, when we gaze out into the vastness of the heavens, it is first and foremost a sense of the sublime that flows through our soul as we allow the countless wonders of the stars to work their magic on us. This sense of the sublime that flows through our soul will be felt more strongly by some people and less strongly by others, depending on their particular, individual disposition. But people—and this is especially true when faced with the sight of the starry sky—will very soon find their longing awakened to understand something of these wonders of the cosmos that gaze back at them. And we may well say that it is precisely when faced with the starry sky that human beings will be least deterred from seeking understanding—for example, by telling themselves that they might lose the undivided, immediate feeling of the sublime if they were to attempt to penetrate the mystery of the starry world with their intellect. There is good reason to believe that comprehension and understanding, especially in this realm, cannot diminish our immediate feeling. Just as it soon becomes apparent—to a greater or lesser extent—in other areas of life that knowledge from Spiritual Science, in particular, elevates and strengthens our feelings and sensations—provided we possess sound judgment—so too can a person convince himself and will become increasingly convinced that, especially in the face of the great, sublime facts of the universe, his feelings will not diminish in the slightest as he learns to recognize and comprehend what actually moves through space or appears to stand still.

[ 2 ] However, in any given representation, we can, so to speak, only ever grasp the world as if from a single corner, and must leave it to time to enable us to learn, step by step, to understand the facts of the world. Today we shall focus on a part—a small, insignificant part—of the spatial world as it relates to human life. Although human beings may intuit this at first, through Spiritual Science they come to know it more and more, and with ever greater precision: that they have been born out of the entirety of the universe, and that the mysteries of the universe are connected to their own mysteries. This becomes particularly evident when we examine certain mysteries of existence more closely.

[ 3 ] A contrast manifests itself in human life, as this human life initially develops on our Earth. This contrast confronts us everywhere and at all times. It is the contrast between the masculine and the feminine. We know that we must look for this contrast between the masculine and the feminine on Earth in relation to the human race since the ancient Lemurian era, and we also know that it will endure for a time in our earthly existence and will eventually dissolve into a higher unity.

[ 4 ] If we bear in mind what has just been said—that all human life is born out of the life of the worlds—we may ask ourselves: Yes, if it is indeed the case that what we have called “man” and “woman” in human life since the ancient Lemurian era has accompanied humanity on Earth for a certain phase of its evolution, can we—since all life is born from the universe—find anything in the entire universe that, so to speak, represents in a higher sense something similar to this contrast between the masculine and the feminine? Can we, in a certain sense, find that from which—as if from a cosmic source—the masculine and the feminine were born on Earth? —This question may be raised.

[ 5 ] However, if we stand on the ground of Spiritual Science, we must not proceed according to the same formula as today’s materialists. After all, today’s materialist cannot form a mental image of anything beyond what exists in his immediate surroundings, and therefore he is so easily inclined to seek out—throughout the entire universe—this contrast, which is significant for human life only in relation to our Earth, and for animal life, in fact, at most only in relation to the Moon and the Earth—and to designate it outright as masculine and feminine. This is a folly of our time. We must firmly hold fast to the fact that the terms “masculine” and “feminine,” in that narrowly defined sense, apply to the human realm only from the Lemurian period onward and up to a certain point in Earth’s evolution; for the animal and plant realms, they apply at most only during the lunar and Earthic stages of evolution. But the question arises: Did earthly masculinity and femininity arise from a higher cosmic opposition? If we can identify this opposition, then a wondrous—and at first mysterious—connection would reveal itself to us between this phenomenon and a phenomenon in the cosmos. Now, of course, there are opposites everywhere in the cosmos. One must simply know how to find them in the right way.

[ 6 ] The contrasts in the cosmos that are initially important to us in human life are such that we can first mention the contrast between the Sun and the Earth. Although we have seen in our various considerations of the Earth’s development how the Sun separated from our Earth, and how both became independent bodies in space, we may also ask: How, then, does the contrast between the Sun and the Earth repeat itself in the macrocosm, the great world? How does this contrast repeat itself in the human being, in the microcosm? Is there a contrast within the human being itself that corresponds, in human nature, to the contrast between the Sun and the Earth in our planetary solar system? Yes, this opposition does exist! And this opposition is found in the human organism—but now the entire organism, physically and spiritually, so to speak—between everything that is outwardly expressed in the organ of the head and everything that is outwardly expressed in the organs of human movement. Everything in the human being that manifests as a contrast between the organ of the head and the organs of movement—that is, the hands and feet—corresponds in the human being to that contrast, that polarity, which we can describe in the cosmos as the sun and the earth. We shall yet see how this relates to that other correspondence, where, in a certain sense, the sun is likened to the heart; but that is not the point now. What matters now is a pair of opposites: the fact that in human beings the head is on one side and, on the other side, that which we call the organs of movement.

[ 7 ] You can easily understand that, during the old lunar phase of evolution, human beings were, in terms of their limbs, a completely different kind of being than they were during the Earth phase of evolution. It was only our Earth that transformed human beings into upright beings who, so to speak, use their hands and feet as they do today; and on Earth, in turn, their heads could only come to gaze freely out into space because the forces of the Sun raised them upright from a different position—one in which, for example, their spines were parallel to the lunar surface during the lunar phase of evolution. Of the Earth as it is today, we can say: It is responsible for the fact that human beings can use their legs and hands as they do today. The Sun, acting upon our Earth from the outside and forming a contrast to the Earth, is responsible for the fact that the human face, with the head, has, so to speak, in a certain way freed itself from its bondage to the Earth and is able to gaze freely out into outer space. What, then, is the contrast between the Sun and the Earth out there in the planetary solar system is, in human beings, the contrast between the head and the limbs. We find this contrast between head and limbs in all human beings, whether they are men or women, and we also find that, in essence, men and women are fundamentally alike in this regard. Thus we can say: With regard to that contrast between the sun and the Earth, the corresponding contrast in human beings must also express itself in the same way in both men and women. The Earth exerts the same influence on women as on men; women are bound to the Earth in the same way as men, and in the same way, the Sun frees the woman’s head—just as it frees the man’s—from its bond to the Earth.

[ 8 ] We will fully appreciate the contrast we have just touched upon when we consider, for example, that those beings who, so to speak, fell into dense matter too early—the mammals—were unable to attain the freedom to gaze out into outer space, and are thus bound by their very nature to earthly existence. For them, the contrast between the sun and the earth did not become a contrast within their own being in the same sense. Therefore, we cannot call a mammal a microcosm. We can, however, call the human being a microcosm. And we now have such evidence of the microcosmic nature of the human being in the contrast between the head and the limbs.

[ 9 ] Here is an example that simultaneously illustrates just how incredibly important it is not to adopt a one-sided perspective. One can count the bones of humans and the bones of higher mammals, and count the muscles in humans and mammals, and thereby establish the connection that, in recent times, has led a certain worldview to place humans as close as possible to higher mammals. That such a thing can happen stems solely from the fact that it is only through Spiritual Science that people will learn how important it is not merely to possess truths, but to have something more in addition to those truths. Be aware that something very important is being said right now, at this very moment—something that the anthroposophist should surely take to heart and commit to memory: Many things are true, but merely knowing that something is true is not enough!—There is no doubt whatsoever that what, for example, modern natural science says about the kinship between humans and apes is true. But with a truth, it is not merely a matter of having it as a truth, but of knowing how seriously one must take that particular truth for the overall explanation of existence. So it is not enough to simply hold something as a truth; one must know how important a truth is for the overall explanation of existence. And that is why even a very ordinary, seemingly mundane truth cannot be considered decisive, simply because one fails to recognize its importance. There is a very commonplace truth that every human being knows, and one need only take it seriously in terms of its importance—then it becomes deeply, deeply significant for our entire doctrine of earthly evolution. This is the truth that human beings are the only beings on Earth who, in principle, can truly and freely turn their faces out into the cosmos. If we compare human beings in this regard to the ape, which is closest to them, we can only say: Even though the ape has tried to stand upright, it has, in fact, botched this very act of standing upright. — And that is what matters. One need only recognize the weight of a truth. That human beings possess this advantage—one must first grasp its significance; then one will also be able to connect it, in terms of its importance, with the other cosmic fact just characterized: that it is not the Earth alone, but the Sun in contrast to the Earth—that is, an extraterrestrial entity—that first makes human beings citizens of outer space, snatching them away from earthly existence. And we may say, in a certain sense: In order to grant human beings this privileged position in our universe, this entire cosmic arrangement—which we know today as the contrast between the Sun and the Earth—had to be created. For the sake of human beings, so that they might be raised above the condition of animals, this constellation of Sun and Earth had to come into being.

[ 10 ] So, on the one hand, we look at human beings and say: We see in them the same contrast that we see on the other hand when we look out into space and observe the Sun with its counterpart, the Earth.

[ 11 ] Now the question arises: Can we also find the other contrast that exists on Earth—and to which we alluded at the beginning—namely, the contrast between male and female—can we find it in the cosmos? Is there perhaps something in the cosmos—and by “cosmos” I mean our solar system—arranged in such a way that this cosmic structure produces, as a kind of effect or a kind of mirror image on Earth, the contrast between man and woman? Yes, there is something arranged in this way. The higher contrast is the one we can describe as the contrast between the cometary and the lunar, between the comet and the moon. This contrast between comet and moon, viewed in a similar way to the contrast between sun and Earth, applies to the contrast between the feminine and the masculine. So that we can say: Just as the sun-Earth polarity is reflected in the head and the limbs, so the comet-moon polarity—the contrast between comet and moon—is reflected in the feminine and the masculine. This now leads us, in a certain sense, deep into certain mysteries of the world. Namely, as strange as it may sound to you, it is absolutely true that the various parts of human nature, which we encounter in the outer physical human body, have different degrees of significance—that is, they are expressions, to varying degrees, of the spiritual reality that lies behind them. In truth, in the human being as he appears to us in his physical body, it is only the head—and, in a certain other sense, the limbs—that most closely correspond, in terms of external form, to the inner spiritual forces that underlie them. So let us be clear, so that we understand each other here: Everything that appears to us externally in the physical world is a reflection of something spiritual; the spiritual has shaped the external physical. Now, when a spiritual entity shapes an external physical form, it can shape it in such a way that, at a certain stage of development, this physical form resembles the spiritual entity itself to a greater or lesser degree—or is more or less dissimilar to it. Only the head and limbs, as external features, bear some resemblance to their spiritual counterparts. Everything else in the human body bears no resemblance at all to the spiritual image, so that—apart from the head and limbs—the human form is, in the truest sense, a mirage. And those whose clairvoyant vision is trained actually always see human beings in such a way that only the head and limbs make a true impression. With regard to these, the clairvoyant has the feeling: these are true; they do not lie. In contrast, with regard to the rest of the human body, the clairvoyant consciousness has the feeling: this is a false form; this is something deceptive; it bears no resemblance at all to the spiritual reality that lies behind it. In fact, everything feminine appears to the clairvoyant consciousness as if it had not progressed to a certain stage of development, but had remained behind.

[ 12 ] So if we can say that development proceeds in this way—from point A to B, and C would be a kind of normal development—then at point C, the human form would consist of a head and limbs. In contrast, the rest of the female body is such that it has remained at point D; it has not advanced to the present stage of development but has lagged behind this stage. If this is not misunderstood, one can say: The female body, as it appears today, has remained at a more spiritual stage; its form has not descended as deeply into the material realm as the average stage of development. Everything develops downward from the spiritual to the physical. The female body has remained at an earlier stage of development and has not advanced to the middle point of development. The male body, however—apart from the head and limbs—has advanced beyond the middle point of development. It has crossed this point; it has leaped over it. It is therefore, as a male body, a distortion because it is more material than its spiritual archetype, because it has descended deeper into the material realm than corresponds to the average stage of development. Thus, in the female body we have something that has, so to speak, lagged behind normal development, and in the male body something that has descended deeper into the material realm than corresponds to the head and limbs of a fully developed human being.

[ 13 ] This same contrast is also found in the cosmos, in our solar system. Specifically, if we regard our Earth and the Sun as the normal stage of development, the comet has not yet advanced to this normal stage of development: in the cosmos, it corresponds to what is feminine in human beings. Thus, we must regard the cometary existence as the archetype of the feminine organism in the cosmos out there. And the lunar existence is the counterpart to the masculine existence. You can easily understand this from our previous discussions. We have emphasized that the Moon is a piece of the Earth that had to be separated. Had it remained within the Earth, the Earth would not have been able to progress in its development. The Moon had to be separated precisely because of its density. Thus, the contrast between the comet and the Moon out there is the archetype of the feminine and the masculine in the human being.

[ 14 ] This matter is, in fact, extraordinarily interesting, because it shows us that when we observe a being—whether it be a being that walks the earth like a human, or the entire cosmic being—we must not simply place one part next to another, just as they appear side by side in space; for if we do so, we succumb to a completely outrageous illusion. What lies side by side in space is not equivalent. Certainly, the various parts of a human organism lie side by side, and the ordinary materialistic anatomist will regard all these parts as equivalent in space. But for those who view things according to their true nature, these things differ in that one has reached a certain point of development while the other is still before that point—yet has nevertheless progressed further—and the other has already passed that point of development. The time will come when the entire human organism must be viewed in this light; only then will it be possible to provide an occult ‘anatomy’ in the true sense. For just as I have now provided a mental image of—that things stand side by side at different stages of development—so all organs in the human organism can only be understood if one knows that each has reached a completely different stage of development. One cannot simply place side by side things that are situated next to one another in space, because they have different significance in this respect.

[ 15 ] If you now recall that our present Earth evolution was preceded by an ancient lunar evolution, you will be able to conclude, based on what has just been discussed, that our present Moon is indeed a remnant of the ancient lunar evolution, but that it does not stand at the same stage as that ancient lunar evolution, nor does it represent it. For it has not only progressed as far as the Earth, but even beyond it. It could not wait until the Earth became a Jupiter, and as a result, it has fallen into a state of solidification. Thus, the Moon has skipped a step; it has advanced beyond the normal course of development and, as a result, has fallen into a state of solidification as far as its material aspect is concerned—though not, of course, with regard to its spiritual affiliations.

[ 16 ] In contrast, what still exists today—and corresponds to the relationship between the Moon and the Sun during a certain period of the Moon’s ancient development in the cosmos—is manifested in the comet. The comet has remained at this stage of development; it simply must now live out this stage somewhat differently. But it has remained in the stage of the old lunar existence. The comet has therefore not progressed to the normal earthly existence. Thus, we have a fragment of a later Jupiter—born far too early—in the present Moon, which has thereby become solidified and is not viable, and we have a fragment of the old lunar existence protruding into our present earthly development in our comets.

[ 17 ] As an aside, I would just like to say: Here we have a curious point at which, in a sense, our Spiritual Science approach has experienced a kind of small triumph. Those who were present at my series of lectures in Paris in 1906 will recall that I presented certain things at that time which—though one cannot always present everything—are indeed part of the overall development of the Earth, but are not addressed in my Outline of Esoteric Science because other matters had to be addressed there. One would not need just one book—one would need to write endless books—if one wanted to develop everything. So I have developed the point that relates, so to speak, more to the material-chemical realm. I said at the time that the ancient lunar evolution—which thus extends into our present cometary existence, because the comet has remained at this stage and, as far as present conditions permit, is living out these ancient conditions in accordance with their laws— I said that this lunar evolution differs from that of the Earth in that the ancient lunar beings needed nitrogen and certain nitrogen compounds—cyanide and hydrocyanic acid compounds—just as much as today’s earthly beings need oxygen. Cyanide and similar substances are the compounds that, in a certain sense, are fatal to the lives of higher beings today, bringing about their downfall. But the compounds of carbon and nitrogen—the hydrocyanic acid-like and similar compounds—played a role quite similar to that of oxygen today.

[ 18 ] These are ideas that were developed back then in Paris from the entire scope of the Spiritual Science, so that those who took these ideas to heart have had to tell themselves all these years: If that were true, then surely something like compounds of carbon and nitrogen should be detectable in today’s comets. Now you may recall—the news was just brought to me during the Stockholm lecture series in January—how the news spread through the newspapers that compounds similar to hydrocyanic acid are indeed visible in the comet’s spectrum. This is a brilliant confirmation of what spiritual research was already able to state earlier, and which has now found retrospective confirmation through physical science! We are always calling for such evidence, which is why this should be mentioned. When such a striking case arises, it is important that we anthroposophists point it out and—let this be said without arrogance—also remember this small triumph of Spiritual Science.

[ 19 ] So you see that we can indeed find that contrast between the masculine and the feminine in the cosmos—in a higher sense, as it were, according to its archetype—in the contrast between the comet and the moon. And if we could proceed from there—which, of course, is not possible in every detail—and were now able to explain the full effect of the Moon on the one hand and that of the comets on the other, then you would see how magnificent and powerful, how—one might say—far surpassing any other general sense of the sublime this sensation is for our soul: We see something reflected here on Earth, and it manifests itself on Earth in its functions exactly as the contrast between the comet and the moon does in the universe. — But only a few of these things can be alluded to. Some of these things are important, and they should be pointed out.

[ 20 ] Above all, we must become aware of the effect that contrast—expressed in the comet and the moon—has on human beings. We must not merely conceive of this opposition as being expressed solely in, for example, what constitutes man and woman within humanity; rather, we must be clear that, so to speak, masculine qualities are present in every woman and feminine qualities in every man. We know, after all, that the etheric body of a man is feminine, and that of a woman is masculine—and this immediately makes the matter extraordinarily complicated. We must now be clear that what is feminine in the man—namely, the etheric body—reverses the opposition to what is masculine in the woman—namely, again, the etheric body—so that, so to speak, the effects of the cometary and lunar forces are reversed with regard to the etheric body. These effects are also present in relation to the astral body and the “I.” Thus, this contrast between the comet and the moon has profound significance for the development of humanity on Earth. Now, the fact that lunar development has a mysterious connection with the relationship between the sexes—a connection that certainly eludes exoteric observation but which you will come to understand—is expressed, among other things, in the seemingly quite trivial fact that the result of the interaction between the masculine and the feminine—the child—requires ten lunar months for its development before birth, beginning at conception, and that even modern science still calculates in lunar months rather than solar months, precisely because the relationship that prevails between the Moon—that is, the representative of the masculine in the universe—and the Earth and the cometary realm—that is, the representative of the feminine in the universe—is decisive and is reflected in the result of the sexes.

[ 21 ] On the other hand, we arrive at another important insight into human evolution when we now consider the other side—when we consider the cometary aspect. The cometary realm is, so to speak, a feminine force, and in the movements of the comet—in the entire way the comet manifests itself from time to time—we see, as it were, projections of the archetype of our feminine nature out in the cosmos. It is, in fact, something that appears as if it had come to a halt at a certain normal, intermediate stage of development. Now, this cosmic feminine—the term is by no means very accurate, but we lack suitable expressions—this cosmic feminine, which appears before our eyes in cometary existence, thus sometimes steps in, as it were, as something that stirs our existence from the depths of a prehistoric nature. Thus the comet, too, is similar in its appearance, so to speak, to the feminine. We could put it this way: Just as what a woman does—driven more by passion, feeling, and emotion—stands in contrast to the dry, sober male judgment—mind you, the dry, sober male judgment— so too does that which arises from the regular, sober course of the moon stand in relation to that which, seemingly irregularly, sometimes intrudes into our existence as a comet. This is, after all, the distinctive feature of the feminine spiritual life. Mind you, I do not mean the spiritual life of the woman, but the feminine spiritual life. That is a difference. The spiritual life of a woman naturally contains masculine qualities; but what constitutes the feminine spiritual life—whether in a man or a woman—enters our existence as something that brings originality, something elemental, into our entire being. The comet does the same. And wherever this contrast between man and woman presents itself to us, we can see how it expresses itself with extraordinary clarity. People who judge everything solely by outward appearances criticize Spiritual Science precisely because so many women are drawn to it in our time. People fail to understand that this is something entirely natural; it is natural for the simple reason that the average male mind has, in fact, already passed a certain midpoint in its development. It has become drier, more rigid; it therefore clings more strictly to traditional concepts and cannot break free from the prejudices in which it is mired. This is something that is sometimes so difficult to accept for someone who, from the perspective of Spiritual Science, uses this male brain: that in this incarnation, he has a male brain! For it is inflexible, it is hard, and it is more difficult to handle than the female brain, which is therefore able to more easily overcome certain obstacles—which the male brain erects through its own rigidity—and surmount certain difficulties; it is therefore more readily able to follow what enters our worldview as something new. Insofar as the masculine and feminine express themselves in the structure of the human brain, it can even be said that, for our present time, it is highly unpleasant and uncomfortable to have to use a male brain. The male brain must be trained much more thoroughly and radically than a female one. You will see that it is not at all surprising that women today find it easier to navigate something as eminently new as Spiritual Science. These are matters of immense cultural and historical importance, but ones that can hardly be discussed today in any other way than on an anthroposophical foundation. Who would take seriously—except on an anthroposophical basis—the idea that it is more uncomfortable to have a male brain than a female one? Although, of course, this is by no means to say that many brains in women’s bodies do not possess quite masculine characteristics in relation to what has just been said. Things in the world are not as simple as we try to grasp them with our concepts today.

[ 22 ] But something so fundamental—something that stirs us and, in a certain sense, is necessary to maintain the proper course of development from the cosmos—that is what the cometary phenomenon is. People have always sensed that this cometary phenomenon is connected in some way to earthly beings. Only today, people do not sense it, so to speak; they do not want to sense it. We need only imagine what a typical scholar today would think if the same thing happened to him that happened to Professor Bode with Hegel. For Hegel once boldly asserted, without mincing words, to a respectable German professor that good wine years followed comets, and sought to substantiate this by pointing to the years 1811 and 1819—which were good wine years—and which were preceded by comets. What profound consternation this would cause today! But Hegel said that this assertion was as well substantiated as many calculations of stellar orbits; for it was precisely an empirical matter that had been verified in these two cases. Even if we set aside such playful matters, we can still say: People have always suspected and sensed something in this regard.

[ 23 ] We cannot go into detail here, for these matters are, so to speak, inexhaustible. But we would like to shed light on one major effect with regard to human development.

[ 24 ] Comets appear at long intervals. Now we ask ourselves: Do they, wherever they appear, have such a connection to the entire course of human development that they, so to speak, stimulate the feminine aspect of human nature to do something? Well, take, for example, the so-called Halley’s Comet, which is, of course, once again in the news. We could, of course, cite similar examples from many other comets. It has a very specific task, and everything else it brings with it is connected in a certain way to this task. Halley’s Comet—and we are speaking first of all of its spiritual aspect —has the task of imprinting its own essence upon the entirety of human nature in such a way that, whenever it enters the Earth’s specific sphere—whenever it approaches the Earth—human nature and being take a further step in the development of the “I,” specifically that step in the development of the “I” which leads this “I” out into its concepts on the physical plane. First of all, the comet exerts its particular influence on the two lower members of human nature—on that which is masculine and feminine; there it joins the effects of the Moon. When the comet is not present, the Moon’s influence is one-sided; thus, the effects change when the comet is present. Now, the comet’s effect manifests as follows: Isn’t it true that when the human “I” takes a leap forward, the physical body and the etheric or Life-Body must also be transformed accordingly so that the whole human being can move forward? If the “I” is to think differently in the 19th century than it did in the 18th century, then there must also be something that changes the outward expression of the “I” in the physical and etheric or Life-Body—and that is the comet! The comet acts upon the human physical and etheric or Life-Body in such a way that these bodies actually create organs—subtle organs—that are appropriate for the further development of the “I,” this “I” as it has developed as the “I” of consciousness, particularly since the impact of the Christ impulse on Earth. Since that time, comet phenomena have signified that as the “I” develops further and further, advancing from stage to stage, it is endowed with organs—that is, physical and etheric organs—that this advanced “I” can actually use. For just think about it—as strange as it may sound, and as terribly foolish as today’s contemporaries will find it, it is nevertheless true: If the “I” of Büchner, the “I” of Moleschott, and other materialists around 1850–60 had not possessed a suitable physical brain and a suitable etheric brain, then they would not have been able to think as materialistically as they did. Then perhaps the good Büchner would have become a respectable, average pastor. In order for him to be able to carry out in thought what he accomplished in his Force and Matter, not only did his “I” have to undergo the development necessary for this, but the corresponding organization in the physical and etheric—or Life-Body—also had to be present. If we seek the development of the “I” itself, we need only look around at spiritual cultural life. But if we want to know: What caused these people—the people of the 19th century—to have, in the first place, a physical brain suited to materialistic thinking and the appropriate etheric or Life-Body?—then we must say that Halley’s Comet, which appeared in 1835, is to blame. And what caused what is called the “Enlightenment”—which is also a certain stage in the development of the “I”—to emerge in the 18th century? In the second half of the 18th century, the average person possessed this spiritual configuration in their brain that is called the “Enlightenment.” That was precisely what so enraged Goethe—namely, that a few concepts were simply tacked on, and people were content with that! What shaped the minds of this “Age of Enlightenment”? Halley’s Comet of 1759 shaped those minds. This is a central effect attributable to Halley’s Comet.

[ 25 ] Thus, every cometary body has, so to speak, a very specific task. Human spiritual life, so to speak, unfolds with a certain cosmic—one might say, mundane—regularity. Just as human beings engage in certain activities day after day with an earthly, everyday regularity—such as sitting down to lunch and dinner—so, too, does human spiritual life unfold with a certain cosmic regularity. Into this, however, other events enter—events that, even in ordinary, mundane life, are not quite the same as the usual occurrences; events through which a certain progress becomes apparent. For example, when a child is born into a family. In the same way, with regard to human development as a whole, these cosmic, mundane regularities proceed under the influence of the Moon, the lunar body. In contrast, those phenomena that always bring about a leap forward—and which are naturally spread out over longer periods of time—unfold under the influence of the cometary body. And the various comets each have their own distinct tasks in this process. And when one has served its purpose, it shatters. That is why we see that certain comets appear as two from a certain point onward and then shatter. They dissolve once they have fulfilled their purpose. Thus, what is, so to speak, the everyday, the regular, is under lunar influence; but that which introduces the elemental, which, so to speak, incorporates something new, is under cometary influence. These phenomena also show us that what appears to wander across the sky as a wandering star has its rightful place and significance within the entire structure of our universe.

[ 26 ] And now you can also imagine that what is being introduced as something new—as a result of the cosmic feminine into human evolution—can, in a certain sense, give rise to storms that are already quite noticeable, but which people simply do not want to acknowledge. But it could be that people might be made aware, in a very noticeable way, of just how closely certain events in earthly life are connected to the existence of comets. It is indeed the case with comets that they are like something new—a gift from the feminine—entering into the daily routine of family life. Just as when a new child is born, so it is when the return of a comet brings about something entirely new. Only, with certain comets, so to speak, the “I” is in fact driven more and more out into the physical world, and we have to defend ourselves against what the comets cause. For if things were to continue as they did with Halley’s Comet, then a new appearance of it could bring us a very special intensification of Büchner’s way of thinking. That would be a terrible turn of events. So if Halley’s Comet were to return, it should serve as a warning sign that it could become a very unwelcome guest if we were to simply surrender to it, if we did not counteract its influence. The point is that we must hold fast to higher, more significant effects and influences of the cosmos than those of Halley’s Comet. But it will be necessary for people to indeed regard it as a warning sign, so that they know that things are no longer as they were in earlier times, when it was, in a certain sense, fruitful for humanity that they had descended. Now this is no longer fruitful. Now people must connect with other forces in order to, so to speak, counteract this dangerous influence emanating from Halley’s Comet. It is truly not to revive an old superstition, but to bring a profound truth into consciousness, when it is pointed out how Halley’s Comet can serve as a symbol that—if only what it signifies were to come to pass, if only it were to exert its influence—humanity would become increasingly superficial and the “I” would be drawn ever more out onto the physical plane, and that this must be counteracted right now. This can only happen if a spiritual worldview, such as the anthroposophical one, takes the place of what follows the line of development brought about by Halley’s Comet.

[ 27 ] One could say, however, that once again the Lord is hanging the celestial rod down from heaven to tell humanity through this very symbol: Now is the time to kindle the spiritual life! On the other hand: isn’t it wonderful that the comet’s presence reaches into the depths of life, that it also intervenes in the life connected to human beings—in animal and plant life? Yes, anyone who pays close attention to such things can observe how, even in the blooming of flowers, there is something different everywhere than is usually the case. These things are already there; it’s just that people can easily overlook them, just as they overlook the spirit altogether, refusing to see it.

[ 28 ] We can now ask ourselves: Does what we have just hinted at—the ascent to a spiritual life—also lead us out into the cosmos? Is there something out there in the cosmos that corresponds to it? We have seen how the head and the limbs have their polar opposites in the cosmos, and how the masculine and the feminine also have their polar opposites there; so we may ask: Is there something in the cosmos that corresponds to this outpouring of the spiritual, to this ascent of the human being beyond themselves, from the lower “I” to the higher “I”?

[ 29 ] We will address this question—in the context of the greatest challenges facing intellectual life in our time—tomorrow. Today, I wanted first and foremost to lay the groundwork so that, by placing it within a broader context, we can better understand an important contemporary issue tomorrow. Admittedly, some of what has been said today may seem rather distant; but we are living in the Year of the Comet. Therefore, it is good if we are also able to say something about the mysterious connections between the existence of comets and our existence on Earth. Building on this, let us speak tomorrow about the great spiritual themes of our time.