The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Eleventh Lecture

[ 1 ] There is still much to be said about the various manifestations of karma. But since today marks the last of our reflections, and since time has necessarily been limited for such a rich topic, you will understand that some of the matters to be discussed—and perhaps some of the questions weighing on your minds—cannot be fully addressed this time. But our movement will, of course, continue, and we will be able to further explore and resolve in another course what must necessarily remain unfinished in this one.

[ 2 ] What must have repeatedly come to your mind is that human beings experience the law of karma as something that is, so to speak, something entirely definite in every moment of their lives, so that at every moment of our lives we can look back on what we have gone through, what we have done, thought, and felt in the incarnations that preceded the one in question, in which we are making our reflections. And we will always find that our present human inner and outer destiny can be understood by the fact that we have, so to speak, a kind of “life account,” where we record all the intelligent, sensible, and wise experiences on one side, and everything foolish, everything evil and ugly on the other. On one side or the other, there will be a surplus, and in any given moment of life, that surplus also determines the fate of that moment.

[ 3 ] Now, various questions may arise in this context, and the next one must be: How does what people do in their life together—what they accomplish as a human community—relate to what we call the individual karma of each person? We have already touched on these questions from other perspectives. When we look back at any historical event—for example, the Persian Wars—you cannot possibly believe that this event, viewed primarily from the Greek perspective, represents something that should be written only in the book of destiny of the individual people who, on the outer physical plane, are considered to be primarily involved in it. Think of all the leaders of the Persian Wars, of all the people who sacrificed themselves at that time; think of everything that was done—from the leaders down to the individual soldiers in the Greek army at that time: If you allow such an event to sink in with even a modicum of reason, will you ever be able to attribute what individual people did at that time solely to the karmic account of those individual personalities? You will never be able to do that. For you will find it impossible to create a mental image of what is happening in events affecting an entire people or a large part of civilized humanity, other than each individual human being simply living out their karma. And so, in the course of historical development, you must move from event to event again and again, and you will see that meaning and significance are to be found within the development of humanity itself, but that such events cannot be equated with the individual karma of a single person.

[ 4 ] We can allow an event such as the Persian Wars to sink into our souls and then ask ourselves: What significance do they hold in the course of human development? A certain culture had developed in the East that had great, magnificent bright sides. But just as every light brings its own shadows, we must also be clear that the entire culture of the East was accessible to humanity only because various dark sides—which should not have been carried forward in human development—had forced their way into that culture. Above all, one such dark side was the Orient’s urge to expand ever further through external means of power lying purely on the physical plane. Had this drive for expansion not arisen, the entire Oriental culture would naturally never have come into being. One cannot be conceived without the other. But in order for humanity to continue developing, Greek culture, for example, had to develop from entirely different premises. Greek culture, however, could not have had an immediate beginning; it had to obtain certain prerequisites from elsewhere. And it did, in fact, borrow important prerequisites from Eastern culture. Various legends of heroes who journeyed from Greece to the East represent nothing more than the fact that students from certain Greek schools had journeyed to the East and brought back to the Greeks those assets that could only be acquired within Oriental culture—assets that could then be further cultivated and transformed through what had developed from the Greek national character and the talents of the Greek people. But to achieve this, the dark side of these imported assets had to be eradicated: the urge to expand westward as they were, through purely external means of power. Roman civilization, which arose later than Greek civilization, and all the other prerequisites for the further development of European humanity, could not have emerged had the Greeks not created the free ground for the further development of Eastern culture, had they not repelled the Persians and all that went with them. Thus, what had been created in Asia could be assimilated by repelling the Asians.

[ 5 ] From this perspective, many events in the course of world history must be viewed, and one then obtains a distinctive picture. If, in a series of lectures lasting three to four years, we could explore this idea solely in relation to the historical documents of humanity that have been handed down to us, we would arrive at something we could truly call a plan in the development of humanity. We would then survey such a plan and say to ourselves: This had to be achieved; that had its dark sides, which in turn had to be eradicated; the achievement had to be handed over to another and further developed there.

[ 6 ] In this way, we would arrive at a plan for human evolution, and when discussing this plan, we would not actually be able to entertain the thought: How did it come about, for example, that Xerxes, Miltiades, or Leonidas in particular had this or that individual karma? We must regard this individual karma as something that must be determined in and of itself and woven into the plan of human development. There is no other way to understand the matter. And this is also true from the perspective of Spiritual Science. But if that is the case, we must say: In this purposeful progression of human development, we must recognize something that is internally connected in a similar way to how karmic events are connected within an individual human life. And then we can ask further: What is the relationship between such a plan in the entire course of human development and the individual karma of each human being?

[ 7 ] Let us first consider what one might call the course of human development itself. When we look back, we see how culture after culture, the development of one people after another, rises. We further see how, people by people, this or that new achievement comes about; how something remains as something imperishable from the individual national cultures; and yet how the peoples themselves must, as it were, die in order to preserve the national heritage—the achievements of the individual peoples—for the corresponding later epochs of human development. We must therefore find it understandable what Spiritual Science has to say: that in this ongoing course of human development, exactly two currents must first be distinguished.

[ 8 ] Consider, throughout the entire course of human development, what we can regard as a continuous current within which wave after wave unfolds, yet the achievements of the preceding wave are preserved for the next. We would gain a picture of this if we look at the first culture of the post-Atlantean era, at the magnificent achievements of ancient India. But if we compare this greatness with the faint echo of it contained in the Vedas—which, while still admirable, are nonetheless only a faint reflection of what the Rishis accomplished and of what Spiritual Science tells us about the great cultural impact of the Indians—then we must say: The original grandeur of what this people was to accomplish for humanity was already in decline when they set about preserving this cultural heritage of humanity in those magnificent poetic works. But what Indian culture was initially called upon to accomplish flowed into the entire course of human development. And only under this premise could what a young people—not an aging one—needed later on develop. First, the Indians had to be driven back to the southern peninsula, and then the worldview of Zarathustra developed in Persia. How great was this worldview at the time of its emergence—and how quickly it had fallen into disuse among the very people who had created it! We then see the same process in Egyptian and Chaldean cultures. Then we observe the transmission of Oriental wisdom to Greece, and see how the Greeks reject what is Oriental on the outer, physical plane. We then see how the achievements of the entire Orient are absorbed into the bosom of Greek civilization, and how they are interwoven with various elements that had previously been developed in other European regions. From this, a new cultural current is created, which, through many twists and turns, became capable of absorbing the Christian impulse and transmitting it further westward. And so we would also find, later on, a continuous cultural current in which we can link one element to the next, and each successive element appears to us both as a continuation of the preceding one and always as something new that was destined to be given to humanity. But from what did that which developed in this way, epoch after epoch, have to grow?

[ 9 ] Think of everything that every single people has experienced within its cultural sphere! Think of everything that must have taken place within each individual people—as a sum of feelings and sensations among countless people, of desires and enthusiasm for what must appear to be the most highly desirable, and of what is to be imparted as a cultural influence precisely in this sphere! Think of how the souls of individual people must be fully engaged in each cultural influence, in accordance with what they desire and strive for! Moreover, throughout countless centuries of human development, it was necessary that the peoples, as they developed the successive cultural influences, always lived in a kind of illusion—the illusion that each such people regarded the very cultural treasure it had to create as something eternal and imperishable, something that could never be taken away from it. It was only through this—the fact that this illusion arose again and again—that the devoted cultural work of individual peoples was possible: the belief that what was created there, along with everything connected to it, would endure eternally. This illusion still exists today; and even if people no longer devote themselves to it in such a positive way or speak of the “eternity” of this or that culture, it nevertheless persists in the sense that people do not think about the end—neither on a small scale nor on a large one—that they pay no attention to it, so to speak.

[ 10 ] Here you have two things: what folk cultures needed, and what, in essence, is only now beginning to undergo a kind of change. For the first realm of human spiritual life where such illusions will no longer arise—even fundamentally—will be theosophic spiritual life. For it would be a grave misunderstanding if anyone firmly grounded in our spiritual movement were to believe that the forms into which we cast our insights, the lines of thought we can present today, and what we can offer today through our theosophical thinking, feeling, and willing would have eternal validity. It would be very short-sighted to claim that in three millennia there would still be people who would speak of theosophical truths in exactly the same way as we do today. We know that our contemporary circumstances compel us to mold part of this ongoing process of development into present-day forms, and that our descendants will express these things in entirely different forms of experience. Why is this so? For a reason similar to why, throughout many centuries and millennia of human development, one folk culture after another had to allow individual people to experience many things so that a contribution could emerge from the overall development of the people. Think of the countless experiences that were lived through in ancient Greece, and think of what emerged from them as an essence for all of humanity in later times! Then you will say: There is more to it than just the individual currents. Many things happen for the sake of this core current.

[ 11 ] Therefore, we must observe two things: First, something that must come into being and perish so that the second—the smallest part in terms of quantity—can endure as something permanent from this whole. Only when we realize that, ever since individual human karma came into being, two forces have been at work in human evolution—forces we have always found to be active: Lucifer and Ahriman—will we understand the course of human evolution. For we must take into account in the plan of human development that ultimately, when the Earth has reached its goal, the results—which are gradually incorporated into the overall development of humanity from the individual cultures—will be made fruitful for all individual personalities, regardless of the fates they have endured. But we can only look toward this goal by viewing world development in a theosophical sense. For let us not delude ourselves: To conceive of such a goal in the correct way—while fully preserving human individuality, without allowing individuality to dissolve into some nebulous pantheistic unity, but rather in such a way that individuality remains fully intact and is enriched by what humanity as a whole has achieved—this goal can only be clearly and sharply envisioned through theosophical spiritual cultivation.

[ 12 ] So when we look back at earlier cultures, we can say from the outset: Ever since human individualities first began to incarnate, Lucifer and Ahriman have been involved in the development of humanity. Lucifer is involved in this in such a way that he always seeks to participate in the ongoing stream of culture by implanting himself in human astral bodies and imbuing them with the Luciferic impulse. This is what Lucifer accomplishes in the course of human development; he works into the human astral bodies. Human beings could never receive what Lucifer gives them solely from those forces that bring about the ongoing cultural current just described. If you isolate this cultural current from the entire course of human history, you have what the normally progressing spiritual beings of the Hierarchies allow to flow down into humanity as ever-new riches. As we look up to the Hierarchies, we must say: Those spiritual beings who are undergoing their normal development have given earthly culture what is a lasting benefit to humanity—something that was later transformed, yet has nonetheless become a lasting benefit to humanity. It is, as it were, like having a tree and the pith within it. Thus we gain a continuously living stream of ongoing culture.

[ 13 ] Through these forces, which undergo their own normal development, it could have come to pass in this way that human beings would have filled their “I” more and more with this progressive enrichment of human development. From time to time, that which advances humanity would flow into it; humanity would become increasingly filled with the gifts of the spiritual world, and finally, when the Earth had reached its goal, it would go without saying that humanity would possess within itself everything that had been given from the spiritual worlds. But one thing would not be possible: for humanity to develop its very own, sacred zeal, devotion, and passion for what is created from one cultural epoch to the next. From the very same source from which every wish and every desire springs, there also arises the desire for great ideals, as well as the longing to bring happiness to humanity and to achieve artistic accomplishments in successive human cultural epochs. From the same source from which corrupt, evil-seeking desires arise, there also arise the aspirations toward the highest that can be achieved on earth. And that for which the human soul burns as the highest good would not exist if it were not also possible, on the other hand, for that same desire to sink down into vice and evil. The fact that this possibility exists in human development is the work of the Luciferic spirits. Thus, we must not fail to recognize that the Luciferic spirits have brought freedom to human beings along with the possibility of evil—a free receptivity to what would otherwise simply flow into the human soul.

[ 14 ] But we have also seen that everything that challenges Lucifer finds its answer in Ahriman. Thus we see Lucifer, with his entire host, at work in what is then to give concrete expression to the influence of Greek culture on the entire course of human development: in the Greek heroes, in the Greek heroes and artists. Lucifer penetrates the astral bodies, setting them ablaze for what they revere as the highest. Thus, what is to flow into human development through Greek culture simultaneously becomes the enthusiasm of the Folk-souls. This is precisely where Lucifer is at work. And because Lucifer derives his power from the evolution of the Moon, not from that of the Earth, he challenges Ahriman; and as Lucifer develops his activity from epoch to epoch, Ahriman joins in—and gradually corrupts what Lucifer has brought about on Earth. — The evolution of the human world is a continuous interplay between Ahriman and Lucifer. If Lucifer were not at work within humanity, there would be no zeal or fire for the ongoing stream of human evolution; if Ahriman were not there to destroy, from people to people, that which comes not from the ongoing stream but only from the Luciferic influence, then Lucifer would want to perpetuate individual cultures forever. Thus you see here that Lucifer is bringing his own karma upon himself, which is a necessary consequence of the development on the ancient Moon. And the consequence is that he must now keep Ahriman chained to his heels at all times. Ahriman is the karmic fulfillment of Lucifer.

[ 15 ] Here we gain insight into the karma of higher beings, using the Ahrimanic and Luciferic beings as examples. Karma exists there as well. Karma is everywhere where “I”s exist. And Lucifer and Ahriman naturally contain “I”s within themselves; that is why the effects of their deeds can rebound upon them. Many of these mysteries will not be addressed until this summer during the lecture series on the biblical story of creation; I would like to point out just one passage here that will truly show you the infinite depth of every single word in the true occult texts.

[ 16 ] Have you ever wondered why, in the biblical account of creation, the phrase “And the Elohim saw the work, and they saw that it was very good”—that it was “the best”—appears at the end of each day of creation? That is a significant phrase. Why is it there? The phrase itself shows that it is intended as a characteristic of the Elohim, who developed normally on the Moon and whose adversary is Lucifer. It is part of the Elohim’s nature that, after each day of creation, they saw that it was “the best it could be.” It is stated for this reason, because this level was the achievement of the Elohim. On the Moon, they could only perceive the work as long as they were doing it; they could not have a retrospective awareness of it. The fact that they can look back retrospectively in reflective thought upon the work represents a special stage in the consciousness of the Elohim. This was only possible on Earth; indeed, its inner character is revealed in the fact that the volitional aspect flows so powerfully from their being that, when they looked at it, they saw that it was very good. These were the Elohim who had completed their work on the Moon and who, when they looked back on it from Earth, could say: It can remain as it is; it is very good! — But for this to happen, the old lunar evolution had to be completed.

[ 17 ] What, then, of the Luciferic beings—that is, those beings who have not completed their lunar evolution? They, too, will have to look back on their work here on Earth—for example, when they contributed fire and enthusiasm to Greek culture. And they will then see how Ahriman has gradually eroded their work! And because they did not complete it, they will have to admit: They saw the work of their hands, and they saw that it was not for the best, that it had to be wiped out!

[ 18 ] This is the great disappointment of the Luciferic spirits: that they try their work over and over again, seeking time and again to swing the pendulum to the other side—only to find their work destroyed by Ahriman time and again. One must conceive of a constant ebb and flow within human evolution, a continuous stirring up of new forces by beings higher than ourselves, and that these beings experience constant disappointments. This is contained in the experience of the Luciferic spirits in the evolution of the Earth. And humanity had to take this karma upon itself, because only in this way could human beings attain true freedom. Freedom can spring forth only when human beings bestow upon themselves the highest essence of their earthly “I.” The “I” that human beings would possess if all their goals were given to them at the end of Earth’s evolution cannot be free; for it has been predetermined from the outset to allow all the blessings of Earth’s evolution to flow into human beings. Humanity could become free only by creating, alongside this “I,” another “I” capable of error—one that is able to oscillate again and again between the side of good and the side of evil, and that can strive again and again toward that which is the essence of all earthly evolution. The lower “I” had to be bestowed upon humankind by Lucifer so that humankind’s ascent toward the higher “I” could be its very own achievement.

[ 19 ] Only in this way is free will possible for humanity. Free will is something that human beings can gradually attain; for human beings are constituted in such a way that free will stands before them as an ideal in life. Where, then, in an intermediate stage of development, is the human will free? It is never free, because at any moment it can succumb to the Luciferic and Ahrimanic elements; it is not free because every human being, once they have passed through the gate of death, experiences a very specific impression during the ascending period of purification—perhaps spanning decades. This is the essence of the Kamaloka life: that we see to what degree we ourselves are imperfect because of the imperfections we have caused in the world, and that we see, bit by bit, in what ways we have become imperfect. From this arises the resolute intention to eradicate everything we have made imperfect. Such is life during the Kamaloka period: one intention is added to another, and the overall resolution is made: “You must rectify everything you have thought and done that has brought you down!” — What a person feels there shapes the rest of their life, and they enter existence at birth with this intention—thereby taking on their karma. Therefore, we cannot say that we possess free will once we have entered existence through birth. We can speak of this only insofar as we have succeeded in mastering the influences of Lucifer and Ahriman. And we can master the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences through nothing other than knowledge. First, through self-knowledge, by making ourselves increasingly capable—even in the life between birth and death—of recognizing our weaknesses in all three aspects of the soul: in thinking, feeling, and willing. If we strive more and more to refrain from succumbing to any illusion, then the power to do without the Luciferic influence grows within our “I,” for then we become increasingly capable of deciding what devotion the goods of humanity—which have been gradually attained—deserve. Then, through knowledge of the external world, which must be complemented by self-knowledge; both must work together. We must unite self-knowledge and knowledge of the external world with our very being; then we will be able to establish a clear relationship with Lucifer.

[ 20 ] This is precisely the distinctive feature of what we acquire as theosophical knowledge: that we gain insight into the extent to which inclination and passion—Lucifer and Ahriman—are involved in every human action. What else have we done in this series of lectures but shed light on how Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces influence our lives in the most diverse ways! In the present age, however, the process of gaining insight into the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces can begin. And human beings must be enlightened if they truly wish to contribute to the attainment of humanity’s goal on Earth. — Wherever you look—wherever human feeling and thought exist—you can see how far people are still from a genuine, true understanding of the influences of Lucifer and Ahriman. There you see that the vast majority of humanity does not want such an understanding at all. You see a large portion of humanity succumbing to a certain religious egoism: the sole aim being to attain, with this very soul, that state of well-being which one can only form a mental image of. This is a form of egoism of which people are not at all aware—that the greatest desires can creep into it. And nowhere does Lucifer interfere more with our feelings than when people, driven by their passions and desires, strive for the divine without having the divine illuminated by the light of knowledge. Do you not believe that Lucifer is often at work precisely where people believe they are striving for the highest? But the forms sought in this way will likewise have to be counted among Lucifer’s disappointments. And those who now believe they can derive this or that form of spiritual culture from wild desires—who preach time and again that this theosophy is so bad because it believes in something new—should bear in mind that it does not depend on human will when Ahriman clings to Lucifer’s heels. And whatever forms have arisen in the course of evolution will, because Ahriman interferes, be brought to an end by Lucifer as well. Only the ongoing stream of human evolution will be saved.

[ 21 ] Thus, we look back on a previous stage of development in which certain beings were left behind as sacrifices for us. We now know that these beings must work through their karma for our sake, so that we may, in a normal way, experience what these beings can instill in us. Yes, truly, Yahweh originally instilled in human beings, through the divine breath, the capacity for the “I”; but if only the divine breath—which pulses in human blood—had come, and not also that which can repeatedly stray from what the breath of Yahweh can give, and if neither Luciferic nor Ahrimanic impulses were at work within it, then humanity would indeed be able to attain the “what” of Yahweh’s gift, but not the “how”: that is, to experience it with a self-conscious, free “I.” Thus, it is in the nature of world evolution that certain beings remained behind on the ancient Moon.

[ 22 ] We live today in an age in which we can indeed look back on many of Lucifer’s disappointments, but in which we can also look forward to a future in which we will come to understand more and more what the ongoing stream of evolution is. And Theosophy will be the instrument for understanding this continuous stream of evolution, so that we may relate to the influences of Lucifer with ever greater awareness and become increasingly capable of recognize Luciferic impulses within ourselves and consciously harness them in the right way for the benefit of human evolution, whereas previously they had acted within humanity as a dark impulse of which human beings were unaware. And the same is true of the Ahrimanic influences.

[ 23 ] This is one of the areas where we can draw attention to the fact that, so to speak, humanity is currently undergoing an important epoch of development—namely, the epoch in which, in a certain sense, the soul forces are indeed undergoing a reversal. For many of you, it has already been pointed out that we are facing an epoch in which certain people—individuals—will develop soul faculties different from those generally accepted today. For example, what Theosophy today is able to say based on the findings of spiritual research—namely, that human beings have an etheric body in addition to the physical body—is known intuitively today only by those who have undergone systematic training. But even before the middle of the 20th century—as we know from reading the Akashic Records—there will be people who will have a natural aptitude for etheric clairvoyance and who, because humanity has reached this point in time when such abilities will develop as natural gifts, will perceive the etheric body as it permeates the physical body and extends slightly beyond its edges. Just as human beings have regressed from looking into the spiritual world to today’s purely external physical perception and intellectual understanding of the external world, so too are they now gradually beginning to develop new, yet conscious, abilities. These new abilities are added to the old ones, and one particular ability will be the one I can characterize as follows:

[ 24 ] There will be people—initially just a few, since it will take the next two to three millennia for this ability to develop in a larger number of people, and the first pioneers will appear even before the end of the first half of the 20th century—in whom something like the following will occur: People will have experienced some action, and they will be tempted to step back somewhat from that action. They will then have an image before them that arises from the action in question. At first, they will not recognize it; they will not be able to connect it to what they have done. But then they may already have heard something about Spiritual Science, and they will learn that this image—which appears to them as a kind of conscious dream image—is the counter-image of their own action, the image of the action that must take place so that what has just been done may find its karmic fulfillment.

[ 25 ] Humanity is indeed on the threshold of an era in which it will begin not only to understand karma according to the teachings and descriptions of Spiritual Science, but in which it will begin to perceive karma little by little. Whereas until now karma has been for people a dark impulse, a dark desire that could only be lived out in the next life—and could only be transformed into an intention during the life between death and rebirth—people are gradually evolving to the point where they will be able to consciously perceive Lucifer’s creations and see what their effects will look like. However, only those who have strived for knowledge and self-knowledge will be able to make sense of this etheric clairvoyance. More and more, people in their normal state will have before them the karmic images corresponding to their actions. This will be something that will continually advance humanity, because through it they will know what they still owe the world—what still stands as a debt in their karma. That is precisely what makes a person unfree—that he does not know what he still owes the world. Thus, when it comes to karma, one cannot speak of free will from the outset. The term “free will” is already incorrect; for one must say: A person becomes free only through his ever-increasing insight and by rising ever higher and growing ever more deeply into the spiritual world. Through this, they increasingly fill themselves with the content of the spiritual world and become more and more a being who determines their own will. It is not the will that can become free, but the human being as such who can become free by imbuing themselves with what they can recognize in the spiritual realm of worldly existence.

[ 26 ] Thus we look upon Lucifer’s disappointments and his deeds and say: For millennia, the foundation has been laid for where we stand today; for if we did not stand where we do, we would not be able to develop toward freedom. But now that we can gain insight into Lucifer and Ahriman, we can develop a different relationship to these forces, reap the fruits of what has been done, and, so to speak, relieve Lucifer and Ahriman of their work. However, the deeds of Lucifer—which he has brought about and which have continually led to disappointments—must turn into their opposite when we ourselves commit them. Lucifer’s deeds were meant to arouse desires, to lead human beings toward what could lead to evil. We have seen, after all, what kind of opposing force must counteract Lucifer: If we ourselves are to counteract Lucifer, if we are to take charge of his affairs in the future, it can only be love that takes the place of Lucifer’s deeds; but love will be able to do so. And likewise, it will be that which flows to us from the outer world as we increasingly dispel the darkness that we weave into external matter. As we increasingly dispel this darkness, as it fades away, and we come to completely overcome the Ahrimanic influence in this way, then we will be able to perceive the world as it truly is as the earthly world. Then we will gradually approach the kind of insight that today can only be gained through Spiritual Science: we will penetrate to what matter truly is, to the nature of light. Even today, science still succumbs to the most varied illusions regarding the nature of light. Some believe that one sees light with the physical eyes. This is not correct. With the physical eyes, one does not see light, but only illuminated objects; one sees colors on the objects. One does not see light, but rather sees through the light. All such illusions will be dispelled. As a result, the image of the world—which, under the influence of Ahriman, was necessarily interwoven with error—will be transformed, and the content of wisdom will prevail. As human beings advance toward the light, they will themselves develop the soul’s counterpart to light. And the soul’s counterpart to light is wisdom.

[ 27 ] Through this, love and wisdom will enter the human soul. And love and wisdom will be the practical force, the very impulse of life, that is to arise—and will arise—from the theosophical worldview. Wisdom, which is the inner counterpart of light; wisdom, which can unite with love; and love, which is permeated by wisdom—these will find the right path to exert a counteracting influence on that which is immersed in the wisdom of the outer world. If we are to gradually become partakers of the other half of evolution—to overcome Lucifer and Ahriman once more—then we must imbue ourselves with wisdom and love. By developing wisdom and love, we develop those elements that will once again flow forth from our own souls as gifts for those who, in the first half of Earth’s evolution, sacrificed themselves as Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces in order to give us what we need to attain our freedom. We will have to give to these forces the wisdom and love that we develop in this way. But we must be aware: Because life must exist in the world, we must embrace cultures that serve as means of expression for this life. We wish to devote ourselves willingly and with love to a theosophical culture that will not last forever, but we want to embrace it with enthusiasm and create with love what we were previously driven to do under the influence of Lucifer. Because we now recognize that we must create out of love what we were once driven to create by the Luciferic influence, through desires and passions, we will now develop all the more abundant love beyond all of that. If we were to develop only the necessary love, we would not be able to build culture upon culture. Theosophy is meant to be something that fulfills every demand of the times with devotion and love, with the same enthusiasm with which people once worked under the influence of Lucifer. We will no longer harbor the illusion that what we do will last forever. But by creating culture upon culture with ever-increasing love, we thereby create an abundance of love. This benefits Lucifer; through it, his disappointments are also made up for. It is up to us to make amends to Lucifer for the disappointments he must suffer, by giving back to the other side what has been done for us.

[ 28 ] This is the other aspect of the karma of the higher beings: that we develop a love that does not remain merely within humanity, but is destined to penetrate the cosmos. We will be able to let this love flow into beings who are higher than we are, and these beings will perceive it as a sacrifice. It will be a sacrifice of the soul. This sacrifice of the soul will flow upward to those who once allowed their gifts to flow downward, just as incense offerings once rose to the spirits in times when people still possessed spiritual gifts. Back then, people could only send symbolic incense offerings upward to the gods. In the future, people will send streams of love upward to the spirits, and something will flow down again from this sacrifice of love: higher forces will flow toward humanity, which, guided by the spiritual realm, will intervene in our physical world with ever-greater power. These will then be magical forces in the true sense.

[ 29 ] Thus we see the course of human evolution as the karma of humanity and the karma of the higher beings play out. And we now also understand how the plan of evolution relates to individual human karma. Suppose a superhuman individuality had brought about this or that event in 1910, which was then carried out on the physical plane by a human being; this establishes a connection between this superhuman individuality and the human being. The human being is then interwoven into the karma of the higher beings. This is a completed correspondence. But then a current flows to him from the higher worlds, bringing something into his life; in this, he now has a new element that is added to his karma and that tips the balance one way or the other. Thus, human karma is enriched by the general karma that flows through the world.

[ 30 ] Let us consider, for example, Miltiades or any other historical figure: They had their place in the grand scheme of their people’s history; this or that was determined by the karma of the higher powers—and thus they were placed in their positions. What was meant to be bestowed upon all of humanity flowed into their individual karmic account. And as they carried it out, as they followed it up with deeds and achievements, it became their individual karma. — In this way, we, too, live and weave with our individual karma within the macrocosm as a small world, as a microcosm.

[ 31 ] This brings us to the end of the course, though not to the end of the matter itself. But there is no other way. If I may just add two words: I have delivered this series of lectures—precisely on those human questions that can so deeply move the human heart and yet are connected to the greatest destiny of even higher beings—and I say that I have taught this course truly from the depths of my soul and am glad that it was possible, even once, to speak about these things in a Theosophical branch, among Theosophical friends who had come from all directions to devote themselves to the contemplation of these questions—then I also speak these words from the very depths of my heart. Those who will have the opportunity to attend further courses will see that many of the questions that may be on someone’s mind following this cycle will be answered. But even those who are unable to attend these summer lectures will have the opportunity later to discuss such matters with me. And so, once again, I would like to say that I hope the topics we have discussed will be received not merely as abstract insights, but as insights that permeate our entire thinking, feeling, and willing—our entire life. So that one might see in the Theosophists of the world a parable and an image of what can be called the deepest theosophical truths. Let us strive to become such an image and parable ourselves; only then will we have a theosophical spiritual current in the world. Within our close circle, this theosophical spiritual current must first and foremost be a contemplation of spiritual knowledge. But then—first within our circle of members—these insights must become attitudes and, as such, be presented to the world. And the world will gradually come to realize that it was not in vain that, at the turn of the 20th century, there were honest and sincere Theosophists—people who sincerely and honestly believed in the power of spiritual forces. And by believing in this, they themselves were imbued with the power to work toward it. Culture will advance more and more rapidly in our lives if you yourselves transform what you hear into a way of thinking, into action, and into deeds. Not by convincing people! The current culture is hardly suited for that. Truly convinced will always be only those who approach Theosophy out of the deepest impulse of the heart; the others will not be convinced. We also see this karma in spiritual circles as something that materialism must have brought about, and we must regard these harmful effects as something against which Spiritual Science must prove itself to be a spiritual power.

[ 32 ] Thus, we must give what we can offer the world from the depths of our hearts. Everyone who has integrated Theosophy into the inner life of the soul will be a source of spiritual power. And anyone who believes in the supernatural may well be convinced that our theosophical insights and attitudes have a spiritual effect—that is, they spread invisibly out into the world—when we truly make ourselves conscious instruments imbued with theosophical life.