The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] If, in accordance with our goal, we are to continue throughout this winter to offer reflections that tie in with the Gospel of Mark, then this goal must certainly be viewed in a broader sense, and it may only become clear after some time why one reflection or another that must be addressed belongs precisely in this context. We will therefore have to discuss a few things today that seem quite far removed from our usual topic, but which will nevertheless be of great help to us in our further reflections.

[ 2 ] First, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that outsiders will never fully grasp one thing as long as they have not become reasonably familiar with the very essence of the Spiritual Science movement, namely: the significance and value—for those who do not yet possess clairvoyant abilities—of research that essentially has its sources, that is, its origins, in what we must call clairvoyant research. One might object: How can a belief, a conviction, or a certainty regarding spiritual truths develop in those who cannot yet see into the spiritual worlds? — Here, attention must repeatedly be drawn to the other aspect: that although we cannot see into the spiritual worlds as long as the clairvoyant eye is not opened, the consequences and revelations of what lies within those spiritual worlds continually emerge from them. So when clairvoyant research states that a human being consists of four constituent parts—the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I—then someone unfamiliar with clairvoyant research might say: “I see only the physical body; how can I convince myself—before my karma grants me the ability to see, for example, the astral body or the etheric body—that what is said about these higher constituents of human nature is true?”—Well, one can deny the existence of the astral body and the etheric body if one so wishes. But one cannot simply dismiss the consequences of those processes that take place in the astral and etheric bodies; they manifest themselves in human life. And today, so that you may gradually come to understand the structure of the human being as it underlies many expressions in the Gospels, I would like to show you how the consequences of the processes taking place, for example, in the astral body or the etheric body, do indeed manifest themselves in quite ordinary life on the physical plane.

[ 3 ] Let us first consider the difference between a person who, in a certain sense, is full of idealism—who sets high ideals for himself—and a person who is generally averse to setting high ideals for himself, who acts, so to speak, only under the external impulses of life—for example, that is, eats when hungry, sleeps when sleepy, and does this or that when driven by this or that passion or instinct. Of course, there are all sorts of intermediate stages between these two types of people—between those just described and those who are, so to speak, high idealists and whose intentions, thoughts, and the grandeur of their ideals always go beyond what they can achieve in ordinary life. Such idealists are, in general, in a peculiar position with regard to life. They must, after all, constantly convince themselves of the truth of the statement that it is never possible in life on the physical plane to do anything that truly lives up to our highest ideal in a given field. This is the admission that idealists must make to themselves time and again: My actions must inevitably fall short of my ideals. So, to be precise, we could say: The idealist always has something in his ideals—something he thinks about, to which he attaches his feelings—that is greater and broader than his actions. What characterizes the idealist in the Spiritual Science sense is that his thoughts are greater and more comprehensive than his actions. Consider this carefully: an idealist is thus someone whose intentions and thoughts are greater than the possible works on the physical plane.

[ 4 ] Of the person who lives in the other direction—the one that has been described—one can say the opposite: that he does not think as far ahead as he acts. Whoever acts solely out of instincts, passions, impulses, desires, and so on does not have a single thought that encompasses everything he does at a given moment; rather, he performs an action, a work on the physical plane, that involves things and events he does not think about. His intentions and thoughts are therefore less far-reaching, smaller than his actions and works on the physical plane.

[ 5 ] Now, the clairvoyant tells you something like the following about these two kinds of people. When we perform an action or accomplish a work in life that is greater and more comprehensive than our thoughts, that work always casts a reflection into our astral body. But in general, everything we do in life casts a reflection into our astral body. We cannot do anything in life without an image of the action remaining in our astral body once we have moved beyond the action itself. This image is later transmitted to the etheric body as well, and just as it is transmitted to the etheric body, it remains perceptible to the Akashic Records, so that a clairvoyant can see the mirror images of the actions a person has performed in the course of their life. Thus, even from those actions whose thoughts are greater than their execution—that is, those we perform out of idealism—reflections remain in the astral body, which in turn carry over into the etheric body. But this is the great difference between the reflections of actions arising from instincts, drives, passions, and so on, and the reflections of actions we perform out of idealism: all reflections of the first kind have, in a certain sense, a destructive effect on our entire life. They are those images and inclusions in our astral body that gradually react upon our entire human being in such a way that they actually—one might say—slowly consume this human being. And these mirror images are essentially connected to the slow way in which a human being wears himself out in his life until death—that is, in his being on the physical plane—while the mirror images that arise from what passes from our thoughts into our actions have a revitalizing quality. They are particularly stimulating for the etheric body, for they are the ones that continually bring new, life-giving forces into our entire human being.

[ 6 ] So, according to the clairvoyant’s statements, we do indeed have devastating, destructive forces within our human nature on the physical plane, and we also have constantly life-giving forces within us. As a rule, one can very clearly observe the effects of these forces in life. For example, there are people who go through life who are morose, hypochondriacal, of a gloomy temperament, unable to cope with their own inner life—and this inner life, in turn, affects their physical organism. They have become anxious by nature, and one can observe how anxiety, when it persists indefinitely in life, undermines the organism’s health right down to the physical level. In short, there are people who, in later life, are melancholic and have a gloomy disposition; they also struggle greatly with themselves and are unbalanced in a variety of ways. If we were to investigate the causes of such behavior, we would find that these people had little opportunity, in earlier periods of their physical existence, to experience what might be called an idealistic transcendence of thought over human actions—a state in which thoughts are greater than actions.

[ 7 ] One does not observe such things in everyday life, but the effects are very much present. The effects are there, and many people feel these effects very strongly—they feel them as their entire mood in life, as their entire state of mind, and even in their physical condition. So one might deny the existence of the astral body, but one cannot deny its consequences, for one experiences those consequences. And when what has just been described manifests itself in life, then people should realize that it is not entirely foolish to speak of such things—such as the argument that while the observation of supersensory events is possible only to the clairvoyant, the revelation of the facts observed clairvoyantly can always be demonstrated in life.

[ 8 ] In contrast, we see that actions which are smaller than their corresponding thoughts leave behind impressions that manifest in later life as courage, self-assurance, and balance. This then extends into the very core of the physical organism, and one only begins to notice these connections when one looks at life over a long period of time, rather than focusing on only short segments of life. This is, after all, the flaw in many scientific analyses: that one always determines the effect of this or that based on what happens over the next five years, whereas the effects of many things often do not become apparent until decades later.

[ 9 ] Now consider that, strictly speaking, one must say that there are not only people who are simply idealistic by nature—whose thoughts go beyond their individual experiences—and those whose thoughts always lag behind their experiences. For example, we have a great number of experiences that can be grasped in thought only with the greatest difficulty. Eating and drinking, for instance, are things we do every day out of impulse or instinct, and it really takes quite a long time for someone undergoing spiritual development to incorporate these things, so to speak, into their spiritual life. It is precisely the everyday things that are the most difficult to incorporate into spiritual life, for we have only truly incorporated eating and drinking when we can understand why, in order to serve the entire course of the world, we must take in physical substances in a rhythmic process, and what relationship these physical substances have to spiritual life; how metabolism is not merely a physical process, but also has a spiritual aspect through its rhythm.

[ 10 ] However, there is a way to gradually spiritualize these things that are not merely dictated by an external material necessity. For there is, in fact, the possibility of viewing these things in such a way that we say to ourselves: We eat this or that fruit, and through our spiritual insights we can at least form a mental image of how, say, an apple or any other fruit relates to the universe as a whole. — But that takes a long time. Then we get used to not letting eating be merely a material fact, but rather we get used to noting, for example, what part the spirit plays in the ripening of a fruit in the sun’s rays. In this way, we spiritualize even the most material, everyday processes and gain the ability to penetrate them with our thoughts; I can only hint at this here—how thoughts and ideas can be brought into them. But this is a long road, and very few people in our age are able to think fully and meaningfully about eating.

[ 11 ] We must therefore say that there are not only people who act instinctively and those who act idealistically, but that in every person, life is divided in such a way that some of their actions are performed in a manner where thoughts cannot keep pace with the actions, and others where thoughts and ideals have greater scope than the actions. Therefore, we have within us a kind of force that leads our life downward; this force works to ensure that our physical organism gradually matures, so to speak, toward death due to inner causes. And we have other forces within us that supply our astral and etheric bodies with life-giving energy—forces that continually shine forth like a new light within our astral and etheric bodies. It is these latter forces that truly remain as life-giving forces in our etheric body. When, after death, we leave our physical forms with our spiritual being, we still have—in the first days after death—our etheric body with us and thereby have that retrospective view of our entire life. And the best thing that now remains to us as an inner formative force are the very vitalizing forces just mentioned, which arise from the fact that our ideas have transcended the scope of our actions. This is something that continues to have an effect even beyond death, containing further vitalizing forces, even for the next incarnation.

[ 12 ] Therefore, we may say: Whatever we instill in ourselves as life-giving forces remains in the etheric body and constitutes a lasting force of youth. And even if this does not actually prolong our lives, we must still say that we can shape our lives so that they remain youthful and fresh for longer by performing many actions in such a way that our thoughts transcend the scope of those actions.

[ 13 ] If a person asks how they can attain such ideals that best transcend our actions, we can say: This is possible if we engage with Spiritual Science, which leads us into the supersensible worlds. - When, for example, we hear about the evolution of humanity in our solar system from the perspective of spiritual science, such teachings stir forces within our higher aspects of being, and through this we gain—especially in the present day—the most concrete and certain form of idealism. If the question is: What purpose does Spiritual Science serve in particular, apart from everything else?—then we can say: It pours youthful, invigorating forces into our astral and etheric bodies.

[ 14 ] People have such varied attitudes toward what we call Spiritual Science, not because they are not clairvoyant as people of the present, but because they do not wish to observe even in their external lives. Otherwise, they would already see the many different ways in which even within the organism that which we initially call the spiritual-soul human being manifests itself. Then people who stand outside in the world and are thoroughly skeptical of Spiritual Science might hear: Spiritual Science says that the human physical body is filled with certain higher components. Let us take these together and call them the spiritual-soul human being. But today’s materialists do not want to believe in this spiritual-soul human being; they believe only in the physical human being and thereby become materialists, particularly with regard to the physical human being. The term “materialists” is often understood to refer only to theoretical materialists who believe solely in matter. But I have emphasized time and again: these theoretical materialists are not the worst. For such a materialist can also be someone who derives their concepts solely from the intellect, and these are, in any case, the most short-sighted concepts. Therefore, materialism based solely on reason cannot be so harmful. But when it is reinforced by other factors, it can become quite harmful to a person’s entire life—especially when a person, with the innermost spiritual core of their being, clings to their matter, to their physical substance.

[ 15 ] And how dependent humanity is on matter, especially in our age! The existence of theoretical materialists is seductive in terms of ideas and disastrous in terms of what is actually supposed to shape our souls; but our external life is particularly influenced by the fact that there are so many materialists in practical life. What is a materialist in practical life? It is a person who is so dependent on physical matter that he can spend only a few months of the winter in his office and, if he wants to live at all, must spend the summer on the Riviera. There, he is entirely dependent on material processes, on material combinations. These are materialists in practical life. One becomes a materialist by being entirely dependent on the material world, by being forced to let one’s soul chase after the needs that life dictates to us. This is a very different kind of materialist from the one who lives a materialistic life merely in thoughts and ideas. Theoretical idealism may perhaps still lead to the conviction that theoretical materialism is wrong. But to cure the practical materialist—to cure our dependence on the material aspects of the physical body—that can only be achieved through true immersion in Spiritual Science.

[ 16 ] Now, if people were only willing to think—that is, to think thoughts that arise not merely from the intellect but from a connection with reality—they could deduce from entirely everyday facts that there is a great difference, let us say, between the individual members of the human being. I will first point out a difference that exists, for example, between the hands and some other part of the human body, such as the shoulders. If we examine the physical human being merely from the outside, in a purely physical sense, we find physical differences, for example, regarding the course of the nerves and the like. But we must bear in mind that we can exert a certain influence on these nerve pathways. If the nerve pathways alone were decisive for the soul, we would be dependent on material effects, for nerve pathways are material effects. But that is not the case at all, for we do have an influence on the course of the nerves—and in the most varied ways—precisely because the manner in which our astral body and etheric body act—that is, the spiritual-soul aspect of the human being—is extremely diverse. We must not simply say: “Your physical body is filled with the astral body and the etheric body”—rather, it varies depending on whether we consider the part that fills the hands, or the part we locate in the shoulders or the like. These different spiritual parts act differently; one could easily convince oneself of this. One must simply be clear that what happens in life corresponds to necessity, and that one must not thoughtlessly pursue whatever happens in life. If a particular draft is not right, the physicist can use his laws to consider why the draft has directed itself toward that particular area. But why do people not reflect on the immense significance this has in life—it may seem strange that such a thing could be suggested, but it is precisely in everyday phenomena that the clairvoyant’s revelations prove true—that in life, people actually wash their hands more often than any other part of their body? This is, in any case, a fact. And it is also a fact that there are people who wash their hands often and willingly, and others who are less inclined to do so. Such a fact, which seems quite trivial, is in reality connected with the highest insights. When the clairvoyant looks at a person’s hands, they are indeed wonderfully different from all other limbs, even from the face. Radiant formations of the etheric body emanate from the fingers and shine far into the surrounding space, extending into it at times with a faint, glowing light, at other times with a piercing intensity. Depending on whether a person is happy or sad, their fingers radiate differently, and the back of the hand radiates differently than the inner palm. And for those who know how to observe spiritually, the hand—with its etheric and astral components—is a truly wondrous structure. Yet everything in our surroundings, even if it is matter, is a manifestation of the spirit. Matter is to the spiritual as ice is to water; it is formed out of the spiritual. If you will, you might say it is condensed spirit. So when we enter into a relationship with any material substance, we are entering into a relationship with the spiritual within that substance. All our contact with matter is, in truth—insofar as it is material—Maya. In truth, it is the spirit with which we enter into some kind of relationship.

[ 17 ] The way in which we connect with the spirit in water when we wash our hands is such that, if one knows how to observe life with sensitivity, one must say that how often a person washes their hands has a great influence on their overall state of mind. There are people who have a certain preference for washing their hands; if there is even the slightest trace of dirt on their hands, they simply cannot help but wash it away. These are the people who, in a very specific way, have—or develop—a certain relationship, particularly with their surroundings. This relationship is not limited merely to the material realm; rather, it is as if subtle forces within the material world begin to act upon a person when they establish the relationship described between their hands and the element of water. Such people will show us even in this life that, in a certain way—and in a healthy sense—they become more sensitive and perceptive, observing more keenly, for example, whether a person with a brutal disposition or a good-natured disposition is standing near them, whereas people who tolerate dirt on their hands are in fact coarser in nature and actually demonstrate that they erect something like walls between themselves and the more intimate relationships in their surroundings. This is the case, and you can observe it ethnographically yourself, if you wish. Travel through different countries and try to observe the people. You may find that hands are washed more frequently in some places than others. Examine the nature of interpersonal relationships—how the bonds between friends and acquaintances differ significantly in regions where hands are washed more often, compared to regions where people erect a wall by washing their hands less frequently.

[ 18 ] These things hold true like a law of nature. Other circumstances can mask this fact. When we throw a stone through the air, its trajectory forms a parabola. But if the stone is caught by a gust of wind, the parabola is not there. This shows, then, that one must be familiar with the methodology in order to observe certain conditions correctly. — But where does this come from? It stems from the fact that the clairvoyant consciousness perceives how the spiritual-soul aspect subtly permeates the hands. This is even the case to such an extent that a particular connection between water and the hands is established. This is less the case for the human face, and least of all for the other parts of the human body’s surface. However, this should not be understood as representing any kind of opposition to bathing and washing; rather, it is intended to shed light on the relevant conditions.

[ 19 ] This is proof that, so to speak, the spiritual-soul aspect of the human being stands in a very different relationship to its various limbs, that it manifests itself, so to speak, in different ways in the various limbs. You will hardly ever see anyone’s astral body being harmed by washing their hands too often. One must simply consider this in its full significance. This stems from the fact that it is true that the relationship established between a person and their surroundings—specifically between a person’s astral body and their surroundings—is healthily influenced by the interaction of the hands with water. Therefore, even in this area, it is not easy to go to extremes. However, if one thinks materialistically and clings entirely to matter in one’s thoughts, one will say: “What is good for the hands is good for the rest of the body as well”—and thus fails to recognize the subtle distinction that exists here. The result is what has become abundantly clear: that the human body is treated in the same way for certain things. For example, a so-called “cold rubdown” and “cold washing” are repeatedly recommended—even for children—as a very special therapeutic method. Fortunately, even today medical professionals are beginning to realize—due to the effects on the nervous system—that these methods have been taken to absurd extremes. For—because of the special relationship between the astral body and the hands—what can never be enough for the hands can quickly degenerate into a harmful experiment where the body stands in a different relationship to the astral body. Therefore, while handwashing fosters a healthy sensitivity to one’s surroundings, an excessive regimen of cold washes and the like induces an unhealthy hypersensitivity and similar conditions, which often—especially when such a regimen is practiced during childhood—persist for a lifetime. That is why it is essential everywhere to know the limits, and these will only be recognized when people are willing to accept that the higher members of the being are integrated into the physical body. Then it will also be recognized that the parts of the physical body located more deeply within—that is, what we have as instruments in our physical body—are nourished in very different ways by the spiritual-soul being. Thus, one will have to acknowledge that everything pertaining to the glands is, to a special degree, an instrument of the etheric body, whereas everything pertaining to the nervous system—for example, the brain—stands in an intimate relationship to the astral body.

[ 20 ] People will never be able to understand why certain phenomena exist if they do not take such things into account. First of all, materialists are mistaken in that they focus solely on the instrument in everything. For everything we experience, we experience in the soul, and the fact that we are conscious of it depends on our physical body serving as a mirror for these experiences; thus, for what takes place in the soul, our physical body is nothing more than an instrument. The Spiritual Science scientist is certainly clear on this point. But this physical body serves as an instrument in various ways. This often becomes apparent in quite remarkable ways. I need only point to one example: the very peculiar significance of our thyroid gland. As you know, the thyroid gland was once regarded as an insignificant organ and was removed in cases of illness, and in such cases the affected individuals lapsed into idiocy. But if even a portion of the thyroid gland remains, this danger is essentially averted. This shows that the secretion of the thyroid gland is necessary for the development of certain aspects of the soul life. Now here is something very peculiar: if one administers the secretion of a sheep’s thyroid gland to people who have lost their thyroid gland, it turns out that their mental retardation improves; and if one withdraws it again, they become mentally retarded once more.

[ 21 ] A materialist might find a great deal to work with here. But a scholar of Spiritual Science will know how to evaluate such a matter in the proper sense. We do, after all, observe the peculiar fact that we are indeed dealing with an organ whose product we can directly introduce into our organism, and then it takes effect. This is the case only with those organs that have an intimate relationship with our etheric body, so that we can say: Something like what happens with the thyroid gland is only possible where a specific relationship to the etheric body exists. Where a similar relationship to the astral body exists, the same thing is not possible. I have met people of more or less limited intelligence who have eaten sheep brains and have not become any smarter. This shows that there is, once again, a great difference between the individual organs. This difference is so significant simply because one group of organs has an inner relationship to the etheric body, while the other has an inner relationship to the astral body. From this, something quite special emerges for spiritual contemplation.

[ 22 ] It does seem very strange that a person, so to speak, becomes stupid when his thyroid gland is missing, and that he regains his intelligence when thyroid secretion is administered to him. This seems odd because it is hard to see how his brain could be impaired by this. Here, however, you have yet another point where external observation of human beings should necessarily lead to a spiritual-scientific perspective. For Spiritual Science shows that a person does not become stupid at all when their thyroid gland is removed. But, you will say, the facts show that a person does become stupid! — In reality, however, people do not become idiots because they cannot think, but because they lack the ability to use attention as a tool in relation to their surroundings. They do not become idiots because they lack intelligence, but because they become numb to their surroundings. And becoming numb is different from losing one’s mind. One does not need to have lost one’s mind if one fails to exercise it because one has not developed attentiveness. If you do not think about something, you cannot express an opinion about it; you must first think if you want to take a stance on something. Empathy—that lively interest in things—is undermined when the thyroid gland is removed. People are rendered apathetic, to such an extent that they fail to use their intellect.

[ 23 ] There you have the subtle distinction between the use of a tool for the mind—such as parts of the brain—and a tool related to a gland, such as the thyroid gland. In this way, we can shed light on how our physical body functions as a tool, and, if we are attentive, we will also be able to distinguish between the different parts of the human being.

[ 24 ] Even with regard to the “I,” we can say that it manifests itself in a wide variety of ways in its relationship to the environment. Here, certain aspects of the “I” come into play that I have already described from other perspectives: that a person, through their “I,” delves deeper into themselves, as it were, and attempts to become aware of themselves—or, conversely, that they open themselves up more to the external world, striving to establish a connection with it. In a certain sense, we become aware of our “I” when we turn our gaze inward, when we have cause to reflect on what life gives us, what it withholds from us, and so on. That is when we become aware of our “I.” Or we become aware of it when we come into contact with the external world, for example, when we bump into a rock. Or when we cannot solve a math problem, we become aware of our “I” as something powerless in the face of the conditions of the outside world, and so on. In short, we can become aware of our “I” through our own experiences as well as through the outside world. A person becomes particularly aware of their “I” when that magical connection to other people or the environment arises—what we call empathy or compassion. This truly reveals that a magical effect passes from soul to soul, from spirit to spirit. For we feel something that is happening out there in the world—what is being felt and thought there—once again within ourselves; we experience something spiritual and soulful that is happening outside, right within ourselves. In this way, we truly immerse ourselves in our inner being. For compassion and empathy are inner soul experiences. And when our “I” is not quite up to the task of these experiences and needs to strengthen itself from within, this is expressed in grief purely on a soul level, and in the tear itself physically. For grief is the soul experience through which the “I” feels stronger in the face of an external experience than it would feel if it were indifferent. Grief is always an inner intensification of the ego’s activity. Grief heightens the content and intensity of the ego, and the tear is merely the expression of the fact that the ego is, in fact, making an effort at that very moment to experience more within itself than it would in a state of indifference.

[ 25 ] Therefore, we must admire the poetic imagination—deeply connected to the mysteries of the world—even in the young Goethe, who first allows Faust’s weakness regarding his ego to reach the point where Faust initially seeks to physically annihilate his ego, driven to the brink of suicide. Then the Easter bells ring out, and at their sound the “I” begins to feel stronger—precisely because the sign that usually signifies mourning rises within Faust’s soul: “The tear wells up, the earth has me again!” That is to say, that which belongs to the earth has been strengthened as the tears well up in his eyes. Here we see the inner growth of the “I”’s intensity expressed in the tear.

[ 26 ] In what we know as cheerfulness or laughter, we again find something connected to the strength or weakness of our ego in relation to the outside world. Cheerfulness or laughter mean that our ego feels stronger in terms of recognizing and understanding things and events. When we laugh, our ego contracts and intensifies to such an extent that it easily spills over into our surroundings. This is expressed in cheerfulness, in the way we amuse ourselves. Related to this is the fact that sadness is, at its core, something that a person is meant to experience—or at least, a healthy person wants to experience it this way—in such a way that the cause of this sadness is real. Whatever in reality affects us in such a way that we feel compelled, through our own participation, to elevate our “I” in its inner activity—that is precisely what can put us in a sorrowful mood. But if sadness is to be based on something that is not real—but rather, for example, a mere artistic representation of something intended solely to make one sad—then a person who thinks clearly feels that they need something else in order to face such a situation as a whole. They feel that what makes them sad must be accompanied, so to speak, by a sense that what causes grief can be overcome by that which conquers misery. This is merely to be hinted at today, to be further elaborated upon on another occasion. The healthy soul feels within itself the urge to rise up, to fill itself in the face of mere misery. As for the mere imitation of misery, it requires a nature that is not entirely healthy—unless there is, within this imitation, the prospect that victory over misery is possible. Therefore, we demand of drama that there be a prospect of victory for the personality that has fallen into misery. This cannot be arbitrarily decreed by aesthetics or arranged in such a way that only the trivial elements of life are portrayed; rather, it will become apparent here that the person who surrenders entirely to his or her healthy nature is, in fact, so to speak, unable to cope with his or her own self when confronted solely with imitated misery. It takes the full force of reality for our ego to rouse itself to compassion.

[ 27 ] Try to feel it deep in your soul—isn’t it quite different when it comes to the humor that surrounds us? In a certain sense, it takes a heartless person to laugh at real folly. We cannot laugh at the folly we encounter in reality. On the other hand, it is immensely healthy to laugh at folly that is portrayed. And it was a healthy folk remedy when burlesques and comedic performances showed people how the folly of human action reduces itself to absurdity. When our sense of self is prompted to rise above, through laughter, what is recognized as folly in that context, it is strengthened precisely by the sight of the folly presented to us artistically, and there is no healthier laughter than that which is evoked by artistically depicted folly, whereas it is inhumane to laugh at what happens to a fellow human being or at a truly foolish person. Therefore, certain artistic principles must be observed if these things are to be portrayed effectively.

[ 28 ] If we are to strengthen our sense of self through compassion, then we must say that we can do so especially when we are confronted with the pitiful reality itself. In contrast, as healthy individuals, we demand that the depicted reality of misery allow us to sense within it the possibility of victory over that misery. And in the case of the dying hero of tragedy—where we are indeed confronted with death in art—we feel that this death symbolizes the victory of the spirit over the physical. The situation is reversed when we relate the self to the external world. There we feel that, in the face of reality, we cannot truly achieve cheerfulness or laughter in the proper way, but that we are led to laughter primarily by that which is more or less removed from reality—that which has more or less nothing to do with reality. If a person experiences a mishap that does not particularly harm them and that is less closely connected to the reality of life, then we can indeed laugh at their mishap. But the more what we experience is related to reality, the less we can laugh once our understanding rises above it.

[ 29 ] From this we see that our “I” has a distinct relationship to reality. This diversity of facts, however, shows us that a connection exists everywhere, even with the greatest. In various lectures, we have learned how, in the ancient initiation, there were two different paths to the spiritual: one path was immersion into one’s own inner self, into the microcosm; the other was reaching out into the macrocosm, into the greater world. Everything that manifests itself in the greater world is also already present in the smallest things. The way in which a person descends into their own inner self in everyday life is revealed to us in grief; and the way in which a person can express themselves in the outer world is revealed in the ability with which they can grasp the connection between events that appear to them as disconnected in life. In this, the superiority of the “I” is revealed. And we have heard that the “I,” which does not lose itself, can only be guided by the initiation that leads into the external world. Otherwise, it loses itself and, instead of leading into the external world, can lead only into what appears to it as nothingness.

[ 30 ] The smallest things are connected to the greatest. That is why, in Spiritual Science—where we so often rise to the highest spheres—we must occasionally venture into the spheres that belong to the most everyday realities. Next time, let us draw upon what we have characterized today when we once again turn our attention to higher spheres.