The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Eighth Lecture

[ 1 ] In a series of lectures such as the one we have just completed, one is easily led to thoughts that, here and there, point to what might be called contemporary culture. After all, we have had to draw attention in various details to how the Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces play into this contemporary culture in a peculiar way. Now, anyone who approaches a kind of objective observation of contemporary culture with an unbiased sensibility and some understanding of insights from Spiritual Science will undoubtedly find the chaotic and confused nature of this very contemporary culture. It has, so to speak, been a habit of mine for years to point as little as possible in this or that direction, but rather to use our time to contribute in a positive way, to the best of our ability, to the opening up of the spiritual worlds. But although we should not essentially deviate from this habit, it must nevertheless be emphasized again and again that through this—and the word is chosen, truly, not out of immodesty—self-imposed restraint, various misunderstandings creep into the very course of our striving and our work. And from our particular standpoint, two things are necessary for us. First, an objectively correct understanding that, admittedly, the evolution and development of the post-Atlantean world have, with a certain understandable necessity, brought about the chaotic, the confused, and the partly inferior and subordinate aspects of present-day human culture in the widest circles; that one cannot get by with mere criticism, but rather needs an objectively correct understanding. On the other hand, it is necessary to confront this confusion and the chaotic nature of contemporary spiritual life with clear and open eyes, insofar as one stands on the perspective to be gained through Spiritual Science. For one must time and again experience how even our well-meaning, best-intentioned friends come up with the remark that here or there something thoroughly anthroposophical has appeared once more, and how one must convince oneself of just how inferior these so-called anthroposophical things actually are. As I said, I do not wish to deviate from my usual practice, but I would nevertheless like, as it were by way of example, to point out at least one particularly grotesque phenomenon at the conclusion of our lecture series. At present, it is precisely such personalities who are making a particularly broad appearance—those who present themselves to the world with a certain scholarly air, without actually understanding even the very least of anything. And anyone who does not accustom themselves to exercising discernment can, under certain circumstances, be very easily seduced by such self-proclaimed scholarly words. This is something that should gradually disappear, especially within our own circles. We should cultivate an objective, clear discernment. This would also enable us to view the relationship between those inferior currents and personalities and our own movement—as we envision it—more accurately than has been the case so far.

[ 2 ] Under certain circumstances, such trends come to the fore, and not to criticize or to raise any issues related to opposition to our work, but—as I said—to provide an objective characterization, I would like to mention just one thing. For example, a Berlin publisher has released an edition of “The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz” and other works by Christian Rosenkreutz. Now, of course, some of our friends or others interested in occult currents will readily pick up such a new edition of writings that were otherwise always hard to come by. Now, an introduction has just been published for *The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz* that truly surpasses anything imaginable in terms of grotesque erudition—I’d rather avoid a more specific term. I’d like to read you just a few lines from this introduction, on page II. I do not wish to go into detail about what else is put forward, but I will read a few lines. “If one approaches the occult sciences”—it says—“with a critical and precise mindset”—these are words that in themselves are enough to seduce many—“one will soon realize that it is precisely from here that one can establish contact with the two poles mentioned.” I do not wish to speak about the poles cited by the author in question, for all of that is merely—I would rather avoid the more specific term. “The newly formulated concept of ‘emAllomatik’ is particularly well-suited for this purpose; under its guidance, one can easily overcome all difficulties arising from both sides.” Allomatik is something that particularly impresses many. “Allomatics is the doctrine, science, and philosophy of the Other (derived from the Greek allos = the other, as opposed to autos = self). Allomatics teaches the nullity and non-existence of the ego. Everything is and comes from the non-ego, that is, from outside, from above, from below—in short: from the Other.” And this erudition continues. This erudition, with which people are being prepared for the “Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz”—I really do not say this out of animosity, but out of objective logic—is entirely equivalent to establishing, instead of xenology and allomatics, a pearology or a pearomatics. For with exactly the same logic as this strange eccentric, who reduces the world to Self and Non-Self, one can reduce the world to a pear and everything that is not this pear, namely the Other of this pear. And one can use exactly the same words and concepts to explain the whole world in terms of pear and non-pear. In the sense of such a gentleman, nothing is left out of the world and its phenomena if, instead of explaining them in terms of the Self and the Other, one explains them according to a Pearology and Pearomatics, a doctrine of the pear and the Other of the pear. This presents itself as scholarly work; it also employs all sorts of comparisons from embryology in order to be able to present itself as scholarly work; it speaks in roughly the same tone as many of our so-called scholarly works, which are accepted as something serious and which are often—as I said, let this be said without animosity, but rather in full brotherhood—honestly accepted among our friends as if they were something, whereas they arise solely from the inferiority of our time. This indicates a rather lack of discernment regarding what has intrinsic value and what stands on the same level of literary quality as such material. Therefore, one can also say with full objectivity: If such a person is precisely one of those who have also brought up or repeated the foolish Jesuit fairy tale, then one can also form an idea of the value of the hostilities that have recently been directed against us from all sides. — The main point is to gain the proper perspective on what is currently emerging from all corners of the world on occult grounds and yet is regarded by some as equivalent to sincere, profound Spiritual Science. The point is to develop the right attitude toward some of these gentlemen if one wishes to honestly commit to Spiritual Science, and this attitude consists in ignoring them entirely rather than coddling and nurturing everything they produce; in knowing that one should actually advise them, during the times they spend on such scribblings, to make themselves more useful to humanity by engaging in something else, such as fretwork. That would be of far greater benefit to humanity than such stuff. It is necessary that we view such things with complete objectivity and accustom ourselves to truly assessing and evaluating contemporary culture with these ingredients of its own in the right way. If we only have the right thoughts and feelings about these things and about the corresponding personalities, then we will manage just fine. We must be clear about one thing: that, on the other hand, these phenomena of the present are explainable, for we have seen Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces reaching into the cultural development of humanity.

[ 3 ] Just as everything—as we have often pointed out—changes from epoch to epoch in the forces at work in human development, so too do the Ahrimanic and Luciferic influences change. Our epoch is, in a certain sense, a kind of reverse repetition of the Egyptian-Chaldean period, but because it is a reverse repetition, the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces play, on the whole, a different role in external culture in our time than they did in the ancient Egyptian-Chaldean age. During the Egyptian-Chaldean period, the human soul could look upon what was happening and, in a certain sense, say: From one side come the Ahrimanic influences, from the other the Luciferic ones. In Egyptian culture, these were still very clearly distinguishable externally. In the Greco-Latin cultural epoch, it was already the case that, one might say, Lucifer and Ahriman met directly before the human soul. And they held each other in balance there. Anyone who can delve more deeply into the very essence of Greco-Latin culture will already be able to observe this balancing between Lucifer and Ahriman. In our time, things have changed again. It is the case that in the outer world, so to speak, Lucifer and Ahriman form an alliance, already binding their impulses together into a knot in the outer world before these impulses reach the human soul, so that we have this tangle, this knot within our cultural development, where in ancient times we had separate strands of Ahrimanic and Luciferic impulses. This makes it particularly difficult for human beings to untangle this knot, to find their way through this tangle. Everywhere in our cultural movement we have Luciferic and Ahrimanic threads intertwined in a colorful jumble, and we will not gain a healthy perspective on our cultural conditions until we realize that in very many currents of agitation, indeed in very many abstract ideas and external events, both present and future, the tangled threads of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic impulses are at play. Vigilance regarding these threads, vigilance regarding what lies in the colorful jumble of Luciferic and Ahrimanic elements—that is what must be heeded. And no one today is in a better position to fully grapple with these Luciferic and Ahrimanic elements than the one who attempts to walk the spiritual path of knowledge, to endow the soul with clairvoyant powers, so that what the human being is as a being—but cannot know with ordinary consciousness—may truly be revealed and become the subject of true Spiritual Science. And in this context—as is evident from the descriptions that have been given—it is important to note that as soon as one enters the higher worlds, one must, so to speak, cross a threshold. That, insofar as one is an earthly human being and has made one’s soul clairvoyant, one must cross this threshold back and forth and must always know how to conduct oneself in the right way both in the spiritual world, beyond the threshold, and in the physical world, on this side of the threshold. Reference has also been made in the lectures and now repeatedly in our drama cycle to an important experience, the threshold experience, the so-called encounter with the Keeper of the Threshold.

[ 4 ] It is certainly possible—as has already been mentioned—to ascend into the spiritual worlds and experience many things there without having this encounter with the Keeper of the Threshold, which is in part unsettling but in other respects highly significant and important. But for a clear, objective view of the spiritual worlds, it is of infinite importance that one has had this encounter with the Keeper of the Threshold at least once. I have alluded to everything connected with this in my book *The Threshold of the Spiritual World*, to the extent that this is possible in a work that treats these matters in an aphoristic manner. I have added various points in the course of these lectures. I would like to add here—for if I were to characterize the encounter with the Keeper of the Threshold in detail, I would have to give a long series of lectures—only a few further details regarding the nature of this Keeper of the Threshold. I would like to point out that when a human being first leaves his physical body, in which the physical world is his environment, he enters the elemental world; and then, when this elemental world is his environment, he lives in the etheric body just as he lives in the physical body in the physical world. When he then steps out of the etheric body with clairvoyance, he lives in the astral body and has the spiritual world as his environment. And we have pointed out that a human being can also step out of his astral body and be in his true Self. Then the super-spiritual world becomes his environment. By entering these worlds, the human being thus ultimately reaches what he always possesses in the depths of his soul—his true Self—while even in the spiritual world he encounters the manner in which the true Self, the other Self, reveals itself there, namely, enveloped in thought-life-being. All of us who walk about on the physical plane have this other self within us, only that ordinary consciousness can know nothing of it; one experiences the essence of this other self, this true self, only when one ascends into the spiritual and super-spiritual worlds. But fundamentally, we thus always carry this true self within us as our constant companion. Yet this true self, which one encounters at the threshold to the spiritual world, is present in a peculiar way—one might say in a peculiar guise. At the threshold to the spiritual world, this true self can clothe itself in all that constitutes our weaknesses and shortcomings, in all that makes us, so to speak, inclined to cling with our whole being to the physical-sensory world or at least to the elemental world.

[ 5 ] We thus encounter our own true self at the threshold to the spiritual worlds. Abstract theosophy can very easily say: This is ourselves, this other self, this true self. — In the face of reality, this phrase—that we are ourselves—does not carry much meaning. We do, however, all walk about in the spiritual worlds as our other self, but we are indeed very much another. When we dwell with our consciousness in the physical world, then our other self is truly quite very different, a stranger to us, a being whom we truly encounter as far more foreign than another human being of the earthly world. And this other self, this true I, is clothed in our weaknesses, in all that which we must actually leave behind and do not wish to leave behind, because as physical-sensual human beings we are habitually attached to it when we wish to cross the threshold. Thus, at the threshold to the spiritual world, we actually encounter a spiritual being who differs from all other spiritual beings we might encounter in the supersensible worlds. All other spiritual beings appear, as it were, more or less clothed in forms that are more appropriate to their own nature than is the case with the forms of the Keeper of the Threshold. He clothes himself in that which arouses in us not only worry and sorrow, but often revulsion and disgust. He clothes himself in our weaknesses, in that which makes us tremble with fear of not being able to separate ourselves from it, or even causes us not only to blush but to almost perish in shame when we must look upon what we are and what the Keeper of the Threshold clothes himself in. It is thus an encounter with oneself, yet in truth an encounter with another being.

[ 6 ] It is not so easy to get past the Guardian of the Threshold. One might say: In relation to a true, correct perception of the spiritual worlds, it is easy to gain any perception of the spiritual worlds at all. To have some impressions of the spiritual world is actually, especially in our present time, not particularly difficult. But to enter the spiritual world in such a way that one perceives it in its truth—this necessitates, even if it is perhaps reserved for one only later in life, an encounter with the Keeper of the Threshold—and one must be well prepared in order to experience it, if one is able to, in the right way. —Most people, or at least very many, reach, so to speak, the Keeper of the Threshold. But it is always a matter of consciously coming to the Keeper of the Threshold. Unconsciously, we stand before him every night. And this Keeper of the Threshold is actually a great benefactor in that he does not allow himself to be seen, for people could not bear him. To bring to consciousness what we unconsciously experience every night is, in fact, to have the encounter with the Keeper of the Threshold. Usually, people go so far as to reach the very boundary where, so to speak, the Guardian of the Threshold stands. At such a moment, however, something very peculiar happens to the soul. For the soul experiences this moment in a twilight state between consciousness and unconsciousness; it does not allow it to fully enter consciousness. The soul tends to see itself at the boundary as it is, as it clings to the physical world with its weaknesses and shortcomings. But the soul cannot bear this, and even before the entire process can come into consciousness, the soul, so to speak, numbs its consciousness through the revulsion it feels. And such moments, when the soul numbs its consciousness, are the best points of attack for the Ahrimanic beings. We do indeed come to the Guardian of the Threshold when, for example, our sense of self has developed with a very special strength and power. We must strengthen this sense of self if we wish to live our way up into the spiritual world. As this sense of self is strengthened, so too are all inclinations and habits, the weaknesses and prejudices that are otherwise kept in check in the outer world through education, through habit, and through external culture. At the threshold of the spiritual world, the Luciferic impulses assert themselves from within, and because the human soul has a tendency to numb itself, Lucifer immediately joins forces with Ahriman, with the result that the human being is denied entry into the spiritual world. If a person seeks the insights of Spiritual Science with a healthy soul and does not live under a pathological craving for spiritual experiences, then nothing particularly evil can happen at this threshold. If one observes everything that can be observed within genuine, true Spiritual Science, nothing else happens except that, in a certain way, Lucifer and Ahriman maintain a balance for the striving soul at the threshold of the spiritual world, and the human being does not enter the spiritual world with his soul. But if there is a particular craving to enter the spiritual world, then what actually happens is what one might call “snacking” on the spiritual world. And what has been “snacked” upon is condensed by Ahriman, and something then forces its way into the human consciousness that cannot actually enter. The person then experiences what they have sampled from the spiritual world in a condensed state, where it confronts them in such a way that it looks entirely like physical impressions. In short, they have hallucinations, illusions; they believe they are standing before a spiritual world because they have advanced as far as the Guardian of the Threshold but have not passed beyond it, instead being thrown back by their own greed for the spiritual world. And what he has sampled there condenses into something that may well contain true images of the spiritual world, but which lacks the most important element—that which enables the soul to have a clear perception of the truth and value of what it sees.

[ 7 ] In order to successfully pass the Guardian of the Threshold, it is absolutely necessary for a person to develop self-knowledge in the appropriate manner—true, genuine self-knowledge, unreserved self-knowledge. Not wanting to ascend into the spiritual worlds when one’s karma within the incarnation makes it possible is a dereliction of duty toward the path of progress. To ever say to oneself, because one believes one might be mistaken: “I do not want to enter the spiritual worlds”—that is entirely wrong. We should strive as intensely as we possibly can to enter the spiritual worlds. But on the other hand, we must be clear that we must not shy away from what human beings are most willing and inclined to shy away from: true, genuine self-knowledge. At this point, one experiences many things. Nothing in life is actually as difficult for a human being as true self-knowledge. There one can experience all sorts of things—the grotesque, the strange. One may encounter people who, in their conscious mind, constantly emphasize that they do this or that in complete selflessness, that they want absolutely nothing for themselves. If one has understanding for such souls, it often becomes apparent that while they may convince themselves of this, in their subconscious they are complete egoists and actually want only what is appropriate for their ego at that moment. Oh, one can also encounter people who, from their conscious mind, let’s say, give speeches, speak, or write, so that on relatively few pages words like love, tolerance, and the like appear eighteen to twenty-five times, without the slightest trace of any of this existing in the true reality of the soul. One can be deceived about nothing more easily than about oneself, unless one remains constantly vigilant through a solid, honest self-knowledge that one practices. But this self-knowledge is difficult, difficult, if it is to be practiced directly. It is said to have even happened that people close themselves off so completely from self-knowledge that, before admitting to themselves what they are in the present, they would rather admit that they were monkeys in the lunar evolution—they would rather do that than admit to themselves what they actually are in the present. Such is the extent of the delusion regarding the obligation to true, genuine self-knowledge in human beings. It would be a good exercise for many who strive in the spiritual realm if, from time to time in life, again and again, they did the following, for example, if they said to themselves: I want to look back over the last three or four weeks, or better yet, months; I want to bring important facts to mind regarding the various things I have done. I want to systematically disregard everything that might have happened to me that was wrong. I want to set aside everything I so often say as an excuse for what has happened to me—that the other person is to blame. I never want to reflect on the possibility that anyone other than myself might be at fault. — When one considers how easily people are inclined, at every turn, to blame others for what does not suit them rather than themselves, one can appreciate how beneficial such a review of life is—where, even when one has been wronged, one consciously sets aside thoughts of that wrongdoing and allows no criticism to arise that the other person might have been in the wrong. Try such an exercise, and you will see that you will gain a completely different inner relationship to the spiritual world. Such things change much about the true state, the true mood of the human soul. How difficult it is, when seeking the path to a clairvoyant soul, to enter the higher worlds completely unscathed, so to speak—this shows—as we have emphasized time and again—that it is necessary not to be overwhelmed when one must stick one’s head into the anthill. A strengthened, fortified sense of self is necessary—a sense of self that one must not allow to develop in the physical world if one does not wish to be a self-centered egoist. If one wishes to hold one’s ground in the higher worlds, to feel and experience oneself there, one must enter them with a strengthened sense of self. But one must also have the ability, when returning to the sensory world, to set this sense of self aside, so as not to be a complete egoist over here. So over there in the other worlds, one must have a strengthened sense of self. It is certainly a valid assertion that, in order to live in the higher spiritual worlds, a person needs a strengthened sense of self. But one also needs, so to speak, the antithesis of the assertion just made—the realization that while one must indeed find this strengthened sense of self in the spiritual realm, in the physical world the spirit must express itself in a particular way through what is broadly called love in the physical world: the capacity for love, the capacity for empathy, for compassion, and for shared joy.

[ 8 ] Anyone who uses clairvoyance to immerse themselves in the higher worlds knows that what Maria says in *The Awakening of the Soul* is true: that the ordinary sensory consciousness which human beings have on the physical plane is, in fact, a kind of sleep compared to the experiences and feelings in the higher worlds, and that entering the higher worlds is an awakening. It is absolutely correct and true that people within the physical world are asleep in relation to the experiences of the higher worlds, and that they simply do not feel this sleep because they are always asleep. So if, in the spiritual worlds, what the Hellesher soul experiences when it crosses the threshold of the spiritual world is an awakening in a strengthened sense of self, then on the other hand, the awakening of the self in the physical world is contained in love—in that love which was characterized in one of the first lectures. I had to say: The love that exists for the sake of the qualities and characteristics of the beloved—that is the love that is protected from Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences; that is the love that, within the physical-sensory world, can truly stand under the influence of the good, progressive forces of existence. — What this love is like is revealed in particular in the experiences of clairvoyant consciousness. What one develops in the physical world in terms of selfishness—and about which one is so reluctant to gain self-knowledge—becomes evident when one carries it up into the spiritual worlds. Nothing is so disturbing, nothing is so truly embittering and painful to experience as what one carries up as the consequences of unkindness and emotional deficiencies developed in the physical world. One feels deeply disturbed when, through the clairvoyant soul, one ascends into the spiritual world, because of all the lack of love and self-centeredness one has developed within the physical-sensory world. For when one crosses the threshold of the spiritual world, everything one carries into it is revealed—not only the overt but also the hidden selfishness raging in the depths of the soul that people possess. And while they indulge in the dream of being selfless, perhaps the one who displays outward egoism and calmly admits that he wants this or that is far less selfish than those who, out of anthroposophical abstractions, allow a certain selfish selflessness to manifest in their conscious mind, especially when they declaim this selflessness in all manner of often-repeated words of love and tolerance. What one carries up into the higher worlds in the form of lovelessness and lack of compassion transforms into ugly, often horrific figures that one encounters upon entering the spiritual worlds. These figures are truly very disturbing, very repulsive to the soul.

[ 9 ] And then one of those moments arrives that are very significant, that must be taken into account when speaking of the insights and experiences of the higher worlds. It would be best if, as soon as a person ascends into the higher worlds and finds themselves in a sphere of repulsive phenomena, they would look at these things courageously and boldly and admit to themselves: Well, you are bringing just as much selfishness up into the higher worlds. — It would truly be best to face this egoism boldly, frankly, and freely. But the human soul usually has a tendency, even before these repulsive elements truly come to consciousness, to cast them off, so to speak, to shake them off left and right, as horses do, and to brush away these unpleasantries. The moment one brushes aside the consequences of egoism, Lucifer and Ahriman have an easy time with the human soul. Then, in their alliance, they can very easily lead the human soul into their own special realm, where they can present to it all manner of spiritual worlds that the human being then takes to be the true, genuine spiritual worlds grounded in the world order. One may say: The development of true, genuine love and serious, honest compassion are at the same time good preparations for the soul that wishes to live its way up into the spiritual worlds through clairvoyance. — That this statement is not entirely unimportant will be understood by anyone who reflects a little on the difficulty of achieving genuine compassion and the capacity for genuine love in the world.

[ 10 ] We have thus described some aspects of what is connected with crossing the threshold into the spiritual worlds. When this relationship of the human being to the spiritual worlds is described, one must be clear that a real, true understanding of the human being can only be attained through these descriptions. That it is only through these that one can know what a human being truly is, and that it is only through them that one can also gain a relationship to what, in a natural way—albeit somewhat altered—places the human being before the higher, spiritual worlds, namely during the times the human being spends between death and a new birth. And it is here that I must briefly allude to what I also discussed in the last chapter of the book *The Threshold of the Spiritual World*.

[ 11 ] We know from earlier descriptions in *Theosophy* and *Outlines of Esoteric Science* that when a person passes through the gate of death, they shed their physical body, and that for a while afterward—perhaps lasting only a few days—they still possess their etheric body. Then they shed this as well. One might say: Once a person has shed this etheric body, they are initially in their astral body. — The soul thus undergoes, so to speak, a kind of further journey with the astral body. The etheric body has been shed; it has a destiny that depends on the world into which this etheric body is transferred, and that is the elemental world. And in this elemental world—as we have been able to explain—the power of transformation reigns. Everything is in a state of constant transformation. Thus, without the human soul being present, the etheric body is handed over to the elemental world and, separated from the human soul, undergoes its destinies of transformation within the elemental world. Now, during the years—which are shorter for some and longer for others—the human being lives in the astral body, and lives in what, from the perspective of clairvoyant consciousness, can be called the elemental world. But there is a very definite tendency of the soul in the period immediately following death. In the physical world, one is not inclined to constantly look at one’s own liver, spleen, or stomach; indeed, one cannot. One does not look inside one’s own body. It is not the habit of human beings on the physical plane to direct their eyes into their own bodies; rather, people look at their surroundings. The exact opposite is the case when a person has crossed the threshold of death and lives in the world referred to in my *Theosophy* as the soul world. There the soul has a natural tendency to direct its gaze primarily toward the fate of its own etheric body. The transformations the etheric body undergoes in the elemental world constitute, so to speak, the environment—the outer world of the soul—throughout the entire period of kamaloka. During this time, one sees how the elemental world receives our etheric body. If one has been a good person here on the physical plane, one sees how “goodness” harmonizes with the laws of the elemental world. If one has been a bad person, one sees how little one’s own etheric body—which has participated in that “badness”—is compatible with the laws of the elemental world, and how this etheric body, which one has indeed shed but upon which one now focuses all one’s attention, is rejected everywhere. The experiences in Kamaloka consist in seeing, through the changing fate of the etheric body, what one has been.

[ 12 ] One cannot exactly blame anthroposophy for saying this. For Aristotle and others taught many other things as well. For example, they taught that this looking back on one’s own destiny lasts an entire eternity, so that one may live a life of eighty or ninety years on Earth, but then must look back for an eternity on what one has wrought upon one’s own etheric body. The truth, as taught by anthroposophy, is that this looking back at the etheric body and the destinies one has brought about through one’s own being lasts one, two, or three decades. This is the environment. The environment in the elemental world is formed by the transformations of beings that are primarily of the same nature as the human being’s own etheric body—primarily the human being’s own etheric body. If one wishes to describe this vividly, the result is exactly the same as what I described in my *Theosophy* as the soul’s passage through the world of souls.

[ 13 ] If one wishes to describe the spiritual worlds accurately at all, one must not cling rigidly to concepts in such a pedantic manner as may be useful for the physical world; rather, one must be clear that the entire environment during the kamaloka period depends on the soul’s mood, that what must be described as the elemental world is modified in relation to the soul world by the fact that one perceives mainly dissolving ethericity in this elemental world. This dissolving ethericity can be described in stages, as it is described in my *Theosophy*.

[ 14 ] Then comes the time when, as it were, something occurs between death and a new birth that must, in a sense, be brought about artificially through clairvoyant consciousness, in accordance with what we have discussed. So, after shedding their etheric body, human beings live in their astral body, but this is also the beginning of the period when this astral body detaches itself from the true Self, in which one then continues to live. But this detachment takes place in a peculiar way. This detachment does not occur in the same way that one might shed a snake’s skin, but rather the astral body detaches itself in all directions, becoming ever larger and larger and integrating itself into the entire sphere. In the process, it becomes thinner and thinner, yet is, as it were, absorbed by the entire environment. At first, one stands, so to speak, in the center in relation to one’s own spiritual environment. From all sides the astral body detaches itself and is absorbed everywhere, so that the environment one has around oneself after death, once the astral body has detached, consists of the spiritual world and of what is absorbed from one’s own astral body. One thus sees one’s own astral body departing. In the process, it naturally becomes increasingly indistinct, because it grows larger and larger. One also feels oneself within this astral body, as I have described in some lectures, and yet detached from it. These things are extraordinarily difficult to describe. Imagine, to get a picture, that you have a whole swarm of mosquitoes consisting of many mosquitoes. When you see it from a distance, it is a black sphere. As the individual gnats disperse in all directions, you soon can no longer see anything of it at all. So it is with the astral body. As it is absorbed by the entire world sphere, it becomes fainter and fainter; one sees it dispersing in the world until it is lost. With this astral body, that which is always present once one has passed through the gate of death is lost—that which one might call one’s past existence, the connection to what one has experienced on the physical Earth within the physical body and the etheric body. One sees, as it were, one’s own being lose itself into the spiritual world. This is equivalent to what one must seek artificially in order to discover one’s true self in the spiritual world. This shattering, significant impression that one may have when walking the path of clairvoyant consciousness naturally occurs in the manner described, and true forgetfulness sets in all the sooner the less the soul proves to be strengthened and invigorated after death. Selfless, unselfish souls, whom one often weakly scolds in physical life, are precisely the strong souls after death; they can look back for a long time on what, as they recall, drove them from physical existence into the spiritual world. The so-called strongly egoistic are the weaklings of the spiritual world. Their own astral nature vanishes very quickly as it gradually dissolves into the spheres out in the spiritual world.

[ 15 ] And then the moment truly arrives when everything one can remember disappears. Then it returns again, but now in a different form. Everything that has disappeared is brought back to you; it gathers again, but in such a way that it shows how things must become as a consequence of what has gone away, so that the right new life may be built up in accordance with karma, in the spirit of the old earthly lives. Then, from infinity, what must emerge moves toward a central point—what must return from oblivion into our consciousness—so that we may build our new life in accordance with karma. A kind of forgetting, then, a mere experiencing of the true self, exists roughly halfway between death and a new birth.

[ 16 ] Most human souls today are still only prepared to the extent that they experience this forgetting as a kind of spiritual slumber of the soul. But those who are prepared for it experience, precisely in this moment of forgetfulness—the transition from the memory of previous earthly lives to the preparation for the coming ones—that which is called the “midnight of the worlds” in *The Awakening of the Soul*, where one can immerse oneself in the necessities of existence. So that this image of the “Midnight of the Worlds” is indeed connected with the deepest mysteries of human existence. We may therefore say: What is mysterious about the human being, what his true essence is, in which he too lives between death and a new birth, and what ordinary consciousness can never experience, is revealed to the clairvoyant soul. And this experience of one’s own astral nature being absorbed by the spiritual environment—which we have described this time from the standpoint of clairvoyant consciousness—can be described step by step exactly as it is described in my *Theosophy* and *Esoteric Science* as the actual realm of the spirits. What the soul experiences when it occurs naturally, and what occurs artificially through the experiences described for the clairvoyant consciousness, can then be described as it is in “Theosophy.” There you have the correspondence between the terms used here for these conditions and those used in *Theosophy* and *Esoteric Science*.

[ 17 ] And so we can say that we have attempted, both in this series of lectures and in the drama cycle, to point to the essence of the world and to that which shares in this essence of the world—the essence of the human being. Once such reflections have been made, it may perhaps also be added that it will be necessary to continue along the paths indicated in this lecture series a little further with one’s own soul. For you will see, as you try to penetrate ever deeper and deeper—including again into *The Awakening of the Soul*—that many of the mysteries of existence will become clear to you in such a way that you will say: These things are truly there for the revelation and unveiling of these mysteries. — For example, I would like to draw your attention to this: try to continue experiencing meditatively what I have said about Ahriman as the Lord of Death in the world and what is depicted in *The Awakening of the Soul*. It is clearly depicted, beginning with the third scene in *The Awakening of the Soul*, but already hinted at in those words Strader speaks to the office manager: “What must happen will happen,” from which the office manager hears something like a murmur from the spiritual world, thereby initiating his spiritual discipleship. It is depicted there more or less in a suggestive manner. But from the third scene onward, we see how the moods and forces preparing for Strader’s death gradually draw nearer and nearer, becoming ever clearer. One will not understand why Theodora appears in the decisive fourth scene and says what she intends to do for Strader in the spirit world unless one has a vague sense—as is fitting in this place—that something is to be expected. One will not truly grasp what Benedictus says in the same scene about an impairment of his vision unless one senses how the forces of Strader’s approaching death are entering into this vision. One will not truly grasp the simple yet meaningful eleventh scene, where Benedictus and Strader speak to one another, unless one perceives Strader’s visionary perception—with the inkling that what he expends in strengthening the soul sometimes turns destructively against his own soul, and also in connection with Benedictus’s words, which again speak of an impairment of his vision, so that one senses something indefinable approaching. It is the mood of Strader’s approaching death that pervades the entire development of the other characters in this drama from the third scene onward. And if you hold this together with what has been said about Ahriman as the Lord of Death, then you will arrive at ever deeper and deeper insights that penetrate into the spiritual mysteries, especially if you consider how Ahriman plays into the mood of the drama, which stands under the influence of Strader’s death impulses.

[ 18 ] And once again, one will be able to properly understand the final encounter—the encounter between Benedictus and Strader that was intended to be meaningful—toward the end, and then Benedictus’s final monologue, if one correctly grasps Ahriman’s justified and unjustified interventions into the world of the soul and into the Word of the World Realms. These things are truly meant in such a way that one should not merely let them pass by the soul, but should engage with them ever more deeply. Not to criticize, but merely to present objective facts, it must be said that various signs have indeed emerged indicating that the printed works and cycles published in the last three or four years have not actually been read as they could be read, so that one might grasp everything that is meant and said—and, to put it more or less bluntly, even stated explicitly. This is truly not meant here as a reproach. I am far from such a thing. Rather, it is said because, in a sense, precisely through all that is connected with it, such thoughts can arise in the soul almost every year at the end of the Munich Cycle—thoughts that remind us of the complete immersion of our anthroposophical movement in the present. One must remember how this movement is truly situated within the present, within this chaotic machinery of so-called contemporary culture. One will only be able to develop clear, alert thoughts about this placement within the present when one takes one thing above all else into account. That is, that our culture will most certainly become barren and wither away if it does not receive that refreshment that comes from the sources of serious and genuine occultism. But on the other hand, precisely such a lecture series, which may have made the necessity of turning to Spiritual Science apparent, will suggest something else to us, will be able to suggest it to each and every one of our souls. This is what one might call a sense of responsibility.

[ 19 ] Much of what is connected with the sense of this responsibility and with looking closely at the way in which our movement—so necessary, so indispensable—asserts itself, even with its dark sides and flaws, leaves a deep imprint on the depths of the soul. And there, in light of how our movement ought to be and how, quite understandably, it can only be today, one experiences many things that can scarcely be put into words—things that even those who carry them fully within their souls prefer not to speak of, for when felt in this way, this responsibility sometimes weighs heavily upon the soul, and when felt in this way, it appears in a truly lamentable light when occultism emerges in so many quarters today, and so little of this sense of responsibility is present. For even if, for the sake of the salvation of humanity’s evolutionary course, one wishes to regard the blossoming of anthroposophical wisdom on the one hand as the most beautiful, the greatest thing that can happen in the present and the near future, one would nevertheless also wish to welcome, on the other hand, as the most glorious, the most beautiful, and often the most satisfying, if the other were to come as well—if one were to see how the currents of a sense of responsibility awaken in every single soul that is moved by our Spiritual Science. And one would appreciate this emergence of a sense of responsibility even more.

[ 20 ] Our movement would be particularly cherished if, as it spreads out, it could be seen everywhere as a beautiful echo of this sense of responsibility. Many who feel this sense of responsibility would, in a sense, find it easier to bear if they could perceive such an echo of that sense of responsibility in a more diverse way. Yet there are many things regarding which one must give oneself over to hopes and expectations for the future, regarding which one must live in the belief and trust that what is right and true will take hold of the human soul through its own value, and that what must actually happen will indeed happen. As we part ways from this lecture series, one can truly feel this. For one would really like to place within every soul something that might awaken and shine forth as warmth for our cause, but also as a sense of responsibility toward our cause. And that would be the most beautiful seal of our Spiritual Science endeavor, if we could all feel what binds us together as the most beautiful bond—even when we are not physically together—in a genuine, true spiritual community: the kinship present in all souls in the warmth for our cause, in the love and devotion to our cause, and at the same time in the sense of responsibility for our cause.

[ 21 ] Well, let this serve as my farewell greeting to your souls for now, as we go our separate ways once again after having been together in person for a while. May the truth of spiritual life be increasingly affirmed and revealed in our own souls, so that even when we are not physically together, we are nevertheless together, united by the genuine warmth that lives within us—a warmth that can shine forth from an open-hearted, loving experience of our truth in our souls, combined with a genuine, honest sense of responsibility, or at least with the striving toward this sense of responsibility for our sacred cause, so necessary for the world. If we feel this way, then we are always together in spirit. Whether we, brought together by our karma, are permitted to be physically together, or whether our karma scatters us physically for a time to our various deeds and life’s work, we are surely together when we are united in the warmth and sense of responsibility of our souls. But if we are, then we may have all hope and confidence and all trust in our cause. For it will then become so ingrained in culture, in the spiritual development of humanity, as it is meant to become ingrained—so ingrained that we may truly perceive this cause of ours as the murmur from the spiritual world that warmly strikes all our souls. What is to happen, what must happen—will happen. And let us strive to become capable of this spiritual communion of ours by ensuring, as far as it is up to us, that what is to happen, what must happen, comes to pass through us.