The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Christ and the Human Soul II

[ 1 ] When we go about our day and realize, for example, what we owe to the sun that day, how our life’s work is connected to sunlight, we do not think about the fact that, in a sense unconsciously, through all this enjoyment of sunlight, through the satisfaction we derive from it, one thing runs through it all: We know for certain that the next morning, after we have rested through the night, the sun will rise again. This is a sign of how a trust lives in our soul in the enduring reality of the world order. We may not always realize it, but if asked, we would certainly answer in the sense intended here. We devote ourselves to our work today because we know that the fruits of this work are assured for tomorrow, because after a restful night the sun will rise again and the fruits of our labor can ripen.

[ 2 ] We turn our gaze to the Earth’s vegetation. This year, we marvel at what the Earth’s vegetation has to offer us. We sustain ourselves with the fruits of the earth. We know that it is grounded in the reality of the world order that the plant and fruit cover of the coming year will emerge from the seed of this year. And again, if asked why we live so confidently, we would give the following answer in such a situation: The reality of the world order appears to us as guaranteed; it appears to us as guaranteed that what ripened as a seed in the old harvests will also reappear in the realm of reality. — But there is something for which we need a support when we think of this guarantee through reality. And this is something of very special significance for our inner soul life. And it takes only a single word to be spoken, and then we immediately feel that there is something in life for which we need such a guarantee, because it does not in itself directly carry such a guarantee for the truly thinking, for the truly feeling person. That word is: our ideals. What does this word encompass: our ideals! Our ideals belong to that which, when we think and feel in a higher sense, is more important to our soul than external reality. Our ideals are that which kindles our soul from within, that which in many ways makes life valuable and precious to our soul.

[ 3 ] And when we look at the world around us, when we consider what the reality of life offers us, we are often tormented by the thought: Does this reality contain anything that guarantees us precisely what is most valuable in life—the realization of our ideals?

[ 4 ] Countless conflicts within the human soul arise from the fact that people doubt, to a greater or lesser degree, the realization of that which they nevertheless wish to achieve with every fiber of their being: the realization of their ideals. We need only look at the physical plane, and if we observe this physical plane with an open mind, we will find countless human souls undergoing the most intense, the most bitter inner struggles over what remains unachieved, yet which they consider valuable in an ideal sense. For we cannot, as it were, extract from the evolution of reality the insight that our ideals in life will prove to be seeds for a future reality, just as, for example, this year’s plant seeds prove to be the foundation for next year’s vegetation. If we turn our gaze to these plant seeds, we know: They carry within themselves that which will become reality on a vast scale in the coming year. If we now turn our gaze to our ideals, we may indeed cherish the belief in our souls that these ideals will have some meaning, that they will have some value for life; but we cannot have the same kind of certainty regarding these ideals. As human beings, we would like them to be the seeds for the future, but we look in vain for what can give them certain reality. Thus, even when we look at the physical plane, we often find our soul, with its idealism, in a desperate situation.

[ 5 ] And as we move from the physical plane into the occult world, into the world of hidden spirituality: the one who has become a spiritual researcher learns to perceive the souls during the period they must undergo between death and rebirth. And it is meaningful to cast the spiritual gaze upon those souls who were filled in their earthly lives with high ideals—ideals they had born from the fire and light of their hearts.

[ 6 ] When a person has passed through the gate of death and stands before the familiar tableau of life—which represents a recollection of their past earthly existence—the world of ideals is also woven into this tableau. And this world of ideals can appear before the soul after death in such a way that the person feels something toward it that one might put into words as follows: Yes, these ideals, which have kindled and illuminated my heart in its innermost depths, which I have regarded as the most precious, as the innermost treasure of my heart—these ideals now have a most strange appearance. They look as if they do not quite belong to all that I remember as actual earthly experiences of the physical plane. And yet the deceased feels, once again, as if magnetically drawn to these ideals of his; he feels, as it were, spellbound by them. These ideals can have a strangely attractive quality for the deceased. But they may possess something that fills him with a kind of mild dread, something he senses could be dangerous to him, something that could alienate him from earthly evolution and from all that pertains to earthly evolution in the life between death and new birth.

[ 7 ] To express myself quite clearly, I would like to refer to specific experiences—experiences that some of the friends sitting here are already familiar with, but which, from a certain perspective, should be highlighted particularly this evening so that they can be brought into connection with what I have just said about the nature of human ideals.

[ 8 ] In recent years, a poetic soul had joined us. Coming from a life devoted to the purest idealism—a life that had already undergone a mystical deepening in the pre-theosophical era—this man entered our anthroposophical movement. With heart and soul he devoted himself to our spiritual movement, even though his soul dwelt in a frail, decaying body. In the spring of this year we lost him to earthly life: he has passed through the gate of death. He has left humanity a series of wonderful poems, which have been published in a volume that appeared recently, after his death. In a certain sense, due to the difficulties of his physical life, he was often physically separated from our movement, in a lonely Swiss mountain village or elsewhere where he had to seek recovery, But even from a distance, he remained devoted to our movement, and his poems—which, after all, were recited time and again in certain anthroposophical circles, especially in recent times—are, as it were, the poetic reflection of what we have worked out anthroposophically over the course of more than a decade. Now he has passed through the gate of death, and something remarkable emerges from the occult contemplation of this man’s soul. One might say that the significance of the soul’s life within this decaying body is only truly understood after death. That which this soul absorbed while faithfully contributing spiritually to the progress of the anthroposophical movement developed, one might say, a greater power beneath the surface of the body that was gradually dying. The decaying body concealed this as long as the soul itself was within that body. And now, when one meets this soul after death, the contents of the life that this soul has absorbed now shine forth, just as they can only shine forth in spiritual life; and like a mighty cosmic tableau—I would say, the cloud—in which our friend now lives, having passed through the gate of death. For the occult observer, this is a peculiar sight. One might now perhaps say: The occult observer can, after all, also let his gaze wander throughout the entire vast expanse of the spiritual-cosmic world. But it is something else entirely to let one’s gaze wander throughout the entire expanse of the cosmic psychic world and then, from within a particular human soul, to see something that appears like a vast tableau, like a painting of that which otherwise reveals itself in the spiritual world. Just as when one has the world of the physical plane around one and then sees it reflected in the magnificent paintings of a Raphael or a Michelangelo, so it is in the spiritual world in the case of which we are speaking here. Just as one never says, when standing before a painting by Raphael or Michelangelo: ‘Ah, this painting no longer speaks to me, for I have the great reality before me’—so one does not say when contemplating the tableau that reflects in a soul what one otherwise sees in the contemplation of spiritual reality, that the mighty radiance of this soul-tableau is not an infinite enrichment to us. And it may be said that one learns infinitely more than one can learn from the direct sight of the vast spiritual reality when one has before one the friend who has died, who in his own soul after death contains a reflection of all that has been permitted to be described for many years from the spiritual worlds.

[ 9 ] This is an occult fact. I have, in fact, already discussed this occult fact with our anthroposophical friends on several occasions in other contexts. I have now highlighted what may be important for our consideration today. The way this occult fact manifested itself in Christian Morgenstern reveals something else to me as well. One can often, when one sees the resistance that the proclamation of the occult teaching—as we understand it—still encounters today, perhaps ask the question—I do not mean to say doubt, but to ask the question: What progress will this occult teaching make in human hearts, in human souls? Is there a guarantee, a surety, that what we are working out today within our Anthroposophical Society will continue to have an effect in the course of humanity’s spiritual development? The sight of what has become of our friend’s soul provides such a surety from the occult world. Why? Our friend, who left us the poems “We Found a Path,” lives within the vast cosmic tableau that serves as a kind of soul-body for him after death. But while he was connected to us within our anthroposophical movement, he took in what we have to say about the Christ. By taking in the anthroposophical teaching, by connecting this anthroposophical teaching with his soul in such a way that it truly became the spiritual lifeblood of his soul, he also took this teaching into his soul in such a way that this anthroposophical teaching contained Christ as a substance within it for him. He took it in together with the Christ-being. Christ, as he lives in our movement, has at the same time passed into his soul.

[ 10 ] And now, when we consider the occult reality, the following becomes apparent. The human being who passes through the gate of death—indeed, can live within such a cosmic tableau; he will walk with it through the life that lies between death and a new birth; this will act upon his entire being, will become part of his entire being—or rather, I would say, “infuse” his entire being—and it will permeate his new earthly life when he descends once more into such an earthly life. In this respect, it contributes to such a soul itself taking in a seed of perfection for its own life, so that this soul itself may continue on in the evolution of earthly existence. All this happens because such a soul has absorbed something of the nature described. But now, as has just been mentioned, this soul has absorbed all this, imbued and spiritualized by the Christ-being, by the mental images we can form of the Christ-being. Consequently, however, what such a soul has absorbed is not merely a treasure that serves the further development of this soul alone, but a treasure that, through the Christ who belongs to all humanity collectively, in turn works upon all humanity. And that soul tableau that unfolds before the clairvoyant eye in the soul that passed through the gate of death this spring, that soul tableau, as it presents itself, permeated by Christ—it is a guarantee to me that what may be spoken today from the spiritual worlds will shine down through the love of Christ into souls that will come in later times; these souls will be set ablaze by it; they will be inspired by it. Not only will our friend carry the Christ-permeated anthroposophy forward in his own life for his own perfection, but because he has taken it in as Christ-permeated, it will become an impulse from the spiritual world to the souls who will come to life in the coming centuries; that which is Christ-permeated will shine into them. Your souls can take in what they receive from Christ-permeated anthroposophy as their greatest treasure, not only for themselves, but carry it through later stages of evolution. When they Christify it, it flows—because Christ is the Being who belongs to all humanity—as a seed into all humanity. Where Christ is present, the goods of life do not become isolated; they remain fruitful for the individual, but at the same time they take on the character of a good for all humanity.

[ 11 ] This is what we must clearly hold before our souls. Then we will see what a significant difference there is between receiving wisdom without the influence of Christ and receiving wisdom illuminated by the light of Christ. After all, when we gather in the realm of our close-knit community, we are not there to engage in abstract contemplation, my dear friends; we are there to truly practice this occultism, undaunted by what the modern world has against occultism—against true occultism. Therefore, we may also touch upon that which can truly come to our knowledge only through research in the spiritual realm.

[ 12 ] A second case should be mentioned. In recent years, we have been led to perform various things in Munich that we call “Mysteries,” and our Swedish friends have also frequently participated in these Mystery performances. I have already shared what I am about to say with some friends from a certain perspective. Indeed, in these mystery performances, many things had to be done differently than in other performances. One had to feel, so to speak, a sense of responsibility toward the spiritual world. One could not approach these mystery performances as one would a regular theater performance. Certainly, whatever one does in such a case must be done out of one’s own soul forces. But let us just realize that even in physical life, when we wish to accomplish this or that through the will of our soul, we are required to use our muscular strength—which comes to us from outside but which nevertheless belongs to us. If we do not have this muscular strength that comes to us from outside, we cannot perform certain things. In a certain sense, muscular strength belongs to us and yet, at the same time, does not belong to us. So it is with our spiritual faculties, only that in this case we are not aided by physical forces—muscular strength—when these faculties are to be active in the spiritual realm, but rather that the forces of the spiritual world themselves must come to our aid, that the forces penetrating from the spiritual world into our physical world must, as it were, radiate through us and permeate us. And truly, other such undertakings, such as our Munich Games were, may begin with a different consciousness; for myself, it became clear that the matter could only be carried out over the course of the years, that the various initiatives could only be taken when very specific spiritual forces, moving precisely in this direction, flow into our human powers—when, so to speak, the forces of spiritual guardian angels flow into our human powers.

[ 13 ] It was in the very earliest days, when we were still working on Spiritual Science in a small circle. It was a very small circle, and whenever we gathered in Berlin at the beginning of our century, one could easily count the number of people present. But there was always one faithful soul among them for a short time, a soul who, through her karma, was endowed with a very special talent for beauty and art. This soul worked with us, albeit for only a short time, but precisely in regard to the most intimate aspects of what needed to be worked through at that time in the field of Spiritual Science. With devotion and a serene inner fire, this soul worked among us and absorbed in particular the teachings that could be imparted at that time from Spiritual Science, specifically regarding certain cosmological connections. And I still know today how, for example, a fact once came before my soul that might seem insignificant, but which may nevertheless be mentioned here: When our anthroposophical movement began, it also began with a journal that, for well-considered reasons at the time, was named “Luzifer.” At that time, I wrote an article titled “Luzifer,” an article that was intended to contain, at least in outline, the guiding principles under which we wished to work. I may well say that this article alone, even if not explicitly stated in words, is held within the lines by which our Theosophical and now Anthroposophical Society must be guided, and I may say: This article, too, is permeated by Christ. One takes in that which is the lifeblood of Christianity when one takes in the article. I may perhaps mention today that this article at the time also met with the most vehement opposition within the circle of the few who had joined us from the old Theosophical movement. Everywhere this article was regarded as something that was actually quite un-Theosophical. The person I just spoke of was, with the warmest heart and the deepest sincerity, particularly committed to this very article, and I could say to myself: This approval carries more weight for the progress of the anthroposophical movement than all the rest of the opposition, when it comes to the truth. In short, this soul was completely interwoven with what was to flow into our spiritual current. She died soon after; she passed through the gate of death as early as 1904. For some time after death, she had to struggle in the spiritual world to become what she truly was. And not yet in 1907, but beginning with our plays in Munich—the Mystery Plays of 1909—and then increasingly through the following years, it was this soul that always stood behind what I was permitted to undertake for our Munich Festival, offering protection and clarity. What this soul, through her disposition toward beauty, was able to contribute to the artistic realization of our spiritual ideals, that worked down from the spiritual world as if coming from the guardian angel of our Mystery Plays, so that one felt the strength within oneself to take the initiative that was necessary, because, just as our physical muscle strength supports us, so the spiritual power flowing down from the spiritual worlds flowed into one’s own spiritual power.

[ 14 ] This is how the dead work with us. This is how they are with us. This was yet another case—and now comes the turn of events I must speak of in particular today—this was yet another case where what the individual had absorbed in the anthroposophical sphere not only visibly contributed to their own progress in their individual life, but also flowed back to us in something we were able to do for the entire anthroposophical movement. There were two possibilities: one, that this very person had absorbed what they could absorb, that they held it within their soul, and that they could now use it for themselves as they continued on their journey through life, including life after death. That is quite right; that is how it should be, for the human soul, if it is to reach its divine goal, must become ever more perfect; it must do everything that can contribute to this perfection. But because this soul had already absorbed the entire spirit of Christ-imbued living, what it had absorbed could not only work for itself, but it could flow down to us; it could become a kind of common heritage, a common heritage in its effectiveness.

[ 15 ] This is what Christ does when He permeates the fruits of our knowledge. He does not take away what these fruits of knowledge represent for our individuality, but Christ died for all souls, and when we rise to the level of the knowledge that must be the knowledge of the true earthly human being: “Not I, but the Christ in me”; when we, as it were, know the Christ within us in all that we ourselves know, when we attribute to the Christ the powers we ourselves employ, then what we take in within ourselves works not only for us alone, but for all humanity. Then it becomes fruitful for all humanity. Wherever we look upon the earth at human souls: Christ died for all, and what human souls take in in his name, they take in for their own perfection, but also as precious resources for the benefit of all humanity.

[ 16 ] Now let us look back at what was said in the opening remarks this evening.

[ 17 ] It has been said: When, after death, we look back on the panorama of our lives and reflect on what we have experienced, it seems to us as though our ideals might have something alien about them. The feeling we experience then is that we sense this about those ideals: they do not actually lead us toward general human life; they have no inherent guarantee of reality in general human life; they lead us away from general human life. It is a powerful force that Lucifer wields precisely over our ideals, because they spring so beautifully from the human soul, but precisely only from the human soul, and are not rooted in external reality. That is why Lucifer has such power, and it is actually the magnetic pull of Lucifer that we sense in our ideals after death. Lucifer approaches us, and precisely when we have ideals, they are especially valuable to him; he can draw us to himself by way of these ideals. But if we imbue what we spiritually penetrate with Christ, if we feel Christ within us, and if we know: that which we take in, Christ takes in with us—“Not I, but Christ in me” (Galatians 2:20)—then, when we pass through the gate of death, it is not that we look back on our ideals as if they were meant to alienate us from the world, but rather we have, as it were, handed our ideals over to Christ; then we recognize that it is Christ who makes our ideals his own cause. He takes our ideals upon himself. And the individual can say to himself: I alone cannot take my ideals upon myself in such a way that they are just as certain seeds for the humanity of the earth as the plant seeds of this summer will be certain seeds for the vegetation of next summer; but the Christ within me can. The Christ within me permeates my ideals with the reality of substance. — And the ideals that we cherish within us in such a way that we say to ourselves: Yes, as human beings we grasp these ideals on this earth, but Christ lives within us, and he takes on our ideals—these ideals are real seeds for future reality. Idealism permeated by Christ is interwoven with the seed of reality. And the one who truly understands Christ looks upon these ideals in such a way that he says: “At present, ideals do not yet possess within themselves anything that guarantees their reality, their character of reality, just as the character of reality is guaranteed for the plant seed for the coming year; but if we conceive of our ideals in such a way that we entrust them to the Christ within us, then they are real seeds.” And the one who has a true Christ-consciousness, who makes the Pauline word “Not I, but Christ in me—is the bearer of my ideals” the substance of his life, looks upon this in such a way that he says: Yes, there are the ripe seeds with their sprouts, there are rivers and seas, there mountains and valleys are forming. But alongside this is the world of idealism; this world of idealism has been taken over by Christ, and it is, as in the present world, the seed of the future world. For Christ carries our ideals over into the future world just as the God of nature carries the plant seeds of this year into the next year.

[ 18 ] This gives idealism a sense of reality; it dispels those bitter, those gloomy doubts that can arise in the soul when it is overcome by the feeling: What will become of the world of ideals that are intimately linked to external reality, that are linked to all that I must hold dear? That which matures within the human soul as idealism, as a treasure of wisdom—this is what the person who takes in the Christ impulse within themselves perceives as imbued with reality, saturated with reality. And I have given you these two examples to show you, from the occult world, how differently that which is entrusted to the soul through Christ works compared to that which is entrusted to the soul merely as wisdom that is not permeated by Christ. Truly, what the soul has imbued with Christ in this earthly life penetrates us quite differently than what it has not imbued with Christ.

[ 19 ] It is a deeply moving experience when the clairvoyant consciousness looks up into the spiritual world and sees souls fighting for their ideals—souls in whom full Christ-consciousness had not yet dawned during their last incarnation— seeing the souls struggle for what is most precious to them, because in their ideals Lucifer has power over them, so that he can separate them from the fruits that the whole world is meant to enjoy as real fruits. The sight is different for those who have allowed their store of wisdom, their spiritual heritage, to be permeated by Christ; those who, evoking a reflection within us, already work down into this life in the body, enlivening the soul.

[ 20 ] What can be experienced as the most precious inner warmth of the soul, as comfort in life’s most difficult situations, as a pillar of support in life’s deepest abysses—that is precisely what it means to be imbued with the Christ impulse. And why? Because the one who is truly imbued with the Christ impulse feels, as in the conquests of his soul—however imperfect they may seem in comparison to earthly life—that this Christ impulse lies within them as the guarantee and assurance of their realization. That is why the Christ is such a comfort in the doubts of life, such a support for the soul. How much remains unfulfilled in the lives of souls on Earth, how much seems valuable to them, yet they cannot view it differently in relation to the outer physical world than as hopes of spring that are often shattered. But what we feel so sincerely in our soul, what we unite with our soul as a treasure of great value, that we can entrust to Christ. And whatever the prospects for its realization may be: once we have entrusted it to Christ, He carries it on His wings into reality. One does not always need to know this, but the soul that feels Christ within itself, just as the body feels its blood as a life-giving element within itself, feels the warming, the actualizing power of this Christ impulse in contrast to all that the soul cannot realize in the outer world, but would like to realize—and rightly so.

[ 21 ] The fact that the clairvoyant consciousness sees these things when it observes souls after death is simply proof of how justified the human soul’s feeling is when, in everything it does, in everything it thinks, feels itself to be permeated by Christ, takes Christ into itself as its comfort, as its support, as that of which it says in this earthly life: “Not I, but Christ in me.” Let this be said—“Not I, but Christ in me”—in this earthly life!

[ 22 ] Do you recall a passage at the beginning of my *Theosophy* that is intended to illustrate one of those points where, at a certain stage of spiritual life, what permeates the soul in this world of earthly existence is realized? At a certain point in my *Theosophy*, I pointed out that the “Tat twam asi,” “That thou art,” which the Eastern sages meditate upon, appears before them as a reality precisely at the moment when the transition from the so-called soul world to the spiritual world takes place. Please refer to the relevant passage.

[ 23 ] But there is something else that can become reality—reality in a way that is immensely significant for humanity—which the human soul, feeling itself to be permeated by Christ, can say to itself in this life: the Pauline words, “Not I, but Christ in me.” If one knows how to think of it in such a way that it is an inner truth—this saying, “Not I, but Christ in me”—then it becomes a reality after death in a powerful, in a significant way. For whatever we take in from the world from this perspective on life—from the perspective of “Not I, but Christ in me”—becomes our own, becomes our inner nature between death and a new birth, so that through what has thus become our inner nature, we may share it as a fruit of all humanity. What we take in in this way—that is, taking it in from the perspective of “Not I”—Christ makes the common property of all humanity. What I take in from the perspective of “Not I”—of that I may say and feel after death: Not for myself alone, but for all my fellow human beings! And then alone may I utter the words: Yes, I loved him above all else, even above myself; therefore I obeyed the commandment: “Love your God above all else.”

[ 24 ] “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

[ 25 ] And I have fulfilled the other commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” For what I have attained for myself becomes, through Christ’s bringing it into reality, the common heritage of all humanity on earth.

[ 26 ] One must allow such things to sink in; then one comes to understand what Christ means to the human soul, how Christ can be the human soul’s bearer and support, its comforter and illuminator. And one gradually feels one’s way into what might be called the relationship between Christ and the human soul.

[ 27 ] We'll talk more about that tomorrow.