The Rudolf Steiner Archive

First Lecture

[ 1 ] My dear friends! Do not expect me to be able to provide a true substitute in these four lectures for what was intended in Munich. I will try to outline here some of the content that the Munich lectures were supposed to have covered. Precisely the most important and essential points that should have been addressed in Munich must be saved for when we once again have less turbulent times. I can certainly be surprised that here and there it was believed that the serious strength required to speak about the most important matters in the field of Spiritual Science—which is, after all, what should have happened in Munich—could also be mustered in times such as those in which we now live. Well, humanity will eventually reach a time when it will realize that this is simply not possible, that, so to speak, the highest truths cannot be spoken into the storm.

[ 2 ] In the future, if karma permits, I will give a series of lectures on the subject of my topic, intended to replace the one in Munich. However, since some have expressed a desire to hear something on this topic, I wanted to accommodate that wish as much as possible over the next few days.

[ 3 ] What Spiritual Science contains as a genuine, authentic asset has, in essence, been gained through occult reading and occult hearing. And so, when the spiritual researcher speaks about the nature of occult reading and occult hearing, one learns something about the methods by which he arrives at his findings. Regarding the manner in which results of Spiritual Science are obtained, the most absurd opinions imaginable truly still prevail in our time. By way of introduction, before I turn to my main subject, I would like to point out a minor detail—a minor detail in relation to what our spiritual movement aspires to be. A certain professor, a contemporary researcher, has written a review of my book Theosophy. This review appeared several years ago, and the author of this review was evidently most annoyed by what is written in this book about the human aura, thought-forms, and the like. Among various points I do not wish to mention now, there is one in this review that is quite understandable from the perspective of a researcher, a true thinker of our time. It states: If one were to believe that there is indeed some truth to these matters of the aura and thought-forms, then some of those who claim to see auras and thought-forms would have to undergo an experiment. It should be possible to conduct an experiment in which a number of those who claim to see such things are placed opposite a number of people who have certain thoughts, feelings, and sensations within them; and then the seers should be asked: What do you see in the people standing or sitting before you? — And if then—so the author of the review argues—these occult seers state what the people who were observed later confirm they actually thought and felt, and if, moreover, the seers agree among themselves in their accounts, then one can believe them.

[ 4 ] There is nothing more natural, nothing more obvious than these objections. One might even say that a thinker accustomed to modern science must raise this objection; for it must seem the most reasonable thing he could possibly say. But one thing is certain. The man in question who said this must surely have read the book before writing this review. One must assume so, mustn’t one? Since the review gives the impression of honesty, one can surely assume it. But he could not have read it. For just as it is self-evident and natural to raise the objection as long as one does not know the truths contained in this book, so it should be self-evident that one no longer raises these objections once one has read the book with understanding. With these words, I am saying something that is, of course, abhorrent to any normal scientific thinker of today—because it must be completely incomprehensible to him, since he cannot understand it at all. Among the various things contained in this book is the following: It states that, above all, the seer—if he truly wishes to look into the spiritual world and see the truth—is compelled to first engage in such self-discipline that he is able, so to speak, to immerse himself in things entirely selflessly, that he is able to silence his own desires and cravings, and thus face the spiritual world. Yes, my dear friends, when five or six people sit down to conduct an experiment structured according to scientific method, as called for in the review, they sit down with the desire to arrive at some result, and specifically according to very specific methods required by science. Everything is done there just as with desires and cravings in ordinary life. But that is precisely what one is supposed to overcome. It goes without saying that any perception of the spiritual world would be extinguished the moment one sits down to conduct such an experiment, if this experiment is carried out entirely according to the ordinary thoughts of the physical plane. Yet it is precisely these thoughts of the physical plane, with all their wishes and desires, that must be overcome.

[ 5 ] One can only respond to such objections in a positive way: Certainly, such an experiment could be arranged, but it should not be arranged according to the methods of the physical plane; rather, it would have to be arranged according to the methods of the spiritual world. That is to say, how would it have to come about? Above all, the intentions would have to originate in the spiritual world and not spring from the mind of a curious professor. The intention must arise from the spiritual world that people who are seers on the physical plane might experience the thoughts and feelings of other people, and a small group of people must truly be brought together from the spiritual world through karma—not by a professor’s methods, but actually by the workings of fate. And on the other hand, the seers themselves would also have to be brought together by karmic destiny. Then the experiment would be arranged by the spiritual world, and the seers could reveal what lives within each individual in terms of feelings and so on. Then it would inevitably succeed; it always succeeds when arranged in this way.

[ 6 ] I would like to say that if one truly reads the book Theosophy with understanding, one knows what I have just said, and one recognizes it as a self-evident truth of the spiritual world that [such an experiment] is not possible in our time. One must, of course, take this into account. And so, since I saw from the review just mentioned that people are not in a position to read the book in such a way that they arrive at such a thought on their own, I have now—in the sixth edition, the proof sheets of which I have before me—added what I just said, word for word, in a footnote. One of the most essential conditions of a book that has grown out of Spiritual Science is that one does not merely absorb the content of such a book; that is the very least of it. It also requires that, once one has taken this book into oneself, one has in a certain way changed the way one thinks, feels, and perceives; that one has made progress beyond the standards and modes of judgment one otherwise applies in the ordinary world. This is the difficulty that still stands in the way of understanding works of Spiritual Science today: that people read them like other writings and believe they can absorb the content as they would with other writings; whereas in fact, something within one must be transformed if one has truly understood an occult book—a genuine occult book.

[ 7 ] It is therefore quite understandable that genuine occult books, in particular, are rejected by most people today. For what must be going on inside a person who reads such a book in the present day? Well, he approaches the book; he is, of course, very intelligent—as are all people today. He knows that he can judge the book’s content, that there can be no better judge of the book. He knows this from the outset. Now, is he supposed to be able to judge differently after reading the book? Of course he cannot. He is, after all, intelligent and possesses the best means of judgment. He does not bother to change anything regarding his judgment. So he will not sense anything of the book’s tendencies or intentions, naturally. At best, he will then come to the conclusion that he has learned nothing at all from the book, and that it is all merely a play on words and concepts. This is entirely natural; it must be so if one does not grasp the fundamental essence of all Spiritual Science, which consists in the fact that, through reading a genuine Spiritual Science book, one arrives at a different way of perceiving and judging the world in some respect, however small it may be.

[ 8 ] Now there is one thing that must be taken into account if one wishes to associate any concept whatsoever with the words “occult reading, occult hearing.” One must, so to speak, set aside for the time being everything that constitutes ordinary thinking and ordinary judgment with regard to the physical plane. I have emphasized this many times: Of course, one must remain a reasonable person; thus, even while acquiring a new form of judgment, thinking, and feeling for the spiritual world, one must retain sound judgment regarding the events and beings of the physical plane. This is quite self-evident; I have already emphasized it often. But one must acquire something that is necessary for the higher worlds, something that does not apply to the physical plane. I would like to start with a matter that is probably still familiar to you.

[ 9 ] On the physical plane, we are accustomed to entering into a relationship with the things and beings of the physical plane through our thinking, feeling, and willing. By thinking and imagining, we form concepts and mental images about the things and beings of the physical plane and the processes taking place there. In a sense, whatever we believe to be present in space and unfolding in time, we thereby make our own as spiritual property. Through our thinking and mental images, we learn to know something. It is the same with feeling. We encounter a certain thing, for example a rose. We are delighted by the rose. Through this, we transfer something from the external world into our own soul through our feeling. In this way, we make something that emanates from the outside—from the rose—and affects us into our inner spiritual possession. With willing, it is the case that we incorporate something that lies within our intention into the external world.

[ 10 ] We must take into account all the relationships between ourselves and the external world when we consider our behavior on the physical plane. Everything we employ there in thinking, feeling, and willing—everything we do there by relating to the external world through our ordinary physical body—serves us not at all—in the form in which it is practiced on the physical plane—to know anything about the higher world. Rather, everything that serves us, for example, to know something of the physical world—the ways of sensation and the ways of imagination that we employ to know the physical world—all of this can serve only as preparation for Spiritual Science research.

[ 11 ] So, to be clear: in the physical world, what we do in thinking, feeling, and willing serves to give us direct knowledge of the physical world or to accomplish something for the physical world; for the higher worlds, everything that serves us so directly in the physical world serves only as preparation. Whatever we can think regarding the physical world—no matter how keenly we think—gives us no knowledge of the higher worlds. It is only, as it were, that our soul itself is prepared and educated through thinking in such a way that it gradually makes itself capable of entering the spiritual world in the right manner. What we can will and feel regarding the physical world is merely applicable to the self-education of the soul, as preparation for the soul’s entry into the spiritual worlds. So I would like to say, to express myself clearly: A learned researcher discovers something about the external world through his scientific method, and he is accustomed, once he has investigated it, to say: I know this and that about the external world. — But this kind of research, this kind of thinking, does not help him at all to enter the spiritual world; rather, the way he thinks and researches there has significance only as an exercise of the soul’s powers. Only as the soul becomes more capable, through thinking and research, of living within itself and putting its power into action—only this is effective for penetrating the higher worlds. For the spiritual researcher, the activities normally carried out in the physical world are applicable only as a cultivation of one’s own soul.

[ 12 ] I will offer another analogy to make the point clearer. Let us suppose that someone is a carpenter; he has learned the trade and now intends, as a carpenter, to make this or that tool. Through these activities as a carpenter, he now constantly makes this or that tool, year after year; that is the essence of the carpenter’s task. But it is not only tools that are made which are useful for the physical plane; something else also occurs as a byproduct: he becomes more skilled, his dexterity increases, and he gains something for his own organism by becoming more capable and agile. This is, as it were, a side effect. The same is true of spiritual activities. Take, for example, a botanist. If I work as a botanist and make wonderful efforts in the field of botany for decades, that is fine for the physical plane. But there is also a side effect: I become more agile in my thinking; my thinking is, as it were, “trained.” The spiritual researcher must engage in this “training”—please do not take the term in its ordinary, trivial sense. He must use what is employed in ordinary life in the service of external knowledge to make his mental faculties more flexible and compliant. For when one puts these powers to the service of self-education—rather than using them for benefit and advantage in the physical world—as happens in meditation, concentration, and the exercises one is given, then one prepares oneself to penetrate the spiritual world. And take this word I am using—“one prepares oneself”—as something of extraordinary importance. For, fundamentally speaking, one can do nothing else but prepare oneself to enter the spiritual world; the rest is a matter for the spiritual world, which must then meet us halfway. But it will not meet us halfway if we remain just as we usually are as human beings on the physical plane. Only when we have transformed our soul forces in the manner described can we hope that the spiritual world will meet us halfway. It cannot be like research in the physical world, where one approaches things so readily. One can only prepare oneself so that, when the things of the spiritual world approach us, they do not slip away from us, but rather truly make an impression on us. | |

[ 13 ] That is why we must say: All we can do to explore the spiritual world is to prepare ourselves in a worthy manner, so that when karma wills the spiritual world to reveal itself to us, we are not blind and deaf to that spiritual world. For we can prepare ourselves. But the spiritual world’s revealing itself to us is an act of grace on the part of the spiritual world. That is how one must understand it. Therefore, to the question: How does one succeed in penetrating the spiritual world? — one can answer: Prepare oneself through everything that makes our thinking and feeling more compliant, more flexible, that trains our thinking, as it were, that makes our feeling, our sensibility, more refined, more devoted. And then wait, wait, wait! That is the golden rule: to be able to wait with a calm soul. The spiritual world cannot be accessed in any other way than by making oneself worthy of it and then developing an expectant mood with a calm soul. That is what matters. An expectant mood—that is the essential thing. We acquire it by preparing ourselves to receive the spiritual world in the manner described—and in my books, I have often illustrated how this happens in detail. But then we must also cultivate that absolute peace of mind which alone makes it possible for the spiritual world to approach us.

[ 14 ] I once used the following analogy in a lecture: In the physical world, if you want to look at something, you go to that thing. If you want to see Rome, you have to go to Rome. That is quite natural in the physical world, because Rome does not come to you. In the spiritual world, it is exactly the opposite. In the spiritual world, we can do nothing else but prepare ourselves through the methods described in order to receive the spiritual world worthily: peace of mind, remaining steadfast in our position—then it comes to us. We must await it with peace of mind. That is the significance of the matter. Where, then, is that which is approaching us—where is it? I have spoken of this many times before and wish only to mention it by way of introduction, so that we may have a solid foundation upon which to build in the coming days.

[ 15 ] Since you are all familiar with our anthroposophical literature, I would like to put the question this way: Where are the beings of the elemental world, where are the beings of the spiritual world, where are the beings of the higher hierarchies? They are where we are. They are all around us; they are nowhere else but here, where the table and chairs are, where you yourselves are. They are all around us, but in relation to the conditions and processes of the external world, they are so subtle and so fleeting that one can say they simply escape human attention. People are constantly passing through the spiritual world and do not see it because, due to their constitution—which is not yet prepared for the spiritual world—they are simply inattentive to it. And if they had the opportunity to enter the spiritual world, as is the case at night during sleep, then their consciousness proves too weak, too dull, to perceive the spiritual beings that are around us. From the moment of falling asleep until waking up, a person is in the spiritual world, in this subtle, fluctuating world, but they do not perceive it because their consciousness is too dull to perceive it.

[ 16 ] What must happen, then, for human beings to learn to perceive this world in which they are, in fact, always immersed? Yes, we must discuss a few important points in order to understand what is to take place. Above all, we must consider something that I have now attempted to present more precisely to the outside world in the concluding chapter of the second volume of my book The Riddles of Philosophy. I want to see if people who are not part of the anthroposophical movement can understand it.

[ 17 ] We must address the question: How does external perception actually come about? Well, isn’t it true that people usually think—especially those who consider themselves very clever—that external perception arises because things are out there, because the human being is in his own skin, because external things make an impression on him, and because this causes his brain to generate an image of the external objects and forms within him. Well, it is not at all like that; rather, it is quite different. In truth, the human being is not at all inside his own skin [with his spiritual-soul aspect]; that is not the case at all. When a person sees, for example, this little bouquet of roses, they are in fact right there inside the bouquet with their ego and astral body, and their organism acts as a mirroring apparatus, reflecting the things back to them. In truth, they are always spread out across the horizon that you survey. And in waking consciousness, you are also present with a significant part of your ego and astral body within the physical and etheric bodies. The process is really like this—I have often mentioned this in lectures—: Imagine you are walking around in a room where a number of mirrors are mounted on the walls. You can walk through the room. Where there is no mirror, you do not see yourself. But as soon as you come to a mirror, you see yourself. If you come to a spot without a mirror, you do not see yourself, and when there is a mirror again, you see yourself again. It is the same with the human organism. It is not the creator of the things we experience in the soul; it is merely the mirroring apparatus. The soul is present together with the things out there, for example, here with this little bouquet of roses. The fact that the soul consciously sees the bouquet depends on the eye, in conjunction with the soul’s brain apparatus, reflecting back what the soul lives with. And at night, a person does not perceive, because when they sleep, the ego and astral body withdraw from their physical and etheric bodies, and these thereby cease to be a mirroring apparatus. Falling asleep is like taking away a mirror that was in front of you. As long as you can look into the mirror, you have your own face before you; take the mirror away, and instantly there is nothing left of your face.

[ 18 ] Thus, human beings are indeed connected to the spiritual-soul being in the part of the world they can perceive, and they perceive it consciously because their organism reflects it. And at night, this reflective apparatus is withdrawn, and they see nothing more. The part of the world that we see is ourselves.

[ 19 ] One of the worst tricks of maya is that human beings believe their spiritual and soul-life is contained within their skin. It is not. In reality, it is contained within the things they see. When I stand face to face with another person, my ego and astral body are contained within them. If I did not hold my physical body up to him, I would not see him. The fact that I see him is due to my physical body, but with my ego and astral body, I am inside him. The fact that people do not see it this way is precisely one of the, I would say, most fateful aspects of maya.

[ 20 ] This gives us some idea of what perception and experience are like on the physical plane. Let us now consider the spiritual world, which I have described as being so fleeting, so easily fluctuating, and so mobile in comparison to the processes and things of the physical world. We live there as well, but we do not experience it in the same way as the coarse things of the physical world, because they are too subtle. If one wishes to experience this fluctuating subtlety, this can initially only be achieved by attuning—properly attuning—what is our ordinary self, the bearer of our individuality, our ego. In proper meditation, we do this. What does this meditation consist of? We take some mental image and surrender ourselves completely to it. We forget ourselves and live within this mental image by suppressing the egoity of ordinary daily consciousness. We shut out everything connected with the egoity of daily consciousness. And since we, as earthly human beings, are only accustomed to applying egoity to the physical plane, we have initially [in meditation] suppressed egoity altogether. Instead of living [with egoity] in the physical and etheric bodies, we gradually succeed in living only in the astral body by suppressing egoity.

[ 21 ] Take note: this is what matters. When we meditate and concentrate, our initial goal and aspiration is always not to live in the ego—which must not then mediate physical experiences—but rather to push it down into the astral body. When it is in the astral body, it is not initially reflected in the physical body. When you see the little bouquet, you are in truth inside the little bouquet. The physical body is a mirror, and you see the little bouquet because the physical body reflects it to you. When you suppress the “I” along with the ego, then you will be inside the astral body. And it is now so subtle that you can consciously perceive the subtle, fluctuating things out there, but for that to happen, they must first be reflected so that you can truly perceive them. Here is something you must take to heart. There are many among you who devote themselves faithfully and sincerely to meditation. Through this, you achieve the suppression of ordinary egoity, so that experience enters the astral body. But the reflection must first be added for you to perceive consciously in the astral body. Among you there is truly a whole host who, through meditation, have already reached the point where they experience in the astral body. But now it comes down to the reflection. And just as in ordinary life one receives a reflection of what one experiences through the physical body, so too, if one wishes to perceive consciously in the spiritual world, one must first receive a reflection of the experiences of the astral body through the etheric body.

[ 22 ] But what happens when a person actually experiences their astral-body experiences being reflected through the etheric body? What happens then is something about which one must first and foremost understand that it is very, very different from seeing in the physical world. I would like to say: life in the spiritual world is not as convenient as it is in the physical world. A small bouquet standing here before me is a self-contained object; I can take pleasure in it, I can take it home, put it in a vase there, and so on. But that is not at all the case with what one has before one as astral experiences, reflected through the etheric body. There, everything lives and weaves. Nothing of what is there is still for even a moment. But the way it appears there, immediately reflected, is not at all what matters—really not. With this little bouquet, what matters is what it is. I take the little bouquet and then I have it. When I have reflected something through the etheric body, I cannot simply take it as it is and be satisfied with that. Do you understand me, my dear friends? It is not at all what it appears to be.

[ 23 ] I have often used a comparison to illustrate this point as well: If there were something written here—a few lines (the letters B, A, and U are written on the board)—I would say, if I couldn’t read: I see lines, like this and that and the other, which are put together to form a peculiar shape. — I can’t take what’s written on the board home with me like a little bouquet; I’d have nothing. And even if I can read what’s written on the board—“B A U”—I still don’t have what really matters. What matters to me is the building out there. I express that through these lines and symbols “B A U.” Even if I read the symbols, I don’t have what matters. In these symbols I only read it; I don’t have the building itself. In ordinary reading, I don’t have what matters in front of me, but I only have the symbol for it.

[ 24 ] I also understand that what I initially perceive when I experience something in my astral body and see it reflected in my etheric body is only truly understood when I interpret it as a sign, and when I learn that the sign stands for something else. It is therefore not enough to simply look at what is reflected from my astral body in my etheric body, just as it does not matter what the letters are if “BAU” is written here. What matters is what these signs mean. I must first learn to read them.

[ 25 ] And likewise, I must first learn to read what I perceive in the spiritual world. What is reflected in my etheric body is the first sign of the truth. That is to say, I must learn to read in the spiritual world. Only in this way can we learn anything from the spiritual world: by first understanding what it presents to us as letters and words that we must learn to read. That is it. And if we do not learn this, if we believe we can spare ourselves the task of learning occult reading, then we are doing something just as foolish as if someone were to take a book and say: There are fools who say that something is expressed in this book; I leaf through the book from page to page and see only such pretty letters in it. — Whoever cannot read the letters takes in only what they see and pays no attention to what is expressed therein.

[ 26 ] If one fails to take into account what I have just said, one ends up in a completely distorted relationship with the spiritual world. What matters is that one learns to interpret and read what one perceives. In the next few hours, we will see exactly what is meant by this interpreting and reading.

[ 27 ] So now we can say that we have at least reached a preliminary understanding of the basic concept: What is occult reading? It occurs when a person experiences themselves in the astral body as they would otherwise experience themselves in the physical world through the ego, and when what is reflected to them is not the experiences of the ego in the physical body, but rather the experiences of the astral body in the etheric body.

[ 28 ] But now we must consider something else: As I mentioned today, we are not merely out there in the world of things; we are not merely immersed in those things with our I and astral body, but while awake we also send a part of the I into the physical body. We only draw it back out of the physical body at night, during sleep. This means that in order to perceive the physical world, we must be able to immerse the I into our physical body. For perceiving the spiritual world, for reading the spiritual world, we first experience that we can perceive through our astral body, and that we can receive as a reflection in the etheric body the things we experience in the astral body.

[ 29 ] Now, however, we must also rise to the point where we can immerse ourselves in the etheric body just as we immerse ourselves in the physical body upon waking. Take the following to heart: It is necessary to immerse ourselves in the etheric body with the astral body if we are to learn to read in the spiritual world. Just as we immerse ourselves in the physical body upon waking, so must we immerse ourselves in the etheric body without immersing ourselves in the physical body. Occultists rightly call this immersion into the etheric body a plunge into the abyss. It is essential that one does not numb oneself during this plunge into the abyss, that one descends with one’s consciousness, and that one finds oneself in the midst of the plunge. For this immersion into the etheric body does not proceed as comfortably as the immersion into the physical body upon waking. It is, in fact, something like a tremendous plunge into the abyss. For one is now split into three parts, as I have described in my book How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds? One is shattered, split, dissolved into a triad. One cannot consciously descend into one’s etheric body without multiplying oneself in the manner described.

[ 30 ] When a person sleeps, their ego and astral body are outside the physical and etheric bodies, and their consciousness is too dull to perceive the spiritual world. When they then submerge into the physical body, the physical body reflects the physical world to them, so that they perceive it. This is also a kind of plunge into the abyss, only it has been made so comfortable for us that we do not perceive it as a shock. When, through our exercises, we ascend to the state in which we can perceive something in the spiritual world, we learn to “read.” This can be compared to a state of sleep that has become conscious. But we also come to know the plunge into the abyss, the shattering into three parts, when we have plunged into our etheric body. When we plunge down there with our consciousness, we are able to consciously plunge into the things and processes of the spiritual world that lie outside of us.

[ 31 ] As long as we live in the astral body and receive reflections of things in the etheric body, we learn to read, just as when we read a book. As soon as we have entered the etheric body, we split into three parts. And we can send these three parts out; they then walk around consciously in the spiritual world. And the three who walk around there experience, in this walking around, what we call “occult hearing.” Occult hearing begins as soon as we have consciously plunged into our own etheric body. Now we truly immerse ourselves in things. Now we realize that what we previously learned to read can be experienced by us.

[ 32 ] So let us repeat: Through his occult exercises, a person is enabled to suppress his ego to such an extent that he learns to live consciously in his astral body. Then, little by little, the processes and beings of the spiritual world are reflected to him by the etheric body. If they are able to interpret this reflected world in the correct manner—as we shall hear in the coming hours—they have mastered the art of occult reading. If he progresses further and is able not only to read “from the outside” in the etheric body, but also to awaken, as it were, within the etheric body, then he sends the Three who have become part of him out into the world and hears the processes in their inner weaving and essence. Then he hears them.

[ 33 ] This gradually leads one to experience occult reading and occult hearing in such a way that one associates them with something very specific. But it also truly brings one into the reality of things. For what takes place on the physical plane is not reality—truly not. A simple reflection can show us, in every corner of the world, how what we experience in our surroundings is not reality; how, in essence, we misinterpret everything.

[ 34 ] Once, someone said to me on the banks of the Rhine: “That is the Old Rhine.” — That is certainly a very beautiful, deeply felt remark. But what exactly is old about the Rhine? The water that one sees flowing? Certainly not; it flows ceaselessly and is gone in the very next moment. The “old” could at most be the channel carved out of the earth by the water. But that is not what is meant when one says “the Old Rhine.” So what, then, is it that the phrase “Old Rhine” actually refers to? After all, one does not say of the sea that it is an “old sea,” and yet there are also channels in the sea carved out by the water, and there are also currents in the sea. When the Gulf Stream flows through the sea, not only is the water different at every moment, but the channels are different as well.

[ 35 ] What, after all, is permanent in the physical realm? Nothing, absolutely nothing. This is true of the entire physical world. Your own organism is in a constant state of flux; what you have within you today as flesh and blood, you did not have eight years ago. Nothing real is permanent in the physical realm; everything is in flux, and we do not even have a clear grasp of what we mean by the word.

[ 36 ] It only makes sense to speak of the “Old Rhine” if we are referring to that which endures—namely, the elemental beings that truly live in the Rhine—if we mean the ancient river god “Rhine,” that is, a spiritual being. Only then have we meant anything meaningful at all. We must mean something spiritual by the term “Old Rhine,” or we are speaking thoughtlessly. So true it is, my dear friends, that we enter into the true realities only when we hold fast to the spiritual worlds. Only then do we enter into the true realities. That we do so, and how we do so, we shall see when we discuss occult reading and listening in detail tomorrow and the day after, as far as possible.