The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Third Lecture

[ 1 ] Once again, our first thoughts should be directed toward the guardian spirits who watch over those who stand outside in the fields of current events; we turn to the guardian spirits of those who stand with us within our movement, but who are now outside and must commit their lives and their entire physical being to what the times demand of them. And in a broader sense, we also turn to the guardian spirits of all those who, even without belonging to our community, must offer their lives and bodies out there in these fields:

Spirits of your souls, watchful guardians,
May your wings bring
The pleading love of our souls
To the earthly people entrusted to your care,
So that, united with your power,
Our plea may shine with help
Upon the souls it lovingly seeks.

[ 2 ] And with regard to those who have already passed through the gates of death, we say:

Spirits of your souls, watchful guardians,
May your wings bring
The pleading love of our souls
To the beings of the spheres entrusted to your care,
So that, united with your power,
Our plea may shine forth in aid
To the souls it lovingly seeks.

[ 3 ] And may the spirit we seek through our movement—the spirit we have sought throughout the years, as we gathered here—reign over you and spread its wings over you, so that you may fulfill your mission in accordance with your karma!

[ 4 ] My dear friends, I do not know how many of you have felt that in these present days, in public lectures such as those that had to be given yesterday and the day before—and especially in public lectures of the kind that had to be given yesterday—it is even more difficult than usual to speak, because what must be said can all too easily be subject to misunderstanding. Precisely when we stand with heart and soul within our movement, we must truly bring the word—which I also alluded to the last time I was permitted to speak here—ever more deeply into our souls: the word that, fundamentally speaking, is the outer life, the life of the physical plane, as it usually presents itself to human beings—not in itself — is maya, a kind of phantasmagoria, and that truth, reality, lies only behind it. We must be clear that this truth regarding maya cannot be grasped merely through our theories or even through our intellect alone, but that it must be grasped with all our soul forces, with our entire soul life, and above all with our emotional and sensory impulses. For just as our intellect, which is directed toward the sensory world, finds it incomprehensible that this world surrounding us is not the true, real one, so too do our feelings and our impulses of will find this truth even more incomprehensible. One must not only learn to think differently by immersing oneself in Spiritual Science; one must also learn to feel differently and to descend to the sources of one’s will in a different way.

[ 5 ] How easily could something like what was said yesterday—since it is difficult to express these things adequately, given that no language has been developed for the conditions of the spiritual world— express these things adequately, how easily could what was said yesterday, for example, be interpreted in such a way that this characterization appeals to this or that Folk-soul in a more or less sympathetic or unsympathetic manner, in our time, when so much of sympathy and antipathy—naturally prompted by the times—influences human thought and feeling. And yet, when Spiritual Science speaks from a right-minded attitude, one must believe that these things—even if they must be sharply characterized, such as the characters of Folk-souls—must not be spoken of in terms of sympathy and antipathy in the ordinary sense of the word. For if they are spoken of in terms of sympathy and antipathy, then they could not be true; they would have to be untrue, they would have to be false. Why is this so?

[ 6 ] It is all too easy to believe that someone who, through the appropriate development of their soul, attempts to rise to a perception of the spiritual worlds—to an objective perception of these spiritual worlds—might become a person who is inwardly devoid of feeling or will. They truly cannot become that. The person who were first to become desiccated in terms of their emotional and volitional life—in terms of those impulses that otherwise manifest in the human world of feelings, sensations, and passions—the person who were first to become desiccated of this inner fire would certainly not be able to ascend to an objective perception of the spiritual world. On the contrary: everything in the inner life of feeling, everything in the inner life of will must be brought together; it must become as fiery as possible. But it must be transformed within the soul; it cannot remain as it is in ordinary life. It must first be transformed in such a way that, through this life of emotional and volitional impulses, the human being gains something like a rebuilding of their world of feeling and will. It is precisely through this that what can be called the inner eye and inner ear must develop. One cannot become an inwardly withered person if one seeks the spiritual world. But then, when it is beheld, when one has arrived at this spiritual world through all inner struggles, through all inner conquests, then indeed it presents itself as a spiritual world in such a way that, for example, it can still evoke sympathy and antipathy within us, but that in the characterization it provides, is no more influenced by newly arising sympathy and antipathy than a rose is influenced by newly arising sympathy when we look at it. We can feel sympathy and antipathy toward it, but it stands there in its objectivity, and if we wish to grasp its essence, we can only characterize it. For the one who is, so to speak, compelled to characterize the spiritual world, there is, in every single case, fundamentally the impossibility of speaking out of sympathy and antipathy.

[ 7 ] Yesterday, an attempt was made to characterize the Italian, French, British, and German folk-souls. Certainly, there must have been some among the listeners who believed that what was being expressed there was not an objective characterization, but rather sympathies and antipathies. But if sympathies and antipathies were speaking, then the characterization itself would be false; it could never be reliable. You can surely understand this from this particular case when I say the following. You all know that a human being is not merely the being who stands before us when we observe him with our physical eyes. There, in accordance with his true nature, he lives within his physical body; there, he looks at us, as it were, through his physical body. But that being of which he is not conscious in ordinary earthly life for certain reasons—which you know—this being, which actually lives within the I and the astral body, he lives through entirely separate from the physical body and etheric body from falling asleep until waking up. For the spiritual researcher, the fact is that he arrives at the results of his research by examining that which otherwise remains unconscious between falling asleep and waking up. Through this—through inner experiences—he experiences that which otherwise remains hidden behind the outer impressions of the world, behind the phantasmagoria of the world.

[ 8 ] Yesterday, in a public lecture, it was said that the national spirit, the national soul, lives within the human body. Today I can say: More specifically, the national soul lives in the human etheric body, in which we reside from the moment we wake up until we fall asleep. Upon waking, as we sink into our physical body, we simultaneously immerse ourselves in the national soul. While asleep, we are not in the national soul, but only from the moment we wake until we fall asleep.

[ 9 ] This raises the question: If the spiritual researcher animates and illuminates inwardly precisely that which does not live in the physical body, what then of his life in the Folk-souls, separate from the body? The Folk-souls act as a separating force when we immerse ourselves in the body. The spiritual researcher cannot live in the folk-souls if he consciously experiences what a person experiences in sleep. The peculiar thing is that at every time, in every present moment, there is a certain, one might say, ruling number of Folk-souls, and the way these Folk-souls relate to one another constitutes the entire earthly life of humanity, insofar as it unfolds physically. When one sinks into the physical body, one thereby sinks into the Folk-souls. When one emerges from one’s physical body and experiences consciously outside of it, then one sinks—amidst all the other experiences one undergoes—not into one’s own Folk-soul, but into the other Folk-souls, with the exception of one’s own, in which one lives during the day in the physical body. Take to heart what I have just said. That when we fall asleep, we do not immerse ourselves in a single Folk-soul, but rather we immerse ourselves in the interplay, as it were, in the dance of the other Folk-souls, only that the Folk-soul into which we immerse ourselves when we enter the physical body does not participate in this dance. In his research, the spiritual researcher actually experiences, in harmony with the other Folk-souls, the very same thing that one otherwise experiences on the physical plane in relation to the individual Folk-soul belonging to the people among whom one otherwise lives.

[ 10 ] Now I ask you: If the spiritual researcher truly knows not only how to live within his own national soul, but also how to live within other Folk-souls—if he must go through this process—does he then have a special reason to describe his own national soul with a different objectivity than he does other Folk-souls? He does not. And here lies the opportunity to rise above the prejudices of sympathies and antipathies and to describe things objectively. It goes without saying that not only the spiritual researcher, who simply consciously experiences what all human beings experience, but that every human soul, from falling asleep to waking up, lives in the interplay of all Folk-souls, with the exception of the one in which the soul lives during waking hours. This is what Spiritual Science gives us, so that the horizon of our feeling and perception is truly expanded. We often speak of how Spiritual Science is suited, precisely through the kind of knowledge it provides, to truly bestow love without distinction of nation, race, social class, and so on. This statement is so deeply grounded that whoever realizes that, when he takes himself as a human being in the part that is spiritually within him, he cannot at all exclude himself in hatred and antipathy from what humanity is—that he must say to himself: It is actually nonsense not to love! But in order to say: it is actually nonsense not to love, Spiritual Science must take hold of us as a way of life, not merely as knowledge. That is why we do not pursue Spiritual Science as mere knowledge, but rather in such a way that, through years of living together in our branches, it truly becomes one with us, like spiritual nourishment that we take in and process within ourselves.

[ 11 ] I said: The norm is that, from the moment one falls asleep until one wakes up, a person lives within the interplay of Folk-souls other than the one that is currently his own. That is the norm. But there is also a way to live, so to speak, in a one-sided manner within one Folk-soul or another. There is a way whereby one is compelled, in the state between falling asleep and waking up, not to live within the entire interplay, not within the entire round dance, as it were, of the other Folk-souls, but rather to be more or less captivated, to live together with one or more other Folk-souls that are singled out from the entire gathering of all Folk-souls. Such a means does exist, and it consists in our particularly hating one or more Folk-souls—nations. For this hatred that we arouse gives us the special power to be compelled, in our sleeping state, to live with those Folk-souls that we hate the most or that we hate at all. There is therefore no better way to prepare oneself to merge completely with a folk-soul in the unconscious state between falling asleep and waking up—and to have to live with it just as one lives with the one with whom one lives in the physical body—than by hating it, but hating it honestly, hating it with feeling, and not merely convincing oneself that one hates it.

[ 12 ] When such things are spoken, one realizes how deeply and seriously the truth of maya must be taken. For not only does our intellect, as it is currently structured, refuse to acknowledge that things are different in their depths than in their outward phantasmagoria, but our feelings and our will also rebel against what is true for the spiritual world. When one takes such truths as those concerning life in the folk-souls of other peoples—and especially in the soul one hates—one must admit that the vast majority of people reject spiritual truth not only because the mind cannot grasp it, but because they do not want it at all, because it disturbs them even in the feelings to which the ordinary earthly human being surrenders. As soon as one delves deeper and more seriously into the truths of the spiritual world, they are not at all comfortable; they are not at all what a person, if they wish to live solely on the physical plane, actually loves. They are uncomfortable. They shake us to the core and, the deeper they are, demand of us at every moment that we be different from what we are accustomed to being on the physical plane. And this—that as a living inner reality they demand something different from us than what we are on the physical plane—is usually one of the reasons why people reject spiritual truth. We cannot help but be connected not merely to a part of the world or of humanity, but we must be connected to the whole world and to all of humanity. Our physical existence is, in essence, merely one swing of the pendulum; the other swing is the opposite in many respects; we simply do not recognize it in ordinary life. One might say that things become serious as soon as one delves into the deeper truths of spiritual life. And these deeper truths of spiritual life can provide infinite guidance for what human development and human progress demand of us, especially in our time. Let us highlight an example from spiritual research that may be particularly important for the present.

[ 13 ] You can easily see that if things are as I have just described them—that is, if, upon entering the physical and etheric bodies, we experience what is commonly called the national spirit or folk-soul—then this experience of the destinies of the individual national spirit belongs to the post-death experiences that we gradually shed. Much has been said about the many things that a person sheds after death; but this connection with the national spirit is also among these things. The national spirit works in the progress of Earth’s development; it works in the way humanity evolves on Earth from generation to generation. After death, between death and new birth, just as we develop out of other things, so too must we detach ourselves from the national spirit. This also explains the significance of the heroic death—death on the battlefield, for example—that is felt. Whoever feels it correctly—and surely those who go through this death with the right attitude feel it correctly—knows that this death is a death of love, that it is suffered not for the personal, not for what one can retain for oneself during the entire time between death and new birth; but that it is suffered for the Folk-souls, in that this physical body and etheric body are selflessly given up. One cannot conceive of death on the battlefield without knowing it to be permeated by true, most intimate love, by the sense of being carried by people by that which contributes to the salvation of humanity in the future. That is the greatness, the significance, the enormity of this very death on the battlefield, when it is experienced with the right attitude. For it is unthinkable without being connected to love.

[ 14 ] But we must shed our connection with the individual national spirit between death and rebirth. It must fall away from us. We must enter a realm where we do not live with the individual national spirit as such. However, it is not the case that we can immediately pass over into other national spirits. This is what happens between falling asleep and waking up. We must become free from all that is merely earthly and enter into the life that detaches itself from what constitutes the development of humanity on Earth. So we must also detach ourselves from everything that connects us to the national spirits. And this, in turn, is what—when we make it our own as knowledge—expands and broadens our horizon of perception by allowing us to look toward the other that we seek, which is not around us when we live on the horizon of physical existence.

[ 15 ] Now—as you can already gather from yesterday’s description of the individual national spirits—it is inherent in the consciousness of these national spirits that one is more inclined toward the individuality of the human being, toward what the human being is as an individual, while the other is less inclined in that direction. I have compared this to the fact that one person looks more inward, while the other lives more in the outer world. With national spirits, it is the case that one is more concerned with individual human beings, while the other is less so. This in turn determines, depending on whether we belong to one national spirit or the other, how we are connected to what the national spirit particularly instills in our etheric body, what it prepares there. Hence there are certain differences in the shedding, in the gradual extrication from what the national spirit does to us after death.

[ 16 ] Take, for example, the French national spirit. It is a national spirit whose inspirations are linked to a highly developed culture—a culture that is conceivable only because this national spirit looks back to ancient Greece, as I have already explained. This national spirit now works upon the people belonging to the nation in question—this is precisely the nature of those national spirits that correspond to highly developed cultures—in such a way that deep impressions arise in the human etheric body, that the signature of the national spirit is sharply imprinted upon the etheric body. This is connected to what I pointed out yesterday, namely that the Frenchman is attached to the image he forms of himself. For the fact that such impressions, arising from the influences of the national spirit on the etheric body, occur, has the further consequence that when the soul leaves the body at death, distinct imprints remain in the etheric body and also in the astral body of the human being. Especially when one belongs to a people such as the French, the soul emerges from physical existence with a sharply defined astral body. The consequence of this is that one has much work to do in shedding what remains of the national spirit after death.

[ 17 ] If we now compare this kind of shedding of the national spirit’s nature, as it is conditioned by the French people, with what is conditioned, for example, by the Russian folk-souls, we find that the latter is actually the exact opposite. The Russian folk-soul is, as it were, young, and it is even less concerned with the individual human beings entrusted to it. Therefore, when individual human beings pass through the gate of death, they are scarcely imprinted by the Russian folk-soul in terms of their etheric and astral bodies. If we now consider the entire situation in the spiritual world, we find, when we look at the souls that have passed through the gate of death, that we encounter the souls of the French people with sharply defined etheric bodies as well as sharply defined astral bodies, whereas we find the Russian souls with etheric and astral bodies that are scarcely defined by the national spirit. The consequence of this is that these different souls can be used for different purposes by the guiding spirits who must advance human evolution.

[ 18 ] We now find ourselves in an era that truly cannot move forward unless a certain body of spiritual truths is revealed to humanity. This has, of course, been discussed at length—to the extent that it has been said that by a certain point in our century, the revelation of Christ will open up to humanity in the spiritual world. But we can take it to mean that we say: Spirituality must enter the world. This spirituality, which enters human development, is first fought for by the spirits in the supersensible sphere; and in this supersensible sphere, higher spirits—spirits of higher hierarchies—fight for the penetration of the spiritual current into human development. But in their struggle, they make use as cooperating forces of those who come from human beings who have passed through the gate of death. For the human being in the life between death and new birth is always working and participating in what happens in the world. And since they are constituted in various ways, they participate quite differently, depending, for example, on whether they come from a French or a Russian body. Therefore, the spirits of the various higher hierarchies can make use of these souls in different ways.

[ 19 ] What lies ahead in human development is, however, connected to the fact that a powerful struggle is currently taking place in the spiritual world. But struggle in the spiritual world means something different than struggle in the physical world. A struggle in the spiritual world means a collaborative effort to bring about something fruitful. This struggle is something necessary for human development; in short, it is a struggle that leads to something. It is waged by certain spirits of the higher hierarchies. And they wage it by making use of certain young souls coming from the Eastern cultural regions and certain souls emerging from Western cultures. It is a struggle that will last a long time, a struggle between Russian souls who have passed through the gate of death and French souls who have passed through death; a war of spiritual Russia against spiritual France. It is a terrible war, if we use the language of the physical plane. Whoever turns their gaze toward the spiritual world today beholds this battle of spiritual Russia against spiritual France, and the spiritual world is filled with it. It is a shattering battle!

[ 20 ] And now, assuming this, we see what is taking place on the physical plane: an alliance is being formed. This is the reflection of the struggle in the spiritual world. These are among the difficulties that spiritual research must overcome. Do not think, however, that one can now generalize by simply saying: One can easily deduce spiritual truths by always thinking the opposite of what is happening on the physical plane. One would arrive at the most false and foolish conclusions if one were to apply this as a rule. For this may be true in five out of a hundred cases, but not in ninety-five. All spiritual truths are individual and must always be considered individually; they cannot be found through mere dialectic. But the truth I have spoken belongs to those that are particularly jarring today, for it can once again draw our attention to how differently the world is constituted when we look behind the veil of maya, and how in what are outward human deeds, the opposite of what is actually reality—the spiritual—can be present.

[ 21 ] If we look at things this way, it is quite impossible that our feelings would not also change as we observe what is happening externally. For we come to the realization that, in order to see the truth, we must first distinguish between the various aspects of external events. Just as a cloud formation looks indistinct when we see it in the distance but is quite different up close, so too do events in the life of nations appear in truth. And right in the middle of it all—I would say, between the warring parties in the East and West—lies, spiritually speaking, the German realm, which is there to mediate between both sides, truly to mediate between both sides—which it indeed does. And while mediation takes place in the spirit on both sides, we see in the physical world the lashing out from both sides and toward both sides.

[ 22 ] In a certain sense, what we are experiencing now is connected to the deepest impulse of human development in our time. I have often said: Why do we actually pursue anthroposophy? We pursue it because it is a world task, a demand made upon humanity by the spiritual world. A number of imaginations must be communicated to humanity; in the course of the coming period, people must take in a number of spiritual truths. This, I would say, is foreshadowed in the course of human development. In contrast, of course, there is the contradiction—the real contradiction, the conflict—that people must first gradually mature, and that this process is slow. But the imaginations want to enter into human development. Something wants to enter into human development that, I would say, lies a step above the physical plane, something higher. People still reject this today; they reject it in the most comprehensive sense. Hence the counter-image appears. And the counter-image of the imaginations are passions, are emotional outbursts that arise from the depths of human nature, which lie just as far below the physical plane as the imaginations lie above it. When we see people today encountering one another with hatred, with genuine untruth—what then are this hatred and this untruth? They are the mirror images of the imaginations striving to well up, which now emerge in such a form because people resist them. What lies a certain distance above the physical plane emerges as its product of transformation, as that which lies just as far below the physical plane; this must work its way out. We can also find the basis for this in general human karma, which manifests in such an unpleasant way.

[ 23 ] Why is it that people must receive a certain body of spiritual truths precisely now, in our time? We can answer this question as follows.

[ 24 ] There are two possible scenarios. One is that a person has a certain sensitivity to spiritual truths, that they do not turn a deaf ear to them, but rather take them into their soul and heart, that they become, so to speak, an anthroposophist, in the way one can become an anthroposophist in our time. Or the other possibility is that a person rejects spiritual truths, saying, for example, that it is all foolish, silly nonsense; that it all springs from the minds of a few foolish dreamers who would be better off doing something else.

[ 25 ] Well, when a person passes through the gate of death, they naturally enter the spiritual world. And if someone were to say, for example: “Is it only by acquiring knowledge of this spiritual world between birth and death that one enters it?” — one could say to them, in a certain sense: Of course, even those who know nothing of it enter the spiritual world; quite naturally, they too enter the spiritual world. — But what is the difference between these two types of people? The difference is considerable. I am speaking now only of our time, for spiritual truths are individual. And if, for example, someone were to say in response to the first point I mentioned: “So do imaginations that cannot find an outlet always turn into a war of blasphemy, such as the one now raging?”—that would be a mistaken view; for at other times they can behave quite differently. Spiritual truths are always individual, and what I am about to say constitutes merely an individual truth for our time.

[ 26 ] The person who passes through the gate of death without having taken in or cared about the possibility of to receive the spiritual in our time, surrenders his soul to the higher worlds when he passes through the gate of death, almost exactly as he received it when he entered physical existence through birth, and the higher worlds have nothing of him other than what they gave him at the time of his incarnation. But whoever acquires here—not merely through faith, but by immersing themselves in the spiritual worlds—what is possible to receive from the spiritual world, that person does not surrender their soul to the spiritual worlds at death as they received it at birth, but also hands over to the supersensible beings what they have worked out here in terms of concepts, mental images, and feelings, and this does not belong solely to him, but belongs to the supersensible beings. Whoever does not bring this with them naturally also lives into the spiritual world, but contributes nothing to the progress of humanity. If one had always lived this way, or if one were to live this way from a certain point onward, no progress would have taken place, or from a certain point onward humanity would have remained as it was. That progress, that further development takes place, that souls can always find something new when they enter the Earth in new incarnations, depends on their finding the opportunity to take in within themselves what the particular mission of the time is. It is therefore ultimately a kind of decision whether one enters into a relationship with the spiritual world or not. One might say, for example: What do I care about the progress of humanity? What do I care about the development of the Earth? Let the Earth stand still! I live above it all. — Anyone who has no true love, no interest in the progress of the Earth, can speak that way. But anyone who carries within themselves a love for the progress of humanity as their highest duty cannot choose this path. Freedom also lies in this realm. Therefore, it goes without saying that souls will come to anthroposophy only through freedom and love for true human progress and the salvation of humanity. One cannot, therefore, become an anthroposophist even out of mere selfishness; for if one does, one contributes to a progress from which one would otherwise withdraw. One thus acts in love, not merely for oneself, but for something else.

[ 27 ] This is what I always want to bring to light in all the discussions of the Spiritual Science we are seeking: that this science is a living, active force. I am not speaking of vision; I am speaking of this science; vision merely produces the results. I am speaking of the results taking root within the human being. Spiritual Science is a living, active force, something that takes root in souls, that works and creates within our souls. That is why I have often used this comparison: Merely speaking of love—and considering this speaking particularly within the Theosophical Movement—is like standing in front of a stove and preaching that it should become warm, for that would be its duty as a stove. It will not become warm through the most beautiful sermon about its duty as a stove. But it will become warm if one puts wood into it and lights it. So it is, in essence, with all preaching about love for humanity, and this preaching has scarcely more success with people than preaching to the stove that it should become warm. After all, such preaching has been done throughout the ages, and its success—well, that can be observed. But what is not merely knowledge of the spiritual world, what is not merely a mental image or a word, but what is a living, active force within the word—that is the wood we give to our soul, and it burns when it is properly received by our soul. It is precisely from discussions such as today’s that one can glean this; there knowledge flares up, there knowledge becomes love, for the human being is transformed by the spiritual life recognized in his depths, in his very foundations. This profound transformation is even quite uncomfortable for him; he rejects spiritual truth and would rather remain with maya.

[ 28 ] But this is also, in essence, the next reason why it is so often said that spiritual truths should not be revealed to the public too freely. After all, these are not truths that, when spoken, have as neutral an effect as physics or chemistry; rather, they are truths toward which the human soul cannot remain entirely neutral—truths that it must either reject or accept. But in order to accept them, it must, in a certain sense, transform itself from what it is in ordinary physical life. That is why the world becomes somewhat agitated, stirred up by the communication of deeper spiritual truths. But our time is called upon not to shy away from this agitation, but to truly go through it. For only in this way can the ground be prepared for a new spiritual life, toward which we must strive and at whose starting point we nevertheless stand. And the signs of the times point out to us how necessary it is to understand certain things. For one can stand before much of what is happening in the outer world today in a state of incomprehension and ignorance. Try to summarize various things. I have, so to speak, the task here of speaking to you more intimately than is possible in a public lecture. I have the task of formulating what I said in the public lectures that were connected with current events in such a way that it might become effective truth; of shaping it so that it is spoken correctly in our time. If you try to bring some of these things together, you will see that a consistent effort has run through it all: to evoke slightly more accurate concepts, more accurate perceptions and feelings regarding the context of even the most immediate current events than are otherwise so easily disseminated.

[ 29 ] Try, for example, to note that in my first public lecture I endeavored to demonstrate how, deep down, the German people were truly filled with a desire for peace and peaceful development, and how it is indeed true that one can say: the German people, as a whole, did not want the war. But if we listen to people on the left and right, they all say this, they all emphasize it: they did not want the war! The French did not want the war, the English did not want the war; they had to wage it for “moral reasons.” But those moral reasons arose in just eighteen hours! Everyone emphasizes: they did not want the war. Let us stick to that—for there is indeed a great, great deal of truth in it—and follow how I proceeded by pointing out: the German people did not want the war. But I did not conclude from this that the other side therefore wanted it. Rather, in my first public lecture, I explicitly stated: at most, one could raise a question, namely the question: Who could have prevented the war?—and with that I pointed to the Russian East; for it could have prevented the war.

[ 30 ] But that is precisely what I drew particular attention to: that the correct answer depends on the correct question. If someone insists that they did not want the war, it does not follow that the other party therefore wanted it. It is possible that neither wanted it, and yet it broke out. If one disregards the peculiar circumstances of Russia, one can essentially say: The war was not really “wanted” in the sense of what is called “wanting” on the physical plane. Rather, this war arose in an incomprehensible way out of an elemental necessity, through opposing forces, through forces that were fundamentally at odds with one another. For never before has such a world-historical event, in essence, sprung up in so few days as if from a box, and shown that what unfolds in external events is something that emerges from spiritual conditions and manifests itself physically.

[ 31 ] Viewed in this light, today’s events serve as a kind of lesson, designed to bring a certain thought to people’s minds: If the question is raised, “Did this person do it? Did that person do it?” — you will never get the right answer. Instead, you must first assume that something else was at work, you must take the trouble to dig a little deeper. Only then will we learn to speak correctly about events.

[ 32 ] There is yet another reason why we will have to force ourselves to take a deeper look at things. We are witnessing how the modern world presents itself as a contradiction in terms. People are still unable to do anything other than interpret events in such a way that they blame others entirely. Once a time comes when the deeper truths about karma have taken root in people’s minds, this tendency to blame others for what one must go through will no longer exist. For then people will know that every nation experiences in its karma what it must experience for its own sake. The nation experiences the necessity of strengthening its forces in the struggle, not because of the other, but for its own sake, in order to move forward; the other is, in a certain sense, merely the executor. Thus, the focus is shifted to the national soul’s karma. And the statement: “Here I stand, and there stands the other; he is to blame; he is the one causing me to have to go through these events, through these struggles; he instigated them”—this appears, from a higher perspective, as if a fifty-year-old man were looking at a child—the child is young, and he is old; when the child was not yet there, he was not yet old, and as the child grows up, he grows old—and if he were now to say: The child is to blame for my growing old; for if the child did not grow up and get older, I would not grow old! But the child can only draw his attention to the process of growing old.

[ 33 ] It should be noted that every people must experience whatever befalls them—even the most difficult events—as a result of their karma. Do not say that if such a truth were to take root in people’s minds, it would be something inconsolable; rather, it will lead precisely to a heroic view of life, to a courageous view of life, to a view of life that encompasses evolution. When such a view of life takes hold of people, they will regard it as a waste of energy to always see the fault in others and to always proceed according to the usual conclusion. They will appeal to the forces that can propel them forward. They will learn to identify with their destiny in every sphere. We have seen in the public lecture that this destiny, which people so readily regard as something external, is only truly understood when we merge into it. So it is with national karma. When love comes to Earth, this attitude will come among people.

[ 34 ] But to you, my dear friends, who have dedicated yourselves to a spiritual movement, I would like to appeal once again today—as I have done before—to consider that in the future it will be necessary for the spiritual horizon in which we live not merely to be filled with thoughts that have existed before, but to be filled with new thoughts. But these can only be thoughts that spring from the spiritual world. It will not be a matter of indifference whether or not there are a number of people in the near future who send thoughts up into the spiritual world, such as those that arise from a contemplation like the one undertaken today. If you take the time to meditate on these truths, you will contribute to ensuring that what is to unfold in the future unfolds in the right way and for the benefit of humanity. You are not idle in the progress of humanity when you meditate on the thoughts that the present time demands, so that humanity may truly move forward. May many of us succeed in setting forth, alongside the work done with blood and death, the spiritual work that consists in filling the world with right thoughts—thoughts that are in keeping with the mission of our time. And then we will feel that these are the true thoughts of love. Oh, many a person who today searches for quotations and reaches for the much-loved Büchmann to say something right has, in these days, cited the words of the ancient Heraclitus, who calls war the “father of all things.” Heraclitus spoke rightly, and those who repeat it also speak rightly. But a child cannot arise from the father alone. The mother belongs to the child. Just as war is the father, so is that which takes place in peaceful work the mother. So that the father does not remain sterile, the mother must be there. And she must emerge from the minds of those who spiritually comprehend the tasks of our time and who, from this insight, know how to attain love.

[ 35 ] This is what I would like to place in your souls during this gathering, so that, in accordance with the demands of our present time, our Spiritual Science may not remain merely a satisfaction of our curiosity or our thirst for knowledge, but rather may provide the true, living forces which, as we cultivate them, will become the true consolation for the suffering that our time brings with it. For true comfort is that which does not lead to weakness, but brings strength in its wake, that which rouses us—whether to spiritual or physical action—but in any case to action. Time and again we must remember how necessary it is in our time that a number of people have a free impulse toward spiritual deepening. For this already signifies that it is not the individual human being, but all of humanity that is moving forward. And in holding this attitude, we recall once more, in closing, the thoughts we send out in the sense indicated to those who stand outside:

Spirits of your souls, watchful guardians,
May your wings bring
The pleading love of our souls
To the earthly people entrusted to your care,
So that, united with your power,
Our plea may shine with help
Upon the souls it lovingly seeks.

[ 36 ] And as for those who have already passed through the gates of death:

Spirits of your souls, active guardians,
May your wings carry
The pleading love of our souls
To the beings of the spheres entrusted to your care,
So that, united with your power,
Our plea may shine forth in aid
To the souls it lovingly seeks.