The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fourth Lecture

[ 1 ] My dear friends, as on other occasions when I have had the privilege of speaking to you since the dawn of our grave present times, let our first thoughts at this moment also turn to those who stand out in the field, sacrificing their souls and bodies to the great demands of our time and having to stand up for these demands with their entire physical being:

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 to those who have already passed through the gates of death, we say:

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.

[ 3 ] And may the Spirit who passed through the Mystery of Golgotha—whom we have long sought within our movement—be with you and guide you toward the goals you must pursue!

[ 4 ] What I particularly wanted to convey here in our last reflection, through the words spoken at that time, was the truth to be recognized through Spiritual Science: that it is precisely in the great, serious events of life that we are able to see that external phenomena must be viewed in the light that Spiritual Science provides us. Only then do they no longer appear to us as maya, as the great illusion, but rather they appear to us in their profound truth. Not as if these outer appearances themselves were maya or illusion—which an Orientalizing worldview could easily present to souls as a misunderstanding—but rather, it is the case that our senses and our intellect err in the interpretation and comprehension of outer events if we do not illuminate these outer events with the light that comes to us through the knowledge of the spiritual world.

[ 5 ] Today I would like to pick up on certain points that have already been touched upon over the years of our anthroposophical endeavors, and which I would like to place in a perspective more appropriate to our times.

[ 6 ] We are, after all, deeply convinced that ever since the Mystery of Golgotha intervened in earthly events, the impulses, forces, and beings that passed through this Mystery of Golgotha have intervened as living forces in all the events of human development on Earth. In other words, to put it more concretely, I would like to say: In all decisive events, in everything that has occurred as important and essential, the Christ impulse is at work through those who are his servants, his spiritual helpers. At present, people so often refer to the Christian world only as that which has been comprehensible to human beings. But I have emphasized this often: What has come into the world through Christianity is so great, so immense, that human reason, the human intellect, has been in no position up to the present day to truly grasp even the most elementary aspects of the forces of the Christ impulse. If Christ were to have worked only through what people have been able to grasp of him, then he would have been able to accomplish very little. But what matters is not what has entered humanity through human concepts of reason, the mental images people have of Christ, but that he has been present since the Mystery of Golgotha, working directly among people and active in their actions. What matters is not the extent to which he has been understood by people, but that he was there as a living being and allowed himself to flow into what has occurred as decisive events in human development. Certainly, even today, through our Spiritual Science, we are only able to grasp a little of the depth of the Christ impulse; future generations will understand and perceive more and more of it. What we are able to grasp of the Christ impulse today cannot lead us to pride. Spiritual Science seeks to understand far more than what could be understood of Christ in times past. In times past, people could only reflect on Christ using the means provided by the outer intellect, outer reason, and outer research. Now we have Spiritual Science to assist us; through it we look into the supersensible worlds, and from the supersensible worlds we can find many answers regarding the meaning of the Mystery of Golgotha. Least able to grasp immediately what Christ is, and what those spiritual powers are that stand in his service as Folk-souls and the like, were those people into whose sphere, so to speak, Christ first had to enter. Nevertheless, the Christ impulse had to flow in—for example, into the Roman world. And it is precisely in an example we have already cited in another context that we can best see how the Christ acts as a living power and leads his spiritual servants when it comes to bringing about those events that must flow into the development toward the true progress of humanity.

[ 7 ] I would like to draw attention once again to the fact I am referring to. In the year 312 of our era, it came to pass that the man through whom Christianity became the state religion within the Roman Empire, Constantine, son of Constantius Chlorus, faced off with his army against the then ruler of Rome, Maxentius. Certainly, given how the two armies faced each other, one had to say: the conditions for Constantine could not have been more unfavorable, for his army was five times smaller than that of Maxentius. We can form a mental image of the situation at the time, in which both armies had quite significant military leaders. But what mattered at that very moment was not human skill, but rather that the flowing Christ impulse was given the opportunity to intervene in humanity in the way demanded by the times. We can see for ourselves what could be understood of the Christ impulse at that time, and what the hearts of people had taken in from the Christ impulse based on the consciousness of the age, when we look at what took place around Rome and from Rome a few decades later: when we see how Julian the Apostate, out of an honest conviction based on what could be gained from human knowledge at that time, fought against Christianity. And anyone who considers the way Julian and his followers fought against Christianity will say to themselves: Certainly, from the standpoint of human knowledge, Julian and his followers were at the height of their time; from this perspective, they were far more enlightened than the Christians of their time, even though they had reverted to paganism. Of them one can say: they represented what human knowledge could represent at that time. But what human knowledge is, that was not to be the decisive factor in the year 312; rather, there had to be the possibility that Christ and his servants intervened in the historical development of humanity. But even if Maxentius and his followers had been able to rely as much as possible on their own military prowess, as well as on whatever else could have been achieved through human knowledge and wisdom at that time, and nothing else had happened, then what was meant to come to light at that time would undoubtedly not have come to light. So what happened?

[ 8 ] What happened was this: The ongoing Christ impulse flowed into those activities of the souls that lay outside human consciousness, of which people knew nothing. And it actually guided people in such a way that what was meant to happen came to pass. For the battle between Constantine and Maxentius, which took place on October 28, 312, at Saxa Rubra, was not decided by human artifice; rather, it was decided—however much modern rationalism may resist acknowledging this—by dreams, that is, what are commonly called “dreams,” but which are not what they seem to us. For everything that could not flow into the souls of the two generals through human reason flowed into them through the dreams. Maxentius had previously dreamed that he would have to leave his city. He also consulted the Sibylline Oracle; it told him that he would achieve what was to happen if he dared to fight not within, but outside the city. It was the most unwise thing he could have done, especially since his army was so much stronger than Constantine’s. He should have known that he first had to interpret what he received from the higher worlds, and that the oracle’s pronouncement would mislead him. Constantine, on the other hand, had a dream that told him he would be victorious if he led his army into battle under the sign of Christ, and so he arranged his actions accordingly. What flowed into the souls through the circuitous path of the dream was translated into action, and this brought about what so transformed the world at that time, so that one need only reflect a little to ask oneself: What would have become of the Western world if supersensible powers had not intervened in events in such a vivid manner?

[ 9 ] But now let us take a closer look at the events. At that time, souls were incarnated in Western and Southern Europe who were to embrace Christianity, who were to become its bearers. Precisely because of their intellect and reason, the most enlightened souls of that time could not become bearers of the Christ impulse, because the time was not yet ripe for it. They had to come to Christianity through what had been created around them externally. One can say of these people: they put on Christianity, as it were, like a garment, and they were not all that deeply moved by it in their innermost being. They became more like serving members than being directly seized by the Christ impulse in their deepest being. This was essentially the case for a long time with the best souls in the western part of Europe, well into the eighth and ninth centuries and even beyond. It was necessary for them to accept Christianity as a garment, to wear this garment of Christianity in such a way that they wore it in their etheric body and not in their astral body. You can appreciate what it means when I say they wore Christianity in their etheric body. That is to say, they accepted it in such a way that they were Christians in the waking state, but could not take Christianity with them when they were out of the physical and etheric bodies. And so they also passed through the gate of death in such a way that we can say of them: they were able to look down from the realm that the human being must pass through between death and new birth upon what they had been in their past earthly life. But to take with them into their next life the Christian impulses that arose from that former life—that was not immediately possible for them at that time. They simply wore Christianity more like a garment.

[ 10 ] Let us bear in mind this connection for a consideration I will make shortly: how souls embraced Christianity in their outer lives, and how this Christianity did not belong to that which the souls could carry with them through the spiritual world when a person passes through the gate of death, in order to prepare themselves for a new earthly existence. Let us bear in mind that these souls could only enter a new earthly existence by having forgotten Christianity. For in a later earthly life, one does not consciously remember what one wore as a garment in a previous life. If that were the case, our high school students would not need to learn Greek again, since many of them were incarnated in Greece; but they do not remember their Greek incarnation and must therefore learn Greek anew. But because of the life those souls who had incarnated in Western Europe had gone through between death and rebirth, they could not carry Christianity forward, because they had not inwardly woven these impulses together with the ego and the astral body. That was the peculiar way in which these souls carried themselves over into later incarnations. Let us bear this in mind, and now consider another fact to which I have already referred.

[ 11 ] We know that the era in which we now live, the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, began mainly around the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, at a time when the European world was to be prepared for what would ultimately lead, in our own time, to the development of the conscious soul. That is, after all, what our fifth cultural epoch is all about. What was to be brought about there had to be brought about in view of the fact that, externally in earthly existence as well, those earthly conditions arose that were particularly conducive to the development of the consciousness soul—that soul which can develop when it turns its attention to material earthly existence, to the external facts of physical existence. This had to begin, and it did begin. We need only recall how Europe’s horizon was expanded across the Earth through the great discoveries and their aftermath, so that the soul of consciousness had to develop primarily under material influence. We need only consider one thing here, which we have also pointed out: what belongs to the realm of the British folk-souls is particularly, indeed exclusively, called upon for the unfolding and development of the conscious soul. And when one examines all the details, it is hard to imagine that anything could have proceeded with such deliberate planning as this directing of the British folk-soul toward these material tasks of life. This was entirely foreshadowed in the course of human development.

[ 12 ] Let us now imagine that England in the fifteenth century had been diverted from its inclination toward precisely those regions of the world to which it had been drawn by the discovery of the great non-European territories, and that the British folk-souls in the fifteenth century had come to experience significant territorial expansions on the European continent. Let us imagine, then, that the map of Europe had been altered in this way. It would then have been impossible, first, to achieve what had to be achieved in the realm of material culture, and second, to achieve what had to be achieved in Europe through that internalization of life which, amid various obstacles, took place precisely from that point onward with the cooperation of Protestantism—which was, after all, greatly influenced by German mysticism. But if the Christ impulse intervened in the course of development, it had to ensure that British interests were kept away from the region where souls were still to be prepared to be the outward, external bearers of the Christ impulse.

[ 13 ] The Christ impulse had to flow into the deeds of the European continent. It had to work in such a way that it brought about far more than what could be achieved by humanity through its human arts. And what happened?

[ 14 ] The miraculous thing that happened was that everything those who were at the height of their time could not accomplish was accomplished by the poor shepherdess of Orléans, Joan of Arc. At that time, it was truly the Christ impulse working through its Michaelic servant in Joan of Arc that prevented France from merging with England, so to speak, and that caused England to be pushed back to its island. And two things were thereby achieved: first, that France kept its hands free in Europe—which we can study by tracing the following centuries of French history—and that what still lay within the French national spirit could act upon European culture entirely unhindered; and the other thing that was achieved was that England was assigned its territory outside the European continent. This feat, which was thus accomplished by Joan of Arc, was not merely a blessing for the French, but also for the English themselves, in that they were forced into their own territory.

[ 15 ] But if we consider it in the context of the progress of the Christ impulse on Earth, the deeds of Joan of Arc brought about something of which we can say: What she understood of it with a truly human mind is nothing compared to what has shaped the map of Europe as we know it today. That is simply how events had to unfold so that the Christ impulse could spread in the right way. There we see, breaking into historical events from the subterranean depths of human nature, what the living Christ is; not the one whom people understand. For we can view the Christ impulse in two ways. First, we may ask ourselves: What did people understand of the Christ impulse back then? When we open the pages of history and trace the history of humanity, we find, in the centuries past, disputing theologians who defend or combat all manner of theories, attempting to explain how one should understand human freedom, the divine Trinity, and so on. We see countless theologians thus disputing, recognizing one another as orthodox theologians or, in the opposite case, excommunicating one another. Thus we see a Christian doctrine spreading, entirely in accordance with the possibilities of that time. That is one aspect. But that is not what matters, just as it does not matter now what people can do with their ordinary intellect. Rather, what matters is that Christ lives invisibly among humanity as a living being and can flow up from the invisible realms into the deeds of humanity. And he did this in a place where he did not need to flow in through human intellect or human reason, but where he could flow in through the soul of an “uneducated” person, through the soul of the Maid of Orleans. And when he flowed in, how did those who could comprehend Christianity as the official doctrine react? Well, they felt they had to burn the bearer of the Christ impulse! It took some time for this official doctrine to arrive at a different view. For the official doctrine, that may be of value, but for the events of that time, the canonization of the Maid of Orleans is not exactly the right reputation.

[ 16 ] This is really one of the examples through which we can see how Christ intervened in human evolution as a living being—I said that through the Virgin of Orleans he worked through his Michaelic spirit—and not merely through what people understand of him. But we can also see something else in this particular example. Christianity was, after all, present there. The people who were, so to speak, gathered around the Virgin of Orleans called themselves Christians. They certainly understood something by their Christianity. But one would have to say of what they understood: “The one you seek is not there, and the one who is there, you do not seek, for you do not know him.” Nevertheless, we must be clear that it was important, that it was essential, that the development of Christ, even in this outer form in which it appeared there, passed through the development of Europe. There were souls who could accept Christianity precisely in this outer form, who could, as it were, wear it outwardly. They were still the stragglers among those souls who had previously incarnated there—souls, in other words, who still had not taken Christ into their I, but had taken him only into the etheric body. And the great difference between the Maid of Orleans and the others was that she took the Christ impulse into the deepest depths of her astral body and worked for the Christ impulse from the deepest forces of the astral body. It is precisely here that we have one of the points where we can make clear to ourselves what must become clear to us: the difference between the ongoing development of peoples and the ongoing development of individual human personalities.

[ 17 ] If we consider, for example, the French people of today, there naturally exist within the French nation a number of human individualities. These individualities are not, for instance, those who in a previous incarnation lived among the people who, in Western Europe, adopted the outer form of Christianity. For precisely because a number of people in Western Europe had to adopt Christianity as an outer garment, these people passed through the gate of death in such a way that they were destined to be united with Christianity in their astral body and I under different conditions in their next life. Precisely because they were incarnated in Western Europe, it was necessary for them not to have their next incarnation in Western Europe. It is very rarely the case—I say rarely, but it need not always be so—that a soul belongs to roughly the same earthly community in successive incarnations. Souls pass from one earthly community to another.

[ 18 ] But we do have an example—and I say this without wishing to arouse sympathy or antipathy, nor to flatter anyone—we do have an example where souls do indeed pass through the same ethnic group on multiple occasions. This is the case with the Central European people. This Central European people has many souls living within it today, souls that were also embodied among the Germanic peoples in the past. We can investigate this fact. We often cannot fully explain it using the means of occult research available to us so far; but it is there. A fact such as that presented, for example, in last Thursday’s public lecture, “The Germanic Soul and the German Spirit,” is illuminated when we realize that souls repeatedly appear within the Central European community of peoples. This is the fact that we have distinct cultural epochs precisely within this community of peoples. One should have only a mental image of what it means that within the dawn of Germanic culture there was an epoch such as that found among the poets of the Nibelungenlied, Walther von der Vogelweide, and others; and one should have a mental image of the fact that later a time began in which a new flowering of Germanic culture set in, and where the first flowering had been completely forgotten. For at the time when Goethe was young, people knew virtually nothing of the first flowering of Germanic cultural life. Precisely because souls return within this community of people, what had once existed had to be forgotten, so that the souls might find something new upon their return and not be able to immediately build upon what remained from earlier times. No other people has undergone such a metamorphosis, so to speak, as the Central European people: from that height which existed in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, to that other height which was present again around the time of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and whose continuing influence we may hope for. There is no continuous flow from the first to the second period, which becomes understandable only when we realize that it is precisely in this realm of spiritual culture that souls return. Perhaps this is also connected to what I have once before described to you as a shattering fact: that it was indeed only observable among the Central European fighters of the present day that, when they pass through the gate of death, they continue to fight alongside us; that, soon after they have passed through the gate of death, one can see how they continue to fight. Therefore, based on this fact, one can have the most beautiful hopes for the future, when one sees that not only the living—the living in the physical sense—but also the dead, the departed, are helping in what is happening.

[ 19 ] Let us now ask the question: What about those souls who were incarnated in Western Europe during the times when Christianity was adopted as an outer garment—namely in the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries—and who embraced Christianity there, or even among the Romans, but were not yet able to unite it with their astral body and their I? What of these souls?

[ 20 ] Yes, as grotesque as it may seem to the materialistically minded people of today, the teachings of Spiritual Science become profoundly meaningful for life when one examines the concrete facts. People still regard this as the fantasy of a few foolish dreamers when one speaks of repeated earthly lives. People do not accept this idea; but they find it forgivable—since even the great Lessing, in a moment of weakness, accepted the idea of repeated earthly lives—that it is spoken of again today. But when one truly engages with the findings of occult research, one is no longer a fool deserving of forgiveness in the eyes of the people of the Great Enlightenment. Nevertheless, we must address certain aspects of what occult research offers us; for only through this does light shine into what would otherwise remain a great deception.

[ 21 ] The curious thing is that a very large number of the souls who lived in the West during the waning days of the Roman era—when Christianity was gradually gaining influence and then became the state religion—are now coming to us from the East; that is, souls who are growing up in the East and are among the fighters of Russia. I said: let us take note of the fact we mentioned earlier. For among the people who are being killed in the East, who are fighting there or being taken captive, we find souls who lived in Western Europe during the late Roman period. They are now coming toward us from the East—those who once allowed Christianity to flow into their etheric bodies and who now, in the bodies of a relatively less developed culture, through the unique way of life in the East, take Christianity into their souls in the waking state in such a way that they connect with it emotionally and instinctively. Thus, it is precisely in their astral bodies that they connect with the Christ impulse and thereby make up for what they were unable to achieve in their previous incarnations. This is a very remarkable fact that occult research can reveal to us in our time. Among the many startling facts that, prompted by the events of our time, can enter the occult realm, this is one of them. What can we now make clear to ourselves from these facts?

[ 22 ] We must make the following clear to ourselves. We must remember that it is inherent in the steady progress of Central European spiritual life to consciously unite the Germanic soul with Christianity, to raise it to the heights of a true Christian culture. Indeed, the currents and paths leading to this have been wonderfully laid out for centuries. We see this beginning to take shape. Precisely when we consider our time with all its faults and errors, we see that a seed is planted within Central European culture, that preparations are being made with all one’s might in the German national spirit, in the Germanic folk-soul, so that the Christ impulse may now be consciously embraced.

[ 23 ] This is a fact of infinitely greater significance than that of the fifteenth century, when the Maid of Orleans had to save France because France had an important mission at that time. We are thus faced with the significant fact that in the future the German spirit is called upon to take in the Christ impulse ever more consciously, while fully awake to the realities that have flowed into German spiritual life. This Christ impulse had to work through the centuries, as we have always shown, by announcing itself in souls through subconscious processes. And in the future it must connect with souls in such a way that there are people—who must exist in Central Europe—who, in a waking state and by exerting their conscious spiritual powers, connect not only those parts of themselves that are in the physical and etheric bodies, but also their ego and their astral body with the Christ impulse. We see this being strived for by the very best. Let us take the very best: Goethe. But what can be cited as a special example in Goethe lies within all souls, even if they strive for it only dimly.

[ 24 ] We see how Goethe presents Faust, the representative of humanity, whom he sets on a quest for the highest. In the second part of the poem, he leads him into Greek culture, into everything that peoples experience, in such a way that Faust, in a significant sense, lives the future in advance—where he seeks to reclaim land from the sea and establish something that is a distant future for him. And what does he ultimately lead him to? Goethe himself once said this in a conversation with Eckermann: he had to draw on the vivid mental images of Christianity to show how Faust soars up into the spiritual world. And if you take that wonderfully beautiful image of how the Mater Gloriosa receives Faust’s soul, you have the counter-image to what inspired Raphael to create his most famous painting, the Sistine Madonna: there the Virgin Mother brings the soul down. At the end of “Faust” we see how the Virgin Mother carries the soul upward: it is the death-birth of the soul. Thus we see quite consciously, from within the human spirit, the most intimate striving—that which is to be attained through Christianity—always to attain it in such a way that it can be carried through the gate of death into the life that the human being lives through in a new earthly existence after the preparation between death and the next birth. What we can see in this way in Goethe himself is a characteristic trait of the German nation. And from this we can gauge what task lies before humanity. This is the task, and we can write it quite clearly before our souls: that it can only become a true blessing for the progress of humanity if a harmonious relationship is now established within a certain circle between Central Europe and Eastern Europe.

[ 25 ] One might imagine that Eastern Europe could expand westward, across Central Europe, by brute force. One might imagine that things could come to that. But that would mean exactly the same thing as if, in the fifteenth century, Joan of Arc’s deeds had never taken place and England had annexed France at that time. If that had happened—and I said this explicitly—it would have been a disaster not only for France but also for England. And if German intellectual culture were now to be undermined by the East, it would harm not only German intellectual culture but the East as well. The worst thing that could befall the East would be that it might temporarily expand and harm German spiritual culture. For I said: the souls formerly embodied in Western Europe or on the Italian Peninsula, who are now growing up in the East, unite in the subconscious depths of the astral body, as it were instinctively, with the Christ impulse. But what the Christ impulse is meant to become in them, it can never become through a straightforward development of what lives instinctively in the souls under the name of Orthodox Catholicism—which is essentially Byzantine—and which is a name, not an impulse. It is just as impossible for it to become what it is meant to become as it is impossible for a woman to have a child without a man. And if something is to come into being from the East itself, as it is now, it would resemble the foolish endeavor of a woman trying to have a child without a man. What is being prepared in the East can only come to fruition if, in Central Europe, in a powerful and conscious manner—that is, in a fully waking state—the human ego-force and the human powers of cognition are united with the Christ impulse through what the souls strive for from the nature of the ego. Only by the German national spirit finding souls who thus implant the Christ impulse into the astral body and into the ego—just as it can be implanted precisely in a fully waking state—only in this way can what must come into being for a future culture arise. And it must come into being through a harmonization, through a connection with what is being attained in Central Europe—consciously, ever more consciously.

[ 26 ] This will require not just one or two centuries, but a much longer period of time. Such a long period will be involved that one can roughly estimate it—I would say—from the year 1400 to about 2100. If one adds two thousand one hundred years to the year fourteen hundred, one arrives at the point in Earth’s evolution that will bring forth what has been germinating in German spiritual life since such a spiritual life has existed. From this, however, we see that we must look toward a future of not just centuries, but of more than a millennium, in which the Central European, the German national spirit has its task—a task that already lies before us and consists in the fact that there must be ever more and more of such cultivation of spiritual life, through which is taken up in waking consciousness — all the way into the astral body and the I — an understanding of what, in earlier times, passed unconsciously and vividly through the European peoples as the Christ impulse. But if development takes this course, then, through the gradual ascent toward what is thus achieved in Central Europe, the stage can be reached in the East that can be attained there by virtue of its special predispositions. This is the will of world wisdom. We interpret this will of world wisdom correctly only when we say to ourselves: The greatest misfortune for Eastern Europe, too, would be if it were to harm the very spiritual power upon which it must now climb, the power it must now cherish and nurture with reverence and friendship. It must simply come to this. For the time being, it still lacks very, very much to do so; even the best among them there still lack very much to do so. In their short-sightedness, they still do not engage with what Central European spiritual life can offer the East.

[ 27 ] I have already discussed this in my first public lecture here in Berlin. Tonight you will be able to see the deeper occult reasons behind what I was only able to say superficially, in exoteric terms, during that public lecture. But it is always the case that one must take into account that in a public lecture one must speak in terms that are accessible to the listeners’ understanding, and that the actual impulses—why this is said, why that is omitted, why this or that connection is sought—lie in the occult facts. But in any case, the following can be seen from what has been discussed today: when we survey things in this external way, they present us with the great illusion that is maya. Not that the external world is an illusion in itself—it is not; but it only becomes comprehensible to us when we illuminate it with the facts that come from the spiritual world. And in our case, the facts flowing from the spiritual world can show us that it is necessary for Central Europe today not to be overwhelmed by Eastern Europe any more than France was allowed to be overwhelmed by England in 1429–1430. Of course, what has been stated shows that in Eastern Europe it is not at all possible to understand what is at stake, but that, fundamentally speaking, it can only be understood in Central Europe, and that we must therefore find this understandable. So that we must face this task of ours with all humility, without any arrogance, and that we must find it understandable if we are misunderstood. We must find this entirely understandable. For what is being prepared in the East can only be properly understood in the East itself in the future.

[ 28 ] That is one thing that emerges from our reflections. The other is that we are able to grasp the great transition in human development for our time precisely through such things — we have already considered it from various angles in the past — that we can see how what flowed into the earthly development of humanity through the Mystery of Golgotha must, in our time, be grasped more and more consciously by those who are capable of doing so following this incarnation. In the times of Constantine or Joan of Arc, for example, it would have been impossible for the Christ impulse to consciously bring about what it had to bring about unconsciously. But the time must come when it can work entirely consciously. That is why, through Spiritual Science, we receive what we can take up more and more consciously into our souls. Here, too, we may—truly without getting worked up over the sympathies or antipathies that might arise, and without wishing to flatter anyone in any way—point to a fact. And it is always better to form one’s opinions based on facts than on what they are often based on today. For if we look out into the world today, we see that opinions are truly not always formed on the basis of facts, but rather on the basis of passions, of national passions. But one can also form the opinions that become the disposition of the human soul on the basis of facts.

[ 29 ] While Anatole France views Joan of Arc from the Enlightenment-era materialist perspective of the present, it has been natural for German intellectual life since Schiller’s great achievement to understand the Maid of Orleans from a supernatural perspective. Even within Germany there are still people who regard this as a great mistake on Schiller’s part; but these people are the literary historians, and this is understandable in their case. For their task is, after all, to “understand” literature and art—and that is precisely why they cannot do so. But what is essential is this: we have this work, which undertakes to raise from the depths of spiritual life, as if in glory, the figure of whom Schiller says: “The world loves to blacken what shines and to drag the sublime into the dust.”

[ 30 ] Thus, precisely in this recognition of the intervention of the Christ impulse into a human personality—where it does not concern our own people—we have a fact that can inspire confidence in what I have explained in my public lecture: that one can see in German spiritual life that, in the way it has developed, it tends toward spirituality, toward Spiritual Science, and that it is part of its special—though not exclusive—task to elevate that which has been achieved and strived for in German spiritual life over the centuries to spiritual knowledge. And this task, which is the soul’s task of the German people, must be served by the other tasks, which are, as it were, the physical manifestations of this soul’s task; they must assist it. And what must happen through world wisdom will happen. But what has already been stated is necessary: that even though we live today in a kind of twilight, a true age of the sun will develop in the future. For this, however, it is necessary that there will be people in the future who will have a connection with the spiritual worlds, so that the ground prepared with the blood and suffering of so many will not have been prepared in vain. For it is through the existence of souls who can carry within themselves a connection to the spiritual worlds that everything that happens—even if it were the most gruesome, the most terrible, the most terrifying—will be justified when the Central European mission in spiritual life is achieved. But this will depend on individual souls who, through their karma, can approach this spiritual life, imbuing themselves with it, and then, when the sun of peace shines once more over the fields of Central Europe, carrying within themselves spiritual knowledge and spiritual feeling. Then, through the inclination of certain souls for whom this is possible in their present incarnation, that which I wish to summarize in these words will be able to come to pass—summarizing in them what I wanted to speak to you, so that we may inscribe in our souls the motto under which souls can rightly grow toward what may emerge from our difficult times:

From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of battle,
From the suffering of the forsaken,
From the sacrifices of the people
The fruit of the spirit grows—
Guiding souls with spiritual awareness
Toward the realm of the spirit.