The Rudolf Steiner Archive

9. Humanity’s Relationship to the Realms of Nature and the Hierarchies — Spirit of the Age and National Spirit — The Admonishing Voices of the Dead

[ 1 ] We are living in difficult times—a time of effective, courageous deeds and great sacrifices on the one hand, and a time of severe, harsh trials for the human soul on the other. Let it be my task, at the conclusion of these reflections, to stir up some feelings, particularly in light of our fateful times. Since we are able to be together in such a time, let us also allow our feelings to reach their peak at the conclusion of our reflections, in keeping with the times. But let us begin with something that can shed light on many things that must speak meaningfully to our souls in our time.

[ 2 ] Ever since we began to view the world from a Spiritual Science perspective, we have identified the four aspects of our human nature: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I. And we know that the ego—or rather, that aspect of the human being we call the ego, through which we express the ego—is the youngest, yet also the most significant aspect of the human being. For if, through the succession of the Saturn, Sun, and Moon eras, the human being consisted only of a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body, then he would simply not be human. Human beings are human because, during their time on Earth, they have received their ego through the spirits of the higher hierarchies, and because this ego continues to develop throughout successive incarnations—through various human communities, peoples, and eras—until the Earth has reached the goal of its evolution and until human beings, having fully developed their ego, will also have reached his earthly goal. Now, however, we also know that there are higher spiritual beings—we use the word “higher” for this—who belong to the higher hierarchies, which, so to speak, stand above human beings. We speak of the hierarchy of angels, Angeloi, of the hierarchy of archangels, Archangeloi, of the Archai or spirits of the ages, and so on, ascending upward. We designate them by these names; we could just as well use other names, but these names have already been established in the West.

[ 3 ] Let us now consider how we might actually create a mental image of these spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies in relation to what human beings are here on Earth. We will start with what human beings have around them here on Earth. We know there is the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the animal kingdom, and based on all that a human being can observe and how they find themselves, they must regard the human kingdom itself as the highest kingdom. So we can say: If we take the visible kingdoms here on Earth, we have the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, and the human kingdom. Above these kingdoms, as it were a continuation upward, appears the kingdom of the Angeloi, the Archangeloi, the Archai, and so on. We can simply create a mental image of the kingdoms not ending with the human kingdom, but extending further upward as well, only that the higher kingdoms cannot be seen with the senses, which are the external senses.

[ 4 ] It might seem striking, however, that as we ascend from the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms to the human kingdom, invisibility suddenly begins above the human kingdom. But this will only seem strange as long as one does not consider that animals—and this is quite clear to anyone who can fully put themselves in the animal’s perspective—do not see humans the way one human sees another. If animals could speak, they would speak of visible kingdoms only as the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms; they would regard themselves as the highest visible kingdom. That animals see humans as one human sees another is merely a prejudice. To animals, we humans truly have a supernatural, ghostly existence; and if animals had only the kind of perceptions we have, they would not see humans, but humans would be as invisible to them as the realm of angels is to humans. It is only because they possess a certain kind of dreamlike clairvoyance that animals see humans as ghosts, as supernatural beings. Humans, as such, cannot immediately form a mental image of the image an animal has of a human. On the other hand, however, animals also see something downward—or rather, perceive something downward—that humans no longer perceive downward. Namely, animals do not merely perceive the mineral world as humans do, but they also perceive—especially the lower animals—something entirely different. When an animal, say a snail, crawls across the ground, it perceives the entire nature of the ground. It would constantly disturb a human being if, while walking across the ground, they were to perceive it in the same way as a snail or even a turtle. With the higher animals, which have warm blood, it is somewhat different, but it is precisely the lower animals that truly perceive the entire character of the ground on which they crawl. They perceive the full character of the air; they perceive everything around them in a completely different way than humans do. The animal knows whether it is moving over boggy ground or over sandy ground, for it perceives the full character of the ground within itself. And this is similar to how we hear the things in our surroundings. The entire mineral world is permeated by a subtle quivering of forces that humans do not perceive. The animal perceives this subtle quivering, these forces, in such a way that it finds one pleasant and the other not. When the animal, for example, moves from one type of soil to another, it is not that the animal sees it as a human does, but because something is painful to it, because the subtle movements resonate within it, because it feels as though it belongs there. This is a kind of instinctive hearing, like eavesdropping on what is happening in the soil, or it is like a sense of smell. So that we can say: The animal perceives an elemental realm and, starting with the human being, already acknowledges a higher hierarchy. — We are thus placed right in the midst of the world we know as the outer sensory world, the outer realms of the sensory world, and the world of the higher hierarchies. We call the lower visible hierarchies the natural realms; we call the invisible ones the higher hierarchies.

[ 5 ] But we also know that such a being of the higher hierarchies, for example an Angelos, once passed through the stage of humanity. This was during the Earth’s ancient Lunar Age. At that time, human beings were not yet truly human; for they had no ego; they were only at the preparatory stage of humanity and possessed the astral body as the highest member of their being. The beings belonging to the hierarchy of the Angeloi had passed through their human stage during the ancient Lunar Age. And the spirits to whom we turn as the guardian spirits of the individual human being are these beings from the hierarchy of the Angeloi, to each of whom a human being is, as it were, assigned. “Spirits of your souls” are those who stand immediately above human beings in the hierarchy, who truly extend their protective wings, symbolically speaking, over human beings—and specifically over the individual human being.

[ 6 ] Then we come to the hierarchy of the Archangels. They, too, were once human beings. During the ancient Sun Age, the beings we now call Archangels were at the human stage. They were not shaped like humans are today—of course not; they were shaped quite differently—but at that time they were at their human stage. We must not form a mental image of how the Archangels looked during the ancient Sun Age, but in terms of their development, they were at the human stage back then. And likewise, the spirits of personality or time spirits were at their human stage during the ancient Saturn Age.

[ 7 ] Well, let us take, for example, these spirits whom we refer to as Archangels. We have such spirits as Archangels who passed through their human stage during the ancient Sun era, who ascended to the stage of angels during the Moon era, and who have now ascended to the stage of Archangels. Let us first place these spiritual beings, standing two stages above us, before our souls, as it were; we will return to this later. Then we have the spiritual beings who were human beings during the ancient Saturn era; today they are spirits of time, standing three levels above us. Let us again place them before us. And now let us consider our relationship specifically to these two kinds of spiritual beings.

[ 8 ] When a human being goes through an incarnation—that is, let us assume that today, in our earthly bodies, we are living in an incarnation—then there are spirits above us whom we count among the hierarchy of angels, then spirits whom we count among the hierarchy of archangels, and those whom we count among the hierarchy of archai, spirits of the age, or spirits of personality. But they, too, undergo their own development. Let us focus for a moment on the Archai, the spirits of personality or spirits of the age. So we go through our incarnation, then pass through the gate of death, enter a spiritual world after death, undergo a certain purely spiritual development between death and a new birth, and then, through a new birth, return to an earthly existence. Now we may ask: What determines whether we descend back to Earth after a certain number of years? This question is often raised in public lectures. From certain perspectives, one can already offer an answer, but speaking intimately within our circles, we can provide a more objective answer that points more toward reality.

[ 9 ] While we live here in our physical bodies, the Zeitgeist is at a very specific stage of development. It is doing something connected to the development of humanity on Earth, and it, too, is undergoing its own development. When, in the course of its development, this spirit of the age has reached the point where we have all allowed it to flow into us—what it is experiencing or has experienced up there—then we are, so to speak, ready to descend into an earthly incarnation. And when it, in turn, has advanced another stage and we have developed through the spiritual worlds to a certain level, we can once again enter into an earthly evolution. Let us understand each other well in this regard. Let us first set aside our own development. Let us see how, over a very long period of time, the spirit of the age undergoes its development.

[ 10 ] I would like to say the following: If we look at the development of humanity on Earth by going back to the founding of ancient Rome, some eight hundred years before the Mystery of Golgotha—that is, if we go back to the founding of Rome—we find that a certain Zeitgeist began to take shape there. Before that, a different Zeitgeist had been guiding and directing the destiny of the Earth. And this spirit of the age, which at that time had, so to speak, taken over the leadership of the Earth in its spiritual development, remained dominant well into the 16th century. A spirit of the age guides the destiny of the Earth for that long. Since that time, that is, since the 16th century, a different spirit of the age has been present. We are thus dealing with two spirits of the age. The human being who, for example, was on Earth in some incarnation in the 3rd century before the Mystery of Golgotha, experienced what this spirit of the age brought about for the Earth. For the time after his death—whether this person died in the 3rd century or even in the 2nd century—the spirit of the age can initially give him nothing. What it could give him, it has given him. Now the time spirit must in turn go through a series of years before it can give the human being something new. Then this human being, who has been in a spiritual world between death and birth, comes down to Earth again when the spirit can give him something new. Now, however, it is arranged so that on average a person actually comes several times, for the time spirit is not able to always give the person everything it could give them, due to the imperfection of human beings. Consequently, the person comes several times during the period in which a time spirit is developing. But essentially it depends on the fact that the time spirits govern the successive incarnations of human beings. Now, however, the spirits of the age in turn govern this entire course of human destiny by having, so to speak, subordinates. And these are the archangels. Such archangels, in a sense, reign in subordinate positions for much a shorter time than the spirits of the age. While the spirits of the age reign for as long as I mentioned earlier—so we can assume a spirit of the age from the founding of Rome until the 16th century—the spirits we count among the hierarchy of archangels reign for only about three to four centuries. They alternate in such a way that about six or seven come in succession while a time spirit reigns. So that around the time the Mystery of Golgotha takes place, we first have the reign in the spiritual development of that archangel whom we designate by the name Oriphiel. Then comes the reign of Anael, then the reign of Zachariel, Raphael, Samael, and Gabriel; and now, since the year 1879, we have the reign of the archangel we call Michael. So when we look at the spiritual worlds, we have, as it were, the higher rule of the spirits of the age, and beneath them, in succession through the ages, the rule of the archangels. Because human beings cannot take in everything that the spirit of the age would give them, they do not receive it directly from the hand of the spirit of the age, but from the hand of the archangel, who possesses a lesser degree of higher power. Let us therefore note: Our personal guardians belong directly to the hierarchy of the Angeloi. Above them are those who govern human beings more in the context of human society. And above them are the Archai, or spirits of personality, or spirits of the age.

[ 11 ] When I speak in this way, I am always referring to those beings who have truly and properly undergone their evolution. But not all spirits undergo their evolution in a regular manner. There are indeed spiritual beings who were already Archai during the Saturn period, but who remained at the stage of the Archai—that is, at the stage they were at back then. Thus, during Earth’s evolution, they have not progressed beyond their Saturn stage. In reality, they have not ascended to the stage of regular evolution. They have retained their human character; on the one hand, they are supersensible Saturn beings, yet they remain at the level of humanity. Likewise, there are beings from the hierarchy of the Archai who remained at the human level on the Sun and now still stand as human beings in the supersensible world. We refer to these beings collectively as Luciferic beings, who have thus remained behind, or as Ahrimanic beings. We cannot go into the difference between Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings today. They are spirits who have remained behind.

[ 12 ] Now we must answer the question: How does the human being, standing here in his earthly incarnation, receive the influence of the spirits who are truly advanced—the spirits of the age, the Archai, and the Archangeloi, who are their servants? These beings are supersensory—human beings cannot enter into a relationship with them in the same way as with the sensory world. Therefore, if they rely solely on the sensory world, human beings generally do not know that they are situated within a process of development guided by the Archai and Archangeloi. They do not know it; yet these supersensory beings intervene in everything that constitutes their being. Now, those spiritual beings we call national spirits—who thus guide entire peoples—also belong to the order of the Archangeloi, the Archangels. And insofar as we owe what we are to the people to whom we belong, we must regard what the national entity gives us as a gift from the corresponding being within the hierarchy of the Archangeloi. It is the inspiration of the Archangels that comes to us through our being placed within a people. Now we need “only to consider what it means for a human being to be placed within a people. For along with national character flow spiritual qualities, but also habits; a very specific configuration of being flows into the human being. One cannot even form a mental image of what one is in an incarnation becoming anything other than what it has become through the gift of the national spirit—that is, in reality, through the gift of an archangelic being.

[ 13 ] In addition to being part of a national culture—and thus, inspired by an archangelic being, receiving certain configurations of our entire being—we are also part of the evolution of humanity as a whole. And in this context, we are subject to the intuitions into which the spirit of the age, emanating from the hierarchy of the Archai, leads us. You must bear in mind that in our present spiritual culture we receive something that in turn transcends all national distinctions; something we possess by virtue of living from the 19th into the 20th century, something we would not have had had we lived during the Roman or Greek eras. We owe this to the spirit of the age. And one can make a strict distinction: the gift of the Zeitgeist and the gift of the national spirit. But if this were merely the regular development of the human being, the regular development of the Angel, the Archangel, the regular development of the Zeitgeist, then each of us would constantly receive the gift from our Zeitgeist and from our corresponding national spirit and would develop through the reception of this gift. The people on Earth would develop side by side. All members of various peoples across the Earth would receive the gift of the national spirits on Earth, just as if five pictures, entirely different from one another and depicting different things, were hanging in a hall, yet one picture would not disturb the other in the slightest. Thus, individual human beings would receive the gift of their national spirits side by side on Earth. They would not disturb one another if all development had proceeded regularly. But there are beings who have fallen behind. Among the guiding Archangeloi beings are those who began their development correctly on the Sun and became true Archangeloi by the time of the Earth, but also those who have remained at the Sun stage, who are essentially still at the level of human beings. These beings, then, stand on the same level as the national spirits, and yet they have fallen behind them; they possess only the qualities of invisible, supersensible human beings, not of Archangels. These beings have fallen behind. In a certain sense, they make the same demands on the world as the Archangels, but they have not, after all, reached the level of Archangels on Earth. Therefore, they must work in a certain way with the same forces as on the Sun. The consequence of this is that they take hold of human beings not like Archangels, but like human beings—like invisible human beings who enter into human nature, who do not direct human beings from above, but enter into human nature. And from these spirits, who thus in a certain sense compete with the truly leading national spirits, it follows that the peoples are at war with one another, not living together in peace on Earth. Human beings would not be tempted at all to identify their personality, their humanity, with their nationality, but would regard nationality as something that nourishes them spiritually. But he would not fight for his national identity, nor would he identify his personality with it. A person would not say, “I am of this or that nationality,” but rather: “Nationality exists, and because I was born into it, I must draw my spiritual nourishment indirectly through this nationality.” — But as the archangel urges him to think this way, the other one—who actually stands on the level of humanity and is essentially a Luciferic spirit—comes along and leads him into nationality. And the consequence of this is that it is not that which is archangelic that descends upon humanity as a gift, but rather that humanity identifies with national character as with a wholly personal matter, and through this arises this conflict of nationalities on Earth. We must be absolutely clear about this: Because we place ourselves not only, so to speak, under the influence of the leading archangel, but also under the influence of the archangel who has remained behind, we identify with nationality in the same way we do on Earth. This is precisely what is spiritual in the sense that we, as human beings, know how to rise above the merely national in order to find access to universal humanity. Then we can be national in the most eminent sense. Just as one individual can practice one form of art and another a different one, and one need not be the opponent of the other by practicing his own art, so one need not be the national opponent of the other if there were no archangelic beings lagging behind in development who bring about this identification. This must be taken for granted if one is to speak at all of what underlies human development with regard to the national or other distinctions.

[ 14 ] With regard to the spirit of the age, you will gain a clearer understanding of how the Luciferic element influences the regular element when we consider the following. A spirit of the age, after all, exerts its influence over a specific period of time. A new spirit of the age has been present since the 16th century. This spirit of the age has its very specific task. Its task is to add the world’s entire materialistic knowledge and understanding to the earlier impulses of development. That is why materialism has made such great strides in the world since the 16th century. We therefore need not regard materialistic understanding as inferior to the earlier mode of understanding, provided we do not identify with it one-sidedly. What will the person who views the matter in this way say about the rule of the various zeitgeists? He will say: Now we are ruled by this particular zeitgeist; before, we were ruled by another zeitgeist, when people had different mental images and different impulses. And if a person were now to allow themselves to be influenced solely by the constantly evolving zeitgeists, they would say: We must now adapt to this very zeitgeist by delving deeper into the laws of the world’s becoming, of materialistic thinking. Then, after a time, another zeitgeist will come; it will bring a different spirit into human thinking.

[ 15 ] I have often emphasized that, precisely as adherents of Spiritual Science, we must say: Today we proclaim Spiritual Science using very specific words, mental images, and concepts, but it is not the case that we believe what we say today will apply to the entire future of the Earth; rather, it will change. When another two thousand years have passed, even what we today call the knowledge of Spiritual Science will be proclaimed in different words, just as we speak differently today than in Greek times; nothing will remain of the nature of our words. We do not rely on anything outwardly permanent, but we know that one spirit of the age succeeds another and that they all stand side by side on equal terms.

[ 16 ] But those who are influenced by the fact that backward-looking spirits of the age are at work within them through Saturn, and who thereby identify with their influence, say: “Other people back then were all stupid; that was humanity’s infancy. We have come a long way today; we have found truths that are completely valid for all time to come!” — One becomes more humble and modest in the realm of Spiritual Science. Those who identify with the spirit of the age say: Copernicus has finally discovered the truth; in the past, people believed something else. Now people will say forever: The Earth and the planets move in an ellipse around the Sun. The Sun stands at the center! — Spiritual Science already knows today that this is a one-sided doctrine. It is very well suited to our materialistic age for creating a mental image of the world, but it is absolutely false. It is not at all true that the Sun stands at a focus of the ellipse and the Earth moves around it. In truth, all of this is an illusory movement calculated from a materialistic perspective. In truth, it is the case that the Sun moves itself, and the Earth and the other planets follow it in a helical motion. And because certain positions arise as it moves in this helical manner, the Earth is positioned one way at one time and another way at another time. This creates the appearance of an ellipse. In reality, it is a different line. The time will come when even external science will know this.

[ 17 ] One becomes more humble when one realizes that truths expressed in a particular form are valid only for certain periods of time. And as true adherents of Spiritual Science, we will never claim: From now on and into the future, all people will say that the human being consists of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an I; rather, the future will speak quite differently. What matters is that everything is in a state of development; that yesterday’s ideas are just as valid as today’s; that we do not allow ourselves to be dominated by a zeitgeist that leads us to believe that everything that came before was mere delusion and deception and that we have come so wonderfully far. With regard to the spirit of the age, you can see in people the obsession with the Luciferic spirit, who say: How wonderfully far we have come! How imperfect was everything that was previously thought and said about the world! But what we have now discovered will remain. What has been discovered since the 16th century will endure as eternal truths.

[ 18 ] What is generally referred to as the national spirit is, in essence, already a complex entity. It is the true national spirit that, so to speak, hovers above us, and if we were to follow it alone, we would do so by accepting its gifts, because we are placed within its sphere. But its effectiveness is constantly impaired by its Luciferic companion, who enters into us, who causes us, as individual human beings, to identify with the entire national character. Yet the individual does this in various ways; and it is of immense importance that we truly realize that in the heart of Europe a national character must develop that relates to its entire national spirit in a different way than that which exists on the periphery of Europe. And we must first of all acquire this insight. What takes place beneath the surface of human consciousness is of the utmost significance, and it truly depends on the spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies. Today, the materialistically minded person will still dismiss it as madness when one says that such impulses emanate from the spiritual beings as I have just mentioned, such as this one: that in Central Europe, without people’s knowing it, the people have been impelled toward a certain way of feeling toward the Divine or—because Christ is at work in Central Europe—toward the Christian; that the Central European learns to perceive Christ as speaking to the innermost depths of the soul. This has not been the case on any other soil as it has been in Central Europe. For example, even during the Roman period of Christian development, Christ was certainly understood as a being who came to Earth and worked for humanity. Certainly, the more advanced and, in part, those who already thought as we do today—we who are in possession of Spiritual Science—felt as Paul did: “Not I, but Christ in me!” But there is still a difference compared to the feeling we find in Meister Eckhart, in Tauler, in Angelus Silesius, and in similar spirits. How these spirits have taken in the Mystery of Golgotha! We need only ask Angelus Silesius; and he will answer us with the beautiful saying: “/p”

May Christ be born a thousand times in Bethlehem
And not within you, for then you would be lost forever!

[ 19 ] Experiencing the Mystery of Golgotha within one’s own soul—that is what matters. These Central European people sought to experience something within themselves that is an inner image, an inner expression of the Mystery of Golgotha. And how beautiful it is when Angelus Silesius speaks of death and says: Ultimately, everything that happens within me happens because God is within me and accomplishes things within me. And when I die, it is not I who die, but God who dies within me! — Consider what a wonderfully intimate idea of immortality is already contained in the very statement: “God dies within me!” — For God is, of course, immortal. If God dies within me, then death is only apparent; then one feels, as Angelus Silesius feels: that God only dies in one’s appearance, for God cannot die. Thus, dying is not what it appears to be on the surface; it is merely a fact of the living. And because God cannot die—yet dies within one—immortality is thereby already perceived.

[ 20 ] This innermost, most intimate communion with God—whether one perceives it as divine or Christian—is what has long been in the making throughout the course of Central European development. And here the national spirits of Central Europe have worked in such a way that this has found an outward symbolic expression, a real symbolic expression. Nowhere except in Central Europe is “I” said when one means one’s own self, one’s own being. It is through the national spirit, which manifests itself as the spirit of language, that the entire evolution has been guided in such a way that it has gradually come to express one’s own being with the word “I.” But “I,” “I-Ch,” is Jesus Christ! It lies in Jesus Christ. Because the initial letters of “I” spell out “Jesus Christ,” this symbolically expresses what lies in the Central European spiritual being, how it is intimately connected with the innermost experience. Every time one says “I,” one is pronouncing the initial letters of “Jesus Christ.” If one were to turn one’s spiritual eyes just once to such things—which are still regarded as fantastical today—one would already discover how unconsciously the spirits of the higher hierarchies are always at work in human development, and then find significance in the things that are simply taken for granted today.

[ 21 ] I want to mention just one truly significant fact. A certain group of European peoples is referred to as the Germanic peoples. And when people in Central Europe speak of the Germanic peoples, they mean England, Holland, Norway, Sweden, and others as well. The concept of the Germanic peoples is broadly defined. I am not speaking of propaganda, but of what is established in the language. When the English speak, they do not refer to themselves as Germanic peoples, for they call only the Germans “Germans.” The German calls himself “Deutscher,” and when he speaks of Germanic peoples, he encompasses a larger group of people. The Englishman applies the name “Germans” solely to the Germans, to those who are not “him.” This is an immensely significant fact. It is something that, in the deepest sense, is indicative of the way the national spirit operates on one side and on the other; how it operates in Central Europe to encompass the greater whole, and how the national spirit of the English people strives to cast aside that which encompasses the broader context and apply it only to the other.

[ 22 ] In general, what language teaches as the outpouring of the active national spirit will gradually and in a wondrous way become a reality for people. At present, one is still little understood when speaking of the various European peoples in the way I attempted for years before this war—and not at all prompted by this war—in the lecture series “The Mission of Individual Folk-souls in Connection with Germanic-Nordic Mythology.” It is taken as if one were trying to make some kind of value judgment. But one does not wish to make value judgments, but merely to offer a characterization. And now we can characterize the Western European peoples precisely by expressing, accurately and precisely, what I have expressed in this lecture series.

[ 23 ] We know that the human soul consists of the sensory soul, the intellectual or emotional soul, and the conscious soul, and that the “I” is active within these three aspects of the soul. If we now consider the Italian people with their folk-souls, we find the peculiarity that the folk-souls inspire the soul of feeling. And this is the characteristic feature of Italian national character: that the folk-souls work inspiringly into the soul of feeling. If anything is possessed by the Luciferic national spirit, it is also the folk-soul. And now consider that, on the one hand, the greatness of the Italian people lies in the fact that the feeling soul is inspired. Think of Dante, of all the great Italian artists! But also, on the other hand, the identification—as it were, the superhuman element that has remained in a Luciferic state within all the passionate impulses of development that arise within the Italian people! This is not a value judgment, but merely a characterization.

[ 24 ] Among the French people, we can see everywhere how the intellectual soul or emotional soul is inspired by the national soul—or, more accurately, the intellectual or emotional soul.

[ 25 ] For the British people, it is the consciousness soul. Now, in the current human cycle, the consciousness soul is what connects human beings most closely to the external physical world. Therefore, the nation inspired by the soul of consciousness is entrusted above all with the mission of promoting and nurturing materialistic culture. This is not meant as a value judgment, but merely characterizes the fact that the British nation is called upon to allow itself to be inspired by the soul of consciousness. To the extent that the individual belongs to his people—that is, to the extent that he is inspired by the Luciferic national spirit—he identifies with the purely materialistic culture of the present. We truly find this in British culture. Just as the individual places himself within the British nation, what emerges is precisely the materialistic spirit of the British nation—this peculiar spirit that waged thirty-four wars of conquest from 1856 to 1900 and made fifty-seven million people on Earth new British subjects, and which then, in our time, pretends to advocate for the freedom of individual groups of people.

[ 26 ] When we consider a time such as our own, we must be fully aware that it is precisely this era of ours that will teach people very clearly how to view as a warning what is now presented as the conflict between the various ethnic groups of Europe or, indeed, a large part of the world. People of thirty-four nationalities are at war with one another, quite apart from minor tribal differences. This should be seen as a warning to truly turn away from what has hitherto been called history. But this way of looking at things is, especially in our time, still being taken to absurd extremes for the time being. How absurd it all seems to us—the way the individual nations of Europe accuse one another today, the way they weigh the various external facts in order to discover the causes of the terrible war of the present. But it is precisely this war that will teach people that nothing can be found in its external causes, but at most external symptoms of what lies deeply hidden within human groups through the guidance of advanced and backward spiritual beings. And in a certain sense, it is precisely what the present age presents as trials that will compel us to appeal to the spiritual foundations where the causes lie for what is happening outwardly in the world today.

[ 27 ] From a wide variety of perspectives, one can demonstrate how what manifests externally operates in the depths of consciousness. Although most of you are already familiar with this example, I would like to point out once again how the entire map of Europe at the end of the Middle Ages was shaped by the intervention of Joan of Arc in the war between England and France. Anyone who looks at our external history with understanding must acknowledge that the map of Europe would have taken a very different shape had England not been defeated by France at that time as a result of the Virgin of Orleans intervening in the battle. But the Virgin of Orleans was no trained strategist, no person who stood at the pinnacle of contemporary civilization. She was a simple human being—a country girl. But through her, spirits of the higher hierarchies worked in the way they had to work at that time. Now, right up to our own time, it has been absolutely necessary for these spirits to work in the subconscious, because people were not yet able to understand what must now be understood from a perspective of Spiritual Science. We have often beautifully expressed in legends how higher spiritual beings intervene in the subconscious. And rightly so—not out of superstition, but because it truly corresponds to the facts—special significance is attached to the time when the outer world has receded the most for the year, the period from Christmas to January 6. If one wishes to attain spiritual knowledge not in the way we seek it today—as outlined in *How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds*—but in a more elementary manner, one could be inspired during these thirteen nights. This is, for example, beautifully expressed in the Norwegian legend of Olaf Åsteson. In this legend, we are told how Olaf Åsteson goes to the church before the onset of Christmas; how he falls into a state of sleep in front of the church and sleeps through the thirteen nights; how he then wakes up on Epiphany and is truly able to recount what he has experienced. And what he describes there in a vivid yet primitive manner corresponds to what we call the passage through the soul world and the passage through the spirit realm. Olaf Åsteson experienced all of this during the time in which Christmas has rightly been placed. This is meant to suggest to us that childlike clairvoyance could best be developed during these thirteen nights from Christmas to the Feast of the Three Kings.

[ 28 ] Since the Maid of Orleans was such a child of nature, one might assume that during those thirteen nights she experienced the world through a kind of dream state—the world she spoke of when she led the French army against the English—and that she was inspired during those thirteen nights. Well, this did happen in a peculiar way. Every human being goes through a state of sleep, a state in which the senses do not yet function, namely in the mother’s womb, before beholding the physical light of the world. This is truly still a kind of sleep state, and the most mature stage is, of course, during the last thirteen days before birth. This is the great, mighty thing that fills our soul with such wonder: The Maid of Orleans was born on January 6. She thus truly experienced the inspiration during those thirteen nights, but before she had opened her eyes to the light of the world. That January 6 is the birthday of the Virgin of Orleans is why it has been intentionally marked in our calendar. This is something we must grasp within its broader context of world history; for it can tell us how mysterious the connections in the world are and how mysterious forces are at work in the world. Thus, mysterious forces were at work on January 6th back then, when the people in the little village where the Maid of Orleans was born gathered together in the morning; when even the animals behaved so wondrously. On this January 6th, an inspiration could be brought to completion. During the thirteen nights, a being could be inspired who was predisposed to it by her own karma. Of course—_not everyone born on January 6 is predisposed to this, but the karma must coincide with the other conditions.

[ 29 ] I wanted to cite this example of the Maid of Orleans as one that truly shows us how subterranean forces play a role in the unfolding and development of history. Certainly, the materialistic development of the following centuries then took hold. Understandably enough, this development had to regard such references to the underlying currents of history as madness. That does no harm; just as it does no harm at all if people today still regard the Spiritual Science as madness. The Spiritual Science will prevail.

[ 30 ] But such significant events as these—in which the people of the present age live and into which they have, after all, incarnated themselves in order to participate in them in one form or another—do not always have the same meaning in the course of historical development. Today, these fateful events serve as a warning to humanity. A veritable flood of literature has indeed been written about this war, but in all the books, pamphlets, and so on that have been published, we have not yet found what one must actually assume will be found—and what must also be discovered little by little. One often hears: We can’t really talk about the causes yet; perhaps after the war, perhaps only decades later will people find the true causes of this war in documents and know who was actually to blame. — You can read that in every third newspaper. Well, that is not the point; rather, the point is that people will come to realize—and precisely through the present era—that the real causes are not to be found in these external circumstances, but that the cause must be sought in the spiritual world. People will find that this war has truly been set in motion as the significant karma of materialism that must be endured so that people may take in a set of convictions that will lead them from materialism back to spiritualism. Humanity must go through this trial.

[ 31 ] What is it, really, that is happening around us today in such a shocking way? — Well, as we know, when a person passes through the gate of death, they first leave their physical body behind in the physical world. They first enter the spiritual world with their etheric body, astral body, and I. They soon shed the etheric body; it is returned to the rest of the world. With their astral body and ego, they then continue on through the realm of the soul, through the realm of the spirits. But now let us consider that today a large number of people pass through the gate of death in a relatively short time and with a certain consciousness; that they shed an etheric body that, so to speak, could have sustained a human life for decades to come. When a person dies between the ages of twenty and thirty, they shed an etheric body that could have sustained their physical body for another sixty to seventy years. For the forces are indeed contained within the etheric body, since nothing is lost in the spiritual realm either. All those people who today pass through the gate of death in the prime of their lives bequeath to the world an etheric body that could have sustained this life for a long time to come. These forces are now all present in the spiritual world. How are these forces present there? — I would like to show you, using a vivid example taken from our own circle, what significance such an occurrence holds.

[ 32 ] It was last fall that a family belonging to our anthroposophical circle lost a little son who was seven years old, a dear boy. The external circumstances were truly extraordinarily tragic. The father had gone off to war as a German citizen; he had just fallen ill and was in a military hospital. One evening, just as a lecture was taking place in Dornach, where our building is being constructed, we were informed that the little seven-year-old boy was missing. He had not come home since that evening. I must not forget to mention that the family had settled in Dornach as a family of gardeners. I myself had traveled to Switzerland shortly before, coming from Germany. The boy had already come up to me before the building and shaken my hand; he was a cheerful, very sweet child. So that evening we were informed that the boy was missing. Now one could think of nothing else but that a moving truck, which had brought furniture for members and had overturned near the building, had fallen on the child. Now you must assume, on top of all this, that no moving truck had driven past that spot for countless years prior, nor had any since then. You must also consider: The boy lived with his mother, who ran the garden center. He was such a sweet boy that when his father had to leave, he told his mother he would now help her diligently because his father was no longer there. That evening, he had been sent to the so-called canteen to fetch something for his mother. It wasn’t far at all; only a short distance lies between the canteen and his mother’s apartment. On this short route there is a crossroads, so the moving truck had to make a turn. The boy had actually intended to leave ten minutes earlier but was held up by someone who wanted to walk with him. Had he left earlier and gone out through another door, the one he usually used, he would have passed the truck sooner and been on the left side of it, whereas now he was on the right. Because he left later, went out through a different door, and was to the right of the moving truck, the truck fell directly on the boy when it tipped over. People had watched this happen, including those who were with the horses. No one suspected that the boy had ended up under the wagon. They then said: The wagon is too heavy for us to lift it tonight; we’ll do it tomorrow. — That happened between five and six o’clock. And now, around a quarter to eleven, we were in a situation where we absolutely had to lift the wagon. By twelve o’clock it was lifted; and we pulled the dead child out.

[ 33 ] Well, the first thing I would like to mention is that this very example is particularly well-suited to showing how people think incorrectly, even when it comes to life itself. And I would like to cite once again a comparison—one that has been used many times before—to illustrate this incorrect thinking. Suppose you see a person walking along the bank of a river in the distance. Suddenly you see that the person falls into the river. You run over, and there you find a rock in the same spot. Naturally, you say that the person stumbled over the rock, fell into the water, and thus met his death. But the matter may be quite different; it may be exactly the opposite. The person may have suffered a heart attack. He fell into the water because he was already dead; and he did not meet his death because he fell into the water. This mistake is made all the time, especially in the natural sciences. Of course, one does not notice it when it is cleverly concealed.

[ 34 ] This was also the case with this child. The child’s karma had run its course. The moving truck went there because of the child. The spiritual beings who govern the mystery arranged matters so that the child could meet his death. The boy was seven years old. A truly youthful etheric body—it could have sustained life for many decades; the forces were there. Well, I will always acknowledge what it means that for some time now our Dornach building has been embedded in the enlarged etheric body of the little boy Theodor Faiß. Truly, the etheric body has expanded—it expands after death—and the etheric body of this little seven-year-old Theo has since formed a kind of aura around the building. And when one is involved with the building, when one has the need to find the ideas for the building that place it in the spiritual world in the right way, since the death of this boy one knows that one is co-inspired by the etheric body that forms the aura of the building, the etheric body of little Theo Faiß. Of course, no desire to appear original could lead me to deny that much of what has since been created in contributions to the building is co-inspired by the fact that the aura of this etheric body surrounds the building, and that in the building one has, so to speak, this help—that this untapped etheric power works for the benefit of the building. Just imagine what significant inner realities lie behind the outer facts: A family moves to live near the building. There is a boy, particularly predisposed by his soul nature; he sacrifices his etheric body so that the building may be enveloped in the power of this etheric body. Here we have such an example from which we can see how unspent etheric bodies, when sacrificed, have their task in the world.

[ 35 ] It is only then that what is to flow from our Spiritual Science in terms of sensory content truly begins. The fact that one knows that the human being consists of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an I, and that one goes through various earthly lives—the fact that one knows this theoretically—is truly not what matters. What matters is what these insights bring into our actual experience. We also try to bring life into our movement by attempting to overcome the difference between the living and the dead not merely theoretically through doctrine, but through life itself. When a very dear colleague of ours, Fritz Mitscher, was recently taken from us at the age of thirty, and I had to deliver the eulogy at his cremation in Basel, an important point was that I turned to this soul to, I might say, imploringly entrust it with the task of continuing to work among us even after death. For we need not only the so-called living, but we need the cooperation of those who have passed through the gate of death. And they will cooperate in two ways. On the one hand, a large number of etheric bodies will be working with us in the near future—bodies shed by people who have passed through the gate of death in experiences of heavy destiny. Youthful, unspent etheric bodies are now like a great, powerful aura in which we live. And then, on the other hand, there are the individualities themselves, who continue to work from within their etheric bodies. We can glimpse the fresh etheric body in the example of little Theo Faiß, where the etheric body becomes an inspiration for much of what has been accomplished in the building. I wanted to address the individuality in my speech to Fritz Mitscher. To feel and sense so completely how the gulf between life and death is bridged is what belongs to our Spiritual Science. For it is not merely a matter of knowing theoretically, but of being thoroughly imbued with the living reality that the dead are like the living to us, that the dead give something just as the youthful, unspent etheric bodies do—this must become the conscious content of our earthly lives. And in these etheric bodies, which belonged to people who have now met their death through the great, fateful events, live the echoes of all that is felt when one sees death—more or less consciously—as a sacrifice for the events demanded by the times. This enters into these etheric bodies. To seek death, or rather, to foresee death and yet know that this death has meaning—this will be the case for many people who are now passing through the gate of death. One can be a materialist; if one lives one’s life in this way, one might say: Folk-souls, Folk-spirits are merely names for something that abstractly binds together a group of people with the same language and the same characteristics. To speak of national spirits as real entities is a distortion. — Even some who are now passing through the gate of death may speak in such terms; by passing through death in this way, they unconsciously give their assent to what Spiritual Science must say: that the national spirit, the folk-soul, is a real entity. For what would it mean if national spirits and Folk-souls were not real entities, and yet people were engaged in bloody war on all sides? Under the premise of a materialistic worldview, this would be impossible to conceive. But if the individual sacrifices himself for the national spirit, if the national spirit is a real entity to him, then it makes the deepest sense that such events have befallen humanity. Thus we shall sense a time to come in which many, many unused etheric bodies will float in the spiritual atmosphere, all reminding us that the spiritual exists. These etheric bodies will be good helpers in the future for spiritually deepening the human worldview. People will simply have to feel in their souls how the dead are calling out. When peace reigns once more over the regions where these terrible events are now unfolding, the people living then will be all the more effective in their work if they hear the voice of the dead. But this is not meant merely symbolically. The unspent etheric bodies will be there, making their call resound. The world can no longer exist unless people sense and feel their connection with the spiritual world. And humanity of the future would prove to be dull if it were thus unable to hear the warning of the dead. — In physics, everyone admits that no force is lost; one speaks of the transformation of force. It is the same on the spiritual plane. The forces that the unspent etheric body carries through the gate of death do not disappear; they will be there. And they can be absorbed into the souls of the future, and these souls can receive strength and confidence for their spiritual work through this connection with the soul remnants that have remained from unspent etheric bodies.

[ 36 ] Among the many things this war can tell us, for us as adherents of Spiritual Science it is above all this: that we are, as it were, already looking up in spirit into the atmosphere that will be there—the atmosphere of the unspent etheric bodies; but that down here there must be souls who have a sense that these are the warnings of the dead. Bringing this about, however, is part of our task as true adherents of Spiritual Science. We must be able to find a spiritual perspective even in the face of such current events, not the perspective of abstract thinking. Rather, we must truly create a mental image of the future population of the Earth in such a way that there are souls down below in physical bodies, and fresh etheric body forces are working down from above; and that these souls down below can say: We do not despair that better times for spiritual knowledge will come, for the unspent etheric bodies help us with their powers. — If we take this concretely, not abstractly, then we have understood something of the warnings that this fateful time can give us, especially as adherents of Spiritual Science. This is how it must come to pass, for real influences are needed to work into human development. We would have had to work for a long time if we were to bring about, through intellectual convictions alone, what the spiritual worldview seeks to provide. In the case of Joan of Arc, a subconscious initiation took place. In the future, the spiritual will work into human development in a different way. It will be the unspent etheric bodies that will stand by us in a helping capacity, assisting both us and those who, as individualities, wish to influence the physical plane once more.

[ 37 ] Even today, things can sometimes take a very strange turn when it comes to what people are capable of understanding. From the example cited, you will surely admit that, at the time of the Virgin of Orleans, it was not the strategists or the generals who brought about what actually came to pass. I have also cited another example on several occasions: When, at the decisive hour, Constantine’s army marched against Rome, it was not the generals who brought about the victory and defeated the army of Maxentius—five times stronger—which he led to the gates of Rome to meet Constantine. Constantine did not follow his generals, but a dream that told him to have the monogram of Christ carried before his armies. Dreams and Sibylline oracles brought the armies together at a specific place at that time and decided everything. But because Constantine was victorious, the map of Europe once again took on its proper form. Who, then, was it who guided events at that time beneath the threshold of consciousness? It was the Christ impulse, but the Christ impulse as it was in reality, not as people understood it. We do not come to know the Christ impulse by listening to the squabbling of theologians. The Christ impulse did not work through what people consciously accomplished, or what people understood; rather, it worked in the convergence of events surrounding Constantine and Maxentius, and later again with the Maid of Orleans. Even in our own time, we experience many such things, even if sometimes in small details. Sometimes small things can be compared to great ones. A few years ago, an outstanding philosopher wrote a lengthy article in a South German monthly journal about the spiritual-science worldview that I represent. This article had a profound impact; it was written in a highly critical tone, though interspersed with many favorable judgments about theosophy in general, and even some expressions of recognition. For example, I was advised that instead of devoting my gifts to such matters, I should rather use them to finally determine whether Mickiewicz was truly the reincarnation of the Maid of Orleans, and so on. But on the whole, the article was nevertheless very effective in presenting what is currently regarded as our Spiritual Science worldview in such a way as to create a distorted impression. The philosopher who had written the article was regarded as a great Platonist, a great logician. He said himself that he devoted himself to no other task than the proclamation of the truth, and therefore he could know the truth. The editor of the journal seemed very pleased to be able to publish such a long, authoritative article on the Spiritual Science. That was already several years ago. Then the war came. The man in question does not hold a view that sympathizes with Central Europe, but rather he sympathizes decisively with England and France and even with those fighting in the wake of England and France. Now, what happens? He writes a number of letters to the same man who is the editor of the journal. This editor of the aforementioned journal also publishes these letters—because they are so characteristic—in another journal, the *Süddeutsche Monatshefte*. He even points out that he is the same man—Karl Muth—who publishes the magazine “Hochland” and who, as he says, printed the article on “Steiner’s Theosophy.” These letters are such that one can say that everything that can be said in venom against the Central European population by a Western-minded person is said in them. Among other things, the man declares: Compared to people who cannot all know what they are fighting for, Black people are free noble beings. Against Central Europe, one need only uphold the British Empire, which, like the Catholic Church, was established by God and has never done anything other than what lies within the divine world order.

[ 38 ] It goes without saying that this letter should be published! The editor in question writes: “Throughout Central Europe, with the exception of mental institutions, you won't find a single person who could possibly advocate such a thing!” — So now the good Mr. Muth admits that the man he chose to unleash upon our spiritual-scientific worldview is actually ripe for the asylum. Yes, that is generally the case with what is put forward against our spiritual-scientific worldview. Only Mr. Muth should have known back then that the man was ripe for the asylum. But he first needed the wake-up call of war. His insight had to be challenged by precisely what he could now easily see. Quite a few people ripe for the asylum wander about and criticize the worldview we advocate, only it doesn’t come across in such a grotesque way.

[ 39 ] I said that this example shows that the understanding people have today still lags far behind when it comes to a worldview based on Spiritual Science, and that it must be said: It is not only the living who are necessary for the quantum of spirituality that must enter the world to do so, but also the dead! And among the best helpers will be those who had to step in with soul and life for the course of our present events, which are heavy with destiny and bear destiny. And so we would like today for such reflections not to remain merely theoretical in our souls, but to become a deeply sincere feeling—the feeling that we may take our commitment to Spiritual Science in such a way that our souls become attentive knowers of the fact that there will be admonishing voices in the spiritual world telling us: Let us, the dead, be a symbol to you that spiritual deepening must come into humanity, for we have gone through this death with consciousness—not for our own sake, but for that which is independent of us, so that we have thereby sealed our commitment to something that transcends the individual material human life!

[ 40 ] If there are those among the adherents of Spiritual Science who can sense, feel, and know the solemn murmurings of those who have thus passed through the gate of death, then something of what Spiritual Science is meant to achieve in the feelings of human souls will be attained in reality; in other words, if, through Spiritual Science, there will be souls who know how to direct their senses toward the spirit realm, for much will be able to be told to humanity from the spirit realm in the times to come.

[ 41 ] That is what I wanted to suggest to you regarding your feelings, since circumstances have allowed us to gather here in a branch meeting at this very time. One would hope, of course, that such gatherings do not merely provide knowledge in its embryonic form, but that what is spoken at such gatherings acts like a living seed sown into the soil of the receptive soul. What you will carry forward intuitively through such contemplation will be the main thing.

[ 42 ] Let us therefore conclude these reflections by considering what the momentous events of our time will mean for us:

From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of battle,
From the suffering of the forsaken,
From the sacrifices of the people
Grows the fruit of the spirit
Souls, spiritually aware,
Send their meaning into the spirit realm.