The Rudolf Steiner Archive

11. Christ in Relation to Lucifer and Ahriman: The Threefold Constitution of Being

[ 1 ] Once our building in Dornach, dedicated to Spiritual Science, is completed, it will feature, in a prominent location, a sculptural group consisting primarily of three figures. At the center of this group will stand a figure who, I might say, represents the highest humanity that has been able to unfold on Earth. Therefore, one will also be able to perceive this figure of the highest humanity in Earth’s evolution as the Christ who lived for three years within Earth’s evolution in the body of Jesus of Nazareth. The special task will be to shape this Christ figure in such a way that, on the one hand, one will be able to see how the being in question dwells in a human earthly body, yet how this earthly body is imbued in every expression, in everything about it, by that which entered this earthly body from cosmic, spiritual heights in the thirtieth year of life as the Christ. Then there are two other figures, one to the left, the other to the right of the Christ figure, if I may call this figure—which I have just sketched in a few words—the Christ figure. This Christ figure stands as if before a rock that rises up, particularly where the left side of the Christ is, so that its summit lies above the head of the Christ figure. Up there on the rock is another figure, a winged figure; but the wings are broken, and this figure is falling into the abyss because its wings are broken. What will need to be rendered with particular artistic precision is the manner in which this Christ-figure raises its left arm. For it is through this raising of the Christ-figure’s left arm that the wings of this falling being are broken. But it must not appear as though Christ were breaking this being’s wings; rather, the whole must be artistically rendered in such a way that, as Christ raises his arm, the entire movement of the hand already conveys that he actually feels only infinite compassion for this being. But this being cannot bear what flows upward through the arm and hand and what will still be visible, as there will be hollows in the rock itself, as if made by the fingers of the outstretched hand. What this being feels within itself as it comes into the presence of the being who stands there as the Christ-being is such that one would like to put it into words: I cannot bear that something so pure should shine down upon me.

[ 2 ] This is what lives within this being, and what lives so profoundly within it that its wings are broken and it consequently plunges into the abyss. This will be a particularly significant artistic task. And you realize what could go wrong if Christ were to stand there in a sculptural pose and, simply by raising his hand, radiate such a force that he breaks this being’s wings, causing it to plunge into the abyss. Then it would be Christ who, as if with hatred, would radiate upon this being and cause it to fall. But this must not be depicted in that way; rather, the being itself must bring about its own downfall. For this being, depicted as falling with broken wings, is Lucifer.

[ 3 ] And on the other side, to the right of the figure of Christ, where the rock juts out, the rock will be hollowed out. In this hollow there is also a figure that has wings. And this figure, which has wings, turns its arm-like limbs toward the rock hollow above. So you must create a mental image: on the right, the rock hollow, and in the hollow, this winged figure, which, however, has wings of a completely different kind than the figure atop the rock. The figure at the top of the rock has more eagle-like wings, while the figure in the rock cavity has bat-like wings. The figure in the cave is literally clinging to the cave; you can see it in chains, you can see it working down there, hollowing out the earth.

[ 4 ] The figure standing in the center, the figure of Christ, has his right hand pointing downward. So while his left hand is raised upward, his right hand is pointing downward. Again, it will be a significant artistic task not to depict this as if Christ were trying to bind this figure, who is Ahriman, but rather to show that Christ himself has infinite compassion for Ahriman. But Ahriman cannot bear this; he writhes in pain from what radiates through the hand of Christ. And what radiates there causes the golden veins, which are down in the rock cavity, to wind around Ahriman’s body like cords and bind him. Just as what happens to Lucifer is caused by himself, so too with Ahriman. We will then attempt to ensure that this concept, which will be represented by a sculptural work of art at a significant location in the building, has the same motif above it in a painterly interpretation, which must then be quite different. So that below, this group of three figures—Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman—will stand as a sculptural group, and above it, the same motif will be painted.

[ 5 ] We incorporate this relationship between Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman into our Dornach building because Spiritual Science truly shows us, in a certain way, that the next task in understanding the Christ impulse consists in humanity finally learning to know what relationship exists in the world between these three powers: Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman. For although people often speak of Christianity and the Christ impulse, what actually came into the world through the Christ impulse as a result of the Mystery of Golgotha has not yet become entirely clear to people. People do speak of the existence of Lucifer and Ahriman, but when they speak of Lucifer and Ahriman, they very often do so as if they had to flee from them, as if they were compelled to say: I want nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with Lucifer and Ahriman! — If the divine-spiritual powers, which are found in the way I described yesterday in the public lecture, also wanted to know nothing of Lucifer and Ahriman, then the world simply could not exist. It is not by saying, “Lucifer! I flee from him; Ahriman! I flee from him,” that one establishes the right relationship to them, but by regarding what humanity must strive for as a result of the Christ impulse as the equilibrium position of a pendulum. The pendulum is in equilibrium in the middle, but it must swing to one side and then the other. So it is also in the earthly development of the human being. The human being must swing to one side toward the Luciferic principle, and to the other side toward the Ahrimanic principle, but must remain steadfast through the development of what Paul called: “Not I, but Christ in me.”

[ 6 ] For we must indeed regard the Christ in his activity as a reality, as something truly real. This means we must be clear that what flowed into our earthly evolution through the Mystery of Golgotha was truly there. How well or how poorly people have understood this up to now is not the point; what matters is that it was there, that it had an effect on human development on Earth. There is much that could be said about what people have not yet understood regarding the Christ impulse. And Spiritual Science will have to contribute its share to the understanding of what flowed into Earth’s development from spiritual heights through the Mystery of Golgotha as the Christ impulse. To bring to mind how Christ worked, let us, as has already been done in other places, consider two moments in the earthly development of humanity—two moments that have become significant in the entire development of the West.

[ 7 ] You will know from history what a pivotal moment it was when Constantine, the son of Constantius Chlorus, defeated Maxentius, and through Constantine, Christianity was formally introduced into the further development of the Western world. For that to happen, Constantine had to win that crucial battle against Maxentius, through which Constantine then made Christianity the state religion in his Western empire. The entire map of Europe would have been different had that battle between Constantine and Maxentius not taken place back then. But military strategy—that which people were capable of achieving with their intellect at the time—did not actually decide the outcome of that battle; rather, it was something entirely different. Maxentius had the so-called Sibylline Books, the prophetic books of Rome, consulted, and he was led by them to lead his army—which would have been well protected within the walls of Rome—out of the walls of Rome and into the open field to face Constantine’s army. But before the battle, Constantine had a dream in which it was signified to him: If you march against Maxentius under the sign of the Mystery of Golgotha, you will achieve a great goal. — And bearing forth the sign of the Mystery of Golgotha, the cross, Constantine went into battle with an army three-quarters smaller than Maxentius’s. And inspired by the power that came from the Mystery of Golgotha, Constantine won that momentous battle, through which Christianity was outwardly established in Europe. If we recall what people at that time understood intellectually about the Christ impulse, we find endless theological squabbling. People argued about whether Christ has been one with the Father from eternity and the like. It must be said: What matters is not what people knew back then about the Christ impulse, but that it was there—the Christ impulse—that it was there, that it guided, through Constantine, through a dream of Constantine, what was to happen. What matters is the reality of Christ, the real, actual power of Christ. Understanding what the Christ impulse is—that is where we begin in Spiritual Science.

[ 8 ] Another pivotal moment was when, in the conflict between France and England, Europe took on a form about which one can say: Had France not been victorious over England at that time, all circumstances would have been different. But how did this come about? — The Christ impulse has been working its way into the subconscious of the soul right up to our own time, when it must become ever more conscious. And so we see in the spiritual development of the West how the Christ impulse seeks out in human souls those states through which it can become effective in individual people. Legends have preserved for us the manner in which the Christ impulse can assert itself in Western spiritual development. These legends point back in part to ancient pagan times, but everywhere to such periods in which an understanding of Christianity was being prepared precisely within paganism.

[ 9 ] If the soul does not consciously seek initiation along the path outlined in *How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds*, but rather, as it were, in a natural way, as if through a natural initiation permeated by the Christ impulse, then the most favorable time during which this Christ impulse can inspire the soul is the period from Christmas Eve to Epiphany, the time from December 25 to January 6. We can understand this by realizing that, for occult knowledge, it becomes quite clear that our Earth is not merely what geologists speak of. What geologists speak of is to the Earth what the skeletal framework is to the human being. But our Earth also possesses the spiritual aspect that belongs to it. And it is precisely into the Earth’s aura that Christ has drawn in. And this Earth sleeps and wakes, just as we sleep and wake over the course of twenty-four hours. We must familiarize ourselves with the fact that the Earth’s state of sleep occurs during the summer, and its state of wakefulness during the winter. And the spirit of the Earth is most awake during these twelve or thirteen nights from Christmas to Epiphany. In ancient times, when—as you know from the various descriptions in my lecture cycles—people rose to the spiritual principle of the world more through a kind of dreamlike clairvoyance, the most favorable time was the summer season. It is entirely natural that those who wish to rise to the spiritual through a more dreamlike clairvoyance find it easier during the Earth’s sleeping season, the summer season. That is why the Feast of St. John was the most favorable in ancient times for lifting the soul’s power up to the spiritual. The old way in which the spiritual works into the earth has been replaced by the new, more conscious way; now the best time is the time when the earth is awake.

[ 10 ] That is why legends tell us that particularly gifted people—those who, through their karma, are especially suited to enter a special state of consciousness during the Christmas season—experience a state that is only outwardly similar to sleep, but inwardly such that inspiration can work upon them, thereby elevating them to the world we call the spirit realm. There is a very beautiful legend, a Norwegian legend about Olaf Åsteson, in which we are told how he goes to church on Christmas Eve, falls into a sleep-like state, and then wakes up on January 6 and is able to recount what he experienced in that sleep-like state. And indeed, this Norwegian legend tells us how Olaf Åsteson experienced something that one initially perceives as the world of souls, then as something one perceives as the spirit realm—only all of it in images, in imaginings.

[ 11 ] This period was the most favorable among those eras when people were not yet as advanced as they are today. Today, the times are past when the Christ impulse could flow into souls in this way, as through a natural initiation. Today, people must consciously strive toward initiation, just as prescribed in *How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds*. We live in a time when natural initiations are becoming increasingly rare and will eventually disappear entirely, so that we can no longer count on them. But one initiation that could essentially be called a natural initiation was that through which the Christ impulse worked into the mind of the simple country girl, the Maid of Orleans, and which brought about the French victory over the English, an event that reshaped the European map in such a magnificent way. Again, it was not what the human intellect could achieve, but rather what, at that time, guided the Maid of Orleans beyond all the art of military commanders, and through which Europe took on a new form—the Christ impulse that worked its way into the unconscious of a single personality, but worked in such a way that what radiated from this personality became effective throughout history.

[ 12 ] Now we must consider whether something similar might have occurred as a natural initiation in the case of the Virgin of Orleans, whether the soul of the Virgin of Orleans might have been inspired during the nights from December 25 to January 6. In the course of her life, there seems to be no evidence that the Maid of Orleans was ever, during the twelve or thirteen days from December 25 to January 6, in a sleep-like state in which the Christ impulse in particular could have worked into her, so that she would then have acted on the battlefields of France as a human being merely as the vessel of the Christ impulse. And yet it was so. For there is a time which, if the karma of the individual in question makes this particularly possible for a human being, can truly be filled with such a sleep-like state. This is the time of the final days, when the human being still lives in the mother’s womb before seeing the physical light of the world. There the human being lives in a dreamlike, sleep-like state. After all, he has not yet seen through the senses anything that is happening externally in the world. If a human being were, through his karma, particularly suited to receiving the Christ impulse during these last days in which he dwells in his mother’s womb, then these days would also be days of natural initiation. Then such a person, already strengthened and fortified by the Christ impulse within them, would open their eyes for the first time after the initiation—that is, in this case, after birth. And such a person would have to be born on January 6. The Virgin of Orleans was born on January 6. That is the secret of the Virgin of Orleans: that she was born on January 6, that she spent the time from Christmas to Epiphany in that peculiar, sleep-like state within her mother’s womb, and that she received her natural initiation there. Now consider the deep connections that lie behind the external development we usually call history. What is presented externally in history through documents is, as a rule, actually the least important. The simple date recorded in our calendar—that the Virgin of Orleans was sent into the world on January 6—is of decisive historical significance. Thus do the forces from the supersensible world work into the sensible world. And we must read this occult script through which the working of the supersensible into the sensible is revealed to us. Thus the inflow of the Christ impulse, as through a natural initiation, even before physical birth, was present in the Maid of Orleans.

[ 13 ] I wish to explore these matters in order to awaken in your souls a sense of how, behind what is commonly called history, forces and connections unknown to the outer eye are at work. Since the Mystery of Golgotha, however, the Christ impulse has been guiding the history of European humanity in particular. And in the East, in Asia, a worldview has remained that one might say has not yet reached the Christ impulse in its sensibilities. Certainly, Europeans have been led to regard what is perceived as “Indianness” as particularly profound. But this is the characteristic of this Indian spirit—and indeed of the entire Asian religious sensibility—that, with all its feeling, it stands before the Christ impulse, yet has preserved the state that existed in the religious sensibility of humanity on Earth before the Christ impulse. Lagging behind in development always means taking in something Luciferic. Therefore, Asian religious development carries within it a Luciferic element. And when we look over at Asian religious development, we must realize: Certainly, we can see in it much that humanity once possessed, but from which it had to depart. But in Western culture, we must partly purify all of this of the Luciferic element and partly elevate it so that the Christ principle can flow in.

[ 14 ] When we move from Asia to Europe, we find, in Eastern Europe and within Russian culture, Orthodox Christianity widespread—a form of Christianity that has remained at an earlier stage of Christian development, that refused to move forward, that wished to retain something of the Luciferic element. In short, when we look toward the East, we see what I would call the element that the wise guidance of the world has left behind as the Luciferic element throughout the entire development of humanity.

[ 15 ] If we look westward, particularly at American culture, we find a different characteristic. What is characteristic of this American culture is that everything is sought in the external. This certainly brings forth great and significant things; but everything is sought in the external. Take an example. When we see in Europe, particularly in Central Europe, that a person who initially had no opportunity in life to turn their mind toward Christ and the spiritual powers of the world has, through some event, suddenly undergone a sort of conversion in their life, then we are interested in what has taken place within that soul. It is not that he experienced a leap in his development that interests us; we find that everywhere. For the most incorrect statement is the one coined by external science: “Nature does not make leaps.” — From the green leaf of a plant to the red petal of a flower is a mighty leap; from the petal to the calyx is another mighty leap. It is a thoroughly incorrect statement, and the truth of development rests precisely on the fact that leaps are made everywhere. So the fact that a human being, having lived outwardly in a certain way for a time, can suddenly be drawn toward the spiritual by something—that is not the particular thing that interests us. But the inner power and force that brings about something like this—what one might call a conversion to the spiritual—that is what interests us. We will want to look into the mind of such a person; we will want to know what led him to such a change of heart. We will be interested in the inner soul. How does the American go about this? — He does something very peculiar. In America, one could observe in many cases that such conversions have taken place. Well, the American has letters written by those who have undergone a conversion. Then he gathers all these letters into a pile and says: I have now received letters from a number of people; there were about two hundred who wrote letters. Fourteen percent of all these souls who experienced such a conversion wrote out of fear that suddenly came over them of death or hell; five percent out of altruistic motives; out of a pursuit of moral ideals, seventeen percent; out of remorse, fifteen percent; out of obedience to teachings that were given to them, ten percent; because they saw that others were converted—that is, out of imitation—thirteen percent; because they were coerced by being beaten at the appropriate age, nineteen percent, and so on. Thus, one takes the most extreme souls, sorts them, and obtains a result based on “reliable data.” This is then recorded in the books that are distributed to the public under the heading of “psychology.” All other sources are unreliable to these people; they say they are based solely on subjectivity. There you have an example of the externalization of the innermost self. This is the case in many, many respects in America. At a time that calls for a special spiritual deepening, the most superficial spiritualism is rampant in America! People there want everything to be tangible.

[ 16 ] This is a materialistic view of spiritual life. We could cite many more such examples that would show you how Western culture is gripped by the Ahrimanic. This is the pendulum swinging the other way. When we look to the East, we see the Luciferic element; when we look to the West, we see the Ahrimanic element. And the infinitely significant task we have in Central Europe, between West and East, is to find this balance. That is why we wish to place in our Dornach building, as a sculptural group, the greatest of the spiritual demands of our time: to find the balance between the relationship to Lucifer and the relationship to Ahriman. Only then will we recognize what the Christ impulse intended for the development of the Earth—not by simply setting Christ apart, but by truly understanding how Christ is the power that stands before us as a model in our relationship to Lucifer and Ahriman.

[ 17 ] The fact that there is still no clarity regarding the relationship of humanity and Christ to Lucifer and Ahriman may become clear to you through the following. Even the greatest thing—that which, in one sense, contains the greatest—is not always free from what must still prevail as one-sidedness in time. One certainly cannot praise highly enough the painting that Michelangelo created in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, “The Last Judgment,” this marvelous painting. Christ triumphant, guiding the good to one side, the wicked to the other. Let us look at this Christ. He does not have the features we would like to achieve in the Christ who is to stand in our Dornach building. It must become evident that Christ raises his hand in compassion, even though Lucifer is up there. Lucifer is not to be overthrown by the power of Christ, but he casts himself down because he cannot bear what radiates from Christ in his presence. And Christ raises his eyes and furrows his brow, lifting his furrowed brow toward Lucifer. And Ahriman is not overcome by Christ’s hatred, but he feels that he cannot bear what radiates from Christ. Christ, however, stands in the midst as the one who brings the Parzival element into the modern age, who must lead the others to self-overcoming not through his power but through his very existence, so that the others overcome themselves and he does not overcome them. In Michelangelo we still see how Christ, through his power, sends some to heaven and others to hell. That will not be the true Christ in the future, but rather a Christ who is still very Luciferic. This does not, of course, diminish the image. The full greatness of this image is acknowledged, but one must admit that Michelangelo was not yet able to paint the Christ, because world development had not yet reached that stage. It must be clearly understood that one should not only direct one’s attention toward Christ, but that one should direct one’s attention toward the threefold configuration of beings: Christ, Lucifer, Ahriman. I can only hint at this. Spiritual Science will be the first to bring to light all that lies within this mystery: Christ in relation to Lucifer and Ahriman.

[ 18 ] But now consider the following: When we look to the East, we see Luciferic forces even in the Near East. And in the West, we see Ahrimanic forces. Truly, it must be our way, in Spiritual Science observation, not to view things with sympathy and antipathy, nor to view peoples and folk-souls with sympathy and antipathy, but rather as they are in their own distinct nature. What is called the national character of a human being, which is rooted in their national identity, depends above all on what is active in the physical and etheric bodies. When we live with our soul-spiritual being as the astral body and the I from falling asleep until waking up, we live outside the ordinary national sphere. Only from waking until falling asleep, when we sink into the physical body, do we live within the national. Therefore, the national is also something that the human being gradually overcomes during their stay in the Kamaloka. The human being strives toward the universal human by overcoming the national in the Kamaloka, in order to then live the greatest part of the time between death and new birth within the universal human. Among the qualities that are shed in the Kamaloka is also that which makes us specifically national human beings.

[ 19 ] In this respect, the various nationalities differ greatly from one another. Let us compare a French person and a Russian person. The French person has the peculiarity of holding on very firmly to what the Folk-soul instills into his physical and etheric bodies during his life between birth and death; he lives very much within this. This is expressed in the fact that the French person—not as an individual, but as a French person—has a mental image of what a French person is; that he places foremost what it actually means to be a French person. But these thoughts that the Frenchman has about his nationality—and that the Romans in general have about their nationality—cause the Frenchman’s mental image of nationality to be sharply imprinted in his etheric body. When he passes through the gate of death, he sheds his etheric body within days; this etheric body is then a firmly consolidated form that remains in the etheric world for a long time. The etheric body cannot dissolve for a long time because the mental images of his nationality are firmly imprinted upon it; these mental images hold the etheric body together. When we look toward the West, we therefore see the field of death filled with firmly imprinted etheric bodies.

[ 20 ] If we now look more closely at the East, at the Russian people, we see that what is characteristic of them is that when their souls pass through the gate of death, they carry within them an etheric body that dissolves relatively quickly. That is the difference between the West and the East. The etheric bodies that are shed after death by Western Europeans have the peculiarity of wanting to remain rigid. What the Frenchman calls “Gloire” is firmly imprinted on his etheric body as national glory, so that he is condemned, long, long after his death, to direct his spiritual gaze toward this etheric body, to look upon himself after death. The Russian, on the other hand, looks upon himself little after death. Through all this, the Western European is exposed to the Ahrimanic influence; this materialization of the etheric body is in turn exposed to the Ahrimanic principle. The dissolving of the etheric body, the rapid dissolution of the etheric body, is accompanied by a sensation of sensual pleasure, and that is precisely the peculiarity: an instinctive sensation of sensual pleasure within the national. How is this expressed in the East? — Central Europe does not understand this, just as it cannot empathize with it. If one follows Dostoevsky and even Tolstoy, or others who were influential, who always speak of the “Russian man,” this is a sense of sensual pleasure in the national, which cannot define itself. Even in Solovyov we still find, as in his philosophy, something sultry that the Central European cannot reconcile with the clarity and purity he seeks. What is effective in Europe as a spiritual force is connected to all of this. In Central Europe, a different, intermediate state exists—namely, something that could be elaborated upon even further than was possible in yesterday’s public lecture. I said: There is something in Central Europe that is of an inner, striving nature. Goethe would have written his *Faust* in the 1840s in exactly the same way: Always striving, always striving! — But this striving is of the innermost nature. It was in Central Europe that the mystics appeared, who did not merely want to recognize the divine-spiritual, but wanted to live it through with their own souls. The mystics wanted to experience the Christ event inwardly. If we now take Soloviev, we find that he proceeds above all from this: Christ once died historically for humanity. That is quite correct, but in Soloviev’s case we are dealing with a soul that, like a cloud, views spiritual life from outside itself—a soul that sees that, as it were, everything has already happened—while the Central European demands that each person experience the Christ event anew within themselves. Even to Soloviev, Meister Eckhart would have replied something like this. If Soloviev repeatedly emphasizes that Christ must pass through death so that man may be human, Meister Eckhart would say: You look at Christ as one looks at something external. What matters is not that we always look only to historical events, but that we must experience Christ himself within; we must discover something within that undergoes the same states as Christ, at least spiritually, so that the experience of Christ is relived spiritually.

[ 21 ] It certainly seems convoluted and fantastical when we tell people today: The entire course of development, even the linguistic spirit of the people in Central Europe, has worked in such a way that this connection between the “I” and the Christ principle has been imprinted on its language: I-CH = Jesus Christ. I-CH, which fuses together to become “I.” And when one says “I” in Central Europe, one is pronouncing the name of Christ. That is how closely one wishes to feel the “I” connected to Christ, how intimately bound to it. This intimate coexistence with the spiritual world, as it must be strived for in all spiritual realms in Central Europe, is known neither in the West nor in the East. Therefore, something must happen in the 20th century so that the Christ principle can gradually spread across the entire European continent in an appropriate manner. I have often emphasized in various lecture cycles that in November 1879, the spiritual being we call the Archangel Michael reached a special stage of development. Michael became, so to speak, the leading spirit. This leading spirit is now preparing the event that is hinted at in the first of my Mystery Dramas as the appearance of the etheric Christ over the earth, the event that must occur in the 20th century. Then it will come to pass that first individual souls, then more and more souls, will know: Christ is truly here, Christ is walking upon the earth once more, but in ethereal form, not in physical form. — This must be prepared. If, in the course of this 20th century, the spiritual eyes of certain souls were to be opened clairvoyantly—and this will happen—to what lives in the etheric world, they would be disturbed by those etheric bodies spreading out from Western Europe. The spiritual gaze would first fall upon them, and one would see the form of the Christ in an incorrect way. Therefore, Michael must wage a battle in Europe. He must contribute to the dissolution of these rigid Western European etheric bodies in the etheric world. To do this, he must take those etheric bodies that are willing to dissolve—the etheric bodies in the East—and must fight with them against the West. This has meant that since 1879 a mighty battle has been brewing in the astral world between Russian and Western European etheric bodies, and this battle is raging throughout the entire astral world. There is truly a fierce battle taking place in the astral world, led by Michael, between Russia and France. This is what underlies the battle raging in Europe in the astral world. And just as we are often so deeply shaken by the fact that something taking place here in the physical world is the opposite in the spiritual world, so it is the case here as well. That Franco-Russian alliance, brought about by Ahriman’s seduction and based primarily on the Ahrimanic element—namely, the twenty billion given by France to Russia—is the physical expression of a battle raging between French and Russian souls, a struggle in which Central Europe, with its innermost soul-element striving for an encounter with the Christ, is placed. And Europe has fallen under the karma that it is precisely in Central Europe that what the East has to contend with the West and the West with the East must be experienced in a tragic way. The things that the German element must contend with externally in relation to the French element are to be understood only in this way: that the German element is situated precisely between the East and the West and acts as an anvil for both sides. For what is brought into conflict by both sides in Germany is, in truth, being negotiated by these two sides. This is the spiritual truth, which is entirely different from what takes place outwardly in the physical world. Consider how different the spiritual truth is from what takes place outwardly in the physical world! All of this certainly sounds grotesque to people today, but it is the truth. This truth must have a profound effect on us.

[ 22 ] But there is another matter of extraordinary significance. It certainly contradicts everything that history can show us that England, having always been allied with Turkey against Russia, must now suddenly fight alongside Russia against Turkey. This contradiction can only be understood by making the following occult observation. While down here on the physical plane England, united with Russia, is fighting the Turkish element, the following picture emerges for the occult observer. If one observes this struggle occultly and looks, as it were, from below up onto the physical plane and then onto the astral plane, it becomes clear: To the north, Russia appears allied with England, and to the southeast, Turkey appears allied with England. This stems from the fact that the alliance between England and Russia has significance only on the physical plane but has no reflection in the spiritual world, since it is based entirely on material interests. From below, one sees only England and Russia united in the north on the physical plane. In the southeast, looking through the physical plane onto the astral plane, one sees the English and the Turks united in spirit, fighting against Russia. Thus, on the physical plane, England fights alongside Russia on one side, while on the other side, Russia is fought against by England. This is how we must view the events that are actually unfolding outwardly, insofar as they manifest as external history. For what lies behind them is something entirely different.

[ 23 ] A time will come when people will talk about current events in a very different way than they do now. It must be said that all war literature has something rather unpleasant about it. Some beautiful things are said, of course, but also a great deal that is unpleasant. And one thing in particular is unpleasant. It is always said: Today we cannot yet speak about who was to blame for the war and so on. — People console themselves about these things. They say: In the future, the documents in the archives will reveal who was to blame for the war! — But with regard to external events, the matter is not at all so difficult to determine if one judges without passion. And Chamberlain, in his “War Essays,” even if he is mistaken in the details, is right when he says that it is precisely about this war that one can know with the utmost certainty. It is true that there is no doubt about this, but one must ask the right question. For example, there is a question which, if posed correctly, can only be answered unequivocally. It is the question: Who could have prevented this war? — The ever-recurring question: Who is to blame for this war? and many other questions are simply not the right ones. Who could have prevented the war? — The answer to that can be none other than: The Russian government could have prevented the war! — And only in this way will one be able to find the correct definition for the driving forces at work in each case. Of course, the war that the East had wanted for decades could not have come about today if a certain relationship had not existed between England, Russia, and France, so that, if one wishes, one can also attribute the greater blame to England. But all these considerations fail to take into account the underlying causes that make the entire world war a necessity. It is naive to believe that the war could have been avoided. People now speak as if this war need not have come to pass. It is, of course, part of Europe’s karma.

[ 24 ] I wanted to hint at something through the intellectual contrasts between East and West. It does not matter that we, so to speak, inquire in a special way into the external causes, for these are, after all, unimportant. We need only know that this war is a historical necessity. The individual causes are irrelevant.

[ 25 ] But what is important are all the various effects that we must face in the right way. And one effect in particular may appear to us as especially significant. It is a remarkable and characteristic phenomenon that such a war gives rise to many fresh etheric bodies. And since this is the greatest war humanity has waged since the dawn of recorded history, this peculiarity is also present to the highest degree. Unused etheric bodies are created. And you see, the etheric body that a person carries within them can sustain them for a long time, until the person is seventy, eighty, or ninety years old. In war, however, people are sacrificed in the prime of their lives. When a person passes through the gate of death, the etheric body, as you know, is expelled after a short time; but in the case of those who have fallen in war, the etheric body is expelled in such a way that it could have sustained these human lives in the physical body for a long time, for decades on. In physics, it is recognized that no force is lost. In the spiritual realm, however, it is the same. These etheric bodies, which enter the etheric world prematurely, remain present with their forces. Now consider how countless unused etheric bodies there are from those who pass through the gate of “death” as young people. There is something special about these etheric bodies. I would like to illustrate this with an example close to our movement, and then move on to the etheric bodies that will be present in the etheric world in the near future, belonging to the warriors who have passed through death.

[ 26 ] This fall in Dornach, we mourned the death of the young son of a family from the Anthroposophical Society who are now working in the vicinity of the building—the death of little seven-year-old Theodor Faiß. The father had previously lived in Stuttgart; he then came to Dornach as a gardener to work near the building site and lived there with his family. He himself had been drafted shortly after the outbreak of war and was in a military hospital at the time of the event I am about to describe. Little seven-year-old Theodor was a true child of the sun, a wonderful, dear boy. Now, one day the following happened. We had just had a lecture, the kind I give in Dornach following what takes place at the Bauhaus. After the lecture, a person came up and said that little Theodor Faiß had not returned to his mother since late afternoon. It was ten o’clock in the evening, and one could think of nothing else but that a great misfortune had occurred. You see, a moving truck had arrived that afternoon and had driven down a path near the so-called canteen where it had had to make a turn. At one point, this truck had reached a spot where—one can safely say—no vehicle of that size, and perhaps no moving truck at all, had driven many decades before, nor has one since. Now, little Theodor had been in the canteen before the truck had turned. He had been held up there for a while; otherwise, he would have gone home earlier with the food he had picked up in the canteen for dinner. He had just walked back home—it is only a very short distance—in such a way that he happened to be right at the spot where the carriage overturned and fell on him, little Theodor. No one had noticed, not even the coachman. He had only brought his horses to safety when the carriage overturned and did not know that the child was underneath it. When we were notified that the child was missing, we had to try to lift the wagon. Friends fetched tools, and the mobilized Swiss soldiers helped us with this. Of course, the child had already been dead since about half past five in the afternoon. The moving wagon had crushed him immediately; he had died of suffocation.

[ 27 ] Here we have a case to which applies what I have often tried to illustrate through an analogy: that people confuse cause and effect. I have often used the following analogy: Suppose we see a person walking along the bank of a river. The person falls into the river. We run over and find a rock at the spot where the person fell into the river, and we now think that the person stumbled, then fell into the river, and died as a result. So we say that the person died because he fell into the river. But if you were to perform an autopsy, you might find that he suffered a heart attack and consequently fell into the water dead. He did not, therefore, die because he fell into the water, but fell into the water because he had died. Such confusions of cause and effect are very common in the assessment of life, and even more so in conventional science.

[ 28 ] In little Theodor’s case, the battery had died, so one can truly say: He summoned the car himself. I mention this entire case, which is outwardly extremely tragic, for the reason that we are dealing here with the etheric body of a child that could have sustained this child’s life for decades to come. This etheric body, with all its unspent energies, has passed into the spiritual world, the etheric world. Where is it? What is it doing? — Anyone who has since been compelled to work on the Dornach building with artistic intentions, or even to entertain thoughts within the building’s enclosure, knows—if they also possess occult insight—that this entire etheric body, with its powers magnified, is present in the aura of the Dornach building. We must distinguish: the individuality is elsewhere, it goes its own way, but the etheric body, after a few days, has been cast out; it is now present in the building. And I will never hesitate to say that among the forces needed for intuition are the forces of this etheric body, which has been sacrificed for the building. Behind life, the connections are often quite different from what one might suspect. This etheric body has become a protective power of the building. Something magnificent and mighty lies in such a connection.

[ 29 ] And now let us consider the vast amount of energy that ascends into the spiritual world from the unspent etheric bodies of those who are now passing through the gate of death as a result of the war.

[ 30 ] Things are connected in ways that people cannot even imagine; karma in the world unfolds differently. And Spiritual Science must serve precisely to replace fanciful mental images with spiritually true ones. We can hardly imagine—to give just one example—anything more fantastical and untrue from a spiritual standpoint than what has taken place in recent decades. What has actually come to pass as a result of founding a special “peace society” to replace war with the rule of law—or, as they said, “international law”? — At no time in human history have such terrible wars been waged as since the “Peace Society” came into existence. And in recent decades, this peace movement has indeed had among its special patrons the monarch who waged the bloodiest and most cruel wars ever waged in world history. So that the initiation of the peace movement on the part of the Tsar must truly appear as the greatest comedy ever played out in world history, the very greatest comedy and at the same time the most abominable comedy! That is what must be called the Luciferic seduction over there. This can be traced in detail. One might say it makes a shattering impression on the soul when one sees—however one might otherwise view things—how, at the beginning, when these war impulses swept into Europe, into Central Europe, even where people had gathered, such as in the German Reichstag in Berlin, the people said almost nothing. Little was spoken, but the events spoke for themselves. An infinite amount has been spoken in both the West and the East. But the most shattering impression, in a certain sense, comes from what was spoken in the St. Petersburg Duma by the various parties. In the most diverse ways, the representatives of the Duma really offered nothing but the most hollow phrases with the greatest fervor of enthusiasm. It was shocking. This is Luciferic seduction. But all of this points to the fact that the fire burning in this war is a warning and a signal fire, and that people must be on their guard.

[ 31 ] Everything that is happening now points to the fact that at least some souls must be saying to themselves: Things cannot go on as they have been in the world; the spiritual must be incorporated into human development! Materialism has met its karma in this most terrible of wars. In a certain sense, this war is the karma of materialism. The more human souls come to realize this, the more they will move beyond debating whether this or that party is to blame for the war, and will say to themselves: This war has been sent into world history to serve as a warning that we must turn toward a spiritual understanding of the whole of human life.

[ 32 ] Materialism not only makes people’s souls materialistic in their outlook; it also corrupts logic and dulls the senses. Within Central Europe, there is still much to be realized regarding what I have said: that it is precisely in Central Europe that one must engage most intimately with the further development of the Christ impulse. But this will require that we begin to understand the spirits who have already sown the seeds for this. Just one example: Goethe wrote a theory of colors. Physicists regard it as something about which they say with a pitying smile: What did the poet understand of colors? He was just a dilettante! — Since the 1980s, I have been striving to bring Goethe’s theory of colors to the fore against modern physics. This cannot be understood. Why can it not be understood? Because the materialistic principle, which emanates from the British folk-soul, has found its way into Central Europe. Newton, whom Goethe had to combat, emerged victorious over what sprang from Goethe’s spirit. Goethe also founded a theory of evolution, which demonstrates how, through the grasping of spiritual laws, beings progress from the most imperfect to the most perfect. This was too difficult for people to understand. When Darwin presented his theory of evolution in a simpler way, people accepted it. Darwin triumphed over Goethe. The materialist thinker, inspired by the British folk-soul, triumphed over Goethe, who drew everything from the most intimate dialogue with the German folk-soul.

[ 33 ] Ernst Haeckel experienced tragedy. Throughout his entire life, he drew intellectual sustenance from what Huxley and Darwin had given him. Ernst Haeckel’s materialism is, in essence, a purely English product. Now, when the war broke out, Haeckel was outraged by what was happening from the British Isles. He was one of the first to return his English orders, diplomas, and awards. What must be returned, however, are not the diplomas, orders, and awards, but rather the English-tinged Darwinism and the English-tinged physics. One must come to this realization in order to understand what can be strived for in the Central European region as an intimate communion with the laws of the world.

[ 34 ] The greatest harm is done when one pours into a child’s mind ideas that then develop into a purely materialistic worldview. Centuries have worked toward this end. Ahriman even inspired a very great writer among the British to such an extent that this writer composed a work designed entirely to influence the soul in a materialistic way from childhood onward, in a manner so subtle that one does not notice it, because one does not perceive all of this as materialistic conditioning. This is *Robinson Crusoe*. The entire way Robinson is described is so subtle that these mental images of the Robinsonade, when absorbed, condition the mind in such a way that it can later think only materialistically. Humanity has not yet been healed of the inventors of the Robinsonade; such people have always existed and still exist today. And many other examples could be cited. These things are stated not to say anything negative about the peoples of the West, who must be as they are, but to point out how, in Central Europe, people must find the connection with the great, as yet only nascent values for development toward the future. How significant, in fact, is Austria’s position in this regard. In recent decades, one has seen how the highest ideals have been pursued by minds such as Hamerling in the realm of poetry, by Carneri, who sought to deepen Darwinism from a moral perspective, and by artists such as Bruckner and others in all manner of fields. The people’s self-reflection on these matters—that is what will ultimately matter.

[ 35 ] And now let us consider the unspent etheric bodies that are present there. These etheric bodies were shed by people who, in the course of a great event, learned to sacrifice themselves for something that, at least in a tangible sense, no longer exists for them: for the nation. If, as a Spiritual Scientist, one speaks today of a folk-soul as an archangel and so on, one is laughed at. What materialism calls a folk-soul is merely the abstract connection of the characteristics possessed by the people of a nation. What the materialist calls a nation is merely the sum of people who live together in a given space, viewing one another as equals. We speak of the national spirit in such a way that we know: the national spirit truly exists as a real entity in the rank of an archangel. Even if the one who sacrifices himself, who goes through death for his people, has no full consciousness in the realm of events of a real national spirit, he nevertheless affirms, through the way he passes through death, that he believes in a continuing effect after this death, that he believes there is more than what the eyes see in the national spirit: its connection and its standing together with the supersensible. All those who thus pass through death, whether they are more or less aware of it, pass through this death affirming that there is a supersensible world; this is imprinted upon their etheric bodies. So that in the future, apart from those who will live in the physical world, when peace has returned, the unspent etheric bodies will live on, forever sending the tones into the music of the spheres: There is more in the world than what can be seen merely with physical eyes! Spiritual truth will resound in the music of the spheres through what the dead leave behind in their etheric bodies, quite apart from what they take with them in their individuality, which they carry through the life between death and new birth. But what will have to be heard is that which will live, that which will resound down from these etheric bodies, because these etheric bodies have been shed by people who, sealing the truth of the spiritual world, have passed through death. Humanity’s greatest sin will be if it does not listen to what the departed will call out to it through their admonishing etheric bodies. And how infinitely enlivened is that which one seeks to perceive in relation to the spiritual world, when one considers that the fathers and mothers, the sisters and brothers, the sons and daughters who lose their dear departed must say to themselves: What has been sacrificed there lives on for all humanity, warning of what must come!

[ 36 ] If one were to rely solely on what takes place here in the physical world, one could not have much hope for the flourishing progress of the spiritual movement that is to be fostered within our Spiritual Science worldview. When a good, faithful co-worker of ours recently passed away, at about the age of thirty, my words to this soul that had passed through the gate of death included a request that it might work just as faithfully and courageously in our field of Spiritual Science as it had worked here faithfully and devotedly, making use of all it knew. This colleague worked diligently here on the physical plane. I gave him this as a message to carry into his life between death and new birth: that he might work after death as he did before death, for we count on these dead—the so-called dead—just as we do on the living. Our Spiritual Science worldview must be so alive that the gulf between the so-called dead and the living is bridged, that we feel the dead among us as living beings. We want not merely theory, but life. Thus we also wish to point out that a living bond exists between those who live on Earth, when peace returns, and those who have passed through the gate of death. People will be able to learn from the dead, will have to learn, how these dead contribute in the manner described to the great spiritual progress that must take hold of the Earth.

[ 37 ] Sometimes in life, one sees that human logic is insufficient. I would like to give you an example, not for personal reasons, but to illustrate the way people view our movement. A few years ago, a very serious journal in southern Germany published an essay written by a famous contemporary philosopher about Spiritual Science. Spiritual Science was treated in such a way that it could make a certain impression on people, because the essay was written by a great philosopher. The editor of the journal took particular pride in the fact that he was able to publish an article on Spiritual Science by such a famous man. Of course, everything was presented in a negative and distorted light; a completely distorted picture of Spiritual Science was given. But what did the editor need to realize what kind of judgment he had actually allowed to be published in his monthly journal regarding our movement? — Then the war came. The man who had written the article wrote several letters to the editor. These letters contain some of the most repulsive things one can possibly say about Central European culture. There was terrible railing and mockery directed at this Central European culture. The editor has now published these letters as an example of just how foolish one can be in one’s thinking about this culture. And he now says: Only a person who belongs in a madhouse could write the way this man does. — So the fact is that it took something like this for a good editor to realize that the man who, a few years ago, wrote that article about Spiritual Science—which also caused a great deal of harm to the outside world—belongs in a madhouse. But if the man belongs in a madhouse now, then he certainly belonged there back then as well. Yet back then, he wrote an article about Spiritual Science!

[ 38 ] That is how things are in the world! We need help of a different kind than what people have today in order to form a judgment. The spiritual scientist, however, stands firmly on the ground, clearly demonstrating that truth finds its way. But Spiritual Science must play a role in the development of humanity so that what is necessary may come to pass. And just as in that time when Emperor Constantine had to fulfill his task, the Christ impulse had to work from the spiritual world into the subconscious; just as the Christ impulse had to work in the case of the Maid of Orleans so that what had to happen could happen—so the Christ impulse must continue to work, only now more in consciousness. There must be souls in the future who will know: Up there in the spiritual world, those who sacrificed themselves with their individuality are calling upon us to follow them in the faith in the efficacy of the spiritual that they attained in death. But the forces from the unconsumed etheric bodies, too, call out into the future—one need only understand this to take it into one’s own soul. But down here there must be souls who can hear this. There must be souls who prepare themselves for it through the right, through the ‘living understanding’ of our Spiritual Science. Our Spiritual Science must create souls down here who are able to sense what the etheric bodies of the dead will speak up there in the future. Souls who know: Up there are the forces that can admonish the human being who had to be left to his own devices on earth. And when, down here, spiritually conscious souls direct their attention to the hidden sounds of the spiritual world, then from all the blood that has been shed, all the sacrifices that have been made, all the suffering that had to be endured and still must be endured, the right fruits will arise. Looking toward the hope that may be expressed—that very, very many souls may be found through Spiritual Science who can hear these voices that will resound from the spiritual world, especially through this war—I would like, in summary of today’s reflection, to speak words that are meant only to express intuitively what I wish to stir within their souls:

From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of the battles,
From the suffering of the forsaken,
From the sacrifices of the people
The fruit of the spirit grows
Souls think with spiritual awareness
And direct their purpose toward the spiritual realm.

[ 39 ] With such feelings in our hearts, let us constantly imbue ourselves with the meaning of the Rose Cross, so that we may rightly regard this Rose Cross as the motto of our actions, our work, and our feelings. Not the black cross alone. Whoever were to tear the roses from the black cross, whoever were to have only the black cross, would fall prey to Ahriman. The black cross is the living force striving toward mere matter. Nor will those who tear the cross from the roses and wish to hold only the roses find the right path. For the roses, separated from the cross, would indeed seek to lift us up to life, but this life would merely strive selfishly toward the spiritual and would not reveal the Spirit in the material. Not the cross alone, not the roses alone, but the roses on the cross, the cross bearing the roses, both in harmonious interaction: that is what our true symbol is.