The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Ninth Lecture

[ 1 ] Yesterday we saw how, so to speak, what we might call the continuous flow of evolving knowledge and evolving wisdom is distributed across the historical currents of peoples throughout the world—on the one hand—and, on the other hand, the life that must unite with this wisdom at a certain point in time. This is an example of the fact—which, in its consequences, is fundamentally profound—that the various one-sided aspects of world existence interact to bring about a whole, a harmony. And I have already pointed out how, even down to our own times, we can perceive the aftereffects—both, on the one hand, of the lifeless principle of knowledge, the principle of knowledge that is growing old, and, on the other hand, of the life principle devoid of knowledge, which, like a young shoot in the development of humanity, unites with the principle of knowledge brought down from primeval times and now in the process of dispersing.

[ 2 ] Today, let us take a somewhat more subjective look at this same world of facts, examining it in direct connection with our consideration of the human being. Let us once again bring to mind the fact—which has been presented to us so often—of the rhythmic transformation of the human being in the course of daily life: namely, that in the course of daily life, the human being alternates between the unity of his four members—the physical human being, the etheric human being, the astral human being, and the I-human being—and a state in which these four members are, so to speak, separated into pairs: the union of the physical human being with the etheric human being, and of the I with the astral human being.

[ 3 ] The alternation between sleep and wakefulness is based, after all, on this rhythmic sequence of these four elements being, in a sense, united and, in a sense, separated. We have already mentioned that this fact, as expressed here, can be examined in even greater detail; however, for today’s discussion, it may serve as a sufficient basis even as it stands.

[ 4 ] When we observe human existence—the human weaving that takes place during sleep—even without any particular development having occurred within the individual, a clear awareness can nevertheless arise in that person’s soul, especially during particularly lucid, particularly alert moments of waking, that, as a spiritual being, upon waking, they seem to rise out of a weaving and living that are one and the same, I would say, a subtle-spiritual existence.

[ 5 ] Surely it must occur to most people that, when conditions are favorable, they do not wake from sleep as if from nothing, but rather emerge from sleep as if from a full, yet much more ethereal and lighter state of activity and life than the one we experience from waking until falling asleep. It must certainly have occurred to many, as they were waking up, that while sleeping they lived in a realm in which they are so immersed that they are actually more lucid during sleep than while awake. Surely the majority of people must have experienced this, saying to themselves upon waking: “Yes, this or that came to me; it presented itself to my soul.” I know quite clearly that I experienced something there that I cannot now bring clearly enough into my waking consciousness. — And then one can, in a sense, feel foolish in comparison to the clarity one possessed in this nocturnal weaving and living, in this element that is far more ethereal than the life of the physical world from waking until falling asleep. One was—and one must be clear about this—immersed with one’s entire being in a weaving and a life that exists around us in a manner similar to the physical life and weaving that lies beyond physical consciousness, only it cannot be grasped by this physical consciousness and is, in a sense, almost completely forgotten at the moment of waking.

[ 6 ] But even without any special occult training, a person can be clearly aware that, while asleep, they were weaving within an element that they cannot fully carry over into waking life. This fact, which anyone can actually verify quite easily, becomes clear when we consider the wondrous primordial dual saying we referred to yesterday—the saying that states: “Because human beings have learned to recognize or distinguish between good and evil, because they have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they shall not eat from the tree of life.”

[ 7 ] What does it mean, “Do not eat from the Tree of Life”? Perhaps you will no longer find what I have to say about this statement incomprehensible if you reasonably consider what it can actually mean to have eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. — Anyone can tell themselves: If what we call the Luciferic temptation had not occurred, human beings would obviously be in a different position in this earthly life; for as things stand, the effect of the Luciferic temptation is interwoven into their earthly existence. — That is to say, in our earthly life we attain a certain kind of knowledge, a certain way of approaching things through our intellect and reason, and through them we gain a certain knowledge of the things of the world. It is quite clear, after all: we would have to gain a different kind of knowledge of the things of the world if the Luciferic temptation had not taken place. This is precisely what the aforementioned double saying implies. That is to say, the knowledge we gain of the world and its phenomena is a knowledge that has come about through the Luciferic influence—a knowledge that represents the ongoing development that has taken place as a result of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. All our knowledge is such that it had to come about, just as it has, as a consequence of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Had human beings not eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, there would have to be a different kind of knowledge than the one that exists under today’s “normal” conditions, in which Lucifer exerts his influence on our existence.

[ 8 ] If you create a mental image of this, fundamentally, all of our waking knowledge is influenced by the fact of the Luciferic temptation—that our waking knowledge is the fulfillment of our having eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil— then it will no longer seem so incomprehensible to you when I now present to you the fact that can be discerned from many occult perceptions: that our nocturnal, sleeping ignorance—the darkness of sleep that spreads over our consciousness—is simply the effect of not being allowed to eat from the Tree of Life. Just as our everyday knowledge is the effect of having eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, so too is the state of not knowing during sleep the consequence of not being allowed to eat from the Tree of Life. If we had been allowed to eat from this tree, something similar to what occurs during wakefulness would have occurred during sleep. But that was not to be. And so, unconsciousness has become the state of sleep.

[ 9 ] But when this unconsciousness of sleep is overcome—when, through a methodical development of Spiritual Science, the possibility arises to gain some knowledge of what is actually taking place in the weaving and life within an etheric element, as indicated earlier—then we become aware of how we actually spend our lives from the moment we fall asleep until we wake up. For we spend this life—and this is a fact that can be quite shocking—from the moment we fall asleep until we wake up in the arms of Lucifer, I might say. And one can understand what has actually happened there—understand the deep mystery that underlies this entire world of facts—by seeing that at the very moment when humanity was punished by being forbidden to eat from the Tree of Life, Lucifer was condemned to eat from that tree continuously. And because he claims for himself that which weaves and lives from the moment we fall asleep until we wake up—that which, when it lingers in our waking minds, seems so infinitely wise to us—because Lucifer claims this for himself, this weaving and living in what does not come to our consciousness has a very definite consequence, precisely because he claims it for himself.

[ 10 ] So we can say: Our life and activity within the subtle, ethereal element that I have alluded to—this is something that Lucifer takes control of. And because Lucifer takes control of it, the result is that something does not happen that was actually predestined for human beings by the Yahweh deities. It was predestined by the Yahweh deities that, upon waking, human beings would receive into their etheric body and physical body that which weaves and lives within them during sleep. I must sketch this out somewhat schematically so that you may perhaps see more clearly what is involved here. I would like to schematically represent what lives outside the physical body during sleep (red); what lives outside the physical body from our astral body during sleep, with this (yellow); what remains in bed from our physical body, I would like to denote with this (blue), and what remains in bed from our etheric body, with this (ochre yellow).

[ 11 ] Now, the following was determined from the very beginning. It was decreed for human beings by the evolving Yahweh deities that, upon waking, that hinted-at etheric weaving and life would permeate both the etheric body and the physical body of the human being. You need not be alarmed that it is Lucifer who weaves with us while we ourselves live within the ethereal, subtle element from the moment we fall asleep until we awaken. I have already indicated in my Munich lectures that it is entirely wrong to believe one must be on guard against Lucifer in all areas of life. That is a materialistic prejudice. Spiritual beings are not there so that they should not actually be there. And most people behave incorrectly toward the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces, as if they absolutely did not want to have anything to do with them. But that is not the point at all—to organize one’s life in such a way that one has nothing to do with the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces. The point is to allow these beings to be where they belong in their own element, and to know that they only have a harmful effect in the elements where they do not belong. Thus, it is right for earthly life that Lucifer lives and works from the moment we fall asleep until we wake up in the element of which we humans are not meant to know anything, since we already possess the other knowledge—which is a consequence of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

[ 12 ] But now, upon waking, comes what one must grasp if one wishes to understand the necessary development of life that is to come about today through the Spiritual Science worldview: What is being woven there, what is actually being sensed—when, in particularly favorable moments, this life and weaving enters our consciousness today like an echo—what is being woven there should enter our physical and etheric bodies upon waking. For what is weaving there is our astral body. It lives and weaves in the surging sea of the worlds; and what it weaves there, what it experiences and learns there, should enter both our etheric body and our physical body.

[ 13 ] If I were to draw the intentions of the Yahweh deities guiding Earth’s evolution—this life and weaving in which our astral body exists during the night—I would have to be able to draw it in such a way that all of this flows into our waking state, both into our etheric body and into our physical body (Drawing a, diagonal lines, yellow). What I have drawn here would represent the absorption of our astral body’s experiences by the physical body and the etheric body upon waking. This should have occurred in the course of human evolution on Earth—or the earthly development of humankind—if the original intention of the Yahweh deities could have been fulfilled. But this did not happen because of the Luciferic temptation at that time. Something else, however, did happen, so that we must depict the actual events that have now taken place somewhat differently.

[ 14 ] If this is the physical body (blue) and that is the etheric body (ochre yellow)—all drawn schematically, of course—then upon waking, the experience of the astral body truly enters only the etheric body; at most, it leaves an imprint on the physical body and influences it to some extent. In reality, it enters only the etheric body. It is not because it is held back, not because it stops short—as if it were limited by the physical body—that I must draw it this way (Figure b), but because of a mysterious pact between Lucifer and Ahriman, which has just come into effect as a result of Earth’s evolution being interwoven with Luciferic and Ahrimanic development —because at the moment of waking, Lucifer hands over to Ahriman that which was actually meant to enter the physical body. So what would be here (Drawing a) from this nocturnal experience is not handed over to our physical body, but rather, within our physical body, to Ahriman. To mark it as Ahrimanic, I will simply draw it in this way (Drawing c, yellow dots).

[ 15 ] And the significant fact is this: Ahriman experiences Lucifer’s experiences within our physical body while we sleep. In other words, this is the reason why we ourselves cannot bring our nighttime experiences into our daytime consciousness, because Lucifer hands them over to Ahriman as we wake up. Only while they are concluding their dealings with one another—concluding their pact—do certain things come to our consciousness in an ordinary dream, as they pass from the hands of Lucifer into the hands of Ahriman. This is also one aspect of the life of sleep and dreams.

[ 16 ] Let us now consider the ordinary knowledge we possess from the time we wake up until we fall asleep. This knowledge, which we possess just as we do, is thus a consequence of the fact that we have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The situation is this: during the day, we acquire knowledge of things. From the moment we wake up until we fall asleep, we acquire knowledge of things—knowledge that our intellect synthesizes on the basis of sensory perceptions. This knowledge that we acquire about things—as must surely be obvious to you—we acquire through our “I.” It is a knowledge that the human being experiences as an earthly human being. The human being, as an earthly human being, has attained this knowledge because, in addition to the three other principles he has brought over from Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon, the “I” has been added to him on Earth. As earthly human beings, within the “I,” we experience the knowledge that constitutes our human knowledge as a whole—that is, everything we can acquire about the world under the conditions in which we now find ourselves on Earth. But this knowledge, which we acquire in this way, has the peculiarity that it becomes obscured within our “I.” It becomes obscured within our “I” as soon as we fall asleep.

[ 17 ] So it is also true that we acquire knowledge from the moment we wake up until we fall asleep; but the moment we fall asleep, this knowledge ceases to be conscious to us; that is, it leaves our “I.” Philosophers who make the “I” the foundation of philosophy and then say, “We can make this ‘I’ the foundation of philosophy because this ‘I’ is the enduring element in human life between birth and death”—are spouting utter nonsense, for this “I,” as experienced by human beings, is extinguished every night. So let us keep these facts before our souls: that we acquire knowledge, but this knowledge is acquired through the “I,” and this “I” is extinguished during the state between falling asleep and waking up.

[ 18 ] Where does this come from? This knowledge is indeed acquired in that realm of existence which we know is assigned to Ahriman. We know, after all, that Ahriman has his true realm on the ordinary, outer, physical plane, because all death belongs to him. I once described this in great detail in a series of lectures in Munich. With our consciousness, we traverse Ahriman’s realm from the moment we wake up until we fall asleep, and as we develop our ordinary, everyday knowledge—the way we do through Luciferic temptation—this everyday knowledge always leads us, in the course of life between waking and sleeping, into the realm of Ahriman. In fact, we are always weaving and living within the realm of Ahriman through our ordinary quest for external knowledge—knowledge that relates to the external sensory world.

[ 19 ] Lucifer—we must always make this distinction—brought this about; but it is not the realm of Lucifer in which we go about our daily lives and live from the moment we wake until we fall asleep, but rather it is the realm of Ahriman in which we live, go about our daily lives, and exist. And this is actually very easy to understand, because Ahriman is, after all, within our physical body. He constantly helps us when we wish to acquire knowledge through the physical body. We acquire ordinary knowledge first through the physical body, through the senses, the ordinary instruments of the physical body. Ahriman is seated within it; and when we wake up, Lucifer also gives him what he has experienced within us during the night. During the day, in connection with Ahriman, we attain what we call our “knowledge of the world.” When we fall asleep, Ahriman generously repays the gift that Lucifer gave him upon waking.

[ 20 ] While Lucifer hands over to Ahriman—upon waking—what he has experienced with us during sleep as regards our physical body, Ahriman hands over to Lucifer—as we fall asleep—what he has experienced with us throughout the day. So Ahriman hands this over to Lucifer as we fall asleep. And while our entire daily experience should actually be transferred to our entire nighttime experience—and I would then have to draw this nighttime experience (Figure a, green)—the reality is that what is acquired during the day enters only as far as the astral body, but is received by Lucifer in the “I” (Figure b, circles), so that, from the time we fall asleep until we wake up, Lucifer experiences within us that which lives on and weaves within us from the knowledge of the day—from what we have acquired from waking until falling asleep. We can therefore say: Instead of us, Ahriman enjoys our nighttime experiences during the day; instead of us, Lucifer enjoys our daily experiences within our “I” while we sleep. In our physical body, Ahriman partakes; in our “I,” Lucifer partakes; Ahriman during the day, Lucifer during the night.

[ 21 ] Now it is a matter of understanding the consequences of these facts for our human lives. Let us first consider _ this fact: that from the moment we fall asleep until we wake up, Lucifer takes possession of our “I.” You see, this prevents us from living through—even during the night—what we experience as knowledge during the day: what we conceive about the world, what we judge, distinguish, and connect within the world. We would truly live through it if we could continue it throughout the night. According to the original intention of the Yahweh deities, we were meant to gather our knowledge during the day and live through it, work through it, during the night. Had this intention been realized, we would have a science entirely different from the one we have now. We would have a science that would truly be a living science, where every concept we experience would be alive within us, where we would also know that the concepts we experience during the day are shadows of living beings, as I have often described; for we would indeed experience the following at night. We would see: During the day we experience things, we form this or that concept; at night, all concepts would awaken to live, and we would recognize that all of them are elemental beings. We would know that. From the moment we fall asleep until we wake up, we would know: What we acquire as science is immediate life, which lives and weaves in the world; elemental activity, weaving, and life.

[ 22 ] That cannot be the case for us, because Lucifer grasps it, and because Lucifer takes it away from us. And so he takes away from us the life of science. Every night he sucks the life out of science for himself, and all that remains for us are the abstract concepts, the dead concepts, that are given to us by science. Humanity thus has a science that has been drained by Lucifer—truly drained by Lucifer.

[ 23 ] This is why science must be perceived as if it could not come close to what actually lives and weaves within things, why it appears as if one were forming dead concepts out of that which is living and weaving. Science has a synthesizing quality, something that makes one feel that one always remains outside of life, that one cannot enter into life. Everything that philosophers have ever chattered—I mean, philosophized—about the limits of knowledge, about the inability to penetrate the depths of existence, stems from the fact that they felt: beneath what can be grasped in concepts lies living life, which one cannot approach—for the reason that Lucifer sucks the life out of it and claims it for himself, and thus, in other words, renders the concepts hollow and abstract.

[ 24 ] Let us now consider the other case. What would happen if we were not subject to the fact that, upon waking, Ahriman takes possession of what constitutes our nocturnal experience? What would happen to us upon waking? We would bring the entire context of our nighttime experiences into our daytime consciousness. In other words, we would bring the entire spiritual world into our daytime consciousness, and what constitutes our nighttime experiences would intermingle with what we call daytime consciousness. We would not be able to experience it in this combined way—as we now have our waking consciousness together with our nighttime experiences—because this waking consciousness arises in a manner brought about by Lucifer. But if Lucifer had not influenced this daytime consciousness in the manner described, we would approach things in a completely different way. Then the experience of what we go through at night would be compatible with this approach to things. That would bring about a very significant change in everything we experience during the day.

[ 25 ] We go about our daily lives observing things and forming ideas and mental images about them. We probably also make connections, but I would say that between birth and death, it always remains the case that, fundamentally, we link one thing we have experienced during the day with another thing we have experienced during the day. If the situation were different—if our nighttime experiences were to truly flow into our daily lives—then we would connect every daytime experience with what has remained with us as a memory of our nighttime experiences.

[ 26 ] As things stand now, we encounter a person; we approach this person, and we say to ourselves: I know this person. — But why do we say that: I know this person? — For the simple reason that we have seen them before during our daytime experiences. We combine one daytime experience with another, and this expresses itself in our saying: “We know this person.” — It would be quite different if we were to bring in the nighttime experiences in the manner suggested. Then, during the day, we would know: “This or that spiritual being corresponds to him.” We would have experienced him at night; we would be able to identify him with his spiritual background; we would have interwoven his physical form with the spiritual. In this way, the whole world would become concrete to us, interwoven with the spiritual. But as it is, due to the Luciferic temptation, this cannot be. The spiritual is absent; it does not remain with us. Ahriman claims it for himself, and so it remains only within the etheric body (drawing b, page 179); it sits there within the etheric body; it does not become concrete. One does not actually see it in things. One can only say: I feel in my etheric body that this spiritual element is present as a weaving and a life force. One feels it in a general sense, but one cannot bring it up into clear perception.

[ 27 ] I hope you can see what I mean. Instead of entering the physical body—and revealing itself to us at every turn—this spiritual aspect remains stuck in the realm of the general. And we feel it within us in such a way that we can say to ourselves: The spiritual is there; it lives and weaves through the world, but it does not become concrete for us. Above all, what we experience of the spiritual in this way cannot become knowledge. It would become knowledge for us if it entered the physical body. It remains faith because it is experienced solely in the etheric body. Everything that lies in mere faith—in the rejection of concrete knowledge—stems from the fact that the human being feels quite correctly: he wants to remain within normal life; he does not want to arrive at this concretization; for he fears the possible errors.

[ 28 ] As you can see, faith is knowledge that has become stuck in the etheric body. Whereas the knowledge we possess during the day remains stuck in the astral body—that is, it is knowledge that has become stuck in the astral body at night—and thereby becomes lifeless. Living faith, which is devoid of knowledge because its knowledge is taken away by Ahriman, is what stands in opposition to faithless knowledge—the knowledge from which faith is taken away by Lucifer. So here (drawing b, page 182) we can add: Lucifer experiences Ahrimanic experiences within our “I.”

[ 29 ] I would like to summarize in these two words what might remain in your memory from these extraordinarily important reflections presented today. For it is precisely through these reflections that the influence of Ahriman and Lucifer on our lives becomes truly apparent, revealing how Lucifer and Ahriman work together to prevent us from achieving harmony between faith and knowledge, and instead create the false dichotomy of faith devoid of knowledge and knowledge devoid of faith.

[ 30 ] It is, in fact, entirely wrong to believe that we can ever escape Ahriman or Lucifer. Rather, it is true that Ahriman and Lucifer do indeed have their role to play in the world, for everything that is happening there simply had to happen; humanity had to be guided in the way that has been indicated; it had to be guided for a time by a current that then found its outlet in what was described yesterday: in knowledge that is gradually dying out. There, human beings were placed into the world in such a way that they were influenced by what is depicted here in this diagram (Figure c, page 179). And flowing toward this, as I described yesterday, is a humanity from Central Europe that was more predisposed to having developed this state of affairs (Figure b, page 182).

[ 31 ] And it is only through the interaction and harmonious blending of these two currents of humanity that a living grasp of the Christ impulse can take place.

[ 32 ] For it is also possible that, in the understanding of Christ—in the understanding of the Christ impulse—these two currents, so to speak, diverge and have no connection with one another. Let us suppose, for a moment, that this one current—as a current originating in Europe—is prone to being overwhelmed by Ahriman during the waking state. Let us assume that this current developed in a particular way and strove toward an understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha: then it developed in such a way that it rejects the facts connected with the outward events of the Mystery of Golgotha. It does not wish to pass through the physical body. Because it is overwhelmed by Ahriman, it does not wish to penetrate into a concrete grasp of this entire, great cosmic event of the descent of Christ and so on. Rather, it seeks to draw upon Jesus through the inner being of the human being, through the etheric in the human being, and thus establishes a “Jesulogy,” a science of Jesus; it rejects that which reaches out into the world from the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 33 ] This prevailing trend (Figure b) has little interest in the direct connection between the human inner being and the human being in Christ, in Jesus; rather, it focuses on what it is accustomed to focusing on: the abstract grasping of what is at work out there in the cosmos. This current strives for a Christology. That current focuses primarily on Jesus; this one primarily on Christ. The truth can only be recognized by understanding Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus as a unity, as Spiritual Science does, which seeks to overcome both one-sided views. It is equally clear to spiritual science that there is a cosmic being, the Christ, who existed outside the earthly sphere before the Mystery of Golgotha and entered the earthly sphere through the Mystery of Golgotha, thereby imparting a new impulse to the entire course of human development—so that an earthly event was prepared from within the cosmos and continues to unfold; but it is equally clear that this event is intimately connected with Jesus of Nazareth. This means that one must be clear about the fact that Christ, as he was before the Mystery of Golgotha, could not have brought that cosmic event into earthly events without the physical human body of Jesus, and that he therefore had to pass through the Mystery of Golgotha. It was necessary; it was essential that the Christ experience in Jesus what He did experience in Jesus.

[ 34 ] It is not Jesus alone, nor Christ alone, but Christ Jesus—Christ in Jesus—that matters. That is it. What happened on earth did not happen through Christ, but because Christ lived in Jesus. A mere Christology is just as impossible as a mere Jesusology; rather, the only thing possible is a Spiritual Science of Christ Jesus. For the fact of the Mystery of Golgotha is quite necessarily part of what was meant to enter into the development of the Earth.

[ 35 ] If, then, what is foreshadowed by the Mystery of Golgotha is to come to pass—that is, if a proper balance is to be established between Lucifer and Ahriman with regard to what happens in the world through human beings—then it must be understood how the two forces, Lucifer and Ahriman, interact within the human being. Human beings must consciously confront this interplay. And they do so precisely when, through Spiritual Science, they attempt to characterize these two currents and thereby find the path to Christ Jesus.

[ 36 ] This is also what is intended to be conveyed in that sculpture, which, as we may assume, will one day find its place in a prominent location in our building. The primordial human in the center, the Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces on either side. Thus, the manner of this artistic representation provides a direct expression of what is to unfold in the future of human development, in place of what unfolded in the past with regard to the Trinity—the triad: Christ—Lucifer—Ahriman. We will continue discussing this next time.