The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Eleventh Lecture

[ 1 ] Yesterday we were able to point out how the intellect—that is, everything connected with our formation of concepts and mental images—is, in a sense, detached, particularly in Western thought, from the inner source of inspiration, from the inner creative and active force, and how this leads human beings to, in what they take in as ideas and mental images, to see merely the images of something external and to fail to notice how, at the same time as these mental images and this thinking take place, something is happening within us—an inner becoming is unfolding, an inner process is taking place.

[ 2 ] And, in a sense, as the polar opposite, I already mentioned yesterday the confinement of emotional and volitional impulses back into the inner self of the human being, so that when a person feels, when they stir up volitional impulses within themselves, they are then conscious that in this feeling, in this stirring up of volitional impulses, they are entirely within themselves, dealing only with themselves, and that what plays out in the emotional and volitional impulses does not relate to anything outside in the world, in the cosmos. With our feelings, we believe, in a sense, that we are merely expressing our inner life; we believe we are experiencing something that is connected only to this inner world.

[ 3 ] I have pointed this out: it stems from the fact that certain spiritual beings from the hierarchy of the Archangels, at the time when the separation of the old Moon from the solar existence took place, did not participate in this step of separation and, in a sense, remained with the evolving solar existence. What has become of them as a result of their having remained behind the step of participating in lunar existence—they now live this out by taking part in our earthly existence. These spiritual beings permeate us, interweave with us, and, in a sense, seal off our feeling and our will from the outer cosmic world. They limit our feeling and our willing to the inner realm.

[ 4 ] Now, as you can easily see, this gives rise to a significant kind of division between one part of us—which, in a sense, wants to remain confined to ourselves, which wants to live within us only as our emotional and volitional impulses—and another part of us, which pays little attention to what it is within us and which turns much, much more toward the outside, wanting to be entirely directed outward.

[ 5 ] If we were to sketch out schematically what we have here, we might say: If this is a schematic representation of the human being, then we would first be dealing with our intellectual life (Figure I, yellow), which is directed outward, seeks to take in the external world, and does not pay attention to the fact that it radiates outward from within and continually shapes our form. In contrast, we have an element of will and feelings here within (diagram, violet), which radiate only within ourselves, and we are not aware that they now also extend out into the cosmos, that they truly carry within themselves something that originates from the cosmos just as the content of our thoughts originates from the cosmos.

[ 6 ] Now, however, there is indeed a connection within us humans between these two—one might say—centers within us. It is a connection (Drawing I, light red), but in ordinary existence, in ordinary life, this connection actually remains subconscious; it does not come to consciousness. Human beings experience their feelings and will as their inner world, and their thinking—which leads to perceptions and sensory impressions—as their outer world. Thus, in ordinary life, the connection between these two centers within us does not actually come to consciousness. As a result, a person can easily come to believe that truth is being conveyed to them from two sides—that truth, or something like truth, is being conveyed to them through observing the external world with their senses and combining those observations with their intellect, and so on.

[ 7 ] Kant examined this process of observing the external world and deriving certain conceptual frameworks based on specific observations, and in his search he found nothing that one could arrive at by extending that which seeks to move outward from a single center into the cosmos. He came to say: Yes, this (Figure I, yellow) must indeed extend outward toward a “thing-in-itself,” but it cannot be found. And on the other hand, he sensed something welling up from within the human being, something that lives in the will and in feeling. But since the connection remained unconscious to him, these were two worlds for him: the world of being and the world of ought. He felt only one thing clearly: Here one arrives at nothing. The “thing-in-itself” is unknown, shrouded in obscurity; but that which, in a sense, wells up within the human being imparts a certain inner obligation. Kant calls this the “categorical imperative,” from which he then derives all truths relating to the inner world… all higher truths of faith, as he calls them, in contrast to external truths, which, however, can convey nothing about the actual world.

[ 8 ] What we must focus on, however, is this: that human beings do not, in fact, become what they are merely through their own disposition, but rather through their entire development—which they have undergone through the Saturn, Sun, and Moon phases, has participated in the division that took place during the Moon phase, and has thereby arrived at this duality, which he must experience in a natural way.

[ 9 ] Now, if we examine this matter even more closely, we arrive at an important, a significant truth that Spiritual Science reveals to us on the basis of what has been described here. We can say: The fact that this is so with our thinking, our intellect, and our mental images is connected to the ancient separation of the Moon from the advancing Sun. The way we as human beings perceive our thinking and our mental images is connected to the fact that certain Luciferic beings from the hierarchy of the Angeloi—who did not participate in the Moon’s reconnection with the Sun—live within our intellect precisely because of what they have become, so that something Luciferic dwells in our intellect and prevents us from looking toward that which is inwardly dynamic and formative. So, in a sense, Lucifer dwells within our thinking.

[ 10 ] What, then, is the essence of this Luciferic aspect? The essence of this Luciferic aspect is that we do not perceive what is instilled in us and developed by the divinely-spiritual beings who progress in a regular manner, but rather perceive what Lucifer, so to speak, makes of this normal development. And what is it for Lucifer himself that he now carries into Earth evolution what he should have gone through during the Lunar evolution but did not, and that he, in turn, goes through in Earth evolution what he did not go through back then? What will this consist of—what he is to go through during Earth evolution? — I ask you to pay very close attention to this connection, for it is significant but difficult. So, what does Lucifer want? What do these Luciferic angelic beings within our intellect want?

[ 11 ] At that time, they did not want to take the step of uniting the Moon with the Sun. Had they taken that step back then, they would, in a sense, have correctly linked mental images and thinking with human nature. They did not do so, and thus they now contribute nothing to this process. But now, during their earthly existence, they want to do what they did not do back then: they now want to unite the intellect with the human being; they want to do during Earth’s evolution what they actually should have done on the Moon, during the Moon’s evolution. If you think this through carefully, you will understand that something immensely significant follows from this.

[ 12 ] For if we were not being led astray by Luciferic beings in the manner described, we would not relate thinking to ourselves as we do now, but rather we would look back on the development of the Moon and say: In time immemorial, our thinking sought to unite with our inner being; it sought to belong to us. — But we do not say this; instead, we say: We appropriate the thoughts of the world and now take them into ourselves. — And that is true Luciferic seduction. In the spirit of the evolving divine-spiritual beings, we would think: Out there, the sensory world spreads out just as we see it. At the very moment we now transition to thinking, we look back to the old lunar existence and trace the entire earthly sensory world back to that old lunar existence.

[ 13 ] So we would go through the following: If we were to designate this (drawing, green) as the sensory world as perceived on Earth, we would have the Earth within us—that is, the content of the Earth—and we would not, as we do now, form concepts of the content of the Earth, but rather we would say: Everything that we have as the content of the Earth, we trace back to the old lunar content; and while we perceive it through our senses, and the content of the Earth appears to us through our senses, it dawns on us how everything that lives and weaves, exists and acts and becomes on Earth appears on the basis of the old lunar existence. — It would dawn on us that there is a connection of sorts with a star that seems to have passed away, but which is still there and lives on in our world of thought. We would feel connected to the present past and would see through the Luciferic illusion, which consists in Lucifer holding up a curtain, a veil, before the radiant lunar existence, because he failed at that time to unite himself with the solar existence. And he deludes us into believing that we should take in everything we perceive—as if it were shining into us from the ancient lunar existence—that is, from the eternally new lunar existence—just as we take in the content of our thoughts, which is now established within us through our brain and rests within us as earthly human beings.

[ 14 ] So we have been cut off from that wondrous, powerful memory of our ancient lunar existence by what has happened. We do not always perceive in the background—I would say, as if shining into the back of our necks—the explanation for everything that our senses conjure up before us. We would walk through the world, our senses attuned to sensory existence, and would feel, as if shining upon the back of our necks and the tops of our heads, that ancient, ever-new lunar existence, which would offer the explanation for the real, living concepts that are cosmic and do not act upon us from external earthly things.

[ 15 ] Two worldviews are thus thrown into confusion: the earthly view and the lunar view. We would have to be able to distinguish between them—the one by directing our senses forward, the other by receiving the light from behind—and we would have to prevent these from becoming intertwined in our understanding. We cannot do this; Lucifer confuses them. He confuses our concepts, mental images, and sensory perceptions, and philosophers have long been grappling with a corresponding problem, which they call an “antinomy.”

[ 16 ] You can read about this in Kant: on the one hand, he always presents evidence—for example, that the world is infinite in space; on the other hand, he presents equally rigorous evidence that the world is not infinite in space, but rather finite. There are equally compelling proofs for both. They must exist because one view is just as true as the other. It is just that one is the earthly view, and the other is the lunar view. To those who cannot distinguish between them, they become irresolvable contradictions—contradictions that cannot be resolved at all by earthly reason.

[ 17 ] But we have seen that even older in nature are those deviations from the progressive course of world development that have been brought about by the spirits of the hierarchy of the Archangeloi, who live within our feelings and our impulses of will. We can say, then, that Lucifer, through his very existence, cuts us off from the cosmos. He allows us to feel only those feelings and impulses of will that live within us. If he did not isolate us in this way, then instead of feeling as though emotion and will were rising up from his subconscious, from within himself, human beings would perceive everything that shines into them from the cosmos during the solar era. Just as human beings should actually perceive the ancient Moon behind their ordinary sensory existence through their intellect, so too should they see the radiant World Sun rising behind their feelings and behind their impulses of will. In their feelings and in their will, they should see—like the core within a fruit—the essence of solar life shining through their feelings and their will.

[ 18 ] We are now, in turn, cut off from this in a Luciferic way. We believe that feeling and will are merely something within us; we do not, so to speak, feel within ourselves that all feelings and all will contain solar forces living within them—solar forces that are truly there. If we were to feel these solar forces, if we were truly to feel the light of the spirit shining forth in the midst of feeling and will, then we would have a vision of the cosmos precisely through this shining forth of the spirit’s light in the world within feeling and will. We would perceive the external world directly through our inner being. This has been corrupted for us by those Luciferic spirits who possess the nature of archangels and did not participate in the separation of the Moon from the Sun. It had to be restored to us through the entry of this cosmic-solar force into human evolution. This cosmic-solar force entered Earth’s evolution through the Mystery of Golgotha—that very Mystery of Golgotha whose full reality human beings must first take into themselves and experience inwardly: “Not I, but Christ in me.”

[ 19 ] And starting from there, that inner radiance and formative power takes shape within him more and more. The cosmic light, like sunlight, permeates feeling and will and unites with the intellectual, so that we attain a unified worldview by learning not merely to live with the Christ impulse in feeling and will, but to allow it to flow into the world of the intellect and the world of the imagination. So that, instead of merely looking to Christ Jesus, we truly come to have a whole cosmology—a Christ-imbued cosmos—as we learn to understand what the cosmos was before the Mystery of Golgotha, when Christ was linked to the solar forces outside the earthly realm, and what the cosmos is after the Mystery of Golgotha, since Christ is no longer separated from the Earth’s aura but continues to live within it. Only by first feeling ourselves to be one with the Christ impulse—by, so to speak, regarding this Christ impulse as the center from which, in the manner hinted at yesterday, the ever-active, eternal, and everlasting revelation can become a reality for us— only in this way do we advance more and more toward the possibility of attaining a concrete, meaningful Christianity that will then be entirely one with the content of Spiritual Science, even in a cosmological sense.

[ 20 ] Take the very essence, I would say, of Christology; take what a person actually needs to understand in order to grasp Christology. Why is it that so many people do not understand Christology? Why don’t they associate the right concepts with the mystery of Golgotha? Because people are expected to call something “reality” that they are not accustomed to calling “reality” in other contexts.

[ 21 ] In Haeckel’s books there is a sentence that goes something like this: “The Immaculate Conception is a brazen mockery of human reason.” — But why human reason? Indeed, the following sentence states: “Because in all other cases, in the animal and human kingdoms, it is evident that such a birth cannot be observed.” — This is, of course, a logical contradiction in itself. For one would have to cite a rational reason rather than an observational one. But it is precisely here that we encounter once again a fact that is such that it is incompatible with the concepts that humans derive from external reality. Everything that humans otherwise call “real” cannot, after all, be compatible with the reality of this fact—or indeed with the entire reality of the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 22 ] Human beings must therefore grasp something that contradicts their concepts of reality. Now, for those who are drawing ever closer to Spiritual Science, a path should open up to concepts that offer the possibility of understanding the mystery of Golgotha. In everyday life, and also in modern science, what is observed externally through the senses is called “real” or at least something based on the real. Real science is grounded in what is observed through the senses. However, people still strive to use it for other purposes; they also strive to understand everything in terms of what can be observed externally through the senses. Biologists strive to understand living beings, living organisms, as if they were merely a complex interplay of purely mechanical forces—that is, a complex machine—because they can regard only a machine as something real.

[ 23 ] What is actually behind this? What lies behind it is that human beings designate something as real—and indeed, throughout their entire lives, designate it as real—even though it is not real at all, even though it is not at all what it is referred to as. Stand before a corpse. Would you say: This corpse is the human being? No, this decaying corpse is not the human being; it is the disintegrating form of the human being. And so it is with all of external nature. People seek out what is dead and do not realize that everything dead is something that has died. If only we could truly find the transition from the concept of “dead nature” to the concept of “nature that has died,” if only we could truly grasp that everything dead was once alive and has died, that what we find today as rock was alive and died during the Moon era, and only became dead rock through a process similar to that of a human corpse; if we were to grasp this within living being, if we were to understand dead nature as a corpse, then we would know that what we call “being” is not something that contains being, but rather something from which being has actually already fled. This is infinitely important. People do not realize that they cling to the dead without understanding that it is something that has died; and they do not understand that they should not comprehend the living through the dead.

[ 24 ] When people look at a living organism that has not yet died but lives before their eyes, and reduce it to a mechanism that is merely a reflection of what is dead, they seek to understand and explain the living from the dead. This is the ideal, the goal of the entire modern worldview: to understand the living through the dead. Spiritual Science must strive—strive earnestly—to replace an understanding based on the dead with an understanding based on the living. The entire direction of modern science must disappear, because it aims solely at understanding the living through the dead—not merely through the dead and inorganic, but through the dead. This entire branch of science must disappear. In its place must come an understanding of the world from within the living. And it must be understood that everything in the present that is non-living and inorganic was once living in the past.

[ 25 ] If we were not seduced by Lucifer, if we could see beyond our sensory perceptions to that which was previously described as the lunar existence lying behind them, then we would understand: there lies the corpse of that which still appears to us from the old Moon. Just as, when we look upon the corpse of a human being, we recall what he was like in life, what he was once like when he lived among us, walked before us, and spoke to us—so, when we look upon the Earth, we would look back upon what she was like when she was still alive during the old lunar existence.

[ 26 ] That we may thus be led out of death into life—this must be the aim of Spiritual Science; this must be a living, honest goal, even if it is difficult to attain; for everything that exists in our modern science as a worldview, as a worldview atmosphere, is entirely alien to and hostile toward this goal. We really must not delude ourselves into thinking otherwise: everything that exists in modern science as a worldview or a worldview-like atmosphere is entirely opposed to this goal.

[ 27 ] It will be incredibly difficult to replace the dead worldview with a living one. But once we have living concepts, we will no longer, with these living concepts, lack an understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha. Then we will know that whatever is subject to death at all originates from the lunar existence, whereas Christ belongs to the solar existence. He has preserved Himself in order to bring back to us that which is solar. He has nothing to do with all those concepts that are dead concepts; rather, He will replace the dead concepts with living ones. Therefore, it is necessary to connect with him in a living way, not through a dead science. Therefore, it is necessary to realize that only under very special, abnormal circumstances could that which cannot die, that which cannot become dead, enter into an earthly course.

[ 28 ] If you study the special connection that existed for three years between the Christ-Essence and the body of Jesus of Nazareth, you will come to realize that, in fact, within these various members—which were united through the union of the two Jesus boys— —as I have already hinted at in other lectures—something very special was created: something that, during these three years, made this entire body different from an ordinary human body. An ordinary human body is truly not the same as this body. Already through the special nature of its connection with the Zarathustra being, this body was, throughout those three years, something other than what earthly bodies are. When the Earth began to repeat the lunar existence, what remained behind—as I have explained—was that essential substance which then manifested through the Luke Jesus-child and the Nathan Jesus-child: something that had not passed into death and that preserved itself through the illusion of earthly death, which was cast over Christ Jesus in the course of his earthly manifestations. This was present in Christ Jesus and guided him through these three years in a different way, and through death—through the illusion of death—in a different way than other human beings.

[ 29 ] This extraordinary central phenomenon of earthly evolution, however, must be understood—truly grasped—in such a way that it stands apart from everything that derives solely from the lunar existence; it must be understood that it is intimately connected with the solar existence, which continues to exert its influence in a regular manner. Therefore, after the Mystery of Golgotha has been accomplished, this Christ-being can also have no connection whatsoever with anything that derives solely from the lunar existence—specifically, from the lunar existence in such a way that, at that very time, the separation of the Moon from the Sun occurred, and during this separation a number of Luciferic beings brought about the separation, but not the subsequent reunification.

[ 30 ] Of all that exists within the Earth as a result of this aberration of the Luciferic spirits, the Christ-being remains completely untouched. It would be immediately affected by it if it were to incarnate in an ordinary human body. It could therefore only be physically present on Earth under these special, abnormal conditions, which are not governed by the ordinary laws of the Earth. And once it had taken possession of the earthly body through the Mystery of Golgotha, it now exists spiritually on Earth and is not subject to those laws that entered earthly existence through the lunar evolution. These are, in particular, the laws of space and time.

[ 31 ] So, space and time: I have already hinted at this in *The Secret Science*—and you will find the hint in the relevant passage of *The Secret Science*—that it is difficult to create a mental image of the ancient Saturn and Sun stages of existence, because one must still leave the concepts of space and time out of the picture; for what one imagines as the concepts of space and time in relation to this ancient existence is only similar, only like an image, and does not yet correspond to reality. In the case of the lunar existence, the image only begins to correspond to reality to some extent when one creates a mental image of it in terms of space and time. For the earlier stages of development, this mental image is not yet applicable. But what enters into space and time through the Christ is not bound by the laws of space and time either. Therefore, from the perspective of a true Spiritual Science, it would be the greatest conceivable nonsense to have a mental image of the Christ, as he is now united with earthly existence, appearing before humanity in a single human being who is spatially limited. It would be the greatest misunderstanding of Christ to claim that a reincarnation of Christ could occur in the present age, and that Christ, for example, if he wished to speak to a person in Europe in the future and then to a person in America, would have to board a train and then a steamship to travel from Europe to America. That will never be the case. He will always be transcendent of the laws of space and time. And we must also have in our mental image his appearance in the 20th century in such a way that he is transcendent of the laws of space and time. The Christ, properly understood, will never be able to be embodied in a single human being.

[ 32 ] Thus, wherever it is claimed that there could ever be a human reincarnation of Jesus Christ, this is—or rather, it is—a slap in the face of true Spiritual Science. This also demonstrates that Christology—that is, what Christ truly is—has nothing to do with any divisions among individuals or humanity.

[ 33 ] We see a path opening up here through which the cosmic, the solar, can once again enter into all of humanity; how the solar element lost through Lucifer rises again in feeling and will; how it rises once more through Christ in this feeling and will; and how, from there, it can take hold of our intellect. This is the path that all spiritual understanding of the world must take in the future. But there will still be many deviations for a long time to come, for—as I have often emphasized—only slowly and gradually can the mystery of Golgotha, in all its depths, become woven into the entire course of human development. This can happen only very slowly and gradually. And as it unfolds little by little, it will increasingly create harmony between a person’s intellect and their feelings and will. This will increasingly fill the human being with an inner self, with a second self.

[ 34 ] Just as a human being is without this fulfillment through the Christ impulse, so too—with regard to the human head—I would say that the inner being is veiled. When one feels the head, one already has a headache. The inner being is, I would say, physically completely veiled with regard to the head. We carry our head with us without actually feeling it in everyday life; we use it to cram in impressions from the outside. The other aspect of the human being—which is at the same time the seat of the lower world of desires—is within us; it initially takes in nothing from the outside and lives within itself. And the Yahweh deity has enveloped, within a system of laws that remains unconscious to human beings, everything that lives down there within the human being as the sum of the world of desires, so that the Luciferic rumblings of egoism do not become too great. Through Lucifer, we would truly be predisposed, as earthly human beings, to use our lower nature—which is independent of the intellect—solely for our own sake. We would not develop a single altruistic impulse, but only selfish ones. There would be no natural inclination toward love in the world. Human beings would use the impulses that dwell in their lower nature solely to assert themselves in the world, to put themselves on display. Therefore, this lower nature has been tempered and subdued by the Yahweh deity.

[ 35 ] The Yahweh deity himself dwells within this lower nature and implants within it the instincts of love and altruism, but in a way that is more or less unconscious to ordinary human life. These instincts are to become conscious again through the impulse of the Mystery of Golgotha. But within this entire unconscious realm of instincts, I would say, there is a duality hidden. First, there remains the connection between the intellectual, the conceptual, and this realm of instincts in the subconscious. Yet it does have an effect, a genuine effect, and it exerts this effect through what I have already explained on several occasions.

[ 36 ] This entire world of instincts—which is, in fact, a selfish world of instincts unique to human beings—can, in a sense, emancipate itself from the Yahweh deity that dwells within it. Then it works its way upward; but unconsciously, without the human being realizing it, it forces its way through and permeates the world of the imagination with its imaginative images. The human being becomes, as is often said, clairvoyant—that is, he has visions. He experiences everything that is in his world of instincts as imaginative images. In truth, he is actually experiencing only his world of instincts; this presents itself to him as an imaginative world. But since, in this entire world of instincts as we know it, the cosmos itself lives—though veiled from human perception—the imaginations that rise from his world of instincts like a mist deceive him into perceiving an entire cosmos. He can now experience an entire cosmos, which, however, consists of nothing other than the fire of the lower instincts burning down below, this fire then rising up, and a cosmos thus arising here above, in the intellectual system. This is essentially the process of self-mediumship. The medium, who becomes a medium through his or her own desires, is subject to these processes. Such mediums are usually very proud of their imaginations. They look down haughtily upon those who have no imaginations; whereas those who have no imaginations can often see very clearly that such imaginings—which are sometimes described to them as wondrous formations—are nothing other than what simmers and bubbles in the instincts and digestive processes, straying upward as cosmic formations as they rise up into the world of the imagination and take shape as cosmic illusions, playing themselves out in them.

[ 37 ] But what stems from this ambivalence of human nature can also manifest itself in another way. For let us suppose that a second human being were to encounter the first—a second human being who, as a human being, would naturally be constituted in such a way that he possesses within himself the inner nature of will and feelings that conceals the cosmos, as well as the intellectuality that conceals his own inner self (Figure II, Human Being). Now let us suppose that such a second human being, through certain processes—which we will discuss further on—were to attain a greater or lesser degree of consciousness. — So here we would have Human Being I (Figure p. 215), and Human Being II (Figure $5. 229) would come to gain an awareness of these connections. Now let us assume that this Human Being II were not inclined to use everything that becomes accessible to him through such consciousness in the pure sense of universal Spiritual Science, nor in the pure sense of Christianized Spiritual Science, but rather that he had his own specific purposes in the world; let us assume that this human being belonged to a region of the Earth that had developed a particular worldview in the course of historical evolution, and that this human being had become deeply rooted in this worldview within that region; let us also assume that he now had specific, selfish reasons for promoting this worldview very intensively in the world. The true occultist, after all, has no other desire than to promote that which can be for the benefit of all people; he has no desire for domination. But let us assume that such a person II had such a desire for domination and felt the need to extend what is the worldview of a limited territory to rule over other territories. If he were simply to go there and, in his own way, advocate the worldview he wishes to impose, the following would occur: Some will believe him; others will not. Those who hold a different view will not believe him and will reject him. We know from experience how European missionaries are often rejected by other peoples when they tell people things they do not understand or have no intention of understanding. This could also happen to Person II. But he can take a different path. Because he is aware of this entire process, he has the power to influence another—for example, Person I (Figure $. 215)—and if he now acts not merely through his intellect but through his entire personality, he can influence the other’s intellect.

[ 38 ] If the other person is so disposed that he possesses a mediumistic quality, that is, if they are capable of absorbing something without relating to it in the usual way—so that they simply accept it as truth because it is presented to them by the second person—then what the second person holds as a worldview flows from the second into the first, and the first person allows it to pass through their uncorrupted intellect. If the first person then steps before humanity, what is meant to come to light emerges in an entirely different way. In the case of Person II, people would notice: He represents only himself in the world, and he has the power to clothe what rises up from within him in an intellectual system, for he simultaneously possesses within himself what he gives of himself as his own property. The “I” of Human Being I does not possess it as his own property, but rather takes it in from the other as something objective and, using his intellect—precisely because he does not possess it as something personal—presents it in such a way that it takes on more of a universal character. From the uncorrupted intellect of Human Being I, it appears as if it were something universal.

[ 39 ] Here you have the fact that one-sided messages are being spread throughout the world by a certain gray or black faction. These messages are not disseminated in such a way that the spiritual scientists in question—who are one-sidedly gray or black—step forward and present their views; rather, they instill them into a mediumistic personality. Such a person takes them on, passes them on, and allows them to influence other people through their intellect. Therefore, such esoteric scholars, who appear gray or black, often remain in the background as Mahatmas, and those who appear in the world speak of the Mahatma standing behind them and proclaim what they proclaim as a message from the Mahatma.

[ 40 ] This phenomenon leads us to many things that, one might say, happened in a terrible, psychologically tragic way to poor Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, who was, in the most eminent sense, a mediumistic personality whose intellect was never suited to to scrutinize what had been passed down to her by individuals who were not always honest, but who were able to work through Blavatsky and who cobbled together material that was not always flawless—material they cobbled together in a self-serving manner through Blavatsky’s mediumistic intellect into something that then had a suggestive effect on people. For those, however, who wish to stand honestly on the ground of Spiritual Science, very specific rules and very specific guidelines for conduct flow from this.

[ 41 ] From everything that has now been discussed, you can see that one principle must apply under all circumstances when it comes to the dissemination of Spiritual Science. Of course, everything that enters the world through any form of mediumship is interesting and significant, for it naturally comes from another world. But it must never be accepted at face value. Otherwise, humanity will suffer the same fate it did with the entire development of spiritualism in the second half of the 19th century.

[ 42 ] All this spiritualism in the second half of the 19th century was, essentially, an endeavor undertaken by a certain group to test people and see to what extent they were ready to recognize that a spiritual world exists around them—not just the material, sensory world that people perceive with their senses, and whose sole existence was so widely propagated by the modern materialistic worldview of the 19th century under Ahrimanic influence.

[ 43 ] As early as the mid-19th century, it was indeed a major question among occultists whether they, for their part, should offer any counterarguments to this entire spiritualist movement. At that time, it was decided not to oppose it at first, because it was expected—though this was a short-sighted view—that when people saw all sorts of things coming to light from the spiritual world through the medium, they would first and foremost come to realize that there are indeed things and forces in the world that act from one to another in a spiritual way. Instead, the entire spiritualist movement veered into a very selfish, materialistic direction. The mediums generally claimed everywhere that they were in contact with this or that deceased person. Through this, they brought all sorts of things to light by saying: this or that soul, who died here or there, is communicating one thing or another through the medium. Certainly, they did bring some things to light. But in the vast, vast majority of cases, there was a colossal error underlying it all. This error consisted in the fact that, if we have in our minds the mental image of the medium as Person I here (see diagram), we must imagine the experimenter or hypnotist—that is, the one who arranged everything—as Person II

[ 44 ] Now, in every human being, as long as they live here, there is already within them that which constitutes all their deadness. But it rumbles deep within; during waking daily life, it rumbles deep within the sensory perceptions. The dead human being rumbles deep within the sensory perceptions. Now imagine: the medium is there, and the experimenter is there as well. The experimenter actually transmits what pulsates within his own sensory perceptions and, often, his base instincts—and what will then come to light once he himself is dead—to the medium or to whatever else manifests itself during the sessions. There may be truths contained therein; but one must understand the entire context of what is coming to light; one must not listen to the medium when it explains that what is coming—what is revealed to it—are messages from the deceased.

[ 45 ] The people who did not immediately oppose spiritualism told themselves: We’ll see what this is all about. They actually wanted to promote the influence of the living on the medium—that which lives within the living, that which lives within the embodied human being—they wanted to see that fostered. The mediums completely misunderstood this; they always believed they were in contact with the dead. Thus we see how mediumship does indeed create a connection with the other world, but it is a deceptive connection. Lucifer is not, as it were, removed from the path of normality toward mediumship; rather, he is drawn even deeper into it, and the deception becomes even greater. What is within is not detached and dispersed into the cosmic realm; rather, what is within rises as a mist into the world of the imagination and becomes an imaginative world. What is thus within a person may originate from the person themselves or arise within them through the influence of another person.

[ 46 ] From this, however, an infinitely significant and important law will follow for the dissemination of spiritual scientific truths and for working within the spiritual scientific movement: one must bear in mind that any direct belief in a person’s authority must diminish in proportion to the extent to which that person takes on traits of mediumship, the more that person exhibits the characteristics of a medium. The more such a person comes to say, “I have received this or that as an impression here or there”—and is not present with their fully conscious reason during this reception and cannot examine the things—the less authority mediumship itself must confer.

[ 47 ] Therefore, when H.P. Blavatsky introduced certain teachings to the world, one should have rightly said: This individual exhibits strong traits of mediumship; therefore, it is impossible to attribute any authority to her, or at least it is only possible to attribute such authority to her to a very limited degree. Authority would have to diminish to the extent that the individual exhibits traits of mediumship.

[ 48 ] Likewise, it is—I would say—an axiom in the dissemination of truths from Spiritual Science that, when these truths are published, there is never any reference whatsoever to unnamed Masters or Mahatmas. Behind such a movement there may be as many unnamed beings and personalities as there can possibly be; what is significant as emanating from such entities has meaning only in connection with the one who stands directly before them. It is now up to him to believe in them or not to believe in them; it is up to him to test their trustworthiness. But it can never be his business, in what he publicly disseminates, to refer in any way to the fact that he received it from unnamed Masters or Mahatmas. The moment it comes to the public dissemination of a teaching—not when, for example, in a small circle, one simply says, “This or that has been communicated to me, and I believe it”; those are matters that pass from one person to another, and that is something else—but the moment it becomes a matter of representing a teaching before the world, the one who represents it must take responsibility for it. And only the one who, through the nature of his being, makes it clear that he does not invoke untrue or unknown Mahatmas when he wishes to justify what he teaches—but rather makes it understandable and vivid that he, as a personality standing as he is on the physical plane, stands up for his teaching through himself with full responsibility—that person lives up to his full duty. And whoever is unable to do so may then invoke the name of one who can be identified by name on the physical plane or, if he has already died, can be found among the deceased through historical records.

[ 49 ] For the transmission of the teachings, it is therefore quite important that the person who conveys the teachings from the sources assume full responsibility for them through his own personality—as it exists in the physical world—and that he not invoke unknown masters. And whoever disseminates the teachings further may also refer only to physical personalities who, in turn, as physical personalities, are willing to assume full responsibility for the teachings. This creates a clear path for the dissemination of the teachings to a wider audience, but closes the door to all that is unnamed and to all insinuations. Anyone who claims to have received this or that from here or there—from unknown masters or the deceased—thereby indulging in their own arrogance, to whom the door is closed. For the dissemination of Spiritual Science hinges on knowing the path of trust that leads back to its origins.

[ 50 ] Therefore, it was nonsense within the so-called Theosophical Society when people began to attribute certain Society events to the utterances of unknown Mahatmas. That should never have happened. A physical personality must take responsibility for whatever happens and is disseminated on the physical plane—and this applies equally to the dissemination of teachings. Anyone who disseminates the teachings of others must likewise demonstrate that they do not rely on any unknown powers or influences that have come about through mediumistic channels, but rather on historical or living personalities, that is, on those who oversee the entire process of spiritual truths entering the physical world, who in turn assume full responsibility for their teachings and also demonstrate through their conduct that they are assuming that responsibility. That is what matters most of all. The latter is what matters most of all.

[ 51 ] These are two very important rules. The first is that we must be aware of how authority diminishes when mediumship is involved in the communication of messages from prominent figures, and the second is that responsibility must never be shifted to beings who are presented to the world as unknown. One can, of course, speak of such unknown beings, but one must not invoke them as authorities. That is a major difference.

[ 52 ] I simply wanted to present these points to you today, because it is important to properly grasp the entire spirit and essence of how Spiritual Science endeavor should live within us. After all, one must stand within the entire Spiritual Science movement in the right way. Otherwise, this Spiritual Science movement will be infinitely harmed precisely because it is conflated with references to all sorts of Mahatma beings and the like lurking somewhere in the background. All that which—I would say—is so readily shrouded, as it were, in a magical aura of mystery that essentially springs from sensual impulses by those who are part of the Spiritual Science movement—all of that must gradually be removed from this Spiritual Science movement; otherwise, we will not truly make progress in the field of Spiritual Science.

[ 53 ] If every time pathological gastric juice comes into contact with the stomach walls, it triggers an impulse that rises up into the intellect and manifests there in the form of an image of an angel, and the person in question then tells his fellow human beings about this angel, then this can, of course, be a very beautiful story. But what is instigated by this is nothing but harm—infinite harm to a movement of Spiritual Science. For that is the significant aspect of these things: they cause harm not only through what is said about them, but also through what they are; for they are, after all, realities. The moment one dresses them in a false guise, one allows them to appear before the world in a false form.

[ 54 ] Of course, no one would make a particular impression if they said: “Hey, I’ve had something going on in my stomach. The way my sick gastric juices hit the stomach walls appeared to me as an angel.” — Anyone who said that would not make a particular impression on those around them. But if they omit the first part, then they make a special impression. It is extremely important to be fully aware of the possibility that such things can happen. Of course, one cannot readily distinguish everywhere between what is true imagination and what is merely false imagination. But it is also not necessary to immediately share one’s imaginings with others. This is precisely what must be taken into account. It is absolutely necessary—truly and earnestly necessary—that we come to reflect on how the worldview of Spiritual Science must be disseminated throughout the world. Isn’t it true that up to now—and perhaps continuing into the future—we have had the instrument of our Anthroposophical Society, the Society itself? But we really must view this Anthroposophical Society—or, in a broader sense, our participation in the Spiritual Science movement—in such a way that we reflect on how this Society, or this participation in the Spiritual Science movement, serves as an instrument for something that is to take place spiritually throughout the entire evolution of the Earth.

[ 55 ] You see, my dear friends, it happens all too often that people become members of the Anthroposophical Society, but then carry all their various habits, all their inclinations, sympathies, and antipathies—which they would have even if they were not members—into the Society and continue to act on them there. It is certainly necessary to reflect on this. That is why today I have chosen something quite obvious and real as the subject of my reflections, namely the reality of how it is possible for charlatans to emerge who wish to propagate some one-sided worldview and make use of a mediumistic personality to bring this one-sided worldview into the world. Just as the person who took the place of Master Koot Hoomi stands out as a fraud and implanted a one-sided worldview into Blavatsky, so it was possible that people failed to realize that behind her stood a gray magician who was in the pay of a narrowly defined human society and sought to propagate a specific human worldview.

[ 56 ] This is something very, very real that shows us how we must be truly careful when it comes to nurturing and cultivating this noble asset of Spiritual Science, which is so necessary for humanity; how we must truly, down to the innermost fibers of our being, one can only say, strive for honesty—of course, mistakes can happen—but one must also truly strive for the purest honesty; one must not, out of convenience, be quickly satisfied with simply believing in someone who gives one something valuable, but must truly examine every step; examine everything that comes into consideration. That is necessary, to begin with. So it is something real that is flowing into humanity through the Spiritual Science—truly not a mere theory, but something real that is flowing into the development of humanity through the spiritual-scientific worldview movement.

[ 57 ] Therefore, we must realize that we need to relate to the Earth in a different way than we normally do if we do not become part of such a movement of Spiritual Science.

---

[ 58 ] Therefore, we must realize that we need to relate to the Earth in a different way than we normally do if we do not become part of such a movement of Spiritual Science. Various things have come to light that show it must indeed be emphasized again and again that such an awareness must arise, and I ask you most earnestly, my dear friends, to regard what I say in an entirely impersonal way; do not interpret it in such a way that you are left believing afterward that what I say applies only to one person or another. Unfortunately, it has already happened that people have said, “He wanted to target this or that person.” I never intend to target any individual; I always speak in impersonal terms. So please do not take this personally in any way. But please also do not take it the other way—as has often happened—in which no one applies it to themselves, but rather always applies it only to others. It has happened much, much more frequently that what was said was not applied to oneself, but always to others, so that it is always the other person whom I am describing.

[ 59 ] Much has come to light, my dear friends, in the years leading up to our construction project, and much has also come to light during the work on our building. With great gratitude, it must be said that the vast majority of our friends working on the construction are truly working with heartfelt selflessness and sincere dedication, and that already in the souls and spirits of these dear friends who are working, the principle lives that must absolutely live within us in such an endeavor: that it must be just as dear to us in the deepest and most sincere part of our souls when another does something as when we do it ourselves. As long as we are not imbued with the principle that it is just as dear to us when another does something as when we do it ourselves, we do not have the right attitude toward the cause. But I do not mean this, my dear friends, in the way it is understood in ordinary, external life—that one lets others work while one prefers to laze about. You will surely understand this. It is said from the perspective that, when we carry out our work in the spirit of Spiritual Science, we must fundamentally keep in mind that we regard so-called “menial work”—which is already an impossible term among us —that we consider the “lesser” work just as important as the seemingly greatest, most comprehensive, and most spiritual work; that we truly regard every task as equal, as fitting into the organism of the entire work; and that we must be far from ever feeling that we envy another in any way or wish to have their work instead of our own, and everything else connected with that. Among the vast majority of our working friends here, such an anthroposophical consciousness is indeed truly present, and of course such a proper consciousness was always present as well when we were not yet compelled to take on certain things that need not be taken on when one simply exists as a society and does not yet have a common task where everyone must work side by side. Much more serious conflicts arise in life when one person has to work side by side with another; then, my dear friends, things come to light that simply must be mentioned. Let me say it once more: There is not the slightest hint of any personal bias in what I am saying. But it must not and should not happen among us, in our work, that one person speaks disparagingly about another’s work, that one person is dissatisfied with another’s work in any way—dissatisfied out of feelings and emotions. At most, one may hold the view that one should help to improve something. But saying something disparaging about anything any of us does—that should not be our way. Saying something disparaging just for the sake of saying it, expressing dissatisfaction with another’s work—that is something we should overcome in every way; that is something we should put aside.

[ 60 ] Much depends on what I am addressing here. It is certainly not all that common, but there is, after all, good reason to give such matters serious thought and to consult with one another on how certain things in this area can still be improved. For I can assure you: Our society cannot flourish or move forward if I myself am compelled to listen time and again to complaints that one member has against another. We would certainly need a very large coffin if our movement were to be laid to rest; but every time a complaint about one of our members is brought to my attention, it is another nail in the coffin of our Spiritual Science movement. And I am the least qualified to make peace or to look to what is called “justice,” for, of course, when two people argue, each is right, and neither will readily acknowledge that the other might also be right. It really cannot be a matter of bringing personal issues between members into Spiritual Science in any way. Much, much would change if we could only find a way to recognize the following principle as our highest principle: By joining our society—or by becoming part of our Spiritual Science movement at all—a person commits to something that exists solely within this Spiritual Science movement. Therefore, we do not simply greet them as we would otherwise greet anyone coming toward us—by giving free rein to our sympathies and antipathies—but we greet them under all circumstances as a member of our society. The fact that they profess the worldview of Spiritual Science should mean something to us and should be our primary consideration. It is a great mistake to allow the customs that otherwise exist in the world—and which give rise to sympathies and antipathies—to be brought into our society, or for rivalries to arise here as they do outside. These rivalries are certainly understandable. But if someone comes to me and says, “This or that has happened to so-and-so again, and I can’t agree with that”—well, that person could answer their own question, and the answer is simply this: Do we really have to agree with everything? Isn’t it possible to live without agreeing with everything that people working alongside us do? That’s a perfectly obvious answer. Surely no one in the world can demand that you agree with everything another person does, or that you regard what they do as inferior.

[ 61 ] I am alluding to many things by hinting at such matters. But it is absolutely essential that we truly regard those who belong to our society and strive in the same direction as we do as being close to us. Let us never forget that. For only in this way will cliques—which arise today and vanish tomorrow, with the side effect that those outside these cliques are always in the wrong—never form.

[ 62 ] Do not think, my dear friends, that it is very easy for me to say these things. It is not impossible that, after the war, something entirely different will have to take the place of society if certain things do not come to an end. And you will understand that, for the sake of society’s continued existence, such matters must be addressed. One must truly set aside what one feels as a personal preference and strive to honestly acknowledge that the cause takes precedence over what, in everyday life, we call sympathy and antipathy. |

[ 63 ] Just see for yourself the following: If, whenever you feel your anger rising toward a fellow human being, you can swallow that anger just a few times—instead of immediately lashing out—you will notice that you have made a little progress in applying the principle of putting the matter above personal feelings; convince yourself by making the appropriate attempt. Then there can be nothing untrue about our movement. One cannot be untrue in regard to what one says and in regard to what one does. If it were to become common practice to introduce a great deal of untruth into the movement, it would simply have to cease; it could not continue to exist. If a person comes to me and says something about another person that he will retract tomorrow, if he treats that person today in a completely different way than he did three months ago, simply because it stems from his likes and dislikes, then that is something that, as a force, is incompatible with the absolutely necessary love of truth, with the reign of the principle of truth that must exist among us today.

[ 64 ] I hope, my dear friends, that you will truly take these matters entirely impersonally and, especially in light of the profound truths I have shared today, give them careful consideration, so that perhaps in the future—because untruth prevails in our society due to whims, sympathies, and antipathies— it might one day become necessary to consider what other form of cooperation to choose as an instrument for the worldview of Spiritual Science in place of our Society.