The Rudolf Steiner Archive

3. A Glimpse into the Deeper Forces of History

[ 1 ] Today I have been asked to discuss some historical matters from a certain perspective of Spiritual Science. Since only a brief overview of all these matters can be provided, I must ask you to bear in mind that, of course, when certain descriptions—let us say, those arising from the movements of the spirit—are presented, and must be presented as they are here, they can only shed light on this or that historical event; it is not possible to speak of causes and effects in the same immediate sense as one is accustomed to in external history. After all, through our Spiritual Science we must already have become acquainted with the idea that behind everything that happens in the world there are spiritual forces, spiritual intentions, and spiritual goals.

[ 2 ] When one views history in this way from the outside, it naturally provides, so to speak, only the external historical mechanism for what weaves and lives within it as spiritual intentions and spiritual goals. A perspective trained in the Spiritual Science then perceives more directly the spiritual currents and spiritual processes that lie behind it. But one must not, for that reason, immediately see in what is described here something that would lead one to say: the person who has analyzed these things intends, for example, to derive the historical events directly from what he has described. That is not the case; rather, as I said, the aim is merely to shed some light on the deeper forces that one cannot see either when one describes the material historical facts in a purely external way, nor when one describes such facts as I will describe them today. But when one then brings both together, one does indeed gain a picture of what is actually happening in the world.

[ 3 ] I must refer here to a figure whose name is, of course, familiar to all of you: H. P. Blavatsky, You all know this H. P. Blavatsky, who lived as a person with a particularly psychic disposition at a time when materialism was at its peak in the outer world; she stands out in a very unique way within this spiritual movement of the second half of the nineteenth century. As I said, she represents a psychic personality in the most eminent sense, set within the entire material framework on which everything considered “science” in the second half of the nineteenth century was more or less dependent. Now, H.P. Blavatsky was not a personality whom one could describe, in the ordinary sense, as a medium, but rather a psychic personality who was, in the deepest sense, very, very remarkable. If one wishes to understand her fully—or at least to a high degree—one must consider the milieu from which she emerged. She emerged from the Russian milieu, from the Russian way in which the spiritual and the physical can interact within a single body—a body that is not normal, but rather entirely abnormal. And in this context, one must take into account the extent to which, by virtue of its national character, the Russian people differ from the Central and Western peoples of Europe. The Central and Western European peoples are, after all, the continuers and, in a certain sense, also the creative reshapers of the culture that emerged from the fourth post-Atlantean, the Greco-Latin cultural epoch. What was lived during this Greco-Latin cultural epoch is continued by Central and Western Europe. This can only be continued—and could only be continued—because in Western and Central Europe, the physical bodies in particular developed into special instruments for spiritual activity, for thinking, feeling, and willing. What thinking, feeling, and willing were able to accomplish through the instrument of the physical body was to be brought to the fore primarily in Western and Central Europe. The situation is different in Eastern Europe among the Slavic peoples, and especially among the Russian people. One might say: the kind of mechanization of the physical body that occurs in Western and Central Europe simply cannot take place among the Russian people—at least not to the extent that this people remains true to its national character. One cannot understand the Russian people at all through Western European science if one truly wishes to understand them. One can only understand it if one knows that there is an etheric body. For the very characteristic of Russian folk culture lies in the fact that the most important activity of life does not enter the physical body in the same way as in Western and Central Europe, but rather takes place more in the etheric body and does not penetrate the physical body to nearly the same extent. In Russian national character, the etheric body has a much, much greater significance than it currently has in the national character of Western and Central Europe—and also in that of the American people; this is especially true of the latter. Consequently, within Russian folklore—the folklore of the people, not of the ruling circles—a directly strong “I” can never develop to the same degree as is the case with people in Western and Central Europe; rather, the “I” will always be present with a certain dreamlike veil, will always have something dreamlike about it. For just as the “I” still lives within human beings in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, so is it conditioned by the particular development of the physical body described above. During this fifth post-Atlantean epoch, Russian folk culture is not even meant to reach the point of directly developing the “I” as such. It is not meant to imprint itself into the physical body through what lives and weaves within the etheric body. Of course, words always distort things a little, because our words are not yet suited to the spiritual. When one says “dreamlike,” a materialist might naturally object, arguing that people do not dream at all, and so on. But these are all external objections that have nothing to do with the actual process as it really unfolds.

[ 4 ] Therefore, one can say that what is inherent in this Russian folklore as folklore cannot yet manifest itself outwardly at all; that, for the time being, what is imposed on this Russian folklore from the outside causes its characteristics to be put into action and developed in ways that are sometimes completely opposite to what they actually are. H. P. Blavatsky emerged to a large extent from this Russian folk spirit. This makes it understandable that, in her case, the etheric body, in its activity, overwhelmingly dominated all physical activity—insofar as it was an activity of cognition. We therefore essentially have in H. P. Blavatsky a personality who can experience much—infinitely much—in her etheric body. This is, of course, something entirely different from what one can experience through thinking and cognition with the aid of the brain. She can thus—I would say—simply by virtue of having grown out of Russian folklore, experience the infinite in her etheric body. But this is linked to the fact that she lacked the qualities—and she did indeed lack them—that a Western European simply cannot do without if he is to have received any revelation from the spiritual worlds. Blavatsky lacked any ability to think logically, to group her insights logically, or to state two things in succession in such a way that one followed from the other; so that when it comes to what she produced through her inner visions in the etheric body—if one wishes to translate them into what we, as Western and Central Europeans, take for granted—one always has the feeling that a millwheel is actually turning in one’s head. One must indeed be averse to a certain kind of serious thinking if one refuses to acknowledge that, when it comes to what Blavatsky produced, a millwheel is turning in one’s head. But that does not prevent what penetrated her through her etheric body—what manifested in her in a disorderly manner through her etheric faculty of perception—from naturally containing significant revelations from the spiritual world. One must simply maintain a critical perspective; one must be able to take things as they are—namely, without reading them as one would a scientific or any other book that occupies a normal place in our intellectual life today.

[ 5 ] So it was precisely during a time when humanity, I would say, was supposed to be going through a period of extreme materialism that such a personality existed. We are simply faced with a fact: there is a personality who emerged from Eastern European folk culture, but who, in her hereditary lineage, in her blood, still possessed—I would say—a touch of Central European character—which is, after all, very easy to trace in her ancestry. So that was already present, but overwhelmed by the Eastern European element, which in Central Europe leads to a logical nature, and which leads in particular to the initiative of the will—something the Russian, as a member of his people, simply does not possess. — Well, what has happened? If we were to summarize these two extreme poles, so to speak, we could say: What has happened most recently—after all, we have nothing but English books by Blavatsky—is that whatever could emerge from Blavatsky’s etheric body by virtue of its roots in Russian culture has been framed by the English spirit, by English culture, and appears in Blavatsky’s books as a product of English interpretation. That is how it stands. What is important, however, is everything that happened in between.

[ 6 ] To understand what happened in the meantime, one must realize that in Western Europe—particularly stemming from the British character—extensive work in the occult sciences has always existed. Insofar as one can actually speak of English history, extensive work in the occult has always been present. Throughout the entire development of its spiritual culture, Central Europe has, in fact, never really grasped just how profoundly occult principles and occult practices have always emanated from the British Isles and spread throughout Western Europe, as well as Southern Europe and so on. Now, if one wishes to understand how things actually stand, one must take a closer look at this occultism, which is specifically British in character. So this British-influenced occultism certainly exists. What people know superficially about various high-degree orders of Scottish Rite Freemasonry and so on is actually only the outward appearance presented to the world. But behind these outward appearances there are indeed occult schools operating on a truly comprehensive scale, and these occult schools have incorporated the ancient occult traditions and currents to a much greater extent than is the case in Central Europe. In Central Europe—as you have already seen from my various public lectures—people strive more, and have had to strive more, to ascend from their own spirituality to spiritual knowledge, to a knowledge of the spiritual worlds. There, they have relied less on what has been handed down from other sources, namely from older occult schools. We can go back centuries, specifically to the beginning of the seventeenth century, and there we find—particularly in England, Scotland, and Ireland (less so in Ireland, but especially in Scotland)—such occult communities that have preserved within themselves what constituted occult knowledge in the most ancient times, though they have, in a certain way, transformed it.

[ 7 ] If one wishes to truly understand the reason for this transformation, one must realize that the fourth post-Atlantean epoch—which encompassed Greek and Roman civilization and so on, and actually lasted until the beginning of the fifteenth century—had to process, in a purely human way, what had existed in earlier epochs as spiritual revelation: What humanity had received in revelations was to be spiritually processed during this fourth epoch. Then came the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, which begins precisely at the start of the fifteenth century. During this time, humanity was to direct its gaze more toward the external world, live more on the physical plane, and develop fewer new concepts. All the concepts we have in the world today are, after all, concepts from the fourth post-Atlantean epoch; they have all been carried over from that time. No new concepts have been formed at all since the fifteenth century. Not a single truly new concept has been formed; only the old concepts have been applied in new ways to current events. Darwinism did not, for example, introduce a new concept of evolution; it was merely applied to certain processes. Thus, not a single new concept has emerged since the beginning of the fifteenth century; they all originated in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. The fifth post-Atlantean epoch was meant to direct our gaze toward the external physical world, toward the physical plane. The British people, however, were particularly well-prepared for this task. And precisely because their distinctive character developed relatively late in the British Isles, the British people were especially suited to this task.

[ 8 ] At the beginning of the fifteenth century, something was looming. There was a threat that a kind of confusion would arise. The purely physical aspirations of the British people were in danger of being conflated with a much more spiritual life—one that had been nourished since time immemorial. This was at a time when parts of the French Empire still fell under English rule—when English rule still extended across the Channel into French territories. The fact that a real separation took place was brought about from the spiritual world by the appearance of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orléans, who appeared at the beginning of the fifteenth century precisely because, in a sense, she had to restore order from the spiritual world. And indeed, the entire outer character of Europe depends, as I have already described here, on this appearance of the Maid of Orléans. It was then that the separation between the French and British essences was fully accomplished. Previously, it was the case that the Angles and Saxons—who, according to legend (though actually intended in an occult sense), migrated from Central Europe to the British Isles under the leadership of Hengist and Horsa—were in fact dominated by a Norman-Roman, specifically Roman, element and formed a subordinate class. It was precisely that British character—which sets the tone today, and has done so especially since the seventeenth century—that formed such a strong lower class that, when the French element was still dominant there, when, so to speak, the French spirit still exerted its influence on the British Isles, there existed an aristocracy there that, in the deepest sense, despised everything that descended from the Angles and Saxons. For example, it was a very common expression—particularly in the 10th, eleventh, and 12th centuries—that when a person from this upper class, who at that time still lived in neighboring France and had French-Norman blood, wanted to curse, he would say: “May God damn me to be an Englishman!” That was a curse one could often hear. So, if one wanted to be a person of standing, one certainly did not want to be an Englishman on the British Isles. That only changed fundamentally after, as I said, that separation had taken place and Englishness was now on the rise. Now, a wide variety of events were unfolding—it would take too long to describe them all—behind which profound spiritual forces were at work: the Wars of the White and Red Roses. But what is important is that at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when Shakespeare had already written his plays—which, insofar as they are royal dramas, deal in particular with the Wars of the Roses — for the entire struggle between the Red and White Roses lives on in Shakespeare’s plays — that at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century, a soul incarnated in a physical body within the British Empire; a soul that outwardly accomplished little of significance, but which had a profoundly inspiring effect far and wide. This soul, which incarnated in a British body that, strictly speaking, contained little British blood—but rather a mixture of French and Scottish blood—was able to exert a particularly stimulating influence. And it was from this soul that the impetus actually sprang which gave rise to both the outward British spiritual life and the occult British spiritual life. And so, naturally through various intermediate processes—which would take us too far afield to describe here—this occult British spiritual life took shape. Now, as I told you, this spiritual life continued the occult currents of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. An immense amount was known there, precisely because the conditions were such that the physical bodies were of the greatest significance, the etheric body was least active, and the physical body was regarded as an instrument for all spiritual life. Precisely because of this, there was no possibility within these occult schools themselves to gain much direct experience of the spiritual world. But in the occult schools, the ancient traditions were preserved; they preserved what had been handed down by the ancient clairvoyant observers and sought to penetrate it with concepts. And so an occult science arose there that actually worked only with the experiences of the clairvoyants who existed in the fourth and even the third post-Atlantean epochs, but it processed what had been achieved through clairvoyance using purely physical concepts—the conceptual material one has when thinking solely through the physical body. Thus a peculiar occult science arose, one that truly extends across all areas of life.

[ 9 ] It is now interesting, above all, to take a closer look at certain chapters of this occult science—as I said, I am telling you nothing but facts. And this is what was taught about the destiny of the European peoples. It even constituted an essential chapter in these occult schools. I will try to describe to you what was taught there about the destiny of the European peoples. It was said: There was a fourth post-Atlantean epoch—this was derived from tradition, from the handed-down teachings—and this fourth post-Atlantean epoch was teeming with spiritual life; it had brought forth the conceptual world for humanity, the views on social institutions, and all manner of things; it was teeming with spiritual life. It had developed in southern Europe, on the Greek Peninsula and the Italian Peninsula, and radiated out from there. The peoples of Central and Western Europe were still in their infancy—infants, so to speak, of humanity in a spiritual sense—at the time when the fourth post-Atlantean epoch was already in full bloom. — I am merely recounting what is taught there. — So the peoples of Central and Western Europe were infants in terms of spiritual life, infants in comparison to what could radiate from the cultural achievements of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. And little by little, these Central and Western European peoples worked their way out of this infancy, becoming more and more mature, so to speak, right up to the time of the Renaissance and the Reformation; by which I do not actually mean the German Reformation, but specifically the English Reformation under James I and so on. So these Central and Western European peoples broke free. And now a very specific dogma arose—a dogma within these occult schools that is held to with ironclad faith. This is the dogma that, in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, Anglo-Saxon culture must replace Greco-Latin culture. So this was drummed into them again and again: There is a fourth post-Atlantean epoch and a fifth post-Atlantean epoch. The Greek-Latin essence sets the tone for the fourth post-Atlantean epoch; what flows from the nature of Anglo-Saxon culture must set the tone for the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. Anglo-Saxon culture must spiritually govern the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. And everything that is conceived regarding human development must be conceived in such a way that this dogma can be realized. In Eastern Europe—as is taught in these schools—people today live in the same conditions in which the Central and Western European peoples, who later reached their zenith in Anglo-Saxon civilization, lived when they received the Greco-Latin essence handed down from the Romans. In Eastern Europe, the Slavic peoples today are in their infancy, and everyone who belongs to these schools regards this Eastern European essence and national character as existing in infancy and now views what must happen in the future in such a way that these Eastern European peoples must now work their way out of infancy in a similar manner toward a later stage of life, just as the Central and Western European peoples did in the past. But—and these are even the words used in those schools, which I am now permitted to tell you about—just as the Romans served as the foster parents, in a spiritual sense, of Western and Central Europe, so must the Anglo-Saxon people serve as the foster parents for the Eastern European spirit, guiding this Eastern European spirit from infancy into a later stage of spiritual life. They then describe in detail how, just as the Germanic peoples differentiated into the Goths and so on, the Slavic peoples are differentiating. By pointing to certain future developments based on the existence of inner forces—as is particularly evident in Russia itself—the text describes how the people there live in an infantile stage, because there are a number of communities that are essentially bound only by local ties, just as was once the case in Central and Western Europe, and which are held together only artificially by the bonds of the state; while, on the other hand, a people held together solely by its religion—the Poles—would be destined—as I said, I am merely recounting facts as they are actually taught in these schools—to ultimately be reintegrated into the Russian essence, despite their efforts to the contrary. In these schools, they are practically swearing that the entire Polish nation must once again be incorporated into the Russian essence. For example—again, almost word for word—they say: “In the lower Danube Valley, individual Slavic peoples formed into independent kingdoms.” Regarding this emergence of Slavic peoples in independent kingdoms, it was repeatedly stated in these schools—as is often the case in teaching—that: Such independent Slavic nation-states formed, but they will last only until the next great European war, which is yet to come. — That is to say, everywhere they taught about the great European war that would throw everything into disarray. The independence of these Slavic states would last only that long. And they then present the matter as if something were to emerge that does not yet exist in the present — You must bear in mind that I am speaking of teachings that have been imparted over the centuries; thus, speaking from a “past present,” I am addressing the future—a future that people today find has already partly come to pass—and that in the future there must gradually emerge a completely different way of holding together these Eastern European peoples as they transition from infancy to adolescence.

[ 10 ] These were, then, teachings that had always been imparted, that had always been there—and teachings that were by no means taken merely as theory, but were so thoroughly instilled in those who belonged to the schools in question that numerous people sought to shape their external lives and influence them in such a way that, in various instances, events actually unfolded in accordance with these teachings. And here it would be interesting to cite historical facts that would show how events are created in context. People generally have no concept whatsoever that things occurring side by side are actually conceived together and, in a sense, orchestrated together. In such far-reaching occult fraternities that extend into influential circles—such as those in the British Empire of which I speak, and which, in a sense, have their offshoots throughout Western Europe and also in Italy—people know what one person is supposed to do, what another is supposed to do, and how to exert influence in life. There, one knows quite well what it means—let me mention a specific case—when, on the one hand, efforts are made to gradually foster friendships between statesmen of England and certain statesmen of a smaller Danube state that is part of Austria. One knows quite well what that means when one arranges matters in such a way that, so to speak, a friendly relationship develops and a certain belief in the security of certain institutions in the British Empire takes root precisely in a Danube state, and that the view becomes so firmly established that these are good institutions. But one does not do this merely for one’s own sake; rather, one also takes other steps, such as publishing an influential book in which one rails particularly against the people living in that state, so that what one builds up on the one hand is torn down on the other. Such a thing has significance when done methodically: on the one hand, fostering friendship that can gain a certain popular significance, and on the other hand, particularly emphasizing the dark sides of the people in question. You might call this a diabolical undertaking; but Ahrimanic forces are at work in this entire process. That is precisely how it is done with all these things that seemingly go hand in hand. One member of such a brotherhood writes a book that is effective, that stirs up a terrible movement, while another strives to win over a circle in which he cultivates friendship. This is how work is done between the lines of life. When one observes outward life so unsuspectingly, one has no idea how people associated with fraternities of this very nature are at work—fraternities that aim to make a certain national character, such as Britishness in this case, the dominant and influential one.

[ 11 ] Now imagine a figure like Blavatsky placed within this occult fraternal network. Those who belong to such occult brotherhoods and who knew the very essence of occultism from tradition—even if not through any fruitful intuition—learn of the existence of such a figure. To very intelligent people who know nothing about occultism, Blavatsky is, of course, a figure who is a bit eccentric, a bit abnormal. But she is not that to the occultists—even if they are occultists of the Ahrimanic line, such as those I have spoken of. She is not that to such people. They know: When such a being appears in a time of this nature, she emerges from all the evolutionary forces of humanity; it signifies something when a personality is placed within the time in which the etheric body can function in the manner described. But this is a very peculiar time in which all this is happening and unfolding. You see, it is, after all, a time when people approach those who speak so simply about the spiritual world with the greatest possible suspicion. People who, as is supposed to happen among us for the reasons often described, simply stand up and speak about the spiritual world—speaking rationally about the spiritual world—are not readily believed in our time, naturally again for many of the reasons cited. But acting entirely in the spirit of a simple, honest quest for truth was not, after all, in the interest of the British occult fraternities spreading from the British Empire. Their aim, above all, was to communicate spiritual truths to the world—that is, truths originating from the spiritual world—but in a much more tangible way. These truths, however, were to be consistent with the theories taught there as dogma by the dominant Anglo-Saxon culture of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch.

[ 12 ] And so, in the 1960s and early 1970s, a trend emerged among these occult societies in the West to use Blavatsky to present spiritual truths to the world—but spiritual truths of which one could say: ‘You see, these do not come from an entirely ordinary human brain, but from an etheric body—and, moreover, as a pure element of the future from an etheric body that has formed within that mass of people which, after all, contains the foundation for the sixth post-Atlantean epoch.’ But because this element of the future does not yet have complete control over itself in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, it was thought that one could now arrange the whole matter in such a way that Blavatsky—who is, after all, not an ordinary medium but rather what I have described, yet who can nevertheless be influenced by ordinary mediumistic forces— in such a way that what emerged from her was not what would have emerged had she been left entirely to her own devices, but rather what the British fraternities want to emerge. Then these British brotherhoods would not step before the world and simply announce that British supremacy should reign, but rather they would show: “Look, a personality has stepped into the world; we have nothing to do with it—out of her own etheric body she brings forth, as an imagination, a new science, entirely new concepts.” — But these new concepts were to be formulated—and shaped—through the influence of these occult brotherhoods in precisely such a way that they would serve to highlight Anglo-Saxon culture as the defining element of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. This then became the goal. And according to their dogma, they believed they were proceeding entirely correctly; for they took a Russian woman—a Russian soul—treated her like an infant, and behaved toward her like a wet nurse with Western European occultism. The entire process was thus entirely in keeping with the dogma. The intention, then, was to present to the world a new occult science that, however, seemed suitable to the Western brotherhoods for what they intended as their specific purposes.

[ 13 ] The whole affair would have gone well if Blavatsky had been merely a Russian woman, and therefore anything that could possibly have been done to a mere Russian woman could have been done to her. But as I said, there was a certain touch of Central European character in her. She was, after all, far too independent a soul. And so it came to pass—I cannot now go into detail about the various maneuvers that were employed to achieve what I am describing, as that would take far too much time—that she thwarted these various maneuvers time and time again. She would not have gone along with that, for naturally she was aware of all the things that lived in her etheric body; it would never have occurred to her, for example, to go to London to join some occult brotherhood and be trained there as a higher medium. Then everything would have gone well, of course in the sense of the occult brotherhoods; but she would never have gone along with that.

[ 14 ] Although she had initially received quite decent, sound guidance, and much within her had developed that was on a very good path, the whole matter was steered in such a way that she joined a high-degree order in Paris, which, however, was influenced by British occultist movements. There, she was to be conditioned so that whatever they wanted would emerge from her soul. But it was precisely that spark within her that I spoke of, and through it—having already thwarted certain plans in the past—she now thwarted the intentions that had been set for her. She set conditions within this order that could not be met at all—conditions that are impossible to fulfill in an order that does not wish to provoke a tremendous uproar. And the result was that, barely after the proceedings had begun, she was expelled once again. But she did, after all—for she did have a mind of her own to a certain extent—absorb some significant insights precisely from the various secrets that exist in such occult orders in the manner described.

[ 15 ] Then something arose within her that I would like to describe as follows: she developed a taste for the whole role. In a certain sense, she developed a taste for playing a truly occult role for the very first time. But she didn’t want to be merely a higher medium; she wanted to direct the whole thing herself. And so it came to pass that she joined an American order. One really cannot even begin to describe all that she wanted to do—and had, in part, already initiated—within this American occult order. Now that she was a member, she learned countless secrets that, until then, had been revealed to no one other than those of high rank. After all, they had a specific purpose, and they were still working toward that purpose. All of this led to her having acquired a vast amount of knowledge that had now entered her consciousness. Just think—a completely new situation had been created! Now there was a person who knew an infinite amount of what had until then been very well guarded as the occult knowledge of secret orders. That was a completely new situation. Such a situation had, in essence, never existed before! But then she did something in America that made it impossible for her to remain within the order or continue her work there, for she immediately demonstrated that she intended to apply this occult knowledge she had acquired in a way the orders could not agree to. It was completely impossible to agree to this; it would have led to utter confusion if they had allowed her to continue as she was, as the Germans say.

[ 16 ] So they resorted to a measure that is truly very, very rarely used—and one that is highly questionable. They resorted to the measure of placing poor, dear Blavatsky—who, as you can see, was a pawn of the most diverse forces acting upon her—in what is called occult captivity. This occult confinement consists—achieved through certain means of ceremonial magic—in ensuring that everything the soul in question develops extends only up to a certain sphere and is then thrown back. So that the person in question sees everything they develop within themselves only to themselves, is unable to communicate it in any way to the outside world, and can process it entirely within themselves. It is a very peculiar thing, but it was decided to impose this on Blavatsky in order to render her harmless, so that she would not communicate all sorts of things to the world; rather, her entire striving was to be thrown back upon herself. This is called the “setback of her aspirations” or “occult imprisonment.” In 1879, at an occult gathering attended by occultists from various countries, this was decided and imposed upon Blavatsky. And so, for a number of years, Blavatsky truly lived in occult imprisonment. It is not necessary to recount how her external circumstances unfolded during that time, for anyone observing the matter from the outside need not take any notice at all of what I am now describing.

[ 17 ] For certain occultists—now based in India—the task was to free her from this occult captivity. And this is actually when Blavatsky first began to find her footing in India. Everything I have told you so far is actually the prehistory of Blavatsky. Her development, from the times that people are familiar with, is really only just beginning now. And everything about Blavatsky that is difficult to comprehend is connected to what I have described. Certain Indian occultists, who in turn were striving to save her from the British influence, employed certain methods to break the occult bondage. This was even done in complete harmony with those who had previously imposed the occult bondage upon Blavatsky. And for Blavatsky, the consequence of this was that, in a sense, everything connected with Indian occultism now poured into her soul. I must emphasize again and again: We are truly dealing with revelations of the spiritual world that, I would say, appear only in all sorts of distorted images and caricatures; yet one must not treat them as if great occult mysteries were not being brought to light through them. Of course, with the immense powers that reigned within Blavatsky—already due to her innate dispositions and then through everything she had gone through—the Indian occult truths came to light through her to a very special degree.

[ 18 ] Thus, in Blavatsky, we have the specific case where, when a soul such as Blavatsky appears—a being who seeks to make British, Anglo-Saxon culture the dominant element—British occultism strives to make progress with what it still regards today as an infant. All of this amounts to completely overlooking Central Europe, paying no attention to Central Europe at all, and stepping right over Central Europe. People really do speak as I have told you, and regard this current—which I have so often described as the Central European current—as something that, in a sense, must be run over in the entire process. Thus, an occult body of knowledge—which, of course, is open to criticism in many respects and which, I might say, shimmered like a kaleidoscope in every possible color—came to light through Blavatsky. And political intentions, political aims, were always at work within these occult teachings—as you can see from my entire account. For both the condition that Blavatsky had set in Paris was motivated by a political intention, just as what she sought to instigate in America was also, in every respect, driven by a political intention. If I were to characterize the two intentions Blavatsky had in Paris and in America, I must say: It was the inner opposition of her Russian identity to making that identity dependent on the Western European and American way of life. That is why she also set a condition in Paris that could not be fulfilled and would have necessitated a political upheaval or transformation in France. In America, she did not set the condition herself, but there she joined forces with someone who had, so to speak, made his name in politics—Olcott—to carry out all manner of political machinations, but with the aid of occultism, which was used as a pretext everywhere. All these actions were aimed at carrying out what had originally been sought under the guidance of Blavatsky’s masked, original leader—though it is, of course, very difficult to speak of these leaders at all. The original leader certainly wanted to set Blavatsky on the right course; but then he was replaced by a leader who was anything but what Blavatsky called a Mahatma—he was everything else instead.

[ 19 ] And so, through the interplay of a wide variety of forces, a complex body of writings emerged—one that contained countless great and powerful truths—in Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine. This body of writing was also well-suited to exerting a profound influence in Central Europe. Now, you see—as you can also observe, for example, in a very significant novel by George Sand—in Western Europe, secret societies and fraternities steeped in occultism play a major, albeit mostly imperceptible and hidden, underground role in political movements. At the end of Friday’s public lecture, I alluded to such things that are currently at work. Political conspiracies and all manner of things play a significant role there. For it is indeed true, as I described these matters last Friday in the public lecture, that one can certainly demonstrate the existence of conspiracies that feed into occult undercurrents, and that the assassination of Jaures and all the other events I spoke of on Friday—including the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and so on—are connected to such conspiracies. In this whole web of conspiracies—of which the outside world generally knows very little, which begins in London, spreads across Western Europe, moves on to Southern Europe, extends into the Balkan countries, and closes in on St. Petersburg—in this whole web, all such things certainly play a part, As I said, these things should not be regarded as historical in the same sense as historical facts, but rather as shedding light, casting light on many things.

[ 20 ] Above all, it must be noted that the forces active in the spiritual world—which manifest themselves only in the physical world—work through a soul such as Blavatsky’s, and that in the case of such a soul, it is particularly noteworthy to observe how she is carried along by a, I might say, a force at a level below that of the physical plane, how she is swept along by such a current, and reveals which forces are at work in the course of history. That one will gradually have to come to understand such things is certainly evident to you from the many discussions that have taken place here. And I had to present precisely these discussions today for the reason that they can reveal just how much of the world’s events and their determining causes one fails to see when one wishes to see only what is commonly seen today. There are indeed quite different currents at work beneath the surface of ordinary facts, and one is, so to speak, blind if one’s gaze wanders only over the surface of those facts. Consequently, it will happen time and again that one is surprised and astonished by certain things that occur during a given period—things that would not be so surprising or astonishing to the same degree if one were to take the deeper currents and forces into account. But unfortunately, the situation today is mostly such that, on the one hand, there are those people who concern themselves only with the outward course of events and do not take into account that this outward course of events does not merely flow on as a current, but is always gripped from below by eddies that arise from the depths. And on the other hand, there are people who are certainly interested in all sorts of occult matters, but only from a sensationalist standpoint, because it is interesting to hear something about the occult here and there. Very few people today still have the capacity to realize that what one hears in the occult realm can have an infinitely enlightening effect when one seeks to understand what is happening in the outer world. And so, of course, there are people on the one hand who are extremely interested in Blavatsky’s life, while on the other hand there are people who are not interested in her life at all, but are only interested in the external facts that occur on the physical plane. But if one considers them in context—as I could only hint at today—then many things usually become clear, and that is important. And we must live in anticipation of this time, when there will truly be more and more people who wish to look into the deeper currents of existence, who have the good will to look into these deeper currents of existence.

[ 21 ] And it is precisely within our movement that it is so necessary for these matters—to which I have just alluded—to be viewed in a somewhat more accurate light. For you see, as soon as the war broke out—as I have already mentioned—Blavatsky’s disciple, Mrs. Annie Besant, railed in her English journals in an outrageous manner against what is alive within our anthroposophical movement. Above all, she railed in such a way that it was clear: On that side, there was no mental image of politics not playing a role in what is supposed to be, for us, an honest, purely truth-seeking occultism—one in which the political cannot directly intervene. It can be connected to politics only to the extent that truth can enter into politics at all, but not in the sense I have indicated regarding the Western European fraternities. Our movement, after all, could essentially have no other task than to free those who can be freed from the influence of these Western European fraternities. But on that side, people do not have a mental image of anything happening without, in a certain sense, dishonest political motives. Thus, the absurd story was spread that, starting in 1909, I had actually intended to become president of the entire Theosophical Society, to go to India, and from there to influence political circles and exert my influence. Well, isn’t that something—on the one hand, the Berlin-Baghdad Railway, and on the other, anthroposophy! I’m not telling you a fairy tale; they’re discussing this with the utmost indignation, claiming that all the officials from the very widespread Theosophical movement there were supposed to have been won over in order to gradually steer the matter into political waters and work for Pan-Germanism—that is, to attack England from India. The statement even appears in Mrs. Besant’s essays; now she is repeating the whole thing in an even more outrageous manner.

[ 22 ] On the one hand, these things show you how it is simply impossible to think any other way there; on the other hand, they show how the sense of truth—the pure, purely objective, honest pursuit of truth—must gradually be lost. Such things, as Mrs. Besant now says, must be called “objective untruths.” But today I am actually compelled to go beyond the term “objective untruth”; for in light of the absurd Jesuit accusation with which you are so well acquainted, the term “objective untruth” is no longer even necessary. But there is another aspect to consider today: In 1909 in Budapest, I had something very specific to say to Mrs. Besant. At that time, too, there was an attempt to reach a compromise with me, for the intention then was to appoint this Alcyone as the bearer of the Christ. They wanted to reach a compromise with me; they wanted to appoint me as the reincarnated John the Evangelist, and they would then have recognized me there. That would have become dogma there if I had gone along with all these various deceptions. But in opposition to everything that was taking shape at that time, an—I would say—international society of honest people formed there. Among others, Mr. Keightley was also involved, who had previously always corrected the scientific errors in Mrs. Besant’s books. This international society, from India, proposed that I become its president. And in 1909, in Budapest, I told Mrs. Besant: “There is absolutely no question of my ever wanting to be anything other than part of a German cultural context within any occult movement—only within the context of German culture, within Central Europe.” I told Mrs. Besant that in 1909. Nevertheless, after the outbreak of the war, she wrote the things I have told you. This is no longer a matter of an objective untruth, but of a completely deliberate lie, for it has been explicitly explained what the issue is. So we are dealing with a completely deliberate lie, not with an objective untruth.

[ 23 ] This is roughly the path one is led down when, particularly in the realm of spiritual truths, one does not stand on the pure ground of truth—the ground of honest, unshakable truth. But the fact that these things had to unfold this way—well, you see, it is actually all already contained in the way in which the occult currents, dictated by the necessity of humanity’s present-day development, had to enter the world. In this necessity, in the recognition of this necessity, everything is already contained. When Mrs. Besant first appeared in Germany to give a lecture in Hamburg, she also spoke to a smaller circle. It was the beginning of what was meant to happen from that side. At that time, I asked Mrs. Besant—and the fact that I remember such things well may sometimes be quite unpleasant for some people—the question: What, then, is the story of that powerful German occultism that was so intimately intertwined with German culture, particularly at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries? — To which Mrs. Besant replied—as I said, it was during her very first visit, at her first stop in Germany: “Oh, what emerged in Germany was a failed attempt at occultism; it manifested itself in other forms. And because that failed, the matter had to be taken up in England, and occultism had to be brought to Europe from England.” — You see how politics does indeed play a role in these matters through back channels, and how one must take such things into account.

[ 24 ] What I have told you today is meant to serve as a kind of introduction to discussions that, however, will not take place entirely on the same ground; these discussions are intended to lead us into matters that are just as historically significant as the occult knowledge of the individual, and about which we will hear more next time.