The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. Easter Reflection

[ 1 ] Reflecting on Easter in the same way one might in other times does not seem readily possible during these difficult times. Nevertheless, let us today point out a few things that may come to mind in connection with the approaching holiday. After all, we have discussed many things in our recent lectures that are, in essence, very closely connected to the Easter festival or to the observance of Easter, even though we did not specifically mention the connection to Easter. We have spoken of how human culture—the cultural development of humanity, insofar as it is spiritual—is permeated by what we have called various brotherhoods, which express their cohesion through symbolic acts drawn from certain mental images. The most significant symbol of such brotherhoods is, of course, the one connected with the ideas of death and resurrection. Time and again, it becomes evident that such brotherhoods bring together the idea of human death and the idea of resurrection in such a way that the idea of immortality emerges from their union. The matters to be discussed here are regarded by many as secrets of the respective brotherhoods; yet there is such a wealth of literature on these subjects—in which everything that the cult of these brotherhoods contains, at least in terms of imagery, is described in such detail—that one can speak quite extensively today about the symbolic mental images of these brotherhoods without in any way infringing upon their secrets. One can indeed read about the matters to be discussed in countless books.

[ 2 ] As a central symbol, one might say, it shows how, through certain circumstances or events, a person is led to death, dies, and is buried. In most of these brotherhoods, the human figure to whom this symbol is linked is taken to be Hieram, so that what is associated with this symbol is also called the Hieram legend. Thus, drawing on the name of Hieram, King Solomon’s master builder—who, according to legend, is said to have built the Temple of Solomon together with King Solomon and was then killed by certain hostile people under his command—his death and passing are symbolically depicted. It shows how he is buried, and the depiction extends to a certain resurrection from the grave—Hieram emerging from the grave. Through this symbol, the aim is to convey the idea of immortality to the soul in a more comprehensive, or, I would say, more powerful way than is possible through theories. The aim is to show, through a symbol that grips the unconscious forces of the human being or through an imagination, what it is like to pass through death and resurrection.

[ 3 ] Well, when one considers that the death and resurrection of Hieram are reenacted in the temples of these brotherhoods, in the lodges of these brotherhoods, we already see the connection to the idea of Easter. As you know, a similar symbolic representation also takes place in the Catholic liturgy: the festivities of Holy Thursday come to an end, and Good Friday then encompasses the ceremony of symbolically laying Christ Jesus in the tomb. Then, through Good Friday and Holy Saturday, we are concerned with Christ Jesus lying in the tomb, until—according to more recent customs—the Resurrection is celebrated on the evening of Holy Saturday; that is, Christ is once again taken from the tomb and celebrated in the procession as the risen Christ. If one considers the ritual that takes place here, particularly in the Catholic liturgy, one sees that, as a symbolic act, it has nothing to do with anything other than what the burial and resurrection of the Hieram signify in occult brotherhoods. So you see, the idea of Easter stands, in a certain sense, at the very center of these occult brotherhoods. The meaning associated with this ceremony is that, by witnessing this symbolic act, a person may delve deeper into their soul, so to speak, and call upon the deeper forces within their soul that are not present in ordinary consciousness. After all, such a symbolic act would have no meaning if one could not assume that deep within the human soul—where ordinary consciousness does not reach—there are forces at work. Anyone who takes seriously that aspect of human achievement which cannot stem from ordinary consciousness—for example, anyone who takes art seriously—must assume the existence of such forces. In art, we speak of how that which empowers the artist to create or reproduce works of art cannot, either, stem from the soul’s ordinarily conscious forces, but rather bubbles up from the subconscious and only then enters into consciousness. That is why, for the artist, all the rules he is supposed to follow are rather disruptive. He cannot follow rules. He must be guided by what fundamentally stirs within his soul the forces he needs. Perhaps only afterward can he engage with a certain explanation of what underlies the creative process within his soul.

[ 4 ] We must therefore assume that many other hidden forces are at work in the soul that do not come to the surface of consciousness. We speak—as we have done so often—of how a person’s astral life is much, much broader and more extensive than their conscious “I” life, and that these forces rise from a person’s astral life into their conscious “I” experience; in other words, they are present there below. In our time, there are already very many people who have gradually adapted themselves so completely to external, purely material life—and who seek their entire salvation in this external, purely material life—that, even in their soul life, they have, in essence, retained only those habits that are connected with external, material life. And that is the conscious realm. For our present conscious earthly life is meant to develop under the influence of the material world and is bound to material life. I have therefore often emphasized that what seeks to live in our consciousness under the influence of the external environment does not pass through the gate of death, but—after a person has passed through the gate of death—can only continue to live on in the memory of the other “I,” which then shines forth once the person has passed through the gate of death. So down there in the depths of the subconscious, a different kind of life prevails—unless a person has trained themselves solely for the external, material life, as is already the case with many people today. And one can certainly perceive the difference. People who have trained themselves solely for external, material life will, when presented with a symbol such as the death and resurrection of Hieram, perhaps even laugh at it, find it funny, so that it appears to them as something superfluous. But those who are attuned to the subconscious soul forces—those we find at work in the astral realm—will be deeply moved by the symbol and will summon from within their souls the faculties capable of understanding immortality, whereas the ordinary forces bound to physical life cannot comprehend this immortality.

[ 5 ] Now, something has been preserved in the Easter celebration of what was originally associated with the very idea of the festival in humanity’s primordial consciousness. We have discussed this many times before. When, then, do we still celebrate Easter today? Materialistically minded people have, after all, often sought to do away with the very thing associated with Easter regarding its date. For these materialistically minded people find it inconvenient to have to celebrate such a festival at the beginning of April or the end of April, the end of March, and so on, and according to these people of today, it should be fixed once and for all that, say, the first Sunday in April is Easter Sunday, so that one finally knows how to organize the ledgers accordingly and does not even have to skip these dates in the ledgers because Easter falls at the end of March, or have to skip other dates in the ledgers because Easter falls at a different time. For the materialistic mindset is, in fact, closely tied to the ledgers—we must not forget that—though this is not so much a criticism of the ledgers themselves, but of course very much a criticism of the materialistic mindset. For something may be very good in and of itself, but what is connected to it does not always have to conform to it.

[ 6 ] For the time being, at least—though this will change—there is still an awareness that Easter is not supposed to fall on the first Sunday in April, but rather that it is determined by certain cosmic conditions, by the relative positions of the sun and the moon. You can feel it, after all, when you walk outside on a clear evening—what it means for the human spirit when the full moon shines down from the sky. Easter is celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon of spring—that is, the full moon that occurs after the beginning of spring, after March 21. So the determination of the date for Easter depends on the positions of the Sun and the Moon. In other words, here on Earth we celebrate a festival that is determined by cosmic relationships.

[ 7 ] What, in fact, is the human soul expressing by establishing the date of Easter in this way? It is thereby implicitly stating: here on this earth, not everything should be governed by merely earthly circumstances; rather, at least that which touches the soul most deeply should also be guided by otherworldly circumstances. Humanity is to look upon the symbol of immortality: burial and resurrection. The idea of the immortality of life, of the soul’s passage through the gate of death—this is to be presented to humanity in an image, whether in a liturgical image, as in the Catholic liturgy, or more in thought, as in other denominations—though that is of less importance in today’s world. But as human beings allow this image of burial and resurrection to take hold in their souls, it should do so in such a way that, when the soul holds this image within itself, it corresponds to the time when the sun and moon were in the appropriate constellation, as is always evident from the calendar division. A protest from the human soul that the contemplation of such an important symbol should not take place merely under earthly circumstances! A recognition that this contemplation of this symbol should be bound to cosmic, to extraterrestrial conditions!

[ 8 ] Is there, we might ask, any reality underlying this idea? We are simply too reluctant—due to the seductions and temptations of today’s materialistic age—to even grasp the concept of true reality. Indeed, the more materialistic people are today, the more they succumb to the delusion that they are grasping true reality. Why, then, are people such materialists? They are so because they do not call that which is not material “reality.” It is precisely because of the delusion that they are grasping reality that people today are materialistically minded. Certainly, and yet, when viewed from the bottom up, when viewed in truth, one must say that nothing distracts human beings so much from reality as materialism. A simple thought can make this clear to us. You are all sitting here now, listening to what I am saying. Well, what I have just said is not nearly as bad as some of the things I have said in other lectures—I mean, bad from the perspective of the materialist thinker. Now imagine that all of you were replaced by thoroughly materialistic thinkers—let’s say, for example, members of the Monist League. Wouldn’t something entirely different be taking place in this hall, in terms of human souls, if a group of Monist League members were listening here instead of you? Why is that? If you look at the realities—at what lives within the souls—you must admit: something entirely different would be taking place if this room were filled with nothing but members of the Monist League. Why is that? Well, you’ll admit that, purely in the abstract and hypothetically—not in reality—one could also say: your karma could have led you, instead of here, to some Monist League. It did not lead you there, so the whole thing is, of course, hypothetical and an unreal assumption. But one could still make this assumption in the abstract. Then, however, it really would not be an exaggeration to claim that something quite different is at work in your bodies than what is at work now, since you have already absorbed other teachings from our Spiritual Science. Truly, what we develop in the course of our lives is always present; it always resonates within us. And one may say that, for many or most of you, what is present is that which has taken root in your soul over the course of the time you have spent following the current of Spiritual Science. Through what a person lives and experiences, they are constantly becoming something different. To speak in the abstract about human beings in general is an unreality. It is not at all a realistic concept to speak of human beings in general. As soon as one turns to realities, one realizes how unreal one actually is when one considers only what people today so often have in mind when they speak of human beings—when they speak as anthropologists, not as anthroposophists.

[ 9 ] Now, you see, it is easy for you to overlook this and to judge what, one might say, has been imprinted on your soul by Spiritual Science. But much more—much, much else—is imprinted on this soul. Truly, many things shape the human soul, and you need only consider that a subconscious, an astral realm, is connected to the human soul, and you will say to yourself: What flows into the human soul from the outside world without one’s knowledge—because it remains subconscious—is perhaps by far the most significant and powerful. Sometimes people hint at this through a faint awareness, and sometimes through an infinitely charming awareness, that many things—some of which are not even of an earthly nature—flow into their subconscious. Who is not familiar with those lovely, beautiful poems—the love poems—that draw on the moonlight and reveal a gentle, endearing awareness that the inner soul, the unconscious soul, is indeed connected to the non-earthly realm that shines from the moonlight and in the moonlight? Try, with your soul, to imagine how much of the lovers strolling in the moonlight is contained in poetry, and how the delicate weaving of the silvery moonlight resonates there so softly and charmingly. And no one would dare claim that the human soul, with its—admittedly, in such matters—crude outer consciousness, knows exactly what it is that actually interweaves and surges through this human soul from the moonlight. A thoroughly crude materialist will, of course, say: “Well, the moon has nothing to do with these feelings of love.”—But we do not wish to dwell further today on such crude objections; rather, we want to place more trust in the gentle, charming way in which these feelings rise into consciousness—as expressed by those who have sung and spoken as love poets. So there is, I would say, something like a ray of light shining into our consciousness—the realization that something truly cosmic, something beyond Earth, is connected to the subconscious weaving and working of the human soul. And if you recall what was said on Thursday—and again publicly on Saturday—about the working and weaving of the national soul element into human soul life, then you will have to admit that this national soul element is at work far more in the subconscious than in the conscious mind. For what often rises from the subconscious into conscious life through the influence of the national soul element and is expressed in concepts—well, that is also a result of it!

[ 10 ] Truly, what reigns in the depths of our souls—and what rises only faintly into our consciousness—is precisely that which reigns and weaves within the astral body: the important, the non-earthly. And the one whose soul is opened to the impressions of the spiritual world knows this: Our Earth is not only different in spring and autumn because vegetation sprouts in spring and is harvested in autumn, but the patch of Earth bathed in moonlight is different from the Earth when it is not bathed in moonlight. We must create a mental image in which it is not merely the silver sphere or the silver crescent that floats up there in the heavens, but that there is a web of light around us—a spiritual one—in which we ourselves live, weave, and swim with our souls, just as we swim with our bodies in water when we do so. And whatever weaves and lives within the Earth or around it always changes, depending on the Moon’s position in relation to the Sun.

[ 11 ] After March 21, the Sun is in a completely different relationship to the Earth than it was before March 21. And the sunlight that is reflected back to Earth from the Moon is therefore, after March 21, something entirely different from what was reflected before. The first full moon after the beginning of spring, which reflects back to us the initial power of the reborn, the resurrected Sun, is different from any other full moon. Our astral nature, then, would not be the same if, say, in December it were to look toward the symbol of the burial and resurrection as it is when it looks toward the week following the spring full moon: our soul is something entirely different during this time. If our soul is already somewhat different on a small scale simply because we have taken in some Spiritual Science and are not followers of monism, then our soul is essentially different in the moonlight after the spring equinox than, say, after the winter solstice. Our soul can therefore experience something different at this time than at any other time. O my dear friends, if only human beings would pause to consider what they actually are, and with what they are actually connected! They would then speak of the divine within themselves with immense reverence. And speaking of the divine within oneself would not make one arrogant, but rather quite humble, for the thought would then come to them: What, what is actually necessary in the world for this being—as they themselves appear to be—to exist in the world?

[ 12 ] When Spiritual Science emerges today, it is—among many other reasons—also for the purpose of broadening people’s horizons once again, horizons that have become so narrow under the influence of materialistic development. Thinking, perception, volition, and the soul’s feelings are truly broadened when one takes in the ideas of Spiritual Science in a genuine, authentic sense. People today simply do not realize nearly enough that materialistic development has not merely brought about what is called materialism, but that this materialistic development has also brought about something quite different—above all, I would say, the narrowing of intellectual life. Thoughts have all become small; they must become great again. The possibility must once more arise among people to see things in broad contexts. I would like people to feel that, in everything connected, for example, with those arts in which the human being himself acts as a material—and this is, after all, the case in almost all arts—such a thought as was clarified last Saturday from the perspective of Spiritual Science can truly lead to a deeper understanding. Just imagine, if people could once again realize how they actually consist of two parts: the head, which is at a much later stage of development and is, in a sense, already more rigid than the rest of the organism, which is at a less advanced stage of development. Think of all that this implies for the interaction between this part of the human organism—which lies outside the head—and the organism of the head itself. When we move a hand, we are performing a movement. Indeed, these hands are underpinned by the etheric body, which helps carry out this movement. What happens when I make hand movements? I have already explained this here before: The hands—the physical hands and the etheric hands—perform the same movements. When I think, the left and right cerebral hemispheres, as the etheric head, also perform movements that are very similar to hand movements. But the physical aspect is bound; it is enclosed within the solid skull; it is a bound Prometheus. And this is the basis of thinking. If human beings were not bound by external restraints but by organic restraints—if they were already now as they will be once the Earth has perished and Jupiter is in a position where their arms will be just as bound as their cerebral hemispheres are now—then what constitutes thinking would also remain from the movement of the hands.

[ 13 ] But I want to use a much more concrete example to show you something that might help clarify a few things for you in light of our contemporary history: just as the thoughts of the finest people of our age have been reduced to brevity, so that one can really only grasp brief glimpses of thought in space and time, whereas what we need above all is for thoughts to become grand again, so that they can once more take in the big picture. I’d like to illustrate this with an example.

[ 14 ] You see, in his own view, Eduard von Hartmann—the philosopher of the unconscious—was not at all a materialist thinker; he certainly did not consider himself a materialist. But that is less important; what matters is whether our habits of thought are materialistic. One can establish an entirely idealistic philosophy and yet have entirely materialistic habits of thought, and these habits of thought then determine whether one’s ideas are short-sighted or far-reaching. Now, Eduard von Hartmann wrote, among other things—namely, alongside much commendable philosophical work—various political works as well, and I may cite Eduard von Hartmann here because, as a political writer—he was indeed highly esteemed in his time as a political writer—he was, in the most eminent sense, what one must call a very best German, indeed Prussian, patriot. That was Eduard von Hartmann. No one can doubt that Eduard von Hartmann was this, as anyone who reads, for example, certain letters of his—which have, in fact, been published—in which he writes about the year 1866: And even if the Danish War and what follows it were to turn out unfavorably at first—I believe that Prussia must attain supremacy within Germany, simply because it is a necessity for the development of ideas.—So, I mean, one can call Eduard von Hartmann, in this sense, a patriot of the most deeply felt kind. Now, back in the 1880s, in 1889, he wrote some very fine essays on the general European situation. They were widely read at the time and, of course, were subject to the same fate that everything written today is subject to, whether it is good or bad: things are read and then forgotten. Today, I believe, these works—which Eduard von Hartmann wrote more than thirty years ago—are no longer read very much. As a politician, he did not proceed from abstract ideas—a fact that was widely acknowledged about him—nor from all sorts of idealism; rather, he was—as you can read in the countless reviews that appeared at the time regarding his political books—in the most eminent sense what is called a “realist,” that is, a person who took real circumstances into account. Now, of course, Eduard von Hartmann’s thoughts were so far-reaching that he had a mental image of Europe’s various great powers—Germany, Austria, Italy, France, England, Russia, and so on—with the various smaller neutral states in between, and he spared no effort to conduct thorough research whenever he wrote an essay on the various political interests of these individual states. In a remarkable essay dating from 1888—which was already published in book form in 1889—he set forth his mental images of what the best political constellation for Europe should be. I assumed that he was a true patriot—not merely German, but even Prussian—and thus, naturally, had spoken from the standpoint of a Prussian patriot. He therefore sought to present as the best course for Germany and Europe the alliances that would need to develop, and he saw the salvation of Germany and Europe—with Germany as powerful as possible within it—in the formation of an alliance: Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands under English leadership as a common neutral alliance, which would most certainly bring about precisely what a German-Prussian patriot could long for and hope for—in 1889!

[ 15 ] Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands, united under English leadership! Now I ask you to consider this matter with the utmost seriousness and to compare it with what people are already saying today, even though only one—I would say half—of these things had come to pass before these warlike events: Belgium under English leadership! Eduard von Hartmann longed to see Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands under English leadership! It is interesting to see, using such a concrete example—and if one were to consider the various spheres of life, one could list countless examples of these and similar situations—how intelligent people thought thirty years ago, and to ask oneself: what do intelligent people think today? They are all intelligent, of course! But how much does such an intelligent thought actually encompass? How long does it remain valid? And doesn’t it ultimately come down to this with a thought: that one stands within reality, within the actual world with that thought, that the thought is truly such that it can sustain our actions, our entire existence in the world? You see what I mean: the entire development—which can be described as the age of materialism—brings people short-lived thoughts, thoughts that, when they relate to temporal circumstances, are perhaps valid for no more than two or three decades. One simply must not apply this method of short-lived thoughts when people are compelled to consider longer time periods. After all, political judgments such as those of Eduard von Hartmann may no longer need to be considered thirty years from now when writing a book about Eduard von Hartmann, right? For even today, quite a few books are being written without consulting everything that ought to be consulted.

[ 16 ] However, in another field, people are compelled to take a longer-term view when forming judgments. This is the case, for example, with remedies. With remedies, things are not as straightforward as with political assessments of the situation. And yet: Lotze, a philosopher with a thorough medical education, quite rightly observed that the enthusiasm surrounding a new remedy generally lasts five years if that remedy is discovered in the present day, and that not only does the enthusiasm fade, but so does—very soon—the immense cult surrounding the remedy in question. People are somewhat more aware of this than they are with political assessments. And Gustav Theodor Fechner, who was a man of wit, wrote a rather interesting treatise in the 1820s. At that time, a new remedy had just emerged—iodine, or “iodin,” as it was called—and people gradually began to list countless diseases that could be cured by iodine. So Gustav Theodor Fechner wrote a charming treatise in which he attempted, according to all the rules of science, to prove that the moon consists of iodine—that is, that one need only find a way to capture the moonlight, and then this panacea could be utilized everywhere in a marvelous way. Gustav Theodor Fechner was, as you know, later the founder of a scientifically conceived aesthetics, the founder of psychophysics, and an outstanding physicist in general. So we must not count him among the eccentric theosophists, must we? Fechner is even taken seriously by people who have one and a half feet in the monist movements; those with both feet in them no longer take him seriously. Everywhere, a certain narrowness of judgment is evident, a certain life in concepts that lack breadth.

[ 17 ] This is particularly the case when one finds that science, in the modern sense, has been elevated—using the same method—from what is actually natural science into the realm of Spiritual Science, that is, into what is today called Spiritual Science. Yes, the situation is quite bleak, and the only way for people to avoid noticing this bleakness is for them to become acquainted with only one writer—or a few who write in the same vein—and thus fail to perceive the immense chaos that arises, for example, when one considers a few writers or researchers—whatever they may call themselves—within the same field. If you were to actually take the most outstanding writers in the field known as ethnic psychology or racial psychology and read them side by side, you would—forgive the harsh expression—be amazed, utterly amazed! For example, one can find that people, by applying the way of thinking that is prevalent today to the various peoples of Europe, and by describing the population of Central Europe in a purely scientific—and, of course, “objective”—manner, portray them as descended from the Germanic peoples. Now they describe the Germanic peoples as endowed with all sorts of characteristics. Then, let’s say, a Frenchman describes the French. He has been led to believe that the French are partly descended from the ancient Celts; so he describes the Celts. And then one compares the two and finds that the person describing Central Europe—and within Central Europe, the Germanic peoples—attributes to the Germanic peoples the very same characteristics that the Frenchman attributes to the ancient Celts. The only thing people don’t know is that there is much more of a Celtic spirit alive within Central Europe than there is within Western Europe in the French spirit—much more of a Celtic element. It’s just that people don’t know this.

[ 18 ] Yes, one can find even more successful examples. I could cite a folklorist who is often mentioned these days. Isn’t that right? People do cite examples of individual figures, insofar as they stem from this or that folk tradition. For example, such a folklorist might bring up Byron. He loves Byron—that’s clear—but for no other reason than that he looks at Byron and says: “The way Byron is, you can see that he wasn’t really an Englishman at all, but actually a German.” — It’s actually written in a book on national psychology! Byron is a true German! Another person, who probably doesn’t like Byron very much, also looks at Byron; he, too, is an observer of folk-souls—even by profession—and calls himself such. He finds that Byron is so repulsive because he is a Celt. He is a true Celt!

[ 19 ] I could cite countless examples like this, where the concepts truly reveal how little substance they have. Indeed, one can see how little substance the concepts derived from today’s so-called reliable scientific method have when they are carried over into spiritual life. And just think for a moment how necessary it is, then, for the spirit to make its mark in this field. But how long will it take before we have a science of the soul of the kind I tried to describe in ideal terms last Thursday? And yet: only such a science of the soul can make understandable what is actually prevailing in Europe, and can also bring about the mutual understanding that is necessary if European culture is to continue.

[ 20 ] A great deal has been written during the final months of the war. Well, I don’t know if reading is the right way to engage with everything that has been written; but among the various good works—the relatively good ones, that is—are the books by the Swedish author Kjellen. There you will find a very sound assessment in connection with what is currently happening—a more general assessment that can be summarized as follows: In the course of human development, we have gradually brought about an immensely intense material culture. This is playing out everywhere. And truly, as I have often said, the person who practices Spiritual Science has no reason whatsoever not to acknowledge and emphasize the greatness of this external material culture. But when one compares it with what human beings have produced in terms of spiritual values, one must say: It is quite impossible to somehow subdue or master this intense material culture with these spiritual values. And that is the greatest suffering of our time: the inability to control what material culture has brought about through spiritual values. Here, Spiritual Science must truly generate the necessary perceptions and feelings that lead one to realize: One cannot sin against the great spiritual laws of the world order! The prevailing truth demands its rights. Imagine any realm, no matter how splendidly equipped in material terms in every respect, yet devoid of spiritual values—then this material realm, whether a state or any other entity, will not be able to flourish, because the course of the world is such that every body needs a soul. And I could make this clear to you in detail. I would like to cite an example that may be close to home for us. Isn’t it true that, for now, we should not touch on anything at all regarding what one ought to do or what one ought to think about what needs to be done? But I may nevertheless cite this example that is close to home for us—for now, I would say, simply to present an example that is close to home.

[ 21 ] We cultivate what we understand as Spiritual Science within the Anthroposophical Society. This Anthroposophical Society differs from all other societies in many ways. The Anthroposophical Society cannot be a society like other associations—at least not under the current circumstances. Why not? For one simple reason! What do other associations do when they are founded? They draw up programs, and people unite around a specific program, don’t they? They express their agreement with that program. When someone resigns, they no longer agree with the program. If the entire association dissolves, the program points don’t harm anyone, do they? People can come together, and they can go their separate ways again. That is the case with every mechanism in the world. Weismann once attempted to characterize the organism from a scientific standpoint. Of course, he brought only one negative characteristic to light, but this negative characteristic is accurate: “What is a living thing?” asked Weismann. — That which, when it disintegrates, leaves behind a corpse. — Of course, this does not characterize the living in and of itself, but one must admit there is some truth to the idea that the living is negatively characterized by the fact that it leaves behind a corpse. Our Anthroposophical Society is truly a living entity simply because our members possess a certain number of cycles, which—given the nature of the Society—we wish, for the time being, to keep out of the hands of non-members as a rule. This, however, means that resignation cannot happen so easily; otherwise, the person in question would take all the cycles with them—but I do not wish to speak of that at all. Now you can already buy the cycles at second-hand bookstores! You can see from this that we must already—and examples of this have occurred—take into account that the Anthroposophical Society is an organism; for just imagine: if the Anthroposophical Society were to dissolve, it would leave a corpse behind—the cycles are still there! Another society, one structured according to mechanical principles, can dissolve without leaving a corpse behind: the people go their separate ways; the program items are certainly not a corpse that remains. As I said, in these difficult times, we cannot think of reforms or anything of that sort, but what I want to say is something else. Do not believe, my dear friends, that one can now say: “Well, society can continue to exist after all—why shouldn’t it continue to exist?”—For then it does not truly exist; it does not live in truth! If it lives on the premise that cycles cannot be purchased from antiquarian booksellers, then—if they can in fact be purchased there—it does not live in truth, but in a lie. That goes without saying. And for the practice of Spiritual Science, truth—absolute truth—is necessary. One can disregard this in abstract thinking; but the one who knows how truth is a reality that acts in the world cannot disregard it.

[ 22 ] This is also something that draws into our souls when Spiritual Science becomes a feeling within us—that every thought is felt exactly as it exists in reality, whereas abstract thinking, which corresponds to materialism, really does not care how a thought exists in reality. But one really does have peculiar experiences when one tries to write down thoughts—let’s say—that live in reality. What kind of experiences does one have with them today? One finds that people, at most, treat them just like any other thoughts, such as those found in the newspaper. Isn’t that right? After all, they don’t necessarily have to have the same “reality value” as a long editorial in the Piccolo della Sera that once fell into my hands, which went on and on at great length about some fact or other. You could read it—and what you really took away from it was probably indignation—across three columns; and then you read on: the whole thing had been denied! You didn’t even have to wait until the next evening for the denial—it was in the same paper! It doesn’t have to go that far, but, as I said, the worst that can happen to you today if you try to present true thoughts—that is, not just thoughts you believe to be true, but those you know to be true—is that they’ll be taken, at most, just like anything else. People read them the same way they read newspapers, which, after all, are usually valid for only 24 hours—usually. Yes, this awareness of responsibility—of living within reality through one’s thoughts—is something that must come with Spiritual Science. And if the gravity of our times is to admonish us to anything, it is precisely this: to feel responsible for one’s thoughts. All of this, my dear friends, shows how limited thinking becomes when it is confined solely to the conscious, which is, after all, initially bound to the material. Therefore, we should not be surprised that those cultural currents in the course of human development—which are meant to penetrate more deeply than everyday life—also seek to take into account factors beyond what merely affects ordinary consciousness. And so it has always been with the deeper religious cultural impulses. Why, then, did something like the Easter cult enter the history of human development? And why was this Easter cult associated with cosmology—with what takes place out there in the vast expanses of the heavens between the sun and the moon? Because if human beings were limited solely to earthly experiences, they would fall into the most extreme short-sightedness in their thinking, feeling, and willing. Only in this way can human beings gain a broader perspective on life and expand their thoughts—by correctly integrating not only their physical sense of self into earthly experiences, but also their astral subconscious into the great cosmic events.

[ 23 ] If the most important thought of all—the thought of immortality—is linked to the cosmos, this truly has a solid foundation in religious terms. For if human beings were derived solely from what is earthly, they would never even conceive of the idea of immortality. If human beings were, as mere materialism in the natural sciences would have us believe, merely highly evolved apes, there would be nothing within them that could give rise to this idea of immortality.

[ 24 ] Incidentally, I can give you a nice little example of just how limited the natural scientists’ thinking is in this area when they try to get philosophical: A few days ago, I opened a book in which someone—he may not be a member of a monist society, but he could be—expresses views in line with the monist societies, in a materialistic sense, regarding the connection between humans and apes; not in the sense that is, of course, justified and as we ourselves have often done. Right at the beginning of one of his treatises, he says he could cite evidence that travelers have come across certain regions where, due to cultural degeneration, people have sunk so low that they possess the same instincts and drives as apes. Well, if one witnesses this—he says—that humans can sink to the level of apes, if humans can evolve to behave like apes, then it follows logically, of course, that humans can also evolve from apes. Of course—logic! It’s quite clear, isn’t it: As a person grows older, a child becomes an old man—you can see that without even traveling. In the same sense, a person goes from being a child to an old man, just as—don’t you see—through cultural degeneration, a person sinks down to the level of an ape. And just as logical as it is to say, “If humans can become apes, why shouldn’t apes also become humans?”—so too, using the same logic, one could say, “If a child becomes an old man, why shouldn’t an old man, in turn, become a child?” The logic is exactly the same. The worst part is not merely that people develop such logic, but that all of this is read, and people fail to realize what a completely flattened sheet of metal actually underlies these ideas.

[ 25 ] If human beings were truly connected only to earthly conditions, if what is within them came solely from the Earth, then they would never conceive of the idea of immortality. One can now—whether through Spiritual Science or by other means—bring human beings into connection with the cosmos, with that which is extraterrestrial; then the idea of immortality can blossom within them. One can also come along and say: All this rambling about extraterrestrial conditions is nothing but pure fantasy. One can do that; one can remove the spiritual from humanity’s spiritual perception. That is precisely what monistic materialism is attempting today, to a sufficient degree, in all manner of fields. But one cannot remove it from the human soul, for human beings are not merely of the earth; they do not consist solely of earthly conditions. Therefore, let science and the school of thought that leads people only to thoughts, feelings, and sensations about earthly matters continue to exist; then what is present in the depths of the human soul in the form of supersensible powers will still live on, though the person must repress it. Then, little by little, what constitutes the cultural illness of the repressed spiritual in the human soul will come to pass.

[ 26 ] These are serious times, and we cannot fully grasp the gravity of the situation in our hearts. But we will only truly grasp what is to prevail in this gravity of the times if we do not merely think of the external events that are to unfold through the harsh trials of our present age, but if we consider how what is to happen must at the same time be a sign of the spiritual elevation of the entire human race.

[ 27 ] Only if these difficult times reveal that at least a small number of people are imbued with the awareness that humanity needs spiritualization—can this time of severe trial become what is in accordance with the World Spirit. Not without this—no matter how things turn out otherwise—but with this—no matter how things turn out—good will spring forth for humanity.

[ 28 ] We can only grasp Spiritual Science if we see in it not only, as I have often said, a Christmas message, but also an Easter message—in the sense that we come to understand what must actually be perceived together with the idea of immortality for the whole being of the human being. Only then can we grasp immortality if we grasp the immortal in the human being. Fichte, Hegel, and many others already knew this: The human soul does not become immortal only after it has passed through death; it is immortal and can be found within us as that which is immortal; therefore, we must seek a science that, beyond the mortal body, grasps the immortal soul of the human being with the spiritual, the soulful eye.

[ 29 ] It is only natural that, in the glow of scientific progress over the last four centuries, reflections on spiritual life have had to recede, and with these reflections, the inclination toward the spiritual has also faded from the external world. But a time must come again when that Hieram—or, as we say, that part of Christ who is always present and speaks to us of the supersensible—will rise again, after having been buried during the “Holy Week” of cultural development. Truly, let us grasp the thought that back then, when the great Copernicus, the great Kepler, Galileo, and all those who initially had to direct people’s thoughts toward the external world appeared—that back then there was a cosmic Maundy Thursday, followed by a Good Friday. This view of the immortal was buried. But now the time has come when the cosmic Easter Sunday must dawn, and when that sacred celebration of the resurrection of human soul and spiritual knowledge must be observed. It is indeed fitting for us to have a Holy Week atmosphere in our present time. But only if we have the strength to prepare ourselves for the universal Easter Sunday will we be able to perform, within our inner spiritual experience, the ritual that is outwardly present in many forms as the Easter service. A somber, mournful atmosphere during Holy Week: the priests wear black mourning garments because the body of the deceased Christ rests in the tomb. Then comes the Resurrection: bright, cheerful spring attire replaces the black mourning garments the moment the thought of the Resurrection takes the place of the thought of the tomb. It is fitting for us today to wear mourning in our souls. But let us prepare ourselves so that we may wear the garments of Easter in spirit when times change once again.