The Rudolf Steiner Archive

7. The Lie of Modern Life

[ 1 ] Today, once again, I would like to begin our reflections on matters that we have also addressed in previous reflections. I have spoken of the customs of certain brotherhoods and described some of what takes place in the practices of such brotherhoods, specifically noting how—I might say—the deeper impulses of the occult brotherhoods are still contained, though withered into a dry shell, within modern Freemasonry. Last time, in particular, I took up the custom that represents the burial and resurrection—which, when all is said and done, is nothing other than what one might call the Easter custom. Today, as I said, I want to take as my starting point something else that is connected to these matters.

[ 2 ] In these circles, when referring to what one is seeking—what one is actually striving for—it is said that one is searching for “the lost word.” Well, I cannot go into details—that would take us too far afield—but if one wishes to investigate a little, using, I would say, obvious means, what is meant by “the lost Word,” one need only consider the beginning of the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word.” In Greek, the Word was always: the Logos. “And the Word was with God; and the Word was God.” This word—as we have often discussed—does not, of course, refer to what we now call a ‘word,’ but rather to something entirely different. One can only come close to understanding what is actually meant by it if one remembers—and we have, in fact, discussed such things here in the last few hours—that humanity in ancient times possessed a primordial revelation, a primordial wisdom. Imagine this primordial wisdom, which was given to humanity—still in its infancy—in the manner discussed here; imagine it in its full scope and then call it the Logos, the primordial Word; then you will have a rough mental image of what is meant by the word “Logos.” And one might well say: That which was once given—through the mediation of higher spirits—to humanity, which was still in its infancy, as a wisdom that far surpasses everything we can already know today, even in our Spiritual Science—that has been lost. And it is a beautiful custom when, in such brotherhoods, at least this one feeling, this one sense, is stirred: that something like this has been lost and that it must be sought once more. Of course, it is not actually found within these brotherhoods. Otherwise, all those who have attained a certain degree within such brotherhoods would be wise, just as the primordial sages of humanity—who were once instructed by the gods—were. And this is not exactly evident in those known to have attained certain degrees within such brotherhoods; otherwise, the world would look quite different. But in the ceremony, in the ritual, something is revealed that serves as a symbol of this loss of primordial wisdom and its rediscovery. Such a thing is meant to sink into the souls of humanity so that, when they pass through the gate of death, journey through the spiritual world, and return to Earth, they may at least then have an understanding of that which—indeed, one might even say, already today—is necessary as the wisdom of the Earth.

[ 3 ] So the lost word is being sought. And, when it comes down to it, all of our Spiritual Science is a search for the lost word. But if this lost word is still spoken today—that is, if something is said from within the realm of Spiritual Science—then all the people who have become wise in our time—and we have, after all, made such magnificent progress in every field—come forward and say: “Daydreaming! Fantasizing! Nonsense! — if not even worse things. But in the first part of our reflection today, since we are among ourselves, let us once again turn to such a chapter of Spiritual Science that is precisely capable of revealing to us many of the mysteries that are the very mysteries of human existence itself. One cannot, however, even say that what Spiritual Science seeks to bring to light today was always so completely unknown. I myself have spoken publicly about a forgotten tone in recent spiritual life, a forgotten current in which much of what serves as a seed for Spiritual Science has been alive.

[ 4 ] When we look at human beings today, we know that what the physical eyes see in a person is, in a sense, only the outer aspect of that person—the physical body. Within this physical body, the etheric body is active and essential. But one does not get very far—not far at all—if one knows nothing more than that human beings have an etheric body, if one is familiar with this term and, at most, holds the mental image with which many are already satisfied: that the etheric body is simply something thinner than the physical body, more mist-like and luminous. But that doesn’t get you very far. This etheric body is truly a very, very complex structure. You see, when we look at human beings as they are today: they are, after all, different from one another, aren’t they? The European is different from the African, and different from the Asian. Such differences must be acknowledged. But when we let our gaze wander over the whole of humanity, we must admit—despite all the differences among people—that these human beings across the entire Earth are much more similar to one another than animals are. For even though Europeans and Africans differ significantly from one another—if we consider finer distinguishing characteristics—we cannot say that the difference between people could ever be as great as that between a stork and a mouse, can we? So animals differ from one another to a much greater degree than people do. Animals are separated from one another into species, whereas the human race can truly be said to constitute a single species. Thus, when we let our gaze wander over the animal kingdom of the Earth, we see the most diverse array of animals, vastly different from one another. Let us take this in for a moment and turn our attention back to the consideration of our etheric body. Our etheric body is, so to speak, held together within us by the elastic force of the physical body. As long as we live between birth and death, the etheric body is held together in this way by the elastic force of the physical body. Just create a mental image of it pictorially in this way: if one could—which, of course, is impossible as long as a human being is to remain alive, but if one could do so experimentally, so that even a natural scientist would ultimately be convinced—experimentally separate a human being’s physical body from the etheric body, that is, if one could pull out the etheric body and then also separate the astral body and the “I” from the etheric body, then—because the elasticity of the physical body would no longer be present—this etheric body would shatter into many fragments. This etheric body is a composite of many, many individual parts and is held together solely by the elasticity of the physical body.

[ 5 ] And what would these parts—which would emerge from us if we could separate ourselves from the physical body—look like? Yes, you see, as strange as this may sound to today’s intelligent people, it is nevertheless true: These parts of the etheric body would take on forms, and they would roughly correspond to the entire animal kingdom—that is, all the possible forms of the animal kingdom would come into view. It would indeed be the case that a certain part of your etheric body—that of the head—would take on a bird-like form, a certain part of the etheric body, for example from the region near the larynx, would be a very beautiful, almost angelic animal form, and so on. So, essentially, we carry the entire animal kingdom within us in our etheric body. This is absolutely true. Our etheric body is the expanded animal kingdom, which is compressed and held together by the elasticity of the physical body. When evolution was still at other stages, in earlier primeval times, the entire human form was, in fact, distributed among the many animals. When one considers this, one can finally understand what is today regarded, in a crude and simplistic way, as Darwinism. Humanity had, as it were, prepared itself by differentiating what it would later develop solely as the etheric body, much like the diverse branches of today’s animal kingdom, which at that time looked somewhat different from today’s, transformed animal kingdom. Today’s animal kingdom is no longer the one from which humanity could have descended, but a completely different animal kingdom. But the forces that are spread throughout this animal kingdom have, so to speak, been extracted and are still present in our etheric body today. Now just imagine what we actually have within us. For through this animal kingdom, we already possess within ourselves all the instincts and all the various drives of the animals. They are merely harmonized and brought into a unified whole by the fact that all of this is united through the elasticity of our physical body. As physical human beings, we are human—as physical human beings. And we received our physical form from the spirits of form during our earthly existence. As physical human beings, we keep everything that is within us in check. Occasionally, one impulse or another comes to the surface when some part of the etheric body gains the upper hand.

[ 6 ] Just think what a complex tapestry we humans actually are, and how it is, in essence, impossible to reach people through these very things—the very things that are necessary to understand the world in the first place. This becomes clear when someone, out of what I would call a stroke of genius, intuits something of the truth. And such people have existed in the course of recent spiritual development. For example, Schelling’s student, Ofen, through his genius, conceived the idea: Human beings are a synthesis of the entire animal kingdom. Not in the sense of contemporary Darwinism—I mentioned just the other day, in a single word, the illogicality that modern people display when they speak of contemporary Darwinism—but Oken sensed something of the reality. He did not yet have the means of Spiritual Science to express the matter as we can today, but he sensed something of this fact—of the entire animal kingdom being embedded within the human being—and he boldly articulated it. But he was ridiculed, particularly by those who came after his time. For just imagine: what is a thoroughly intelligent, infinitely clever person of the present day supposed to make of it when Oken states, for example, what he did: “The tongue is a squid!” Yet Oken wanted to make clear to people what I have just hinted at—based on Spiritual Science and his own brilliant intuition. He wanted to show that the individual parts, as they are formed from the etheric body, actually have something to do with the forms of animals. For example, he traced the ear back to a kind of combination of a stork and a mouse, but he traced the tongue back to the nature of the octopus. Of course, he was ridiculed for such ideas. But one can see that what may seem so ridiculous is actually a foreshadowing of something that must form a deep knowledge and take root in humanity, especially in the times to come. For one will not be able to comprehend the phenomena of this world without knowing such things. And one will only be able to judge reality if one knows such things.

[ 7 ] You see, it is primarily the spirits of form that act upon our physical body. During the Earth period, these spirits of form give form only to human beings. Animals have their inherited form from the ancient lunar evolution. This animal form is therefore a Luciferic form; it is a form that has remained behind from the ancient lunar evolution. What was once purely etheric has hardened. Human beings receive their outer physical form from the spirits of form, and within them, the spirits of form are less active. Thus, the spirits of form exert less influence on the etheric body than do the spirits of personality—those spiritual beings we refer to as Archangeloi or Angeloi. They act upon the etheric body and are involved in directing the diversity within the etheric body that I have just described. And when we delve into the more precise facts of Spiritual Science, we must be very clear, for example, about the fact that all those forces arising from the Folk-souls also act upon our etheric body. What we perceive with our physical body—what we see through our eyes and hear through our ears—is already of an international nature. The national element is rooted much more deeply in the unconsciousness of, for example, the etheric body. I described this from a different perspective here about a year and a half ago. In short, the human being comes to realize how complex his being actually is and what he must seek—from what once existed as primordial wisdom—in order to understand himself.

[ 8 ] And there are, in essence, profound images—wisdom conveyed to people through images—that can be understood if one is willing. Suppose, for a moment, that we are speaking or singing: it is a mere prejudice to believe that it is merely the physical body that is in motion. The main part of the movement takes place in the etheric body and unfolds within that diversity in the etheric body of which I have just spoken. That is why what comes to consciousness in singing or in the art of sound in general—arising as it does from such subconscious depths—cannot easily be put into words, precisely because it is connected to the very complexity of the etheric body. And how closely connected to the rest of the world do we feel when we realize that what is spread out there as the animal kingdom lives within our etheric body in the manner that has been described. Of course, when an impulse seeks to become active within us, it must rise up into the astral body. These things do not contradict one another, provided one considers them properly in reality. So when one speaks of the presence of drives and instincts in human beings, one must naturally attribute them to the astral body. But the similarity of form, as has now been discussed in relation to the animal kingdom, underlies the matter.

[ 9 ] And again, if we were to consider our astral body—if we could separate it in the way I have just described for the separation of the etheric body—it would disintegrate, for it, too, is held together only by the elasticity of the physical and etheric bodies; it would disintegrate and would resemble something like the entire plant kingdom. Indeed, because we have an astral body, everything that spreads out in the world in the manifold forms of the plant kingdom is contained within us. If you study the entire plant world—the way one form stands beside another—you have an external image, a fan-like image of what is condensed within the human astral body. This, too, is part of the lost word. In primordial wisdom, there was an awareness of these things. That is why it was said: Thus there is something in human beings that expresses their deepest, innermost kinship with the nature of trees and plants. Read Germanic mythology; mythologies are, after all, merely a later expression of humanity’s primordial wisdom. There you will see how the first human race is derived from the ash and the elm, and embedded within this is a sense of this kinship between human beings and plant nature, which is based on the fact that human beings themselves stood on the level of the plant kingdom during the Sun era and on the level of the animal kingdom during the Moon era.

[ 9 ] And within the astral body, in turn, we carry the true “I.” In our outer, physical life, human beings know very little about this true “I.” Of course, philosophers know a great deal about it! They know, for example, that this “I”—as perceived by a person in the physical body—is that which remains constant from birth to death through all the changes a person undergoes in the soul. Philosophers know this. One can read about it in countless philosophical books. It is as if people had forgotten that a person always sleeps for part of the twenty-four hours, and this “I” is left out; and every period of sleep interrupts this constancy of the “I” amidst the changes! But something like that does not bother the philosophers in the least, of course, for they are, after all, clever—very clever!

[ 10 ] When we speak of the “I,” we must speak of that aspect within the human being which, for example, not only possesses consciousness while awake, but is also present when the person is asleep; which unfolds its powers out into the entire universe; which is permeated, interwoven, and pulsed through by the spiritual forces of the cosmos while the person sleeps: we carry this within us unconsciously. And if we could extract it from the human being, just as we have described for the etheric body and the astral body, we would obtain from this “I” the entire picture of the mineral cosmos with all its various cosmic mysteries. Within this “I” is condensed everything that is spread out throughout the entire cosmos. We therefore carry the mineral cosmos within us.

[ 11 ] This gives us a picture of what a human being actually is and how he or she is related to the cosmos. And when we speak of human beings as consisting of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an “I,” we must not accept this as mere words, but rather remember that we can only truly understand what lies behind these words when, through Spiritual Science, we are able to truly grasp the entire connection between human beings and the cosmos.

[ 12 ] Yes, that would be a chapter from the Spiritual Science. And it would certainly be necessary for people to step back at least a little from our present era and, in more general terms, find their way into an understanding of such matters. For people today speak about human beings in the most incomprehensible way, precisely because they speak in a “clever” way in the contemporary sense; they speak in the most incomprehensible way. And our times present us with greater challenges than can be solved with such incomprehensible science and wisdom. But how people resist even taking in the slightest notion of something like what has just been explained again! And it is not a matter of knowing precisely these things, but rather of learning to think in this way, of acquiring that flexibility of thought that one simply must have in order to grasp such matters clearly. Anyone who sees through these matters today knows that, as a result of the severe trials of the present, humanity will soon be faced with very, very difficult tasks—tasks that perhaps few people today can even begin to imagine. But one should not believe that it will be possible to solve these tasks with the flexibility and adaptability of thought that people possess today. When one considers such things in direct connection with the severe trials of our time, one will gain an entirely different sense of the necessity of instilling Spiritual Science into human minds, beginning right now. Blood fertilizes our earth. But something must develop on this blood-fertilized earth in the future that truly requires a different way of thinking than the one that can arise from the more or less materialistic development of the nineteenth century—a development whose significance and great triumphs, as you know, are by no means overlooked by the Spiritual Science practitioner. For it is precisely the karma of this materialistic development of the nineteenth century that has brought about, as its consequence, the rivers of blood and all the sorrowful events taking place in the present.

[ 13 ] No, I say, people will not find their way into it, will not somehow develop the courage—even if they wish to gain a cursory acquaintance with Spiritual Science—to do for this Spiritual Science, wherever they can, what must be done. For it is indeed very peculiar—one must say: this Spiritual Science is ridiculed, mocked, and denounced as fantasy or daydreaming in words. But is that actually the case in reality?

[ 14 ] There is a phenomenon to be discussed that can show us the profound lie we are actually living. I would like to present you with a clear example of just how untrue the conditions prevailing among people today actually are in this regard. Do you recall a passage in that cycle where the discussion of Christian initiation takes place? There, the washing of the feet is described as the first stage of initiation—a symbolic expression of something a person is meant to practice within their soul. It describes how a person is to develop certain feelings and sensations that lead to perceiving their connection with the entire universe of the realms of nature. Indeed, when one looks into this connection and gazes down upon the animal kingdom with deep, heartfelt feeling, one says to oneself: This animal kingdom must exist as the foundation of the human kingdom. What would we, the more highly developed creatures, be if the lower kingdom were not there? To make this a living feeling is the beginning of the first degree of Christian initiation. And then, to realize how, in turn, the animal—belonging to the higher kingdom—must look down upon the plants and say: “You, plant, though you stand lower than I in the order of phenomena, I owe my existence to you.” And in turn, the plant must feel its way down to the mineral from which it grows, to the mineral soil, and say: “I owe my existence to you.” And so the angels pray, looking down upon the human realm: “To you humans, who stand on a lower stage of development, we owe our existence!” And so on, higher and higher. Thus, that which one can conceive of, that which one can explore, is transformed into a fundamental feeling of the human soul.

[ 15 ] Our dear friend, the brave Christian Morgenstern, who remained so faithful to our cause, has captured this very foot-washing in a beautiful poem. What was said years ago in connection with Christian initiation is reflected in Morgenstern’s last collection of poems—published posthumously and titled Wir fanden einen Pfad (We Found a Path)—in the beautiful poem “Die Fußwaschung” (The Washing of the Feet):

I thank you, silent stone,
and bow down toward you:
I owe my existence as a plant to you.

I thank you, O Ground and Bloom
and bow down toward you:
You helped me rise to become an animal.

I thank you, stone, plant, and animal,
and I bow down to you:
All three of you helped me become Myself.

We thank you, O Son of Man,
and humbly bow down before you:
For it is because you are that we are.

It gives thanks from all divinity—One—
and the diversity of all divinity once more.
In gratitude, all being is absorbed.

[ 16 ] And Christian Morgenstern, who for years lived among us with his sensibilities, courageously affirmed—precisely in this, his last collection of poems—what flows through our philosophical movement. So much, then, for Christian Morgenstern, who of course bears no responsibility whatsoever for what I am about to say. For if Christian Morgenstern were still among us today as a physical human being—he did, after all, pass through the gates of death two years ago—he would most certainly be advocating for our cause even more strongly and courageously with his entire being. But now a review of Morgenstern’s poems has appeared. Many things are said in this review, including, of course, good things about Christian Morgenstern; for it was already known before his death that he was a significant poet—why, then, should the person writing such a review now have forgotten that? Naturally, nothing is said about how Christian Morgenstern, precisely through everything that flows through this volume of poetry, stands entirely within our movement. But something else is said: the poem I just read aloud is cited, and regarding this poem it is said that one can see from it that a person can have a perspective that portrays the spiritual in parables and yet, at the same time, entirely without parables. And the following is said about this poem: “There is no image in these wondrous stanzas; but amidst the incorporeal, entirely spiritual poems, this poem exerts a special power because the earthly becomes visible in it: is still visible in it. It appears realistic, addressed directly, not as a parable. The path of humanity: like the earlier, earthly pieces; now he wanders on, as verses of the beyond proclaim. This venerable poem is a creation of this world; and, perhaps for that reason, to my mind, the greatest in this book, the greatest that Morgenstern created, and one of the greatest poems ever written in German poetry.”

[ 17 ] Christian Morgenstern would, of course, be the first to say that this poem could never have emerged from the intellectual context in which Ernst Lissauer wrote this critique; rather, Christian Morgenstern would, of course, courageously argue that this poem was written from an entirely different intellectual context. — There you have an example of the lie we live by. This is how things are accepted when one does not need to stand up for the soil from which they spring, when one can still reserve the right to regard such things as the most beautiful blossoms of intellectual life and continue to call the soil from which they spring a daydream, a fantasy, a sham!

[ 18 ] These are the things, my dear friends, within which we live. Truly, I would like to share with you other, perhaps more uplifting thoughts as part of our Easter reflections. But our times—our bloody times—make it necessary for us to truly take this to heart, to truly feel the karmic development in which we are actually living. These are serious times, and we must have an understanding of their gravity. That, in itself, is the most uplifting feeling we can cultivate in these times. And we must look at things with open eyes. Let us look at specific examples; let us consider, for instance, what we experience daily, even hourly, in terms of the capacity for judgment that has arisen from the spiritual faculties developed in the nineteenth century and carried into the twentieth. One can have such experiences every day. I will cite just a few examples for you.

[ 19 ] Shortly after the outbreak of the war, a poem was sent to me time and again—or placed on my desk—which was claimed to have been found among Robert Hamerling’s papers as a prophecy of the present time. One need only have become somewhat familiar with Robert Hamerling’s poetic style to know that not a single line of this poem could possibly have come from Robert Hamerling. Nevertheless, a whole series of newspapers repeatedly and admiringly discussed how Hamerling—who, after all, died in 1889—had foretold the present era in his poetry. Many people fell for this at a time when it was already possible to know that the poem was a forgery. I was astonished at how relatively late, for example, Maximilian Harden in Zukunft fell for this poem. And Harden needs “beautiful” words—beautiful in quotation marks—to express how one can feel Robert Hamerling’s muse through the noble verses of this poem. A few days ago, one could buy an evening paper here that featured an editorial discussing the bitter pill that has been thrust upon us as an “Easter pill” in the present day. And one could gauge the seriousness with which the newspaper addressed this matter by the fact that in this editorial—which discusses a bitterly serious issue—this poem “by Robert Hamerling” is cited once again at the very end! This is a perfect example of how seriously every other line must be taken where such discernment—or rather, the very opposite of all discernment—is present.

[ 20 ] And tonight, countless people will learn from an evening newspaper what the situation in Switzerland is like. It explains it all very clearly: the Swiss way of life. People will now know what political, military, and economic hardships the Swiss are actually facing right now. That will be laid out for them. I’d like to know whether even those who are capable of doing so will read the byline of this article and judge it accordingly: Max Hochdorf is listed as the author—the very man who wrote that idiotic article about our cause; I cited him in a public lecture at the Architektenhaus. The same love of truth that one finds there when he writes about us should, of course, also be sought in an article like this. And if one were to draw such conclusions, one would discover the very methods by which people’s minds are being hammered into shape today to judge the times—the dullness and thoughtlessness in the lives of those who allow themselves to be indoctrinated with a judgment about the times and about what is active and alive within them. One must compare and investigate everywhere; then one will see how worthless everything is that is hammered into people’s minds today as a result of contemporary education and the conditions of the times.

[ 21 ] All sorts of things are being hammered into people’s heads. One would think that today there might at least be a basic understanding of the progress we have made in Europe and in the Western world in general by transitioning from the Germanic-mythological gods—who were certainly held in the highest esteem and perhaps even bordered on primordial wisdom—to Christianity. One would think that there might at least be a basic understanding of this. Nevertheless, in a magazine that has just been published, the following regret is expressed regarding the fact that ancient Germanic culture has found its way into Christianity:

[ 22 ] “The conflict in our thinking—into which we Germans were led by the introduction of the Christian religion—did not exist for our ancestors. Their worldview and outlook on life recognized the struggle in nature as the eternal law of life; it appeared to them as the natural order of things; just as the struggle of light against darkness, so too does the struggle of the sons of light against the children of darkness, of the good against the evil, endure eternally. They knew that their gods were merely images”—just think: what a load of nonsense! — “Through which they perceived the world of phenomena; the world of their faith and their cause was at the same time that of their poetry”—well, of course he’s licking his fingers over this, because he’s so clever! — “Have we truly moved beyond them today? — — I fear not; and the difficulties the traditionalists face in solving the problems of the present terrible world events only show us that the strong roots of our strength lie in the heroic worldview and outlook on life of our ancestors.”

[ 23 ] So, should the Wotan and Thor services be reinstated as quickly as possible? It is, however, a magazine in which, in the past, the most shameful attacks—directed specifically against our cause—were once published. Even today, people are not permitted to shut themselves off within the sphere of vision that lies between certain eyelids and then assert all manner of worldview principles within that sphere. What a variety of things are held in such high esteem as worldview principles today! Indeed, one has some peculiar experiences in this regard. And, my dear friends, the worldview that is so trivially called “theosophical” is by no means entirely free from participating in this, shall we say, general delusion. This general delusion is actually quite widespread. The most manifold overgrowth of this or that impulse, caused by the overgrowth of a part of the etheric body—now you can create a mental image of this based on the description I’ve given today—comes to the surface. Isn’t that so? Arrogance, for example, is something that runs through all of our current literature. Everyone makes a point of showing just how important they actually are. Indeed, it’s almost impossible to write anything these days without people making a point of showing just how important they actually are. I have often said: Part of esoteric development consists in not merely perceiving nonsense as nonsense on a logical level, but in being able to feel physical pain in the process. This physical pain, which could almost drive one to despair, can truly be felt quite, quite frequently today when reading through this or that—things that might otherwise be quite sensible.

[ 24 ] Here’s a small example: I have a little book—I won’t go into its contents any further. The author is Thomas Mann, one of those whom many today regard as the most enlightened minds. He also discusses the way in which one should consider the causes of the current war. Well, I don’t want to go into that. But as he looks at the judgments of others, he says: “A little courage for clarity of thought, ladies and gentlemen!”—He thinks that others lack the courage for clarity of thought. So the man is not exactly modest! And now comes the part that could really make one jump up in pain. Now he wants to prove where the causes lie. He says: “Waging war requires two or more parties, and if only Germany had been prepared to let it come down to the ultima ratio, if the others had not also, as the correct saying goes, ‘accepted the war as part of their will’ and enthusiastically preferred it to a diplomatic success for Germany—well! then it would not have happened.” — It takes two to wage war; otherwise, war does not happen—of course, that is the logic by which we think today. So that means: If one side attacks, and there aren’t two sides that want it, there will be no war. It takes two to wage war; both must want it. That is the logic, my dear friends—a logic that is further emphasized by saying: “Have the courage to think clearly, ladies and gentlemen!” Some people sense such realities, and they then cultivate humility and modesty within themselves. But often this modesty strikes one in such a way that one could characterize it with a poem by Matthias Claudius, a beautiful poem about the modesty to which one surrenders. I do not wish to speak about modesty, but rather to let this poem speak for itself. The poem is called—please forgive me—“The Donkey.”

I have nothing to rejoice in,
I am foolish and ugly,
Without courage and without strength;
People, young and old,
Mock me and shun me;
I am neither warm nor cold;
I have nothing to be happy about,
I am foolish and misshapen;

[ 25 ] He's modest, isn't he!

I must chew on straw and thistles;
I’ll grow old beneath the sacks —
Ah, nature created me in Grimme!
She gave me nothing but a beautiful voice.

[ 26 ] Some people who are establishing a worldview today seem so modest. They are modest in all things, even modest about what one must learn in order to develop a worldview. But they know full well: nature has given them the courage to seek clarity of mind, just as—forgive me—it has given the donkey its beautiful voice.

[ 27 ] As I said, these things—as much as they may seem to take place on the level of everyday life—must certainly be taken into account; one must indeed turn one’s attention to them. For it is far more important to acquire the ability to think flexibly than to possess individual truths of Spiritual Science. Given the power of clarity of thought and the breadth and flexibility of thought required to find one’s way into the recognition of Spiritual Science truth, one cannot help but sense and perceive where what I have characterized as a “life lie,” arrogance, and all manner of things of this sort—which so often dominate life today—are present. It is not the fault of the broad masses of people. Anyone, my dear friends, who knows human life knows that if it depended solely on human nature, it would be just as possible that, just as many of you here are embracing Spiritual Science, two-thirds of Berlin would embrace Spiritual Science! It is not the fault of human beings as such, nor of the broad masses of people. It is due to the circumstances and the leading figures. This must be clearly and distinctly understood. And not so much the leading figures themselves as the currents into which these leading figures have been forced by the times—which have led to a situation where today everyone believes they can pass judgment on everything without any foundation of insight into world phenomena. People say, after all, that a great deal of witty writing is produced today, if one takes the perspective of the truly intelligent. In truth, a great deal of nonsense is being spouted. One could also say here that a great deal of “Kohler-ism” is being spouted; for Professor Dr. Kohler is a professor at the University of Berlin, a scholar of law, and a Neo-Hegelian. Therefore, one could also replace the word “spout” with “Kohler-ism.” Yes, just take a look at what such Neo-Hegelianists are “kohlerning” together from a somewhat thorough standpoint! As I said, it is necessary to have an open eye and a free mind for what is alive in our contemporary culture and in contemporary thought.

[ 28 ] For truly, just as people heroically shed their blood, so too would they turn to the Spirit if that Spirit could reach them in the right way. It is not up to people. This is demonstrated by all the great sacrifices and great deeds being performed in our time.

[ 29 ] It is essential, my dear friends, that from such topics in Spiritual Science—as they have once again been discussed today—we draw the will to truly have an open mind and a free spirit toward what is alive in our surroundings. I spoke to you recently about how, in many respects, we simply talk past one another. Using a groundbreaking book by Professor Schleich as a specific example, I showed you how we can talk past one another. Please read at least a few chapters of this book. This book is a perfect example of how, in truth, things are quite different from what human opinions would have us believe. In truth, even truly honest people work much like one works in a tunnel: from two sides, so that they meet in the middle. Read, for example, the chapter that ends with the mention of Goethe’s note—which is supposedly yet to be found, but which has actually been found since 1892—this chapter on the “Myth of Metabolism in the Brain” —as Schleich calls this chapter—then you will sense how an honest, serious researcher, who is at the same time a thinker, is led by the necessities of his anatomical and surgical investigations—which he was able to conduct in numerous cases because they were surgically required of him—to describe something. Read this chapter, and you will see what Schleich is actually describing from the other side: he is, in reality, describing the etheric body of the head! He is compelled, driven by the necessary facts, to describe this etheric body.

[ 30 ] Blessing will only come when people realize that Spiritual Science is at work from the other side. For they will not be able to make sense of all that is presented by one-sided natural science. When one has to see again and again—oh, it is painful—that natural scientists are actually working from the other side and describing things as far as they can from that other side, whereas Spiritual Science comes from a broad, comprehensive worldview, one gets the feeling: these people actually have in their hands the very thing that is at stake. But how do they have it in their hands? They have it in their hands like someone who holds a piece of magnetic iron—a horseshoe magnet—and says: “You claim there’s a magnetic force in there; I see the physical iron!”—and who takes this physical iron and uses it to shoe a horse. Just imagine: People who stand solely on the ground of natural science behave exactly like the one who shoes a horse, instead of using magnetism—from which something entirely different could arise than a horseshoe nailed to a horse; for that, the iron doesn’t need to be magnetic—it might not even be good if it is magnetic. Just imagine what else might emerge from all that our natural science has produced if it were possible for people, free of prejudice and with an open mind, to truly engage with what Spiritual Science has to offer them. And consider how this applies to every field. How helpless—how utterly helpless—are the economic studies of today’s so-called intelligent people! You have no idea what would become of today’s economics if people were willing to engage with what Spiritual Science has to offer. And so it is in all, all fields. Everywhere we see that people have the iron, but they simply do not know that it is magnetic, that there is an invisible force within what they hold in their hands. That is what we feel, what we must perceive. Everywhere, people are being drawn toward the spirit by the necessity of development. But public opinion is so biased that it cannot acknowledge this spirit.

[ 31 ] To truly make this feeling our own—that is precisely what we are now experiencing in the context of contemporary history and current events. And what is it that I mentioned just the other day? What particularly characterizes our time is that circumstances and events have become complicated, and our thoughts cannot even remotely encompass these complicated events. And so everything fragments. People pass each other by. Everything is fragmenting. Everyone finds their own method in their particular field and has no inkling that there is a historical necessity for all of this to be truly illuminated by Spiritual Science.

[ 32 ] Well, I have often said here: Every physical event has its spiritual side. Just how closely connected we are to the world is shown by the fact that we are returned to the world when we pass through the gate of death. What I have said about the etheric body refers to the period between birth and death. The situation is different when, held together by the “I” and the astral body, the etheric body is initially preserved for a few days after death and then surrendered to the cosmos. Then it functions as I have often described. Many such etheric bodies—as I have often said—of those who passed through the gate of death at a young age are currently in the spiritual sphere and remain there with all the spiritual content that comes from their sacrificial death. They can serve as helpers for the spiritualization of humanity in the future. But here on Earth there must be human souls who understand what hovers ethereally around human beings as a precious remnant of those who have passed through the sacrificial death. This will be a real, not merely an abstract, process of remembrance. And it will be up to the people who are here to place these forces—which may come from the still-young etheric bodies—at the service of humanity, wherever they wish to direct them. If human souls here are not yet mature enough for this, then these forces will have to flow into Ahrimanic-Luciferic currents. Spiritual Science shows us not only insights, not only feelings, my dear friends, but also responsibilities—responsibilities that we are to faithfully bring to life within our souls.

[ 41 ] And, fundamentally speaking, this is the true outcome of such a contemplation as we have pursued today in one direction and then another, when we learn to feel the responsibility that the human soul also bears toward the times that are unfolding—times that must bring about events wherever they are destined to unfold on soil fertilized by blood. Only when we take inspiration—not in a light, sentimental sense, but in a genuine, serious sense—from contemplating the connection between humanity and the world, as Spiritual Science can provide it, will we truly understand the words that are often used here and that are meant to awaken in our souls the feelings so necessary for people today in the face of major historical events:

[ 33 ] From the courage of the fighters, From the blood of the battles, From the suffering of the forsaken,

[ 34 ] From the people’s acts of sacrifice, the fruit of the spirit grows—guiding souls with spiritual awareness

[ 35 ] Your mind into the spirit realm!