The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Second Lecture

[ 1 ] Today, I would like to begin our reflections with a simple fact that is plain for all to see. When we let our gaze wander over natural phenomena, if we observe them intelligently and attentively, they actually appear to us as two realms that are sharply distinct from one another: a realm of the utmost regularity and order, and a realm of connections that are at first almost impenetrable, of irregularity, and of manifold disorder; at least, that is how it is perceived. Conventional natural science does not clearly distinguish between these two realms of natural existence, and yet these two realms are strictly separate from one another. On the one hand, we have everything that occurs with the regularity with which, for example, the sun rises every morning and sets every evening, with which the stars rise and set, as well as everything that appears in a certain connection with sunrises and sunsets: with regularity, the shoots of growth appear in spring, develop during the summer, wither, and fade away in the fall. And we see many similar phenomena, which must be perceived as exhibiting great regularity and order, in this one realm of nature.

[ 2 ] But there is another aspect of nature that cannot be perceived in the same way. One cannot anticipate a thunderstorm in the same way one anticipates the sunrise in the morning or the sunset in the evening; it does not occur with such regularity. With the same certainty with which we say, “Tomorrow, when it is ten o’clock, we will see the sun in a certain place in the sky,” we cannot say, “We will see a certain cloud formation in a certain place,” or even say anything about what that cloud formation will look like. Nor can we say with the same certainty with which we predict this or that phase of the moon: “At such and such a time, a storm or rainy weather will take the Dornach building by surprise.” It will be possible to calculate with a certain degree of certainty when solar and lunar eclipses will occur centuries from now; however, it will not be possible to state with the same certainty when earthquakes or volcanic eruptions will take place.

[ 3 ] There they see two distinct realms of natural existence: one that manifests with great regularity, comprehensible to our minds, and another realm that cannot be perceived in the same way, one that appears as irregular. And what we call nature as a whole is, in essence, a convergence— I might say, of great regularity and irregularity; for at every moment, the overall impression we have of natural existence is determined by what occurs through the regular course of events and by what intermingles with this regular course—events that can surprise us and that, in fact, recur again and again, at least to a certain degree.

[ 4 ] Now, in the course of our reflections in a wide variety of contexts, we have often considered a profound truth—the truth that the human being is a microcosm in relation to the macrocosm, that in the human being we find, in a certain way, what we find out there in the universe on a grand scale. We can therefore expect that, in a certain sense, something like two realms must also be found within the human being: a realm of greater regularity and a realm of a certain irregularity. In human life, however, this will express itself in a different way, distinct from the way it does out there in nature; but something in human beings must remind us of the duality in nature between regularity and irregularity, order and disorder. And now, recall what we tried to illustrate yesterday using a typical example.

[ 5 ] That typical personality was capable of thinking logically when it mattered, could do math, make judgments, see the phenomena of the world in a certain context, survey and reflect on life in a regular and orderly manner to a certain degree, and act accordingly—in short, possessed everything that arises from the regular functioning of our intellect, our reason, our sensibility, and our volitional impulses. Alongside this, however, this individual led another life, one that found expression in the two works I have cited—a life of which you have been able to see, from the few examples I have drawn from the books’ contents, how turbulent it was, how irregular it was in comparison to what the ordinary, orderly mind presents to human beings. There were storms deep within the soul—deep storms—that played themselves out in the way we were able to describe yesterday. And truly, just as the coming and going of thunderstorms, weather storms, and winds interplay with the regular cycles of the sun and moon, and with the regular sprouting, withering, and dying of plants, so, too, do those storms—which must appear to us like waking dreams or like flashes of genius that dart through the soul like thunderstorms and discharge themselves like thunderstorms—play a part in the regular course of what develops from the human mind and the regular course of the human heart. But you will not doubt that what appeared in Otto Weininger only in an extreme, radically paradoxical way is present in potential within every human soul. It lies at the very foundation of every human soul. In ordinary human souls—which lack the predisposition to discover themselves as brilliantly as Weininger did—it manifests in the form of dreams—but always as dreams. Every human being has dreams, and dreams are, after all, what wells up from the depths of the astral body and is revealed through the astral body’s reflection in the etheric body. Present in every human nature is the waking consciousness—which a person like Weininger calls the philistine consciousness, the pedantic consciousness—as well as the other consciousness into which dreams break through.

[ 6 ] You see, these dreams, this whole world of dreams—one shouldn’t say that it exists only when you know, at night, that you are dreaming or have been dreaming. For people dream constantly. True dreaming—what is commonly called “true dreaming”—only occurs when one observes this continuous dreaming for a while. But in reality, one dreams continuously. And all of you sitting here—aside from the fact that the thoughts now being expressed in this lecture are alive within you, as I hope—you are all dreaming. You are all dreaming on the depths of your soul. And the dreaming you experience at night differs from what you are experiencing now only in that you now have other thoughts—the more conscious, the stronger ones—and these predominate for the vast majority of people, I think; whereas, when waking consciousness is subdued and cannot be perceived, but sleep is interrupted at the same time, what is now being dreamt in the subconscious can rise to the surface for a while. This results in a conscious dream. But the life of dreams continues unceasingly.

[ 7 ] Indeed, there is such a contrast in human nature between the regularity of ordinary thought and the irregularity of the dream life. And if one lacks this regularity of ordinary thought—if one does not know how to approach things rationally and instead perceives them one way at one moment and another way the next, unlike the sun, which rises in the same way every morning at the appropriate time—then one is not mentally healthy. Alongside this healthy waking consciousness, one has within one’s soul—at the very depths of one’s soul—the other realm; I would call it the stormy realm, the irregular realm.

[ 8 ] There is truly within us a reflection of the astronomical course of the celestial bodies in the sky in the forces that constitute waking consciousness. We would have no waking consciousness if we did not derive it from the course of the stars. But the forces at work out there—as you can also gather from a remark I made in the lecture series on “The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and of Humanity”—which we observe in meteorological phenomena, in wind and weather, in thunderstorms and earthquakes, are at work down in the depths of the soul, in the semi-conscious and subconscious life of the human being. In this respect, too, we truly repeat the macrocosm on a microcosmic level.

[ 9 ] Today there is little awareness of these things, for we live in an age that has called upon humanity to confine itself more and more to the physical plane, to become materialistic; and the spiritual corollary of materialism is the mere development of intellect and reason, which lacks spirituality. But humanity, as we have often explained here, will also move beyond this age. And the spiritual science movement should prepare the way for what is to come as a spiritual revival.

[ 10 ] But it was not always the case that people lived, so to speak, spiritlessly as they do now—spiritless in the sense that they have little awareness of the connection between what human beings do here on Earth, what takes place in all events and all facts of earthly existence, and the spiritual worlds. This is reflected in the fact that today, in human institutions, little consideration is given to how the spiritual worlds interact with the physical worlds. Just recall that I once described how Numa Pompilius, the second Roman king, sought to shape the institutions of the physical plane. This is told symbolically, but behind this symbolic narrative lies a significant fact. He turned to the nymph Egeria, who told him from the spiritual world how the epochs were to unfold, and he then designated the epoch of Romulus as the first, his own as the second, and five more besides, so that a sevenfold structure was formed, and within this sevenfold structure we can see, in a remarkable way, how this very history of the Roman kings unfolded with the same regularity with which the seven members of our organism are structured. In earlier times, there was a tendency to organize the physical plane in such a way that its structure corresponded to the requirements of the spiritual world—in a sense, a reflection of what takes place in the spiritual world. Today, people do not pay attention to this.

[ 11 ] I have often mentioned how people today no longer even feel reverence for that institution which marks the Easter season of the year—Easter itself. There are already certain people today who are considering moving Easter Sunday to a specific date—not making it a movable feast based on the movement of the stars, as it is today, but perhaps setting it as the first Sunday in April; for this makes it easier to keep the ledgers and conduct business than if these ledgers had a different Easter date every year. But this is only one striking example among countless others that could be cited today to demonstrate how little sense people have today of creating, in their institutions here on the physical plane, a reflection of what takes place in the spiritual worlds and is expressed in the stars. But it was not always this way; rather, there were times—and these were precisely the earlier times of humanity, when atavistic clairvoyance still existed—when there was a deep awareness that human beings here on Earth should live in such a way that their lives, as well as their coexistence as individuals, reflect certain things that take place in the spiritual world and unfold in the stars.

[ 12 ] Let’s take an example. The ancient Hebrews used a lunar year—3,548/s days—as their church year, that is, the year that mattered. Now, this is slightly shorter than the solar year; so whenever one counts lunar years—since the lunar year does not fill out the solar year—certain days remain. After a certain period of time, more and more days remain. So adjustments were made. But these adjustments between the lunar and solar years were made in a very special way in ancient Hebrew times. I will merely hint at this method, for what matters to us today is not so much to understand this matter in detail as to bring the whole spirit and meaning of it before our souls. Among the ancient Hebrew customs was the so-called Jubilee Year. Namely, after 49 solar years—which is slightly more than 50 lunar years—a year was inserted that served as a general year of atonement and reconciliation. In such a year of reconciliation, certain grievances that one person might have held against another were forgiven. Those who had incurred debts could or should have them forgiven; those who had lost their property should have it returned to them; and so on. It was a year of restitution, a year of reconciliation after 7 times 7 solar years, after 49 solar years or 50 lunar years—50 1/2 to be exact, but one can say 50 because the year lasts for a certain period of time and one can therefore take the beginning as the starting point. The Jubilee period—the period during which all manner of things could accumulate, which were then reconciled—lasted 50 times 354 days. — If one considers that a balance was to be established between the lunar and solar years, and that this results in 7 times 7—equal to 49 solar years—within 50 lunar years, then one can say that this Jubilee Year is ordered according to the number seven. Thus, a certain conception of the significance of the number seven underlay this Jubilee Year.

[ 13 ] However, in order to fully grasp the spirit of the matter, let us focus particularly on the following today. Let us consider that in ancient Hebrew times, people lived in such a way that they said to themselves: One experiences days, one day after another; one experiences 354 days, and then a new year begins. And one experiences these years 49—or rather, 50—times in a row, and then a special festival year begins for humanity. And now, consider this: did everything that people experienced unfold in such a way that this underlying sense was always present—they knew: “It has been 7, 8, or 9 years since the last Jubilee Year, and we must wait this long until the next Jubilee Year”? But this is not arbitrary; rather, it is structured in such a way that an occult division based on numbers underlies it.

[ 14 ] You will have no doubt that those living, say, in the 24th year after a Jubilee Year would count back 24 years to the previous Jubilee Year, count forward 26 years to the next Jubilee Year, and thus feel themselves to be situated in the time between the previous and the following Jubilee Year. This is a certain way of orienting oneself within time; that is to say, here on Earth, human souls are engaged with something that places them within a certain numerical order, and they always felt in tune with this numerical order; this numerical order flows, as it were, through the souls as a continuous current. Over the course of millennia, souls have grown accustomed to feeling this, to living, so to speak, with what I have just described. Indeed, what one experiences again and again in repetition becomes imprinted on life; it then becomes part of life, shaping and forming the souls, so that when one has investigated the ancient Hebrew soul, one has found: Within it was an awareness of such a shaping, of such a configuration, of such an inner life from Jubilee to Jubilee. Through this, every day takes its place in the order of time in a certain way. The soul becomes accustomed to an order that is determined, on the one hand, by 354 and, on the other hand, by 49 (7 times 7) or 50; it now carries this with it.

[ 15 ] You can compare this to learning arithmetic as a child and then being able to apply it later in life; you’ve mastered it by then. It shapes a certain configuration of the soul. Let’s keep that in mind and now consider something else.

[ 16 ] According to current astronomical calculations, Mercury’s orbit around the Sun is much faster than Earth’s, so that if we consider Mercury’s orbit, we get the following picture: Earth moves slowly around the Sun, and Mercury moves quickly. Now, imagine one orbit of Mercury—let’s multiply that by 354; we could even multiply it by 354 3/8; and then, in turn, let’s multiply it by 49 or 50. So just picture these numbers. If you think of one Mercury orbit as a kind of celestial day, then 354 such Mercury orbits would be like a kind of lunar-celestial year on the planet Mercury, and you multiply that by 49 or 50. That would then be a celestial jubilee year. A celestial jubilee year is, of course, much longer than an earthly jubilee year, but it is calculated based on Mercury.

[ 17 ] So, when it comes to Mercury, we’ll now calculate it in exactly the same way that the ancient Hebrews calculated their Jubilee Year based on lunar months or Earth days. They experienced one Earth day after another, 354 3/8 times. That was one year. Multiplying that by 7 times 7 (49 or 50) yields a Jubilee Year for the ancient Hebrews. This corresponds to Mercury orbiting 354 3/8 times, and 50 or 49 times, respectively. This is, of course, a completely different time period, but the same numbers underlie it—only the unit of time is entirely different from an Earth year.

[ 18 ] Now let’s look at another number. Let’s take Jupiter. Jupiter moves much more slowly—very slowly, in fact. It takes twelve years for it to orbit the Sun once. Mercury moves much faster than Earth, while Jupiter moves much slower. Now let’s take Jupiter and consider one of its days. Technically, it’s a Jupiter year, but since we’re looking at it in the sky—where all measurements can be taken on a grand scale—we’ll treat it as a day. Just as we do with our Earth day, we’ll consider this long period during which Jupiter orbits the Sun as a single day. Then, if we were to multiply this period by 354 3/8—a full Jupiter year, just as we calculate the lunar year—we would have a full Jupiter year. We do not multiply it by 7 times 7, but only once, because Jupiter takes so long. That would be a great Jupiter year. With Mercury, we calculate a jubilee year; with Jupiter, we calculate just a single year using the same method.

[ 19 ] Let us now consider another planet that was not yet known to the ancient Hebrews; however, they were familiar with the sphere, and they believed that this was the outer crystal sphere, the celestial vault itself. It was, of course, discovered much later, but we can still refer to it as Uranus. However, the ancient Hebrews thought that the sphere was located where Uranus was later placed. And for Uranus—which moves very slowly—we’ll take 49 or 50 orbits. Now let’s compare all of this to Earth years.

[ 20 ] Isn't it true that one could say this would amount to a certain number of Earth years? So if Mercury orbits the Sun 354 3/8 times 50 times, that would amount to a certain number of Earth years. Jupiter’s orbit 354 3/8 times would again result in a certain number of Earth years: a great Jupiter year. And 49 (50) orbits of Uranus will, in turn, result in a certain number of Earth years.

[ 21 ] The curious thing is that the number of Earth years is always the same. You get a specific number of Earth years by taking the 50 or 49 orbits of Uranus. You get the same number of Earth years by taking 354 3/8 revolutions of Jupiter, and by taking 50 times 354 3/8 revolutions of Mercury: always a specific number of Earth years. For Uranus, 50 times; for Jupiter, 354 3/8 times; for Mercury, 50 times 354 3/8 times—a kind of Mercury jubilee out there in the cosmos, as I already mentioned. All three yield the same number.

[ 22 ] And what did the ancient Hebrews make of this number? This number was—of course, there are always certain irregularities involved, which have their own significance but which we can overlook today—the number 4182. All three numbers are 4182. One can always speak in approximate terms, but one can also be quite precise about it, because the irregularities are in turn explained by other compensating movements: 4182 Earth years! So what could the ancient Hebrew say? He could say: Here on this Earth, you experience the Earth day 354 times 50 in your soul; then comes a Jubilee Year, a great year of reconciliation. But out there in the formation of cosmic thought, something is taking place. If any cosmic being were to count the orbit of Mercury as a day and then perceive things in the same way out in the macrocosm—just as you do here with your soul in relation to the Jubilee Year—then this being out there in the macrocosm would perceive it in such a way that it would say: One orbit of Mercury equals one day; 354 3/8 times that, and 49 or 50 times, equals a Jubilee Year—calculated solely based on Mercury; at the same time, one year calculated from Jupiter, and 50 revolutions of the celestial vault—that is, the same number that underlies the other two.

[ 23 ] Now, ancient Hebrew tradition calculated the beginning of the earth in this way—even though today we place a different event at the point where ancient Hebrew tradition calculated the beginning of the earth, we also place an event—namely, that when 4,182 years were counted from the beginning of the Earth, the great Year of World Reconciliation arrived, when Christ appeared in the flesh. That is to say, ancient Hebrew tradition aligned its chronology in such a way that, from what it assumed to be the beginning of the Earth’s development up to the appearance of Christ in the flesh, it counted one great Mercury Jubilee Year, one Jupiter Year, and 50 revolutions of the outermost sphere—what we today call the orbit of Uranus.

[ 24 ] Here you have this wonderful example: the human soul was to prepare itself for the great cosmic Jubilee by aligning its social institutions here on Earth—according to 354 3/8 and 7 times 7, or 50—to experience the order out there in the cosmos, that is, to form the corresponding patterns within the soul. It is something immense, an immensely profound connection.

[ 25 ] And if those who have outgrown Judaism are now to be persecuted for their thoughts, one might say: these people have assumed that the Christ will descend to Earth from the heights of the sun, in accordance with the thoughts of the infinitely exalted beings in the cosmos, thoughts that are indicated and interpreted by the regular movements of the stars. Out there, thought proceeds according to 354 3/8, according to 7 times 7. And so it is ordained that whoever, for example, follows the clock of Mercury must count one Mercury year’s orbit as one day, and then count a Jubilee Year from the beginning of the world to the Mystery of Golgotha. Just as human beings now think in terms of their earthly days, so do the beings of the worlds—from the moment Judaism brought the world into being until the appearance of the Mystery of Golgotha—think in cosmic measures. And here, through the social order, the soul was prepared to think this great thought that has been woven into the course of events, and to shape itself accordingly. Those who, at the time of Christianity’s emergence, were to understand the Mystery of Golgotha in relation to its placement within time had undergone this preparation; they had shaped their souls accordingly. Therefore, they were able to know: the Mystery of Golgotha would come. They were then able to write the Gospels; for an understanding of what underlies the descent of the cosmic Sun Spirit to Earth—such an understanding—requires that one’s soul has been prepared for it.

[ 26 ] Here you see a wonderful example of how the human soul, through social life—which is spiritually guided by the Initiates—is prepared to understand and even comprehend a certain event. What is expressed in this? Well, a deep awareness that whatever we are to conceive of in our waking consciousness—even with regard to human coexistence—must have a certain connection to the world of the stars. One cannot comprehend the Mystery of Golgotha; one cannot bring it within the grasp of reason unless one understands the connection between reason itself and the course of thoughts that are expressed in the movement of the stars according to numerical ratios. Everything that is thus connected to our waking consciousness—whether consciously or unconsciously, as in this case, guided by the Initiates—is linked to the regular course of the stars. And from the depths of our soul rises that which announces itself in this way—as I have described—in dreams, or in such flashes of genius as those found in Weininger; this does not always correspond to the movement of the stars, but, as in Weininger’s case, will only develop in future incarnations, as I explained yesterday.

[ 27 ] What, then, is the connection between this and that other thing? So while—whether unconsciously or even consciously—our head thinks, our heart feels, in short, everything that belongs to waking consciousness corresponds to the course of the stars, that which resides in our more dreamlike or imaginative consciousness—or often in our genius-like consciousness—corresponds more to the elemental worlds of earthly events, on which thunderstorms, gales, hail, earthquakes, and the like. And we look deeply into the existence of nature, which can thereby become for us what somewhat initiated people have always said: What, then, is nature, insofar as it is not governed by the regular course of the sun, the moon, and the like—insofar as it does not, therefore, proceed in a regulated, regular order? What is nature, insofar as there is hail, rain, storms, thunderstorms, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions? — These initiates have always said: This nature, with all its phenomena, is a somnambulist!

[ 28 ] And now let us turn our gaze to the movement of the stars, which also presents itself to us in regular numerical ratios from an occult perspective: there we find the macrocosmic aspect of our waking consciousness. And then we look into our dream consciousness, at what is expressed more or less through this dream consciousness, and we have that which unfolds outside in the irregular phenomena of our Earth like a mirror image. We look up at the sky and its vast expanse of stars, and there, outside, we have the macrocosmic realm for our waking consciousness. We look down upon the Earth with its phenomena, and we see a picture as if nature, like a somnambulist, a somnambulist dreamer, were reflecting out there what is taking place in the deep bosom of our soul. Our waking mind thinks in terms of astronomy. Our dreaming, imagination-filled, often somnambulistic soul life lives and weaves in accordance with the great somnambulistic consciousness of earthly nature. This is a profound truth.

[ 29 ] Think about it until tomorrow: to what extent does astronomy reign in your waking consciousness, and meteorology in your subconscious? Yesterday, we saw in Otto Weininger an example of the interplay of astronomy within a person, which was, however, as it were, dampened by meteorology. We’ll talk about that tomorrow.