The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fifth Lecture

[ 1 ] In light of what was hinted at yesterday, it is necessary to say a few things right now that are, in a sense, also related to some remarks I made here some time ago—eight days ago. And since a number of friends who have come to the Johannesbau Association meeting were not present at that time, I will, in the course of the reflections that now lie ahead of us, repeat some of what has already been said in recent weeks. This will not be entirely unimportant from this perspective, since, as I have observed from various remarks, many of these important and significant matters have been misunderstood.

[ 2 ] Let us first and foremost make it clear to ourselves that the course of evolution, as we have come to know it in relation to the great phenomena of world history, is evident everywhere—evident both when we consider the great phenomena of the cosmos and the phenomena of human historical becoming, of human historical development. For our present time, we must be particularly interested in the so-called fourth post-Atlantean epoch, which we define as the period in which the Greco-Latin, or Greco-Roman, culture took shape and flourished. As you know, from the perspective of spiritual science, we must date this epoch up to the beginning of the 15th century. And with the beginning of the 15th century, that which we alluded to yesterday, for example, begins to take effect in European cultural conditions. When we now turn our attention once more to the fourth post-Atlantean epoch—this Greco-Roman essence—it appears to us, in a certain sense, as a revival of what passed over the earth as human culture during the time of Atlantis. We have, after all, explained in various places how the thoughts, feelings, and even the social life of the Greeks can be understood when one considers that this fourth post-Atlantean epoch is, in a certain sense, a repetition of Atlantean culture; only that Atlantean culture was more elemental, much more instinctive, whereas Greek and Roman culture represent a more spiritualized repetition. What was direct experience in Atlantis was transformed into reality within Greece through the imagination, through imaginative visions, and also through thought and the will—which in turn was inspired by the imagination.

[ 3 ] Now we must face the fact that this Greco-Roman culture was a disappointment—a profound disappointment—for those forces we refer to as the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces; for these Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces—belonging to the hierarchy that, in a sense, stands closest to the human hierarchy—wanted Atlantean civilization, just as it was, to simply be revived in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. That is to say, everything that constitutes the essence of the Atlantean epoch—you can read about this in An Outline of Esoteric Science or in the little booklet Our Atlantean Ancestors— everything that constitutes the essence of the Atlantean epoch—was to be repeated, according to the intention of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces, during the Greek and Roman periods. This intention was thwarted precisely because humanity was raised to a higher level corresponding to the post-Atlantean era. What constitutes the great, significant new development in Greek and Roman culture compared to Atlantis was a spiritual disappointment for the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces. Through their various influences, the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces sought to shape the Greek people into a people inclined to to develop the powers of imagination in the soul in such a way that the souls would gradually have grown weary of the earth, that the souls would have had no inclination to continue incarnating on earth for long, but would, so to speak, withdraw from the earth as souls and establish their own realm, their own planet. This was thwarted by the guidance of those powers we call the regular hierarchies, which transformed the Greeks’ imagination—and the influence of imagination on social life—into a joy in earthly things; it fostered an appreciation for earthly and sensual pleasures, so that the Greeks no longer wished merely to live in the imaginative world of fantasy, thereby gradually alienating the soul from earthly existence, but even reached the state of mind expressed in the famous saying I have often cited: “Better to be a beggar on earth than a king in the realm of shadows.” — Through this joyful experience of the world between birth and death, the regular forces were to rescue Greek civilization from the danger that the Luciferic forces had in store for it: to carry the souls away, so that on Earth the bodies that would still have been born would have wandered aimlessly across the Earth, while the souls would have been gone, on a separate planet of their own.

[ 4 ] In contrast, Ahriman sought, in a sense, to assist Lucifer in Roman culture by shaping the Roman Empire and its successors in such a way that they would have become nothing more than a vast earthly mechanism for human beings devoid of an “I.” In this way, he would, in a sense, have become an aid to Lucifer. While Lucifer, so to speak, wanted to extract the juice of the lemon for himself, Ahriman was busy in the Roman Empire squeezing the lemon and turning it into a mechanistic state organism. In this way, Ahriman and Lucifer work hand in hand. This was thwarted by the fact that the population of the Roman Empire developed the concept of the “civis”—the concept of the Roman citizen—in the most eminently egoistic sense, and human egoism can develop only within physical earthly existence. Thus, Ahriman’s intention to shape human beings without an “I” was thwarted. It is precisely the rough, unimaginative aspect of Roman culture that thwarted Ahriman’s intentions through the egoism of Roman politics and Roman law. Thus, the Greek and Roman eras were a great disappointment for Lucifer and Ahriman. Once again, they had failed to achieve their aims. This, in fact, is the fate of Lucifer and Ahriman: they work with their forces in the evolution of the Earth and, time and again, make the greatest efforts to hold back the further progress of evolution and to establish a kingdom for themselves—only to experience disappointment in this regard time and again. As I have already said, anyone who asks, “Why haven’t Lucifer and Ahriman finally come to realize that their efforts are futile?”—such a person judges the spiritual according to human standards. Lucifer and Ahriman simply possess a different faculty of judgment than human beings, and one cannot judge what one observes in the spiritual world from a human standpoint; otherwise, one would very soon consider oneself far wiser than a god or, indeed, than any being belonging to a higher hierarchical order; and Lucifer and Ahriman, as we know—even though they are retarding spirits—belong to a higher hierarchical order than human beings. This explains why they are disappointed time and again, yet why they begin their efforts anew time and again.

[ 5 ] Now came the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. This period has very specific tasks in the context of progressive, regular spiritual development. While the fourth post-Atlantean epoch was intended to develop the Greek life of the imagination and Romanic egoism, the task of this fifth post-Atlantean epoch is to develop the gift of sensory perception. I have characterized this by calling it the ideal of sensory intuition, as Goethe meant it in his Urphänomen—you can read about this in my writings on Goethe—the pure intuition of external sensory reality, which could not exist in this way in earlier times because the perception of sensory reality was everywhere intermingled with what arose from atavistic clairvoyance; so that one did not see the pure phenomenon in pure external sensory existence, but always saw what, in a clairvoyant-visionary way, overlaid sensory existence. If people were to look a little more closely, they would even see from external history, from what has been historically handed down, that this is the case. Plato does not yet regard seeing as such a passive faculty as it is now regarded in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch; rather, the Greek philosopher Plato still states explicitly: Seeing consists in a kind of fire emanating from the eye and moving toward things. — The Greek philosopher Plato, then, still knew something of the active nature of seeing. This active aspect had to be shed, forgotten, and lost so that another faculty could emerge in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. And the other point is that in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch—that is, from the beginning of the 15th century into roughly the 4th millennium—the gift of free imagination, imagination grasped in full inner freedom, gradually took shape in human development. On the one hand, the primordial phenomenon; on the other, free imagination.

[ 6 ] Goethe pointed to the primordial phenomenon; he also pointed to free imagination. We have cited various passages from him, particularly in his Faust, at different times. These are the beginnings of what the entire regular evolution of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch must encompass. Through this, this fifth post-Atlantean epoch will, in a certain sense, receive its character. But this fifth post-Atlantean epoch, in particular, will have to see its people as fighters against even stronger assaults by the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces than those that took place during the Greek and Roman eras—stronger assaults, for the task in this fifth post-Atlantean epoch is once again, on the one hand, to achieve that souls become estranged from earthly life, and on the other hand, to mechanize earthly life itself—to shape it in such a purely external, mechanical way—that the human ego can no longer live within the social order of the Earth and therefore takes its leave of that social order and devotes itself to a life apart from the Earth on a special planet.

[ 7 ] Such phenomena—which we might call onslaughts of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces—are prepared well in advance. And while they began to take effect in their very earliest stages during the four to five centuries of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, behind the scenes of world history—even before the beginning of this fifth post-Atlantean epoch—the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces had already made full and vigorous preparations, in order, if possible, to bring everything that the fifth post-Atlantean epoch produces in terms of human abilities and human powers of will into the service of a human longing that turns away from the Earth, that wishes to depart from the Earth and form its own planetary body, while the Earth is to be laid waste according to the aspirations of Lucifer and Ahriman. The most powerful assaults, I say, have been launched. And remember what set the fundamental tone of culture during the Atlantean era; for Lucifer and Ahriman now wish, during the post-Atlantean era, to inject the old Atlantean culture into all its individual parts, so that for this post-Atlantean culture, precisely the abilities bestowed by the regular powers are rendered elemental, so that human beings will want to depart, So what is being developed is to be placed in the service of the extraterrestrial in the manner I have indicated. From two sides—from Lucifer and Ahriman—the spirit of the old Atlantean life is therefore to be renewed, so that the corresponding impulses may enter into the evolution of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch.

[ 8 ] Now recall that in the Atlantean era, the impulses of human souls were traced back to what was called the Great Spirit, which was designated by a sound that still echoes in the Chinese Tao. This Tao was the name given to the Great Spirit at the time of Atlantis. And the essence of the Luciferic-Ahrimanic endeavors consists in placing what came later—or what is yet to come—in the service of the Tao, in the service of the Great Spirit; naturally, not the Great Spirit as he lived back then during the Atlantean era, but as he has found a descendant—I might say, has acquired a sort of younger son, a successor. And to attempt a renewal of the Atlantean impulses—that is the Luciferic and Ahrimanic endeavor—by not reckoning with the regular forces of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, but rather with what has remained in the service of the Great Spirit, the Tao. This was made possible only because the impulses of Atlantean culture—which, after all, originated in the sunken Atlantis—were transferred to the regions that had emerged after the Atlantean flood. And so, in a sense, a member of the Great Spirit’s lineage was driven eastward and, in the 10th, 11th, 12th centuries, gradually established certain mystery rites over in Asia. These mystery rites had taken on a certain character, which essentially consisted in renewing the ancient Taoist cult—not as practiced by the degenerate Chinese, who had intellectualized it, but as it originally existed; thus reviving that kind of initiation which led to seeing the elemental spiritual realm that lives and weaves immediately beneath our sensory world, and to truly perceiving the great Spirit of Unity. And certain priests of these Asian, revived Atlantean mysteries were initiated into the ancient Atlantean rite, which naturally brought about delusions, since it was, after all, out of place in that era.

[ 9 ] One of these priests had advanced so far in his initiation over in Asia that he was truly able to comprehend the entire nature of the Atlantean impulses; and it was he who went so far as to engage in dialogue with the successor—the illegitimate successor—of the Great Tao Spirit. It was he who, over in Asia, imparted what he had received as inspiration from the Great Spirit to an external, worldly power—to that young man who later became known in history as Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan was thus a disciple of such a priest, who had been initiated into the Asian mysteries. And this priest taught Genghis Khan what I can roughly summarize in the following words. He taught him: The time has now come for divine judgment to sweep across the earth. This divine judgment has been entrusted to you, and you must now take the lead among all those people who, from Asia, can carry out God’s judgment over the entire earth. Similar endeavors had, of course, already been laid down earlier in the Hunnic invasions and so on; but now, essentially through this impulse from the Asian priesthood, the Mongol invasion was set in motion, which was then to bring about in European culture a state in which souls would truly have believed in God’s judgment, would have succumbed to it, and would gradually have taken their leave of the earth, having no inclination to reappear on earth, so that the culture of the earth would have been destroyed. That was the inner meaning of the Mongol invasions, which spread from Asia and which, as you know, did not break through in Europe by means of external, physical acts; rather, the remarkable thing happened that in the 13th century, at the Battle of Liegnitz, the Mongols were not defeated but remained victorious, but, quite inexplicably, they did not advance further into Europe but instead turned back toward Asia; so that here, too, one can clearly see, from an external perspective, how a counterbalance—which then naturally manifests itself as a spiritual force—was present. For, as I said, the Europeans did not defeat the Mongols in Silesia; rather, the Mongols were defeated; yet the Mongols, despite not having been defeated, withdrew and turned back toward Asia. But the impulses—precisely because the purely external storm did not materialize or did not go far—remained in Europe, so to speak, in the distillation in which they had to exist during the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. Thus, in the cultural impulses coming from the East, one can clearly perceive—and will continue to perceive—what was to be brought to Europe at that very time through the aftereffects of the Mysteries of the Great Spirit.

[ 10 ] Another part of the mystery essence of ancient Atlantis was not driven eastward but westward, to the land that Europeans later discovered in America; and there, the more Ahrimanic part of the post-Atlantean illegitimate culture played out its course. While the Luciferic aspect played out more fully in Asia, the Ahrimanic aspect played out more fully in America. It was now intended that impulses should be created within America as well, which could then exert a pervasive influence from the West, just as the other had done from the East; thus exerting a pervasive influence from the West to introduce the Ahrimanic advance into the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. Therefore, in the West, the Ahrimanic aspect of the surviving Atlantean mystery tradition was more strongly driven. And so, as I have already hinted to those who were present, mysteries arose that must make the most repulsive impression on anyone who has grown up in the delicate culture of the present and does not love to hear the truth, but loves only to absorb what is often called “the blissful.” These post-Atlantean mysteries took shape particularly on Mexican soil. Mysteries were established there—though they extended across a large part of America, the America that Europeans had not yet discovered—and mysteries were formed which, had they triumphed, had their impulses and effects prevailed on Earth, would have driven the souls from the Earth. Thus, the Ahrimanic work—the squeezing of the lemon—would have been accomplished. It would have been thoroughly ensured that the Earth would gradually become desolate, that the Earth would gradually possess only the forces of death, while that which existed as living souls would have taken their leave of it and would then have founded another planet under the leadership of Lucifer and Ahriman.

[ 11 ] In order to carry out the Ahrimanic aspect of this task, it was necessary for the priests of the Ahrimanic Atlantean mysteries to acquire abilities that would, to the highest degree, master all the forces of death at work on Earth, all that which, in a sense, would have turned the Earth—along with humanity, with physical humanity—into a purely mechanical realm, a vast, utterly dead realm in which no “I” could find a place. These abilities would have had to be combined with mastery of the mechanical aspect in all living things, of the mechanical elements inherent in all life. To this end, these mysteries had to be organized in a truly diabolical manner; for such powers as would have been needed for Ahriman’s powerful intentions arise only when one undergoes initiations of a very specific kind. And these Ahrimanic initiations of the post-Atlantean era in America were precisely of this nature. It was required of everyone who was to attain a certain degree of knowledge that they acquire this knowledge through very specific sensory abilities, which can only be acquired by becoming a murderer. And so no one was admitted to a certain degree of this initiation without having committed a murder. This murder was carried out under very special circumstances. There was a specific setup: steps led up to a kind of catafalque, a catafalque-like structure; there, the person who was to be murdered was tied up, specifically by binding his body in such a way that, through the coil into which the body was placed, the stomach could be cut out with a single incision. This operation—the cutting out of the stomach—had to be performed with a very special skill. And the feelings one acquires toward life by cutting into it—and by cutting into it with a very special artistry under very special circumstances—one had to have acquired these; only then could one attain a certain level of knowledge regarding the mechanization of the Earth. And every time one advanced through the degrees, such murders had to continue to take place.

[ 12 ] This service was dedicated to the successor, the Son of the Great Spirit, who lived over in America and was referred to by a name that is roughly “Taotl.” It is an Ahrimanic variant of the descendant of the Tao: Taotl. This being, Taotl, did not appear in a physical body, but only in elemental form. His arts—which essentially consisted of impulses toward the mechanization of earthly culture and all earthly life—were acquired through these initiations, as I have described to you. These initiations had a very specific purpose. As I said, the one who was initiated acquired very specific black-magic powers, the use of which would have led to the mechanization of Earth’s culture and the expulsion of all I’s, so that no more bodies would have been born that could still have been endowed with an I. However, the one who possessed such powers—for things in the world are always in mutual interaction—would thereby have bound himself to the Earth; the initiate would have had to remain in constant union with the forces of the Earth. In a sense, he thereby bound himself only to those forces that you will become acquainted with tomorrow during the performance of the Faust scene, if you follow attentively what the Lemurs represent: to the forces of the Earth, to the soul of the Earth, to all that brings about death on Earth. But in doing so, he would have lost his own soul. And he saved himself in regard to his soul by ensuring, on the one hand, that through the procedure of cutting out the stomach, the soul he murdered would no longer have any desire to come to Earth; and on the other hand, it was at the same time granted to that soul—and this was his intention—to draw his own soul along with it into the realm that was now to be established outside of Earth. Thus, the soul of the initiated murderer—the murderous initiate—was also to be drawn into the realm of Lucifer and Ahriman that was to be established.

[ 13 ] Various counter-sects were founded to combat this diabolical cult. One such counter-sect was that of Tezkatlipoka. He, too, was a being who did not appear in a physical body, but who was known to a large number of these Mexican initiates, and who lived only in an elemental body. Tezkatlipoka was a kind of being related to Yahweh or Jehovah, and was actually supposed to establish a cult that would have counteracted all of this—in the sense of a Yahweh religion over in Mexico that was, well, suited to such terrible cultural conditions. So this Tezkatlipoka was a spirit related to Yahweh.

[ 14 ] There was also another sect that worshiped Quetzalcoatl, a being who did not appear in a physical body but possessed an elemental body. Quetzalcoatl was a being who could be said to be related to the forces of Mercury. He was believed to have healing powers. The art of healing over there was said to be brought about specifically under the influence of this Quetzalcoatl. Such beings are always described by those who can perceive them through clairvoyance in such a way that one can already gain an impression of their reality from the description. When Quetzalcoatl, for example, is described as an apparition with a serpentine body—a green, green-feathered serpent—this clearly attests to those who understand such things that it was a real being, albeit one appearing only in its elemental body.

[ 15 ] Over the course of many millennia, this work—which was not carried out publicly but was practiced in various forms within certain Mexican mystery traditions—developed in order to secretly shape the necessary post-Atlantean cultural impulses in an Ahrimanic form. Yet a third movement also developed over there. A counter-movement had to develop. For if this counter-movement had not developed, the influence of these forces that had formed there on Greco-Roman culture and later on the fifth post-Atlantean culture would gradually have become so great that they would have been invincible to the advancing forces. A counter-movement developed through the birth of a being who, in contrast to those entities that never appeared in a physical body but only in an elemental body, did appear in a physical body. And this being—which is referred to over there in a way that allows us to describe it with words that mimic the sound sequence—is called Vitzliputzli. Vitzliputzli is a human being, a being appearing in a human body. Vitzliputzli embodies the spiritual individuality that, within the human body, took up the struggle against the mysteries I have described. Among the Mexicans, it was said of Vitzliputzli that he was born of a virgin who was impregnated by a divine influence when a bird approached her.

[ 16 ] If one now tries, as best one can, to investigate through occult means how this Vitzliputzli lived over there in the Western Hemisphere, one strangely comes to the conclusion that he lived during the same period in which the Mystery of Golgotha took place in the Eastern Hemisphere, between the years 1 and 33. That is what is so remarkable. And this Vitzliputzli succeeded in bringing a case against the most prominent initiate of the Mexican mysteries. He turned against that initiate of the Mexican mysteries in a fierce battle. So this was a human being, an initiate—not one of the three spirits, but an initiate—against whom Vitzliputzli turned. So Vitzliputzli, a supernatural being but in human form, turned against that initiate—who had committed the most murders, who had become the most powerful, and of whom one can say: Had his intention been fulfilled, a victory for this later Ahrimanic post-Atlantean culture would indeed have come about—using every means of combat available to him over there. — Vitzliputzli turned against him, and he succeeded—as I said, this can only be ascertained through spiritual scientific means—in the year 33 to bring about the crucifixion of the most powerful black magician, so that the Mystery of Golgotha has its parallel over there in the other hemisphere of the Earth, in that the greatest black magician was crucified through the merit of Vitzliputzli, who appeared on Earth for this very purpose. As a result, the power of these mysteries was initially broken for the fourth post-Atlantean epoch; but they were revived. And you can see this for yourselves in history, in what happened to many Europeans who crossed over to America after its discovery: numerous Europeans met their deaths because they were treated by Mexican priest-initiates in such a way that they were strapped to the appropriate apparatus and their stomachs were cut open in a skillful manner. This is, after all, a well-known historical fact, and it is one of the consequences of what I have described to you.

[ 17 ] As a result, the Western world—insofar as the elemental realm is relevant to it—has incorporated the impulse that was precisely meant to emanate from this side: the Ahrimanic impulse. Now, as I said, for the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, it was broken by the crucifixion of the great initiated black magician by Vitzliputzli. Yet enough power remained for another onslaught to have occurred during the fifth post-Atlantean epoch—one that would have sought to truly blanket the Earth with mechanization, not only establishing a culture that would have culminated in nothing but mechanical tools, but one that would also have turned human beings themselves into mere homunculi, so that the “I”s would have withdrawn. The Europeans were meant to become acquainted with this world. And the modern era begins precisely with the Europeans being drawn over into this world. So while, on the one hand, the storms of Genghis Khan and his successors coming from the East were, as it were, to carry out a divine judgment, on the other hand, an atmosphere of the wildest Ahrimanic, elemental forces was to be prepared in the West, into which the Europeans would have entered. Such things are truly such that Ahriman and Lucifer are working in full collaboration. Europeans, for example, were by no means to come over there with selfless feelings, but rather with demanding, covetous feelings—though, in a sense, with a craving for something about which they indulged in all manner of delusions. Afterward, one could, of course, coarsen what had at first been shrouded only in a wondrous fantasy. It did indeed become coarser in the sense that Europeans in America came to know the outward riches in a way that greatly, greatly stirred their covetousness; but initially, this was meant to take on more ideal forms. Here we see once again the interplay of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces, which always work hand in hand.

[ 18 ] Thus, a successor to Genghis Khan—who had settled in China and ruled the country after the Mongol invasions of Europe had subsided—Kublai Khan, was able to enjoy the presence of a European, a Venetian, in China: Marco Polo. And that Marco Polo, at the court of Kublai Khan—Kublai Khan himself was still profoundly under the influence of the initiation I described earlier—wrote a book that was bound to powerfully stir the imagination of Europeans toward the Western Hemisphere: Mirabilia mundi. It spoke of a magical land in the Western Hemisphere, a magical land that stirred the longing to discover it. And it was this work, Mirabilia mundi, that inspired Christopher Columbus to undertake his voyage to America. Thus, the desire was aroused in the right way, within the realm of the imagination. Things truly interact in an extraordinarily intelligent way. You simply need to become acquainted with the fact that there is a plan in world history—a plan even where evil forces come into play—and that the methods by which we view history today are truly inadequate, for they allow us to observe all historical life only from the outside. The only way to make sense of it is to bring the right facts together through spiritual scientific methods: namely, the discovery of America during a very specific period, and the stirring up of a longing for a land of the imagination—a longing that, in turn, was capable of drawing souls away from the earth. Through this convergence—the depiction of such an imaginary land and the stirring of longing to discover America at a specific point in time—the right mood was created, a mood that acted particularly on the subconscious forces of the human soul and could continue to exert its influence in culture. One must certainly consider Marco Polo and his work Mirabilia mundi in connection with what inspired Christopher Columbus to sail westward. As is well known, he sought to discover that magical island by sailing westward. This is, after all, described in the annals of history.

[ 19 ] I have thus described to you how the Ahrimanic and Luciferic impulses work to carry out their attacks against the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. Now, this fifth post-Atlantean epoch is characterized precisely by the fact that human beings live, so to speak, in a middle sphere of soul life. The soul life of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch must be protected from the direct gaze of the Ahrimanic forces. One must learn to enter their realm through spiritual science; but outer life must be protected so that the forces—which have already been pointed out yesterday and today—can develop. But beneath consciousness—beneath ordinary, normal consciousness—these forces are at work, forces that have been brought onto the Earth in the very concrete way described. One does not come to know human soul life by making general statements such as: there is a conscious and a subconscious, and from the subconscious, drives arise and so on; one must understand how these drives came to be on Earth. One must know the concrete details. Now one can see in various things how, as it were, beneath the consciousness that the human soul develops in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, certain influences continue to have an effect. One can imagine it this way: the Ahrimanic forces—which were initiated in the manner we have described—are active, so to speak, beneath the threshold of consciousness, like lava, like the volcanic forces beneath volcanic soil, beneath a solfatara: when one sets paper on fire above, smoke emerges. This proves that the ground on which one stands certainly contains terrible forces beneath it, which then emerge from every opening. So it is with soul forces as well. Beneath what consciousness knows, there exist things that are influenced by what I have described. And then they press upward; sometimes they reveal themselves a little, but otherwise they press upward. And in the superconscious there are also the Luciferic forces, which pour into the soul just as lightning and thunder sometimes discharge when the air needs to be purified; yet these forces are scarcely present in consciousness, especially in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. Consciousness occupies an intermediate state in this fifth post-Atlantean epoch.

[ 20 ] If one now investigates what lies in the subconscious, one can already see how Ahrimanic and Luciferic attacks come from two directions, and how culture is actually created through the interaction of the regularly progressing hierarchies with the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces. Now, precisely because culture is shaped in this way, human beings in various regions of the earth are directed toward the great problems in different ways. I want to focus more on the perspective of knowledge and on what, from this perspective, influences social life. One can therefore assume that certain Ahrimanic forces flow into European culture—in accordance with the impulses we have come to know—from the subconscious. These Ahrimanic forces direct the impulses, which in turn emanate from the good, regularly progressing forces, in a very specific direction. One can say that two kinds of problems, two kinds of endeavors toward knowledge, have arisen. It is not a matter of saying that it is due to the Ahrimanic forces alone, but rather that through the interplay of the Ahrimanic forces and the regularly progressing forces, human life has taken on a certain character. As a result, it has been directed specifically toward two problems. These two problems could be described as the problem of instinct—thought gradually turned toward this problem of instinct—and the problem of birth. Of course, these are terms derived from the most salient facts; what I refer to here as the problem of instinct and the problem of birth encompasses an extraordinarily wide range of phenomena. I wish only to characterize a few aspects.

[ 21 ] The problem of the drives: Under the influence of the forces I have described, human thought and human striving are directed toward sensing and perceiving human drives. The senses are directed toward the drives; and from this, a certain attitude toward life gradually develops under the influence of the problem of the drives. One might say: The problem of the drives transforms into the problem of happiness, and the problem of happiness takes on a very specific character. That is why, especially in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, you see in various places—particularly in Western culture—that senses and aspirations are directed toward the problem of happiness, toward happiness itself, and toward the creation of happiness in life. This occurs under the influences I have described. There we see, for example, how people are exploring what can be done to enable human beings on Earth to lead as happy a life as possible. The creation of earthly happiness has become an ideal. I am not saying this applies solely to Ahrimanic forces; there are also regularly progressing forces at work here. So, of course, one should reflect on happiness. But under Ahriman’s influence, it took on a certain tinge through a purely diabolical statement: “The good is the happiness of the greatest possible number of people on Earth.” This statement is a purely diabolical one, for it defines the good in such a way that it expresses it through happiness—and, moreover, the happiness of the greatest possible number—which would entail the misery of the minority; much as if one were to describe an organism by developing it only up to the knees and then allowing it to wither away from the knees down. But the very act of equating happiness with goodness, or happiness with virtue, is something that has an Ahrimanic character. Happiness and virtue, happiness and the good: the Greeks, in their finest personalities, were entirely impervious to equating the concepts of happiness and the good. But it is precisely through Ahrimanic influences that a mindset was to be fostered in the fifth post-Atlantean humanity that seeks the good in happiness. You must view everything you know as Saint-Simonism—the various efforts to establish economic orders, particularly in Western Europe—from this perspective; only then can you understand them; even Rousseauism is not free from this impulse. One must study these things strictly in an objective context.

[ 22 ] The second issue here, alongside the problem of the instincts, is sensory existence, the nature of the senses. After all, the culture of the senses is to be refined in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. But the Ahrimanic forces want to lay claim to this culture of the senses for themselves, and therefore they seek to foster the belief that truth is to be found solely and exclusively in sensory existence. In this respect, the Ahrimanic element is present in everything related to the problem of sensory existence. The problem of the senses is intimately connected with the problem of birth, just as the problem of happiness is connected with the problem of instinct. In order to justify sensory existence and, through an instinct, to view the entire course of evolution from a purely sensory perspective, human becoming was, in the context of birth, directly linked to the evolution of animals. There you can see the connection to the problem of birth. Reflection on human birth has, in fact, occupied those who think and strive in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch—truly since the 15th century—with great intensity. And anyone familiar with the circumstances knows what this problem—“How does the human being enter the earth?”—has meant, and how people have pondered whether the soul of the father and mother passes on to the children as a soul, or whether the soul is created anew by the supersensible powers. The problem of birth in the broadest sense is the task of the post-Atlantean era; it is a problem posed entirely in accordance with the regular progression of time. But it became Ahrimanic in that it was made purely materialistic, in that human beings were placed merely at the pinnacle of the animal kingdom, and in that their soul nature was to be completely disregarded in relation to their sensory nature.

[ 23 ] Thus we see that impulses are flowing in from one side that do not wish to turn the problem of instinct into a problem of happiness in the sense of moral goodness. It would be entirely in keeping with the regular forces to transform the problem of the drives into a problem of moral goodness. For to develop moral goodness in the broadest sense out of the problem of the drives—that is, to find the spiritualization of the problem of the drives—is the regular task of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. This will have to be developed through powerful imaginations, the seeds of which can be found in imaginations such as those in Faust. But through the Ahrimanic influence, the problem of birth led to evolution within sensibility. Thus: the problem of the drives becomes the problem of happiness; the problem of birth becomes the problem of evolution within sensibility.

[ 24 ] When we consider everything that comes from this side, we see how the Ahrimanic forces are pouring into the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. As I have already said: Because Ahrimanic forces are pouring in on one side and Luciferic forces on the other, human striving becomes specialized. Otherwise, four major issues would arise in the fifth post-Atlantean culture that would permeate all work, all labor, all creative activity—down to the farmer’s cultivation of the soil—right down to the finest details in people’s feelings. There would be four problems. The first is precisely the problem of instinct; the second, the problem of birth; the third—which is assigned to the fifth post-Atlantean epoch—is the problem of death. The problem of death—that is, not only to discover how the human being is brought into the world through birth, but also how he steps out again through the gate of death. And the fourth problem is the problem of evil.

[ 25 ] The fact that these four problems did not exert their influence uniformly throughout the fifth post-Atlantean epoch of cultural humanity is precisely due to the fact that, on the one hand, Ahriman transformed the problem of the drives into the problem of happiness and the problem of birth into the problem of being and feeling, thereby pushing aside the correct solution to these problems; while, on the other hand, Lucifer directed the focus of the culture—which was more oriented toward the East—toward the problem of death and the problem of evil. And so you can see how the entire Russian spiritual life is essentially dominated by the problem of death and the problem of evil, just as Western spiritual life is dominated by the problem of instinct and the problem of birth. Precisely in the work of the greatest Russian thinker of recent times, Soloviev, you can see everywhere how the core of his thinking and reflection lies in the problem of death on the one hand and the problem of evil on the other. The problem of evil, just as the problem of the drive leads to the problem of happiness, likewise gives rise to a particular form of contemplation of sinful life—the contemplation of sin, the problem of sin. Therefore, nowhere has the problem of sin and redemption from sin—the purification from sin—been addressed in such a profound way as it has been from the East. But at the same time, there is an irregularity in the way this problem is approached; at the same time, this problem of evil and the problem of sin are exploited by Luciferic forces to alienate souls from earthly life by directing their minds toward sin and toward the earthly, physical, carnal life of sin. Whereas in the West, Ahriman directs all his efforts toward entangling human beings in the realm of the senses on earth, to establish a realm of goodness and happiness that caters to the instincts, from the East comes a revulsion toward sin, through which souls are to be diverted from the Earth by instilling in them the Luciferic alienation of turning away from the Earth through contemplation of the problem of sin and the problem of death. Hence, a large part of the thinking in the East is directed toward how death is overcome through what happens to Christ himself, so that one may find impulses for life in the Resurrection. Precisely what I explained eight days ago—that the East turns more toward the Christ, while the West turns more toward Jesus—is rooted in the fact that the East needs the Risen One, the Spirit who is not absorbed in sensuality, who overcomes sensuality. It is the problem of death. In what is probably one of the most beautiful essays Soloviev ever wrote, he speaks directly of the fact that if death, as a physical phenomenon, as a physical fact, were to signify the end of human life, then human beings would be no different from all other animals—and they would not actually be human at all; they would be animals. Through death, human beings resemble animals. Through the evil of which he is capable, he is even worse than animals. Here Soloviev points directly to how his thinking is influenced by the problem of death and the problem of sin, by the problem of evil. But everywhere one finds reflections on such insights into the soul, through which the soul appears untouched by death, and in which external life is organized in such a way that, in a certain sense, it once again incorporates—among the legitimate manifestations of life—a tendency to turn away from the earth. This is why there are so many sects, particularly in the East, that seek to mortify the physical body, that, in a sense, already pour death over the physical, and that seek to reduce the life of instinct and the life of birth to absurdity through a certain turning toward sacrifice and the like.

[ 26 ] In the West, there is a danger of becoming entangled in the life of the senses, which would cause that life to become ego-less. For if happiness were to be the sole foundation on Earth, the ego could never live on Earth. If the good were to be grounded solely in the spreading of happiness across the earth, the following would occur—as the experience of ancient Atlantis already shows: Even at the height of Atlantean culture, great impulses were given that, in the course of time, would have led to happiness. People had perceived what they initially regarded as the driving force of the good, in its form and in its effects, as a certain kind of happiness. There, human beings surrender themselves to happiness; there, they are absorbed in happiness. And the Earth had to be, so to speak, swept away in relation to Atlantean culture, because people had retained only the happiness derived from the good. In the post-Atlantean era, Ahriman now seeks to establish a culture of happiness directly. That would mean: squeeze the lemon dry, then throw it away! — The “I”s would no longer be able to live if only a culture of happiness were to be established. Happiness and goodness, happiness and virtue are not concepts that can be equated with one another.

[ 27 ] Here we glimpse into the profound mysteries of life. That which is justified—the establishment of a culture that, by its very nature, must lead to a certain degree of human happiness—is so perverted that happiness itself is presented as the desirable goal. And a culture that is naturally meant to lead the human soul to recognize, above all else in its life, death and evil, is so perverted that contact with whatever can bring about death and evil is, as it were, avoided from the outset, and physicality is shunned. And through this, Lucifer is to be accommodated.

[ 28 ] You see, one must try to understand how the concrete forces at work in human existence operate—what lies both below and above the conscious life of the soul, particularly in the fifth post-Atlantean culture. And once you are familiar with these guiding principles, you will find that you can understand much, much of what occurs. I only ask you not to fall into the delusion that one must therefore avoid everything Luciferic and everything Ahrimanic. — That is, after all, the surest way to fall prey to the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic! For anyone who lives with humanity must know that Lucifer and Ahriman are, in a sense, permitted. If deviations could not occur, then human beings would never be able to attain freedom; if they could not live in the error that happiness and goodness might be one and the same, and could not rise above this error, then they would never be able to attain freedom. If they could not live in the delusion that by renouncing outer earthly life one can triumph over death and evil, if they could not surrender to this delusion, they would not be able to truly overcome death and sin. It is necessary for these things to enter human life. We must simply be clear about the fact that the whiny talk: “Oh, that is Luciferic, we must avoid it; that is Ahrimanic, we must avoid it”—must not take hold of us, but rather that we confront the real forces in the right way and know that we must not merely avoid Lucifer, but must conquer the forces of Lucifer for the progress of human culture; that we must not merely avoid Ahriman, but must conquer the forces of Ahriman for the advancement of human culture; that we must bring them in. The struggle consists in the fact that Ahriman seeks to draw souls away. Humanity has the task of bringing Ahriman in with his powerful forces—that is to say, for example, all those intellectual forces—primarily intellectual forces, though they can also take on a form of feeling—that have been applied to the problem: How does one establish a state?—Think of all the people who, more or less theoretically, more or less practically, have tackled this problem; who have at times undertaken to solve the problem by expending the greatest effort. These forces that have been directed toward the problem must be put to the good service of humanity; they must not be Ahrimanized by saying that one wants nothing to do with Ahriman, that one does not concern oneself with what, for example, in social problems is cited as originating from Ahriman. That would lead nowhere. The same is true of Lucifer. It is precisely here that the impulse must lie—the impulse of perception, the impulse of feeling—which spiritual science gives us, so that we may relate to the forces that are already present in the world in the right way. Anyone who does not want this is just like someone who says: “Evil elements? No, I don’t like them; no, I don’t like them at all.” — Certainly, both are one-sided views, but in the interplay of good and evil, in their union, these very elements become fruitful in the state of balance that we are to bring about in life by learning, so to speak, to master the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic. In this state of balance lies the impulse that must be woven into life. And spiritual science is meant to convey this impulse. We will then speak further about this tomorrow, as far as possible.