The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Ninth Lecture

[ 1 ] For quite some time now, in our reflections, I have been tasked with pointing out certain impulses, certain forces that are at work in human souls and manifest themselves in everything that flows into our existence from this activity of the human soul—and with indicating how these impulses and forces have developed in the rise of the newer spiritual life. And because I would like to direct your attention to a very specific form of modern spiritual striving, I would like to present once again today before your souls an important starting point for this modern spiritual life—one we have already considered, but which belongs to the most important, to the most essential. When we seek the forces at work in modern souls, we must regard it as one of the most important, as one of the most significant. I am referring to the entire destiny and development of the Knights Templar. So once again, I would like to present to your souls the image of the Knights Templar, in order to then show how what has flowed forth from the Knights Templar continues to influence, in broad currents, the feelings and sensibilities of our time.

[ 2 ] We know that the Order of the Templars was founded as a significant byproduct of the Crusades, that historical event through which the people of Europe sought, in their own way, to draw closer to the mystery of Golgotha than they had been able to before. And the Order of the Templars was founded almost at the very beginning of the Crusades. If one sets aside all that is known externally about the founding of the Order of the Templars and the course of its activities—which, of course, can be read in any history book—then, viewed from within, this Order appears as a particularly profound approach by modern humanity to the Mystery of Golgotha. Initially, a small number of souls deeply devoted to Christianity came together and founded a kind of spiritual order at the site adjacent to the ruins of the ancient Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. As I said, let us set aside the external aspects. But let us turn our gaze to what, from a spiritual perspective, gradually came to live within the souls of the Templars: According to the will that was at work in the founding of the Order, they were to turn their attention away from external, sensory reality, they were to live out within humanity as souls who, even within earthly existence, knew how to stand in the innermost vitality of the life in which—since the Mystery of Golgotha—the innermost, most significant human forces have lived through Christ’s connection with earthly existence. The souls who had united to form the Templar Order were to stand fully within this earthly life—within what earthly life has become through the Mystery of Golgotha. Blood, as the representative of that which characterizes the earthly human being—the “I”—but also all feeling and thinking, all the being and existence of these souls—should, as it were, forget their connection to sensory-physical existence and live solely in what flows forth from the Mystery of Golgotha, and strive only for the continued life of the strongest impulses connected to the Mystery of Golgotha. The blood of the Templars belonged to Christ Jesus; everyone knew that. This blood belonged to no one else on earth but Christ Jesus. And every moment in the lives of these Templar souls was to be filled by their developing an ever-present awareness that, in the Pauline sense, Christ—and not their own “I”—dwells within their own souls. And in bloody and arduous battles, in self-sacrificing work as demanded by the Crusades, the Templars lived out what they had thus set as their spiritual goal.

[ 3 ] Words are powerless to describe what lived in the souls of such people—those souls that, out of a sense of duty, were never allowed to waver, and even when a power three times stronger confronted them externally on the physical plane, they were not allowed to flee, but had to calmly await death—the death they were willing to endure in order to establish within earthly existence the impulse that emanated from the Mystery of Golgotha. This was the intense living of the whole human being in union with the Mystery of Golgotha. And when such an intense life unfolds in human souls in corresponding rhythms, so that it aligns itself with the entire cosmic-earthly flow of forces, then something significant develops from such a life—mind you: something significant. I say that when such consciousness aligns itself, with a certain inner-mystical rhythm, with what is happening externally, then one can certainly experience many things that connect one’s own soul with the divine-spiritual. But something else, something even more effective, is developed when such inner experience, combined with the external course of history, is then placed in the service of that external course of history. What was to be done at that time in the service of regaining power over the Holy Sepulcher was to be in harmony with what lived in the consciousness of the souls of the Knights Templar. Through this, a special mystical life developed, through which those who belonged to this so-called spiritual order were able to have an ever-greater impact on the world than other spiritual orders. For when one lives mystically in this way—in connection with the life of the surrounding world—then what is mystically experienced flows into the invisible, supersensible forces of the human environment; it becomes objective, is no longer merely within the human soul, but continues to work within the historical unfolding of events. Through such mysticism, something is not only experienced soulfully by the individual human being, but it becomes a soul-related reality; objectively formed forces—which were not previously present in the spiritual current that carries and sustains humanity—are born and come into being. When a person accomplishes their daily work with their hands or with other tools, they place something external and material into the world. Through such mysticism, as the Knights Templar developed it, the spiritual is placed into the spiritual fabric of the Earth. But because this happened, humanity was truly advanced one stage further in its development. Through this experience of the Knights Templar, the Mystery of Golgotha was understood and experienced on a higher level than before. There was now something about this Mystery of Golgotha that had not existed before. Through this, however, the souls of the Knights Templar had achieved something even more special.

[ 4 ] Through this intense immersion in the mystery of Golgotha, these souls had attained the power to truly achieve Christian initiation through this historical event. This Christian initiation can be attained as described in our writings; but here, through the Templars, this Christian initiation was attained in such a way that the outward deeds and the enthusiasm that animated those deeds carried the souls of the Templars forth, so that these souls, apart from the body, outside the body, participated in the spiritual development of humanity, and spiritually and soulfully penetrated the mysteries of Golgotha. There, much was experienced not only for the individual souls but for humanity as a whole. That is what is important; that is what is significant.

[ 5 ] Then, as we know, the Order of the Templars expanded, and in addition to the immense spiritual influence it wielded—more in a supernatural sense than through external means—it acquired significant material wealth. And I have already described how the time had come to transfer these material treasures—which the Order of the Templars had amassed on an ever-increasing scale—into secular power, and I have described how, through a kind of initiation—truly a kind of initiation involving the evil principle of gold—Philip the Fair was chosen as the instrument to oppose the Templars. That is to say, he initially wanted to appropriate the external treasures of the Templars. But Philip the Fair knew more than anyone else in the world. Through what he had gone through, Philip the Fair knew much about the mysteries of human-spiritual existence. And so it came to pass that Philip the Fair was able to serve as an instrument precisely in the service of the Mephistophelean-Ahrimanic forces, which sought to render the Templar Order ineffective in the form in which it had initially manifested itself. Philip the Fair was, as I said, the instrument of other spiritual, Mephistophelean-Ahrimanic forces. Under the inspiration of his powers, Philip the Fair knew what it would have meant if what the Templars had spiritually attained—knowledge of the Mystery of Golgotha, along with the sensations, feelings, and impulses of will connected to the Mystery of Golgotha—had poured into those spiritual currents that, just like the visible world, flow through the world. What had developed in this way was to be, so to speak, wrested from the divine-spiritual, normally progressing forces; it was to be directed along other paths.

[ 6 ] To achieve this, it was necessary to ensure that something—which could only live in the souls of the Templars—was now, in turn, torn from the individuality of the Templars themselves. Just as what the Templars had experienced regarding the Mystery of Golgotha did not remain with them as individuals but was set forth into the general evolution of humanity, so too was something else to be set forth from the individuals and incorporated into the objective historical current. And this could only be accomplished through a particular act of cruelty, through a terrible act of ‘cruelty.’ The Templars were put on trial. They were accused not only of external crimes of which they were most certainly innocent—a fact that can be historically proven even from an external historical perspective, if one is only willing to see the truth, even in external history—but above all, the Templars were accused of having they had blasphemed Christianity, that they had blasphemed the Mystery of Golgotha itself, that they had practiced idolatry, that they had introduced paganism into the service of the Mystery of Golgotha, that they had failed to use the correct formulas during consecration and transubstantiation, and that they had even desecrated the cross. And the Templars were accused of all manner of other crimes, even those contrary to nature. Hundreds upon hundreds were subjected to the most cruel torture. And those conducting the trial knew what such torture entailed: the ordinary daily consciousness of those being tortured was suppressed; as a result, during the torture, they forgot in their higher consciousness their connection to the Mystery of Golgotha. But because this is true of everyone who looks into the spiritual world, they had all indeed come to know the trials and temptations that arise from within a person when that person draws near to the good, divine-spiritual forces. All the enemies who work from the lower spiritual realm and who seek to turn people away from the good, who seek to lead people into evil, who can work through instincts, desires, passions, and emotions—but who can also work, in particular, through mockery, hatred, contempt, and the trivialization of the good— all the powers that could be summoned—the Templars had come to know them. And in many, many hours sacred to them, they had won those inner victories that a human being can achieve when he passes through, with clear vision, the worlds that lie beyond the threshold of the sensory world—worlds that must be overcome so that, after overcoming them, the human being may enter the spiritual worlds appropriate to him with renewed strength.

[ 7 ] The Templars had been forced to suppress their view of these spiritual worlds appropriate to human beings during their torture; their higher consciousness had been numbed, and during the torture, their inner spiritual vision was directed solely toward what they had experienced as something to be overcome—what had been a trial within them, over which they had achieved victory after victory in their souls. This was forced into their consciousness—into their numbed, clouded consciousness—during the torture. And so it came to pass that these tortured Knights Templar, in the moments when they were subjected to torture, forgot their connection to the Mystery of Golgotha, forgot how they dwelt with their souls in the spiritually eternal worlds, and what they had overcome—what lived within them as a trial—stood before them as a vision while they lay on the rack, and they confessed, as was customary within the Order, what they—each one individually—had overcome. They confessed as their own faults what they had just experienced, in such a way that they had won victory after victory over it. Each of these Templars had to appear as a human being—one who had been overcome in the innermost depths by each of these Templars, these true Templars (of course, there are aberrations everywhere)—one who had to be overcome in order to attain, precisely through higher forces, the very best, the highest, and the holiest. The opponents were well aware of this. It was known that, since ordinary consciousness had been numbed, just as on the other side—in the realm of good—the Mystery of Golgotha had been brought to the fore, so too was that which dwelt within this evil consciousness now brought to the fore, objectified, and incorporated into the development of humanity. This had become a historical factor.

[ 8 ] Thus, two currents were introduced into recent history: What the Templars had experienced in their most sacred moments, what they had developed within the progressive spiritual current of humanity, but also what had been taken from them by Ahriman-Mephistopheles—extracted from their consciousness in order to make it objective—and thus made effective in an objective way as the centuries progressed.

[ 9 ] One can certainly raise the simple, convenient question of humanity in the face of such phenomena: Why do the divine-spiritual powers of providence allow such things to happen? Why do they not guide humanity through the course of history without it having to undergo such painful trials? — Such a thought is precisely human, all too human; it may spring from the mindset of someone who believes the world would have been better if it had been made not by gods but by humans. Many a person may believe that they can use their intellect to critique what flows and weaves through the world as wisdom. But such thinking also leads to the utmost arrogance of knowledge and the utmost overconfidence in one’s understanding. We humans are called to penetrate the mysteries of existence, but not to criticize the wise guidance of the world. Therefore, we must also gain insight into the role and significance of what is permitted as evil—as an evil current—by the wise governance of the world. For if only the good were permitted, if only good impulses were at work in the unfolding of history, humanity would never be guided in such a way through this historical process that it could develop toward freedom. Only by allowing evil itself to prevail in the spiritual development of human history can humanity evolve toward freedom. And if the gods were to divert the gaze of the human soul from evil, then human beings would have to remain eternal automatons, never becoming free. It is already so arranged in the course of human development that even that which causes the deepest suffering and the most intense pain is ultimately channeled toward the good. Pain is, after all, merely temporal—and therefore, naturally, no less great or profound; one must not delude oneself about pain, nor must one seek to indulge in a cheap, vague mysticism that refuses to acknowledge pain. One must be willing to endure the pain, to immerse oneself in it, and to be able to lay it upon one’s own soul; but one must also learn to understand—without criticizing the spiritual will to exist—how the most diverse impulses, both positive and negative, are woven into the course of human development, so that human beings may become not only good but also free through their own impulses.

[ 10 ] Thus, we see in the development and destiny of the Templar Order an important impetus for all subsequent centuries of modern times. Had the Templar Order been able to run its course with the intensity and strength intended by the great Templars, subsequent generations would not have been able to bear it. In a sense, the rapid pace of development had to be tempered; the current had to be held back. But in doing so, it was also internalized. And so we see how, amid the two currents we have indicated, an innermost life develops alongside external materialism in the course of modern history. For what Mephistopheles-Ahriman forced forth through his instrument, Philip the Fair, as a Mephistophelean impulse for the next phase of human development—that lived on, and coexisted with much else in the materialistic mindset, and found expression in all the materialistic impulses that now swept over humanity in the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. And this brought about the fact that, across the breadth of life—spiritually, psychologically, and socially—what we know as materialism played itself out, and what the karma of our own days has brought forth also played itself out. Had it not been so—had the materialistic current not flowed into the broad expanse of life through the Mephistophelean impulse—then, on the other hand, the connection with the spiritual world could not have been internalized to such an extent. Oh, what the Templars had brought about on the other side through their spiritual immersion in the Mystery of Golgotha—that lived on! And those Templar souls who, after having endured the terrible ordeal on the rack—fifty-four Templars had been executed afterward—those Templar souls who had thus passed through the gate of death were now able to send down streams of spiritual life from the spiritual worlds to the people living in the centuries that followed. In 1312, the execution of the fifty-four Templars had taken place; fifty-four souls ascended into the spiritual worlds. And now, ever since that time, a spiritual development has been taking place within European humanity—supernaturally, invisibly, without manifesting outwardly in historical facts—consisting in the fact that individual descendants are continually inspired from the spiritual world with what these fifty-four souls had carried through the gate of death into the spiritual world.

[ 11 ] I would like to mention just one example of this, which I alluded to earlier in my previous lecture and which I now wish to discuss in somewhat greater detail from a different perspective. Before the tragic events befell the Order of the Knights Templar—long before the year 1312, a century earlier—Wolfram von Eschenbach, working in solitude, one might say, or at least within a small circle, Wolfram von Eschenbach composed his Parzival, the tale of that soul which, through inner purification, strives toward the very life that the Knights Templar also envisioned as their ultimate goal. Through rich imagery and wondrous imagination, Wolfram von Eschenbach unfolds the inner life of Parzival, who represents the Knights Templar. Do we see a significant external impact of Parzival on the historical development of the subsequent era? No. It was Richard Wagner, after all, who later introduced Parzival into the historical development of European humanity in a different way. But what, as a spiritual power, as a spiritual impulse, was still able to flow from the earth into the soul of Wolfram von Eschenbach at that time became, in the centuries that followed, an inspiration from the spiritual world for many others. And anyone who looks at things inwardly, who perceives the connections—the mysterious connections—between earthly, sensory life and spiritual life, knows how the impulses carried out into the spiritual world through the fate of the Templars flowed into Goethe’s soul. It is no coincidence that Goethe began a poem as early as the 1880s that he never completed. It is significant that he began it; equally significant is the fact that Goethe—even Goethe—was not strong enough to bring the powerful ideas of this poem to fruition. I am referring to The Mysteries, in which Brother Markus goes to a lonely castle of the Rosicrucians and enters the circle of the twelve Rosicrucians. Goethe did, in his own way, grasp the fundamental idea that also lies at the heart of Parzival, but he was unable to complete it; by leaving it unfinished, he indicated that we are all actually engaged in this spiritual development, which Goethe himself experienced only in its early stages, and at which we must work and work and work so that we may advance ever further and further in our penetration of the spiritual world and shape these beginnings ever more fully. Goethe devoted the best energies of his existence to this; he also incorporated this into his Faust when he sought to depict the connection between human beings and the spiritual forces, which for him were also the Ahrimanic-Mephistophelean ones.

[ 12 ] For those who view history concretely in its spiritual development, it is evident that what flowed from the spiritual world into Goethe’s soul on earth was what the Templars—who had passed through the gate of death in such a significant and cruel manner—had carried up into the spiritual worlds, and precisely because they had passed through the gate of death in this way, they were able to let it flow down as inspiration into human souls. And it has flowed into and lives on not only in this one soul of Goethe’s—though perhaps in this one in a particularly significant way—but also in many other human souls, even if it is still largely overlooked by the outer world today. For how very much has the spiritual element in Faust itself remained unnoticed by the outer world! Yet it lives on, and is moving toward an ever richer life; and it will have to become ever more fruitful if humanity does not wish to descend into decadence rather than move toward upward development. However, especially in our age, what is to work within humanity in the future has been placed in the hands of human beings themselves, and humanity is faced with a choice—one that will become ever more pressing—as to whether it wishes to descend into decadence and continue down the path of materialism, or whether it wishes to strive upward into the spiritual worlds.

[ 13 ] We humans, in the way we live on Earth, live a life connected to the Earth solely through our physical body. Even the body that is woven from light, sound, and life—and which is contained within this physical body—even this so-called etheric body does not merely live an earthly life, but also participates in the cosmic life. And when a human soul descends from the spiritual worlds into existence through birth, forces in the extraterrestrial cosmos are already aligning beforehand to compose the human etheric organism, just as the human physical body is composed of the physical forces and physical substances of the Earth.

[ 14 ] In the simplest concepts of humanity, pride and arrogance actually thrive, especially in our maternalistic age. In our materialistic age, the ancestors also believe that they alone bring their descendants into existence. And as materialism spreads, people will increasingly believe that it is the ancestors alone who bring their descendants into existence. Spiritually speaking, however, the situation is different. Human beings here on Earth merely provide the opportunity for the spiritual to descend to them. What a human being, as an ancestor, can do consists solely in preparing the place through which an etheric body—which is gathering its forces from the vastness of the cosmos—can descend to Earth. This etheric organism is a being just as organized as the physical organism of a human being. We see the human physical organism with its head, arms, hands, torso—with everything it presents to the anatomist and the physiologist. As we know, this physical organism is, in spiritual vision, permeated and illuminated by the etheric organism. The physical organism inhales air and exhales air. The etheric organism exhales light, and it gives this light to us. And as it exhales light and bestows that light upon us, we live through its light. And it inhales light. Just as we inhale and exhale air, so our etheric body inhales and exhales light. And as it inhales light, it processes the light within itself, just as we physically process air within ourselves. You can read about this in my Mystery Dramas, where at a certain point this very mystery of the etheric world is dramatically unfolded. The etheric body inhales light, processes the light within itself into darkness, and into this darkness it can take in, as its nourishment, the world tone that lives in the harmony of the spheres, and can take in the life impulses. Just as we take in physical nourishment, so the etheric being that lives within us breathes light in and out. Just as we process the air within us as oxygen and convert it into carbon dioxide, so the etheric body processes light and permeates it with darkness, causing it to appear in colors, and the etheric body appears to us—to the clairvoyant eye—in undulating colors. But while the etheric body prepares the light for darkness and thereby performs its own inner respiratory work, it lives by absorbing the world tone and processing it into world life. What we thus take in as our etheric body, however, descends to us at certain times from the vastness of the cosmos.

[ 15 ] It is not yet possible today to describe the circumstances under which the human etheric body descends along the paths of light when these paths of light are directed in a certain way by the constellations. For that to ever be possible, human beings must first rise to a higher level of morality. For even today, this very mystery—the drawing in of human etheric bodies along the paths of light and the tonal paths of spherical harmony—would be abused in the most terrible way by people if they were to know it. For this mystery contains everything that, if people were to appropriate it with base instincts, would give ancestors absolute power over their entire posterity. You will therefore believe that this mystery—how the etheric bodies come to human beings who are incarnating along the paths of light and the paths of sound from the harmony of the spheres—must remain a mystery for quite some time yet. Only under very specific conditions can one gain any knowledge of this particular mystery; for if these conditions were not met, human beings—as ancestors—would, as has been said, appropriate a power over their descendants that would be unheard of, whereby the descendants could be entirely deprived of their free autonomy, personality, and individuality, and the will of the ancestors could be imposed upon them. Wisely, this is shrouded in unconsciousness for humanity, and thrives quite well in unconsciousness through the will of the wise guidance of the worlds.

[ 16 ] But our etheric body takes a different path than the physical body. After we have passed through the gate of death, we carry this etheric body for only a few more days; then we must return it to the cosmos. The etheric body remains, like an image in the cosmos, in the spiritual realm, for our subsequent life, which we experience between death and a new birth. But our etheric body is incorporated into the cosmos in a variety of ways: differently for those who die young due to misfortune or for other reasons, and differently for those who reach a ripe old age. But precisely when one looks across to the world that lies beyond the threshold, one knows that both the former and the latter—early death and late death—have great significance within the entire cosmic context. For what we give up as our etheric body continues to have an effect; it now continues to have an effect in the spiritual realm.

[ 17 ] Yes, when you really think about it, on a deeper level, all of us humans reach the same age. Physically, some die sooner, others later. Spiritually speaking, we all essentially reach the same age. If we die early, our physical body perishes early; but the etheric body lives on for the cosmos, and precisely because we have died early, this etheric body fulfills different functions for the cosmos than if we had died later. If we add up the years we live through in the physical body and in the etheric body as human beings, and regard what we accomplish in the physical body as earthly deeds, what we accomplish in the etheric body—even after death—and what we live not for ourselves but for the cosmos, for the world, as heavenly deeds, if we add all this up by the years: we find that all human beings are roughly the same age.

[ 18 ] But the fact that something like this is done—as was done by the Templars—brings about something different than when we humans lead only an individual life. What we lead as an individual life remains within our own person; what we lead as a life that can be objectively separated—such as, on the one hand, what the Templars’ souls were able to do for the perpetuation of the Mystery of Golgotha, and, on the other hand, what was brought about by Mephistophelean-Ahrimanic forces to fuel the impulses of modern materialism—all of this also lives on, in a sense, as fragments of the etheric body. But it is incorporated into the course of history; so that some of what a human being lives in his etheric body lives on with human individuality, while some of it is incorporated into the course of history when things are torn away from the human being in the manner described. But the etheric body is the means, the medium, through which that which a human being experiences in his soul so objectively that it can step out of his soul—through which that which has thus become objectified—has points of reference to continue living. That is the etheric body.

[ 19 ] What flowed into the etheric world from the spiritual impulses of the Templars continued to live on in the etheric realm; and through this continued existence in the etheric realm, many a soul was prepared to receive the inspirations I have described, which come from the spiritual worlds through the Templar souls themselves. This is the specific process that has taken place in more recent times.

[ 20 ] But into that which flowed from the souls of the Templars, more and more— precisely in the breadth of life, what flows from Mephistophelean-Ahrimanic impulses—that which is steeped in the Mephistophelean-Ahrimanic element—which was inaugurated on the Templars’ torture benches when they were forced under torture to make false statements about themselves. This is not the only reason—but it is one of the spiritual reasons for modern materialism—and it is part of what one must understand if one wishes to grasp the inner meaning of modern materialistic development.

[ 21 ] Thus it came to pass that, while in more recent times some were inspired by lofty spiritual truths, general culture took on an increasingly materialistic character, so that, in a sense, the soul’s vision of that which surrounds us spiritually became more and more clouded, and into which we enter through the gate of death, from which we emerged through the gate of birth. Distracted more and more from this in the most diverse areas of life—in the spiritual realm, in the religious realm, in the social realm—humanity became distracted from looking into the spiritual. Its gaze has been directed more and more solely toward what presents itself to the senses as the material, physical world. Thus it came to pass that modern humanity, since the dawn of the modern era, has passed through many, many errors. But let us not, in turn, judge critically the fact that humanity has passed through these errors. Precisely because errors became woven into human development, people had to experience these errors; and they will gradually come to see them, and in overcoming these errors, they will gain greater strength than if the path to what they ought to do had simply been instilled in them automatically. But today the time has come to recognize how the impulses toward error live within the spiritual realm, and humanity is now called upon to make more and more free decisions to see through and overcome these errors.

[ 22 ] The aim is not to condemn any historical event, but merely to view it entirely objectively. The historical events of modern times unfolded in such a way that people’s thoughts and feelings were shaped solely by external physical reality—solely by what a person experiences between birth and death. Even religious life gradually took on a personal character, focusing solely on providing people with the means to attain salvation through their own souls. Modern religious life, which increasingly diverts people’s gaze away from the concrete spiritual world, is in many ways permeated by a materialistic mindset and materialistic sensibility. As I said, the intention is not to condemn any historical phenomenon, but to present it as it must be understood if future humanity is to avoid falling into decadence and instead undergo an upward movement.

[ 23 ] We see the tide of materialism rising alongside what I would call a hidden parallel current, and we witness a momentous event taking place at the end of the 18th century—an event whose influence has shaped the entire 19th century right up to the present day: At the end of the 18th century, we see the French Revolution sweep across European culture. Much of it unfolded as historians have described it—as it did during the French Revolution. But in addition to what we have understood so far about this French Revolution and the impulses that continued to have an effect stemming from it, we must also understand what emerges spiritually from the materialistic impulses, from the Ahrimanic-Mephistophelean impulses. The French Revolution strove—as I said, a historical event should not be condemned but understood—toward a supreme ideal; but it strove for the highest at a time when the shadows of that event I have described today still fell heavily upon it—the event through which Mephistopheles-Ahriman had gained power to send the materialistic impulse into European life. And so the best among those who inaugurated the French Revolution, even if in their consciousness they believed otherwise —for what matters is not that one professes this or that with words, but that one has a living, soul-filled awareness of what is at work in the world—the best among those who inaugurated the French Revolution had only an awareness of the physical plane. They certainly strove for the highest, but they knew nothing of the trinity within the human being: of the body, which acts through the etheric principle in the human being; of the soul, which acts through the astral principle; and of the spirit, which acts in the human being primarily through the “I.”

[ 24 ] Even at the end of the 18th century, people were viewed in the same way that today’s materialistic science—physiology and biology—views them, to the detriment of humanity. People viewed human beings in such a way that, even if they had a religious inkling of a spiritual life, they directed their gaze—they might have spoken of the other—but their concrete gaze was directed toward what unfolds in the physical world here between birth and death. One can understand what unfolds here, even if one does not yet fully grasp it today, when one directs one’s gaze solely toward the outer physical body. But what lives within the whole human being can only be understood if one knows how the etheric principle, the astral principle, and the I-principle are linked to the outer physical body. For even as we stand here in the physical world between birth and death, the spiritual-soul aspect—which belongs to the spiritual worlds—lives within us. Here we are body, soul, and spirit, and when we have passed through the gate of death, we will once again be a trinity as human beings, only with a different spiritual body. Therefore, anyone who regards the earthly human being solely as a physical being living out their life between birth and death is not considering the whole human being; such a person is succumbing to a misconception regarding the whole human being. And if they then establish a human ideal for the physical human being alone, that ideal does not apply to the whole human being. We must not view the events that take place in the world as if they were inherently erroneous. What appears is already the truth; but the way in which human beings view it and apply it in their own actions often leads to confusion. And so, at the end of the 18th century, confusion arose in people’s souls because everything was, as it were, projected into the body, and ideals—which only make sense if one views the human being as a trinity—were pursued for a human being who was merely a physical monon.

[ 25 ] And so it came to pass that, at the end of the 18th century, beautiful ideals were circulating among people: brotherhood, liberty, equality! Beautiful ideals were circulating among humanity, but they were circulating at a time when they could not be understood—a time when the physical, the soul, and the spirit were conflated, because they were all conceived of in the same way as they are conceived by people who, in truth, believe only in the physical human body. For the physical human body, only brotherhood is rightly regarded as an ideal; freedom has meaning only when it is related to the human soul; and equality has meaning only when it is related to the spirit, just as the spirit expresses itself in humanity as the “I.” Only when one knows that the human being consists of body, soul, and spirit, and that of the three ideals from the end of the 18th century, brotherhood relates to the body, freedom to the soul, and equality to the “I,” can one speak in a way that corresponds to the inner meaning of the spiritual world. We can develop brotherhood to the extent that we, as physical human beings, bear physical earthly bodies; and when we incorporate brotherhood into social orders, then brotherhood is a right for the social order on the physical plane. Human beings can acquire freedom only in the soul, to the extent that they incarnate on Earth through the soul. Freedom reigns on Earth and is possible on Earth only—as Goethe also sought to express in his beautiful fairy tale of the green snake and the beautiful lily—when it is related to human souls living in such social orders on Earth that they acquire the ability to maintain a balance between the lower and higher forces. If, as a human being, one is able to maintain a balance between the lower and higher forces of the human soul, then one develops the forces that can live here between birth and death; one also develops the forces needed when passing through the gate of death. And so, alongside the social order, a spiritual order is necessary on Earth into which souls can embed themselves in such a way that they develop the forces of freedom that we can carry through the gate of death—forces that we will only be able to carry through the gate of death if we prepare ourselves for life after death in this present life. That such a spiritual communion may be established from soul to soul on Earth, that souls may develop such powers, that all events of human life from an early age, that all forms of the sciences, all forms of the arts, and all forms of human creativity may strive toward the ideal—that human beings, as souls, may be able to maintain a balance between what acts and lives spiritually and what acts and lives physically here—this must become an ideal. Human beings become free when they are able to acquire such soul powers in the outer physical world—as they can, for example, when they are able to pursue the beautiful forms that live in an art that truly springs from the spiritual. Human beings become free when the interaction between soul and soul is such that one soul is able to regard the other with ever greater understanding and ever greater love. When it comes to the physical bodies, brotherhood comes into play. When it comes to the souls, what comes into play is the formation of those delicate bonds that develop from soul to soul—bonds that must also be woven into the fabric of earthly life, but which must be directed toward fostering deep, deep interest in one soul for the other. For only in this way can the souls become free, and only the souls can become free.

[ 26 ] Equality, as conceived for the external physical world, is nonsense, for equality would mean uniformity. Everything in the world is in a state of transformation; everything is encapsulated in numbers; everything in the world must find its fulfillment in multiplicity and diversity. That is why the physical world exists—so that the spiritual may pass through the multiplicity of forms. But one thing remains the same in our multifaceted and varied human life, because it is, first and foremost, a beginning. We have carried the rest of humanity within us since the Saturn, Sun, and Moon eras; the “I,” however, only since the Earth era. The “I” is in the beginning! Throughout our entire life between birth and death, we do not progress any further in the spiritual realm than to say “I” to ourselves and to perceive this “I.” A human being can perceive it either from outside the body—already here between birth and death through initiation—or when they pass through the gate of death, where they then, in the memory of their earthly body, are able to perceive the “I” spiritually. But through this “I,” all diversity finds its expression here on Earth. And the structure of earthly life must be shaped in such a way that the possibility exists for all the diversities that can enter the Earth through human individualities to find their expression through the same “I”s. One person embodies this, another that, and a third yet another individuality. All these individualities gather in their rays of action at the focus, the focal point of the “I,” equally; but this fact that we are equal creates the possibility that what we communicate to one another as spirits passes through this “I,” enabling us to develop a shared life of humanity. Through the same, the different passes. Thus, spiritual equality is the foundation for that which does not enter the entire stream of cosmic-spiritual becoming through a single human being; rather, as that which is set before us in our manifold lives passes through our “I,” through our spiritual nature, it becomes a shared reality and continues as a common stream within cosmic becoming.

[ 27 ] Equality befits the spirit. And only a generation that understands that human beings carry within themselves this threefold nature of body, soul, and spirit will be able to grasp how the three ideals of brotherhood, freedom, and equality can take root in humanity. The fact that this could not be understood in the 18th century and throughout the 19th century was yet another consequence of the strength of the Ahrimanic-Mephistophelean current, which entered into the recent development of humanity in the manner I have described to you. The 18th century conflated equality, freedom, and brotherhood by applying these three concepts solely to external, physical life. As the 19th century understood it, this could only lead to chaos—social chaos. And humanity would have to plunge into this social chaos if it did not embrace spiritual science and spiritual life, which will lead to the understanding that the human being is a triad, and which will establish a structure of earthly life for the threefold human being.

[ 28 ] Humanity had to go through materialism; its strength would have been too weak for the period that followed if humanity had not gone through materialism. For the development of humanity is indeed remarkable. Yesterday I cited an example from astronomy. Today, to conclude, let me cite an example from which you will see how complicated humanity’s journey through earthly existence is—I mean through earthly life as a whole—when we view the matter spiritually. As you know, we are now living in the fifth period of the age that I will denote with this line (it is drawn)—the fifth age of the Earth, the post-Atlantean age. Our period was preceded by the Greco-Roman period. The Post-Atlantean era was preceded by the era that was repeated during the Greco-Roman period, but which is separated from the Post-Atlantean era by the great Atlantean flood, which geology calls the Ice Age. We call this the Atlantean Age; the Greco-Roman era is merely a repetition of it, a spiritualized repetition. This Atlantean Age, however, was preceded by the Lemurian Age, which in turn is separated from the Atlantean Age by a catastrophe. And then we come to earlier ages, which we shall not consider further.

[ 29 ] Let us now take a very brief look at an event from the Lemurian Age. There was a certain point in human evolution—thousands and thousands of years ago—when humanity on Earth was still very different from what it is today. You know from the way I described this evolution of humanity on Earth in An Outline of Esoteric Science how these impulses gradually entered into humanity. There was a point in evolution when what we know today as magnetic and, in particular, electrical forces became established within the human being from the cosmos. For the magnetic and electrical forces also live within us in a mysterious way. Before this era, during the Lemurian period, human beings on Earth still lived without the magnetic and electrical forces that develop spiritually within their nervous system, between the nervous and circulatory functions. It was then that these forces became incorporated into them. Let us set aside the magnetic forces for now, and also a certain portion of the electrical forces. Precisely because these forces—which I shall refer to as electrical forces in the context of galvanism, voltaism, and so on, that is, those forces that today are so deeply intertwined with civilization—were integrated into the human organism in primeval times and connected with human life, these forces were able to remain unknown to human consciousness for a time. Human beings carried them within, but outwardly they remained unknown to them. Now, we became acquainted with the magnetic forces and the other electrical forces—apart from galvanism and voltaism—already some time ago. For galvanism—contact electricity, which imposes its karma on our age from the outside more than we realize today—was, as you know, only discovered around the turn of the 18th to the 19th century by Galvani and Volta. People usually give far too little thought to such things. Just think: this Galvani—he was dissecting a frog’s leg. By attaching it, as they say, by chance to a window, and the frog’s leg coming into contact with iron, it twitched. That is the beginning of all the discoveries, all the inventions that today, through electric current, dominate our world! It has only been that short a time. People usually don’t stop to think: How is it that humanity didn’t know such a thing before? Suddenly, in a truly wondrous way, this thought arises in a person; this person stumbles upon this thought. Our materialistic age, of course, does not reflect on such things. But that is precisely why our materialistic age understands absolutely nothing, scientifically speaking, about the true course of the world. The truth is this:

[ 30 ] After humanity had passed through that phase of the Lemurian era when it implanted within itself—or received the implantation of—those forces that today flow through wires as electricity and work invisibly within human beings, once that era had passed, electricity, so to speak, continued to live within human beings. Now, evolution does not proceed as one might casually depict it, with a simple stroke of the pen. People merely believe that time moves forward by flowing into infinity. But that is a completely abstract notion. In truth, time moves in such a way that it continues to advance, that development is reversed and runs backward. These lemniscate-like movements occur not only in space but also in time.

[ 31 ] This is where humanity was during the Lemurian period (the intersection of the lemniscate movement; see diagram), when it implanted the principle of electrical power within itself. It followed this path (blue) during the Atlantean era, and—with regard to certain forces—reached, in the post-Atlantean era around the turn of the 18th to the 19th century, the exact point in world development where it had been in the ancient Lemurian era, when it had implanted within itself the principle of electricity drawn from the cosmos. And that is why Galvani discovered electricity back then! In later times, people always return to what they have already experienced before; all life unfolds cyclically and rhythmically. As humanity, we were, so to speak, truly standing at the midpoint of the materialistic era that had been developing since the 14th and 15th centuries—at the point in the cosmos that we had once passed through during the Lemurian era. And all of humanity remembered at that time the emergence of electricity within human beings, and thus, through this memory, humanity imbued culture with the electrical principle. That which lives as soul and spirit within the human being rediscovered what had once been experienced. Such truths will have to become clear to humanity once again, for only with these truths will the decadence of the future be avoided.

[ 32 ] Under the influence of the inspirations I have spoken of today, certain minds arrived at such truths. For the fact that people follow such paths is precisely the result of the prevalence of various currents. If, for example, only what the Templars desired had prevailed, a different course of development would have taken place. But because the other current—the Mephistophelean one—was mixed in—it was there from the beginning, but it was renewed by the fate of the Templars—humanity was led into materialism precisely at this time, just as it has been. These Mephistophelean-Ahrimanic forces are necessary in the development of humanity. And I said: Certain spirits are led, through the inspiration that comes from the Rosicrucian-Templar principle—which comes from the spiritual world—to recognize this principle that I am referring to here.

[ 33 ] And don’t for a moment think that a great poet—a truly great poet who creates from the spiritual world—simply strings his words together the way people today sometimes believe they can take those words at face value! No, a poet like Goethe, for example, knows what lies within the word; he knows that the word conveys something that sustains human beings and, through them, sustains the spirit, allowing the spirit to resound through the human person. Person?—That brings to mind: persona! Persona is the word derived from the Greek word for the mask worn by the actor, through which his voice resounded: personare means “to resound.” All of this is intimately connected with the further development of the Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was divine.” - The Word was not in human beings; yet human personality is connected to it.

[ 34 ] But the entire process of development is driven forward not only by the forces of good, but also by the others. And a man like Goethe expressed—albeit partly unconsciously, yet under inspiration—the deepest, most significant, and greatest truths precisely in a work of poetry such as Faust. In the “Prologue in Heaven,” where the Lord is in conversation with Mephistopheles, the Lord finally tells Mephistopheles that he has no objection to his work. He allows this Mephistopheles-Ahriman to exist because he is meant to be part of the development of the world. Through him, that which “provokes and acts and must work as the devil” is to be present. But then the Lord turns his voice away from him and addresses the “true sons of the gods,” who advance normal evolution and with whom the other current of evolution interacts. And what does the Lord say to these true sons of the gods?

But you, the true sons of the gods,
Rejoice in the living, rich beauty!
That which is becoming, which eternally acts and lives,
Encircle yourselves with love’s sweet bounds,
And what hovers in a wavering form,
Strengthen it with enduring thoughts!

[ 35 ] The Lord directly commands His sons to plant enduring thoughts in the corners of the world! Such a lasting thought was planted in the world when the electrical principle was implanted in humankind, and humanity was led back to that lasting thought when it discovered the electrical principle and implanted it in materialistic culture. This is a thought of immense depth:

That which is coming to be, which eternally acts and lives,
Encircle yourselves with the gentle barriers of love,
And whatever hovers in a wavering form,
Strengthen it with enduring thoughts!

[ 36 ] And a profound feeling takes hold of our soul when the mystery of enduring thoughts takes effect upon us; for then we feel how the eternal is present here and there in the world as enduring thoughts, how we belong to the world of movement, and how we pass through that which is set into the “fluctuating appearance” as enduring thoughts—as the eternally active and weaving beauty that reveals itself so that we may grasp it at the right moment.

[ 37 ] And so may a true moment for humanity also come in the near future, as is destined for it, if it does not wish to fall into decadence. May humanity understand that it must pass through the next stage, which in turn transcends materialism into its opposite; it must pass through the stage where the great ideas of the spiritual world can shine into humanity—ideas for which this humanity wishes to prepare itself through those of its personalities who, through their karma, have already been permitted to come to spiritual science today. To point out that even the materialistic age—which has found the enduring thought that Ahriman-Mephistopheles, in his latest form, has introduced into modern development—must be supplemented by what can be experienced through the passage through a spiritual, enduring thought; to point out and ensuring that humanity does not fail to grasp this spiritual thought will be the ever-recurring task of spiritual scientific work and endeavor. Therefore, we must not grow weary of repeatedly and persistently reminding humanity that it must not miss the opportunity to embrace spiritual science.