The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Sixth Lecture

[ 1 ] My dear friends! If we are to reach a conclusion in our reflections, it is above all a matter of grasping the very essence of the so-called fifth post-Atlantean epoch in the deepest sense of the word; for if one does not address these concrete matters, but instead wishes to remain only at the level of general observations about the world and humanity, without taking any specific matters into account, then one cannot arrive at an understanding—especially not of events of such profound significance as those we are currently experiencing. Moreover, it must be emphasized time and again that, unfortunately, a deeper understanding of the far-reaching significance of these events is largely absent in the broadest circles.

[ 2 ] Yesterday, for very specific reasons—which will become clear in the course of my further remarks—I cited two points: First, that Brooks Adams’s book was, so to speak, thrown into the midst of humanity—as a trial balloon, so to speak—to see how much of such things—at least some of them—could be understood, to see whether the idea expounded in the aforementioned book by Brooks Adams could be grasped. There it is explained [on the basis of a wealth of historical material]—I will briefly repeat—that a national organism is indeed to be understood as an organism; that is, it comes into being, passes through a youth, a period of growth, a period of maturity, and a period of decline—similar to the individual human being, although, of course, there is only a similarity, not an exact equivalence. The book then points out that, in certain phases of their development, nations each develop two related characteristics: namely, the imaginative and the warlike in one stage of life, and the scientific and the industrial-commercial in another. It is therefore assumed from this perspective—we are merely reporting this—that peoples who are by nature imaginative and warlike live side by side with peoples who are by nature scientifically and industrially-commercially inclined; the world process of humanity develops through the interaction of such peoples. I told you [yesterday] that this is a one-sided view [in need of correction]. But how do such views come to the surface in the first place? What does it mean that they are brought into the public sphere?

[ 3 ] You see, with views such as these—which have truly made an impression on certain individuals who are already influential and who are right in the midst of the impulses at work in the present—with such things, it is essential that individual parts of the comprehensive spiritual knowledge—let us say, the occult knowledge of human evolution— — are torn out of context and — depending on how one needs or wants them — transplanted into the world. By picking out one thing or another from the entire scope of true occult insights into human development, one can always achieve specific goals in the service of a group, in the service of some form of group egoism. The whole always serves all of humanity; the individual elements that are singled out always serve the self-interest of individual groups. This is the significant and important point that must be kept in mind, because very many things that are thrown into the public sphere from the occult side are not incorrect, but are half-truths, quarter- or eighth-truths, and precisely because they contain a part of the truth, they can be used to achieve this or that in a one-sided manner. Therefore, it made a significant impression on those who see through such things when the 20th century was ushered in from America by these ideas—which, as mentioned, were released into the world through publishing channels serving certain movements that make use of occult means. We will return to this matter later.

[ 4 ] The other thing I mentioned to you was the remarkable treatise by the noble Thomas More on the best form of public affairs in a state and the new island of Utopia. Well, yesterday I read to you from the introduction to this treatise by Thomas More on “Utopia,” and you saw from it that Thomas More puts what he wants to say about this Utopia into the mouth of a stranger, who may well have been invented for my sake—that is, whom one might call invented—though he is not, as you will see. This stranger—whom we may be able to introduce in a bit more detail today—explains that he has found such an island, namely Utopia, and, drawing on a certain mood regarding his own time that I described to you yesterday, he first expresses his feelings and then describes this Utopia.

[ 5 ] Now, this description of Utopia by Thomas More—who introduced these ideas into the course of human development right at the beginning of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch—is truly most peculiar. And I must say, I have met many people who have read Utopia, but I have not found a single one who has read it so closely that they have truly brought to their awareness all the strange twists and turns, all the strange things contained in this book. People simply take this description of the island of Utopia as the depiction of a fantasy land and read it page by page—which is, of course, understandable in our age, devoid of any spirituality. But one should at least notice and say to oneself: Either Thomas More is describing a figment of the imagination—which, if one possesses only the ordinary materialist mind, one simply cannot grasp—or Thomas More must have been a complete fool, a simpleton. But our age does not draw such logical conclusions; it much prefers to gloss over all these things with a superficial understanding. Well, of course I cannot describe all the details to you; you will have to read the work Utopia yourself if you wish to delve into the specifics, but I will at least present the content of this work by Thomas More to our minds in a few sketchy strokes.

[ 6 ] First, we must consider it significant that Utopia is described as having attained a certain maturity in its institutions, for it is explicitly stated that the state of affairs described there did not exist in Utopia from the beginning, but took 1,760 years to develop, so that it is, in a sense, a final state.

[ 7 ] The first thing that is particularly emphasized is that property is held in common, that no one has any private property, and that the entire state is divided into certain families, which, so to speak, elect elders. From among the elders, a prince is in turn elected, and in an assembly convened from time to time, the elected representatives deliberate on public affairs in accordance with the mandates they have received from the individual members of the people. Here we immediately encounter a most remarkable institution in Utopia: it is permitted to discuss public affairs only through the prescribed channels. If anyone in Utopia discusses public affairs privately with others, such conduct is punishable by death.

[ 8 ] We also find a highly sensible practice: When a proposal is made at a public meeting, it must never be discussed in any way immediately; instead, people must first go home and think it over, and only later is the matter discussed. The person recounting this explains that in this way, people can reflect and are not driven to make a hasty judgment—a judgment to which they would then, driven by stubbornness and selfishness, naturally cling, not because they consider the matter to be good, but because they have already committed themselves to their judgment.

[ 9 ] In Utopia, every child must learn farming, but later on must also learn a trade—usually the one their parents practice; however, they may also choose a different trade if they are skilled at it. Work is strictly regulated; no one is required to work more than six hours a day. Everything else is also organized in the best possible way: People work for three hours in the morning; but before that—at sunrise—those who wish to do so gather to listen to spiritual teachings and the like. There are no games of the kind found outside Utopia; instead, there is a strategic game similar to chess—a sort of arithmetic battle—and there is another strategic game that, again in a chess-like manner, depicts the struggle between vices and virtues. Under the supervision of publicly elected officials, those who are suited for it are trained as scholars; from among them, in turn, the envoys and priests are chosen. The dirtiest work is done by slaves, who are recruited either from the people of conquered nations or from criminals. Every true Utopian is free. Then there is an institution in Utopia that we other non-Utopians are only now beginning to enjoy: one cannot travel without obtaining permission from the appropriate authority. A passport must be presented for every single journey, even the shortest one.

[ 10 ] There is no money. Whatever is available is brought to the markets; there, anyone can take what they need. Thanks to systems that are so well-designed that no one takes more than they need, no one has to pay for anything—instead, they receive everything they need. It is simply not necessary to have money or anything of the sort. The only metal that is truly valued is iron—I ask you to pay particular attention to this, for there lies something very significant. Silver is valued little, and gold the least of all. Gold is not used to make the things that non-Utopians make from it; rather, at most, all sorts of chains and the like are made from gold, which criminals are required to wear: for example, they are shackled with golden chains; they must wear golden chains as a mark of shame. Then there are certain vessels made of gold, which one must not speak of in decent company, and other such things. This led to the following incident: when envoys from a foreign court once came to Utopia and believed they could impress the Utopians by arriving in golden finery, the Utopians regarded them as very inferior people, because in Utopia only criminals wear gold—or, at most, a few gold toys are made for the very youngest children, which they then throw away anyway. When the foreign envoys arrived, the children lined the streets and said: “Just look at them—they’re such old fools; they’re still carrying around children’s toys.” — In Utopia, it means nothing if someone wears fine clothing, for the Utopians say: “How can anyone take pride in wearing a garment made of this or that kind of wool—after all, the sheep wore it first! One cannot take pride in something that the sheep naturally wore first.”

[ 11 ] In utopias, then, there is the peculiarity that judgments about good and evil, virtue and vice, are made solely in the context of religious beliefs. A certain Epicureanism in the pursuit of pleasure is regarded as the goal of life, and the more pleasure one derives from life, the more virtuous one is in Utopias. The Utopians believe in the immortal soul of man and practice a kind of rational religion, holding the view that every person can discern through their own reason that God governs the world like a master craftsman, that man has an immortal soul, and that after death he enters a spiritual world where there are rewards and punishments for virtue and vice. They have no regard for gemstones, for they say: If anyone buys a gemstone, they have the seller swear that it is genuine—but what significance can that possibly have if one cannot even tell by looking whether it is a genuine or fake gemstone? —So this can only be the case among the Utopians. Hunting is frowned upon among them as unworthy; it may only be practiced by butchers; their trade is not a respected one.

[ 12 ] The man who provides these accounts explains that he himself introduced the Utopians to Greek literature and Greek art, and that the Utopians proved to be exceptionally quick learners; indeed, their language even bears some resemblance to Greek, just as their culture as a whole has the distinctive quality of recalling Greek mixed with Persian. I will not describe how husbands and wives are chosen, for reasons you will understand when you read the book. There are no lawyers in Utopia, because they are considered the most harmful of all people. Contracts are not entered into, because the Utopians believe that whoever wishes to keep a promise will do so even without a contract, and whoever does not wish to keep a promise will not do so even if he has made a contract. In war, they avoid bloodshed whenever possible; they regard it as the most shameful thing imaginable. They say: If one sheds blood in war, one is no better than an animal; wolves and tigers act this way, but humans possess intelligence. — Only in the most extreme cases, when they cannot resolve matters otherwise, do they shed blood. For they send all sorts of people among those they wish to wage war against; these people are either tasked with sowing discord so that the people turn on one another, or they are tasked with assassinating one person or another, or the like. So, through “love and reason,” as they say, they seek to stir up discord and disunity, so that the people they wish to wage war against wear each other down; and only when they fail to achieve this do they take up arms to shed blood. But even in this regard, they have their own very specific customs, which show that they want to stop the bloodshed as soon as possible, if only the opportunity arises.

[ 13 ] It is further recounted that a fundamental trait of the Utopians is to practice religious tolerance. Anyone, provided they do not violate the laws, may belong to any sect or hold any religious belief. The founder of Utopia, Utopus, established this from the very beginning; however, everyone must believe in a supreme being whom they call “Mythra.” The person recounting this also attempted to introduce Christianity there. They showed extraordinary openness toward it, truly recognizing it as the best religion. Religious tolerance prevails there to the highest degree; everyone can believe what they want—please, I am recounting how things are described there—everyone can believe what they want. On the other hand, a materialist—someone who does not believe in the immortality of the soul—is not permitted to enjoy any civil rights or have the same rights as an ordinary Utopian; he is, so to speak, declared to be without rights. There is a sect there that considers animals to be animate beings just like humans. There are priests who instruct the people in special mystery churches and perform rituals for them. Festivals are celebrated at the end and beginning of the year. Musical instruments exist, but they are of a somewhat different kind than those used by non-Utopians. They are particularly suited to expressing in sound what the human soul feels in a wide variety of moods, and so on.

[ 14 ] I have told you everything exactly as it is described in the book itself. You may have noticed that at one point I mentioned that the Utopians practice a religion of reason, in which everyone believes what their reason dictates. Then again, it is said that Christianity was introduced and that everyone believes in a kind of Mithra. Then it is stated once more that a kind of tolerance prevails, but that anyone who is a materialist does not have the same rights. In short, you will find contradiction after contradiction in the book. So what is this book actually about? What is it really trying to describe?

[ 15 ] What is being described here can truly only be understood on the basis of the fundamentals of spiritual science. Let us be perfectly clear about this: Thomas More, like Pico della Mirandola and others, is a person who, with one part of his being, is still immersed in the aftermath of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, while the other part of his being already extends into the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. In a certain sense, however, he is also a person who knows this, who brings it to fruition with full awareness, because he possesses a certain spiritual life. Thomas More spent many hours of the day in meditation, and through his meditations he achieved very specific results. But these results came about precisely because, as I said, part of his being still lived within the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, and atavistic elements within him were combined with the conscious striving of the soul toward the spiritual world. Yet he was already living a century after the beginning of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, and everything that characterizes the fifth post-Atlantean epoch was present in his soul: intellectuality, the intellect as we know it today—and as it did not yet exist in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch—or existed only in the opinion of those who view history in a fanciful way. All of this interacted and intertwined within his soul. You can also study what such souls were like in the case of Pico della Mirandola and his relationship with Savonarola.

[ 16 ] So, we are dealing with a person whose soul we must delve into a little if we are to understand exactly what his utopias are all about. You see, such a person knew that occult impulses are at work and weaving their way through human evolution—he knew that very well. And he knew that at the turn of the fourth to the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, the task was to provide a genuine impulse for many people. Whether they make use of it is, of course, another question. What did such people know—it was like that back then; today things are different again, but we’ve spoken about that often enough—what did such people know? They knew that humanity must descend into decadence if it develops only that which, I would say, is unspiritual, that which is merely contrived, that which is merely a gift of reason. Such people knew that humanity would wither away—even into the physical realm—not, of course, in a few centuries, but over a long period of time—if only dry intellect, only that which underlies materialistic views, were developed. Such people have a completely different concept of truth than the one that has gradually emerged in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. Such people know that one must think about things that do not pertain to the physical plane, for—quite apart from the question of the truth of such things—human beings, if they do not wish to wither away, must have thoughts that do not pertain to the physical plane. These are the life-giving thoughts; these are the very thoughts that make life possible in the first place and carry it forward. This is what must be taken into account alongside the truth value of the spiritual.

[ 17 ] Through his meditations, Thomas More had come to have visions of the higher world—in a manner that was half atavistic, half conscious—but these visions became intermingled with elements of the dream world. And it was in such genuine inner experiences that what he recounts in Utopia came to him. This is not something invented; it is not a fantasy, but something he truly experienced as the fruit of his meditations. He presented it exactly as he experienced it, to say: Look, a man living in England under King Henry VIII—who is even a civil servant of Henry VIII, who carries within his soul the feelings, inner desires, and inner goals of England at that time—experiences, when his visions stir his inner being, this as a kind of national ideal. — He wanted to express what the desires, goals, and ideas are that, so to speak, lurk in the subconscious of those who are dissatisfied with the outside world; that is what he wanted to portray. One can therefore say: It is the astral self-knowledge of a person of that time.

[ 18 ] A wise man like Thomas More does not simply present a fantastical ideal of the future, but rather presents what he experiences, because in this way—in his own manner and in keeping with his age—he wishes to present to people the great truth that external, sensory reality is an illusion and that this external, sensory reality must be held together with the supersensible world. “But if one holds them together in such a way that one simultaneously allows all the desires and wishes that belong to a particular age—and that arise from the very nature of that age—to play a role, then something emerges that, when viewed in this light, one would certainly not wish to present as an ideal. For I must admit: If I myself had been born in Utopia, I would probably consider it my next task to overcome these utopian conditions as quickly as possible and replace them with others. Perhaps I would even regard the conditions that prevail here and there on our Earth—apart from the present times—as far more ideal than those that prevail in Utopia. But Thomas More did not intend to describe ideal conditions either; rather, he wanted to depict what he actually experienced under the circumstances I have described. He wanted, so to speak, to tell people: If you could see your own desires, if you could see what you imagine ideal conditions to be, then it would look like this—it would look such that you certainly would not agree with it either. Now we also know this stranger [who provides the description of Utopia]: This stranger is the astral self of Thomas More.

[ 19 ] These things must be taken much more seriously than is generally thought. At certain points, my dear friends, at certain points in human evolution, one must examine the fundamental facts in order to understand this evolution of humanity. In any case, one must not form a judgment in such a way that one could derive any valid conclusion from the few facts that happen to be at hand and are still being processed by the people in one’s immediate surroundings. One could only derive a judgment from them that corresponds precisely to one’s sympathies and antipathies—which may well be perfectly respectable—but that gets one no further, and it does humanity no service. So I wanted to present to you, to begin with, a person who is particularly characteristic of the turning point of the age—the transition from the fourth post-Atlantean epoch to the fifth; we will return to all these things later. I wanted to describe to you a person who truly brings the characteristic features of the deeper soul life to the surface, making them a personal experience. For now, I simply want to present this fact to you.

[ 20 ] If we are to understand the connections that are, as some of our friends have expressed, the focus of their concern, we must also truly understand the concrete reality of what the national soul is, for our materialistic age and way of thinking are all too inclined to confuse the national soul with the individual soul, that is, when speaking of a people, to believe that this actually has something to do with the individual members of that people. For the occultist, it is nonsensical—if I may use a comparison that is admittedly crude but can illustrate what is at stake—for the occultist, it is nonsensical to identify someone who calls himself an Englishman or a German with his national soul, just as it is nonsensical to identify a son or daughter with his father or mother. As I said, it is a rough comparison, because here we are dealing with two physical entities, and there with one physical and one non-physical entity, but in both cases we have two entirely different entities when viewed concretely—two entirely different beings.

[ 21 ] Understand, my dear friends, that one will indeed come to understand what underlies all this—which is absolutely essential if one is to speak of these matters with any real foundation—but one will only truly understand these things from the moment one seriously grasps the mysteries of repeated earthly lives and the karma associated with them. For there lies an immensely significant truth in the fact that, while one is indeed embedded within a people through one’s incarnation, one carries within one’s own individual being something entirely different from what is in the soul of the people—something that is infinitely more and, at the same time, infinitely less than the soul of the people. Identifying with the national soul makes no sense at all in relation to reality if it is to be anything other than what is described by the terms love of one’s fatherland, love of one’s homeland, patriotism, and the like. But one will only truly see these things when one can seriously and deeply confront the truths of reincarnation and karma. I have recently spoken in various places about the connection between the human soul’s existence between death and rebirth and what occurs when a person then enters earthly existence through birth. I have pointed out that between death and rebirth, a person is connected to those forces that bring people together across generations, thus bringing about circumstances such that, ultimately, through the conditions of the succession of generations, through the constant bringing together of parental couples, and through their offspring, a human being is, between death and birth, caught up in a very specific current that ultimately leads to the existence of a parental couple through whom he or she can incarnate. Just as one is connected to one’s physical body in physical life, so, between death and birth, one is connected to the circumstances that prepare for birth through a specific pair of parents. That is, in the fact that one has this father, this mother; that this father in turn has that father, this mother in turn has that mother, and so on back through the generations—in all of this, which branches out in the most diverse ways and interacts in the most varied manners—one is embedded within it for centuries. I would like to point out that it is already a considerable number of centuries if one is entangled merely in what spans thirty generations, for from Charlemagne to our time there are about thirty generations. In all of this—the loving and finding one another, the procreation of offspring, and ultimately the path leading to the parents from whom one is born—one is personally involved in it all; one prepares it oneself.

[ 22 ] I repeat this because, when it comes to those individuals whom we call leaders—and whom we can, in a certain sense, recognize as such—it is important to understand how the very fact I have just described gives rise to what they ultimately mean for humanity. I would like to draw your attention to a leading figure, but I would like what is to be said about him to culminate in a statement that someone else made about this figure—you will see why in a moment. I would like to draw your attention to the figure of Dante.

[ 23 ] So here we have a figure from the end of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch—a truly outstanding figure. We can contrast such an outstanding personality with those who attained a certain significance after the onset of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, such as Thomas More. Let us consider what we have generally recognized in a personality such as Dante. Such a personality has a far-reaching, inspiring, and profound significance. It is certainly interesting to at least intuitively reflect on how such a soul, such a personality, before entering physical earthly existence through the birth that will be significant for humanity, so to speak—if I may use this somewhat baroque expression—assembles what it needs so that it may then be born in the right way to the right set of parents. Of course, these circumstances are brought about from the spiritual world, but they are then realized with the help of physical instruments, so that, in a sense, this blood is directed from the spiritual world to that blood, and so on. As a rule, a personality such as Dante could never come into being from a homogeneous bloodline. For such a soul, belonging to a single people is virtually impossible; a mysterious alchemy must take place—that is, blood from different peoples must flow together. And whatever those who, out of excessive patriotism, wish to claim great personalities for a single people may say—there is not much reality behind it!

[ 24 ] As for Dante, I would first like to let someone else speak about him—so that you can see I am not in any way biased—because otherwise one might very easily believe that I am engaging in politics in some way, which is, of course, as far from my intentions as possible. I want to let someone else describe what is clearly evident in his nature to those who know how to appreciate it. That is why I turned to Carducci, the great modern Italian poet, who was a great scholar of Dante. But behind him stands—and this is the main reason I cite him—what is known in Italy as “massoneria,” that is,

[ 25 ] which is connected to all the occult brotherhoods I have brought to your attention, so that Carducci’s theoretical reflections on the real things of life are, to a certain extent, underpinned by such a deeper understanding. Not that he would have flaunted this insight everywhere, nor that he was in any way an occultist—I do not mean to claim that—but there is certainly much in what he says that has come to him through all sorts of mysterious channels. That is what underlies his statements.

[ 26 ] Now Carducci says that three elements interact in Dante, and it is only through the interaction of these three elements that Dante came to be what he was. The first is an ancient Etruscan element—it was passed down to him through certain ancestors in his lineage, for in these past generations there are various factors that ultimately led to Dante’s parents. And from this ancient Etruscan element, says Carducci, Dante derived what opened up the supernatural worlds to him—which is why he was able to speak so profoundly about the supernatural worlds. Secondly, says Carducci, the Roman element is present in him. From this he derived his way of everyday life and his understanding of certain legal concepts. And thirdly, Carducci says, there is the Germanic element in Dante. From this he derived the boldness and freshness of his outlook, as well as a certain frankness and a steadfast commitment to what he had set out to achieve. For Carducci, Dante’s inner life is composed of these three elements.

[ 27 ] The first points us to Old Celtic elements that, so to speak, run through his veins—if I may use that expression—and directly link him to the third post-Atlantean epoch, for the Celtic elements in the north lead back to what we have come to know as the third post-Atlantean epoch. Then we find the fourth post-Atlantean epoch in the Romance elements, and the fifth in the Germanic elements. For Carducci, the elements in Dante’s soul are composed of these three epochs and their impulses, so that we truly have three layers that lie side by side—or rather, one on top of the other: the third, fourth, and fifth post-Atlantean epochs—Celtic, Romance, and Germanic. Reputable Dante scholars have made great efforts to uncover how Dante, drawing from the spiritual world, was able to blend his blood in such a way that it became so complex—that is to say, they did not, of course, express it in these exact words as I have just done, but they have pursued this line of inquiry, and some of this, these scholars believe, arose from the fact that a significant portion of Dante’s ancestry can be traced, for example, to Graubünden. History can indeed corroborate this to a certain extent: Dante’s ancestral lineage points in all directions, but also toward this region, where so much intermingling of blood took place.

[ 28 ] Here we see how the remarkable interplay of the three layers in the development of European civilization is revealed in a single individual. And you see, it is a man like Carducci—who did not arrive at this judgment under the influence of today’s nationalistic frenzy, but rather from a position of objectivity—who points to what underlies Dante’s work. Now, however, we are touching upon circumstances that are well known wherever the development of humanity is discussed from an occult perspective in such a way that one looks at the actual circumstances—one takes them into account and also seeks to use them as forces when undertaking this or that. These circumstances are by no means unknown in the legitimate occult brotherhoods; nor are they entirely unknown, to a certain extent, to those who, in one direction or another, place these matters in the service of some form of group egoism. For the mystery of the interplay of the three successive strata—which, after all, is of great significance primarily for Europe—this mystery is discussed with great care in all occult brotherhoods worthy of the name—though, naturally, sometimes it is diverted in one way or another from what might be called the right direction. So, I ask you to bear this in mind very clearly: that in such matters, insights are taught—even if the outer, rational world often wants to know so little about them—and they are taught with particular care and systematic rigor, especially in Western and American occult brotherhoods.

[ 29 ] Now that I have prepared the way in this manner, I would like to draw your attention to something that is, in a sense, a mystery of evolution—something that is taught in various ways, though always with the most diverse of objectives. I would now like to draw your attention to some specific teachings, which I simply wish to present in summary form. These teachings formed the content [of the teachings of certain brotherhoods], particularly intensively toward the end of the 19th century; they then continued into the 20th century. However, they were taken up particularly at the end of the 19th century, gained a particularly intense influence, and attempts were made to spread them wherever it was deemed necessary in order to use them for certain purposes and to achieve certain goals. So I would like to begin by sharing with you—not to criticize, but merely to report—certain teachings from occult brotherhoods in England; I am thus alluding to what I have prepared you for.

[ 30 ] It was and is taught that the evolution of Europe can only be understood by first looking back at the transition from the Romanic, or fourth post-Atlantean epoch, to the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. And it was further taught—please take this strictly as a lecture—that one must understand the mystery of the transition from the fourth to the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, or, as was said in these brotherhoods, from the fourth to the fifth subrace. — As you know, for reasons we have often repeated, we cannot use the term “subrace,” because doing so implies pursuing a one-sided goal, a certain group-oriented objective, whereas we are never concerned with group goals but always with the general goals of humanity. It was thus taught that one must understand the transition from the fourth to the fifth subrace. The fourth subrace is essentially represented by the Romance and Latin peoples. In human evolution, what develops successively does not proceed in such a way that the subsequent simply follows the preceding; rather, the preceding remains present alongside the subsequent, so that the preceding and the subsequent then live side by side in space. Thus, the fourth subrace, which consists essentially of the Romance-Latin element, continued to exist in its stragglers—namely, the Romance-Latin peoples—even during the period of the fifth subrace, which began at the start of the 15th century.

[ 31 ] [According to that doctrine], the fifth subrace is represented by those peoples in the world who are destined to speak English—the English-speaking peoples constitute the fifth subrace. And the entire mission of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch consists in conquering the world for the English-speaking peoples. It will be the case that the remnants of the fourth subrace—the Latin-influenced peoples—will apparently sink deeper and deeper into a certain materialism. These peoples contain within themselves the element of inner dissolution, and they also carry within themselves, in a physical sense, the element of decadence—as I said, I am merely reporting; I am not presenting anything that is my own assertion, but I am simply reporting. [And it is further stated] that the [leading] element of the fifth subrace contains the predisposition toward spiritualism, toward comprehending the spiritual world.

[ 32 ] Now one must understand how the fourth subrace influenced the fifth. We must—as we are taught—first look back to the time—if we do not wish to go further back—when those peoples in the north, who later became the Britons, Gauls, and Germanic tribes, approached the Roman Empire. The question was raised: What were these peoples, actually, who were approaching from the north at the time they were being waged war against by the Roman Empire—that is, when the struggle between the fourth and fifth sub-races broke out, so to speak—what were these peoples? As peoples, they were, so to speak, infants—“babies.” So, it is particularly important to note that the Romans—the Romanic element, the members of the fourth subrace—came to care for these peoples like a “wet nurse.” These terms are necessary precisely to illustrate the analogies between the elements of a people and those of the individual human being. Thus, the Romans became, so to speak, wet nurses [nannies], and this role as wet nurses lasted as long as Roman rule extended over the peoples of the North, who were more or less in their infancy.

[ 33 ] From a toddler, one becomes a schoolchild—this is the time when the papacy was founded in Rome and the pope, through his rule, became the [“educator” and] “guardian” of the child, just as the Romanic element—the earlier Romanism—served as the “nursemaid” of these peoples—as I said, I am merely reporting; I am not making any claims. Then we have the entire interplay between the papacy and northern conditions, everything that developed through Central Europe all the way to Britain: This is the upbringing under the papal guardian, in which the Romanic element from the fourth post-Atlantean epoch still exerts its influence. It begins—around the 12th century, as the papacy begins to change—the adolescence and the development of the independent intellect of these various peoples. The [educator and] guardian increasingly takes a back seat. And this adolescence lasts roughly until the end of the 18th century.

[ 34 ] Now, as a rule, when teaching such things, the present is left out, because this is considered very good for certain reasons. People are not supposed to hear too clearly what is thought about the present—the intention is to teach them this in a more suggestive way. And so, from what developed in the North under guardianship, guardianship, and so on, has developed into its present state of maturity—a state that now contains the potential to gradually transform the inhabitants of “Britannia” into the ruling people of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, just as not only the Romans were, but also Romanism itself, when the papacy emerged from it. Thus, as the remnants of the Latin element crumble away from the human race, the “British” element, according to this view, is emerging as the fruitful one. And it is now suggested that all external undertakings, all external measures that are to have meaning, that are to be fruitful, must be undertaken in such a way that they are, so to speak, influenced by these views, for whatever happens without these views—whatever happens, for example, in the belief that the Latin element is not in decline or that the British element is not on the rise—is doomed to wither away. One can, of course—so these people say—still do such things, but they are doomed to be meaningless; they do not, so to speak, grow. It is as if one were to sow a seed in unsuitable soil.

[ 35 ] My dear friends, we have, so to speak, a foundation in what I have outlined to you as a teaching—a foundation that also seeped into all the more exoterically oriented occult brotherhoods and then took effect in Western regions as so-called high-degree Freemasonry and the like. This was then carried into public affairs by those people who were connected, either closely or distantly, with these brotherhoods—often in such a way that the people who were then active on the outside had no idea at all how these things had been passed on to them. Thus, these teachings—brought in specifically from the West—lie behind many developments we have observed in the course of evolution, particularly since the 16th century.

[ 36 ] Now these teachings go even further. It is said that just as those peoples who, north of the Romanic element, were preparing for the fifth subrace—and developed as has now been described—so too are the Slavic peoples coming from the East; today, as the emerging sixth subrace, they are moving from the East toward the West in a manner similar to how, in the past, the Germanic peoples moved from the North toward the Romanic element. One sees, it is said, that in the East, under a despotic government heading toward its downfall, there are a number of individual tribes—which for the time being are merely tribes, just as, back when the Romans stormed northward, the northern peoples were not yet true nations but merely tribes. And in these tribes in the East, one sees the individual elements of the so-called Slavic people. However, it is said, these are merely tribes that are held together today only in an outward sense by a despotic government that is to be swept away—I am using the terms that are certainly employed in these occult brotherhoods—by a despotic government that is to be swept away. The fact that we are dealing with tribal groups [in the East]—and I say this only as an aside after all the good things I have said about the Slavs—is evident, for example, from the fact that when the Slavic tribes gathered in Prague in 1848, each Slavic tribe wanted to speak in its own language. But they could not understand one another and therefore chose German as the language of negotiation. This is not meant to be a joke, but merely to illustrate that what is taught in the West about the Slavs does, after all, carry a certain significance.

[ 37 ] Now, it is said in the West—that is, in these English brotherhoods—that the Poles stand out above all others; they have an advantage over the other Slavs in that they have developed a unified religious and cultural life at a relatively high level. They then describe the fate of the Poles in some detail, but claim that they actually belong to the Russian Empire. Next, they point above all to the Balkan Slavs, of whom it is said that they had freed themselves from Turkish oppression and established individual Slavic states, which, however—and this was a phrase repeated time and again—were only meant to exist in this form until the next great European war. This war presented—especially in the 1890s—by the brotherhoods as imminent in the near future and linked to those evolutionary impulses said to emanate from the Balkan Slavs. They characterized these impulses in such a way that what had taken shape [as forms of government] following the separation from the Ottoman Empire would have to transition into other forms. “Only until the great European war comes,” it was said, “will these Balkan Slavs be able to preserve their independence; in this great European war, they will have to face entirely different fates.”

[ 38 ] These peoples are now, as we are taught, in infancy, [in early childhood]. And by declaring them to be the nascent sixth subrace—and the British the fifth subrace—one is already implying that the British are to occupy the same position in relation to them as the Romans once did in relation to the northern Germanic peoples, that is, to serve as their foster parents for the time being. This role as a foster mother is their very first task, and this role, it is said, will end the moment these peoples have progressed to the point where the Russian Empire no longer exists and they create their own distinct forms based on their own intellectual capacities. But of course, the guardian [the educator] must gradually take the place of the nurse [the nanny]; that is to say, a kind of papacy must develop in the West from what constitutes the actual fifth subrace; spirituality must indeed develop there in the West to a special degree. And just as the papacy related to Central Europe, a configuration must now be formed extending from the West toward the East in order to encompass it entirely. And this must lead to the East being utilized to establish certain institutions—in a manner similar to how the papacy established its institutions in Europe. However, we have, of course, advanced by one subrace, and while the papacy has founded churches and church communities in a wide variety of ways, the Western papacy—which will develop out of Western “Britannism”—has the task of carrying out very specific economic experiments in the East. That is to say, its task is to establish a certain form of economic coexistence in the most social manner possible—one that is assumed to be not yet feasible in the West, since it is home to the fifth rather than the sixth subrace; but the East can initially be used experimentally for such future experiments—political, spiritual, and economic experiments must

[ 39 ] be carried out there. Of course, one is not so foolish as to say that Western dominance will last forever, for no serious student of the occult would believe that. But one is quite aware that, just as one first performs “nursing service,” this nursing service must give rise to “guardianship,” that is, a kind of future papacy of Western culture.

[ 40 ] I have spoken, my dear friends! These ideas are deeply embedded in the teachings of Western Freemasonry, and the question is simply whether these teachings—the influential teachings I have just spoken to you about—are indeed those that are truly grounded in the general welfare of human evolution, or whether they need to be reinterpreted in a certain way. That is the issue. We will return to all these matters later.

[ 41 ] Now I would like to add that certain stages of development are truly not merely figments of the imagination, but that the more one delves into the actual facts, the more one can also demonstrate externally what was first discovered through occult means. And even today, external science is well on its way—one need only consider these matters very seriously—to discovering certain facts that attest to the existence of such successive stages of development, proving that there is indeed some truth in what the occultist says. This can already be established today from individual findings of external science—one need only have the willingness to do so.

[ 42 ] In this regard, I would like to point out something I have already brought to your attention on several occasions. In that which eludes the culture of the external intellect, yet is nonetheless spiritual development, laws are expressed that are just as definite as the laws of nature. And I have already drawn your attention to a linguistic law in this regard. If one traces the development of language back from the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, one finds that Greek and Latin represent a specific stage in linguistic development; this continues up through Gothic, and then we find Modern High German as the next stage. It is indeed the case that this development proceeds in a very regular manner.

[ 43 ] A D in Romance, Greek, or Latin—I can only give you a very rough outline of this, but these things are as absolutely regular as the laws of nature are laws, and exceptions are only apparent exceptions—a D changes into a T, and a T turns into a TH, which, however, can also be a Z due to certain linguistic laws. So a Greek TH or Z becomes a Gothic D, and a Gothic D becomes a T in Modern High German; a Gothic TH or Z becomes a Modern High German D. And this cycle continues.

[ 44 ] Similarly, a Greco-Roman B becomes a Gothic P, which in turn becomes a New High German F or PF. A Greek F or PF would be a Gothic B and a New High German P.

[ 45 ] And in the same way, a cycle takes place from G to K to CH.

[ 46 ] Take, for example, “treis,” “three,” and “drei”: T = Greek, TH = Gothic, D = Modern High German. This is true in all cases, and, as mentioned, exceptions can always be traced back to specific rules—special rules that supplement the main rules.

[ 47 ] Well, so we have three successive stages: the Greek-Latin stage, the Gothic stage—which existed when Roman culture clashed with Germanic culture—and then the subsequent development up to Modern High German. The peculiar thing, as I’ve explained before, is that English has remained at the Gothic stage. So wherever you have a word in its Modern High German form, you have to go back one stage to find the English word. Take “Tag”: to get to the English word, you don’t have to go forward—you have to go back—to “day.” Take “tief”: again, you have to go back to “deep.” Take the New High German word “zehn”: you have to go back if you want the English equivalent—“ten.” Take “Zahn”: you have to go back if you want the English word—“tooth.” Take “Dieb”: Here, too, you have to go backward again—“thief.” Take the New High German word “dick”—going backward, you get “thick.” [From New High German to English] thus goes in the opposite direction of the clock’s hands.

[ 48 ] We can therefore say—quite objectively: If we wish to identify the folk element in the development of the English language, we must go back to the Gothic stage. And Modern High German has emerged in the course of evolution as a distinct element. This is not, therefore, something one needs to say for any patriotic or ethnic reasons, for it is a truth like the fact that the polar bear is white—which one does not need to state out of antipathy or sympathy for the polar bear either.

[ 49 ] Well, this law that I have cited here is a well-known linguistic law, the so-called law of sound shift. I have cited it only in relation to the “mediae,” “tenues,” and “aspiratae,” but it can be applied to the entire sound system. The development of language is strictly regulated, and it corresponds to the impulses that prevail in human evolution; it is inherent in it. Little by little, even external science is bringing these things to light, albeit only sporadically; in occultism, you have the deeper background for everything that is at stake here.

[ 50 ] We will now return to various aspects of spiritual life, which will show that the situation in other areas is indeed the same as it is with language. The unconscious bears witness to objective laws when it is revealed; it cannot be twisted and turned according to sympathies and antipathies. Now, do not think that this Grimmian law of sound shift is unknown to those brotherhoods we are discussing. Tomorrow we will hear how they come to terms with such matters, how they have their own corresponding insights into them—insights that are by no means foolish, but in a certain respect also lie within the realm of occultism, regarding which, once you become more familiar with these matters, you will have to decide whether you consider it legitimate or illegitimate. Well, the karma of human evolution will lead to certain things becoming more accessible even to the exoteric public. Precisely because a certain confusion has arisen within the Masonic orders under the present circumstances, many things are coming to light today—even for the outer world.

[ 51 ] But let us explore the deeper foundations of all this. Some very strange circumstances are already arising today. For example, there is an interesting treatise written by a man who—in yet another curious karmic connection—met his death on the battlefield during this war. It deals with the parallels between French politics and the French secret societies, and it shows how the two truly run parallel, how the same forces are at work in both.

[ 52 ] Things are much more intimate, much more hidden in English politics, which is, after all, entirely influenced by what lies behind it in this way. The point, then, is to find ways to place the right people in the right positions. Occultists, standing in the background, are often—well, forgive me—ones, mere ones, and mean nothing special in and of themselves; they need something else—they need zeros. Zeros aren’t ones, but [if you add a zero to a one], it immediately becomes a ten. And if you add even more zeros—each zero is just a zero, but if the one is there somewhere, then all sorts of things appear, for example, a thousand; and if you cover up the one, then [apparently] only the zeros are there; but the zeros just need to be combined with the ones in the right way, and they don’t even need to know much about how they’re combined with the ones.

[ 53 ] There is a certain man who is an honest man—a very honest man. I have already pointed out that I by no means consider him to be the “black man” that many people in Central Europe take him to be—I consider him an honest, kind man who, in his own way—yes—wants to tell the truth, but that does not prevent him from being a nobody. This man received his very first education at the public school in Winchester, and his further education at Balliol College in Oxford. Then he achieved something very important: first, the Marylebone Cricket Prize, and then the Queen Anne Tennis Prize. At the age of twenty-three, he became a Member of Parliament. At that age, one is susceptible to all sorts of influences. At the age of thirty, he became Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He had long been Foreign Secretary when he first set foot [on European soil] outside England, namely when he accompanied the King of England on his trip to France. He also wrote a little book on fishing, titled Fly Fishing. Sir Edward Grey then rose through the social ranks until he eventually faded into obscurity—his fellow student at Oxford, with whom he had studied there, was Asquith, who was ten years his senior. Such are the figures who make up the outer trappings.

[ 54 ] Well, that brings us to the end of our discussion for today, my dear friends. We will continue tomorrow and plan to meet here again at 7 o'clock.