The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Twentieth Lecture

[ 1 ] When dealing with any impulses connected to the spiritual world—whether they point in one direction or another—one must be clear that an understanding of these impulses is possible only from the perspective of spiritual science. We have seen that impulses are at work in present-day events, which we have traced back even to forces emanating from human beings—but ultimately from those human beings who know how to handle spiritual impulses in a certain way.

[ 2 ] The question must arise in our hearts: Why do certain people do the things we have mentioned? — And the further question: Why do we currently live in a time in which falsehood and insincerity so often act as a world-dominating force—a force that drives people, truly drives them with a passion that could bring about infinite good if it were directed toward the truth?

[ 3 ] These things are truly connected to humanity’s most profound impulses. And we will come closer to understanding them—make them more relevant to our time—if we incorporate into our reflections something about the most immediate task of precisely that spiritual-scientific view of the world that we have made our own. Consider that our anthroposophically oriented spiritual science aims to understand certain spiritual connections that exist in the world, to understand certain forces that are at work in the human world—and not only in the human world insofar as the human being is in the process of development between birth and death, but also insofar as the human being is in the process of development between death and a new birth. Thinking about these things in the right way is, of course, difficult for people today because they have lost certain characteristics that were present in earlier stages of human development, which have receded into the background for a time and must now be brought to light again precisely through what human beings can pursue as spiritual science.

[ 4 ] We know full well that in ancient, bygone times, the human soul was connected to the spiritual world in a way that was more elemental, more natural—a connection that was not brought about by the willful activity of spiritual life, but was rather a matter of course. We have called this atavistic. Back then, as we know, there was no possibility for people to doubt immortality or life after death. This possibility only arose during the transitional period, which is now in turn to be superseded by the time when people will know of the life between death and a new birth. For in ancient times, something approached the human soul in a completely natural way, just as waking and sleeping do now; a third state came upon the human soul. In today’s waking state, the human being is entirely confined to the physical-sensory world; he lives in the physical-sensory world, he lives in all that he can experience through his senses and through the intellect bound to the brain between birth and death. And in sleep, the human being is unconscious. The entities of the “I” and the astral body, in which a human being resides between falling asleep and waking up, are not yet strong enough to provide a corresponding consciousness. As we know, the astral body has only been developing since the Lunar Age, and the “I” only since the Earth Age. These are, in terms of cosmic evolution, recent developments; they are not yet strong enough to develop consciousness when left to their own devices between falling asleep and waking up. However, dreams—with their manifold images—do arise from sleep. Under certain circumstances, these dreams may already contain a great deal of the spiritual world. A great deal of the spiritual world is indeed already alive in the dreams, but the human mind, in its present state, is not capable of seeing, so to speak, beyond the dreams—of perceiving what is playing out within them. Dreams are deceptive images woven from a veil of Maya. If one knows how to interpret them correctly in each individual case, one gains from dreams experiences of past times or even prophetic foreshadowings of the future. In dreams, one also receives depictions of those processes that take place between the living and the dead while a person is asleep. One receives everything through dreams. But human beings, at their present stage of development, do not understand the peculiar language of dreams; to them, they remain incomprehensible images, and that is entirely natural. Just as a European cannot interpret the sounds when a Chinese person speaks, so too can modern human beings not interpret the visual language of dreams.

[ 5 ] Thus, during this transitional period, human consciousness is truly limited to that which can become conscious through an older instrument—the physical body and also the etheric body—which have been in the process of development since the Sun and Saturn periods and are therefore equipped in such a way that, when a person is within them — which is from the moment they wake up until they fall asleep —, offer the possibility of developing consciousness.

[ 6 ] Well, spiritual science, as we strive to practice it, provides us with concepts of the supersensible world that reigns within and beyond the sensory world. The concepts and ideas we take up in spiritual science—those we make our own—do not refer to anything sensory. They refer either to what lies between death and a new birth, or to what lies in the supersensible, beyond the sensory. When we grasp this, we do not merely grasp certain “theories”—at least that should not be the case—for what matters is not that we know only this or that, but that our soul, our mind, enters a certain state of being when we take in such truths pertaining to the supersensible.

[ 7 ] It is difficult to find words for these things, because our language is, after all, shaped for the outer physical plane, and we must first make an effort to apply language to these supersensible conditions. I would like to say that everything we otherwise come to understand lives, so to speak, in a coarse way within our soul, lives deeply within our soul, because we always have at our disposal the instrument of the brain, which is attuned to the ideas and concepts that relate to the physical plane. But when we seek to understand that which does not pertain to the physical plane, we must exert our soul to such an extent that, in fact, the brain plays a very small and ever-diminishing role in this effort, in this study of spiritual science. If we encounter difficulties in understanding what spiritual science offers, this stems solely from the fact that our brain actually hinders us in this process. The brain is, so to speak, ingrained and conditioned to the coarse concepts of the physical plane, and we must make an effort to assimilate the finer concepts—concepts that are finer only for our human understanding—of the supersensible world. But this effort is thoroughly healthy for us; this effort is thoroughly good, for through it we live spiritually with this spiritual science in a completely different way than we live with physical knowledge, cognition, and imagination. We place ourselves, so to speak, in a world of more fluid, more subtle perceptions and ideas, and that is significant. Now, there is a way for all of you to arrive at this, so to speak, when you are sufficiently immersed in the sphere where the etheric body, as it were, lives on its own, allowing the brain to resonate only faintly: This is when you get the feeling that you are not thinking about what spiritual science offers out of mere whim, as you do with everyday concepts. You know quite well that you create everyday concepts—those related to the physical plane—yourselves; you develop them according to the needs and circumstances of daily life, and you form them based on your likes and dislikes, on what is presented to you from the outside through the senses and the intellect bound to the brain. In spiritual science, if you really delve into the subject, you will gradually get the feeling: I haven’t actually thought all of this myself, but rather it has already been thought before I think it; it actually hovers there as a thought and simply enters into me. When you get this feeling—that it actually hovers in the objective thinking of the world and simply flows into me—then you have gained a great deal; then you have experienced a connection to that subtle, ethereal world of floating and weaving in which your soul lives. And then, fundamentally, it is only a matter of time—albeit perhaps a longer time—before you gradually enter the sphere we share with those who have passed away and who stand in some karmic connection with us.

[ 8 ] I said that in earlier times, people couldn’t really speak about whether immortality existed or not. They had a third state besides sleeping and waking—an intermediate state that did not consist merely of dreams, but manifested itself in an elemental, natural way, so that people saw their dead from spirit face to spirit face. They were there; they lived with them. If we look back at the development of humanity, it is certainly true that when, for example, a person did something, or when something happened to them that fell outside the realm of habit—and such things happen to people constantly from morning to night, for a human being is not merely a creature of habit, nor does he do only what is purely habitual—if, then, he did something of this sort, or if something of this sort befell him, he felt in ancient times the presence beside him of this or that deceased person who had departed from him a short or long time ago. He felt that the deceased was participating in the action or sharing in the suffering. So whenever the soul of a person living here on earth made this or that decision, or suffered this or that, it felt that this or that deceased person was participating in the action or sharing in the suffering. Thus, the dead were present. That is why one could not discuss immortality or non-immortality. It would have made no sense, just as it would make no sense to question whether a person with whom one is speaking at that very moment is really there or not. What one experiences is simply reality, and in ancient times, people had experienced the participation of the dead.

[ 9 ] We know why this era had to descend into the depths of existence. But it will return, only in a different form, and it will come about because people will cultivate the mood that can truly come over the soul through spiritual science, through active engagement, through living in accordance with the spiritual-scientific concepts of the supersensible. Then it will become possible for the soul to attain subtle moods, and into these subtle moods, in turn, the souls of the so-called dead will enter. They are always there, of course, but the point now is that they enter the sphere of the soul consciously. Certainly, the dead always hover around those with whom they were karmically connected in life. But for them to influence a person’s consciousness, it is necessary to meet them with the state of mind I have just described. For you see, it is always possible for the dead to find access to the human soul when the human soul, in its inner life, is in the kind of mood I have described—when, so to speak, the concepts and ideas that the human soul forms live in a supersensible sphere. What the dead must flee from—what they cannot enter—is the physical, corporeal aspect of the human being. The dead cannot enter there—at least not at first. Thus, the dead cannot enter into thoughts that arise from the brain solely in connection with the physical world; they cannot enter into these thoughts. And because people today mostly have only such thoughts that arise from the brain, it is so difficult for the dead to gain access to the living. But when the living reach out to the dead by cultivating the mood that arises precisely from engaging deeply with supersensible ideas, then the dead can enter into this floating and weaving of the soul, which is detached from the physical and is not concerned with the physical. Everything in our present age depends on human souls finding the possibility, so to speak, of making their way toward the dead. Then the dead will come to meet them. One must find oneself in a communal sphere.

[ 10 ] And, as I have often emphasized, what arises from spiritual science in relation to the supersensible world—the concepts and ideas we develop there—is, of course, relevant to both the living and the dead. That is why I have recommended reading aloud to the dead in thought—that is, developing thoughts directed toward them that relate to the supersensible world. For in this way a bridge is immediately built to them—not only to those who have died recently, but to the dead in general, including those who died a long time ago.

[ 11 ] In this way, the living have the opportunity to connect with the dead. But the dead also have the opportunity to influence the thoughts of the living in this way. And once you have embraced the spirit of spiritual science, you will be able to form a fair understanding from such discussions that, in the materialistic age in which we as human beings have now been living for so long, the dead have gained less and less influence over the course of events here in the physical world, since human beings have devoted themselves more to materialistic, that is, to the physical plane—to which the dead have no access. Therefore, the events that take place here in the physical world unfold without, or with only minimal, influence from those who have passed on. But this must change again; there must once more be a living communication between the living and the dead. Those who have passed away must be able to influence the physical world so that what happens in the physical world does not occur solely under the influence of ideas that arise within the physical world itself.

[ 12 ] Thus, the pursuit of spiritual science is truly intimately connected with giving the dead the opportunity to work here in the physical world. And it must be said: This is a lofty, serious goal of spiritual scientific endeavor—to create, once again, a link between the spiritual world, where the dead reside, and the physical world, so that the dead do not find themselves in a position where they must say, “We are, so to speak, exiled from the physical world because the living down here in the physical world do not develop thoughts through which we could intervene in this physical world.”

[ 13 ] Certainly, many will say: “I do strive to immerse myself in the concepts of spiritual science, but I have not yet perceived any influence from the dead.” — Yes, my dear friends, these things require some patience. You really must consider how, for centuries, human life on the physical plane has been oriented toward materialism—that is, has been moving in the opposite direction of everything that makes a proper interaction with the dead possible. Amid all that has happened—what has in fact been happening for centuries—certain feelings and sensibilities have developed that people today harbor quite unconsciously toward the spiritual world. And in the face of these feelings and sensibilities, what comes from spiritual science today often remains merely an abstract theory. People are convinced that what spiritual science says about the supersensible worlds is true. Certainly, but it has not yet become so fully integrated into the whole of their spiritual life that they are able to develop those feelings and sensibilities that do not interfere with that subtle, intimate interplay of what emanates from the dead. Seeing these things in the right light is not easy. People today are, after all, the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, or great-great-grandchildren of those who lived over the course of the last few centuries and who, under the influence of rising materialism, gave their feelings and emotions certain directions. These directions of feelings and emotions are expressed in every detail. We may have the best of intentions to approach a deceased person in the right way, to remember a deceased person in the right way, but our entire emotional and sensorial disposition—as it flows, I might say, through our blood, flowing down from our ancestors, is not suited to truly presenting the subtle, intimate manifestations and revelations emanating from the dead before the soul in such a way that our sensations are not, so to speak, flickering lights—agitated flickering lights—that stand in the way of these intimate impulses, which are indeed still very subtle and intimate today.

[ 14 ] Since this is the case, one should not allow oneself to be discouraged, but should always focus on the positive. The positive aspect is that one truly strives toward that state which, at certain moments in life—as a fruit of spiritual scientific studies—bestows that peace of mind—for it is peace of mind that matters, and it is the mood within that peace of mind that matters—which makes it possible for these subtle, intimate manifestations and revelations to come to us from the realm of the dead.

[ 15 ] There is also something else that is necessary, and that is having the willingness to resist all the untruths we have discussed in these reflections. For these untruths that swirl through the world are also what intrude into—let’s say—the spiritual aura, and make it impossible for the dead to penetrate this dense fog of all the dark stuff that, to name just one example, the untruths emanating today from our journalism—which are printed and repeated—spreading across the entire Earth like an aura of falsehood. Penetrating through this is, we can say quite plainly, extraordinarily difficult for the dead. Therefore, it is necessary to try, with the help of such concepts as we have developed—to recognize what concrete falsehoods are actually swirling through the world today—to enlighten ourselves; to truly strive in this field to recognize the purely external truth of the physical plane, to the extent that it is accessible to us, so that we do not place a foggy veil before our souls through which the spiritual world simply cannot pass. You will understand how very necessary this is, as I am now suggesting.

[ 16 ] Let us now use the concepts we have just developed to at least touch upon the question: What do occult societies—which send out into the world the impulses we have spoken of, impulses that then manifest themselves in a life of untruthfulness and have led, out of that untruthfulness, to the painful events we face today—what do such occult societies, about whose existence I have told you something, actually want? Among other things—one can, of course, only characterize individual aspects; they naturally have many other aims as well—such occult societies want the following: They want, so to speak, to “over-materialize” materialism; they want to create even more materialism in the world than arises through the natural development of humanity in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. In other words, they want even more materialism. As I said, this is only one of the goals they pursue; but let us at least touch upon this aspect. It is from this perspective that such societies are founded, and people are recruited into them—people who are approached in life and deemed suitable.

[ 17 ] There are now a wide variety of such societies. One particular type, which is very widespread in the West and, in turn, encompasses a vast array of subtypes, includes organizations that practice ceremonial magic. Now, ceremonial magic can also be good magic, but we are now speaking of those societies that practice ceremonial magic not to promote the general welfare of humanity, but rather the welfare of specific groups of people or the fulfillment of specific endeavors—not endeavors that benefit humanity as a whole. Let us therefore first turn our attention to such societies that, from this perspective, practice ceremonial magic—magic that is performed through ceremonies. As I said, it can also be good, but in the case of these societies, it is simply not good. Now, certain types of ceremonial magic have the peculiarity that they truly have a certain significance, a certain effect on the physical human organism. After all, everything physical is ultimately a manifestation of the spiritual. The spiritual element that arises under the influence of certain ceremonial magical acts can affect the physical human organism—the ganglion system, as I recently described to you, and the spinal cord system. The most difficult thing, however, is to influence the cerebral system through the practices of ceremonial magic. All of this must happen indirectly through the spiritual realm, but it can happen; it can become effective in this way,

[ 18 ] Let us imagine, then, that certain occult societies practice a form of ceremonial magic oriented toward a certain gray or black side, and that they influence their members in such a way that influences are drawn into the physical body—into the finer vibrations and textures of the physical body, but into the physical body nonetheless. In a sense, the spiritual flows into the physical body.

[ 19 ] What is the consequence? The consequence is that something is now taking place that, while appropriate for earlier periods of human history, must no longer be permitted in our present era. Through such rituals, the possibility arises that the spiritual world—without human beings actively seeking it out in the manner I have indicated—may exert an influence on those who participate in such ceremonial rites. That is to say, a possibility is created for the dead, alongside other spirits, to influence those who are ensnared within such a ring created by ceremonial magic. As a result, however, the materialism of our time can, in a sense, become over-materialized. Imagine a person who is entirely—not merely in terms of their worldview, but in terms of their entire sensibility and feelings—materialistically minded, and there are an enormous number of such people in the West. Now this materialistic mindset intensifies to a great degree. Then they feel the urge not only to exert an influence on the material world while they live in their physical bodies, but also beyond death. They strive to say: “When I die, I want to have some kind of place through which I can influence the living people I have left behind on Earth, or those who are being trained for me.” There are already people in our time whose materialistic drive is so strong that they seek institutions through which they can maintain a presence in the material world beyond death. And such instruments, through which a person secures material dominion beyond death, are precisely the sites of certain forms of ceremonial magic.

[ 20 ] This points to something of immense significance. For imagine that a number of people are brought together to form a certain brotherhood. These people know, first of all, that others have gone before us—those who harbored such intense desires for power that life alone was not enough for them to realize them, and who wish to realize them even beyond death. For them, we create a circle, and through what we do—through the ceremonial magical acts we perform—they work their influence into our bodies. This gives us greater power than we possess; it enables us, when we confront other, weaker people who stand outside such societies, to exert a certain heightened magical power over them. When we speak a word, when we give a speech, these dead work through us, because we are prepared by being woven into the acts of ceremonial magic.

[ 21 ] There is a huge difference between a person who—I would say—is honestly and simply immersed in the cultural processes of our time, and who then, drawing on this honest immersion, delivers a parliamentary speech or writes a newspaper article; and a person who is immersed in circles of ceremonial magic, is thereby strengthened by the impulses of power from certain deceased individuals, and now delivers the parliamentary speech or writes the newspaper article with these impulses—and thereby exerts an immensely stronger influence toward achieving what they want than if they did not have that backing. That is one thing.

[ 22 ] The other point, however, is that these people, who enter into the circles of certain ceremonial-magical societies, secure for themselves a power that extends beyond death—a kind of Ahrimanic immortality, so to speak. And that is the central idea for very many of them; that is the central idea. For them, the society they have joined serves, as it were, as a kind of guarantee that certain powers within them will live on beyond death—powers that were actually meant to last only until their physical death. And this idea lives on today in more people than you might think—the idea of securing an Ahrimanic immortality, the Ahrimanic immortality that consists in acting not merely as a single, individual human being, but through the instrument of a society such as has been described. There are all manner of such societies, and people at certain levels within them know: Through such a society, I become, to a certain degree, immortal—the forces that I would otherwise have to leave behind with death continue to act beyond my death. |

[ 23 ] However, through what they then experience in ceremonial magic, people become so numbed that they are no longer troubled by the thought that would inevitably arise in the soul of anyone who takes these things with true seriousness and genuine dignity; for just as much as one gains in immortal mortality—or, better said, in Ahrimanic immortality—one loses just as much of the awareness of the other, the real, the genuine immortality. But materialism has so taken hold of many minds in our time that they are not embarrassed by this; they are numbed to it and, in fact, strive for Ahrimanic immortality. And one can say: There are societies today that are, spiritually speaking, occultistically speaking, “insurance companies for Ahrimanic immortality”!

[ 24 ] There are always only a small number of people who are familiar with all these things, because such societies are generally organized in such a way that ceremonial magic is intended to affect, in particular, those who are unaware—people who have a certain need to connect with the spiritual world through all kinds of symbolic acts. There are many such people. In truth, those who seek to achieve this are not, in and of themselves, the worst of people. Such people are then admitted into the circle of ceremonial magic, and a small group then forms that actually uses the others—who have been drawn into the circle of ceremonial magic—merely as instruments. Therefore, one should be cautious toward all so-called occult societies that administer so-called higher degrees, whose goals remain a secret to the lower degrees. These administrative degrees generally comprise those who are actually initiated to the extent that they have some inkling of what I have just told you; they comprise those who are meant to act consciously in a positive manner, setting certain goals and directions that are then realized by utilizing the majority of the others who have merely been drawn into the circle of ceremonial magic. Everything these people do is carried out in such a way that it proceeds in the direction intended by the higher degrees, but is amplified by the forces derived from ceremonial magic. Anyone who gains a little insight into the immense number of such societies in the West that practice ceremonial magic can then also get a sense of what an immensely effective instrument such societies can be for far-reaching world plans. For the essential point, as you have seen, is that a certain influence of the spiritual into the physical-sensory realm—as was proper in earlier times—is brought into our own era, whereas in our time what is proper is for human beings to reach out to the dead in the manner described, so that, in a sense, they meet the dead halfway. In the spirit I have indicated to you, a path is sought here that was the path in earlier, atavistic times and that is brought into the present through the medium of ceremonial magic.

[ 25 ] This should give you an idea of how, in a disproportionate way, today’s excessive materialism—materialism that is ultra-materialistic—seeks to cross the boundaries into that world, which today can only be entered by bringing the soul into the state of mind that allows for supersensible concepts. The right approach today is this: Never accept what is not understood, which is what is offered in many occult societies today—and an enormous amount is offered and accepted today without being understood. The right approach is to regard what is offered in such societies, at most, as an underestimation of the spoken word—that is, of the word grasped through the concept.

[ 26 ] In much of what today swirls through the world as insincerity and also as selfishness—and which has made it possible for selfishness to have been canonized today, even if not by the Pope; which has made it possible to speak of “sacro egoismo,” a new saint not exactly declared by the Pope— in much of what swirls through the world today in the form of selfishness and insincerity, there are influences and impulses at work that intensify from the world of the dead in the manner described. But in seeking out these impulses, one also finds a connection to other impulses. And you will find clarification regarding these impulses—and these other impulses—in my book The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and of Humanity. The lectures on which this book is based were indeed delivered in Copenhagen in 1911 for a wide variety of reasons. There you will find an explanation of how certain angelic forces from the third post-Atlantean epoch have remained behind in order to unfold a power in the present age similar to that which was unfolded during the Egyptian period. It was said at that time:

“Just as the most beautiful things can become the seducers and tempters of humanity when people follow them one-sidedly, so too, if the one-sidedness described were to take hold, there would be a great danger that all manner of good aspirations would manifest themselves as fanaticism. Just as it is true that humanity is driven forward by its noble impulses, so it is also true that the enthusiastic and fanatical advocacy of even the noblest impulses can have the worst possible effect on proper development.”

[ 27 ] And then it is pointed out how certain forces that were active in the third post-Atlantean epoch are now at work in our time. And just as — and this may be said today — just as a person can rightly find a connection with his true Angelos, so too can he find access, if he seeks such forces, such impulses that, in a specific way, are Ahrimanic reinforcements from the world of the dead, to these spirits left behind from the Egyptian-Chaldean era, to these Angeloi who have remained behind. And these lingering angels play a major role in the kinds of occult societies I have described to you. They are important helpers and leading spirits there. There is much in such occult societies that is positively striving to carry over the ancient Egyptian-Chaldean ways into the present. If this is not mere frivolity, but is truly embedded in occult life, then it occurs under the influence of beings who have remained behind from the hierarchy of the Angeloi, who serve as leaders there. And with that, we have also pointed to those beings from the next supersensible hierarchy who are sought after by such societies.

[ 28 ] This highlights the most crucial point of all. And only when one understands how, in such societies, the living testaments—not the written testaments for life, but the forces that continue to act beyond death, though they should not—are preserved, does one begin to grasp something of the magical power that such societies exert, a power that often enables them to stamp the mark of truth upon what is untrue. And it is indeed an important magical feat to spread falsehood in the world in such a way that it appears to be true. For in this effect of “falsehood appearing as truth” lies an immense power of evil. And this power of evil is exploited to the fullest from a wide variety of quarters.

[ 29 ] That is what I wanted to bring up today, in order to provide an esoteric context for some of the things I said in more exoteric terms. — We will then continue discussing these matters tomorrow and try to delve even deeper into some of them.