The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Twelfth Lecture

[ 1 ] From the reflections we offered here the day before yesterday—and perhaps, in a broader sense, from the public discourse of recent days—it will become apparent that, especially at the present time, there is a certain necessity for humanity to develop an interest in spiritual science. For, in addition to its other tasks—which, in the narrower sense, pertain to the individual human being, to his mind, his life’s needs, and the affairs of his soul—this spiritual science is capable of shedding light on certain matters that people today absolutely must consider. And it is precisely from this point of view that I have pointed out how necessary it is to allow the seriousness with which spiritual science must be regarded today by those who wish to approach it to take effect, above all, on the soul. We must strive today to explore, in the most diverse directions, what actually lies behind the fact that humanity could have come to such a catastrophic situation. For what this catastrophic situation actually means is not yet being considered by many people today in all its depth and with the full gravity it deserves. But the time will come when the events—the facts themselves—will reveal this gravity in a completely different way than is already the case today. But precisely on the foundation of spiritual science, one should realize that it is not enough to wait, so to speak, until the very last moment to understand what one needs to understand in the face of the deeply latent demands of the times. Above all, it is necessary to acknowledge that certain truths—which are essential for humanity in the present and in the near future—are, in fact, uncomfortable; that it is much more convenient to to sing songs of praise—as we have so magnificently achieved in this or that regard, above all through the great achievements of cultural science—rather than to point out what acts and lives in the relationships among human beings themselves across the globe, and what, in particular, acts and lives to determine, so to speak, the character of present-day humanity. Contemporary humanity is challenged in many ways and is necessarily led to understand this and that; but some of what is to be understood is, in fact, uncomfortable to grasp, requiring a certain unreserved, unprejudiced assessment of our own human nature.

[ 2 ] There are certain trends in the course of history. One could hypothetically say: It would certainly be possible that people would continue to regard such things as something of great importance, such as the so-called aptitude test mentioned the day before yesterday. Certain contemporary educators, in fact, promote these things, regard them as something immensely significant, while the rest of humanity shuns forming an opinion about them, finding it inconvenient to remain vigilant in the face of such Ahrimanic tendencies as those introduced by things like the aptitude test and many other such measures. If such endeavors, such ideals—and they are, of course, ideals—are to continue to exist, then this will have a profound influence on the entire development of the human soul, and above all, a very specific influence on the fundamental forces of the human soul: thinking, feeling, and willing. One may ask oneself this question hypothetically—for this situation is not meant to come to pass; it is to be remedied through the efforts of those who adhere to the anthroposophical worldview—but hypothetically, one may ask in order to know what must be done: What configuration must the three main soul forces of the human being assume if tendencies such as those currently prevailing—arising from a materialistic mindset and from the Ahrimanic—were to take hold unopposed, were it not for spiritual striving and spiritual will to counter them? — No matter how great and powerful scientific progress may be in the field of technology—which is, after all, fueled by the natural sciences—and in other areas: it is precisely this scientific progress, precisely the fundamental structure of contemporary thinking, that will gradually impose an ever-increasing character of narrowness and narrow-mindedness upon human imagination and human thought. One cannot characterize this any other way, for even today, in the broadest sense, we can already see—I would say—the beginning of this narrow-mindedness, this limitation, which will consist in the fact that we are sinning more and more

[ 3 ] One will sin against a point that was raised yesterday in the public lecture: one will sin against opening one’s whole soul to the world. One will increasingly limit oneself to listening—theoretically, intellectually—to what concepts and ideas say. I would also like to point out publicly that two people can say exactly the same thing with words, and yet one is by no means justified in assuming that what emanates from both of them is the same.

[ 4 ] Today we live in the age of programs. The age of programs is, in fact, the age of intellectualism. What do people actually prefer to do today when they devote themselves to the welfare of humanity? They found associations for all sorts of causes and establish programs and ideals. These can, of course, be very witty, very benevolent, very convincing; yet they may be worth not a single grain of gunpowder for the development of humanity. But one is inclined to ask: What does the person in question actually want? — And if the person in question says—well, let’s take something abstract, since people love abstractions these days—: “I want to cultivate universal love for humanity”—then one thinks: What could be more beautiful? Of course, one must join such an association!—But we live in an age in which, due to a certain oversaturation that culture has reached, it is incredibly easy to come up with the most beautiful programs and the most beautiful ideas. And yet, in terms of one’s sense of and interest in the common good of humanity and its true concerns, one can be a very limited person. Today, I would say, even in the finer matters of culture, one is sometimes right in a higher sense regarding things in which, in the view of very many people, one is perhaps not right at all. For example, one may find oneself today in a position where one values poetic stammering—which, however, truly and genuinely heralds inner spiritual strength—more highly than perfected verses that appear as such simply because, in terms of the external form of poetry—the language itself—the spirit of language writes verses today and merely uses the human soul as a tool. Today, someone who lacks any strong inner strength of the soul can still produce brilliant verses in the old poetic style. Such things must be taken into account in an age when great—truly eminent—questions regarding human development are arising, as they are in the present time.

[ 5 ] So one must say: People must learn to open their whole souls to other whole souls; people must learn to attach less and less importance to the content of what is said, and they must learn to gain more and more insight into the knowledge and power of what this or that personality brings into the world. After all, we are witnessing the most terrifying spectacle in world history: across the entire earth, people are worshiping principles such as those put forth by Woodrow Wilson, because these principles make sense, because these principles cannot be refuted. Of course they make sense, of course they cannot be refuted, but they are as old as human thought; people have always spoken this way. There is absolutely nothing in all these things that has anything to do with the real, concrete, immediately present tasks. But people find it inconvenient to immerse themselves in the real, concrete, immediately present tasks, to develop the agility of thought. For this agility of thought is essential for entering into the immediately concrete. Admittedly, it sometimes takes a long time to find one’s way into this concreteness; but today it is necessary to understand such things, to put oneself a little into the soul of human development.

[ 6 ] There is a city inhabited by people from southern Germany. In the 18th century, a very important figure was born in this city: Johann Heinrich Lambert. Kant, a contemporary of Johann Heinrich Lambert, called Lambert the greatest genius of his century; for if Lambert’s ideas had taken the place of the so-called Kant-La Place theory, something very significant would have come of it. This Lambert grew up in a town—which is now a town in southern Germany—as the son of a tailor, and already showed a special talent at the age of fourteen. His father submitted a request for financial support to the city’s wise council. After much effort, the council was finally persuaded to grant forty francs to the talented boy on the condition that he never again ask for financial support. A hundred years had to pass before this city, in the 1840s, erected a monument to this man whom it had driven out as a fourteen-year-old boy. He had to leave the city at that time and, due to special circumstances, achieved greatness in Berlin. Now there stands a beautiful monument, topped by a globe, to signify that this genius was born of this great, mighty city—a city capable of nurturing such geniuses—and that the genius who knew how to embrace the world hails from this very soil!

[ 7 ] Sometimes it takes even longer than a hundred years to realize just how many talents are out there. That may be true, or may have been true, right up to our own time. But how often has it been emphasized, especially among us, that the time has come when people must awaken to a free, self-reliant consciousness—a consciousness in which people can no longer remain oblivious to what is happening around them. This time is approaching in giant strides. People must learn to open their souls to see what is truly there. For, as I said, the peculiar configuration of materialistic culture threatens to make thinking and imagination limited and narrow-minded. Spiritual science provides concepts and ideas that do not allow one’s thinking to become narrow-minded. One is constantly challenged—precisely through the concepts of spiritual science—to view a matter from a wide variety of perspectives. That is why, even today, many within the ranks of spiritual science are annoyed when they hear: “Now a new cycle is coming, and the subject will be approached from a completely different angle.” — But it is precisely this that is inevitable: that things are approached from the most diverse angles, and that one finally moves beyond what I would like to call the “absolutization of judgment.” The truth grasped by the spirit cannot be clearly defined within sharp contours, because the spirit is a dynamic force. Spiritual science thus works against narrow-mindedness in regard to thinking. It is, of course, difficult to say this to the present generation, but it is necessary.

[ 8 ] The second thing one observes in the soul is feeling. With regard to feeling, to the world of emotions, what is the tendency toward which humanity is striving, emerging from materialistic culture? One could say: It is precisely in this area that it has come a long way. In the realm of feeling, materialistic “culture” breeds narrow-mindedness and philistinism. Our materialistic culture’s philistinism is, in fact, particularly predisposed to growing to enormous proportions. Narrow-mindedness of interests! People want to shut themselves off more and more within their narrowest circles. But human beings today are no longer called to shut themselves off within their narrowest circles; they are called today to recognize how they are a single note in the great cosmic symphony.

[ 9 ] Let us once again consider something that has already been mentioned here, so that we may view what is meant here from a comprehensive perspective. I would like to say: One can calculate—and today great importance is placed on calculation—just how wonderfully human beings are integrated into the cosmos. In one minute, we take about eighteen breaths. Multiplying that by sixty and twenty-four in a day gives us 25,920 breaths. Twenty-five thousand nine hundred twenty breaths in twenty-four hours! Now try to calculate the following: As you know, every year the vernal equinox—the point where the sun rises in the spring—moves a little further along the celestial sphere. Let’s go back to very distant times. The sun rose in the spring in Taurus, then a little further along in Taurus, and a little further still, until it entered Aries, and then on again—and so the sun moves around, seemingly naturally. How many years does it take for the sun to advance in such jerky, incremental steps, so that it returns to the same point? The sun makes many such jerks: it takes 25,920 years to move forward through these jerks—that is, the sun completes one full circuit in the great cosmos in 25,920 years, the same number of years as the number of breaths we take in a day. Just imagine what a marvelous harmony this is! We breathe 25,920 times a day; the Sun moves forward, and when it has made 25,920 such jerks—just as we make our inner jerk, a single breath—it has completed one full circuit around the cosmos. Thus, with our breathing, we are a reflection of the macrocosm.

[ 10 ] Let’s continue: The average lifespan—which, of course, can be much longer, though some people die earlier—is, on average, seventy or seventy-one years. What exactly is this, this human life? It is, after all, a sum of breaths. Only these are different kinds of breaths. In ordinary physical breathing, we inhale air and exhale it. In a twenty-four-hour day—if we are decent, upright people and do not waste our nights—we take a deep inhalation of our “I” and astral body upon waking, and exhale our “I” and astral body again upon falling asleep: that, too, is a breath. Every day is a breath of our physical and etheric bodies in relation to the “I” and the astral body. How often do we do this in a lifetime that lasts about seventy or seventy-one years? Do the math and figure out how many days a human actually lives: 25,920 days! This means that not only do we mimic the course of the sun in the cosmic cycle with our breathing movements in a single day—by generating as many breaths as the sun makes movements until it returns to the same point in the cosmos—but we also perform the great breath, the inhalation of the “I” and the astral body into the physical and etheric bodies, and the exhalation of the “I” and the astral body—just as often over the course of those seventy or seventy-one years as we breathe in a single day: 25,920 times, as many times as the Sun makes its cycles until it returns to the same point. We could cite many such examples that reveal to us how, in the great harmony of the universe, our human lives are integrated—both numerically and in other ways—and they would be no less surprising, no less magnificent, than if we truly grasped what I have just explained. Much is hidden in the relationships in which human beings are embedded in the world, but this hidden aspect has a profound effect, because it is, in fact, the very same thing that was understood in ancient times as the harmony of the spheres.

[ 11 ] This, however, awakens our interest in the whole world. We are gradually coming to understand that we know absolutely nothing about ourselves as human beings if we restrict our interest in a philistine manner to our immediate surroundings. Yet this—philistinism—has increasingly become the defining characteristic of modern times! Yes, philistinism has become the very underlying mood of the religious worldview; and from there, this underlying mood of philistinism has radiated into many minds. Go back to the first centuries of Christianity: there was a teaching that was magnificent. It was appropriate for its time. Today it must be replaced by our spiritual-scientific perspective, because different eras place different demands on humanity, but back then it was a magnificent teaching—Gnosticism. Consider the magnificent way in which these Gnostics thought in their exploration of the Aeons and the various spiritual hierarchies—how this small Earth fits into the great cosmic evolution of the world with its many, many beings, among whose ranks humanity is nevertheless placed. It took flexibility of thought; it took a certain degree of goodwill to develop their concepts—not to let them become ossified or encrusted, as is done today—in order to rise up to Gnosis. Then came—not Christianity, but Christian denominationalism. And ask around today what most official representatives of Christianity hate most of all: Gnosis. And that is also why they denounce anthroposophy the most; they do not actually engage with anthroposophy itself—they are too complacent for that—but when they glance into any book, they have a vague, dark suspicion, a vague notion: “This could be another form of Gnosticism, for heaven’s sake!” So we must adopt new concepts; we must make the spirit flexible! We have finally led people to simplicity of thought, especially in the religious sphere. People say you cannot fathom what will come of it when you soar into such lofty spheres! — They say: A person can indeed reach the highest divine even with the simplest mind; there is no need to strain oneself—even the simplest, childlike mind can attain the highest divine at any moment.

[ 12 ] Yes, one must see through these things! What really matters is to look at these things closely, for it is from them that the prevailing mood of modern times stems—and from them that philistinism springs. That is why the religious atmosphere in the various denominations has become so philistine—because it is based on what I have just described. Today it flatters people who pretend to be modest but are actually, deep down, terribly immodest, for immodesty and megalomania are fundamental characteristics of our time. Everything is judged, and no matter how difficult the experience may have been, no matter how much the difficulty of that experience is etched on one’s brow: it is judged—even by those who may well know that they have not made any great effort to experience much, who have only strived to arrive at what is self-evident: that it should not require any effort to recognize God, but that God must simply surrender Himself at all times to the simplest, childlike mind, whenever it desires Him. Thus, one must recognize that philistinism must above all be pushed back through spiritual science. But philistinism is rooted in a place quite different from what is commonly believed today, and many of those who believe they have truly transcended philistinism are, in fact, deeply mired in it. Many “-isms” and many modernist movements, which make it their very program not to be like the philistines, are in fact nothing other than philistinism in its most disguised form. That is the second point. In the realm of thought and imagination, the encroaching narrowness must be pushed back; in the realm of feeling, the advancing philistinism must be pushed back. In their place, a broad-mindedness of interests must take hold—the will to truly look at what is unfolding on the grand canvas of earthly development.

[ 13 ] The day before yesterday we attempted to characterize, in concrete terms, the effect of the national spirits. These are, after all, archangels. From this you could already infer that these national spirits are connected to the places where certain people develop on Earth. The national spirit acts through the air in Italy; it acts through all things liquid in the regions of present-day France, and so on, as I have described. But of course these factors intersect with many others, and one must be aware that people live side by side on Earth, and that certain phases of development lag behind in certain regions. In some cases, people advance these phases; in others, they even cause them to decline. Now, something immensely significant can be observed. If we regard the entire Earth as an organism and ask ourselves: What is taking place across the entire Earth? — then we can first consider the various regions of Asia, the Asian East, as it is called. In this Eastern Asia, souls are incarnating today in large numbers who, due to their karma—that is, what they have brought with them from previous earthly lives—are still caught up in earlier stages of human development; souls who seek bodies in which they can remain dependent on physical development even into a certain advanced age. The norm today, of course, is that one is dependent only up to the age of twenty-seven. This is, in fact, what represents the fundamental character of our time: that one is dependent on physical development up to the age of twenty-seven. This is very significant in our time. One can understand much about our time by taking these things into account. I have, in fact, already pointed this out here as well.

[ 14 ] I once asked myself: What would a person be like who were to be the very embodiment of our time? How would such a person have to enter into this era with all his work, with all his activities? — He would have to, in a sense, shut out everything that is otherwise imposed on people from the outside and affects them, leaving himself entirely to his own devices until the age of twenty-seven. He would have to be what is called a “self-made man,” a person who has made himself. Until the age of twenty-seven, he would have to be scarcely touched by what undermines what is normal and representative in our time; until the age of twenty-seven, he would have to develop entirely on his own. Then, immediately after he has made of himself what a person today can make of himself, he would have to be elected to Parliament, for example. Isn’t that right? After all, being elected to Parliament today means being at the cutting edge of the times! Then, once he’s been elected to Parliament and, after a few years, has even become a minister, he is, in a certain sense, stigmatized; people will notice it later when he veers in one direction or another and suffers this or that mishap. And then? How must things proceed from there? One can no longer develop further; one remains the archetype of one’s time; one is the true representative of one’s time. Such people exist today—as I believe I mentioned here some time ago—Lloyd George, for example. There is no one who expresses what is present in our time more characteristically, more typically, than Lloyd George, who by the age of twenty-seven had drawn out of himself everything that a human being can draw from the physical-material realm today. He was self-taught; he entered life—and socialism—at an early age, and learned early on that at twenty-seven, one belongs in Parliament, doesn’t one? He was elected to Parliament and very soon became one of its most feared orators—even one of the most feared “blinkers”—as they say: “blinkers”— he always sat there like that, lying in wait while others spoke. There was something special about the way he raised his eyes; Lloyd George was well aware of it. Then came the Campbell-Bannerman cabinet. People said: What are we going to do with Lloyd George? He’s dangerous. The best thing is to make him a minister. — And so they brought him into the cabinet. Yes, but which ministerial post should we assign him to? “He’s a very talented man! Well, let’s put him in a position where he doesn’t understand a thing. That’s where he’ll be most useful; that’s where he’ll cause the least trouble!” — They made him Minister of Railways and Shipbuilding. In just a few months, he mastered what he needed to know. He carried out the most magnificent reforms, the most magnificent achievements.

[ 15 ] Isn’t it true that there’s no better way to describe the modern human being than by describing Lloyd George? It’s as if he were a concentrated essence, an extract from the materialism of our time, and one can understand much about the present if one is able to engage with something like that. This is how it is at the center of the world, I would say, between the Asian East and the American West. In European culture in particular, it is the case that up to the age of twenty-seven, one can draw from the physical-bodily realm what may also be significant for the soul-spiritual realm. Then a spiritual-soul impulse must be aroused in the soul if one wishes to progress further; at that point, the physical body can offer nothing more. That is why a person like Lloyd George possesses everything that the present age offers of its own accord, but consequently he has nothing at all of what must be freely attained. The present age naturally provides much genius and many talents, but it offers nothing spiritual of its own accord. That must be won through freedom. But in Asia there are still many opportunities to find bodies that allow for spiritual and soul development even beyond the age of twenty-seven or twenty-eight. That is why souls who wish to draw something from the physical realm even beyond this time incarnate there. That is why there is still a naturally spiritual culture there—a culture that insists on viewing the things around us from a spiritual perspective, on recognizing the spiritual in the world. Of course, a great deal of decadence is also taking hold in the East because materialism has spread, and since it is least suited to the East, the decadence has the greatest effect there. But among the leading figures, one can see that a natural spirituality still exists. Deep down, they despise European materialistic culture in the most comprehensive sense. People such as Rabindranath Tagore, who recently gave a speech on the spirit of Japan, say: “We Orientals naturally adopt European achievements when it comes to external technical and cultural conditions; but we put them in our sheds, in our stables; we certainly do not let this European culture into our living rooms—because for him, the spiritual is something self-evident. One must be aware of such things today, for these are the fundamental forces behind what is happening throughout the world, upon which world events today depend.

[ 16 ] You will say: Yes, surely we have, for example, in our Central European culture, a firm foundation for a spirituality that is even sustained by clear, luminous ideas! — We do have that, too, and we can speak of this spirituality in the same way that I attempted to speak of a forgotten current in German intellectual life in my book *The Enigma of Man*. To imbue ourselves with a spirituality that would truly go beyond what Eastern spirituality has ever achieved in human development, we need only fill ourselves with the wonderful imaginings that we find, for example, in Herder or in Goethe. Eastern culture has not produced anything as great as Herder, who sees in every new sunrise an image of the creation of the world anew and describes it in magnificent fashion. Those who do not want to be philistines today are, in fact, such philistines that they say: “We no longer concern ourselves with such ancient things”—and when you ask people about Herder, he has long since been forgotten. And when the Oriental assesses the situation, he naturally assesses what is alive in the outward, real current of Central European culture.

[ 17 ] Read the insightful Chinese scholar Xu Hung-Ming, who has described Central European culture in a sympathetic light, or read the lecture Rabindranath Tagore recently gave. Then you will see that people are asking themselves: What role does this Europe play in the overall progress of humanity? — They have a sense that this Central Europe is called upon to lead people beyond what Spiritualism itself has given them. But then they look to see whether this Central Europe has failed to develop the great potentials, the great seeds that are there, that it contains. People say that humanity had a Goethe; yes, but they don’t know what to make of him—these staid Germans, these materialistic Germans! — When his last grandson died, there was yet another opportunity to introduce Goetheanism into German spiritual life. Under the truly incomparably magnificent patronage of a German princess, the Goethe-Schiller Archive was founded. A great impetus was given in the 1880s. The Goethe Society was also founded, but there has always been a reluctance to appoint anyone to its leadership who would truly engage with Goethe’s spirituality. This was deemed unworthy, and in the last election, not a single person was placed at the head of the Goethe Society who would embody that spirituality inspired by Goethe; instead, a former finance minister was appointed. Yes, but it is on the basis of such things that the world must judge what is happening in Central Europe! Goethe’s legacy is today administered by a former finance minister who, admittedly, bears the symptomatic first name “Kreuzwendedich.” But I do not know whether, if the symbolism of this first name were to be fulfilled, something better would take its place.

[ 18 ] These things could only change if narrow-minded interests were replaced by broader interests, if we truly looked at how these impulses affect the Earth, how the bodies in the East, I would say, a somewhat backward spirituality is made possible for the souls who wish to incarnate in such bodies today with a backward spirituality, which still offers something from the physical-bodily realm to the souls beyond the age of twenty-seven. In the East, one remains at an earlier stage of human development; there, one remains at the stage that humanity has already gone through. Here in the middle, we are at the point where the turning point must take place, where today—up to the age of twenty-seven (in the middle of the 15th century, it was the twenty-eighth year of life)—one can draw what is necessary from the physical body. However, for the further development of the human soul—if one does not wish to grow old prematurely or to have nothing left of one’s youth—one must have a spiritual-soul impulse, a free spiritual impulse, and not, like the Easterners, an unfree spiritual impulse.

[ 19 ] Let us continue further westward, to America. There, humanity is such that it lags behind, that it does not reach this level. In the East, humanity has, in a sense, remained at earlier stages; in the Middle, you have the normal stage of development; in the West, in America—as I described the day before yesterday—the earthly-underworld forces are at work. Even on minds like Woodrow Wilson’s, these forces act in such a way that they become obsessed with their own words, their own principles. They are like prematurely aged—though the word carries a slightly different connotation—like prematurely aged children who cannot reach the full realization of what can be achieved by the age of twenty-seven. Once people see through what makes such a strong impression on many people today, they will, for example, raise the question: How on earth could it have come to pass that a mind like Woodrow Wilson’s—which, by the time of his death, had never absorbed more than one typically absorbs by the age of twenty-seven—could become the great schoolmaster of the world? — One simply lacks the breadth of interest required to truly bring such matters to the forefront of one’s soul in an authentic way. One refuses to break free from philistinism!

[ 20 ] That remarkable trend in human development, characterized by a movement from East to West—from the preservation of the past, through the normal middle phase, toward the decadence of the West—is, of course, to be found in the development of peoples and the Earth, not in the individual human being. An interest in this must be cultivated so that we may know what kinds of impulses are at work across the Earth, and so that we may understand how to evaluate them. And here in the center, for a long time, the influence from the South was the defining factor, as Central European culture was imbued with a Greco-Roman character. The conservative nature of the South made its way here. Today we stand at a turning point. A particularly progressive element from the North must permeate the Central European population. And this particular quality—I would say the impulses of the Hyperborean era that are favorable for our time—must pass through our souls. This is what must be taken into account. Otherwise, if human beings do not open their eyes and souls to these great impulses of becoming human, the Earth will take a wrong course of development, will not become humus for the cosmic world-building, and what was meant to be the Earth’s final epoch of development will have to be claimed by another planet.

[ 21 ] There are indeed great interests at stake. It is necessary to break free from philistinism and develop toward these great interests. Only by embracing such interests can one come to evaluate certain phenomena of our present time in the proper way. One can clearly see that human natures are diverging in our time. This is only just beginning today; yet people are diverging. Some are of a nature that, so to speak, hardens the physical aspect within themselves. They develop it with a certain rigidity until the age of twenty-seven, then they come to a standstill; they reject the spiritual and soul aspects. Unless they have a constant drive to stir up humanity, to lead humanity to ruin—as Lloyd George did—they become jaded, embittered, slip into outright philistinism, and grow dull. One branch of this fork leads to the dulling of humanity. The others, up to the age of twenty-seven, surrender themselves to all the driving, pulsating forces of the physical-bodily realm, drawing all spirituality out of the physical-bodily realm. There is much in the physical realm. Do not forget: we are all born with immense wisdom; we need only transform that wisdom into consciousness—to transform what is already present as wisdom within our entire physical being. Spiritual science seeks, in a harmonious, spiritually imbued way, to bring everything that is in the nerves, blood, and muscles up into consciousness. Spiritual science is rejected not only by the dull-witted, but also, in many cases, by those—and their numbers are growing—who, with a living, pulsating intensity from puberty through their twenty-seventh year, feel what is simmering and boiling as genius deep within their nerves, blood, and muscles. These overheated natures, which, so to speak, burn up human life, are becoming more and more common. Even today, they appear sporadically with extraordinary frequency. They fill the mental hospitals and so on. But people fail to realize that true healing lies in anthroposophically “oriented spiritual science.”

[ 22 ] A certain type of nature has, after all, become world-famous in recent times. That is the philosopher Otto Weininger. Isn’t that right? Otto Weininger was a man who, in the most chaotic way—unrefined and unharmonized—brought to light what lies in the nerves, muscles, and blood, and who then wrote the world-famous book *Sex and Character*, which people who fall for anything also fell for. So even the philistines fell for it, failing to understand that, despite all the nonsense and repugnance, it was an idea, a revelation of something elemental in the nerves, blood, and muscles. The elemental approaches such people; from within their very humanity itself comes to them what—only in an orderly, harmonious way—spiritual science seeks to develop. Such people must ask a question—not because they have learned it from spiritual science (where they would learn it properly), but because their nerves, their blood, and their muscles demand it—a question that humanity today must necessarily ask itself. Without this question, humanity cannot move forward. It is this: How do I, having entered the physical world through birth or conception, become a continuation of my spiritual-soul existence from my last death up to this birth? — Such questions and others like them, as we raise them in spiritual science and regard them as fundamental questions of advancing spiritual culture, must be raised and will be raised by those who allow what lies within their nerves, blood, and muscles to well up.

[ 23 ] You see, there is one chapter in Otto Weininger’s work that is particularly interesting. He asked himself: Why did I actually come into this earthly life? — And he answered this question for himself—based on what I have just described, on the wisdom that lies in muscle, blood, and nerves—in his own way, but in a way that consumes and burns a person up. He asked himself: Why am I drawn from the spiritual-soul world, where I used to be, into earthly life? — He found no answer other than this: Because I was cowardly, because I did not want to remain alone in the spiritual-soul world and therefore sought connection with other human beings. I did not have the courage to be alone; I sought protection in my mother’s womb. — These were, for him, entirely honest answers that he gave himself. “Why,” he asked, “do we have no memory of what happened before birth? Because that is what we became through birth!” — He says, word for word: “Because we have sunk so deeply that we have lost our consciousness.” If human beings had not lost themselves at birth, they would not have to search for themselves and find themselves again.

[ 24 ] These are typical phenomena; today they still occur sporadically. They are the people who, in their youth, draw from their blood, nerves, and muscles what can only flourish within the entire human process if it is refined and harmonized by what spiritual science is meant to provide. To achieve this, however, interests in general human life must be expanded to a broader scale. Philistinism must take a back seat. This confinement of people within a narrow circle of interests must be combated in a systematic manner. Certain questions must take on a completely different form than they have up to the present day. How, then, has the religious development of the past millennia structured the very question that still binds people to the spiritual to some extent? A materialistically educated, witty person of our time, who has attained a high position within a certain circle, once said to me: “If one compares the state with the church, one gets the impression that the church still has it easier than the state.” — Well, I won’t comment on the validity of that judgment, but that man believed that the church does indeed have it easier than the state, because the state administers life, while the church administers death, and people are, after all, more afraid of death than of life; therefore, the church has it easier. — He naturally regarded this as nonsense, because he was entirely materialistic in his outlook.

[ 25 ] But this chapter, too, has actually been steered into rather self-centered waters. Essentially, people today ask: What happens to my soul and spiritual life once I have passed through the gate of death? — And there are many self-centered impulses at work here. The question of immortality, in particular, would take on an entirely different form under the influence of spiritual science. In the future, people would not ask only: To what extent is life after death a continuation of life here on Earth—but rather: To what extent is life here on Earth a continuation of the life I previously lived in the spiritual-soul world? — Then one will be able to look toward something like the following.

[ 26 ] When a person passes through the gate of death, their imaginative faculty is quite strongly developed at first; a vast world of images unfolds before them in their imagination. I would like to call this an “unfolding of the world of images.” The second third of life between death and a new birth is primarily filled with inspirations. Inspirations occur in human life during the second third of this period between death and a new birth. And intuitions occur in the final third. Now, intuitions consist in a person projecting their self—their soul—into other beings, and the culmination of these intuitions is that they project themselves into the physical body. This projection into the physical body through birth is merely the continuation of the primarily intuitive life of the final third between death and a new birth. And this must actually occur when a human being enters the physical realm; it must be a particularly characteristic trait in the child: the act of placing oneself into another life. The child must do what others do—not what arises from within itself, but by imitating and emulating what others do.

[ 27 ] Why did I have to explain, when speaking about *The Education of the Child from the Perspective of Spiritual Science*, that children in their first seven years are primarily imitators? Because imitation—because putting oneself in another’s place—is the continuation of the intuitive world that exists in the last third of life, between death and a new birth. One can still see the life between death and a new birth flowing in and shining through when one truly contemplates the child’s life here. The question of immortality will have to be posed on this basis: To what extent is life here on Earth a continuation of the soul-spiritual life? — Then, however, we will also learn to regard this life on Earth as particularly important, but not in an egoistic sense. Above all, people will hold fast to a sense of responsibility grounded in the realization that: I must continue here what has been entrusted to me by virtue of having brought with me an inheritance from the soul-spiritual realm. — It will mark a tremendous shift in people’s understanding when they begin to speak from this different perspective. For what the soul experiences between death and a new birth—this vast spiritual realm experienced through imaginations, inspirations, and intuitions—is, from that perspective, the “here and now”; and what we experience here is, from that perspective, the “hereafter.” And the desire to understand and appreciate this “beyond” will become part of the newly formulated question of immortality, which will influence the spiritual development of humanity in a less egotistical way than the question of immortality has often done in the religious development of past millennia.

[ 28 ] I wanted to describe such things to show how humanity should break free from philistinism, to show how one is not a philistine. One is not a philistine if one can transcend one’s narrowest interests, and if one also takes an interest in the fact that here on Earth one takes 25,920 breaths in a single day—a number corresponding to the number of days in an earthly life and also to the “swing” of the sun as it orbits in the cosmic ellipse. Interests extend beyond what has led to the existence of a forgotten current in German spiritual life; they extend beyond what is taking shape spiritually across the entire Earth—which is the fundamental tone of Eastern, Middle, and Western spiritual development: how Asian spiritual development is, in a sense, dependent on an Eastern current that fell into decadence in the West, and how the Central current, initially dependent on the South, will in the future become dependent on the North. These things lead us to the grand plan of human development, help us overcome philistinism, set our feelings regarding human development on the right course, and teach us to truly empathize with the impulses that live within humanity.

[ 29 ] And the will: The will, too, develops in a very specific way under the influence of materialistic impulses. It develops in such a way that people become more and more clumsy—clumsier and clumsier in the broad, classical sense. What can a person do today? Only the narrowest things for which they are trained—things that confine them to a small circle. What spiritual science develops in terms of concepts, feelings, and impulses extends all the way down into the limbs. When someone truly immerses themselves in spiritual science, they become skilled, adapt to their surroundings, and—over the course of their life—sometimes learn things that, when they were very young, people said they had not the slightest aptitude for. Spiritual science, when properly grasped, will also make people skilled. Today, people are not skilled even in the smallest of ways. One meets people who do not know the simplest of manual tasks; one meets gentlemen who cannot even sew on a button when it has come off, much less do anything else. But what matters is that people can once again become versatile, that they can adapt to their surroundings, and that this confinement to the narrowest circle—and the resulting lack of dexterity in the wider world—be overcome.

[ 30 ] As strange as it may sound, humanity faces this threefold task in the present and the near future with regard to thinking, feeling, and willing: that narrow-mindedness be overcome and a flexible adaptation to the conditions of the world take hold; that philistinism be overcome and broad-minded interests take hold of people’s hearts; that clumsiness be overcome, and that people become skilled and be educated in skill in the most diverse areas of life. Learning to understand the world in the most diverse areas of life! Today, of course, we are doing the exact opposite of all this. We are heading toward clumsiness, philistinism, and narrow-mindedness—and these are the inevitable consequences of the materialistic way of thinking. Certainly, not everyone can learn to set a broken leg on their own; but there is no need to cultivate clumsiness to the point where someone no longer has any sense of how to help themselves in even the simplest case of illness, and the like. Skilled understanding—the ability to cope with life in its most diverse situations—that is what matters.

[ 31 ] With the advent of this modern era, haven’t we actually gained a clearer understanding of how things have truly developed? Anyone who has looked around with discerning eyes at the phenomena of the present in recent decades has clearly seen that the impulse to develop a worldview—the impulse to make worldview impulses the object of consideration—was actually alive only among those who, at the same time, had the will to develop purely materialistic worldview interests, namely in the realm of socialism. Essentially, reflection on worldview issues has existed only where there was a desire to reform the world in a socialist sense. Beyond the socialist tide[?], there was a lack of interest; at most, there were narrow clique interests clinging to the old ways, or if one believed one had grasped something new, it consisted of abstract words—the forerunners of Wilsonianism, which raged particularly fiercely in the so-called liberal parties during the second half of the 19th century. A will to penetrate the intellectual and spiritual impulses of the world—just as socialism sought to penetrate the material ones—such a will was absent: there was dullness [with regard to the spiritual] where the bourgeoisie began—on the whole, of course; exceptions have been accounted for. Those present are, of course, always exempt; that is simply a matter of courtesy.

[ 32 ] Well, confronting these phenomena and answering questions such as those raised today—in the same spirit in which we have attempted to answer them today—is, in essence, one and the same thing. For great matters are connected to these issues. In Eastern Europe, we see how—I would say, in essence—something is taking shape for which Europe today has terribly little understanding. We, in our own sphere, have often pointed precisely to the seeds of development in this Eastern Europe. For this Eastern Europe wants—and I want to express this today in a special way—to learn to understand that the whole of human life has a meaning! And when the sixth post-Atlantean cultural epoch approaches, then Eastern Europe is to demonstrate, within the course of Earth’s evolution, that the whole of human life has a meaning—and not merely to accept as true what is drummed into them in school during their youth. The East should demonstrate that human beings continue to develop right up to death, that each year brings something new, and that when one passes through the gate of death, one remains connected to the earthly realm and brings wisdom even after death. What, then, does that element of the soul actually seek—the one that until recently could be called “Russian,” which is now provisionally descending into chaos but will find its way within the cultural development of Europe and thus within the cultural development of all humanity? What does this element of the East seek?

[ 33 ] It makes sense to view the whole of human life as a process of development, and the moment of death as merely a particularly important stage in that development. This principle must surely find followers and adherents even in Central Europe, and—based on the premises we have outlined—it will indeed find them. But until this principle is recognized, people will always believe: The younger one is, the more one can have a fixed point of view. — The youngest badgers today have their own complete, fixed point of view; they have, in essence, nothing within them of that great sense of anticipation and hope: that every year reveals new mysteries, that the moment of death reveals new mysteries. Eastern Europe is developing souls who, even today, are developing in their subconscious precisely the understanding that a person is at their wisest and best able to judge earthly, human circumstances precisely when they are dying. And from among these souls living in the East today, there will emerge those who do not merely ask the young badgers or the parliaments how to decide on human affairs, but who also ask the dead; they will learn to establish communication with the dead and to make that communication fruitful here for earthly development. In the future, people will ask: What do the dead say about this? — And they will find the spiritual paths when they have delved so deeply into spiritual science that they will consult the dead—not just the living—when it comes to deciding the great affairs of humanity here on Earth. That is what the East wants. And never before have two things collided that are less compatible than what is happening today in Eastern Europe. For the very soul of this Eastern Europe is the exact opposite of what has been imposed upon it today in the form of Trotskyism or Leninism—arising from the purest, albeit self-misunderstanding, materialism of the present. Never before in the development of humanity have two things that are so incompatible collided as the spiritual seed of the East and materialistic Leninism—this caricature, this most savage caricature of human cultural progress, which has no sense of or understanding for what is truly spiritual, yet is so understandable from the very core of the present. The future will come to recognize this.

[ 34 ] That, my dear friends, is what I simply wanted to say to you by way of a summary regarding those things that are meant to kindle interest in our hearts. One must develop an understanding for such things; one must not remain oblivious to what is taking place in the depths of the soul. That is what I wanted to place in your souls and in your hearts during our gathering today.