The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Karma of Materialism III

[ 1 ] Last time, I pointed out how human beings, as they live their lives on Earth, have essentially strayed from their proper place in the normal course of evolution—I would say, their cosmic position in the world. That this is so is, of course, well known to us, and it is expressed in the various religions symbolically and imaginatively through the concept of original sin or the like. From the perspective of spiritual science, this is connected to the fact that, fundamentally speaking, the primordial nature of human beings—if we may put it that way—as earthly beings consists of the acts of breathing. That is why I pointed out last time that the respiratory rhythm can actually be viewed in such a way that, during their earthly life, human beings were destined to have their most important experience—and thus also their experience of knowledge—within the respiratory rhythm. I have pointed this out before and briefly reiterated it last time: the breathing rhythm, in particular, is in wonderful harmony with the entire cosmos. I have pointed out how, in a normal human life, the number of our days corresponds to the number of breaths in a day, as well as other numerical relationships that can, in a sense, demonstrate the harmonious alignment of our microcosmic breathing process with the great cosmic processes within which our lives are situated.

[ 2 ] In addition to the results that can be perceived through the humanities, it can already be pointed out from an external perspective that there is something in the human breathing rhythm that makes human beings, even more than anything else, a microcosm—a small world. It is precisely in breathing that human beings mimic the processes of the greater world, including what the greater world has in store for us. And it is absolutely true: in processes that involve minor differences, one does not pay close attention to the variations; one does not distinguish them as individual cases; but in reality, there are no two people whose breathing processes are completely identical. All human beings differ in their breathing process because each person is a string of the universe tuned differently. But what takes place in the breathing rhythm remains unconscious to human beings in their present earthly state; or at least it becomes conscious only in abnormal states and then takes on the most varied forms of mental illness. Our normal consciousness, as we know, operates, so to speak, above the breathing process; it is more detached from the macrocosm. If, instead of our brain processes, we were to use the breathing process as our cognitive process, we would be situated quite differently within the universe in our cognitive process. The fact that our cognitive process is bound to the brain, in a sense, pushes us out of the context in which we would otherwise normally be situated within the macrocosm. As I have already indicated, religious texts have pointed out that the mystery of breathing is such a mystery for human beings by stating—as, for example, the text of the Old Testament does—that: The spiritual-divine being who is concerned with the guidance and direction of humankind breathed the breath of life into humankind, and humankind became a living soul. This statement from the Old Testament is, in the sense of ancient, atavistic clairvoyance, a true account of a factual reality. Since it is not our respiratory process that constitutes the physical basis of our cognition, but rather our cerebral processes, human beings—in terms of their intellect—were placed in the world differently in all the time preceding the Mystery of Golgotha than they are now, after the Mystery of Golgotha took place. I would like to say: in addition to the other gateways that have already opened to us for understanding the Mystery of Golgotha, another is to be considered today.

[ 3 ] We can say: In fact, the human process of cognition—the whole relationship of the human being to the world—is not what was intended for the human being before the Luciferic influence. For what was intended for them was a process of cognition based on the rhythm of breathing. As a result—let us consider this purely from a physical perspective for now, though the physical aspect has a deeper significance here—before the Mystery of Golgotha, human cognition was, so to speak, linked not to the chest and breathing, but higher up in the organism, to the head and the senses.

[ 4 ] Viewed from this external perspective, the natural sciences will not readily grasp or acknowledge the difference between human beings before the Mystery of Golgotha and after it. But this difference, even if it can be recognized only through more subtle means, is extraordinarily great.

[ 5 ] In the time before the Mystery of Golgotha, human beings—as can be understood from the various insights of our anthroposophy—naturally stood in relationship to spiritual beings of the universe, to the beings of the higher hierarchies. But how? Among the beings of the higher hierarchies, we first distinguish—immediately adjacent to the human realm—the angels, the archangels, and so on. The next beings, then, to whom we look up when we gaze into the spiritual world, are the angels. As human beings, we are connected to the angels, and the angels, in turn, feel their connection to us humans. For them, too, the nature of their relationship with human beings is not a matter of indifference. And we can bring to mind the difference between human beings before the Mystery of Golgotha and after it when we specifically consider the relationship of human beings to the beings of the angels.

[ 6 ] It is very remarkable, then, that before the Mystery of Golgotha there existed an intimate relationship between the Angeloi—in all their activity, in their very being—and the human intellect. One could literally say: for human beings before the Mystery of Golgotha, the human intellect was the primary dwelling place of the Angeloi. People knew nothing of the fact that the Angeloi dwelt within their intellect; but the consequence of their dwelling there was that these people possessed—albeit to a diminishing degree—one thing: atavistic, imaginative clairvoyance. What I just said—that the Angeloi dwelt within the human intellect before the Mystery of Golgotha—applies to human life between birth and death. It was different in human life between death and a new birth. There the Angeloi—and also the individual Angeloi, the individual angel assigned to a human being—dwelt in the memories of sensory perceptions; they dwelt in the images of what sensually surrounded human beings on Earth. Therefore, before the Mystery of Golgotha, human beings possessed a living knowledge of the events on Earth during the time between death and a new birth. In a sense, one could say: The Angeloi carried what happened on Earth up to human beings. Before the Mystery of Golgotha, during the time between death and a new birth, human beings developed a very vivid knowledge of the events on Earth.

[ 7 ] Here we gain insight into the relationship between the Angeloi and human beings in the time before the Mystery of Golgotha. After the Mystery of Golgotha, this changed; it changed in such a way that this transformation is, of course, part of the process of evolution. What is the situation now for us humans after the Mystery of Golgotha? What is the relationship of the human being to the beings of the hierarchy of the Angeloi?

[ 8 ] For us, it is now the case that—albeit unconsciously—the Angeloi dwell within our sensory perceptions in the life between birth and death. Yes, when we open our eyes and look out into the world that surrounds us and acts upon our senses, we do not realize that, as the sunbeam enters our eye and things become visible, the sunbeam itself is the place where our angel dwells. But it is true: the essence of the Angeloi lives in the vibrations of sound, in the radiance of light and colors, and in our other sensory perceptions. It is only because human beings must transform sensory perceptions into mental images that the Angeloi do not penetrate into the realm of the imagination, and human beings are unaware of how they are surrounded by the essence of the Angeloi. In general, it is often said in lectures on spiritual science that one should not imagine the spiritual world as some far-fetched fantasy, but rather that one should imagine that the spiritual world surrounds us everywhere. It does indeed surround us everywhere. One can also point out specifically how it surrounds us. This is the case with the angels; yet during the period of life between birth and death, no awareness of the angels enters our intellect. In contrast, modern human beings develop a strong awareness of their connection with the angelic beings during the life between death and rebirth; for there, in a sense, the angels dwell in their intellect.,

[ 9 ] What I have just explained has a significant consequence for human life. Let us once again consider the human being before the Mystery of Golgotha; the Angeloi dwelt in his intellect—his own particular ones. As a result, his sensory life was particularly vulnerable to the Luciferic forces. In ancient times, the entire life of human consciousness was accessible to the Luciferic forces. This has changed since the Mystery of Golgotha. As I have described, the beings from the hierarchy of the Angeloi—who move on the wings of light and color, on the wings of sound vibrations, and so on—no longer penetrate our intellect. Consequently, in the time between birth and death, our intellect is permeated by the attacks of the Ahrimanic forces. Whereas, from this point of view, before the Mystery of Golgotha human beings were essentially exposed to the attacks of Lucifer, the intellect has been particularly exposed to the influences of the Ahrimanic forces since the Mystery of Golgotha. These forces strive above all to suppress in human beings the awareness of their connection to the spiritual world. All the tendencies toward materialism that human beings develop in their thoughts stem, in this direct relationship to the intellect, from the attacks of the Ahrimanic forces. And if the materialistic trends of our time—which have been sufficiently described in these reflections—prevail today, we must not forget that these materialistic trends stem from the confusion that Ahriman strives to wreak upon the human intellect.

[ 10 ] What are these things I am speaking of now? We said earlier that the process of breathing is subconscious. But what I mean now—this connection between human beings and the essence of the Angeloi—is also not within consciousness; it lies beyond consciousness. What takes place in our breathing lies below the level of consciousness; what takes place within us through this interplay of the spiritual worlds—the next level of interplay among the spiritual worlds—in the way I have just described, is superconscious. In this superconscious process, the force that entered the world through the Mystery of Golgotha is at work in exactly the same way that the force of Jehovah was at work in human beings before that event. When we immerse ourselves in the spirit—but specifically in the spirit—of a text, such as the Book of Job, and become aware of how the workings of the power of Jehovah are to be depicted in human development—something that is particularly evident in the Book of Job— we gain an understanding of how this power of Jehovah worked, which, as mentioned, gave life to human beings through the process of breathing. It worked within the process of heredity, acting there, as described, all the way down to the third and fourth generations. If we want an analogy for the time after the Mystery of Golgotha, we must take the Christ-force. Just as the Jehovah-force is related to the human respiratory process, so the Christ-force—indeed, the entire Mystery of Golgotha—is related to what I have just described as a superconscious process.

[ 11 ] If we wish, so to speak, to define the matter we have been discussing in relation to breathing, we could say: For the earthly human being, the process of breathing has been stripped of consciousness; consciousness has been extinguished for the earthly human being through the Luciferic influence. In return, the human being is to be given the opportunity to live into the superconscious—that superconsciousness I just alluded to: the communion, through the senses or the intellect, with the beings of the Angeloi. In a sense, as compensation for what has been taken from human beings—the process of recognizing breathing—they are to be given the process of recognizing the superconscious through the impulse of the Mystery of Golgotha. Powerful religious figures of the East sought, in their regions before the Mystery of Golgotha, to bring consciousness into the act of breathing. This cannot be imitated today, for it would lead to disaster. But everything we find in ancient Eastern writings regarding breathing exercises boils down to the breathing process being permeated by consciousness. Yet for certain supreme realities, the consciousness of the earthly human being is, after all, doomed to powerlessness; and when certain customs of ancient times are imitated today, people do so because they do not take into account that, through Lucifer, the ability to fully illuminate the breathing process with knowledge has been taken from humanity. Instead, however, since the Mystery of Golgotha, human beings are to increasingly experience the superconscious process of connection with the spiritual world. If we were to recognize this through our breathing—if the process of insight were to take place within our breathing—then with every inhalation we would always be conscious, not that we are inhaling air, but that we are taking the power of Yahweh into ourselves; and with every exhalation we would know that we are exhaling Yahweh. In a similar way, human beings should become aware that the beings of the hierarchy of the Angeloi, so to speak, rhythmically ascend and descend toward them, that, so to speak, the spiritual world ebbs and flows. This can only happen if the impulse of the Mystery of Golgotha is able to take effect more and more among human beings.

[ 12 ] One often has to use strange words if one wants to truly characterize what underlies the things of the world. If one were to shy away from using the right word in the appropriate context, one could not arrive at the knowledge of the truth. Through Lucifer, what I have just described as a dulling of the breath came to pass. Certainly, this is meant figuratively; but one can feel the objects radiating into one’s perceptions if one interprets the image correctly. It means: Yahweh wanted to live consciously in every breath that enters the human body, and he wanted to consciously withdraw from the human being with every exhalation. That was possible. But Lucifer became his adversary. And the consciousness that lies in the power of Yahweh was excluded from human consciousness. And here comes the difficult word, which one must not shy away from uttering if one wishes to characterize it in the sense of true understanding. Yahweh had to forget humanity, insofar as they live on Earth; for He could not penetrate the consciousness they possess. It truly happened that, little by little, the being underlying the power of Yahweh—and, extending up into the spiritual world, the spiritual beings—forgot human beings just as we forget something from our soul. They forgot human beings; they lost them from their consciousness! Through the Mystery of Golgotha, consciousness was rekindled. And if one were to speak the tragic words regarding humanity from primeval times up to the Mystery of Golgotha: “And the gods forgot humanity”—then one must say of the time since the Mystery of Golgotha: “And the gods wish to gradually remember humanity once more.” — Little by little, they wish to penetrate with their powers precisely into that which the earthly human being would otherwise be unable to grasp spiritually; they wish to penetrate into cerebral wisdom, into the human life of imagination bound to the nervous system, even for the earthly human being. Heaven wishes to look upon the Earth, and the window it needs to view the lower world from above was opened at the moment when the Christ Being entered the personality of Jesus at the baptism of John in the Jordan. And the words, “This is my beloved Son; today I have begotten him,” indicate that the Higher wishes to behold the Lower once more, that the Higher can flow in and out of the Lower—not now through the breath, but through thoughts and ideas. In essence, the time that has elapsed since the Mystery of Golgotha has been a kind of preparation, and we now stand at a turning point where something different must come than what has been the mode of action of the Mystery of Golgotha up to now. It is important that we bring this to our consciousness.

[ 13 ] What has happened so far has been a period of preparation. For up to that point, only a few exceptional individuals had been able to approach the Mystery of Golgotha through spiritual science. But now the time must come when a larger portion of humanity will be able to grasp the Mystery of Golgotha, in particular, through spiritual science. Why?

[ 14 ] Many mysteries are connected to this mystery of Golgotha and its understanding. How often do people come and ask: How do I find my relationship to Christ? — A certainly legitimate question. But it is just as understandable to those who are initiated into these matters that this question cannot be answered so readily. I would like to offer a comparison: We see things with our eyes, but we do not see the eyes themselves. In order for the eyes to see, they cannot see themselves; they see only their reflections, not the eyes themselves. That which sees—the very means by which we see—cannot itself be seen. Yet in the age following the Mystery of Golgotha, human beings must see the spiritual worlds through the Christ impulse, just as we see external colors and so on through the eye. But just as we do not see the eye itself, so too we do not see the Christ impulse, because it is through him that we see the spiritual world.

[ 15 ] This is why the Mystery of Golgotha is shrouded in mystery—even historically. It was meant to become, for posterity, the historical event of the Mystery of Golgotha that cannot be discovered by historical means. To seek the life of Christ in history in the same way one seeks any other historical event would be entirely akin to the impulse to make the eye see itself. It lies in the very nature of the Mystery of Golgotha that Christ Jesus cannot, like Socrates, Plato, or any other historical figure, be found through documents of the kind that historical documents are otherwise. It is in the very nature of the Mystery of Golgotha that the records concerning it are not historical, but rather are the writings of inspired individuals, for whom one can always demonstrate, by historical means, that they are not actual historical documents. We would become spiritually ill in the course of human development the very moment the Mystery of Golgotha could be classified among ordinary historical events. We would still not see it in the right way, but we would perceive it, as it were, as historically as we perceive the eye when we have injured it. The healthy eye sees things; it does not see itself. If the eye has a splinter lodged in it, it sees a black space before it and begins to perceive itself; but this is a pathological perception. A pathological perception of the Mystery of Golgotha would thus arise if human beings did not have within this Mystery of Golgotha something that cannot be perceived; what one perceives is connected to the Mystery of Golgotha. And the remarkable thing is this: this peculiar situation was brought about for human beings only through the advent of the Mystery of Golgotha. In ancient, atavistic clairvoyance, as long as Christ was up in the spiritual world—as long as He had not yet descended—people knew: He is there, and He will come. Therefore, curiously enough, we find in prophecy a consciousness of the coming Christ derived from immediate, personal experience, just as any other experience is. People could know of the Christ as long as—paradoxically speaking—He had not yet come. But the moment He had come, they could no longer know of Him in the same way. Just as one experiences the eye through seeing, so too, in the time immediately following the Mystery of Golgotha, the Christ event had to be experienced directly, not merely known historically.

[ 16 ] It is interesting to examine the Gospels to see how they view the things I am now clarifying from the perspective of spiritual science. More on that another time.

[ 17 ] Thus it became necessary for Christian development—which sought to encompass Christianity within itself—to organize itself, at first, around replacing knowledge and direct, experiential insight with faith, and to demand that people not seek knowledge about the Mystery of Golgotha, but rather have experiences of faith. But now let us consider: the Mystery of Golgotha is to shine into our world of ideas—for ideas of faith, too, exist as ideas. This is where it comes into conflict with all of Ahriman’s attacks. Our intellect is the field on which the Christ impulse clashes with the Ahrimanic impulses, and the development—the purely external development of the earthly human being—will proceed in such a way that Ahriman will not always be so bound. The thousand years will come to an end, and human beings must possess something other than the naive power with which they have hitherto established the Christ impulse in their consciousness—let us say, in their earthly consciousness. Human beings must possess something else. What is this something else?

[ 18 ] This other path is spiritual science, through which human beings are to spiritually assimilate what we call the Christ impulse, so that they may find within themselves the strength to protect the Christ impulse in their consciousness against Ahrimanic attacks. For what does Ahriman strive for? Now that the Christ impulse is in the world, he cannot, of course, remove it. He is not that powerful. For Christ entered the world through the body of Jesus of Nazareth. He cannot remove it; but what he can do is to reshape human conceptions in the intellect in such a way that they do not experience the Christ impulse itself, but rather masks for the Christ impulse—that is, so that people construct false images of Christ for themselves. People are exposed to the danger that, although they speak of the Christ, they form an image of him that Ahriman has prepared for them in their intellect. Anyone who today can observe the true forms of the development of human spiritual culture will not always find true images where the images of the Christ are taken into human consciousness; rather, they will find today the images of the Christ distorted by Ahriman in human conceptions. What this or that follower of the Christ calls the Christ is not always the Christ. And so that Ahriman may achieve his goals, he clouds and confuses the human intellect in many ways. He also confuses it in those very areas where people often seek guidance. There one can then have very strange experiences. Have the experiences that are to be had—for example, when you ask a Catholic theologian for his true opinion about the Virgin Mary. Certainly, most will know nothing at all beyond what has been drummed into them; but that is not the point. There are, however, some who have acquired theological knowledge beyond what has been drummed into them. In them, one will find everywhere a remarkable harmony between the image of Mary as an earthly woman and the cosmic image of the heavenly Church; for the true Catholic theologian, the Virgin Mary is one with the woman from the symbol of the Apocalypse, who has the moon under her feet, the sun on her chest, and the seven stars above her head. The cosmic significance is inconceivable without finding expression in an earthly reality. I could provide you with writings from Catholic literature that prove that even today Catholic theologians still write: The Virgin Mary is like the woman of the sun, who has the moon under her feet and the stars above her head. — So here the connection between the earthly and the spiritual, with the cosmic-spiritual, certainly still exists. But the cosmic is fading more and more under Ahriman’s power. And how it is fading from conceptions of Christ! How little inclination exists today to recognize Christ as the great cosmic Spirit who descended from cosmic heights into the earthly human body of Jesus of Nazareth to dwell within it! Many people today are averse to acknowledging this, believing that it is precisely Christian to incorporate very little of the cosmic into the concept of Christ. This would have been entirely impossible for a theologian of the fourteenth century. The fact that history does not portray this is due solely to the fact that history itself is, in many respects, a forgery.

[ 19 ] All of Ahriman’s efforts are directed toward distracting people from the spiritual and drawing them toward the material—which is indeed also spiritual, but one that is hidden within the earth. And Ahriman employs all manner of tricks and ruses to dissuade people as much as possible from attributing anything cosmic to the personality of Christ. Indeed, even today—and this is by no means rare, especially in Social Democratic writings—one can find a strange, Ahrimanic image of Christ, stripped of everything supernatural and spiritual, intended to be purely human, not to mention the painters who have done everything possible to expel the cosmic element from the figure of Christ. Many years ago, here in Berlin, I once saw an exhibition of images of Christ, one next to the other. I still have the catalog today, in which I made my notes: one Ahrimanic image of Christ after another! And how many itinerant apostles, who today speak of Christ in one way or another—officially or unofficially, in a sectarian manner—do not realize how Ahriman is breathing down their necks, tempting them to draw his image of the Christ impulse rather than the one that is at work within the Christ impulse itself. But this image, which is at work within the Christ impulse itself, can be represented in the spirit of our time by nothing other than the methods of spiritual science. By dealing with the visions one has when outside the body, spiritual science once again has the possibility of beholding the image of Christ in its true form. As long as one is in the body, one must say: The eye can indeed see colors, but not itself. When you step out of the body in spiritual vision—when you see yourself, you see the eye—you see the Christ impulse through the Christ impulse. For spiritual science can provide what history cannot: it can offer a description of the concept of Christ. Just as spiritual science can lead people to see beyond the eye, so can it lead them to speak of the Christ impulse, through which the spiritual world is otherwise perceived. While this does make it possible to gain insights into the Christ impulse, it does not thereby remove Ahriman’s attacks; rather, one must face them bravely and courageously. And the reason people do not want to grasp the concept of Christ through spiritual science is that they have a subconscious fear that the Christ impulse, as soon as it is perceived through spiritual science, will encounter Ahriman’s resistance. How does this manifest itself now, in our time?

[ 20 ] It will still manifest itself in many forms. In our time, this manifests itself in the fact that, on the one hand, we have Ahrimanic natural science and Ahrimanic history, which portray the course of cultural development and history in their own way, and that, on the other hand, these—with their concepts—exclude the Christ impulse; for these are precisely the concepts in which Ahriman must work, because Ahriman is indeed at work within us. As I have already mentioned, a philosophy can indeed arrive at a general concept of God, but never at a concept of Christ; one can accept it because it is already there, but one cannot arrive at it. You will not find it even in a philosopher like Lotze. And Harnack ought not to speak of Christ at all, because the concept of Christ does not occur at all within his thinking; he speaks of him only because he finds him in the documents, in the Bible, and so on. And in a similar way, other theologians ought not to speak of Christ. Therefore, what Harnack describes as Christ is endowed with no other attributes than those of the general deity, or, when he swings back to the other extreme, we find in him only the mere man Jesus.

[ 21 ] What one must take on board if one wishes to grasp Christ through spiritual science is the spiritual-scientific image of Christ, with the full awareness that external science—neither natural science nor history — cannot arrive at the concept of Christ, but rather that it will offer resistance—the same resistance that the anti-Christian person today, who wishes to think only in terms of natural science or history, opposes to the concept of Christ, in contrast to the believer. And we must be clear about this: there must be an inner resistance, because two worlds are interacting here. We must courageously enter into this conflict; for it is the conflict that is adequately described in true theology as the conflict between Christ and Ahriman. A living worldview must embrace this contradiction; for the contradiction lives in the struggle, for example, between Christ and Ahriman.

[ 22 ] I have often said: Lucifer acts as Ahriman’s ally. They work together. They have every interest in deceiving human beings about the fact that they are meant to experience inner conflict, and they therefore have every interest in eliminating their counter-realm. That is why they invent such thought patterns in the human mind as: “In harmony with the Infinite.” Why do such mental constructs arise? They arise because people are too cowardly in their souls to face this inner conflict, and are willing to let Lucifer and Ahriman invent for them a harmony with the Infinite. There is a search for satisfaction in such a worldview as expressed in “In Harmony with the Infinite.” But seeking satisfaction in such a worldview is tantamount to putting a blindfold over one’s eyes. Today, people shy away from looking at the diversity of the struggle in the spiritual realm. Since counterforces must always arise when something is neglected in its proper place, counterforces naturally arise here as well. Because human beings have prepared themselves over the last few centuries to the point where they greatly shy away from the inner struggle between forces that must contend, this struggle now presents itself to their outer eyes in a terrifying manner. Such a consequence was bound to occur with the same inevitability as the expulsion from Paradise followed the Luciferic temptation. Everywhere, in all areas, we see how modern human beings are very inclined to seek only an illusory peace, for it has meaning only between birth and death. That is why they cut themselves off from one aspect of the contradiction. Of course, this is always the part that stems from the Christ impulse. The natural contradiction can thus find opposition. And if you find the various depictions of the so-called contradictions in my writings described from so many angles today, you now also have the opportunity to shed light on this in a deeper way and to recognize the Ahrimanic impulse within it.

[ 23 ] People do not want to cope by actually confronting the forces they must face; they want to eliminate the conflict altogether. This gives rise to all sorts of things. If one wants to eliminate such a conflict, it must manifest itself in a different way. What is wrought by those who wish to eliminate this conflict from the world is not beautiful. It is almost as if—and working in the field of spiritual science always gives one the opportunity to have such experiences—people come time and again, driven by a deep inner need, to ask: Why is there evil, why is there suffering in the world? — Such questions are easier to ask than one might think; for people often ask this question in order to understand how it is possible that a benevolent deity would allow evil in the world. What one can do to answer such questions is to draw people’s attention to the fact that they certainly will not deny that the good in the world—the excellent, the wise—is divine. If they wish to justify God’s goodness at all, they are already standing on the ground that they attribute wisdom to the good God. But why does He allow evil? I can only say this: Start with an atomistic, minor pain; you cut yourself and thereby feel pain. Every pain is based on the fact that something is being subjected to destruction. It’s just not always clear how the pain arises, but that is the case. But let us now imagine that instead of being cut with a knife, we had a particularly sensitive spot somewhere and very hot rays of sunlight were falling on it. In this way, a change in the tissue could occur in a place where there is not yet a blister but one is beginning to form, and a slight pain might make itself felt there. If the sun’s heat were to act more intensely—due to greater sensitivity—a more severe injury could occur. And now imagine: eons of years ago, there were two spots on our head that were particularly sensitive to the sun’s rays. Humans could not yet see at that time, but at those two spots, the sun’s rays must have caused them pain every time the sun rose. This could have damaged the tissue, and pain must have resulted. This process must have unfolded over long periods of time, and the healing consisted in the eyes developing at those spots as a result of the healing process. The eyes arose from the site of the injury. And just as it is true that our eyes reveal to us the beauty of the world of colors, so it is true that the eyes arose solely on the basis of injuries to particularly light-sensitive areas caused by the sun’s heat.

[ 24 ] There is nothing that has come into being as happiness, joy, or bliss without having been made possible by pain. And to reject pain—that which is in conflict—means to reject beauty, greatness, bliss, and goodness. There one enters a realm where one can no longer think as one wishes, but where one is subject to what has been called “iron necessity” in the mysteries. Just as there is great harmony in the world, just as this present harmony had to arise on the basis of pain, so it is true that one cannot, out of a painless spiritual indulgence—such as one might seek in the imaginative complexes of *In Harmony with the Infinite*, but only by courageously exposing oneself to the conflict that takes place on the ground of our intellect or our consciousness in general between the Christ impulse and the Ahrimanic impulses—a conflict we must not recklessly rise above by saying: if we lack harmony, we are dissatisfied; we must develop beyond this conflict toward the attainment of the Christ impulse. This occurs in a very concrete way across a wide range of fields. If a person today seeks to understand the world through the natural sciences and cannot find the Christ impulse in doing so, and if, on the other hand, they learn to understand the world through the spiritual sciences and can find the Christ impulse there, then they must be clear about this: it is a conflict, but it is precisely in this conflict that harmony is found. Natural science and spiritual science are not meant to be one and the same, as many believe, where only natural science or only spiritual science matters. Nor are they meant to be such that one can be superimposed upon the other; rather, if one wishes to superimpose them, they should be like the left and right ears, which cannot be made to coincide perfectly either. What matters is not whether two things can be brought into agreement with one another, but the nature of that agreement.