The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Karma of Materialism VI

[ 1 ] In a time like ours, one must above all avoid confusing the reality of spiritual life with the understanding that people bring to this spiritual life. There is no doubt about it: we live in an age in which human understanding and human behavior are gripped by materialism. But one must not believe that in this age of materialism spiritual influences are somehow absent, that the spirit, so to speak, is not active; that would be wrong. One can even—as strange as it may sound—perceive abundant spiritual effects, purely spiritual effects, in human life today. They occur everywhere; they are there. And they occur in such a way that one cannot say they go unnoticed where they appear, or that they are not effective there. That is not the case. Rather, the brutal will of materialistic worldviews simply brushes aside precisely that which is manifest, that which is present, as a matter of course. When one observes today how people relate to the spiritual, how they behave when spiritual influences are asserted by anyone, one is always reminded of a curious incident that took place many decades ago in a major Central European city. During an important meeting of a prominent body, the discussion turned to how certain financial practices had been adversely influenced by moral decay and low moral standards. Naturally, there was a large faction within this illustrious, enlightened body that insisted on viewing financial matters solely from a technical financial standpoint. But another minority—it is usually minorities, after all—was also present, one that emphasized the moral corruption. And a minister rose and simply brushed aside this whole intrusion of inappropriate concepts by saying: “But gentlemen, morality is not on the agenda!” — That, one might say, is roughly how a large portion of people behave today when the conversation turns to spiritual phenomena or spiritual influences: “But gentlemen, the spirit isn’t on the agenda, is it!” — It is indeed not on the agenda where matters are being discussed. But perhaps it is precisely these discussions that do not always reflect reality; perhaps the spirit is present there after all, but it is simply not placed on the agenda where the affairs of humanity are being discussed.

[ 2 ] For anyone who today has the opportunity to examine who all thinks this way will, at every moment, come across some very significant fact—such as having to discuss with someone how this or that came about, how this or that person established this or that, or how one thing or another was brought into being. If one has the opportunity to speak more intimately about such things with people who are specifically called to this or that task, then one usually learns something different from what is commonly known today—especially among those in whose presence one is ashamed to speak of the spirit. One very often learns that this or that was done, or that one thing or another was established, simply because the person in question had this or that vision, or because he or she received this or that spiritual impulse. As I said, anyone who has the opportunity to observe how many people today act on purely spiritual impulses—whether based on visions or even just on dreams in which spiritual impulses may reveal themselves to them—and who has the opportunity, in this regard, I would say, to observe reality—such a person knows that today infinitely more than one believes happens under the influence of spiritual powers, of spiritual impulses that flow from the spiritual world into the physical world, and that the theoretical rejection—or the rejection based on mere intuition—of the spiritual means absolutely nothing in the face of the importance of spiritual realities that most certainly project themselves vividly into our world, though certainly not without being influenced by prevailing materialism. Such projections of spiritual impulses have taken place at every stage of human development, and one should simply not believe that they do not exist today. Spiritual impulses have always influenced humanity. But in our materialistic age, people encounter such spiritual impulses in a different way than they do in times when there is greater awareness of the existence of the spiritual world. Let us consider a significant concrete example right away.

[ 3 ] For certain reasons, it is extremely difficult to convey certain facts about spiritual conditions to the world. People are not sufficiently prepared; they lack the conceptual framework to receive such messages from the spiritual world in an appropriate manner, and such messages are easily misinterpreted as the opposite of what they are. This is why, especially at the present time, those initiated into the spiritual world must remain silent about the most important matters in many respects. One cannot even say what would happen if this or that were said about the most important matters to a completely immature humanity. But a situation that occurs very frequently is the following: Discussions about spiritual matters must always be conducted in accordance with certain worldly laws. Now, if it is difficult to communicate with the living—as is the case today—then communication with the dead is very often all the more lively and intense. And one might say: perhaps in few other times has the interaction—the conscious interaction—between the physical plane and the spiritual world, into which the deceased have passed, been as lively as it is today. But let us suppose that a conversation is taking place somewhere that can only be between a knowledgeable being on the physical plane and a deceased person. Then, precisely because of this, something very strange can happen. A kind of transcendent indiscretion can occur. Two scenarios can arise. It is not only here on the physical plane that there are eavesdroppers who listen through keyholes; among the beings of the spiritual world, too, there are eavesdroppers—spirits of a lower order—who are, in fact, always eager to learn all manner of genuine spiritual facts by eavesdropping, specifically by picking up what is spoken between beings of the physical plane and the spiritual world. Then one of the following situations may arise: If a person is particularly passionate, so overcome by his passions that one might say he is beside himself—which does indeed happen frequently due to passion—or if he is drunk, truly physically drunk, or if he is in a state of unconsciousness or something similar, then such spirits can seize the opportunity and take possession of him; and whatever they instill in him may appear to him in the form of a vision, either at that very moment or later, and through this he may overhear all sorts of things he ought not to hear.

[ 4 ] Anyone with the insight and powers of observation for such matters knows that today, in all manner of books in our literature—and especially in some highly dubious works—countless things are written and exist that stem, in all sorts of perverse ways, from indiscretions arising from intellectual exchanges. There can be nothing more effective than when some imp possesses the author of a detective novel—just as he is drunk—enters into his humanity, and inspires him with a certain sentence, so that he incorporates that sentence into his detective novel. This novel then finds its way to people through all sorts of back doors—or even front doors—and that particular sentence can then have a very special effect on people’s souls; it can be particularly effective precisely because, given the way people absorb such things, it does not appeal to their full consciousness but is, in and of itself, something that speaks to the subconscious.

[ 5 ] Another possibility is that, during certain spiritualist séances, one thing or another is described through this or that medium, and then the manifestation of a spirit seeking to insert its indiscretion becomes intertwined with what is revealed through the medium. This, too, is a path that may be particularly effective precisely at the point where it is taken. This is not meant to speak against mediumship itself, but only against its degeneration. In the course of humanity’s karma, various things come to light through mediumistic manifestations of one kind or another; that is not to be discussed today. Instead, the focus is on highlighting the possibility that, indeed, especially in a time such as the present, spiritual channels extend from the other world into the physical world. These channels are very, very numerous, and they are far more real than one might think. Given this, you will understand when I now say something that can certainly still be regarded by many today as a paradox, but which is nevertheless profoundly true.

[ 6 ] In the future, people will certainly write about the events of 1914, 1915, 1916, and 1917. They will write all sorts of things, in the way that historians tend to write. People will write about the causes of this terrible world war; they will comb through documents from all sides, found in every possible archive, and will attempt to construct from these documents a plausible account—perhaps of the year 1914—regarding the events in Europe. The important thing we must realize in such a matter is this: that all documentary research, that all reporting inspired by the model of historical research up to the present, will not suffice to clarify the causes of this immense world event. For among the most important causes will be those which, by their very nature, have not been recorded in external documents produced with ink or printing ink, but which—precisely because they are not “on the agenda” today—are, in a sense, denied. You have certainly read the reports in recent days about that Russian court hearing in which Russian Minister of War Sukhomlinov, the then Chief of the General Staff, and other prominent figures made significant statements. Many people are outraged by these statements; when hearing them, it occurs to many that one can indeed feel strongly morally outraged, for example, that Sukhomlinov lied to the Tsar, or that the Russian Chief of the General Staff—while still carrying the mobilization order in his pocket—gave the German military attaché a firm promise that the order had not yet been issued, because he intended to forward it to the relevant authorities only a few minutes later. Certainly, one can be outraged by this, and all sorts of moralistic pronouncements can be made about it. But there is so much lying going on today that anyone familiar with the world should not really be surprised that a rather outrageous lie was told at a crucial moment. However, this—and what people say about it—is not the main point. The main point is something else. For when one reads through this entire trial, one even finds strange words that point quite clearly to what is at stake. Suchomlinoff goes so far as to say that, when these events were unfolding, he lost his mind for a time. He said outright: “I had lost my mind over it.”—The whole back-and-forth had driven him mad. And at that time, quite a few people found themselves in such a situation.

[ 7 ] Imagine a man like Suchomlinoff who has lost his mind: there is a very real possibility that Ahrimanic spiritual beings will take possession of his soul and instill all sorts of things in him; that is the way Ahriman works into the world, especially when—except when we are asleep—we do not attach importance to being fully present in our consciousness. If we are fully present in our consciousness, such spiritual beings cannot gain real access to our soul. But if our spirituality, our consciousness, is clouded, Ahrimanic beings immediately have access to us. These are the gates and windows through which Ahrimanic and Luciferic beings enter the world and carry out their plans by attacking people in a state of dimmed consciousness and taking possession of them. For Ahriman and Lucifer do not work in some inexplicable, terrifying way, but rather because people, through their state of consciousness, meet them halfway. Anyone who wishes to write the history of this war in the future will have to investigate where such states of subdued consciousness were present, where gates and windows were open for the intrusion of Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces. This was not the case to the same degree in earlier similar events. In earlier similar events, it will suffice to rely on what professors and historians find by examining the archives and piecing together the causes of the events from their findings. This time, however, a residue will remain, no matter how carefully the external documents are compiled. And this residual element is the intrusion of very special spiritual forces into the human world through these dimmed states of consciousness.

[ 8 ] Elsewhere I have spoken of how, in a certain region of the Earth, conditions have been prepared over decades so that, at the right moment, the right Ahrimanic forces would begin to work within humanity. A tremendous flood of spiritual impulses swept through Europe in July and August 1914—a whirlwind of spiritual forces. This is what must be taken into account in a very special way; this is what must be understood—and understood correctly. One simply does not understand reality if one is not able to approach this reality with concepts drawn from concrete spiritual life. Spiritual science is, first and foremost, necessary for understanding the reality of the present. And effective action in the present—whether in the political sphere or in other areas—is not possible unless a person develops an alert awareness of events using the ideas and concepts they can gain from spiritual science. Not that one can judge everything in a formulaic way according to spiritual science, but it is something that guides us to experience present-day life with alertness, whereas the materialistic state of mind, on the other hand, lulls us to sleep regarding what is most important and fails to stir us sufficiently to form a judgment about our contemporary world.

[ 9 ] That is precisely what I would so much like to infuse into the undertones of my lectures and reflections on spiritual science, so that this spiritual science may truly become a living, active element, so that souls relate to external life in a way that corresponds to the external world, and are moved by the concrete reality of the world, not merely by spiritual science. One must be able to judge correctly based on symptoms.

[ 10 ] I was able to tell you recently about the downright phenomenal superficiality with which a Berlin university professor attacked anthroposophy. I told you about the distortions—or even unconscious slander—that Max Dessoir engaged in. But this is connected to the broader phenomenon that an individual like Max Dessoir is a member of a scholarly body—indeed, that something entirely different was even possible. This individual, Max Dessoir, once wrote a history of psychology, and as he notes right at the beginning of the preface to this book, he composed said history of psychology at the suggestion of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, which had offered a prize for a work on the history of psychology. This history of psychology is such a shoddy, intrinsically flawed work that Max Dessoir himself later withdrew it and had it pulped. Therefore, there likely aren’t many copies of it in circulation. However, I possess a review copy of this book and may yet have more to say about it. For the time being, I had to address it in my forthcoming pamphlet, in the chapter on the attacks against anthroposophy. So Max Dessoir writes about the history of psychology, and then he has this work pulped. But the fact remains that the Berlin Academy of Sciences awarded a prize to this pulped history of psychology! We must not overlook these things, for they are symptomatic and speak to what is happening in our present-day world.

[ 11 ] What kind of people are such individuals? They are the ones who raise the younger generation—the very generation that will go on to become humanity’s leading figures; they are the ones who raised the generation that has brought the world to its current state! It is indeed necessary to see things in their context; it is necessary to recognize how the symptoms point to that which alone can lead to an understanding of the world in which we live. This, then, is what I would so much like to see as an underlying tone in this spiritual science—that it may stir the souls and make them vigilant observers of their surroundings, for the temptation to sleep is very great today. Of course, the Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces will use every opportunity to distract the full consciousness that now comes over people—based on spiritual scientific concepts—as they observe the reality surrounding them. But there are opportunities in many respects to let consciousness drift off.

[ 12 ] One can also, by studying—and studying in a specific direction—become ever wiser, ever more intelligent, ever more learned; certainly, one can become that. But in doing so, one may lose some of the clarity of one’s consciousness. That’s when one finds oneself on thin ice—on very thin ice—when discussing reality.

[ 13 ] Now, it is true that—I would say—one cannot point out certain aspects of contemporary life from the perspective of an initiate, because something monstrous could result from it; but there are some things one can, must, and should point out. Take, for example, a German university professor. I do not wish to say anything bad about this man—on the contrary, I wish to say all manner of good things—but I want to describe him objectively. This man is a great scholar, a distinguished scholar in the field of theology. He has studied extensively. Yet while his theological studies have made him learned, they have not made him alert; he does not perceive what is truly real in the world. Now, as a professor of theology, his task is to speak about religion and the study of religion, about what is revered in religion, and about supernatural powers. This is a rather uncomfortable subject for ‘professors of theology’ today. That is why they prefer to speak more about religious states of mind, about the way the soul feels when confronted with the spiritual world. Now, there is something special about this professor. Like all people of his kind in the present day, he has a certain fear of the spiritual world—of its revelation and its translation into literal definitions and concrete concepts. I have described this fear to you on several occasions: it is of purely Ahrimanic origin. The person in question feels that when, on the one hand, he enters the spiritual world after penetrating the material world, he encounters Ahriman. He must overcome Ahriman; he must cast him aside. Now we see that such a theologian stands before the great nature that reveals the spiritual; yet he does not wish to engage with it in any way. What is revealed there through nature—the beings of the higher hierarchies—is, of course, not scientific today; yet he wishes to investigate the state of the soul during religious experience. But by seeking to investigate the state of the soul without actually engaging with the real spiritual world, one very easily falls into precisely that state of mind one might have in the face of the Ahrimanic forces. For this theologian, therefore, part of religious feeling is fear—a shyness toward the unknown. Under no circumstances does he wish to make the unknown into something known. Yet he recognizes this shyness, this fear of the unknown—which stems precisely from Ahrimanic beings—as a component of religious feeling.

[ 14 ] By refusing to address the hierarchies that exist behind the sensory world, and instead seeking only to characterize the state of the soul, Ahriman is already obscuring his understanding of the spiritual world. That is supposed to be the great unknown, the irrational, and what is truly religious lies, as he says, in the mysterium tremendum, in the mystery of awe, in the mystery of reverence. But that is not the only thing. Outwardly, Ahriman keeps watch when one seeks the spiritual world; inwardly, Lucifer keeps watch. The modern theologian, however—the one I have in mind—does not seek the hierarchies inwardly either. Thus the world of hierarchies must once again remain the great unknown, which he is determined not to turn into anything known. But the inner state of the soul is to be examined; this must now be the opposite of what the mystery of fear is: it is the mystery of fascination. There we are drawn in, fascinated. Now he has, on the one hand, the mystery of shyness, and on the other, the mystery of fascination; from these he constructs religious life. Of course, there are critics today who recommend this as humanity’s particular progress in this field—that theological reflection has finally moved away from speaking of spiritual beings, that it no longer speaks of the rational but of the irrational, of the mystery of fascination and the mystery of awe, of the twofold turning toward the unknown. The book by Otto, a professor at the University of Breslau, *On the Sacred*—a very famous book in the present day—this book on the sacred, which seeks to de-rationalize the entire religious life, but not only that, also to de-concretize it and eradicate all specific feelings, on the one hand out of fear of the unknown and on the other hand out of being filled with fascination for the unknown. This entire perspective on religious life will cause quite a stir. People will say: At last, we have moved beyond the old way of trying to say something about the spiritual world.

[ 15 ] Anyone familiar with anthroposophy must understand what is at stake in such a case: that the scholar in question is in a twilight state of consciousness. Such twilight states are well known. Philologists and natural scientists alike very often find themselves in such states when they conduct research only within a narrowly defined field, and then Ahriman and Lucifer gain access to them. Why shouldn’t Ahriman prevent such a researcher from looking toward the spiritual world and lull him into a sense of the *mysterium tremendum*, the mystery of fear? Why shouldn’t Lucifer lull him into a sense of the *Mysterium “fascinosum”*? Only an awareness of the roles played by Ahriman and Lucifer can lead to true growth; otherwise, one merely flounders in the vagueness of emotion. Feeling is certainly a powerful element of life, and intellectualism must not suppress the life of feeling; but it is quite another matter when an indeterminate drifting in the life of feeling seeks to obscure every concrete outlook toward the spiritual world. Here one must repeatedly recall a statement by Hegel—even if it was a theoretically cynical remark on his part—regarding Schleiermacher’s famous definition: that the religious lies in the absolute sense of dependence, in the sense of dependence par excellence. — Such a definition is not wrong, of course, but that is not the point. Hegel, who wanted to direct the human soul toward the concrete in the world and not toward the feeling of dependence, argued: If the feeling of dependence constitutes the best religious feeling, then the dog is the best Christian. — That is Hegel’s view. And if the mystery of fear were truly a prerequisite for a certain inner experience, then one would only need to go mad, or become afraid of water, to develop the most intense sense of the mystery of fear.

[ 16 ] If we take into account what I wish to convey through such reflections—not so much in terms of theoretical content as in terms of the substance of our outlook—then, and only then, can the elements emerge that allow us to properly observe the interconnectedness of the world in our time. And such proper observation is, after all, what matters. Wherever in the world one stands, one can observe things properly, or one can sleep improperly wherever one stands; for what surges and pulses in the wider world also expresses itself in the smallest of circles. This can be observed everywhere; the only question is whether we actually observe it.

[ 17 ] Thus begins a time in which it is truly of particular importance to grasp quite precisely, with the eye of the soul, what I have hinted at, particularly in these last reflections. Today, many people are coming to an awareness of a general divinity or spirituality in the world; yet even people of Hermann Bahr’s ilk—as I explained to you when I spoke about his essay “Reason and Science”—do not arrive at a true Christ-consciousness. He seeks to align himself with the most “positive” form of Christianity today: that of Rome. But no matter how much he may speak, one cannot find in Hermann Bahr’s entire work *Reason and Science* any sense of seeking the Christ impulse. Yet this, precisely, is what is necessary in our time: to become ever clearer and clearer about the Christ impulse. Over the course of the past century, we have witnessed the great rise of the scientific way of thinking, with all that it entailed. This first great rise of the scientific way of thinking also led to a theoretical materialism accompanied by religious atheism. In a certain sense, atheism indeed reached fever pitch among the materialists of the nineteenth century. But such things turn around, and the very same way of thinking—which, arising from certain Luciferic-Ahrimanic impulses during the initial rise of the natural sciences, led people to become atheists—will lead them to believe in God once the initial frenzy has passed. Based on what Darwin taught, it is just as possible to become a believer in God as it is to become an atheist. It is truly the case that the coin can be flipped one way or the other. But one cannot become a Christian through Darwinism, nor can one become one through the rise of modern natural science, if one stops only at this rise. This requires something entirely different: it requires an understanding of a certain spiritual disposition at the very foundations. What foundations do I mean?

[ 18 ] Kant said: The world is our phenomenon, and when we form ideas about the world, they are shaped according to our own organization. — It is with this Kantianism—as I must emphasize, not out of personal frivolity but for objective reasons—that I have most thoroughly broken, starting at the very foundation, in my work *Truth and Science* and in my *Philosophy of Freedom*. These two works proceed from the premise that when we form concepts about the world and work them out from within the soul, we do not distance ourselves from reality, but rather that we are born into a physical body so that we may see the world through our eyes, hear things through our ears, and so on. What the senses show us is not the whole reality—it is only half of it. I emphasized this once again in my book *The Riddles of Philosophy*. Precisely because we are organized in a certain way, the world is, as the Easterners say, only an illusion, *maya*, in a certain sense. And because we form concepts about the world, we add in thought what we have suppressed by entering into the body. Such is the true relationship between truth and science. True science is the completion of appearance into full reality. And based on this idea—that the world in its primary form, as it presents itself to the senses, appears unreal to us through us—not through itself—and that we transform this form of the world, which is unreal through us, into reality through subjective work—I may call this thought the Pauline thought in the realm of epistemology.

[ 19 ] For, when applied to the realm of philosophical knowledge, this is nothing other than the idea at the heart of Paul’s theory of knowledge: that human beings, just as they entered the world through the first Adam, perceive this world in a subordinate manner, and only through what they become in Christ do they experience it in its true form. Christianity has its place in philosophy, in epistemology. But what matters is not that one begins epistemology by placing some formula or other commonly used in theology at the forefront, but rather the manner of thinking. And I may say: In the writings *Truth and Science* and *The Philosophy of Freedom*, even though they are entirely developed from within philosophy, the spirit of Paul lives on. From this philosophy, it is possible to find the bridge to the Christ-Spirit, just as one can find the bridge to the Father-Spirit from the natural sciences. But one cannot arrive at the Spirit of Christ through the mode of thinking characteristic of the natural sciences. Therefore, as long as Kantianism—which, as a philosophy, is unquestionably a pre-Christian standpoint—continues to prevail in any way, philosophy will increasingly obscure Christianity. Only a false, hypocritical form of Christianity can find its way into philosophy when Kantianism reigns as the epistemological foundation.

[ 20 ] So you see, we need to look at things more deeply, and it would be necessary to consider what is coming to light spiritually today not merely in terms of its literal content, but also in terms of the way people think and the overall direction of thought. Then one would understand what holds promise for the future and what must be overcome. And then one would find the threads leading to other areas—areas that are so necessary today if we are to awaken, to truly awaken. The terrible events of our time should truly remain nothing more than symptoms. The great turning point must come from within.

[ 21 ] Let me just say in closing: one stood alone back then, before 1914, when one objectively characterized the whole convoluted way of thinking of Woodrow Wilson. I have drawn attention to what you can find about Wilson in my “Helsingfors” cycle. That was at a time when the rest of the literary world—precisely because Wilson’s *Nur Literatur* and other works had just been translated—was at Woodrow Wilson’s feet, and how Wilson’s “great, noble, unbiased” way of thinking was emphasized back then, often by those who now certainly speak differently. But what was necessary for this? Was insight necessary, or something entirely different from insight, to bring about this reversal? What is necessary, however, is to look more closely at what spiritual science is meant to contribute in terms of connection with the whole of reality and in terms of judgments about reality, as opposed to the unreality and insubstantial abstractions that prevail today in all fields. I recommend that if you wish to enjoy the ideas of the times in the same way that someone, for example, to enjoy an orange, first crushes it between two iron posts to extract all the juice and then eats only what remains, then read the squeezed-out, wrung-out ideas of the times that Georg Simmel wrote about the spiritual content of this war. There you have a prime example of the “intellectual” expositions of the present day, which contain nothing—absolutely nothing—but are merely squeezed-out, wrung-out, and utterly vacuous concepts. If you wish to treat yourself to such a prime example of this kind of abstract, content-free writing of the present day, you will find it in the work *The Spiritual Content of This War* by Georg Simmel. For it is by the famous philosopher, the innovator of modern thought, who had the largest following at the University of Berlin—a man who never actually had a real thought, yet who has become famous precisely in our time.