The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Thirteenth Lecture

[ 1 ] My dear friends! To avoid any misunderstanding, I would like to point out once again that the dates for the lectures planned for Zurich have now been set: the public lectures will take place on Monday and Wednesday, November 5 and 7, and on the corresponding days of the following week—that is, November 12 and 14; with a supplementary lecture on each of the days in between. The topics have been chosen this time with the aim of once again attempting to draw connections to the various sciences:

Monday, November 5, 1917

Anthroposophy and the Science of the Soul (Psychology).
Findings from the spiritual sciences regarding questions of the human soul.

Wednesday, November 7

Anthroposophy and Historical Science.
Findings from the Spiritual Sciences on Humanity and Its Cultural Forms.

Monday, November 12

Anthroposophy and the Natural Sciences.
Findings from the spiritual sciences regarding nature and human beings as natural beings.

Wednesday, November 14

Anthroposophy and the Social Sciences.
Findings from the Spiritual Sciences on Law, Morality, and Social Life Forms.

[ 2 ] We now wish to continue the reflections we have undertaken during this period, thereby providing, in a sense, a backdrop for assessing the significant events that are now unfolding before the human mind—events in which humanity is immersed and which are more significant than many people realize today. I have attempted to explain how the background of these events is connected to profound, far-reaching processes in the spiritual world. And I have pointed out that from the beginning of the 1840s until the fall of 1879, a significant, profoundly decisive struggle took place in the spiritual realms of the world—one of those struggles that recur in the evolution of the world and of humanity, and which people have come to depict through the image of Michael or Saint George fighting the dragon. Such a victory of Michael over the dragon for the spiritual worlds was won in 1879. The spirits of darkness, who opposed Michael’s impulses, were cast down from the spiritual realm into the realms of humanity at that time and have, as I have said, been at work ever since in the impulses of human feeling, will, and emotional impulses of human beings, so that one can only understand the events of the present if one can direct the gaze of the soul toward these spiritual powers that, in a sense, walk among us.

[ 3 ] Naturally, the question must arise for us: What was the primary nature of that struggle that took place in the spiritual realms from the 1840s through the 1870s, and what, then, is the nature of the other struggle—or rather, what is the nature of the activity of the cast-down spiritual beings of darkness among humanity since November 1879?

[ 4 ] Only through a slow and gradual account can one summarize what underlay this significant struggle—which one might say took place behind the scenes of world history from the 1840s through the 1870s. Today we would like to begin by drawing attention to certain aspects that, in a sense, reflect this struggle from the spiritual realms down into the earthly, human realms. I have often pointed out how the early 1840s marked a decisive turning point in the development of modern cultural spheres—how, at that time, there was, so to speak, the decisive turning point that brought about the full, impetuous materialistic development. For this materialistic development to come about, drastic events in the spiritual world were first necessary; these then carried over into the physical world and brought about the gradual infiltration of materialistic impulses into humanity. When we trace here on Earth what was reflected from the spiritual realms, we can point out two things above all: First, how much more—than present-day humanity can yet surmise—for only future observers will have a clear view of this—an immense surge in purely material intellect and purely material intellectual culture took hold in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. One can certainly say: Anyone who follows the development of humanity and has an eye for the more intimate processes in human life can observe that, in terms of the subtlety of conceptual formation, in terms of acumen and criticism, for example, there has never been such an upsurge in humanity as in these decades, when people are adherents of materialism. — For all this thinking that I have characterized—which finds its expression in technical inventions, in criticism, and in the formation of incisive concepts—all of this is material thinking, thinking bound to the brain. If, as a materialist, one wishes to describe the development of humanity, one can say with a clear conscience: Humanity has never been as clever as it is in these decades. It was indeed intelligent. Anyone who follows literature—and I do not mean merely so-called “beautiful” literature—will find that such finely crafted concepts and such critical thinking have never before emerged in the entire course of human development as they did during that time, and indeed in every possible field. But what has developed in the human soul is merely the reflection of what certain spirits of darkness—to which we have alluded—have always strived for in the spiritual realms during the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, in the hope of victory.

[ 5 ] They have sought to get their hands on an ancient genetic heritage of humanity, if I may use that expression. What, then, did this ancient genetic heritage consist of? We pointed this out yesterday: Over the course of millennia, the progressive spirits of light have guided humanity in such a way that they used blood ties as a means of guidance, bringing people together into families, tribes, nations, and races, so that those who belonged together due to ancient human and cosmic karma could find one another. Thus, by feeling these blood ties, human beings also bore within this feeling ancient, primeval tasks for the world, which were at the same time structured in such a way that what the Earth could provide—and blood ties do, after all, originate from the Earth—was woven into the general karma of humanity. If we turn our gaze to the 1820s and 1830s, when the souls who later descended into human bodies were still in the spiritual world—if we turn our gaze to the spiritual world during this time, which preceded the materialistic age— one finds that these souls, who wished to descend, carried within them certain impulses that stemmed, among other things, from the fact that for millennia—whenever they were on Earth—they had been bound by blood ties to these families, these tribes, these nations, and these races. In accordance with these bonds, these souls were to decide to enter this or that body in the second half of the 19th century, beginning in the 1840s. For the corresponding spirits of light naturally guide the progress of human development—by sending their impulses into human souls—in the way they have predestined according to the ancient blood ties. Thus, within the human souls that were in the spiritual worlds, there were certain impulses to incarnate—in one way or another, in accordance with the old karma of humanity—into the bodies of those people who were to populate the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. In a sense, therefore, the spirits of light had the power to guide and direct these souls according to their old plans.

[ 6 ] That is what the spirits of darkness, of whom I have spoken, wanted to get their hands on. They wanted to drive the impulses of the spirits of light out of the souls; they wanted to instill their own impulses into human souls. Had the spirits of darkness succeeded in their victory in 1879, a completely different relationship would have emerged between human bodies and human souls than the one that has now come about for those born after 1879. The souls would have been born into different bodies, and the plan for the earthly order of humanity would have been carried out according to the ideal of the spirits of darkness. That did not happen. The fact that it could not happen is due to Michael’s victory over the dragon in the fall of 1879.

[ 7 ] This struggle was reflected on Earth in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s in what I have described as particularly pronounced acumen, criticism, and so on. I have pointed this out on several occasions: One cannot get to the bottom of things through mere speculation, but only through genuine spiritual observation. Through speculation, no one could arrive at the realization that precisely those characteristics of the material mind that I have mentioned are, here on Earth, the reflection of a struggle in the spiritual worlds concerning procreation and the succession of generations. These things simply must be observed, for if one believes that one can use the material mind alone to discover the correct connections between the physical world and the spiritual world, one is greatly mistaken. In such cases, one generally arrives at completely false conclusions because one proceeds schematically according to external logical rules derived from the model of natural science. However, these rules apply only to the physical world; they do not apply to the relationship between the physical and spiritual worlds. So that was one reflection of this struggle over the blood.

[ 8 ] The other reflection—which I have also pointed out on several occasions—was the emergence of spiritualism in the 1840s and beyond. Certain circles—and by no means just small ones—attempted during this time to explore connections with the spiritual world through mediumship, that is, essentially in a material way. Had this succeeded—had the host of spirits of darkness been strong enough to win victory over the followers of Michael in 1879—then Spiritism would have spread on a massive scale. For Spiritism cannot be driven solely by impulses from the earth; rather, it draws its influences from the other world—it is directed by the other world. One must be absolutely clear that here, too, an “either-or” approach—which is so convenient today for people who always tell themselves, “Either we accept such things, or we reject them”—cannot apply. That is not how it is; that is not the case at all. What took place on the spiritualist scene was, in part, a significant intrusion of the spiritual world; it flowed entirely from impulses of the spiritual world and often had the most profound connection to people’s destinies. Yet it was a reflection of the very struggle that had just been lost in the spiritual realm. Hence, too, the peculiar decline and corruption of spiritualism after the aforementioned point in time. It would have become the means of pointing people toward the spiritual world—indeed, the only means—had the spirits of darkness achieved victory in 1879. Had that victory been achieved back then, we would today be living in a world of utterly indescribable acumen—an acumen that would have extended to the most diverse areas of human life. Stock market speculation and similar activities, which are sometimes carried out quite foolishly today, would be conducted with tremendous acumen. That is one side of the coin. But on the other hand, people in the broadest circles would seek to satisfy their spiritual needs through mediumship. Material intellect on the one hand, and that way of relating to the spiritual world based on a lowered state of consciousness on the other—that was the intention of the spirits of darkness. Above all, these spirits of darkness wanted to prevent one thing that was bound to occur gradually following their downfall after 1879: the actual descent of spiritual experiences and spiritual events into human souls. Such spiritual experiences, as utilized by anthroposophically oriented spiritual science, would have become impossible had the aforementioned spirits of darkness achieved victory. This spiritual life and spiritual activity would have been retained in the spiritual regions by the spirits of darkness. It is only through the downfall of the spirits described that direct spiritual experience has been able to take the place of the merely critical, material intellect and the mediumistic path—and will continue to do so more and more. It is not for nothing that I have mentioned here recently: Today’s world is far more dependent on spiritual influences than one might think. As materialistic as our age is—and indeed, as it strives to be even more so than it already is—the spiritual worlds reveal themselves to people in far more places than one might think. Even if this is often not in a positive sense today, spiritual influences can be felt everywhere. And some things done by people who today feel a certain sense of shame regarding spiritual influences—they are ashamed to admit these influences to others—some things done by people, such as founding this or that enterprise, are done precisely because this or that appeared to them in a dream, which is a genuine spiritual influence. You can ask poets today why they became poets. The original experience they will tell you about will be this: they experienced this or that spiritual phenomenon as if in a dream, and this dreamlike experience actually planted the seed for their creative work within them. — People who have founded journals—you can ask them why they founded them—I’m telling you facts—they will attribute the founding of these journals to dreams, to so-called dreams, which are nothing other than the transmission of certain spiritual impulses from the spiritual worlds into the physical world. And there is much more in other areas as well—far more than one might think—but people simply don’t talk about it today because everyone believes that if they were to tell someone else, “I did this or that because such-and-such a spirit appeared to me in a dream,” the other person would call them a fool. That is, of course, an unpleasant prospect. That is why so little is known about what is actually happening among people today. What happens so sporadically here and there is, however, only—I would say—the vanguard of what will happen more and more: the spiritual will take hold of humanity, precisely because Michael’s victory over the dragon took place in 1879. And the fact that spiritual science is possible is also attributable solely to this circumstance; otherwise, the corresponding truths would have remained in the spiritual worlds, could not have taken up residence in human brains, and would not have been accessible to the physical world.

[ 9 ] There you have images that can make clear to you what the intentions of the spirits of darkness were in the 1840s, 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s in the spiritual realms during the battle they waged against the followers of Michael. Now they have been down here among humanity since the fall of 1879. They have not achieved all that they set out to do: Spiritism will not become the universal belief of humanity; people will not, from a materialistic point of view, become so clever that they trip over themselves in their own cleverness. Spiritual truths will take root among humanity.

[ 10 ] But the spirits of darkness are among us; they are here. We must remain vigilant so that we can recognize where we encounter them, so that we can gain insight into where they are present. For the greatest danger in the near future will be to unconsciously surrender to the influences that are, after all, already there. For whether a person is aware of them or not makes no difference to their reality.

[ 11 ] Above all, however, these spirits of darkness will seek to throw into confusion and lead astray that which is now spreading across the Earth and within which the spirits of light can continue to work in their proper direction. I have already pointed out one such false direction, which is among the most paradoxical. I have pointed out to you that, while human bodies will indeed develop in such a way that a certain spirituality can find a place within them, the materialistic mindset—which will spread ever more widely through the instructions of the spirits of darkness—will work against this and fight against it with material means. I have told you that the spirits of darkness will inspire their hosts—the people in whom they will dwell—to even find a vaccine to drive out the inclination toward spirituality in souls from their earliest youth, indirectly through the physical body. Just as bodies are vaccinated against this and that today, so in the future children will be vaccinated with a substance that can certainly be produced, so that through this vaccination people will be immune to developing the “follies” of spiritual life—follies, of course, in the materialistic sense.

[ 12 ] This trend has already begun—more so in the literary sphere, where it is, however, less harmful. I have pointed out to you that highly learned physicians have published works on the pathology of various geniuses. As you know: Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Viktor Scheffel, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Goethe—people have attempted to understand them all as geniuses by demonstrating this or that pathological trait in them. And what is most disturbing, I would say, in this field is that people have also attempted to understand Jesus Christ from a pathological standpoint, and the Gospels from a pathological standpoint. There are already two works today that trace the origins of Christianity back to the fact that, once, at the beginning of the modern era, a mentally and spiritually abnormal person lived who walked the earth in Palestine as Jesus and, through the manifestations of his mental illness, infected people with Christianity. There are also two works on the pathology of Jesus Christ.

[ 13 ] As I said, these are the innocent, literary beginnings. But all of this ultimately tends toward finding a means by which bodies can be “vaccinated” so that they do not develop a penchant for spiritual ideas, but instead believe only in sensory matter throughout their entire lives. Just as we now vaccinate against consumption using the insights medicine has gained from vertigo—pardon me—from consumption itself, so too will we vaccinate against the predisposition toward spirituality. This is merely to point out one particularly paradoxical and remarkable development among many others that will arise in this field in the near and distant future, so that what seeks to stream down to Earth from the spiritual worlds through the victory of the spirits of light may be thrown into confusion.

[ 14 ] To achieve this, of course, people’s worldviews and perceptions must first be confused; concepts and ideas must first be turned upside down. And this is a serious area that requires close scrutiny, for it is one of the most important underlying factors behind the events currently unfolding.

[ 15 ] I choose my words deliberately and precisely. I say “prepare,” and I am well aware that when someone speaks of preparation after what has taken place over the last three years, they are already saying something significant, for anyone who looks more deeply into matters knows that these are indeed preparations. Only the superficial person can believe that tomorrow or the day after, what is not a war in the old sense can be brought to a close by a peace in the old sense. Only those who judge events quite superficially can believe such a thing. Many will indeed believe it if, outwardly, this or that occurs that resembles the ideas some people have formed; but then they will not consider what lies dormant beneath the surface.

[ 16 ] It is interesting, both in the big picture and in the details, to look back at the decades since the 1840s. We have, after all, received a general characterization of this period here in recent weeks, and I have also tried today, to a certain extent, to convey it once again. Especially when one considers representative figures—and it is in these figures that the spiritual impulses driving development are embodied—one finds, even in the particular details, that what emerges as general insights is indeed borne out. I would like to cite a seemingly minor example. I already referred to this matter last year.

[ 17 ] Goethe’s Faust has been commented on by many people. Many people have interpreted Goethe’s Faust. One of those who interpreted it not superficially, but in a certain sense deeply, is Oswald Marbach. One could even say that literary historians were actually the least profound in their interpretation of Faust, because it is their academic profession to understand the work—which is often an obstacle to truly understanding it. Oswald Marbach therefore had good things to say about Faust in his book, Goethe’s Faust, Parts I and II, Explained by Oswald Marbach, because he was not actually a literary historian. He lectured at the University of Leipzig on Goethe’s Faust, as well as on mathematics, mechanics, and technology. And in the present day, delving into Marbach’s mechanics and technology is actually a better means of approaching the mysteries of the world than what historians or literary historians record as modern scholarship in their own terms. But with Oswald Marbach in particular, we encounter something very peculiar. In the 1940s, he spoke about Goethe’s Faust, but then he stopped—not at the end of the 1940s, nor in the 1950s, 1960s, or 1970s. It was not until the end of the 1970s and into the 1980s that he resumed his lectures on Goethe’s Faust. In the meantime, he spoke only about mathematics, mechanics, and technology—that is, he devoted himself to those sciences in which, especially at that time, there were the most opportunities to cultivate human acumen and human critical thinking. It is very interesting to see how he expresses this in the preface:

[ 18 ] “As early as 30–40 years ago, I gave lectures on Goethe’s Faust at the University of Leipzig—the book was published in 1881—and it was only very recently (1875) that I resumed and continued these lectures. Why this long hiatus? Many factors came into play—external and internal, objective and subjective. I grew older and old, and so did the academic youth: each new semester brought a more morose generation;”—people became smarter, but to the keen observer, more morose! — “The mind’s free interest in itself dwindled more and more; a time came upon us when the useful was valued more than the beautiful. For 30 years, obeying necessity rather than my own impulse in my academic work, I have set aside philosophy and poetry and instead lectured on the exact sciences: mathematics, physics, and technology.”

[ 19 ] It was during the era of materialistic acumen. One sentence in this preface is very interesting—very, very interesting! For this sentence clearly points to what was essential for that era. This sentence states that Oswald Marbach was convinced that, whether he was interpreting Faust in the past or lecturing on technology, he had always done what he wanted. But now, as he returns to Faust and interprets it anew, he admits to himself that, with this belief, he had fallen prey to an illusion; he had merely obeyed the spirit of the times. If only a great many people would come to realize how deeply they live in illusions. For weaving illusions about human beings and weaving them through human brains, allowing them to flow through human hearts—that was already the ideal of the spirits of darkness before 1879, and it has become so especially since 1879, when these spirits began to walk among us in the realm of humanity.

[ 20 ] But there is one more interesting point when considering such a person, who, in a sense, represents that which has worked its way down from heaven to earth. He says—and this also corresponds to the historical record—that when he lectured on Faust at the university in the 1940s, he spoke primarily about the first part; there was no interest in the second part. When he then began—we might say, after Michael’s victory over the dragon—to give lectures on Faust once again, he focused primarily on explaining the second part. Indeed, it was the age of intellectual acuity, the age of criticism, which was not suited to understanding the second part of Goethe’s Faust. After all, this second part of Goethe’s Faust—which is one of the most significant testaments of Goetheanism—is still, in many respects, very, very little understood today. It is, after all, extremely difficult to understand. For people today live in an environment that is actually treated nowhere with such humor, nowhere with such irony, as in the second part of Goethe’s Faust . People today live in a milieu that has gradually developed since the 16th century; they praise what has developed since the 16th century as the great, outstanding achievements of our time, and they revel in these results dating back to the 16th century. Goethe, whose spirit not only lived in his own time but who was also able to transport his spirit into the 20th century, wrote the second part of his Faust for the 20th century, for the 21st century, and for the centuries to come. This will only be understood in time. But to do so, he had to weave into the mysteries an ironic and humorous treatment, in grand style, of the development since the 16th century. Let us see, after all, how that development—which is so admired, which has taken shape since the 16th century, and upon which civilized peoples depend today—is treated by Goethe in Faust as a machination of Mephisto. For even more so than the paper specter of the guilder—which is, after all, also a creation of Mephisto—everything that has developed as something so glorious since the 16th century is presented by Goethe as a creation of Mephisto. Humanity will one day find the creations since the 16th century treated with magnificent irony in those sections of the second part of Faust where Mephisto—representing the spirits of darkness—invents, in essence, everything to which modern humanity clings and will cling even more, especially in the 20th century.

[ 21 ] Much of what can help one to remain vigilant is already enshrined in this second part of Faust. And the fact that a person who, through physics, mechanics, mathematics, and the technology of the age, has discerned its secret, now feels drawn precisely to the story of Michael’s victory over the dragon—and now speaks of the second part, after having spoken for decades only of the first part, which at that time was the only part that could be understood—is in itself a deeply significant symptom.

[ 22 ] We have seen, especially over the course of the past year, how spiritual science guides us step by step to bring to life what Goethe could initially express only in images, and to discover its deeper meaning in the second part of Faust. Of course, spiritual science cannot be derived from Faust, but once one possesses spiritual science, Goethe’s magnificent imagery in the second part of Faust—as well as the magnificent passages in Wilhelm Meister’s Journeyman Years—can be illuminated all the more clearly.

[ 23 ] This brings us to a movement that, under the influence of the advancing spirits of light, must gain more and more ground against the efforts of the spirits of darkness—and will indeed gain ground if people remain vigilant in the face of them. These three years are like a call to become vigilant, even if not nearly enough souls are yet able to hear the call in the right way, for the dominance of the opposing current has been observable everywhere. Precisely, I would say, at the very beginning of the possibility of a spiritual life, the spirits of obstacles are particularly prevalent. We have experienced characteristic phenomena, and we will continue to experience them. Even to allude to such things today invariably gives rise to misunderstanding upon misunderstanding. Today, the spiritual atmosphere in which humanity lives is so deeply imbued with a will to misunderstand that, the moment one utters these words, they are immediately interpreted to mean something other than what they were intended to convey. One must make use of human words that resonate with one thing or another. Today, so many people judge out of national passions that if one simply has to characterize a member of this or that nation in this or that way—simply as a human being living on Earth—one is resented by the members of the nation to which that person belongs, even though these things have absolutely nothing to do with one another. Judgments about any given nation and judgments about the people who are, for example, involved in today’s events have nothing to do with one another. For the belief that the storm of our times is based on the things that are generally discussed today—this belief is particularly harmful because it is particularly nonsensical. The reasons lie much deeper and, at first glance—and I emphasize this—actually have very little to do with national aspirations in certain respects. National aspirations are merely being exploited by certain powers, about which the majority of humanity does not want to know anything—out of superficiality, they do not want to know anything. We will have to wait a while longer before objectivity takes hold in this area. Today, it is largely convenient for humanity to find grand and comprehensive ideas that are shaped in the mind of someone whose understanding extends no further than that of a schoolteacher who has just passed his teaching exam and is now set loose—not merely on his students, as is usually the case, but in this instance on all of humanity. I have pointed out on more than one occasion that this terrible time—the onset of this terrible time—was not necessary in order to arrive at an objective judgment of Woodrow Wilson from a spiritual-scientific perspective. For as early as 1913, in my Helsinki lectures—you can read about this in that lecture series, “The Occult Foundations of the Bhagavad Gita”—I had already sufficiently pointed out Woodrow Wilson’s role as a world schoolmaster and shown from which shallow, superficial realms what emanates from this man originates. It really was not necessary for me to be compelled by the events of recent years to form a judgment about Woodrow Wilson. But back then, one was simply considered an anachronistic spirit if one judged Woodrow Wilson in this way, for that was still the time when Woodrow Wilson’s high school essays on freedom, culture, and literature were being translated into European languages. And the time is still far off when people will be ashamed to take Woodrow Wilson’s high-school-level politics seriously.

[ 24 ] Everywhere, those forces are at work that, as spirits of darkness, cloud the human soul. And when humanity finally awakens from the hazy realm in which it currently slumbers, it will be unable to comprehend how it was possible that, at the dawn of the 20th century, people did not consider it a disgrace to be led by the nose by a Woodrow Wilson and his so-called wisdom! Only when people begin to feel a sense of shame about what is possible today will a moment of awakening come.

[ 25 ] It is indeed difficult in this day and age to speak the truth as it is revealed, because it sounds far too much like a contradiction to what people have come to accept today. And it is difficult to form a free, independent judgment in this atmosphere, which has been shaped not only by the last three years, but by everything I have called the “social carcinoma,” the “social cancer,” in my Vienna lectures. In the face of these things, it is necessary to take them seriously and not to approach them with the concepts and ideas that we were accustomed to using as criteria for judgment well into the 20th century. We will have to come to realize that the present proves the inadequacy—indeed, the impossibility—of the concepts to which humanity has become accustomed, and that it is a historical absurdity for people to repeatedly judge based on what has brought about the present era—an era that has, in fact, been refuted by its very arrival. Do people believe that this era can be corrected using the very same principles that brought it about? In this, they are truly mistaken.

[ 26 ] Humanity has amassed a certain body of cultural achievements from times past: these are now being depleted. One can see every day how they are being depleted without anything new being created to replace them. How little understanding there is today of the gravity of such matters and the need to see through them. Many people today still think in exactly the same way as they did in 1913. They believe that the intellect they employed back then will suffice for the year 1917 as well, without having enough sense of reality to realize that this intellect is intrinsically linked to the fact that it brought about the year 1917 and that it cannot simultaneously remedy it.

[ 27 ] To delve quite deeply into what has happened since the fall of the spirits of darkness—since the time when the spirits of darkness have been walking among us—and to understand as much as possible about what has befallen humanity in the 1880s, 1890s, and the first two decades of the 20th century—this is beneficial for the present. For people have the most confused opinions about these matters.

[ 28 ] Above all, there is no real understanding of the radical difference in people’s entire way of feeling and perceiving after 1879 compared to their previous way of feeling and perceiving. And here, too, delving into something like the second part of Goethe’s Faust can be helpful; after all, it could not be understood in Goethe’s time because it is a critique of what Goethe actually experienced as the essence of the 20th century. Understanding the second part of Faust can be very helpful in this regard. It is a characteristic symptom that a person such as Oswald Marbach is led to the second part of Faust only after the fall of the spirits of darkness.

[ 29 ] We must use insights and impulses of this kind to work our way up to what is necessary for the present. For much of what was foreshadowed before 1879 has not been achieved. And all of this is connected to a significant question that should actually cast a shadow over every soul today—a question I would like to pose here simply as a question:

[ 30 ] Humanity has managed to bring about the events we are currently living through. But the point is not merely to understand these events; rather, it is a matter of how to find a way out of them. However, as long as there is so little willingness to penetrate the real, deeper impulses that have led to the present age, practical understanding will not be able to advance far enough to grasp these things. One must not believe that there could be no people capable of sufficiently understanding the current situation. Yet people do not want to listen to them, just as they do not want to listen to something like Goetheanism, which already resounds like a voice of the 20th century. But one will only truly understand this voice if, for example, one acquires a serious and dignified understanding of the significance of what occurred with the downfall of the spirits of darkness in the fall of 1879. One must simply understand the spiritual course of humanity if one wishes to understand the present. That is why I cited Oswald Marbach, whose retrospective and forward-looking outlook I already mentioned to you here last year when I shared with you a poem he dedicated to Goethe’s soul on the anniversary of the day when that soul of Goethe found its way into that context, which at that time still meant something different from what it means today — on the anniversary of Goethe’s entry into the context of those communities known as Masonic or similar, which in the 18th century still meant something different than they do today. From his own perspective, Goethe was able to see through many of the mysterious impulses that pass through the world and which people, in their superficiality, simply refuse to see. On the occasion of this anniversary, Oswald Marbach commemorated Goethe’s entry into the spiritual world with his verses:

To you, brother, father, most exalted master!
To whom, today, as a symbol spanning over a century,
Of the most faithful love in the fellowship of free spirits,
We extend our firmly clasped hands;
The greatest of spirits and the freest of the free!
Toward whom we strive, to be like him;
To you we dedicate ourselves! To you we dedicate our sons,
So that our edifice may one day be crowned with perfection!

You strove as we do; yet your striving
For self-knowledge, which leads to wisdom,
Was always inspired by a primal, wholesome life,
By the Creator’s strength that strides toward action,
Toward works that rise up toward the light,
Around which the radiance of beauty spreads eternally:
Like Israel, you wrestled with God,
Until, as the victor, you conquered yourself!

What mysteriously unites us with you,
Shall not be revealed to the uninitiated by any word;
Yet let it be proclaimed aloud before all people
Through tireless deeds of the purest love,
Through clear light that kindles spirit within spirit,
Through the evergreen seeds of eternal life. —
Lead on, O Master! Wherever you have gone,
Our most ardent longing draws us after you.

[ 31 ] Such an attitude must unlock the “gates of fulfillment”!