The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fourteenth Lecture

[ 1 ] From the reflections presented here, we have been able to discern what significant events took place in the 19th century—behind the scenes of world history, so to speak. It is, after all, in the nature of things that, unless one wishes to describe matters in a completely abstract way, one must characterize the reflection or image in the physical world for many things one has to say regarding the spiritual world, because the events that occur here in the physical world are, in fact, reflections of spiritual events.

[ 2 ] Now I would first like to draw your attention to the significance that actually lies behind all these facts. We know that around 1413—that is, in the 15th century—the transition from the fourth to the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch took place. In addition to all the characteristics we have already mentioned, it should be added that the guidance of earthly affairs from the spiritual worlds took place in such a way that beings from the hierarchy of the Archangels were primarily engaged in this guidance—I say “primarily,” because you can learn more about the precise details from the booklet *The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and of Humanity*. For just create a vivid mental image: angelic beings carry out their work in the spiritual worlds. As a result, many things happen on Earth. What happens on Earth is precisely what we call earthly history—human life in the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. Angelic beings, beings from the Hierarchy of the Angels, serve the higher beings of the Hierarchy of the Archangels, but they serve them in such a way that, so to speak, the relationship between the beings of the Hierarchy of the Angels and those of the Archangels is a supersensible, purely spiritual matter that has little impact on human beings as yet. This will change with the dawn of the fifth post-Atlantean period, for then the beings from the hierarchy of the Angeloi will, so to speak, become more independent in the guidance of humanity. Thus, in the fourth post-Atlantean period, human beings are guided more directly by the Archangeloi; whereas in the fifth period—that is, throughout our entire present fifth period extending into the 4th millennium—the Angels will provide direct guidance to humankind, so that one can no longer say: “The relationship between the Angels and the Archangels is merely a supersensible one.” That is the fact, expressed in spiritual terms.

[ 3 ] This fact can also be expressed in more material terms, for everything material is a reflection of the spiritual. If we seek to understand the indirect way in which the Archangels, together with the Angels, guided humanity during the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, we can say: This took place through human blood. - And it was indeed through this indirect path of human blood that the social structure was brought about, one that was linked to kinship and blood ties. In a sense, the dwelling place of the Archangels, as well as that of the Angels, was in the blood. Indeed, blood is not merely what the chemist analyzes; rather, blood is at the same time the dwelling place of supersensible beings.

[ 4 ] So when we speak of this fourth post-Atlantean epoch, the blood is the dwelling place of the Archangels and Angels. This will change in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, when the angels will take greater hold of the blood—I am speaking now of the angels of light, the ordinary ones—and the archangels will act more within the nervous system. Using the old terminology, I could just as well say: In the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, the archangels will act more in the brain, and the angels more in the heart. Physiologically speaking, in the sense of current science, one would have to say: The Angels act more in the blood, the Archangels more in the nervous system. — As you can see, a great change has indeed taken place in human beings, one that can be traced right down into the material structure of the human being.

[ 5 ] Well, what a person does here on Earth—what he accomplishes—is connected to what is at work within him. People have a mental image—though not always correctly—that somewhere up in the clouds there are angels and archangels. If one were to consider the entire nervous life of human beings as a place, and the entire blood life as another place, and that which belongs to them in the supersensible worlds between death and new birth, then one would find the realms of the archangels and angels.

[ 6 ] The 15th century marked a special period in the evolution of the Earth and in the related evolution of the spiritual world. What had come about at that time can be characterized roughly as follows. One could say: During this period, the 15th century, the Earth’s gravitational pull on the archangels—the true archangels, who were seeking the transition from the blood to the nervous system—was at its strongest. So if we go back from the 14th to the 13th, 12th, and 11th centuries, we find that the Earth’s gravitational pull grows weaker and weaker, and subsequently it weakens once again. One could say: The Archangels were urged by higher spirits to love earthly existence most of all in this 15th century. As paradoxical as this may seem to some people today with their crude, materialistic way of thinking, it is nevertheless true that what is happening on Earth is connected to such things. How is it that it was precisely at that time that America was rediscovered in such a remarkable way, that people began to take possession of the entire Earth once more? Because the Archangels were most drawn to the Earth during that period. Through this, they directed—in part the blood, in part the nervous system—in such a way that human beings began to take possession of the entire Earth from their cultural centers. Such events must be viewed in the context of spiritual activity; otherwise, they cannot be understood. Certainly, it sounds strange today to the crude, materialistic thinker when one says: That is why people discovered America, that is why all the other events took place—which you can read about in so-called history—because the Earth’s gravitational pull on the Archangels was at its greatest during that time.

[ 7 ] And at that time, the Archangels began the training of the Angels, which was aimed at taking possession of human blood, while the Archangels sought to make the transition into the nervous system. And by the early 1840s, the situation had progressed to the point where certain backward Angeloi beings attempted not to reside in or rule over the blood, but rather to take the Archangeloi’s place within the nervous system. So we can say: During those 1840s, there was a significant struggle that unfolded as I have already described—a struggle that, when viewed in its reflection here in the gross material realm, played out between human blood and the human nervous system. The angels of darkness were cast out of the nervous system and hurled into human blood, so that they now rage within human blood, just as I have described. Because they rage within human blood, everything I have described—as the effect of the Angeloi who remained behind here on Earth—comes to pass. Since they are churning within the human blood, it has also become apparent that human beings could be as intelligent as I have described. Of course, all of this unfolds slowly and gradually, so that one can say: The true, profound turning point is 1841; but the entire 19th century is already infected by what is at play here.

[ 8 ] This marks the beginning of an evolution of profound significance. I have already drawn your attention to an important fact in the course of these lectures. I have pointed out that, within the course of Earth’s evolution, it will only be until the 7th millennium that human women will remain fertile, and that after that, procreation will no longer be possible here. If it were solely up to the angelic beings who normally dwell in the blood, the human generation—human procreation—would not even last until then, but would end in the 6th millennium. Only the sixth post-Atlantean cultural period would still have the possibility of physical procreation on Earth; according to the wisdom of the Light, the impulse of procreation for this post-Atlantean era does not extend beyond its seven cultural periods. But procreation will last longer; it will extend into the 7th millennium, perhaps even a little beyond. Why will this be? Because then the rulers of procreation—the impelling forces of procreation—will be these cast-down Angeloi.

[ 9 ] This is very significant. In the sixth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, human fertility—insofar as it is impelled by the forces of light—will gradually dry up. And the dark forces will have to intervene to keep the process going a little longer. We know that the sixth post-Atlantean cultural epoch has its roots in Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe will develop a strong inclination not to allow human procreation—physical procreation—to extend beyond the sixth cultural epoch, but rather to lead the Earth thereafter into a more spiritual, a more psychic existence. From America, the other impulses will take effect for the seventh post-Atlantean cultural period, in which the impulses of the cast-down Angeloi will guide the generation.

[ 10 ] Consider, my friends, how complicated things are. These things can be discovered—and I must emphasize this again and again—only through direct observation of the spiritual worlds. Any kind of theorizing usually leads one astray. One then follows only one line of thought and may eventually come to claim that it is precisely in the sixth post-Atlantean cultural epoch that the generational life of humanity will come to an end. Only true spiritual observation gives one the opportunity to observe the various currents that interact to create the whole. One must apply many methods if insights as profoundly interconnected as those I have just spoken of are to emerge.

[ 11 ] Human beings will seem quite complicated to you when you consider that now, in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, Archangels and Angels are at work within them through their nervous system and blood—but so are the opposing spirits, the abnormal spirits. That is where the forces are anchored—forces that work with one another, against one another, and so on—and there we see what is actually happening in reality. When one observes what happens outwardly in life, one sees, so to speak, only the outward wave, not the forces that throw this wave to the surface.

[ 12 ] Now we can point out another characteristic through which the spirits of darkness—who have been overthrown since 1879—have been attempting to exert their influence, first from the spiritual world and now from the realm of humanity. Do you recall something I have already mentioned to you in the course of these reflections: that humanity as a whole is becoming ever younger? If we go back to ancient India, we find that people remained young—that is, physically capable of development—well into old age; then, during the Persian epoch, not for quite as long; during the Egyptian-Chaldean epoch, not for quite as long either; and during the Greek-Latin epoch, people remained capable of development only from the age of twenty-eight to thirty-five. Now they have become even younger: as I have explained to you, people remain capable of development only until the age of twenty-seven. Then the time will come when people will remain capable of development only until the age of twenty-six, and so on. Do you recall that I hinted at how a personality around whom much is now revolving can be understood precisely because the age of twenty-seven plays such a special role in his life: Lloyd George. For it always means a great deal when the inner life of the soul coincides with the outer life of the body.

[ 13 ] This fact—that human beings in our fifth post-Atlantean epoch naturally retain their capacity for development well into their twenties—forms an important basis for the cooperation between the Angeloi and the Archangeloi, for the normal spirits, the spirits of light, wish to guide the course of human development in a specific way. It is as follows: Up through one’s twenties, a human being is naturally capable of development. The spirits of light wish to keep this capacity for development private, so that it unfolds within the human being as quietly as possible; and then, in the twenty-eighth year—between the ages of twenty-eight and thirty-five—what has been quietly unfolding within the human being should come to the surface. So please understand this correctly. That which develops within a person’s blood up to the age of twenty-eight should then, from the age of twenty-eight onward, penetrate more deeply into the person’s self-consciousness; it should be handed over to the blood in a self-conscious manner. Thus, in accordance with the intention of the normal spirits—the spirits of light—a person should, so to speak, develop their soul life quietly within, unassumingly and selflessly; and only then should it come into action. Only then, after passing the age of twenty-eight, should they, so to speak, emerge from their years of learning and enter their years of wandering and their years of mastery.

[ 14 ] The cast-down spirits, the spirits of darkness, rebel against this. They want to ensure that people in their twenties do not undergo this intimate inner development, but instead intervene in life already at that stage with external intellectuality—with everything that constitutes external capacity for action and mastery.

[ 15 ] Now you have directly traced a social phenomenon back to its spiritual foundation. A struggle is taking place among us, you see—a significant struggle: The spirits of light wish to bring us to such maturity only after the age of twenty-eight that we may step out into public life and become capable of action. The spirits of darkness wish to bring that point forward, to move it before the age of twenty-eight; they wish to push people out into public life earlier. And all the forces at play in our social life that are a reflection of such things stem from this—for example, when here and there a proposal is made once again to lower the voting age even further toward the twenties or even before the age of twenty. There you have the origins of these things.

[ 16 ] Certainly, knowing such things is uncomfortable for people today, and one can see precisely from this how much turmoil the spirits of darkness are causing in public life. Until now, much of what I have outlined here has been instinctively known to people—known on an atavistic level. But that has ceased. And people will have to resolve to truly take to heart what was instinctively known—what was also instilled in them through the ancient mysteries—that is, to incorporate spiritual principles into the shaping of the social structure and to truly consider this, rather than blindly seeking to shape the world based on mere emotions. For this is precisely how the spirits of darkness best achieve their aims—by keeping people asleep in the face of spiritual processes. Then, while people are asleep, the spirits of darkness can very well take hold of what they cannot attain when a person consciously immerses themselves in the spiritual impulses that govern evolution. And much of what exists in the world today as hypocrisy is, in fact, intended precisely to lull people into illusions—that is, into states of slumber—so that they do not see reality, so that they are distracted from reality, so that the spirits of darkness have as free a hand as possible with human beings. For by making people believe all sorts of things, they are distracted from what they could—and must—truly experience while awake if the evolution of humanity is to proceed in a fruitful way. We simply live in an age in which people must take matters into their own hands.

[ 17 ] For this, however, it will be absolutely necessary to gain insight into certain things—insight that can only be attained by understanding the spiritual forces. One might say: In the 19th century, everything happened that could serve to distract people from the truth. Just consider what it actually meant that, precisely during the most crucial period of the 19th century’s development, Darwinism—in the way I have often described to you—penetrated very, very deeply into human development, right down into the most popular ideas. It is remarkable what kinds of views people sometimes develop regarding such matters. For example, in Fritz Mauthner’s famous book, his *Philosophical Dictionary*, there is this interesting statement: “It is not that Darwin rejected teleology—that is, the doctrine of purpose—but rather that he overcame it; that is what is significant.” —Since Mauthner is, after all, intelligent enough to know that Darwin only very inadequately overcame the influence of spiritual forces, he says not how Darwin overcame it, but that he overcame it. In other words, Mauthner means: It has indeed been very fruitful that a mental image of the course of organic evolution was once created as if no purposes were involved in this evolution by any spiritual beings, as if no such beings were involved.

[ 18 ] Well, for those who see through such things, the matter presents itself as follows: When you see a team—a horse-drawn carriage with a horse in front—the horse pulls the carriage. You might say: The coachman sits on the box, driving and steering the horse. - But if you look beyond the coachman, you can now make detailed observations of everything going on inside the horse that enables it to pull the carriage, and you can describe in every detail how the horse manages to pull the carriage—provided you set aside the fact that the horse first receives its instructions from the coachman.

[ 19 ] But this is the basis of Darwin’s theory; one simply ignores the coachman. It is claimed: It is an old superstition, a prejudice, that the coachman steers the horse. After all, the horse pulls the carriage—everyone can see that, because the horse is harnessed to the front. — Darwin’s theory is structured entirely along the lines of this logic. Through this one-sidedness, it has, of course, brought to light important truths—truths of the very highest order. But a complete understanding of the facts is obscured as a result. And countless scientific facts in our experience suffer today precisely because, I might say, the coachman is overlooked. People speak of cause and effect; but they look to the horse for the cause of the carriage’s movement, and they regard this as a great advance. One fails to notice that such confusions between horse and coachman, such “horse theories”—forgive the harsh term—are found at every turn in today’s science. One cannot prove their falsity, just as it is not incorrect that the horse pulls the carriage. That is, of course, entirely correct, but the issue here is not one of true and false in this external sense. That is why materialist thinkers can always refute the spiritualist thinker, who knows that the coachman is also there. But this shows you where a merely sophistical, astute, critical intellect would lead—the kind that the spirits of darkness seek to bestow upon humanity. The point is not to arrive at the absolute truth, and certainly not at completeness, but rather at something that is correct according to the model that the horse pulls the carriage. Logic can very well emancipate itself from reality. One can be very logical and at the same time very detached from reality.

[ 20 ] But when we speak of human evolution, another factor comes into play: the spirits of darkness have power primarily over reason and intellectuality. They can take hold of these, but not of the emotions, not of the will, and above all not of the impulses of the will. Here, however, I am touching upon a very profound and significant law of reality. We have experienced it—you have all, albeit to varying degrees, reached such a respectable age that we can speak of several decades, at least two or three decades, that we have lived through— we have witnessed that during these decades preceding our own time, there were the most diverse social movements, driven largely by newspaper journalism, partly also by book publishing, but very little by actual knowledge or facts. We have witnessed peculiar structures of social and political life as they have emerged across Europe and America in recent decades. What is peculiar, however, is that in all that is happening there, the ideas from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are indeed alive, but not the emotions, not the impulses of the will. This is very strange. One can only come to this realization through truly conscientious, honest investigations into the spiritual world. People who descended from the spiritual world in the 1940s to incarnate in human bodies and are now back up there again know such things; they know from the perspective of the other world that, in fact, here on Earth in recent decades, the minds—the intellects—which were, so to speak, ripe for the times, have prevailed — but the impulses of the will remained just as they were back in the 1940s. For the will, in fact, moves much more slowly in human evolution than thoughts do. Please take this as a very important truth: The will moves much more slowly than thoughts. So, for example, among people who have largely conformed to general customs—who were not exactly rebels or revolutionaries back in the 1940s, but who instead largely conformed to the general, patriarchal, staid customs of the 1930s and 1940s—these customs persisted into the decades I am now referring to. But thoughts continued to advance. And as a result, discrepancies continually arise in the course of evolution between the life of thought and the life of the will—discrepancies that do not appear in all spheres of life, but in certain spheres of life.

[ 21 ] Only in this way has something become possible in the 19th century that was not possible in any previous centuries. Outsiders observing history may, of course, oppose this, but it is nonsensical to do so. What I mean is this: never in the traceable historical epochs of human development has the intellect—the sharpness of thought—positively intervened in life. Look back at the ancient Roman slave revolts: it was essentially resentment and impulses of will that drove the slaves to revolt. This is quite different in the 19th century and into the 20th century. Modern social democracy must not be compared historically to the ancient slave revolts; it is something entirely different—it was born out of theory, out of theories such as those of Lassalle, but mainly of Karl Marx, out of the theory of class struggle. Something purely critical, purely theoretical—something based purely on ideas—mobilized the people and led them to agitation. Why? Because the people who embraced Marxism as a form of agitation still possessed the same impulses of will as they had in the 1840s. They had not yet acted on that will. It was because of this discrepancy in will that, in the 19th century, under the leadership of certain powers, a purely intellectual movement was able to spur the masses to agitation.

[ 22 ] This is a phenomenon that did not exist in the past, one that will prove to you even more than what I already told you yesterday what it means that in this 19th century —partly while the spirits of darkness were still above, and then after they had descended—that in this 19th century the spirits of darkness, through a certain current, sought above all to cultivate the material mind. There you see it at work; there you even see it seizing the emotions of the 1830s and 1840s; there you see it, for once, not merely working through the intellect to persuade people, but rather see the intellect working directly through agitation, revolution, revolutionary yearnings, and so on. Never before has the intellect held the helm in this way. It is important to take these things into account. One must see through the times by discovering what is going on behind the scenes of so-called world history. Ask anyone who doesn’t pay much attention to such matters: How old is history? Since when has humanity been engaged in what we now call history? — He will answer: Well, that’s an old story! — History is not much more than a hundred years old. What is regarded as history today is not much older than a hundred years. Before that, people recorded memorable events, they recorded “stories”; but what is called world history—this tracing of a thread through human development—is no older than a little more than a hundred years. Just look at the earlier accounts that preceded it. Why did this emerge? Because it is a transitional product. Are there specific reasons to regard history, as it is practiced today, as a science? Well, there are a few reasons for this, mainly the fact that so many hundreds of professors are employed as professors of history at universities all over the world. It reminds me of that law professor whom I sometimes think of when people talk about reasons for things. He was a professor of criminal law at a university and always began his lectures by claiming he wanted to prove human freedom. Well, he didn’t offer many real reasons: “Gentlemen! There must be freedom, for if there were no freedom, there would be no criminal law. But since I am a professor of criminal law, there is criminal law, and therefore there is also human freedom.”

[ 23 ] But whenever you hear people passing judgment today on this or that aspect of what is supposed to take shape in the course of human development, you will hear these fine phrases: “History teaches this and that.” — Take a look at the literature written about the present age—if I may use that term—and see how often you’ll come across that phrase whenever someone wants to spout nonsense about what will happen after the peace; how often you’ll hear the cliché: “History teaches us this.” Then they’ll say: “After the Thirty Years’ War, it was like this,” and so on. — These “truths” are of the kind I have demonstrated to you—that people have calculated that a war today cannot possibly last longer than four months. In truth, history teaches us nothing at all. For, in the sense of materialist science, sciences are only those that, through the repetition of events, can in some way deduce the future from the past. When a chemist conducts an experiment, he knows that bringing certain substances together results in certain processes; if the same substances are mixed together again, the same processes will occur again, and a third time as well. Or there is a certain combination of clouds that causes lightning, and a similar combination of clouds appears again, so that lightning is caused once more. After all, under the premises of contemporary thinking, a science cannot exist that does not rely on such repetitions. Just think that through for a moment. But for those who think today from their materialistic standpoint, history cannot be a science at all, because nothing ever repeats itself in history; new combinations are always emerging. One can therefore never draw conclusions using the same method as in the other sciences. History is merely a transitional product. It only emerged as a science in the 19th century. In the past, people described memorable events. After all, we don’t call it “history” when someone writes down their so-called family history. Even the word “history” isn’t very old. In languages other than German, the word doesn’t exist at all, because “historie” has a completely different original context. In the past, people used the singular form “das Geschicht”—“das Geschicht der Apostel,” for example—which refers to what “happens.” Then the plural form was created: “die Geschichte,” which is actually nothing more than the plural of “das Geschicht”; today we must say “die Geschichten.” But in Switzerland, as recently as 150 years ago, “die Geschichte” still meant the plural of “das Geschicht,” and this meaning was then transferred by changing the article to “die Geschichte”—the singular—so the plural later became the feminine singular. This is how the word “Geschichte” came into being. You can trace this through the etymology of the word.

[ 24 ] The concept of history only acquires meaning when spiritual impulses are taken into account. Then one can speak of what is actually happening; within certain limits, one can speak of what is going on behind the scenes. These limits are determined by comparing the matter with what also exists in the outer, physical world. One can predict the sun’s position in the future—say, next summer—but not what the weather will be like down to the smallest detail; that is impossible. Similarly, events occur in the spiritual world that relate to the future course of human development in the same way that the weather relates to the sun’s future position. But in general, one will be able to know something about the course of human development only through these spiritual impulses. History is therefore still in its embryonic stage; it is not yet what it is meant to be, and can only become something when it transforms its hundred years of existence into a contemplation of the spiritual life that unfolds behind the outer events of humanity.

[ 25 ] For this to happen, people really need to wake up to certain things. After all, all one has to do is bring up any topic that’s not entirely unimportant for the present—for example, a topic like the one I’ve raised: How old is history? — Yes, how many people have ever—and this is not a criticism directed at individuals, but rather a criticism that must be leveled at the school system—how many people have ever gained any mental image of just how young the concept of history actually is, and how little it can therefore correspond to reality! Just imagine: if the natural sciences had only existed for a hundred years today and you wanted to compare them with their earlier states!—These things only gradually make their way from mere learning into real life. And only when this is taken into account—when these questions become matters of education—can people come to understand life in a way that reflects reality. On the one hand, people must be guided so that, even as children, they are introduced to the natural world in the manner found in certain—I say certain—stories from Brehm’s *Life of the Animals*, where one truly gains the opportunity to form a vivid picture of the processes unfolding among animal creatures. Here one must make a clear distinction between what is rooted in reality and what someone—who is accustomed to merely skimming the surface of nature—might recount as all sorts of allegorical or symbolic tales. Such stories would only alienate children from the actual processes of nature. The point is not to tell them things symbolically or allegorically, but to introduce them to the actual events of nature—for example, to explore the life of bees, but not as a zoologist would, rather as someone who can truly engage with these things with their whole soul, and above all without sentimentality. Maeterlinck’s *The Book of Bees* is certainly very good, but it would not be suitable for children; it might perhaps serve as a guide for writing a children’s book about bees or even about ants. One would simply have to avoid all allegory, avoid speaking of mere abstract spiritual beings, and instead truly focus on the concrete.

[ 26 ] On the other hand, this so-called history—which, as it stands, is nonsense for children—would really have to be presented in such a way that one can sense the presence of the spiritual everywhere. Of course, you cannot tell the children what actually happened in the 19th century—not even the college students—but in the way you tell the story, the way you group the events, and the significance you attach to this or that, you can convey what it is all about.

[ 27 ] The 19th-century stories being regaled here are truly not suited to evoking in anyone today—even someone of more mature years—any mental image of what actually happened. One would have to describe how, in the 19th century, something gradually took shape over the course of the first, second, third, and fourth decades, which then became particularly active in the 1840s. The key is simply to describe things in such a way that the reader gains a sense of the events of the 1840s in Europe and America: that something special was—pardon the expression—“brewing” there. Then again, when we move into the 1870s, we shouldn’t go so far as to say that angels were cast down, but we can describe it in such a way that one sees and feels that there is a significant impact on the 19th century. Spiritual Science, however, can also enrich earlier history. And that drivel that is droned on about today in schools as “Greek and Roman history”—how could it be brought to life if it were truly permeated by the impulses of Spiritual Science we have come to know! After all, one does not need to explicitly state these concepts and ideas, but only to tell the story in such a way that they become vividly apparent within the narrative. But we have drifted further and further away from this and must now draw closer to it again.

[ 28 ] Only in this way will people acquire a sense of reality. For today, people lack a sense of reality even with regard to the most basic aspects of living and experiencing the world around them. People today believe themselves to be realistic and materialistic, but they are the most abstract theorists one can imagine; they are crammed full of mere theories, sleep amidst nothing but theories, and are unaware that they are sleeping in theories. If someone were to wake up—it is no coincidence, though one might say in popular parlance—if someone were to happen to wake up and say something while awake, they would simply be ignored. That is just the way things are today.

[ 29 ] You may have already heard that certain people are constantly trumpeting to the world: Democracy must take hold of the entire civilized world. The democratization of humanity is what will bring salvation; to achieve this, one must now smash everything to smithereens so that democracy can spread throughout the world. - Yes, if people simply go on living in such a way that they allow the concepts presented to them to simply wash over them—that is, becoming completely absorbed in the concept of democracy—then they have the concept of democracy exactly as I have defined it in relation to human beings: A human being is a creature that has two legs and no feathers—like a plucked rooster. - For people who proclaim the glory of democracy today know about democracy roughly as much as someone shown a plucked rooster knows about human beings. They take concepts for realities. But this makes it all too easy for illusion to take the place of reality when it comes to human life, by lulling people into complacency and putting them to sleep with concepts. Then they believe that their striving is aimed at ensuring that every person can express their will through the various institutions of democracy, and they do not realize that these structures of democracy are such that a few people are always pulling the strings, while the others are being pulled. But because they are constantly told that they are part of democracy, they do not realize that they are being pulled, that there are individuals pulling the strings. And these individuals can pull the strings all the more effectively when everyone else believes they are the ones pulling—not being pulled. Thus, it is quite easy to lull people into complacency with abstract concepts and make them believe the opposite of what is real. This, however, is precisely how the dark forces are able to operate most effectively. And if someone does wake up, they are simply ignored.

[ 30 ] It is interesting to note how, in 1910, someone wrote the beautiful sentence that big capitalism had succeeded in turning democracy into the most wonderful, effective, and flexible tool for the exploitation of the masses. “People usually imagine that financiers are opponents of democracy,” writes the man in question—“a fundamental error; rather, they are its leaders and its conscious promoters. For democracy—namely, democracy—forms the screen behind which they conceal their methods of exploitation, and in it they find the best means of defense against any possible uprising of the people.”

[ 31 ] Once, someone who had awakened realized that what matters is not ranting about democracy, but seeing through reality—not paying any attention to all such slogans, but seeing what is truly real. Today this would be particularly necessary, for one would then see from how few centers today’s events are actually directed and controlled—events that reign so terribly, so bloodily over all of humanity. One will not come to this realization if one continues to live under the delusion that nations are fighting one another; if one allows oneself to be lulled by the European and American press regarding whatever relationships are supposedly present between nations in current events. Everything that is said there about antagonism and contradictions among nations serves only to cast a veil over the true reasons. For it is not by feeding on words today to explain these events that one arrives at any conclusion, but by pointing to specific individuals. That can sometimes be inconvenient. And the same man who wrote these sentences in 1910—who had awakened to reality—also drew up a highly uncomfortable list in that same book. Specifically, he compiled a list of fifty-five men who, in reality, rule and exploit France. This list appears in the book *La Démocratie et les Financiers*, 1910, by Francis Delaisi—the same man who wrote the now-famous book *La Guerre qui vient*; the latter was published in 1911, while *La Démocratie et les Financiers* appeared in 1910. In this book, you will find statements of fundamental importance. Here, for once, a person has awakened to reality. In this book, *Democracy and the Financial World*, there are insights that help us see through much of what needs to be understood today, but also to dispel much of what is being poured out like a fog over people’s minds. We must also resolve to face reality head-on regarding these matters.

[ 32 ] Of course, the book has been overlooked. But this book raises certain questions that should be raised all over the world today, because they would teach us a great deal about the reality that people are so eager to bury beneath all the rhetoric about democracy and autocracy and all those other buzzwords. In this book, for example, you’ll also find a very fine portrayal of the dire situation in which a parliamentarian actually finds himself. Don’t people believe that such a parliamentarian votes according to his convictions? But if one were to know all the threads through which such a parliamentarian is connected to reality, then one would finally understand why he says “yes” in one case and “no” in another. For certain questions must be raised. Delaisi raises them. For example, he poses the question by looking a parliamentarian straight in the eye: Which side should the poor man take? The people pay him three thousand francs a year in allowances, while the shareholders pay him thirty thousand francs! — To ask the question is already to answer it. So the good, poor man receives his three thousand francs in allowances from the people, and thirty thousand from the shareholders! Isn’t it true that it’s a very fine piece of evidence—and sometimes a sign of great acumen—to say: How wonderful it is that, for once, a socialist, a man of the people like Millerand, has found a seat in parliament! It is truly remarkable that such an achievement has become possible. Delaisi asks something else. He asks: What about the independence of a man like Millerand, who earned thirty thousand francs a year as a representative of insurance companies?

[ 33 ] There is one person who has woken up; he knows quite well how the strings are pulled—from the actions of such a man into the various insurance companies. But such things, which are recounted today while awake about reality, are simply not taken into account. Of course, one can very eloquently preach to people about democracy in the Western world. But if one wanted to tell them the truth, one would have to say: So-and-so does it this way, and so-and-so does it that way. - And here Delaisi identifies fifty-five men—not a democracy, but fifty-five specific men—whom he says rule and exploit France. Here, one has arrived at the real facts, for even in everyday life, an awareness of real facts must awaken.

[ 34 ] This is also known from Delaisi’s book: Once upon a time, there was a lawyer. This lawyer—many ties connected him to all sorts of entities, not only insurance companies but also financial centers and the financial world—but this lawyer had even greater ambitions; he wanted his actions to be endorsed not only by the financial world, the industrial world, and the commercial world, but also by the scholarly world of the Academy. That is the place where one can be elevated into the sphere of immortality by the scholarly world itself. But now there were two “immortals” within the Academy who were, as it happened, engaging in unauthorized trust transactions. They found it perfectly compatible with their work toward immortality to engage in trust transactions that were illegal under the laws of the land. Then the very astute lawyer stepped in and represented the two “Immortals” in court, and he succeeded in getting them acquitted, in clearing their names, so that they were not convicted. So they themselves admitted him into the ranks of the “Immortals.” Science, which administers not the temporal aspects of the world but its eternal aspects—the immortal—has been defended by this “selfless” lawyer: his name is Raymond Poincaré. —Delaisi recounts this story in the aforementioned book.

[ 35 ] It is quite good to be aware of such things as ingredients of reality. These things must certainly be taken into account. And when one takes up Spiritual Science, one is guided in such a way that one develops a certain intuition for the truth, whereas the materialistic education of our time—into which, after all, countless streams of information flow from the press—tends not to point to realities, but rather to something cloaked in all sorts of catchphrases. And when someone like Delaisi finally wakes up and describes things as they are: How many people will learn about these things? How many people will listen? They cannot hear it, after all, because it is buried by—well, once again, by the life dominated by the press. In his book on democracy and the financial world, Delaisi proves himself to be a rather sharp mind who has gone to great lengths to see through many things. He is no blind worshipper of parliamentarianism; he is no blind worshipper of democracy. He predicts that these things, which people today take so much credit for, will come to an end. He says so explicitly, including about the “voting machine”—that’s roughly the term he uses. And Delaisi also discusses this parliamentary “voting machine” in a thoroughly scientific and serious manner, for he sees through the entire apparatus that feeds into these voting machines, which are designed to create the illusion that a convinced majority is voting against a crazy minority. He knows that if a healthy development is to take place, something entirely different must take its place.

[ 36 ] That is not yet possible today, because it would still be very shocking to people to say what will take its place. Essentially, only those initiated into Spiritual Science can know that today. Forms from the past will certainly not take their place. You need not fear that anyone speaking from the perspective of Spiritual Science is advocating any reactionary or conservative ideas; they will not be things of the past. Yet these things are so different from what currently exists as a “voting machine” that it would be shocking. It would still be regarded as madness. Nevertheless, it will become part of the impulses of the times. But Delaisi also says: Just as in organic development, useless appendages later appear that persist even though they have already lost their functions, so too will these parliaments continue to vote for some time to come; but the living life will depart from them.

[ 37 ] You know, human beings have certain limbs that have lost their function today: some people can still move their ears; in earlier stages of evolution, there were muscles there that have lost their function. Humans still have these muscles today, but they are what are called atavistic appendages that no longer serve a purpose. This is Delaisi’s mental image of the parliament of the future; parliaments will still be such degenerating, dead, atavistic remnants, but something else will be introduced into human evolution.

[ 38 ] I have just cited Delaisi—the book that was published not too long ago, in 1910—to draw your attention to the fact that there are actually enough people—since one is enough for many thousands—and that the only thing that matters is not to overlook these people. And in addition to my efforts to introduce you to the laws of spiritual life and the impulses of spiritual life, I also regard it as my task to point out the significant phenomena of the present, even if this initially means that what you hear here in these lectures described as significant phenomena is not actually labeled as such in the outside world—if you even come across it at all. What we engage in here must be radically and thoroughly distinct from what is done out there. Only when we grasp this in all its depth and with all seriousness can we truly pursue Spiritual Science in an appropriate manner.

[ 39 ] Tomorrow I will give another lecture here, one that will focus more on the arts, so the proper continuation of today’s reflections will likely not take place until next Friday. Unless a different decision is made in the meantime—not by us, but by the authorities out there—it will be next Friday at 7:00 a.m. So tomorrow at 6:00 a.m.

[ 40 ] Perhaps I should mention, my dear friends, that I have just finished the book *On the Mysteries of the Soul*, which has not yet been published but will be coming out soon. It consists, for now, of three sections:

I. Anthropology and Anthroposophy
II. Max Dessoir on Anthroposophy
III. Franz Brentano (An Obituary).

[ 41 ] And I place particular importance on the fact that, at the beginning, I have included digressions that summarize earlier areas of research I have been engaged in for decades. You will find them in this work, presented in a manner appropriate to today’s circumstances:

1. The Philosophical Justification of Anthroposophy
2. The “Mere” Existence of the Limits of Knowledge
3. On the Abstract Nature of Concepts
4. An Important Feature of Spiritual Perception
5. On the True Foundation of the Intentional Relationship
6. The Physical and Spiritual Interdependencies of the Human Being
7. Franz Brentano’s Distinction Between the Soul and the Non-Soul
8. A Frequently Raised Objection to Anthroposophy.

[ 42 ] Furthermore, in the third issue of the year—October 1917—of *Reich*, you will find the first part of my essay on “The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz,” as well as a fine essay by Dr. Unger on questions of knowledge in Spiritual Science, a fine essay by Dr. Wohlbold, and much more. I am mentioning only those essays in this issue that have emerged directly from our anthroposophical movement. You will also find an essay by Mrs. Wolfram on the Alexander legend. So, in this very issue of *Reich*, you will find a large portion of content that has sprung directly from our anthroposophical spiritual current.