The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Earth-Death and Universal-Life I

[ 1 ] My dear friends, I need hardly say that it is a great joy for me to be here with you again during this difficult and trying time. And since we are now able to discuss topics of spiritual science here for the first time in a long while, it will be especially important for us, in these difficult times, to remember how spiritual science is far from being mere theory, but rather should be a substantial, firm anchor that binds together the souls of human beings—not only the souls of those here on the physical plane, but also, together with them, the souls of those who live in the spiritual worlds. This is so close to our hearts, especially at this time, when countless souls have left the physical plane under circumstances of which we have spoken so often; at this time, when so many souls out there are facing the most severe trials that world history has perhaps ever imposed upon humanity. Setting aside the general ideas that have flowed through our souls at the beginning of these lectures here and in other places, let us try today, in an individual way, to direct our feelings and our sensibilities toward those who are out there, as well as toward those who have already passed through the gate of death in the wake of these events.

You who watch over earthly souls,
You who weave the fabric of earthly souls,
Spirits who protect human souls
And work lovingly from the wisdom of the worlds,
Hear our plea,
Behold our love,
Which, with your rays of helping power
Wishes to become one
Surrendered to the Spirit, sending love!

[ 2 ] And with regard to those who have already passed through the gates of death during this time:

You who watch over the souls of the spheres,
You who weave among the souls of the spheres,
Spirits who protect human souls
And work lovingly from the wisdom of the worlds,
Hear our plea,
Behold our love,
Which, with your streams of helping power
Wishes to become one
Intuiting the Spirit, radiating love!

[ 3 ] And may the Spirit whom we have sought to draw near to over the years through the spiritual knowledge we have strived for—the Spirit who sought to bring healing to the Earth and freedom and progress to humanity through the Mystery of Golgotha—be with you and your heavy duties! ^{1The preceding commemorative words were spoken by Rudolf Steiner during the war, in this or a similar form, before each lecture he gave within the Anthroposophical Society in the countries affected by the war.}

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[ 4 ] Perhaps the difficult time of trials that humanity is currently facing will, after all, be one that increasingly impresses upon human souls the importance of spiritual deepening; then this difficult time of trials will not have passed in vain for humanity, both in the present and for the future. One simply has the feeling today—and these things are not being said to criticize anyone, but rather to appeal to what is right and just—one has the feeling that the time has not yet come when people have learned enough from the gravity of current events. One has the feeling that it is necessary to speak ever more clearly and clearly from the spirit of the times to human souls, to human hearts. For it is not human voices alone that can speak today; it is the voices that resound mysteriously from the grave events—events that are so significant beyond their mere gravity.

[ 5 ] The whole situation—which I can only describe to you today, I might say, in a stammering and inadequate way—is particularly clear to me because this recent trip to Switzerland has shown me many things, especially with regard to the relationship between our spiritual movement and the tasks of our time. Anyone who has carefully read the series of lectures I gave in Vienna before the war—on human experiences between death and a new birth, and on the connections to human life in general that could be explored there—knows how, even back then before the war, reference was made to the deeper causes and foundations of the historical events that subsequently unfolded so terribly. And one may say that everything one can now perceive between the lines of life is, in fact, to be understood outwardly as living proof of the truth of what was said back then. A radical term was used at that time, I would say, to describe the general malaise of the age, as you know. One can already see here and there that some lessons have now been learned from the great events. Yet, on the other hand, one also sees clearly and distinctly—especially when considering the details of seemingly insignificant things in their context—how rigid human thinking has become on the physical plane over the course of the last few centuries, and how slowly people come to any decisions or take any measures they are supposed to undertake. By way of introduction today, I would like to speak to you about a few things that I was able to experience during this trip to Switzerland, because I believe it is necessary for those interested in our movement to have at least some understanding of the broader context. However, I will present only a few points, in aphoristic form.

[ 6 ] It was a particularly gratifying development that, during my current stay in Switzerland, a group of younger academics from the University of Zurich took the initiative to organize a series of lectures by me in Zurich, designed specifically to draw connections to the various academic disciplines. I then gave four lectures in Zurich: the first dealt with the relationship between anthroposophical spiritual science and psychology, or the science of the soul; the second with its relationship to history; the third with its relationship to the natural sciences; and the fourth with its relationship to the social sciences and to the major social, legal, and international problems of our time. One would probably not be mistaken in saying that—though, of course, far from what one might wish for—a certain interest in this connection to the academic sciences could indeed be discerned at that time. After all, it could be shown that the academic sciences everywhere await that complement—one might even say that fulfillment—which can come only from anthroposophically oriented spiritual science, and that the subdisciplines of the present remain half-measures, perhaps even quarter-measures, if they cannot have this complement. Nowhere in Switzerland, wherever I was permitted to give lectures, did I fail to make it clear what our present age actually lacks in this regard, and what our present age must attain in order to incorporate it into the trends that will lead it toward a true future. One might say that one could at least sense that, although there was initially strong—curiously strong—resistance to our endeavors in Switzerland, in recent times, gradually—and certainly the resistance has not diminished, but has even grown stronger—a more lively interest has developed alongside the resistance; and it could well be—since karma has brought our work to Switzerland—that our activity in this country in particular could be of great significance. Especially if it is shaped as I have endeavored to shape it: so that our work also bears witness to those sources of spiritual scientific research that, in many respects, are unfortunately hidden and neglected, particularly within German intellectual life. This is a feeling that today touches one, on the one hand, even with a certain melancholy and in a tragic way, and on the other hand, certainly with deep satisfaction. One might well say: Anyone who fully grasps the gravity of the fact that, along with everything else, this German spiritual life is currently being condemned—truly condemned—by four-fifths of the world as it boasts of itself; anyone who keeps the full gravity of this fact before their eyes—which one does not always do— will be able to place, on the one hand, wistful and, on the other, satisfying hopes in the possibility that perhaps, precisely through anthroposophically oriented spiritual science, the opportunity will once again be offered to the outside world to give this German spiritual life the voice it must have if no harm is to be done to the Earth’s development. One finds—and will always find—the possibility of speaking to all people, regardless of nationality, when one speaks to them about the spirit in the true sense, that is, when one speaks to them about the true sources of spiritual life.

[ 7 ] It might also be a cause for melancholy that, while on the one hand we see these humanities-oriented endeavors gaining some ground, on the other hand it becomes clearly evident how even a country like Switzerland is finding it increasingly difficult to hold its ground in the face of what is bearing down on us today. It is not easy to form any kind of independent judgment in the face of pressure from four-fifths of the world; and it is not easy to even find the words to say everything that needs to be said in a country like this—which is, admittedly, a neutral one, but in which those four-fifths of the world nevertheless play a significant role. The situation in the world has simply become very tense.

[ 8 ] Now, however, we benefit in this regard from the fact that the mere word, the mere teaching, is supported there precisely by the forms and creations of our Dornach building, which, after all, also presents to the outward eye what our spiritual science aims for, and can thus demonstrate that this spiritual science—wherever it is allowed to intervene in practical life, wherever it is not brutally rejected—is capable of mastering and managing the life that places such great demands on human beings in the present.

[ 9 ] When we speak today about the relationship between anthroposophically oriented spiritual science and the rest of the world’s knowledge and will, the point is that we really must bring entirely new, unfamiliar ideas to people. People are generally, deep down in the recesses of their consciousness, dimly convinced that something new must come from somewhere. But they are also incredibly inflexible in their thinking, incredibly slow to take things in. One might even say: A fundamental characteristic of our fast-paced age is that people think so terribly slowly. This becomes apparent in small details. In Zurich, it was possible to establish connections between anthroposophical spiritual science and the academic sciences. I had spoken publicly in Basel earlier than I had in Zurich. Shortly before I had to leave Switzerland again, I also received an invitation from Basel to speak, entirely within an academic context, about the relationship between anthroposophical spiritual science and the other sciences. But of course it was too late, so the matter could no longer be pursued. — I mention this for two reasons: first, because it would have been of great importance to speak about our spiritual science directly in a setting dedicated solely to academic scholarship, organized by the Basel student body; on the other hand, I mention it because people were so slow that they didn’t arrive until just before closing time. It is characteristic that people always wait until just before closing time to decide on what flexibility of thought and the ability to grasp things quickly might have led them to earlier. It is indeed necessary to discuss these matters among ourselves so that we can act accordingly. One need only consider just one of the topics I have been speaking about recently, and one will already see the significance of what is to come.

[ 10 ] Among other things, I spoke in Zurich about the connections that need to be drawn between anthroposophically oriented spiritual science and the study of history—the historical life of humanity. We do, after all, have a history today. It is taught—taught to children, taught to academics. But what is this history? It is something that has not even the faintest inkling of the forces at work in the historical life of humanity, for the simple reason that the entire intellectual life of today is directed toward setting the human intellect in motion; toward setting the ordinary, so-called fully conscious concepts and ideas in motion and, from there, understanding everything.

[ 11 ] Yes, this is how one can understand the external, sensually perceptible natural world; this is how one can understand that mode of thinking which achieved such great triumphs in the field of the natural sciences; but by applying this mode of thinking to history, one sought to turn history into a natural science. In the 19th century, efforts were made to view history in the same way that one views sensory phenomena in the natural sciences. This, however, is impossible, for the simple reason that historical facts stand in a completely different relationship to life than those of the natural sciences. What do people keep in mind in historical life? What are the historical impulses?

[ 12 ] Anyone who believes they can grasp historical impulses with the kind of intellect that works quite well in the natural sciences will never grasp them, for these impulses operate in human development just as dreams do in our own dream life. Historical impulses do not penetrate the ordinary consciousness with which we master everyday life or the natural sciences; rather, what happens in history acts as such impulses, just as that which plays a part only in our dream life. One could say that historical becoming is a great dream of humanity. But what plays out in dreams as fleeting images becomes clear and distinct in the imaginative acts of spiritual science. Therefore, there is no history that is not a spiritual science; and the history taught today is not history.

[ 13 ] Herman Grimm noticed that the historian Gibbon, when describing the early days of the Christian era, focuses solely on the fall of the Roman Empire, not on the gradual rise of Christianity, its growth and flourishing. But Herman Grimm, of course, did not know the reason why a good historian can certainly describe a decline well, but not growth and development. The reason is that, given the way we seek to understand history today, we can only comprehend what is perishing, not what is becoming, not what is growing. This becomes so deeply embedded in human development just as dreams otherwise become embedded in individual life. Therefore, it can only be described by someone capable of imagination. And whoever is incapable of imagination—be he a Ranke or a Lamprecht—describes only the corpse of history, not the reality of historical becoming. For the impulses of historical becoming are merely dreamed by consciousness; and if ordinary consciousness attempts to grasp what is becoming historical, it can do so only when it is already in the subconscious.

[ 14 ] More recent times also offer us interesting examples of this. Anyone who has followed recent history has seen how, in the last few decades, people’s interest in the great questions of the world’s interconnectedness has more or less died out entirely or become overly academic—which is almost synonymous with dying out—it has become school-like, yes, it has become school-like. There is a deep connection between the school-like nature of our times and the fact that a schoolmaster currently at the helm of the most important republic seeks to set the agenda for humanity. — If one asks: Where, in recent decades, was the sense of the great interconnections of humanity, of ideas that, one might say, had a kind of religious character—albeit a brutally religious one—while everything else was more or less dying out? Where was such a thing? — then one can say, if one truly understands the circumstances: It was in socialism. — There were ideas, but ideas that were never directed toward spiritual life, that were directed solely toward brutal material life. But unfortunately, no other world of ideas stood in contrast to these. If one examines the ideas of socialism that have come to the surface, one finds: They are, in a sense, historical ideas; they are humanity’s dreams. But what kind of dreams? One must have a sense for this “dreaming” of humanity’s historical events. I tried to make this clear to people in my lectures in Switzerland by saying: Just try, for once, to turn those people who are very intelligent but who have absolutely no understanding of what I now call “dream impulses” into guiding and leading figures; you’ll see how far you get. — Just try, for once, to answer the question practically: How can one systematically destroy a community—as I said, even in a public lecture—as quickly as possible? — Organize things so that a parliament is established over this community and fill that parliament with nothing but scholars and professors: that is a surefire way to systematically ruin a community. They need not be tenured professors; they can also be socialist leaders, among whom the movement certainly has enough professors. One must have a sense for such things; then one will ask oneself: How did this whole comprehensive “theory of socialism” actually come about? If one were to put socialist theories into practice—perhaps humanity will be able to witness sad proof of this in the East today, if it does not stop sooner and tries to carry them forward—they would only be capable of destruction. How did these socialist ideas come to take root in people’s minds? What are these theories, really?

[ 15 ] Anyone who wants to know this must have a deep understanding of the history of the last four centuries, especially that of the 18th and 19th centuries. One must know that the history of the last four centuries is something entirely different from what is written in history books; one must know that the history of the last four centuries—and especially that of the last two—is truly a picture of human class and social struggles. And Karl Marx, for example, did nothing other than formulate as a theory—at the very moment it had already run its course—what humanity had dreamed of over the course of the last four or two centuries: what was truly there but has now run its course and must give way to a new era. Socialism, which was formulated in theory at the very moment when the reality had already faded from our dreams, shows that the intellect requires what has already perished—what has already become a corpse—when it sets about the task using those means of knowledge that, for example, are quite valid in the natural sciences. It is precisely on the basis of such insights that one will have to recognize that the world now truly stands at a turning point in history—where, in terms of the historical development of humanity—and the present has, after all, also become history, and when one lives into the future, one also lives into historical development—it must re-learn; one will have to realize that this historical development cannot be understood in any other way than through the spiritual sciences. After all, one cannot even obtain a true picture of the most recent events if one disregards the spiritual sciences. I would like to give you an example that I have cited frequently in recent times.

[ 16 ] An important event that took place between the lines of European life in the Middle Ages—we are among ourselves here, so we can speak of such things, even though those on the outside often laugh at them; but they will not always laugh—is the fact that, over the course of the Middle Ages, knowledge of the Western Hemisphere was lost to the European people. There had, of course, always been connections, especially between Ireland and England and the region we now call America. From Ireland and England, certain connections to the West had always been maintained, and it was not until the century in which the so-called discovery of America took place that a papal decree prohibited any engagement with America. Of course, it was not called “America” back then. The connection with America actually only faded at the time of the so-called discovery of America by the Spaniards; but external history is so unclear that people today actually have the impression that Europe knew nothing at all about America before the year 1492. Almost everyone believes that. And many similar facts, which spiritual science ought to bring to light from its sources, could be cited. We are now standing at a turning point in history, at which historical life must be viewed precisely from the perspective of spiritual science. One might now say: But since spiritual science, as we understand it, can really only come into its own in our own time, what then of earlier times?

[ 17 ] If we go back to earlier times, we find something else that, in a sense, can already be compared to what we today call the imaginations of spiritual science; we find myth and legend, and from the power of myth, from the power of legend—which were images—it was possible to draw impulses that were truly more real, more in keeping with reality—including political ones—than from the abstract teachings of today: history, social economics, or the like. For what binds people together, what makes human coexistence possible, need not be grasped in abstract terms. In the past, this was expressed through myth. Well, we cannot invent myths again today; we must simply turn to the power of imagination and use it to grasp historical life, and from this, shape political impulses that will truly be different from the fantastical impulses of which so many people dream today—or, as we might say, different from the pedantic impulses.

[ 18 ] It is certainly difficult today to tell people: Historical life is something that actually unfolds in the subconscious, contrary to ordinary conception. But on the other hand, this life, hidden from human beings, is knocking very insistently at the gates of events, at the gate of human impulses in general. One could say—as was particularly evident in the Zurich lectures—that today, everywhere, one encounters efforts toward knowledge that also aim toward the spirit, but with nothing but inadequate means. In Zurich, in particular, one becomes acquainted with analytical psychology—which has already gained academic recognition there—the so-called psychoanalysis, and it was precisely my lectures that sparked the most remarkable debates regarding the relationship between anthroposophically oriented spiritual science and psychoanalysis. But the psychoanalysts approach this world of spiritual science, so to speak, with spiritual blindfolds on; they cannot find their way into it. Yet this world is knocking at the door of what is meant to be revealed to people today.

[ 19 ] Take, for example, Professor Jung in Zurich, who has just recently written another pamphlet on psychoanalysis—he has authored many works on the subject—and who touches on a number of issues in it; but in doing so, he demonstrates precisely that he can only tackle everything with inadequate means. I would like to cite a fact from which you will immediately see what I mean. Jung cites an example that is frequently cited by psychoanalysts in general.

[ 20 ] The following happens to a woman. One evening, she is invited to a social gathering and is to stay for the night at someone’s home. The lady of the house where she is a guest is supposed to travel to a spa town right after dinner, because she is not in the best of health. Dinner proceeds as usual; the lady of the house leaves, and the guests also depart. The guest I am referring to leaves with a group of other guests. As people sometimes do when leaving a social gathering in the evening, they did not walk on the so-called sidewalk but in the middle of the street. Suddenly, a horse-drawn cab came round a corner. The people stepped aside toward the sidewalks to make way for the carriage, but the lady in question did not. She continued walking right in the middle of the road, right in front of the horses. The coachman cursed, but she kept walking in the same manner until she came to a bridge that crossed a river. There, to escape this unpleasant situation, she decided to throw herself off the bridge into the river. She did so, and was barely rescued by the members of the party who had run after her. And since it was the most obvious course of action for the group, she was taken straight back to the house of the woman who had left—the very place they had come from. There she found the husband of that departed lady and was able to spend a few hours with him in his home.

[ 21 ] Now just imagine what a person with limited resources can make of such an event. If one approaches the matter in the manner of psychoanalysts, one discovers those mysterious regions of the soul that reveal to us that, as early as the age of seven, the soul had some experience related to horses, so that the woman, on that outing from society, when the sight of the carriage horses brought that earlier experience up from the subconscious, was rendered so perplexed that she did not jump aside but ran away in front of the carriage. Thus, for the psychoanalyst, the entire episode becomes a result of the connection between present-day experiences and “unresolved psychological puzzles” stemming from one’s upbringing and so on. All of this, however, is an attempt to understand things with inadequate means, because the psychoanalyst in question does not know that this subconscious reigning within human beings is more essential than he assumes—that it is even far more sophisticated and far more intelligent than what a person possesses through his conscious mind. This subconscious is also often much braver and much bolder. For the psychoanalyst simply does not know that a demon dwelt in the soul of that woman who left—I might just as well say, has already departed—with the subconscious thought of being alone with the man once the woman has left. All of this is orchestrated by the most sophisticated mechanisms of the subconscious, for one acts with far greater confidence when the conscious mind is not present. The lady simply walked ahead of the horses so she could be intercepted when the time came, and she behaved accordingly. But the psychoanalyst does not see through such things, because he does not assume that there is a spiritual-psychic world everywhere with which the human soul is connected. But Jung senses something like this. From the many things that occur to him, he senses that the human soul is related to numerous other souls. But he must be a materialist after all, for otherwise he would not be a sensible person of the present day. So what does he do? He says: Everywhere, the human soul—as can be seen from the things that happen to the human soul—is related to spiritual realities outside the soul. — But those don’t exist! So how does one deal with that? Well, the soul simply has a body that descends from other bodies, and those in turn from others; thus there is heredity, and Jung constructs the idea that, through heredity, the soul relives everything that has been experienced in relationships—for example, with the pagan gods. This is still within us; through heredity, it is within us, and these become “isolated provinces of the soul” that must first be brought to the surface if one wishes to free the human soul from them. He even acknowledges that it is a necessity for the human soul to have a relationship with these, and that they ruin the nervous system if they are not brought up into consciousness. Therefore, he utters the statement, which is entirely justified from the perspective of the modern worldview: The human soul cannot exist without a relationship to a divine being without perishing inwardly. This is just as certain as it is certain, on the other hand, that a divine being does not exist at all. The question of the relationship between the human soul and God has not the slightest connection with the question of God’s existence.

[ 22 ] That is what it says in his book. So let’s consider what we actually have here: It is scientifically established that the human soul must construct a relationship with God, but that it is equally certain that it would be foolish to assume the existence of a God; thus, for its own well-being, the soul is condemned to lie to itself about God. Lie to yourself that there is a God, or else you’ll get sick! That’s actually what the book says.

[ 23 ] But one can see from this that the great enigmatic problems are knocking at the door, and that the present is merely resisting these things. If one were brave enough, something similar would come to light at every turn today. It’s just that people aren’t brave enough! For I am not saying all this to patch up Professor Jung’s reputation, but because I believe that, in his thinking, he is already braver than all the others. He says what he must say given the circumstances of the present. The others do not say it; they are even less brave.

[ 24 ] One must take all these things into account if one truly wishes to grasp what it actually means when spiritual science presents a truth such as this: What happens in the historical life of humanity—and consequently also in the life of political impulses—has nothing to do with ordinary consciousness; it cannot have anything to do with ordinary consciousness. Rather, it can only be truly understood and dealt with when imaginative consciousness comes into play. One could also say, with regard to the most characteristic representative of the—as I have often said recently—anti-social view of history in politics, that Wilsonianism must be replaced by an imaginative understanding of reality. However, Wilsonianism is very widespread, and some people are Wilsonians without even realizing it. It is not names that matter, but the facts that exist among people. In a certain sense, I can speak more impartially about Wilson because I can always emphasize that I had already passed judgment on Wilson in the lecture series I gave in Helsinki before the war, and I did not need to be taught by Woodrow Wilson during the war what kind of person sits on the throne of America. — But one could quite easily point to the voices of adulation that were heard everywhere regarding Woodrow Wilson and that have only recently fallen silent. Now we know a great deal. Now we even know that this gentleman, who sits on the “throne of America,” draws upon old dispatches from the late Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil dating from 1864 to draft his most effective Republican documents, simply copying the sentences contained therein—except that in the places where Dom Pedro said: “I must stand up for the interests of South America”—he now substitutes: “I must stand up for the interests of the United States of America”—and so on, with the necessary modifications.

[ 25 ] When Wilson’s two books, *The New Freedom* and *Merely Literature*, were published in our country at the time, there was no shortage of voices singing their praises; it wasn’t that long ago—only about five or six years. People have certainly learned a thing or two in this realm of Wilsonianism. But with regard to many other matters, it would indeed be necessary to learn—and to keep learning—from the deeply, profoundly transformative events of the present. For this, however, it is essential that certain things be taken very seriously—things that can flourish only on the fertile ground of spiritual scientific knowledge. People are, after all, very quick to accuse this anthroposophically oriented spiritual science of being theoretical, and they hold it up against her that other movements get straight to work, that they do not burden people with the need to understand the development of the worlds, but rather speak to people about love, about universal love for humanity—what one should love and how one should love. Well, for millennia, love has been spoken of in this way, just as many people want it to be again today; yet love expresses itself just as it does now. Let spiritual science first take hold of human souls for a much shorter time, and then you will see that this spiritual science, if it truly takes hold of human souls, will already blossom as love in human hearts. For love cannot be preached. Love can grow only if it is properly nurtured. But then it does grow. And it is a child of the spirit. In human beings, too, it is a child of true knowledge—that knowledge which does not focus on mere matter, but on the spirit.

[ 26 ] In today’s introductory lecture, my sole intention was to point out a few insights that may be significant for us, especially at this time. But I have also indicated how I intend to proceed in the upcoming series of lectures here. I intend to discuss everything that can awaken strength, courage, and hope in the human soul today. I would like to speak of all that spiritual science can offer humanity beyond what centuries have already given it, and I would like to speak of spiritual science as something living—not a mere theory within us, but something that gives birth within us to a second, spiritual human being who sustains and upholds the other in the world. And I believe, above all else, that this is what the present moment needs. There was a time in the Middle Ages—you are all familiar with it—when many people felt the sometimes very fanciful urge to make gold. Why did they want to make gold? They wanted to achieve something that cannot be realized under ordinary earthly conditions. Why? Because they realized that ordinary earthly conditions—without being spiritualized, without being permeated by spiritual impulses—cannot give human beings true satisfaction. After all, that is also the essence of the Gospel’s teaching. But people usually overlook what is most important; they criticize the Gospel’s view that the Kingdom of God has come down. Yes, but isn’t it there? It is there! It is simply not found in outward gestures. It must be grasped inwardly. It must not be denied, as it is denied in our time. And we will also speak about this descent of the Kingdom of the Spirit in the coming days.

[ 27 ] So today I just wanted—I’d like to say—to set the tone. Our time also depends on this—after all, the number of those who have now passed through the gates of death runs into the millions—on building a bridge to the realm in which the dead live. They live among us, and we can find them. We also want to speak anew about how we can find them.