The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Essential Aspects of Consciousness for the Present and the Future III

[ 1 ] Life—the totality of the human soul’s existence—is, as is once again evident from the reflections we are now engaging in, a complex one. Many threads connect the human soul to many realms, to many forces, and to the centers of the universe. Let us recall what was presented here fourteen days ago in order to establish a connection to truths that we wish to begin bringing before our souls today—truths that may allow world events to appear before our souls in a way that is meaningful to us from a certain perspective. I would like to briefly recall what was discussed here fourteen days ago.

[ 2 ] I said: One truly comes to know a person only by not merely observing their ordinary consciousness—which prevails within them from waking to falling asleep—but by becoming fully aware that within this consciousness there are other, dull, twilight states of consciousness exist within this consciousness, but that one can only penetrate beyond them by taking into account that threefold division of the human being which reveals him as a head-human, a torso-human, and a limb-human. The whole being of the human being certainly makes use of the head in order to have the consciousness familiar to us. But we have also been able to show that through this human head, the human being possesses a dreamlike consciousness that is merely drowned out by ordinary consciousness, and that through this dreamlike consciousness, the human being looks back upon his or her previous earthly lives. Likewise, we have been able to show that the “limb-human,” though in connection with the whole human being, continually develops a dreamlike consciousness of the next earthly life. What we therefore present within our spiritual science as a theory of repeated earthly lives is already a reality within the human soul. It is a reality of consciousness, but a dull, twilight-like reality of consciousness. Furthermore, we have also pointed out that through the process of exhalation—which belongs to the trunk organization—the human being develops such a dreamlike consciousness of the life spanning from the last death to birth; and through the process of inhalation, which likewise belongs to the trunk organization, the human being has a dim consciousness of the life spanning from the next death to the new birth. In short, the various states of consciousness intertwine within the human being. All of this will make you aware that we are dealing with a finely woven organization in the whole human being, and that what is usually said about human beings—what people generally understand about them—is actually only a very small part of the human being’s total being, merely the coarsest aspect of that total being.

[ 3 ] But it is precisely this that makes human beings such complex beings: they are embedded, through the various aspects of their entire being, in worlds that are initially unknown to ordinary consciousness—worlds that are supersensible to ordinary consciousness. What is so embedded in a spiritual world within the human being—what proves to be embedded even in a not particularly refined inner life, even in ordinary human existence, which must be viewed through the various earthly lives—is, however, not at all simple. And yet one can only grasp the overall significance of human life by taking in this entire complex human being as it passes through various earthly lives. This delicate fabric is, in fact—especially for today’s human perception—quite heavily concealed, masked. We will have more to say about this masking later. In fact, people are usually familiar only with the masking of the human being; for what descends from the spiritual world—what, so to speak, takes up residence in the physical human being and ascends again into the spiritual world through death— does not manifest itself in a very gross way in human life; rather, so much happens in human life that is so gross that the processes leading the human being from one earthly life to the next are actually concealed, masked. One realizes just how complex human life is when one traces it over longer periods of time. And here I ask you, as you follow this over extended periods of time, to bear in mind that what I have to describe here—when I describe the true life of the human soul over extended periods—does indeed differ quite significantly from what external history recounts. We have already hinted at why this is the case on several occasions. We shall discuss it in greater detail later, specifically on this occasion.

[ 4 ] An important period—as I indicated some time ago—in the development of humanity as a whole, particularly our Western cultural humanity, is that from the 7th to the 8th century before the Mystery of Golgotha. At that time, a significant transformation took place within human souls, particularly those of Western civilization. We know that the third post-Atlantean cultural epoch was then transitioning into the fourth. Prior to the 7th and 8th centuries, human souls had primarily possessed the character of the feeling soul. At that time, they took on the character of the intellectual soul. Then there was another important turning point in the 15th Christian century—not so long ago, after all—when the human soul took on the character of the conscious soul. Now, the character of the soul that one acquires also alters the character of the dreamlike recollection of a previous incarnation. Just consider, for example, a person at the beginning of the Greco-Roman cultural period—that is, in the 3rd and 4th centuries B.C.E. If this person had reached a normal stage of development in the West or in a neighboring region, they lived with the character of the intellectual or emotional soul. But what within him dreamt of earlier earthly lives was, of course, directed back toward those earlier earthly lives, when the soul had the character of the sensory soul. Admittedly, in the course of the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, the ability to perceive repeated earthly lives directly gradually disappeared. Yet many people possessed this ability; and those who did looked back in such a way that—if I may put it this way—they saw themselves as possessing the feeling soul. The difference was relatively great between how people perceived themselves now—that is, in the “now” of that time—and what appeared before their souls when the dream took on a concrete form: “This is how you were in your previous earthly life.”—This is what set many people apart. People in their current incarnation at that time differed greatly from what they perceived as their previous incarnation. Because they felt themselves to be intellectual or emotional souls in their current incarnation at that time, they had the feeling: “You were a sentient soul in your previous incarnation.”—What does it mean to have the feeling that one was a sentient soul in a previous incarnation? People today hardly have that feeling at all anymore; they can no longer have the true sense of being a feeling soul—a feeling that people in the first centuries of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch still remembered quite vividly. The Egyptian and Chaldean people of the third post-Atlantean cultural period felt themselves to be feeling souls. To feel oneself as a feeling soul means: one is almost completely unaware that one is a thinking human being; one attaches no importance whatsoever to having thoughts, but rather lives in the constant, vivid feeling of being connected to the external world—but to an external world imbued with spirit. — It is extraordinarily difficult to describe this awareness of being a feeling soul, because this awareness is so vividly sensory that one actually feels constantly as though one has been left behind like a shadow in the places in space through which one has passed. For example, if one has been sitting on a chair—to use today’s terminology—and has walked away for a while, one has the feeling: “You’ll be sitting there for a long time yet.” — The feeling of connection with external things was very vivid. Above all, one constantly had a completely clear, concrete perception of one’s spatial image before oneself; one also constantly had a feeling of one’s spatial image before oneself. Because this sense of space was so strong, the teaching of reincarnation—which was presented consciously at that time—was also so intense; for when people looked back and became aware of these dreams of their past earthly lives, they had a vivid image of their spatial self. They literally saw themselves as they were in various situations.

[ 5 ] This vivid perception of the self was lost during the course of the fourth post-Atlantean cultural period. As a result, human beings have no longer been able to muster the strength to grasp even the dreamlike memories of past earthly lives that exist within them, namely because, later on, people who were reborn did not, in this dream through which they recalled earlier earthly lives, remember a sensuous soul capable of such vivid perception, but rather an intellectual or emotional soul—which is not very concrete to begin with, but rather something vague and inner. Human beings cannot grasp this in that way. Consequently, awareness of past earthly lives gradually ceased entirely. But in the course of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, this awareness of repeated earthly lives will reemerge in a very specific way. And no one truly understands the evolution of humanity who does not grasp such truths as we now bring before our souls.

[ 6 ] Whatever occurs within humanity occurs in various ways in the most diverse regions of our Earth. I have often pointed out that a time is to be expected again in the future—and it will prove particularly significant in the third millennium—when no one will be able to exist without a certain recollection of past Earth lives, and especially not without a clear awareness that they may have future Earth lives. But it is precisely this awareness that will manifest in various ways in different regions of the Earth, and understanding this is of the utmost importance.

[ 7 ] Let us now consider the major regions where this will manifest in various ways: the regions of the East, beginning clearly in Eastern Europe and then extending into Asia—that is, the region of the Orient; and then let us focus in particular on the region of Western Europe and the Americas. In both regions, this future capacity to contemplate repeated earthly lives is being prepared in various ways. In the West, this is already known quite precisely in initiated circles, and the significance of the West lies precisely in the fact that people anticipate occult abilities and intend to apply them in their outer lives as well. Anyone who fails to take this into account has a very poor understanding of the development of the West and the West’s entire influence on the history of humanity. Precisely the most important events taking place in the West—those originating specifically from the Anglo-American race—occur under the influence of more secret, more intimate knowledge of human history as such. When one describes what these things are all about, one naturally soon runs the risk of having to speak paradoxically, because one must describe things about which the intelligent person—who is, after all, always intelligent and wise!—says: “Yes, why don’t the initiates know this?”—But you need only consider that I have to tell you all sorts of things about Lucifer and Ahriman. all sorts of things—what they do, what they feel, and especially what they have done—and then people come along and think they would have been wiser than Lucifer and Ahriman and would not have done things like staying behind and so on. One simply has to look at such things in the right light. One can do certain things precisely because, in a certain sense, one is wiser than human beings.

[ 8 ] In the West, in particular, a tendency to oppose repeated earthly lives is emerging from certain mysterious undercurrents. A struggle against repeated earthly lives | in the future is gaining ground in certain highly initiated circles of the Anglo-American race. That is the paradox that must be noted here. From certain spiritual centers in the West, there is a desire to bring about, in a certain way, the gradual cessation of such repeated earthly lives—that is, such a regular cycle of life between birth and death, then again between death and the next birth, and then again between birth and death. Ultimately, they want to bring about a completely different structure of human life, and there are means by which such a different structure can be achieved. What they want, in fact, is the following: Through a certain training, through the bestowal of certain powers, they wish to bring the human soul into a state in which, after death, it feels ever more and more connected to earthly conditions and earthly forces, so that it develops a certain strong affinity for earthly forces—naturally, for the spiritual-earthly forces— and that after death it strays as little as possible from the earthly regions, remains very close to them, thereby retaining a certain influence over the earthly regions after death; and because it remains close to the earthly regions—because, as it were, it lives on as a departed soul in connection with them—it is also freed from the necessity of actually entering a physical body again. The Anglo-American race strives toward a remarkable ideal: no longer to return to earthly bodies, but to exert an ever-greater influence on the Earth through their souls, to become ever more earthly through their souls. — In this way, then, it strives toward an ideal of making life here on Earth and life post mortem—life after death—similar. This is achieved—for now only among those who are trained in this direction, but it will become more and more common to offer such training—by awakening in human beings a much greater and stronger sense of connection to the Earth than what is considered “normal.” If, during the Lemurian and Atlantean periods, a certain Luciferic and Ahrimanic influence had not made itself felt upon human beings, the human soul today would feel less connected to the physical body than it already does. This would manifest in the fact that there would be numerous people—in fact, most people would be like this—who would regard their body as already belonging to the Earth, who would feel: “You live inside your body,”—much as we feel today: “You walk on solid ground.” — Today, due to the Luciferic influence, we regard our body as very close to us, but not the Earth. We say that the Earth is outside of us. But we regard our body as close to us. From a certain higher spiritual point of view, we are just as much outside our body—even when awake—as we are outside the Earth. In a sense, we stand upon our brain only with our soul; thereby, it serves as the foundation of our thinking. People are unaware of this today—because of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences. Had these not existed, we would, as souls, feel much more alien to our bodies; we would regard them as a hill on the Earth—albeit a movable one—upon which we lean, just as we otherwise lean on sand dunes.

[ 9 ] Certain circles within Anglo-Americanism have turned this into a practical maxim. They specifically cultivate those sensory faculties of the human body that further reinforce what I have just described—this bond between the human being and the body—by introducing forces that are not merely within the body but connect the body to the earth. Through special exercises, people of this Anglo-American race are to gradually develop a strong sense that their body belongs to the earth. They are not only to feel: “I am my arm, I am my leg”—but they are also to feel: “I am also the gravity that passes through my legs; I am also the weight that burdens my hand and my arm.” — A strong sense of physical kinship between the human body and the earthly elements must be cultivated. This strong sense of kinship with the physical body and earthly conditions is particularly strong today in the animal kingdom, especially among certain species of apes. They possess it; it is, in fact, their inner life. It can also be studied from a physiological and zoological perspective. What exists there can gradually be incorporated into a system of human education; one must simply integrate the fundamental kinship between human beings and nature more and more into a system of physical education. Through this—and I do not mean to complain or express anything particularly critical, but merely to state facts—one can practice a kind of practical Darwinism by making human beings more closely related to what connects them to the earth. In a certain sense, one can “make humans more like apes.” That is the practical counterpart. It is cultivated to a high degree, seemingly instinctively yet well-guided, in the specific form of sports and similar activities. This cultivation, however, binds the soul precisely by infusing it into the physical sense of kinship with the earthly realm, with the Earth, and thereby brings about what I described earlier as a spiritual ideal. In this way, these constant fluctuations between spiritual life and physical life are, so to speak, overcome, and little by little the ideal will be realized: to live in future periods of Earth’s development as a kind of ghost, to inhabit the Earth as a kind of ghost. In this regard, it is extraordinarily interesting that this ideal can be cultivated primarily only among the male population; and therefore, despite all external political . efforts—which ostensibly aim for the opposite, but in reality, on a deeper level, one often desires something entirely different internally from what one outwardly seeks politically—an ever-greater contrast will emerge in Anglo-American culture between masculinity and femininity. What constitutes Anglo-American intellectual life will essentially be passed down to posterity through femininity; whereas that which lives on in male bodies will strive toward the ideals I have described. This will also shape the future of the Anglo-American race. It will take on a form that corresponds to what I have described.

[ 10 ] If we now look to the East, we see a completely different picture. And looking to the East is entirely fitting for the people of Central Europe today; for what will develop in Eastern Europe is today completely masked—in fact, completely suppressed. What has currently taken hold in Eastern Europe is, of course, the opposite of what must develop from Eastern Europe. For what has taken hold, for example, in so-called Greater Russia, is the struggle against all spiritual life, the struggle against all the spiritual foundations of humanity, whereas certain spiritual foundations of humanity are precisely meant to develop in the East. And our age is, after all, little inclined to truly open our eyes and keep our minds alert with regard to what is happening. We let everything pass us by while we remain asleep, even though it would be absolutely necessary, especially in our time, to cultivate the ability to judge what is happening in our contemporary world. People like Lenin and Trotsky ought to be open to judgment by our contemporaries—and judged in such a way that one might see in them the greatest, most intense enemies of humanity’s true spiritual development, the likes of which did not exist even in the era of the Roman Caesarian regime—which is always portrayed as so abominable—nor in the era of the notorious Renaissance heroes. The Borgias, for example, are mere amateurs in the face of historical events concerning the suppression of the spiritual, compared to what lies within men like Lenin and Trotsky. These are things that completely escape the notice of people today, but it is indeed necessary to draw attention to such matters from time to time. For there is one thing to which we should actually be directing people’s souls today. These past four years should have taught people that the old historical legend, which has taken shape in so many idioms, should no longer persist. The judgment should finally take hold that, in light of current events, the characterization that has been applied to the Roman Caesarian era or the history of the Renaissance should henceforth be called “boarding-school-girl stories”; and whoever wishes to remain stuck in these “boarding-school-girl stories” need not allow themselves to be corrected by what we can learn today, with an alert eye, for the assessment of the new past. If, then, one wishes to look at what is taking shape in the East, one must of course take into account that this is actually quite hidden from the slumbering human race—far more hidden than it was some time ago, when the East was judged more by its spiritual creators, in whom one can at least find much that is very true of what might be called: the beginnings of a true understanding of Eastern Europe. This Eastern Europe will gradually—albeit in a not-yet-very-near future—produce people who will also develop an overview of repeated earthly lives, but in a different way than I have described for the West. In the West, a kind of struggle against repeated earthly lives will assert itself; in the East, it will be an acceptance, an embracing of the truth of repeated earthly lives. In this East, there will be a longing to educate human souls in such a way that they become aware of what lives within them—not only between birth and death, but what lives on from one earthly life to the next. In education, attention will be drawn to certain things that these Eastern people in particular will experience with exceptional intensity. Even children will be made aware that there is something within the human being that can be felt and sensed, and that is not limited to the life of the physical body. Older educators will make the following point clear to young people. They will say to them: “Try to feel—what do you feel in your soul?” — By phrasing this question for them in various ways, they will come to realize: “I feel as if something were there; something has entered my body, it has been here on Earth before, has passed through death, and will return later; but it is a very vague feeling for me.” — Try to probe further: How does this vague feeling relate to the rest of your inner life? — In this way, one will try to further guide this young person educationally. And among the various ways of phrasing the question—one will eventually find the right one—he will come to understand and say: “What I feel there, what will live on again and again, is something that destroys my thinking; it does not want to let me think; it wants to kill my thoughts.” — And this will be a very important feeling, one that will emerge and be nurtured—but nurtured as something natural among the people of the East. They will come to feel that there is something within them that passes from life to life, but which, given who they are as earthly human beings, robs them of their thinking, numbs it, empties it, and kills it: I cannot think properly; my thinking becomes dulled when I feel precisely that which is deeper within me; this deeper aspect of my being buries my thinking; I feel something within me that is my eternal self, but I feel it almost as an inner murderer of my thoughts.

[ 11 ] That will be the kind of feeling. Among the many psychologically fascinating things that the world will yet learn about the East, this will be one of them. And it seems to me that those who have viewed the East solely in terms of its art and literature will find that such things have, in fact, already been foreshadowed. In Dostoevsky’s writings, one is not far from such a foreshadowing, where people strive for their best, their most excellent; but when they realize this, they feel something like an inner murderer, an inner gravedigger of their thoughts. This is because there, in a very special form, the conscious soul must play out its life, and—as I have already explained elsewhere—of all the aspects of human soul life, it is the one most bound to the earth. And as it moves toward the future and the soul feels the capacity to perceive repeated earthly lives, it will not feel as people did in pre-Christian times, for example in ancient Greece, where the feeling soul was seen in all its vitality; no, one will then also gradually perceive the intellectual or emotional soul as something lying further back and as that which directly stifles thoughts.

[ 12 ] And then the education will continue. These souls will feel as if they were in an inner tomb of their own beings—but a tomb that makes room for the revelation of the spiritual world—and that will be the next feeling, which I will now characterize as follows. The souls will say to themselves: It is true that when I truly perceive my Eternal Self, which passes from life to life, it is as if it were killing my mental effort; my thinking is set aside, but divine thought flows in and spreads over the grave of my own thoughts. The Spiritual Self comes; the Consciousness Soul enters the grave, and the Spiritual Self thus makes its appearance. — I am no longer describing this merely schematically: “First there is the soul of consciousness, then comes the spiritual self”—but rather I would like to lead you into the human soul, as it will be when the “I” gradually perceives the transition from the soul of consciousness to the spiritual self. I would like to show how it dawns in the East and how it will be experienced there: The Eternal has once become so on Earth—which, of course, has been in decline here since the Greco-Roman era—that ordinary thinking, which springs solely from the human being, is disrupted by the Eternal within the human being; one becomes empty, but one does not become empty in vain: into this emptiness the new spiritual revelation gradually enters, and at first in the form that it spreads within the human soul as the spiritual self.

[ 13 ] Such things do not take place without significant inner emotional turmoil and tragedy. Countless people, especially in the East, will experience deep inner emotional tragedy and profound inner suffering because they will feel: My inner self is killing my thoughts. — And a certain weariness, a certain dullness will overcome people, because precisely what they perceive as the ideal—the pursuit of the human being—does not bring them any liberation at first, but rather something like a dulling, a numbing, an inner weariness.

[ 14 ] The Central European people actually exist so that these circumstances can be viewed objectively—so that they can be understood and so that one can find one’s bearings within them. They fulfill their task only when they truly look at such circumstances. To achieve this goal, however, the people of Central Europe must once again recall what I called in my book *The Riddle of Man* a forgotten current of intellectual life, of spiritual life. It is indeed very, very important that what is largely forgotten today—what once existed as a spiritual power of understanding in relation to the entire world—be grasped anew, precisely in Central Europe. Who today knows what a magnificent understanding of all human culture figures such as Friedrich Schlegel, for example, brought to bear? Who today knows what profoundly significant insights into human development minds such as Schelling, Flegel, and Fichte brought to bear? People speak a great deal about Fichte, especially today. It goes without saying that those who speak most about such thinkers understand them the least. And what of that revitalization of understanding that would be possible if one were imbued, in the genuine, true sense of the word, with Goethe’s spirit! But much is required for that. It is not even particularly significant to mention today that we ought to return to Goethe’s spirit already now, but it is important to note that we are misjudged in the world when we give the impression that we no longer possess anything of Goethe’s spirit. The connection, for example, between our Dornach building and Goethe’s spirit—I don’t believe many people understand this at all. And yet it is by no means unimportant.

[ 15 ] What I have tried to present to you today from a humanities perspective—as a characterization of the West and the East—is actually something that both the spirits of the West and those of the East speak of. One simply has to understand them correctly. One need only interpret correctly what is evident even in the political speeches of the West today, and one must be able to perceive certain instincts that arise in the proper context of the development of the human soul. The instinct for the conquest of the earth, as it prevails in Anglo-Americanism, is intimately connected with the ideal of wanting to become an earthly specter in the future. And what is now emerging in the East permeates entirely the remarkable lecture that Rabindranath Tagore gave on the “Spirit of Japan,” which is now available here in every bookstore. Of course, what I am saying now is not explicitly stated in it, but it pulsates through all the sentiments expressed by such a spirit of the East—albeit the more distant East; what is emerging in the more distant East is more significant—regarding what is currently developing in the European East. But it would be necessary for people in both the West and the East, across the entire globe, to come to know what is contained in the spiritual substance of Central Europe. Of course, people first look at what manifests itself outwardly, physically. How could such a person from the East—and it is precisely there, in Asia, that significant writings have now appeared; I need only recall Ku Hung Ming once more—how could such a person from the East look at anything else when the name Goethe is mentioned, other than the “Goethe Society,” which has its center in the city from which Goethe’s spiritual influence once radiated?

[ 16 ] Yet there one finds this Goethean spiritual life cultivated in the most remarkable way, in a manner that has never really existed before. There would have been an opportunity to truly harness princely generosity for a far-reaching spiritual life; for what Grand Duchess Sophie did for Goetheanism is immeasurably magnificent. From that side, at least, they were already up to the task. Only the others were by no means up to the task. A Goethe Society was founded. Now, if one looks at this Goethe Society from the outside: Who represents it? Who stands for it? Someone in whom Goethe’s spirit lives? It is quite characteristic of our time that it is represented by a former finance minister! All the feelings, all the impulses of the soul that lead to such a thing must be taken into account. The only glimmer of hope in this matter is the first name of this finance minister: Kreuzwendedich, a first name common to this family. But such things are usually overlooked, and these things must not be overlooked. For what must develop, precisely here, is an understanding of the things taking place in the world.

[ 17 ] I recently drew attention to how, in addition to the fifteen hundred million people living on Earth, five hundred forty million other beings—mechanical beings—have come into existence as a result of developments over the last few centuries. This has introduced a fundamentally Ahrimanic element into human evolution. This Ahrimanic element is based on something that has become absolutely necessary: the scientific exploration of the human environment. We considered this last time. But over the course of the last four centuries, this scientific exploration has made it necessary for human beings to truly set out to study nature in its details and to get to know the laws and entities of nature in their particulars. Indeed, people even apply this scientific way of looking at things to all sorts of areas—for example, to history, where it does not belong. No one would go so far as to say, in the realm of natural science, nothing but “Nature! Nature! Nature!”—in effect, establishing a kind of pan-naturalism, an “all-nature.” “All-nature” would have done little to advance modern culture, but there are, after all, people whose thinking remains stuck in this pan-naturalism. Let me give you an example of this.

[ 18 ] When Layard, a researcher on Nineveh, once asked the Qadi of Mosul about the characters of the individual people under his rule and about the prehistory of individual states, this was far too much concrete scientific thinking for the Qadi of Mosul. He could not comprehend that one should engage in studying the characters of individual subjects as one would study the landscape, or even study the history of states. That, he believed, stemmed from the European nonsense of wanting to study nature in such a way. And he said to the researcher: “Listen, my son, the only real truth that exists is to believe in God.” And this truth—believing in God—should deter one from wanting to investigate His deeds. Look up: Up there you see a star around which another star orbits. And you see a star with a tail; it took many years for it to reach us; it will take many years for it to leave our orbit. Who would be so foolish as to try to determine the paths of this star! The very hand that created it will also guide and direct it. Listen, my son, you say that this is not curiosity, but that you are simply more eager for knowledge than I am. Well, if your knowledge has made you a better person than you used to be, then you are doubly welcome to me; but just don’t demand that I concern myself with it. I care for no knowledge other than that which consists in faith in God. I despise all other knowledge. Or let me ask you: Has this knowledge, which rummages around everywhere, led you to acquire a second stomach? Or have your eyes opened a view into paradise? — This is what the Qadi of Mosul said, intending to take aim at naturalistic knowledge.

[ 19 ] You may find yourself smiling inwardly at the fact that the Qadi of Mosul, a typical representative of this view, was able to express this attitude. But when it comes to spiritual science—albeit applied to a different field—this attitude is also very much in evidence. These “Qadis of Mosul” are very common. They say over and over again: “Oh, it is by no means necessary for a person to concern themselves with anything in the spiritual world other than what gives them trust in God.” Just as the Qadi of Mosul rejected external natural science, so too do very many people in our own regions—especially official representatives of spiritual life—reject spiritual science. Just now another little book has been published in which, although it is otherwise written in a very benevolent tone, one can read the following beautiful sentence: The problem with spiritual science is that it seeks to know something about the spiritual world, whereas the true meaning of religious life lies precisely in knowing nothing about the spiritual world, and yet having that trust—that great trust—to believe in what one knows nothing about. — This is said to be precisely what distinguishes human beings: that they can admit to themselves: I know nothing, but I accept this divine reality. — People today do not yet clearly see—though they should—that with regard to the spiritual world, this is precisely the same perspective as that regarding the physical-sensory world and its knowledge, which characterized the Qadi of Mosul, and about which you just smiled quietly. But that is precisely what matters: that humanity find the transition to the knowledge of the spiritual just as it has found the transition to the knowledge of the natural. This must be seen clearly and forcefully. For it depends on this whether we will have, looking toward the future, a worldview at all that is capable of establishing the human social structure. This human social structure will certainly not be founded on what is today called economics or similar disciplines. Everything that has existed so far as economics or economic theory is either a legacy from ancient times that is no longer useful, or it is straw-like, foolish undergrowth—withered material. A true economics will only be possible when the power of ideas—drawn from the spiritual world—permeates our thinking. What is taught in official schools as economics or as a doctrine for human happiness ends up in the minds of misanthropes like Lenin and Trotsky; these are the ultimate consequences. But what is to permeate people with forces that shape the future must come from an understanding of the spiritual world. It may seem paradoxical today to speak of the West and the East as I have done. But this paradox contains the spiritual realities! And without knowledge of these spiritual realities, it will not be possible to find a healthy way to shape earthly conditions for the future, conditions that are sinking deeper and deeper into chaos. Concepts that had meaning and validity just a few years ago no longer have any meaning or validity today. In every field, we must relearn. Religions will only be able to mean anything to people again if they are imbued with true knowledge of the spiritual worlds. To this end, they will have to learn—and this does not refer to their content, but to the way in which they have gradually taken on certain forms—they will have to learn that these forms are not suited to truly speak to the human inner being, but that they will speak to the human inner being only when one appeals to the real forces that come from the spiritual world. “The Kadis of Mosul”—well, precisely those who are not from Mosul, but from, I won’t say where—they, too, must cease their activities in the realm of public life. I say this simply and unpretentiously today, but I believe you will sense that quite a lot—indeed, a great deal—has actually been said by this.

[ 20 ] We are now left to consider a specific question: How is it, then, that it remains so very hidden from people that the human soul undergoes such transformations as it has, I might say, from the 12th century to the present day, and in a broader sense, from the 7th and 8th centuries B.C. to the present day? This stems from the fact that there is still something of another world within human nature, and this presence of another world belongs, in turn, to the deepest mysteries of humanity. One can only truly come to know human beings by gaining some understanding of this other world, which is constantly interested in remaining hidden. We will speak of this next time.