Occult Psychology
GA 183
18 August 1918, Dornach
Lecture II
Today I should like to start by giving a kind of sketch of the human soul, as this human soul stands in relation to the world and to itself. I should like to give this sketch in such a way that it can be said: we are looking at the profile of man as a soul being. So that we understand ourselves just as if we were to look at the physical man—not the soul-being (see Head in diagram 1)—not perhaps seeing him full-face but, let us say, from the right in profile. Let us observe him thus. If we try to sketch in outline anything like this we must naturally always keep in mind that we have to do with imaginative knowledge, that the reality behind the matter therefore is being given in picture form. The picture refers to the matter and is given, too, in such a way that it correctly indicates the matter. Naturally, however, we may not have the same idea of a drawing, a sketch, meant to represent something of a soul and spirit nature as we do of anything that in a naturalistic way is copied from an external perceptible reality. One must be conscious all the time of what I am now saying. I shall therefore omit all that concerns the physical and lower etheric organism of man and try to sketch only what is soul—soul-and-spirit (see diagram 2). As you know from the various descriptions that have been given, the soul-and-spirit stands in a more direct connection with the world of soul-and-spirit than physical man stands in connection with his physical environment. Towards his physical perceptible environment physical man is rather an isolated being; one might even say that physical man of the senses is really shut up within his actual skin.
It is not so where what can be called the men of soul-and-spirit is concerned. There we have to think of a continual crossing of the currents pulsating in the inner depths of man's soul-and-spirit—of all the movements and currents existing in the general, universal world of soul-and-spirit.
If I want first of all to describe from the one side the kind of relation the human soul-and-spirit has to what is of soul-and-spirit in the cosmic environment, I should have perhaps to do it in this way. I should, first of all, have to paint what enters in a soul-spiritual way from the universal, from the infinity of space, like this. Naturally I should have to paint the whole space in a way... but that is not really necessary. I shall only paint man's immediate environment. Thus it is now what we may understand as the surrounding world. (see blue in diagram 2).
Now imagine in this picture form of the soul-spiritual that into which man is placed. Man indeed is not yet there, but indicated in this blue is only the edge of the environment. Imagine this like a surging blue sea filling space. (When I say ‘blue’ sea this must naturally be taken as I have often described it in books available to you, namely, colours are to be grasped in the description of the aura, of the soul-spiritual.) Borne like a wave, swimming, I might say, or hovering, so nothing else is borne up which is of soul-and-spirit. This is what I should now have to represent perhaps in the following way.
Thus, if we pass from the cosmic environment to man, we may be able to think of ourselves and what belongs to the human spirit-and-soul as perhaps hovering in this red.
There we should have first of all part of the soul-spiritual; and if we would make the sketch in accordance with reality it is only the upper part we should have to give in a kind of violet, in lilac graduating into red. This could only be given correctly by toning down the red into violet.
Thus, you see, with this I have given you first what might be called the one pole of man's spirit-and-soul nature. We get the other pole when we can perhaps incorporate in the following way what, adjoining the universal soul-spiritual here, is swimming and hovering towards the human physical face: yellow, green, orange; green running into the blue.
Here you get from the right side what I might call the side view of the normal aura of man. I say expressly a normal aura seen from the right side. What is presented to the view in this figure shows how man is placed into his environment of soul-and-spirit. But t also describes where man, the soul-and-spirit in man, stands in relation to itself. When everything represented by this figure is studied, it can clearly be seen how man is a being bounded an two sides. These two sides where man has his limits are always observed in life; but they are not indicated correctly nor considered in the right way—at least they are not understood. You know how in external science it is said that when man observes the world, when with his science he wishes to gain knowledge of the world, he comes to definite limits. We have often spoken of these limits, of the famous ignorabimus (“we shall never know”) which holds good with scientists and many philosophers. It is said that man comes indeed to certain limits in his cognition, in his conception, of the external world. I have certainly already quoted to you du Bois-Reymond's famous statement that in his seventieth year he made to the Scientific Congress in Leipzig; Human cognition will never penetrate into the regions haunted by matter—this is roughly what he said at the time. Perhaps the more correct way of speaking about the limits to human knowledge would be the following. In observing the world it is necessary for man to hold fast certain concepts which he penetrates neither with his scientific cognition nor with his ordinary philosophical cognition, we need only consider such concepts as that of the atom. The atom, however naturally has meaning only when we cannot actually speak of it, when we cannot say what it is. For the moment we were to begin describing the atom, it would no—longer be an atom. It is simply something unapproachable. And it is thus already matter, actual substance. Certain concepts have to be maintained that can never be approached. It is the same with knowledge of the external world; inaccessible concepts like matter, force and so on, must be maintained. That they should have to be maintained, depends here simply upon the inner light of man's soul-and-spirit stretching out into the darkness. What is stated to be the limit of knowledge can, I might say, actually be seen clearly in the aura.
Here lies a boundary in front of man. His being, what he himself is, is here represented in the aura by what I nave made run from bright green into blue violet (see diagram 2). But by passing over into blue-violet it leaves off being man and becomes the encircling cosmos. There with his being, which is the inner force of his world outlook, man comes to a boundary; there in a sense he reaches nothingness and he has to hold fast to concepts having no content—concepts such as matter, atom, substance, force. This lies in the human organization, it lies in man's connection with the whole cosmos. Man's connection with the whole cosmos actually stands out in front of him. If we describe this boundary in accordance with the ideas of spiritual science, we can do so by saying (diagram 3): this boundary allows man with his soul to come into contact with the universe. If we indicate the direction of the universe in one loop of a lemniscate we can with the other loop show what belongs to man, only what proceeds from man goes out into the universe, into the infinite.
Therefore we must make the line of the loop, the lemniscate, open on one side, closed on the other, and draw it like this—here the line of the loop is closed and here it goes out into infinity. It is the same line that I drew there, only here the arm goes out at this end into infinity (see diagram 4 of lemniscate open to the outside). What I have here drawn as an open lemniscate, as an open loop, is not just something thought out, but something you can actually look upon as flashing in and out of a gentle, very slow movement as the expression of man's relation to the universe. The currents of the universe continually approach man; he draws them towards him, they become intermingled in his vicinity and proceed outward again. Thus this kind of thing streams towards man, interweaves and then goes out again; man is permeated by these currents belonging to the universe, which stop short in front of him.
As you may imagine, through this man is surrounded by a kind of wave-like aura; these currents enter from the universe, form a whirlpool here, and by making this whirlpool in front of him, as it were, salute man. So that here he is surrounded by a kind of auric stream.
This is essentially an expression of man's relation to the cosmos, to the surrounding world of soul-and-spirit. You can, however, find all that you actually experience as lying in your consciousness represented here as a mixture of blue, green and yellow running into orange towards the inside. But that pushes up against here; within the soul part of man this yellow-orange collides with what waves on the blue sea as the soul-and-spirit of the lower man, of the man below. What I have shown here in red passing into orange, belongs to the subconscious part of man, and corresponds to those processes in the physical that take place principally in the activity of the digestion and so forth, where consciousness plays no part. What is connected with the consciousness would be described, where the aura is concerned, in the bright parts that I have applied here. (see diagram 2)
Just as here the soul-spiritual of man meets the soul-spiritual of the surrounding world, so what is within man as his soul and spirit meets his subconscious—that actually also belongs to the universe. I shall have to draw this meeting of the currents so that one of the streams goes out into the infinite; within man I must draw this meeting differently. Here I must also draw a loop line but this must be done so that it runs towards the inside. Now please notice that I am keeping entirely to a looped line but I take the under loop and turn it around so that it goes thus (diagram 6).
Thus, I turn the lower loop around. In contrast to the above diagram 5, where I have made one loop run out to infinity, widen out into the infinite, I now turn back the lower loop; with this I have shown diagrammatically the obstacles, dams, that arise where the spirit and soul here in the inside enter the subconscious spirit-and-soul and therefore also that of the cosmos.
I must therefore describe these obstacles if I draw them as corresponding to what arises in man, in the following way; seven lemniscates with turned back loops—those are the obstacles that correspond to an inner wave in man (diagram 7). If you wish actually to follow up this inner wave, its main direction—but only its main direction—would perhaps take the course of running along beside the junction of man's wrongly named but so-called sensory and motor nerves. This is only said by the way for today I am going to describe the matter chiefly in its soul-spiritual aspect.
By this you can see the strong contrast existing in man's relation to the spirit and soul environment and to himself, namely, to that bit he takes in out of the spirit-soul environment as his subconscious, and what I have had to sketch as the red wave swimming on the universal blue sea of the spirit-soul universe.
We said that this wave here (see right of diagram 2) corresponds to the barrier against which man pushes if he wishes to know about the external world. But there is a limit here too (see left of diagram 2); within men himself there is a barrier. Did this limit, this barrier, not exist you would always be looking down into what is within you, my dear friends. Everyone would look within himself. In the same way that man would look into the external world were the barrier (on the right) not there, if the boundary on the left were not present he would look into himself. If man looked into himself in this present cycle of evolution this would indeed give him little joy, because what he would see there would be a most imperfect, chaotic seething upheaval in man's inner nature—something that certainly could not arouse joy in him. It is, however, that into which imaginative mystics believe they are able to link when they speak of the mysticism that is full of fantasy. All that the mystics of fantasy very largely look upon as a goal worthy of their striving, what, particularly in the case of many such mystics who really believe that in looking within themselves they are able to learn about the universe, what figures with them as mysticism—all that is concealed, entirely concealed, from men by just this dam.1Mysterien Wahrheiten und Weihnachtsimpulse. 6 Lectures 24-31, December 1917. (Mystery Truths and the Christmas Impulse), 4 lectures in Magazine, 24-29)
Man cannot look into himself. what is formed inside this region (left) is dammed up and reflected, it can t be reflected back into itself; and the expression of this, reflection is memory—remembrance. Every time a thought or an impression that you have received comes back in memory it does so because this damming process begins to work. If you had not this stemming wave, every impression received from outside, every thought you grasp and which permeates you, would be unable to remain with you and would go out into the rest of the soul-spiritual universe. It is only because you have this obstructing wave that you can preserve the impressions you receive.
Through certain processes still to be described you are in a position to call back your impressions. And this is expressed in the functioning of recollection, of memory. You can therefore picture to yourself that you have in you something that here in this diagram is drawn in profile (for so it is drawn; there is in you just such a flat surface); There we find thrown back what should not penetrate. When you are awake you remain united with the external world, otherwise in the waking condition everything would go through you. You would actually know nothing of impressions; you would nave impressions but be unable to keep them.
This is what memory signifies. And the surface of this dam that brings about our memory conceals what the imaginative mystic would like to look at, within himself. One could say of what is underneath that for those who really know these things, the saying holds good that man should never be curious to see what the beneficent Godhead has covered with night and obscurity, but the mystics are fantastic and wish to look down into it. All the same, they cannot do so, however, for they would so bore into and destroy the normal consciousness that the waves of memory would not be thrown back. All that produces our memory, all that is so necessary for external life, conceals from us what the fantastic mystic would like to see but men should not look upon. Beneath recollection, beneath what causes recollection, beneath the surface of recollection, lies an essential part of man. Just like the back of a mirror, the mercury being a mirror, what is in front, what is thus in your consciousness works; it does not go inside but is thrown back and is therefore able to continue there as memory. In this way our whole life is reflected as a memory. And what we call the life of our ego is essentially reflection in memory.
Thus you see that we actually live our conscious life between this wave (right of Diagram 2) and this other wave (left). We should be mere funnels, therefore, letting everything flow through us; had we not this dam as the basis of memory, and we should see into the secrets beyond our boundary of knowledge were we not obliged to place ourselves outside the sphere of perceptible concepts for which we have no content. We should be funnels were we not so organised that we could not produce this dam, organised so that we should not be obliged to set up before us concepts as it were without a content, obscure concepts, we should become loveless beings, empty of love, with dry, stony natures. Nothing, in the world would please us and we should be so many Mephistopheles. Because we are organised so that we are unable to approach what is of soul-and-spirit in our environment with our abstract concepts, with our intellectual powers—to this we owe our capacity to love. For we are not meant to approach what we should love by analysing it in the ordinary sense of the term, nor by tearing it to pieces and treating it as chemicals are treated by the chemist in a laboratory. We do not love when we analyse like a chemist or synthesise chemically. The power of memory, the capacity to love—these are two capacities that correspond at the same time to two boundaries of human nature. The boundary towards within, corresponds to the power of memory; what lies beyond the memory zone is the subconscious within man. The other zone corresponds to the power of love, and whet lies beyond this zone corresponds to what is of the nature of soul-and-spirit in the universe. The unconscious part of man's nature lies beyond this zone as far as what is within man reaches; the soul-spiritual of the universe goes out boundlessly from the other zone into the wide space.
We can therefore speak of the zone of love and the zone of memory and can include man's soul-and-spirit in these zones. We must however seek beyond the one zone above (see right of diagram 2) whet is unconscious, and because it remains unconscious is on that account very closely connected with the bodily nature of man, with his bodily organisation. Naturally things are not in reality so simple as they must be in any representation, because everything is interwoven. What is red here (diagram 2) runs into things and is changed; again, what is green and blue is also changed. Actually, things all intermix with one another: in spite of this, however, the sketch is correct in the main and corresponds with the facts.
But from this we see that for physical life here on earth the spiritual is both strong and conscious. Here (left) the spiritual that actually merges into the universe is unconscious. These two parts of man are very clearly differentiated. The spiritual here (in the middle) is for this reason above all for earthly life a very finely woven spiritual element. Everything here (yellow) is what might be called finely woven light. Were I obliged to show where this finely woven light is in man, I should have to go to what I have been so minutely describing—the human head.
What I have thus described, what I have sketched in yellow, yellow-green, yellow-orange, on the other side, is what I might cell the finely woven spirit light. This has no very strong connection with earthly matter; it has as little connection with earthly matter as is possible. And because it has so little connection it cannot well unite with matter, and thus, for the greater part, remains unconnected with it; to this part matter is given that actually always comes from time to time from man's previous incarnation, and there is but a loose connection between this finely woven soul-spiritual element and what belongs to the body, what has actually been held together out of the foregoing incarnation. Your physiognomy, in its arrangement and characteristics, you carry over, my dear friends, from your previous incarnation. And those who are thoroughly able to explain man actually look through the physiognomy of the head; not through what has its origin in the luciferic within men, but more through the manner in which he adapts himself to the universe.
The physiognomy must be looked upon as though it were stamped into man, not to the extent of being the product of this stamping, but rather one has to see in it the negative of the soul; it is this that is seen in the negative of the face. If you were to make an impression of any face you would actually see there the physiognomy that relentlessly betrays what has been made of the last incarnation. On the other hand, all that I have sketched down there as being only connected with the surging sea of the world of soul and spirit, all that is to be understood as corresponding to man's subconscious or unconscious, is closely related to the bodily nature; it permeates the bodily nature. The bodily nature is united with the spiritual in such a way that the spiritual is wholly incapable of appearing as such.
For this reason were we to look down we should see this seething and merging of the spiritual and the bodily behind the threshold of memory. It is this that pares the head of the next incarnation and seeks to transform what will take definite material form only in the future and will not become head until the next incarnation. For man's head is something that outstrips his stage of development. The head in its development therefore—as you may remember from lectures previously held here—has actually come to an end by man's twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth year. (See NSL 122-123 Historical Necessity and Free Will and R-LII Ancient Myths and Their Meaning). In the form of the head there is already our development of man.
But, strange as it may seem, the rest of man is also a head only it is not so far advanced as the other head. If you picture to yourself a decapitated man, what remains is another head but at a more primitive stage. When further developed it become head, whereas what you have as the human head is the rest of the organism of a previous incarnation. If you picture what in your present organism is discarnated, free of the body, if you think away the head of your present organism, the organism that will become head in the next incarnation (and this organism is but an image, everything physical being an image of something spiritual), if you imagine the spiritual element of what in its external form has not yet appeared in man, then you see this in the Group in our luciferic figure—there you have it!
Now imagine compressed into the human head all the soul-spiritual that is merged into man, and held back in you from the head, all that forms a barrier, that is to say, which man cannot penetrate (see right in diagram 2); then man will not have the old dignified head that he ordinarily has; he will have a bony head, and will be altogether bony, like the figure of Ahriman in our Group. (see Der Baugedanke des Goetheanum.)
What I have here been explaining to you has not only great significance for understanding man, but also great significance for understanding what is going on spiritually in mankind's evolution. If we have not a fundamental comprehension of these things we shall never understand how Christianity and the Christ-impulse have entered human evolution. Neither shall we understand what part is played by the Catholic Church, what part is played by the Jesuits and similar currents, what functions belong to the East, what to the West, if all this cannot be considered in connection with these things.
I shall take upon myself to tell you something of these currents tomorrow, currents such as those of East and West, Jesuitism, and the tendency to put everything into terms of mathematics, which really can only be rightly understood if we take into consideration what lies at the basis of soul-spiritual man.
Zweiter Vortrag
Ich möchte heute davon ausgehen, eine Art Skizze zu geben von der menschlichen Seele, so wie diese menschliche Seele in ihrem Verhalten zur Welt und zu sich selbst ist. Ich möchte diese Skizze so halten, daß man etwa sagen kann: Wir sehen uns den Menschen als Seelenwesen an im Profil. Also, damit wir uns verstehen: Wie wenn wir uns den physischen Menschen - nicht das Seelenwesen — so ansehen würden, daß wir ihn etwa nicht en face, sondern im Profil haben würden, meinetwillen nach rechts hinüberschauend. Betrachten wir ihn einmal so. Natürlich müssen wir, wenn wir versuchen, so etwas skizzenhaft zu entwerfen, uns immer klar darüber sein, daß wir es mit imaginativer Erkenntnis zu tun haben, daß also das Wirkliche, das hinter einer solchen Sache steht, durch ein Bild wiedergegeben ist. Das Bild deutet auf die Sache hin, und man macht ja auch das Bild so, daß es in richtiger Art auf die Sache hindeutet. Aber natürlich darf man sich eine Zeichnung, eine Skizze, welche darstellen soll ein Seelisch-Geistiges, nicht so denken, wie man sich irgend etwas vorstellt, das in naturalistischer Art eine äußere sinnenfällige Wirklichkeit kopiert. Dessen, was ich jetzt sage, muß man sich schon fortwährend bewußt sein. Ich werde also alles, was den physischen und den niederen ätherischen Organismus des Menschen betrifft, fortlassen, werde nur das Seelische, das Seelisch-Geistige zu skizzieren versuchen (siehe Zeichnung).
Wie Sie ja aus den verschiedenen Darstellungen, die gegeben worden sind, wissen, steht dieses Seelisch-Geistige mit der seelisch-geistigen Umwelt mehr in einem unmittelbaren Zusammenhang als der physische Mensch mit der physischen Umgebung. Der physische Mensch ist ja gegenüber der physisch-sinnenfälligen Umgebung ein ziemlich abgeschlossenes Wesen. Man möchte sagen: Dieser physisch-sinnliche Mensch ist wirklich auch real in seiner Haut eingeschlossen. — So ist es nicht bei dem, was man als den geistig-seelischen Menschen bezeichnen kann; da muß man sich einen fortdauernden Übergang denken in den Strömungen, die im seelisch-geistigen Inneren des Menschen pulsieren, und in all den Bewegungen und Strömungen, die in der allgemeinen, universellen geistig-seelischen Welt bestehen.
Wollte ich nun zunächst von der einen Seite her charakterisieren, wie dieses Verhältnis des menschlich Geistig-Seelischen zu dem Geistig-Seelischen der universellen Umgebung ist, so müßte ich das vielleicht in der folgenden Weise tun. Ich müßte dasjenige, was aus dem Universum, also aus der Unendlichkeit des Raumes in geistig-seelischer Weise hereinkommt, zunächst in dieser Art malen. Eigentlich müßte ich den ganzen Raum so ausmalen, aber das ist ja nicht nötig, ich werde nur dasjenige, was zunächst Umgebung des Menschen ist, ausmalen. Das ist also jetzt dasjenige, was als Umwelt aufzufassen ist (siehe Zeichnung Seite 31, blau). Denken Sie sich also in seelisch-geistiger Bildhaftigkeit das, worin der Mensch hineingestellt ist. Der Mensch ist ja jetzt noch nicht da, sondern es ist nur das, was aus der Umgebung angrenzt, mit diesem Blau gekennzeichnet. Denken Sie sich das wie ein in sich wogendes blaues Meer, das den Raum aber ausfüllt. Wenn ich sage: Blaues Meer -, ist das natürlich so aufzufassen, wie ich das öfter in den Büchern, die Ihnen ja vorliegen, charakterisiert habe, so wie Farben als Bezeichnung des Aurischen, des SeelischGeistigen aufzufassen sind.
Schwimmend, möchte ich sagen, oder schwebend getragen, wie eine Woge getragen, ist nun ein anderes Geistig-Seelisches. Das ist dasjenige, welches ich jetzt etwa in der folgenden Weise darstellen müßte. Wir können also, wenn wir von der universellen Umwelt zum Menschen übergehen, uns und das menschliche Geistig-Seelische etwa wie schwebend auf diesem Rot denken. Da hätten wir zunächst einen Teil des Geistig-Seelischen; davon müßten wir nur, wenn wir etwas der Wirklichkeit gemäß die Skizze machen wollten, den oberen Teil in einem etwas ins Violettliche, ins Lila fallenden Rot geben. Das würde nur richtig gegeben sein, wenn hier oben das Rot sich violett abstumpfte.
Damit habe ich Ihnen zunächst, ich möchte sagen, den einen Pol des Geistig-Seelischen des Menschen gegeben. Den andern Pol bekommen wir, wenn wir das, was hier an das universell Geistig-Seelische sich anschließend gegen das physische menschliche Antlitz zu schwimmend-schwebend sich verhält, etwa in der folgenden Weise eingliedern: Gelb, Grün, Orange; Grün geht ins Blaue noch hinein.
Damit haben Sie eine, ich möchte sagen, Normalaura des Menschen im Profil, also von der rechten Seite aus gesehen. Ich sage ausdrücklich: eine Normalaura von der rechten Seite aus gesehen. Dasjenige, was sich dem Schauen so darstellen würde, daß das Schauen eben diese Figur vor sich hätte, das charakterisiert das Hineingestelltsein des Menschen in seine geistig-seelische Umgebung. Es charakterisiert aber auch die Stellung des Menschen, des Seelisch-Geistigen des Menschen zu sich selber. Man kann, gerade wenn man dasjenige studiert, was durch diese Figur dargestellt ist, so recht sehen, wie der Mensch nach zwei Seiten hin ein begrenztes Wesen ist. Diese zwei Seiten, nach denen hin der Mensch ein begrenztes Wesen ist, die werden im Leben immer bemerkt; allein sie werden nicht richtig gedeutet, sie werden nicht richtig ins Auge gefaßt, werden wenigstens nicht verstanden. Sie wissen ja, daß man in der äußeren Naturwissenschaft davon spricht, daß der Mensch, wenn er die Welt betrachtet, wenn er sich Erkenntnisse verschaffen will von der Welt, mit seiner Wissenschaft, mit seiner Erkenntnis an bestimmte Grenzen kommt. Wir haben öfter von diesen Grenzen gesprochen, von diesem berühmten «Ignorabimus» — wir werden niemals wissen -, welches von seiten der Naturforscher, von seiten mancher Philosophen geltend gemacht wird. Man sagt, der Mensch komme eben zu bestimmten Grenzen seines Erkennens, seines Anschauens der Außenwelt. Ich habe Ihnen wohl auch schon den berühmten Ausspruch angeführt, den Du Bois-Reymond auf der Leipziger Naturforscherversammlung in den siebziger Jahren getan hat: In die Regionen hinein, so sagte ungefähr dazumal Du BoisReymond, in denen Materie spukt, wird das menschliche Erkennen niemals dringen.
Man würde richtiger über diese Erkenntnisgrenzen des Menschen sprechen, wenn man vielleicht sagen würde: Der Mensch ist genötigt, indem er die Welt betrachtet, gewisse Begriffe sich festzusetzen, welche er mit seinem naturwissenschaftlichen Erkennen, auch mit seinem gewöhnlichen Philosophenerkennen nicht durchdringt. Sie brauchen ja nur zu denken an solche Betrachtungen wie den Begriff des Atoms. Vom Atom redet die Naturwissenschaft. Aber das Atom hat natürlich nur dann einen Sinn, wenn man eigentlich nicht davon reden kann, wenn man nicht sagen kann, was ein Atom ist; denn in dem Augenblicke, wo man anfangen würde, das Atom zu beschreiben, wäre es nicht mehr ein Atom. Es ist ein schlechthin Unnahbares. Und so ist es eigentlich schon die Materie, der Stoff selber. Es müssen gewisse Begriffe festgesetzt werden, an die man nicht herankommt. So ist es mit dem Erkennen der Außenwelt. Es müssen Begriffe festgesetzt werden, wie Materie, Kraft und so weiter, an die man nicht herankommt.
Daß solche Begriffe festgesetzt werden müssen, das beruht einfach darauf, daß jenes innerlich geistig-seelisch Leuchtende des Menschen hier nach außen in ein Dunkles hinein sich erstreckt. Das, was da konstatiert wird als Erkenntnisgrenze, das kann man, ich möchte sagen, aurisch wirklich richtig sehen. Es liegt hier dem Menschen eine Grenze vor. Das Wesen, das er selbst ist, wird hier dargestellt durch dasjenige, was ich aurisch habe verlaufen lassen als hellgrün ins Blauviolett übergehend (siehe Zeichnung Seite 31). Aber indem es ins Blauviolette übergeht, ist es nicht mehr der Mensch, da ist es das Universelle der Umgebung. Da gelangt der Mensch mit seinem Wesen, das die innere Kraft seines Anschauens der Welt ist, an eine Grenze, da gelangt er gewissermaßen an das Nichts, und da muß er solche Begriffe wie Materie, Atom, Stoff, Kraft festsetzen, die keinen Inhalt haben. Das liegt in der menschlichen Organisation, das liegt im Zusammenhange des Menschen mit dem ganzen Weltenall. Da geht wirklich die Verbindung des Menschen mit dem Weltenall vor sich. Man kann, wenn man im Sinne geisteswissenschaftlicher Vorstellung diese Grenze da bezeichnet, das so machen, daß man sagt: Diese Grenze läßt den Menschen in bezug auf seine Seele in Berührung kommen mit dem Universum. - Man kann, indem man die Richtung nach dem Universum hin mit der einen Schleife einer Lemniskate bezeichnet, das, was dem Menschen angehört, mit der andern Schleife bezeichnen; nur geht das, was aus dem Menschen herausgeht, in das Universum, in das Unendliche hinein. Man muß daher die Schleifenlinie, die Lemniskate, auf der einen Seite offenlassen, und auf der einen zumachen, und man muß dann diese Schleifenlinie so zeichnen: Hier ist die Schleifenlinie geschlossen, hier geht sie ins Unendliche hinaus. Es ist dieselbe Linie, die ich dort gezeichnet habe, nur gehen die Schenkel hier ins Unendliche hinaus.
Was ich hier so zeichne als offene Lemniskate, als offene Schleifenlinie, das ist nicht bloß etwas Ausgedachtes, das ist etwas, was Sie tatsächlich wie ein- und auslaufende Blitze in einer sanften, aber sehr langsamen Bewegung als Ausdruck des Verhältnisses des Menschen zum Universum sehen können. Die Strömungen des Universums nähern sich fortwährend dem Menschen; er zieht sie an, sie verschlingen sich in seiner Nähe und gehen wieder heraus. Also es strömt so etwas dem Menschen zu, verschlingt sich, geht wieder heraus. Der Mensch ist von solchen dem Universum angehörenden Strömungen durchsetzt, die sich hier vor ihm aufhalten. Dadurch ist der Mensch, wie Sie sich vorstellen können, von einer Art welligem Aurischen umgeben; es kommen diese Strömungen vom Universum herein, machen hier einen Wirbel, grüßen gleichsam den Menschen, indem sie einen Wirbel vor ihm machen, so daß er hier von einer Art aurischer Strömung umgeben ist. Das ist wesentlich ein Ausdruck des Verhältnisses des Menschen zum Universum, zur geistig-seelischen Umwelt.
Nun aber können Sie dasjenige, was Sie eigentlich als in Ihrem Bewußtsein liegend empfinden, hier dargestellt finden als bläulich-grünlich-gelblich, nach innen zu orange verlaufend. Aber das stößt hier auf; im Inneren des menschlichen Seelischen stößt dieses GelblichOrange auf das auf, was auf dem blauen Meere als das Geistig-Seelische des unteren Menschen schwingt, des niederen Menschen. Was ich hier rot und im Übergang ins Orange gezeichnet habe, das gehört zu den unterbewußten Teilen des Menschen, entspricht ja auch denjenigen Vorgängen im Physischen, die sich hauptsächlich als Verdauungstätigkeit und Ähnliches abspielen, woran das Bewußtsein keinen Anteil hat. Dasjenige, was mit dem Bewußtsein zusammenhängt, das würde aurisch charakterisiert sein in den hellen Partien, die ich hier dargestellt habe (siehe Zeichnung Seite 31). So wie hier zusammenstoßen des Menschen Geistig-Seelisches mit dem Geistig-Seelischen der Umwelt, so stößt nach innen des Menschen Geistig-Seelisches mit seinem Unterbewußten - also auch eigentlich dem Universum angehörig — zusammen. Dieses Zusammenstoßen muß ich in den Strömungen so zeichnen, daß die einen Strömungen ins Unendliche hinausgehen; anders muß ich dieses Zusammenstoßen im Inneren des Menschen zeichnen. Da muß ich auch eine Schleifenlinie zeichnen, aber diese muß ich so zeichnen, daß sie nach innen verläuft. Geben Sie acht: Ich zeichne durchaus eine Schleifenlinie, aber ich nehme die untere Schleife und schlage sie um, so daß die Schleifenlinie so wird:
Also, ich schlage die untere Schleife um (siehe Zeichnung, rechts). Im Gegensatz zu hier (siehe Zeichnung Seite 35), wo ich die eine Schleife ins Unendliche verlaufen lasse, also ins Unendliche vergrößere, schlage ich nun die untere Schleife um. - Dann habe ich dadurch bildlich bezeichnet die Stauungen, die sich ergeben da, wo das Geistig-Seelische hier innen auf das unterbewußte, also auch universelle Geistig-Seelische auftrifft. Ich muß also diese Stauungen, die im Menschen entstehen, wenn ich sie entsprechend denen hier zeichne, in dieser Weise charakterisieren (sieben Lemniskaten mit umgeschlagener Schleife). Das sind die Stauungen, welche entsprechen einer inneren Welle im Menschen.
Wenn Sie diese innere Welle tatsächlich verfolgen wollten, so würde die Hauptrichtung dieser Welle — aber eben nur die Hauptrichtung — etwa so verlaufen, daß sie entlangliefe dem Zusammenstoßen von den, wie Sie wissen, unrichtig benannten, aber sogenannten sensitiven und motorischen Nerven im Menschen. Das nur nebenbei gesagt, denn ich will heute hauptsächlich das Geistig-Seelische der Sache erörtern.
Sie sehen daran den starken Gegensatz, der besteht in dem Verhältnis des Menschen zur geistig-seelischen Umwelt und zu sich selber, zu dem Stück, das er aus der geistig-seelischen Umwelt als sein Unterbewußtes hereinnimmt, und das ich hier durch die rötliche Woge, die auf dem allgemeinen blauen Meere des geistig-seelischen Universums schwimmt, zu skizzieren gehabt habe.
Wir haben gesagt, daß diese Welle hier (siehe Zeichnung Seite 31, rechts) gewissermaßen der Schranke entspricht, auf die der Mensch aufstößt, wenn er die Außenwelt erkennen will. Aber auch hier (links) ist eine Schranke; im Inneren des Menschen selbst ist eine Schranke. Wäre diese Schranke nicht vorhanden, dann würden Sie immer in Ihr Inneres hinuntersehen. Jeder Mensch würde in sein Inneres hinunterschauen. So wie, wenn diese Schranke (rechts) nicht vorhanden wäre, der Mensch in die Außenwelt hineinschauen würde, so würde er, wenn diese Schranke (links) nicht vorhanden wäre, in sein Inneres hinunterschauen. Er würde allerdings, so wie der Mensch im gegenwärtigen Entwickelungszyklus einmal ist, wenn er so in sein Inneres hinunterschauen würde, wenig Freude haben über dieses sein Inneres, weil das, was er da sehen würde, ein höchst unvollkommenes, chaotisches, brodelndes Gewoge der inneren Menschennatur ist, etwas, worüber der Mensch keine große Freude haben könnte; aber es ist dasjenige, in welches die phantastischen Mystiker glauben hinunterschauen zu können, wenn sie von Mystik sprechen. Dasjenige, was sehr häufig von phantastischen Mystikern als das Erstrebenswerte angesehen wird, was namentlich bei sehr vielen solchen Mystikern ich habe sie im Vorjahre charakterisiert -, die wirklich glauben, indem sie in ihr Inneres schauen, das Universum erkennen zu können, als Mystik figuriert, das ist beim Menschen gerade durch diese Stauwelle zugedeckt, richtig zugedeckt. Der Mensch kann nicht in sein Inneres hinunterschauen.Dasjenige, was sich hier innerhalb dieser Region bildet (links), das staut sich und spiegelt sich, kann sich wenigstens in sich selbst zurückspiegeln, und die Erscheinung dieses Zurückspiegelns, das ist die Erinnerung, das Gedächtnis. Jedesmal, wenn ein Gedanke oder ein Eindruck, den Sie gefaßt haben, wiederum zurückkommt in der Erinnerung, so kommt er dadurch zurück, daß diese Stauung hier zu funktionieren beginnt. Wenn Sie diese Stauwelle nicht hätten, so würde jeder Eindruck, den Sie von außen bekommen, jeder Gedanke, den Sie fassen, durch Sie hindurchgehen, nicht in Ihnen bleiben können und in das übrige geistig-seelische Universum hineingehen. Nur dadurch halten Sie die Eindrücke auf, die Sie empfangen, daß Sie diese Stauwelle haben. Dadurch sind Sie aber imstande, durch gewisse Vorgänge, die wir noch charakterisieren werden, die Eindrücke wiederum zurückzubekommen. Und das drückt sich aus im Funktionieren des Gedächtnisses, im Funktionieren der Erinnerung. Sie können sich also vorstellen, daß Sie in sich etwas haben wie eine "Tafel, was hier im Profil gezeichnet ist — denn es ist ja im Profil gezeichnet, nicht wahr, es ist solch eine Ebene, die in Ihnen ist —, da wird zurückgeschlagen dasjenige, was nicht durchgehen soll. Sie bleiben, wenn Sie wachend sind, mit der Außenwelt vereint, sonst würde alles in wachem Zustande durch Sie durchgehen. Sie würden eigentlich von den Eindrücken nichts wissen, Sie würden die Eindrücke bekommen, aber könnten sie gar nicht festhalten.
Das ist also dasjenige, was auf die Erinnerung deutet. Und das, was gewissermaßen als die Fläche dieser Stauwelle unsere Erinnerung bewirkt, deckt dasjenige zu, was der phantastische Mystiker gern in sich sehen möchte. Was da drunten ist, davon könnte man schon sagen: Für den, der die Dinge wirklich kennt, gilt das Wort: Der Mensch «begehre nimmer und nimmer zu schauen, was sie [die Götter] gnädig bedecken mit Nacht und Grauen». — Doch die Mystiker sind phantastisch und wollen da hinunterschauen. Aber sie können es ja ohnedies nicht, weil sie das normale Bewußtsein so durchlöchern, so korrumpieren würden, daß sich die Gedächtniswelle nicht zurückschlüge. Dasselbe, was unsere Erinnerung ausmacht, was wir so notwendig brauchen zum äußeren Leben, das bedeckt uns dasjenige, was die phantastischen Mystiker wohl schauen möchten, was aber der Mensch nicht schauen soll. Unter Ihrem Gedächtnis, unter Ihrer Gedächtnisursache, unter Ihrer Gedächtnisfläche liegt etwas Wesenhaftes vom Menschen. Aber geradeso wie die Hinterwand eines Spiegels, wie der Belag eines Spiegels das, was vorn ist, zurück wirft, so geht, was also in Ihrem Bewußtsein ist, nicht da hinten hin; das wird wieder zurückgeworfen und kann deshalb fortwährend als Erinnerung da sein. So kann überhaupt unser ganzes Leben sich als Erinnerung spiegeln. Und im wesentlichen ist ja dasjenige, was wir das Leben unseres Ich nennen, das Spiegeln dieser Erinnerung.
Sie sehen also, unser bewußtes Leben leben wir eigentlich zwischen dieser Welle hier (rechts) und zwischen dieser Welle (links). Wir wären also Schläuche, die alles durch sich hindurchlassen, wenn wir nicht diese Stauwelle hätten, die der Erinnerung zugrunde liegt, und wir sähen in die Geheimnisse jenseits der Erkenntnisgrenze hinein, wenn wit nicht genötigt wären, außerhalb des Gebietes des Sinnenfälligen Begriffe zu setzen, für die wir keinen Inhalt mehr haben. Wären wir so organisiert, daß wir diese Stauung hier nicht erzeugen könnten, so würden wir Schläuche sein. Wären wir so organisiert, daß wir nicht genötigt wären, diese gewissermaßen unausgefüllten Begriffe, diese dunklen Begriffe vor uns hinzusetzen, so wären wir liebeleere und liebelose Wesen; steinerne Naturen wären wir, trockene Naturen. Wir könnten nichts in der Welt gern haben, wir wären alle Mephistophelesnaturen.
Daß wir so organisiert sind, daß wir an gewisses Geistig-Seelisches unserer Umgebung nicht herankommen können mit unseren abstrakten Begriffen, mit unserem Fassungsvermögen, das bewirkt, daß wir lieben können. Denn was wir lieben sollen, an das sollen wir nicht so herankommen, daß wir es analysieren im gewöhnlichen Sinne des Wortes, daß wir es zergliedern, daß wir es behandeln wie der Chemiker im Laboratorium die chemischen Stoffe. Man liebt ja nicht, wenn man chemisch analysiert oder chemisch synthetisiert. Erinnerungsfähigkeit, Liebefähigkeit, das sind die zwei Fähigkeiten, die zugleich entsprechen zwei Grenzen der menschlichen Natur. Der einen Grenze nach innen entspricht die Erinnerungsfähigkeit; was jenseits der Erinnerungszone liegt, ist unterbewußtes menschliches Inneres. Die andere Zone entspricht der Kraft der Liebefähigkeit; was jenseits dieser Zone liegt, entspricht dem Geistig-Seelischen des Universums. Das Unbewußte der menschlichen Natur liegt also jenseits dieser Zone, soweit das menschliche Innere reicht; das Geistig-Seelische des Universums geht unbegrenzt in die Weiten hinaus von der andern Zone an.
Wir können also sprechen von Liebezone, von Erinnerungszone und können dasjenige, was das menschlich Geistig-Seelische ist, innerhalb dieser Zonen einschließen; müssen aber jenseits der einen Zone da drüben (siehe Zeichnung Seite 31, links) dasjenige suchen, was unbewußt bleibt, und was deshalb, weil es unbewußt bleibt, gerade sehr stark zusammenhängt mit der menschlichen Körperlichkeit, mit den körperlichen Verrichtungen. Natürlich sind die Dinge in der Wirklichkeit nicht so einfach, wie man sie darstellen muß, weil alles ineinandergreift. Das, was hier rot ist (siehe Zeichnung Seite 31), das greift in Dinge hinein, das verändert sich; und wiederum dasjenige, was grün und blau ist, das verändert sich auch. In der Wirklichkeit greifen die Dinge alle ineinander ein. Aber trotzdem ist in der Hauptsache die skizzenhafte Zeichnung richtig und entspricht den Tatsachen.
Daraus aber ersehen Sie, daß für das physische Leben auf der Erde hier ein starkes, bewußtes Geistiges ist. Hier (links) ist ein unbewußtes Geistiges, das eigentlich mit dem Universum zusammen verschwimmt. Diese zwei Stücke des Menschen unterscheiden sich sehr deutlich voneinander. Dieses Geistige (in der Mitte), das ist daher zunächst für das irdische Leben ein solches, das sehr fein gewoben ist. Wie fein gewobenes Licht, möchte ich sagen, ist alles hier (gelb). Würde ich am Menschen zu zeigen haben, wo dieses fein gewobene Licht ist, so würde in das hinein, was ich jetzt umfassend so umschreibe, das menschliche Haupt fallen. Also was ich so umschrieben habe, was ich dorthin als das Gelbe, Gelb-Grünliche, Gelb-Orange nach der andern Seite gezeichnet habe, das ist fein gewobenes, wenn ich so sagen darf, Geistlicht. Das hat keine starke Verwandtschaft mit der irdischen Materie; das hat eine möglichst geringe Verwandtschaft mit der irdischen Materie. Deshalb, weil es wenig Verwandtschaft hat, kann es auch nicht mit der Materie sich gut verbinden, und so bleibt es zum großen Teile unverbunden mit der Materie; es wird diesem Teil gegeben eine solche Materie, die eigentlich immer jeweils aus der vorigen Inkarnation des Menschen stammt. Das Haupt, das, was das menschliche Haupt formt, die Formungskräfte des menschlichen Hauptes, das wird im wesentlichen hereingetragen aus der vorigen Inkarnation, und da ist nur eine lose Verbindung zwischen diesem feingewobenen Geistig-Seelischen und dem Körperhaften, das eigentlich von der vorigen Inkarnation zusammengehalten wird. Ihre Physiognomie tragen Sie ja eigentlich nach Ihren Verrichtungen und Eigenschaften in der vorigen Inkarnation. Und derjenige, der sich gut versteht auf Deutungen von Menschen, der sieht gerade durch das Physiognomische des Hauptes hindurch; nicht durch dasjenige, was von dem luziferischen Inneren stammt, sondern mehr durch die Anpassung an das Universum. Man muß ja die Physiognomie so sehen, als wenn sie in den Menschen hineingedrückt wäre. Nicht so sehr, als ob sie herausginge, sondern man muß gewissermaßen das Negativ des Seelischen sehen; das sieht man in diesem Negativ des Gesichts. Wenn Sie einen Abdruck machen würden von jedem Gesicht, da würden Sie eigentlich die Physiognomie sehen, die ein furchtbar starker Verräter ist desjenigen, was Sie in der vorigen Inkarnation angestellt haben. Dagegen ist alles, was ich da unten wie nur zusammenhängend mit dem wogenden Meere des Geistig-Seelischen der Welt skizziert habe, was so aufzufassen ist, daß es des Menschen Unterbewußtem oder Unbewußtem entspricht, stark verwandt mit der Körperlichkeit; das durchsetzt die Körperlichkeit. Diese Körperlichkeit, die verbindet sich so mit dem Geistigen, daß das Geistige als Geistiges gar nicht erscheinen kann. Daher würde man, wenn man hinunterschaute, dieses Ineinanderbrodeln von Geistigem und Leiblichem schauen, was hinter der Schwelle der Erinnerung liegt. Das ist das, was vorbereitet das Haupt der nächsten Inkarnation, das ist das, was sich metamorphosieren will zu dem, was in der Zukunft erst feste materielle Form bekommt, erst Haupt sein wird in der nächsten Inkarnation. Denn das Haupt des Menschen ist ein über das Maß seiner Entwickelung Hinausgeschrittenes. Daher ist das Haupt - wie Sie sich erinnern aus den früheren Vorträgen, die ich hier gehalten habe - eigentlich mit dem siebenundzwanzigsten, achtundzwanzigsten Jahre des Menschen in seiner Entwickelung schon abgeschlossen. Da ist schon Überbildung des Menschen, in der Hauptesform.
Aber der übrige Mensch, der ist auch ein Haupt, so sonderbar das aussieht; nur ist er noch nicht so weit als das Haupt. Wenn Sie sich den Menschen geköpft denken, so ist das, was übrigbleibt, auch ein Haupt des Menschen, aber auf einer noch sehr zurückgebliebenen Stufe. Wenn es sich weiter entwickelt, dann wird es auch Haupt, während das, was Sie als Haupt des Menschen haben, der übrige Organismus gewesen ist in früherer Inkarnation. Wenn Sie dann dasjenige entleiblicht sich denken, vom Leibe befreit, was in Ihrem gegenwärtigen Organismus noch nicht Haupt ist, wenn Sie sich also das Haupt wegdenken vom gegenwärtigen Organismus, der erst in der nächsten Inkarnation Haupt wird - aber dieser Ihr Organismus ist ja ein Abbild, alles Physische ist ein Abbild eines Geistigen —, wenn Sie sich dafür das Geistige denken, was also in seiner äußeren Form nicht bis zum Menschen vorgeschritten ist: da sehen Sie es sich nun an unserer luziferischen Figur bei der Gruppe drüben an, da haben Sie es!
Und jetzt denken Sie sich all das Geistig-Seelische, das bei Ihnen zurückgehalten ist von Ihrem Haupte, in den Menschen hineingefügt, also all das, was beim Menschen eine Grenze ist, was er nicht durchdringen kann (rechts, siehe Zeichnung Seite 31), in den menschlichen Kopf hineingepreßt: dann wird der Mensch nicht nur ein so altes, ehrwürdiges Haupt haben, wie er es ohnedies schon hat, sondern er wird ein ganz verknöchertes Haupt haben, wird überhaupt ganz verknöchern, wie die Ahrimanfigur bei unserer Gruppe drüben.
Wenn Sie sich also dasjenige, was hier unter der Erinnerungsgrenze ist, ausgegossen denken über das Innere des Menschen, bekommen Sie alles Luziferische. Wenn Sie sich alles dasjenige, was jenseits dieser Stauwelle ist (rechts), hereinergossen denken in die menschliche Figur, bekommen Sie die ahrimanische Form. Und der Mensch ist zwischen beiden.
Was ich Ihnen da auseinandergesetzt habe, das hat nicht nur eine große Bedeutung für das Verständnis des Menschen, sondern das hat auch eine große Bedeutung für das Verständnis der geistigen Vorgänge in der Menschheitsentwickelung. Man versteht nicht, wie das Christentum und der Christus-Impuls in die Menschheitsentwickelung hereingekommen ist, wenn man nicht gründlich diese Dinge versteht. Man versteht auch nicht, welche Funktionen die katholische Kirche hatte, welche Funktionen Jesuitismus und ähnliche Strömungen haben, welche Osttum und Westtum haben, wenn man sie nicht im Zusammenhange betrachten kann mit diesen Dingen.
Über diese Strömungen, die eigentlich richtig erst verstanden werden können, wenn man diese Grundlagen des geistig-seelischen Menschen sich einmal anschaulich vor das Auge führt, Ost-, Westtum, Jesuitismus, Amerikanismus und so weiter, werde ich mir morgen erlauben, ein weniges zu sprechen.
Second lecture
Today I would like to begin by giving a kind of sketch of the human soul, as this human soul is in its behavior toward the world and toward itself. I would like to keep this sketch so that one can say, for example: We see human beings as soul beings in profile. So, to understand each other: As if we were looking at the physical human being—not the soul being—not en face, but in profile, looking to the right, for my sake. Let us consider him in this way. Of course, when we try to sketch something like this, we must always be clear that we are dealing with imaginative knowledge, that what is real behind such a thing is represented by an image. The image points to the thing, and we make the image in such a way that it points to the thing in the right way. But of course, a drawing or sketch that is intended to represent something spiritual cannot be thought of in the same way as something that copies an external, sensory reality in a naturalistic way. You must be constantly aware of what I am saying now. I will therefore leave out everything that concerns the physical and lower etheric organism of the human being and will only attempt to sketch the soul, the soul-spiritual (see drawing).
As you know from the various descriptions that have been given, this soul-spiritual aspect is more directly connected with the soul-spiritual environment than the physical human being is with the physical environment. The physical human being is, after all, a fairly closed being in relation to the physical, sensory environment. One might say that this physical, sensory human being is truly enclosed in his skin. This is not the case with what we can call the spiritual-soul human being; here we must imagine a continuous transition in the currents pulsating in the spiritual-soul interior of the human being and in all the movements and currents that exist in the general, universal spiritual-soul world.
If I wanted to characterize from one side how this relationship between the human spiritual-soul and the spiritual-soul of the universal environment is, I would perhaps have to do so in the following way. I would first have to paint what comes in from the universe, that is, from the infinity of space, in a spiritual-soul manner. Actually, I would have to paint the entire space in this way, but that is not necessary; I will only paint what is initially the human environment. This is now what is to be understood as the environment (see drawing on page 31, blue). So imagine in spiritual-soul imagery that in which the human being is placed. The human being is not there yet, but only that which borders on the environment, marked with this blue. Think of it as a blue sea surging within itself, but filling the space. When I say “blue sea,” this is to be understood, of course, as I have often characterized it in the books you have before you, in the same way that colors are to be understood as designations of the auric, the soul-spiritual.
Floating, I would say, or suspended, carried by a wave, is another spiritual-soul element. This is what I would now have to represent in the following way. So when we move from the universal environment to the human being, we can think of ourselves and the human spiritual-soul element as floating on this red. There we would first have a part of the spiritual-soul life; if we wanted to sketch this in accordance with reality, we would only have to give the upper part a red color that fades into violet, into lilac. This would only be correct if the red here above were to fade into violet.
With this, I have given you, I would say, one pole of the spiritual-soul aspect of the human being. We obtain the other pole when we incorporate what here adjoins the universal spiritual-soul aspect and floats or hovers toward the physical human face, for example in the following way: yellow, green, orange; green still extends into blue.
This gives you, I would say, a normal aura of the human being in profile, seen from the right side. I say explicitly: a normal aura seen from the right side. What would appear to the eye when looking at this figure characterizes the human being's placement in his spiritual-soul environment. But it also characterizes the position of the human being, of the soul-spiritual aspect of the human being, in relation to itself. When you study what is represented by this figure, you can see very clearly how the human being is a limited being in two respects. These two sides, in which human beings are limited beings, are always noticed in life; but they are not correctly interpreted, they are not correctly grasped, at least they are not understood. You know that in the external natural sciences it is said that when human beings look at the world, when they want to gain knowledge of the world, they come up against certain limits with their science, with their knowledge. We have often spoken of these limits, of this famous “Ignorabimus” — we will never know — which is asserted by natural scientists and by many philosophers. It is said that human beings come to certain limits of their knowledge, of their perception of the external world. I have probably already quoted to you the famous statement made by Du Bois-Reymond at the Leipzig Natural Scientists' Conference in the 1870s: “Human knowledge will never penetrate into the regions where matter haunts,” Du Bois-Reymond said at the time.
It would be more accurate to speak of these limits of human knowledge by saying that, when observing the world, humans are compelled to establish certain concepts that cannot be penetrated by their scientific knowledge or even by their ordinary philosophical understanding. Just think of concepts such as the atom. Natural science talks about atoms. But of course, the atom only makes sense if one cannot actually talk about it, if one cannot say what an atom is; for the moment one begins to describe the atom, it is no longer an atom. It is something utterly unapproachable. And so it is actually matter itself, substance itself. Certain concepts must be established which cannot be approached. This is how it is with the recognition of the external world. Concepts must be established, such as matter, force, and so on, which cannot be approached.
The fact that such concepts must be established is simply based on the fact that the inner spiritual and emotional light of the human being extends outward into darkness. What is stated here as the limit of knowledge can, I would say, be seen aurically in a truly correct way. There is a limit here for human beings. The essence of what they are is represented here by what I have allowed to flow aurically as light green transitioning into blue-violet (see drawing on page 31). But as it transitions into blue-violet, it is no longer the human being; it is the universality of the environment. Here, the human being, with his essence, which is the inner power of his perception of the world, reaches a boundary; he reaches, in a sense, nothingness, and there he must establish concepts such as matter, atom, substance, and force, which have no content. This lies in the human organization, it lies in the connection of the human being with the entire universe. This is where the connection between the human being and the universe really takes place. If one designates this boundary in the sense of spiritual science, one can do so by saying: This boundary allows the human being, in relation to his soul, to come into contact with the universe. By designating the direction toward the universe with one loop of a lemniscate, one can designate what belongs to human beings with the other loop; only what goes out of human beings goes into the universe, into the infinite. One must therefore leave the loop line, the lemniscate, open on one side and closed on the other, and then draw this loop line as follows: Here the loop line is closed, here it goes out into infinity. It is the same line that I have drawn there, only here the legs go out into infinity.
What I am drawing here as an open lemniscate, as an open loop line, is not just something I have thought up; it is something you can actually see as lightning bolts entering and exiting in a gentle but very slow movement, expressing the relationship between humans and the universe. The currents of the universe are constantly approaching humans; they attract them, they intertwine in their vicinity and then move away again. So something flows toward humans, intertwines, and then moves away again. Humans are permeated by these currents belonging to the universe, which are present here before them. As you can imagine, this means that humans are surrounded by a kind of wavy aura; these currents come in from the universe, create a vortex here, and greet humans, as it were, by creating a vortex in front of them, so that they are surrounded by a kind of auric current. This is essentially an expression of the relationship between humans and the universe, to the spiritual and soul environment.
Now, however, you can find what you actually perceive as lying in your consciousness represented here as bluish-greenish-yellowish, fading inward toward orange. But this encounters something here; within the human soul, this yellowish-orange encounters what vibrates on the blue sea as the spiritual-soul life of the lower human being, the lower human being. What I have drawn here in red and transitioning to orange belongs to the subconscious parts of the human being and corresponds to those processes in the physical realm that mainly take place as digestive activity and the like, in which consciousness has no part. That which is connected with consciousness would be characterized aurically in the light areas I have depicted here (see drawing on page 31). Just as the spiritual-soul life of the human being collides here with the spiritual-soul life of the environment, so the spiritual-soul life within the human being collides with his subconscious — which actually also belongs to the universe. I have to draw this collision in the currents in such a way that some currents extend into infinity; I have to draw this collision inside the human being differently. I also have to draw a looped line, but I have to draw it so that it runs inward. Pay attention: I am definitely drawing a looped line, but I take the lower loop and turn it around so that the looped line becomes like this:
So, I turn the lower loop around (see drawing on the right). In contrast to here (see drawing on page 35), where I let one loop run to infinity, i.e., enlarge it to infinity, I now turn the lower loop around. - Then I have figuratively represented the congestions that arise where the spiritual-soul element here inside encounters the subconscious, i.e., also the universal spiritual-soul element. So I have to characterize these blockages that arise in humans, when I draw them according to those here, in this way (seven lemniscates with a loop turned over). These are the blockages that correspond to an inner wave in humans.
If you really wanted to follow this inner wave, the main direction of this wave — but only the main direction — would run roughly along the collision of the, as you know, incorrectly named but so-called sensitive and motor nerves in the human being. I mention this only in passing, because today I want to discuss mainly the spiritual-soul aspect of the matter.
You can see the strong contrast that exists in the relationship between the human being and the spiritual-soul environment and to himself, to the part that he takes in from the spiritual-soul environment as his subconscious, which I have tried to sketch here by means of the reddish wave floating on the general blue sea of the spiritual-soul universe.
We have said that this wave here (see drawing on page 31, right) corresponds, in a sense, to the barrier that human beings encounter when they want to perceive the external world. But there is also a barrier here (left); there is a barrier within human beings themselves. If this barrier did not exist, you would always be looking down into your inner self. Every human being would look down into their inner being. Just as, if this barrier (right) did not exist, human beings would look into the outer world, so, if this barrier (left) did not exist, they would look down into their inner being. However, as human beings are in the present cycle of development, if they looked down into their inner being in this way, they would have little joy in their inner being, because what they would see there is a highly imperfect, chaotic, seething mass of inner human nature, something about which human beings cannot have much joy; but it is that into which the fantastic mystics believe they can look when they speak of mysticism. What is very often regarded by fantastical mystics as something desirable, what I characterized last year as being characteristic of very many such mystics—who truly believe that by looking into their inner being they can recognize the universe, which is presented as mysticism—is covered up in human beings by this wave of congestion, completely covered up. Human beings cannot look down into their inner selves. What forms here within this region (left) accumulates and is reflected, can at least be reflected back into itself, and the appearance of this reflection is memory. Every time a thought or impression that you have formed returns to your memory, it does so because this blockage here begins to function. If you did not have this blockage, every impression you received from outside, every thought you formed, would pass through you, unable to remain within you, and would enter the rest of the spiritual universe. It is only because you have this blockage that you are able to hold back the impressions you receive. However, this enables you, through certain processes that we will characterize later, to retrieve these impressions. This is expressed in the functioning of memory, in the functioning of recollection. So you can imagine that you have something inside you like a “board, as drawn here in profile — because it is drawn in profile, isn't it, it is a kind of plane that is inside you — where everything that is not supposed to pass through is reflected back. When you are awake, you remain united with the outside world, otherwise everything would pass through you in the waking state. You would actually be unaware of the impressions; you would receive them, but you would not be able to hold on to them at all.
That, then, is what points to memory. And what, in a sense, as the surface of this wave of accumulation, brings about our memory, covers up what the fantastical mystic would like to see within himself. What is down there, one could say: For those who really know things, the saying applies: Man should never, ever desire to see what they [the gods] graciously cover with night and darkness. — But mystics are fantastical and want to look down there. But they cannot do so anyway, because they would so pierce and corrupt normal consciousness that the wave of memory would not be able to return. The very thing that constitutes our memory, that we so desperately need for our external life, is covered by that which the fantastical mystics would like to see, but which man should not see. Beneath your memory, beneath the cause of your memory, beneath the surface of your memory, there lies something essential to human beings. But just as the back of a mirror, like the coating on a mirror, reflects back what is in front of it, so what is in your consciousness does not go back there; it is reflected back and can therefore remain there continuously as memory. In this way, our entire life can be reflected as memory. And essentially, what we call the life of our ego is the reflection of this memory.
So you see, we actually live our conscious life between this wave here (right) and this wave (left). We would therefore be tubes that let everything pass through us if we did not have this wave of accumulation that forms the basis of memory, and we would see into the mysteries beyond the limits of knowledge if we were not compelled to place concepts outside the realm of the senses for which we no longer have any content. If we were organized in such a way that we could not create this dam here, we would be tubes. If we were organized in such a way that we were not compelled to put these, so to speak, unfilled concepts, these dark concepts, before us, we would be loveless and unloving beings; we would be stony natures, dry natures. We would not be able to love anything in the world; we would all be Mephistophelean natures.
The fact that we are organized in such a way that we cannot access certain spiritual and emotional aspects of our environment with our abstract concepts, with our capacity for understanding, is what enables us to love. For what we are meant to love, we cannot approach by analyzing it in the usual sense of the word, by dissecting it, by treating it like a chemist treats chemical substances in a laboratory. One does not love when one analyzes chemically or synthesizes chemically. The ability to remember and the ability to love are the two abilities that correspond to two limits of human nature. The ability to remember corresponds to the inner limit; what lies beyond the zone of memory is the subconscious inner life of the human being. The other zone corresponds to the power of the ability to love; what lies beyond this zone corresponds to the spiritual-soul nature of the universe. The unconscious of human nature therefore lies beyond this zone, as far as the human inner life extends; the spiritual-soul nature of the universe extends indefinitely into the vastness beyond the other zone.
We can therefore speak of a zone of love and a zone of memory and include within these zones that which is the human spiritual-soul realm; but beyond the zone over there (see drawing on page 31, left), we must seek that which remains unconscious and which, precisely because it remains unconscious, is very strongly connected with human physicality with physical activities. Of course, things are not as simple in reality as they have to be presented here, because everything is interrelated. What is red here (see drawing on page 31) influences things, it changes; and in turn, what is green and blue also changes. In reality, everything is interrelated. Nevertheless, the sketch is essentially correct and corresponds to the facts.
From this you can see that there is a strong, conscious spiritual element in physical life on earth. Here (on the left) is an unconscious spiritual element that actually merges with the universe. These two parts of the human being are very clearly distinct from each other. This spiritual element (in the middle) is therefore initially very finely woven for earthly life. I would say that everything here (yellow) is like finely woven light. If I were to show you where this finely woven light is in the human being, it would fall into what I am now describing in general terms as the human head. So what I have described, what I have drawn there as the yellow, yellow-green, yellow-orange on the other side, is finely woven, if I may say so, spiritual light. This has no strong connection with earthly matter; it has as little connection with earthly matter as possible. Because it has little connection, it cannot combine well with matter, and so it remains largely unconnected with matter; this part is given a kind of matter that actually always comes from the previous incarnation of the human being. The head, that which forms the human head, the formative forces of the human head, is essentially carried over from the previous incarnation, and there is only a loose connection between this finely woven spiritual-soul element and the physical element, which is actually held together by the previous incarnation. You actually carry your physiognomy with you according to your actions and characteristics in your previous incarnation. And those who are well versed in interpreting people can see right through the physiognomy of the head; not through what comes from the Luciferic inner being, but rather through the adaptation to the universe. One must see physiognomy as if it were imprinted within the human being. Not so much as if it were coming out, but one must see, as it were, the negative of the soul; this can be seen in the negative of the face. If you were to make an impression of every face, you would actually see the physiognomy, which is a terribly strong betrayer of what you did in your previous incarnation. In contrast, everything I have sketched down there as connected with the surging sea of the spiritual-soul life of the world is to be understood as corresponding to the human subconscious or unconscious, closely related to physicality; it permeates physicality. This physicality is so connected with the spiritual that the spiritual cannot appear as spiritual at all. Therefore, if one looked down, one would see this intermingling of the spiritual and the physical, which lies behind the threshold of memory. This is what prepares the head for the next incarnation; this is what wants to metamorphose into what will only take on a solid material form in the future, what will only be the head in the next incarnation. For the head of the human being is something that has advanced beyond the measure of its development. Therefore, as you will remember from the earlier lectures I gave here, the head is actually already complete by the twenty-seventh or twenty-eighth year of human development. There is already over-education of the human being in the form of the head.
But the rest of the human being is also a head, strange as that may seem; only it is not yet as far advanced as the head. If you imagine a human being decapitated, what remains is also a human head, but at a very backward stage. If it develops further, it will also become a head, while what you have as the head of the human being has been the rest of the organism in a previous incarnation. If you then imagine that which is not yet the head in your present organism being disembodied, freed from the body, if you imagine the head away from the present organism, which will only become the head in the next incarnation—but your organism is, of course, an image, everything physical is an image of something spiritual—if you think of the spiritual, which has not yet advanced in its outer form to the human being, then you see it in our Luciferic figure over there with the group, there you have it!
And now imagine all the spiritual-soul elements that are held back in your head, inserted into the human being, that is, everything that is a boundary for the human being, everything he cannot penetrate (right, see drawing on page 31), pressed into the human head: then the human being will not only have such an old, venerable head as he already has, but he will have a completely ossified head, he will become completely ossified, like the Ahriman figure in our group over there.
So if you imagine everything that is below the threshold of memory being poured out over the inner being of the human being, you get everything that is Luciferic. If you imagine everything that is beyond this wave of congestion (right) being poured into the human figure, you get the Ahrimanic form. And the human being is between the two.
What I have explained to you here is not only of great importance for understanding human beings, but also for understanding the spiritual processes in human evolution. It is impossible to understand how Christianity and the Christ impulse entered human evolution without a thorough understanding of these things. Nor can one understand the functions of the Catholic Church, the functions of Jesuitism and similar currents, or the functions of Eastern and Western culture, unless one can see them in connection with these things.
Tomorrow I will take the liberty of saying a little about these currents, which can only be properly understood once one has a clear picture of these foundations of the spiritual and soul life of human beings: Eastern and Western culture, Jesuitism, Americanism, and so on.