The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Ninth Lecture

[ 1 ] When speaking to a wider audience today about the most important questions of our time, one finds oneself in a different situation depending on whether one knows nothing of the deeper forces of world-historical development—in other words, of the science of initiation—or whether one knows something about them. Today, it is relatively easy to speak about contemporary issues based on all sorts of external insights that are considered scientific, practical, and the like. It is, however, extraordinarily difficult to speak about precisely these contemporary issues today if one is familiar with the science of so-called initiation, from which everything stems that we are currently discussing in places such as the one where we have gathered once again today. For anyone who speaks today about questions of time from the standpoint of the science of initiation knows that they are not merely up against the subjective, haphazard opinions of the people to whom they are speaking, but also knows that a large part of humanity today is already dominated, in one way or another, by very strong and ever-increasing Ahrimanic forces of the world. However, I can only explain what I mean by this if I provide you with a kind of historical overview spanning a broader period of human history.

[ 2 ] You know from various observations we have made here—which you will also find documented in several of my lecture series—that we must date the beginning of the era in which we, as people of the present, feel we are living to the middle of the 15th century. We have always referred to this period—which began in the mid-15th century and at the very beginning of which we essentially still stand—as the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, which succeeded the other, the Greco-Latin epoch, which we date from the mid-8th century B.C. to the mid-15th century. And then we return to the Egyptian-Chaldean epoch. I have only hinted at this so that you may recall how we integrate the period in which we, as people of the present, feel ourselves to be living into the overall course of human development. Now you know that, after the first third of the Greco-Latin period had been fulfilled, the Mystery of Golgotha took place. And we have characterized from a wide variety of perspectives what this Mystery of Golgotha actually meant for human development—indeed, for the entire development of the Earth. Today we wish to place within this broader historical context various aspects of what is connected to this Mystery of Golgotha for humanity.

[ 3 ] To this end, we look back to much earlier times—say, to the period around the beginning of the third millennium B.C.E. As you know, very little of the external historical record speaks of this early development of the human race on Earth. You also know how these external records point toward the East, toward Asia. And you know from various anthroposophical considerations that the further back we go in human development, the more we encounter different and ever-changing states of the human soul, and that there is, as it were, something like an ancient primordial wisdom underlying the entire development of humanity. You know that traditions existed which were preserved in close-knit secret circles right up into the 19th century, and that these traditions were then, for the most part, preserved—albeit not very faithfully, yet still in a certain sense—right up to our own time: traditions of an ancient wisdom of humanity. When people today learn one thing or another about this ancient primordial wisdom of humanity, they are astonished by the depths of reality into which such ancient wisdom points. But you will know from the reflections we have made over the years that this widespread wisdom teaching of ancient times always had to be contrasted with the entirely different view of life and the world held by the ancient Hebrew, the Jewish people, which has a completely different character. Thus, with some justification, the widespread, ancient wisdom teachings are described as the pagan element, and set in contrast to the Hebrew, or Jewish, element. You already know from external traditions and writings how the Christian element then emerged from this Jewish element.

[ 4 ] Now, from these external facts alone, you can already glean something that I ask you to pay attention to today: that it has become necessary in the development of humanity to counter the ancient pagan element and its primordial wisdom with the Jewish element, from which Christianity then developed, at least in part. This shows that this ancient pagan primordial wisdom, in its entirety, was not allowed to have the sole influence on the further development of humanity. And this must lead you to ask: What, then, is the reason why the ancient pagan primordial wisdom—which is so admirable in many respects—had to undergo, so to speak, a new form, a transformation, through Judaism and Christianity? — This question must arise.

[ 5 ] For the wisdom of initiation, however, this question is answered only by a very, very significant fact—the fact that took place far away in Asia at the beginning of the third millennium B.C. There, the seer’s gaze, looking back, perceives how the incarnation of a supersensible being took place in a human being, just as, through the event at Golgotha, the incarnation of a supersensible being—Christ—took place in the human being Jesus of Nazareth. That incarnation, which took place at the beginning of the third millennium B.C.E.—and which is extraordinarily difficult to trace, even with the science of vision, the science of initiation—bestowed upon humanity something extraordinarily resplendent and profoundly transformative. And what it gave to humanity there is, in essence, that ancient primordial wisdom.

[ 6 ] First of all, viewed from the outside, one could say that it was a wisdom that penetrated deeply into reality—cold, based solely on ideas, and imbued with little emotional content. That is the external view. Innerly, one can only judge what this wisdom actually was by going back to that very incarnation that took place in Asia at the beginning of the third millennium B.C. There, as the retrospective, clairvoyant gaze reveals, was indeed a genuine incarnation of the Luciferic power within humanity. And this incarnation of Lucifer in humanity, which took place in a certain way, was the origin of the widespread primordial wisdom that lies at the foundation of the third post-Atlantean human culture.

[ 7 ] Well into the Greek era, the effects of what had spread among humanity from this impulse—this cultural impulse of the Asian-Luciferic human being—were still being felt: Luciferic wisdom, which was certainly useful to humanity during that epoch of development—in a certain sense resplendent, graded according to the various peoples and races among whom it spread, clearly recognizable throughout Asia, then still present in Egyptian culture, in Babylonian culture, but, as I said, even at the very foundation of Greek culture. Everything that people were able to think, create, or will at that time was, in a certain sense, conditioned by this Luciferic influence on human culture.

[ 8 ] It would, of course, be extraordinarily philistine to simply say: “That was just an incarnation of Lucifer; we must flee from it.” — Out of such philistinism, one could also flee from everything that has emerged from this current of Lucifer as beautiful and great for humanity, for, as I said, Greek beauty, too, is something that has emerged from this current of development. The entire Gnostic thought that existed when the Mystery of Golgotha took place—which was a penetrating wisdom that shed light deep into the nature of things—the entire Gnostic insight was impelled by Luciferic forces. One must not therefore say that this Gnostic thinking is wrong. It is simply a characteristic of it to say: it is permeated by Luciferic impulses.

[ 9 ] Well, well over two thousand years after this Luciferic incarnation, the Mystery of Golgotha took place. One could say: The people among whom the impulse of the Mystery of Golgotha spread were, in their thinking and feeling, still entirely permeated by what the Luciferic impulse had brought into their thinking, feeling, and perception. And now something of a completely different nature—namely, the Christ impulse—entered into the development of civilized humanity. We have, of course, often spoken of what this Christ impulse means within civilized humanity. The Christ impulse was—and I just want to mention this today—received by minds that were of the nature I have described today. One might say: The Christ impulse shone into that which Lucifer had given to humanity as the very best. — And the Christ impulse was received in the early Christian centuries in such a way that one could say: With what people had received from Lucifer, they understood the Christ. — One must approach such matters with an open mind; otherwise, one will never truly be able to understand the particular nature of how the Christ impulse was received in the early centuries.

[ 10 ] As the Luciferic impulse gradually faded from people’s minds, they became less and less able to truly take the Christ impulse into themselves. Just consider this: so much has become materialistic in recent times. But if you ask yourself, “What has become the most materialistic of all?”—the answer is: a large part of modern Christian theology. —For it is simply the most extreme form of materialism to which a large part of modern Christian theology has succumbed, in that this modern Christian theology no longer sees the Christ in the man Jesus of Nazareth, but only the man Jesus of Nazareth, the “simple man from Nazareth,” the man whom one can understand without having to elevate oneself to any higher level of understanding. The more one could accept the man Jesus of Nazareth as a mere ordinary human being, who simply belongs in the ranks of other famous historical figures, the more this appealed to a certain materialistic strand of modern theology. This modern theology is unwilling to acknowledge much—very little, in fact—of the supernatural aspect of the event at Golgotha.

[ 11 ] The Luciferic influences on human consciousness gradually faded from the human soul. In recent times, however, what we call the Ahrimanic impulse has been growing ever stronger—and it will continue to grow stronger in the near future and well into the future. The Ahrimanic impulse originates from supersensible beings other than the Christ Being or the Luciferic Being. But it is also a supersensible being—we could even say a sub-sensible being—though that is not the point—and its influence became particularly powerful, and ever more powerful, during the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. And when we consider the confusion of recent years, we will find that human beings have been led into such confusion specifically by the Ahrimanic forces.

[ 12 ] Just as there was an incarnation of Lucifer at the beginning of the third millennium B.C., and just as there was the incarnation of Christ at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, so too will there be a Western incarnation of the being Ahriman some time after our present earthly existence, perhaps also in the third millennium A.D. Thus, one can only truly understand this course of humanity’s historical development spanning nearly six millennia by conceiving of it in such a way that at one pole stands a Luciferic incarnation, in the middle the Christ incarnation, and at the other pole the Ahrimanic incarnation. Lucifer is the power that stirs up in human beings all impetuous forces, all falsely mystical forces—everything that seeks to elevate human beings above themselves, that, so to speak, seeks to throw the human blood into disarray physiologically in order to drive human beings out of their minds. Ahriman is the power that makes human beings sober, prosaic, and philistine; that ossifies them; that leads them into the superstition of materialism. And the human being is, in essence, the effort to maintain a balance between the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic powers; and the Christ impulse helps present-day humanity to establish this balance. So these two poles—the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic—are constantly present within the human being. But historically we find that the Luciferic force predominated in certain currents of cultural development during the pre-Christian era and well into the first centuries of the Christian era, whereas Ahriman has been at work since the middle of the 15th century and is growing ever stronger, until a true incarnation of Ahriman will take place among Western humanity.

[ 13 ] Now, the peculiar thing is that such events are prepared for a long time. The Ahrimanic forces are preparing the course of human development in such a way that when Ahriman one day appears in human form within Western civilization—which by then will scarcely be worthy of the name “civilization” in our sense—just as Lucifer once appeared in human form in China and just as Christ Jesus appeared in human form in the Near East—humanity will be able to fall prey to Ahriman. It does no good to harbor illusions about these things. Ahriman will appear in human form. The only question will be what state he finds humanity in: whether his preparations will enable him to make all of humanity—which today calls itself civilized—his followers, or whether he will find humanity capable of resisting him. It does no good today to harbor illusions about these things. People today are, in a sense, fleeing from the truth—a truth that cannot be presented to them in its completely unvarnished form, because they would laugh at it, mock it, and deride it. But even when it is presented to them as is now being attempted through the threefold social order, they—at least the masses—still do not want it. But the very fact that people do not want to accept these truths is precisely one of the means the Ahrimanic forces can use to ensure that Ahriman, when he appears in human form, will have as large a following as possible on Earth. It is precisely this disregard for the most important truths that will build Ahriman the best bridge for the success of his incarnation. For, you see, there is no other way to find the right stance toward what will unfold in human evolution through Ahriman than to impartially come to know the forces through which the Ahrimanic works, and also to come to know the forces through which humanity can arm itself so as not to be tempted and seduced by the Ahrimanic forces. And that is why today we want to take a look—at least from a few starting points—at those things that would foster a following for Ahriman, and which are being used especially now by the Ahrimanic forces descending from the supersensible world, but working through human minds, to make this following as large as possible.

[ 14 ] And here is one of the ways: failing to grasp the true significance for human beings of certain ways of thinking and conceiving that have become dominant, particularly in more recent times. You know what a great difference there is between the way a person felt in relation to the entire cosmos—say, in Egyptian times or even in Greek times—and how they have felt since the beginning of the modern era, since the end of the Middle Ages. Imagine a well-educated ancient Egyptian. He knew that he was not merely physically composed of the elements found here on Earth and embodied in the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms. He knew that the forces he saw up in the stars were at work within his being as a human being. He felt himself to be a part of the entire cosmos. He felt that the entire cosmos was not only animated but also imbued with soul and spirit, and in his consciousness lived something of the spiritual beings of the cosmos, of the soulfulness of the cosmos, of the life of the cosmos. All of this has been lost in the course of recent human history. Today, human beings look up from their Earth toward the world of the stars, which is filled for them with fixed stars, suns, planets, comets, and so on. But with what does he study all that which looks down upon him from out there in outer space? He studies it with mathematics, or at most with mechanics. That which lies around the Earth has been stripped of spirit, of soul, and even of life.

[ 15 ] It is, in essence, a vast mechanical system that can only be understood with the help of mathematical-mechanical laws. With the help of mathematical-mechanical laws, we understand it perfectly! Certainly, it is precisely the scholar of the humanities who will be able to fully appreciate the achievements of Galileo, Kepler, and others. But what penetrates human understanding and human consciousness through the teachings of these great figures in human development is that the universe reveals itself as nothing more than a vast mechanism.

[ 16 ] Only those who are able to observe human beings in their entirety can truly grasp what this means. Astronomers and astrophysicists have a good case for presenting the universe as a mechanism that can be understood and calculated through mathematical formulas. This is what a person will believe during the time from when they wake up in the morning until the evening, when they fall asleep again. But in those subconscious depths that a person cannot reach with their waking consciousness—yet which are still part of their existence—and in which they live between falling asleep and waking up, something else flows into the human soul through the universe! There lives within the human soul a knowledge that, while not accessible to waking consciousness, dwells deep within the soul and shapes it—a knowledge of the spirit, of the life of the soul, and of the life of the cosmos. And even if a person, in their waking consciousness, knows nothing of what takes place there—in communion with the spirit, the soul, and the life of the universe—from the moment they fall asleep until they wake up—these things are present in the soul; they live within it. And much of the inner conflict within modern human beings—which is so profound—stems from the disharmony between what the soul experiences of the universe from the moment of falling asleep until waking, and what waking consciousness today is willing to accept as a worldview of this universe.

[ 17 ] If you take the whole spirit and meaning of anthroposophically oriented spiritual science, what does it tell you about such things? It tells you: Yes, what Galileanism and Copernicanism have brought into humanity is magnificent and awe-inspiring, but it is not an absolute truth—not at all an absolute truth—rather, it is one aspect of the universe, one side of it viewed from a certain perspective! — It is solely due to the arrogance of modern humanity that people today say: the Ptolemaic world system—child’s play; that’s what people believed when they were still children. We have “come so wonderfully far,” “as far as the stars,” and we now regard that as something absolute. — It is no more an absolute than the Ptolemaic system was an absolute; it is an aspect. And only then does one do it justice—as anthroposophically oriented spiritual science tells you—when one knows that everything that humanity, I might say—takes in through mere world mathematics, through mere world schematics of a mechanical nature, does not provide him with absolute truth, but rather with illusions about the universe. We need these illusions because humanity goes through different forms of education in its various stages of development. For modern education, we simply need these mathematical illusions about the universe. We must make them our own, but we should know that they are illusions. And they are all the more illusions when we carry them over into what surrounds us in everyday life, when we strive, based on atomic or molecular theory, to pursue a sort of miniature astronomy within the substances of the Earth. Precisely if one wishes to adopt the correct perspective on modern science as a whole—insofar as this science thinks in this way—one must recognize that all of this is illusory knowledge.

[ 18 ] Now, in order for his incarnation to be as fruitful as possible for him, Ahriman has the greatest interest in ensuring that people perfect themselves in this “science of illusion”—which, after all, is essentially our entire modern science—but that they do not realize that it is a science of illusion. Ahriman has the greatest interest in teaching people mathematics, but not in teaching them that mathematical-mechanical conceptions are merely illusions about the universe. Ahriman has the greatest interest in teaching people chemistry, physics, biology, and so on—as they are currently presented to humanity and elevated to the status of an admired worldview—but in making them believe that these are absolute truths, rather than, so to speak, merely perspectives or one-sided snapshots. If you photograph a tree from one side, it may be photographed correctly, but you still do not have a complete picture of it. If you photograph it from four sides, then you might at best gain a complete picture of it. Ahriman has the greatest interest in concealing this from humanity—that today’s intellectual-rationalist science, with its appendage of superstitious empiricism, is nothing but a great illusion, a deception—and in refusing to acknowledge this. He could achieve the greatest success, experience the greatest triumph, if it could be brought about that this scientific superstition—which is sweeping through all circles today and according to which people even wish to organize their social sciences—were to prevail well into the third millennium, and if Ahriman could then be born as a human being within Western civilization and find this scientific superstition.

[ 19 ] But please do not draw any false conclusions from what I have just said. It would be a false conclusion to avoid modern science. That is the very worst conclusion you could draw. One should get to know it. One should indeed get to know everything that comes from this side, but with the full awareness that it provides us with an aspect of illusion—an aspect of illusion necessary for the education of humanity. It is not by avoiding modern science, for example, that we protect ourselves from Ahriman, but by getting to know it in its true form. For this science must give us an outer illusion of the universe. We need this outer illusion. Do not think for a moment that we do not need this outer illusion. We must then simply fill it with true reality from a completely different perspective through spiritual research; we must rise from its illusory character to true reality. If you look at many of my lecture series—precisely in light of what I am telling you today—you will find that everywhere an effort has been made to engage fully with the science of our time, but to elevate it all to the sphere where one can see how much of it is valid. After all, you cannot wish for the rainbow to disappear before your eyes simply because you recognize it as an illusion of light, as an illusion of color. You will not understand it unless you see through its illusory nature. But this is true of everything that modern science offers you for your conception of the world. It offers only illusions, and one must recognize their illusory nature. Then, precisely by training oneself through these illusions, one arrives at the reality of the world. This is one of the means Ahriman has to make his incarnation as effective as possible: to keep people bound to scientific superstition. The other means, the second means he has, is to foment everything that divides people today into groups—into small groups that are at war with one another. You need only look at the current state of party politics—at the warring parties—and you will find—if you are only unbiased, you can acknowledge this—that these warring parties truly cannot be explained by human nature alone. Once people honestly set out to explain this so-called World War in terms of human disharmonies, they will realize that they cannot explain it with what they find in physical humanity. It is precisely here that it becomes so clear how supersensible forces have been at work—specifically, Ahrimanic forces!

[ 20 ] But these Ahrimanic forces are at work wherever disharmony arises between groups of people. What, then, is the basis for most of what is under consideration here? Let us take a very characteristic example. The modern proletariat has had its Karl Marx. Learn to recognize precisely how Karl Marx’s teachings have spread among the modern proletariat, and take a look at the seemingly endless, immeasurable body of Marxist literature. You will find the kind of scientific approach that is otherwise common today applied to the utmost degree in this literature; everything is rigorously proven—so rigorously, in fact, that even some people from whom one would never have expected it have fallen for Marxism. What, then, has actually been the fate of Marxism? At first, didn’t Marxism spread among the proletariat? It was strictly rejected by academic scholarship. Today there are already a number of university scholars who can no longer escape the logic of Marxism, who acknowledge it, who can no longer extricate themselves from it, because it has gradually become apparent in the literature that the conclusions are very precise, that with the current scientific mindset and way of thinking, this Marxism can be proven quite thoroughly. The bourgeois circles simply did not have a Karl Marx who could have proven the opposite to them; for just as one can prove the ideological character of law, customs, and so on, as well as the theory of surplus value and materialist historical research from the Marxist standpoint, so too can one prove the exact opposite of all these things with precisely the same degree of accuracy. It would be entirely possible that a bourgeois Marxist could have proven exactly the opposite in the same rigorous manner. And there is not even any humbug or deception involved. The proofs would hold up completely.

[ 21 ] Where does this come from? It comes from the fact that present-day human thinking—the present-day intellect—resides at such a level of existence that it does not reach down to the realities. And that is why one can prove one thing and prove its opposite—strictly prove one thing and its opposite. Today it is possible, on the one hand, to rigorously prove spiritualism and, just as rigorously, to prove materialism. And people can fight against one another from equally valid standpoints, because today’s intellectualism exists in an upper layer of reality and does not descend into the depths of being. And so it is with partisan opinions as well. Anyone who fails to see through this, but instead simply allows himself to be drawn—through his upbringing, heredity, and his political and other life circumstances—into a certain party circle, believes, as he thinks, honestly in the evidential force of what is in that party into which he has slipped, or “slid,” as one sometimes says in German. And then, then he fights against another who has slid into a different party. And one is just as right as the other. This brings about chaos and confusion throughout humanity, which can gradually grow larger and larger if humanity does not see through it. And this confusion, in turn, is precisely the kind that the Ahrimanic power exploits to prepare the way for the triumph of its incarnation, driving people ever more strongly into what they find so difficult to grasp: that today one can prove something, and yet prove the opposite just as well with equally sound intellectual—or, in today’s terms, scientific—reasons. What matters today is that we recognize: everything is provable, and that we therefore look to such proofs as are forged in science today. Only within the natural sciences, within rigorous scientific knowledge itself, does reality reveal itself through the facts. But in no other field should one accept what can be proven intellectually. Only when we realize that human knowledge and human understanding must be sought more deeply—as is done through anthroposophically oriented spiritual science — than in that realm from which the power of our evidence springs, can one escape the danger one faces when one accepts the Ahrimanic seduction, which now seeks to drive people ever deeper and deeper into these matters. That is why, in our time, Ahriman also uses everything that stems from the old hereditary conditions—conditions from which humanity has, in essence, already outgrown in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch—to throw people into confusion. The Ahrimanic power uses everything that stems from these old inherited conditions to set people against one another in groups, creating disharmony. The Ahrimanic power uses everything that arises from old distinctions of family, race, tribe, and nation to sow confusion among people. Freedom for every single tribe, even the smallest—it was a beautiful phrase. But the words used by the forces opposed to humanity to sow confusion among people—in order to achieve the very things Ahriman seeks to accomplish through his incarnation—are always beautiful.

[ 22 ] If you ask today: Who is pitting the peoples against one another? Who is raising the issues that are shaping humanity today? — the answer is: The Ahrimanic seduction that works its way into people! — And people are very easily deceived in this area. They do not want to engage with that descent into the lower strata, where reality lies. For you see, Ahriman prepares his goal well: ever since the Reformation and the Renaissance, the “economic man” has risen in modern civilization as the dominant type of ruler. That is a true historical fact. If you go back to ancient times—even to those I had to characterize for you today as Luciferic—who were the ruling figures? Initiates! The Egyptian pharaohs, the Babylonian rulers, the rulers of Asia—they were initiates. Then the priestly type emerged as the ruling type. And the priestly type essentially ruled until the Reformation and the Renaissance. Since that time, the economic type of human has reigned. The rulers are, after all, merely the henchmen of the economic people. One should by no means believe that the rulers of modern times were anything other than the henchmen of the economic people. And everything that has emerged in law and justice—if one studies it thoroughly—is simply a consequence of what the economic people have thought. It was not until the 19th century that the banker-minded individual emerged to replace the economic human being, and it was not until the 19th century that the system was fully established which, through the monetary economy, actually overshadows all other conditions. One need only be able to understand these things, to trace them correctly through empirical observation and experience.

[ 23 ] Everything I said here in my second public lecture is profoundly true. One would simply like this to be examined in every detail. Precisely when one examines it in every detail, one will see how thoroughly true these things are. But precisely as the rule of the mere “symbol for tangible goods” has arisen, so too has an essential means for Ahriman’s deception of humanity arisen. And if people fail to realize that they must set the rule of law and the spiritual organism in opposition to the economic order brought about by the “economic man” and the banker, then in this very failure to realize it, Ahriman will find an essential means to prepare for his incarnation—that is, the triumph of his incarnation, which will certainly come—in the appropriate manner. These are the kinds of means Ahriman can use with a certain type of person. But there is also another type of person today—often the two types are mixed within a single individual—who, from another angle, also facilitates Ahriman’s path to triumph.

[ 24 ] You see, the fact is that complete errors in real life are not as bad as half-truths and quarter-truths. For complete errors are soon seen through. Half-truths and quarter-truths, however, mislead people, so that they come to accept them; these half-truths and quarter-truths find their way into people’s lives and wreak the most terrible havoc.

[ 25 ] There are people today who do not recognize the one-sidedness of the Galilean-Copernican worldview, or who at least fail to see through its illusory nature, or who are too complacent to engage with it. We have just explained how wrong that is. But there are also people today—numerous people—who embrace a certain half-truth, a very significant half-truth, and refuse to acknowledge the only conditional validity of this half-truth. For as strange as it may seem to many people: just as it is a one-sided way of coming to know the world through Galilean-Copernican science—or, indeed, through today’s materialistic university science in general—so, on the other hand, it is a one-sidedness to come to know the world solely through the Gospel and to reject any other insight into true reality than that provided by the Gospel. The Gospel was given to those who lived in the first centuries of Christianity.

[ 26 ] To believe today that the Gospel alone can provide the entirety of Christianity is, in fact, only half the truth—and therefore also a half-error—which in turn clouds people’s minds and thus provides Ahriman with the best means to achieve his goal: the triumph of his incarnation.

[ 27 ] How many people today believe they are speaking out of Christian humility, but in truth, out of a terrible arrogance, say: “Oh, we don’t need spiritual science.” The simplicity, the plainness of the Gospel—that is what leads us to what human beings need from eternity. — It is mostly a terrible arrogance that expresses itself in this apparent modesty. Ahriman can make very good use of this arrogance in the sense I have indicated. For do not forget what I explained at the beginning of today’s reflections: that in the era into which the Gospel entered, people were still permeated by Luciferic influences in their thinking, feeling, and perception—in their entire way of perceiving the world—and that they were able to understand the Gospel through a certain Luciferic gnosis. But understanding the Gospel in this old sense is no longer possible today. Insisting today on the Gospel alone—especially as it has been handed down to people—does not lead to a true understanding of Christ. That is why nowhere today is a true understanding of Christ less widespread than in the creeds and denominations. Today, one must delve into the Gospel through spiritual science if one wishes to arrive at a true understanding of Christ. In this regard, it is interesting to examine the individual Gospels and uncover their true content. To take the Gospel as it is—as many people do today and as it is taught to many people in particular—is not a path to Christ; it is a path away from Christ. That is why the denominations are drifting further and further away from Christ. What does one arrive at today who wishes to take the Gospel—and only the Gospel—without a spiritual-scientific deepening of the Gospel? What kind of understanding of Christ does one arrive at? Ultimately, one arrives at a Christ—if one truly takes the Gospel. But what is the ultimate point to which they arrive? It is not the reality of Christ, to which only spiritual science can lead today. What the Gospel leads to is, though correct, merely a hallucination of Christ—a real inner image—call it a vision if you will—a real, inner image, but only an image. Through the Gospel today, there is a path to a true hallucination, to a true vision of Christ, but not to the reality of Christ. That is precisely why modern theology has become so materialistic. People who have dealt with the Gospel purely from a theological perspective have asked: What can we extract from this Gospel? And in the end, they told themselves: From our perspective, something similar to what we arrive at when we examine Paul on the road to Damascus. And then come these theologians, who were actually supposed to establish Christianity but instead undermine it by saying: Well, Paul was simply sick—a person with a nervous disorder who had a vision on the road to Damascus.

[ 28 ] The point is precisely this: just as one can, through the Gospel alone, arrive only at a hallucination, only at a vision—which is, however, an internally accurate image, yet does not grasp reality—one must realize that through the Gospel alone one does not arrive at the real Christ, but at a hallucination of Christ. For today one must seek the real Christ through everything that can be gained from spiritual knowledge of the world. Therefore, when Ahriman appears in human form in modern civilization, it is precisely those who today swear by the Gospel alone and wish to reject any kind of true spiritual knowledge—from the denominations and sects that refuse to learn and reject everything that requires spiritual effort for concrete understanding—who will form the nucleus of his following. From these circles, whole multitudes will emerge to become followers of Ahriman.

[ 29 ] All of this is beginning to take shape. It is already here, and it is at work in humanity today. This is what the person who speaks to people today with the insight of initiatory science addresses—whether on social issues or other matters. He knows where the opposing forces lie, that they dwell primarily in the supersensible realm, that human beings are the poor, deluded ones, and that, fundamentally, the appeal to humanity is this: Free yourselves from all the things that constitute such a great temptation to contribute to the triumph of Ahriman.

[ 30 ] Many people have felt something like this. But the courage is not yet widespread enough to truly engage with the Christ, Lucifer, and Ahriman impulses—which are historical impulses—in the profound way that is necessary and that must be emphasized by anthroposophically oriented spiritual science. People are reluctant to go far enough, even when they sense what is necessary. Take a look at examples where some insight emerges into how necessary it is to permeate secular, materialistic science—with its Ahrimanic character—with the Christ impulse, and how necessary it is, on the other hand, to shed new light on the Gospel by explaining it through spiritual science. Look at how many people bring themselves to truly shed light on both sides through spiritual scientific insight. Only by doing this will humanity gain the proper perspective on Ahriman’s earthly incarnation—by seeing through these things and by having the courage, the will, and the energy to, on the one hand, shed light on secular science with the Spirit, and on the other hand, to illuminate the Gospel with this same Spirit. Otherwise, half-measures will always prevail. Consider, for example, how an enlightened person—yet one who looked deeply into modern religious developments, such as Cardinal Newman—openly stated in his speech when he was invested as a cardinal in Rome that, if Christian-Catholic doctrine were to continue to exist, a new revelation would be necessary. But we do not need a new revelation. The era of revelations in the old sense is over. We need a new science, one illuminated by the Spirit. But people must have the courage to embrace such a new science.

[ 31 ] Consider a literary phenomenon such as “Lux mundi,” which emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s from certain members of the English High Church—esteemed theologians of the English High Church—whose essays were permeated throughout by the endeavor to build a bridge from secular science to the content of dogma. Everywhere, I would say, there is a fumbling back and forth; nowhere is there a bold engagement with secular science, nowhere an examination of this science through the spirit, an unbiased look at the Gospel and then saying: The Gospel alone is not enough today; it must be clarified, it must be illuminated. — But this is necessary for humanity today: to maintain the courage on both sides and to say: Secular science alone leads to illusion; the Gospel alone leads to hallucination. Human beings find the middle path between illusion and hallucination only in a spiritual grasp of reality. That is what matters.

[ 32 ] Such things must be seen through today. Mere secular science would make people completely deluded. Ultimately, they would, in essence, accomplish nothing but folly. Enough folly is already being committed today, for the catastrophe of the World War was certainly a great folly. But there were many people involved who were thoroughly imbued with today’s secular science. And when you see how strange psychological phenomena immediately come to the fore whenever, for example, a sect places one of the four Gospels in the foreground, then you will more easily understand what I have also said today about the Gospel. Just consider how strongly a sect—such as one that listens only to the Gospel of John, or another that listens only to the Gospel of Luke—is prone to all manner of hallucinatory experiences and the like. The only fortunate thing—that each Gospel, in its one-sidedness, has not yet caused great harm—is that there are four Gospels that outwardly contradict one another. Thus, because people have four Gospels before them, they do not fall into the trap of focusing on just one, do not go too far in the direction of just one, but have the others alongside it. One Sunday a passage is read from one Gospel, the next Sunday from another, and in this way the power of one is balanced by the power of the other. There is great wisdom in the fact that these four Gospels have come into the civilized world, preventing people—unlike many followers of sects—from succumbing to the current that overwhelms them when only one Gospel influences them. When only one Gospel influences a person, it becomes particularly clear that, in the end, the influence of that single Gospel degenerates into hallucination. Yes, it is necessary today to shed certain subjective inclinations, certain things that one likes and that one believes to be pious or sensible. What matters most for humanity today is comprehensiveness and the courage to embrace comprehensiveness.

[ 33 ] I wanted to speak to you about this today so that you can see: What is now attempting to take effect within humanity truly has deeper reasons than, say, mere subjective bias. One can certainly say that it is evident from the signs of the times and that it must be brought about. And even though it took us a relatively long time to meet here in this branch, I felt a deep need to share with you, especially at this time, the words I have spoken to you here today. Hopefully, we will have the opportunity to discuss such matters further here again in the not-too-distant future.