The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Tenth Lecture

[ 1 ] The phase of human development that is beginning with a distinctive character in our time—of course, one can say of any era that a particular phase of human development is beginning; one need only characterize the nature of this phase of development—can be described roughly as follows: for the most part, everything humanity will experience in the future course of Earth’s history, in the physical world, will be a kind of descent, a regression, a regressive development. The time has already passed when humanity advanced through physical forces that appeared in ever more refined and elevated forms. Humanity will continue to progress in the time to come, but only through spiritual development—a development that rises above the processes of the physical plane. The processes of the physical plane will not be such that humanity, if it were to devote itself solely to them, would be able to derive satisfaction from them. What has long been hinted at within our spiritual science—and what we can find characterized in the lecture series on the Apocalypse—is that we are heading toward a “war of all against all”; this should be regarded, from this point forward, as something very, very serious and significant. It should be understood not merely as a theoretical truth, but as something that is also expressed in action, in the entire conduct of human beings. Precisely the fact that people—if I may put it simply—will derive little joy from the future development of the physical plane will lead them to realize more and more that further developments must come from the spiritual forces.

[ 2 ] One can only fully grasp this fact by considering a broader period of human development and, so to speak, applying it to what humanity will increasingly have to face in the future. One will come to understand the goal toward which those forces of humanity are heading—forces that will manifest themselves in what I might call rhythmically recurring processes of war and devastation, of which the current war catastrophe is only the beginning. It is, after all, a childish notion to believe that anything following this war catastrophe will bring about any lasting periods of peace for humanity on the physical plane. That will not be the case. But what must come upon the Earth must be a spiritual development. One will come to understand its spirit, its direction, and its meaning by surveying a relatively long period of time leading up to the Mystery of Golgotha, by grasping something of the meaning of the Mystery of Golgotha, and by attempting to spiritually contemplate the continuing influence of the Mystery of Golgotha in particular on the future development of humanity.

[ 3 ] We have examined the Mystery of Golgotha from a wide variety of perspectives. Today we would like to add another perspective to these by briefly characterizing that aspect of human civilization which preceded the Mystery of Golgotha—let us say, up to about the third millennium before our era—which then continued into the era of Christian development, and which, as you know, is referred to as pagan culture. Within this pagan culture, the very different Jewish-Hebrew culture emerged like an oasis, from which Christianity then arose.

[ 4 ] We can understand pagan culture if we realize that it was essentially a culture of knowledge, of insight, and of action drawn from forces more comprehensive than earthly ones. One could say that it was actually through Hebrew-Jewish culture that the moral element was first instilled in humanity. The moral element did not exist as a separate entity in pagan culture. Instead, this ancient pagan culture was such that human beings felt themselves to be a part of the entire cosmos. This is something we must bear in mind very particularly. The human being who lived on Earth as a member of the ancient pagan culture felt himself to be a part of the entire cosmos. He sensed how the forces at work in the movements of the stars extended into his own actions—or rather, into the forces at work within his actions. What later came to be regarded as astrology—and what is still regarded as astrology to this day—is, I would say, merely a reflection, indeed a very misleading reflection, of what was ancient wisdom, which was derived from the movements of the stars and which at the same time provided the guidelines for human action. One can understand these ancient cultures only by shedding a little light, from the perspective of spiritual science, on what human development in the 4th and 5th millennia B.C.E. actually was in the outer sense. Of course, we speak sometimes of the second and sometimes of the first post-Atlantean epoch, but we do ourselves a disservice if we imagine human existence on Earth in the 5th, 6th, and 7th millennia B.C.E. as being all too similar to our present-day human existence. It is certainly true that people in those ancient millennia, insofar as they walked the earth, had a kind of instinctive soul life—a kind of soul life that, in a certain respect, was closer to the animal soul life than to today’s human soul life. But one’s understanding of human life is very one-sided if one were to say, for example: “Yes, if we go back to those ancient times, people were more animal-like.” What walked here on Earth was certainly more animal-like in its soul constitution, but these animal bodies of human beings were used by spiritual-soul entities who felt themselves to be very much members of the supersensible, and above all, the cosmic worlds. And one can say: If one goes back far enough—say, to the 5th millennium B.C.—people were such that they used animal bodies more as instruments than as vessels in which they felt at home. If one were to characterize those people precisely, one would have to say: When these people were awake, they certainly went about like animals with an instinctive soul life, but something like dreams from their sleeping state—like waking dreams—seemed to enter into this instinctive soul life. And in these waking dreams they recognized how they had descended merely to use the animal bodies. That which was truly an inner human state of mind was then transformed into a cultic vision, a cultic act, in the Mithras cult, where we see that the principal symbol is the god Mithras riding a bull, with the starry sky above—to which he belongs—and the earthly realm below—to which the bull belongs. For these ancient people, this symbol was not actually a symbol at all, but rather a perception of reality. People perceived the state of their souls in such a way that they said to themselves: When I am outside my body at night, I belong to the forces of the cosmos, of the starry sky; when I wake up in the morning, I make use of animal instinct in an animal body.

[ 5 ] Then, one might say, a period of twilight descended, in a certain sense, upon human development. It was a somewhat duller, more subdued phase of human life, in which cosmic dreams receded and instinctive life gained the upper hand. What had previously been the human state of mind was preserved through the mysteries, primarily the Asian mysteries. But humanity at large—insofar as it was not touched by the wisdom of the mysteries—lived a more or less twilight-like, dull existence from the 4th to the beginning of the 3rd millennium. One could say: During this period—the 4th and the beginning of the 3rd millennium—before the Mystery of Golgotha, life throughout the Asian world and the world known at that time was a twilight state of the soul, an instinctive state of the soul. But the Mysteries were there, in which the spiritual worlds truly worked their influence through the effective ceremonies. And from there, people were once again enlightened.

[ 6 ] But then, around the beginning of the 3rd millennium, something very significant took place. If one were to describe the origin of this dim, more instinctive form of life, one could say: At that time, the spiritual-soul nature of human beings was not yet able to make use of the actual human organs of intellect. These organs of intellect were already present; they were developed within the physical nature of human beings, but the spiritual-soul nature was unable to make use of them. Consequently, human beings were not yet able to gain any knowledge through their thinking or their powers of judgment. They could gain only what was given to them through the mysteries.

[ 7 ] It was around the beginning of the 3rd millennium that a significant event took place over in East Asia. Unhindered, a child from one of the distinguished Asian families of that time grew up in the milieu of the mystery rites. Circumstances were such that this child was permitted to participate in the ceremonies—likely because the leading Mystery priests felt inspired to allow such a child to take part one day. And when the human being living within this child had reached the age of about forty, something remarkable came to light. It became apparent—and it must certainly be said that the Mystery priests had, in a sense, prophetically foreseen this event—that this person, who had been raised within one of the East Asian Mysteries, suddenly began, around the age of forty, to grasp through human reasoning the meaning of what had previously entered the Mysteries only through revelation. He was, in a sense, the first to be permitted to make use of the faculties of the human intellect, though only in accordance with the Mysteries.

[ 8 ] If we translate what the priests of the mysteries said about this matter into our modern language, we must say: In this human being, none other than Lucifer himself was incarnated—no more, no less. — And this is an important, a significant fact: that in the third millennium B.C. in Eastern Asia, there truly was a physical incarnation of Lucifer. And from this physical incarnation of Lucifer—for this figure then taught—arose what is actually referred to as pre-Christian, pagan culture, which still lived on in the Gnosticism of the first Christian centuries. One must by no means pass merely a disparaging judgment on this Luciferic culture. For what Greek civilization produced in terms of beauty, and even philosophical insight—what still lives on in ancient Greek philosophy and in the tragedies of Aeschylus—none of that would have been possible without this Luciferic incarnation. This Luciferic incarnation, as I said, was still powerful in the first Christian centuries in southern Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia. And when the Mystery of Golgotha had taken place on Earth, it was essentially Luciferic wisdom through which the Mystery of Golgotha could be understood. What initially emerged as Gnosis for understanding the Mystery of Golgotha was thoroughly imbued with Luciferic wisdom. Thus, we must first emphasize: At the beginning of the third millennium, there was a Chinese Luciferic incarnation. At the beginning of our era, there was the incarnation of Christ. And at first, even the incarnation of Christ was understood through the fact that the power of the old Lucifer incarnation was still present—a power that did not actually disappear from human insight and human inner strength until the 4th century A.D. But it still had its aftereffects, its lingering influences.

[ 9 ] Now, in addition to these two incarnations—the Luciferic one in ancient times and the incarnation of Christ, which embodies the true purpose of Earth’s evolution—a third will come in the not-too-distant future. And current events are essentially already unfolding in such a way that this third incarnation is being prepared. When referring to the incarnation of Lucifer at the beginning of the third millennium B.C., one must say: Through him, human beings gained the ability to make use of the faculties of their intellect and their power of judgment. It was Lucifer himself, in a human body, who first grasped through his power of judgment that which previously could only enter into human beings through revelation: the meaning of the mysteries. What is now being prepared and will most certainly take place on Earth in the not-too-distant future is a true incarnation of Ahriman.

[ 10 ] As you know, since the middle of the 15th century we have been living in an age in which humanity is meant to increasingly come into possession of the full power of consciousness. This must be precisely what is significant in facing this Ahriman incarnation: that human beings approach this event with full consciousness. The incarnation of Lucifer was, in fact, only discernible to the prophetic power of the mystery priests. What the Christ incarnation represented through the event at Golgotha also occurred very unconsciously for human beings. Humanity must consciously prepare for the Ahriman incarnation amidst the upheavals that will occur on the physical plane. Amid the ongoing wars and other hardships of humanity’s near future, the human spirit will become particularly inventive in the realm of physical life. And through this growing inventiveness in the realm of physical life—which cannot be averted in any way by this or that behavior; it will occur as a necessity—it will become possible for a human physical individuality to emerge in which Ahriman will be able to incarnate.

[ 11 ] But this Ahrimanic power is preparing its incarnation on Earth from the spiritual world. And it seeks to prepare it in such a way that—that is, this incarnation of Ahriman in human form—it will be able to seduce and tempt the people on Earth to the greatest possible extent. One task for humanity in the next phase of civilization’s development will be to live so fully and consciously toward the Ahrimanic incarnation that this incarnation will actually serve humanity in promoting a higher spiritual development—by making people aware, through Ahriman, of precisely what human beings can or, shall we say, cannot attain through mere physical life. But human beings must consciously meet this Ahriman incarnation head-on and arrange matters in such a way that they become ever more conscious in all areas, so that they see more and more clearly which currents in life are moving in opposition to this Ahriman incarnation. People must learn to interpret life from the perspective of spiritual science, so that they may recognize the currents that run counter to the Ahriman incarnation and learn to master them. They must know that Ahriman will live among people on Earth, but that people will stand up to him and determine for themselves what they may learn from him and what they may take in from him. However, they will not be able to do this unless, from now on, they take control of certain spiritual currents—or even non-spiritual currents—that Ahriman would otherwise use to keep people as unaware as possible of his coming, so that he might one day appear on Earth and, as it were, take people by surprise, attempting to seduce them so that they deny the development of the Earth and prevent it from reaching its goal. One must come to know the nature of certain spiritual and non-spiritual currents if one is to understand the entire process of which I have spoken.

[ 12 ] Don’t you see that, in the present day, the number of people who actually want nothing to do with a science of the spiritual, with an understanding of the spiritual, is growing ever larger? Do you not see how numerous the people are becoming for whom the old religious forces no longer hold any inner appeal? Whether they go to church or not is no longer at all important to many people today. But the old religious forces no longer hold any inner significance for them. Nor, however, do they resolve to take into account in any way that which can flow into our culture as a new spiritual life. They resist it, they reject it, they regard it as folly, as something that makes them uncomfortable; they do not engage with it. But, you see, human beings, as they live on Earth, are a true unity. One cannot separate one’s spiritual from one’s physical. Both work together as a unity between birth and death. And even if a person does not take in the spiritual through their soul’s faculties, the spiritual is there nonetheless. Since the last third of the 19th century, the spiritual has indeed been flowing around us. It is flowing into the development of the Earth. And one can say: The spiritual is there; people simply do not want to take it in.

[ 13 ] But even if people do not take in the spiritual, it is still there! It is still there! What then becomes of this spiritual? As paradoxical as it may seem—for many things that are true, and very true, seem paradoxical to people today—people eat and drink, perhaps most of all those who reject the spiritual. In such people—who reject the spiritual yet still eat and drink—the spiritual flows, unbeknownst to them, into the process of eating and digestion. This is the secret of that path into materialism, which began in earnest around 1840—or rather, was already in the making. Those people who do not take in the spiritual through their souls are, nevertheless, taking in the spiritual today; by eating and drinking, they are eating and drinking the spirit. They are eaters of soul and spirit. And in this way, the spirit that flows into the development of the Earth enters the Luciferic element and is communicated to Lucifer. The Luciferic force, which can then assist the Ahrimanic force in its later incarnation, grows ever stronger and stronger as a result. This will have to become a realization for people—for those who are open to the idea that the people of the future will either consciously absorb spiritual knowledge or unconsciously consume the spirit and thereby surrender it to the Luciferic powers. Ahriman particularly encourages this trend of spiritual and soul consumption because it allows him to lull people more and more into complacency, so that he can then, through his incarnation, enter among them and take them by surprise, preventing them from consciously resisting him.

[ 14 ] But Ahriman can also prepare the way for his incarnation directly—and he does. People today certainly lead a spiritual life, but it is a purely intellectual one that has no connection to the spiritual world. This purely intellectual life is spreading more and more among people; it first took hold particularly in the sciences, but is now also leading to all manner of social excesses in social life. What, then, is the nature of this intellectual life? This intellectual life is so little connected to people’s real interests. I ask you: How many teachers do you see today entering and leaving educational institutions, both high and low, who do not actually serve their discipline out of inner enthusiasm, but rather out of an external profession? There is no direct interest of the soul connected to what is being pursued. This even extends down to the time spent learning. Consider how much is learned at the various stages of life without any real enthusiasm or genuine interest in that learning, and how external intellectual life has become for many people who devote themselves to it. And how many people today are compelled to produce all manner of intellectual material that is then preserved in libraries, material that is not alive as spiritual life. All of this—what develops as an intellectualistic spiritual life without being infused with human warmth, without human enthusiasm—directly promotes the incarnation of Ahriman in his own sense. This lulls people into complacency in the way I have described, so that it can become very favorable for Ahriman.

[ 15 ] In addition, there are numerous other currents in spiritual and non-spiritual life that Ahriman can exploit if people do not make proper use of them. You have heard them resound throughout the world in recent times—and you still hear them—that national states and national empires must be established. One hears a great deal about the “freedom of individual peoples.” Well, the era in which empires were to be founded on the basis of blood ties and tribal affiliations has passed in the development of humanity. And when appeals are made today to national, tribal, and similar ties—ties that do not spring from the intellect or the spirit—then disharmony among humanity is fostered. And it is precisely this disharmony among humanity that the Ahrimanic power can exploit. National chauvinism and all manner of perverted patriotism will be the material from which Ahriman crafts whatever he happens to need at the moment.

[ 16 ] But there is something else to consider as well. Today we see parties springing up everywhere for one cause or another. Well, when it comes to these party views and party platforms, people today certainly do not see things clearly—and do not want to see them clearly. With great human acumen, one can prove even the most radical of positions today. Leninism can be proven with great acumen, but so can its opposite, and everything in between. Today, one can rigorously prove any political position. Yet the person who proves the opposing position is just as right. The intellectualist mindset that prevails among people today is by no means sufficient to demonstrate anything in terms of its inner vitality or intrinsic value. It proves. But what has been proven should by no means yet be regarded as something worthy of life or full of life. That is why people today stand opposed to one another in political parties, fighting each other, because every party position—or at least the most essential party positions—can be proven with equal validity. Our intellect remains on the surface level of understanding things; it does not penetrate to the layer where truth truly lies. This need only be recognized deeply and thoroughly enough. People today love to remain on the surface with their intellect and not to penetrate, through deeper spiritual powers, into further layers of being that correspond to the essence of things. Although one need only look around a little in external life—even the very, very outermost aspects of life often show how one can be deceived by what people love today. People today love numbers in science, but they also love numbers in social life. Just look at socialist science: it consists almost entirely of statistics. And from statistics—that is, from numbers—conclusions are drawn about the most important matters. Well, even with numbers, one can prove anything and believe anything. For the number is not a means of proving something; rather, the number is precisely a means of deceiving people. As soon as one fails to look beyond the numbers to the qualitative—to look past the numbers and focus on the qualitative—one can be most easily deceived by the numbers.

[ 17 ] Here is an obvious example. There has been—or at least there used to be—a great deal of debate, for instance, about the nationality of Macedonians. Much of political life on the Balkan Peninsula depended on the statistics compiled there. But the figures there are worth just as much as those in any other set of statistics. So whether one compiles statistics on wheat and rye, or whether one compiles statistics on how many people of Greek, Serbian, or Bulgarian nationality live in Macedonia—in terms of what the statistics can prove, it’s all the same. You’ll find the figures cited for the Greeks, the figures cited for the Bulgarians, and the figures cited for the Serbs, and you can draw the most favorable conclusions from these figures. But you can also look into the qualitative aspects. There you’ll see that, for example, the following is often cited: the father is Greek, one son is Bulgarian, and another son is Serbian. You can imagine for yourself how that works. But these statistics are then consulted, even though in this case they are merely something fabricated to justify the party’s agenda. For of course, if the father is truly Greek, then the two sons are also Greek. But this is just one example of the many things that are done there—and of what people do with numbers in general. Numbers are the means through which Ahriman can achieve the most when they are cited as evidence and regarded as proof.

[ 18 ] Another means that Ahriman can employ is one that, when spoken of, is unlikely to be immediately recognized as such; rather, its nature will sound paradoxical. As you know, within our spiritual science movement, we have sought to delve deeper into the Gospels from a spiritual scientific perspective. But this deeper exploration of the Gospels in our time—which is becoming more and more necessary—is rejected by just as many people as spiritual science is rejected in general. The people who often believe themselves to be modest in this area—or at least emphasize that they are—are actually the most arrogant. More and more one hears people say that one should immerse oneself in the simple plainness of the Gospel and should not seek, for example, the Mystery of Golgotha along the complicated paths of spiritual science. The people who pretend to seek simply in the Gospels are precisely the most arrogant, for in their arrogance they despise the honest and sincere search through spiritual scientific insights. They are so arrogant that they believe they can reap the highest insights of the spiritual world without making any effort whatsoever, merely by naively immersing themselves in the Gospels. What often presents itself today as modest or simple is, in fact, the very height of arrogance. The most arrogant people live in the sects and denominations.

[ 19 ] You see, the Gospels were written at a time when Luciferic wisdom was still present. In the first centuries of Christian development, the Gospels were understood quite differently than they were later. Today, people who are unable to delve deeply into spiritual science merely pretend to understand the Gospels. In reality, they no longer even grasp the original meaning of the words. For what has been translated into the various languages is not, in truth, the Gospels themselves, but rather something that, at its core, bears no resemblance whatsoever to the original meaning of the words in which the Gospels were composed. Today, one can only arrive at a true understanding of what intervened in Earth’s evolution as the Christ-being through the path of spiritual science. Anyone who today wishes to immerse themselves in the Gospels merely “simply,” as is often said, or who does so, will not arrive at an inner grasp of the true Christ-essence, but merely at an illusion or, at most, a vision or hallucination of this Christ-essence. A genuine connection with Christianity can no longer be attained today simply by reading the Gospels; rather, one experiences only a kind of refined hallucination of the Christ. Hence, the theological view is so widespread that the man Jesus of Nazareth did not contain the Christ at all, but that he was merely a historical figure, like Socrates or Plato or the like—perhaps just a somewhat more exalted one. “The simple man from Nazareth”—he is an ideal even for theologians. And, of course, very few theologians today know what to make of something like Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus, because without a deeper study of the humanities, the Gospels can lead only to a hallucination of Christ, not to a vision of the real Christ. That is why what appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus is also understood merely as a hallucination.

[ 20 ] It is necessary today to study the Gospels in greater depth in light of spiritual science. For the dullness that seizes those who wish to live solely within the confines of their denominations is precisely what Ahriman will exploit most of all to achieve his goal: to overwhelm humanity with his incarnation. And those who believe they are being most Christian by rejecting a further development of the understanding of the Christ Mystery are, in their arrogance, precisely the ones who most of all further Ahriman’s purposes. The denominations are veritable breeding grounds, fertile soil for the Ahrimanic being. It does no good to try to brush these things aside today through illusions of any kind. Just as the materialistic mindset, which rejects everything spiritual and seeks to reduce human beings to nothing more than what they eat and drink, promotes Ahriman’s purposes, so too does the rigid rejection of all that is spiritual and the adherence to what is often called the “literal,” “simple” interpretation of the Gospels promote the purposes of Ahriman—in his sense, not in the sense of humanity.

[ 21 ] You see, a barrier has been erected so that the individual Gospels do not constrain people too much, since the events at Golgotha are described from four different perspectives in the Gospels, which—at least on the surface—seem to contradict one another. This is so that people may be protected from an overly literal interpretation if they reflect even a little. But in those sects that base themselves on only one Gospel—and there are many such sects—the seductive, the numbing, and the hallucinatory effects brought about by mere immersion in the Gospels come to the fore. The Gospels had to be given in their time as a counterweight to Luciferic gnosis. But if they are taken as they were given back then, they do not serve the progress of humanity; rather, they serve the purposes of Ahriman. Nothing is good in and of itself in an absolute sense; rather, it is always good or bad, depending on how people use it. The best can be the worst if people do not use it in the right way. If the Gospels are the highest truth, they can have the worst possible effect precisely when people are too complacent to venture into a genuine spiritual-scientific interpretation of these Gospels.

[ 22 ] Thus, there is much in the spiritual and non-spiritual currents of the present day that would require people to examine it closely and adjust their behavior—particularly the behavior of their souls—accordingly. Whether people are willing to see through such things will determine how the incarnation of Ahriman affects them—whether this incarnation of Ahriman causes people to lose sight of the Earth’s purpose entirely, or whether it leads them to recognize precisely the very limited significance of intellectual life, of non-spiritual life. If people, in the proper sense—I would say—take hold of what I have now characterized as the currents leading toward Ahriman, then they will, simply through the incarnation of Ahriman in earthly life, clearly recognize what is Ahrimanic on the one hand and, through this, also recognize the polar opposite, the Luciferic. And then people will be able to grasp, in the eye of the soul, the unifying third element arising precisely from the contrast between the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic. People must consciously bring themselves to embrace this trinity of the Christian, the Ahrimanic, and the Luciferic. For without this consciousness, the people of the future will not be able to live in such a way as to truly attain the goal of the Earth.

[ 23 ] You see, the things related to spiritual science can truly be understood correctly only if one takes them with complete seriousness. For spiritual science is not just some whim of a sectarian mind seeking to impose itself on humanity today; rather, spiritual science is truly something that is derived from the necessities of human development. Anyone who recognizes these necessities of human development cannot simply choose to practice spiritual science—or not to practice it—but must say to themselves: All physical and spiritual life of human beings must be permeated and infused by a spiritual-scientific perspective.

[ 24 ] Just as there was once a Luciferic incarnation in the East, followed—one might say—by the Christ incarnation at the midpoint of world history, so too will an Ahrimanic incarnation take place in the West. This Ahrimanic incarnation is not to be avoided. It must come, for human beings must, so to speak, come face to face with Ahriman. He will be the individual who will show humanity just how immense a degree of intellectual acuity a human being can attain when he calls upon everything in the earthly forces that can foster such acuity. In the hardships I have spoken of—which will befall humanity in the near future—people will become very inventive. Many things will be discovered from the forces and substances of the world that will provide sustenance for humanity. But what is found there will be discovered in such a way that people will simultaneously recognize how the material world is connected to the faculties of the intellect—not of the spirit, but of the intellect. People will learn what they must eat and drink in order to become truly intelligent. One cannot become spiritual through eating and drinking, but one can become very intelligent—refinedly intelligent—through them.

[ 25 ] People simply do not know these things yet, but these things are not merely something to be strived for; rather, they will arise of their own accord as a result of the hardships that will arise in the near future. And, I would say, through the specific use of these things, certain secret societies—which are already making preparations for this today—will lay the groundwork for the Ahrimanic incarnation to be present on Earth in the proper way. And it is to be present; for during the Earth period, humanity is also to recognize how much can arise from purely material processes. But at the same time, human beings must realize that they must learn to master such spiritual or non-spiritual currents that lead to Ahrimanism.

[ 26 ] If we recognize that political party platforms can be proven—but so can their opposites—then we will have to say to ourselves: We must therefore rise to a state of mind in which we do not prove, but rather experience. For what is experienced is something different from what is merely proven by the intellect. Likewise, we will say to ourselves: There must be an ever-increasing spiritual-scientific deepening of the Gospels. The practice today of accepting the Gospels literally is a promotion of Ahrimanic culture. Even for external reasons, it can be seen that for people today, merely taking the Gospels literally can no longer apply, for, as you know, what is right for one time is not right for every other. What is right for one era, when practiced in a later era, becomes Luciferic or Ahrimanic. Reading the Gospels had its time. Today, the task is to gain a spiritual understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha through the Gospels.

[ 27 ] It is certainly extremely uncomfortable for many people today to recognize these things. But anyone who wishes to take an interest in anthroposophy should truly come to understand how the layers of culture have gradually accumulated alongside one another, creating chaos, and how light must once again shine into this chaos.

[ 28 ] One should try today to listen to or read the views of any modern—indeed, very radically modern—person on this or that issue of contemporary life, and at the same time, let’s say, listen to the pulpit sermons on the same issue delivered by a priest of a denomination who is still fully immersed in the mindset and way of thinking of the old era. You will then truly have two worlds before you, which you will only confuse or mix together if you fail to truly engage with these matters in accordance with the truth. Listen today to a modern socialist speak on the social question, and then listen immediately afterward, say, to a Catholic preacher on the same topic: it is very interesting how two layers of culture coexist, each using words in entirely different senses. The same word means something completely different to one person than it does to another.

[ 29 ] These matters should be brought into the light that one can attain by taking seriously the kind of reflections we have just been pursuing today. After all, even people from the positive religious traditions come to experience a kind of—I would say—longing for spiritual deepening. It is truly no insignificant phenomenon that such an outstanding mind—yet a positive Catholic mind—as Cardinal Newman said upon his elevation to the cardinalate in Rome: He saw no other salvation for Christianity than a new revelation.

[ 30 ] Yes, that is what Cardinal Newman said: He saw no other salvation for Christianity than a new revelation. — But of course he didn’t have the courage to take a new spiritual revelation seriously in any way. And that’s how the others are too. Today you can read countless writings about what humanity needs—let’s say, with regard to social life. Now another book has been published: it’s called *Socialism*, by Robert Wilbrandt, the son of the poet Wilbrandt. For example, the social question is discussed there on the basis of sound individual insights. And in the end, it is stated: It cannot be done without the spirit, and the very course that events are taking shows that the spirit is necessary. — Yes, but what does such a person actually achieve? He manages to utter the word “spirit,” to speak of the abstract concept of the spirit. But he refuses, rejects outright, any attempt to truly engage with the spirit. To do so, it is necessary, above all, to realize that delving into abstractions—no matter how much it cries out for the spirit—is not yet something spiritual, not yet something that is the spirit itself. One should not confuse the dull, abstract talk about “Spirit” with the genuine, active search for the content of the spiritual world, as is precisely the aim of anthroposophically oriented spiritual science.

[ 31 ] Many people talk about the spirit these days. But you, who are taking up spiritual science, should be people who do not allow yourselves to be beguiled by mere talk of the spirit, but who should recognize that there is a difference between this mere talk of the spirit and the descriptions of the spiritual world as attempted on an anthroposophical basis, where the spiritual world is described in the same way that the physical-sensory world is described in an external sense. You should engage with these distinctions and repeatedly bring to mind how abstract talk of the spirit is actually a distraction from genuine spiritual striving, and how many people today speak of the spirit while in fact only leading others further and further away from it. For mere intellectual references to the spirit do not lead to the spirit. What, then, is intelligence? What is the content of our human intelligence? I can best explain this to you by presenting the following image to your soul. Imagine—since there are so many ladies here, they will understand this even better—imagine that you are standing in front of a mirror, looking into it. Take this image that the mirror presents to you. It is exactly as you are yourself, yet it is not real at all. It arises through the reflection of the mirror. Everything you possess in your soul as intelligence—as the content of the intellectual—is merely a reflection. There is no reality within it. And just as your reflection is produced solely by the mirror, so too is what is reflected as intelligence produced solely by the physical apparatus of your body—by the brain. A person is intelligent only through his body. And just as you cannot touch yourself when you reach for your reflection in the mirror, so too can you not grasp the Spirit if you turn only to the intellectual, for the Spirit is not found there. What is grasped by the intellect—no matter how keenly—never contains the Spirit, only the image of the Spirit. You cannot experience the spirit if you stop at mere intelligence. That is why intelligence is so seductive: it provides an image—a reflection of the spirit, but not the spirit itself. You then do not need to go to the trouble of immersing yourself in the spirit, because you already have it—or at least you think you have it—in the reflection; but one can very well speak of the spirit. To distinguish between the mere image of the spirit and the real spirit—that is the task for those whose mindset does not merely theorize about spiritual science but is truly immersed in a positive view of the spirit.

[ 32 ] This is what I wanted to speak to you about today to emphasize the seriousness that should permeate our entire attitude toward spiritual life as understood through anthroposophy. For the actual future development of humanity will depend on how humanity today understands this attitude. If what I have described today is taken in the same way that the vast majority of people on Earth still take it today, then Ahriman will be a terrible guest for humanity when he comes. If people can bring themselves to take these things we have considered today into their consciousness, and to direct and guide them as is proper for a free stance of humanity toward the Ahrimanic power, then, when Ahriman appears, humanity will, through him, learn exactly what is needed to understand how the Earth must indeed enter into its decline, but how humanity, precisely through this, rises above earthly existence. When a person has reached a certain age in physical life, their physical body begins to decay, and if they are reasonable, they do not lament that this physical body is decaying, but rather they know that, together with their soul, they are moving toward a life that is not, so to speak, parallel to the decay of this physical body. There lives within humanity something that is not connected to the decay of the physical Earth—which has already begun—but which, precisely because the Earth is physically entering its decline, is becoming ever more spiritual. Let us learn to say this without reservation: Yes, the Earth is in a state of decline, as is human life in terms of its physical appearance. But let us draw strength precisely from this to bring into our civilization that which, as the immortal essence of the entire development of the Earth, must live on from within humanity as the Earth heads toward its demise.

[ 33 ] That is what I wanted to tell you today.