The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] Over the past three hours, we have interspersed our reflections with a description of our building here, its facilities, and the goals associated with it. Today, we will now build upon these reflections on the building with some thoughts that I would like to regard, in the broadest sense, as a reflection on our times. We have, after all, had to emphasize that this building, as a representative of our anthroposophical spiritual science, is also meant to be a phenomenon of our time; in a sense, its forms and its entire design are meant to express that which seeks to—and must—be incorporated into the development of our time, from the present into the near future. When we speak today of the great tasks of our time and must point out in particular that a certain receptivity to the spiritual must arise in a large part of humanity—and that this is a special demand of our time—such a statement arises directly from all that initiatory science and initiatory wisdom can currently glean from the spiritual world. However, it is not necessary to turn directly to the calls of the spiritual world itself if one wishes to be convinced of the necessity of a spiritual influence entering our time. In one of my recent lectures here, I spoke of the fact that we are indeed facing a profound transformation of the world, even in its outward manifestations. It may already be more or less evident to everyone today that, as a result of current events, external world domination is falling to the English-speaking population. We do not wish to speak about this assumption of world domination, but we do wish to speak—and have already spoken—about the fact that linked to this is a profound sense of responsibility, a sense of responsibility that is quite clear about the following: Wherever the possibility exists to exercise a certain degree of dominion over the world, there must take hold the impulse to imbue whatever one can do with the spiritual impulse currently demanded by the development of humanity. For failing to imbue whatever one can do with this impulse—or refusing to do so—means leading the development of humanity toward its decline.

[ 2 ] It is truly not without significance, especially at this time, to engage in retrospective reflection, and from the wealth of material that could be presented here before you as a result of such reflection, I would like to highlight one point. A remarkable coincidence of events led to a discerning man giving a lecture in a German city in 1870, just as the Battle of Sedan had been fought—though this was not yet known in the city—where this man, whom I call a discerning man, delivered his lecture and was already able to point to certain successes that Germany had achieved at that time. This reference to these successes, however, was accompanied at the same time by this man’s demand that those who had achieved success must cultivate a deeper spiritual understanding. And soon afterward, once more substantial successes had been achieved, the same man wrote an essay on the necessities of historical development. In this essay—which was written nearly fifty years ago—there are remarkable things, things that bear witness to a duality. First, it explicitly states that there is an urgent need to avoid two forms of one-sidedness. One form of one-sidedness consists in turning exclusively toward the abstract spiritual; the other in turning exclusively toward the contemplation and worship of the material. And what this man demanded at that time of his contemporaries and their descendants was something he called “ideal realism.”

[ 3 ] It is evident from this that such a demand was made at a time when there was a certain longing for a renewal of spiritual life. But if one traces everything that was put forward at that time out of this longing for a renewal of spiritual life, one sees the utter powerlessness to find anything that could represent a connection between spiritual striving and material striving—anything that could emerge as a reality for the concept of ideal realism. Thus, an important demand—one that was, however, voiced out of a merely intuited longing—arose from a profound powerlessness, from the impossibility of finding any real substance. It was an indefinite feeling, nothing more. But the expression of this feeling was linked to something else. The man in question—in harmony with many others who at that time felt a longing for a renewal of intellectual life—drew attention to the fact that, unless a new spirit emerged, the broad masses of Europe would surge forward and destroy everything that culture had hitherto offered to humanity. — There was also a man at that time who spoke extensively here in Switzerland, Johannes Scherr—I ask you to bear in mind that what was said then was said fifty years ago! —, who pointed out the great danger posed by the fact that the broad masses of humanity were becoming self-aware in a certain sense, but at a time when the bearers of education had turned away from a spiritual worldview and toward materialistic concepts and ideas. Such matters were discussed at that time in sharp, serious terms.

[ 4 ] What kind of era was that? It was the era when a wave of materialism swept across all of Europe, the era when people were content to delude themselves about the great dangers inherent in refusing to acknowledge any spiritual influence. Only now and then would one person or another speak up to point out that, despite the conscious persistence in a comfortable everyday life, the longing for spiritual life lay deeper in the subconscious recesses of the human soul than at any other time in the course of world history.

[ 5 ] Yet such voices were all dismissed as mere “feuilletonistic” commentary. They were not taken seriously in their full gravity. And, when it comes down to it, we are still living in that era today. In essence, the wave of the most appalling misfortune of the last five years has, for the most part, merely caused most European souls to reflect on and empathize with its outward consequences—but they are unwilling to address what must be addressed if there is to be any talk at all of humanity’s future development in a positive sense.

[ 6 ] What we are facing in Europe today has been decades in the making. But people’s souls have not prepared themselves. The souls of most people today are as impervious as possible to the onslaught of a spiritual wave from the spiritual world, which is knocking at the gates of life, seeking to enter, yet which people refuse to welcome into their souls and hearts. What is necessary is for people to turn toward a spiritual view of the world—above all, toward a true understanding of the human being itself. Human nature cannot be understood without understanding the spiritual world, for two-thirds of a person’s being lives in the spiritual-soul world, and only one-third in the physical-material world. And unless one seeks an understanding of spiritual life, a person remains ignorant of their own nature. In a much broader sense than most people today even suspect, we must ask: What is the true nature of that realm of human soul life that we encompass with the word “thinking”? What kind of entity is that realm of the human soul that we encompass with the word “willing” or “acting”? — Between the two lies the emotional life, the life of feeling. An understanding of the life of feeling or emotion would already arise if one were only willing to turn one’s attention to the life of thought and to the life of action, to the life of the will.

[ 7 ] Let me take you on a brief journey to consider precisely what our thinking is. Human beings are, after all, aware that they inwardly accompany with their thinking the life that makes an impression on them from here or there. This thinking—we live within it. But one should also become aware that the greatest part of life is filled with this thinking being permeated by all manner of dreamlike elements. Most people are not aware of how an involuntary element plays into their thinking. Every involuntary element in thinking is, at its core, dreamlike in nature. Just try, in a superficial self-examination, to realize to what extent you direct your thoughts from the center of your will in everyday life. Try to realize to what extent you strive to guide your thoughts inwardly, to shape the thoughts yourself. Try to realize to what great extent it is the case that the soul allows thoughts to arise, lets them break in. The thoughts run their course; one weaves itself together with another, and the person comfortably surrenders to this involuntary play of thoughts. There is no great difference between this everyday play of thoughts and the dreams that dawn from sleep.

[ 8 ] This dreamlike quality also intrudes into human thought from other directions. Today, people participate in external life. How do they participate in this external life? They keep themselves informed about what is happening in the world; they do so in such a way that they allow themselves, as it were, to be carried along by what enters their experience through this or that impulse. One surrenders to some form of popular agitation. One need only examine how much of this surrender to popular agitation springs from one’s own will, and how much is simply due to being swept along by what surges in from the waves of life! And I could cite many, many examples of what surges into thought and dominates it, without the person’s own will directly influencing that thought.

[ 9 ] That was precisely the historical task in writing my book *The Philosophy of Freedom*: to point out that human freedom is only possible at all if this involuntary, dreamlike thinking is absent, and instead impulses arising from the fully conscious will assert themselves. This thinking—what is its nature? When is it true thinking?—When it truly arises from the fully conscious will, when we grasp the thought in such a way that it is we ourselves who are grasping the thought. The moment the thought grasps us, we are no longer free. Only when we can grasp the thought out of our own strength, out of our own being, are we free. But then the thought can be nothing other than an image. If the thought were anything other than an image—if it were a reality—then it could not leave us free. Everything that is a reality entangles us in the current of the real. Only that which is an image leaves us free. Consider how everything you see in a room, in essence, has a real effect on you. You are completely free only in relation to the images that look back at you from the mirror. They cannot harm you on their own; you cannot take offense at these images. If these images are to prompt you to do something, it must be you who takes action. If a fly lands on your nose—it is, after all, an insignificant creature—you are not free; you perform a reflexive movement. And so it is with everything that exists. You are free only in relation to what you can perceive as an image—one that is not reality, but merely an image. Why are the contents of our thinking images? Well, we need only recall various things we can read in my *Outline of Esoteric Science*, such as how humanity was connected to a previous incarnation of our Earth planet—the lunar evolution. If you read through everything that is discussed there regarding the lunar evolution, you will say to yourself: During this lunar evolution, humanity was connected to entirely different beings and also to entirely different natural forces than it is in its earthly existence. It went through this lunar existence. The aftereffects of this remain within it. It evolved from this lunar existence to its earthly existence. And if you read more closely what I have explained there, you will say to yourself: During the Lunar existence, human beings did not yet think in the sense that they think as Earth beings. At that time, they lived in unconscious imaginations, and these unconscious imaginations were not under their control, any more than dream images are under their control today. — Only thoughts are within our control, and as human beings we are actually only now gradually developing this ability during the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. What we have today as thinking is a further development of what we experienced as visual imagery of the soul during our Lunar existence.

[ 10 ] If you consider this carefully, you will also come to realize that everything that creeps into thought—as I have just characterized the dreamlike aspect of thinking in everyday life—is a remnant of what human beings had as a soul life during their lunar existence. If people today give in to their surging thoughts, if they shut their will out of their thoughts, and if they allow elements of a dreamlike nature to enter their thinking, then the states of lunar existence somehow play a role in their thinking.

[ 11 ] You will see from this that this interplay of the lunar existence with our everyday thinking has a broad—a very, very broad—scope. Everywhere one can sense how the involuntary element of what simply rises and shoots upward intermingles with thinking and imagination. This is a remnant of the lunar existence. So here you have two forces within the human being itself that counteract one another. One of these forces draws us toward allowing our will to govern our thinking, toward becoming free in our thought life. The other force constantly seeks to introduce into this free thinking what remains of the old lunar culture: a Luciferic element. The Luciferic element continually intermingles with our everyday thinking. We cannot reject it. We would have to reject everything we cannot yet attain through conscious, free thinking, but we must strive for knowledge. We must be clear in our consciousness that this is the case. It is merely a cliché when someone says they want to escape from Lucifer. That is nonsense, for the Luciferic element constantly plays a role in our everyday existence. But today, if one truly wishes to engage with the demands of humanity’s present-day development, one must have the good will to recognize within oneself that these two forces—the actual earthly forces and the Luciferic forces—interact within our soul life. Only in this way can one attain a real understanding of what lies within the human soul.

[ 12 ] With this, I have—so to speak—sketched out one pole of human soul-being. Consider the other pole, which lies more on the side of the will. Will, of course, also plays a role in thinking; but we have now considered thinking permeated by will. Now let us consider willing permeated by thinking. How does willing—which transitions into action—play a role in a person’s ordinary, everyday life? — We can understand this if we consider the connection between our everyday, real actions and the whole of cosmic existence. Just think about it for a moment: When you take a single step—when you move from this spot here to that spot [forward]—you bring about, even if only to a very small degree, a different state of equilibrium in the entire Earth. When you step here [step backward], you are standing in a different place than when you step here [step forward]. You influence the Earth’s balance in a different way when you step here [backward] than when you step here [forward]. But once you truly consider that you yourself are constantly influencing the Earth’s balance through your movements, you will come to realize yet another way in which you influence it. Just imagine taking something that comes purely from nature. For example, if there is a branch on a tree trunk, this branch—as it is initially attached to that tree trunk—has a certain relationship to the entire Earth. It has a certain balance in relation to the entire Earth. Together with it, the entire Earth forms a whole. The moment you break off the branch and perhaps set it aside, you have altered the Earth’s entire balance—albeit only to a small degree. The tree weighs less, and the broken branch adds weight elsewhere. You alter the balance to a different degree depending on where you place the branch.

[ 13 ] That is indeed something you bring into your entire earthly existence of your own accord. But in doing so, you are, at least at first, merely highlighting the relationship between your human self and the surrounding world. Yet you can do even more. For example, you can shape something out of this tree branch. I mean, you artificially shape it into something that serves a specific purpose. You’ve conceived the form, and you’ve carved away the parts that don’t belong to that form. Now you exert a completely different influence with your object—not merely by breaking it off or setting it aside, but by giving a certain form to what you have taken from nature. Just think how much people do in the technical and artistic spheres along these lines—how they shape what they wrest from nature and how they thereby influence the earthly realm!

[ 14 ] And now I ask you: When a person does this—when he alters nature, when he shapes what he takes from nature into his machines, into his works of art—does he do so out of his own thinking? — Let us consider it insofar as he does it through his thinking: He does it through the pictorial nature of thinking. It is utterly indifferent to the earthly realm what happens there, just as the images that appear in the mirror make no particular impression on the objects in the room. But human beings give these things reality. This is the other side of the matter: when human beings, having evolved out of the lunar state of existence, surrender to thinking. When human beings shape something and place it into the world—just as the dreamlike element plays a part in our thinking, and within that dreamlike element lies the old lunar state, the Luciferic—so too does this element play a part in all our mechanization, in all our reshaping of the things of the world, and reshaping of worldly things, that which is not yet connected to earthly existence at all—that which we ourselves introduce into this earthly existence. What, then, is that actually?

[ 15 ] What we bring into earthly existence from our free spiritual life does not stem from the old lunar existence; rather, it is added to our present earthly existence. This will only take on its full meaning when something other than earthly existence has come into being. Just as the child carried in the mother’s womb—or perhaps not yet carried, but still waiting in the spiritual world for its incarnation—is still a future being, so too is everything that the human being shapes actually destined for the future; in the present, it is still embryonic. And we view it truthfully only when we consider it in its embryonic state, in its significance for the future. When we shape anything in life today—not taking nature as it is, but transforming it through our thoughts—we are creating for the future. But if we regard what we create for the future as belonging to the present—if it takes root in our lives in such a way that we view it solely in terms of its usefulness for the present—then the future takes root in our actions just as the past takes root in our thinking in dreamlike states; then the Ahrimanic principle seizes our actions.

[ 16 ] In human life, only the child—who, while playing, shapes objects but does so without purpose, without seeking utility—is, in his unconsciousness, spared from viewing what he does in life as intended for the present rather than as preparation for the future. Whatever we produce in the form of machines, whatever we produce in the form of works of art—in all of this we should carry within us the awareness that we are shaping it for the next existence, for the Jupiter existence; that earthly existence must first be shed, and only a future existence will give meaning to our actions.

[ 17 ] This is the great error of modern times: that people place what they produce—whether mechanical or artistic—directly in the context of their present earthly utility and refuse to acknowledge that we must work for future earthly existence. Thus, the Ahrimanic can creep into our will by our applying a purely utilitarian perspective to what we accomplish mechanically, artistically, or in any other way in life.

[ 18 ] But we must ask ourselves: Has this utilitarian perspective always existed? — This utilitarian perspective, for example, did not exist as such in the early period of Greek culture, and even less so in earlier cultures. Back then, even if it stemmed from atavistic clairvoyance, there was an awareness that human beings create beyond earthly existence. Especially since the 15th century, the pursuit of mere utility for what human beings produce has grown strong. And today, global programs are already being devised based solely on considerations of utility.

[ 19 ] Just as it is impossible at first to eliminate dreamlike thinking from our thinking, so too is it impossible to eliminate the utilitarian point of view. Therefore, no one should thoughtlessly say that they wish to escape Ahriman. That is nonsense. They cannot do so. Ahriman plays a role in all our actions, with the exception of our child’s play, in which we pursue no purpose, no utility—it is done for the sake of the action itself. In all other actions, we can only strive for a kind of ideal. But how? We must be clear about how, here again, two forces come into play in our human existence. Which forces? One force is that which causes us to act for reasons of utility; the other, however, is this: Whenever we engage in anything in life where we do not merely let ourselves be carried along by life like puppets—whenever we do anything in life without leading such a puppet-like existence—then something is always happening within us: We become more skilled, we become wiser, and we are better able to do things afterward. That is the other force. Most people today pay no attention to this at all, especially once they have passed the age of eighteen, when they are already “quite wise” and “quite clever” according to their current view of life—that one can become more and more skilled throughout one’s entire life in whatever one does. One is a sense of utility; the other is a continuous discipline of the self—paying such close attention to what one does that one observes how one elevates one’s human existence by doing this or that, by experiencing this or that. What plays such a role in our human existence has a completely different significance than the mere external, utilitarian, and momentary point of view. Consider, for example, a—I would say—more sublime case: let us take Raphael’s portraits. Raphael worked on his paintings, albeit throughout a short life. A time will certainly come when nothing of these paintings by Raphael will remain—perhaps reproductions, but ones that have no direct connection to Raphael himself. There will certainly come a time on Earth when nothing of Raphael’s paintings will remain, when no incarnated human being will be able to gaze upon them. But Raphael will still be there, and what Raphael became through the act of creating these paintings will also be there. By creating these paintings, Raphael was advanced in a corresponding incarnation. He carried this through the life between death and a new birth, appeared in a new earthly incarnation, and there again created something; he carries this through life, and it remains, even if the Earth perishes in the cosmos. What Raphael has become through his paintings—that is what endures. One can even define the concept of utility so precisely that one includes the very fact that these paintings exist within that definition of utility. If you reflect on this, you will find little difference between gross utility and the utility that arises from the existence of Raphael’s paintings. But it is something else entirely—what Raphael’s individuality and soul have become through his creation of these paintings. This is carried over from earthly existence into Jupiter existence. That is what develops.

[ 20 ] Here we have, I would say, a more sublime example of what becomes of human souls—something that can be distinguished from outward action. One must keep this distinction in mind in a comprehensive sense when considering the soul. One must be clear about the fact that the Earth will one day be shattered in the cosmos, that nothing will remain but human souls. When nothing remains but human souls, the harvest of their development will be what distinguishes this earthly existence at its end from earthly existence at its beginning. From this perspective arises what might be called an obligation to advance oneself in earthly evolution. This is where the obligation begins to make something of oneself, so that one may be something to the cosmos. And this is where the thought arises: The Earth will shatter, the Earth will crumble, and only human souls will remain!

[ 21 ] The strength required to—I would even say—endure this thought, to grasp it in all its sharpness—that strength will be completely lost to humanity. And with that, the development of the Earth will cease to have any meaning at all if people do not bring themselves to grasp the Mystery of Golgotha spiritually. For, fundamentally speaking, the Mystery of Golgotha—properly understood—contains the seed of such thoughts, which can be grasped through a correct, contemporary spiritual worldview. Just consider a very specific popular saying that the Gospels attribute to Christ Jesus: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” That which he gives to human souls will remain; it will be there, even if the Earth is shattered and scattered throughout the cosmos.

[ 22 ] Now I ask you—and here I return to my reflection on time—: Can what religious creeds and theology have gradually made of the Mystery of Golgotha still give human beings this perspective? — No, that is impossible! Theology and religious creeds, too, have become materialized. But a materialized Mystery of Golgotha does not extend in its significance beyond earthly existence. Anyone who takes Christianity seriously today—I have explained this to you from other perspectives, and you have heard it again today from yet another perspective—cannot help but seek a spiritual understanding of this Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 23 ] But in other words, this means: Spiritual science—true knowledge of the spirit—is necessary for humanity today. As I said at the beginning of my reflection today, fifty years ago people were powerless to fill their “ideal realism” with anything that had any basis in reality. Hence the drift into Europe’s misfortune. But today the question arises: Do those who are able to avert a new misfortune—where spiritual science speaks today—wish to continue living as those to whom spiritual science had not yet spoken were forced to live fifty years ago? — If so, however, earthly catastrophes will come that will make what has happened so far seem like a trifle. Today, it is no longer possible to say anything other than this. When people fifty years ago called for a new spiritual life, they were unable to achieve it because the time for it had not yet come. Today, the time has come. Today, to refuse to turn toward this spiritual life means not being sincere about human development! — That is the responsibility I must speak of, that must be spoken of today, particularly to those who can assume this responsibility today for the reasons already mentioned. People today must look toward the horizon of world-historical perspective. They cannot scale back their existence. Imagine you have a cabinet. The cabinet has fallen apart. You have its pieces in front of you; you look at them. Some kind of natural disaster has caused the cabinet to break apart; you have its pieces in front of you. What do you do? You take the pieces, grab some nails, and put the pieces back together so that the old cabinet is restored. But it will fall apart again very soon if the pieces are rotten, if the nails can no longer hold, or if the pieces are torn in other places. Europe has fallen apart like an old cabinet: Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, German Austria, the former Germany, the former Russia, Ukraine—these are the pieces, the ruins of the cabinet. And the Western powers are striving to hammer these rotten ruins of the cabinet back together with nails that will not hold. People do not realize that they are dealing with rotten pieces. They want to glue the old back together, whereas what is needed is to bring entirely new substance into the development of humanity. That is the idea at stake. Today, only spiritual science can draw our attention to this idea in a penetrating way. And the question is: Now that what has gripped Europe today—and what will very soon grip Asia and, beyond Europe, America—should the world simply be glued and nailed back together from its old, rotten pieces for the sake of humanity’s convenience, or should we seek a connection to a renewal of the entire human being from the spiritual realm? — We will speak further about this tomorrow.