The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Eighth Lecture

[ 1 ] In these reflections—which will continue next Friday—it is my task to provide, on the one hand, as comprehensive a picture as possible of the connection between human beings and the entire universe, the cosmos—both the physical and the spiritual cosmos— and, on the other hand, to show how, through a spiritual-scientific perspective, one can gradually build a true bridge between what is called the natural order and what might be called the spiritual-moral world order. Today I would like to offer, so to speak, an interlude intended to show how, with regard to humanity itself, the spiritual must be connected with the physical if we are to arrive at a holistic view of human development as well. For whatever prevents us from building a bridge between the physical and the spiritual in a universal view of the world also prevents the traditional worldview, in its various forms, from arriving at a comprehensive understanding of what is at work in human development. After all, we cannot regard spiritual science as merely an abstract theory, a mere sum of ideas intended to shed light on the question of the eternal in the human being or on the question of repeated earthly lives—all in abstract form. We cannot approach spiritual science in this way. We would misunderstand it if we took it that way. We must conceive of spiritual science as something that permeates life, and we must learn to apply in a very concrete way in life that which, admittedly, must also be presented in the field of spiritual science in a certain abstract form, in a theoretical manner. And I would like to give you an example of this right away—one that is, admittedly, taken from actual spiritual scientific research, which one can initially only discuss, but which can be verified in life itself.

[ 2 ] The process would be as follows: Certain connections become apparent to the spiritual researcher. He articulates these connections. He applies them to life. The course of life can be observed externally by anyone. An unbiased observation of life then confirms what the spiritual researcher conveys from his intuitive insights. This is roughly how it will be with an example of spiritual scientific observation such as the one I intend to present to you today.

[ 3 ] Today, we find a historical perspective that is, in fact, already very strongly influenced by what might be called a scientific way of thinking. The study of history has, in a certain sense, gradually capitulated to the scientific approach, and people now conceive of the historical development of humanity in such a way that they seek out effects, trace them back to causes, and then model a certain causal relationship in historical life after the causal relationships found in natural phenomena. Even if only a few historians are radical in this regard, the tendency nevertheless exists to subject history—at least gradually—to a methodology similar to that of the natural sciences.

[ 4 ] Especially when one considers everyday life in its unfolding and places the individual human being within this unfolding of humanity from generation to generation, one is increasingly led to view things merely from the outside—I would say, through the lens of scientific necessity. For many people today, it is somewhat distressing—yet at the same time seems necessary to them—to attribute the characteristics that human beings possess to physical heredity. We speak constantly of how human beings have simply inherited this or that—whether more or less external or internal, physical or psychological—from their ancestors, and we also project what we form in this way in everyday life onto history. We extend it to history. In a sense, we look at how we ourselves live within the present generation, how this generation descends from the preceding ones, which in turn descended from the ones before them, and so on. And one becomes accustomed to viewing historical development in such a way that one is actually observing the succession of generations.

[ 5 ] Let’s take any part of the world—let’s take Central Europe. One approaches this by examining the characteristics of Central Europeans over the past few decades. We then go back to earlier decades and, perhaps drawing on what we are accustomed to in such analyses, try to trace—let’s say—the characteristics of today’s Germans and the characteristics of today’s French back to the characteristics of the Germans in the 18th century, the French in the 18th century, and so on. In a sense, one views the development of humanity as a linear progression, and one is satisfied. Natural scientists would say: The need for causality is satisfied when one can trace what are found to be psychological and spiritual qualities in a particular human group of the present back to the psychological and spiritual qualities of earlier generations of the same people, the same race, and so on—that is, when one can establish a certain causal connection in a linear progression of time.

[ 6 ] How, after all, could a worldview such as the one that has taken shape over the course of the last three to four centuries—and even longer—and which, no matter how religious and spiritual it may be, nevertheless, as soon as it moves away from the abstract, feels that spiritual-soul life is closely bound to the physical—how could such a perspective go beyond this mere tracing of the succession of generations and their development! But this is precisely where we must take seriously what anthroposophical insights offer us. From this perspective, we must not merely look at a single person or a group of people of the present, insofar as this person or these people possess the characteristics inherited from the immediately preceding generations; rather, we must be practically clear about the fact that within every single human being there exists a soul-spiritual essence that has, after all, lived through a long period in the spiritual-soul world before entering this physical body. So that when we have a contemporary human being before us, we must say to ourselves: We look at them physically; there, they certainly bear the inherited characteristics stemming from earlier generations. But we also look at them in terms of their soul and spirit. There, they carry within them a soul that, at first, has nothing to do with the immediately preceding generations, that also has little to do with generations further back—a soul that was here on Earth at a time much earlier than the present one, and which, while a whole series of generations was developing, was not at all in direct connection with Earth’s evolution; it existed in the spiritual-soul world while those generations were passing. It is, after all, a one-sided view to regard human beings solely in terms of the characteristics inherited through the succession of generations. Ultimately, it is merely an illusion to view human beings or historical development in this way. In reality, one merely convinces oneself that one understands these things; in truth, one does not understand them at all. One theorizes that this or that—what people do in the present, how they conduct themselves—stems from these or those inherited qualities. But if one were open-minded enough, one would have to admit in countless instances—indeed, everywhere—that what is assumed to be physical qualities evolving from generation to generation does not in the least explain any present-day situation, neither in the case of the individual human being nor in any ethnic or racial context. If one wishes to arrive at reality, if one does not wish to remain stuck in this abstraction—which, though materialistic, is nonetheless merely an abstraction—namely, a materialistic abstraction— then one must take into account how what is manifesting in the present, alongside what lies in the bloodline, can be explained by the forces of the souls that lived in the spiritual world for a long time before descending into these bodies for reincarnation.

[ 7 ] Well, I have, of course, made some references to these matters over the years. I have hinted at how, in our time—especially in the period preceding the catastrophic events—the European population, in particular, has been intermingled with people who carry within them souls from the early Christian centuries. The world, however, is complex, and when one makes such statements, one is actually always capturing only a partial picture. Such statements must be continually expanded so that one gradually approaches a comprehensive view. This should by no means be taken to mean that anything said earlier—which is certainly correct but refers only to a certain group of people—needs to be corrected; rather, the following should be added by way of supplement.

[ 8 ] It is a relatively small portion of the Central European population that directly embodies souls who lived during those early Christian centuries—as we imagine them based on conventional history. Things are much more complicated. Here, something emerges for spiritual scientific research that will seem paradoxical in some respects; but the fact is that the insights intended for spiritual scientific research must be derived solely from true intuition, from genuine supersensible experience, and that one generally piles error upon error when one merely speculates, when one merely indulges in philosophical or other speculations about these matters. The facts of experience always tell a different story, and this is precisely what the researcher in the humanities feels so intensely: that he is actually surprised by his own results. At first, he does not expect this or that to emerge at all, but is surprised by his results.

[ 9 ] To illustrate some of these results, I would like to direct your spiritual gaze toward the people who lived in America during the time when Europeans began—and then continued—their conquest of the continent. As you know, from the civilized European perspective, these people were considered “savage.” But such a “savage” population as existed in America—the Native Americans—is indeed “savage” in relation to what has been called “civilization” within the European world over the past few centuries; yet, in terms of other spiritual powers—those beyond the intellect—there lives within them something that the so-called more “civilized” person might well wish to reclaim for themselves. Above all, the Native American people held a view of the spiritual powers of the world which, when examined more closely, is actually quite impressive. This people worshipped a Great Spirit. Admittedly, by the time of the conquest, the tradition was already in decline, but these decadent manifestations point back to the veneration of a Great Spirit that permeates and interweaves everything, and whose subordinate forces are found in the individual elemental spirits.

[ 10 ] This Native American population lived according to these—I would say—religious-pantheistic concepts. Above all, however, we must note: In an external sense, this Native American population had not experienced any of what the European populations had experienced in the course of so-called Christian development. What Christianity brought to the European population, the generations of this Native American population did not experience. The entire spiritual constitution of this population was such that they developed intense pantheistic feelings, and these people also acted on impulses connected with these feelings. But these souls developed in such a way that they could spend only a relatively short time between death and a new birth. What these souls experienced—though intensely, yet immensely simple and elemental—required no long period of time to be processed in the spiritual world. Thus, not only the souls of the Native American population—as they lived at the time of the first conquests of the West (almost all of them)—but also later souls have already returned, primarily among the population of Western Europe.

[ 11 ] We can thus trace the succession of generations from the present day back to the Middle Ages; there we find the physically inherited characteristics. But if we regard this as the whole truth, we are deluding ourselves. We are dealing with an abstraction if we view the present-day Western peoples of Europe—extending very far into Central Europe and, permeating everything once again, even reaching over into Eastern Europe—merely by saying: These nations have inherited their characteristics from previous generations, and so on. That is not the whole story, however; for into these bodies, which carry the blood of their ancestors—particularly among the majority of the population—Western souls have entered; souls, that is, which, through their inner development, had not yet been touched by the Christian impulse, but essentially carried within themselves a kind of pantheistic impulse. Already through the upbringing they received during the first few weeks they spent in their environment—for it is precisely the external culture, the external civilization, that is passed down in a linear fashion from generation to generation, whereas the inner impulses of the soul are not—these people adopted Christianity from the outside; they were shaped from the outside into what often appears to us today as their sole and only reality. But anyone who is unbiased and looks at these people—who observes them in such a way that his gaze truly penetrates their character—will see pulsating within them what has come over to them with their souls.

[ 12 ] I said that the findings of spiritual scientific research are often paradoxical. These things cannot be deduced through speculation alone. They must be arrived at through experience, using the methods that have often been described to you and are also set forth in the literature. But anyone who then verifies them externally will find that the external world becomes explicable when such insights are taken as a basis.

[ 13 ] We find people who lived in Europe during the period commonly referred to in history as the Migration Period and who migrated from there. The souls of these peoples were similar to those who embraced Christianity as it spread from the south to the north—souls, in other words, who outwardly grew into the Christian faith. These souls, who embraced Christianity as it was lived in Europe during the first centuries—and this is very different from how Christianity is lived today—did not, however, reincarnate into a Central European population. These were souls who, admittedly, took longer to pass from death to a new birth than the souls of the American Indians; but we are, after all, dealing with souls who had lived out their physical existence here earlier than those others whom we regarded as the last Indian souls—namely, the Indian souls at the time of the conquests. That is how far back we go. We do not wish to address here what the fate of the earlier Native American souls was. But those souls that were incarnated in Europe during the first Christian centuries—who were present as Christianity spread culturally from south to north—are now incarnating more toward Asia. What I am now describing becomes particularly evident in the times leading up to the terrible catastrophe of the second decade of the 20th century. And it seems of very special significance for our understanding of our present-day earthly civilization when we see that such souls are incarnated, notably, among the Japanese people; souls, that is, who once underwent the particular form of Christianization in Europe, but who now hear not a word of Christianity from childhood onward; who carry within themselves, arising solely from the subconscious, a certain nuance of decadent Asianism shaped by the Christian impulses of that time; and who also carry within themselves today everything that is now turning against contemporary Europe. It is, in essence, a result of Oriental wisdom—which had once been so great, as I have described to you—having fallen entirely into decadence, in harmony with the earliest primitive Christian impulses, just as they arose when Christianity spread in Europe from the south to the north among the barbarian peoples. This was essentially the case with regard to the bulk of the population. However, the matter is complicated by the fact that into this population thus formed—the souls of the Native American peoples as well as those of the Central European peoples both moved eastward—many individual bodies were intermingled, inhabited by souls who, in the early Christian centuries, lived further south. They, too, are now found right in the midst of the population that came into being in the manner I have just described.

[ 14 ] When we consider present-day civilization, we are dealing with a large number of souls who lived in Asia, in the Near East, or indeed throughout all of Asia, precisely during the centuries preceding the founding of Christianity. Of course, this was no longer the great heyday of Eastern wisdom culture, but it was the period from which emerged the concepts and ideas through which the Mystery of Golgotha was subsequently understood. So I am now speaking of souls who were distant from the Mystery of Golgotha, but who possessed a certain culture of wisdom that was then transplanted to the West, and through which the Mystery of Golgotha was initially understood within Greek and Roman civilization.

[ 15 ] We must always distinguish between the Mystery of Golgotha, as it stands as a fact, and the various interpretations it has undergone over the centuries. For this fact can be interpreted in a new way by every age, and it would be nonsense to equate any doctrine about the Mystery of Golgotha with the actual reality of the Mystery of Golgotha. I need only illustrate this to you with a comparison. Imagine we have a truly brilliant person. Then there would be a child; furthermore, a mediocre, everything-leveling, somewhat narrow-minded person—in short, an average person; and thirdly, a person also predisposed to brilliance. All three are faced with the same thing: the actual reality of the brilliant person. The child will have some explanation for what the brilliant person does. The philistine, who wants to level everything, will also have an explanation, and the person who is likewise predisposed to brilliance will have a different explanation. All three are dealing with the same reality, but their explanations are quite different, and one is not justified in identifying one or the other with the actual reality. Likewise, one must not equate the teachings of early Christianity with the actual reality of Christianity. These teachings from the first Christian centuries had come over from the East. People had essentially learned what Eastern wisdom teachings were and used them to explain the mystery of Golgotha. It is, of course, nothing short of a terrible tyranny when the evolving Church regards these teachings as the only valid ones, for they are nothing more than the way in which an era, according to its own preconditions, explained the Mystery of Golgotha. Other eras may explain this Mystery of Golgotha differently. We must explain it from the perspective of spiritual science in order to meet the demands of the present.

[ 16 ] What was alive in the teachings about the Christ Impulse during the first centuries—we find this—not as applied to Christianity, but more or less in anticipation of the Mystery of Golgotha—developed among the educated classes of that time, and naturally to a much lesser extent among the vast majority of the population at that time, in the East. Those souls who lived immediately before and during the unfolding of the Mystery of Golgotha—that is, Oriental souls—had to endure a long period between death and a new birth, because Oriental culture, even in its state of decadence, still presented the souls with extraordinarily complex concepts.

[ 17 ] These souls appear, in particular, among the people who will become the population of America—a conquering people gradually flooding into America from Europe. The entire American culture, which has a materialistic nuance, essentially arises from the fact that souls appear there who were actually Oriental souls during the period I have described, and who now enter bodies in such a way that this physicality is foreign to them—so that, I might say, are drawn into physicality with concepts that were already in a state of great decadence at that time, that they do not understand physicality but instead view it in a rather primitive, materialistic way, more or less passing right by the human being who becomes alien to them because, fundamentally, they had strived for powerful abstractions in their previous earthly life. They cannot find their way into their present incarnation, but carry over from their previous earthly life everything that then lives on in a religiosity separated from the observation of external nature—a religiosity that is often sectarian. This even manifests in the denial of matter found in the teachings of Mrs. Eddy, among Scientologists, and so on. Everything that has come to the fore in the external world can verify these things, if only we observe it with sufficient impartiality.

[ 18 ] You see, when one adds what anthroposophical spiritual science can offer to what the purely external anthropological approach provides, one gains a picture of reality. But one must take seriously what anthroposophical spiritual science can offer. One must not be content with mere theory, which merely explains that we have repeated earthly lives. One must view reality—outer reality—practically in the light of this insight; then these insights can gradually bear their true fruit in practical social life. It will certainly be the case that those people who cling to a worldview that takes into account only the external order of nature—a worldview that thus leads humanity to be merely anthropological, to consider only what is physically passed down from generation to generation—will find themselves faced with more and more mysteries. One can indulge in illusions about these mysteries for a long time. One may believe that one understands something about the course of human history; but one indulges in such illusions only because one holds the theories that have been drummed into one since early childhood, so that, in a sense, one looks only at, and has eyes only for, what manifests itself in the physical chain of inheritance. But people will gradually come to say to themselves: Yes, but there are facts that cannot be denied, and which are by no means explainable in terms of these purely anthropological causes. — We must simply take into account that in any given generation of any present-day people there are souls that come from somewhere entirely different than, say, the great-great-great-grandfathers of that same people. This may not sound particularly pleasant to national egoism, but this national egoism must fade away anyway if humanity is to undergo a corresponding development in the future. And it must be pointed out that a large part of the European population does indeed carry on the blood of its medieval ancestors, yet harbors Native American souls within itself; that those souls who lived here in Europe—a large portion of them in Attila’s time—and who embraced Christianity back then are the very ones we now encounter over in Asia. Even in certain educated souls, this can be discerned through unbiased observation. However, one must not view things in such a straightforward, pedantically abstract manner as is customary today if one wishes to grasp realities such as those referred to here. But if one does not form one’s concepts as abstractly as is customary today, but rather seeks to grasp reality, then one must proceed from the perspectives mentioned here. Then one will discover various things that, while they may seem paradoxical, nevertheless explain this reality.

[ 19 ] It is peculiar, for example, to perceive this distinctive flavor even in some of Rabindranath Tagore’s—at times coquettish—remarks. One then has, I would say, the opportunity to grasp, with spiritual hands, the Christian lineage of the soul and the Eastern lineage of the body. This is provided by the Orientalizing coquetry. And what, especially for Europeans, trickles into the soul as something warm and soothing—precisely in the case of Rabindranath Tagore—comes from a soul that once sailed into Christianity but has not become Christian in this incarnation because it lives in an external, non-Christian civilization.

[ 20 ] The Greek maxim “Know thyself” is not directed solely at the individual—and above all, it is not intended merely for trivial self-reflection—but is also directed at humanity as a whole. However, humanity generally finds this self-examination uncomfortable. But we will not make progress in our civilization; we will slide further and further downhill if we do not finally take the Apollonian words “Know thyself” seriously—even as humanity. Admittedly, there is something uncomfortable about it—people like Kurt Leese, whom I mentioned in my public lecture in Basel, would find it “annoying” and “provocative”—when one is supposed to get to know a person not merely by what their nose looks like, what their mouth looks like, what their eyes look like, but rather by what their soul looks like. But would the establishment of a spiritual worldview among humanity actually come to pass if we were to speak in abstract, clichéd terms about repeated earthly lives and the destiny realized through those repeated earthly lives, and then shy away from applying it practically in life, if all we wanted to know about a person was whether they have blond or black hair, whether they have this or that shape of eyebrows, this or that shape of nose, and so on? If we are serious about spreading a spiritual worldview throughout the world, then what is called “getting to know human beings” must also be imbued with spiritual and soulful impulses; then we must not allow ourselves to be deterred by the discomfort of truly getting to know the soul of human beings—our own and that of others. Then we must look just as much at the soul’s qualities as we do at the nose, and the progress of humanity from the present into the near future will rest precisely on this: that we do not merely look at the external form of the nose, but that we establish relationships between people from soul to soul based precisely on an understanding of the soul. What is called the “social question” is something far deeper than many people today imagine. This social question cannot, in essence, even be remotely addressed if one wishes to continue an observation of human beings such as I presented to you yesterday at the end of the lecture—where the human being is completely left out of the picture and one speaks only of the private property he manages and of the economic automatons. Because, since the decline of instinctive insight into the soul, we have forgotten how to look at the human being at all, social life today plays itself out in the most outwardly human aspects. But this brings to the surface precisely the instincts—the wildest instincts. Humanity would sink into a life governed by the wildest instincts if the spiritual-soul aspect did not permeate our immediate human existence. To this end, it is necessary that, alongside external historical causality, we also perceive what is simply present in the reality of humanity on Earth—namely, that descendants do not merely re-enact their physical ancestors, but also the souls that lived on Earth in the past as this or that spiritual-soul entity at this or that time. It is in this synthesis—arising from the qualities of the reincarnated souls and the physical characteristics—that the reality of present-day human civilization truly unfolds.

[ 21 ] The reaction—the preliminary reaction against a spiritual worldview—does not merely assert itself through the mechanistic-materialistic mindset of the natural sciences in the realm of theoretical consideration; it runs much deeper. Today, it also manifests itself in the desire to establish a world order that disregards everything spiritual and psychological and is guided solely by the physical and anthropological aspects of generational succession. A map of Europe is to be created based purely on the blood ties of the peoples, purely on chauvinistic, national-egoistic impulses. This is the practical-social reaction against the emergence of a spiritual-psychic worldview. One might say: By adopting the proclamations of Wilsonism, which advocate for the self-governance of blood-related peoples, Europe is declaring: We want nothing to do with spiritual-psychic impulses. — It is an opposition to the emergence of the spiritual-psychic.

[ 22 ] This is not a criticism; it is simply a description of the facts; for what is asserting itself here is precisely the practical-social, racial opposition to the assertion of the spiritual-psychic. But this spiritual-psychic realm, by taking hold of people’s attitudes, will also take hold of practical life. And this is an urgent necessity—a necessity that cannot take hold of the souls of people today quickly enough: Those who are beginning to understand such things, who are beginning to grasp the practical significance of anthroposophically oriented spiritual science—and the transformation of the ideas of this very spiritual science into living impulses for human action—must do everything in their power, wherever they can, to counteract what is merely anthropological. We see how today the world is hurtling toward decline through anthropology—in the broadest sense, of course. It must be saved from this decline through anthroposophy.

[ 23 ] These are, in fact, the two currents of human development that are currently locked in a fierce struggle with one another: the purely anthropological current—which is also the one that manifests itself through political measures, albeit in a wide variety of forms—and the anthroposophical current, which is still frowned upon today. One sees everywhere how modern human beings will have to develop, little by little, the strong inner initiative that compels them to make a decision in favor of one side or the other. This must not merely—I would say—be settled away in the “theoretical back room” or the “worldview back room”; it must definitely find its application in the practical observation of the world. And in this context, people take particular offense at those who do not merely remain at a certain level as anthroposophical observers of the world, but who see the significance of the spiritual precisely in the fact that the spirit learns to master matter, learns to immerse itself in matter, so that even everyday life is viewed from the same perspective. A true awakening of humanity—as I have often said—is necessary, an awakening in which people develop the inner courage to make decisions. This is what humanity needs today.

[ 24 ] In this regard, however, there are some very, very distressing tendencies lurking beneath the surface of today’s so-called civilized humanity. We have ample opportunity in the present age to see how, at first, everything that demands that a person make an inner decision about anything is rejected. After all, there is no need to fall into partisan thinking when introducing into everyday life what must indeed be introduced into everyday life, for this will be the hallmark of future development: the ability to view even what is immediately before us from a higher perspective.

[ 25 ] Have we not, in fact, just witnessed yet another event that, when you get right down to it, sheds quite a thorough light on the slumbering nature of contemporary souls? I have not hesitated, for many years now, to point out how the love of the abstract has turned a large part of humanity into Wilsonians, and I have described what that actually means in the present day. Well, we have recently witnessed—albeit only among a smaller people, one that nonetheless belongs, in a sense, to civilization—that it should have made certain decisions. They were faced with a figure who was perhaps problematic in many respects, but who would have compelled this people to wake up in a certain way. And we have witnessed—I would say, as if by a real paradox—how this personality was eliminated, and the people decided to call once again to their leadership a nobody, a person who has amply proven himself to be a nobody.

[ 26 ] These things, however, touch upon the most mundane aspects of daily life, but that is precisely what makes them so close to us today—so much so that we do not perceive them as symptoms, that we pass over them cold-heartedly and fail to see what signs of decline they represent for humanity, and how necessary it is to call upon the forces that will awaken humanity in the depths of the soul. It would indeed be necessary for educated people today to follow current events with greater inner vitality and to take an interest in what is happening within themselves.

[ 27 ] One is truly not a great spirit simply by passing indifferently by what so profoundly reveals the direction in which events are heading, for what is at work inwardly is manifested in outward events. How often have I pointed out how the Ahrimanic forces are currently passing through humanity. This passage of the Ahrimanic forces through humanity can be seen externally, provided one is open-minded. But how can the truth break through if one passes by historical events—which can precisely verify the truth externally—with indifference and apathy, taking note of them just as humanity is accustomed to doing today? Spiritual science certainly does not wish to become partisan; but spiritual science must embody the reality of life. Today we must see how the world is pitting powerful Ahrimanic forces in opposition to everything that emphasizes the spirit. But in these days—which naturally span several years—a decision must be made as to whether the Fathers were right to have abolished the spirit at the Eighth Ecumenical Council in 869, whether things should remain as they are, or whether the spirit should once again be introduced into the development of humanity. This, however, will not be able to come to life within humanity through mere theoretical considerations, but only by becoming a living practice.