The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Second Lecture

[ 1 ] I would have to read a book to you if I wanted to convey all the extraordinarily kind words and the words expressing a deep connection to what has been lost here as a result of this terrible catastrophe. I will therefore take the liberty of sharing only the names of those who have signed such words of sympathy and devotion to the cause. In part, they are a sign of how deeply what we are sharing with the world from here has touched the hearts of many people. In part, they are also signs of truly heartfelt wishes and resolute determination to regain what we have lost. The widespread sympathy for our work and our loss will certainly be a source of strength for many of you, and for this reason alone, I feel it is appropriate to share all of this here. For our cause is not meant to be merely theoretical; our cause is to be one of work, of love for humanity, of devoted service to humanity, and therefore what is to be spoken of from here must also include the sharing of what is action or the intention to act. I will take the liberty of mentioning only those names that do not belong to individuals who are present here, for what the hearts of those who are here have to express has, in these days—these days of togetherness truly torn apart by grief—found expression more silently, yet no less deeply and clearly. So please allow me not to specifically mention at this time the dear friends of the cause who have also expressed their sympathy in writing. You know them, after all. (The names were then read aloud.)

[ 2 ] We may safely assume that what has been attempted here is deeply rooted in many hearts, and I would like to fill this evening’s lecture by, so to speak, interrupting the reflections of these past few days with a few anecdotes and recalling the fact that it was initially a course that drew a large number of friends from outside to join the friends who otherwise sought to work through the anthroposophical cause here at the Goetheanum. And in particular, I would like to turn my thoughts first to the young, to the younger friends who have come here for this course, and who—to the great satisfaction, I am sure, of all who take anthroposophy seriously—have recently found their place within this movement in such a beautiful, profound, and heartfelt way.

[ 3 ] We must be perfectly clear about the significance of young souls—souls who are in the midst of striving to acquire all that a young person can acquire today in science, art, and so on—coming together to work within the anthroposophical movement. These younger friends who have come to this course here are, after all, among those who arrived here a short time ago, saw the Goetheanum, saw it again, and likely thought that they would leave it in a different state on their return journey than is currently the case. And while I am turning my thoughts first and foremost to these younger friends, the fact remains that everyone for whom the anthroposophical movement is close to their heart must actually feel everything that concerns any groups or individual people within the movement as a matter of their own immediate spiritual life. The younger friends are, for the most part, those who wish to find their way to anthroposophical work through what is today called spiritual life. And in particular, I would like to speak first to those who are part of academic life and who, from within that context, have felt the impulse—though hardly generated by it—to join forces with others within the anthroposophical movement in pursuit of further aspirations.

[ 4 ] It is certainly, above all else, the solemn earnestness of the quest to fill the human soul with spiritual life that has driven these young people. Within anthroposophy, however, we speak of a spiritual life that cannot be attained through direct perception in that easy way that is so particularly favored today. And it is no secret—not even in the literature, from which anyone can see for themselves, within the broadest possible scope, what they find within anthroposophical work—that the paths to anthroposophy are difficult. But they are difficult only because they are connected to the deepest—and also the most powerful—aspects of human dignity, and because, on the other hand, they are also connected to what is particularly necessary for our age, our epoch—something that may be described as follows: the discerning person, who knows how to properly assess the signs of decline in our time, must recognize the necessity of the kind of progress that the anthroposophical movement is at least attempting to achieve.

[ 5 ] It must certainly not be overlooked that the anthroposophical cause can mean something to people today in many different ways. It can certainly become meaningful to them if they strive, with genuine inner devotion, to gain a direct insight into the spiritual worlds themselves, thereby convincing themselves that everything communicated here from the spiritual worlds is based entirely on truth. But I must emphasize again and again that, as necessary as it is for individuals—or perhaps an unlimited number of people—to walk this serious, difficult path today, on the other hand, anyone with an open mind and sound common sense can gain an understanding of the truth of anthroposophy that is based entirely on genuine inner reasons.

[ 6 ] This must be emphasized again and again so that the objection—which is entirely invalid—does not appear to gain traction: namely, that only those who can see into the spiritual world through clairvoyance can somehow relate to what is proclaimed as truth in the anthroposophical movement. Today’s general spiritual life, general civilization, and culture do indeed present people with so many prejudices that, because of these prejudices, it is difficult for them to arrive at a clear-headed judgment based on common sense—and thus to convince themselves of the truth of the anthroposophical cause even without clairvoyance.

[ 7 ] But it is precisely in this regard that the Anthroposophical Society should point the way, and it is in this direction that it should carry out its work, so that the prejudices of our present-day civilization may be increasingly dispelled. If the Anthroposophical Society fulfills its duty in this direction, then we may hope that those inner powers of insight will develop—even without clairvoyance—in those who, for whatever reason, cannot strive for the precise clairvoyance that must be discussed here; that they may nevertheless arrive at a fully developed conviction of the validity of anthroposophical knowledge.

[ 8 ] But there may be yet another very special path that younger academics today can take to discover anthroposophy for themselves. To consider what academic study should and could actually offer today would be the most solid starting point for arriving at one’s own perspective—and I say this explicitly: one’s own perspective—on the anthroposophical spiritual heritage, if science, knowledge, and inner life were present within our school system to the extent that the possibility for this certainly exists today.

[ 9 ] But just consider how little, within today’s civilization, the younger generation is inwardly connected to what they are supposed to strive for as their science, as their knowledge. Consider how, for the most part today, the individual sciences inevitably approach the younger generation more or less as something external. After all, they are presented with a systematic framework that is by no means suited to allowing the often extraordinarily significant, so-called empirical findings to speak for themselves in their full value. Indeed, within every science that is cultivated today, there are shattering truths—sometimes shattering truths found in details, in specialized fields. And there are, in particular, such truths of which I would like to assert that if they were presented to young people in the right way, they would act as a kind of spiritual microscope or telescope, so that, if they could be properly utilized by the soul, they would unlock the immense mysteries of existence.

[ 10 ] But it is precisely these kinds of things—which would be immensely enlightening if they were properly cultivated, which would captivate hearts and souls if they were brought to young people within academic life from the depths of humanity and the individual— it must often be said today that precisely such things are frequently presented to young people with indifference within an over-elaborated, indifferent system, so that young people’s relationship to what our empirical science has produced in terms of insights across the most diverse fields remains entirely superficial. And one might say: Many, indeed most, of our young academics today go through their studies without any inner engagement, letting the subject matter pass them by, so to speak, more or less like a panorama, so that they can then pass their exams with the necessary repetition and find a position in life.

[ 11 ] It almost sounds paradoxical to say that the hearts of young scholars should also be engaged in whatever is presented to them. I say this sounds like a paradox, although it might well be true! For the possibility does exist, because for those who have a particular subjective predisposition, even the driest book or the driest lecture can sometimes be enough today to move them deeply—even in their hearts—if not through the power of the writer or the lecturer, then perhaps through their own inner strength. But I must say: Sometimes it really touches one’s soul deeply when one notices—perhaps even among the very best of the young friends who are drawn to the anthroposophical movement—that, through no fault of their own but by virtue of their fate within today’s civilization, they have gained nothing from the current pursuit of knowledge, not only for their hearts but also—and perhaps some will not forgive me for saying this, but most of the young academics here will probably understand—but also nothing for their minds.

[ 12 ] Today, in this age, thanks to the development of the natural sciences—which I have attempted to characterize during this course on the natural sciences— have reached a point in the development of civilization where it would be possible—even without any anthroposophy, through the purely human pursuit of scientific and intellectual life—for young people, based on ordinary natural science alone, to experience what I would like to call a kind of deep spiritual unease. Indeed, contemporary natural science is such that precisely those who study it diligently and earnestly and take its subject matter seriously experience something like a sense of spiritual unease—they can sense something of what comes over the human soul when it grapples with the problem of knowledge. For anyone who looks around a little at this or that aspect of what is currently available within the natural sciences today is confronted with great world problems—world problems that are, however, often clothed, I would say, in brief statements of fact. And these statements of fact compel one to search within one’s own soul for something that, precisely because these scientific truths exist, must be unraveled as a mystery. Otherwise, one cannot live; otherwise, one feels oppressed.

[ 13 ] Oh, if only this sense of unease were the fruit of our scientific studies! Then this sense of unease, which grips the whole human being, would give rise not only to a longing for the spiritual world, but also to the gift of being able to glimpse into that spiritual world. Even when we encounter insights that cannot satisfy us, it is precisely through these unsatisfying insights—when presented correctly to the soul and the heart—that the highest aspirations can be kindled.

[ 14 ] This is what one sometimes finds so terrible, so devastating, in the current state of intellectual life: that no attempt is made to to let people feel how the things that exist in the present can affect the whole person in such a way that he is prevented, in his young life, from even approaching what is most human, unless he frees himself—out of a particularly innate longing—from what burdens him with the obstacles placed in his path.

[ 15 ] And if we look away from the natural sciences toward the humanities: during the age of the natural sciences, they have reached a state where, if a young person—guided by an approach that would treat these humanities from a fully human perspective—were to devote themselves to them, they would gain from them at least what I would like to call a spiritual breathlessness. For all the abstract ideas, the results of documentary research, and everything else that is contained in the humanities today, if presented to young people with at least a human touch, could indeed pursue the very goal of creating within them this breathlessness of the soul—which would awaken in them the urge to ascend into the fresh air that is to be brought into the realm of contemporary spiritual contemplation through the anthroposophical worldview.

[ 16 ] Anyone who has followed the spirit of my lectures on the development of modern natural science will certainly not be able to say that I have leveled an unnecessary criticism at contemporary natural science. On the contrary, through my lectures I have demonstrated their necessity; I have attempted to prove that contemporary natural science—and ultimately the humanities as well—can be nothing other than foundations, for they have served and must serve as the foundations of civilization, which must first be laid so that further construction can take place.

[ 17 ] But human beings cannot help but be human, to be fully human in body, mind, and soul. And since today’s young people must live in an age in which they are inevitably confronted with something that does not encompass what it means to be human, the noblest and most powerful human aspirations could nevertheless be stirred—if only that which is necessary but not humanly satisfying were presented to them today, in the highest sense of the word, out of a spirit of full humanity. If that were to happen, then our young people would need nothing more than to hear the achievements of today’s physical sciences and today’s spiritual sciences presented directly at the universities, and from this very experience they would gain not only the innermost urge but also the capacity to absorb spiritual science within themselves in a fully human way. And from what would then come alive within these young people, it would arise quite naturally that the anthroposophical form of science would also become for them the very form necessary for us to make further progress in the civilization of humanity.

[ 18 ] I believe that if our younger friends give careful thought to the words I have spoken—which may sound somewhat paradoxical—they will find that they reasonably characterize the most significant of the hardships they had to endure during their time at university. And I may assume that, for the majority, this suffering is the very reason they have come to us. But for many, this suffering already belongs to the past—a past that can never be recaptured. For what one ought to have during a certain period of youth cannot, after all, be had again in the same form later on. Nevertheless, I believe that one thing can serve as a substitute. What should serve as a substitute for what can no longer be had is the recognition of the task—which falls especially to the younger people among us—of nurturing anthroposophical life in the present.

[ 19 ] Set yourselves this task: to do for the anthroposophical movement what you already know from your own conviction must be done for it, or what you will come to be convinced of over time in your very innermost being—in your entirely individual inner self—that it is necessary for the further civilization of humanity; then you will one day be able to carry something in your heart, to carry it longer than this earthly life lasts: Then you will be able to carry within you the awareness that, in an age of the greatest human difficulties, you have fulfilled your duty toward humanity and the world. And that will be ample compensation for whatever you may rightly have to give up.

[ 20 ] If one truly understands the situation of young people in our time, then one will also view in the proper light the fact that young academics have found their way into our circles; and then, if I may put it this way, the ability will gradually emerge—on the part of those within the Anthroposophical Society who, well, let’s say, do not belong to the youth in this or that respect.

[ 21 ] But I believe there is a word that can emerge from our current state of grief, one that I can also address to the oldest members of the Anthroposophical Society, and that is this: That the person who truly understands themselves as a human being today can indeed experience within the Anthroposophical Society what must once again be taken seriously if human civilization is to continue, if the forces of decline are not to gain the upper hand over the forces of ascent. — Things have come so far within the general culture and civilization of the present day that it almost sounds comical when someone says: When a person is in their spiritual-soul state between falling asleep and waking up, they should have ensured that their spiritual-soul nature can behave in the right way during this time. — But within the anthroposophical movement, you learn that this spiritual-soul aspect, as it lives between falling asleep and waking up, is the seed that we carry out into the eternity of the future. What we leave behind in bed when we sleep—that which is visible of us as we carry out our daily work from morning to evening—we do not carry through the gate of death into the spiritual, the supersensible world. Rather, we carry out that subtle spiritual essence that exists outside the physical and etheric bodies when a person is in the state between falling asleep and waking up. Let us now set aside the significance of the life of sleep for human beings here on earth—though this can be made clear to us through anthroposophical spiritual science—that which is subtle, substantial substance—which, imperceptible to ordinary consciousness, exists between falling asleep and waking up—is precisely what a person will carry with them once they have passed through the gate of death, when they have a task to fulfill in worlds other than this earthly one.

[ 22 ] But he will be able to carry out the tasks he has to perform there, depending on how well he has cultivated his spiritual and soul life. Oh, my dear friends, in that spiritual world that surrounds us just as the physical world does, there also live human soul beings who are currently not in a physical body but who may still have to wait decades or even centuries for their next incarnation on Earth. These souls are present there just as we physical human beings are present here on Earth. And in what takes place here among us physical human beings—what we later call “historical life”—it is not only earthly human beings who are at work; the forces extending into this realm from human beings who are currently between death and a new birth are also at work. These forces are present. Just as we extend our hands, so do these beings extend their spiritual hands into the immediate present. And it is a barren form of historiography when only the documents originating from the earthly realm are recorded, while the true history unfolding on Earth is co-shaped by the spiritual forces acting from the spiritual world—the forces of those who are between death and a new birth. We also work together with human beings who are not incarnated on Earth.

[ 23 ] And just as we commit a sin against humanity when we fail to educate the youth in the proper way, so too do we commit a sin against humanity, a sin against the noblest work that is to be carried out from the invisible worlds by disembodied human beings, we commit a sin against the development of humanity when we fail to nurture our own spiritual nature so that it may pass through the gate of death in such a way that it can develop there with ever-greater consciousness. For if the spiritual-soul aspect is not cultivated on Earth, then it happens that this consciousness—which, in a certain way, flashes up immediately and then more and more between death and a new birth—remains clouded in all those souls who do not cultivate a spiritual life here. If a human being becomes aware of their full humanity, then the spiritual is part of it.

[ 24 ] This should be the earnest concern of people today who truly understand the impulses of the anthroposophical movement: that they know in what way what has been attained through anthroposophical spiritual science is a treasure of world life, a life force of the world; that it is, in the higher sense, a sin to neglect to nurture that which is necessary for the further development of the Earth and of humanity, because the absence of this will inevitably lead to the downfall of the earthly realm. And in many respects, it is essential—in addition to what one may accept more or less theoretically from spiritual science—to feel the profound seriousness inherent in connecting with a comprehensive human cause that must be grasped in the spirit.

[ 25 ] And this is not something that applies only to a particular category of people; it is something that certainly applies to both young and old. But it also seems to me to be the very thing in which young and old can come together, so that a spirit may one day reign within the Anthroposophical Society.

[ 26 ] May the younger people do their best; may the older people understand that best; may understanding on one side find understanding on the other—only then will we move forward. Let us allow the sad days we have endured and the painful suffering that permeates us to instill in our hearts resolutions that are not mere wishes, not mere vows, but are so deeply rooted in our souls that they can become deeds. Even in a small circle, if we wish to make up for this great loss, we will need deeds.

[ 27 ] When they are directed in the right way, the deeds of youth are deeds that benefit the world. And the most wonderful thing an older person can hope for is to be able to work together with those who are still capable of performing the deeds of youth. If we understand this in the right way, oh my dear friends, then young people will surely meet us with understanding. And only then will we ourselves be able to do what is necessary to compensate for our great loss—when young people, who can offer us what was once necessary for the future, can see—and certainly for their own satisfaction—through fine examples what older people can do to make up for this loss. Let us strive to see what is right and powerful in one another, so that strength may be drawn from strength; only then will we move forward.

[ 28 ] The Handing Over of the Serpent: The Second Initiation.

[ 29 ] The Journey into the Labyrinth: 3. Initiation.