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Mystery Knowledge & Mystery Centers
GA 232

25 November 1923, Dornach

3. Penetration Into The Inner Core Of Nature Through Thinking And Will

Yesterday I was speaking to you of how man is subject to what natural science generally calls heredity, and also of how he is subject to the influences of the external world and adaptation to it. I also said that everything relating to heredity is connected with the Ahrimanic forces, and adaptation, in the widest sense, with the Luciferic forces. But I also told you how in the realm of the spiritual Beings belonging to the Cosmos, provision has been made to enable the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces to play a lawful part in human life. Something shall now be added to what has been said, recalling the content of the lecture given the day before yesterday.

We turned our minds then to how memory and everything akin to it give man his configuration as a being of soul. To a far greater extent than we imagine our configuration as beings of soul originates from our memories. Our soul has been shaped by the process whereby our experiences have become memories; we are the product of our life of memories to a greater extent than we think. Anyone who is capable of exercising even enough self-observation to enable him to penetrate into the store of memories, will realise how particularly important a part is played throughout earthly life by the impressions of childhood. The kind of life we spent in childhood—which really does not loom large in our consciousness—the period during which we learned to speak or walk, or got our first, inherited, teeth, the impressions made on us during these periods of development—all these play an important part in the fife of soul throughout our existence on Earth. All freely arising thoughts in which impressions from outside have played no part are connected with memories and are usually accompanied by faint nuances of joy or sadness—all this constitutes our memory and is carried with it by the astral body when we pass into the state of sleep. If with Imaginative vision we are able to observe man as a being of soul-and-spirit during sleep, the following picture presents itself. During sleep the etheric body and the physical body are still enclosed within the skin and the astral body is outside—I will speak of the Ego later on. This astral body is seen virtually to consist of the man’s memories. But these memories in the astral body now outside the physical body are seen to be swirling in and through one another in a kind of eddy. Experiences that were widely separated in time and space are now in juxtaposition; parts of the content of certain experiences are eliminated, so that the whole life of memory during sleep is transformed. Hence when a person dreams it is this transformed life of memory that is presented to his consciousness. And in the character and make-up of the dream he can be inwardly aware of the swirling eddy of memories which Imaginative clairvoyance can perceive from outside.

But there is another aspect as well. These memories, which from the time of going to sleep until waking form the main content of man’s astral life, unite during sleep with the forces behind the phenomena of Nature. It may therefore be said that the astral element in the memories enters into a connection with the forces which lie behind, or rather lie within, the minerals, within the plants, behind the clouds, and so on.

Those who can recognise this to be truth will be horrified to hear it said that material atoms are behind the phenomena of Nature. The fact is that our memories during sleep do not unite with material atoms but with the spiritual forces behind the phenomena of Nature. This is where our memories reside during sleep. We can therefore say with truth that during sleep our soul dips down with its memories into the inner being of Nature, and we say nothing untrue or unreal when we assert; When I go to sleep I give over my memories to the Powers that are spiritually active in the crystal, in the plants, in all the phenomena of Nature.

During a walk you may see by the wayside blue or yellow flowers, green grass, gleaming ears of corn, and say to them: When I pass by you during the day I see you only from outside. But while I sleep, I shall sink my memories into your own spiritual core of being. While I sleep you receive and harbour the memories into which I have transformed the experiences I had in life.—There is perhaps no more beautiful feeling for Nature than to have to a rose-tree not merely an external relation but to realise that you love it because a rose-tree harbours the first memories of childhood. Space plays no part at all. However far away the rose-tree may be, during sleep we find the way to it. The reason why people love roses—only they do not know it—is that roses receive and harbour the very first memories of childhood.

When we were children, the love shown us by other human beings made us happy. We may have forgotten all about it, but it remains within our soul, and during our sleep at night the rose-tree receives into and harbours within itself the memory we have ourselves forgotten. We are more closely united than we realise with the world of outer Nature, that is to say with the spirit reigning there. Memory of our earliest childhood is particularly remarkable in connection with sleep because up to the time of the change of teeth, up to about the seventh year, it is only the element of soul that is received and harboured during sleep. It is a fact in our life as human beings that the inner, spiritual core of Nature harbours the element of soul belonging to our childhood. There is, of course, another aspect: the element of soul we developed in childhood when, for example, we may have been cruel, that too remains in us; the thistles harbour it! All this is said by way of analogy but it points to a significant reality. The following will make it clear what it is that is not taken from childhood into the innermost core of Nature.

In the first seven years of life the child’s whole bodily make-up is inherited, including, therefore, the first teeth; all the material substance we have within us during this period is, in essence, inherited. But after approximately seven years all the material substance has been thrust out, has fallen away and is renewed. The human being himself remains as a spirit-form. His material components are thrown out and after seven or eight years everything that was previously there, has gone. And so when we have reached the age of nine our whole bodily make-up has been renewed. We then shape it in accordance with external impressions.

It is very important indeed that in the early epochs of life the child should be in a position to build his new body—not the inherited body, but the one developed from within himself—in accordance with good impressions from the environment and by a healthy process of adaptation. Whereas the body the child has when he comes into the world depends upon whether the forces of heredity are good or not so good, the later body he bears is very dependent indeed upon the impressions he receives from his environment. Invariably, however, after seven years the body is renewed.

Now it is the ‘I’, the Ego, that is responsible for this. Although it is true the Ego is not yet born in the seven-yearold child as far as the external world is concerned—for it is born at a later age—nevertheless it is at work, since it is naturally connected with the body and is responsible for its formation. It is the Ego that is responsible for the development of what then appears as physiognomy and gesture, as the outer, material manifestation of man’s soul-and-spirit. It is a fact that someone who takes an active share in affairs of the world, who has wide interests and assimilates their substance and content will reveal this in his gestures and his very facial expression. In the later life of such a man, every wrinkle on his face will be indicative of his inner activity and it will be possible to read a great deal here, because the Ego comes to expression in a man’s gestures and physiognomy. The countenance of someone whose attitude to the world is one of boredom and lack of interest will retain the same facial expression all through life. There have been no intimate experiences which might have imprinted themselves in his physiognomy and gestures. In many a countenance you can read a whole biography; in another there is not much more to read than that the individual was once a child—and that is of little account.

It is extremely significant that through the change of bodily substance after every seven or eight years, a man shapes his own outer appearance. And the result of this work on his outward appearance as revealed in physiognomy and gesture, is again something that is carried, while he sleeps, into the innermost being of Nature.

If, then, you look at a man with Imaginative clairvoyance, and observe the Ego as it appears while he is asleep, you will find that the Ego is fully expressed by physiognomy and gesture. Hence those human beings who are able to convey a great deal of their inner nature to their facial expression or to their gestures, have gleaming, radiant Egos. This activity in the shaping of gestures and physiognomy again unites with certain forces in Nature. If we had many opportunities in life of showing friendliness and kindness, Nature is inclined, as soon as this kindliness has been expressed in the countenance, to receive it into her own essential being. Nature takes our memories into her forces, our gestures into her very being. Man is so intimately connected with external Nature that there is immense significance for the latter in the memories he experiences in his soul and also in the way in which he expresses his inner life of soul in physiognomy and gesture.

As you know, I have often quoted words of Goethe which were really a criticism of a saying by Haller: ‘Into the inner being of Nature no created Spirit can enter. Happy he to whom she reveals only her outer shell.’ Goethe retorted: ‘O you Philistine! We are everywhere within her being: nothing is within, nothing without; what is within is without, what is without is within. Ask yourself first of all whether you are kernel or husk.’ Goethe said he had heard the remark in the sixties and had secretly cursed it. He felt—naturally he could not then know anything of Spiritual Science—that if a man whom he could only regard as a philistine, says: ‘Into the inner being of Nature no created Spirit can enter,’ he knows nothing of the fact that man, simply because he is a being of memories, a being of physiognomy and gestures, continually penetrates into the inmost essence of Nature. We are not creatures who stand at the door of Nature and knock in vain. Through our own core of being we are connected by intimate ties with the inmost essence of Nature. But because the child until his seventh year has a body that is wholly inherited, nothing of his Ego, nothing of his physiognomy and gestures, pass over into Nature. It is only at the time of the change of teeth that we begin to approach these realities. Hence it is only then—after the change of teeth— that we are mature enough gradually to begin to reflect about any phenomenon of Nature. Until that time it is only arbitrary thoughts that arise in a child, thoughts which really have not very much to do with Nature, and for that very reason are so full of charm. The best way to make contact with a child is to be poetical when we are talking to him, calling the stars the eyes of heaven and so on, when the things of which we speak are as remote as possible from the outer physical reality.

It is only after the change of teeth that the child gradually ‘grows into’ Nature in such a way that his thoughts can gradually comprehend thoughts of Nature. Fundamentally speaking, the child’s life from the seventh to the fourteenth year is a period during which he ‘grows into Nature’. During this period, in addition to his memories he also carries into the realm of Nature his gestures and physiognomy. And this then continues through the whole of life. It is not until the change of teeth that we have any relationship with the inner core of Nature as single human individuals.

For this reason the beings I have called Elementals— Gnomes and Undines—listen so eagerly when a man narrates something about childhood as it was before the age of seven. It is only at the time of the change of teeth that a man is really born as far as these elemental beings are concerned. This is an extremely interesting fact. Before that time man is to the Gnomes and Undines a being ‘on the other side’; it is for them something of an enigma that man should appear at this age almost as a completed being. It would be immensely stimulating for pedagogical imagination if, through imbibing spiritual knowledge, an individual could really participate in a dialogue with the Nature Spirits, if he could transport himself into the soul of the Nature Spirits in order to ascertain their views about what he can tell them about children. In this way the most beautiful fairy-tale imagination takes shape. And if in olden times fairy-tales were so wonderfully vivid and rich in content it was because the narrators could actually converse with Gnomes and Undines and not merely hear something from them. These Nature Spirits are sometimes very egoistic. They become silent if they are not told things about which they are curious. Their favourite stories are those which tell about the doings of babies. Then one learns from them many things that can create the atmosphere of a fairy story. What seems utterly fantastic to people today can be very important for the practical application of spiritual life. It is an actual fact that because of the circumstances of which I have told you, these dialogues with the Nature Spirits may be extremely instructive for both sides.

On the other hand, what I have said may give rise to a certain anxiety, for during sleep man is continually creating pictures of his inmost being. Behind the phenomena of Nature, behind the flowers of the field, and extending into the etheric world, there are reproductions of our memories, good and futile alike. The Earth teems with what is contained in human souls. Human life is intimately connected with these things.

First of all, then, we encounter Nature Spirits as beings into whom we can penetrate through our gestures. But we also find the world of the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai. We penetrate into those Beings too. Our memories carry us into the activities of the world of the Angeloi; our physiognomy and gestures—for which we ourselves are responsible—carry us into the Beings themselves of that world. This following sketch will give some indication of what happens when, during sleep, we penetrate into Nature. Let this (lowest) curve represent our skin; as we move outwards in the radial direction, we pass from the regions of the Angeloi into those of the Archangeloi and Archai. We are now in the sphere of the Third Hierarchy. And when, during sleep, we sink down with our memories and gestures into the flowing sea of Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai, weaving and intertwining, then from one side there comes another stream of spiritual Beings. This is the Second Hierarchy: Exousiai, Kyriotetes and Dynamis. If we want to find something in the physical world to which this can be related, we can say that the daily course of the Sun from East to West expresses how the Second Hierarchy crosses the realm of the Third Hierarchy. The Third Hierarchy, the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai, glide upwards and downwards, handing to each other the ‘golden vessels’. According to this picture we think of the Second Hierarchy following the path taken by the Sun from East to West—not the apparent but the actual daily path of the Sun, for the Copernican theory does not hold good here. Provided a man has the necessary vision, he sees how during sleep he passes into the world of the Third Hierarchy. But this world of the Third Hierarchy is permeated ceaselessly by the Second Hierarchy. The Second Hierarchy also makes its influence felt in our life of soul.

Blackboard 1

In the lecture the day before yesterday I pointed out to you the significance of vividly re-living experiences of youth. You may be deeply impressed if you turn again to the Mystery Plays and now, perhaps with greater understanding than before, read the passages about the appearance of the Spirit of Johannes’ Youth.1The Soul’s Awakening. Scene 2. It is an indubitable fact that a man’s own inner being can become vividly perceptible to him if with an active effort of will he relives his younger days. I told you that you may, for instance, pick up old school textbooks and steep yourself in what you either learnt or failed to learn from them. It does not matter whether you learnt anything or not; what matters is that you should re-live what happened at the time. In my own case it was vitally important for me a year or two ago, when I needed to strengthen my powers of spiritual understanding, to re-live a situation of my youth. I was eleven years old at the time and had just been given a new school-book. The first thing that happened was that through carelessness, the ink pot upset and blotted two pages of the book so badly that they were illegible. A few years ago I relived the event many times—the textbook with the ruined pages and what I had to suffer in consequence. For the book had to be replaced by a family with very little money. One suffered dreadfully on account of this book with its enormous inkblot! As I said, it is not a matter of having behaved well in circumstances recalled in later years but of experiencing them with real intensity. If you recall such happenings as vividly as you possibly can, you will experience something else as well. More clearly than in a dream, in actual perception, you will experience a situation while you rest in bed, shut off from the day’s impressions. If during the day you have vividly recalled a scene once inwardly experienced, when everything around you is dark and you are all by yourself at night you will see, as though displayed in space, a scene in which you once participated. Suppose you have recalled a scene at which you were once present, let us say at eleven o’clock. Afterwards you went somewhere else and found yourself sitting among a number of people. You have now summoned up something you experienced inwardly. What was around you outwardly at that time was entirely a spatial spectacle. If attention is paid to circumstances such as this, very significant discoveries can be made. Let us suppose that as a youngster of seventeen, you were accustomed to have your midday meal at a Pension where the guests were continually changing. Now you recall some such scene which you had inwardly experienced; you recall it vividly. Then, in the night, you have this experience: you are sitting at a table with other people whom you saw only seldom because the guests in a Pension were perpetually changing. The face of one of these people makes you realise: that is something I actually lived through all those years ago. The external spatial element is added to the inner soul-experience when you activate memories in this way.

This means that you are actually living in the stream which flows from East to West (see diagram). More and more the feeling grows in you that you are not wholly absorbed by the spiritual world into which you pass in sleep, but that in this spiritual world something is happening that is reflected outwardly in the moment when again you see the people sitting around the table in the Pension. You had forgotten about the episode long ago but it is still there. You see it as things can often be seen inscribed in the Akasha Chronicle. The moment you have this before you, you have made contact with the stream that flows from East to West: the stream of the Second Hierarchy. In this stream of the Second Hierarchy there is contained something that is reflected outwardly as the day.

Now the day varies in length throughout the year. In spring it gets longer, in autumn, shorter; it is longest in summer, shortest in winter. During the course of the year the day undergoes metamorphosis. This is caused by a stream running from West to East, countering the East-West stream (diagram). It is the stream of the First Hierarchy, of the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. Hence if you follow how the day changes in the course of the year, if you pass from the day to the year, you come into contact with the stream which flows in the opposite direction and meets you in sleep.

Blackboard 2

It is really the case that in sleep we grow into the spiritual world, radially from West to East and from East to West. And when we recall some experience vividly the picture before our souls must be of Winter in the world of space.

And it is the same when we become conscious of our will. It is the effect of this that passes into the gestures and physiognomy. What I am now going to say will have a certain significance for Eurythmists, although naturally it is not the purpose of Eurythmy to vindicate what I am saying. It is a fact that when a man becomes increasingly able to shape his external form too from within himself, so that his Ego is expressed with greater and greater definition in his physiognomy and gestures, he does not receive an impression only of the day. An impression of the day results from passing over from a vivid, inner experience of memory to a perception of things in the external world of space. To take the example already given. Suppose you re-experience what happened to you at the age of seventeen, and see the human beings who sat at table with you in the Pension, in pictures, as in the Akasha Chronicle—that is the Day-experience.

But the Year can also be experienced. This is possible if we pay attention to the working of the will, if we notice that it is comparatively easy to assert the will when one is warm, whereas it is difficult to let the will stream through the body when one is very cold. Those who can inwardly experience a connection between the will and being warm or cold, will gradually be able, when this faculty develops, to speak of a Winter Will and a Summer Will in themselves.

We find that the best way to define this will is to relate it to the seasons. Let us observe, for example, the kind of will which seems to carry our thoughts out into the Cosmos and makes it easy to manipulate the body so that in its whole bearing and in its gestures the thoughts seem to be borne out into the Universe; they seem to glide away through the finger-tips. We feel that it is easy to activate the will. We may be standing in front of a tree and something at the top of it gladdens our eye. If our will is warm within us, our thoughts are carried to the treetop—indeed sometimes to the very stars of heaven when in summer nights we feel endowed with this warmth of will.

On the other hand, if the will is inwardly cold, it is as if all thoughts were being carried only in our head and could not make their way into our arms or legs. Everything goes to the head. The head endures the coldness of the will, and if the cold is not so overwhelming as to give rise to a feeling of iciness, the head will become warm as a result of its own inner reaction, and then it unfolds thoughts.

Hence we can say that Summer Will leads us out into the wide expanse of the Cosmos. Summer Will, Warm Will, carries our thoughts here, there and everywhere. Winter Will carries thoughts into our head. The will can indeed be differentiated in this way. And then we shall feel that the will which carried us out into the Cosmos is related to the course of the Summer and the Will which carries thoughts into the head, to the Winter. Through the will we experience the Year.

It is possible to experience as a reality what I am now going to write on the blackboard for you. Your experience of Winter through the medium of the will can be expressed in these words:

World-All pictures!
From widths of Space
Ye are alighting,
Tending towards me,
Entering bounteously
Into my Head,
Into its thinking powers.

These words have no merely abstract meaning. If you can feel your own will united with Nature you will also feel, when Winter comes, as though your own experiences, handed over to Nature, were being brought to you from the expanse of Space. You can be aware of your own experiences which had already been taken into Nature. This is the feeling of Winter Will.

But you can also feel the Summer Will which bears your thoughts out into the Cosmos:

Ye, of my Head
The formative forces, forming in soul,
Filling my inner life!

which means that the thoughts which are at first experienced in the head, pass over into and fill the whole body, but then stream forth from it:

Now reaching outward
Into World-distances,
Weld my own being
With World-creative powers.

These words express the nature of the Summer Will, the will in us which is related to Summer. And when we feel that we have called up from within the active memory of something experienced long ago, then the day with its following night bears it back to us again, supplemented by the spatial picture. This is connected with the stream flowing from East to West. Thus we may say: Winter Will changes in us into Summer Will, Summer Will into Winter Will. We find ourselves no longer related to the Day with its alternating light and darkness, but through our will we are related to the Year, and therewith to the stream flowing from West to East, the stream of the First Hierarchy: the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones.

As we proceed we shall see how man may be hindered or helped through heredity or adaptation to the external world through this association with the inmost life of Nature. What I have just been telling you refers to the fact that man, when hindered as little as possible by Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces, grows by means of ideation (Vorstellung) and will into the inmost life of Nature and is received by the Time-forces, the Day-forces and the Year-forces; Third Hierarchy, Second Hierarchy, First Hierarchy. But the Ahrimanic forces as they manifest themselves in heredity, and the Luciferic forces as they manifest themselves in adaptation, exert very deep influences. These great problems will occupy our minds in the next lecture.

Winter Will
World-All pictures,
From widths of Space
Ye are alighting,
Tending towards me,
Entering bounteously
Into my Head,
Into its thinking powers.

Summer Will
Ye, of my Head
The formative forces, forming in soul,
Filling my inner life.
Now reaching outward
Into World-distances,
Weld my own being With World-creative powers.

Dritter Vortrag

Ich sprach Ihnen davon, wie der Mensch in seinem Leben demjenigen unterliegt, was man gewohnt ist von naturwissenschaftlicher Seite her Vererbung zu nennen. Ich sprach Ihnen ferner davon, wie der Mensch den Wirkungen der Außehwelt, der Anpassung an die Außenwelt unterliegt, und wie alles, was in der Vererbung beschlossen ist, mit dem Ahrimanischen zusammenhängt und das, was Anpassung an die äuBere Welt im weitesten Sinne ist, mit dem Luziferischen. Ich sagte Ihnen aber auch, wie im Weltenall, das heißt innerhalb der geistigen Wesenhaftigkeiten, die dem Weltenall zugrunde liegen, dafür gesorgt ist, daß in richtiger Art das Luziferische und das Ahrimanische sich einreihen können in das menschliche Leben. Fügen wir zu dem, was gesagt worden ist, noch einiges heute hinzu, indem wir das vorgestern Auseinandergesetzte noch einmal ins Auge fassen.

Wir haben daran gedacht, wie die Erinnerung, alles GedächtnismäBige, als ein innerlich Seelisches den Menschen gestaltet. Wir sind ja als seelisches Wesen wirklich viel mehr, als wir denken, von unseren Erinnerungen gebildet. Die Art und Weise, wie unsere Erlebnisse Erinnerungen geworden sind, das hat eigentlich unsere Seele gestaltet; mehr als man denkt, ist man ein Ergebnis des Erinnerungslebens. Und wer nur einigermaßen Selbstbeobachtung so weit üben kann, daß er auf das Erinnerungsleben einzugehen vermag, der wird sehen, eine wie große Rolle durch das ganze Erdenleben hindurch namentlich die Eindrücke der Kindheit spielen. Die Art und Weise, wie wir gerade diejenige Kindheit verbracht haben, die dann gar keine große Rolle im bewußten Leben spielt, die Zeit, während welcher wir sprechen gelernt haben, gehen gelernt haben, während welcher wir die ersten Zähne, die vererbten Zähne bekommen haben, die Eindrücke während all dieser Entwickelungsmomente, die spielen durch das ganze Erdenleben hindurch eine große Rolle im menschlichen Seelenleben. Und manches von dem, was, ich möchte sagen charakterologisch betont, innerlich aufstößt an Gedanken, die mit Erinnerungen zusammenhängen - und alles, was wir nicht gerade unter äußeren Eindrücken in unseren Gedanken fassen, hängt ja mit Erinnerungen zusammen -alles, was in dieser Weise aufstößt, uns innerlich freudig, uns innerlich schmerzlich berührt, — es sind ja gewöhnlich leise Nuancen von Freude und Schmerz, die da begleiten die frei aufsteigenden Gedanken -all das, was an Erinnerungsleben in uns ist, das trägt ja unser astralischer Leib auch mit hinaus, wenn wir in den Schlafzustand übergehen. Und wenn man nun mit imaginativem Schauen den Menschen als seelisch-geistiges Wesen im Schlafe ins Auge faßt, so stellt sich ja die Sache in der folgenden Art dar. Da kann man schon sagen: Wenn Sie, schematisch gezeichnet, das als die menschliche Haut auffassen und sich vorstellen, daß innerhalb der menschlichen Haut der Ätherleib bleibt beim Schlafen und der physische Leib, und außerhalb der astralische Leib zunächst ist - das Ich werde ich später dazu zeichnen -und man beobachtet das gewissermaßen, indem man sich ihm gegenüberstellt, dann sieht man den astralischen Leib eigentlich aus den Erinnerungen bestehend. Nur sieht man, wie diese Erinnerungen, die im astralischen Leib da außerhalb des Menschen leben, durcheinander gewirbelt werden, möchte ich sagen. Es werden Erlebnisse, die der Zeit nach weit auseinanderliegen, die dem Raume nach weit auseinanderliegen, zusammengestellt; aus gewissen Erlebnissen wird manches ausgeschieden, so daß das ganze Erinnerungsleben während des Schlafes umgestaltet wird. Und wenn dann der Mensch träumt, so träumt er eben dadurch, daß ihm dieses umgewandelte Erinnerungsleben vor das Bewußtsein tritt. Und gerade an der Beschaffenheit des Traumes kann man jenes Durcheinanderwirbeln wahrnehmen, innerlich wahrnehmen, was von außen gesehen die imaginative Clairevoyance anschauen kann.

Aber dabei stellt sich noch ein anderes ein. Dasjenige, was da als Erinnerungen figuriert vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen, was also den hauptsächlichsten Inhalt des menschlichen astralischen Seelenlebens ausmacht, das vereinigt sich während des Schlafes mit den Kräften, die hinter den Naturerscheinungen sind. So daß man sagen kann: Das alles, was da als astralischer Leib in den Erinnerungen lebt, geht eine Verbindung ein mit den Kräften, die hinter den Mineralien, eigentlich im Innern der Mineralien, im Innern der Pflanzen, hinter den Wolkenerscheinungen und so weiter sind.

Wer diese Tatsache durchschaut, für den ist es eigentlich, ich möchte sagen entsetzlich, wenn nun die Leute kommen und sagen: Hinter den Naturerscheinungen sind materielle Atome. Ja, mit diesen materiellen ‚Atomen vereinigen sich unsere Erinnerungen während des Schlafes nicht; aber mit dem, was wirklich hinter den Naturerscheinungen ist, mit den geistig wirksamen Kräften, vereinigen sich unsere Erinnerungen während des Schlafens; da drinnen ruhen unsere Erinnerungen während des Schlafens.

So daß wir wirklich sagen können: Unsere Seele taucht unter ins Innere der Natur mit ihren Erinnerungen während des Schlafens. Und Sie sagen nichts Unwahres, nichts Unwirkliches, meine lieben Freunde, wenn Sie folgendes aussprechen, wenn Sie aussprechen: Wenn ich einschlafe, da übergebe ich meine Erinnerungen den Mächten, die im Kristall, die in den Pflanzen, die in allen Naturerscheinungen geistig walten.

Ja, Sie können einen Spaziergang machen, am Wegesrand sehen die gelben Blüten, die blauen Blüten, das grüne Gras, die glänzende versprechende Ähre, und Sie sagen: Indem ich so während des Tages an euch vorübergehe, sehe ich euch von außen; in euer eigenes geistiges Innere werde ich versenken, während ich schlafe, meine Erinnerungen. Ihr nehmt auf dasjenige, was ich während des Lebens aus meinen Erlebnissen heraus in Erinnerungen umgewandelt habe, ihr nehmt auf diese Erinnerungen, wenn ich schlafe. - Und es ist vielleicht doch das schönste Naturgefühl, zum Rosenstrauch nicht nur ein äußerliches Verhältnis zu haben, sondern sich zu sagen: Ich liebe den Rosenstrauch besonders aus dem Grunde, weil der Rosenstrauch die Eigentümlichkeit hat - Räumliches spielt ja dabei keine Rolle, die Rose mag noch so weit entfernt sein, wir finden schon im Schlafe unseren Weg zu ihr -, weil der Rosenstrauch die besondere Eigentümlichkeit hat, gerade unsere ersten Kindheitserinnerungen aufzunehmen. Die Menschen lieben die Rose aus dem Grunde - sie wissen es nur nicht -, weil die Rosen die allerersten Kindheitserinnerungen aufnehmen.

Mit uns waren, während wir Kind waren, andere Menschen liebevoll; sie haben uns oftmals zum Lächeln gebracht. Das haben wir vergessen. Aber wir tragen es in unserer Gemütsstimmung in uns. Und der Rosenstrauch nimmt die Erinnerung, die wir selber vergessen haben, während des nächtlichen Schlafes in sein eigenes Inneres auf. Der Mensch ist eben mehr als er glaubt mit der natürlichen Außenwelt, das heißt mit dem Geist, der in der natürlichen Außenwelt waltet, verbunden. Und dieses Erinnern an die ersten Kindheitsjahre, das ist besonders noch dadurch höchst merkwürdig mit Bezug auf das menschliche Schlafen, weil aus den ersten Kindheitsjahren und aus den Jahren bis zum Zahnwechsel hin, bis zum siebenten Lebensjahr ungefähr, eigentlich während des Schlafes nur das Seelische aufgenommen wird. Wir haben wirklich das in uns als Menschen, daß das Geistige, das Innere der Natur von unserer Kindheit im Grunde gerade das Seelische aufnimmt. Es gilt natürlich auch anderes: jenes Seelische, das wir entwickelt haben während der ersten Kindheit, indem wir zum Beispiel grausam waren, das steckt auch in uns; das nimmt aber die Distel auf. Natürlich ist das alles vergleichsweise gesprochen. Aber es deutet auf eine bedeutsame Realität durchaus hin. Was vom Kinde nicht in das Innere der Natur aufgenommen wird, das wird uns gleich aus folgendem hervorgehen.

Sehen Sie, in den ersten sieben Lebensjahren ist eigentlich alles Körperliche vererbt. Die ersten Zähne sind ja durchaus vererbte Zähne, weil überhaupt alles Materielle, das wir in uns tragen in den ersten sieben Lebensjahren, im wesentlichen Vererbtes ist. Aber nach ungefähr sieben Lebensjahren wird ja die ganze materielle Substanz ausgestoBen, fällt ab, wird neu gebildet. Der Mensch bleibt als Form, als Geistgestalt. Sein Materielles stößt er jeweils aus; nach sieben bis acht Jahten ist alles weg, was vor sieben bis acht Jahren da war. Und so ist es, daß, wenn wir neun Jahre alt geworden sind, wir unseren ganzen Menschen erneuert haben. Wir bilden dann unseren Menschen nach den äußeren Eindrücken.

Und in der Tat, es ist sehr wichtig, gerade für das Kind in den ersten Lebensepochen, daß es in die Lage kommt, seinen neuen Körper, jetzt nicht den vererbten Körper, sondern den aus dem Innern heraus gebildeten Körper, nach guten Eindrücken der Umgebung, nach einer guten Anpassung bilden zu können. Während der Körper, den das Kind hat, wenn es zur Welt kommt, davon abhängt, ob ihm die vererbten Impulse in guter oder weniger guter Weise mitgegeben werden, hängt der spätere Körper, den es an sich trägt vom siebenten bis vierzehnten Lebensjahr, ganz stark von den Eindrücken ab, die das Kind aus seiner Umgebung aufnimmt. Jeweils nach sieben Jahren bilden wir unseren Körper neu.

Ja, aber sehen Sie, das ist das Ich, das da bildet. Wenn auch das Ich noch nicht einmal für die Außenwelt geboren ist beim Kinde mit dem siebenten Jahre - es wird ja erst später geboren -, so wirkt es dennoch, denn es ist natürlich verbunden mit dem Körper, und es ist das Ich, das da bildet. Und es bildet dasjenige, wovon ich gesprochen habe; es bildet das, was dann als Physiognomie und als Geste, als die äußere materielle Offenbarung des Seelisch-Geistigen beim Menschen herauskommt. Es ist ja überhaupt so, daß derjenige Mensch, der regsamen Anteil an der Welt hat, der sich für vieles interessiert, und dieses, woran er regsamen Anteil hat, innerlich auch regsam verarbeitet, daß ein solcher Mensch in seinem äußeren Gesichtsausdrucke, in seinen Gesten materiell wieder das offenbart, was er da mit Interesse aufnimmt, was er mit Interesse innerlich verarbeitet. Bei dem Menschen, der regsamstes Interesse an der Außenwelt hat, der regsam dieses Interesse an der Außenwelt innerlich verarbeitet, bei dem wird man an jeder Runzel im Gesichte im späteren Lebensalter sehen, wie er sich diese selbst geformt hat, und man wird viel lesen können, weil das Ich in der Geste, in der Physiognomie, im Ausdruck zum Vorscheine kommt. Bei einem Menschen, der blasiert oder interessenlos an der Außenwelt vorbeigeht, bei dem bleibt das ganze Leben hindurch das Gesicht mit demselben Ausdruck. Es prägen sich nicht die feineren Erlebnisse in Physiognomie und Geste ein. In manchem Gesichte kann man eine ganze Biographie lesen; in manchem kann man nicht viel mehr lesen, als daß der Mensch einmal Kind gewesen ist, was ja nichts Besonderes ist.

Das bedeutet aber außerordentlich viel, daß der Mensch also durch den Austausch des Materiellen nach jeweils sieben bis acht Jahren aus seiner Form heraus sein Aussehen erarbeitet. Das bedeutet sehr viel, dieses Arbeiten des Menschen an seinem Äußeren, an Physiognomie und Geste; das ist wiederum etwas, was der Mensch im Schlafe hineinträgt ins Innere der Natur.

Und wiederum, wenn man mit imaginativem Hellsehen hinschaut auf den Menschen und nun das Ich betrachtet, wie es draußen schlafend ist, so ist dieses Ich eigentlich bestehend aus Physiognomie und Geste. Es ist daher gerade bei denjenigen Menschen, die viel von ihrem Inneren in ihren Gesichtsausdruck oder in ihre Geste zu legen vermögen, ein glänzendes, ein strahlendes Ich da. Und dieses Erarbeiten der Geste, der Physiognomie verbindet sich wiederum mit gewissen Kräften im Innern der Natur. Und es ist schon so: wenn wir in der Lage waren, oftmals im Leben freundlich zu sein, liebenswürdig zu sein, dann ist die Natur geneigt, sobald das Liebenswürdigsein Gesichtsausdruck ‚geworden ist, dies während unseres Schlafes in ihr Wesenhaftes aufzunehmen. Unsere Erinnerungen nimmt sie auf in ihre Kräfte, unsere Gestenbildung nimmt sie auf in ihr Wesenhaftes, in die Naturwesen selber. So innig ist der Mensch im Zusammenhange mit der äußeren Natur, daß es für die äußere Natur eine ungeheure Bedeutung hat, was er in seinem Innern seelisch als Erinnerungen erlebt, wie er sein inneres Seelisches in Geste, in Physiognomie zum Ausdrucke bringt. Denn das lebt im Innern der Natur weiter.

Sehen Sie, ich habe im Abstrakten oftmals angeführt den Goetheschen Spruch, der eigentlich eine Kritik eines Spruches von Haller ist. Haller hat das Wort geprägt: «Ins Innre der Natur dringt kein erschaffner Geist. Glückselig, wem sie nur die äußre Schale weist.» Goethe sagt darauf: O du Philister! Ort für Ort sind wir im Innern. Nichts ist drinnen, nichts ist draußen; was drinnen ist, ist draußen, was draußen ist, ist drinnen — meint Goethe. Dich frage nur zu allermeist, ob du selbst Kern oder Schale seist. Goethe sagt, er höre diesen Ausdruck an die sechzig Jahre und fluche darauf, aber verstohlen, weil Goethe fühlte - er kannte natürlich noch nicht Geisteswissenschaft —, aber er fühlte: Wenn da irgendeiner sagt, den er nur als einen Philister anschauen konnte:

«Ins Innre der Natur ...
Dringt kein erschaffner Geist»

so weiß der eben nichts davon, daß der Mensch, einfach indem er ein Erinnerungswesen und ein Gesten- und Physiognomiewesen ist, fortwährend ins Innere der Natur eindringt. Wir sind nicht Wesenheiten, die nur am Tore der Natur stehen und vergebens anklopfen. Gerade durch dasjenige, was Innerstes ist in uns, stehen wir mit dem Inneren der Natur auch in innigster Beziehung. Weil aber das Kind bis zum siebenten Jahre einen ganz vererbten Körper hat, so geht nichts von dem Ich, von Geste und Physiognomie, ins Innere der Natur über. Wir beginnen erst mit dem Zahnwechsel ins Wesenhafte der Natur einzudringen. Daher werden wir auch erst nach dem Zahnwechsel reif, nach und nach über irgend etwas in der Natur nachzudenken. Vorher sind es Willkürgedanken, die im Kinde aufsteigen, die nicht viel mit der Natur zu tun haben, die reizvoll gerade dadurch sind, daß sie nicht viel mit der Natur zu tun haben. Wir kommen am besten an das Kind heran, wenn wir neben dem Kinde dichten, wenn wir die Sterne zu Augen des Himmels machen und so weiter, wenn die Dinge, die wir mit dem Kinde besprechen, möglichst weit von der äußeren physischen Wirklichkeit entfernt sind.

Erst vom Zahnwechsel ab wächst das Kind allmählich in die Natur hinein, so daß seine Gedanken nach und nach mit den Naturgedanken zusammenfallen können; und im Grunde ist das ganze Leben vom siebenten bis vierzehnten Jahre ein solches, daß das Kind hineinwächst in die Natur; denn da trägt es außer den Erinnerungen seiner Seele in die Natur auch noch die Geste, die Physiognomie hinein. Und das geht dann so durch das ganze Leben hindurch. Für das Innere der Natur werden wir als einzelne menschliche Individualität erst mit dem Zahnwechsel geboren.

Daher lauschen diejenigen Wesenheiten, die ich Ihnen als Elementarwesen bezeichnet habe, Gnomen und Undinen, so gerne, wenn ihnen der Mensch etwas erzählt von dem Kindesleben bis zum siebenten Jahre. Denn für diese Naturwesen wird der Mensch erst mit dem Zahnwechsel geboren. Das ist eine außerordentlich interessante Erscheinung. Vorher ist der Mensch für Gnomen und Undinen ein jenseitiges Wesen. Es ist für sie deshalb ziemlich rätselhaft, wieder Mensch da auftritt in einer gewissen Vollendung schon. Aber es würde schon ungeheuer belebend sein für die pädagogische oder pädagogisierende Phantasie, wenn der Mensch dadurch, daß er Geisteserkenntnis aufnimmt, sich wirklich versetzen könnte in diese Dialoge mit den Naturgeistern; wenn er in die Naturgeisterseele sich hineinversetzen könnte, um ihre Anschauungen zu erlangen gegenüber dem, was er ihnen erzählen kann von Kindern. Denn dadurch bildet sich gerade die schönste Märchenphantasie. Und wenn in alten Zeiten die Märchen so wunderbar konkret, inhaltsvoll geworden sind, so ist es, weil die Märchendichter mit Gnomen und Undinen reden konnten, aber nicht bloß von ihnen etwas hören konnten. Diese Naturgeister sind zuweilen sehr egoistisch. Die werden schweigsam, wenn man ihnen nicht auch etwas erzählt, worauf sie neugierig sind. Und dasjenige ist für sie die beste Erzählung, wenn man ihnen von den Taten der Babys erzählt. Dann erfährt man auch vielerlei von ihnen, was gerade in Märchenstimmung übergehen kann. Ja, sehen Sie, gerade für das praktische geistige Leben kann das außerordentlich wichtig werden, was dem Menschen heute ganz urphantastisch erscheint. Aber es ist so, daß tatsächlich diese Dialoge mit den geistigen Naturwesen durch die Umstände, die ich dargelegt habe, etwas außerordentlich Belehrendes nach beiden Seiten hin haben.

‚Auf der anderen Seite aber wirkt natürlich das, was ich gesagt habe, in gewissem Sinne beängstigend, denn der Mensch schafft, wenn er schläft, fortwährend Abbilder seines innersten Wesens. Da hinter den Erscheinungen der Natur, hinter den Blumen des Feldes sind bis in die ätherische Welt herein Abdrücke von unseren guten und nichtsnutzigen Erinnerungen. Da wimmelt die Erde überall von dem, was in den Menschenseelen lebt. Und es ist schon so, daß in der Realität das menschliche Leben gar sehr mit solchen Dingen zusammenhängt.

Wir finden also da zunächst die Naturgeister als Wesenhaftigkeiten, in die wir mit unserer Gestenwelt eindringen. Wir finden aber auch die Welt der Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. In diese wachsen wir ebenso hinein, in sie tauchen wir unter. Wir tauchen in die Taten der Engelwelt hinein durch unsere Erinnerungen. Wir tauchen in die Wesenhaftigkeiten der Engelwelt hinein durch unser von uns selbst geprägtes Physiognomisches und Gestenhaftes. Und es ist dieses sich Einleben

im Schlafe so, daß wir sagen können: Wenn wir uns herüberleben in die Natur, dann erscheint uns das Einleben in die Natur so: Dies ist wieder die Haut unseres Körpers (es wird gezeichnet); je weiter wir hinausgehen, kommen wir immer mehr von Angeloi- in Archangeloi-, in Archai-Regionen hinein in der radialen Richtung. Da kommen wir hinein in die dritte Hierarchie.Und wenn wir da hinein schlafend mit unseren Erinnerungen und unseren Gesten untertauchen wie in das flutende Meer der webenden Wesenheiten der Angeloi, Archangeloi und Archai, wenn wir da untertauchen, dann kommt von der einen Seite eine Strömung von geistigen Wesenheiten (siehe Zeichnung). Das ist die zweite Hierarchie: Exusiai, Kyriotetes, Dynamis. Und wenn wir anklingen lassen wollen an dasjenige, was äußerlich in der Welt ist, das, was wir eben dargestellt haben, dann geht diese Strömung so, daß uns der Lauf der Sonne von Ost nach West während des Tages ausdrückt den Weg, in dem die zweite Hierarchie durchkreuzt die dritte Hierarchie. Die dritte Hierarchie: Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai ist wie auf- und abschwebend und sich «die goldnen Eimer» reichend — auf- und abschwebend. In dieser Darstellung ist dann die zweite Hierarchie wie mit der Sonne von Osten nach Westen gehend, - jetzt ist es nicht scheinbar, denn da gilt nicht die kopernikanische Weltanschauung, sondern es ist tatsächlich von Ost nach West gehend die Strömung, welche die Sonne durchläuft während des Tages. So daß der Mensch, indem er schaut — das heißt, wenn er schauen kann — hineinwächst während des Schlafes in diese dritte Hierarchie. Aber diese dritte Hierarchie ist fortwährend gnadevoll durchströmt von der Seite her von der zweiten Hierarchie. Und diese zweite Hierarchie macht sich auch in unserem Seelenleben durchaus geltend.

Blackboard 1

Ich habe Ihnen vorgestern angedeutet, was es für eine Bedeutung hat, wenn wir auf in der Jugend Erlebtes wiederum zurückkommen. In dieser Beziehung können Sie eine tiefgehende Empfindung bekommen, wenn Sie die Mysterien wiederum in die Hand nehmen und da, jetzt vielleicht mit einem größeren Verständnis, als das einmal der Fall war, lesen können, was dort über die Erscheinung von Johannes Jugend dargestellt wird. Es ist schon so, daß der Mensch besonders sein Inneres regsam, intensiv wahrnehmbar für ihn selber machen kann, wenn er tätig auf sein Jugendliches zurückkommt. Ich habe Ihnen gesagt: Man nehme alte Schulbücher, in denen man einmal etwas gelernt hat oder meinetwillen auch nichts gelernt hat, wiederum zur Hand, man versetze sich in dieses Lernen oderNichtslernen hinein - es kommt ja nicht darauf an, ob man etwas gelernt hat oder nicht, sondern daß man sich in das, was man mit ihnen gemacht hat, hineinversetzt: man kann da schon eigene Erfahrungen haben. Für mich war es einmal vor ein paar Jahren von einer ungeheuren Bedeutung, mich in eine solche Situation der Jugend hineinzuversetzen, als ich eine Verstärkung der Kräfte des geistigen Erfassens brauchte. Ich war gerade elf Jahre alt und bekam ein Schulbuch. Das erste, was geschah - es ist mir zufällig passiert —, war, daß aus einer Unvorsichtigkeit das Tintenfaß umfiel und mir dabei zwei Seiten so verdorben hatte, daß ich die zwei Seiten nicht mehr lesen konnte. Das ist auch eine Tat. Diese Tat habe ich vor vielen Jahren oftmals wiedererlebt, dieses Schulbuch mit den verdorbenen Seiten, und mit all dem, was ich ausgestanden habe, denn das Schulbuch mußte aus einer armen Familie heraus wieder gekauft werden. Es war etwas Entsetzliches, was man alles an diesem Schulbuch mit seinem Riesentintenklecks - dazumal nannte man’s noch anders — alles erleben konnte! Also so etwas wieder rege machen. Wie gesagt, es handelt sich nicht darum, daß man just brav gewesen sein soll bei dem, was man wieder heraufholt, sondern daß es eben etwas ist, was intensiv erlebt worden ist. Wenn Sie versuchen, das tatsächlich mit aller inneren Intensität wiederum heraufzubekommen, dann werden Sie noch etwas anderes erleben. Sie werden mehr als im Traume, in einer wirklichen Anschauung, wenn Sie abgeschlossen von den Eindrücken des Tages in Ihrem Bette ruhen, eine Situation erleben. Während Sie bei Tag sich eine Szene, die Sie innerlich durchlebt haben, vor die Seele gerufen haben, erleben Sie, wenn die Nacht gekommen ist, wenn es um Sie herum finster ist, wenn Sie mit sich selbst sind, schauend wie im Raume die Situation, in der Sie entweder vorher oder nachher waren. Sagen wir also, Sie haben sich eine Szene vor die Seele gerufen, die Sie meinetwillen um elf Uhr einmal erlebt haben. Nachher sind Sie irgendwo hingegangen, wo Sie Menschen gegenübergesessen haben. Sie sitzen da, und die Menschen sitzen da herum. Sie haben etwas, was Sie innerlich erlebt haben, heraufgeholt. Was äußerlich dazumal um Sie herum war, tritt Ihnen dann ganz als räumliche Anschauung entgegen. Man muß nur auf solche Zusammenhänge hinschauen. Da können ganz bedeutsame Entdeckungen gemacht werden. Meinetwillen sagen wir, Sie haben als siebzehnjähriger junger Mensch jeden Mittag in einer Pension gegessen, wo die Leute gewechselt haben. Nun rufen Sie sich gerade eine Szene, die Sie innerlich erlebt haben, irgendwie herauf. Sie erleben es regsam durch. In der Nacht erleben Sie: Sie sitzen an dem Tisch, daherum sitzen diejenigen Leute, die Sie nur, weil sie wechselnd sind in einer Pension, selten gesehen haben. An einem Gesichte erkennen Sie: das ist ja dasselbe, was ich dazumal durchgemacht habe. Das äußerlich Räumliche tritt zu dem innerlich Seelischen hinzu, wenn Sie die Erinnerungen in dieser Weise tätig machen.

Sehen Sie, das heißt aber dann tatsächlich mit dieser Strömung, die da von Ost nach West geht, leben. Denn Sie kommen immer mehr und mehr in das Gefühl hinein: Da in dem Geistigen, in das Sie eintreten im Schlafe, leben Sie nicht nur so, daß Sie im Geistigen aufgehen; sondern in diesem Geistigen, da geht dasjenige vor sich, was sich äußerlich spiegelt in dem Augenblicke, wo Sie um den Pensionstisch herum wiederum die Menschen sitzen sehen. Sie haben das längst vergessen, aber es ist da. Sie schauen hin, wie Sie auf diejenigen Dinge hinschauen, die oftmals als in der Akasha-Chronik stehend verzeichnet sind. In dem Augenblicke, wo Sie das vor sich haben, haben Sie erfaßt diese Strömung von Ost nach West: die Strömung der zweiten Hierarchie. In dieser Strömung der zweiten Hierarchie lebt etwas, was sich äußerlich im Tag abbildet.

Nun ist der Tag durch das ganze Jahr hindurch variabel. Im Frühling wird er lang, im Herbst wird er kurz, im Sommer ist er am längsten, im Winter am kürzesten. Der Tag wird metamorphosiert während des Jahres. Das rührt von einer der Ostwest-Strömung entgegenkommenden Strömung her, die von West nach Ost geht. Und das ist die Strömung der ersten Hierarchie, der Seraphime, der Cherubime und Throne. Verfolgen Sie daher, wie sich der Tag ändert im Lauf des Jahres, gehen Sie vom Tag zum Jahr über, dann, meine lieben Freunde, dann kommen Sie hinüber in dasjenige, was Ihnen während des Schlafes begegnet als die entgegengesetzte Strömung.

Blackboard 2

In der Tat, es ist schon so, daß wir schlafend hineinwachsen in die geistige Welt in radialer Richtung, in der Richtung, die von West nach Ost geht, und in der Richtung, die von Ost nach West geht. Wie ich Ihnen gesagt habe, es werden räumliche Bilder vor unsere Seele hingestellt, wenn wir in regsamer Erinnerung etwas vor unsere Seele hinftreten lassen].

So ist es aber auch, wenn wir uns unseres Willens bewußt werden. Das ist gerade das, was in die Geste, in die Physiognomie hineingeht: wenn wir uns unseres Willens bewußt werden. Besonders für Eurythmisierende müßte dasjenige, was ich jetzt sage, eine gewisse Bedeutung haben, obwohl die Eurythmie natürlich nicht die Absicht hat, das zur Geltung zu bringen, was ich jetzt sagen will. Es ist so, daß der Mensch, wenn er wirklich aus dem Innern heraus auch sein Äußeres immer mehr und mehr gestaltet, wenn sein Ich immer mehr und mehr zum Ausdrucke kommt in Physiognomie und Geste, dann bekommt er nicht nur vom Tag einen Eindruck. Denn das ist ein Eindruck vom Tag: vom inneren Erleben, vom regsamen inneren Erinnerungsleben überzugehen zu der Anschauung der räumlich äußerlichen Dinge. Man erlebt, was man mit siebzehn Jahren gelernt hat, wiederum, und man sieht dann die Leute, die in der Pension um einen herumgesessen sind, im Nachbilde wie in der Akasha-Chronik. Das ist Tag-Erleben!

‚Aber man kann auch das Jahr erleben. Und zwar ist das dann möglich, wenn man achtgibt darauf, wie der Wille an einem wirkt; wenn man achtgibt darauf, wie man es verhältnismäßig leicht hat, den Willen zur Geltung zu bringen, wenn man es recht warm hat, während es schwer wird - einem feineren Aufpassen auf sich selber wird das schon klar -, seinen Willen durch den Körper strömen zu lassen, wenn man friert. Wer so recht einen Zusammenhang zwischen dem Willen und dem Warmhaben und Frieren innerlich erleben kann, der bekommt allmählich, wenn so etwas ausgebildet ist, die Möglichkeit, bei sich zu sprechen von einem Winterwillen und einem Sommerwillen.

Man findet nämlich, daß man am besten die Bezeichnung dieses Willens von den Jahreszeiten hernimmt. Achten wir zum Beispiel auf einen Willen, der einem gewissermaßen die Gedanken hinausträgt ins Weltenall, der es einem leicht macht, seinen Körper zu handhaben, so daß in der Handhabe, in der Geste des Körpers die Gedanken wie hinausgetragen werden in das Weltenall ... sie entschlüpfen einem aus den Fingerspitzen: man fühlt förmlich, wie man es leicht hat, den Willen zu entfalten. Man steht einem Baum gegenüber, es gefällt einem etwas besonders da oben: es werden, wenn der Wille in uns warm wird, die Gedanken bis an den Gipfel des Baumes hinaufgetragen - ja, manchmal gehen sie bis zu den Sternen, wenn man sich so recht in Sommernächten zugleich begabt findet mit warmem Willen.

Wenn der Wille innerlich erkaltet, dann ist es so, als ob alle Gedanken nur in unserem Kopfe getragen würden, als ob alle Gedanken nicht in die Arme könnten, nicht in die Beine könnten. Alles geht in den Kopf. Der Kopf erträgt die Willenskälte, und wenn die Willenskälte nicht überwältigend wirkt, so daß ein frostiges Gefühl eintritt, dann wird der Kopf warm durch seine innere Gegenwirkung, und er entfaltet dann Gedanken.

So daß man sagen kann: der Sommerwille führt uns hinaus in die Weiten der Welt. Der Sommerwille, der warme Wille trägt überallhin unsere Gedanken. Der Winterwille, der trägt die Gedanken in unseren Kopf, in unser Haupt herein. Man kann seinen Willen so unterscheiden. Und man wird dann den einen Willen, der uns überall hinträgt ins Weltenall, den wird man fühlen als verwandt mit dem Verlauf des Sommers; den Willen, der die Gedanken in unseren Kopf hineinträgt, den wird man fühlen als verwandt mit dem Winter. Man erlebt so, wie man sonst den Tag erlebt, so an dem Willen das Jahr.

Und sehen Sie, es gibt eine Möglichkeit, das, was ich Ihnen jetzt auf die Tafel schreiben werde, tatsächlich als Realität zu empfinden. Man kann, wenn man den Winter im Erlebnis des menschlichen Willens erlebt, ihn so erleben, daß man sagt:

O Welten-Bilder,
Ihr schwebet heran
Aus Raumesweiten.
Ihr strebet nach mir,
Ihr dringet ein
In meines Hauptes
Denkende Kräfte.

Sehen Sie, das ist aber nicht bloß abstrakt, sondern der Mensch kann es dahin bringen, wenn er seinen eigenen Willen mit der Natur verbunden fühlt, so zu fühlen, wenn der Winter kommt, als wenn ihm aus dem Raum wiederum zugetragen würde, was in ihm selber Erlebnisse sind, die er erst der Natur übergeben hat. Und man kann auf den Wellen, die hier angedeutet werden:

O Welten-Bilder,
Ihr schwebet heran
Aus Raumesweiten.
Ihr strebet nach mir,
Ihr dringet ein
In meines Hauptes
Denkende Kräfte —

man kann da seine eigenen Erlebnisse, die schon in die Natur übergegangen waren, dabei empfinden. Das ist die Empfindung des Winterwillens.

Aber man kann auch den Sommerwillen, der unsere Gedanken hinausweitet in das Weltenall, empfinden:

Ihr meines Hauptes
Bildende Seelenkräfte,
Ihr erfüllet mein Eigensein,

das heißt, die Gedanken, die zuerst im Haupte erlebt werden, gehen in den ganzen Körper über, erfüllen zunächst den Körper, dann aber dringen sie aus dem Körper hinaus —

Ihr dringet aus meinem Wesen
In die Weltenweiten,
Und einigt mich selbst
Mit Weltenschaffensmächten.

Das ist dasjenige, was der Soemmerwille, der dem Sommer verwandte Wille in uns, uns als sein Wesen ausdrücken läßt, so daß wir sagen können: Wenn wir empfinden, ich habe aus meinem Innern hervorgeholt das tätige Erinnern an irgend etwas lange Verlebtes - der Tag mit seiner Nacht bringt es mir wieder entgegen, indem er es ergänzt durch die äußere Raumesanschauung. Und das entspricht der Strömung von Ost nach West. So dürfen wir sagen: In uns wandelt sich Winterwille in Sommerwillen, Soemmerwille in Winterwillen. Wir sind verwandt nicht mehr dem Tag mit seinem Wechsel von Helligkeit und Finsternis, wir sind verwandt dem Jahr mit unserem Willen, dadurch der Strömung von West nach Ost der ersten Hierarchie: den Seraphimen, Cherubimen und Thronen.

Wir werden nun im weiteren sehen, wie der Mensch gehindert oder gefördert werden kann durch Vererbung und äußere Anpassung in bezug auf dieses Zusammengehen mit dem Inneren der Natur. Denn dasjenige, was ich Ihnen jetzt auseinandergesetzt habe, das bezieht sich darauf, daß der Mensch, wenn er möglichst wenig gehindert ist durch luziferische und ahrimanische Kräfte, in dieser Art, mit Vorstellung und Wille, hineinwächst ins Innere der Natur, aufgenommen wird von den Zeitenkräften, den Tagkräften, den Jahreskräften: dritte Hierarchie, zweite Hierarchie, erste Hierarchie. Aber einen wesentlichen Einfluß auf all das haben die ahrimanischen Kräfte, wie sie in der Vererbung auftreten, und die luziferischen Kräfte, wie sie in der Anpassung auftreten. Diese große Rätselfrage, die soll uns dann das nächste Mal beschäftigen.

Winterwille:
O Welten-Bilder,
Ihr schwebet heran
Aus Raumesweiten.
Ihr strebet nach mir,
Ihr dringet ein
In meines Hauptes
Denkende Kräfte.
Sommerwille:
Ihr meines Hauptes
Bildende Seelenkräfte,
Ihr erfüllet mein Eigensein,
Ihr dringet aus meinem Wesen
In die Weltenweiten,
Und einigt mich selbst
Mit Weltenschaffensmächten.

Third Lecture

I spoke to you about how, in his life, man succumbs to what, from a scientific point of view, is called heredity. I also spoke to you about how man succumbs to the effects of the external world, to adaptation to the external world, and how everything contained in heredity is connected with the Ahrimanic, and that which is adaptation to the external world in the broadest sense is connected with the Luciferic. But I also told you how, in the universe, that is, within the spiritual entities that underlie the universe, it is ensured that the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic can be incorporated into human life in the right way. Let us add a few more things to what has been said today by revisiting what we discussed the day before yesterday.

We have considered how memory, and everything that is commemorated, shapes the human being as something inwardly spiritual. As spiritual beings, we are in fact formed much more by our memories than we realize. The way in which our experiences have become memories has actually shaped our soul; more than one might think, one is a result of one's memory life. And anyone who is able to practice self-observation to such an extent that they are able to enter into the life of memory will see what a great role is played throughout our entire life on earth by the impressions of childhood. The way we have spent our childhood, which then plays no great role in our conscious life, the time during which we learned to speak, learned to walk, during which we got the first teeth, the inherited teeth, the impressions during all these moments of development, these play a great role in the human soul throughout life on earth. And much of what, I would say characterologically emphasized, inwardly comes up in thoughts that are connected with memories - and everything we do not grasp in our thoughts under external impressions, is connected with memories - everything that comes up in this way, touches us inwardly joyfully, touches us inwardly painfully, - after all, it is usually a quiet nuance of joy and pain that accompany the freely arising thoughts - all that is in us of the life of memory is also carried away by our astral body when we pass into the state of sleep. And if we now look at the human being as a soul-spiritual being during sleep with imaginative vision, the matter presents itself in the following way. Here one can already say: If you, schematically drawn, take this as the human skin and imagine that within the human skin the etheric body remains during sleep and the physical body, and outside the astral body is first - I will draw the I later in addition - and one observes this, so to speak, by placing oneself opposite it, then one sees the astral body actually consisting of memories. But one sees how these memories, which live in the astral body outside of the person, are whirled around in confusion, I might say. Experiences that are far apart in time and space are combined; some things are eliminated from certain experiences, so that the whole memory life is transformed during sleep. And when a person dreams, he dreams precisely because this transformed memory life enters his consciousness. And it is precisely in the nature of the dream that one can perceive, inwardly perceive, this whirling and tossing, which, seen from the outside, can be seen by imaginative clairvoyance.

But at the same time something else also occurs. That which figures as memories from falling asleep to waking up, which thus constitutes the main content of the human astral soul life, unites during sleep with the forces that are behind natural phenomena. So that one can say: All that lives in the memories as the astral body enters into a connection with the forces that are behind the minerals, actually inside the minerals, inside the plants, behind the cloud phenomena and so on.

For those who understand this fact, it is actually, I would say terrible, when people come and say: Behind natural phenomena are material atoms. Yes, our memories do not unite with these material 'atoms' during sleep; but with what is really behind natural phenomena, with the spiritually effective forces, our memories do unite during sleep; our memories rest in there during sleep.

So that we can truly say: Our soul plunges into the depths of nature with its memories during sleep. And you are not saying anything untrue, anything unreal, my dear friends, when you say the following: When I fall asleep, I hand over my memories to the powers that prevail spiritually in the crystal, in the plants, in all natural phenomena.

Yes, you can take a walk, you see the yellow flowers, the blue flowers, the green grass, the shiny, promising ear of corn along the way, and you say: “As I walk past you during the day, I see you from the outside; I will immerse myself in your own spiritual interior while I sleep, my memories. You take up that which I have transformed from my experiences into memories during my life, you take up these memories when I sleep. And perhaps it is the most beautiful feeling in nature, not just to have an external relationship to the rose bush, but to say to oneself: I love the rose bush especially because the rose bush has the peculiarity - spatiality plays no role in this, no matter how far away the rose may be, we will find our way to it in our sleep - because the rose bush has the special peculiarity of absorbing our very first childhood memories. People love the rose for the reason that roses absorb the very first childhood memories.

While we were children, other people were loving towards us; they often made us smile. We have forgotten that. But we carry it within us in our mood. And the rosebush takes the memory, which we ourselves have forgotten, into its own interior during our nightly sleep. Man is more connected than he realizes with the natural world, that is, with the spirit that reigns in the natural world. And this remembering in the first years of childhood is particularly remarkable with regard to human sleep because during sleep, only the soul is taken up from the first years of childhood and from the years up to the change of teeth, up to the seventh year of life. We really have it in us as human beings that the spiritual, the inner nature of our childhood basically absorbs the soul. Of course, other things also apply: the soul that we have developed during our first childhood, for example, by being cruel, is also in us; but the thistle absorbs that. Of course, all this is spoken comparatively. But it does point to a significant reality. What is not taken up by the child into the inner nature will emerge from the following.

You see, in the first seven years of life, everything physical is actually inherited. The first teeth are indeed inherited teeth, because everything material that we carry within us in the first seven years of life is essentially inherited. But after about seven years of age, the entire material substance is expelled, falls off, and is newly formed. The human being remains as a form, as a spiritual being. He expels his material substance in each case; after seven to eight years, everything that was there seven to eight years ago is gone. And so it is that by the time we are nine years old, we have renewed our entire being. We then form our human being according to external impressions.

And indeed, it is very important, especially for the child in the first epochs of life, that it is able to form its new body, now not the inherited body but the body formed from within, according to good impressions from the environment, according to a good adaptation. While the body that a child has when it is born depends on whether the inherited impulses are given to it in a good or less good way, the later body that it carries from the age of seven to fourteen depends very much on the impressions that the child absorbs from its environment. We rebuild our body every seven years.

Yes, but you see, that is the I that is forming it. Even though the I is not yet born for the outside world in the child at the age of seven – it is only born later – it still has an effect, because it is naturally connected with the body, and it is the I that is forming it. And it forms what I have been talking about; it forms what then comes out as a person's physiognomy and gestures, as the outer material manifestation of the soul and spirit. It is generally the case that a person who takes an active interest in the world, who is interested in many things, and who also actively processes inwardly what he takes an active interest in, that such a person materially reveals in his outward facial expression, in his gestures, what he takes in with interest and what he inwardly processes with interest. In the case of a person who takes the keenest interest in the outer world and actively processes this interest within, every wrinkle in his face in later life will show how he has shaped it himself, and much can be read from it because the I comes to the fore in the gesture, in the physiognomy, in the expression. In a person who passes by the outside world in a blasé or uninterested way, the face retains the same expression throughout life. The finer experiences are not reflected in the physiognomy and gestures. In some faces you can read an entire biography; in some you can't read much more than that the person was once a child, which is nothing special.

But it means an extraordinary amount that the human being, through the exchange of the material after seven to eight years, develops his appearance out of his form. This means a great deal, this work of the human being on his appearance, on physiognomy and gesture; this, in turn, is something that the human being carries into the interior of nature during sleep.

And again, if you look at a person with imaginative clairvoyance and now look at the ego as it sleeps outside, this ego actually consists of physiognomy and gesture. Therefore, especially in those people who are able to express a great deal of their inner being in their facial expression or in their gesture, there is a shining, radiant ego. And this development of the gesture, of the physiognomy, is in turn connected with certain forces within nature. And it is indeed the case that if we have been able to be friendly, to be amiable, often in our lives, then nature is inclined, as soon as the amiability has become a facial expression, to take it up into its essence during our sleep. Our memories are absorbed by them into their powers, our gestures are absorbed by them into their essence, into the nature beings themselves. Man is so intimately connected with external nature that what he experiences inwardly in his soul as memories, how he expresses his inner soul in gestures and in his physiognomy, has an enormous significance for external nature. For that lives on in the inner nature.

You see, I have often quoted Goethe's saying in the abstract, which is actually a critique of a saying by Haller. Haller coined the word: “No created spirit penetrates into the innermost nature. Blessed is he to whom she shows only the outer shell.” Goethe says: Oh, you philistine! Bit by bit, we are inside. Nothing is inside, nothing is outside; what is inside is outside, what is outside is inside – that is what Goethe thinks. The question is whether you are the kernel or the shell. Goethe says he has heard this expression for sixty years and swore at it, but furtively, because Goethe felt - he of course did not yet know spiritual science - but he felt: when someone says, whom he could only regard as a philistine:

"Into the innermost being of nature...
no created spirit can penetrate.”

He simply knows nothing of the fact that man, simply by being a being of memory and a being of gestures and physiognomy, continually penetrates into the innermost being of nature. We are not beings who stand only at the gate of nature and knock in vain. It is precisely through that which is innermost in us that we stand in the most intimate relationship with the innermost part of nature. But because the child up to the age of seven has a completely inherited body, none of the I, of gesture and physiognomy, passes into the inner part of nature. We only begin to penetrate into the essence of nature after the change of teeth. Therefore, we only become mature enough to think about something in nature after the change of teeth. Before that, the thoughts that arise in the child are arbitrary and have little to do with nature, but they are appealing precisely because they do not have much to do with nature. We can best approach the child if we write poetry alongside the child, if we make the stars the eyes of heaven and so on, if the things we discuss with the child are as far removed as possible from external physical reality.

It is only after the change of teeth that the child gradually grows into nature, so that his thoughts can gradually coincide with thoughts of nature; and basically the whole life from the age of seven to fourteen is such that the child grows into nature; for then, in addition to the memories of his soul in nature, he also bears the gesture and physiognomy of nature. And this then continues throughout the whole of life. For the inner nature, we are only born as individual human beings when our teeth change.

That is why those beings that I have described to you as elemental beings, gnomes and undines, are so happy to listen when a person tells them about a child's life up to the age of seven. For these nature beings, the human being is only born with the change of teeth. This is an extraordinarily interesting phenomenon. Before that, a human being is an otherworldly being for gnomes and undines. It is therefore quite mysterious to them when a human being appears again in a certain state of maturity. But it would be tremendously invigorating for the pedagogical or pedagogizing imagination if, by absorbing spiritual knowledge, man could really put himself in the place of these dialogues with the spirits of nature; if he could put himself in the place of the spirit of nature in order to gain their insights into what he can tell them about children. Because that is precisely how the most beautiful fairy tale fantasy is formed. And if fairy tales in the old days became so wonderfully specific and full of content, it is because the fairy tale poets could talk to gnomes and undines, and not just hear something from them. These nature spirits are sometimes very selfish. They become silent if you don't tell them something they are curious about. And the best story for them is when you tell them about the babies' deeds. Then you also learn many things from them, which can easily lead into fairy tales. Yes, you see, what seems quite fantastic to people today can be extraordinarily important, especially for the practical spiritual life. But it is the case that these dialogues with spiritual nature beings, through the circumstances I have explained, have something extraordinarily instructive for both sides.

'On the other hand, however, what I have said seems, of course, frightening in a sense, because man, when he sleeps, is constantly creating images of his innermost being. Behind the phenomena of nature, behind the flowers of the field, there are impressions of our good and useless memories that extend into the ethereal world. The earth is teeming with what lives in human souls. And it is already the case that in reality human life is very much connected with such things.

So, first of all, we find the nature spirits as entities into which we penetrate with our world of gestures. But we also find the world of the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. We also grow into these, we immerse ourselves in them. We dive into the deeds of the angelic world through our memories. We dive into the beings of the angelic world through our own physiognomic and gestural expressions. And it is this familiarization

in sleep so that we can say: when we live ourselves over into nature, then our living into nature appears to us like this: this is again the skin of our body (it is drawn); the further we go out, the more we enter from angeloi into archangeloi, into archai regions in the radial direction. There we enter into the third hierarchy. And when we submerge ourselves asleep into it with our memories and our gestures, as into the surging sea of the weaving beings of the angeloi, archangeloi and archai, when we submerge ourselves, then from one side comes a current of spiritual beings (see drawing). This is the second hierarchy: Exusiai, Kyriotetes, Dynamis. And if we want to resonate with that which is external to the world, that which we have just depicted, then this current goes in such a way that the course of the sun from east to west during the day expresses the way in which the second hierarchy crosses the third hierarchy. The third hierarchy: angels, archangels, archai are like floating up and down and passing “golden buckets” to each other – floating up and down. In this representation, the second hierarchy is then as if walking with the sun from east to west, - now it is not apparent, because the Copernican world view does not apply, but the current that the sun passes through during the day actually goes from east to west. So that the human being, by looking – that is, if he can look – grows into this third hierarchy during sleep. But this third hierarchy is continually permeated by grace from the side of the second hierarchy. And this second hierarchy also makes itself felt in our soul life.

Blackboard 2The day before yesterday, I hinted at the significance of returning to experiences from our youth. In this respect, you may have a profound experience when you pick up the mysteries again and can read there, now perhaps with a greater understanding than was once the case, what is presented there about the appearance of John's youth. It is indeed the case that a person can make his inner being particularly active and intensely perceptible to himself when he actively returns to his youth. I have told you: take old school books in which you once learned something or, for that matter, learned nothing, and go back to them; put yourself in the position of learning or not learning – it does not matter whether you have learned something or not, but that you put yourself in the position of what you did with them: you can already have your own experiences. For me, putting myself in the shoes of a young person was of tremendous importance a few years ago when I needed to strengthen the powers of intellectual comprehension. I was just eleven years old and received a schoolbook. The first thing that happened – it happened by accident – was that, through carelessness, the inkwell fell over and two pages were so badly damaged that I could no longer read the two pages. That is also an act. Many years ago, I often relived this act, this schoolbook with the damaged pages, and with all that I had to endure, because the schoolbook had to be bought again from a poor family. It was something terrible, all the things you could experience with this schoolbook with its giant ink blot — it was still called differently back then. So to stir something like that up again. As I said, it is not a matter of being good at what you are bringing up again, but rather that it is something that has been intensely experienced. If you try to bring it up again with all your inner intensity, you will experience something else. You will experience a situation more than in a dream, in a real vision, when you are secluded from the impressions of the day in your bed. While during the day you have called up a scene that you have experienced inwardly, when night has come, when it is dark around you, when you are alone with yourself, you experience the situation in which you were either before or after, looking as if in space. Let us say, then, that you have called up a scene that you experienced at eleven o'clock for my sake. Afterwards you went somewhere and sat opposite people. You are sitting there and the people are sitting around. You have brought up something that you have experienced inwardly. What was around you externally at that time then comes to you as a spatial vision. You just have to look for such connections. Very significant discoveries can be made. Let us say, for example, that as a seventeen-year-old you used to eat at an inn every lunchtime, where the people changed. Now you somehow conjure up a scene that you experienced inwardly. You actively relive it. At night you experience: you are sitting at the table, and around you are the people you have only rarely seen because they are only occasional guests at the inn. From one story you recognize: that is the same thing that I went through back then. The external spatial aspect is added to the internal soul aspect when you activate the memories in this way.

You see, that means actually living with this current that goes from east to west. Because you get more and more into the feeling: there in the spiritual, where you enter in your sleep, you not only live in such a way that you merge with the spiritual; but in this spiritual, what happens is reflected externally at the moment when you see people sitting around the table at the guesthouse again. You have long forgotten this, but it is there. You look at them as you look at those things that are often recorded as being in the Akasha Chronicle. In the moment when you have this before you, you have grasped this current from east to west: the current of the second hierarchy. In this current of the second hierarchy lives something that is outwardly reflected in the day.

Now the day is variable throughout the year. In spring it becomes long, in autumn it becomes short, in summer it is longest, in winter it is shortest. The day is metamorphosed during the year. This is due to a current coming from the east-west current, which goes from west to east. And that is the current of the first hierarchy, the seraphim, the cherubim and thrones. Therefore, observe how the day changes over the course of the year, go from day to year, then, my dear friends, you will come across the opposite current that you encounter during sleep.

Blackboard 2In fact, it is already the case that we grow into the spiritual world in a radial direction while we are asleep, in the direction that goes from west to east, and in the direction that goes from east to west. As I have already mentioned, spatial images are placed before our soul when we let something enter our soul through active remembrance.

But it is the same when we become conscious of our will. That is precisely what enters into the gesture, into the physiognomy: when we become conscious of our will. What I am about to say should have a certain significance for eurythmists, although eurythmy does not, of course, have the intention of bringing out what I am about to say. It is the case that when a person truly shapes their outer being more and more out of their inner being, when their I comes more and more to expression in their physiognomy and gestures, then they do not just get an impression of the day. Because that is an impression of the day: to move from inner experience, from the active inner life of memory, to the contemplation of spatially external things. You relive what you learned at seventeen, and you see the people who sat around you in the retirement in an afterimage, as if in the Akashic Records. That is experiencing the day!

'But you can also experience the year. And that is possible if you pay attention to how the will works in you; if you pay attention to how you can bring the will to bear relatively easily when you are warm, when it is getting hard - it will become clear to a more careful observation of yourself - to let your will flow through your body when you are cold. Those who can truly experience an inner connection between the will and being warm or cold will gradually, as they develop this, be able to speak of a winter will and a summer will.

It is best to take the name of this will from the seasons. For example, if we pay attention to a will that, in a sense, carries our thoughts out into the universe, making it easy for us to manipulate our bodies so that our thoughts are carried out into the universe in the way we hold and gesture with our bodies, they slip out of our fingertips. We can literally feel how easy it is for us to unfold our will. You stand in front of a tree, you like something in particular up there: when our will warms up, our thoughts are carried up to the top of the tree – yes, sometimes they go as far as the stars, when we find ourselves truly endowed with warm willpower on summer nights.

When our will grows cold, it is as if all our thoughts are confined to our heads, as if they cannot reach our arms or legs. Everything goes to the head. The head endures the coldness of will, and if the coldness of will does not seem overwhelming, so that a cold feeling arises, then the head becomes warm through its inner counteraction, and then it unfolds thoughts.

So that one can say: the summer will leads us out into the vastness of the world. The summer will, the warm will, carries our thoughts everywhere. Winter will carries our thoughts into our head, into our mind. One can distinguish one's will in this way. And one will then feel the one will, which carries us everywhere into the universe, as being related to the course of summer; one will feel the will, which carries our thoughts into our head, as being related to winter. You experience the year through the way you otherwise experience the day, through the will.

And you see, there is a way to actually feel as reality what I am about to write on the board for you. If you experience winter in the experience of the human will, you can experience it in such a way that you say:

O images of the world,
You float along
From the depths of space.
You strive towards me,
You penetrate
Into the
Thinking powers of my mind.

You see, it is not just abstract, but man can bring it about, when he feels that his own will is connected with nature, to feel when winter comes as if something were being brought to him from space, which are experiences within himself that he has just given over to nature. And one can experience on the waves that are hinted at here:

O images of the world,
You float towards me
From the vastness of space.
You strive towards me,
You penetrate
Into the thinking powers of my mind —

you can feel your own experiences, which have already passed into nature, in the process. That is the feeling of the winter will.

But one can also feel the summer will, which expands our thoughts out into the universe:

You, the
forces of my soul that shape my head,
you fulfill my existence,

that is, the thoughts that are first experienced in the head go out into the whole body, first filling the body, but then they penetrate out of the body –

you pour out of my being
Into the world,
And unite me
With the powers of the universe.

This is what allows us to express ourselves as our essential being, so that we can say: When we feel that we have brought forth from our innermost being an active remembrance of something long past, the day with its night brings it to us again, complementing it with the outer view of space. And that corresponds to the current from east to west. So we may say: in us, winter will changes into summer will, summer will into winter will. We are no longer related to the day with its alternation of brightness and darkness, we are related to the year with our will, and thus to the current from west to east of the first hierarchy: the seraphim, cherubim and thrones.

We shall now see how man can be hindered or helped by heredity and external adaptation in relation to this coming together with the inner nature of nature. For what I have now explained to you relates to the fact that when man is hindered as little as possible by Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces, he grows into the inner nature with imagination and will, is taken up by the forces of time, the day forces, the year forces: third hierarchy, second hierarchy, first hierarchy. But the Ahrimanic forces, as they appear in heredity, and the Luciferic forces, as they appear in adaptation, have a significant influence on all this. This great riddle will occupy us next time.

Winterwill:
O world pictures,
You float near
From space expanses.
You strive towards me,
You penetrate
Into my head's
Thinking powers.
Sommerwille:
You
form my head
image with the powers of my soul,
you fulfill my existence,
you penetrate from my being
into the world at large,
and unite me
with the powers that create the world.