The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Second Lecture

[ 1 ] If one seeks to make the transition from the soul—which we considered briefly yesterday—to the formation of the soul in the physical human being, and specifically to the formation of the soul in the physical human being with regard to those things that were also discussed yesterday, one is led in two directions. Memory, after all, first leads the soul back to past experiences; thinking, as I showed yesterday, leads the soul into the etheric realm. That which then grips the human being even more strongly than memory—that which grips him so strongly that the inner impulses pass into his physicality—I called yesterday “gesture,” or “the gestural.” And by contemplating the gestural, we have already advanced to the point where the soul-spiritual is revealed in the physical.

[ 2 ] Now, a person’s entire entry into physical life on Earth is, in fact, a grasping of the physical by the spiritual-soul aspect. And if we consider memory first, it consists in the fact that experiences from an earlier phase of earthly existence are carried over into a later stage of life.

[ 3 ] The question now arises: Can we, based on human life—since memory refers only to events that occur during earthly life—can we look even further back? Can we look back to what lies before a person’s entry into earthly life?

[ 4 ] This brings us to two points: first, what the human being experienced spiritually and psychologically during pre-earthly existence. Let us set that aside for now for later consideration. But there is also something else—something connected to physical embodiment—that the human being, as an individual being, carries with them into physical embodiment. It is everything that we, based on our customary scientific concepts, refer to as heredity. Human beings carry within themselves—right down to their temperamental dispositions, which thus already have a strong influence on the soul—peculiarities and impulses that are connected to what was characteristic of their physical ancestors.

[ 5 ] However, people today tend to treat such matters somewhat superficially—one might even say thoughtlessly. Just this morning, while traveling, I read a book about a ruler from a well-known, now-defunct royal house, which dealt with the question of heredity within that royal house. It traces characteristics back to the seventh century that were consistently passed down through the generations. However, the book contains a peculiar statement regarding this heredity. It goes something like this: In this ruling house, there are people who conspicuously display a tendency toward extravagance, toward the paradoxes of life, toward debauchery, and so on, but there are also members of this ruling house who do not exhibit any of these traits. As you can see: a peculiar way of thinking! For one would actually expect that someone who notices something like this would have to say to themselves: “You can’t draw any conclusions at all from such premises.” But if you go through much of what currently leads to so-called ‘certain views,’ you will find many examples of this sort.

[ 6 ] “But even if the prevailing views on heredity today seem rather superficial, one must still say: Human beings do, after all, carry inherited traits within them. That is one side of the matter. After all, human beings often have to struggle with these inherited traits. They must, so to speak, extricate themselves from these inherited traits in order to arrive at what they are predisposed to do through their lives, even before they entered earthly existence.

[ 7 ] The second aspect to which we are referred is that which human beings acquire through education, through interaction with their fellow human beings, but also through interaction with the external natural world. Based on the customary approach to studying subordinate kingdoms of nature, this is referred to as human adaptation to surrounding conditions. And as you know, modern natural science regards these two impulses—heredity and adaptation—as the most important factors for any living being.

[ 8 ] But it is precisely when one delves into these matters—and approaches them with an open mind—that one senses that, without entering the spiritual world, one cannot gain any insight into such things at all. And so today let us try to understand precisely these things—which we encounter at every turn in life—in the light of spiritual knowledge.

[ 9 ] Here we must refer back to something that has repeatedly occupied us in our previous considerations. We have, after all, had to point out—once again in these reflections—the Moon’s separation from the Earth. One can point out that the Moon was once connected to the Earth and, at a certain time, separated from it in order to influence the Earth from a distance. But I have also pointed out what spiritual reality lies behind this separation of the Moon. I have pointed out how, at one time, truly superhuman beings lived on Earth who were the first great teachers of humanity, and from whom derives what, at the very foundation of our human thinking on Earth, can be called primordial wisdom—that which is found everywhere as an original imprint, is deeply significant, inspires awe, and which, even in the ruins in which it is found, inspires awe, and which once formed the very content of the teachings of these great, superhuman teachers at the very beginning of humanity’s earthly development.

[ 10 ] These beings have found their way up into lunar existence, and today they are connected to it. In a sense, they belong to the population of the Moon. Now the point is that when a human being has passed through the gate of death, he or she goes through, in stages, that which is connected to the planetary world belonging to our Earth. We have already considered that, after passing through earthly life, a human being first enters the realm of lunar influences, then proceeds into the realms of Venusian, Mercurial, and solar influences, and so on. Today, we may be particularly interested in how a human being enters the realm of lunar influences.

[ 11 ] I have already indicated, even from this place, that it is indeed possible to follow the life of a human being beyond the gate of death through imaginative contemplation, and that what remains of the human being actually appears in the spiritual realm after he has shed his physical body and surrendered it to the elements of the earth. After the human being has seen his etheric body taken up by the etheric sphere connected to our Earth, what remains of him is the spiritual-soul aspect—the I, the astral body, and that which then attaches itself to the I and the astral body. But when one observes, through imaginative contemplation, this being who has passed through the gate of death, it still presents itself in a form. It is the form that gives shape to the physical matter the human being carries within. This form remains, in contrast to the robust physical body, like a shadow image; yet to the soul’s feeling and perception, it makes a powerful, intense impression. The human head is faint in this form as far as the soul’s impression is concerned; the rest is strong, and it gradually transforms, during the passage through life between death and a new birth, into the head of the next incarnation. But there is something to be said about this form, which can be beheld through imaginative perception after a person has passed through the gate of death: it bears a certain physiognomic expression. It is, so to speak, a faithful reflection of the way in which the person was good or evil here in physical earthly life. Here in physical earthly life, a person can conceal whether evil or good is at work in their soul. After death, they can no longer conceal this. If one looks at the spiritual form that remains after death, it bears the physiognomic expression of what the person was on earth.

[ 12 ] Anyone who passes through the gate of death carrying a moral evil bound to their soul takes on a physiognomic expression that, outwardly—if I may put it that way—makes them resemble the Ahrimanic figures. And in the immediate period after death, it is certainly the case that all human feeling and perception is bound to that which the human being can recreate within himself. If a person now bears the physiognomy of Ahriman within themselves—by having carried moral evil in their soul through the gate of death—then they can only reflect, that is, perceive, that which is similar to Ahriman; and they are, so to speak, spiritually blind to those human souls who have passed through the gate of death with a good disposition, with a good moral disposition. This is, in fact, one of the most severe judgments to which a person is subjected after passing through the gate of death: that, to the extent that he is evil, he can see only his own kind, because he can reproduce within himself only the physiognomy of people who are also evil.

[ 13 ] Now, having passed through the gate of death, the human being enters the realm of the Moon. There, the one who carries evil through the gate of death finds himself in the presence of supersensible, superphysical beings—but always also of those who resemble him physiognomically, that is, in the vicinity of Ahrimanic figures. For certain people, this passage through an Ahrimanic world has a very specific significance within the overall context of world events. And we will understand what is actually happening there when we now consider the true meaning of the migration of the ancient sages to the lunar colony of the cosmos.

[ 14 ] You see, the entire course of world development is connected not only with the beings of the higher hierarchies—whom we usually refer to as Angeloi, Archangeloi, and so on—but also with those beings who belong to the Ahrimanic and Luciferic realms; these beings act within the entire context of the world just as those that develop normally do. The Luciferic beings are constantly at work, seeking to divert whatever carries within itself the tendency to progress toward physical materiality from advancing toward physical materiality. In the realm of the human being, the Luciferic entities act in such a way that they seize every opportunity to lift the human being away from his physical corporeality. The Luciferic entities strive to transform the human being into a purely spiritual-soul-etheric being. The Ahrimanic forces strive to separate from human beings everything that carries them toward the soul-spiritual, as it must develop within the human realm. They wish to transform the subhuman—that which lies in the drives, instincts, and so on, and which expresses itself in physicality—into the spiritual. To transform human beings into spiritual beings—that is the impulse of both the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic beings. The difference is that the Luciferic beings seek to draw the spiritual-soul aspect out of human beings, so that human beings would no longer concern themselves with their earthly incarnations but would instead wish to live as spiritual-soul beings. The Ahrimanic beings, on the other hand, would prefer not to concern themselves at all with the human spirit-soul, but rather to detach that which is given to the human being as a shell, a garment, or a tool in the physical and etheric realms, and to bring it into their own world.

[ 15 ] Thus, on the one hand, human beings stand in relation to the beings of the normally unfolding hierarchies; but because they are interwoven into the whole, into total existence, they also stand in relation to the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces.

[ 16 ] And now the point is that every time the Luciferic beings make efforts to approach human beings, this is connected with the intention of making human beings essentially alien to the earth and increasingly distant from it; whereas when the Ahrimanic forces make efforts to take possession of human beings, they seek to make them ever more earthly, even though they also wish to spiritualize the Earth through dense spiritual substance and dense spiritual forces.

[ 17 ] When discussing spiritual matters, one must, so to speak, make use of expressions that may seem grotesque in light of these spiritual matters. But we must, after all, make use of human language to begin with. Therefore, my dear friends, please allow me to use ordinary human words to describe something that takes place in the purely spiritual realm. You will understand me, of course. You will elevate what I express in this way into the spiritual realm.

[ 18 ] It was precisely those beings who, at the very beginning of earthly existence, brought primordial wisdom to humanity as the great teachers who subsequently withdrew from the Earth to the Moon in order to bring the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic forces into the proper balance with human life, as far as is possible within their sphere of influence. Why was this necessary? Why did such exalted beings as these Primordial Teachers have to choose to leave the earthly realm—where they had been active for a time—and go to the Moon, in order to bring the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic forces into the proper balance with human life, as far as possible?

[ 19 ] You see, when a human being descends from pre-earthly existence as a soul-spiritual being into the earthly realm, he follows the path I described in the course on “Cosmology, Religion, and Philosophy.” They have a specific spiritual-soul existence; they combine this with what is given to them through the pure hereditary line from their father and mother—that is, their physical-embryonic existence. The two—the physical-embryonic and the spiritual—interpenetrate and unite with one another, and in this way the human being enters earthly existence. But within what lies in the hereditary line—that is, in the hereditary traits passed down from ancestors to descendants—lies precisely what provides the Ahrimanic beings with their points of attack on human nature. The Ahrimanic forces lie within the hereditary forces. And because human beings carry within themselves so many of these hereditary impulses, they possess a physicality that the ego cannot easily penetrate. This is, in fact, the secret behind many human beings: that they carry too many of these hereditary impulses within themselves. Today this is called “being genetically predisposed.” The consequence of this is that the ego cannot fully penetrate the physical body, that the ego cannot fully fill all the individual organs of the physical body, and that the body, so to speak, develops its own activity alongside the impulsivity of the ego, which is actually meant to be embedded within this physical body. Thus, by exerting their efforts to embed as much as possible into heredity, the Ahrimanic forces succeed in causing the “I” to sit only loosely within the human being. That is one aspect.

[ 20 ] But human beings are, after all, also subject to adaptation to external conditions. Just consider how strongly human beings are subject to adaptation to external conditions by observing the influence that climate and other geographical conditions have on them. This influence of the natural environment alone is, after all, of extraordinary importance to human beings. There have even been times when this influence of the natural environment has been utilized in a special way under the guidance of humanity’s wise leaders.

[ 21 ] If, for example, we look at something quite remarkable in ancient Greece—the difference between the Spartans and the Athenians—we must say: this difference between the Spartans and the Athenians—which is actually described in a rather superficial way in our standard history textbooks—is based on something that goes back to the practices of the ancient mysteries, which had different effects on the Spartans and the Athenians.

[ 22 ] In Greece, great importance was placed on gymnastics. Gymnastics was the most important aspect of a child’s education, because—indirectly through physicality, by directing and guiding that physicality in a specific way—it also influenced the mind and soul, particularly in the Greek tradition. But this was done differently among the Spartans than among the Athenians. Among the Spartans, the primary concern was to allow the boys to develop in such a way that, through their gymnastic exercises, they would, as far as possible, fully achieve—solely through the body—what the body works on internally. For this reason, the Spartan boy was required to perform his gymnastic exercises regardless of the weather.

[ 23 ] The Athenians took a different approach. They placed great importance on adapting the gymnastic exercises to the weather conditions; they also placed great importance on ensuring that the boy performing his gymnastic exercises was exposed to sunlight in an appropriate manner. The Spartans were indifferent to whether the exercises were performed in rain or sunshine. The Athenians insisted that people be exposed to stimulating influences, particularly the invigorating effects of the sun.

[ 24 ] The Spartan boy was treated in such a way that his skin was made virtually impenetrable, so that everything he developed came from within his body. The Athenian boy was not only rubbed with sand and oil, but was also exposed to the sun.

[ 25 ] As a result, what can enter human beings from the outside—from the effects of the sun—was instilled in the Athenian boys. The Athenian boy was encouraged to become talkative; the Athenian boy was encouraged to express himself in beautiful words. The Spartan boy, on the other hand, was virtually sealed off—through all manner of oil rubs, and even by treating the skin with sand and oil—so that he might develop everything within himself, independently of the external natural world. As a result, the Spartan boy was led to drive all the powers that human nature can develop inward, rather than bringing them outward.

[ 26 ] This did not make him talkative, like the Athenian boy; rather, it led him to be sparing with words, to say little, and to remain silent. And when he did speak, what he said had to be meaningful; it had to have substance. Spartan sayings—of which only a few were ever uttered—were known for their depth of meaning, while Athenian sayings were known for the beauty of their phrasing. This was linked to how people adapted to their environment through the corresponding educational system.

[ 27 ] You can also see this in the relationship that develops between a person and their environment. People in the South, who are directly exposed to the sun’s external effects, become expressive in their gestures and talkative; they develop a language that is melodious because their own development of warmth is connected to the external development of warmth.

[ 28 ] People from the North develop in such a way that they do not become talkative, because they must retain their body heat internally as a source of energy. Look at people from the North. They are known for their silence; they sit together for entire evenings without feeling compelled to say many words. One asks a question; the other answers with a “no” or “yes” two hours later—or not until the next evening. This is entirely due to the fact that these northerners are compelled to have stronger internal impulses to generate warmth within themselves, because warmth does not reach them from the outside.

[ 29 ] Here we have what can already be called the adaptation of the human being to external conditions in the natural realm. See then how all this works in education and in other aspects of spiritual and soul life. Just as the Ahrimanic beings exert their essential influence on what lies in heredity, so do the Luciferic beings exert their essential influence on what constitutes adaptation. They can approach the human being when the human being establishes relationships with the external world. They entangle the human “I” in the external world. In doing so, however, they often lead this “I” into confusion regarding karma.

[ 30 ] While the Ahrimanic beings lead human beings into confusion regarding their “I” in relation to their physical impulses, the Luciferic beings lead them into confusion regarding their karma. For what comes from the external world is by no means always part of karma; rather, it must first be woven into karma through various threads and connections so that it may one day become part of karma.

[ 31 ] Thus, the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic are intimately connected with human life. This must be regulated; it must be regulated within the overall development of the human being. Therefore, it had become necessary for these primal-wise teachers of humanity to leave the Earth—where they could not have carried out this regulation, because it cannot be carried out during human life on Earth, and because when a human being is outside of earthly life, they are not on Earth—and so it was necessary for these primal-wise teachers of humanity to leave the Earth and continue their existence on the Moon. For now, after they had moved to the Moon—and here I am compelled to use human language for something that one would actually prefer to express in other figurative terms—these beings, that is, these primordial wise teachers, came to seek agreements with the Ahrimanic and Luciferic powers during their existence on the Moon. And the intervention of the Ahrimanic forces in a person’s life after death would be particularly harmful to them—if these Ahrimanic beings were truly able to exert an influence on them there. For you see, when a human being passes through the gate of death and carries within his soul any evil in its aftereffects, he finds himself, as I have told you, entirely in an Ahrimanic environment—indeed, even amidst Ahrimanic perceptions. He himself has an Ahrimanic physiognomy. He is perceptive only toward those human beings who also bear an Ahrimanic physiognomy. This must remain merely a spiritual experience of the human being. If Ahriman were now to intervene, if he could influence the astral body, this would become a force that Ahriman could instill into the human being—a force that would not only gradually balance itself out karmically, but would make the human being very closely related to the Earth, bringing the human being into too strong a connection with the earthly realm. This is also what the Ahrimanic forces are striving for. They wish to act upon those human beings who are susceptible to it—through the evil impulses they carry through the gate of death—after death, when the human being is still similar in spirit form to their earthly form. There they wish to permeate this spiritual form with forces, draw as many such beings as possible close to earthly existence, and, so to speak, establish an Ahrimanic earthly humanity.

[ 32 ] That is why the primordial teachers of humanity—the present inhabitants of the Moon—concluded a covenant with the Ahrimanic forces, a covenant that the Ahrimanic forces were compelled to enter into for reasons I will explain later—a covenant stipulating that, in the fullest sense of the word, as far as is at all possible, allow the Ahrimanic forces to exert an influence on human life before the human being descends into earthly existence. So when the human being, in descending to earthly existence, passes through the lunar sphere once more, then—according to the agreements between the primordial teachers of humanity and the Ahrimanic forces—these forces are permitted to exert a certain influence upon the human being. And this influence manifests itself precisely in the fact that heredity has become possible. On the other hand, after this realm of heredity had been assigned to them, so to speak, through the efforts of the primordial teachers of humanity, the Ahrimanic beings had to renounce that which lives on in human development after death.

[ 33 ] Conversely, an agreement has been reached with the Luciferic beings that these Luciferic beings may only exert an influence on human beings after they have passed through the gate of death, and not before they descend into earthly existence.

[ 34 ] As a result, a balance was established between the extraterrestrial influences of the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic forces, precisely through the great, primal teachers of humanity. But we have already seen this, and we need only reflect on the matter for it to become immediately apparent: this is how human beings are introduced to nature. Because the Ahrimanic beings can act upon him before his descent to Earth, human beings are exposed to the influences of hereditary impulses. Because the Luciferic beings can act upon him, human beings are exposed to those impulses that lie in the physical environment—in the climate and the like—as well as in the spiritual, psychological, and social environment through upbringing, life experiences, and so on. Human beings thus enter into a relationship with their natural environment, and both the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic forces can influence this natural environment.

[ 35 ] Now I would like to speak from a completely different perspective about the existence of these Ahrimanic and Luciferic beings, particularly in the natural environment. I have already pointed out these things in my discussion of the Michael problem. Now I would like to go into even greater detail. Imagine for a moment the change in the natural world around us that occurs when we stand before rising mists. The watery vapors of the earth rise up. We may even be living within the atmosphere that is filled with this rising of the Earth’s watery vapors. In this rising of the Earth’s watery vapors, those who have attained spiritual vision discover that something can live within this natural phenomenon that carries earthly matter upward in a centrifugal direction.

[ 36 ] You see, it is not for nothing that people tend to become melancholic when they live in the fog, for there is something about the experience of the foggy that weighs on our will. We experience this burden on the will in the fog.

[ 37 ] Among other exercises, one can cultivate one’s imagination in such a way as to exert willpower of one’s own accord. This can be achieved through exercises that involve focusing one’s inner concentration on specific bodily organs—muscles, to be precise—to evoke a kind of inner muscular sensation or awareness. When one strains the will in this way by evoking this inner sensation of the muscles—it is one thing to walk and feel the muscles, and quite another to tense the muscles through concentration while standing—if this becomes a regular practice, if it is done as I have described in other exercises in How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds? —then one strains the will through one’s own activity. And then one becomes aware—spiritually and soulfully aware—of what is present in the rising mist, of what in the rising mist can make one gloomy and melancholic; then one becomes aware, spiritually and soulfully aware, of how certain Ahrimanic spirits live in the rising mist. Thus, through spiritual insight, one must say: in the rising mist, Ahrimanic spirits rise from the earth out into the world space, expanding their existence in this way in relation to the earthly realm.

[ 38 ] It is quite another thing when—as we have so many wonderful opportunities to do right here at the Goetheanum—we turn our gaze in the evening or morning toward the vast expanse and see the clouds in that expanse, but with the sunlight resting above them. A few days ago, you could see here, in the late afternoon hours, how a kind of red, sun-like gold was embodied in the clouds and evoked the most varied forms in a truly wonderful way. It was the same evening when the moon shone with a particular intensity. But even at other times, you can see how the clouds stand there and how, above them, the light—one might say—lies in a wonderfully resplendent play of colors. Of course, you can see it everywhere, but I am simply pointing out what can be seen particularly beautifully right here in Dornach.

[ 39 ] The Luciferic spirits dwell just as much in the flood of light that settles over the clouds in the atmosphere as the Ahrimanic spirits dwell in the rising mist. And essentially, for those who can now consciously observe such phenomena through imagination in the proper way, it is such that—if they succeed in allowing their ordinary thinking to go along with the clouds that transform shapes and colors, if they, so to speak, give their thoughts the opportunity to metamorphose and change rather than have sharp outlines— if the thoughts themselves expand and then contract again, if they move along with the cloud formations, if they take on the shapes and colors of the clouds: then it is the case that the human being truly begins to view this play of colors above the clouds—especially in the evening and morning sky—as a sea of colors in which Luciferic beings move. And when the rising mist stirs up moods of melancholy in a person, it is here that their thoughts—and thus also their spirit—learn, as it were, to breathe in a superhuman freedom at the sight of this sea of light surging with Luciferic radiance. This is a special relationship that a person can enter into with their surroundings, for there they can indeed rise to the feeling that their thinking is like ‘breathing in the light.’ The person experiences thinking as breathing, but as breathing in the light. Precisely when you wish to go through this experience, you will better understand that passage in my Mystery Dramas where it speaks of the beings who are permitted to breathe light. A person can already gain a foretaste of what such beings are—as breathing beings of light—when they undergo something like what I have described.

[ 40 ] Thus we find that the Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces are also integrated into the phenomena of external nature. And when we look at heredity and the phenomena of adaptation in the human being, we see that through them the human being brings his spiritual-soul nature into contact with nature. When we observe natural phenomena such as rising mist and clouds bathed in flowing light, we see how Ahrimanic and Luciferic beings connect with the natural world. But the approach of the human spiritual-soul nature through heredity and adaptation to nature is, as I have shown you today, merely an approach to the Luciferic and Ahrimanic. And so, when we look at the natural aspect of the human being, we find the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic; and in those natural phenomena that contain something that need not concern the physicist, we again find the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic. And you see, this is the point where we can be led to an effect of the natural upon human beings that extends beyond earthly existence.

[ 41 ] Let us first note this today: we find Ahriman and Lucifer in human heredity and in human adaptation. We find Ahriman and Lucifer in the rising mist and in the light that floods down upon the clouds and is held back and caught by them. And we find in human beings a striving to create balance and rhythm between heredity and adaptation. But we also find in nature outside the striving to create rhythm between the two forces that I have now identified in the natural world as the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic.

[ 42 ] If you observe the entire process in the natural world outside, you are essentially witnessing a marvelous spectacle. Watch the rising mist; observe within it how Ahrimanic spirits strive outward from this rising mist into the vastness of the cosmos. At the moment when the rising mist coagulates into a cloud above, they must abandon their aspirations and return to Earth. In the cloud, Ahriman’s presumptuous upward striving finds its limits. In the cloud, the misty ceases to exist, and with it, Ahriman’s home within the misty realm. But in the cloud, the possibility arises for the light to settle above it: Lucifer, settled high above the clouds.

[ 43 ] Understand this in its full significance. Visualize the rising mist with the yellowish Ahrimanic figures, gathered within it into clouds; and in what forms as the flooding light above the cloud, the Luciferic figures striving downward—then you have drawn the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic into nature.

[ 44 ] And then you will also understand that in times when people had a sense of what lies beyond the threshold—of what weaves and lives in the luminous cloud, of what lives and weaves in the billowing mist—that in those times, for example, painters were in a completely different situation than they were later. Back then, even what they knew as the spiritual—color—played a role for them, so that this color might find its rightful place on the canvas. The poet could say, knowing that the divine, the spiritual, spoke within him: “Sing, O Muse, of the wrath of Peleus’ son Achilles” or: “Sing to me, O Muse, of the man who traveled far and wide”; thus begin the Homeric epics. Klopstock, then, since the sense for the divine-spiritual was no longer active at that time, substituted: “Sing, immortal soul, of the redemption of sinful mankind”; I have discussed this often. Just as the poets of old had said—they were able to put it into words and begin their poems with it—so too could the old painters, even those of the time of Leonardo and Raphael, have said, and indeed they felt it in their own way: Paint for me, O Muse, paint for me, O divine power, place my hands in your care, place my soul in my hands, so that you may guide the brush in my hands.

[ 45 ] It is truly a matter of understanding this connection between human beings and the spiritual realm in all situations in life, and most of all in the most important ones.

[ 46 ] Let us therefore note that, on the one hand, through heredity and adaptation, we bring the human aspect itself into contact with the Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces; but that, on the other hand, through a deeper understanding of nature, we can also bring the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces into contact with the external natural world. We will then continue our reflections tomorrow from this perspective.