Karmic Relationships V
GA 239
24 May 1924, Paris
Lecture VI
In the lecture yesterday I spoke of how man ascends after death into the super-sensible world and then lives through the experiences connected with the first decades of his post-mortem existence. I said that he spends a certain number of years in the Moon-sphere, coming into contact there with Beings who once lived on the Earth, not in physical but in etheric bodies. These Beings were the Teachers of primeval humanity, inspiring men with the profound wisdom that once existed on Earth and gradually faded away. When the physical Moon separated from the Earth, these Beings went with it; their existence has continued on the Moon and man encounters them there after his death when he is looking back upon his earthly life and living through its experiences.
I have already said that when a man has lived long enough in the Moon region, he passes into the Mercury region. Here he encounters Beings who lead him into a part of the Universe where the Beings are completely different from those on Earth. To this region, however, man belongs between death and a new birth just as surely as during his earthly life he belonged to the Earth.
Let me now add something to the brief sketch given yesterday.—When a man passes through death—this actually takes very little time—he begins his existence in the elements of earth, water, fire and air. Substances that are differentiated on Earth—metals and all other substances—are no longer differentiated when death has actually taken place. All solid substances are ‘earth,' all fluids are ‘water,' all gaseous substances are ‘air,' and everything that radiates warmth is ‘fire' (or ‘warmth'). At the moment of death man is living in this fourfold differentiation of substance. He passes then into the region of cosmic Intelligence. Cosmic thoughts live and weave through this region in which he remains for a few days. Then he reaches the Moon region which I have already described, and from there passes into the Mercury region.
Let me repeat the sequence: man passes first into the region of the Elements, then into the region of cosmic Intelligence, then into the region of the Stars—first the Moon region, then the Mercury region.
We will now consider how a man's life in the Moon region can have a determining effect upon his karma. Before his death he has pursued this or that course in his earthly life, has done good or evil. And with all this behind him he appears before the Moon Beings. These Moon Beings pronounce stern judgment, a cosmic verdict, upon the value or the reverse of good or bad actions for the Universe. A man must then leave behind him in the Moon region the results of his evil actions, everything whereby he has done harm to the Universe. In so doing he leaves a part of himself behind. We must realise more strongly than is usual that man and his deeds and achievements form a unity, that his whole being is bound up with a good or with a bad deed. So that if we have to leave behind us the evil we have wrought, we have to leave part of ourselves behind. In point of fact we pass from this Moon region with only the good we have achieved for the Universe and we are, therefore, mutilated in a certain sense, the extent or degree of mutilation depending upon how far we have allowed evil thoughts to become part of our own being. Everything by which we have injured the Cosmos must be left behind in the Moon region.
If we wish to study man's further progress between death and a new birth, the following facts must be remembered. Man on the Earth is a being whose members are clearly distinguishable from each other. The head takes shape in the embryo and is the most highly developed member; the rest of man's bodily makeup was still unfinished during embryonic. life. In a certain sense this remains the case through the whole of life. The head is the most highly elaborated part of man. After death, however, it is precisely the spiritual part of the head that passes away most rapidly in the spiritual world; it disappears almost entirely during the passage through the Moon region. You must of course understand me correctly: the physical substance falls away with the corpse, but in the head there is not only physical substance, there are forces—super-sensible forces—which form and imbue man's physical body with life. These forces pass through the gate of death and are recognised by Imaginative cognition as the spirit form of man; the head of this spirit form, however, is seen to be steadily disappearing. What actually remains, and can be mutilated, is the rest of the body apart from the head. If a man has in the main been a good man, this part of him can enter the Mercury-sphere more or less complete, whereas if he has been a bad character it will enter that sphere greatly mutilated. With these forces enveloping the soul we pass into our further life between death and a new birth, and it is from these forces that we have to build up the whole of our life during that period.
The spiritual Beings of the Mercury-sphere, who have never assumed human form and in whose environment we now find ourselves, have an important task. From the being who now appears as a headless man—if I may use the expression—all moral blemish has been removed in the Moon-sphere, but not the outcome of the health or illness undergone during earthly life. This is important, for it is both significant and surprising that although a man lays aside his moral blemishes in the Moon region, the spiritual effects of whatever has befallen him in the shape of illness can only be removed in the Mercury region, by those Beings who have never been men.
It is very important to pay attention to the fact that the spiritual consequences of illnesses are taken away from men in the Mercury region. From this we realise that in the world of stars—which is actually the world of the Gods—the physical and the moral interweave. A moral blemish cannot enter the spiritual world; it remains behind in the Moon region, the inhabitants of which are Beings especially concerned with men, because at one time they lived among them. The Beings indwelling Mercury were never inhabitants of the Earth. It is these Beings who take away from man the consequences of illnesses. The illnesses are seen streaming out as it were into cosmic space; their spiritual consequences are absorbed into the spiritual cosmos and the process is actually fraught with a kind of satisfaction. For the man who experiences this between death and a new birth it will be the first impression, a purely spiritual one, and yet as real to him as anything in earthly existence. Just as here on Earth we experience the wind, the lightning, the flow of water, so, when we have passed through the gate of death and entered the Mercury region, do we experience the departure of the spiritual effects of illnesses. We see how they are absorbed by the spiritual Beings and we are left with the impression: Now be propitiated, O ye Gods!—I can only touch on this to-day; tomorrow we shall be able to go more deeply into this experience of how the Gods are propitiated for the evil done on Earth—propitiated as a result of the effects of illnesses streaming out into the wide Universe.
These important facts of life between death and a new birth were once known to men, in the days when the Beings who afterwards became Moon dwellers—the great primeval Teachers—were at hand to instruct them. Then, too, men recognised that the truth concerning the nature of illnesses can be known only when the truth comes from the Mercury Beings; hence all medical knowledge, all knowledge of healing, was the secret of the Mercury Mysteries. In such Mysteries a man was not in the same position as he is in the universities of to-day. Higher Beings from the regions of the stars actually worked through the rites enacted in these Mysteries. In those ancient days the Gods themselves were men's teachers, and medicine was the wisdom transmitted to them directly by the Mercury Beings in the Mysteries; hence this ancient medicine was regarded by men as a gift of the Gods. Fundamentally speaking, whatever is effective in medicine to-day either originates from olden times, as an aftermath of what men learnt from the Mercury Gods, or it must be rediscovered through those methods which enable men eventually to have converse with the Gods, to learn from them. The stream of ancient wisdom has run dry, has disappeared; a new wisdom, based once again upon intercourse with the Gods, must be found. This is the mission of Anthroposophy in all the different domains.
From the Mercury region man comes into the region of the Venus-existence. The Beings who inhabit Venus and are far more remote from earthly beings than the inhabitants of Mercury, will change what he brings with him into this region in such a way that it can advance to further stages in the spiritual world. This, however, is possible only because on passing into the Venus region, man enters into a new element. While we are living here on Earth, much depends upon our having thoughts, concepts, ideas. For what would a man be on Earth without them? Thoughts are useful, and we as human beings are intelligent because we have thoughts that have some value. Especially at the present time it is very important that man should be intelligent. Nearly everyone is intelligent nowadays; it was not always so but to-day it certainly is. And after all, the whole of earthly life depends upon the fact that men have thoughts. The splendid achievements of technology have all sprung from human thoughts; everything good or bad that man brings about on Earth has sprung ultimately from his thoughts. And in the Moon region thoughts are still an important factor, for the judgment of the Beings in that region is based upon how the good or bad deeds have arisen from thoughts. The Beings in the Mercury region too, still judge the illnesses from which they must liberate men, according to the thoughts. But here, in a certain sense, is the boundary up to which thought—anything that recalls human intelligence—has significance, for the Venus region into which man now passes, is ruled by what is known to us on Earth, in its reflection, as love. Here, love takes the place of wisdom; we enter the region of love. Man can pass into the Sun-existence only when love leads him into it out of the sphere of wisdom.
The following question may suggest itself to you: How does a man actually experience these things of which he becomes aware through spiritual perception?—You will no doubt have read what I have written about exercises for the soul in the book, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment, and will know that a man may gradually develop this perception through such exercises. When he succeeds in developing Imaginative consciousness he first experiences his whole life back to his birth, presented in one great spiritual tableau. What is experienced in a natural way after death is experienced through Initiation at any moment of life. When this experience reaches the stage of Inspiration, however, it reveals something that shines through this tableau of human life. Now this is the significant point: we cannot speak truly about the concatenation of the secrets underlying these things until we have reached a certain age. This has always been so. A man may be initiated at any time of life, but it is only at a certain age that through his own perception of these things he is able to have an all embracing survey of cosmic secrets.
The reason is that when a man looks back over his life tableau it presents itself in sections or phases of seven years: a first section from birth to approximately the seventh year, a second from the seventh to the fourteenth year, again from the fourteenth to the twenty-first year, then a section which includes the years from the twenty-first to the forty-second, then a section from the forty-second to the forty-ninth year, another from the forty-ninth to the fifty-sixth year and from the fifty-sixth to the sixty-third year. These sections of life are surveyed one after the other. In the first section of the retrospect, everything up to the change of teeth is seen simultaneously. The secrets of the Cosmos appear throughout as if seen through a mist. In the first section, from birth to the seventh year, the mysteries of the Moon are revealed as though the Sun were shining through a mist; the man is surveying them through his own etheric body. What I have told you to-day about his faults and ill doings being left behind, and what I have told you about the Moon Beings—all this stands written in the first section of this book of life.
Looking back over his life with Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition, it becomes clear to a man that this life has one, two, three, up to seven, chapters. In the first chapter, which comprises early childhood, are the Moon mysteries. In the second chapter, comprising the period between the change of teeth and puberty, are the Mercury mysteries. Doctors know well that this is the age when children's ailments are prevalent, but for all that it, is the healthiest age in human life; taking into consideration mankind as a whole, the rate of morality is relatively lowest in this period. The Mercury mysteries are revealed behind this age of life, so that in the unlikely event of someone being initiated already at the age, say, of eighteen, he would be able to survey the Moon mysteries and the Mercury mysteries. If in later life a man looks back on the next section, from the fourteenth to the twenty-first year, everything in the Universe connected with the Venus mysteries is revealed. In this period, when physical love arises in human life, the mysteries of the Venus-existence in the Universe are spiritually inscribed in the book of life. The period from the twenty-first to the forty-second year needs a survey three times more comprehensive than before, because here all the Beings of the Sun mysteries are revealed. To be able to look back, we must be over the age of forty-two and then, in this section of life, we see in retrospect the Sun mysteries. And when we are old enough to look back on the section of life from the forty-second to the forty-ninth year, the Mars mysteries are revealed. But to penetrate the Mars mysteries we must have passed the age of forty-nine. A man may be initiated, but to penetrate into the Mars mysteries through his own power of vision, he must be able to look back upon the section of life between the forty-second and forty-ninth years. After the age of forty-nine he can look back upon the Jupiter mysteries; and—I am myself now able to speak of this—after his sixty-third year he is allowed by decree of the Gods, to speak of the Saturn mysteries too.
In this life between death and rebirth man passes farther and farther away from conditions surrounding him on Earth and enters into quite different ones. Having passed through the Venus region, he experiences the realities of the Sun-sphere. And now, having described how these truths are revealed through Initiation, I can continue the study of man's existence between death and a new birth.
As we find our way into the spirit world we are brought nearer and nearer to Beings of a higher rank than man. In the Moon region we are still among Beings who, in the main, have lived with men on Earth, but here we already perceive those Beings who lead us on Earth from one life to another. These are the Beings I have called in my books—in accordance with ancient Christian usage—the Hierarchy of Angels. Looking back to early childhood with the Initiation knowledge of which I have spoken, we see at the same time what has been wrought in man by the world of the Angels. Think of the wonderful beauty of some of the conceptions which exist in the simple hearts of men and are actually confirmed by the higher wisdom of Initiation. We speak of how the activities of the Angels weave through a child's first years of life; and when we look back in order to study the Moon region we actually see our childhood and with it the weaving work of the Angels. Then, when stronger forces begin to operate in the human being, when he reaches the school age, we perceive the work of the Archangels. They are important for us when we are studying the Mercury-existence, for then we are in the world of the Archangels.—There follows the age of puberty and the period from approximately the fourteenth to the twenty-first year. The Venus mysteries are now seen in retrospect, shining through the tableau of the course of life. At the same time we learn that the Hierarchy of the Archai, the Primal Forces, are the Beings specially associated with the Venus-existence. And here we realise a significant truth—again something that is particularly striking—namely, that the Beings associated with the Venus-existence after the age of puberty are those who, as Primal Forces, were concerned with the genesis of the world itself, and in their reflection are again active in the formation of physical man in the sequence of the generations. The relation between the Cosmos and human life is revealed in this way.
We gaze then into the mysteries of the Sun-existence. What is the nature of the Sun according to modern physicists? An incandescent globe of gas, where burning gases diffuse light and heat. For the eyes of spirit this is a thoroughly childish conception! The truth is that if the physicists could organise an expedition to the Sun, they would be astonished to find everything entirely different from what they imagined. There are no cosmic gases there; human beings would not be consumed by flames if they could travel to the Sun. But if they came into the Sun region they would be torn asunder—destroyed in that way. What, then, is the Sun, in reality?
When you walk about a room there may be people in it, or chairs which you knock against. Here (drawing on blackboard) are objects, and between them is empty space through which you walk. In the area in which we are at present, certain portions of space are filled by chairs or by yourselves; other portions are empty. If I take the chairs away and you come in, you will find only an empty space. Empty space is far more prevalent in the Cosmos. Here on Earth we do not know what has to be known in the Cosmos. In the Cosmos, space can even be empty of itself, so that at some points there is no space. In soda water there are little bubbles, less dense than the water; these you can see—it is the bubbles you see, not the water. In the same way, when you look out into space, you may see nothing; but where the Sun is, there is even less than space. Suppose that here is the empty space of the Universe, and that in this empty space there is nothing, not even space, so that if you went there you would be sucked up and disappear. There is nothing there at all, nothing physical, not even space. It is the site of all that is spiritual. This is the nature of the Sun-existence about which the physicists would be so astonished. Only at the edge of this empty space is there something that begins to be as the physicists suppose. In the corona of the Sun there are incandescent gases, but within this empty space there is nothing physical, not even space! It is all purely spiritual. Within this sphere there are Beings of three ranks: Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes. Into this region we enter when we have passed through the Venus-existence during the further period between death and a new birth. Then, when we look back—only we must have been more than forty-two years old—we see the reflection, as it were, of the Sun nature. The greater part of a man's life between death and a new birth is spent among the Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes.
Now when, during this period between death and a new birth, man actually penetrates into the Sun region, there is no similarity whatever with anything to which we are accustomed in the physical, earthly world. In this latter world we may have good intentions; but there may be someone near us whose intentions are the very reverse. We try to perform good actions but are only to some extent successful; in the case of the other person, however, everything succeeds. Looking back over our life after years or decades have passed, we come all too easily to the conclusion that in the physical, earthly course of things, it is not the case that good intentions or good deeds also have good consequences. For instance, on Earth we see the good punished and the bad rewarded, for the good may be unfortunate and the bad fortunate. There seems to be no connection between moral life and physical actuality. On the other hand, everything physical has its necessary consequences; magnetic force must attract iron, for example. Physical relationships alone are realised on Earth in our life between birth and death. In the Sun-existence there are no such relationships; there are only moral relationships. Everything moral in that sphere has the power of coming to realisation in an appropriate way. Goodness produces phenomena which bring blessing to men, whereas evil brings the opposite. Here on Earth, moral relationship is only ideal, and can be established as ideal only in an external, inadequate way, inasmuch as jurisprudence sees to it that evil is punished. In the Sun region, moral relationships become reality. In this region man's every good intention, however feeble the thought, begins to be reality—a reality perceived by the Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes. Man is regarded by the Beings of the Sun region according to the goodness he has in him, according to the way he was able to think and feel and experience. I cannot, therefore, describe the Sun region to you theoretically but only in a living way. It is not easy to give a definition of the effect of this or that goodness in the Sun region; one can only try to make it clear to the listeners by saying: If, as man in the Earth region you have had a good thought, in the Sun region between death and a new birth you will have converse with Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes. You will be able to lead a spiritual life in community with these Beings. If, however, you have had evil thoughts, though you have left them behind you in the Moon region, you will be a lonely soul, abandoned by Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes. Thus in the Sun region it is through our community with these Beings that goodness becomes reality. If our thoughts have not been good, we do not understand their language; if we have accomplished nothing good we cannot appear before them. The effect of our goodness is all reality in the Sun region.
This study will be continued in the lecture tomorrow.
Sechster Vortrag
Gestern bemühte ich mich zu zeigen, wie der Mensch, indem er durch die Pforte des Todes geht, aufsteigt in die ersten Erlebnisse der übersinnlichen Welt, die er in den nächsten Jahrzehnten nach dem Tode durchlebt. Ich zeigte, wie der Mensch eine bestimmte Anzahl von Jahren verweilt in dem, was man die Mondenregion nennen kann, wie der Mensch in dieser Mondenregion in Zusammenhang kommt mit Wesenheiten, die einstmals mit der Erde verbunden waren, die nicht in einem physischen Leibe auf der Erde lebten, aber in einem ätherischen Leibe, und als solche Wesenheiten die Lehrer der ursprünglichen Menschheit waren, den Menschen inspiriert haben jene tiefe Weisheit, die einmal auf der Erde war und die nach und nach auf der Erde erloschen ist. Mit dem Hinweggehen des physischen Mondes von der Erde sind auch diese Wesenheiten hinweggegangen; sie haben ihr Dasein weiter auf dem Monde, und der Mensch kommt wieder mit ihnen zusammen, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist und all dasjenige überschauen soll, was in der gestern charakterisierten Weise in einer viel stärkeren Realität überschaut wird, als es der Mensch eigentlich während seines Erdendaseins durchlebt.
Ich habe schon angedeutet, daß, nachdem der Mensch genügend lange in der Mondenregion verweilt hat, er den Übergang findet in die Merkurregion, in der er Wesen trifft, die ihn hinausführen in eine Region der Welt, in der ganz andere Wesen wohnen als auf der Erde, eine Region aber, der er als Mensch nun ebenso durch die Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt angehört, wie er mit seinem Erdendasein der Erde und ihrer Wirklichkeit angehört hat.
Gestatten Sie nun, meine lieben Freunde, daß ich die kleine Skizze, die ich gestern entworfen habe, heute fortsetze. Wir können ausgehen davon, daß der Mensch, wenn er den Tod durchlebt - was also eigentlich eine sehr kurze Zeit in Anspruch nimmt -, daß der Mensch dann sein Dasein erlebt in den Elementen, in Erde, Wasser, Feuer und Luft. Dasjenige, was differenzierte Stoffe auf der Erde sind, Metalle, alle anderen Stoffe, die sind dann im Momente des Todes nicht da. Alle festen Stoffe sind Erde, alle flüssigen Stoffe sind Wasser, alle luftförmigen Stoffe sind Luft, und alles dasjenige, was Wärme zeigt, ist Wärme. In dieser vierfachen Differenzierung des Stoffes lebt der Mensch im Augenblicke des Todes. Er geht dann über in diejenige Region, die ich gestern charakterisiert habe als die Region der Weltintelligenz. Weltgedanken durchweben und durchleben die Region, in die er dann eintritt und in der er wenige Tage verweilt. Dann gelangt er in die Mondenregion, die ich beschrieben habe, und von da aus in die Merkurregion.
Diese Skizze, ich möchte sie noch einmal wiederholen: die Region ‘der Elemente, die Region der Weltintelligenz. Und nun kommt der Mensch in die Sternenregion, zuerst in die Mondregion und dann in die Merkurregion.
Nun wollen wir uns einmal klarmachen, wie das Leben des Menschen zunächst in der Mondregion bestimmend einwirken kann auf sein späteres Karma. Auch darauf habe ich gestern schon hingedeutet. Die Sache ist so: Indem der Mensch durch den Tod geht, hat er dieses oder jenes in seinem Erdenleben verübt, dieses oder jenes an Gutem, an Bösem. Und mit all dem tritt er vor jene Wesenheiten durch jenes Erleben, das ich gestern beschrieben habe, hin, die eben die Mondwesen genannt werden können. Diese Mondwesenheiten üben ein strenges Urteil aus, ein Weltenurteil: wieviel Wert eine Handlung hat als gute Handlung für das gesamte Weltall, wieviel Wert eine böse, eine unrechte Handlung hat für das gesamte Weltall. Und dann ist die Sache so, daß der Mensch zurücklassen muß in der Mondenregion all dasjenige, wodurch er das Weltall geschädigt hat. Die Ergebnisse seiner bösen Handlungen, die muß der Mensch in der Mondenregion zurücklassen. Und damit läßt er einen Teil von sich selber zurück. Wir müssen uns nur klarmachen, daß der Mensch mehr, als man meint, eine Einheit ist von sich und demjenigen, was er tut, was er vollbringt. Es geht sozusagen mit einer guten, mit einer schlechten Handlung das ganze Wesen des Menschen eine Verbindung ein. Müssen wir das Böse zurücklassen, das wir verübt haben, so müssen wir einen Teil von uns selbst zurücklassen. — In der Tat, wir kommen über diese Mondenregion nur heraus mit dem, was wir an Gutem für das Weltall verübt haben. Dadurch sind wir in gewissem Sinne, wenn wir über die Mondenregion hinauskommen, ein verstümmelter Mensch, um so mehr verstümmelt, als wir böse Gedanken mit unserem eigenen Wesen vereinigt haben. Soviel müssen wir zurücklassen, als wir für die Welt Schädliches verübt haben.
Wenn wir nun den weiteren Gang des Menschen durch das Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt studieren wollen, dann müssen wir auf folgendes sehen: Der Mensch, wie er hier auf der Erde steht, besteht ja aus voneinander deutlich unterschiedenen Gliedern. Die Kopfregion ist verhältnismäßig die am meisten ausgebildete, sie wird auch im Menschenkeim schon vor der Geburt des Menschen veranlagt, so daß sie verhältnismäßig vollkommen ist, während die andere Körperlichkeit des Menschen im Embryonalleben ja eher unvollkommen ist. In gewissem Sinne bleibt das durch das ganze Leben hindurch. Die ausgearbeitetste Partie des Menschen ist die Kopfregion; die anderen Regionen des Menschen sind weniger ausgearbeitet. Nun ist es aber gerade so, daß dasjenige, was vom Haupt des Menschen nach dem Tode bleibt als Geistiges, am schnellsten in der geistigen Region verlorengeht; das verschwindet sozusagen fast ganz mit dem Durchgang durch die Mondenregion. Natürlich müssen Sie mich richtig verstehen: Die physische Stofflichkeit fällt mit dem Leichnam ab; aber im Kopfe haben wir nicht nur die physische Stofflichkeit, wir haben Kräfte, die diesen physischen Leib des Menschen formen und beleben, übersinnliche Kräfte; die gehen durch die Pforte des Todes, die sieht man mit der imaginativen Erkenntnis auch nach dem Tode als Geistgestalt des Menschen, nur sieht man an dieser Geistgestalt das Haupt, den Kopf des Menschen fortwährend schwinden, immer mehr schwinden. Dasjenige, was eigentlich bleibt, was verstümmelt werden kann, das ist die übrige Region des Menschen außer dem Kopf. Mit dieser übrigen Region, die also entweder mehr oder weniger vollkommen eintreten kann in die Merkursphäre, wenn der Mensch ein guter Mensch war in der Hauptsache, die aber sehr verstümmelt eintritt in die Merkurregion, wenn der Mensch ein böser Mensch war, mit diesen Kräften, die unsere Seele umgeben, mit diesen Kräften treten wir in das weitere Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt ein. Aus diesen Kräften heraus müssen wir das ganze Leben bilden zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Da haben diejenigen geistigen Wesenheiten, die in der Merkursphäre sind, die niemals Menschen waren, die niemals menschliche Gestalt angenommen haben, in deren Umgebung wir nunmehr kommen, eine bedeutsame Aufgabe. Denn mit all dem, was da sozusagen - verzeihen Sie den Ausdruck - als kopfloser Mensch herantritt, mit all dem ist nun verbunden, nachdem die moralischen Makel in der Mondenregion abgelegt sind, dasjenige, was der Mensch während seines Erdenlebens als Gesundheit oder Krankheit durchlebt hat. Es ist wichtig, denn es ist sehr bedeutsam, überraschend und frappierend, daß der Mensch schon in der Mondenregion seine moralischen Makel ablegt, daß aber dasjenige, was ihn an Krankheit befallen hat, nicht abfällt in der Mondregion, sondern erst in der Merkurregion durch jene Wesenheiten, die nicht jemals Menschen gewesen sind, von den Menschen in den geistigen Wirkungen hinweggenommen werden kann. Gerade die Beachtung dieser Tatsache ist etwas außerordentlich Bedeutsames: Krankheiten werden vom Menschen in der Merkurregion in ihren geistigen Ergebnissen hinweggenommen. Und da erleben wir dann zuerst, wenn wir dieses beobachten, wie in der Sternenwelt, die die eigentliche Welt der Götter ist, Physisches und Moralisches ineinanderwirken. Das Moralisch-Makelhafte kann nicht hinein in die geistige Welt, bleibt sozusagen in der Mondenregion zurück, die solchen Anteil hat an den Menschen, denn sie hat zu ihren Bewohnern Wesen, die schon unter den Menschen waren, Auf dem Merkur sind Bewohner, die niemals Erdbewohner waren. Diese Wesenheiten nehmen nun die Krankheiten von den Menschen weg. Diese Krankheiten schaut man wie hinausströmen in die Weltenweiten, in den geistigen Kosmos, und die geistigen Ergebnisse der Menschenkrankheiten werden wie aufgesogen vom geistigen Kosmos, strömen hinaus, werden mit einem gewissen Wohlgefallen sogar aufgenommen. Der Mensch aber, der dieses erlebt im Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, der hat nun den ersten Eindruck, der eigentlich ein rein geistiger ist und dennoch ihm so wirklich entgegentritt, wie ihm die Erde wirklich entgegentritt. So, wie wir hier auf der Erde den Wind, den Blitz, das Fließen des Wassers erleben, so erleben wir, wenn wir dutch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind und in die Merkurregion eingetreten sind, das Fortgehen der geistigen Effekte der Krankheiten, sehen, wie sie aufgenommen werden von den geistigen Wesen, diese geistigen Effekte der Krankheiten, und der Eindruck ist der: Jetzt seid Ihr versöhnt, o Götter! — Ich erwähne das zunächst — wir werden morgen auf diese Dinge näher eingehen können -, daß man es erlebt, wie die Götter versöhnt werden für dasjenige, was auf der Erde Böses geschehen ist, dadurch, daß die Effekte der Krankheiten ins weite Weltall hinausströmen.
Das ist eine sehr wichtige Tatsache im Bereich unseres Lebens zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Solche Tatsachen, man hat sie einmal gekannt, als gerade jene Wesenheiten vorhanden waren, die als die großen Urlehrer der Menschheit, die dann die Mondbewohner geworden sind, die Menschen gelehrt haben. Da wußte man auch, daß man über das Wesen der Krankheiten erst erfahren kann, was der Wahrheit entspricht, wenn die Wahrheit von den Merkurwesen kommt; daher war alles Heilwesen, alles medizinische Wissen, das
Geheimnis von gewissen Mysterien, den Merkurmysterien. Da war es wirklich so in solchen Mysterien, daß nicht ein Mensch dastand, wie an den heutigen Universitäten, sondern daß tatsächlich höhere Wesenheiten aus den Sternenregionen durch den Kultus, der an diesen Mysterien üblich war, wirkten. Die Götter waren selbst Lehrer der Menschen, und die Medizin ist diejenige Weisheitskunde in alten Menschheitszeiten gewesen, die direkt dutch die Merkurwesen in den Mysterien an die Menschen herangebracht worden ist; daher war auch diese alte Medizin durchaus als eine Gabe des Göttlichen von den Menschen angesehen worden. Im Grunde genommen ist alles dasjenige, was im Medizinischen fruchtbar ist, heute entweder aus alten Zeiten stammend, eine Nachwirkung desjenigen, was man von den Göttern des Merkur erfahren hat, oder aber es muß gefunden werden wiederum durch diejenigen Methoden, die den Menschen anleiten, Umgang mit den Göttern zu haben, von den Göttern lernen zu können. Die alte Weisheit ist versiegt, verschwunden; eine neue Weisheit, die wiederum auf dem Umgang mit den Göttern beruht, muß gefunden werden. Das ist die Aufgabe der Anthroposophie auf den verschiedensten Gebieten.
Von der Merkurregion aus kommt der Mensch dann in die Region des Venusdaseins. Dasjenige, was der Mensch von sich bis in die Region der Venus mitbringen kann, das wird von jenen Wesenheiten, die die Venus bewohnen und die noch viel fernerstehen den Erdenwesen als die Merkurwesen, so verwandelt, daß es überhaupt weiterkommen kann in der geistigen Region. Das ist aber nur möglich dadurch, daß mit dem Betreten der Venusregion der Mensch in ein neues Element eintritt. Wenn wir hier auf der Erde leben, kommt viel darauf an, daß wir Ideen haben, Begriffe haben, Vorstellungen haben. Denn was wäre der Mensch auf der Erde, wenn er nicht Vorstellungen und Ideen hätte. Gedanken, die tragen ihn, die sind wertvoll, und wir als Menschen sind, weil wir Gedanken haben, die etwas taugen, wir sind dadurch gescheit. Besonders heute gilt es viel, wenn der Mensch gescheit ist. Heute sind ja fast alle Menschen gescheit. Es war nicht immer so, heute ist es so. Und es hängt eben doch das ganze Erdenleben davon ab, daß die Menschen Gedanken haben. Aus den menschlichen Gedanken ist die großartige Technik entsprungen, es entsteht alles schließlich mit Hilfe von Gedanken, was der Mensch an Gutem oder Bösem verwirklicht auf der Erde. Die Gedanken wirken aber noch nach in der Mondenregion; denn nach der Art und Weise, wie die guten und bösen Taten aus den Gedanken entsprungen sind, urteilen die Wesen in der Mondenregion. Aber auch die Wesen in der Merkurregion, die beurteilen die Krankheiten, die sie ablösen müssen von den Menschen, noch nach den Gedanken. Aber in gewissem Sinne ist hier die Grenze, bis zu der Gedanken - überhaupt dasjenige, was noch an menschliche Intelligenz erinnert - eine Bedeutung haben. Denn kommt man heraus aus der Merkurregion in die Region der Venus, dann herrscht da dasjenige, was wir im Erdenleben im Abglanz kennen als Liebe. Liebe löst da sozusagen die Weisheit ab. Wir treten ein in die Region der Liebe. Nur dadurch kann der Mensch weitergeführt werden hin bis zum Sonnendasein, daß Liebe ihn aus der Weisheitssphäre in das Sonnendasein hineinführt.
Sehen Sie, meine lieben Freunde, es wird Ihnen etwas die Frage in Ihrer Seele bedeuten: Wie erlebt eigentlich derjenige, der so etwas überhaupt erleben kann in der Anschauung, solche Dinge? - Nun haben Sie gewiß gelesen dasjenige, was ich gegeben habe an Seelenübungen in dem Buche, das ins Französische übersetzt ist unter dem Titel «L’Initiation», und Sie werden wissen, daß der Mensch durch solche Seelenübung allmählich zu einer solchen Anschauung kommt. Zuerst erlebt man, wenn man das imaginative Bewußtsein erlangt, sein ganzes Leben auf geistige Art bis zur Geburt in einem großen Tableau. Dasjenige, was man nach dem Tode erlebt auf natürliche Weise, erlebt man durch die Initiation in jedem Augenblick des Lebens. Aber dieses Erleben, wenn es dann zur Inspiration kommt, das zeigt dann gewissermaßen etwas, was durchscheint durch dieses Tableau, durch dieses menschliche Leben. Das ist nun das Bedeutsame. Eigentlich kann man über den ganzen Zusammenhang der Geheimnisse, die da zugrunde liegen - und es ist immer so gewesen -, erst reden, wenn man ein gewisses Alter erreicht hat. Man kann in jedem Lebensalter initiiert werden; aber einen vollständigen Zusammenhang über die kosmischen Geheimnisse durch eigene Anschauung bekommt man über diese Dinge in einem bestimmten Lebensalter erst. Das ist so aus folgendem Grunde.
Wenn man zurückblickt auf dieses Lebenstableau, so gliedert es sich in Abschnitte von sieben zu sieben Jahren, und zwar so, daß man einen ersten Abschnitt überblickt von der Geburt bis zum siebenten Jahre ungefähr, einen zweiten Abschnitt vom siebenten zum vierzehnten Lebensjahr, einen weiteren vom vierzehnten zum einundzwanzigsten Lebensjahr und dann einen einheitlichen Lebensabschnitt vom einundzwanzigsten bis zweiundvierzigsten Lebensjahr; dann einen Lebensabschnitt vom zweiundvierzigsten bis neunundvierzigsten Lebensjahre, einen Abschnitt vom neunundvierzigsten bis sechsundfünfzigsten und vom sechsundfünfzigsten bis zum dreiundsechzigsten Jahre. Man erlebt hintereinander diese Lebensabschnitte. Man schaut im ersten Lebensabschnitt diesen Rückblick, es steht alles auf einmal da bis zum Zahnwechsel hin. Wie durch einen Nebel erscheinen einem in jedem dieser Abschnitte die Weltgeheimnisse, die Geheimnisse des Kosmos. Im ersten Lebensabschnitte, von der Geburt bis zum siebenten Jahre, erblickt man bei dieser Rückschau die Geheimnisse des Mondes. Wenn das Leben so dasteht im ersten Lebensabschnitt, so erscheint es einem, wie wenn durch einen Nebel die Sonne durchscheint, so erscheinen die Weltgeheimnisse durch den eigenen Ätherleib, den man überblickt. Was ich Ihnen heute erzählt habe, meine lieben Freunde, über das Zurücklassen seiner Makel, seiner bösen Dinge, was ich Ihnen erzählt habe über die Mondbewohner, das steht in dem Lebensbuche, in diesem Lebensbuche des ersten Abschnittes.
Blickt man in seine Kindheit zurück mit Imagination, Inspiration und Intuition, so sagt man sich: Dieses Leben hat eins, zwei, drei bis sieben Kapitel. Im ersten Kapitel, umfassend unsere erste Kindheit, stehen die Mondengeheimnisse. Im zweiten Lebenskapitel, das umfaßt die Lebenszeit zwischen dem Zahnwechsel und der Geschlechtsreife, da stehen die Merkurgeheimnisse. In diesem Zeitalter, das die Kinder gerade in der Schule verleben, in diesem Zeitalter, wenn man auf dasselbe zurückblickt, zeigen sich die Merkurgeheimnisse. Es ist ja den Medizinern bekannt, daß dies dasjenige Alter ist, wo die Kinderkrankheiten sind. Es ist das gesündeste Zeitalter im Menschenleben, die Sterblichkeit ist verhältnismäßig am geringsten, wenn man die ganze Menschheit anschaut. Dieserm Lebensabschnitte zeigen sich hinterher die Merkurgeheimnisse, so daß, wenn jemand - es ist das nicht gut möglich, aber wenn es doch sein könnte — mit achtzehn Jahren schon initiiert sein könnte, er überschauen können würde aus seiner Initiation die Mondengeheimnisse, die Merkurgeheimnisse. Wenn man aus den späteren Lebensjahren zurückschaut auf die weiteren Lebensabschnitte vom vierzehnten bis zum einundzwanzigsten Jahre, da zeigt sich im Rückblick alles dasjenige, was an Geheimnissen der Venusregion im Weltall angehört. In der Zeit, in welcher beim Menschen die physische Liebe auftritt, vom vierzehnten bis zum einundzwanzigsten Lebensjahre, sind auch im Lebensbuche geistig eingeschrieben die Geheimnisse des Venusdaseins im Weltenall. Leben wit dann weiter vom einundzwanzigsten bis zum zweiundvierzigsten Jahre, so brauchen wir zu diesem Durchleben einen dreimal größeren Zeitraum, denn da, wenn wir zurückblicken vom späteren Leben, enthüllen sich uns die ganzen Wesenheiten der Sonnengeheimnisse. Man muß über die zweiundvierzig Jahre alt geworden sein, damit man zurückblicken kann; dann aber sieht man in diesem Lebensabschnitte im Rückblicke die Sonnengeheimnisse. Ist man nun gar schon recht alt geworden und kann zurückblicken auf den Lebensabschnitt vom zweiundvierzigsten bis zum neunundvierzigsten Lebensjahre, dann enthüllen sich die Marsgeheimnisse. Um also in die Marsgeheimnisse einzudringen, muß man über das neunundvierzigste Lebensjahr herauskommen. Man kann initiiert sein; aber um durch eigene Anschauung in die Marsgeheimnisse einzudringen, muß man zurückblicken können auf ein Leben, das in einem Abschnitt vom zweiundvierzigsten bis zum neunundvierzigsten Lebensjahre verlaufen ist. Ist man über neunundvierzig Jahre alt, so kann man auf die Jupitergeheimnisse zurückblicken. Und - ich darf über diese Sache sprechen - ist man über das dreiundsechzigste Jahr hinaus, so ist es einem erlaubt durch den Ratschluß der Götter, auch über die Saturngeheimnisse zu sprechen.
Sie sehen, meine lieben Freunde, wir kommen innerhalb dieses Lebens zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt immer mehr über diejenigen Verhältnisse hinaus, die uns hier auf der Erde umgeben, und in andere Verhältnisse hinein. Dasjenige, was der Mensch, nachdem er die Venusregion durchschritten hat, erlebt, es ist die Tatsachenwelt der Sonnenregion. Und nachdem ich Ihnen beschrieben habe, wie man auf diese Dinge kommt durch die Initiation, darf ich eben fortfahren in der Betrachtung desjenigen, was der Mensch zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt durchmacht.
Das Hineinwachsen in die geistige Welt ist aber auch ein solches, das immer mehr und mehr sich nähert Wesenheiten, die über dem Menschen hinausstehen. In der Mondregion sind wir noch ganz unter Wesenheiten, die mit den Menschen auf der Erde gelebt haben, in der Hauptsache. Aber wir werden in der Mondregion doch schon ansichtig derjenigen Wesenheiten, die uns auf der Erde führen von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben. Da sind die Wesenheiten, die ich bezeichnet habe in meinen Büchern nach einem alten christlichen Gebrauch mit dem Namen der Hierarchie der Angeloi. Indem man zurückblickt in jener Erfahrung, in jener initiierten Erfahrung, von der ich gesprochen habe, in die erste Kinderzeit, sieht man zugleich dasjenige, was dutch die Engelwelt am Menschen geschehen ist. Denken Sie einmal, meine lieben Freunde, wie wunderschön gewisse Anschauungen im naiven Gemüt des Menschen leben und sich eigentlich durch die höhere initiierte Weisheit behaupten! Wir reden davon, wie das erste Kindesalter des Menschen durchwoben ist von der Wirksamkeit der Angeloi. Und wir sehen wirklich, wenn wir zurückblicken, um die Mondentegion zu studieren, unsere Kindheit und damit zugleich das Weben der Welt der Angeloi. Da, wo die stärkeren Kräfte einsetzen beim Menschen, wenn der Mensch in die Schulzeit kommt, sehen wir das Wesen der Archangeloi. Und diese Archangeloi werden für uns wichtig, wenn wir das Merkurdasein betrachten. Innerhalb des Merkurdaseins sind wir in der Welt der Archangeloi. Und wenn der Mensch die Geschlechtsreife erlangt hat, geht er durch das Zeitalter von ungefähr dem vierzehnten bis einundzwanzigsten Lebensjahr. Im Rückblick sieht man durchscheinen durch den menschlichen Lebenslauf, durch das Tableau des Lebenslaufes die Venusgeheimnisse. Man lernt zugleich erkennen, welche Wesenheiten mit dem Venusdasein vorzugsweise verbunden sind, die Wesenheiten aus der Hierarchie der Archai, der Urkräfte. Und jetzt lernt man eine wichtige Wahrheit kennen, wiederum etwas, das, wenn man es wirklich kennenlernt, ungeheuer frappiert. Man schaut hin auf die Wesenheiten, die mit dem Venusdasein verbunden sind, die hereinscheinen in das Menschenleben nach der Geschlechtsteife. Und diese Wesenheiten sind dann diejenigen, die als Urkräfte mit der Entstehung der Welt selber verknüpft sind. Diese Wesenheiten, die als Urkräfte mit der Entstehung des Kosmos selber verknüpft sind, sind in ihrem Abglanz wiederum tätig bei der Entstehung des physischen Menschen in der Generationenfolge. Der große Zusammenhang zwischen dem Kosmos und dem Menschenleben offenbart sich auf diese Weise.
Man blickt dann hinein auch in die Geheimnisse des Sonnenlebens. Dieses Sonnenwesen, was ist es schließlich für unsere heutigen Physiker? - Ein glühender Gasball, da brennen Gase, die verbreiten Wärme und Licht. -— Für den geistigen Anblick eine kindische Vorstellung, eine recht kindische Vorstellung; denn die Wahrheit ist diese, daß die Physiker, wenn sie eine Expedition in die Sonne ausrüsten könnten, sehr überrascht sein würden, alles anders zu finden, als sie sich vorgestellt haben. Nichts von Weltengasen ist da. Man würde nicht von Flammen verzehrt werden, wenn man eine Expedition nach der Sonne ausstatten könnte. Aber man würde, indem man in die Sonnenregion hineinkommt, auseinandergerissen werden, durch Auseinanderreißen verzehrt werden. Denn was ist eigentlich das, wo die Sonne ist?
Nun, meine lieben Freunde, wenn Sie hier durch den Raum gehen, sind Stühle da, sind Menschen da, an die können Sie anstoßen. Ich will schematisch aufzeichnen einige von diesen Dingen, sie sind da, man stößt sich an diesen Dingen. Da sind die Dinge, dazwischen ist der leere Raum, da gehen Sie durch. Das ist der Unterschied in dem Territorium, in dem wir hier sind, daß gewisse Raumesteile ausgefüllt sind von Stühlen oder von Ihnen; andere Raumesteile sind leer. Wenn ich die Stühle wegnehme, und Sie kommen herein, so ist nur der leere Raum da. Der leere Raum ist noch weit mehr verbreitet im Weltall. Hier auf der Erde kennt man nicht, was man im Weltall kennenlernen muß. Da kann der Raum leer werden von sich selber, so daß irgendwo kein Raum mehr ist. Wenn Sie dasjenige haben, was man in Deutschland «Selterswasser» nennt, da sind drinnen kleine Perlen, die sind dünner als das Wasser, die sehen Sie; das Wasser sehen Sie nicht, aber die Perlen. So können Sie nun auch, wenn Sie hinausschauen in den Raum, nichts sehen. Aber, wo die Sonne ist, da ist weniger Raum. Stellen Sie sich vor, hier sei der leere Raum des Weltalls, aber in diesem leeren Raum wäre nichts da, auch kein Raum, so daß Sie in der Tat, wenn Sie hinkämen, aufgesogen würden und verschwinden. Es ist gar nichts da, es ist Platz für alles Geistige. Nichts Physisches, nicht einmal Raum ist da. Das ist das Sonnendasein in Wirklichkeit, über das die Physiker sehr überrascht sein würden. Erst am Rande dieses leeren Raumes, da fängt es etwas an, so zu sein, wie die Physiker es voraussetzen. Da sind etwas glühende Gase, in der Sonnenkorona, aber innerhalb dieses leeren Raumes ist nichts Physisches, nicht einmal Raum. Da ist lauter Geistiges. Da drinnen sind die drei Arten von Wesenheiten: Exusiai, Dynamis und Kyriotetes, die sind im Sonnendasein. In die Region der Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes treten wir nun ein, wenn wir das Venusdasein durchschritten haben in der weiteren Zeit zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Da sieht man, wenn man zurückblickt - nur muß man älter als zweiundvierzig Jahre geworden sein -, da sieht man gewissermaßen den Abglanz des Sonnenhaften. Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, unter denen lebt man den größten Teil der Zeit, die man zubringt zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt.
Nun, meine lieben Freunde, wenn der Mensch wirklich eindringt zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt in diese Sonnenregion, dann wird alles anders, als wir irgend etwas gewöhnt sind zu sehen in der physisch-irdischen Welt. In der physisch-irdischen Welt, — wir haben gute Absichten, neben uns steht einer vielleicht, der hat sehr böse Absichten; wir versuchen gute Handlungen auszuführen, es gelingt uns mehr oder weniger, neben uns steht einer, dem sozusagen alles gelingt. Wir sehen dann das Leben dahingehen. Nach Jahren oder Jahrzehnten blicken wir zurück auf dasjenige, was geschehen ist, und man kommt allzuleicht gegenüber dem physisch-irdischen Verlauf zum Urteil: Es ist nicht so, daß die gute Absicht, aber auch die guten Taten, im Erdenleben auch gute Folgen haben für den Menschen. Zum Beispiel erscheint auf der Erde der Gute bestraft, der Böse belohnt, indem der Gute unglücklich werden kann, der Böse glücklich werden kann. Wir sehen keinen Zusammenhang zwischen demjenigen, was moralisch lebt, und demjenigen, was sich physisch verwirklicht. Dagegen hat alles Physische seine notwendigen Konsequenzen; die magnetische Kraft muß das Eisen anziehen, sie hat diese notwendige Konsequenz. Auf der Erde verwirklicht sich zunächst für dasjenige Leben, das wir durchleben zwischen Geburt und Tod, nur, was im physischen Zusammenhang steht. Nun, meine lieben Freunde, einen solchen physischen Zusammenhang gibt es im Sonnendasein nicht. In diesem Sonnendasein gibt es nur einen moralischen Zusammenhang. Jedes Moralische hat dort die Macht, sich auch zu realisieren und in entsprechender Weise zu realisieren. Das Gute bewirkt Daseinserscheinungen, die beglückend sind, das Böse bewirkt Daseinserscheinungen, die für den Menschen nicht beglückend sind. Der moralische Zusammenhang, der hier auf der Erde nur ideell ist, auch nur ideell hingestellt werden kann auf äußerlich mangelhafte Weise, indem man durch Jurisprudenz den Bösen bestraft, - dort wird er Realität.
In der Sonnenregion beginnt alles dasjenige, was der Mensch nur im kleinsten Gedanken als gute Intentionen getragen hat, Realität zu sein, auf die dann hinschauen Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. Wie man das Gute in sich hat, denken und empfinden und erleben konnte, so wird man von den Wesen der Sonnenregion angesehen. Daher kann ich Ihnen die Sonnenregion nicht schildern auf theoretische Weise, sondern nur schildern auf lebendige Weise. Man kann nicht gut eine Definition geben, wie wirkt das oder jenes Gute in der Sonnenregion, man muß so reden, daß dem Zuhörer klar werden kann: Hast du als Mensch in der Erdenregion einen guten Gedanken gehabt, so hast du in der Sonnenregion in dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt den Umgang mit Exusiai, Dynamis und Kyriotetes. Du darfst ein geistig geselliges Leben führen mit diesen Wesenheiten. Hast du aber Böses gedacht, das du sozusagen mit deinem eigenen Wesen in der Mondregion zurückgelassen hast, so bist du ein Einsamer, verlassen von Exusiai, Dynamis und Kyriotetes. So wird das Gute Realität in der Sonnenwelt durch unser Zusammenleben mit diesen Wesenheiten. Wir verstehen die Sprache dieser Wesenheiten nicht, wenn wir nicht Gutes gedacht haben; wir können nicht vor sie hintreten, wenn wir nicht Gutes vollbracht haben, Da ist alles Realität als reale Wirksamkeit unseres Guten in der Sonnenregion.
Das ist dasjenige, was ich heute vorläufig über die Dinge sagen wollte, wir wollen morgen diese Betrachtung weiter fortsetzen.
Sixth Lecture
Yesterday I endeavored to show how man, by passing through the gate of death, ascends into the first experiences of the supersensible world, which he lives through in the next decades after death. I showed how man dwells for a certain number of years in what may be called the lunar region, how man in this lunar region comes into contact with beings who were once connected with the earth, who did not live in a physical body on earth, but in an etheric body, and as such beings were the teachers of original humanity, inspired man with that profound wisdom which was once on earth and which has gradually died out on earth. With the passing away of the physical moon from the earth these beings have also passed away; they continue their existence on the moon, and man comes together with them again when he has passed through the gate of death and is to survey all that which is surveyed in the way characterized yesterday in a much stronger reality than man actually experiences during his earthly existence.
I have already indicated that, after man has lingered long enough in the moon region, he finds the transition into the Mercury region, in which he meets beings who lead him out into a region of the world in which completely different beings live than on earth, but a region to which he now belongs as man through the time between death and a new birth, just as he belonged to the earth and its reality with his earth existence.
Permit me now, my dear friends, to continue today the little sketch I sketched yesterday. We can assume that when man lives through death - which actually takes a very short time - he then experiences his existence in the elements, in earth, water, fire and air. That which are differentiated substances on earth, metals, all other substances, are then not there at the moment of death. All solid substances are earth, all liquid substances are water, all aeriform substances are air, and everything that shows heat is heat. Man lives in this fourfold differentiation of matter at the moment of death. He then passes over into that region which I characterized yesterday as the region of world intelligence. World thoughts weave through and live through the region into which he then enters and in which he remains for a few days. Then it enters the lunar region, which I have described, and from there into the Mercury region.
This sketch, I would like to repeat it again: the region 'of the elements, the region of world intelligence. And now the human being comes into the star region, first into the moon region and then into the Mercury region.
Now let us realize how man's life first in the lunar region can have a determining effect on his later karma. I also alluded to this yesterday. It is like this: When a person passes through death, he has done this or that in his life on earth, this or that good or evil. And with all this he comes before those beings through the experience I described yesterday, which can be called the lunar beings. These lunar beings exercise a strict judgment, a world judgment: how much value an action has as a good action for the entire universe, how much value an evil, an unjust action has for the entire universe. And then the matter is such that man must leave behind in the lunar region all that by which he has damaged the universe. The results of his evil actions must be left behind in the lunar region. And thus he leaves behind a part of himself. We only have to realize that man is more than we think, a unity of himself and what he does, what he accomplishes. The whole being of man enters into a connection, so to speak, with a good and a bad action. If we have to leave behind the evil we have committed, we have to leave behind a part of ourselves. - In fact, we only come out of this lunar region with the good we have done for the universe. Thus, in a certain sense, when we pass beyond the lunar region, we are a mutilated human being, all the more mutilated because we have united evil thoughts with our own being. We must leave behind as much as we have done harmful things for the world.
If we now want to study the further course of man through life between death and a new birth, then we must look at the following: Man, as he stands here on earth, consists of clearly differentiated limbs. The head region is proportionally the most developed, it is also predisposed in the human germ even before the birth of the human being, so that it is relatively perfect, while the other physicality of the human being in embryonic life is rather imperfect. In a certain sense this remains so throughout life. The most developed part of the human being is the head region; the other regions of the human being are less developed. But it is precisely the case that what remains of the human head after death as spiritual substance is lost most quickly in the spiritual region; it disappears almost completely, so to speak, with the passage through the lunar region. Of course you must understand me correctly: The physical materiality falls away with the corpse; but in the head we have not only the physical materiality, we have forces that form and animate this physical body of man, supersensible forces; they pass through the gate of death, they are seen with imaginative cognition even after death as the spiritual form of man, only one sees in this spiritual form the head, the head of man continually disappearing, disappearing more and more. That which actually remains, that which can be mutilated, is the remaining region of the human being apart from the head. With this remaining region, which can enter the Mercury sphere either more or less completely if the person was a good person in the main, but which enters the Mercury region very mutilated if the person was an evil person, with these forces that surround our soul, with these forces we enter the further life between death and a new birth. From these forces we must form the whole life between death and a new birth. Those spiritual beings who are in the sphere of Mercury, who have never been human, who have never taken on human form, into whose environment we now come, have a significant task. For with all that which enters there, so to speak - forgive the expression - as a headless human being, with all that is now connected, after the moral blemishes in the lunar region have been shed, is that which the human being has lived through as health or illness during his life on earth. It is important, because it is very significant, surprising and astonishing that man already sheds his moral defects in the lunar region, but that what has afflicted him in illness does not fall away in the lunar region, but can only be taken away from man in the spiritual effects in the Mercury region by those beings who have not ever been human beings. It is precisely the observation of this fact that is extraordinarily significant: illnesses are taken away by humans in the Mercury region in their spiritual results. And it is there that we first experience, when we observe this, how the physical and the moral interact in the starry world, which is the actual world of the gods. The morally flawed cannot enter the spiritual world, remains behind, so to speak, in the lunar region, which has such a share in human beings, for it has among its inhabitants beings who were already among human beings; on Mercury are inhabitants who were never earthlings. These beings now take the diseases away from people. These illnesses are seen as flowing out into the world, into the spiritual cosmos, and the spiritual results of human illnesses are absorbed by the spiritual cosmos, flow out, are even received with a certain pleasure. But the human being who experiences this in the life between death and a new birth now has the first impression, which is actually a purely spiritual one and yet really confronts him as the earth really confronts him. Just as here on earth we experience the wind, the lightning, the flowing of the water, so when we have passed through the gate of death and entered the Mercury region, we experience the departure of the spiritual effects of the illnesses, see how they are absorbed by the spiritual beings, these spiritual effects of the illnesses, and the impression is this: Now you are reconciled, O gods! - I mention this first - we will be able to go into these things in more detail tomorrow - that one experiences how the gods are reconciled for that which has happened evil on earth, through the fact that the effects of the diseases flow out into the wide universe.
This is a very important fact in the area of our life between death and a new birth. Such facts were once known when those very beings were present who taught people as the great primal teachers of mankind, who then became the inhabitants of the moon. Then it was also known that one can only learn about the nature of illnesses, which corresponds to the truth, when the truth comes from the Mercury beings; therefore all healing, all medical knowledge, the
Secret of certain mysteries, the Mercury mysteries. It was really the case in such mysteries that it was not a human being who stood there, as at today's universities, but that higher beings from the star regions actually worked through the cult that was customary at these mysteries. The gods themselves were teachers of men, and medicine was the wisdom science in ancient times of mankind which was brought to men directly by the Mercury beings in the Mysteries; therefore this ancient medicine was also regarded by men as a gift of the divine. Basically, everything that is fruitful in medicine today either comes from ancient times, an after-effect of what was experienced from the gods of Mercury, or it must be found again through those methods that guide man to have contact with the gods, to be able to learn from the gods. The old wisdom has dried up, disappeared; a new wisdom, which in turn is based on contact with the gods, must be found. This is the task of anthroposophy in the most diverse areas.
From the Mercury region man then enters the region of the Venus existence. That which the human being can bring from himself into the region of Venus is transformed by those beings who inhabit Venus and who are even more distant from the earth beings than the Mercury beings, so that it can progress at all in the spiritual region. But this is only possible because by entering the Venus region the human being enters a new element. When we live here on earth, it is very important that we have ideas, concepts and mental images. For what would man be on earth if he did not have mental images and ideas? Thoughts that carry him, that are valuable, and we as human beings are clever because we have thoughts that are good for something. Especially today, it counts for a lot if a person is clever. Today, almost everyone is clever. It wasn't always like that, but today it is. And yet the whole of life on earth depends on people having thoughts. Great technology has sprung from human thoughts, everything that man realizes on earth, good or bad, ultimately comes into being with the help of thoughts. But the thoughts still have an effect in the lunar region; for the beings in the lunar region judge according to the way in which the good and evil deeds have arisen from the thoughts. But also the beings in the Mercury region, they still judge the illnesses that they have to detach from people according to their thoughts. But in a certain sense this is the limit up to which thoughts - in general that which is still reminiscent of human intelligence - have a meaning. For when one comes out of the Mercury region into the region of Venus, then that which we know as love in its reflection in earthly life prevails. Love replaces wisdom, so to speak. We enter the region of love. Only through this can the human being be led further into the sun existence, that love leads him from the sphere of wisdom into the sun existence.
You see, my dear friends, the question in your soul will mean something to you: How does the person who can experience such things at all in his perception actually experience them? - Now you have certainly read what I have given of soul exercises in the book that has been translated into French under the title “L'Initiation”, and you will know that through such soul exercises man gradually comes to such a view. At first, when one attains imaginative consciousness, one experiences one's whole life in a spiritual way up to birth in a large tableau. That which one experiences naturally after death, one experiences through initiation in every moment of life. But this experience, when it comes to inspiration, shows something that shines through this tableau, through this human life. That is the important thing. Actually, you can only talk about the whole context of the underlying secrets - and it has always been like this - when you have reached a certain age. One can be initiated at any age, but one only gains a complete understanding of the cosmic mysteries through one's own contemplation at a certain age. This is so for the following reason.
When one looks back on this life tableau, it is divided into sections of seven to seven years, in such a way that one surveys a first section from birth to about the seventh year, a second section from the seventh to the fourteenth year, another from the fourteenth to the twenty-first year and then a uniform life section from the twenty-first to the forty-second year; then a period from the forty-second to the forty-ninth year of life, a period from the forty-ninth to the fifty-sixth and from the fifty-sixth to the sixty-third year. You experience these stages of life one after the other. In the first stage of life you look back and everything is there at once until the change of teeth. In each of these stages, the secrets of the world, the secrets of the cosmos, appear to you as if through a mist. In the first stage of life, from birth to the seventh year, you see the secrets of the moon in this review. When life stands like this in the first stage of life, it appears to you as when the sun shines through a mist, the secrets of the world appear through your own etheric body, which you survey. What I have told you today, my dear friends, about leaving behind his stains, his evil things, what I have told you about the inhabitants of the moon, that is written in the book of life, in this book of life of the first stage.
If you look back into your childhood with imagination, inspiration and intuition, you say to yourself: this life has one, two, three to seven chapters. The first chapter, comprising our first childhood, contains the secrets of the moon. In the second chapter of life, which covers the period between the change of teeth and sexual maturity, there are the secrets of Mercury. The secrets of Mercury are revealed in this age, which children spend at school, in this age, when one looks back on it. It is well known to doctors that this is the age when childhood illnesses occur. It is the healthiest age in human life, the mortality rate is relatively the lowest if you look at the whole of humanity. The secrets of Mercury are revealed afterwards in this period of life, so that if someone - it is not quite possible, but if it could be - could already be initiated at the age of eighteen, he would be able to overlook the secrets of the moon, the secrets of Mercury, from his initiation. If one looks back from the later years of life to the further stages of life from the fourteenth to the twenty-first year, all the secrets belonging to the Venus region in the universe are revealed in retrospect. In the time in which physical love occurs in man, from the fourteenth to the twenty-first year of life, the secrets of Venus' existence in the universe are also spiritually inscribed in the book of life. If we then continue to live from the twenty-first to the forty-second year, we need three times as long to live through this period, for there, when we look back from the later life, the whole essence of the sun's mysteries is revealed to us. One must have reached the age of forty-two to be able to look back; but then one sees the sun secrets in retrospect during this period of life. If one has now become quite old and can look back on the period of life from the forty-second to the forty-ninth year of life, then the secrets of Mars are revealed. So in order to penetrate the secrets of Mars, you have to get past the age of forty-nine. One can be initiated, but in order to penetrate the mysteries of Mars through one's own contemplation, one must be able to look back on a life that has passed in a period from the forty-second to the forty-ninth year of life. If you are over forty-nine years old, you can look back on the Jupiter mysteries. And - I may speak of this matter - if one is past the sixty-third year, one is permitted by the counsel of the gods to speak of the Saturn mysteries as well.
You see, my dear friends, within this life between death and a new birth, we progress more and more beyond the conditions that surround us here on earth and into other conditions. That which man experiences after he has passed through the Venus region is the factual world of the solar region. And now that I have described to you how one comes to these things through initiation, I may continue with the consideration of that which the human being goes through between death and a new birth.
Growing into the spiritual world is also a process that draws closer and closer to beings that stand above the human being. In the lunar region we are still entirely among beings who have lived with human beings on earth, in the main. But in the lunar region we are already becoming aware of those beings who guide us on earth from one earthly life to the next. There are the Beings whom I have designated in my books according to an old Christian usage with the name of the Hierarchy of the Angeloi. By looking back in that experience, in that initiated experience of which I have spoken, into the first childhood, one sees at the same time that which has happened to man through the angelic world. Just think, my dear friends, how beautifully certain views live in the naive mind of man and actually assert themselves through the higher initiated wisdom! We are talking about how the first childhood of man is interwoven with the activity of the Angeloi. And we really do see, when we look back to study the lunar region, our childhood and thus at the same time the weaving of the world of the Angeloi. We see the nature of the Archangeloi at the point where the stronger forces begin in the human being, when the human being enters the school years. And these Archangeloi become important for us when we look at the Mercury existence. Within the Mercury existence we are in the world of the Archangeloi. And when a person has reached sexual maturity, he goes through the age from about the age of fourteen to twenty-one. In retrospect, the secrets of Venus can be seen shining through the human course of life, through the tableau of the course of life. At the same time one learns to recognize which entities are preferentially connected with the Venus existence, the entities from the hierarchy of the Archai, the elemental forces. And now you get to know an important truth, again something that, when you really get to know it, is tremendously astonishing. One looks at the entities which are connected with the Venusian existence, which appear in human life after sexual puberty. And these entities are then those which, as primal forces, are linked to the creation of the world itself. These entities, which are linked as elemental forces to the creation of the cosmos itself, are in turn active in their reflection in the creation of the physical human being in the succession of generations. The great connection between the cosmos and human life is revealed in this way.
One then also looks into the secrets of solar life. After all, what is this solar being for our physicists today? - A glowing ball of gas, burning gases that spread warmth and light. -- A childish image to the mind, a rather childish image; for the truth is this, that if physicists could equip an expedition into the sun, they would be very surprised to find everything different from what they had imagined. Nothing of world gases is there. One would not be consumed by flames if one could equip an expedition to the sun. But one would be torn apart, consumed by being torn apart, by entering the solar region. For what is actually that where the sun is?
Now, my dear friends, as you walk through this room, there are chairs, there are people, you can bump into them. I want to draw some of these things schematically, they are there, you bump into them. There are the things, in between is the empty space, you walk through it. That's the difference in the territory we're in here, that certain parts of the room are filled with chairs or with you; other parts of the room are empty. If I take away the chairs and you come in, there is only the empty space. Empty space is even more common in outer space. Here on earth you don't know what you have to get to know in space. Space can become empty of itself, so that somewhere there is no more space. If you have what in Germany is called “Selterswasser”, there are little pearls in it, they are thinner than the water, you can see them; you cannot see the water, but you can see the pearls. So when you look out into space, you can't see anything. But where the sun is, there is less space. Imagine that here is the empty space of the universe, but in this empty space there would be nothing, no space either, so that in fact, if you went there, you would be absorbed and disappear. There is nothing there at all, there is room for everything spiritual. There is nothing physical, not even space. This is the sun's existence in reality, which physicists would be very surprised about. It is only at the edge of this empty space that something begins to be what physicists assume it to be. There are some glowing gases in the solar corona, but within this empty space there is nothing physical, not even space. There is nothing but the spiritual. In there are the three kinds of entities: Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes, they are in the solar existence. We now enter the region of the Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes when we have passed through the Venusian existence in the further time between death and a new birth. There, when one looks back - only one must have become older than forty-two years - one sees, as it were, the reflection of the solar. Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, among whom one lives the greater part of the time that one spends between death and a new birth.
Now, my dear friends, when man really enters this solar region between death and a new birth, then everything becomes different from what we are used to seeing in the physical-earthly world. In the physical-earthly world, - we have good intentions, next to us there is perhaps someone who has very evil intentions; we try to carry out good actions, we succeed more or less, next to us there is someone who succeeds in everything, so to speak. We then watch life go by. After years or decades we look back on what has happened, and it is all too easy to come to the conclusion that good intentions and good deeds do not have good consequences for people in earthly life. For example, on earth the good is punished and the evil rewarded, in that the good can become unhappy and the evil can become happy. We see no connection between that which lives morally and that which is realized physically. On the other hand, everything physical has its necessary consequences; the magnetic force must attract the iron, it has this necessary consequence. On earth, for the life we live through between birth and death, only that which is physically connected is realized. Now, my dear friends, there is no such physical connection in the existence of the sun. In this solar existence there is only a moral connection. Every moral thing there has the power to realize itself and to realize itself in a corresponding way. The good causes phenomena of existence that are happy, the evil causes phenomena of existence that are not happy for man. The moral connection, which is only ideal here on earth, which can also only be made ideal in an outwardly inadequate way by punishing the wicked through jurisprudence, - there it becomes reality.
In the solar region all that which man has carried as good intentions only in the smallest thought begins to be reality, towards which Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes then look. Just as one could think and feel and experience the good in oneself, so one is regarded by the beings of the solar region. Therefore I cannot describe the solar region to you in a theoretical way, but only in a living way. One cannot well give a definition of how this or that good thing works in the sun region, one must speak in such a way that the listener can become clear: If you as a human being have had a good thought in the earth region, then in the sun region in the life between death and a new birth you have dealings with Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes. You may lead a spiritually sociable life with these beings. But if you have thought evil, which you have, so to speak, left behind with your own being in the lunar region, then you are a lonely one, abandoned by Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes. This is how good becomes reality in the solar world through our coexistence with these entities. We do not understand the language of these beings if we have not thought good; we cannot go before them if we have not accomplished good, since everything is reality as the real effectiveness of our good in the solar region.
That is what I wanted to say about things for the time being today; we will continue this consideration tomorrow.