Karmic Relationships VII
GA 239
8 June 1924, Breslau
Lecture II
In the lecture yesterday we heard that man spends the first period of his life between death and a new birth in the Moon sphere, preparing the forces that will eventually take effect in his karma. In the Moon sphere he encounters Beings who were once together with him on the Earth as the great primeval Teachers of humanity. These are the Beings with whom he comes into contact almost immediately after death; he also comes into contact with the Hierarchy of Beings to whom the book Occult Science: An Outline refers as the Angeloi. The Angeloi have never been inhabitants of the Earth in the literal sense; they have never borne earthly bodies, nor even etheric bodies resembling those of men. The etheric bodies of the other Moon Beings of whom I spoke were not altogether dissimilar from those of men, but those Beings did not incarnate in physical bodies.
The Angeloi are the Beings who in the present period of our cosmic evolution guide us from one earthly life to another, and it is from the Moon sphere that they guide us. We have heard how in this same sphere the human being lays the foundations of his karma, gathers into himself the impulses which will bring about its ultimate fulfilment. But whatever has passed with a man through the gate of death as the result of unrighteous deeds, deeds which cannot be tolerated by the spiritual worlds—all this ‘bad’ karma, if I may so express it, must be left behind in the Moon sphere. For as he moves onwards through his life between death and a new birth, a man could not be encumbered with the consequences and effects of his unrighteous deeds. When he passes beyond the Moon sphere his inner life has expanded into a still wider region of the Cosmos, and he enters the Mercury sphere. Here he lives, primarily, in communion with the Beings belonging to the Hierarchy of the Archangeloi. In all these realms, of course, he is in contact with human souls who have also passed through the gate of death. In the Moon sphere, these are the third class of beings among whom he lives—they are disembodied human souls who, like himself, have passed through the gate of death. We shall presently see why the spiritual effects of the bad karma must remain behind in the Moon sphere. For the moment, the fact itself will suffice.
When man enters the Mercury sphere, he undergoes further purification. Even when he has laid aside in the Moon sphere those moral attributes which are unfit for the Cosmos, the spiritual counterparts of his physical weaknesses, of his physical infirmities, still remain with him, as do the tendencies to illness and the effects of the illnesses from which he suffered here on Earth. Surprising as it may seem, it is the case that in the life between death and a new birth, man lays aside his moral failings first and his physical infirmities only later, when he enters the Mercury sphere. In the Mercury sphere his soul is purged of the inner effects of those morbid processes which came to expression in illness during his life on Earth and in his soul he becomes completely healthy. You must remember that man is a single whole. From the occult standpoint it is erroneous to speak of him as a compound of spirit, soul and body. He is not a compound of these three constituents, but when we observe him he is revealed on the one side as body, on the other as spirit, and between body and spirit, as soul. In reality, man is one whole, a self-contained unity. The soul and the spirit too are involved in the conditions which prevail in illness. And when man has laid aside the physical body at death, the effects of the experiences resulting from the disease-processes are, to begin with, still present in his soul. But in the Mercury sphere these effects are obliterated under the influences of the Beings we know as the Archangeloi.
You see, therefore, that having passed stage by stage through the Moon sphere and the Mercury sphere, man becomes a being from whom moral and physical weaknesses have been removed. Then—after the lapse of many decades—he enters the Venus sphere and there, as one who has lived through the spheres of Moon and Mercury, he is ready to pass from the Venus sphere into the Sun sphere where the longest period of life between death and a new birth is spent. The indications I am giving will show you how well-founded were the practices of those ancient Mysteries where men acted out of wisdom which, although it was an instinctive wisdom, was the outcome of wonderful powers of clairvoyance. In those olden times it would have been unthinkable to study medicine, for example, in the way that is customary nowadays. What happens now is that the purely physical symptoms of disease are observed and efforts are made to discover ameliorative measures by dissecting the corpse and observing the changes in evidence there, as compared with those which take place in the normal, living organism—and so forth. Such procedure would have been regarded as futile in the days of the ancient Mystery-wisdom when it was known that illumination leading to the healing of illness must come from the Beings of the Mercury sphere. For it was known that only if illumination proceeds from the whole nexus of cosmic processes can a man be healed fundamentally. The description of the Oracle of the Mercury Mysteries given from a different point of view in the book Occult Science indicates the nature of the practices in these Mysteries which were dedicated primarily to the ancient Art of Healing.
In the lecture yesterday we heard of the great primeval Teachers who were once together with men on Earth; wherever human beings dwelt, these Teachers were among them, peopling the etheric sphere of the Earth as a kind of second race. But in their dim, dreamlike consciousness men were aware that other Beings too came down among them, Beings whose abode has never been on the Earth. What has to be said about these things will of course seem not only paradoxical but sheer nonsense to the modern mind with its devotion to materialistic science. Nevertheless this ‘nonsense’ is the truth. The sages in the ancient Mysteries knew well that illumination on the processes of healing can be given only by the super-sensible Mercury Beings. And so through the sacred rites enacted in these Mysteries, spiritual Beings were able to come down from the Mercury sphere to the altars in the sanctuaries where the priests of the Mysteries conversed with them. The Beings who thus descended to the altars were known in the Mysteries simply as the God Mercury. The influence was the same, although it was not necessarily the same Being who descended on every occasion. Men's attitude to this sacred medicine in olden times was such that they said: the Art of Healing has been imparted by the God Mercury to his priest-healers.
Even to-day it cannot be said that Spiritual Science does not depend upon the help of Beings of the Cosmos who, when the necessary preparation has been made by Initiates, are able to come down to the Earth. Initiates of the Mystery-wisdom belonging to the modern age know well how much depends upon the possibility of conversing with Beings of the Cosmos. But the mentality prevailing to-day is utterly different from that of olden times. A doctor nowadays is one upon whom some University has conferred a medical degree, whereas in days of antiquity a doctor was one who had conversed with the God Mercury. But as time went on this converse took place no longer and only traditions remained of what was once achieved in the Mysteries when the priest-healers had conversed with the God.
In the Venus sphere it is a matter of leading over into the Sun sphere whatever still remains of the human being when his tendencies to unrighteousness and to illness have been eliminated. To understand this we must think of something that is characteristic of man. Here on Earth a man is always one whole, one undivided whole. Only if he is executed for some terrible crime is he no longer a single whole in respect of the physical body. However severe the punishment he may receive for lesser transgressions, he is still one whole. But this is not the case with the soul-and-spiritual counterpart which has passed through the Moon sphere and the Mercury sphere. When as a being still possessed of soul and spirit in the super-sensible world after death, man has cast off the weaknesses due to the wrongdoings and to illnesses, he is in a certain sense no longer whole. For a man is one with his wrongdoings; his sinfulness is part of him. If someone were so utterly villainous as to possess no good qualities at all, his whole being would have to remain in the Moon sphere and he could make no further progress; for to the extent to which we are evil, to that extent we leave our own being behind in the Moon sphere. We are one with, identical with, what is evil in us according to the standards of the spiritual world. Therefore when we arrive in the Venus sphere, we have been mutilated in a certain respect. In the Venus sphere the element of purest Love prevails—purest Love in the spiritual sense; and it is this Cosmic Love that bears what now remains of the human being from the Venus sphere into the Sun existence.
There, in the Sun existence, man has to work in a very real way at the moulding and shaping of his karma. Now if our physicists were ever to reach the Sun they would be astonished, to say the least of it! For everything that men claim to have discovered about the Sun is at variance with the facts. The Sun is supposed to be a kind of globe filled with incandescent gas—but that is far from the truth. Let us take a rather commonplace illustration. If you have some Seltzer water in a glass you will have to look carefully if you want to see the actual water, for what you see are the bubbles in the water. These bubbles are less dense than the water itself and you see what is the less dense. And now, what about the Sun? When you look at the Sun you do not see it because it is a globe of densified, incandescent gas in empty space, as science alleges, but you see it because just at that place there is a condition of utmost rarefication.—And now you must get accustomed to an idea that is far from familiar.-
You look out into space—I am not going to speak now about the nature of space. Here, when you look into the water, there are bubbles everywhere—bubbles which are thinner, less dense than the water. Where the Sun stands in the sky, conditions are less dense even than space. You will say: ‘but space itself is void, it is nullity.’ Nevertheless at the place where the Sun is situated there is actually less than nullity. It should not be difficult, especially in these days, for people to think of something else that is less than nothing. If there were originally five shillings in my pocket and I spend them one by one, in the end I have nothing. But when I get into debt I have less than nothing—which is the plight of a good many people to-day! Very well, then: where there is space, space alone, there is nothing; but where the Sun is there is less than nothing, there is a lacuna in space—and there dwell the spiritual Beings referred to in the book Occult Science as the Exousiai, the Dynamis, the Kyriotetes. There they have their abode, sending their own essence and power through all creation. Among them man spends the greater part of his life between death and a new birth. In association with the Exousiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, with human souls karmically connected with him who have also passed through the gate of death, and with yet other Beings whose existence is hardly even conjectured, the karma for the next earthly life is worked out and formulated. Conditions in this Sun region are not as they are on Earth. Why do our clever scientists—and clever they certainly are—picture the Sun as a globe of incandescent gas? It is because a certain illusory, materialistic instinct makes them want to detect physical processes in the Sun. But there is nothing physical in the Sun. One may at most speak of physical processes in the Sun's corona, but certainly not in the Sun itself. In the Sun there is nothing like natural law, for it is a world of purest spirit. Materialists would like to insist that the Sun too is under the sway of natural law, but it is not so. The only laws prevailing in the Sun are those which give effect to the karmic consequences of the Good and which operate in restoring the mutilation man has undergone as the result of his ‘bad’ karma when he has been transported by the Love of the Venus Beings into the Sun sphere. When the life of man between death and a new birth is described many will wonder how this very lengthy period is spent. Many things that happen on the Earth command admiration and awe, but the most sublime achievements of earthly civilisation are puny and insignificant in comparison with what is accomplished in a purely spiritual way during this Sun existence, when mighty Powers are all around and within us, working to the end that our karma shall take effect in the next earthly life.
The elaboration of part of man's karma is completed in the Venus sphere, and some part even in the Mercury sphere. Later on we shall hear of a certain well-known historical personality whose destiny in his incarnation in the nineteenth century was due to the fact that his karma was very largely wrought out in the spheres of Venus and Mercury. Souls who begin to give shape to their karma in these spheres often become personalities of outstanding significance in the subsequent incarnation. But in the great majority of cases the main part of the karma for the following earthly life is worked out in the Sun sphere, where the longest period is spent. We will speak in greater detail later on but to-day I will give an outline of how the foundations of karma are laid, stage by stage, in the various spheres. In order not to be confused by other descriptions I have given of the life between death and a new birth, you must be clear that in moving through these spheres man enters into entirely different conditions of cosmic existence. When the time comes for him to enter the Mars sphere, he is still not altogether outside the Sun sphere, for the influences of the Sun are still active in this part of the Cosmos which was once cast off by the Earth. In the Sun sphere, man is concerned only with his moral qualities and with those attributes of his being which have remained healthy; the rest has been laid aside. It persists in him as a kind of incompleteness but this is made good in the Sun sphere. During the first half of existence in the Sun sphere we are engaged in making preparation for the appropriate physical organisation of the next earthly body. During the second half of the Sun existence, in union with the Exousiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, and with human souls karmically connected with us, we are concerned with the preparation of the moral side of karma, the moral qualities which will then be present in the next life. But this moral part and the spiritual part of karma—for example, specific talents in one direction or another—are then further elaborated in the Mars sphere, in the Jupiter sphere and in the Saturn sphere. And in passing through these spheres we come to know what the ‘physical’ stars are in reality.
To speak of a ‘physical’ star is not really correct. For what is a star? Physicists imagine that combustion of gas or some process of the kind is taking place in the sky. But as I said, if they could actually get there they would be amazed to find no burning gas in the Sun but actually a lacuna, a gap in space, in a condition infinitely more rarefied than any particles of earthly matter could ever be. Everything is Spirit, pure Spirit. Nor are the other stars so many bodies of incandescent, burning gas, but something entirely different. Bordering on this Earth with its physical substances and physical forces, is the universal Cosmic Ether. We are able to perceive the Cosmic Ether because, as we gaze into it, our field of vision is circumscribed and the surrounding ether appears blue. But to believe as materialistic thinkers do, that physical substances are roaming around up there in the Cosmos is just childish fancy. No physical substances are moving around, for at the place where a star is seen, there is something altogether different. The farthest reaches of the etheric would lead out of and beyond space, into the spheres where the Gods have their abode. And now picture to yourselves a certain inner relationship which may exist between one person and another and comes to physical expression. Picture it quite graphically. You are caressed by someone who loves you. You feel the caress but it would be childish to associate it in any way with physical matter. The caress is not matter at all, it is a process, and you experience it inwardly, in your soul. So it is when we look outwards into the spheres of the Ether. The Gods in their love caress the world. But the caress lasts long, because the life of the Gods spans immense reaches of time. In very truth the stars are the expression of love in the Cosmic Ether; there is nothing physical about them. And from the cosmic aspect, to see a star means to feel a caress that has been prompted by love. To gaze at the stars is to become aware of the love proceeding from the divine-spiritual Beings. What we must learn to realise is that the stars are only the signs and tokens of the presence of the Gods in the Universe. Physical science has much to learn on its path from illusion to truth! But men will not achieve self-knowledge nor will they understand their own true being until this physical science has been transformed into a spiritual science of the worlds beyond the Earth. Science in its present form has meaning only for the Earth, for physical matter in the real sense [The difference between physical and mineral matter must be remembered here.] exists only on the Earth. And so when we depart from the Earth at death, we enter more and more into a life of purely spiritual experiences. The reason why our physical life presents an entirely different aspect in these backward-streaming experiences which continue for a third of the length of earthly existence, is that we have been permeated with the essence and substance of the Moon sphere. The preparation of karma is one of the many things that have to be accomplished in the worlds of the stars.
In order that one set of facts may be supported by others, let me explain how such observations are made by one who is versed in modern Initiation Science. For some time now, even in public lectures, I have been describing how when a man develops the faculty of genuine super-sensible perception through the methods indicated in the book, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, he looks back over his earthly life, seeing it as a kind of tableau. Everything is present simultaneously, in a mighty panorama of the whole of life since the birth of the ‘I’; but the several epochs are in a certain respect distinct from each other. We survey our experiences from birth until the change of teeth, then again, as one complete series, the experiences occurring between the time of the change of teeth and puberty, then the experiences of the period from puberty until the beginning of the twenties, and so forth. Further concentration and application of the methods for the attainment of spiritual knowledge enable us, as we survey this tableau, to observe, firstly, our life from birth to the seventh year. But later on these pictures are allowed to fade away and we see right through our life; when the consciousness has been emptied of all pictorial impressions and we have achieved Inspiration, we behold the living, weaving activity of the Moon sphere in place of the tableau of early childhood from birth until the seventh year. We behold this living, weaving activity. And so Initiation in the form that is normal and right for this present age brings us knowledge of the secrets of the Moon sphere, when the pictures of our own life up to the seventh year are obliterated in the consciousness of Inspiration and we perceive what now flashes up in their place.
Then, if we observe the tableau of life between the seventh and fourteenth years and again obliterate the pictures in the consciousness of Inspiration, we gaze into the Mercury sphere. Everything has to do with the being of man, for man is an integral part of the whole Universe. If he learns to know himself as he really is, in the innermost core of his being, he learns to know the whole Universe. And now I would ask you to pay attention to the following.—Deepest respect arises in us for the old, instinctive Initiation Science which gave things that have remained in existence to this day, their true and proper names. Designations that are coined nowadays result in nothing but confusion, for modern scholarship is incapable of naming things in accordance with reality. An unprejudiced observation of life will fill us with reverence for the achievements of ancient Initiation Science. Ancient Initiation Science knew by instinct something that is confirmed to-day by statistics, namely, that the illnesses of childhood occur most frequently in the first period of life; it is then that the human being is most prone to illness, and even to death; after puberty this tendency abates, but the healthiest period of all, the period when mortality is at its lowest, is between the ages of seven and fourteen. The wise men of old knew that this is due to the influences of the Mercury sphere and again to-day we may make the same discovery when through modern Initiation Science we penetrate the secrets of existence. Such things fill us with reverence for these sacred traditions of humanity.
By looking back into our experiences from the fourteenth to the twenty-first years and obliterating the pictures in the consciousness of Inspiration, we are led to the secrets of the Venus sphere. Here again the wonderful wisdom of ancient Initiation Science comes into evidence. The human being reaches puberty; love is born. When the pictures of this period of life are illumined by Initiation Science, the secrets of the Venus sphere are disclosed. Everything I am now describing is part of the true self-knowledge which unfolds in this way.
When the pictures of experiences occurring between the twenty-first and forty-second years of life are eliminated in the consciousness of Inspiration, we are led to the Sun sphere. Through deepened self-knowledge the secrets of the Sun sphere can be experienced in this retrospective contemplation of the events of our life between the twenty-first and forty-second years. To acquire knowledge of the Sun existence our vision must cover a period three times longer than that of the periods connected with the other planetary bodies.
I told you that the karma of a certain well-known personality in history had taken shape paramountly in the spheres of Mercury and Venus, and you will now understand how such things are investigated. We look back, firstly, into the period of our own life between the seventh and fourteenth years, and then into the period between the fourteenth and twenty-first years; when the pictures have been eliminated in the consciousness of Inspiration, light is shed upon the secrets of the Mercury sphere and the Venus sphere. Through this illumination we perceive how such an individuality worked together with the Beings of the higher Hierarchies and with other human souls, and how his subsequent earthly incarnation in the nineteenth century took shape.
Now if the elaboration of karma has taken place mainly in the Mars sphere, investigation is more difficult. For if a man attains Initiation before the age of 49, it is not possible for him to look back into the period of life which here comes into question, namely, the period between the forty-second and forty-ninth years. He must have passed his forty-ninth year if he is to be able to eliminate the pictures of this particular set of experiences and penetrate the secrets of the Mars sphere. If Initiation is attained after the age of fifty-six it is possible to look back into the period between the forty-ninth and fifty-sixth years of life, when karma that is connected with the Jupiter sphere takes shape. And now we are at the point where the various sets of events come together in one connected whole.
It is not until the period between the fifty-sixth and sixty-third years can be included in this retrospective vision that we are able to survey the whole range of experiences and to speak out of our own inner knowledge. For then we can gaze into the profoundly significant secrets of the Saturn sphere. Karmas that were wrought out mainly in the Saturn sphere operate in mysterious ways to bring men together again in the world. In order to perceive all these connections in the light of Initiation Science itself—they can of course be explained and so become intelligible—but in order to perceive with independent vision and be able to judge them, we must ourselves have reached the age of sixty-three. A human being appears in some earthly life—thus for example there is a certain great poet of whom I shall speak later—and we find that through his faculties, through his literary creations, he was giving expression to that in his karma which could have been wrought out only in the Saturn sphere.
When we look up to the Sun, to the planetary system—and the same applies to the rest of the starry heavens for they are connected in a very real way with the being of man—we can witness how human karma takes shape in the Cosmos. The Moon, the planets Venus, Jupiter—verily these heavenly bodies are not as physical astronomy describes them. In their constellations, in their mutual relationships, in their radiance, in their whole existence, they are the builders and 1 shapers of human destinies, they are the cosmic timepiece according to which we live out our karma. As they shine downwards from the heavens their influences have real power. This was known in the days of the ancient Mystery-wisdom but the old Astrology—which was a purely spiritual science, concerned with the spiritual foundations of existence—has come down to posterity in a degraded, amateurish form. Anthroposophy alone can contribute something that will enable us to perceive the spiritual connections as they truly are and to understand how through the great timepiece of destiny, human life on Earth is shaped according to law.
From this point of view let us think of the human being and his karma. Those who with the help of Anthroposophy evolve a healthy conception of the world as against the unsound views prevailing to-day, will unfold not only quite different concepts and ideas but also quite different feelings and perceptions. For you see, if we really understand the destiny of a man, we also learn to understand the secrets of the world of stars, the secrets of the Cosmos. But nowadays people write biographies without the faintest inkling that something is really being profaned by the way in which they write. In times when knowledge was held to be sacred because it issued from the Mysteries, nobody would have written biographies in the way that is customary to-day. Every ancient ‘biography’ contained indications of the influences and secrets of the world of stars. In human destiny we can perceive, firstly, the working of the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai; then of still loftier Sun Beings, Exousiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes; then of the Thrones who are concerned mainly with the elaboration of karma in the Mars sphere; then of the Cherubim who elaborate the karma belonging to the Jupiter sphere; and then of the Seraphim who work together with man at the elaboration of karma in the Saturn sphere—Saturn karma. In a man's destiny, in his karma, we behold the working of the higher Hierarchies. This karma, at first, is like a veil, a curtain. If we look behind this veil we gaze at the weaving deeds and influences of Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, Exousiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim. Every human destiny is like script on a sheet of paper. Just imagine that someone looking at the writing on the paper were to say that he can see signs - K - E - I, and so forth, but he is quite unable to combine these letters into words! As there are some twenty-two to twenty-eight letters (to be exact, about thirty to thirty-four in all) such a man could only conceive that the whole of Goethe's Faust is made up entirely of those thirty-four letters. He cannot read, therefore he sees only the different letters. When someone else finds a great deal more in Faust because he can combine the letters into the words of which this wonderful work is composed, an out-and-out illiterate with no notion of how to read may say with horror: Here is someone who actually thinks that all kinds of things are contained in Faust—but he is an utter fool! Yet the whole of Faust does actually consists of these letters. Similarly, when we observe the karma of a human being in the ordinary way, we see letters only; but the moment we begin to read this karma we behold the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai and their mutual, interrelated deeds. The destiny of an individual human life becomes the richer, the more we get beyond the thirty-four letters and find in them—Faust! And the picture of a human destiny is enriched beyond measure when earthly ignorance is transformed into knowledge of the Cosmic Alphabet, when we realise that the letters of that script are the signs and tokens of the deeds of the Beings of the higher Hierarchies.
To a man who beholds it, the vista of karma as the shape taken by destiny in life is so overwhelming, so sublime and majestic that simply by understanding how karma is related to the spiritual Cosmos he will unfold quite different qualities of feeling and discernment. It will not remain so much theoretical knowledge. What we acquire through Anthroposophy should not be a mere accumulation of theoretical information but should work more and more upon our life of thought and feeling, in that it rids us of the notion that we live an earthworm's existence and makes us aware that we belong to the land of Spirits. Verily, we are citizens not of the Earth alone but of the land of Spirits. The whole existence we have spent between death and a new birth converges in that which, on Earth, is enclosed within our skin. The secrets of worlds are contained in a particular form within this encircling skin.
Self-knowledge is by no means the trivial sentimentality of which there is so much talk nowadays. Human self-knowledge is world-knowledge. And so when friends have given me an opportunity, I have often written down for them the following lines:
If thou would'st know thy Self,
Look out into the Cosmic Spaces.
thou would'st fathom the Cosmic Spaces,
Look inwards, into thine own Self.
Neunter Vortrag
Gestern wurde auseinandergesetzt, wie der Mensch das Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt zur Vorbereitung der Kräfte seines Karma zunächst zubringt in dem, was man die Mondensphäre nennen kann, und wir haben gesehen, wie der Mensch in dieser Mondensphäre diejenigen Wesenheiten trifft, welche einmal seine Mitbewohner auf der Erde waren: die großen Urlehrer der Menschheit. Das ist die eine Art von Wesenheiten, die der Mensch unmittelbar, könnte man sagen, nach seinem Tode antrifft. Zusammen mit diesen Wesenheiten sind dann diejenigen, welche Sie angeführt finden in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft» unter dem Namen der Angeloi. Es sind diejenigen Wesenheiten, welche unmittelbare Erdenbewohner ja niemals waren, welche also einen Erdenkörper nie getragen haben, auch nicht einen solchen ätherischen Leib, wie ihn der Mensch trägt. Denn die anderen Mondenbewohner, von denen ich gesprochen habe, haben wohl einen menschenähnlichen ätherischen Leib getragen, wenn auch nicht einen physischen Menschenleib.
Diese Angeloi sind diejenigen Wesenheiten, die uns geleiten von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben. Sie sind in der gegenwärtigen kosmischen Entwickelungsperiode unserer Menschenwesenheit die Führer von einem Erdenleben zum anderen. Und es ist schon von der Mondensphäre aus, daß sie uns leiten. Nun haben wir ja gesehen, wie der Mensch dazu kommt, in dieser Mondensphäre sein Karma gewissermaßen zu veranlagen und die inneren Impulse aufzunehmen, die ihn dann zum Ausleben des Karma führen. Dasjenige aber, was der Mensch mit sich genommen hat durch die Todespforte an unrechten Taten, an solchen Taten, die nicht bestehen können vor den geistigen Welten, alles das muß der Mensch in dieser Mondensphäre zurücklassen, so daß, wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf, das böse Karma in der Mondensphäre zurückgelassen wird. Denn in dem Augenblicke, wo der Mensch weiterdringt in dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, würde es ganz unmöglich sein, daß der Mensch behaftet bliebe mit demjenigen, was die Wirkung, die Konsequenz seiner bösen Taten ist.
Dann, wenn der Mensch hinausgekommen ist über diese Mondensphäre, dann hat er wiederum sein inneres Leben vergrößert über ein weiteres Gebiet des Kosmos hinaus. Er tritt ein in diejenige Sphäre, die man die Merkursphäre nennen kann. Da lebt er zunächst nicht zusammen mit solchen Wesenheiten, welche mit ihm die Erde bewohnt haben, sondern er lebt zusammen mit den Wesenheiten der Hierarchie der Archangeloi. Die lernt er da kennen. Natürlich lebt er in all diesen Gebieten zusammen mit jenen Menschenseelen, die nun auch durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind. In der Mondensphäre ist das die dritte Art von Wesenheiten, mit welchen der Mensch zusammenlebt: Menschenseelen, die entkörpert sind, die gleich ihm durch des Todes Pforte gegangen sind. Wir werden gerade nachher sehen, warum eigentlich die Wirkungen, die geistigen Wirkungen der bösen Seite des Karma zurückbleiben müssen in der Mondensphäre. Jetzt wollen wir uns mit der Tatsache begnügen.
Indem der Mensch in die Merkursphäre eintritt, wird er weiter geläutert und gereinigt. Der Mensch hat nämlich, wenn er sozusagen das für den Kosmos moralisch Unbrauchbare in der Mondensphäre abgelegt hat, noch immer an sich die geistigen Gegenbilder seiner physischen Untauglichkeiten, seiner physischen Schwächen. Er hat in sich diejenigen Krankheitsanlagen und Krankheitsergebnisse, die er hier auf Erden durchlebt hat. Nun wird es Sie überraschen, aber die Sache ist so, daß wir zuerst in dem Leben zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt ablegen die moralischen Schwächen, während die physischen Schwächen später erst abgelegt werden, nämlich in der Merkursphäre. Da wird der Mensch geläutert und gereinigt in seiner Seele von all dem, was er in der Seele miterlebt hat während der Erdenzeit: die verschiedensten Krankheitsprozesse. Der Mensch wird also seelisch völlig gesund gemacht in der Merkursphäre. Denn Sie müssen bedenken, der Mensch ist ja durchaus ein einheitliches Wesen. Man spricht ganz falsch über den Menschen vom okkulten Standpunkt aus, wenn man sagt, der Mensch sei eine Zusammensetzung von Geist, Seele und Leib. Er ist nicht aus diesen drei Bestandteilen etwa zusammengesetzt, sondern wenn man ihn betrachtet, so nimmt er sich nach der einen Seite als Leib, nach der anderen als Geist aus und zwischendrinnen als Seele; aber in Wirklichkeit ist das alles eine Einheit. Wenn der Mensch krank ist, so erlebt die Seele auch das Kranksein; der Geist durchlebt es auch, das Kranksein. Und wenn dann der Mensch im Tode den physischen Leib abgelegt hat, so hat er in der Seele zunächst die Wirkungen auch jener Erlebnisse, die er durch die Krankheitsprozesse durchgemacht hat. Die aber werden in der Merkursphäre völlig abgelegt unter der Einwirkung jener Wesenheiten, die wir als die Archangeloi bezeichnen. Da wird also der Mensch nach und nach durch Monden- und Merkursphäre ein Wesen, das keine moralischen und keine physischen Schwächezustände mehr in sich hat. Er tritt in diesem Zustande nun ein - mittlerweile sind viele Jahrzehnte verflossen — in die Venussphäre. Und in dieser Venussphäre wird das, was jetzt vom Menschen hindurchgedrungen ist durch Monden- und Merkursphäre, so bearbeitet, daß der Mensch übergehen kann, nachdem er die Venussphäre durchgemacht hat, in die Sonnensphäre. Und wir durchleben in der Tat einen größeren Teil unseres Lebens zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt in dieser Sonnensphäre.
Gerade aus den Angaben, die ich Ihnen mache, werden Sie ersehen, wie begründet durchaus eigentlich alles ist, was Einrichtung war jener alten Mysterien, die aus einer instinktiven, aber großartigen, gewaltigen Hellseherweisheit in alten Zeiten hervorgegangen sind. In diesen alten Zeiten hatte man zum Beispiel niemals Medizin so studiert wie heute, indem man einfach in der physischen Welt bleibt und den physischen Menschen in seinen Krankheitssymptomen studiert, probiert, was ihm da helfen kann, indem man die Leiche seziert, die Veränderungen an der Leiche gegenüber dem normalen Organismus studiert und so weiter. Das würde man in den Zeiten der alten Mysterienweisheit als etwas außerordentlich Kindisches betrachtet haben, denn da wußte man ganz genau, wie der Mensch geheilt wird. Das kann man nur erfahren, wenn einem die Wesenheiten der Merkursphäre die Aufklärung darüber geben, denn die wird im Zusammenhang aller kosmischen Prozesse gegeben. Da wird der Mensch gründlich geheilt. Wenn man daher in das hineinsieht, was ich ja von einem anderen Gesichtspunkte in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft» als die Orakel der Merkur-Mysterien beschrieben habe, so gewahrt man da, wie es eigentlich in diesen Mysterien, die im wesentlichen im Dienste der alten Heilkunde gestanden haben, zugegangen ist.
Sehen Sie, wir haben gestern sprechen müssen von den großen Urlehrern. Das waren einmal Mitbewohner der Menschen auf Erden. Sie waren überall, wo Menschen waren, denn sie bevölkerten mit den Menschen als eine Art zweites, ätherisch vorhandenes Menschengeschlecht die Erde. Aber in jenen alten Zeiten stiegen für das Bewußtsein der Menschen, das allerdings nur ein dumpfes, traumhaftes war, auch andere Wesenheiten zu den Menschen herunter, Wesenheiten, die nun durchaus nicht die Erde bewohnen. Natürlich ist das, was man über solche Dinge zu sagen hat, für den Menschen, der so ganz ergeben ist der heutigen materialistischen Wissenschaft, nicht nur ein Paradoxon, sondern ein völliger Unsinn. Aber dieser «Unsinn» ist eben die Wahrheit. Diese alten Mysterienweisen haben gewußt: Aufschluß über die Gesundungsprozesse können nur die übersinnlichen Wesenheiten des Merkur geben. Daher wurden diese Merkur-Mysterien so eingerichtet, daß durch einen entsprechenden Kultus in der Tat Bewohner des Merkur herabsteigen konnten auf den Altar der Merkur-Kultstätte, und daß die Priester der Merkur-Mysterien sich besprechen konnten mit den geistigen Wesenheiten, die so herunterstiegen durch die Verrichtungen der Kultushandlungen. Und das, was in diesen alten Zeiten Heilkunde war, das wurde durchaus in den Merkur-Mysterien in diesem Sinne entgegengenommen. Man nannte die einzelnen Wesenheiten - die nicht einmal immer dieselben zu sein brauchten, aber man empfand sie als dieselben -, die herunterstiegen auf die Altäre, eben den Gott Merkur. Man nahm die alte MysterienMedizin entgegen in der Art, daß man sagte: Das hat der Gott Merkur seinen Arzt-Priestern mitgeteilt. Damit heilte man.
Auch heute beruht die Geisteswissenschaft darauf, daß durch die entsprechende Vorbereitung der Initiierten die Wesenheiten unseres Kosmos auf die Erde heruntersteigen. Diejenigen, die Eingeweihte sind in die heutige Mysterienweisheit, wissen ganz gut, daß auch da das Wesentliche darauf beruht, daß man ins Zwiegespräch kommt mit den Wesenheiten des Kosmos. Aber im allgemeinen Menschenbewußtsein von heute ist das Gegenteil vorhanden von dem, was in der alten Zeit durchaus da war. Heute sagt man: Der ist ein Arzt, der an der Universität zum Arzt promoviert worden ist.- Das sagte man in alten Zeiten nicht. In alten Zeiten war der ein Arzt, der mit dem Gotte Merkur gesprochen hat. In den darauffolgenden Zeiten ist schon alles in der Auflösung; da waren nur noch die Traditionen desjenigen vorhanden, was einst in den Mysterien aus den Zwiegesprächen zwischen den Arzt-Priestern mit dem Gotte Merkur hervorgegangen ist.
Nun, in der Venussphäre handelt es sich darum, daß tatsächlich das, was vom Menschen noch übriggeblieben ist, nachdem er sein Böses und seine ungesunden Zustände abgelegt hat, übergeführt werde in die Sonnensphäre, Sehen Sie, da müssen wir, wenn wir das verstehen wollen, auf eine Eigentümlichkeit der ganzen Menschenwesenheit hindeuten. Hier auf der Erde erscheint uns der Mensch immer als ein Ganzes. Er muß schon ein so großer Verbrecher werden, daß er enthauptet wird, dann erscheint er nach der Enthauptung nicht mehr als ein Ganzes im physischen Leibe. Aber bei geringeren Vergehen und Verbrechen, wenn er auch noch so streng bestraft wird, erscheint er immer als ein Ganzes. Nun, das ist nicht der Fall mit dem geistig-seelischen Gegenbild, das der Mensch durch die Monden- und Merkursphäre hindurchträgt. Der Mensch ist eigentlich, indem er mit Seele und Geist ankommt in der übersinnlichen Welt, nachdem er durch die Pforte des Todes geschritten ist und abgelegt hat die Schwächen des Bösen und die Schwächen der Krankheiten, in gewissem Sinne kein ganzer Mensch mehr. Denn der Mensch ist identisch mit seinem Bösen, das Böse bildet einen Teil seines eigenen Wesens. Wenn einer nur ein ausgepichter Bösewicht wäre, gar nichts gutes Menschliches in sich hätte, dann würde er seinen ganzen Menschen in der Mondensphäre zurücklassen müssen, er käme gar nicht weiter; denn in demselben Maße, in dem wir böse sind, lassen wir unser eigenes Wesen im Monde zurück. Wir sind eins, identisch mit demjenigen, was böse an uns ist vor der geistigen Welt, so daß wir in gewissem Sinne als verstümmelte Menschen in der Venussphäre ankommen. Nun herrscht in der Venussphäre tatsächlich in dem geistigsten Sinne reinste Liebe, Die Venus ist das Element der reinsten Liebe, und da wird durch die kosmische Liebe von der Venussphäre in das Sonnendasein das hinübergetragen, was in dieser Weise vom Menschen geblieben ist.
In der Sonnensphäre hat nun der Mensch real zu arbeiten an dem Zustandekommen seines Karma. Unsere jetzigen Physiker würden im höchsten Grade staunen müssen, wenn sie nun wirklich einmal in die Sonne kämen. Denn alles das, was hier auf der Erde auszukundschaften wäre über die Sonne, stimmt nicht. Die Sonne soll etwas wie eine Art glühender Gasball sein. Das ist sie nicht, sondern die Sache ist so —- ich möchte von einem Vergleich ausgehen, der etwas banal ist -: Wenn Sie Selterswasser in einer Flasche haben, so müssen Sie, wenn Sie das Wasser sehen wollen, schon sehr aufmerksam sein und da hinschauen, wo es bald aufhört, sonst erscheint es Ihnen überhaupt nicht. Was sehen Sie denn eigentlich? Sie sehen nicht das Wasser, sondern die Perlen der Kohlensäure, die dünner sind als das Wasser. Sie sehen das Dünnere, und das Dichtere sehen Sie nicht. Nun, wie ist es mit der Sonne? Wenn Sie zur Sonne hinschauen, dann sehen Sie die Sonne nicht deshalb, weil sie im leeren Raum ein verdichteter, glühender Gasball wäre, sondern Sie sehen die Sonne deshalb, weil es da besonders dünn ist. Und nun müssen Sie sich schon zu einer Vorstellung bequemen, die nicht gerade gewöhnlich ist.
Wenn Sie so hinschauen, so sehen Sie in den Raum hinein. Ich will nicht über die Natur des Raumes sprechen. Hier sehen Sie ins Wasser hinein; im Wasser sind die Perlen ausgespart (siehe Zeichnung), die sind dünner als das Wasser. Da, wo oben die Sonne ist, ist es dünner als der Raum. Sie werden sagen: Der Raum ist schon nichts. — Aber wirklich, wo die Sonne ist, ist noch weniger als nichts! Nun, Erdenmenschen könnten ja, besonders in der heutigen Zeit, aus ganz anderen Untergründen heraus wissen, daß es auch weniger als nichts gibt. Wenn ich fünf Mark in der Tasche habe, so habe ich fünf Mark. Wenn ich sie nach und nach ausgegeben habe, so habe ich endlich Null. Aber wenn ich Schulden mache, dann habe ich weniger als nichts. Man weiß ja das heute, was das bedeutet, weniger als nichts haben. Sehen Sie, so ist es: Wo Raum bloß ist, ist nichts; aber wo die Sonne ist, ist weniger als nichts. Da ist in dem Raum ein Loch, da ist gar kein Raum, und in diesem Loch im Raum, da leben in der Tat geistige Wesenheiten, leben die Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. Sie leben in diesem Loch - allerdings, indem sich überallhin ihr Dasein erstreckt - als die Wesenheiten Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, die Sie angeführt finden in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft». Und mit ihnen lebt der Mensch den größten Teil seines Lebens zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt zusammen. Mit ihnen im Verein, mit denjenigen Menschenseelen ferner, die mit ihm durch die Todespforte gegangen sind und mit denen er einen karmischen Zusammenhang hat, und mit anderen Wesenheiten noch, von denen die Menschen kaum eine Ahnung haben können, wird dann in gemeinschaftlicher Arbeit das Karma ausgearbeitet für das nächste Erdenleben.
In diesem Sonnengebiete geht es anders zu als hier auf der Erde. Warum stellen sich denn unsere gescheiten Naturforscher — gescheit sind sie wirklich — die Sonne als einen glühenden Gasball vor? Weil sie aus einem gewissen illusionären materialistischen Instinkt heraus wollen, daß sie sich in der Sonne etwas vorstellen können, wo etwas Physisches vor sich geht. Es geht in der Sonne gar nichts Physisches vor sich. Das geht nur höchstens vor in der Sonnenkorona, gar nicht im Sonnenraum. Der ist reinste geistige Welt. Da drinnen gibt es keine Naturgesetze. Die Materialisten möchten, daß auch in der Sonne die Naturgesetze walten; aber da gibt es keine Naturgesetze, die sind ausgeschlossen. Da walten einzig und allein jene Gesetze, welche die entsprechenden karmischen Folgen erzeugen aus dem Guten, und welche, wenn der Mensch jetzt verstümmelt die Sonne betritt, durch die Liebe der Venuswesen ergänzend wirken auf seine Verstümmelung, die als Ergebnis seines bösen Karma da ist. Der Mensch kann natürlich durchaus Respekt, Achtung haben vor dem vielen, was hier auf der Erde geschieht, und die Menschen werden, wenn man das Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt schildert, oftmals den Eindruck haben: Dort sind wir so lange, was machen wir da eigentlich? - Ja, gegenüber dem, was da gemacht wird, damit wir im nächsten Erdenleben die Wirkungen des Karma haben, gegenüber allen diesen Mächten, die um uns sind und durch uns gehen während des Sonnendaseins, ist alles, was in der Hochkultur der Erde geschieht, eine Kleinigkeit. Nur geschieht da alles auf eine rein geistige Weise.
Sehen Sie, ein Teil des Karma wird schon vorbereitet in der Venussphäre, sogar in der Merkursphäre wird schon etwas vom Karma ausgearbeitet. Wir werden in den folgenden Vorträgen eine berühmte weltgeschichtliche Persönlichkeit kennenlernen, die ihr Lebenskarma im Laufe des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts dadurch hatte, daß sie es zum Teil vorbereitete gerade in der Venus- und Merkursphäre. Und solche Persönlichkeiten, die schon in der Venus- und Merkursphäre beginnen, die Gestaltung des Karma des folgenden Lebens vorzubereiten, werden oftmals außerordentlich bedeutsame Persönlichkeiten in ihrem folgenden Erdenleben. Aber für die weitaus meisten Menschen wird der Hauptteil dessen, was als Karma sich auslebt im Erdenleben, innerhalb der Sonnensphäre, wo wir am längsten sind, ausgearbeitet. Auf das Genauere werden wir noch einzugehen haben; ich will heute zunächst das Bild skizzieren, wie das Karma nach und nach in den verschiedenen Sphären veranlagt wird. Nur müssen Sie sich vorstellen, damit Sie nicht in Widerspruch kommen mit Schilderungen, die ich von anderen Gesichtspunkten aus gegeben habe über das Leben zwischen dem T’ode und einer neuen Geburt, daß der Mensch, indem er aufrückt in diese Sphären, in ganz andere Weltverhältnisse hineinkommt. Wenn man zum Beispiel die Sonnensphäre betreten hat und dann wiederum hinaustritt aus der Sonne und in die Marssphäre hineinkommt, dann ist man nicht über diese Sonnensphäre ganz hinaus, sondern die Sonne wirkt weiter hinein in diesen von der Erde abgelegenen Teil des Kosmos. In der Sonnensphäre hat man es nur zu tun mit dem, was vom Menschen als Moralisches geblieben ist und was von ihm im Gesunden geblieben ist; das andere hat er abgelegt. Das andere ist in ihm als eine Art Unvollständigkeit; aber alles das, was unvollständig ist, wird in der Sonnensphäre ergänzt. Wir leben da in der Sonnensphäre zunächst eine erste Hälfte unseres Daseins; da bereiten wir namentlich das vor, was dann führen kann zur physischen Durchorganisierung des nächsten Menschenleibes. In der zweiten Hälfte des Sonnendaseins widmen wir uns im Verein mit den Wesenheiten Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, im Verein mit den Menschenseelen, mit denen wir karmisch verbunden sind, der Ausarbeitung des Moralischen, das dann in unserem nächsten Leben aufgeht, des moralischen Teiles des Karma. Nur wird namentlich dieser moralische Teil und der geistige Teil des Karma, zum Beispiel besondere Anlagen für dies oder jenes, ausgebildet in der Marssphäre, in die wir eintreten nach der Sonnensphäre, in der Jupitersphäre und in der Saturnsphäre. Und das ist ja gerade das Eigentümliche, daß wir, indem wir diese Sphären durchmachen, erkennen, was eigentlich die physischen Sterne sind.
Ein physischer Stern ist eine Contradictio in adjecto. Denn was ist denn eigentlich ein Stern? Da stellen sich heute die Physiker vor: Da oben brennt irgend etwas, ein Gas oder so etwas. Wenn sie herankommen würden an die Sonne, würden sie höchst erstaunt sein, gerade in der Sonne kein Brennendes, sondern ein Loch im Raum zu finden, so daß sie überhaupt zersplittern würden zu einem Staube, der dünner ist als jeder Staub, der auf der Erde gedacht werden kann. Es wäre nur das Geistige da. So sind auch die anderen Sterne, die wir sehen, nicht etwa jenes glühende, brennende Gas; da ist ganz etwas anderes. Angrenzend an diese Erde, die wir bewohnen, die ihre physischen Stoffe und ihre physischen Kräfte hat, ist der allgemeine Weltenäther. Dieser allgemeine Weltenäther wird uns sichtbar dadurch, daß, wenn wir einfach so hineinschauen in den Äther, unser Sehraum begrenzt ist; er scheint dann blau umgrenzt. Aber jetzt überhaupt noch zu glauben, daß da im Kosmos physische Substanzen herumbummeln, so wie man im materialistischen Denken es sich vorstellt, das ist eine kindische Vorstellung. Da bummeln gar nicht physische Substanzen herum, sondern wo ein Stern ist, ist etwas ganz anderes. Man kommt überhaupt allmählich, wenn man im Ätherischen immer weiter geht, aus dem Raum ganz hinaus in jene Sphären, wo die Götter leben. Und jetzt stellen Sie sich ganz lebhaft vor eine seelische Beziehung von Mensch zu Mensch, die sich körperlich auslebt. Drastisch ausgedrückt, stellen Sie sich vor, Sie werden von einem Menschen geliebt; der streichelt Sie, Sie spüren das Streicheln. Es wäre kindisch, wenn Sie sich vorstellen würden, an der Stelle, wo die Streichelströme gehen, da sei, wenn Sie nicht hinschauen, physische Materie. Sie werden gar nicht angestrichen mit physischer Materie, es ist ein Vorgang da, und das, was das Wesentliche ist, ist eine Seelenempfindung, die des Streichelns. So ist es, wenn wir hinausschauen in die Äthersphären. Die Götter in ihrer Liebe streicheln gewissermaßen die Welt. Es ist ein ganz ordentlicher Vergleich: sie liebkosen die Welt, sie berühren sie an gewissen Stellen; nur dauert dieses Berühren sehr lange, weil die Götter dauernd sind. Aber dieser Ausdruck der Liebe im Äther, das sind die Sterne. Das sind sie wirklich; da ist gar nichts Physisches. Und einen Stern sehen heißt kosmisch dasselbe, wie eine Berührung, die aus der Liebe der Menschen hervorgegangen ist, verspüren. So verspüren wir die Liebe der göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten, indem wir zu den Sternen aufsehen. Wir müssen uns damit bekanntmachen, daß die Sterne nur Zeichen sind für die Anwesenheit der Götter im Weltenall. Unsere physische Wissenschaft wird viel zu lernen haben, wenn sie von ihrer Illusion zur Wahrheit vordringen will. Aber die Menschen werden überhaupt nicht zur Selbsterkenntnis kommen und das eigene Wesen nicht kennenlernen, bevor sie nicht - für das außerirdische Weltenall - diese physische Wissenschaft ganz und gar umgewandelt haben werden in eine geistige Wissenschaft. Physische Wissenschaft, das hat nur einen Sinn für die Erde, denn nur auf der Erde gibt es physische Substanz.
Und so kommen wir, indem wir die Erde verlassen beim Durchgange durch die Todespforte, immer mehr in ein rein geistiges Erleben hinein. Daß zuerst unser Leben bei diesem rückläufigen Durchleben in einem dritten Teil des Erdenlebens anders ausschaut als das physische Leben, rührt davon her, weil die Mondensphäre mit ihrer Substantialität uns durchdringt. Das ist auf geistige Weise bewirkt. Und unter den vielen Dingen, die da zu geschehen haben in den Sternensphären, ist eben auch die Ausarbeitung des Karma.
Nun möchte ich Ihnen auch noch sagen, damit diese Dinge immer eins das andere stützen, wie derjenige, der heute die Initiationswissenschaft durchmacht, zu solchen Beobachtungen kommt. Ich habe es ja öfter seit einiger Zeit sogar schon in öffentlichen Vorträgen geschildert, wie der Mensch, wenn er durch die Methoden, die Sie angegeben finden in meinem Buche «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?», zu dem wirklichen übersinnlichen Erkennen aufsteigt, zunächst zurückblickt auf sein Erdenleben und dieses wie in einem Tableau überschaut. Alles, was sonst im Innern hintereinander ist, ist gleichzeitig da als ein mächtiges Lebenspanorama, das man überschaut bis zur Ich-Geburt, aber getrennt in einem gewissen Sinne sind doch die einzelnen Lebensepochen. Man schaut hin auf dasjenige, was man durchlebt hat von der Geburt bis zum Zahnwechsel, man schaut zurück und übersieht als eine geschlossene Reihe für sich das, was vom Zahnwechsel bis zur Geschlechtsreife geht, dann wiederum bis zum Anfang der Zwanzig und so weiter. Aber indem man weiter aufsteigt in seinen Konzentfiationen, eben die Methoden für die Erkenntnis der geistigen Welt weiter auf sich anwendet, kommt man dazu, nicht nur das, was man da schaut, zu sehen, sondern man bringt es, indem man das Lebenstableau überschaut und zuerst das sieht, was von der Geburt bis zum siebenten Jahre geht, später dazu, daß dieses Menschenleben verschwindet: man schaut gewissermaßen durch sein eigenes Leben durch. Da erscheint an der Stelle des eigenen Lebens, welche die erste Kindheit bedeutet, da, wo man früher dasjenige gesehen hat, was sich in einem abgespielt hat von der Geburt bis zum siebenten Jahre, wenn man in das leere Bewußtsein eingetreten ist, wenn man zur Inspiration aufgestiegen ist, das Leben und Weben der Mondensphäre. So daß die Initiationswissenschaft für die normale heutige Initiation erkennen läßt die Geheimnisse der Mondensphäre, wenn man mit inspirierter Erkenntnis auslöscht das eigene Lebenstableau und sieht, was da nun aufleuchtet an der Stelle dessen, was in dem eigenen Leben sich abspielt von der Geburt bis zum siebenten Lebensjahre.
Schaut man dann zurück auf das Gebiet, das man durchlebt hat vom siebenten bis zum vierzehnten Jahre, und löscht man es aus in inspitierter Erkenntnis, so schaut man hinein in die Merkursphäre. Alles ist mit dem menschlichen Wesen selber verknüpft. Der Mensch ist mit dem ganzen Weltenall verbunden. Lernt er sich wirklich selber kennen, findet er sich in sich selber zurecht, so lernt er das ganze Weltenall kennen. Und nun bitte ich Sie, eines zu berücksichtigen. Man bekommt wirklich einen großen Respekt vor der alten instinktiven Initiationswissenschaft. Diehatden Dingen die richtigen Namen gegeben, die uns heute noch geblieben sind. Würden nur wenige Dinge heute Namen bekommen, so würde man das Chaos sehen. Denn mit heutigem Erkennen und Wissen können keine ordentlichen Namen gebildet werden. Aber wenn wir das Leben unbefangen anschauen, so bekommen wir Achtung, Ehrerbietung vor demjenigen, was die alte Initiationswissenschaft getan hat. Die wußte aus ihrem Instinkt heraus noch dasjenige, was heute durch alle möglichen Statistiken festgestellt werden kann: daß eigentlich der Mensch in ganz kindlichem Alter die Kinderkrankheiten hat, sehr krankheitsanfällig ist, leicht stirbt, und eben erst wieder so anfällig ist nach der Geschlechtsreife. Das gesündeste Lebensalter sind die Jahre von sieben bis vierzehn, da ist die Sterblichkeit gering. Da wirkt die Merkursphäre. Das haben die alten Weisen gewußt, und heute erkennen wir es wieder, wenn man durch die heutige Initiationswissenschaft eindringt in die Geheimnisse des Daseins. Da möchte man niederknien vor demjenigen, was aus den urheiligsten Traditionen der Menschheit vor einen hintreten kann.
Und dann, wenn man zurückblickt in dasjenige, was der Mensch erlebt von dem vierzehnten bis zum einundzwanzigsten Lebensjahre und es auslöscht in inspirierter Erkenntnis, so dringt man in die Geheimnisse der Venussphäre ein. Wiederum sehen Sie da die alte Initiationswissenschaft wunderbar wirken. Der Mensch wird geschlechtsreif, das Lieben tritt auf. Da tritt man ein in diejenige Lebensepoche, wo man die Venusgeheimnisse enthüllt, wenn man mit Initiationswissenschaft darauf zurückschaut. Alle die Dinge, die man auf solche Weise schildern kann, wie ich es getan habe, sind ein Teil der wirklichen menschlichen Selbsterkenntnis, der vertieften menschlichen Selbsterkenntnis, die auf diese Weise entsteht.
Dann wiederum, wenn man in die Zeit vom einundzwanzigsten bis zum zweiundvierzigsten Lebensjahre zurückblickt und durch Inspirationserkenntnis auslöscht das eigene imaginative Erleben, so kommt man an die Geheimnisse der Sonnensphäre heran, und es kann, wie ich schon verschiedentlich in den eben vorher gemachten Auseinandersetzungen angedeutet habe, der Mensch bei der Rückschau auf die Zeit zwischen dem einundzwanzigsten und zweiundvierzigsten Lebensjahre durch eine vertiefte Selbsterkenntnis erleben die Sonnenerkenntnisse. Um die Sonnenerkenntnisse zu erringen, müssen wir eine dreimal so lange Lebensdauer durchschauen, wie diejenige für die anderen Himmelskörper unseres Planetensystems. — Und nehmen Sie jetzt das Real-Konkrete. Wenn ich Ihnen gesagt habe, eine weltgeschichtliche Persönlichkeit hätte ihr Karma vorzugsweise durchgearbeitet in der Merkur- und in der Venussphäre, so sehen Sie jetzt, wie so etwas erforscht wird. Man erlangt die Möglichkeit, im eigenen Leben zurückzublicken in die Lebensepoche zwischen dem siebenten und vierzehnten Jahre, und dann in die zwischen dem vierzehnten und einundzwanzigsten Jahre; dann löscht man sie aus in der Inspiration, und dann erlangt man Einblicke in die Merkur- und in die Venussphäre. Durch diese Einblicke sieht man, wie eine solche Individualität zusammenarbeitet mit den anderen Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien und mit anderen Menschenseelen, und wie dadurch ihre Erdeninkar nation zustande gekommen ist, eine Erdeninkarnation im neunzehnten Jahrhundert.
Haben nun Wesenheiten an ihrem Karma besonders arbeiten müssen in der Marssphäte, so ist das schon schwerer zu erforschen. Denn wenn jemand vor dem neunundvierzigsten Jahr initiiert wird, so kann er nicht zurückblicken zu derjenigen Lebenszeit, auf die es jetzt hier ankommt, die Lebenszeit vom zweiundvierzigsten bis neunundvierzigsten Jahre. Man muß über das neunundvierzigste Lebensjahr hinausgekommen sein, um auslöschen zu können, was man da war; dann kann man in die Geheimnisse der Marssphäre hineinschauen. Und ist man initiiert nach dem sechsundfünfzigsten Jahr, so kann man noch in eine andere Periode zurückblicken, in die Periode zwischen dem neunundvierzigsten und sechsundfünfzigsten Lebensjahre, in die Periode, wo die Jupiterkarmen ausgearbeitet werden. Und nun sehen Sie den ganzen Zusammenhang dieser Dinge. Erst beim Rückblick in die Lebenszeit zwischen dem sechsundfünfzigsten und dreiundsechzigsten Lebensjahr kann der ganze Zusammenhang dann überschaut und aus innerer Erkenntnis heraus gesprochen werden, denn da kann man auf die ganz außerordentlich merkwürdige Saturnsphäre zurückblicken. Denn die Saturnkarmen sind diejenigen, welche die Menschen auf die merkwürdigste Weise gerade zusammen wiederum in die Welt hineinstellen. Aber um diese Zusammenhänge mit der Initiationswissenschaft zu durchschauen - gewiß, durch Unterweisung kann man es schon verstehen -, aber um selbständig hineinzuschauen und den ganzen Zusammenhang zu beurteilen, muß man selbst sogar dreiundsechzig Jahre geworden sein. Es heißt das also: Es treten Menschen auf innerhalb eines bestimmten Erdenlebens, zum Beispiel ein großer Dichter, von dem ich Ihnen sprechen werde, tritt auf; er lebt durch seine Fähigkeiten, durch seine Schöpfungen ganz besonders das in seinem Karma dar, was nur durchgearbeitet werden konnte in. der Saturnsphäre.
So dürfen wir sagen: Schauen wir hinauf zu unserem Planetensystem mit der Sonne — und wir können so hinaufschauen zu den übrigen Sternen, denn der übrige Sternenhimmel ist durchaus auch im Zusammenhang mit dem Menschen, wir werden auch darüber sprechen -, schauen wir da hinauf, so schauen wir unter manchem anderen aus dem Kosmos heraus gestaltet das menschliche Karma. Dieser Mond, diese Venus, dieser Jupiter sind wahrhaftig nicht allein das, als was sie uns die physische Astronomie schildert. Wir haben in ihnen zu schauen, in ihren Konstellationen, in ihren gegenseitigen Verhältnissen, in ihrem Glanz und in ihrem ganzen Dasein die Aufbauer des Menschenschicksals, die Schicksalsuhr, in der wir lesen können unser Schicksal. Sie scheint so eigentlich herunter vom Himmel in den Konstellationen. Das hat man auch einstmals in der alten instinktiven Mysterienweisheit gewußt, aber diese alte Astrologie, die eine rein geisteswissenschaftliche ist, die mit den geistigen Untergründen des Daseins erkennend arbeitete, ist eben in dilettantischer und laienhafter Form auf die Nachwelt gekommen. Und erst wieder aus Anthroposophie heraus wird sich etwas ergeben, was im wirklichen Geistzusammenhang erkennen lassen wird, wie durch die große Schicksalsuhr dieses Menschenleben hier auf der Erde gesetzmäßig sich gestaltet.
Aber sehen wir von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus auf ein menschliches Karma hin. Schauen wir uns einen Menschen an, dessen Karma wir auf uns wirken lassen. Es ist ja wirklich so, daß derjenige, welcher nun wiederum durch Anthroposophie hereinwächst in eine gesunde Weltanschauung gegenüber unserer krankhaften von heute, nicht nur zu anderen Begriffen und Vorstellungen über die Welt und den Menschen kommt, sondern auch zu anderen Gefühlen und Empfindungen. Denn denken Sie sich: Lernt man ein Menschenschicksal kennen, dann lernt man dabei Geheimnisse des ganzen Sternensystems kennen. Man schaut auf die Geheimnisse des Kosmos hin, indem man ein Menschenschicksal vor sich hat. Es kommen nun die heutigen Menschen, schreiben Biographien und haben keine Ahnung davon, was sie da eigentlich profanieren, wenn sie in ihrer Weise Biographien schreiben. In den Zeiten, in denen das Wissen heilig war, weil es galt als eine Ausstrahlung der Mysterien, schrieb man nicht in dem Sinne, wie man das heute tut, Biographien. Man schrieb die Biographien, indem man dahinter durchaus vermuten ließ, was aus den Geheimnissen der Sternenwelt wirkte. Wenn man ein menschliches Schicksal überblickt, dann sieht man darinnen das Walten zunächst höherer Wesenheiten des VorSonnendaseins, der Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai; das Walten höherer Wesenheiten des Sonnendaseins, Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes; der Wesenheiten, die das ganze Karma ausarbeiten, das vorzugsweise das Marskarma ist, der Throne; das Walten derjenigen, die ausarbeiten das Jupiterkarma, der Cherubim; das Walten derjenigen Wesenheiten, die mit dem Menschen zusammen arbeiten an einem solchen Karma, das das Saturnkarma ist, der Seraphim. Wir schauen also dadurch, daß wir das Bild des Schicksals, ein Menschenkarma vor uns haben, in diesem Menschenkarma die waltenden Hierarchien. Dieses Menschenkarma ist ja zunächst ein Hintergrund, ein Vorhang, wie ein Schleier. Schauen wir hinter diesen Schleier, dann weben und arbeiten und wirken und tun daran Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi; Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai; Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne. Jedes Menschenschicksal ist eigentlich in Wahrheit doch wie etwas, das auf einem Blatt Papier als Geschriebenes ist. Denken Sie sich, es könnte ja auch einen Menschen geben, der sich so etwas, was auf ein Blatt Papier gedruckt ist, anschaut und sagt: Da sind Zeichen darauf, zuerst K-E-I und so weiter; mehr versteht er nicht, er ist nicht imstande, diese Buchstaben zusammenzusetzen zu Worten. Was liegt da für ein Ungeheures darinnen, diese Buchstaben zusammenzusetzen zu Worten! Wir haben ja die zweiundzwanzig bis achtundzwanzig Buchstaben — nun ja, dreißig bis vierunddreißig, wenn wir alle nehmen -: Der ganze Goethesche «Faust» besteht aus nichts anderem, als aus diesen Buchstaben! Wer nicht lesen kann, kann den Goetheschen «Faust» nicht lesen, er hat nur diese vierunddreißig Buchstaben, gar nichts sieht er im Goetheschen «Faust ». Wenn einer nun etwas anderes sieht, weil er diese Buchstaben in ihrer Zusammensetzung zu diesem ganz wunderbaren Goetheschen «Faust» aufbauen kann, da könnte nun sogar einer, der keine Begriffe hätte vom Lesen, ein ausgepichter Analphabet, sich furchtbar skandalisieren und sagen: Da kommt jetzt einer, der will aus diesem «Faust» da vieles herauslesen, der fängt an: «Habe nun, ach...» Das ist ja ein ganz großer Narr! - Und doch, der ganze «Faust» besteht nur aus diesen Buchstaben. Ja, sehen Sie, so wie man gewöhnlich ein Menschenkarma, ein einzelnes menschliches Karma betrachtet, so sieht man nur Buchstaben. In dem Augenblicke, wo man anfängt zu lesen, sieht man darin Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai und deren gegenseitige Taten. Und so ein einzelnes Menschenleben in seinem Schicksal wird um so viel reicher, als es dieses Büchelchen wird von dem Momente an, wo man hinauskommt über die vierunddreißig Buchstaben und den «Faust» darinnen hat. So ungeheuer viel reicher wird dasjenige, was vom rein irdischen Gesichtspunkte, vom kosmisch-analphabetischen Unwissen, zu dem Wissen übergeht, wenn man da durchschaut in demjenigen, was ein Schicksal darstellt, daß da die Buchstaben Zeichen sind für die Taten der Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien.
Karma als die Schicksalsgestaltung des menschlichen Lebens ist so ungeheuer, so erhaben, so majestätisch für den, der es durchschaut, daß er einfach dadurch, daß er versteht, wie sich Karma verhält zum Weltenall, zum geistigen Kosmos, hereinwächst in eine ganz andere Empfindungs- und Gefühlsweise, nicht bloß in ein theoretisches Wissen. Und alles, was man sich aneignet durch Anthroposophie, sollte eben nicht Aneignung von theoretischen Erkenntnissen bloß sein, sollte immer stufenweise wirken auf die Gestaltung unserer Denk- und Empfindungsweise, indem es uns immer tiefer mit unserem Herzen hineinführt von dem Regenwurmfühlen auf der Erde zum Fühlen innerhalb des Geisterlandes. Denn wir Menschen gehören nicht bloß der Erde an, wir gehören dem Geisterlande an. In demjenigen, was innerhalb unserer Haut auf der Erde abgeschlossen ist, da ist ja die Zusammenwirkung der ganzen Zeit zu schauen, die wir zubringen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Innerhalb dessen, was menschliche Haut ist, sind alle Weltengeheimnisse in einer bestimmten Form immer enthalten. Menschliche Selbsterkenntnis ist keineswegs dieses triviale Wort, von dem man so oft redet, auch nicht etwas Sentimentales. Menschliche Selbsterkenntnis ist Welterkenntnis. Deshalb habe ich oftmals den Freunden, bei denen dazu Gelegenheit war, in ein Buch geschrieben das Wort, das da lautet:
Willst Du Dein Selbst erkennen,
schaue hinaus in die Weltenweiten.
Willst Du die Weltenweiten durchschauen,
Blicke hinein in das eigene Selbst.
The Ninth Lecture
Yesterday we discussed how man first spends the life between death and a new birth preparing the forces of his karma in what can be called the lunar sphere, and we have seen how man meets in this lunar sphere those beings who were once his fellow inhabitants on earth: the great original teachers of mankind. This is the one kind of beings that man encounters immediately, one could say, after his death. Together with these beings are those which you will find mentioned in my “Secret Science” under the name of the Angeloi. They are those beings who were never direct inhabitants of the earth, who therefore never carried an earthly body, not even an etheric body such as man carries. For the other inhabitants of the moon, of whom I have spoken, have indeed borne a human-like etheric body, even if not a physical human body.
These Angeloi are those beings who guide us from earth life to earth life. They are the guides from one earthly life to another in the present cosmic period of development of our human being. And it is already from the lunar sphere that they guide us. Now we have seen how the human being comes to invest his karma, so to speak, in this lunar sphere and to absorb the inner impulses which then lead him to live out his karma. But that which man has taken with him through the gate of death in unrighteous deeds, in such deeds that cannot stand before the spiritual worlds, all this man must leave behind in this sphere of the moon, so that, if I may express myself thus, the evil karma is left behind in the sphere of the moon. For at the moment when man penetrates further in the life between death and a new birth, it would be quite impossible for man to remain afflicted with that which is the effect, the consequence of his evil deeds.
Then, when man has passed beyond this lunar sphere, he has again enlarged his inner life beyond a further region of the cosmos. He enters the sphere that can be called the sphere of Mercury. There he does not at first live together with those beings who have inhabited the earth with him, but he lives together with the beings of the Hierarchy of the Archangeloi. He gets to know them there. Of course, in all these areas he lives together with those human souls who have now also passed through the gate of death. In the lunar sphere this is the third kind of entity with which man lives together: human souls who are disembodied, who like him have passed through the gate of death. We will see later why the effects, the spiritual effects of the evil side of karma must remain in the lunar sphere. Now let us be content with the fact.
When man enters the sphere of Mercury, he is further purified and cleansed. For when man has, so to speak, discarded what is morally useless for the cosmos in the lunar sphere, he still has the spiritual counter-images of his physical unsuitability, his physical weaknesses. He has within him those disease dispositions and disease results that he has lived through here on earth. Now it will surprise you, but the fact is that we first cast off our moral weaknesses in the life between death and the new birth, while the physical weaknesses are only cast off later, namely in the sphere of Mercury. There the human being is purified and cleansed in his soul of all that he has experienced in his soul during his time on earth: the most varied processes of illness. The human being is thus made completely healthy in the sphere of Mercury. For you must bear in mind that the human being is indeed a unified being. From an occult point of view, one speaks quite wrongly about man if one says that man is a composition of spirit, soul and body. He is not made up of these three components, but if you look at him, he appears to be a body on one side, a spirit on the other and a soul in between; but in reality, all of this is a unity. When a person is ill, the soul also experiences being ill; the spirit also experiences being ill. And when the human being has shed the physical body in death, he first has the effects in the soul of the experiences that he has gone through in the processes of illness. But these are completely shed in the sphere of Mercury under the influence of those beings we call the Archangeloi. Through the Moon and Mercury spheres the human being gradually becomes a being who no longer has any moral or physical weaknesses within him. In this state he now enters - in the meantime many decades have passed - the Venus sphere. And in this Venus sphere that which has now passed through the sphere of the moon and Mercury is processed in such a way that the human being, having passed through the Venus sphere, can pass over into the sphere of the sun. And we do indeed live through a larger part of our life between death and a new birth in this solar sphere.
From the information I am giving you, you will see how well-founded everything is that was the foundation of those ancient mysteries that emerged from an instinctive, but great and powerful clairvoyant wisdom in ancient times. In those ancient times, for example, medicine was never studied as it is today, simply by remaining in the physical world and studying the physical human being in his symptoms of illness, trying out what can help him by dissecting the corpse, studying the changes in the corpse compared to the normal organism and so on. In the days of ancient mystery wisdom, this would have been regarded as something extraordinarily childish, because they knew exactly how to heal a person. You can only experience this if the beings of the Mercury sphere give you the explanation, because this is given in the context of all cosmic processes. This is where the human being is thoroughly healed. Therefore, if you look into what I have described from a different point of view in my “Secret Science” as the oracles of the Mercury Mysteries, you will see what actually happened in these Mysteries, which were essentially in the service of ancient medicine.
You see, yesterday we had to talk about the great primal teachers. They were once people's co-inhabitants on earth. They were everywhere where humans were, for they populated the earth with humans as a kind of second, etherically existing human race. But in those ancient times, for the consciousness of man, which was only a dim, dreamlike one, other beings also descended to man, beings who did not inhabit the earth at all. Of course, what one has to say about such things is not only a paradox for people who are so completely devoted to today's materialistic science, but complete nonsense. But this “nonsense” is the truth. These ancient Mystery Wise Men knew that only the supersensible beings of Mercury can provide information about the healing processes. That is why these Mercury Mysteries were set up in such a way that, through a corresponding cult, the inhabitants of Mercury could indeed descend to the altar of the Mercury cult site, and that the priests of the Mercury Mysteries could converse with the spiritual beings who thus descended through the performance of the cult acts. And what was medicine in those ancient times was certainly accepted in the Mercury Mysteries in this sense. The individual beings - who did not even always have to be the same, but they were perceived as the same - who descended onto the altars were called the god Mercury. The old mystery medicine was received in such a way that it was said: This is what the god Mercury told his doctor-priests.
Even today, spiritual science is based on the fact that the beings of our cosmos descend to earth through the appropriate preparation of the initiates. Those who are initiated into today's wisdom of the Mysteries know quite well that even there the essentials are based on entering into dialog with the beings of the cosmos. But in the general human consciousness of today, the opposite is present of what was definitely there in ancient times. Today we say: He is a doctor who has been awarded a doctorate at university - that was not said in ancient times. In ancient times, he was a doctor who spoke to the god Mercury. In the times that followed, everything was already disintegrating; there were only the traditions of what once emerged in the Mysteries from the dialogues between the doctor-priests and the god Mercury.
Now, in the Venus sphere, it is a matter of what is actually left of man, after he has cast off his evil and his unhealthy states, being transferred into the solar sphere; you see, if we want to understand this, we must point to a peculiarity of the whole human being. Here on earth man always appears to us as a whole. He must become such a great criminal that he is beheaded, then after the beheading he no longer appears as a whole in the physical body. But with lesser offenses and crimes, no matter how severely he is punished, he always appears as a whole. Well, this is not the case with the spiritual-spiritual counter-image that man carries through the sphere of the moon and Mercury. By arriving in the supersensible world with soul and spirit, after having passed through the gate of death and having cast off the weaknesses of evil and the weaknesses of illness, man is in a certain sense no longer a whole person. For man is identical with his evil, evil forms a part of his own being. If someone were only a full-blown villain, had nothing good human in him at all, then he would have to leave his whole human being behind in the sphere of the moon, he would not get any further at all; for to the same extent that we are evil, we leave our own being behind in the moon. We are one, identical with that which is evil in us before the spiritual world, so that in a certain sense we arrive in the Venus sphere as mutilated human beings. Now in the Venus sphere there is indeed purest love in the most spiritual sense, Venus is the element of purest love, and through cosmic love that which has remained of man in this way is carried over from the Venus sphere into the solar existence.
In the solar sphere man now has to really work on the creation of his karma. Our current physicists would be astonished to the highest degree if they were to actually enter the sun. For everything that could be discovered here on earth about the sun is not true. The sun is supposed to be something like a glowing ball of gas. It is not, but the thing is like this - I would like to start from a comparison that is somewhat banal -: if you have seltzer water in a bottle, if you want to see the water, you have to be very attentive and look where it will soon stop, otherwise it will not appear to you at all. What do you actually see? You don't see the water, but the beads of carbon dioxide, which are thinner than the water. You see the thinner part and you don't see the denser part. Well, what about the sun? When you look at the sun, you don't see the sun because it is a condensed, glowing ball of gas in empty space, but you see the sun because it is particularly thin. And now you have to get comfortable with a mental image that is not exactly ordinary.
When you look like this, you are looking into space. I don't want to talk about the nature of space. Here you are looking into the water; the pearls are cut out in the water (see drawing), they are thinner than the water. Where the sun is at the top, it is thinner than space. You will say: Space is already nothing. - But really, where the sun is, there is even less than nothing! Well, people on earth, especially in this day and age, might know from completely different backgrounds that there is also less than nothing. If I have five marks in my pocket, I have five marks. If I spend them bit by bit, I finally have zero. But if I go into debt, then I have less than nothing. You know what that means today, having less than nothing. You see, that's how it is: Where there is only space, there is nothing; but where there is the sun, there is less than nothing. There is a hole in space, there is no space at all, and in this hole in space, there indeed live spiritual beings, live the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. They live in this hole - but their existence extends everywhere - as the entities Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, which you will find mentioned in my “Secret Science”. And it is with them that man lives the greater part of his life between death and a new birth. In association with them, with those human souls furthermore who have passed through the gate of death with him and with whom he has a karmic connection, and with other beings still, of whom men can hardly have any idea, the karma is then worked out in common work for the next life on earth.
In this solar region things are different than here on earth. Why do our clever naturalists - they really are clever - imagine the sun as a glowing ball of gas? Because out of a certain illusionary materialistic instinct they want to be able to imagine something in the sun where something physical is going on. There is nothing physical going on in the sun. That only happens at most in the solar corona, not at all in solar space. That is the purest spiritual world. There are no laws of nature in there. The materialists would like the laws of nature to prevail in the sun too; but there are no laws of nature there, they are excluded. Only those laws prevail there which produce the corresponding karmic consequences from the good, and which, when man now enters the sun mutilated, have a supplementary effect on his mutilation, which is there as the result of his evil karma, through the love of the Venus beings. Man can of course have respect, respect for the many things that happen here on earth, and people will often have the impression when life between death and a new birth is described: We've been there for so long, what are we actually doing there? - Yes, compared to what is done there so that we have the effects of karma in the next life on earth, compared to all these powers that are around us and pass through us during our life on the sun, everything that happens in the high culture of the earth is a trifle. Only there everything happens in a purely spiritual way.
You see, part of the karma is already being prepared in the Venus sphere, even in the Mercury sphere some of the karma is already being worked out. In the following lectures we will get to know a famous world-historical personality who had his life karma in the course of the nineteenth century by partly preparing it precisely in the Venus and Mercury sphere. And such personalities, who already begin to prepare the shaping of the karma of the following life in the Venus and Mercury sphere, often become extraordinarily significant personalities in their following life on earth. But for the vast majority of people, the main part of what is lived out as karma in earth life is worked out within the solar sphere, where we are the longest. We will have to go into the details later; today I will first sketch the picture of how karma is gradually developed in the various spheres. But you must imagine, so that you do not come into contradiction with descriptions I have given from other points of view about the life between the T'ode and a new birth, that man, by moving up into these spheres, enters into quite different world conditions. For example, when one has entered the sphere of the sun and then steps out of the sun again and enters the sphere of Mars, then one is not completely beyond this sphere of the sun, but the sun continues to work into this part of the cosmos which is remote from the earth. In the solar sphere we are only dealing with what has remained of man as moral and what has remained of him as healthy; he has discarded the other. The other is in him as a kind of incompleteness; but everything that is incomplete is completed in the solar sphere. We live in the solar sphere for the first half of our existence; there we prepare in particular that which can then lead to the physical organization of the next human body. In the second half of our solar existence we dedicate ourselves, in association with the entities Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, in association with the human souls with whom we are karmically connected, to the elaboration of the moral part of karma, which will then merge in our next life. Only this moral part and the spiritual part of karma, for example special dispositions for this or that, are formed in the sphere of Mars, which we enter after the sphere of the sun, in the sphere of Jupiter and in the sphere of Saturn. And that is precisely the peculiar thing, that by passing through these spheres we recognize what the physical stars actually are.
A physical star is a contradictio in adjecto. Because what actually is a star? That's what physicists imagine today: Something is burning up there, a gas or something. If they were to approach the sun, they would be most astonished to find not a burning thing in the sun, but a hole in space, so that they would shatter into a dust that is thinner than any dust that can be imagined on earth. Only the spiritual would be there. So also the other stars we see are not that glowing, burning gas; there is something quite different. Adjacent to this earth which we inhabit, which has its physical substances and its physical forces, is the general world ether. This general world ether becomes visible to us through the fact that, when we simply look into the ether, our visual space is limited; it then appears to be blue. But to believe now that there are physical substances strolling around in the cosmos, as one imagines in materialistic thinking, is a childish mental image. There are no physical substances strolling around, but where there is a star, there is something completely different. If you go further and further into the etheric, you gradually move out of space into those spheres where the gods live. And now imagine quite vividly a spiritual relationship from person to person that lives itself out physically. To put it drastically, imagine that you are loved by a person who caresses you and you feel the caress. It would be childish if you were to imagine that there is physical matter where the stroking currents go, if you are not looking. You are not being stroked with physical matter at all, there is a process, and what is essential is a soul sensation, that of being stroked. This is how it is when we look out into the ether spheres. The gods in their love caress the world, so to speak. It is quite a neat comparison: they caress the world, they touch it in certain places; only this touching lasts a very long time, because the gods are permanent. But this expression of love in the ether, that is the stars. They really are; there is nothing physical about them. And seeing a star means the same thing cosmically as feeling a touch that has emerged from the love of human beings. Thus we feel the love of the divine-spiritual beings by looking up at the stars. We must familiarize ourselves with the fact that the stars are only signs of the presence of the gods in the universe. Our physical science will have much to learn if it wants to advance from its illusion to the truth. But men will not come to self-knowledge at all and will not get to know their own nature until they have - for the extraterrestrial universe - completely transformed this physical science into a spiritual science. Physical science, that only has a meaning for the earth, because only on earth there is physical substance.
And so we come, by leaving the earth when passing through the gate of death, more and more into a purely spiritual experience. The fact that our life initially looks different from physical life during this retrograde experience in a third part of earthly life is due to the fact that the lunar sphere permeates us with its substantiality. This is brought about in a spiritual way. And among the many things that have to happen in the starry spheres is also the working out of karma.
Now I would also like to tell you, so that these things always support one another, how those who go through initiation science today come to such observations. I have often described, even in public lectures, how man, when he ascends to the real supersensible knowledge by the methods which you will find given in my book “How does one attain knowledge of the higher worlds?”, first looks back on his life on earth and surveys it as in a tableau. Everything that is otherwise in succession within is there at the same time as a powerful panorama of life, which one surveys up to the birth of the ego, but the individual epochs of life are nevertheless separate in a certain sense. One looks at what one has lived through from birth to the change of teeth, one looks back and overlooks as a closed series for oneself what goes from the change of teeth to sexual maturity, then again to the beginning of one's twenties and so on. But by ascending further in his concentrations, by continuing to apply to himself the methods for the knowledge of the spiritual world, he comes to see not only what he sees there, but by looking over the tableau of life and seeing first that which goes from birth to the seventh year, he later comes to see that this human life disappears: he looks through his own life, as it were. There, at the place of one's own life, which signifies the first childhood, there, where one used to see that which took place in one from birth to the seventh year, when one has entered the empty consciousness, when one has risen to inspiration, the life and weaving of the lunar sphere appears. So that for the normal initiation of today, initiation science reveals the secrets of the lunar sphere when one erases one's own life tableau with inspired cognition and sees what now lights up in the place of what takes place in one's own life from birth to the seventh year of life.
If one then looks back at the area one has lived through from the seventh to the fourteenth year, and if one erases it with inspired cognition, one looks into the sphere of Mercury. Everything is connected with the human being itself. Man is connected with the whole universe. If he really gets to know himself, if he finds his way within himself, then he gets to know the whole universe. And now I would ask you to consider one thing. You really gain a great respect for the old instinctive science of initiation. It gave things the right names, which we still have today. If only a few things were given names today, we would see chaos. Because with today's recognition and knowledge, no proper names can be formed. But if we look at life impartially, we gain respect and reverence for what the old science of initiation did. It still knew from its instinct what can be ascertained today by all kinds of statistics: that man actually has childhood diseases at a very childish age, is very susceptible to illness, dies easily, and is only as susceptible again after sexual maturity. The healthiest age is the years from seven to fourteen, when mortality is low. That is when the sphere of Mercury is at work. The ancient sages knew this, and today we recognize it again when we penetrate the secrets of existence through today's initiation science. There one would like to kneel before that which can come before one from the most sacred traditions of humanity.
And then, when one looks back into that which man experiences from the fourteenth to the twenty-first year of life and extinguishes it in inspired knowledge, one penetrates into the mysteries of the Venus sphere. Again you see the old science of initiation working wonderfully. The human being becomes sexually mature, love emerges. Then one enters that epoch of life where the secrets of Venus are revealed when one looks back on them with the science of initiation. All the things that can be described in this way, as I have done, are part of the real human self-knowledge, the deepened human self-knowledge that arises in this way.
Then again, if one looks back into the time from the twenty-first to the forty-second year of life and extinguishes one's own imaginative experience through inspirational cognition, one comes to the secrets of the solar sphere, and, as I have already indicated on various occasions in the discussions I have just made, man can experience the solar cognitions when looking back at the time between the twenty-first and forty-second year of life through a deepened self-knowledge. In order to gain knowledge of the sun, we have to see through a lifespan three times as long as that of the other celestial bodies in our planetary system. - And now take the real concrete. When I told you that a world-historical personality had preferably worked through his karma in the Mercury and Venus spheres, you can now see how such a thing is researched. One attains the possibility of looking back in one's own life into the epoch of life between the seventh and fourteenth years, and then into that between the fourteenth and twenty-first years; then one erases them in inspiration, and then one gains insights into the sphere of Mercury and the sphere of Venus. Through these insights one sees how such an individuality works together with the other beings of the higher hierarchies and with other human souls, and how through this its earth incarnation came about, an earth incarnation in the nineteenth century.
Now, if beings have had to work on their karma especially in the Martian sphere, this is already more difficult to investigate. For if someone is initiated before the forty-ninth year, he cannot look back to the lifetime that is important here now, the lifetime from the forty-second to the forty-ninth year. One must have passed the forty-ninth year of life in order to be able to erase what one was there; then one can look into the secrets of the Martian sphere. And if one is initiated after the fifty-sixth year, one can look back into another period, into the period between the forty-ninth and fifty-sixth year of life, into the period when the Jupiter arms are worked out. And now you can see the whole context of these things. Only when you look back into the period between the fifty-sixth and sixty-third year of life can you see the whole connection and speak from inner knowledge, because there you can look back at the extraordinarily strange sphere of Saturn. For the arms of Saturn are those which place human beings in the world together in the most remarkable way. But in order to see through these connections with the science of initiation - certainly, one can already understand it through instruction - but in order to look into it independently and to judge the whole connection, one must have become even sixty-three years old. This means that people appear within a certain earthly life, for example a great poet, of whom I will speak to you, appears; through his abilities, through his creations, he lives out in his karma that which could only be worked through in the sphere of Saturn.
So we may say: If we look up to our planetary system with the sun - and we can look up to the other stars in this way, for the rest of the starry sky is definitely also in connection with the human being, we will also speak about this - if we look up there, we see, among many other things, the human karma shaped out of the cosmos. This moon, this Venus, this Jupiter are truly not only what physical astronomy describes them as. We have to see in them, in their constellations, in their mutual relationships, in their brilliance and in their whole existence, the builders of human destiny, the clock of destiny in which we can read our fate. It actually shines down from the heavens in the constellations. This was also once known in the old instinctive mystery wisdom, but this old astrology, which is purely spiritual-scientific, which worked with the spiritual foundations of existence, has come down to posterity in an amateurish and amateurish form. And only out of anthroposophy will something emerge that will allow us to recognize in the real spiritual context how this human life here on earth is lawfully shaped by the great clock of destiny.
But let us look at human karma from this point of view. Let us look at a person whose karma we allow to affect us. It really is the case that the person who grows into a healthy worldview through anthroposophy, as opposed to our pathological one of today, not only arrives at different concepts and mental images of the world and man, but also at different feelings and sensations. Because think about it: if you get to know the fate of a human being, you get to know the secrets of the entire star system. You look at the secrets of the cosmos by having a human destiny in front of you. People today write biographies and have no idea what they are actually profaning when they write biographies in their own way. In the times when knowledge was sacred because it was considered an emanation of the mysteries, people did not write biographies in the way they do today. Biographies were written by suggesting what was at work in the secrets of the starry world. When one surveys a human destiny, then one sees in it the rule of higher beings of the pre-solar existence, the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai; the rule of higher beings of the solar existence, Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes; of the beings who work out the whole karma, which is preferably the karma of Mars, the Thrones; the rule of those who work out the karma of Jupiter, the Cherubim; the rule of those beings who work together with man on such karma, which is the karma of Saturn, the Seraphim. Thus, by having before us the image of destiny, a human karma, we see in this human karma the ruling hierarchies. This human karma is initially a background, a curtain, like a veil. If we look behind this veil, then Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi; Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai; Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones are weaving and working and acting. Every human destiny is actually like something written on a piece of paper. Think of it, there could also be a person who looks at something like that printed on a sheet of paper and says: There are signs on it, first K-E-I and so on; that's all he understands, he is not able to put these letters together to form words. What a tremendous thing there is in putting these letters together to form words! We have the twenty-two to twenty-eight letters - well, thirty to thirty-four, if we take them all -: the whole of Goethe's “Faust” consists of nothing but these letters! Anyone who cannot read cannot read Goethe's “Faust”, he only has these thirty-four letters, he sees nothing at all in Goethe's “Faust”. If someone now sees something else, because he can build up these letters in their composition into this quite wonderful Goethean “Faust”, then even someone who has no concept of reading, a completely illiterate person, could be terribly scandalized and say: “Here comes someone who wants to read a lot out of this ‘Faust’, he starts: ”Have now, ah...". What a fool that is! - And yet, the whole of “Faust” consists only of these letters. Yes, you see, just as one usually looks at a human karma, a single human karma, one sees only letters. The moment you start reading, you see Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai and their mutual deeds. And such a single human life in its destiny becomes so much richer than this little book becomes from the moment one gets beyond the thirty-four letters and has the “Faust” in it. So much richer becomes that which passes from the purely earthly point of view, from the cosmic-illiterate ignorance, to the knowledge when one sees through that which represents a destiny, that the letters are signs for the deeds of the beings of the higher hierarchies.
Karma as the destiny of human life is so tremendous, so sublime, so majestic for the one who sees through it, that simply by understanding how karma relates to the universe, to the spiritual cosmos, he grows into a completely different way of feeling and feeling, not merely into a theoretical knowledge. And everything that one acquires through anthroposophy should not merely be the acquisition of theoretical knowledge, but should always have a gradual effect on the shaping of our way of thinking and feeling, by leading us deeper and deeper with our hearts from the earthworm feeling on earth to the feeling within the spirit land. For we humans do not merely belong to the earth, we belong to the spirit land. In that which is completed within our skin on earth, we can see the interaction of all the time we spend between death and a new birth. Within what is human skin, all the secrets of the world are always contained in a certain form. Human self-knowledge is by no means this trivial word that is so often spoken of, nor is it something sentimental. Human self-knowledge is world knowledge. That is why I have often written the following words in a book for friends with whom I have had the opportunity:
If you want to recognize your self,
look out into the vastness of the world.
If you want to see through the vastness of the world,
look into your own self.