The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Significance of the Celestial Bodies Surrounding the Earth for Human Life III

[ 1 ] (based on an incomplete transcript)

[ 2 ] When we, as human beings, look at the world around us, we first find, as our human environment, everything that exists on Earth: the beings of the various kingdoms of the Earth—the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms; we find the human kingdom, to which we ourselves belong; and we find everything that belongs to these kingdoms, everything formed from them: mountains, rivers, clouds. If we then turn our gaze further out into the cosmos, we find the cosmos strewn with stars, fixed stars, and planets, and it becomes clear through the anthroposophical perspective that these various stars, just like our Earth, have their own inhabitants. But when human beings first turn their gaze both to their earthly surroundings and out into the vastness of the universe, they find, within this spatial environment, beings that relate only to a part of their own self. We know from anthroposophical considerations that we humans are composed of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an “I.” We know that during sleep, our ego and astral body separate from our physical and etheric bodies. But everything we see with our eyes, everything we can perceive in the world through our senses, relates only to our physical and etheric bodies. At first, it has no connection to our astral body or our ego. Only two celestial bodies are exceptions to this: the Sun and the Moon. The Sun and the Moon are, after all, inhabited by spiritual-soul beings just as the Earth is inhabited by human beings themselves. But the other stars of the vast universe are also inhabited by spiritual-soul beings; it is just that, during the course of human life between birth and death, human beings initially have only a very indirect relationship to the truly spiritual-soul aspect of the distant stars. Only the two stars mentioned—the Sun and the Moon—are exceptions to this. They are, so to speak, the two gateways through which we humans are connected to the spiritual world even during our physical earthly lives. And the Sun and the Moon themselves are related to us, in such a way that the Sun is related to our “I,” and the Moon to our astral body. We will come closer to understanding what I have just said if we look a little more closely at what is explained in the books and various cycles.

[ 3 ] From these, you know that the Moon, which today travels through space as the Earth’s companion—yet freely—was once connected to the Earth, that it formed a single body with the Earth, that at a certain point in time it broke away from the Earth, went out into space, and now forms a kind of colony of the Earth in space. But this is not only true of what appears to us as the physical manifestation of the Moon as it looks down upon us from above; it is also true of the beings who inhabit it. You also know that the Earth was once inhabited not only by human beings but by a kind of higher beings who were the first great teachers of humanity. These beings did not, like human beings today, possess a physical body, but only a subtle etheric body. Yet there was still communication between human beings and these beings well into the Atlantean epoch. This communication consisted in the fact that the people of those primeval times on Earth were instructed to allow a certain stillness to reign in their minds, to perceive nothing of their physical surroundings, but rather to remain with a calm soul in complete peace of mind. And then it seemed to these people of primeval times—ourselves, for we were all on Earth in our previous earthly lives—as if these beings were speaking from within, and people felt and perceived this as inspiration. These advanced beings did not communicate what they had to convey to people in the same way that we communicate with one another, but rather in the manner I have described to you. From all of this, people created works of a wondrous primordial wisdom. Modern man is, after all, fundamentally so terribly arrogant; he considers himself so boundlessly clever. He certainly is, compared to primitive man, but cleverness alone does not lead to wisdom; it does not lead to knowledge. Cleverness comes from the intellect, and the intellect is not the only tool that leads to knowledge. It was deeper forces of the soul that, in primeval times, led people to knowledge—knowledge they did not express in intellectual formulas, nor even in our philistine grammar—for all grammar is philistine—but rather in semi-poetic works. These ancient sages, who taught humanity through the inspiration of these advanced beings, expressed in works that were half-poetry—in boundlessly beautiful, pictorial representations—that which has been preserved in external documents down to our present day. Take, for example, the Vedic literature of the Indians, the philosophy of yoga, the philosophy of Vedanta, the Persian documents, the Egyptian documents—we admire all of these, and we would be fools not to admire them. The more one immerses oneself in these things, the more one devotes oneself to them, the more one says to oneself: Yes, we are wise today, and those ancient people were not so wise, but what they presented as knowledge in a wonderfully beautiful poetic form is profound; it leads deep into the mysteries of the world. And the external documents that we already admire so much—which move us deeply if our hearts are in the right place—are merely the last remnants of what once existed within humanity through oral tradition, that wondrous, ancient primordial wisdom which only spiritual science can now fathom. But human beings have, so to speak, outgrown this primordial wisdom. They would have remained immature and would not have attained the freedom of knowledge through their own efforts had they remained with the primordial wisdom.

[ 4 ] But with that, those great primordial teachers no longer had a task on Earth. They left Earth. Just as the physical aspect of the Moon has gone out into the vastness of the universe, so too did the great primordial teachers depart with the Moon. Today they form a kind of cosmic colony on the Moon, and anyone who observes the Moon through the science of initiation will find it populated by those wise beings who were once companions of humanity. One can still fathom the wisdom of these beings if, through a deeper study of what I have described in How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?, is able to communicate with these lunar beings. But then one learns something quite special: one learns from them that today, even though they are not on Earth, they have a significant task for Earth. It is difficult to express in earthly words—which are not suited for this purpose—what this task is that is so significant for humanity. In a sense, they keep records of the entire history of humanity, of every single human being. Not books like the ones we have in our libraries, but still something we can call books; and in these books, for every single human being, is recorded what has been experienced by that person in their successive earthly lives. To get to know the Moon is to get to know the human past. When we descend from the pre-birth existence—in which we are between death and a new birth—from the vastness of the worlds down to Earth, we pass through the lunar sphere, and there we are inwardly touched by what is recorded in the great ledgers of the lunar beings concerning our past. This past of ours is imprinted upon our astral body before we descend to Earth. In our astral body, which we bring down into earthly existence, we find the imprints made by these lunar beings. Under normal circumstances, this does not penetrate into our head. For most things during its time on Earth, the head is not at all such an extraordinarily important organ. It is important for external, material concepts and ideas. That which is imprinted by the lunar beings into the human being at the final stage of its descent from the cosmos to Earth is, in fact—whether people believe it or not—imprinted into that part of our human being which we call the spiritual aspect of our physical-metabolic being. It therefore lies entirely in the subconscious, but it is there; it flows into growth, into health, and in particular into what I would like to call a person’s capacity for healing when they fall ill on Earth. It is, of course, an important matter to understand the nature of the illness, but it is a far more important matter to understand how to heal. Now, supersensible knowledge is indeed an essential aid in recognizing the nature of illness; but this is the knowledge of what is inscribed in this way—in growth, in the nutritive forces, in the respiratory forces—from the Akashic Records of the lunar beings. This is what causes a person to offer greater or lesser resistance to healing for any given illness. One person is healed more easily, another with greater difficulty. This depends entirely on how these imprints are made based on their karma, on their previous earthly life.

[ 5 ] You see, when we look at what the Moon out there, with its inhabitants, represents for us here on Earth, we come to realize that it is intimately connected with everything that constitutes our past, which stretches back to our previous earthly lives. To truly understand the nature of the Moon as it exists out there in the vastness of the universe means to feel and sense the past of humankind here on Earth. Now, human destiny is composed of what we carry over from our previous earthly lives—that is, from our past—and what we can experience during our present life. And from what can be experienced in the present, together with our past, destiny continues to take shape into the future, into subsequent earthly lives. From a cosmic perspective, then, the Moon with its beings appears to us as that which shapes our past within our destiny.

[ 6 ] From this you can see how little our current understanding knows about what the celestial bodies out there actually are. The physical understanding of the Moon to which we are accustomed today is, in essence, no understanding at all. Anyone who describes the Moon physically today assumes that what they see depicted as mountains on lunar maps has always been there. It is naive to believe that. The lunar beings have always been there; the spiritual-soul aspect of the Moon was there, but not the physical matter. You will be able to understand this if you look at human beings themselves. In the course of their earthly lives, human beings are constantly renewing their physical substances. After seven to eight years, we no longer have any of the physical matter we once carried within us. It has all been replaced. What remains within us is the spiritual-soul aspect, and the same is true of the celestial bodies. You can look up at the Moon today: its substance, even though it is more enduring than human substance, has become something entirely different over the course of time; only the spiritual-soul aspect remains. When one considers these things, one gains a completely different view of the universe than the one derived from what is today considered material knowledge. This material knowledge is, of course, extraordinarily clever, intelligent, and rational; above all, it can calculate, and it calculates with absolute certainty. The calculations are always correct, but they are not true. Imagine, for example, someone today calculating the structure of the heart. He observes it today, and in a month he observes it again: it has changed, though not much. In another month, again not much, and then he checks how much the heart has changed in a year. He need only multiply, and he has the figure for ten years. He can calculate what the heart was like three hundred years ago, what it will be like in three hundred years, and the calculation will certainly be correct. Only, the heart wasn’t there three hundred years ago, and it won’t be there in three hundred years. The same approach is taken with regard to other things. The calculations are always correct, but they do not correspond to reality. The same is true of the outer, material substance of the celestial bodies. They change their substance, but the spiritual-psychic aspect remains. And for the Moon, this spiritual-psychic aspect is that which is woven into our destiny by the great recorders of our past lives—that which is connected to a part of this fabric of our destiny as human beings.

[ 7 ] Thus, the moon is indeed one of the gateways that point humanity toward the spiritual world, from which its destiny is woven by beings who were once our wise companions on Earth during that time when people wove their own destinies out of instinct. Now, the weaving of destiny takes place entirely in the subconscious. We will hear more about this later.

[ 8 ] There is yet another gateway to the spiritual world: the Sun. When one comes to know the Sun through the science of initiation, one does not encounter beings connected to our Earth itself, as are the lunar beings; one does not encounter beings in the Sun who once inhabited the Earth. One encounters those beings whom you will find referred to in my Occult Science as Angeloi and the higher beings in the hierarchies. When I say “in the Sun,” you must of course imagine them throughout the entire sphere of the Sun, in the entire flood of light that emanates from the Sun. The Sun is the abode of the Angeloi, the angels—those beings, each of whom is always connected to a human individual. And we humans are already connected to these higher individuals in relation to our “I,” and we are connected to these higher individuals through our existence in the Sun. The Angeloi are, so to speak, the cosmic archetypes of human beings, for human beings will one day attain the rank of the Angeloi. On the Sun live those beings whose nature we ourselves are approaching. From this you can already deduce that just as our past is connected to our existence in relation to the Moon, so our future is connected to our existence in relation to the Sun. The Moon and the Sun represent a world of our past and our future, and while on the one hand we see that the lunar beings are the record-keepers of our past—that, so to speak, our past earthly lives are recorded on the pages of their books—the science of initiation makes it clear to us that we must look to the angels, angels when we concern ourselves with our future. After all, we are constantly doing something—perhaps not everyone, but most people must do something. Just as what we have done in the past influences our present life, so too must the things we do in the present influence the future. But they can only have an effect on the future if, so to speak, the Angeloi direct their spiritual gaze toward what human beings do in the present and bring it to fruition in the future. It is a very comforting feeling to take this role of the Angeloi in the world into account. After all, we accomplish many things that are meant to bear fruit in the future. Humanity today has become terribly thoughtless with regard to such matters. People should take these things into account, and whenever a person does anything, they should think of their angel, something like this: “May my guardian spirit receive my deed as a root and bring forth fruit from it.” The more figuratively, the more vividly a person thus addresses his Angelos regarding deeds that are to bear fruit in the future, the more of these fruits will be available in the future. — Just as the lunar beings preserve our past destiny, so the solar beings continually weave new destiny into the future. In truth, it is not only the outer, physical sunlight that is sent down from the Sun to the Earth, nor only the outer moonlight; but when we look with spiritual eyes toward the Sun and the Moon, we know that the Moon is connected to our astral body. Through this connection to our astral body, the Moon is the starting point for everything that is woven from our past into our destiny. The Sun is connected to our “I,” and through the beings who serve as models for our cosmic future, the Sun is related to what our future destiny will be. Thus, in the Sun and Moon—which are outwardly connected through their luminous effects—the heavenly reflections of our destiny are woven into the image of the interplay between the Sun and the Moon.

[ 9 ] In this regard, the science of initiation provides a genuine explanation for this phenomenon. When someone who has truly progressed as far as necessary—as I have described in my book How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds? — looks at the full moon, he sees not only what human consciousness perceives, but above all, in the light that is revealed to him, his past destiny and the content of his past earthly life. And when he has sharpened the corresponding spiritual vision and gazes toward the place where the new moon is—which cannot be seen with the physical eye— then what now looms darkly before him from the dark new moon—the great admonisher emerging from his destiny—will cast a shadow upon him, calling out to him how he must relate to the events of his past in his previous earthly life in order to balance them out again in his karmic development.

[ 10 ] Human beings can have a similar relationship to the sun. There, too, a person can sense, at least in general terms if not in specific detail, what the future holds in store for them. If we now set aside the cosmic perspective and look at human beings themselves, we find that human destiny is indeed woven in a wondrous way from two elements.

[ 11 ] When two people—let’s say one in his twenty-fifth year and the other in his thirtieth—meet, it may happen—though not always—that when one or the other looks back on his life on earth so far, it becomes perfectly clear to him: they have walked their life paths as if they had been seeking one another. It is merely thoughtlessness on our part if we fail to take notice of such things. Even as a child, one has already set out on the path that was meant to lead them to where they would meet the other person, and the other person has also taken this path; and everything leading up to that shared meeting point has taken place in the subconscious. But what, then, was at work in the subconscious? If one is A and the other is B, then A descended through the lunar sphere before entering earthly life. The lunar beings have inscribed in the records—and also in the astral body—what he had in common with B in a past earthly life, and these entries in the Akashic Lunar Chronicle influenced the path, just as they did for B. From the moment the two people meet, the subconscious ceases to be the sole determining factor, for then the people become aware of one another. They make an impression on one another. They either find each other likable or unlikable. It is no longer a preservation of the past that is at work; it is now the present that is at work. The angels step in and then guide the people forward. This is when the solar presence comes into its own, so that within the human being, the sun and the moon truly weave together the person’s destiny. This can, in fact, be perceived quite clearly if one only observes human life with insight.

[ 12 ] Take, for example, two people who meet somewhere. The impression they make on each other can vary greatly. There are cases where two people meet, and it is truly the case that one person takes the other completely into their will, into their heart. This acceptance into one’s inner being is, to a large extent, unaffected by personal impressions. Merely rational people simply do not have much understanding for what is present inwardly, for it is truly one of the most wondrous things when one sees how one person relates to another. In one instance, A truly accepts B into his will to such an extent that he says: “I would like to do myself what B does: What pleases him also pleases me.” But now B is ugly, and one cannot understand how B could please A. You see, the attraction of B to A is not formed by the intellect, nor by sensory impressions, but by the deep soul forces: by the will and that which flows from the will into the soul. No matter how ugly the other person may be, he acquired that ugliness only in this present earthly life. What connects the two has its origin in what they experienced together in a previous earthly life. At first glance, one might think the two people do not fit together at all; but what they hold in their subconscious brings their wills together. This is often evident as early as childhood. How eager a child is to be like “him,” to want what “he” wants, to feel what “he” feels. Then a karmic relationship exists.

[ 13 ] This is one way in which people encounter one another in life, and if one were to pay close attention to this—as one will in the not-too-distant future, when people will once again focus more on a person’s inner self— then in such cases, in the way a will pulsates, it would be possible to recognize that one has already lived past earthly lives with these people, and subconscious soul forces reveal something about what one experienced with a person in a past earthly life.

[ 14 ] The other case is when one meets a person with whom no such relationship between the wills arises, but rather one in which the aesthetic or intellectual impression is the determining factor. How often does it happen that A meets B and then does not speak of him in the tone of that enthusiasm or aversion with which one speaks of a person with whom one was previously karmically connected. One might praise such a person with whom one has no karmic connection, find them nice, a splendid fellow, but they do not enter the will; rather, they enter only the intellect and the aesthetic sense.

[ 15 ] This is the second way in which people come together. If the influence that two people exert on one another extends into the will, the mind, and the character, then a karmic connection exists; the two people have been brought together by shared experiences in a past earthly life. If an impulse emanates from a person that reaches only as far as the intellect or the aesthetic sense—so that we merely find the person pleasing or displeasing—then this is not something brought about by the Moon, but rather something the Sun is currently bringing into being and which will only find its continuation in the future. Thus, through a thoughtful observation of a person, one can come to sense where karmic relationships exist.

[ 16 ] Now you see, what I have told you is precisely something that can be gained as an understanding of the world through anthroposophy, and just as one does not need to be an artist oneself to find a painting beautiful, so one does not need to be an initiate oneself to understand these things. One can understand these things because the ideas harmonize with one another. There are people who say: What does the whole spiritual world have to do with us? One can only understand it once one is within it. — People say this because today they are accustomed to calling proof only that which can be demonstrated through the senses in a tangible way. Such people are like fools who say: Everything in the world must be supported, otherwise it will fall to the earth. Someone might come along and say: The earth, the moon, and the sun are out there in outer space, but they must have some support so they don’t fall down. He does not know that the celestial bodies need no support because they support one another. Anthroposophy relies on this kind of understanding. In anthroposophy, ideas cannot be supported by external, tangible evidence, but they support one another. If you read just one anthroposophical book at first, it may happen—because you are accustomed to seeing everything proven in a tangible way—that you put it aside because nothing in it is proven. But as you read more and more, you will find that the ideas support and sustain one another just as the celestial bodies do. One can understand these things even without being an initiate, but through the science of initiation, they become even more profound. They are experienced in a different way. Therefore, one who has progressed far enough can also speak in a different way about this tapestry of human destiny woven from the past, present, and future. For one who has undergone initiation to a certain degree, these experiences become much more concrete. There is a person standing before you; he speaks to you, he tells you something, and you hear it. Just as the initiated person hears the outer world, he can also hear the inner world—the spiritual language, which is no less clear than human language. With the same clarity with which people speak to you, the person with whom the initiated individual was karmically connected in the past and whom he meets in this present life speaks to him. He hears an inner language. You might say, then, that the initiate has a whole host of people within him, some of whom speak to him more clearly than others. That is indeed the case. But at the same time, it is vivid proof of the manner in which one spent one’s previous earthly life. I said that the great recorders, the lunar beings, record one’s destiny; but the moment the initiate meets another person with whom he was karmically connected in a previous earthly life, he is illuminated, as if by the light of the full moon, by the records of that other person with whom he is karmically connected. What we currently think and do does not speak to us, but after a certain time—not even that long—what we have done, what is recorded on the Moon, becomes vivid and alive. The Akashic images are images of life: when you encounter the content of a past earthly life, you come to know yourself and get to know another person. What you shared in that past earthly life comes alive again; therefore, it is no wonder that you hear this revival speaking from within the other person as well. You are intimately united with the one with whom you were together in your previous earthly life. This will be the path for humanity into the future: People will first have to develop a subtle sensitivity so that their will is experienced in their encounter with another person, enabling them to feel that person. In a period roughly seven to nine thousand years in the future, all people on Earth will hear the voices of those with whom they are karmically connected speaking from within themselves.

[ 17 ] If one now encounters a person with whom one has no karmic connection—someone one is meeting for the first time—this experience also takes on a different character after receiving initiation. Of course, the initiate may also meet people in his life with whom he has no karmic connection. Nevertheless, his relationship with them will be different from that which exists for ordinary consciousness. With a certain subtlety, he senses new realities in the cosmic human being.

[ 18 ] Through a person one meets for the first time in the cosmos, one gains a deeper insight into the world. It is also a blessing to meet someone for the first time, and the fact that one comes to know the world better through a person one meets for the first time must, in turn, develop into a subtle feeling. The initiate, upon meeting a person with whom he has no karmic connection—whom he encounters, so to speak, for the first time in the cosmos—immediately faces a task regarding that person: He must immediately connect with the guardian spirit from the sphere of the Angeloi who stands in a particularly protective relationship to that person. He must not only get to know the person; he must get to know the person’s guardian spirit. This person’s Angelos also speaks with great clarity from within, and when the initiate encounters various people with whom he is not karmically connected, he hears a loud and clear voice speaking from within. He perceives the words of these people’s Angelos within himself. This gives the initiate a certain character in his interactions with people. He himself takes on something of what the Angelos wishes to say to the person he is getting to know: he transforms into that person’s Angelos. As a result, what can be spoken to people becomes, for a different reason, more intimate than it is for ordinary consciousness. This is also why the initiate is, in essence, a different person for every individual he encounters for the first time in the cosmos; in each case, he embodies something of that person’s Angelos. This is the basis for the capacity for transformation possessed by those who, through the power of initiation, encounter others. Today, people really have only a very limited sensitivity to such things. But the centuries are not so far behind us; back then, humanity still had a much greater sensitivity to such things. It could happen that a wise person stood before a group of other people, and each described him differently. If one takes a philistine approach, one will conclude: Some interesting personality has been described by twenty people, each differently, so none of them saw him accurately. But perhaps all twenty people did see him. He transformed himself for each one by entering into a relationship with the Angelos of each of these people. You see, in this regard there really is a gulf between what is customary and common among people today and what was customary and common in the not-too-distant past. People learn a great deal today, but they learn in a completely different way than they did in the past. Higher training, in a time that is not so very long ago, provided instruction on how those who, as priests or teachers, were to guide and lead others could attain the ability to connect with a person’s Angelos. People have even forgotten the memory of this. The teaching of the angels was a science for those who wished to become leaders of humanity, so that they might attain the ability to transform.

[ 19 ] Here’s another point: You will be struck by the fact—and I have, of course, spoken about this in my Christianity as a Mystical Fact—that the biographies that have been preserved of the ancient Initiates all look alike! Just try studying the biographies of the initiates—they all resemble one another, for the great initiates have experienced similar biographies with regard to their inner lives. But these are not the biographies written by human beings, for those do not resemble one another. If all those who, let us say, had encountered Zarathustra had written a character sketch of him, each would have written it differently, because Zarathustra transformed himself in the presence of each person. What the world ought to know about the initiates was a biography inspired by higher spirits.

[ 20 ] Thus, one might say: The person who, through the power of initiation, encounters another with whom he is karmically connected perceives that person’s past as his own; he comes to know it through the spiritual-soul aspects of the lunar beings.

[ 21 ] The one who, through the power of initiation, encounters a person for the first time in the cosmos is given the task of connecting with that person’s Angelos. In doing so, he learns much about the outer world. True, the Angeloi speak within us, and we are, after all, a world out there. In reality, one cannot truly come to know other people on a deeper level through spiritual powers without coming to know a host of angels. It is quite impossible to attain true knowledge of human beings without having knowledge of angels. Just as I had to say that even ordinary sensitivity, when it comes into contact with people who are not karmically connected, comes to know the environment—so, all the more, the initiate comes to know the actual outer world, the world of angels. Through this, he gains intermediaries for the higher hierarchies.

[ 22 ] There are other ways, too, to become aware of how one is karmically connected to another person. You meet one person in life, then another. You just need to pay attention: You may meet someone, have a lot to do with them, work with them, and so on, but you cannot dream about them. You cannot dream about them because they are not connected to your astral body, but only to your ego.

[ 23 ] You meet other people—you’ve only seen them briefly—and they follow you into your dreams, even into your waking dreams. It is an image formed from within that has nothing to do with the person’s outward appearance, because you are karmically connected to that person. You meet a person with whom you were karmically connected, and you are immediately compelled to form an image of that person. If the person in question is a painter, it might happen that he paints a portrait of him that a philistine would find completely unrecognizable, while the initiate recognizes a previous incarnation of the person he has painted. One truly comes to know, in the depths of one’s being—albeit unconsciously—the other person with whom one is karmically connected. Through those people with whom one was not karmically connected—those one meets for the first time in life—one comes to know humanity in general. People behave accordingly as well. When you gather with others for five o’clock tea or similar occasions, try listening to what life has to say: When a person has met someone with whom they are karmically connected, they do not say much about other people, but about this particular person they say something significant. They point out something significant, especially when they are still unaware of such things. Pay attention to life: At a five o’clock tea, you strike up a conversation with someone with whom you have no karmic connection. They interest you only superficially; they speak to you as if they were the representative of the entire five o’clock tea party. It’s an entertaining gathering; you hear a lot about world affairs and about people who are major political figures—but you listen only to this one person, and based on that person, you might misjudge the entire group. You get to know the other side of the world through people with whom you have no karmic connection. A traveler who once passed through the Königsberg station at midnight and ordered a cup of coffee there was treated terribly rudely by the waiter he had called—a man with red hair who looked sleepy. The traveler in question then wrote in his diary: “The people of Königsberg have red hair, are sleepy, and are rude.” Based on this midnight waiter, with whom he had no karmic connection, the traveler in question judged the people of Königsberg.

[ 24 ] You see, through such reflections, one acquires values for life, draws closer to people, and learns to connect with them in a different way. But one does not merely come to know human life—and this is precisely what is said to be the essence of anthroposophy, that it truly intervenes in life—one also learns to feel, sense, and know cosmic life. The sun and moon lose all their abstractness and become something substantial—something one looks upon in the cosmos, and which, in relation to the small human destiny here on Earth, is the corresponding greatness in the universe.

[ 25 ] Thus, the influence of the Sun is united with that of the Moon in our lives. Everything that shines down upon us from the Moon is connected to our cosmic past, and the Sun is connected to our cosmic future.

[ 26 ] Our Christmas Conference, which reestablished the Anthroposophical Society, sought to draw particular attention to this vital aspect of anthroposophy—this aspect that provides values for living. It should be said—and has been said—that esotericism, in the true sense of the word, should once again be alive among us. Therefore, this Christmas Conference was not meant to be merely a festive gathering at which a number of anthroposophists met; rather, its effects and impulses should continue to have an impact. Plans are underway to launch a new newsletter—it already exists, and the first three issues have already been published. A newsletter, initially, covering events throughout the entire Anthroposophical Society—what is taking place within the Anthroposophical Society. In this way, it must become something like a living spiritual organism. Time and again on my travels I have encountered people—for example, in The Hague—who have said: “Well, we don’t really know what’s going on with the people in Vienna, and yet we belong to an Anthroposophical Society!” How many people here could I ask who could tell me, for example, what is happening in the Anthroposophical branch in Leipzig or in Hamburg? But that must be the case in the future. It must go so far that someone who is a member of the New Zealand branch truly has an idea of what is happening in Vienna. Members would do well to share with the editorial staff of the newsletter what they experience both within and outside the Anthroposophical Society. This will then be compiled, and readers will always be able to see what is happening in the Anthroposophical Society. I intend to include in future issues short aphorisms that briefly summarize important aspects of life, so that such aphorisms can be used in the branches or on other occasions.

[ 27 ] All of this is intended to bring real life—vibrant life—into the Anthroposophical Society. That was the aim of our Christmas Conference. Every single member should become aware of this. And only because this is how it should be—and indeed must be—if anthroposophy itself is to have a proper past and future, have I undertaken, after years of withdrawal, to take on the administration and chairmanship myself, with a board of directors that I know will work fruitfully from the Goetheanum. Truly, at my age, I would not have set out to do again what one does as a very young man—to start all over—had it not been for the absolute necessity. At the same time, I would like to appeal to every member of the Anthroposophical Society to help ensure that this Christmas Conference may lay the foundation stone of anthroposophical life in the hearts of our members and never cease to develop further and further as a true seed of life, so that an ever more vibrant life may take root in the Anthroposophical Society. Then the Anthroposophical Society will also have an impact on the world.