The Rudolf Steiner Archive

20. About Novalis

[ 1 ] [In] the last third [of] the eighteenth century, [the] character of intellectual life differed greatly between northern and southern Germany. On the one hand, there was Wolff’s philosophy, which, despite its merits, lacked the spirit of theosophy.

[ 2 ] Hamann (a friend of Herder’s), who wrote [gap in the notes]

[ 3 ] Herder himself had a sense of the metamorphoses of spiritual truth. Herder wrote in his book on the Hebrew document (?) [gap in the transcript]

[ 4 ] To experience the creation of the world anew with every sunrise. His spirituality stood in sharp contrast to embodied rationalism, and especially to Kant.

[ 5 ] Echoes of Jakob Böhme’s philosophy could be found in many circles and schools, from which many ideas flowed and into which the Rosicrucian wisdom poured; see, for example, Lessing’s The Education of the Human Race: “Is not all eternity mine?” he exclaimed as his last will and testament. - So it was in northern Germany.

[ 6 ] The situation was quite different in southern Germany, particularly in Württemberg. Bengel, a deeply inspired figure (inspired by higher beings), became Christoph Oetinger’s spiritual teacher. They called their theosophy Philosophia sacra.

[ 7 ] 1772—not everyone would have been able to understand his writings, but they were imbued with a great deal of spiritual life.

[ 8 ] Fricker then wrote On the Harmony of Sounds. Swedenborg was also inspired by Fricker.

[ 9 ] Novalis [was] born into this milieu, where both currents converged. Born in Franconia. Schelling and Hegel were also from southern Germany. In Tübingen there was a seminary: a center where what flowed in the south as spiritual wisdom [was] cast into philosophy.

[ 10 ] Hölderlin and Oetinger also lived there. Theosophy was a central theme in these men’s conversations.

[ 11 ] In Central Germany, Markus Völker (the central light who knew everything within himself) rejected anything that had a logical connection, because he was a clairvoyant.

[ 12 ] Novalis was born twelve years before Oetinger’s death. His life: a recollection of past lives. Back then in Jena, the streets were filled with philosophical conversations. Fichte was right to say: What kind of philosopher one is depends on what kind of person one is. [Fichte had] an understanding of symbolism: two candles—he would extinguish the light before a lecture. A solemn atmosphere emanated from him and Schiller toward Novalis.

[ 13 ] In Leipzig, he met Schlegel.

[ 14 ] Gnosis, called “Mathesis” because it was based on foundations as certain as those of mathematics. For Novalis, this mathematics became a great poem. He was able to fill its lines with spiritual life and love; like a great divine cosmic poem of numbers and forms.

[ 15 ] Novalis says: Sleep is the soul’s digestion. Waking is the soul’s delight.

[ 16 ] Geognosy: Today, something abstract, like the Earth’s skeletal system. Just as humans cannot understand bones without considering their connection to the whole human being. That is why Novalis calls Goethe an anthropognost.

[ 17 ] If our soul were flexible enough, [then] we would always feel ourselves to be in the spiritual world. A subtle distinction between the old and the new initiation.

[ 18 ] First: The physical body is weakened. Second: The spirit is strengthened. Asceticism—a characteristic of both the old and the new initiation.