The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] If you recall the discussions that have taken place regarding the evolution of the Earth through the Saturn, Sun, and Moon eras, you will know that at each of these stages of evolution, a certain type of being—which we must now classify among the beings of the higher hierarchies—reached, so to speak, the human stage. We know that during the ancient Saturn era, those spiritual beings whom we call the Spirits of Personality, the Primordial Beings, and the Archai reached the human stage; that during the Solar era, the Archangeloi reached their human stage; during the Lunar era, the Angeloi; and during the Earth era, human beings.

[ 2 ] But you can also see from all the considerations that have been made in connection with the evolutionary processes that each stage of beings, which reached a certain level of development in the subsequent era, had been prepared. We know that human beings were prepared through the Saturn, Sun, and Moon eras; that what we today call the perfect physical human body has undergone an evolution since the Saturn era; that the etheric body has undergone an evolution since the Sun era; the astral body since the Moon era; and that the “I” was only added during the Earth era, so that the entirety of such a being is thus prepared.

[ 3 ] You may be wondering, in a sense: Are there beings being prepared even in our time who will reach the human stage during the Jupiter era? - But you also know that during the Saturn, Sun, and Moon eras—you need only refer to the description in my book *The Secret Science*—the spirits of the higher hierarchies participated in the preparation for humanity. It has been described there how the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai participated in the formation of human beings, and so it stands to reason to ask the question: Are human beings, through their earthly existence, perhaps also working to prepare those beings who will reach the human stage during the Jupiter era?

[ 4 ] This is a question that every feeling heart—feeling in the sense that we have described in recent days in connection with the insights provided by Spiritual Science—must certainly regard as a matter of life and death. For it could be that human behavior as a whole during the Earth period might either promote or hinder the development of those beings who could reach the human stage during the Jupiter period. One might say: What worse could we do than to behave during Earth evolution in a way that makes it impossible for the right Jupiter beings to emerge from our actions? - Now, of course, one must assume a certain willingness to understand if one wishes to speak about these things; for in speaking about them, one is truly touching upon important mysteries of initiation—mysteries of initiation that are, of course, an abomination to modern science. One must therefore prepare oneself, through one’s own intuition, to consider how modern science must necessarily stand in relation to the actual truths of life.

[ 5 ] In my previous lectures, I have already attempted to describe, to some extent, the necessary relationship between modern science and life. Science cannot directly approach the mysteries of life. Nor should it seek to do so; it must simply not presume to claim that it can approach these mysteries of life. For those who like to eat hard-boiled eggs, it is certainly good to boil them hard, and then hard-boiled eggs serve a good purpose precisely for those who enjoy them. But if someone were to go along and say: “Let’s take the eggs away from the hens in order to hard-boil them and then have the hens hatch them afterward”—such a person would be doing something absurd. Exactly the same thing is done with regard to the cosmos by those who want to unravel its mysteries and set out to do so with today’s knowledge—which truly corresponds to the behavior of someone who wants to have hard-boiled eggs hatched, from which nothing can hatch anymore.

[ 6 ] The extent to which this science, as it is intertwined with contemporary thought as a whole, must be misleading in many respects—especially regarding the true mysteries of life—can be made clear to you through a comparison I would now like to make. Isn’t it true that when someone wants to express an opinion on whether a science is beneficial or harmful, they will first try to frame the question this way: Is this science correct in this or that respect? — And if they can prove that it is correct in this or that respect, they will naturally swear by it.

[ 7 ] Yes, but that is precisely what we must move away from—the idea that we consider this question—whether what science says is correct or not—to be so important. We must come to the point where we do not regard this question as the main issue when it comes to solving the mysteries of life. If someone sees a carriage drawn by horses with a person sitting in it, the person who sees this will certainly be correct in saying: The horses are pulling this person in the carriage; they are pulling him along. — That is undoubtedly true. And anyone who were to claim that the horses are not pulling the carriage and the person sitting in it would, of course, be stating something incorrect. But it is equally true that the person sitting on it, through the way he directs the horses, determines where the horses are to pull him, and that is certainly the more important, the more essential factor that matters for achieving what is to be achieved. Modern science is precisely like the claim of someone who denies that the man in the carriage is steering the horses, and who is willing to admit only that the horses are pulling the man in the carriage.

[ 8 ] If you think this comparison through more carefully, you will be able to gain a proper understanding of the relationship between modern science and the search for truth today. I must repeat these things again and again for the reason that those who stand on the ground of our worldview must increasingly be able to defend and safeguard our Spiritual Science worldview against the attacks of today’s prevailing worldview. But this is only possible if one truly understands the relationship between today’s external science and the genuine pursuit of truth. One must always approach the questions of Spiritual Science with very specific feelings and very specific emotional nuances; otherwise, one cannot come to terms with them.

[ 9 ] Now, the question we have touched upon—the question of those beings who will attain the human stage on Jupiter—is in fact connected with the deepest questions of human evolution on Earth. There is something in our earthly evolution that has always been the subject of philosophical inquiry: the relationship between moral and ethical action and the natural existence of human beings. As an earthly being, humanity must distinguish to what extent it is a being governed by its instincts, one that follows these instincts, that must satisfy them, and that is powerless in the face of these instincts and their satisfaction because they must simply be satisfied according to the laws of nature. That is one side of human nature. In contrast to this, we say: What we do, we must do. We must eat; we must sleep.—But there is another realm of human behavior on Earth—the realm in which we cannot speak of an “obligation,” for such a concept would lose all meaning if we were to apply it here. This is the vast realm of “ought,” the realm where, in the face of all instincts and everything that naturally follows from our nature, we feel: We must follow a purely spiritual impulse. — The “Thou shalt” is never something that speaks to us in an instinctive way, but rather something that speaks to us in a purely spiritual way, providing direction. This “Thou shalt” encompasses the realm of our moral duties.

[ 10 ] There are philosophies that cannot at all discern the connection between “You should” and “You must.” And our present age—which, precisely when it comes to moral life, is already almost mired in materialism and will become even more so—would like, as it were, to transform every “you ought to” into a “you must.” In this regard, we are heading toward times in which the transformation of “you ought to” into “you must” will be trumpeted with a certain arrogance as if it were psychology. Dire prospects loom when one considers the beginnings of what will develop further in the future—for example, criminal psychology. We can already see today how people are being approached in such a way that the question is no longer whether they have transgressed a “you should,” but rather how they were driven or spurred by an inherent compulsion to commit this or that act harmful to others. Curious attempts are being made more and more frequently to characterize crime solely as a special case of illness in the world. All these things stem from a certain materialistic confusion of our time regarding the relationship between “you ought” and “you must.”

[ 11 ] What does this “Thou shalt”—which has also been called the categorical imperative—actually mean in the overall context of human existence? As is well known, whoever follows the “Thou shalt” commits a moral act. Whoever does not follow the “Thou shalt” commits an immoral act. That is, of course, a rather trivial truth. But now let us try to view “moral” and “immoral” not only in relation to the outer maya of the physical plane, but let us try to view them in relation to the truth and to what actually lies behind the maya of the physical plane. In the science of initiation, the moral, the ethical, the virtuous—that which corresponds to “thou shalt”—actually stands out, one might say, in a more gross sense, as something that leaps to the spiritual eye. Human beings reveal themselves to you—and such truths, which are abhorrent to the materialistic worldview, must now be stated—when you observe them under certain temperature and weather conditions—horses demonstrate this even more clearly, but we are not speaking of horses now—human beings then reveal themselves to you through the way they exhale, and how the breath becomes visible as a mist as it enters the air. Of course, for materialistic science, this breath that a human being exhales—it can be seen even more clearly in horses, but as I said, we are not talking about horses now—is something that flutters away and dissipates and has no further significance. But for those who observe the phenomena of life through the science of initiation, this exhalation is significant in that its nuances bear the exact traces of a person’s moral or immoral behavior. A person’s moral or immoral behavior can be recognized in this watery exhalation, and the watery exhalation is quite different in a person inclined toward morality than in one inclined toward immorality. You know that, in many aspects of human nature, the finer characteristics of human nature can only be observed in the finer parts of the etheric and astral auras. But what, in the ordinary sense of the word, constitutes a human being as a moral or immoral being is already revealed in the etheric-astral influence contained within the watery breath. The physical aspect of it dissipates, but that which is embodied in the breath does not dissipate, for it contains a demonic being; and when the breath becomes watery, it contains a physical, an etheric, and an astral aspect—only that the physical aspect is not earthy, but merely watery. Thus, something that takes on the most manifold forms manifests itself in this exhalation.

[ 12 ] Acts that arise from love reveal something different than acts that arise, for example, from enthusiasm, creative impulse, or the drive for perfection. But this form of outbreathing always has something about it that is reminiscent of beings who do not yet exist on Earth. Within these beings, those who will attain the human stage on Jupiter are preparing themselves. These are the first, forerunning shadows that are changing and will continue to change in order to then ascend to the human stage on Jupiter.

[ 13 ] In a certain sense, we also owe our very existence to the exhalation processes of the Angeloi on the Moon, and it is, in turn, one of the most profound experiences of spiritual life to realize that the future Jupiter-men are being prepared in this exhalation—that from what human beings exhale today, the future Jupiter-men will develop. When one approaches the Bible with this insight and reads its first words, one can say to oneself: Now one begins to understand what is meant when it says that breath was exhaled by the Elohim, and that through the breath they breathed into human beings, they formed the earthly human beings.

[ 14 ] I can confess to you that I would never have understood this breathing of the Elohim—the breathing into the mouth and nose of the living being that is man—if I had not known beforehand that even in the exhalation of the earthly human being are contained the first seeds of those beings who will only become human on Jupiter. But only those exhalations that owe their existence to actions that follow the “Thou shalt”—that is, moral actions—can become Jupiter humans.

[ 15 ] Thus we see how we intervene in the entire cosmic order through our earthly morality. Thus we see that our earthly morality is indeed a creative power, and we see that there is a strong impetus in Spiritual Science toward moral action, for we know that we oppose the creation of the Jupiter beings when we do not act morally on Earth. Morality, which is the expression of “Thou shalt,” thus truly acquires a real value, an existential value. Our human behavior intensively shapes what we can take from Spiritual Science when we recognize mysteries that are truly connected to the cosmos.

[ 16 ] Attention has been drawn to similar matters in the past, with remarks made here and there about how language itself serves as a symbol for humanity’s future creative work. However, I do not wish to go into that today; rather, I wanted first and foremost to show the significance of moral behavior within the cosmos as a whole.

[ 17 ] Now, however, you may ask: What about immoral behavior? — Immoral behavior, too, finds expression in the inner structure, in the formation of the breath. But immoral behavior imprints a demonic form upon the breath. Demons are born through human immoral behavior. Let us first try to clarify the difference between the demons that arise from immoral behavior and the spiritual beings—spiritual insofar as they manage only a watery existence on Earth—the spiritual beings created through moral actions.

[ 18 ] Those beings who come into existence in the breath up to a temporary, watery state—and who arise from moral conduct—are beings who possess an astral body, an etheric body, and finally a physical body that is condensed to the point of wateriness, just as we had an etheric body, an astral body, and a physical body during our lunar existence, and the physical body, too, was condensed only to a kind of watery state. It was already the case with us during the Lunar stage, though not exactly in the same way. And in this form that arises from moral actions—consisting of a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body—there is the potential to receive an “I,” just as there was the potential in our physical, etheric, and astral bodies during the Lunar stage to receive an “I.” The predisposition to receive an “I” is thus present within them. Such beings are destined for a regular, progressive existence in the cosmos; they follow a regular path. The other beings, created as demons through immoral actions, naturally also possess an astral body, an etheric body, and a physical body reduced to a watery state, but they lack the predisposition to develop an “I.” They come into the world, as it were, decapitated. Instead of assimilating within themselves the predisposition to progress in the regular evolution toward a Jupiter existence, they reject this predisposition. They thereby condemn themselves to the fate of falling out of evolution. In doing so, however, they swell the ranks of the Luciferic beings. They fall under the powers of the Luciferic beings. Consequently, because they cannot attain a regularly structured existence, they are forced to lead a parasitic existence. All beings who reject a regularly structured existence must lead a parasitic existence; in order to survive, they must attach themselves elsewhere. Those entities that arise through immoral acts are particularly inclined to lead a parasitic existence by seizing human evolution on Earth under the guidance of Lucifer, to whom they have subordinated themselves, by seizing the evolution of the human being before he or she has physically come into the world. They infest humans during the embryonic stage and lead a parasitic existence within the unborn human, in the human’s life between conception and birth. Some beings who are strong enough can continue this existence even after the human has been born, and then manifest the phenomena that can occur in certain possessed children.

[ 19 ] This—which arises from the parasitic existence that criminal demons lead within people who are not yet born—is what degrades the succession of generations, what gnaws at people, so that they cannot become as good as they would be if such demons did not exist. Everything connected with the decline of families, tribes, peoples, and nations stems from various causes, but also from the fact that the criminal demons lead a parasitic existence within human beings during the period I have described.

[ 20 ] These are things that play a major role in the entire evolution of the Earth, and, as I said, by addressing such matters we are truly touching upon the deepest mysteries of human existence. Certain prejudices and certain views are often imprinted on people even before they have entered existence through birth. And in this way, people are plagued by doubts, by uncertainties in life, and by all sorts of things connected with the fact that such demonic beings lead such an existence.

[ 21 ] These entities can no longer do much with what a human being develops within themselves from the moment their “I” emerges, but they are all the more able to pursue their parasitic existence during the time before a human is born or during the early years of childhood. Thus we see that even evil deeds have their significant cosmic effect, that they are creative—but so creative that they turn, I might say, toward the old lunar existence. For what a human being goes through during the period just mentioned—when these demonic beings can lead a parasitic existence—is essentially the legacy of the old lunar era, which manifests itself in all manner of subconscious, instinctive behavior. It is something that even physical science has preserved among its instincts from earlier, better times, in that it calculates the embryonic period of human beings on Earth not according to the ordinary months but according to the lunar months, and therefore speaks of ten lunar months and knows many other things as well about the connection between this development and the course of the lunar phases.

[ 22 ] Thus we see that the evolution of our Earth contains a twofold aspect: in good deeds lies the tendency to continue working on the creation of the earthly realm toward the Jupiter stage, so that what must succeed humanity as the next human being may come into being on Jupiter. But at the same time, through evil deeds, a tendency is imprinted upon our evolution to bring the Earth back to the old Lunar Age, making it dependent on everything connected with subconscious impulses. If you reflect on this, you will find many, many things connected to such subconscious impulses, and far more of these impulses are present in the materialistic humanity of recent times than in the days when people were not yet so materialistic.

[ 23 ] I believe that it is precisely through examples of such insight, as have once again been presented today, that it becomes evident how profoundly Spiritual Science can influence the human view of life—that it will truly be not merely something that provides people with theory, but something capable of reorganizing human life anew. Times will come when life will become utterly chaotic if people do not seize the opportunity to organize it on the basis of insights from Spiritual Science. Human beings must break free with their insights from the confinement of knowledge that is bound solely to physical corporeality. Our materialistic age wants no other insights than those that are bound solely to physical corporeality. But human beings must move beyond this physical corporeality with their insights. And what we recognize today as the first exercises mentioned in *How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?* will gradually—though this “gradually” will certainly take a long time—become something natural to human beings, something they will take for granted as part of their lives. In particular, what we call “concentration of thought” will become something natural for human beings.

[ 24 ] Human beings will increasingly recognize the need to truly concentrate their thoughts, to direct their entire inner life toward clearly defined thoughts that they bring to the forefront of their consciousness. Whereas they would otherwise let their senses wander from thing to thing, from fact to fact, they will increasingly—even if only for a short time—direct their mental life toward specific things they choose; they will concentrate on a specific thought in order to hold their entire inner life together within that thought. In doing so, people will have an experience—one that many of you here are already quite familiar with. In the course of concentration, a certain experience arises for everyone. When we place a thought at the center of our consciousness and direct our entire inner life toward it, concentrating on it, we notice that the thought grows stronger and stronger. Certainly. But then there comes a point where it no longer grows stronger, but rather where it weakens and fades away. This is an experience many of you are familiar with. The thought must fade away in this way; it must, as it were, die inwardly. For just as we initially have the thought—just as we initially think—we think through the instrument of the physical body; and the way we think through the instrument of the physical body is what we concentrate on, but it is only at the moment when the concentrated thought dies out that we slip out of the physical body.

[ 25 ] We would now enter the unconscious entirely if, in parallel with this concentration, we did not attempt something else that would allow us to remain conscious outside our physical body when we slip out of it. We call what we must do to remain conscious outside of our body “living a serene life” and “accepting the things of the world with serenity.” We can do even more than simply accept things with serenity. We can take the idea of karma—which is so familiar to us in theory—completely seriously. What does that mean?

[ 26 ] To begin with, people are not at all inclined to take the idea of karma completely seriously. If they encounter even a minor adversity in life that hurts them, or if anything else happens to them, they may sometimes become angry; in any case, they find it unpleasant. We regard what we call our fate with either sympathy or antipathy. In everyday life, it cannot be any other way; it is entirely necessary that we view certain events—which we consider fate—with sympathy, and that we view other such events with antipathy. For us, fate is something that comes at us from the outside.

[ 27 ] If we take the idea of karma seriously, then we must truly recognize our own self in our fate; we must be clear that we ourselves are active in what befalls us in fate, that we ourselves are the actual actors. It is certainly difficult for us, when someone insults us, to believe that we ourselves are present within the insulter. For in physical life, it may be necessary to punish the insult. But we must always have a little chamber within ourselves where we admit to ourselves: Even if someone insults you, it is you yourself who insults yourself; if someone strikes you, it is you yourself who strikes yourself; if misfortunes befall you, it is you yourself who brings these misfortunes upon yourself. - We forget that we are not merely in our own skin, but within our own destiny; we forget that we are present in all the so-called coincidences of our destiny.

[ 28 ] It is very difficult to truly develop the sense that one brings one’s destiny with one’s own self. Yet it is true: we bring our destiny upon ourselves through our own “I,” and we receive the impulses in accordance with our past incarnations during the life between death and a new birth, so that we ourselves bring our destiny upon us there. And we must strive to grow together with our destiny; instead of resentfully fending off a severe blow of fate, we must say to ourselves more and more: By allowing this blow of fate to strike you—that is, by meeting the blow of fate head-on—you make yourself, in a certain sense, stronger, more robust, and more powerful. - It is more difficult to grow together with one’s destiny in this way than to resist it, but what we lose when our thought dies can only be regained if we draw what lies outside of us into ourselves in this manner. We cannot remain within our own skin if thought dies within us during concentration, but it will carry us outward once we have grasped our karma—our destiny—in the true sense. Then we awaken once more. Thought dies, but what we have grasped as the identification between our “I” and our destiny—that is what we carry outward; that carries us about in the world.

[ 29 ] This serenity toward our fate—the true acceptance of our fate—is what bestows existence upon us when we are outside our bodies. Of course, this need not change our life on the physical plane. We cannot always do that. But the attitude we must cultivate in a little chamber of our soul must be there for those moments when we truly wish to find the opportunity to live consciously outside our bodies. Two sentences can serve as guiding principles for us; they can be of extraordinary importance. The first of these sentences, which we should engrave deeply within ourselves, is this:

The first aspiration of thought is to die in space.

[ 30 ] For only when a thought dies in the universe does it become a living force out there. But we cannot connect with this living force unless we strive to understand the meaning of the second sentence:

Strive for the resurrection of destiny within the self.

[ 31 ] If you accomplish this, then you will unite the self reborn in thought with the self that has risen outside of you.

[ 32 ] However, there is much in human nature that makes it difficult to seek evolution in the sense of these statements. It is difficult because it is particularly hard for people to view the relationship between the inner and the outer in the right way. The more we can learn about ethics in this regard through the spiritual-scientific worldview, the better. We can learn about ethics through the spiritual-scientific worldview to the extent that certain ethical concepts are only brought to life and given inner vitality through what flows into them from Spiritual Science.

[ 33 ] For example, there are people who constantly complain about others, lamenting that other people do this or that to them. It even goes so far that they claim other people are persecuting them. All such things are always connected to the other pole of human nature; one need only view life in the right way—that is, in the way that Spiritual Science, when truly understood, provides. Anyone who goes through life and has had their vision somewhat clarified through Spiritual Science will always find—of course, there are reasons to complain about a lack of love, but regardless of that, one will find—that complaints about a lack of love are most frequently voiced by those who are actually egoists, and the belief that all people want to harm them or do them wrong arises most strongly in egoistic natures, whereas natures that are loving and capable of love by their very nature do not easily come to believe that they are being persecuted, that people want to do all manner of evil to them, and so on.

[ 34 ] Yes, when something like that is said, it’s easy to be inclined to admit it in theory. I’m even convinced that most people would admit it in theory after giving it a little thought. But putting it into practice—that’s what really matters.

[ 35 ] Now the question may arise: What is the way to bring these things into life? — The answer must once again be: To truly participate in the life of the community where Spiritual Science is genuinely sought, to participate as much as one can. — That is what it is all about. Spiritual Science is not presented here in compendia or brief summaries; rather, the aim is to make Spiritual Science a living current in which we can live, so that we may continually draw inspiration from it, keeping ourselves warm.

[ 36 ] This has also essentially led us to seek a kind of focal point for this vibrant pursuit of Spiritual Science within our building, which—as I mentioned yesterday—in its very form and the way it has been executed, embodies the physical-soul-spiritual in the sense of our Spiritual Science. It is itself a symbol of our quest to incorporate into human evolution—in accordance with the impulses we can perceive from the spiritual world—that which is so necessary for the present time, so that the near future may develop from it in a truly proper manner. Precisely because the building’s forms embody what allows one to sense the essence of Spiritual Science, it is enabled to truly become something like a center, a focal point around which crystallizes that which is to become a necessary spiritual-scientific endeavor in the evolution of humanity.

[ 37 ] One might often say: Our times are gloomy; there are many things in our time that stand in stark contrast to what a worldview of Spiritual Science could be for humanity. — On the other hand, however, our karma has brought us to the point where we may, so to speak, transcend the material that serves as the foundation of our work—transcend this material in such a way that it also stands, in its outer forms, as a symbol of our Spiritual Science.

[ 38 ] Each of us can tell ourselves this—something I myself often have to remind myself of, especially in light of the difficult times we face and the intense hostility that the Spiritual Science in particular is experiencing today. Some may wonder how far we actually get, on a personal level, in contributing to what is to take shape around our building. Even if one or the other can no longer be physically present for what continues to take shape around our building in physical life—the fact that the building is there, that our karma has brought us this building—is an important step forward. And when we consider how those who understand Spiritual Science so deeply—such as our Christian Morgenstern—remain united even after physical death with the purpose of our physical building, we recognize in our building at the same time a landmark in our time of working within our spiritual movement, for which the boundaries between what are commonly called life and death do not even come into consideration.

[ 39 ] We can truly feel at one with this building, and it can thus inspire the most profound thoughts—thoughts that are entirely natural in a time such as ours, which takes materialism to its highest extreme. Even if this structure were to find this or that person participating in it solely as a spiritual being, it will still be important for the progress of our movement—though, of course, we say this—you will understand me—only to bring into focus the full gravity of our movement, which transcends both life and death.

[ 40 ] This seriousness is particularly evident to us these days. And if this one thing happens, why shouldn’t many other things also be able to happen soon? It is so extraordinarily difficult to achieve what I have spoken of often, and have spoken of again in the course of these lectures. I have drawn attention to how every effort is being made to weigh words, to craft them, and to pronounce them in a precise—strictly precise—manner, with the utmost responsibility toward the spiritual worlds. Yet it is also desirable that these words be heard; it is desirable that they be taken to heart.

[ 41 ] There will certainly come a time when, I would say, a greater lightheartedness will be possible with regard to the current of the worldview of Spiritual Science. But today, as we stand at the very beginning of this path, we must accustom ourselves to taking things very, very seriously. Some time ago, I presented here various insights from occult research, as well as other material, which I believed might be useful to some. Essentially, I provided descriptions of facts. One might think that this could be helpful to some in understanding our present, difficult times. But precisely what was presented out of this impulse has not everywhere been treated—of course, I am referring to this or that exception, but what I say is true—with the necessary caution and reverence; and it has been repeated here and there, and, as it turned out, in a form that was virtually the opposite of what was said here.

[ 42 ] When I just think about what has been made of something that is actually impossible to misunderstand—because it already exists within a cycle—what has been made of the classification of European humanity with regard to the feeling soul, the intellectual or emotional soul, the conscious soul, and the “I”—which was truly not intended to express any kind of superiority—when I consider what kinds of statements have been put out into the world and what kind of opposition and emotions these statements have provoked, it really becomes clear from this that precisely the principle of taking things very precisely, even in such difficult cases, has not been fully observed. If, for example, I had ever said: “What exists among the European population under the influence of the ‘I’ should have an organizing effect within the European population”—I would have spoken nonsense. Nevertheless, this, for example, has been spread throughout the world and is subject to the worst misunderstandings, evoking the strongest emotions.

[ 43 ] In order to fulfill my duty in this regard, I have been instructed not to touch upon any of these matters in my lectures for the time being. I must refrain from any mention of these matters, so that what is the right of everyone else—namely, to be allowed to say something about this or that—is made impossible for me by the way things are handled.

[ 44 ] All these things show us that we should look into our souls to see to what extent we can succeed in viewing the Spiritual Science movement with all its seriousness. For we are sometimes completely unaware of the responsibility we bear—when it comes to genuine, truly legitimate spiritual research and its findings—toward every statement, if the matter is taken seriously. Spiritual Science is truly not meant to stir up emotions, nor is it meant to combat or ward off emotions. And if anyone has said that these things are communicated in order to fight against someone, they should ask themselves whether proper use has been made of such things, or whether, rather, there is a misuse of these things, the communication of which was made with full objectivity and a chaste love of truth. These are things that add further pain to my occult experiences, which are already painful enough. Even if important matters cannot be addressed as a result, even if much of what I believed might be considered in the near future must be set aside, there still remain important and essential matters to be discussed for our time.