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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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An Outline of Occult Science
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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An Outline of Occult Science
ANYONE attempting an exposition of the results of spiritual science as
recorded in this book must, above all, take into account the fact that
at present these results are universally looked upon as something
quite impossible. For things are said in the following exposition that
the supposedly exact thinking of our age affirms to be probably
entirely indeterminable by human intelligence. He who knows and
appreciates the reasons why so many earnest persons are lead to
maintain this impossibility will wish to make ever new attempts to
show the misconceptions upon which is based the belief that entrance
into supersensible worlds is denied to human knowledge.
For two things offer themselves for consideration. First, any human
soul, by reflecting deeply, will in the long run be unable to
disregard the fact that its most important questions concerning the
meaning and significance of life must remain unanswered if there be no
access to supersensible worlds. We may theoretically deceive ourselves
about this fact, but the depths of the soul-life will not tolerate
this self-delusion. If we do not wish to listen to these depths of the
soul, we shall naturally reject any statement about supersensible
worlds. Yet there are human beings really not few in number who find
it impossible to remain deaf to the demands coming from these soul
depths. Such people must always knock at the door that conceals,
according to the opinion of others, the inconceivable.
Second, the statements resulting from exact thinking are
not at all to be underrated. He who occupies himself with them will
certainly appreciate their seriousness where they are to be taken
seriously. The writer of this book would not like to be looked upon as
one who lightheartedly passes over the tremendous thought activity
that has been employed in determining the limits of the human
intellect. This thought activity cannot be disposed of by a few
phrases about academic wisdom and the like. In many cases
its source rests in true striving for knowledge and in genuine
acumen. Indeed, even more may be admitted: reasons have been brought
forward to show that the knowledge considered scientific today cannot
penetrate into the spirit world, and these reasons are in a certain
sense irrefutable.
Since this is admitted without hesitation by the writer of this book
himself, it may appear to many quite strange that he, nevertheless,
undertakes to make statements about supersensible worlds. It appears,
indeed, to be almost impossible that someone in a certain sense admits
the reasons for the inapprehensibility of the supersensible worlds and
yet at the same time continues to speak about them.
It is possible, nevertheless, to have this attitude, and it is
possible, at the same time, to understand that it will appear
contradictory. For not everyone concerns himself with the experiences
one has if one approaches the supersensible realm with the human
intellect. There it becomes evident that the proofs of this intellect
may well be irrefutable, and that, in spite of their irrefutability,
they need not be decisive for reality. Instead of all theoretical
arguments, the attempt shall be made here to bring about an
understanding by means of a comparison. The fact that comparisons
themselves are not proof is readily conceded; yet this does not
prevent their making comprehensible what is to be expressed.
Human cognition, as it acts in everyday life and in ordinary science,
is really so constituted that it cannot penetrate into supersensible
worlds. This can be irrefutably proved, but this proof can have no
more value for a certain kind of soul-life than the proof that is
undertaken to show that the natural human eye with its power of
perception cannot penetrate into the smallest cells of a living body,
or into the constitution of distant celestial bodies. Just as the
declaration is true and demonstrable that the ordinary power of sight
does not penetrate as far as the cells, so also is the other statement
correct and provable that ordinary cognition is unable to penetrate
into supersensible worlds. Yet the proof that the ordinary power of
sight must stop short of the cells does not decide anything against
research into the cells. Why should the proof that the ordinary power
of cognition must halt before supersensible worlds decide anything
against the possibility of research into these worlds?
We can appreciate the feeling aroused in many a person by this
comparison. We are even able to sympathize with those who doubt
whether somebody who confronts the thought activity mentioned with
such a comparison has even the slightest idea of the seriousness of
this activity. Nevertheless, the author of this book is not only
imbued with this seriousness, but he is of the opinion that this
thought activity is to be counted among the noblest achievements of
mankind. To prove that the human power of sight cannot penetrate to
the cell structure without the aid of instruments would be, to be
sure, an unnecessary undertaking; to become conscious, through exact
thinking, of the nature of this thinking is a necessary spiritual
activity. It is only too understandable that those who give themselves
up to such thought activity do not notice that reality can refute
them. The present preface of this book cannot be the place to go into
the various refutations of the first editions on the part
of persons who lack all understanding of what this book strives for,
or who direct their false attacks at the person of the author. It
must, however, be strongly emphasized that only those can suspect in
this book any underrating of serious scientific thought activity who
wish to close their eyes to the real character of the expositions.
The human power of cognition can be strengthened and enhanced, just as
the faculty of eyesight can be strengthened. The means, however, for
strengthening cognition are of an entirely spiritual nature; they are
purely inner soul functions. They consist in what is described in this
book as meditation and concentration (contemplation). Ordinary
soul-life is bound to the instruments of the body, the strengthened
soul-life frees itself from them. To certain modern schools of thought
such a declaration must appear quite senseless and based only upon
self-delusion. From their point of view, it will be found easy to
prove that all soul-life is bound up with the nervous
system. A person holding the point of view out of which this book is
written will completely understand such proofs. He understands the
people who say that only the superficial can maintain that there may
be some sort of soul-life independent of the body, and who are
entirely convinced that for such soul experiences a connection with
the life of the nerves exists that spiritual scientific
amateurishness fails to perceive.
Here certain entirely comprehensible habits of thought confront what
is described in this book so sharply that they preclude at present any
prospect of coming to an understanding. We are here at a point where
the wish must make itself felt that in the present age it should no
longer be in keeping with spiritual life to decry a direction of
research as fantastic and visionary because it diverges abruptly from
our own. On the other hand, however, we have the fact that there are a
number of human beings who have an understanding for the supersensible
mode of research presented in this book. They are individuals who
realize that the meaning of life does not reveal itself in general
terms about soul, self, and so forth, but only through the real
entering upon the results of supersensible research. It is not from
lack of modesty, but with joyful satisfaction that the author of this
book feels deeply the necessity of this fourth edition after a
relatively brief time since the last edition appeared.
The author does not accentuate this from lack of modesty, because he
feels only too clearly how little even the new edition corresponds to
what it really ought to be as an outline of a supersensible
world conception. In preparing this new edition, the whole
subject matter has been re-studied and re-worked with considerable
amplification at important points. Clarification was also striven for.
Nevertheless, in numerous places the author became conscious of how
inadequate the means of presentation available to him prove to be in
comparison with what supersensible research shows. Hence, scarcely
more than a way could be indicated for acquiring the concepts that in
this book are given for the Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions. An
important point of view, also in this domain, has been briefly treated
anew in this edition. But the experiences in regard to such things
diverge so greatly from all the experiences in the domain of the
senses that the exposition must of necessity struggle continually for
expressions that appear sufficiently adequate for the purpose. Anyone
who is willing to go into the exposition attempted here will perhaps
notice that much that is impossible to say in dry words is striven for
by the manner of the description. This manner is, for example, one
thing for the Saturn evolution, but quite another for the Sun
evolution, and so forth.
The second part of this book, which deals with knowledge of the higher
worlds, was greatly supplemented and amplified by its author. He
endeavored to present clearly the character of the inner soul
processes through which knowledge frees itself from its limits present
in the sense world and fits itself for experiencing the supersensible
world. The author attempted to show that this experiencing of the
supersensible, although acquired entirely through inner ways and
means, does not have a merely subjective significance for the
individual who acquires it. The presentation was to show that, within
the soul, its singularity and personal peculiarity are stripped off
and an experience is reached which is similar in every human being who
effects his development in the right manner out of his subjective
experiences. Only when the knowledge of supersensible worlds is
conceived of as possessing this character is it possible to
distinguish it from all experiences of mere subjective mysticism and
the like. Of such mysticism it may well be said that it is, more or
less, a subjective concern of the mystic. The spiritual scientific
training of the soul that is meant here, however, strives for
objective experiences, the truth of which is indeed recognized
entirely inwardly, the universal validity of which, however, is
discernible for that reason. Here again is a point where it is quite
difficult to come to an understanding with many a thought habit of our
age.
In conclusion, the author of this book should like to observe that
also the well-intended reader should accept these expositions as they
offer themselves by virtue of their own content. Today numerous
attempts have been made to give to this or that spiritual movement
this or that ancient historical name. To many, only then does it
appear of value. The question, however, may be asked: What have the
expositions of this book to gain by designating them
Rosicrucian or the like? The important point is that here,
with the means that are possible and adequate for the soul in this
present period of evolution, an insight is attempted into
supersensible worlds, and that from this point of view the riddles of
human destiny and of human existence beyond the limits of birth and
death are observed. It is not the question of a striving bearing this
or that ancient name, but of a striving for truth.
On the other hand, opponents have also employed terms for the world
conception presented in this book. Apart from the fact that the terms
used in order to deal the author the heaviest possible blow and to
discredit him are absurd and objectively false, such terms
characterize themselves in their unworthiness by the fact that they
attempt to discredit a completely independent striving for truth by
failing to judge it on its own merits, and by endeavoring to impose
their dependence upon ideas derived from this or that trend of thought
as judgment upon others. Although these words are necessary in the
face of many attacks against the author, nevertheless, he is loath
here to go further into this matter.
Last Modified: 07-Oct-2024
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