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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
Expositions of the kind in this book about the faculty of memory can
easily be misunderstood. For those who only observe external processes
will not readily detect the difference between what happens in the
animal or even in the plant when something appears that resembles
memory, and what is here described as actual memory in man. Certainly,
if an animal carries out an action a third or fourth time, it may then
so perform it that the outer process appears as though the action were
the result of memory and what is learned through it. Like some natural
scientists and their adherents, one may, indeed, extend the concept of
memory or recollection to such a point that one says that when the
little chick pops from the shell and immediately pecks at the grain,
knowing even how to make the movements of its head and body in order
to reach its object, it could not have learned this in the shell, but
that it was learned through the thousands and thousands of creatures
from which it has descended. (Ewald Hering, for example, states this.)
We may declare that the phenomenon under discussion has the appearance
of memory. We shall, however, never gain a real comprehension of man's
being if we do not hold in mind what appears quite especially unique
in the human being as the process of real perception of previous
experiences at subsequent times, not merely as an influence of past
states into later ones. Here in this book this perception of the past,
not merely the reappearance even though changed of the previous in the
subsequent, is called memory. If one were to use the word memory for
the corresponding processes in the plant and animal kingdoms, then one
ought to have a different word for the processes of memory in man. It
is not the word, however, that is important in the above presentation,
but, for the sake of understanding the human being, the significant
thing is the recognition of the difference between what occurs in man
on the one hand, and in animal and plant on the other. What may appear
as highly intelligent actions in animals has also no connection
whatever with what is here called memory.
No fixed boundary can be drawn between the changes resulting from the
activity of the ego in the astral body and those taking place in the
ether body. They pass over into each other. If man learns something
and through it gains a certain power of discrimination, then a change
has occurred in the astral body; if however, this judgment or
discrimination so alters his soul condition that he becomes
accustomed, after he has learned something about a matter, to feel
differently about it from previously, a change has then taken place in
the ether body. Everything that becomes a possession of the human soul
that can be recalled in memory is based upon a change in the ether
body. What becomes, by degrees, an immutable treasure of memory, rests
on the fact that the work performed on the astral body has been
transferred to the ether body.
The connection between sleep and fatigue is, in most cases, not viewed
in a manner demanded by the facts. Sleep is supposed to be a result of
fatigue. That this thought is much too simple is shown by the fact
that a man, not at all tired, may fall asleep while listening to an
uninteresting lecture, or on some similar occasion. Whoever maintains
that such an occasion tires the listener, tries to explain by a method
that lacks a serious scientific attitude. Unprejudiced observation
must lead to the conclusion that waking and sleeping present different
relationships of the soul to the body, which must appear in the
regular course of life in rhythmical sequence like the right and left
swing of a pendulum. The result of such unprejudiced observation is
that the filling of the soul with the impressions of the outer world
awakes in it the desire, after experiencing this state, to enter
another in which it is absorbed in the enjoyment of its own bodily
nature. Two soul states alternate: the state of surrender to outer
impressions and the state of surrender to one's own bodily nature. In
the first state the desire for the second is unconsciously produced;
the second state then takes its course in unconsciousness. The
expression of the desire for the enjoyment of one's own bodily nature
is fatigue. We must then actually say that we feel tired, because we
wish to go to sleep, not that we wish to go to sleep because we feel
tired. Since the human soul can, through habit, arbitrarily call forth
in itself the states that of necessity appear in normal human life, it
is possible that, when the soul makes itself insensitive to a given
outer impression, it calls forth in itself the desire for enjoyment of
its own bodily nature; that is to say, the soul goes to sleep, even
though this state is not induced by the inner condition of the human
being.
The statement that, if the personal talents of a human being were
subject only to the law of heredity, they would have to show
themselves not at the end but at the beginning of a blood
relationship, might easily be misunderstood. It might be said that
talents cannot show themselves at the beginning, for they must first
be developed. But this is not a valid objection. For, if we wish to
prove that something is inherited from a forebear, we must show how
there is to be found again in the descendant what existed already
previously. If it were shown that something was present at the
beginning of a blood relationship that would be found again in the
further course of its evolution, we might then speak of heredity. We
cannot do this, however, if at the end something appears that
previously did not exist. The reversal of the above sentence was only
to show that in this case the idea of heredity is an impossible one.
In certain chapters of this book it has been indicated how the world
of man and the human being himself pass through the states that have
been designated by the names Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus,
Vulcan. Indications have also been given concerning the relationship
between human evolution and celestial bodies co-existing with the
earth, such as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and so forth. These latter
celestial bodies naturally go through their evolution also. In the
present age they have reached a stage in which their physical parts
are shown to perception as what is called in physical astronomy
Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and so forth. If now, in the sense of spiritual
science, the present Saturn is studied, it shows itself, so to speak,
as a reincarnation of ancient Saturn. It has come into existence
because, before the separation of the sun from the earth, certain
beings were present who were unable to participate in this separation,
since they had absorbed into themselves so many of the characteristics
belonging to the Saturn state that they could not abide in an
environment where especially the sun characteristics were unfolded.
The present Jupiter has arisen, however, through the presence of
beings who possessed characteristics that can only unfold on the
future Jupiter of general cosmic evolution. An abode came into
existence for them in which they are able to anticipate this future
evolution. Similarly, Mars is a celestial body on which beings dwell
who have passed through the Moon evolution in such a way that the
earth could offer them no further advancement. Mars is a reincarnation
of the ancient Moon at a higher stage. The present Mercury is the
dwelling place of beings who, by having developed certain earth
characteristics in a form higher than it can occur on this earth
planet, are in advance of the evolution of the Earth. In a similar way
the present Venus is a prophetic anticipation of the future Venus
state. From all this we are justified in choosing the designations for
the states that have preceded the Earth and that will follow it from
their present representatives in the cosmos. It is self-evident that
there will be many objections to what has been brought forth here by
those who wish to subject the paralleling of the supersensibly
perceived Saturn, Sun and other cosmic states of evolution with the
similarly named physical celestial bodies to the judgment of an
intellect trained in outer observation of nature. But just as it is
possible, by means of mathematical concepts, to place the solar system
before the soul as an image of time-space occurrences, so is it
possible for supersensible cognition to permeate the mathematical
picture with a soul content. Then it takes on a form that justifies
the above indicated parallels. This permeation with a soul content is
a natural consequence of the further application of a strictly natural
scientific mode of observation. This latter mode of observation limits
itself at present to seeking a reciprocal relationship between the
solar system and the earth according to purely mathematical-mechanical
concepts. By doing so, the natural science of the future will of
itself be driven to concepts that will extend the idea of a mechanical
cosmos to one endowed with soul. To show which could very well be
done that such an extension ought already to occur on the basis of
modern natural scientific concepts would require the writing of
another book. Here the matter in question can only be indicated; as a
consequence, this indication is exposed to misunderstandings of one
sort or another. The disagreement of spiritual science with natural
science is often only apparent, because the latter science still
refuses at present to form thoughts that are not only demanded by
supersensible cognition but also, in truth, by a cognition that
adheres strictly to the physical-sensory. An unprejudiced observer is
able to see everywhere in the results of modern natural scientific
observation allusions to other fields of purely physical-sensory
observation, which will have to be investigated in the future in a
purely natural scientific manner and which will show that what
supersensible perception reveals is completely verified by a physical
observation of nature insofar as supersensible cognition is concerned
with those supersensible cosmic occurrences to which physical-sensory
manifestation corresponds.
Last Modified: 07-Oct-2024
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