For Members of the Anthroposophical Society.
Not to be copied.
Z 357.
THE “SON OF GOD”
AND THE “SON OF MAN”
Lecture given by Rudolf Steiner in
Munich, 11th February 1911.
__________________
S-2375
Duplicated as manuscript with the
kind permission of the
Rudolf Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland,
by whom all rights are reserved.
|
Munich, 11th February 1911.
From our study of spiritual
science we learn of the so-called “members” of man's
constitution and we then speak of his physical body, etheric body,
astral body, ego and so on. It may seem to many people that once they
know of these members they have also, in some measure, understood
man's real being; and indeed there are numbers who believe that they
know the essentials if they are able to enumerate these different
members of man's constitution, or even, possibly, to indicate what
happens to one or another of them in the course of his incarnations.
Although any study of man must necessarily begin with a knowledge of
these members, we must be quite clear that this knowledge is very
preliminary. For what is really important is not that the human being
consists of these seven or nine members, but how they are
related to one another, how each of them is connected with any one of
the others. It must also be realised that the connections are by no
means the same in all human beings, in every epoch. The connections
and relationships change in the course of the ages of human
evolution. In an epoch lying four or five thousand years behind us,
the connection between the members of man's constitution was not the
same as it is today, and in the future it will again be quite
different. The way in which the members are interlinked, their
relationship to each other — all this changes as time goes on.
Indeed the continual re-appearance of the human being in his various
incarnations acquires its significance from the fact that while he is
passing through his individual evolution from one incarnation to
another, this complex, consisting of physical body, etheric body,
astral body, itself evolves in respect of the relationships between
these members, so that at each new incarnation the human being finds
an entirely new combination of them. New experiences come to him ever
and again as a result of this.
In order to grasp what this means
we need only compare ancient times with our own epoch in one single
respect. If we were to look back into the fourth or fifth millennium
of ancient Egyptian civilisation and observe the men of that epoch,
we should see that the interconnections between the physical body,
etheric body and astral body were far looser than they are in men
today. In those times the astral body and the etheric body were far
less firmly linked with the physical body. The characteristic
tendency of our present phase of evolution is precisely that the
astral body and etheric body try to be connected more and more firmly
with the physical body. This is very significant, for as evolution
advances and the astral body and the etheric body of man tend to
chain themselves more closely to the physical body, man is no longer
able to influence his physical body from his soul to the extent that
was possible in ancient times when the astral and etheric bodies
were freer and the laws of the physical body did not, therefore,
work into them as forcefully as they do today. When, in those
times, a feeling arose in a man, or some idea came to him, the force
of this feeling or idea spread quickly into the astral and etheric
bodies, and from there — because the man had mastery over these
members — he was able, from his soul, to be master of his
physical body. This possibility of mastering the physical body from
the soul is constantly becoming less, because the astral body and the
etheric body are entrenching themselves more and more firmly in the
physical body. But this has still another consequence, namely, that
in the course of the ages, man's natural constitution makes him less
and less accessible to those forces and powers which work down upon
him from the spiritual world. Hence in the man of olden times we find
a kind of natural inspiration and imagination, an ancient
clairvoyance, due to the greatest freedom of the etheric body and the
astral body; and into these bodies with their greater freedom there
streamed the forces of the superhuman Hierarchies. These forces were
able to work into man's etheric and astral bodies. But in the
course of the evolutionary process the physical body wrests the
etheric and astral bodies away from the inmost core of man's being,
claims them for itself, with the result that the direct influence
from the spiritual worlds becomes constantly weaker, less and less
able to penetrate into the etheric and astral bodies.
Evidence of this can be traced
even in the external form of the human being. If we were to go far,
far back, for example to the humanity of ancient Egypt, we should
find that in accordance with a man's constitution of soul, when, let
us say, he was stirred by some passion or impulse, this worked on
into the astral and etheric bodies which then imprinted the passions
and impulses in the physical body itself. Hence we should find that
in very early epochs of Egyptian culture, for example — but
actually in all such culture-epochs — the external appearance
of a man was a kind of imprint of his soul. What was astir in the
soul could be read from his very countenance, his physiognomy. In a
certain respect there was complete analogy between the physical
exterior and the life of soul. Then came the period of Greco-Latin
civilisation, the period of that remarkable people who stand, as it
were, at the middle point of the Post-Atlantean epoch. These men of
Greece stand at the middle point in such a way that the forces of the
spiritual world still stream universally to the soul and express
themselves in the bodily nature. Hence that wonderful unison in the
Greeks between the beauty of the external bodily structure and the
beauty of the soul. Because this soul in its beauty was free from the
physical body it was able to open itself to a higher world, to the
Hierarchies; and the Hierarchies sent their forces into it.
This came to expression in the physical body and thereby the whole
physical body of the Greek became the expression of the beauty of the
soul. And so a superhuman reality, an all-human reality, came to a
very high degree of expression in the Greek era.
In the future there will be an
altogether different state of things. The important fact to bear in
mind is that man's physical body will make still greater demands in
the future, will chain the astral and etheric bodies to itself, and
only by consciously approaching the spiritual world, by absorbing the
ideas, concepts and feelings of the spiritual world as we are now
beginning to do in the spiritual Movements, will man be able
himself to develop those strong forces which were formerly poured by
the Hierarchies into his physical and etheric bodies. And if, as he
advances into the future, man wishes to retain mastery over his
physical body, he will be able to do so only by consciously drawing
forces from the spiritual world wherewith to overcome the opposing
force of the etheric body that is tied to the physical body. Thus we
may say: In ancient, pre-Christian times, the possibility of working
upon the physical body was given to men naturally; in the future,
this possibility will be given to them only if they themselves do
something towards it. But for this reason a difference will become
more and more perceptible in humanity of the future between those who
oppose spiritual teaching and knowledge and those who approach this
knowledge eagerly and willingly, as if by instinct. We know that the
latter are still only a tiny handful today but in the future this
distinction will inevitably come about between people who out of
hatred and aversion oppose spiritual knowledge with increasing
hostility, and those who impelled to begin with by a certain
instinct, willingly ally themselves with spiritual Movements. Those
human beings who oppose spiritual knowledge will show this more and
more distinctly in their very countenances; they will show that they
have no power over their behaviour, over their physical nature, that
their physical nature is in every respect stronger than themselves.
In those who approach the spiritual teachings willingly, it will be
apparent that they have the strength and the power to overcome the
opposition presented by their physical nature.
This will come to expression
inasmuch as traits quite different from those prevailing in ancient
times will become perceptible in the external, formative development
of human beings. In the men of antiquity, let us say in the Egyptians
living four or five thousand years before the Christian era, we
should find that in the phase of its development directly following
birth, the child did not look completely human but as if an angel had
entered into it, as if it had received from the spiritual world those
pliable bodily forms in which the spiritual was expressing itself
directly in the physical. And the older the child grew, the more
human it became, developing downwards, as it were, to manhood.
In the Greeks there was great
uniformity between the first and the later years of life. Even in
earliest childhood the impress of the all-human was apparent,
and it remained so; hence the Greeks were rightly regarded as a
people with a childlike nature. In the future it will more and more
be the case that as a newly-born child the human being — and
precisely one who is outstandingly significant — will be ugly,
really ugly according to the Greek ideal of beauty. And the more
deeply he acquaints himself with spiritual ideas, the more will his
form and figure acquire a certain characteristic: the features that
were at first blurred and indistinct, even ugly, in the child, will
change in such a way that the facial features themselves will tell
us that they are the expression of ideas and concepts from the
spiritual world. And this will be the case more and more.
Things that appear in the
external life of humanity often present themselves, as if in
concentrated form, in art. In actual fact, the material for the
humanity that is to advance towards the future is drawn from the
European peoples, whereas the material for the humanity which
possessed the ancient mastery over the physical body, originated in
the south. Thus we find that in art, Greek art, expression is given
to the beautiful human being. The Greeks gave the stamp of human
beauty even to the figures of his gods; and this same trait continued
into the time of the Renaissance in Southern Europe. Compare one of
Raphael's Madonnas with a northern Madonna and you will see that art
anticipates what actually comes to pass. The echoes of Greek artistic
genius gave the impression of beauty achieved without effort. In the
immediate future, however, man will be dependent upon inner strength
of his own, upon the vigour and activity of his own life of soul. We
are approaching this age and we must connect this fact with the
other, namely, that in the different epochs of the evolution of
humanity, these several members of man's being are differently
inter-related. In earlier times the connection between them was much
looser, but the lower members are now striving all the time to be
knit more and more closely together. Many things that in our time may
be very obvious to an attentive observer of life are connected with a
fact such as this. For example: It is simply impossible for certain
people to form any adequate conceptions even of the most patent facts
of the world and of life. There are large numbers of men today whose
ideas and concepts have been so firmly drilled into them that it is a
sheer impossibility for them to take in a single new idea or concept.
Why is this? An etheric body that is less firmly knit to the physical
body can always absorb new ideas, because it is elastic; an etheric
body that is firmly knit to the physical body absorbs a certain
number of concepts, and definite forms have thus been imprinted in
the physical body which it, in turn, forces upon the etheric body.
And so it comes about that many of those in cultured and learned
circles today are no longer capable in later life of changing what
they have imprinted into their brains, and their thinking is stiff,
rigid, inelastic. Their etheric body cannot get free, can no
longer emancipate itself from the physical body. In such
circumstances it is only the strength and power and forcefulness of
spiritual concepts and ideas that can make it possible for a man to
overcome this tendency. For here, by his own efforts, he has to
overcome something that is a cosmic tendency.
The mission of man consists
precisely in this: through his own strength to be able to overcome a
cosmic tendency. The gist of the matter can be made clear by a
comparison. — Look at a plant that is permeated with moisture
and is therefore fresh and green. Think of the etheric body of
man as being the moisture and his physical body as the other part of
the plant. I said that this physical body of man becomes powerful by
drawing the etheric body and also the astral body to itself. By this
means it acquires excessive strength, and the consequence is that the
etheric and astral bodies become impotent, just as when the plant is
deprived of moisture it dries up and lignifies, becomes woody. The
human physical body gradually begins to lignify because the forces of
the etheric and astral bodies are impoverished. A brain that
lignifies can absorb only few new ideas and concepts, because it
wants to remain static with those it has already acquired. The astral
body and the etheric body must be revivified through the absorption
of spiritual ideas and concepts.
And so in the spiritual Movement
appropriate for the present day, it is a matter of dealing with
something that is a necessity for the future, a necessity that is
part of the mission of man, something that is just as essential as
any of the events that have overtaken the human race without
co-operation on the part of men themselves. For a long, long time,
no doubt, such truths will be vehemently opposed, but none of this
opposition will ultimately avail. Men will become aware from the very
form and direction taken by culture in the near future that this is
how things are; the facts themselves will prove it.
Now it is not only in the process
of human evolution as a whole that a change takes place in this
inter-relation of the several members of man's constitution; the same
is also true in the life of the individual. There is by no means the
same relationship between etheric body and astral body and ego in
early childhood as there is in the later years of a man's life. In
considering the development of the individual himself, account
must be taken of the fact that the relationship between the members
of his constitution changes. A very specially important period in the
course of an individual human life is the one that comprises
approximately the first three years. In that period, every individual
is fundamentally a different being from the being he is later on. We
know that these first three years are sharply demarcated from later
life by two facts. — One is that it is only after this first
period that the human being learns to say “I”, to grasp
and understand his egohood. The other is that when, in later years, a
man is looking back over his life, he can at most remember only as
far back as this point of time — the point at which this
three-year period is separated from the later life. In the normal
state no human being knows anything of what happened before this
point of time. In a certain respect man is then quite a different
being. On that subject, too, modern psychologists talk the most
incredible nonsense. We, however, must adhere firmly to the knowledge
that in actual fact it is not until after that period that the human
being becomes conscious of his egohood. There are books on psychology
today in which we may read that the human being learns first to think
and then to speak. Such rubbish as is written today in popular
literature on psychology is only possible in an age when those who
pursue psychology in official positions are automatically regarded as
serious scientists. One of the most important things of all is that
we should bear in mind the division between the first years of life
and the later years, and regard man during those early years as a
being who is quite different from the one he is later on. It is only
later that the ego appears, the ego with which everything else
is bound up. But let nobody believe that before this point of time
the ego was inactive. Of course it was not inactive! It is not the
case that until the third year of life the ego remains unborn. It was
already there, but its task was not that of penetrating into the
activity of consciousness. What, then, was its task? The ego is the
most important spiritual factor in the development of the three
sheaths of the child: astral body, etheric body, physical body. The
physical sheath of the brain is constantly re-moulded and there the
ego is continually at work. It cannot become conscious because
it has a quite different task to fulfil: it has first to shape the
instrument of consciousness. That of which we later become
conscious works, to begin with, upon our physical brain during the
first years of life. The task devolving upon the ego changes —
that is all. It works first upon us, then within us.
The ego is in reality a sculptor and the greatness of what it
achieves in the actual forming of the physical brain can never be
adequately described. The ego is a supreme artist! But
what is the source, the giver of its power? The ego has this power
because, during the first three years of life the forces of the
angels, of the Hierarchy next above our own, stream into it. In very
truth — and this is no figure of speech, no simile, but an
actual truth — an angel, that is to say, a being of the nearest
higher Hierarchy, works in man through his ego, moulding and shaping
him. It is as if the man were borne by the whole current of spiritual
life, as if he were floating upwards to the higher Hierarchies whose
forces stream into him. And the moment he learns to say “I”,
it is as if some of this force were cut off, as if he himself were
called upon to do something formerly done by the angel.
In the first years of life there
is actually given to us something like a last echo of what prevailed
to a certain extent through the whole of human life in the first
Post-Atlantean epoch. Immediately after the great Atlantean
catastrophe, throughout the whole of his life or at very least
through the first half of it, the human being was more or less like
he now is during the first years of life only. We can picture this
clearly if we think of the early Indian civilisation-epoch. The most
truly childlike among the men of that epoch were the great Teachers
of the Indian people, the Holy Rishis. I have often spoken of them.
If we were to picture the Holy Rishis according to the pattern of a
modern savant, we should be very far from the truth. If a man were to
encounter them today he would not regard them as of any account at
all; they would seem to him to be nothing more than naïve, childlike
peasants — but the childlike quality that was manifest in the
Rishis is perhaps nowhere to be found today. At certain times an
inflowing stream of inspiration became articulate through them and
then they gave voice to secrets of the higher worlds, because
throughout their whole life the word “I”, in the
sense in which modern man uses it, never passed their lips. They
never said “I”. They differed from a child today inasmuch
as a child possesses the faculty of ideation. But the highest
treasures of wisdom flowed into them in the same form of soul-life;
it was as if a child today were to give utterance to the most sublime
wisdom during the first three years of its life. Actually it is not
the child who is speaking — but perhaps this applies now only
to a part of mankind. I have so often referred to the saying: The
wisest can learn most from a child. And when someone who is himself
able to look into the spiritual worlds has a child before him, with
the stream that rises up into the spiritual world, it is as if —
forgive the homely expression — he has in the child something
like a telephone-line into the spiritual worlds. The spiritual world
speaks through the child, but men are not aware of it. The wisest can
learn most from a child. It is not the child that is speaking, but
the angel is speaking out of the child.
And now the question is: What is
there to be said of man's whole constitution in later years, bearing
in mind that in the earliest period of his life the ego is not merely
the fourth member of his own being but at the same time the lowest
member of an angel? — for we can speak of these “members”
of an angel in connection with this period and of the child's ego as
the lowest member of the angel. The connections between the members
are quite different from those prevailing in later life. The question
therefore is: What is the nature of the change? What is it that takes
place in later life? It is as though the living stream had been cut
off; the human being loses the living connection with the spiritual
world. Hence it is in the earliest years of life that the forces a
human being brings with him from his former incarnations are most
perceptible. It is then that the essential, spiritual core of his
being works the most strongly and deeply to elaborate the bodily
organisation in such a way that it is suitable for the incarnation.
How is the later normal consciousness related to this? The answer is
that, today, the human being simply no longer has a bodily nature —
the etheric body and its relationship to the physical body —
such as was present in and at the time of the Holy Rishis. In that
epoch there persisted through the whole of life the inherited
relationship between etheric body and astral body that made it
possible for the ego to mould the outer sheath of the human being.
Today, already at birth, we inherit such a dense and demanding
physical body that only a small part of the work formerly
accomplished by the ego can now be carried out. Our physical body is
no longer really suitable for what we ourselves are during the first
three years of our life. What we inherit is a physical body that is
suitable for the later years of life, and this body is not adapted
for directing the eyes upwards into the spiritual worlds. The child
himself has no knowledge of what is streaming down into him and those
around him most certainly have none; for the physical body has
altered, has become denser, drier. We are born with a soul that in
the first three years of our life still stretches up into the
spiritual worlds; but we are born with a body that is called upon to
develop, through the whole of the rest of our life, the consciousness
in which the ego lives. If we had not this dense physical body it
would be possible for us in the conditions of the present cycle of
human existence to remain childlike in the sense indicated; but
because we have this dense physical body, communion with the
spiritual world during the first three years of life cannot come to
full consciousness.
What is it that must now be
fulfilled in the course of the evolution of humanity? What is the one
end only way in which to achieve it? This can most easily be
expressed by the two concepts which in earlier times designated these
two beings within us. The one is the concept of the being of
spirit-and-soul in the first three years of childhood, the being who
is now no longer really adapted to the external nature of man and is,
moreover, unable to unfold ego-consciousness: this being of
spirit-and-soul was called in olden times the Son of God. And
the being whose physical body today is so constituted that
ego-consciousness can awaken within it was called the Son of Man.
— The Son of God within the Son of Man. — The conditions
prevailing today are such that the Son of God can no longer become
conscious in the Son of Man, but must first be separated if the
ego-consciousness of today is to arise. It is the task of man,
through conscious absorption of the realities of the spiritual world,
so to transform and make himself master of his external sheaths that
the Son of Man is gradually permeated by the Son of God. When the
earth has reached the end of its evolution, man must have consciously
achieved what he has no longer been able to achieve from childhood
onwards: he must have completely permeated what he is as Son of Man
with the divine part of his being. What is it that must completely
permeate and flow through his human nature? What is it that must pour
into every part of the physical, etheric and astral bodies, so that
the whole Son of Man is permeated with the Son of God? It is that
which lives in the first three years of life, but permeated with the
fully conscious ego — this it is that must spread through the
whole man.
Let us imagine that a being were
to appear before us as an Ideal, a model of what man should be. What
would have to be fulfilled in this being? The soul-nature of such a
being cannot penetrate the outer sheaths of an ordinary man of
present-day development, for he would not be able to realise the
human Ideal of earthly evolution, would not be able to make it
manifest. We should have, as it were, to tear the soul out of him and
put in its place a soul such as is present in the first three years
of life, but permeated with full ego-consciousness. In no other way
could an Ideal of earth-evolution stand before us. And for how long
would such a soul be able to endure a physical human life? The
physical body is capable of bearing such a soul for three years only;
then, if it is not to be shattered, it is bound to overpower that
soul. The whole karma of the earth would have to be so organised that
after three years the physical body is shattered. For in man as he is
today, the being who lives in him for three years is overpowered; if,
however, it were to remain, it would overpower and shatter the
physical body. The Ideal of man's mission on the earth can therefore
be fulfilled only if, while the physical body, etheric body and
astral body remain, the ordinary soul-nature is ejected and the
soul-nature of the first three years, plus full ego-consciousness, is
inserted in its place. Then this soul would shatter the human body;
but during these three years it would present a perfect example of
what man can achieve.
This Ideal is the Christ-Ideal;
and what took place at the Baptism in Jordan is the reality behind
what has here been described. The human Ideal was once actually
placed before mankind on the earth. Through the Baptism in Jordan,
the soul with which we are connected during the first three years of
childhood — but in this case completely permeated by the ego
and in unbroken connection with the spiritual world — entered
into a human body from which the earlier soul had departed. And then,
after three years, this soul from the spiritual worlds shattered the
bodily sheaths. Therefore we have before us in the first three years
of life a faint image, an utterly inadequate image, of the
Christ-Being Who lived for three years on earth in the body of Jesus.
And if we try to develop in ourselves a manhood whose nature is that
of the soul of childhood but fully permeated with the reality and
content of the spiritual world, then we have a picture of that
Egohood, that Christhood, of which St. Paul is speaking when he calls
upon men to fulfil the “Not I, but Christ in me”. —
This is the childlike soul, permeated with full and complete egohood.
Thereby the human being is able to permeate his “Son of Man”
with his “Son of God” and to fulfil his earthly Ideal, to
overcome his external nature and once again to find the connection
with the spiritual world.
But how can this be achieved? In
sacred records every utterance has more than one meaning. If we are
to look into the kingdom of Heaven we must become as children, but
with the full maturity of the ego. That is the prospect before us
until the earth's mission has been fulfilled. — We may well be
moved when we realise on the one hand that our physical body is
actually facing a withering process and takes into itself the
spiritualising process by overcoming that which is tending to
wither. The inner nature must be so strengthened from the spiritual
worlds that the opposing outer nature is brought into conformity with
it. When this is achieved, we stand, as men, in harmony with the
evolutionary process of our earth.
Spiritual science tells us that
the earth has evolved far beyond the point when the mineral kingdom
which forms the soil still contains any forces of renewal, any
upbuilding forces; this applies to granite, gneiss, schist, up to the
very soil of our fields. All this is involved in unceasing process of
destruction. We do not walk upon soil that has within it new,
formative forces, but rather — because the earth has passed the
mid-point of its evolution — we walk upon soil that is already
breaking up, is already involved in a process of destruction. Our own
development is completely in line with that of our planet. We have a
physical body that is gradually withering, and this we can overcome.
But in the soil we have something that is involved in a process of
destruction. The valleys and mountains are formed by the crumbling of
the earth's crust. Spiritual science tells us that we are moving
about on an earth that is crumbling. When we climb a mountain we must
realise that here something has crumbled, has split asunder, and that
no process of onward development is in operation. Since the middle of
the Atlantean epoch we have passed beyond the middle point of the
earth's evolution. Since then we have lived on an earth that is
crumbling and will one day fall away from us as a corpse.
In this connection we have one of
the finest examples of complete accord between spiritual knowledge
and modern science in its true form. It is essential that
anthroposophists should learn to distinguish between true science and
all that through countless popular channels poses as science, but in
reality is nothing but a compendium of preconceived ideas, theories
and the like. If we go to the true sources of the several sciences we
realise how fully spiritual knowledge accords with science. And
here is one of the very best examples. —
There is no more reliable or
well-versed geologist than Eduard Suess; and what another geologist
says is undoubtedly correct, namely, that Suess's work “The
Face of the Earth” is a great geological epic of the earth. It
bears all the traces of exceptional thoroughness and careful study.
With all caution, and unprejudiced by theories, the author of this
really monumental work presents what may be stated today on the
foundation of actual geological facts. Suess is not guided in his
investigations by ideas previously conceived, as was the case even
with such men as Buch or Humboldt. Suess investigates facts, facts
alone. What he has to say on the basis of meticulously observed facts
about the formation of the earth's soil is particularly
interesting. His conception is exactly the same as that of spiritual
science, only of course Suess knew nothing of spiritual science. He
draws his conclusions from the actual physical facts. He maintains
that valleys have formed as the result of the working of certain
forces through which rock and stone were hurled down; subsidence took
place and heights remained. — All this is the result of
processes of segmentation, displacement and “folding”,
in which only forces of destruction are working. Let me refer you to
one passage in Suess's great work and you will see that here,
where we have to do with true science, there is complete accord with
spiritual knowledge. The passage is as follows:
“The breaking
up of the terrestrial globe, this it is we witness. It doubtless began a
long time ago, and the brevity of human life enables us to contemplate it
without dismay. It is not only in the great mountain ranges that the
traces of this process are found. Great segments of the earth's crust
have sunk hundreds, in some cases even thousands of feet deep, and
not the slightest inequality of the surface remains to indicate the
fracture; the different nature of the rocks and the discoveries made
in mining alone reveal its presence. Time has leveled all. In
Bohemia, in the Palatinate, in Belgium, in Pennsylvania in many other
places as well, the plough quietly traces its furrows over the
mightiest fractures .....” [This
passage is the penultimate paragraph in Vol. I of Suess's book. The
work consists of four volumes and was published in English in 1904 by
the Clarendon Press. The translation is by H. Sollas.]
I refer to this merely to show
you that our earth-planet displays the same process of withering,
shriveling and destruction as the physical body of man. Those who
come forward with views of the world today do not base themselves
upon science in its true form. Even to read intelligently through
this tremendous work, “The Face of the Earth”, entails
strenuous effort. But even that would be of no avail unless one were
acquainted with the whole of modern geological science; for this
alone teaches one how such a book should be read. When a man turns to
the true sources of knowledge he finds the absolute facts.
Spiritual science tells us —
for example about the progress of our earth's evolution — that
at one time, before organisms existed, the earth was not in that
fantastic condition when granite is alleged to have been liquid
fire, but when the whole earth was pervaded by an activity similar,
for example, to the activity taking place in a man when he is
thinking. The process of destruction was once introduced and as a
result of it we are able to say: The chemical substances which today
are no longer contained in the earth's organism — for example,
the substances of which granite is composed — fell away from
this organism like rain. They trickled down, as it were, and in
essentials it was these processes of destruction which in alliance
with the chemistry of the earth made it possible for granite to come
into existence as the mother-soil of the earth. But by that time a
process of destruction had already set in, and what is present today
is the necessary consequence of that process of destruction which
continues in a straightforward line.
What does true natural science
show us? That those processes which must be there are there.
And in true natural science this is shown us everywhere. True natural
science nowhere contradicts spiritual science; everywhere there is
corroboration.
Such corroboration will also be
found in connection with reincarnation and karma. Only it will be
necessary some day for mankind to rise above all previously conceived
theories, prejudices and the like. Facts can always be made
use of whenever they are facts and not confused hypotheses such as
the once generally accepted assumptions and theories of geologists
about the condition of the earth in the granite-epoch — quite
apart from all the philosophical theories of the present time which
are practically devoid of spirituality. We must not allow ourselves
to be impressed by such talk as the following, — “The
evolution of the individual human being” (which we ourselves
base upon reincarnation and karma) “derives from the infinities
of spiritual evolution ...” It is possible for a man to become
world-famous and yet say this. It is sheer rubbish, even though it is
proclaimed as authentic philosophy and linked with the name of Wundt.
In very truth we stand here at the dividing-line between two spheres
of spiritual life, and we must be fully conscious of it. The one is
that of natural science which, whenever it is based on facts,
actually corroborates spiritual science. The other consists of the
different philosophical theories, hypotheses and all the other
high-sounding twaddle about what is supposed to underlie external
processes and happenings. From all this, spiritual science
should sternly dissociate itself. And then it will assuredly
become more and more possible to realise that what we acquire through
spiritual knowledge, namely, an understanding of man and of how his
various members are related to the different epochs of the evolution
of humanity, leads us deeply into the secrets of the universe. We
shall also realise that true observation of the first three years of
childhood is the first stage towards a recognition of the Mystery of
Golgotha in all its truth and to a real understanding of the words:
“Except ye
........ become as little children, ye shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven.”
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