III
THE INNER ASPECT OF THE
MOON-EMBODIMENT OF THE EARTH Part 1
In the last two
lectures an endeavour was made to call attention to the fact
that behind all the material phenomena of the substance of our earth
something spiritual is to be sought. We endeavoured to describe the
spiritual to be found behind the phenomenon of heat, and then that
behind the phenomenon of flowing air. As, in order to do this, it was
necessary to turn back to the very early ages of our evolution, we
had to glance into our own soul-life to describe the spiritual
conditions underlying matter. For it is obvious that the
concepts by means of which anything is described must necessarily be
drawn from somewhere. Words alone will not suffice; we must have
quite definite conceptions. As we have seen, the spiritual conditions
to which we referred are so far removed from anything experienced by
man at the present time, or of which he can have knowledge —
that we had to appeal to certain conditions in our soul-life,
conditions by no means universal. We have seen that the deepest being
of all conditions of heat and fire must be sought very far away from
what we know as external physical fire or heat. To a man of the
present day it must appear truly absurd that sacrifice should be
recognised as the essence of all conditions of heat: a sacrifice made
by very definite Beings to be met with on the old Saturn state of the
Earth — the Thrones — who then brought their sacrifice to
the Cherubim. And yet in truth we must say that a sacrifice such as
possessed its starting point in the world-evolution, appears to us
— although in maya or illusion — in all external
conditions of heat or fire. In the last lecture we also recognised
that behind all that we may call flowing air or flowing gas, there is
something very far away, which we have called “the virtue of
bestowal,” the devotional pouring forth by spiritual Beings of
their own being. This is to be found in every breath of wind, in all
flowing air. Thus what is perceived externally, physically, is in
reality mere illusion, nothing but maya; and only when we progress
from maya to the incorporeal, the spiritual, do we obtain the correct
conception of fire and heat; for in fact fire, heat and light bear
the same relation to the real world as does the reflected image of a
man seen in a mirror to the person himself. For, just as the mirror
presents merely an illusion in relation to the man, so in this sense,
fire, heat and air are illusions; and the realities behind these bear
the same relation to them as the real man to his reflection. We have
to seek neither fire nor air in the world of reality, but sacrifice,
and the virtue of bestowal.
When we saw the
virtue of bestowal added to that of sacrifice we ascend from the life of
ancient Saturn to that of ancient Sun. In the latter, the second cosmic
embodiment of our earth, we find something which brings us a step nearer
to the real conditions of our evolution. Yet another concept must be
introduced to-day, which belongs to the world of reality as concerned
with the world of illusion. But before passing to the actual conditions
of evolution we must acquire a definite idea from the following.
When in his
external life a man does something, accomplishes something, the impulse
of his will as a rule underlies it. Whatever he does, be it the movement
of a hand or the greatest of deeds, the impulse of the will underlies
them. From his will proceeds everything that leads to an act, to an
achievement. Now at first a man would say that a strong, forceful
act, one for instance that is to bring about great healing and
blessing, must proceed from a stronger impulse of will, while a less
important act comes from a weaker impulse. And in general it is
assumed that the greatness of the deed depends upon the strength of
the impulse of the will. But only in a certain degree is it correct
that as we intensify our will we accomplish great things in the
world. From a certain point onwards that is no more the case. Certain
deeds that man may do — particularly such as bear upon the
spiritual world — do not, strange to say, now depend upon the
strengthening of our impulses of will. In the physical world, in
which we particularly live, the greatness of our deeds certainly does
depend upon the strength of our impulses of will, for the more we
wish to accomplish, the greater are the efforts we must make
But in the spiritual world this is not so, there the opposite comes
to pass. There it is the case that the greatest deeds, or, better
said, the greatest results, do not necessitate any strengthening of
the positive impulses of will, but far more a certain resignation, a
renouncing. Take the very smallest purely spiritual facts. We do not
attain any spiritual effects by bringing strong desires into play, or
by bestirring ourselves as much as possible; no — in the
spiritual world we attain certain results by controlling our wishes
and desires, and renouncing all idea of satisfying them.
Suppose a man has made up his mind to bring something about in the
world by means of inner spiritual workings. To do this he would have
to prepare himself by learning above all to suppress his own wishes
and desires. For whereas in the physical world we grow stronger
when we eat well, when we are well nourished and acquire greater
strength thereby, so, in the spiritual world, when we wish to attain
something important we can precisely do so with the greatest ease,
if, by fasting or other means, we repress and control our wishes and
desires; (this is only a statement, and not given by way of advice).
The greatest spiritual, magical effects, always require preparation
connected with the renunciation of wishes, desires, and impulses of
will which may appear within us. The less we “will,” the
more we say: We will allow life to flow over us, not longing for this
or that, but accepting everything just as Karma sends it to us, the
more we are able to accept Karma and its workings in this way,
keeping quietly ready to renounce all that we should otherwise wish
to choose for this life, the more forceful shall we become as regards
the activity of our thinking. In the case of a teacher or tutor who
is, above all things, fond of eating and drinking and has other
masterful passions, it will be noticeable that his words to his
pupils will not accomplish very much, his words will go in at one ear
and out at the other. He will think that this is the fault of the
pupils, but that is not always the case. A man who has begun to lead
a higher life, who lives temperately, who only eats as much as is
necessary to support life, who is determined to accept what destiny
brings him with equanimity, will gradually notice that his
words have great force; he will not even require to look at his
pupils, but only to be near them and have encouraging thought without
expressing it, and that thought will pass over to the pupil. It all
depends on the degree of renunciation and self-denial he has acquired
as regards the things usually desired by man.
The right path
for spiritual activities intended to lead to spiritual effects in the
higher worlds, is that of renunciation. In relation to this many
delusions are met with, and delusions while resembling true
renunciation, do not lead to the right results. We are all acquainted
with what in ordinary life is called “asceticism,”
self-inflicted suffering. In many cases the practice of this may be a
spiritual self-indulgence, for a person may practise it in order to
obtain great results, or from some other source of desire for self-
satisfaction. In such cases asceticism produces no results; it is of
no avail unless it is a sign of the renunciation rooted in the
spirit. Let us then acquire the concept of the creative renunciation,
the creative resignation. It is indeed of immense importance that we
should accept this renunciation, this creative resignation, which we
may experience in the soul, as a conception of something far removed
from our everyday life; and then we are guided a step deeper into the
evolution of humanity. For in the process of evolution something of
the kind really does take place in the transition from the conditions
of ancient Sun to those of ancient Moon. Something of the nature of
renunciation takes place in the realm of the Beings of the higher
worlds, for these Beings, as we know already, are connected with the
process of the earth's development. At this juncture let us
once again call to mind the ancient Sun evolution. But let us first
give our attention to something else with which we are already
familiar, but which may until now have appeared in some respects to
be somewhat of an enigma.
We have repeatedly
drawn attention to occurrences in evolution which must be
traced back to those beings who have in the course of evolution
“remained behind.” We know that the Luciferic beings have
invaded the domain of our earth humanity. It has repeatedly been
necessary to draw attention to the fact that these beings are able to
enter our astral body during the development of our earth
because they did not, during the evolution of the Moon, reach the
stage they ought to have attained. A commonplace comparison has often
been used, that as in our schools some pupils remain behind, so even
in the great cosmic evolution there are cosmic beings who, remaining
behind in the stages of their own evolution, subsequently interfere
with the evolutionary stages of other beings, with a result similar
to that produced by the Luciferic beings, who lingered behind on the
ancient Moon. We might easily suppose these to be faulty beings
actually injurious to the evolution of the world; for why did they
linger behind? Such a thought might occur to us. The thought,
however, which we should entertain is this: that man would never have
attained his freedom, or the capacity for individual initiative
action had not the Lucifer beings remained behind on the Moon. So
that on the one hand man owes to the Lucifer beings the fact that he
has in his astral body passions, emotions, and desires driving him
constantly down from a certain height into lower pats of his nature.
But, on the other hand, if man were incapable of wickedness, unable
to err from good through the forces of the Lucifer beings in his
astral body he could not act freely, or possess what we call
freewill, freedom of choice. We must therefore admit that to the
Luciferic beings we owe our freedom. The deduction to be drawn from
this is that the one-sided view is not valid that claims that they
only lead man astray; their remaining behind must be regarded as
something beneficial, as something without which he could never have
acquired his human dignity, in the true sense of the word.
Now what we call
the “remaining behind” of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings
is based on something much deeper, something already to be
encountered in connection with ancient Saturn, although it is there
so difficult to perceive that words could hardly be found in any
language to describe it. But when we advance to the ancient
Sun-existence, we are able to describe it quite distinctly if we bear
in mind the idea of resignation or renunciation which we have to-day
described. For what lies beneath all such remaining behind and all
its influence is renunciation, resignation by higher Beings. So
now, on the Sun we can see the following taking place. We have said
that the Thrones, the Spirits of Will, offer sacrifice to the
Cherubim; and this they do, as we have seen in the last lecture, not
only during the Saturn period, but they continue their sacrifice
through that of the Sun, so that there too we have the idea of the
Thrones or Spirits of Will sacrificing to the Cherubim. In this
sacrifice is to be found the actual essence of all the conditions of
heat or fire present in the world. Now, if we look back into the
Akashic Record of the Sun-age we can quite distinctly remark the
following. The Thrones offer and continue their sacrificial activity;
so that we have there the sacrificing Thrones and a host of Cherubim
to whom, as we see, the sacrifice rises, while they take into
themselves the heat which flows forth from it. However, another host
of Cherubim accomplish something else; these renounce the sacrifice,
they do not accept what is offered them. We must therefore complete
the picture we called up before our minds in the last lecture.
In this picture
we have the sacrificing Thrones and those Cherubim who accept their
sacrifice, and we also have the Cherubim who do not accept it —
but give back that which was offered up to them. It is
extraordinarily interesting to follow this in the Akashic Record. For
by reason of the bestowing virtue of the Spirits of Wisdom now
flowing into the sacrificial heat we are able during the ancient
Sun-period to see ascending something like sacrificial smoke of which
we have said, that it is reflected back by the Archangels from the
outermost periphery of the Sun, in the form of light. But now besides
this, something altogether different seems to appear in the space of
ancient Sun; not merely the sacrificial smoke thrown back by the
Archangels in the form of light, but also that smoke which was not
accepted by the Cherubim and which as it were flows back again, as
though dammed back. So that we have permanent clouds of sacrifice in
space; Sacrifice that ascends, Sacrifice that descends, Sacrifice
accepted and Sacrifice rejected. The encounter of these
intrinsically Spiritual cloud-formations is seen to take place
between what in the last lecture we called the “outer”
and the “inner,” until the separation occurs. Thus in the
centre we have the sacrificing Thrones, then in the heights above the
Cherubim accepting the sacrifice, and beside these, those other
Cherubim who did not accept the proffered sacrifice, but diverted its
course back again. Through this diversion arises, as it were, an
encircling cloud, and right outside we have the cast-back masses of
light. Let us try to form a picture of this in our minds. We must
think of this ancient Sun-space, the ancient Sun-mass as a cosmic
globe beyond which we conceive of nothing, so that we only imagine
space extending as far as the Archangels. Let us further picture in
the centre of this globular formation the meeting of the accepted and
the rejected sacrifices. From these two, the accepted and rejected
sacrifices, there comes into being in the ancient Sun something that
we may call a division of the whole Sun-substance, a divergence. If
we wish to compare the Sun in that bygone age with any external
image, we can only compare it with the form of our present Saturn
which is a globe encircled by rings; for that which is in the centre
is thrown inwards by volumes of sacrifice and that which was outside
is arranged as an encircling mass. Thus we have the Sun's
substance divided into two parts by the force of the arrested and
dammed up powers of the sacrifice.
What then is
brought about by this renunciation of the sacrifice on the part of certain
of the Cherubim?
We are now coming
to an extremely difficult chapter indeed, and we shall only be able
gradually to grasp, by means of meditation, what is comprised
in the conceptions about to be set forth. Only after long and
profound reflection upon the conceptions about to be given can we
discern what the realities are that underlie them. That
resignation of which mention has already been made, must be brought
into connection with the origin of Time — the scene of which we
have laid in ancient Saturn. Time, as we have seen, actually
originated on ancient Saturn, with the Archai or Spirits of Time, and
there is no sense in referring to Time previous to ancient Saturn.
Now at the risk of repeating ourselves, we may say that Time
continues. Continuity or Duration is a conception which contains Time
within itself. Thus when we say that Time is continuous it means that
when we observe Saturn and Sun in the Akashic records, on Saturn we
find the origin of Time — and on the Sun we still find Time
present. Now if all conditions remained as they were, as we described
them in the last two lectures when speaking of Saturn and Sun, Time
would then form an element in everything that happens in evolution.
We could not in thought eliminate Time from any occurrence in
evolution. We have seen that the Spirits of Time came into being on
ancient Saturn, and that Time is implanted into everything. All that
we have hitherto thought whether in pictures or in imagination
concerning evolution we must bring into connection with Time. All
that has taken place — sacrifice and the virtue of bestowal,
which we have mentioned — would be subject to Time, nothing
would not be subject to Time, which means that all arising and
passing away which indeed pertains to Time, must be subject to it.
Now those Cherubim
who renounced the acceptance of the sacrifice and of that which was,
as it were, contained in the smoke of the sacrifice, did so because
in so doing, they withdraw from the properties of this sacrificial
smoke. And to these properties belongs, above all, Time, which
includes “arising” and “passing away.” The
whole renunciation of the sacrifice on the part of these Cherubim
signifies that they had grown beyond the conditions of Time.
These Cherubim extended beyond Time and withdrew from subjection to
it. The combination of circumstances during the evolution of ancient
Sun was such, that the sacrificing and the virtue of bestowal, which
conditions continued in a direct line from Saturn, remain
subject to Time; whilst others, brought about by the other Cherubim
who renounced the acceptance of the sacrifice wrested themselves
free, and chose Eternity, duration, permanence, the non-subjection to
arising and passing away. This is in the highest degree remarkable:
during the evolution of ancient Sun we come to a severance
between Time and Eternity. Through the resignation made by the
Cherubim during the Sun-evolution, Eternity was gained, as a property
of certain conditions which then came about. Just as we saw, on
looking into our soul, that in it certain effects were produced
through the acquisition by man of the qualities of renunciation and
resignation — so we see, speaking now of the ancient Sun alone,
that eternity and immortality were acquired by certain divine
Spiritual Beings, that they resigned the sacrifice and all that might
have come to them from the virtue of bestowal and all its diffused
gifts. Whereas we have seen Time coming into being on ancient Saturn,
we have also seen certain conditions wresting themselves free from it
during the Sun development. But we must take special care to note
that this was prepared even during the Saturn-age; so that Eternity
does not actually begin during the Sun-age. This can however, only be
sufficiently clearly and distinctly observed so that it can be
expressed in concepts, in the Sun-age: on Saturn the division between
Time and Eternity is so faintly perceptible that our ideas and words
do not prove precise enough to define anything of the sort for
ancient Saturn and its evolution.
We have now learnt
the significance of resignation, the renunciation made by the gods
during the time of ancient Sun, and the attainment of immortality.
What was the further consequence of this?
From the study
of the book
Occult Science
which must in certain respects still be veiled
in Maya, we learn that the evolution of ancient Moon followed that of
ancient Sun, that at the close of the Sun-age all the existing
conditions were immersed in a kind of twilight, in a sort of cosmic
chaos, and emerged again as “Moon.” And we see the
sacrifice reissuing in the form of heat. All that remained as heat on
ancient Sun reappears as heat on the Moon; we see the virtue of
bestowal reappearing as gas, or air. And the resignation also
continues, the renunciation of the sacrifice; all that we have called
“resignation” is within whatever takes place on ancient
Moon. It is actually the case, that what we can ourselves experience
as resignation we must think of in everything on ancient Moon,
carried over from ancient Sun, and as we think of everything else in
the external world. That which had been sacrifice reappears in Maya
as Heat; and that which was bestowing virtue appears in Maya as gas
or air. Resignation as it has now become appears in external Maya as
Fluidity, as “Water.” “Water” is Maya and
would not be in the world at all were it not that its spiritual
foundation is renunciation, or resignation. Wherever water is to be
found in the world there is divine-renunciation. Just as heat is an
illusion behind which is sacrifice, and gas or air an illusion behind
which is the virtue of bestowal, so is water as a substance, as an
external reality, nothing but an illusion of the senses, a
reflection; the only reality existing in it, is resignation by
certain Beings of that which they receive from other Beings. It might
be said, water could only flow in the world because resignation
underlies it. Now, we know that while the Sun progressed to Moon,
airy conditions condensed to watery conditions. Water first appeared
on the Moon; on ancient Sun there was as yet no water. What we see
gathering like clouds during the old Sun development coagulated as
they interpenetrated each other, to denser substance, to “water,”
and this appears on ancient Moon as the Moon-ocean.
If we bear this
in mind it will at any rate be possible to grasp a question that may be
raised. From resignation comes forth water; water is in literal truth
resignation. We thus acquire a peculiar kind of spiritual insight
into the actual nature of water. But now the question may be raised:
is there after all a certain difference between the condition which
would have arisen if the Cherubim had not made this resignation, and
that which has actually come about through their having done so? Is
this difference in any way conveyed? Yes, it is. It is conveyed in
the fact that the consequences of that resignation appeared clearly
during the Sun-State. If it had never been made, if the Cherubim had
accepted the proffered sacrifice, they would — speaking
figuratively — have had the sacrificial smoke as part of their
own inner substance; what they themselves had done would have found
expression in the smoke of the sacrifice. Suppose these Cherubim had
accomplished this or that; this would have been apparent, it would
have been outwardly expressed by the changing clouds of the air; that
is to say: In the outer form of the air would have been expressed
what the Cherubim who made no resignation did with the substance of
the sacrifice. But they did reject it, and in so doing they passed
from mortality to immortality, from a transitory state into a State
of Duration. However, the substance of the sacrifice is there to
begin with; it is released from the forces, so to speak, which would
otherwise have absorbed it, and is now not obliged to follow the
inclinations and impulses of the Cherubim; for they gave it up, they
renounced it. What then happens to this substance of sacrifice? The
following occurs: Other beings, because the sacrificial substance is
not with the Cherubim, take possession of it, become independent of
the Cherubim, self-reliant beings; whereas they would otherwise have
been directed from the sacrificial substance within the Cherubim, if
the latter had accepted it. Thus it became possible for the opposite
of resignation to arise; in that certain beings attract to
themselves the substance of the sacrifice that had been poured forth
and become active within it. These beings are “they who
remained behind”; “remaining behind” was therefore
a consequence of the resignation made by the Cherubim. Through
the very substance which they refused to accept, the Cherubim
themselves first furnished backward beings with the possibility of
staying behind. Through the rejection of a sacrifice, other beings
who did not resign it, but give way to their wishes and desires and
bring them to expression, were enabled to take possession of the
object of the sacrifice, of the sacrificial substance, thereby
attaining the possibility of taking their place as independent beings
side by side with those who here were offering.
Thus, when
evolution passed from ancient Sun to Moon, with the immortality of the
Cherubim, the possibility was given for other beings to separate in
their own substance from the progressive evolution of the Cherubim,
generally speaking from the immortal beings. So now, when we learn
the deeper reasons of the remaining behind, we see that the original
fault — if we may venture to speak of such an original fault
— did not lie with those who remained behind. This is the
important point, which we must realise: If the Cherubim had accepted
the proffered sacrifice, the Luciferic beings could not have remained
behind; they would have had no opportunity of embodying themselves in
that substance. To make it possible for beings to become thus
independent, renunciation previously took place. Thus, in cosmic
evolution it is the case that the gods themselves have called their
opponents into being. If the gods had not renounced the sacrifice,
beings would not have been able to oppose them. Put into simple words
we may suppose the gods had foreseen as follows: “we merely go
on creating as we have done from Saturn to Sun there would never be
any free beings, capable of acting from their own initiative. In
order that beings of this nature might come into existence, the
possibility must be given for opponents to arise against us in the
Universe, so that we should meet with resistance in that which is
subject to time. If we ourselves ordain everything we shall meet with
no such resistance. We could make everything very easy for ourselves
by accepting the sacrifice offered to us; then would the whole of
evolution be subject unto us. But this will not do, we want beings
able to resist us. We will therefore not accept the sacrifice; so
that through our resignation and because they accept the sacrifice,
they become our opponents!”
So we see that
we must not look for the origin of evil in the so-called
“evil” beings, but in the “good” Beings, who,
through their resignation first brought evil about through those
beings who were able to bring it into the world. But now the
following objection may easily be made (and I want you to let these
thoughts work profoundly upon your souls): I have till now thought
more highly of the gods! I have always believed them able to give
freedom to man without creating the possibility of evil. How is it
that all these “good gods” could not produce something
like human freedom without bringing evil into the world In this
connection I should like to remind you of that Spanish King who
considered the world dreadfully complicated, and who said on one
occasion that if God had allowed him to create it he would have made
it much simpler — Man in his weakness may think that the world
might have been made simpler than it is, but the gods knew better and
therefore they did not leave it to man to create the world.
From the
standpoint of scientific perception, we might describe these circumstances
more accurately. Suppose something required supporting and the suggestion
were made that a column might be erected and the weight rested on
that. This person in question might say: “There must be some
other way of doing it!” Why, indeed, should it not be done in
some other way? Or again, when a triangle is made use of in building,
it might be said: Why should a triangle have only three angles a
Perhaps a god might make a triangle not having three angles? There
would be just as little sense in thinking of a triangle without three
angles, as in supposing that the gods might have created freedom
without the possibility of evil and suffering. Just as three angles
are necessary to a triangle, so the possibility of evil, given by the
resignation of Divine Beings, is necessary to freedom. It all forms
part of the Divine resignation, for the gods created evolution out of
immortality, after they had through their renunciation or sacrifice,
ascended to immortality, in order to lead back evil again to good.
The gods did not shrink from the evil, which alone could give the
possibility of freedom. Had the gods avoided evil, the world would be
poor, without variety. For the sake of freedom the gods had to allow
evil to enter the world, and for this reason they had to acquire the
power enabling them to lead evil back again to good. This power is
such as can only be acquired as a consequence of renunciation,
resignation.
Religions always
exist for the purpose of showing us the great cosmic mysteries in
symbols, in imaginations. In this lecture we have alluded to
primordial phases of evolution, and by adding the conception of
resignation to those of sacrifice and of the bestowing virtue we have
come a step further from Maya and illusion into the realities.
Conceptions such as these were presented to man in religions. And in
that of the Bible there is something whereby man can acquire a
conception of resignation, of the rejection of the sacrifice. That is
the story of the sacrifice about to be made by Abraham who was ready
to offer his own son to God, and of the renouncing by God of the
sacrifice offered by the patriarch. If we take into our souls this
conception of sacrifice, then intuitive visions such as those
described may come to us. On one occasion I suggested that we should
suppose that the sacrifice of Abraham had been accepted, that Isaac
had been sacrificed. As all the ancient Hebrew people are descended
from him, God would then by accepting the sacrifice have taken this
whole nation from the Earth. Everything derived from Abraham was a
gift of God through the renunciation of a sphere which is outside
Himself; if He had accepted the sacrifice He would have taken into
Himself the whole sphere which played its part within the ancient
Hebrew people; for the sacrificed Isaac would have been with God. But
He renounced this and therewith He gave over that whole line of
evolution to the earth. Thus in the significant picture of the
offering made by the old patriarch, the conception of renunciation
and of sacrifice can arise within us.
And in yet
another part of our earth-history do we find this resigning on the part
of Higher Beings, and here too we must again refer to something alluded
to in the last lecture — the picture of the “Last
Supper,” by Leonardo da Vinci. It represents the scene in which
as it were, we have before us the meaning of the earth, the Christ.
While trying to penetrate the whole meaning of the picture, let us
recollect those words, which are to be found in the Gospel: “Am
I not able to call forth a whole multitude of angels if I wish to
avoid the death of sacrifice?” That which Christ might have
accepted at that moment, which would of course have been quite easy
for Him to do, He rejected in resignation and renunciation. And the
greatest renunciation made by Christ Jesus confronts us when, by
having made it, He allows the opponent himself — Judas —
to enter His sphere. If we are able to see in Christ Jesus all that
is to be seen, we must see in Him an image of those Beings with whom,
at a certain stage of evolution, we have just become acquainted,
those who must renounce the proffered sacrifice, those whose very
nature was resignation. Christ renounced that which would have
occurred if He had not allowed Judas to appear as His opponent just
as once upon a time, during the Sun-age, the gods themselves called
forth their opponents by the renunciation they made. So we see a
repetition of this event in a picture here on earth: that of the
Christ seated among the twelve, and Judas, the betrayer, in the
centre. In order that that which makes mankind of such immeasurable
value might enter into evolution, Christ Himself had to place His
opponent in opposition to Him. This picture makes such a profound
impression on us because when we contemplate it, it reminds us of
such a great cosmic moment; and when we recall the words: “He
who dips his bread into the bowl with me, he it is who shall betray
me,” we see an earthly reflection of the opponent of the gods,
placed in opposition to them by the gods themselves. For this reason
I have often ventured to say that if an inhabitant of Mars were able
to descend to the earth, he might find things which would be of more
or less interest to him although he might perhaps not understand them
properly; but as soon as he saw this picture by Leonardo da Vinci he
would, through a cosmic position which has a connection with Mars
just as with the earth, learn something which would teach him the
meaning of the earth. The incident represented in the earthly picture
is of significance to the whole Cosmos: the fact that certain powers
place themselves in opposition to the immortal Divine powers. And
this representation of Christ surrounded by His Apostles, He who on
the earth overcomes death and thus proves the triumph of immortality,
is intended to point to that significant universal moment when the
gods severed themselves from temporal existence and gained the
victory over Time, that is, they became immortal. When we contemplate
the “Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci, we may feel this
in our hearts. Do not object that a person of simple mind may
contemplate this picture and not know all that has been referred to
to-day. It is not necessary that he should. For such are the
mysterious depths of the human soul, that it is not necessary to
understand with the intellect what the soul feels. Does the flower
know the laws which regulate its growth? No! yet none the less it
grows. What does the flower want with laws or the human soul with
intellect to feel the whole immeasurable greatness of the subject,
when before our eyes we see depicted a God and His opponents; when
the highest that can possibly be expressed, the opposition of
immortality to the transitory is brought before our eyes. It is not
necessary to know this; for it passes into the soul with magic force
when one stands before this picture, which represents in painting an
image of the cosmic purpose. The artist did not require to be an
occultist in this sense in order to paint this picture. But in the
soul of Leonardo da Vinci were precisely the necessary forces to
enable him to express this, the highest and most significant. That is
why great works of art make such a tremendous impression, because
they are intimately connected with the purpose of the cosmic order.
In earlier ages artists in dim consciousness were in touch with this
cosmic purpose without being aware of it. Art would, however, die out
altogether, there would be no continuation, if in the future
Anthroposophy were not there as the knowledge of these things to give
to art a new foundation. Subconscious art has become a thing of the
past. The art which is inspired by Anthroposophy is only at its
starting point, its beginning. This will be the art of the future.
Just as the artist of old had no need to know what lay behind his
works of art, so the artist of the future must know this — but
with those forces which represent a kind of immortality, something
from the full contents of the soul. For a man who uses Anthroposophy
as an intellectual science knows nothing of it. That man alone
understands who has made it his own, who in every conception that we
evolve — sacrifice, bestowing virtue, resignation —
is able to feel in every word what it is that is trying to burst
forth in that word or idea, what at the most can flow forth in the
many-sided significance of the pictures. If a man believes the
evolution of the world is accomplished by means of abstract
conceptions, he will perhaps make diagrams. If we wish to represent
living conceptions such as sacrifice, or the virtue of bestowal and
renunciation, diagrams are of no use; we must paint pictures in our
minds like those described in the last lectures: of the Thrones
offering sacrifice and sending up to the Cherubim the smoke of the
sacrifice, ever spreading more widely and of the Archangels sending
back the light; and so on. And when in our next study we pass on to
the Moon-existence we shall see how much richer the picture becomes,
how something like the liquefying of the dammed up masses of cloud
actually had to take place, and that this becomes drizzling rain,
into which flashes the lightning of the Seraphim. We must then pass
on to richer conceptions with regard to which we must say: The future
of mankind will certainly find the possibility, the artistic ways and
means to express to the outer world what can otherwise only be read
in the Akashic Records.
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