LECTURE 4.
THE INNER ASPECT OF THE
MOON-EMBODIMENT OF THE EARTH.
PART 1.
14, November 1911.
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 in 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. Neither
fire nor air should be sought 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 development. Yet another
concept must now be introduced, which belongs to the world of reality
as concerned with the world of illusion. But before passing to the
actual conditions of development 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. 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 Luciferic beings remained behind on the
Moon. So that on the one hand man owes to the Luciferic beings the
fact that he has in his astral body passions, emotions, and desires
driving him constantly down from a certain height into lower parts of
his nature. But, on the other hand, if man were incapable of
wickedness, unable to err from good through the forces of the
Luciferic 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 just
described at the beginning of this lecture. For what lies beneath all
such remaining behind and all its influence is renunciation,
resignation by higher Beings. So now, on the Sun we 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
notice 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 withdrew 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. It 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, from which emerged the Moon. And we see the sacrifice
re-issuing 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 with 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 acquire a peculiar kind of spiritual insight into the
actual nature of water. But now the question may be raised: There is
after all a certain difference between the conditions 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 it would otherwise have absorbed, and is now 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: It happens that 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 attracted 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
furnished backward beings with the first possibility of staying
behind. Through the rejection of a sacrifice, other beings who did
not resign it, but gave way to their wishes and desires, bringing
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 uninterrupted 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 lay 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 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: ‘If 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 allow 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?
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 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 it can only be acquired as a consequence of
renunciation and 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
are 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 to be 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 alone 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 he 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 were compelled to 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. And 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 certain position in the cosmos which has the same
connection with Mars 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: that is the
fact that certain powers place themselves in opposition to the
immortal Divine power. 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 [is
not required] 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 if nothing were received by way of
continuation of this, 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
submits to the inspiration of 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 knowledge with
those forces which represent afresh an aspect of immortality,
something of the perfection 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 hack 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 still with regard to which we
must say: The future of mankind will certainly find the possibility,
the artistic ways and means to convey to the consciousness and
express to the outer world what can otherwise only be read in the
Akashic Records.
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