Lecture IV
Before turning to other matters I must
speak of certain wider conceptions that follow from our
consideration of the recent development of human history. We
attempted to examine this development from the stand-point of
a symptomatology; we tried to show that what are usually
called historical facts are not the essential elements in
history, but that they are symbols of the true reality that
lies behind them. This true reality, at least in the sphere
of the historical evolution of mankind, is thus detached from
what can be perceived in the phenomenal world, i.e. the
so-called historical facts. If we do not regard the so-called
historical facts as the true reality but seek in them
manifestations of something that lies behind them then we
discover of course a super-sensible element.
In studying
history it is not easy to show the true nature of the
super-sensible because people believe, when they discover
certain thoughts or ideas in history, or when they record
historical events, that they are already in touch with the
super-sensible. We must be quite clear that whatever the
phenomenal world presents to the senses, to the intellect or
emotions cannot in any way be regarded as super-sensible.
Therefore everything that is normally depicted as history
belongs to the sensible world. Of course when we study the
symptomatology of history we shall not regard the symptoms as
having equal value; the study itself will show that, in order
to arrive at the super-sensible reality behind the events, a
particular Symptom is of capital importance, whilst other
symptoms are perhaps of no importance.
I have already
mentioned many of the more or less important symptoms
manifested since mankind entered the epoch of the
Consciousness Soul. I should now like to try to describe to
you, step by step, a few characteristics of the super-sensible
present in the background. Some I have already described. For
of course a fundamental feature pulsing in the super-sensible
is the entrance of mankind into the civilization of the
Consciousness Soul, that is to say, the acquisition of the
organs necessary for the development of the Consciousness
Soul. That is the essential. But we have recently seen that
the other pole, the complement to this inner elaboration of
the Consciousness Soul, must be the aspiration to a
revelation from the spiritual world. Men must realize that
henceforth they will be unable to progress spiritually unless
they open themselves to the new revelation of the
super-sensible world.
Let us now
consider these two poles of evolution. To a certain extent
they have come to the fore in the centuries since 1413 when
mankind entered the epoch of the Consciousness Soul. These
two impulses will continue to develop, will assume a wide
diversity of forms in the different epochs up to the third
millennium and will be responsible for the manifold
vicissitudes that befall mankind. Individuals will gradually
become aware of this. In considering these two impulses in
particular, we learn that fundamental changes have occurred
since the fifteenth century. Today we are in a position to
draw attention to these important developments. In the
eighteenth century, and even in the early nineteenth century
it would not have been possible to show the operation of
these two impulses purely from the observation of external
phenomena. They had not yet been operative for a sufficient
length of time to show their full effect. Now such is their
dynamic power that it is perceptible in external
phenomena.
Let us now
consider an essential fact which has an important bearing
today. Whilst early indications were apparent only to those
who were more or less acquainted with the true state of
affairs — I am referring to the Russian Revolution in
its last phase, namely from October 1917 to the peace
negotiations of Brest-Litovsk — this extraordinarily
interesting development which can easily be followed, since
it lasted only a few months, is of immense importance to
those who seriously wish to understand the historical
symptoms, for this development is of course a historical
symptom. In the final analysis the origin of the Russian
Revolution is to be found in the deeper impulses of
contemporary evolution. In this revolution it is a question
of new ideas. For when we speak of real evolution in mankind
we are concerned only with new ideas. Everything else —
as we have already indicated, and we will recur to this later
— is subject to a certain extent to the symptoms of
death. It is a question of making new ideas effective. As you
will have gathered from the many discussions which I have had
upon this subject over recent decades — these new ideas
must be able to capture the broad masses of peasantry in
Eastern Europe. Of course we are dealing here with a
passivity of soul, but a soul that, as you know, is receptive
especially to new and modern ideas, for the simple reason
that it bears within it the seed of the Spirit Self. Whereas,
on the whole, the rest of the world's population bears within
it the impulse to develop the Consciousness Soul, the broad
mass of the Russian population, together with a few
satellites, bears within it the seed from which the Spirit
Self will be developed in the course of the sixth
postAtlantean epoch. This necessitates, of course, very
special circumstances. But this has an important bearing on
what we are about to study next.
Now this idea
— partly correct, partly false or wholly mistaken
— this modern idea of something entirely new which was
destined to capture the broad mass of the population could
only come from those who had had the opportunity to be
educated, namely from the ruling classes.
After the fall
of Czarism the centre of the state was at first occupied by
an element that was closely connected with a totally sterile
class, the upper middle class — called in the West,
heavy industry, etcetera. This could only be an interlude
which we need not discuss, for this class is destitute of
ideas and, as a class, is of course quite incapable of
developing ideas. (When speaking of these matters I never
indulge in personalities.)
Now at first
those elements which were of middle class origin, together
with a sprinkling of working class elements, formed the party
of the left. They formed the leading wing of the so-called
Social Revolutionaries and were gradually joined by the
Mensheviks. They were men who — purely in terms of
their numbers — could easily have played a leading part
in determining the future course of the Russian Revolution.
As you know events took a different course. The radical wing
of the Russian Social Democratic party, the Bolsheviks, took
over the helm. When they (the Bolsheviks) came to power, the
Social Revolutionaries, the Mensheviks and their followers in
the West were quite sure that the whole charade would not
last more than a week before everything collapsed. Well, the
Bolsheviks have now been in power more than a week and you
can rest assured of this: if many prophets are bad prophets,
then those who today base their predictions of historical
events upon the outmoded world conceptions of certain middle
classes are certainly the worst! What is the cause of this
situation? This problem of the October Revolution, throughout
the months following its outbreak and until today, is, in the
terminology of physics, not a problem of pressure, but of
suction. It is important that we can infer from the
historical situation that we are dealing here not with a
problem of pressure, but of suction. What do we understand by
a problem of suction? As you know, when we create a vacuum
by sucking out the air in the glass jar of an air pump and
then remove the stopper, the air rushes in with a hissing
sound. The air rushes in, not of its own volition, but
because a vacuum has been created.
This was the
situation of those elements which to some extent stood midway
between the peasantry and the Bolsheviks, between the Social
Revolutionaries, the Mensheviks, and the radical
revolutionary groups of the extreme left, i.e. the Petrograd
Soviet. What had happened was that the Mensheviks, though
they had an overwhelming majority in the Provisional
Government were totally destitute of ideas. They had not a
word to say about the future of mankind. No doubt they
cherished touching ethical sentiments and other romantic
ideals, but, as I have often pointed out, ethical good
intentions do not provide the impulses which can further the
development of mankind. Thus a vacuum was created, an
ideological vacuum, and the radical left wing rushed in. It
is impossible to believe that, by their very nature, the most
radical socialist elements who were alien to Russian
tradition and culture were destined to take over in Russia.
They could never have done so if the Social Revolutionaries
and the various groups associated with them had had any ideas
of how to give a lead. But you will ask: what ideas ought
they to have had? A fruitful answer can only be found today
by those who are no longer afraid to face this fact: for this
section of the population the only fertile ideas are those
which spring from spiritual experience. Nothing else
avails.
It is true that
these people have become more or less radical and will now
deny their middle class origin, many at least will deny it,
but there is no mistaking their origin. But the essential
point is that this section of the population which created a
vacuum, who were bereft of ideas, simply could not be induced
to develop anything in the nature of positive ideas.
And this
applies, of course, not only to Russia. But the Russian
Revolution in its final phase — provisionally the final
phase — demonstrates this fact with particular clarity
to those who are prepared to study the matter. We see how,
day after day, these people (i.e. the Mensheviks and their
supporters) who have created a vacuum are gradually forced
back and how others rush in to fill the vacuum, i.e. to
replace them. But today this phenomenon is world-wide. The
fact is that the section of the population which today stands
politically between the right and the left has steadily
refused to make the slightest effort to develop a positive
Weltanschauung. In our epoch of the Consciousness
Soul a creative Weltanschauung must of necessity be
one which also promotes social cohesion.
It was this
which from the very beginning permeated our Anthroposophical
movement. It was not intended in any way to be a sectarian
movement, but endeavoured to come to terms with the impulse
of our time, with everything that is essential and important
for mankind today. This was increasingly our goal. It is this
which is most difficult to bring to men's understanding today
for the simple reason that the belief persists (not in all,
but in the majority) that what they are looking for in
Anthroposophy, as they understand it, is a little moral
uplift, something necessary for one's private and personal
edification, something which insulates one from the serious
matters which are settled in Parliament, in the Federal
Councils, in this or that Corporation, or even round the beer
table. What we must realize is that the whole of life must be
impregnated with ideas which can be derived only from
spiritual science.
Whilst this
section of the population, i.e. the bourgeoisie, was
indifferent to spiritual ideas, the proletariat showed and
still shows today a lively interest in them. But as a
consequence of the historical evolution of modern times the
horizon of the proletariat is limited purely to the sensible
world. It is prisoner of materialistic impulses and seeks to
steer the evolution of mankind into utilitarian channels. The
bourgeoisie knows only empty rhetoric, what it is pleased to
call its Weltanschauung is simply verbiage, because
it has no roots in contemporary life and is a survival from
earlier times. The proletariat, on the other hand, because it
is motivated by a totally new economic impulse lives
therefore in realities, but only in realities of a sensible
nature.
This provides
us with an important criterion. In the course of the last few
centuries the life of mankind has undergone a fundamental
change; we have entered the machine age. The life of the
middle class and the upper middle class has scarcely felt the
impact of the machine age. For the new and powerful
influences which have affected the life of the bourgeoisie in
recent centuries belong to the pre-machine age ... for
example, the introduction of coffee as the favourite beverage
for cafe gossip. Equally the new banking practices, etcetera,
introduced by the bourgeoisie are wholly unsuited to the new
impulses of today. They are simply a hotchpotch of the
ancient usages formerly practised in commercial life.
On the other
hand the proletariat of today is the caste or class which is
dominated by a modern impulse in the external life and to a
certain extent is the creation of modern impulses themselves.
Since the invention of the spinning jenny and the mechanical
loom in the eighteenth century, the entire political economy
of mankind has been transformed, and these inventions have
been largely responsible for the birth of the modern
proletariat. The proletariat is a creation of the modern
epoch, that is the point to bear in mind. The bourgeois is
not a creation of modern times. For the class or group which
existed in earlier times and which could be compared with the
proletariat of today did not belong to the third estate; it
still formed part of the old patriarchal order. And the
patriarchal order is totally different from the social order
of the machine age. In this new order the proletarian is
surrounded by a completely mechanized environment wholly
divorced from living nature. He is entirely engaged in
practical activities, but he thirsts for a Weltanschauung and
he has endeavoured to model his conception of the universe on
the pattern of a vast machine. For men see the universe as a
reflection of their own environment. Now I have already
pointed out there is an affinity between the theologian and
the soldier. They see the universe as a battleground, the
scene of the clash between the forces of good and evil,
etcetera and leave it at that. Equally there is a close
affinity between the jurist and the civil servant; they and
the metaphysician see in the universe the realization of
abstract ideas. Small wonder then that the proletarian sees
the universe as a vast machine in which he is simply a cog.
That is why he wishes to model the social order on the
pattern of a vast machine.
But there was
and still is a vast difference between, for example, the
modern proletarian and the modern bourgeois — we can
ignore the class which is already in decline. The modern
bourgeois has not the slightest interest in deeper
ideological questions, whereas the proletarian is
passionately interested in them. It is true the modern
bourgeois holds frequent meetings for an exchange of views,
but for the most part they are so much hot air; the
proletarian on the other hand discusses his daily life and
working conditions and the daily output of mass production.
When one passes from a middle class reunion to a proletarian
meeting one has the following impression — In the
former they spend time in discussing what a fine thing it
would be if men lived in peace, if all were pacifists for
example, or other fine sentiments of alike nature. But all
this is merely verbal dialectic seasoned with a pinch of
sentimentality. The bourgeoisie is not imbued with a desire
to open a window on the universe, to realize their objectives
from out of the mysteries of the Cosmos. When you attend a
proletarian meeting you are immediately aware that the
workers are talking of realities, even if they are the
realities of the physical plane. They have the history of the
working class at their finger-tips, from the invention of the
mechanical loom and the spinning jenny until the present day.
Every man has had dinned into him the history of those early
beginnings and their subsequent development, and how the
proletariat has become what it is today. How this situation
arose is familiar ground to every worker who is actively
involved in this development and who is not completely
stupid, and there are few amongst this section of the
population who haven't a good head on their shoulders.
One could give
many typical instances of the obtuseness of the present
bourgeoisie with regard to ideological questions. One need
only recall how these people react when a poet presents on
the stage figures from the super-sensible world (those who are
not poets dare not take this risk for fear of being labelled
visionaries). The spectators half accept these figures
because there is no need to believe in them, because they are
totally unreal — they are merely poetic inventions!
This situation has arisen in the course of the development of
the epoch of the Consciousness Soul. If we consider this
situation spatially, we see the growth of a section of the
population which, unless it takes heed, is increasingly in
danger of ending completely in empty talk. But one can also
consider this same situation in relation to time, and in this
respect I have repeatedly called attention from widely
different angles to certain important moments in time.
The epoch of
the Consciousness Soul began approximately in 1413. In the
forties of the nineteenth century, about 1840 or 1845, the
first fifth of this era had already run its course. The
forties were an important period. For the powers impelling
world evolution foresaw a kind of crisis for this period.
Externally this crisis arose because these years in
particular were the hey-day of the so called liberal ideas.
In the forties it seemed as if the impulse of the
Consciousness Soul in the form of liberalism might breach the
walls of reactionary conservatism in Europe. Two things
concurred in these years. The proletariat was still the
prisoner of its historical origins, it lacked self-assurance,
confidence in itself. Only in the sixties was it ready to
play a conscious part in historical evolution; before this
one cannot speak of proletarian consciousness in the modern
sense of the term. The social question of course existed
before the sixties, but the middle class was totally unaware
of it. At the end of the sixties an Austrian minister
[ Note 1 ]
of repute made the
famous remark: ‘The social question ends at
Bodenbach!’ Bodenbach, as you perhaps know, lies on the
frontier between Saxony and Austria. Such was the famous
dictum of a bourgeois minister!
In the forties
therefore the proletarian consciousness did not yet exist. In
the main, the bearer of the political life at that time was
the bourgeoisie. Now the ideas which could have become a
political force in the 1840's were exceedingly abstract. You
are all familiar (at least to a certain extent I hope) with
what are called the revolutionary ideas — in reality
they were liberal ideas — which swept over Europe in
the forties and unleashed the storm of 1848. As you know, the
bearer of these ideas was the middle class. But all these
ideas which were prevalent at the time and which were
struggling to find a place in the historical evolution of
mankind were totally abstract, sometimes merely empty words!
But there was no harm in that, for in the epoch of the
Consciousness Soul one had to go through the abstractive
phase and apprehend the leading ideas of mankind first of all
in this abstract form.
Now you know
from your own experience and that of others that the human
being does not learn to read or write overnight. In order to
develop certain potentialities mankind also needs time to
prepare the ground. And mankind was given until the end of
the seventies to develop new ideas. Let us look at this a
little more closely. Starting from the year 1845, add
thirty-three years and we arrive at the year 1878. Up to this
year, approximately, mankind was given the opportunity of
becoming acclimatized to the reality of the ideas of the
forties. The decades between the forties and the seventies
are most important for an understanding of modern evolution,
for it was in the forties that what are called liberal ideas,
albeit in an abstract form, began to take root and mankind
was given until the end of the seventies to apprehend those
ideas and relate them to the realities of the time.
But the bearer
of these ideas, the bourgeoisie, missed their opportunity.
The evolution of the nineteenth century is fraught with
tragedy. For those who listened to the speeches of the
outstanding personalities of the bourgeoisie in the forties
(and there were many such throughout thc whole civilized
world) announcing their programme for a radical change in
every sphere, the forties and fifties seemed to herald the
dawn of a new age. But, owing to the characteristics of the
middle class which I have already described, hopes were
dashed. By the end of the seventies the bourgeoisie had
failed to grasp the import of liberal ideas. From the forties
to the seventies the middle class had been asleep and we
cannot afford to ignore the consequence. The tide of events
is subject to a pattern of ebb and flow and mankind can only
look forward to a favourable development in the future if we
are prepared to face frankly what occurred in the immediate
past. We can only wake up in the epoch of the Consciousness
Soul if we are aware that we have hitherto been asleep! If we
are unaware when and how long we have been asleep, we shall
not awake up, but continue to sleep on.
When the
Archangel Michael took over his task as Time Spirit at the
end of the seventies the bourgeoisie had not understood the
political impact of liberal ideas. The powers which in this
epoch intervened in the life of mankind began by obscuring
the nature of these ideas. And if you take the trouble, you
can follow this very clearly. How different was the
configuration of the political life at the end of the
nineteenth century from that envisaged in the forties! One
cannot imagine a greater contrast than the ideas of 1840–1848
(which were certainly abstract, yet lucid despite their
abstract nature), and the ‘lofty human ideals’, as they were
called, in the different countries in the nineteenth century
and even up to our own time, when they ended in
catastrophe.
The temporal
complement therefore to the spatial picture is this: in the
most productive and fertile years for the bourgeoisie, from
the forties to the end of the seventies, they had been
asleep. Afterwards it was too late, for nothing could then be
achieved by following the path along which the liberal ideal
might have been realised in this period. Afterwards only
through conscious experience of spiritual realities could
anything be achieved. There we see the connection between
historical events.
In the period
between the forties and the seventies the ideas of
liberalism, though abstract, were such that they tended to
promote tolerance between men. And assuming for the moment
that these ideas were realized, then we should see the
beginning, only the first steps it is true, but nonetheless a
beginning of a tolerant attitude towards others, a respect
for their ideas and sentiments which is so conspicuously
lacking today. And so in social life a far more radical, a
far more powerful idea, an idea which has its source in the
spirit, must lay hold of men. I propose first of all, purely
from the point of view of future history, to indicate this
idea and will then substantiate it in greater detail.
Only a genuine
concern of each man for his neighbour can bring salvation to
mankind in the future — I mean to his community life.
The characteristic feature of the epoch of the Consciousness
Soul is man's isolation. That he is inwardly isolated from
his neighbour is the consequence of individuality, of the
development of personality. But this separative tendency must
have a reciprocal pole and this counterpole must consist in
the cultivation of an active concern of every man for his
neighbour.
This awakening
of an active concern for others must be developed ever more
consciously in the epoch of the Consciousness Soul. Amongst
the fundamental impulses indicated in my book
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds. How is it achieved?
you will find
mentioned the impulse which, when applied to social life,
aims at enhancing understanding for others. You will find
frequent mention of ‘positiveness,’ the need to develop a
positive attitude. The majority of men today will certainly
have to foreswear their present ways if they wish to develop
this positive attitude, for at the moment they have not the
slightest notion what it means. When they perceive something
in their neighbour which displeases them — I do not
mean something to which they have given careful
consideration, but something which from a superficial angle
meets with their disapproval — they immediately begin
to criticize, without attempting to put themselves in their
neighbour's skin. It is highly anti-social from the point of
view of the future evolution of mankind — this may
perhaps seem paradoxical, but it is none the less true
— to harbour these tendencies and to approach one's
neighbour with undisguised sympathy or antipathy. On the
other hand the finest and most important social attribute in
the future will be the development of a scientific objective
understanding of the shortcomings of others, when we are more
interested in their shortcomings than in our concern to
criticize them. For gradually in the course of the fifth,
sixth and seventh cultural epochs the individual will have to
devote himself increasingly and with loving care to the
shortcomings of his neighbour. On the pediment of the famous
temple of Apollo in Greece was inscribed this motto:
‘Know thyself’. Self knowledge in the highest
sense could still be achieved at that time through
introspection. But that is becoming progressively less
possible. Today man has made little advance in self knowledge
through introspection. Fundamentally men know so little of
each other because they are concerned only with themselves,
and because they pay so little attention to others,
especially to what they call the shortcomings of others.
This can be
confirmed by a purely scientific fact. Today when the
scientist wants to discover the secrets of human, animal and
plant life he does two things. I have often spoken of this
and it is most important. First of all he carries out an
experiment, following the same procedure for inorganic life
as for organic life. But by experimentation he loses touch
with living nature. He who is able to follow with true
insight the results of experimentation knows that the
experimental method is shot through with the forces of death.
All that experimentation can offer, even the patient and
painstaking work of Oskar Hertwig
[ Note 2 ]
for example, is dead-sea fruit.
It cannot explain how a living being is fertilized, nor how
it is born. By this method one can only explain the
inorganic. The art of experimentation can tell us nothing of
the secrets of life. That is the one side.
Today however
there is one field of investigation which operates with very
inadequate means and is as yet in its very early stages, but
which is calculated to give valuable information about human
nature, namely, the study of pathological conditions in man.
When we study the case history of a man who is not quite
normal we feel that we can be at one with him, that with
sympathetic understanding we can break through the barrier
that separates us from him and so draw nearer to him. By
experimentation we are detached from reality; by the study of
what are called today pathological conditions —
malformations as Goethe so aptly called themwe are brought
back to reality. We must not be repelled by them, but must
develop an understanding for them. We must say to ourselves:
the tragic element in life — without ever wishing it
for anybody — can sometimes be most instructive, it can
throw a flood of light upon the deepest mysteries of life. We
shall only understand the significance of the brain for the
life of the soul through a more intensive study of the
mentally disturbed. And this is the training ground for a
sympathetic understanding of others. Life uses the crude
instrument of sickness in order to awaken our interest in
others. It is this concern for our neighbour which can
promote the social progress of mankind in the immediate
future, whereas the reverse of positiveness, a superficial
attitude of sympathy or antipathy towards others makes for
social regression. These things are all related to the
mystery of the epoch of the Consciousness Soul.
In every epoch
of history mankind develops some definite faculty and this
faculty plays an important role in evolution. Recall my words
at the end of the last lecture. I said: men must be prepared
to recognize more and more in the events of external history
creation and destruction, birth and death, birth through
impregnation with a new spiritual revelation, death through
everything that we create. For the fundamental characteristic
of the epoch of the Consciousness Soul is that, on the
physical plane, we can only create if we are aware that
everything we create is destined to perish. Death is inherent
in everything we create. On the physical plane the most
important achievements of recent time are fraught with death.
And the mistake we make is not that our creations are fraught
with death, but that we refuse to recognize that they are
vehicles of death.
After the first
fifth of the epoch of the Consciousness Soul has elapsed,
people still say today: man is born and dies. They avoid
saying, for it seems absurd: to what end is man born if he
is destined to die? Why bring a man into the world when we
know that death is his lot. In that event birth is
meaningless! Now people do not say this, because nature in
her wisdom compels them to accept birth and death in the
sphere of external nature. In the sphere of history, however,
they have not yet reached the stage when they accept birth
and death as the natural order of things. Everything created
in the domain of history, they believe, is without exception
good and is destined to subsist for ever. In the epoch of the
Consciousness Soul we must develop a sense that the external
events of history are subject to birth and death, and that,
whatever we create, be it a child's toy or an empire, we
create in the knowledge that it must one day perish. Failure
to recognize the impermanence of things is irrational, just
as it would be irrational to believe that one could bear a
child which was entitled to live on earth for ever.
In the epoch of
the Consciousness Soul we must become fully aware that the
works of man are impermanent. In the Graeco-Latin epoch this
was not necessary, for at that time the course of history
followed the natural cycle of birth and death. Civilizations
rose and fell as a natural process. In the epoch of the
Consciousness Soul it is man who weaves birth and death into
the web of his social life. And in this epoch man can acquire
a sense for this because in the GraecoLatin epoch this seed
had been implanted in him under quite specific
circumstances.
For a man of
the middle Graeco-Latin epoch the most important moment in
his development was the early thirties. These years were to
some extent the focal point of two forces which are active in
every man. The forces which operate in the symptoms of birth
are active throughout the whole period from birth to death;
but their characteristic features are manifested at birth.
Birth is only one significant symptom of the activity of
these forces; and the other occasions when the same forces
are active throughout the whole of physical life are less
important. In the same way, the forces of death begin to act
at the moment of birth and when man dies they are especially
evident. These two polar forces, the forces of birth and the
forces of death, always maintain a kind of balance. In the
Graeco-Latin epoch they were most evenly balanced when man
reached the early thirties. Up to this age he developed his
sentient life and afterwards, through his own efforts, his
intellect. Before the thirties his intellectual life could
only be awakened through teaching and education. And
therefore we speak of the Graeco-Latin epoch as the era of
the Rational or Intellectual Soul because the sentient life
up to the age of thirty and the intellectual life which
developed later were united. But this no longer applies in
the epoch of the Consciousness Soul. Today intellectual
development ceases before middle life. The majority of people
one meets today, especially amongst the middle classes, do
not mature after the age of twenty-seven; thereafter they are
content to plough the same furrow. You can easily see what I
mean by looking around you. How few people today have
radically changed in any way since the age of twenty-seven.
They have aged physically, their hair has turned grey, they
have become decrepit ... (perhaps that is going a little
too far), but, on the whole, man reckons that he has reached
maximum potentiality by the age of twenty-seven. Let us take
the case of a member of the so-called intellectual class. If
he has had a sound training up to the age of twenty-seven he
wants to establish himself; if he has gained a qualification
he wants to make use of it and advance his career potential.
Would you expect a man of average intelligence today to
become a second Faust, that is to say, to study not only one
faculty, but four faculties in succession up to the age of
fifty? I do not mean that he should of necessity go to the
university, perhaps there are better possibilities than the
four faculties. A man who is prepared to continue his
studies, to expand his knowledge, a man who remains plastic
and capable of transformation is a rarity today. This was far
more common amongst the Greeks, at least amongst the
intellectual section of the population, because development
did not cease in the early thirties. The forces inherited at
birth were still very active. They began to encounter the
forces leading to death; a state of equilibrium was
established at the midway stage of life. Today this situation
has come to an end; the majority hopes to be
‘made’ men, as the saying goes, by the age of
twenty-seven. Yet at the end of their thirties they could
recapture something of their youthful idealism and go forward
to wider fields if they really wished to do so! But I wonder
how many there are today who are prepared to make the
readjustment necessary for the future evolution of mankind:
to develop a constant readiness to learn, to remain plastic
and to be ever receptive to change. This will not be possible
without that active sympathy for others of which I have
already spoken. Our hearts must be filled with a tender
concern for our neighbour, with sympathetic understanding for
his peculiarities. And precisely because this compassion and
understanding must take hold of mankind it is so rarely found
today.
What I have
just described throws light upon an important fact of man's
inner psychic development. The thread linking birth and death
is broken to some extent between the ages of twenty-six to
twenty-seven and thirty-seven to thirty-eight. In this decade
of man's evolution the forces of birth and death are not
fully in harmony. The disposition of soul which man needs,
and which he could still experience in the Graeco-Latin epoch
because the forces of birth and death were still naturally
conjoined, this disposition of soul he must develop in the
epoch of the Consciousness Soul because he is able to observe
birth and death in the external life of history. In brief,
our observation of external life must be such that we can
face the world around us fearlessly and courageously, saying
to ourselves: we must consciously create and destroy in all
domains of life. It is impossible to create forms of social
life that last forever. He who works for social ends must
have the courage constantly to build afresh, not to stagnate,
because the works of man are impermanent and are doomed to
perish, because new forms must replace the old.
Now in the
fourth post-Atlantean epoch, the epoch of the Intellectual or
Rational Soul, birth and death were active in man in
characteristic fashion; as yet there was no need for him to
be aware of them externally. Now, in the epoch of the
Consciousness Soul he must perceive them externally; to this
end he must again develop in himself something else, and this
is very important.
Let us look at
man schematically in relation to the fourth, fifth and sixth
cultural epochs.
In the fourth
post-Atlantean epoch (the Graeco-Latin epoch) man was
conscious of birth and death when he looked within himself.
Today he must first perceive the forces of birth and death
externally, in the events of history, in order to discover
them within himself. That is why it is so vitally important
that in the epoch of the Consciousness Soul man should have a
clear understanding of forces of birth and death in their
true sense, i.e. a knowledge of repeated lives on earth, in
order to acquire an understanding for birth and death in the
unfolding of history.
But just as
man's consciousness of birth and death has passed from an
inner experience to an external realization, so in the fifth
post-Atlantean epoch he must develop within himself something
which in the sixth post-Atlantean epoch beginning in the
fourth millennium will once again be experienced externally,
namely, evil. In the fifth post-Atlantean epoch evil is
destined to develop in man; it will ray outwards in the sixth
epoch and be experienced externally just as birth and death
were experienced externally in the fifth epoch. Evil is
destined to develop in man's inner being.
That is indeed
an unpleasant truth! One can accept the fact that in the
fourth post-Atlantean epoch man was familiar with birth and
death as an inner experience and then perceived them in the
cosmos as I pointed out in my lectures on the Immaculate
Conception and the Resurrection, and the Mystery of Golgotha.
Therefore mankind of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch is
brought face to face with the phenomenon of the birth and
death of Christ Jesus because birth and death were of vital
importance in this epoch.
Today when
Christ is destined to appear again in the etheric body, when
a kind of Mystery of Golgotha is to be experienced anew, evil
will have a significance akin to that of birth and death for
the fourth post-Atlantean epoch! In the fourth epoch the
Christ impulse was born out of the forces of death for the
salvation of mankind. We can say that we owe the new impulse
that permeated mankind to the event on Golgotha. Thus by a
strange paradox mankind is led to a renewed experience of the
Mystery of Golgotha in the fifth epoch through the forces of
evil. Through the experience of evil it will be possible for
the Christ to appear again, just as He appeared in the fourth
post-Atlantean epoch through the experience of death.
In order to
understand this — we have already given here and there
a few indications of the Mystery of Evil — we must now
say a few words about the relationship between the Mystery of
Evil and the Mystery of Golgotha. This relationship will be
the subject of our next lecture.
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