V
THE INNER ASPECT OF THE
EARTH-EMBODIMENT OF THE EARTH
Thus the fact has
now been brought home to us in a series of lectures that behind all that we
call Maya or the great illusion, there is the Spiritual. Let us once again
ask ourselves in what way it has been made evident that the spiritual is to
be discerned behind everything perceptible to our senses and our physically
limited grasp of the world.
In order
to describe this spiritual element we were obliged in the course of the
last lectures to sweep the nearest external phenomena away from our
field of vision and pierce through to such qualities of reality as
those described as the willingness to sacrifice, and the virtue of
bestowal or renunciation, in fact, to those virtues with which we can
only become acquainted by looking into our own souls, and which we
can only fully comprehend by means of our own souls. Now if we are
really to attribute such virtues as these to what we have to think of
as the reality — we might almost say the “true”
— behind the world of illusion, we must admit that in this
world of true existence, in this world of reality, there lives that
which fundamentally, as regards its qualities, can only be compared
with the qualities we primarily perceive in our souls. For instance
if we have to characterise that which is outwardly expressed in the
phenomena of heat, presenting it in its true character of sacrificial
service, as the flowing sacrifice in the world, it means precisely
that we must reduce the element of heat back to the spiritual, to the
incorporeal, doing away, as it were, with the outer veil of
existence, showing that which in the external world is similar to
what we recognise as the spiritual in ourselves.
Now before
we carry these observations further, another idea is necessary. That is
the following. Does all that we have in this world of Maya or illusion
really vanish into a sort of nothingness? Is everything around us in
this world of sense, the world of our external comprehension which to
us appears as the real or part of the real — is all this
actually nothing?
It would indeed
be quite a good comparison if we were to say that the world of truth,
the world of reality, is at first concealed, as the inner forces of a
lake or even of the ocean are concealed in the body of water, and
that the world of Maya might be compared with the rippling play
of the waves on the surface. That would be a good comparison; for it
shows exactly that there is in the depths of the ocean something that
causes the rippling of the waves above, something that is the
substantiality of the water and the configuration of its force. So
that whether we select this example or any other is a matter of
indifference, we may very well put the question: — Is there in
the wide realms of our Maya or illusion, anything that is real?
To-day we shall follow the same system as in the last lectures. We
shall slowly approach what we wish to bring before our mind, by
starting with inner experiences of our soul; and indeed, as we have
moved forward spiritually through the Saturn-, Sun- and
Moon-existence, and have now approached that of the Earth, we shall
start from more intimate, we might almost say more common
soul-experiences than those referred to in our last lecture. We then
started from the hidden depths of the soul-life, from what arises in
what we call the “astral body.” There we felt longing
arising within it, and we saw how the longing works in the nature of
man, actually leading the life of the soul to find satisfaction only
in meeting that picture-world which we have been able to grasp as the
inner movement of that life. We thus found the way from the
microcosmic soul to that cosmic creating which we ascribed to
the Spirits of Movement. To-day we shall begin with a still more
intimate experience of the soul, one indeed to which attention was
already drawn in ancient Greece, which in its reality is even to-day
of profound significance. It is indicated in the words: all
philosophy, and all striving for a certain kind of human knowledge,
proceeds from Wonder. This is really the case. Any man who has
devoted a little reflection and thought to the whole process in
experience in his own soul, as to how he was brought to any
particular learning, will come to know that a sound way to learning
is always to start from wonder, from amazement at something. This
wonder, this amazement, from which every form of learning must
proceed belongs precisely to those experiences of the soul
which we described as bringing sublimity and life into anything,
however dry. What kind of learning would it be which found a place in
our soul, without proceeding from wonder! It would truly be a
learning swamped in prosiness and pedantry. That process in the soul
which leads from wonder to the bliss we feel when our riddles are
solved, which has raised itself above wonder, that alone constitutes
the sublimity and vital power of the process of acquiring knowledge.
We really ought to be able to feel the dryness and withering of any
knowledge not originating in these two movements of the mind. Sound
knowledge is framed in wonder and the bliss of solved riddles; any
other kind of knowledge may be acquired externally and established by
man through some kind of reasoning. But a knowledge not framed
by these two feelings, does not spring from the soul of man in real
earnest. All the fragrance of knowledge that is created by the
atmosphere of the life element in knowledge, proceeds from these two,
from wonder and the bliss of its satisfaction. But what is the origin
of wonder itself? Why is it that wonder, amazement at anything
external, arises in our souls? It arises, because, when we first meet
with a being, a thing or a fact, it appears strange to us. This
strangeness is the first element leading to wonder and amazement. But
we do not feel this for everything that is strange to us; but only
for that to which we feel ourselves in a sense related, so related
that we say: “In this being or thing there is something that is
not as yet in me, but which may pass over into me.” So that we
can feel related to a thing yet strange, which at first we must grasp
through wonder and astonishment, our inner “wondering” is
our perception of the quality of an outer “wonder” to
which a man at first as far as his own perception goes,
considers himself in no wise related. That, however, depends on
himself; or at least it need only do so. And he would not adopt a
challenging attitude towards what appears to him as “a
wonder” unless he were in a certain way to demand that it
should disclose itself to him because it is related to him. Why else
should people who start from purely materialistic or purely
intellectual concepts deny what others designate as a
“wonder,” when they have no direct proof that a
fabrication, a falsehood, is brought forward? Even philosophers
to-day are obliged to admit that it can never be proved by any of the
phenomena known to man, that the Christ incarnated in Jesus of
Nazareth did not rise again. Proof can be brought against this
assertion; but what is the manner of these proofs? Logically they are
not tenable! Even enlightened philosophers now admit that. For all
the reasons brought against it from the materialistic side — as
for instance, the statement that no man has yet been seen to have
risen like Christ — all these reasons are on the same level as
the argument of a man who had never seen anything but fish and
therefore wished to prove the non-existence of birds. It is
impossible logically to prove by the existence of one class of
beings, that others do not exist. Just as little is it possible
through the experiences one may have of men on the physical plane to
deduce something — which in the first place is described as a
“miracle,” concerning the event of Golgotha. But if
something is communicated to a person, which although it may be
true, he must call a miracle and he says that he cannot understand
it, he does not thereby contradict what we have said about the idea
of wondering; for his attitude shows clearly that this starting point
of all knowledge is already established for him. He demands, in fact,
that what he has been told should find an echo in himself. He wishes
it to become its own property intellectually and as he believes that
he cannot have that, and it is not related to him, he challenges it.
Even if we ourselves arrive at the concept of the miraculous, we
should see that amazement or marvel, upon which is based all
philosophy in the sense of ancient Greece, is aroused by a man
finding himself confronted with something strange to him, but to
which at the same time he recognises a relationship. Let us try to
create a connecting link between these ideas and those brought before
our minds in the last lecture.
We have shown
that a particular advance in evolution was brought about through the
willingness of certain Beings to sacrifice, but that their sacrifices
were rejected and thrown back, and we learnt to recognise in the
rejected sacrifice one of the principal factors in the ancient
Moon-evolution. One of the most important points in that evolution is
the fact that during that period sacrifice was to be offered by
certain Beings to Beings even more exalted, and that it was renounced
by them; so that, as it were, the smoke of the sacrifice offered by
the ancient Moon-Beings pressed up to the higher Beings but was not
accepted by them; and that this was sent back as substance into the
Beings who had desired to offer it up. We also saw that much of the
peculiar character of the Beings belonging to ancient Moon consisted
in their feeling within themselves what they had wished to send up to
the higher Beings as sacrificial substance. We saw, indeed, that
this, which aspired, but was unable to ascend to the higher Beings,
remained behind within the Beings themselves — and that thereby
was developed in certain Beings, in the Beings of the rejected, the
force of Longing. We have still, in all that we experience in our own
souls as longing, a legacy from the bygone events on ancient Moon
when those Beings found their sacrifice rejected. In a spiritual
sense the whole character of the ancient Moon-evolution, its whole
spiritual atmosphere, may be described in many respects by saying
that Beings were present there who desired to offer sacrifice, but
found that this sacrifice was not accepted because the higher Beings
resigned it. The peculiar feature of the spiritual atmosphere of
ancient Moon was: the rejected sacrifice. And the rejection of the
sacrifice offered by Cain, which symbolically represents one of the
starting points of the evolution of earthly humanity, appears as a
kind of recapitulation of this peculiar feature of the ancient Moon
evolution taking place in the soul of Cain, who sees that his
sacrifice is not accepted. This is something which reveals to us a
sorrow, a pain which gives birth to longing, just as was the case
with the beings belonging to the old Moon-existence. We saw in the
last lecture, that between this rejected sacrifice and the longing
arising in these beings through its rejection, an adjustment was
produced through the appearance on the old Moon of the Spirits of
Movement. They created a possible way by which the longing arising in
the Beings of the rejected sacrifice, could in a sense be satisfied.
You must picture the position very clearly in your minds. You have
the exalted Beings to whom sacrifice is about to be made; the
substance offered in sacrifice to them rejected; and the longing
thereby arising within the Beings who desired to offer and now feel:
“Had I been able to accomplish my sacrifice, the best part of
my own being would be living in those exalted ones; but now I am shut
out from them, I am here while they are yonder!” The Spirits of
Movement, however, and this can be taken almost literally, bring the
Beings in whom the rejected sacrifice glows as a longing for the
higher Beings, into such positions that they can approach them from
many different sides. That which remains in them as the sacrifice
which could not be offered, can at any rate now be adjusted, through
the wealth of impressions received from the higher Beings, who are as
it were, encircled by the Beings of the rejected sacrifice. So is
adjusted what could not be harmonised, because of the rejection of
the sacrifice, inasmuch as in the position of these Beings to the
higher Beings a relation is established between them which conveys
the impression of a presented sacrifice. We can form a clear idea of
what this implies, if we think symbolically of the more exalted
Beings united as a Sun, and then, in one position, as a planet, the
less exalted gathered together. Now suppose that the Beings of the
lesser planet wished to make sacrifice to the greater planet —
to the Sun, and that the Sun refused to accept it; the substance of
the sacrifice must remain in the Beings whose sacrifice was not
accepted. Then in their loneliness, their isolation fills their being
with longing. Now the Spirits of Movement bring them into the
periphery of the more exalted Beings; this makes it first possible
for them, in place of the direct upward flow of their sacrificial
substance, to set that substance itself in motion and thereby to
bring it into connection with the higher Beings. This is exactly like
a man who cannot be contented within himself by means of a
single great satisfaction, but experiences a number of partial
satisfactions; the result of these different experiences being to set
all his feelings in motion. This was gone into more minutely in the
last lecture. We saw that as the Beings were unable to feel an inner
connection with the higher Beings through the sacrifice, impressions
came to them outside in the place of this, by which we saw that they
were still able to obtain a certain satisfaction.
But it is an
undeniable fact that that which was to have been offered up would
have continued its existence within the higher Beings in a different
fashion from its state within the lower Beings. The actual conditions
necessary to that existence are in those higher Beings. It became
necessary, therefore, for different conditions of existence to arise
in the lower Beings. This again can be symbolically expressed. If the
whole substance of a planet could flow into the Sun and it were not
rejected, the Beings of that planet would find different conditions
of existence within the Sun from those they would have met with in
the planet outside if the Sun throws them back: an estrangement of
what we must call the “contents of the sacrifice” takes
place, it is alienated from its origin.
Now bear in
mind the thought that certain Beings are compelled to retain within them
something which they would gladly have offered up in sacrifice, and
concerning which they both feel and perceive that it could only attain
its real meaning, if it could be offered up.
If you can
picture the feelings of such Beings, you will have an idea of what may
be called: “The exclusion of a certain number of Cosmic Beings
from their actual meaning, their great cosmic purpose.” Certain
Beings have within them something, which, speaking symbolically,
could only fulfil its purpose elsewhere. The consequence of this is
that the “displacement” — if we may once more speak
symbolically — of the rejected incense, of the rejected
sacrificial substance, excludes it at first from the rest of the
cosmic process.
If you grasp
these thoughts with your feeling — not with your reason, for that
does not extend to matters such as these — you will perceive
that this represents something like a rending away from the universal
cosmic process. To the Beings who rejected the sacrifice it is only
something they put away from them; to the other Beings, those within
whom the sacrificial substance is retained, this is a something on
which an alien character is imprinted. Thus there are Beings in
whose substance this estrangement from its origin is imprinted. If we
can present these things to our soul through inner feelings, we are
reminded of something in which an alien character is inherent: that
is Death! Death is none other than that which necessarily enters the
universe with the rejection of the sacrificial substance of those
Beings who then had to retain it within themselves. Thus we advance
from the resignation, the renunciation of what has been rejected by
the higher Beings — which we encounter at the third stage of
evolution — to Death.
In its true
significance death is neither more nor less than the nature of
essential contents, contents which are shut out and not in their
proper place. Even when death comes to a man in concrete form it is
fundamentally the same thing. For when we look at the corpse left
behind in the world of Maya, we know that it consists of nothing but
matter which at the moment of death was shut out from the Ego, astral
body, and etheric body, alienated from that within which alone it had
a meaning. The physical human body without the etheric body, astral
body, and Ego has no meaning, it is purposeless; at that moment it is
excluded from its purpose. That which we can no longer perceive when
a man dies, is then for us in the macrocosm. On account of the Cosmic
Beings who belong to higher spheres having rejected what was to have
been brought to them in sacrifice, the rejected sacrificial substance
within the Beings to whom it was thrown back lapses into death, for
death signifies the exclusion of any cosmic substance or cosmic
being from its actual purpose.
We have now
come to a spiritual characteristic of what we call the fourth element
in the Universe. If fire represents the purest sacrifice — and
wherever we encounter fire or heat, behind it there is its spiritual
counterpart: Sacrifice — if behind all the air spread out
around our earth there really lies the virtue of giving, a really
flowing virtue; if we may describe flowing water or the element of
fluidity as spiritual resignation or renunciation, so must we
describe the element of Earth, which alone can be the bearer of death
— for death would not exist without it — as that which
has been severed from its purpose by renunciation. Now we have
something in a concrete form, showing how the solid is formed from
the fluidic. For this too reflects a spiritual process, in a
certain sense. Suppose ice forms in a pond; the water then
becomes solid. The real reason of this is that the water in becoming
ice is cut off from its purpose. This gives us the spiritual process
of solidification, the spiritual process of the Earth's
becoming; for as far as the distinguishing marks of the four elements
are concerned, ice too is earth, and fluid alone is water.
Earth is the element in which death appears and may be experienced.
We began
by putting the question as to whether anything real could be found in
our world of illusion and Maya, whether there is anything in it
corresponding to a reality. I want you to hold clearly to the idea we
have just been considering. At the beginning of this course I told you
that the concepts to be considered were somewhat complicated. It will
therefore be necessary that we should not only try to understand
them, but also to meditate upon them; for only then will they be
clear to us. Now let us take this conception of death, that is, of
the earthly; for it presents a truly remarkable aspect. Whereas
concerning all our other concepts we could say that there was nothing
real in all the world of Maya around us, but that the reality must be
looked for in the spiritual behind it — we have now ascertained
that within the world of Maya there is that, which, precisely because
it is divided from its purpose, because it ought to be in the
spiritual world, may be called death. Thus something is cut off in
Maya, which actually ought not to be there. In the whole wide realm
of Maya, or the great illusion, we have nothing but deception and
illusion before us. Yet there is something there which corresponds to
a reality, because it is cut off from its true meaning in the
spiritual; and as soon as it enters Maya it encounters annihilation
and death. That declares to us nothing less significant than the
great occult truth: “In the whole world of Maya one thing only
shows itself in its reality — Death! All other phenomena must
be traced back to their reality; all other phenomena entering into
Maya have reality behind them; death is the single reality in Maya
for it consists in the fact that something was cut off from reality
and taken into Maya, That is why death is the one and only reality in
Maya. And now if we turn from the universal Maya to the great
principles of the world, a very important and essential
consequence of this statement, that in our world of Maya, Death
is the only reality, presents itself to occult science.
We can approach
what I want to say from yet another side. We can begin by considering the
beings of the other kingdoms surrounding us. We may ask: do minerals
die? To the occultist there could be no sense in saying that minerals
die. It would be just the same as saying that our finger-nails die
when we cut them. The finger-nail is nothing which as complete being
has claim to existence; but it is part of us, and when we cut it off
we separate it from ourselves, tear it away from the life it has in
connection with us. In reality it dies only when we ourselves die. In
the same sense, according to occult science, the minerals do not die.
They are merely members of one great organism, just as a finger-nail
is a member of our own, and although a mineral may appear to perish,
it is in reality only severed from this great organism, just as the
piece of finger-nail is severed from our organism when we cut it off.
The destruction of a mineral is no death; for the mineral has no life
in itself, but only in the great organism of which it is a member.
The plant as such is not independent; it is a member — not of
one great organism, like the mineral — but of the whole
organism of the earth. To occult observation there would be no sense
in speaking of individual plant-organisms, only of the organism of
the earth of which the plants everywhere form part. And when we bring
them to their “death” it is just as when we cut away one
of our finger-nails. We cannot say that the fingernail has
died. Just as little can we say that of the plants; for they belong
to a great organism that is identical with the whole earth, an
organism which falls asleep in spring, sending forth the plants as
its organs towards the Sun; and in autumn it takes them back into
itself when it gathers their seeds into itself. There is no sense in
considering the plants as independent, for the whole earth organism
does not die when its separate plants fade — just as we
ourselves do not die when our hair goes grey, although we cannot
restore its colour by natural means.
We are, however,
in a different position from the plants. But the earth may in this respect
be compared to a man who could restore his grey hair to its natural
colour. The earth does not die; what is observed in the fading of the
plants is a process that takes place on the surface. So we can never
say that the plants really die. And even of the animals we cannot
actually say that they die, as we die. For in reality a separate
animal does not exist; what really exists is its group-soul, which is
in the super-sensible world. The reality of the animals is only to be
found on the astral plane as group-soul, and the individual animal is
condensed out of that. The death of an animal means the casting off a
member of the group-soul, which replaces it by another.
Thus what we
encounter at death in the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms is only
apparent death, only in the world of Maya is that
“death.” In reality man alone dies, for he has
developed his individuality so far that it descends into his
physical body, in which during the earth-existence he must become
real. In reality death has only meaning for the Earth-existence of man.
If we grasp
this we must say: Man alone can truly experience death. Thus for man there
is, as we learn through occult research, a real overcoming of death,
a real victory over death. For every other being death is only
apparent, and does not in reality exist. If again we were to ascend
higher — from man to the Beings of the Hierarchies — we
should find that they do not know death in the human sense; so that
in reality actual death, that is death on the physical plane, comes
only to those beings who have to acquire something on that plane. Now
man has to acquire his ego-consciousness there. Without death he
could never find it. Neither with respect to the beings below man in
rank, nor to those higher than man is there any meaning in speaking
of actual death. But on the other hand as regards the Being whom we
call the “Christ-Being it must clearly be impossible to
obliterate his most significant earth deed. For indeed we have seen
that the most essential event to be considered in connection with the
Christ-Being is the Mystery of Golgotha; that is, the conquest of
death by life. But where can this conquest of death alone be
accomplished? Can it be accomplished in the higher worlds? No! For
even as regards the lower beings referred to as the mineral, plant
and animal kingdoms — as they have their true being in the
higher, super-sensible worlds — we cannot speak of death. And in
the course of our studies this winter we shall further show that
neither among the Higher Beings can there be a question of
death; only of change, metamorphosis, transformation. Only with
regard to man can we speak of the incision into life that we call
“death.” Man can only experience this death on the
physical plane. If man had never descended to the physical plane, he
would know nothing of death; for no being who has not trodden the
physical plane knows anything of death. In other worlds there is no
such thing as that which we call death, nothing but transformation,
metamorphosis. Would Christ undergo death He must descend to the
physical plane! There alone could He experience it.
Thus we see
that even in the historical development of man, the reality of the higher
worlds plays its part in Maya, in a remarkable way. Whereas
concerning every other historical event we can only interpret it
correctly by saying: “This historical event took place here on
the physical plane, but the cause of it is up above in the spiritual
world, we must look for it there”; we cannot say of the event
of Golgotha, “this event is here below on the physical plane
and something corresponding to it exists in the higher worlds.”
Christ Himself belongs to the higher worlds and came down to the
physical plane. But there is no prototype above of what was
accomplished on Golgotha, such as we must look for with respect to
other historical events. That was enacted on the physical plane
alone! Among the many proofs of this fact which occult science is
able to provide, is the following: That the event of Damascus will,
in the course of the next three thousand years, as we have often
said, be renewed for a sufficiently great number of mankind. This
means, that capacities will be developed in man which will enable him
to perceive the Christ as an etheric figure on the astral plane, as
Paul saw Him on the road to Damascus. The event of man's
gradually becoming able to perceive the Christ by means of the higher
faculties which will be developed in the next three thousand years,
has its beginnings in our twentieth century. From now on these
capacities will gradually arise, and in the course of that span of
time a vast number of persons will know, by personal vision into the
higher worlds, that Christ is a reality; that He lives; they will
learn to know Him in the life He lives now. And not only will they
know the nature of His present life, but they will also be convinced
just as Paul was — that He died, and rose again. But the
foundation for this cannot be laid in the higher worlds: it must be
laid on the physical plane. Thus if anyone comes to have an
understanding of these things, if even at the present time he
understands that the development of Christ Himself is progressing
— and that at the same time certain human capacities are also
developing, if his understanding of modern Anthroposophy has taught
him this, then there is nothing to prevent him, when he has passed
through the portal of death, from taking part in this event when it
actually appears as a first shining forth of Christ in the world of
man. So that a man who prepares himself in his physical body to-day
for this event, maybe able to experience it in the intermediate life,
between death and re-birth. But those who do not prepare for it, who
acquire no understanding in this incarnation, will, in the life
immediately following this — the life between death and
re-birth — know nothing of what is taking place with respect to
the Christ for the next three thousand years from our present
century. They will have to wait until they are again incarnated and
then make necessary preparations on the earth. The death at Golgotha,
which is enacted on earth as the origin of all the subsequent Christ
development can only be understood in the physical body. Of all the
facts important to our higher life, this alone is
comprehensible in the physical body. It is then further
developed and perfected in the higher worlds, but we must first have
understood it while in the physical body. Just as the Mystery of
Golgotha could never have taken place in the higher worlds and has no
prototype there, but is an event which — since it includes
death — is confined to the physical plane, so, too must the
comprehension of it be acquired on this plane. Indeed, it is one of
the tasks of man on earth to acquire this understanding in some one
of his incarnations.
So that we
must say: we have found pre-eminently on the physical plane something which
displays an undeniable reality, a direct truth. What then is real on
the physical plane On the physical plane, so that we can recognise it
as real, we have a reality, death — death in the world of man,
not in the other kingdoms of nature. When we wish to study the
historical events that occur in the course of the earth's
development, we must look for a spiritual prototype for each one of
them — but not for the Mystery of Golgotha! There we have
something which in itself directly belongs to the world of Reality!
Now it is
extremely interesting that another aspect of what has just been said,
can also be seen. It is really remarkably significant to observe that
this event of Golgotha as a real event is to-day denied, and that people
say — speaking of external history — that it cannot be
proved by any historical connection. Among vital historical facts
there is hardly one so difficult to prove on external realistic,
historical grounds, as the Mystery of Golgotha. Just think how easy
it is in comparison with this to work on historical ground if we wish
to prove the existence of a Socrates, a Plato, or any of the Greek
heroes, in so far as they were of significance to the progress of man
in the external world, and how up to a certain point it is perfectly
justifiable to say that “no history can assert that there ever
was a Jesus of Nazareth!” This statement cannot be contradicted
historically! This cannot be dealt with like other historical facts.
It is very remarkable that this Event, which occurred on the external
physical plane has this in common with all super-sensible facts: they
cannot be “proved.” Much the same people who deny the
existence of a super-sensible world lack the capacity for grasping
this fact, which is not super-sensible. Its existence can be surmised
by its effects. But, these people think that effects such as these
might also appear, even without the real event having occurred in
history; and they attribute these effects to sociological relations.
To one who knows the inner course of the world's development,
the idea that effects such as those produced by Christianity could be
brought about without having a power behind them, is just as wise as
it would be to say cabbages could grow in a field without having been
sown there! Indeed we might go yet further, and admit that it was not
possible for those who took part in the final shaping of the Gospels
to prove the historical event of the Mystery of Golgotha — as
historical event — on historical grounds! For it went by
leaving hardly any trace perceptible to outer observation. Do you
know how those who took part in the later compiling of the Gospels
convinced themselves as to these events, with the exception of the
writer of the John-Gospel, who was an immediate contemporary? They
could not above all convince themselves by historical
documents, for they had nothing but oral traditions and the
Mystery-Books (as is set forth in
Christianity as Mystical Fact).
They were able to convince themselves of the actual existence of
Christ Jesus by the star-constellation, for they were then still very
learned as to the connection between the Macrocosm and the Microcosm.
They knew how to set up a map of the heavens for that point of the
world's history (as can still be done to-day); and they
concluded: if the stars were in such and such a position, then He
whom they call the Christ must have lived on earth at that time. In
this very way the writers of the Gospel of Matthew, Mark and Luke
convinced themselves of the historical event; they obtained the rest
clairvoyantly. But first they convinced themselves in the same way as
we can make sure to-day that any particular event can happen on the
earth; through the constellations in the Macrocosm. Anyone who
knows anything of this cannot but believe in them. It is a fruitless
task to prove the inaccuracy of what is brought against the
historical status of the Gospels. Rather should we, as
anthroposophists, understand that we must take a very different
stand: one which is only possible through an insight into occult science.
With reference
to this I should just like to mention a point I already endeavoured to
establish elsewhere. That is, that the realities of which
Anthroposophy speaks cannot be injured by any objections, however
correct these may be in themselves. No matter how correctly people
may argue from the knowledge they themselves may possess, that does
not disprove Anthroposophy. In the lecture I gave entitled:
“How can Theosophy be established?”
[Not published in English.]
I made use of the example of the little boy in a village whose duty it
was to fetch rolls for the family breakfast. Now in that village each
roll cost two kreuzers and he was always given ten kreuzers. The
baker gave him a number of rolls, and being no great arithmetician,
he did not trouble to count them, but brought them home. But a
foster-son entered the family and was sent for the rolls instead of
the other boy. This lad was a good reckoner and he said to himself:
“I have been given ten kreuzers, each roll costs two kreuzers,
therefore I must bring home five rolls;” off he went, bringing
back six rolls. He said to himself: “This must be wrong, I
ought not to have so many, and as my reckoning is correct, to-morrow
I must only bring back five rolls.” The next day he took the
ten kreuzers, and again he received six rolls. The reckoning
was correct — only it did not correspond with the reality; for
that was a different matter. The reality was that it was the custom
in that place to give six rolls instead of five to anyone who spent
ten kreuzers. The boy's argument was quite correct; but did not
accord with reality.
In like manner
the cleverest thought-out objections to Anthroposophy may all agree
with each other, yet need have nothing to do with the reality; for
“reality” may be based on very different foundations. The
example quoted is quite practical, and serves to explain, even
scientifically, what is correctly calculated, and what is actual fact.
We have tried
to trace the world of Maya back to reality and in doing so we have shown
that all Fire is sacrifice, everything of the nature of Air is the
generous flowing virtue of giving, and Fluid the result of
renunciation and resignation. To these three truths we have to-day
added the fact that the true nature of the Earth or solid matter is
death, the cutting off of any substance from its cosmic purpose.
Because this severing has entered, death itself enters the world of
Maya or illusion as a reality. Even the Gods themselves could not
taste death at all without descent into the physical world in order
to comprehend death in the physical world, the world of Maya, or
illusion. This is what I wished to add to-day to the concepts we have
already formed. But once more let it be said that if we wish to
arrive at a clear understanding of these concepts which are so
necessary, and if we are thoroughly to enter into the various ideas
in St. Mark's Gospel, the only possible way of doing so is by
careful meditation and by bringing these things again and again
before the soul. The Gospel of St. Mark can only be understood if
based on the greatest and most significant cosmic conceptions.
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