THE TRANSFORMATION OF EARTHLY FORCES INTO CLAIRVOYANT FACULTIES
During the process of acquiring anthroposophical knowledge many
questions may be asked on different points. Such questions are fully
justified and we will devote part of our study today to the
consideration of them. The answers will often lead more deeply into
the whole complex of cosmic facts in so far as the spiritual world
plays into them, and especially into the complex of facts connected
with man's nature itself.
A person who has gradually come to realize the far-reaching
significance of reincarnation may ask: Why is it that in ordinary life
today man cannot become conscious of earlier earth-lives? Clairvoyant
consciousness is able as it were so to extend the memory that earlier
lives on earth rise up as remembrances, but in normal present-day
humanity this does not happen.
From the standpoint of clairvoyant investigation the question takes
the following form. It is clear, of course, that the faculty needed
for clairvoyant investigation arises from within man himself, his own
soul. He transcends the level of the ordinary human standpoint and
reaches that of clairvoyance; hence the forces which subsequently make
it possible to look back to previous earth-lives must be present in
every human being. And now the question is: What happens to these
forces, what does human nature do with these forces which, although
they are present in a man, are born with him, he does not develop to
the point where they enable him to remember earlier lives on earth?
When this question and the forces relevant to it are investigated by
clairvoyance, observation must be directed to a very early age of
childhood. For it is only then that the forces which can be used for
retrospective clairvoyant vision into earlier earth-lives are to be
seen at work. In present-day humanity these forces are used for the
development of the larynx and everything connected with its functions.
They are used especially for the development of that which later on
makes the human larynx capable of learning to speak. Therefore
the forces that would enable a man to look back into earlier
incarnations are there in everyone; but in the present age they are
used to such an extent for the development of the organs of
speech that in normal circumstances this remembrance of the past
is beyond man's reach.
There were, of course, epochs when nearly all over the earth men had
this faculty of remembrance. The explanation is that retrospective
vision into earlier earth-lives is not deprived of all the
forces used for the development of the speech-organs; even while these
organs are being formed, certain forces are kept back. In the process
of evolution, speech has gradually assumed a form which in the present
cycle of time summons up many more forces especially of the
etheric body than it did in earlier epochs. Hence the forces
that remain after the greater part of them have been applied in
forming the larynx are left entirely unused by modern man. Were he to
take account of them as the clairvoyant must do he would
be able to look back into earlier earth-lives.
I indicated in the public lecture here [Riddles of Life.
9.X.13.] that if a man succeeds in developing the activity of the
etheric body that is otherwise unfolded only in exercising the organs
of speech, if he succeeds in releasing the forces from these organs,
in being able as it were to listen inwardly without speaking aloud and
in intensifying this experience, then the exercise of these forces is
actually able to call forth the memory of earlier lives on earth. A
man of the present pays no attention to the forces of speech which
remain unused and can be applied for looking back into earlier
incarnations. This is a case where clairvoyant investigation can
indicate the origin of the forces in normal life which would otherwise
enable men to have insight into the spiritual life.
The same applies to the forces which in the human being of today are
used to bring into being the so-called grey matter of the brain
the main organ of thinking. Thinking is not, of course,
actually engendered by the brain, but in order to think the brain is
needed as an instrument. The forces of thinking which, if they
were all at man's disposal, would enable him easily to grasp what is
contained, for example, in my book
Occult Science,
are used in the case of the normal human being today to organize and
co-ordinate the grey substance of the brain.
The high degree of co-ordination in the brain-substance of the average
man nowadays was not present in the men of ancient Greece, about the
sixth or fifth century B.C. Human nature changes in this respect more
rapidly than is supposed. In the Greeks of the prehistoric epoch
the tenth, eleventh, twelfth centuries B.C. there arose
quite naturally at a certain age the clairvoyance that can now again
be given expression as Spiritual Science, And the forces which to this
day remain over from the elaboration of the grey substance of the
brain must be exercised in the way described in order to survey with
clarity and definition what is presented in my book
Occult Science.
It is really not difficult, even for a modern man, to acquire the
qualifications for describing the spiritual world. Indeed it might
almost be said to be a matter of surprise that there are not numbers
of people today with a quite natural vision of these conditions of
existence and it is also surprising that descriptions of them
meet with such vehement antagonism. For it is not difficult,
comparatively speaking, to attain the degree of clairvoyance necessary
for vision of these things. All that need be done is the following
although in such matters the saying in Faust may well
apply: True, 'tis easy, yet is the easy hard.
The most vigorous development of the brain takes place during the
first years of life; it is then that clairvoyance sees the etheric
body, and the astral body too, working most actively of all at the
moulding and articulation of the brain. But this work goes on for some
considerable time. Although the process is slower in later years, it
is no exaggeration to say that through what he learns from life man
becomes cleverer and cleverer; elaboration of the grey matter of the
brain does not cease. But the following principle is not noticed, nor
can one really expect it to be. If in a certain year a man resolves to
give up a favourite spiritual pursuit ... it would have to be one
connected with external matters because it is through this kind of
activity that the brain-substance is moulded, although Anthroposophy
can of course be studied, provided it is not studied just like some
other science... if this man resolves to give up some favourite
pursuit for seven years and strictly adheres to this, trying in silent
meditation to awaken the forces which have been economized in this way
but would have been used differently if the pursuit had continued,
then it will be comparatively easy for him to acquire a high degree of
knowledge at least of the conditions described in the book
Occult Science.
The fact that so few achieve this merely shows that very
little is done in this direction. The effort is not carried through,
because anyone who has a favourite pursuit will seldom have sufficient
self-denial to abandon it entirely for seven whole years. So you see
that part of the knowledge that can be given out today is within
comparatively easy reach.
When you think of the amazing achievements of modern culture it will
not surprise you that many forces of the etheric body are devoted to
elaborating the brain, for this culture is almost entirely a product
of the activity of the brain; the forces are all absorbed in this
task. Someone might say: Yes, but I have taken no part whatever in
creating this culture! Everyone can delude himself in this respect,
but the facts remain. On the earth today there is scarcely a spot,
however isolated, where outer culture does not penetrate to such an
extent that man's thinking is engaged with it. And that in itself
suffices to divert the forces from the attainment of clairvoyant
consciousness.
True, it might be said that savages do not concern themselves with
what is thus elaborated by the brain. But neither can it be said of
savages today that they unfold any particular clairvoyant forces in
this direction. This is because a definite spiritual law prevails,
namely that there must be special preparation for what is thus to be
acquired by means of clairvoyance. A savage might possibly be able to
develop clairvoyant forces of a quite different kind, but not those
required for vision of what is described in
Occult Science,
because he has undergone no preparation for it. These forces must be
the outcome of the transformation of other forces.
Again, it might be argued: But a great many people have no pet
occupation! Why is it that they have not become clairvoyant? The
reason is that the development of the forces of clairvoyance does not
originate from nothingness but from the transformation of what already
exists. Forces must already have been developed in a certain
direction; the preliminaries for the intelligence belonging to modern
culture must already have been there. The exercise of these forces
must be renounced for a time ... and then they are transformed. This
is what enables the facts described in
Occult Science
to be followed clairvoyantly. Such descriptions are made possible by
applying the forces which normally enable the brain to make use of the
forces of intelligence in its higher form.
On the other hand, it is the transformation of different forces and
faculties which leads, not to these wide, universal vistas, but to the
discovery of particular conditions. For example, the faculty of
looking back into earlier earth-lives is acquired by keeping back
certain forces otherwise used entirely for the development of the
organs of speech in the way described.
I have now spoken of two kinds of forces which enable man to have
clairvoyant vision of the spiritual worlds. I have spoken of the
forces used in the present age for the elaboration of the grey matter
of the brain; the forces enabling man to look back to earlier lives on
earth are connected with the development of speech. But there are
still other forces which make it possible to see in greater detail
what lies between death and a new birth and what is happening to an
individual human being during that period of existence. It is the more
general conditions that are described in
Occult Science.
But it is a different matter to see right into the spiritual world itself;
other forces hardly noticed in life are required for that.
There is something that entails the exercise of a great many forces
the fact that man does not go about on all fours throughout his
life but at an early age acquires the faculty of standing
upright. The forces enabling man to assume the vertical position
are of such a nature that they inspire a quite special reverence in
one who has penetrated into the spiritual world. For a person capable
of clairvoyant investigation a wonderful mystery is contained in the
spectacle of a child learning to walk. Certain of the forces used by
the human being in early childhood in order to stand upright, remain
over, but they are taken all too little into account. These are the
forces which make insight possible into the world where the life
between death and a new birth is spent.
There are other ways of achieving this, but the following is one. When
a man succeeds in recollecting how he learnt to walk and the
nature of the efforts made, he discovers in himself the forces that
have been saved up in his etheric body, for it is the etheric body
that must be specially exerted then. If he seeks out these forces
and they are present in everyone he can summon from his
own being much that enables him to look back into the life spent
between death and rebirth.
You may ask: How can this be achieved? If we have the good fortune to
be able to promulgate our Anthroposophical Movement ... well, it can
be said that we have already made a beginning with the summoning of
these forces. If things go well, they become active only after a
period of seven years has passed but a beginning has been made
and this beginning will develop further in human nature. These forces
that have been saved generally remain unheeded, but awareness of them
can be promoted by practising a certain form of dance. This awareness
can of course also be aroused through meditation ... but for a little
less than a year now, certain groups of people among us have been
working at Eurythmy,* an art based on the principles of the movements
of the etheric body.
* See Eurythmy as Visible Speech. Fifteen lectures given in
Dornach, June/July, 1924. (Anthroposophical Publishing Co., 1956.)
Eurythmy is nothing like ordinary gymnastics or dancing which
are really of little account but the movements made are in
complete accord with those of the etheric body. Through these free
movements the human being will gradually discover and become aware of
the forces that are still within him. Foundations are being created
for the awakening of forces within the human being which will really
enable him to see into the spiritual worlds stretching between his
last death and his birth in the present life.
In these and other ways Anthroposophy can be a really practical factor
in cultural life. And we may be sure that Anthroposophy will not stop
at the teaching of truths in the abstract but man himself, in his
whole being, will be affected in such a way that the awakening of
forces now slumbering within him will lead to actual spiritual
experience.
These things that have to be said here are strange, but they are
realities. When a man discovers the forces that have remained over
from the process of learning to walk, this enables him to see with
clairvoyant vision the worlds in which he lives between death and a
new birth. This can also be achieved through meditation, but
meditation must then become feeling, and feeling is the most
difficult experience of all to acquire through meditation. It is
therefore a matter of discovering the forces which enable man to see
into the world stretching between death and rebirth, to see happenings
that took place some long time before birth. In this realm there is a
great deal that for the first time makes life really comprehensible.
For example, some misfortune befalls us. To begin with, our one and
only feeling is that it is indeed a misfortune. Did we but know why it
was that decades, even centuries, before birth, we ourselves so
arranged conditions that this misfortune should befall us, many things
would be easier to bear! For then we should know that the misfortune
is an ordeal, helping us to progress. Many other things, too, are
experienced when we look into that realm of the spiritual world where
the preparation for the present life has been undergone.
I will not now describe the general conditions, for that has been done
in my writings. I will try to show by certain examples how the life
before birth influences the life after birth. Strange as it may seem,
when we have passed the middle point of life between death and rebirth
this life lasts for centuries, so there is naturally a middle
point the soul's attention in the spiritual world is directed
mainly to the earth below. And after this middle point more and more
impressions come to the soul from what is being done down there, from
what human beings on earth are thinking and feeling; definite
impressions are received by every individual soul.
For example, a soul may be passing into the second half of the
spiritual life leading towards its new birth and may perceive more and
more clearly those men who on the earth below are, let us say,
pioneers of the coming epoch men who are spiritually active.
Certain individuals among these spiritually active men prove to be of
great value to the soul. It even happens that the eyes of a soul are
directed from the spiritual world very particularly to one or two
figures on the earth.
Let us assume that a man born in the second half of the nineteenth
century was in the spiritual world at the beginning of the nineteenth
and during the second half of the eighteenth centuries. From that
world the gaze of the soul is directed to men of significance in the
cultural life of the time. Among them are certain individuals whom the
soul particularly values and greatly loves. One of the experiences in
that world is that souls look downwards to the human beings who are
evolving on the earth. Moreover, these human beings on earth are
influenced, although not in a way that encroaches upon freedom; the
effect of the influence is that certain things arise more easily in
the souls of these individuals on earth because some being is looking
downwards to them from the spiritual world. Thus are men on earth
stimulated to creative work and activity by souls who will be born at
a later time and whose gaze is directed to them from the spiritual
world. This can happen in matters both of a general and of a more
intimate kind.
The case has occurred of a soul living in the spiritual world during
the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries; an
outstanding personage on earth becomes this soul's ideal. One sees
what the soul would fain become, how its desire is to find this
personage after birth. For example, the soul sees the books of the man
he desires to emulate. Thus the soul looks down from heaven to earth
with a certain inner yearning, a certain inner urge, just as a living
man although with somewhat different feelings looks
upwards with longing to the Beyond, to the heavens. But there is this
great difference: when a man on earth looks up-wards to the heavens
without any knowledge of Anthroposophy these heavens remain more or
less undefined, indistinct. The human being who is living in the
spiritual world, however, is able to see with great exactitude the
conditions prevailing on the earth, the human souls there for whom he
has particular admiration, whose writings he perhaps longs to read.
In short, during the second half of spiritual existence between death
and a new birth one learns to know the souls of men in detail, to look
right into these souls. And we ourselves, living now, can be aware
that yonder in the spiritual world there are souls waiting to be born
in decades of the near future; they gaze into our souls with longing,
seeing there what they need as preparation for their earthly
existence. During the period of their spiritual life they see our
souls with vision as distinct as earthly man's vision of his heaven is
indistinct.
This again is an indication of the fact that even if we have only a
little knowledge of the spiritual worlds, the feeling comes that we
are being observed. And so indeed we are, in manifold ways. The eyes
of beings in the spiritual worlds, especially of those for whom the
time has come to be born, are directed to our souls. Here again is a
proof that the influence of Anthroposophy cannot possibly be harmful,
for it helps to make what a man has in his soul worthy of observation
by souls as yet unborn.
Clairvoyant investigation of these things brings momentous, often
shattering experiences. One profoundly moving experience is when we
look up to souls in the spiritual worlds who are on the way to birth,
and see how they are gazing down to the earth, seeking for those who
might become their parents. In earlier epochs this was of greater
consequence than it is today. But even now it is still one of the most
moving experiences to observe such souls, for infinitely diverse
impressions are received. I will describe one such impression of
something that may actually happen.
A soul about to incarnate knows, for example, that in the coming
earthly life it will need a particular kind of education, that certain
knowledge will have to be assimilated even in early youth. But now the
soul realizes: either here or there it would be possible to acquire
such knowledge. This, however, is possible only by renouncing parents
who in another respect would have been able to ensure a happy
existence and by resorting to parents who may be quite unable to do
so. If other parents were chosen the soul would be forced to admit: In
those circumstances what is most important of I all will be beyond my
reach.
It must not be imagined that all conditions of the spiritual
life differ entirely from those on the earth. One sees souls who
before birth are in the throes of fierce inner conflict. For example,
one may see a soul who is realizing:
In my youth I may be ill-treated by rough parents. When a soul is in
this situation, the fierce inner conflict begins. Many souls in the
spiritual world bring this conflict upon themselves while preparing
for birth. It must here be said that these struggles constitute a kind
of external world for the soul. What I am now describing is not an
inner conflict only, not a conflict of the heart only, but it is
projected outwards and is, so to speak, around the soul. One sees in
all definition the Imaginations which show that these souls must go
forward to their coming incarnation inwardly torn asunder.
When we think about these conditions, it will readily occur to us why
so many people have an aversion to Anthroposophy. They would much
prefer it to be true that after death man enters for all time into
eternal bliss. But it is not so. Moreover, it is well that things are
as they are, for under these conditions the world. will eventually
reach the degree of perfection destined for it,
Curiously enough, the capacity to see into one's own life or that of
another in the spiritual world comes from the forces of the etheric
body that have been saved over from the process of learning to walk.
But seership shows that these forces, when they have really unfolded,
are in a certain respect superior to the forces of clairvoyance
developed with the object of looking back into earlier earth-lives.
Please take particular notice of this difference, for it throws light
on many things.
There is no easier way of unfolding a dangerous form of clairvoyance
than by the development of those forces which in modern man are there
for the purpose of producing the organs of speech and which, if kept
back, enable him to look into earlier incarnations; for these forces
are connected most closely of all with the lower instincts and
passions in man's nature. And by nothing is a man brought so near to
Lucifer and Ahriman as by the development of these forces which, at a
certain level, enable him to look back into his own earlier
earth-lives or into those of others. They lead to illusions; but above
all, if they are not rightly developed, they have the effect that
under their influence the clairvoyant may deteriorate morally, rather
than the reverse. So the very forces which make vision of earlier
incarnations possible are the most dangerous of all. They should be
unfolded only when at the same time a man pays full attention to the
development of pure morality in his own being. Because morality in its
purest form is essential if it is desired to unfold these forces,
experienced teachers will not readily countenance any systematic
development of the powers which enable man to look into earlier
incarnations.
Moreover this can be said: It is as common to find a certain lower
kind of clairvoyance which looks into other worlds and can give
descriptions of spiritual regions, as it is rare to find evidence of
the development of genuine, objective vision into earlier incarnations
as the result of the exercise of the forces of speech alone. As a
rule, therefore, recourse is had to yet other measures when it is
desired to train the capacity to look back into earlier incarnations.
And here we come to an interesting point, showing how necessary it is
to pay attention to things of which otherwise little account is taken.
It will seldom happen that spiritual guidance brings a person to the
point of being able, merely by the development of the forces of
speech, to look back to earlier lives on earth. In the present age
many individuals could be capable of this, but as a rule it is
achieved by different means. One of these means will seem strange,
although it is based on a profound truth.
Suppose someone lives intensely in his inner life. It would cost him
excessive strain, or possibly lead to overpowering temptations, were
he to succeed, merely by developing the forces of speech, to look back
in the light of karma at his earlier incarnations. Hence the spiritual
Powers have recourse to a different means. Apparently by chance, he
meets someone who mentions a name or a particular epoch or people.
This works upon his soul from outside in such a way that the mental
picture sets astir the forces which help to promote clairvoyance. And
then he becomes aware that this name or reference although the
speaker himself knew nothing about it is a pointer, helping him
to look into earlier lives on earth. In such a case there has been
recourse to an outer means. The man in question hears the name of a
person or of an epoch or of a people and is thus stimulated from
outside to look back into previous incarnations. Such stimuli are
sometimes exceedingly important for clairvoyant contemplation of the
world. An experience seems to have been quite accidental but it
provides a stimulus for powers of clairvoyance that would otherwise
have remained rudimentary.
These are aphoristic indications on the subject of the penetration of
the spiritual world into our earthly world. Actually, of course, the
process is highly complicated.
Looking back into earlier earth-lives is therefore connected with
forces fraught with danger because they lead to deception, to
delusion. On the other hand, hardly anyone who develops the forces of
clairvoyance leading to insight into the life in the spirit preceding
birth will be prone to misuse these forces. As a rule it will be souls
of a certain purity, in whom there is a certain natural morality, who
look back with reliable vision into the life in the spiritual world
preceding the present life on earth. This is connected with the fact
that the forces of clairvoyance used for looking into this particular
period of existence are the forces of childhood, those that have been
left over from the process of learning to walk. They are the most
innocent of all the forces in man's nature.
I ask you to pay attention to this, for it is very significant: The
most innocent forces are at the same time those which, when they are
developed, enable man to look into the life preceding birth. That,
too, is why there is such enchantment in the sight of a tiny child,
for in the aura playing around it are the forces which still send
their radiance into the life before birth. In the aura of a child
whose very countenance bears the stamp of innocence and
otherworldliness, clairvoyant contemplation may perceive something
that is truly more interesting than what comes to expression in the
aura of many a grown-up person. The conflicts that were passed through
in the spirit-land before birth and have determined destiny make the
aura round the child into something full of glory, full of wisdom. The
wisdom manifesting in the aura of a child is often far greater than
anything which at a later age he will be able to express in words. The
physiognomy may still lack definition, but very much can be revealed
to the clairvoyant when he is able to see what is playing around a
child. And if the forces present in childhood are developed later on
into clairvoyance, vision becomes possible of the actual conditions
preceding birth by a considerable period.
To look into this world may not, perhaps, be gratifying to egoism but
to one who wishes to understand the whole setting of world-existence
this vista, too, is of absorbing interest. Investigation in the Akasha
Chronicle concerning certain outstanding figures in world-history
consists not only in trying to discover what kind of life they lived
on the physical plane, but how, as souls in the spiritual world
between death and rebirth, they made preparation for this life.
The forces which, if kept unsullied, shine into earlier incarnations
are saved, not so much in childhood but in the period of life when
passions, moreover often in their worst form, unfold in the human
being. These forces, which of course have other functions as well in
human nature, develop much later than those of speech. They have to do
with the emotions of sensual love and everything connected with them.
There is a direct relationship between the forces leading to sensual
love and those leading to speech in the male this comes to
expression in the breaking of the voice. It is at this age in life
that many of these forces are saved. If they are kept pure they lead
to the retrospective vision of earlier lives on earth If they are not
kept pure, if they come to be associated with sensual instincts in man
they may lead to the greatest occult abuses. The forces of
clairvoyance which originate and are held back at this age in life are
also those that are most easily subject to temptation. You will now be
able to grasp the whole connection!
The seer who gladly speaks about the period stretching between death
and rebirth some of you will have noticed that in other circles
this is seldom mentioned such a seer has developed particularly
the forces saved from very early childhood. But a clairvoyant who
speaks a great deal fallaciously for the most part about
the earlier incarnations of individuals, must be distrusted. Some
cases occur very frequently, for many people come out with utterances
about earlier incarnations as if they were handing them out on a tray!
A clairvoyant of this type must be distrusted because in this domain
it is all too easy to evoke the forces most liable to temptation. The
forces that can be saved for this purpose are saved at the time of
life when sensual love is developing, and before the human being has
taken his place in the social life. At times these forces give rise to
a great deal of malpractice, especially to a definite occult
malpractice, because they, more than any others, contribute to the
promotion of delusion after delusion in the domain of the spiritual
world.
Why are the assertions of clairvoyants who are exposed to these
temptations so often false? It is because when the forces saved from
this age of life are put into application, the lower instincts and
urges immediately rise out of the human being like mist. And then
Ahriman and the Ahrimanic spirits approach and out of this rising mist
create ghosts, spectres, which can be seen and taken to be
earlier incarnations.
The kind of clairvoyance needed for descriptions such as are given in
the book
Occult Science
will be developed particularly easily
by saving forces which can be held back only at a later age. And
because at this age after the twenty-first until the
twenty-eighth years the human being is usually developing
forces concerned more with the intellectual life, with the life that
is associated with a certain element of dispassion, investigations in
this domain are the least subject to error and delusion. Thus
knowledge of the great spiritual conditions in world-existence is
acquired through the development of the forces which work in man's
being at the elaboration of the brain.
The spirit-region proper, the region that is of particular interest at
the time when a new life is in preparation, can be investigated by
means of the forces saved in earliest childhood, at the age when the
human being is learning to walk.
Admittedly, these are astonishing facts, but if we desire to penetrate
into the spiritual worlds we must accustom ourselves to assimilate
many ideas which, to begin with, seem paradoxical. The spiritual
world, however, is not a mere continuation of the physical world of
sense; indeed in many respects it is in utter contrast to the physical
world. Man is revealed to us as a being occupying a place of great
significance in the universe when on the one side we consider his
destiny, his faculties and abilities in his earthly life, and when on
the other side through knowledge of spiritual reality we
see how between death and a new birth he passes through phases of life
altogether different from that of the earth. It is then that the true
significance and destination of man are revealed to us.
In these two lectures I wanted to describe various matters relating to
the spiritual world. I have thought it advisable to speak in a rather
aphoristic way because it is the first time we have been together in
this city, and most of you will already be familiar with the
systematic presentations contained in the books and writings
and also because I wanted to give certain supplementary information.
It seemed to me that this would be more useful to the friends here
than if I had dealt with a more connected chapter of Anthroposophy.
One's wish you will allow me to say this at the end of what has
been, for me too, such a happy gathering is that Anthroposophy
may penetrate as deeply as possible into the hearts and souls of men
at the present time! For two things are important. First, when we
observe the life around us and the facts of that life, seeing that the
greatest cultural achievements are having the effect of making men
more and more materialistic ... then we realize how increasingly
necessary Anthroposophy is to humanity, how great is men's need of it
for the very reason that external life makes them into materialists.
Because the most brilliant achievements of external life have this
effect, men need the counterweight provided by Anthroposophy.
Anthroposophy is a necessity for the earthy life of humanity and will
become increasingly so in the immediate future. And anyone who
reflects that external life in materialism would be doomed to
sterility and to gradual death, caused precisely by the highest
achievements of culture, will have the intense longing that
Anthroposophy may find its way into the hearts and souls of men.
Our culture will make greater and greater progress; but true as it is
that many birds of song disappear from areas where the chimneys of
factories tower up, true as it is that they are driven away by the
smoke pouring from these chimneys, it is equally true that although we
need everything that culture can give us railways, steamships,
telephones, aircraft, and so on although nothing is to be said
against the progress of external culture, nevertheless happiness,
vigour, harmony and vitality of the life of soul would inevitably wilt
and die under the influence of material culture if Anthroposophy did
not bring spirituality to the souls of men. Therefore anyone who has
insight into existing conditions cannot but long most profoundly that
Anthroposophy will spread for it is a sheer necessity.
On the other side the fact must be faced that as a result of this
materialistic culture men have never rejected, nay even hated,
Anthroposophy as vehemently as they do today. And these two facts
necessity and misunderstanding confront us today
like two pillars between which we must pass if a place is to be
created in the world for Anthroposophy. For those of us who endeavour
to prepare other souls for the assimilation of Anthroposophy, a
challenge is inscribed on each of these pillars an urgent
challenge to do everything that brings ourselves and those who are
willing for it to Anthroposophy.
It was from this standpoint that I wanted to speak to you during this,
my first visit to this city. And I should like my words of farewell to
be these: Would that something of what I have been able to say have
passed into your hearts and feelings, not into your heads alone! Then
you will feel even more deeply and fundamentally united with us and
with all who would like to bear this Movement more widely into the
world than they have done hitherto. Because up to now we could not be
together in space and this has happened for the first time, it is the
wish of all of us that this gathering will have strengthened and made
closer the bond between our souls.
With this I take leave of you, my dear friends, and of this beautiful
city, with the consciousness that when such a gathering has taken
place, it becomes the stimulus for a communion not dependent upon
space or time. Let my farewell to you be this: May it be that through
being together in space the stimulus has been given for an unbroken
and enduring communion in the spirit.
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