Lecture IX
CULT AND SYMBOL. THE JESUIT STATE IN PARAGUAY
May 9, 1916 Dornach
With the
teaching of the Resurrection as I have indicated it, with the
teachings of the Lost Word and the Word that has to be found
again, with certain cultic activities as they are customary
in such occult brotherhoods, how is it possible with all that
to be able to work upon the human soul in a quite special
way? How does that happen? To understand this I must first
draw your attention to how one works upon the human soul in
this 5th post-Atlantean period. All the strivings of mankind
which proceed to exclude certain things in this 5th
post-Atlantean period which were natural to human beings
earlier.
Let us take an
example of something which does not lie very far back, a
natural scientific work by Albertus Magnus from the 13th,
14th century. You will see that the way which he regards
nature is quite strange to present day man. Why is that? Man
at that particular time absolutely reckoned with all that
which as nature surrounded him. Even if he did not speak of
beings, nevertheless, he was aware of certain elementary
forces, forces of a spiritual etheric nature. The essential
aspect of modern perception is that everything is thrown out
of human ideas which cannot be seen with the senses; anything
of a spiritual etheric nature is eliminated. Only when one
presupposes that such books as those of Albertus Magnus in
the 13th century do reckon with the fact that overall there
are still spiritual forces in our physical environment, then
you understand them. The significant thing in the modern
scientific age which not only exerts its influence upon
natural scientific conceptions but exerts its influence upon
all human thinking right into the simplest mass of people, is
the characteristic that man, in the first place, takes in
that which falls into the realm of his sense from the
external world. When someone from today's external academic
world speaks of esthetics, artistry, sociology and even
history and calls those spiritual science, they are incorrect
because you can only call that which is spirit, that which
does not occur in the sense world, spiritual science.
However, as far as today's history goes, everything is
concerned with what has occurred in the sense world. thus you
do not deal with a spirit science but in truth with a sense
science. The characteristic of our 5th post-Atlantean period
is in the first place to take up into our ideas that which is
only given to us by the external sense nature.
Since this 5th
post-Atlantean period is precisely there in order, in a
certain connection, to develop materialism and, as it were,
to throw out human all that which does not come in from the
sense world man can devote himself to an external world which
excludes the elementary forces for 2000 years; through that
fact man can acquire the possibility of completely developing
his freedom, of developing an actual spiritual activity out
of his own inner being. The spreading out of materialism in
this, the first third of the 2000 year period, depends upon
the fact that we are standing just at the beginning of this
epoch, but the flood of the senses has fallen, as it were,
over mankind and man has not yet been able to drive the
spiritual out of his inner being; and the spiritual must come
out to produce a real spiritual science.
Now, the
previous period, the Greco-Latin Period, had a different
task. The etheric-spiritual could still be perceived in the
environment and was also able to work upon men after they
perceived it. One also worked from human beings to human
beings in such a way that one was still predisposed to the
fact that the elementary spirit wove around them just as the
atmosphere does around us. In these 2,160 years which
preceded our 5th post-Atlantean period, the human body was
first prepared to become a tool for our present thinking, of
purely grasping of external sense reality. The work which was
done upon man during this Greco-Latin period was something
which went more on his body. This work formed his body so
that in our present epoch we are able to think about that
which is imparted to us by the sense world. Thus, one did not
teach people in the way things are presented today where the
human beings can come to their own conclusion as to whether
they will accept the teachings or not. No. In this
Greco-Latin period, the task was to impart forces to human
beings which would work directly upon the physical body.
Today man does not want his physical body influenced in any
way and correctly so. It belongs to the characteristic of our
soul that we should not work directly upon our body, but only
upon our soul nature. Everything also is not permissible
magical working. But a working which today is impermissible
was valid for the Greco Latin period and belonged to it. The
bodily tool of the human being was, as it were, much more
flexible, more soft and then one could still work upon it.
The physical body has now become much harder and whenever
teaching occurs, it must be imparted to the soul.
However, if you
want to enter straight-forwardly into the still softer body
of the human being, you cannot do that with things that are
acquired from the purely external sense world. The
Greco-Latin epoch did not have as its task to fill man with
the content of our natural science. If you gave them
Copernican astronomy or Darwinism instead of preparing the
soft physical man for the 5th post-Atlantean period, you
would have absolutely dried them up, you would have formed
them in a false way. Therefore you had to have a quite
different science at that time and that is the science which
instead of photographing the external world as our present
day science does, instead of that you give symbols; and
instead of the experimenting as is done today, you give cults
or sacramental aspects, then with the sacramental aspects,
with the cults, with symbolic mythical presentations, one is
able to take hold of quite another region of the human being
than with that which today occurs in our present Copernican
natural scientific Darwinistic world conception.
Now those
brotherhoods which I previously indicated, still maintained
the ancient symbolism, the sacramentalism, the cult
activities, and these push into our age and are able to work
in the way in which I described. They work especially upon
one member of the human nature, upon that member which in our
time should not be worked upon. However, when you use
symbols, sacramentalism, cults, that works deeper into man,
that works into the etheric body, which means that you
directly influence the whole disposition of the thought
direction of man. If you rely upon people absorbing symbols
and cults from their environment, that works into the ether
body and brings the thinking into a certain direction. This
is usually the situation in these occult brotherhoods of
which I have already spoken.
However,
another type of occult brotherhood which follow the same
thing but in another way understand how to work much more
deeply into the human forces. The Jesuit Orders belong to
such occult brotherhoods. Jesuitism absolutely rests upon
occultism. I once told you about that in a lecture cycle in
Karlsruhe, where I described the exercises which the students
had to do in order to become Jesuits. These exercises rest
upon the fact that the human being who takes part in the
cult, instead of being affected in his ether body, these
things take hold of his astral body. All Jesuit educational
training goes toward giving the Jesuit forces which enable
him to present his works or actions in such a way that he is
able to steer himself, I might say, into the astral impulses
of man.
Jesuits can
work in places when they are not present there. There are
certain channels in human life through which one can work, so
the Jesuits can even work in those places where they are not
allowed to exist. I will give you an example of how Jesuitism
performs when it is able to work in an unhindered way and
follow its impulses; when the Jesuit can execute everything
which his methods are adapted for in order to work into the
astral body of man. We have a very fine example precisely at
the turning point of the 4th to the 5th post-Atlantean period
in the establishment of the Jesuit State in Paraguay.
In 1610 this
Jesuit State was founded in Paraguay. Now, how did this
happen? My dear friends, you know that after America was
discovered, European civilized mankind went to America as a
result of their lust for gold, etc., and they felt very happy
there. However, the original people were not very happy.
There is much written about the so-called civilized European
treatment of these original Americans. However, in a domain
in South America, Paraguay, a large number of Jesuits
appeared one day with the decided intention of handling the
Guaranies, an indian tribe in Paraguay, better than the
Europeans handled the original indians of North America.
Naturally the
Jesuits did not know the language of the Guaranies nor had
the Indians the Latin of the Jesuits. What did these Jesuit
Fathers do? Well, they traveled on the rivers by boat to the
wild regions where the Indians lived, and they played
beautiful music and mixed all sorts of things into this music
which they knew very well from their training. This was able
to spread itself out between the waves of the sound and the
music in order that one could produce a certain type of cult
or sacrament. The consequence was that the Indians, of their
own accord, came together in great numbers and the Jesuit
Fathers had gathered many Indians from different regions in a
short time. They entered single villages and organized these
villages in a way which produced a state. Therefore, the
State of Paraguay arose in the year 1610.
Churches were
built, a church was built at a place called San Savarius, for
example and was able to hold 4000 to 5000 human beings.
Everything in this Jesuit State was strongly regulated,
regulated, however, so that above all you have the permeation
of the cult. They had musical stimulations in the smallest
settlements — not influences but stimulations,
suggestive stimulations. The cult occurred. The time was
thoroughly divided up; everything the people did, all their
actions were regulated according to the ringing of church
bells. A bell rang for one activity, then a bell rang for
another activity. They did not allow the people to wake up in
the morning, wash themselves and then go to work in the
fields, for example. No. The church bells rang and people
knew that the day begins. They arose, then gathered in the
village square and listened to music. Either the picture of
the Holy Virgin or some other saint stood in the middle of
the square; the Jesuit priests had already imparted certain
explanations about them to these Indians. When they had
gathered together, a divine service was held. The people
looked up to the heavens in prayer; then they formed a
procession and carried the picture of the Holy Virgin Mary or
saint in front of them and traveled in this way to the
fields. After enough work had been done, they again took hold
of the picture and went in a procession back to the market
place. The people were then released by the sound of the
church bells. The cult permeated all activities; even the
work done in the fields was accompanied by cult activities
for which certain definite Jesuit Fathers had been trained.
Everything was permeated by the cult activity. Therefore we
see that the whole inter-working between the Jesuit Fathers
and the Indians was such that it went directly into the
astral body. All the astral bodies of these Indians were
prepared in a corresponding way and the whole Jesuit State in
Paraguay was permeated by an astral aura which was a
consequence of the symbolism, the sacramentalism, the cult
which the Jesuits directed exactly the way they wanted it;
they became quite proficient at it.
Just imagine
that you are concerned here with wild Indians who actually
had done nothing other than hunt and so on, before that time.
Now what did one achieve? In a short time these Indians
became very intelligent, actually intelligent in the sense of
the Jesuits. These people could accomplish all that was
necessary in a short time. This Jesuit State caused a great
deal of resentment among the other Europeans, so the Jesuits
established an army. They gathered this army together in a
short time whole officers were partly Indian and partly
European. It successfully repelled a blockade that was
established by England against Paraguay.
Now the
Guaranies learned to produce muskets and canons, also musical
Instruments such as organs, certain painting techniques,
stone sculpture that was so good that every Spanish Church
would have liked to have had one. Just imagine this astral
aura in which all this was immersed. Those who actually had
the direct interaction with the Indians, those who showed
them what they had to do were intermediaries set up by the
fathers. These Jesuit Fathers, however, separated themselves
off from the Indians; they directed them through other
people. The only time they were seen was when they were
dressed in their beautiful gold robes and were surrounded by
incense when directing the ceremonies at the Mass. Therefore
these Jesuit fathers were looked up to as gods.
All this was accomplished because the Jesuits knew how to
work directly into the astral body. But, the moral condition
of this Jesuit State was actually not too bad. Whenever
punishment had to be meted out, the Jesuit Fathers took care
that those people on whom the punishment was to be inflicted,
agreed with the fact that they deserved the punishment.
Now, something
else was accomplished by these Jesuits. They examined the
problem of how much work was needed, they then arranged the
situation so that the Indians would work for two days to
produce all that they needed for themselves that week. Then
they worked an additional two days to produce what was needed
by the Jesuits and this was then given over to the State. So
you see how the Jesuits set up the work schedule lasting four
or five days; Sunday the people could rest and also attend
the ceremonies. With this sort of situation the Jesuits could
build up a fairly good economy. It certainly was not a
capitalistic economy. However, the Europeans who were in the
beginning of capitalism did not like this Jesuit State with
their sort of economy. Therefore on July 22, 1768, a large
number of calvary regiments appeared and captured the Jesuits
and put an end to this Jesuit State. This Jesuit State had
lasted from 1610 until 1768 and developed the sort of
activity which I have just described.
I wanted to
tell you this in order to show what one can reach when one
develops methods which are able to penetrate into the astral
body. Naturally these methods were more easily applied to the
Indians than they would be to other races, because these
Indians were, relatively speaking, primitive people. The
further back we go into human evolution the more one is able
to work upon the astral body and ether body of man. And these
wild Indians had maintained something of their earlier
susceptibility; they still retained above all the ability of
being able to be worked on through their physical body. One
would work first upon the astral body, then the astral body
in its vibrations
would work down upon the physical body and the physical body
was the one that was actually affected. When speaking to a
European, you send words to his ear; his brain however
vibrates according to the whole education in which he has
been placed. This was not so with the Indians. There one
worked into the astral body and the astral body then took the
brain with it. Through the musical and other cult handlings,
these Indians were taken hold of by all the vibrations which
went out from these ceremonies. etc. They were, in the main,
only members in a common astral aura, but we Europeans have
it better, because our heads are much thicker and not as
easily influenced.
You cannot work
upon highly cultivated people in Europe in the way I just
described; however, there is a possibility of working in a
lesser way upon the ether body and astral body of man and
this would then carry into the physical body by way of the
vibrations. All this is the working in of the ahrimanic
method, ahrimanic forces which weave in invisibly among us
and have their own methods as compared with these which the
Jesuits used in the State of Paraguay in the 17th and 18th
century. One could work upon the astral body of these Indians
as their physical body was soft. Now, one must work
differently; one must take into consideration the fact that
you influence the thinking of man as such, that it is very
important that one is not able to work into man's thought
directions in such a way that man does not notice it. I am
not saying that human beings do that. No, but ahrimanic
beings do it through human beings. These human beings are
tools for the ahrimanic beings. So many people believe that
when they acquire some judgment, that they have arrived at
their decision out of their own conviction. It might be
correct in a superficial way, but you can see that it is not
correct when you go deeply into the situation and then the
situation changes itself. Today people have the opinion that
they do not believe in authority. They will not take anything
up from authority, but they do not realize how things are
able to steal into their soul; they do not notice that.
Now, how does
this occur? Thinking habits develop themselves in the course
of time in a scientific direction; in other words, people
today conclude things because science says so. Science is
their authority. They get their ideas from some mysterious
place, but they do not know what goes on in this mysterious
place. This mysterious place is the universities. That which
they get from all this goes into the thought patterns of
mankind. People think they are using their own independent
judgment, but actually this is a good opportunity for Ahriman
to allow his forces to flow in, because Ahriman cannot enter
into conscious life, into a really conscious life. If a
person maintains good control of his consciousness, Ahriman
cannot enter. However, when one is not awake and alert, then
Ahriman can insert himself in the stream of our thought
habits and one is little protected from this sort of working,
particularly if you have been trained to look upon science as
your authority since early childhood. These streams are there
and are the streams which can mix themselves into the thought
habits of men in an ahrimanic way and produce an opinion in
human beings that this is something of a scientific nature
that that forms the direction of judgment.
Now, if you
will forgive me for being humorous, I will relate something
to you which an exact philological person has written as an
extensive thesis which was published in the Prussian
Yearbook. In this thesis he investigated whether he could
find proof that the Greeks suffered from lice in the same way
that mankind suffers today. And he investigated the whole of
Greek literature from Homer right up to Aristophanes to see
what role lice played there. This is quite humorous; however
he was very serious. This thesis was developed in a very
strongly scientific way and it can be found in the Prussian
Yearbook. This sort of thing can show you exactly what is
going on underneath the present life. These are much more
important than one can, in the first place, imagine.
It is very
important to know that in our time we need a spiritual
scientific stream, this stream which is feared by those
people who are under the authority of their thought habit
patterns. You see, spiritual science provides human beings
with a knowledge which one is unconsciously afraid of. Hence
a scientific connection such as ours, for example, strives to
develop these feelings of brotherhood at the side of the
spreading of spiritual science. This must be the necessary
counter-picture, otherwise the passions would be released.
However, on the other side it is necessary to look into the
configuration of many men in our time in order to evaluate
things.
One always has
to develop a certain rule in this domain, which, I might say,
is compared with the preservation of privacy. You know very
well that if you were to find a letter addressed to someone
else, you would not think of looking into it. In a similar
way one should not want to look into the soul life of someone
else unless there is a very special reason for it. There can
be a special reason when, for example, one sees a certain
personality who has this or that significance for his
contemporaries; then one must penetrate into his soul with
the means available to spiritual science to illuminate this
personality for his contemporaries. For example, the case I
mentioned earlier of Herr Lowenstein who had a type of
psychology dealing with the announcement of marriage and
emphasized the fundamental character of that which is truly
scientific. Nevertheless, he spreads the most absolute
nonsense, trivial stuff, tries to cloak it with the
scientific. We must then talk about his soul life.
Nevertheless you must know that the soul of the human being
is a very, very complicated thing. And you cannot learn about
man unless you are prepared to enter into complications.
Just remember
that if we look at the human being and put aside man's upper
members — he has four members. The physical body, for
example, can still have something of the flexibility of the
4th post-Atlantean period, however, at the same time it can
have a good receptivity for all that is produced by the
thought life of the present time. Thus a man can appear who
has the following properties. He has an organism which on the
one side goes back to the leftover qualities of the
Greco-Latin period; however, at the same time he can have a
head which is able to take up the thoughts of our present age
and reproduce them again, share them, talk about them,
lecture about them with a very sharp sense. That can
absolutely be present. You can consider such a person to be
very intellectual, very clever, but besides that, he can be
very weak-minded because of the special quality of his soft
body of which I have spoken as a hangover of the Greek
period. When you know that man is a complicated being, then
there is no contradiction when you say: This person is
weak-minded and he is also clever at the same time. Spiritual
science is something which casts a certain light in order
that we may be able to find our way properly through
mankind's complicated relationships of the present time.
I told you that
a man can have a body which can be influenced as was a
Greco-Latin body; hence his body has not reached the
development of our present corporeal nature. Nevertheless at
the same time one can take into himself all the ways of
judgment which are appropriate to our present age, and he can
thus be a very clever man; one can be a weak head and at the
same time a very clever man. However, one does not need to
work as a clever man in the culture of our present age in
order to stand with the spiritual life at present, but one
needs to be very sharp in order to take up the thought forms
of the present and the to have a body as I have just
described. There you have the phenomenon of a journalist of
the present who reaches into and influences future decades in
a wide-spread way. We are talking about Maximillian Hardenz.
You know what forces work in our present age and you have to
know how today's public opinion is created and how one can
lead all this back to human nature. You have no means to know
about this if you do not enter into the knowledge of man who
proceeds from spiritual science. Only through that are you
preserved from being taken up by that stream that I have
described which produces those thought habits that make
people believe that they are not succumbing to authority.
However, they believe everything that is in this newspaper
called the Zukuft (sic).
At least we do
not live in those regions in which people such as the Indians
just described live, those Indians who looked up in reverence
to the priests in their golden mass robes surrounded by
incense. No. That we do not do, but we have other altars.
What are our altars? The newspapers and things of that sort
are what we look up to. The chaotic thing is people who are
supposed to have developed away from authority have it
working more strongly in them. Indeed, my dear friends, the
difficulties which spiritual science has in order to be able
to penetrate into life in the way she must, are not really
small, because spiritual science must be able to take hold of
the different domains of life. And one must be able to work
gradually from one domain to the other.
In our
spiritual science we have developed an art of Eurythmy. You
may think what you like about it; however, it is very
important that it should be brought to people in a very
worthy way. Just a few days ago we read that one of our
members, yes one of our members, appeared in Munich; a very
skinny human being who recited poems, then disappeared and
donned white hose and cloak — this is all described in
the newspaper. He reappeared and the audience burst out
laughing. Then this fellow made all sorts of contorted
movements, recited further while moving a veil which he held
in his hand. He then disappeared and reappeared again in a
blue costume with yellow things hanging all over it and the
audience laughed at him. Nevertheless, he went right an
reciting. This whole thing was done by one of our members
under the title of “The Recitation Art of
Eurythmy”. Our Eurythmy has been brought into the
public and made a laughing stock, so much so that an article
appeared in the Munich paper entitled “Eurythmy and
Other Diseases of the War”. From all this you can see
how difficult it is to lead spiritual science over into life,
because those who work with us do not have the proper spirit.
It is very necessary, my dear friends, that we be much more
earnest than we have been up to now, to be able to realize
the significance of our spiritual scientific movement. Of
this we shall speak further.
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