LECTURE 1
The Driving Force Behind Europe's War
Dornach, 29 September 1917
It is a matter of deep satisfaction to me,
as I think you know, to be with you again for a while, for
this is the place where we are able to create a visible sign
of our intentions and of the will to come closer and closer
to a true knowledge of the spirit in our studies and in our
work in spiritual science.
The quest for
knowledge is intimately bound up with the most inward aspect
of the human being, and every now and then we must therefore
enquire into the essential nature of our will and intent. In
the light of the present situation, woeful as it is, it seems
the answer to this question must be a negative one. For more
than three years we have seen something spread across the
world that I need not discuss in detail, at least to begin
with, for we are all aware of it and feel it deeply. The
events now taking place are the opposite of our own intentions,
which have come to expression in this very building.
[ Note 1 ]
Again and
again we must try to see clearly which stream of spiritual
development we wish to see taken up by humanity, and today we
have to say it is the opposite of the stream which has led to
the terrible tragedy of these last years. This is something
we may call to mind again and again when we give deep and
full consideration to the events now raging all over the
world. We may say to ourselves that it appears as if time
were drawn out and had become elastic, as if the things we
remember from before this madness took hold of the world
happened not just years but centuries ago.
There will, of
course, be many today — as there always have been
— who may be said to sleep through the events of the
day, people who are not fully awake to what is going on
today. But when those who are awake look back on what went
through their minds four or five years ago and left an
impression, they will feel more or the less the way one does
when one lets the mind dwell on an old book or a work of art
that was created hundreds of years ago. Events which meant
something to us before this madness came on the world now
seem to have happened an infinitely long time ago.
Anyone who was
awake — through the science of the spirit — was,
of course, able to appreciate what was coming even before
these events developed. Many of our friends will remember the
almost routine answer I gave to questions asked over and over
again after my public lectures from the beginning of this
century. The question, you may remember, was:
“According to the statistics, the world population is
increasing; how does this relate to the idea of repeated
earth lives? The increase in population is rapid. How can one
reconcile this with the spiritual scientific finding that
these are always the same souls?” My answer always had
to be: It does look as if the statisticians are right and the
world population is increasing; but we have to take a longer
view and consider much longer time-spans if we are to do
justice to the question. And I would always go on to say that
a time may well come, sooner than we may expect, when people
discover to their horror that the population can also
decrease.
I t is not
always possible to give plain and simple answers in
anthroposophy. People have not yet reached the point where
they are able to take truths in the right way and some things
can only be hinted at. Read through the lectures given in
Vienna not long before this catastrophe came on our world and
you will find the passage where I spoke of the social cancer
that is gnawing away at the evolution of humanity.
[ Note 2 ]
This and other things were said in
order to indicate what was going to happen in human evolution
and to challenge people to reflect. For we need to reflect on
these things if we are really and truly to wake up. We need
to be awake and alive for the sake of humanity. If
anthroposophy is to fulfil its purpose, its prime task must
be to rouse people and make them really wake up. Merely
knowing what is going on in the physical world, and knowing
the laws that human minds are able to perceive as operative
in this world, is no more than being asleep in a higher
sense. Humanity is only fully awake when people are able to
develop notions and ideas of the world of the spirit. This is
all around us, just as air and water, the stars, the sun and
the moon are all around us. When we are physically asleep we
are wholly given up to the internal processes that go on in
the body during the night and have no idea of anything in the
physical world around us. We are asleep in exactly the same
way when we are wholly given up to the physical environment,
and to the world and the laws of the intellect, and have no
idea of the world of the spirit that is all around us.
Humanity has
made great play of its intellectual progress and scientific
achievements in the last few centuries and has been
particularly insistent on this at the turn of the nineteenth
to the twentieth century. Yet, strangely enough, the
unconscious and instinctive life was never more to the fore
than it is at this time. Up to the present time this
instinctive and unconscious element has increasingly taken
hold of the human race. Failure to see the spiritual reality
and take account of the element of the spirit is ultimately
the cause of this terrible world war. Nor can it be said that
through these years — years which have turned into
centuries for anyone who is awake in them, as I have said
— humanity has learned an adequate lesson from the
terrible events around us. Sadly, it has to be said that the
opposite is the case.
What is the
characteristic element to be found day by day, hour by hour,
when we take note of what people think, or rather pretend to
think and pretend to want? It is that, fundamentally
speaking, no one in the world knows what they want, and no
one realizes that people's perfectly justifiable aims,
whichever form they may take in the minds of individual
nations, would be achieved so much better if they did away
with these terrible wars in which so much blood is shed.
People do not realize that these terrible events with their
bloodshed are really not necessary as a means of helping them
to achieve their aims.
These events
have a mysterious background, but if you consider some of the
things said in our anthroposophical lectures over the years,
even if they have only been touched on lightly, you will find
perfectly clear statements, also with reference to the most
significant of recent events. Consider also what has been
said in these very rooms, especially in the last few years,
on the character of the Russian people and the difference
between the Russians and the peoples of Western and Central
Europe.
[ Note 3 ]
You will find that
you need the things which have been said here to gain
understanding of an event that appears to have come in with
such vehemence. It has burst forth as though it were a karmic
vengeance, the inner meaning of which is quite clear, though
the word ‘vengeance’ must be taken as a technical
term and not at all in a moral sense.
Not only the
Russian people, but those of Europe and the whole world, will
have to reflect for a long time to come on the events in
Eastern Europe, events much more mysterious than we are
inclined to think. Something has come to the surface which
has been preparing for centuries. The new element wanting to
take shape is something completely different from what is
actually taking shape. Later generations will be able to use
the events which will be taking shape in Eastern Europe over
the next decades to demonstrate the difference between maya
and reality. For you see, the generations of today are taking
what is happening now for the real thing, when this is in
fact still waiting in the wings, and they are wrong in taking
it for real, for something quite different wants to make its
appearance.
The people in
the West are ill-equipped to understand what wants to come to
the surface. Why are they so ill-equipped? Strange as it may
seem to people today — not to you but to the ordinary,
average individual; being anthroposophists, you are not
ordinary, average people of today — the present age is
more than any other age demanding the one thing people least
want to have: understanding based on the science of the
spirit. Strange as it may sound to the ordinary, average
people of today — order will not be created from the
chaos of the present time until a sufficiently large number
of people are prepared to recognize the truths of that
science. Such will be the karma of world history.
If people
insist that this war is just like the wars of the past and
that we'll be making peace just as peace has been made before
— let them talk. They are the people who love maya and
do not distinguish between truth and deception. Let them make
what may seem like ‘peace’ — order will only
arise from the chaos that fills the world today when insight
based on the science of the spirit dawns in human minds. You
may feel in your hearts that it will be a long time before
such order comes; you may think it will be a long time before
people are prepared to let the dawn of such a science arise,
and you will be right. You have to accept that it will be a
long time before order arises from the chaos. For it will not
come until human hearts understand the realm of the spirit.
Order can only come when it is understood how this chaos has
arisen.
Chaos has
arisen because the reality is considered in an unspiritual
way and the world of the spirit cannot be ignored with
impunity. You may think it is enough to live with thoughts
and ideas that are wholly derived from the physical world. It
is what people generally think today, though this does not
make it true. The most completely and utterly wrong idea
humanity has ever had is — to put it simply —
that the spirits will put up with being ignored. You may
consider it egotistical and selfish on their part, but the
terminology is different in their world. Egotism or not, the
spirits take their revenge if they are ignored here on earth.
This is a law, an iron necessity. One way to characterize the
present time is to say that the present human chaos is the
revenge of the spirits who have been ignored for too
long .
I have often
said, both here and elsewhere: A mysterious connection exists
between human consciousness and the destructive powers of
decline and fall in the universe. Each can, or indeed must,
take the place of the other in the following way.
Let us assume
there was a time, say during the last twenty or thirty years
of the nineteenth century, when people put the same effort
into their quest for the things of the spirit as they have
put into achieving material knowledge and material actions
during those twenty or thirty years. What would have happened
if they had endeavoured to recognize the world of the spirit
and used this to give a character, a foundation, to the
physical world, rather than follow mere instinct and chase
after more and more knowledge of a kind that has seen its
ultimate triumph in the creation of instruments of murder and
found its be-all and end-all in people enriching themselves
with nothing but material goods? What would have happened if
people had sought to gain spiritual knowledge and spiritual
impulses for their activities in the social sphere? It would
have meant that the powers of destruction were paid off! If
people had been more awake and not asleep in the last decades
of the nineteenth century there would have been greater
awareness and therefore no need for destruction in the first
decades of the twentieth century. Spiritual awareness simply
has to be greater than purely sensual and material awareness.
If this had been the case during the last decades of the
nineteenth century, the powers of destruction would not have
had to intervene in the early decades of the twentieth
century.
This is
brought to realization most insistently, and perhaps most
cruelly, to the perceptive mind when you meet many of the
dead who have entered the world of the spirit either during
the last decades of the nineteenth or the first decades of
the twentieth century. Many of them have been caught up in
the hustle and bustle and search for material values here on
earth and never had the opportunity to let spiritual impulses
arouse awareness. Many have gone through the gate of death
without even a notion of the thoughts and ideas that point to
spiritual impulses. If they had had the opportunity to take
in spiritual thoughts and ideas before they went through the
gate of death they could have taken these with them. It would
have been something they needed after death, but they were
not in a position to have it.
Anyone who
knows the history of ideas of the last decades of the
nineteenth and the first decades of the twentieth century
also knows that people actually no longer knew how to use the
term ‘spirit’. It has been used to describe all
kinds of things, but not the true spirit. Those souls
therefore had no opportunity of knowing the spirit whilst
here on earth and they have to take the consequences. Having
gone through the gate of death and entered the world of the
spirit, they are thirsting for — well, what are they
thirsting for, these souls who lived in materialism here?
They are thirsting for destructive powers in the physical
world! Those are the dues and they must be paid.
There is no
easy way of dealing with these things. If we want to know the
realities in this sphere, we must acquire a feeling for what
the ancient Egyptians called ‘iron necessity’.
Terrible as it may be, it was necessary that destruction
should spread, for those who had gone through the gate of
death were longing for the destructive powers in which they
are able to live, seeing they did not receive what was due to
them and had been deprived of spiritual impulses while on
earth.
Order cannot
arise from the chaos until people are ready to give room to
such grave truths in their souls and also let these truths
enter into the ideas that apply in the world of politics
today. And if these truths sound pessimistic to you and make
you think that humanity is still a long way from achieving
all that is demanded, as I have indicated, you are indeed
right. But let this justifiable pessimism become a challenge
to be awake and to try, whatever your place in life may be,
to awaken souls so that the science of the spirit can send
out its impulses. It cannot yet be done to any great extent,
but we must have the real, honest desire to make people
consciously aware in such a way that they are able to
understand this concrete fact: Longings have arisen in the
dead in recent times, and those longings are being met with
events which are truly horrifying for those of us who are
alive here on the physical plane.
Just think how
easy it is for some people to present their friends with an
image of the region into which human beings enter when they
have gone through the gate of death. Consider the unctuous
sermons preached in the churches — with politicians now
actually following the example of these sermonizers —
and the facile notions people have of the world of the
spirit, and you simply cannot help realizing how far removed
from reality is the facile vanity of many of today's leading
figures. Compare the speeches of such leading figures —
their lives show that they do anything but lead and that they
are guided by all kinds of forces of which they are
completely unconscious and which are not the right forces
— compare this with what is really needed at the
present time, and you will realize the immense gravity of the
present situation.
Right next to
our physical world lies another, non-physical or spiritual
world, and this has never before influenced our world as
intensely as it is doing at the present time. People are not
aware of this, however; they do not even notice when things
get heart-stoppingly fearsome and terrible. Intensely
illuminating words are heard in the world today; they should
set vast numbers of people thinking. But people never notice,
or at least they do not show it if they do.
Some of you will
remember that on a number of occasions in the last three years
[ Note 4 ]
I have said that when
the history of this ‘world war’ will be written
in the future — unfortunately present-day critics have
not done so, though it could be done fairly easily — it
will be impossible to use the method which has produced the
legend, the fairy-tale, or call it what you will, which
currently goes by the name of ‘history’. This was
produced by ‘scholars’ — as the world calls
them — sitting in libraries for months, years and
decades and studying diplomatic records in order to write
their histories. Inevitably a time will come when most of
these histories will have to be pulped. In fact, no one will
be able to write the history of these last years by such a
method unless they are literally off their heads.
The causes of
the chaos will not be apparent to the people who have been
writing histories until now, but only to people who have a
real feeling for what it means when a miserable individual of
our time has to face a court and is forced to sum up the
condition he was in at the time by flinging down before the
world the lamentable statement: ‘First one thing
happened, then another, and that was the moment when I went
out of my mind!’ It was Suchomlinov who spoke these
pitiful words.
[ Note 5 ]
Many people
had gone out of their minds at that time, not only
Suchomlinov. What kind of moments are these in world events
when the only way of describing them is by confessing that
one has gone out of one's mind? They are moments when Ahriman
and his cohorts gain access to the human race and to human
thoughts. For as long as people watch over their conscious
minds and their consciousness is not in any way clouded or
inactive, neither Ahriman nor Lucifer have access to it. But
when it is not fully active and one needs to use the phrase
‘I have gone out of my mind’, that is the moment
when Ahriman and his cohorts enter the stage. The things that
happen then will not appear in diplomatic records —
little of what it says in those records in recent decades
makes real sense, by the way. Leaving this aside, the things
that have happened in our time and have led to chaos are not
merely human actions, but above all the actions of ahrimanic
spirits seeking to gain access by reducing human awareness.
Some of you know very well that soon after the present
catastrophe broke on the world I pointed out that when we
speak of the origins of this catastrophe in time to come, we
must not do so on the basis of written records; instead we
shall have to point to real facts through which ahrimanic
spirits gained access to the stage of human events.
These things
must be taken in all seriousness; they have to be seen as
concrete realities and not merely as abstract formulations.
People who do not know anything about it may well laugh when
one says that Ahriman gained access to human evolution. They
may well laugh at people who say this, but the day will come
when world history laughs them to scorn for having laughed at
others today.
We certainly
cannot say that the judgments, ideas and notions to be found
on the surface in recent years show any degree of maturity.
People even failed to understand when eighteen months ago it
was pointed out somewhere that something might soon happen of
which due note should be taken; it should not be taken
lightly. Concrete examples given as an indication of what was
likely to happen were never taken in the right way; people
were not sufficiently awake in their minds to do so. Now the
event has come. And people fail to realize that something is
taking root deeply in a certain soil. People are taking it as
something which — well, because a certain number of
statements take up so many lines, people accept they have a
number of statements made in that particular number of lines.
They are not at all interested in looking for the roots of
such statements, but simply take things at their face
value.
I think you
know what I mean. You know I am referring to the Papal Note
[ Note 6 ]
as something I had seen
coming for eighteen months. I have looked around a great deal
to see if I might not find someone who has expressed their
views on this Note, or asked the kind of question that should
have come to mind.
Let us
remember that the idea of the state as we know it today has
been dawning since the sixteenth century. In some parts of
the world peculiar people known as ‘historians’
are speaking of states as something which have existed for I
do not know how long. But they know little about real
history. The present-day idea of a state is no more than four
or five hundred years old and something entirely different
existed in earlier times. It is important to know this and be
really clear about it. The priestly element, which is to be
found in Rome, is indeed older than our modern states. It had
its justification in its own day, when it brought about many
things in the world. I have tried to find out if people are
asking themselves the question: What does it really mean that
the modern structures which have developed over four or five
centuries cannot find a way of achieving order out of their
own resources, and look back to the old priestly element as
something to be discussed in the way people generally discuss
things today?
It would
interest me to know if anyone faced with the question as to
whether it is a good idea to skate on ice when it is only one
millimetre thick would actually answer in the affirmative.
Relative to what we are really dealing with, the concepts on
which people base their opinions when a priestly element
brings impulses into modern life today are like a one-
millimetre layer of ice covering the water. The things people
write and say today are like someone skating on ice that is
not more than one millimetre in thickness. No one is trying
to understand what is happening, no one is prepared to see
that what matters is not to take a document and look at the
statements it contains, but to know that a statement can mean
something totally different, depending on the source from
which it comes.
Everywhere
today we are faced with the need to warn people in all
seriousness to look to the origins, to see how things are
related, to look for realities and not to the way things look
on the surface. Surely it cannot be that difficult for anyone
to admit: I see the way things are, but I do not yet
understand them and therefore I will not say anything to
interfere. Considering the incredibly superficial level of
education, it is not at all surprising when people are able
to understand and have an opinion on everything. People find
it really difficult to admit that they cannot judge an issue
and need to get a basis for their judgement before they give
an opinion. In fact, it hardly ever comes to their minds that
one has to have a basis which to form an opinion.
Infinitely much
depends on real insight into the driving forces, especially
for the immediate future. It has to be realized that the
chaos will certainly not be reduced if — speaking
hypothetically — the churches were to succeed in
establishing even the initial stages of apparent order. The
worst error we can fall into would be to say: It does not
matter where peace comes from, even if it is from the Pope.
The point is, it may actually cause no harm at all to have
peace initiated by the Pope; the question is how those who
are involved see the issue.
Again and
again we need to be really clear in our minds that the
present time is literally challenging us every hour, indeed
every minute, to wake up. Anthroposophy as a science of the
spirit can only be understood by those who are able to grasp
that humanity is being asked to make a clear decision. Either
the spirit is understood or the chaos continues. A
papered-over chaos would be no better than the carnage we
have today. If we are unable to come up with anything better
than materialism and again materialism, even a heightened
materialism, in the next few years, and if it were to happen
that the events of the last three years, to which humanity
has failed to wake up and take notice, were to lead to a new
rush for material goods — many people are longing for
this as something that comes with peace — then souls
would once again go through the gate of death and thirst for
destruction here on earth. There would be no end to the
destruction.
All it needs
is to get an idea, a feeling, an inner impulse for the need
to turn to the things of the spirit! Then we shall progress,
depending on the extent to which this is achieved. Anyone who
wants to gain a little understanding of the present position,
and looks at our time in the light of the serious truths we
have been considering, must develop a reasonable degree of
feeling for all the terrible, hopelessly commonplace and
superficial things that are now being written and said in
this world.
Imagine a band
of children smashing up all the pots and plates, glasses and
everything in the house. The adults who see this happening
are considering how to stop it, for the children keep running
to the larder and all over the house to find more things to
smash. Finally the adults have an idea as to how they can
stop it. A number of people who are watching, people who
actually consider themselves to be the teachers of these
children, find a solution: They take care that everything
breakable is collected and smashed to pieces — and
that, they think, should put an end to it all! I do not know
how many people would not consider those teachers to be
fools. This is the kind of situation where people would see
the truth. Yet there are people who consider themselves to be
wise and who say to the whole world: Carnage must continue
until peace comes; everything has to be broken, so there will
be nothing left to smash in the world. This is considered
wisdom. Go on murdering people for as long as you can and you
will stop the murder. This is wisdom!
For anyone who
has even a spark of logic it is no longer wisdom when the
teacher says to a band of children: To make sure nothing else
gets smashed up, I will quickly get people to collect all
other breakable objects and smash them; I reckon nothing else
will get smashed after that. Why do people call this
foolishness and the other thing political foresight? Because
people's thinking stops at the very point where it should be
most intense, which is where their thoughts relate to great
questions of destiny.
We shall
continue with this tomorrow, and consider some serious
spiritual truths.
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