EARTHLY DEATH AND COSMIC LIFE
LECTURE 1.
THE
PRESENT
POSITION OF
SPIRITUAL
SCIENCE.
An
Introduction to the Winter's Lectures, 1918.
Berlin,
22nd January, 1918.
MY
DEAR
FRIENDS,
I need not tell you what pleasure it
gives me to be with you again at this difficult time so full of
trials. As this is the first occasion for a long time that we have
had the opportunity of discussing subjects connected with spiritual
science, it is obvious that we should call to mind that spiritual
science is far from being merely a theory, rather should it be a firm
and substantial support, uniting the souls of men; not only the souls
of those living here on the physical plane, but also the souls of
those living in the spiritual world. This is a question we have very
much at heart at the present time when innumerable souls have left
the physical plane under circumstances to which we have often
alluded, a time when so many are being subjected to the severest
trials perhaps ever inflicted on man in the whole history of the
world. Besides all the usual ideas which flow through our souls at
the beginning of these lectures here and elsewhere, we will to-day
try individually to direct our sentiments and feelings to those who
are outside, as well as to those who, in consequence of these events
have passed through the portals of death.
‘Ye
who watch o'er souls on earth,
Ye who weave in souls on earth,
Ye Spirit-guardians of the souls of men
Working lovingly in Cosmic wisdom,
Hear ye our request
Look upon our love
Which with your helping, strengthening rays
Would fain unite
In spiritual devotion, sending forth our love.’
With
reference to those too who have passed through the portal of
death.
‘Ye
who weave in the souls now in the spheres,
Ye spirit-guardians of the souls of men,
Working lovingly in Cosmic Wisdom,
Hear ye our request;
Look upon our love
Which with your helpful, strengthening rays
Would fain unite
In spiritual devotion, sending forth our love.’
May that spirit Whom we have sought
to approach by means of the spiritual science we have striven to
acquire, He who willed to pass through the Mystery of Golgotha for
the salvation of the Earth, and for the freedom and progress of
humanity, may He be with you in your heavy tasks.
The severe time of trial through
which humanity is now passing may perhaps be one which will bring
home to us more and more closely the significance of a
spiritual deepening of the human soul. If so it will not have been in
vain for the present and future of humanity; but the feeling arises
that the time has not yet come, that mankind has not yet learnt
lessons enough from the seriousness of the events of the present
time. This is not said by way of criticism, but to appeal to right
and true feeling. One feels that the Spirit of the Age must speak
more and more distinctly to human hearts and souls; for not only do
human voices speak to-day, other voices are heard too, ringing forth
mysteriously from weighty and significant events as well as from
other sources.
I shall endeavour to put before you
to-day what has particularly struck me during my recent journey
through Switzerland, with respect to the relation of our spiritual
movement to the tasks of the age. Anyone who has carefully studied
the course of lectures I gave in Vienna before the war, on the
experiences of human beings between death and rebirth, and what
I said with respect to human life as a whole, will know that
reference was being made — before the war — to the deeper
causes, the deeper-lying foundations of what has lately worked out in
the terrible events of the times. We may say that everything that can
be experienced below the surface then, is to-day externally revealed
as living proof of the correctness of what was said at that time. The
universal disease of the age was then unequivocally described, as you
know, as a social cancer. Here and there it can be seen that some few
lessons have been learnt from the great events that have occurred;
but on the other hand, it is clearly evident, particularly when
apparently insignificant things are taken together, how rigid human
thought has become on the physical plane during the last few
centuries, and how slow men are to arrive at decisions of any weight.
By way of introduction I should like to tell you some of my
experiences during my Swiss tour, for it seems to me necessary that
those who are interested in our Movement should form some idea of its
connection as a whole. I shall only give a few
points.
It must be regarded as a very
satisfactory sign that during my recent stay in Switzerland a number
of young students from the High School at Zurich desired a course of
lectures referring to and combining the various branches of academic
science. I therefore gave four lectures in Zurich; the first of which
referred to the relation of our anthroposophical spiritual science to
Psychology, the science of the soul; the second referred to the
relation of spiritual science to History; the third referred to its
relation to Natural Science, and the fourth to its relation to Social
Science, to the great social and judicial problems of the people in
our day. Though far from being all that we might wish, one cannot but
see that a certain interest was shown in this drawing together of the
threads of academical sciences. It was evident that these latter were
awaiting completion, as one might say awaiting that which can only
come from anthroposophical spiritual science, and that the
part-sciences of the present day will remain but half or even quarter
sciences, unless they can have that completion. Wherever I was
allowed to give lectures in Switzerland I did not fail to let it be
seen what it is that is lacking in this respect, and what it is our
age must acquire for these tendencies to be guided in the right
direction. One may say that although at first there was in
Switzerland a strong opposition to our endeavours — and
certainly this opposition is not growing less but rather increasing
— yet side by side with this a lively interest is developing;
and it may well be that karma has placed our building in Switzerland
because the work may have a special significance for that land;
particularly if our work is directed, as I hope it will be, in such a
way that our activity will also bear witness to the sources of
spiritual scientific investigation, which, alas, are in many respects
disregarded and unnoticed in the spiritual life of Germany. That is a
feeling which, while on the one hand it stirs one to-day with a
certain tragic feeling of sorrow, yet, on the other, fills one with
deep satisfaction. We may say that anyone who takes into
consideration the fact that in four-fifths of the world the spiritual
life, of which Germany is so proud, is to-day much calumniated and
really abused, and if he seriously considers the gravity of this
fact, as is not always done, while on the one hand he may feel
sorrowful, yet on the other he may feel satisfaction in the hope that
anthroposophical science may yet render it possible for the German
spiritual life to make its voice heard in the other world — as
it must, if the development of the world is not to be injured. A way
can be found to speak to all men, no matter what their nationality,
if one speaks to them in the true meaning of the word, of the spirit,
that is, of the true sources of spiritual life.
It may strike a sorrowful note, too,
that while the efforts made by spiritual science are successful in
winning a little ground in some places, such a country as Switzerland
is finding it increasingly difficult to stand up against the attacks
made to-day. It is no easy matter in the face of the pressure
exercised by four-fifths of the world, to form an impartial opinion;
nor indeed is it easy to find the right words in which to say all
that must be said, in a country in which, although neutral itself,
those four-fifths of the world still play an important part. This has
now reached a very acute crisis.
One great advantage to us in that
country is that the mere words and teaching are there supported by
the forms and creations of our building at Dornach, which place
before the outer vision what it is that our spiritual science
desires, and how it is able to show that when allowed to intervene in
practical life and not crudely rejected, it is capable both of
mastering and utilizing life, which at the present time makes such
great demands on humanity.
In speaking to-day of the relation
between the Spiritual Science of anthroposophy and other
knowledge and wants of the world, it is really necessary to place
quite new and unaccustomed ideas before one's hearers. In the
profoundest depths of their consciousness people are dimly
convinced that something new must come from somewhere or other.
They are, however, extremely rigid as regards thinking, extremely
slow to take in new ideas. Indeed it is a characteristic feature of
our age that while life is lived at so rapid a pace, people are so
dreadfully slow in thinking. We come across this in the smallest
things. For instance, the threads of anthroposophical science were
drawn towards the academical sciences in Zurich, although I had
spoken publicly in Basel before I did so in Zurich. Just before I had
to leave Switzerland, a request came from Basel, asking me to speak
in an academical assembly on the relation of anthroposophical
Spiritual Science to the other sciences. It was then, of course, too
late to do so; the subject could not then be discussed. I mention
this for two reasons: First because it would have been of great
importance to speak of Spiritual Science in a hall dedicated to
academical science and established by the students of Basel; and
secondly because those people were so slow as to come to a conclusion
only at the eleventh hour. That is characteristic, for elasticity of
thought, capacity for quick decision might have brought about an
earlier decision. It is necessary to discuss these things among
ourselves, so that we may behave accordingly. To-day I need only
refer to one of the subjects of which I have been speaking
lately, to make clear the significance of what has to come
about.
In Zurich I spoke, among other
things, of the threads that can unite anthroposophical
Spiritual Science and the science of history, the historical life of
man. We to-day possess a history, which is taught to children and in
college; but what is this history of ours? It is something which has
not the remotest idea of the forces governing the historical life of
mankind, for the simple reason that the whole object of the
intellectual life of the present day is to set man's
intelligence in motion, to set the ordinary so-called fully
conscious concepts and ideas going, and with the help of these, to
understand all things. External perceptible nature can certainly be
understood by these means, so too can that thought which has
triumphed in the domain of natural science; but if this mode of
thought is applied to history, that means making history a natural
science. Endeavours were being made in the nineteenth century to
regard history in the same way as natural science regards the things
perceptible to the senses. This, however, is not possible — for
the simple reason that the facts of history are quite differently
related to life. What is it that we meet in historical life? What are
the impulses at work in history?
Anyone who believes that historical
impulses can be grasped by means of the intellect, which can very
well serve us in natural science, will never discover the historical
impulses; for these work in human evolution in a similar way to the
dreams in our own dream-life. They do not enter the ordinary
consciousness which we use in everyday life or in natural science;
but these impulses work like that which only plays into our
dream-life. We may say: Historical becoming is a great dream of
mankind, but what plays into our dreams like transient pictures
becomes clear and distinct in the imaginations of spiritual science.
Therefore there is no history which is not a spiritual science, and
the history taught to-day is not history at all.
Hermann Grimm was struck with the
fact that the historian, Gibbon, in describing the early days of the
Christian era, describes the fall of the Roman Empire, but not the
gradual ascent of Christianity, its growth and
prosperity.
Of course he did not know the reason
why a good historian can always describe a decline, but not a growth
and a becoming. The reason is that the present-day method of learning
history can only lead to an understanding of what is declining, not
of what is growing. Growth plays a like part in the development
of mankind as do dreams in the life of man; it can therefore only be
described by a person able to have Imaginations. If a man does not
possess this power, even though he be a Ranke or a Lamprecht, he can
only depict the corpse of history, not the reality of its growth. The
impulses of historical growth only enter our consciousness in dreams;
if the ordinary consciousness tries to grasp the historical, it can
only do so when the historical has already passed into the
subconsciousness. Modern times present interesting examples of this.
If we follow these up, we see how in the last few decades, interest
in the great questions of the world as one coherent whole has
practically died out — or become mere pedantry, which is almost
the same thing. There is a deep connection between the pedantry of
the age and the fact that a schoolmaster, at present at the head of
the greatest republic, wants to lay down the law to mankind. If we
ask ourselves: Where, during the last few decades, has there been a
feeling for a great drawing together of mankind, for ideas having
almost a religious character although of a crude kind, when
everything else was more or less moribund? The answer, if we look the
circumstances in the face, must be: in socialism. Ideas were there,
but such as never tended to a spiritual life, only to a crude
material life and alas, these ideas encountered no other world of
ideas to stand against them. If we really understood the ideas which
have come to the surface in socialism, we should find that they are
in a sense historical ideas, dreams of humanity; — but what
kind of dreams? One must have a feeling for this ‘being
dreamt’ of the historical events of humanity. I tried to make
this clear to the people in Switzerland by saying: If one seeks as
leading and guiding personalities only those who are very clever but
are without any understanding whatever for what I call dream
impulses, it will be seen how far this leads. In this respect one
should try to answer practically the question: How quickly can a
commonwealth be systematically ruined? Contrive to set up therein a
parliament of scholars! They need not be skilled professors, they
might even be socialistic leaders; — in that movement there are
professors enough. With a perception for such things, one will ask
oneself: How has the whole comprehensive theory of socialism come
about? If it could really be put into practice, it could only bring
about ruin (and perhaps a sorrowful proof of this may yet be found in
the East, if it does not stop, but tries to proceed with it further).
How has it come about that these socialistic ideas have taken root in
men's minds? What exactly are these theories?
To know this, one must be acquainted
with the history of the last four centuries, especially that of the
18th and 19th. One must know that real history is very different from
that contained in history books; one must know that such books,
especially in regard to the last two centuries form a picture of
human class and social contention; Karl Marx, for instance, has
simply set up as theories what humanity dreamt in those centuries,
something which actually did exist, but which, like a dream, ceased
in the new period and gave place to theories. The theories of
socialism which arose as soon as the fact of it was lost in dream,
show that the intellect uses what has already perished, what has
already become a corpse, directly it takes the matter in hand with
such means of knowledge as are quite valid — e.g., in
natural science. From such cognitions one must see that the world
really stands at a turning point in time where the comprehension of
the historical development (for the present has also become
historical, and as man lives into the future he also experiences
historical development) must be understood in the sense of
Spiritual Science. One does not obtain a true picture of even the
most recent events if Spiritual Science is left out of account. I
shall relate an oft-quoted example.
(Among ourselves as members such
matters may be discussed; though people outside often laugh at such
things — they will not always do so however). An important
incident of European life in the Middle Ages is the fact that at that
time the knowledge of the Western quarter of the globe was lost to
Europe. There was indeed always an inner connection, especially
between Ireland and England, and the territory now called America. A
certain connection was always kept up between Europe and the
West, and only in the century following the “discovery of
America,” intercourse with that continent was forbidden
by a Papal document (of course it was not called
‘America’ then). This connection with America only ceased
with its so-called ‘discovery’ by a Spaniard, but outer
history is so inaccurate that people are under the impression
that in Europe America was not known at all before the year 1492.
Almost everyone believes this. Many similar facts can be brought
forward which Spiritual Science has to make valid from its own
sources. We are standing at a turning point in time when historical
life must be considered from the aspect of Spiritual
Science.
Someone might ask: If Spiritual
Science as we understand it can only unfold in our time, how then was
it in earlier times?
When we look back into earlier times,
we find something different, something comparable with what in
Spiritual Science is called Imaginations; we find myths and legends,
and from their forces, which were pictures, impulses could be
derived; even political impulses, which were more real, more in
accordance with facts, than the abstract teaching of modern
history, social economy, and so forth. It is not necessary to
understand in abstract ideas what holds people together and makes the
conditions of communal life. In earlier times this was brought to
expression in myths. We to-day can no longer produce myths; we must
come to Imaginations, and with these comprehend historical life, and
from that again coin political impulses which will be truly different
from the fantastic impulses of which so many dream to-day, which are,
as we might say, impulses of the schoolmaster.
It is certainly very difficult to
tell people that historical life is something which, as regards the
ordinary ideas, runs its course in the subconsciousness; but on the
other hand, this hidden life of mankind knocks at the door of events,
at the door indeed of all human impulses. It may be said — as
the Zurich lectures have shown — that everywhere to-day
one would like to meet this pursuit of knowledge, which also aims at
the spirit, though with wholly inadequate means. In Zurich we made
acquaintance with psycho-analysis, the analytical psychology, already
qualified as academical; and, connected with those very lectures, the
most remarkable discussions have taken place on psycho-analysis in
relation to anthroposophical Spiritual Science. The psycho-analyst,
however, comes to the world of Spiritual Science spiritually
blindfold, and can find nothing in it. Yet this world raps at the
door which ought now to be opened to man.
In Zurich there is a professor named
Jung, who has quite recently written another pamphlet on
psycho-analysis and the many problems connected with it. He is the
author of many works on the subject: he shows, however, that he can
only lay hold of it with inadequate means. One fact will show what is
meant. Jung brings forward an example cited by the greater number of
psychoanalysts.
The following happened to a woman.
She was invited to an evening party. As soon as supper was over, her
hostess, not being very well, was to start for one of the spas.
Supper came to an end and the hostess started, the guests leaving
with her. They walked, as people sometimes do on leaving an evening
party, not on the pavement, but in the middle of the road. Presently
a cab came round the corner. The guests all beat a retreat to the
pavement, except the lady of the story, who ran to the middle of the
road just in front of the horse; the driver shouted at her, but she
ran on until she came to a bridge across a river. Then, in order to
escape from this unpleasant situation, she decided to throw herself
from the bridge into the river. This she did, and was rescued by the
guests, who ran after her, and the house where the party had been
held being the nearest, she was taken back there. She met there her
hostess's husband and spent a few hours with him.
Let us reflect what a man with
insufficient data can make of such an occurrence. If he
approaches the matter with the methods of the psycho-analyst, he
discovers those mysterious provinces in the soul which tell us that
this soul, in the seventh year of her life, had an experience with
horses, so that the sight of the cab horses called up an earlier
experience from her subconsciousness and so bewildered the lady that
she did not spring to the side but ran on before the cab. Thus to the
psycho-analyst, the whole transaction is the result of the connection
of a present experience with ‘unsolved riddles of the
soul,’ from the domain of education, and so forth. This is a
pursuit of the subject with inadequate means, because the
psycho-analyst does not know that the subconscious ruling in
man has more real existence than is supposed; it is also much more
subtle and much more clever than anything man gets from his conscious
intellect. This subconsciousness is often much braver and more
determined. The psycho-analyst does not know that a
‘daimon’ dwelt in the soul of this lady who started out,
from the first, with the unconscious intention of being alone with
the husband after his wife had started on her journey. This was all
arranged in the most subtle manner by the subconsciousness, for one
does everything with far greater certainty if the consciousness has
nothing to do with it. The lady ran before the horse simply in order
to be intercepted when matters had reached a certain point; and she
conducted herself to that end. Into these things the psycho-analyst
does not penetrate because he does not suppose that there is a
spiritual psychic world everywhere, to which the human soul stands in
relation. Jung, however, has some inkling of this. From innumerable
things that appear before him, he divines that the human soul stands
in relation to numberless others. Still he must remain a materialist,
or cease to be one of the clever men of the day. What then does he
do? He says that the human soul stands everywhere in connection with
spiritual facts outside itself (this is shown, he said, by the things
which take place within), it is in connection with super-psychic,
spiritual facts. But as a materialist he cannot admit the existence
of these facts and therefore falls back upon the following theory:
— The soul has a body, derived from other bodies which again
are derived from others. Then there is heredity, and Jung construes
that the soul in accordance with that conforms to all that has been
experienced in relation to the heathen Gods, for instance. Through
inheritance these experiences remain in the soul, creating an
‘isolated province of the soul,’ which only needs to be
questioned if man desires to be rid of it. Jung even conceives that
it is necessary for the human soul to have connection with this
isolated province, and that it ruins the nervous system if it is not
drawn up into the consciousness. Therefore he enunciates the
proposition, which is quite justifiable according to the modern
philosophy of life; that unless the soul is in relation to a divine
being, it must inwardly perish. He is just as sure of this as he is
that there is no divine being at all. The question of the relation of
the human soul to God has not the least connection with the
question of the existence of God in his mind.
So it is written in his book. Let us
think what is really under consideration. It is scientifically proved
that the human soul must construct a relation to God, but it is
equally certain that it would be foolish to assume the existence of a
God. Thus the soul for its own health is condemned to invent a God
for itself. Pretend that there is a God, or thou wilt be ill! That is
actually stated in the book.
We see from this what great enigmatic
problems knock at the door, and how the present time opposes these
things. If men were courageous enough, this truth would gradually
come to be perceived to-day, but they are not so courageous. I do not
say all this in hostility to Jung, for I believe he is more
courageous in his thinking than all the others. He says what he has
to say according to the assumptions of the present. Others do not say
it; they have less courage.
We must reflect on all these things
in order to understand the real meaning of the statement,
‘Spiritual science brings forward a truth such as: What takes
place in the historical life of man, and consequently in the life of
political impulses, has nothing to do with the ordinary
consciousness, it can have nothing to do with it; but can only be
understood and applied through imaginative consciousness.’ We
might even say as regards the most distinctive representatives
of the anti-social historic conception, that President Wilson's view
must be replaced by an imaginative knowledge of the truth. And
Wilson's ideas are very widespread (far more people are of his way of
thinking than is supposed). Names are of no moment, only the facts
under which men live are of consequence. I may be allowed to be
somewhat outspoken about Wilson, because in the course of lectures
given in Helsingfors before the war, already then I pronounced
my judgment of him and did not need to wait for the war to learn of
what spirit he is who sits on the throne of America. At that time
fulsome praise of Woodrow Wilson could be heard everywhere; it has
not long ceased. The world is now very much wiser, and knows that the
man who now occupies the throne of America drafted his most powerful
republican document from one issued by the late Emperor of Brazil,
Don Pedro, in 1864. Wilson copied this exactly except that the
passage, ‘I must intervene in the interests of South
America’ is altered to ‘I must intervene in the interests
of the United States of America,’ etc., with the necessary
recasting.
When in their time Wilson's two books,
The New Freedom
and
Mere Literature
appeared in our own country, there was no less fulsome praise. This
was only about five or six years ago. In this matter of Wilson's
influence people have certainly learned a few things; but as regards
many other things they could only be learnt from the incisive events
of the present time. For this reason it is necessary that many things
which can only flourish on the ground of spiritual scientific
cognition, should be taken very earnestly. People lightly reproach
anthroposophical Spiritual Science as being merely
‘theoretical;’ and concerning itself with cosmic
evolution rather than with love. They do not see that cosmic
evolution is the expression of love, but prefer to talk of
‘love,’ of universal love, of how and what man should
love, and they have been talking thus thousands of years. Many do not
understand that at the present time the fruition of love is to be
comprehended through the study of cosmic evolution. Let us for a few
moments allow Spiritual Science to take hold of the human soul, and
we shall see how love will arise in the human heart. Love cannot be
preached; it grows if properly cultivated; it is a child of the
spirit. Even among men it is a child of true knowledge —
knowledge reaching to the spirit, not to matter
only.
In this introductory lecture I have
wished to do no more than indicate a few perceptions which will be
very significant at this period. All that can awaken power, courage,
and hope in the human soul is to be reviewed in these lectures, and I
should like especially to speak of all the gifts mankind can receive
from Spiritual Science, other than those which have been given during
past centuries. I should like to speak of Spiritual Science as
something living, as something which is no theory, but which brings
to birth in us a second man, a spiritual man who bears and maintains
the other in the world. I believe above all that the, present time
needs this. There was a time, in the Middle Ages, when many had a
fantastic longing to make gold. Why did they wish to make gold? They
wanted something which may not be realised under ordinary earthly
conditions. Why? Because they perceived that ordinary earthly
conditions, unless spiritualised and permeated by spiritual impulses,
cannot give man any true satisfaction. In the end that is the content
of the teaching of the Gospels also, only people usually overlook the
most important points; they criticise the view of the Gospels that
the Kingdom of God has come; yet is it not present? It is, but not to
outward appearances. It must be understood inwardly. It must not be
denied, as is done in our time. We shall speak of this descent of the
Kingdom of the Spirit in our next lecture.
To-day I only wished to strike the
keynote. Our epoch is directed to build the bridge to the kingdom in
which the dead are living. The number of those now passed through the
gate of death can be reckoned by millions. They live among us and we
can find them. The way in which we can find them will be discussed
from another point of view.
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