V
Dornach, August 16, 1919
IN THE observations we are making here we have to enter
more and more into the history of the age and see how cosmic
forces work into the evolution of the present time and form the
foundations of our human life. You have seen from our
discussions yesterday that it becomes increasingly necessary to
transform the rigid, abstract concepts one is accustomed to at
present into flowing, mobile, living concepts if mankind is to
progress. A special light is thrown upon all the facts in
question by that soul force we call intelligence. The man of
the present is particularly proud of his intelligence. He
considers the gradual acquisition of intelligence a special
mark of distinction.
If
man today looks back into earlier epochs when people had
pictorial thoughts, he considers their constitution of spirit
and soul in that time childlike. He believes that only through
his intelligence and his science can one acquire a correct
knowledge of what people in earlier periods of evolution tried
to comprehend through myths and legends. He looks back to those
childlike stages of evolution and is very proud of having come
so far, especially in the development of intelligence. Now let
us consider the special characteristics of human intelligence,
that soul force in which modern man takes such pride. If we
speak today of intelligence we refer to a soul force of which
we have a definite concept and cannot imagine it to be
different. People of former epochs, however, also had
intelligence, but of a different sort. If we wish to become
fully acquainted with the significance of so-called
intelligence for modern man, we must ask: What was the nature
of former intelligence, and how did it gradually change into
the intelligence of our time?
Today we shall not go back further than the third post
Atlantean period, the Egypto-Chaldean, followed by the
Greco-Latin, which in turn was followed by our own. We shall
consider the peculiarity of the intelligence of these ancient
peoples and then pass over to the special kind of intelligence
that we of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch possess. You see from
this that I assume it is not correct to think intelligence is
intelligence, that only one kind is possible; that whoever has
our intelligence is intelligent, and whoever does not have it
is un-intelligent. This is not correct. Intelligence passes
through metamorphoses and transforms itself. In the
Egypto-Chaldean period it was different from today. This can
best be described by saying, those people felt and comprehended
instinctively, through their intelligence, their relationship
to the entire cosmos. The Egyptians and Chaldeans thought very
little, or not at all, about what modern man thinks by means of
his intelligence. When they brought their intelligence into
play their connection with the cosmos lived in it. They knew
their relationship to this or that zodiacal constellation; they
knew what kind of influence moon, sun, and planets had upon
man's soul and bodily constitutions. They knew the influence of
the course of the seasons upon him. All this they grasped
through their intelligence. They acquired an entirely inward
picture of their relationship with the cosmos.
This intelligence had become transformed by the time the
Egypto-Chaldean period came to an end in the eighth century
B.C. The connection with the cosmos was no longer the vital
experience it had been prior to this time. It lived like an
echo, a kind of memory in human souls. In its place there
entered into the Greek intelligence man's reflecting on himself
as an earth dweller, how he is related to the cosmos. But the
Greek had a certain feeling in using his intelligence. He
understood everything of the earthly world that is subject to
death. He knew that if he wanted to comprehend the
supersensible he had to turn to that power of perception which
still existed atavistically in the pre-Christian era. Through
reflection, through intelligence, he learned to know the laws
which underlie all that dies on earth. Said the pupils of
Plato: “If I want to understand the living I must
see; by merely thinking I only grasp what is
dead.”
In
the Greek mystery schools something quite definite in this
connection was explained. It was about like this: Everything is
spiritual; spiritual processes and laws also underlie what
seems to be material. There are spiritual laws that concern you
in so far as you have a body. When you pass through the portal
of death your body is delivered to the material powers and
substances of the earth. But these powers and substances are
only apparently material. They too are spiritual, but they are
permeated by that spiritual force which appears to you as
death. If with your intelligence you grasp any kind of laws,
you see that these are the laws of death. They are the laws
that are active in graves, in corpses. If you want to know the
nature of the spiritual powers in which you live here on earth,
or in the body-free state between death and a new birth —
thus spoke the mystery teacher to his pupils — then you
must be convinced of that which you see. If you are not
so convinced, concepts and ideas developed only through your
intelligence will merely grasp the spirit in matter, in your
physical body.
Whereas the Egypto-Chaldean felt and perceived in his
intelligence his relationship to the entire cosmos, the Greek
perceived through his intelligence what governs the tomb. We,
too, only perceive through our intelligence what governs the
tomb; however, we are not conscious of it. So, we go to the
dissecting laboratories, investigate the corpse, and consider
the laws of the corpse that we grasp through our intelligence
to be the laws of man. Yet, they are only the laws of the
grave.
But
again, since the middle of the fifteenth century, a gradual
transformation of intelligence is taking place. Although it is
still very much like that of the Greeks it is undergoing a
transformation, and we are in the beginning of it. In the
coming centuries and millennia this intelligence will become
something very, very different. Even today it shows a tendency
toward what will come in future, a tendency merely to grasp
what is error, untruth, deception; a tendency to ponder only
what is evil.
The
mystery pupils and especially the initiates had known for some
time that human intelligence approaches its development toward
evil, and that it becomes more and more impossible to recognize
the good through mere intelligence. Mankind finds itself today
within this transition. We may say, it is still barely
possible, if men exert their intelligence and do not bear
especially wild instincts in themselves, to look toward the
light of what is good. But human intelligence will more and
more develop the inclination to plan evil, to bring error into
knowledge, and insert evil into man's moral life.
This is one of the reasons initiates called themselves men of
anxiety. Indeed, if one observes the evolution of mankind from
this aspect as I have just done, it causes anxiety, precisely
because of the way intelligence is developing. It is not for
nothing that it fills modern man with pride and haughtiness.
This is the pre-taste of intelligence becoming evil in the
fifth post-Atlantean age, which is beginning now. If man were
not to develop anything else but intelligence he would become
an evil being on earth. If we want to think of a wholesome
future for mankind, we must not count on the one-sided
development of intelligence. In Egypt and Chaldea, it was good;
later it entered into a relationship with the forces of death;
and it will enter into a relationship with the forces of error,
deception, and evil.
This is something about which mankind should have no illusions.
In an unbiased fashion humanity should reckon with the fact
that it has to protect itself against this one-sided
development of intelligence. It is not in vain that precisely
through the anthroposophically oriented science of the spirit
another element will be added by taking in what can be gained
through a renewed perception of the spiritual world. This
cannot be grasped by intelligence, but only if we take into
ourselves what the science of initiation brings down from the
spiritual world through vision.
But
something quite objective is necessary here. At this point we
confront a deep secret of Christian-esoteric development. If
the Mystery of Golgotha had not taken place in the course of
earth evolution human beings could not avoid gradually becoming
evil through their intelligence; inevitably they would fall
prey to error. You know that with the Mystery of Golgotha there
flowed into mankind's evolution not merely a doctrine, a
theory, a world view, a religion, but a real fact. In the man
Jesus of Nazareth there lived the extraterrestrial being, the
Christ. Through the fact that the Christ dwelt in Jesus of
Nazareth, when Jesus died the Christ-being passed over into
earthly evolution. He is within it. We must only be conscious
that this is an objective fact which has nothing to do with
what we know or feel subjectively. We must know it for the sake
of knowledge; we must take it up into our ethical culture for
the sake of our morality. The Christ-being has flowed into
mankind's evolution. He is within it since the resurrection. He
dwells especially in our soul forces. Take this fact in its
full depth!
Look at the difference between men who lived before the Mystery
of Golgotha and those who lived after it. Certainly they are
the same people, because souls pass through repeated earth
lives. But we must differentiate between those who lived before
this Mystery and those who lived after it. A general concept of
God is not the Christ concept. We can arrive at a general
concept of God if we observe nature in her phenomena, if we
observe physical man, externally. The Christ-being is of such a
nature that we can only come near it if, in the course of
earthly life, we uncover something in ourselves. We can find
the general concept of God by simply saying: We have come into
existence out of the forces of the world. The Christ concept we
must find in ourselves by advancing beyond the phenomena in
nature. If, living in the world, we do not find the concept of
God, this is a kind of sickness. A healthy human being is never
really atheistic. If he is, he must be bodily or psychically
sick in some way, and the illness expresses itself in
atheism.
To
be unable to recognize the Christ is not an illness but a
misfortune, the neglecting of an opportunity offered by life.
By reflecting upon our having been born out of nature and its
forces, and pursuing this thought with a healthy soul, we may
arrive at a concept of God. By experiencing in the course of
our life something like a re-birth we may arrive at a concept
of Christ. Birth leads to God; re-birth to Christ. This
re-birth, through which Christ as a Being may be found in man,
could not be attained prior to the Mystery of Golgotha. This is
the difference upon which I wish you to focus your attention.
Prior to the Mystery of Golgotha man could not yet experience
this re-birth, could not yet recognize that Christ lives in
him, because the Christ being had not yet flowed into mankind.
After the Mystery of Golgotha man can recognize Him. He can
find the spark of Christ in himself if he exerts himself in the
way he lives.
In
this re-birth, this finding of the Christ-spark in oneself, in
being able to say sincerely and honestly to oneself, “Not
I but the Christ in me,” lies the possibility of
preventing the intellect from falling prey to deception and
evil. And this, in the esoteric Christian sense, is the higher
concept of redemption. We must develop our intelligence, for we
must not become un-intelligent; but in striving to develop it
we are faced with the temptation to fall into error and evil.
We can escape this temptation only if we acquire a feeling for
what the Mystery of Golgotha has brought into mankind's
evolution.
It
is already so, that man in his consciousness of Christ, in his
union with Christ, can find the possibility of escaping evil
and error. The man of Egypt and Chaldea did not need re-birth
in Christ because he still felt his relationship with the
cosmos through his natural intelligence. The Greek faced the
seriousness of death when he surrendered to his intelligence.
Now mankind lives at the beginning of an age in which
intelligence would become evil if human souls would not let
themselves be permeated by the Christ-power. This is a very
serious matter. It shows how certain things that proclaim
themselves in our time have to be taken; how we have to be
aware that in our age men acquire the aptitude for evil
precisely because they approach a higher development of their
intelligence. It would of course be entirely wrong to believe
that we should suppress intelligence. It must not be
suppressed. But for the person with insight a certain courage
will be needed in future in surrendering to intelligence,
because it tempts one to evil and error; and because, in the
permeation of intelligence with the Christ-principle, we must
find the possibility of transforming intelligence. It would
become completely Ahrimanic if the Christ-principle were not to
permeate human souls.
You
see how much of what I have just characterized is already
coming to light, which is perceptible to a person with insight.
As you think about it, just notice how many cruelties permeate
our culture, cruelties with which the cruelties of barbarian
times cannot be compared. If you consider this you will hardly
doubt that the dawn of the decline in intelligence is
proclaiming itself. One should not look superficially at the
so-called cultural phenomena of our age. Nor should one doubt
that modern men have to arouse themselves to a real
comprehension of the Christ-impulse if evolution is to go
forward in a healthy way. Two evidences of this can be
definitely seen today: People who are very intelligent and have
a decided inclination toward evil; and many others who
subconsciously suppress but do not fight this inclination
toward evil, merely letting their intelligence sleep.
Drowsiness of the soul; or, with wakeful souls, a strong
inclination toward evil and error — this may be observed
at present.
Now
remember what I said to you here one evening before my last
journey, how different children are who were born within the
last five to eight years, from those born some decades earlier.
They have a trace of melancholy in their faces which is clearly
discernible. This comes from the fact that souls today do not
gladly descend into this world so filled with materialism. One
might say that the souls have a certain fear and reluctance to
enter the world in which intelligence is inclined toward evil
and is in a declining development.
This also is something future educators and teachers must take
into their consciousness. Children today are different from
those of some decades ago. Even superficial observation shows
this clearly. One has to educate and teach them differently
from previous times. One must teach out of awareness that one
has to bring about a salvation in the case of every individual
child; that one has to steer him toward finding the
Christ-impulse in the course of his life, toward finding a
re-birth within himself.
Such things must not live in the teacher as mere theory; they
can be introduced into one's teaching only if one is strongly
taken hold of by them in one's own soul. It must be demanded of
teachers especially that their souls be strongly gripped by the
anxiety that arises in confronting the temptation the intellect
offers. The pride that man takes today in his intellect might
indeed take its revenge if it were not checked by his being
consciously able to say, strongly and energetically, “The
best in me as a human being of this and following incarnations
is what I find in myself as the Christ-impulse.”
We
must, however, be clear that this Christ-impulse must not be
the dogmatism of some religious body. Since the middle of the
fifteenth century religious communities, instead of bringing
the Christ-impulse close to mankind, have contributed to its
alienation. The religious bodies pretend this or that, but in
doing so they do not bring the Christ-impulse near to man. It
is necessary for a person to feel that everything in relation
to the Mystery of Golgotha which can reveal itself to his
inmost being is connected with what has come into the earth
through that Mystery. If we experience the true meaning of the
earth as inherent in that Mystery, then we must bring ourselves
to say: The evolution of the earth would be meaningless if man
were to fall prey through his intelligence to evil and error.
Thus, if we feel wherein the real meaning of earth evolution
actually lies, we also feel that this evolution would be
senseless without the Mystery of Golgotha.
We
must permeate ourselves through and through with this
conviction if, today and in future, we wish to do something
toward man's education and instruction. We require these
comprehensive points of view. But you know how far people are
today from such views. Therefore, nothing is more necessary
than to point again and again not only to the importance of
spiritual scientific teaching, but to the seriousness that must
take hold of our souls through our learning to know through
spiritual science the pertinent facts in the evolution of
mankind. For not only our knowledge but our whole life is to
receive an impulse through spiritual science. Without our
feeling this seriousness we are not true scientists of the
spirit.
I
beg you to pay close attention to this particular revelation
out of spiritual science: That human intelligence, left to
itself, travels on the path toward the Ahrimanic; that it can
become active for the good only through taking in the true
Christ-impulse. I believe that whoever takes the full
seriousness of this truth into himself will also carry the same
seriousness into the relationship he forms to the various world
concepts and movements of the present time. Here there is much
to be done.
People who have recently come from the East of Europe tell with
great horror of a fact that indeed does not testify to an
advance on the path toward civilization. I refer to the coming
into existence of the so-called “gun-women.” This
is a special class of people, women of the East-European
population, who are being used in the present revolutionary
movements. In certain regions of the East young women are
chosen and equipped with guns left over from the war, and their
task is to shoot those people who are opposing the government
in power. These female gunmen are dressed up in stolen finery
and take their pleasure in carrying guns and shooting people.
They consider it to be in tune with modern attitudes to brag
about the fine feeling they have gradually acquired for the way
the blood of young people spurts out, and how the blood of
older people looks. In truth, we have arrived at a quite
special configuration of our modern civilization! For the
institution of gun-women is a development of the present
age.
We
have to point to such phenomena. They make us see the
counterpart of the seriousness of our age. Of course, we need
not know of these abominable excesses in our so-called
progressive culture in order really to feel this seriousness
which calls upon us for devoted attention to it at the present
time. Such seriousness arises in us out of knowing the
evolution of mankind itself. One could wish that the sleep
which has taken hold of modern man may pass over into an
awakening. The most worthy awakening can only consist in being
gripped by the earnestness of the task given to humanity, and
by seeing the danger of the intellect being one-sidedly left to
itself and moving in an Ahrimanic direction. This should be the
force permeating us with such earnestness.
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