LECTURE EIGHTEEN
September 22, 1924
View the blackboard drawing from the German edition for this lecture
We
have looked at the Apocalypse with respect to its inner spirit
and we have looked at it in connection with your work as
priests. One could of course say a great deal more in
connection with the Apocalypse; for instance, one could unroll
the whole composition of the Apocalypse, but it seems to me
that this conference in Dornach will get its best content if
what was said in connection with the Apocalypse will show up in
priestly activity in a really practical way.
We'll only have to add one more thing today. We should consider
that we're living in the consciousness soul age or at that
stage of man's overall evolution where he has to gain control
over his intellectuality, as it were, so that it's integrated
into his individuality. Of course to begin with this age is
still restricted to man's spirit or intellect, as it were,
where the things which are connected with the acquisition of
intellectuality occur within human thinking and reflection,
although a time will come when the deeper forces of the human
soul will also be taken hold of by that which now occurs more
within thinking, wishing and reflecting.
At
present man can only form ideas about how he should use the
intellectuality that is breaking into his individuality.
However, before this age of consciousness soul development is
over souls will be taken hold of by intellectuality right down
into their deepest emotions, feelings and passions. And then
what was still sought in the stars during the Middle Ages, when
one spoke of angelic intelligences in the stars and planets
will live even more deeply and pervasively in men.
All
of this will be deposited in men, and later on when the Jupiter
period comes even man's corporeality will be taken hold of by
intellectuality. However, at present, where the soul has still
not been taken hold of by intellectuality in its innermost
structure and men can grasp the important things in their
thoughts and words, it is possible to orient priestly
activities in such a way that the world goals can really be
attained.
So
you see things are like this; when men grab intellectuality
from the cosmos — and after all, it is a wise arrangement
of the world powers that he is taking possession of it —
there are always unguarded moments when it becomes possible for
the Ahrimanic power who is called Satan in Christian tradition
to take hold of this intellectuality that men have. Satan must
not be confused with the ordinary devil, who is a lower power
with different characteristics. Satan has the rank of a
Principality (Archai), and he took hold of this intellectuality
in the course of world evolution long before it approached men
in the described manner, and one could say that he possesses
more intellectuality than any other being. He is trying to bind
human intellectuality to his own to such an extent that men can
fall out of their evolution in this way. In other words, this
Ahrimanic power is trying to nullify the Mystery of Golgotha
and Christ's activity.
Now
this Ahrimanic power who is called Satan in Christian tradition
lacks the strength to work up further than the human level of
cosmic beings. So one shouldn't think that the intelligence of
an angel, for instance, could be taken hold of directly by this
Satanic power; this can only happen in certain exceptional
cases. These exceptional cases that could occur in the future,
where it might not only be possible for the Satanic power to
chain men to himself through their intellects, but also to bind
beings from the spheres of the angels and namely of the
archangels to himself — these things still belong to the
higher secrets of occultism that cannot be spoken about at
present, and that can only be disclosed under certain
conditions. So we can only indicate that a temptation and a
seduction of beings in the hierarchy of angels and namely of
archangels might be possible in the future, but we must reckon
with the fact that the power who is called Satan in Christian
tradition has the ability to cling to something in man's inner
life that is as independent as his intellectuality. And then
when the intellectuality which men contain is taken hold of by
the Ahrimanic power, a man can be torn out of evolution and can
be put on an entirely different course, simply because his
being is pulled along with the intelligence with which Satan is
able to connect himself.
This is only possible with man's intellectuality, and not with
any other psychical, spiritual or bodily force in him. For a
man's intelligence sits in him in such a way that it is the
most independent thing in him. Everything else is connected
with certain divine powers, and so if Satan were to do
anything with men's feelings, sensations, desires and wishes he
would still have to deal with the superhuman forces that are in
these soul-capacities. Intellectuality is the first thing
through which each human being can separate himself entirely
from the beings who bring about his personal evolution, and it
is the first thing in which he must freely connect himself
through his own efforts with those powers who have accompanied
his evolution right from the beginning. So that he has to
identify himself freely with the last goals of the Apocalypse,
where the Apocalypticer clearly indicates that the power who is
the Alpha and Omega of the creator beings who go through
evolution will appear, and each human being has to decide for
himself to attach himself to the being who led him during the
time when he was becoming cosmically mature.
To
be sure, Satan can use this great moment in the evolution of
humanity and he can pull men's intelligences and the men with
it into his own realm. We can already see how the Satanic power
is trying to bring men into its evolution in this way. The way
to do this is to bring people together in the kind of
associations that we see arising everywhere in a germinal form
today, where the old group souls end and a new group-soulness
can begin.
That is why what is occurring in eastern Europe today, for
instance, is so terribly Satanic because it all tends very
forcibly in the direction of putting people together in such a
way that group souls become necessary. If the most intelligent
people are then taken over into the lower Ahrimanic regions in
this way, the groups that are formed here can only be assigned
to Ahrimanic powers as groups. That would be a way for the
Satanic powers to tear mankind out of earth evolution and to
bring it into another planetary evolution. That kind of
activity with a group soul character can only succeed if the
intellectual element becomes completely emancipated in a
certain way.
Very clever beginnings in this direction are being made in the
east today, and priests should understand these beginnings for
their work, because they are becoming manifest in a very
forcible way in the east, but they're also present in central
and western Europe.
For
example, something that seems to be more or less harmless in
exoteric life but which must be discussed very seriously is the
way that psychology is being allowed to pass over into an
experimental observation of human souls. This is one of the
methods that will eventually prevent the soul elements from
working from man to man in the way that the old divine powers
intended, and psychical things will be determined in a
numerical way or some other way instead by the emancipated
intellectuality.
These things in central Europe and in the West are still
relatively harmless. However just consider, for example, that a
statistical, intellectualistic way of looking at things that is
emancipated from men's soul life has arisen in the west through
William James and others. They apply statistical methods to the
inner conversion of human beings or to what one could call a
finding of one's inner religious bearings— which occurs
in many people just before they're 20 years old. Many people
also experience an inner transformation after they're 20, which
is like a whirling up of the Godhead out of their own soul.
In
the U.S. they determine the percentage of the population that
undergoes such inner conversions, and they treat things in a
statistical manner. The Satanic thing about this is the
statistical treatment, the compilation of data, the emancipated
intellect. All these conversions are really the results of
karma, but then one has to look at each particular case. You
will find that statistical methods are praised to the skies in
all scientific fields today, if you follow such things at all.
People can't penetrate inner things anymore, and they try to
arrive at laws through statistics everywhere.
This is the hardest to combat in the medical field, where it
has caught on in the most terrible way, and where all clinical
methods tend in this direction. One simply records whether
medicaments have a positive or negative effect, etc., in a
statistical manner. This statistical element is becoming
established, but it is completely worthless in this field. For
it really tells one nothing to know how many cases went one way
and how many went the other way. The important thing is to have
a really thorough understanding of the individual case, no
matter how it turns out. Only when all the cognitional methods
have been pressed into the service of a study of the individual
cases and their individual forms, — only after one has
everything else through individual observations can one use
statistics at the end and say that the thing was favorable in
so and so many cases and unfavorable in the rest. As you know,
statistics are very popular in social studies and social
democracy.
The
statistical approach has also produced some very nonsensical
things in connection with suicides and crazy people. One
determines what percent of the people in particular professions
committed suicide or went crazy. But it has no real value to
know this. Because the important thing is to know why this
individual committed suicide and why that individual became
insane. And so with regard to this statistical approach which
scientists think is so important today when they write about
theories of knowledge, — it's really as if Satan were
loose: it's really quite terrible.
This approach has been successful for the Satanic power in
central Europe and in the east. It became a philosophy in
Avenarius and Mach, who were studied by leading Bolshevik
philosophers, who then brought the thing to Russia and made it
practical. Even good natured people who want evolution to
proceed in an orderly way don't pay much attention to the fact
that the seeds for Bolshevism were laid in central Europe
decades ago and were carried over to Russia; it's as if one
takes a seedling and transports it to another place where it is
supposed to grow up.
Thus this Satanic power is working hard today and he turns to
people everywhere and appeals to their emancipated intellect
that is disconnected with things in some way. This applies to
the soul, to the spirit, to inner conversions, etc. If Satan
were to succeed in bringing about what he wants to do within a
certain time, what has to approach then would occur in a
harmful way for the evolution of humanity.
For
the events of which the Apocalypticer speaks will come. It's
just a question of how they will occur. There's only two
possibilities: either human evolution will proceed in
accordance with the intentions of the gods, or it will not.
Intellectuality is breaking in now and men are becoming more
and more intelligent through their own efforts, and not through
inspiration. That is breaking in. But on the other hand mankind
has been kept weak by influences that come from the Luciferic
side. Even though the individual element is the only salutary
thing for mankind in this age of the individuality, which is
really a Christian age, groups will form, but these group
formations must be taken away from the danger that they're
in.
Through the efforts that the Satanic power is making to acquire
the intellectual forces of humanity, a time will come when this
Satanic power will be so strong that it will approach all
groups that will have formed. So that it will really come about
that Satan's power will work towards the four corners of the
world, and these smaller and larger groups — Gog and
Magog — will be exposed to the temptation and the
seduction of the Satanic power. What will be decided then is
whether or not those who have begun to work with spirituality
have developed such an intensity that human intellectuality can
be led to where it belongs with the aid of the Michael power,
namely, to the starting powers who were connected with the
origins of human evolution, and who want to lead what men have
become further, although men are left free. A great deal will
depend upon whether; men will get to the point where they will
fully understand real spirituality that has an inner order. In
priestly work one must already look at these affairs of
humanity now, for only if one succeeds in directing everything
into channels that run along these lines will the great
seduction scene that Satan intends with Gog and Magog turn out
in a way that is beneficial for human evolution.
Otherwise what men have experienced under the influence of
their developing individualities; since the year 666 after the
beginning of Christian evolution will someday have to be torn
out of humanity. Darkness would be spread over all previous
human incarnations and a new world evolution would replace the
earthly one. We can already see the beginnings of this quite
clearly, and we can also see the great danger that mankind is
in today. Ahrimanic powers possess an almost unbelievably large
amount of intellectuality, and they use men's vanity,
untruthfulness and all of their other weaknesses in order to
win them over. For instance, it is really quite terrible how
the Satanic powers used the vanities of men at the beginning of
the world war in order to create a tremendous turmoil in a few
days — after there had been a very deep state of sleep
— which put people in a great uproar, so that they're
still not sure what really happened.
But
it's only a phase. There are much worse phases in the purely
intellectual so-called spiritual battles of the present. For
where can one find truth anymore? One sees that things are
being introduced everywhere in such a way that truth of action
or a true way of working is becoming less and less important
for men today. Just think of how they're increasingly trying to
put the spiritual life under the control of the state. Just
look at how much of our spiritual life is under state
control.
All
of these things expose humanity to a great danger, but men are
not inclined to develop a real understanding along these lines.
You could see this when the first attempt was made to do
something with the threefolding movement so that the seduction
by Gog and Magog that is to happen in the future can be brought
into channels that are favorable for humanity. The threefolding
idea should have led mankind over the threshold of evolution,
and also would have had to lead it across, but the way it was
received shows the tremendous dangers that mankind is exposed
to with respect to these things, and priests should take these
things very seriously.
There was an individual in the early Christian centuries who
lived in the place where the actual church battle occurred
which then made preparations in Europe for the Christianity
that had been present in Rome throughout the centuries, who
experienced the year 666 and perceived what really went on
there with a certain clairvoyant power. This particular
individual saw quite clearly and spiritually that the Satanic
power was preparing itself for such a mission. Like many other
people, this individual later confused the Satanic power that
Michael knows is higher than he is, with the devil of the
Middle Ages; he speaks of the devil, but in such a way that one
sees that he really means the Satanic power. He reincarnated in
Berlin in the first half of the 19th century; he was a high
school teacher by the name of Drandorf. He spoke about the
devil, that is, about Satan, and he wrote an article Is the
Devil a Figment of the Imagination? You should also study his
book on aesthetics some time. Drandorf remained relatively
unknown; the consistorial and supreme consistorial counselors
in Berlin were his enemies.
What all of this amounts to is: will you priests be able to
represent the spiritual world in its full reality and not just
in the sentimental way in which this has occurred everywhere in
the last few centuries, so that one doesn't want to bring in
the evil powers whenever one is speaking about the spirit. In
other words, the main question is whether there is enough
energy among you to really represent spirituality. The main
thing is that such things like a knowledge of karma or an
honest look, at earlier earth lives presuppose the same
attitude of soul as the perception of the celebration of
transubstantiation during an act of consecration of man.
These ideas must become real for men again. Only if they become
real will it become possible to bring everything that is
connected with the perspectives for humanity which the
Apocalypticer wanted so much to present, into the right
channels. It should be emphasized that the things that were
discussed here in connection with the Apocalypse are truths
which one should not receive without uniting them with one's
whole being, which one should not receive without looking upon
them as a kind of communion.
So
one would like to say that a church is outwardly real, and it
embraces the faithful members of the congregation. And the
priesthood must look upon itself as that group of people in the
church through whose activity a spiritual element flows into
humanity. For this they need the right understanding and a
little chapel for the sacraments and the consecrated bread and
wine, which contains the secret of transubstantiation.
And
one would like to say: If we imagine that we have a chalice, in
which transubstantiation takes place, then men look for a way
to the Father through transubstantiation. They look for a way
to that creative power in the primal world which is present in
there in a fully real way, and which therefore cannot be found
if one only goes towards the material or only towards the
spiritual. It can only be found if one discovers that the
spiritual and the material are a unity. An understanding of the
world is only present today when a transubstantiation is
carried out at an altar. A sacred search for the Father really
still occurs there, and here the Son always shows men the way
to the Father; the Son who now mediates the way to the
spirit.
And
so when a man looks at what appears everywhere in the physical
things during transubstantiation he can find the completely
hidden spirit and the working of the Seraphim, Cherubim and
Thrones in the physical things. Their concealed activity
becomes manifest as physical substances. If one wants to have
the latter as something spiritual, one has to take the path to
the Father. The path to the Father is indicated by the Son, and
he then brings it about that the spiritual appears out of the
physical.
Bread is bread, but one can look for the Father in it; this can
also be shown for the wine. Christ shows the way; the
transubstantiation puts an aura around the bread; man
experiences the spirit in the aura. The wine reinforces what is
present in the bread (drawing: sun). And so one can say that
the longing for the Father is present in the sensory aspect
that conceals the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. Christ leads
each human being on the path, so that Kyriotetes, Dynamis and
Exusiai become active before him in the way ye indicated
yesterday, and he ascends into that region where he can only
perceive the spirituality of the spiritual world today in
angels, archangels and Archai, who however have the Holy Spirit
in their midst.
To
understand this and to draw the right conclusion from it today
is written in the Apocalypse. What does that mean? It means
that the one who understands it finds his own understanding
already traced out in the Apocalypse. Hence one can say that
whether or not the Apocalypse is speaking about you depends
upon you and upon whether you will it.
For
if you take the impulses in the Apocalypse into your work as
priests in a truly spiritual way, you will be the ones who are
spoken of in the Apocalypse, who will come and will ward off
the power of the beast, the false prophet and Satan. And then
at least in your mind you will always think that the book of
the Apocalypse is placed underneath the chalice when it is
standing there for the transubstantiation. And as you imagine
that the chalice is standing on the apocalyptic book, you will
be able to say to yourselves: My vocation is in the latter. And
what we do over it is the carrying out of my vocation.
And
so I didn't want to give you a theoretical exposition during
this conference. After the justified wish arose in you to hear
something about the Apocalypse I wanted to give you what I did
and therewith I wanted to place the Apocalypse underneath the
chalice for you, at least in your minds. That is the goal I had
in mind for these lectures. You will definitely succeed in
attaining the things that are possible if you intensify the
ideals of your work as greatly as you can if you make these
serious studies of the Apocalypse into the innermost impulse of
your own activity. That is what I wanted to place before you at
the end of these reflections. You can imagine that the most
intensive thoughts about an intensive, forceful activity that
is worthy of your great task will accompany everything that you
will do in connection with these reflections.
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