Lecture XIII
Dornach, September 4, 1920
Yesterday, I
tried from a certain angle to point out the need for a
structural organization of the social order. At the same time
I drew attention to the fact that what in spiritual science
may be termed presentation of proof consists in recognizing
that these facts under discussion are supported from the most
varied aspects; finally, that the degree of conviction
increases in proportion to the amount of such support.
I should like
to repeat briefly what has been brought forward. We are
familiar with the constitution of the human being; we know
that he is composed of physical body, etheric body, astral
body, and what we call the ego. We are also aware, however,
that this constitution of man is something that is, so to
speak, in a state of flux. You can follow my descriptions in
my books,
Theosophy
and
Occult Science,
and
you will learn from them that physical, etheric, astral body
and finally also the ego are not really something static.
Instead, you will find that the purpose of human evolution
consists in the very fact that man, throughout his repeated
lives on earth, works upon these members of his organization.
Thus, after a certain time, after a certain number of
incarnations, he is born in such a way that it is possible to
say that he normally consists, as it were, of physical body,
etheric body, astral body and ego. Then, however, he first
begins to work on his ego, continuing this work through a
number of incarnations. When the ego has been strengthened,
having completed a certain amount of work on itself, this
work then passes over to the astral body. Again, when, with
the help of the ego and through its own efforts, the astral
body has in this manner completed inner work upon itself,
then this activity passes over to the etheric body and
finally to the physical body. Here, however, we already enter
the realm of the distant future. For you know that the human
being essentially retains his outer form throughout the
incarnations that we trace in the first place. You also know
from my
Occult Science
that this human form has
undergone fundamental changes in the course of time and will
also continue to do so in the future. These changes, these
metamorphoses, are imposed upon it by the activity of the
more refined members of the human organism, the astral and
etheric bodies, in their work of perfecting the physical
body. Ultimately, in distant future times, man's physical
body, too, will assume different forms.
Now, this work
that the human being performs upon the members of his
organism is connected with the human environment, just as man
is similarly connected since his primal beginning with his
natural environment through his individual members.
We must indeed
be clear about one thing. Let us take the physical body of
man. It stands as a unique phenomenon within the natural
order. In a way, it is lifted out of this natural order. If
we are sufficiently observant of the strong differentiation
existing between the human being and the various species of
the animal kingdom, we cannot help but say that the human
being should not simply be placed at the end of the animal
kingdom as the evolution theorists would have it. He is not
only a composite of all animal forms in the entire animal
kingdom; he is also a composite at a higher stage. Therefore,
we can class this physical body of man with nothing but
itself. In all that surrounds us, in all our natural
environment, we are unable to find anything that could be
placed in the same category with the physical body of the
human being. This human physical body, then, stands by itself
(see outline on next page).
Proceeding
inward, we now advance to the etheric body. Here we reach
man's next and already mobile component. In a way that some
of you may feel is peculiar, I have already described to you
the extent of the etheric body's mobility. It has the
tendency to confront the animal world in a certain way,
having a particular affinity with this realm. I have said
that when we confront an elephant, a donkey, a calf, or other
animal shapes, our etheric body has the inner tendency to
imitate the given form, to become similar to it. It is
prevented from carrying this out entirely, but it has the
inner tendency to assume these animal forms. It has a special
kinship with them. Due to the forces concentrated in the
physical body, the etheric body is prevented from realizing
these tendencies, but it strives to do so. One of the first
experiences of initiation is the emergence of this inner
tension and urge in regard to the animal world, of wishing to
become like the animals. Thus we can say that concerning his
physical body the human being is not related to the
animal world, but his etheric body displays a quite decided
kinship with that world.
We now advance
to the astral body. Here we come across a similar inner
relationship to the plant world. When the astral body faces
the plant kingdom, it has the tendency to become plantlike,
that is, to become like the particular plant it confronts. I
said to you yesterday, rather as an aid for your memory, that
if we stand in front of a donkey that is eating thistles, our
etheric body desires to resemble the donkey and the astral
body the thistle. This is a fact. In this way, we are related
to the kingdoms of nature surrounding us. With our astral
body, we are related to the plant world.
Physical Body
Etheric Body: Animal World
Astral Body: Plant
World
Ego:
Mineral World
As I have said,
in regard to our ego we are related to the mineral world.
That seems natural, for it is something inaccessible to
immediate consciousness, something that we can also establish
most easily in regard to ordinary consciousness. In fact, we
owe the entire content of our consciousness to this kinship
with the mineral world. We form the content of our
consciousness essentially out of the mineral realm. I have
told you that it is due to the fact that man's ego in its
present condition is organized in the direction of the
mineral world that we are unable through our scientific
efforts to advance to an apprehension of the plant world, let
alone the animal world. We are unable to lay hold of the
living and continue to argue back and forth whether the
living can be comprehended or not. Only people who, like
Goethe, proceed from a different manner of perception can
acquire an awareness of the fact that the living can, in a
certain way, be entered into. In the same manner as ordinary
consciousness merely traces man's kinship to the mineral
world, initiation, of course, offers the possibility of
tracing inwardly what takes place in the astral body in
regard to the plant world, or in the etheric body regarding
the animal world.
I also told you
that the human being works on his ego. Throughout his
repeated earth lives he develops his ego. He thus transforms
the content born out of the mineral kingdom. He creates from
it his science, his art, and his religion. Everything that in
this way appears as the content of culture and civilization
is, basically speaking, transformed mineral kingdom.
Imagine, for
example, that you are looking at a Greek statue. There is, of
course, no life in it. All that is circumscribed by the
mineral, however, such as form and structure, has been
attained by you because of your transformation and here it is
an artistic transformation — of the images and
sensations you have been able to receive directly into your
consciousness from the mineral kingdom.
So it is with
the other contents of culture. In every cultural content,
insofar as it consists of art, science and religion, is
expressed what the ego has achieved as work upon itself,
naturally in cooperation with other humans, and what is,
essentially, transformed content derived from the mineral
kingdom. Whoever pursues these matters without prejudice will
find that in the activity of the ego he is dealing with a
transformed content won from the mineral kingdom.
By strictly
defining what lives in man's social environment, we discover
the following. Everything brought into being because the ego
transforms the content gained from the mineral realm and
forms it into a cultural life (which then exists in our midst
as art, as literature, science, religious denominations or
the contents of their creeds, in fact all that is essentially
comprehended by means of the ego's self-transformation)
defines quite clearly what we call the cultural realm of the
threefold social organism. Here you have, then, the
possibility of strictly defining the spiritual or cultural
domain of the threefold social organism. Such a spiritual
domain would not exist at all were the ego not to transform
its own being so that it can work artistically, religiously
and scientifically on what is derived from the mineral
kingdom.
We transform
our astral body, too, though not in the same conscious manner
in which we transform our ego. If we survey the content of
our culture, we find its most conscious component parts to be
those from the spiritual domain just characterized. Only half
conscious are the concepts that regulate the life between man
and man (although here they have come into existence most
poignantly) and comprise the life of rights and all that
pertains to the sphere of rights — namely, the
relationships between man and man. Anyone who cannot
comprehend the difference between a concept belonging to the
religious, scientific or artistic sphere with one pertaining
to the sphere of rights, of the state, is without doubt not a
good psychologist or observer of the soul. In a very
different way do we regulate the relations, the dim awareness
between people: What is my duty to the other person? What are
his rights and what are mine? All these questions playing
between man and man issue from a much dimmer consciousness
than that which deals with science, religion and art. The
realm of interplay between man and man, where matters cannot
be decided by individuals as in science, art or religion,
which can be determined only by human social life, by
agreement and reciprocal understanding, is the realm that
comprises the life of jurisprudence or the state, the sphere
of rights of the threefold social organism.
We experience
with an even duller consciousness a third domain that comes
into existence because we transform our etheric body. This is
a domain of which we acquire an awareness in a most indirect
manner through all kinds of vague dietetic rules and so
forth. It is a domain which we experience almost in a state
of sleep and which sends its effects into full consciousness
to such a slight degree that not even the relations between
people can throw light on it. The domain of rights can be
illuminated by the mutual agreement between people, and it
constitutes a certain ideal of our social order that in the
sphere of rights we have introduced full democracy where all
people of legal age are equal and can secure their rights
through mutual understanding. The dullness of consciousness
which has as its content the transformation of the astral
body suffices for the individual when he is sustained by an
understanding with his fellowman. The human being must grasp
science on his own; religion he must generate for himself;
art he must bring forth from the wellspring of his individual
being, the innermost fountain of his personality. These must
proceed from the most wide awake, clearest consciousness.
Here, he must rely entirely upon himself, upon his
individuality. One even considers it somewhat abnormal that
associations have recently cropped up from time to time in
the arts. As a rule, they usually consisted only of two
people, as when playwrights collaborate. Occasionally one
reads in theater programs, “Popular Comedy by X. Y. and
U. Z.” In most instances, however, as those familiar
with this field know, it is not a proper association of two.
As a rule, some elderly gentleman who in his youth had
written plays, but whole talent, if such it can be called,
has since evaporated, enters into an agreement with an as yet
unknown young man, lets him write the drama, makes a few
corrections, and has now added his name to it. Thus, the
young playwright, too, has slid into the limelight. In this
manner, “associations” have come about in this
area, but anybody senses that this is something abnormal, for
what actually belongs to the spiritual sphere must also
belong entirely to the personality of an individual. By
comparison, with regard to the settlement of rights, the
human being is able to manage if, as an individual
personality, he has the support of another individual. This,
however, does not suffice in reference to a sphere into which
consciousness does not really penetrate. In the etheric body
where etheric processes run their course, it is not enough if
man as an individual confronts another individual. Where man
as an individual confronts mankind as a whole, it is
necessary to form associations; it is necessary that
judgments or decisions be formulated by individuals in
association, hence, that individuals Pool their experiences.
Deeds and accomplishments then must spring from associations,
not from individual personalities Here we are referred to a
life where the individual person can do nothing by himself,
where he can accomplish something only when he is part of an
association, and where the association enters into reciprocal
relationships with another association. In short, we are
directed to what really takes place within the human social
community in this duller consciousness — the economic
sphere of the social organism.
Thus we can say
that if we look in a backward direction at what the human
being represents today, in the direction of nature, we find
him grounded with his etheric body in the animal world, with
his astral body in the plant world, with his ego in the
mineral world. He does, however, transform these existing
component members of his. He transforms his etheric body; as
a consequence of this, the economic sphere arises around him
in the life of the human community, the economic life in
which, in turn, he is grounded with his etheric body in the
outer world, in the social organism. With his astral body,
man is anchored in the rights sphere of the social organism;
with his ego he is grounded in its cultural sphere. Thus, as
human beings, we stand linked together with the three
kingdoms of nature on the one side; on the other side, we are
linked with the social life in accordance with the three
members of the social order: the spiritual, the rights, and
the economic.
Physical Body
Etheric Body: Animal World
Economic Sphere
Astral Body: Plant World
Rights
Sphere
Ego:
Mineral
World Cultural Sphere
We must now
proceed from the basis of a completely clear manner of
conception in order to deepen still further this whole
insight we have thus gained. Let us keep well in mind that
the social order in its structural organization is brought
about by the metamorphosis of our etheric body, astral body
and ego that we carry out in successive earth lives. Looking
at it in this way, we find, as it were, what man contributes
on his own to the emergence of the social life by means of
the structure of his organism. The social life, in turn,
reacts upon the human being. Up to now we have considered the
will aspect of the social life. We observed how it comes into
existence, how it flows out of the configuration of human
nature. Keep in mind that it is present in reality when it
has flown out! So, the economic sphere flows out of the
etheric body or out of the transformation of the latter; the
rights sphere arises from the astral body; the spiritual or
cultural sphere from the transformation of the ego. Now,
these three spheres, having thus issued forth, are then
realities and in turn react upon the human being. First, he
produces them out of his own being; then they react upon
him.
You see, we
must also take into consideration this second form of human
interaction. We can say of it that it is more from the aspect
of cognition. What we have considered so far, namely, the
manner in which the human being brings about the threefold
social organism, was more from the will aspect. Now we turn
more to the cognitive side, and consider what kind of
impressions arise when man's environment reacts in turn on
him. Then, observation shows that the spiritual sphere reacts
upon the human physical body, although only to a very slight
degree in the present incarnation. To be sure, it can to some
extent be noted that the human being, as he develops within a
certain relationship to his environment, adopts something
from his environment insofar as it is the cultural sphere. If
a person grows up in an artistic atmosphere, one who is
sensitive to this will note it in his physiognomy. A prosaic
environment will, likewise, be noticeable. However, this is
only a matter of a most delicate nuance of life. For the most
part, we can say that in regard to the way it is formed in
this earth life, man's physical body-does not exhibit a
strong influence from the spiritual environment. All the
stronger is this influence in regard to the following earth
lives. It is true that in our subsequent incarnations our
physiognomy will bear the marked result of our spiritual
environment in this life. The way we look today, the kind of
physiognomy we now possess, is essentially due to the
influence of the spiritual environment in which we spent our
previous earth life. If one has a feeling for this —
although this is possible, I might say, only in a certain
general sense — one can, indeed, see in the face of a
person the sort of environment in which he lived in previous
earth lives. Certain discrepancies also arise from matters
such as these which, at times, confront us quite emphatically
in human life.
Imagine, let us
say, that in regard to his former incarnation a person
descends from a cultured family; he now grows up in an
uncultured family. His face then bears that subtle nuance of
life that I spoke of before, although, perhaps to a trifling
degree. Perhaps, in his face, he strongly reveals what he
brought over from his former earth life. Often, it is only in
this context that one understands how it is possible that a
crude fellow can sometimes have quite delicate features. The
things in human life are related, indeed, in decidedly
complicated ways.
Now we can say:
Yes, but the human being does not take along his physical
body into his next earth incarnation; after all, he discards
it. This is true of the physical substance, but I should like
to repeat what I said some time ago (drawing). What you
actually behold as the physical body in its form is not the
physical organism of man; it is the form (see
drawing). Into this form, matter is merely inserted. It is
absorbed by the form. The form is something absolutely
spiritual, and I refer to this form when I speak of the
effect of the spiritual sphere upon the physical body. What
is discarded are only the material particles that are built
into the form. The form man possesses is not laid aside; on
the contrary, it sends it effects into the next life,
especially what is developed through the agility and
nimbleness of the limbs, hands and arms, feet and legs. This
comes to expression in the shape of the head in the next
incarnation.
The physical
organism, then, decidedly bears its traces into the next
earth life, carrying them into it in accordance with the
provision of the cultural sphere that surrounds it in this
life.
The rights
sphere, on the other hand, reacts upon the etheric body (see
drawing below). After death, while the physical body —
its material substance, not the form — is delivered
over to the earth, the etheric body is surrendered to the
cosmos and dissolves into it. What is present and active as
forces in it, however, is borne across into the next earth
life, or at least affects it. Actually, however, through
spiritual science we can know empirically that it does so
only to a very slight degree. Whereas the form of the
physical body powerfully transmits its effect into the next
earth incarnation and, along with it, all that it has gained
from the cultural sphere surrounding the physical body, what
now comes from the rights sphere in the etheric body works,
first of all, upon the cosmos. This is a most important
discovery made by the science of initiation.
We live in this
world. Because of the way and manner in which we have been
placed into the social context of the world, we have a
certain state of mind. We confront those with whom we come
into contact in life with certain rights' concepts or
concepts and sensations resembling the feelings of rights.
This gives our soul a certain configuration. Simply speaking,
let us say that I have a certain relationship to ten people
in life. The one I love, the other I hate, I am indifferent
to the third, I am dependent on the fourth, the fifth is
dependent on me, and so on. In the most diverse ways, then,
my rights and duties concerning these ten persons are
outlined. All this crystallizes into a certain soul state in
me, but not only in a superficial manner, for the emotional
fiber of my soul is conditioned by it. This Position within
the social order from the viewpoint of the rights sphere
brings about a certain configuration of my etheric body,
which is transmitted to the cosmos upon my death. After this
body separates from me, what vibrates in my etheric body here
(on earth) continues to vibrate in the cosmos, causing
further reverberations.
Unfortunately,
such things pass entirely unnoticed by what today is called
science. Consequently, this science has no consciousness of
the more intimate relationships between human life and cosmic
life. The course taken by wind and weather today, hence the
manner in which the rhythm of our external climate develops,
is essentially the continuation of rhythms, brought about by
the life of rights in the social organism of past ages.
The human being
stands indeed in a certain relationship to outer reality,
even the reality of nature. It is important to realize that
what develops all around us as the sphere of rights is not
something merely abstract, man-made, arising and again
disappearing; instead, what is at first a thought content,
having its being initially in the realm of rights, lives in a
subsequent age of earth existence in the atmosphere, in the
vibrations, in the entire configuration, and in the movements
of the atmosphere.
If man
understands this properly, it gives him a sense of his
connection with the entire life of the earth. Only this
allows him to realize how significant it is whether he
develops one or another kind of political life, a good or bad
life of rights. All things physical, in fact, derive
originally from something given order or disorder by spirit.
Spiritual science, therefore, must insist that the human
being has a fully alive, conscious evolutionary connection
with the cosmos.
What is it like
today? In our present era of decadence we have reached the
point where we apprehend nature with abstract concepts. We
construct a natural science that is actually devoid of all
that lives in the human being, a natural science offering a
content that fundamentally is not the content of human life;
and what the human being experiences within himself stands in
no relationship to what is occurring outside him. This is one
side of the picture.
On the other
side, the human being, though completely separated, as it
were, from this knowledge of nature that he develops, is
supposed to advance to a sort of awareness of God, or to a
consciousness of his relationship to God. Both these views
will have nothing to do with each other, really cannot have
anything to do with each other because of the manner in which
they have evolved to the present day. Spiritual science, on
the contrary, shows in concrete detail how the human being is
not only connected with the whole world, but how he himself
cooperates with it. Out of what arises we can Interpret the
way man has lived in previous earth lives. In earlier
incarnations, we founded legal systems. Now we live again. We
have a certain kind of weather, wind and so forth, seasons
with this or that configuration. Now we experience
externally, in the atmosphere, what once upon a time we set
up as the order of justice. Here, man in his consciousness
grows into what surrounds him as his environment. We no
longer talk here abstractly and in general of man's having a
consciousness of God within him, of forming a unity with the
surrounding world; here we learn to recognize in detail how
this unity is constituted, how the human being is joined with
the entire universe.
Just think,
what would we know of the human being if we had no idea that
it is the blood of his head that flows through his legs, if,
therefore, insofar as it is enclosed within the skin, we did
not consider the entire circulation processes in the
organism? In the same way that we cannot consider the head by
itself, for instance, ignoring the connection to the
remaining organism, we must not consider the human being in
one earth life by itself; instead, we have to focus on the
cycle of metamorphosis. What at one time is a social system
of rights conceived by the mind will become an order of
nature at another, albeit distant, future time. With the help
of spiritual science one can see how the thought-out
political order of one age is connected with the atmospheric
order of nature of another time.
If these views
evolve in such a manner that man's sense of participation in
the world, his feeling of oneness with it, is thereby
intensified, then indeed will that indispensable
reconciliation take place between science and religion that
is absolutely necessary to the upbuilding of our social
life.
Just as the
rights sphere acts upon the etheric body and the cultural
sphere upon the physical body, so does the economic sphere
act upon the astral body, and we may say that it is just upon
this innermost principle of human nature that the economic
sphere acts. You must distinguish the following: The economic
sphere originates from the etheric body, but when, in turn,.
it reacts upon the human being, it reacts upon the astral
body. The reaction is unlike that which proceeds from the
human being. It is impossible merely to construe these
matters schematically, for they must be derived empirically
from observation. Because the economic sphere acts upon the
astral body, brotherliness that should exist in the economic
sphere is borne through the portal of death, for the human
being takes along his astral body for a certain time. What is
thus established by virtue of brotherliness in the human soul
is carried through death into the spiritual world, and there
continues to be effective as such. Thus, what has already
been discussed by me from other points of view appears again
from this particular aspect.
The economic
sphere (that is to say, the manner and method by which, in
associations, we form the basis for our economic decisions
and actions together with our fellow men) reacts on man's
astral body and shapes it. It is, in fact, this formation of
the astral body, attained because of brotherliness in the
economic sphere, which the human being carries through death.
As an idealist or perhaps even a mystic, one ought not to
hold the economic sphere in particularly low esteem, for it
is just in this sphere that we can develop brotherhood, as
has often been pointed out. The spiritual element that is
brought into the apparently material life is the very aspect
acquired by the human being for his higher realm. What we
establish in the cultural or spiritual sphere we draw from
the mineral kingdom; it is something that we basically carry
within our predispositions that we bring with us through
birth. What we implant in the economic sphere, on the other
hand, is something so strongly united with the soul that we
bear it with us through the portal of death.
Physical Body
|
|
|
|
Etheric Body
|
Animal Kingdom
|
Economic Sphere
|
Astral Body
|
Astral Body
|
Plant Kingdom
|
Rights Sphere
|
Etheric Body
|
Ego
|
Mineral Kingdom
|
Cultural Sphere
|
Physical Body
|
|
|
Considered from
|
Considered from
|
|
|
Will Aspect
|
Cognitional Aspect
|
The facts are
such that we must say, yes, people believe themselves to be
idealists, or mystics, and feel obliged to disdain
materialism, but no one becomes an idealist by disdain of
materialism. Rather, he is an idealist if he knows how to
spiritualize matter. What counts is not that we confront the
economic life in false abnegation, that we scorn and slight
it, but that we shape the economic life so that it bears the
impression of the spirit everywhere, that this economic
member of the social organism becomes a sphere molded and
impregnated with the spirit by man. This is what is
essentially decisive for the future.
And on a small
scale, as I have already mentioned, this does make itself
felt through the fact that people believe they are idealistic
and spiritual if they deny the spirit any material tribute
and think: It is not necessary really to offer this or that
sacrifice to the spirit. The spiritual is, after all,
spiritual — so they say — one must esteem it
highly, not drag it into the dust by giving money, of all
things, as an offering for it! By that token a proper
idealist would be one who says to himself, “Oh, I
revere the spirit, but I keep my wallet closed and do nothing
for the care of the spiritual life!” One despises
matter, despises above all the worst, the most Ahrimanic form
of matter, closing one's purse tightly so as to make sure
that nothing can escape to sustain the life of the spirit.
These are facts that in some degree are connected with the
state of mind so easily arising in idealists and mystics.
Matter is scorned rather than spiritualized. Where does this
contempt for matter come from? It arises because today's
idealists and mystics are frequently the greatest
materialists, because they are so controlled by matter that
they can resist it in no other way than by dreaming
themselves into a contempt of it. Their contempt, however, is
only imagined. They despise matter, because they themselves
cannot cope with it. They are too deeply immersed in it.
We must be
clearly aware that certain feelings and attitudes exist in
our time that are really only masks. Many a person parading
around as a mystic today is just a materialist, as I have had
occasion to explain from other aspects in the last few weeks.
From what I have tried to bring close to you today, it
becomes apparent, above all else, how, through spiritual
science, the feeling of solidarity between the human being
and the world can awaken and become more and more intense. In
our present time this is necessary!
Actually, man
has been able to arrive at a certain point in his evolution
because he did not have to contribute anything to it. In the
course of earth's evolution, we have proceeded from the
beginning of earthly existence itself. In the beginning of
earth evolution divine spiritual beings provided for us; they
incorporated into the earth's organization the soil, the
climate, finally even the cultural life. You know that there
were great teachers in the mystery centers whose teachers
were in turn the gods themselves. Thus, nothing human had
been stored up; instead, the divine had been taken over. The
gods had provided for mankind everything that was at hand in
good order. This has essentially vanished in our time; I have
shown you this in the most varied connections. The
catastrophic character of our age is connected with this
dissipation of the primeval, divine content and the creation
of a new content by human beings on their own. They then
create this new content not merely for human life in the
cultural, political and economic sphere, but also for what
issues forth from these domains into the life of nature; and
the future of the earth must be man's own creation, his own
concern.
In regard to
humanity's present mentality, therefore, the views of a
person like Spengler are quite correct, unless men
awaken that inner fountain which can give rise not only to
creative impulses for the activities of the cultural,
political and economic spheres, but which must act creatively
out of these spheres for all of earth life, including the
life of nature itself. For civilization will not only pass
over into barbarism, as Spengler has already proven
scientifically, but the whole earth will approach its doom,
will never reach its goal. If only people would imbue
themselves with this awareness that the future events of
earth evolution depend on humanity itself! For then, out of
this feeling, the powerful impulse could emerge that we need
today in order to lead the obviously declining order of the
world again into an ascending direction, in order to
challenge the drowsy souls who refuse to see what is actually
happening, in order to transform these sleepy souls into
awakened ones. We need an alert humanity today. Only a
watchful mankind can survey what occurs around it and know
the tasks placed upon it by the course of human evolution, in
regard to which present mankind is being confronted with
severe tests.
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