Lecture Three
IMPULSES OF TRANSFORMATION
FOR MAN'S ARTISTIC EVOLUTION II
Dornach, 30th December 1914
We can obtain
maybe the best survey of what ought to enter into our souls
and hearts as a result of our efforts in spiritual science if
we turn our attention for a moment to the greater part of
what I have dealt with in my book
Occult Science, an Outline.
Leaving aside the introductory chapters, which
are necessary as a preparation for the subject, we can begin
with those chapters that introduce us to the being of man,
his relation to birth and death, and his life in the
spiritual worlds. After this comes a description of the great
cosmic relationships, of course only in rough outlines; we
are led through the transformations of our earth before it
became the earth, through the Saturn, Sun, and Moon
evolutions leading up to our present Earth evolution. Then
follows a sketch in the form of brief hints giving us a
glimpse of the future Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan evolutions.
Finally, instead of a more detailed description of the
Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan evolutions we have an account of
what must be undergone by the individual who wishes to set in
motion within his being those inner soul experiences which
must eventually lead him to initiation. These processes have
been described in greater detail up to a certain stage in the
book
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds: How is it Achieved?.
It will
become apparent that for us spiritual science falls into two
parts. In one part we describe cosmic relationships; we
describe how what we have before us today as the earth and
its beings and as the rest of the cosmos has been coming into
existence out of the very, very distant past, and we
describe the prospect of how it will develop further. If you
review the many observations that we have made, you will see
that a large part of them are in a way under the influence of
what we take into ourselves concerning the development and
coming into being of the cosmos.
The other
part of spiritual science is concerned for us with what the
soul must do in order to enter the spiritual worlds or, in
other words, to reach initiation. It is these inner
experiences, conquests, battles, redemptions, and
achievements of the soul with which we are always concerned
in this second sphere of observation.
Our observations always belong essentially to one or other of
these two spheres.
Starting now
with the first sphere of observations, we see that by
describing the Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions up to the
present Earth evolution, we are placing something in the
world which is entirely contrary to both the religious and
the scientific world concepts of today; indeed the modern
world for the most part considers these descriptions to be
absurd. It is quite natural that to our modern minds a
description of a world order appropriate, for instance, to
the conditions of the Saturn evolution must appear too
fantastic; the description of a cosmic order of this kind
must appear to our present way of looking at things as
absolute nonsense, as something that cannot exist, as the
outcome of fantastic speculation. And this is just as true of
the other parts of our portrayal.
Now bear in
mind a remark that I have made here several times: The human
being does not only sleep at night, when his conscious
thoughts and ideas are dulled, but a part of his being is
also asleep during the day. At night it is more the life of
concepts that is asleep; but during the day, in a part of our
being, the life of the will is more asleep. The will sleeps
in the depths of our bodily being, or at least a large part
of the will sleeps thus. This sphere of our will is much more
comprehensive than the part which we develop consciously; the
latter is only a small part. We may say with complete
assurance that in his ordinary daily consciousness, either at
work or enjoying leisure, the human being is really for the
most part a sleepwalker. A vast number of things take place
within him unconsciously; and even a great part of what seems
to be done consciously is, in reality, done half or more than
half unconsciously.
If we observe
the human being exactly in what he does half or more than
half unconsciously, then we may see with our spiritual eyes
that during sleep he is not nearly so unbelieving as when
awake. When awake his modern view of the world prompts him to
say: The description of the Saturn evolution in a book like
Occult Science is pure and absolute nonsense! Of course he
must say this. But as a complete human being he does not
speak like this; for he carries within himself something
through which he — if I may say so — knows
unconsciously that there was once upon a time a Saturn
existence. He does something which proves that he in a
certain way unconsciously remembers this Saturn existence: he
becomes an architect. Architecture would never have come into
being if man did not now carry within himself the laws which
were imprinted on his physical body during the ancient Saturn
period. Yesterday we discussed how these laws in the physical
body can be projected into the space outside, where they
become the laws of architecture. Man mysteriously projects
into the laws of architecture all that he took into his being
during the ancient Saturn period. Obviously he has to use
such means as are at his disposal today; accordingly the
present aspect of architecture is quite different from what
we know of ‘Saturn architecture’. But the
essential and living elements in our architectural activities
stem from what was implanted in us during the ancient Saturn
evolution.
Let us enter
still deeper into the matter which we thus place before our
souls. What does the human being do when he becomes totally
absorbed in the creativity of architecture, either as the
architect or as the observer or admirer? He lives within the
Saturn laws of his physical body; if he immerses himself
entirely into the laws of architecture, he forgets all about
the life of his etheric body, his astral body and his ego: he
becomes once more a Saturn man. All the impressions produced
by architecture, its austerity, its chaste proportions, its
silence which is yet so eloquent, result from the fact that,
abandoning the higher members of his being, he immerses
himself in what was given to him by the spirits of the higher
hierarchies, the Thrones and Archai, who were active at the
beginning of the Saturn period. It was mainly these two
groups of higher spirits who were active then, assisted by
the other beings belonging to the higher hierarchies.
So when he
creates or enjoys architecture (where it is a case of real
art of course), the human being really lifts himself not only
out of the present Earth existence but also out of the more
distant past and places himself once more into the period of
Saturn existence.
Let us now
pass on to sculpture. Yesterday we saw that the laws of
sculpture are the laws of the etheric body which have been
pressed down one step into the physical body. Just as that
which lives in the physical body, when compelled into the
space outside, becomes architecture, so sculpture appears
when what lives in the etheric body is made to descend into
the physical body. In enjoying sculpture we abandon the
astral body, the ego, and all the higher members of our
being, living as though we had only the physical body, and in
the physical body an expression of the etheric body; in such
a condition we are once more participants of the ancient Sun
condition. All that the ancient Sun evolution planted in us
reappears when we enjoy or create works of sculpture. On the
one hand these works appear so congenial to us because they
give us back our own very distant past which is still
creative within us, our Sun period; and on the other hand
they are so smooth and cold in their marble because what rays
out to us from them is like light coming to us from the far
distances of the cosmos.
Now let us
pass on to painting. We know that painting comes about when
the inner impulses of the astral body are pressed down into
the etheric body; in painting we abandon the ego and live as
though we were only in the astral, but were pressing it down
into the etheric body. We experience ourselves in all that
the ancient Moon evolution has implanted in us, this being
our inner astral nature as human being. Painting is, as it
were, the outward projection of this inner astral nature of
ours. Just as we experience in our astral nature sorrow or
joy, things that affect or impress us, whatever fate brings
us, so do we experience what the painter conjures upon the
canvas for us, which is a reflection of our own inner astral
being.
If you try to
enter a little into what is described in
Occult Science
as the Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions, you
will discover that an architectural mood underlies the
description of the Saturn evolution, a sculptural mood
underlies the description of the Sun evolution, and a
pictorial mood underlies the description of the Moon
evolution; an attempt was made to express these moods by
choosing suitable words. The presentation of occult events
definitely requires more than the current literary equipment
of today. It would be an entire misconception of the style of
an occult description to believe that it could be achieved by
the dreadful literary devices of our time.
We now come
to the Earth evolution. Here we are in the immediate present,
in the reality appointed for us; what we experience here we
do not immediately feel the need to place before ourselves in
the form of art. But the need the human being feels of
projecting his inner life outward in the form of art is not
exhausted by, as it were, recreating his cosmic past in
architecture, sculpture, and painting out of the memory
implanted in him.
Our need for
art progresses further and we can find the spiritual
foundation for this if we turn again to the book
Occult Science.
After the descriptions of the Saturn, Sun,
Moon, and Earth evolutions and after the brief outline of the
future Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan evolutions, we come to the
description of the processes of initiation, which are
essentially at first inner human processes. These initiation
processes are, in the form in which we encounter them today,
the beginning of important changes for the life of human
beings on earth and for the whole of future humanity.
Is it not so
that our deeper experience of the life of humanity on earth
is expressed in the words: Alas, in so far as man is
consciously aware during life on earth he appears to be but
an orphan in the cosmos, a child abandoned by the cosmos, or
even a traveller who has lost his way in the cosmos!
For his
everyday waking consciousness man does not know the origin of
what lives in him as a result of the Saturn, Sun, and Moon
evolutions; nor does he know what will become of him in the
Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan evolutions. Knowing neither his
origin nor his future he wanders about at the edge of the
abyss that bounds our earthly valley. Sometimes his
consciousness may give him a feeling of assurance or he may
feel secure as to his future; nevertheless, neither the past
nor the future can be determined objectively and competently
by man on earth. But something capable of giving him clear
guidance in his life will appear before his soul. This will
come about when man makes himself acquainted with the
guidelines given him in the laws of initiation. Initiation,
in ancient times, took the form of a kind of inheritance left
to men by the gods, which manifested itself as atavistic
clairvoyance; but in the course of our progress towards the
future it must take hold of man more and more firmly and
actually shape his inner soul life.
The path to
initiation has two sides. The one side leads man to discover
the secrets, the riddles of life so that he can enter into
the spiritual experience of existence. The other side may be
called the more subjective side of initiation that takes
place more within the soul itself. It is, at the same time,
the side from which men shrink the most, because it presents
in fact something which does not fit in with the comfortable
indolence of experience to which the soul so easily yields or
wants to yield. An extremely wide and detailed range of inner
experiences awaits the one who is to be gradually led by his
inner experience to initiation. Conquest and liberation,
hindrance and redemption alternate in manifold ways with
inner experience on the way to initiation. One goes through
everything the soul experiences when it suddenly feels it has
become an entire stranger to itself; as though it had been
cast into an abyss where it cannot help feeling that it is
eternally lost and can never recover anything which it may
have acquired during any lifetime. It may feel an unlimited
dismay and grief at the loss of the existence already won.
Then the soul may feel itself forced into complete
fragmentation, as though it must disintegrate into an endless
multiplicity and dissolve into all the beings out of which
the cosmos is composed. Further the soul may feel itself
wandering through the beings of the cosmos, becoming akin to
one of them, then leaving it again and becoming akin to
another, in the way I have described it in my book
The Threshold of the Spiritual World,
in the part
dealing with experiences that are always attended by painful
privations, painful loneliness as they are passed through one
by one. Then comes the experience of the most radical
transformation of all, when the soul must decide to undergo
what can be expressed with the words: Now you must lose
yourself for a while, you must thrust yourself away from
yourself; but you must have faith that while you are losing
yourself, while you are thrusting yourself away from
yourself, beings reposing in the wide expanses of the divine
hierarchies will protect you, will cause you to find yourself
again after you have lost yourself. This is the passage
through births and deaths. This is to be undergone among the
inner experiences which lead to initiation.
At last comes
the awful passage through all the forces which are not
necessary for life on earth, but which are necessary for the
life of the extra-terrestrial cosmos and which become the
forces of evil when they are brought without justification
into the life of the earth by Lucifer or Ahriman. It is the
dreadful passage through the forces of evil, together with
all the disruptive, devouring, engulfing forces they
represent throughout the cosmos. And finally man passes
through a stage when he ought to feel himself to be only an
instrument, a tool through which the spiritual beings speak;
he becomes symbolically what his larynx is as a single organ,
he becomes the larynx of the divine spiritual beings, he
feels himself to be resting in the all-powerful divine world.
And then at last a condition will be reached in the future in
which this feeling emerges into sharing the experience of the
divine will, working in the cosmos itself.
Only single
stages have been described here. But the grades of experience
through which the soul passes are infinite. In
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds: How is it Achieved?
and, more descriptively, in
The Threshold of the Spiritual World,
you will find set forth as far as is necessary
for the present time, how the soul is able to adjust itself
to all these states and how, at each stage, it advances one
step further into the spiritual world. All that the soul
passes through on the path to initiation is consciously
undergone and consciously experienced.
This is why
this path of knowledge is so beset with pain and yet so full
of liberation. But long, long before the human being enters
consciously into all that I have described to you as the
stages of the path to initiation, he is able to express these
experiences in his own way in pictures, and this is done
through music! In the last analysis genuine music is
essentially a process of life taking its course in tones,
which is an external picture of what the soul experiences
consciously in initiation.
If he remains
in the everyday sphere, the human being cannot at once
accomplish what we described yesterday as the submerging of
the ego in the astral body. To submerge the ego in the astral
body in the right way is to enter into the divine world, and
this is the passage through initiation. A picture of this is
given to us in the processes we perceive in musical
compositions. When he surrenders himself to musical
creativity, either as the composer or the listener, the human
being abandons his ego, he pushes it back; but at the same
time he surrenders it to those divine spiritual powers who
are to work upon his astral body when he has ascended to
existence on Jupiter.
Please
observe how we are entering upon a consideration of the
creative art of music which links us with the future of
mankind. It is almost, one feels, lacking in modesty to say
that musical creativity is called upon to perfect itself more
and more in the world, to become continually more profound,
and that the musical creativity that has entered into our
world so far is still more or less at the experimental stage,
even though so much greatness and so much genius has already
been involved. So far we have made attempts at what will be
infinitely more meaningful in the musical creativity of the
future. And this musical art of the future will be most
significantly stimulated when human beings begin to engage in
learning to know the inner nature of the path of
initiation.
When one day
what can be described concerning the path of initiation will
no longer be experienced by human beings as it is today, but
will be experienced in such a way that the description of
what the soul must feel will cause human beings to go through
bliss and bitter disappointment; when the knowledge that can
be gained by reading about the path of initiation has become
a complete inner experience: only then will it be possible
for human souls to be so deeply moved through their
participation in the destinies of all those beings who take
part in the events of the cosmos outside the human realm,
that they will feel within themselves the shocks, privations
and liberation that will impel the soul to express in tonal
relationships what is experienced through the description of
the path of initiation.
In time to
come there will be individuals who will feel what is
described as the path of initiation; they will feel that
things which are put before us in such an apparently abstract
way can be intensely experienced, much more intensely than is
the case with our outward physical experience. Then a moment
will come when those who are able to experience the truth of
what is described as the path of initiation will say to
themselves: Now I feel that what I am experiencing does not
connect me with the realm of nature that surrounds me on the
earth but with all that lives and weaves in the cosmos; not
only can I experience all this, but I am able to sing it, to
set it to music!
In what can
thus be described we have an indication of what spiritual
science is to become for human beings. Spiritual science must
be a living stimulus for the human soul; it should be more
than mere theory, mere understanding, mere knowledge.
Spiritual science must live in the soul, taking hold of all
its powers, transforming the human being into another being.
Or vice versa, the human being must transform himself into
another being when he becomes devoted to spiritual
science.
In ancient
times, even in the case of the Greeks who were Sun men, an
atavistic clairsentience led men to abandon their astral and
their ego beings completely and only to express the laws of
the physical human form created during the Saturn and Sun
evolutions. Thus Greek statues were made, those works of
sculpture that really stand before our physical eyes as the
mankind of the Sun evolution must stand before our spiritual
eyes, when we understand that the human being of that period
consisted only of the physical human body which contained
within it the living etheric forces but not as yet the
astral.
Indeed, a
work of Greek art such as the Venus of Milo stands before us
as the personification of absolute chastity, since unchastity
is only possible in the astral body, in all that permeates
the astral body as passion and desire. Unchastity is not yet
possible in the etheric body. It was a heritage from the gods
bestowed upon men which caused them to create such works of
art. The human being has lost this ability to feel himself
within the etheric and physical bodies alone, without the ego
or the astral body.
When he
awakes and submerges his ego and his astral body into his
etheric and physical bodies, he feels and experiences only
what is present in his ego. Even the processes in the astral
body are in the subconscious realm, and he has no inner
knowledge at all of what takes place in the etheric and
physical bodies. The ancient Greeks were still dimly aware of
all this. But today, when we seek to bring spiritual
knowledge to life once more within ourselves and cause it to
embrace not only our abstract and theoretical thoughts but
also the whole of our soul life, we gradually penetrate the
different members of our being and learn to know what
permeates our astral and etheric bodies in rhythmical and
harmonious cycles. Then we become able to follow with the
soul the etheric forces which pulsate through the body and
through space, calling forth forms out of the etheric.
An attempt of
this kind was made in the creation of the columns and
architraves in our Goetheanum building; it was a diving down
into the spheres made accessible to us by spiritual science
which have been forgotten by mankind. In this we must indeed
take deeply seriously what spiritual science can mean to us.
You can glean from all that has so far been said about
spiritual science that when we enter consciously into the
spiritual world (and one must enter the spiritual world
consciously), in other words when with understanding we give
form to what lives in the etheric world and in the human
etheric body and wish to enjoy what we have thus formed, then
we must inevitably make the acquaintance of those beings
which are called the luciferic and ahrimanic spirits.
Now consider
how much of what we create today has an ahrimanic character.
You will remember
what I have said with regard to our modern technical environment;
and of course we cannot do otherwise than use modern
technical methods in our work. If we wished to do without
them we would produce the equivalent of hothouse plants. So
it afforded me a certain satisfaction that we were able to
use concrete, one of the most modern building materials, for
part of our building here. For progress consists not in
shutting oneself off, as in a hothouse, from the life around
one, but in using what is offered by it. By grasping the
spiritual nature of the world through spiritual science, we
try to use modern materials in such way that what we know
through spiritual science finds a living expression in
them.
Of course
this is only possible up to a certain point, and you will
understand why this is so when you perceive all the
implications of what has been said about the technical
environment. For it is not possible to separate technical
methods from ahrimanic forces, for instance, if we wish to
create something in architecture or sculpture for ourselves.
Thus it was a difficult task to take what of necessity had an
ahrimanic nature in our building and, as it were, banish it
from the building as something rendered harmless. It really
was a difficult task, for we know that the ahrimanic element
is inseparable from modern technology. For a while it seemed
that Ahriman would easily gain the upper hand. Then we should
have been compelled to incorporate into our main building all
the technical equipment necessary for running it. As a
result, Ahriman would have been permanently installed within
the building. We had to think of a way of excluding the
ahrimanic forces from the building, and the only possibility
was to take the boiler house out and make it a separate unit.
This has been done, as you can see for yourselves, and with
great success.
It has been
possible to create, in the most modern building material,
forms that truly express the following: Here, near the
building, but outside it, stands the part that must not be
included in it, though it must be present outside; and the
material out of which it has been formed represents an
architectural structure that is truly in keeping with
spiritual-scientific knowledge.
It was of
immense importance that this should be achieved, particularly
as the most modern building materials were employed. For if
you look more deeply into what I have written about spiritual
science, taking in this case the last chapter of
The Portal of Initiation,
you will find expressed there the
fact that Lucifer and Ahriman are at their most harmful when
they are not seen, when they remain invisible. Let us suppose
that somebody is tormented by ahrimanic forces; what would be
the best remedy? The best remedy would be for him to have
some kind of picture made of Ahriman which he could place in
his room. The best remedy against an astral being which
torments one, is to place it before oneself in a physical
form. It is incorrect to suppose that if we have Ahriman
before us we will be persecuted by him; the contrary is true.
Things must be made visible. But we must not let the matter
get on our nerves; we must not develop a condition in which,
if we happen to pass by the picture of Ahriman and look at it
unconsciously, we then carry the image within ourselves. For
this image will then be invisible inside us, thus making us
nervous or excited.
You will also
see, if you study our ahrimanic chimney along with the whole
boiler house, how it is indeed possible to make an
architectural structure of what belongs, one might say, to
the most blatant elements of ahrimanic civilisation in our
time. Certain defects of this civilisation will not vanish
until mankind resolves to give architectural form to the
things that concern the ahrimanic elements of our
civilisation. Apart from all else, apart from our having a
building for our own purposes, it is simply important that
the first step should be taken in relating our present
culture to art and in relating spiritual science to our
present culture. Our boiler house is a first small step in
this direction, and will lead, it is hoped, to the
solution of other problems later. One enormous problem, for
instance, would be to find a suitable form for the modern
railway station; for the horrors and abominations which
perform that function today are a contradiction of all decent
human requirements. In its entire form our boiler house is
not only suited to its specific purpose but also corresponds
to the whole relationship of Ahriman to our building; in the
same way the form of a railway station must correspond to
what happens through it, with it, and in it within the
framework of our modern civilisation.
Such things
as these should indicate the way in which spiritual science
can provide inspiration for artistic creativity and for many
other fields. And we may rest assured, if we enter into the
true sense and spirit of what is to develop for us out of
spiritual science, that one day, when human beings immerse
themselves in the nature of the Saturn condition, then the
deeper laws of architecture will reveal themselves; and if
people immerse themselves in the nature of the Sun condition,
the the deeper laws of sculpture will reveal themselves; and
if they immerse themselves in the nature of the Moon
condition, then the deeper relationships between form and
colour and the nature of chiaroscuro will become apparent,
creating inspiration for the art of painting.
And from the
description of the path of initiation will spring
inspirations and intuitions for the creation of music and yet
further for the creation of poetry. Then the time will come
when poetic creativity in the true sense of the word will
reappear in the world. For poetic creativity has to a certain
extent died away. The ‘divine dreams’
incorporated in the work of the true poets were the last
vestiges of the ancient heritage from the gods. But a time
must come when, out of an understanding of the mysteries of
initiation, poets will speak in dramatic or epic or lyric
poetry about those intimate processes which take place in the
soul when the human being is not alone with himself, but
lives together with the gods of the higher hierarchies. In
the not too distant future people will be saying: Stop
bothering me with your perpetual jingles about men's
experiences in the physical world; your daily routine of love
and hate and enjoyment is your own affair. It is about what
they experience together with the gods when they have found
their way outside earthly experience, that men will sing in
their music and in their dramas, epics, and lyrical poems.
For we know that all men's experiences with the
extra-terrestrial world must be brought into these arts
through true creativity that is not involved in everyday
life.
We have now
seen what impulses of transformation lie in the knowledge
brought to us by spiritual science, even in the field of
artistic appreciation. And we have now seen how, if we enter
into spiritual-scientific knowledge, we can dimly perceive
the forces which must reign over the spiritual culture of
future humanity. Indeed, we may believe that without
achieving a profound inner transformation nobody can really
make contact with spiritual science; and we may believe that
spiritual science is something which can grasp man in a
deeply inward way, leading beyond the narrow connections of
physical life alone. If we bear in mind this ideal of
spiritual science, if we bear in mind that spiritual science
can lead out into a sphere that is different from ordinary
experience, then it is always an event of immense
significance to see somebody within the spiritual-scientific
movement, really igniting within himself the spark that leads
him out of and beyond the narrow limits of ordinary personal
experience. In a way, the only joyful experience which is so
far made possible for us through the spiritual-scientific
movement is, that as a result of this movement, individuals
can appear among us who really find their way out of their
personal sphere into those spheres where the personal element
ceases to exist.
In our
everyday life we must, of course, cultivate the personal
element; but in so far as we are together as students of
spiritual science, all personal willing and feeling is
changed into something impersonal if we take hold of
spiritual science in the right way. And every victory over
personal feelings and over the weight of personal feelings
and over the weight of personal matters in life is of immense
significance and value. But on the other hand it is one of
the bitterest disappointments if something that is striven
for in spiritual science with a will that is purely
spiritual, becomes entangled again in the merely personal
will and purpose of human beings, and if personal matters
begin to play a role within a society whose object it is to
unite us in striving for spiritual-scientific knowledge.
I shall not
elaborate on these concluding remarks or go into more detail
because I believe that there are a good many among you who
will perhaps understand much of what is meant by them, who
will understand that they were intended as an indication of a
number of things that are satisfactory and a number that are
disappointing. Today, having tried for a while to walk
together along a path of spiritual science, it is good to
think about these things for a moment; for there are various
reasons why we should reflect and ask ourselves to what
extent our own soul is participating in the sincere and
honest effort to achieve the spiritual purposes which are
nourished by the current of spiritual science. What a superb
perspective unfolds before us when we say: Life, science,
religion, and also art can receive impulses of transformation
from spiritual science when it is truly understood. In the
case of the pictorial and plastic arts the impulses come from
what we learn in spiritual spheres about the past; and in the
case of the arts involving music and speech the impulses come
from that which we are striving for inwardly, in order to be
able to approach the future. This perspective is so immense
and so powerful that we cannot bring enough realisation to
bear on it, in order to make it more intensely clear to
ourselves. And the more we succeed in making clear to
ourselves the inner mood resulting from this vision, the
better we shall be as true members of that great organism
known to us as spiritual science, an organism which is small
today, but which has within it great possibilities. With this
today I not only want to appeal to your reason and your
understanding, but I also want to sow it as a seed in your
souls and in your hearts.
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