LECTURE I
London, 24th April, 1922
My Dear Friends,
It
is of the first importance that there should be in this present time
a certain number of people who know where man stands in his
spiritual evolution, and know also what must be his next Step if
civilisation is not to go completely under. For what is happening
today? In speaking to you, my dear friends, I can use
anthroposophical terminology and say at once that the Ahrimanic
forces, which are at work wherever man thinks or acts on a
materialistic basis, are in our day trying to chain man to the Earth
by gaining possession of his intellect. They are at this moment very
powerful, these Ahrimanic forces, and they are searching out all
kinds of ways to get access to the souls of men, with the object of
enticing them to the adoption of a purely materialistic outlook, a
purely intellectual understanding of the world. It is on this account
important that there should be, as I said, a certain number of
persons who know how the evolution of man has to proceed in order for
him to reach his goal.
Let
us look tack a little into the past. We could go back very much
farther, but for the moment we need go no more than three or four
thousand years before the Mystery of Golgotha. And then let us
follow, from one point of view, the course of man's evolution since
that epoch.
In
the age of which I want first to speak, a civilisation flourished in
the East that in my book
Occult Science
I have called
the Ancient Persian civilisation. The teacher of mankind during the
height of this civilisation was Zarathustra, Zoroaster. Not the
Zarathustra of whom history tells; he lived later. The Zarathustra I
mean is a much more ancient teacher of mankind. In those olden times
it was, you know, quite a common custom for the pupils of a great and
lofty teacher to continue for a long time to bear his name; and the
Zarathustra we read of in history is in reality the last of a
succession of pupils of the great Zarathustra. Now, this great
teacher of mankind was initiated in a most wonderful and remarkable
manner into the secrets of existence, and he could stand before the
men of his time and teach them as an eminent and sublime initiate.
Zarathustra knew and it was his initiation that enabled
him to have the knowledge that in that place in the heavens
whither our eyes are turned when we look at the Sun, lives a great
and all-embracing Spirit. He did not at first see the physical Sun at
all; in the place in the heavens where we today with our ordinary
consciousness see the physical Sun, Zarathustra beheld a great and
omnipresent cosmic Spirit. And this cosmic Spirit influenced him
in a spiritual way, whereby he was able to know that with the
sunshine, with the rays that fall from the Sun upon the Earth, come
also spiritual rays, rays of divine-spiritual grace and bounty, which
enkindle in the soul and spirit of man that higher man
to which the ordinary man in us must continually aspire.
In
those olden times initiates were not given names on any external
grounds, their names came to them on account of what they knew. And
so this sublime initiate of whom we speak was called by his pupils
and he also called himself Zarathustra, Zoroaster, the
Radiant Star; he was named from the radiant Godhead Who sends to
Earth the rays of wisdom. The initiation of Zarathustra was, in
relation to all initiations that came after him, more lofty and more
sublime. When he looked upon the spiritual cosmic Sun, he was looking
into the source of all the forces that make the stones on the Earth
to be hard and solid, that make the plants to come forth from their
seeds and grow, that make the animals; to spread abroad over the face
of the Earth in their different kinds, and that make man to flourish
and thrive upon the Earth. The oldest of the Zarathustras, the
Radiant Star, had knowledge of everything that took place on the
Earth; and he had this knowledge because he was able to experience
the Spiritual Being of the Sun.
Then
came a time when man was no longer able to penetrate so deeply into
the Mysteries of the worlds, the time that I have named, in
my
Occult Science,
after the civilisations of Chaldea
and Egypt. Man still looked up to the Sun, but he no longer saw it as
radiant, as sending forth rays; he saw it only as
shining, as illuminating the Earth with its light. Men spoke
in those times of Ra, whose representative on Earth was Osiris; Ra
signified for them the Sun that moved round the Earth, giving light.
Some of the secrets had been lost; the initiate was no longer able to
see with full inner clarity the radiant cosmic God, as had the
initiates of an older time. He could only see how the primal astral
forces come from the Sun. Zarathustra saw in the Sun a Being, he was
still able to see in the Sun a Being. The initiates of Egypt and of
Chaldea saw in the Sun the forces that come to, the Earth,
forces of light, forces of movement. What they saw was deeds,
something inferior of Being; spiritual deeds, it is true, but
not a spiritual Being. And the Egyptian initiates spoke of One
who represents on Earth the forces of the Sun that man carries within
him; and they called him Osiris.
When
we come to the age of Greece, we find that by the eighth, seventh,
fifth century before the Mystery of Golgotha, man had lost all power
of looking into the Mysteries of the Sun, he could see only the
effect of the Sun's influence in the environment or the Earth. Man
beheld the working of the Sun in the ether that fills all the
space around the Earth. And this ether, that spreads out around the
Earth and permeates also man himself, the Greek initiates
not the people generally, but the initiates called Zeus.
There
have been then these three stages in the cultural evolution of
mankind. First there was the stage when the initiates beheld in the
Sun a Divine-Spiritual Being; then came a second stage, when the
initiates beheld the Sun's forces that are working there; and
finally a third stage, when the initiates beheld only the influence
of the Sun Being in the Earth's ether.
Now,
there was in a later time a man who came as near to the teachings
of initiation as it was possible to come in the time in which he
lived, and who was acquainted with the teaching of these three
aspects of the Sun the aspect of the Sun according to
Zarathustra, the aspect of the Sun that is associated with Osiris,
and the aspect of the Sun as seen and understood by Pythagoras and
Anaxagoras. I refer to Julian the Apostate. Julian the Apostate was
not able himself to behold the Sun in all three aspects, but he knew
of the teaching; he knew it as a tradition that had come down in
the Mystery Schools. And so impressed was Julian the Apostate by this
teaching of the three aspects of the Sun that to him that which
Christianity brought seemed small in comparison. For he still knew of
the inexpressible glory and splendour into which Zarathustra had
gazed; he had learned to know also of the activities of fire and of
light, of the cosmic chemical forces, and of the cosmic life-forces,
as man had been able to behold them in the ancient Mysteries. Of
all this he, Julian, could in his time still learn, although
only by tradition. And the whole teaching seemed to him so sublime,
so mighty, that he found himself unable to accept Christianity. The
thoughts and purposes of his mind were, in fact, turned in quite
another direction. He seized with the desire to impart to
mankind the ancient Mysteries into which he had himself been
initiated up to a certain degree. And this, my dear friends, was
what led at last to the unsheathing of the dagger that brought his
life to a violent end. The hand that lifted the dagger belonged to
one of those who counted it a sin to communicate the Lofty teachings
of initiation to the general run of mankind, and who wanted that
people should hear the Sun spoken of in an external manner
only, that is, of course, in such external terms as were
customary in that age.
Julian
the Apostate declared that the Sun has three aspects: first, the
aspect of the Earthly ether; secondly, the aspect of the light of
heaven that is behind the Earthly ether, which is the aspect
also of the chemical, the warmth of fire, and the life forces; and
lastly, the aspect of pure spiritual Being. For this he was put out
of the way. And indeed it must be admitted that the moment had not
yet come when mankind in general was ripe to receive such weighty and
solemn truths.
A
study of history can, however, bring to light something else in this
connection, that is of very great significance. A good deal of this
threefold teaching of Zarathustra, Osiris, and Anaxagoras the
teaching of the spiritual Sun; of the elemental Sun; and of Zeus, the
Sun-flooded ether environment of the Earth found its way
into the external exoteric culture of Greece. And the world
would never have had such a sublime Greek art, nor such a wonderful
Greek philosophy, would never have had a Plato and an Aristotle, were
it not that into the art and philosophy of Greece, streams from this
ancient wisdom were able to flow. A time came, however, when the
initiation truths that were handed down from past epochs were no
longer sufficiently protected from profanation. Many teachings that
had their source in initiation wisdom passed into the hands of
distinguished Romans, more especially the Romans, more
especially the Roman emperors. Among them all, perhaps of Augustus
alone can it be said that he still knew how to value the initiation
wisdom that was imparted to him. In the Roman world there was,
generally speaking, no understanding for the esoteric factor in Greek
art and Greek wisdom, no recognition that these contained elements
which could be traced back to the very most ancient wisdom teaching,
Consequently, the hopelessly prosaic, the semi-barbarous civilisation
of Rome took over what we may call the surface brightness, the sheen,
of Greek culture, but was quite incapable of handing on, in its true
form, to later generations what lived at the heart of this culture.
And so when Roman influences began to permeate the Christianity that
had, ever since the Mystery of Golgotha, been making its way into
the world, there was no possibility for Christianity to receive,
along with all that came from Rome, the true essence of the ancient
culture.
When
I describe historical events in the way I have just been doing, you
must not take it as an expression of blame or of criticism. It was
necessary for the evolution of mankind that things should happen as
they did. It is, however, also necessary that we should not be blind
to the fact that because Rome did not know how to value and guard
initiation, the genuine initiation truths of earlier times have been
prevented from finding their way over to the West. We must realise
that we, as human beings possessing the ordinary consciousness of
modern times, have been debarred from the sacred truths of olden
times because Rome was unable to understand these truths. As we know,
it was a man who hailed from Rome that drove out of Europe the last
remaining Greek philosophers and obliged them to seek refuge in the
East.
I
have to call these things to mind; the consideration of the subject
we have in hand made it necessary to begin by referring to them
taking our thoughts back, even if only for a brief while, to the
far-off time when the spiritual teachers of man could still turn
their gaze to the starry heavens and behold up there the threefold
Sun. The only remnant of this knowledge that has been left for later
generations is the symbol of it in the triple crown worn by the Popes
of Rome. The outer symbol remains; the inner reality is lost. But
through the new initiation of modern times, a way has, opened once
again for man to look back into those earlier epochs of his
evolution. This new initiation of which our anthroposophical teaching
has to tell enables us to look back and behold how, it was for man,
when he looked up from Earth to the Sun and listened to hear what the
Sun should teach him of the mysteries of human evolution.
*
My
dear friends, when the pupils of the old initiates looked out into
the wide universe and spoke of what they saw living out there beyond
the Earth in the workings of the Sun, yes, in the Sun itself,
when they spoke of the sublime Spirit-Being of the Sun as proclaimed
by Zarathustra, they were speaking of the very same Being Whom, in
these later times, we designate as Christ. So that we are adhering
strictly to truth when we say that the initiates of olden times
beheld the Christ outside the Earth in the Cosmos, in the Cosmos that
has its centre and representative in the Sun. The real essence
of the Mystery of Golgotha does not lie in the fact that it teaches
of the Christ. The initiates of olden times also knew and taught of
Him. Only, they spoke of Him not as living on the Earth, in the
forces of the Earth, but as living within the forces of the Sun. It
is a mistake to think that the old initiates did not speak of the
Christ Being. Christ was spoken of continually before the Mystery of
Golgotha, as a Being who is outside and beyond the Earth. Men
have lost sight of this truth and are apt to regard the statement of
it as unchristian. But why should such a statement be regarded
as unchristian, seeing that the Early Church Fathers undoubtedly held
this view? They said: The wise men of olden times who are
often described as heathen are, in a deeper sense, Christian. The
Early Church Fathers did not hesitate to speak of the heathen as
Christians before the Mystery of Golgotha.
What
took place at the Mystery of Golgotha was really nothing less than
that the Being Who, previously, was not to be found on Earth, Whom
one could find only outside the Earth when one had been initiated
into the Mysteries of the heavens, this Being incarnated in
Jesus of Nazareth, lived on Earth in Jesus of Nazareth, was
crucified and laid in the Earth, and appeared to his initiated pupils
as Resurrected as One who has risen in the spiritual body.
The great and sublime Sun Being descended from cosmic heights,
descended to Earth that is the event that came to pass in the
Mystery of Golgotha. And when He had descended from spiritual worlds
and passed through death, and His body had been laid in the Earth,
then this same Christ after His death, after His resurrection
had initiate pupils. And it is important that many should
know today what Christ taught at that time to His initiate pupils; it
is important that many should know of this teaching of the risen
Christ, in order that they may be able to participate in the forces
that are now at work for the further evolution of mankind.
Let
us look back once more to the initiate of olden times. How did he
receive his teaching? All initiates of olden times were instructed
by Beings who were outside and beyond the Earth. And the instruction
was carried out in the following manner. The pupils of the Mysteries
were trained and prepared to be able to see when outside their body,
and then through this kind of seeing they came to know Beings. We
have spoken of how Zarathustra came to a knowledge of Christ as a
sublime Sun Being. The initiates of old came to know also other
Beings of the Hierarchies. And the language, the spiritual
language that was used by a Being who descended in this way to teach
the initiates, was a language by means of which, it was in those
times still possible to impart teachings to men.
There
were thus in olden time[s] divine teachers. And the Christ, He
was also such a divine teacher. For those to whom He gave
instruction after His resurrection He was the divine teacher.
And what He was able to teach them was new; it was more than what the
earlier divine teachers taught.
The
divine teachers of earlier ages spoke to men of the secrets of birth,
but they did not speak of the secrets of death; for in the divine
world whence the earlier divine teachers descended to teach the
initiates of olden time, there were no beings who had undergone
death. Death was something that could only be undergone on Earth by
man. The Gods looked down and saw man who dies; their knowledge of
death was an external knowledge merely. But Christ learned to know
death on the Earth. For He did not merely become incorporated,
shining forth in some human being at certain times, as was the case
with the divine being teachers of long ago. Christ learned to know
death inasmuch as He, a God, lived on Earth as a human soul in a
physical human body. Thus, He learned to know death in actual
reality. He went through death. And He learned also something
more.
My
dear friends, if the Christ had undergone only what took place from
the time of the Baptism in Jordan until the time of the Crucifixion
and the Death on the Cross, then, having undergone all this, He would
still not have been able to speak of the Mysteries of which He did
speak to His initiate disciples after His resurrection. I must
explain to you that, to the divine teachers who were able to descend
to Earth, and to the initiated teachers in olden times, all Mysteries
were open in the whole wide world save only the Mysteries of the
interior of the Earth. The initiates knew that down there within
the Earth spiritual Beings hold command, of quite another kind than
the Gods Who before the Mystery of Golgotha used ever and again to
descend to human beings. The Greeks, for instance, were not unaware
of the Spiritual Beings in the interior of the Earth; they called
them in their mythology the Titans. But Christ was the first of the
Upper Gods to learn to know the interior of the Earth. That is an
important fact. The Christ, because He was buried in the Earth,
brought knowledge to the Upper Gods of a region of which before They
had no knowledge. And this secret, that the Gods too undergo
evolution this secret Christ communicated to His initiate
pupils after His Resurrection. This secret Paul also learned through
the natural initiation that he experienced outside Damascus. What
stunned and shook Paul to the depths of his being was the knowledge
that the Power that had formerly been sought in the Sun had now
become united with the powers of Earth.
For
what was the reason why Paul, when he was still Saul, persecuted
the followers of Christ? The reason was, he had learned in the old
Chaldean initiation that the Christ lives outside the Earth in the
Cosmos, and that those who declare that Christ lives in the Earth are
in error. But when Paul received enlightenment on his way to
Damascus, at that moment he knew that it was he himself who had been
mistaken, in that he was ready to believe only what had hitherto been
true. For now he saw that what had been true, had become changed; the
Being Who dwelt formerly only in the Sun had now descended to Earth
and continued to live in the forces of the Earth.
Thus
was the Mystery of Golgotha, for the understanding of those who first
made it known to men, not an event for Earth alone, but a cosmic
event, an event for all the worlds. This was how it was understood
in early Christian times. And the true initiates described the event
in the following way.
They
were deeply initiated, the earliest Christian initiates; and they
knew that the Christ, Whom we think of today as the Being Who passed
through the Mystery of Golgotha at the beginning of our era,
they knew that the Christ, Who came hither from the Sun, had also
descended to the Sun from yet more distant heights. It was in the Sun
that Zarathustra beheld Him. Then His power went over into the rays
of the Sun. The initiates of Egypt beheld Him in the rays of the Sun.
And then His power lived in the environment of the Earth. It
was there that the initiates of Greece beheld Him. And now in this
present time so said the earliest Christian initiates
it is given to man to behold Christ as One Who walked on Earth in an
earthly body, and Who is seen by us in His true form when we behold
Him as the Risen One the Christ Who is in the Earth, and has
seen the Mystery of the Earth and can now bring it about that this
Mystery shall gradually flow into the evolution of mankind.
There
was a wonderful warmth and glow about the whole way in which this
esoteric teaching was communicated, in scattered and lonely schools
of initiation, during the first centuries after Christ,
coming over from the East and spreading continually westward by
secret channels. Yes, make no doubt of it, there was verily such an
esoteric teaching of Christianity. The Early Church Fathers knew more
than is known today. But they saw also at the same time the
attack that was threatening from the side of Rome. Modern
historians have very little idea of the magnitude of that collision
between the early Christian impulse and the anti-spiritual world of
Rome. What the Roman world did was to throw a cloak of externality
over the deepest Christian Mysteries.
The
men of old had a living relationship to the powers of the Universe,
such as is scarcely possible for us to imagine today with our
ordinary consciousness. Men who lived three, four, five thousand
years before Christ knew quite well that when they ate this or that
substance, it went on working in their body and brought the powers of
the Cosmos to manifestation within them. Look, for example, at the
kind of instruction Zarathustra gave to his pupils. He used to teach
them in the following manner. You eat the fruits of the field.
These fruits have been shone upon by the Sun, and in the Sun lives
the high and lofty Spirit Being. The power of the high Spirit Being,
coming from the distant Cosmos, enters with the Rays of the Sun into
the fruits of the field. You eat the fruits of the field; what the
substance brings forth in you fills you with the spiritual forces of
the Sun, when you enjoy the fruits of the field, the Sun rises
in you, I will tell you what you should do at Solemn festival times.
Take something that has been prepared from the fruits of the field.
Meditate upon it. Remember that the Sun is within it. Meditate
upon it until the piece of bread becomes radiant to you. Then eat it,
and be conscious of how the Spirit of the Sun has come from the vast
Universe, has entered into you and become alive within you.
What
is left of all this? Merely the outer expression of it, the
eating of the bread in the Mass and in the Communion Service. And
those who continue to celebrate this rite in the spirit and
understanding which Rome has introduced into Christianity are the
very ones who oppose most fiercely any suggestion that man needs
cosmic wisdom in order to understand the teachings of Paul; for
Paul beheld the Radiance, raying inwards from the clouds, of that
force which is the Power of the Sun, the super-corporeal Being, the
Christ, Who in the Mystery of Golgotha descended to Earth,
the Cosmic Godhead united with the forces of the Sun. In the first
three or four centuries of Christian evolution, a good deal was still
known of this Mystery. Afterwards the external knowledge of the
world gained such a hold upon man that it is hardly possible for
us today, when we read the accounts that have come down to us of the
first Christian centuries, to recognise from these how deeply
spiritual was the early Christian conception of the Event of
Golgotha. But now the time has come when it is of the highest
importance for man to look back and call up once again in memory the
spiritual understanding of Christianity that he had in the first
centuries after Christ. Since that time man has gone through a
development that has enabled him to attain a wonderful earthly
wisdom. Through this he has become a free being. In olden times even
the initiates were not free. When they wanted to work out of really
deep impulses, they suffered themselves to be guided by the
Gods. By the attainment of earthly wisdom, and by that alone, is man
able to become free. In the near future this will, however, have the
result that the anti-divine, the anti-Christian forces, will be able
to seize hold of the souls of men. These anti-Christian forces,
I call them the Ahrimanic forces.
We
have in our day a highly developed science, but it is not yet
Christianised. We talk a great deal about our civilisation and
culture, but no one sees any occasion to Christianise the natural
science upon which they are founded. It must, however, be
Christianised; otherwise we shall be deprived of all that we stand in
need of from the Cosmos. We shall lose it utterly. Long ago, when men
were more sensitive, they were able to receive understanding along
with the nourishment that they enjoyed. But as time went on, they
became more and more estranged from the cosmic life. In the later
part of the Egypto-Chaldean epoch of culture, the initiates were
still able to speak of the forces of the Gods, the forces
that enter into plant and stone. And so there could arise in this
time a science of healing and medicine. And as a matter of fact, our
most effective remedies today come from that ancient epoch, little as
people suspect it. Yes, in the realm of healing too, we shall have to
turn again to the true sources of knowledge, and develop an art of
medicine that is based on insight into the deeper forces of the
things that are around us. It rests with modern initiation science
to find the way. The anthroposophical movement is really there for
nothing else than to impart to man that which is attainable for him
today. For since 1879, the Dark Age as the, prophets of old
called it is past and over. All around us is the
spiritual world, the living spiritual world that can reveal itself to
us; we can perceive it and take cognisance of it. And it is for us to
listen and hear what the spiritual world is revealing to us. That is
the aim and purpose we have in view in this anthroposophical movement
of ours; we want to make men attentive to the revelations of the
spiritual world. Verily, that is a task and mission that is no affair
of mankind alone, it concerns the cosmic worlds.
*
My
dear friends, when we begin to communicate single, concrete facts
from initiation knowledge, we must not be surprised if one or another
truth is met with ridicule and even scorn. Remember what I said at
the beginning of my lecture, that there is need today for
persons who have clear and detailed knowledge concerning the
evolution of mankind, there is need in the world today for persons
who have acquired such knowledge from initiation science. And you
will, I think, have seen from the descriptions that have been given,
how important it is that we should not rest content with the
recognition of broad and general truths, but should bring these
truths right into the everyday world of humanity, and let them come
to life there. This we shall indeed be able to do, for the
truths of initiation science have in them the vigour of life and can
speak with strength and precision of the life of man on Earth. Let me
give you an example.
During
the time of one of the later Crusades there was living in a monastery
in Italy a young monk, who was remarkably gifted and who devoted
himself to a special study of the knowledge that came not in
writings, but handed on by word of mouth from early Christian
times. For such knowledge continued to live on for a long time as
tradition, notably in some of the monasteries. An older monk would,
for instance, impart it to a younger when they were alone together;
and the young monk of whom I am speaking learned a great deal of
early Christian knowledge in this very way. He then left Italy
and joined the Crusade. He fell ill in Asia Minor, and while he was
being tended, met a still older monk who had been initiated into
the Mysteries of Christianity. As a result of this meeting, an
intense longing was awakened in the young man to come to a real
knowledge and understanding of the deeper Christian Mysteries,
Then he died, out there in the East. And he was born again in our
age, born again as a person in whom the forces that came from his
earlier incarnation worked strongly and showed themselves in the
following remarkable way. As I said just now, when one begins to
speak on the ground of initiation knowledge about practical matters
of life, it is really no more than can be expected if people turn it
to ridicule. Nevertheless, it is absolutely necessary that this
should be done in our day; and the time will come when we shall have
the perception to see that things which are discerned
spiritually can be spoken of as historical fact with the same
directness and assurance with which we speak of the facts of external
science. The personality of whom I speak is none other than Cardinal
Newman. Follow the course of his life from youth upwards; look at the
knowledge he possessed, read his own words. You cannot, I think, fail
to see that in Cardinal Newman we have a strong personality imbued
with a Christianity that is different from the Christianity of his
environment. You will understand why he wanted to get away from the
intellectual type of Christianity that he found around him, and
dreamed of another kind of consciousness such as had been possessed
by the first disciples of the Risen Christ. Follow his life further,
note the significant words that he uttered at the time of his
investiture, when he declared that there can be no salvation for
religion, unless man receives a new revelation. Ponder it all, and it
will grow clear to you that this earnest seeking is born of a deep
and powerful longing that had come over from former lives on Earth.
The man sensed the presence and impulse of those spiritual forces of
which I spoke in the second part of my lecture. He felt if
but dimly that it might be possible in our day, by undergoing
special development, to attain a new initiation knowledge to receive
a new revelation. And yet he himself ultimately accepted for his
understanding of Christianity a tradition! I need not tell
you whither his search led him; you can read the story for
yourselves. He strives to reach through the gloom to a
light that is beyond, but remains all the time within
the cloud. A deeper knowledge of his being reveals to us that Newman
was not really to blame for this, rather was he in this respect a
sacrifice, a victim of his age, a victim of the Ahrimanic forces
as I named them just now. These Ahrimanic forces had an
extraordinarily strong influence on Cardinal Newman; they fell upon
him and took captive his power of thought, which was consequently
unable to develop freely and find its way into spirituality. For he
who would today unfold his life in freedom must first of all be free
in his thinking, must liberate his power of thought from the
bondage of the brain.
Ahriman
achieves his greatest successes by shortening the second half of
mans life after death. You know how a certain time elapses
between death and a new birth. I have described in my Mystery Plays
how this time consists of two halves, the second half taking its
course after what I have called the Cosmic Midnight. It is this later
half the period from the Cosmic Midnight to the moment of new
birth that Ahriman tries to shorten. And by so doing he gets
hold of the human brain and its thinking. With impetuous and savage
energy, he fastens on the brain, and tries to hold men spellbound to
the Earth. That is how the Ahrimanic forces are working today,
and in ever increasing measure; they try to bring mans power
of thought ever more deeply into the earthly realm, away from the
spiritual world. Human beings are thus incarnated one or two
centuries too early. This method of attack on the part of the
Ahrimanic forces must be overcome with spiritual energy and
determination. At the time when Cardinal Newman was still
holding the rudder of his life, he was even then incapable, for all
his spiritual energy, of freeing his thought sufficiently, or
he would not have spoken as he did of the need for a new revelation,
he would instead have found the way to it himself. We cannot
omit from our considerations a person like Cardinal Newman when
we are calling attention to the spirituality that can bring man in
our age to a new life. For this spirituality will help men, as I have
already indicated, to understand the Mystery of Golgotha. It will
enable them to summon their fullest human powers to its
comprehension; and the Mystery of Golgotha shall then live within
them, within their very inmost being. Speaking here in England, I
have purposely cited Cardinal Newman as an example. The study of
tragic figures such as his can bring home to us very forcibly the
need of our time; and you will find many similar instances here in
England. That is why it is so urgent that there should be
understanding in this country of the need for that spiritual
knowledge and spiritual life, from which Cardinal Newman was
snatched away by the Ahrimanic forces. Spiritual knowledge and
spiritual life must again be made accessible to mankind, if
civilisation is to be saved from ruin.
Insight
into such connections as we have been considering can stimulate
in us the resolve to do all in our power for the furtherance of the
spiritual life of mankind. There is really no other possible course
for us today. Let us, however, not be blind to the fact that the
Ahrimanic powers are very strong. The truth to which we would
bear witness has fierce and stubborn enemies, who are inspired by
these Ahrimanic powers. Stronger, and ever stronger grow these
powers! I want to say this to you today, that you may not be taken
aback when you find that as soon as the anthroposophical movement
begins to stand forth in the world, it will have to fight continually
and increasingly with terrific enemy forces. May my words rouse you,
on the one hand to have insight into the will and intention that lies
behind all our anthroposophical efforts, and on the other hand to be
on your guard against attacks which will often be grossly
slanderous from enemies who want to stifle this movement in
the moment of its birth. Strong as these enemies may be, not a whit
less strong must we be, each one of us in the positive power
of his own energy and initiative. The anthroposophical
world-conception must be put before the world clearly and
truthfully, even if in the way it is put forward it should often meet
with misunderstanding, and with an inclination to distrust the aims
and purposes of our movement.
It
is therefore my earnest desire that there may be many among you who
will be stirred and quickened to work unremittingly for the time when
this spirituality, in spite of all that is being done to
misrepresent and obscure it, shall prevail in the world. That
you feel an urge to do so will mean that you are awake to the fact of
how urgently necessary this spirituality is for the further evolution
of mankind.
If,
my dear friends, we have come a little nearer to one another in a
common understanding of the inmost nature of the Being
Anthroposophia, and of its importance for our age, then will this
meeting for which we have had to wait for some years, have borne
fruit, borne indeed what I for my part shall be ready to
recognise as good and beautiful fruit. Carrying this hope in our
hearts, let us then resolve to remain together in soul, even when in
terms of space we are far apart.
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