LECTURE FOUR
The
Universal Human:
The Unification of Humanity
through the Christ Impulse
BERN,
JANUARY 9, 1916
BASICALLY,
SPIRITUAL SCIENCE aims at understanding humanity in its essence,
tasks, and strivings in the course of evolution. We have often talked
about how the outside world misunderstands our spiritual science. This
is largely because people nowadays have a hard time getting used to
certain fundamental truths — truths that simply must be
perceived and acknowledged if we are to understand the life and
nature of humanity at all.
Let
us begin today by asking what modern scientific thinking, whose great
and significant triumphs over the last four centuries we must fully
acknowledge and appreciate, is based on. It is based on what it can
perceive, on what is manifest, in physical existence. Now, of course,
it goes without saying that first we trust in what we perceive as
so-called reality in our environment, and then we try to explain this
reality on the basis of all that we find within its domain. It is
naturally difficult for us to be aware at the outset that this
reality itself may well contain an element of semblance or illusion,
that it may well be deceiving us. Those who truly want to understand
spiritual science must first overcome this stumbling block. They must
realize that the reality around us can indeed deceive us — it
can mislead us into interpreting it falsely. Much of what we
have learned in spiritual science over the years has convinced
us that immediate reality, as it surrounds us, may indeed be
deceptive.
Today we will start from a
particular point that can only be reached through spiritual science.
In spiritual science we must first understand things; then, when we
have understood them, we can find them confirmed in reality. Some of
the most important things in spiritual science must first be
understood before they can be seen. It would be easy to show that
this same method is frequently applied in the outer world, notably in
the sciences, but we will not go into that today. It is not always
possible to develop everything from the beginning.
Now one aspect of the outer
appearance or physiognomy of reality that is most apt to deceive us
about this reality is the differences, the diversities among human
beings. When we look at the human beings inhabiting the earth, we
realize that no two of them are alike on the physical plane. Here in
the physical realm all human beings are different from one another.
Once we have accepted this diversity of human beings as a fact
— I mean the diversity of their physical bodies — it is
quite natural that people then try to find out, on the basis of the
facts of earthly life, why human beings are different, why they look
so different.
However, from the point of
view of spiritual science we see something very different. According
to spiritual science, if we consider only the forms the physical body
can take through the forces of the earth, we find that human beings
could not be different but rather would all have to be alike and have
the same outer form. Indeed, the forces that exist on earth to give
us our physical shape are such that if only these formative forces
were to work on us, we would all have the same outer, physical form.
This is because the physical human body has undergone a long preparation.
We know it was prepared through the epochs of Saturn, Sun, and Moon.
[ see Note 1 ]
It was prepared by
forces that worked during these three epochs in such a way that the
forces of the earth itself could influence our physical body in no
other way than to give it a uniform shape if they had indeed been the
only forces at work. I might put it this way: Through all the forces
that have been incorporated into our physical body during the Saturn,
Sun, and Moon epochs, we human beings are so fortified against any
diversities coming from earthly forces that if we were left to the
earthly forces alone, we would be alike everywhere on earth.
Spiritual science, therefore, must start from the fact that a single
and uniform shape is predestined for humanity so far as the
terrestrial forces are concerned.
Even if we consider just
the difference between male and female what I have just said is true.
This difference is not caused by the work of earthly forces; it is
the result of quite other forces, which we will speak of presently.
Thus, we can assume a certain totality of earth forces that works
formatively upon human beings and wants to produce absolutely
identical human forms everywhere on earth.
Of course, we must now ask
why human beings are so different after all. We know we must consider
not only our physical body, but also the etheric body that stands
behind it. Spiritual science shows us that while we should all be
alike in our physical body, in regard to our etheric body we must be
different because earthly forces are not the only ones that work on
our etheric body. Forces coming out of the cosmos work on our etheric
body, forming and shaping it.
We
must therefore distinguish between the uniform earthly forces working
all over the earth that would make all human forms the same and the
forces working out of the universe on the earth, making each etheric
body different. We can see the differences between etheric bodies
through spiritual scientific research. At the one extreme are those
etheric bodies that have strong forces and are tough, retaining their
form almost as much as we do our physical form. This is one kind of
etheric body. There is a second kind that is mobile, like something
that is fluttering and always in movement, flowing and moving. But
these two kinds of etheric bodies still reveal themselves in such a
way that we can describe their inner tone and shading as being more
or less alike. There is another kind of etheric body that is inwardly
tinted, inwardly shimmering, not uniform in color but having various
tones and colors. There is a fourth kind of etheric body that has one
primary color throughout its whole substance, but this color changes
over time though we cannot pinpoint other than purely inward causes
for this. These etheric bodies are not shimmering in different colors
or shaded in many tones; they have only one color, but they change it
in the course of time. We may call them chameleon-like etheric
bodies.
Then
there are those etheric bodies that have a strong tendency to light
up inwardly, growing at times brighter and brighter. Other etheric
bodies have a powerful faculty to reproduce the harmonies of the
spheres. Finally, there are those etheric bodies that appear
especially in inventive people and persons of genius — etheric
bodies that, if I may say so, reveal forces within them that are rare
and strange in this earthly world. Whereas the above-mentioned six
kinds of etheric bodies are found among ordinary, even average, human
beings, the last kind of etheric body produces the type of human
being with powerfully developed faculties, those we often say are
“not of this earth” — poets, artists, and the
like.
It is
not by arbitrarily picking the number seven that we distinguish these
seven forms of etheric bodies. We simply have to count, and we find
no others besides those I have just described as typical. For this
simple reason, there are seven kinds of etheric bodies. There are
seven different kinds of human etheric bodies, and in the etheric
bodies we have forces that are not earthly, but come in from the
cosmos.
Our
etheric body forms and molds the physical body. If only earthly
forces worked on us, we would all be alike in our physical body.
However, the influence of the etheric body makes us different. The
astral body brings about further differences, such as those between
male and female bodies, through forces it develops between death and
a new birth, during the time when we prepare ourselves for the gender
that karma requires us to have in the next incarnation.
But
for the moment, let us just look at the etheric body. If we take only
earthly forces into account, we can say that our physical bodies
would have to be alike. However, because our etheric bodies differ in
their constitution, composition, and structure in the cosmos, there
would have to be seven groups of human beings. This is the fact we
gradually arrive at when we investigate the relationship between our
etheric body and our physical body with the methods of spiritual
science. Now this difference is connected with the racial diversities
on the earth. Basically, because of this difference in etheric
bodies, the several races can always be reduced to the number
seven. Even though certain typical forms atrophy, and though natural
science may distinguish fewer than seven basic races, there are
really seven basic racial distinctions in the human species. These
diversities are brought about by the etheric body; they do not result
from the earthly forces that work during our evolution, but originate
in cosmic forces.
Now, when we trace the
evolution of the earth back into the Atlantean or even into the
Lemurian epochs, we find that initially impulses and tendencies
existed that would have prevented our physical body from developing
the physiognomy it now has through the power of the etheric body
— that is, the diversities. Instead, if everything had gone a
certain way (we shall see directly in what way), the seven-colored
etheric body would have brought about diversities in our physical
form, but successively, one after the other. Thus, the etheric body
would have created one form of human being in the fifth period of
Atlantis, a second in the sixth period of Atlantis, a third in the
seventh, a fourth in the first post-Atlantean period, a fifth in the
second post-Atlantean period, a sixth in the third, and a seventh in
the fourth post-Atlantean period, that is, in the Greco-Roman
time.
That is what would have
happened; various types of human beings would have appeared one after
the other. Thus, in the fifth Atlantean period we would have had
human beings in whose physical formation one type of etheric
body would have predominated. In the sixth Atlantean period, the
second of the etheric bodies just described would have been at work,
and so on right until the fourth post-Atlantean period. That was the
original conception. However, Lucifer and Ahriman opposed this; they
did not want it to happen that way. They fought against this
harmonious tendency of development in the evolution of humanity, and
they managed to change the whole process so that various developments
were shifted and displaced. While there should have been basically
only one form of human being in the fifth Atlantean period that was
to develop gradually into another type, Lucifer and Ahriman preserved
the form of the fifth Atlantean period into the sixth, and again that
of the sixth Atlantean period into the seventh, and even into the
time after the Atlantean flood.
Thus, forms that should
have disappeared remained. Instead of racial diversities developing
consecutively, older racial forms remained unchanged and newer ones
began to evolve at the same time. Instead of the intended consecutive
development of races, there was a coexistence of races. That is how
it came about that physically different races inhabited the
earth and are still there in our time although evolution should
really have proceeded as I have described it. Even when we consider
only what resulted from the development of the etheric body, we see
everywhere that Lucifer and Ahriman play their part in the earthly
evolution of humanity.
Now we must ask what the
intended consecutive development of humanity up until the Greco-Roman
epoch meant in the larger cosmic context. As we know, around the
Atlantean time, human souls gradually came down from the planets to
which they had ascended. You may remember that I described in my
An Outline of Occult Science
that the souls had ascended and
then came down again and that the life of earthly incarnations,
properly speaking, begins with their descent.
[ see Note 2 ]
Thus, the I of human beings, their individualities,
would have gone through the various human forms
mentioned above in consecutive periods. In the fifth
Atlantean period, the I would have had one human form, in the
sixth another, in the seventh again another; in the first
post-Atlantean epoch it would have had yet another form, and so on.
We would all have lived through these types of humanity, one after
the other.
Indeed,
it was planned that human beings would thus
complete the necessary schooling of human individuality by passing
through various etheric formations that had different effects
on their physical body. In fact, according to the original plan,
there could have been a type of human being on the earth who would
have been the result, as it were, of seven successive periods of
development, each of which would have contributed to the perfection
of that human type. In the fifth post-Atlantean period, then, there
would have been one united type of human being spread over the whole
face of the earth.
However,
Lucifer and Ahriman interfered and thwarted the
original design. As a result, the ancient Greeks could only dream of
an ideal, superhuman type, which they tried to represent in various
ways, for example, in the form of Apollo, Zeus, or Athena. They could
not fully encompass this type simply because it did not really exist.
But if we have a sense for Greek sculpture, we can feel how the
ancient Greeks dreamed of a uniform, perfect, beautiful type of human
being that should have developed. This development did not occur
because Lucifer and Ahriman preserved older racial forms that had
developed, so that there was a coexistence of races rather than a
succession.
In
the fourth post-Atlantean period, in the Greco-Roman era, human
evolution was faced with the fact that what the gods guiding the
evolution of the earth had intended for the outer forms on this earth
had not been realized because of the luciferic-ahrimanic influence.
The spirits of the hierarchy of form had intended that the harmonious
working of the various hierarchies of form should really lead to a
human type with perfect physical development. As it turned out, the
ancient Greeks could only dream of this perfect type and express it
in their art.
It is
a deeply moving experience to realize in the course of spiritual
research why the Greeks created such perfection in their plastic art.
They did it because through a soul-spiritual instrument they
perceived that Lucifer and Ahriman had disappointed the good
divine-spiritual beings, whose plans for humanity were different from
the development that actually occurred. What should have developed
through the work of these good divine-spiritual beings weighed on the
ancient Greeks' minds, and so they wanted to at least represent it
even though it did not exist in outer reality. It is great and
wonderful and also deeply moving to behold these inner forces of
human evolution that appear there in artistic forms, striving to
express what could not be achieved in outer reality. Such insights
shed new light on Greek art as it was developed so uniquely and
unrepeatably at that time.
The
Greek era was also the time when humanity faced a crisis because of
the luciferic-ahrimanic influence. Lucifer and Ahriman had caused
races to live side by side instead of one after the other. At the
same time, however, all the forces the spirits of form were pouring
into human evolution on the earth were immobilized. Now they
could do no more than stimulate and inspire the creative imagination
of the Greeks so that it developed as I have described it. The
spirits of form had to decide whether the human race should
continue to develop so that human beings would never again be united
in earthly evolution. For this indeed is what would have happened. If
earthly evolution had continued beyond the fourth, the Greco-Roman
period, in the same way it was prior to that, then humanity would
have become separated into seven groups due to luciferic and
ahrimanic forces. These seven groups would have been as different
from each other as the various species of animals. Animal species do
not understand each other, but regard each other as foreign.
Similarly, toward the end of the fourth post-Atlantean period and in
the fifth one, in which we live, people would have had to develop
more and more the view that there are seven groups of human beings on
earth that see each other as completely different species. This view
would still have prevailed in our time; in fact, the separation
between the seven groups would not yet have reached its culmination
or completion, but would still be developing and widening. The term
“human being” for all people on earth would have seemed
wrong; we would have had seven different terms, one for each of the
seven groups.
Therefore, in the fourth
post-Atlantean age, in the Greco-Roman period, something had to be
done in the universe to forestall the development that threatened to
result in the future, at the end of earth evolution, namely, the
evolution of seven groups of human beings, each called by a different
name, just as each animal species has a different name. These groups
would not have regarded each other as belonging to the same species,
and at most there would have been handed down to them some copy of
the Greek forms, such as the statues of Zeus or Apollo. They would
have regarded these statues as something alien to them —
something that could never have existed on earth. Precautions had to
be taken to prevent such a development. Physical evolution had
already gone too far and could not be changed anymore. Therefore,
precautions had to be taken for our etheric body; an impulse had to
enter our etheric body that would counteract the separating of
earthly humanity into seven groups. This impulse that was to
counteract the growing fragmentation of humanity and that was to make
it possible for the term “human being” to retain —
and, in fact, increase — its true meaning over the whole face
of the earth was the Mystery of Golgotha, which we can now see in a
new light.
The first attempt that had
been made with earthly humanity before the luciferic and ahrimanic
impulses interfered in evolution was to create unity among human
beings everywhere through the forming of the physical body. This
attempt by the spirits of form failed because of luciferic-ahrimanic
interference. But it could not be allowed to fail altogether;
precautions had to be taken to prevent complete failure and to
immobilize and offset the work of Lucifer and Ahriman. The physical
body could no longer be worked on as was originally intended;
therefore, the etheric body had to be worked on. This was done by the
divine-spiritual being we have so often spoken of — the Christ
Being — taking on human form at the time in human evolution
when the possibility to express the archetype of humanity was the
greatest.
At what period in human
evolution was this? All the forces that counteract the original,
identical design of our physical body are at work in us mostly in the
first seven years of life, when the physical body is still soft and
pliant. They do not allow our physical body to become the same
everywhere, but from within the body they immobilize the forces for
the original identical design.
[ see Note 3 ]
These opposing forces can still go on working in the second seven years
until puberty; indeed, they can even continue to work in the third
and fourth seven-year periods during the development of the
astral body and the sentient soul. However, in the middle of the
development of the intellectual or mind soul, which evolved above all
in the fourth post-Atlantean or Greco-Roman time, the extra-earthly
forces are less and less able to reach us. And in the very midst of
this development, that is, in the period between our twenty-eighth
and thirty-fifth years, they have least access to us. If we add two
years at the beginning of this period and subtract two years at the
end, the time in question is that between the thirtieth and the
thirty-third year. In the time following those years, extra-earthly
forces once more have the greatest influence. The period from the
thirtieth to the thirty-third year, however, is the time of the
greatest influence of earthly forces on the human being. And if in
this period of three years there remained only the degree of
diversity that existed in younger years and only what is to appear in
later years would be added — in short, if only what works on
human beings between the thirtieth and the thirty-third year remained
effective, then people would indeed be much more alike.
Christ
had to use these three years — very special
and unique years — to unite with those earthly forces in human
beings that had retained most of the earthly element in the human
being. To this end, as we have discussed, the body for Christ was
prepared through the two Jesus bodies up to the thirtieth year. Then,
from the thirtieth to the thirty-third year, Christ took possession
of this body. Where the earth forces were most active and where
deformations could have set in, there no further development was
possible, and physical death occurred. Thus, the sun-being, Christ,
really entered into the earth sphere and united with the whole
etheric body of the earth, as I have often explained. He then entered
into the earth aura and now continues to work there. This sun-being
must work for us in such a way that we realize more and more that in
Christ the divine spirit was sent to us who was to counterbalance and
redeem from within the separation and diversification in humanity
created by Lucifer and Ahriman's opposition to the original
impulses.
In
outer human nature, the good spiritual beings work together with
Lucifer and Ahriman. But what human beings originally, at the
beginning of earth evolution, were intended to have on the outside,
namely, uniformity and the applicability of the term “human
being” everywhere on earth, was now to be brought forth out of
the innermost essence of the human being through the Christ-Spirit.
It is one of the many meanings of the Mystery of Golgotha that with
the Christ-Spirit something was given to the earth that, when rightly
understood, makes the name “human being” again applicable
to all earthly humanity. The real substance of Christianity, which
has already been partially revealed through its teachings, will be
explored by those who, in regard to Christ, seek in the spiritual
world what Christ is continually revealing in accordance with his
words: “I am with you always, to the close of the age.”
When what can be conveyed to human beings in the name of Christ from
within thus gradually becomes known, then, as a result, what Lucifer
and Ahriman did in earthly humanity can more and more be made up for
and redeemed.
We
may, of course, ask now if there is any meaning in this
detour. This is really a childish question, and it is often raised by
people who think themselves cleverer than the cosmic wisdom —
and indeed there are many who aspire to such superior cleverness.
Such people say, “If there are mighty divine beings, could they
not have eliminated the luciferic-ahrimanic influence at the
beginning of earthly evolution in order to protect their work?”
This may be human wisdom, but in St. Paul's sense it is “folly
with God.” It is nothing more than mere human wisdom.
In our lectures, we must
look at things as we are now doing, and then what has developed
through the opposition of Lucifer and Ahriman does not seem
absolutely evil to us, but only relatively evil. For let us now
consider the other side of the matter. Let us assume the original,
divine cosmic plan for the earth had been fulfilled. Imagine that in
the regular course of evolution the Greco-Roman era would have
arrived, as I have pointed out, and that beautiful, harmonious type
of human being the Greeks dreamed of would not only have been created
by their sculptors, but would have lived among them and would
gradually have spread over the whole earth. All other human forms
would gradually have disappeared, and only what lives in the Apollo
type, the Zeus type, the Diana type, and the Athena type would have
spread over the earth. Since such beings would have recognized each
other as belonging to the same species, they would have given
themselves the name “human being.” Then the term
“human being” would indeed have been applicable, and at
the same time there would have been a sense of the equality of all
people.
In that case, a human race
of Grecian beauty would have spread over the earth, and in our age we
would already see humanity approaching more and more this beautiful
Grecian type, which would reach its perfection when the earth arrives
at its goal in the seventh post-Atlantean epoch, after which it will
pass over into other stages of existence. However, human beings would
have advanced to this common humanity in unfreedom — that is
what we must bear in mind. We would have been compelled to see
all human beings everywhere as the same beings. It is only because
such an identical form did not develop that all the other things
could happen that allow us to see others as different, so that each
sees the other as unlike himself and does not love his neighbor as
himself. You will probably understand that if human beings had really
become outwardly as alike as the original divine-spiritual forces had
intended if Lucifer and Ahriman had not interfered, the feeling that
one must love one's neighbor as oneself would necessarily have
developed. There would not have been any choice; for anything else
would have seemed to be nonsense, both in terms of feeling and of
perception.
However, this development
was not supposed to come from the outside because then it would have
made us into beings who love automatically — that is, we would
have loved others because they are our own kind, but without knowing
the force that urges us to this love. Thus, what would otherwise have
come to us in unfreedom was prepared for freedom through Lucifer and
Ahriman's opposition. This sanction of the opposition is therefore
inherent in the original plan of divine wisdom. Indeed, we may say
that in still earlier periods of earthly evolution, the opposition
against the harmonious progressive divine-spiritual powers was
created precisely so that it could later bring about freedom.
At this point, we must
realize that our concepts must change when we
leave the sphere of physical observation and ascend to a higher order
of perception. Many of you probably know that philosophy speaks of
antinomies, and that Kant has even gone so far as to claim that it
can be proven with equal conclusiveness that the two statements
“the world is infinite in terms of space” and “the
world is finite in terms of space” are correct. Similarly, both
“the world has had a beginning” and “the world has
had no beginning” can be proven conclusively. Why is this? It
is because logic does not apply when we come into a sphere that can
no longer be comprehended by physical means. We finally have to
realize that our physical logic works neither in the realm of
philosophy nor anywhere else where we concern ourselves with other
than physical forms of existence. We must not make the mistake
of looking at the opposition of Lucifer and Ahriman as we would at
the antagonism between a good and an evil person on earth. This kind
of mistake occurs when we continue to carry over the earthly into the
super-earthly realm.
Most
people picture Ahriman and Lucifer as evil beings — albeit much
more intensely evil than human beings. But this is not true; we must
keep in mind that certain earthly feelings we associate with our
concepts lose their meaning when we go beyond the earthly realm. Thus
we cannot say that there are good gods on the one hand and the evil
gods Ahriman and Lucifer on the other. We must not assume that a
trial should be held in the universe where a highly qualified cosmic
judge would sit on the cosmic judgment seat and sentence Lucifer and
Ahriman to be locked up once and for all, so that only the good gods
can get to work. True, locking somebody up can at times make sense in
earthly life; in the cosmos it would not make any sense because there
such ideas and concepts have no meaning. The opposing forces were
created by the good gods themselves in an earlier period so
that they would be able to bring to bear their full force for the
development I have described.
For
freedom to enter in so that human beings did not develop an unfree
love through their outer shape or form, the luciferic and ahrimanic
elements had to be part of our evolution. Only in this way can we
arrive from within ourselves at the unity indicated by the term
“humanity.” Thus, the gods allowed humanity to be
fragmented by the opposing forces, so that later, after their bodily
nature had been thus separated, human beings could again be brought
into a unity in their spiritual nature through Christ.
This
is one of the meanings of the Mystery of Golgotha: the attainment of
the unity of humanity from within. Externally human beings are
becoming more and more different. The result will be not sameness but
difference over the earth, and human beings must exert all the
more force from within to attain unity. There will always be setbacks
in this process of achieving unity — we can see them coming if
we look for them. What was actually intended only for an earlier
epoch is preserved into a later epoch, and what was to create
differences in consecutive periods coexists. Human beings form
different groups, and while they are struggling for unity all over
the world in the name of Christ, through the Christ impulse,
differences remain as aftereffects and setbacks. Such differences
will always exist because human beings will only gradually be able to
attain unity. At the same time, different groups will fight each
other tooth and nail about everything concerning their outer life.
There are setbacks from earlier epochs that run counter to the Christ
impulse, rather than in harmony with it.
Indeed,
here we see a very profound meaning of this Christ
impulse. Based on true knowledge, we can say Christ is our savior who
keeps humankind from being fragmented into groups. This is not yet
fully understood by all people because the old still exists alongside
the new. Today, people hardly understand the community of life in the
Christ impulse, and this is connected with the fact that this
understanding must proceed from our innermost being. We must realize
that the Christ impulse has worked in the earth aura for the last two
thousand years, but has not been understood. As we have often
emphasized, this Christ impulse can only be fully understood through
what spiritual science gives us. It is only when a growing
number of people can more and more grasp, think, and feel what
actually entered our earthly evolution in the fourth
post-Atlantean period that understanding for that event will
increase. To expect modern humanity to understand the Christ impulse
is really asking too much. After all, just think how unwilling people
are to acknowledge that this fourth post-Atlantean period of
evolution, the Greco-Roman epoch, is of such paramount, such mighty
significance in human evolution. Just think how unwilling people are
to recognize any such post-Atlantean age at all with the Greco-Latin
epoch as its pivotal point. To accept such truths, people need to
take in the ideas of spiritual science. Without them one cannot
understand these things at all — that is, one cannot understand
the evolution of humanity if one has not taken in these
concepts.
We
have to understand the significance of the spirits of form, who had
intended to develop a homogeneous human race in seven successive
stages. This homogeneous human race was fragmented by Lucifer and
Ahriman, but the force that wants to spread the one name “human
being” over all the earth and unto the end of time — in
spite of the outer differences between people — was revived
from within by the Christ impulse. One of the chief tasks of the
immediate future is to understand that Christ stands between Lucifer
and Ahriman and to grasp his significance in relation to them.
Therefore, we must always call Lucifer and Ahriman by their true
names — we must call a spade a spade, so to speak — and
look to the Christ impulse as the one combating them and saving
the earth from this one-sided luciferic-ahrimanic impulse. This
is what must be presented more and more often.
In
our Dornach building we have therefore placed the statue
The Representative of Humanity
[see the image, below – e.Ed.]
in the most prominent place; it presents the
archetype of humanity that is to be recreated by Christ from within,
surrounded by the luciferic-ahrimanic elements.
[ see Note 4 ]
That is the meaning of
this central statue in our building. Looking at this central figure,
people will realize that this is indeed what the good gods had
intended. The human race was fragmented, Lucifer and Ahriman made
their appearance, but the Christ impulse triumphs and recreates from
within, from within us, what was originally intended for the outside.
In the process, our freedom is created. Our building and what will be
in it are to place before humanity what must be accomplished in terms
of understanding human evolution. What is most needed for humanity in
the immediate future is to be revealed in our building; we want
people to understand human evolution showing and telling them what is
most important for the near future.
| Steiner in his Studio Click image for large view | |
Of course, many objections
can be raised, and some of them have already been brought to our
attention. After seeing the paintings and sculptures in the
Goetheanum, some people have said that a true work of art must be
understandable immediately to everyone without requiring an
explanation. Here, on the other hand, people need theoretical
explanations to understand our art works. Well, if people would only
think a little! Imagine a Turk, for example, understanding nothing at
all except what is contained in the Koran, a Turk who has heard
nothing about Christ except that he must fight against Christianity.
Suppose you took this Turk to see the Sistine Madonna
and showed it to him without any explanations. Naturally, a work of
art can only be understood by those who live in the same spiritual
stream out of which the work was created. Thus, our ideal figure
surrounded by Lucifer and Ahriman will only be understood by those
who live in our spiritual stream.
This is true for all works
of art in all ages: they are comprehensible only to those who live in
the same spiritual stream. Only within that stream are they true
works of art. The spiritual orientation must be inherent in them.
Those who understand Raphael's Sistine Madonna or, let us say,
his Transfiguration must know something of the spiritual
stream in which the pictures were created. Similarly, to understand
what they have seen in our building, people must have some element
belonging to our spiritual stream in their souls and hearts. If they
have this element within them, then the work of art must speak for
itself, and no labels, identifying names, or other comments will be
needed to explain or interpret it.
For example, when people
look at one of our glass windows, they see in the bottom part a kind
of coffin with a dead man in it; above that, they see an old man, a
youth, a young woman, and a child standing on a winding path. If
people have taken in our spiritual stream, they will realize that
this is the review of life. Immediately after we have passed through
the gate of death, we will see the course of our earthly life in
reverse. Of course, you have to know this fact to make sense of the
picture in the window. But if you know this, then the picture works
by virtue of what it contains, just as the Sistine Madonna
works upon those who know the Christian history behind it, but it has
no such effect on the Turk. By the same token, what is presented in
our building cannot work upon those who have not taken in our
spiritual stream. These things just have to be seen in the right
way.
Today, I wanted above all
to explain that Christ was that spirit from the cosmos who, in the
course of earthly evolution, brought spiritually what was originally
intended for our outer form but could not develop externally, because
we would then have become automatons of love and equality. On the
physical plane there prevails the fundamental law that everything
must operate through antitheses, through polarities. The gods could
not simply have sent down Christ at the very beginning of earth
evolution, as our naive wisdom might suggest they should have done.
For then the antithesis of external fragmentation and inner
concentration could never have developed. Humanity, however,
must live in this antithesis and polarity. We have the right feelings
for Christ only when we see in him the savior, rescuing humanity from
dispersion and separateness; only then can Christ fill our own
innermost I. Christianity lives wherever people are able to
understand this union of all humanity through Christ. In the future,
it will not matter much whether what Christ is will still be called
by that name. However, a lot will depend on our finding in Christ the
spiritual uniter of humanity and accepting that external diversity
will increase more and more.
We will also have to accept
that there will still be many setbacks for this spiritual
understanding of the Christ impulse. What developed at the same time
instead of consecutively will for a long time continue to evoke
forces that fight against a spiritual understanding of global human
equality. There will be many and terrible onslaughts, and, for the
most part, their purpose will be to continue the luciferic-ahrimanic
war against the Christ impulse. And it will be one of the greatest,
most beautiful and significant achievements of our age if we can be
among the few who understand this thought of the unifying of all
human beings, who understand how remnants of the
luciferic-ahrimanic elements strive to bring to the fore what
is unique in various groups of human beings so as to exclude all
others. It is very difficult to say anything at this time about the
final outcome of these matters. As human hearts are now, to speak
about that outcome would only be upsetting and bewildering; it may
lead to opposition, perhaps even to hatred and abuse rather than to
working in accordance with the Christ impulse. However, what can be
said about this principle in the Christ impulse, namely, the
salvation of humanity out of bodily fragmentation into spiritual
unity, must be told, for it must become more and more effective in
human evolution.
We have to be able to face
calmly and courageously the increasing diversity in human nature
because we know that we can carry a word into all these diversities
that is not merely a word of speech but one of power. Though there
may be groups that fight against each other and though we may even
belong to one of them, we know that we can bring something that will
express: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in
me” into every group. We know that this “Christ who lives
in me” will not lead to the forming of groups; rather, it will
bring about the spreading of the glory of the name “human
being” over the whole earth.
The understanding of
spiritual science brings to life the realization that we can carry
the power that comes from the words “It is no longer I who
live, but Christ who lives in me” into the groups that are
fighting each other — no matter into which group we bring our
I. This is one of the practical and moral-ethical aspects of our
strivings in spiritual science. With the force of these words we
bring something into the group that does not belong exclusively to
one or the other group but to all humanity. It is only through this
that we can arrive at a true spiritual understanding of
Christianity.
It is the hallmark of
mighty spiritual paths that they are finally expressed in simple
words. Think of the simple words that can express the whole of
Christianity, which has permeated the world for nearly two thousand
years. But these simple words can only be found on the basis of big,
long-term developments. These simple words that express Christianity
were not just there all at once; they had to be worked for. We must
be aware that we are among those people working to make it possible
that someday simple words may be found to express, in a basic,
elementary way, the truths we have to spread and develop today.
Without such development the simple could never
come about. We may not yet be able to put our spiritual science into
simple words in any language — words that would condense it on
a quarter of a page — so that all striving people would
understand it, as was done for Christianity when it originated
two thousand years ago. Yet, we can be sure that those simple words
will contain something of what I said today, something that will
direct our attention to the Greco-Roman age, especially to the
Mystery of Golgotha during that time, as well as to the contrast or
polarity between Christ and Lucifer-Ahriman.
What
can be seen everywhere will be concentrated in a few simple words
that can then be handed down to future humanity in the same way as
the commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and
with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Just as
this commandment expresses something that had to be attained as a
result of a long development, so, in the future, the findings of
spiritual science will be put into simple words, and then all people
will understand them.
This
requires our spiritual work, for the simple can only arise in the
spiritual evolution of humanity when people have been willing to
spend long periods of time learning about the details. You are called
upon to help in this development, which will lead to something
appearing to people in bright clarity, something we cannot yet
express because we do not have the words for it in our languages, yet
something spiritual science works toward. When you feel you belong to
such a spiritual stream, and feel at home in it, because you see that
it is necessary for human evolution, then you have the right
understanding of our spiritual movement — you belong to it in
such a way that you rightly understand the greatest of its goals
based on your increasing understanding of the contrast between Christ
and Lucifer-Ahriman. You understand that this contrast is vital and
had to exist.
This
is what I wanted to bring before your souls today. It is all
connected with the question of the meaning of our whole earthly
evolution. For when spirits from other planets look down upon the
earth and ask what the meaning of this earthly evolution is, they
will understand it when they learn about the Mystery of Golgotha.
Everything that happens in the course of earthly evolution has its
meaning only through the Mystery of Golgotha. The Mystery of Golgotha
radiates out into the cosmos and imparts to everything else that
radiates out from the earth its meaning, its central
meaning.
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