Significant Facts Pertaining to the Spiritual Life of the Middle of the XIXth Century

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Significant Facts Pertaining to the Spiritual

Life of the Middle of the XIXth Century

By Rudolf Steiner

Translated by D.S. Osmond

GA 254

Three lectures delivered in Dornach, Switzerland, in October and November, 1915.Authorized translation from the German of Notes unrevised by the lecturer. Published by kind

permission of theRudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland.

A part of Steiner'sLectures on the Anthroposophical Movement and Society, these are lectures11, 12, and 13 of 13 from the lecture series: Occult Movements of the 19th Century (formerly

GA 164). Published in German as:Die Okkulte Bewegung Im Neunzehnten Jahrhundert undIhre Beziehung zur Weltkultur. Bedeutzames aus dem aeusseren Geistesleben um Mitte des

neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Now, GA# 254.

A condensedversion of the three lectures comprising the series, can be found at, Outlooks for

the Future.

This e.Text edition is provided through the wonderful work of:

Various e.Text Transcribers

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CONTENTS

Cover Sheet

Contents

Lecture I:

A convulsive element is at work in the evolution of humanity during the 19th century. Two

examples from European literature of significant insight into happenings in the spiritual

worlds: The Mahaguru, a novel by Gutzkow, and The Undivine Comedy, a drama by

Zigmunt Krasinski.

October 31, 1915

Lecture II:

When most of the souls now living are reincarnated they will know as a natural matter of

course that there are many earthly lives. The men of the Lemurian and Atlantean epochs

and their occult arts. Knowledge and application of hidden forces of nature. The gradual

development of free will and a new knowledge of nature. Decadent remains of ancient,

occult chemistry, for example in Tibet. Necessity for acquiring knowledge of Lucifer and

Ahriman, The Ego must be permeated by Christ. Senses-perceptions and ideas. The concept

of knowledge and the concept of life. Extract from a letter written by Petrarch to Boccaccio.

Ahasver, the Wandering Jew. Christ is seeing us.

November 1, 1915

Lecture III:

The tragic wrestling with knowledge. How can man find the link with the true realities in

the cosmos? Fechner and the discovery of medicaments. The moral physiognomy of men in

the sixth post-Atlantean epoch as the nemesis of materialism. Gradual stiffening of the

etheric body, and its consequences.

LECTURE I.

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A Convulsive Element in Humanity in the Nineteenth Century

Dornach, 31st October 1915.

In recent lectures given here my endeavour has been to show how in the middle of the 19th century a flood of

materialism burst into the evolutionary process of humanity, and how from different sides it was felt that a flood of

materialism of this kind had never previously been known, and that furthermore there was a certain significance in

the way it had arisen I also tried to bring home the fact that men must arm themselves if they are to continue along

the path of evolution once laid down for humanity.

Particularly in the most recent lectures [The Occult Movement in the 19th Century. Course of 10 lectures.] I

described the efforts that were made from different quarters concerned with the furtherance of cultural aims akin to

those of spiritual science to inculcate an element which was deemed necessary in order to demonstrate to men that

something entirely new must be added to the old. Naturally, a very great deal more could be said about this subject,

and as time goes on, there will be opportunities for speaking of many aspects of it for illustrations will have to be

given of what was presented in the first place more in the form of narrative. Today, however, I want to show that

towards the middle of the 19th century there were evidences in the external spiritual life, too, of a feeling that a

crucial point had been reached. In the external spiritual life that is to say, in the different philosophical

movements, the literary movement and so on there are evidences that a convulsive element interpolated itself into

the course of evolution. As numbers of illustrations could be given, it is obviously only possible to select one or two.

I will take as our starting-point today, two examples from European literature. These examples will show that in

the hearts and minds of some men there was a feeling that significant things were taking place in the invisible

worlds.

One of these examples is Gutzkow's novel The Mahaguru the great Guru. [The Mahaguru has not been

translated into English.] The second remarkably enough it was written at about the same time is the

extraordinarily interesting drama which ends with the cry: Thou hast conquered, O Galilean! [See notes later in

lecture on The Undivine Comedy (Krasinski).] So far as my knowledge of it goes, it seems to me to represent a

crowning point in Polish literature of the 19th century.

It is remarkable that in the thirties of the 19th century, the young freethinker Gutzkow then in his twenties should have chosen this particular material in order to point to much that was astir at that time, linking it on to a

personage who subsequently became the Dalai-Lama in Tibet the Mahaguru, as he called him.

A few brief words will suffice to outline this picture of conditions apparently so remote from those prevailing in

Europe, yet in reality infinitely pertinent to them, The Mahaguru was published in the thirties of the 19th century

at the dawn, therefore, of the age of materialism.

One of the principal characters in the novel is a man who makes models of gods. What is such a man in Tibet?

He is one who models figures of gods out of all kinds of substances (as we today work with clay or plasticine); he

makes models of gods according to the traditions strictly laid down in the Tibetan canon. The details of these figures

must be absolutely correct: the proportions laid down for the facial structure, the size and position of the hands all

must be exact. The hero, or rather one of the heroes of the novel, has descended from an ancient stock, the membersof which have always been engaged in the trade of making gods, and he is an expert in his craft. His fame is

widespread and his figures of gods are bought all over Tibet. In modeling one of the chief gods, a very terrible thing

happens to him. We must of course try to put ourselves into the heart and mind of a Tibetan before the whole

import of the word terrible in this connection will be clear to us. To the heart of a devout Tibetan it is a terrible

thing that befell this maker of gods. In the figure of one of the chief gods, the length between the nostrils and the

upper lip was not correct, not in accordance with the canon. This was a terrible and significant matter. The man had

departed from the ancient, time-honoured canon and had made the space between the nostrils and the upper lip a

little larger than was prescribed.

In Tibet this is a dreadful sin nearly or perhaps just as dreadful as when someone in the West today states to

an audience of orthodox believers that the existence of the two Jesus boys was necessary in order that Christ mightdescend into Jesus or when he speaks of a faculty of knowledge higher than the ordinary faculty, so that he must

be accused of inducing his followers to engage in experiments with clairvoyance and the like. Such teachings are

sheer fantasy that is what is said today. But in the days described in this novel it was an equally outrageous sin

that in a figure of one of the chief gods the nostrils should lie too far above the upper lip. The only thing that is

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different is the actual form of punishment. Today, the most that happens is that lectures crammed with inaccuracies

are delivered and other justifiable measures adopted. But at that time in Tibet the maker of gods was obliged to

appear before the supreme tribunal of the Inquisition the dread Council of black Inquisitors. That is how it

would be designated in terms current in Europe today.

So the maker of gods was obliged to set out for Lhassa and present himself before the tribunal police are not

necessary in Tibet, for the people obey automatically; when they are told that they must appear before the tribunal of

the black Inquisition, there is no need to fetch them. So the maker of gods set out with his brothers and his

enchanting daughter, a great Tibetan beauty.

With her masterly knowledge of the Tibetan canon, this daughter had been helping him devotedly and efficiently

for many years and was an altogether lovable character. The brothers of the man were obliged to accompany him

because they were co-responsible for what he had done. The caravan party now set out for Lhassa where the sinner

must appear before the black tribunal. When they had traveled some distance from their home on the way to Lhassa,

they came upon a curious troop of men, also bound for Lhassa, weeping, dancing, whistling, beating all kinds of

instruments, and led by a Shaman. He was an acquaintance, a youthful playmate of the daughter of the maker of

gods, and he knew the members of the caravan party, at the head of which was the man on his way to judgment in

Lhassa, weighed down by the sinfulness he had incurred with his falsely-made god. The Shaman impressed upon

him the danger of his position, saying that it would be a good thing if the real Dalai-Lama were still on the throne,

but possibly the new Dalai-Lama had already been found and would be ruling Tibet from Lhassa. If that were so,

things might be even worse, for the Vice-Regent was able in certain circumstances to be merciful in the

administration of justice but if the new Dalai-Lama were installed there was no telling whether or not the

supreme penalty would have to be paid. And when the canon had been violated as seriously as the maker of gods had

violated it by placing the nostrils too high above the upper lip naturally the penalty would be death.

So the sinner learns that the Dalai-Lama, the Mahaguru, may soon be found. What does this mean in Tibet? The

Tibetans are convinced that the soul of the great Bodhisattva who rules over Tibet passes from one body to another.

When a Dalai-Lama dies, a new Dalai-Lama must be sought for on an entirely democratic basis, for the Tibetans

are thoroughly democratic in their attitude. No rank is hereditary, nothing transmitted from father to son by way of

the body is of any account. According to Tibetan ideas this principle is utterly inconsistent with the dignity of the

Dalai-Lama. Therefore when a Dalai-Lama dies the priesthood must set about finding a new Dalai-Lama, and then

every young boy must be inspected for the great soul might have incarnated in the very poorest family. The

whole country must be searched and every boy in every house and on the roads scrutinised; if one of them showssigns of what is considered by the priesthood to indicate the necessary intelligence, be has the prospect of being

acclaimed as the Dalai-Lama. The conviction is that in the boy who shows the most signs, the great soul of the

Bodhisattva has incarnated, and then he is the Dalai-Lama. In the interval, while the search continues for the

incarnation of the god in human form, a Vice-Dalai-Lama must rule the country temporarily.

Gutzkow's story continues. It is already being rumoured that the new Mahaguru or the new Dalai-Lama will

eventually be crowned in Lhassa, brought there with all honours. And here I must interpolate an episode narrated

by Gutzkow; he interpolates it in a slightly different place in the story, but what we are trying to do is to get a picture

of his Mahaguru.

The beautiful girl was journeying with her father, the sinner. According to the Tibetan Constitution, his brothers

are also fathers because a kind of polyandry is customary there. When a man marries, his brothers also marry the

same woman. So the brothers of a father are also fathers, although one is the actual chief. The caravan procession is

beautifully described in the book: the fathers are in front, then the chief father (the sinner) and his beautiful daughter.

While she was still a small child and was just beginning to help her father, she had a companion with whom she

liked to play, who at that time had been very dear to her and whose memory she still cherished. The Shaman at the

head of the shrieking, whistling band had also been one of her early playmates and he was the brother of the one

who had been her dearly-loved companion. I have had to interpolate this in order to make what comes later more

intelligible.

The whole caravan moves on towards Lhassa, and on arriving there it is learnt that the new Mahaguru, the new

Dalai-Lama, has been installed with all the honours due to him. But first we are told how the great sinner who has

made the nostrils too far above the upper lip in a figure of one of the chief Tibetan gods is led before the blacktribunal.

During the terrible proceedings of the tribunal it is made clear that this is a sin whose only expiation is death.

Meanwhile the sinner is thrown into prison together with his family, to await a further trial in which all the sins ever

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committed by him are to be enumerated. It must be emphasised that until now he had committed no sin other than

that of having made the distance between nostrils and upper lip barely a millimeter too long in one of his figures. But

in Tibet that is a crime punishable by death.

With pomp and splendour the new Dalai-Lama has been installed in office. We are told of many Tibetan

customs, also of what goes on around the Court at Lhassa. Exact and lengthy descriptions are given in the book. In

this setting, with the honourable rank of a Chinese Envoy at the Court, was a man who also had a charming young

sister and who had reached a certain degree among the mandarins of China. He was a mandarin of the 6th degree but

was hoping soon to be raised to a higher rank. Actually the ideal to which he aspired was the Order of the Peacock's

Feather. But while this Chinese Envoy is dreaming his dreams, the most daring of which is to be made a member ofthe high Order of the Peacock's Feather, the new Dalai-Lama has been installed in his glory. The new Dalai-Lama

knows that he has made the sun, the moon, the stars, the lightning and the clouds, the plants and the stones, and he

explains to those who now come to pay their respects to him how he created it all, that he is the creator of everything

that is visible in the wide universe and also of what is invisible that he is therefore the primal creator of the

visible world and of the invisible worlds connected with it.

Now in Tibet as elsewhere there are two parties. But these two parties are still closely bound up with the

spiritual evolution of mankind in very ancient times. The two parties, whose priests belong to different sects, are

usually designated by their headgear: the Yellow Caps and the Red Tassels. These two parties are in perpetual

conflict with one another. In our language for in Tibet these things are closely connected with the spiritual we

should say; the Yellow Caps are connected with the Luciferic element, the Red Tassels more with the Ahrimanic.

These traits come to expression not only in their doctrines but also in their deeds: the Luciferic element is

predominant in the doctrines and deeds of the Yellow Caps, the Ahrimanic element in those of the Red Tassels. In

consequence of this to explain why would lead us too far afield the Red Tassels are bent upon ensuring that

the Dalai-Lama at Lhassa shall be regarded as the lawful god who has created the plants, the animals and men; it is

in their interest that the new Dalai-Lama shall be found and that the whole country shall believe him to be the lawful

god whereas the Yellow Caps are always indignant when the new Dalai-Lama is found and sits on the throne. For

in Tibet, as well as the Dalai-Lama there is a Teshu-Lama, whose followers are found more among the northern

Tibetans and the Mongol tribes. The Teshu-Lama strives his whole life long to overthrow the Dalai-Lama and usurp

the throne. The Yellow Caps, then, support the Teshu-Lama and try to put him on the throne.

The man who aspires to the Order of the Peacock's Feather is now faced with the fact that a new Dalai-Lama is

there. China, his country, holds a kind of mandate over Tibet. The Teshu-Lama is out to contest the throne, so thereis opportunity here for intrigue. The man now begins to intrigue by arranging a kind of warlike caravan column to go

to the Teshu-Lama and reinforce his power. But in reality his aim is not that the Teshu-Lama shall come to the

throne but that the Chinese regiment shall be able to tighten the reins. In the confusion caused by this action, the

beautiful daughter of the sinner is able to escape from the prison, and something unheard of happens: in the garden

where only the god, the Dalai-Lama, may walk, she comes across him and lo! the Dalai-Lama was her

childhood's playmate who one day had suddenly disappeared and in the intervening time had been trained to become

the Dalai-Lama. He is now the Dalai-Lama and encounters this girl, the daughter of the sinner. A deeply-interesting

dialogue now ensues. You can well imagine the situation that may arise when the girl, who had loved her

playmate very intensely, encounters this playmate who is convinced that he has created the sun, the moon and the

stars, and she is not altogether disinclined to believe in her god. But the priests discovered the shameful thing that

had happened and threw the girl back into prison. The Dalai-Lama, however, sitting on his soft silken cushions,

surrounded by all his other appurtenances, continues to meditate on how he directs the lightning and the clouds, howhe has created and sustains the other phenomena of the visible world.

The further course of the story brings us once again to the black tribunal. There is a terrible scene because the

sinner, who to begin with had nothing on his conscience except the fact of having made the nostrils and upper lip of

the god about a millimeter too far apart, now appears as an arch-criminal. He had gone mad in prison and had made

out of some kind of substance similar to what we should now call plasticine most curious figures of gods. Just

imagine it A Tibetan tribunal confronted with a whole number of false figures of gods made by the culprit in

prison! A howl of anger arises, no matter how he tries to vindicate himself; the judges sit around and the long

galleries are full of people. The judges are monks who lay down the correct measurements of each feature in the case

of every single god, how much larger the stomach of a god may be than that of an ordinary man, and so on; all the

sins thus committed by the man with the figures made in prison are enumerated one by one. It is a dreadful affair and

the fanatical judges pour their wrath on the sinner. He and his party are again thrown into prison, together with his

daughter whose particular charm consists in the fact that because her feet are not too minute they differ from the

excessively small feet customary in the Far East in other respects, too, she is a lovely creature. But the followers

of the aspirant to the Order of the Peacock's Feather cause a commotion in Lhassa and in the confusion a fire breaks

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out, burning the very house where the girl is imprisoned. She appears at the top of the house amid the smoke and

flames at the moment when the Dalai-Lama is passing by with his brother, the Shaman, who, knowing all that has

happened, has helped him to escape. At the crucial moment the human heart of the god, the Dalai-Lama, is moved.

Instead of sending thunder and lightning to help, he throws himself into the flames, rescues the girl and brings her to

the ground. He flees with her to a lonely, mountainous region together with his brother and the Teshu-Lama,

supported by the Yellow Caps, is enthroned in his place. So the beautiful girl goes off with the Mahaguru and his

brother, the Shaman, and the Mahaguru is now married to her. After a year the Shaman dies. The good Dalai-Lama

lives to an advanced age and for many long years is his wife's only husband. He actually outlives her, becomes a

solitary old man and has long ceased to imagine that he rules over the lightning and the thunder, that he has created

the mountains, forests and rivers, that sun, moon and stars circle in their courses according to his will. In his lastyears he becomes a Yogi, striving to acquire the wisdom that will lead his soul into the spiritual worlds. He stands

on one leg, the other coiled around it like a serpent, one hand held behind him, the other raised upwards; he stands

there with only his lips moving. The poor from the valley bring him food, but he never changes his posture. The

description of this final scene is most remarkable. We are told how the man who had been made the Dalai-Lama

does indeed, in old age, find his god; how his soul dissolves into the elements which he was trying to understand and

of which for a certain period in his life he had believed himself to be the creator.

The novel is a very remarkable product of the thirties of the 19th century, a work in which a comparatively

young man describes with profound insight, customs prevailing in the strange country of Tibet. These customs are

relics, surviving in the fifth Post-Atlantean epoch, of many things that existed in quite different forms in the

Atlantean age, that is to say, the fourth main period of earth-evolution. The outward significance lies in the fact of

such a novel having been written when it was; it shows that a human soul felt the need to portray something that in

truth can be understood only by those who have at least some inkling of the evolutionary course of mankind, in its

spiritual aspect too. One man in Europe at all events divines that in this strange country, in many Tibetan customs

seeming to us so grotesque, there is preserved more faithfully than anywhere else in caricature, of course what

was present in a quite different form in the Atlantean world. That is the outward significance, added to the fact that

this novel was written at the time it was, and that attention is directed to a country which affords most telling

evidence of how in the so-called Yellow Caps and Red Tassels there still live the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces

with which the men of Atlantis, especially in the fourth Atlantean epoch, were well acquainted and with which they

worked. But something else as well is inwardly significant in this novel, The Mahaguru.

Inwardly significant is what is presented to us in the scene of the proceedings at the black Inquisition-tribunal.

The sinner makes a remarkable speech in self-defence. As we know, he had made a great number of gods during hisimprisonment; but he made them when be was in a state of madness. There is a fine description of how the first

symptoms of madness already became apparent on the way to Lhassa, how the condition became more and more

acute and finally broke out in the form referred to. In a state of complete madness he had made all kinds of figures

which violated the canon in the most atrocious way. We learn a great deal about the Tibetan canon from Gutzkow's

powerful description; but we also learn something quite remarkable. We are told that this great sinner, as the

offspring of his forbears, has become a maker of gods as is invariably the custom in Tibet. The figures he made

had always been correct in every detail: the proportions and positions of the limbs, the length between nostrils and

upper lip, and the like. Never once had it happened that the measurement between nostrils and upper lip had been

one iota too long but it did happen once, and he must expect death as the penalty. But now, as a madman that

is to say, in the condition where his soul is already to some extent outside his body he uses his body in such a way

as to produce utterly heterodox figures of gods. And now, he who knows nothing about Art except what is laid down

by the canon for the making of gods, makes a long speech in his own defence, a speech in which, in his madness, hetalks about principles of art. For one who understands these things it is a most moving scene. As long as the

connection between the man's four bodies was intact, only the negligible mistake in the measurement between

nostrils and upper lip could occur. But now, after the astral body and etheric body have loosened from the physical

body, the man becomes an artist, producing grotesque, but for all that, artistic figures. The Inquisition does not

understand this and believes that he had allied himself with evil in order to destroy the works of the gods. The

description of the moving scene at the tribunal reminds us of many things I have said about the aberrations of the

human soul towards the one abyss or the other. In the soul of the young Gutzkow, too, the thought arose that there

may come a time when men will no longer be able to find their equilibrium. And now he places such men in the

setting of a Tibetan religious community, because these problems can be brought home more vividly by presenting

sharply contrasting situations, and because the novelist is able to show how art suddenly comes upon the scene. Art

bursts forth from a human soul who has gone astray in the abyss, a human soul who has drawn near to Lucifer in

order to save himself from the Ahrimanic claws of the Red Tassels, who are there as the unlawful judges. Aprofound law is indicated here the law of man's connection with the spiritual world and its abysses: the world of

Lucifer and the world of Ahriman.

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Before continuing this particular line of thought, I want to say something about the Polish drama by Zigmunt

Krasinski, which ends with the words: Thou hast conquered, O Galilean? A translation of parts of it, under the title

La Comedie Infernale, was given by Mickiewicz in his lectures in Paris in the year 1842. [An English translation,

of the drama, with the title The Undivine Comedy, and Mickiewicz's analysis, was published in 1875. A later

translation with a preface by G. K. Chesterton was published in 1924. (George Harrap & Co., London.)] I must

emphasise that I am not in a position to form a judgment of the drama from the purely artistic point of view because

I know only the idea and intention underlying it. The fine impressions of this drama given by Adam Mickiewicz in

his lectures enables me to speak about its basic idea and intention, but I can say nothing about it as a work of art.

This reservation must be kept in mind. It is possible, however, to speak about the drama in this way, for Mickiewicz

analysed its underlying idea and intention. The passages in French are so excellent that by studying what Mickiewiczsays one is immediately impressed by its grandeur and significance. This conviction is still further strengthened

when one reads Mickiewicz's rendering of the beautiful preface on the spirit of poetry. This is obviously a drama that

has sprung from the very depths of the human soul. It presents the secrets of the life of soul in a wonderful way.

The chief character is a Polish Count; speaking to him and bending towards him from left and right are good

angels and bad angels, the former intent upon leading mankind to the good side of evolution, the latter to the bad

side. The relevant scenes are translated into French and show with what wonderful simplicity the Polish poet was

trying to depict the relations of the beings belonging to the Hierarchy of the Angeloi to the hero of the drama, the old

Count. We then learn of the Count's family life which has suffered on account of his personal characteristics. He

lives entirely in the Past as it plays into his personal life, in the past history and evolution of the human race;

surrounded by pictures of his parents and forbears, he also lives in the past of his Polish ancestral stock. He pays

very little heed to the Present and so can find no real link with his wife. But in what has come to him through

heredity, in what has been implanted in him through the blood refined through many generations, there is also in him

an unusual spirituality, a sense for the realities of those worlds which hover above the earthly world. The result is

that he can find no inner link with his wife. He lives entirely in the spirit, and the manner of his life is such that he is

regarded by those around him as a god-gifted prophet. His wife has just borne him a son. We then come to the scene

of the child's baptism, but the Count himself is not there. He can find no bond with anything earthly. This baptism

and the circumstances associated with it send the child's mother insane. The Count had gone away, and when he

returns to the house after the baptism, he learns that his wife has been taken to a madhouse.

Strangely enough we are again confronted with a case where the members of a man's constitution have loosened.

We are told of the words that had been uttered by the wife before she went mad. Before the baptism the idea came to

the mother that misfortune would surround the child because her own talents and human qualities had not made herequal to living, like her husband, in the spiritual world, and that she was incapable of bearing a child who would be

able to live with sufficient intensity in the spiritual worlds to win the father's love. And with all the strength of her

soul she longs to penetrate into the spiritual worlds in order to bring down for her son what is to be found in yonder

worlds. Her wish is to bring from the spiritual worlds everything that would imbue the child with spirituality. This

drives her insane and she is put into a madhouse or asylum, as we should say nowadays.

The old Count searches for and finds her there, and she speaks deeply moving words to him. First of all, she

declares that she wants to bring out of the spiritual worlds for the child those qualities that will enable the father to

love him and then she speaks wonderful words to this effect: I can traverse all worlds; my wings carry me

upwards into all the worlds; I would fain gather up everything that is there and instill it into my child; I would fain

gather all that lives in the light of the spirit and in the heavenly spheres in order to make my child a poet. One

passage in particular is deeply indicative of the poet's intuitive conception of the spiritual world. It is where he letsthe old Count say, on hearing that his wife has become insane: Where is her soul now? Amid the howling screams of

maniacs! Darkness has enshrouded this bright spirit who was full of reverence for the great universe ... She has sent

her thoughts into the wilderness, searching for me!

The father then goes to the child who had been born physically blind but who has become clairvoyant. The child

speaks of his mother. Some time after this scene, remarkable words are uttered by the Count. In the meantime the

mother has died. The child had told his father that his soul could always soar, as if on wings, to where the mother

now dwelt the mother he had not known. While the child is describing how he looks into the spiritual world, he

relates something which he himself could not have heard but which the father had heard from the wife when she was

already insane, as her last wish. The Count speaks remarkable words remarkable for those who understand these

things in the light of spiritual science. He asks: Is it then possible that one who has passed through death retains for a

time the last ideas he had before death?

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So we see how mother and child go to pieces physically, and are transported in a certain abnormal, atavistic way

into the spiritual world. Around the Count whose spirit lives entirely in the Past, they go to pieces physically and are

transported atavistically into the spiritual worlds.

We cannot fail to perceive an inner connection between this atavistic transport into the spiritual world of those

around the old Polish Count and of the Tibetan maker of gods in the novel The Mahaguru who, after he becomes

insane and has gone to pieces physically, describes principles of art and produces an entirely new world of gods. The

Polish drama, perhaps even more clearly than the novel, makes us aware of the cry which goes forth from humanity:

What will befall if the souls of men cannot receive teachings concerning the spiritual worlds in the right and pure

form? What will become of humanity in the future? Must human beings go to pieces physically if they are to enterthe spiritual worlds?

Earnest souls were inwardly compelled to put these grave questions to destiny. And as we read the preface to

The Undivine Comedy we feel that these questions stood in all their urgency before the soul of the Polish poet.

There is perhaps no finer, no more poignant description of this tragic situation than is given in the preface to this

drama.

Confronting the Count who has seen his family go to pieces around him, is a forceful personage who will have

nothing to do with the Past; inwardly he is a Tartar-Mongolian character, outwardly a personality who has imbibed

the socialistic doctrines of Fourier, Saint Simon and others, who will stop at nothing in order to destroy all existing

conditions and to establish a new social order for mankind, who says; The world of the Past in which the Count livesmust be exterminated root and branch from the earth. A despot is presented to us, a despot who is bent upon

universal destruction, who will not tolerate things as they are. A battle begins between the bearer of the Past and the

bearer of the Present, a vehement battle, brilliantly described. The scenes that have been translated into French

amply justify this praise.

There is also a dialogue between the despot and the old Count; a dialogue that could take place only between

men in whose souls two world-destinies confront each other. A battle wages in which the old Count appears with the

clairvoyant child. The child and the old Count perish and the despot is the victor. The whole of the Count's faction is

exterminated. The old order is overcome, the despot has gained the mastery; the Present has triumphed over the Past.

The description of the field of battle is magnificent. And then still another scene is presented. After the battle the

despot stands with a friend, looking upwards towards a high rock gleaming with the golden light of the sun that issetting behind it. And suddenly he has a vision. The friend sees nothing unusual, he sees only the rock gleaming

in the setting sun. But the despot who has burdened his soul so heavily, with whom the impression remains of the

old Count whose life has been so full of experiences the despot stands there and sees over this mountain

pinnacle the figure of Christ Jesus.

From this moment onwards he knows: Neither the old Count, the representative of the Past, who lives in the

spirit in an atavistic way and has been able only to save the Past that is breaking up around him, nor he himself who

lives in the immediate Present, has won the real victory. He knows that a battle will ensue but that neither of the two

will be victorious neither the Past which can lead only to atavistic life in the spiritual world, nor the Present, of

which he, the despot, is the representative. The Present, basing itself upon doctrines such as those of Fourier and

Saint-Simon, mocks at angels and teachings about God. Christ Jesus Who now appears to him shows him: Victory

lies neither on the one side nor the other, but in that which is above them both. And the One Christ Jesus

whom the despot now beholds over the pinnacle gleaming golden in the rays of the setting sun, draws from him the

cry: Thou hast conquered, O Galilean! Thereupon he falls down dead. This is the tragic consequence brought

about through what is higher than the two streams which are presented in such magnificent contrast in this drama. As

is clear from the single scenes, we have in this wonderful product of Polish literature a magnificent expression of

Polish Messianism. We see how with the coming of the modern age it behoves men to ask weighty, far-reaching

questions concerning the destiny of the human race.

LECTURE II.

Ancient Occult Magic.

The Ahasver Mystery.

Dornach, 1st November 1915.

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I spoke yesterday of the great Polish drama The Undivine Comedy by Krasinski and of its very special

significance. One can truly say that it was consciously brought into the world as the outcome of a dialogue with the

Spirits working in the evolution of humanity, who in the middle of the 19th century spoke to those who were willing

to listen to them.

Let us for a moment hold in our minds the thoughts that came to us from the realisation that what was astir in the

inmost depths of the evolutionary process made its way into the external literary culture of the time. From Gutzkow's

novel The Mahaguru as well as from The Undivine Comedy I chose only two particularly striking examples

from many that might be quoted we see that as it were behind the scenes of external happenings, significant

impulses are at work in the cultural life of mankind. From many sources we have gained knowledge that directs ourminds and hearts to the great moment of world-evolution in which we are living, the moment when it is essential to

be mindful of the new element that must be received into the evolution of humanity but with the co-operation of

human souls who are able to understand it. There are different ways of characterising the importance of the present

time, but perhaps one thing only need be said and this will be sufficient to bring home the significance of the point

of time at which we are standing.

In ages of antiquity men received a heritage consisting of wisdom yielded by atavistic clairvoyance and of

knowledge gained atavistically. But this heritage petered away and the tide of materialism arose particularly since

the last three or four centuries and reaching a peak in the 19th century. This tide of materialism veiled all

possibilities of vision into the spiritual world and a new path, a new method, is now appearing in spiritual

science. As I have often said, this development ultimately becomes a natural process in the souls of men. The

situation today still is that the vast majority of souls have yet to learn that there are many earthly lives. But when the

souls now living are re-incarnated, for the most part they will know, not merely as a theory, that there are many

earthly lives; they will live on into an age when it will be known quite as a natural matter of course: there are many

earthly lives. Just as human souls now remember back to a certain point in childhood, and thoughts from childhood

constantly arise, so it will be natural one day for the living impression to well up from within: We have been here

many times. Human souls will evolve to this stage just as they have evolved from primitive stages of life. This

development will come about of itself but the following is inevitable.

The souls who have learnt nothing from spiritual science today will die and return in new incarnations. Then,

having learnt nothing from spiritual science, they will not know what to make of the impression that will rise up

from within them of the truth of repeated earthly lives, and they may well be driven to despair. For this inner

impression that will arise quite naturally in the soul must be grasped through thoughts, and the thoughts that arenecessary before it can be understood are those yielded by spiritual science. These thoughts should make the whole

history of the Ego and the fact of its existence in man intelligible to us; and he alone who has within him the force of

these thoughts will be able to understand the impression that will come of itself, as a kind of remembrance.

But the foundation for understanding this remembrance will from now onwards have to be laid through spiritual

science; knowledge of the continued existence of the Ego will have to be acquired. And those who have not acquired

it will have to admit, when these remembrances well up in them: I do not understand my own self. This will be a

terrible cry of despair in future times. It must be realised that only through knowledge and understanding of what

will inevitably come in the future can human souls be kept from falling into despair. When the Ego which passes

from incarnation to incarnation asserts itself in the future and this means in our future incarnations men must

be able to understand this Ego. And they will do so if they have worked on their souls through the thoughts of

spiritual science.

The Mystery of Golgotha was fulfilled in order that the Ego might be fully understood, and this can never

happen if as in the case of the Polish Count described yesterday men preserve in their souls nothing but

feelings of the Past sacred though these feelings may be and connected with the events centred in the Mystery of

Golgotha. Such feelings will enable these events to be grasped as matters of history, but that cannot lead to any true

understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha. True understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha depends upon the

fulfilment of the words; Not I but Christ in me. It will then be possible for Christ in His living activity within

earth-evolution not to remain inaudible to men. He must be made audible through that which, under his inspiration,

spiritual science has to say, no sentiments or feelings tied to remembrances, can lead mankind to future well-being.

But neither can the interests of the future be furthered by one who lives only in and for the Present the tyrant

described in the lecture yesterday. The tyrant does indeed, assert the Ego, but not Christ within the Ego. A deepriddle is presented to us in this Polish drama: two personalities stand in contrast to one another, one of whom has the

Christ of tradition, of history, but runs the risk of falling away from Him. And what comes to expression in the wife

and in the child of the Count relapses into a purely atavistic connection with the spiritual world.

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A great danger for our time is indicated here. It is that those who are not willing to assimilate in a new way the

knowledge of mankind's connection with the spiritual worlds, although they feel that such connection exists, will

cause part of their being to lose the requisite link with the spiritual world. Mankind would fall asunder into those

who like the old Count must necessarily despair and die because they cling exclusively to the Past, and those

who rise into the spiritual worlds in an atavistic way like the Count's wife and child. Because they have not

received the Christ into their inmost being in full reality, they pass into the spiritual world without finding in

themselves a point of anchorage.

What is it that the members of the Count's family have not fully developed? They have not fully developed the

Ego: they are remains from the age which in the regular course of the evolution of humanity has been at an end sincethe Mystery of Golgotha, but markedly so since the last few centuries. They are remains from an age of antiquity

when the Ego had not yet completely taken root in man; they are Ego-less human beings who, because they cannot

take the Christ into the Ego which has not developed into the necessary intensity, lose the Christ. And standing in

contrast to them is the tyrant, who has developed the Ego and bears it in himself with all strength; without taking the

Christ into the Ego, he desires to bring happiness to the world but is incapable of doing so. At the point of death

out of the vision which the tyrant understands as little as he understands how to resign himself to death there

breaks from his lips the cry: Thou hast conquered, O Galilean! This is an indication of the fact that for those

human beings who have, it is true, acquired the Ego but have not taken Christ into this Ego, there is one moment

only when it is possible for them to come into relationship with Christ: it is the moment when they pass from this

world into the other world. But because Christ came from that other world into this world in order there to find the

way to human hearts, men must inevitably lose Him when, after the moment of death, they arrive in that other world.

All the deeper impulses at work in our time belong to a sphere where momentous issues are at stake I can say no

more than that they are at stake.

But now we must go rather more deeply into things that are already known to us but must be studied in a certain

setting if we are to understand them in the light of the conditions prevailing in our time. We know that, properly

speaking, the evolution of the earth must be divided into an epoch preceding the Mystery of Golgotha and an epoch

following the Mystery of Golgotha. We know, too, that in the epoch before the Mystery of Golgotha, Luciferic and

Ahrimanic spirits also worked into the souls of men. Particularly in considering the ages before the Mystery of

Golgotha it must be realised that foolish chatter about avoiding Ahriman and Lucifer at all costs will get us nowhere.

For Ahriman and Lucifer were allowed by the normal, progressive spiritual Beings to work in the earthly evolution

of men.

Now we know that there are spiritual Beings actually ranking higher than men but who during the Old Moon

period of evolution did not reach the height that would have been possible for them; they did not reach it, but for all

that they rank higher than men. So that bearing in mind the intervention of the Ahrimanic and Luciferic beings, we

can now understand better what is called the ancient, primeval wisdom in earth-evolution. For example, the ancient

wisdom that was misused in the Lemurian epoch and perished with the Lemurians; the wisdom that was then

misused in the Atlantean epoch and brought about the destruction of Atlantis. What was it that was then among

men? What was it, in reality? To say that the great wisdom then existing was misused, applied in practices of black

magic and so forth, is a very abstract way of speaking and leads to no very definite idea. Let us think, for example,

of the character of this wisdom in the last periods of the Lemurian epoch. Whence had it come? Spiritual Beings

who had not completed their full development during the Old Moon epoch but who were nevertheless at a higher

level than men, had mingled with the earthly evolution of humanity. Man was already there but, as you can well

imagine, in his most primitive state. What was subsequently developed by human beings during the Atlantean andPost-Atlantean epochs did not yet exist. In those Lemurian times, man was a being wholly devoid of intelligence, for

intelligence was to develop only gradually during the course of earth-evolution. Man was primitive in his will, in his

actions, in his soul-development altogether like a child. Now had there existed only bodies of men with the higher

members of those bodies that had been developed for them by the progressive spiritual Beings of the higher

Hierarchies, men would not have been capable at that time of evolving any outstanding wisdom. But in that

Lemurian age a very lofty altogether extraordinary wisdom existed. For example, among those primitive men there

was widespread knowledge of how to handle a child during the period between birth and the seventh year so that as

the result of a certain transformation of his etheric body which then worked back upon the brain, he could be made

extremely clever. Radical educational methods have to be applied today if this result is desired and everyone is

aware how very often these efforts are unsuccessful. But in any case the art of affecting the brain itself by exercising

a certain influence on the etheric body of the brain, so that the child in question becomes extremely clever, is entirely

lost today. Furthermore and I hasten to emphasise it this art is in no circumstances whatever legitimate in our

time, for if it became at all general, even in its most elementary form, it would lead to terrible abuses.

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How is the existence of such an art in Lemurian times to be explained? It is explained by the fact that Beings

who had not completed their development on the Old Moon, but had evolved only the first six of their seven

members, incorporated in men who otherwise would have been utterly primitive. The spiritual Beings who on the

Old Moon were at a higher level than men but had not attained the apex of their development, took on these

primitive human bodies and went to work with arts which far transcended all earthly knowledge. You can imagine

what such Beings in human bodies were capable of accomplishing, Beings who at a level higher than the human

had developed the sixth member the Life-Spirit entered into these primitive, flexible, pliant bodies. And they

became terrible magicians, dread magicians!

And again, what kind of arts were general in the Atlantean epoch? First and foremost there was the wisdomwhich must be applied in order to cause talents in ancestors to be transmitted, purely through heredity, to their

descendants and actually to be enhanced in these descendants. The Beings whose development had not been

completed on the Moon but who for all that were of a higher rank than earthly man, were deeply versed in this art

with most significant effect. Let me put it like this: it was as if by methods connected with star-constellations and the

like, one were to lead over the qualities of a genius to his descendants, but in such a way that these spiritual qualities

were not merely inherited, but intensified, enhanced. These higher Beings working in human bodies were capable of

mighty achievements. All this was swept out of existence. Very many things were connected with these particular

arts. For example, it was possible by their means to observe the course of spiritual evolution and to guide the

spiritual forces into the stream of heredity.

Diagram 1

In that epoch of Atlantis there were communities led by such Beings in human form, who, if they wished some

individuality to come again to the earth, helped him to find a human incarnation by enhancing certain qualities

through heredity; and then they looked for suitable descendants. It was like this. Suppose such a Being had

guided some individuality into a human body on the earth; when this body died, the individuality would meanwhile

be in the spiritual world. It was then a matter of manipulating the stream of heredity in such a way as to produce a

human body in which this individuality could again be incarnated. This body had to be created for the same

individuality who was thus kept continuously on the earth. All these arts have been lost, and necessarily lost,

because human evolution was to take the course that has so often been described. But it is greatly to Ahriman's

interest to hold firmly fixed in the world that which ought properly to evolve in order to make room for something

different.

And so even superficial observation will show that there is a very great deal in world-evolution which in an

earlier age had its justification but which in the form it now bears is no more than a relic that has been preserved.

Both in unimportant and important domains it is so. In his novel The Mahaguru Gutzkow wanted to indicate

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something of the kind in an important domain. He wanted to give emphasis to the question: In what form does

something that had great significance in ancient times in the Atlantean epoch, when it was still possible for men

to regulate the stream of heredity in what form does it appear when it is carried over into an age and into a

community where the traditions of it had indeed been preserved but where nothing more was known of the earlier art

than an inferior form of it called in occultism Occult Chemistry? Gutzkow showed that something of the kind

existed in Tibet. Naturally, the priesthood in Tibet had no knowledge of how through forces of heredity they could

produce a body for the individuality whom they believed should pass from one body into another but they

preserved the old customs. So there we have an example of the external reality presenting an aspect utterly different

from what it had been in conditions once prevailing in the evolution of humanity. Reading The Mahaguru makes

one want to cry out: Oh, how reality itself can become a maya in face of the prevailing conditions!

And now think of something else. You can well imagine that the men of Lemurian and Atlantean times did

not resemble the men of today, for what developed, inwardly in the soul at that time also gave configuration to the

outer form; the whole outer form of man was different it was pliant and flexible. The human form in the times of

Lemuria and Atlantis was not ape-like; the bodies of the actual ancestors of men were not ape-like. It would

seem, therefore, that world-evolution must have made an exception in the case of certain people who have written of

themselves that they can remember having descended from apes! [Statements to this effect are made in the book

Man: How, Whence and Whither by Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater. (Theosophical Publishing Company)]

But we will not go into that now. Men did not resemble apes, but if you picture our children presenting a

much, much more infantile appearance, with an elemental quality of being extending over the whole body, you may

be able to get an idea of the character of the human body in those times. As you can read in the book From the

Akasha Chronicle, because Beings surviving from the Old Moon evolution had incarnated in these pliant, flexible

bodies, these bodies became animal-like rather than human. Distorted forms arose, with strangely contorted limbs.

And there you have the origin of the figures of gods to be found among certain peoples. These curious figures

with non-human faces and huge limbs, originate from the knowledge that the incarnating Moon-Beings were united

with human bodies.

If in the Atlantean epoch there had been painters and sculptors, they would have been able to portray or model

these figures of Moon-Beings incarnated in human bodies. But in Tibet this was no longer possible. Hence the canon

must be strictly obeyed, for the artists would otherwise have made figures with whatever terms they liked. If a man

did not obey the canon but created something out of his own play of fancy, he incurred the death-penalty. Naturally,

one may ask: Is there any justification for condemning to death someone who makes only one tiny change in the

figure of a god? Is there really any justification for it? In Tibet, of course, there is no longer any justification, butonce upon a time there was, for as you have heard, these Beings were actually present in bodies, and if they were not

faithfully portrayed, any deviation amounted to a lie. In those ancient times a lie had infinitely greater power than it

has nowadays. If at the present time everyone who tells a lie were to suffocate as the result well, I prefer to leave

it at that, for I think that the fear of suffocation would be too great to allow people to risk telling lies! I assume that

nowadays people will not suffocate but at that time a lie would have caused actual suffocation. For the thought

expressed in the word contained a power to give form to the air in the larynx, and then suffocated the man and

anyone who had incorrectly portrayed on earth a Being who had not fully completed his development on the Old

Moon would have suffocated, in other words, a process of nature would have caused his death.

The evolution of humanity is an exceedingly complicated matter and to understand it one must go deeply into

spiritual science. To find the right approach to world-evolution it is essential to study what it is the mission of

spiritual science to make known from spiritual worlds. For spiritual science is, as it were, a first impulse to whichother impulses must increasingly be added, in order that humanity in the future may advance along the right path.

You will have realised from what I have been saying recently [See The Occult Movement In the 19th Century

notably Lectures IX and X.] that a course must be steered between a Scylla and a Charybdis, that a very definite path

must be laid down in spiritual science. This must be taken with the deepest earnestness. Our modern natural

science is developed by materialistic methods. During these last weeks I have tried to describe its characteristics to

you. I have said that a materialistic method in natural science is fully justified. It can be characterized by saying that

it is adapted to cloak the spiritual reality lying behind. Why, then, must this materialistic method be there in our

present time?

In our present time an earlier knowledge of nature must be superseded by a new knowledge of nature. I have told

you something about this earlier knowledge of nature. Just think what kind of knowledge it was! To be able to

mould a human head into an instrument editable for genius, through specific measures applied scientifically in the

old sense of the word this signified colossal knowledge! or again, so to regulate heredity that qualities of

genius were transmitted to descendants the knowledge required for this was even more penetrating and

comprehensive, far, far surpassing all the theories of evolution, the physics, chemistry and so on, of today. But that

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ancient knowledge was to be veiled and obscured by the materialistic method employed in natural science today

which is fully justified in the purely physical domain. It must be remembered that at the time when that lofty

knowledge of nature existed, man was not a free being; he was only at the beginning of the gradual evolution of

freedom. He was led and guided and what came to pass in the process of his guidance was for the most part brought

about by the higher Hierarchies. And it was single individuals who deviated from the regular course, who advanced

too far along the path to freedom, who were responsible for the fall into the abyss and the inevitable destruction of

Atlantis. But with the constantly increasing freedom of will, man would have been unfit for knowledge of this kind.

To possess knowledge such as once existed on the earth is unthinkable today because man's will has attained

freedom to an extent that would enable him still to misuse this knowledge. How, then, is this free will guided into

the right channel?

Diagram 2

From indications I have given recently you will have gathered that by adopting the method employed in natural

science, with all its scrupulous exactitude, the free will is directed into the right channel; moreover, this method is a

wonderfully effective pedagogical means for the development of the free will. We have therefore no cause whatever

to quarrel with the method employed in natural science, the justification of which for our present time we fully

acknowledge. You will find that what is contained in our lecture-courses and books completely refutes the

allegations of individual opponents to the effect, for example, that we repudiate natural science. It is sometimes

necessary to take exception to the pretensions of certain investigators and so-called scientific authorities; but nothing

derogatory to the achievements of natural science will ever be found in our literature. To say that anything in our

literature is a repudiation of natural science would be sheer calumny, for among us there can be no question of such

repudiation. But at the same time it must be realised that attacks upon us may well be made from the side of so-

called natural science and if necessary, we must then repel the attack. But true adherents of spiritual science must

become more and more conscious of the necessity to understand the natural-scientific method and to protect thismethod from being tainted by all kinds of non-scientific concepts for example concepts of the atom and

movement of the atom, of which I have recently spoken. These are fantasies of natural science, and the difference

must be clearly seen.

Efforts must be made to distinguish between genuine natural science and scientific fantasy. How often do we not

hear it said today that one thing or another is scientifically established whereas it is nothing of the kind, because

words are simply accepted as facts. Never was blind belief in authority greater than it is at the present time in the

domain of science, for everyone allows things to be determined entirely by those in whom they happen to believe.

The purpose of the Mystery of Golgotha was that what came into the world through Lucifer might gradually be

corrected in a certain way it is indicated symbolically in the Bible: Your eyes shall be opened and ye shall know

good and evil that is to say, ye shall know good and evil from outside. But when in the sphere of perceptions one

perceives from outside, it is impossible to receive from that world anything other than perceptions. As soon as one

begins to reflect about the perceptions, to speculate about them and derive all kinds of ideas from them, one is on the

way to finding what has been imbued into them by Ahriman and Lucifer. The ideas must come out of the spiritual

world and be united with the perceptions: then these ideas are in the real sense divine! In human life there must be a

marriage between the ideas which are given to men from out of the Spiritual and what he perceives in the outer

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world through his senses. But this union must first be achieved. How this principle applies in the scientific domain

you can gather from my essay Truth and Science. The belief that in the scientific sense, ideas, thoughts, could also

be found from outside, from the perceptions, is based on illusion, on illusion caused by Ahriman and Lucifer. But as

long as the Powers associated with the words Your eyes shall be opened and ye shall know good and evil (which

means to search for the ideas in the outer world) were sanctioned, that is to say, until the Mystery of Golgotha as

long as Lucifer and Ahriman were allowed to work in this sphere, there was no objection to be made. But that state

of things is now over. Now, in the matter of the permeation of perceptions from outside, they are all the more

unjustified.

This too was brought into evidence in the middle of the 19th century through a crisis of a particular kind. Thiscrisis announced itself in great and outstanding achievements: spectral-analysis, for example, came on the scene,

swept away the conception that when one looks upwards to the stars one has to do with spiritual Beings and

showed that substances to be found everywhere in the universe also exist on the earth. The old union between ideas

and perceptions is no longer possible, for such discoveries make it essential that the ideas shall again find the

spiritual path into our souls. The same applies to Darwinism. To reason entirely on the basis of what is found by

outer perception that is to say, to seek for the ideas in the outer world can only lead to a purely materialistic

conception and interpretation of the world. In short, the crisis is in evidence everywhere and there is also widespread

rebellion against the fact that the ideas must flow out of the spirit-realm into the souls of men if humanity is to make

progress. In other words: we must understand the nature of Ahriman and Lucifer and be on the alert when they try to

make us continue the principle indicated in the words; Your eyes shall be opened and ye shall know good and evil.

We must learn to observe both Ahriman and Lucifer. And we shall be able to do this if we permeate the Ego, as it

has now unfolded, with Christ.

But something else too resounded through the world in primeval times, resounded from a different side, after

man had acquired the power to distinguish good and evil, to direct his gaze outwards, that is to say, to use his senses

and through them to acquire ideas based on sense-perceptions. The decree went forth: Man must be driven out of the

spirit-realm in which he has hitherto been living, in order that he may not also eat of the Tree of Life. But Christ

will forever give men to eat of the Tree of Life, and the ideas which stream directly out of the spirit-realm into

human souls must be inwardly experienced. But they can be experienced in the real sense only when the human soul

takes Christ into itself. Then we have something quite different from the concept of Knowledge; then we have the

concept of Life. Just as a strict eye must be kept on Lucifer and Ahriman in order that when they allow knowledge

derived from the outer world to penetrate into us we may perceive that this knowledge is coming from them, so we

must realise that through the impulse given by the Mystery of Golgotha, ideas were to flow into men to be thesubstance of life the substance not of knowledge alone, but of life. And when from this standpoint of life we

study the different religions of the world, it will be far, far from our minds to investigate these religions with the

object of discovering whether they are or are not in keeping with our own view of the world. To apply only the

concept of knowledge to these religions is not our task; we must apply the concept of life.

There are definite forms of religion in the world. We should not set out to discover whether we can consider

these forms to be true, but whether through their ritual and ceremonies they are able to give nourishment and life to

the souls of men, and as the souls of men differ it follows that their life can be sustained by different forms of

nourishment. If we grasp this truth we shall realise that we can never lend ourselves to quarreling with any form of

religion but that we must endeavour to understand it in so far as it is life-nourishment for human souls to whom it is

given as life not as knowledge only, but as very life. Then we shall see that the standpoint from which a religion

begins to quarrel with some branch of science is entirely misplaced. We shall also realise that religion will inevitablyadopt a hostile attitude towards progress in natural science and spiritual science alike. For the religions are still

unwilling to get away from the old Tempter, they still want to invoke only that God Who said to man that He will

give them life, that they themselves are not to eat of the Tree of Life. The representatives of religions do not want to

invoke God alone but also the Luciferic Spirit and the Ahrimanic Spirit; they want the eyes for distinguishing good

and evil to be opened through religion. Religion wants to be knowledge. But it cannot be knowledge because it

is life-substance. And under the sway of this temptation which still whispers in their ears, the representatives of the

different religions believe they possess facts of knowledge in their religions, whereas the question of knowledge

cannot, in reality, come into consideration between religion and science. We have no cause whatever to combat

religious bodies, because we ask them about the sustenance they provide for life, not about what knowledge they

possess. Religious communities will always be tempted to ask whether science as it advances is in keeping with

what they regard as knowledge. But because life is in process of constant evolution, advancing science can never be

in keeping with religions which invariably tend towards conservatism.

And now you can picture the whole conflict which in the nature of things will ever and again be urged. I should

like you to think rightly about this conflict and to realize that as a matter of course the representatives of religious

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bodies, because they are under the sway of temptation, will always, from their standpoint, combat spiritual science,

just as they combat natural science. But you must also realise that these opponents fight because they lack

understanding. This does not excuse them at all, but it must none the less be realised that they fight because of lack

of understanding; they cannot take the right standpoint. As a sign and symptom, let me bring to your notice words

written by a man who perceived the inevitable approach of the natural-scientific age and the natural-scientific way of

thinking, and who was told by a friend that one should not be concerned with knowledge that is not contained in the

Bible or preserved in the traditions of the Church. Since the 14th century, of course, things have changed in this

connection. Dante's Divine Comedy is a great, world-embracing poem. But Dante lived at the time when the

epoch during which men confined themselves to purely historical Christianity was passing away. For Dante, Virgil

was simply the exile banished to hell. Dante did not know much about anything that differed from the Christianityconfronting him as a great system and rgime. But in the case of Petrarch it was different, 1 century later, in the 14th

century, Petrarch read Virgil with far greater credence. He turned not only to Greek but also to Roman spiritual

culture. When one of his friends wrote to Petrarch saying that there had appeared to him in a dream a spiritual Being

who exhorted him to avoid all non-Christian literature, he (Petrarch) gave a very significant answer. I stress the

importance of this incident because it shows how the friend and through him, Petrarch was enjoined from the

spiritual world to concern himself only with what the Christianity of that time regarded as truly Christian. Petrarch

wrote the following beautiful words which held good at that time for the approaching epoch and still hold good

today. Petrarch replied to his friend Boccaccio in momentous words, affirming his standpoint, why he read this non-

Christian literature, and what it meant to him (Petrarch: Letter to Boccaccio (Epistolae seniles I. 5):

Why then should we shun the pagan poets and writers who do not use the name of Christ simply because

they have never heard it? Surely there is greater danger in the books of sceptics who speak of Christ and at the

same time dispute Him but those who claim to be the defenders of the true faith read these writings with the

greatest eagerness. Believe me: much that is simply the product of sloth and timidity is attributed to thoughtful

deliberation. Men often cast scorn on what is out of their reach; it is characteristic of ignorance to condemn what

it cannot comprehend and nobody will concede to it strivings of which it is incapable.

Here lies the root of the misguided judgments of what is unknown; it is not so much the blindness of those

who pass judgment as their laziness that is in evidence. We, however, should not allow ourselves to be

frightened away from the sciences by any pious admonitions, or by indications of the near approach to death. If

the sciences are imbibed with inner sincerity they quicken the love of morality and take from us, or at least

diminish, the fear of death; if we abandon them, this will excite the suspicion that disbelief lays claim to be

knowledge. The sciences are not a hindrance to one who has the right mastery of them, but they are a help tohim; they level his path of life and do not thwart him.

For a diseased or weak stomach, many a food may be unwholesome which a healthy, hungry man digests at

once; so too, that which would ruin a feebler nature may be rich in blessing for a sound and vigorous mind. ...

I know well that many have achieved great sanctity without culture, but I know too that nobody has been

kept from sanctity by culture. ... If I am to tell you my own opinion, it is this: The path to holiness via ignorance

may possibly be smooth, but it is faint-hearted. All good things have a single goal but many paths lead thither

and fellow-travelers along these paths differ greatly; the one moves more slowly, the other more quickly, the one

in obscurity, the other visibly, the one bowed with humility, the other buoyant with exultation. All journeying is

blessed; but the noblest is that which proceeds freely and openly before the world. The knowledge that has

wrestled through to belief is far superior to naive simplicity, be it never so pious; and not one of the fools whohave ever entered the kingdom of heaven has as high a place as a man of knowledge who has won the crown of

blessedness.

The same could be said about our spiritual science! And not only to X [A newspaper article had been written by

a priest living in the vicinity of the Goetheanum.] but to all the others who fight against us, one could rejoin with the

words written by Petrarch to his friend; For a diseased or weak stomach, many a food may be unwholesome which

a healthy, hungry man digests at once; so too, that which would ruin a feebler nature may be rich in blessing for a

sound and vigorous mind.

And when people harp on the contradiction in the first and third Gospels and refuse to admit that the

contradiction disappears as soon as the existence of two Jesus boys is taken into account; when they insist uponsimplicity and say that the fantastic statements of the one up there (on the Goetheanum hill) can well be ignored;

when they will not admit that all the forms of life are incorporated in our Building, but talk about distorted,

fantastic forms, one must quote the words of Petrarch: The knowledge that has wrestled through to belief is far

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superior to naive simplicity; be it never so pious, and not one of the fools who have ever entered the kingdom of

heaven has as high a place as a man of knowledge who has won the crown of blessedness.

Such thoughts make us realise that it can never be our principle to combat any religious body and that it is sheer

calumny when anyone accuses us of being an enemy of religious Movements. The very fact of such an accusation

proves that there is no willingness even to try to understand us. This at least we must know; and we must resist every

tendency to adopt an aggressive attitude to any religious community just as we must keep ourselves free from the

same kind of attitude to natural science because that will soon disclose its attitude to spiritual science! There is no

reason whatever for us to combat any religious body. Combat cannot be begun by us because it does not lie in our

nature to attack. And it must be taken as an axiom that if peace is denied us, it is because the hostile neighbour is notinclined for peace. Let the principle of leaving us in peace be put to the test and then see whether peace is

maintained! Let it be put to the test! But naturally, we ourselves must be permeated with the right feeling and

attitude. For example, much wrong is also done when from our side, too, dogmas or rites of one kind or another are

attacked, often without having been understood; but if we rightly understand them, the principle referred to holds

good. I would therefore enjoin you to understand the principle of peace. Just as I was obliged to enjoin you to have

forbearance with conditions prevailing at the present time, so must I enjoin you to be alert and watchful, in order that

we may do what is necessary to guard the holy treasure entrusted to us. For more and more we shall have to wend

our way through the world with an unwavering inner strength if we are to stand firmly on the ground where spiritual

science would have us stand.

The Mystery of Golgotha and the Christ Principle are intimately connected with the need to see spiritual reality

in the world. Mere looking will never suffice even to understand the Mystery of Golgotha purely as an historical

event. The Mystery of Golgotha must be comprehended spiritually; and those who devote themselves to knowledge

where everything is derived from outside and will not open their eyes to the new revelations of the Mystery of

Golgotha which can ever and again flow to us, will not grasp the import of a poem sung by yet another voice in the

middle of the 19th century concerning that which ever changing yet ever present holds good in earthly

humanity since the Mystery of Golgotha. Let me read you a section of this poem which describes how one who

cannot grasp the meaning of the Mystery of Golgotha confronts this Mystery:

Dr. Steiner now read part of the epic poem on Ahasver, or Ahasueris, the Wandering Jew, by Julius Mosen.

The Wandering Jew is the legendary figure of a Jerusalem shoemaker who, taunting Christ on the way to the

Crucifixion, was told by Him to go on forever till I return.

The poem itself is very long and does not lend itself to translation.

Another reference to the figure of Ahasueris, from a lecture given by Dr. Steiner in Berlin, 16th May,

1908, will be found at theend of this lecture.

Note by Translator.

Here is another example of how a human soul feels impelled to give expression to what has come to pass. And

now that we have let these pictures pass through our souls, let me remind you of something that I have already saidhere: that we must change our mode of perception if we are to look with true vision into the spiritual world. We must

not believe that the spiritual world can be seen as we see the material world of sense. We must even accustom

ourselves to different modes of expression, In the physical world we see trees, rivers, mountains. But of spiritual

being we must say: they see us, they perceive us. To understand the Mystery of Golgotha truly, it is necessary to

know this, because the Mystery of Golgotha can be understood only in the Spiritual. But that is how we aspire to

understand it.

The time must come when through a true understanding of the words Not I, but Christ in me, it will be

possible to rise into the spiritual worlds with the right knowledge. This epic poem Ahasver by Julius Mosen was

published in the year 1838, and the fact that he was able to put the legend into such a form also indicates that the

tragic destiny by which Mosen was overtaken profoundly affected him. He was bedridden nearly all his life, for his

physical body was almost totally paralysed; this was precisely what enabled him to grasp such lofty ideas. We arereminded of the sinner in the novel The Mahaguru who, when he was already out of his mind, discovered the true

nature of his art; and we are reminded, too, of the Count's wife in the Polish drama, who had to fall into a

pathological state in order to find the connection with the spiritual world. It is the task of spiritual science today to

help human beings to rise into the spiritual world in the healthy, normal state of consciousness. All these things

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are signs of the task and of the value to be attached to the task of the spiritual-scientific Movement. Compressed into

a few brief words, this is the truth that can inspire us as a source of strength: The Mystery of Golgotha itself reveals

that it must be understood spiritually, that we must seek for Christ as Spirit. And then we must also say: Christ is

seeing us, Christ is perceiving us.

We will inscribe this deeply in our hearts, keep it constantly in our minds, and our conscience must be satisfied

when, in presenting our spiritual-scientific knowledge, we are saying with inner sincerity: May Christ be a witness

of what we promulgate as Spiritual Science. We believe that this may indeed be so and it can inspire us as men

were once inspired by the cry of Bernard of Clairvaux: It is God's Will! These words became deeds. May it be the

same among us for we may believe that we understand Christ truly when we live under the inspiration of thewords: Christ knows us. And if you understand it aright, to a soul that sees our spiritual science in the true light,

to a heart that feels it in its true light, I can impart no more esoteric saying than this: Christ is seeing us.

May these words live in our souls: Christ is seeing us for so we may believe if we rightly understand

spiritual science. Christ is seeing us.

Note by Translator

See other note.

In a lecture entitled. Elemental Beings (Berlin, 16th May, 1908), Dr. Steiner speaks as follows of the

legend of Ahasueris, the Wandering Jew: An important legend sets before us what a man must experience

who descends too deeply into the temporary, transitory nature of the one incarnation. If we think of an

extreme case, we can imagine it like this: What is it to me that I should carry over something to later

incarnations? I live in this incarnation, I like it, it suits me very well. I am not concerned with what I am

supposed to make of it. Where does this thought lead? It leads to a man who sits at the wayside when a

great Leader of humanity passes by. He, however, rejects the ideas of the Leader of humanity; he repulses

him and thinks: I will know nothing of thee, who wouldst guide the kernel of my being into future

incarnations where mankind will be outwardly more perfect. I wish to remain united with my present form.

A man who thrusts from him such a Leader of mankind will appear again in the same form. And if this

attitude hardens, then he shall also thrust from him the Leader in the next incarnation. He will appear again

and again as the s

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Significant Facts Pertaining to the Spiritual Life of the Middle of the XIXth Century

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