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The Invisible Man Within UsPathology Underlying Therapy
-hen we onsider the human being# two beings an be learly distinguished. ou will reall that in various reent studies
have explained how the physial organi%ation of the human being is spiritually prepared during the preearthly life. n a
ertain sense it is then sent down as spiritual organi%ation before the human being enters with his ego into earthly
existene. This spiritual organi%ation ontinues to be ative essentially during the entire physial life on earth# but it doesnot express itself during physial earthly life as something outwardly visible. The outwardly visible aspet of this spiritual
organi%ation is essentially ast off at birth# onsisting of the embryoni membranes that envelop the human embryo
during its development 0 the horion# the allantois# the amnion# the yolk sa 0 everything# in other words# that is ast
away as physial organi%ation when the human being attains a free physial existene on leaving the womb.
et this pre1earthly organi%ation ontinues to be ative in the human being throughout his entire life. t is somewhat
different in harater# however# from the body soul1spirit effiay of the human being during his physial earthly life.
$nd this is what would like to speak about today.
n a ertain sense# then# we have an invisible man within us. t is
ontained in our growth1fores as well as in those hidden fores throughwhih nourishment ours. t is ontained in everything in whih the
human being is not onsiously ative. ts work extends into this
unonsious ativity# right into the growth ativity# into the daily
restoration of fores through nutrition. $nd this work is the aftereffet
of the pre1earthly existene# whih in earthly existene beomes a body
of fores that is ative in us but does not ome to onsious
manifestation. Today would like to desribe to you the harater of
this invisible man# whih we all arry within us# ontained in our fores:
growth and nutrition# as well as in our reprodutive fores.
"roeeding shematially# we an say that this invisible man also ontains the ego# the astral organi%ation# the etheri
organi%ation 2and therefore the body of formative fores3# and the physial organi%ation. 4f ourse in the human beingafter birth the physial organi%ation of the invisible man is inserted into the other human physial organi%ation# but in the
ourse of today5s onsiderations you will begin to understand how the invisible man an lay hold of the physial
7rawn shematially it would look like this 2see drawing# 8right93. n this invisible man we have first the ego
organi%ation 2yellow3 then we have the astral organi%ation 2red3# then the etheri organi%ation 2blue3# and finally we have
the physial organi%ation 2white3. This physial organi%ation of the invisible man penetrates only into the nutrition and
growth proesses# into everything where the lower man# as we have often alled it 0 the metaboli1limb man 0
manifests itself in the human organi%ation. $ll urrents# all effets of fores in this invisible man proeed from the ego
organi%ation into the astral# then into the etheri# and on into the physial organi%ation 2see arrow3. They then spread out
in the physial organi%ation. n the human embryo# what we all here the physial organi%ation of the invisible man is
present in the embryoni envelopes# in the embryoni sheaths# the horion# the allantois# the amnion# and the yolk sa. nthe human being after birth# however# the physial organi%ation of the invisible man is ontained in the nourishing and
restorative proesses in the human being. Thus viewed from outside# this physial organi%ation is not separated from the
other physial organi%ation of the human being but is united with it.
n a ertain sense# then# in addition to this invisible man we have the visible human being that we enounter after
birth. will sketh this visible human being right next to the invisible one 2see drawing3. This is how the mutual
interpenetration of the physial and superphysial human being would appear during earthly life. 7uring earthly life there
is a ontinuous stream from ego to astral body# to etheri body# to physial body 2see arrows3. n the human being after
birth# this stream flows into the metaboli1limb organi%ation# in the fores of our outer movement# and also in the inner
fores of movement that arry ingested food into the entire organi%ation up to the brain.
n addition to this# however# there is a diret intervention of fores that enter the entire human being diretly from the
ego. $n ativity thus penetrates us# a stream that flows diretly from the ego into the nerve1sense organi%ation without
first passing through the astral body and etheri body instead this stream lays hold of man5s physial body diretly.
+aturally this penetration is strongest in the head# where most of the sense organs are onentrated# but should atually
draw this stream in suh a way that it spreads out over the skin1senses# over the entire human being# ;ust as would have
to draw a stream for the ourse of food taken in by the mouth. Shematially# however# my drawing is <uite orret.
n the human head# then# we have one organi%ation that flows up from below# proeeding from the ego but passing
through the astral# etheri# and physial and then to the ego. -e have another stream that enters the physial diretly and
flows down. f we examine the human organism# we arrive at the insight that this unmediated stream# whih enters the
physial diretly from the ego and then branhes out over the whole body# proeeds along the nerve pathways. Thus when
the human nerves spread out in the organism# the outwardly visible nerve strand is the visible sign of these outspreadingstreams that enter the entire organism diretly from the ego# proeeding from the ego into the physial organi%ation
without mediation. The ego organi%ation at first runs along the pathways of the nerves. This has an essentially destrutive
effet on the organism. There the spirit enters diretly into physial matter# and wherever the spirit enters physial matter
diretly a destrutive proess ours# so that along the nerve pathways# proeeding ffrom the senses# a deliate death
proess spreads out through the human organism.
The other stream# whih in the invisible man goes through the astral# etheri# and physial bodies# an be traed in the
human being by following the blood pathways up to the senses. Thus when we examine the human being as we enounter
him here on earth# we an say that the ego flows in the blood. )ut the ego flows in suh a way that it first ensouls its
fores through the astral organi%ation and through the etheri and physial organi%ations. $fter first taking along the astral
and etheri organi%ations# the ego streams through the physial organi%ation in the blood from below upward. Thus the
entire invisible man flows in the blood as a onstrutive proess# as a growth proess# as the proess that onstantly
renews the human being by working through his food. This stream flows in the human being from below upward
2speaking shematially3# pours itself into the senses# and therefore also into the skin# and enounters the other stream
whih# from the ego# takes hold of the physial organi%ation diretly.
$tually# however# this whole matter is even more ompliated# beause we must also onsider the breathing proess.
n the breathing proess# the ego flows into the astral body# but then it goes diretly into the lungs along with the air. Thus
something from the supersensible man also underlies the breathing proess# but not in the same way as ours in the
nerve1sense proess# where the ego takes hold of the physial organi%ation diretly. n the breathing proess# the ego
permeates itself with the astral fores# taking hold of oxygen and only then# no longer as pure ego organi%ation but as ego1
astral organi%ation# does it take hold of the organism with the help of the breathing proess. t ould also be said that the
breathing proess is a weakened proess of destrution# a weakened death proess. The atual death proess is the nerve1sense proess# and a weakened proess of destrution# a weakened death proess# is the breathing proess.
This is then onfronted by the proess in whih the ego further strengthens itself by streaming up to the etheri body
and only then being taken up. This proess# taking plae mainly in the super1sensible so that it annot be traed by the
usual physiology# is ative in the pulse there it is still outwardly pereptible. t is a restorative proess# not as strong as
the diret metaboli1restorative proess# but rather a weakened restorative proess. $s we have seen# the breathing
proess is to a ertain extent a destrutive proess. 4ur life would be muh shorter if we absorbed more oxygen. The
more the arboni aid formation proess of the blood ounters the absorption of oxygen in the breathing proess# the
longer our life will be.
Thus everything interats within the organism# and in order really to understand what is going on# one needs to
understand the supersensible human being# beause its outwardly visible aspets were ast off with the embryonimembranes and are ative in the human being after birth only through invisible fores. These fores an be learly
designated# however# if we proeed from the anthroposophial knowledge of the human being.
f# for example# we look into the eye with this anthroposophial knowledge# we see that the blood proess ourses
through the eye in fine ramifiations. This is taken hold of by the nerve proess going in the opposite diretion. The blood
proess always moves toward the periphery in the human being# moving entrifugally the nerve proess# whih is in fat
a breakdown proess# is always direted entripetally# toward man5s inside. $ll proesses that our in the human being
are metamorphoses of these two proesses.
f the interation of pulse and breathing is properly oordinated# then the lower man is properly onneted to the
upper man. f this is the ase and no external in;uries intervene# an individual should be basially healthy. 4nly when breakdown predominates will destrutive proesses enroah on the ativities in the organism. The human being beomes
ill beause something foreign aumulates in his organism that has not been worked through in the right way# something
ontaining exessive breakdown fores# ontaining too muh of what is related to the physial nature that surrounds the
human being in his earthly environment.
The spiritual element5s diret penetration of the organism by way of the ego brings about those proesses that produe
pathologial ourrenes# foreign formations. These foreign formations may not manifest immediately in physial
symptoms# but they may manifest in the fluid and even in the airy aspet of the human being. They an develop# and if
they are not ountered by a healing proess that flows from below along the pathways of the blood# they annot dissolve.
These formations have the tendeny to form tumor1like aumulations in the body and then to fragment within. f the
blood1formation proess onfronts them in the right way# they an dissolve and again beome part of the general life of
the body. )ut when a damming up is brought about by an exessive breakdown proess from above downward# it takeshold of one of the organs. 'oreign bodies are then formed# whih are first exudative# tumor1like# but then have the
tendeny to run their ourse like the external proesses of earthly nature and fall to piees. n this ase we need to
understand that not enough of the supersensible human being is taken up along the path have drawn here next to the
physial human being.
ou see# one annot speak about healing diretly through human ativity# beause the moment that too muh ativity
is developed from the nerve1sense organi%ation# in a entripetal diretion 0 when too many of the environmental
proesses are >stuffed? into man so that these tumor1like formations develop somewhere# whih then deompose 0 in
that moment the other system# whih runs along the blood vessels# beomes rebellious. t wants to bring about healing#
wants to penetrate the organism with the proper astral and etheri fores that an ome from below. t wants to prevent
the ego# or the ego working with the astral body# from ating alone. The healer has to take into aount this revolutionary
priniple in the human organism# and healing onsists of supporting# by external means# what is already present in the
organism as an original healing fore.
-hen a tumor1like formation arises# it is a symptom of the ego ativity from the stream of the invisible man not
penetrating in the right way from out of the etheri body. The ego ativity does assert itself# but may at times be unable to
approah the tumor. -e might then support the etheri body in this diretion so that it an beome ative. t an beome
ative in the right way if it is first permeated by the ego and astral body and then beomes ative. That whih omes from
above and has not taken up etheri ativity# but at most ego and astral ativity# poisons the organism. -hen the etheri
body approahes this# when we ounter the ego and astral ativity with etheri ativity# we support the healing proess
already present and striving to be ative in the human organi%ation. -e only have to know# in suh a ase# by what means
the etheri organi%ation# permeated in the right way by astral and ego organi%ation# an penetrate the body. n other
words# in suh a ase we simply need to help the etheri organi%ation with a remedy. Therefore we must know whihremedy will make the etheri organi%ation stronger in suh a ase# so that its onstrutive fore opposes the exessively
destrutive fore. Thus we an see that we will never omprehend the pathology that underlies therapy unless we take into
t may also be# however# that when a person is born he does not penetrate strongly enough with his ego and astral
organi%ation 0 his soul1spiritual organi%ation 0 into the physial organi%ation. The soul1spiritual organi%ation does not
push its way into the physial organi%ation suffiently. Then in this individual there will ontinually be a preponderane
of the growth fores ative from below upward# whih are not given suffiient heaviness through integration with the
physial organi%ation. $n individual an be born in suh a way that the invisible man takes insuffiient hold of his
physial body# refusing to penetrate into the blood proess in the right way. Then man5s spirit annot approah the blood
proess. n suh individuals we an already see the onse<uenes of this from hildhood on. They remain pale and thin#
or# beause of the predominating growth fores# grow radiply tall. The the soul1spiritual annot properly enter the
organism. $nd beause the body refuses to take up the soul1spiritual# our goal must be to weaken the exessively strong
etheri body where the ativity has beome too strong. n suh pale# lanky individuals we must strive to ontain thehypertrophi# exessively ative fores in the etheri body# restraining them to their proper degree. )y this means we an
bring heaviness into the body the blood# for example# by reeiving the neessary iron ontent# reeives the appropriate
heaviness. Then the etheri body is not as ative in an upward diretion# and its effet on the upper man is weakened.
n suh individuals another ondition might be notied: what would like to all the night proesses predominate over
the day proesses. ou ould say that at night the physial1etheri organi%ation of every normal person refuses to absorb
the soul1spiritual. This night organi%ation of a person lying in bed 0 not of the invisible man# who is outside 0 is too
strong in those people who have a sort of inborn onsumption# as have ;ust desribed. n suh ases# the day
organi%ation must be supported. This means that it has to be given a ertain heaviness by enouraging the breakdown
proesses. f one enhanes the breakdown proesses and inwardly there appears that whih hardens and finally falls to
piees 2in healing# of ourse# this must happen only to a small extent3 then the overflowing fore of the etheri body is
restrained and onsumption is held bak.
n this way# out of knowledge of the entire human being# we an omprehend the urious interation between health
and disease# This interation is always present and is essentially balaned out by what ours between pulse and breath. f
we then ome to know by what outer means one or the other an be enhaned# it will be possible to support the natural
healing proeses that are always present# but would say# not always able to arise.
-hat outer means we use is not suh a simple matter# for a totally foreign proess annot be introdued into the
human organism. -hen some kind of foreign proess is introdued# it is at one transformed into its opposite within the
organism. f you eat something# the food ontains ertain hemial fores. n absorbing them# the organism transforms
them at one into their opposite. This is neessary. f# for example# the food maintained its external harater too long
after being absorbed# then it would begin to break down as it does in outer nature and would thus bring destrutive anddeath1bringing breakdown proesses into the human being.
ou an pursue the details of the proesses that have developed for you here from the entire human being. *et us
assume# for example# that you stik yourself with a foreign ob;et like a splinter. our body an reat in two ways.
Suppose you annot extrat the foreign ob;et so that it remains inside you. Then two things an happen. The onstrutive
fore ative in the flowing blood surrounds the foreign ob;et. t gathers around the ob;et# but in doing so it moves away
from its own ustomary position. This immediately leads to a preponderane of the nerve ativity there. Then an exudate1
like formation begins to enapsulate the foreign ob;et. -hen this happens# the following takes plae in that part of the
body: whereas usually# when there is not a foreign ob;et in that spot# the etheri body penetrates the physial body in a
ertain way# in this situation the etheri body is unable to penetrate the foreign ob;et instead# within this area a bubble
will form that is filled out only with the etheri. -e have within us a small portion of the body that ontains a foreign
ob;et and where a small portion of the etheri body is not organi%ed by the physial. n this ase it is important tostrengthen the astral body in that spot to suh an extent that it an be effetive in the small portion of the etheri body
without the help of the physial body. Through this enapsulation our body has atually made use of the destrutive
fores# separating out these destrutive fores in a small setion of the body and then inorporating into it the healing
etheri body. This will then have to be supported by the astral and the ego through an appropriate treatment.
n suh a ase we have to say that# in a ertain sense# what lies above the physial in the human being has to beome
strong enough to be ative without the physial in this small part of the human organi%ation. This always happens in what
is alled a healing of some foreign intrusion in the human being# for example when a person gets stuk with a splinter and
it beomes enapsulated. n this part of his body man5s whole organi%ation is moved a little bit upward. t an also happen
that something foreign is formed purely out of the organism. This must be regarded in the same way.
$ ompletely different proess ould take plae# however# if we have been stuk by a splinter. t ould be that the
nerve ativity surrounding the splinter gets stronger and predominates over the blood ativity. Then the nerve ativity# in
whih the ego is ative 2or possibly the ego strengthened by the astral body3# stimulates the blood ativity. The nerve1
sense ativity# whih goes through the whole body# stimulates the blood ativity and does not permit an exudate to form.
nstead it stimulates a seretory proess# leading to the formation of pus 2white3. $nd beause the nerves are pushing out
2arrows3# the pus is also driven to the periphery by the push that goes through the nerve trats in their destrutive ativity.
The splinter omes out and the area heals over.
ou an see# then# that if the splinter is too deep in the organism# so that the pushing fore of the breakdown system#
the nerve1sense system# is insuffiient to bring it to the outside# then the onstrutive ativity in the blood vessels will be
stronger and lead to enapsulation. f the splinter is loser to the surfae# then the nerve1pushing fore# the destrutive
fore# will be stronger. t will exite or stimulate what wants to beome an exudate so that it will make use of the
breakdown hannels that are always present anyway# leading to the outside# and the whole area will suppurate. Thereforewe an atually say that we arry in us# in inipient form# in the moment of oming into being# the tendeny for our
organism to harden toward the inside in a entripetal diretion and to dissolve again toward the outside in a entrifugal
diretion. n the normal proesses of the human body# however# the tumor1forming fore that is direted inward and the
suppurative1inflammatory fore that is direted toward the periphery are in e<uilibrium. (enerally our inflammatory
proess is strong enough to overome the tumefying fore tending toward breakdown. 4nly when one proess is stronger
than the other will a real tumefation or a real inflammation develop.
ou must not be under the impression# of ourse# that everything is as easy to omprehend in reality as it seems when
matters have to be simplified in a shemati presentation. n reality the proesses interpenetrate one another. n fat# you
an observe that when the inflammatory fores are strong in the human being there will be febrile phenomena. These are
essentially the result of exessively strong onstrutive proesses loated in the blood. -ith the fore of selfhood
(Eigenkraft) that fre<uently develops in a person with a fever# it ould be possible to provide <uite a bit of strength to a
seond person# if the means were available for diverting the fores from one to the other in the right way.
4n the other hand# where the breakdown fores are working strongly# ooling phenomena our. The presene of
these phenomena is not as easy to substantiate as the febrile phenomena# but these two types of phenomena alternate so
that in reality we are always dealing with interpenetrating ativities that simply have to be distinguished if we wish to
omprehend what is going on.
$ <uestion often arises onerning poisons that our in nature# for example the poison in belladonna# the deadly
nightshade: how are atual poisons different from ordinary substanes that we find in our environment and use for foodB
-hen we eat food# something is introdued into the organism that is formed in outer nature similarly to the way in whih
our invisible man is formed. -e take into us something that proeeds from a spiritual ativity# enters an astral ativity#then an etheri ativity# and finally a physial ativity. n nature suh an ativity is direted from above downward it ats
upon the earth from the periphery# as it were. This ativity is related to our inner ego ativity# whih is a purely spiritual
ativity. f what have depited shematially flows down# but transforms itself via the astral# then further via the etheri#
then going down into the physial# then the plant as a rule takes up suh an ativity. The plant grows toward this ativity
from below upward and takes up this etheri ativity# whih# however# already rightly ontains from above the astral and
ego ativity# i.e.# the soul and spiritual ativity.
t is also possible for something else to take plae# as it does with a poison. "oisonous substanes have the peuliarity
that they do not make use of the etheri as do the normal green substanes in the plant instead they turn diretly to the
astral# so that the astral enters into this substane. -ith belladonna# the fruit beomes espeially greedy and is not
satisfied by taking up ;ust the etheri instead the fruit takes up the astral diretly# before this astral has taken up the life1
fores through the etheri in streaming downward. ou ould say that in suh ases the astral is ontinually dripping from
the world1periphery diretly down to the earth instead of entering the etheri. $nd suh drops of the astral being# whih
have not gone through the ether atmosphere of the earth in the right way# an# for example# be found in the poison of the
deadly nightshade. -e also have this osmi astral element dripping down into the plant in the poison of the imsonweed
fruit# in hyosyamus 2henbane3# et.
-hat therefore lives in this plant substane# for example in the deadly nightshade# is related to the ativity that enters
the human nerves and irulation of oxygen diretly from the ego or the astral body. Thus by taking in the poison of the
deadly nightshade# we get a signifiant strengthening of the breakdown proesses in us# those proesses that usually enter
the physial body diretly from the ego. The human ego is not generally strong enough to tolerate suh a strengthening of
breakdown proesses. f the opposite ativity is too great# however 0 the ativity that proeeds from below upward in the
blood vessels 0 one an ounter it with suh breakdown proesses from nature. $tropine# the poison of the deadlynightshade# an thus be used in small doses to ounterat exessive growth proesses in the human being. The moment
there is too muh of this poison# however# we annot talk about an e<uilibrium anymore. Then the growth proesses are
pushed bak and the human being is benumbed by a spiritual ativity that he is not yet able to tolerate with his ego. De
will be able to tolerate suh a spiritual ativity perhaps only in future onditions# in the Fenus and Fulan stages of
evolution. This is why the peuliar symptoms of poisoning our. 'irst the point of origin of the ativity effetive in the
blood is undermined then the gastri manifestations arise that appear after the ingestion of deadly nightshade poison
then the fores working from below upward are strongly prevented from doing so in the right way finally omplete
unonsiousness ours with the destrution of the human being from the side of the breakdown proesses.
Thus we an trae the effet of suh a substane in the human organism if we know the spiritual ontent of a
substane we have absorbed. This an best be studied in plants. Gnowledge of the human organism must be ;oined with a
proper knowledge of outer nature. -e must ome to know what lives in individual plants. Then we will also know how
the different plants affet the human being# in dietary presriptions for example.
Then we will really be able to ahieve something if the proper soial onditions are brought about at the same time so
that these things an really be applied. Today# even if we know something# we are usually unable to do anything# beause
our soial onditions are in no way adapted to the knowledge of nature. The knowledge of nature is abstrated# is driven
into the abstrat so that we annot grasp the human being5s real position in the whole universe. t would not yet be
possible on a large sale# for example# for us to ensure that individuals who might need it ould reeive a ertain plant
substane in some sort of rhythm. n order to make this possible in a omprehensive way# our sientifi mediine must
take on a different harater. The outer arrangements in all soial life need to be related to what an be known about the
human being5s relationship to surrounding nature.
Certainly a great deal an be done in isolated instanes. -e an prepare roots by boiling them for someone in whomthe breakdown proesses proeeding from the head are too strong. -e an deot ertain roots that are known to ontain
substanes that have drawn the spiritual# the astral# and the etheri in the right way into the physial in the proess of root
formation. Through introduing substanes from the proess of root formation into the human organism and bringing
them to ativity in the organism# a person reeives something that goes up to the finest ramifiations of the blood vessels
at the outermost periphery# going into the head. )y doing this we an all forth something to ounterat the exessively
strong breakdown proesses of the nervous system. )ut one needs to have an exat oneption of the hanges that plant
substanes from the root undergo when taken in through the mouth and worked through in order to go to the outermost
periphery of the head organi%ation or skin organi%ation.
n other ases we would have to know how substanes taken from the flower at in the human organism. These
substanes are already a little shaky in their relationship to the etheri# they have already taken up the astral to a
signifiant extent. n a ertain sense they already approah the poisonous# though only slightly. -e would have to knowthat when these substanes are added to baths# and thereby brought into the organism in a ompletely different way# we
an stimulate the exessively weak upbuilding organi%ation that lies in the blood vessels. -e would then ounterat from
outside the influene from the breakdown ativity.
t is similar if we wish to pursue the inner effetiveness of in;eted substanes. There we are essentially trying to
strengthen the upbuilding proesses so that a proper e<uilibrium with the breakdown proesses is established.
This is why# partiularly when giving in;etions# we must always observe how the breakdown proesses reat. -e
will not get the right effet if we annot see how the breakdown proesses first resist and then only gradually enter into
the upbuilding proess in the right way. -hen in;eting something# therefore# we may notie that slight visual
disturbanes and bu%%ing in the ears arise# beause at first the breakdown proesses refuse to enter into the right
e<uilibrium with the strengthened upbuilding proesses. )ut when suh symptoms appear they provide a guarantee that
we are indeed intervening in the proesses.
ou see# anthroposophy is really not onerned with furnishing setarian aunt1and1unle gatherings with shemes
they an argue about# shemes desribing how the human being onsists of physial body# etheri body# astral body# and
ego. Hather it is very seriously onerned with omprehending the human being and his relationship to the world# with
bringing the spiritual into everything material. $nd if anthroposophy really wants to seure its plae in the world# it must
be understood that it is able to pursue the spiritual into the material. $s long as we merely oupy ourselves with aunt1
and1unle gatherings in setarian irles# with s<uabbling over the division of the human being# we will be engaged in
onflit about all sorts of other setarian things. The moment we an really show how anthroposophy touhes on all other
knowledge# asts light on all other earthly knowledge 0 ;ust as astrology illuminated earthly proesses in earlier times 0
then anthroposophy will be something that an take hold of modern ivili%ation. Then truly onstrutive progress may begin in human ivili%ation# even in the fae of the destrutive proesses originating in older times.
The body takes up the spirit too strongly# exessively strong day proesses J one free%es: a formation of inner
hardening 0 inward exudate1like 0 fragmenting.
4no,ledge Pervaded ,ith the 50perience of
Love4no,ledge Pervaded ,ith the 50perience of Love
A lecture by
Rudolf Steiner
ornach! "ebruary #6! #$%&
'A %%#
The leture presented here was given in 7ornah on 'ebruary 6L# 6M=@# and is the Mth of M
letures in the series entitled: Earthly Knowledge and Heavenly Wisdom. t appears in theoriginal (erman in Erdenwissen und Himmelserkenntnis# )ibliographi +r. ==6# 7ornah
6MKL. t is also series entitled: Earthly Knowledge and Heavenly Wisdom. The translator isSabine D. Seiler.
This ,nglish edition is published in agreement with# and the kind permission of the RudolfSteiner a!hlassverwaltung # 7ornah# Swit%erland.
8early subscription> #?.@S,iss "rancs. Single /opies> & cents.
Co"yright and all other Rights of re"rodu!tion and translation reserved #y $eneral %nthro"oso"hi! So!iety& 'orna!h& Switerland Res"onsi#ility for the!ontents of the arti!les in the *%nthro"oso"hi! ews Sheet+ atta!hes only to the writers.
G+4-*,7(, ",HF$7,7 -TD TD, ,N",H,+C, 4' *4F,
*eture by 7r. Hudolf Steiner
7ornah# 'ebruary 6L# 6M=@
2'rom stenographi notes not revised by the leturer.3
4n many oasions we have emphasi%ed that the present historial moment of human evolution is the one in whih
intelletual life predominates. The epoh whih has been harateri%ed as the fourth post1$tlantean age# as the (raeo1
Homan age# was a preparation for the present epoh. $nd you also know# from ertain soul harateristis of man whih
developed during these epohs# that we rekon the (raeo1Homan age from the ,ighth Century ).C. to the 'ifteenth
Century $.7. Sine that time we must take into aount the epoh in whih we are now living# in whih the soul <ualities
of western humanity must unfold# and whih we look upon as the present moment in history.
)efore the 'ifteenth Century man5s whole relation to the world of the intellet was <uite different from what it was
later on. Sine the 'ourth Century $.7. the human soul had a ertain inlination towards the intelletual life whih existed
in anient (reee and was about to set nevertheless we find in this seond period of the fourth post1$tlantian epoh asoul mood whih an only be fully grasped if we immerse ourselves with a feeling soul into the harateristi of the
anient (reeks# partiularly during the time whih history desribes in a rather superfiial way# when (reek life was
beginning to evolve# and the time of Sorates and "lato until the end of the (reek era.
'rom all that shines through an external 0 one might say# superfiial historial desription 0 it is possible to
reogni%e# even without a spiritual1sientifi deepening# that when the anient (reek gained what we now all an
intelletual world oneption# this gave him pleasure# or at least a sense of satisfation# and when by his intelletual
power he ould form a piture of the universe# after having passed through the different stages of learning of that time# he
believed that he had risen to a higher stage of human development. -hen he ould grasp the world intelletually# he
believed that he was a human being in a higher sense. 7uring the fourth post1$tlantean age# there existed in full measure
inner ;oy and satisfation derived from the life of the intellet.
This may also be observed in the historial haraters of a subse<uent epoh. 'or example# the way in whih ohn
Sotus ,rigena of the +inth Century formed and desribed his ideas# shows us that he believed to have in them something
whih may arouse inner enthusiasm. ,ven though later on a somewhat ooler form of disussion set in# we find this soul
attitude in the men who sought to gain an intelletual piture of the world through Sholastiism# and who were
fre<uently alone in their striving# isolated from the rest of the world. t was the ourse of development during the past
enturies whih indued men to believe that by rising up to intelletual thoughts they must lose their inner soul warmth.
)ut by going bak to a time whih does not lie so very far bak# by onsidering# for example# the intelletualisti
world oneption still existing in Shiller# or even to the extraordinary exat morphology developed by (oethe# we may
observe that these men painted their piture of the world in a very marked ideal1intelletualisti way and believed to be
human beings in the true sense of the word only if they ould bring inner warmth into their ideas. +ot so very long ago#the world of ideas was not yet desribed in suh a pale# old way as is so fre<uently the ase today.
This fat is onneted with an important law of human development. t is onneted with the fat that man himself
adopted an entirely different attitude towards the world of ideas grasped through his intellet it was an entirely different
attitude from that of past epohs. n earlier times# the world of ideas was linked up with the living essene of the universe#
for the universe was looked upon as a living organism. might say: True insight into older forms of thinking an show us
that in the past everything dead# everything that was not alive# was really looked upon as something whih falls off from
the world5s living essene# and this was thought of as being spread over the whole universe it fell off from it# like ashes
fall off from burning substane. !an5s feeling attitude towards the universe was <uite different from his present attitude.
De looked upon the universe as a great# living organism# and its lifeless part# for example# the whole extent of the mineral
kingdom# was to him ashes falling out of the universal proesses# and these ashes were dead# beause they were nothing
but the refuse of the world5s living essene.
7uring the past enturies# this feeling towards the universe underwent an essential transformation. Sientifi
knowledge# for example# is now fully valued 0 or this was the ase 0 only insofar as it deals with lifeless substanes
and proesses. n an ever1growing measure# the longing arose to look upon everything living only as a kind of hemial
ombination of lifeless substanes. The idea of spontaneous generation from lifeless substanes beame prevalent.
4n many oasions# have already mentioned the following: 7uring the !iddle $ges# when people tried to produe
the homunulus in the retort out of ertain ingredients# they never onneted this with the idea of spontaneous generation
in the meaning of modern sientifi investigation# but they looked upon the homunulus as a definite living essene
on;ured up from an indefinite living universe. 'or they did not yet think of the universe as something lifeless# as a
mehanism. Conse<uently people believed in the possibility of on;uring up a definite living essene out of an indefiniteliving essene. +ever did it our to a medieval mind to onnet lifeless with living things. These things are very diffiult
to grasp without the aid of spiritual siene# beause modern people are austomed to form their ideas by assuming that
their thoughts are absolutely orret and have beome so perfet# beause mankind has left behind the stages of
hildhood.
$lthough people boast of modern progress# the thoughts whih they now form have never been so rigid in the past.
ndeed# this rigidity# partiularly in regard to man5s ognitive power# is a sub;etive element. -hen man turns his thoughts
and ideas to lifeless things# this is something <uite passive. 'or he an form his thoughts with the greatest ease and
omfort the lifeless world does not hange# and he forms his onepts of physis without being disturbed by the fat that
in approahing +ature with his lifeless thoughts# +ature itself# with its living hanging harater# demands from him to be
;ust as living and mobile in his thoughts.
(oethe still had the feeling that when single phenomena had to be drawn out of the whole extent of fats and grasped
in the form of ideas# then inwardly living thoughts are needed# not sharply outlined ones# but thoughts onforming with
the ever1hanging# living form of existene# with the ever1hanging# living beings.
,xpressed more paradoxially# we may say that modern man likes thoughts whih an be formed without muh
effort. This tendeny to rigid thought# to thoughts with sharp outlines# an only be applied to lifeless things# to things
whih do not hange# so that the thoughts themselves remain unhanged and rigid but these rigid thoughts# whih really
ignore life in the external world# nevertheless gave man 0 as have fre<uently desribed 0 the inner onsiousness of
freedom.
Two things have arisen through the fat that man lost life ompletely in the sphere of his thoughts: 4ne is theonsiousness of freedom# the other the possibility to apply these rigid thoughts# drawn out of lifeless things and
appliable only to lifeless things# to the magnifient# triumphal tehnial ahievements# based on the reali%ation of the
rigid system of ideas.
This is one aspet of mankind5s modern development. -e must grasp that man separated himself# as it were# from the
living world# he beame estranged from it. )ut at the same time we should also grasp the following: f man does not wish
to remain within the lifeless essene of the world# but wishes to take into his soul the impulse of life# he must disover the
world5s living essene through his own power# whenever he faes the lifeless world.
-hen we go bak into anient times# we find that eah loud formation# the lightning oming out of the loud# the
rolling thunder# the growing plant# et.# gave man a living essene through knowledge# he breathed in life# as it were# and
thus he existed in an immediate way within the world5s living essene. De only had to take in life from outside. naordane with man5s present stage of development# whih only enables him to grasp lifeless thing in his thoughts# so
that the external world no longer gives him a living essene# he is obliged# in the present epoh# to draw this living
essene out of the innermost depths of his own life he himself must beome alive. Distory annot be grasped
theoretially# through the intellet. t would be too monotonous. -ith our whole soul we should penetrate into the way in
whih people experiened history during the different epohs. -e shall then disover what a great hange took plae in
all the pre1(reian epohs# if may use this expression# whih $nthroposophy traes bak as far as the $tlantean age# that
is to say# as far as the Seventh and ,ighth Centuries ).C. 0 we shall disover the great hange whih took plae from the
time of anient (reee until now. *et me desribe to you this hange of human feeling in onnetion with the universe 0
let me desribe it to you <uite ob;etively. wish to desribe how this hange of feeling in human souls faing the
universe appears in the light of a spiritual oneption.
-hen we go bak into anient times 0 only faint traes of this remote past are known to ordinary history# for in
order to grasp these things we must penetrate into them in a spiritual1sientifi way# through the methods whih you have
learned to know 0 when we go bak into anient times# to the men of the pre1(reian age# for example to the ,gyptian
ulture# the )abylonian1Chaldean ulture# or even to the anient "ersian ulture# we shall find that everywhere men had
ome down to the earth from a prenatal# pre1earthly life# and that they still bore within them# as an after1effet# all that the
(ods had implanted into them during their pre1earthly existene.
n the past# the human being felt that he lived on the earth in a way whih made him say to himself: am standing
here on the earth# but before stood upon it# lived in a soul1spiritual world# imaginatively speaking# in a world of light.
)ut this light ontinues to shine mysteriously in my inner being. $s a human being# am# as it were# a overing sheath for
!an thus knew that a divine element had ome down with him to the earth. n reality# he did not say 0 and this may
be proved philologially 0 am now standing upon the earth# but he said: # who am a human being# enfold the (od who
ame down to the earth. This is what really lived in his onsiousness.
$nd the farther bak we go into human evolution# the more fre<uently shall we find this onsiousness: # who am a
human being# enfold the (od who ame down to the earth. 'or the divine element was manifold. 4ne might say: n the
past# man was onsious of the fat that the last gods of the godly hierarhy reahing down to the earth were human
beings. Those who do not distort 4riental ulture in the terrible way in whih 7eussen distorted it for ,urope# those who
do not pereive in a superfiial# external way# but in a truly feeling manner# the state of onsiousness of the anient
ndian who felt himself at one with his )rahman whom he enfolded# will also be able to feel what really onstituted thetrue essene of soul life in anient times.
4ut of this developed the onsiousness of the 'ather# man5s attitude towards (od the 'ather. De felt that he was# as it
were# a son of the (ods. De did not feel this in onnetion with his body of flesh and blood# but in onnetion with that
part of his being enfolded by his flesh and blood# though aording to many people of anient times# these were not
worthy of being the involure of a (od. +ot the human being of flesh and blood was looked upon as divine# but that part
whih ame from a spiritual world and entered man5s physial1earthly part# the being of flesh and blood.
!an5s religious onnetion was thus felt above all in the relationship to (od the 'ather. n the anient !ysteries the
highest dignity# the highest rank was that of the 'ather. n nearly all the !ysteries of the 4rient the andidate of initiation
had to pass through seven different stages. The first stage or degree was one of preparation# in whih he gained a soulonstitution giving him a first idea of what the !ysteries revealed to him. The subse<uent degree# up to the fourth#
enabled him to have a full understanding of his folk soul# so that he no longer felt that he was a single human being# but
the member of a whole group of men. $nd by rising to the higher stages# the fifth and sixth degree# he felt in an ever1
growing measure that he was the involure of a divine essene. The highest degree was that of the 'ather. "eople who had
attained this stage reali%ed in their external life and existene this divine arhetypal priniple whih ould be experiened
by man# and whih ould really be brought in onnetion with man. The whole external spiritual ulture was entirely in
aordane with this entral point of religious life: to experiene in human onsiousness a relation with the reative
priniple of (od the 'ather. ,verything whih ould be grasped by man5s inner being was experiened aordingly: !an
felt that the light of knowledge whih ould be kindled within him ame to him from (od the 'ather. n his own intellet
he felt the influene of (od the 'ather. Cults and rituals were arranged aordingly# for they were only a reflexion of the
path of knowledge whih ould be followed in the !ysteries.
Then ame the (reek $ge. The (reek is the most perfet representative of that stage of human development oming
out of those older soul onditions whih have ;ust desribed to you. The anient (reek felt that man was more than man#
not only the involure of something divine. )ut this (reek feeling was of suh a kind that a person who had passed
through a (reek training 0 let us all it the (reek shool of the intellet# or (reek art# or (reek religious life 0 felt# as it
were# that the divine essene had ompletely identified itself with man. The anient (reek no longer thought that he
enfolded a (od# but he felt that he was the expression of (od# that he set forth a divine being. )ut this truth was no longer
pronouned as openly as the other truth in older epohs. n anient (reee this truth: $s a human being# thou art a divine
being# a son of the (ods# was only revealed to the disiple of the !ysteries at a definite stage of his development. t was
deemed impossible to desribe this seret of human evolution to people who were not ade<uately prepared for it. )ut a
(reek who had been initiated into the !ysteries knew this truth. This explains the fundamental feeling of that epoh was
not a learly outlined idea# but a fundamental feeling of the soul.
-e ome aross this fundamental soul feeling in (reek art# whih sets forth the (ods as if they were ideali%ed human
beings. This way of setting forth the (ods as ideali%ed men proeeds from this fundamental feeling. The (reek therefore
took bak# as it were into the hastity of feeling# his relationship to the 7ivine.
-hen the (reek world oneption had ompletely set# an entirely new soul mood ame to the fore in the 'ifteenth
Century. +o longer did the human being feel that he enfolded a divine essene or set forth something divine# as he
experiened himself in anient (reee# but he felt that he was a being that had risen from less perfet stages to the human
stage and that he ould only look up to a divine essene transending the physial world. !odern man alled into life
natural siene based upon this fundamental feeling# whih is# however# still unable to disover man5s onnetion with his
own self.
t is the task of $nthroposophy to redisover man5s onnetion with his own self and the divine essene. This may be
thought of as follows: *et us transfer ourselves into the soul of a man living before the time of anient (reee. De will
say: enfold a divine essene. )y enwrapping it with my body of flesh and blood# set it forth less worthily# in a way
whih is not in keeping with its true essene. an only draw it down upon a lower level# as it were. f wish to set forth
the divine essene purely# must purify myself. have to pass through a kind of atharsis# leanse myself# so that the god
within me may assert himself.
This is in reality a return to the arhetypal priniple of the 'ather and it omes to expression in many forms of past
religious life# through the fat that people thought that after death they returned to the anestors# to their distant
forefathers. Heligious life undoubtedly reveals this trait# this tendeny towards the arhetypal# reative priniple of the
'ather. !an does not yet feel <uite at home upon the earth. $nd he does not yet strive from a kind of alien position# as it
were# to a transendental (od he rather strives to set forth man as purely as possible# in the belief that (od might then
express himself through man.
n anient (reee life undergoes a hange. !an no longer feels so losely onneted with the divine priniple of the
'ather# as in the past. $s a human being# he feels himself intimately onneted with the divine essene# but at the same
time also with the earthly one. De lives# as it were# in e<uipoise between the divine and the earthly. This is the time in
whih the !ystery of (olgotha takes plae. t is the epoh in whih one ould no longer say only: >n the beginning was
the *ogos. $nd the *ogos was with (od 2by this one meant the 'ather1(od3# and the *ogos was (od.? 4ne had to say
instead: >$nd the -ord was made 'lesh.? 0 The -ord# originally looked upon as being one with the 'ather1(od# was
now looked upon in suh a way that it had found an abode in man# it dwelt fully in man# and man had to seek it within
himself.
The !ystery of (olgotha met this mood whih had arisen in mankind. (od the 'ather ould never be imagined inhuman shape he had to be imagined in a purely spiritual form. Christ# the Son of (od# was imagined to be divine1human.
n reality# the longing felt by the anient (reek# or what he set forth as an artisti reali%ation# reahes its human
fulfillment in the event whih took plae in the !ystery of (olgotha.
-e should not bear in mind details# but the essential namely# that a divine essene entered man# in his <uality of
human being living upon the earth.
The !ystery of (olgotha thus stands at the entre of the whole human evolution on earth. The fat that the !ystery
of (olgotha entered history at a moment when the (reeks strove to set forth the divine in man from an external aspet#
from the aspet of the earth# as it were# should not be onsidered as an historial oinidene. -e might say# and this is
more than a poetial image: The (reeks had to set forth the divine in man artistially# out of the ingredients of the earth#
and the osmos sent down to the earth the (od who entered man# as a osmi answer to the wonderful <uestion sent outinto the world5s spaes# as it were# by the (reeks. n the historial development we may sense# as it were# that with their
humanly portrayed gods the (reeks addressed the following <uestion to the universe: Can !an beome a (odB $nd the
universe replied: (od an beome !an. This reply was given through the event of the !ystery of (olgotha.
4n many oasions have explained that it is only possible to grasp the real# original essene of the !ystery of
(olgotha by approahing it not only with the knowledge of lifeless things applied by modern men# but with a new living
knowledge# a knowledge that is one more pervaded with the spirit.
-e thus reah the point of saying to ourselves: !an has reahed on the one hand his onsiousness of freedom# and
on the other hand# with the aid of lifeless thoughts# the tehnial and mehani progress in external ulture he annot#
however# remain standing by this inner lifelessness. 4ut of his soul5s own strength he must gain the impulse of life# ofsomething that is spiritually living that is to say# he must again be able to win ideas whih are inwardly alive# whih do
not only sei%e the intellet# but the whole human being. !odern man should really attain what have indiated in my
book on (oethe5s world oneption he should one more be able to speak not of lifeless ideas and abstrations# but rise
up to the spirituality in whih he is pervaded by ideas# and take into this sphere of ideas all the living warmth that may
gleam in his soul# the brightest light whih his enthusiasm may kindle in his soul. !an should again bring into his ideas
the whole warmth and light of his soul. nwardly he should again be able to arry his whole being into the spirituality of
the world of ideas. This is what we have lost in the present time.
-e may say: n modern literature there is perhaps nothing so deeply moving as the first hapter of +iet%she5s
desription of (reek philosophy# whih he himself designates as >The Tragi $ge of the (reeks.? +iet%she desribes the
philosophers before Sorates: Thales# Deralitus# $naxagoras 0 and for those who have a real feeling and an open heart
for suh things# it is deeply moving to read +iet%she5s desription of how at a ertain moment of (reek life# the (reekrose up to the abstration of mere existene. 'rom the manifold impressions of +ature filling the human soul with
warmth# he passed over to the pale thought of existene.
+iet%she says more or less the following: t gives one a hilly feeling# as if one entered iy regions# when an anient
(reek philosopher# for example "armenides# speaks of the abstrat idea of the enompassing existene. +iet%she# who
lived so ompletely in the modern ulture# as desribed to you the day before yesterday# felt himself transferred to glaier
regions.
+iet%she failed# ;ust beause he ould only go as far as the oldness# one might say# the glaier harater# of man5s
world of ideas. $ truly spiritual lairvoyane an bring soul warmth and soul light into the intelletual sphere# so that we
an reah that purity of thought# desribed in my >"hilosophy of Spiritual $tivity#? without beoming inwardly dried
out# but filled with enthusiasm. )y abandoning the earthly warmth of the life of the senses# we an feel in the old regions
of intelletualism the warm sun fores of the osmos by abandoning the shining ob;ets of the earth and by experieninginner darkness through the intelletual world of thought# the living soul impulses# whih we bring into this darkness# an
reeive the Cosmi *ight# after having overome# as it were# the earthly darkness.
,verywhere in +iet%she we find this longing for the osmi light# the osmi warmth. De annot reah them# and
this is the true ause of his failure. $nthroposophy would like to indiate the path leading to a goal where we do not lose
earthly warmth# earthly light# where we preserve our keen interest in every onrete detail of earthly life# and rise to that
height of onept where the divine essene beomes manifest in pure thought as modern men we then no longer feel this
divine essene within us# as did the human beings of past epohs# but we ourselves must first find the way to it# we must
go to it.
This is the mood whih truly enables us to experiene the !ystery of the Doly (host. $nd this onstitutes thedifferene between the spiritual life of modern and anient man. The man of older epohs absorbed his spirituality from
every single reature in +ature. $s already explained: The loud spoke to him of the spirit# the flower spoke to him of the
spirit. Through his own fores modern man must animate his onepts# whih have grown old and lifeless: then he will
ome to the Doly Spirit that will also enable him to see the !ystery of (olgotha in the right way.
-hen we thus pervade our ideas 0 let me say it <uite dryly 0 in an anthroposophial way with soul warmth and
soul light# then we draw something out of humanity and take it with us. 'or unless we take this along# we annot go
beyond the dry# banal# abstrat harater of the world of ideas. )ut if we rise up to a omprehension of the world# with the
aid of that knowledge whih is ontained in anthroposophial books# our ideas will remain as exat as mathematial or
other sientifi ideas. -e do not think in a less preise way than the hemist in his laboratory# or the biologist in his ell
but the thoughts whih we thus develop re<uire something whih omes from the human being and aompanies them.
-hen an anthroposophist speaks out of imagination and inspiration# and sound ommon sense really grasps thisimagination or inspiration# these onfront him in the same way in whih mathematial or geometrial figures onfront
him in mathematis but the human being must bring along something# for otherwise he does not grasp these ideas in the
right way. -hat he must bring with him is love.
Unless knowledge is pervaded with love# it is not possible to grasp the truths given by $nthroposophy for then they
remain something whih has the same value as other truths. The value is the same when# in aordane with the ideas of
some materialisti natural sientists you state: !arsupials# human apes# ape1men and men P or whether you say: !an
onsists of physial body# etheri body# astral body# and ,go. 4nly the thought is different# but not the state of mind. The
soul# the state of mind# only hange when the spiritual omprehension of man within +ature beomes an inwardly living
omprehension. )ut there an be no real understanding unless knowledge is aompanied by the same feeling# the same
state of mind# whih also lives in love. f knowledge is pervaded with the experiene of love# this knowledge an
approah the !ystery of (olgotha. -e then have not only the naQve love for Christ# whih is in itself fully ;ustified 0 as
already stated# this simple# naQve love is <uite ;ustified 0 but we also have a knowledge whih enompasses the whole
universe and whih may deepen to the omprehension of the !ystery of (olgotha. n other words: *ife in the Doly Spirit
leads to life in Christ# or to the presene of Christ# the Son of (od.
-e then learn to grasp that through the !ystery of (olgotha the *ogos atually passed over from the 'ather to the
Son. $nd then the following important truth will be revealed to us: 'or the men of anient times it was right to say: >n
the beginning was the *ogos. $nd the *ogos was with (od and the *ogos was a (od#? but during the (reek epoh they
had to begin to say: >$nd the *ogos was made flesh.? !odern man should add: >$nd must seek to understand the
*ogos living in the flesh# by raising my onepts and ideas and my whole omprehension of the world to the spiritual
sphere# so that may find Christ through the Doly (host# and through Christ# (od the 'ather.?
Undoubtedly this is not a theory# but something whih an penetrate into the diret experiene of modern man# and
this is the attitude towards Christianity whih grows <uite naturally out of $nthroposophy.
ou see# my dear friends# it is indeed indispensable that modern man should grasp the neessity of treading a spiritual
path. De needs it in view of the present lifeless ulture onsisting in the mehanism of modern life 0 whih should not be
despised# for# from another aspet# it must be greatly valued. )ut an inner push is needed# as it were# so that modern man
may set out along this spiritual path. $nd this inner push 0 reently spoke of it as a real awakening 0 is a development
whih many people prefer to avoid. The opposition of modern people to $nthroposophy is really due to the fat that they
have not experiened this push# this ;erk# within their soul. t is unomfortable to experiene it. 'or it asts us# as it were#
into the vortex of osmi development. "eople would muh rather remain <uiet# with their rigid sharply outlined thoughts
that only turn to lifeless thing whih are not on the defensive# when the world is to be grasped# whereas everything that is
alive defends itself# moves and tries to slip out of our thoughts# when we try to grasp it with lifeless onepts. !odern
people do not like this. They feel it. They loak it in all manner of other things and beome <uite furious when they hearthat a ertain diretion# oming from many different spheres of life# alls for an entirely different way of grasping the
world.
This mood alone explains the very peuliar things to be observed among opponents of $nthroposophy. t suffies to
mention a few reent examples# for these an show us the strangeness of it all.
-e were hit by the great misfortune of losing our (oetheanum. -e know <uite well that in spite of all efforts to built
it up again# the first (oetheanum annot rise up again it an only remain a memory# and it is an immense grief for us to
have to say: The (oetheanum wished to set forth a style of art in keeping with the new spirituality# and this style of art#
whih was meant to exerise a stimulating influene has# to begin with# vanished from the surfae of the earth with the
(oetheanum. -hen we only mention this fat# we an feel the immense grief onneted with the loss of the (oetheanum.
(enerally# in the fae of misfortune# even opponents ease to use a pitiless# sornful language. )ut ;ust the misfortune
whih deprived us of the (oethanum# indued our opponents to speak all the more sornfully and insultingly. They think
that this is right: this is so peuliar. t fitly belongs 0 but in an unfit way 0 to the other thing mentioned above.
The $nthroposophial !ovement began as a purely positive ativity. +o one was attaked 0 our only form of
>agitation? was to state the fats investigated by anthroposophial methods of researh and we waited patiently until the
human souls that undoubtedly exist in the present time# should ome to us led by the impulse whih lived in them# in
order to gain knowledge of the truths whih had to be revealed out of the spiritual world. This was the tendeny of our
whole anthropospohial work we did not intend to agitate# to set up programs# but we simply wished to state the fats
obtained through investigation of the spiritual world# and to wait and see in whih souls there lived the longing to know
these realities.
Today there are many people who are opponents of $nthroposophy without knowing why they simply follow those
who lead them. )ut there are nevertheless some who know <uite well why they are opponents of $nthroposophy they
know it# beause they see that out of the anthroposophial foundation ome truths whih all for that inner ;erk whih has
been harateri%ed above. This they refuse. They refuse it for many reasons# beause these kinds of truths were always to
be preserved within more restrited irles# in order to emerge from the rest of mankind as small groups forming a kind of
spiritual aristoray. Conse<uently their hatred is direted partiularly towards that person who draws out the truths from
the spiritual world for all human beings# simply beause this is in keeping with the present age. $t the same time these
opponents 0 mean# the leading opponents 0 know that truth as suh annot be touhed# for it finds its way through the
smallest rifts in the rok# no matter what obstales it may enounter. $s a rule# they do not therefore attak these truths:
for the truths would soon disover ways and means of ousting the foe. 4bserve the opponents# indeed in our
anthroposophial irles it would be most advisable to study our opponents arefully: They renoune attaking the truths#
and lay hief stress on personal attaks# personal insinuations# personal insults# personal alumnies. They think that truth
annot be touhed# yet it is to be driven out of the world# and they believe that this an be done by personal defamation.
The nature of suh an opposition shows how well the leading opponents know how to proeed in order to gain the vitory#
at least for the time being.
)ut this is something whih $nthroposophists above all should know for there are still many $nthroposophists who
think that something may be reahed by diret disussion with the opponent. +othing an do us more harm than suess
in setting forth our truths in the form of disussion for people do not hate us beause we say something that is not true#
but beause we say the truth. $nd the more we sueed in proving that we say the truth# the more they will hate us.
4f ourse this annot prevent us from stating the truth. )ut it an prevent us from being so naQve as to think that it is possible to progress by disussion. 4nly positive work enables us to progress truth should be represented as strongly as
possible# so as to attrat as many predestined souls as possible# for these are far more numerous in the present time than is
generally assumed. These souls will find the spiritual nourishment needed for the time when no destrutive# but
onstrutive work will have to be done# if human development is to follow an asending# not a desending urve.
There is no way out of the present haos if we follow the materialisti path. The only way out is to follow the spiritual
path. )ut we an only set out along the spiritual path if the Spirit is our guide: to hoose the Spirit as our guide# to
understand how we should hoose it# this is the insight whih $nthroposophists should gain this is what they should learn
to know in the deepest sense
Self 4no,ledge and the /hrist 50perienceSelf 4no,ledge and the /hrist 50perience
A Lecture By
Rudolf Steiner
ornach! "ebruary %! #$%&
'A %%#
This is the 6st of M letures given by Hudolf Steiner at 7ornah# in 'ebruary of 6M=@. The title of
the series of letures is: Earthly Knowledge and Heavenly Wisdom. t was published in (erman as: Erdenwissen und Himmelserkenntnis.
This translation is based on shorthand notes not revised by the leturer. t was translated by !ona
)radley# edited by 7r. $. . -elburn. t is presented here with the kind permission of the HudolfSteiner +ahlassverwaltung# 7ornah# Swit%erland. 'rom ($R ==6.
Searh for related titles available for
purhase at $ma%on.om&
Than1s to an anony+ous donor! this lecture has been +ade available to everyone.
S,*' G+4-*,7(, $+7 TD, CDHST
,N",H,+C,
$ leture given by Hudolf Steiner in 7ornah# = 'ebruary 6M=@
!y dear 'riends#
Suppose that we observe an animal during the ourse of a year. -e will find that its life follows the yle of the seasons.
Take for example an inset: aording to the time of year it will form a hrysalis 2pupate3# at another season it will
emerge and shed its hrysalis1form# at another time lay its eggs# and so on. -e an follow the ourse of nature# follow the
stages of suh an inset5s life# and find a ertain onnetion between them# for the animal organi%es its life aording to itsnatural surroundings.
f we then go on to onsider people 0 say# the people of one of the larger human ommunities during earlier stages
of the earth5s evolution 0 we find that they too experiened# more or less instintively# the *ife of nature. )ut as
humanity developed further# those instints# whih enabled people to experiene their natural surroundings so diretly#
largely died out. $mong more advaned humanity# therefore# we will not find that spontaneous harmony 0 a harmony
between what arises from the human side and the immediate setting or natural surroundings. That has to do with the fat
that humanity itself is undergoing a development# whih onstitutes its history# and whih will form a whole within the
long planetary development of the earth.
Heturning to our example of a lower animal# in inset# where these matters are revealed most learly# we find that itsexperiene spans a omparatively short spae of time 0 a year. Then the yle repeats itself. -ith regard to mankind# a
ertain law of development is found to run like a thread through long ages of our earth5s planetary evolution# as we have
repeatedly observed during our historial studies. -e have beome familiar# for instane# with the type of instintive
lairvoyane belonging to earlier peoples. Their pitorial onsiousness gradually diminished during an intermediate
period of human development# eventually giving plae to modern onsiousness whih is intelletual# oneptual. 4ur
own historial time# dating from the first third of the fifteenth entury# is the time of the developing Consiousness Soul.
t is that time when man will step fully into his apaity of intelletual thinking in its narrower sense# whih will then
bring him fully to free onsiousness of the Self.
f we onsider a longer spae of time from this point of view# we begin to find ertain observable laws in the
development of humanity. -e an ompare these developmental laws with those whih# say# an inset experienes during
the ourse of a year. +ow in anient times people still instintively lived together with their natural surroundings and with
the yle of nature but these instints have more or less died away# and nowadays we live in a time in whih onsiousinner life must replae them. -hat would happen nowadays if a man were to give himself up entirely to hane& Suppose
he were not to adopt any inner guiding priniples or rules# or that he did not tell himself at a ertain moment: This is how
you should orientate yourself 0 suppose that he were not to arrive at any suh inner orientation but lived his life though#
from birth to death# as hane direted. !an who by virtue of his higher soul development is ranged above the animals
would sink beause of the manner in whih he handled his soul1life# below the animal level.
-e may say# therefore# that the inset has a ertain diretion in its life through spring# summer# autumn and winter. t
does not give its development up to hane# plaing itself as it does within ertain laws in eah sueeding phase of its
life. !ankind# however# has left behind the age of instintive o1existene with nature. n his ase it was more ensouled
than that of the animals# but still instintive. Dis life has taken on a newer# more onsious form. et we find that man# in
spite of his higher soul1life and apaity to think# has given himself over to a more haoti life. -ith the dying away of
his instints he has fallen# in a ertain way# below the level of the animals. Dowever muh one may emphasi%e man5s
further steps forward# towering above the animals# one must still onede that he has lost a partiular inner diretion in his
life. This direting <uality of his life ould be found one more by seeing himself as a member of the human rae# of this
or that entury. $nd ;ust as# for a lower form of life# the month of September takes its plae in the ourse of the year# so
does this or that entury take its plae in the whole development of our planet. $nd man needs to be onsious of how his
own soul1life should he plaed historially in a partiular epoh.
This is an idea to whih man needs to grow austomed so as to step even further into the development of the
Consiousness Soul. $ man should be able to say to himself: live in this or that epoh. am not man in the full sense of
the word if give myself over to hane. Chane has deposited me into earthly life through birth. )ut to give myself up to
hange as far as my onsiousness is onerned would be simply to abandon myself to karma. am only man# in the full
sense of being man# if take aount of what the historial development of humanity asks from my soul1life# belonging as do to this partiular epoh. $n animal lives within the yle of the year: man must learn to live as part of the earth5s
history.
-e have plaed as the most vital event in the earth5s history the !ystery of (olgotha. $nd we have often onsidered
what it meant to live before the !ystery of (olgotha# or at some point after it. -e have here a kind of fulrum in
historial development# from whih vital# historial deed one an rekon bakwards and forwards. )ut to do ;ustie to
suh rekoning we must keep in mind the partiular tasks awaiting the human soul in eah historial age. The kind of
presentation of the past whih is ustomary annot lead to suh an understanding of eah partiular age. -e may be told
in bald terms# how "ersian# )abylonian# ,gyptian# (reek or Homan history unfolded# but that leaves us without any key
to the position of eah in the whole regular historial development of our planet 0 in the whole regular way an animal
stands within the ourse of the year. +ow# in order to gain a onept of what we need to arouse in our own soul1life in this
age# we have had to onsider the various ages of history from many points of view. *ife is rih and diverse# and if onewants to reah some reality onerning our life on earth# we shall have to look at human life from ever1differing points of
view# from whih the partiular tenor of soul1life in our own time.
f we look bak to anient times in human history we shall find# sattered about the inhabited earth# what are know as
the !ysteries. -e find that various groups of people# living their lives sattered about the earth# develop under the
influene of the !ysteries. They do so outwardly 0 but more partiularly in regard to ulture and the life of the soul. -e
find that individuals are aepted into the !ysteries# aording to their degree of maturity. There they undergo further
development# whih is to lead them to a partiular grade of knowledge# of feeling# and willing. Then# when they have
advaned in knowledge# in higher feeling# and higher willing# they step out again and move among the ma;ority of
mankind# giving guidane for the details of daily life# for the strengthening of the soul5s inner work and of their will# their
atual deeds. -ith regard to past ages of man# the best plae in whih to study suh guidelines is atually the training ofthose preparing for initiation in the !ysteries.
Though not of ourse in the abstrat# intelletual manner of today# the pupils in the !ysteries were led to know the
world about them. !ost importantly# they learned to know the so1alled three kingdoms of nature and all that lives in
them. n the lowest lasses of our shools we learn# by way of all sorts of onepts and pitures# how we stand within the
three realms of nature. Through onepts and ideas we learn to know mineral# plant and animal. -e then seek there the
key to understanding human life itself. Suh onepts# with the intelletual soul1ontent imparted to people these days#
did not exist among those working for initiation in the anient !ysteries. Conepts did exist then but they were not won#
as today# through the exerise of observation and logi. Hather# people had to exerise their souls inwardly# so as to arrive
eventually at inner pitures of mineral# of plant# and animal. These people did not absorb the abstrat onepts of today
but experiened pitures 0 pitures that intelletual modern man might find fantasti but# nevertheless# pitures. $nd
man knew from diret experiene that what he disovered# when he experiened these pitures# atually yielded himsomething that lived in the mineral# plant or animal 0 of what grew there# took form# and unfolded within them. This he
knew: and he knew it from those pitures whih to modern man would appear fantasti myths.
$nient man knew that reality expressed itself in things whih today are onsidered mere mythology. De ould
ertainly say: The animal before me has firm visible outlines. )ut these firm outlines were not what he tried to grasp or
understand. De tried rather to follow the flowing# mobile# fluid <uality of its life. De ould not do this# however# in sharp
outlines# in sharply defined onepts. De had to teah in pitures that were fluid# metamorphosing# hanging. $nd thus it
was taught in the !ysteries.
)ut when# on the basis of this !ystery1knowledge# a man was to rise to self1knowledge# he underwent a signifiant
risis in his soul. $ording to the type of knowledge available in those anient times# early man obtained pitures of
mineral# plant and animal. -ith his dreamlike onsiousness# he ould then see# as it were# into the inner realms of nature.
'rom the ontent of the !ysteries he also reeived the guiding priniples of self1knowledge# muh as he did in later
times. Gnow Thyself has been an ideal in all ivili%ations# in all ages of human ultural development. )ut in progressing
from his kind of imaginative# natural knowledge towards knowledge of himself# anient man underwent an inner risis of
the soul. an only desribe the nature of the risis by saying that when he learned to look at the nature of the mineral as
it was spread before him man found fulfillment in his soul1life. De bore in himself the effets of physial1mineral
proesses. De bore in himself pitures of interweaving vegetative life# and also of animal life. n his world he was able to
bring all these together: mineral# plant and animal. *ooking bak from the vantage point of the world around him into his
own inwardness# he had# in his primitive type of memory# an inner piture of mineral# plant and animal# and of how they
worked together.
Undertaking to obey the in;untion Gnow Thyself# however# he found himself suddenly at a stand. De had a worldof inner pitures# varied# rihly diverse in form and olour# and sounding with inner musi 0 this was his experiene of
his earthly surroundings. et he felt that this world of forms# diversity# and onstant flux# this world that trembled with
glowing olour and radiane and musial tones# let him down when he made the attempt to know himself. The pitorial
way in whih he tried to grasp the nature of man itself baffled him in his attempt. De was able to attain pitures of man
too: but even while experiening them he knew that the reality of man5s being# the soure of his human dignity# esaped
him 0 it was not there.
n his !ystery1initiation man lived through this risis. et out of it# arising from the impotene of self1knowledge#
something else developed: a partiular onvition about *ife# a onvition on whih every anient ivili%ation was based.
t meant that really enlightened people in those anient times ould say: !an does not reveal his true nature here on
earth. The minerals# plants and animals all ahieve their end here on earth they an reveal themselves fully in the pitures
whih have of them. This is at the root of all anient ivili%ations: this living onvition that man does not belong to theearth in the same sense as do the other realms of nature. Dis home is elsewhere than on the earth. Dis home lies
essentially in the supersensible world. $nd this belief was no arbitrary figment. t was ahieved through a risis of the
soul 0 after gaining the knowledge available at that time about the world external to man. $nd a solution to the risis
was only possible beause people still had the apaity to turn their minds to life before birth# and from there to life after
death. ,veryone then knew instintively of life before birth. t was part of earthly life# like a pre1natal memory. $nd they
learned about life after death on the basis of life before birth 2see +ote 63.
4n the basis of those apaities whih he then had# man learned that after rossing the threshold of death the moment
would ome when he would not only have around him the natural world# external to man# but his own being would arise
before his soul. 'or it was harateristi of the more anient stages of human development that# between birth and death#
man developed an exlusively pitorial onsiousness. have often spoken about this. De did not yet possess theintelletual onsiousness whih we have today. n those days this was only developed immediately after death. $nd
people retained it then# after death. t is a peuliarity of man5s progress that# in anient times# man5s onsiousness after
death was an intelletual one whereas we experiene a purely pitorial panorama of our life during the three days after
death. There lies the peuliarity# that in anient times men had a dreamy pitorial onsiousness on earth# whereas
nowadays we have an intelletual onsiousness. Then after death# they grew into an intelletual onsiousness whih
enabled them# one free of the body# to gain freedom. n anient times man beame an intelletual and free being after
death.
4n being initiated into this fat# the pupil in the !ysteries would be told that he ould win knowledge of the world
external to man through his piture1onsiousness. f however he obeys the imperative Gnow Thyself# and looks bak
upon himself# he will not find his full human dignity there. De will not find it in earthly life before death. De will only
beome fully human when he has rossed the threshold of death# and pure thinking beomes his for with pure thinking he
an beome a free being. t is a strange thing that this type of onsiousness ourred after death in past ages of humandevelopment# whereas today after death we have the panorama of past life spread out before us. n a sense this
onsiousness has entered man5s life in a ounter1stream. t has moved from the life after death into his atual earthly life.
$nd what we have gained# partiularly sine the first third of the fifteenth entury# has trikled into earthly man from
post1earthly man. The pupil in the anient !ysteries knew learly that the essene of man ould only be found in super
earthly life# after death. This has now taken its plae in life on earth. $ real supersensible stream has entered into our life
on earth. This sets up an opposition to the diretion of our human life# moving from before to after# the supersensible
stream moving from after to before. Thus# as modern people# we take part in super1earthly life. -e have undertaken to
beome worthy 0 worthy of what has been drawn from supersensible into sensible existene. -e now have to win our
freedom by inner right. -e must reogni%e fully the import of the supersensible for the development of the
Consiousness Soul.
'or the people of anient times# when the in;untion Gnow Thyself loomed before them# their response had to be
that there is no self1knowledge on earth: for the essene of humanity is simply not fulfilled here on earth. !an reahes it
only when he has gone through the threshold of death into the supersensible world.
$t the time of the !ystery of (olgotha# and for enturies afterwards# man as he lived on earth was still alled# in the
language of anient !ystery wisdom# the natural man. $nd it was onsidered that this natural man was not the real
human being. The natural man was learly differentiated from the spiritual being whih bore the essene of man. The
view then was that one only beame spiritual man with the laying aside of the physial body. 4nly after rossing the
threshold of death did one beome spiritual man and# as suh# fully human. nitiation in the anient !ysteries led to
great humility with regard to earthly onsiousness. ,arthly man ould not be made arrogant through !ystery1initiation.
'or whilst on earth he did not even feel that he was man in the fullest sense. De felt that he was more a andidate for
humanity# and that he needed to use his life on earth in suh a way that# after death# he ould beome fully man. So#aording to !ystery1wisdom# man# as he went about his business on earth# was not a revelation of full humanity.
+ow we must ome to anient (reee# and the time when (reek ulture was widely influential. 'or it was then that
people began to be aware# with their intellet and in freedom# that the true being of man was pouring from the sphere of
after1death into man5s earthly being. n (reek ivili%ation the individual on earth was not regarded as entirely fulfilling his
humanity. !en saw the work of the super1earthly# as it was drawing into the earthly. They saw in the detail of man5s
physiognomy# his way of going about# his shape 0 in all this they beheld with reverene# the super1earthly streaming into
the earthly.
-ith the reent development of humanity all that has hanged. +ow man says: !y great task is to beome aware of
my humanity. !y task on this earth is to reveal# at least to some degree# man5s being in its fullness. too stand under the
banner of the exhortation Gnow Thyself. an ompose my soul for freedom# beause have gained intelletual
onsiousness. an lay hold of the inner strength of pure thinking in the at of self1knowledge. )efore the eye of my soul
man an appear. +ot that man should grow proud in the partial fulfillment of this in;untion Gnow Thyself. De should
reali%e how at every moment this freedom of his has to be wrestled for. De should reali%e how# in his passions# emotions#
feelings and sensibilities# he is always dependent on the subhuman. -hat was seen by that high form of pitorial
onsiousness in the world around# by anient humanity# was also this realm of subhuman. They reogni%ed that all their
knowledge was of the subhuman realm in those anient times. That was a signifiant point. 'or# they said# true man does
not exist on earth. To grasp the intelletual nature of man they would have needed intelletual apaities themselves. -ith
their non1intelletual form of knowledge they ould only grasp the subhuman.
have desribed in my 2 ,hiloso"hy of -reedom3 how the intelletual is further developed into onsious# exat
lairvoyane. t then lives in a free inner onstitution of the soul. 4nly then an man know himself and his relation to theother parts of his being# outside his pure thinking and his free will. Through suh a higher onsiousness 0 imaginative#
inspired and intuitive onsiousness 0 man may reah in self1knowledge beyond his intellet and know himself as part of
the supersensible world. $nd then it will be lear to him that although he is fully human# as has beome lear to him in his
self1knowledge# full humanity re<uires of him that he perfet it ever more and more.
Thus modern man annot develop the same sort of humility that he needed in anient times# whih arose when he had
to say of himself: *iving in a physial body you are not yet fully human# you are only a andidate for humanity# not yet
fulfilling your human dignity and worth. $ll you an do is prepare yourself for onsiousness and freedom as they will
arise in you immediately after death. $ more modern man# who has meanwhile lived under (reek onditions in a
different inarnation# would say: Take heed that in your fleshly body between birth and death you do not neglet to be
fully man. 'or as a modern man your inner task is the working1out of what has entered earthly life from the realm of the
pre1earthly. ou an beome man on earth# and you must therefore take upon yourself the diffiulty of beoming man onearth.
$ll this is expressed in the development of man5s religious onsiousness. 4n a previous oasion we saw how in
earlier times man looked up prinipally to the 'ather (od# and in Christ he had the Son of (od. n (od the 'ather he saw
the reative soure of substane and the supersensible origin of divine providene. 4f this the earthly# pereptible world is
merely an impress. De looked up to the osmos from the earth and in religious onsiousness he looked up to (od the
'ather. The pupils in the !ysteries had always been onsious that the most they ould learn about man would be a
preparation for the life after death. +ow# through the !ystery of (olgotha# the Son of (od has united with the earth5s life#
and man is able to develop an awareness of what St. "aul meant when he said +ot # but Christ in me. +ow man an so
diret his inner life as to let the Christ1impulse ome to flower in him he an let Christ5s life flow and breathe through
him. De an absorb the stream whih has ome to us from pre1earthly life and bring it to fruition in his life on earth.
$ first stage in the reeption of this stream onsists in man notiing that at a partiular point in his life he feels
something flowering and oming alive in him. "reviously it sat under the threshold of his onsiousness# and he noties
for the first time that it is there. t rises# filling him with inner light# inner warmth# and he knows that this inner life# inner
warmth# inner light# has arisen in him during life on earth. De a<uires a greater knowledge of life on earth than was his
birthright. De learns to know something whih arises within his humanity during his life on earth. $nd if man is sensible
of the light and *ife# of the love arising in him# and feels there the flowing# living presene of the Christ# he will reeive
strength 0 strength to grasp the fully human# the post1earthly# in the free ativity of his own soul. Thus the !ystery of
(olgotha and the Christ1impulse are intimately bound up with the attainment of human freedom# of that onsiousness
whih is able to suffuse with inner life and warmth our mere thinking that is otherwise dead and abstrat.
The exhortation Gnow Thyself 0 bring your humanity to fruition in your own inner life has been addressed tohumanity through all time# and is still in fore today. )ut the experiene of Christ in man is essential to our own day. t
takes its plae alongside the in;untion Gnow Thyself# and must be given its full weight.
This indiates one again the enormous differene between the soul1onstitution of the present day and that whih
prevailed in times past. -e learn to onsider man over great periods of time. The whole proess is ompatible with what
takes plae when the inset is sensitive to the period of summer in the setting of this world. 'or man should be able to live
in the whole history of the earth as an animal lives in the ourse of the year. The inset ensures that it noties the
transition to autumn# and it sets in motion another aspet of its life aordingly# as it did for spring and summer. $nd man
knows: 4ne upon a time we were instintively lairvoyant we were unfree our onsiousness was pitorial we were
unable to obey the in;untion Gnow Thyself we know we ould fully reali%e our humanity only on the other side of the
gate of death that time was analogous to spring in the life of the inset. Then ame the (reek era# as summer and autumn
ome round for the inset. This was a bridge to that later era in whih we now live. 4ur soul5s work is different. -e
should be able to know ourselves to a ertain degree here on earth# and aordingly be free after death to reah higher
stages of development than in previous ages of man. Then one was wholly man only after death. n those anient times
man5s task on the earth was to be a andidate for life# beoming fully man after death. n this# our own age# it is man5s task
to reali%e himself here in earth# that after death he may rise to higher stages of development than he ould in former ages.
n those times the danger was that if he did not live his life on earth properly# man would not arrive at his full
humanity. Today we fae something different. -e have to ahieve our full humanity while on earth. f we fail in this# we
betray ourselves and in the life after death plunge further down into the subhuman. n anient days things ould be left
undone today destrution follows. Then# not to beome a andidate for life was an omission today a man destroys#
through his own humanity# something in the whole human rae if he does not strive after full humanity in his own life. n
past ages he merely left something undone by doing so today he betrays mankind.
Thus we must grasp the need to plae ourselves onsiously in the world on a higher *evel of being# as the inset does
instintively# on a lower *evel# in its world. 4therwise man delivers himself up to haos# whih the animal instintively
