Secrets of the Threshold
GA 147
29 August 1913, Munich
Lecture VI
A few more remarks may be added to what was said in yesterday's lecture. We have seen how necessary it is—in order to cross the threshold rightly and enter the spiritual world with clairvoyant consciousness—to leave behind us all the perceptions of the physical world as well as everything we ordinarily think, feel, and will in this world. We have to be prepared to confront beings and happenings whose characteristics bear no relation at all to what can be perceived in the sense world. First, we have to strengthen the soul and its faculties, and then these strengthened, fortified soul faculties must be carried upwards with us. When we cross the threshold into the spirit realm, we must take something with us. We have pointed out that everything the sense world can give us, as well as the ideas and feelings we acquire there, are all images of what is perceptible to the senses. Nothing we acquire in this way can be of use in the spiritual world.
On the other hand, whatever is not an image of the sense world and has no significance for it—although it can there be aroused, called forth and given shape in free, inner soul experience—must be carried up into super-sensible worlds. In the last lecture we suggested using certain images of triads in their numeric relationships, images of the harmonious working together of opposites (especially the luciferic and ahrimanic elements) and of the intermediate condition. Such ideas have no immediate significance for the physical world—one can get on quite well without them—but one must have formed them in the physical world in order to carry them into spiritual worlds. That is why we tried to show through the teachings of Benedictus how the luciferic, the ahrimanic and the middle condition work into the triad of thought, word and writing in the development of human culture.
In connection with this I would like to mention something that can be of greatest use in understanding the life of humanity when looked at in the right way; it is what people from now on must acquire if our civilization is ever to progress properly. People will eventually see that they can no longer make do with the ideas that easygoing human beings today like to form in order to understand the times and social conditions. In Europe there are folk groups that speak different languages and there are also those that differ in their script. The western Europeans write with what are called Roman letters, but others use an entirely different form of writing, which is known as Black Letter or Gothic; these exist side by side. This is a significant phenomenon for anyone wishing to form a judgment about European culture. Although such things seem unimportant, they are symptoms arising out of very deep foundations of existence. When folk groups use different forms of writing, they will come to a genuine, mutual understanding only by taking up spiritual initiatives and aims together. Nations writing a different script give the ahrimanic impulse special points of attack; it is not enough to look for mutual understanding merely based on the requirements of the physical plane. A spiritual element must be taken up by both peoples, and through this, harmony can be sought. For nations that write with Roman letters, it will be necessary—in order to understand one another—to carry the spiritual element so far that understanding takes place even in regard to facts on the physical plane. One who understands such things can recognize this in regard to the relationships in European national life. It is of deep significance that in Central Europe both kinds of writing, expressing the peculiar relationship of ahrimanic and luciferic elements, exist side by side. The reason for this is that here a middle condition cannot be reached without special difficulties: the Roman alphabet, exposed more to the ahrimanic element, must be brought into a certain opposition to the Gothic, which is more open to the luciferic element; it shows a certain trend that in their handwriting many people have to mix together both scripts. Such an intermingling of scripts is of immense importance, for it points to something lying deep in the substrata of the soul, i.e., that such people have to come to terms with both the luciferic and ahrimanic elements in a special way. Much will depend on their making a tremendous effort (if they are writing in German) not to fall into Gothic when they intend to write Roman and not to fall into Roman when they intend to write Gothic. It is becoming more and more necessary to observe life in such minute details and to look at the symptoms which bring to the surface what is happening in hidden depths. In this way we shall learn how to acquire in the physical sense world the concepts, ideas and feelings we can carry fruitfully across the threshold into the realm of the spirit.
We will certainly have to recognize what extraordinary talent—even genius—for superficiality there is in our modern culture in regard to anything expressing itself as spirituality. Somehow we will have to acquire in the physical world the concepts for what shines out of the spiritual world and sends its rays into the physical sense world. Let us therefore look at another sphere where the luciferic and ahrimanic elements play into the physical world; we will speak first of the realm of art. In this we still hold to what has already been said, that in all human artistic development the luciferic element plays a part, that the luciferic element is present to the greatest extent in the development of art. But something more must be added. There are, in general, five principal arts to be found in the physical world: the art of building or architecture, sculpture, painting, music and poetry. Other arts combine and mix together the elements of these five; the art of the dance, we could say, is a combination of several arts. When one rightly understands dance, one does so on the basis of fundamental preconditions in the other arts. Naturally these can be combined.
Of the five arts, architecture and sculpture are those most particularly open to the ahrimanic impulse. In these arts we are concerned with form. To accomplish anything in architecture and sculpture we must find our way into the form element, which is dominant on the physical plane, for here the Spirits of Form are the ruling forces. To get to know them, one must plunge into their spiritual element, as I said before, when speaking figuratively of putting one's head into an ant hill. A person who has anything to do with sculpture must plunge his head into the living element of the Spirits of Form. In the realm of the physical world these Spirits work cooperatively with the ahrimanic element.
It is important, we will see, especially in such cases, not simply to assert in a superficial way that we have to protect ourselves from the ahrimanic element. We should always realize that such beings as the luciferic and ahrimanic ones have their particular domains, where normally they live and work, and that bad effects come about only when they overstep their boundaries. The ahrimanic impulses have their absolutely legitimate domain in architecture and sculpture.
On the other hand, we find that music and poetry are two arts where luciferic impulses are at work. Just as thought takes place in the solitude of the soul and thereby separates it from the rest of the world, the experience of music and poetry, too, belongs to our inner nature where these arts directly meet the luciferic impulse. In architecture and building we have to consider folk differences, simply because wherever Ahriman is, Lucifer will play a part as well, but these arts are directed only to some extent by the character of a people; in general this element remains neutral. However, poetry is essentially bound to the luciferic element, which comes to expression in the differences of folk character. Although one notices this less in music, here too things lead to differentiation, much more than in architecture and sculpture.
In this we see again that in order to form concepts for the higher worlds we cannot get on in the comfortable way many people would like to do. It is absolutely correct to say that the ahrimanic element works in architecture and sculpture, the luciferic more in music and poetry, yet it must also be said: as soon as we have to do with concepts that are valid also in the higher worlds, it is not so easy to answer the question once and for all, “In sculpture is Ahriman more active, or is Lucifer?” It is certainly easy in the physical world to answer the question, “What color is common chicory?” with the statement, “It is blue.” People would like things to be as easy as that for the higher worlds, but it is wrong to suppose that one can obtain such quick answers. Still, although all this holds good, the following is true. In architecture it is generally the case that the ahrimanic impulse is the stronger, but in sculpture the luciferic influence opposing Ahriman can be so strong that in some sculptural works Lucifer is more dominant than Ahriman. Nevertheless, what we said before is correct, for in the spiritual world there is not only the faculty of metamorphosis but one can say, everything is everywhere. In truth, every spiritual element tries to permeate everything. There can be luciferic sculpture and though poetry is chiefly under the influence of Lucifer, the ahrimanic influence can work very strongly on music, so that we can find music with more of Ahriman than of Lucifer.
In the middle between what is generally ahrimanic in architecture and sculpture and what is luciferic in poetry and music lies painting. In a way it is a neutral region but not such that we can comfortably settle down and say to ourselves, “Now I'll go ahead with painting, for here neither Lucifer nor Ahriman can get at me.” Actually it is just here in the middle that we are exposed on both sides most strongly to their attacks; at every moment we must be on our guard. In the realm of painting we are in the highest degree vulnerable to one or the other influence. The middle line is always the place where we have to bring about, in the very strictest sense of the word, the harmonious balance of polarities by means of human will and human action.
Looking at the sphere of art as we have done—it could have been any other sphere—you see that we acquire certain concepts without which, of course, we can manage quite well on the physical plane. For it is obvious that when we are willing to remain shallow and superficial, we can get along easily enough on this plane even if we don't find music luciferic and architecture ahrimanic! But if we want to manage without such concepts, we will not be able to form on the physical plane any ideas, thoughts, or feelings that will strengthen our soul and enable it to cross the threshold successfully and rise into the realm of spirit; we will have to remain here below on the physical plane.
We must therefore acquire concepts, feelings and ideas for the realm of the spirit if we really wish to cross the threshold, and while these must indeed be invoked by the physical, they will nevertheless have to rise above the physical-sense realm. Then with strengthened soul we will cross the threshold and become familiar with this world already characterized as a place of living thought-beings, engaged in spiritual conversation. With our strengthened soul we will become familiar with a world of beings that consist of thought-substance; through this thought-substance they are more alive, more individual, more real than any human being on earth. These beings within their thought-substance are just as real as any man of flesh and blood on the physical plane. We can gradually find our way in this world where a thought-language passes between one being and another, and where our soul is forced to carry on thought-conversations with the thought-beings if we want to arrive at a relationship with them. I have intimated this in my book The Threshold of the Spiritual World; more details can now be added. Because of the great responsibility in writing all this, I have tried to avoid in the book a systematic description and instead have put in aphoristic form the things that can be useful even if you have already absorbed everything in earlier lecture cycles and books.
As living thought-beings, we have to adjust to the spiritual realm of which it can be said:
At this place words are deeds
and further deeds must follow them.14The Guardian of the Threshold, Scene 3.
A human being in the physical world carries out his actions through the movement of his hands; we have described how thoughts, living within the cosmic Word, are also direct actions. Whatever is spoken accomplishes a deed. That is what matters in the spiritual world. A being is active towards another being; a being is active in relation to the external spiritual world around it; both of these actions are contained in spirit conversations. The spoken word is action. Therefore we have to bring ourselves upward into spirit regions in order to find ourselves as living thought-beings among other living thought-beings. We must conduct ourselves as do the other thought-beings, that is, allow our own words to be actions, to put it simply.
What do we find in those spirit regions? No longer do we find for our own use what we find down in the physical or even in the elemental worlds. This self that we carry through the physical and elemental worlds is the sum total of our experiences, gathered together from the impressions of the physical world and from everything on the physical plan that thinking, feeling and willing developed in our soul. But neither the impressions nor the feeling, thinking, and willing as they meet us on the physical plane have any significance at all in the spiritual world. There, instead of the so-called human self of the physical and elemental worlds, we find something else; namely, the part of oneself that indeed is always present in the depths of soul even though the ordinary physical consciousness can not know it. Like another being we will find our other self; this second self we find in the spiritual world.
At the close of these lectures, as in the closing section of The Threshold of the Spiritual World, I shall indicate for anyone who wants to ferret out contradictions, how the terms employed here are related to the terminology I used in Theosophy and Occult Science. But here it can be said: a person lives in his physical body in the physical world around him. When he comes away from it and has experiences outside the physical body, he is having those experiences in his etheric body with the elemental world around him; and when he comes out of that world as well, he is experiencing the spiritual realm in his astral body. With this experience—feeling oneself in the astral body—there will be a meeting in the spiritual world, the meeting with the other self, the second self,15See The Guardian of the Threshold, Scene 10. of which Johannes Thomasius speaks at the end of The Guardian of the Threshold, and which stands throughout the whole action of The Souls' Awakening at the side of the first self of Johannes Thomasius, summoning forth his experiences. Let me describe the essence of this other self; it is what a person comes to recognize when he learns within his astral body to perceive and feel and observe in the spiritual world. It is what lives from one life on earth to another, from incarnation to incarnation. In moving from one life on earth to the next one, between death and a new birth, it weaves itself so mysteriously into our being that the physical consciousness usually cannot perceive this other self, for it is actually within the spiritual world even though bound up with our physical being.
How is this other self active? It has just been said that it belongs to the realm of the spirit as a living thought-being among other living thought-beings, whose words are deeds; they accomplish all they do through what we can call Inspiration. The second self acts inspiringly in man's nature. What does it inspire? Our karma, our destiny. Here we discover a mysterious process: whatever our experience, whether painful or joyous, whatever it is that happens in our life, it is inspired by our other self, working from the spiritual world into this one. If you are walking along the street and something happens to you that seems accidental, it is inspired by your other self from out of the spiritual world. So you see that something like Inspiration in the spiritual world reveals itself on the physical plane and brings about your destiny in large and small happenings. Your destiny is inspired by your other self, out of the realm of the spirit.
A clairvoyant soul entering this realm perceives in the spirit-conversation a revelation of what can be put into the phrase: words are deeds. However, everything that happens in the spiritual world stamps itself upon the physical World. Whether you see a stone, a plant, a cloud, or lightning—behind all these stand spiritual beings and spiritual processes. Furthermore, behind the physical events of your destiny stand spiritual beings and spiritual processes. What are they? Inspirations! They are brought about by a conversation in the spiritual world. The cosmic Word is active as the inspirer of human destiny! This is of great significance for your spiritual perception on meeting your other self. You no longer think then of your human personality within its ordinary limits alone, for you extend yourself—and this must include your other self—to cover your entire destiny. You are only then a truly whole human being when—in just the same way that you say, “This finger is part of myself and belongs on the physical plane to my ego”—you also say, “It is part of myself to bang my thumb or take a painful fall, for all these things are inspired by my other self.”
However, we must bear in mind just how we meet this other self on crossing the threshold into the realm of spirit. Again and again we must recollect and make clear to ourselves that in all we have learned, observed and experienced in the physical world and even in the elemental world, there is nothing in them similar to the characteristics of the spiritual world where thoughts are living beings. If we were to enter the spirit realm only with what we have discovered in the physical and elemental worlds, then we would be confronting nothingness. What indeed can we bring into this realm? Let us consider the question carefully. The soul must become accustomed not to perceive or think or feel or will in the spirit realm as it does in the physical or in the elemental worlds. All of that must be left behind. However, it must remember what it perceived, thought, felt, willed in the physical world. Just as we carry into later periods of life the memories of earlier times, so must we carry over into the spirit realm out of the physical plane everything that has been strengthened and invigorated in our soul. We must enter the spiritual world with a soul that recollects the physical world.
Then we have to endure a certain experience that can be described in the following way: Imagine a moment in your ordinary earth life when all your sense perception suddenly stops; when you can no longer see nor hear, no longer are able, to think or feel or desire anything new. Every kind of life activity stops. You would know only what you remember. In exactly this situation you find yourself, when you rise into the spiritual world with clairvoyant consciousness. There is nothing there at first that will provide new perceptions. Your understanding comes only through remembering; your existence depends on what has remained to you of your memories. Your soul is aware that it can say of itself, “You now are only what you once were; your existence consists of your past; present and future have no meaning for you; your being is made up of what you have been.” One could perhaps say all this easily enough—but to see oneself as nothing but memory, with no perception of the present moment, to speak of one's being as a mere ‘has been,’ is a remarkable experience.
When the clairvoyant soul has penetrated so far and endured this experience, then for the first time the human being will begin to have a true understanding for the being whose name has now been mentioned so often, for Lucifer. The human soul, in passing out into the spirit realm, realizes for a moment, “You are only a being of the past.” Lucifer is the one who has become in the cosmic order forevermore such a being of the past, a mere has-been, a remnant of earth epochs that have died away, of what cosmic epochs had brought to his soul. And Lucifer's life—because the other divine-spiritual beings of normal earth evolution have condemned him to the past—consists in fighting with the aid of his past to gain a present and future.
Thus Lucifer stands before the clairvoyant vision, preserving in his life and soul the divine spiritual glories of world creation, yet condemned to realize, “They were once yours.” And now this eternal struggle begins: fighting to add present and future to his past in the cosmic order. To perceive the macrocosmic resemblance of Lucifer to the microcosmic nature of the human soul as it crosses the threshold between the elemental and the spiritual worlds is to perceive the profound tragedy of this figure of Lucifer. And then we begin to divine something of the great cosmic secrets resting deep in the womb of existence, where not only one being struggles with another but even an epoch of time confronts another in battle, as they evolve into beings. A true picture of the world begins to take shape, pouring deep earnestness and dignity into the soul. Here we will sense something that can be called the breath of Eternal Necessities, such as those experienced in the World Midnight—where lightnings flash into existence, illumining even the figure of Lucifer, but they:
... die on recognition,
and dying shape themselves to scripts of fate
forever actively engraved in souls.16The Souls' Awakening, Scene 6.
The human soul itself, as it grows into life in the spiritual worlds, has a moment where it is a mere “has-been” and confronts nothingness; it is a single point in the universe, experiencing itself only as a point. But then this point becomes a spectator and begins to observe something else. Our human soul, become microscopic, has at first no content—just as a single dot has none, but now it finds itself belonging as a third entity to two others. The first to make its appearance is what lives in our memory. This is like an external world which we look back on, saying, “All that is my past.” At first, without really knowing it, we ourselves stand there next to this past existence that we have brought across the threshold into the spiritual world, providing it with a life as thought-being. If then we have a feeling of utter calmness in our soul, whatever we have brought there as our past begins a spirit conversation with the living thought-beings around it. We can observe—like an objective spectator, standing nearby, though at the same time a mere dot—the other two beginning their conversation. Whatever we have brought with us in the way of thought content unfolds a spirit conversation in cosmic language with a spiritual, living thought-being of that realm; there we listen to what our own past discusses with the living spiritual being. At first we are like nothing at all, but then, even as a nothing, we are born through listening to our own past converse with the spiritual beings of the spirit realm. Listening begins to fill us with new inward contents. We learn now to recognize ourselves when we are like a single point and feel ourselves as such, listening to the conversation of our own past with a living spiritual being. And the more we take in of this spirit conversation between our own past and the future, the more we actually become we ourselves become a spirit being.
In this process in the spiritual world we find ourselves within a triad. One member of the triad is our own past being, which we have carried up into the spiritual world; we have won it for ourselves in so far as it was able beforehand to reveal its spirituality in the sense world, and then across the threshold to perceive itself as our past life. The second member of the triad is the whole spiritual environment; the third member is our self. This is the threefoldness of the spiritual world: Within the triad, through the antithesis of past life and living spiritual being, the third, the middle part, the mere point-like part, develops itself and becomes—through listening to the spirit conversation of the other two—more and more filled out: a being that is developing itself within the spiritual world. In that world we thus “become” ourselves in clairvoyant consciousness.
This is what I wanted to convey to you—using words, of course, that are limited because they have to be borrowed from the language of the physical world. However, one has to try as well as possible with such words to characterize these sublime and profound relationships. For it is through these relationships alone that we can come to know our true being. And this, as I said, we receive in the spiritual world through listening to the two other thought-beings. It has been the task of this cycle of lectures to try to lead us toward understanding our true nature.
Sechster Vortrag
In Anknüpfung an das, was gestern gesagt worden ist, dürfen noch einzelne Bemerkungen gemacht werden. Denn wir haben gesehen, daß es notwendig ist, um in das eigentliche Geistgebiet mit dem hellsichtigen Bewußtsein hinaufzukommen und in entsprechender Weise die Schwelle der geistigen Welt zu überschreiten, alles zurückzulassen, was Wahrnehmungen der physischen Welt sind, was auch mit dem gewöhnlichen Denken, Fühlen und Wollen in der physischen Welt unternommen werden kann. Bereit sein muß man, vor Vorgängen und Wesenheiten zu stehen mit Merkmalen, die nichts von dem haben, was in der Sinneswelt beobachtet und erfahren werden kann. Dazu ist aber notwendig, daß man die Seele erst erkraftet, daß man die Fähigkeiten der Seele erst verstärkt. Und diese verstärkten, erkrafteten Fähigkeiten der Seele muß man hinauftragen. Man muß etwas mitbringen, wenn man die Schwelle überschreitet in das Geistgebiet. Und wir haben darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß alles das, was die sinnliche Welt uns geben kann, und die Vorstellungen, die Gefühle, die wir innerhalb der Sinneswelt gewinnen, Abbilder sind des sinnlich Wahrzunehmenden. Alles, was man so gewinnen kann, kann einem nicht helfen in der geistigen Welt. Das aber, was nicht Abbild der Sinneswelt ist, was zunächst nicht Bedeutung hat für die Sinneswelt, was aber angeregt werden kann innerhalb der Sinneswelt, was in freiem, innerem Seelenerleben ausgestaltet werden kann, muß hinaufgetragen werden in die übersinnlichen Welten. Und so haben wir denn darauf hingewiesen, wie man sich Vorstellungen aneignen kann von einer Dreiheit als von einem Zahlenverhältnis, von einem maßvollen Zusammenwirken von Gegensätzen, wobei wir besonders das luziferische und ahrimanische Element berücksichtigt haben, von einem mittleren Zustand und so weiter. Solche Begriffe haben zunächst nicht eine unmittelbare Bedeutung in der physischen Welt. Man kann selbstverständlich auskommen in der physischen Welt ohne diese Begriffe, aber man muß sie sich schon in der physischen Welt bilden, wenn man sie hinauftragen will in die geistigen Welten. Und deshalb versuchten wir an Hand der Lehren des Benedictus darauf aufmerksam zu machen, wie innerhalb des physischen Planes in der menschlichen Kulturentwickelung wirken in der Dreiheit von Gedanke, Wort und Schrift Luziferisches, Ahrimanisches und der mittlere Zustand.
In Anknüpfung daran will ich nur bemerken, daß da mancherlei in Betracht kommt, was, wenn man es richtig ins Auge faßt, in der Tat ungeheuer notwendig werden kann für das Verständnis des Lebens der Menschheit, welches sich der Mensch von der Gegenwart aus wird erwerben müssen, wenn die Kultur in richtiger Weise fortgehen soll. Man wird es schon sehen, daß man bald nicht mehr auskommen wird mit den Begriffen, die man sich so bildet aus den Bedingungen heraus, aus denen die heute so bequeme Menschheit ihre Begriffe für Völker- und Zeitverständnis sich bilden möchte. Wir haben innerhalb der europäischen Kultur Völker, die sich in bezug auf die Sprache unterscheiden, Völker, die sich unterscheiden in bezug auf die Schriftzeichen. Die westlichen Völker Europas schreiben mit den sogenannten lateinischen Lettern, aber es gibt auch europäische Völker, welche mit ganz anderen Buchstabenformen schreiben. Und innerhalb Europas haben wir die Tatsache, daß zu den lateinischen Buchstaben die sogenannte Kurrentschrift hinzukommt, die gotische Schrift, und daß man beide nebeneinander hat. Das ist eine bedeutsame Erscheinung für die Beurteilung der Kultur Europas. Solche Dinge sind scheinbar kleine Symptome, aber es sind an die Oberfläche getriebene Symptome, die auf tiefe Urgründe des Daseins hindeuten. Völker, welche sich verschiedener Schriftzeichen bedienen, werden zu einer richtigen gegenseitigen Verständigung erst kommen, wenn sie berücksichtigen, daß diese Verständigung durch die gemeinsame Ergreifung eines spirituellen Elementes herbeigeführt werden müsse. Für Völker, welche verschiedene Schriftzeichen schreiben und durch diese dem ahrimanischen Impuls besondere Angriffspunkte geben, genügt nicht ein Verständigen unter den bloßen Bedingungen des physischen Planes, sondern da muß von beiden Völkern ergriffen werden das spirituelle Element, und die Harmonie muß in diesem spirituellen Element gesucht werden. Für Völker, welche Schriftzeichen schreiben wie die lateinischen Buchstaben, ist es notwendig, daß sie, um sich zu verständigen, das spirituelle Element so weit treiben, daß auch in bezug auf die Tatsachen des physischen Planes Verständigung eintritt. Das kann der, der solche Dinge, wie sie jetzt besprochen worden sind, versteht, in bezug auf die gegenseitigen Verhältnisse des europäischen Völkerlebens erkennen. Und tief bedeutsam ist es, daß in Mitteleuropa, gleichsam um das eigentümliche Verhältnis des ahrimanischen und luziferischen Elementes auszudrücken, die beiden Schriftarten nebeneinander verwendet werden. Das ist aus dem Grunde, weil hier ein mittlerer Zustand nur unter ganz besonderen Schwierigkeiten erreicht werden kann, so daß das mehr dem ahrimanischen Elemente ausgesetzte lateinische Alphabet in einen gewissen Gegensatz gebracht werden muß gegenüber dem mehr dem luziferischen Element ausgesetzten gotischen Alphabet. Und es ist charakteristisch, daß manche Menschen in ihrem Schreiben durcheinandermischen müssen Kurrent- und Lateinschrift. Ungeheuer bedeutsam, hinweisend auf tief in den Untergründen der Seele Liegendes, ist solch ein Durcheinandermischen, weil es hinweist auf die bedeutungsvolle Tatsache, in welch besonderer Art mit dem luziferischen und ahrimanischen Element eine solche Persönlichkeit sich auseinanderzusetzen hat. Und da kommt es darauf an, daß mancher sich ungeheuer bemühen muß, wenn er in deutscher Sprache schreibt, nicht in die Kurrentschrift zu verfallen, wenn er lateinisch schreiben will, nicht in die Lateinschrift zu verfallen, wenn er kurtent schreiben will. In solch feiner Art das Leben zu betrachten, daß man auf die Symptome schaut, die dasjenige, was in den okkulten Untergründen spielt, an die Oberfläche herauftragen, wird immer notwendiger und notwendiger in der Zukunft sein. Dadurch wird man lernen, innerhalb der physisch-sinnlichen Welt sich solche Vorstellungen, Empfindungen und Begriffe anzueignen, die man dann in günstiger Weise über die Schwelle in das Geistgebiet hinauftragen kann.
Man wird sich allerdings bekanntmachen müssen damit, welch ein ungeheures Talent, welch eine Genialität in der Gegenwartskultur für Flachheit da ist gegenüber dem, was sich als Geistiges in der Welt zum Ausdruck bringt. Und so muß man denn schon sich in der physischen Welt die Begriffe aneignen für das, was aus der geistigen Welt hereinleuchtet und hineinstrahlt in die physisch-sinnliche Welt. Deshalb sei noch an einem Gebiet gezeigt, wie das luziferische und ahrimanische Element innerhalb der physischen Welt spielen. Das sei zunächst auf künstlerischem Gebiete besprochen. Dabei bleibt durchaus bestehen, daß das richtig ist, was schon immer hervorgehoben wurde, daß in alle künstlerische Entwickelung der Menschheit der luziferische Impuls hineinspielt, und daß in hohem Maße das luziferische Element, wie ich es dargetan habe, in der künstlerischen Entwickelung der Menschheit vorhanden ist. Aber dazu kommt etwas anderes. Wenn man die Künste betrachtet, wie sie uns in der physischen Welt entgegentreten, hat man zunächst im wesentlichen fünf solche Künste: die Baukunst oder Architektur, die Plastik, die Malerei, die Musik und die Poesie. Es gibt Künste, welche die verschiedenen Elemente, die in den angeführten Künsten sind, vermischen oder miteinander verbinden, sagen wir die Tanzkunst, die mancherlei verbindet. Wenn man sie recht versteht, versteht man sie aus dem, was Grundbedingung ist in den verschiedenen Künsten; die können natürlich durchaus wieder verbunden werden. Von den fünf Künsten ist das Architektonische und das Plastische vorzugsweise dem ahrimanischen Impuls ausgesetzt; in die Architektur und in die Plastik spielen die ahrimanischen Impulse hinein. Da hat man es mit den Formen zu tun. Will man etwas leisten in Architektur oder Plastik, so muß man sich in das Formelement einleben. Dieses Formelement herrscht namentlich auf dem physischen Plan. Hier sind die eigentlichen Herrscher die Geister der Form. In ihr geistiges Element muß man untertauchen, wenn man sich mit ihnen bekanntmachen will, wie ich es ausgesprochen habe in dem Bild von dem Hineinstecken des Kopfes wie in einen Ameisenhaufen. Und jeder, der etwas mit dem plastischen Element zu tun hat, muß so den Kopf hineinstecken in das lebendige Element der Geister der Form. Auf dem Gebiete der physischen Welt haben es nun gemeinsam zu tun die Geister der Form mit dem ahrimanischen Element.
Besonders bei einer solchen Gelegenheit sieht man, wie es notwendig ist, nicht in der äußeren oberflächlichen Weise einfach zu sagen, man müsse sich vor dem ahrimanischen Elemente hüten. Man muß immer berücksichtigen, daß es sich hier darum handelt, daß solche geistigen Wesenheiten wie die luziferischen und ahrimanischen eben ihr bestimmtes Gebiet haben, auf dem sie normalerweise sich auszuleben und auszuwirken haben, und daß das böse Wirken nur dadurch zustande kommt, daß sie ihr Gebiet überschreiten. Ein durchaus berechtigtes Gebiet haben die ahrimanischen Impulse in der Architektur und Plastik. Wenn wir von der anderen Seite nehmen das musikalische und poetische Element, so sind das die Künste, wo im engeren Sinne die luziferischen Impulse wirken. In einem gewissen Sinn kann man geradezu Poesie und Musik die luziferisch beeinflußten Künste nennen, Architektur und Plastik die ahrimanisch beeinflußten. Wie sich in gewisser Weise der Gedanke in der Einsamkeit der Seele abspielt und dadurch sich absondert von der Gemeinsamkeit, so haben auch die Erlebnisse der Musik und Poesie etwas, was dem Inneren der Seele angehört, wo es sich unmittelbar mit dem luziferischen Impuls begegnet. Wenn wir auch bei Baukunst und Architektur Volksgrenzen beachten müssen, weil eben überall da, wo Ahriman ist, auch Luzifer hineinspielt, wenn diese Künste also in gewisser Beziehung sich auch nach den Volkscharakteren richten, so kann man doch sagen, daß dieses Element in gewisser Beziehung neutral bleibt. Poesie ist im wesentlichen gebunden an jenes luziferische Element, das in der Differenzierung der Volkscharaktere zum Ausdruck kommt. Bei der Musik beachtet man es wenig, daß auch in ihr etwas ist, was gewissermaßen zur Differenzierung führt, mehr als in der Baukunst und Plastik.
Aber gerade bei einem solchen Gebiete sieht man wiederum, daß man in so bequemer Weise, wie es mancher haben möchte, mit den Begriffsbildungen für die höheren Welten nicht auskommen kann. Es ist durchaus richtig, wenn gesagt wird, daß das ahrimanische Element in der Architektur und Plastik, das luziferische mehr in der Musik und Poesie wirkt. Doch muß man sagen, sobald man mit Begriffen zu tun hat, welche ihre Gültigkeit auch in den höheren Welten haben, hat man es nicht so bequem, daß man einfach darauf antworten kann, wenn einer fragt: Nun, wirkt in der Plastik mehr Ahriman oder Luzifer? - Gewiß, auf dem physischen Plan wird man leicht eine Auskunft geben können, wenn jemand fragt: Welche Farbe hat die Cichorie officinalis? Man wird sagen: Sie hat eine blaue Farbe. - So leicht möchte man es auch haben für die höheren Welten. Das ist aber eine falsche Anschauung, daß man so glatte Antworten auch da erhalten kann. Aber es ist zum Beispiel auch das Folgende durchaus wahr, trotzdem alles bestehen bleibt, was ich eben gesagt habe. Für die Baukunst wird es im wesentlichen gelten, daß darin das ahrimanische Element die bedeutsamsten Impulse liefert. Aber in die Plastik hinein kann wieder das luziferische Entgegenwirken so stark sein, daß es plastische Werke geben kann, in denen Luzifer mehr herrscht als Ahriman. Trotzdem ist richtig, was vorhin gesagt worden ist. Denn in der geistigen Welt ist nicht nur Verwandlungsfähigkeit, sondern man kann sagen, alles ist überall. Jedes geistige Element sucht im Grunde genommen alles zu durchsetzen. So kann es eine luziferische Plastik geben, trotzdem es wahr ist, daß auf die Plastik der ahrimanische Impuls vorwiegend wirkt. Man muß also sagen: Während allerdings die Poesie im wesentlichen dem luziferischen Einfluß unterliegen wird, kann auf die Musik in hohem Grade der ahrimanische Impuls wirken, so daß es Musikalisches geben kann, wo viel mehr Ahrimanisches darinnen ist als Luziferisches, trotzdem das gilt, daß die Musik in erster Linie dem luziferischen Impuls unterliegt.
In der mittleren Linie zwischen dem Ahrimanischen in Baukunst und Plastik und dem Luziferischen in Poesie und Musik liegt die Malerei. Sie ist in gewisser Weise ein neutrales Gebiet, aber nicht ein solches, in dem man sich bequem niederlassen kann und sich sagen kann: So, nun male ich drauf los, da kann nicht Luzifer und da kann nicht Ahriman heran! — sondern in dem Sinn, daß man gerade in dieser mittleren Linie in dem Fall ist, daß nun von beiden Seiten erst recht der luziferische und ahrimanische Angriff kommt, und daß man sich in jedem Augenblicke gegen beide aufrecht zu erhalten hat, so daß also auf malerischem Gebiete im eminentesten Sinn das Unterliegen unter dem einen oder anderen Einfluß stattfinden kann. Die mittlere Linie ist immer diejenige, wo man geradezu im eminentesten Sinne zwischen den Polaritäten, zwischen den Gegensätzen den harmonischen Ausgleich durch den menschlichen Willen und die menschliche Tat herbeizuführen hat.
So sieht man, wenn man diese Gebiete betrachtet, wie wir es jetzt getan haben - es könnte das ebensogut mit anderen Gebieten geschehen -, dann eignet man sich gewisse Begriffe an, Begriffe, ohne die man selbstverständlich auf dem physischen Plan auskommen kann. Denn wenn man flach und oberflächlich bleiben will, kann es jeder aushalten auf dem physischen Plan, wenn er die Musik nicht luziferisch und die Architektur nicht ahrimanisch findet, selbstverständlich. Aber, wenn man auskommen will ohne dieses, so kann man hier auf dem physischen Plan eben keine Begriffe, Vorstellungen und Empfindungen bilden, welche die Seele so erstarken, daß sie die Schwelle zur geistigen Welt in günstiger Weise überschreitet und hinaufkommen kann in das eigentliche Geistgebiet, sondern man muß dann hier unten bleiben in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt. Also man muß sich Begriffe, Empfindungen und Vorstellungen für das Geistgebiet aneignen, wenn man die Schwelle wirklich überschreiten will, die zwar angeregt sind vom Physischen, die aber über das physisch-sinnliche Gebiet hinausgehen. Wenn man dann mit einer so erkrafteten Seele über die Schwelle der geistigen Welt tritt, dann lernt man die Welt kennen, in welcher das stattfindet, was charakterisiert worden ist als das Geistgespräch der Gedankenlebewesen. Man lebt sich in eine Welt hinein mit der erkrafteten Seele, die dann sich so zeigt, daß innerhalb ihrer die Wesenheiten vorhanden sind, die aus Gedankensubstanz bestehen, und zwar so aus Gedankensubstanz bestehen, daß sie in ihr lebendiger, persönlicher, individueller und viel realer sind als die Menschen auf der Erde. Wie der Mensch auf dem physischen Plan innerhalb von Fleisch und Blut real ist, so sind diese Wesenheiten innerhalb ihrer Gedankensubstanz real. Man lebt sich in jene Welt hinein, wo in gewissem Sinne ein Gedankengespräch von Wesen zu Wesen geht, wo die Seele gezwungen ist, Gedankengespräche zu führen, wenn sie zu einem Verhältnis kommen soll zu den Gedankenlebewesen, die in diesen Welten sind. Ich habe das in dem nun vorliegenden Buch «Die Schwelle der geistigen Welt» angedeutet. Hier kann mancherlei Ergänzung noch hinzugefügt werden. Mit all der Verantwortlichkeit, mit der so etwas getan werden muß, habe ich versucht, in diesem Buch eine systematische Darstellung zu vermeiden, aber gewisse Dinge in aphoristischer Form zu sagen, die nützlich sein kann, auch wenn man das schon aufgenommen hat, was in den verflossenen Zyklen und Büchern vorgebracht worden ist.
Als ein Gedankenlebewesen muß man sich finden in dem Geistgebiete, von dem man sagen kann: Hier an diesem Orte sind die Worte Taten, und andere Taten müssen ihnen folgen. - Während man in der physischen Welt als Mensch in der Bewegung seiner Hand die Taten ausführt, sind Gedanken, die im Weltenwort in dem Sinne leben, wie charakterisiert worden ist, unmittelbar Taten. Was gesprochen ist, ist getan. Darauf kommt es an für die geistige Welt. Im Geistgespräche liegt zugleich das, was ein Wesen dem anderen tut, was ein Wesen tut in bezug auf die um es herum liegende geistige Außenwelt. Das Gesprochene ist überall Tat. So muß man sich also selber hinaufleben in das Geistgebiet, und dann findet man sich als Gedankenlebewesen unter anderen Gedankenlebewesen. Man muß sich so benehmen, das heißt, Worte Taten sein lassen bei sich selber, wie sich die anderen Lebewesen benehmen - wenn das flache Wort gebraucht werden darf. Was findet man da? Man findet auch für sein eigenes Selbst nicht mehr das, was man unten in der physischen und auch in der elementarischen Welt hat. Dieses Selbst, das der Mensch durch die physische und elementarische Welt trägt, ist eine Summe von Erlebnissen, die sich zusarnmensetzen aus den Eindrücken der physischen Welt und aus dem, was aus dem Denken, Fühlen und Wollen entspringt, welche die Seele auf dem physischen Plan entwickelt. Aber weder die Eindrücke noch das Denken, Fühlen und Wollen in der Form, wie sie uns auf dem physischen Plan entgegentreten, haben irgendeine Bedeutung für die geistige Welt. Man findet deshalb etwas anderes für das sogenannte menschliche Selbst des physischen Planes und der elementarischen Welt in der geistigen Welt. Man findet da sozusagen von sich das, was zwar in den Seelentiefen immer vorhanden ist, was aber das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein des physischen Planes in dem Menschen selber nicht kennen kann. Man findet sein anderes Selbst wie eine zweite Wesenheit, sein anderes Selbst findet man in der geistigen Welt.
Ich werde zum Schlusse dieser Vorträge - wie ich es auch im Schlußkapitel des Buches «Die Schwelle der geistigen Welt» getan habe für denjenigen, der Widersprüche wittern möchte, noch darauf aufmerksam machen, wie sich die Benennungen verhalten, die hier gebraucht werden, zu demjenigen, was als Terminologie, als Namengebung in meiner «Theosophie» und «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß» von mir gebraucht worden ist.
Hier aber kann gesagt werden: Der Mensch lebt in seinem physischen Leibe in der physischen Umwelt. Wenn er von ihm wegkommt, wenn er außerhalb des physischen Leibes erlebt, dann erlebt er in seinem ätherischen Leibe und hat als Umwelt die elementarische Welt. Wenn er auch aus dem herauskommt, dann erlebt er im astralischen Leibe das Geistgebiet. Gegenüber diesem Erleben, diesem Erfühlen in dem astralischen Leibe kommt eine Begegnung zustande, welche man in der geistigen Welt hat, die Begegnung mit dem anderen Selbst, mit jenem zweiten Selbst, von dem Johannes Thomasius spricht am Ende von «Der Hüter der Schwelle», das gleichsam durch den ganzen Vorgang von «Der Seelen Erwachen» neben dem ersten Selbst bei Johannes Thomasius steht und die Erlebnisse hervorruft. Von diesem anderen Selbst werden wir noch das Prinzipielle besprechen. Es ist das, was der Mensch kennenlernt, wenn er in der geistigen Welt innerhalb seines astralischen Leibes erfühlen, wahrnehmen, erleben lernt. Es ist das, was von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben, von Inkarnation zu Inkarnation geht. Was da von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben geht, webt sich in einer so geheimnisvollen Weise zwischen dem Tod und einer Geburt in das menschliche Wesen hinein, daß das physische Bewußtsein dieses andere Selbst gewöhnlich nicht wahrnehmen kann, denn es ist dieses andere Selbst in der geistigen Welt, trotzdem es zugleich mit dem physischen Wesen des Menschen verbunden ist.
Wie wirkt dieses andere Selbst? Nun, es ist gerade gesagt worden, daß dieses andere Selbst der geistigen Welt im Geistgebiete angehört, ein Gedankenlebewesen unter Gedankenlebewesen ist. Bei denen sind die Worte Taten, und das, was sie wirken, wirken sie durch das, was man mit einem Worte Inspiration nennen kann. Inspirierend wirkt das zweite Selbst in die Natur des Menschen. Was inspiriert es denn? Es inspiriert das, was wir unser Karma, unser Schicksal nennen. Und hier haben wir den geheimnisvollen Vorgang: Was wir erleben, sei es an Schmerzlichem, sei es an Freudvollem, was in unserem Leben sich abspielt, es ist inspiriert von unserem anderen Selbst aus der geistigen Welt herein. Gehen Sie auf die Straße, erleben Sie etwas, was Ihnen wie zufällig erscheint, es ist inspiriert aus der geistigen Welt herein von Ihrem anderen Selbst. - Also, es gibt etwas wie Inspiration in der geistigen Welt, und die Inspiration offenbart sich auf dem physischen Plan und bewirkt die Tatsachen, die Ihr Schicksal sind im Kleinen und im Großen. Das Schicksal des Menschen wird von dem anderen Selbst inspiriert aus dem Geistgebiet heraus. Wenn die hellsichtige Seele in dieses Geistgebiet hineinkommt, dann erlebt sie als eine Offenbarung in dem Geistgespräch das, wovon man sagen kann: Worte sind Taten. — Aber alles, was in der geistigen Welt geschieht, prägt sich aus in der physischen Welt. Ob Sie einen Stein, eine Pflanze, eine Wolke, ob Sie den Blitz betrachten, hinter all dem stehen geistige Wesenheiten und geistige Vorgänge. Auch hinter den physischen Vorgängen Ihres Schicksals stehen geistige Wesenheiten und Vorgänge. Was für geistige Wesenheiten und Vorgänge? Inspirationen! Geschehnisse eines Geistgespräches in der geistigen Welt. Das Weltenwort wirkt als Inspirator des menschlichen Schicksals. Das ist etwas Bedeutungsvolles in der geistigen Erkenntnis, wenn man seinem anderen Selbst begegnet. Dann vergeht es einem, seine Menschheitspersönlichkeit nur innerhalb der Grenzen zu denken, innerhalb welcher man sie gewöhnlich denkt. Man dehnt sein Selbst, in das man das andere Selbst einschließen muß, über sein ganzes Schicksal aus. Und dann erst ist man recht Mensch, wenn man ebenso wie man seinen Finger zu sich rechnet und sagt: Der gehört zum Ich auf dem physischen Plan -, ebenso sagt: Es gehört zu mir, wenn ich mir etwa eine blutige Wunde schlage, oder wenn ich falle - und so weiter. Denn das alles wird inspiriert von dem anderen Selbst aus.
Nun muß man aber berücksichtigen, wie man diesem anderen Selbst begegnet, wenn man über die Schwelle hinaus in das Geistgebiet eintritt. Immer wieder und wiederum muß man sich vor die Seele stellen, daß man durch das, was man erlernt, beobachtet, erfahren hat in der physischen Welt und auch in der elementarischen Welt, daß man in alldem nichts hat, was übereinstimmen könnte mit den Merkmalen der geistigen Welt, in der die Gedanken Lebewesen sind. Würde man also nur mit demjenigen hineinkommen, was man in der physischen und auch in der elementarischen Welt erfahren kann, würde man in dem Geistgebiete dem Nichts gegenüberstehen. Was kann man denn nun hineinbringen in dieses Geistgebiet? Überlegen wir uns das genau. Das muß sich die Seele angewöhnen, daß sie im Geistgebiete nicht so wahrnehmen, so denken, so fühlen, so wollen will, wie das in der physischen und auch in der elementarischen Welt der Fall ist. Das muß sie hinter sich lassen. Aber erinnern muß sie sich an das, was sie in der physischen Welt erfahren, erdacht, gefühlt, gewollt hat. Wie man in spätere Lebensperioden die Erinnerungen früherer Perioden hinüberträgt, so muß man hinübertragen von dem physischen Plan in das Geistgebiet dasjenige, was man in der Seele erkraftet, erstarkt hat. Also mit der an die physische Welt sich erinnernden Seele muß man in die geistige Welt eintreten. Und dann muß man etwas Bestimmtes ertragen. Was man da ertragen muß, kann man in der folgenden Weise schildern. Denken Sie sich, ein Moment könnte in Ihrem gewöhnlichen Erdenleben für Sie eintreten, in dem all Ihr Wahrnehmen aufhören würde. Sie würden nichts mehr sehen, hören, nichts mehr Neues denken, fühlen und wollen können. Alle bisherige Art des Lebens hörte auf, und Sie würden nur das wissen, woran Sie sich erinnern können. Genau in dieser Lage sind Sie, wenn Sie mit hellsichtigem Bewußtsein in die geistige Welt hinaufsteigen. Da gibt es nichts, was Sie für den ersten Moment neu erleben könnten. Sie verstehen nur aus Ihren Erinnerungen, da liegt Ihr Dasein in dem, was Ihnen in Ihren Erinnerungen geblieben ist. Die Seele erlebt sich so, daß sie von sich sagen kann: Du bist jetzt nur das, was du gewesen bist, dein Dasein besteht in deinem Gewesensein, Gegenwart und Zukunft haben zunächst für dich keinen Sinn, dein Sein besteht in deinem Gewesensein. — Das ist etwas, was sich unter Umständen leicht aussprechen läßt. Aber sich so anschauen, daß man sich nur Erinnerung ist, daß man keine Gegenwart erleben kann, daß man von seinem Sein als von einem Gewesensein sprechen kann, ist ein bedeutungsvolles Erlebnis.
Und wenn der Mensch dieses Erlebnis durchmacht, wenn sich die hellsichtige Seele bis zu ihm durchringt, dann erst beginnt man ein ganz richtiges Verständnis zu haben für die Gestalt, deren Name jetzt so oftmals ausgesprochen worden ist, für Luzifer. Denn die menschliche Seele lebt sich hinaus in das Geistgebiet so, daß sie einen Moment erlebt: Du bist nur ein Gewesenes. — Luzifer ist ein Wesen, das innerhalb der Weltenordnung dazu gekommen ist, immer nur ein solches Gewesenes zu sein, nur eine Vergangenheit zu sein, nur zu sein, was abgelebte Erdenepochen gegeben haben, was abgelebte Weltenepochen der Seele Luzifers gebracht haben. Und Luzifers Leben besteht darin, sich mit seiner Vergangenheit Gegenwart und Zukunft zu erkämpfen, während ihn die anderen, im regelrechten Fortgang der Erdenentwickelung sich befindlichen göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten verurteilt haben zur Vergangenheit. So steht Luzifer vor dem hellseherischen Blick, in seinem Dasein bewahrend Göttlich-Geistiges der Ursprünge der Welt, alle Herrlichkeiten der Welt in seiner Seele tragend und verurteilt, zu ihnen nur zu sagen: sie sind in dir gewesen. Und nun beginnt sein ewig währender Kampf, dieser Vergangenheit auch die Gegenwart und die Zukunft in der Weltenordnung zu erkämpfen. Da erlebt man, indem man die Ähnlichkeit Luzifers, die makrokosmische Ähnlichkeit Luzifers mit dem mikrokosmischen Wesen der menschlichen Seele an der Schwelle zwischen der elementarischen und geistigen Welt erlebt, die ganze tiefe Tragik dieser Gestalt Luzifers. Und man beginnt etwas zu ahnen von den großen Weltengeheimnissen, die im tiefen Schoß des Daseins ruhen, wo nicht nur ein Wesen mit dem anderen kämpft, wo Zeitalter mit Zeitalter, die zu Wesen werden, gegeneinander im Kampfe liegen. Es beginnt wahrhaftig eine Anschauung der Welt, wo tiefer Ernst und tiefe Würde sich ausgießen über die Seele, und wo man etwas von dem verspürt, was man den Hauch der ewigen Notwendigkeiten nennen könnte, die in der Weltenmitternacht erlebt werden, wenn Blitze zucken über das Dasein, die im Leuchten auch so etwas erleuchten wie die Gestalt eines Luzifer, aber die im Erkennen sterben und sterbend sich zu Schicksalszeichen formen, so daß sie als Form des inneren tragischen Karmas in der Menschenseele fortwirken. Die Menschenseele selber, indem sie sich hinauflebt in diese geistigen Welten, hat einen Moment, wo sie bloß Gewesenes ist, wo sie gegenüber dem Nichts steht, wo sie wie ein Punkt im Weltenall ist und sich nur wie einen Punkt erlebt.
Aber dieser Punkt wird nun Zuschauer, Zuschauer gegenüber etwas anderem. Zwei andere Dinge sind da, zu denen als drittes die punktuell gewordene Menschenseele gehört, die eigentlich nichts in sich hat zunächst, wie der Punkt nichts hat. Das eine, was hinzukommt, ist dasjenige, woran man sich erinnert, was wie eine Außenwelt ist, auf die man zurückschaut, von der man sagen kann: Das ist dein Gewesenes. -— Wenn man selber, ohne eigentlich zunächst von sich zu wissen, neben diesem seinem Sein steht, das ein Gewesensein ist, das man aber über die Schwelle in die geistige Welt heraufgebracht und ihm Gedankenlebewesenheit verliehen hat, und wenn man dann die Stimmung der Seelenfriedsamkeit hat, dann fängt das, was man da als sein Gewesensein in die geistige Welt heraufgetragen hat, das Geistgespräch an mit der umliegenden Welt der Gedankenlebewesen. Und wie ein objektiv nebenbeistehender Zuschauer, der aber gleichsam punktuell ist, sieht man die zwei anderen das Gespräch beginnen. Seine eigene Gedankenvergangenheit und die Gedankenlebewesenheit sprechen miteinander. Das, was man selber heraufgetragen hat, zum Gedanken gemacht hat, entfaltet ein Geistgespräch im Weltenwort mit der geistigen Gedankenlebewesenheit des Geistgebietes. Man lauscht da, was die eigene Vergangenheit mit der geistigen Lebewesenheit im Geistgebiet spricht. Da ist man zunächst wie ein Nichts. Aber als solches Nichts wird man geboren, indem man auf das Gespräch der eigenen Vergangenheit mit den geistigen Wesenheiten des Geistgebietes lauscht. Und indem man lauscht, erfüllt man sich mit neuem Inhalt. Man lernt sich jetzt erkennen, indem man punktuell ist und als Punkt sich erfühlt, während man dem Gespräch zwischen der eigenen Vergangenheit und der geistigen Lebewesenheit im Geistgebiete lauscht. Und je mehr man in sich aufnimmt von diesem Geistgespräche seines eigenen Gewesenseins mit der Zukunft, desto mehr wird man selber, wird man selber ein Geistwesen. Das ist der Vorgang, in welchem man in der geistigen Welt innerhalb einer Dreiheit steht. Das eine Glied dieser Dreiheit ist das eigene Gewesensein, das man heraufgetragen hat in die geistige Welt, das man sich erobert hat in der Art, wie es sich als Geistiges offenbart schon in der Sinneswelt und dann über der Schwelle empfindet als Gewesensein. Das zweite ist die ganze geistige Umgebung, und das dritte Glied ist man selbst. So steht die Dreiheit in der geistigen Welt, und innerhalb der Dreiheit entwickelt sich durch den Gegensatz des Gewesenseins und der geistigen Lebewesenheit im Geistgebiet das Dritte, das Mittlere, das nur wie ein Punkt ist und das durch das Erlauschen des Geistgespräches zwischen dem Gewesensein und der geistigen Welt immer voller und voller wird, ein sich entwickelndes Wesen wird innerhalb der geistigen Welt. So wird man selbst im hellsichtigen Bewußtsein innerhalb der geistigen Welt.
Das ist es, was ich versuchen wollte, Ihnen mit Worten zu schildern, die selbstverständlich, da sie der Sprache entlehnt sein müssen, die dem Physischen angehört, immer einseitig bleiben müssen. Aber man versucht eben, so gut es geht, mit den Worten der Sprache des physischen Planes diese erhabenen und tiefen Verhältnisse zu charakterisieren. Denn diese Verhältnisse sind einzig und allein geeignet, den Menschen mit seinem wahren Wesen bekanntzumachen, das er, wie gesagt, erlauscht in der geistigen Welt aus den zwei anderen. In dieses wahre Wesen des Menschen hineinzuführen, versucht man mit solchen Vorträgen, wie sie hier in diesem Vortragszyklus gehalten werden.
Sixth Lecture
Following on from what was said yesterday, a few additional remarks may be made. For we have seen that in order to ascend with clairvoyant consciousness into the actual spiritual realm and cross the threshold of the spiritual world in the appropriate manner, it is necessary to leave behind everything that is perception of the physical world, everything that can be undertaken with ordinary thinking, feeling, and willing in the physical world. One must be prepared to stand before processes and beings with characteristics that have nothing in common with what can be observed and experienced in the sensory world. To do this, however, it is necessary to first strengthen the soul, to first reinforce the soul's abilities. And these reinforced, strengthened abilities of the soul must be carried upward. One must bring something with oneself when one crosses the threshold into the spiritual realm. And we have pointed out that everything the sensory world can give us, and the ideas and feelings we gain within the sensory world, are images of what can be perceived by the senses. Nothing that can be gained in this way can help us in the spiritual world. But that which is not a reflection of the sensory world, which initially has no meaning for the sensory world, but which can be stimulated within the sensory world, which can be developed in free, inner soul experience, must be carried up into the supersensible worlds. And so we have pointed out how one can acquire ideas of a trinity as a numerical relationship, of a measured interaction of opposites, taking particular account of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic elements, of a middle state, and so on. Such concepts do not initially have any immediate meaning in the physical world. One can, of course, get by in the physical world without these concepts, but one must form them in the physical world if one wants to carry them up into the spiritual worlds. And that is why we tried, on the basis of the teachings of Benedictus, to draw attention to how, within the physical plane of human cultural development, the Luciferic, Ahrimanic, and middle state work in the trinity of thought, word, and writing.
In connection with this, I would just like to note that there are many things to consider which, when properly understood, can indeed become extremely necessary for understanding the life of humanity, which human beings will have to acquire from the present onwards if culture is to continue in the right way. It will soon become apparent that we will no longer be able to get by with the concepts we have formed from the conditions under which humanity, so comfortable today, wishes to form its concepts for understanding peoples and times. Within European culture, we have peoples who differ in terms of language, peoples who differ in terms of written characters. The Western peoples of Europe write with the so-called Latin letters, but there are also European peoples who write with completely different letter forms. And within Europe we have the fact that the Latin letters are supplemented by the so-called Kurrent script, the Gothic script, and that both are used side by side. This is a significant phenomenon for the assessment of European culture. Such things are seemingly small symptoms, but they are symptoms that have risen to the surface and point to deep, fundamental reasons for existence. Peoples who use different characters will only achieve true mutual understanding when they take into account that this understanding must be brought about through the common grasping of a spiritual element. For peoples who write different characters and thereby give the Ahrimanic impulse particular points of attack, it is not enough to communicate under the mere conditions of the physical plane; rather, both peoples must grasp the spiritual element, and harmony must be sought in this spiritual element. For peoples who write characters such as the Latin letters, it is necessary, in order to understand one another, to develop the spiritual element to such an extent that understanding also arises in relation to the facts of the physical plane. Anyone who understands the things that have just been discussed can recognize this in relation to the mutual relationships of European national life. And it is deeply significant that in Central Europe, as if to express the peculiar relationship between the Ahrimanic and Luciferic elements, the two types of writing are used side by side. This is because a middle state can only be achieved here with great difficulty, so that the Latin alphabet, which is more exposed to the Ahrimanic element, must be placed in a certain contrast to the Gothic alphabet, which is more exposed to the Luciferic element. And it is characteristic that some people have to mix the Kurrent and Latin scripts in their writing. Such mixing is extremely significant, pointing to something deep in the soul, because it indicates the meaningful fact that such a personality has to deal with the Luciferic and Ahrimanic elements in a special way. And so it is important that some people have to make an enormous effort when writing in German not to fall back on Kurrent script when they want to write in Latin, or not to fall back on Latin script when they want to write in Kurrent. Looking at life in such a subtle way that one observes the symptoms that bring to the surface what is going on in the occult background will become more and more necessary in the future. In this way, one will learn to acquire within the physical-sensory world such ideas, feelings, and concepts that can then be carried over in a favorable way across the threshold into the spiritual realm.
However, we will have to familiarize ourselves with the enormous talent and genius that exists in contemporary culture for superficiality in contrast to what is expressed as the spiritual in the world. And so one must acquire the concepts in the physical world for what shines in from the spiritual world and radiates into the physical-sensory world. Therefore, let us show in one area how the Luciferic and Ahrimanic elements play within the physical world. Let us discuss this first in the artistic realm. It remains entirely true that what has always been emphasized is correct, namely that the Luciferic impulse plays a role in all artistic development of humanity, and that the Luciferic element, as I have shown, is present to a high degree in the artistic development of humanity. But there is something else. When we consider the arts as they appear to us in the physical world, we find that there are essentially five arts: architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and poetry. There are arts that mix or combine the various elements found in the arts mentioned above, such as dance, which combines many different elements. If you understand them correctly, you understand them from what is fundamental in the various arts; they can, of course, be combined again. Of the five arts, architecture and sculpture are particularly exposed to the Ahrimanic impulse; the Ahrimanic impulses play into architecture and sculpture. Here you are dealing with forms. If you want to achieve something in architecture or sculpture, you have to become familiar with the element of form. This element of form reigns supreme on the physical plane. Here, the spirits of form are the real rulers. You have to immerse yourself in their spiritual element if you want to get to know them, as I have expressed in the image of sticking your head into an anthill. And everyone who has anything to do with the plastic element must stick their head into the living element of the spirits of form. In the realm of the physical world, the spirits of form have a common task with the Ahrimanic element.
Especially on such an occasion, one sees how necessary it is not to simply say in an outward, superficial way that one must beware of the Ahrimanic element. One must always bear in mind that such spiritual beings as the Luciferic and Ahrimanic have their own specific realm in which they normally live and work, and that their evil influence only comes about when they transgress their realm. The Ahrimanic impulses have a perfectly legitimate place in architecture and sculpture. If we take the musical and poetic elements from the other side, these are the arts where, in the narrower sense, the Luciferic impulses are at work. In a certain sense, poetry and music can be called the arts influenced by Lucifer, and architecture and sculpture those influenced by Ahriman. Just as thoughts arise in the solitude of the soul and thereby separate themselves from the community, so too do the experiences of music and poetry have something that belongs to the inner soul, where they encounter the Luciferic impulse directly. Even though we must take national boundaries into account in architecture and building, because wherever Ahriman is present, Lucifer also plays a part, and even though these arts are therefore in a certain sense also influenced by national character, we can nevertheless say that this element remains neutral in a certain sense. Poetry is essentially bound to that Luciferic element which finds expression in the differentiation of national characters. In music, little attention is paid to the fact that there is also something in it that leads to differentiation, more so than in architecture and sculpture.
But it is precisely in such a field that we see once again that we cannot get by with the conceptualizations of the higher worlds in such a convenient way as some would like. It is quite correct to say that the Ahrimanic element is more active in architecture and sculpture, and the Luciferic element in music and poetry. But as soon as we deal with concepts that are also valid in the higher worlds, we cannot simply answer when someone asks: Well, is Ahriman or Lucifer more active in sculpture? Certainly, on the physical plane, it is easy to answer the question: What color is Cichorium officinalis? One would say: It is blue. One would like it to be just as easy for the higher worlds. But it is a mistaken view that one can obtain such straightforward answers there. But the following is also absolutely true, even though everything I have just said remains valid. In architecture, it will essentially be true that the Ahrimanic element provides the most significant impulses. But in sculpture, the Luciferic counterforce can be so strong that there can be sculptural works in which Lucifer reigns more than Ahriman. Nevertheless, what was said earlier is correct. For in the spiritual world there is not only transformability, but one can say that everything is everywhere. Every spiritual element seeks, in essence, to permeate everything. Thus, there can be Luciferic sculpture, even though it is true that the Ahrimanic impulse predominates in sculpture. So we must say: while poetry will essentially be subject to the Luciferic influence, the Ahrimanic impulse can have a strong effect on music, so that there can be music in which there is much more Ahrimanic than Luciferic, even though it is true that music is primarily subject to the Luciferic impulse.
Painting lies in the middle between the Ahrimanic in architecture and sculpture and the Luciferic in poetry and music. In a certain sense, it is a neutral field, but not one in which one can comfortably settle down and say: Now I will just start painting, because neither Lucifer nor Ahriman can interfere here! — But rather in the sense that, precisely in this middle line, one is in a situation where the Luciferic and Ahrimanic attacks come from both sides, and that one must maintain oneself against both at every moment, so that in the field of painting, in the most eminent sense, one can succumb to one influence or the other. The middle line is always the one where, in the most eminent sense, one must bring about harmonious balance between the polarities, between the opposites, through human will and human action.
Thus, when one considers these areas as we have just done—and the same could just as well be done with other areas—one acquires certain concepts, concepts without which one can, of course, get by on the physical plane. For if one wants to remain shallow and superficial, anyone can endure the physical plane if they do not find music Luciferic and architecture Ahrimanic, of course. But if you want to get by without this, you cannot form concepts, ideas, and feelings here on the physical plane that strengthen the soul so that it can cross the threshold to the spiritual world in a favorable way and ascend into the actual spiritual realm. Instead, you must remain here below in the physical-sensory world. So if you really want to cross the threshold, you have to acquire concepts, feelings, and ideas for the spiritual realm that are inspired by the physical but go beyond the physical-sensory realm. When one then crosses the threshold of the spiritual world with a soul thus strengthened, one gets to know the world in which what has been characterized as the spiritual conversation of thought beings takes place. One lives into a world with the strengthened soul, which then reveals itself in such a way that within it are beings that consist of thought substance, and indeed consist of thought substance in such a way that they are more alive, more personal, more individual, and much more real than human beings on Earth. Just as human beings are real on the physical plane within flesh and blood, so these beings are real within their thought substance. One lives into that world where, in a certain sense, a conversation of thoughts takes place from being to being, where the soul is compelled to engage in conversations of thoughts if it is to enter into a relationship with the thought beings that are in these worlds. I have hinted at this in my book The Threshold of the Spiritual World, which is now available. Here, many additions can be made. With all the responsibility that such a task requires, I have tried to avoid a systematic presentation in this book, but to say certain things in aphoristic form that may be useful, even if one has already taken in what has been put forward in previous cycles and books.
As a thinking being, one must find oneself in the spiritual realm where one can say: Here in this place, words are deeds, and other deeds must follow them. While in the physical world, as a human being, one performs deeds through the movement of one's hands, thoughts that live in the world word in the sense that has been characterized are immediately deeds. What is spoken is done. That is what matters in the spiritual world. Spiritual conversations contain both what one being does to another and what a being does in relation to the spiritual world around it. What is spoken is action everywhere. So one must live oneself up into the spiritual realm, and then one finds oneself as a thinking being among other thinking beings. One must behave in such a way, that is, let words be deeds in oneself, as other living beings behave—if the flat word may be used. What does one find there? One no longer finds, even for one's own self, what one has down below in the physical and also in the elemental world. This self that human beings carry through the physical and elemental world is a sum of experiences that are composed of impressions from the physical world and of what arises from thinking, feeling, and willing, which the soul develops on the physical plane. But neither the impressions nor the thinking, feeling, and willing in the form in which they appear to us on the physical plane have any meaning for the spiritual world. One therefore finds something else in the spiritual world for the so-called human self of the physical plane and the elemental world. There, one finds, so to speak, what is always present in the depths of the soul, but which the ordinary consciousness of the physical plane cannot know in the human being itself. One finds one's other self as a second being; one finds one's other self in the spiritual world.
At the end of these lectures — as I did in the final chapter of the book “The Threshold of the Spiritual World” for those who might sense contradictions — I will draw attention to how the terms used here relate to what is used as terminology, as names, in my “Theosophy” and “Outline of Secret Science.”.
Here, however, it can be said that human beings live in their physical bodies in the physical environment. When they leave it, when they experience outside the physical body, they experience in their etheric body and have the elemental world as their environment. When they leave that too, they experience the spiritual realm in their astral body. Opposite this experience, this feeling in the astral body, there is an encounter that takes place in the spiritual world, the encounter with the other self, with that second self of which Johannes Thomasius speaks at the end of “Der Hüter der Schwelle” (The Guardian of the Threshold), which stands, as it were, alongside the first self in Johannes Thomasius's “Der Seelen Erwachen” (The Awakening of the Soul) alongside the first self in Johannes Thomasius and causes the experiences. We will discuss the fundamental principles of this other self later. It is what human beings come to know when they learn to feel, perceive, and experience in the spiritual world within their astral body. It is what passes from one earthly life to another, from one incarnation to another. What passes from one earthly life to another is woven into the human being in such a mysterious way between death and birth that the physical consciousness cannot usually perceive this other self, for it is in the spiritual world, even though it is connected with the physical being of the human being.
How does this other self work? Well, it has just been said that this other self belongs to the spiritual world in the realm of the spirit, that it is a thought being among thought beings. For them, words are deeds, and what they do, they do through what can be called inspiration. The second self inspires the nature of human beings. What does it inspire? It inspires what we call our karma, our destiny. And here we have the mysterious process: whatever we experience, whether painful or joyful, whatever happens in our lives, is inspired by our other self from the spiritual world. Go out onto the street, experience something that seems random, it is inspired from the spiritual world by your other self. So there is something like inspiration in the spiritual world, and inspiration reveals itself on the physical plane and brings about the facts that are your destiny in small and large ways. The destiny of human beings is inspired by the other self from the spiritual realm. When the clairvoyant soul enters this spiritual realm, it experiences a revelation in spiritual conversation that can be described as words are deeds. — But everything that happens in the spiritual world is imprinted in the physical world. Whether you look at a stone, a plant, a cloud, or lightning, behind all of this are spiritual beings and spiritual processes. Behind the physical processes of your destiny, too, there are spiritual beings and processes. What kind of spiritual beings and processes? Inspirations! Events of a spiritual conversation in the spiritual world. The Word of the world acts as the inspirer of human destiny. This is something significant in spiritual knowledge when one encounters one's other self. Then one ceases to think of one's human personality only within the limits within which one usually thinks of it. One expands one's self, into which one must include the other self, over one's entire destiny. And only then is one truly human, when one counts one's finger as part of oneself and says: This belongs to the I on the physical plane — just as one says: It belongs to me when I cut myself and draw blood, or when I fall — and so on. For all this is inspired by the other self.
Now, however, one must consider how one encounters this other self when one crosses the threshold into the spiritual realm. Again and again, one must stand before one's soul and realize that through what one has learned, observed, and experienced in the physical world and also in the elemental world, one has nothing in all of this that could correspond to the characteristics of the spiritual world, where thoughts are living beings. If one were to enter with only what one can experience in the physical and also in the elemental world, one would face nothingness in the spiritual realm. What, then, can one bring into this spiritual realm? Let us consider this carefully. The soul must accustom itself to not perceiving, thinking, feeling, or wanting in the spiritual realm in the same way as it does in the physical and also in the elemental world. It must leave that behind. But it must remember what it has experienced, conceived, felt, and willed in the physical world. Just as in later periods of life one carries over memories from earlier periods, so must one carry over from the physical plane into the spiritual realm that which one has strengthened and fortified in the soul. So, with the soul remembering the physical world, one must enter the spiritual world. And then one must endure something specific. What one must endure there can be described in the following way. Imagine a moment in your ordinary earthly life when all your perceptions would cease. You would no longer be able to see, hear, think, feel, or want anything new. All previous forms of life would cease, and you would know only what you can remember. This is exactly the situation you find yourself in when you ascend into the spiritual world with clairvoyant consciousness. There is nothing that you can experience anew at first. You understand only from your memories, for your existence lies in what has remained in your memories. The soul experiences itself in such a way that it can say: You are now only what you have been, your existence consists of your past, the present and the future have no meaning for you at first, your being consists of your past. — This is something that is easy to say under certain circumstances. But to look at yourself in such a way that you are only memory, that you cannot experience the present, that you can speak of your being as a past existence, is a meaningful experience.
And when a person goes through this experience, when the clairvoyant soul struggles to reach them, only then do they begin to have a true understanding of the figure whose name has now been spoken so often, of Lucifer. For the human soul lives itself out into the spiritual realm in such a way that it experiences a moment: You are only a being that has been. — Lucifer is a being who, within the world order, has come to be only such a being that has been, only a past, only that which has been given by past earth epochs, by past world epochs of the soul of Lucifer. And Lucifer's life consists in fighting for his present and future with his past, while the other divine-spiritual beings, who are in the proper course of earthly evolution, have condemned him to the past. Thus Lucifer stands before the clairvoyant gaze, preserving in his existence the divine-spiritual of the origins of the world, carrying all the glories of the world in his soul, and condemned to say to them only: they have been in you. And now his eternal struggle begins to fight for the present and the future in the world order as well as for the past. One experiences the whole profound tragedy of this figure of Lucifer by perceiving the similarity of Lucifer, the macrocosmic similarity of Lucifer to the microcosmic being of the human soul on the threshold between the elemental and spiritual worlds. And one begins to sense something of the great secrets of the world that lie in the depths of existence, where not only one being fights with another, but where ages that become beings lie in battle with one another. A true view of the world begins, where deep seriousness and deep dignity pour out over the soul, and where one senses something of what one might call the breath of eternal necessities, experienced in the midnight of the world, when lightning flashes across existence, illuminating in its glow something like the figure of Lucifer, but die in recognition and, dying, form themselves into signs of destiny, so that they continue to work in the human soul as the form of inner tragic karma. The human soul itself, as it lives its way up into these spiritual worlds, has a moment when it is merely what it has been, when it stands before nothingness, when it is like a point in the universe and experiences itself only as a point.
But this point now becomes a spectator, a spectator of something else. There are two other things, to which the human soul, which has become a point, belongs as a third, which initially has nothing in itself, just as the point has nothing. The one thing that is added is that which one remembers, which is like an outer world that one looks back on, of which one can say: That is what you have been. — When you yourself, without actually knowing anything about yourself at first, stand next to this being of yours, which is a past existence, but which you have brought up over the threshold into the spiritual world and endowed with a living thought-being, and when you then have the mood of peace of mind, then what you have carried up into the spiritual world as your past existence begins begins the spiritual conversation with the surrounding world of thought beings. And like an objectively standing bystander, who is, however, as it were, selective, one sees the two others begin the conversation. One's own past thoughts and the thought being speak with each other. That which one has brought up oneself, made into thoughts, unfolds a spiritual conversation in the world word with the spiritual thought being of the spiritual realm. One listens to what one's own past speaks with the spiritual living beings in the spiritual realm. At first, one is like nothing. But one is born as this nothingness by listening to the conversation between one's own past and the spiritual beings of the spiritual realm. And by listening, one fills oneself with new content. One now learns to recognize oneself by being selective and feeling oneself as a point while listening to the conversation between one's own past and the spiritual living beings in the spiritual realm. And the more one takes in of these spiritual conversations of one's own past with the future, the more one becomes oneself, one becomes a spiritual being. This is the process in which one stands in the spiritual world within a trinity. One member of this trinity is one's own past existence, which one has carried up into the spiritual world, which one has conquered in the way that it reveals itself as spiritual already in the sensory world and then, beyond the threshold, is perceived as past existence. The second is the entire spiritual environment, and the third member is oneself. Thus the triad stands in the spiritual world, and within the triad, through the contrast between what one has been and spiritual living being in the spiritual realm, the third, the middle, develops, which is only like a point and which, through the fading away of the spiritual conversation between what one has been and the spiritual world, becomes fuller and fuller, a developing being within the spiritual world. This is how you become yourself in clairvoyant consciousness within the spiritual world.
This is what I have tried to describe to you in words, which, of course, must always remain one-sided, since they must be borrowed from the language that belongs to the physical world. But one tries as best one can to characterize these sublime and profound relationships with the words of the language of the physical plane. For these relationships are the only ones capable of making human beings aware of their true nature, which, as I have said, they hear in the spiritual world from the other two. Lectures such as those given here in this lecture series attempt to lead people into this true nature of human beings.