Macrocosm and Microcosm
GA 150
5 May 1913, Paris
Translator Unknown
There exist within the sphere of Esoteric Science different principal ideas, which then run as leading-threads, leit-motifs through the entire Esoteric Movement. Such an idea, is that of Rhythm in Numbers; and another is that of the Macrocosm and the Microcosm. The secret of Number expresses itself in the fact that certain phenomena follow each other in such a way that the 7th in a series of events reveals itself as a kind of conclusion, whereas the 8th may be designated as the beginning of quite another series of events. One finds this fact reflected in the physical world, in the relation of the octave to the Key-note.
For those who endeavour to penetrate in occult spheres, this principle becomes the basis of a very comprehensive view of the cosmos. Not only are tones, sounds, arranged according to the Law of Number, but also events in the course of time; events in the spiritual world are also so arranged that one finds in them a relationship, just as one finds in the Rhythm of Sound.
Still more important is the relationship between the Macrocosm and the Microcosm. We find a physical image of this at every touch and turn. Let us consider the relationship of the whole plant to the seed. In the entire plant we see a Macrocosm, in the seed a Microcosm. In a certain sense we find compressed in the seed, as in a point, the forces which are divided later over the entire plant. In a similar way we can look upon the development of each individual human being from childhood to old age as a Microcosm, whereas the evolution of a race, a people, is to be conceived as a Macrocosm. Every nation has its childhood in which it absorbs important elements of civilisation,. An instance of this is to be seen in the Romans, who absorbed into themselves the Greek civilization. As a people grows, it draws out of itself the necessary forces for its own further evolution. Therefore it is so important that each member of a nation should experience what his whole race undergoes, because each single member of a race relates himself to the whole nation as the seed to the whole plant. In the highest degree we find the relationship between Macrocosm and Microcosm existing in man as he meets us in the world of sense and the cosmos surrounding him. As man stands before us in the world of sense, he has concentrated into his being the forces of the Universe, just as the forces of the plant are concentrated in the seed or germ.
Now we must ask ourselves:—Are these forces distributed in some way over the Macrocosm, just as the plant-forces of the seed are distributed over the entire plant? Esoteric Science alone can give us an answer to this question, for in his earthly life man only learns to know himself as a Microcosm; but he lives not only in the Microcosm, but also has a life within the entire Universe. To state, that in his experience from waking to sleeping man oscillates between a life in the Macrocosm and a life in the Microcosm, at first appears to be merely an assertion. When he sinks into slumber, his consciousness ceases to work, his feelings and emotions cease to exist for him, and external science will bestir itself in vain if it endeavours to find within the sleeping human being that which constitutes his soul life in the waking condition. Even logically it is impossible to conceive that man's soul-life is destroyed when he goes to sleep and that when he awakes it arises again as if out of nothingness. External science in no very distant future will have to admit that one can just as little recognise the soul-life by external, material facts, as one can recognise the lungs by studying the laws of oxygen. In addition to studying the laws of oxygen, we have to learn to know the lungs in their organic functioning. In the same way we learn that in our external laws there is nothing of the physical life which we draw in with our breath on waking in the morning, and which we expire when we go to sleep. To the occultist going to sleep and waking up is nothing but a kind of breathing:—Every morning man draws into himself with his waking breath his spiritual, psychic nature, and he breathes that out again on going to sleep. Where is the spiritual, psychic part of man when he is asleep,—that part which corresponds as it were to the air in space which he has breathed out of his body? Occult science shows us that it is surrounded by the atmosphere of the spiritual world, just as we are surrounded by the atmosphere of the air; the only difference being that our atmosphere extends only for a few miles, whereas the spiritual atmosphere fills the entire cosmos.
Consider the quantity of air which man inspires in his body, in comparison with the entire atmosphere. The same quantity which, after inspiration exists inside the human body, is added, after expiration, to the atmosphere around one. Thus in the sense of occultism, we can say that after an inspiration the same amount of air is in the Microcosm which after expiration is in the Macrocosm. It is just the same with that psychic spiritual life which is actually present within our body; from waking to going to sleep that is in the Microcosm, but from sleeping until waking in the morning that is in the Macrocosm.
Just as an external physical science teaches us concerning the existence of a physical atmosphere, so Occult Science speaks of a spiritual Cosmos, which takes up into itself our souls when we sleep. Spiritual Science can only be attained through spiritual methods, the methods of initiation. Daily experience reveals to us the life of the soul in the Macrocosm, but life within the spiritual, psychic Macrocosm we only learn to know through initiation.
So we must speak first of the Science of Initiation whenever that transition from the Microcosm to the Macrocosm is to be discussed, and this science of Initiation is of special significance, because we enter that spiritual world after death. That crossing of the Threshold of Death signifies a definite forsaking of the body by the soul.
The methods of Initiation give an intimate exercise for the soul; just as in everyday life we work on our bodily environment, so we must train our souls to work in a spiritual psychic way on the Macrocosm and receive impressions from it. We must endeavour to release those spiritual, psychic forces which are bound up with our physical life, to set them free from the body. Three Soul-Forces are bound up with the body in ordinary life, which can be made free through Initiation. The first of the Soul-Forces is the power of thought. In ourordinary life we use it for shaping our thoughts, for forming ideas about the things around us. Let us attempt to enter into the nature of this Thought-Force. What happens when we think and form concepts? Even physical science will admit that every time we grasp a thought which relates to anything sensible, a process of destruction takes place in our brain. We have to destroy the finer structures of the brain, and this destruction is very evident in the signs of fatigue.
What the everyday-thinking destroys in this way is replaced in sleep; but through the methods of initiation we attain a condition in which our thinking-power is set free from the physical brain, and then nothing is destroyed. This we attain by Meditation, Concentration and Contemplation. These are certain processes in our souls which are to be distinguished from the ordinary life of the soul. In order to speak quite concretely, an example shall be given. Those ideas and soul processes which fill our ordinary life are but little adapted to kindle meditation in our souls. We must choose quite different ones. Suppose you have two glasses of water before you; one empty, the other half full. Now suppose we pour water out of the half-full glass into the empty one, and imagine that the half-full glass becomes fuller and fuller be cause of what we are doing. The materialist would consider this kind of thing foolish; but, my dear friends, with a concept suitable for meditation it is not a question of its reality but of whether it is one which will form ideas in the soul. Just because it relates to nothing real, it can direct our senses away from reality. It may be a symbol especially for that soul-process which we describe as the mystery of love. The process of love is something like that half-full glass from which man pours into the empty one, and which thereby becomes fuller and fuller. The soul does not become more empty, it becomes fuller in the same measure in which it gives; and in this way that symbol may have great significance.
Now, my dear friends, if we treat such an idea in this way, so that we apply all our soul-powers to it, then it is a meditation. We must forget everything else in the presence of that idea, we must even forget ourselves; our entire soul life must be directed to that one idea for a long period, say for a quarter of an hour. It is not sufficient to perform such an exercise once, or even a few times. It must be repeated again and again and then according to the endowment of the individual there will gradually be revealed a change in our soul-life. We notice that through this we gradually develop a power of thinking which no longer destroys the brain. Anyone who goes through such an evolution will find that this meditation evokes no fatigue, and that the brain is not destroyed. That appears to contradict the fact that beginners in meditation so often fall asleep, but that is because when we first begin to meditate we are still connected with the external world, and have not yet learned to free our thoughts from the brain. When after repeated efforts, we are able to meditate without fatigue, then we have freed our thought from the physical brain, and then a transformation appears in the whole of our human life.
As formerly, when asleep we were outside our body, without consciousness so we are now outside it and are at the same time conscious. And, just as in ordinary everyday life we think of our ego as being within our skin, so after meditation we experience ourselves outside our body. The body becomes an
object on which we look down. Now, however, we learn to know it differently than in sleep we learn to know it as the sum of magnetic forces which chain us to our body. It is something into which we wish to dive down. And we recognise that these are the same forces which draw us each morning to our physical body, and which before birth we drew fur ourselves from the spiritual world when we sought a stream of heredity in which tofind a new physical body. We then learn why we felt drawn to our parents and ancestors.
Let us take one idea, one soul-experience, which is different from that we have, on passing from the Microcosm into the Macrocosm. When we look from the Macrocosm to our body, we say on confronting each of our experiences: “This is outside us.” But if we have developed the Pauline experience, we have already developed an element of soul which is something within us, yet external to us; and when we are outside our bodies we feel the Christ-experience as an inner experience. This may be called the first meeting with the Christ-Impulse in the Macrocosm.
But now we must discuss a second kind of Initiation-Force. Just as we had to release the power of thought, so we have to release that force of which we make use of in our speech. Materialistic science says that our organs of speech come from our brain centres. But my dear friends, it was not the Brocha-organ in the brain which developed speech, but the contrary; speech built up the Brocha-organ in the brain.
The power of Thinking works destructively, but speech, which comes from our social environment, works constructively. Now we can also take the force which built up this Brocha-organ in the brain, and release it. We do this when we permeate our meditation with feeling. When I meditate on this sentence: “In the Light radiates Wisdom”, that reflects no external truth; but it has a deep meaning, a deep significance. If we permeate our feeling with the following; “we will seek to live with Light that radiates Wisdom”, then we feel that we gradually grasp that power which generally comes to expression in words but which now lives in our soul. You have heard of ‘golden silence’, that refers to the fact that we have in our soul a force which creates the word. We can grasp this force, just as we can grasp the power of thought; and in so doing, we overcome Time, just as through grasping of the power of thought we overcome space. The memory, which in ordinary everyday life extends back to one's childhood, then extends into the pre-natal life. That is the way to get experiences of our life from the last death until the present birth, and is also the way to perceive the evolution of humanity; because we then perceive those forces which guide the development of the history of man. Then we learn to know life from birth right up to death. If we but develop the force of the Silent Word, we learn to know the spiritual basis of our life on earth. And here again it is the case that we come to an historic point, to the Mystery of Golgotha; because this is the path along which we come to the ascending and descending development of man, the point when Christ incarnated. We then recognise Christ as He is, in His very own forces. A special light then falls on the first lines of the Gospel according to St. John.
As through the freeing of our thought we unite ourselves with the Christ as He was on earth, so through the freeing of the Word we unite ourselves with the Mystery of Golgotha.
And then a third force can become independent through meditation. Meditation can not only affect the brain and the larynx, but the blood-circulation in the heart. We feel this working in a weak form in such processes as blushing and turning pale. There a psychic element affects the pulsing of the blood and reachel to the heart. Now this soul-power can be drawn away from the pulsation of the blood and be made an independent power of the soul. This happens through Meditation, when the will unites itself with one's meditations. Again we meditate: “In the Light radiates Wisdom”; but now we form for ourselves the resolve of uniting our Will with it, so that we will to accompany this radiating wisdom right through the evolution of humanity. Now if we carry out such a Meditation, we reach the point when the forces of the all stream into the soul.
My dear friends, these forces can be grasped, one can draw them out of the blood, though not entirely; but they build a clairvoyant force through which we can transcend our Earth. We then learn to know the Earth as a reincarnating planet, which will incarnate anew and we human beings with it. In this way we grow through the spiritual, psychic world, right out into the Macrocosm.
In a certain way we experience how life between death and birth must be opposed to the life of the one incarnation; for what man experiences after death when free from his body, is experienced here by the Initiate. Let us take the chief characteristic of what offers itself in a condition free of the body, for that is the same as the life after death.
Living in the Microcosm we perceive through the physical organs of the senses; after death we look down on to the body as do the Initiates, but we cannot then perceive what the sense organs perceive. The Initiate can learn about the life between death and rebirth, because he has found here the transition from the Microcosm to the Macrocosm. We cannot converse, with the dead in our ordinary human speech, but if we have learnt to set the power of speech free from the body, then we learn to recognise in what way we can be together with the dead; and if we set free our power of thought, we can speak with those who are living between death and rebirth. In this way a seer could speak with the soul of one who had gone before. He had been an excellent man, but in a material sense had only concerned himself about his own people. He had lived without religious or Anthroposophical ideas. And so the Seer could experience from that man who had died: “I know that I lived with my family, with my own people, and they were the sunshine of my life. They are still living. I know it, but I can only see them up to that point of time when I left the earth. I can establish no connection with them now”. My dear friends, conditions are indeed complicated after death. The seer could see the following: The wife still showed in her being, something like the results of the influence of her husband. The husband could see these results, not as one person sees another, but as if reflected in a mirror. There certainly was a power of seeing but only as if one looked into a mirror and saw an image. That affects one in a terrible way, because one cannot see people as they really are; but just as we can see the physical body in existence, in the same way after death we must learn to see the soul.
A connection however, is still possible between the dead and the living on earth, if only the latter will permeate themselves with spiritual life, on this rests the benefits which we can show to the dead. If anyone has gone through the Gate of Death with whom our interests were bound up,—we can read to him;—we can imagine him standing before us. We read to him in a low voice, or we can send him thoughts, but he will only receive an impression if we send him ideas and concepts containing spiritual life.
Now the task of Anthroposophy will be understood when we realise that in this way we can wipe away the abyss which separates us from the dead. Even a soul which was at emnity with Anthroposophy can feel a benefit through such reading; for there are two sides to be distinguished in the life of our souls. There is what we have experienced there consciously, and the sub-conscious depths, which make their way up, like the dpeths of the sea, it only expresses itself in waves. For instance, there may be two brothers—one an Anthroposophist and the other an enemy. This can only be a fact in the outer world, because the inner process is, that a deep longing for what is religious exists in the soul of the second and he only seeks to deaden it by opposing Spiritual Science.
His conscious idea is a kind of opiate, the object of which is to help him to forget what is going on, in the depths of his soul. Death does away with all that, and we hunger especially after those sub-conscious longings of ours; so these readings of Anthroposophical writings is especially beneficial, because gradually there will come from that the consciousness of union with the dead. But even before we have that feeling the only risk we run is that the dead may not listen to us when we read eo them.
So we see that through the living grasp of Anthroposophical teaching the dead and the living in Microcosm and Macrocosm come into relationship. This occurs in yet another sphere; when the seer observes sleeping souls he sees that some souls go through the portal of sleep who have no spiritual interests; others souls go through the portal of sleep who during the day have taken in spiritual thoughts. A distinction can be seen between them, for sleeping souls are like seeds in a field; and the dead nourish themselves on that which is brought by the sleeping souls in the way of spiritual ideas. If when we go to sleep, we do not carry up into the spiritual world spiritual ideas and concepts we deprive the dead souls of their nourishment. With our reading we can give them spiritual stimulation; with the spiritual ideas we carry through with us on going to sleep we give the dead their nourishment.
And so, through what man creates in his own soul in this way, he throws a bridge across from the Microcosm to the Macrocosm. What we take into ourselves is as a grain of corn; the living mission, not merely the theoretic mission of Anthroposophy. I might represent as theory transformed into the elixir of life. Because immortality then becomes an experience; just as the seed is a guarantee for another seed, so do we develop spiritual, psychic powers which are the guarantee for our coming again. Not only do we understend but we experience immortality in ourselves. Thus from the time we grow grey-headed we experience that part of us which goes through the Gate of Death. In this sense Anthroposophy can become the elixir of life, can permeate us, as the blood permeates our physical body. Only then are Theosophy and Anthroposophy what they ought to be.
If we seek to recognise this and to gather it into the basic feeling that the human soul is just as much connected with the spiritual world as our physical bodies are connected with the physical world, then we may experience the feeling:
The Beings in the worlds of Space
Who alter in the course of Time,
Speak to the minds of Men.
The Soul of Man experiencing,
Presses beyond the boundaries of Space,
And, undisturbed by Time,
Enters the Realm of the Eternities.
Die Umwandlung der Kräfte der Seele in der Initiation
Zu sprechen gedenke ich heute über einen wichtigen Begriff der esoterischen Wissenschaft, den des Zusammenhangs von Mikrokosmos und Makrokosmos. Es gibt innerhalb der esoterischen Wissenschaft verschiedene prinzipielle Begriffe, die wie Leitmotive durch die ganze esoterische Bewegung gehen. Ein solcher ist der Begriff der rhythmischen Zahl, ein anderer der des Mikrokosmos und Makrokosmos. Das Geheimnis der Zahl drückt sich aus darin, daß gewisse Erscheinungen so aufeinanderfolgen, daß die siebente Wiederholung als Abschluß eines Ereignisses, die achte als Anfang eines neuen Ereignisses bezeichnet werden kann. Abgebildet ist diese Tatsache innerhalb der physischen Welt in dem Verhältnis der Oktave zum Grundton. Für diejenigen, welche versuchen, in okkulte Welten einzudringen, wird dieses Prinzip die Grundlage zu einer umfassenden Weltanschauung. Es sind nicht nur die Töne nach dem Gesetz der Zahl angeordnet, sondern auch die Ereignisse in der Zeit. Die Ereignisse der geistigen Welt sind so angeordnet, daß man ein Verhältnis findet wie in dem Rhythmus des Tones.
Wichtiger noch ist das Verhältnis zwischen Mikrokosmos und Makrokosmos. Das sinnliche Abbild davon finden wir auf Schritt und Tritt. Betrachten wir das Verhältnis der ganzen Pflanze zum Keim: in der ganzen Pflanze sehen wir einen Makrokosmos, in dem Keim einen Mikrokosmos. In gewisser Weise sind im Keim die Kräfte, die auf die ganze Pflanze verteilt sind, wie in einem Punkt zusammengedrängt. In ähnlicher Weise können wir die Entwickelung des einzelnen Menschen von der Kindheit bis ins Alter als Mikrokosmos, die Entwickelung eines Volkes als Makrokosmos auffassen. Jedes Volk hat eine Kindheit, in welcher es wichtige Kulturelemente aufnimmt. Ein Beispiel dafür sind die Römer, welche die griechische Kultur in sich aufnahmen. Ein Volk wächst heran und entnimmt aus sich selbst die Kräfte zu seiner weiteren Entwickelung. Daher ist es wichtig, daß der Angehörige eines Volkes durchmacht, was das ganze Volk durchmacht. Er verhält sich zu seiner Nation wie der Keim zur Pflanze. Im höchsten Maße finden wir das Verhältnis zwischen Mikrokosmos und Makrokosmos beim Menschen, wie er uns in der Sinneswelt entgegentritt, und dem Kosmos. So wie er in der Sinneswelt vor uns steht, hat er die Kräfte des Universums in sich zusammengezogen, so wie im Keim die Kräfte der ganzen Pflanze zusammengezogen sind.
Wir können uns nun fragen: Sind diese Kräfte im Menschen auch in irgendeiner Art verteilt auf den Makrokosmos, wie die Kräfte des Pflanzenkeims auf die ganze Pflanze verteilt sind? Die esoterische Wissenschaft allein kann uns darauf eine Antwort geben, denn innerhalb des Erdenlebens lernt sich der Mensch nur als Mikrokosmos kennen. Aber er lebt nicht nur im Mikrokosmos, sondern er hat auch ein Leben im Universum.
Zunächst erscheint das nur wie eine Behauptung, daß der Mensch im Erleben von Wach- und Schlafzustand wechselt zwischen einem Leben im Mikrokosmos und einem Leben im Makrokosmos. Wenn er in den Schlaf versinkt, hört das Bewußtsein auf zu wirken, die Affekte hören auf für ihn da zu sein. Eine äußere Wissenschaft wird sich vergeblich bemühen, innerhalb des schlafenden Menschen das zu finden, was im Wachzustand sein Seelenleben ausmacht. Schon logisch aber ist es unmöglich, zu denken, daß beim Einschlafen das Seelenleben des Menschen vernichtet wird, und daß es beim Erwachen wieder aus dem Nichts herauskommt. Die äußere Wissenschaft wird in nicht zu ferner Zeit zugeben, daß man das Seelenleben aus den äußeren materiellen Tatsachen ebensowenig erkennen kann, wie man die Lunge kennt dadurch, daß man die Gesetze des Sauerstoffs kennt. Wir studieren dazu die Lunge in ihren organischen Funktionen. So auch erkennen wir, daß in den äußeren Gesetzen nichts ist von dem physischen Leben, das wir beim Erwachen einatmen und beim Einschlafen ausatmen. Für den Okkultisten ist einschlafen und aufwachen nichts anderes als Atmung. Der Mensch nimmt mit jedem Morgen geistig atmend GeistigSeelisches auf und atmet es wieder aus beim Einschlafen. Wo ist dieses Geistig-Seelische, wenn der Mensch im Schlafzustand ist, entsprechend der Luft im Raum, die er ausgeatmet hat? Die okkulte Wissenschaft zeigt uns, daß es umhüllt ist von der Atmosphäre der Geisteswelt, so wie wir umhüllt sind von der Luftatmosphäre, nur daß diese wenige Meilen sich hinaus erstreckt, jene das Weltall erfüllt.
Betrachten wir das Quantum von Luft, das der Mensch im Leibe eingeatmet hat, bringen wir es in ein Verhältnis zur ganzen Atmosphäre: dasselbe Quantum, das nach dem Einatmen im menschlichen Leibe ist, fügt sich nach dem Ausatmen der Atmosphäre ein. So kann man im Sinne des Okkultismus sagen: Nach dem Einatmen ist es im Mikrokosmos, nach dem Ausatmen im Makrokosmos. Ebenso ist das seelisch-geistige Leben, das innerhalb unseres Leibes sich betätigt, vom Aufwachen bis zum Einschlafen im Mikrokosmos, vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen im Makrokosmos. Wie uns die äußere physische Wissenschaft die Existenz der physischen Atmosphäre lehrt, so spricht die okkulte Wissenschaft von dem geistigen Makrokosmos, der unsere Seele im Schlafe aufnimmt.
Die geistige Wissenschaft wird erlangt durch geistige Methoden: die Initiation. Das Leben unserer Seele innerhalb des Mikrokosmos zeigt uns die tägliche Erfahrung, das Leben innerhalb des geistig-seelischen Makrokosmos lernen wir kennen durch die Initiation. Von dieser Wissenschaft muß zuerst gesprochen werden, wenn der Übergang vom Mikrokosmos zum Makrokosmos verstanden werden soll. Diese Wissenschaft gewinnt eine besondere Bedeutung, weil wir in ihr die geistige Welt nach dem Tode betreten. Das Betreten der Schwelle des Todes bedeutet nur ein endgültiges Verlassen des Körpers durch die Seele. Die Methode der Initiation lehrt intime Übungen der Seele. Wie wir im alltäglichen Leben auf die leibliche Umgebung wirken, so müssen wir unsere Seele in die Lage bringen, geistig-seelisch auf den Makrokosmos zu wirken und Eindrücke aus ihm zu bekommen. Wir müssen unsere an das leibliche Leben gebundenen geistig-seelischen Kräfte freizumachen suchen. Drei Seelenkräfte sind im gewöhnlichen Leben mit dem Leibe verbunden, die durch die Initiation frei werden. Die erste Kraft der Seele ist die Denkkraft. Wir verwenden sie im gewöhnlichen Leben zur Bildung der Gedanken, zu Vorstellungen der uns umgebenden Dinge. Versuchen wir, uns in die Natur dieser Denkkraft zu versetzen. Was geschieht, wenn wir denken und uns Vorstellungen machen? Auch die physische Wissenschaft wird zugeben, jedesmal, wenn wir einen Gedanken fassen, der sich auf etwas Sinnliches bezieht, findet in unserem Gehirn ein Zerstörungsprozeß statt. Feine Strukturen des Gehirns müssen wir zerstören, die Ermüdung zeigt das zur Genüge. Was das alltägliche Denken zerstört, das wird wieder hergestellt im Schlaf.
Durch die Methode der Initiation erlangen wir einen Zustand, durch den wir die Denkkraft frei bekommen von dem physischen Gehirn: es wird dann nichts zerstört. Das erreichen wir in der Meditation, Konzentration, Kontemplation. Diese sind gewisse Vorgänge in unserer Seele, die sich vom gewöhnlichen Seelenleben unterscheiden. Diejenigen Vorstellungen und Seelenvorgänge, die im gewöhnlichen Leben uns erfüllen, sind wenig geeignet, in unserer Seele die Meditation zu erzeugen; man muß andere dazu wählen. Um konkret zu sprechen, soll ein Beispiel gegeben werden. Stellen Sie sich zwei Gläser vor, das eine leer, das andere halb gefüllt. Dann stellen Sie sich vor, wir füllen Wasser aus dem halb gefüllten Glase in das leere, und nun stellen wir uns vor, das halb gefüllte würde immer voller und voller dabei werden. Der Materialist findet so etwas närrisch. Aber bei einer Vorstellung, die zur Meditation geeignet ist, handelt es sich nicht um etwas im physischen Sinne Wirkliches, sondern um etwas, das Seelenvorstellungen bildet. Gerade weil sich eine solche Vorstellung auf nichts Wirkliches bezieht, lenkt sie unseren Sinn ab vom Wirklichen. Ein Symbol aber kann sie sein, nämlich für den Seelenvorgang, der mit dem Geheimnis der Liebe verknüpft ist. Bei dem Vorgange der Liebe verhält es sich wie mit dem halb gefüllten Glas, aus dem man in ein leeres gießt und das dabei doch voller wird. Die Seele wird nicht leerer, sie wird voller in dem Maße, wie sie gibt. Eine solche Bedeutung kann dieses Symbol haben.
Wenn wir eine solche Vorstellung so behandeln, daß wir alle Seelenkräfte auf sie hinwenden, dann ist dies eine Meditation. Wir müssen bei einer solchen Vorstellung alles andere vergessen, auch uns selbst. Unser gesamtes Seelenleben muß lange auf sie gerichtet sein, etwa eine Viertelstunde lang. Es genügt nicht, einmal oder wenige Male eine solche Übung zu machen; sie muß immer wiederholt werden. Je nach der Veranlagung des Individuums wird sich zeigen, daß das Seelenleben sich dabei verändert. Wir bemerken, daß wir dabei eine solche Denkkraft entwickeln, die das Gehirn nicht zerstört. Wer eine solche Entwickelung durchmacht, wird erkennen, daß die Meditation keine Ermüdung hervorruft und das Gehirn nicht zerstört. Dem scheint zu widersprechen, daß Anfänger bei der Meditation einschlafen. Aber dieses rührt davon her, daß wir im Beginn noch an der äußeren Welt hängen und noch nicht die Gedanken vom Gehirn befreit haben. Haben wir durch wiederholte Anstrengungen die Denkkräfte vom Gehirn befreit, haben wir das Meditieren ohne Ermüdung erreicht, dann tritt eine Umwandlung in unserem ganzen menschlichen Leben ein. Wie wir bisher im Schlafe ohne Bewußtsein außerhalb des Körpers waren, so sind wir es jetzt bewußt. Und wie wir unser Ich im alltäglichen Leben in unserer Haut denken, so erleben wir uns nach der Meditation außerhalb unseres Leibes. Der Leib wird ein Objekt, auf das wir hinschauen. Jetzt aber lernen wir das noch anders kennen als im Schlafe. Wir lernen es wie magnetische Kräfte kennen, die uns an unseren Leib ketten. Er ist etwas, in das wir untertauchen wollen. Und wir erkennen, es sind dieselben Kräfte, die jeden Morgen uns zu unserem physischen Körper ziehen, die wir vor der Geburt uns aus der geistigen Welt herausgeholt haben, und die uns veranlaßt haben, die Vererbungsströmungen aufzusuchen, um einen neuen Körper zu finden. Wir erfahren dadurch, warum wir uns zu unseren Eltern und Ahnen hingezogen fühlen.
Eine Vorstellung können wir ausnehmen, ein Seelenerlebnis, das anders ist als die, die wir beim Übergang vom Mikrokosmos zum Makrokosmos haben. Wenn wir vom Makrokosmos auf den Leib blicken, sagen wir bei allen Erfahrungen: Dieser ist außer uns. - Haben wir aber das Paulus-Erlebnis in uns erweckt, dann haben wir ein Seelenelement ausgebildet, das schon in uns ein äußeres ist. Wenn wir außerhalb des Leibes sind, dann fühlen wir das Christus-Erlebnis als ein inneres. Dies kann man die erste Begegnung mit dem Christus-Impuls im Makrokosmos nennen. Nun müssen wir eine zweite Art von Initiationskräften besprechen. Wie wir die Denkkraft loslösen, so können wir auch die Kraft loslösen, die wir zum sprachlichen Ausdruck verwenden. Die materialistische Wissenschaft sagt, die motorischen Sprachorgane hätten ihr Zentrum im sogenannten Brocaschen Sprachorgan. Aber nicht das Brocasche Organ hat die Sprache gebildet, sondern diese hat jenes gebildet.
Die Denkkraft wirkt zerstörend, die Sprache, die aus der sozialen Umgebung kommt, wirkt aufbauend. Nun können wir diese Kraft, die das Brocasche Organ aufbaut, loslösen. Das erreichen wir dadurch, daß wir unsere Meditation durchtränken mit Gefühlswerten. Wenn ich meditiere: Im Lichte strahlet Weisheit -, so spiegelt auch das keine äußere Wahrheit, aber einen tiefen Sinn hat es, eine tiefe Bedeutung. Wenn wir unser Gefühl damit durchdringen: Wir wollen leben mit dem ganzen Lichte, das Weisheit strahlt -, dann fühlen wir, wie wir die Kraft ergreifen, die sonst im Worte zum Ausdruck kommt, und die nun in unserer Seele lebt. Wenn man vom goldenen Schweigen spricht, so bezieht sich das darauf: Wir haben in unserer Seele eine Kraft, die das Wort schafft. - Wir können sie ergreifen wie die Denkkraft. Dann überwinden wir die Zeit, wie wir durch das Ergreifen der Denkkraft den Raum überwinden. Was für das alltägliche Leben ein Erinnern ist bis zur Kindheit, das dehnt sich dann aus über das vorgeburtliche Leben. Das ist der Weg, um Erfahrungen zu bekommen über das Leben vom letzten Tode bis zu unserer jetzigen Geburt, und zugleich der Weg, die Entwickelung der Menschheit zu durchschauen. Wir durchschauen die Kräfte, die die Evolution der Menschengeschichte leiten.
Und das Leben von der Geburt bis zum Tode erkennen wir. Wenn wir die Kraft des stummen Wortes ausbilden, erkennen wir die spirituelle Grundlage des Erdenlebens. Hier ist es wieder so, daß wir auf eine historische Stelle treffen, auf das Mysterium von Golgatha. Denn dies ist der Weg, auf dem wir die auf- und absteigende Entwickelung der Menschheit finden und den Punkt, wo Christus sich inkarniert. Wie er in seiner ureigenen Kraft ist, so wird er erkannt. Wie wir durch die Befreiung des Denkens uns verbinden mit dem Christus, wie er auf Erden war, so verbinden wir uns durch die Befreiung des Wortes mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Ein besonderes Licht fällt damit auf die erste Zeile des Johannes-Evangeliums.
Dann wird noch eine dritte Kraft durch die Meditation selbständig. Nicht nur das Gehirn und den Kehlkopf, sondern auch die Blutzirkulation und das Herz ergreift sie. In schwacher Form wirkend, fühlen wir sie beim Erröten und Erblassen. Da greift ein Seelisches in die Pulsation des Blutes ein und geht bis zum Herzen. Diese Seelenkraft kann herausgezogen werden aus der Pulsation des Blutes und eine selbständige Seelenkraft werden. Dieses geschieht durch Meditation, da wo der Wille sich mit der Meditation verbindet. Wir meditieren: Im Lichte erstrahlet Weisheit. - Aber wir fassen den Entschluß, unser Wollen so damit zu verbinden, daß wir mitgehen wollen mit dieser strahlenden Weisheit in der Evolution der Menschheit. Wenn wir zu solcher Willensmeditation kommen, dann erreichen wir, daß die Willenskräfte in die Seele einströmen. Diese Kräfte kann man erfassen und herausziehen aus dem Blute — man kann sie zwar nicht ganz herausziehen -, dann bilden sie eine hellseherische Kraft, durch die wir hinauskommen über unsere Erde. Wir lernen unsere Erde erkennen als einen wiederverkörperten Planeten, der sich neu verkörpern wird und wir Menschen mit ihm. So wachsen wir durch die geistig-seelische Welt hinein in den Makrokosmos. In gewisser Weise erfahren wir, wie das Leben zwischen Tod und Geburt entgegengesetzt sein muß dem Leben in einer Inkarnation. Denn was der Mensch da nach dem 'Tode erlebt, befreit vom Körper, das erfährt ja der. Initiierte. Nehmen wir das Hauptcharakteristikum dessen, was sich uns dargeboten hat im leibfreien Zustande. Es ist dasselbe Erlebnis wie im Leben nach dem Tode. Im Mikrokosmos lebend, nehmen wir wahr durch das physische Organ der Sinne. Nach dem Tode sehen wir auf den Körper wie der Initiierte. Nicht wahrnehmen kann man da, was die Sinnesorgane wahrnehmen. Der Initiierte kann das Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt erkennen, weil er schon hier den Übergang vom Mikrokosmos zum Makrokosmos gefunden hat.
In der gewöhnlichen Menschensprache kann man nicht mit den Toten reden. Wenn wir aber die Kraft der Sprache befreit haben, können wir erkennen, wie wir mit den Toten zusammen sind. Dadurch, daß wir die Denkkraft befreien, können wir reden mit denen, die zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt sind.
Lassen Sie mich ein Beispiel anführen: Ein Seher konnte mit einem Verstorbenen sprechen. Der war ein vortrefflicher Mann gewesen, aber nur im materiellen Sinne hatte er sich um die Seinen gekümmert. Er war ohne religiöse und anthroposophische Vorstellungen. Der Seher konnte von dem Manne folgendes erfahren: Ich weiß, ich habe mit meiner Familie, mit den Meinen zusammengelebt und sie waren mein Sonnenschein. Sie leben auch jetzt noch, das weiß ich, aber ich sehe sie nur bis zu dem Zeitpunkt, wo ich die Erde verlassen habe. Kein Zusammenhang ist herzustellen mit ihnen. — Die Verhältnisse sind kompliziert nach dem Tode. Der Seher konnte folgendes sehen: Die Frau zeigte in ihrem Wesen noch etwas wie die Folgen des Einflusses ihres Mannes. Diese Wirkungen konnte der Mann sehen, aber nicht wie man einen Menschen sieht, sondern wie im Spiegel: Es gibt da wohl ein Sehen, aber es ist so, wie wenn man nur ein Bild im Spiegel sähe. Das wirkt schauerlich, weil man den Menschen nicht wirklich, wie er ist, sehen kann. Wie wir im Sinnendasein das Leibliche sehen, so müssen wir nachher das Seelische sehen können. Wie wir aber im dunkeln Raume eine Kerze nicht sehen, wenn sie nicht brennt, so ist auch hier das Erkennen herabgedämpft, verdunkelt. Doch ist ein Zusammenhang noch möglich zwischen dem Toten und dem Menschen auf Erden, wenn letzterer sich mit spirituellem Leben durchdringt. Darauf beruht die Wohltat, die wir den Toten erweisen können. Jemand ist durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen, mit dem uns gemeinsame Interessen verbinden: wir können ihm vorlesen. Wir stellen uns vor, daß er vor uns sei, wir lesen ihm leise vor, auch Gedanken können wir ihm senden. Aber er bekommt nur dann einen Eindruck, wenn wir ihm Ideen und Begriffe mit spirituellem Leben senden. Die Aufgabe der Anthroposophie wird begriffen werden, wenn wir verstehen, daß wir den Abgrund wegschaffen müssen, der uns von den Toten trennt.
Auch eine Seele, die sich zur Anthroposophie gegnerisch verhielt, kann durch solches Vorlesen eine Wohltat empfinden. In unserem Seelenleben sind zwei Seiten zu unterscheiden: Bewußt Durchlebtes und die Seelenuntergründe, die, wie die Tiefe des Meeres, sich nur in den Wellen an der Oberfläche ausdrücken. So können wir erfahren, daß von zwei Brüdern zum Beispiel der eine Anthroposoph, der andere ein Gegner der Anthroposophie wird. Dies kann nur eine Tatsache der Außenwelt sein. Der innere Vorgang ist: Eine tiefe Sehnsucht nach Religiösem ist da, und man will sich nur darüber betäuben durch das Ablehnen der Anthroposophie. Die bewußte Vorstellung ist nur ein Opiat, um zu vergessen, was in der Tiefe vorgeht. Der Tod schafft all das fort und wir hungern dann gerade nach dem unbewußt Ersehnten. Darum ist das Vorlesen anthroposophischer Schriften da gerade eine Wohltat. Allmählich kommt das Bewußtsein der Verbindung mit den Toten. Aber auch bevor wir dieses Gefühl haben, riskieren wir ja nichts weiter, als daß der Tote uns nicht anhört, wenn wir ihm vorlesen. So sehen wir, daß durch das lebendige Erfassen der anthroposophischen Lehre Tote und Lebende, Mikrokosmos und Makrokosmos in Zusammenhang kommen.
Noch auf einem anderen Gebiete geschieht dies. Wenn der Seher Schlafende beobachtet, so sieht er: Es gehen Seelen durch die Pforte des Schlafes, die nie spirituelle Interessen haben, und andere, die am Tage spirituelle Gedanken aufnehmen. — Da zeigt sich ein Unterschied: Die schlafenden Seelen sind wie Keime im Felde. Hungersnot würde in der geistigen Welt eintreten, wenn keine spirituellen Gedanken mit hinübergenommen würden. Der Tote nährt sich von dem, was an spirituellen, an anthroposophischen Ideen mitgebracht wird von den Einschlafenden. Wenn wir beim Einschlafen nicht hinauftragen spirituelle Begriffe, so entziehen wir den Toten Nahrung. Mit dem Vorlesen geben wir ihnen geistige Anregung, mit den spirituellen Ideen, die wir beim Einschlafen hinauftragen, geben wir den Toten Nahrung.
Durch das, was der Mensch in seiner Seele schafft, wird er eine Brücke vom Mikrokosmos zum Makrokosmos. Was wir uns aneignen, ist wie ein Samenkorn. Die lebendige, nicht nur die theoretische Mission der Anthroposophie möchte ich so darstellen: Die Theorie verwandelt sich in Lebenselixier, die Unsterblichkeit wird eine Erfahrung. Wie der Keim die Garantie gibt für einen nächsten Keim, so entwickeln wir geistig-seelische Kräfte, die Garantien sind für ein Wiederkommen in einem nächsten Erdenleben. Wir begreifen nicht nur, wir erleben die Unsterblichkeit in uns. So erleben wir von dem Augenblick an, wo das Haar ergraut, das, was durch die Pforte des Todes durchgeht. In solchem Sinne wird Anthroposophie Lebenselixier werden, wie das Blut unseren physischen Körper durchzieht. Nur dann wird Anthroposophie das sein, was sie sein soll. Wenn wir das erkennen lernen und es zusammenfassen wollen in eine Grundempfindung, in die Grundempfindung, daß die Menschenseele zusammenhängt mit der spirituellen Welt wie unser physischer Leib mit der physischen Welt, dann erlebt der Mensch:
Es sprechen zu dem Menschensinn
Die Wesen in den Raumesweiten,
Sie wandeln sich im Zeitenlaufe.
Erlebend dringt die Menschenseele
Von Raumesweiten unbegrenzt
Und unbeirrt vom Zeitenlauf
Ins Reich der Ewigkeiten ein.
The Transmutation of the Soul's Powers in Initiation
Today I would like to talk about an important concept in esoteric science, the connection between microcosm and macrocosm. Within esoteric science, there are various fundamental concepts that run like leitmotifs through the entire esoteric movement. One of these is the concept of rhythmic number, another is that of microcosm and macrocosm. The mystery of number is expressed in the fact that certain phenomena succeed each other in such a way that the seventh repetition can be designated as the conclusion of an event, the eighth as the beginning of a new event. This fact is reflected in the physical world in the relationship between the octave and the fundamental. For those who seek to penetrate into occult worlds, this principle becomes the basis for a comprehensive world view. Not only are the tones arranged according to the law of number, but so are the events in time. The events of the spiritual world are arranged in such a way that a relationship is found as in the rhythm of the tone.
Even more important is the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm. We find the sensory image of this at every turn. If we look at the relationship between the whole plant and the germ, we see a macrocosm in the whole plant and a microcosm in the germ. In a sense, the forces that are distributed throughout the whole plant are concentrated in the germ as if at a single point. In a similar way, we can understand the development of the individual human being from childhood to old age as a microcosm, and the development of a nation as a macrocosm. Every nation has a childhood in which it absorbs important cultural elements. The ancient Romans, for example, absorbed Greek culture. A nation grows and draws the forces for its further development from within itself. It is therefore important that the members of a nation go through what the whole nation goes through. They are to their nation as the germ is to the plant. The relationship between microcosm and macrocosm is found to the highest degree in man, as he appears to us in the sense world, and the cosmos. Just as he stands before us in the sense world, he has drawn together the forces of the universe within himself, just as the forces of the whole plant are drawn together in the germ.
We can now ask ourselves: Are these forces in man also distributed in some way throughout the macrocosm, just as the forces of the plant germ are distributed throughout the whole plant? Only esoteric science can give us an answer to this, because within earthly life, man only gets to know himself as a microcosm. But he does not only live in the microcosm, he also has a life in the universe.
At first this seems to be no more than an assertion, that in the experience of waking and sleeping, man alternates between a life in the microcosm and a life in the macrocosm. When he sinks into sleep, consciousness ceases to function, affects cease to be there for him. An external science will seek in vain to find within the sleeping person what constitutes his soul life in the waking state. But it is logically impossible to think that when a person falls asleep, his soul life is destroyed and that it comes out of nowhere when he wakes up. In the not too distant future, external science will admit that one can no more recognize the soul life from external material facts than one can know the lungs by knowing the laws of oxygen. To do this, we study the lungs in their organic functions. Thus we also recognize that in the external laws there is nothing of the physical life that we inhale when we awaken and exhale when we fall asleep. For the occultist, falling asleep and waking up is nothing other than breathing. With every morning, man takes in spiritual-soul substance through breathing and exhales it again when he falls asleep. Where is this spiritual-soul substance when man is in a state of sleep, corresponding to the air in the room that he has exhaled? Occult science shows us that it is enveloped by the atmosphere of the spiritual world, just as we are enveloped by the atmosphere of air, only that the latter extends only a few miles, while the former fills the universe.
If we consider the amount of air that a person has inhaled into their body, we can compare it to the entire atmosphere: the same amount that is in the human body after inhalation is part of the atmosphere after exhalation. In the sense of occultism, we can say that after inhalation it is in the microcosm and after exhalation it is in the macrocosm. Likewise, the soul-spiritual life that is active within our body, from waking to sleeping in the microcosm, from sleeping to waking in the macrocosm. Just as external physical science teaches us the existence of the physical atmosphere, so occult science speaks of the spiritual macrocosm that receives our soul during sleep.
Spiritual science is acquired through spiritual methods: initiation. The life of our soul within the microcosm is shown to us by daily experience; we get to know the life within the spiritual-soul macrocosm through initiation. This science must be spoken of first if the transition from microcosm to macrocosm is to be understood. This science takes on a special significance because in it we enter the spiritual world after death. Crossing the threshold of death only means that the soul leaves the body for good. The method of initiation teaches the soul intimate exercises. Just as we act on our physical environment in our daily lives, we must enable our soul to act spiritually and soulfully on the macrocosm and to receive impressions from it. We must seek to free our spiritual and soul forces that are bound to our physical life. In our ordinary lives, three soul forces are connected to the body, and these are released through initiation. The first soul force is the power of thought. In our ordinary lives, we use this to form thoughts and to imagine the things around us. Let us try to put ourselves in the shoes of this power of thought. What happens when we think and imagine? Even physical science will admit that every time we think of something sensual, a process of destruction takes place in our brain. We have to destroy fine structures of the brain, and fatigue shows this sufficiently. What is destroyed by everyday thinking is restored during sleep.
Through the method of initiation, we attain a state in which we free the power of thought from the physical brain: then nothing is destroyed. We achieve this in meditation, concentration, contemplation. These are certain processes in our soul that differ from ordinary soul life. The images and soul processes that fill us in our ordinary life are not very suitable for creating meditation in our soul; we have to choose others for this. To speak in concrete terms, an example will be given. Imagine two glasses, one empty, the other half full. Then imagine that we are pouring water from the half-filled glass into the empty one, and now imagine that the half-filled glass is becoming fuller and fuller. The materialist finds such a thing foolish. But in a meditation suitable for meditation, it is not about something in the physical sense of the word, but about something that forms soul perceptions. Precisely because such a perception does not refer to anything real, it distracts our minds from the real. But it can be a symbol, namely for the soul process that is linked to the secret of love. In the process of love, it is like a half-filled glass from which one pours into an empty one, and which thereby becomes fuller. The soul does not become emptier, it becomes fuller to the extent that it gives. This symbol can have such a meaning.
When we treat such an idea by turning all the powers of our soul towards it, then this is meditation. We must forget everything else, including ourselves, when we are dealing with such an idea. Our entire soul life must be directed towards it for a long time, about a quarter of an hour. It is not enough to do such an exercise once or a few times; it must always be repeated. Depending on the disposition of the individual, it will become apparent that the soul life changes in the process. We notice that we develop a kind of thinking power that does not destroy the brain. Anyone who undergoes such a development will recognize that meditation does not cause fatigue and does not destroy the brain. It may seem contradictory that beginners fall asleep during meditation. But this is because in the beginning we are still attached to the external world and have not yet freed our thoughts from the brain. Once we have freed our thoughts from the brain through repeated efforts, we have achieved meditation without fatigue, and then a transformation occurs in our entire human life. Just as we were unconsciously outside the body during sleep, so now we are consciously outside the body. And just as we think of our ego in our skin during our daily lives, so after meditation we experience ourselves outside our body. The body becomes an object that we look at. But now we get to know it differently than in sleep. We get to know it like magnetic forces that chain us to our body. It is something we want to plunge into. And we recognize that these are the same forces that draw us to our physical body every morning, that we have drawn out of the spiritual world before birth, and that have caused us to seek out the currents of inheritance to find a new body. We thereby experience why we feel drawn to our parents and ancestors.
We can exclude one idea, one soul experience, which is different from those we have when we pass from the microcosm to the macrocosm. When we look at the body from the macrocosm, we say of all experiences: This is outside of us. But if we have awakened the Paul experience in us, then we have developed a soul element that is already outside of us. When we are out of the body, we feel the Christ-experience as an inner one. This can be called the first encounter with the Christ impulse in the macrocosm. Now we have to discuss a second kind of initiation forces. Just as we can detach the power of thinking, we can also detach the power we use for linguistic expression. Materialistic science says that the motor speech organs have their center in the so-called Broca's area. But it was not Broca's organ that formed language, but language that formed Broca's organ.
The power of thought has a destructive effect, while language, which comes from our social environment, has a constructive effect. Now we can detach this power that Broca's organ builds up. We achieve this by permeating our meditation with emotional values. If I meditate: In the light shines wisdom - this too does not reflect an external truth, but it does have a deep meaning, a deep significance. If we imbue it with our feeling: We want to live with all the light that wisdom radiates - then we feel how we grasp the power that is otherwise expressed in the word and that now lives in our soul. When one speaks of golden silence, it refers to this: we have a power in our soul that creates the word. We can grasp it like the power of thought. Then we overcome time, just as we overcome space by grasping the power of thought. What is a remembering for everyday life up to childhood then extends to prenatal life. This is the way to gain experience about life from the last death until our present birth, and at the same time the way to understand the evolution of humanity. We understand the forces that guide the evolution of human history.
And we recognize life from birth to death. When we develop the power of the silent word, we recognize the spiritual foundation of life on earth. Here again we come across a historical event, the Mystery of Golgotha. For this is the way in which we find the ascending and descending evolution of humanity and the point where Christ incarnates. He is recognized as he is in his very own power. Just as we connect with the Christ through the liberation of thought, as he was on earth, so we connect with the Mystery of Golgotha through the liberation of the word. A special light thus falls on the first line of the Gospel of John.
Then a third power becomes independent through meditation. It takes hold not only of the brain and larynx, but also of the blood circulation and the heart. When it is working in a weak form, we feel it when we blush or turn pale. Then something soul-like takes hold of the pulsation of the blood and goes up to the heart. This soul power can be drawn out of the pulsation of the blood and become an independent soul power. This happens through meditation, where the will connects with meditation. We meditate: In the light shines wisdom. But we make the decision to connect our will with it in such a way that we want to go with this radiant wisdom in the evolution of humanity. When we arrive at this kind of will-meditation, we achieve an inflow of willpower into the soul. These forces can be grasped and drawn from the blood – although they cannot be drawn out completely – and then they form a clairvoyant power through which we can transcend our Earth. We learn to recognize our Earth as a re-embodied planet that will re-embody itself and we human beings with it. Thus we grow through the spiritual and soul world into the macrocosm. In a sense, we experience how life between death and birth must be opposite to life in an incarnation. For what man experiences after 'death', freed from the body, that is what the initiate experiences. Let us take the main characteristic of what was presented to us in the body-free state. It is the same experience as in the life after death. Living in the microcosm, we perceive through the physical organ of the senses. After death, we look at the body like the initiate. One cannot perceive what the sense organs perceive. The initiate can recognize the life between death and new birth because he has already found the transition from microcosm to macrocosm here.
In the ordinary language of man, one cannot talk to the dead. But when we have liberated the power of speech, we can see how we are with the dead. By liberating the power of thought, we can talk to those who are between death and rebirth.
Let me give you an example: a seer was able to talk to a deceased person. He had been an excellent man, but he had only taken care of his family in a material sense. He had no religious or anthroposophical ideas. The seer was able to learn the following from the man: “I know that I lived with my family, with my loved ones, and they were my sunshine. They still live now, I know that, but I only see them up to the point when I left the earth. No connection can be established with them. The circumstances are complicated after death. The seer was able to see the following: The woman still showed something of the effects of her husband's influence in her nature. The man could see these effects, but not as one sees a person, but as in a mirror: there is indeed seeing, but it is as if one were only seeing an image in a mirror. This seems gruesome because one cannot really see the person as he is. Just as we see the physical in the life of the senses, so must we be able to see the soul afterwards. But just as we cannot see a candle in a dark room if it is not lit, so here too is the recognition subdued, darkened. Yet a connection is still possible between the dead person and the person on earth if the latter imbues himself with spiritual life. This is the basis for the benefit we can do for the dead. Someone has passed through the gate of death, with whom we have common interests: we can read to him. We imagine that he is in front of us, we read to him quietly, and we can also send him thoughts. But he will only receive an impression if we send him ideas and concepts with spiritual life. The task of anthroposophy will be understood when we understand that we have to remove the abyss that separates us from the dead.
Even a soul that was opposed to anthroposophy can feel a benefit from such reading aloud. In our soul life, two sides can be distinguished: what we consciously experience and the soul's undercurrents, which, like the depths of the sea, only express themselves in the waves on the surface. Thus we can experience that, for example, one of two brothers becomes an anthroposophist and the other an opponent of anthroposophy. This can only be a fact of the external world. The inner process is as follows: there is a deep longing for something religious, and the only way to numb oneself to this is to reject anthroposophy. The conscious idea is only an opiate to forget what is going on in the depths. Death removes all this and we then hunger precisely for what we unconsciously long for. That is why reading anthroposophical writings aloud is such a blessing for us. Gradually, we become aware of our connection with the dead. But even before we have this feeling, we risk nothing more than the dead person not listening to us when we read to him. Thus we see that through the living comprehension of the anthroposophical teaching, the dead and the living, microcosm and macrocosm, come into connection.
This also happens in another area. When the seer observes the sleeping, he sees: souls pass through the gate of sleep that never have spiritual interests, and others that absorb spiritual thoughts during the day. — There is a difference: the sleeping souls are like germs in the field. Famine would occur in the spiritual world if no spiritual thoughts were taken across. The dead feed on the spiritual and anthroposophical ideas that the dying bring with them. If we do not carry spiritual concepts with us when we fall asleep, we deprive the dead of nourishment. By reading to them, we give them spiritual stimulation; with the spiritual ideas that we carry with us when we fall asleep, we give the dead nourishment.
Through what a person creates in his soul, he becomes a bridge from the microcosm to the macrocosm. What we acquire is like a seed. I would like to describe the living, not just the theoretical mission of anthroposophy as follows: Theory is transformed into elixir of life, immortality becomes an experience. Just as the seed guarantees the germination of another seed, we develop spiritual and soul forces that guarantee our return in a subsequent earthly life. We not only comprehend, we experience immortality within us. From the moment our hair turns grey, we experience that which passes through the gate of death. In this sense, anthroposophy will become the elixir of life, just as blood courses through our physical body. Only then will anthroposophy be what it is meant to be. When we learn to recognize this and want to summarize it in a basic feeling, in the basic feeling that the human soul is connected to the spiritual world as our physical body is to the physical world, then the human being experiences:
The following speaks to the human mind:
The beings in the expanse of space,
They change over the course of time.
The human soul, experiencing,
From the expanse of space, unlimited
And unperturbed by the passage of time,
Into the realm of eternity.