The Inner Nature of Man and the Life Between Death and a New Rebirth
GA 153
10 April 1914, Vienna
Lecture II
In the last lecture, my task in connection with our study of Thought, Feeling, Will and Perception, was to impart a few esoteric experiences which the human soul undergoes, when as a spiritual investigator it lives outside the body with the intention of experiencing something concerning the inner nature of man. To-day I shall try to bring forward other experiences from a different aspect, because only when we observe life from different spiritual points of view are we really able to arrive at the true explanation of it.
You will remember, that in the last lectures we tried to describe what the human soul first sees when, from outside the body, it looks back at its own body and on all that is connected with it physically; and then how it afterwards discovers what the astral body and Ego of man experience when they strengthen themselves more and more in the sphere into which they enter when outside the body. Now there is another way of considering the same matter and indeed it is of supreme importance in true, spiritual research, to realise that one only really solves the riddle of existence through spiritual observation, when a matter is considered from various sides. There is another way of leaving the body. I might say that the way I described in the last lecture showed us the soul leaving the body, so that it simply goes out of the body into space and begins to live there outside the body. This process of leaving the body can also take place in the following manner. In order to find the way out of oneself, one may try to begin with, to enter more deeply into oneself; one may try to connect oneself with spiritual experiences through that in the soul which is most similar to them, one may try to connect oneself with these experiences through one's memory. I have often said that because as human souls we are not only able to perceive, to think, to feel and to will, but are also able to store up our thoughts and perceptions as a treasure in the memory, we are thereby really able to change our inner life into something spiritual. In recent public lectures I mentioned that the French philosopher Bergson says that the treasure of memory in the human soul cannot be considered as directly connected with the body, but rather as an interior possession of the soul, as something which the soul develops, something which is purely of the soul and spirit.
In fact, when Imagination begins in the clairvoyant consciousness, when from the darkness of spiritual existence the first impressions emerge, these first impressions are very similar in quality and in their whole nature to the contents of the soul which we bear within us as the treasure of memory. When we begin to perceive with clairvoyant consciousness, the revelations from the spiritual world appear in us like memory pictures, but infinitely more spiritual. We then notice that the treasure of our memory is the first really spiritual thing through which we lift ourselves, to a certain extent, out of our body. But then we have to go further, we have to draw forth from spiritual depths fleeting pictures, such as those memory presents to us, but much more living; pictures which do not belong to our experience like the ideas in memory, but which rise, as it were, behind the memory. This must be borne in mind. Something comes forth from unfamiliar spiritual realms, whereas the treasure of memory comes forth from what we have experienced in physical life.
Now, if we try to turn our spiritual gaze to the experiences of our Ego during the years that have passed since our childhood, back as far as our memory extends, if we try to shut out everything external and live entirely within ourselves, so that we penetrate more and more deeply into our memory and draw forth from its treasures what is not usually present, we gradually approach the point of time to which our remembrance extends. And if we do this often, if we acquire a certain amount of practice in calling forth long-forgotten memories—and this can be done—so that we develop a stronger power of memory; if we call forth more and more of what we have forgotten and thereby strengthen the power which evokes memories, we shall find, that just as in a meadow flowers appear among the green blades of grass, so between the memories appear pictures, imaginations of something we have not known before, something that really emerges like flowers among the grass in a meadow, but which comes forth from entirely different spiritual depths than do our memories which only come forth from our own soul. Then we learn to distinguish between what might be connected in any way with our memories, and what comes forth from spiritual sources and spiritual depths. Thus we gradually become able to develop the power to call forth the spiritual from its depths. We thereby get out of our body in a different way from the one described in the last lecture, where one leaves the body directly, as it were. By the method we have just described we first go backwards through our life. We sink into our inner life. Through strengthening our power of remembrance we accustom ourselves to draw forth spiritual things from the spiritual world in our inner life between our memories, and thus at length we attain to where we push on beyond birth and beyond conception, into the spiritual world in which we lived before we were connected in our present incarnation with physical substance through heredity. Returning rapidly through our life we reach out into the spiritual world far back in ‘time’, before we entered into this incarnation. This is the other way of leaving the body and of entering the spiritual world, a way quite different from the one described in the last lecture. Notice this difference carefully, for in this course of lectures I have to acquaint you with very many subtleties and intimate things regarding spiritual life, and it is difficult to describe these in fitting words. It is only when we try to comprehend these differences that we enter correctly into these matters and acquire certainty in our thought about them.
If a person leaves his body in the manner I have just described, he comes out of it quite differently. When he leaves his body in the manner I described in the last lecture, he feels that he is outside his life in outer space. I described how he diffuses himself over external space and how he looks back at his physical body. He slips out of his body and fills space, as it were. He steps out into ‘space’. But if a man really goes through what we are describing to-day, he steps out of space itself; space ceases to have any meaning for him. He leaves space and is then only in ‘time’. So that on leaving his body in this way, the words: ‘I am outside my body’ cease to have any meaning, for outside signifies a relationship in space. He feels that he does not exist contemporaneously with his body, he feels himself in ‘time’; at that time in which he was before his incarnation, in a ‘before’. And he looks upon his body as existing afterwards. He really exists only within onstreaming, onflowing time. In place of ‘outer’ and ‘inner’, comes a ‘before’ and ‘after’.
Through this way of going forth from his body he is really able to enter into the realms we pass through between death and rebirth: for he goes back in time, he lives back into a life in which he lived before his earth-life. Earthly life appears in such a way that he asks: What is in the future? What appears to us there as coming later? In this way, you have a more exact understanding regarding matters which I have been unable to go into so fully in my public lectures, how for instance we enter concretely into the realms in which we live between death and rebirth.
If in this way the pupil has passed out of his body by returning into the life which he had previously lived in the spirit, he has thereby passed out of space. This way of leaving the body, going from the ‘present’ to the ‘previous’, has a much higher degree of inwardness than the other way, and, to the spiritual investigator, the way we have just described is infinitely more important than the way we described in the last lecture which does not get out of space; for that which concerns the deeper matters of the soul can only really be comprehended when one leaves the body in the manner described to-day. And now I might mention one thing, from which you will see how one has to try to get behind the depths and subtleties of human life.
Here in the physical body we live our physical life; we make use of our senses; we perceive the world; we think about the world; we feel in it; through our actions we try to be of value in this world; we act consciously by means of our body. Thus everyday life goes on; this life goes on, in so far as we belong to the physical plane. Now for every one who truly wishes to establish his worth as a human being there must be a higher life and there always has been a higher life of the soul. Religions which inspired men to a higher life have always existed. In the future, Spiritual Science will inspire mankind to this higher life. What is the aim of this higher life? What is the aim of this life which in Thought, Feeling and Perception transcends what the physical plane has to offer, which, in one person is but dim religious ideas, in another through the clear definitions of Spiritual Science, far transcends what the senses can see, what the intellect which is connected with the brain can think, or what man through his body can accomplish in the world? The human soul tends towards a spiritual life. To feel spiritual life within himself, to know something about the spiritual life which goes beyond physical life—this alone it is which gives man his value. We might say that as long as a human being dwells in the physical body he endeavours to enhance his value, he tries to gain a notion of his true destiny, through a life which he conceives as going beyond the physical world, through a presentiment of feeling, a knowledge of the spiritual world. ‘Look up to the spirit, feel that spiritual forces are weaving through the physical world I’—That is fundamentally the note which religion and the life connected with religion should give to man. Anyone who means to bring up a child seriously will take care not to allow this child to grow up with external, material conceptions alone, but will provide it with ideas regarding a super-sensible world.
Let us now, without wishing to draw attention to the limited and dogmatic side of any religion, describe as religion that which draws man out of this physical world. And with respect to what we have just described as the passing of the human soul beyond birth and conception into a previous spiritual world where it is also out of space, let us ask: Is there between death and rebirth, is there in the world into which we enter in the manner we have explained, is there something there which might be called a religion of that spirit-land? Is there something above, which may be compared to religious life on earth? We have already described in many particulars and shall yet have to describe further what a human being goes through between death and rebirth; but let us now ask, is there such a thing as religion in spiritual life? Is there something concerning which one may say that it bears the same relationship to the experiences in the spirit-land as the references to the super-sensible world bear to the everyday life of the physical plane?
Anyone who passes out of his body in the manner we have described arrives at the knowledge that up above in the spirit-land there is also something like a sort of religious life. And, curiously enough, while one experiences everything around one in the spirit-land, spiritual beings and spiritual events, one has there before one continually the picture of the human ideal; this appears like a mighty spiritual structure, throughout spiritual life, or at least for a great part of this life between death and rebirth. Here on earth, we have as religion everything that transcends man; in the spiritual world, we have the Ideal Man himself as religion. We learn that the various Beings of the various spiritual hierarchies permit their forces to work together in order that man may gradually be produced in the world, in the manner described in my book, Occult Science. The aim of the creative activity of the Gods is the Ideal Man. That Ideal Man does not really come to life in physical man as he is at present, but in the noblest spiritual and soul life that it is possible through the perfect development and training of aptitudes which this physical man has within him. Thus a picture of Ideal Man is ever present to the mind of the Gods. This is the religion of the Gods.
On the far shore of Divine existence there rises before the Gods the temple which presents the image of Divine Being in the form of man, as the highest divine work of art, and the special thing is that while man develops in the spirit-land between death and rebirth, he gradually matures so as to be able to see this temple of humanity, this high ideal of humanity. Whereas here upon earth, we recognise that a life of religion has to be our free act, that we have to draw it forth ourselves and that it is also possible for the materialistic mind to deny religion, the reverse is the case in the spirit-land between death and rebirth. The longer we live within the second half of the time between death and rebirth, the more clearly does it appear before us, so that we cannot disregard it, that this most sublime Ideal Man, the goal of the Gods, is always before us. Here on earth a person may be irreligious, because his soul may disregard the spirit as compared to the body; above, it is impossible for him not to see the aim of the Gods, for it stands clearly before his eyes. Thus in the second half of the life between death and rebirth the ideal of humanity stands, as it were, on the shore of existence, that is to say, on the shore of on-flowing time (consider all these expressions as referring to ‘time’ that is outside space). A religion formed on knowledge cannot exist there; for in the spiritual world we realise what the content of religion is. In this sense no one can be irreligious there. The religious ideal of the spirit-land is ever before one, it stands there of itself, it is the goal of the Gods and when we enter upon the second half of our life between death and rebirth it stands before us as the mightiest, the most glorious Imagination. Although we cannot there develop a religion by knowledge, still, under the guidance of the higher Spiritual Beings who are there active for man, we do develop a sort of religion.
While perception or sight cannot be taught, because things are self-evident; our will, our feeling-will and willing-feeling have to be stimulated in the second half of our life between death and rebirth, in order that we may really strive towards what we see there. Into our willing-feeling, into our feeling-will flow a divine will and a divine feeling. In order that we may choose the path towards these in the second half of our life between death and rebirth, we are instructed with respect to our willing-feeling;—all these terms are inappropriate for this entirely different life, but still this expression may be used. It is only when a teacher has first called forth ideas in us, that he then works further upon our feelings; but over there it is the case that when one has passed over the point which we have still to describe, midway between death and rebirth, when one has passed that which in my last Mystery Drama, The Soul's Awakening, I describe as the Midnight Hour, there is at first a certain dullness as regards willing and feeling in respect of that which stands as a glorious temple in the distance of ‘time’. Divine forces then send a glowing warmth through the inner powers of our soul. It is a kind of instruction which speaks directly to our inner being, and which has such an effect that we gradually gain the power really to desire to tread the path towards the ideal we see.
Whereas in physical life we may stand in front of a teacher and he may stand before us, and yet we may really feel that he speaks to our heart from outside, we feel that our spiritual teachers, who belong to the higher hierarchies, when they teach us in the manner I have just described, send their own forces directly into our inner being. Earthly teachers speak to us; in the life between death and rebirth spiritual teachers pour their life into our souls, then they instruct us in spiritual religion. Thus we feel these teachers from the higher hierarchies ever more and more within us, we feel ourselves connected with them more and more inwardly, and thereby our inner life becomes stronger. ‘Thou art accepted ever more and more by the Gods; the Gods live in thee more and more, and they help thee to grow inwardly stronger and stronger I’—That is the fundamental feeling throughout the second half of the life between death and rebirth.
Thus we see that everything in that life is so arranged that our experiences run their course in the depths of the soul itself. Now, while being instructed by the Gods, we arrive at a certain point in our experience between death and rebirth—at a very important point. Far away at the most distant point of time we see the ideal of humanity; but the forces which our divine-spiritual teachers can give us are dependent on what we have made of ourselves in the course of our incarnations, in the course of our previous human life. As we turn towards life from the Midnight of the world, we stand exactly midway between death and rebirth; as we follow our life further and further and see the ideal of humanity in the most distant future, we are at a point whence we have the furthest perspective of this ideal of humanity.
When we reach this point we have to say to ourselves—of course we do not say this, we experience it quite inwardly, but it has to be expressed in the words of ordinary life—we have to say to ourselves: ‘Divine Spiritual Forces have worked on thee, they have entered ever more and more deeply within thy soul, they live in thee; but thou hast now arrived at the point where thou canst not fill thyself any more with these forces, for thou wouldst have to be far more perfect if thou wouldst go beyond this point.’ Here an important decision has to be made. At this moment a severe temptation assails us.
The Gods have meant well by us; they have given us all they could in the meantime; they have made us as strong as was possible according to the measure of the power we have so far acquired in life. The strength given us by the Gods is within us, and a temptation comes which says to us: ‘Thou canst follow these Gods; thou canst now allow all that thou art, to enter, as it were, into the forces the Gods have given thee; thou canst go into the spiritual worlds, for the Gods have given thee a very great deal.’ We might at this point spiritualise ourselves entirely. This is the prospect that confronts us. But we could only do this by turning aside from the path leading to the great ideal of humanity. This means, in other words, that we should force our way into the spiritual worlds taking all our imperfections with us, and there they would change into perfection. This they would really do. We might enter with our imperfections, and because we were permeated with divine forces we should become a spiritual being, but this being would have to renounce the possibilities it now has within it, which it has not realised on its path so far, and which lie in the direction of the great ideal of humanity, these it would have to renounce. Each time, before an earthly incarnation takes place, the temptation comes to remain in the spiritual world, to enter into the Spirit and to develop further with what we already have which is now entirely permeated with Divinity, but to renounce what it is possible for us to become more and more as men, along the path to the distant religious ideal of the divinely spiritual world. The temptation assails us to become irreligious with respect to the spirit-land. This temptation is all the stronger because at no time in the evolution of humanity has Lucifer greater power over man than at this moment, when he whispers ‘Seize the opportunity, thou canst remain in the Spirit; thou canst carry over into the spiritual light all that thou has acquired!’ Lucifer tries by every means to make the soul forget the possibilities it yet has within it, and which stand before it as the distant temple on the far shores of time. As humanity now is, a man would not be able to withstand the temptation of Lucifer at this point, if the Spirits to whom Lucifer is opposed did not now take upon themselves the affairs of man. A fight for the human soul takes place, between Lucifer and the Gods who lead man towards his ideal, the Gods who adhere to the religion of the Gods. The result of this fight is that the archetypal image which the human being has formed from his earthly existence, is thrown out of time into space, it is attracted magnetically by special existence. This is also the moment when that magnetic attraction through the parents is felt, when the human being is transported into the sphere of space; when he becomes connected with space. Through this, all that might instil into him the temptation to remain in the spiritual world is veiled. And this veiling is expressed by his being enveloped by the body. He is surrounded by the body in order that he may not see what Lucifer wishes to put before him. And when he is enveloped by the covering of the body, when he sees the world by means of his bodily senses and his bodily intellect, he does not see what he might otherwise strive after in the spiritual world, if he were misled by the Tempter. He does not see it; he sees this world of Spiritual Beings and spiritual events from outside, as revealed to his senses and to the intellect connected with the brain. When he is in the sense-body, the Spirits who watch over him undertake his development.
Let us now ask: How much goes on in the subconscious depths of our soul between birth and death, how much goes on without our knowing anything about it? If we had to do consciously all that occurs in our lives, we could by no means go through our earthly existence. I have already indicated in my book, The Spiritual Guidance of Mankind, that when a person enters into physical incarnation he himself must work plastically on his brain and nervous system. He works upon it, but he works unconsciously. All this is the outcome of a much greater wisdom than that which a human being can comprehend with the intellect that is bound to the senses. Between birth and death a wisdom rules within us which exists behind the world which we see with our senses and concerning which we think with the intellect that is connected with our brain. This wisdom is in the background; it is hidden from us between birth and death, but it controls, it lives and works within us in the subconscious depths of our soul, and in these subconscious depths of our soul it has to take our affairs in hand, because we have to be withdrawn for a time from the vision of that which would be a temptation for us. All the time we live in our body we should—if the Guardian of the Threshold did not withhold from us the vision into the spiritual world—be tempted step by step to abandon our still undeveloped human possibilities and to follow the upward sweep into the spiritual worlds, taking with us all our imperfections, instead of allowing ourselves to be guided thereto through careful training. We have need of our earthly life so as to be withdrawn during this time from the temptation of Lucifer.
Up to the time mentioned, when we are led forth into space, Lucifer has no power over us and there is always the possibility of progress; but he draws near at the time we have to make the decision. We can make no further progress through our previous life, so we wish to turn aside with all our imperfections and remain in the spiritual world. The Gods of progress, to whom Lucifer is opposed, protect us from this by withdrawing us from the spiritual world, by hiding themselves from us and from the spiritual world, doing that which has to be accomplished in us without our being conscious of it. Thus we stand here as human beings in the world, conscious in our physical body, and say: ‘We give ye thanks, ye Gods! Ye have given us the power to know as much of the world as is good for us; for if we were to see beyond the threshold of the present horizon of our consciousness we should be in danger every moment of not wishing to reach the goal of humanity.’ We have to be transported into the world of space from that bright, higher condition of consciousness in which we live between death and rebirth—when spiritual worlds and spiritual beings surround us, when we are in the spirit, in order that in the world of space that world may be hidden from us which we are unable to endure until we have passed through the period between birth and death. During the time we dwell on earth, through our having been withdrawn from the spiritual world, through this spiritual world not having worked upon us and through material objects alone having surrounded us—we have again received a new impulse towards the distant goal of the ideal of humanity. For the divine Spirits who drive us forward work in us the whole time we live upon earth, during which time we do not see consciously into the spiritual world. They work in such a manner that they are not disturbed by our state of consciousness, they are not disturbed by our being tempted to follow Lucifer. They instil so much power into us, that, when we pass through the portal of death, we are able again to press forward a little further towards the ideal of humanity.
What I have just indicated in these words is another mystery which lies behind human existence. I think it is good for us at this Eastertide to consider those conditions of life which are attained by going out of the body in a more inward way; to consider the relationship between death and rebirth and the life we afterwards pass in the physical body. We then observe life between death and rebirth and become aware of the guidance of the good Spiritual Beings who are helping us onward. We look up to these Divine Beings as to our past life in the spirit, and we understand that our present existence in the body between birth and death has been lent to us by the Gods, in order that without our doing anything towards it, they may be able to take care of us so that we may develop further. While we perceive the world, while we think in the world, feel in it, will in it, while we store up our treasure of memory in order to have a connected existence in physical life;—behind it all, behind our conscious life, Divine Spiritual Beings are active; guiding onward the stream of time. They have sent us forth into space in order that we may there have exactly as much consciousness as they find it good for us to have, for behind this consciousness they wish to guide our destiny further towards the great ideal of humanity, the IDEAL of the religion of the Gods.
When we consider our inner being in this manner, the inner being which under normal conditions of life we are unable consciously to see and investigate, when we try to fill ourselves with the feeling that there is something within us, which, though we cannot perceive it, with the normal powers of human life, is nevertheless our deepest inner-soul nature; when we try to become aware of this soul-nature which is so deeply hidden within us, and then try to realise that the Gods rule in this soul-nature which we ourselves cannot guide, we then get the right feeling regarding the God which rules within us.
The words that have been spoken to-day have been spoken not so much on account of their theoretical content but to the end that this feeling might arise:—a true Easter-feeling. When the soul, looking on that which is revealed to it when it goes out of itself into space, when, filling space, this soul learns and knows ‘Out of the Divine I am born’, it can still further deepen this knowledge through what has been said to-day, for it becomes aware that: ‘With all I know, with all that is accessible to my soul in Perception, Thought, Feeling and Will, I am born out of a deeper soul-being, that soul-being within me which is yet one with the Divinity which flows within the stream of ‘time’, but flows in it with the Divine. We are aware of a knowledge which may be expressed in a much deeper way than the knowledge expressed at the end of the last lecture. As the result of our considerations to-day, the statement, ‘Out of God we are born’, can be made in a much deeper sense, for we are aware that this soul, together with what it knows regarding itself, is born every moment from out of the Divine, so that every moment we may fill our deepest, most inward being with this thought:
Ex Deo Nascimur
Zweiter Vortrag
Es war gestern meine Aufgabe, im Zusammenhang mit einer Betrachtung über Denken, Fühlen, Wollen und Wahrnehmen einige esoterische Erfahrungen mitzuteilen, welche sich der Menschenseele ergeben, wenn sie geistesforscherisch außer dem Leibe mit der Absicht lebt, etwas über das seelische Innere und seine Wesenheit zu erfahren. Heute wird es meine Aufgabe sein, von einer anderen Seite her solche Erlebnisse anzuführen, weil wir nur dann, wenn wir von den verschiedensten geistigen Gesichtspunkten aus das Leben betrachten, wirklich Aufschluß über dieses Leben gewinnen können.
Stellen Sie sich einmal richtig vor, wie gestern versucht worden ist zu zeigen, was die Menschenseele sieht, wenn sie zunächst auf die eigene Leiblichkeit und das, was physisch damit zusammenhängt, von außerhalb des Leibes zurückblickt, und was sie dann nachher erlebt; also was des Menschen astralischer Leib und Ich erleben, wenn sie sich immer mehr und mehr erkraften in dem Raum, den sie gleichsam außerhalb des Leibes betreten haben. Es gibt nun noch einen anderen Weg, gewissermaßen dasselbe zu betrachten. Das ist ja gerade das Bedeutsame wirklicher geistiger Betrachtungsweise, daß man im Grunde genommen auf die Rätsel des Daseins durch geistige Betrachtung erst dadurch kommt, daß man eine Sache von den verschiedensten Seiten aus betrachtet. Es gibt nämlich noch eine andere Art, aus dem Leib herauszukommen. Ich möchte sagen, die gestern geschilderte Art zeigte uns: es verläßt dabei die Seele den Leib so, daß sie sich aus dem Leibe einfach in den Raum hinaus begibt und da außer dem Leibe zu leben beginnt. Dieses Aus-dem-Leibe-Treten kann noch auf folgende Weise geschehen. Man kann, um den Weg aus sich heraus zu finden, gerade zunächst tiefer in sich hineinzukommen versuchen. Man kann versuchen, an die Erfahrungen anzuknüpfen mit dem, was in der Seele, man möchte sagen, der geistigen Erfahrung am ähnlichsten ist. Man kann versuchen, mit unserem Gedächtnis an die Erlebnisse anzuknüpfen. Es wurde ja öfter gesagt: Dadurch, daß wir als Menschenseelen imstande sind, nicht nur etwas wahrzunehmen, zu denken, zu fühlen und zu wollen, sondern die Gedanken und Wahrnehmungen aufzubewahren als Gedächtnisschatz, dadurch verwandeln wir unser Innenleben eigentlich schon in etwas Geistiges. Und ich habe in meinem öffentlichen Vortrage darauf hingewiesen, daß der französische Philosoph Bergson sogar schon darauf gekommen ist, daß man das, was als Gedächtnisschatz in der Seele des Menschen vorhanden ist, nicht als irgendwie mit dem Leiblichen unmittelbar zusammenhängend betrachten kann; daß man es vielmehr als eine seelische Innerlichkeit betrachten muß, als etwas, was die Seele entwickelt, was rein geistig-seelisch vorhanden ist.
Und in der Tat, wenn in dem hellseherischen Bewußtsein die Imagination beginnt, wenn aus dem Dunkel des geistigen Daseins die ersten Eindrücke herauftauchen, so sind diese Eindrücke in ihrer Qualität, in ihrer ganzen Wesenheit sehr ähnlich jenem Seeleninhalt, der als Gedächtnisschatz in uns ist. Wie Erinnerungsbilder, aber jetzt doch wiederum wie etwas unendlich viel Geistigeres, treten die Offenbarungen aus der geistigen Welt bei uns auf, wenn wir mit dem hellseherischen Bewußtsein wahrzunehmen beginnen. Wir merken dann gleichsam, daß unser Gedächtnisschatz das erste wirklich Geistige ist, das erste, wodurch wir uns gewissermaßen schon aus unserem Leibe herausheben, daß wir dann aber weitergehen müssen, daß wir solche im Geistigen schwebende Bilder, wie das Gedächtnis sie uns bietet — allerdings von viel größerer Lebendigkeit -, aus Geistestiefen heraufheben müssen, die nicht unserem Erleben angehören wie die Erinnerungsvorstellungen, daß gleichsam hinter dem Gedächtnis etwas heraufzieht. Das muß festgehalten werden: es zieht etwas herauf aus fremden geistigen Gebieten, während der Gedächtnisschatz heraufzieht aus dem, was wir im Physischen miterlebt haben.
Wenn wir nun versuchen, den geistigen Blick zurückzulenken auf die Erlebnisse unseres Ich während der Jahre, die wir seit dem Zeitpunkte unserer Kindheit erlebt haben, zu dem unsere Erinnerung zurückreicht, wenn wir versuchen, von allem Äußeren abzusehen und ganz in uns hineinzuleben, so daß wir uns immer mehr in unsere Erinnerungen hineinfinden, aus unserem Erinnerungsschatz auch das heraufholen, was uns gewöhnlich nicht gegenwärtig ist, dann nähern wir uns immer mehr und mehr dem Zeitpunkt, bis zu dem wir uns zurückerinnern können. Und wenn wir solches oft vornehmen, wenn wit uns sogar eine gewisse Praxis darin aneignen - und wir können das —, sonst längst vergessene Erinnerungen heraufzuholen, so daß wir eine stärkere Kraft des Sich-Erinnerns entwickeln, wenn wir immer mehr und mehr Vergessenes heraufholen und dadurch unsere Kraft, die die Erinnerungen heraufschafft, stärker machen, dann werden wir sehen, daß, ich möchte sagen, wie auf einer Wiese zwischen den einzelnen grünen Grashalmen und Graspflanzen Blumen auftauchen, dann zwischen den Erinnerungen Bilder, Imaginationen auftauchen von etwas, was wir vorher nicht gekannt haben. Es ist etwas, was wirklich so auftaucht wie die Blumen auf der Wiese zwischen den Graspflanzen, was aber aus ganz anderen geistigen Tiefen heraufkommt als die Erinnerungen, die eben nur aus unserer eigenen Seele herauftauchen. Und wir lernen dann unterscheiden das, was irgendwie mit unseren Erinnerungen zusammenhängen könnte, von dem, was also herauftaucht aus geistigen Untergründen und geistigen Tiefen. Und so leben wir uns nach und nach in die Möglichkeit ein, eine Kraft zu entfalten, das Geistige herauszuholen aus seinen Untergründen.
Dadurch aber gelangen wir auf eine andere Weise aus unserem Leibe heraus als auf die gestern beschriebene Art. Bei der gestern beschriebenen Art verlassen wir den Leib gewissermaßen unmittelbar. Bei der heute gemeinten Art gehen wir zuerst unser Leben zurück, durchlaufen unser Leben. Wir versenken uns in unser Innenleben, gewöhnen uns, durch die Erstarkung der Erinnerungskraft in unserem Innenleben zwischen unseren Erinnerungen Geistiges hervorzuholen aus der geistigen Welt, und so gelangen wir endlich dazu, hinauszudringen durch unsere Geburt, durch die Zeitenfolgen über unsere Empfängnis hinaus, in die geistige Welt, in der wir gelebt haben, bevor wir uns zu unserer jetzigen Inkarnation mit einer physischen Vererbungssubstanz verbunden haben. Wir gelangen, unser Leben durcheilend, hinaus in die geistige Welt, zurück in die Zeit, bevor wir eben hereingetreten sind in diese Inkarnation. Das ist die andere Art, den Leib zu verlassen, hineinzukommen in das Geistige. Und diese Art weist einen großen Unterschied auf gegenüber der gestern beschriebenen. Merken Sie wohl auf diese Unterschiede, denn gerade in diesem Vortragszyklus habe ich so manche Feinheiten und Intimitäten des geistigen Lebens vor Ihnen mitzuteilen. Aber es ist schwierig, auf diese Feinheiten und Intimitäten in geeigneten Worten hinzuweisen. Und nur, wenn man versucht, gerade solche Unterscheidungen zu fassen, kommt man richtig in die Dinge hinein und gewinnt ein sicheres Denken über dieselben.
Wenn man so, wie ich es jetzt beschrieben habe, den Leib verläßt, so kommt man nämlich ganz anders aus seinem Leibe heraus. Wenn man auf die gestern beschriebene Weise herauskommt aus seinem Leibe, so fühlt man sich wie außerhalb seines Leibes in dem Außenraum. Ich konnte beschreiben, wie man sich verbreitet über den Außenraum, wie man zurückschaut auf seinen physischen Leib. Man tritt aus sich heraus und füllt gleichsam den Raum aus, man tritt in den Raum hinaus. Wenn man aber durchmacht, was jetzt hier gemeint ist, dann tritt man aus dem Raum selber hinaus, dann hört der Raum auf, für einen eine Bedeutung zu haben; man verläßt den Raum und man ist dann nur noch in der Zeit. So daß bei einem solchen Verlassen des Leibes das Wort aufhört, einen Sinn zu haben: Ich bin außerhalb meines Leibes — denn das Außerhalb bedeutet ein räumliches Verhältnis. Man fühlt sich dann eben nicht gleichzeitig mit seinem Leibe, man erlebt sich in der Zeit. In der Zeit, in der man war vor der Inkarnation, in einem Vorher. Und den Leib erschaut man als nachher existierend. Man ist wirklich nur in der fortströmenden, laufenden Zeit darinnen. Und anstelle des Außen und Innen ist ein Vorher und Nachher getreten.
Dadurch ist man imstande, durch ein solches Herausgehen aus seiner Leiblichkeit, wirklich einzudringen in die Gebiete, die wir durchleben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Denn man geht in der Zeit zurück, man lebt sich ein in ein Leben, das man vor diesem Erdenleben gelebt hat. Und dieses Erdenleben erscheint so, daß wir sagen: Was ist denn dort in der Zukunft, was erscheint uns denn da als Nachher? Sie sehen da eine genauere Angabe über manches, was ich in meinem öffentlichen Vortrage nicht so genau habe ausführen können: wie man nämlich im Konkteten hineinkommt in die Gebiete, die man durchlebt zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt.
Nun ist man auf diesem Wege hinausgezogen aus seinem Leibe, indem man in das vorher im Geiste vollbrachte Leben zurückgekehrt ist, man ist damit aber auch aus dem Raum herausgezogen. Dadurch hat dieses Verlassen des Leibes — aus dem Jetzt zu dem Früheren — einen viel höheren Grad von Innerlichkeit als das andere Verlassen, und für den Geistesforscher ist in der Tat dieses jetzt geschilderte Verlassen des Leibes von unendlich größerer Bedeutung als das gestern geschilderte, das nicht aus dem Raume herauskommt. Denn eigentlich begreift man dasjenige, was so recht tiefe Innerlichkeiten der Seele angeht, im Grunde erst auf dem heute beschriebenen Wege. Und da möchte ich Ihnen zunächst eines anführen, aus dem Sie ersehen werden, wie man versuchen muß, hinter die Intimitäten und Feinheiten des menschlichen Lebens zu kommen.
Im physischen Leibe hier leben wir unser physisches Leben. Wir bedienen uns unserer Sinne, nehmen die Welt wahr, wir stellen die Welt vor, fühlen in ihr, versuchen uns durch unsere Handlungen in dieser Welt einen Wert zu geben, wir handeln bewußt durch unseren Leib. So geht das alltägliche Leben vor sich, so geht das Leben vor sich, insofern wir dem physischen Plan angehören. Nun muß es aber für jeden Menschen, der seine Menschenwürde wahrhaft in sich erfühlen will, ein höheres Leben geben; und es hat immer ein höheres Seelenleben gegeben. Die Religionen, die den Menschen mit höherem Leben erfüllten, waren immer da. Geisteswissenschaft wird den Menschen in der Zukunft mit einem solchen höheren Leben erfüllen. Was will dieses höhere Leben? Was will dieses Leben, das in Gedanken, in Gefühlen, in Empfindungen hinausgeht über das, was der physische Plan bieten kann, das bei dem einen nur in dunklen Ahnungen auf religiösem Gebiet, bei dem anderen in klar umrissenen Linien der Geisteswissenschaft hinausgeht über das, was die Sinne schauen können, was man mit seinem an das Gehirn gebundenen Verstande denken kann, was man mit seinem Leibe in der Welt verrichten kann?
Nach einem geistigen Leben hin tendiert die menschliche Seele. Ein geistiges Leben in sich zu erfühlen, von einem solchen geistigen Leben etwas zu wissen, das über das physische Leben hinausgeht, das gibt dem Menschen eigentlich erst seine Würde. Man könnte sagen: Solange der Mensch im physischen Leibe weilt, sucht er seine Würde zu erhöhen, sucht er seine eigentliche Bestimmung zu erahnen durch ein Leben, das er sich vorstellt als über die physische Welt hinausgehend, durch ein Erahnen, Empfinden, Erkennen einer geistigen Welt. Blicke auf zum Geiste, fühle, daß geistige Kräfte durch die physischen Welten weben: das sind im Grunde genommen die Töne, die das religiöse und das damit verwandte Leben dem Menschen geben sollen. Und die Sorge des Erziehers, der es mit einem heranwachsenden Menschenkinde ernst meint, wird sein, dieses Menschenkind nicht so aufwachsen zu lassen, daß es nur in den äußeren materiellen Vorstellungen lebt, sondern ihm Vorstellungen von einer übersinnlichen Welt beizubringen.
Nennen wir jetzt, ohne damit hinweisen zu wollen auf das Engumschränkte oder dogmatisch Eingeengte der Religionssysteme, nennen wir das, was so den Menschen hinauszieht aus dieser physischen Welt, Religion, und fragen wir gegenüber dem, was wir gerade geschildert haben als ein Hinausgehen der menschlichen Seele über Geburt und Empfängnis in eine dem Erdenleben vorhergehende geistige Welt hinein, wo die Seele auch aus dem Raume heraus ist, fragen wir demgegenüber: Gibt es nun zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt in der Welt, die wir so betreten, wie wir es auseinandergesetzt haben, etwas, was man eine Religion jenes Geisterlandes nennen könnte? Gibt es da drüben etwas, was sich mit dem religiösen Leben auf der Erde vergleichen ließe? Wir haben schon in manchen Einzelheiten geschildert und werden noch weiter die Vorgänge zu schildern haben, die der Mensch zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt durchlebt. Aber jetzt fragen wir uns: Gibt es so etwas wie eine Religion in diesem geistigen Leben? Etwas, von dem man sagen kann: es steht den Erlebnissen, die wir für das Geisterland schildern, so gegenüber, wie die Hinweise auf die übersinnliche Welt dem Alltagsleben des physischen Planes gegenüberstehen?
Derjenige, der auf die geschilderte Weise aus seinem Leibe herauskommt, der kommt zu der Erkenntnis, daß es so etwas wie eine Art religiösen Lebens da drüben in diesem Geisterlande auch gibt. Und merkwürdigerweise, während man alles das, was man im Geisterlande um sich herum hat, geistige Wesenheiten und geistige Vorgänge, so erlebt wie man hier physische Wesen und physische Vorgänge erlebt, hat man dort fortdauernd während dieses Lebens, oder wenigstens während eines großen Teiles dieses Lebens zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, wie ein mächtiges geistiges Gebilde, das Bild des Menschenideals vor sich. Alles, was über den Menschen hinausgeht, hat man hier auf der Erde als Religion. Das Menschenideal, man hat es drüben in der geistigen Welt als Religion. Man lernt verstehen, daß die verschiedenen Wesenheiten der verschiedenen geistigen Hierarchien ihre Absichten, ihre Kräfte zusammenwirken ließen, um im Weltenstrome auf die Art, wie es in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß» beschrieben ist, allmählich den Menschen hervorgehen zu lassen. Den Göttern schwebte als das Ziel ihrer Schöpfung das Menschenideal vor, und zwar jenes Menschenideal, welches wirklich sich nicht so auslebt, wie jetzt der physische Mensch ist, sondern so, wie höchstes menschliches Seelen-Geistesleben in den vollkommen ausgebildeten Anlagen dieses physischen Menschen sich ausleben könnte.
So schwebt als Ziel, als höchstes Ideal, als die Götterreligion den Göttern ein Bild der Menschheit vor. Und wie am fernen Ufer des Götterseins schwebt für die Götter der Tempel, der als höchste künstlerische Götterleistung das Abbild des göttlichen Seins im Menschenbilde hinstellt. Und das ist das Eigentümliche, daß der Mensch, während er sich in dem Geisterlande zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt heranbildet, sich nach und nach dort immer reifer und reifer macht zum Schauen dieses Menschheitstempels, dieses hohen Menschheitsideals. Und während wir hier auf Erden das religiöse Leben so empfinden, daß es unsere freie Tat sein muß, daß wir es aus uns herausholen müssen, daß es dem materialistischen Sinn auch möglich ist, das Religiöse zu verleugnen, ist das Umgekehrte im Geisterland zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt der Fall. Je mehr wir in die zweite Hälfte der Zeit zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt hineinleben, desto deutlicher steht vor uns, so daß wir es nicht übersehen können, so daß es immer vor unserem geistigen Blicke ist, das hehrste Menschenideal, das Götterziel der Welten. Hier auf Erden kann der Mensch irreligiös sein, weil seine Seele gegenüber dem Physischen den Geist übersehen kann. Drüben ist es unmöglich, daß der Mensch nicht das Götterzielschaut; denn das stellt sich ihm mit Sicherheit vor Augen. So steht, namentlich in der zweiten Hälfte des Lebens zwischen dem 'Tod und einer neuen Geburt, wie am Ufer des Seins, das heißt am Ufer der dahinströmenden Zeit - nehmen Sie jetzt alle Ausdrücke so, daß wir es zu tun haben außerhalb des Raumes mit der Zeit -, so steht es da, das Menschheitsideal. Eine Erkenntnisreligion kann es drüben nicht geben; denn erkennen muß man das, was religiöser Inhalt ist. Das, was ich jetzt geschildert habe, ist drüben religiöser Inhalt. In diesem Sinne irreligiös kann kein Mensch sein, daß er das religiöse Ideal des Geisterlandes nicht vor sich hätte. Denn das steht durch sich selbst da, es ist Götterziel und wird hingestellt als die mächtigste, glorioseste Imagination, wenn wir die zweite Hälfte unseres Lebens zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt antreten. Aber wenn wir so auch nicht eine Erkenntnisreligion drüben entwikkeln können, so entwickeln wir doch unter der Anleitung höherer geistiger Wesenheiten, die da drüben für den Menschen tätig sind, eine Art Religion.
Während uns aber Erkennen, Schauen nicht gelehrt werden kann, weil es ja selbstverständlich ist, muß unser Wollen, unser wollendes Fühlen, unser fühlendes Wollen angeeifert werden in der zweiten Hälfte des Lebens zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, um zu dem, was wir da sehen, wirklich hinzustreben. In unser wollendes Fühlen, in unser fühlendes Wollen fließen Götterwille, Götterfühlen ein, damit wir den Weg in dieser Richtung wählen in der zweiten Hälfte unseres Lebens zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Es sind ja alle Ausdrücke ungeschickt für dieses ganz andersartige Leben, dennoch darf der Ausdruck gebraucht werden: hier werden wir in bezug auf unseren Verstand unterrichtet; nur wenn ein Lehrer durch die Vorstellung geht, wirkt er hier auf Erden weiter auf unser Gefühl. Drüben ist es so, daß, wenn man den weiter noch zu schildernden Zeitpunkt der Mitte zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, wenn man das, was ich in meinem letzten Mysteriendrama «Der Seelen Erwachen» die Mitternachtsstunde genannt habe, überschritten hat, daß dann zunächst eine gewisse Dumpfheit da ist in bezug auch auf das Wollen und Fühlen gegenüber dem, was wie ein herrlicher Tempel in den Fernen der Zeiten steht. Da durchglühen und durchwärmen göttliche Kräfte unsere inneren Seelenvermögen: ein Unterricht ist es, der unmittelbar zu unserem Inneren spricht und der sich so äußert, daß wir immer mehr und mehr die Fähigkeit gewinnen, wirklich den Weg gehen zu wollen zu dem, was wir so als ein Ideal schauen. Während wir im physischen Leben einem Lehrer gegenüberstehen können oder einem Erzieher, und er uns gegenüberstehen kann, und wir uns doch im Grunde genommen so fühlen, daß er von außen herein in unser Herz spricht, fühlen wir, daß unsere geistigen Erzieher der höheren Hierarchien, indem sie uns so erziehen, wie ich es jetzt geschildert habe, unmittelbar in unser Inneres herein ihre eigenen Kräfte strömen lassen. Irdische Erzieher sprechen zu uns, geistige Erzieher im Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt geben uns ihr Leben in unsere Seelen herein, indem sie uns geistig religiös erziehen. Und so fühlen wir sie immer mehr und mehr in uns, diese Erzieher aus den höheren Hierarchien, so fühlen wir uns immer inniger mit ihnen verbunden. Dadurch aber erkraftet und erstarkt sich unser Innenleben. Du bist immer mehr und mehr von den Göttern angenommen, in dir leben immer mehr und mehr die Götter, und sie helfen dir, daß du immer stärker und stärker innerlich wirst! Das ist es, was als ein Grundgefühl durchgeht durch dieses Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, namentlich in seiner zweiten Hälfte.
So sehen wir, wie alles in diesem Leben daraufhin angelegt ist, daß unsere Erlebnisse unmittelbar in den Tiefen unserer Seele selbst ablaufen. Nun kommen wir aber, indem wir also von den Göttern unterrichtet werden, an einen bestimmten Punkt des Erlebens zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. An einen wichtigen Punkt kommen wir. Es ist, ich möchte sagen, in der Zeiten fernster Ferne, wo wir das Menschheitsideal erblicken; die Kräfte aber, die in uns durch diese unsere göttlich-geistigen Erzieher gelegt werden können, die sind abhängig von dem, was wir im Laufe unserer Inkarnationen, im Laufe unseres vorhergehenden Menschenlebens aus uns gemacht haben. Und so stehen wir, indem wir heranleben von der Weltenmitternacht, gerade in der Mitte zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, und immer weiterleben in die Zeiten hinein und in fernsten Zeiten das Menschheitsideal sehen, dann endlich an einem Punkt, an der letzten Perspektive des Menschheitsideals. Aber so stehen wir an diesem Punkt, daß wir uns nun sagen müssen — wir sagen es uns natürlich nicht, wir erleben es ganz innerlich, aber man muß sich mit den Worten des gewöhnlichen Lebens aussprechen -: Göttlich-geistige Kräfte haben an dir gewirkt, sind immer innerlicher in deiner Seele geworden, leben jetzt in dir; aber jetzt bist du an dem Punkte, wo du dich nicht mehr weiter mit diesen Kräften durchdringen kannst, denn du müßtest viel vollkommener sein, wenn du weitergehen wolltest als bis hierher.
Und jetzt kommt ein wichtiger Entscheidungspunkt. In diesem Augenblick tritt an uns eine harte Versuchung heran! Die Götter haben es gut mit uns gemeint, sie haben uns alles das gegeben, was sie uns zunächst geben können, sie haben uns so stark gemacht, als es nach Maßgabe der Kraft möglich war, die wir im bisherigen Leben uns erworben haben. So ist diese uns von den Göttern gegebene Stärke in uns, und die Versuchung tritt an uns heran, die uns sagt: Ja, du kannst jetzt diesen Göttern folgen, du kannst jetzt alles das, was du bist, gleichsam einfließen lassen in das, was die Götter dir gegeben haben an Kräften, du kannst in die geistigen Welten hineingehen. Denn viel, viel haben dir die Götter gegeben.
Man kann sich ganz vergeistigen: diese Aussicht steht vor einem. Aber man kann das nur, indem man seinen Weg von der Bahn nach dem großen Menschheitsideale hin ablenkt, indem man herausgeht aus der Bahn. Das heißt mit anderen Worten: man schlägt den Weg ein in die geistigen Welten, indem man all seine Unvollkommenheiten in die geistigen Welten mit hineinnimmt. Sie würden sich dort schon in Vollkommenheiten verwandeln. Sie täten es wirklich. Man könnte mit den Unvollkommenheiten hinein, man würde mit ihnen, weil man von göttlichen Kräften durchdrungen wäre, ein Wesen sein. Aber dieses Wesen müßte verzichten auf Anlagen, die es doch in sich hat, die es noch nicht auf seinem bisherigen Wege ausgebildet hat und die nach der Richtung des großen Menschheitsideales liegen; auf die müßte es verzichten. Jedesmal, bevor wir zu einer Erdeninkarnation gehen, tritt an uns die Versuchung heran, in der geistigen Welt zu bleiben, in den Geist einzutreten und sich vorwärts zu entwickeln mit demjenigen, was man schon ist, was jetzt ganz durchgöttlicht ist, und zu verzichten auf das, was man als Mensch noch immer mehr werden könnte auf der Bahn nach dem fernen religiösen Ideal der göttlich-geistigen Welt hin. Es tritt die Versuchung heran, irreligiös für das Geisterland zu werden.
Diese Versuchung tritt um so mehr heran, als in keinem Moment der Menschheitsentwickelung Luzifer eine größere Gewalt hat über den Menschen als in diesem Augenblick, wo er ihm einbläst: Ergreife jetzt die Gelegenheit, du kannst im Geiste bleiben, du kannst alles das, was du entwickelt hast, in das geistige Licht überführen! Und vergessen zu machen der Seele, soweit es irgend möglich ist, sucht Luzifer das, was noch als Anlagen vorhanden ist, was da steht in dem fernen Tempel am fernen Ufer des Zeitenseins.
So wie die Menschheit jetzt ist, würde der Mensch nicht in der Lage sein, in diesem Punkt der Versuchung Luzifers zu widerstehen, wenn nicht die Geister, deren Gegner Luzifer ist, jetzt die Angelegenheiten des Menschen übernehmen würden. Und es tritt der Kampf der den Menschen zu seinem Ideale vorwärtsleitenden Götter ein, der die Götterreligion bekennenden Götter mit Luzifer um eine Menschenseele. Und das Ergebnis dieses Kampfes ist, daß das Urbild, das sich der Mensch von seinem irdischen Dasein gebildet hat, herausgeworfen wird aus der Zeit in den Raum, angezogen wird magnetisch vom Raumesdasein. Dies ist auch der Moment, wo jene magnetische Anziehung durch das Elternpaar auftritt, wo der Mensch hineinversetzt wird in die Raumessphären, Verwandtschaft gewinnt mit der Raumessphäre. Dadurch aber wird alles dasjenige um den Menschen herum verhüllt, was ihm die Versuchung einflößen könnte, nur in der geistigen Welt zu bleiben. Und diese Verhüllung drückt sich aus eben in seiner Umhüllung mit der Leiblichkeit. Er wird in die Leiblichkeit eingefügt, damit er nicht schaut, was Luzifer vor ihn hinstellen will. Und wenn er in die leibliche Hülle eingehüllt ist und durch seine leiblichen Sinne und seinen leiblichen Verstand nunmehr die Welt ansieht, so sieht er nicht das, was er sonst in der geistigen Welt, durch den Versucher verführt, anstreben möchte, er sieht es nicht, er schaut diese Welt geistiger Wesenheiten und Vorgänge von außen, wie sie sich für die Sinne und den an das Gehirn gebundenen Verstand offenbaren. Und indem er im Sinnesleibe ist, übernehmen die ihn vorwärtsbringenden Geister seine Entwickelung.
Und fragen wir uns jetzt: Wieviel geht mit uns vor zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode in den unterbewußten Seelentiefen, wieviel geht mit uns vor, ohne daß wir davon wissen? — Wenn wir uns so leiten müßten, daß wir alles bewußt vollbringen, so könnten wir das Erdendasein durchaus nicht vollenden. Ich habe schon darauf hingewiesen in meinem Buche über «Die geistige Führung des Menschen und der Menschheit»: der Mensch muß, indem er in die physische Inkarnation tritt, selber erst plastisch an seinem Gehirn- und Nervensystem arbeiten. Er arbeitet, aber er arbeitet unbewußt daran. Das alles ist der Ausdruck einer viel größeren Weisheit als diejenige ist, die der Mensch begreifen kann mit seinem sinnlichen Verstand. In uns waltet zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode eine Weisheit, die hinter der Welt vorhanden ist, die wir mit unseren Sinnen anschauen und über welche wir mit unserem an das Gehirn gebundenen Verstand denken. Dahinter ist sie vorhanden, diese Weisheit; sie ist verhüllt vor uns zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode. Aber sie waltet, webt, wirkt in uns in den unterbewußten Seelentiefen, und sie muß sozusagen in diesen unterbewußten Seelentiefen des Menschen Angelegenheiten in die Hand nehmen, weil der Mensch auf einige Zeit hinweggerückt werden muß von einem Anblick, der für ihn versucherisch wäre. Die ganze Zeit, während welcher wir in unserem physischen Leibe leben, würden wir unter sonst normalen Verhältnissen, ohne daß wir eben durch eine sorgfältige Schulung in die geistige Welt eingeführt werden, wenn der Hüter der Schwelle uns das Hineinschauen in die geistigen Welten nicht vorenthielte, unser ganzes Leben Schritt für Schritt versucht sein, unsere noch unvollkommenen, unsere noch nicht herausgekommenen Menschenanlagen fallen zu lassen und dem Hinaufschwung in die geistigen Welten zu folgen, aber mit unseren Unvollkommenheiten. Wir brauchen die Zeit unseres Erdenlebens, um in dieser Zeit der Versuchung Luzifers entrückt zu sein.
Bis zu dem angegebenen Zeitpunkt, wo wir in den Raum herausgeführt werden, hat Luzifer noch nicht die Gewalt, denn da gibt es noch immer eine Möglichkeit, vorwärtszuschreiten, aber er kommt eben in dem Moment heran, wo wir an dem Entscheidungspunkte angelangt sind. Durch unser vorhergehendes Leben können wir nicht vorwärtsschreiten, so wollen wir mit den Unvollkommenheiten abirren und in der geistigen Welt verbleiben. Davor schützen uns die fortschreitenden Götter, deren Gegner Luzifer ist, indem sie uns dieser geistigen Welt entrücken, indem sie sie vor uns verhüllen, und das, was aus dieser geistigen Welt heraus geschehen muß an uns, hinter unserem Bewußtsein vollziehen.
So stehen wir da als Menschen in der Welt, mit unserem Bewußtsein in unserem physischen Leibe, und sagen uns: Habt Dank, ihr Götter! So viel habt ihr uns gelassen von der Möglichkeit, etwas zu wissen von der Welt, als gerade gut ist für uns. — Denn blickten wir hinter die Schwelle desjenigen, was unser Bewußtseinshorizont ist, so stünden wir in jedem Augenblick vor der Gefahr, unser Menschheitsziel nicht erreichen zu wollen. Aus jenem helleren, höheren Bewußtseinszustand, in dem wir zwischen dem 'Tod und einer neuen Geburt sind, wo wir geistige Welten und geistige Wesenheiten um uns herum haben, wo wir im Geiste sind, mußten wir in die Welt des Raumes versetzt werden, damit uns in der Welt des Raumes verhüllt werde die Welt, die wir nicht ertragen könnten, bis wir die Zeit durchgemacht haben zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode, die Zeit, in der wir, dadurch, daß wir der geistigen Welt entrückt waren, dadurch daß diese geistige Welt in dieser Zeit nicht auf uns gewirkt hat, daß nur materielle Dinge uns umgeben haben, wiederum einen neuen Antrieb empfangen haben nach den fernen Zielen des Menschheitsideales hin. Denn in der ganzen Zeit, während welcher wir auf Erden leben, während welcher wir mit unserem Bewußtsein nicht in die geistige Welt hineinsehen, wirken nun wiederum, indem sie jetzt nicht durch unser Bewußtsein gestört sind, indem sie nicht gestört sind dadurch, daß wir versucht sind, Luzifer zu folgen, in uns die uns vorwätrtstreibenden göttlichen Geister. Und sie flößen uns wiederum so viel Kraft ein, daß, wenn wir durch die Pforte des Todes gehen, wir wiederum ein Stück vorwärtsdringen können nach dem Menschheitsideale hin.
Das ist auch noch ein Geheimnis, das hinter dem Menschendasein steht, das ich mit diesen Worten angedeutet habe. Und ich denke, es ist eine gute Osterempfindung, hinzuschauen auf jene Verhältnisse des Lebens, die mehr durch innerliches Herausgehen aus dem Leibe erreicht werden, hinzuschauen auf die Verhältnisse zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, und dem Leben, das wir nachher im physischen Leibe gewinnen. Da blicken wir hin auf dieses Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt und werden gewahr der Führung der guten göttlich-geistigen Wesen, die uns vorwärts helfen. Wie zu unserer Vergangenheit im Geiste sehen wir zu diesen göttlich-geistigen Wesen auf, und wir verstehen jetzt von diesem unserem Sein im Leibe zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode, daß es uns verliehen worden ist von den Göttern, damit die Götter eine Weile, ohne daß wir etwas dazu zu tun brauchen, für uns sorgen können zu unserer Weiterentwickelung. Während wir die Welt wahrnehmen, während wir in der Welt denken, in ihr fühlen, in ihr wollen, während wir unseren Erinnerungsschatz aufspeichern, um im physischen Dasein ein zusammenhängendes Sein zu haben, arbeiten hinter alle dem, hinter diesem unserem bewußten Leben die göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten. Sie lenken fort den Strom der Zeit. Sie haben uns entlassen in den Raum, damit wir in diesem Raume gerade so viel Bewußtsein haben, als es diese Götter für gut finden, uns zu lassen, wenn sie hinter diesem Bewußtsein unsere Geschicke nach dem großen Menschheitsideale, nach dem Ideale der Götterreligion weiter lenken wollen.
Blicken wir so auf unser Inneres - jetzt auf dasjenige Innere, das wir mit unserem Bewußtsein gar nicht einmal in normalen Verhältnissen des Lebens schauen und erforschen können -, versuchen wir uns zu durchdringen mit der Empfindung: Da in dir lebt etwas, was du allerdings mit den normalen Kräften des Menschenlebens nicht durchschaust, was aber dein tiefstes inneres Seelisches ist; suchen wir es gewahr zu werden in uns, dieses tiefere in uns verborgene Seelische, und versuchen wir dann gewahr zu werden, wie in diesem Seelischen, das wir selber nicht lenken, die Götter walten, der Gott in uns waltet: da bekommen wir das rechte Gefühl von dem in uns waltenden Gott. Und daß ein solches Gefühl entstehe, ein solches rechtes Ostergefühl, dafür möchte ich eigentlich die heutigen Worte gesprochen haben, nicht so sehr wegen ihres theoretischen Inhaltes.
Wenn - hinblickend auf das, was sich der Seele darstellt, wenn sie im Raume gleichsam aus sich herausgeht, den Raum erfüllend — diese Seele wissen, lernen kann: Aus dem Göttlichen bin ich geboren — so kann sie durch das heute Gesagte dieses Wissen noch vertiefen, indem sie gewahr werden kann: Mit all dem, was ich weiß, mit all dem, was im Wahrnehmen, Denken, Fühlen und Wollen meiner Seele zugänglich ist, bin ich herausgeboren aus einem tieferen Seelischen, aus jenem Seelischen in mir, das noch bei dem Göttlichen ist, das im Zeitenstrom dahinfließt, aber mit dem Göttlichen dahinfließt. Ein Wissen können wir gewahren, das sich ausdrücken kann in einem noch viel tieferen Sinne als derjenige, der gestern gemeint sein konnte am Ende unserer Betrachtung. In einem noch viel tieferen Sinn können wir heute das Wort als Ergebnis unserer Betrachtung hinstellen: Aus dem Gott sind wir geboren. Denn wir gewahren, daB diese Seele mit dem, was sie von sich selber wissen kann, in jedem Zeitpunkt aus dem Göttlichen heraus geboren wird, so daß wir in jedem Zeitpunkt unser tiefstes Inneres erfüllen dürfen mit diesem: Aus dem Gott sind wir geboren.
Ex deo nascimur.
Second Lecture
Yesterday, in connection with a consideration of thinking, feeling, willing, and perception, it was my task to share some esoteric experiences that arise in the human soul when it lives outside the body through spiritual research with the intention of learning something about the inner soul and its nature. Today it will be my task to describe such experiences from a different angle, because only when we view life from the most diverse spiritual perspectives can we truly gain insight into this life.
Imagine, as was attempted yesterday, what the human soul sees when it first looks back from outside the body at its own physicality and everything physically connected with it, and what it then experiences; that is, what the human astral body and I experience when they become more and more powerful in the space they have entered outside the body, as it were. There is another way of looking at this, which is essentially the same. This is precisely what is significant about true spiritual observation: that we can only arrive at the mysteries of existence through spiritual observation by looking at a thing from many different angles. There is another way of leaving the body. I would say that the way described yesterday showed us that the soul leaves the body in such a way that it simply moves out of the body into space and begins to live there outside the body. This stepping out of the body can also happen in the following way. In order to find the way out of oneself, one can first try to go deeper into oneself. One can try to connect with experiences that are most similar to what one might call spiritual experience in the soul. One can try to connect with experiences through our memory. It has often been said that because we, as human souls, are capable not only of perceiving, thinking, feeling, and willing, but also of storing thoughts and perceptions as a treasure trove of memories, we actually transform our inner life into something spiritual. And I pointed out in my public lecture that the French philosopher Bergson had even come to the conclusion that what exists as a treasure trove of memories in the human soul cannot be regarded as somehow directly connected with the physical body; rather, it must be regarded as a spiritual inner quality, as something that the soul develops, something that exists purely in the spiritual realm.
And indeed, when imagination begins in clairvoyant consciousness, when the first impressions emerge from the darkness of spiritual existence, these impressions are very similar in their quality, in their entire essence, to the soul content that is in us as a treasure of memory. Like images of memory, but now infinitely more spiritual, the revelations from the spiritual world appear to us when we begin to perceive with clairvoyant consciousness. We then realize, as it were, that our treasure trove of memories is the first truly spiritual thing, the first thing through which we lift ourselves out of our bodies, so to speak, but that we must then go further, that we must lift up from the depths of the spirit those images floating in the spiritual realm, as memory presents them to us—albeit with much greater vividness—which do not belong to our experience like the images of memory, that something is rising up behind our memory, as it were. This must be remembered: something is rising up from foreign spiritual realms, while the treasure of memory rises up from what we have experienced in the physical world.
If we now try to turn our spiritual gaze back to the experiences of our ego during the years we have experienced since childhood, as far back as our memory reaches, when we try to disregard everything external and live entirely within ourselves, so that we find ourselves more and more in our memories, bringing forth from our store of memories even those things that are not usually present to us, then we approach more and more the point in time to which we can remember back. And if we do this often, if we even acquire a certain practice in it—and we can do this—to bring up memories that would otherwise have been long forgotten, so that we develop a stronger power of remembering, if we bring up more and more of what we have forgotten and thereby strengthen our power to bring up memories, then we will see that, I would say, just as flowers appear in a meadow between the individual blades of grass and grass plants, so images and imaginings of something we did not know before appear between our memories. It is something that really appears like the flowers in the meadow between the grass plants, but it comes up from completely different spiritual depths than the memories that arise only from our own soul. And we then learn to distinguish between what might somehow be connected with our memories and what emerges from spiritual depths and spiritual depths. And so, little by little, we live ourselves into the possibility of developing a power to bring out the spiritual from its depths.
But this enables us to leave our bodies in a different way than the one described yesterday. In the way described yesterday, we leave the body immediately, so to speak. In the way meant today, we first go back through our lives, relive our lives. We immerse ourselves in our inner life, accustom ourselves through the strengthening of our memory in our inner life, to bring forth the spiritual from the spiritual world between our memories, and thus we finally succeed in breaking out through our birth, through the succession of times beyond our conception, into the spiritual world in which we lived before we connected ourselves to our present incarnation with a physical hereditary substance. As we rush through our lives, we reach the spiritual world, back in time to before we entered this incarnation. This is the other way of leaving the body and entering the spiritual world. And this way is very different from the one described yesterday. Please note these differences, for in this series of lectures I have many subtleties and intimacies of spiritual life to share with you. But it is difficult to point out these subtleties and intimacies in suitable words. And only when one tries to grasp such distinctions does one really get into things and gain a sure understanding of them.
When one leaves the body in the way I have just described, one comes out of one's body in a completely different way. When one leaves one's body in the way I described yesterday, one feels as if one is outside one's body in outer space. I was able to describe how one spreads out over outer space, how one looks back at one's physical body. You step out of yourself and fill the space, as it were; you step out into the space. But when you go through what is meant here, you step out of the space itself, and then the space ceases to have any meaning for you; you leave the space and are then only in time. So that when you leave the body in this way, words cease to have any meaning: I am outside my body — for outside means a spatial relationship. One then does not feel oneself to be simultaneously with one's body; one experiences oneself in time. In the time in which one was before incarnation, in a before. And one sees the body as existing afterwards. One is really only in the flowing, running time within it. And instead of outside and inside, there is a before and after.
This enables us, by stepping out of our physicality in this way, to truly enter the realms we pass through between death and a new birth. For we go back in time and live a life we lived before this earthly life. And this earthly life appears in such a way that we say: What is there in the future, what appears to us as the after? You will find there a more precise explanation of some things that I was not able to explain in detail in my public lecture: namely, how one enters in a concrete way into the realms that one passes through between death and a new birth.
Now, one has withdrawn from one's body in this way by returning to the life previously lived in the spirit, but one has also withdrawn from space. As a result, this leaving of the body—from the present to the past—has a much higher degree of inwardness than the other leaving, and for the spiritual researcher, this leaving of the body that has now been described is indeed of infinitely greater significance than the one described yesterday, which does not leave space. For it is only in the way described today that one can really understand what concerns the deepest inner life of the soul. And here I would like to give you an example that will show you how one must try to get behind the intimacies and subtleties of human life.
Here in the physical body we live our physical life. We use our senses, perceive the world, imagine the world, feel within it, try to give ourselves value through our actions in this world, we act consciously through our body. This is how everyday life proceeds, this is how life proceeds insofar as we belong to the physical plane. But for every human being who truly wants to feel their human dignity within themselves, there must be a higher life; and there has always been a higher soul life. Religions that filled people with a higher life have always existed. Spiritual science will fill people with such a higher life in the future. What does this higher life want? What does this life, which goes beyond what the physical plane can offer, which in one person only appears as dark premonitions in the religious sphere and in another as clearly defined lines of spiritual science, want? in sensations, beyond what the physical plane can offer, which in some people only exists in dark premonitions in the religious realm, and in others in clearly defined lines of spiritual science, beyond what the senses can see, beyond what one can think with one's brain-bound intellect, beyond what one can do with one's body in the world?
The human soul tends toward a spiritual life. To feel a spiritual life within oneself, to know something of such a spiritual life that goes beyond physical life, is what actually gives human beings their dignity. One could say: as long as human beings dwell in their physical bodies, they seek to elevate their dignity, they seek to glimpse their true destiny through a life that they imagine as transcending the physical world, through a sense, feeling, and recognition of a spiritual world. Look up to the spirit, feel that spiritual forces weave through the physical worlds: these are basically the sounds that religious and related life should give to human beings. And the concern of the educator who is serious about a growing human child will be not to let this child grow up living only in external material ideas, but to teach him ideas of a supersensible world.
Without wishing to point out the narrow-mindedness or dogmatic restrictions of religious systems, let us call that which draws human beings out of this physical world religion, and let us ask, in contrast to what we have just described as the human soul's journey beyond birth and conception into a spiritual world preceding earthly life, where the soul is also out of space, let us ask ourselves: Is there now, between death and a new birth into the world we have described, something that could be called a religion of that spiritual realm? Is there something over there that could be compared to religious life on earth? We have already described in some detail, and will continue to describe, the processes that human beings go through between death and a new birth. But now we ask ourselves: Is there such a thing as religion in this spiritual life? Something that can be said to be related to the experiences we describe for the spirit world in the same way that references to the supernatural world are related to everyday life on the physical plane?
Those who leave their bodies in the manner described come to realize that there is also something like a religious life over there in the spirit world. And strangely enough, while one experiences everything around oneself in the spirit world—spiritual beings and spiritual processes—in the same way as one experiences physical beings and physical processes here, one has before one, throughout this life, or at least during a large part of this life between death and a new birth, the image of the ideal human being as a powerful spiritual entity. Everything that goes beyond the human being is found here on earth as religion. The human ideal is what we have over there in the spiritual world as religion. We learn to understand that the various beings of the various spiritual hierarchies allowed their intentions and their powers to work together in order to gradually bring forth human beings in the world stream in the way described in my book “An Outline of Esoteric Science.” The gods had the ideal of humanity as the goal of their creation, and that ideal of humanity is not really lived out as physical human beings are now, but as the highest human soul and spirit life could be lived out in the perfectly developed faculties of these physical human beings.
Thus, as the goal, as the highest ideal, the religion of the gods has before them a picture of humanity. And just as the temple floats on the distant shore of the gods' existence, so the temple, as the highest artistic achievement of the gods, presents the image of divine existence in the form of the human being. And it is peculiar that while human beings are developing in the spirit realm between death and a new birth, they gradually become more and more mature there to behold this temple of humanity, this high ideal of humanity. And while we here on earth feel that religious life must be our free act, that we must draw it out of ourselves, that it is also possible for the materialistic mind to deny the religious, the opposite is true in the spirit realm between death and a new birth. The more we live into the second half of the time between death and a new birth, the clearer it becomes before us, so that we cannot overlook it, so that it is always before our spiritual eyes, the highest human ideal, the goal of the gods for the worlds. Here on earth, man can be irreligious because his soul can overlook the spirit in relation to the physical. Over there, it is impossible for human beings not to see the goal of the gods, for it presents itself to them with certainty. Thus, especially in the second half of life, between death and a new birth, as if on the shore of existence, that is, on the shore of time flowing away—take all these expressions now in the sense that we are dealing with something outside of space and time—thus stands the ideal of humanity. There can be no religion of knowledge over there, for one must recognize what is religious content. What I have now described is religious content on the other side. In this sense, no human being can be irreligious if they do not have the religious ideal of the spirit world before them. For that stands there by itself; it is the goal of the gods and is presented as the most powerful, most glorious imagination when we begin the second half of our life between death and a new birth. But even if we cannot develop a religion of knowledge over there, we do develop a kind of religion under the guidance of higher spiritual beings who are active there for human beings.
But while cognition and vision cannot be taught to us because they are self-evident, our will, our volitional feeling, our feeling will must be stimulated in the second half of life between death and a new birth in order to truly strive toward what we see there. The will of the gods and the feelings of the gods flow into our willing feeling, into our feeling willing, so that we choose the path in this direction in the second half of our life between death and a new birth. All expressions are clumsy for this completely different kind of life, but the expression may nevertheless be used: here we are taught in relation to our intellect; only when a teacher goes through the idea does he continue to work on our feelings here on earth. Over there, when one has passed the point in the middle between death and a new birth, which I have described in my last mystery drama, The Awakening of the Souls, as the midnight hour, there is at first a certain dullness in relation to the will and feeling toward what stands like a magnificent temple in the distance of time. Divine forces glow and warm our inner soul faculties: it is a lesson that speaks directly to our inner being and expresses itself in such a way that we increasingly gain the ability to truly want to walk the path toward what we see as an ideal. While in physical life we may stand before a teacher or an educator, and he may stand before us, and yet we feel deep down that he is speaking to us from outside, we feel that our spiritual educators of the higher hierarchies, by educating us as I have just described, are pouring their own powers directly into our inner being. Earthly educators speak to us, spiritual educators in the life between death and a new birth give their lives into our souls by educating us spiritually and religiously. And so we feel them more and more within us, these educators from the higher hierarchies, and we feel more and more deeply connected to them. This strengthens and fortifies our inner life. You are increasingly accepted by the gods, the gods live more and more within you, and they help you to become stronger and stronger inwardly! This is what passes as a basic feeling through this life between death and a new birth, especially in its second half.
Thus we see how everything in this life is designed so that our experiences take place directly in the depths of our own soul. But now, as we are taught by the gods, we come to a certain point of experience between death and a new birth. We come to an important point. It is, I would say, in the distant future, where we see the ideal of humanity; but the forces that can be placed in us by our divine spiritual educators depend on what we have made of ourselves in the course of our incarnations, in the course of our previous human lives. And so, as we live our way from the midnight of the world, we stand right in the middle between death and a new birth, and we continue to live on into the ages and see the ideal of humanity in the most distant times, then finally at a point where we have the ultimate perspective of the ideal of humanity. But we stand at this point where we must now say to ourselves — we do not say it, of course, we experience it entirely inwardly, but one must express it in the words of ordinary life —: Divine-spiritual forces have worked on you, have become ever more inward in your soul, now live in you; but now you are at the point where you can no longer penetrate further with these forces, for you would have to be much more perfect if you wanted to go further than you have come so far.
And now comes an important decision point. At this moment, a hard temptation approaches us! The gods have meant well with us, they have given us everything they can give us for now, they have made us as strong as possible according to the strength we have acquired in our previous lives. So this strength given to us by the gods is within us, and temptation comes upon us, telling us: Yes, you can now follow these gods, you can now let everything that you are flow into what the gods have given you in terms of strength, you can enter the spiritual worlds. For the gods have given you much, much.
One can become completely spiritual: this prospect lies before us. But one can only do this by diverting one's path from the path toward the great ideal of humanity, by stepping out of the path. In other words, one enters the spiritual worlds by taking all one's imperfections with one into the spiritual worlds. There they would already be transformed into perfections. They would really do so. One could enter with one's imperfections, and because one would be permeated by divine forces, one would become a being with them. But this being would have to renounce the faculties that it nevertheless possesses, that it has not yet developed on its previous path and that lie in the direction of the great ideal of humanity; it would have to renounce them. Every time before we go to an earthly incarnation, we are tempted to remain in the spiritual world, to enter into the spirit and develop forward with what we already are, what is now completely divinized, and to renounce what we could still become more as human beings on the path toward the distant religious ideal of the divine-spiritual world. The temptation arises to become irreligious toward the spirit world.
This temptation is all the greater because at no moment in human development does Lucifer have greater power over human beings than at this moment, when he whispers to them: Seize the opportunity now, you can remain in the spirit, you can transfer everything you have developed into the spiritual light! And Lucifer seeks to make the soul forget, as far as possible, what still exists as potential, what stands there in the distant temple on the distant shore of time.
As humanity is now, human beings would not be able to resist Lucifer's temptation at this point if the spirits whose adversary is Lucifer did not now take over the affairs of human beings. And there ensues a struggle between the gods who lead human beings toward their ideal and the gods who profess the religion of the gods, with Lucifer, for the soul of a human being. And the result of this battle is that the archetype that man has formed of his earthly existence is thrown out of time into space, attracted magnetically by the existence of space. This is also the moment when that magnetic attraction through the parents occurs, when man is placed in the spheres of space and gains kinship with the sphere of space. But this veils everything around the human being that could tempt him to remain only in the spiritual world. And this veiling is expressed precisely in his envelopment in physicality. He is inserted into physicality so that he cannot see what Lucifer wants to place before him. And when he is enveloped in the physical shell and now sees the world through his physical senses and his physical mind, he does not see what he would otherwise, seduced by the tempter, want to strive for in the spiritual world; he does not see it, he sees this world of spiritual beings and processes from outside, as they reveal themselves to the senses and to the mind bound to the brain. And while he is in the sense body, the spirits who are guiding him take over his development.
And now let us ask ourselves: How much happens to us between birth and death in the subconscious depths of the soul, how much happens to us without our knowing it? — If we had to be guided in such a way that we accomplished everything consciously, we would not be able to complete our earthly existence at all. I have already pointed this out in my book on “The Spiritual Guidance of Man and Humanity”: when entering physical incarnation, man must first work plastically on his brain and nervous system himself. He works, but he works unconsciously. All this is the expression of a wisdom far greater than that which human beings can comprehend with their sensory intellect. Between birth and death, a wisdom reigns within us that exists behind the world we see with our senses and think about with our intellect, which is bound to the brain. This wisdom exists behind us; it is veiled from us between birth and death. But it reigns, weaves, and works within us in the subconscious depths of our souls, and it must, so to speak, take matters into its own hands in these subconscious depths of the human soul, because human beings must be removed for a time from a sight that would be tempting to them. Under normal circumstances, during the entire time we live in our physical bodies, without being introduced into the spiritual world through careful training, if the guardian of the threshold did not prevent us from looking into the spiritual worlds, our whole life would be tempted, step by step, to abandon our still imperfect, our still unexpressed human faculties and follow the upward swing into the spiritual worlds, but with our imperfections. We need the time of our earthly life to be removed from Lucifer's temptation during this time.
Until the appointed time when we are led out into space, Lucifer does not yet have power, for there is still a possibility of moving forward, but he comes at the very moment when we have reached the point of decision. We cannot move forward through our previous lives, so let us stray with our imperfections and remain in the spiritual world. The advancing gods, whose enemy is Lucifer, protect us from this by removing us from this spiritual world, by veiling it from us, and by carrying out what must happen to us from this spiritual world behind our consciousness.
So we stand there as human beings in the world, with our consciousness in our physical bodies, and say to ourselves: Thank you, gods! You have left us just enough of the possibility of knowing something about the world as is good for us. For if we were to look beyond the threshold of our consciousness, we would be in danger at every moment of not wanting to achieve our human goal. From that brighter, higher state of consciousness in which we are between death and a new birth, where we have spiritual worlds and spiritual beings around us, where we are in the spirit, we had to be transferred into the world of space so that the world which we could not bear until we had passed through the time between birth and death, the time in which we were removed from the spiritual world and in which we were unable to endure the spiritual world because it was hidden from us, might be veiled from us in the world of space. we could not bear until we had passed through the time between birth and death, the time in which, because we were removed from the spiritual world, because this spiritual world did not affect us during this time, because only material things surrounded us, we received a new impetus toward the distant goals of the ideal of humanity. For during the entire time that we live on earth, during which we cannot see into the spiritual world with our consciousness, the divine spirits that drive us forward work within us, unhindered by our consciousness, unhindered by our temptation to follow Lucifer. And they instill in us so much strength that when we pass through the gate of death, we can advance a little further toward the ideal of humanity.
This is also a mystery that lies behind human existence, which I have hinted at with these words. And I think it is a good Easter sentiment to look at those conditions of life that are achieved more through inner departure from the body, to look at the conditions between death and a new birth, and the life that we subsequently gain in the physical body. There we look at this life between death and a new birth and become aware of the guidance of the good divine-spiritual beings who help us forward. As we look back on our past in the spirit, we look up to these divine spiritual beings, and we now understand that our existence in the body between birth and death has been granted to us by the gods so that the gods can care for us for a while, without us having to do anything, for our further development. While we perceive the world, while we think, feel, and will in the world, while we store up our treasure trove of memories in order to have a coherent existence in physical life, behind all this, behind our conscious life, the divine-spiritual beings are at work. They direct the flow of time. They have released us into space so that we have just as much consciousness in this space as these gods deem good for us to have when they want to continue directing our destinies behind this consciousness according to the great ideals of humanity, according to the ideals of the religion of the gods.
Let us look within ourselves in this way — now to that inner part of ourselves which we cannot even see or explore with our consciousness under normal circumstances — and try to penetrate ourselves with the feeling: There lives something within you which you cannot perceive with the normal powers of human life, but which is your deepest inner soul; let us seek to become aware of it within ourselves, this deeper soul hidden within us, and then let us try to become aware of how the gods rule in this soul which we ourselves do not control, how God rules within us: then we will gain the right feeling for the God who rules within us. And it is actually for the sake of this feeling, this right Easter feeling, that I wanted to say today's words, not so much because of their theoretical content.
When—looking at what presents itself to the soul when it steps out of itself, as it were, and fills the space—this soul can know, can learn: I am born of the divine—then it can deepen this knowledge through what has been said today by becoming aware that With all that I know, with all that is accessible to my soul in perception, thinking, feeling, and willing, I am born out of a deeper soul, out of that soul within me that is still with the divine, that flows in the stream of time, but flows with the divine. We can perceive a knowledge that can be expressed in a much deeper sense than the one that could have been meant yesterday at the end of our reflection. In an even deeper sense, we can now put forward the words that are the result of our reflection: We are born from God. For we perceive that this soul, with what it can know of itself, is born at every moment from the divine, so that at every moment we may fill our deepest inner being with this: We are born from God.
Ex deo nascimur.