The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. The Pentecost Festival of Spiritual Striving and Working for the Spiritualization of the World (continued)

[ 1 ] In the last lecture, we looked at some spiritual beings that are below human beings, some of whom have abilities comparable to those of humans, but lack a sense of responsibility. We have seen how they are to be regarded as the dregs of evolution, which would be a hindrance if left to themselves, but how they are used under a higher wisdom and how they are transformed from harmful beings into good ones.

[ 2 ] Today we want to add a few more beings to this group in order to show how human beings interact with these beings. Let us begin with the assumption that every time night falls, human beings undergo a transition from the waking state to the sleeping state. We know that when a person is awake during the day, their four members are connected and interpenetrate each other. We also remember that every night the astral body and the I rise out of the physical and etheric bodies. So we have seen two different beings arise at night out of this human connection, out of the fourfold human being. The physical body and the etheric body remain in bed; the astral body and the I remain outside.

[ 3 ] For modern human beings, completely different states occur at night than during the day. We can compare the state of consciousness of modern humans at night with the state of consciousness of plants. Plants have the state of consciousness of dreamless sleep. When asleep, humans are also imbued with a kind of plant consciousness. At night, humans are also in a dreamless state of sleep in the spiritual worlds.

[ 4 ] To these ideas we add that every member of the human being has its expression in the physical body. The physical body is, so to speak, the result of the basic members of the human being. The ego finds expression in the blood, the astral body finds expression in the nervous system, the etheric body finds expression in the glandular system, and the sensory system stands for the physical body as expression. When we see the expression of the revelation of the various members in the physical body of the human being, we must say that the blood circulation is there through the individual ego. No nervous system can exist without the astral body structuring and creating this nervous system. At night, we withdraw the astral body and the ego from the physical body, but not the nervous system and the blood. However, blood and the ego belong together, and the astral body and the nervous system belong together.

[ 5 ] At night, human beings behave extremely contemptuously toward their physical bodies. In order for human beings to have tools for the ego and for the astral body, the blood and the nervous system had to come into being. Now, at night, they leave the blood and the nervous system. It would be impossible for a physical body with blood and a nervous system to exist for even a second without the astral body and the ego. Plants can exist without these because they have no nervous system and no blood system. We would find the physical body dead in the morning if we were dependent only on ourselves at night. We take away from it the higher forces, the astral body and the ego, which must supply the physical body. What we do not do, other beings must do at night. At night they penetrate the physical body and the etheric body; they descend into the physical body and etheric body. Every night, higher spiritual beings return to the human physical body and etheric body and carry out the work that is performed during the day by the individual's own ego and astral body. These are high, exalted beings who once created the physical body and etheric body of human beings and who take them back again at night. Above, in the higher world, the astral body is with the ego at night; below, the physical body and etheric body remain. They are abandoned by the astral body and the ego during the night. To the same extent that they are abandoned by the astral body and the ego, the forces of higher beings enter into them.

[ 6 ] The etheric body of the human being is not the same as the etheric body of plants. At night, higher forces from a higher world stream into the physical and etheric bodies of the human being. The following can happen: During daytime consciousness, the human being continuously acts upon the physical body and the etheric body. When humans think and feel, this takes place in the astral body, but it passes into the etheric body and the physical body. It is imprinted there. In the past, the physical body and etheric body arose purely from the will of higher beings. But when humans become self-conscious, the influences of these higher beings leave the physical body and etheric body. What lives in the soul is not without effect on the physical body and etheric body. The anatomist cannot, of course, determine what changes take place in the human physical body and etheric body, but they do take place. A great effect occurs in the physical body and etheric body when a person lies. Lying and hypocrisy are processes in the soul and in the I. From a materialistic point of view, one may believe that lying takes place only within. But the occult observer knows that it causes changes to take place in the physical body, even in its structure. Such changes also take place through the numerous conventional lies that exist in the world.

[ 7 ] Let us survey material reality: we know how our lives are peppered with all kinds of untruths. When people say something they do not mean, it is like the impression left by a seal in sealing wax. This impression remains. All hypocrisy, untruth, and slander remain in the physical body like an imprint. When a person leaves their physical body and etheric body at night, such imprints can be seen. Now beings from the higher worlds come and find them there. This is not compatible with the higher worlds. As a result, something new enters, something completely new is created. Now, beings are cut off from the higher entities by the physical body and then lead an independent existence between our worlds. In secret science, they are called phantoms. They are called phantoms because they are closest to physical perception. They are also beings with physical laws. They buzz around our space. They hold back human development. They make what lives in the world worse than if they weren't there. These phantoms are beings that people create through lies, hypocrisy, and so on, which hold back development.

[ 8 ] Learning about the effects of spiritual beings is much more helpful than moral preaching. A future humanity will know what it creates through lies, hypocrisy, and slander. By learning facts, one creates the most effective morality, not through moral principles. The strongest moral drives and impulses are created through the spiritual-scientific foundation of existence. Phantoms are also a kind of natural being that exist through human activity. In the evening, the human being leaves the physical body and leaves behind the imprints of lies, hypocrisy, and so on. When people move back into their bodies in the morning, these phantoms are the first to stream out of the physical body.

[ 9 ] The etheric body can also be influenced in such a way that it produces constricted entities. There are certain processes in the human world that cause such severances to arise through the etheric body. All things, such as unjust, bad laws that punish in an incorrect manner, bad institutions in a social community, have an effect back on the etheric body, so that those entities that are only laughed at in our superstitious age are severed in the etheric body. These beings are specters, ghosts. True ghosts are those to whose class or order such beings belong. People should strive to organize their institutions as well as possible so that they do not create such beings.

[ 10 ] Now let us turn our attention to the I and the astral body during the night. Let us remember that the astral body and the I are also in a special position in the human being. They have adapted themselves to the life of the blood and nerves. Higher forces from a higher world also stream down onto the astral body and the I during the night. When human beings take certain things with them from their daily lives, a process of separation takes place again. Once again, it is things of the soul life that bring about the process of separation. Let us imagine that two people have two different opinions. One tries to persuade the other and has a longing to convince him. This desire is very common among people today. People should present their opinions to others and wait to see whether forces are stirred in the other person that cause them to accept the opinion. There are so many fanatics of their own opinions who are not satisfied unless they are able to force their opinions on others. When this happens, it harms both astral bodies. They take persuasion and false advice with them. What is absorbed into the astral bodies causes beings called demons to detach themselves from the astral body at night.

[ 11 ] These demonic beings have a particularly unfavorable influence on our human development. They swarm through the spiritual realm and prevent people from developing their own personal views. Think how much sinning in this direction takes place in many a coffee shop or at the beer table! There, forces are constantly being drawn away for the formation of demons. These creep into the human soul. Ask yourself how much of this happens in this or that court case, how people testify! They are convinced that they are not swearing falsely, because they are convinced. An event was once arranged that went according to plan. Thirty people were supposed to describe it. Two described the event correctly; but all the other twenty-eight wrote things that did not happen. In this way, all kinds of influences come from demonic beings that are formed in this way. There is no other means for human beings than to recognize these facts, to know what they are doing in order to free themselves from the influences of these harmful spiritual beings. Wherever there is an opportunity for these beings to exert their devastating influences, they are there. In the courtroom, the occult observer can see this. The beings always work in the direction in which they came into being. Such beings, which have come into being through bad laws, work again in such a way that they lead people to bad laws.

[ 12 ] Human beings should look into the spiritual world so that they become practical and do not continually create obstacles. When we let our gaze wander over what has just occupied us, we must say to ourselves that during our waking life, human beings give rise to all kinds of spiritual beings, elemental beings. We must ask what significance these beings have in the future development of humanity. We look back to earlier times when our ancestors lived in the Atlantean world. If we were to go back far enough in the ancient Atlantean development, we would gradually find human beings in a completely different form. Let us think back to approximately the middle of the Atlantean epoch. We must imagine human beings at that time with the part of the etheric body that is now in our head protruding far beyond the physical head, as it is still perceptible to the clairvoyant in the horse. This is particularly noticeable in elephants. They have a large protuberance in front of and above their physical head. This was also the case with humans in ancient Atlantis. Progress in evolution consisted in these parts moving closer together, so that today the etheric head and the physical head almost coincide in humans.

[ 13 ] Humans used to have a dim clairvoyance. When humans immersed themselves in their physical bodies during the day, they did not see fixed boundaries, but saw objects surrounded by an aura. At night, they did not see these boundaries at all, but only the spiritual aspect of things. In the post-Atlantean era, we can distinguish five cultural epochs so far. In ancient India, in the first post-Atlantean era, human beings were such that the connection between the etheric head and the physical head was very slight. The fusion of the etheric head with the physical head became increasingly stronger. It has become strongest in our time, the fifth post-Atlantean culture, where people have descended into the physical, material world, where people have penetrated deepest into matter. In these many incarnations during the various epochs, human beings have learned many things up to the day of their present incarnation. Everything that happens in the world happens in a descending and ascending line. Just as the etheric head has become more and more connected with the physical head, so it is true that a loosening is gradually taking place. We have already reached the point where the etheric head is beginning to loosen again. We must distinguish here between racial evolution and soul evolution. In the future, there will be souls who have not done enough while the etheric head was united with the physical head. Today, as a result of the fusion of the etheric head with the physical head, many resist accepting spiritual truths. Those who accept spiritual truths now will, when they return later, have absorbed enough in this incarnation to find the connection. But those who now fail to do what must be done will not find bodies that suit them in the future. For racial evolution will create normal bodies that suit souls who have not missed anything. Others will be such that their loosened etheric body will be unable to absorb anything. These people will be a special breed of human beings who will fall out of the progressive development of humanity.

[ 14 ] It takes something to find one's way into a future body. Imagine a soul that will live in a body that has a loosened etheric body. The soul would no longer understand if one spoke to it about demons and so on. Today is the time when one can speak about these things. Once the etheric body is loosened again, one will not be able to do so. Now the etheric body is called to completely different perceptions. The etheric body will later live in the spiritual world. This world is populated by demons and so on. Then this world of spiritual beings will surround human beings, and if they are not prepared for this through the teachings about it, they will later be at a loss as to how to deal with these beings. But those who take the knowledge of these beings with them from this incarnation will understand how to behave towards them. These knowledgeable people are called upon in the future to transform these beings into servants of progressive development. Thus we see how people can fail in their task of further developing humanity and other beings.

[ 15 ] All these demons, ghosts, and phantoms are harmful today. But in the future, we will transform them into servants of human progress. To this end, however, humans must prepare themselves. Soul and racial development do not run parallel to each other.

[ 16 ] In the future, humans will divide into good and evil. As one part develops in the right way to transform the demons, ghosts, and phantoms in the future, they will push down another part. These will be the evil ones. What the human spirit creates has real meaning. This has always been the case in human development.

[ 17 ] Another example can be given of how humans are co-creating in the world today. Let us turn our gaze to the fourth cultural period, to the Greek temple. The idea of the temple first arose from the human soul. The idea of the temple rests on what we call the column and on what the column supports. Never again has humanity achieved such an ability to empathize with the space that is supported. Let us compare a Greek temple with a modern building. When the column becomes decorative, it is no longer the true column that it is when it stands freely and truly supports. Man must feel that the column must be made of the right material. If we paint an iron column that is thin and supports the same weight as a thicker stone column, it is deceiving us.

[ 18 ] A Greek temple is a Greek concept of space. People would understand this if they could imagine forces flowing from top to bottom and from right to left. We can imagine three angels painted, floating in the air, so that we know they are supporting each other. We find this sense of space in the paintings of the old masters. We no longer find it today, not even in Böcklin. In his Pietà, there is an angel who gives us the feeling that he is about to fall down at any moment.

[ 19 ] This is something that even the greatest genius can lack if spiritual culture is missing: a sense of space. Every time a person creates a real idea of space, it gives beings the opportunity to fill that space. We then summon higher beings down into the space. We summon down completely different beings with the Greek column and the horizontal beams resting on it, and completely different beings with the Gothic cathedral and its pointed arches. The Gothic cathedral differs from the Greek temple in the following way in spiritual terms. In the Greek temple, man has imbued the space with his concept of space in such a way that the temple is a crystallized concept of space. Because the temple is as it is, it is the dwelling place of a higher being, a god, even when it is deserted by humans. But humans belong to the Gothic cathedral. It must be complemented by the devotion of humans and the folded hands they raise. The Greek temple is a dwelling place of God. The Gothic cathedral is a place of worship and a dwelling place of God when humans are present. Even when abandoned, the Greek temple is the dwelling place of a spiritual being. Thus we see that by being in harmony with the spiritual world, people interact with the spiritual world. Thus we see in spirit how, through the deeds of human beings, more and more work can be done to bring higher beings down to earth.

[ 20 ] Once again, the idea of Pentecost comes before our soul. The idea of Pentecost expresses in a symbol what we can recognize through such contemplation: that through their work, human beings create places for spiritual beings to descend, that they work on the spiritualization of the world.

[ 21 ] We must understand the spiritual-scientific idea in such a way that it penetrates into all individual branches of life. In our materialistic age, outer life is only a poor expression of the inner life. In the past, every door lock, every key was an expression of something spiritual. Now everything is so meaningless in comparison. Human beings will learn to create again in such a way that the outer is a reflection of the inner. Then a train station will also arise as a thought, just as the Greek temple and the Gothic cathedral arose. Our time also has an architectural style that corresponds to our time. That is the department store. It is the imprint of the idea of utility, the imprint of human egoism. The age of utility has produced the department store as its only original product.

[ 22 ] In the past, people built their soul feelings into the architectural style. The department store is an expression of the feelings of the 19th century. But now there is already a spiritual movement that is paving the way for a later spiritualization. People who understand the anthroposophical movement in this way are realizing the idea of Pentecost. In the future, we will see the anthroposophical ideas crystallized in what will cover the earth.