The Four Seasons and the Archangels
GA 229
12 October 1923, Dornach
4. The St. John Imagination
If now we go forward from Easter, the spring festival, we shall need to penetrate much more spiritually into the subject than we had to do in considering the previous seasons of the year. This may sound like a contradiction, but it is not so. In thinking of the Christmas season, we had to start from the way in which earthly mineral limestone is gradually transformed, and we carried this thought over to the time of Easter. In general, we have been turning our eyes on the active working of the spiritual in the material realm. Now in summer, high summer, man is really bound up with the being of Nature. From spring onwards into summer, Nature becomes constantly more active, more satisfied inwardly, and man with his whole being is woven into this mood of Nature. We can indeed say that in high summer man experiences a kind of Nature-consciousness. During spring, if he has the perception and feeling for it, he becomes one with all that is growing and sprouting. He blossoms with the flower, germinates with the plant, fruits with the plant, enters into everything that lives and has its being in the world outside. In this way he spreads out his own being over the being of Nature, and a kind of Nature-consciousness arises in him. Then, since in autumn Nature dies away and thus bears death within itself, man too, if he participates in what autumn—the time of Michaelmas—means for Nature, must experience in himself this dying away; but with his own self he must not take part in it. He must raise himself above it. In place precisely of a Nature-consciousness, a strengthening of his self-consciousness must occur. But in the glow of summer, just because a Nature-consciousness is then at its height in man, it is all the more necessary for the cosmos that—if only man is willing—the cosmos should bring the spiritual to meet him.
Hence we can say: In summer man is bound up with Nature, but, if he has the right feeling and perception for it, objective spirituality comes towards him from out of Nature's interweaving life. And so, to find the essential human being during the St. John's time, at midsummer, we must turn to the objective spirituality in the outer world, and this is present everywhere in Nature. Only in outward appearance is Nature the sprouting, budding—one might say the sleeping—being which calls forth from the powers of sleep the forces of vegetative growth, in which a kind of sleeping Nature-life is given form. But in this sleeping Nature, if only man has the perception for it, the spiritual which animates and weaves through everything in Nature is revealed.
So it is that if we follow Nature in high summer with deepened spiritual insight and with perceptive eyes, we find our gaze directed to the depths of the Earth itself. We find that the minerals down there send their inner crystal-forming process towards us more vividly than at any other time of the year. If we look with Imaginative perception into the depths of the Earth at St. John's-tide, we really have the impression that down there are the crystalline forms in which the hard earth consolidates itself—the very crystalline forms which gain their full beauty at the height of summer. At midsummer everything down below the earth shapes itself into lines, angles and surfaces. If we are to have an impression of it as a whole, we must picture this crystallising process as an interweaving activity, coloured throughout with deep blue.
I will try to show it on the blackboard, though of course I can do so only in a quite sketchy way. So we can say: On looking downwards, we have an impression of line-like forms, suffused with blue, and everywhere the blue is shot through with lines which sparkle like silver, so that everywhere within the silver-sparkling blue the crystallising process (white) can be discerned. It is as though Nature wishes to present her formative power in a wonderful plastic design, but a design that cannot be seen in the way we see with ordinary eyes. It is seen in such a way that one really feels oneself dissolved into the plastic design, and feels every silver-gleaming line down there to be within oneself, part of oneself. One feels that as a human form one has grown out of the blue depths of the earth's crust, and one feels oneself inwardly permeated with force by the silver-gleaming crystal lines. All this one feels as part of one's own being. And if one comes to oneself and asks—How is it that these silver-sparkling crystal lines and waves are working within myself? What is it that lives and works there, silver-gleaming in the blue of the Earth?—then one knows: That is cosmic Will. And one has the feeling of standing upon cosmic Will.
So it is when one looks down into the depths of the Earth. And if one looks up to the heights, how is it then? The impression one has is of out-spreading cosmic Intelligence. Human intelligence—as I have often said—is not of much value at its present stage. But the heavens at midsummer give one the feeling that cosmic Intelligence is alive everywhere—the intelligence not of single beings but of many beings who live together and within one another. Thus we have up there the out-spreading Intelligence woven through with light; the living Intelligence shining forth (yellow) as the polaric opposite of the Will. And while down below we feel—in that blue darkness everything is experienced only as forces, up above we feel—everything is such that in perceiving it we are illumined, permeated, with a feeling of intelligence.
And now within this radiant activity there appears—I cannot put it otherwise—a Form. When we were speaking of autumn, I had to name Michael as the most significant figure who rises before our souls out of the weaving of Nature. As to how Gabriel—to use the old name—enters into the time of Christmas, we shall have more to say. In the last lecture I showed you how at Easter, the season of spring, the figure of Raphael comes before us. He comes in dramatic guise, as the mediator who arouses in us the rightful approach, through reverence and worship, to what the Easter Imagination, the cosmic Easter Imagination, is. And now, for the St. John's time, there comes before us—to describe it in human terms, which are of course bound to be only approximate—an extraordinarily earnest countenance, which arises glowing warmly out of the pervading radiant Intelligence (red head in the yellow). We have the impression that this figure forms its body of light out of the radiant Intelligence. And for this to happen at the height of summer, something I have already described must come in: the elemental spirits of the Earth must soar upwards. As they do so, they weave themselves into the shining Intelligence up above, and the shining Intelligence receives them into itself. And out of that gleaming radiance the figure I have just mentioned takes form.
This form was divined by the old instinctive clairvoyance, and we can give it the same name by which it was known then. We can say: In summer, Uriel appears in the midst of the shining Intelligence.
Autumn |
Michael |
Winter |
Gabriel |
Spring |
Raphael |
Summer |
Uriel |
It is with great earnestness that this representative of the weaving cosmic forces, seeking to embody himself in a vesture of light, appears in the time of summer. There are further things we can observe as the deeds accomplished by Uriel in the radiant light—Uriel, whose own intelligence arises fundamentally from the working together of the planetary forces of our planetary system, supported by the working of the fixed stars of the Zodiac; Uriel, who in his thoughts preserves the thoughts of the cosmos. And so, quite directly, the feeling comes: You clouds of summer, radiant with Intelligence, in which are reflected up above the blue crystal-formations of the earth below, just as these blue crystal-formations mirror in turn the shining Intelligence of the summer clouds—out of your shining there appears in high summer, with earnest countenance, a concentrated Imagination of Cosmic Understanding.
Now the deeds of this embodied cosmic Understanding, this cosmic Intelligence, are woven in light. Through the power of attraction residing in the concentrated cosmic Intelligence of Uriel, the silver forces (white) are drawn upwards, and in the light of this inwardly shining Intelligence, as seen from the Earth, they appear as radiant sunlight, densifying into a glory of gold. One has the immediate feeling that the gleaming silver, streaming up from below, is received by the sunlit radiance above. And the earth-silver—the phrase is quite correct—is changed by cosmic alchemy into the cosmic gold which lives and weaves in the heights.
If we follow these happenings further, on through August, we gain an impression of something that completes the form of Michael, already described. I told you what the sword of Michael is made of, and whence the dragon draws his coiling life. But now, in the radiant beauty which appears spiritually out of the cosmic weaving at the height of summer, we ask ourselves: Whence does Michael, who leads us over to the autumn time of Michaelmas, derive his characteristic raiment—the raiment which first lights up in golden sunshine and then shines forth inwardly as a silver-sparkling radiance within the golden folds? Where does Michael acquire this gold-woven, silver-sparkling raiment? It comes from that which is formed in the heights through the upward-raying silver and the gold that flows to meet it; from the transmutation by the sun's power of the silver sparkling up from the Earth. As autumn approaches we see how the silver given by the Earth to the cosmos returns as gold, and the power of this transmuted silver is the source of that which goes on in the Earth during winter, as I have described. The Sun-gold, formed in the heights, in the dominion of Uriel, during high summer, passes down to weave and flow through the depths of the Earth, where it animates the elements that in the midst of winter are seeking to become the living growth of the following year.
So you see that when we come to the time of sprouting, springing life, we can no longer speak of matter permeated by spirit, as we speak of the Earth in winter. We have to speak of spirit woven through with matter—that is, with silver and gold.
Of course you must not take all this in a crude sense; you must think of the silver and gold as diluted beyond human measure. Then you will come to feel that all this is a kind of background for the cosmic, light-filled deeds of Uriel, and a clear impression of the countenance and gaze of Uriel will come before you.
We feel a deep longing to understand this remarkable gaze, directed downwards, and we have the impression that we must look around to find out what it signifies. Its meaning first dawns upon the mind when as human beings we learn to look with spiritual eyes still more deeply into the blue, silver-gleaming depths of the Earth in summer. And we see that weaving around these silver-gleaming crystalline rays are shapes—disturbing shapes, I might almost call them—which continually gather and dissolve, gather and dissolve again.
Then we come to perceive—the vision will be different for everyone—that these shapes are human errors which stand out against the natural order of regular crystals here below. And it is on this contrast that Uriel directs his earnest gaze. Here during the height of summer the imperfections of mankind, in contrast to the regularity of the growing crystal forms, are searchingly surveyed. Here it is that from the earnest gaze of Uriel we gain the impression of how the moral is interwoven with the natural.
Here the moral world-order does not exist only in ourselves as abstract impulses. For whereas we habitually look at the realms of Nature and do not ask—is there morality in the growth of plants, or in the process of crystallisation?—now we see how at midsummer human errors are woven into the regular crystals which are formed in the normal course of Nature.
On the other hand, all that is in human virtue and human excellence rises up with the silver-gleaming lines and is seen as the clouds that envelop Uriel (red). It enters into the radiant Intelligence, transmuted into cloud-shaped works of art.
It is impossible to look towards the increasingly earnest gaze of Uriel, directed towards the depths of the Earth, without also seeing there something like wing-like arms, or arm-like wings, raised in earnest admonition, and this gesture by Uriel has the effect of imparting to mankind what I might call the historic conscience. Here at high summer appears the historic conscience, which at the present time has become uncommonly feeble. It appears, as it were, in Uriel's warning gesture.
Of course, you must picture all this as an Imagination. These things are quite real, but I cannot speak of them in the way a physicist speaks of positive and negative, of potential energy and so on. I have to speak in pictures that will come to life in your souls. But everything expressed in these living pictures is reality; it is there.
And now if we have gained the impression of the connection of human morality with the crystalline element below and of human virtues with the shining beauty above, and if we take these connections into our inward experience, the real St. John Imagination will come to meet us. For the St. John Imagination is there, just as we have the Michael Imagination, the Christmas Imagination, the Easter Imagination.
So to spiritual observation there appears, as a kind of culmination, this picture: Above, illuminated as it were by the power of Uriel's eyes, the Dove (white). The silver-sparkling blue below, arising from the depths of the Earth and bound up with human weaknesses and error, is gathered into a picture of the Earth-Mother (blue). Whether she is called Demeter or Mary, the picture is of the Earth-Mother. So it is that in directing our gaze downwards, we cannot do otherwise than bring together in Imagination all those secrets of the depths which go to make up the material Mother of all existence; while in all that is concentrated in the flowing form above we feel and experience the Spirit-Father of everything around us. And now we behold the outcome of the working together of Spirit-Father with Earth-Mother, bearing so beautifully within itself the harmony of the earthly silver and the gold of the heights. Between the Father and the Mother we behold the Son. Thus arises this Imagination of the Trinity, which is really the St. John Imagination. The background of it is Uriel, the creative, admonishing Uriel.
That which the Trinity truly represents should not be placed dogmatically before the soul, for then an impression is given that such an idea, or picture, of the Trinity can be separated from the weaving of cosmic life. This is not so. At midsummer the Trinity reveals itself out of the midst of cosmic life, cosmic activity. It stands forth with inwardly convincing power, if—I might say—one has first penetrated into the mysteries of Uriel.
If we were to present St. John's-tide in this way, there would have to be an arched or vaulted background, with the figure of Uriel and his gesture in the manner I have described. And against this background a living picture of the Imagination of the Trinity would have to emerge. Special arrangements would be necessary; the effect would have to be that of painting done instantly, perhaps by making artistic use of vaporous substances or the like. And if the true Imagination of these things is to be called up for people to witness, it must be at St. John's time. At Easter we have the complete picture only when we bring it into dramatic form, with Raphael present as a teacher in the Mystery Play that would have then to be presented; Raphael who leads man into the secrets of healing nature, of the healing cosmos. In a similar way, at St. John's time, all that can then be seen in weaving pictures would have to be transposed into powerful music, so that the cosmic Mystery, as it can be experienced by man at this season of St. John, would speak to our hearts.
We must imagine how all that I have described should find artistic expression, on the one hand, in pictorial and plastic art. But what is experienced in this way must be given life by the musical tones that embody the poetic motif which plays through our souls when we feel our way into great Uriel, active in the light, who calls up in us a powerful impression of the triune, the Trinity. The silver-shining that rays up from below, and is revealed in the form-giving beauty of the light above, must be expressed at St. John's-tide through appropriate musical instruments. Thus we should find, through these musical harmonies, our own inner harmony with the cosmos, for in them the secret of man's living together with the cosmos at St. John's tide would have to sound forth. All this would have to be given voice in the music, so that in looking up to the heights we would be looking at the weaving gold of the cosmos, and would see the glowing form of Uriel emerging from the light-filled gold and directing his gaze and his gesture down to the Earth, as I have described it. All this would have to be not in any fixed form, but in living movement. That would be one motif, a heavenly motif through which a man can feel himself united, on one side, with the shining Cosmic Intelligence.
On the other side, down below, he feels himself united with the tendency to fixed form; with that which is immersed in the bluish darkness from out of which the silvery radiance streams forth. Down there he feels the material foundation of active spiritual being. The Heights become Mysteries, the Depths become Mysteries, and man himself becomes a Mystery within the Mysteries of the Cosmos. Right into his bony system he feels the crystal-forming power. But he feels also how this same power is in cosmic union with the living power of light in the heavens above. He feels how all that comes about through mankind as morality in these Mysteries of the Heights lives and weaves in these Mysteries of the Depths, and in the conjunction between the two. He feels himself no longer sundered from the world around him, but placed within it, united above with the shining Intelligence, in which he experiences, as in the womb of worlds, his own best thoughts. He feels himself united below, right into his bony system, with the cosmic crystallising force—and again the two united with one another. He feels his death united with the spirit-life of the universe; and he feels how this spirit-life craves to awaken the crystal forces and the silver-gleaming life in the midst of earthly death.
All this, too, would have to sound forth in musical tones—tones which carry these motifs on their wings and make them part of human experience. For these motifs are there. They do not have to be sought out; they can be read from the cosmic activity of Uriel. Here it is that Imagination passes over into Inspiration.
Man, however, lives in a certain sense as an embodied Inspiration, as a being brought into existence by Inspiration, in the Mysteries of the heights and depths and in the Mysteries of their conjunction. He lives in the Mysteries to which the Spirit-Father points upward; the Mysteries to which the Spirit-Mother points downwards, the Mysteries which are united by the fact that the Christ, though the working together of the Spirit-Father and the Spirit-Mother, stands directly before the human soul as the sustaining Cosmic Spirit.
That which is woven out of all these cosmic secrets I may put before you somewhat in the following way. It is as though the human being, placed in the midst of all that goes on in high summer, were to feel something like this. The first words endeavour to represent how the gaze of Uriel concentrates itself into Inspiration, united with the Spirit-tones of the whole choir:
| The Heights: | |
|---|---|
| Schaue unser Weben Das leuchtende Erregen Das warmende Leben |
Behold our weaving, the kindling radiance, the warming life. |
| The Depths: | |
|---|---|
| Lebe irdisch Erhaltendes Und atmend Gestaltetes— Als wesenhaft Waltendes |
Live in the earth's sustaining, and in the form-giving breathing, with the power of true being. |
| The Midst—The inner being of Man | |
|---|---|
| Fühle dein Menschengebeine Mit himmlischen Scheine Im waltenden Weltenvereine |
Feel the limbs of man, from the heavens illuminated, in the strength of worlds united. |
Here in these nine lines are the Mysteries of the Heights, the Mysteries of the Depths, and the Mysteries of the Midst, which are also those of the inner being of man. And then we have the whole gathered up as a cosmic statement of these Mysteries of the Heights, the Depths and the Midst, sounding out as though with organ and trumpet tones:
| Es werden Stoffe verdichtet Es werden Fehler gerichtet Es werden Herzen gesichtet. |
Substances are densified, errors are judged and rectified, hearts are sifted. |
Here you have that which can permeate the human being at midsummer, supporting him, exalting him, confirming him—the St. John Imagination filled with Inspiration, the St. John Inspiration filled with Imagination—in these words:
Schaue unser Weben
Das leuchtende Erregen
Das warmende Leben
Lebe irdisch Erhaltendes
Und atmend Gestaltetes—
Als wesenhaft Waltendes
Fühle dein Menschengebeine
Mit himmlischen Scheine
Im waltenden WeltenvereineEs werden Stoffe verdichtet
Es werden Fehler gerichtet
Es werden Herzen gesichtet.
Vierter Vortrag
Dringen wir jetzt vor von jener Betrachtung der Osterzeit, der Frühlingsfesteszeit, die wir das letzte Mal hier angestellt haben, zur Sommerzeit, dann kommen wir in die Notwendigkeit hinein, die Betrachtungen, die wir anstellen, viel geistiger anzustellen als für die vorhergehenden Jahreszeiten. Das könnte ein Widerspruch scheinen, ist aber keiner. Wir mußten bei der Weihnachtszeit ausgehen davon, wie das irdische Gestein, der Kalk, sich allmählich umändert, und haben das "dann zur Osterzeit hingeführt. Wir hatten überhaupt die Betrachtung so angestellt, daß wir gewissermaßen das Walten des Geistigen in dem Materiellen ins Auge gefaßt haben. Zur Sommerzeit, zur Hochsommerzeit wird der Mensch eigentlich hineinverstrickt in das Naturdasein. Das Naturdasein wird vom Frühling gegen den Sommer zu immer regsamer, immer innerlich gesättigter, und der Mensch selbst mit seinem ganzen Wesen wird in dieses Naturdasein hineinverwoben. So daß man sagen kann: Der Mensch macht während der Hochsommerzeit eine Art Naturbewußtsein durch. Er wird eins während des Frühlings, wenn er Gefühl und Empfindung dafür hat, mit allem Wachsenden, Sprießenden, Sprossenden. Er blüht mit der Blume, keimt mit der Pflanze, fruchtet auch mit der Pflanze, versetzt sich hinein in alles das, was draußen west und lebt. Dadurch erweitert er sein Dasein über das Naturdasein und es entsteht eine Art Naturbewußtsein. Dann muß, weil ja die Natur im Herbste abstirbt, also den Tod in sich trägt, der Mensch, wenn er mitlebt mit der Natur gegen den Herbst zu, gegen die Michaelizeit, diesen Tod auch in sich erleben; aber er darf ihn nicht mitmachen in seinem Selbst. Er muß sich über diesen Tod erheben. Es muß gerade an die Stelle dieses Naturbewußtseins die Stärkung, die Erkraftung des Selbstbewußtseins treten. Aber weil gerade das Naturbewußtsein in der Sommerglut am höchsten ist im Menschen, so ist es um so notwendiger für das Weltenall, daß dann dieses Weltenall, wenn der Mensch es nur will, dem Menschen das Geistige entgegenbringt.
So dürfen wir eigentlich sagen: Der Mensch ist in die Natur verstrickt während der Sommerzeit. Aber wenn er die rechten Empfindungen, die rechten Gefühle dafür hat, dann kommt ihm aus der webenden Natur die objektive Geistigkeit entgegen. So daß also für das eigentlich Menschliche in der Johannizeit das äußere, objektive Geistige gesucht werden muß. Und das ist auch durchaus im Natur dasein vorhanden. Die Natur ist nur äußerlich die sprießende, sprossende, man möchte sagen die schlafende Wesenheit, die gerade aus den Schlafkräften die Mächte des Pflanzenwachstums, die eine Art schlafendes Naturdasein bilden, herausholt. Aber aus dieser schlafenden Natur offenbart sich, wenn der Mensch dafür einen Sinn hat, das Geistige, das die Natur alldurchwebt und alldurchlebt.
Und so ist es, daß, wenn wir mit der geistigen Vertiefung in der Seele, mit dem schauenden Blicke das Naturdasein während des Hoch "sommers verfolgen, wir den Blick hinuntergerichtet finden in die Erdentiefen selber. Wir finden, wie die Gesteine in den Erdentiefen stärker als in einer sonstigen Jahreszeit ihr innerliches Kristallbildendes uns entgegentragen. Eigentlich hat man, wenn man mit dem imaginativen Blick in die Tiefen der Erde schaut zur Johannizeit, den Eindruck: Da unten webt und lebt es in Kristallformen, in denen sich das feste Erdreich konsolidiert, alles Kristallformen, Kristallformen, die gerade ihre Schönheit gewinnen während der Hochsommerzeit. Alles bildet sich da unten während der Hochsommerzeit in Linien, in Winkeln und Flächen. Und wenn man einen Gesamteindruck haben will, dann ist es dieses In-sich-Gefestigtsein der irdischen Kristallnatur, das sich finster-bläulich webt.
Ich darf Ihnen vielleicht, obwohl ja eine solche Zeichnung natürlich nur ganz skizzenhaft und imaginativ sein kann, die ganze Situation auf die Tafel fixieren (siehe Tafel V). Also man möchte sagen: Wenn man den Blick hinunterwendet, so erhält man den Eindruck des Linienhaften, aber über das Ganze eine Bläue ergossen, und dieses Blau überall von jenen Linien durchzogen, die eigentlich silbern erglänzen, so daß überall da drinnen in dem Bläulichen Silbererglänzendes, Kristallisierendes ist (weiß). Es ist, als ob die irdische Natur ihre Gestaltungskraft in einer wunderbaren Plastik einem entgegentragen will, aber in einer Plastik, die man nicht so sehen soll, wie man sonst mit Augen sieht; sondern es ist so, daß man eigentlich sich selber aufgelöst fühlt in dieser Naturplastik, daß man eigentlich jede Linie, die da unten ist, jede silberglänzende Linie in sich fühlt. Man fühlt sich förmlich als Mensch herausgewachsen aus dem blauen Untergrunde des Erdenbodens, und man fühlt sich innerlich durchkraftet von den silberglänzenden Kristallinien. Das alles fühlt man als sein eigenes Wesen. Und wenn man dann zu sich kommt und sich frägt: Wie wirken denn eigentlich diese silberglänzenden Keristallinien, Kristallwellen in dir selber? Was ist denn das, was da in der Erde silberglänzend im Erdenblau webt und lebt? - dann weiß man: Das ist kosmischer Wille. Und man hat dann das Gefühl, man steht auf kosmischem Willen. Das ist, wenn man den Blick hinunterrichtet. Und wenn man den Blick in die Höhe richtet?
Wenn man den Blick in die Höhe richtet, dann hat man den Eindruck des sich ausbreitenden kosmischen Intelligenten. Im Menschen ist im gegenwärtigen Stadium die Intelligenz ja, wie ich öfter beschrieben habe, noch nicht gar so viel wert. Aber zu der Hochsommerzeit, in den Höhen, da hat man das Gefühl: Es ist überall webende Intelligenz, aber webende Intelligenz nicht von einem Einzelwesen, sondern von vielen Wesen, die ineinanderleben, die miteinanderleben. So daß wir oben die sich ausbreitende webende Intelligenz haben, durch die das Licht sich hindurchlebt, die durchleuchtet scheinende, webende, lebende Intelligenz (gelblich) als den Gegensatz des Willens. Und während man unten das Gefühl hat: Da ist es bläulich finster, da ist eigentlich alles nur als Kräfte zu erleben -, hat man nach oben das Gefühl: Daisteigentlichalles so, daß es einenerleuchtet, wenn manes wahrnimmt, daß es einen mit einem Gefühl von Intelligenz durchdringt.
Und nun erscheint innerhalb dieses leuchtenden Webens - ich kann es nicht anders sagen -, es erscheint eine Gestalt. Ich mußte Ihnen ja für die Herbsteszeit als die wesentlichste Gestalt, die aus dem Naturweben heraus sich vor unsere Seele stellt, Michael angeben. Inwiefern in die Weihnachtszeit hinein sich nach den alten Benennungen Gabriel stellt, davon werden wir noch sprechen. Das letzte Mal habe ich-Ihnen für die Osterzeit, für den Frühling, das Sich-Hinstellen der Gestalt Raphaels gezeigt. Er ist uns gewissermaßen, dieser Raphael, zuletzt entgegengetreten als der dramatische Vermittler, der uns die nötige Anbetung und Verehrung für dasjenige entgegenbringt, was OÖsterimagination, kosmische Osterimagination ist. Jetzt, für die Johannizeit, tritt uns, wenn ich es menschlich beschreibe - es ist natürlich das alles nur annähernd beschrieben-,, es tritt uns sogleich ein außerordentlich ernstes Gesicht entgegen, ein ernstes Antlitz, das sich herauserhebt wie warm leuchtend aus der allgemeinen leuchtenden Intelligenz (roter Kopf in Gelb, Tafel V).
Man hat die Impression, daß aus dieser leuchtenden Intelligenz sich diese Gestalt ihre Lichtleiblichkeit bildet. Und es muß so sein, damit diese Gestalt ihre Lichtleiblichkeit während der Hochsommerzeit bilden kann, das muß eintreten, was ich Ihnen beschrieben habe: daß die Elementargeister der Erdenwesen aufsteigen. Indem sie aufsteigen, verweben sie sich oben mit der leuchtenden Intelligenz. Diese leuchtende Intelligenz nimmt sie auf. Und aus dem, was da erglänzt, lichterglänzt in der leuchtenden Intelligenz, verleiblicht sich darinnen diese Gestalt, die ja auch von der alten instinktiven Hellseherkraft geahnt worden ist, und die wir mit demselben Namen noch bezeichnen können, mit dem sie damals benannt worden ist. Wir können also sagen: Zur Sommerzeit erscheint in der leuchtenden Intelligenz Uriel.
Herbst: Michael
Winter: Gabriel
Frühling: Raphael
Sommer: Uriel.
Es ist strenger Ernst in dem, was da, aus dem Lichtesweben seine Leiblichkeit suchend, einem als Repräsentant der kosmisch webenden Kräfte in der Sommerzeit entgegentritt. Es sind die Dinge, die wir nun weiter beobachten können, wie die im Lichte vollbrachten Taten Uriels, Uriels, dessen eigene Intelligenz im Grunde genommen zusammengesetzt ist aus dem Ineinanderkraften der Planeten unseres Planetensystems, gestützt durch die Fixsternwirkungen der Tierkreisbilder, Uriels, der eigentlich in seinem eigenen Denken das Weltendenken in sich hegt. So daß man unmittelbar das Gefühl hat: Ihr leuchtend intelligenten Sommerwolken, in denen sich nach oben spiegeln die bläulichen Kristallgebilde des Erdenbodens unten, wie sich nach unten in den bläulichen Kristallgebilden des Erdenbodens wiederum spiegeln die leuchtenden, intelligenten Wolkengebilde, in euch, ihr leuchtenden Wolkengebilde, erscheint in der Hochsommerzeit mit ernstem Antlitz, imaginativ konzentriert, der Weltenverstand.
Nun, die Taten, sage ich, dieses sich verkörpernden Weltenverstandes, dieser verkörperten kosmischen Intelligenz, sie sind Taten, die im Lichte gewoben werden. Sie bestehen darin, daß durch die Anziehungskraft, die in dieser konzentrierten Weltintelligenz Uriels liegt, die Silberkräfte ihren Weg hinauf nehmen (weiß), und daß im Lichte dieser auch innerlich leuchtenden Intelligenz, von der- Erde aus gesehen, es erscheint wie das sich ausbreitende Sonnenlicht, das sich aber zum goldigen Scheine verdichtet. Und man hat unmittelbar das Gefühl: Jenes Silberige, das von unten nach oben strömt, wird aufgenommen von dem, was da sonnendurchleuchtet oben webt und lebt, und es wird das Erdensilber - es ist ein ganz richtiger Ausdruck, den ich jetzt gebrauche -, es wird das Erdensilber kosmisch-alchimistisch oben in das kosmische Gold verwandelt, das da oben webt und lebt. Und es ist ein fortwährendes Hinaufsprühen des Silberglänzenden, und oben ein fortwährendes Verwandeln des Silberglänzenden in Goldiges.
Und dann bekommt man, wenn man dies weiter verfolgt durch die Augustzeit hindurch, den Eindruck einer Ergänzung der MichaelGestalt, wie ich sie Ihnen beschrieben habe. Ich habe Ihnen beschrieben, woraus das Schwert des Michael ist, woraus dann der Drache sein Leben webt. Aber man fragt sich in dieser ganzen leuchtenden Schöne, die gerade geistig aus dem webenden Kosmischen zur Hochsommerzeit erscheint: Woher bekommt Michael, der dann überleitet zur Michaelizeit, zur Herbsteszeit, woher bekommt Michael seine eigentümliche Kleidung, diese Kleidung, die bald aufleuchtet im Sonnengold, bald innerlich erglänzt wie in einer innerhalb der goldenen Falten ersprießenden silberglänzenden Strahlung, woher ist dieses goldig gewobene, silbererglänzende Michael-Gewand? Es ist dasjenige, was sich da oben bildet durch das hinaufstrahlende Silber, durch das oben über das strahlende Silber hinflutende Gold, in das eigentlich durch die Kraft der Sonnenwirkung das aus der Erde ausstrahlende Silberglänzende verwandelt wird. Und wir sehen allmählich gegen den Herbst zu, was die Erde an Silber hingegeben hat an den Kosmos, als Gold zurückkommen, und in dieser Kraft des in Gold verwandelten Silbers liegt dasjenige, was dann während der Winterzeit in der Erde vor sich geht, was ich Ihnen ja beschrieben habe: Das Sonnengold, das innerhalb der Urielherrschaft während der Hochsommerzeit in den Höhen sich gebildet hat, zieht in die Tiefen der Erde ein, durchwebt und durchwogt geistig die Tiefen der Erde, belebt dort dasjenige, was Leben sucht für das nächste Jahr während der tiefen Winterzeit.
So sehen Sie, daß wir durchaus jetzt, wo wir in die Zeit des sprieBenden, sprossenden Lebens kommen, nicht sprechen können von geistdurchwobener Materie wie im Winter für die Erde, sondern wie wir sprechen müssen von materiedurchwobenem, nämlich von Silber und Gold durchwobenem Geist. Natürlich müssen Sie sich das alles nicht grob vorstellen, sondern in einer über alles menschliche Ermessen hinausgehenden Verdünnung müssen Sie sich die Silber- und Goldeswirkung vorstellen.
Und hat man diesen Eindruck, dann erscheint es einem so, als ob eigentlich das alles eine Art Hintergrund nur wäre, als ob das alles kosmische Leuchtetaten wären, kosmische Lichttaten des Uriel. Denn man bekommt einen deutlichen Eindruck von dieser Gestalt des Uriel. Man bekommt einen deutlichen Eindruck auch von seinem Blick. Man bekommt die tiefste Sehnsucht, diesen merkwürdig nach unten gerichteten Blick des Uriel zu verstehen. Man bekommt den Eindruck, man muß sich umsehen, was dieser Blick bedeutet. Und man kommt erst darauf, einzusehen, was dieser Blick bedeutet, wenn man nun als Mensch selbst lernt, geistig noch tiefer hinunterzusehen in die blauen, silbererglänzenden Tiefen des Soemmererdbodens. Da weben sich, ich möchte sagen, in einer gewissen Weise störend, um diese silberglänzenden Kristallstrahlen herum sich auflösende, sich wieder ballende Gestaltungen, Gestaltungen, die bald sich zusammenballen, bald sich wieder auflösen.
Nun kommt man darauf: Das sind — der Anblick muß für jeden Menschen anders sein — die menschlichen Fehler, die sich in ihrem Kontraste gegen die regelmäßig in sich konsequenten Naturkristallgestalten hier unten abheben. Und auf diesen Kontrast der Naturkristallisation in ihrer regelmäßigen Schöne und der menschlichen sich darüber webenden Fehler ist der ernste Blick des Uriel gerichtet. Hier wird zur Hochsommerzeit durchschaut, was im Menschengeschlechte noch unvollkommen ist gegenüber den regelmäßig sich aufbauenden Kristallgestaltungen. Da ist es, wo man, ich möchte sagen, aus dem ernsten Blick des Uriel den Eindruck empfängt: Es verwebt sich Natürliches mit Moralischem. Da steht nicht bloß die moralische Weltordnung in uns selber wie abstrakte Impulse, sondern wir sehen jetzt, während wir sonst das Naturdasein anschauen und nicht fragen: Lebt im Pflanzenwuchs Moralität? Lebt in der Kristallisation Moralität? -, wie sich auch naturhaft zusammenweben in der Hochsommerzeit menschliche Fehler und regelmäßige, in sich konsequente, in sich konsolidierte Naturkristallisation.
Dagegen alles das, was menschliche Tugend, was menschliche Tüchtigkeit ist, das geht mit den silberglänzenden Linien nach oben und erscheint wie die einhüllenden Wolken des Uriel (rot), tritt sozusagen als in Kunstwerke, in Wolkenplastik verwandelte menschliche Tugend in die leuchtende Intelligenz ein.
Man kann nicht bloß hinschauen auf das ernste, durch den Blick auf die Erdentiefen ernst werdende Antlitz-Auge des Uriel, sondern man kann auch hinschauen auf etwas, was, ich möchte sagen, wie flügelartige Arme oder armartige Flügel in ernster Mahnung da ist, und was gerade als Gebärde des Uriel wirkt, was in das Menschengeschlecht hineinleitet dasjenige, was ich nennen möchte das historische Gewissen. Hier in der Hochsommerzeit erscheint das historische Gewissen, das insbesondere in der Gegenwart außerordentlich schwach entwickelt ist. Das erscheint wie in der mahnenden Gebärde des Uriel.
Natürlich müssen Sie sich das alles als Imagination vorstellen. Die Dinge sind ganz real, aber ich kann Ihnen natürlich nicht über diese Dinge so sprechen, wie der Physiker spricht vom Positiven und Negativen und vom Energiepotential und so weiter. Ich muß Ihnen in solchen Bildern sprechen, die leben. Aber was in diesen lebenden Bildern ausgedrückt wird, ist ja Wirklichkeit, ist da.
Und hat man nun den Eindruck bekommen des Zusammenhanges des Menschen in bezug auf seine Moralität mit dem unteren Kristallhaften und mit dem oberen, in Schönheit erglänzenden menschlichen Tugendhaften, hat man diesen Zusammenhang des Menschen in sein innerliches Erleben aufgenommen, dann tritt einem entgegen die eigentliche Johanni-Imagination; dasjenige, was Johanni-Imagination ist, steht da, wie die Michael-Imagination, die ich Ihnen beschrieben habe, wie die Weihnachts-Imagination, die Oster-Imagination.
Dann erscheint, wie eine Art Zusammenfassung, dieses Bild, das sich dem beobachtenden Geistesblicke ergibt: Oben, gewissermaßen beleuchtet durch die Augenkraft des Uriel, die Taube (weiß). Es ballt sich zum Bilde zusammen dasjenige, was unten silbererglänzende Bläue ist, was die Erdentiefen, verbunden mit den menschlichen Untüchtigkeiten und Fehlern darstellt, es konsolidiert sich in dem Bilde der Erdenmutter (blau), ob Sie es nun Demeter, ob Sie es Maria nennen. So daß, wenn man den Blick nach unten richtet, man eigentlich nicht anders kann, als in Imagination alle diese Geheimnisse der Tiefen zusammenzufassen als dasjenige, was die Stoffmutter alles Daseins ist, während man in dem, was sich oben konzentriert, in der fließenden Gestalt, alles das empfindet, was der Geistvater alles Daseins um uns herum ist.
Und nun schaut man das Ergebnis des Zusammenwirkens des Geistvaters mit der Stoffmutter; dasjenige, was im schönsten Maße den Zusammenklang in sich trägt von Silber-Erdenwirkung und GoldesHimmelswirkung: zwischen dem Vater und der Mutter den Sohn (siehe Tafel V). So daß diese Imagination der Dreifaltigkeit auftritt, welche die eigentliche Johanni-Imagination ist. Der Hintergrund ist der schaffende, schauende, mahnende Uriel.
Dasjenige, was eigentlich darstellt die Trinität, das sollte nicht einfach dogmatisch vor die Seele hingestellt werden. Dadurch erhält man den Eindruck, als ob eine solche Idee der Trinität, ein solches Bild der Trinität losgelöst sei von dem kosmischen Weben und Leben. Das ist es nicht. Es ist die Trinität zur Hochsommerzeit aus der kosmischen Wirkung heraus sich offenbarend, aus dem kosmischen Leben und Weben. Sie tritt heraus in einer innerlich überzeugenden Kraft, wenn man erst eingedrungen ist, ich möchte sagen, in die Mysterien des Uriel.
Und wollte man da gerade die Johannizeit vor die Seele hinstellen, so müßte da sein der Bogenhintergrund, der Gewölbehintergrund mit dem Uriel, in der Wirkungsweise, wie ich sie Ihnen geschildert habe. Und gewissermaßen abheben müßte sich davon — das bedürfte ganz besonderer Vorrichtungen, um das darzustellen -, abheben müßte sich davon, ich möchte sagen in einer lebendigen, erst im Augenblicke heraufgerufenen Malerei, was ja erreicht werden könnte durch eine besonders kunstvolle Verwendung von Rauchmaterial oder dergleichen, abheben müßte sich davon die Imagination der Trinität. Das müßte, wenn vor den Menschen die wirkliche Imagination dieser Sache hintreten soll, zur Johannizeit hervorgerufen werden. Geradeso wie wir zur Osterzeit die Sache nur vollständig haben, wenn wir ins Dramatische hineinkommen, wenn wir so hineinkommen ins Dramatische, so daß wir im Mittelpunkte des Mysteriendramas, das sich da abspielen müßte, den lehrenden Raphael mit dem Menschen hätten, der in die Geheimnisse der heilenden Natur, in die Geheimnisse des heilenden Kosmos einführt, so müßte dasjenige, was man da schaut, was man schauen kann allerdings in webender Bildhaftigkeit, das müßte sich umsetzen zur Johannizeit in ein mächtiges Musikalisches. Aber aus diesem mächtigen Musikalischen müßte sozusagen das Weltengeheimnis, wie es der Mensch erlebt gerade zur Johannizeit, uns selber ansprechen.
Und zu denken hätte man sich, wie das alles, was ich Ihnen beschrieben habe, in entsprechend künstlerischer Ausbildung auf der einen Seite ginge nach der bildenden Kunst. Aber dasselbe, was empfunden und gefühlt wird in bildender Kunst, das müßte sein Leben empfangen von den webenden Tönen, die verkörperten jenes dichterische Motiv, das unsere Seele durchwebt und durchlebt, indem wir uns selber hineinfühlen in diesen im Lichte wirkenden, im Lichte tätigen Uriel, der in uns hervorruft den mächtigen Eindruck der Dreifaltigkeit.
Und da müßte dasjenige, was von unten herauf silbererglänzend strahlt, was oben sich offenbart in gestaltender Schöne des Lichtwirkens, das alles müßte in entsprechender Instrumentation zum Musikalischen gestaltet werden gerade zur Johannizeit, so daß der Mensch in dem Weben der Töne sein eigenes Miterleben mit dem Kosmos findet. Und es müßte herausklingen, weil in diesen webenden Tönen verkörpert, das Geheimnis des Zusammenseins des Menschen mit dem Kosmos zur Johannizeit. All das müßte drinnen sein. Es müßte der Mensch, wenn er hinaufschaut, das weltenwebende Gold erblicken, aus dem lichtstrahlenden Golde herausdringend die rötlich warme Gestalt des Uriel — das alles nicht feste Gestalt, das alles unmittelbares Leben - und auf die Erde gerichtet der Blick, wie ich ihn Ihnen beschrieben habe, der Blick des Uriel, die mahnende Gebärde. Das als das eine Motiv. Mit diesem einen Motiv, das in den Höhen ist, fühlt sich der Mensch nach der einen Seite verbunden, verbunden mit der leuchtenden kosmischen Intelligenz.
Auf der andern Seite, nach unten, fühlt er sich verbunden mit demjenigen, was nach fester Gestaltung strebt, was in bläuliche Finsternis getaucht ist, aus der Silberiges herausstrahlt. Da fühlt er drunten dasjenige, was der stoffliche Untergrund des webend-lebendigen Geistdaseins ist. Die Höhen werden Mysterien, die Tiefen werden Mysterien, und der Mensch wird sich selbst Mysterium in den kosmischen Mysterien. Der Mensch fühlt bis in sein Gebein hinein die kristallgestaltende Kraft. Aber er fühlt auch, wie die kristallgestaltende Kraft, die ihm bis ins Gebein hineingeht, im Weltenvereine ist mit der da oben in den Höhen sich auslebenden Leuchtekraft. Der Mensch fühlt, wie alles, was durch das Menschengeschlecht an Moralischem geschieht in diesen Mysterien des Oberen, lebt und webt in diesen Mysterien des Unteren und in ihrer Vereinigung. Der Mensch fühlt sich nicht mehr als abgesondert von der Welt, der Mensch fühlt sich selber hineingestellt in die Welt, der Mensch fühlt sich gebunden nach oben an die leuchtende Intelligenz, in der er als in dem Weltenschoße seine eigenen besten Gedanken erlebt; der Mensch fühlt sich nach unten-bis in seine Gebeine hinein gebunden an die Weltenkristallisationskraft, und beides wieder miteinander verbunden, seinen Tod an das Geistleben des Alls gebunden, das Geistleben des Alls sich sehnend, im Erdentode Kristallkräfte und silberglänzendes Leben zu erwecken, zu erschaffen.
Das alles müßte eben auch in Tönen angeschlagen werden, in Tönen, die diese vom Menschen zu erlebenden Motive auf ihren Flügeln tragen. Diese Motive sind da. Diese Motive braucht man nicht zu erfinden. Diese Motive können abgelesen werden aus dem kosmischen Tun des Uriel. In diesen Motiven gestaltet sich dasjenige, was Imagination ist, zur Inspiration.
Aber der Mensch lebt selbst gewissermaßen wie eine verkörperte Inspiration, wie ein aus Inspiration bestehendes Wesen in diesen Mysterien von Oben und von Unten und in diesen Mysterien der Verbindung in der Mitte, in diesen Mysterien, zu denen der Geistvater hinaufweist, in diesen Mysterien, zu denen die Stoffmutter hinunterweist, in diesen Mysterien, deren Verbindung dadurch entsteht, daß der Christus aus dem Zusammenwirken des Geistvaters mit der Erdenmütter unmittelbar vor der menschlichen Seele steht als der tragende Weltengeist.
Dasjenige, was sich da herauswebt aus all diesen kosmischen Geheimnissen, ich darf es etwa in der folgenden Weise vor Sie hinstellen. Es ist da, wie wenn der Mensch, hineingestellt in das Hochsommerweben, etwa das Folgende fühlen würde. Die ersten Worte würden so sein, wie etwa das Schauen des Uriel sich zur Inspiration verdichtet, verbunden mit den Geisttönen des ganzen Chors:
Schaue unser Weben,
Das leuchtende Erregen, } Höhen
Das wärmende Leben.Lebe irdisch Erhaltendes
Und atmend Gestaltetes } Tiefen
Als wesenhaft Waltendes.Fühle dein Menschengebeine
Mit himmlischem Scheine } Mitte Menschliches Innere
Im waltenden Weltenvereine.
Man hat in diesen neun Zeilen hier die Mysterien der Höhen, die Mysterien der Tiefen, die Mysterien der Mitte oder auch des menschlichen Inneren. Und man hat die Zusammenfassung des Ganzen, indem einem wie eine kosmische Behauptung dieser Mysterien der Höhen, der Tiefen und der Mitte hineinklingt in das Ganze wie mit Orgel- und Posaunentönen:
Es werden Stoffe verdichtet,
Es werden Fehler gerichtet,
Es werden Herzen gesichtet.
Und Sie haben dasjenige, was den Menschen erhaltend, erhebend, befestigend, gerade als von Inspiration erfüllte Johanni-Imagination, von Imagination erfüllte Johanni-Inspiration zur Johannisommerzeit durchdringen kann, eben dieses:
Schaue unser Weben,
Das leuchtende Erregen,
Das wärmende Leben.Lebe irdisch Erhaltendes
Und atmend Gestaltetes
Als wesenhaft Waltendes.Fühle dein Menschengebeine
Mit himmlischem Scheine
Im waltenden Weltenvereine.Es werden Stoffe verdichtet,
Es werden Fehler gerichtet,
Es werden Herzen gesichtet.
Fourth Lecture
If we now move on from the contemplation of Easter time, the spring festival time, which we made here last time, to summer time, then we come to the necessity of making the observations we make much more spiritual than for the preceding seasons. This might seem to be a contradiction, but it is not. At Christmas time we had to start from the point of view of how the earthly rock, the lime, gradually changes, and "then led this on to Easter time. In general, we had approached the observation in such a way that we focused, so to speak, on the workings of the spiritual in the material. At summertime, at midsummertime, man is actually entangled in the natural world. From spring towards summer the natural existence becomes more and more active, more and more inwardly saturated, and man himself with his whole being is interwoven into this natural existence. So that one can say: Man undergoes a kind of nature-consciousness during the height of summer. He becomes one with everything that grows, sprouts and shoots during the spring, if he has a feeling and perception for it. He blossoms with the flower, germinates with the plant, also bears fruit with the plant, and becomes involved in everything that lives and grows outside. In this way he expands his existence beyond that of nature and a kind of nature-consciousness arises. Then, because nature dies in autumn, i.e. carries death within itself, man, if he lives with nature towards autumn, towards Michaelmas, must also experience this death within himself; but he must not participate in it in his self. He must rise above this death. The strengthening, the strengthening of self-consciousness must take the place of this consciousness of nature. But because the consciousness of nature is at its highest in man in the summer heat, it is all the more necessary for the universe that this universe, if man only wills it, then brings the spiritual to man.
So we may actually say: Man is entangled in nature during the summer time. But if he has the right sensations, the right feelings for it, then the objective spirituality comes to him from the weaving nature. So that the outer, objective spiritual must be sought for what is actually human in St. John's time. And this is also definitely present in the existence of nature. Nature is only outwardly the sprouting, sprouting, one might say the sleeping entity, which brings out of the sleeping forces the powers of plant growth, which form a kind of sleeping natural existence. But out of this sleeping nature, if man has a sense for it, the spiritual reveals itself, which weaves through and lives through nature.
And so it is that when we, with the spiritual deepening in the soul, with the looking gaze, follow the existence of nature during the high summer, we find the gaze directed down into the depths of the earth itself. We find how the rocks in the depths of the earth carry their inner crystallization towards us more strongly than in any other season. In fact, when we look with our imaginative gaze into the depths of the earth at St. John's time, we have the impression that it weaves and lives down there in crystal forms in which the solid earth consolidates itself, all crystal forms, crystal forms that just gain their beauty during the height of summer. Everything forms down there during midsummer in lines, angles and surfaces. And if you want to have an overall impression, then it is this intrinsic solidity of the earthly crystal nature that weaves itself in a dark blue color.
I may perhaps, although such a drawing can of course only be very sketchy and imaginative, fix the whole situation on the panel (see panel V). So one would like to say: If one turns one's gaze downwards, one gets the impression of the line-like, but a blueness poured over the whole, and this blue is pervaded everywhere by those lines that actually shine silver, so that everywhere inside the blueness there is something shining silver, crystallizing (white). It is as if earthly nature wants to carry its creative power towards you in a wonderful sculpture, but in a sculpture that you are not supposed to see as you would otherwise see with your eyes; rather, you actually feel yourself dissolved in this natural sculpture, that you actually feel every line that is down there, every shining silver line within you. You feel that you have literally grown as a human being out of the blue underground of the earth, and you feel that you are inwardly permeated by the shining silver crystal lines. You feel all this as your own being. And when you then come to yourself and ask yourself: How do these shiny silver keristal lines, crystal waves, actually work in you? What is it that weaves and lives in the earth, shining silver in the blue of the earth? - Then you know: this is cosmic will. And then you have the feeling that you are standing on cosmic will. That is when you look down. And when you look upwards?
When you look upwards, you have the impression of the cosmic intelligence expanding. As I have often described, intelligence is not yet worth that much in human beings at this stage. But at the height of summer, in the heights, one has the feeling that there is a weaving intelligence everywhere, but a weaving intelligence not of a single being, but of many beings who live in each other, who live together. So that above we have the spreading, weaving intelligence through which the light lives, the shining through, weaving, living intelligence (yellowish) as the opposite of the will. And while one has the feeling below: There it is bluish dark, there everything is actually only to be experienced as forces -, upwards you have the feeling: There everything is actually so that it illuminates you when you perceive it, that it permeates you with a feeling of intelligence.
And now within this luminous weaving - I can't say it any other way - a figure appears. I had to give you Michael as the most essential figure that presents itself to our soul from the weaving of nature. To what extent Gabriel presents himself at Christmas time, according to the old names, we shall speak of later. Last time I showed you for Easter time, for spring, the placing of the figure of Raphael. To a certain extent, this Raphael last appeared to us as the dramatic mediator who brings us the necessary adoration and veneration for that which is Easter imagination, cosmic Easter imagination. Now, for the time of St. John, if I describe it in human terms - of course, all this is only approximately described - we are immediately confronted by an extraordinarily serious face, a serious countenance that rises up as if warmly glowing from the general luminous intelligence (red head in yellow, panel V).
One has the impression that this figure forms its light corporeality out of this luminous intelligence. And it must be so, so that this form can form its light corporeality during midsummer, that what I have described to you must occur: that the elemental spirits of the earth beings ascend. As they ascend, they interweave with the luminous intelligence above. This luminous intelligence absorbs them. And out of that which shines there, shines brightly in the luminous intelligence, this form is embodied within it, which was also sensed by the old instinctive clairvoyance, and which we can still designate with the same name with which it was then called. We can therefore say: At summertime Uriel appears in the luminous intelligence.
Autumn: Michael
Winter: Gabriel
Spring: Raphael
Summer: Uriel
There is strict seriousness in that which, seeking its corporeality from the weaving of light, confronts us as a representative of the cosmic weaving forces in the summer time. These are the things which we can now observe further, like the deeds of Uriel accomplished in the light, Uriel, whose own intelligence is basically composed of the interweaving of the planets of our planetary system, supported by the fixed star effects of the zodiacal pictures, Uriel, who actually harbors the world-thinking in his own thinking. So that one has the immediate feeling: You luminous, intelligent summer clouds, in which the bluish crystal formations of the earth below are reflected upwards, just as the luminous, intelligent cloud formations are in turn reflected downwards in the bluish crystal formations of the earth below, in you, you luminous cloud formations, the world-mind appears in midsummer time with a serious countenance, imaginatively concentrated.
Now, the deeds, I say, of this embodied world-mind, this embodied cosmic intelligence, they are deeds that are woven in the light. They consist in the fact that through the attraction which lies in this concentrated world intelligence of Uriel, the silver forces take their way upwards (white), and that in the light of this intelligence, which also shines inwardly, seen from the earth, it appears like the spreading sunlight, but which condenses into a golden glow. And one has the immediate feeling: that silver which streams upwards from below is absorbed by that which weaves and lives above, illuminated by the sun, and the earth silver - it is a quite correct expression that I am now using - the earth silver is transformed cosmically-alchemically above into the cosmic gold which weaves and lives above. And it is a continual spraying upwards of the shining silver, and above a continual transformation of the shining silver into gold.
And then, if you follow this further through the August time, you get the impression of a completion of the Michael figure as I have described it to you. I have described to you what the sword of Michael is made of, from which the dragon then weaves his life. But one wonders in all this shining beauty, which appears spiritually from the weaving cosmic at midsummer time: Where does Michael, who then leads over to Michaelmas time, to autumn time, get his peculiar clothing, this clothing, which sometimes lights up in the gold of the sun, sometimes shines inwardly as in a silver-shining radiation sprouting within the golden folds, where does this golden woven, silver-shining Michael garment come from? It is that which is formed up there by the silver radiating upwards, by the gold flooding over the radiating silver, into which the shining silver radiating from the earth is actually transformed by the power of the sun's action. And we gradually see towards the fall what the earth has given away in silver to the cosmos coming back as gold, and in this power of the silver transformed into gold lies that which then takes place in the earth during the winter time, which I have described to you: The sun-gold, which has formed in the heights during the high summer time within the Uriel reign, moves into the depths of the earth, spiritually weaves and surges through the depths of the earth, enlivens there that which seeks life for the next year during the deep winter time.
So you see that now, when we come into the time of springing, sprouting life, we can certainly not speak of matter interwoven with spirit as in winter for the earth, but as we must speak of spirit interwoven with matter, namely with silver and gold. Of course, you do not have to imagine all this roughly, but you have to imagine the silver and gold effect in a dilution that goes beyond all human judgment.
And if you have this impression, then it appears to you as if all this were actually just a kind of background, as if all these were cosmic acts of light, cosmic acts of light of Uriel. Because you get a clear impression of this figure of Uriel. You also get a clear impression of his gaze. You get the deepest longing to understand this strange downward gaze of Uriel. You get the impression that you have to look around to see what this gaze means. And one only comes to understand what this gaze means when one learns as a human being to look down spiritually even deeper into the blue, shining silver depths of the Sommer earth. There, I would like to say, in a certain disturbing way, around these shining silver crystal rays weave dissolving, re-balling formations, formations that soon clump together, soon dissolve again.
Now one comes to the conclusion: These are - the sight must be different for each person - the human errors, which stand out in their contrast against the regularly consistent natural crystal forms here below. And the serious gaze of Uriel is directed at this contrast of the natural crystallization in its regular beauty and the human errors woven over it. Here, at the height of summer, we see through what is still imperfect in the human race in comparison with the regular crystal formations. It is here that one receives, I would say, from the serious gaze of Uriel the impression that the natural is interwoven with the moral. There is not only the moral world order in ourselves like abstract impulses, but we now see, whereas otherwise we look at nature and do not ask: Does morality live in the growth of plants? Does morality live in crystallization? - how human errors and regular, consistent, consolidated natural crystallization are woven together in a natural way in the height of summer.
In contrast, everything that is human virtue, that is human efficiency, that goes upwards with the shining silver lines and appears like the enveloping clouds of Uriel (red), enters into the luminous intelligence, so to speak, as human virtue transformed into works of art, into cloud sculpture.
Not only can one look at the serious face-eye of Uriel, which becomes serious through the view of the depths of the earth, but one can also look at something which, I would like to say, is there like wing-like arms or arm-like wings in serious admonition, and which works precisely as a gesture of Uriel, which leads into the human race that which I would like to call the historical conscience. Here in midsummer the historical conscience appears, which is extraordinarily weakly developed, especially in the present. It appears as in the warning gesture of Uriel.
Of course, you have to think of all this as imagination. Things are quite real, but of course I cannot speak to you about these things in the way a physicist speaks of positive and negative and energy potential and so on. I must speak to you in such images that are alive. But what is expressed in these living images is reality, is there.
And once you have gained the impression of the connection of the human being in relation to his morality with the lower crystalline and with the upper human virtue that shines in beauty, once you have absorbed this connection of the human being into your inner experience, then you are confronted with the actual Johanni imagination; that which is Johanni imagination is there, like the Michael imagination that I have described to you, like the Christmas imagination, the Easter imagination.
Then, like a kind of summary, this picture appears to the observing mind's eye: Above, illuminated as it were by the power of Uriel's eye, the dove (white). That which below is shining silver blueness, which represents the depths of the earth, connected with human inefficiencies and faults, clusters together in the image of the Earth Mother (blue), whether you call it Demeter or Mary. So that, if you look downwards, you cannot really help but summarize in imagination all these mysteries of the depths as that which is the material mother of all existence, while in that which is concentrated above, in the flowing form, you feel all that which is the spirit father of all existence around us.
And now one sees the result of the interaction of the spirit father with the substance mother; that which carries in itself to the most beautiful degree the harmony of the silver-earth effect and the gold-sky effect: between the father and the mother the son (see Plate V). So that this imagination of the Trinity appears, which is the actual Johanni imagination. The background is the creating, looking, admonishing Uriel.
That which actually represents the Trinity should not simply be placed dogmatically before the soul. This gives the impression that such an idea of the Trinity, such an image of the Trinity, is detached from the cosmic weaving and life. It is not. It is the Trinity at midsummer time revealing itself out of the cosmic effect, out of the cosmic life and weaving. It emerges with an inwardly convincing power once one has penetrated, I would say, into the mysteries of Uriel.
And if one wanted to place the time of St. John in front of the soul, then there would have to be the arched background, the vaulted background with Uriel, in the mode of action as I have described it to you. And to a certain extent it would have to stand out from it - this would require very special devices to represent it - it would have to stand out from it, I would like to say in a living painting that is only evoked in the moment, which could be achieved by a particularly artistic use of smoke material or the like, the imagination of the Trinity would have to stand out from it. This would have to be evoked at the time of St. John if the real imagination of this matter is to appear before people. Just as we only have the thing complete at Easter time if we enter into the dramatic, if we thus enter into the dramatic, so that we would have the teaching Raphael with man at the center of the mystery drama that would have to take place there, who introduces us to the secrets of healing nature, to the secrets of the healing cosmos, then what we see there, what we can see, however, in weaving imagery, would have to be transformed into a powerful musicality at the time of St. John. But out of this powerful musicality the mystery of the world, as man experiences it precisely at the time of St. John, should, so to speak, speak to us.
And one would have to think of how all that I have described to you would go in a corresponding artistic training on the one hand according to the fine arts. But that which is felt and sensed in the visual arts would have to receive its life from the weaving tones that embody the poetic motif that weaves through and lives through our soul by feeling ourselves into this Uriel who works in the light, who is active in the light, who evokes in us the powerful impression of the Trinity.
And there that which radiates from below shining like silver, which reveals itself above in the formative beauty of the working of light, all this should be formed in appropriate instrumentation to the musical just at the time of St. John, so that man finds his own co-experience with the cosmos in the weaving of the tones. And the mystery of man's being together with the cosmos at St. John's time should resound out, because it is embodied in these weaving tones. All this should be inside. When man looks up, he should see the world-weaving gold, the reddish, warm figure of Uriel emerging from the light-radiating gold - all this not solid form, all this immediate life - and the gaze directed towards the earth, as I have described it to you, the gaze of Uriel, the admonishing gesture. That is the one motif. With this one motif, which is in the heights, man feels connected on one side, connected with the luminous cosmic intelligence.
On the other side, downwards, he feels connected with that which strives for solid form, which is immersed in bluish darkness, out of which silver things radiate. Down below he feels that which is the material foundation of the weaving, living spirit existence. The heights become mysteries, the depths become mysteries, and man himself becomes a mystery in the cosmic mysteries. Man feels the crystal-forming power right into his bones. But he also feels how the crystal-forming power, which reaches into his bones, is in world union with the luminous power living itself out up there in the heights. Man feels how everything moral that happens through the human race in these Mysteries of the Upper lives and weaves in these Mysteries of the Lower and in their union. Man no longer feels himself as separate from the world, man feels himself placed in the world, man feels himself bound upwards to the luminous intelligence in which he experiences his own best thoughts as in the world-shot; man feels himself bound downwards - right down to his bones - to the world-crystallizing power, and both again bound together, his death bound to the spiritual life of the universe, the spiritual life of the universe longing to awaken, to create crystal powers and silver-shining life in earth-death.
All this would also have to be struck in tones, in tones that carry these motives to be experienced by man on their wings. These motifs are there. These motifs do not need to be invented. These motifs can be read from the cosmic activity of Uriel. In these motifs, that which is imagination is formed into inspiration.
But man himself lives, so to speak, like an embodied inspiration, like a being consisting of inspiration in these mysteries from above and from below and in these mysteries of connection in the middle, in these mysteries to which the spirit father points upwards, in these mysteries to which the substance mother points downwards, in these mysteries whose connection arises through the fact that the Christ stands directly before the human soul as the sustaining world spirit from the cooperation of the spirit father with the earth mother.
That which weaves itself out of all these cosmic mysteries, I may present it to you in the following way. It is as if the human being, placed in the mid-summer weaving, would feel something like the following. The first words would be like the vision of Uriel condensed into inspiration, connected with the spiritual tones of the whole choir:
Behold our weaving,
The luminous stirring, } Heights
The warming life.Live the earthly sustained
And breathingly formed } Depths
As the essential being.Feel your human bones
With heavenly glow } Center human interior
In the ruling world unity.
In these nine lines you have here the mysteries of the heights, the mysteries of the depths, the mysteries of the center or also of the human inner being. And one has the summary of the whole, in that a cosmic assertion of these mysteries of the heights, the depths and the center resounds into the whole as with organ and trombone tones:
Substances are condensed,
Mistakes are judged,
Hearts are sifted.
And you have that which can permeate the human being, sustaining, uplifting, fortifying, precisely as a Johanni-Imagination filled with inspiration, a Johanni-Inspiration filled with imagination at the Johannisommerzeit, precisely this:
Behold our weaving,
The shining excitement,
The warming life.Love the earthly preserved
And the breathing formed
As what is essentially living.Feel your human bones
With heavenly glow
In the ruling world association.Substances are condensed,
Mistakes are judged,
Hearts are sifted.