Lectures to the First Class
Volume II
GA 270
5 July 1924, Dornach
Lesson XVII
My dear friends,
We also begin today with that verse which, by a correct understanding of the universe, resounds to human hearts from all that is and all that is becoming as a call to self-knowledge, which one must first attain for true knowledge of the cosmos.
O man, know thyself!
So resounds the Cosmic-Word.
You hear it strong in soul,
You feel it firm in spirit.
Who speaks with such cosmic might?
Who speaks with depth of heart?
Does it work through distant radiant space
Into your senses' sense of being?
Does it ring through weaving waves of time
Into your life's evolving stream?
It's you yourself who,
In feeling space, in experiencing time
Create the Word, feeling foreign
In the souless void of space,
Because you lose the force of thought
In time's destructive flow.
Once more let us review in our souls what summarized the contents of the previous Class Lesson. It was also a meditation arising from what the human being can experience when he feels himself completely immersed in the cosmic context, above all in the context of the spiritual world.
Man's path to the abyss of existence, at which the Guardian of the Threshold stands, appeared before our souls. We heard the teachings the Guardian gives to those who cross the threshold. We heard how the person who arrives on the other side of the threshold at first feels himself to be within light, and experiences the world in a new way in that he first hears what the Guardian says, but also what the beings of the higher hierarchies are saying. In the last dialog the Guardian asks a question and the Angeloi, Exusiai, Thrones; Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubim; Archai, Kyriotetes, Seraphim speak, one after the other, about the element of warmth, which penetrates everything and reveals itself to be a moral element on the other side of the abyss.
We saw how the Guardian then speaks to the I, asking three questions which penetrate deeply into the human being, and the I answers with humility, as was explained last time, but exchanging words as in a deeply intimate conversation with the Guardian.
The Guardian speaks:
What becomes of the fire's purification, which enkindled
your I?
Angeloi, Exusiai, Thrones:
Awaken in the cosmic etheric vastness the flaming script of
life.
Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubim:
Create the soul's atoning forces in circling waves of
time.
Archai, Kyriotetes, Seraphim:
Ask help from the redemptive eternal force of spirit.
The Guardian:
Has your spirit understood?
The I:
The cosmic spirit in me
It held its breath within
And may its presence now
Illuminate my I.
The Guardian:
Has your soul apprehended?
The I:
The cosmic souls in me
Lived in the council of stars
And may their harmonies
Resounding create my I.
The Guardian:
Has your body experienced?
The I:
The cosmic forces in me
They judge the acts of men
And may their words of verdict
Guide the I in me.
The human being beyond the threshold of existence, where the Guardian stands, feels himself to be within weaving, living light. Gradually it becomes not only felt light, but a kind of light about which we can say that he sees it.
From feeling the light in waves, as in spiritual thoughts, so to speak, light appears which is seen by the spirit's eye.
But the human being cannot enter already seeing into this light without hearing another deeply founded admonition from the Guardian. And this admonition refers to a powerful cosmic imagination, something tremendously majestic which the person, even while being here in the sensible world, can receive as an impression—if he has the heart for it. For, when he becomes magically illuminated by the cloud formations and the majestic rainbow, then he can feel as if the spirits beyond the physical sense-perceptible rainbow's glow are shining in through its colors. It is there, builds itself up from the universe, then disappears back into the universe, is placed within the universe like a mighty imagination.
The Guardian reminds us of this rainbow's impression at the moment when it becomes light enough for perception there in the spiritual world.
[The rainbow is drawn on the blackboard.]
And the Guardian reminds us that the one who has come over to the spiritual world should recall the impression from the sensory world which the rainbow had made. For it is remarkable, my dear sisters and brothers, that when we cross over from the physical sensory world to the spiritual world, the image of the rainbow is the easiest to remember and the one which most easily allows us to recall the relationship between the spiritual world, where it is becoming light, and the physical-sensory world, which we have left together with our capacities for knowledge.
Not referring to the view of the rainbow itself, but to the memory of the rainbow which has been called forth by the Guardian of the Threshold, the Guardian now indicates (we will hear the exact words): Try, with the force you normally use to see with your eyes, to prepare the substance with which you will penetrate this rainbow, with which you will pass below, through the rainbow and to the other side.
If we can imagine [the second drawing is made]: here in the cloud formation [white in the upper right-hand corner]—looking up from the earth [small arrow]—the rainbow would be here [red in the cloud formation]. Then the Guardian instructs us to penetrate through that rainbow and from this vantage point [a line is drawn to the small circle on which the word “Warte” (vantage point) is written] which is on the other side, to look back from that cosmic distance at the rainbow. The Guardian instructs us to make our imagination more profound through meditation, if we wish to advance beyond the point we reached during the previous lesson.
When we look back from out there, if you imagine that you go behind the blackboard [white arrow pointing up and left in the first drawing], then look at the rainbow from behind [red arrow pointing down and left in the first drawing], as it appears in memory, looking from behind, then the rainbow becomes a powerful bowl, a cosmic bowl. And we no longer see a bow, we see a powerful bowl extending over half the sky, within which the colors flow into each other.
This is the imagination which the Guardian first introduces:
See the ether-rainbow arc's
Light teeming round,
Let the light creating force
Pass through your eyes,
Your I penetrate the circle,
Observe from the other side's vantage point
Color flooding the cosmic bowl.
[This first stanza of the mantra is written on the blackboard.]
See the ether-rainbow arc's
Light teeming round,
Let the light creating force
Pass through your eyes,
Your I penetrate the circle,
Observe from the other side's vantage point
Color flooding the cosmic bowl.
These are the powerful words spoken by the Guardian, my dear sisters and brothers, and you must put yourself correctly in the image-filled situation in which the Guardian of the Threshold's pupil finds himself when he is called to observe the cosmic bowl with its content of color-flooding light.
See the ether-rainbow arc's
Light teeming round,
Let the light creating force
Pass through your eyes,
Your I penetrate the circle,
Observe from the other side's vantage point
Color flooding the cosmic bowl.
We must pass through such images. And if they work deeply into the I, then we see how the beings of the third hierarchy—Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai—appear in the flood of colors that fill the bowl. They are breathing the colors into their own angelic beings.
Thus we have an idea about the cosmic creation behind the sensory world, which is the result of the deeds of the higher hierarchies; we have a conception of how the spiritual beings act beyond the rainbow, at first breathing in the cosmic bowl's colors, taking them into their own being.
We observe how what flows from the cosmos to the rainbow, penetrating it, then appears behind the rainbow as thoughts, how it is absorbed, breathed in by the angelic beings. Now we learn the true nature of the rainbow. All the thoughts thought by people in a particular place are gathered from time to time through the rainbow's bridge and sent farther out to the spiritual domain, where it is breathed in by the beings of the third hierarchy.
What so magically appears [the rainbow] in the vastness of the universe does not only have a physical meaning; it has a spiritual-inner meaning. And the magical ether-rainbow cannot be discerned from within the physical-sensory world; we can discern it only beyond the threshold of existence, once we have heard the Guardian of the Threshold's various admonitions.
Through the impression we receive from that outlook point of the rainbow as the cosmic bowl, it becomes clear to us how the light, which at first was a dark, night-bedecked sphere, spreads out before us. We are now within it. It brightens: it is sun, the cosmic bowl with its flood of colors seen from the other side of the rainbow.
Then the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai begin to reflect their consciousness within the human soul of how they breathe in the floods of color in order that what exists here on the earth as sense-perceptible may be brought into the spiritual domain, to the extent it is of use there.
And then we perceive how the beings of the third hierarchy have breathed in what they took from the sensible world, what has penetrated them through the rainbow, what they have transformed to the extent that it can be taken into the spiritual world—they go as helpers, with what they have absorbed within themselves, to the even higher spirits, to the spirits of the second hierarchy. For the spirits of the third hierarchy, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Angeloi, are the helping spirits of the spirit-world. We now hear from them what we see when we behold the color-flooded cosmic bowl—somewhere beyond the rainbow.
Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai:
Sense our thoughts
Breathing the colors of life
To the light-flooded bowl;
We carry the mirage of the senses
To spirit's domain of being
And turn, by the world inspired
To serve the higher spirits.
[This second stanza is written on the blackboard.]
Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai:
Sense our thoughts
Breathing the colors of life
To the light-flooded bowl;
We carry the mirage of the senses
To spirit's domain of being
And turn, by the world inspired,
To serve the higher spirits.
My dear sisters and brothers, let us place the image once more before our souls: the cosmic bowl, half the sky in size, the colors flooding within—which we normally see toned down in the rainbow—weaving, living in one another; the beings of the third hierarchy, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, approach. They breathe these colors. The thoughts of the beings of the third hierarchy are visible to us in this breathing of colors.
We observe how these beings of the third hierarchy, permeated with these cosmic thoughts, turn to the beings of the second hierarchy, the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, whom they serve. And we have this powerful image before us—the pure spirit-beings appear, the residents of the sun, who only appear when the physical image which the sun casts, disappears; for despite all its greatness in comparison to the earth, it is a small image—for it is only an image. And the sun majestically fills the entire universe, infinitely larger than the gigantic cosmic image. Then the beings of the second hierarchy appear, weaving, living in the pure spirit-domain, but now receiving what the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai bring them. These are not dead thoughts, such as we have. The dead thoughts are taken from the illusion of the senses and become living thoughts through the breath of the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. As a powerful offering, the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai place these living thoughts before the second hierarchy, the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. The thoughts which are illusions in earthly life are awakened to existence by the beings of the second hierarchy.
And we see how the beings of the second hierarchy receive from the beings of the third hierarchy the thoughts already made living by them; and we see that a powerful resurrection of a new world takes place, created out of what was dead, illusionary, and taken up by the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. Thus a new world, a resurrecting world comes into existence through the workings of the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes.
Then we see how the remarkable secret of the cosmos works. We see how the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes give over what they received from the beings of the third hierarchy to what we call rays in earthly life—rays of the sun, of the stars. The awakened, now living world-thoughts are given over to all that rays.
In reality rays are not physical. In reality it is the spirit that beams in the rays. But we fail to see, when the rays reach us, what they had previously been given from the realm of the beings of the second hierarchy. All these rays, the rays of the stars, the rays of the sun, have been given what the beings of the second hierarchy weave in world-thoughts, but also what they let be resurrected from the dead thoughts—our thoughts on earth—which were made living by the beings of the third hierarchy. And now we hear how they also give to these raying spiritual forces what works as creative love in the cosmos—what weaves in the sun and star rays as love; the love that floods the cosmos and which is the creative force in the whole cosmos; how they entrust it to the rays of the stars, to the rays of the sun. We now see with the eye of the spirit how the beings of the second hierarchy—raying spirit, awakening love, bearing love—merge with the world.
Thus we hear them speaking, not to us; we are witnesses to a dialog between the beings of the second hierarchy and the beings of the third hierarchy. It resounds across. We only listen. It is the first time in the course of situational meditation that we hear the beings of the hierarchies speaking to each other:
What you have received
From dead illusion made live:
We waken it to existence;
We give it to the rays,
Who manifest with love
The nothingness of matter
In the spirit's essence.
By being witnesses to a heavenly dialog, the once night-bedecked darkness is gradually illuminated for the eye of the spirit. It becomes filled with a soft, mild light.
[The third stanza is written on the blackboard.]
What is received by you
From dead illusion made live:
We awaken it to existence;
We give it to the rays,
Who manifest with love
the nothingness of matter
In the spirit's essence.
If we have heard and have absorbed all this, then we will see with the spirit's eye something else taking place. We have already seen how earthly thoughts are made living ones by the third hierarchy, that what was made living is received by the second hierarchy and then shared with the rays of the stars and with the rays of the sun, and transformed into love. Now we see it taken over by the beings of the first hierarchy and made by these beings into the elements with which to create new worlds; what Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai breathe in from the world, what Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes receive from them and transform into creative forces from which they—Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim—shape new worlds.
What is remarkable is this: first we were witnesses to a conversation in heaven between the beings of the third and second hierarchies. Then we hear more with our spiritual ears. The beings of the first hierarchy begin to speak the cosmic words. At first it seems as though we were only to be listeners to a heavenly conversation. But soon we realize that it is not so.
First the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai made their voices heard; then a dialog took place between the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes and the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai; then the Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim join the conversation. A choir of the spiritual spheres rings out. We become aware, now that the voices of all nine choirs ring out together, that what they are intoning is directed at us as human beings. And so finally the whole spirit world speaks to us. But only when what has been spoken within the spirit-world is included in the cosmic words of the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, is it again intoned in our humanity. It intones to us as human beings:
In your worlds of will
Feel our cosmic working:
Spirit glows in matter,
When we create thinking;
Spirit creates in matter
When we willing live;
World is I-Willing Spirit-Word.
The world is the spirit-word which wills the I; and the world is in the creation by Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones.
[This fourth stanza is written on the blackboard.]
Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim:
In your worlds of will
Feel our cosmic working:
Spirit glows in matter,
When we create thinking;
Spirit creates in matter
When we willing live;
World is I-Willing Spirit-Word.
The spirit-word, which wills the I, is the world. And as we hear with the spiritual ear these words directed at our humanity, it becomes light in the spiritual world. The mild light which was there before is transformed into spiritual brightness.
This is the experience with the Guardian while the spiritual sphere is becoming light:
See the ether-rainbow arc's
Light teeming round,
Let the light creating force
Pass through your eyes,
Your I penetrate the circle,
Observe from the other side's vantage point
Color flooding the cosmic bowl.
Sense our thoughts
Breathing the colors of life
To the light-flooded bowl;
We carry the mirage of the senses
To spirit's domain of being
And turn, by the world inspired,
To serve the higher spirits.
What is received by you
From dead illusion made live:
We awaken it to existence;
We give it to the rays,
Who manifest with love
The nothingness of matter
In the spirit's essence.
In your worlds of will
Feel our cosmic working:
Spirit glows in matter,
When we create thinking;
Spirit creates in matter
When we willing live;
World is I-Willing Spirit-Word.
And it is as though the Guardian of the Threshold were touching us softly with his spiritual hands. We feel his presence as if he closed our spirit-eyes and we saw nothing for a moment, despite having been in a bright spiritual space a moment before. Words arise within me which I will place at the end of the lesson, to be saved for next time; I do not wish to include them as a mantra for today.
When the Guardian of the Threshold—if we may express with a sense-perceptible picture what takes place in a purely spiritual way—softly places his hands over our eyes so that we do not see the spiritual light around us, something arises in us that acts as a remembrance of the sensory world, which we had left behind in order to acquire knowledge in the spiritual world:
I walked in this world of senses,
Thought's legacy with me leading,
A god's force had led me in.
Death stands at the path's end.
I will to feel the presence of Christ.
In matter's death wakes the spirit's birth.
Thus In spirit I find the world
And know myself in the evolving world.
*
My dear friends, I must remind you of something I said upon the opening of these Class Lessons, and also during the Christmas Conference. It cannot be assumed that things which have been organized in a certain way for good reason may be changed from outside and be organized in a different way. Therefore, I must announce here that in the future no application to the Class will be considered which is not directed to the secretary of the Executive Committee of the Goetheanum, Dr. Wegman, or directly to me. Only applications for participation in the Class Lessons directed to either one of these two addresses will be considered. What has been the rule from the beginning must be continued. The members have not followed this procedure, but have done as they wish. And those who are already members of the Class should make this clear to others who want to participate.
On this occasion I would like to bring to your attention something else, my dear friends, which is especially grave now when the importance of how the Anthroposophical Society is managed must be maintained. Again and again letters are arriving which state: If I don'ive a reply, I will assume the answer to be affirmative. Those who have written in this way know about it. I wish to inform those who have written in this way, and those who intend to do so, to please know that every letter which contains the sentence: I consider no answer to mean yes—that every such letter can form its own answer as being a negative. In the future such letters will not be answered, because one cannot accept such impertinence, but what is written in such letters must be regarded as containing their own rejection.
Blackboard Texts in original German:
Siebzehnte Stunde
Meine lieben Freunde! Wir beginnen auch heute mit jenem Spruch, der bei richtiger Erfassung der Welt dem Menschenherzen entgegentönt aus allem Seienden und Werdenden als die ständige Aufforderung nach Selbsterkenntnis, durch die man ja erst zur wirklichen Welterkenntnis kommen kann:
O Mensch, erkenne dich selbst!
So tönt das Weltenwort.
Du hörst es seelenkräftig,
Du fühlst es geistgewaltig.Wer spricht so weltenmächtig?
Wer spricht so herzinniglich?Wirkt es durch des Raumes Weitenstrahlung
In deines Sinnes Seinserleben?
Tönt es durch der Zeiten Wellenweben
In deines Lebens Werdestrom?Bist du es selbst, der sich
Im Raumesfühlen, im Zeiterleben
Das Wort erschafft, dich fremd
Erfühlend in Raumes Seelenleere,
Weil du des Denkens Kraft
Verlierst im Zeitvernichtungsstrome.
Noch einmal lassen wir dasjenige durch unsere Seele ziehen, was den Inhalt der letzten Klassenstunde zusammengefasst hat. Auch das war ja eine Meditation, heraus entsprungen aus dem, was der Mensch erleben kann, wenn er sich ganz hineinfühlt in den Weltenzusammenhang, in den Zusammenhang vor allen Dingen mit der geistigen Welt.
Wir haben ja vor unserer Seele auftreten lassen des Menschen Weg zum Abgrund des Seins, an dem der Hüter der Schwelle steht. Wir haben die Lehren vernommen, die der Hüter dem Schwellenübersteiger gibt. Wir haben vernommen, wie derjenige, der jenseits der Schwelle nun ankommt, zunächst sich fühlt im Lichte, erlebt die Welt auf neue Weise, indem er zunächst vernimmt, was der Hüter auf der einen Seite spricht, was aber auch die Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien zu ihm sprechen. Und das letzte Gespräch war dieses, wo der Hüter eine Frage stellt, und wo über das Element der Wärme — das alles durchdringt, das sich von jenseits des Abgrundes als ein moralisches Element erweist -, wo hinweisend auf dieses Element der Wärme nacheinander sprechen: Angeloi, Exusiai, Throne; Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubine; Archai, Kyriotetes, Seraphine. Wo dann der Hüter noch einmal zum Ich spricht in drei tief in das Menschenwesen hineingehenden Fragen und das Ich bescheiden antwortet, wie es das letzte Mal erklärt worden ist, aber innerlich wie im vertrauter seienden Gespräche jetzt mit dem Hüter die Worte wechselt.
Der Hüter spricht: Was wird aus des Feuers Reinigung, die dir das Ich entflammte?
Angeloi, Exusiai, Throne: Erwecke dir in Weltenätherweiten die Lebensflammenschrift.
Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubine: Erschaffe dir in Zeitenwellenkreisen die Seelensühnekräfte.
Archai, Kyriotetes, Seraphine: Erbitte dir in ew’gen Wesentaten die Geisterlösermächte.
Der Hüter: Hat verstanden dein Geist?
Ich:
Der Weltengeist in mir
Er hielt den Atem an
Und seine Gegenwart
Mög? erleuchten mein Ich.Der Hüter: Hat begriffen deine Seele?
Ich:
Die Weltenseelen in mir
Sie lebten im Sternenrat
Und ihre Harmonien
Mögen klingend schaffen mein Ich.Der Hüter: Hat erlebt dein Leib?
Ich:
Die Weltenkräfte in mir
Sie richten Menschentaten
Und ihre Wahrspruchworte
Mögen lenken mir das Ich.
Indem das Menschenwesen jenseits der Schwelle des Seins, wo der Hüter steht, sich fühlt im webenden, lebenden Lichte, wird es allmählich, langsam, nicht nur gefühltes Licht, es wird langsam solches Licht, von dem man sagen kann: Der Mensch sieht es. Aus dem Fühlen des Lichtes, es webt und weht, das man sozusagen nur im geistigen Griff der Gedanken hat, entsteht allmählich Licht, das wie geschaut wird vom Geistesauge.
Aber nicht anders kommt der Mensch in dieses Licht hinein — schauend -, als indem er nun wiederum ein tiefgründiges Mahnwort des Hüters vernimmt. Und dieses Mahnwort, das weist auf eine mächtige Weltenimagination hin, weist auf etwas hin, durch das der Mensch, indem er hier in der Sinneswelt steht, etwas ungeheuer Majestätisches - wenn er dazu das Herz hat - in seine Eindrücke aufnehmen kann. Denn, wenn er zauberhaft im Himmelsraum bei entsprechender Wolkengestaltung sich erlichtet, der majestätische Regenbogen, dann kann man so etwas empfinden, wie wenn hereinleuchten würden durch des Regenbogens Farbenschein die Geister von jenseits des physisch-sinnlichen Scheines. Er steht ja da, baut sich herauf, auf aus dem All, verschwindet wieder in das All, ist hineingestellt in dieses All wie eine mächtige Imagination.
An diesen Eindruck des Regenbogens erinnert in diesem Augenblicke, wo es auch für das Schauen hell werden soll drüben in der geistigen Welt, der Hüter. [Es wird der Regenbogen gezeichnet; siche Seite 808.]
Und der Hüter erinnert daran, dass derjenige, der so hinübergekommen ist in die geistige Welt, jenes Bild in sich rege machen soll aus seiner Erinnerung an die Sinneswelt, das ihm der im All waltende Regenbogen immer gemacht hat. Denn es ist merkwürdig, meine lieben Schwestern und Brüder, dass, wenn der Mensch aus der physisch-sinnlichen Welt hinüberkommt in die geistige Welt, das Bild des Regenbogens dasjenige ist, an das man sich am leichtesten erinnert und das am leichtesten hervorruft erinnerungsgemäß den Zusammenhang zwischen der geistigen Welt, in der es nun licht werden soll, und der physisch-sinnlichen Welt, die man mit seinen Erkenntniskräften verlassen hat.
Und dann - also es ist nicht der Anblick des Regenbogens, es ist die Erinnerung an den Regenbogen, die hervorgerufen wird durch den Hüter der Schwelle -, und dann weist einen der Hüter an: Versuche nun — wir werden die Worte hören, mit denen er das spricht -, versuche nun mit der Kraft, mit der du sonst aus deinen Augen schaust, diejenigen Substanzen dir zu bereiten, mit denen du durchdringst diesen Regenbogen, mit denen du unten durch den Regenbogen hindurchdringst auf die andere Seite.
Wenn wir also uns vorstellen: [Es wird die zweite Zeichnung entwikelt; siehe Seite 808:] Im Wolkengebilde drinnen [weiß] - von der Erde aus hinaufschauend [kleiner Pfeil] - wäre der Regenbogen hier [rot im Wolkengebilde]}; so haben wir uns jetzt vorzustellen: Der Hüter weist uns an, durchzudringen durch jenen Regenbogen und von jener Warte [Strich durch das Wolkengebilde bis zum kleinen Kreis, an den das Wort «Warte» geschrieben wird], die jenseits ist, zurückzuschauen, von jenen Weltenweiten zurückzuschauen auf den Regenbogen. So weist uns der Hüter an, auch unsere Imagination sinnend, meditativ zu vertiefen, wenn wir von dem Punkte aus weiterschreiten wollen, bei dem wir angekommen sind im Sinne der letzten Stunde.
Dann, wenn wir von da drüben zurückschauen, wenn Ihr Euch also, meine Schwestern und Brüder, vorstellt, dass Ihr hinter die Tafel geht [weißer Pfeil nach links oben in der ersten Zeichnung], den Regenbogen von rückwärts schaut [roter Pfeil nach rechts unten in der ersten Zeichnung], wie er in der Erinnerung aufgetaucht ist, von rückwärts anschaut, dann wird der Regenbogen zur mächtigen Schale, wird zur Weltenschale. Und man sieht nicht mehr einen Bogen, man sicht eine mächtige, halbhimmelgroße Schale, und darinnen flutend die Farben durcheinander.
Das ist die Imagination, die der Hüter zunächst erregt:
Sieh’ des Äther-Farbenbogens
Lichtgewalt’ges Rund,
Lass’ durch deiner Augen
Lichterschaffene Kraft
Dein Ich den Kreis durchdringen,
Und dann schau von jenseit’ger Warte
Farbenflutend die Weltenschale.
[Diese erste Strophe des Mantrams wird nun an die Tafel geschrieben; siche Seite 808]
Es sind mächtige Worte, die da der Hüter spricht. Und Ihr müsst Euch nur richtig versetzen in die Lage, meine lieben Schwestern und Brüder, in die Lage der ganzen Bildhaftigkeit, innerhalb der sich der Zögling des Hüters der Schwelle befindet, wenn er nun aufgefordert wird, die Weltenschale mit ihrem Inhalte, dem farbenflutenden Lichte, zu schauen:Der Hüter:
Sieh’ des Äther-Farbenbogens
Lichtgewalt’ges Rund,
Lass’ durch deiner Augen
Lichterschaffene Kraft
Dein Ich den Kreis durchdringen,
Und dann schau von jenseit’ger Warte
Farbenflutend die Weltenschale.
Sich’ des Äther-Farbenbogens
Lichtgewalt'ges Rund,
Lass’ durch deiner Augen
Lichterschaffene Kraft<
Dein Ich den Kreis durchdringen,
Und dann schau von jenseit’ger Warte
Farbenflutend die Weltenschale.
Man muss durch solche Bilder hindurchgehen. Und wirkt das Bild ganz innig und tief in das Ich hinein, dann schaut der Mensch in diesen Farbenfluten, die die Schale erfüllen, wie in diesen Farbenfluten erscheinen die Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie: Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. Und sie atmen die Farben, nehmen in ihr eigenes Engelwesen die Farben auf.
Man erhält einen Begriff von jenem Weltenschaffen, das hinter der Sinneswelt ist und sich abspielt in den Taten der höheren Hierarchien; man erhält einen Begriff davon, wie jenseits des Regenbogens walten die geistigen Wesenheiten, zunächst die Farben der Weltenschale aufatmend, in ihr eigenes Wesen aufnehmend.
Man schaut, wie übergeht dasjenige, was fließt von der Welt zum Regenbogen, den Regenbogen durchdringt, hinter dem Regenbogen als die Gedanken erscheint, wie das aufgesogen wird, aufgeatmet wird von Engelwesen. Man lernt jetzt die Natur des Regenbogens kennen. Alles dasjenige, was für irgendeine Gegend an solchen Gedanken gedacht wird, die von Menschen ausgehen, es wird von Zeit zu Zeit immer wieder und wieder durch die Brücke des Regenbogens gesammelt, hinausgeleitet ins geistige Reich, wo es veratmet wird von den Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie. Dasjenige, was so zauberhaft erscheint innerhalb der Weiten des Weltenalls, das hat nicht nur eine physische Bedeutung, das hat seine geistige Innerlichkeit. Und so etwas wie den Zauber-Ätherbogen, man lernt ihn nicht erkennen, wenn man nur innerhalb der physischsinnlichen Welt bleibt, man lernt ihn erst erkennen, wenn man steht jenseits der Schwelle des Seins, wenn man mancherlei - wie wir sie kennengelernt haben - Ermahnungen des Hüters der Schwelle hinter sich hat.
Dann aber wird einem gerade durch den Eindruck, den man bekommt von jenseitiger Warte von dem Regenbogen als der Weltenschale, dann wird einem gerade da deutlich, wie das Licht allmählich in dem sich ausbreitet für uns, das anfangs wie finstere, nachtbedeckte Sphäre vor uns stand. Wir sind nunmehr darinnen. Es hellt sich auf: Sonne ist sie, die Weltenschale - mit ihren Farbenfluten - von jenseits des Regenbogens.
Dann beginnen Angeloi, Archangeloi und Archai innerhalb der Menschenseelen ihr Bewusstsein zu spiegeln, wie sie aufatmen die Farbenfluten, damit dasjenige, was auf der Erde hier im Sinnenschein lebt, soweit es brauchbar ist für das Geisterreich, in das Geisterreich hineingetragen wird.
Und dann, wenn man vernommen hat, wie diese Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie eingeatmet haben dasjenige, was sie entnommen haben aus der sinnlichen Welt, was zu ihnen durchgedrungen ist durch den Farbenbogen, was sie verwandelt haben so, dass es aufgenommen werden kann in der geistigen Welt, dann gehen sie mit dem, was sie so in sich aufgenommen haben, dienend hin zu den höheren Geistern, zu den Geistern der zweiten Hierarchie. Denn die Geister der dritten Hierarchie, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, sie sind die dienenden Geister der Geistwelt. Von ihnen hören wir jetzt dasjenige, was wir ja schauen, wenn wir den Seelenblick hinrichten auf die farbenflutende Weltenschale, das Jenseits des Regenbogens.
Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai:
Empfind’ unsrer Gedanken
Farbenatmend Leben
In der Schale Lichtesfluten;<
Wir tragen Sinnenschein
In Geistes-Wesensreiche
Und wenden weltdurchdrungen
Uns höhern Geistern dienend zu.
[Diese zweite Strophe wird nun an die Tafel geschrieben:]
Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai:
Empfind’ unsrer Gedanken
Farbenatmend Leben<
In der Schale Lichtesfluten;
Wir tragen Sinnenschein
In Geistes-Wesensreiche
Und wenden weltdurchdrungen
Uns höhern Geistern dienend zu.
Meine lieben Schwestern und Brüder, stellen wir das Bild noch einmal vor unsere Seele hin: Die Weltenschale, halbhimmelgroß, darinnen flutend die Farben, die wir sonst im Regenbogen flächenhaft sehen, webend, lebend ineinander, herankommend die Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. Sie atmen diese Farben. Uns aber werden die Gedanken der Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchie in diesem Farbenatmen seelen-sichtbar.
Wir schauen aber, wie durchdrungen von diesen Weltgedanken sich diese Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie wenden zu den Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie, denen sie dienen, wenden zu Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. Und wir haben das gewaltige Bild vor uns, dass erscheinen die reinen Geistwesen, die Sonnenbewohner, die da nur erscheinen, wenn verschwindet das physische Bild, das die Sonne entwirft, wenn jenes kleine, trotz all seiner Größe im Verhältnis zur Erde kleine Bild - denn ein Bild ist es nur —, wenn jenes kleine Bild der Sonne verschwindet. Und majestätisch wird die Sonne erfüllen das ganze All - unendlich viel größer - als das riesengroße Weltenbild. Dann erscheinen die Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie, webend und lebend im reinen Geisterreiche, jetzt aber empfangend dasjenige, was ihnen Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai bringen. Das sind nicht tote Gedanken, wie wir sie haben; da sind die toten Gedanken entnommen dem Sinnenschein und im Atmen der Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai lebendige Gedanken geworden. Wie in einem gewaltigen Opfer tragen Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai diese lebendigen Gedanken hin vor die Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie, vor Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. Da wecken diejenigen Gedanken, die gelebt haben im Erdendasein, die im Erdendasein Schein sind, die wecken die Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie im Sein auf.
Und wir sehen, wie empfangen die Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie von den Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie die schon belebten Gedanken und wie jetzt wie eine mächtige Auferstehung eine Welt wird, eine neue Welt aus demjenigen, was tot aus dem Sinnenschein von Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai entnommen worden ist; eine neue Welt, eine auferstehende Welt wird unter der Wirkung der Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes.
Dann sehen wir, wie das merkwürdige Geheimnis der Welt, das Geheimnis des Kosmos wirkt. Dann schen wir, wie Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes dasjenige, was sie empfangen haben von den Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie, übergeben demjenigen, was wir im Erdendasein Strahlen, Strahlen der Sonne, Strahlen der Sterne nennen. Alldem Strahlenden wird jetzt das belebte, auferweckte Gedankenweben der Welt übergeben.
In Wahrheit sind Strahlen nichts Physisches. In Wahrheit strahlt in den Strahlen der Geist. Aber wir sehen, wenn die Strahlen so zu uns dringen, wir sie so anschauen, wir sie so sehen, was diesen Strahlen von rückwärts mitgegeben wird aus dem Bereich der Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie. In all diesem Strahlenden, in dem Sternenstrahlenden, Sonnenstrahlenden wird mitgegeben dasjenige, was die Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie an Weltengedanken weben, aber auch alles dasjenige, was sie auferstehen ließen aus den durch die Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie belebten - im toten Sinnenschein auch toten - Gedanken. Und jetzt hören wir, wie sie mitgeben diesen strahlenden Geisteskräften dasjenige, was als schaffende Liebe wirkt im Kosmos, was auf den Sternen- und Sonnenstrahlen als Liebe webt, als Liebe flutet durch den Kosmos und die eigentliche erzeugend-schaffende Kraft im ganzen Kosmos ist, wie sie das anvertrauen den Sternenstrahlen, anvertrauen den Sonnenstrahlen; jetzt schauen wir mit dem Geistesauge, wie Geiststrahlendes, Liebeweckendes, Liebetragendes die Geister der zweiten Hierarchie der Welt einverleiben.
So hören wir sie jetzt sprechen - nicht zu uns -, wir werden Zeuge eines Zwiegespräches zwischen den Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie und den Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie. Da tönt es hinüber. Wir hören es nur mit an. Es ist das erste Mal, dass wir miteinander sprechen hören im Fortgange des Situationsmeditierens die Wesenheiten der oberen Hierarchie:
Euer Empfangenes
Aus totem Sinnenschein Belebtes:
Wir wecken es im Sein;
Wir schenken es den Strahlen,
Die des Stoffes Nichtigkeit
In des Geistes Wesenheit
Liebewebend offenbaren.
Und indem also wir Zeugen eines Himmelsgespräches werden, hellt sich für das Geistesauge die frühere nachtbedeckte Finsternis allmählich auf. Sie wird durchdrungen von einem sanften, milden Lichte.
[Diese dritte Strophe wird nun an die Tafel geschrieben;]
Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes:
Euer Empfangenes
Aus totem Sinnenschein Belebtes:
Wir wecken es im Sein;
Wir schenken es den Strahlen,
Die des Stoffes Nichtigkeit
In des Geistes Wesenheit
Liebewebend offenbaren.
Nun, haben wir dieses vernommen, sind wir durchdrungen von diesem, dann sehen wir ein weiteres mit dem Geistesauge, das sich abspielt. Dann sehen wir, dass dasjenige, was also dadurch entstanden ist, dass Erdengedanken belebt worden sind durch die dritte Hierarchie, dass das von der dritten Hierarchie belebend Eratmete empfangen worden ist von der zweiten Hierarchie, und den Sternenstrahlen, den Sonnenstrahlen mitgeteilt worden ist, in Liebe gewandelt worden ist; das sehen wir übernommen von den Wesenheiten der ersten Hierarchie und von diesen Wesenheiten der ersten Hierarchie zu den Elementen gemacht, aus denen sie neue Welten schaffen. Was Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai aus der Welt sich eratmen, was von ihnen empfangen Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, das übernehmen und wandeln es in Schaffenskräfte, aus denen sie neue Welten gestalten, Throne, Cherubine, Seraphine.
Und das Merkwürdige ist dieses: Wir waren erstens Zeuge eines Himmelsgespräches, das geführt haben die Wesen der zweiten Hierarchie mit den Wesen der dritten Hierarchie. Jetzt hören wir mit den Geistesohren weiter. Es beginnen zu sprechen die Weltenworte die Wesen der ersten Hierarchie, Throne, Cherubine, Seraphine. Uns ist es zuerst, als sollten wir hören wiederum nur ein Himmelsgespräch, bei dem wir Lauscher, Zuhörer sind. Doch gleich wird es uns klar: So ist es nicht.
Erstens ließen ihre Stimme ertönen die Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai; dann entstand ein Zwiegespräch zwischen Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes mit Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai; und nun mischen sich
in das Gespräch Throne, Cherubine, Seraphine. Ein ganzer Chor der Geistessphären tönt. Wir werden gewahr, indem jetzt die Stimmen der neun Chöre zusammentönen, dass dasjenige, was aus ihnen erklingt, wiederum an uns als Mensch gerichtet ist. Und so spricht zuletzt die ganze Geisteswelt zu uns. Aber erst wiederum, wenn dasjenige, was innerhalb der Geisteswelt gesprochen ist, aufgenommen wird in die Weltenworte der Seraphine, Cherubine und Throne, dann tönt es auch wiederum in unser Menschenwesen herein. Und dann tönt es zu uns als Mensch:
In deinen Willenswelten
Fühl’ unser Weltenwirken;
Geist erglänzt im Stoffe,
Wenn wir denkend schaffen;
Geist erschafft im Stoffe,
Wenn wir wollend leben;
Welt ist Ich-wollend Geistes-Wort.
Die Welt ist das Geisteswort, das das Ich will; und im Schaffen von Seraphinen, Cherubinen und Thronen ist die Welt.
[Diese vierte Strophe wird nun an die Tafel geschrieben:]
Throne, Cherubine, Seraphine:
In deinen Willenswelten
Fühl’ unser Weltenwirken;
Geist erglänzt im Stoffe,
Wenn wir denkend schaffen;
Geist erschafft im Stoffe,
Wenn wir wollend leben;
Welt ist Ich-wollend Geistes-Wort.
Das Geisteswort, das das Ich will, ist die Welt. Und indem wir diese Worte an unser Menschenwesen herandringen hören mit dem Geistesohr, wird es hell in der geistigen Welt. Das milde Licht, das vorher da war, wandelt sich in Geisteshelle.
Das ist das Erlebnis mit dem Hüter beim Hellwerden der Geistessphäre:
Sieh’ des Äther-Farbenbogens
Lichtgewalt’ges Rund,
Lass’ durch deiner Augen
Lichterschaffene Kraft
Dein Ich den Kreis durchdringen,
Und dann schau von jenseit’ger Warte
Farbenflutend die Weltenschale.Empfind’ unsrer Gedanken
Farbenatmend Leben
In der Schale Lichtesfluten;<
Wir tragen Sinnenschein
In Geistes-Wesensreiche
Und wenden weltdurchdrungen
Uns höhern Geistern dienend zu.Euer Empfangenes
Aus totem Sinnenschein Belebtes:
Wir wecken es im Sein;
Wir schenken es den Strahlen,
Die des Stoffes Nichtigkeit
In des Geistes Wesenheit
Liebewebend offenbaren.In deinen Willenswelten
Fühl’ unser Weltenwirken;
Geist erglänzt im Stoffe,
Wenn wir denkend schaffen;
Geist erschafft im Stoffe,
Wenn wir wollend leben;
Welt ist Ich-wollend Geistes-Wort.
Welt ist Ich-wollend Geistes-Wort. Und es ist dann, als ob der Hüter der Schwelle uns sanft berührte mit seinen Geistesorganen. Wir fühlen sein Wesen so, wie wenn er uns die Geistesaugen zudrückte, wir für einen Augenblick nichts schauten, trotzdem wir vorher im hellen Geistesraume waren. Dann steigt aus unserem Innern das Wort auf, das wir heute noch nicht rechnen wollen zu den Mantren, die wir bekommen, das aber an den Schluss dieser Stunde gestellt werden soll und das wir aufsparen wollen aufzuschreiben für das nächste Mal.
Indem - wenn wir es mit einem sinnlichen Bilde ausdrücken, was da auf rein geistige Art geschieht - der Hüter der Schwelle uns sanft die Hand auf die Augen legt, sodass wir von der um uns herum befindlichen Geisteshelle nichts sehen, steigt in uns dasjenige auf, was wie eine Erinnerung wirkt an die Sinneswelt, die wir verlassen haben zur Aneignung der Erkenntnis in der Geistwelt. Das steigt auf:
Ich trat in diese Sinnes-Welt,
Des Denkens Erbe mit mir führend,
Eines Gottes Kraft hat mich hereingeführt.
Der Tod, er steht an des Weges Ende.
Ich will des Christus Wesen fühlen.
Es weckt in Stoffes-Sterben Geist-Geburt.
Im Geiste find’ ich so die Welt
Und erkenne mich im Weltenwerden.
Meine lieben Freunde, ich muss erinnern an etwas, was gesagt worden ist im Beginne der Einrichtung der Klassenstunden, auch schon betont worden ist bei der Weihnachtstagung. Es dürfen nicht die Dinge immer wiederum so genommen werden, dass man eine Einrichtung, die aus tieferem Sinn heraus voll getroffen worden ist, von außen her abändert, sie anders einrichtet, als sie eingerichtet war. Deshalb muss ich hier verkündigen, dass zukünftig - und das sollten diejenigen, die schon in der Klasse sind, durchaus als die Ordnung für diejenigen, die für die Klasse ansuchen wollen, den anderen klarmachen -, es wird zukünftig kein einziges Klassengesuch mehr berücksichtigt, das nicht entweder an den Schriftführer des Vorstandes des Goetheanum, Frau Doktor Wegman, oder an mich direkt gerichtet ist. Nur mit diesen zwei persönlichen Adressen werden zukünftig Ansuchen um die Zugehörigkeit zur Klasse berücksichtigt. Das, was vom Anfange an festgesetzt worden ist, muss bleiben. Die Mitglieder haben sich schon wiederum so eingerichtet, dass sie das nicht befolgen, sondern die Sache so machen, wie sie selber wollen.
Bei dieser Gelegenheit mache ich noch auf etwas anderes aufmerksam, meine lieben Freunde, was insbesondere jetzt schwerwiegend wird, wo wirklich mit der nötigen Einhaltung der Kompetenzen die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft geleitet werden muss. Immer wieder und wiederum bekommt man Briefe, in denen steht: Wenn ich nicht eine Antwort bekomme, so betrachte ich das als eine Bejahung. - Diejenigen, die so geschrieben haben, wissen schon davon. Ich möchte diejenigen, die so geschrieben haben und alle, die noch so schreiben wollen, bitten zu berücksichtigen, dass jeder Brief, der enthalten wird den Satz: Eine Nichtantwort betrachte ich als eine Bejahung -, dass jeder solcher Brief sich selber die Antwort bilden kann als eine Verneinung. Es wird in Zukunft überhaupt ein solcher Brief nicht mehr beantwortet, weil man gar nicht zurechtkommen kann, wenn solche Zumutungen gestellt werden, sondern es muss dasjenige, was in dem Brief geschrieben wird, von vornherein als verneinend beantwortet gelten.
Seventeenth Hour
My dear friends! Today we begin with the saying that, when the world is properly understood, resounds in the human heart from all that is and will be as a constant call for self-knowledge, through which one can only attain true knowledge of the world:
O man, know thyself!
Thus sounds the word of the world.
You hear it with the power of your soul,
You feel it with the power of your spirit.Who speaks with such power over the world?
Who speaks with such sincerity?Does it work through the vast radiation of space
In the experience of your mind?
Does it sound through the waves of time
In the stream of your life?Is it you yourself who,
In the feeling of space, in the experience of time,
Creates the word, feeling yourself alien
In the emptiness of space's soul,
Because you lose the power of thought
In the stream of time's destruction.
Once again, let us allow that which summarized the content of the last class lesson to pass through our souls. This, too, was a meditation, springing from what human beings can experience when they feel their way completely into the context of the world, into the context above all with the spiritual world.
We have allowed the human being's path to the abyss of being, where the guardian of the threshold stands, to appear before our soul. We have heard the teachings that the guardian gives to those who cross the threshold. We have heard how those who arrive beyond the threshold first feel themselves in the light, experience the world in a new way, by first hearing what the guardian on one side says, but also what the beings of the higher hierarchies say to them. And the last conversation was this, where the Guardian asks a question, and where, referring to the element of warmth — which permeates everything, which proves to be a moral element from beyond the abyss — the following speak one after the other: Angeloi, Exusiai, Thrones; Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubim; Archai, Kyriotetes, Seraphim. Whereupon the Guardian speaks once more to the I in three questions that penetrate deeply into the human being, and the I answers modestly, as was explained last time, but now exchanges words with the Guardian inwardly, as in a more familiar conversation.
The guardian speaks: What will become of the purification of fire that the I ignited in you?
Angeloi, Exusiai, Thrones: Awaken in yourself the writing of the flame of life in the expanses of the world ether.
Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubim: Create for yourself the powers of soul atonement in the circles of time waves.
Archai, Kyriotetes, Seraphim: Ask for the powers of spirit liberation in eternal deeds.
The Guardian: Has your spirit understood?
I:
The world spirit within me
He held his breath
And his presence
May enlighten my self.The Guardian: Has your soul understood?
I:
The world souls within me
They lived in the council of stars
And their harmonies
May create my self with sound.The Guardian: Has your body experienced?
I:
The world forces within me
They judge human deeds
And their words of truth
May guide my self.
As the human being feels itself in the weaving, living light beyond the threshold of being, where the Guardian stands, it gradually, slowly, becomes not only felt light, it slowly becomes such light that one can say: Man sees it. From the feeling of light, weaving and blowing, which one has, so to speak, only in the spiritual grasp of thought, light gradually arises that is seen, as it were, by the spiritual eye.
But man does not come into this light — seeing — in any other way than by hearing once again a profound warning from the Guardian. And this admonition, which points to a powerful world imagination, points to something through which human beings, standing here in the sensory world, can take in something tremendously majestic into their impressions, if they have the heart to do so. For when the majestic rainbow magically illuminates the sky with the appropriate cloud formation, one can feel something like the spirits from beyond the physical-sensory appearance shining in through the rainbow's colors. It stands there, rising up from space, disappearing back into space, placed in this universe like a powerful imagination.
The guardian reminds us of this impression of the rainbow at this moment, when it is also supposed to become bright for the gaze over in the spiritual world. [The rainbow is drawn; see page 808.]
And the guardian reminds us that those who have crossed over into the spiritual world should activate within themselves the image from their memory of the sensory world that the rainbow reigning in space has always created for them. For it is remarkable, my dear sisters and brothers, that when human beings cross over from the physical-sensory world into the spiritual world, the image of the rainbow is the one that is most easily remembered and that most easily evokes the connection between the spiritual world, in which it is now to become light, and the physical-sensory world that one has left behind with one's powers of cognition.
And then — it is not the sight of the rainbow, it is the memory of the rainbow that is evoked by the guardian of the threshold — and then the guardian instructs you: Now try — we will hear the words with which he speaks — now try with the power with which you otherwise look out of your eyes to prepare those substances with which you penetrate this rainbow, with which you penetrate down through the rainbow to the other side.
So when we imagine: [The second drawing is developed; see page 808:] Inside the cloud formation [white] — looking up from the earth [small arrow] — the rainbow would be here [red in the cloud formation]}; we must now imagine: the guardian instructs us to penetrate through that rainbow and from that vantage point [line through the cloud formation to the small circle where the word “vantage point” is written], which is beyond, to look back, to look back from those worlds onto the rainbow. Thus the guardian instructs us to deepen our imagination in a contemplative, meditative way if we want to move on from the point we have reached in the last hour.
Then, when we look back from over there, when you, my sisters and brothers, imagine that you are going behind the blackboard [white arrow pointing to the top left in the first drawing], looking at the rainbow from behind [red arrow pointing down to the right in the first drawing], as it has appeared in your memory, looking at it from behind, then the rainbow becomes a mighty bowl, becomes the bowl of the world. And you no longer see an arc, you see a mighty bowl half the size of the sky, and within it the colors flow together in confusion.
This is the imagination that the guardian first arouses:
See the etheric rainbow
Circle of light,
Let through your eyes
The power created by light
Your self penetrate the circle,
And then look from the other side
At the world bowl overflowing with colors.
[This first verse of the mantra is now written on the board; see page 808]
These are powerful words spoken by the Guardian. And you must only put yourselves in the right position, my dear sisters and brothers, in the position of the whole imagery within which the pupil of the Guardian of the Threshold finds himself when he is now asked to look at the shell of the world with its contents, the flood of color and light:The Guardian:
See the etheric rainbow
Circle of light,
Let through your eyes
Light-creating power
Your self penetrate the circle,
And then look from the other side
The world shell flooding with color.
Be aware of the etheric rainbow
Circle of light,
Let through your eyes
The power created by light<
Your I penetrate the circle,
And then look from the other side
The world shell flooding with color.
One must pass through such images. And if the image has a deep and intimate effect on the self, then the human being sees in these floods of color that fill the shell how the beings of the third hierarchy appear in these floods of color: Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. And they breathe the colors, absorbing the colors into their own angelic beings.
One gains an understanding of that world creation that lies behind the sensory world and takes place in the deeds of the higher hierarchies; one gains an understanding of how, beyond the rainbow, the spiritual beings reign, first breathing in the colors of the world shell and absorbing them into their own being.
One sees how that which flows from the world to the rainbow passes through the rainbow, appears behind the rainbow as thoughts, and how this is absorbed and breathed in by angelic beings. One now learns about the nature of the rainbow. Everything that is thought for any region in such thoughts that emanate from human beings is collected again and again from time to time through the bridge of the rainbow, led out into the spiritual realm, where it is breathed in by the beings of the third hierarchy. That which appears so magical within the vastness of the universe has not only a physical meaning, it has its spiritual inner nature. And something like the magical etheric rainbow cannot be recognized if one remains only within the physical-sensory world; one learns to recognize it only when one stands beyond the threshold of being, when one has left behind various admonitions of the Guardian of the Threshold, as we have come to know them.
But then, precisely through the impression one gets from the other side of the rainbow as the shell of the world, it becomes clear how the light gradually spreads out before us in what initially appeared to be a dark, night-covered sphere. We are now inside it. It brightens: it is the sun, the shell of the world – with its floods of color – from beyond the rainbow.
Then the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai begin to reflect their consciousness within human souls, as they breathe in the floods of color, so that what lives here on earth in the light of the senses, insofar as it is useful for the spirit realm, is carried into the spirit realm.
And then, when one has perceived how these beings of the third hierarchy have inhaled that which they have taken from the sensory world, that which has penetrated to them through the rainbow of colors, that which they have transformed so that it can be absorbed into the spiritual world, then they go with what they have thus absorbed within themselves to serve the higher spirits, the spirits of the second hierarchy. For the spirits of the third hierarchy, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, are the serving spirits of the spirit world. From them we now hear what we see when we turn our soul's gaze to the color-flooded world shell, the beyond of the rainbow.
Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai:
Feel our thoughts
Breathing life in colors
In the shell of light floods;<
We carry the light of the senses
Into the realms of spirit beings
And, imbued with the world,
Turn to serve higher spirits.
[This second stanza is now written on the board:]
Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai:
Feel our thoughts
Breathing life in colors<
In the shell of light floods;
We carry the light of the senses
Into the realms of the spirit
And, imbued with the world,
Turn to serve higher spirits.
My dear sisters and brothers, let us once again place this image before our soul: the shell of the world, half the size of the sky, within which flow the colors that we otherwise see spread out in the rainbow, weaving, living within each other, approaching the beings of the third hierarchy, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. They breathe these colors. But for us, the thoughts of the beings of the higher hierarchy become visible to the soul in this breathing of colors.
But we see how, imbued with these world thoughts, these beings of the third hierarchy turn to the beings of the second hierarchy whom they serve, turn to Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. And we have before us the powerful image of the pure spirit beings appearing, the sun dwellers, who only appear when the physical image projected by the sun disappears, when that small image—small despite its size in relation to the earth, for it is only an image—when that small image of the sun disappears. And majestically, the sun will fill the entire universe—infinitely greater than the gigantic image of the world. Then the beings of the second hierarchy appear, weaving and living in the pure spirit realm, but now receiving what the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai bring them. These are not dead thoughts as we have them; there, the dead thoughts are taken from the light of the senses and become living thoughts in the breath of the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai. As in a mighty sacrifice, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai carry these living thoughts before the beings of the second hierarchy, before Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. There, those thoughts that have lived in earthly existence, that are light in earthly existence, awaken the beings of the second hierarchy into being.
And we see how the beings of the second hierarchy receive the already animated thoughts from the beings of the third hierarchy, and how now, like a mighty resurrection, a world becomes, a new world, out of that which has been taken dead from the sense of the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai; a new world, a resurrected world is created under the influence of the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes.
Then we see how the strange mystery of the world, the mystery of the cosmos, works. Then we see how Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes hand over what they have received from the beings of the third hierarchy to what we call rays, rays of the sun, rays of the stars in our earthly existence. All that radiates is now handed over to the animated, awakened thought web of the world.
In truth, rays are not physical. In truth, it is the spirit that shines in the rays. But we see, when the rays penetrate us in this way, when we look at them in this way, when we see them in this way, what is given to these rays from behind, from the realm of the beings of the second hierarchy. In all this radiance, in the radiance of the stars and the sun, is imparted that which the beings of the second hierarchy weave into world thoughts, but also all that which they have resurrected from the thoughts enlivened by the beings of the third hierarchy – thoughts that are dead in the dead light of the senses. And now we hear how they impart to these radiant spiritual forces that which works as creative love in the cosmos, that which weaves as love on the rays of the stars and sun, floods through the cosmos as love, and is the actual generative-creative force in the entire cosmos, as they entrust this to the rays of the stars, entrust it to the rays of the sun; now we see with the mind's eye how spirit-radiating, love-awakening, love-bearing things are incorporated into the spirits of the second hierarchy of the world.
So now we hear them speaking—not to us—we witness a dialogue between the beings of the second hierarchy and the beings of the third hierarchy. There it sounds across. We only hear it. It is the first time that we hear the beings of the higher hierarchy speaking to each other in the course of meditating on the situation:
What you have received
From dead sensory light Enlivened:
We awaken it in being;
We give it to the rays,
Which reveal the nothingness of matter
In the essence of the spirit
Living with love.
And thus, as we become witnesses to a heavenly conversation, the former darkness covered by night gradually brightens for the spiritual eye. It is permeated by a gentle, mild light.
[This third stanza is now written on the board;]
Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes:
What you have received
From dead sensory light:
We awaken it in being;
We give it to the rays,
Which reveal the nothingness of matter
In the essence of the spirit
reveal the essence of the spirit in the nothingness of matter.
Now, having heard this, having been imbued with it, we see another thing happening with the eye of the spirit. We see that what has come into being through the third hierarchy breathing life into earthly thoughts that which has been received by the second hierarchy from the life-giving breath of the third hierarchy and communicated to the rays of the stars and the rays of the sun, has been transformed into love; we see this taken up by the beings of the first hierarchy and made by these beings of the first hierarchy into the elements from which they create new worlds. What Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai breathe out of the world, what Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes receive from them, they take over and transform into creative powers from which they shape new worlds, Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim.
And the strange thing is this: we were first witnesses to a heavenly conversation conducted by the beings of the second hierarchy with the beings of the third hierarchy. Now we continue to listen with our spiritual ears. The beings of the first hierarchy, Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim, begin to speak the words of the worlds. At first, it seems as if we are again hearing only a heavenly conversation in which we are eavesdroppers, listeners. But immediately it becomes clear to us: this is not the case.
First, the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai let their voices be heard; then a dialogue arose between the Exusiai, Dynamis, and Kyriotetes with the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai; and now the Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim join in the conversation. A whole choir of spirit spheres resounds. We become aware, as the voices of the nine choirs now blend together, that the conversation is not just between the beings of the second hierarchy and those of the third hierarchy.
the Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim join in the conversation. An entire choir of the spirit spheres resounds. As the voices of the nine choirs now sound together, we become aware that what resounds from them is again addressed to us as human beings. And so, finally, the entire spirit world speaks to us. But only when what is spoken within the spiritual world is taken up into the world words of the seraphim, cherubim, and thrones does it resound into our human being. And then it resounds to us as human beings:
In your worlds of will
Feel our worldly activity;
Spirit shines in matter,
When we create through thinking;
Spirit creates in matter,
When we live through willing;
The world is the word of the spirit that I will.
The world is the word of the spirit that I will; and in the creation of seraphim, cherubim, and thrones is the world.
[This fourth stanza is now written on the board:]
Thrones, cherubim, seraphim:
In your worlds of will
Feel our worldly work;
Spirit shines in matter,
When we create thinking;
Spirit creates in matter,
When we live willingly;
The world is the word of the spirit that I will.
The word of the spirit that I will is the world. And as we hear these words approaching our human being with the ear of the spirit, it becomes light in the spiritual world. The soft light that was there before transforms into spiritual brightness.
This is the experience with the guardian when the spiritual sphere becomes bright:
See the etheric rainbow
Circle of light,
Let through your eyes
The power created by light
Your I penetrate the circle,
And then look from the other side
The world shell flooding with colors.Feel our thoughts
Breathing life in colors
In the shell of light floods;<
We carry the light of the senses
Into the realms of the spirit
And, imbued with the world,
Turn to serve higher spirits.What you have received
From the dead light of the senses:
We awaken it in being;
We give it to the rays,
Which reveal the nothingness of matter
In the essence of the spirit
Living with love.In your worlds of will
Feel our worldly influence;
Spirit shines in matter,
When we create through thought;
Spirit creates in matter,
When we live through will;
The world is the word of the spirit, willed by the I.
The world is the word of the spirit, willed by the I. And it is then as if the guardian of the threshold gently touched us with his spiritual organs. We feel his presence as if he had closed our spiritual eyes, so that for a moment we saw nothing, even though we had previously been in the bright spiritual realm. Then the word rises from within us, which we do not yet want to count among the mantras we receive, but which should be placed at the end of this hour and which we want to save to write down for next time.
When the guardian of the threshold gently places his hand over our eyes, so that we cannot see the spiritual light around us, something rises up within us that feels like a memory of the sensory world we have left behind in order to acquire knowledge in the spiritual world. This rises up:
I entered this sensory world,
Carrying with me the legacy of thought,
The power of a god has led me here.
Death stands at the end of the path.
I want to feel the essence of Christ.
It awakens the birth of the spirit in the death of matter.
In the spirit I thus find the world
And recognize myself in the becoming of the world.
My dear friends, I must remind you of something that was said at the beginning of the establishment of the class lessons, and which was also emphasized at the Christmas conference. Things must not always be taken in such a way that an institution, which has been fully established out of a deeper meaning, is changed from the outside, rearranged differently than it was originally established. Therefore, I must announce here that in future – and those who are already in the class should make this clear to others as the rule for those who wish to apply for the class – no class applications will be considered unless they are addressed either to the secretary of the Goetheanum Executive Council, Dr. Wegman, or directly to me. Only with these two personal addresses will applications for membership of the class be considered in future. What has been established from the beginning must remain. The members have already arranged themselves in such a way that they do not follow this, but do things as they themselves wish.
On this occasion, I would like to draw your attention to something else, my dear friends, which is becoming particularly serious now that the Anthroposophical Society really must be managed with the necessary respect for competences. Again and again, we receive letters saying: If I do not receive a reply, I will consider this as an affirmation. Those who have written in this way already know this. I would like to ask those who have written in this way, and all those who still want to write in this way, to bear in mind that every letter that contains the sentence: “I consider a non-response to be an affirmation” – that every such letter can form its own answer as a negative. In future, such letters will no longer be answered at all, because it is impossible to cope with such unreasonable demands; instead, the content of the letter must be considered a negative response from the outset.