Goethe Celebration

GA 113 — 28 August 1909, Munich

For those who, within the modern intellectual life, like to] remember the leading personalities of the past, the night of August 27 to 28 is an important night of remembrance. August 27 is the birthday of the greatest thinker of modern times, and August 28 is the birthday of the most universal, comprehensive spirit. And so, during this night, our thoughts can touch the memories of the great philosopher Hegel, who has his birthday on August 27, and of Goethe, the universal spirit, who has his on August 28. And then, when our thoughts turn back in remembrance to these two great individuals, many things come to mind that connect with these thoughts. The uniqueness of these two great individuals of modern times comes to mind, and we then look back with pleasure, comparing them with what we otherwise know from intellectual life, to these two representatives of humanity, Hegel and Goethe. And much of what could be said in yesterday's lecture may be linked to these two names.

Hegel appears as the one among modern minds who has brought the experience of the inner self to its highest flowering. He appears as the one who can lead man today into the etheric heights, into the light-filled regions of thinking, and for those who can be fertilized by Hegel's crystal-clear trains of thought floating in etheric heights, another spiritual current that has prevailed in humanity also becomes understandable. For Hegel can only be compared if we let our feelings roam through the turning point of the ages, to that oriental spiritual flower that has led most deeply into human spiritual life through pure thought: to Vedanta philosophy. In a certain respect, he is the one who, within our Occident, has renewed the Luciferic starting from India, and yet again in a different form. Whoever can immerse themselves in the Vedanta work of the Orient will revere in it the highest flowering of that thinking which, with unspeakable devotion and with the finest chiseling of every single thought that man can grasp, composes a world-thought system. In the Vedanta philosophy we see synthetic, synthesizing thinking in its highest flowering. And Hegel renews this pure thought, this absolutely sensuous thinking, so that with him thinking itself becomes an organism, where one thought grows out of another. That is why it is so difficult to understand even the slightest thing from the etheral heights of Hegelian thinking without preparation. Those who immerse themselves in Hegel feel, on the one hand, the height to which he carries them, where a fresh air of thought blows, and, on the other hand, the purity that permeates all these thoughts. Thus, we have, as it were, the luciferic principle in Hegel.

On the other hand, in Goethe we have the universal spirit, whose gaze is spread over the great carpet of the outer world, but looks everywhere into the deeper spiritual foundations, so that from every plant, from every animal and all human and artistic phenomena, the spirit that reigns behind the phenomena blows out from them for Goethe, so that he is able to awaken the spirit in modern intellectual life from the side of the external world, to stir it into activity. Thus, in relation to us, Goethe stands as the substance of spirit and Hegel as the form of spirit, and we can best find our way into this modern spiritual life if we try to embrace the great spirit and the great soul of Goethe through the instrument of Hegel. Such thoughts arise when one allows the night of August 27th to 28th, Hegel's birthday and Goethe's birthday, to pass before one's soul with the right memories. That is why we want to invite you today to commemorate these two great spirits of modern intellectual life, and we will commemorate them by first presenting Goethe's small cosmic poems, which lead to certain heights of intellectual life, here in a lecture, and then a larger poem by Goethe, which shows how he sought the way and in a certain way was able to find it into intellectual life. This will be followed by a reflection on the nature of Goethe's spirit from a certain perspective, with which we will conclude our celebration today.

Marie von Sivers then recites the following poems:

“All Is One”, “Bequest”, “The Limits of Humanity”, “The Divine”, “Song of the Spirits over the Waters”, “Song of Mohammed”

Now follows those Goethean verses that arose from the highest source of spirit when Goethe was about thirty-five years old. Those of you who have heard me lecture often will begin to grasp the spiritual significance of the thirty-fifth year in the normal course of human life. I have often pointed out the great significance that the age of thirty-five had for Dante in relation to the conception of his great poem of the world. That which Goethe wanted to express in the verses he entitled “The Secrets” had matured in his soul during this important period of his life. If we wish to picture to ourselves what it was that moved through Goethe's heart at that time, when he wrote the verses entitled 'The Secrets', we cannot describe it better than by saying that at that time, when he was thirty-five years old, Goethe formulated the symbol of the spiritual-scientific world view. For there is no better program of the spiritual-scientific world view today than Goethe's poem “The Secrets”. And later, in 1816, Goethe was asked what the various images in his poem “The Secrets” meant. He gave a not very detailed explanation after so many years in response to an external request, but in this explanation, too, we find something like a program of our world view. We may say: at the time when Goethe was inspired to write the poem 'The Secrets', that which we today call anthroposophy lived warmly in his soul. And in this poem, the spiritual-scientific call is sent out into the world so powerfully and on such profound grounds that it had to remain a fragment even for a mind as great as that of the great soul that Goethe's body held. The soul that lived in it was, so to speak, too great to be given a poetic body. Thus we have a fragment in the “Secrets”. With a certain inner satisfaction we delve into this fragment, sensing in it a modern spiritual life. We now want to let the verses pass before us and then say a few words about the peculiarity of Goethe's mind and soul, so that through the final reflection we can find the way to approach to some extent the light that shines in the meaningful story that Goethe gave us in his fragment “Secrets” in the thirty-fifth year of his life.

Marie von Sivers then recites the poem “The Secrets”

. Anyone who allows this Goethean poem to take effect on them cannot fail to recognize that inspiration from higher worlds has flowed into it. And anyone who has even a slight inkling of how the life of the higher worlds has been expressed in significant symbols for people in all ages will recognize in the symbols presented to us here the eternal symbols of the great spiritual proclamations and revelations made to humanity from epoch to epoch. And then the soul, which wants to struggle through Goethe's spirit, probably senses an important revelation for our newer stages of development.

When a significant individuality strives into existence through one of its incarnations, then the whole nature and the whole type of this individuality announces itself through many different ways. We must not forget that the spiritual is the creator of the outer physical, of the outer body, and that the soul, which enters into any present incarnation from previous incarnations with a certain state of maturity, prepares itself through this and that the outer physical body, so that it becomes a suitable instrument for its mission of individuality, which has come up from another incarnation. And so, for some individuals, from early childhood their outer life becomes something of a symbol of what the individuality struggles to shape their outer life and their outer body in order to become an instrument for the significant spiritual individuality. Therefore, wherever the essence of Goethe's soul is to be touched upon, we may always recall the childhood event that took place in his seventh year, which has been mentioned many times before by most of you. Even as a seven-year-old boy, he was in many ways unsatisfied by what people could tell him about the nature of the spiritual-divine. The seven-year-old boy already had a different connection to the divine spiritual world than his whole environment, and he also needed a different expression for this soul of his, which had developed from earlier incarnations. One day he took a music stand from his father, placed minerals and plants on it and, with a childlike intuitive soul, saw in them symbols for the outer tapestry of the senses, and indeed, symbols behind which he sensed the spiritual world. And behind all this, he wanted to grasp with his intuitive soul the weaving and ruling of the spiritual behind the tapestry of the sensual. So he, the young seven-year-old boy, placed a little incense stick on top of the desk, waited for the rising morning sun, took a burning glass, collected the rays of the rising morning sun, and the collected rays fell on the little incense stick, so that it was ignited by the fire of the rays of the rising sun. And when the old man related this childlike experience, he could not describe it in other words than by saying that, as a seven-year-old child, he wanted to light a fire at the very sources of nature, of creative nature, in order to make a sacrifice to the great God who spiritually reigns behind the tapestry of the senses. That was Goethe's act of worship when he was a seven-year-old child. What had entwined itself in the physical world grew ever further and further and ever more and more, wanting to enter the spiritual world, which veils itself behind the outer carpet of the senses. And so we see how Goethe, after his arrival in Weimar, spoke those significant words that have come down to us in his 'Prose Hymn to Nature' and which, with such sacred fervor, seek to grasp what, as spiritual life, permeates the outer carpet of the senses and with which the soul can unite when it is prepared for such worship, as the seven-year-old boy had practiced: 'Nature! We are surrounded and embraced by it.... It has brought me in, it will also lead me out... It will not hate its work... Everything is its fault, everything is its merit!

You will find great, powerful words in this prose hymn to nature, words that show how the same soul has grown, becoming ever more mature and mature. But for such an individuality, not only what it initially placed on the altar in the seventh year of its life, like the great symbols of nature, becomes symbolum, but also everything it experiences in life from day to day, from hour to hour. Thus, if we follow Goethe's life closely, we see how, as a young student in Leipzig, he immersed himself in the science of nature, already seeking behind everything the spiritual creation. But it was also at that time that something passed by his soul that was in the highest sense of the word suited to inspire this soul, which was so prepared to roam far and wide in order to find God, to sense God in his depths at the same time. At the end of his studies in Leipzig, death passed Goethe by. He had been close to death after a severe illness, and this experience meant an infinite deepening of his being at that time. And then he came back to his hometown, to Frankfurt. There we see him absorbed in the writings of medieval esotericism, that medieval esotericism which is regarded by today's intellectual life as madness, but from which a deeper spiritual life shone for Goethe, so that he felt inspired to practical esoteric exercises himself. At that time, the first ray of what can truly be called inspiration was laid in Goethe's soul.

There are inspirations that work in such a way that the soul immediately reflects the result of the inspiration back to the inspirer. But there are also inspirations that work in such a way that the person who is inspired is hardly aware that the seed of inspiration has sunk into his soul. For this germ must lie dormant within, unconsciously, for years, decades, perhaps even centuries, waiting until it can bring forth the fruits that can then overcome and make use of the instrument of the physical body to such an extent that a manifestation and revelation of higher life can shine forth from such a personality. The inspiration that came to Goethe from a mysterious source in Frankfurt was something of this kind. But we can readily see how this inspiration holds sway in Goethe's spirit, how he faces everything in such a way that a secret light shines into his soul from all the events of life. Then innumerable experiences made a deep impression on Goethe, and it would take many hours if I wanted to tell you what all this has done for Goethe's inner being during the following stay in Strasbourg. Just as powerful as what I can mention in the short time available was the effect of many other things that time does not permit us to emphasize today. Only one event that affected Goethe in Strasbourg and sank into the hidden seed of inspiration will be told: it is the meeting with another contemporary personality who was struggling in deepest yearning for what is called anthroposophical thinking today. This personality was Herder, whom Goethe met in Strasbourg. Herder was the one who had immersed himself in the course of human development, who had wanted to get to know the different rays into which the sun of spiritual life is divided when it sends its light into humanity. Herder's mind had penetrated through oriental and occidental religious systems, and before him stood the idea that a common divine must run through all these religious ways of thinking and philosophies of humanity. It was from such ideas that Herder developed what he presented in his book 'Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Humanity', in which he allows the spiritual life of humanity to pass before his eyes in order to show how religions develop and how a spiritual-divine element lives in everything, developing from the imperfect to the perfect. But then Herder also wanted to extract from what his mind observed that which arises in feelings, in inner experiences for the soul. So Herder wrote later, as an emotional effect of his reflections, but at the same time an appeal to humanity: “This is how you should become if you carry within you that attitude that arises when you see the spirits that live in the religions of humanity united in peace.” Thus he wrote his “Letters on the Advancement of Humanity.” Oh, the word “humanity” in those days in the circle that formed around Goethe-Herder was a word that did not have the abstract sense that it acquired in the nineteenth century. The word “humanity” implied a full and profound life, and when one spoke of “humanity,” humanitas, one's soul was moved by the highest and most beautiful hopes for the future of humanity.

All this had a very special effect on Goethe's soul, which carried the seed of inspiration within it. For Goethe, by virtue of who he was, indeed faced all his contemporaries, indeed his entire time, in a very special way. There was something in him that could not be in any of the others. This becomes particularly apparent later, when the unique and wonderful bond of friendship blossomed between Schiller and Goethe; that was the time when Schiller, in a somewhat different way, was also carried to the highest heights of human feeling, as Herder had been in Goethe's time in Strasbourg. We need only delve into the thoughts and ideas of Schiller to ask ourselves: How does the same thing that we find in Schiller affect Goethe's mind? Then we gradually begin to sense something of the peculiarity of the Goethean soul. At the time when the bond of friendship with Goethe developed, Schiller wrestled with the question that can be formulated something like this: How can man achieve the highest development of freedom? How is it possible for a person to develop their inner soul forces harmoniously, so that they can rise above themselves from their innermost being, to develop a higher self, a higher human being — as Schiller says — in the ordinary person? Schiller answered this question, if we briefly recall his excellent work 'Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man', by saying that when man thinks, when he approaches his surroundings rationally and intellectually, then a compulsion rules in his inner life, the compulsion of logic. From thought to thought he is led; he is a slave to logical rules; he is not free. But when man looks out into the world of the senses, then the sense impressions affect him as currents of stimulation; he can do nothing about them, he is not free; he is a slave to the world of the senses. Thus man is placed between two worlds. He cannot be free. When man becomes more and more entangled in the world of the senses with his passions, his drives and desires, then he descends, and the spiritual withdraws from him. When man loses himself to logical necessity, then he descends into the abstract, and the spiritual withdraws from him as well. He may then become a man of duty, slavishly submitting to a categorical imperative; but he will become the slave of this categorical imperative. But there is one thing, says Schiller, and that is when the soul of man himself unfolds in the way we see the spirit at work in the work of beauty, in the work of art. When we have a work of art before us, we have a sensual thing before us, says Schiller, but through this thing the spirit shines and radiates, having created a form for itself, and we then have a sensual thing and at the same time a spiritual thing; we do not fall prey to the sensual thing, because it is purified and ennobled by the spirit that shines through it. We do not fall prey to the abstract spirit of logic. Here the spiritual comes to us in such a way that it descends. The person who develops his soul in this way comes to do what he should not because it is commanded as a duty, but because he loves what his duty is. And the spirit that develops in this way does not need to flee from sensuality, it does not need to say: Passions and drives are pushed aside. For they have been purified, cleansed, and are the expression of the spirit. This is the beautiful soul that Schiller had in mind, which attains freedom because it leads the spirit down into sensuality, spiritualizing the sensual, which rises from sensuality to the spirit, sensualizing the spirit. Oh, it was a momentous time when the soul of European intellectual life thus delved into the great ideals of humanity. That was what lived in Schiller's soul as he walked alongside Goethe, bound to him in intimate friendship.

And how did this affect Goethe? This is characteristic of Goethe's soul: Goethe was extremely attracted by this Schillerian thought; he was completely filled by it. But before his soul stood another. He said to himself: This is merely the thought, this is the ideal of thought. Life is infinitely richer, especially when viewed in the spiritual. — As such a thought, when it is led in a straight line, it is right for him, a highest ideal; but it is too poor for him to express the whole realm of the human soul, which ascends to the heights of spiritual life, to real liberation. What did the thought become in Goethe's soul? It became what meets us after the original germ of inspiration had matured further in Goethe. In reference to Schiller's thoughts just mentioned, Goethe wrote his “Fairytale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily”, in which we can sense the secret revelation of what the Goethean soul strove for. There we have not only two or three names for the soul forces, but a great, mighty tableau of twenty symbolic real figures, headed by the four kings: the golden, silver, brazen and mixed king; there we have the beautiful lily, the stream and so on. In this 'Fairytale of the Beautiful Lily and the Green Snake', you can find a very esoteric description of how the soul forces, which are expressed by these figures, must relate to one another in the developing soul, and how they must work together in the harmony of the spheres in order for the human soul to flourish. That is the secret of this fairy tale, that we understand how everything that is described to us about the relationship between the characters expresses the relationship between the harmonizing soul forces that lead the human being up to the flowering of spiritual life. What Schiller also felt to be a problem was reflected in Goethe's soul with infinite richness. Therefore, we should not be surprised that in the mid-1780s, when Goethe was about thirty-five years old, Herder's more philosophical striving, which had made a great impression on him, did not unfold in abstractions either, but in a rich tableau of the soul. Even earlier, before the “Fairytale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily” was written, Goethe had shown the path of the soul that must lead it to spiritual heights in the “Mysteries”, and he showed it as it resulted from the stimulus of those inspirations that he had received from the mysterious side in Frankfurt. That is why he calls the mysterious personality, who is the leader of the twelve as the thirteenth, Humanus. But at the same time, this Humanus was something much deeper to him than what today's abstract person thinks of when he hears this word. Humanus is a name for primeval man, for the great, all-encompassing human nature, which, combining all its powers, strives to the heights of the soul. Oh, Goethe knew that the soul life is something rich. Today you have heard two sentences that Goethe spoke, and which should be deeply engraved in the minds of those who are always looking for abstract correspondences. One of the poems that has just been spoken, in which the inner essence of things was discussed, ends with the words:

Only seemingly are moments still.
The eternal stirs in all;
For everything must disintegrate into nothingness
If it wants to persist in being.

An expression of a cosmic secret, an expression as the human mind leads itself to the soul! The next poem begins after the last line of the previous poem: Because everything must disintegrate into nothingness if it wants to persist in being:

No being can disintegrate into nothing!
The eternal moves on in all,
May you be blessed with being.

Those who want to judge everything according to the point of view just characterized, and find contradictions here and there, should, above all, write down in their minds how Goethe, when he wanted to elevate himself to the highest heights of cosmic events, had to put two sentences there that say exactly the opposite of each other. Why? Because the life that stands behind the phenomena is great and extensive, and because outer powers of expression are limited, and because if we want to grasp the rich life, we have to describe and look at it sometimes from one side, sometimes from the other. We must look carefully into how that must dissolve which wants to persist in being. On the other hand, we must also be able to show that there is something in spiritual life of which we must say: it can find happiness in being and persistence. The world is infinitely deeper and richer than people usually believe. That is why, in the middle of his life, at the age of thirty-three in his then incarnation, Goethe was seized by the thought: Yes, the most diverse religions are spread over the world; they live here and there, they are called upon to produce blossoms of spiritual existence within themselves. Goethe let the thought pass through his soul: If we fix our gaze on one or the other of the religions, then there is a point in each one where it rises above itself and leads to a point hidden behind all religions. Goethe represents the various religions in the twelve personalities who gather in the mysterious monastery, on which the Rosicrucian cross can be seen, indicating what the Rosicrucian cross has to do, namely to unite the various religions, after they rising above themselves — point to the great unity of spiritual life, which is represented by the Thirteenth, who is the leader and has risen to such perfection that he is described in the most beautiful words, that he is described to us from the outset at the moment when he is touched by death. The poem describes the moment when the thirteenth person is expecting death, when he is to go to the spiritual world, suggesting that what really prevails over these twelve is what radiates from the world views united in love and goes out over the world. That was the thought that stood before Goethe's soul. He wanted to express this thought in an appropriate way. He said to himself: It must happen in a narrative that takes place around Good Friday, around that day that must be the eternal symbol for the great spiritual truth that the spiritual life everywhere overcomes death. A Good Friday poem would have been “The Mysteries” if Goethe had been able to find the body for what was so brilliantly before his soul back then. And if we want to get a sense of the necessity of these thoughts, we may well take this opportunity to recall that on another Good Friday, looking out from Lake Zurich at the burgeoning of nature, the thought occurred to him of what can be linked to Good Friday. For it was on a Good Friday that Richard Wagner sensed the germ of his “Parsifal” within him. When we allow such things to touch our souls, we sense something of the necessity that governs everything that confronts us in the external world of the senses. Goethe wanted to create such a work of poetry. It is not always the fault of the person who can only bring it to the stage of a fragment. Sometimes it is also due to the time, which does not yet provide the means to achieve this or that in it. But now we understand why Goethe presents us with a person in his brother Markus who has developed such an attitude within himself, which has been purified from all that can enter our soul from the external world and contaminate it. That is why Goethe calls the man who has come so far in purifying his soul from all that can defile it from the earth a soul that looks as if from another earth. And so Brother Mark walks along, to experience things about which Goethe himself says in the first two verses: That which must be said will often appear as if this or that side path is taken. One should not think that this is a mistake. The poem contains such greatness that one would do better to think everywhere. One will only mature enough to grasp the infinite depths contained in it, instead of practicing criticism. At the same time, however, we are reminded that what is at stake here is not an experience that can be grasped by the senses, but one that can only be fully grasped by the spiritual soul that has advanced beyond itself. So our brother Markus, this purified soul, is led before the temple, which expresses its essence by the fact that the cross entwined with roses is its symbol, that symbol to which those who developed that attitude out of the spiritual substance of the Occident have always looked, who want to lead the different religions of the world to love and peace and to the elevation of the human soul. The most beautiful and greatest program of our world view therefore lives in this poem.

It would take much, much time to go into the details; but even if I make a few suggestions, you will recognize how this poem is created out of the entire Rosicrucian-spiritual, spiritual substance of the West. We are told about the thirteenth one who leads the others, who in his soul can have the tendency that leads the individual worldviews beyond themselves to a great unity. We are told what we are also told about the great leaders of humanity, and what is nothing other than an expression of the great truths. We see not only a symbolum, but the expression of great truths, great realities. A star announces the coming of the soul of the thirteenth child, as a star always announces the coming of another being into physical existence. Remember the stories of the birth of Buddha and of Jesus, and understand from them the high nature in the mystery of the European mystery play that Goethe wanted to suggest to us with his thirteenth child. Still another thing is said: that this thirteenth was a personality who in his earliest youth overcame the viper that coiled around his sister. The viper has always been the real symbol for that astral life that pulls man down and prevents him from reaching the highest heights. From the serpent of Paradise to all snake symbols, you will always find among the many good snake symbols also those that must be overcome. So you see the victor over the lower human nature, which must be cast off, in our thirteenth. Even as a boy he turns to the sister, the sister of the spirit in us, for the spirit in us has its sister in the soul — to the soul he turns and kills the vipers of his own soul. Thus he matures for the higher life to which he is called; he matures in such a way that the outer life becomes for him a life of struggles, as they are described; he matures to the point where he takes this outer life upon him like a cross. Then we are told: This thirteenth leads a group of twelve, and this group sits with him at the love-feasts and spiritual festivals around one table. Above each chair we see a symbol. Above the chair of the thirteenth we see the fundamental symbol of all European spiritual life, the Rose Cross, again. Above each of the other chairs we see other symbols, which show us the spiritual life divided into different rays.

And now I will remind you briefly of what was said yesterday, of the two currents of the people. The southern current is concerned with the cultivation of the inner life, from where the spiritual world has been sought in the post-Atlantic period. This current has to struggle in particular with the opponents in one's own soul, with the repulsive hostile astral powers. These powers, which the soul must conquer within itself if it wants to find the realm of the spiritual, which is hidden by the flourishing of the soul world, this realm was symbolically expressed by the fiery dragon, by the dragon in the fire. And a whole series of world views emerged from the fact that the soul ascends into the higher world after conquering the dragon, after conquering the flaming and raging entities in and around man. In northern peoples, we find the penetration through the veil of the outer sensory world. What is effective here is what penetrates into the outer sensory world. We see another symbol emerging. If the human being wants to penetrate through what confronts him in the outer sensory world, he must confront this sensory world strongly. The way in which man must act victoriously against the external sense world, if he wants to penetrate through it into the spiritual, is shown in a poignant way in the image of the old god who sticks his hand and arm into the jaws of the wolf and loses it, so that the old European god of war Ziu is one-handed. This image, which is supposed to represent the victory over the external world, appears in the most diverse ways, in particular in that the esoterically victorious hero puts his hand into a bear's mouth, and that the blood wells out as the surplus ego. The blood is the expression of the ego, and here it is the image of excessive egoism. The dragon is the symbol for the southern view of the world; the hand thrust into the bear's mouth is the symbol for the northern view of the world. Six representatives of the southern world view sat on one side, and six representatives of the northern world view sat on the other. On one side, next to the thirteenth, above the chair was the symbol of the dragon glowing in fire; on the other side, next to the thirteenth, above the chair was the symbol of him who conquers the outer world, who puts his hand into the mouth of the bear so that blood gushes out. This is how Goethe wanted to show each of the chairs. It was a great heroic task to show how the soul, on the one hand, is to penetrate through the pile of the soul's life into the realms behind one's own soul life, and how, on the other hand, the soul is to penetrate through the carpet of the sensory world to the spiritual life outside in the world. That is why you will find these images of the carpet and the pile used here. And so we could go through line by line and find the stages that the human soul must go through to reach the point where one can speak of the human being who has become victorious by rising above himself. The purified soul of Brother Mark is led into this community; he is led into it at the moment when, in the hour of the death of the thirteenth, the twelve are united spiritually and physically. He himself, in his simplicity, should have become the leader of the twelve directions – this is what Goethe wanted to describe. He himself was an initiate who strove towards the unity of religious life, and it was this path that Goethe had set out to describe. But this description could only flourish as far as the forecourt. There, after Brother Mark has allowed the meaningful impressions to take effect on his soul, where he, in a quiet sleep, which is a clairvoyant sleep, finds himself in the world that has been released in him through the meaningful symbols, there he awakens from this clairvoyant sleep. In his awakening, he hears strange sounds, as if the harmonies of the spheres wanted to resound softly. We are given a hint of how the harmonies of the spheres move the bodies in a round dance, in that the symbolized world forces move as in a round dance to the strange music. Then the great vision of the future of humanity dawns. There are three parts to human nature; we call them spirit self, life spirit and spiritual man, or we call them manas, budhi, atma. These are the germs slumbering in our nature, these are the youthful blossoms of the human soul. If we look at them, we can say: they are present today in the germinal stage, and they will unfold in each individuality through the following earthly conditions. Today we see them as slight shadows, as the “young men” in our soul, which will emerge when we are able to look up to where the gaze can see the future of humanity. This future of humanity is before the eyes of Brother Mark. He looks into the future in which the soul forces will develop, which today are the three young men: Manas, Budhi, Atma. They flit by, but they leave behind in the soul that significant sensation which is the germ of the life of spiritual progress. For it is the peculiarity of all spiritual creations of humanity that they leave behind sensations in the soul, and the basic impulse, which represents the germ, is this: I want to participate in the spiritual development of humanity so that the spirit can flow more and more into all external bodies, so that it can descend through the instrument of the human being and inspire the material more and more deeply, then spiritualize it and, as far as it is useful, redeem it. Goethe also wanted to make such a poem of redemption out of his Good Friday poem, which describes the resurrection.

Let us try to allow the contemplation of this poem to become a seed within us, through which the highest words can continue to speak in our soul! As anthroposophists, become such souls who take up this program! Each of you, continue to develop what Goethe has sown, has thrown into the evolution of humanity. Then the poem that Goethe wanted and needed to leave behind will be completed in humanity! And that is what matters: not who accomplishes this or that, but that the fruits ripen in humanity that lead man into the spiritual world.