Central Europe Between East and West

GA 174a — 13 September 1914, Munich

First lecture

It is a source of deep satisfaction to me that karma has brought it about that we can be together this evening and say a few words at this solemn time. Above all, however, let us remember at this moment those who are outside, who are sacrificing their courage, their lives, their blood for the tasks that this extraordinary time demands of people. Our loving thoughts and prayers for help we want to direct primarily to those who have often sat with us in our common contemplations and who are now standing outside and have to participate directly in the great events that are now taking place, bringing the karma of nations and people to development. First of all, those who are connected with us, and then, in a broader sense, all the others. Then we want to look ahead in a certain way to the narrower bonds and the widest bonds that we also seek in the field of our spiritual current and that are formed from every soul to every soul that is called by the great events. So we also turn our loving, pleading thoughts to those who are out in the field and, as a sign that we are united with them, we will rise from our seats and remember them in the following words:

Spirits of your souls, watchers in action,
May your wings bring
Our souls' imploring love
To the earthly people who trust in your protection,
So that, united with your power,
Our plea may shine forth to help
The souls that seek them lovingly!

And we want to send our loving thoughts to you, so that He may be with you, the helper, the Christ whom we seek, the Christ who must call upon the souls of our time to seek harmony in disharmony, so that He will surely lead to the redemption they need, so that the purpose of the human and national karma may be fulfilled: With you, souls, we want to be united in the sign that connects us to the only earth spirit, the Christ.

What has now broken in so surprisingly over, one must indeed say, the earth's humanity, could be foreseen long in advance. It has broken in so surprisingly because, one may say, occult causes have also contributed to this event, which have actually only gradually shown themselves little by little since June 28. In our time especially, one can really see how new things can be recognized in the spiritual world. I can only hint at what I mean here with a few words. When I returned from Sweden in July from the Norrköping lecture series, I had to draw the attention of someone who is connected in a certain sense to current events to how the event of Sarajevo o for the occultist showed quite remarkable consequences, how it was an outward symptom, and how strangely different this dead man behaved than all the other dead that could be observed in the occult field earlier. And so it was that in the occult background of earthly events there occurred very quickly that which then also broke in with such dreadfully rapid strides on the outer physical plane during the last days of July and the first of August. But it has also, most certainly, given rise in the souls of those who have been distant from spiritual life in recent times, to many intuitions, many definite feelings for a spiritual world, for the existence of a spiritual world. Enormous, one may say, and incomparable are the experiences that humanity on earth is now going through.

If I, my dear friends, would like to address a word to you first, then let it be this, that I would like to tie it to many a comment that has been made often in recent years within our spiritual scientific contemplation. What then should the connection with the spiritual life in our deepest soul be, that we seek? It should give us certainty and inner strength, certainty that in the changing times and changing events there is something solid to hold on to. And in such times as these, something else should be able to enter our souls: faith in the invincibility of the spiritual life and its mission. We should learn to connect this faith in the victory and the victoriousness of the spirit with the external events of the day.

In the first days of August, when the storms of declarations of war came little by little from the most diverse, one might say, directions of the world, I had to remember words that have been spoken recently, words that can dig themselves deep right now, and that, what I have just said, basically, we are really, really close. A few weeks before the outbreak of war, an important person said the following at a significant point: We are on the most friendly terms with all powers. We fell out with each other after the press machinations in Russia began this spring and were also echoed in the German and Viennese newspapers; press machinations are to be ignored and the old friendly, neighborly relationship is to be maintained. A word that also gives cause for concern was spoken in June: the general relaxation has progressed – and another word from the same speech: the negotiations with England have not yet been concluded, but are being conducted in the friendly spirit that otherwise characterizes our relations with Great Britain. Think about it: now! Consider how changeable it is in the physical world for what people believe today to be forced by the course of events to be witnessed in the coming weeks. Imagine the surging, driving, staggering, storming of events on the physical plane, imagine how necessary it is, this surging, this storming. One would like to say: What can be believed today is no longer true tomorrow. How necessary it is to have something secure and firm in these storms, something that is true today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and through all eternities! What is true in this way is the truth of the spirit, of the mission of the spirit, which runs through the development of humanity.

I would like to mention the following as quite symptomatic, not because it is something personal, but because it really spoke to the soul in a symptomatic and symbolic way: you know, of course, that the first volume of my book 'The Riddles of Philosophy' was published in July. The second volume was printed up to page 206 when the war broke out. It was the transition of thoughts from the French philosophers Boutroux and Bergson to the German philosopher Preuss, the indication of how Bergson develops a thought, somewhat carelessly overlooked by the unknown, lonely thinker Preuss, who in the last third of the 19th century, with massive thoroughness, anticipated our theosophical world view. I am also trying to do justice to this lonely thinker. Then it happened that the printing had to be stopped, and the work had to be continued later. It broke off with the transition from France to Germany. The war broke out. I really had to regard the empty sheets on the two-thirds printed sheets as a symbol of what happened between Western and Central Europe, over which the path of my presentation went.

And many other things could also be seen symbolically. I might also mention our building in Dornach, which had indeed progressed to a certain degree, but not as far as we would have liked. Perhaps some of our friends know how much emphasis was placed, as long as it made sense in the face of the eloquent facts, how much emphasis was placed, not only as a heartfelt wish of mine, but as an obvious necessity, on the idea that the building should be completed by August 1st of this year. Perhaps one could now try to consider whether it would not have made sense, in view of what has now happened, if the construction had been completed exactly on August 1st. Of course, it was impossible to fight against the facts with something that looked like a wish, and among many things that I do not want to talk about today that were to be solved with the construction, was the fact that the problem of acoustics for a larger room was to be solved by a larger resonance. It was in July, when the construction was already in place, that one could, for the first time, have an inkling that it would be possible to truly solve this acoustic problem once the building was finished, if one said a few words in a certain place. At certain points, you could hear how the resonance turned out in a way that had to be expected based on the occult calculations for the location, and so it can be expected that the word and music will really sound as they should. It was something of an ideal to be able to hear the word, which was supposed to speak of the spirit, inside the building as early as August. What our friends first heard in our building was the echo of the cannons thundering in the immediate vicinity on the Alsatian battlefields. Thus the room for which we had in a sense requested the echo of the words dedicated to the spirit first witnessed the thunder of the guns, which sounded not too far away. Other friends of ours had, also in a certain way symbolically, seen something that we had expected as our great ideal. We had expected that the message of the light of the spirit, of the spiritual worlds, would be heard, that this light of the spiritual worlds would come into its own. On some nights, the glow from the Isteiner Fort was seen, stretching far and wide, and for four minutes its light also pushed and pushed through our building: sound and light of current events!

But other thoughts and feelings could also pass through the soul. On July 26, I had spoken to our friends about some things that affected our organization, and had briefly pointed out the serious times that look in at our windows. And I must say: I could only read the letter that one of our younger friends wrote to his mother, who had been present on July 26, through tears. Immediately afterwards he was drafted, went to his Austrian homeland, and precisely out of the strength of the spiritual life, which he – he is still a fairly young member – drew from our endeavors, he also gained the strength to fulfill his place in the most beautiful, I would say, in the most sacred, purest sense, to which karma had placed him.

And again it was someone else who had been present on July 26 who wrote to me when he set out for the Serbian theater of war, full of feelings that were nourished on the one hand by the certainty that flows from faith in victory and the triumph of the spirit, on the other hand, were nourished by the full enthusiasm for direct participation in the events of our time from the place where he was positioned.

Truly, my dear friends, during these times, souls grew and matured, and it was beautiful and grand to see that all the feelings and emotions that have been drawn into the souls of our friends over the years also prove to be suitable for guiding people to the right place in the right way in today's difficult situation.

When we speak of the certainty that can be gained by contemplating the spirit and spiritual essence, the feeling of this certainty is intimately connected with our motto, which is modeled on a saying of Goethe: “Wisdom lies only in truth.” Among the great hopes that we may cherish from current events, there is also this one, that everything connected with this: “Wisdom lies only in truth”, that everything will be impressed upon humanity precisely through the great, painful and deeply moving trials. Everything connected with the words, “Wisdom lies only in truth,” must have a deeper and deeper effect on people, and now much has already been accomplished through the great teacher who speaks through His projectiles in overcoming materialism.

Shortly before the outbreak of the war, I read the following words written by a respected journalist: “Despite Mr. Liebknecht's rebuke, I maintain that responsible rulers are not only entitled, but obliged, to deny the truth and assert the false. This right, this duty of those guided by collective morality, is limited by two conditions: The untruth must be neither provable nor contrary to the interests of the state. Remember this saying together with the motto we chose when we founded the Anthroposophical Society: “Wisdom is only in truth”! Much will fall into place, for quite different feelings have already entered into the souls of those who sense the seriousness of the present situation.

How often, my dear friends, has the word been spoken on our soil that not only what happens on the external physical plane is reality, but the thoughts of men are greater reality, a force, a power of action. But let us admit it, because it is the truth: such things have only been spoken on soil that carried a spiritual current. Now, on the rather complicated journey I had to make, I came across a magazine dated September 1, 1914. It contains a very nice essay by a soldier, Robert Michel, who wrote down his thoughts in the field. The essay beautifully reflects how the mobilization was announced and how he and his comrades, as it were, went into the unknown. The last words are significant for us: “But every single person left behind in the monarchy has the duty to support to the best of their ability until the victorious decision has been made.” All the good words, hearty cries and blessings that we received when we left increased our confidence. They were splinters that did not get lost. This spiritual strength must continue to be supplied to the army, and the will to win must tremble from each individual to the fighters at the front. Therefore, let no one rush to the decision that is being prepared in the north. Those who must stand idly by and watch the tremendous feat of strength of the army and the empire should strive to contribute their mite along the path of the soul's strength. Those whom God hears pray; those who cannot pray gather all their thoughts and willpower into a fervent desire for victory; and those who can do nothing else cross their fingers in the palms of their hands and say, “We must win, we must win.” In this way, even the weakest will have contributed to the victory.

The soldier who goes off to the field writes back words that echo what has often been said on the spiritual plane: Those who cannot pray gather their thoughts and willpower in a fervent desire for victory. We now see faith in the Spirit at the beginning of the tremendous event.

We need have no illusions. Some things may look quite different in the near future, but there will also come times that will fulfill what is to be hinted at in a few words. The progress of the world must happen, that which is to happen happens; sometimes it happens in a very strange way, in that the wills of men are guided step by step, so that one sees how from stage to stage, truly not in any other way than an educator would do it, the directions in which they will later come are poured into the souls. One need only look back over a short span of time to see the spiritual forces that transcend human power and work pedagogically for the great progress of humanity.

It is now time to entertain a thought that may be obvious but is not always considered. In 1866, German brothers stood against German brothers, Germans against Germans. Not even a decade has passed – 1870/71: one part of the Germans had to follow a great event in which the other part could not participate. One of my teachers at the Vienna University of Applied Sciences often spoke the words that went deep into my heart at the time: “We Germans in Austria must be aware that what happened is our destiny, not our fault, that we were not allowed to participate in an outstanding event. Now is the time when the two parts, which were once opposed and then one without the other, are forged together, as if by an iron power.

It is no coincidence, it is significant, important – it has taken no century to send this great teaching into all subsequent times: human progress, what the spiritual hierarchies want for humanity, must happen; but it can happen in many different ways. By a certain point in time something very definite must have been achieved. Let us assume – not because what I am about to say is true – that by 1950 a certain amount of willingness to make sacrifices, of the ability to love and to be selfless, of the fight against selfishness, must have been poured out upon humanity. Let us assume that what must be achieved by 1950 is what the signs of the times demand. On the one hand, it is achieved by speaking to people's hearts, by trusting in the power of the word, by those who hold the destiny of humanity in their hands wanting to approach human individuality in a spiritual way and seeking to bring them so far that the spirit can take effect on them. But the other teacher must often step in, the second teacher, who speaks through living proofs. And how we have seen his successes! What an enormous amount of sacrifice, of human love and unselfishness has been produced in an amazingly short time in our age of materialism, when the great teacher appeared, war, which has such terrible effects on the one hand On the other hand, it has what leads to what is called in occultism the iron necessities that must occur in order to achieve something specific in a specific age of human development. Rivers of blood are shed, precious lives wither away, others are snatched from physical life in the blink of an eye when the enemy bullet hits them. All this is taking place on such a tremendous scale in our time. What is it all? It is a great sacrifice, my dear friends, a tremendous sacrifice that is made at the altar of the development of humanity as a whole. On the one hand, there is what should penetrate the development of humanity, what must be handed over to humanity so that humanity can move forward, and on the other hand, there is the necessity of sacrifice.

It was infinitely meaningful for me to witness how intimately connected beyond death the souls of those are who are now directly participating in the great events. There one could often see how those who had been struck down by the enemy's bullet were taken up into the spiritual worlds, not yet awakened with their great individualities, were still connected with what was going on down there. I don't know if you can feel with me what it means to see how, on the battlefield, the psychic personality of someone who has already met his death protects the warrior who is still fighting, and is with him while he is still bound to the physical plane. This is one of my occult experiences, which I can't really compare to anything else. Unawakened warriors who have fought below, who have gone through death, remain connected to the event and, as it were, are like a second personality behind the one who is still fighting on the physical plane. Even in the spiritual worlds there are things that can instill confidence in our hearts, even if this confidence does not come easily.

When you consider what percentage of humanity is fighting each other today, when you consider how we are at the beginning – this event has only lasted a few weeks – and what enormous losses of human life these few weeks have cost, you might become uncertain and think: What will happen if this has to last a long time? – And when I am often dismayed by this – it can dismay you – then the thought lifts me up: What is right will happen, what is ordained by the spiritual worlds will come to pass. And when one has the certainty that not only the living are fighting, but that the dead also remain connected to their destinies, then there will always be strength. During those times, other things occurred to me. Our society unites in a common spiritual current members of the most diverse races and peoples who are hostile to each other today. There is also a need for some consolation! We look back on a time that is quite unlike our own, not much in common with it, to the time that the Bhagavad Gita describes to us, to a time when the old, often described conditions of humanity still existed, when people still lived in small circles of blood relatives. The transition from this time of blood relationship to the time when blood relatives are at enmity is described by the Bhagavad Gita, where the great spirit points out to Arjuna: Over there truly stand the brothers and here you stand, you will fight with each other, in whose veins the same blood flows; but there is a possibility to lead the balance in spirit. From that which should not fight against each other, that which fights against each other develops: this too is one of the iron necessities necessary for the evolution of mankind! The spirit bridges the gap between brother and brother facing each other as enemies, and develops that which faces each other in disharmony. This time is unlike ours. We are going the opposite way within our spiritual current. We are seeking to gather together again what was scattered throughout the world, and members of the most diverse nations are embracing each other again fraternally, becoming brothers within our ranks. Now we see how one of us comes over from France, leaving the other behind, and enters the German army, expecting to face the other, whom he has left behind as an anthroposophical friend, in battle. It is the opposite situation: the scattered limbs of humanity are seeking each other out in the spirit, and we will find our way if we truly and earnestly understand the Spirit of Truth and earnestly grasp hold of it. We just have to seek out the paths.

I would like to say that we Germans have a hard time finding our way, perhaps the hardest of all! It may sound strange to you that I say this, but we really have a hard time of it, and the reason we have a hard time of it – without wanting to boast about it – is because it is always difficult for us to be fair to ourselves, because it is easier for us to be fair to others than to ourselves. It is difficult for us for the reason that it will not be very easy for present humanity, especially not in the present, to survey with the right objective, unbiased, unruffled gaze, I would say, all that has often been hinted at in our spiritual science, all that can also be found in the lectures on the folk souls. It will be necessary for all who grasp the spiritual life in its genuine, true sense in our time to learn to understand how these folk souls, the genuine, true folk souls, form a kind of choir in which they already live together harmoniously. But one must find one's way to their essence, and that can only be done in the spirit.

It is really not the right time at the present to draw attention to what speaks to feelings and sensations in the background of the soul, but I would like to draw your attention to something else, namely that we can have a way to find the path that our souls should take in the right way, in secret dialogue, intimate, inner dialogue with the spirit of the people to which we belong. I can only advise you, if you find a few minutes, especially in the present time, to use the following formula to find your way around in the current world situation:

You, my spirit of the earth!
Reveal the light of your age.

Why “age”? “Age” is said in the case of spiritual beings, where one would say “the light of your being” in the earthly sense. Age is to the spirit what essence is to the earthly.

You, the spirit of my earthly space!
Reveal the light of your age
To the soul endowed with Christ,
So that striving, it may find
In the choir of the spheres of peace
You, resounding with the praise and power
Of the Christ-devoted human spirit!

There we find the way to the spirit of the people, to which we belong, and the way from this spirit of the people to the dialogue of the spirit of the people with the Christ, who is the teacher of all spirits of the people. And when they come together in this Christ, the national spirits will come together in the right way, since all these national spirits who lead the nations correctly – one can see this from the book 'The Spiritual Leadership of the Human Being and of Humanity' – regard the Christ as their teacher.

Often I had to hope that it was not true at all, what had been communicated, that in a popular representation of the East, in the Duma, at the end of a speech in which the ruler called on his people to take part in the war, the last word spoken was: The God of Russia is great! It would be terrible if the words had been spoken thus: an unconscious invocation of the spirit, whose character one can imagine when the invocation occurs in relation to a limited area, when it does not occur to the spirit, which is so intertwined with the fate of humanity that even those who face each other as enemies place themselves at its service by seeking the salvation of humanity at the same time as their own. The Christ, when He leads a people, leads that people in such a way that He seeks the salvation of humanity with His own salvation. We rightly invoke the spirit of the people to whom we are closely attached, so that we look up to see how He, in turn, speaks with the Christ; through the spirit of the people we speak with the Christ. Through this many thoughts will be prepared that shall remain in the spiritual atmosphere of humanity until the times when a meaningful war is followed by a meaningful peace.

A sacrifice, I said, is being offered on the altar of humanity, and holy blood is flowing down upon our earth, a blood that bears witness to the fact that those who now, in this struggle of the nations, ascend with their souls from the physical world to the spiritual worlds, will again come back in future incarnations to be important links in the spiritual progress of humanity – a sacrifice, a great sacrifice! What is happening now must happen this way; and anyone who wants to look back into the past to search for the very first causes, must look back to the time of the Punic Wars in the 3rd century BC, to the time when the Roman general used the gangplanks – as can be read in history – to achieve a first significant success. Today, we stand alongside what was the first event to take place in this war. A future historiography will prove this; it is difficult to go into these things.

Another leads us back to the times when the Romans wrestled with the Germans, when the fate of humanity was decided for many millennia. And then comes the third great event, which is ours, which will really have a significance like the Punic Wars back then, which of course are small in scale compared to today's world event, but which, in terms of quality, still loom large in our time. How the great events that shaped people, which were linked to the migration of nations, are repeated in a certain way — an entire cycle of humanity is spanned by this time frame — and how in those days in Rome it was decided what had to happen then, that the form of the human ego, as it was in the 3rd century before the event of Golgotha, passed into the later one, so that this form of the I through the Romans would find the path that it had to find for all that has happened since then, today the form of the I, which is the decisive one in the next human cycle, must be similarly placed in a struggle of nations. This is part of the deepest impulses of humanity.

But then, when we are connected with what we have been pursuing together in spirit for years, we can carry within us the faith in victory and the victory of the spirit. Then we will face everything that comes with this faith and know that what is happening is under the guidance of the high hierarchies and will go its way. It is up to us to go along this path in the right way. But we do this when we find the right way to observe our karma, when we do not withdraw from the tasks that the great time presents us with. And if we can thank spiritual science for many things, one thing should be at the forefront: that spiritual science sharpens our mind and view, so that we can see that we are in the best place with our personality and doing the right thing. The more we do it objectively, impersonally, without having anything else in mind, the more spiritual science has sharpened our vision, made our hearts receptive, the more we will understand the language that is now being spoken to us in these serious times.

One of the formulas given by the spirit in this time, which can also be given here before our friends, is this: it brings to mind the meaning of the sight of pain, which we can now see so abundantly, abundantly. The pain in souls that is created in our times is enormous, the sacrifices that are demanded are enormous, and the willingness to make sacrifices and to be receptive to another's pain must also be enormous. The Christ has only risen for many when we understand Him in such a way that we know: there can be no pain for the other that is not also our pain; for wherever He has entered, it is one's own pain. As long as we are unable to recognize pain in another and feel for it as our own, Christ has not yet fully come into the world. Pain in another should not keep us from it! This ideal is difficult and great and wide, but the Christ ideal is also difficult and great and wide. It is fulfilled when the wound we carry within us does not burn more fiercely than that borne by the other. Therefore, it is good to prepare ourselves to intervene with the following words, which we address to a community or to the other who suffers pain:

As long as you feel the pain
That shuns me
Christ is unrecognized
Working in the world being.
For the spirit remains weak only
When it is alone in its own body
In the power of feeling suffering.

Try to feel these words through with all your being. If the first formula helps us to connect with the spirit of the people, these lines will imbue us with the attitude that allows us to relive the pain of humanity, the pain of a human community, in our own being and to do everything we do in the true Christian sense. May we do it in this time, especially imbued with the spirit of the spirit!

The wound that the bullet inflicts, my dear anthroposophical friends, would not heal were it not for the healing powers in the wonderful microcosm that is the human organism. It is good that our branches practice how to dress wounds, as our dear friend Dr. Peipers is doing here. It is good because we can easily find ourselves needing to use it. But when we approach such a task, we must also know that the spirit is reality and that, whether we are helping with this or that injury or this or that ailment, we can do more with the spirit in the right way than we can without it. So that when we approach a wound in the human organism with the right thoughts, let us think:

Source of blood,
In the source work,
Active muscle
Activate the germs
Loving care
Warming heart,

For in this blood, which flows from the wound, lies the sign that behind it lie forces, which are the healing forces of the wound.

Source blood,
In the source, active,
Active muscle
Active the germs,

the germs that die when the bullet has passed through. Send the right feelings for the one who applies a bandage to help his fellow man:

Source of blood,
In the source, work;
Active muscle
Stimulate the germs;
Loving care
Warming heart,
Be a healing breath.

Let us allow this attitude to permeate our soul, let it fill our entire being, when we help our fellow human beings, then, my dear friends, the spirit will help in whatever way we, as physical human beings, can provide physical help. And let us often think as individuals of the individual who stands outside in an exposed place, let us think when we begin our meetings of those who stand outside our circle, working in the field. The formula for this is, and I addressed it at the beginning to those in the field – the individual can address it to the individual:

Spirit of thy soul, active guardian,
thy wings may bring
the love of my soul imploring
to thy care, familiar earth-man,
so that, united with thy power,
my request may radiate helpfully
to the soul that lovingly seeks it!

If someone wants to direct their thoughts to several or many who are outside, then they say:

Spirits of your souls, acting guardians,
your wings may bring
my soul's pleading love
to the earthly humans you watch over,
so that, united with your power,
my request may helpfully shine
on the souls it lovingly seeks!

A teacher of love and unselfishness will be the great events that are now taking place. And a teacher for the spiritual worlds, we hope they will become that! Then the great sacrifices, the tremendous sacrifices that people make through their blood, will have been offered at the altar of the spiritual beings, and that which can be so painful to see will serve to achieve the great goals of humanity. The more we imbibe these attitudes, the more thoughts we will have when a great peace is concluded after the war.

The twentieth century is destined to transform much in the destiny and ordering of human affairs. And that which has already been achieved after this first great event will spare humanity the need to repeat this event in the future. Victory and the triumph of spiritual life is a saying that has often found its way into our hearts during these times. Try to understand how we have witnessed the event, which is to be decisive for the development of the entire human spirit, not just for a short time, but for a long, long time! And let us try, out of this seriousness, to muster the love and selflessness that the paths lead us to, in order to put ourselves in the right place according to our strength and ability. Our karma will show us the way. And let him who cannot now intervene to help not be disconsolate. It is important that we also conserve our strength for what will still have to happen later for many, that we recognize at the right moment that our karma is calling us. Then what one would like to say as a confessor of spiritual science at this point in time would like to happen, that it becomes more and more apparent through what is happening in the outer world, how the essences, forces and impulses of will of the spiritual world are going into the human spirits, into the human souls, into the human hearts from all world events. The bond that may arise from all the grief and pain we experience, may the bond be established between the human soul and the divine spirits that effect, rule and guide the destiny of the human soul. And the human soul will find this point. May the human soul find what is meant when it is said in our formula: “The Christ-endowed human soul may find striving:

In the choir of the spheres of peace
You, resounding with praise and power
Of the Christ-devoted human soul!

Now, my dear friends, perhaps we cannot be there fighting everywhere, perhaps we cannot do everything that we would like to contribute to according to our ideals, but to take part in the great event in the sense in which it was meant in the words just spoken will be possible for all of us. We may be in our place in many different places, some here, some there; but wherever we are, because every human being is in their place, no matter what human context they belong to, that is the place where love should work, the power that comes from love, that is the place where pain, suffering and misery challenge people to act, to think, to participate, the place where we feel so keenly how we should be connected in the depths of our hearts with the other person, to whom we should look up because he is protecting our common most sacred goods with his courage, his life's blood, sacrificing it. Therefore, as at the beginning, so at the end, let our thoughts turn once more to those who, as just mentioned, are immersed in the events of our time:

Spirits of our souls, watchers in action,
May your wings bring
Our souls' imploring love
To the earthly beings who trust in your protection,
So that, united with your power,
Our plea may shine with your help
On the souls that you lovingly seek!

May the Spirit whom we seek, seek through our science, seek with our hearts, and whom our spiritual movement wants to serve, be our leader. But may He also be the leader of all mankind, for those among men whom He leads will not follow their goal alone, but will consider and follow that of all mankind.

The people who know how to trust the Christ will find the right way. So, my dear friends, we have endeavored to think for ourselves throughout the years that we have been striving towards this Christ. May the time that has now dawned be a time of trial for us, which we will pass, and may we so link the teaching of the spirit to our soul that it will be our helper in the time of trial, that it will have become for us the power that is not limited to us, but has gone out to all of humanity! May the spirit that leads us up to Christ help us to penetrate this living, cosmic-earthly Christ, so that we can always send our thoughts in the right way to those who are outside, where the destinies of nations and of humanity are being decided, so that they may be helped by the right spirit, which so wisely guides the evolution of humanity that this evolution of humanity may ultimately bring salvation and blessing to all mankind on earth! Let us do everything in our power to help those whose most sacred sacrificial blood is now watering the earth to come down when they are called upon to intervene as important links in the further course of earthly evolution, so that something will come to meet them from the spiritual progress of physical earthly evolution, from what has happened on earth itself, from which they will realize: Truly, it was worth shedding one's blood for this earth, which brings forth such things!

All those who cannot go directly to the front to shed their blood should remember that they should work in such a way that the spirit permeates the development of the earth, that they do everything so that such spirit can permeate the development of the earth, so that those who have shed their most sacred sacrificial blood may find something that was worth shedding their blood for. Then, when we are working on this development of the earth, we, too, as those who do not go directly to the front, will behave in such a way that we can look up into the circumstances with an open eye and have no need to be ashamed. If we did not do this, our eyelids might not really allow us a free view, when on the one hand we feel we belong to our time, and on the other hand we do not find the strength within us to belong to this time in a worthy manner. Spiritual science will contain a certain seal if it could help to give people this strength, strength on the one hand that sustains those who have shed their blood, but it must also give strength to those who must help in other ways, each in their own place.

And so spiritual science will be able to say: I was a means of enabling humanity to pass a great test. Then spiritual science will have achieved its divine goal.

With these simple words I would like to conclude this evening, my dear friends, which I was so happy to experience together with you.