# The Spiritual Background of Human History

## GA 174b — 12 March 1916, Stuttgart

### Seventh Lecture

Today I would like to give a spiritual-scientific historical consideration that can be important to us, especially in view of the momentous events we are facing, the events that the whole of European humanity is facing. Next Wednesday, I will then touch on a more intimate matter of the spiritual life of the human being. If some of us may find what we are to consider today seemingly remote, it is only seemingly so and should not be remote, because spiritual science should fill our souls with the deepest attention for everything that can contribute to the understanding of our time. As I said, on Wednesday we will then return to a purely human spiritual-scientific matter.

Today I would like to start with one question. But do not be alarmed, and do not think that by placing this question at the beginning of our deliberations I am in the slightest degree seeking to revive old disputes in our movement. As you will see, it is a completely different matter, although I will start with a question that could easily be misunderstood at first. The question I would like to raise is: Why, especially during this time of war, does Mrs. Besant continue to defame our German movement in her English magazines? Why did she find it necessary, right in the first months of the war, to say that our German movement had only the intention of being a kind of agency for anti-English political aspirations in Germany? Why did she find it necessary to say that this German movement of ours had the intention of bringing about her own – Mrs. Besant's – dismissal as president of the Theosophical Society in order to establish herself in India and from there organize some kind of anti-English, pan-German movement against England? Why does Mrs. Besant continue to spread these slanderous accusations against our German movement during this war in such an ugly manner, and why will she probably continue to do so?

Within our spiritual movement, we need nothing more than to have a clear, insightful view of what is going on in the world. That which can so easily please those who often believe that they are standing firmly within our movement, a certain - forgive the harsh expression - mental somnolence in the face of world events, is a great disadvantage, especially within such a spiritual movement. We must strive to have the clearest possible view of the affairs of our external existence. For nothing could be easier than for all manner of charlatanry and fraud to attach themselves to such a movement within the development of humanity. And since, within the limits that we have often emphasized, a certain amount of trust is needed even among the small group of those who want to understand certain things here, it is also obvious that, seduced by a certain trustfulness, precisely personalities of our movement are, so to speak, clouded by those who do not want to tell them the truth, but only want to graft all kinds of things into their souls, in order to breed a spiritual bodyguard for all kinds of endeavors, which in the proper sense are not truly spiritual endeavors of humanity, so to speak, by the detour of theosophical or other spiritual beliefs.

We have often pointed out the position of the Russian people within the development of the fifth post-Atlantic cultural epoch, and since I have often discussed the relevant matters in this regard here in Stuttgart during this war period, I will not go back over them today, although you can read about them in individual cycles. Rather, I would like to draw attention to the fact that there are certain fundamental characteristics of the Russian people that make this Russian people particularly suitable for entering into the development of the fifth post-Atlantic or even sixth post-Atlantic cultural development in the way often characterized.

First of all, we have a characteristic of the Russian people that could be called an especially extensive adaptability of the soul to anything of a spiritual nature that confronts the Russian person in any way, a certain adaptability of the soul. It is the case that the Russian person is less productive, less creative in his own soul than the Central or Western European person, that he is, as it were, dependent on receiving and on living through intensively what he has received, but not on shaping it independently out of his own resources. Thus you can see how the Russian people received the Byzantine religion and left it at the point it was at when they received it. And today one can still see from the ceremonies of the Russian Church how ancient oriental essence shines through these ceremonies. One can, I would like to say, look through the form of the Russian Church at ancient sacred oriental things and feel this ancient sacred oriental essence.

Compare this with what has occurred in the Occident, where, as you know, in a development of dogma and ceremony that has been repeatedly challenged, there has been a continuous reshaping, transformation, and thus a creative intervention in what was once adopted by the community that then became the Roman Catholic Church, Protestantism, and so on. This adaptability, this receptivity, is to some extent the first fundamental characteristic of the Russian people.

A second fundamental characteristic is a certain dislike on the part of the Russian people for what we call the permeation of life with intellectuality. The Russian person does not like to be constrained by many precisely defined laws in social life. He demands, as it were, a kind of arbitrary existence of the ego. That the intellect spans a network of legality and that the individual then strictly adheres to such forms of intellect in social life, that is what the Russian man, at least practically, does not want to understand, even if he sometimes goes into it theoretically. He asks more about what the ego wants at the moment, based on the inspiration of the moment.

A third characteristic of the Russian people is – Herder, in particular, pointed this out in a thorough manner; the Slavophiles then took up this Herderian view, which is a German view, and developed it to the point of a kind of megalomania – that the Russian people have retained what is generally found in the oriental character, a certain peacefulness. However strange it may sound, it is in the nature of the Russian people, because the Russian people did not make this war as such: it was instigated by those in power. He has a certain peaceableness. He has the deep belief that the way in which Western European religion develops leads to conflict and quarrel. It is not in the character of the Oriental man to wage war against his fellow men because of religious dogmas. It is even a little strange – it is indeed true, but it is true – that people now notice it so strongly in the Turks, who also have this oriental trait, that they do not become aggressive with regard to religious life itself.

As I said, it lies in the faith, in the consciousness of the Russian people. These three qualities, on the other hand, are particularly susceptible to abuse by those who seek to exploit them. It is very easy to use the adaptability of the Russian character, as the Slavophiles did and as the Pan-Slavists are now doing to a great extent, to persuade the Russian people that they are called upon to replace the decrepit, senile European culture, which is decaying and dying, with Russian life instead.

On the other hand, if the second quality I mentioned is misused, one can persuade the Russian people that the whole of Western and Central European culture has become decrepit because of its particular penchant for intellectualism, for a certain rationality, that this Western European culture is devoid of any truly true mystical quality.

And thirdly, if you want to abuse the third quality of the Russian people, which has been mentioned, the most peaceful quality can be perverted by organizing the otherwise peaceful masses and calling them to the bloodiest fight. Because really, the contradictions touch each other in the world, and especially such contradictions as are being discussed here. But what the Russian people have to mean in the development of European culture is not related to what Russian rulers are now making of this Russian people, but to the three qualities mentioned.

. And these three characteristics determine the Russian nature to enter into a certain connection with the Central European and Western European nature. Because the Russian national character is adaptable, it is called upon, first of all, to achieve what we have often spoken of, what it has to achieve in the sixth post-Atlantic cultural period, first of all not through creativity, but through existence. To achieve this, it must absorb what comes to it from the West. I have often spoken of it as a kind of spiritual marriage. Years, even decades before the outbreak of this war, I may say, a kind of marriage that is necessary between the Central European being and the Russian being in terms of spiritual development.

The fact that the Russian people have a certain aversion to intellectualism will make it possible to create certain social institutions with the Russian people that will only be possible if the aforementioned marriage really takes place.

And in a similar way, the Russian national character will have to relate to what can be given within Central Europe in general. Tomorrow, in the public lecture, we will again have to speak of such things that follow from the Central European nature and that must be incorporated as something great, powerful, and everlasting into the whole course of human development. But the Russian people will have to accept what is achieved by the Central European nature. It is not initially self-creative within this post-Atlantic period.

But now, in contrast to this, what can be characterized as the essence of Russian nationality, .the Central European nationality and the Western European nationality, that Western European nationality, which after the reign of Queen Elizabeth of England essentially became a British nationality, an Anglo-Saxon nationality. And among the many results of these momentous events, which of course it is not my profession to somehow color, it will most certainly be the case that the other Western European states, no matter how these events turn out, will gradually become vassals, dependent peoples of England. In particular, the French will experience the bitterest disappointments. But these are not the things that really matter. What matters to us today is to emphasize the great contrast that exists between the Central European character and the Western European, especially the British and Anglo-Saxon character.

There has never been – and this may go unnoticed today by those who do not want to think, who do not want to observe – a greater contrast in world-historical development than this contrast between Central European and Anglo-Saxon natures. Not as if the individual personality could not rise above it. That is not the point; the point is nationality. Of course, when such things are being characterized, it is never meant to imply that the individual Englishman cannot, of course, rise above the things being characterized. We should not think that we have somehow fallen into the errors of our belligerent opponents and that we must now thoroughly vilify the English character because it is different. Of course, it would be necessary to try to gather together all the possible building blocks that would actually be needed to fully understand the contrast I have been hinting at. But this contrast can become clear to us from the point of view of: on the one hand, if we look at the Central European nature, at the heart of which stands the German nature, in relation to the Russian nature of the East, and on the other hand, if we look at the British, French nature in its relationship to the Russian East. There we have one of the greatest contrasts in the development of mankind. I must, however, merely point out to you today some of the things that I will be discussing in tomorrow's public lecture. But I would like the small group of those who belong to the spiritual science movement to understand what will be said in more detail tomorrow more deeply than it can be understood at first, if one does not penetrate deeper into spiritual science.

You see, the Central European nature is one that is national in a completely different way than any other nationality in the whole development of mankind. Take all the Western European peoples: they are national, so to speak, out of the blood. The German is national out of the soul. The German is national in that he constantly strives to lift certain contents of the soul life out of the general soul life and to transplant them into his own soul. That is why we experience something so great within the German character, such as Goethe's works of art, Herder's historical reflection or the world-view efforts of Hegel, Schelling and Fichte.

Even if these things are still little known in wider circles today, they will become known. For, contrary to all opinions expressed about them, I must say that they can become popular, they can be presented in such a way that every child can understand them, despite the fact that this is not believed today. That will happen. Everything that is a genuine German world view grows out of the deepest soul essence of the German people. And a spiritual movement could never arise within the German soul that would be similar in character to the spiritual movements of the West, if it is to be fruitful. We must not overlook this difference, we must face it squarely. Within the German national soul, everything that is the content of spiritual science must stand in harmonious relationship to what the people as such produce. That is why I said last time I was here in Stuttgart: If you look at the world view of Schelling, Fichte and Hegel, it is as if the whole nation were meditating. One always feels placed in the folk, but in the soul of the folk when one speaks of the German folk. One cannot speak of German nationality in any other way than by taking into account the spiritual characteristics of this German nationality, that which must be striven for. And it is impossible within Germanness, as it is possible in England, for science to exist on the one hand and for this science to want to completely ignore faith on the other. That is not possible in the long term within the German nation. The German wants unity. He wants to have a spirituality that can stand fully on the ground of science, and he wants to have a science that knows how to justify itself before the spiritual life.

This contrast is most evident in the Goethean and Newtonian theories of colors. For more than thirty years I have been trying to bring out the Goethean theory of colors in contrast to the Newtonian one. While Goethe's theory of colors arises entirely from the deep interweaving of the soul with the world, Newton's theory of colors proceeds from a mechanical view of the world and strives for nothing else. And physics today is so anglicized that it does not even notice what is at stake in this field, that it naturally considers anyone who takes Goethe's theory of colors seriously to be a fool.

There is a striving towards spirituality within German national character. Therefore, within German national character, one is also obliged to reckon with what has been sought in ardent spiritual striving by the best of this nation, by those whom we have already mentioned and by those whom we will mention again tomorrow, precisely as a path to spiritual science. But then this German national character cannot but strive objectively, turned to the matter itself. This is something that the English or the French cannot understand. The Frenchman wants to have a beautiful word, to have everything shaped into a beautiful phrase, and then he is satisfied. The Englishman wants to ask where the use of knowledge or the like lies. But the fact that the knowledge we strive for is something that must grow out of the soul like a flower out of a plant, without which man does not feel like a whole human being, is something that neither the French — as Frenchmen, of course, the individual is not at issue — nor the Anglo-Saxons understand.

The task of the German soul is to accomplish what has been achieved since the time of the ancient Greeks for the fourth post-Atlantic cultural period, namely to shape the experience of the soul into a world of ideas. And one really does not need to be a nationalist in the narrow-minded sense, but rather a completely objective observer of the development of humanity, to emphasize this. And you know that I have not only emphasized this in the context of this war, but these considerations have been part of what I have been saying among us for years, for a decade and a half.

But the fact that this German essence is so, means that it is called upon, for psychological and objective reasons, to enter into the spiritual marriage with the Russian East. And the cultural task of the future will never be able to be fulfilled in any other way than by the Russian adaptability accepting what can come out of German national character. And all future cultural development is a question of this connection between Central Europe and Eastern Europe.

The situation is different for Western Europe. Western Europe has adopted what the fourth post-Atlantic cultural period has brought and developed it independently, but in the way I have often described: only through the three soul forces: sentient soul, intellectual soul, consciousness soul. What this fourth post-Atlantic cultural period essentially sends out is not productive. In particular, the British folk soul, the Anglo-Saxon folk soul, has the task of developing the consciousness soul, developing that which is primarily oriented towards usefulness in relation to the physical plane.

Hence all the phenomena that we see occurring within Western Europe, especially within the Anglo-Saxon peoples. But now this Anglo-Saxon people in particular instinctively feel that what is actually fruitful is the Central European, essentially the German influence of Central Europe. And those who lead the so-called occult movements of Western Europe, namely the Anglo-Saxon people, know what is at stake. Those who lead the occult movements in the Anglo-Saxon culture are initially filled with two trains of thought. The first train of thought is that they say to themselves: the Roman Catholic essence is gone; that essentially belongs to the fourth post-Atlantic period. The Anglo-Saxon essence must take the place of what was in the Roman cult. And every occultist of a certain kind, that is, every occultist who is steeped in his own nationality, and with the exception of a few, all of them in Anglo-Saxonism, knows — that is, he imagines that he has real knowledge — that the “Anglo-Saxon race”, as he says, must take the place of the Roman essence. This is taught in all occult schools. It is a fixed dogma.

And in the same way, people instinctively know that, to a certain extent, the recruits for the introduction to life of everything that culture must bring, the recruits who must absorb it passively through their adaptation, are Russian people.

These two things are very well known to the Anglo-Saxon occultists, that is, they see it that way, that is their conviction. Their conviction is, on the one hand, that Anglo-Saxonism has to replace the Roman essence; everything else, Protestantism, Calvinism and so on, are only appendages. Anglo-Saxonism must produce something in the world – as I said, I am now speaking of the occultists – that stands for the fifth post-Atlantic culture in the same way as the Roman Catholic essence stood for the second period of the fourth post-Atlantic culture, even as late as the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.

And now every occultist on this side is convinced that, above all, the bridge must be created between what Anglo-Saxons ascribe to themselves and the Russian essence. To infuse into the Russian soul that which Anglo-Saxon occultism seeks to teach is the ideal that emerges from the second point I have mentioned for every Anglo-Saxon occultist: to use the Russian soul as a kind of wax into which is imprinted that which Anglo-Saxon occultism wants. This ideal is far more prevalent in the circles I am now talking about than anything that is the main thing for us here.

For us, the main thing is real knowledge, real striving for truth, and our honest fundamental conviction is that when we find the truth, this truth will give people what they need, and that this truth, when we seek it in the right way, will also fructify in the right way the coming cultural epochs, so that what must happen to the peoples of Europe will come to pass, if the truth is honestly sought in the right way. Nothing more is needed than the honest search for truth; that is the true principle of spiritual science.

But this is opposed by a principle such as I have just characterized, which puts a particular race at the helm, a particular race in power, in power above all in relation to the life of the soul. We are not speaking politically now, we are speaking of what is rooted in the depths as occult paths: to make the Anglo-Saxon soul powerful and to use the Eastern European nature, which is adaptable and receptive, and to infuse it with what one wants to infuse into it, so that a marriage can arise between Anglo-Saxon and Russian. The inner impulses of human development speak of a marriage of the German nature with Russian nature. The selfish will of Anglo-Saxon occultism speaks of the fact that Russian nature must be permeated with Anglo-Saxon nature in terms of occult development of the soul.

You must face these things squarely; they are extraordinarily important. I am mentioning them as they are taught more and more in all possible occult directions in the West, especially in the Anglo-Saxon occult schools. But that which basically only the consciousness soul has to cultivate cannot acquire real content. Real occultism, however, which does not unfold desires for power but seeks the truth, is completely in organic, vital connection with the German development and is completely anchored within the German development.

But what has happened, my dear friends? If the development since the Middle Ages had not been disturbed by Ahrimanic forces, if what has happened in Europe for spiritual science had developed organically, without Ahrimanic influences (we will talk about some very late events again tomorrow), then it would be easier to see today that everything the West has achieved in the way of spiritual science has emerged from the Germanic essence. But permeated by Anglo-Saxon influences, German spiritual science was carried in masks into Anglo-Saxon and also into French culture. Only the terminology, the naming of the individual facts, was adapted to the French or English language. But if you get to the bottom of it, all that is contained in French and English occultism is German spiritual scientific research in a masked form, Central European spiritual scientific research.

In a way that I will discuss in a moment, what was called the Theosophical Society contained nothing but facts with Indian or other names that were found within German spiritual science. And the aim of the Theosophical Society was to conceal these facts from the Germans as much as possible. For the Anglo-Saxon world aims to obliterate the truth of the Central European development in relation to spiritual science everywhere and to replace it with itself. Here it is the most eminent lust for power that springs from occultism. And it was a simple necessity that the peeling which has now really taken place since the turn of the century should take place, that what was originally German and what unfortunately our Germans only too gladly received with open arms from Englishness should be returned, that it should be restored in its original purity. A truth has been established. It had to be established. The fact that this truth has been established will never be forgiven by the English Theosophical Society of our German aspirations, as they have been from the beginning. This can only be veiled by slander.

But very systematically, very purposefully, all those who want to develop power within the occultist aspirations are proceeding. Therefore, it is so necessary not to be asleep in the face of these efforts, but to develop some clarity. Clarity is especially necessary in the face of significant phenomena. And clarity is particularly necessary, for example, in the face of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, who was of course the decisive personality for the Theosophical Society.

What underlies clarity in this area can be linked to two facts: The first fact is that Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was a Russian woman who had grown out of her Russian background. The second fact is that she left behind a kind of secret science in English guise, that she gradually grew completely into what Anglo-Saxon occultism strives for, but in a roundabout way that was due to the great talent of this woman. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was, I might say, in a certain sense, a mediumistic personality, who could only develop such adaptability, including occult-spiritual qualities, out of her Russian nationality. What the Russian otherwise has as generally human qualities, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky had precisely in terms of occult qualities. And so it came about that in Western Europe she was first attracted by French occultism, then by a certain type of British occultism, which she found to be an appropriate infusion for her soul. She believed she had to give the world something that the Anglo-Saxon occultism, as it were, prefigured, revealing itself out of the Russian soul. Instead of the coming union of the Central European and Russian natures, the penetration of Russian nature — in Helena Petrovna Blavatsky as the representative of Russian nationality — with Anglo-Saxon power occultism was deliberately and consciously placed. Those who, as it were, wanted to hold the threads of life as it develops outwardly in the physical plan were not uninvolved in this. Many tragic things have happened to the poor personality of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, which I cannot go into today. Precisely because of her profound and comprehensive mediumship, into which all kinds of things could be poured, many, many things have happened. And it was a long way from the starting point, where attempts were first made to transmit Central European material directly to Blavatsky, which then appeared in an admittedly kaleidoscopic, almost unusable form in the “Veiled Isis”. But very soon, other personalities took hold of her, under very different influences, and in place of the one who was her leader and who wanted to guide her to Central European beings, later, in the mask of the original leader, the so-called later Koot-Hoomi individuality, which, however, according to the truly knowledgeable occultists, was nothing more than a person in the pay of the Russians who consciously wanted to forge together what could emerge from the psychic ability of Blavatsky and Anglo-Saxon occultism. One is dealing with the clash, I would say, of an original individuality – some call it master, you can call it what you want – and a later impostor, a swindler, who had assumed the mask of the first and had been given the task, on the part of Eastern Europe, which I have just hinted at.

Then the time began when Blavatsky was to join forces with occult France, where she wanted to quickly achieve certain goals and therefore presented an occultist lodge in Paris with such conditions that could not be met, so that she soon had to be expelled again because, under the influence of the individuals behind her, she always combined occult intentions with political power impulses. Then followed the American episode, which again had a political background. All these things were intended to present something to Europe that would convince Europe that a kind of new world religion for Europe could emerge from the union of spiritual Russian and Anglo-Saxon occultist lust for power. That was to be presented to Europe. And what had emerged from the German essence was to be overrun.

Oh my dear friends, I well remember – and it could be unpleasant for some how clearly such things stand before my soul – how Mrs. Besant held her very first meeting in Germany in Hamburg, and how I interpellated her within a small circle at the time, how she thinks about the development of occultism in the 19th century, and how she gave the answer in Hamburg at the time: At the turn of the 18th to the 19th century, something like occult striving asserted itself in Germany, but the Germans got stuck in pure abstractions, and it turned out that the great – as she expressed it, she always expressed herself grandly – that the great wave of spiritual life had been granted to the British people. Of course she said that in English, but it was even greater in English!

For Blavatsky, the time came when it became necessary for all those who were serious about spiritual science and who could not get involved in Anglo-Saxon lust for power to do something. And that is what later in occult circles was called Blavatsky's “occult imprisonment”. There was no other way of bringing it about. And the decision to impose this occult imprisonment, as it is called, upon Blavatsky was taken by a gathering of honest occultists, or at least the majority of them, in the last third of the nineteenth century.

Occult imprisonment consists of the fact that, through certain processes, it is possible to imprison a person's aspirations in a sphere from which he cannot see out, so that his aspirations are reflected back and he cannot cause certain damage that he would otherwise cause.

The process I am about to describe, this imposition of occult imprisonment, is not flawless; but, as I said, the people could not help themselves in any other way. Blavatsky was a strong psychic personality and could have a strong effect. That is why her writings have such an overwhelming and, on the other hand, misleading power.

Then there was what can be described as certain Indian occultists, who wanted to take a little revenge in this way because of the English stranglehold, taking possession of Blavatsky's personality, and that's where the Indian influence came in. I have discussed this in more detail elsewhere, but here I will only hint at it.

So the Indian influence came, and that is how that dubious occult science came into being, which was cultivated in the Theosophical Society for a long time and which had to be cleansed of that which was to appear in Central Europe as spiritual science. For that which is to arise in Central Europe as spiritual science must, in the sense I have indicated, be thoroughly honest, that is to say, it must strive for the truth as such and be convinced that the truth, flowing through our souls and through the development of humanity, will bring about the right thing within nations and also within the existence of human beings, the social order of human beings: pure, honest seeking of truth! And this pure, honest seeking of truth is, after all, still our main task.

I wish that this would be understood more precisely within our spiritual scientific movement here, then one would also forgive me certain additional conditions, which I must set, and would see that these conditions must be taken more precisely. How often do I admonish our friends, one should, so that one can remain pure with what is to be brought to the world as spiritual science, so that it cannot be adapted from any side, do not come to me with all kinds of other things that can be so easily combined with spiritual scientific endeavors. Of course, people are quite willing to do anything that human will can demand, and in a friendly way many things can happen, but in any case it must be understood why I repeatedly and repeatedly admonish people not to believe that I am even remotely involved in pharmacology, any more than I am involved in other, non-spiritual fields. It is necessary that our members should get into the habit of taking seriously what I say, namely, that in the main they should not come to me with medical matters. It is essential that these matters should be understood, because it is still necessary, at least for the time being, to keep the spiritual-scientific endeavour, as far as I am concerned, quite separate from other matters. There are enough medical personalities within our movement to whom our members can turn for help. Since I emphasize this again and again, it should be taken seriously, at least in principle, when I say: I do not want to get involved in any kind of healing; because in doing so, the world will only misunderstand what the spiritual scientific movement should do through me in the first instance, and that should not be misunderstood.

How little there actually was in Anglo-Saxonism of a proper understanding of the pure, objective striving for truth could be known by those who had once heard a remarkable lecture by Mrs. Besant on “Theosophy and Imperialism”. From this lecture one could intuitively feel much of what I had to say today based on the facts: Spiritual science should never be mixed with any kind of lust for power, with any kind of direct political aspiration, although it goes without saying that someone who is a good spiritual scientist can be the best politician. But that is not the point. Rather, spiritual science must not become what occultism is in Anglo-Saxon culture, which I have tried to characterize; spiritual science must not become something that has been striven for precisely through Blavatsky, and then in many respects also through Mrs. Besant, only with less talent and less gift than through Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. The endeavour was, after all, on the part of Anglo-Saxondom to found a kind of occult religion by means of the spiritual experiences of a personality such as Blavatsky was. This religion would have carried Anglo-Saxondom, by way of conquest over Germanism, directly into Russism. In the schools, where not in Blavatsky's way but in the Anglo-Saxon occult way of teaching the things I have already mentioned are taught, the war in which we are now engaged has been spoken of again and again as a necessary one. And again and again in such schools the outcome of this war is spoken of very suggestively in such a way that one says: This and that must happen because of this war. - It is not said out of a sense of prophecy, but because it is desired, because the aim is to gain as much influence as possible, to prepare people through all channels that can be reached at the time. Because when people are taught all kinds of occultism in masks, the aim is to prepare people for a certain direction. That is why I must ask – I must discuss these things because they are already being discussed publicly, and because someone who represents spiritual science as I do must make it clear how he stands on these things: Why did an occult personality known to occultists in Paris travel to Rome again and again immediately after the war between Germany, Russia, England and France broke out, and as late as October 1914? Why did this person play a role in Rome that later had an influence on the situation in Italy, a role similar to that played by certain people who belonged to the 'Grand Orient de France' or were connected with Anglo-Saxon freemasons, and which had a profound influence on the course of current events, much more than one might think?

But I must ask something else: why does the yearbook, which the same personality, who is used, one could also say abused, by certain currents of occultism, for all sorts of stuff – as I said, because it is already being discussed in the world, so I have to show on which side I stand in these matters? Why does the 1913 yearbook, published by this personality and which actually appeared in 1912, state: 'He who believes he rules Austria will not rule, but another, younger one will rule, who is not yet destined to rule'? Why is this in a yearbook of a medium that is part of a certain occult current? Why is the same thing repeated in the yearbook in 1914 – that is, before the year 1914 came, for 1914, but already published in 1913: The tragedy of the Habsburg house will be fulfilled faster than one might think. Why is this in these yearbooks? And even more: Why does a Parisian paper, which could be called 'Paris Midday' in German, already express the wish in 1913 that the Austrian 'heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand must be murdered? This paper corresponds approximately to what is in Berlin 'B. Z. am Mittag': 'Paris midi' is that, widely read. Why does the almanac state on one page what I have quoted: “He who thinks he rules will not rule, but a younger one will rule,” and on the other page the wish that this archduke be murdered? Why does the same paper, when the debate on the three-year term of office in France took place, cynically write: If mobilization should take place in France, Jaures will be the first to be assassinated'? Do you think that, my dear friends, is prophecy? I would just like to show you that I am not on the side of those who think this is prophecy, but that it all points to deep, dreadful undercurrents in the abuse of charlatanry, but downright dangerous to humanity, in the occult.

Today I wanted to tell you something that may not be uplifting, but it is all the more serious. I wanted to ask your soul whether a person does not really have to acquire a very clear view if they want to be involved in an occult current, and whether it might not be a bad thing if you wanted to oversleep the most important things. My dear friends, anyone who wants to study the connection of the Theosophical Society – as it has gradually become more and more – with such things, need only keep a sharp eye on the activities of such personalities as, for example, Mrs. Catherine Tingley. And it is also instructive that when something was to be introduced into what should be solely Anglo-Saxon, from a more Christian point of view, even through a strong medium, in the little book 'Light on the Path' by Mabel Collins, the slander started. For most of what has been said against the medium through which “Light on the Path” has been given to humanity is slander.

I wanted to speak to you today with some seriousness, so that out of this seriousness many of us may get an idea of how necessary it is to become aware of the Central European mission in relation to spiritual science, and that it is absolutely necessary for this Central European mission to become a world mission. Above all, this Central European mission must be a pure and honest striving for truth. But this pure and honest striving for truth was understood in a strange way, and the distortions of the truth were also understood in a strange way. You know that the relationship between the German spiritual movement, to which we belong, and the Theosophical Society was dissolved long before the war. All that I have hinted at was understood in a strange way. Just consider that Mrs. Besant, for example, managed to say that I had aspired to become president of the Theosophical Society in India in order to oust her from the presidential chair and to use pan-German currents in England-hostile fashion in favor of the German Reich by way of a detour through India! You will really believe that this is not true, that this is an objective untruth!

The following is in contrast to this: In 1909, a society was founded against the horrors of Mr. Leadbeater, and later also against the humbug of Alcyone, which was to include all countries of the world and was to be a counterweight to those misled by Mrs. Besant. And at that time I was invited from India to become the chairman, the president of this international society, and I not only refused, but in 1909 in Budapest, in front of witnesses, I told Mrs. Besant that I never want to be anything else within the spiritual movement of modern times than the one who leads this movement within the German national organism. I said this before witnesses in Budapest in 1909 to Mrs. Besant. Now she takes it so seriously with the truth that she writes in her English magazine that I had tried to go to India and so on, in order to displace her from there! One can no longer speak of objective untruthfulness, since it is, of course, a conscious lie. But it is necessary to work with such means when the issue is that one has to fight against the course of truth itself; and that is basically what Anglo-Saxon occultism is. Because the truth is this: what is connected to the essence of Central European beings is what, as spiritual science, has to permeate human culture. But this has to be veiled, covered, masked in some way from England. And more and more in the 20th century, Mrs. Besant has also become an instrument of this veiling.

There is a sufficient need to reflect on what should flow in our movement. The spiritual-earthly task is really there. We have no reason to do so without examining and testing, to give blind allegiance to one or the other. But that is not something that can be very tempting today: to want nothing more than the honest development of the truth. You know how attacks and also ridicule and scorn are raining down from all sides within and outside our society. But in addition to all this, there is something else: More and more of our spiritual-scientific movement is flowing out into this or that soul. Those who have an eye for it already feel what flows from our books or our public lectures into the soul of people. But when these people, who are sometimes quite willing to defend what they have allowed to flow into them, should unreservedly profess what our movement is trying to do in such earnest, namely to enter into the spiritual path of humanity, then peculiar phenomena come to light. Sometimes it is really the case that people are glad to grasp many a truth that has been produced on our soil, but that they take every honest, wholehearted approach to us as if, for example, they would burn their fingers by actually touching me. It is a very common phenomenon, more common than one might think! Among those who are honestly concerned, not with some personality or other, but with my own, honest spiritual scientific striving for truth, one can assume that they will also profess it unconditionally. Because, my dear friends, the seriousness is great, the seriousness is enormous.

The things I have said should not be spoken out of some national sentiment. Basically, I have only told you facts; they should characterize what is present as occult antagonisms in Europe and which, for those who want to see, can already explain much of the antagonisms of the physical plane.

And I would like to emphasize it again and again: we need seriousness in order to find the right direction in a serious time, so that what I have already emphasized here may come true, which lies in the words:

> From the courage of the fighters,  
> From the blood of the battles,  
> From the suffering of the abandoned,  
> From the people's sacrificial deeds  
> Will grow spiritual fruit —  
> Guiding souls, spiritually aware  
> Their minds into the spiritual realm.