Supplements to Member Lectures
GA 246 — 13 May 1910, Bremen
29. On the Future of Etheric Clairvoyance
[The approximate period of time] when the gate into the spiritual world was closed, when the age of light was followed by the dark age, when only the mind remained, [extends from] the year 3101 to 1899. Now a certain clairvoyance is being prepared in our time. New soul-activities will awaken in a small number of people who will see other things than other people under normal circumstances; they will see the etheric body in animals and people. Not only through work on the soul, which has always existed. Nor through inheritance from the time before the Kali Yuga; but new abilities without training, like the most elementary views. When they have done something, they will feel a drive to do something about themselves. They will have an image within them, like something that has never been seen before; they will see the karmic balance of what they must once do as a result, not as dreamers, but clearly and soberly. They will be able to approach it like trees. This and many other things will be pointed out as through the Baptist. Theosophy is there to prepare you for what is to come. Nevertheless, it could be misunderstood or suppressed because it is not understood what it is all about. One is considered a fool, a fantasist, if one says that something else is to come through a holy fire of enthusiasm, just as the rise of Christ was understood in Palestine.
We are living in a transitional age. This has been recognized by clairvoyants. This is one way in which the necessity of Theosophy can be shown. Even if the view is directed into the macrocosm, which is the expression of the spiritual that lies behind it.
In the emergence of the solar system from the primordial nebula, the giant professor is equal to the divine-spiritual powers. For example, you don't change gear because the hands of the clock are one way or the other, but because there is something else behind it. The movement of comets is also a sign of what lies behind it. Is superstition so far removed from modern science? Is there no influence of the stars on the course of the world?
The Eskimos develop differently from people elsewhere because the sun's rays fall differently. The spiritual life of the earth depends on the constellations. Just as the Eskimos are different from the Hindus, there are also different spiritual processes when there is a comet. Spiritual things are also hidden there. To connect the appearance of sunspots with the rise and fall of the stock market is grotesque, but it exists; the action of a spiritual being lies behind the comet.
In 1906, during a cycle in Paris, I developed the connection between the earth and planetary processes. Now (this) is more substantial than in Paris. One side is always singled out. Quite different laws used to apply to the lunar state than now. Hydrogen cyanide states played a certain role then as carbon does now. Something remains of old states, protrudes into our time on earth; in today's solar system something is preserved of the state that our earth had in the lunar state. That is why there are cyanogen compounds, hydrocyanic acid compounds, which are also found in the comet spectrum. That is the substance, not the essence; the spiritual is behind it. Spiritual effects protrude. Halley's comet, however, shows an impulse towards materialism on Earth. The [comet] of 1759 was followed by the French enlightenment of materialism; the one of 1835 was followed by Büchner, Moleschott; the one of 1910 was followed by another impulse towards materialism; it is a sailing into the materialistic swamp. But humanity can live freely into materialism. That is in the sign that we see.
But there is also another impulse, which lies in the further development of the soul of the earth. In 26,000 years the vernal equinox will pass. 2000 years before Christ the sun rose in Taurus, from the year 747 before Christ in Aries, where it was when the Christ was born; now it rises in Pisces. Spiritual effects lie behind this. The legend of Colchis and the golden skin of Aries (Jason and the Argonauts) appears in the year 747 BC; then the Christ comes. Spiritual impulses also come from heaven. People can also look up freely into spiritual worlds. This is why Theosophy is now necessary in the transitional age. Christianity is only at the beginning of its development. Christianity came after the Buddha, they are side by side in the East and in the West. There are considerable differences.
Reincarnation does not need to be taken out of Buddhism, it can be explored at any time. What Buddhism lacked was that we rise higher with each incarnation. What is missing in today's Christianity is the life between death and a new birth. In the life between birth and death, the Christ impulse cannot live itself out, even if it is in the germ; it continues to be lived out in the spiritual world. The Christ impulse cannot be experienced in any other way than on earth. Incarnation is necessary until the “Christ impulse in me” is realized. It is necessary to combine the Christ impulse with re-embodiment, not as a synthesis, but through new revelations and abilities. The idea of re-embodiment lies in the Christ impulse. Not all religions have the same teachings. Theosophy is to make peace between what is [different]: suffering, death, resurrection in the different religions. Tammuz and Adonis are different entities like different beings in the same uniform. You have to know the beings, not the external means of expression. With Golgotha, something new came in.
What comes now is smaller and yet more important than the first Christ impulse. Then it can be understood better, newer and higher. Theosophy wants to be a servant for this.