Supplements to Member Lectures
GA 246 — 28 February 1913, Karlsruhe
57. Collaboration with the Spirits of Health
The lodge rooms are not set up in a stereotyped manner, even though they adhere to the basic, uniform principles. A symbol that diversity is created and cultivated within our entire endeavor. Not blind repetition of the teachings, but individual processing.
When [we] look at the pyramid, we can see the connection with the secrets of the world. Greek temple [is] an expression of inner unity; God with himself; temple was a closed whole, [that is the] essence of Greek architecture. The Gothic cathedral [is only] complete when the congregation wants to cultivate that which connects it with the divine; the believing congregation is part of this.
We will cultivate interior architecture. Architectural forms must adapt to the demands of the times. - The development of railroad stations and department stores are external building sites for us. Where theosophical contemplation is practiced, there should only be [an] internal expansion. Interior architecture.
Coloring, tinting seemingly undemanding, will find more and more understanding among members. What lies in the depths of the soul is connected with human health. Totality arises within us. Movement of the diversity of colors in different places. [Each room has its own special mood. This room stimulates us to feel something painful if the truth is not found here. The somewhat uncomfortable, unsympathetic feeling of the punishing judge from the flow of the red color. Those who have no love for the truth will leave this room dissatisfied. Calling down the spiritual powers into the room where the Karlsruher will do their work. Those who bring the right feelings and [the right] mood will do fruitful work.
[A] person who is said to be living correctly does not think very badly of his /unreadable]. [He who acts not out of duty, compulsion or propriety, but out of enthusiasm for what is right and good, acts well and rightly. Action can be done out of enthusiasm, love, freedom - or compulsion. Outwardly it seems the same, often leads to the same deeds. But for the whole of life, there is a considerable difference - especially when you consider the time between death and a new birth.
Comparison [of the death] of a soul [with] water and vapor; falls back as rain - comparable with the [new] human life.
Water, air - behind all elements are spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies and guide, promote the healing powers of man. - After death, humans become servants of the spirits of health, of growth, of the flourishing of people on earth. These are souls who previously [knew] how to think well and act well with enthusiasm and a religious mood. For a certain time after death they are servants of hygiene. Not only cultivated by external factors, but by the fact that enthusiasm for good thoughts, feelings and actions [may] enter the souls - i.e. not merely out of a sense of duty.
[Modern man knows nothing of this, so to speak. What one does not see, [the] opinion prevails [that it] does not exist. [There are] people who reject the spiritual world, among other reasons, because they do not see it. The human soul is connected to the hidden forces of the spiritual world.
[A soul will] never be rightly disposed to produce healing effects [if it] is not connected with [the] work of the masters of the healing elements. Prepare [ourselves] to [be] servants after death for health, flourishing life out of love for it, and [man] should then be inspired by the [said] powers. [In this way [we] create the causes of healthy and growing elements on earth. [But the reverse [is] also true: through lack of conscience [one] becomes a servant of the evil spirits, [which] bring sickness and early death.
Avoid the conceptual about things. Mere conscientiousness will not bring about the opposite. Enthusiasm, love lead us to become servants of health, not mere conscientiousness.
The seer must try to keep research with as little thinking as possible. Wait for inspiration, intuition; [wait] to be graced with these or those truths. In this respect, people often make strange, impossible demands on the clairvoyant. People believe that one need only be able to see. [There is also the temptation to twist concepts. Resignation [is] necessary - wait until the grace comes. That is one thing.
Then [comes the] second work: casting thought into concepts. So first research, then think. There is far too much speculation about “seeing”. The supersensible world cannot be constructed from ordinary thinking.
[A] large part of our life [is] connected with a tremendous amount of convenience. Obstacles here [are] ahrimanic forces. We have to take on [the Lord of Obstacles'] chain of slavery [for a] time if [we] have loved convenience. Dully certain people can go through life, unreceptive to [a] beautiful landscape. Causes significant consequences after [death]. If [but] lively admiration [is lived], then [we] may participate in the progress of mankind from the supersensible world.
Inventive minds help progress; like [a] bursting forth of thoughts. [The best [thoughts] are not [those] that we have to squeeze out of [our] brain or when we gnaw on a pen for a quarter of an hour. [The] best thoughts are the ones that come over us. They come from the souls who have taken a lively part in everything on earth and now live in higher worlds. (There are men who can't even sew on a button, not to mention many other things). Skill - mood - to be interested, [to] consider it an impossibility not to be able to do something.
Another thing: On earth, certain things [are] the most perfect: the truly beautiful works of art. [These have [a] certain significance even after [death]. - Important earthly events: Sounds [are] produced by physical strings, [which are] not audible; or also:] the Sistine Madonna [is] not visible from higher worlds. The most perfect thing on earth reaches its perfection on earth. But souls carry it to higher worlds when [they] have grasped it. Raphael could not see his Madonna [like the seer], she lived in his soul.
Supersensible worlds live from this: [They are] instructed to let the souls bring them the most beautiful things from the earth. Is needed for the powers that are developed up there.
The dull-witted arrive there with empty hands, the others with full hands. Every soul that goes through life dull-wittedly contributes to the death and withering of earthly existence. [Imagine how Leonardo pictured Christ on the wall, radiating light from within; and at the same time [realize that Leonardo] wanted to remain faithful to the truth in [the] painting; that is why [the Christ on the wall] did not come about [as it did] in his soul. - After his death, because [he] had not been able to express himself in life as [he] had intended, [he] inspired some subsequent spirits, because Leonardo had taken so much that was unfinished into the spiritual world.
The Doctor's educational activity - reckoning with what is directed from the supersensible world. Theosophy will help people to bridge the gap in which we live between birth and death and death and new birth.
There was one of the personalities - who caused us so much trouble, who made it necessary to found the Anthroposophical Society - who wanted to be witty and coined the word: Theosophists want to live Theosophy; anthroposophists want to experience Theosophy. - A game, a plaything with words.
[We want to forge an] ever more lively bond between the souls here and there. [Most monists and materialists do this out of fear. [They] fear the uncertainty of entering [the] spiritual world. [This] experience has been made: They fear being scrutinized.
Comparison with iron and magnetic force: people would not want to care. What do we care about the forces that are supposed to play in from the supersensible worlds? They do not see [that] Theosophy springs from [a] serious, worthy necessity.
Whoever has seen the souls who [are] slaves of evil spirits, [and whoever] has seen the one who follows out of enthusiasm for good, [for] interest in life, [knows] that theosophy must soon permeate earthly life.
[From the answer to the question:]
Higher beings must intervene when [the] human being sleeps, [as well as] in the time between death and new birth. Likewise, higher beings must intervene in [the] regulation of the present day and [the present] night, [as is also] mentioned in [Genesis].