Supplements to Member Lectures

GA 246 — 15 August 1914, Dornach

67. Samaritan Course Lecture III

I would like to remind you of four years ago, as it were, in preparation for the contemplation we will make tomorrow: Around the time we were preparing to come here, on [Ascension] Day, we had just finished the performance of the mystery “The Gate of Initiation” in Munich. That was four years ago today on [Ascension] Day. Perhaps some of you will remember it. I would like to draw your attention to a few more passages, because they can be a preparation for what we can bring before our souls tomorrow in relation to the present time. What we also want to bring before your souls in this form has really profound references to our time, and perhaps you will understand some of what was contained in this Rosicrucian mystery better if you grasp the connections between human thoughts, human aspirations and what has so suddenly broken in. There is a connection, my dear friends, between human thoughts and that which has now broken in. If you try to capture these human thoughts, for example, with the words of Sophia in the Mystery:

.... you just don't want to grasp that there can only be the richest life where you see only sophisticated thoughts. And that there may be people who have to call your lively reality poor if it is not measured by what it actually gushes forth from. Some of my words may sound harsh to you. Our friendship alone demands unvarnished sincerity. You, like so many, only know that which is the bearer of knowledge of what is called spirit; you only have an awareness of the thought side of the spirit.

Yes, my dear friends, as long as one has only a concept of the thought side of the spiritual, as long as there is only that which appears like an external copy of the real, we have that which is represented in the effects of nature in the scene between Capesius, Strader and the spirit of the elements. Sophia:

You don't want to get involved with the living, the creative spirit that shapes people with elemental power, just as germinal forces in nature shape beings. Like so many in art, for example, you call that which denies the spirit in my view naive and original. Our way of seeing the world, however, unites full conscious freedom with the power of naive becoming. We consciously absorb what is naïve and thereby do not deprive it of its freshness, fullness and originality. You believe that we can only think about a human character, but that it must form itself, as it were. You do not want to see how thought dives into the creative spirit, touches the primal source of existence and reveals itself as the creative spirit itself. - Just as the seed forces do not first teach the plant how it should grow, but prove to be a living being in it, so our ideas do not teach: they pour themselves into our being, igniting life, giving life. I owe everything that makes life seem meaningful to me to the ideas that have become accessible to me.

I would like many people to learn to say this, so that better times will come again.

I owe them not only the courage, but also the insight and strength that give me hope of turning my children into people who are not only capable of working and useful for an external life in the traditional sense, but who will carry inner peace and satisfaction in their souls. And, so as not to fall into all sorts of things, I just want to say to you: I believe I know that the dreams you share with so many can only be realized if people succeed in connecting what they call reality and life to the deeper experiences that you have so often called fantasies and raptures.

That is what we wanted to build on this hill, my dear friends, in forms and in other things that so many people only call fantasies and raptures.

It may seem strange to you if I confess to you that I consider much of what you think is real art to be nothing more than a barren critique of life. For no hunger is satisfied, no tears dried, no source of depravity seen, if one merely shows the outside of the hunger, the tearful faces, the depraved people on the boards. The way this is usually shown is unspeakably far removed from the true depths of life and the interrelationships of beings.

On this hill we want to erect something, my dear friends, which is unspeakably close to the contexts of the entities. If you remember the words that have been spoken here in our contemplations in this place, that with our forms something should be created from which the unified language of the gods should penetrate to us, which wants to penetrate to us ..., then you will see in this building something that can perhaps be a calming pole in the exciting flight of phenomena in the present time, however it may take shape, through the thoughts from which it has already emerged. How little one is inclined today to believe that what Strader experiences to his amazement before the spirit of the earth is true. But let us remember Strader's words again today after four years, when thunder and lightning come from the depths and heights:

Why do the depths tremble
Why do the heights roar,
As the most beautiful dreams of hope
Escaped the youthful soul?

No matter how beautiful the dreams are - if they are not related to the spirit of humanity, the spirit of the elements answers:

To you human dreamers
Such words of hope resound proudly;
But calls in the depths of the world
The delusion of erroneous thinking
Such an echo everlasting.
You only hear it in times,
That lead you close to me.
You believe the truth
To build sublime temples,
But follow your work
Unleashes storm forces
In primeval depths.
Spirits must break worlds,
If your work of the ages
Not devastation and death
Bring to the eternities. Strader: So would be before the eternities
A mad delusion,
What seems truth
To the best human researcher! Spirit of the elements:
A mad delusion,
As long as the mind only explores
In the realm alien to spirits.

We first heard it four years ago, and we may perhaps remember it today, remember it in such a way that we also understand the tragic figure of Capesius, who stands there with all the deep tragedy at the end, because in this time of his development, in which he must stand here, he must see, because the past has not explored the living spirit in him, but only that which is (formed) according to the pattern of what we call the spirit of our times, from epoch to epoch in people who only cling to outward appearances when they want to penetrate into the depths, which these people can only grasp. Capesius already goes beyond this in later times. (But at the end of the first mystery he speaks the words:)

I could never be a good messenger to you.
You gave me the strength to portray human life.
I could describe what people
At one time or another;
But it was not possible for me,
The words that painted the past,
To give the power to fill souls completely.

When souls are completely filled, then they also find what can really be used as meditation in our times, in our times where such a different language is spoken from many sides. I would like to remind you today of what came from the lips of Benedict at the end of the seventh picture, which really is a kind of Assumption of Mary:

The light weaving being, it shines
From man to man,
To fill all the world with truth.
The blessing of love, it warms
The soul in the soul,
To work all worlds' bliss.
And spiritual messengers, they marry
The works of blessing of men
With worldly goals;
And if the two can marry
The man who finds himself in man,
Shines spiritual light through warmth of soul.

These are the words that should flow well, well into souls, especially in our time. Then we will understand - we will come back to this tomorrow - that what was to be pointed out at that time is true, however many storms may still want to approach its realization. No matter how many disharmonies may still be possible, it is precisely these disharmonies that will speak a clear language so that people will learn to understand what Theodora is pointing out at the right time:

I am compelled to speak:
Before my spirit stands an image in the light of day,
And words sound to me from it;
In future times I feel myself,
And people I can see,
Who now are not yet in life.
They also see the picture,
They also hear the words,
They sound like this:
You have lived in faith,
You were comforted in hope,
Now be comforted in seeing,
Now be refreshed by me.
I lived in the souls,
Who sought me within themselves,
Through my messenger's word,
Through their devotional powers.
You have seen the light of the senses
And had to believe in the spirit's creative realm.
But now you have gained
A drop of noble vision,
O feel it in your soul. A human being
Escapes that gleam of light.
It speaks to me:
You shall proclaim to all,
Who will listen to you,
That you have seen,
What people are yet to experience.
Christ once lived on earth,
And this life was the result,
That he in the form of a soul surrounds the
human becoming.
He united himself with the earth's spiritual part.
Men could not yet behold him,
How he shows himself in such form of existence,
Because their being lacked spiritual eyes,
Which shall only show themselves in the future.
But the future is near,
When with the new sight
The earthly man shall be gifted.
What the senses once saw
At Christ's time on earth,
It will be seen by souls,
When the time will soon be fulfilled.

Yes, my dear friends, tomorrow we want to make an observation that can give us courage to believe what can flow into our souls from these words:

What once the senses beheld
In Christ's time on earth,
It will be seen by souls

however the times and the hearts of men may still tremble within themselves until that end.