Supplements to Member Lectures
GA 246 — 16 August 1914, Dornach
69. Samaritan Course Lecture IV
My dear theosophical friends!
In these times, in these sad times when war has broken out in Europe, the question has been raised in my presence by some of our friends: How does the idea relate to these events, which we have often discussed (and indeed in the cycle which I was allowed to give in Kristiania on “The Mission of the Individual Folk-souls in Connection with Germanic-Nordic Mythology”), the idea that individual peoples are led, guided by entities of the Hierarchy of Archangels, which we call Folk-spirits?
And indeed the question arises in some of our friends: Does the interaction of these higher entities form a harmonious chorus? And how does this harmony (if it exists) relate to the events that are now taking place in Europe?
Before we answer this question, I would like to remind you of what we said yesterday in preparation about trust, unshakeable trust in the spirit. Also, since we are here as a fraternally-minded assembly, with members of the peoples who are now confronting each other as enemies, and also with those who belong to countries [not participating in the world war], and since we are allowed to work on the building, which should mean a sign of the Spirit to us, we would like to evoke before our souls the words of Theodosius to the other Mary:
In dark impulses essence reaches
The temple's influence does not reach,
Even if they want to do good.
We should also remember the first principle of our Anthroposophical Society: [Wisdom is only in the truth.
And now I would like to quote what a German statesman read out before the Reichstag in the spring of 1914: (Something is quoted here in which there is talk of the favorable political situation and there is talk of a “relaxation of conditions”). At the end of the quote, the doctor notes that he is merely presenting it as a fact.
A second quote concerns an article by a publicist who is taken far too seriously in certain circles, who writes something like: “Despite the words of Mr. Liebknecht, there are cases where it is not only a necessity but a duty for the responsible ruler to spread untrue facts ...”
After these two quotes, the doctor talks about the truth and how, for example, it does not matter whether you believe what you say, but whether it corresponds to the deep facts. Yes, it is not so rare to find people who believe in the truth of what they say. But for karma, it makes absolutely no difference whether you believe in what you say or not. The only important thing for karma is whether the words correspond to the facts, the real facts. Here again, the doctor firmly emphasizes our principle: “Wisdom through truth”.
The question of whether the popular spirits form a harmonious choir is answered by considering two things:
- the Mystery of Golgotha and
- that which can be called the age of the individual folk spirits.
Certainly the great, powerful Christ impulse has not only intervened in evolution for humanity, but has also permeated those hierarchies that stand above human beings. We should believe, we should trust them, that they have also received the influence of the Christ impulse, this impulse that says: “Love God above all else and then your neighbor more than yourself.” And the spirits of the people are imbued with this truth, they are christed.
But now the spirits of the people each have their task in leading the individual nations. And how they fulfill this task depends on their age. Certain folk spirits are older than others that are younger (for example, the Russian folk spirit is the youngest, the German one is older and so on). But we know that in a family, for example, the father, mother and children are of different ages, and yet there is harmony and peace in the family.
Now, however, it is the case that although in the spiritual world there is harmony and peace between the spirits of the people, here on earth there is war from time to time. Why is it so?
Yes, my dear friends, if only people could have a proper spiritual relationship with the popular spirits, there would never be a war. But this is not the case. And it is the case in our time that people are not in a position to [rise up] spiritually to their folk spirits. And what is the spiritual relationship to the spirit of the people?
Yes, my dear friends, let us consider that which has entered into earth evolution through the Mystery of Golgotha. Earlier, before the Mystery of Golgotha, man's relationship to his folk-spirits was different from what it is now. In the past, man stood before his national spirit and Christ was not yet there. Now, however, since the Mystery of Golgotha, a possibility has been created for people to turn to the spirit of the people with a christened soul.
The right relationship of a human being to the spirit of the people is that which could be called “a channeled dialogue with the spirit of the people”. A person can have such a relationship if he manages to [raise himself] to the higher beings with the Christ principle. There he [comes] to have intercourse with these archangel-like beings. He is in communion with the spirit of the people, with an entity that is definitely something spiritual, and in this communion Christ is the mediator.
If people were able to [raise themselves] spiritually, Christianly to the spirit of the people, they would see the harmonious choir of the spirits of the people. That would be the right spiritual relationship to the spirit of the people. A choral dialog with the spirit of the people. But it is not like that, because people cannot yet spiritually lift themselves up to the spirit of the people.
And there is also the intervention of the retarded entities, which we call the Luciferic and Ahrimanic entities. We should not criticize such retarded entities at all. These entities are archai-like (ahrimanic) and archangel-like (luciferic).
In the last cycle that we held in Munich, we emphasized that these retarded entities have their task in the world, they are intended in the world plan as cooperating with the gods. We should not criticize them. But we also know that these entities, as soon as they transcend those spiritual realms that have been prescribed to them by the gods, confront the gods as opponents.
In the spiritual world, these retarded entities are benevolent and their work is in accordance with the world plan. But as soon as these entities transfer their task to the physical plan, they begin to work as opponents of the gods. And these entities carry out their activity in that which is present in human beings as natural forces.
My dear friends, we know that beings of higher hierarchies than the archai or the archangels work in the forces of nature that are active out there. In the forces of nature there are such beings as the spirits of form, spirits of movement and so on. But in that which is present as natural forces in man, there the retarded hierarchies (Ahriman and Lucifer) are at work.
For example, the nature of the larynx can be described as a natural force in man. Because a person's larynx is one way or another, he can speak one language or another. And this is where the Luciferic and Ahrimanic entities work. (To compare with what was said in Munich about the diversity of languages; there used to be one original language and then - Tower of Babel - different languages; and this was brought about by Ahriman. To compare also what has been said about the Latin - Ahrimanic character - and the Gothic - Luciferic character - letters).
Now, when these retarded entities intervene in that which lives in man as natural force in relation to the spirit of the people, then they work in such a way that man (in this relationship, which is not a spiritual one, but a relationship of natural force) desires for his spirit of the people an expansion of his people on the physical plan. He strives for an unlimited expansion of his people, his territory.
When the human being is in a christened dialog with his national spirit, he is in the spiritual world, and in the spiritual world everything is penetrable, the space is unlimited, and the human being feels no boundaries, all dialogs of different peoples penetrate each other in the spirit ... If it were so, then it would be right. But on the physical plan it is not so.
Here, every space has boundaries. Nothing interpenetrates here. And as each people strives for expansion here (as a result of the interference of a natural force effect in the relationship to the people's spirit, a natural force effect that arises from retarded entities), it bumps into another - and then war arises.
And now, my dear friends, we can say something else, since we are allowed to speak to members here at our building, to people who are fraternally minded and who strive for a spiritual upliftment to the spirit of the people. There are certain times in the earth's development when it is necessary for certain forces, certain impulses to flow into humanity. We are living in such a time. You know that since about the seventies (1870) a time has begun that we call the Michael Age. You know that Michael (who has progressed from Archangel to Archai) is a herald of the Christ, a servant of the Christ forces ...
We are only at the beginning of the Michael-epoch, the epoch in which Michael works as a pre-proclaimer of the Christ, of the solar effect (Paris Lodge Lecture 1913). And this means a tremendous influx of forces from the spiritual world. Every time, however, when good, divine forces flow in more strongly, they also cause a counter-effect, an increase in the counter-forces. And in our time, these counter-forces are increasing, as the Michael epoch is just beginning. But the influx of Michael forces into evolution is a necessity. “What is to happen must happen.”
And now, my dear friends, let us ask ourselves: How does the matter stand, how can it stand, once we realize such a necessity? It could be the case, for example, that certain impulses have to occur at a particular moment and yet there are very few people on earth to receive them. - We are speaking here to people who, gathered together in a spirit of brotherhood, are allowed to work on a building that is a sign of the spirit, and these people have heard the words, they have absorbed the impulses that have flowed into them from person to person in a literal way.
But now, my friends, if people are not able to hear these words, this language, and if there is nevertheless the need for certain ideas, certain impulses to flow into humanity ... What is happening? What should happen? - What happens is that these impulses flow in in a different way than through language, through words ...
There events are necessary where people cannot or do not want to receive words. (This means that the world war is a necessary event, after which people will be able to absorb what needs to be absorbed. But people could not absorb it in any other way than through these terrible events. Since the beginning of the war it has become clear to us anthroposophists, through some things that have been said here and there, that the world war will be tremendously beneficial for the absorption of spiritual truths; bankruptcy of materialism). It is in this sense that these events are to be viewed.
So I (A.B.[razol]) summarize: Influx of the Michael forces causing an increase of the ahrimanic and luciferic forces. These cause the unspiritual (due to natural forces) rising to the spirit of the people, the consequence of which is a longing for expansion on the physical plane. On the other hand: the necessity for certain ideas, certain impulses to flow in and be absorbed. Anyway: be it through language, through the word from person to person (but few have heard it or wanted to hear it) or through the events that are now taking place. That is the whole line of thought of the lecture.
Then the doctor said: My dear friends, perhaps some of our friends already have the first volume of the “Riddles of Philosophy”. Well, there should be a second one. And twelve sheets of this second volume have already been printed, and the thirteenth is only half printed. I received it the other day, the first pages of the sheet are printed, then there are white pages, and, my friends, in this thirteenth sheet I spoke of the French modern philosophy of Bergson and Boutroux, how they arrived at the concept that man was created at the beginning and that the other realms are something from which man has risen ... Well, my dear friends, in this arc I also spoke of a little-known philosopher who is to be regarded as a German theosophist. He is little known, but in this very book “The Riddles of Philosophy” I have set myself the task of mentioning the important works for the spiritual world, even if the personalities concerned have only been recognized in narrower circles.
And now there lived in Germany a philosopher by the name of Preuss; he was an Oldenburg, and he achieved, quite of his own accord, what the theosophical truths used to be: man as first created and the other realms as something that used to be in man, but which man has thrown out in his progress towards [perfection].
And you see, my dear friends, the war, the world war, interrupted the printing at the very point where I described the confluence of German and French spiritual life in my book ...
Just at the point where I wanted to emphasize this confluence, the war broke in and interrupted the printing ... just at this point. My dear friends, I would like to present this to you as a symbol, a symbol of how I felt when I saw the white pages after this passage ... (The doctor was significantly silent for a long time ...)
So, my dear friends, our task is to lift ourselves up to the spirits of the people. We are gathered here in a spirit of brotherhood, and each of us should spiritually lift ourselves up to our own national spirit. That is our task. Only if we work our way spiritually through to a well-chosen dialogue with the spirit of the people can we gain an understanding of the harmonious interaction of the spirits of the people.
And if there are people among you for whom the age of their folk spirits seems at first to be an obstacle, if there are those among us who might feel a difficulty because of the age of their folk spirit, they should only consider the words of Vladimir Solovyov, who said: "When Shakespeare was five years old, the last citizen of Stratford (Shakespeare's birthplace) was immeasurably wiser than he. And yet Shakespeare became Shakespeare." You have to bear that in mind.
And now all this can be summarized in seven lines, seven lines that can help you to achieve what we have described as an intimate dialogue with the spirit of the people.
You, the spirit of my earthly space
Spirit of my earth space, my people's spirit (remark by the doctor)
Envelop your age with light
To the Christ-gifted soul,
That striving it may find
In the choir of the spheres of peace
You, resounding with praise and power
Of the Christ-given human spirit!