Consciousness Evolution: From Atavistic Wisdom to Inner Freedom

GA 254 — 1 November 1915, Dornach

Twelfth Lecture

Yesterday I spoke about Krasinski's great Polish drama Comédie infernale and emphasized its special significance. One might say that it was consciously brought into the world as the result of a dialogue with the spirits of human evolution, who in the middle of the 19th century spoke to those who wanted to hear them.

Let us hold on for a moment to the thoughts we have gained by seeing how what lives at the heart of human evolution has pushed its way into external literary culture. We must say that both in the “Maha Guru” and in the “Comédie infernale” — we could cite many more examples of this kind, but I have chosen only two very striking ones — we see that, behind the scenes of world events, so to speak, something significant is taking place in cultural humanity. And we have had to derive it again and again from so many sources, which should direct our feelings to the great moment of world development in which we stand, to the moment that makes it necessary to listen to what must come into human development, but must come in with the cooperation of human souls who can understand it. There are various expressions to characterize the importance of the moment; but perhaps one need only say one thing, and that one thing is enough to mark the significance of the moment.

In ancient times, people received an ancient heritage of great wisdom, consisting of atavistic clairvoyance and knowledge acquired in an atavistic way. But this heritage has, I would say, been eclipsed, and in its place has come — especially since about three centuries ago and reaching a peak in the 19th century — the materialistic tidal wave. This spread a complete veil over all possibilities of looking into the spiritual world, and a new path, a new way, is now rising again in spiritual science. I have often emphasized how this development comes naturally to human souls. Today it is still the case that souls, the vast majority of them, must learn that there are repeated earthly lives. But this is what I have often spoken about, that the souls who are now living, when they are reincarnated, will for the most part not only know on the basis of a theory that there are repeated earth lives, but that these souls will live into a time when a natural knowledge will spread to the effect that there are repeated earth lives. Just as human souls now naturally remember back to a certain moment in their childhood, just as thoughts from childhood repeatedly come to mind, so it will one day be natural for human souls to have the vivid impression rising up from within them: We have been here many times before. Just as human souls have developed from the other, primitive stages of human life to the present stage, so will they develop to this point. Nothing needs to happen for this to occur; it will happen naturally. But what must happen is the following.

The souls that have learned nothing from spiritual science today will necessarily die and return in a new life. They will have learned nothing from spiritual science and will not know what to do with the impressions that will arise from within them as a result of their repeated earthly lives, or rather, they may be driven to despair by what wells up from within them. For only through thoughts can we grasp what arises as an inner impression in the soul; and the thoughts that are necessary to understand what now naturally arises are the thoughts of spiritual science. For these thoughts of spiritual science are meant to make the whole process of the I understandable to us and to show us how this I is contained in the human being. Only when one has the power of these thoughts will one understand the impression that comes of its own accord and of which the memory will, in a sense, be present.

But understanding of this memory will have to be established through spiritual science from now on; knowledge of the connection of the I will have to be acquired. And those who have not acquired it will only be able to say, when these memories arise in them: I do not understand myself! — and that will be a terrible thing in the future, when people will have to cry out in despair: I do not understand myself! — So let us try to understand correctly: What must come can only be explained in such a way that the human soul does not despair, in such a way that human souls gain knowledge about it. So that when the I, which goes from incarnation to incarnation, presents itself to the people of the future — that is, when we are reincarnated in the future — they will then also have the opportunity to understand this I. They will understand it if they have worked on their souls through the thoughts of spiritual science.

The I, for whose complete understanding the Mystery of Golgotha took place, can never be understood by someone who preserves in their soul — as I characterized yesterday in the Polish count — the most sacred feelings, even if they are connected to the events of the Mystery of Golgotha: the feelings of the past. With such an attitude, one can historically accept the events of the Mystery of Golgotha, but one cannot truly understand the Mystery of Golgotha. The Mystery of Golgotha can only be understood in its reality when the saying becomes true: “Not I, but Christ in me!” Then it will be possible for Christ, in his living activity within the development of the earth, not to remain inaudible to human beings. He is to be made audible through what spiritual science has to say under his inspiration. No feelings that seek to connect with memories can lead humanity toward the salvation of the future. Nor can the future of humanity be promoted by the people of today, the violent people we characterized yesterday, for although these violent people assert the ego, they do not assert Christ in the ego. This is a profound mystery that confronts us so clearly in Polish poetry.

Thus, these two personalities stand opposite each other, one of whom has Christ in tradition, in lore, in history, but runs the risk of losing him. And that which lives out around him in the woman and the child falls back into the atavistic connection with the spiritual world. This poses a great danger for our time: that those who do not want to accept the knowledge of humanity's connection with the spiritual world in a new way, even though they feel it within themselves, will lose the right connection with the spiritual world in which their human limbs are set. Humanity would have to fall apart into those who must despair and die to the past, like the count, and those who ascend into spiritual worlds in an atavistic way, like the woman and the child, who, because they have not really taken Christ into their inner being, enter the spiritual worlds without finding the right human center of gravity within themselves. What have the members of the count's family not fully developed? They have not fully developed the ego. They are, in essence, remnants of a time that has already passed in the regular course of human development since the Mystery of Golgotha, but especially in the last few centuries. They are remnants of an ancient time when the ego had not yet fully taken hold of human beings; ego-less human beings who, because they cannot accept Christ into their ego, which they have not been able to develop fully with the necessary intensity, lose Christ. And opposed to them is the violent man who has developed the ego, who carries it within himself with all intensity, who wants to make the world happy without accepting Christ into his ego, but cannot. Beautifully, magnificently, before the death of the violent man, out of the vision — which he does not understand, just as he does not understand how one can surrender to death — the words arise: “Galilean, you have conquered!” This means that for those who have conquered their ego but have not accepted Christ into this ego, there is only one moment when they can come into contact with Christ: the moment when they pass from this world into the other world. But because Christ came into this world from another world in order to find human hearts in this world, they must immediately lose him when they arrive in the other world after the moment of death. All the deeper impulses of our time live in such a sphere, in which something truly magnificent is intended, I can only say, intended.

But now we must delve a little further into things that are familiar to us, but which we must consider in a certain context if we want to understand them fully in the spirit of our time. As we know, we have to divide the development of the earth into a time before the Mystery of Golgotha and a time after the Mystery of Golgotha. We know that before the Mystery of Golgotha, spirits that must be described as Luciferic and Ahrimanic spirits also worked in the human soul. When we consider the times before the Mystery of Golgotha, we must be very clear that we cannot get by with the foolish talk of “We want nothing to do with Ahriman and Lucifer.” For Ahriman and Lucifer were allowed by the regularly evolving spiritual beings to intervene in human earthly evolution in an appropriate manner.

Now we know that these are spiritual beings who are basically higher than human beings, who only during the lunar evolution did not reach the height they could have reached, but nevertheless they are higher than human beings. So that now, when we consider the connection between the Ahrimanic and Luciferic beings, we can also better understand what is called the ancient wisdom of Earth's evolution. For example, the ancient wisdom that was misused in the Lemurian epoch and perished with the Lemurians; that was then misused in the Atlantean epoch, whose misuse brought about the downfall of Atlantis. What lived among human beings there? What was actually there? What was there is described very abstractly when one simply says: There was great wisdom there, which was misused in a black magical way — but this does not give us a clear picture. Let us take a look, for example, at what wisdom was like in the last days of the Lemurian epoch. Where did this wisdom come from?

The development of human beings on Earth was also connected with spiritual beings who had not fully developed during the lunar period, but who were nevertheless higher than human beings. Now human beings were there, but, as you can imagine, in their most primitive state. Everything that human beings later developed in the Atlantean and post-Atlantean periods was not yet there; human beings developed this later. At that time, in the Lemurian epoch, human beings, as they appeared as human beings, were still completely unintelligent, for intelligence was only to unfold gradually during the course of earthly evolution. They were primitive in their will and actions, primitive in their soul development, completely like children. If it had been the case that only the bodies of human beings had been present, with all their higher limbs that had been developed by the regularly evolving spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies, then human beings would not have been able to develop anything special in terms of outstanding wisdom at that time. But that was not the case; on the contrary, it was precisely during this Lemurian period that a higher wisdom, an extraordinary wisdom, was developed. For example, knowledge was widespread among these primitive earth humans at that time about how to treat a child between birth and the age of seven in such a way that, through a certain transformation of its etheric body, which then had an effect on the brain, an extraordinarily intelligent human being could develop. Please note: today, thorough pedagogical methods must be applied if one wants to turn a child into an intelligent human being, and everyone knows how often this fails. But in any case, this art has been completely lost today, namely the art of preparing the brain itself through a certain influence on the etheric body of the brain, so that the person in question becomes an intelligent human being. This art, I note at once, is no longer of any use today; it is completely useless, for if even the most primitive degree of this art were to spread, terrible abuses would be committed with it.

How, then, was such an art available in the Lemurian period? It was available because beings who had not reached the full height of their development on the Moon, but had developed only the first six of their seven limbs, not yet their seventh, incarnated in human beings who would otherwise have been quite primitive. These spiritual beings, who were more highly developed than humans on the Moon but had not been able to rise to their full height of development, took on such human bodies. These beings thus took on human bodies and set to work with their art, which was superior to all human earthly knowledge. And now you can imagine what such a being was capable of in a human body; such a being, who had developed the sixth limb, the life spirit, in a way that was even higher than the human way, and now entered into these primitive human bodies, which were pliable and soft. They were terrible magicians, truly terrible magicians!

And again, in the Atlantean period, what arts were prevalent there? Above all, there was the wisdom that must be applied in order to transfer such talents, which are present in the ancestors, purely by inheritance to the descendants and to increase them in the descendants. This art was also understood by the beings of the lunar period, who were not fully developed on the moon but were more developed than earthly human beings. They understood this art very significantly. I mean, it was as if one had a genius and, under certain circumstances connected with all kinds of star constellations and the like, passed on the characteristics of this genius to one's descendants, so that the spiritual characteristics of genius were not only inherited but even increased. It must be said that these higher beings in human form were capable of tremendous things at that time. All of that has been swept away. Now, an infinite amount is connected with these special arts. An infinite amount is connected with them! Connected with all of this is the possibility of observing the course of spiritual development, the possibility of being able to channel the stream of the spiritual into the physical stream of heredity, as it were.

Thus, in the Atlantean era, there were communities whose leaders were such beings in human form, of whom I have spoken, and who helped a certain individuality, which they wanted to return to earth, to incarnate in human form by bringing forth certain characteristics through heredity and then seeking descendants again and again. That is to say, the situation was as follows: Let us assume that such a being had guided some individuality to a human body on earth, so that it would have been present within that human body. Now this human body dies. The individuality is now in the spiritual world, and now it was a matter of creating, within the human race, through all kinds of hereditary influences, a human body in which this individuality could be again. This human body had to be created; in a sense, that same individuality was given a body. The same individuality was thus preserved on earth one after another.

All this has been lost, had to be lost, because humanity had to develop in the way often indicated. But Ahriman has a great interest in keeping what is to develop, what is to make way for something else, in the world, in keeping it there properly.

And so, in the development of humanity, we have an infinite number of things — even a superficial observation can show you this — that had their justification in earlier times, but which are preserved in the way they are. This is true on both a small and a large scale.

Gutzkow wanted to show something like this using a large-scale example in his novel “Maha Guru.” He wanted to show: What happens to something that once had meaning in ancient times of human development — in the ancient Atlantean era, when people still had the ability to regulate heredity — what happens to it when it is transferred to a time and a community that had preserved the traditions, but knew nothing more of the past than a subordinate art, which in occultism is called occult chemistry? And there he showed that such a thing existed in Tibet. Of course, the priesthood in Tibet no longer had any knowledge of how to create a body through hereditary conditions of individuality, which it believed should pass from body to body, but it preserved the old customs. So here we have an example where what exists in external reality contradicts to the highest degree what it can be according to the conditions that exist in human development. How reality can be a maya in relation to its conditions! — one feels tempted to exclaim when reading “Maha Guru.”

Or another, my dear friends. You can also imagine that the people of the Lemurian and Atlantean periods did not yet look like today's humans, because what developed inwardly in the soul at that time also shaped the outer form. The whole outer form was different, soft and flexible. Now, the form of the people of the Lemurian and Atlantean periods was not ape-like; the ancestors of humans, the real ancestors of humans, did not have an ape-like form. I have emphasized this many times. Unless, of course, an exception had been made in the development of the world for those humans who wrote about themselves that they could remember descending from apes! But we don't need to investigate that now. So humans did not look ape-like, but if you imagine our children, drawn even more into childishness, much, much more into childishness, and a natural, elemental element poured over their whole bodies, then you may be able to get an idea of what the human body was like at that time. But because—read the essays “From the Akashic Records”—such beings as I have described, who remained behind on the moon, incarnated in these softer bodies, the soft bodies became more animal-like than human-like. Distorted figures arose, even peculiar contortions of the limbs: and there you have the origin of the god figures that can be found among the various peoples. These strange figures, with their inhuman faces and enormous limbs, stem from the fact that one had to contemplate this interaction of the incarnating moon beings with the human body.

If there had been painters and sculptors in the Atlantean era, they would have been able to reproduce or paint these figures that lived in the human body as embodied lunar beings. But this was no longer the case in Tibet. Therefore, artists had to follow the canon, otherwise they would have done whatever they wanted. If someone did not want to follow the canon but instead wanted to create according to their imagination, they were guilty of death. Of course, one may ask: Does it make sense that someone who changes just a little bit of the form of a god — as I indicated yesterday — is immediately punished with death? Does that make sense? — Yes, in Tibet it no longer made sense. But once it made sense, because once, as you have heard, these figures existed, and if one did not reproduce them as they were, one deviated from what was there, one created a lie. But in those ancient times, a lie was something that had much greater power than it does today. If in the present day everyone who uttered a lie were to suffocate, then — no, I'd rather not say anything about that, because I believe that the fear of suffocation would be too great to allow people to lie! I don't suppose that people would suffocate from lying now, but in those days they really would have suffocated: For the thought that was put into words had the power to shape the air in the larynx and then suffocated the person. And anyone who had incorrectly depicted such a being, which had not fully developed on the moon, on earth would have suffocated from it: that is, he would have died as a result of a natural phenomenon.

This means that the development of humanity is quite complicated, and one must delve into spiritual science if one wants to understand what is there. But now it is necessary, in order to face the things that approach our soul in the development of the world correctly, to engage fearlessly in what spiritual science has to proclaim from the spiritual worlds. For spiritual science is, in a sense, a first impulse, to which more and more other impulses must be added so that humanity can move toward its appropriate development in the future. You have seen from what I have explained that we must steer between Scylla and Charybdis, that we must follow a very specific path in our spiritual science, and this must be taken very, very seriously. We have now, have we not, pursued a natural science with materialistic methods. I have tried to explain and characterize its peculiarities to you in recent weeks. I have told you in recent weeks that a materialistic method of natural science is indeed fully justifiable. But why must this materialistic method exist? We can characterize this materialistic method precisely by saying — as we have heard in recent weeks — that it is suitable for veiling, for concealing the actual spiritual that lies behind it. Why must this materialistic method exist? Why is it here today, especially in our time?

You see, in our time, an earlier knowledge of nature should be replaced by a new knowledge of nature. An earlier knowledge of nature should be replaced by a new knowledge of nature. I have hinted at something of this earlier knowledge of nature. Think what kind of knowledge of nature that was! Through very specific measures, which were scientifically regulated in the old sense, to form a human head in such a way that it could be a tool for a brilliant soul – that means tremendous knowledge, or, again, to regulate heredity in such a way that brilliant characteristics are passed on to descendants. Yes, such knowledge is even more intense. In thousands of cases, it surpassed what is now emerging in developmental theories, physics, chemistry, and so on.

But it is precisely this ancient knowledge that should be covered up, veiled by today's materialistic method, which is fully justified and can remain in the purely physical field. For in the time when that high knowledge of nature existed, which I have characterized, man was not a free being, but was only on the way to gradually developing freedom. He was guided and directed. He was not a being with free will, and most of what happened to guide human beings was brought about by the higher hierarchies. And only individuals who strayed from the path, who were driven too far on the path of freedom, caused the descent into the abyss, caused Atlantis to be washed away. But as the will became freer and freer, human beings would not have been able to bear having such knowledge.

Today it is unthinkable to have such knowledge as once existed on Earth, because people have such a degree of free will that they could still abuse it today. How is this free will that people have directed into the right channels? From certain hints I have made in recent weeks, you can already deduce that free will is guided in the right direction by people engaging with the scientific method, with its rigor and precision; on the other hand, it is a wonderful educational measure for the development of free will.

We therefore have no reason whatsoever to oppose the scientific method of today, which we fully recognize as justified for the present time. And if you go through everything that is in our cycles and books, you will find that everything that the individual detractors claim, for example, that we are opposed to natural science, is in fact refuted. One must sometimes oppose the pretensions of some researchers and natural scientists, but nothing can ever be found in our writings that opposes the achievements of natural science. It would be a complete slander to claim that anything in our writings is opposed to natural science, and for us there can be no question of turning against natural science in any way. However, we must be clear that we may be attacked from the so-called natural science side. Then we must defend ourselves against the attack if necessary. But it must become more and more clear to the true adherents of spiritual science that we must fully understand the necessity of the scientific method and that we should keep this scientific method pure from all possible non-scientific concepts, for example, from the atom and atomic motion, which I have spoken about recently. These are fantasies in natural science. One must recognize the difference.

One must strive to understand clearly where real natural science exists and where there are only natural scientific fantasies. How often do we hear today that this or that is established in science, when nothing is established at all, because people are merely following the words. Never has blind acceptance of authority been greater than it is today in the scientific field, where everyone actually leaves it to the one they believe to decide the matter. This is the meaning of the mystery of Golgotha, that in a certain way what came into the world through Lucifer is gradually being corrected again — symbolically, this is also hinted at in the Bible: Your eyes will be opened, and you will distinguish good from evil — that is, distinguish good and evil from the outside. But when one perceives outwardly in the world of perceptions, it is impossible to receive anything other than perceptions from the world of perception.

As soon as one begins to think about perceptions, to speculate and to extract all kinds of ideas from them, one is on the path to truly finding what has been placed there by Ahriman and Lucifer. Ideas must come from the spiritual world, and we must first connect them with perceptions: then these ideas are divine. Then they are divine, these ideas! In human life, a marriage must first be entered into between the ideas given to man from the spiritual world and what he sees outside through his senses. This must first be tied together in human life.

You can look up what is meant scientifically in my book “Truth and Science.” The idea that one could also find ideas and thoughts scientifically from outside, from perceptions, is something based on deception, on deception by Ahriman and Lucifer. But as long as the powers were allowed in a certain justified way: Your eyes will be opened and you will distinguish between good and evil — that is, seeking ideas in the outside world — as long as that was justified, that is, until the Mystery of Golgotha, as long as Lucifer and Ahriman were justifiably allowed, there was nothing to object to. But now it is different; now they are even more unjustified within the external penetration of perception.

This also came about in the middle of the 19th century through a particular crisis. This crisis manifested itself through great, indeed quite special achievements: for example, spectral analysis emerged and thoroughly dispelled the notion in scientific methodology that one was dealing with spiritual beings when looking up at the stars, showing that matter is spread out everywhere, including on Earth. It is no longer possible to mix ideas with perception, because such discoveries make it necessary for ideas to find their way back into our souls through the spirit. The same is true of Darwinism. If one merely combines what one finds in external perception, that is, if one seeks ideas in the external world, one arrives at a purely materialistic interpretation of the world. In short, the crisis is announcing itself everywhere, it is everywhere, and everywhere there is also rebellion against the fact that ideas must grow from the spiritual realm into the human soul if humanity is to progress. This means that we must recognize the nature of Ahriman and Lucifer so that we can observe them from now on when they want to continue what is expressed in the words: Your eyes will be opened and you will be able to distinguish between good and evil. — We must learn to observe them, both Ahriman and Lucifer. We will be able to do so when we permeate the ego, as it has developed, with Christ, truly permeate it with Christ.

But something else also resounded through the world in ancient times, and this came from another side, after human beings had gained the ability to distinguish between good and evil, after they had gained the ability to turn their eyes outward, that is, to use their senses and obtain sensory ideas through them. Then they also heard the words: Man must leave the realm of the spirit in which he has lived until now, lest he also eat of the tree of life. But Christ will continually give man to eat from the tree of life, and the ideas that penetrate directly into human souls from the realm of the spirit must be experienced. However, they can only be experienced if the human soul takes Christ into itself. And then we have something quite different from the concept of knowledge; we get the concept of life. While we must keep a close eye on Lucifer and Ahriman, so to speak, so that — when they allow knowledge from outside to penetrate us in the distant future — we observe that this comes from Ahriman and Lucifer, we must be clear that through the mystery of Golgotha, human beings have been given ideas for living, not for mere knowledge, but for living. And when we look at the individual religions of the world from this point of view of life, we will be far, far removed from examining these religions to see whether they agree with our worldview or not. It is not our task to apply the concept of knowledge to them, but rather the concept of life.

There are certain forms of religion in humanity. We should not look at whether we consider them to be true, but whether they are suitable for nourishing people's souls and enlivening their spirits through what lives in their cult. And so, of course, since there are different human souls, there can also be different nourishment that serves them for life. If we understand this, then we will realize that we can never engage in fighting any religious form, but must strive to understand it, insofar as it is the nourishment of life for souls to whom it is given as life; not only for knowledge, but as life. Then we will also realize that the point of view is completely shifted when religion begins to argue with science about its content. Then we will also know, as is actually self-evident, that religion takes an opposing standpoint to the advancing natural or spiritual sciences. For these religions still do not want to break away from the old tempter; they still do not want to appeal only to God, who said to human beings: He wants to give them life, they should not eat from the tree of life themselves. The representatives of religion do not want to appeal to God alone, but also to the Luciferic and Ahrimanic spirits, and through religion they want to open people's eyes to the distinction between good and evil. Religion wants to be “knowledge.” But it cannot be, because it is the substance of life. And under this temptation, which still whispers in the ears of the individual representatives of the religious communities, they believe that they are imparting knowledge in their religions and fight against the advancing knowledge of science, while the question of knowledge cannot really be considered between religion and science. We have not the slightest reason to fight any religious community, and we can never be opposed to any religious community for the reason that we ask religious communities about their substance of life and not about their content of knowledge. But religious communities will always be tempted to ask advancing science whether it agrees with what they consider to be knowledge. However, since life is in a state of development, advancing science will never be able to agree with religion, which tends toward conservatism.

And now you see the whole conflict, which will of course play out again and again. I would like you to look at this conflict, to look at it in the right way and learn to understand that, of course, the representatives of religious communities, because they are tempted, will always fight spiritual science from their point of view. Just as natural science has been fought, spiritual science will also be fought. But you must also be clear about this: those who fight against it do so out of ignorance. That is no excuse for them, and of course they must be fought against in turn; but you must be clear about this: they fight out of ignorance; they cannot take the right standpoint.

I would like to place before your soul, like a beacon, a word spoken in the 14th century by a man who saw the coming of the age in which natural science and the scientific way of thinking had to come, who saw the coming of humanism, and who heard from his friends that one should not concern oneself with what one can know and what is not written in the Bible or preserved by church tradition. Things have changed since the 14th century in this respect. Dante's “Divine Comedy” is a great, world-encompassing poem. But Dante lived at a time when the era was coming to an end in which people limited themselves to purely historical Christianity. For Dante, Virgil was simply the one banished to hell. Dante did not know much about anything other than Christianity, which he saw as a great order. It was different for Petrarch. A century later, in the 14th century, Petrarch read Virgil with more faith. He turned back not only to Christian spiritual life, but also to pagan spiritual life. When one of his friends once wrote to Petrarch that a spiritual being had appeared to him in a dream and told him not to concern himself with anything in literature that did not live in Christianity, he gave a meaningful reply. But that was the age of natural science; now is the age of spiritual science. I want to emphasize this because even from the spiritual world, the friend — and thus Petrarch — was admonished to concern himself only with what Christianity at that time considered Christian. He wrote the beautiful words that applied to the emerging age at that time. They still apply today. Petrarch replied to his friend Boccaccio in serious, meaningful words and made clear to him his point of view as to why he read these non-Christian things and what they meant to him:

"Why should we flee from pagan poets and writers who do not mention the name of Christ simply because they have never heard of him? Surely the books of unbelievers who mention Christ and yet fight against him should seem much more dangerous—and yet the defenders of the true faith read them with the greatest zeal. Believe me: Much that is determined solely by laziness and cowardice is attributed to careful consideration. People often despise what they cannot achieve; and it is precisely ignorance that is prone to condemn what it cannot comprehend, and no one wants to deny it a pursuit that it is itself incapable of.

Hence the skewed judgments about unknown things, whereby it is not so much the blindness of those who judge as their complacency that catches the eye. But we must not allow ourselves to be deterred from the sciences by any moral admonition or by references to the proximity of death. If the latter are accepted in a good mind, they arouse a love of morality, and take away or at least lessen our fear of death; if we abandon them, this may arouse the very suspicion of unbelief that has been claimed for knowledge. The sciences, therefore, do not hold back those who possess them in the right way from perfection, but help them; they smooth the paths of life and do not hinder them. Some foods may not be good for a sick and weak stomach, but a healthy person who is hungry can digest them without any problems; likewise, what would be beneficial for a healthy and strong mind could be harmful to a weak nature...

I know well that some have attained sublime holiness without education, but I also know that education has not excluded any of them... If I am to tell you my true opinion, it is this: the path to virtue through ignorance may be straight, but it is cowardly. All good people have only one goal, but many paths lead there, and those who walk together are very different from one another: one walks more slowly, another more quickly, one in secret, another in full view of all, one humbly bowed, another exalted. All journeys are blessed, but the most glorious is one that takes place freely and openly before the eyes of all. Knowledge that has struggled its way to faith is far better than simplicity, however holy it may be, and none of the fools who have ever entered the kingdom of heaven stands as high as a knowledgeable person who has attained the crown of bliss."

So it is with our spiritual science! And not only to Pastor Riggenbach, but to all others who fight against us and oppose us, one could shout the above words that Petrarch wrote to his friend: “Some foods may not be good for a sick and weak stomach, which a healthy person who is hungry can easily digest; so too, what would be beneficial for a healthy and strong mind may be harmful to a weak nature.”

If one wants to dwell on the contradiction between the first and third gospels and refuses to see that the contradiction is resolved as soon as one considers the two boys named Jesus, if one thinks that one must stick to the simple and has no need for the fantastical stuff of “those up there,” if one refuses to see that all forms of life have flowed into our building forms, but instead speaks of " distorted, fantastical forms,“ then one must say: ”The knowledge that has fought its way to faith is far better than simplicity, however holy it may be, and none of the fools who have ever entered the kingdom of heaven stands as high as a knowledgeable person who has attained the crown of bliss."

Such thoughts are necessary so that we are at least clear that it can never be our principle to fight any religious community, and that it can only be slander when someone presents us as enemies of religious movements. The very fact that someone does this shows that they do not want to understand us. We must at least be aware of this, and we must oppose any aggressive tendency against any religious community, just as we must refrain from any aggressive tendency against natural science, for the reason that because it will become clear from this how they will encounter spiritual science! We do not need to fight any religious community. In truth, fights cannot originate from us, because it is not in our nature to attack. Attacking is completely foreign to us. And it is absolutely necessary to understand that it is an axiom that if we do not have peace, it is because it does not please our evil neighbor; for it is not in our nature to fight. Let them try it and leave us in peace, and see if peace is not maintained. Let them try it! But we must, of course, be imbued with this attitude. For example, much sin is committed when we challenge this or that dogma or cultic practice, often without even understanding them. We must understand them; but if we understand them correctly, then what has been stated applies as our principle. And so I would like to appeal to your understanding of the principle of peace. Just as I had to admonish you to be patient in the present time, so I must admonish you to be vigilant, so that we do what is necessary to truly preserve the sacred good entrusted to us. For we will increasingly have to walk through the world with a secure inner strength in order to stand firmly on the ground on which spiritual science wants to place us.

The Mystery of Golgotha and the Christ principle are intimately connected with the necessity of seeing the spiritual in the world. Merely looking will never be enough if you want to understand even the historical reality of the Mystery of Golgotha. The mystery of Golgotha can only be understood spiritually, and those who are willing to surrender to a science that receives everything from outside and who do not want to look at the new revelations that can always flow to us in relation to the mystery of Golgotha will not understand what was sung in the middle of the 19th century, 1838, by another of what, eternally changing and yet eternally being, has been ruling over the human race on earth since the Mystery of Golgotha. Let me read a passage that can describe to us how that which cannot comprehend the Mystery of Golgotha stands in opposition to this Mystery of Golgotha.

The Banishment Spell Fourth Song At green Easter with young palms
All Jerusalem was already prepared
And struck the harp to psalms of jubilation. One house alone, the last in the row,
The door of Ahasuerus, the grumbling one,
Remained without festive decoration and without consecration. And thousands upon thousands of strangers
From near and far flocked together
Like waves of the sea roaring in the wind. Then came down, to fulfill the last,
To his sacrifice, the Son of God
In his humility on a lowly mule; And all the people rush toward him jubilantly
And spread their garments before him
And scattered green branches on the paths. Only one was indignant and angry,
Only Ahasuerus sat quietly, lost in thought,
A sultry day, secretly brooding over a storm. And: “Hosanna!” he hears a thousand voices say.
But he cursed secretly within himself,
Yet he did not speak, for his heart was too grim. Silent now were the hordes of the Jewish people,
And everywhere it was night, oh, a night
Full of bitter suffering, bitter torment!

There are nights so mysterious,
When one feels as if nature
Wanted to fade away in painful prayer.

No creature's eyes can close,
Whether pious or godless, no soul can
Enjoy sleep, the refreshing sleep.

On such a night, God's Son was betrayed
To the malice and wickedness of the world,
And abandoned to their misdeeds.

On such a night, Ahasveros felt a shiver,
A feverish chill ran through his bones,
And he began to speak and mourn:

“Where has a people endured such horror
As you, O Israel, from the beginning?
With fear of God, you have brought this upon yourself.”

Therefore so powerless, weak, cowardly, and futile;
For everyone serves dull-wittedly like animals,
Who are only obliged to serve the One as slaves.“

So we have indulged in all streets,
So in Egypt and in Babylon,
So served a God beyond measure!”

And as the sun sank low into the misty sea,
Ahasver sank back into himself
Into endless, immeasurably deep travail;

But as if by subterranean forces
The earth is sometimes split to its core,
Its twitching red heart torn asunder,

So suddenly he saw within himself
The cause of evil, oh eternal suffering!
And he continued to speak in deep thought:

“Poor Earth! For a few brief, blissful hours
She held a god in her arms,
Now she is cast out and God has disappeared.”

The Earth, betrayed by the unfaithful god,
With love and tears she faithfully
Her poor little child with love and tears; —

Her child, the human being, whom she kindly nourishes,
Why does he press himself upon the proud God?
The bastard is denied the path to him.

So I will cast his memory from me,
Tear from my breast the urge to him,
The paternal, poor legacy!

Man is of the earth and on the earth
And from the earth he lives, that he may one day
Like his mother, become earth again."

Now he was silent. Pale and mourning, like the flower,
Which carries within itself the holy passion,
Blooms on the day of great martyrdom;

And all the people, wrapped up like a ball,
Has crowded noisily to the courthouse,
Where the Savior stood above on the pillar.

On his head the bloody crown of thorns,
In a purple cloak, a reed in his hand,
O royally adorned for mockery and scorn.

And Ahasuerus hears an endless cry:
“Crucify him! Crucify the king!”
And more and more the cry for murder is renewed.

And he hears it cry ever more furiously:
“He has led the people astray! Away with him!”
Then he steps forward to the steps of his house.

The people drew near, it seemed as if
With mocking laughter at the upper world
The devil mob from the lowest hell,

To strike the betrayed God to death,
Who staggers among them,
Who must carry his own cross to his torment.

A cheer resounds horribly, a thousand voices:
“He has seduced the people, away with him!
To the cross, to the cross of Israel, the king!”

“Death to this Nazarene, God and all!”
Ahasver shouted; then there was dead silence
And Christ fell before him beneath the cross.

And as the servants took him down from the cross,
Christ pleaded with Ahasver:
“Let me rest a little at your threshold!”

But he threw this word of mockery at him:
“Does not your Father in heaven help you
And yet you call yourself the only begotten Son of God?”

I will push you away from my threshold,
Whether your words are true or whether you have lied;
No rest for you! None in this place!"

“No rest for you, no peace, no peace!”
The Lord replies. “Then live The eternal
Life restless here below!”

No sooner had the Lord spoken these heavy words,
Than Ahasver fell in sudden terror
Upon his face; his spirit was broken.

Mysterious, terrifying news,
Pass me by, Ahasver, pass me by!
Pass, pass, mighty hour of sacrifice!

Fifth Song

A bitter weeping went through earth and heaven;
When Christ was lifted up on the cross,
At the same time, the sun also ceased to shine.

And when the Mediator, now in the agony of death, cried out:
“It is finished!” and thus passed away,
A sword's edge pierced the heart of the earth.

Then a terrible cry of grief resounded through nature,
So piercing, so unheard of,
So mournful, so strange and immeasurable,

As if she herself had been pierced through her soul
By the spear of death, alas! Sudden and murderous
Broken through her warm mother's breast!

And a fear, an uncontrollable shudder,
And a heavy, great darkness
Sank impenetrably upon the wide earth.

And like a little bird in the vulture's claws,
The ground now began to tremble
And heave upward from inner fear.

Then all bonds seemed to be dissolved,
The earth's foundation swayed inwardly,
The dead awoke and rose.

“So he was God after all and had to die?”
Ahasver said softly. “But I
Shall not earn death on earth?”

But as if on a dangerously unstable ladder
An enigmatic force drove him on
Through all the horrors, ever further forward,

Until he is surrounded by the walls of a vast space
And wanders and staggers from corridor to corridor,
Like a sleepwalker under the spell of a dream.

He cannot find a way out
In this desolate, immense tomb,
No matter where he turns and twists.

He cannot figure out how he got in,
And cannot remember where he is
In such a terrifying hour, lost and alone. And as he continues to grope along the walls,
He finally comes across a table;
He holds a sacrificial knife in his hands. Then he exclaims, almost timidly and anxiously:
"How did I come to Jehovah's house,
To Solomon's temple? If he lived here on earth in Christ,
Choosing death in human form,
Then he gladly left the dead God in peace. Terrible mystery, who could solve it!
He has enthroned himself in the Holy of Holies, —
If I were allowed to take a look inside?" In the violent agitation of his heart
He found the steps, almost alive,
As well as the floor, were in motion. But as he laboriously climbed up there,
The temple curtain tore from top to bottom
With a thunderclap; And terrible, in the violent flash of lightning,
The angel Michael with a flaming sword
Stood tall and glorious on the holy place. His feet rested on clouds of fire,
He raised his arm in flames of fire,
And thus he spoke as with the heat of thunder: "Whom do you seek here? The demon is judged,
The wrathful demon of your people;
And his power has been destroyed by the Son of God!“ ”Jehovah?“ cried Ahasver in terror.
The angel said, ”He was also an idol!
The God of truth must strike him down, Him, like all idols of this earth,
So that all people may become one people
And one in him, the whole of creation! You have wagered your earthly life,
May you receive what you desire,
So be chained to this life! May the times pass without a trace,
Passing powerlessly by you,
Passing, but long as eternities! May you be denied the sweet peace of death,
Denied man's last comfort, sleep,
Denied from now on all rest here below; But the arms of the Son of God
in the Kingdom of Heaven are always open to mercy,
So that he may have mercy on every being. So he will give you back the solution
To the riddle of your own destiny,
And also three times the young lives of your children, Until you have found your way to salvation
With them to God's fatherly bosom
And thus have freed yourself from earthly service! The first time you may succeed,
The second time beg for God's counsel,
The third time you must accomplish it. Otherwise, woe betide you! Until the Last Judgment
You must then wander on the earth,
Until the end of all world history." Suddenly, the miraculous flames went out,
And terrible, gruesome, gloomy, the night
In a wild whirl again.

Again, such an example of how the human soul feels compelled to deal with what has come to pass in time. And now, after we have let such images pass through our souls, I would like to remind you of what I have already said from this point: We must change our way of seeing if we want to look correctly into the spiritual world. We must not believe that we can see it as we see the sensory world. We must even accustom ourselves to other modes of expression. We see and perceive the trees, rivers, mountains, and all that when we are in the physical world. But we experience spiritual beings in such a way that we must say: they see us, they perceive us. To truly understand the mystery of Golgotha, however, it is necessary to know this, because it can only be properly understood in the spiritual realm. But let us understand the mystery of Golgotha in this way.

Times must come when, through a true understanding of the words, “Not I, but Christ in me,” it will be possible to rise in the right way with knowledge to the spiritual worlds. In 1838, Julius Mosen's epic poem “Ahasver” was published, and it also reveals this to us, since he was able to write this legend in such a way that Mosen could truly be moved by the tragic fate that befell him. He spent most of his life, almost his entire life, in bed, as his physical body was almost completely paralyzed. This enabled him to rise to higher ideas. He reminds us of the sinner I spoke of yesterday in the novel “Maha Guru,” who found his art when he was already insane, and he reminds us of the count's wife in the Polish drama, who also had to fall into a state of illness in order to connect with the spiritual world. Today, it should be the task of spiritual science to enable people in a healthy and normal state to ascend into the spiritual world. All of this is a sign of the seriousness and dignity with which we must approach the task of the spiritual science movement. Today, when we think together about what can inspire us as a force in a single word, in a true word, we summarize it with the words: The mystery of Golgotha shows us that spiritual understanding is necessary, that we must seek Christ as spirit. Then we must also say: Christ sees us, perceives us.

We want to impress this deeply upon ourselves and always keep it in mind, and our spiritual-soul conscience must be able to satisfy it when we represent our spiritual-scientific insights in such a way that we carry the words in our souls with a clear conscience: Christ may be watching what we are doing as our spiritual science. - That is our belief, but it can also inspire us in the same way that people were once inspired by the words of Bernard of Clairvaux: “God wills it!” These words became a reality that was translated into action. May it be the same for us, that we may believe we understand Christ correctly when we live under the impression of the words: Christ knows us. —- And if you understand it correctly, I could give you nothing more esoteric for the soul that sees our spiritual science in the right light and for the heart that feels spiritual science in the right sense than the words: Christ sees us!

So let the words live in our souls: Christ sees us! — for we may believe this if we understand spiritual science correctly: Christ sees us!