Our Dead

GA 261 — 31 January 1915, Zurich

Address at the Cremation of Sibyl Colazza

Dear soul, who strove with us in the same way, you have left the earth. We want to follow you beyond the gates of death into the realms you have entered. Through the innermost part of my soul and out of this soul, the words that arose in my thinking from your spiritual thinking shall be repeated.

You came among us.
Your gentle nature
Spoke from your eyes' silent strength
Calm, which soulfully animated
flowed in the waves
with which your gaze
carried the weaving of your soul
to things and to people;
And this being was imbued with
your voice, which eloquently
through the nature of the word more
than in the word itself
revealed what dwells hidden
in thy beautiful soul dwells;
But which to the devoted love
of sympathetic hearts
wordlessly fully revealed itself—
That essence, which of noble, silent beauty
of the world-soul-creation
to receptive feeling announced.

During your sojourn on earth you wished to absorb into your soul this consciousness of the strong impulse of the world, which for us is connected with the name of Christ and inwardly strengthens all weakness of human earthly power, so that it may be quickened in the life that does not die when the soul passes through the gate of death. Thus you have stepped through the portal of death strengthened and knowing, feeling the power of Christ within you, stepping through the portal of death, stepping into those regions where joy and feelings of beauty will lovingly interweave in the great plan of creation of existence. But where pain is also inscribed as a creative force in eternal being, so that the world may become knowledgeable. So we look up to you and follow you in faithful love, in warmly devoted friendship.

My dear friends!

There are souls who pass through earthly life as if they were floating through this life, lightly floating above the earth and only rarely setting foot on the ground of earthly existence. There are souls who, as if destined, appear to build their own inner world through what adheres to them, what is interwoven with them at their present birth, to live in this own inner world and who, precisely for this reason, are deeply touched by what affects them in the outer world, flows into them.

Our dear Mrs. Colazza was one of those souls. When you looked into her loving eyes, it was truly as if the inner movement of her soul, carried by love, poured out through the silent gaze and, in a moving calm, the deepest, most beautiful human nature shone on those around her.

For such souls, my dear friends, it is often as if they are unfamiliar with the powers of existence, which do not allow any power to pass, standing in the universe, first having to conquer themselves through pain and suffering, through endurance and renunciation, the forces that are led from mortal human existence to those creative regions where eternal forces live and move. And so pain and suffering approached our friend, deeply inscribed themselves in her soul. And even as we, who knew her, stood by her dead body, we could tell from this dead, beautiful body of hers how much her soul had suffered in this body, how much she had suffered. But truly, those of us who do not try to solve the riddles of the world in our minds, but follow the traces of these riddles to a certain extent, the truth that no force in the world is lost, neither in physical nor in spiritual life, is deeply impressed on our souls. And we know that the pains of the souls that have suffered them are woven into the divine spiritual plan of creation.

It must appear to us as if the most fruitful, the most active forces of this cosmic plan have sprung forth as beautiful flowers from that which had to live as pain and suffering. Often it is the case that the suffering of a human soul appears to people for no reason. What this soul is, is reflected in the mirror of existence, which often reflects back in life to those souls who were so close to our friend, who showed her love. They did this in such a way that the noble, gentle, mild nature is reflected in their soul, that it will transform itself, after it has gone through death, into strong, fruitful power of the world.

And then we, who loved the one who passed through the gate of death, must be grateful to those who were her friendly support, loving caregivers in the last days of her existence. Above all, we thank her friend Miss Fulton, her friend Tamara von Statkowski and all the others who were allowed to care for her and who may now accompany her physical body to the place from which the eternally active and weaving world spirit has taken her. We would also like to thank the doctor lovingly caring for her and the other loving caregivers who have made her last days easier. My dear friends, the love that has been shown to our friend is also a promise that we make to the soul, a promise that we will remain loyal in the truest sense of the word.

Among the many things that arise in our feelings when we contemplate the spiritual world, and that we find when we prepare ourselves for it, above all there is this feeling: the love in which the soul was united with other souls will guide those who pass through the gate of death, carrying them into the world of luminous spirituality. The dead do not forget the living, and among the wishes that guide them in the valley of earthly life, those that come into consideration for us who remain behind are above all those that go according to the love that we have taken upon ourselves, unspoken, but like a precious promise that we have given to the souls. And when seen in its true perspective, the relationship from soul to soul gives us the feeling, the conviction: it is like an unfulfilled promise if we are not able to carry over the love we have for them here, beyond the times when we have to separate physically. We can often think that the dead person feels it like a promise that was given to him and that he hopes will be fulfilled, but that remains unfulfilled if we withdraw the love that we gave him in the so-called life after death. In a sense, love is something that proves its spirituality simply by its existence... Authenticity, spirituality, proves itself when we maintain love into the times when we are not approached with a glance, a voice, a handshake, but when our love pours from heart to heart.

What was selfless love proves itself by our carrying this love into the time when it must become selfless because the other self has gone to a place where we cannot follow it at first with the powers by which we are able to observe the horizon around us in the physical world and fulfill it with our lives.

So we, my dear friends, want to speak the words to our friend, like a lasting memory, that we want to remain loyal to her with our love, so that when she looks down from her light here, she may find the feelings we have for her unweakened and undiminished.

We may follow the young, dear, friendly soul in the satisfied, reassured confidence that the forces she has tried to incorporate into her soul here will carry her through the gateway of death and revive her in that world, which we can follow in spirit, that world, in which the powers that were gathered here on this earth in the spirit and that could only be effective in life for the work on earth and its surroundings, prevail there in that world where beings have snatched themselves from the bodily shells, creating the whole universe.

Let us remember that something rests in man as the eternal core of his being, when it no longer works within the limits assigned to it by the instrument of the body in the human shell, but that it works as a universal power, not only for the benefit of mankind, but for the benefit of the whole world.

The time will come when people will intuitively recognize and know that the forces that have been lost to us in human activity on earth are hidden in the world around us. The time will come when all the powers we have acquired through spiritual activity will be woven into the world of physical existence, shining towards us from the cosmos as beauty, where the pains that are woven into us as cosmic creative powers also work fruitfully in the universe when they have been germinated within earthly activity.

It is with these feelings, my dear friends, that we stand here, accompanying your earthly mortal remains, we who are connected to you in our souls, and feel a close kinship with you in our souls.

We also let our spiritual gaze wander to the one who was connected to you as a companion in life, who is prevented by his duty from standing here at your mortal remains, upon whom you look down so that he may receive strength and power in the trial through which he must pass by you having departed from us at this time from this earth plane. And even if we do not stand here united with you through natural ties, accompanying your body and following your soul as it soars to bright spiritual heights, we still stand here as your faithfully united soulmates, soulmates who have formed a bond with you that is said to be unbreakable and thereby prove its authenticity. And from this feeling of being connected to her in spiritual and soulful striving, the words are spoken to you from the depths of a deeply moved soul, to your spiritual hearing, which are to penetrate the soul so that they may once again revive in the imagination the image that has appeared of this soul during your earthly pilgrimage.

You walked among us.
Your gentle nature moved
Spoke from your eyes, silent strength
Calm, which soulfully revived,
Flowed in the waves,
With which your gaze
To things and to people
Your inner weaving carried;
And this being imbued it
Thy voice, which eloquently
Through the nature of the word more
Than in the word itself
Revealed what dwells hidden
In thy beautiful soul;
But which to the devoted love
Of sympathetic men
Wordlessly fully revealed itself—
This being, which, with its noble, silent beauty,
told receptive feeling about the creation of the soul of the world.