Lessons for the Participants of Cognitive-Cultic Work 1906–1924

GA 265a — 1 August 1912, Munich

The Task of Man Between Lucifer And Ahriman

Notes (excerpts) from the estate of Elisabeth Vreede

First degree

There are two poles in man. One is that of materialism, the other that of spiritual life. Great materialists, such as Haeckel, are so rabid against all spiritual movements because by strengthening one pole they simultaneously strengthen the other pole internally; they instinctively oppose this, and that makes them such fierce opponents of all spiritual movements. It is like a telegraph line: a wire goes visibly through the air, connecting the two endpoints. At these two ends, plates are set into the ground, and below the earth's surface, invisible, the current returns, so that the circuit is closed.

First degree

Lucifer and Ahriman are particularly active in modern life through new inventions such as airships and so on. As a result, the earth is becoming more and more isolated from space, turning it into an island in the cosmos. In the past, spiritual beings from other planets could still influence the mystery sites and the like on earth. When air travel becomes more widespread, even Martians will no longer be able to endure the Earth's atmosphere.

Lucifer also works through the one-sidedly conceived system of Copernicus, which also has the tendency to close off the Earth.

Ahriman works in the art of printing, in the mechanical reproduction of the written word. Only by writing books as a sacrifice can one counteract this.

Second degree

There is a threefold human being, consisting of a head, left and right halves. The head or main man is the sign we bear of Lucifer, the left man of Ahriman, the right half of man of the earthly (?) gods. So is our [Masonic] temple: the head is in the south, the left side in the west, the right in the east.

As a goal of many gods, man stands in the world; for whoever searches behind the sensual world does not find unity, but multiplicity, a multiplicity of beings. It is therefore maya to want to reduce everything higher to a unity. There is indeed a unity, but it is the goal of multiplicity, the goal of those beings, and that is man. The question of monadism (= pluralism) or monism (= unity) makes no sense outside of earthly life. There is multiplicity of origin, unity of goal. The fact that Leibniz viewed the world in monadic terms was because he was more under Ahriman's influence; Hegel adhered more to unity because he was more inspired by Lucifer.

Third degree

Man was originally destined to be a being that would attain knowledge through his breathing process. With the air, he would have simultaneously taken in and recognized the spiritual. Luciferic temptation has taken that away from him, and instead of this, knowledge had to be taken in through the brain and the sense organs. These are basically very unsuitable for this. Our whole head with the sense organs has been put over us by Lucifer.

Far better organs in this respect are the (etheric) hands (in connection with the heart) and even the feet. Just as two images are created in the brain by the crossing of the optic nerves, which together give a correct image, so in the spiritual world one can conduct research by perceiving with each of the hands individually and then bringing the two images together; in this way one gets the most accurate image.

The eyes, the brain and the other organs were originally intended, when breathing was first known, to be only a sounding board for knowledge. They would then not have taken in the outside world as it is now the case, but what would come in through inhalation would have been reflected by them on exhalation and thus brought to perception, to consciousness. As a result of the influence of Lucifer, these organs then had to change from reflecting to absorbing organs, which allow the world to flow into them from outside.

Man lives on earth in the midst of the activity of the gods. The laboratory of the gods is the earth. Man is a spectator of the work of the gods. Originally, however, it was intended that he should be a co-worker. The gods use the dust that man leaves behind after death, but it is not unimportant to them how this dust is made. Through lying and sinning, man spoils his dust, and the gods can no longer use it. Certain religious sects know this, and so, while speaking a lie outwardly, they inwardly revoke it so as not to spoil their dust. The lying world dust can no longer be used to build a new world, but is refused and eventually forms the moons in space.