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

GA 265a — 2 May 1914, Basel

Man as the Eye of the Earth Spirit

Notes by unknown

Man is the eye of the spirit of the earth – all people are like the earth's compound eyes. The spirit of the earth sees through the people of the universe (perception, sensory organs). Earth thinks through the animal world. How the nervous system is in humans, so is the animal world. It thinks about the constellations and acts accordingly. Therefore called the zodiac, because it is observed through the thinking organ of the earth, through the animal world. The zodiac is like the consonants, the planets are like the vowels. And the earth reads this, and through its thinking organ it knows how to act accordingly.

Human thinking must sacrifice itself to the gods, dying in Christ. It is not what is usually called intelligence. After death, this can be completely occupied by Ahriman. Rather, thinking must be elevated to comprehend spiritual science. It can now be ripe for this if people do not resist it. Example: Help for a person who resisted the spiritual world view but was otherwise an ideal person. Dr. Steiner helped him - fought with Ahriman to wrest this person's thinking from him. This is only possible if you have known and loved the person. Then you can win back his thinking.

Sometimes, when people die young, the unconsumed powers of the intelligence can then be used to fight Ahriman.

Another example: if you see that a person would fall prey to this fate, that Ahriman will snatch his intelligence after death - and this can already show its effects in a person's life - then you can take preventive action by processing your thoughts into a work, for example. In this way, Dr. Steiner helped one such person by writing a book in his spirit.

Religion must now express itself in such a way that people feel: I am the organ through which the spirit of the earth is perceived. And then: the gods live in my feelings and will and through these they have an effect on the earth. In our feelings and will, God the Father encounters the Son, who is the spirit of the earth and perceives the universe through human beings.

The John's building is intended to express that one sacrifices one's thinking to the gods.