Cosmic Responsibility: Humanity's Threshold at Kali Yuga's End

GA 266III — 30 December 1923, Dornach

Esoteric Lesson

[In all details exactly according to the template A, signed by Maria Röschl and bearing the name stamp of Fritz Götte.]

Impressed by the esoteric restructuring of society proposed at the Christmas Conference, we approached Dr. Steiner with the question of whether he had anything special to say to us concerning our work at this time. He agreed and, after a few days, gave us the place and time of the meeting. This time we gathered in a mood that tried to match the responsibility of the moment that awaited us.We gathered in the middle room of the glass house.

We sat on benches arranged in a semicircle so that we were not sitting behind each other but in a wide arc. In front of us was a table at the long side of which Dr. Steiner took his place. Mrs. Steiner and Dr. Ita Wegman sat on the short sides to his right and left. Rudolf Steiner stood in front of the arc of the east wall of the room.

Dr. Steiner entered the room accompanied by the two guests. He greeted us with particular solemnity and explained that the two ladies were present as guests: "Dr. Steiner, because she is always present. Dr. Wegman, because there are other circles like yours that cultivate the inner life. These must now be integrated into general esoteric life, according to strict esoteric laws, of course. For this, there must be personalities who can connect all of this. That is why Dr. Wegman is here.“ He referred to the two ladies as ”visitors."

From the very first moment, it was clear that Dr. Steiner was in a particularly serious and solemn mood. He rose from his seat and spoke the entire time standing, very solemnly, facing us, yet with a gesture and power of speech as if his voice were writing the words in wide, far-reaching distances, not just for the present moment.

Let us, my dear sisters and brothers, stand and listen to the words of self-knowledge that echo to us from the rocks and mountains, from the forests and clouds, from all forms of the world that surround us, and which have resounded as words of self-knowledge at all times when there has been spiritual striving:

O man, know thyself ...¹

Now he motioned us to take our seats, while he himself remained standing.

Man loses the power of thought. — Today I address the youth among you who have gathered here as esoteric youth. For you are indeed the esoteric youth circle. — Man loses the power of thinking. But the time has come when humanity must regain this power. You set this as your task when you joined together as esoteric youth. And this must be your striving. Young people should not want to know more than the other members of the Anthroposophical Society. They should strive to know not something different, but the same thing in a different way.

But we are led to a different kind of knowledge when we seek to experience the earth as a star — as a star among stars. The earth must be conquered anew for thinking, feeling, and willing.

What makes something a star?

It is because it shines, because it glows, because it has form and contains gravity that holds its body together.

But what is it that shines from the stars? It is the will of the beings who inhabit the star. You will—and the Earth shines out into space.

It is the feeling of the beings who inhabit a star that makes it shine. You feel, and the Earth shines as a star into space.

It is the thinking that envelops the star in light. You think, and your thinking causes the earth to shine in floods of light.

In the perception and feeling of the beings who inhabit the star, the star takes shape in its density. Through your feeling, the earth gains form.

(Template B: “Touching,” said Rudolf Steiner, stands here for all perception.)

You must only develop the awareness that your thinking, feeling, and willing are not for you, but for the cosmos, that they radiate out, shine, and glow into the vastness of the worlds. The beings out there on the other stars can see the earth through your thinking, feeling, and willing. But the evil that people think, feel, and will also radiates out into the cosmos. Even after millions of years, it is still visible in the starry space. A star shines, a star glows, a star lights up, a star has density:

In the ray lives ...

[Handwritten by F. Götte:]

In the ray lives my will

for goodness shines from the stars²

Yes, dear sisters and brothers, cosmic responsibility should awaken in your souls. Love shines from the stars, and truth is formed in the stars. The ancient sacred wisdom of the Indians already spoke of this. And for today's youth, it is time once again to bring the oldest wisdom of humanity back into the present.

Yasmaj jatam ... From whom the whole world comes...³

The Kali Yuga, a period of 5,000 years, has come to an end, and we must now reconnect with that bright time that ended 5,000 years ago in our entire experience. In this new era, humanity must come to experience the Earth in a completely new way. Humanity is now being led to cross the threshold. This means that between the ages of 30 and 40, human beings encounter the guardian of the threshold. Many people experience this unconsciously, and it is something terrible. For then consequences of this kind will ensue for human beings: elemental spirits will make themselves felt. Then everything that comes alive from the realms of nature as the spiritual will make them feel uneasy. From everything solid, especially from the horns and hooves of animals, it then becomes free and reaches into the human soul in a terribly demonic way, which is then shattered in its entire nervous life. That is why it is necessary at the turn of the Kali Yuga to consciously cross the threshold. You should bow down consciously to experience the guardian: Recognize first the serious guardian ... You should incline yourselves to consciously experience the guardian.

First recognize the serious guardian ...

It is the destiny of humanity to stand before the guardian at the turning point of the Kali Yuga.

Approaching the Earth from outer space, one experiences it enclosed in an atmosphere of human karma that surrounds it like a mantle of warmth and love, from which one's own karma speaks powerfully. If you learn to encounter the guardian, you will experience how your karma envelops you like a warm cloak, how it lovingly fans you.

In the stars lives ...

[Handwritten by F. Götte:]

My feelings live in the splendor
for love shines in the stars

Our thoughts should shine and illuminate the universe. But if people do not think, feel, and will spiritually, if they refuse to consciously stand before the guardian, then no human experience shines into the universe. In the 19th century, when people had stopped thinking spiritually, human thinking was not enough to make the earth shine. But a star must shine. That is why, in the last third of the 19th century, the higher animal group souls had to step in and send out their light. At that time, the cosmic shame of humanity began to radiate out into the cosmos.

That is why souls must now be found among humanity whose spiritual knowledge will allow the Earth to shine out into space as a star for the inhabitants of other stars.

In the ray lives ....

The age of light has dawned, and the relationship between the spiritual world and the physical world has become completely different:

When I sit at table with the spirits of the 19th century, and the words of, for example, Herman Grimm resound, they sound very refined. But when I sit at table with the spirits who want to become the spirits of your souls, those refined words sound like empty rhetoric. For in the present time, an immense wealth is streaming down from the spiritual world. It can be experienced like a rich shower of spirits, showering down upon the souls of human beings.

Young people must find themselves in what inspires them to spiritual deeds. Young people have learned much from us about their youth. That was enough for them. Now they must learn to experience this youthfulness for themselves. Thus it is necessary to win the earth anew for thinking, feeling, and willing. It is necessary to find oneself in the stream of the world's becoming.

But then you will come to the experience that your earthly being is disappearing. The hour will come when the ground will be pulled away from under your feet. And when that moment comes in your life when everything physical plunges into the abyss, when the abyss opens up, when the solid ground beneath your feet disappears, then the light of the spirit that shines in the stream of becoming in the world will grow weaker and weaker. It will become like a thin thread, and you will experience that this thread is burning. But then you must have the courage to grasp this thread, even if it burns — to hold fast to this glowing, burning thread of the spiritual, and you must say to yourself: We want to create new ground beneath our feet!

This is how you must learn to have spiritual courage!

There was an ancient sacred knowledge among humanity. You must have the courage to reconnect with it. This knowledge once lived in Aristotle. It faded away, and people no longer understood Aristotle. Only in certain Catholic orders did people still know in the 19th century that Aristotle's wisdom was in truth a path of meditation. There, people still understood how to read his books in this way. Vincenz Knauer was one of those who still knew this.

It was with a bleeding heart that I decided to say what I said in the evening lectures. Often, ancient sacred knowledge was not found among scholars, but among poor, even spiritually impoverished people. It was one of the most deeply moving experiences of my life when I met such a person, the herb collector, who spoke in extremely heartfelt words about plants, stones, animals, stars, the sun, and the moon. The living stream of that ancient knowledge still lived in him. And it is a special destiny that I was able to meet these two figures, Vincenz Knauer and the herb collector, that in the last moments of humanity I was able to connect with these two streams, in which the old knowledge was still trickling into the 19th century.

Yes, young people must learn to grasp that fiery thread, even if it burns. When everything sinks into the abyss, we must learn to find ourselves in the stream of the world's becoming. In ancient times, when the call “Man, know thyself!” echoed from the rocks and springs, from the trees and flowers, then in those ancient times his answer was the sacred AOUM. Then man entered into the sacred silence to receive the word of the gods. But now that the world has entered the age when man's deeds are expected in the universe, when he is called upon to act on his own, it is no longer the sacred AOUM that should resound as our answer. Instead, the answer that should resound to the spirits who want to become the spirits of your souls should be:

Yes, I am here for your world deeds.

The youth must make this come true.

Dr. Steiner concluded the lesson by repeating the words of the guardian:

First recognize the serious guardian ...⁴

And the answer of the human soul to this:

I entered this sensory world ...⁵

At the end, Dr. Steiner made the same signs in front of him in the room that he later made at the conclusion of the Christmas Conference, saying the words:

“Yes, so be it!”

(The notes reproduced here are not from a direct stenographic transcript. They have been compiled from my notes taken immediately afterwards and those of several friends, with particular attention being paid to the structure. - From other comments made by Dr. Steiner, it became clear that “youth” here did not refer to physical age, but to the characteristic nature of the post-Kali Yuga souls. Dr. M.R. [the characteristic signature of Maria Röschl])