The Circular Flow of Man's Life within the World Of Sense, Soul And Spirit

GA 68b — 28 February 1905, Weimar

16. Illumination of Nietzsche and Theosophy

Report in the “Weimarer Tageszeitung,” March 2, 1905.

Nietzsche and Theosophy. Members and friends of the Weimar branch of the Theosophical Society gathered at the Erbprinz last night to hear Dr. Steiner (Berlin) speak about the relationship between Friedrich Nietzsche's worldview and Theosophy. In a skillful presentation, the speaker used Nietzsche's literary creations to show that Nietzsche, whom he described as the most characteristic figure among the truth-seekers of the nineteenth century, more or less unconsciously followed the paths that lead to Theosophy in his views on life and the world. If he had indicated through “The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music” that truth and a life worth living are to be sought only in the primal drama, in mystical wisdom, and revered Wagner as the reviver of the primal , his “Supermen” are eloquent witnesses to the fact that he sensed a divine power in man that must elevate man from within and thus make life worth living. Nietzsche's saying, “If there were a God, how could man bear not to be a God,” almost sounds like a proclamation of the ideas of Theosophy, if one bears in mind that Theosophy demands that man must seek his God within himself. The theosophical dictum that life is only worthwhile if it has the urge to go beyond itself is also Nietzsche's view. His idea of the return of the same is in line with the Theosophical idea of the return of things in a process of continuous purification, the idea of reincarnation. Through Nietzsche's view that man is the meaning of the earth and as such must strive higher, many Nietzsche admirers have become Theosophists. In Theosophy, they found answers to the questions that Nietzsche had posed and that had brought him to the gates of Theosophy. And in the light of theosophical considerations, many a Nietzschean could be understood, and much of the negativity in Nietzsche could be explained. - The lecture was followed by a discussion in which the speaker answered the questions put to him in detail.